All complete beings possess attributes and properties called _essential_—that is, invariably following the essence to which they belong. It is therefore necessary for us to inquire whether, to account for them, any special principles must be admitted. We can easily show that no new real principle is required besides the principles of the essence, as all the essential attributes and properties(68) of a complete being are fully contained in the real essence of the same as in their fountain‐head, inasmuch as they are nothing else than _the actuality_ of the essence considered under different aspects or connotations. It is known, in fact, that the essential attributes of things are said by all philosophers _to emanate_ from the essence, _to flow_ from the essence, _to follow_ from the essence, without any other thing being ever mentioned as their principle; which shows the universality of the doctrine that the essence alone is the adequate _source_ of all its attributes. And here let us observe that the words _principle_ and _source_ are not synonymous; for a principle is not sufficient, of itself, to principiate anything without the concurrence of other principles, as it does not perfectly contain in itself the whole reality of which it is a principle. The source, on the contrary, contains totally and adequately within itself whatever emanates from it; so that any such emanation, taken separately, is only an imperfect exhibition of the reality from which it emanates, as it presents it only under one out of the many different points of view under which it may be regarded. To say, then, that the essence of a thing is the source of all its attributes is to say that the essence itself alone sufficiently accounts for their origin, their necessity, and their distinction.