Master: You will understand how many things exist in one simple thing when we discuss the form of the universal intelligence, that bears the aggregate of all the forms. You will then know how the inferior things exist in the superior things and the parts in the whole. And from there you will come to know how all the forms subsist in the universal matter and how the universal matter and the universal form, with all that is contained therein, subsist in the will of the First Author, holy and sublime. Listen therefore now to the proofs that demonstrate the existence of many things in one simple thing.
The numerous forms assembled in the simple substance are simple and spiritual. Now all that is simple and spiritual does not occupy place. Therefore the numerous forms assembled in the simple substance do not occupy place. Then I take this proposition as a premise and I add another one: Whenever a thing does not occupy place, a single one is equal—or several of these things, assembled in the unity that bears them. Therefore a single one is equal—or several of the numerous forms assembled in the simple substance in the unity that assembles and bears them. I take again this proposition as a premise and I add: When a thing is equal—or several of these things, assembled in a single thing, there is no opposition to the union of several of them in a single thing. Therefore there is no opposition to the union in the simple substance of the numerous forms that are assembled therein.
The simple substance and the compound substance