_MADAM,_
If according to your _Authors_ opinion,[1] _In every particular world,
such as Man is especially, his own Soul_ (which is a Spirit) _be the
peculiar and most perfective architect of the Fabrick of his Body, as
the Soul of the world is of it_: Then I cannot conceive in my reason,
how the separation is made in death; for I see, that all animals, and
so man-kind, have a natural desire to live, and that life and soul are
unwilling to part; And if the power lies in the Soul, why doth she
not continue with the Body, and animate, move and actuate it, as she
did before, or order the matter so, as not to dissolve? But if the
dissolution lies in the body, then the body has self-motion: Yet it is
most probable, if the soul be the architect of the body, it must also
be the dissolver of it; and if there come not another soul into the
parts of matter, the body must either be annihilated, or lie immoved as
long as the world lasts, which is improbable; for surely all the bodies
of men, or other animals, are imployed by Nature to some use or other:
However, it is requisite, that the soul must stay so long in the body,
until it be turned into dust and ashes; otherwise, the body having no
self-motion, would remain as it was when the soul left it, that is,
entire and undissolved: As for example; when a man dies, if there be
no motion in his body, and the soul, which was the mover, be gone, it
cannot possibly corrupt; for certainly, that we call corruption, is
made by motion, and the body requires as much motion to be dissolved
or divided, as it doth to be framed or composed; Wherefore a dead
body would remain in the same state continually, it had no self-motion
in it: And if another soul should enter into the body, and work it
to another figure, then certainly there must be many more souls then
bodies, because bodies are subject to change into several forms; but
if the animal spirits, which are left in the body after the soul is
gone, are able to dissolve it without the help of the soul, then it is
probable they could have fram'd it without the help of the soul; and so
they being material, it must be granted, that matter is self-moving:
But if corporeal matter have corporeal self-motion, a self-moving
Immaterial Spirit, by reason of their different natures, would make
great obstruction, and so a general confusion; for the corporeal and
incorporeal motions would hinder and oppose each other, their natures
being quite different; and though they might subsist together without
disturbance of each other, yet it is not probable they should act
together, and that in such a conjunction, as if they were one united
body; for it is, in my opinion, more probable, that one material should
act upon another material, or one immaterial upon another immaterial,
then that an immaterial should act upon a material or corporeal. Thus
the consideration or contemplation of immaterial natural Spirits puts
me always into doubts, and raises so many contradictions in my sense
and reason, as I know not, nor am not able to reconcile them: However,
though I am doubtful of them, yet I can assure your self that I
continue,
Madam,
_Your Faithful Friend_
_and Servant._
[1] _Of the Immortality of the Soul, l._ 2. _c._ 10.