which part upon the throat; which, if they happen to be broken or cut,
they cause barrenness, and if stopped an apoplexy; for there must
necessarily be ways through which the spirits, animal and vital, may
have intercourse and convey native heat from the soul. For though the
soul has its chief seat in one place, it operates in every part,
exercising every member which are the soul's instruments, by which she
discovers her power. But if it happen that any of the original parts are
out of tune, its whole work is confused, as appears in idiots and mad
men; though, in some of them, the soul, by a vigorous exertion of its
power, recovers its innate strength and they become right after a long
despondency in mind, but in others it is not recovered again in this
life. For, as fire under ashes, or the sun obscured from our sight by
thick clouds, afford not their native lustre, so the soul, overwhelmed
in moist or morbid matter, is darkened and reason thereby overclouded;
and though reason shines less in children than it does in such as are
arrived at maturity, yet no man must imagine that the soul of an infant
grows up with the child, for then would it again decay; but it suits
itself to nature's weakness, and the imbecility of the body wherein it
is placed, that it may operate the better. And as the body is more
capable of recovering its influence, so the soul does more and more
exert its faculties, having force and endowment at the time it enters
the form of a child in the womb; for its substance can receive nothing
less. And thus much to prove that the soul does not come from the
parents, but is infused by God. I shall next prove its immortality and
demonstrate the certainty of our resurrection.



OF THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL