De tribus mansionibus arcae sapientiae, sive intellectualis.
Three Dwelling-Places of the Mind
The intellect contains three dwelling-places representing right, useful, and necessary thoughts.
There are three dwelling-places in the ark of the intellect, which signify three kinds of thoughts: the right, the useful, and the necessary.
The First Dwelling: Right but Useless Thought
Loving meditation on Scripture and God's works places the mind in the first dwelling, yet knowledge that is not lived out remains a hidden, useless treasure.
If I have begun to love meditating on the Scriptures, and have gladly thought about the virtues of the saints, and about the works of God, and about whatever other things pertain to the amendment of conduct or to the training of the mind, then I have begun to be in the first dwelling-place of the ark. But if I put off and hold back from imitating the good I have come to know, then I can say that my thought is right but useless — because the good I think about and recognize in others is indeed good, but it is useless to me if I don't draw it into my own way of living as an example. Because someone else's virtue doesn't benefit me if I have neglected to imitate it as far as I can. A hidden treasure and hidden knowledge — what good are either of them? I hide my knowledge if I don't show in action the good I have come to know, and so it cannot benefit me, because I conceal what I know I possess.
The Second Dwelling: Useful Thought Made Active
When knowing is joined to doing, thought becomes useful and the heart is gathered from vain distractions into the second dwelling.
If, however, I devote effort not only to knowing but also to doing what is good and useful, and my heart's thinking has been diligent in this — so far as the virtues I have learned to love and admire in others, I make my own through the practice of discipline and the pattern of right living — then I can say that my heart's thinking is useful, and then I have ascended into the second dwelling-place, and I have gathered my heart more closely into one, so that it does not wander through things that are vain and do not pertain to usefulness.
The Third Dwelling: From Works to Virtue Within
The third step calls the soul to possess inwardly the virtues it practices outwardly, since deeds alone profit little without inner virtue.
The third step remains: when I have begun to have the works of virtue, I should also labor to possess the virtues themselves — that is, what I demonstrate outwardly in action, I should inwardly possess in virtue. Otherwise, it doesn't help me much to have deeds, unless I also have the virtues of those deeds.
The Highest Dwelling: Love Alone with Christ
The soul climbs to the highest part of the ark by seeking God's gaze rather than human approval, where love is the one especially necessary virtue that unites all desire in Christ, as confirmed by the psalm.
So if I set my heart's thinking to this end — that whatever good appears outwardly in me to human eyes, I would strive to present inwardly to the divine gaze — then I have climbed to the third dwelling, where the virtues are that are necessary. But among all these, one is especially necessary: that is love, which joins us to God, and so in the highest part of the ark it is gathered into one, so that we may now think one thing, expect one thing, desire one thing: our Lord Jesus Christ. In the first dwelling, then, is knowledge; in the second, action; in the third, virtue; and in the highest, the reward of virtue: the Lord Jesus Christ. You have these steps in the psalm where it says: Goodness, and discipline, and knowledge — if you turn knowledge, and discipline, and goodness — teach me, Lord Jesus Christ.✦
Read the original Latin
Tres mansiones in intellectuali arca, quae significant tria genera cogitationum, rectum, utile, necessarium. Si ego diligere coepero meditationem Scripturarum, et libenter cogitavero de virtutibus sanctorum, et de operibus Dei, et de aliis quaecunque ad emendationem morum, sive ad exercitationem mentis pertinent, jam in arcae mansione prima esse coepi. Sed si bonum quod novi adhuc imitari differo et detracto, tunc dicere possum, quod recta sit cogitatio mea et inutilis, quia bonum quidem est, quod de aliis cogito, et quod in aliis cognosco, sed inutile mihi, si illud ad exemplum vivendi non traho. Quia aliena virtus mihi non prodest, si illam (quantum possum) imitari neglexero. Thesaurus absconditus, et scientia abscondita, quae utilitas in utrisque? Scientiam abscondo, si bonum quod novi opere non ostendo, et ideo mihi non potest prodesse, quod cum sciam habere dissimulo. Si autem operam dedero non tantum ut sciam, sed etiam ut agam quae bona sunt et utilia, et in hoc sedula fuerit cogitatio cordis mei, quatenus virtutes, quas in aliis jam amare, et admirari didici, meas faciam per exercitium disciplinae, et formam recte vivendi, tunc possum dicere, quod utilis sit cogitatio cordis mei, et tunc ascendi in secundam mansionem, et cor meum in unum, jam magis collegi, ut non discurrat per ea quae vana sunt, et ad utilitatem non pertinent. Restat tertium, ut cum habere coepero opera virtutum, elaborem quoque ipsas virtutes habere, hoc est, ut quod foris demonstro in opere intus possideam in virtute.
Alioquin non multum mihi prodest habere opere, nisi etiam virtutes operum habeam. Si ergo ad hoc cogitationem cordis mei instituo, ut quidquid boni in me foris humanis apparet aspectibus, divinis, intus satagam praesentare obtutibus, tunc ascendi in tertiam mansionem, ubi virtutes sunt, quae sunt necessariae. Sed inter has omnes praecipue una necessaria est, id est charitas, quae nos Deo conjungit, et ideo in supremo arca ad unum colligitur; ut jam unum cogitemus, unum exspectemus, unum desideremus Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum. In prima ergo mansione est cognitio, in secunda opus, in tertia virtus, in supremo praemium virtutis Dominus Jesus Christus. Hos gradus habes in psalmo ubi dicit: Bonitatem, et disciplinam et scientiam, si convertas scientiam, et disciplinam, et bonitatem doce me Domine Jesu Christe.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ps.119.66 — Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I have believed your commandments.
De Arca Noe Morali et Mystica (On the Moral and Mystical Ark of Noah) companion
Keep the ark under construction
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