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all Brutes possess as well as Man—and, in many cases, in a superior degree, there being neither visionaries nor idiots found among them; it is man alone that possess these inestimable qualities. Therefore, again, I say, the argument that proves a Soul in Man, also proves the Soul of Brutes, Birds, Reptiles, &c.
Those who insist that God gives us a Soul or Being independant of, and distinct from the mind or intellect, are surely not aware that blasphemy must be the consequence of such an hypothesis. To shew this, let us suppose a case in point.—If when an act of adultery or incest is consummated, would it not be making the Deity a party to the Crime, by thus confering a soul on this work of iniquity? Away with such delusion! Nothing but pride and ignorance on the part of the people, and riches and power on the part of the priesthood, could have propogated such an inconsistent doctrine.
"Your Reason:—let it not be oversway’d
By tyrannous threats to force you into faith
’Gainst all external sense and inward feeling:
Think and indure,—and form an inward world
In your own bosom—where the outward fails;
So shall you nearer be the spiritual
Nature, and war triumphant with your own."
The primitive Jews made no difference between the Soul and Body, declaring that "Men and
