In order to conceive this better, we should imagine that this visible
sky is a pure light which begets all the stars. Here below, doubtless,
no one part could be begotten by any other, for each part has its
own individual existence. On the contrary, in the intelligible world
every part is born from the whole, and is simultaneously the whole
and a part; wherever is a part, the whole reveals itself. The fabled
Lynceus, whose glance penetrated the very bowels of the earth, is only
the symbol of the celestial life. There the eye contemplates without
fatigue, and the desire of contemplating is insatiable, because it
does not imply a void that needs filling, or a need whose satisfaction
might bring on disgust. In the intelligible world, the beings do not,
among each other, differ so as that what is proper to the one would
not be proper to the other. Besides, they are all indestructible.
Their insatiability (in contemplation) is to be understood in the
sense that satiety does not make them scorn what satiates them.
The more that each sees, the better he sees; each one follows its
nature in seeing as infinite both itself and the objects that present
themselves to its view. On high, life, being pure, is not laborious.
How indeed could the best life imply fatigue? This life is wisdom
which, being perfectly complete, demands no research. It is primary
wisdom, which is not derived from any other, which is being, and which
is not an adventitious quality of intelligence; consequently there
is none superior to it. In the intelligible world absolute knowledge
accompanies intelligence, because the former accompanies the latter, as
Justice is enthroned by the side of Jupiter.[217] All the essences (or,
beings) in the intelligible Being resemble so many statues which are
visible by themselves, and the vision of which imparts an unspeakable
happiness to the spectators. The greatness and power of wisdom is
revealed in its containing all beings, and in its having produced them.
It is their origin; it is identical with them; it fuses with them;
for wisdom is very being. This we do not easily understand because by
sciences[218] we mean groups of demonstrations and propositions, which
is not true even of our sciences. However, if this point be contested,
let us drop this comparison with our sciences, and return to knowledge
itself, of which Plato[219] says that "it does not show itself
different in different objects." How can that be? Plato left that to
be explained by us, that we might show if we deserve to be called
his interpreters.[220] We shall undertake this interpretation by the
following observation.