Thus, in the universe, life resembles an immense chain in which every being occupies a point, begetting the following being, and begotten by the preceding one, and ever distinct, but not separate from the (upper) generating Being, and the (lower) begotten being into which it passes without being absorbed. SECOND ENNEAD, BOOK FOUR. Of Matter. MATTER AS SUBSTRATE AND RESIDENCE OF FORMS. 1. Matter is a substrate (or subject) underlying nature, as thought Aristotle,[278] and a residence for forms. Thus much is agreed upon by all authors who have studied matter, and who have succeeded in forming a clear idea of this kind of nature; but further than this, there is no agreement. Opinions differ as to whether matter is an underlying nature (as thought Aristotle),[279] as to its receptivity, and to what it is receptive. THE STOIC CONCEPTION OF MATTER. (The Stoics, who condensed Aristotle's categories to four, substrate, quality-mode and relation),[280] who admit the existence of nothing else than bodies, acknowledge no existence other than that contained by bodies. They insist that there is but one kind of matter, which serves as substrate to the elements, and that it constitutes "being"; that all other things are only affections ("passions") of matter, or modified matter: as are the elements. The teachers of this doctrine do not hesitate to introduce this matter into the (very nature of the) divinities, so that their supreme divinity is no more than modified matter.[281] Besides, of matter they make a body, calling it a "quantityless body," still attributing to it magnitude. MATTER ACCORDING TO THE PYTHAGOREANS, PLATONISTS AND ARISTOTELIANS. Others (Pythagoreans, Platonists and Aristotelians) insist that matter is incorporeal. Some even distinguish two kinds of matter, first, the (Stoic) substrate of bodies, mentioned above; the other matter being of a superior nature, the substrate of forms and incorporeal beings. THE ARISTOTELIAN INTELLIGIBLE MATTER.