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.
3. And Smallness, or Rarity, is ascribed to God’s Nature because He is outside all solidity and distance and penetrates all things without let or hindrance. Indeed, Smallness is the elementary Cause of all things; for you will never find any part of the world but participates in that quality of Smallness. This, then, is the sense in which we must apply this quality to God. It is that which penetrates unhindered unto all things and through all things, energizing in them and reaching to the dividing of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow; and being a Discerner of the desires and the thoughts of the heart, or rather of all things, for there is no creature hid before God? This Smallness is without Quantity or Quality;3 It is Irrepressible, Infinite, Unlimited, and, while comprehending all things, is Itself Incomprehensible.
1 It is a Quality, not a quantity. Vulgarity consists in mistaking quantity for quality. This has been the mistake of the modern world.
2 Heb. iv. 12 We can conceive of the mind’s search for God in two ways: as a journey, (1) outwards, to seek Him beyond the sky, (2) inwards, to seek Him in the heart. Psalm xix. combines both ways. So does the Paradiso. Dante passes outwards through the concentric spheres of space to the Empyrean which is beyond space and encloses it. There he sees the Empyrean as a point and his whole journey from sphere to sphere as a journey inwards instead of outwards. (Canto xxvill. 16.) The Mystics often speak of “seeing God in a Point.” God is in all things as the source of their existence and natural life; and in us as the Source of our existence and spiritual life.
3 The Potentiality of all quality is without particular quality. Cf. pers ane.
3. Smallness, or Rarity, is ascribed to God’s Nature because He is outside all solidity and distance and penetrates all things without let or hindrance. Indeed, Smallness is the elementary Cause of all things, for you will never find any part of the world that does not participate in this quality of Smallness. This, then, is the sense in which we must apply the quality to God. It is that which penetrates unhindered into all things and through all things, working in them and reaching even to the dividing of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow; and it discerns the desires and the thoughts of the heart, or rather of all things, for no creature is hidden from God.2 This Smallness is without Quantity or Quality;3 It is Irrepressible, Infinite, Unlimited, and, while comprehending all things, is Itself Incomprehensible.
1 It is a Quality, not a quantity. Vulgarity consists in mistaking quantity for quality, and this has been the mistake of the modern world.
2 Heb. iv. 12. We can conceive of the mind’s search for God in two ways: as a journey (1) outwards, to seek Him beyond the sky, or (2) inwards, to seek Him in the heart. Psalm xix. combines both ways, and so does the Paradiso. Dante passes outwards through the concentric spheres of space to the Empyrean, which is beyond space and encloses it. There he sees the Empyrean as a point, and his whole journey from sphere to sphere as a journey inwards rather than outwards (Canto xxviii. 16). The Mystics often speak of “seeing God in a Point.” God is in all things as the source of their existence and natural life, and in us as the Source of our existence and spiritual life.
3 The Potentiality of all quality is itself without any particular quality. Cf. pers ane.