Page:The Emperor Marcus Antoninus - His Conversation with Himself.djvu/417

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Meditations, &c.
237

terposition of Walls, and Mountaints, and Abundance of other Opace Bodies. There's but one common Matter for Corporiety, tho' 'tis parcell'd out among Bodies of different Qualities: There is but one sensitive Soul neither, notwithstanding it has peculiar Conveyances, runs in innumerable Chanels, and supplies a vast number of Animals distinct from each other. And lastly, the Rational Soul tho' it seems to be split into Distinction, is but one and the same. [1] Now excepting this last, the Parts of the other Species of Form [2] and Matter, tho' without Apprehension, or any common Affection to tie them to each other, are yet upheld by an Intelligent Being, and by that Faculty which pushes things of the same Nature, to the same Place: But Humane Understandings have a peculiar Disposition to Correspondence; they stick together by Inclination, and nothing can extinguish such Sociable Thoughts in them.

XXXI. What is it you hanker after. Is it bare Existence? Or Sensation? Or Motion? Or Strength, that you may lose it again in Decay? What? Is it the Privilege of Speech, or the Power of Thinking in general? Is any of this Furniture big enough for Desire? If all these Things are Trifles upon the Matter, proceed to something that'sworth

  1. The Stoicks held the Rational Soul a part of the Deity.
  2. By Form, in Rational Creatures, the Emperour seems to mean the Mind, in Animals the Sensitive Soul, in Vegetables, and Inanimate Things the Principle of Union which supports them in their Distinction, and tacks their Being together. Dacier.