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 

 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. 



