7. That is what seems true to us. As to the Philebus passage (quoted
in the first section), it might mean that all souls were parts of the
universal Soul. That, however, is not its true meaning, as held by
some. It only means what Plato desired to assert in this place, namely,
that heaven is animate. Plato proves this by saying that it would be
absurd to insist that heaven has no soul, when our body, which is only
a part of the body of the universe, nevertheless has a soul; but how
could a part be animate, unless the whole was so also? It is especially
in the Timaeus[107] that Plato clearly expresses his thought. After
having described the birth of the universal Soul, he shows the other
souls born later from the mixture made in the same vase from which
the universal Soul was drawn. He asserts that they are similar to the
universal Soul, and that their difference consists in that they occupy
the second or third rank. That is further confirmed by this passage of
the Phaedrus[108]: "The universal Soul cares for what is inanimate."
Outside of the Soul, indeed, what power would manage, fashion, ordain
and produce the body? It would be nonsense to attribute this power
to one soul, and not to another. (Plato) adds (in substance): "The
Perfect Soul, the Soul of the universe, hovering in the ethereal
region, acts on the earth without entering into it, being borne above
him as in a chariot. The other souls that are perfect share with it
the administration of the world." When Plato speaks of the soul as
having lost her wings, he is evidently distinguishing individual souls
from the universal Soul. One might also conclude that our souls are
part of the universal Soul from his statement that the souls follow
the circular movement of the universe, that from it they derive their
characteristics, and that they undergo its influence. Indeed, they
might very easily undergo the influence exercised by the nature of
the special localities, of the waters and the air of the towns they
inhabit, and the temperament of the bodies to which they are joined.
We have indeed acknowledged that, being contained in the universe, we
possess something of the life-characteristic of the universal Soul, and
that we undergo the influence of the circular movement of the heavens.
But we have also shown that there is within us another (rational) soul,
which is capable of resistance to these influences, and which manifests
its different character precisely by the resistance she offers them.
The objection that we are begotten within the universe may be answered
by the fact that the child is likewise begotten within its mother's
womb, and that nevertheless the soul that enters into its body is
distinct from that of its mother. Such is our solution of the problem.