11. The first Principle is infinite because He is one, and nothing in
Him could be limited by anything whatever. Being one, He is not subject
to measure or number. He is limited neither by others nor by Himself,
since He would thus be double. Since He has neither parts nor form,
He has no figure. Not by mortal eyes therefore must you seek to grasp
this principle such as reason conceives of Him. Do not imagine that He
could be seen in the way that would be imagined by a man who believes
that everything is perceived by the senses, and thus annihilate the
principle which is the supreme reality. The things to which the
common people attribute reality do not possess it; for that which has
extension has less reality (than that which has no extension); now the
First is the principle of existence, and is even superior to "being."
You must therefore admit the contrary of that which is asserted by
those commonplace persons; otherwise, you will be deprived of the
divinity. You would resemble such men as in the sacred festivals gorge
themselves with the foods from which one should abstain on approaching
the divinities, and who, regarding this enjoyment as more certain than
the contemplation of the divinity whose festival is being celebrated,
depart without having participated in the mysteries. Indeed as the
divinity does not reveal Himself in these mysteries, these gross men
doubt His existence, because they consider real only what is visible
by the physical eyes. Thus people who would spend their whole life in
slumber would consider as certain and real the things they would see in
their dreams; if they were to be waked and forced to open their eyes,
they would place no credence in the testimony of their eyes, and would
plunge themselves again into their somnolence.
THE GOOD IS SUPERIOR TO THE BEAUTIFUL, AND IS COGNIZED BY THE MIND AS
ITS SENSE.
12. We should not seek to perceive an object otherwise than by the
faculty that is suitable to cognize it. Thus colors are perceived by
the eyes, sounds by the ears, and other qualities by other senses.
Analogy would assign to intelligence its proper function, so that
thinking should not be identified with seeing and hearing. To act
otherwise would be to resemble a man who would try to perceive colors
by the ears, and who would deny the existence of sounds because he
could not see them. We must never forget that men have forgotten the
Principle which from the beginning until this day has excited their
desires and wishes. Indeed all things aspire to the first Principle,
tend thither by a natural necessity, and seem to divine that they
could not exist without Him. The notion of the beautiful is given only
to souls that are awake, and that already possess some knowledge;
at sight of Him they are simultaneously dazed with His sublimity,
and spurred on by love.[270] From His very origin, on the contrary,
the Good excites in us an innate desire; He is present with us even
in sleep; His view never dazes us with stupor, because He is always
with us. Enjoyment of His presence demands neither reminiscence nor
attention, because one is not deprived thereof even in sleep. When the
love of the beautiful overwhelms us, it causes us anxieties, because
the sight of the beautiful makes us desire it. As the love excited
by the beautiful is only secondary, and as it exists only in such
persons as possess already some knowledge, the beautiful evidently
occupies only the second rank. On the contrary, the desire of the Good
is more original, and demands no preliminary knowledge. That surely
demonstrates that the Good is anterior and superior to the beautiful.
Besides, all men are satisfied as soon as they possess the Good; they
consider that they have reached their goal. But not all think that the
beautiful suffices them; they think that the beautiful is beautiful
for itself, rather than for them; as the beauty of an individual is
an advantage only for himself. Last, the greater number of people are
satisfied with seeming beautiful, even if they are not so in reality;
but they are not satisfied with seeming to possess the Good, which
they desire to possess in reality. Indeed, all desire to have that
which occupies the front rank; but they struggle, they engage in
rivalry about the beautiful in the opinion that it is born just as
they are (from development of circumstances). They resemble a person
who would claim equality with another person who holds the first rank
after the king, because both depend from the king; such a person does
not realize that though both are subject to the king, yet there is a
great difference in hierarchical rank between them[271]; the cause of
this error is that both participate in a same principle, that the One
is superior to both of them, and that lastly the Good has no need of
the beautiful, while the beautiful is in need of the Good.[272] The
Good is sweet, calm, and full of delights; we enjoy it at will. On the
contrary, the beautiful strikes the soul with amazement, agitates it,
and mingles pains with pleasures. In spite of ourselves we are thereby
often separated from the Good, like a beloved object separates a son
from the father. The Good is more ancient than the beautiful, not in
time, but in reality; besides, it exerts superior power, because it is
unlimited. That which is inferior to it, possesses only an inferior and
dependent power, instead of having a limitless power (as belongs to
Intelligence, which is inferior to the Good). The Divinity therefore
is master of the power which is inferior to His own; He has no need of
things that are begotten; for it is from Him that all their contents
are derived. Besides, He had no need of begetting; He still is such as
He was before; nothing would have been changed for Him if He had not
begotten; if it had been possible for other things to receive existence
(independently of Himself) He would not have opposed it through
jealousy. It is now no longer possible for anything to be begotten,
for the divinity has begotten all that He could beget. Nor is He the
universality of things, for thus He would stand in need of them. Raised
above all things, He has been able to beget them, and to permit them to
exist for themselves by dominating all.