De incremento arboris sapientiae per desiderium.
Desire Born from Compunction
Holy desire grows from the fire of compunction like smoke rising ever higher and thinning into the heavens.
Seventh in place is added this: that through desire it grows. For just as compunction is compared to fire, so desire is like smoke born from that fire, which rises straight upward, and the higher it is lifted, the more it thins out, and at last, raised on high, it is completely withdrawn from the eyes of those watching.
The Soul Lifted to Contemplation
Once sin's rust is burned away, the soul ascends to contemplation and marvels at the new, bright region it beholds beyond itself.
For once the rust of sin has been consumed from the mind by the fire of compunction, and that inner brightness has begun to shine in the heart, the soul is immediately lifted up to a watchtower of contemplation, and there, made somehow higher than itself, it beholds from a distance a bright region and a new land, such as it never remembers having seen before or thought to exist. The one who sees this marvels, and in the joy of the present light accuses his past darknesses of ignorance; he marvels below himself, in the depths where he lay cast down; he marvels above himself, in the heights where, raised up, he now strains forward.
Longing and Final Transformation
Torn between joy at escape and grief at absence, the soul presses upward through desire until it becomes wholly spiritual and rests hidden in the Lord's presence.
He rejoices only to have now escaped what grieved him; he grieves only still to be absent from what he loves. Therefore it strives, hastens, ascends, grows through desire, and just as a wisp of smoke, the higher it is lifted, the more it thins out, so drawing near to heavenly things and evaporating every mist of earthly desire, it becomes wholly spiritual, and at last withdraws itself from human sight, while refusing any longer to reach outward toward these earthly and visible things to be desired, and instead glories within, in the hidden presence of the Lord's face.
Read the original Latin
Septimo loco adjunctum est, quod per desiderium crescit. Sicut enim compunctio incendio comparatur, ita desiderium simile est fumo, qui de incendio nascitur, qui in directum ascendit, et quanto magis sursum tollitur, tanto amplius extenuatur, tandemque elevatus in sublime ab oculis intuentium prorsus subducitur. Postquam enim per ignem compunctionis rubigo peccati a mente fuerit consumpta, et ille internus fulgor in corde micare coeperit, confestim animus in quamdam contemplationis speculam sublevatur, ibique quodammodo seipso altior effectus, quamdam, ut ita dixerim, lucidam regionem, et terram novam eminus prospicit, qualem nunquam antea vel vidisse se meminit, vel esse existimavit. Miratur et ipse qui videt, et prae gaudio praesentis luminis praeteritas ignorantiae suae tenebras accusat, miratur subter se in imo, quo prostratus jacuit, miratur super se in summo, quo elevatus tendit. Gaudet se tantum jam evasisse ab eo quod doluit dolet se tantum adhuc abesse ab eo quod, diligit. Conatur igitur festinat, ascendit, crescit per desiderium, et quemadmodum virgula fumi, quanto magis sursum tollitur, tanto amplius extenuatur, ita coelestibus appropinquans, et omnem terrenae concupiscentiae nebulam evaporans totus spiritalis efficitur, tandemque se humanis subducit aspectibus, dum ad terrena ista, et visibilia concupiscenda amplius extra recusans, intus in abscondito faciei Domini gloriatur.
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