Elements of Theology

 as one subsisting, but according to participation not one, the one will be multiplied, just as the multiplicity is unified through the one. Therefore

 activity is better than that which is not self-sufficient but has the cause of its perfection dependent on another substance. For if all beings by nat

 it desires that also, how most of all the good? or if it does not desire, how does it not desire the cause of all things, having proceeded from it? Bu

 is itself, and the mover and the moved are one and the same. For either it moves in one part and is moved in another part, or as a whole it moves and

 beginning from a monad, it proceeds into a multitude coordinate with the monad, and the multitude of every order is led back to one monad. For the mon

 the one being divided. But if it is in one of all things, it will no longer be of all things, but of one. If, therefore, it is both common to those ab

 the thing produced is other than it. Therefore, that which begets is established as unchangeable and undiminished, multiplying itself through a genera

 from something and reverting has a cyclical activity. For if it reverts to that from which it proceeds, it joins the end to the beginning, and the mot

 procession. For since each occurs through likeness, that which has proceeded immediately from something has also reverted immediately to it (for the l

 has reverted to itself according to nature and is perfect in its reversion to itself, and would have its being from itself for that to which the reve

 the self-subsistent is set apart from things measured by time in respect to its substance. For if the self-subsistent is ungenerated, it would not be

 having received the power to produce from the cause which is superior to it, it has from that cause its being the cause of those things of which it is

 Thus the producer in relation to the produced, taken in relation to each other, but that which is able to do more has a greater and more universal pow

 a cause has pre-contained in itself the effect, being primarily what that is secondarily or in the thing produced the producer (for this too, partici

 suffers from the former) and when the second in turn acts, that also co-acts, because whatever the second does, the more causal also co-begets with i

 being, or needing it somehow in order to be, would be in this respect more imperfect than the effect. But that which is in the result is a co-cause ra

 passible, being in every way divisible, and in every way to infinity. But the incorporeal, being simple, is impassible for the indivisible can neithe

 undiminished it contains in itself. But surely infinity in respect to magnitude and in respect to multitude is a complete privation and a falling away

 set apart and if all things enter into it, yet it has something hidden and incomprehensible to secondary things and if it unfolds the powers within

 but nowhere for thus it would be divided and separate from itself, if indeed one part of it is everywhere and in all things, but the other part nowhe

 all things. For since each thing exists either according to cause or according to existence or according to participation, in the first the rest exist

 a turning back as if through similars, dissimilar <being>. For the one is similar as a particular to a particular, the other is kindred as being of th

 a hypostasis but no longer a henad, it would be assigned to another order on account of the alteration of its property. 115 Every god is supra-essenti

 supra-essential, being nothing other than the one for each is not one thing, and then good, but only good, just as it is not one thing, and then one,

 is and in beings has the power of apprehending truth (for it both grasps thoughts and has its subsistence in acts of intellection) but the gods are b

 having set the same before itself, is most self-sufficient and such is all that is divine. Therefore it needs neither other things, being goodness-it

 is more unified than beings. All divine genera, therefore, are bound together by their proper intermediaries, and the first do not proceed immediately

 of a henad working, with which it is connate. This, then, is that which in itself defines the being that partakes of it and shows essentially the supr

 to the gods so that, while they are present to all things in the same way, all things are not present to them in the same way, but as each is able, i

 For the one, having a most unitive power, sends itself through the entire union and unifies all from above, while remaining in itself. But the mean, s

 proceeds from the infinity of the divine power, multiplying itself and passing through all things, and pre-eminently demonstrating the unfailing in th

 presides over composites and of their order and of their division according to number, and is of the same series as the paternal in more partial produ

 they have intelligible [qualities]. In the same way, therefore, that those, by illuminating Being, are intelligible, so also these, by illuminating th

 and sees itself. But seeing that it is thinking and seeing, it knows that it is Intellect in actuality and knowing this, it knows that it thinks, and

