In general, everything which is predicated of an object either comes
to it from without, or is its actualization. Unless by nature it
be inconstant, being present now, and absent then, if it be always
present, it is a being when the object is a being. If it be denied that
its nature were that of a being, it will surely be granted that it is a
part of the essences, and that it is an essence. Now, if the object can
be conceived without the thing which is its actualization, this thing
nevertheless exists contemporaneously with it, even though in thought
it be conceived posteriorily. If the object cannot be conceived without
this thing, as man cannot be conceived of without one, in this case
one is not posterior to man, but is simultaneous, or even anterior,
since the man's subsistence is entirely dependent thereon. As to us, we
recognize that Unity and Number precede (Essence and the essences).
UNITY MUST EXIST IN THE INTELLIGIBLE BEFORE BEING APPLIED TO MULTIPLE
BEINGS.
11. It may be objected that the decad is nothing else than ten unities.
If the existence of the One be granted, why should we not also grant
the existence of ten unities? Since the supreme Unity (the unity of the
first Essence), possesses hypostatic existence, why should the case
not be the same with the other unities (the complex unities contained
within each of the essences)? It must not be supposed that the supreme
Unity is bound up with a single essence; for in this case each of the
other (beings) would no longer be one. If each of the other (beings)
must be one, then unity is common to all the (beings); that is that
single nature which may be predicated of the multiple (beings), and
which must, as we have explained it, subsist in itself (in the primary
essence) before the unity which resides in the multiple (beings).