I hope, Theophila, you will not be surprised that from all those verses, I should understand that the soul is positively a being capable of acting, of seeing, hearing, feeling, &c. a superior thing which the Almighty has made of a substance, and in a form, neither of which I know, no more than in what part of the body He has stationed her; and which He has gifted with faculties, qualities, powers, and perfections, that exceed those which He has granted to any being or thing which He has formed, of both the matter visible to us, and of the invisible one, which I take to be their natural life: which qualities, as long as He preserves them to her,

In the Rev. John Butterworth's New Concordance to the Holy Scriptures, edited by Adam Clarke, LL.D. 1812, I find that he gives it as his opinion that the "soul signifies that rational, spiritual, and immortal substance in man, which is the origin of our thoughts, desires, and reasonings; and bears some resemblance of its Divine Maker." We agree then together as to the soul being a substance. He says nothing respecting her shape, neither in what part of us we may suppose her to be seated: which I believe some have understood to be the brain. As to me, from the circumstance that persons who have lost an arm or a leg, complain, particularly when the weather is about changing, complain, I say, that they feel pain at the limb they have no more ostensibly, I fancy that the soul extends through the whole body that covers her, and that she alone is affected by pain and pleasure. It may be that when the Almighty is willing that a spirit should be manifested among men, whether a new one, whether one that has existed formerly, he causes two persons to unite together, and to produce the coarse matter that is to wrap up or clothe the spirit that is to appear, and which He forms according to His Divine purposes, the said matter being enlarged gradually by whatever food, and adapting its shape to the progressive form which the spirit receives as it grows; protecting it against many things that might affect it, and enabling it to perform the natural actions that are required on this earth.

constitute her a being or a spirit fit to have dominion over all the spirits that have not been so highly endowed by Him. Let me observe here, that I understand also that the names of the different persons that are mentioned in the Scripture, whether they belong to the highest or to the lowest class of beings, instead of referring, as ours do, to their material body, allude only to their spirits or souls, and indicate their various degrees in knowledge and perfection, or in imperfection. At the end of some translations of the Bible, and in the Concordances, there are numerous interpretations of scriptural words; which, if you know neither Hebrew nor Greek, may satisfy you about the meaning of the names of men and places.

I imagine it will seem to you consistent with my opinion, right or wrong, that the soul is a substance; consistent, I say, that I should consider the two minds. of which I suppose she is made up, as being likewise substances or matters; but also matters superior to any substance we are acquainted with, in consequence of the accomplishments which they have received from their Creator without which they would be nothing at all, no more than dead dust. Perhaps you have sometimes reflected on the immense variety of the modifications of the matter visible to us, and on the great diversity of properties, either good or bad, in opposition to one another, which the Omnipotent God has affixed to them. It may be that you agree with those who look upon all bodies as being composed of two distinct matters; a refined and an invisible one which, on account of its peculiar and eminent qualities, they value as principle of life; and a visible one which, notwithstanding its pro

perties, they call dead, and take to be very inferior to the first. Let us admit for a moment, that a body should be formed only of the matter or substance of life; is it not likely that it would have great advantages over any one that should be made only of the dead and coarser matter, and over any mixed one in which the substance of death, or the dead substance, comparatively speaking, would be prevalent over the principle of life? Is the human or carnal mind composed only of that substance of life? I know not; it may be so; and it may be also formed of another matter superior to it, such as I think would be any substance in which the Almighty would have settled, besides life and power, the philosophical knowledge, and the dispositions of the heart that belong to humanity, and distinguish the human beings from the creatures that arc mentally inferior to them. Is it impossible that such a matter exists; and that the Lord God has created also a moral one, higher than the human, such as I hold the heavenly substance to be; and which He has enriched with the knowledge of Himself and faith in Him, with the spiritual powers, the virtues and perfections, with which the highest creatures have been favoured? That seems to me possible; likewise I think it possible that the soul is a compound or mixture, more or less perfect, of those two scientific, unknown to me, and, in my opinion, admissible matters, and of their moral and human qualities, perfections, and knowledges: a spiritual body, 1 Cor. 15. 44, formed of heaven and of earth, of spirituality and humanity; of an immortal part, and a mortal one; of the two natures, the male and the female, the strong and the weak. I take her to be and to live in an imperfect state, as long as from want of the

complete union of her two minds, Rom. 8. 6, she is subject to the war and difficulties that proceed from the spirit lusting against the flesh, and the flesh against the spirit; Gal. 5. 17. and to arrive at a perfect one, when by the grace and assistance of God, by obedience to His commandments, by the cultivation and regeneration or resurrection of herself, she succeeds to overcome the propensities of frail humanity, to make peace between her spirit and her flesh, and to unite her spiritual mind and her human mind in one accord; in which their opposite wills, Rom. 7, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, being reconciled together, form but one, henceforth entirely submitted to the will of God, and guided by it. I understand that she dies, Ezek. 18. 4. when, through error, her two minds cease to be in equilibrium, and become so disunited that they cannot act any longer in concert; and, entertaining opposite views, separate in their pursuits then the spirit of man ceases to be a living soul, and falls into an inferior condition. Allow me to say a word more on matter and its properties: I wish that whenever you happen to think of them, you may have always present in your mind their sole Author; that you should not run the risk of falling into the gross absurdity that matter has of itself faculties and powers, and can, as if it were independent, operate without the will of its Creator: the consequence of which false notion is to attach strongly to it, and to make people put the whole of their trust in it, forgetting that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men. Dan. 4. 32, 35.

I have thought, Theophila, necessary to explain to you what I understand by the soul, previous to communicating more at large my opinion respecting the earth

spoken of in the Scripture; because I believe that, all through it, she refers only to the soul, leaving totally aside the visible body. It will remain with you to examine whether I am mistaken or not. I take the Scriptural earth for the world which God has set in the heart of man, Eccle. 3. 11.: that is to say, for the spirit of the world, or for the human matter I have alluded to, into which, I apprehend, the Almighty has infused the opinion of oneself, and that of good and evil: which opinions seem to me to constitute in man the world, the flesh, the human mind, the human philosophy or the philosophical system, different from the moral philosophy or spiritual system, which I understand to consist in the knowledge of God and in faith in Him: also in the spiritual knowledges that come from them. This visible earth in all her parts and productions, appears to me to be only an emblem of the earth mentioned in the Sacred History; and as she is divided in two principal parts, water and land, so I think it is with the opinion of one's self, which, in a creature, may be either simple or proud; and with the human philosophy, which I imagine to be composed of two distinct knowledges,-the knowledge of good and the knowledge of evil.*

If, in the beginning of our education, I mean when we are able to comprehend what we are told, the knowledge of good and that of evil, instead of being taught promiscuously and without method, as I apprehend they are in general, were offered to us separately, it is likely to me that those who happen to be born with a good and simple disposition, or in whom the good is more prevalent than the evil, would study the knowledge of good in preference to that of evil, as being more congenial to their nature, and more pleasing to their feel