12. (Aristotle[23]) objects that "One" and "Unity" have no hypostatic
(or, genuine) existence. Everywhere the One is something that is one.
That is nothing but a simple modification experienced in our soul in
presence of each essence. We might as easily affirm that when we assert
"essence," this is but a simple modification of our soul, Essence (in
itself) being absolutely nothing. If it be insisted that Essence exists
because it excites and strikes our soul, which then represents it to
herself, we see that the soul is equally impressed by the One, and
represents Him to herself. Besides, we should ask (Aristotle) if this
modification or conception of our soul do not bear to us the aspect of
unity or the manifold? So much the more, we often say that an object
is not one; evidently we then are not deriving the notion of unity from
the object, because we are affirming that there is no unity in it.
Unity therefore dwells within us, and it is in us without the object of
which we predicate that it is some one thing.