Isidore believed that in point of time the supernatural preceded the natural. He says that God “created all things out of nothing”,[101] and, again, that “the matter from which the universe was formed preceded the things created out of it not in time, but in origin, in the same sense as sound precedes music”.[102] It is evident that he regarded the material as an emanation from the spiritual. With such an origin the material world was naturally subservient to spiritual control, and miracles caused little wonder. They “are not contrary to nature, because they are caused by the divine will, and the will of the Creator is the nature of each created thing.... A miracle, therefore, does not happen contrary to nature, but contrary to nature as known.”[103] The supernatural thus not only preceded, but dominated, the natural. Finally, the universe was to disappear at the end of six ages, and all was to be reabsorbed in the supernatural. The world of nature, then, was merely a passing incident in a greater reality that contained it. [101] _De Natura Rerum_, 14, 2. [102] _Sent._, 1, 8, 6. [103] _Etym._, 11, 3, 1 and 2. As in the universe at large, so in man the supernatural completely overshadows the natural. The soul is all-important and theory in regard to it is precise and dogmatic. “As to the soul,” Isidore says, “the philosophers of this world have described with great uncertainty what it is, what it is like, where it is, what form it has, and what its power is. Some have said it is fire; others, blood; others that it is incorporeal and has no shape. A number have believed with rash impiety that it is a part of the divine nature. But we say that it is not fire nor blood, but that it is incorporeal, capable of feeling and of change; without weight, shape, or color. And we say that the soul is not a part, but a creature of God, and that it is not of the substance of God, or of any underlying matter of the elements, but was created out of nothing.”[104] He says further, that the soul “has a beginning but cannot have an end”.[105] All the activities by which life is manifested are considered as parts or functions of the soul. Dum contemplatur, spiritus est; dum sentit, sensus est; dum sapit, animus est; dum intelligit, mens est; dum discernit, ratio est; dum consentit, voluntas est; dum recordatur, memoria est; et dum membra vegetat, anima est.[106] [104] _Diff._, 2, 100. [105] _Diff._, 2, 92. [106] _Diff._, 2, 97.