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Tertullian, A Treatise on the Soul
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Chapter II.—The Christian Has Sure and Simple Knowledge Concerning the Subject Before Us.
Chapter III.—The Soul’s Origin Defined Out of the Simple Words of Scripture.
Chapter IV.—In Opposition to Plato, the Soul Was Created and Originated at Birth.
Chapter V.—Probable View of the Stoics, that the Soul Has a Corporeal Nature.
Chapter VII.—The Soul’s Corporeality Demonstrated Out of the Gospels.
Chapter VIII.—Other Platonist Arguments Considered.
Chapter IX.—Particulars of the Alleged Communication to a Montanist Sister.
Chapter X.—The Simple Nature of the Soul is Asserted with Plato. The Identity of Spirit and Soul.
Chapter XII.—Difference Between the Mind and the Soul, and the Relation Between Them.
Chapter XIII.—The Soul’s Supremacy.
Chapter XV.—The Soul’s Vitality and Intelligence. Its Character and Seat in Man.
Chapter XVI.—The Soul’s Parts. Elements of the Rational Soul.
Chapter XVII.—The Fidelity of the Senses, Impugned by Plato, Vindicated by Christ Himself.
Chapter XVIII.—Plato Suggested Certain Errors to the Gnostics. Functions of the Soul.
Chapter XXI.—As Free-Will Actuates an Individual So May His Character Change.
Chapter XXII.—Recapitulation. Definition of the Soul.
Chapter XXIII.—The Opinions of Sundry Heretics Which Originate Ultimately with Plato.
Chapter XXVI.—Scripture Alone Offers Clear Knowledge on the Questions We Have Been Controverting.
Chapter XXVII.—Soul and Body Conceived, Formed and Perfected in Element Simultaneously.
Chapter XXVIII.—The Pythagorean Doctrine of Transmigration Sketched and Censured.
Chapter XXX.—Further Refutation of the Pythagorean Theory. The State of Contemporary Civilisation.
Chapter XXXI.—Further Exposure of Transmigration, Its Inextricable Embarrassment.
Chapter XXXIII.—The Judicial Retribution of These Migrations Refuted with Raillery.
Chapter XXXVI.—The Main Points of Our Author’s Subject. On the Sexes of the Human Race.
Chapter XXXIX.—The Evil Spirit Has Marred the Purity of the Soul from the Very Birth.
Chapter XL.—The Body of Man Only Ancillary to the Soul in the Commission of Evil.
Chapter XLII.—Sleep, the Mirror of Death, as Introductory to the Consideration of Death.
Chapter XLV.—Dreams, an Incidental Effect of the Soul’s Activity. Ecstasy.
Chapter XLVIII.—Causes and Circumstances of Dreams. What Best Contributes to Efficient Dreaming.
Chapter XLIX.—No Soul Naturally Exempt from Dreams.
Chapter LI.—Death Entirely Separates the Soul from the Body.
Chapter LVII.—Magic and Sorcery Only Apparent in Their Effects. God Alone Can Raise the Dead.
Chapter XIII.—The Soul’s Supremacy.
It next remains to examine where lies the supremacy; in other words, which of the two is superior to the other, so that with which the supremacy clearly lies shall be the essentially superior substance;90 Substantiæ massa. whilst that over which this essentially superior substance shall have authority shall be considered as the natural functionary of the superior substance. Now who will hesitate to ascribe this entire authority to the soul, from the name of which the whole man has received his own designation in common phraseology? How many souls, says the rich man, do I maintain? not how many minds. The pilot’s desire, also, is to rescue so many souls from shipwreck, not so many minds; the labourer, too, in his work, and the soldier on the field of battle, affirms that he lays down his soul (or life), not his mind. Which of the two has its perils or its vows and wishes more frequently on men’s lips—the mind or the soul? Which of the two are dying persons, said to have to do with the mind or the soul? In short, philosophers themselves, and medical men, even when it is their purpose to discourse about the mind, do in every instance inscribe on their title-page91 Faciem operis. and table of contents,92 Fontem materiæ. “De Anima” (“A treatise on the soul”). And that you may also have God’s voucher on the subject, it is the soul which He addresses; it is the soul which He exhorts and counsels, to turn the mind and intellect to Him. It is the soul which Christ came to save; it is the soul which He threatens to destroy in hell; it is the soul (or life) which He forbids being made too much of; it is His soul, too (or life), which the good Shepherd Himself lays down for His sheep. It is to the soul, therefore, that you ascribe the supremacy; in it also you possess that union of substance, of which you perceive the mind to be the instrument, not the ruling power.
CAPUT XIII.
Ad hoc dispicere superest, principalitas ubi sit, id est, qui cui praeest, ut cujus principalitas apparuerit, illa sit substantiae massa; id autem cui massa substantiae praeerit, officium naturale substantiae deputetur. Enimvero, quis non animae dabit summam omnem, cujus nomine totius hominis mentio titulata est? Quantas animas pasco, ait dives, non animos; et animas salvas optat gubernator, non animos; et rusticus in opere, et in praelio miles, animam se, non animum ponere adfirmat. Cujus nominatoria pericula aut vota 0667C sunt, animi an animae? Quid autem agere dicuntur moribundi, animum an animam? Ipsi postremo philosophi, ipsique medici, quamvis de animo quoque disputaturi, faciem tamen operis frontemque materiae 0668A de anima unusquisque proscripsit. Ut autem et a Deo discas, animam Deus semper adloquitur; animam compellat atque advocat, ut animum sibi advertat. Illam salvam venit facere Christus, illam perdere in gehennam comminatur, illam pluris fieri vetat, illam et ipse bonus pastor pro pecudibus suis ponit. Habes animae principalitatem, habes in illa et substantiae unionem, cujus intelligas instrumentum esse animum, non patrocinium.