DISCOURSE ON METHOD. 63 



acts in them according to the disposition of their 

 organs: thus it is seen, that a clock composed only 

 of wheels and weights can number the hours and 

 measure time more exactly than we with all our 

 skill. 



I had after this described the Reasonable Soul,^ 

 and shewn that it could by no means be educed 

 from the power of matter, as the other things of 

 which I had spoken, but that it must be expressly jl, 

 created ; and that it is not sufficient that it be lodged 

 in the human body exactly like a pilot in a ship, 

 unless perhaps to move its members, but that it is 

 necessary for it to be joined and united more closely 

 to the body, in order to have sensations and appe- 

 tites similar to ours, and thus constitute a real man. 

 I here entered, in conclusion, upon the subject of 

 the soul at considerable length, because it is of the 

 greatest moment: for after the error of those who 

 deny the existence of God, an error which I think 

 I have already sufficiently refuted, there is none 

 that is more powerful in leading feeble minds astray 

 from the straight path of virtue than the supposi- 

 tion that the soul of the brutes is of the same nature 

 with our own ; and consequently that after this life 

 we have nothing to hope for or fear, more than flies 

 and ants ; in place of which, when we know how far 

 they differ we much better comprehend the reasons 

 which establish that the soul is of a nature wholly inde- 

 pendent of the body, and that consequently it is not 

 liable to die with the latter ; and, finally, because no 

 other causes are observed capable of destroying it, we 

 are naturally led thence to judge that it is immortal. 



