Finally, to come to the point, we again collect all Being into five degrees, putting God and Angel in nature's highest place, Body and Quality2 in the lowest, and Soul right in the middle between these highest and lowest degrees. We rightly call it, in Platonic fashion, the third or intermediate essence, since it is both intermediate between the others and in every sense third. In descending from God, Soul is found in the third grade of the descent; and in ascending from Body it is also found in the third grade of the ascent. In our opinion it is exceedingly necessary for there to be an essence of this kind in nature, since Angel indeed, as the Platonists say, possesses true Being, that is, remains at all times unchanged; whereas Quality is Becoming, that is, changes from time to time. Clearly Quality is completely different from Angel. While Quality changes, Angel remains unchanged; and while Quality comes into being from time to time, Angel exists at all times. There must therefore be something intermediate (medium) which may agree partly with Angel, and partly with Quality. What is this thing? Is it perhaps something that has true Being, that is, remains intrinsically unchanged for a time. No, for nothing of this kind can be discovered, since anything which remains at any time intrinsically unchanged, either because of its own nature, or because of its proximity to the principle of rest,3 remains so at all times. The intermediate or mean, therefore, will be something that is always coming into being, that is, that is always changing. It agrees with Angel in that it always has Being, with Quality in that it is changing. From this it follows that there must be a third essence intermediate between the other degrees, an essence which is always changing and alive, and which, by its own motion, diffuses life into Body. The Platonists rightly say that above that which exists in a part of time, is that which exists through all time; and above this in turn, is that which exists through eternity; and finallyr above this, eternity itself. But between the things which are eternal only, and those which are temporal only, there is Soul, a kind of link, as it were, between them. Indeed, the most excellent parts of the body of the universe are somewhat similar to the Soul in this respect. There are some who place the Empyrean, since it is 1 Text based on the edition of Paris, 1559 (a). This edition has been at times collated with the edition of Plato (Venice, 1491) (b). 2 qualitatem b, quantitatem a. 3 vel ex statu proxime manet a b.