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42. But sight shall displace faith; and hope shall be swallowed up
in that perfect bliss to which we shall come: love, on the other
hand, shall wax greater when these others fail. For if we love by
faith that which as yet we see not, how much more shall we love it when
we begin to see! And if we love by hope that which as yet we have not
reached, how much more shall we love it when we reach it! For there
is this great difference between things temporal and things eternal,
that a temporal object is valued more before we possess it, and begins
to prove worthless the moment we attain it, because it does not satisfy
the soul, which has its only true and sure resting-place in eternity:
an eternal object, on the other hand, is loved with greater ardor when
it is in possession than while it is still an object of desire, for no
one in his longing for it can set a higher value on it than really
belongs to it, so as to think it comparatively worthless when he finds
it of less value than he thought; on the contrary, however high the
value any man may set upon it when he is on his way to possess it, he
will find it, when it comes into his possession, of higher value
still.
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