Monologion: Chapter 11/Chapter 12
MONOLOGION
reason can be as similar to the thing, whether it is yet to exist or already exists.
It therefore quite rightly seems that such an utterance of things not only existed in the supreme substance before the things existed, in order that through it they might be made, but also exists in him now that they have been made, in order that through it they might be known.
Chapter 11 That nonetheless there is much dissimilarity in this comparison So it has been established that the supreme substance first said (as it were) all of creation in himself and then created it in accordance with and through that innermost utterance of his, in the way that a craftsman first conceives in his mind what he afterwards makes into a completed work in accordance with the conception of his mind. Nonetheless, I see much dissimilarity in this comparison. After all, the supreme substance collected nothing at all from any other source from which he would either assemble within himself the form of the things he was going to make or bring it about that the things themselves exist.
The craftsman, by contrast, cannot even imagine a physical object and thus conceive it in his mind unless he has somehow already come to know the object, either as a whole all at once or part by part through various things; nor can he complete the work that he has conceived in his mind if he lacks either the material or something without which the planned work cannot be made.
For although a man could invent an animal the likes of which never existed, either by thinking it or by painting it, he could do this only by putting together parts stored in his memory from things he knew at another time.
Therefore, the creating substance's inward utterance of the work he is going to make differs from that of the craftsman in this respect: the Creator's utterance was not collected from or assisted by some other source;rather,as the first and sole cause it was sufficient for its Artisan to bring his work to completion.
By contrast, the craftsman's utterance is neither the first nor the sole cause, and it is not sufficient for him even to get his work started. So the things that are created through the Creator's utterance are nothing at all but what they are through his utterance, whereas the things that are made through the craftsman's utterance would not be anything at all unless they were something other than what they are through his utterance.
Chapter 12 That the utterance of the supreme essence is the supreme essence Now since by the teaching of reason it is equally certain that, whatever the supreme substance made, he did not make it through anything other than