THE FIFTH TEXT
1. Seeing then there have been from eternity
two beings, we cannot say that one exists beside
the other, and is disposed so that the one compre-
hends the other; neither can it be said that one
is outside of the other, and that there is a separa-
tion. No; but thus we apprehend it, that the
spirit-life faces inwards, and the nature-life outwards
and forwards.
2. Together, then, we compare them to a spherical
orb which goeth on all sides, as the wheel in
Ezekiel indicates.
8. The spirit-life is an entire fulness of the
nature-life, and yet is not laid hold of by the nature-
life. They are two principles in a single origin,
each having its mystery and its operation. The
nature-life works unto fire, and the spirit-life unto
the light of glory. By fire we understand the
fierceness of the consuming of the essentiality of
Nature; and by light the production of water,
which deprives the fire of power, as is set forth in
the Forty Questions on the soul.
4. And thus we are able to recognize an eternal
substantiality of Nature, identical with water and