A collection of several philosophical writings

unconscious original: "imperceptive" itself, it is the natural copy original: "Transcript" of that which is knowing or perceptive. It is the lowest substantial activity originating from the all-wise God, containing within it certain general modes and laws of nature for the good of the universe. But the eye of particular providence is not found within it. Otherwise, why would a tile fall upon the head of a person walking in the street, whether they are going to a play or a sermon? And how can we explain those failures in monstrous births original: "monstrous productions", or those clumsy and self-defeating attempts of this Spirit in certain experiments regarding the search for a vacuum? As I have noted specifically in my book, Antidote. Therefore, neither omnipotence nor omniscience acts directly in such cases; instead, it is this unconscious Spirit of Nature. Its lack of perception is no more of an obstacle to its natural and formative original: "plastical" operations than a soul’s lack of a prior idea of a thing is a hindrance to its occasional perceptions, as I have already suggested in my

• see section 11.
  Preface to my Treatise of the Soul's Immortality.

If these things are well considered and accepted, then the special role of this Spirit of Nature—conducting souls in their state of silence to inhabit actuate: to put into action or bring to life prepared matter, and thus raise animals into life—will easily be understood as a fitting employment, no more difficult than any of its other tasks. For how much harder is it to understand that the Spirit of Nature may direct or carry down a silent soul than it is to move a dead stone to its fit and natural place? For the lifeless spirit and the dead stone are equally easy to take hold of, as the Spirit of Nature penetrates them both alike. Matter moves so easily through this Spirit of the World that one cannot imagine any mechanical power being responsible; rather, the connection must be what is truly called "sympathetic." This connection catches and lets go to direct and move things to their proper places in various parts of the world for the good of the whole, according to the essential law that constitutes the very being of this Spirit of Nature—the final ideal or all-forming original: "Omniform" outflow original: "Efflux" from God. Nor is it, as I have already said, any more marvelous that a lifeless soul should be carried and guided to properly prepared matter by this unconscious Spirit of Nature than it is for a dead stone or senseless magnetic particles to be guided by it. For the part of the soul that is caught so firmly by its particular body is not the perceptive part, but the formative original: "plastick" or natural part. If it were otherwise, a person in a fit of temper might easily leave their body without the need for hanging, drowning, or stabbing. Why then may a Spirit that has fingers subtler than the finest matter—I mean the Spirit of Nature—not lay hold on that unconscious part of the soul, or on the soul itself while in a state of silence or lack of perception? Why could it not, through the sympathy and shared activity of its own essence, carry that soul away to such services as either the soul itself deserved or the universe required? Although I will not assert these things as absolute truths, I dare to declare them as intelligible as the union of the soul with the body, which experience forces us to understand whether we wish to or not.

14. Regarding my Conjectura Cabbalistica, I have nothing new to report, except what I have added in the Appendix to the Defense of my Philosophical Cabbala. In that work, I believe I have cleared that Cabbala The "Cabbala" here refers to More’s interpretation of ancient Jewish mystical traditions as a source of universal philosophical truth. of all imaginable objections of any importance. Among other things, I have plainly proved that not only Platonism, but also that which