another; and the dependent cannot exist without the Self-Sufficient, so in either case the existence of the Self-Sufficient necessarily follows.

In the same way, existence may be divided into the Ever-Subsisting—He who subsists by Himself and sustains others—and into what is not Ever-Subsisting. That which is not Ever-Subsisting can come to be only through the Ever-Subsisting; therefore, on both counts the existence of the Ever-Subsisting is affirmed.

Likewise, one may say that existence falls into created and uncreated. The created must have an uncreated Creator; hence the reality of an uncreated being is established in both alternatives. It is then said: this uncreated being is the Creator of all creatures, for His existence is known only by the necessary existence of those creatures. Thus the existence of the Creator is confirmed under every supposition.

Next it is said: the eternal is either eternal in itself or eternal through another. Being eternal through another is impossible, for a thing is eternal in itself only if it is inseparable from that which is eternal in itself; otherwise, if it could both exist with it or fail to exist with it, neither alternative would prevail without a determiner. Yet the eternal who brings creatures into being cannot have any of His effects inseparably bound to Him, for an effect would only be inseparable if He produced it by His very essence such that it never failed to issue from Him. Were that the case, temporal events would never proceed from Him, whether directly or indirectly. Since temporal events do in fact proceed from Him, it is clear that He is not necessitated by His effect.

And if it is said that the intellects are inseparable from Him and that they, in turn, bring about the celestial spheres and the souls of those spheres