 Therefore it has the causes of all things intellectually. So that every intellect is all things intellectually, both the things before it and the thin

 more akin, contracted in quantity, in power surpasses the things after it and conversely the things further from the one. Therefore, those that are h

 on the one hand, but being only intellectual, is participated by souls that are neither divine nor come to be in a state of change from intellect to u

 by its very being, if the participant is suitable, it immediately becomes ensouled and living, not by the soul reasoning and choosing, nor giving life

 and to the soul that substantiates the essential principles of all things in it for everything that produces by its being, which it is primarily, thi

 of the motions it will also have restorations for every period of the eternal things is restorative. 200 Every period of a soul is measured by time

 the relation to the secondary ones, which the divine has to the intellectual, and this to the psychical and the quantities of the lower ones are grea

 it admits of every kind of change, being moved together with their own ruling causes. But indeed that it is also indivisible, is clear. For everything

to the gods; so that, while they are present to all things in the same way, all things are not present to them in the same way, but as each is able, it is present, and as it is present, so it enjoys them; for participation is according to the measure of their presence. 143 All inferior things yield to the presence of the gods; and if the participant is receptive, everything alien to the divine light is gotten out of the way, and all things are illuminated at once by the gods. For divine things are always more comprehensive and more powerful than the things that have proceeded from them, but the unreceptiveness of the participants becomes the cause of the deficiency of the divine light; for it bedims that light by its own weakness. And when that light is dimmed, something else seems to gain predominance, not according to its own power, but seeming to rise up against the form of the divine illumination according to the participant's powerlessness. 144 All beings and all the orders of beings have proceeded to the same extent that the dispositions of the gods have also. For the gods brought forth beings along with themselves, and nothing could have subsisted and obtained measure and order outside of the gods; for all things are perfected according to their power, and are ordered and measured by the gods. And so, before the last kinds among beings there pre-exist the gods who also order these, and give to these life and specific form and perfection, and turn these also toward the good, and likewise before the intermediate kinds, and before the first. And all things are bound and rooted in the gods, and are preserved for this reason; but if anything departs from the gods and becomes completely bereft, it withdraws into non-being and vanishes, being wholly deprived of the things that hold it together. 145 The <ἡ> characteristic property of every divine order proceeds through all secondary things, and gives of itself to all inferior orders. For if beings proceed to such a point as the orders of the gods have also proceeded, in each kind there is the characteristic property of the divine powers, illuminated from above; for each receives from its own proximate cause the characteristic property according to which that cause obtained its substance. I mean, for example, if there is a purificatory deity, there is also purification in souls and in animals and in plants and in stones; and if a guardian one, likewise, and if a convertive one, and if a perfecting one, and if a life-giving one, similarly. And the stone partakes of the purificatory power only bodily, the plant yet more clearly according to its life, the animal has this form also according to its impulse, the rational soul rationally, intellect intellectually, and the gods super-essentially and unitarily; and the whole series has the same power from the one divine cause. and the same principle applies to the rest. For all things are suspended from the gods, and some are pre-illuminated by some, others by others, and the series extend down to the last things; and some are attached to them immediately, others through more or fewer intermediaries; "but all things are full of gods", and what each has by nature, it has from there. 146 The ends of all divine processions are assimilated to their own beginnings, preserving a circle without beginning and without end through the reversion to the beginnings. For if each of the things that have proceeded reverts to its own beginning from which it has proceeded, much more, surely, do the entire orders, having proceeded from their own summit, revert again to it. And the reversion of the end to the beginning makes the whole one and definite and converging upon itself, and in its multitude displays the uniform through this convergence. 147 The summits of all divine orders are assimilated to the extremities of the orders established above them. For if there must be a continuity of the divine procession and each order must be bound together by its own mean terms, it is necessary for the summits of the secondary orders to be conjoined with the final terms of the primary; and the conjunction is through likeness. There will be, therefore, a likeness of the beginnings of the subordinate order to the ends of the order established above it. 148 Every divine order is united to itself in a threefold way, from the summit in it and from the mean and from the end.

