as it were by
effects either already shown or to be shown.

3. Once more, Richard of S. Victor[362] distinguishes six kinds of
contemplation; the first is according to the imagination simply, when,
namely, we consider corporeal things; the second is in the imagination
directed by the reason, as when we consider the harmony and arrangement
of the things of the senses; the third is in the reason, but based on
the imagination, as when by the consideration of visible things we are
uplifted to the invisible; the fourth is in the reason working on the
things of the reason, as when the soul occupies itself with invisible
things unknown to the imagination; the fifth is above the reason, but
not beyond its grasp, when, for instance, we know by Divine Revelation
things which cannot be comprehended by the human reason; and the sixth
is above the reason and beyond its grasp, as when by Divine illumination
we know things which are apparently repugnant to human reason--for
example, the things we are told concerning the mystery of the Holy
Trinity.

And only the last named of these seems to come under Divine Truth;
consequently contemplation of the truth is not limited to Divine Truth,
but extends also to those truths which we consider in created things.

But by these six are signified the steps by which we ascend
through created things to the contemplation of God. For in the
first we have the perception of the things of sense; in the
second, the progress from the things of sense to the things of
the intellect; in the third judgment upon the things of sense
according to intellectual principles; in the fourth, the simple
consideration of intellectual truths at which we have arrived by
means of the things of sense; in the fifth, the contemplation of
intellectual truths to which we could not attain by the things
of sense, but which can be grasped by reason; in the sixth, the
contemplation of intellectual truths such as the reason can
neither find nor grasp--truths, namely, which belong to the
sublime contemplation of the Divine Truth, in which
contemplation is finally perfected.

4. Lastly, in the contemplative life the contemplation of truth is
sought as being man's perfection. But any truth whatsoever is a
perfection of the human intellect. Consequently the contemplative life
consists in the contemplation of any kind of truth whatsoever.

But the ultimate perfection