Divine Splendour in Creation

Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499), Commentaire sur le Banquet de Platon = Commentarium in convivium Platonis, De amore, ed. & trans. by Pierre Laurens (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 2002), p. 37 [II.5]:

Quemadmodum uero solis radius unus corpora quatuor, ignem, aerem, aquam terramque illustrat, sic unus dei radius mentem, animam, naturam, materiamque illuminat. Atque ut in quatuor iis elementis quicumque lumen inspicit, solis ipsius aspicit radium, perque ipsum ad supernam solis lucem intuendam conuertitur. Ita quisquis decorem in quatuor istis, mente, anima, natura, corpore contemplatur amatque, dei fulgorem in iis, perque fulgorem huiusmodi, deum ipsum intuetur et amat.

Just as one single ray of the sun illuminates the four bodies: fire, air, water and earth, so a single ray of God illuminates the mind, the soul, nature and matter. And just as anyone who looks at the light in those four elements, looks at a ray of the sun itself, and through that same ray is turned to looking at the celestial light of the sun, so it is that anyone who observes and loves the beauty in those four: mind, soul, nature and body, sees and loves the splendour of God in them, and through that splendour, sees and loves God Himself.

My translation.