First Physical Dissertation on the Bond Connecting Soul and Body

§. II.

And first, indeed, if I look to the nobler part of man, the Soul, it must be noted that there are various things that are called "souls." Hence, it is required of me before all else, given my scope, that I evolve the homonymy of the word, so that it may be clear to all what is intended for me here under the title of "Soul." When, therefore, we consider this whole universe at one glance, there immediately occurs to us the soul which is said to be of the World. This has already been weighed and examined in various ways by various Authors, among whom the Magnificent and most Reverend Dn. D. RECHENBERG, our own, can especially be consulted in his Dissertation on the World Soul. Besides this, another Treatise on the World Soul, by the most Reverend M. BOYSEN, my most sincere friend, will perhaps appear at the next fairs of Halle in Saxony, as is promised; in which, as I surmise, the most learned Author is about to exhibit all that has been consigned to writing about the World Soul thus far, collected into one.

§. III.

For my own scope, I shall briefly encompass the whole matter. Let it be noted first that this "Spirit of the World" does not signify the spirit of the intelligible or intellectual world, which the Platonists fashioned, composed of ideas, reasons, and as it were the seeds of all things; in short: having the Exemplars of all things that are generated in the visible world.(*)

(*) The reason why they believed that the intelligible world emanated from the very unity and Divine goodness immediately before this visible one was this: that they established that from the most simple and most good, the world could not be made unless it were most one and most good; but they saw to the contrary that the world...