Thus Unity is not all things, for if so, it would no longer be unity.
Nor is it Intelligence, for since intelligence is all things, unity
too would be all things. Nor is it essence, since essence also is all
things.
UNITY IS DIFFICULT TO ASCERTAIN BECAUSE THE SOUL IS FEARFUL OF SUCH
ABSTRUSE RESEARCHES.
3. What then is unity? What is its nature? It is not surprising that
it is so difficult to say so, when it is difficult to explain of what
even essence or form consist. But, nevertheless, forms are the basis
of our knowledge. Everything that the soul advances towards what is
formless, not being able to understand it because it is indeterminate,
and so to speak has not received the impression of a distinctive type,
the soul withdraws therefrom, fearing she will meet nonentity. That is
why, in the presence of such things she grows troubled, and descends
with pleasure. Then, withdrawing therefrom, she, so to speak, lets
herself fall till she meets some sense-object, on which she pauses, and
recovers; just as the eye which, fatigued by the contemplation of small
objects, gladly turns back to large ones. When the soul wishes to see
by herself, then seeing only because she is the object that she sees,
and, further, being one because she forms but one with this object, she
imagines that what she sought has escaped, because she herself is not
distinct from the object that she thinks.