Leo XIII, 1878-1903

are in it, there is something to which the term of divine not in a figurative but in a real sense is fitting.—The actuality is not distinct from the rest of divine actuality.

1894. 4. Indeterminate being, which without doubt is known to all intelligences, is that divine thing which is manifest to man in nature.

1895. 5. Being, which man observes, must be something of the necessary and eternal being, the creating cause, the determining and final cause of all contingent beings; and this is God.

1896. 6. In the being which prescinds from creatures and from God, which is indeterminate being, and in God, not indeterminate but absolute being, the essence is the same.

1897. 7. The indeterminate being of intuition, initial being, is something of the Word, which the mind of the Father distinguishes, not really, but according to reason from the Word.

1898. 8. Finite beings, of which the world is composed, result from two elements, that is, from the real finite terminus and from the initial being, which contributes the form of being to the same terminus.

1899. 9. Being, the object of intuition, is the initial act of all beings. Initial being is the beginning both of the knowable and the subsisting; it is likewise the beginning of God, according as He is conceived by us, and of creatures.

1900. 10. Virtual and limitless being is the first and most simple of all entities, so that any other entity is composite, and among its components is always and necessarily virtual being.—It is the essential part of absolutely all entities, according as they are divided by reason.

1901. 11. The quiddity (that which a thing is) of a finite being does not consist of that which it has of the positive, but of its limits. The quiddity of an infinite being consists of its entity, and is positive; but the quiddity of a finite being consists of the limits of its entity, and is negative.

1902. 12. There is no finite reality, but God causes it to exist by adding limitation to infinite reality.—Initial being becomes the essence of every real being.—Being which actuates finite natures, and is joined with them, is cut off by God.

1903. 13. The difference between absolute being and relative being is not that which intervenes between substance and substance, but something much greater; for one is being absolutely, the other nonbeing absolutely, and this other is being relatively. But when relative being is posited, being absolutely is not multiplied; hence, absolute and relative (being) absolutely are not one substance, but one being; and in this sense no diversity is being, rather oneness is held as being.

1904. 14. By divine abstraction initial being is produced, the first element of finite beings; but by divine imagination the finite real (being) or all realities are produced, of which the world consists.