(Plato) further states that the relation of the souls of the stars
to their bodies is the same as that of the universal Soul to the
universe,[166] where he makes the stars participate in the movements
of the universal Soul. He thus grants to those souls the blessedness
which is suitable to them. The intercourse of the soul with the body
is usually blamed for two things: because it hinders the soul from
busying herself with the conceptions of intelligence, and then because
it exposes her to agreeable or painful sensations which fill her with
desires. Now neither of these two results affect the soul that has not
entered into a body, and which does not depend thereon by belonging
to some particular individual. Then, on the contrary, she possesses
the body of the universe, which has no fault, no need, which can cause
her neither fears nor desires, because she has nothing to fear. Thus
no anxiety ever forces her to descend to terrestrial objects, or to
distract herself from her happy and sublime contemplation. Entirely
devoted to divine things, she governs the world by a single power,
whose exercise involves no anxiety.