THE mind’s eye cannot be sated in beholding thee, Jesu, because Thou art the fulfilment of all beauty the mind can picture, and in this icon I conjecture Thy right marvellous and astounding + sight, Jesu blessed above all. For Thou, Jesu, whilst Thou didst walk this world of sense, didst use eyes of flesh like unto ours. With them Thou didst see, even as we men do, one object and another, for there was in Thine eyes a certain spirit which informed the organ, like the sensitive mind in an animal’s body. In that spirit there was a noble power of discernment whereby Thou, Lord, didst see and distinguish between one object of one colour and another of another. And, yet more, from the aspect of the face and eyes of the men whom Thou sawest Thou didst judge truly of the passions of the soul—anger, joy, sorrow. And more subtly still Thou didst
1The text has stupidum, presumably by misprint for stupendum.
comprehend from few tokens what was hidden in a man’s mind (for nothing is conceived in the mind that is not in some way shewn in the face, which is the heart’s herald, and especially in the eyes). By all these tokens Thou didst much more truly reach the inmost places of the soul than any created spirit can. From any one sign, albeit of the slightest, Thou didst perceive the man’s whole thought, even as understanding men grasp from a few words an idea that requireth a whole long discourse to set it forth, and even as the learned, from running their eye hastily over a book, can narrate the writer’s whole intent as though they had read it through.
Thou, Jesu, didst-excel in this manner of vision all the perfection, swiftness, and keenness of all men past, present, and to come, and yet this sight was human because it was not per- . fected without the eye of flesh. Howbeit, it was stupendous and marvellous. For if there be men who, after prolonged and_ subtle examining, can read the mind of a writer, under characters and signs newly devised at the time, and unseen before, Thou, Jesu, didst perceive all things under every sign and figure.
If, as we read, there was once a man who, by certain tokens in the eye, knew the thoughts
of an interrogator, even the verses that he might be repeating to himself, Thou, Jesu, hadst more skill than all in grasping all the mind’s thought from each glance of the eye. I myself have seen a deaf woman who read everything from the movement of her daughter’s lips, and understood it as if she had heard it. If such a thing is possible by long practice among deaf and dumb persons, and Religious who converse by signs, Thou, Jesu, who, as a Master of masters, actually knewest all that is to be known, didst more perfectly form a true judgment of the heart and its thoughts from the slightest glances and signs invisible to us.
But unto this Thy human sight, most perfect albeit finité and limited unto an organ, there was united an absolute and infinite sight—the sight whereby Thou, as God, didst see alike all things and each, absent as well as present, past as well as future. Thus, Jesu, with Thy human eye Thou sawest such accidentals as _ are visible, but, with Thy divine, absolute * sight, the substance of things. None save Thee, Jesu, ever in the flesh beheld the substance or essence of things. Thou alone sawest most truly the soul and spirit and whatsoever there was in man. For as in man the faculty of
understanding is linked with the animal faculty of sight, so that a man not only seeth like an animal but also, as a man, discerneth and judgeth, so in Thee, Jesu, the absolute sight was united unto the human faculty of understanding, which, in the animal sight, is discernment. In man, the faculty of animal sight subsisteth, not in itself, but in the reasoning soul, as in the form of the whole: in Thee, Jesu, the intellectual faculty of sight subsisteth, not in itself, but in the faculty of absolute sight. O most sweet Jesu, how marvellous is Thy sight!
Sometimes it befalleth us to fix our gaze on a passer-by without giving heed to recognise who he was; so we cannot tell the name of that passer-by to any that asketh it, albeit it is a man we know, and we are aware that someone hath passed by. We have seen him as_an animal might, not like a man, because we have not applied our faculty of discernment. Whence we learn that the natures of our faculties, though they be bound up in one human form, do yet abide distinct, and have distinct workings. Even so in Thee, the one Jesus, I perceive that the human intellectual nature was united after somewhat the same fashion unto the divine nature, and that in
like manner Thou didst many works as Man, and, as God, many marvellous works beyond what man could do. I see, most loving Jesu, that the intellectual nature is absolute in regard to that of the senses, and not, as is the sensible nature, finite and tied to an organ, as the seeing faculty of the senses is tied to the eye: but ~.the divine faculty is immeasurably more absolute, beyond the intellectual. For the human intellect, if it is to find expression in action, requireth images,! and images cannot be had without the senses, and senses subsist not without a body; and by reason of this the faculty of human intelligence is limited, and slight, requiring the things aforesaid. Now the divine intelligence is necessity itself, independent, requiring naught—nay, rather do all things require it, since without it they cannot exist.
I consider more attentively how the discursive ? faculty which, in the process of reasoning, runneth hither and thither,? and seeketh, is another thing from the faculty which judgeth and understandeth. We see a dog run hither and thither, and seek his master, and recognise him and hear his call.
1 phaniasmata.
- Cf. Rolt, Dionysius the Areopagite; Discursive v. Intuitive Reason, Introduction, p. 26.
® discurrit.
This running about is natural to an animal, and in the dog is found in a degree of specific perfection. There are other animals which are even keener in this pursuit,! according to their more perfect species, and in man this pursuit most nearly approacheth the intellectual faculty, so that it is the summit of perfection in the senses, embracing many, nay, innumerable degrees of perfection, on a lower level than the intellectual, as the different species of animals reveal unto us. For there is no species which shareth not the degree of perfection proper unto itself. Each of the degrees hath a wide space within whose limits we see individuals of the species partaking of the species in divers ways. In like manner the intellectual nature hath, on a lower level than the divine, innumerable degrees. Whence, just as in the intellectual nature all degrees of perfection of the senses are implied, so in the divine are implied all degrees of perfection, alike of the intellect and of the senses, and all others. Thus in Thee, my Jesu, I behold all perfection.
Since Thou art all-perfect Man, I see in Thee an intellect united unto a rational or discursive faculty, which is the supreme faculty
1 discursus.
of the senses. And thus I see that Thine intellect was set in Thy reason as in its own place, like unto a candle placed in a room, which illumineth the room, and all the walls, and the whole building, howbeit by more or less according to the degree of its distance from them. Finally, I see that in Thee the divine Word is united unto a sovran intellect, and that the place where the Word is received is that intellect itself; just as in ourselves we prove that the intellect is the place where the word of a master is received, as if the sun’s light should be joined unto the candle afore chosen. For the Word of God illumineth the intellect as the sun’s light illumineth this world. Wherefore in Thee, my Jesu, I perceive the life of the senses illumined by the light of the intellect; the life of the intellect as a light that illumineth and that is illumined; and the divine life, which illumineth alone. For I see in Thine intellectual light the very Fount of light, to wit, the Word of God which is truth, illumining every intellect. Thou only, then, art the highest of all creatures, since Thou art thus at once Creature and blessed Creator.
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