If the Soul were a body, then would the division of this body
necessarily produce the multitude of souls, and this essence would be
different in its different parts. Nevertheless, as this essence would
be homogeneous, the souls (between which it would divide itself) would
be similar to each other, because they would possess a single identical
form in its totality, but they would differ by their body. If the
essence of these souls consisted in the bodies which would serve them
as subjects, they would be different from each other. If the essence
of these souls consisted in their form, they would, in form, be but
one single form; in other terms, there would be but one same single
soul in a multitude of bodies. Besides, above this soul which would be
one, but which would be spread abroad in the multitude of bodies, there
would be another Soul which would not be spread abroad in the multitude
of bodies; it would be from her that would proceed the soul which
would be the unity in plurality, the multiple image of the single Soul
in a single body, like a single seal, by impressing the same figure
to a multitude of pieces of wax, would be distributing this figure
in a multitude of impressions. In this case (if the essence of the
soul consisted in her form) the soul would be something incorporeal,
and as she would consist in an affection of the body, there would be
nothing astonishing in that a single quality, emanating from a single
principle, might be in a multitude of subjects simultaneously. Last,
if the essence of the soul consisted in being both things (being
simultaneously a part of a homogeneous body and an affection of the
body), there would be nothing surprising (if there were a unity of
essence in a multitude of subjects). We have thus shown that the soul
is incorporeal, and an essence; we must now consider the results of
this view.
HOW AN ESSENCE CAN BE ONE IN A MULTITUDE OF SOULS IS ILLUSTRATED BY
SEED.
5. How can an essence be single in a multitude of souls? Either this
one essence is entire in all souls, or this one and entire essence
begets all souls while remaining (undiminished) in itself. In either
case, the essence is single. It is the unity to which the individual
souls are related; the essence gives itself to this multitude, and yet
simultaneously the essence does not give itself; it can give of itself
to all individual souls, and nevertheless remain single; it is powerful
enough to pass into all simultaneously, and to be separated from none;
thus its essence remains identical, while being present in a multitude
of souls. This is nothing astonishing; all of science is entirely in
each of its parts, and it begets them without itself ceasing to remain
entire within itself. Likewise, a grain of seed is entire in each of
its parts in which it naturally divides itself; each of its parts has
the same properties as the whole seed; nevertheless the seed remains
entire, without diminution; and if the matter (in which the seed
resides) offer it any cause of division, all the parts will not any the
less form a single unity.