ABSTRACT
VOLUNTARY actions cannot originate in the body of any The ~oul - 1 1 h b d b 1-- d exist i I longing toanima , un ess teo y e IVlng an exist In C ose con-be united
. h h hi h· I·' f· If' h with thetact WIt t at w ic IS IVlng 0 itse , i.e. t e soul. body, is so 'I'h H' due maintai h t hI·' I united by _ e In us aintain tat e sou IS EV 7Tpa~E(', not Intermedi-
Ell ovvaJLEt, ignorant of its own essential nature and of ary spirits. its material substratum, longing to apprehend what it does not know, and believing that it cannot exist unless by matter. As, therefore, it longs for the good which is duration, and wishes to learn that which is hidden from it, it starts off in order to be united with matter. However, substances which are dense and such as are tenuous, if they have these qualities in the very highest degree, can mix together only by means of intermediary elements which stand in a certain relation to each of the two. Thus the air is the medium between fire and water, which are opposed to each other by these two qualities, for the air is related to the fire in tenuity and to the water in density, and by either of these qualities it renders the one capable of mixing with the other. N ow, there is no greater antithesis than that between body and not-body. Therefore the soul, being what it is, cannot obtain the fulfilment of its wish but by similar media, spirits which derive their existence from the maires simplices in the worlds called Blutrloka, Bliuoarloka, and Soarlolca. The Hindus call them tenuous bodies over which the soul rises like the
sun over the earth, in order to distinguish them from the dense bodies which derive their existence from the common five elements. The soul, in consequence of this union with the media, uses them as its vehicles. Thus the image of the sun, though he is only one, is represented in many mirrors which are placed opposite to him, as also in the water of vessels placed opposite. The sun is seen alike in each mirror and each vessel, and in each of them his warming and light-giving effect is perceived.
