ESSAY V. 393 V. Another objection of Mr. Locke against the constancy of thinking in the soul of man, is his supposition that the greatest part of the time of infants, both before and after their birth, is spent without thinking, and yet it is not supposed they are without a soul. See § 21. ' I answer, as for the time before the birth it is a great doubt with me whether the rational mind be united so soon as most peo- ple imagine, since there is no need of it to give or preserve the mere animal life. What if the rational soul be not united to the body till the birth, I see no great inconvenience in it. But, be it when it will, it is most reasonable to believe that infants have multitudes of their most early ideas, if not all, from sensation : Before, at, and after the soul's formation and union to the body, it is natural to suppose that there are numberless impressions . made on the soft and fluid brain ; and why should not these convey sensations of ease or uneasiness, pleasure or pain, to the soul, as soon as it is united, perhaps according to the supply or defect of proper or improper nourishment ? &c. And that it is also affected with various sensations from the brain of the mother, (if the soul be united before the birth) as well as from the various motions of its own and its mother's body, cannot be reasonably doubted, though the manner of the com- munication is beyond our skill to trace. If there be any impres- sions made on the nerves, and conveyed to the brain of the in- fant, which are fit to excite sensations, and the soul be then united, I cannot see why those sensations should not arise in the soul of the infant. If they be strong enough to mark the infant's body in a very sensible manner, as is generally agreed, surely they are strong enough to excite ideas. After its birth, it is still imposed upon by the animal spirits in the brain, with new sensations and imaginations ; but the only reason why we see so little evidence of thinking in infants, is not only for want of speech or signs to manifest thought, but because their experience is so small, their judgment so weak, and the memory so short and imperfect, by reason of the exceeding softness of the brain, which can hardly retain any traces : Nor can the soul in any rational manner connect many of its ideas ; which, for the most part, mutually confound one another, and suffer it to have but very few clear and distinct perceptions. Now these ideas being all confused, are quickly lost, and vanish. As the brain grows harder, and more capable of retaining traces, so the memory is confirmed; whence experience arises, judg- ment is strengthened and taught to act, and the efforts of a thinking and a reasoning nature appear. From this I infer, and agree herein with Mr. Locke, (though not upon the same grounds and reasons) that the soul of infants 'lath very.few, or scarce any ideas refined or intellectual, or
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