(i.) (Souls cannot, as do bodies, lose or gain parts, ever remaining
identical.) The body has the faculty of making its organs grow within
a definite time and in fixed proportions. From where could the soul
derive them? Its function is to grow, not to cause growth, unless
the principle of growth be comprehended within its material mass. If
the soul that makes the body grow was herself a body, she should, on
uniting with molecules of a nature similar to hers, develop a growth
proportional to that of the organs. In this case, the molecules that
will come to add themselves to the soul will be either animate or
inanimate; if they are animate, how could they have become such, and
from whom will they have received that characteristic? If they are not
animate, how will they become such, and how will agreement between
them and the first soul arise? How will they form but a single unity
with her, and how will they agree with her? Will they not constitute a
soul that will remain foreign to the former, who will not possess her
requirements of knowledge? This aggregation of molecules that would
thus be called soul will resemble the aggregation of molecules that
form our body. She would lose parts, she would acquire new ones; she
will not be identical. But if we had a soul that was not identical,
memory and self-consciousness of our own faculties would be impossible.