Míguez
10. No le veáis, pues, por intermedio de las otras cosas; porque, en ese caso, veréis sólo su huella, pero no a él mismo. Pensad, por tanto, en lo que pueda ser y tomadle en sí mismo, en su ser puro, sin mezcla de ninguna otra cosa; que todas las cosas participan de El, sin que ninguna, en cambio, lo posea. Nada, ciertamente, debe parecerse a El, sin embargo, conviene que algo se le parezca. Pero, ¿quién podría aprehender a un tiempo todo su poder? Porque, si aprehendiese a la vez en su totalidad, ¿en qué podría diferenciarse de El? Convengamos en que lo aprehende por partes.
Vuestra intuición es, realmente, una intuición de conjunto, pero no podéis darla a conocer por entero, salvo que seáis Inteligencia en acto. Si llegáis hasta El, El mismo se escapará de vosotros, o mejor, vosotros escaparéis de El. Cuando le veis, le veis todo entero; cuando pensáis en El, sea cual el recuerdo que tengáis de El, pensáis que es el Bien, porque es la potencia que produce la vida razonable e intelectual. De El provienen la vida y la inteligencia, porque (el principio) de la esencia y del ser y porque es uno, simple y también el primero, ya que es principio. De El provienen todas las cosas: así, el primer movimiento, que no da en El, y el reposo, del que no tiene necesidad; porque El no se mueve ni está en reposo. Ya que no tiene donde descansar ni lugar al que moverse, pues, ¿alrededor de qué podría moverse, hacia qué y en qué, si es realmente el primero? No es tampoco nada finito, porque ¿qué es lo que podría limitarle? Ni es nada infinito, al menos en el sentido de la magnitud, porque ¿hacía dónde debería avanzar? ¿Y qué podría resultar de esto, si de nada tiene necesidad? Sin embargo, su potencia posee la infinitud, porque nunca podría echar nada de menos, ya que los seres a los que nada falta existen gracias a El.
Bouillet
X. Ne cherche pas à voir ce principe à l’aide des autres choses; sinon, au lieu de le voir lui-même, tu ne verras que son image. Essaie plutôt de concevoir ce qu’est le principe qu’il faut saisir en lui-même, qui est pur et sans aucun mélange, parce que tous les êtres en participent sans qu’aucun le possède. Aucune autre chose en effet ne saurait
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être telle ; il faut cependant qu’il y ait une telle chose. Qui pourrait embrasser à la fois dans sa totalité la puissance de ce principe ? Si un être embrassait à la fois dans sa totalité la puissance de ce principe, en quoi en différerait-il? Se borne-t-il à en embrasser une partie ?—Tu saisiras bien ce principe par un acte intuitif et simple, mais tu ne te le représenteras point dans sa totalité ; autrement, tu seras l’intelligence pensante, si toutefois tu as atteint ce principe ; mais il te fuira, ou plutôt tu le fuiras toi-même. Quand tu considères Dieu, considère-le donc dans sa totalité. Quand lu le penses, sache que ce que tu te rappelles de lui est le Bien : car il est la cause de la vie sage et intellectuelle, parce qu’il est la puissance dont procèdent la vie et l’intelligence; il est la cause de l’essence et de l’être, parce qu’il est un; il est simple et premier, parce qu’il est principe. C’est de lui que tout procède (16). C’est de lui que le premier mouvement procède, sans être en lui ; c’est de lui que procède aussi le premier repos, parce que lui, il n’en a pas besoin ; il n’est lui-même ni en mouvement ni en repos : car il n’a rien en quoi il puisse se reposer ou se mouvoir. Par rapport a quoi, vers quoi ou en quoi pourrait-il se mouvoir ou se reposer? Il n’est pas non plus limité : car par quoi serait-il limité? Il n’est pas non plus infini de la manière dont on se représente une masse énorme : car où aurait-il besoin de s’étendre? Serait-ce pour avoir quelque chose? Mais il n’a besoin de rien. C’est sa puissance qui est infinie. Il ne saurait ni changer ni manquer de rien : car les êtres qui ne manquent de rien ne le doivent qu’à lui seul.
Guthrie
THE MANNER OF PERCEIVING THE SUPREME.
10. Do not seek to see this Principle by the aid of other things; otherwise, instead of seeing Him himself, you will see no more than His image. Try rather to conceive the nature of the Principle that must be grasped in Himself, that is, pure and without any admixture, because all beings participate in Him, without any of them possessing Him. No other thing indeed could be such as He; but nevertheless such a Being must exist. Who indeed could all at once embrace the totality of the power of this Principle? If a being did so, how could this being differ from Him? Would the being limit itself to embracing only a part of Him? You might grasp this Principle by an intuitive, simple intellection, but you will not be able to represent Him to yourself in His totality. Otherwise it is you who would be the thinking intelligence, if indeed you have reached that principle; but He is more likely to flee you, or more likely still, you will flee from Him. When you consider the divinity, consider Him in His totality. When you think Him, know that what you remember of Him is the Good; for He is the cause of the wise intellectual life, because He is the power from which life and intelligence proceed. He is the cause of “being” and essence, because He is one; He is simple and first, because He is principle. It is from Him that everything proceeds. It is from Him that the first movement proceeds, without being in Him; it is from Him also that proceeds the first rest, because He himself has no need of it; He himself is neither in movement nor rest; for He has nothing in which He could rest or move. By His relation to what, towards what, or in what could He move or rest? Neither is He limited, for by what could He be limited ? Neither is He infinite in the manner suggested by an enormous mass; for whither would He have any need of extending Himself? Would He do so to get something? But He has need of nothing! It is His power that is infinite. He could neither change nor lack anything; for the beings which lack nothing owe this to Him only.
MacKenna
10. Still, do not, I urge you, look for The Good through any of these other things; if you do, you will see not itself but its trace: you must form the idea of that which is to be grasped cleanly standing to itself not in any combination, the unheld in which all have hold: for no other is such, yet one such there must be.
Now it is clear that we cannot possess ourselves of the power of this principle in its concentrated fulness: so to do one must be identical with it: but some partial attainment is within our reach.
You who make the venture will throw forward all your being but you will never tell it entire – for that, you must yourself be the divine Intellect in Act – and at your utmost success it will still pass from you or, rather, you from it. In ordinary vision you may think to see the object entire: in this intellective act, all, less or more, that you can take to mind you may set down as The Good.
It is The Good since, being a power [being effective outwardly], it is the cause of the intelligent and intellective life as of life and intellect: for these grow from it as from the source of essence and of existence, the Source as being One, simplex and first because before it was nothing. All derives from this: it is the origin of the primal movement which it does not possess and of the repose which is but its absence of need; for neither rest nor movement can belong to that which has no place in which either could occur; centre, object, ground, all are alike unknown to it, for it is before all. Yet its Being is not limited; what is there to set bounds to it? Nor, on the other hand, is it infinite in the sense of magnitude; what place can there be to which it must extend, or why should there be movement where there is no lacking? All its infinitude resides in its power: it does not change and will not fail; and in it all that is unfailing finds duration.