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

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 that is divided is destroyed in that respect in which it is divided, standing apart from both the whole and from continuity; if therefore it is unchangeable according to its substance and impassible, it would be indivisible. 209 The vehicle of every partial soul on the one hand descends by the addition of more material tunics, and on the other hand is led up together with the soul through the removal of all that is material and the return to its proper form, in a manner analogous to the soul that uses it; for that too on the one hand descends having taken on irrational lives, and on the other hand ascends having laid aside all the generative powers which it put on in its descent, and having become pure and stripped of all such powers as minister to the need of generation. For the connate vehicles imitate the lives of the souls that use them, and are moved together with them everywhere as they are moved; and they represent the intellections of some by their own revolutions, the fallings-away of others by their inclinations towards generation, and the purifications of others by their turnings-around towards the immaterial. For because it is vivified by them through the very being of the souls and is connate with them, it changes in every way along with their activities and follows them in every way, it suffers with them when they are affected and is restored with them when they are purified and is lifted up with them when they are led up, aspiring to their own perfection; for everything is perfected by attaining its own wholeness. 210 Every connate vehicle of the soul always has both the same shape and size, but it is seen as larger and smaller and of a different shape through the additions and removals of other bodies. For if it has its substance from an unmoved cause, it is indeed clear that both its shape and its size have been determined for it by its cause, and each is unchangeable and unalterable. But indeed at different times it appears different and larger and smaller. It is therefore through other bodies from the material elements being added and again removed that it appears of this kind or that, and of this size or that. 211 Every partial soul in descending into generation descends as a whole, and not a part of it remains above, while a part descends. For if some part of the soul were to remain in the intelligible, it will either have intellection always non-transitively or transitively. But if non-transitively, it will be an intellect and not a part of a soul, and the soul will be that which immediately partakes of intellect; but this is impossible. But if transitively, there will be one substance from that which always has intellection and <that> which sometimes has intellection. But this is impossible; for these differ in species, as has been shown, in addition to it also being absurd for the summit of the soul, being always perfect, not to master the other powers and make them perfect. Therefore every <partial, whole> soul descends.

