Note (return) — Chapter XII

(i.) He is, of course, pure intellect, because he is absolutely immaterial and free from nature. He is active intelligence, because his essence is pure actuality. He is self-contemplating and self-conscious intelligence, because the divine thought can not attain its actuality in any thing extrinsic; it would depend on something else than self--some potential existence for its actualization. Hence the famous definition of the absolute as "the thought of thought" (νόησις νοήσεως). 745 "And therefore the first and actual perception by mind of Mind itself, doth subsist in this way throughout all eternity." 746