2. Further, the Apostle says: But we all, beholding the glory of the

Lord with open face, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory. But this refers to the contemplative life; therefore, besides the three things already mentioned—namely, contemplation, meditation and thought,—speculation, too, enters into the contemplative life.

But speculation, as S. Augustine's Gloss has it, "is derived from speculum, a 'mirror,' not from specula, a 'watch-tower.'" To see a thing in a mirror, however, is to see a cause by an effect in which its likeness is shown; thus speculation seems reducible to meditation.

3. Again, S. Bernard says: "The first and chiefest contemplation is the marvelling at God's Majesty." But to "marvel" is, according to S. John Damascene, a species of fear. Consequently it seems that many acts belong to contemplation.

But wonderment is a species of fear arising from our learning something which it is beyond our powers to understand. Hence wonderment is an act subsequent to the contemplation of sublime truth, whereas contemplation reaches its goal in the affective powers.