17. What better thing is there then than this supremely wise Life,
exempt from all fault or error? What is there better than the
Intelligence that embraces everything? In one word, what is there
better than universal Life and universal Intelligence? If we answer
that what is better than these things is the Principle that begat
them, if we content ourselves with explaining how it begat them,
and to show that one cannot discover anything better, we shall,
instead of progressing in this discussion, ever remain at the same
point. Nevertheless, we need to rise higher. We are particularly
obliged to do this, when we consider that the principle that we seek
must be considered as the "Self-sufficient supremely independent
of all things;" for no entity is able to be self-sufficient, and
all have participated in the One; and since they have done so, none
of them can be the One. Which then is this principle in which all
participate, which makes Intelligence exist, and is all things? Since
it makes Intelligence exist, and since it is all things, since it
makes its contained manifoldness self-sufficient by the presence of
unity, and since it is thus the creative principle of "being" and
self-sufficiency, it must, instead of being "being," be super-"being"
and super-existence.