10. Do not seek to see this Principle by the aid of other things;
otherwise, instead of seeing Him himself, you will see no more than His
image. Try rather to conceive the nature of the Principle that must be
grasped in Himself, that is, pure and without any admixture, because
all beings participate in Him, without any of them possessing Him. No
other thing indeed could be such as He; but nevertheless such a Being
must exist. Who indeed could all at once embrace the totality of the
power of this Principle? If a being did so, how could this being differ
from Him? Would the being limit itself to embracing only a part of Him?
You might grasp this Principle by an intuitive, simple intellection,
but you will not be able to represent Him to yourself in His totality.
Otherwise it is you who would be the thinking intelligence, if indeed
you have reached that principle; but He is more likely to flee you,
or more likely still, you will flee from Him. When you consider the
divinity, consider Him in His totality. When you think Him, know that
what you remember of Him is the Good; for He is the cause of the
wise intellectual life, because He is the power from which life and
intelligence proceed. He is the cause of "being" and essence, because
He is one; He is simple and first, because He is principle. It is from
Him that everything proceeds. It is from Him that the first movement
proceeds, without being in Him; it is from Him also that proceeds the
first rest, because He himself has no need of it; He himself is neither
in movement nor rest; for He has nothing in which He could rest or
move. By His relation to what, towards what, or in what could He move
or rest? Neither is He limited, for by what could He be limited?
Neither is He infinite in the manner suggested by an enormous mass;
for whither would He have any need of extending Himself? Would He do
so to get something? But He has need of nothing! It is His power that
is infinite. He could neither change nor lack anything; for the beings
which lack nothing owe this to Him only.