At the beginning of this treatise on the fabric of our body, we said how the philosophers placed three differences of souls, one that they call vegetative, which the plants have, another sensitive, which the brutes have, and another intellective, which men have, but in such manner that this our soul, though being one simple and spiritual substance, has these three faculties. For it is the one that, by means of the instruments that have been said, sustains our bodies, and the one that is cause of all our senses, and movements, and also is so of the discourses of our understanding. Then having treated up to here the lowest faculty, which is of the vegetative faculty that plants have, we shall now rise to treat of the one that it has to give us sensitive life, as the brutes have it, in which the divine Wisdom shines forth so much the more, as this faculty is more noble than the past one.
Then for this it is to be known that all that has up to here been said serves no more than to maintain and give life to our bodies. But because with this, man, not being able to move from one place, nor to see the diversity of the things that in this world are created (without the notice of which it would naturally have been impossible for him to be able to come into knowledge of the Creator), the fabric remained imperfect, our Maker did not wish to be less liberal with men in this than in all the rest, rather he created in them a third principle, besides the liver and heart, in which as in a forge the spirits are forged, by means of which we see, hear, taste, touch, and move ourselves, called for this reason by the Latins, animal, which are engendered from the spirits of life, which we said are made in the heart. This third principle we call the brains, whose seat is in the highest part of the body, not because for them this seat was safer or better, but because they should be near the eyes, which could by no way be in another part, having to be (as they are) watchtowers of the fortress of our body. But our Maker supplied very well the lack that there was in the site, covering them with hair and hide and with a very hard and strong skull, which like a sallet or helmet guards that they may not easily be wounded, and afterward with two webs, one thicker, called dura mater, and another thinner, called pia mater, which wrap the brains and the exits from them, and all the nerves. And because I said, and exits, it is to be known that the brains have an exit like a tail, which we commonly call the marrow of the spine, which is born from the lowest part behind the brains, and coming out through the greater hole that is made in the bone of the occiput, descends through the spine to the end of the great bone, always becoming somewhat thinner.
But inasmuch as we have to treat here of these animal spirits that are engendered in the brains of the head, and we have just treated of the vital ones that are forged in the heart, it will be reason to give the cause why all physicians and philosophers posit these spirits. For this, then, we must bring to memory what we said a little while ago, which is that the Creator disposes and orders all things suavely, proportioning the causes with the dignity of their effects, and disposing the matter according to the condition of the form (as we saw in what is past), and likewise proportioning the instrument with the principal agent that has to use it, as now we shall declare. According to this, one kind of sword we give to a boy of little age, and another greater one to a perfect and robust man, and another to a giant, like the one that that Philistine bore, who made field with David. In this same manner, to make very fine works very fine and delicate instruments are necessary, and for
gross ones, gross ones suffice. And applying this same to natural causes, from here it is that the intelligences that by means of the movement of the heavens govern this lower world, which are most noble and incorruptible substances, make use of most noble and incorruptible instruments, which are these same celestial bodies, with all their stars and planets, with whose influences they govern it all. Then coming to our purpose, it is clear that the soul that we have in our bodies is first principle and cause of the life that we live, and of the senses and movements that we have, which is clearly seen, since the soul being lacking, all these offices and movements are lacking, the members and senses of which it served itself not being lacking, since in appearance there remains the same figure and matter of the eyes, of the ears, and of all the other organs and senses, without doing their offices.
Then since our soul is spirit, as the angels are, it was necessary that its proximate and immediate instruments should resemble and be proportioned with it, and either be purely spiritual, or at least draw very near to the condition and nobility of them, such as are the spirits of which the soul serves itself to give us life, and much more the animal ones, which are like certain rays of light by means of which it gives us sense and movement, because otherwise, it would be great disproportion that a purely spiritual substance, such as a soul is, should have for proximate and immediate instrument a piece of our flesh, or some great bone. This, then, is the cause why we posit this kind of spirits, which are nearer and more proportioned to the dignity and nature of our soul, which (as we said) is a spiritual substance.
