"In the soul of man," says Berkeley, "prior and superior to intellect, there is a somewhat of a higher nature, by virtue of which we are one, and by means of which we are most clearly joined to the Deity. And as by our intellect we touch the divine intellect, even so by our oneness, 'the very flower of our essence,' as Proclus expresses it, we touch the First One. Existence and One are the same. And consequently, our minds participate so far of existence as they do of unity. But it should seem the personality is the indivisible centre of the soul, or mind, which is a monad, so far forth as she is a person. Therefore Person is really that which exists, inasmuch as it partakes of the divine unity. Number is no object of sense, but an act of the mind. The same thing in a different conception is one or many. Comprehending God and the creatures in one general notion, we may say that all things together make one universe. But if we should say that all things make one God, this would indeed be an erroneous notion of God, but would not amount to atheism, so long as mind, or intellect, was admitted to be the governing part. It is, nevertheless, more respectful, and consequently the truer notion of God, to suppose Him neither made up of parts, nor himself to be a part of any whole whatsoever." THE SEARCH AFTER GOD.[25] [Footnote 25: By Thomas Heywood, 1590.] "I sought Thee round about, O thou my God! In thine abode, I said unto the earth, 'Speak, art thou He?' She answered me, 'I am not.' I inquired of creatures all In general Contained therein; they with one voice proclaim That none amongst them challenged such a name. "I asked the seas and all the deeps below, My God to know; I asked the reptiles and whatever is In the abyss; Even from the shrimp to the leviathan Inquiry ran,-- But in those deserts which no line can sound, The God I sought for was not to be found. "I asked the air if that were He? but, lo, It told me, No. I from the towering eagle to the wren Demanded then If any feathered fowl 'mongst them were such? But they all, much Offended with my question, in full choir Answered, 'To find thy God thou must look higher.' "I asked the heavens, sun, moon and stars; but they Said, 'We obey The God thou seek'st.' I asked what eye or ear Could see or hear; What in the world I might descry or know Above, below? With an unanimous voice, all these things said, 'We are not God, but we by Him were made.' "I asked the world's great universal mass If that God was? Which with a mighty and strong voice replied As stupefied, 'I am not He, O man! for know that I By Him on high Was fashioned first of nothing, thus inflated, And swayed by Him by whom I was created.'