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| Preface.
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On the
Subject of the Soul.436
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You have instructed us,
most excellent Tatian,437
| 437 [A
person not known.] |
to forward for your use a discourse upon the soul, laying it out in
effective demonstrations. And this you have asked us to do
without making use of the testimonies of Scripture,—a method
which is opened to us, and which, to those who seek the pious mind,
proves a manner of setting forth doctrine more convincing than any
reasoning of man.438
| 438 [True
to the universal testimony of the primitive Fathers as to Holy
Scripture.] | You
have said, however, that you desire this, not with a view to your own
full assurance, taught as you already have been to hold by the Holy
Scriptures and traditions, and to avoid being shaken in your
convictions by any subtleties of man’s disputations, but with a
view to the confuting of men who have different sentiments, and who do
not admit that such credit is to be given to the Scriptures, and who
endeavour, by a kind of cleverness of speech, to gain over those who
are unversed in such discussions. Wherefore we were led to comply
readily with this commission of yours, not shrinking from the task on
account of inexperience in this method of disputation, but taking
encouragement from the knowledge of your good-will toward us. For
your kind and friendly disposition towards us will make you understand
how to put forward publicly whatever you may approve of as rightly
expressed by us, and to pass by and conceal whatever statement of ours
you may judge to come short of what is proper. Knowing this,
therefore, I have betaken myself with all confidence to the
exposition. And in my discourse I shall use a certain order and
consecution, such as those who are very expert in these matters employ
towards those who desire to investigate any subject
intelligently.
First of all, then, I shall propose to inquire by
what criterion the soul can, according to its nature, be apprehended;
then by what means it can be proved to exist; thereafter, whether it is
a substance or an accident;439
| 439
[Aristotle, Physica. Elucidation I.] | then consequently on these points,
whether it is a body or is incorporeal; then, whether it is simple or
compound; next, whether it is mortal or immortal; and finally, whether
it is rational or irrational.
For these are the questions which are wont, above
all, to be discussed, in any inquiry about the soul, as most important,
and as best calculated to mark out its distinctive nature. And as
demonstrations for the establishing of these matters of investigation,
we shall employ those common modes of consideration440
by which the credibility of matters under
hand is naturally attested. But for the purpose of brevity and
utility, we shall at present make use only of those modes of
argumentation which are most cogently demonstrative on the subject of
our inquiry, in order that clear and intelligible441
notions may impart to us some readiness for
meeting the gainsayers. With this, therefore, we shall commence
our discussion.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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