37. (5) That which really exists has neither great nor small. Greatness
and smallness are attributes of corporeal mass. By its identity and
numerical unity, real existence is neither great nor small, neither
very large nor very small, though it cause even greatest and smallest
to participate in its nature. It must not, therefore, be represented
as great, for in that case we could not conceive how it could be
located in the smallest space without being diminished or condensed.
Nor should it be represented as small, which conception of it would
hinder our understanding how it could be present in a whole large body
without being increased or extended. We must try to gain a simultaneous
conception of both that which is very large and very small, and realize
real existence as preserving its identity and its indwelling in itself
in any chance body whatever, along with an infinity of other bodies of
different sizes. It is united to the extension of the world, without
extending itself, or uniting, and it exceeds the extension of the world
as well as that of its parts, by embracing them within its unity.
Likewise, the world unites with real existence by all its parts, so far
as its nature allows it to do so, though it cannot, however, embrace
it entirely, nor contain its whole power. Real existence is infinite
and incomprehensible for the world because, among other attributes, it
possesses that of having no extension.
38. Great[340] magnitude is a hindrance for a body, if, instead of
comparing it to things of the same kind, it is considered in relation
with things of a different nature; for volume is, as it were, a kind
of procession of existence outside of itself, and a breaking up of
its power. That which possesses a superior power is alien to all
extension; for potentiality does not succeed in realizing its fulness
until it concentrates within itself; it needs to fortify itself to
acquire all its energy. Consequently the body, by extending into
space, loses its energy, and withdraws from the potency that belongs
to real and incorporeal existence; but real existence does not weaken
in extension, because, having no extension, it preserves the greatness
of its potency. Just as, in relation to the body, real existence has
neither extension nor volume, likewise corporeal existence, in relation
to real existence, is weak and impotent. The existence that possesses
the greatest power does not occupy any extension. Consequently, though
the world fill space, though it be everywhere united to real extension,
it could not, nevertheless, embrace the greatness of its potency. It
is united to real existence, not by parts, but in an indivisible and
indefinite manner. Therefore, the incorporeal is present to the body,
not in a local manner, but by assimilation, so far as the body is
capable of being assimilated to the incorporeal, and as the incorporeal
can manifest in it. The incorporeal is not present to the material,
in so far as the material is incapable of being assimilated to a
completely immaterial principle; however, the incorporeal is present to
the corporeal in so far as the corporeal can be assimilated thereto.
Nor is the incorporeal present to the material by receptivity (in
the sense that one of these two substances would receive something
from the other); otherwise the material and the immaterial would be
altered; the former, on receiving the immaterial, into which it would
be transformed, and the latter, on becoming material. Therefore, when
a relation is established between two substances that are as different
as the corporeal and the incorporeal, an assimilation and participation
that is reciprocal to the power of the one, and the impotence of
the other, occurs. That is why the world always remains very distant
from the power of real existence, and the latter from the impotence
of material nature. But that which occupies the middle, that which
simultaneously assimilates and is assimilated, that which unites the
extremes, becomes a cause of error in respect to them, because the
substances it brings together by assimilation are very different.