Cause Principle Unity

Fifth dialogue
of measure cannot be found without an understanding of numbers. That is
why arithmetical analogy and proportion are better suited than geometry
to guide us, by means of multiplicity, in the contemplation and apprehension
of that indivisible principle which, because it is the unique and
radical substance of all things, cannot possess a distinct and limited name,
or any term that has a positive rather than privative meaning. Therefore,
it has been called by some ‘point’, by others ‘unity’, and by still others
‘infinity’, and so on, with various like terms.
Add to what has been said, that when the intellect wishes to grasp the
essence of something, it proceeds by simplifying as much as possible: I
mean that it shuns composition and multiplicity, rejecting accidents, which
are corruptible, as well as dimensions, signs and figures, and turns to what
lies beneath these things. Just as a lengthy, long-winded oration cannot be
understood but by reducing it to a simple conceit. By so doing, the intellect
clearly demonstrates how the substance of things consists of unity,
which it looks for either in reality, or by analogy. The man who could
reduce to a single proposition all the propositions disseminated in Euclid’s
principles would be the most consummate and perfect geometrician; likewise,
the most perfect logician would be he who reduced all propositions
in logic to one. Herein lies the level of intelligence, because inferior intellects
cannot understand multiplicity except through many species, analogies
and forms, superior intellects do better with less, and the very best do
perfectly with very little. The premier intelligence embraces everything in
a single, absolutely perfect idea, and the divine mind and the absolute
unity, with no species, is that which understands and that which is understood
simultaneously. So that, to ascend to perfect knowledge, we proceed
by grouping and restricting the many, just as unity, descending to the production
of things, proceeds by unfolding into many. The descent moves
from a single being to an infinity of individuals and innumerable species;
the ascent moves from the latter to the former.
Therefore, to conclude this second consideration, I say that when we
aspire and strive towards the principle and substance of things, we progress
towards indivisibility, and that we must never believe we have arrived at the
first being and the universal substance until we have come to this indivisible
one in which all is comprised. Meanwhile, let us not be led into believing
we can understand of the substance and essence more than what we can
understand concerning indivisibility. Peripatetics and Platonists gather the
infinity of individuals into a simple concept, which is their species; they
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