Cap. 2
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/6/d/2/q/bon-itin-c2
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### Ch. II. *On the speculation of God in his vestiges in this sensible world.*

1. But since it happens, with respect to the mirror of sensible things, not only that God is contemplated *through them* as through vestiges, but also *in them*, inasmuch as he is in them by *essence*, by *power* and by *presence*; and to consider this is higher than the preceding: therefore a consideration of this sort holds the second place, as the second step of contemplation, by which we ought
to be led by the hand to contemplating God in all creatures, which enter into our mind through the bodily senses.

2. It is therefore to be noted that this world, which is called the *macrocosm*, enters into our soul, which is called the *lesser world*, through the gates of the five senses, according to the *apprehension*, the *delectation* and the *adjudication* of sensible things themselves. — Which is clear thus: because in it some things are *generating*, some *generated*, some *governing* these and those. The *generating* are simple bodies, namely the celestial bodies and the four elements. For from the elements, by the power of the light that reconciles the contrariety of the elements in compounds, there come to be generated and produced whatever things are generated and produced through the operation of a natural power. — The *generated* are bodies composed out of the elements, such as minerals, vegetables, sensible things and human bodies. — The things *ruling* these and those are spiritual substances, whether *wholly conjoined*, as are the souls of brutes, or *conjoined separably*, as are rational spirits, or *wholly separate*, as are the celestial spirits, whom the philosophers call *Intelligences* and we call *Angels*. To these, according to the philosophers, it belongs to move the celestial bodies, and through this the *administration of the universe* is attributed to them, since they receive from the first cause, namely God, an influence of power which they pour back according to the work of governance, which regards the natural subsistence of things. According to the theologians, however, there is attributed to the same the rule of the universe according to the command of the most high God as regards the *works of restoration*, according to which they are called *ministering spirits, sent for them who shall receive the inheritance of salvation*.

3. Man therefore, who is called the *lesser world*, has five senses as five gates, through which the knowledge of all things that are in the sensible world enters into his soul. For through *sight* there enter lofty and luminous bodies and the rest that are coloured; through *touch*, solid and earthy bodies; while through the three *intermediate senses* there enter intermediate things, as through *taste* watery things, through *hearing* airy things, through *smell* vaporous things, which have something of a humid nature, something of an airy, something of a fiery or hot, as appears in the smoke resolved out of aromatic substances.

There enter therefore through these gates both simple bodies and also composite ones mixed out of these. But since by sense we perceive not only these *particular sensibles*, which are light, sound, odour, savour and the four *primary qualities* which touch apprehends; but also the *common sensibles*, which are number, magnitude, figure, rest and motion; and « everything that is moved is moved by another », and certain things are moved and come to rest of themselves, as are animals: while through these five senses we apprehend the *motion* of bodies, we are led by the hand to a knowledge of spiritual movers, as through an effect into a knowledge of causes.

4. This whole sensible world therefore enters, as regards the three kinds of things, into the human soul through *apprehension*. Now these exterior sensible things are those which first go into the soul through the gates of the five senses; they enter, I say, not through their substances, but through their likenesses, first generated in the medium, and from the medium in the organ, and from the exterior organ in the interior, and from this into the apprehensive power; and thus the generation of the species in the medium, and from the medium in the organ, and the conversion of the apprehensive power upon it, makes the *apprehension* of all those things which the soul apprehends outwardly.

5. Upon this apprehension, if it be of a fitting thing, there follows *delectation*. Now the sense is delighted in an object perceived through an abstracted likeness, either by reason of *comeliness*, as in sight, or by reason of *sweetness*, as in smell and hearing, or by reason of *wholesomeness*, as in taste and touch, speaking by appropriation. But every delight is by reason of proportionality. Yet since the species holds the account of *form*, of *power* and of *operation*, according as it has respect to the principle from which it flows, to the medium through which it passes, and to the term upon which it acts; therefore proportionality is attended to either in the likeness, according as it holds the account of *species or form*, and thus it is called *comeliness*, because « beauty is nothing other than numerous equality », or « a certain arrangement of the parts together with sweetness of colour ». Or proportionality is attended to inasmuch as it holds the account of *potency or power*, and thus it is called *sweetness*, when the acting power does not disproportionately exceed the recipient; because sense is grieved by extremes and delighted in what is intermediate. Or it is attended to inasmuch as it holds the account of *efficacy and impression*, which is then proportional when the agent by impressing fills up the need of the patient, and this is *to preserve and nourish it*, which appears most of all in taste and touch. And thus through *delectation* exterior delightful things, according to the threefold account of delighting, enter through a likeness into the soul.

