Commentary on the First Alcibiades of Plato (Cambridge, University Library, MS Kk.5.27)

This he constructs from defining the human being in this dialogue as a rational soul using the body as an instrument. Only the politician uses the body as an instrument, needing courage at times, as for his fatherland, but also desire, to do good for the citizens. Neither the purgative nor the contemplative soul needs the body. For the purgative is the soul being released from the body—the bonds remaining, however, and not being released, as in the case of the Ambracian youth. But through sympathy, they are released. For it is possible, while being here, to be above, through some sympathy, contemplatively. And while being above, to be here, the soul growing wings and descending here and being fluttered about these things because of the love of the body. The contemplative is the soul released from the body, we understanding release here again as independence. For the soul of the contemplative, acting according to the most divine thing in itself, is thus released from the oyster-like and spiritual vehicle. Concerning which the poet also speaks: "Then Odysseus the man of many counsels was stripped of his rags." For the contemplative is truly a man of many counsels, having been stripped of the rags