θεοῖς· ὥστε πᾶσιν ἐκείνων ὡσαύτως παρόντων, τὰ πάντα οὐχ ὡσαύτως πάρεστιν ἐκείνοις, ἀλλ' ὡς ἕκαστα δύναται, πάρεστι, καὶ ὡς πάρεστιν, οὕτως ἐκείνων ἀπολαύει· κατὰ γὰρ τὸ μέτρον τῆς τούτων παρουσίας ἡ μέθεξις. 143 Πάντα τὰ καταδεέστερα τῇ παρουσίᾳ τῶν θεῶν ὑπεξ ίσταται· κἂν ἐπιτήδειον ᾖ τὸ μετέχον, πᾶν μὲν τὸ ἀλλότριον τοῦ θείου φωτὸς ἐκποδὼν γίνεται, καταλάμπεται δὲ πάντα ἀθρόως ὑπὸ τῶν θεῶν. ἀεὶ μὲν γὰρ τὰ θεῖα περιληπτικώτερα καὶ δυνατώτερα τῶν ἀπ' αὐτῶν προελθόντων ἐστίν, ἡ δὲ τῶν μετεχόντων ἀνεπιτηδειό της τῆς ἐλλείψεως τοῦ θείου φωτὸς αἰτία γίνεται· ἀμυδροῖ γὰρ κἀκεῖνο τῇ ἑαυτῆς ἀσθενείᾳ. ἐκείνου δὲ ἀμυδρουμένου ἄλλο τι δοκεῖ τὴν ἐπικράτειαν μεταλαμβάνειν, οὐ κατὰ τὴν αὐτοῦ δύναμιν, ἀλλὰ κατὰ τὴν τοῦ μετέχοντος ἀδυναμίαν κατεξανί στασθαι δοκοῦν τοῦ θείου τῆς ἐλλάμψεως εἴδους. 144 Πάντα τὰ ὄντα καὶ πᾶσαι τῶν ὄντων αἱ διακοσμήσεις ἐπὶ τοσοῦτον προεληλύθασιν, ἐφ' ὅσον καὶ αἱ τῶν θεῶν διατάξεις. καὶ γὰρ ἑαυτοῖς οἱ θεοὶ τὰ ὄντα συμπαρήγαγον, καὶ οὐδὲν οἷόν τε ἦν ὑποστῆναι καὶ μέτρου καὶ τάξεως τυχεῖν ἔξω τῶν θεῶν· καὶ γὰρ τελειοῦνται πάντα κατὰ τὴν αὐτῶν δύναμιν, καὶ τάττεται καὶ μετρεῖται παρὰ τῶν θεῶν. καὶ πρὸ τῶν ἐσχάτων οὖν ἐν τοῖς οὖσι γενῶν προϋπάρχουσιν οἱ καὶ ταῦτα κοσμοῦντες θεοὶ καὶ διδόντες καὶ τούτοις ζωὴν καὶ εἰδοποιίαν καὶ τελειότητα καὶ ἐπιστρέφοντες καὶ ταῦτα πρὸς τὸ ἀγαθόν, καὶ πρὸ τῶν μέσων ὡσαύτως, καὶ πρὸ τῶν πρώτων. καὶ πάντα ἐνδέδεται καὶ ἐνερρίζωται τοῖς θεοῖς, καὶ σώζεται διὰ ταύτην τὴν αἰτίαν· ἀποστὰν δέ τι τῶν θεῶν, καὶ ἔρημον γενόμενον παντελῶς, εἰς τὸ μὴ ὂν ὑπεξίσταται καὶ ἀφανίζεται, τῶν συνεχόντων αὐτὸ πάντῃ στερούμενον. 145 Πάσης θείας τάξεως <ἡ> ἰδιότης διὰ πάντων φοιτᾷ τῶν δευτέρων, καὶ δίδωσιν ἑαυτὴν ἅπασι τοῖς καταδεεστέροις γένεσιν. εἰ γὰρ ἄχρι τοσούτου τὰ ὄντα πρόεισιν, ἕως οὗ καὶ τῶν θεῶν οἱ διάκοσμοι προεληλύθασιν, ἐν ἑκάστοις γένεσίν ἐστιν ἡ τῶν θείων δυνάμεων ἰδιότης, ἄνωθεν ἐλλαμπομένη· κομίζεται γὰρ ἕκαστον ἀπὸ τῆς οἰκείας προσεχοῦς αἰτίας τὴν ἰδιότητα, καθ' ἣν ἐκείνη τὴν ὑπόστασιν