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St. Anselm of Canterbury 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 when he could
keep it easily. Without God it is ill with us. Our labors and attempts are in
vain without God. Man cannot seek God, unless God himself teaches him; nor
find him, unless he reveals himself. God created man in his image, that he
might be mindful of him, think of him, and love him. The believer does not
seek to understand, that he may believe, but he believes that he may understand:
for unless he believed he would not understand. 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. CHAPTER III. 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 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 |
