7. We call Intelligence the image of the One. Let us explain this.
It is His image because Intelligence is, in a certain respect,
begotten by Unity, because Intelligence possesses much of the nature
of its father, and because Intelligence resembles Him as light
resembles the sun. But the One is not Intelligence; how then can the
hypostatic (form of existence) begotten by the One be Intelligence?
By its conversion towards the One, Intelligence sees Him; now it is
this vision[238] which constitutes Intelligence. Every faculty that
perceives another being is sensation or intelligence; but sensation
is similar to a straight line, while intelligence resembles a
circle.[239] Nevertheless, the circle is divisible, while Intelligence
is indivisible; it is one, but, while being one, it also is the
power of all things. Now thought considers all these things (of
which Intelligence is the power), by separating itself, so to speak,
from this power; otherwise, Intelligence would not exist. Indeed,
Intelligence has a consciousness of the reach of its power, and this
consciousness constitutes its nature. Consequently, Intelligence
determines its own nature by the means of the power it derived from
the One; and at the same time Intelligence sees that its nature
("being") is a part of the entities which belong to the One, and that
proceed from Him. Intelligence sees that it owes all its force to the
One, and that it is due to Him that Intelligence has the privilege of
being a "being" (or, essence). Intelligence sees that, as it itself
is divisible, it derives from the One, which is indivisible, all the
entities it possesses, life and thought; because the One is not any of
these things. Everything indeed is derived from the One, because it is
not contained in a determinate form; it simply is the One, while in the
order of beings Intelligence is all things. Consequently the One is not
any of the things that Intelligence contains; it is only the principle
from which all of them are derived. That is why they are "being," for
they are already determined, and each has a kind of shape. Existence
should be contemplated, not in indetermination, but on the contrary in
determination and rest. Now, for Intelligible entities, rest consists
in determination, and shape by which they subsist.