Chapter XV.—The Soul’s Vitality and Intelligence. Its Character and Seat in Man.

In the first place, (we must determine) whether there be in the soul some supreme principle of vitality and intelligence95    Sapientialis. which they call “the ruling power of the soul”—τὸ ἡγεμονικόν for if this be not admitted, the whole condition of the soul is put in jeopardy. Indeed, those men who say that there is no such directing faculty, have begun by supposing that the soul itself is simply a nonentity. One Dicæarchus, a Messenian, and amongst the medical profession Andreas and Asclepiades, have thus destroyed the (soul’s) directing power, by actually placing in the mind the senses, for which they claim the ruling faculty. Asclepiades rides rough-shod over us with even this argument, that very many animals, after losing those parts of their body in which the soul’s principle of vitality and sensation is thought mainly to exist, still retain life in a considerable degree, as well as sensation: as in the case of flies, and wasps, and locusts, when you have cut off their heads; and of she-goats, and tortoises, and eels, when you have pulled out their hearts. (He concludes), therefore, that there is no especial principle or power of the soul; for if there were, the soul’s vigour and strength could not continue when it was removed with its domiciles (or corporeal organs).  However, Dicæarchus has several authorities against him—and philosophers too—Plato, Strato, Epicurus, Democritus, Empedocles, Socrates, Aristotle; whilst in opposition to Andreas and Asclepiades (may be placed their brother) physicians Herophilus, Erasistratus, Diocles, Hippocrates, and Soranus himself; and better than all others, there are our Christian authorities. We are taught by God concerning both these questions—viz. that there is a ruling power in the soul, and that it is enshrined96    Consecratum. in one particular recess of the body.  For, when one reads of God as being “the searcher and witness of the heart;”97    Wisd. i. 6. when His prophet is reproved by His discovering to him the secrets of the heart;98    Prov. xxiv. 12. when God Himself anticipates in His people the thoughts of their heart,99    Ps. cxxxix. 23. “Why think ye evil in your hearts?”100    Matt. ix. 4. when David prays “Create in me a clean heart, O God,”101    Ps. li. 12. and Paul declares, “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness,”102    Rom. x. 10. and John says, “By his own heart is each man condemned;”103    1 John iii. 20. when, lastly, “he who looketh on a woman so as to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart,”104    Matt. v. 28.—then both points are cleared fully up, that there is a directing faculty of the soul, with which the purpose of God may agree; in other words, a supreme principle of intelligence and vitality (for where there is intelligence, there must be vitality), and that it resides in that most precious part105    In eo thesauro. of our body to which God especially looks:  so that you must not suppose, with Heraclitus, that this sovereign faculty of which we are treating is moved by some external force; nor with Moschion,106    Not Suidas’ philosopher of that name, but a renowned physician mentioned by Galen and Pliny (Oehler). that it floats about through the whole body; nor with Plato, that it is enclosed in the head; nor with Zenophanes, that it culminates in the crown of the head; nor that it reposes in the brain, according to the opinion of Hippocrates; nor around the basis of the brain, as Herophilus thought; nor in the membranes thereof, as Strato and Erasistratus said; nor in the space between the eyebrows, as Strato the physician held; nor within the enclosure107    Lorica. of the breast, according to Epicurus:  but rather, as the Egyptians have always taught, especially such of them as were accounted the expounders of sacred truths;108    The Egyptian hierophants. in accordance, too, with that verse of Orpheus or Empedocles:

“Namque homini sanguis circumcordialis est sensus.”109    The original, as given in Stobæus, Eclog. i. p. 1026, is this hexameter: Αἶμα γὰρ ἀνθρώποις περικάρδιόν ἐστι νόημα.

“Man has his (supreme) sensation in the blood around his heart.”

Even Protagoras110    Or probably that Praxagoras the physician who is often mentioned by Athenæus and by Pliny (Pamel.). likewise, and Apollodorus, and Chrysippus, entertain this same view, so that (our friend) Asclepiades may go in quest of his goats bleating without a heart, and hunt his flies without their heads; and let all those (worthies), too, who have predetermined the character of the human soul from the condition of brute animals, be quite sure that it is themselves rather who are alive in a heartless and brainless state.

CAPUT XV.

0670A

In primis an sit aliquis summus in anima gradus vitalis, et sapientalis, quod ἡγεμονικὸν appellant, id est principale, si negetur, totus animae status periclitatur. Denique, qui negant principale, ipsam prius animam nihil censuerunt. Messenius aliquis Dicaearchus, ex medicis autem Andreas et Asclepiades, ita abstulerunt principale, dum in animo ipso volunt esse sensus, quorum vindicatur principale. Asclepiades etiam illa argumentatione vectatur, quod pleraque animalia, ademptis eis partibus corporis, in quibus plurimum aestimatur principale consistere, et insuper vivant aliquatenus, et sapiant nihilominus, ut muscae, et vespae, et locustae, si capita decideris; ut caprae et testudines, et anguillae, si corda detraxeris: 0670B itaque principale non esse: quod si fuisset, amisso cum suis , vigor animae non perseveraret. Sed plures et philosophi adversus Dicaearchum, Plato, Strato, Epicurus, Democritus, Empedocles, Socrates, Aristoteles; et medici adversus Andream et Asclepiadem, Herophilus, Erasistratus , Diocles , Hippocrates, et ipse Soranus; jamque omnibus plures christiani, qui apud Deum de utroque 0671A ducimur , et esse principale in anima, et certo in corporis recessu consecratum. Si enim scrutatorem et dispectorem cordis (Sap. I; Prov. XXIV) Deum legimus; si etiam prophetes ejus occulta cordis traducendo probatur (Ps. CXXXVIII): si Deus ipse recogitatus cordis in populo praevenit (Matt. IX): Quid cogitatis in cordibus vestris nequam? si et David (Ps. L): Cor mundum conde in me Deus; et Paulus (Rom. X) corde ait credi in justitiam; et Joannes (I Joan. III) corde ait suo unumquemque reprehendi; si postremo (Matt. V), qui viderit faeminam ad concupiscendum, jam adulteravit in corde; simul utrumque dilucet, et esse principale in anima, quo intentio divina conveniat, id est, vim sapientialem atque vitalem (quod enim sapit, vividum est), et in eo 0671B thesauro corporis haberi, ad quem Deus respicit: ut neque extrinsecus agitari putes principale istud secundum Heraclitum, neque per totum corpus ventilari secundum Moschionem, neque in capite concludi secundum Platonem, neque in vertice potius praesidere secundum Xenocratem, neque in cerebro cubare secundum Hippocratem; sed nec circa cerebri fundamentum ut Herophilus, nec in membranulis ut Strato et Erasistratus, nec in superciliorum meditullio ut Strato Physicus, nec in tota 0672A lorica pectoris ut Epicurus. sed quod et Aegyptii renuntiaverunt, et qui divinarum commemoratores videbantur, ut et ille versus Orphei vel Empedoclis; Namque homini sanguis circumcordialis est sensus. Etiam Protagoras, etiam Apollodorus et Chrysippus haec sapiunt; ut vel ab istis retusus Asclepiades capras suas quaerat sine corde balantes, et muscas suas abigat sine capite volitantes; et omnes jam sciant se potius sine corde et cerebro vivere, qui dispositionem animae humanae de conditione bestiarum praejudicarint.