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PROSLOGIUM By St. Anselm
of CHAPTER I. Exhortation of the mind to the
contemplation of God. --It casts aside cares, and excludes all thoughts save
that of God, that it may seek Him. Man was created to see God. Man by sin
lost the blessedness for which he was made, and found the misery for which he
was not made. He did not keep this good Up now, slight man! flee, for a
little while, your occupations; hide yourself, for a time, from your disturbing
thoughts. Cast aside, now, your burdensome cares, and put away your toilsome
business. Yield room for some little time to God; and rest for a little time
in him. Enter the inner chamber of your mind; shut out all thoughts save that
of God, and such as can aid you in seeking him; close your door and seek him.
Speak now, my whole heart! speak now to God, saying, I seek your face; your
face, Lord, will I seek (Psalms xxvii. 8). And come you now, O Lord my God,
teach my heart where and how it may seek you, where and how it may find you. Lord, if you are not here, where
shall I seek you, being absent? But if you are everywhere, why do I not see
you present? Truly you dwell in unapproachable light. But where is
unapproachable light, or how shall I come to it? Or who shall lead me to that
light and into it, that I may see you in it? Again, by what marks, under what
form, shall I seek you? I have never seen you, O Lord, my God; I do not know
your form. What, 0 most high Lord, shall this man do, an exile far from you?
What shall your servant do, anxious in his love of you, and cast out afar
from your face? He pants to see you, and your face is too far from him. He
longs to come to you, and your dwelling-place is inaccessible. He is eager to
find you, and knows not your place. He desires to seek you, and does not know
your face. Lord, you are my God, and you are my Lord, and never have I seen
you. It is you that hast made me, and has made me anew, and has bestowed upon
me all the blessing I enjoy; and not yet do I know you. Finally, I was
created to see you, and not yet have I done that for which I was made. 0 wretched lot of man, when he has
lost that for which he was made! 0 hard and terrible fate! Alas, what has he
lost, and what has he found? What has departed, and what remains? He has lost
the blessedness for which he was made, and has found the misery for which he
was not made. That has departed without which nothing is happy, and that
remains which, in itself, is only miserable. Man once did eat the bread of
angels, for which he hungers now; he eateth now the bread of sorrows, of
which he knew not then. Alas! for the mourning of all mankind, for the
universal lamentation of the sons of Hades! He choked with satiety, we sigh
with hunger. He abounded, we beg. He possessed in happiness, and miserably
forsook his possession; we suffer want in unhappiness, and feel a miserable
longing, and alas! we remain empty. Why did he not keep for us, when
he could so easily, that whose lack we should feel so heavily? Why did he
shut us away from the light, and cover us over with darkness? With what
purpose did he rob us of life, and inflict death upon us? Wretches that we
are, whence have we been driven out; whither are we driven on? Whence hurled?
Whither consigned to ruin? From a native country into exile, from the vision
of God into our present blindness, from the joy of immortality into the
bitterness and horror of death. Miserable exchange of how great a good, for
how great an evil! Heavy loss, heavy grief heavy all our fate! But alas! wretched that I am, one
of the sons of Eve, far removed from God! What have I undertaken? What have I
accomplished? Whither was I striving? How far have I come? To what did I
aspire? Amid what thoughts am I sighing? I sought blessings, and lo!
confusion. I strove toward God, and I stumbled on myself. I sought calm in
privacy, and I found tribulation and grief, in my inmost thoughts. I wished
to smile in the joy of my mind, and I am compelled to frown by the sorrow of
my heart. Gladness was hoped for, and lo! a source of frequent sighs! And you too, O Lord, how long? How
long, O Lord, do you forget us; how long do you turn your face from us? When
will you look upon us, and hear us? When will you enlighten our eyes, and
show us your face? When will you restore yourself to us? Look upon us, Lord;
hear us, enlighten us, reveal yourself to us. Restore yourself to us, that it
may be well with us, --yourself, without whom it is so ill with us. Pity our
toilings and strivings toward you since we can do nothing without you. You do
invite us; do you help us. I beseech you, O Lord, that I may not lose hope in
sighs, but may breathe anew in hope. Lord, my heart is made bitter by its
desolation; sweeten you it, I beseech you, with your consolation. Lord, in
hunger I began to seek you; I beseech you that I may not cease to hunger for
you. In hunger I have come to you; let me not go unfed. I have come in
poverty to the Rich, in misery to the Compassionate; let me not return empty
and despised. And if, before I eat, I sigh, grant, even after sighs, that
which I may eat. Lord, I am bowed down and can only look downward; raise me
up that I may look upward. My iniquities have gone over my head; they
overwhelm me; and, like a heavy load, they weigh me down. Free me from them;
unburden me, that the pit of iniquities may not close over me. Be it mine to look up to your
light, even from afar, even from the depths. Teach me to seek you, and reveal
yourself to me, when I seek you, for I cannot seek you, except you teach me,
nor find you, except you reveal yourself. Let me seek you in longing, let me
long for you in seeking; let me find you in love, and love you in finding.
