Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: An essay on matter : in five chapters. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
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![[ *3 ] kind. I deny a Soul, becaufe reafon fhows it to be nothing but a word; but if by Soul is meant the general principle of motion or life, then I fay, after tracing matter as far as reafon can keep fight of it, I cannot feparate it from life.— All that is beyond that, is infinite ; fo to me, Matter, Motion, Life, Spirit, Soul, (or whatever name be given to Motion) is one and the fame thing. Why fhould it be fo hateful to our pride, the denying of a Soul, which we have proved is denying Nothing, and trying how far we can account for that, which has unmean- ingly been called Soul ? If the operation of matter be made to have the fame effect as the operation of that which has been called Soul, and which might as well have been called Nothing (for take the word Soul away, and Nothing re- mains) why mould we not fuppofe our ftate as dignified as if we fuppofe our bodies actuated by and poffeffed of No- thing? No reafonable creature can have this for his objection. It muft then be, becaufe it fhows him to be actuated by the fame principle that actuates the animal creation and other matter; and not dwelling enough upon the difference of compofirion, which give their motion and his—he feels his pride hurt by the likenefs. The difference between the Brute and us, we hold to be very great; the difference between us and the very next Being above us, may be greater; and all too little, to make a mark in the great map of the univerfe. Would we not complain of pride and injuftice in this next Being, fhould it affect to hold us in the fame difhonorable view that we do Brutes? They, as much as we, anfwer the defign of the Univerfal Caufe. From all that has been faid, it follows that what we call Soul or Life, and our Bodies have the fame origin; the one as much as the other is a part of, and if parts of, be- long to, this world, this earth, and it's atmofphere. It](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21136099_0033.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
