HERE BEGINNETH THE SIXTH CHAPTER
A short conceit of the work of this book, treated by
question.
BUT now thou askest me and sayest, "How shall I think on Himself, and what is
He?" and to this I cannot answer thee but thus: "I wot not."
For thou hast brought me with thy question
into that same darkness, and into that same cloud of unknowing, that I would
thou wert in thyself. For of all other creatures and their works, yea, and of
the works of God's self, may a man through grace have fullhead of knowing, and
well he can think of them: but of God Himself can no man think. And therefore I
would leave all that thing that I can think, and choose to my love that thing
that I cannot think. For why; He may well be loved, but not thought.
By love may He be gotten and holden; but by thought never. And therefore,
although it be good sometime to think of the kindness and the worthiness of God
in special, and although it be a light and a part of contemplation:
nevertheless yet in this work it shall be cast down and covered with a cloud of
forgetting. And thou shalt step above it stalwartly, but Mistily, with a devout
and a pleasing stirring of love, and try for to pierce that darkness above
thee. And smite upon that thick cloud of unknowing with a sharp dart of longing
love; and go not thence for thing that befalleth.