But is the soul herself a sense-being, if she be disposed in a
particular way, and if she contain particular "reasons" (that is,
faculties, virtues, sciences and arts, all of which refer to the body,
and which have been classified as sense-qualities)?[402] It has already
been explained that these "reasons" themselves are not corporeal; but
that they have been classified among sense-qualities only because they
referred to the body, and to the actions thereby produced. On the other
hand, as sense-quality has been defined as the meeting of all the
above enumerated entities, it is impossible to classify incorporeal
Being in the same genus as the sensual being. As to the qualities
of the soul, they are all doubtless incorporeal, but as they are
experiences (or, sufferings, or, passions) which refer to terrestrial
things, they must be classified in the genus of quality, just as the
reasons of the individual soul. Of the soul we must therefore predicate
experience, however dividing the latter in two elements, one of which
would refer to the object to which it is applied, and the other to
the subject in which it exists.[403] Though then these experiences
cannot be considered as corporeal qualities, yet it must be admitted
they relate to the body.[404] On the other hand, although we classify
these experiences in the genus of quality, still the soul herself
should not be reduced to the rank of corporeal being. Last, when we
conceive of the soul as without experiences, and without the "reasons"
above-mentioned, we are thereby classifying her along with the World
from which she descends,[405] and we leave here below no intelligible
being, of any kind whatever.