MYST. If then the firmament occupies the middle position between the two waters, then by this hypothesis you must admit that the space beyond the spheres is empty of elemental and celestial bodies; otherwise you would have to admit that the last sphere extends on even to the crystalline orb, which can in no way be reconciled with the Holy Scriptures and still less with reason because of the incredible velocity of this sphere. Therefore it is far more probable that this space is filled with angels. THEO. Is there some medium between God and the angels which shares in the nature of both? MYST. What is incorporeal and indivisible cannot communicate any part of its essence to another; for if a creature had any part of the divine essence, it would be all God, since God neither has parts nor can be divided, therefore He must be separated from all corporeal contact or intermixture. _Section 12_: On guardian angels. THEO. What then in corporeal nature is closest to God? MYST. The two Seraphim, who stand near the eternal Creator,[467] and who are said to have six wings, two wherewith to fly, the others to cover head and feet. By this is signified the admirable swiftness with which they fulfill His commands, yet head and feet are veiled for so the purpose of their origin and its earliest beginning are not known to us. Also they have eyes scattered in all parts of their bodies to indicate that nothing is hidden from them. And they also pour oil for lighting through a funnel into the seven-branched candlestick; that is, strength and power are poured forth by the Creator to the seven planets, so that we should turn from created things to the worship and love of the Creator. [Footnote 467: Isa. 6. Ezek. 1 and 10. Zach. 4. Exod. 24, 25.] THEO. Since nothing is more fitting for the Divine goodness than to create, to generate, and to pile up good things for all, whence comes the destruction of the world and the ruin of all created things? MYST. It is true Plato and Aristotle attributed the cause of all ills to the imperfection of matter in which they thought was some _kakopoion_,[468] but that is absurd since it is distinctly written: All that God had made was good, or as the Hebrews express it, beautiful,--so evil is nothing-else than the absence[469] or privation of good. [Footnote 468: Maleficium quidam, _i.e._, some evil-power. Job 5.] [Footnote 469: Augustine against Faustus wrote that vanity is not produced from the dust, nor evil from the earth.] THEO. Can not wicked angels be defined without privation since they are corporeal essences?