The Life of the Soul

Reid, Jasper

doi:10.1007/978-94-007-3988-8_10

Jasper Reid²

Part of the book series: International Archives of the History of Ideas Archives internationales d'histoire des idées ((ARCH,volume 207))

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Abstract

Through all of the contentious debates in which More engaged himself, although his position might have regularly reached considerably beyond the express tenets of the Church of England, at least it tended not to come into direct conflict with them. In his conviction that the human soul existed before it came to be united to a terrestrial body, however, he was on shakier ground. There was a fairly active debate on this question during More’s time, in England and further afield too; and, although the Church and intellectual society at large might have rather begrudgingly tolerated supporters of the pre-existence of the soul, they were far from keen on the doctrine. More was one of the few participants in this debate who felt confident enough to sign his name to works that argued for pre-existence; and, as luck would have it, he never actually got into any real trouble over this. But he recognised that he was in a precarious position, and he was always scrupulous to declare that he was offering the doctrine merely as a conjecture, one that he would be entirely content to abandon if the Church was to come down firmly against it.

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Notes

1.
On this debate (and on More’s own views on the issue), see Berg 1989; Almond 1991; Hutton 1996a; Dockrill 1997, pp. 60–65; Crocker 2001; and Crocker 2003, ch. 8.
2.
The Complete Poems, p. 118 (The Praeexistency of the Soul, Preface).
3.
Glanvill in Two Choice and Useful Treatises, first part, p. 151 (Lux Orientalis, ch. 14).
4.
Two Choice and Useful Treatises, second part, p. 147 (Annotations upon Lux Orientalis, upon ch. 14, pag. 151). In between these two cases (1647, 1682), also see More’s own expressions of submission to the Church, in relation to the orthodoxy of this theory, in The Apology of Dr. Henry More (1664), pp. 487, 489–490, 560 (ch. 1, §13; ch. 2, §1; ch. 10, §2). Or, again, it was only ‘by inserting a page or two more’, to soften ‘the stresse and dogmaticallnesse that appeared before touching preexistence’ that More was able to get his Divine Dialogues (1668) past Samuel Parker, its licenser for publication. (Conway Letters, p. 294 (More to Conway, 12 May 1668); Hutton 2004, p. 60).
5.
Divine Dialogues, pp. 261–263 (dial. 3, §31). As if this list was not long enough, More tossed a few further names into his other discussions. See The Complete Poems, p. 118 (The Praeexistency of the Soul, Preface); Conjectura Cabbalistica, pp. 156–58 (Appendix to the Defence of the Philosophick Cabbala, ch. 6); The Immortality of the Soul, pp. 115–117 (bk. 2, ch. 12, §§9–15); An Explanation of the Grand Mystery of Godliness, pp. 15–17 (bk. 1, ch. 8); A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings, The Preface General, pp. xx–xxvi (§§18–20). Also, both on this and on the question of the theory’s orthodoxy, see the long discussion in Two Choice and Useful Treatises, second part, pp. 147–171 (Annotations upon Lux Orientalis, upon ch. 14, pag. 151).
6.
See Hutton 1996a; Hutton 2004, pp. 69–71.
7.
On the attribution of A Letter of Resolution to Rust, see Berg 1989, pp. 108–109 and n. 41.
8.
Origen 1973, p. 129b (bk. 2, ch. 9, §1). This is following the Latin version of Rufinus, the only complete text we have. The original Greek here had ‘as he could control’ in place of ‘as he foresaw would be sufficient’.
9.
The Immortality of the Soul, p. 113 (bk. 2, ch. 12, §5).
10.
The Complete Poems, pp. 127a–b (The Praeexistency of the Soul, sts. 88–89). See also The Second Lash of Alazonomastix, p. 140 (upon [page 72], observation 35).
