is tenth Intelligence is proved by the transition of our
own intellect from possible existence to actuality, and by the varying
forms of all transient things, whose matter at one time existed only in
a potential state. Whenever the transition from potentiality to
actuality occurs, there must be a cause. Inasmuch as the tenth
Intelligence (_Sechel Hapoel_, Active Intellect) induces form, it must
itself be form, inasmuch as it is the source of intellect, it is itself
intellect. This is, of course, obscure to us, but we must remember that
Maimonides would not have so charming and individual a personality,
were he not part and parcel of his time and the representative of its
belief. Maimonides, having for once deviated from the peripatetic
system, ventures to take another bold step away from it. He offers an
explanation, different from Aristotle's, of the creation of the world.
The latter repudiated the _creatio ex nihilo_ (creation out of nothing).
Like modern philosophers, he pre-supposed the existence of an eternal
"First substance" (_materia prima_). His Bible does not permit our rabbi
to avail himself of this theory. It was reserved for the modern
investigator to demonstrate how the Scriptural word, with some little
manipulation, can be so twisted as to be made to harmonize with the
theories of natural science. But to such trickery the pure-minded guide
will not stoop. Besides, the acceptance of Aristotle's theory would rule
out the intervention of miracles in the conduct of the world, and that
Maimonides does not care to renounce. Right here his monotheistic
convictions force him into direct opposition to the Greek as well as to
the Arabic philosophers. Upon this subject, he brooked neither trifling
nor compromise with reason. It is precisely his honesty that so exalted
his teachings, that they have survived the lapse of centuries, and
maintain a place in the pure atmosphere of modern philosophic thought.

According to Maimonides, man has absolute free-will, and God is
absolutely just. Whatever good befalls man is reward, all his evil
fortune, punishment. What Aristotle attributes to chance, and the
Mohammedan philosophers to Divine Will or Divine Wisdom, our rabbi
traces to the _merits of man_ as its cause. He does not admit any
suffering to be unmerited, or that God ordains trials merely to
indemnify the sufferer in this or the future world. Man's susceptibility
to divine influence is measured by his intellectual end