VISIO QUARTA, cap. IX

The Milky Cloud and Upright Desire

A white cloud arched like a bow in the air symbolizes how the minds of the faithful, though bowed by fleshly frailty, persevere in upright desire, awaiting the final reward, as exemplified by Job.

In this same air you also see a certain cloud of white color, which on each side of itself, where it has its end, is as if fastened to other clouds of the firmament, and its middle, remaining curved like a bow, stretches out into the air just mentioned, because in those same clouds which the air above sustains by carrying them, another cloud, having a milky color, is directed, which strengthens that same air just as a column sustains a gift, and in the same way, in the order of upright desire mentioned before, the minds of certain people are so established that in both secular and spiritual matters they await the reward of the end of their works, because they carry out both earthly and heavenly affairs so as to please the supreme judge on high, and although the perfection of their minds sometimes perceives the frailty of the flesh as if bowed low, it nevertheless perseveres in upright desire, as my servant Job also shows when he says:^✦ The words of Job are in harmony with this same point, and it is clear in what sense they should be received.