Sometimes in these burning days there falls the honey-dew of some false
sweetness, which soils the fruits or completely spoils them. It falls
for the most part at noon, in bright sunshine, and its great drops can
hardly be distinguished from rain. Even so there are some men who can
be caught away from their outward senses by some brightness which is
the gift of the enemy. And this brightness enwraps and envelops them,
and at that moment they behold images, falsehoods, and many kinds of
truths, and voices speak to them in different ways, and all this is
seen and received with great joy. And here there fall at times the
honey-drops of a false sweetness in which the man delights himself. He
who values it highly receives a great quantity, and so the man is often
injured, for if he holds for true such things as have no resemblance
to truth, because they have been shown or taught him, he falls into
error and the fruit of virtue is lost. But those who have climbed by
the paths which I have pointed out above, although they may indeed be
tempted by that spirit and by that brightness, will recognise them and
receive no injury.