Chap. IL ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 149 



Ship, gives dire£lions to the officers under him to employ them. 

 And, though the conjundion of our Souls with our Bodies is no 

 doubt clofer, and more intimate, than that of a Mafter with a Ship, 

 yet our Soul is no more a part of our Body than the Mafter is of 

 the Ship : And, therefore, as the Mafter, even while he is in the Ship, 

 can aft by himfelf without the Ship, and can do other things befides 

 governing the Ship, fo can our Soul, even when it is in the Body. 

 — If this comparifon be juft, it is as improper to fay, that it is the 

 organization of the Body that makes the Soul, as it would be, to 

 fay, that it is the conftruftion of the Veflel, and its being furnifhed 

 with all proper inftruments of navigation, that makes the Mafter ; 

 and it is no more true, that the Soul perifhes when it leaves the 

 Body, than that the Mafter perifties when he leaves the Ship *, 



Lajlly^ If we are convinced that our own Souls have a feparate 

 cxiftence, both from our Bodies, and from our Animal Life, and 

 are eternal, we ftiall be eafily difpofed to believe that there is in the 

 Univerfe an Intellect infinitely fuperior to ours, that has the fame 

 feparate and eternal cxiftence. And, in this refpe£t, the dod:rine I 

 have maintained in this Chapter will be of great ufe in Theology ; 

 for, as I have more than once obferved, it is only from ftudying our 

 own Mind, and its properties, that we can ever rife to any compre- 

 henfion of. the Supreme Mind. 



CHAP. 



•This comparifon of the Soul to the Mafter of the Ship, T am indebted for to the 

 Author, above quoted, of the Religion of Nature Delineated, p. 192. 



