"in truth every desire and worldly pleasure is an illusion of the soul, because the desire and concern for it is always greater than the experience itself. But the opposite is true in spiritual things. For in things of the flesh the desire burns sometimes for days and nights and hours, but the experience lasts only a moment and is mixed with disappointments, according to the saying (Prov. 14:13): “Laughter shall be mingled with sorrow, and mourning takes over the ends of joy.” Therefore, is not the soul truly deceived which is most ardently kindled with desires and hopes as for something great and lasting, only to find that when it comes it fades away as it comes? Since the pleasure is in a moment, its beginning and end are the same. It rages and stops at the same time, and when it begins it comes to an end. Yet the wretched soul is snatched into it with such great burnings, because it is one to be deceived. So the birds are deceived by the snares. So a boy is deceived by copper coins instead of gold. Indeed, such a deception with regard to gold and silver and other wares is very common, and the appearance deceives everybody. They are inflamed by the appearance, but when they learn what it really is, they are deceived. And God lets this happen so that He may thus instruct us about all things which are of the flesh, because they are vanity and a deception of souls. For we, too, have deserved to suffer even that literal illusion of things from each other, because we love this injurious and pernicious illusion of the soul, so that thus the letter runs with the mystery. If you show me a yellow coin, and I am incited to regard it as gold, but you give me a copper one, are you not deceiving me? So the devil and the world show their delights, and we are strongly aroused. But he gives us wormwood, and in a moment we are not deceived, since it is indeed true, “Not everything that is yellow is gold.”
In spiritual things, on the contrary, the desire is less and the experience is greater, because the spiritual good has genuine substance. When you find a hard nut, you despise it; but open it, and the kernel will be most agreeable. So also the appearance of wine is sometimes sickening but its taste is very smooth."
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