ore that is
truly One in which is no number, in which nothing is present except its
own essence. Nor can it become the substrate of anything, for it is pure
Form, and pure Forms cannot be substrates.[16] For if humanity, like
other forms, is a substrate for accidents, it does not receive accidents
through the fact that it exists, but through the fact that matter is
subjected to it. Humanity appears indeed to appropriate the accident
which in reality belongs to the matter underlying the conception
Humanity. But Form which is without matter cannot be a substrate, and
cannot have its essence in matter, else it would not be form but a
reflexion. For from those forms which are outside matter come the forms
which are in matter and produce bodies. We misname the entities that
reside in bodies when we call them forms; they are mere images; they
only resemble those forms which are not incorporate in matter. In Him,
then, is no difference, no plurality arising out of difference, no
multiplicity arising out of accidents, and accordingly no number.

[12] By Cicero (_Tusc_. v. 7. 19).

[13] Cf. the similar division of philosophy in _Isag. Porph_. ed. Brandt,
pp. 7 ff.

[14] _Sb_. though they may be separated in thought.

[15] [Greek: Apoios hulae] = [Greek: to amorphon, to aeides] of
Aristotle. Cf. [Greek: oute gar hulae to eidos (hae men apoios, to de
poiotaes tis) oute ex hulaes] (Alexander Aphrod. _De Anima_, 17. 17);
[Greek: ei de touto, apoios de hae hulae, apoion an eiae soma] (id. _De
anima libri mantissa_, 124. 7).

[16] This is Realism. Cf. "Sed si rerum ueritatem atque integritatem
perpendas, non est dubium quin uerae sint. Nam cum res omnes quae uerae
sunt sine his quinque (i.e. genus species differentia propria
accidentia) esse non possint, has ipsas quinque res uere intellectas
esse non dubites." _Isag., Porph. ed, pr._ i. (M. _P.L._ lxiv. col. 19,
Brandt, pp. 26 ff.). The two passages show that Boethius is definitely
committed to the Realistic position, although in his _Comment. in
Porphyr. a se translatum_ he holds the scales between Plato and
Aristotle, "quorum diiudicare sententias aptum esse non duxi" (cp.
Haureau, _Hist. de la philosophie scolastique_, i. 120). As a fact in
the _Comment. in Porph._ he merely postpones the question, which in the
_De Trin._ he settles. Boethius was ridiculed in the Middle Ages for his
caution.