Plotinus porphyrian IV.3 · chronological 27 · chapter 22 · volkmann page vol. 2, 35

ἆρ’ οὖν οὕτω φατέον, ὅταν ψυχὴ σώματι παρῇ, παρεῖναι αὐτήν, ὡς τὸ πῦρ πάρεστι τῷ ἀέρι; καὶ γὰρ αὖ καὶ τοῦτο παρὸν οὐ πάρεστι καὶ δι’ ὅλου παρὸν οὐδενὶ μίγνυται καὶ ἕστηκε μὲν αὐτό, ὁ δὲ παραρρεῖ: καὶ ὅταν ἔξω γένηται τοῦ ἐν ᾧ τὸ φῶς, ἀπῆλθεν οὐδὲν ἔχων, ἕως δέ ἐστιν ὑπὸ τὸ φῶς, πεφώτισται, ὥστε ὀρθῶς ἔχειν καὶ ἐνταῦθα λέγειν, ὡς ὁ ἀὴρ ἐν τῷ φωτί, ἤπερ τὸ φῶς ἐν τῷ ἀέρι. διὸ καὶ Πλάτων καλῶς τὴν ψυχὴν οὐ θεὶς ἐν τῷ σώματι ἐπὶ τοῦ παντός, ἀλλὰ τὸ σῶμα ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ, φησὶ τὸ μέν τι εἶναι τῆς ψυχῆς ἐν ᾧ τὸ σῶμα, τὸ δὲ ἐν ᾧ σῶμα μηδέν, ὧν δηλονότι δυνάμεων οὐ δεῖται τῆς ψυχῆς τὸ σῶμα. καὶ δὴ καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ἄλλων ψυχῶν ὁ αὐτὸς λόγος. τῶν μὲν [οὖν] ἄλλων δυνάμεων οὐδὲ παρουσίαν τῷ σώματι λεκτέον τῆς ψυχῆς εἶναι, ὧν δὲ δεῖται, ταῦτα παρεῖναι, καὶ παρεῖναι οὐκ ἐνιδρυθέντα τοῖς μέρεσιν αὐτοῦ οὐδ’ αὖ τῷ ὅλῳ, καὶ πρὸς μὲν αἴσθησιν παρεῖναι παντὶ τῷ αἰσθανομένῳ τὸ αἰσθητικόν, πρὸς δὲ ἐνεργείας ἤδη ἄλλο ἄλλῳ. λέγω δὲ ὧδε:

Should we say, then, that when soul is present to body it is present as fire is present to air? For this too, being present, is not present; and being present throughout, it mixes with nothing; it stands still itself, while the air flows past. And when the air comes to be outside the place where the light is, it goes off having nothing; but as long as it is under the light, it is lit. So it is right to say here too that the air is in the light, rather than the light in the air. This is why Plato did well, in the case of the whole, not to put the soul in the body but the body in the soul, and says that there is some part of soul in which the body is, and some part in which there is no body — those powers of soul, plainly, of which the body has no need. And the same account holds for the other souls too. Of the other powers we must not even say that there is a presence of soul to the body; but those it needs are present, and present not seated in its parts, nor again in the whole. For perception, the perceptive power is present to the whole of what perceives; for its activities, it is already a different part for a different one. I mean this:

Plotinus says fire but means its light, as the rest of the sentence shows; the English keeps 'fire'. 'The body in the soul' is Plato, Timaeus 36d-e. δύναμις is 'power' and ἐνέργεια 'activity' (glossary). Volkmann brackets οὖν as a deletion; the English follows the text without it.

Greek collated line by line against the Volkmann plate (vol. 2, pp. 35); every departure of the First1KGreek transcription from the printed page is corrected and recorded in the apparatus.

In the crux Ennead IV.3 [27], Problems of Soul I, chapter 22