Neither in nature, however, nor in ourselves, in the soul of man, is the whole being of God to be found. Could we indeed see the substance, the truth of ourselves, could our eye in seeing itself see all things, as the eye of God in seeing other things sees itself,--then it would be possible to understand all things and to create all things, for we should then in reality _be_ God. We never penetrate to the deep-lying individual in ourselves, but see only the accidents, the externals; as we never see our own eye, but only its reflection from a mirror, so our intellect cannot see itself in itself, nor anything else in itself, but always some external form, semblance, image, figure, sign.[591] The truth of things--God--everywhere eludes our sense and our reason, our discursive intelligence. It is revealed, as we have seen, only to our intuitive, comprehensive glance--a sudden insight for which reason only prepares the way. Yet even this insight, "comprehension," is not "comprehending." We are brought, perhaps, through it into contact and into harmony with Him, but He is never, even to intuition, knowable. To be known would mean to be comprehended, limited, and therefore finite. First, then, God, the Monad, or Mind, is the true, _innermost_ nature of things; "in themselves things are in motion, in matter, dependent, defective, are rather _non-entia_ than _entia_, for as from not-being they become, so from being they may cease to be; hence they truly exist only where they cannot cease to be, _i.e._ in the first cause and unfailing principle, which has power to bring them forth when it will. Therefore they are more truly in the _Monad_ itself, and consequently are more truly known in it, in simplicity and togetherness, where all things are _one_ in an ineffable sense, without distinction, distribution, or number."[592] God is the source of the determinations, the forms of all things. "The first _measure_ is Mind itself: for all measure receives its denomination from mind"[593] (_mensura_, _mens_). "One is _mind_, everywhere wholly, giving measure to all things; one _intellect_, giving order to all things; one _love_, producing harmony between all things."[594] The first section of the _Praxis Descensus_ sums up the relation, the meaning of "creation," thus:[595]--"God is the universal substance, being, by which all things are; essence, the soul of all essence, by which whatever is, is; more intimate in every being than its form or its nature; for as nature is the ground of the being of each thing, so the deeper ground of the nature of each thing is God." [Sidenote: Theism.]