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there was no infinite age of Chaos and Night, but the same things have always
existed, either revolving in a cycle or moving in some other mode, as the
actual is prior to the potential. If the same is constantly repeating itself
in cycles, there must be something always active in the same way. If there is
birth and death, there must be something else always active in two different
ways.... And the first is the cause of what is permanent and the second of
what is different and both together are the causes of perpetual variation.
Now this is just the character of our motion. Why then need we look for any
more principles?".
    Here we see Aristotle turning his back on the old tales coming down
through the ages from in his terms the 'theologians'. They told of the earth
and all on it being divinely formed out of 'Chaos and Night'. Sounds like he
turned his back on Genesis 1:1 and 2. It also shows another link to the tales
that passed down through the families, both dichotomous and trichotomous, all
the way from Adam and Eve.
    We continue in Chapter 7: "... There is then something that is always
moving in a ceaseless motion, which is motion in a circle; and this is plain
not in theory only but in fact. Hence the first heaven must be eternal.
There is also something that moves it. For that which is moved while it moves
others is but an intermediary. There is something that moves others without
being moved, which is eternal and substance and actuality. It moves in this
way. An object of desire and an object of thought move others without being
themselves moved....
    That the final cause belongs among immovable things is proved by
distinguishing between its different meanings. For the final cause is the
good for the sake of which something else is, and the good which is the end of
the action. In the second of these senses it is among the immovable things,
though in the first it is not. It produces motion by being loved, and what it
moves moves all things else. Now whatever is moved is capable of being
otherwise than as it is. So even if its actuality assumes the form of primary

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motion in space, then inasmuch as it is moved, it is capable of changing from
what it is, in place, if not in substance. But there is something that moves
others while itself is unmoved, and that actually exists, and it can in no way
be other than it is. For motion in space is the first beginning of change,
and motion in a circle is the first kind of motion; and this is the motion the
first mover produces.". Aristotle has just said that it is through love that
motion is started. He also infers here that God is immutable, unchanging; for
if He wasn't, we should have to look for whatever caused Him to move.
Continuing: "This being then necessarily exists, and because it is necessary,
its mode of being is good. It is thereby a first principle....
    On such a first principle depend the heavens and the natural world. And
its life is like ours when for a brief moment it is at its best. This being
lives forever in that state, as we cannot do, for its actuality is also
pleasure.... Now pure thinking thinks of what is excellent in itself, and
thinking in the highest sense of what is excellent in the highest sense. And
the mind thinks of itself, when it takes on the nature of an object of
thought. It becomes an object of thought through its perceiving and thinking,
and then thought and object of thought are the same. For that which is
receptive of thought and essence is the mind. And when it possesses in itself
these things, it is actual and active. And actuality, rather than
potentiality, seems to be the divine feature in thought, and the act of
contemplation is what is most of all pleasant and best. If then God is always
in that happy state in which we sometimes are, this is wonderful; and if in a
still more happy state, more wonderful still. And God is in that happier
state. Life also belongs to God, for thought as actuality is life, and God is
that actuality. And God's essential actuality is life most good and
everlasting. We say then that God is a living being, eternal, most good. And
so life and unbroken and eternal existence are God's, for this is God....".
    There are two things that come to mind here. One goes back to the
preceding chapter and the word love. In the translation that I am citing,

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