172 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [fcOOK IT, 



the other of the irrational soul, which wo have in common 

 with brutes. Two different emanations of souls are manifest 

 in the first creation, the one proceeding from the breath of 

 God, the other from the elements. As to the primitive 

 emanation of the rational soul, the Scripture says, God 

 formed man of the dust of the earth, and breathed into his 

 nostrils the breath of life ; but the generation of the irra 

 tional and brutal soul was in these words, Let the water 

 bring forth ; 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 excellencies of the human soul above the souls of 

 brutes, manifest even to those who philosophize only accord 

 ing to sense. And wherever so many and such great excel 

 lencies are found, a specific difference should always be made. 

 We do not, therefore, approve that confused and promis 

 cuous manner of the philosophers in treating 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 doctrine 

 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 



