r universal forms. The same thing must be
said of natural matter,--that is, the substance which sustains the nine
categories; because this matter moves to take on the first qualities,
then to the mineral form, then to the vegetable, then to the sensible,
then to the rational, then to the intelligible, until at last it is
united to the form of universal intelligence. And this primal matter
desires primal form; and all things that are, desire union and
commixture, that so they may be assimilated to their principle; and
therefore, genera, species, differentiae, and contraries are united
through something in singulars.

Thus, matter is like an empty schedule and a wax tablet; whereas form is
like a painted shape and words set down, from which the reader reaches
the end of science. And when the soul knows these, it desires to know
the wonderful painter of them, to whose essence it is impossible to
ascend. Thus matter and form are the two closed gates of intelligence,
which it is hard for intelligence to open and pass through, because the
substance of intelligence is below them, and made up of them. And when
the soul has subtilized itself, until it can penetrate them, it arrives
at the word, that is, at perfect will; and then its motion ceases, and
its joy remains.

An analogy to the fact that the universal will actualizes universal form
in the matter of intelligence is the fact that the particular will
actualizes the particular form in the soul without time, and life and
essential motion in the matter of the soul, and local motion and other
motions in the matter of nature. But all these motions are derived from
the will; and so all things are moved by the will, just as the soul
causes rest or motion in the body according to its will. And this motion
is different according to the greater or less proximity of things to the
will. And if we remove action from the will, the will will be identical
with the primal essence; whereas, with action, it is different from it.
Hence, will is as the painter of all forms; the matter of each thing as
a tablet; and the form of each thing as the picture on the tablet. It
binds form to matter, and is diffused through the whole of matter, from
highest to lowest, as the soul through the body; and as the virtue of
the sun, diffusing its light, unites with the light, and with it
descends into the air, so the virtue of the will unites with the form
which it imparts to all things, and descends with i