CHAPTER IX 



THE SOUL : THE DOCTRINE OF IMMORTALITY 



DESCARTES taught that an absolute difference of 

 kind separates matter, as that which possesses 

 extension, from spirit, as that which thinks. 

 They not only have no character in common, but 

 it is inconceivable that they should have any. On 

 the assumption, that the attributes of the two 

 were wholly different, it appeared to be a 

 necessary consequence that the hypothetical 

 causes of these attributes their respective 

 substances must be totally different. Notably, 

 in the matter of divisibility, since that which has 

 no extension cannot be divisible, it seemed that 

 the chose pensante, the soul, must be an indivisible 

 entity. 



Later philosophers, accepting this notion of the 

 soul, were naturally much perplexed to under- 

 stand how, if matter and spirit had nothing in 

 common, they could act and react on one another. 

 All the changes of matter being modes of motion, 



