8. (7). Since contemplation rises by degrees, from nature to the Soul,
from the Soul to Intelligence; and as within it thought becomes more
and more (intimate or) interior, more and more united to the thinker;
and as in the perfect Soul the things known are identical with the
knower; and because they aspire to Intelligence, the subject must then
evidently within Intelligence be identical with the object; not through
any appropriation thereof, as the perfect Soul does indeed appropriate
it, but because their essence ("being") is identical, because of the
identity between thinking and being ("essence"). Within intelligence no
longer do we have on one side the object, and on the other the subject;
otherwise we would need another principle where this difference would
no longer exist. Within it, then, these two things, the subject and the
object, form but a single (entity). That is a living contemplation, and
no longer an object of contemplation which seems to inhere in something
else; for existence within a living being is not identical with living
by oneself. Therefore if it is to be alive, the object of contemplation
and of thought must be life itself, and not the life of plants, that of
sensation, or psychic life. Those are different thoughts, the one being
the thought of plants, the thought of sensation, and psychic thought.
They are thoughts because they are "reasons."
"ALL BEINGS ARE CONTEMPLATIONS."
Every life is a thought which, like life itself, may be more or less
true. The truest thought is also the first life; and the first life is
identical with the first Intelligence. Consequently, the first degree
of life is also the first degree of thought; the second degree of
life is also the second degree of thought; and the third degree of
life is also the third degree of thought. Therefore every life of this
kind is a thought. Nevertheless it is humanly possible to define the
differences of the various degrees of life without being able to set
forth clearly those of thought; men will limit themselves to saying
that some (of these degrees of thought) imply intelligence, while
others exclude it, because they do not seek to penetrate the essence
of life. We may observe that the remainder of the discussion brings us
back to this proposition, that "all beings are contemplations."[191] If
the truest life be the life of thought, if the truest life and the life
of thought be identical, then the truest thought must be alive. This
contemplation is life, the object of this contemplation is a living
being and life, and both form but one.