l._

In the precedent subsections I have anatomised those inferior faculties of
the soul; the rational remaineth, "a pleasant, but a doubtful subject" (as
[994]one terms it), and with the like brevity to be discussed. Many
erroneous opinions are about the essence and original of it; whether it be
fire, as Zeno held; harmony, as Aristoxenus; number, as Xenocrates; whether
it be organical, or inorganical; seated in the brain, heart or blood;
mortal or immortal; how it comes into the body. Some hold that it is _ex
traduce_, as _Phil. 1. de Anima_, Tertullian, Lactantius _de opific. Dei,
cap. 19._ Hugo, _lib. de Spiritu et Anima_, Vincentius Bellavic. _spec.
natural. lib. 23. cap. 2. et 11._ Hippocrates, Avicenna, and many [995]
late writers; that one man begets another, body and soul; or as a candle
from a candle, to be produced from the seed: otherwise, say they, a man
begets but half a man, and is worse than a beast that begets both matter
and form; and, besides, the three faculties of the soul must be together
infused, which is most absurd as they hold, because in beasts they are
begot, the two inferior I mean, and may not be well separated in men. [996]
Galen supposeth the soul _crasin esse_, to be the temperature itself;
Trismegistus, Musaeus, Orpheus, Homer, Pindarus, Phaerecides Syrus,
Epictetus, with the Chaldees and Egyptians, affirmed the soul to be
immortal, as did those British [997]Druids of old. The [998]Pythagoreans
defend Metempsychosis; and Palingenesia, that souls go from one body to
another, _epota prius Lethes unda_, as men into wolves, bears, dogs, hogs,
as they were inclined in their lives, or participated in conditions:

[999] ------"inque ferinas
Possumus ire domus, pecudumque in corpora condi."

[1000]Lucian's cock was first Euphorbus, a captain:

"Ille ego (nam memini) Trojani tempore belli,
Panthoides Euphorbus eram,"

a horse, a man, a sponge. [1001]Julian the Apostate thought Alexander's
soul was descended into his body: Plato in Timaeo, and in his Phaedon, (for
aught I can perceive,) differs not much from this opinion, that it was from
God at first, and knew all, but being enclosed in the body, it forgets, and
learns anew, which he calls _reminiscentia_, or recalling, and that it was
put into the body for a punishment; and thence it goes into a beast's, or
man's, as appears by his pleasant fiction _de sortitione animarum, lib. 10.
de rep._ and after [1002]ten thous