the proton kinoun), the
absolute conception or pure intelligence (the pure ti en einai), and the
absolute ground, reason, or end of all being. All the other predicates
of the First Cause follow from the above principles with logical
necessity.

(i.) _He is, of course, pure intellect_, because he is absolutely
immaterial and free from nature. He is active intelligence, because his
essence is pure actuality. He is self-contemplating and self-conscious
intelligence, because the divine thought can not attain its actuality in
any thing extrinsic; it would depend on something else than self--some
potential existence for its actualization. Hence the famous definition
of the absolute as "the thought of thought" (noesis noeseos).[745] "And
therefore the first and actual perception by mind of Mind itself, doth
subsist in this way throughout all eternity."[746]

[Footnote 745: Schwegler's "History of Philosophy," p. 125.]

[Footnote 746: "Metaphysics," bk. xi. ch. ix.]

(ii.) _He is also essential life_. "The principle of life is inherent in
the Deity, for the energy or active exercise of mind constitutes life,
and God constitutes this energy; and essential energy belongs to God as
his best and everlasting life. Now our statement is this--that the Deity
is a living being that is everlasting and most excellent in nature, so
that with the Deity life and duration are uninterrupted and eternal; for
this constitutes the essence of God."[747]

(iii.) _Unity belongs to him_, since multiplicity implies matter; and
the highest idea or form of the world must be absolutely
immaterial.[748] The Divine nature is "devoid of parts and indivisible,
for magnitude can not in any way involve this Divine nature; for God
imparts motion through infinite duration, and nothing finite--as
magnitude is--can be possessed of an infinite capacity."[749]

(iv.) _He is immovable and ever abideth the same_; since otherwise he
could not be the absolute mover, and the cause of all becoming, if he
were subject to change.[750] God is impassive and unalterable ([Greek:
apathes kai analloioton]); for all such notions as are involved in
passion or alteration are outside the sphere of the Divine
existence.[751]

[Footnote 747: "Metaphysics," bk. xi. ch. vii.]

[Footnote 748: Ibid.]

[Footnote 749: Ibid.]

[Footnote 750: Ibid., bk. xi. ch. viii.]

[Footnote 751: Ibid., bk. xi. ch. vii.]

(v.) _He is the ever-blessed God_.--"The life of God is of a kind wit