Itinerarium mentis in Deum

1. But since the two aforesaid steps, leading us to God through his footprints, by which he shines in all creatures, have led us up to this: that we re-enter to ourselves, namely into our mind, in which the divine image shines; hence it is that now, in the third place, entering into ourselves and leaving the outer court as it were outside, in the holies — namely the fore part of the tabernacle — we must strive to see God through a mirror; where, after the manner of the candlestick, the light of truth shines in the face of our mind, in which shines the image of the most blessed Trinity.

Enter, then, to thyself and see, for thy mind loves itself most fervently; nor could it love itself unless it knew itself; nor could it know itself unless it remembered itself, for we grasp nothing by understanding that is not present to our memory; and from this thou notest that thy soul has a threefold power, not with the eye of flesh but with the eye of reason. Consider, then, the operations and habits of these three powers, and thou shalt be able to see God through thyself as through an image — which is to see through a mirror in an enigma.

2. But the operation of memory is the retention and representation not only of present, corporeal, and temporal things, but also of successive, simple, and everlasting things. — For memory retains the past by recollection, the present by reception, the future by prevision. — It retains also simple things, such as the principles of continuous and discrete quantities, as point, instant, and unity, without which it is impossible to remember or think the things begun through them. — It retains nonetheless the principles of the sciences and dignities as everlasting and everlastingly, for it can never so forget them, while it uses reason, as not, when heard, to approve them and assent to them, not as perceiving them anew, but as recognizing them as inborn and familiar; as is plain if there be proposed to someone: Of anything, affirmation or negation; or: Every whole is greater than its part; or any other first principle which cannot be gainsaid before the inner reason.

From the first, the actual retention of all temporal things — past, present, and future — it has the effigy of eternity, whose indivisible present extends to all times. — From the second, it appears that it is not only formed from without by phantasms, but also from above by receiving and having in itself simple forms, which cannot enter through the gates of the senses and the fantasies of sensibles. — From the third, it is had that it has an unchangeable light present to itself, in which it remembers unchangeable truths. — And so through the operations of memory it appears that the soul itself is the image of God, and a likeness so present to itself and having him present, that it actually grasps him and through potency is capable of him and can be a partaker.

3. But the operation of the intellective power is in the perception by the intellect of terms, propositions, and inferences. — The intellect grasps the significations of terms when it comprehends what each thing is through definition. But definition must be made through higher things, and those must be defined through higher things, until one comes to the highest and most general, which if unknown, lower things cannot be understood definitively. Unless, then, it be known what being through itself is, the definition of any special substance cannot be fully known. Nor can being through itself be known unless it be known with its conditions, which are: one, true, good. But since being can be thought as diminished and as complete, as imperfect and as perfect, as being in potency and as being in act, as being in a certain respect and as being simply, as being in part and as being totally, as being transient and as being abiding, as being through another and as being through itself, as being mixed with non-being and as being pure, as being dependent and as being absolute, as being posterior and as being prior, as being changeable and as being unchangeable, as being simple and as being composite: since privations and defects can in no way be known except through positions, our intellect does not come, as fully resolving the understanding of any created being, unless it be aided by the understanding of the purest, most actual, most complete, and most absolute being — which is being simply and eternal, in which are the reasons of all things in their purity. For how would the intellect know that this is a defective and incomplete being, if it had no cognition of being without any defect? And so of the other aforesaid conditions.

But the intellect is said truly to comprehend the understanding of propositions when it knows with certainty that they are true; and this knowing is knowing that it cannot be deceived in that comprehension. For it knows that that truth cannot be otherwise; it knows, then, that that truth is unchangeable. But since our mind itself is changeable, it cannot see that truth shining unchangeably except through some light radiating wholly unchangeably, which cannot be a changeable creature. It knows, then, in that light which enlightens every man coming into this world, which is the true light and the Word in the beginning with God.

But our intellect truly perceives the understanding of an inference when it sees that the conclusion follows necessarily from the premises; which it sees not only in necessary terms, but also in contingent ones, as: if a man runs, a man moves. But this necessary relation it perceives not only in things that are, but also in things that are not. For just as, man existing, it follows: if a man runs, a man moves; so also, man not existing. Such necessity of inference, then, does not come from the existence of the thing in matter, for it is contingent, nor from the existence of the thing in the soul, for then it would be a fiction, if it were not in reality: it comes, then, from exemplarity in the eternal art, according to which things have aptitude and relation to one another according to the representation of that eternal art. Hence, as Augustine says on True Religion, the light of everyone who truly reasons is kindled by that truth and strives to arrive at it. — From which it manifestly appears that our intellect is joined to the eternal truth itself, since except through it teaching, it can grasp nothing true with certainty. Thou canst, then, see through thyself the truth that teaches thee, if concupiscences and phantasms do not impede thee and interpose themselves as clouds between thee and the ray of truth.

