For if it thinks of nothing, what
is there here of dignity? It is just like one who sleeps. And if it
thinks, but this depends on something else, then (since that which
is its substance is not the act of thinking, but a potency) it
cannot be the best substance; for it is through thinking that its
value belongs to it. Further, whether its substance is the faculty
of thought or the act of thinking, what does it think of? Either of
itself or of something else; and if of something else, either of the
same thing always or of something different. Does it matter, then,
or not, whether it thinks of the good or of any chance thing? Are
there not some things about which it is incredible that it should
think? Evidently, then, it thinks of that which is most divine and
precious, and it does not change; for change would be change for the
worse, and this would be already a movement. First, then, if 'thought'
is not the act of thinking but a potency, it would be reasonable to
suppose that the continuity of its thinking is wearisome to it.
Secondly, there would evidently be something else more precious than
thought, viz. that which is thought of. For both thinking and the
act of thought will belong even to one who thinks of the worst thing
in the world, so that if this ought to be avoided (and it ought, for
there are even some things which it is better not to see than to see),
the act of thinking cannot be the best of things. Therefore it must be
of itself that the divine thought thinks (since it is the most
excellent of things), and its thinking is a thinking on thinking.
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