INTELLIGIBLE ENTITIES RETURN, NOT BY MEMORY, BUT BY FURTHER VISION.
5. Are our notions of intellectual entities actualized by the potentiality which constitutes memory? If these notions be not intuitions, it is by memory that they become actualized; if they are intuitions, it is by the potentiality which has given them to us on high. This power awakes in us every time that we rise to intelligible things, in it is that which sees what we later talk about. We do not perceive intelligible entities by imagination or reasoning, which itself is forced to draw its principles from elsewhere; it is by our faculty of contemplation, which alone enables us to speak of them while we are here below. We see them by awaking in ourselves here below the same potentiality which we are to arouse when we are in the intelligible world. We resemble a man who, climbing the peak of a rock, should, by his glance, discover objects invisible for those who have not climbed with him.
WHEN SOULS DESCEND FROM THE INTELLIGIBLE TO THE HEAVENS, THEY RECOGNIZE EACH OTHER.
Reasonable arguments therefore clearly demonstrate that memory manifests in the soul only when she has descended from the intelligible world into the (earthly) heavens. Likewise, it would not surprise us if, when she had risen from here below to the heavens, and had dwelt there, she should remember a great number of things from here below, of which we have already spoken, and that she would recognize many souls which she had known earlier, since these latter must necessarily be joined to bodies with similar countenances. Even though the souls should change the shapes of their bodies, making them spherical, they would still be recognizable by their habits and individual character. There is nothing incredible in this, for in admitting that these souls have purified themselves from all these passions, nothing hinders them from preserving their character. Besides, if they can converse with each other, they have this as an additional means of recognizing each other.
TRAINING HERE BELOW WILL HELP THE SOULS TO REMEMBER WHEN BEYOND.
What happens when souls descend from the intelligible world into the (earthly) heavens? They then recover memory, but they possess it in a degree less than the souls who have always occupied themselves with the same objects. Besides, they have many other things to remember, and a long space of time has made them forget many actions.
FALL INTO GENERATION MAY BE PARTIAL; AND MAY BE RECOVERED FROM, BEFORE RUIN.
But if, after having descended into the sense-world they fall (from the heavens) into generation, what will be the time when they will remember? It is not necessary that the souls (which depart from the intelligible world) should fall into the lowest regions. It is possible that, after having descended only a little from the intelligible world their movement may be arrested, and nothing hinders them from returning on high before they have become degraded in the lower regions of generation.
- Tratado 28 (IV, 3, 1) – PSYCHOLOGY OBEYS THE PRECEPT “KNOW THYSELF” (Guthrie)
- Tratado 28 (IV, 3, 2) – CONFORMITY TO THE UNIVERSAL SOUL IMPLIES THAT THEY ARE NOT PARTS OF HER (Guthrie)
- Tratado 28 (IV, 3, 3) – ARE INDIVIDUAL SOULS PART OF THE WORLD-SOUL? (Guthrie)
- Tratado 28 (IV, 3, 4) – INTELLECTUAL DIFFICULTY OF THE SOUL BEING ONE AND YET IN ALL BEINGS (Guthrie)
- Tratado 28 (IV, 3, 5) – SOULS RETAIN BOTH THEIR UNITY AND DIFFERENCES ON DIFFERENT LEVELS (Guthrie)
- Tratado 28 (IV, 3, 6) – WHY SHOULD CREATION BE PREDICATED OF THE UNIVERSAL SOUL AND NOT OF THE HUMAN? (Guthrie)
- Tratado 28 (IV, 3, 7) – DIFFERENCE BETWEEN INDIVIDUAL AND UNIVERSAL SOULS (Guthrie)
- Tratado 28 (IV, 3, 8) – SYMPATHY BETWEEN INDIVIDUAL AND UNIVERSAL SOUL (Guthrie)
- Tratado 28 (IV, 4, 1-5) – A memória em sua relação à união da alma e do corpo (Guthrie)
- Tratado 28 (IV, 4, 1) – SPEECH OF SOUL IN THE INTELLIGIBLE WORLD (Guthrie)
- Tratado 28 (IV, 4, 10) – JUPITER MAY BE TAKEN IN A DOUBLE SENSE (Guthrie)
- Tratado 28 (IV, 4, 11) – RATIOCINATION HAS NO PLACE IN THE WORLD-SOUL (Guthrie)
- Tratado 28 (IV, 4, 12) – WISDOM, IN THE WORLD-SOUL DOES NOT IMPLY REASONING AND MEMORY (Guthrie)
- Tratado 28 (IV, 4, 13) – IN THE WORLD-SOUL WISDOM IS THE HIGHEST AND NATURE THE LOWEST (Guthrie)
- Tratado 28 (IV, 4, 14) – THERE IS CONTINUITY BETWEEN NATURE AND THE ELEMENTS (Guthrie)
- Tratado 28 (IV, 4, 15) – HOW CAN TIME BE DIVIDED WITHOUT IMPLYING DIVISION OF THE SOUL’S ACTION? (Guthrie)
- Tratado 28 (IV, 4, 16) – EVEN THE PRIORITY OF ORDER IMPLIES A TEMPORAL CONCEPTION? (Guthrie)
- Tratado 28 (IV, 4, 17) – THE INTELLECTUAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE WORLD-SOUL, AND SOULS OF STARS, EARTH AND MEN (Guthrie)
- Tratado 28 (IV, 4, 18-29) – O prazer e a dor, o desejo e a cólera em sua relação à união da alma e do corpo (Guthrie)
- Tratado 28 (IV, 4, 18) – THE BODY IS NOT US, BUT OURS (Guthrie)