The Soul, or Rational Psychology

soul." "I could not help but think," he says, "along with humanity in general, that all our knowledge of the soul was to be sought through pure philosophical reasoning, or more directly through the anatomy of the human body. But upon making the attempt, I found myself as far from my goal as ever. No sooner did I seem to have mastered the subject than I found it eluding my grasp again, though it never absolutely disappeared from my view. Thus, my hopes were not destroyed, but only delayed."

Speaking of the doctrine of Series and Degrees as only teaching "the distinction and relation between things superior and inferior, or prior and posterior," and as being unable "to express in its own suitable terms those things which go beyond the realm of familiar objects," he declares the necessity of our having recourse to a Mathematical Philosophy of Universals. He describes this as a kind of universal science to which all other sciences and arts are subject, and one which "advances through their innermost mysteries as it proceeds from its own principles to causes, and from causes to effects, by its own natural order."

"But even if we assume," he continues, "that the doctrine of Order and the science of Universals were brought to the height of perfection by the human mind, it does not follow that we would, by these means alone, gain knowledge of everything that can be known. For these sciences are only supporting tools, serving as a concise method with mathematical certainty to lead us—through constant abstraction and higher levels of thought—from the lower to the higher realm; or from the visible world of effects to the invisible world of causes and principles.

Therefore, for these sciences to be useful, we must turn to experiments and the evidence of the senses. Without these, they would remain mere theories and simple potentials to help us. . . . . . . . For these reasons, I am strongly convinced that the essence and nature of the soul, its inflow original: "influx"; the way spiritual forces act upon the physical into the body, and the body's reaction back upon it, can never be proven without these doctrines [of Series, Order, and Universals], combined with a knowledge of anatomy, pathology, and psychology. It even requires a knowledge of physics, especially regarding the natural atmospheres original: "auras of the world"; Swedenborg's term for the subtle physical forces or ethers. Unless our work follows this path and rises up from observable facts, we will have to build new systems in every new age, which will in turn collapse without any possibility of being rebuilt. . . . . This, and no other, is the reason that I have investigated the anatomy of the body—especially the human body, as far as it is known from experience—with diligent study and intense focus. I have followed the anatomy of all its parts in the same way I have investigated the gray matter original: "cortical substance" here.

In doing this, I may have gone beyond the usual limits of inquiry, so that only a few of my readers may be able to understand me clearly. But I felt obligated to venture this far, for I have resolved, whatever the cost, to discover the nature of the human soul." He