But the intelligent and undimensional, she replied, is neither contracted nor diffused34    οὔτε διαχεῖται. Oehler translates wrongly “noch dehnt es sich aus”; because the faculty of extension is ascribed to the intelligence (cf. ἐκτείνεσθαι, διατεινόμενον, παρεκτεινομένη, below), but diffusion is denied of it, both here, and in the words διασχίζεται (above and below), διάκρισις, and διασπᾶται, i.e. separation in space. (contraction and diffusion being a property of body only); but by virtue of a nature which is formless and bodiless it is present with the body equally in the contraction and in the diffusion of its atoms, and is no more narrowed by the compression which attends the uniting of the atoms than it is abandoned by them when they wander off to their kindred, however wide the interval is held to be which we observe between alien atoms. For instance, there is a great difference between the buoyant and light as contrasted with the heavy and solid; between the hot as contrasted with the cold; between the humid as contrasted with its opposite; nevertheless it is no strain to an intelligent essence to be present in each of those elements to which it has once cohered; this blending with opposites does not split it up. In locality, in peculiar qualities, these elemental atoms are held to be far removed from each other; but an undimensional nature finds it no labour to cling to what is locally divided, seeing that even now it is possible for the mind at once to contemplate the heavens above us and to extend its busy scrutiny beyond the horizon, nor is its contemplative power at all distracted by these excursions into distances so great. There is nothing, then, to hinder the soul’s presence in the body’s atoms, whether fused in union or decomposed in dissolution. Just as in the amalgam of gold and silver a certain methodical force is to be observed which has fused the metals, and if the one be afterwards smelted out of the other, the law of this method nevertheless continues to reside in each, so that while the amalgam is separated this method does not suffer division along with it (for you cannot make fractions out of the indivisible), in the same way this intelligent essence of the soul is observable in the concourse of the atoms, and does not undergo division when they are dissolved; but it remains with them, and even in their separation it is co-extensive with them, yet not itself dissevered nor discounted35    κατακερματίζεται into sections to accord with the number of the atoms. Such a condition belongs to the material and spacial world, but that which is intelligent and undimensional is not liable to the circumstances of space. Therefore the soul exists in the actual atoms which she has once animated, and there is no force to tear her away from her cohesion with them. What cause for melancholy, then, is there herein, that the visible is exchanged for the invisible; and wherefore is it that your mind has conceived such a hatred of death?

Μ. Ἀλλ' οὔτε συστέλλεται, φησὶν, οὔτε διαχεῖται τὸ νοητόν τε καὶ ἀδιάστατον (σωμάτων γὰρ ἴδιον συστολὴ καὶ διάχυσις), ἐπίσης δὲ κατὰ τὴν ἰδίαν φύσιν τὴν ἀειδῆ καὶ ἀσώματον τῇ τε συγκρίσει τῶν στοιχείων περὶ τὸ σῶμα καὶ τῇ διακρίσει πάρεστιν, συνεσφιγμένων ἐν τῷ συγκρίματι τῶν στοιχείων στενοχωρουμένη, οὔτε ἀποφοιτησάντων ἐπὶ τὰ συγγενῆ, καὶ κατὰ φύσιν αὐτοῖς ἀπολιμπανομένη, κἂν πολὺ τὸ μέσον εἶναι δοκεῖ τὸ τῆς ἑτερότητος τῶν στοιχείων ἐνθεωρούμενον. Πολλὴ γὰρ ἡ διαφορὰ τοῦ ἀνωφεροῦς τε καὶ κούφου πρὸς τὸ βαρὺ καὶ γεῶδες, τοῦ θερμοῦ πρὸς τὸ ψυχρὸν, καὶ τοῦ ὑγροῦ πρὸς τὸ ἐναντίον: ἀλλ' ὅμως οὐδεὶς πόνος τῇ νοερᾷ φύσει ἑκάστῳ παρεῖναι, οἷς ἅπαξ ἐνεφύη, διὰ κράσεως μὴ συνδιασχιζομένη τῇ τῶν στοιχείων ἐναντιότητι, Οὐ γὰρ ἐπειδὴ κατὰ τὴν τοπικὴν διάστασιν, καὶ τὴν ποίαν ἰδιότητα, πόῤῥωθεν ἀλλήλων ταῦτα νομίζεται, διὰ τοῦτο κάμνει ἡ ἀδιάστατος φύσις τοῖς τοπικῶς διεστηκόσι συναπτομένη, ἐπεὶ καὶ νῦν ἔξεστι τῇ διανοίᾳ ὁμοῦ τε τὸν οὐρανὸν θεωρεῖν, καὶ ἐπὶ τὰ πέρατα τοῦ κόσμου ταῖς πολυπραγμοσύναις ἐκτείνεσθαι: καὶ οὐ διασπᾶται πρὸς τοσαῦτα μήκη τὸ θεωρητικὸν τῆς ψυχῆς ἡμῶν διατεινόμενον. Οὐκοῦν οὐδὲν ἐμπόδιόν ἐστι τῇ ψυχῇ κατὰ τὸ ἶσον παρεῖναι τοῖς τοῦ σώματος στοιχείοις, καὶ συγκεκραμένοις διὰ τῆς συνδρομῆς, καὶ ἀπολυομένοις διὰ τῆς ἀνακράσεως. Καθάπερ γὰρ χρυσοῦ καὶ ἀργύρου συντετηκότων ἐνθεωρεῖταί τις τεχνικὴ δύναμις ἡ τὰς ὕλας συντήξασα: καὶ εἰ πάλιν ἀποτακείη τοῦ ἑτέρου τὸ ἕτερον, οὐδὲν ἔλαττον ὁ τῆς τέχνης λόγος ἐν ἑκατέρῳ μένει: καὶ ἡ μὲν ὕλη διεμερίσθη, ἡ δὲ τέχνη οὐ συνδιετμήθη τῇ ὕλῃ: πῶς γὰρ ἂν διαιρεθείη τὸ ἄτμητον; κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν λόγον καὶ ἡ νοερὰ τῆς ψυχῆς φύσις, καὶ τῇ συνδρομῇ τῶν στοιχείων ἐνθεωρεῖται, καὶ διαλυθέντων οὐκ ἀποκρίνεται, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν αὐτοῖς μένει καὶ ἐν τῷ χωρισμῷ αὐτῶν συμπαρεκτεινομένη οὐ διακόπτεται, οὐδὲ πρὸς τὸν ἀριθμὸν τῶν στοιχείων εἰς μερικὰ τμήματα κατακερματίζεται. Τοῦτο γὰρ ἴδιον τῆς σωματικῆς καὶ διαστηματικῆς ἐστι φύσεως: ἡ δὲ νοερά τε καὶ ἀδιάστατος φύσις τὰ ἐκ διαστάσεως οὐκ ἀναδέχεται πάθη.
Οὐκοῦν ἐστιν ἐν αὐτοῖς ἡ ψυχὴ, ἐν οἷς ἅπαξ ἐγένετο, οὐδεμιᾶς ἀνάγκης τῆς πρὸς ἐκεῖνα συμφυΐας αὐτὴν ἀποσπώσης. Τί οὖν τὸ σκυθρωπὸν ἐν τούτοις ἐστὶν, εἰ τοῦ ὁρωμένου τὸ ἀειδὲς ἀνταλλάσσεται; καὶ ὑπὲρ τίνος οὕτω διαβέβληταί σοι πρὸς τὸν θάνατον ἡ διάνοια;