light subsists as Being, so all things subsist in it according to
their essential being, not according to their accidental forms; and
since it shines upon all things, its property is to subsist as
light. Hence all things shine forth in this essence in interior
stillness, without altering its simplicity.

Then the maiden said: I could wish greatly, sir, that you could give
me this mysterious teaching, as you understand it, under a figure,
that I might understand it better. I should also be glad if you
could sum up what you have been saying at length, so that it may
stick more firmly in my weak mind. The servitor replied: Who can
express in forms what has no form? Who can explain that which has no
mode of being, and is above sense and reason? Any similitude must be
infinitely more unlike than like the reality. Nevertheless, that I
may drive out forms from your mind by forms, I will try to give you
a picture of these ideas which surpass all forms, and to sum up a
long discourse in a few words. A certain wise theologian says that
God, in regard to His Godhead, is like a vast circle, of which the
centre is everywhere, and the circumference nowhere. Now consider
the image which follows. If anyone throws a great stone into the
middle of a pool, a ring is formed in the water, and this ring makes
a second ring, and the second a third; and the number and size of
the rings depend on the force of the throw. They may even require a
larger space than the limit of the pool. Suppose now that the first
ring represents the omnipotent virtue of the Divine nature, which is
infinite in God the Father. This produces another ring like itself,
which is the Son. And the two produce the third, which is the Holy
Ghost. The spiritual superessential begetting of the Divine Word is
the cause of the creation of all spirits and all things. This
supreme Spirit has so ennobled man, as to shed upon him a ray from