But besides this intelligible (entity, namely, intelligence), there is
another (higher) intelligible (the supreme Intelligible, the First).
In what way does the intelligence, thus determined, proceed from the
(First) Intelligible? The Intelligible abides in itself, and has need
of nothing else, while there is a need of something else in that which
sees and thinks (that is, that which thinks has need of contemplating
the supreme Intelligible). But even while remaining within Himself, the
Intelligible (One) is not devoid of sentiment; all things belong to
Him, are in Him, and with Him. Consequently, He has the conception of
Himself, a conception which implies consciousness, and which consists
in eternal repose, and in a thought, but in a thought different from
that of intelligence. If He begets something while remaining within
Himself, He begets it precisely when He is at the highest point of
individuality. It is therefore by remaining in His own state that
He begets what He begets; He procreates by individualizing. Now as
He remains intelligible, what He begets cannot be anything else
than thought; therefore thought, by existing, and by thinking the
Principle whence it is derived (for it could not think any other
object), becomes simultaneously intelligence and intelligible; but this
second intelligible differs from the first Intelligible from which it
proceeds, and of which it is but the image and the reflection.