Digital Donne: the Online Variorum
The 1654 Prose Letters Letter 6, cont. (p.17) |
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whosoever will adhere to the way of pro- pagation, can never evict necessarily and certainly a naturall immortality in the soul, if the soul result out of matter, nor shall he ever prove that all mankind hath any more then one soul: as certainly of all beasts, if they receive such souls as they have from their parents, every species can have but one soul. And they which follow the opinion of infusion from God, and of a new creation (which is now the more common opinion) as they can very hardly defend the doctrin of original sin (the soul is forced to take this in- fection, and comes not into the body of her own disposition) so shall they never be able to prove that all those whom we see in the shape of men have an immortall and reasonable soul, because our parents are as able as any other species is to give us a soul of growth and of sense, and to perform all vitall and animall functions. And so with- out infusion of such a soul may produce a creature as wise and well disposed as any horse or Elephant, of which degree many [CW: whom] |
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