Chapter XVI
BOOK THREE OF THE TRINITY
persons who mutually love embrace each other with supreme longing and take supreme delight in each other's love, then the supreme joy of the first is in intimate love of the second, and conversely the excellent joy of the second is in love of the first. As long as only the first is loved by the second, he alone seems to possess the delights of his excellent sweetness.
Similarly, as long as the second does not have someone who shares in love for a third,* he lacks the sharing of excellent joy. In order that both may be able to share delights of that kind, it is necessary for them to have someone who shares in love for a third.
When those who love mutually are of such great benevolence that, as we have said, they wish every perfection to be shared, then it is necessary, as has been said, that each with equal desire and for a similar reason seek out someone with whom to share love, and that each devotedly possess such a one, according to the fullness of his power.
Chapter XVI Thatfullness ofpower and wisdom seems to be able to exist in a single person
There usually is this special difference between the delights of charity and those of wisdom: The delights of wisdom are capable of and are accustomed to be drawn from one's own heart, while the intimate delights of charity are drawn from the heart of another.
Whoever loves intimately and craves to be so loved is made anxious rather than delighted when he thirsts if he does not draw from his beloved's heart the sweetness of love for which he thirsts. But the delights of wisdom delight much more when they are derived from one's own heart. Nothing is defined contrary to nature if fullness of wisdom is said to be able to subsist in a single person. For it seems that even if there were only one person in Divinity, nevertheless he could have fullness of wisdom. However, fullness of wisdom can- *We have here translated condilectus as "someone who shares in love for a third." The word, which seems to have been Richard's own invention, represents a crucial element in Richard's Trinitarian theology and in his subtle and penetrating understanding of the nature of true charity, divine or human. Cf. his own detailed description of the meaning of the term in Chapter XIX.
RICHARD OF ST. VICTOR
not exist without fullness of power, just as fullness of power cannot exist without fullness of wisdom. For without doubt he would not have the fullness of wisdom who would not know how he could obtain what he lacked in omnipotence. Conversely, without doubt he who could unwillingly suffer some defect of wisdom would lack fullness of power. For fullness of one cannot be had without fullness of the other. Therefore it follows that we understand the same thing concerning power that we have said concerning wisdom. For if omnipotence cannot be lacking where there is fullness of wisdom, it certainly seems that fullness of power as well as fullness of wisdom can be possessed by a single person.
Chapter XVH That thefulfillment ofhappiness does not seem to be able to subsist without a pair ofpersons The fulfillment of true and supreme happiness does not seem to be able to subsist in any way without a pair of persons. This is clearer than the light of day from those things which we have said above. For if there were only one person in that true Divinity, He certainly would not have anyone to whom He might give supreme love, nor anyone who might return supreme love to Him. Indeed, whence would abound for him those supremely sweet delights which, as has been said, are accustomed to be drawn from the heart of another rather than from one's own heart?
For, as we have already said, nothing is sweeter than these delights; nothing is more delightful; nothing is more healthful, more excellent or more pleasurable than this sweetness. Therefore, how could divine happiness, which always lacked supreme sweetness and supreme delight, obtain an abundance of complete fullness? And so happiness demands a pair of persons, as has been said, in order that it can subsist with the integrity of all fullness.