Since all intelligible (entities) have a hypostatic consubstantial
existence affording no room for chance; and as they are not separated
from each other, things that are caused must bear these their causes
within themselves, and each of them has some sort of a cause, though
without really possessing one. If there be no cause for the existence
of the intelligibles; and if, though isolated from all causes, they be
self-sufficient; it can only be because they carry their cause along
with them, when they are considered in themselves. As they contain
nothing fortuitous, and as each of them is manifold, and as its cause
is all that they contain, we might assign this cause to themselves.
Thus in the intelligible world "being" is preceded, or rather
accompanied by its cause, which is still more "being" than cause,
or rather which becomes identified with it. What superfluousness,
indeed, could there be in intelligence, unless its conceptions
resemble imperfect productions? If its conceptions be perfect, one
could neither discover what they lack, nor define their cause, and,
since they possess everything, they also possess their cause. There,
"being" and cause are united; the presence of both is recognized
in each conception, in each actualization of intelligence. Let us,
for instance, consider the intelligible Man; he seems complete, in
his totality; all his attributes were his simultaneously from the
beginning; he was always entirely complete. It is the characteristic
of that which is generated not always to be what it ought to be, and
to need to acquire something. The intelligible Man is eternal; he is
therefore always complete; but that which becomes man must be generated
(being).