VIII.
PLATONISM.
“They found in the knowledge of God the first Cause of the
universe, the Light of Truth, the Fountain of Blessedness. They
who thus think of God, whether Platonists or other Gentile
philosophers, they think with us.”
Aug De Civ. Dei, lib. viii. cap 10: and cap 6. and 7.
That God Himself is the essential Light,
Which is not subject to corporeal change,
The Fountain of all life, beyond the range
Of these our senses, and material sight;
That One Chief Good, supreme and infinite,
Wherein the soul, from bonds terrestrial free,
May drink of bliss and immortality,
And disembodied find serene delight;—
That he who seeks that pure Intelligence
Must walls of this our universe transcend,
Made like to God;—and ever heavenward tend
Beyond the reach of outward elements;
That true philosophy thus wean'd from sense
Is but the love of God, our being's end.
