On the Firmness
of the Wise Man

"But the path we are asked to climb is steep and uneven." What of it? Can you reach the heights by a level path? Yet the ascent is not as sheer and precipitous as some think. Only the beginning has rocks and cliffs, with no apparent way through. Many hills, seen from far away, look abruptly steep and joined together because distance deceives our eyes. As we come closer, those very hills that our mistaken sight had made into one gradually open out. The places that looked so steep from a distance reveal a gentle slope.