15. How does He give them? Is it because He possesses them, or because
He does not possess them? If it be because He does not possess them,
how does He give what He does not possess? If it be because He does
possess them, He is no longer simple. If He give what He does not
possess, how is multiplicity born of Him? It would seem as if only
one single thing could proceed from Him, unity; and even so one might
wonder how anything whatever could be born of that which is absolutely
one. We answer, in the same way as from a light radiates a luminous
sphere (or, fulguration[109]). But how can the manifold be born from
the One? Because the thing that proceeds from Him must not be equal to
Him, and so much the less, superior; for what is superior to unity,
or better than Him? It must, therefore, be inferior to Him, and,
consequently, be less perfect. Now it cannot be less perfect, except
on condition of being less unitary, that is, more manifold. But as it
must aspire to unity, it will be the "manifold one." It is by that
which is single that that which is not single is preserved, and is
what it is; for that which is not one, though composite, cannot receive
the name of existence. If it be possible to say what each thing is, it
is only because it is one and identical. What is not manifold is not
one by participation, but is absolute unity; it does not derive its
unity from any other principle; on the contrary it is the principle to
which other things owe that they are more or less single, according as
they are more or less close to it. Since the characteristic of that
which is nearest to unity is identity, and is posterior to unity,
evidently the manifoldness contained therein, must be the totality of
things that are single. For since manifoldness is therein united with
manifoldness, it does not contain parts separated from each other,
and all subsist together. Each of the things, that proceed therefrom,
are manifold unity, because they cannot be universal unity. Universal
unity is characteristic only of their principle (the intelligible
Being), because itself proceeds from a great Principle which is one,
essentially, and genuinely. That which, by its exuberant fruitfulness,
begets, is all; on the other hand, as this totality participates
in unity, it is single; and, consequently, it is single totality
(universal unity).