The Literal Meaning of Genesis (continued)
45. Who would believe that this writer could have been so eloquent in expressing such an opinion? But his words are more likely to make us shudder than laugh. Indeed, he would not be forced into this position if he could think of anything that exists and is not a body. What is more absurd than to think of a mass of metal being capable of increasing in one dimension, when it is pounded, without decreasing in another; or of being expanded in length and breadth without being contracted in thickness? Or can one think it possible that the mass of a body remains unchanged while all its dimensions increase unless its density is diminished? How, then, will the soul from the tiny seed fill the large body which it animates if it also is a body, but a body whose substance is not increased by any addition of matter? How will it fill the body to which it gives life unless it loses its density in proportion to the increase in size of the body which it animates? It is obvious that Tertullian feared that if the soul were to grow, it might also perish by diminishing, and yet he did not fear that it might perish by losing its density when growing in size.
But why should I delay any further on this matter? My treatment of it is going beyond what is needed to support my conclusions, and I have already made clear the positions I hold for certain and those that I consider doubtful, as well as the reasons for my doubts. With this I conclude the present book and turn to the matter that follows in the next.