On the Divine Names and the Mystical Theology — trans. C. E. Rolt
The translator’s English as printed (C. E. Rolt). The original-language text is not held; names are romanised as the translator printed them.
transcends them all. Hence all attributes may be affirmed at once of Him, and yet He is No Thing.1 He possesses all shape and form, and yet is formless and shapeless, containing beforehand incomprehensibly and transcendently the beginning, middle, and end of all things, and shedding upon them a pure radiance of that one and undifferenced causality whence all their fairness comes.2 For if our sun, while still remaining one luminary and shedding one unbroken light, acts on the essences and qualities of the things which we perceive, many and various though they be, renewing, nourishing, guarding, and perfecting them; differencing them, unifying them, warming them and making them fruitful, causing them to grow, to change, to take root and to burst forth ; quickening them and giving them life, so that each one possesses in its own way a share in the same single sun—if the single sun contains beforehand in itself under the form of an unity the causes of all the things that participate in it; much more doth this truth hold good with the Cause which produced the sun and all things; and all the Exemplars® of existent things must pre-exist in It under the form of one Super-Essential Unity.4 For It produces Essences only by an outgoing from Essence. And we give the name of “Exemplars” to those laws which, preexistent in God°as an Unity, produce the essences of things: laws which are called in Divine Science
1 Cf. Theol. Germ. passim. Hence the soul possessing God is in a state of “having nothing and yet possessing all things.” Cf. Dante, cto che per Puntversa st squaderna, etc.
2 Ci section 5: ,
8 i.e. The Platonic ideas of things—their ultimate essences. But see below.
2 Cf. Blake. ‘Jerusalem, ? ad sz.
5 i. e. If It produces the essences of things, It must first contain Essence. D. here uses the term “God” because he is thinking of the Absolute in Its emanating activity (wherein the Differentiations of the Trinity appear).
transcends them all. Hence all attributes may be affirmed of Him at once, and yet He is No Thing.1 He possesses all shape and form, and yet is formless and shapeless, containing beforehand, incomprehensibly and transcendently, the beginning, middle, and end of all things, and shedding on them a pure radiance of that one and undifferenced causality from which all their fairness comes.2
For consider our sun: while remaining one luminary and shedding one unbroken light, it acts on the essences and qualities of the things we perceive, many and various though they are, renewing, nourishing, guarding, and perfecting them; differencing them, unifying them, warming them and making them fruitful, causing them to grow, to change, to take root and to burst forth; quickening them and giving them life, so that each one possesses in its own way a share in the same single sun.
If the single sun contains beforehand in itself, under the form of a unity, the causes of all the things that participate in it, much more does this truth hold good of the Cause which produced the sun and all things; and all the Exemplars3 of existent things must pre-exist in It under the form of one Super-Essential Unity.4 For It produces Essences only by an outgoing from Essence. And we give the name of “Exemplars” to those laws which, preexistent in God5 as a Unity, produce the essences of things: laws which are called in Divine Science
1 Cf. Theol. Germ. passim. Hence the soul possessing God is in a state of “having nothing and yet possessing all things.” Cf. Dante, ciò che per l’universo si squaderna, etc.
2 Ci section 5: ,
8 I.e. the Platonic ideas of things—their ultimate essences. But see below.
2 Cf. Blake, ‘Jerusalem,’ ad sz.
5 i.e. If It produces the essences of things, It must first contain Essence. D. uses the term “God” here because he is thinking of the Absolute in Its emanating activity (in which the Differentiations of the Trinity appear).