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| On the Growth of the Soul. Its Maturity Coincident with the Maturity of the Flesh in Man.
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Chapter
XXXVIII.—On the Growth of the Soul. Its Maturity Coincident with
the Maturity of the Flesh in Man.
Now we have already1747
| 1747 See above, in ch.
xx. |
laid down the principle, that all the natural properties of the soul
which relate to sense and intelligence are inherent in its very
substance, and spring from its native constitution, but that they
advance by a gradual growth through the stages of life and develope
themselves in different ways by accidental circumstances, according to
men’s means and arts, their manners and customs their local
situations, and the influences of the Supreme Powers;1748
| 1748 See above, in ch.
xxiv. | but in pursuance of that aspect of the
association of body and soul which we have now to consider, we maintain
that the puberty of the soul coincides with that of the body,
and that they attain both together to this full growth at about the
fourteenth year of life, speaking generally,—the former by the
suggestion of the senses, and the latter by the growth of the bodily
members; and (we fix on this age) not because, as Asclepiades supposes,
reflection then begins, nor because the civil laws date the
commencement of the real business of life from this period, but because
this was the appointed order from the very first. For as Adam and Eve
felt that they must cover their nakedness after their knowledge of good and
evil so we profess to have the same discernment of good and evil from
the time that we experience the same sensation of shame. Now from the
before-mentioned age (of fourteen years) sex is suffused and clothed
with an especial sensibility, and concupiscence employs the ministry of
the eye, and communicates its pleasure to another, and understands the
natural relations between male and female, and wears the fig-tree apron
to cover the shame which it still excites, and drives man out of the
paradise of innocence and chastity, and in its wild pruriency falls
upon sins and unnatural incentives to delinquency; for its impulse has
by this time surpassed the appointment of nature, and springs from its
vicious abuse. But the strictly natural concupiscence is simply
confined to the desire of those aliments which God at the beginning
conferred upon man. “Of every tree of the garden” He says,
“ye shall freely eat;”1749
and then again
to the generation which followed next after the flood He enlarged the
grant: “Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you;
behold, as the green herb have I given you all these
things,”1750
—where He has
regard rather to the body than to the soul, although it be in the
interest of the soul also. For we must remove all occasion from the
caviller, who, because the soul apparently wants ailments, would insist
on the soul’s being from this circumstance deemed mortal, since
it is sustained by meat and drink and after a time loses its rigour
when they are withheld, and on their complete removal ultimately droops
and dies. Now the point we must keep in view is not merely which
particular faculty it is which desires these (aliments), but also for
what end; and even if it be for its own sake, still the question
remains, Why this desire, and when felt, and how long? Then again there
is the consideration, that it is one thing to desire by natural
instinct, and another thing to desire through necessity; one thing to
desire as a property of being, another thing to desire for a special
object. The soul, therefore, will desire meat and drink—for
itself indeed, because of a special necessity; for the flesh, however,
from the nature of its properties. For the flesh is no doubt the house
of the soul, and the soul is the temporary inhabitant of the flesh. The
desire, then, of the lodger will arise from the temporary cause and the
special necessity which his very designation suggests,—with a
view to benefit and improve the place of his temporary abode, while
sojourning in it; not with the view, certainly, of being himself the
foundation of the house, or himself its walls, or himself its support
and roof, but simply and solely with the view of being accommodated and
housed, since he could not receive such accommodation except in a sound
and well-built house. (Now, applying this imagery to the soul,) if it
be not provided with this accommodation, it will not be in its power to
quit its dwelling-place, and for want of fit and proper resources, to
depart safe and sound, in possession, too, of its own supports, and the
aliments which belong to its own proper condition,—namely
immortality, rationality, sensibility, intelligence, and freedom of the
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