The Works of Aristotle the Famous Philosopher eBook

OF THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL

That the soul of man is a Divine ray, infused by the Sovereign Creator, I have already proved, and now come to show that whatever immediately proceeds from Him, and participates of His nature, must be as immortal as its original; for, though all other creatures are endowed with life and motion, they yet lack a reasonable soul, and from thence it is concluded that their life is in their blood, and that being corruptible they perish and are no more; but man being endowed with a reasonable soul and stamped with a Divine image, is of a different nature, and though his body is corruptible, yet his soul being of an immortal nature cannot perish; but at the dissolution of the body returns to God who gave it, either to receive reward or punishment.  Now, that the body can sin of itself is impossible, because wanting the soul, which is the principle of life, it cannot act nor proceed to anything either good or evil; for could it do so, it might even sin in the grave.  But it is plain that after death there is a cessation; for as death leaves us so judgment will find us.

Now, reason having evidently demonstrated the soul’s immortality, the Holy Scriptures do abundantly give testimony of the truth of the resurrection, as the reader may see by perusing the 14th and 19th chapters of Job and 5th of John.  I shall, therefore, leave the further discussion of this matter to divines, whose province it is, and return to treat of the works of nature.

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CHAPTER V

Of Monsters and Monstrous Births; and the several reasons thereof, according to the opinions of the Ancients.  Also, whether the Monsters are endowed with reasonable Souls; and whether the Devils can engender; is here briefly discussed.

By the ancients, monsters are ascribed to depraved conceptions, and are designated as being excursions of nature, which are vicious in one of these four ways:  either in figure, magnitude, situation, or number.

In figure, when a man bears the character of a beast, as did the beast in Saxony.  In magnitude, when one part does not equalise with another; as when one part is too big or too little for the other parts of the body.  But this is so common among us that I need not produce a testimony.

[Illustration:  There was a Monster at Ravenna in Italy of this kind, in the year 1512.]

I now proceed to explain the cause of their generation, which is either divine or natural.  The divine cause proceeds from God’s permissive will, suffering parents to bring forth abominations for their filthy and corrupt affections, which are let loose unto wickedness like brute beasts which have no understanding.  Wherefore it was enacted among the ancient Romans that those who were in any way deformed, should not be admitted into religious houses.  And St. Jerome