11. But if (the intelligible Being) be present everywhere, why do not
all (beings) participate in the intelligible (Being) entire? Why are
there several degrees amidst these (beings), one being the first, the
other the second, and so on? Because the (beings) which are capable of
absorbing (intelligible Being) are counted as present thereto. Essence
exists everywhere in that which is essence, thus never failing itself.
Everything that can be present to it is present in reality, in the
measure of its capacity, not in a local manner, as light is modified by
transparence; for participation takes place differently in an opaque
body. If we distinguish several degrees among beings, we shall surely
have to conceive that the first is separated from the second, and the
second from the third, only by its order, its power, its (individual)
differences, but not by its location. In the intelligible world nothing
hinders different things from subsisting together, such as soul and
intelligence, and all the sciences, superior or inferior. Thus also in
a single apple the eye sees color, the nostril smells perfume, and each
other sense-organ perceives its individual quality. All these things
subsist together and are not separated from each other.