Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 03
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Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 03
Literature -- Collections
An analogy to the fact that the universal will actualizes universal form
in the matter of intelligence is the fact that the particular will
actualizes the particular form in the soul without time, and life and
essential motion in the matter of the soul, and local motion and other
motions in the matter of nature. But all these motions are derived from
the will; and so all things are moved by the will, just as the soul
causes rest or motion in the body according to its will. And this motion
is different according to the greater or less proximity of things to the
will. And if we remove action from the will, the will will be identical
with the primal essence; whereas, with action, it is different from it.
Hence, will is as the painter of all forms; the matter of each thing as
a tablet; and the form of each thing as the picture on the tablet. It
binds form to matter, and is diffused through the whole of matter, from
highest to lowest, as the soul through the body; and as the virtue of
the sun, diffusing its light, unites with the light, and with it
descends into the air, so the virtue of the will unites with the form
which it imparts to all things, and descends with it. On this ground it
is said that the first cause is in all things, and that there is nothing
without it.
The will holds all things together by means of form; whence we likewise
say that form holds all things together. Thus, form is intermediate
between will and matter, receiving from will, and giving to matter. And
will acts without time or motion, through its own might. If the action
of soul and intelligence, and the infusion of light are instantaneous,
much more so is that of will.
Creation comes from the high creator, and is an emanation, like the
issue of water flowing from its source; but whereas water follows water
without intermission or rest, creation is without motion or time. The
sealing of form upon matter, as it flows in from the will, is like the
sealing or reflection of a form in a mirror, when it is seen. And as
sense receives the form of the felt without the matter, so everything
that acts upon another acts solely through its own form, which it simply
impresses upon that other. Hence genus, species, differentia, property,
accident, and all forms in matter are merely an impression made
by wisdom.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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