Note (return) — APPENDIX III.

The soul which, according to Plotinus, is an immaterial substance like the Νους,457 is an image and product of the immovable Νους. It is related to the Νους as the latter is to the Original Essence. It stands between the Νους and the world of phenomena. The Νους penetrates and enlightens it, but it itself already touches the world of phenomena. The Νους is undivided, the soul can also preserve its unity and abide in the Νους; but it has at the same time the power to unite itself with the material world and thereby to be divided. Hence it occupies a middle position. In virtue of its nature and destiny it belongs, as the single soul (soul of the world), to the supersensible world; but it embraces at the same time the many individual souls; these may allow themselves to be ruled by the Νους, or they may turn to the sensible and be lost in the finite.