ssa THE SOM. NEVER SLEEPS. Cher ; now this belongs to all extension, whether solid or unsolid ; and therefore I cannot but wonder a little at those gentlemen who pretend to prove strongly that matter cannot think, and yet allow a soul to be extended, i. e. allow unsolid extension to have a thinking power. Such sort of thoughts as these, with some others, have inclined me rather to suppose the nature and essence of the soul to consist in thinking. I own this sort of doctrine concerning the soul is not only out of the way of vulgar opinion, but it is now also in a great measure banished from the schools and sentiments of learned men, since the Cartesian philosophy lost its ground in the world. Now though I never was, nor could persuade myself tobe a dis- ciple of Des Cartes in his doctrine of the nature of matter, or vacuum, or of plenum, 4c. and I have many years ago given up his opinions as to the chief phmnomena of the corporeal world, yet I have never seen sufficient ground to abandon all his scheme of sentiments of the nature of mind or spirit, because I could not find a better in the room of it, that should be more free from objections and difficulties. The large and powerful influence that the name and autho- rity of Mr. Locke has in the world, has carried away multitudes into the supposition that extension or expansion, as well as dura- tion, are the properties of all beings whatsoever ; and that there. fore spirits as well as bodies are expanded or extended, which are but two words for the same idea ; though it must be owned Mr. Locke himself is so cautious, that I think he Both not any where positively assert it, not even in book II. chap. 15.. sect. 11. where he thinks it is " near as hard to conceive any real being without expansion as without duration." SECT. II.-Of Dreams, why not remembered. BUT my design in this place being chiefly to take notice of the sentiments of this great philosopher, I shall proceed to answer the chief objections which he raises against those who suppose that th5e soul always thinks. His grand argument is that " the soul sleeps as well as the body, and has no thought when it has no dream" Now there are some persons (says he) who never dream, and others that sleep sometimes forseveral hours without' dreaming ; therefore it is plain to him, that all this while the soul has been or existed without thinking. Mr. Locke's chief objec- tion against the soul's thinking in sleep, may be answered by an explication of what we mean by dreams, of which dreams the body by the animal spirits (whatever they he) is theoccasion, and of which the soul is conscious. Note, by animal spirits I mean those subtle corpuscles, whatsoever they are, whereby such traces or impressions are formed or revived on the brain whichcorrespond toour sensations or ideas, and which are usually the occasion of them.
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