We may also say, since there is an order of souls more excellent than ours divided into such as are first, such as are middle, and such as are last, the most total of these are adapted to _the past_. For as this comprehends in itself the present and the future, so these souls comprehend in themselves the rest. But souls of a middle rank are adapted to _the present_; for this was once _future_, but is not yet _the past_. As, therefore, _the present_ contains in itself _the future_, so these middle souls comprehend those posterior, but are comprehended in those prior to themselves. And souls of the third order correspond to _the future_. For this does not proceed through _the present_, nor has become _the past_, but is _the future_ alone; just as these third souls are of themselves alone, but through falling into a more partial subsistence, are by no means comprehensive of others. For they convolve the boundary according to a triadic division of the genera posterior to the Gods. The whole of the first triad, therefore, has _the once_, for this is the peculiarity of _the past_, and of completion; but it is divided into _the was_, _it was generated_, and _it did become_. Again, therefore, of these three, _the was_ signifies the summit of the triad, bounded according to hyparxis itself; but _it was generated_, signifies an at-once-collected perfection; and _it did become_, an extension in being perfected; these things being imitations of intelligibles. For _the was_ is an imitation of _being_, _it was generated_, of _eternity_, and _it did become_, of that which is _primarily eternal_. For _being_ is derived to all things from the first of these; a subsistence at once as _all_, and a _whole_ from the second; and an _extension into multitude_ from the third. CHAPTER XLVIII.