How might one apply actual existence to intelligible things? Each
of them exists actually because it has received form, as the statue
(the compound) exists actually, or rather, because it is a form, and
because its essence is a perfect form. The intelligence does not pass
from the potentiality of thinking to the actuality of thinking.[23]
Otherwise, it would imply an anterior intelligence which would not
pass from potentiality to actuality, which would possess everything by
itself; for what exists potentially implies another principle whose
intervention brings it to actuality, so as to be something existing
actually. A being is an actuality when it always is what it is, by
itself. Therefore, all first principles are actualities; for they
possess all they should possess by themselves, eternally. Such is the
state of the soul which is not in matter, but in the intelligible
world. The soul which is in matter is another actuality; she is, for
instance, the vegetative soul; for she is in actuality what she is.
We shall, therefore, have to admit that (in the intelligible world)
everything exists actually, and that thus everything is actuality,
because it has rightly been said[24] that intelligible nature is always
awake, that it is a life, an excellent life, and that there on high
all actualities are perfect. Therefore, in the intelligible world,
everything exists actually, and everything is actuality and life. The
place of intelligible things is the place of life, the principle and
source of the veritable soul, and of intelligence.