34-8 *Thesoul necejfarily living,

concerning the souls of brutes. It will perhapsbe said, since these are immaterial, by the

second

length (as I said before) all degenerates into an internalscene of vision and dream.

Let us nowsuppose that aster one dream is ended, ano-ther should not succeed, but that in the soundest sleepthe soul had no perception at all. Being'then an imp#*tipientsubstance (for four or five hours together perhapsit must be quite dead. If it were not, let any oneme what Use is; or wherein it consists ? Shall we Mit consists in the power of living only ? That is absurd'If the foul is once without perception, how could it c *'ercisc the power to recover its perception ? If we fay d 1 *matter of the body makes it percipient again, or brioS 5back its perception to it, that is no less absurd. If ^matter of the body acts upon it, it will perceive the ^ c 'tion; but that is not to make it percipient , or to br>o5back perception itself to an impercipient substance. H° v ^should the soul perceive the action if it were not awak e 'Or how could it be awake without perceptions ? Th ssoul cannot be asleep, if it is a simple uncompounded bei n &that stands in need of no reparations; nor could italways awake without always having perceptions.very reason then why the soul is percipient of the acti°^of our bodies upon it, when we awake, is because italways awake, and always percipient. In a dream, whePit is certain that the soul is percipient and awake, ‘ £ lSyet not percipient of any external touch upon the body*Why ? The action is really not communicated to l£This familiar instance shews us that the soul is awak c >

but the body is unfit to communicate action to it. Ho^

cast