The Works of Aristotle the Famous Philosopher | Page 7

immediately proceeding from Him; not passing from one to another as
was the opinion of Pythagoras, who held a belief in transmigration of
the soul; but that the soul is given to every infant by infusion, is the
most received and orthodox opinion. And the learned do likewise agree
that this is done when the infant is perfected in the womb, which
happens about the twenty-fourth day after conception; especially for
males, who are generally born at the end of nine months; but in females,
who are not so soon formed and perfected, through defect of heat, until
the fiftieth day. And though this day in either case cannot be truly set
down, yet Hippocrates has given his opinion, that it is so when the
child is formed and begins to move, when born in due season. In his
book of the nature of infants, he says, if it be a male and be perfect on
the thirtieth day, and move on the seventieth, he will be born in the
seventh month; but if he be perfectly formed on the thirty-fifth day, he
will move on the seventieth and will be born in the eighth month.
Again, if he be perfectly formed on the forty-fifth day, he will move on
the ninetieth and be born in the ninth month. Now from these paring of
days and months, it plainly appears that the day of forming being
doubled, makes up the day of moving, and the day, three times
reckoned, makes up the day of birth. As thus, when thirty-five perfects

the form, if you double it, makes seventy the day of motion; and three
times seventy amounts to two hundred and ten days; while allowing
thirty days to a month makes seven months, and so you must consider
the rest. But as to a female the case is different; for it is longer
perfecting in the womb, the mother ever going longer with a girl than
with a boy, which makes the account differ; for a female formed in
thirty days does not move until the seventieth day, and is born in the
seventh month; when she is formed on the fortieth day, she does not
move till the eightieth and is born in the eighth month; but, if she be
perfectly formed on the forty-fifth day she moves on the ninetieth, and
the child is born in the ninth month; but if she that is formed on the
sixtieth day, moves on the one hundred and tenth day, she will be born
in the tenth month. I treat the more largely of love that the reader may
know that the reasonable soul is not propagated by the parents, but is
infused by the Almighty, when the child has its perfect form, and is
exactly distinguished in its lineaments.
Now, as the life of every other creature, as Moses shows, is in the blood,
so the life of man consists in the soul, which although subject to
passion, by reason of the gross composures of the body, in which it has
a temporary confinement, yet it is immortal and cannot in itself corrupt
or suffer change, it being a spark of the Divine Mind. And that every
man has a peculiar soul plainly appears by the vast difference between
the will, judgment, opinions, manners, and affections in men. This
David observes when he says: "God hath fashioned the hearts and
minds of men, and has given to every one his own being and a soul of
its own nature." Hence Solomon rejoiced that God had given him a soul,
and a body agreeable to it. It has been disputed among the learned in
what part of the body the soul resides; some are of opinion its residence
is in the middle of the heart, and from thence communicates itself to
every part, which Solomon (Prov. iv. 23) seems to confirm when he
says: "Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of
life." But many curious physicians, searching the works of nature in
man's anatomy, do affirm that its chief seat is in the brain, from whence
proceed the senses, the faculties, and actions, diffusing the operations
of the soul through all parts of the body, whereby it is enlivened with
heat and force to the heart, by the arteries, corodities, or sleepy arteries,

which part upon the throat; which, if they happen to be broken or cut,
they cause barrenness, and if stopped an apoplexy; for there must
necessarily be ways through which the spirits, animal and vital, may
have intercourse and convey native heat from the soul. For though the
soul has its chief seat in one place, it operates in every part, exercising
every member which are the soul's instruments, by which she discovers