5 THIRD ENNEAD, BOOK EIGHT. Of Nature, Contemplation, and of the One.

OF THOUGHT.

12. (1) Thought is not the same everywhere; it differs according to the nature of every “being.” In intelligence, it is intellectual; in the soul it is rational; in the plant it is seminal; last, it is superior to intelligence and existence in the principle that surpasses all these.

OF LIFE.

13. (7) The word “body” is not the only one that may be taken in different senses; such is also the case with “life.” There is a difference between the life of the plant, of the animal, of the soul, of intelligence, and of super-intelligence. Indeed, intelligible entities are alive though the things that proceed therefrom do not possess a life similar to theirs.

OF THE ONE.

14. (8) By (using one’s) intelligence one may say many things about the super-intellectual (principle). But it can be much better viewed by an absence of thought, than by thought. This is very much the same case as that of sleep, of which one can speak, up to a certain point, during the condition of wakefulness; but of which no knowledge of perception can be acquired except by sleeping. Indeed, like is known only by like; the condition of all knowledge is for the subject to be assimilated to the subject.