2. The sense-world draws its existence from that intelligible World.
The sense-world, however, is not really unitary; it is indeed multiple,
and divided into a plurality of parts which are separated from each
other, and are mutually foreign. Not love reigns there, but hate,
produced by the separation of things which their state of imperfection
renders mutually inimical. None of its parts suffices to itself.
Preserved by something else, it is none the less an enemy of the
preserving Power. The sense-world has been created, not because the
divinity reflected on the necessity of creating, but because (in the
nature of things) it was unavoidable that there be a nature inferior to
the intelligible World, which, being perfect, could not have been the
last degree of existence.[29] It occupied the first rank, it had great
power, that was universal and capable of creating without deliberation.
If it had had to deliberate, it would not, by itself, have expressed
the power of creation. It would not have possessed it essentially.
It would have resembled an artisan, who, himself, does not have the
power of creating, but who acquires it by learning how to work. By
giving something of itself to matter, Intelligence produced everything
without issuing from its rest or quietness. That which it gives is
Reason, because reason is the emanation of Intelligence, an emanation
that is as durable as the very existence of Intelligence. In a seminal
reason all the parts exist in an united condition, without any of
them struggling with another, without disagreement or hindrance. This
Reason then causes something of itself to pass into the corporeal mass,
where the parts are separated from each other, and hinder each other,
and destroy each other. Likewise, from this unitary Intelligence,
and from the Reason that proceeds thence, issues this universe whose
parts are separate and distinct from each other, some of the parts
being friendly and allied, while some are separate and inimical. They,
therefore, destroy each other, either voluntarily or involuntarily,
and through this destruction their generation is mutually operated.
In such a way did the divinity arrange their actions and experiences
that all concur in the formation of a single harmony,[30] in which
each utters its individual note because, in the whole, the Reason that
dominates them produces order and harmony. The sense-world does not
enjoy the perfection of Intelligence and Reason: it only participates
therein. Consequently, the sense-world needed harmony, because it was
formed by the concurrence of Intelligence and necessity.[31] Necessity
drives the sense-world to evil, and to what is irrational, because
necessity itself is irrational; but Intelligence dominates necessity.
The intelligible World is pure reason; none other could be such. The
world, which is born of it, had to be inferior to it, and be neither
pure reason, nor mere matter; for order would have been impossible
in unmingled matter. The sense-world, therefore, is a mixture of
matter and Reason; those are the elements of which it is composed. The
principle from which this mixture proceeds, and which presides over
the mixture, is the Soul. Neither must we imagine that this presiding
over the mixture constitutes an effort for the Soul; for she easily
administers the universe, by her presence.[32]