4. In the intelligible world, the soul sees the Good by intelligence;
for intelligence does not hinder her from arriving to the Good.
Between the soul and the Good, the intermediary is not the body, which
could be no more than an obstacle; for if the bodies can ever serve
as intermediaries, it would only be in the process of descending
from the first principles to third rank entities. When the soul
occupies herself with inferior objects, she possesses what she wished
to possess conformably to her memory and imagination. Consequently
memory, even should it apply itself to the very best things, is not
the best thing possible; for it consists not only in feeling that one
remembers, but also in finding oneself in a disposition conformable to
the affections, to the earlier intuitions which are remembered. Now
it may happen that a soul possesses something unconsciously, so that
she possesses it better than if she were conscious thereof. In fact,
when she is conscious thereof, she possesses it like something foreign
to her, and from which she is keeping herself distinct; when, on the
contrary, she is unconscious of it she becomes what she possesses; and
it is especially this latter kind of memory which can most thoroughly
effect her degradation (when she conforms herself to sense-objects, by
applying her imagination thereto).
INTELLIGIBLE ENTITIES ARE NOT MERELY IMAGES, BUT POTENTIALITIES FOR
MEMORY.
That the soul, on leaving the intelligible world, brings away with her
memories thereof, implies that even in the (intelligible) world she
to a certain degree already possessed memory; but this potentiality
was eclipsed by the thought of the intelligible entities. It would
be absurd to insist that the latter existed in the soul in the
condition of simple images; on the contrary, they there constituted an
(intellectual) potentiality which later passed into the condition of
actualization. Whenever the soul happens to cease applying herself to
the contemplation of intelligible entities she no longer sees what she
formerly saw (that is, sense-objects).