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1. But since with respect to the mirror of sensible things it
happens that God is contemplated not only through them, as by His
traces, but also in them, in so far as He is in them by essence,
potency, and presence; and to consider this is higher than the
preceding; therefore a consideration of this sort holds next place
as a second step in contemplation, by which we should be led to
the contemplation of God in all creatures which enter into our
minds through the bodily senses.
2. Let it be noted then that this world, which is called the
"macrocosm," enters our souls, which are called the "microcosm,"
through the doors of the five senses, according to the
apprehension, delectation, and judgment of sensible things
themselves. This is apparent as follows: In the world some things
are generating, some generated, some governing the former and the
latter. The generating are simple bodies, celestial bodies, and
the four elements. For from the elements, by virtue of the light
which reconciles the contrariety of elements in mixtures, there
can be generated and produced whatsoever things are generated and
produced through the operation of a natural power. But the
generated are bodies composed of the elements, like minerals,
vegetables, sensible things, and human bodies.
The rulers of the
former and the latter are spiritual substances, either conjoined
entirely, as are the animal souls; or conjoined though separable,
as are the rational spirits; or entirely separated, as are the
celestial spirits, which philosophers call "intelligences," but we
"angels." These, according to the philosophers, move the celestial
bodies; and thus there is attributed to them the administration of
the universe by taking over from the First Cause, that is God,
their active influence, which they pour out in accordance with the
work of governing, which looks to the natural harmony of things.
According to the theologians, however, there is attributed to them
the rule of the universe in accordance with the power of the
supreme God with respect to the work of reparation, wherefore they
are called "ministering spirits," sent to minister to them who
shall receive the inheritance of salvation [Hebr., 1, 14].
3. Therefore, man, who is called a "microcosm," has five senses
like five doors, through which enters into his soul the cognition
of all that is in the sensible world. For through sight enter the
transparent ("sublimia"), luminous, and other colored bodies;
through touch the solid and terrestrial bodies; by the three
intermediate senses the intermediates, as by taste the aqueous, by
hearing the aerial, by odor the vaporous--all of which have
something of a humid nature, something aerial, something fiery or
warm, as appears in the smoke which is freed from incense.
There enter then through these doors, not only simple bodies, but
also composite, mixed from these. But since by sense we perceive not
only these particular sensibles, which are light, sound, odor,
savor, and the four primary qualities which touch apprehends, but
also the common sensibles, which are number, magnitude, figure,
rest, and motion, and since everything which is moved is moved by
something, and some are self-moved and remain at rest, as the
animals, it follows that when through these five senses we
apprehend the motion of bodies, we are led to the cognition of
spiritual movers, as through an effect we are led to a knowledge
of its causes.
4. As far as the three kinds of things are concerned, this whole
sensible
world enters into the human soul through "apprehension." The
external
sensibles, however, are what first enter the soul through the five
doors of
the senses. They enter, I say, not though their substance, but
through
their similitudes. These are first generated in the medium, and
from the
medium are generated in the organ and pass from the external organ
into the
internal, and from there into the apprehensive power. And thus the
generation of the [sensible] species in the medium and from the
medium into
the organ and the reaction of the apprehensive power to it [the
species]
produce the apprehension of all those things which the soul
apprehends from
without.
5. Upon this apprehension, if it be of the appropriate
thing, there
follows delight. Sense, however, takes delight in an object
perceived
through an abstracted similitude either by reason of its beauty,
as in
sight; or by reason of its agreeableness, as in odor and hearing;
or by reason of wholesomeness, as in taste and touch, speaking with
appropriation.[2]
All delight, however, is by reason of
proportion. But since
a species is form, power, and operation, according to whether it
is thought
of as related to the principle from which it comes, to the medium
through
which it passes, or to the end for which it acts, therefore
proportion may
be considered in similitude, inasmuch as it is a species or form
and thus
is called "speciositas" [beauty], because beauty is nothing other
than
numerical equality or a certain relation of parts with agreeable
color.
