soul be?
But as I heard it declared from the orchestra, that this problem
concerning the soul, its nature and quality, is not above the
understanding, but is within it and in its view, I intreat and beseech
you, who have made this declaration, to unfold this eternal arcanum
yourselves." Then the elders in the orchestra turned their eyes towards
the head master, who had proposed the problem, and who understood by
their signs that they wished him to descend and teach the audience: so
he instantly quitted the pulpit, passed through the auditory, and
entered the desk, and there, stretching out his hand, he thus began:
"Let me bespeak your attention: who does not believe the soul to be the
inmost and most subtle essence of man? and what is an essence without a
form, but an imaginary entity? wherefore the soul is a form, and a form
whose qualities and properties I will now describe. It is a form of all
things relating to love, and of all things relating to wisdom. All
things relating to love are called affections, and those relating to
wisdom are called perceptions. The latter derived from the former and
thereby united with them constitute one form, in which are contained
innumerable things in such an order, series, and coherence, that they
may be called a one; and they may be called a one also for this reason,
because nothing can be taken away from it, or added to it, but the
quality of the form is changed. What is the human soul but such a form?
are not all things relating to love and all things relating to wisdom
essentials of that form? and are not these things appertaining to a man
in his soul, and by derivation from the soul in his head and body? You
are called spirits and angels; and in the world you believed that
spirits and angels are like mere wind or ether, and thus mere mind and
animation; and now you see clearly that you are truly, really, and
actually men, who, during your abode in the world, lived and thought in
a material body, and knew that a material body does not live and think,
but a spiritual substance in that body; and this substance you called
the soul, whose form you then were ignorant of, but now have seen and
continue to see. You all are souls, of whose immortality you have heard,
thought, said, and written so much; and because you are forms of love
and wisdom from God, you can never die. The soul therefore is a human
form, from which the smallest thing cannot be taken away, and to which
the smallest