(Curiosity might lead some one to ask about) a force that were not
the actualization of the Soul, but which only proceeded from this
actualization, such as the life which we say is proper to the body. Is
the case of such a force similar to that of the light characteristic
of bodies? We said that the light inheres in colored bodies, so far as
that which produces the colors inheres in the bodies. As to the life
proper to the bodies, we think that the body possesses it so far as the
soul is present; for nothing can be inanimate. When the body perishes,
and when it is no longer assisted by the soul which communicated life
to it, nor by the actualization of this soul, how should life remain in
the body? What! Has this life perished? No: this life itself has not
perished, for it is only the image of an irradiation; it would not be
correct to say more than that it is no more there.[176]