Things to be premised for the solution of the preceding Questions, § III, opening

Latin (Borgnet)English

p. 108

§ III.

Collige igitur ex praedictis, et nota, quod tripliciter possunt distingui gradus quibus ascenditur ad videndum Deum. Primo, secundum ordinem actuum naturalem in se, sicut docet Augustinus in libro de Quantitate animae ¹, ponens gradum primum inter actus animae vegetationem, qui communis est cum arbustis. Secundo, sensum, qui est in nobis communis brutis. In tertio, memoriam intelligibilem, quae est communis doctis et indoctis, bonis et malis. Quartus gradus est elevare se supra se, et mundare oculum ab omni terrenitate. Quintus est ipsam custodire atque firmare puritatem. Sextus est serenum et

§ III.

Therefore gather from the things said before, and note that the grades by which one ascends to seeing God can be distinguished in three ways. First, according to the natural order of acts in itself, as Augustine teaches in the book On the Quantity of the Soul ¹, placing as the first grade among the acts of the soul vegetation, which is common with shrubs. Second, sense, which in us is common with brute animals. In the third place, intelligible memory, which is common to the learned and the unlearned, to the good and the evil. The fourth grade is to elevate oneself above oneself, and to cleanse the eye from every earthly thing. The fifth is to guard and firm that purity. The sixth is serenity and

Notes

St. Augustine, book On the Quantity of the Soul, chapter 33. (S. Augustinus, Lib. de Quantitate animae, cap. 33.) ↩