μεταβολὴν ἐπιδέχεται παντοίαν, συγκινούμενα ταῖς ἑαυτῶν ἀρχικαῖς αἰτίαις. ἀλλὰ μὴν ὅτι καὶ ἀδιαίρετον, δῆλον. τὸ γὰρ διαιρούμενον πᾶν ταύτῃ φθείρεται, ᾗ διαιρεῖται, τοῦ τε ὅλου καὶ τῆς συνεχείας ἀφιστάμενον· εἰ οὖν ἀμετάβλητον κατὰ τὴν οὐσίαν καὶ ἀπαθές, ἀδιαίρετον ἂν εἴη. 209 Πάσης μερικῆς ψυχῆς τὸ ὄχημα κάτεισι μὲν προσθέσει χιτώνων ἐνυλοτέρων, συνανάγεται δὲ τῇ ψυχῇ δι' ἀφαιρέσεως παντὸς τοῦ ἐνύλου καὶ τῆς εἰς τὸ οἰκεῖον εἶδος ἀναδρομῆς, ἀνάλογον τῇ χρωμένῃ ψυχῇ· καὶ γὰρ ἐκείνη κάτεισι μὲν ἀλόγους προσλαβοῦσα ζωάς, ἄνεισι δὲ ἀποσκευασαμένη πάσας τὰς γενεσιουργοὺς δυνάμεις, ἃς ἐν τῇ καθόδῳ περιεβάλλετο, καὶ γενομένη καθαρὰ καὶ γυμνὴ τῶν τοιούτων πασῶν δυνάμεων ὅσαι πρὸς τὴν τῆς γενέσεως χρείαν ὑπηρετοῦσι. τὰ γὰρ συμφυῆ ὀχήματα μιμεῖται τὰς ζωὰς τῶν χρωμένων ψυχῶν, καὶ συγκινεῖται κινουμέναις αὐταῖς πανταχοῦ· καὶ τῶν μὲν τὰς νοήσεις ἀπεικονίζεται ταῖς ἑαυτῶν περιφοραῖς, τῶν δὲ τὰς ἀποπτώσεις ταῖς εἰς τὴν γένεσιν ῥοπαῖς, τῶν δὲ τὰς καθάρσεις ταῖς εἰς τὸ ἄϋλον περιαγωγαῖς. διότι γὰρ αὐτῷ τῷ εἶναι τὰς ψυχὰς ζωοποιεῖται παρ' αὐτῶν καὶ ἔστι συμφυῆ ἐκείναις, παντοίως συμμεταβάλλει ταῖς ἐκείνων ἐνεργείαις καὶ συνέπεται πάντῃ, παθαινομέναις τε συμπάσχει καὶ κεκαθαρμέναις συναποκαθίσταται καὶ ἀναγομέναις συνεπαίρεται, τῆς ἑαυτῶν ἐφιέμενα τελειότητος· πᾶν γὰρ τελειοῦται τῆς οἰκείας ὁλότητος τυχόν. 210 Πᾶν ψυχῆς ὄχημα συμφυὲς καὶ σχῆμα τὸ αὐτὸ ἀεὶ καὶ μέγεθος ἔχει, μεῖζον δὲ καὶ ἔλαττον ὁρᾶται καὶ ἀνομοιόσχημον δι' ἄλλων σωμάτων προσθέσεις καὶ ἀφαιρέσεις. εἰ γὰρ ἐξ αἰτίας ἀκινήτου τὴν οὐσίαν ἔχει, δῆλον δὴ ὅτι καὶ τὸ σχῆμα καὶ τὸ μέγεθος αὐτῷ παρὰ τῆς αἰτίας ἀφώρισται, καὶ ἔστιν ἀμετάβλητον καὶ ἀνεξάλλακτον ἑκάτερον. ἀλλὰ μὴν ἄλλοτε ἀλλοῖον φαντάζεται καὶ μεῖζον καὶ ἔλαττον. δι' ἄλλα ἄρα σώματα ἀπὸ τῶν ὑλικῶν στοιχείων προστιθέμενα καὶ αὖθις ἀφαιρούμενα τοιόνδε ἢ τοιόνδε καὶ τοσόνδε ἢ τοσόνδε φαίνεται. 211 Πᾶσα μερικὴ ψυχὴ κατιοῦσα εἰς γένεσιν ὅλη κάτεισι, καὶ οὐ τὸ μὲν αὐτῆς ἄνω μένει, τὸ δὲ κάτεισιν. εἰ γάρ τι μένοι τῆς ψυχῆς ἐν τῷ νοητῷ, ἢ ἀμεταβάτως νοήσει ἀεὶ ἢ μεταβατικῶς. ἀλλ' εἰ μὲν ἀμεταβάτως, νοῦς ἔσται καὶ οὐ μέρος ψυχῆς, καὶ ἔσται ἡ ψυχὴ προσεχῶς νοῦ μετέχουσα· τοῦτο δὲ ἀδύνατον. εἰ δὲ μεταβατικῶς, ἐκ τοῦ ἀεὶ νοοῦντος καὶ <τοῦ> ποτὲ νοοῦντος μία οὐσία ἔσται. ἀλλ' ἀδύνατον· ταῦτα γὰρ εἴδει διαφέρει, ὡς δέδεικται, πρὸς τῷ καὶ ἄτοπον εἶναι τὸ τῆς ψυχῆς ἀκρότατον, ἀεὶ τέλειον ὄν, μὴ κρατεῖν τῶν ἄλλων δυνάμεων κἀκείνας τελείας ποιεῖν. πᾶσα ἄρα ψυχὴ <μερικὴ ὅλη> κάτεισιν.