8. What passes from potentiality to actuality, and always remains
the same so long as it exists, approaches actuality. It is thus that
the bodies such as fire may possess perfection. But what passes from
potentiality to actuality cannot exist always, because it contains
matter. On the contrary, what exists actually, and what is simple,
exists always. Besides, what is actual may also in certain respects
exist potentially.
THE GOOD IS SUPERIOR TO THOUGHT; THE HIGHEST DIVINITIES ARE NOT THE
SUPREME.
9. The divinities which occupy the highest rank are nevertheless
not the First; for Intelligence (from which proceed the divinities
of the highest rank, that is, the perfect intelligences) is (or, is
constituted by) all the intelligible essences, and, consequently,
comprises both motion and rest. Nothing like this is in the First.
He is related to nothing else, while the other things subsist in Him
in their rest, and direct their motion towards Him. Motion is an
aspiration, and the First aspires to nothing. Towards what would He,
in any case, aspire? He does not think himself; and they who say that
He thinks Himself mean by it only that He possesses Himself. But when
one says that a thing thinks, it is not because it possesses itself,
it is because it contemplates the First; that is the first actuality,
thought itself, the first thought, to which none other can be anterior;
only, it is inferior to the principle from which it derives its
existence, and occupies the second rank after it. Thought is therefore
not the most sacred thing; consequently, not all thought is sacred; the
only sacred thought is that of the Good, and this (Good) is superior to
thought.