Intelligence has two powers: by the first, which is her own power of
thinking, she sees what is within her. By the other she perceives
what is above her by the aid of a kind of vision and perception;
by the vision, she first saw simply; then, by (perceptive) seeing,
she received intellection and fused with the One. The first kind of
contemplation is suitable to the intelligence which still possesses
reason; the second is intelligence transported by love. Now, it is
when the nectar intoxicates her,[141] and deprives her of reason,
that the soul is transported with love, and that she blossoms into a
felicity that fulfils all her desires. It is better for her to abandon
herself to this intoxication than to remain wise. In this state
does intelligence successively see one thing, and then another? No:
methods of instruction (or, constructive speech) give out everything
successively; but it is eternally that intelligence possesses the
power of thought, as well as the power not to think; that is, to see
the divinity otherwise than by thought. Indeed, while contemplating
Him, she received within herself germs, she felt them when they were
produced and deposited within her breast; when she sees them, she is
said to think; but when she sees the divinity, it is by that superior
power by virtue of which she was to think later.