MEDICINE AND PHILOSOPHY — IITH AND 12TH CENTURIES 117 



In his treatment of the soul, William of St. Thierry distin- 

 guishes the definition of the philosophers of this world, who 

 say that the soul is a simple substance, a natural species, dis- 

 tinct from the matter of its body, and possessed of the power 

 of life, from the definition of the ecclesiastical doctors, who 

 say that the soul is a proper substance created by God, 

 vivifying, rational, immortal, but convertible toward good and 

 evil. The soul vivifies the body in three manners — for the 

 purpose of living only, for the purpose of living well, and to 

 provide opportunity for the succession of future goods.^^ God 

 made man in his image and likeness, as a sculptor makes a 

 statue, combining in him virtues of inanimate things, plants, 

 animals, and angels. Moreover, since man is made in the image 

 of God, his soul is related to his body as God is related to the 

 world: it is everywhere and everywhere whole, whole in natural, 

 in spiritual, and in animal operations; ^^ and the image of the 

 Trinity is found in man's body and in his soul, for the soul, 

 which is one, is also memory, counsel, and will, and the body, 

 which is one, is also measurable, numerable, and weighable.'* 



The works translated from Arabic and Greek, the epitomes 

 of the translators, and the treatises of Western philosophers 

 learned in the new sciences introduced further modifications in 

 the doctrine of elements. Avicebron (whose Fons Vitae, in 

 Latin translation, uses both elementatum and materiatura) , 

 Gundissalinus, Herman of Carinthia, and Adelard of Bath 

 discuss the problems of determining simple parts and they use 

 them in the classification and analysis of a wide range of data. 

 The theoretic aspects of the problem become clear again in 

 the exploration of the consequences of alternative approaches 

 to elements; but the materials on which the schematisms are 

 employed, once the new materials treated in the translations 

 have become familiar, tend to fall into reiterative repetitions. 

 There is some indication that the distinctions based on elements 

 stimulated new observation in some fields, but the evidence is 

 ambiguous because the task of assimilating the new materials 



'* Ihid., II, 707-9. " Ihid., I, 702C. " Ibid., II, 722A-23A. 



