8. Since the thought is something essentially one (?), the form, which
is the object of thought, and the idea[134, 134a] are one and the same
thing. Which is this thing? Intelligence and the intellectual "being,"
for no idea is foreign to intelligence; each form is intelligence, and
the whole intelligence is all the forms; every particular form is a
particular intelligence. Likewise science, taken in its totality,
is all the notions it embraces; every notion is a part of the total
science; it is not separated from the science locally, and exists
potentially in the whole science.[135] Intelligence resides within
itself, and by possessing itself calmly, is the eternal fulness of
all things. If we conceived it as being prior to essence, we would
have to say that it was the action and thought of Intelligence which
produced and begat all beings. But as, on the contrary, it is certain
that essence is prior to Intelligence, we should, within the thinking
principle, first conceive the beings, then actualization and thought,
just as (the nature) of fire is joined by the actualization of the
fire, so that beings have innate intelligence (?[148]) as their
actualization. Now essence is an actualization; therefore essence and
intelligence are but a single actualization, or rather both of them
fuse.[136] Consequently, they form but a single nature, as beings,
the actualization of essence, and intelligence. In this case the
thought is the form, and the shape is the actualization of the being.
When, however, in thought we separate essence from Intelligence, we
must conceive one of these principles as prior to the other. The
Intelligence which operates this separation is indeed different from
the essence from which it separates;[137] but the Intelligence which
is inseparable from essence and which does not separate thought from
essence is itself essence and all things.