ing, it is not a
substance which does nothing but think."

"Nevertheless," rejoined Pecuchet, "I have in myself something superior
to my body, which sometimes confutes it."

"A being in a being--_homo duplex_! Look here, now! Different tendencies
disclose opposite motives. That's all!"

"But this something, this soul, remains identical amid all changes from
without. Therefore, it is simple, indivisible, and thus spiritual."

"If the soul were simple," replied Bouvard, "the newly-born would
recollect, would imagine, like the adult. Thought, on the contrary,
follows the development of the brain. As to its being indivisible,
neither the perfume of a rose nor the appetite of a wolf, any more than
a volition or an affirmation, is cut in two."

"That makes no difference," said Pecuchet. "The soul is exempt from the
qualities of matter."

"Do you admit weight?" returned Bouvard. "Now, if matter can fall, it
can in the same way think. Having had a beginning, the soul must come
to an end, and as it is dependent on certain organs, it must disappear
with them."

"For my part, I maintain that it is immortal. God could not intend----"

"But if God does not exist?"

"What?" And Pecuchet gave utterance to the three Cartesian proofs:
"'_Primo_: God is comprehended in the idea that we have of Him;
_secundo_: Existence is possible to Him; _tertio_: How can I, a finite
being, have an idea of the Infinite? And, since we have this idea, it
comes to us from God; therefore, God exists.'"

He passed on to the testimony of conscience, the traditions of different
races, and the need of a Creator.

"When I see a clock----"

"Yes! yes! That's a well-known argument. But where is the clockmaker's
father?"

"However, a cause is necessary."

Bouvard was doubtful about causes. "From the fact that one phenomenon
succeeds another phenomenon, the conclusion is drawn that it is caused
by the first. Prove it."

"But the spectacle of the universe indicates an intention and a plan."

"Why? Evil is as perfectly organised as good. The worm that works its
way into a sheep's head and causes it to die, is as valuable from an
anatomical point of view as the sheep itself. Abnormalities surpass the
normal functions. The human body could be better constructed. Three
fourths of the globe are sterile. That celestial lamp-post, the moon,
does not always show itself! Do you think the ocean was destined for
ships, and the wood of trees for fuel for our