¶ Here begin the sayings regarding the tree which is called the Image of Man

Because the diversity of doctors and the amplitude of the scriptures—but before the fault of the memories—often obscure things previously known, and when in the narrow seats of my heart the fruit of good germinating through the Word of Life has emerged for an hour, the will is soon curved back by the insolence of worldly agitations and miserably suffocated. So that when the word of salvation has already shone in the dark recesses of my heart, the grace of divine generosity being withdrawn, I do not at all recall what or why or by what pathways it is found. I know, indeed, that the services of the external senses provide many benefits to the ordered affections of the internal faculties. Whence the Apostle Paul: "The invisible things of God are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made" Romans 1:20, etc. Also Richard of Saint Victor: "From the inspection of visible things we are promoted to the knowledge of the invisible." For I have seen some in flowers, some in sculptures, some in other creatures, vehemently ignited, who through the gift of intelligence consider the cause in the caused. Whence for me and for those who think with me, I have decided to paint under the image of a certain visible tree some invisible powers of the soul or affections, which I am to express with hidden faith. This tree is named the Image of Man, so that while my intellect is fed by sacred meditation, it may be strengthened externally by sensual testimony for the sake of the memory, so that by a sign externally I may return to the heart, and I find there what I read externally through images. Gregory: "The mental good that a man remembers in himself rejoices to hear it externally, because the soul is aided through visible things to the investigation of invisible things." Indeed, for the understanding of this tree, the subtlety of philosophy is not required, nor any faculty of the arts, but the humility of pure faith, introducing the absence of sin.