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XXVII. Extract from the Akhlak e Naseri, a work written by Ndser ud 

 Din about the middle of the Thirteenth Century.* Commimicated by Col. 

 Mark Wilks, Vice-President R.A.S. 



Read June 17, 182G. 



PREFATORY NOTE. 



My attention was recently drawn to the arguments of English divines, in answer 

 to certain physiological publications tending to materialism, in consequence of the 

 similarity, if not the identity of some of their reasonings, with those which I recollected to 

 have seen in a Persian work, written by a Mohammedan in the tliirteenth century. 

 I accordingly sought for the passages, and the following translated extract from the 

 " Akhl(]k e Ndseri" is the result of the search. This sti iking similarity of reasoning 

 is probably to be attributed to the actual derivation of each from one common source — 

 the works of the Greek philosophers, with which the Persian author evinces an inti- 

 mate acquaintance. An incidental notice is also observable in this extract of doctrines 

 approaching those of the modern chemistry ; and it is offered, not with any pretension 

 of being worthy a place in the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society, but for the mere 

 purpose of being deposited with the work from which it is translated in the Library of the 

 Societj', as an indication, to those who have not perused it, of the character of the book. 



Ixmdm, Uth June 1826. M. WILKS. 



ON THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE HUMAN SOUL, 

 WHICH IS LIKEWISE CALLED THE REASONING SPIRIT. 



The human soul is a simple essence ; one of whose properties is to form 

 rational conceptions within itself, directing and disposing of this sensitive 

 body {viz. man) by means of certain powers and instruments. 



This essence is not matter nor material, nor is it perceived by any of 

 the senses. In order to establish this, it is necessary to demonstrate cer- 

 tain things, viz. 



1st. The proof of the existence of the soul. 



• It is said to have been written in the mountains of Persia, while the author was the forced 

 guest of a successor of that Hassart from whom the English word atsassin is supposed to be 

 derived, and whose designation was Sheikh id Jebal, Lord of the Mountains, generally trans- 

 lated old man of the mountain. For the details of the singular abduction ot Naser ud Din 

 from his quiet home at Bokhara to this savage abode, see Malcolm's History of Persia, vol. i. 

 p. 406. 



