But when the soul contains some of those false opinions which are
the principal cause of vice, must we not acknowledge that something
positive occurs in her, and that one of her parts undergoes an
alteration? Is not the disposition of the soul's irascible part
different according to its courage or cowardliness? And the soul's
appetitive-part, according to whether it be temperate or intemperate?
We answer that a part of the soul is virtuous, when it acts in
conformity with its "being," or when it obeys reason; for reason
commands all the parts of the soul, and herself is subjected to
intelligence. Now to obey reason is to see; it is not to receive
an impression, but to have an intuition, to carry out the act of
vision.[33] Sight is of the same (nature) when in potentiality, or
in actualization; it is not altered in passing from potentiality to
actualization,[34] she only applies herself to do what it is her
(nature) to do, to see and know, without being affected. Her rational
part is in the same relation with intelligence; she has the intuition
thereof.[35] The nature of intelligence is not to receive an impression
similar to that made by a seal, but in one sense to possess what it
sees, and not to possess it in another; intelligence possesses it by
cognizing it; but intelligence does not possess it in this sense that
while seeing it intelligence does not receive from it a shape similar
to that impressed on wax by a seal. Again, we must not forget that
memory does not consist in keeping impressions, but is the soul's
faculty of recalling and representing to herself the things that are
not present to her. Some objector might say that the soul is different
before reawakening a memory, and after having reawakened it. She may
indeed be different, but she is not altered, unless indeed, we call the
passing from potentiality to actualization an alteration. In any case,
nothing extraneous enters into her, she only acts according to her own
nature.