But how did the Guardians not remain impassible? How did they
descend to an inferior nature? This surely is a question deserving
consideration. We should also inquire whether there be any Guardian in
the intelligible world, whether there be Guardians only here below,
and if deities exist only in the intelligible world. (We shall answer
as follows.) There are deities also here below; and the world is,
as we habitually say, a deity of the third rank, inasmuch as every
supra-lunar being is a divinity. Next, it would be better not to call
any being belonging to the intelligible world a Guardian; and if we
locate the chief Guardian (the Guardian himself) in the intelligible
world, we had better consider him a deity. In the world of sense, all
the visible supra-lunar deities should be called second-rank deities,
in that they are placed below the intelligible deities, and depend
on them as the rays of light from the star from which they radiate.
Last, a Guardian should be defined as the vestige of a soul that had
descended into the world. The latter condition is necessary because
every pure soul begets a deity, and we have already said[136] that the
love of such a soul is a deity.