_The Spirit or Nous_ is the first emanation from the One in point of significance. It is the image of the One sent forth by its overflow of energy. This image involuntarily turns toward its original, the One, and in beholding it becomes Spirit, Nous, or intellectual consciousness. It turns to the One and recognizes itself as the image of the One. Thus, in the first degree away from God, the duality of thinker as subject, and of the thing thought as object, appears. The unconsciousness of the One is thus contrasted with consciousness, and the dual nature of consciousness is thus brought out; and for the first time an exact formulation of the psychological conception of consciousness is given. The Nous is a unitary function of the One, like the Logos of Philo. At the same time the Nous contains within itself, as content, the Platonic Ideas or arch-types of individuals. These Ideas are not mere thoughts, but have their own existence. The Nous is their unity, however, just as a unity exists for the theorems of a science. These Ideas are pure intellectual potencies and the final causes of the world of nature. _The Soul_ is the second degree removed from the One. It stands in the same relation to the Nous as the Nous to the Godhead. The Soul belongs to the world of light, but it stands just on the boundaries of the world of darkness. It is the image of an image and therefore doubly dual,――it consists of a higher or world-soul and the lesser souls. The world-soul is divided into two forces,――the formative power of the world, and the body of the world. Individual souls are divided into the supersensible or intellectual soul (the part that has pre-existence and undergoes metamorphosis), and the sensible part which has built up the body as an instrument of its working power. The soul is present in all parts of its body. The individual souls are called _plastic forces_.