The Literal Meaning of Genesis
BOOK SEVEN 19 and rules all parts, and through them it provides for the body and for this life in virtue of which man was made a living being.
CHAPTER 19
Bodily disorders which impair the activity of the soul in the body and eventually cause death.
25. In seeking for the source of the soul, that is, the quasi material out of which God made this breath which is called the soul, no corporeal material should be considered. As God by the excellence of His nature surpasses every creature, so does the soul surpass every corporeal creature. But light and air are bodies of a superior nature in this corporeal world, having a superiority in so far as they are more active than passive as contrasted with water and earth. The soul, therefore, governs the body by means of the two elements that have a kind of resemblance to the spirit.42
Corporeal light, for example, announces something, and it announces it not to a being that is of the same nature as itself: it makes the announcement to the soul, but the light making the announcement is not soul.*? And when the soul is distressed because of a bodily affliction, it is discovered that its activity of ruling the body is impeded by reason of a rupture of the balance in the system, and this affliction is called pain. Moreoever, the air which is diffused throughout the nerves** obeys the will so as to move the members, but the air itself is not the will. Furthermore, the central part of the brain signals the motions in the body, which the memory is to retain,*® but it is not the memory. Finally, when these functions fail competely because of some affliction or disturbance, the messengers of sensation and the agents of motion cease to operate; and the soul, which seems to have no further reason for remaining, departs. But if they do not fail as completely as happens in death, the soul's attention*® is disturbed and it is like a man who tries unsuccessfully to put back things that keep falling. In this case, from the nature of the