(formas) or Natures (species), in order to make it clear that we
this not only by travelling to deepen his wisdom but by the reference he makes to this fact in his books. We must not suppose, therefore, that these men, if any did exist, were ignorant of the Ideas, even though they may, perhaps, have called them by another name. But enough has been said so far about the name. Let us see about the reality, which deserves our utmost thought and consideration, and, allowing freedom for the use of words, let each one call the thing he knows by whatever name he chooses.
2. Accordingly, we may call the Ideas in Latin, either Forms (formas) or Natures (species), in order to make it clear that we are translating word for word. Now if. we call them Reasons (rationes) , then, of course, we are departing from the strict meaning of the term, since, in Greek, the Reasons are called Adyou not Ideas. Nevertheless, a person who chooses to employ this term will not find himself in disagreement about the reality itself. Actually, the Ideas are Original Forms (principales formae) or fixed and changeless patterns of things which have not been fashioned from the Forms themselves and consequently, being eternal and always the same, are contained in the Divine Mind. And while these themselves neither come to be nor cease to exist, it is maintained that, in accordance with them, everything is fashioned capable of having a beginning and end, as well as whatever actually comes into, or goes out of, existence.
They insist that a soul can not contemplate these Forms unless it is rational and then, only by that part of it which accounts for its excellence, namely, by the mind itself and reason, by a kind of facial view, so to speak, or by its own inner and spiritual eye. They further assert that not even every kind of rational soul is fit for such a vision but only one that is holy and pure, namely, the soul that keeps this eye which sees such realities, pure and serene and akin to the things it is intent upon beholding.
What man, religiously disposed and imbued with true religion, would dare deny this vision, even though he were still incapable of it? On the contrary, would he not proclaim that all things in existence have been created by God, their Cause—all things, that is, whose capacity for existence is determined in kind by their own specific nature; and that it is by this Cause that all living things have their life, and that the entire conservation of things as well as the very order whereby changing realities accomplish their periodic courses in definite directions, are maintained and governed by the laws of the Most-High God?
Once this is established and granted, who can dare to declare that God has made everything in an irrational manner? If one can not really say or believe such a thing, then it follows that all things have been fashioned according to an intelligible principle (ratione) . Neither has man been made by the same intelligible principle as the horse, since this is an absurd supposition. Each thing, therefore, has been created according to its own intellectual principle. But where are we to suppose that these intelligible principles exist, if not in the very Mind of the Creator? He was not fixing His gaze upon anything located outside Himself to serve as a model when He made the things he created, for such a view is blasphemous. But if the intelligible principles of things created, and of those to be created; are contained in the Divine Mind and if only the eternal and changeless can exist there—Plato called these Original Exemplars the Ideas—then not only are these realities
Ideas but they are themselves true, seeing that they are eternal and, as such, remain unchangeable in their existence. It is by participating in these Ideas that a thing comes to exist, whatever its mode of being.
Ameng the things made by God, the rational soul stands superior to all and, as long as it is undefiled, is close to God. To the degree that it is united to Him by charity, by so much does it contemplate these intelligible principles (rationes) through whose vision it is made supremely happy, being bathed, so to speak, and illumined by Him with a spiritual light. Its contemplation is not through the eyes of the body but through the soul's highest power which accounts for its excellence. As we have observed, these intelligible principles may be called either Ideas or Forms or Natures or Reasons. The choice of a name is allowed the many, but the perception of the reality itself is granted to very few. ie TRINITY *« BOOK XII *k CHAPTER 14 What is the difference between wisdom and knowledge. The worship of God is the love of Him. How the intellectual cognizance of eternal things comes to pass through wisdom. 21. For knowledge also has its own good measure, if that in it which puffs up, or is wont to puff up, is conquered by love of eternal things, which does not puff up but, as we know, edifieth. (1 Cor. 8:1) Certainly without knowledge the virtues themselves, by which one lives rightly, cannot be possessed, by which this miserable life may be so governed, that we may attain to that eternal life which is truly blessed.