The Literal Meaning of Genesis
that make their way back to their stalls or nests, a power of the soul by which images of all corporeal things are received and which itself is not similar in any way to any corporeal substance. Now surely that wherein the likenesses of corporeal beings are contained ought to be like corporeal beings. But if this power of the soul is not corporeal, because it is undeniable that the images of bodies are not only stored there in memory but also are fashioned at will in countless numbers, how much more impossible is it for the soul to be like a body by reason of any other power it possesses?
30. Now, if certain writers say that in another sense everything that exists, namely, every nature and substance, is a body,53 we should not accept this statement for fear that we may be unable to find any words to distinguish bodies and nonbodies; but at the same time we should not be inordinately anxious about a word.*4
My way of putting it is this: whatever the soul is, it is not one of the four familiar elements, which are obviously bodies; and on the other hand, it is not identified with God. The best words to designate it are "soul" or "life-spirit." I add the word "life" because the air is also usually called '"'spirit.">> However, men have called this same air "soul" (anima), so that it is impossible to find a word by which we can precisely distinguish this thing which is not a body, nor God, nor life without sensation (which apparently exists in trees), nor life without a rational mind (such as is found in beasts), but a life now inferior to that of the angels, but destined to be one with their life if in this world it lives according to the will of its Creator.
31. What, then, is the origin of the soul, that is, from what material was it made (if | may use the expression)? Or from what perfect and blessed substance did it emanate? Or was it simply made from nothing? Although we may have doubts about this problem and continue to search for a solution, there should be absolutely no doubt about the following: if it was something else before it became a soul, whatever it was, it was made by God; and in its present state it has been made by God to be a living soul. For either it was nothing or it was something other than what it now is. =