48. The soul is the inmost man, and, according to the ancients, is in the whole and in every part of the body, for the beginning of life resides in the soul; that part of the body in which the soul is not inmostly, does not live. Wherefore, there exists a reciprocal union; and hence the body acts from the soul, not the soul through the body. Whatever proceeds from God partakes of the human form, because God is Very Man; this is especially the case with the soul, which is the first of man.