5. Returning to our former assertion that the First ever remains
identical, even though giving birth to other beings, the generation of
numbers may be explained by the immanence of Unity, and by the action
of another principle which forms them, as images of unity. So much
the more must the Principle superior to beings be immanent Unity; but
here it is the First himself who begets the beings, and not another
principle who produces beings in the image of the First while this
First would abide within Himself. Likewise the form of unity, which
is the principle of numbers, exists within all in different degrees,
because the numbers posterior to unity participate therein unequally.
Likewise, the beings inferior to the First contain something of His
nature, which something constitutes their form. Numbers derive their
quantity from their participation in unity. Likewise here beings owe
their being to their containing the trace of the One, so that their
being is the trace of the One.[258] Not far from the truth would we
be in holding that essence, which is the (more common or) plainer
nomenclature of being,[259] is derived from the word "hen," which
means one. Indeed essence proceeded immediately from the One,[273] and
has differentiated from Him but very little. Turning towards its own
basis, it has settled, and both became and is the "being" of all. When
a man pronounces essence ("on"), and emphasizes it, he unconsciously
approximates the sound meaning one ("hen"), demonstrating that essence
proceeds from unity, as indeed is indicated, so far as possible, by
the word "on," which means essence. That is why "being" ("ousia") and
essence ("einai"[260]) imitate so far as they can the principle of the
Power from which they have emanated. The human mind, observing these
similarities, and guided by their contemplation,[261] imitated what it
grasped by uttering the words "on,"[262] "einai,"[263] "ousia,"[264]
and "hestia."[265] Indeed, these sounds try to express the nature of
what has been begotten by unity, by means of the very effort made by
the speaker so as to imitate as well as possible the generation of
being.