CAPUT XXIII. Quid sit familiare, seu etiam speciale speculationi secundae

CAPUT XXIII. Quid sit familiare, seu etiam speciale speculationi secundae

But you should know that that kind of contemplation which operates in pure understanding is recognized as all the more excellent, of course, the more subtle it is than this kind of speculation designated through Naphtali. Yet this kind of speculation has something unique and very remarkable. For more than the rest, for minds that are still raw and less practiced, it is both easier to understand and more pleasant to hear. Indeed, this comes more readily to the one who is meditating and touches the hearer more sweetly. It is clearly both more ready in meditation and more companionable in speech. And so through Jacob it is also said of Naphtali: "Naphtali is a deer set free, giving words of beauty."^✦ For he is called a deer because of how easily he runs, and set free because of how eagerly he runs.^✦ A deer is an extremely swift animal: one that has been set free can run a great deal, and longs to run a great deal.^✦ So if I'm not mistaken, Naphtali is rightly called a deer set free, because by the grace of contemplation he can race through many things, and because of the sweetness of contemplation he loves to run far.^✦ For with that great speed this Naphtali now lifts the contemplative's mind—provided it has been at least somewhat practiced in this kind of work—up to the heights, now sets it down into the depths, now sweeps it through countless things, so that the mind itself that undergoes this often marvels at itself, taught by this happy schooling how fittingly our Naphtali is called a deer set free.^✦ It's certainly worth noting how rightly he is compared not to a bird in flight but to a running deer: for a bird flying is lifted far from the earth, but a deer plants itself on the ground in order to leap, and even in its leaps themselves is never separated very far from the earth. Just so, then—just so Naphtali: while through the form of visible things he seeks the nature of invisible things, he is used to making certain leaps, but not to growing strong enough for full flight, because even as he lifts himself to the heights, drawing with him the shadow of bodily things, he does not leave the depths behind entirely.