3. Let us now consider the Intelligence which reason tells us is
absolute essence and genuine "being," and whose existence we have
already established in a different manner. It would seem ridiculous
to inquire whether Intelligence form part of the scale of beings; but
there are men who doubt it, or who at least are disposed to ask for a
demonstration that Intelligence possesses the nature we predicate of
it, that it is separated (from matter), that it is identical with the
essences, and that it contains the ideas. This is our task.