Another collection of philosophical conferences of the French virtuosi upon questions of all sorts for the improving of natural knowledg made in the assembly of the Beaux Esprits at Paris by the most ingenious persons of that nation / render'd into English by G. Havers, Gent. & J. Davies ..., Gent.

CONFERENCE CXLII. At what time the Rational Soul is infus'd. (Book 142)

AS Religion obliges us to believe, that the Soul, which is of an Immortal Nature, comes immediately from God, who drawing it out of the Abysse of Nothing, at the same time creates it in the Infusing, and infuses it in the Creating; so no∣thing is determin'd absolutely touching the time in which that infusion is made. For knowing which, we must observe that the whole time of the Child's residing in the Womb, is divided into four parts; namely, the Conception, Conformation, Motion, and Parturition; so distinguished between themselves, that the time of Motion, is about treble to that of Conformation; and the time of Parturition, double to that of Motion. The whole work of Conformation is divided again into four times, according to which the Matter contained is diversly fashioned and wrought, and is called Geniture, or Coagulated Milk, Foetus, Embryo; and an Infant when the Conformation of the parts is finished, which is at the thirtieth day for Boyes, and at the forty second for Girles; whose less Heat and more waterish materials, require a longer time for Conformation of their Spermatick parts: After which the Blood arriving, fills the void spaces of the Muscles, Fibres, and other carnous parts, which are not perfectly shaped till to∣wards the time of Motion, which is the third month for Males, and the fourth for Females; at which time the Second Confor∣mation ends, and the whole organization is compleated. At first, the Infant hath onely a Vegetative Life, by means of which, his parts are generated by the Alteration and Conformation of the Matter, and are nourished, and take their growth not onely by their Attraction from all parts of the Matrix, but also by an Internal Vital Principle, which is the Vegetative Soul, residing in all fruitful seed, and being the same with the Formative Fa∣culty. Now because the Vegetative or Sensitive Soul is but an ac∣cident, namely a certain Harmony of the Four Qualities, there∣fore they easily give place upon the arrival of the reasonable soul, which I think happens when the organization of the parts is per∣fected, to wit, about the third or fourth month; before which time, the Body not being organized, cannot receive the Soul, (which is the act of an Organical Body) which also she forsakes, when, upon any notable solution of continuity, the Organs are destroyed and abolished oftentimes, though the Temper of the similary parts be not hurt; which consequently, is not the sole requisite for the Infusion of the Soul, but also the convenient Fa∣brick of the Organs.

The Second said, That the opinion, which introduces the Rational Soul in the first days of Conception as soon as the mat∣ter

necessary for receiving it, begins to put on the diversity of Organs, is the most probable; since by this means this soul dif∣fers from others in that it proceeds and makes the dispositions, whereas others follow the same and absolutely depend thereup∣on. And the same reason which obliges us to acknowledg the Reasonable Soul after motion, constrains us to admit it before; which nothing hinders us from attributing to some other cause, (as to the Sensitive Soul introduc'd before the Rational) saving that causes are not to be multiplied without necessity, and one Soul alone may suffice for Sense, whilst yet the defect of Organs allow not the exercise of Reason. The same reason shews how absurd it is to assign any other cause, in the first days, of the Vegetative Actions; it being as easie to infer the presence of the Reasonable Soul by this sort of actions as by the Sensitive Actions, which may also have another cause. For the infusion of the Reasonable Soul after forty days cannot be proved by actions proper to it (for it reasons not till long after) nor by the actions of a Soul simply; for then you must grant that it is there before Organization, which is an action proper to animated things. Moreover, the Soul must be admitted in the Body as soon as it may be there, which is at the beginning of conception; because even then there wants no fit disposition to this Soul, which needs not any different Organs for the bare∣ly Vegetative Actions which she then performs, no more then Plants do; nor are different Organs necessary to her absolute exsisting, since God hath created her immaterial and without any dependance: and we see the similary parts of the Body are animated; so that the dispositions wherewith the Soul can subsist, and which suffice to retain her in the Body, are also suf∣ficient to introduce her thereinto. Now these dispositions are no other then the same which are requisite for the actions of the Vegetative Soul. For whatever indisposition happen to the Organs of Sense and Motion, the Soul abides in the Body till the heat be dissipated or extinguished; the Organs of Sense and Motion being not necessary to retain the Soul in the Body saving in as much as they contribute to respiration. Even the Apo∣plexie which abolishes all the noble dispositions which the Phi∣losophers hold necessary to the Soul, never drives her away un∣less it be by accident; since a Child in his Mothers belly may have that disease without incommodity, saving when it comes to need respiration. Now though Organization be not a disposition requisite to the introduction of the Soul, yet she requires cer∣tain others, some whereof we know not, as that unexplicable character imprinted in the Seed, besides the temperament which suffices perfectly to determine the matter for introdudion of this form and exclusion of all other. The conformation of Organs being not a disposition which determines necessarily (seeing amongst humane bodies some differ more from the gene∣rality of men in respect of the principal parts then they do from

certain other Animals) but 'tis the temperament alone, which arising in the first days after the mixture of the two seeds, and according to Hippocrates, the foetus having in the first seven days all that he ought to have, this opinion is more pious and expe∣dient for repressing the criminal license of those who without scruple procure abortion within the first forty days.

The Third said, Though the Reasonable Soul be of a much sublimer nature then the souls of other Creatures; yet being created with reference to the Body 'tis not introduced thereinto till the same be fitted for its reception; as no other natural form is ever received into a subject not previously fitted with all due dispositions. And since the Soul is the principle of all acti∣ons, hence she needs Organs and Instruments for performing them; and the more sublime she is, the greater preparation doth she require then the Sensitive Soul, as this also doth then the Vegetative, which demands only a certain mixture of the first qualities, besides which the sensitive requires a more exquisite temperament of the two Principles of Generation, Seed and Blood, endued with a vital Spirit, capable of producing Sense and Motion. So that the Reasonable Soul ought not to be in∣fused, till after the conformation is in all points completed.

The Fourth said, Since there is no proportion but between things of the same nature, the Immortal Reasonable Soul cannot have any with the corruptible Body, and so not depend more on the matter in its infusion then in its creation, which is probably the third day after conception; at which time the actions of life appear in nutrition, growth, alteration, and configuration of the parts. Which actions must proceed from some internal and ani∣mated principle; which cannot be the Soul either of Father or Mother, since they act not where they are not inherently; nor yet the spirit of the Seed which is not a principal agent but only the instrument of a Soul; nor the formative vertue, which is only an accident or temper of qualities, and in like manner the instrument of some more noble agent. 'Tis therefore the Soul contained in the bosom of the matter, which produces all these actions therein. They who hold the Reasonable Soul not introduced till after the two others, consider not that Forms re∣ceiving no degrees of more or less cannot be perfected or chan∣ged one into another, much less annihilated; seeing corruption is caused only by contraries, and Forms have none. It follows therefore that the Reasonable Soul is the principle of all these functions; which she performs according to the dispositions she meets with; and that she is the architect of her own habitation.