It is not otherwise with water and air. If by their nature these
elements were more consistent, they would reveal the universal Soul;
but as their essence is dispersed, they do not reveal the power that
animates them. In a similar case are the fluids occurring in our body,
as, for instance, the blood; the flesh, which seems animated, is formed
at the expense of the blood.[95] The latter must therefore enjoy the
presence of the soul, though it seem deprived of the (soul) because
(the blood) manifests no sensibility, opposes no resistance, and by its
fluidity easily separates itself from the soul that vivifies it, as
happens to the three elements already mentioned. Likewise the animals
which Nature forms out of condensed air feel without suffering.[96] As
fixed and permanent light penetrates the air so long as the air itself
is permanent, the soul also penetrates the atmosphere surrounding her
without being absorbed by it. Other elements are in the same case.