Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I

20Quality exceeds body by one degree, in that it moves body; it yields to soul by at least one, in that soul moves it. Soul exceeds quality by at least one degree, in that it moves itself; it yields to angel by one, in that it changes. Angel exceeds soul by one, in that he abides; he yields to God by one, in that he is manifold. Yet through this one degree God passes infinitely beyond all things.

21Zoroaster sang it thus: Πατὴρ ἑαυτὸν ἥρπασεν, οὐδὲ ἐν δυνάμει νοερᾷ κλείσας ἴδιον πῦρ—that is, ‘The Father snatched himself away and did not enclose his own fire even in the mind that follows him.’ It is as though he were saying: he admits no comparison with the rest. Body is moved only by another, for by its own nature it does nothing. Quality moves another and is moved by another. Soul moves another, but is moved by itself. Angel moves other things—that is, acts upon them—and is himself stable, though not stable through himself.

22For angel stands through divine unity. What else is it to stand, as we have said, than to persevere in the unity of one’s own nature? He also moves through God, since by the power of the first actuality all agents perform whatever they perform. God through himself moves and acts upon all things, while he himself is stable through himself. For certainly all things that are of some kind through another are brought back to a first thing that is of that kind through itself.