(Let us study) the relation of the (world) Soul to bodies. As this
relation is of a different kind, it must be understood that the Soul
is not partly in herself and partly in the bodies. Simultaneously she
dwells entirely within herself, and also projects her image into the
multiplicity of the bodies (which reflect her, like mirrors). Suppose
that some definite body approach the Soul to receive life from her; it
obtains life silently, and thus possesses what already was in other
bodies. Indeed, conditions had not been arranged so that a part of the
Soul, located in a certain place, should await a body, so as to enter
into it. But this part of the Soul which enters into a body, so to
speak, existed already in the universe, that is to say, in herself, and
she continued to exist in herself although she seemed to have descended
here below. How indeed should the Soul descend here below? Therefore,
if she did not descend here below, if she only manifested her actual
presence, without awaiting the body which was to participate in her,
evidently the Soul dwells in herself simultaneously with becoming
present to this body. Now, if the Soul dwell in herself at the same
time as she becomes present to this body (for it is not the Soul that
came into this body), it is the body which entered into her; it is
the body which, being till then outside of veritable Essence, entered
into it, and passed into the world of life. Now the world of life was
all in itself, without extension, and, therefore, without division.
The body has, therefore, not entered into it as in something that
possesses extension. It commenced by participating, not in one of the
parts of the world of life, but in this whole world, entirely. If an
additional body should also enter it, it will participate in it in the
same way (entirely). Consequently, if we said that the world of life is
entire in these bodies, it is similarly entire in each of them. It is,
therefore everywhere the same, and numerically one, without dividing,
but always present entire.