angry with itself, and reproaching itself for weakness, in case it feels any agitation that disturbs its master's rest." So long as the soul experiences even moderate passions, the soul's progress towards impassibility remains in need of improvement. The soul is impassible only when she has entirely ceased to participate in the passions of the body. Indeed, that which permitted the passions to rule was that reason relaxed the reins as a result of her own inclination. FIRST ENNEAD, BOOK NINE. Of Suicide. OF THE SEPARATION OF THE SOUL AND BODY. 2. Nature releases what nature has bound. The soul releases what the soul has bound. Nature binds the body to the soul, but it is the soul herself that has bound herself to the body. It, therefore, belongs to nature to detach the body from the soul, while it is the soul herself that detaches herself from the body. 3. There is a double death. One, known by all men, consists in the separation of the body with the soul; the other, characteristic of philosophers, results in the separation of the soul from the body. The latter is consequence of the former. SECOND ENNEAD, BOOK FOUR. Of Matter. OF THE CONCEPTION OF MATTER (10). 4. While separating ourselves from existence we by thought beget nonentity (matter). While remaining united with existence, we also conceive of nonentity (the one). Consequently, when we separate ourselves from existence, we do not conceive of the nonentity which is above existence (the one), but we beget by thought something that is deceptive, and we put ourselves in the condition (of indetermination) in which one is when outside of oneself. Just as each one can really, and by himself, raise himself to the non-existence which is above existence (the One); so (by separating oneself from existence by thought), we may reach the nonentity beneath existence. THIRD ENNEAD, BOOK SIX. Of the Impassibility of Incorporeal Things. OF THE INCORPOREAL (3). 5. The name "incorporeal" does not designate one and the same genus, as does the word "body." Incorporeal entities derive their name from the fact that they are conceived of by abstraction from the body. Consequently, some of them (like intelligence and discursive reason) are genuine beings, existing as well without as within the body, subsisting by themselves, by themselves being actualizations and lives; other beings (such as matter, sense-form without matter, place, time, and so forth), do not constitute real beings, but are united to the body, and depend therefrom, live through others, possess only a relative life, and exist only through certain actualizations. Indeed, when we apply to them the name of incorporeal entities (it is merely a negative designation), indicating only what they are not, but not what they are. OF THE IMPASSIBILITY OF THE SOUL. 6. (1) The soul is a "being" or essence, without extension, immaterial and incorruptible; her nature consists in a life which is life in itself.