Ibn Gabirol’s thought exerted a profound influence, not only on subsequent Hebrew thinkers, like Joseph ben Saddig, Maimonides, Spinoza, but also on the Christian Schoolmen, by whom he is often quoted, and on Giordano Bruno.  Through Spinoza and Bruno this influence has passed into the modern world, where it still lives.  Dante, though naming many Arab philosophers, never alludes to Ibn Gabirol; yet he borrowed more of his sublimest thoughts from the ‘Fountain of Life’ than from any other book.  (Cf.  Ibn Gabirol’s ‘Bedeutung fuer die Geschichte der Philosophie,’ appendix to Vol. i. of M. Joel’s ‘Beitraege zur Gesch. der Philos.,’ Breslau, 1876.) If we set aside the hypostatic form in which Ibn Gabirol puts forward his ideas, we shall find a remarkable similarity between his system and that of Kant, not to speak of that of Schopenhauer.  For the whole subject, see J. Guttman’s ’Die Philosophic des Salomon Ibn Gabirol’ (Goettingen, 1889).

ON MATTER AND FORM

From the ‘Fountain of Life,’ Fifth Treatise

Intelligence is finite in both directions:  on the upper side, by reason of will, which is above it; on the lower, by reason of matter, which is outside of its essence.  Hence, spiritual substances are finite with respect to matter, because they differ through it, and distinction is the cause of finitude; in respect to forms they are infinite on the lower side, because one form flows from another.  And we must bear in mind that that part of matter which is above heaven, the more it ascends from it to the principle of creation, becomes the more spiritual in form, whereas that part which descends lower than the heaven toward quiet will be more corporeal in form.  Matter, intelligence, and soul comprehend heaven, and heaven comprehends the elements.  And just as, if you imagine your soul standing at the extreme height of heaven, and looking back upon the earth, the earth will seem but a point, in comparison with the heaven, so are corporeal and spiritual substance in comparison with the will.  And first matter is stable in the knowledge of God, as the earth in the midst of heaven.  And the form diffused through it is as the light diffused through the air....

We must bear in mind that the unity induced by the will (we might say, the will itself) binds matter to form.  Hence that union is stable, firm, and perpetual from the beginning of its creation; and thus unity sustains all things.

Matter is movable, in order that it may receive form, in conformity with its appetite for receiving goodness and delight through the reception of form.  In like manner, everything that is, desires to move, in order that it may attain something of the goodness of the primal being; and the nearer anything is to the primal being, the more easily it reaches this, and the further off it is, the more slowly and with the longer motion and time it does so.  And the motion of matter and other substances is nothing but