464 DE AUGMENTIS SCIENTIARUM 



revelantur homini, et sobrie indagari possunt. Qua in re non 

 competit appellatio Doctrinae, cum omnis doctrina sit scientia 

 acquisita ; nulla autem cognitio in Deo acquisita est, sed origi- 

 nalis. Itaque aliud quaerendum est nomen, Sapientia scilicet, 

 ut Sacrae Scripturae earn indigitant. 



Sic autem se res habet : In operibus creationis duplicem 

 virtutis divinae emanationem videmus, quarum una ad potentiam 

 refertur, altera ad sapientiam. 1 Ilia praecipue cernitur in 

 creanda mole materiae, haec in pulchritudine formae disponenda. 2 

 Hoc posito notandum est, nihil in creationis historia obstare, 

 quin fuerit confusa ilia coeli terraeque massa et materia unico 

 temporis momento creata ; cui tamen disponendae digerendaeque 

 sex dies fuerunt attributi : adeo signanter Deus opera potentiaa 

 ac sapientiae discriniinavit. Cui accedit, quod de materiae crea- 

 tione memoriaB proditum non sit dixisse Deum, Fiat ccelum et 

 terra, sicut de sequentibus operibus dictum est ; sed nude atque 

 actualiter, Deus creavit ccelum et terram 3 : ita ut materia 

 videatur tanquam manu facta, formae vero introductio stilum 

 habeat legis aut decreti. 4 



Pergamus a Deo ad Angelos, quorum natura dignatione est 

 Deo proxima. Videmus in ordinibus Angelorum (quatenus 

 fides adhibenda Coelesti illi Hierarchiae, quae Dionysii Areopa- 

 gitae nomine evulgatur 5 ) primum locum obtinere Seraphim, 

 Angelos scilicet amoris ; secundum Cherubim, Angelos illumi- 

 nationis ; tertium autem locum et sequentes Thronis, Princi- 

 patibus, caeterisque Angelis potentiae et ministerii concedi ; ut 



merit of his tract De Opifido Mundi, expounds the first five verses of Genesis, on the 

 assumption that they relate, not to any material creation, but to the formation in the 

 divine mind of the archetype or exemplar of the visible universe. 



1 The first of these is by the schoolmen ascribed more especially to the first, and 

 the second to the second person of the Trinity. 



2 It is to be hoped that M. J. de Maistre, who in his work entitled Examen de la Phi- 

 losophic de Bacon has charged him with asserting the eternity of matter, was not 

 acquainted with this passage. It would have been well tor M. J. de Maistre's reputation, 

 if the Examen, which was published after his death, had been suppressed. It is dis- 

 figured by passionate unfairness, and in many passages by ignorance almost incredible. 



8 Gen. i. 1. 



4 It seems that materia and forma are here taken in antithesis to each other ; on 

 which it is to be remarked that on the principles of the philosophy to which this anti- 

 thesis belongs, the existence of matter could not precede in order of time the *' intro- 

 ductio formae ;" for we cannot have ens actu sine actu. If the order of time be taken 

 account of, we must say that the formation in question was not the introduction of 

 substantial form, but that of the. order and beauty of the .universe. And thus S. 

 Thomas, Sum. Theol. i. q. 66. a. ] . 



fl De Ccelesti Hierarchid, cc. 6. 7. This work, in the genuineness of which no one 

 probably now believes, exercised great influence on the medieval development of the 

 doctrine of the nature and faculties of angels. Another work ascribed to the same au- 

 thor, namely the De Divinis Nominibus, has been commented by S. Thomas Aquinas. 



