35. Such, then, is the state of the soul that she no longer values
even thought, which formerly excited her admiration; for thought is a
movement, and the soul would prefer none. She does not even assert
that it is Intelligence that she sees, though she contemplate only
because she has become intelligence, and has, so to speak, become
intellectualized, by being established in the intelligible place.
Having arrived to Intelligence, and having become established therein,
the soul possesses the intelligible, and thinks; but as soon as she
achieves the vision of the supreme Divinity, she abandons everything
else. She behaves as does the visitor who, on entering into a palace,
would first admire the different beauties that adorn its interior,
but who regards them no longer as soon as she perceives the master;
for the master, by his (living) nature, which is superior to all the
statues that adorn the palace, monopolizes the consideration, and
alone deserves to be contemplated; consequently the spectator, with
his glance fixed on Him, henceforward observes Him alone. By dint of
continual contemplation of the spectacle in front of him, the spectator
sees the master no longer; in the spectator, vision confuses with the
visible object. What for the spectator first was a visible object,
in him becomes vision, and makes him forget all that he saw around
himself. To complete this illustration, the master here presenting
himself to the visitor must be no man, but a divinity; and this
divinity must not content Himself with appearing to the eyes of him who
contemplates Him, but He must penetrate within the human soul, and fill
her entirely.