First Physical Dissertation on the Bond Connecting Soul and Body

existing within, and communicated through that to elemental bodies, (*) and has vivified them, and still animates, preserves, and vegetates bodies, and frees them from every imperfection, provided they are capable of perfection. To this I finally annex D. van der BECKE, who says that the spirit of the universe, mixed with Chaos, produced all things from water according to the signatures and ideas of seeds; this same spirit, upon the completion of the work of creation, he makes the mover of all bodies, placed by God in the globe of the sun, from which the vivifying power would flow through the air, with the wind approaching, into inferior bodies; see his Experiments and Meditations concerning the natural principles of things, page 295, sq.

§. X.

Now, if I were to institute an inquiry into the bond that would couple this soul with the body of this universe, then various things regarding the diverse opinions of the Authors, which I have reviewed in order, would need to be noted. And indeed, if I were to enter the camp of PLATO, I would first have to prove what I said in the preceding pages, namely that Plato posits the World Soul to be mixed from Matter and the Immaterial. This, however, as it pertains to Matter, is apparent from the fact that he says it is teinomenen stretched or extended through the world. Truly, this word is not such that it can be predicated of Spirit in the pure and proper sense: since we know that it has never been called into doubt by any sound thinker that extension is the property of matter alone and constitutes its formal aspect. Furthermore, what it adds regarding the Immaterial is evidenced when he posits an Intelligence inherent in this extended World Soul. But Intelligence, looking to the mind alone, is a faculty thereof, which therefore is neither perfected in the body itself, nor needs the body for its operations. For which reason it is also called Inorganic: for matter can neither understand itself, nor contribute anything to the intrinsic production of intellections.

The marginal note reads: "He asks on page 52: By what medium can the spirit of the universe be held? And he answers: It is obtained, without a doubt, by that medium through which it is communicated from the celestial luminaries to the sublunary creature, and is incorporated. Now, water is the medium by whose intervention not only minerals and metals, but also vegetables and animals participate in the spirit flowing down from the sun and moon and other stars. Who, therefore, could deny that the spirit of the universe is to be sought in water? And Moses himself in Genesis I ingenuously confesses the Spirit of the Lord to be carried upon the waters."