Chapter IV
RICHARD OF ST. VICTOR
philosophy it would also be acceptable to us. But our theologians know better than worldly philosophers how to use these things.
Finally, hear what is acceptable to us in our work and what ought justly to be acceptable to you in the gilding of our ark. First: that it is placed upon wood; second: that it is placed underneath the propitiatory; third: that it is placed between the two.
It is placed over wood so that it may stand out in relief and hide for you the concupiscence of the eyes, and you may have a covering for your eyes lest perchance your eyes may be uncovered and see vanity.
It is placed underneath the propitiatory so that it may be lifted up to higher things and so that knowledge of lower things may serve higher things and sharpen by means of much exercise the eye of the mind for comprehending higher things.
It is placed between the propitiatory and the wood so that it may separate them and stop the human soul from love of lower things lest perchance after being cast down from sublime things, drawn away by its own concupiscence from the place of pleasures and enticed after its own concupiscence, the soul should go and become a wanderer and a fugitive upon the earth.
Chapter IV How it differs from and how much it rises above the third We have just compared the fourth stage of contemplation with the first and second stages; now if it seems right, it should be compared with the third stage. We can probably do this better if we turn our attention to the representation of each of these. And so, turning attention to the representation of both, namely the golden propitiatory and the golden crown, I discover many differences between them.
I pass over in silence the fact that the crown is fastened to wood, for the third stage of contemplation is supported by imagination, as has been shown above, while the fourth stage
(the one about which we speak here) strives zealously to tread underfoot all imagination by the loftiness of its investigation. For this reason, according to the expression of similitude, our propitiatory ought neither to adhere to wood nor to be attached to wood.
THE MYSTICAL ARK
also pass over the fact that the crown, which stands, rises up into the heights, while the propitiatory, which lies down, expands itself round about in greater amplitude because through pleasure in the sweetness of this contemplation and sweetness in the pleasure, the soul finds for the first time a place of great security and a solitary place of marvelous tranquillity for itself. Such unaccustomed and unexperienced delight gathers the longing of the heart to quiet and sets it in order for peace. Now, however, I direct your attention to the size of both, and in this respect I do not pass over the difference between them without careful consideration. For behold what I am unable to deny: They do not differ at all in the quality of the material, but there is much in every way in which they differ from each other in the quantity of the material. Each is made out of gold, because each is engaged in reasoning. But the small amount of gold from which the crown is made is exceedingly small if it is compared with the size of the propitiatory. In fact the measurement of the propitiatory in length as well as in width is defined with great care by divine teaching. Divine teaching is completely silent, however, concerning the size of the crown. No measurement of it is given, as if the divine word were to hint silently concerning the making of the crown, that he who is able to understand will understand and any person will make as much as he is able to make.
I think that if its height could have extended itself up to a half cubit, the divine word would not have passed by this in complete silence. But the Lord who teaches a person knowledge knew His creation and could not completely conceal from him how much a lack of gold supports error in this human work and how the limitation of human mental sense constricts him in the watchtower of this contemplation. For now one abounds with the gold of wisdom in this place where he lacks every instrument with which these things ought to be understood—or if he possesses an instrument it is dull. What sort of instrument, I ask, will a person find in order to comprehend that peace which surpasses all sense? By which sense, I ask, does he comprehend what eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has arisen in the heart of man? (1 Cor. 2:9; Isa. 64:4). For when Paul, or a person similar to Paul, is raised up above himself and snatched up to the third heaven, certainly he does not investigate by his own spirit those hidden things about which no person is allowed to speak, but