ar_--inasmuch as
an Angel, according to his contemplation of God, provides for
those inferior to him. To the human soul, on the contrary, he
assigns this same _oblique_ motion, similarly compounded of the
_direct_ and the _circular_ motions, inasmuch as in its
reasonings it makes use of the Divine illuminations.

3. Lastly, Richard of S. Victor[382] gives many other and different
kinds of motion. For, following the analogy of the birds of the air, he
says of these latter that "some at one time ascend on high, at another
swoop down to earth, and they do this again and again; others turn now
to the right, now to the left, and this repeatedly; others go in
advance, others fall behind; some sail round and round in circles, now
narrower and now wider; while others again remain almost immovably
suspended in one place." From all which it would seem that there are not
merely three movements in contemplation.

But all these diversities of motion which are expressed by, up
and down, to right and left, backwards and forwards, and in
varying circles, are reducible either to _direct_ or to
_oblique_ motion, for they all signify the discursive action of
the reason. For if this discursive action be from the genus to
the species or from the whole to the part, it will be, as
Richard of S. Victor himself explains, motion upwards and
downwards. If, again, it means argumentation from one thing to
its opposite, it will come under motion to right and left. Or if
it be deduction from cause to effect, then it will be motion
backwards and forwards. And finally, if it mean arguing from the
accidents which surround a thing, whether nearly or remotely, it
will be circuitous motion. But the discursive action of the
reason arguing from the things of sense to intelligible things
according to the orderly progress of the natural reason, belongs
to _direct_ motion. When, however, it arises from Divine
illuminations, it comes under _oblique_ motion, as we have
already said (in the reply to the second argument). Lastly, only
the immobility which he mentions will come under _circular_
motion.

Whence it appears that S. Denis has quite sufficiently, and with
exceeding subtlety, described the movements of contemplation.

"For behold my witness is in Heaven, and He that knoweth my
conscience is on high. For behold short years pass away, and