the creatures into God. There is, however, a difference between the
outpouring of the creatures and that of God. The creature is only a
particular and partial substance, and its giving and communication
is also partial and limited. When a human father begets a son, he
gives him part, but not the whole, of his own substance, for he
himself is only a partial good. But the outpouring of God is of a
more interior and higher kind than the creature's outpouring,
inasmuch as He Himself is a higher good. If the outpouring of God is
to be worthy of His pre-eminent being, it must be according to
personal relations.

Now, then, if you can look upon the pure goodness of the highest
Good (which goodness is, by its nature, the active principle of the
spontaneous love with which the highest Good loves itself) you will
behold the most excellent and superessential outpouring of the Word
from the Father, by which generation all things exist and are
produced; and you will see also in the highest good, and the highest
outpouring, the most holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
existing in the Godhead. And if the highest outpouring proceeds from
the highest essential good, it follows that there must be in this
Trinity the highest and most intimate consubstantiality or community
of being, and complete equality and identity of essence, which the
Persons enjoy in sweetest communion, and also that the Substance and
power of the three almighty Persons is undivided and unpartitioned.

Here the maiden exclaimed: Marvellous! I swim in the Godhead like an
eagle in the air. The servitor, resuming his exposition, continued:
It is impossible to express in words how the Trinity can subsist in
the unity of one essence. Nevertheless, to say what may be said on
the subject, Augustine says that in the Godhead the Father is the