15. But how did the body approach the universal Soul? As this body
had an aptitude for participation in the Soul, it received that for
which it was fit; now it was disposed to receive a particular soul;
that is why it did not receive the universal Soul. Although the latter
be present with this body, she does not become entirely suitable to
it; that is why plants and the non-human souls likewise possess only
so much of the universal Soul, as they were able to receive from her.
Likewise, when a voice challenges notice, so some (persons) grasp only
the sound, others grasp also the signification. As soon as the animal
has been begotten, it possesses within itself the presence of a soul
derived from the universal (Being), and by which it remains united with
this (Being) because then it possesses a body that is neither empty nor
inanimate. This body was not before in an inanimate place, and (when
it was begotten), it only further reapproximated itself to the soul by
its aptitude (to receive life); it became not only a body, but also
a living body; thanks to the neighborhood to the soul, it received a
trace (of the soul); and by that I do not mean a part of the soul, but
a kind of heat or light which emanated from the soul, and which, in
the body, begat desires, pleasures, and pains. The body of the thus
begotten animal was, therefore, not a body foreign (to life). The Soul,
that had issued from the divine principle, remained tranquil according
to her own nature, and was subsisting in herself, when that part, which
was troubled by her own weakness, and was spontaneously fluctuating
around when assailed by impulsions from without, first complained
audibly by herself, and then in that part of the animal which is common
to the soul and body, and communicated her disturbance to the entire
living being. Thus when a deliberative assembly calmly examines some
question, a confused mob, driven by hunger or excited by some passion,
may come to spread trouble and disorder in the whole assembly. As long
as such people keep quiet, the voice of the wise man may be heard by
them; and as a result the crowd retains orderliness, its worse part
remaining subordinate; otherwise the worst part dominates, while the
better part remains silent, because the trouble hinders the crowd
from listening to reason. Thus does evil come to reign in a city and
in an assembly. Likewise evil reigns in him who allows himself to be
dominated by this disorderly crowd of fears, desires and passions
that he bears within his breast; and that will last until he reduce
that crowd to obedience, until he become again the man he formerly
was (before descending here below), and until he regulate his life
(according to the better Man); what he then will grant to the body will
be granted as to something foreign. As to him who lives now in one
manner, and now in another, he is a man of mingled good and evil.