6. After this apprehension and delectation there comes to be *adjudication*, by which it is adjudged not only whether this be white or black, since this pertains to the *particular* sense; not only whether it be wholesome or harmful, since this pertains to the *interior* sense; but also that by which it is adjudged and an account is rendered *why* this delights; and in this act inquiry is made concerning the *account* of the delight which is perceived in the sense from the object. And this is when the *account* of the beautiful, the sweet and the wholesome is sought; and it is found that this is a *proportion of equality*. Now the account of equality is the same in great things and in small, nor is it extended by dimensions, nor does it succeed or pass away with things that pass, nor is it altered by motions. It abstracts therefore from place, from time and from motion, and through this it is unchangeable, uncircumscribable, unterminable and wholly spiritual. *Adjudication* therefore is an action which makes the sensible species, sensibly received through the senses, go inward by purifying and abstracting it into the intellective power. And thus this whole world has to go inward into the human soul through the gates of the senses according to the three operations aforesaid.

7. Now all these things are vestiges, in which we can speculate upon our God. — For since the species *apprehended* is a likeness generated in the medium and thereafter impressed upon the organ itself, and through that impression leads into its own principle, namely into the object to be known; it manifestly intimates that that eternal light generates out of itself a likeness or splendour coequal, consubstantial and coeternal; and that he who is *the image of the invisible God* and *the brightness of his glory and the figure of his substance*, who is everywhere by his first generation, as an object generates its likeness in the whole medium, is united by the grace of union — as the species is to the bodily organ — to an individual of rational nature, that through that union he might lead us back to the Father as to the fontal principle and object. If therefore all knowable things have it to generate their own species, they manifestly proclaim that in them, as in mirrors, there can be seen the eternal generation of the Word, the Image and the Son, eternally emanating from God the Father.

8. According to this mode the species *delighting* as *comely*, *sweet* and *wholesome* intimates that in that first species there is the first *comeliness*, *sweetness* and *wholesomeness*, in which is the highest *proportionality* and equality to the one generating; in which is *power*, gliding in not through a phantasm, but through the truth of apprehension; in which is an *impression* preserving and sufficing and expelling every need of the one apprehending. If therefore « delight is the conjoining of the fitting with the fitting »; and the likeness of God alone holds the account of the supremely comely, sweet and wholesome; and it is united according to *truth* and according to *intimacy* and according to the *fulness* that fills up every capacity: it can manifestly be seen that in God alone is fontal and true *delight*, and that from all delights we are led by the hand to seek after it.

9. In a more excellent and more immediate mode, however, *adjudication* leads us into the eternal truth, to be speculated upon more certainly. For if adjudication has to come about through an account *abstracting* from place, from time and from mutability, and through this from dimension, from succession and from transmutation, through an account *unchangeable* and *uncircumscribable* and *unterminable*; and nothing is wholly *unchangeable*, *uncircumscribable* and *unterminable* except what is eternal; and everything that is eter-
nal is God, or is in God: if therefore all things whatsoever that we adjudge more certainly we adjudge through an account of this sort; it is clear that he himself is *the account of all things* and the *infallible rule* and the *light of truth*, in which all things shine back infallibly, indelibly, indubitably, irrefragably, unadjudicably, unchangeably, uncoarctably, unterminably, indivisibly and intellectually. And therefore those laws, by which we judge with certitude concerning all sensible things coming into our consideration; since they are infallible and indubitable to the *intellect of the one apprehending*, are indelible from the *memory of the one recollecting* as always present, are irrefragable and unadjudicable to the *intellect of the one judging*, because, as Augustine says, « no one judges concerning them, but through them »: it is necessary that they be unchangeable and incorruptible as necessary, uncoarctable as uncircumscribed, unterminable as eternal, and through this indivisible as intellectual and incorporeal, not made, but uncreated, existing eternally in the eternal art, from which, through which and according to which all beautiful things are formed; and therefore they cannot be judged with certitude except through that art which was not only the form *producing* all things, but also *conserving* and *distinguishing* all things, as the being that holds the form in all things and the rule that directs, and through which our mind adjudges all things that enter into it through the senses.

