your sight (Ps 141:2; Vulg. 140:2); “all the powders of the perfumer” represent all the works of virtue, and the reason that they are compared not to whole perfumes but to those that have been reduced to powder is so that we might be admonished to discern with unfailing attention the good things that we do, and to examine them as though with the sieve of careful discernment to make sure that nothing improper remains in them.8 Now we should note that in referring to aromatic spices it rightly names