On the Mysteries (Thomas Taylor trans.)

It is necessary that the progression of beings The hierarchical sequence of existence, descending from the divine source to the physical world. should be continued, and that no vacuum A gap or empty space in the continuity of existence. should intervene either in incorporeal Non-physical or spiritual entities, such as the soul or intellect. or corporeal Physical or material bodies. natures. It is also necessary that every thing which has a natural progression should proceed through similitude The principle that an effect must resemble its cause.. In consequence of this, it is likewise necessary that every producing principle A fundamental cause that brings something else into being. should generate a number of the same order with itself: namely, nature produces a natural number; soul produces one that is psychical (i. e. belonging to the soul); and intellect produces an intellectual number.

For if whatever possesses a power of generating produces things that are similar to itself before it produces things that are dissimilar, then every cause must deliver its own form and characteristic peculiarity to its progeny. Before it generates that which gives subsistence The state of having a distinct, independent existence. to progressions that are far distant and separate from its own nature, it must first constitute things that are proximate Closest or most immediate. to itself according to essence The fundamental nature or "what-ness" of a thing., and conjoined with it through similitude. It is, therefore, necessary from these premises—since there is one unity, the principle of the universe—that this unity should produce from itself, prior to every thing else, a multitude of natures characterized