第 71 节
作者:卖吻      更新:2021-08-28 17:09      字数:9322
  he Intellectual…Principle taken separately; perhaps?     No: an Intellect is always inseparable from an intelligible object; eliminate the intelligible; and the Intellectual…Principle disappears with it。 If; then; what we are seeking cannot be the Intellectual…Principle but must be something that rejects the duality there present; then the Prior demanded by that duality must be something on the further side of the Intellectual…Principle。     But might it not be the Intelligible object itself?     No: for the Intelligible makes an equally inseparable duality with the Intellectual…Principle。     If; then; neither the Intellectual…Principle nor the Intelligible Object can be the First Existent; what is?     Our answer can only be:     The source of both。     What will This be; under what character can we picture It?     It must be either Intellective or without Intellection: if Intellective it is the Intellectual…Principle; if not; it will be without even knowledge of itself… so that; either way; what is there so august about it?     If we define it as The Good and the wholly simplex; we will; no doubt; be telling the truth; but we will not be giving any certain and lucid account of it as long as we have in mind no entity in which to lodge the conception by which we define it。     Yet: our knowledge of everything else comes by way of our intelligence; our power is that of knowing the intelligible by means of the intelligence: but this Entity transcends all of the intellectual nature; by what direct intuition; then; can it be brought within our grasp?     To this question the answer is that we can know it only in the degree of human faculty: we indicate it by virtue of what in ourselves is like it。     For in us; also; there is something of that Being; nay; nothing; ripe for that participation; can be void of it。     Wherever you be; you have only to range over against this omnipresent Being that in you which is capable of drawing from It; and you have your share in it: imagine a voice sounding over a vast waste of land; and not only over the emptiness alone but over human beings; wherever you be in that great space you have but to listen and you take the voice entire… entire though yet with a difference。     And what do we take when we thus point the Intelligence?     The Intellectual…Principle in us must mount to its origins: essentially a thing facing two ways; it must deliver itself over to those powers within it which tend upward; if it seeks the vision of that Being; it must become something more than Intellect。     For the Intellectual…Principle is the earliest form of Life: it is the Activity presiding over the outflowing of the universal Order… the outflow; that is; of the first moment; not that of the continuous process。     In its character as Life; as emanation; as containing all things in their precise forms and not merely in the agglomerate mass… for this would be to contain them imperfectly and inarticulately… it must of necessity derive from some other Being; from one that does not emanate but is the Principle of Emanation; of Life; of Intellect and of the Universe。     For the Universe is not a Principle and Source: it springs from a source; and that source cannot be the All or anything belonging to the All; since it is to generate the All; and must be not a plurality but the Source of plurality; since universally a begetting power is less complex than the begotten。 Thus the Being that has engendered the Intellectual…Principle must be more simplex than the Intellectual…Principle。     We may be told that this engendering Principle is the One…and…All。     But; at that; it must be either each separate entity from among all or it will be all things in the one mass。     Now if it were the massed total of all; it must be of later origin than any of the things of which it is the sum; if it precedes the total; it differs from the things that make up the total and they from it: if it and the total of things constitute a co…existence; it is not a Source。 But what we are probing for must be a Source; it must exist before all; that all may be fashioned as sequel to it。     As for the notion that it may be each separate entity of the All; this would make a self…Identity into a what you like; where you like; indifferently; and would; besides; abolish all distinction in things themselves。     Once more we see that this can be no thing among things but must be prior to all things。     10。 And what will such a Principle essentially be?     The potentiality of the Universe: the potentiality whose non…existence would mean the non…existence of all the Universe and even of the Intellectual…Principle which is the primal Life and all Life。     This Principle on the thither side of Life is the cause of Life… for that Manifestation of Life which is the Universe of things is not the First Activity; it is itself poured forth; so to speak; like water from a spring。     Imagine a spring that has no source outside itself; it gives itself to all the rivers; yet is never exhausted by what they take; but remains always integrally as it was; the tides that proceed from it are at one within it before they run their several ways; yet all; in some sense; know beforehand down what channels they will pour their streams。     Or: think of the Life coursing throughout some mighty tree while yet it is the stationary Principle of the whole; in no sense scattered over all that extent but; as it were; vested in the root: it is the giver of the entire and manifold life of the tree; but remains unmoved itself; not manifold but the Principle of that manifold life。     And this surprises no one: though it is in fact astonishing how all that varied vitality springs from the unvarying; and how that very manifoldness could not be unless before the multiplicity there were something all singleness; for; the Principle is not broken into parts to make the total; on the contrary; such partition would destroy both; nothing would come into being if its cause; thus broken up; changed character。     Thus we are always brought back to The One。     Every particular thing has a One of its own to which it may be traced; the All has its One; its Prior but not yet the Absolute One; through this we reach that Absolute One; where all such reference comes to an end。     Now when we reach a One… the stationary Principle… in the tree; in the animal; in Soul; in the All… we have in every case the most powerful; the precious element: when we come to the One in the Authentically Existent Beings… their Principle and source and potentiality… shall we lose confidence and suspect it of being…nothing?     Certainly this Absolute is none of the things of which it is the source… its nature is that nothing can be affirmed of it… not existence; not essence; not life… since it is That which transcends all these。 But possess yourself of it by the very elimination of Being and you hold a marvel。 Thrusting forward to This; attaining; and resting in its content; seek to grasp it more and more… understanding it by that intuitive thrust alone; but knowing its greatness by the Beings that follow upon it and exist by its power。     Another approach:     The Intellectual…Principle is a Seeing; and a Seeing which itself sees; therefore it is a potentiality which has become effective。     This implies the distinction of Matter and Form in it… as there must be in all actual seeing… the Matter in this case being the Intelligibles which the Intellectual…Principle contains and sees。 All actual seeing implies duality; before the seeing takes place there is the pure unity 'of the power of seeing'。 That unity 'of principle' acquires duality 'in the act of seeing'; and the duality is 'always to be traced back to' a unity。     Now as our sight requires the world of sense for its satisfaction and realization; so the vision in the Intellectual…Principle demands; for its completion; The Good。     It cannot be; itself; The Good; since then it would not need to see or to perform any other Act; for The Good is the centre of all else; and it is by means of The Good that every thing has Act; while the Good is in need of nothing and therefore possesses nothing beyond itself。     Once you have uttered 〃The Good;〃 add no further thought: by any addition; and in proportion to that addition; you introduce a deficiency。     Do not even say that it has Intellection; you would be dividing it; it would become a duality; Intellect and the Good。 The Good has no need of the Intellectual…Principle which; on the contrary; needs it; and; attaining it; is shaped into Goodness and becomes perfect by it: the Form thus received; sprung from the Good; brings it to likeness with the Good。     Thus the traces of the Good discerned upon it must be taken as indication of the nature of that Archetype: we form a conception of its Authentic Being from its image playing upon the Intellectual…Principle。 This image of itself; it has communicated to the Intellect that contemplates it: thus all the striving is on the side of the Intellect; which is the eternal striver and eternally the attainer。 The Being beyond neither strives; since it feels no lack; nor attains; since it has no striving。 And this marks it off from the Intellectual…Principle; to which characteristica