CHAP. lit] NATURE OP THE SENSITIVE SOUL. 173 



been, yet in the end they must be turned over tc- religion, 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 or deduced 

 from the mass of heaven and earth, but immediately inspired 

 by God; and as the laws of heaven and earth are the proper 

 subjects of philosophy, no knowledge of the substance of 

 the rational soul can be had from philosophy, but must 

 be derived from the same Divine inspiration, whence the 

 substance thereof originally proceeded. a 



But in the doctrine of the sensitive or produced soul, even 

 its substance may be justly inquired into, though this in 

 quiry seems hitherto wanting. For of what significancy are 

 the terms of actus ultimus and forma corporis, and such 

 logical trifles, to the knowledge of the soul s substance ? The 

 sensitive soul must be allowed a corporeal substance, atte 

 nuated by heat and rendered invisible, as a subtile breath or 

 aura, of a flamy and airy nature, having the softness of air 

 in receiving impressions, and the activity of fire in exerting 

 its action, nourished partly by an oily and partly by a watery 

 substance, and diffused through the whole body ; but in per 

 fect creatures, residing chiefly in the head, and thence run 

 ning through the nerves, being fed and recruited by the 

 spirituous blood of the arteries, as Telesius b and his follower 

 Donius in some measure have usefully shown. Therefore let 

 this doctrine be more diligently inquired into, c because the 



To separate God from human reason, appears to be one of the great 

 aims of one of the modern schools of philosophy, and sometimes the 

 theory has received indirect confirmations from quarters by no means 

 favourable to its advocates. Pascal wrote, &quot; Selon les lumieres 

 naturelles, nous sonnnes incapable de connaitre ce que Dieu eat.&quot; 

 In the edition of this philosopher s works, by Voltaire and Condorcet., 

 the text was enriched with the addition of the phrase, &quot; Ni s il est ;&quot; 

 and the following 1 note appended to the passage, by Voltaire : 

 &quot; ]1 cst Strange que Pascal ait cru qu on pouvait deviner le pech* 

 originel par la raison, et qu il dise qu on lie pent connaitre par la 

 raison si Dieu est.&quot; At this specimen of deistic candour, Condorcet 

 exclaims, in a subsequent note, &quot;How marvellous to behold Voltaire 

 contending with Pascal for the existence of God!&quot; Ed, 



b Rerum Natura, book 5. 



c This inquiry is greatly embroiled by the moderns ; some seeking 

 the soul all over the body, some in the blood, some in the animal spirits, 

 ome in the heart, some in the ventricles of the brain, and some, with 

 Pea Cartes, in the Glandula Pinealia. M. Fetit wrote a curioua j&amp;gt;iec 



