(The universe is) a beautifully composed poem in which every mind may discover, through the succession of events, the diversity, multiplicity, and justice, the order, rectitude and beauty, of the countless divine decrees that proceed from God's wisdom ruling the universe... But as no one can appreciate the beauty of a poem unless his vision embraces it as a whole, so no one can see the beauty of the orderly governance of creation unless he has an integral view of it. And since no man lives long enough to observe the whole with his bodily eyes, nor can anyone by his own ability foresee the future, the Holy Spirit is given to us the book of the Scriptures, whose length corresponds to the whole duration of God's governing action in the universe.
~ Bonaventure; The Breviloqium
