31. Since all things have been embellished by Him who is above them,
and have received their light from Him; since Intelligence derives
from Him the splendor of its intellectual actualization; by which
splendor it illuminates nature; since from Him also the soul derives
her vital power, because she finds in Him an abundant source of life;
consequently, Intelligence has risen to Him, and has remained attached
to Him, satisfied in the bliss of His presence; consequently also the
soul, to the utmost of her ability, turned towards Him, for, as soon as
she has known Him and seen Him, she was, by her contemplation, filled
with bliss; and, so far as she could see Him, she was overwhelmed
with reverence. She could not see Him without being impressed with
the feeling that she had within herself something of Him; it was this
disposition of hers that led her to desire to see Him, as the image
of some lovable object makes one wish to be able to contemplate it
oneself. Here below, lovers try to resemble the beloved object, to
render their body more gracious, to conform their soul to their model,
by temperance and the other virtues to remain as little inferior as
possible to Him whom they love, for fear of being scorned by Him;
and thus they succeed in enjoying intimacy with Him.[132] Likewise,
the soul loves the Good, because, from the very beginning she is
provoked to love Him. When she is ready to love, she does not wait
for the beauties here below to give her the reminiscence of the Good;
full of love, even when she does not know what she possesses, she is
ever seeking; and inflamed with the desire to rise to the Good, she
scorns the things here below. Considering the beauties presented by
our universe, she suspects that they are deceptive, because she sees
them clothed upon with flesh, and united to our bodies, soiled by
the matter where they reside, divided by extension, and she does not
recognize them as real beauties, for she cannot believe that the latter
could plunge into the mire of these bodies, soiling and obscuring
themselves.[133] Last, when the soul observes that the beauties here
below are in a perpetual flux, she clearly recognizes that they derive
this splendor with which they shine, from elsewhere.[134] Then she
rises to the intelligible world; being capable of discovering what she
loves, she does not stop before having found it, unless she be made
to lose her love. Having arrived there, she contemplates all the true
beauties, the true realities[135]; she refreshes herself by filling
herself up with the life proper to essence. She herself becomes genuine
essence. She fuses with the Intelligible which she really possesses,
and in its presence she has the feeling (of having found) what she was
seeking so long.