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Secrets of the Art
Revealed
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 4. most lofty and profound
Four: this
Art is most lofty and most profound.
First, it is
most lofty. Now this Art, on account of its universality,
shows the way to reach the highest points above all other
Arts and Sciences, which no particular Art or Science can
reach. (Doctor Illumin. in Lib. Comp. super Art. Dem.
Dist. 2. de reg 21.) Thus, the conditions of this Art
require the Artist to raise his E. as high as he possibly
can, and on account of its altitude it is universal above
all other Sciences; otherwise, he cannot receive the
influence of this Art" (ibid.) And no one can ascend
to the summits of this Art unless I prepare three ladders
for them, the first with ten steps, the second with
twelve, and the third with five steps, namely the objects
of sense, imagination, doubt, belief and understanding.
(Lib. de Asc. et Desc. Intell. dis. 1.) The human
intellect understands things in two ways: the first
way uses the senses, the imagination and the intellect's
own natural power; in the second way, it understands with
the divine Reasons and with its own natural power (Doctor
Illum. in Lib. Ser. cont. error. Averr. in prol.) and
with my Art, not only natural things, but also
supernatural ones are demonstrated, such as the Articles
of the Holy Catholic Faith, which you can see in various
books of mine, and especially in the Book of the Gentile
and the Three Sages, in Lib. Mir. Dem., and in Lib. de
Art. Fidei, meant for bringing back to the true Faith
those who have strayed from it and for converting the
unbelievers. This Art is sublime in its way of
understanding things with the loftiest divine Attributes
(ibid.) and thus GOD gave me the loftiest Art, containing
both manners of understanding, in the Brief Art for
Finding the Truth, "an Art through which the
intellect is raised and educated in the art of
understanding in the same way that a voice learns to sing
with the Art of Music." (Doctor Illum. in Lib. Eva.
4. c. "Et in terra pax")
Secondly,
this Art is most profound on account of humility, without
which no one can ever attain the secrets of this divine
Science and Art. You must know, my Son, that this Science
is truly a Science for children; now as children have all
of their science contained in twenty-four letters of the
alphabet, likewise the entirety of my Science and Art is
contained in twenty-four letters of the alphabet; and
unless you can humble yourself and learn them, although
you may have been a Doctor in Philosophy or Theology for
twenty or thirty years, my Son, you will never understand
the Secrets of my Art. My Son, during my mortal life, I
was subject to contempt, slander and considered a fool
because of my Art(Arb. Scient. in prol. Lib. Desol. n. 7.
16. & 47. Lib. Phant.), and I willingly bore all this
out of love for humility and for the purpose of
preserving and spreading this Art: as for you, if you
really love truth, if you desire to be my Pupils, you
should not forsake the gift of Science to avoid being
called fools: as you know, according to my Art, every
creature contains opposites: the secret Philosophy says
the inside and the outside are opposed, and that wisdom
and foolishness are opposed; given that the inside is
better than the outside, it is better to be inwardly wise
while appearing outwardly foolish, than to be inwardly
foolish while appearing outwardly wise. Therefore, if
anyone wants to fathom the depths of GOD's wisdom with
me, revealed to us by GOD through his Spirit, "For
the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of
God." (1 Corinthians Ch 2 v 10) "...if any man
among you seem to be wise in this world, let him become a
fool, that he may be wise. (ibid. Ch 3 v 18)
The Pupil:
Father, it seems to me that profound Science cannot
coexist with profound Humility; now as science inflates,
(1 Cor Ch 8 v 1), if I get deeply involved with science,
I will become greatly puffed up with pride; and I think
that Faith gave good advice to the intellect in Lib.
Disput. Fid. & Intell. which you wrote, "to stay
as you were, and choose to humbly believe, rather
than climb the peaks of knowledge; all the more as the
Philosophers of old had no knowledge of your Art, which
shows how little it is worth, because if it were true,
they would have discovered it right from the start, given
that their intellect was far superior to yours".
(Illum. Doctor in Lib. Desol. n. 36.) One can infer from
this that you "were overly involved in Sciences,
even to the point of curiosity, bringing them forth under
the guise of Queens and Ladies etc., and only bent on
having a mind of your own, eager to explore uncharted
territory, you did not keep in touch with contemporary
Doctors sufficiently to stay abreast of their
opinions." (R.F. Causinus in Cur. f. to. 4. sect.
14. f. 137.), all of which is inconsistent with humility.
The Teacher:
My Son, let me respond briefly to each point, because we
still have far to go. You must know that science does not
inflate per se, but only by accident; inflated bodies
bloated with wind are empty though they may seem
full. Likewise, those who are always searching and never
finding true science are outwardly swollen with the tumor
of false and falsified science, but inwardly resemble
resounding brass or clashing cymbals; "elated, and
inflated with the wind of memory, through a long and
continuous habit that is now their second nature etc;
they have no true scientific knowledge of reality. (Rig.
in Lib. 7. Sigil. fig. 5.) My Son, the more deeply you
delve into my Science, the more truths you infallibly
know about GOD and creatures, and therefore you know all
the more how great GOD is and how small you, and all
things in you are. Therefore this Science will provide
your will with all the more reason for being humble and
not conceited: and then you will know that my Disciples,
in addition to other good things that they obtain from my
science, are always happy to contemn the world with all
its vainglory and to love humility and GOD. Listen to
what a young monk, a pupil of mine said to his Abbot:
"My lord, great is the pleasure I get from the
Science I am learning, with which Philosophy leads me to
knowledge of GOD, and I consider myself most fortunate to
be in the Holy Orders and to have renounced the world, so
that I experience joy and pleasure day and night,
especially as my Science gives me utter contempt for the
world and its vainglory and makes me love humility and
GOD." (Doctor Illum. in Lib. Evast. 2. de Relig.
cap. de vana Glor.)
If you read
the advice that Faith gave to the intellect, then you
also must have read how the intellect wept, and is
weeping even now, "because the Lord our GOD is known
and loved by so few, and ignored and belittled by so
many". Who, may I ask, my Son, should not weep to
see so many books come out every day against our Holy
Catholic Faith, in which the straying sheep attack their
Shepherd with specious reasoning, supported by false
interpretations of Scripture accommodated to their
errors, while all these errors could easily be detected
and destroyed, if my Science were known, because it was
given to me by GOD chiefly for this purpose, as you will
see when we deal with its thirteenth property.
"The
Philosophers of old did not discover all of the things
that are good to know about the Most Holy Trinity and
Incarnation, because they did not suppose a Trinity of
Persons in GOD, or GOD's future Incarnation, nor did they
know about the Production that GOD has in himself. "
(Lib. Desol. n. 37)
As for your
argument that I was overly curious about the sciences,
and the other things you said above, it seems like you
are lacking either in memory, or good will; now do you
not remember how I received my Science, or would you
rather love to be humble through ignorance than through
science; what do you really mean when you allege the
above Author who says that "the Sciences must be
humble servants of the Cross, subject to holy
humility"? (Fr. Causinus, ibid.) Through what, may I
ask? Falsehood, or truth? Ignorance, or knowledge? Doubt,
or certitude? My Son, in GOD wisdom and humility are
equal, because they are identical, which shows that the
greater perfection of both can exist in creatures more
through equality than through inequality; now from this
answer you can further infer that it is a disorderly
desire to want to belittle the one in order to extol the
other; and as every Saint loves the Glory of others as
much as his own, you partiality is not pleasing to the
Saints.
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