Chapter XXXVII.-Other Turgid and Ridiculous Theories About the Origin of the ¦ons and Creation, Stated and Condemned.
Now listen to some other buffooneries of a master who is a great swell among them, and who has pronounced his dicta with an even priestly authority. They run thus: There comes, says he, before all things Proarche, the inconceivable, and indescribable, and nameless, which I for my own part call Monotes ( Solitude ). With this was associated another power, to which also I give the name of Henotes ( Unity ). Now, inasmuch as Monotes and Henotes-that is to say, Solitude and Union-were only one being, they produced, and yet not in the way of production, the intellectual, innascible, invisible beginning of all things, which human language has called Monad ( Solitude ). This has inherent in itself a consubstantial force, which it calls Unity These powers, accordingly, Solitude or Solitariness, and Unity, or Union, propagated all the other emanations of ¦ons. Wonderful distinction, to be sure! Whatever change Union and Unity may undergo, Solitariness and Solitude is profoundly supreme. Whatever designation you give the power, it is one and the same.