The Faculties of the Soul have External Origins

Everything that exist exists in 3 ways:

1. It inclines or not towards one of the forms of the simples

Examples are:

• the bitterish taste on compounding aloe, which is overpoweringly bitter
• honey, which is feebly sweet.

If these are produced from simples whose forms are contrary through blending (alloy, amalgam) (not through mechanical mixture) then the overpowered contraries will no longer exist on their own.

This is because of the impossibility of 2 contraries working together in one and the same carrier (medium).

Their utmost effect is to reduce the strength of the overpowering constituent, and nothing more.

2. It results from an aggregate (or mean) of the forms of the simples.

This is according to the degree of disproportion and deviation of the constituents from equality.

An example is the color grey. It holds an equal relationship to blackness and whiteness.

This imposes both passive and active reciprocity and equality.

The manifold workings that the forms of

The simples exert effects on these forms which then suffer mutually reciprocally one from the other.

3. It will not be assimilated to any one of the simples but will be generated as a form exceeding the requirement of the forms of the simples.

This is both in regard to the measure of its simplicity and in regard to the measure of its complexity.

An example is the seal’s stamp (imprint) remaining in the clay (mortar, putty) which is composed of dry dust and liquid water on their being mixed up together.

The imprint remaining in the putty is not in pursuance to the requirement of the forms of the simples, neither whether they be considered in respect of the resultant compound, nor whether they be considered in respect of the simple constituents taken singly.

This kind does not result from the intrinsic (very) self of the compound, since it in no way at all belongs to it, neither in consideration of its simple nor of its composite form.

Hence it is gained (got, acquired) from without.

The Soul

The soul comes into compound bodies whose forms are opposed and in none others.

Its manifestation in them:

• has 1 of these 3 divisions.
• is not of the first division, else it is heat or coldness, dryness or moisture (dampness), in any of which soever a decrease has more or less come about.

How can any one of these powers do such multifarious psychical deeds, given:

• the decrease (defect) from the very composition
• that it would have expended its strength in that decrease?

How shall any one of these powers cause motion save towards one direction alone?

This is why it has become necessary to effect mutual exclusion (displacement) among psychical movements.*

In this way, their mutual exclusion (displacement) shall engender a dullness (or weariness).

This movement is not of the second division because the 2nd division here is an impossibility.

This is because the elements, however much they may be compounded, under (proportionate) equality of the powers, this necessitates in them the stoppage (cessation) of all the effects attaching to each one of the two.

Thus if the compound were left alone (abandoned to itself) it would never have to move.

If it moved upwards, the heat is the overpowerer and the cold is the one overpowered.

If it moved downwards, the cold is the overpowerer and the heat is the one overpowered.

It would not remain at rest in one of the four spots of space (wherein dwell all the four elements). Otherwise, Nature which attracts towards itself is the overpowerer.

But all of them are equal both to overpower and to be overpowered, and so this is a contradiction.

Therefore this body (such a body) is neither still nor moving.

This means that every body which is surrounded by another body is either still or moving. But this too is a contradiction.

Therefore, the compounding of the elements under equality of the powers is a contradiction.

Therefore the coming forth of the soul, i.e., its combination with body, occurs only after the 3rd way.

The soul is got from without—which is what we wished to show.

FOOTNOTES:

[10]Mechanical mixture, blending, combination, etc.: compare the Greek mixis, krâsis, and synthesis.