Question V: On the chief act of the contemplative life, and how this act differs from cogitation, meditation, speculation, and intuitive vision

The Contemplative life in its breadth designates the whole occupation of man, by reading, speaking, knowing, thinking, considering, meditating, and speculating; inasmuch as all these acts terminate in Contemplation. Contemplation therefore is the principal act of this life, to which meditation most closely approaches, and has been inserted, as Suarez notes here after D. Bonaventure, lib. 2. de orat. mentali, cap. 9. For when we undertake to investigate some divine truth, first we speak of it, read, or inquire: then we think it, consider it, and meditate upon it longer; finally the truth long meditated, when it suddenly presents itself to view, meditation passes into Contemplation, which we receive with great avidity of soul, we admire it with great delight; and we adhere to it with much admiration; so the Seraphic Doctor, here, after Richard, lib. 1. de Arca Myst. cap. 4.

Three therefore are the principal steps noted here, by which one ascends to Contemplation; namely the search for an unknown truth, the finding of the truth sought, and the intuition of the truth found; When this last is attained, the principal state of contemplation is apprehended, if we wish to speak theologically; for philosophically contemplation is taken for every act of the intellect, in which sense Aristotle says, 2. Metaph. textu 3. the end of contemplation is truth, and Cicero in libro 4. de finib. says, contemplation is the consideration and meditation of hidden things; so also he has it, lib. 1. academic. qq.

In the former sense Contemplation is defined by the Saintly Doctor here, dist. 1. It is the act of an unimpeded intellect, of a healed grace, directed to eternal spectacles, suspended with admiration, or according to Richard as cited by the Seraphic Doctor there: Contemplation is the free perspicacity of the mind, suspended in the spectacles of wisdom, with admiration.

In which definition the Seraphic Doctor commends four things supremely to the contemplative.

The first is the liberty of the Spirit, that it be not impeded by any earthly obstacle, but by a certain spontaneous motion and impulse be able to be carried more freely and more gladly through the eternal truths; and contemplate them to satiety, as far as is possible: Hence the mind ought to be unburdened of the care and solicitude of temporal things, and much more not to be embraced by the cords of sins.

The second is a perspicacious eye, capable of divine irradiation; whence the Saintly Doctor distinguishes from Richard a triple eye; The first is of the flesh, by which man sees the things that are outside himself; The second is of reason, by which he sees the things that are within himself: The third is the eye of contemplation, by which he sees above himself: This eye is as it were a certain spark of Divine cognition and image, residing in the apex of the soul; toward which the mind well purged, continually tending, thence as it were anticipates and foretastes eternal delights with wondrous delight, serenity, and security: of this eye the Bridegroom says in the Canticle cap. 4. you have wounded my heart with one of your eyes, as D. Bonaventure notes, here.

The third is, that the said eye be directed to the spectacles of wisdom: whence the Saintly Doctor infers that contemplation is not precisely an act of the intellect, but that an act of the will is also becoming. For Wisdom is the cognition of the true, exciting the will to a savory love, and the experimental taste of supernal sweetness: Hence those spectacles of wisdom, placed in the definition, are the cognition of the true, and the tasting of the good, whence Suarez notes, in the said cap. 9. that D. Bonaventure places the sum of contemplation in the will; which, if he understands it to consist in the will alone, is groundless; For the Saintly Doctor everywhere joins the intellectual inspection and the savory love: and here he concludes thus: The act therefore of contemplation includes two things, namely cognition, and savory love.

But if Suarez wishes the sum of contemplation to be in the will, from the mind of the Saintly Doctor, not precisely but principally, that is, to have its origin and increase from love, an act of the will; it is not against the Seraphic Doctor; who after the aforesaid words adds: and love adjoints cognition. But a little above he reports from the Lincolniensis, that wisdom arises from love, which bursts forth into the light of cognition and the savor of gustation, as light and flame burst forth from heat.

Fourth, what the Saintly Doctor requires for contemplation from the said definition, is the mental suspension with admiration; and this is so intrinsic to contemplation that D. Augustine lib. de spiritu, et anima, cap. 32. did not hesitate to define contemplation by that admiration, saying: Contemplation is the perspicuous and delightful admiration of truth. For as Richard well says, as cited by the Seraphic Doctor in the place cited. From the novelty of the thing, which is above our hope and our estimation, admiration arises; from admiration attention grows, from attention cognition, and from these the suspension of the mind. Whence as among the Philosophers there are two principles of science; admiration and experience; so in the theologian contemplating, admiration excites to a more attentive speculation, on the part of the intellect; but on the part of the will the experience of sweetness moves the intellect to a higher intuition of the truth; and then both powers are suspended, according to the saying of Job. My soul has chosen suspension.

This whole progress of contemplation is most excellently explained by way of the Aurora (Dawn) by the Seraphic Doctor from Richard, lib. 5. de Arca mystica, cap. 9. For the Aurora first glimmers with a certain dawning of light; being near the earth, as it were; as men still tender first perceive a certain dawning of grace. Then the aurora, raising itself a little higher, more shining, and suffused with a tawny color, flashes out, being not yet sufficiently segregated from the mire, or the slime of the earth; But the more it ascends, spreading itself the more broadly, and growing the more brilliantly splendid, it is elongated from the earth, until at length occupying the height of heaven it passes into the meridian splendor, and is suspended at the supreme apex of light, or Solstice; Richard therefore says there: Human intelligence, irradiated by the divine light, is suspended in the contemplation of intelligibles, while it is diffused in their admiration after the manner of the aurora, when it is always led to higher or more admirable things, the more and the more copiously it is dilated after the manner of the Aurora: Whence the more remote it becomes from the lowest things, the purer it is found in itself, and the subtler for the sublime things, etc.

