after our departure hence? These and kindred questions I have
been longing to resolve."

Thus questioned he; and Barlaam answered thus: "The good hope,
whereof I spake, is that of the kingdom of Heaven. But that
kingdom is far beyond the utterance of mortal tongue; for the
Scripture saith, `Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have
entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared
for them that love him.' But when we have shuffled off this
gross flesh, and attained to that blessedness, then will that
Master, which hath granted to us not to fail of this hope, teach
and make known unto us the glory of those good things, whose
glory passeth all understanding: -- that light ineffable, that
life that hath no ending, that converse with Angels. For if it
be granted us to hold communion with God, so far as is attainable
to human nature, then shall we know all things from his lips
which now we know not. This doth my initiation into the teaching
of the divine Scriptures teach me to be the real meaning of the
kingdom of Heaven; to approach the vision of the blessed and
life-giving Trinity, and to be illumined with his unapproachable
light, and with clearer and purer sight, and with unveiled face,
to behold as in a glass his unspeakable glory. But, if it be
impossible to express in language that glory, that light, and
those mysterious blessings, what marvel? For they had not been
mighty and singular, if they had been comprehended by reason and
expressed in words by us who are earthly, and corruptible, and
clothed in this heavy garment of sinful flesh. Holding then such
knowledge in simple faith, believe thou undoubtingly, that these
are no fictions; but by good works be urgent to lay hold on that
immortal kingdom, to which when thou hast attained, thou shalt