The course of our argument, however, has diverged to another point: for the subject of our speculation was not the fact that the energy of mind is of more dignity among the attributes we conceive in man than the material element of his being, but the fact that the mind is not confined to any one part of us, but is equally in all and through all, neither surrounding anything without, nor being enclosed within anything: for these phrases are properly applied to casks or other bodies that are placed one inside the other; but the union of the mental with the bodily presents a connection unspeakable and inconceivable,-not being within it (for the incorporeal is not enclosed in a body), nor yet surrounding it without (for that which is incorporeal does not include anything), but the mind approaching our nature in some inexplicable and incomprehensible way, and coming into contact with it, is to be regarded as both in it and around it, neither implanted in it nor enfolded with it, but in a way which we cannot speak or think, except so far as this, that while the nature prospers according to its own order, the mind is also operative; but if any misfortune befalls the former, the movement of the intellect halts correspondingly.

Ἀλλ' ἐφ' ἕτερον ἡ ἀκολουθία παρηνέχθη τοῦ λόγου. Οὐ γὰρ τοῦτο τῇ θεωρίᾳ προέκειτο͵ ὅτι προτιμώτερον τῶν ἐν τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ νοουμένων ἐστὶν ἡ κατὰ νοῦν ἐνέργεια ἢ τὸ ὑλικὸν τῆς ὑποστάσεως, ἀλλ' ὅτι οὐχὶ μέρει τινὶ τῶν ἐν ἡμῖν ὁ νοῦς περιέχεται͵ ἀλλ' ἐπίσης ἐν πᾶσι καὶ διὰ πάντων ἐστίν, οὔτε ἔξωθεν περιλαμβάνων͵ οὔτε ἔνδοθεν κρατούμενος. Ταῦτα γὰρ ἐπὶ κάδων ἢ ἄλλων τινῶν σωμάτων ἀλλήλοις ἐντιθεμένων κυρίως λέγεται. Ἡ δὲ τοῦ νοῦ πρὸς τὸ σωματικὸν κοινωνία ἄφραστόν τε καὶ ἀνεπινόητον τὴν συνάφειαν ἔχει͵ οὔτε ἐντὸς οὖσα (οὔτε γὰρ ἐγκρατεῖται σώματι τὸ ἀσώματον)͵ οὔτε ἐκτὸς περιέχουσα (οὐ γὰρ περιλαμβάνει τι τὰ ἀσώματα), ἀλλὰ κατά τινα τρόπον ἀμήχανόν τε καὶ ἀκατανόητον ἐγγίζων ὁ νοῦς τῇ φύσει καὶ προσαπτόμενος καὶ ἐν αὐτῇ καὶ περὶ αὐτὴν θεωρεῖται͵ οὔτε ἐγκαθήμενος͵ οὔτε περιπτυσσόμενος, ἀλλ' ὡς οὐκ ἔστιν εἰπεῖν ἢ νοῆσαι͵ πλὴν ὅτι κατὰ τὸν ἴδιον αὐτῆς εἱρμὸν εὐοδουμένης τῆς φύσεως καὶ ὁ νοῦς ἐνεργὸς γίνεται. Εἰ δέ τι πλημμέλημα περὶ ταύτην συμπέσοι͵ σκάζει κατ' ἐκεῖνο καὶ τῆς διανοίας ἡ κίνησις.