stated, that the action of choice prevails with the
self-existent Being over necessity, because choice is
presupposed in the nature of might, and provident
choice, as well as vicissitudes and excitement, are
parts suitable to a purpose, and providence came to
succour every one of the necessitous crowd, by pro-
creating remedies against the evils without number
which are determined by necessity, in opposition to
that necessity whence pure procreation proceeds.
When the free agent is straightened in his choice,
then choice assumes the nature of necessity. Thus/lw
Mdyin eddinMaibedi1 relates, in liisFavdtah, " Prole-
gomena," that the Sufis say: The wished for, but ne-
ver-found Being proceeds from the field of pure non-
entity, and the bare negation puts no foot into the
station of evidence and habitation of bodily existence,
in the same manner as the wished-for but never-found
Being never assumes the color of bodily existence ;
certainly, the real Being also does not take the color
of non-entity. The substance of any thing cannot
be caused to vanish into non-existence; thus, if thou
consumest a stick in the fire, its substance is not
annihilated although its form changes, and becomes
manifest in the form of ashes. The self-existent
Being is an essence which is stable in all conditions,
and in the accidents of existence, in the forms and

1 See page 217, note 2.