This is what is beheld by Jupiter and by all those of us who share His
love for this revelation. The last thing which then appears is the
beauty that shines in its entirety in the essences (that is, beings),
as well as in those who participate therein. In the intelligible world
everything glows, and beautifies itself by shedding splendor on those
who gaze at it. Thus men who have climbed a high mountain on arriving
at the summit suddenly shine with the golden color reflected by the
ground whereon they stand. Now the color that bathes the intelligible
world is the beauty that blooms within its flower; or rather there
everything is color, everything is beauty, in its most intimate depths;
for beauty, in the intelligible world, is not a flower that blooms
only on the surface. Those who do not apprehend the totality of the
view appreciate the beauty of only that which meets their gaze; but
those who, like men intoxicated with this sweet nectar,[238] are, to
the very soul, penetrated by the beauty of the intelligible world,
are no longer mere spectators. No longer are the contemplated objects
and the contemplated soul two things exterior to each other. If the
soul's gaze is piercing enough, she finds the object she contemplates
within herself. Often she possesses it without knowing it. Then indeed
does she contemplate it as she would contemplate some exterior object,
because she seeks to see it in the same manner. Every time that one
looks at something as a spectacle, it is seen outside of oneself. Now
this spectacle of the intelligible world must be transferred within
oneself, and be contemplated as something with which one has fused, to
the point of identity. Thus a man, possessed by a divinity, whether
by Phoebus or by some Muse, would contemplate this divinity within
himself, if he were at all able to contemplate a divinity.