NATURAL THEOLOGY III 



matter, then it must be obvious that the mental and 

 vital organism which pervades every living being 

 must come from the immaterial attributes of the 

 Creator, and is eternal. It is claimed by the Church 

 that man is immortal because he can communicate 

 with God. We take the same Bible and prove that 

 God communicated with lower animals, which would 

 indicate a divine nature in them for the same reason. 

 If an animal moves itself, it does so for some rea- 

 son and with respect to some end, which is not like 

 material motion which cannot take place only from 

 without by external causes. You cannot imagine 

 matter moved by its own reason. Animals move 

 themselves not only by their own reason, but by 

 reason imparted by signs or words from others. 

 Such motions cannot be the result of the mere 

 physical effects of signs or words, for they would 

 have the same effect whether they were understood 

 or not. It is the soul which interprets the sense of 

 the signs and words and thus causes action, and it 

 is the soul which imparts the principles of life 

 and brings vitality to the body. As long as the 

 soul remains in the body it has the power to move 

 it at will, or otherwise it would be moved by only 

 the laws of gravitation and mechanism. 



