ii KNOWLEDGE, WILL, AND POWER 193 



" proof" : l i. The Divine essence is infinite. 2. As 

 the measure of being, so is the measure of power. 3. 

 As the measure of power, so is the measure of action. 

 4. God is absolutely simple essence or being in which 

 there can be no complexity nor internal diversity. 5. 

 Consequently in him, being, power, action, volition, 

 and whatever can be truly attributed to him, are one and 

 the same. 6. Therefore the will of God is above all 

 things, and can be frustrated neither by himself nor by 

 another. 7. Consequently the Divine will is not only 

 necessary, but is necessity itself, and its opposite is not 

 only impossible but impossibility itself. 8. In simple 

 essence there cannot be contrariety of any kind, nor 

 inequality : will, therefore, is not contrary to, nor un- 

 equal to, power. 9. Necessity and liberty are one, 

 hence what acts by the necessity of nature acts freely ; 

 it would not act freely at all did it act otherwise than 

 is demanded by necessity and nature, or by the necessity 

 of nature. 2 10. There is not ah infinite power, unless 

 there be an infinite possible; i.e. there is not that 

 which is able to create an infinite unless there be that 

 which is able to be created. What is a power which is 

 impossible of realisation or which is relative to an im- 

 possible ? 1 1 . As there is a world in this space, so also 

 there is able to be one in any space similar to that which, 

 were this world removed, would remain equal to the 

 world. 1 2. There is no ground for denying, outside the 

 world, a similar space to that in which the world is, nor 

 any for regarding it as finite. 3 14. It is better to be 

 than not to be ; it is more worthy to create what is 

 good than not to create it. To posit (create) being and 



1 P. 242 ff. 2 Cf. Infinite, Lag. 316. 21. 



3 No. 13 states that the worlds could not interfere with one another, since space 

 is infinite. 



O 



