Cause Principle Unity

Cause, principle and unity
totally, because outside each one of them there exists an infinity of other
things. You must conceive, therefore, that everything is in everything, but
not totally or under all modes in each thing. Understand, therefore, that
each single thing is one, but not in the same way.
We are, therefore, correct in affirming that being – the substance, the
essence – is one, and since that one is infinite and limitless, both with
respect to duration and substance, as it is in terms of greatness and vigour,
it does not have the nature of either a principle or of what is principled; 3 for
each thing, coinciding in unity and identity (that is to say, in the same
being), comes to have an absolute value and not a relative one. In the infinite
and immobile one, which is substance and being, if there is multiplicity,
the number which is a mode and multiformity of being by which it
comes to denominate things as things, does not, thereby, cause being to be
more than one, but to be multi-modal, multiform and multi-figured. So,
following closely the reasoning of natural philosophers and leaving the
logicians to their fantasies, we discover that everything that causes
difference and number is pure accident, pure figure, pure complexion.
Every production, of whatever kind, is an alteration, while the substance
always remains the same, since there is only one substance, as there is but
one divine, immortal being. Pythagoras, who did not fear death but saw it
as a transformation, reached this conclusion. Those philosophers who
commonly go by the name of physical philosophers 4 also were able to
understand this. They said that nothing, in terms of substance, is begotten
or is corrupted – unless we understand by this the process of change.
Solomon inferred this as well, saying, ‘there is nothing new under the sun,
but what is, has already been’. 5 You see, then, how the universe is in all
things and all things are in the universe, we in it and it in us: thus, everything
coincides in perfect unity. See, then, how our spirit should not be
afflicted, how there is nothing that should frighten us: for that unity is stable
in its oneness and so remains forever. It is eternal, while every aspect,
every face, every other thing is vanity and nothingness – indeed, outside
this one there is nothing. Those philosophers who have discovered this
unity have found their beloved Wisdom. For wisdom, truth and unity are
indeed the same thing, though not everyone has understood this, since
some have adopted the manner of speaking, but not the manner of understanding
of the truly wise. Aristotle, among others, did not discover the
3 I.e. there is no distinction between an active and passive component within infinite substance.
4 Ionic philosophers. 5 Ecclesiastes, 1, 10.
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