own guard against all that tempt thee thereunto, or may practise upon thee in thy conscience, thy reputation, or thy purse; resolve that no man is wise or safe, but he that is honest.

Serve God; let him be the Author of all thy actions; commend all thy endeavours to him that must either wither or prosper them; please him with prayer, lest, if he frown, he confound all thy fortunes and labours like the drops of rain on the sandy ground. Let my experienced advice and fatherly instructions sink deep into thy heart. So God direct thee in all his ways, and fill thy heart with his grace.

Α

TREATISE OF THE SOUL,

BY

SIR WALTER RALEGH, KNT.

[From a MS. in Ashmole's Museum, No. 8161. Vol. 1149.]

THERE are two kinds of souls, one void of reason, an

other endued with reason; and of those without reason there are two sorts, one which feedeth and nourisheth the body, the other which giveth sense and feeling. There are therefore, in the whole, three kinds of souls, for there are three several operations of life; one by bodily instruments and bodily qualities, which is the work of the feeding soul, and is found in trees and herbs alone; the second is exercised by bodily instruments without bodily qualities, from an inward beginning, which is the feeling soul, and is found in beasts, and fowls, and fishes, together with the former: the last kind is exercised by an inward beginning, without either bodily instruments or bodily qualities, which is the soul endued with reason. These three are so affected, that the first doth alway accompany the second, and both attend upon the third.

These three are of diverse kinds and natures, and especially the two first do greatly differ from the third; for seeing there are diverse forms of things which are so diverse; and seeing their operations do so far differ, as to digest, and to touch, and to understand, do differ; and seeing their bodies also, wherein they are severally, have such variety of shapes, as we see there is between the shapes of trees, and beasts, and men; how can it be, but they must be of diverse kinds and natures? What difference doth the scripture

make between them? Job saith, He hath taught us rather than the beasts, and hath made us wise rather than the fowls of heaven a? And what reason were it that beasts should be subject, and we should rule by nature, if our souls were of like nature and substance as theirs? Our souls are immortal, and have an heavenly beginning; whereas theirs are mortal, and do perish with the body, as of the body they have their beginning. Their beginning is of the seed, for the earth and water is commanded to bring forth the whole b; and their soul seemeth to be as it were drowned in the blood; seeing the law saith, The blood of all flesh is the soul thereof. And whence do we think those things have their souls which come of rottenness and putrefaction? is it not of the elements? even so they, which come of seed alone, have their souls by the seed. The soul also which is made only for that which is compounded, and hath his being only in it, must needs have his beginning with it.

Lastly, seeing they have an earthly beginning, they do only mind things present, things earthly, and such as are before their eyes; whereas man mindeth things absent as well as present; things hidden, and secret, and heavenly; not such as are earthly only. These things do prove that the souls of men and beasts be of diverse natures, have not a substance, are not to be comprehended under one kind.

2. The soul endued with reason, to which the soul of beasts in substance, in quality, in beginning, is far inferior, is found in all mankind. As every one of us hath his body by the workmanship of God, so every one hath his own soul: for God is not so poor and niggardly, that he should not give every body his own proper soul and his own character. When the number of souls is filled which God hath appointed, then they which are ordained to life shall rise, every one having his own soul and body; which souls have such notes and marks, that they may be known of God, and shall be distinguished of us in heaven; for if the soul of Judas were not distinguished from the soul of Peter, and b Gen. i. 24. c Levit. xvii. 14. Irenæus, lib. 2, 26.

a Job xxxv. II.

the soul of Dives from the soul of Lazarus, how could rewards and punishments be distributed to them aright? All men thus have their several souls, and women likewise; yet some men (which is a shame to utter) have called the souls of women into question; but by what show of argument? because God framed the woman rib, and is not said to breathe a soul into here; as though that were not to be understood of the woman which was spoken of the man. When Christ said, Woman, great is thy faith; be it unto thee as thou wilt f; when he brought back the soul into the body of Jairus's daughter ; when the scripture saith, that the soul of Rachel went out of her h; when the Virgin Mary singeth, My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit rejoiceth in God my Saviour; it sheweth that which none but such as are mad can doubt of," that wo66 men, in such manner as men, have souls endued with rea"son, strengthened with faith, filled with the Holy Ghost, "and sanctified with eternal lifek." Although the souls have no sex, yet when women are spoken unto, it is not necessary their souls should be excepted; for then Peter would not forbid them to deck themselves with frizzled hair, and gold and silver; but with honest conversation which becometh women that profess godliness'. Surely," saith Augustine, "godliness is within the soul in the spirit;" yet women are commanded to deck themselves within, where no sex is m. Peter indeed commanded, that we should give honour to the woman as to the weaker vessel ¤ : "Yet we "must not by and by think," saith Hierom," because she "hath the weaker body, therefore she hath the weaker "soul"." Yet Cyril affirmeth, "That the souls of women "are very womanish; hard, and slow to understand hard "things P." But, by his leave, some women, even in this, have been able to match the greatest men. But what need we spend words about this, whereof no man doubteth, that women have souls eternal, endowed with reason, wise, sober, Luke viii. 54. h Gen. xxxv. 18. k Aug. de Orig. Anim. lib. 1. 18. 11 Pet. iii. 3. "Hier. in Tit. 1. ii. P Cyril in Johan. ii. 47.

⚫ Gen. ii. 22.

i Luke i. 46.

" Ib. ver. 7.

f Matt. xv. 28.

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m Ib. ver. 4.

temperate, and holy, redeemed by Christ, sanctified by his Spirit, and chosen by the Father to the everlasting kingdom of heaven.

3. The substance of the soul is hardly known; Lactantius denieth that men can attain to the knowledge of the nature of the soul; and Galen confesseth °, that he cannot tell what or where the substance of the soul is. And Athanasius saith," that, while we live, there are three things whereof we cannot attain the knowledge; the substance of God, "of angels, and of our souls." By the objects, we may come to the operation; and by the operation, to the faculties; and by the faculties, to the substance; but yet imperfectly and somewhat afar off.

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The Manichees thought that men had each two souls, both of the substance, one of the good God, and another of the evil God; for they make two Gods. The first soul was given when it was said, God made man of the dust of the earth: and he could not be man without a soul. The second, when he breathed into his face. But there are reckoned only two parts of man, the body and the soul; the whole man stands of these. The Priscillianists have thought with Plato," that our souls are substance of the "divine nature, and that, coming down from the heavens,

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they borrow certain qualities of the stars by which they 66 pass." They cannot be of the substance of God; for first God is simple, admitting no kind of composition, not of parts, nor of matter, and for men P, nor any ways else; and therefore he cannot be divided. He is an essence without any addition; although he be said to be wise and just and merciful, yet his justice and wisdom and mercy

is himself.

Our souls are just and wise and patient; but yet because they may be without these things, therefore they are not these things, and are compounded: simple indeed they are in respect of the elements and of the bodies that are made of them; but in respect of God they are compounded, and therefore can

n De Opif. Dei.

• De Defin.

P Sic MS.