Since therefore thought does not exist in the Good, and since, on
the contrary, it is inferior to the Good, and since it must thus
worship its majesty, (thought) must constitute a different principle,
and leaves the Good pure and disengaged from it, as well as from
other things. Independent of thought, the Good is what it is without
admixture. The presence of the Good does not hinder it from being pure
and single. If we were to suppose that Good is both thinking subject
and thought object (thinker and thought) or "being," and thought
connected with "being," if thus we make it think itself,[158] it will
need something else, and thus things will be above it. As actualization
and thought are the complement or the consubstantial hypostasis (or,
form of existence) of another subject, thought implies above it another
nature to which it owes the power of thinking; for thought cannot think
anything without something above it. When thought knows itself, it
knows what it received by the contemplation of this other nature. As
to Him who has nothing above Him, who derives nothing from any other
principle, what could He think, and how could He think himself? What
would He seek, and what would He desire? Would He desire to know the
greatness of His power? But by the mere fact of His thinking it, it
would have become external to Him; I call it exterior, if the cognizing
power within Him differed from that which would be known; if on the
contrary they fuse, what would He seek?