 The ascent and descent describe the two paths the soul can traverse to obtain knowledge of the world. They are different but supplementary ways. The ascent starts with corporeal objects, whose sensible species (form or similarity) are captured by the external senses and transformed into internal species by the imagination; then, the higher faculties of the soul in the intellect transform them into knowledge of exterior beings. The descent is the opposite path, from the universal to the particular. It takes the principles as starting points through which the human soul can recognize these principles—goodness, truth, etc.—in particular beings.