4. But the operation of the elective power is attended in counsel, judgment, and desire. — Counsel is in inquiring what is better, this or that. But better is said only by approach to the best; and approach is according to greater assimilation: no one, then, knows whether this is better than that, unless he knows that it is more assimilated to the best. But no one knows that a thing is more assimilated to another, unless he knows that other; for I do not know that this man is like Peter, unless I know Peter: to everyone who counsels, then, the notion of the highest good is necessarily impressed.

But certain judgment of counselable things is through some law. But no one judges with certainty through a law unless he is certain that that law is right, and that he must not judge it; but our mind judges of itself: since, then, it cannot judge of the law by which it judges, that law is higher than our mind, and through it it judges, according as it is impressed upon it. But nothing is higher than the human mind except he alone who made it: in judging, then, our deliberative power reaches to the divine laws, if it resolves with full analysis.

But desire is principally of that which most moves it. And what most moves is most loved; and what is most loved is to be blessed; but to be blessed is not had except through the best and the ultimate end: the human desire, then, appetizes nothing except because it is the highest good, or because it is toward it, or because it has some effigy of it. So great is the force of the highest good, that nothing can be loved by a creature except through desire of it — which is then deceived and errs when it accepts the effigy and simulacrum for the truth.

See, then, how the soul is near to God, and how memory leads to eternity, understanding to truth, the elective power to the highest goodness, according to their operations.

5. But according to the order and origin and habit of these powers, it leads to the most blessed Trinity itself. — For from memory is born understanding as its offspring, for we then understand when the likeness which is in memory rebounds in the edge of the intellect, which is nothing else than the word; from memory and understanding is breathed love as the bond of both. These three — the generating mind, the word, and love — are in the soul as to memory, understanding, and will, which are consubstantial, co-equal, and co-eval, mutually indwelling one another by circumincession. If, then, God is a perfect spirit, he has memory, understanding, and will, and has also the begotten Word and the breathed Love, which are necessarily distinguished, since one is produced from the other, not essentially, not accidentally, therefore personally.

While, then, the mind considers itself, through itself as through a mirror it rises to speculate the blessed Trinity — of the Father, the Word, and Love — three co-eternal, co-equal, and consubstantial persons, so that each is in each of the others, yet one is not the other, but the three themselves are one God.

6. To this speculation, which the soul has of its threefold and one beginning through the trinity of its powers, by which it is the image of God, it is aided by the lights of the sciences, which perfect and inform it and represent the most blessed Trinity in a threefold way. — For all philosophy is either natural, or rational, or moral. The first treats of the cause of being, and therefore leads to the power of the Father; the second of the reason of understanding, and therefore leads to the wisdom of the Word; the third of the order of living, and therefore leads to the goodness of the Holy Spirit.

Again, the first is divided into metaphysics, mathematics, and physics. And the first is of the essences of things, the second of numbers and figures, the third of diffusing natures, powers, and operations. And therefore the first leads to the first beginning, the Father, the second to his image, the Son, the third to the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The second is divided into grammar, which makes powerful for expressing; logic, which makes perspicacious for arguing; rhetoric, which makes apt for persuading or moving. And this likewise insinuates the mystery of the most blessed Trinity itself.

The third is divided into monastic, domestic, and political [ethics]. And therefore the first insinuates the innascibility of the first beginning, the second the familiarity of the Son, the third the liberality of the Holy Spirit.

7. But all these sciences have certain and infallible rules as lights and rays descending from the eternal law into our mind. And therefore our mind, irradiated and suffused with so many splendors, unless it be blind, can be led through itself to contemplate that eternal light. But the irradiation and consideration of this light suspends the wise in wonder, and contrariwise the unwise, who do not believe so as to understand, it leads to perturbation, that the prophetic word may be fulfilled: Thou enlightening wonderfully from the eternal mountains, all the foolish of heart were troubled.