26. The Latin word is Deus, four letters and two syllables. (continued)
TRACTATE 1 49 nipotent, infinite, everywhere present, everywhere whole, nowhere confined? When you think of these attributes, this is the word about God in your heart.
(3) But is this that sound which consists of three letters and one syllable? Therefore what other things are said and pass away, these are sounds, these are letters, these are syllables. This word which sounds forth passes away. But what the sound has signified and what is present in the thought of the one who said it and in the understanding of the one who heard it, this remains when the sounds have passed away.
9. Direct your attention again to that word. If you can have a word in your heart, as if a design born in your mind, so that your mind gives birth to a design, the design may be present there, an offspring of your mind, so to speak, a son of your heart. For the heart first begets a design in order for you to construct some building, to erect some massive structure upon the land.
(2) The design has already been born, and yet the work is unfinished. You see what you are going to do, but another one does not admire it except when you have made and built the huge structure and brought the building to its finish and completion. Men look at a fine building and admire the design of the builder; they are amazed at what they see and delight in what they do not see, for who is there who can see a design? So, if human design is praised because of some great building, do you wish to see what a design of God is the Lord Jesus Christ, that is, the Word of God?
(3) Look at the structure of the universe: see what was made by the Word and then you will recognize what the nature of the Word is. Look at these two bodies of the world, the sky and the earth. Who can describe in words the splendor of the sky? Who can describe in words the abundance of the earth? Who can adequately praise the variation of seasons? Who can adequately praise the power of seeds? You see what I pass over in silence for fear that if I recount particulars for too long, I may perhaps mention fewer things than you can think of yourselves. From this structure, then, observe what the nature of the Word is through which it was made. And it was not the