Let us first consider if it may be affirmed that all souls form but one
in the sense in which it is said that the soul of each individual is
one. It seems absurd to pretend that my soul and yours form but one in
this (numerical) sense; for then you would be feeling simultaneously
with my feeling, and you would be virtuous when I was, and you would
have the same desires as I, and not only would we both have the same
sentiments, but even the identical sentiments of the universal (Soul),
so that every sensation felt by me would have been felt by the entire
universe. If in this manner all the souls form but one, why is one soul
reasonable, and the other unreasonable, why is the one in an animal,
and the other in a plant? On the other hand, if we do not admit that
there is a single Soul, we will not be able to explain the unity of the
universe, nor find a single principle for (human) souls.
THE UNITY OF THE PRINCIPLE OF SEVERAL SOULS NEED NOT IMPLY THEIR BEING
IDENTICAL.
2. In the first place, if the souls of myself and of another man form
but one soul, this does not necessarily imply their being identical
with their principle. Granting the existence of different beings, the
same principle need not experience in each the same affections. Thus,
humanity may equally reside in me, who am in motion, as in you, who may
be at rest, although in me it moves, and it rests in you. Nevertheless,
it is neither absurd nor paradoxical to insist that the same principle
is both in you and in me; and this does not necessarily make us feel
the identical affections. Consider a single body: it is not the left
hand which feels what the right one does, but the soul which is present
in the whole body. To make you feel the same as I do, our two bodies
would have to constitute but a single one; then, being thus united, our
souls would perceive the same affections. Consider also that the All
remains deaf to a multitude of impressions experienced by the parts
of a single and same organism, and that so much the more as the body
is larger. This is the state of affairs, for instance, with the large
whales which do not feel the impression received in some one part of
their body, because of the smallness of the movement.