11.
For a slightly fuller discussion, see Crocker 2001, pp. 80–84, especially pp. 81–82.
12.
See Two Choice and Useful Treatises, second part, pp. 8–15 (Annotations upon Lux Orientalis, upon ch. 2, pag. 10); and elsewhere.
13.
Two Choice and Useful Treatises, second part, pp. 16–18 (Annotations upon Lux Orientalis, upon ch. 2, pag. 15).
14.
Two Choice and Useful Treatises, second part, pp. 27–39, here p. 35 (Annotations upon Lux Orientalis, upon ch. 5, pag. 46); and The Immortality of the Soul, pp. 120–123 (bk. 2, ch. 13, with the note thereto).
15.
The Second Lash of Alazonomastix, pp. 88–89 (upon [page 32], observation 1).
16.
Glanvill in Two Choice and Useful Treatises, first part, pp. 76–77 (Lux Orientalis, ch. 10).
17.
Glanvill in Two Choice and Useful Treatises, first part, p. 78 (Lux Orientalis, ch. 10).
18.
Two Choice and Useful Treatises, second part, p. 86 (Annotations upon Lux Orientalis, upon ch. 10, pag. 78).
19.
Two Choice and Useful Treatises, second part, pp. 86–87 (Annotations upon Lux Orientalis, upon ch. 10, pag. 78).
20.
Glanvill in Two Choice and Useful Treatises, first part, p. 78 (Lux Orientalis, ch. 10).
21.
Two Choice and Useful Treatises, second part, p. 87 (Annotations upon Lux Orientalis, upon ch. 10, pag. 78).
22.
See, for instance, An Antidote Against Atheism, p. 224 (Appendix, ch. 13, §§8–9).
23.
Divine Dialogues, p. 65 (dial. 1, § 30). Again, I have used the 1668 edition to correct the minor misprint (‘… from rectangle-Triangle,.’) in the 1713 edition: see above, p. 190 n. 17.
24.
The Complete Poems, pp. 66b–67a (Psychathanasia, bk. 3, cant. 1, sts. 4–6).
25.
The Immortality of the Soul, pp. 153–157 (bk. 2, ch. 18, §§5–12).
26.
The Immortality of the Soul, p. 150 (bk. 2, ch. 17, §10).
27.
The Immortality of the Soul, pp. 152–153 (bk. 2, ch. 18, §§3–4).
28.
More might have picked up the term ‘psychopannychia’ from Calvin, who had used it as the title of a 1534 refutation of the Anabaptist doctrine of the sleep of the soul. See Berg 1989, p. 108 n. 37; Young 1994, p. 69.
29.
The Complete Poems, p. 104a (Antipsychopannychia, cant. 1, st. 3). See also An Explanation of the Grand Mystery of Godliness, pp. 11–14 (bk. 1, chs. 6–7).
30.
Conjectura Cabbalistica, p. 31 (The Moral Cabbala, ch. 2, §23).
31.
Two Choice and Useful Treatises, second part, p. 124 (Annotations upon Lux Orientalis, upon ch. 14, pag. 121).
32.
Two Choice and Useful Treatises, second part, p. 51 (Annotations upon Lux Orientalis, upon ch. 8, pag. 67). See also op. cit., p. 238 (Annotations upon the Discourse of Truth, The Digression). Also The Immortality of the Soul, p. 30 (bk. 1, ch. 8, §8), together with the note to this section (pp. 31–32); and p. 160 (bk. 3, ch. 1, §3).
33.
An Explanation of the Grand Mystery of Godliness, p. 24 (bk. 2, ch. 3, §1).
34.
The Immortality of the Soul, p. 159 (bk. 3, ch. 1, §2). See also p. 128 (bk. 2, ch. 15, §1).
35.
The Immortality of the Soul, pp. 106–107 (bk. 2, ch. 11, §§1–6).
36.
The Immortality of the Soul, p. 159 (bk. 3, ch. 1, §2). See also p. 106 (bk. 2, ch. 11, §4).
37.
The Immortality of the Soul, p. 164 (bk. 3, ch. 1, §2, note). But note that even this more watered-down view of the relation between the intellect and the body does actually conflict with things that More wrote elsewhere. He had earlier rejected any form of dependence between them in Antipsychopannychia: see The Complete Poems, pp. 105b–107b (Antipsychopannychia, cant. 1, sts. 19–38, especially sts. 30, 38). And, much later, he would again appear to reject it in the course of the very argument for the pre-existence of the soul that we were just discussing. To repeat: ‘But for Philosophical Opinions and Theories, what have they to do with the motion of the Nerves? It is the Soul herself that judges of those abstractedly from the Senses, or any use of the Nerves or corporeal Organ.’ (Two Choice and Useful Treatises, second part, p. 87).
