How can infinity subsist in the intelligible world? Either it exists
among the genuine essences, and then is determined; or it is not
determined, and then it does not exist among the veritable essences,
but it must be classified among the things which exist in perpetual
becoming, such as time.[1] The infinite is determinate, but it is not
any the less infinite; for it is not the limit[2] which receives the
determination, but the infinite[3]; and between the boundary and the
infinite there is no intermediary that could receive the determination.
This infinite acts as if it were the idea of the boundary, but it is
contained by what embraces it exteriorly. When I say that it flees, I
do not mean that it passes from one locality to another, for it has no
locality; but I mean that space has existed from the very moment that
this infinite was embraced.[4] We must not imagine that what is called
the movement of the infinite consists in a displacement, nor admit that
the infinite by itself possesses any other of the things that could be
named; thus the infinite could neither move, nor remain still. Where
indeed would it halt, since the place indicated by the word "where"
is posterior to infinity? Movement is attributed to infinity only to
explain that the infinite has no permanency. Should we believe that the
infinite exists on high in one only and single place, or that it arises
there, and descends here below? No: for it is in respect to one only
and single place that we are enabled to conceive both what has risen
and does not descend, as well as that which descends.[5]