As to the difference of this most excellent act from cogitation, meditation, and the other acts, whether preceding or subsequent; It must be noted that cogitation is the beginning of this exercise, and has its origin from the imagination, and most closely passes and terminates in meditation: For when we first transmit some thing from the external sense to the internal, or awaken it long stored in the phantasy itself, the agent intellect is wont to forge for itself a more spiritual idea of this thing; this idea, however, since it is still indeterminate, and wandering hither and thither through the intellect, can be called Cogitation, which therefore Richard defines in the place cited, cap. 3. et 4. The mind's regard prone to evagation, whence the less it is subjected to reason, the more it arises from the imagination, which communicates to it somewhat of its materiality; whence with a slow foot it wanders through every byway, without regard for arriving at its end; as Richard says in the said cap. 3. On the contrary, contemplation with a free foot, wherever its impetus bears it, is carried around with wondrous agility; and this is the principal difference of these acts, in which is included that the one act holds the place of principle; the other of the middle.

But when either a single or a multiple cogitation assails the mind; it is necessary that reason forthwith arrest it, and vigilantly apply it to the intended end, and thus make it pass into meditation; otherwise cogitations will tumultuate among themselves, and distract the mind, which D. Gregory most excellently explains, lib. 1. Moral. as cited by the Seraphic Doctor, here, dist. 3. where he thus has it: Cogitations are subjected to reason after the manner of handmaids, because if Reason for a moment depart from the house of the mind, the clamor of cogitations multiplies itself, as it were in the absence of the mistress, like a gabbling troop of handmaids; but as soon as reason has returned to the mind, forthwith the tumultuous confusion restrains itself, and as it were the handmaids quietly restrain themselves for the enjoined work.

But the cogitation, thus formed by reason, takes on the name and nature of meditation; whence this is born from reason, as that from the imagination; and it is the attentive and continued consideration of the thing thought; which at length migrates into contemplation; as was said above. Hence the Saintly Doctor notes from Richard, cit. cap. 3. that there are three things in the soul which variously conduce to contemplation: These are Imagination, Reason, and Intelligence: the first holds the lowest seat of the soul, the second the middle, and the third the supreme, immediately subjacent to God: whence as God beholds all things together in the most simple act, so that act by which one approaches him more, more clearly and more simply comprehends the objects of the other acts inferior to itself: hence contemplation, the act of intelligence, more clearly comprehends the objects of the imagination and reason than they can be comprehended by their own powers; expanding as it does the bosom of the mind immensely, and at the same time sharpening the keenness of the soul for penetrating; as the Saintly Doctor has, loco citato, from Richard, in the said cap. 3. For through the intelligence the bosom of the mind is expanded immensely, and the keenness of the contemplating soul is sharpened, that it may be capable of comprehending many things, and perspicacious for penetrating subtle things.

That you may understand this, be aware that the mental vision, as also the corporal, is (as far as it can be conceived) after the manner of a pyramid, dilating itself on the one part, while on the other it forms the point; so that in the proportion in which it penetrates the more hidden objects, with equal breadth it comprehends more in ascending; which Richard understands, loco citato, while he says as cited by the Seraphic Doctor dicta, dist. 3. Whence how widely the ray of contemplation expands itself, which illuminates all; and in a certain manner Contemplation extends itself under one ray of vision to innumerable things.

Speculation is not rarely confounded with Contemplation, because each is of intelligence; they differ, however, as the Saintly Doctor teaches, loco citato, and with him Suarez, cit. num. 5. For speculation, as D. Augustine says, lib. 15. de Trinit. cap. 3. is said when a thing is seen not in itself, but in its mirror, or enigma: but contemplation occurs when the truth is seen without any envelope, or veil of shadows, in its own purity, as Richard says, as cited by the Saintly Doctor, loco citato.

Speculation therefore is said, not from specula (watchtower), as Suarez notes; loco citato, because creatures in this world are mirrors, in which and through which we speculate the eternal truths, whence D. Paul, 1. Cor. 13. says: in this life we speculari the glory of the Lord.

Yet these mirrors of Creatures, although they are called enigmas, do not have such opacity that they do not flash out with much light, and pour and temper it upon the eyes of those speculating: Of these mirrors the Lincolniensis treats most excellently, as cited by the Saintly Doctor, loco citato, saying, that after they are received in the mind, the divine and as it were solar rays falling upon it from the fountain of light, they become so much more many, bright, and clear; that he contemplating may see lucidly the truth contemplated in it with the eyes; and according to this part it is true contemplation: But on that part by which the said mirrors pour back the light falling into them upon those who are capable of it, and the truth is thus seen with less clearness, it is rather speculation: He exemplifies this by a material mirror, which so tempers the light of the resplendent sun, that the weaker eye, which cannot look upon the sun itself, sees it proportioned to itself in the mirror.

Finally, as cogitation passes into meditation, and meditation sometimes into speculation, sometimes and more perfectly into contemplation, so contemplation passes into the open vision, reserved for the fatherland; whence between this and that there is the difference; that vision is not only simple, but the open and clear intuition of the thing, as it is in itself: But contemplation is the simple intelligence of the thing, as far as is possible according to the capacity of each in this life.

Whence the Seraphic Doctor concludes that all the said acts differ according to the clearer or less clear aspect of God; and as among those cogitation holds the lowest place, so for this life contemplation holds the supreme seat; yet vision in the fatherland surpasses it, as was said: The Saintly Doctor confirms this from Gregory, lib. 5. Moral. cap. ult. where he says: The active works of life pass away with the body; but the delights of the Contemplative life grow better toward the end.