Monologion: Chapter 36/Chapter 37
MONOLOGION
or non-living, or whatever it is in itself —is, in him, life and truth.47 And since for the supreme spirit there is no difference between knowing and understanding or uttering, he must know all the things he knows in the same way that he utters or understands them. Therefore, just as all things are life and truth in his Word, so are they also in his knowledge.
Chapter 36 In what an incomprehensible way he utters or knows the things he made
From this it can be most clearly comprehended that no human knowledge can comprehend how that spirit utters or knows the things that were made. For no one doubts that created substances exist in themselves quite differently from how they exist in our knowledge. After all, in themselves they exist through their own essence, whereas in our knowledge it is not their essences but their likenesses that exist. So it follows that they exist more truly in themselves than in our knowledge to the extent that they exist more truly somewhere through their essence than through their likeness. And it is also clear that every created substance exists more truly in the Word, that is, in the understanding of the Creator,than in itself,to the extent that the creating essence exists more truly than a created essence. So if our knowledge is as much surpassed by created substances as their likeness falls short of their essence,48 how will the human mind understand what that utterance and that knowledge are like, since they are far higher and truer than created substances?
Chapter 37 That whatever he is with respect to creation, his Word is also; nevertheless, the two of them together are not so in more than one way
Now since the arguments above clearly show that the supreme spirit made all things through his Word, did not the Word himself also make all things? For since he is consubstantial with him whose Word he is, he must be the supreme essence. But there is only one supreme essence, who is the only Creator and only origin of all created things. For he alone made all things from nothing, not through another, but through himself. So whatever the supreme spirit
47 John 1: 3–4, as Anselm read it (following Augustine), says,"All things were made through him [i.e., the Word], and without him was nothing made. That which was made is, in him, life."
48 Anselm explains in Chapter 62 that what is present in our minds when we think of some external object is not the thing itself (its essence) but merely an image of the thing (its likeness).