A metaphysics consisting of a chain of being, such as that of the neo-Platonists and its various descendants and precursors, cannot reconcile the finite and the infinite. The finite in such a system has a series of ascending grades, and although these can go on and on to unlimited heights, the steps are all relative. The infinite or absolute cannot be the outcome of any number of such relative ascensions, It must stand strictly beyond all notions of beyondness. This means that next to the infinite there is no real difference between any two grades of relative elevation, and so the infinite cannot provide a scale in which the finite levels can be anchored. Humans may be between angels and animals, but in relation to God there is no difference between angels and the lowest creatures in so far as each is a vanishing fraction of Him. The God of Milton's or Dante's cosmos is effectively finite, you can triangulate His position with reference to the finite events that concern Him, and His infinitude is not so much evoked as marked by the idea of holiness, which is a sort of prohibition, a sacred taboo on looking too closely. For the mystics this corresponds to the notion of the unspeakable, of the systematic negative, of the piercing of the veil of time, space, being, thought. But again this renders finite reality shadowy and dreamlike and lacking in any gauge, any measure. In arithmetic you can start from zero and one and build up a potentially infinite system, but if you start from infinity you can never get to one, every operation with infinity only yields infinity. There is a flaw in understanding which cannot be understood.