6. What is the relation of the sense-power within the superior
Soul (or, in the rational soul)? Intelligible sensation perceives
(intelligible) objects that, speaking strictly, are not sensible,
and corresponds to the (intelligible) manner in which they are
perceivable. Thus (by this intelligible sense-power) the Soul perceives
the supersensual harmony and also the sensual, but in a manner such
as the sense-man perceives it, relating it so far as possible to the
superior harmony,[99] just as he relates the earthly fire to the
intelligible Fire, which is above, and which the superior Soul felt in
a manner suitable to the nature of this fire. If the bodies which are
here below were up there also, the superior Soul would feel them and
perceive them. The man who exists on high is a Soul disposed in some
particular manner, capable of perceiving these objects; hence the man
of the last degree (the sense-man) being the image of the intelligible
Man, has reasons (faculties) which are also images (faculties possessed
by the superior Man). The man who exists in the divine Intelligence
constitutes the Man superior to all men. He illuminates the second
(the reasonable man), who in his turn illuminates the third (the
sense-man). The man of this last degree somewhat possesses the two
others; he is not produced by them, he is rather united to them. The
man who constitutes us actualizes himself as the man of the last
degree. The third receives something of the second; and the second is
the actualization of the first.[84] Each man's nature depends on the
"man" according to whom he acts (the man is intellectual, reasonable,
or sensual according as he exercises intelligence, discursive reason,
or sensibility). Each one of us possesses the three men in one sense
(potentially); and does not possess them in another (in actualization;
that is, he does not simultaneously exercise intellect, reason, or
sense).