A Guide for the Religious Instruction of Jewish Youth | Page 5

a unity and simplicity in their subject as are
absolutely incompatible with the nature of matter, composed, as it is, of
parts. The human soul is therefore a simple being, a spirit, and, as such,
indestructible, immortal.
XIV. Man, then, unites in himself two natures, belongs to two classes
of beings very different from one another, is a citizen of two worlds. In
his body he is linked to the material world, undergoes all the
vicissitudes of matter, is subject to the incentives of the senses, and is
impelled to gratify the wants and cravings of physical enjoyment. As
regards his soul, he enters into the sphere of intelligences, he feels
himself attracted by the ideas of the beautiful, of the true, of the just; he
participates in the condition of the spiritual beings, aspires to the
immense, to the infinite; and is susceptible of an ever-increasing
perfectibility, finding within himself the power of abhorring moral evil,
viz., vice, and of cleaving to moral good, viz., virtue.
XV. Man has, therefore, within himself a germ of discord between the
two principles of which he is constituted, a contrast between the
exigencies of the body and those of the soul--between the appetites of
the senses and the dictates of reason; and as this latter alone is
competent to form a judgment on what he ought or ought not to do, it
follows that reason alone should be consulted and obeyed in
determining upon every action.
XVI. Now, by freely and spontaneously resolving to conform all the

actions of his life to the dictates of reason, which commands him to be
wise in his self-government, upright with others, and pious towards the
supreme Author, man will have worthily corresponded to the end for
which he was created--he will have fulfilled his destination; for it is
clearly the destination of man to make the best possible use of the
sublime faculties with which his soul is endowed; and the best possible
use he does make when he subordinates his inferior to his superior
tendencies, the cravings of the body to those of the soul; in a word,
when he obeys the dictates of reason.
XVII. When man obeys the dictates of reason, an internal voice in his
heart tells him that he has done right; he feels satisfied with himself,
and is penetrated with a sense of true joy. When, on the contrary, he
consciously infringes the laws of reason, he is not only deprived of that
internal approbation, but an inextinguishable voice rises reproachful
within his heart; he is no longer satisfied with himself, but feels
uneasiness and perturbation. That internal voice, which judges man's
actions, and generates happiness or sorrow, is what is called
Conscience.
XVIII. But the human soul, when it concentrates itself within, has also
the faculty of feeling the sense of its own individuality, and perceiving
that the state in which it is is its own. By virtue of this sense, which we
may call feeling, the soul is led always to desire its own welfare, its
own happiness; thence springs love or hatred, inclination or aversion
towards an object, as this object seems apt to occasion pleasure or pain.
But man, sooner or later, discovers that a true and permanent pleasure
cannot be obtained through any of the physical enjoyments on earth,
which he may not always be able to procure, or, when procured, leave
after them weariness and disgust. He, consequently, cannot place in
them his true happiness; and his internal sense tells him that there are
other enjoyments of a purely spiritual nature, which alone can satisfy
the highest aspirations of his soul. The exercise of his moral
duties--which, through his freedom of action, lies always within his
power, and by which alone he can tranquillise his conscience and fully
delight in self-contentment--is that which offers to his soul true and
permanent enjoyment; that alone is worth desiring.

CHAPTER III.
XIX. ON man governing himself morally well in life, it becomes
manifest to him, on the one hand, that his conduct, being conformable
to the end for which he was created, must also be agreeable to the will
of the Creator. On the other hand, that same internal sense, which
prompts him to satisfy the demands of his own conscience, leads him,
also, to elevate his mind towards God; and he feels at the bottom of his
heart that he would be wanting in the principal element of his happiness
if he referred not his every thought to the Author of his existence. This
twofold direction of the mind towards God is called Religion, a word
derived from the Latin religare, for, as a moral being endowed with
intelligence and freedom, man feels always a certain tendency to
disengage himself from the physical order of terrestrial things,