It is the second point, therefore, that we shall here discuss. It is
related to the study of the object we desire to know; for it is the
soul that desires to know that object. Now the soul must first examine
her own nature in order to know whether she possess the faculty of
contemplating the divinity, if this study be suited to her, and if she
may hope for success therein. For indeed if the soul be foreign to
divine things, the soul has no business to ferret out their nature. If
however a close kinship obtains between them, she both can and should
seek to know them.