Problems and Solutions Concerning First Principles, Volume 1

that comes after it, whether it proceeds from a source original: "Εἴτε πηγαῖος." or whether it is even more particular, is gathered into it and takes on a unified form there. And if the many—from which the different "many" were separated and divided into different subjects—are gathered into it, this is certainly because at the summit of the intelligible, the appearance of plurality has been, as it were, absorbed by union.

From what we have said, the proof results that, everywhere, the external plurality, which is in a state of distinction in generated things, issues from the internal plurality which is in a concentrated state in the generating things. So that, in return, it is true to say that if plurality is in the generating, it is certain that it passes The cause is transitive, diabainei. into the generated which is continuous with it; and if in the generated the "many" in a distinct state are external, it is certain that in the generating, which is continuous with them, plurality also manifests itself. The causal agent is the generating principle that pre-exists in the generating thing, and everything seen in the generated is anteriorly designed in some way in the generating cause according to its hyparxis existence/real nature and its real coagregation. The third consequence is that all things which are secondary are always anticipated in the first, and the more particular in the more general, with homogeneous things taking this anticipation according to depth, and non-homogeneous things according to breadth. The fourth is that all things are divided in their own orders and proper hyparxis; and nevertheless, everything is in everything, but in a proper manner in each subject—here in an indistinct state, there in a state of distinction currently being accomplished, there in a state of distinction completed and fixed—and these in their turn are here like elements in the elemented, there like parts in the whole, there like species and number in the monad. The external plurality proceeds in a manner analogous to the internal plurality: here, as number proceeding from the monad—such as the plurality of reasons proceeding from the one reason—there, as parts proceeding from the whole—such as the plurality of lives proceeding from the one life—there, as elements proceeding from the elemented—such as the plurality of substances proceeding from the one substance.