7. What and how much can be seen in the soul? Since we have found
in the soul both being and life, and as both being and life are
what is common in every soul, and as life resides in intelligence,
recognizing that there is (besides the soul and her being) intelligence
and its life, we shall posit as a genus what is common in all life;
namely, movement; consequently, being and movement, which constitute
primary life, will be our first two categories. Although (in reality)
they fuse, they are distinguished by thought, which is incapable
of approaching unity exclusively; and whose exercise compels this
distinction. Besides, it is possible, you can, in other objects,
clearly see essence, as distinct from movement or life, although their
essence be not real, and only shadowy or figurative.[306] Just as
the image of a man lacks several things, and, among others, the most
important, life; likewise, the essence of sense-objects is only an
adumbration of the veritable essence, lacking as it does the highest
degree of essence, namely, vitality, which appears in its archetype.
So you see it is quite easy to distinguish, on one hand, essence from
life, and, on the other, life from essence. Essence is a genus, and
contains several species; now movement must not be subsumed under
essence, nor be posited within essence, but should be equated with
essence. When we locate movement within essence, it is not that we
consider life is the subject of movement, but because movement is
life's actualization; only in thought can either exist separately.
These two natures, therefore, form but a single one; for essence exists
not in potentiality, but in actualization; and if we conceive of these
two genera as separated from each other it will still be seen that
movement is within essence, and essence within movement. In the unity
of essence, the two elements, when considered separately, imply each
other reciprocally; but thought affirms their duality, and shows that
each of the two series is a double unity.