A decorative headpiece shows symmetrical acanthus scrollwork with a central figure of a seated putto.

GENERAL APPROACH

TO THE

TREATISE

ON THE

BOND CONNECTING BODY AND

SOUL.

A decorative initial letter O contains a cluster of roses.

Everything that we see created by the omnipotent and most wise Creator in this universe, and everything we feel, falls by a general distinction into two classes. One class comprises the Immaterial; the other refers to the Material. The one belongs to Spirits; the other to Bodies. Indeed, it had to be that a work no less perfect in its own order should be set forth by the most perfect Founder through the most perfect action. And that such a state of affairs presents itself after the creation of these two diverse substances, no one will doubt. For it is laid out in the open that Spirit and Body are the highest categories of things, under which all inferior things are comprised, in such a way that it cannot even be conceived by the mind how a third thing could have been created by the Creator that would differ as much from the body as it does from the spirit, while yet no less of His own omnipotence belongs to the most perfect God, nor is any powerlessness of Divine forces indicated by this.