Of The Dignity And Efficacy Of Spirits And Of All Spiritual Things
But here it is to be noted that since all our knowledge proceeds from the exterior senses (which is, from the corporeal things that we see, hear, and touch, etc.) and the spiritual things we neither see, nor taste, nor touch, from here it is that many men, especially those who are of gross understandings, either do not believe that they exist, or do not know the virtue and efficacy that they have for working. And such was that sect of the Sadducees, of which mention is made in the Acts of the Apostles, who were so gross of understanding that they did not believe there were angels nor spirits, and there are many now who, although they have faith in this, do not understand how what has no body can have being. And from here they come not to understand the dignity and excellence and faculty of their souls, imagining that they are like a little air, or a similar thing. Then such as these I now wish to lead by the hand, and little by little go declaring to them the dignity and efficacy of these spirits, and by this they will rise to understand that of their souls.
Then for this it is to be known that all corporeal things as many as there are in this lower world are composed of four elements, although this does not appear, because of the diversity of the mixtures and composition of them. Among which elements, the lowest and grossest and most material is earth, considering what it has of its own harvest. After this element, water has the second place in dignity, which is what makes the earth fructify, which earth, as much as is of its nature, is like lime, which is sterile, and dry like it. But more perfect than water is the air with which we live and breathe, and the one that carries those same waters from the sea to the earth, and does us many other
benefits, according as above we declared. But of the subtlety and efficacy of fire, which we all experience, there is nothing to say.
It is, then, now to be known that, since corporeal things are composed of these four elements, the less they participate in the matter of the earth and in the heaviness of it, so much the more noble they are and of more virtue and efficacy for working. Let us put first an example in those same elements. The earth has no virtue to do anything, but to suffer and receive as from alms what the other elements or natural causes give it, in such a way that not even to sustain our bodies would it serve, if it did not receive the hardness that it has from the other elements, as above we declared. Then there follow the other three elements, among which the superior ones are more spiritual and more active, as are water and air, and much more fire, which is the least material and most active of all.
This we see also in waters, which we are wont to weigh, and we reject the heavier ones as more terrestrial, and we choose those that weigh less for drinking. We see it also in wines, among which the cloudy and thick are more vile, and the more delicate and more youthful are more precious. This same we see in meats, and especially in bread, because that which is made from the flower of the flour is more delicate, and thus serves the table of the lords: but the brown bread, which is made from whole flour, is for the servants. The same we see in metals, whereby blacksmiths purge the iron in the forge, and send away and cast outside the more terrestrial part, which they call the blacksmith’s snots, and serve themselves from what is now more purged from these dregs of the earth. And this is also seen in precious stones, among which the most pure and transparent, which have less earth, we hold in great esteem, and we enamel them in rings and in other things, but the other grosser and more terrestrial ones serve for the fabric of buildings. And above all these things a very grave argument is that of the light that comes to us from heaven, which is the most delicate and spiritual thing that there is among corporeal things, since we see that it enters through a window, through which neither air nor fire enters, and with all that it is of so admirable virtue and efficacy, that by means of it the heavens work all things as many as there are in the sea and on the earth and beneath the earth, where by its virtue gold and silver, and all the other metals are engendered.
And I add to this that not only for profiting, but also for harming, things are so much the more powerful, as they are more spiritual, I mean less material and visible. For which it suffices to bring as example the catarrhs that ran almost through all Europe in the year one thousand five hundred and eighty. In which year, the heaven and the air being, as it appeared from the outside, with the same serenity and purity as always, an evil quality that there was in it, which was neither seen nor touched, was cause of so many deaths and of so great destruction of many peoples. And the same example can be put in the corrupted air of the plague, which without being a thing that is touched and seen, is common calamity and destruction of the human race. Then if already we treat of purely spiritual substances, such as angels and demons are, clearly it is seen how powerful the one are to profit, and the others to harm, since one of them, whether it was good, or whether it was bad, sufficed to kill in one night one hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the army of the Assyrians, which had surrounded Jerusalem.
Then all that has been said will serve so that, proceeding by these degrees of advantages that there are in things, we may understand that, when they are heavier and more material and participate more in the earth, so much the more vile they are and of lesser efficacy, and the more they draw near in their manner to the condition of spiritual things, so much the more noble they are and more efficacious for working. And by this we shall understand in some manner the dignity of our souls, which are purely spiritual substances, like the angels, and for that reason we shall not be frightened to see how much variety and multitude of offices they exercise in our bodies, as further on we shall touch. For what God works in this greater world our soul works in the lesser, which is man, whose immediate instruments are these spirits, as well the vital as the animal, because they are more spiritual and more similar to it.