10. Now this speculation is *dilated* according to the consideration of the seven differences of *numbers*, by which as by seven steps one ascends into God, according as Augustine shows in the book *On True Religion* and in the sixth book of the *Music*, where he assigns the differences of numbers ascending step by step from these sensible things up to the Maker of all, so that in all things God may be seen.

For he says that there are numbers in bodies and most of all in sounds and voices, and these he calls *sounding*; numbers abstracted from these and received in our senses, and these he calls *encountering*; numbers proceeding from the soul into the body, as appears in gesticulations and dances, and these he calls *advancing*; numbers in the delights of the senses from the conversion of the intention upon the species received, and these he calls *sensual*; numbers retained in the memory, and these he calls *memorial*; numbers also, through which we judge concerning all these, and these he calls *judicial*, which, as has been said, are necessarily above the mind as infallible and unadjudicable. From these, however, there are impressed upon our minds the *artificial* numbers, which nevertheless Augustine does not enumerate among those steps, because they are connected with the *judicial*; and from these there flow the *advancing* numbers, out of which are created the numerous forms *of things made by art*, so that from the highest through the middle there may be made an ordered descent to the lowest. To these also we ascend step by step from the *sounding* numbers, by the mediation of the *encountering*, the *sensual* and the *memorial*.

Since therefore all things are *beautiful* and in some manner *delightful*; and *beauty* and *delight* are not apart from *proportion*; and *proportion* is first in numbers: it is necessary that all things be numerous; and through this « number is the foremost exemplar in the mind of the Creator », and in things the foremost vestige leading into Wisdom. And since this is most evident of all and most near to God, it leads most nearly into God, as it were through seven differences, and makes him to be known in all corporeal and sensible things, while we *apprehend* what is numerous, are *delighted* in numerous proportions, and *judge* irrefragably through the laws of numerous proportions.

11. From these two first steps, by which we are led by the hand to speculate upon God in his vestiges, as it were after the manner of the two wings descending about the feet, we can gather that all the creatures of this sensible world lead the mind of one contemplating and wise into the eternal God, for the reason that they are the *shadows*, the *resonances* and the *pictures* of that first principle most powerful, most wise and best, of that eternal origin, light and fulness, of that art, I say, efficient, exemplifying and ordering; they are the *vestiges*, the *simulacra* and the *spectacles* set before us for beholding God, and the *signs* divinely given; which, I say, are *exemplars* or rather *exemplates*, set before minds as yet rude and sensible, that through the sensible things which they see they may be carried over to the intelligible things which they do not see, as through signs to the things signified.

12. Now creatures of this sort of this sensible world signify *the invisible things of God*, partly because God
is the *origin*, the *exemplar* and the *end* of every creature, and every effect is a sign of its cause, and the exemplate of its exemplar, and the way to the end to which it leads; partly from their *proper representation*; partly from *prophetic prefiguration*; partly from *angelic operation*; partly from *institution* superadded. For every creature is by *nature* a certain effigy and likeness of that eternal wisdom, but *especially* that which in the book of Scripture has been taken up through the *spirit of prophecy* for the prefiguration of spiritual things; and *more especially* those creatures in whose effigy God willed to appear by *angelic ministry*; but *most especially* that which he willed to *institute* for signifying, which holds not only the account of a *sign* according to the common name, but also that of a *Sacrament*.

13. From all which it is gathered that *the invisible things of God, from the creation of the world, being understood by the things that are made, are clearly seen; so that* they who are unwilling to advert to these things and to know, bless and love God in them all *are inexcusable*, while they are unwilling to be carried over *from darkness into the marvellous light of God*. *But thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord*, who has *called us out of darkness into his marvellous light*, while through these lights given outwardly we are disposed to re-enter into the mirror of our mind, in which the divine things shine back.

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