In the first place, I think, it should be presupposed that there is nothing which seemeth proper to the gaze of the icon of God which doth not more really exist in the veritable -~ gaze of God Himself. For God, who is the very summit of all perfection, and greater than can be conceived, is called 6.3; from this very fact that He beholdeth all things. Wherefore, if the countenance portrayed in a picture can seem to look upon each and all at one and the same time, this faculty (since it is the perfection of seeing) must no less really pertain unto the reality than it doth apparently unto the icon or appearance. For if the sight of one man is keener than that of another among us, if one will with difficulty distinguish objects near him, while another can make out those at a distance, if one perceive
an object slowly, the other more quickly— there is no doubt but that Absolute Sight, whence all sight springeth, surpasseth in keenness, in speed, and in strength the sight of all who actually see and who can become capable of sight.
For, if I examine sight in the abstract, which I have dissociated in my mind from all eyes and bodily organs, and consider how abstract sight in its limited? state-—that is, as sight in seeing persons—is narrowed down to time and place, to particular objects, and to other like conditions, while sight in the abstract is in like manner withdrawn from these conditions, and absolute, then I well perceive ’tis not of the essence of sight to behold one object more than another, although it inhereth in sight, in its limited state, to be unable to look on more than one thing at a time, or upon all things absolutely. But God is the true Unlimited Sight, and He is not inferior to sight in the abstract as it can be conceived by the intellect, but is beyond all comparison more perfect. Wherefore the apparent vision of the icon cannot so closely approach the supreme excellence of Absolute Sight as our abstract
1 Contractus, contractio are usually rendered ‘‘limited,” “limitation,” or “‘limiting’’ when the sense is active.
conception. And so there can be no doubt that whatever seemeth to exist in that image the same doth really and supremely exist in © Absolute Sight.
Contents · Chapter 2. That Absolute Sight Embraceth All Modes of Seeing →