ἔλαχε. λέγω δὲ οἷον εἴ τις ἔστι θεότης καθαρτική, καὶ ἐν ψυχαῖς ἔστι κάθαρσις καὶ ἐν ζώοις καὶ ἐν φυτοῖς καὶ ἐν λίθοις· καὶ εἴ τις φρουρητική, ὡσαύτως, καὶ εἴ τις ἐπιστρεπτική, καὶ εἰ τελεσιουργός, καὶ εἰ ζωοποιός, ὁμοίως. καὶ ὁ μὲν λίθος μετέχει τῆς καθαρτικῆς δυνάμεως σωματικῶς μόνον, τὸ δὲ φυτὸν ἔτι τρανέστερον κατὰ τὴν ζωήν, τὸ δὲ ζῶον ἔχει καὶ κατὰ τὴν ὁρμὴν τὸ εἶδος τοῦτο, ψυχὴ δὲ λογικὴ λογικῶς, νοῦς δὲ νοερῶς, οἱ δὲ θεοὶ ὑπερουσίως καὶ ἑνιαίως· καὶ πᾶσα ἡ σειρὰ τὴν αὐτὴν ἔχει δύναμιν ἀπὸ μιᾶς τῆς θείας αἰτίας. καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν λοιπῶν ὁ αὐτὸς λόγος. πάντα γὰρ ἐξῆπται τῶν θεῶν, καὶ τὰ μὲν ἐξ ἄλλων, τὰ δὲ ἐξ ἄλλων προλάμπεται, καὶ αἱ σειραὶ μέχρι τῶν ἐσχάτων καθή κουσι· καὶ τὰ μὲν ἀμέσως, τὰ δὲ διὰ μέσων πλειόνων ἢ ἐλαττό νων εἰς ἐκείνους ἀνήρτηται· "μεστὰ δὲ πάντα θεῶν", καὶ ὃ ἕκαστον ἔχει κατὰ φύσιν, ἐκεῖθεν ἔχει. 146 Πασῶν τῶν θείων προόδων τὰ τέλη πρὸς τὰς ἑαυτῶν ἀρχὰς ὁμοιοῦται, κύκλον ἄναρχον καὶ ἀτελεύτητον σώζοντα διὰ τῆς πρὸς τὰς ἀρχὰς ἐπιστροφῆς. εἰ γὰρ καὶ ἕκαστον τῶν προελθόντων ἐπιστρέφεται πρὸς τὴν οἰκείαν ἀρχήν, ἀφ' ἧς προελήλυθε, πολλῷ δήπου μᾶλλον αἱ ὅλαι τάξεις, ἀπὸ τῆς ἑαυτῶν ἀκρότητος προελθοῦσαι, πάλιν ἐπιστρέφονται πρὸς ἐκείνην. ἡ δὲ ἐπιστροφὴ τοῦ τέλους εἰς τὴν ἀρχὴν μίαν ἀπεργάζεται πᾶσαν καὶ ὡρισμένην καὶ εἰς ἑαυτὴν συννεύουσαν καὶ ἐν τῷ πλήθει τὸ ἑνοειδὲς ἐπιδεικνυμένην διὰ τῆς συννεύσεως. 147 Πάντων τῶν θείων διακόσμων τὰ ἀκρότατα τοῖς πέρασιν ὁμοιοῦται τῶν ὑπερκειμένων. εἰ γὰρ δεῖ συνέχειαν εἶναι τῆς θείας προόδου καὶ ταῖς οἰκείαις ἑκάστην τάξιν συνδεδέσθαι μεσότησιν, ἀνάγκη τὰς ἀκρότητας τῶν δευτέρων συνάπτειν ταῖς ἀποπερατώσεσι τῶν πρώτων· ἡ δὲ συναφὴ δι' ὁμοιότητος. ὁμοιότης ἄρα ἔσται τῶν ἀρχῶν τῆς ὑφειμένης τάξεως πρὸς τὰ τέλη τῆς ὑπεριδρυμένης. 148 Πᾶσα θεία τάξις ἑαυτῇ συνήνωται τριχῶς, ἀπό τε τῆς ἀκρότητος τῆς ἐν αὐτῇ καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς μεσότητος καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ τέλους.