Of the Being of the Soul.
It is in the intelligible world that dwells veritable being.
Intelligence is the best that there is on high; but there are also
souls; for it is thence that they descended thither. Only, souls have
no bodies, while here below they inhabit bodies and are divided there.
On high, all the intelligences exist together, without separation or
division; all the souls exist equally together in that world which
is one, and there is no local distance between them. Intelligence
therefore ever remains inseparable and indivisible; but the soul,
inseparable so long as she resides on high, nevertheless possesses a
divisible nature. For her "dividing herself" consists in departing
from the intelligible world, and uniting herself to bodies; it might
therefore be reasonably said that she becomes divisible in passing
into bodies, since she thus separates from the intelligible world,
and divides herself somewhat. In what way is she also indivisible?
In that she does not separate herself entirely from the intelligible
world, ever residing there by her highest part, whose nature it is to
be indivisible. To say then that the soul is composed of indivisible
(essence) and of (essence) divisible in bodies means then no more
than that the soul has an (essence) which dwells partly in the
intelligible world, and partly descends into the sense-world, which
is suspended from the first and extends downwards to the second, as
the ray goes from the centre to the circumference. When the soul
descended here below, it is by her superior part that she contemplates
the intelligible world, as it is thereby that she preserves the nature
of the all (of the universal Soul). For here below she is not only
divisible, but also indivisible; her divisible part is divided in a
somewhat indivisible manner; she is indeed entirely present in the
whole body in an indivisible manner, and nevertheless she is said to
divide herself because she spreads out entirely in the whole body.