38.
See The Immortality of the Soul, pp. vi–vii (The Preface, §6), and Crocker 2001, pp. 79–80.
39.
The Immortality of the Soul, pp. 159–160 (bk. 3, ch. 1, §2).
40.
The Immortality of the Soul, pp. 123–137, 158–164 (bk. 2, chs. 14–15; bk. 3, ch. 1); Two Choice and Useful Treatises, second part, pp. 106–120 (Annotations upon Lux Orientalis, upon ch. 13, pag. 102); etc.
41.
The Immortality of the Soul, pp. 93–94, 124 (bk. 2, ch. 8, §§2–3; ch. 14, §3).
42.
The Immortality of the Soul, p. 198 (bk. 3, ch. 9, §1).
43.
A brief study may be found in Dodds’s edition of Proclus 1963, pp. 313–321. Verbeke 1945 presents a much fuller survey of ancient opinions; and many other studies might be cited. In addition, Ralph Cudworth shared most of his colleague’s intuitions about aerial spirits, and his True Intellectual System of the Universe, in conjunction with Mosheim’s annotations thereto, provides an extremely extensive survey of ancient opinions on the issue, which is still surprisingly useful even now. It goes without saying that both Cudworth’s and Mosheim’s research is extremely dated and needs to be handled with massive amounts of caution: but at least it provides pointers for possible further research. See Cudworth 1743, pp. 783–822 or (with Mosheim’s copious notes and dissertations) Cudworth 1845, vol. 3, pp. 259–384.
44.
See Tripolitis 1978, p. 64 and passim.
45.
See, for instance, The Immortality of the Soul, pp. 147, 194 (bk. 2, ch. 17, §5; bk. 3, ch. 8, §3). Psellus’s position is most fully set out in Psellus 1843.
46.
See Tripolitis 1978, chs. 5–6.
47.
Origen 1973, p. 58 (bk. 1, ch. 6, §4).
48.
The Immortality of the Soul, pp. 136–137 (bk. 2, ch. 15, §3, note).
49.
The Immortality of the Soul, p. 135 (bk. 2, ch. 15, §3, note).
50.
The Immortality of the Soul, pp. 126–127 (bk. 2, ch. 14, §11). See also p. 223 (bk. 3, ch. 13, §10), and A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings, The Preface General, p. xvi (§13).
51.
Two Choice and Useful Treatises, second part, pp. 127–128 (Annotations upon Lux Orientalis, upon ch. 14, pag. 125). See also pp. 105–106 (upon ch. 13, p. 101), and 124–125 (upon ch. 14, pag. 121, 122).
52.
The Immortality of the Soul, p. 163 (bk. 3, ch. 1, axiome 34).
53.
The Immortality of the Soul, pp. 169–170 (bk. 3, ch. 3, §2).
54.
The Immortality of the Soul, pp. 180–181 (bk. 3, ch. 5, §§1–4).
55.
The Immortality of the Soul, p. 192 (bk. 3, ch. 7, §8; and see the note thereto at p. 193).
56.
An Antidote Against Atheism, p. 125 (bk. 3, ch. 12, §2). The 1712 text has ‘stinginly’, but the other editions have ‘stingingly’, so I have gone ahead and corrected it.
57.
An Antidote Against Atheism, p. 126 (bk. 3, ch. 12, §8).
58.
Compare Plato 1963, pp. 64–65 (Phaedo, 81c–e).
59.
Ward 2000, p. 242. Ward is here alluding to 1 Corinthians 1:23. See also p. 244.
60.
An Antidote Against Atheism, p. 142 (bk. 3, ch. 16, §17).
61.
The Immortality of the Soul, p. 140 (bk. 2, ch. 16, §6).
62.
See The Immortality of the Soul, pp. 147–149 (especially 149), and 150–151 (bk. 2, ch. 17, §§6–7, and the note to §6).
63.
Epistolae quatuor, p. 65/AT 5:244–245 (More to Descartes, 11 December 1649), as translated in Cohen 1936, p. 51.
64.
The Immortality of the Soul, p. 147 (bk. 2, ch. 17, §6).
65.
The Complete Poems, pp. 50b–51a (Psychathanasia, bk. 1, cant. 2, sts. 46, 47, 49, 52).
66.
An Antidote Against Atheism, p. 63 (bk. 2, ch. 8, §3).
67.
The Complete Poems, p. 57b (Psychathanasia, bk. 2, cant. 1, st. 4).
68.
The Immortality of the Soul, pp. 147–148 (bk. 2, ch. 17, §6).
69.
See The Immortality of the Soul, p. 112 (bk. 2, ch. 12, §1).
70.
An Antidote Against Atheism, p. 207 (Appendix, ch. 10, §7).
71.
See, for instance, Plato 1963, pp. 65, 496, 1171 (Phaedo, 81e–82c; Phaedrus, 249b; Timaeus, 42b–c).
72.
