xiv

The Preface general.

...speak, and perfect indivisibility indiscerpibility: the quality of being impossible to divide or pull apart into separate pieces, does not for all this immediately imply a power of perception residing within it. For I believe that every Spirit may be unified in this way, but I am not certain that every Spirit possesses perception; on the contrary, I believe some do not. Therefore, although everything that has perception must be a Spirit, not every Spirit needs to be perceptive. Thus, perception must be an inherent power in that class of Spirits that are perceptive. It would be an argument of no small ignorance original Greek: ἀπαιδευσία (apaideusia), meaning a lack of education or unskilfulness to ask or expect a reason why this is so.

Nor can we explain that vital oneness in every Spirit—which consists of the sympathy and shared activity of its parts—unless we claim that it is appropriate, since the nature of a Spirit is opposite to that of Matter, for the first and most immediate consequences of their natures to be opposite as well. Since it is acknowledged here that Matter is "stupid" original: "stupid," meaning dull or lacking sensation—or devoid of vital sympathy and shared activity—it follows that Spirit must be vital and endowed with those very properties. Or, just as Matter lacks the essential unity of indivisibility and is therefore devoid of this vital oneness, so Spirit, which possesses this essential unity, should consequently be endowed with vitality. But this line of reasoning is not as strictly rigorous as I prefer, though the argument is by no means worthless if we consider the direct opposition between the two types of being, and that we are only arguing for the first and most basic level of vitality in this comparison.

However, I did not want to rely on such reasoning original: "ratiocinations", as I was confident that I had already accomplished my goal. I simply demonstrated that what I claim belongs to the Spirit is incompatible with Matter or Body. Therefore, the Spirit must necessarily be acknowledged both to exist and to be the subject of such powers—namely, vital sympathy, the shared activity of parts, and (the finest of all) the faculty of perception. Who could doubt that these properties are rightly placed there?

For I believe everyone will acknowledge that people generally have either a vague intuition or a more definite notion that whatever possesses this power of sympathy and perception must be the most subtle and unified thing in existence. Now, I challenge anyone to conceive of anything more subtle or more unified than the essential concept of a Spirit, as it is directly contrasted with Matter. For can anything be more "one" than that which is utterly indivisible original: "indiscerpible"? Or more subtle than that which can pass through not only Matter, but also through itself or things of its own kind? For Spirit can penetrate Spirit, though Matter cannot penetrate Matter. Since there is no physical resistance original Greek: ἀντιτυπία (antitypia), meaning "antitypy" or the resistance of matter that prevents two bodies from occupying the same space in a Spirit—neither toward its own kind nor toward anything else—it is evident that it is the most subtle thing that exists. Therefore, the communication of "vital impressions" (and all impressions in this context are vital, though not all are perceptions and none are physical motions) is not caused by parts bumping or crowding into each other. Instead, it happens through spiritual sympathy, which is more fluid and free from the restrictions found in the mechanical laws of matter.

The natural logical result original: "consectary" of this is that explaining a phenomenon through "sympathy" is not always taking refuge in an "asylum of fools" original Latin: "Asylum Fatvorum," a phrase used to mock those who use occult or "magical" explanations for things they don't understand. For it is the result of a very subtle and laborious original: "operose" demonstration to reach the certain knowledge that spiritual beings exist. Once that is granted, their...