If this be so, it seems to me that the deviation and fall of the mind should not be the same in all beings: the mind is converted into the soul now to a greater or lesser degree, and some minds retain something of their original power, and some retain nothing, or very little. That is why some people from a very early age turn out to have brilliant mental abilities, others with more sluggish ones, and some are born extremely stupid and completely incapable of learning. However, let the reader himself carefully discuss and examine what we have said concerning the turning of the mind into the soul, and other things that seem to pertain to this subject; and we, for our part, have expressed this not as dogmas, but in the form of reasoning and research. To this reasoning, let the reader add what can be noticed about the soul of the Saviour, on the basis of the Gospel testimony, that under the name of the soul one thing is ascribed to it, and under the name of the spirit, another. When the Saviour wants to indicate any suffering or confusion of His, He indicates it under the name of the soul; thus, for example, He says: "My soul is now troubled" (John 12:27), and "My soul is sorrowful unto death" (Matt. 26:38), and "No one takes it away from Me, but I Myself give it away" (John 10:18). But into the hands of the Father He does not give the soul, but the spirit, and when He calls the flesh weak, He calls the spirit, and not the soul, cheerful. From this it can be seen that the soul is something between a weak flesh and a good spirit.
But perhaps someone will contradict us on the basis of our own propositions, and say: in what sense is it spoken of the soul of God? We will answer him as follows. Just as everything that is said about God in the corporeal sense, for example, fingers, hands, muscles, eyes, legs, lips, we understand not as human members, but as certain powers designated by these names of corporeal members, so it must be assumed that the name of the soul of God signifies something different (in comparison with the soul of man). And if we can dare to say a little more about this subject, then perhaps the soul of God can be understood as the only-begotten Son of God. In fact, just as the soul, spread throughout the body, moves and sets everything in motion, so the only-begotten Son of God, Who is the Word and His Wisdom, touches and attains all the power of God, abiding in it. And, perhaps, in order to indicate this mystery, God is called a body in the Holy Scriptures or described as corporeal. It is also necessary to consider whether the only-begotten Son cannot be called the soul of God also because He came and descended into this place of sorrow, and into this valley of weeping, and into the place of our humiliation, as it is said in the Psalm: "Thou hast humbled us in the place of bitterness" (Psalm 43:20). Finally, I know that some, explaining the words of the Savior in the Gospel: "My soul is sorrowful unto death," attributed these words to the Apostles, whom He called the soul, as the best of all the rest of the body. For the multitude of believers is called His body, but the apostles, they say, must be considered the soul, because they are better than the rest of the body. This is what we have said, as far as we could, about the rational soul. We have offered the readers thoughts for discussion rather than giving a positive and definite teaching.
As for the souls of cattle and other dumb animals, what we have said above is sufficient.
Chapter Nine
On the world and on the movements of rational creatures, both good and evil, and on their falls
Let us now return to the presupposed plan of reasoning and consider the beginning of creation, no matter how the mind of the Creator, God, contemplates this principle.
(From Justinian's letter to Menas: "In the intelligible beginning, God, by His will, established as many rational beings as could be sufficient. For if the power of God were unlimited, it would necessarily not know itself, because by nature the infinite is unknowable. Thus He created as much as He could know and keep in His hands, and direct His providence. In the same way, He created as much matter as He could adorn").
It must be thought that in this beginning God created as many rational or spiritual creatures (or whatever we may call those creatures which we have called minds above) as He foretold that could be sufficient. There is no doubt that God created them, having previously determined in Himself a certain number of them. For it should not be thought that there is no end to creatures, as some desire, because where there is no end, there is no knowledge, and no description is possible. If this were so, then God certainly could not contain or control the created, because the infinite is by nature unknowable. And the Scriptures say: "God created all things by measure and number" (Wis. 11:21), and, consequently, number is correctly applied to rational beings or minds, in the sense that there are as many of them as Divine Providence can distribute, govern, and maintain. In accordance with this, it is necessary to apply a measure to matter, which, it must be believed, was created by God in such quantities as could be sufficient to adorn the world. And so, this is what must be thought that God was created in the beginning, that is, first of all. We think that this (creation) is indicated by the beginning which Moses mysteriously introduces (into his narrative) when he says: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen. 1:1). For it is not of the firmament or the land that is spoken here, of course, but of the heaven and earth from which these visible heavens and earth borrow their names.