(To solve this problem) let us begin by setting aside sensation, and
let us contemplate Intelligence by our intelligence exclusively. Above
all, let us clearly understand that, as in us life and intelligence
do not consist of a corporeal mass, but in a power without mass,
likewise veritable "Being" is deprived of all corporeal extension,
and constitutes a power founded on itself. It does not indeed consist
in something without force, but in a power sovereignly vital and
intellectual, which possesses life in the highest degree, intelligence,
and being. Consequently, whatever touches this power participates in
the same characteristics according to the manner of its touch; in a
higher degree, if the touch be close; in a lower degree, if the touch
be distant. If existence be desirable, the completest existence (or,
essence) is more desirable still. Likewise, if intelligence deserve
to be desired, perfect Intelligence deserves to be desired above
everything; and the same state of affairs prevails in respect to life.
If then we must grant that the Essence is the first, and if we must
assign the first rank to Essence, the second to Intelligence, and the
third to the Organism,[18] as the latter seems already to contain all
things, and Intelligence justly occupies the second rank, because it
is the actualization of "Being"--then number could not enter into the
Organism, for before the organism already existed one and two ("Being"
and Intelligence). Nor could number exist in Intelligence, for before
Intelligence was "Being," which is both one and manifold. (Number
therefore must exist, or originate, in the primary Being.)