Commentary on Plato's Symposium

not distributed, it does not come upon many things, but rather illuminates, awakens, and maintains them. In the same way, that first act of all things, which is called God, in creating, donated form and act to each thing: which, being taken from the created thing, or from the patient subject, is weak and impotent to the execution of things. But that perpetual and invisible light of the divine sun is always present to all, it favors, enlivens, awakens, fills, and maintains: of which Orpheus, singing, said, "The sun favors all things, and raises itself above all, and because it is the act of all things, and maintains them, it is called good; because it enlivens, sweetens, placates, and awakens, [it is called] beautiful." It is called, besides this, beauty and truth: beauty, because it draws the three knowing virtues of the soul—that is, understanding, seeing, and hearing—into objects that are to be born. Truth, because it applies that knowledge into the cognitive power. In sum, as the good, it creates, governs, and fills; as the beautiful, it illuminates and infuses grace.

Beauty is the splendor of divine goodness: God is a point, or center, in the midst of four circles. Chapter III.

A decorative initial 'N' is illustrated with floral and scrollwork patterns.

Not without purpose did the ancient theologians place goodness in the center, and beauty in four circles. The center of all things is God; the four circles continuously turned around it are the mind, the soul, nature, and matter. The mind is a stable circle; the soul is a circle mobile by itself; nature is mobile in another, and is not moved by another; matter is mobile in this, and in that. But why God is the center, and why these four are circles, I intend to show you.