Or
else proportion may be considered as potency or power, and thus it
is
called "suavity," for active power does not exceed immoderately
the powers
of the recipient, since the senses are pained by extremes and
delight in
the mean. Or it may be considered, by thinking of species, as
efficacy and
impression, which is proportional when the agent by impression
supplies
what the recipient lacks; and this is to save and nourish it,
which appears
especially in taste and touch. And thus through delight the
external
pleasures enter into the soul by similitudes in a triple mode of
delighting.
6. After the delight of apprehension comes judgment. By this we
not only
judge whether something is white or black, for this pertains to a
special
sense, not only whether it is healthful or harmful, for this
pertains to
the inner sense, but also why something is delightful. And in this
act the
question is raised about the reasons for our delight which sense
derives
from the object. This happens when we ask why something is
beautiful,
pleasant, and wholesome. And it is discovered that the answer is
equality
of proportion.
Equality, however, is the same in the great and the
small,
and is not spread out through a thing's dimensions; nor does it
change and
pass away when there is alteration through change or motion.
Therefore it
abstracts from place, time, and motion, and thus is unchangeable,
inimitable, without ends, and in all ways spiritual. Judgment is,
therefore, an action which causes the sensible species, received
sensibly
through sense, to enter the intellective faculty by purification
and
abstraction. And thus the whole world can enter into the human
soul through
the doors of the senses by the three aforesaid operations.
7. These all, however, are traces in which we can see the
reflection of our
God. For since the apprehended species is a likeness produced in
the medium
and then impressed upon the organ itself, and by means of that
impression
leads to its principle and source--that is to say, to the object
of
knowledge--manifestly it follows that the eternal light generates
out of
itself a likeness or coequal radiance which is consubstantial and
coeternal.
And He Who is the image and likeness of the invisible
God [Col.,
1, 15] and "the brightness of His glory and the figure of His
substance"
[Hebr., 1, 3], He Who is everywhere through His primal generation,
as an
object generates its likeness in the whole medium, is united by
the grace
of union to an individual of rational nature--as a species to a
corporeal
organ--so that by that union He may lead us back to the Father as
to the
primordial source and object.
If then all knowable things can
generate
their likeness (species), obviously they proclaim that in them as
in a
mirror can be seen the eternal generation of the Word, the Image,
and the
Son, eternally emanating from God the Father.
8. In this way the species, delighting us as beautiful, pleasant,
and
wholesome, implies that in that first species is the primal
beauty,
pleasure, and wholesomeness in which is the highest
proportionality and
equality to the generator. In this is power, not through
imagination, but
entering our minds through the truth of apprehension. Here is
impression,
salubrious and satisfying, and expelling all lack in the
apprehending mind.
If, then, delight is the conjunction of the harmonious, and the
likeness of
God alone is the most highly beautiful, pleasant, and wholesome,
and if it
is united in truth and in inwardness and in plenitude which
employs our
entire capacity, obviously it can be seen that in God alone is the
original
and true delight, and that we are led back to seeking it from all
other
delights.
9. By a more excellent and immediate way are we led by judgment
into seeing
eternal truths more surely. For if judgment comes about through
the
reason's abstracting from place, time, and change, and therefore
from
dimension, succession, and transmutation, by the immutable,
illimitable,
and endless reason, and if there is nothing immutable, inimitable,
and
endless except the eternal, then all which is eternal is God or is
in God.
If, then, all things of which we have more certain judgments are
judged by
this mode of reasoning, it is clear that this is the reason of all
things
and the infallible rule and light of truth, in which all things
shine forth
infallibly, indestructibly, indubitably, irrefragably,
unquestionably,
unchangeably, boundlessly, endlessly, indivisibly, and
intellectually.
And
therefore those laws by which we make certain judgments concerning
all
sensible things which come into our consideration--since they [the
laws]
are infallible and indubitable rules of the apprehending
intellect--are
indelibly stored up in the memory as if always present, are
irrefragable
and unquestionable rules of the judging intellect.
And this is so
because,
as Augustine says [Lib. Arb., II, ch. 4], no one judges these
things except
by these rules. It must thus be true that they are incommutable
and
incorruptible since they are necessary, and boundless since they
are
inimitable, endless since eternal. Therefore they must be
indivisible since
intellectual and incorporeal, not made but uncreated, eternally
existing in
eternal art, by which, through which, and in accordance with which
all
things possessing form are formed.
