52 GENERAL PREFACE TO 



disfigured. They have, on the contrary, much of the melan- 

 choly earnestness which characterises those of his disciple 

 Campanella. The difference between the faculties of men and 

 brutes appeared to him to be such that merely a subtler organi- 

 sation of the spiritus would be insufficient to account for it. 

 Man's higher faculties are to be ascribed to a higher principle, 

 and this can only be conceived of as a divinely formed soul. 

 The question as to the relation between the two souls may be 

 presented under two aspects, namely what are the faculties in 

 man which ought to be ascribed to each of them ? and again 

 are these two souls wholly independent, and if not, how are 

 they connected? The criterion by which Telesius would de- 

 cide what ought to be reserved as the peculiar appanage of 

 the divinely created soul, appears to be this that which in 

 man is analogous to the faculties we recognise in brutes ought 

 to be ascribed to the principle by which they are animated and 

 which we possess in common with them. Whatever, on the 

 contrary, seems peculiar to man, more especially the sense of 

 right and wrong, which is the foundation of all morality, ought 

 to be ascribed to the principle which it is our prerogative to 

 possess. l 



As to the connexion between the two, Telesius decides 

 " both on grounds of human reason and from the authority of 

 Scripture " that they cannot be wholly independent of each 

 other, and he accordingly affirms that the divinely created soul 

 is the Form of the whole body, and especially of the spiritus 

 itself. That the soul is the Form of the body he could not 

 without heresy deny 2 , although he condemns Aristotle for say- 

 ing so ; asserting that Aristotle refers to the spiritus, and not to 

 the true soul, with which probably he was unacquainted. 3 The 

 tendency of these views is towards materialism ; the immaterial 

 principle being annexed to the system, as it were, ab extra. 

 Accordingly Telesius's disciple Donius, whom Bacon has more 

 than once referred to, omits it altogether. 4 



Comparing the views of Telesius with those of Bacon, we 



1 De Rerum Natura, v. 2. 



2 The collection known as the Clementines contains an authoritative decision on this 

 point. " Ut quisque deinceps asserere defendere aut tenere pertinaciter praesump- 

 serit, quod anima rationalis non sit forma corporis humani per se et essentialiter 

 tanquam hscreticus sit censendus." I quote from Vulpes on Duns Scotus, Disp. 46. a. 

 5. To this decision Telesius seems to allude, De Rer. Nat. v. 40. Campanella has 

 expressly mentioned it. 



3 De Rer. Nat. v. 3. * See his De Nat. Hominis. 



