Chapter 8

The difference between the human soul,
pure intelligences and animal souls

200. Having discovered what constitutes the human soul and its principal properties, we still have to investigate the differences separating it from pure intelligences and other natures akin to it.
The human soul, as we said, is that first principle of feeling and understanding which, without ceasing to be one and to have a single radical activity, is constituted by something felt, extended and corporeal, and by something understood, that is, indeterminate being.

The soul is called first principle because it is a principle superior to the sensitive principle; it is a principle virtually containing within itself the sensitive principle in such a way that the actual existence of this principle pertains to human nature but not to the essence of the soul. It is sufficient for the essence of the soul that the principle of animal feeling be virtually contained in it.

201. At this point, we can illustrate the difference separating the human soul from pure intelligences(86) and from purely animal souls. The human soul stands as it were midway between angels and animal souls.

202. The angels lack that which is felt corporeally and are, therefore, devoid of the principle of animal feeling and of brute sense-experiences. They are not passive relative to bodies but active and, instead of animal feelings, possess the feeling of their own activities and terms. We shall explain this more at length, if God wills, in Cosmology or Theosophy.

203. Animal souls are simply principles of bodily feeling severed from intellectual activity. These principles, actually constituted because they are alone, are also first principles and, as first activities, cannot be denied the name of substantial principle or substances.

Notes

(86)Belief in the existence of pure spirits, or angels, goes back to the most ancient memories of the world. All Eastern traditions agree in affirming it. In the first Chinese sacred book, the Chou-King, Confucius collected, in 484 BC, passages from the most ancient histories and traditional precepts. He frequently mentions spirits. In chapter 2, we read about the Emperor Chow who, it is claimed, reigned more than twenty centuries before Christ: 'He carried out the Loui sacrifice to Shang-ti, and the ceremonies to the six Tsong, to the mountains, to the rivers, and in general in honour of all the spirits.'
The word 'Shang-ti' is used to denote the supreme being because it means 'that which is most worthy of respect'. To this being the great sacrifice, Loui, is made. Tsong is used of the greater spirit. It means 'that which is worthy of respect'. Then come the lesser spirits of the mountains, rivers, and so on.