32. Where then is He who has created this venerable beauty, and this
perfect life? Where is He who has begotten "being"? Do you see the
beauty that shines in all these forms so various? It is well to dwell
there; but when one has thus arrived at beauty, one is forced to seek
the source of these essences and of their beauty. Their author Himself
cannot be any of them; for then He would be no more than some among
them, and a part of the whole. He is therefore none of the particular
forms, nor a particular power, nor all of the forms, nor all the powers
that are, or are becoming, in the universe; He must be superior to all
the forms and all the powers. The supreme Principle therefore has no
form; not indeed that He lacks any; but because He is the principle
from which all intellectual shapes are derived. Whatever is born--that
is, if there be anything such as birth--must, at birth, have been some
particular being, and have had its particular shape; but who could have
made that which was not made by anybody? He therefore is all beings,
without being any of them; He is none of the other beings because He is
anterior to all of them; He is all other beings because He is their
author. What greatness shall be attributed to the Principle who can do
all things? Will He be considered infinite? Even if He be infinite,
He will have no greatness, for magnitude occurs only among beings
of the lowest rank. The creator of magnitude could not himself have
any magnitude; and even what is called magnitude in "being" is not a
quantity. Magnitude can be found only in something posterior to being.
The magnitude of the Good is that there be nothing more powerful than
He, nothing that even equals Him. How indeed could any of the beings
dependent on Him ever equal Him, not having a nature identical with
His? Even the statement that God is always and everywhere does not
attribute to Him any measure, nor even, a lack of measure--otherwise,
He might be considered as measuring the rest; nor does it attribute to
Him any figure (or, outward appearance).