As a further proof of this position it
may be urged, that in the Sacred Scripture frequent mention is made of
the soul and the heart; as where it is said, Thou shalt love God from
the whole soul and the whole heart; and that God creates in man a new
soul and a new heart, Deut. vi. 5; chap. x. 12; chap. xi. 13; chap.
xxvi. 16; Jerem. xxxii. 41; Matt, xxii. 37; Mark xii. 30, 33; Luke x.
27; and in other places: it is also expressly said, that the blood is
the soul of the flesh, Levit. xvii. 11, 14." At these words, the cry of
"Learned! learned!" was heard in the assembly, and was found to proceed
from some of the canons. After this a fourth, clad in the garments of
the former speaker, ascended the desk, and thus began: "I also am
inclined to suspect that not a single person can be found of so subtle
and refined a genius as to be able to discover what the soul is, and
what is its quality; therefore I am of opinion, that in attempting to
make the discovery, subtlety will be spent in fruitless labor;
nevertheless from my childhood I have continued firm in the opinion of
the ancients, that the soul of man is in the whole of him, and in every
part of the whole, and thus that it is in the head and in all its parts,
as well as in the body and in all its parts; and that it is an idle
conceit of the moderns to fix its habitation in any particular part, and
not in the body throughout; besides, the soul is a spiritual substance,
of which there cannot be predicated either extension or place, but
habitation and impletion; moreover, when mention is made of the soul,
who does not conceive life to be meant? and is not life in the whole and
in every part?" These sentiments were favorably received by a great part
of the audience.
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