8. What other cause, besides the preceding, will we have to invoke
so as to let nothing occur without a cause, to maintain order and
interdependence of things in the world, and in order to preserve the
possibility of predictions and omens without destroying our personality?
We shall have to introduce among the number of beings another
principle, namely: the soul; and not only the World-soul, but even the
individual soul of every person. In the universal concatenation of
causes and effects, this soul is a principle of no little importance,
because, instead of, like all other things, being born of a "seminal
reason," it constitutes a "primary cause." Outside of a body, she
remains absolute mistress of herself, free and independent of the
cause which administers the world. As soon as she has descended into
a body, she is no longer so independent, for she then forms part of
the order to which all things are subjected. Now, inasmuch as the
accidents of fortune, that is to say, the surrounding circumstances,
determine many events, the soul alternately yields to the influence
of external circumstances, and then again she dominates them, and
does what she pleases. This she does more or less, according as she
is good or evil. When she yields to the corporeal temperament, she is
necessarily subjected to desire or anger, discouraged in poverty, or
proud in prosperity, as well as tyrannical in the exercise of power.
But she can resist all these evil tendencies if her disposition is
good; she modifies her surroundings more than she is affected by them;
some things she changes, others she tolerates without herself incurring
guilt.