There are three sorts of existence: the first, usual and relative, exposed to the influence of the stars, subject to alterations, and susceptible of being and not being at the same time; that is matter: the second, intellectual, which has been preceded by non-existence, but which becomes permanent from the moment it begins; that is the soul, upon which the celestial bodies cannot act: the third, necessary, absolute, and eternal, superior by its nature to the two others, that is the Supreme Being, by whom everything has been produced, who has always subsisted, and will subsist for ever.
“The Being whose existence is eternal, the first principle, is unlimited, One, and without companions.
“Man exists then doubly,—by his soul and by his body; his spiritual existence survives his bodily existence, which, sooner of later, is dissolved.
“The soul is a simple substance, homogeneous and immaterial, an indestructible breath of the Divinity. The body is a compound of material parts heterogeneous and destructible, which only exists as long as its parts remain united together. The soul is not essentially inherent to the body; the latter is not the subject of it; we only know that it is present in it, as we are aware of the splendour of the sun upon the surface of any object whatever.
“The soul is immortal.
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Souls were created before bodies: they resided, whilst waiting for them, in the intellectual world, the abode of true essences.
“After their union with the body, they constantly endeavour to preserve the reminiscence of their productive cause; and if, in their new state, they do not forget this first essence, they return to their former dwelling; otherwise they continue wandering and unhappy in the material world, there to perpetually experience the vicissitudes and pains of the present life.
“In order not to deteriorate, or lose its rights to proximity with its author, the soul must be constantly filled with the idea of that first cause which is disposed to attract it, unceasingly, towards it. It is its true state of perfection, that in which it maintains itself by becoming insensible to all terrestrial affections.
“In addition to his immaterial and reasonable soul, man has still another, which is the natural soul; this is born and dies with the body; it is a certain inexplicable, but active and actual force, which is common to him and animals devoid of reason, and which elevates him above these; it is the immortal breath which the Divinity has communicated to him, to the exclusion of the other beings of the universe.”[146]—Receive, monsieur, I beg, &c. &c.