History of the Intellectual Development of Europe, Volume I (of 2): Revised EditionDraper, John William
History
History of the Intellectual Development of Europe, Volume I (of 2): Revised Edition
Draper, John William
Europe -- Civilization
and the other by the Supreme; that, for the purpose of uniting these
parts together, it is necessary that there should be an intermedium, and
that this is the dæmonic portion or spirit; that our mental struggles
arise from this triple constitution of Appetite, Spirit, and Reason;
that Reason alone is immortal, and the others die; that the number of
souls in the universe is invariable or constant; that the sentiment of
pre-existence proves the soul to have existed before the body; that,
since the soul is the cause of motion, it can neither be produced nor
decay, else all motion must eventually cease; that, as to the condition
of departed souls, they hover as shades around the graves, pining for
restoration to their lifeless bodies, or migrating through various human
or brute shapes, but that an unembodied life in God is reserved for the
virtuous philosopher; that valour is nothing but knowledge, and virtue a
knowledge of good; that the soul, on entering the body, is irrational or
in a trance, and that the god, the star who formed its created part,
influences its career, and hence its fortunes may be predicted by
astrological computations; that there are future rewards and
punishments, a residence being appointed for the righteous in his
kindred star; for those whose lives have been less pure there is a
second birth under the form of a woman, and, if evil courses are still
persisted in, successive transmigrations through various brutes are in
reserve--the frivolous passing into birds, the unphilosophical into
beasts, the ignorant into fishes; that the world undergoes periodical
revolutions by fire and water, its destructions and reproductions
depending upon the coincidences of the stars. Of Plato's views of human
physiology I can offer no better statement than the following from
Ritter: "All in the human body is formed for the sake of the Reason,
after certain determinate ends. Accordingly, first of all, a seat must
be provided for the god-like portion of the soul, the head, viz., which
is round, and similar to the perfect shape of the whole, furnished with
the organs of cognition, slightly covered with flesh, which impedes the
senses. To the head is given the direction of the whole frame, hence its
position at the top; and, since the animal creation possesses all the
six irregular motions, and the head ought not to roll upon the ground,
the human form is long, with legs for walking and arms for serving the
body, and the anterior part is fashioned differently from the posterior.
Now, the reason being seated in the head, the spirit or irascible soul
has its seat in the breast, under the head, in order that it may be
within call and command of the Reason, but yet separated from the head
by the neck, that it might not mix with it. The concupiscible has
likewise its particular seat in the lower part of the trunk, the
abdomen, separated by the diaphragm from that of the irascible, since it
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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