TANS. It means the difference that exists between the lower intellect
called the intellect of power, either possible or passive, which is
uncertain, multifarious, and multiform, and the higher intellect, which,
perhaps, is like that which is said by the Peripatetics to be the lowest
of the intelligences, and which exerts an immediate influence over all
the individuals of the human species, and is called the active and
acting intellect. This special human intelligence which influences all
individuals is like the moon, which partakes of no other species but
that one alone which always renews itself by the transmutation caused in
it by the sun, which is the primal and universal intelligence; but the
human intellect, both individual and collective, turns as do the eyes
towards innumerable and most diverse objects; whence, according to the
infinite degrees which exist, it takes on all the natural forms. Hence
it is that this particular intellect may be as enthusiastic, vague, and
uncertain, as that universal one is quiet, fixed, and certain, whether
as regards the desire or the comprehension. Now therefore, as you may
very well perceive for yourself, it means that the nature of the
comprehension of sense and its varied appetite, is vague, inconstant,
and uncertain, and the conception and definite appetite of the
intelligence is firm and stable. This is the difference between sensual
love, which has no stability nor discretion as to its object, and
intellectual love, which aims only at one, sure and fixed, towards which
it turns, through which it is illuminated in its conception, by which,
being kindled in its affections, it becomes inflamed and brightened, and
is maintained in unity and identity of condition.