O Lorp my God, the Helper of them that seek Thee, I behold Thee in the entrance of Paradise, and I know not what I see, for I see naught visible. This alone I know, that I know not what I see, and never can know. And I know not how to name Thee because I know not what Thou art, and did anyone say unto me that Thou wert called by this name or that, by the very fact that he named it, I should know that it was not Thy name. For the wall beyond which I see Thee is the end of all manner of signification in names. If anyone should set forth any concept by which Thou
couldst be conceived, I know that that
concept is not a concept of Thee, for every concept is ended in the wall of Paradise. And if anyone should set forth any likeness, and say
that Thou wert to be imagined as resembling
ES ee
it, I know in like manner that that is no likeness of Thee. So too, if any were to tell of the understanding of Thee, wishing to supply a means whereby Thou mightest be understood, this man is yet far from Thee. For Thou art separated by an exceeding high wall from all these. The high wall separates Thee from all that can possibly be said or thought of Thee, forasmuch as Thou art Absolute above all the concepts which any man can frame.
Thus, while I am borne to loftiest heights, I behold Thee as infinity. By reason of this, Thou mayest not be attained, or comprehended, or named, or multiplied, or beheld. He that approacheth Thee must needs ascend above every limit and end and finite thing. But how shall he attain unto Thee who art the End toward whom he striveth, if he must ascend above the end? He who ascendeth above the end, doth he not enter in to what is undefined and confused, and thus, in regard to the intellect, into ignorance and obscurity, which pertain to intellectual confusion? It behoveth, then, the intellect to become ignorant and to abide in darkness if it would fain see Thee. But what, O my God, is this intellectual ignorance? Is it not an instructed ignorance}?
1 Cf. Nicholas’ work, De Docta Ignorantia.
Thou, God, who art infinity, canst only be approached by him whose intellect is in ignorance, to wit, by him who knows himself to be ignorant of Thee.
How can the intellect grasp Thee, who art infinity? The intellect knoweth that it is ignorant, and that Thou canst not be grasped because Thou art infinity. For to understand infinity is to comprehend the incomprehensible. The intellect knoweth that it is ignorant of Thee, because it knoweth Thou canst not be known, unless the unknowable could be known, and the invisible beheld, and the inaccessible attained. Thou, my God, art Very Absolute Infinity, which I perceive to be an end without an end, but I am unable to grasp how without an end an end should be an end. Thou, God, art the End of Thine own self, for Thou art whatever Thou hast; if Thou hast an end, Thou art an End. Thou art therefore an infinite End, because Thou art the End of Thine own self. Since Thine end is Thine essence, the essence of the end is not determined or ended in any place other than the end, but in itself. The end, then, which is its own end, is infinite, and every end which is not its own end is a finite end. Thou, Lord, who art the End ending all things, art the End
whereof there is no end, and thus an end without an end, or infinite. This eludeth all reason, because it implieth a contradiction. Thus, when I assert the existence of an end without an end, I admit darkness to be light, ignorance to be knowledge, and the impossible to be a necessity. Since we admit the existence of an end of the finite, we needs must admit the infinite, or the ultimate end, or the end without an end. Now we cannot but admit the existence of finite beings, wherefore we cannot but admit the infinite. Thus we admit the coincidence of contradictories, above which is the infinite.
Howbeit, this coincidence is a contradiction without contradiction, even as an end without an end. And Thou, Lord, sayest unto me that, just as otherness in unity is without otherness because it is unity, even so, in infinity, contradiction is without contradiction, because it is infinity. Infinity is simplicity itself, contradiction existeth not without becoming other. Yet in simplicity otherness existeth without becoming other because it is simplicity itself, seeing that all that is said of absolute simplicity coincideth therewith, because therein having is being. Therein the opposition of opposites is an opposition without opposition, just as
the end of things finite is an end without an end. Thou, then, O God, art the Opposition of opposites, because Thou art infinite, and because Thou art infinite Thou art infinity itself. And in infinity the opposition of opposites existeth without opposition.
O Lord my God, Strength of the weak, I see Thee to be infinity itself, wherefore naught is alien to Thee, naught differing from Thee, naught opposed to Thee. For the infinite brooketh not otherness from itself, since, being infinity, naught existeth outside it: absolute infinity includeth and containeth all things. If infinity could ever exist, and aught else exist outside it, then neither infinity nor aught else could exist. Infinity cannot be greater or less; naught, therefore, existeth outside it. Did infinity not include in itself all being, it were not infinity. If it were not infinity, then neither would the finite exist, nor aught alien or different, since these cannot exist without otherness of ends and limits. If the infinite be taken away, naught remaineth. Infinity, accordingly, existeth, and enfoldeth all things, and naught can exist outside it, hence naught is alien to it or differing from it. Thus infinity is alike all things and no one of them all. No name can suit infinity, for every name can
have its contrary, but naught can be contrary to infinity, which is unnameable. Neither 1s infinity a whole, whereunto a part is opposed, nor can it be a part: ’tis neither great nor small, nor any of all those things that can be named in heaven or earth; above all these it existeth, infinity. Infinity is neither greater nor less than anything, nor equal thereunto.
But while I consider infinity, how it is neither greater nor less than any given thing, I declare it to be the measure of all things, just because it is neither greater nor less. Thus I conceive, it as equality of being. Yet such equality is infinity, and therefore it is not equality after the style in which inequality is opposed to equality, but therein inequality is equality: for in infinity inequality existeth without inequality because it is infinity; so too in infinity equality is infinity. Infinite equality is an end without end; whence, albeit it be not greater nor less, *tis yet not on that account equality in the manner in which limited equality is understood; nay, ‘tis infinite equality, which admitteth not greater or less. And so ’tis not more equal to one thing than to another, but is as equal to one as to all, and to all as to none. For the infinite is not liable to limitation, but abideth absolute: if aught could be limited in infinity,
*twould not be infinite. Hence it may not be limited to equality with the finite, albeit *tis not unequal to anything. For how could inequality suit with the infinite, when neither greater nor less doth so? The infinite, then, with regard to any given thing, is neither greater, nor less, nor unequal. Nor yet, by reason of this, is it equal to the finite, seeing that, [considered] ! in itself, it is above all that is finite. The infinite, then, is utterly absolute, and illimitable.
O how exalted art Thou, Lord, above all things, and humble withal, \since Thou art in all! \If infinity could be limited to anything that can be named, such as a line, or surface, or species, it would draw unto itself that whereto it was limited, and this implieth that the infinite would be limitable, since, though not limited, it would draw unto [itself a limit]. If I should say that the infinite is limited to a line, as when I speak of an infinite line, then the line is drawn unto the infinite, for a line ceaseth to be a line when it hath no quantity nor end. An infinite line is not a line, but a line at infinity is infinity. Just as naught can be added to the infinite, even so the infinite cannot be limited unto anything so as to
1 [Considered] and [itself a limit] below are not in the Latin.
become aught other than infinite. Infinite goodness is not goodness, but infinity; in- / finite quantity is not quantity, but infinity, and so with the rest.
Thou art the great God, of whose greatness there is no end, and thus I perceive Thee to be the immeasurable measure of all things, even as the infinite end of all. Wherefore, Lord, being infinite, Thou art without beginning and end; Thou art beginning without beginning and end without end; Thou art beginning without end and end without beginning; Thou art equally beginning as end and end as beginning, yet neither beginning nor end, but above beginning and end, absolute infinity itself, blessed for ever!
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