200 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



let the earth bring forth. And this irrational soul in man 

 is only an instrument to the rational one, and has the same 

 origin in us as in brutes, viz., the dust of the earth; for it 

 is not said, God formed the body of man of the dust of 

 the earth, but God formed man, that is, the whole man, 

 the breath of life excepted, of the dust of the earth. We 

 will, therefore, style the first part of the general doctrine 

 of the human soul the doctrine of the inspired substance, 

 and the other part the doctrine of the sensitive or produced 

 soul. But as we are here treating wholly of philosophy, we 

 would not have borrowed this division from divinity, had 

 it not also agreed with the principles of philosophy. For 

 there are many excellences of the human soul above the 

 souls of brutes, manifest even to those who philosophize 

 only according to sense. And wherever so many and such 

 great excellences are found, a specific difference should 

 always be made. We do not, therefore, approve that con 

 fused and promiscuous manner of the philosophers in treat 

 ing the functions of the soul, as if the soul of man differed 

 in degree rather than species from the soul of brutes, as the 

 sun differs from the stars, or gold from other metals. 



There may also be another division of the general doc 

 trine of the human soul into the doctrine of the substance 

 and faculties of the soul, and that of the use and objects of 

 the faculties. And these two divisions being premised, we 

 come to particulars. 



The doctrine of the inspired substance, as also of the sub 

 stance of the rational soul, comprehends several inquiries 

 with relation to its nature, as whether the soul be native or 

 adventitious, separable or inseparable, mortal or immortal; 

 how far it is subject to the laws of matter, how far not, and 

 the like. But the points of this kind, though they might 

 be more thoroughly sifted in philosophy than hitherto they 

 have been, yet in the end they must be turned over to re 

 ligion, for determination and decision ; otherwise they will 

 lie exposed to various errors and illusions of sense. For as 

 the substance of the soul was not, in its creation, extracted 



