If universal Intelligence comprises all the individual intelligences,
might not the latter all be identical? No, for then there would be but
one of them. The multiplicity of the intelligences implies therefore a
difference between them.[107] But how does each differ from the others?
Its difference resides in its being one; for there is no identity
between the universal Intelligence, and any particular intelligence.
Thus, in Intelligence, life is universal power; the vision which
emanates from it is the power of all things; and then Intelligence
itself, when it is formed, manifests all these things to us. He who
is seated above all of them is their principle, though they do not
serve Him as foundation; for, on the contrary, He is the foundation
of the form of the first forms, without Himself having any forms. In
respect to the Soul, Intelligence plays the part that the First plays
in respect to Intelligence; Intelligence sheds its light on the Soul,
and, to determine her, rationalizes her by communicating that of which
itself is the trace. The Intellect, therefore, is the trace of the
First; and while it is a form which develops in plurality, the First
has no shape nor form, so as to give form to all the rest. If itself
were a form, Intelligence would be nothing more than the "reason"
(the soul).[108] That is why the First could not have contained any
multiplicity; otherwise, its multiplicity itself would have had to be
traced to some superior principle.