Chapter 6
6. Have I spoken of God, or uttered His praise, in any worthy way? Nay, I
feel that I have done nothing more than desire to speak; and if I have said
anything, it is not what I desired to say. How do I know this, except from the
fact that God is unspeakable? But what I have said, if it had been
unspeakable, could not have been spoken. And so God is not even to be called
"unspeakable," because to say even this is to speak of Him. Thus there arises
a curious contradiction of words, because if the unspeakable is what cannot be
spoken of, it is not unspeakable if it can be called unspeakable. And this
opposition of words is rather to be avoided by silence than to be explained
away by speech. And yet God, although nothing worthy of His greatness can be
said of Him, has condescended to accept the worship of men's mouths, and has
desired us through the medium of our own words to rejoice in His praise. For
on this principle it is that He is called Deus (God). For the sound of those
two syllables in itself conveys no true knowledge of His nature; but yet all
who know the Latin tongue are led, when that sound reaches their ears, to
think of a nature supreme in excellence and eternal in existence.
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