Neither, therefore, can we
judge with
certainty except through that which was not only the form
producing all
things but also the preserver of all and the distinguisher of all,
as the
being who preserves the form in all things, the directing rule by
which our
mind judges all things which enter into it through the senses.
10. This observation is extended by a consideration of the seven
different
kinds of number by which, as if by seven steps, we ascend to God.
Augustine
shows this in his book "On the True Religion" and in the sixth
book "On
Music," wherein he assigns the differences of the numbers as they
mount
step by step from sensible things to the Maker of all things, so
that God
may be seen in all.
For he says that numbers are in bodies and especially in sounds
and words,
and he calls these "sonorous." Some are abstracted from these and
received
into our senses, and these he calls "heard." Some proceed from the
soul
into the body, as appears in gestures and bodily movements, and
these he
calls "uttered." Some are in the pleasures of the senses which
arise from
attending to the species which have been received, and these he
calls
"sensual." Some are retained in the memory, and these he calls
remembered.
Some are the bases of our judgments about all these, and these he
calls
"judicial," which, as has been said above, necessarily transcend
our minds
because they are infallible and incontrovertible. By these there
are
imprinted on our minds the "artificial" numbers which Augustine
does not
include in this classification because they are connected with the
judicial
number from which flow the uttered numbers out of which are
created the
numerical forms of those things made by art.
Hence, from the
highest
through the middles to the lowest, there is an ordered descent.
Thence do
we ascend step by step from the sonorous numbers by means of the
uttered,
the sensual, and the remembered.
Since, therefore, all things are beautiful and in some way
delightful, and
beauty and delight do not exit apart from proportion, and
proportion is
primarily in number, it needs must be that all things are
rhythmical
("numerosa"). And for this reason number is the outstanding
exemplar in the
mind of the Maker, and in things it is the outstanding trace
leading to
wisdom. Since this is most evident to all and closest to God, it
leads most
directly to God as if by the seven differentiae. It causes Him to
be known
in all corporeal and sensible thing while we apprehend the
rhythmical,
delight in rhythmical proportions, and though the laws of
rhythmical
proportions judge irrefragably.
11. From these two initial steps by which we are led to seeing God
in His
traces, as if we had two wings falling to our feet, we can
determine that
all creatures of this sensible world lead the mind of the one
contemplating
and attaining wisdom to the eternal God; for they are shadows,
echoes, and
pictures, the traces, simulacra, and reflections of that First
Principle
most powerful, wisest, and best; of that light and plenitude; of
that art
productive, exemplifying, and ordering, given to us for looking
upon God.
They are signs divinely bestowed which, I say, are exemplars or
rather
exemplifications set before our yet untrained minds, limited to
sensible
things, so that through the sensibles which they see they may be
carried
forward to the intelligibles, which they do not see, as if by
signs to the
signified.
12. The creatures of this sensible world signify the invisible
things of
God [Rom., 1, 20], partly because God is of all creation the
origin,
exemplar, and end, and because every effect is the sign of its
cause, the
exemplification of the exemplar, and the way to the end to which
it leads;
partly from its proper representation; partly from prophetic
prefiguration;
partly from angelic operation; partly from further ordination.
For
every
creature is by nature a sort of picture and likeness of that
eternal
wisdom, but especially that which in the book of Scripture is
elevated by
the spirit of prophecy to the prefiguration of spiritual things.
But more
does the eternal wisdom appear in those creatures in whose
likeness God
wished to appear in angelic ministry. And most specially does it
appear in
those which He wished to institute for the purpose of signifying
which are
not only signs according to their common name but also Sacraments.
13. From all this it follows that the invisible things of God are
clearly
seen, from the creation of the world, being understood by the
things that
are made; so that those who are unwilling to give heed to them and
to know
God in them all, to bless Him and to love Him, are inexcusable
[Rom., 1,
20], while they are unwilling to be carried forth from the shadows
into the
wonderful light of God [I Cor., 15, 57].
But thanks be to God
through Jesus
Christ our Lord, Who has transported us out of darkness into His
wonderful
light, when through these lights given from without we are
disposed to re-enter into the mirror of our mind, in which the divine lights
shine [I
Peter, 2, 9].
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