Chap. V.—ON THE SOUL.
§ 1.
This is rather a more delicate subject to handle than the last which we had occasion to treat of, viz: Heaven and Hell. For the reader’s sake, therefore, it must be treated at greater length; but before defining it, an exposition of the opinions of the most celebrated philosophers is necessary, which will be given in a few words, in order that the reader may be the better enabled to carry it along with him.
§ 2.
Their opinions are exceedingly varied. Some have pretended that the soul is a spirit or immaterial essence; others have maintained that it is a part of the Divinity; others assert that it is the concord of all parts of the body; and some uphold that it is the most subtle part of the blood, separated into the brain, and thence distributed through the nervous system. If this is established, the soul must take its origin from the heart which creates it; and the place where it exercises its noblest functions must be the brain, as that organ is the most purified from the grosser parts of the blood.
Such are a few of the different opinions which have been given to the world in regard to the soul. The better to develop them, we shall divide them into two classes. In the one will be found the statements of those philosophers who considered the soul as material; and in the other those of the opposite party, who maintained the doctrine of its immateriality.