40. Better[346] to express the special nature of incorporeal existence
the ancient philosophers, particularly Parmenides,[347] do not content
themselves with saying "it is one," but they also add "and all," just
as a sense-object is a whole. But as this unity of the sense-object
contains a diversity (for in the sense-object the total unity is not
all things in so far as it is one, and as all things constitute the
total unity). The ancient philosophers also add, "in so far as it is
one." This was to prevent people from imagining a collective whole
and to indicate that the real being is all, only by virtue of its
indivisible unity. After having said, "it is everywhere," they add, "it
is nowhere." Then, after having said, "it is in all," that is, in all
individual things whose disposition enables them to receive it, they
still add, as an entire whole. They represent it thus simultaneously
under the most opposite attributes, so as to eliminate all the false
imaginations which are drawn from the natures of the bodies, and which
will only obscure the genuine idea of real existence.