Lord, I acknowledge and I thank you that you has created me in this your
image, in order that I may be mindful of you, may conceive of you, and love you;
but that image has been so consumed and wasted away by vices, and obscured by
the smoke of wrong-doing, that it cannot achieve that for which it was made,
except you renew it, and create it anew. I do not endeavor, O Lord, to
penetrate your sublimity, for in no wise do I compare my understanding with
that; but I long to understand in some degree your truth, which my heart
believes and loves. For I do not seek to understand that I may believe, but I
believe in order to understand. For this also I believe, --that unless I
believed, I should not understand. CHAPTER II. Truly there is a God, although the
fool has said in his heart, There is no God. AND so, Lord, do you, who do give
understanding to faith, give me, so far as you knowest it to be profitable,
to understand that you are as we believe; and that you are that which we
believe. And indeed, we believe that you are a being than which nothing
greater can be conceived. Or is there no such nature, since the fool has said
in his heart, there is no God? (Psalms xiv. 1). But, at any rate, this very
fool, when he hears of this being of which I speak --a being than which
nothing greater can be conceived --understands what be hears, and what he
understands is in his understanding; although he does not understand it to
exist. For, it is one thing for an object
to be in the understanding, and another to understand that the object exists.
When a painter first conceives of what he will afterwards perform, he has it
in his understanding, but be does not yet understand it to be, because he has
not yet performed it. But after he has made the painting, be both has it in
his understanding, and he understands that it exists, because he has made it. Hence, even the fool is convinced
that something exists in the understanding, at least, than which nothing
greater can be conceived. For, when he hears of this, he understands it. And
whatever is understood, exists in the understanding. And assuredly that, than
which nothing greater can be conceived, cannot exist in the understanding
alone. For, suppose it exists in the understanding alone: then it can be
conceived to exist in reality; which is greater. Therefore, if that, than which
nothing greater can be conceived, exists in the understanding alone, the very
being, than which nothing greater can be conceived, is one, than which a
greater can be conceived. But obviously this is impossible. Hence, there is
doubt that there exists a being, than which nothing greater can be conceived,
and it exists both in the understanding and in reality.
God cannot be conceived not to
exist. --God is that, than which nothing greater can be conceived. --That
which can be conceived not to exist is not God. AND it assuredly exists so truly,
that it cannot be conceived not to exist. For, it is possible to conceive of
a being which cannot be conceived not to exist; and this is greater than one
which can be conceived not to exist. Hence, if that, than which nothing
greater can be conceived, can be conceived not to exist, it is not that, than
which nothing greater can be conceived. But this is an irreconcilable
contradiction. There is, then, so truly a being than which nothing greater
can be conceived to exist, that it cannot even be conceived not to exist;.
and this being you are, O Lord, our God. So truly, therefore, do you exist,
O Lord, my God, that you can not be conceived not to exist; and rightly. For,
if a mind could conceive of a being better than you, the creature would rise
above the Creator; and this is most absurd. And, indeed, whatever else there
is, except you alone, can be conceived not to exist. To you alone, therefore,
it belongs to exist more truly than all other beings, and hence in a higher
degree than all others. For, whatever else exists does not exist so truly,
and hence in a less degree it belongs to it to exist. Why, then, has the fool
said in his heart, there is no God (Psalms xiv. 1), since it is so evident,
to a rational mind, that you do exist in the highest degree of all? Why,
except that he is dull and a fool? CHAPTER IV. How the fool has said in his heart
what cannot be conceived. --A thing may be conceived in two ways: (1) when
the word signifying it is conceived; (2) when the thing itself is understood
As far as the word goes, God can be conceived not to exist; in reality he
cannot. BUT how has the fool said in his
heart what he could not conceive; or how is it that he could not conceive
what he said in his heart? since it is the same to say in the heart, and to
conceive. But, if really, nay, since really,
he both conceived, because he said in his heart; and did not say in his
heart, because he could not conceive; there is more than one way in which a
thing is said in the heart or conceived. For, in one sense, an object is
conceived, when the word signifying it is conceived; and in another, when the
very entity, which the object is, is understood. In the former sense, then, God can
be conceived not to exist; but in the latter, not at all. For no one who
understands what fire and water are can conceive fire to be water, in
accordance with the nature of the facts themselves, although this is possible
according to the words. So, then, no one who understands what God is can
conceive that God does not exist; although he says these words in his heart,
either without any or with some foreign, signification. For, God is that than
which a greater cannot be conceived. And he who thoroughly understands this,
assuredly understands that this being so truly exists, that not even in
concept can it be non-existent. Therefore, he who understands that God so
exists, cannot conceive that he does not exist. I thank you, gracious Lord, I
thank you; because what I formerly believed by your bounty, I now so
understand by your illumination, that if I were unwilling to believe that you
do exist, I should not be able not to understand this to be true. CHAPTER V. God is whatever it is better to be
than not to be; and he, as the only self-existent being, creates all things
from nothing. WHAT are you, then, Lord God, than
whom nothing greater can be conceived? But what are you, except that which,
as the highest of all beings, alone exists through itself, and creates all
other things from nothing? For, whatever is not this is less than a thing
which can be conceived of. But this cannot be conceived of you. What good,
therefore, does the supreme Good lack, through which every good is?
Therefore, you are just, truthful, blessed, and whatever it is better to be
than not to be. For it is better to be just than not just; better to be
blessed than not blessed. Full text at: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/anselm-proslogium.html#CHAPTER%20V |
