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Principles | | |
 Power
E Power
Definition: Power is that whereby
goodness, greatness, duration and the
other principles can be what they are and
do what they do.
Exposition: Between power and powering
there is difference as between existence
and action. Powering is the act of power
as understanding is the act of wisdom.
Thus, power gives rise to the act of
powering and whenever power is actually
and substantially powerful, it comprises
powering with what is powered. Therefore,
what can be possibly powered is a
principle that passes from potentiality into
act through habit; it is a principle whose
quantity and sequence are as great as its
duration is great in time. But if some
being exists simply per se as the power,
powering and what is powered or possible
in the essence and nature of power,
powering and what is powered or possible
without any succession, this being is
supremely powerful and this supreme
power is indeed the very same supreme
powering, etc. that moves all other power
and powering, for it simply is their formal
end or goal. It is not impossible for the
supreme being to have these conditions,
nor is it impossible for supreme power to
originate in eternity without any
succession or privation of power, eternity,
goodness, infinity and virtue. On the other
hand, it is obviously impossible for any
substantial being to exist simply as power
per se.
Nature: The inherent correlatives
comprised in the essence of power are,
as in the previously described principles:
that which powers, what is powered and
the act of powering in one natural essence
full of power.
Clearly, nothing is possible without power,
since nothing can be, or do anything
without it. Power is a principle of this Art
so the artist may know the conditions of
power and find means to reach
conclusions about power with the Art.
This shows the different ways in which
power is powerful by reason of its own
natural essence and also by reason of
other natural essences given that
substantial beings can be powerful
through power in one way, and in another
way through goodness, etc.
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