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Book I
CONTAINING A PREPARATION FOR THE WHOLE TREATISE.
CHAPTER XI. THAT THERE ARE TWO PORTIONS IN THE SOUL, AND HOW.
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We have but one soul, Theotimus, and an indivisible one; but in that one
soul there are various degrees of perfection, for it is living, sensible and
reasonable; and according to these different degrees it has also different
properties and inclinations by which it is moved to the avoidance or to the
acceptance of things. For first, as we see that the vine hates, so to speak
and avoids the cabbage, so that the one is pernicious to the other; and, on
the contrary, is delighted in the olive:—so we perceive a natural opposition
between man and the serpent, so great that a man's fasting spittle is mortal
to the serpent: on the contrary, man and the sheep have a wondrous affinity,
and are agreeable one to the other. Now this inclination does not proceed
from any knowledge that the one has of the hurtfulness of its contrary, or
of the advantage of the one with which it has affinity, but only from a
certain occult and secret quality which produces this insensible opposition
and antipathy, or this complacency and sympathy.
Secondly, we have in us the sensitive appetite, whereby we are moved to the
seeking and avoiding many things by the sensitive knowledge we have of them;
not unlike to the animals, some of which have an appetite to one thing, some
to another, according to the knowledge which they have that it suits them or
not. In this appetite resides, or from it proceeds, the love which we call
sensual or brutish, which yet properly speaking ought not to be termed love
but simply appetite.
Thirdly, inasmuch as we are reasonable, we have a will, by which we are led
to seek after good, according as by reasoning we know or judge it to be
such. Now in our soul, taken as reasonable, we manifestly observe two
degrees of perfection, which the great S. Augustine, and after him all the
doctors, have named two portions of the soul, inferior and superior. That is
called inferior which reasons and draws conclusions according to what it
learns and experiences by the senses; and that is called superior, which
reasons and draws conclusions according to an intellectual knowledge not
grounded upon the experience of sense, but on the discernment and judgment
of the spirit. This superior part is called the spirit and mental part of
the soul, as the inferior is termed commonly, sense, feeling, and human
reason.
Now this superior part can reason according to two sorts of lights; either
according to natural light, as the philosophers and all those who have
reasoned by science did; or according to supernatural light, as do
theologians and Christians, since they establish their reasoning upon faith
and the revealed word of God, and still more especially those whose spirit
is conducted by particular illustrations, inspirations, and heavenly
motions. This is what S. Augustine said, namely, that it is by the superior
portion of the soul that we adhere and apply ourselves to the observance of
the eternal law.
Jacob, pressed by the extreme necessity of his family, let Benjamin be taken
by his brethren into Egypt, which yet he did against his will, as the sacred
History witnesses. In this he shows two wills, the one inferior, by which he
grieved at sending him, the other superior, by which he took the resolution
to part with him. For the reason which moved him to disapprove his departure
was grounded on the pleasure which he felt in his presence and the pain he
would feel in his absence, which are grounds that touch the senses and the
feelings, but the resolution which he took to send him, was grounded upon
the reason of the state of his family, from his foreseeing future and
imminent necessities. Abraham, according to the inferior portion of his soul
spoke words testifying in him a kind of diffidence when the angel announced
unto him the happy tidings of a son. Shall a son, thinkest thou, be born to
him that is a hundred years old? [40] but according, to his superior part he
believed in God and it was reputed to him unto justice. [41] According to
his inferior part, doubtless he was in great anguish when he was commanded
to sacrifice his son: but according to his superior part he resolved
courageously to sacrifice him.
We also daily experience in ourselves various contrary wills. A father
sending his son either to court or to his studies, does not deny tears to
his departure, testifying, that though according to his superior part, for
the child's advancement in virtue, he wills his departure, yet according to
his inferior part he has a repugnance to the separation. Again, though a
girl be married to the contentment of her father and mother, yet when she
takes their blessing she excites their tears, in such sort that though the
superior will acquiesces in the departure, yet the inferior shows
resistance. We must not hence infer that a man has two souls or two natures,
as the Manicheans dreamed. No, says S. Augustine, in the 8th book, 10th
chapter, of his Confessions, "but the will inticed by different baits, moved
by different reasons, seems to be divided in itself while it is pulled two
ways, until, making use of its liberty, it chooses the one or the other: for
then the more efficacious will conquers, and gaining the day, leaves in the
soul the feeling of the evil that the struggle caused her, which we call
reluctance (contrecœur)."
But the example of our Saviour is admirable in this point, and being
considered it leaves no further doubt touching the distinction of the
superior and inferior part of the soul. For who amongst theologians knows
not that he was perfectly glorious from the instant of his conception in his
virgin-mother's womb, and yet at the same time he was subject to sadness,
grief, and afflictions of heart. Nor must we say he suffered only in the
body, or only in the soul as sensitive, or, which is the same thing,
according to sense: for he attests himself that before he suffered any
exterior torment, or saw the tormentors near him, his soul was sorrowful
even unto death. For which cause he prayed that the cup of his passion might
pass away from him, that is, that he might be excused from drinking it; in
which he manifestly shows the desire of the inferior portion of his soul;
which, dwelling upon the sad and agonizing objects of the passion which was
prepared for him (the lively image whereof was represented to his
imagination), he desired, by a most reasonable consequence, the deliverance
and escape from them, which he begs from his Father. By this we clearly see
that the inferior part of the soul is not the same thing as the sensitive
degree of it, nor the inferior will the same with the sensitive appetite;
for neither the sensitive appetite, nor the soul insomuch as it is
sensitive, is capable of making any demand or prayer, these being acts of
the reasonable power; and they are, specially, incapable of speaking to God,
an object which the senses cannot reach, so as to make it known to the
appetite. But the same Saviour, having thus exercised the inferior part, and
testified that according to it and its considerations his will inclined to
the avoidance of the griefs and pains, showed afterwards that he had the
superior part, by which inviolably adhering to the eternal will, and to the
decree made by his heavenly Father, he willingly accepted death, and in
spite of the repugnance of the inferior part of reason, he said: Ah! no, my
Father, not my will, but thine be done. When he says my will, he speaks of
his will according to the inferior portion, and inasmuch an he says it
voluntarily, he shows that he has a superior will.
[40] Gen. xvii. 17.
[41] Ib. xv. 6.
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