INTRODUCTION.

...of things after the first cause, its first subsistence must be according to a superessential characteristic.

Now that which is superessential, when considered as shared by the highest or true being, constitutes that which is called intelligible Intelligible here refers to the realm of pure ideas or forms, which can be grasped by the intellect rather than the senses.. Thus, every true being that depends on the Gods is a divine intelligible. It is divine because it is deified; it is intelligible because it is the object of desire for the intellect, because it perfects and connects its nature, and because it is the fullness of being itself. In the first being, life and intellect exist according to cause: for every thing exists either according to cause, or according to hyparxis original: "hyparxis" — Translation: "essential existence" or "fundamental reality.", or according to participation. That is, everything can be considered as existing secretly in its cause, or openly in its own order (or according to what it is), or as being shared by something else. The first of these is like light viewed as it exists in its source, the sun; the second is like the light immediately proceeding from the sun; and the third is like the brightness communicated to other things by this light.

The first procession, therefore, from the first cause will be the intelligible triad, consisting of being, life, and intellect, which are the three