On Knowing Love and Reason, and Their Rise and Fall

God is the absolute ruler, the Lord of majesty, all powerful beyond compare, eternal and perfect. He set love as a king over a whole world, though those careless of its meaning call it mere command. And so he made reason the ruler of creation, master of this world and of faith alike. From the coming and going of that gaze of yours, both fortune and misfortune became plain. The pure soul took its share from those two glances, lifted high by love and by divine knowledge. In its rise and in its fall as well, all was revealed by the decree of the Mighty One. For reason, both of these states are only his reflection, in every condition, whether bad or good.