_MADAM,_
Your _Authors_ comparison[1] of the Sun, with the immaterial or divine
Soul in Man, makes me almost of opinion, that the Sun is the Soul of
this World we inhabit, and that the fixed Stars, which are counted
Suns by some, may be souls to some other worlds; for every one man has
but one immaterial or divine soul, which is said to be individable
and simple in its essence, and therefore unchangeable; and if the Sun
be like this immaterial soul, then the Moon may be like the material
soul. But as for the Production of this immaterial and divine Soul in
Man, whether it come by an immediate Creation from God, or be derived
by a successive propagation from Parents upon their Children, I cannot
determine any thing, being supernatural, and not belonging to my
study; nevertheless, the Propagation from Parents seems improbable to
my reason; for I am not capable to imagine, how an immaterial soul,
being individable, should beget another. Some may say, by imprinting or
sealing, _viz._ that the soul doth print the Image of its own figure
upon the spirit of the seed; which if so, then first there will onely
be a production of the figure of the soul, but not of the substance,
and so the Child will have but the Image of the soul, and not a real
and substantial soul. Secondly, Every Child of the same Parents would
be just alike, without any distinguishment; if not in body, yet in the
Faculties and Proprieties of their Minds or Souls. Thirdly, There must
be two prints of the two souls of both Parents upon one Creature, to
wit, the Child; for both Parents do contribute alike to the Production
of the Child, and then the Child would either have two souls, or both
must be joyned as into one; which how it can be, I am not able to
conceive. Fourthly, If the Parents print the Image of their souls upon
the Child, then the Childs soul bears not the Image of God, but the
Image of Man, to wit, his Parents. Lastly, I cannot understand, how an
immaterial substance should make a print upon a corporeal substance,
for Printing is a corporeal action, and belongs onely to bodies. Others
may say, that the soul is from the Parents transmitted into the Child,
like as a beam of Light; but then the souls of the Parents must part
with some of their own substance; for light is a substance dividable,
in my opinion; and if it were not, yet the soul is a substance, and
cannot be communicated without losing some of his own substance,
but that is impossible; for the immaterial soul being individable,
cannot be diminished nor increased in its substance or Nature. Others
again, will have the soul produced by certain Ideas; but Ideas being
corporeal, cannot produce a substance Incorporeal or Spiritual.
Wherefore I cannot conceive how the souls of the Parents, being
individable in themselves, and not immoveable out of their bodies until
the time of death, should commix so, as to produce a third immaterial
soul, like to their own. You will say, As the Sun, which is the
fountain of heat and light, heats and enlightens, and produces other
Creatures. But I answer, The Sun doth not produce other Suns, at least
not to our knowledg. 'Tis true, there are various and several manners
and ways of Productions, but they are all natural, that is, material,
or corporeal; to wit, Productions of some material beings, or corporeal
substances; but the immaterial soul not being in the number of these,
it is not probable, that she is produced by the way of corporeal
productions, but created and infused from God, according to her nature,
which is supernatural and divine: But being the Image of God, how she
can be defiled with the impurity of sin, and suffer eternal damnation
for her wickedness, without any prejudice to her Creator, I leave to
the Church to inform us thereof. Onely one question I will add, Whether
the Soul be subject to Sickness and Pain? To which I answer: As for the
supernatural and divine Soul, although she be a substance, yet being
not corporeal, but spiritual, she can never suffer pain, sickness, nor
death; but as for the natural soul, to speak properly, there is no
such thing in Nature as pain, sickness, or death; unless in respect
to some Particular Creatures composed of natural Matter; for what Man
calls Sickness, Pain, and Death, are nothing else but the Motions of
Nature; for though there is but one onely Matter, that is, nothing but
meer Matter in Nature, without any co-mixture of either a spiritual
substance, or any thing else that is not Matter; yet this meer Matter
is of several degrees and parts, and is the body of Nature; Besides,
as there is but one onely Matter, so there is also but one onely
Motion in Nature, as I may call it, that is, meer corporeal Motion,
without any rest or cessation, which is the soul of that Natural body,
both being infinite; but yet this onely corporeal Motion is infinitely
various in its degrees or manners, and ways of moving; for it is
nothing else but the action of natural Matter, which action must needs
be infinite, being the action of an infinite body, making infinite
figures and parts. These motions and actions of Nature, since they
are so infinitely various, when men chance to observe some of their
variety, they call them by some proper name, to make a distinguishment,
especially those motions which belong to the figure of their own
kind; and therefore when they will express the motions of dissolution
of their own figure, they call them Death; when they will express
the motions of Production of their figure, they call them Conception
and Generation; when they will express the motions proper for the
Consistence, Continuance and Perfection of their Figure, they call them
Health; but when they will express the motions contrary to these, they
call them Sickness, Pain, Death, and the like: and hence comes also the
difference between regular and irregular motions; for all those Motions
that belong to the particular nature and consistence of any figure,
they call regular, and those which are contrary to them, they call
irregular. And thus you see, _Madam_, that there is no such thing in
Nature, as Death, Sickness, Pain, Health, &c. but onely a variety and
change of the corporeal motions, and that those words express nothing
else but the variety of motions in Nature; for men are apt to make more
distinctions then Nature doth: Nature knows of nothing else but of
corporeal figurative Motions, when as men make a thousand distinctions
of one thing, and confound and entangle themselves so, with Beings,
Non-beings, and Neutral-beings, Corporeals and Incorporeals, Substances
and Accidents, or manners and modes of Substances, new Creations,
and Annihilations, and the like, as neither they themselves, nor any
body else, is able to make any sense thereof; for they are like the
tricks and slights of Juglers, 'tis here, 'tis gone; and amongst those
_Authors_ which I have read as yet, the most difficult to be understood
is this _Author_ which I am now perusing, who runs such divisions, and
cuts Nature into so small Parts, as the sight of my Reason is not sharp
enough to discern them. Wherefore I will leave them to those that are
more quick-sighted then I, and rest,
Madam,
_Your constant Friend,_
_and faithful Servant._
[1] Of the seat of the Soul. _It._ Of the Image of the Mind.