The statement that in what is immaterial, knowledge and the known thing
coincide,[15] must not be understood to mean that it is the knowledge
of the thing which is the thing itself, nor that the reason which
contemplates an object is this object itself, but rather, conversely,
that it is the thing which, existing without matter, is purely
intelligible and intellection. I do not here mean the intellection
which is neither a definition nor an intuition of a thing; but I say
that the thing itself, such as it exists in the intelligible world,
is exclusively intelligence and knowledge. It is not (the kind of)
knowledge that applies itself to the intelligible, it is the (actual)
thing itself which keeps that knowledge (thereof possessed by reason)
from remaining different from it, just as the knowledge of a material
object remains different from that object; but it is a veritable (kind
of) knowledge, that is, a knowledge which is not merely a simple
image of the known thing, but really is the thing itself. It is not
therefore the thought of the movement which produced movement in
itself, but the movement in itself which produced the thought, so that
the thought thinks itself as movement, and as thought. On the one hand,
intelligible movement is thought by the intelligible Essence; on the
other hand, it is movement in itself because it is first--for there
is no movement anterior thereto; it is real movement, because it is
not the accident of a subject, but because it is the actualization of
the essence which moves, and possesses actualized (existence); it is
therefore "being," though it be conceived as different from essence.
Justice, for instance, is not the simple thought of justice; it is a
certain disposition of Intelligence, or rather it is an actualization
of a determinate nature. The face of Justice is more beautiful than the
evening or morning stars, and than all visible beauty.[16] Justice may
be imagined as an intellectual statue which has issued from itself and
which has manifested itself such as it is in itself; or rather, which
subsists essentially in itself.
INTELLIGENCE THINKS THINGS NOT BECAUSE THEY EXIST, BUT BECAUSE IT
POSSESSES THEM.
7. We must, in fact, conceive intelligible essences as subsisting in
one nature, and one single nature as possessing and embracing all
(things). There no one thing is separated from the others, as in the
sense-world, where the sun, moon, and other objects each occupy a
different locality; but all things exist together in one unity; such
is the nature of intelligence. The (universal) Soul imitates it,
in this respect, as does also the power called Nature, conformably
to which, and by virtue of which individuals are begotten each in
a different place, while she remains in herself. But, although all
things exist together (in the unity of Intelligence), each of them
is none the less different from the others. Now, these things which
subsist in Intelligence and "being," are seen by the Intelligence that
possesses them, not because it observes them, but because it possesses
them without feeling the need of distinguishing them from each other;
because from all eternity they have dwelt within it distinct from each
other. We believe in the existence of these things on the faith of
those who admire them, because they have participated therein. As to
the magnitude and beauty of the intelligible world, we can judge of
it by the love which the Soul feels for it, and if other things feel
love for the Soul, it is because she herself possesses an intellectual
nature, and that by her the other things can, to some extent, become
assimilated to Intelligence. How indeed could we admit that here below
was some organism gifted with beauty, without recognizing that the
Organism itself (the intelligible world[17]) possesses an admirable and
really unspeakable beauty? Further, the perfect Organism is composed of
all the organisms; or rather it embraces all the organisms; just as our
Universe is one, yet simultaneously is visible, because it contains all
the things which are in the visible universe.