2. Further, the Apostle says: _But we all, beholding the glory of the Lord with open face, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory._[344] But this refers to the contemplative life; therefore, besides the three things already mentioned--namely, contemplation, meditation and thought,--_speculation_, too, enters into the contemplative life.
But _speculation_, as S. Augustine's Gloss has it,[345] "is derived from _speculum_, a 'mirror,' not from _specula_, a 'watch-tower.'" To see a thing in a mirror, however, is to see a cause by an effect in which its likeness is shown; thus _speculation_ seems reducible to _meditation_.
3. Again, S. Bernard says[346]: "The first and chiefest contemplation is the marvelling at God's Majesty." But to "marvel" is, according to S. John Damascene,[347] a species of fear. Consequently it seems that many acts belong to contemplation.
But wonderment is a species of fear arising from our learning something which it is beyond our powers to understand. Hence wonderment is an act subsequent to the contemplation of sublime truth, whereas contemplation reaches its goal in the affective powers.
4. Lastly, prayer, reading, and meditation seem to belong to the contemplative life. Devout hearing, too, belongs to it, for it is said of Mary, who is the type of the contemplative life, that _sitting at the Lord's feet, she heard His word_.[348]
Man, however, arrives at the knowledge of truth in two ways: first of all, by receiving things from others; as regards, then, the things a man receives from God: prayer is necessary, according to the words: _I called upon God, and the spirit of Wisdom came upon me_.[349] And as for the things he receives from men: hearing is necessary if he receive them from one who speaks, reading is necessary if it be question of what is handed down in Holy Scripture. And secondly, a man arrives at the knowledge of truth by his own personal study, and for this is required meditation.
"Uni trinoque Domino Sit sempiterna gloria! Qui vitam sine termino Nobis donet in Patria!"
_S. Augustine:_ As long, then, as _we are absent from the Lord, we walk by faith and not by sight_,[350] whence it is said: _The just man shall live in his faith._[351] And this is our justice as long as we are on our pilgrimage--namely, that here now by the uprightness and perfection with which we walk we strive after that perfection and fulness of justice where, in all the glory of its beauty, will be full and perfect charity. Here we chastise our body and bring it into subjection; here we give alms by conferring benefits and forgiving offences against ourselves; and we do this with joy and from the heart, and are ever instant in prayer; and all this we do in the light of that sound doctrine by which is built up right faith, solid hope, and pure charity. This, then, is our present justice whereby we run hungering and thirsting after the perfection and fulness of justice, so that hereafter we may be filled therewith (_De Perfectione justitiæ Hominis_, viii. 18).