But how is an actualization begotten from that self-limited
(intelligible)? We shall have to draw a distinction between an
actualization of being, and an actualization out of the being of each
thing (actualized being, and actualization emanating from being).
Actualized being cannot differ from being, for it is being itself. But
the actualization emanating from being--and everything necessarily has
an actualization of this kind--differs from what produces it. It is as
if with fire: there is a difference between the heat which constitutes
its being, and the heat which radiates exteriorly, while the fire
interiorly realizes the actualization which constitutes its being,
and which makes it preserve its nature. Here also, and far more so,
the First remains in His proper state, and yet simultaneously, by His
inherent perfection, by the actualization which resides in Him, has
been begotten the actualization which, deriving its existence from so
great a power, nay, from supreme Power, has arrived at, or achieved
essence and being. As to the First, He was above being; for He was the
potentiality of all things, already being all things.