Page:Philosophical and scriptural proofs that brutes have souls as well as men.pdf/11

 primrum moble, or the aplanes); the Son the secondary light resident in the sun, and the Holy Ghost the atmosphere of the earth (See Beausob. Vol II p. 586): hence, among the Syrians, the representation of the Holy Ghost by a dove, the bird of Venus Urania, that is, of the air.

Having now traced the various opinions of the ancients down to Plato, relative to the Soul in general, we will just give a view of what the moderns consider constitutes the Soul in Men, Brutes, Birds, Reptiles, &c. enjoyed by them respectively in a greater or lesser degree, as they stand located in the great chain of Creation. If then we shall compare this concatonation to the Roman Alphabet, dare we say, that, because Y and Z are the last in the list, they are not of equal importance with A and B in ornamenting the Languages,—surely not. Cogent proofs can be shewn that men and all animated beings are derived from, and composed of Fluids or water.

To grass and plants, and thickens into earth:

Diffus’d it tises in a higher sphere,

Dilates its drops, and softens into air:

Those finer parts of air again aspire,

Move into warmth, and brighten into fire:

That fire once more, by denser air o’ercome,

And downward forced, in earth’s capacious womb,