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Third dialogue<br />
sometimes they confound one with another, sometimes becoming diminished,<br />
mutilated and maimed by the incompatibility of one being with<br />
another and by their occupation of the same matter. Getting back to our<br />
theme, the first absolute principle is greatness and magnitude, and it is a<br />
greatness and magnitude such that it is all it can be. It is not great with a<br />
greatness that can be superior or inferior, nor can it be divided, as can be<br />
every other greatness that is not all it can be. Hence, it is together maximum,<br />
minimum, infinite, indivisible by any measure. It is minimum, yet<br />
with nothing greater; maximum, yet with nothing smaller. It is beyond<br />
every equality, because it is everything it can be. And what I say of the<br />
greatness must also be understood for everything that can be said of it,<br />
because it is similarly the goodness which is every possible goodness, the<br />
beauty which is every possible beauty. There is no other beautiful thing that<br />
is all that it can be except for this one. The unity is that which is all, and<br />
can be all absolutely. Moreover, among natural things, we see none which<br />
is other than what it is in act; it is through the act that it is what it can be,<br />
from the fact that it possesses one kind of actuality. Nevertheless, even in<br />
its unique, specific being, no particular thing is all it can be. Take the sun:<br />
it is not all the sun can be, nor is it everywhere it can be. When it is east of<br />
the earth, it is not to the west, nor at midday, nor any other point. But if we<br />
want to show how God is sun, we will say (since he is all that he can be) that<br />
he is simultaneously in the east, west, noon, midnight and any other point<br />
whatsoever of the convexity of the earth. And so, if we wish to understand<br />
that our sun (either because of its own revolution or that of the earth) moves<br />
and changes position, because it cannot be found now at one point without<br />
being found potentially at all other points, and hence possesses a disposition<br />
to be at those points, if, therefore, the sun were all that it could be and<br />
possessed all that it was inclined to possess, it would be simultaneously<br />
everywhere and in all things; it would be so perfectly mobile and rapid that<br />
it would also be absolutely stable and immobile. Therefore, we find, in<br />
divine maxims, that the divinity is said to be eternally stable and absolutely<br />
rapid in its course from one end to the other. 17 For by immobile, we understand<br />
that which departs from and returns in the same instant to the eastern<br />
point, and which is not seen any less in the east than in the west or any<br />
other point of its circuit. That is why there is no basis on which to affirm<br />
that it goes and returns or has gone and returned from and towards such<br />
and such a point, rather than from and towards any other of the infinitely<br />
17 Book of Wisdom, 7, 24 and 7, 23.<br />
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