Not to all men, because it is permitted only to those who have been examined, and are passed masters in meditation, and who have been previously purified in soul and body, or at the very least are being purified.  For the impure to touch the pure is, we may safely say, not safe, just as it is unsafe to fix weak eyes upon the sun’s rays.  And what is the permitted occasion?  It is when we are free from all external defilement or disturbance, and when that which rules within us is not confused with vexatious or erring images; like persons mixing up good writing with bad, or filth with the sweet odours of unguents.  For it is necessary to be truly at leisure to know God; and when we can get a convenient season, to discern the straight road of the things divine.  And who are the permitted persons?  They to whom the subject is of real concern, and not they who make it a matter of pleasant gossip, like any other thing, after the races, or the theatre, or a concert, or a dinner, or still lower employments.  To such men as these, idle jests and pretty contradictions about these subjects are a part of their amusement.