4. (5). That this is the state of affairs appears when, on applying
one's intelligence to the contemplation of some of the intelligible
Entities, it becomes possible to assert, or rather, to see that it is
absolutely incapable of ever having undergone any change; otherwise, it
would not always exist; or rather, it would not always exist entirely.
Is it thus perpetual? Doubtless; its nature is such that one may
recognize that it is always such as it is, and that it could never be
different in the future; so that, should one later on again contemplate
it, it will be found similar to itself (unchanged). Therefore, if
we should never cease from contemplation, if we should ever remain
united thereto while admiring its nature, and if in that actualization
we should show ourselves indefatigable, we would succeed in raising
ourselves to eternity; but, to be as eternal as existence, we must not
allow ourselves to be in anyway distracted from contemplating eternity,
and eternal nature in the eternal itself. If that which exists thus be
eternal, and exists ever, evidently that which never lowers itself to
an inferior nature; which possesses life in its fulness, without ever
having received, receiving, or being about to receive anything; this
nature would be "aidion," or perpetual. Perpetuity is the property
constitutive of such a substrate; being of it, and in it.[443] Eternity
is the substrate in which this property manifests. Consequently reason
dictates that eternity is something venerable, identical with the
divinity.[444] We might even assert that the age ("aion," or eternity)
is a divinity that manifests within itself, and outside of itself in
its immutable and identical existence, in the permanence of its life.
Besides, there is nothing to surprise any one if in spite of that we
assert a manifoldness in the divinity. Every intelligible entity is
manifoldness because infinite in power, infinite in the sense that it
lacks nothing; it exercises this privilege peculiarly because it is not
subject to losing anything.