place, habitation, temple, resting-place, tower, palace, and throne, for the ever living God! The mouths of men are insufficient to praise the Mother of the Lord of angels and of men. Those in the body come short, nor can the spiritual ones attain unto it. If she be so great and so exalted, how can vile lips declare her! For, if they speak, they cannot add to her glory, and if they are silent they cannot lessen it. Who believes that clay can adorn pure gold, or that ashes can add beauty to the pearl? An unpleasant scent cannot add sweetness to the fragrance of exquisite odour, neither can a rotten rag ornament a costly garment. Such things as bitumen, pitch, and brimstone, do not enter into the kingdom, nor are they suffered to come in contact with clean vessels, neither are they brought before honourable persons. What can I do, then, who am full of these things? What have I to bestow upon her? Nothing that I possess can profit her. I would not give, but I wish to receive, O Lord. Grant to me, therefore, that I may magnify Thy Mother before Thy Church and before Thy people. Spit upon the blind eyes of my mind a pure spittle from Thy life-giving mouth, that like Bartimæus, I may be enlightened in Thee, receive light from Thee, and speak through Thee. Thou who hast made me worthy to hear of her, make me at the last to look upon the beauty of her countenance. I know that I am vile, therefore I flee to Thy holiness. Give me of Thy water, O fountain of life, that I may delight in Thee, Thou Tree of life. Thou art the Fountain of life, and Thy Mother is a pure garden. The fruit which Eve did not see, Mary bare and nourished. Eve died in her lust after it; but thereby Mary received life herself, and imparted life to others. That female thief [Eve] did not find this fruit; but the guarded and sealed one found it in herself. Eve who did not guard herself inherited a curse, and gave it as an inheritance to her children; but Mary who guarded her members freed herself and gave freedom to all. In infancy she learned how to walk between the porch and the altar. Her eyes looked not upon a man, neither did she listen to his words. Her lips did not utter fond words either to boy or girl. She did not put forth her hand to receive, but it was ever stretched out to bestow. Her foot did not go forth to the market-place, neither did it wander from the house of her Lord. Her pure person was clothed with a cloud
