Chap.XVI. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 201 



there are any of them which conclude fo demonftratively as the one 

 above ftated. 



The next thing to be confidcred concerning the human foul is, its 

 immortality ; as to which, Philoponus fays, that no man who admit- 

 ted it to be immaterial, and to have a ieparate exiftence, ever enter- 

 tained any doubt. And, indeed, it is impoffible that we can conceive 

 any way in which it (hould be perifhable of itfelf, that is, by its own 

 nature, or otherwife, except by the immediate a6t of God ; for death is 

 truly what it is called, a diflblution ; nor can we conceive any thing 

 dying or perifhing, except by a feparation or difcerption of its parts, 

 which cannot happen to an immaterial fubftance * ; for the only way 

 in which we can conceive any thing to be diflblved is, by the fepa- 

 ration or difarrangcment of its parts, or by its being joined with, or 

 affected by any thing foreign to its nature. Now, neither of thefe 

 two can happen to an immaterial foul, in a ftate of feparation from 

 the body : For, in that ftate, according to Ariftotle, it cannot fuffer ; 

 all its fufferings, from paffions, fuch as fear, anger, grief, according 

 to him, arifing from the bodyt; the tcrreni artus moribund aque meni' 

 hray as Virgil calls them ; 



Hi'nc 

 C c 



* This is Cicero*s argument for the immortality of the foul: For, having hid it 

 down, that nihil animis admixtum, nihil concretum, nihil copulatum, nihil cpagmen* 

 tatum, nihil duplex; he adds, quod cum ita fit, certe nee fecerni, nee dividi, nee dif- 

 cerpi, nee diftrahi poteft, ncc Interire igitur. Eft enim interitus quafi diflcffus et fe- 

 cretio et direptus earum partium quae ante intoritum jun£lione aliqua tenebantur; 

 Tujadan ^ic/lionSy lib. i. cap. 29. — And certainly we have no conception of any fpe- 

 cies of corporeal thing perifhing in any other way. 



t Lib. I. De Anima, Cap. 5. where he fays, that iov<; is p«»T£j«» t< kxi X7r»tn — where 

 he likewife fays, that there is no motion in the mind, but that the motion.of the body 

 fometimcs reaches to it, and fometimes proceeds from it, e» tKin*i (t>i >|'y;^j)) rm )»<»)s-8»j 