Origen 1973, p. 73 (bk. 1, ch. 8, §4). On the origins of this particular passage, see pp. 72–73 n. 8, and 73 n. 2.
73.
Plotinus 1992, p. 210 (enn. 3, tr. 4, ch. 2). See Tripolitis 1978, for a thorough comparative examination of these ideas, as they were handled by Plotinus and Origen.
74.
The Immortality of the Soul, p. 159 (bk. 3, ch. 1, §2).
75.
Conjectura Cabbalistica, pp. 37–38 (Preface to The Defence of the Threefold Cabbala, §3).
76.
An Explanation of the Grand Mystery of Godliness, p. 32 (bk. 2, ch. 9, §§1, 2, 3).
77.
An Explanation of the Grand Mystery of Godliness, pp. 36–37 (bk. 2, ch. 12, §§1, 2).
78.
An Explanation of the Grand Mystery of Godliness, p. 37 (bk. 2, ch. 12, §§3, 4, 5).
79.
Again, for a thorough examination of these ideas in both Plotinus and Origen, see Tripolitis 1978.
80.
Conjectura Cabbalistica, p. 11 (The Philosophick Cabbala, ch. 1, §1).
81.
Conjectura Cabbalistica, p. 13 (The Philosophick Cabbala, ch. 1, §8).
82.
Conjectura Cabbalistica, p. 17 (The Philosophick Cabbala, ch. 2, §7).
83.
Conjectura Cabbalistica, p. 79 (The Defence of the Philosophick Cabbala, ch. 1, on vers. 9).
84.
Conjectura Cabbalistica, p. 17 (The Philosophick Cabbala, ch. 2, §8).
85.
Conjectura Cabbalistica, p. 19 (The Philosophick Cabbala, ch. 2, §20).
86.
Conjectura Cabbalistica, p. 19 (The Philosophick Cabbala, ch. 2, §18).
87.
Conjectura Cabbalistica, p. 21 (The Philosophick Cabbala, ch. 3, §6).
88.
Conjectura Cabbalistica, p. 22 (The Philosophick Cabbala, ch. 3, §13); see also p. 28 (The Moral Cabbala, ch. 1, §§29–30).
89.
Conjectura Cabbalistica, p. 21 (The Philosophick Cabbala, ch. 3, §7).
90.
Divine Dialogues, pp. 232–233 (dial. 3, §23). The 1713 edition actually has the word ‘Goals’: I have corrected this misprint to ‘Gaols’, following the 1668 edition. Cf. p. 23 n. 76 above!
91.
Two Choice and Useful Treatises, second part, p. 28 (Annotations upon Lux Orientalis, upon ch. 5, pag. 46).
92.
Two Choice and Useful Treatises, second part, p. 124 (Annotations upon Lux Orientalis, upon ch. 14, pag. 121). Elsewhere, More was slightly more circumspect, writing merely that ‘few or none attain to the AEthereal immediately after death’. Op. cit., p. 107 (upon ch. 13, pag. 107). See also The Immortality of the Soul, pp. 160, 161, 169 (bk. 3, ch. 1, §§3, 5; ch. 3, §1).
93.
An Antidote Against Atheism, p. 176 (bk. 3, ch. 14, §4, scholium). See also The Immortality of the Soul, pp. 165, 168 (bk. 3, ch. 2, §2, and the note thereto).
94.
The Immortality of the Soul, pp. 182–183 (bk. 3, ch. 5, §9).
95.
The Immortality of the Soul, pp. 194–196 (bk. 3, ch. 8, §§4–6).
96.
The Immortality of the Soul, p. 207 (bk. 3, ch. 11, §4).
97.
The Immortality of the Soul, p. 207 (bk. 3, ch. 11, §3).
98.
More held that a soul could in principle contract itself to the ‘infinite real littleness’ of an atom, in which case it would presumably—like the atom itself—relinquish all shape. But ordinarily it would certainly have some shape or other.
99.
The Immortality of the Soul, p. 165 (bk. 3, ch. 2, §2). See also p. 181 (bk. 3, ch. 5, §6). On the notion that the natural shape of the soul might be spherical, see the editorial notes in Proclus 1963, pp. 308–309, 347.
100.
The Immortality of the Soul, p. 175 (bk. 3, ch. 4, §2).
101.
The Immortality of the Soul, p. 176 (bk. 3, ch. 4, §4). A typographical error has this page wrongly numbered as 166.
102.
The Immortality of the Soul, pp. 176–177, 201–202 (bk. 3, ch. 4, §6; ch. 9, §§6–8). Again, a typographical error has p. 176 misnumbered as 166.
103.
The Immortality of the Soul, p. 198 (bk. 3, ch. 9, §1). In fact, when the soul left the dying terrestrial body, it would actually take some of these animal spirits with it, carrying them out of the body through the mouth or other orifices of the head. See op. cit., p. 129 (bk. 2, ch. 15, §2).
104.
Two Choice and Useful Treatises, second part, pp. 84–85 (Annotations upon Lux Orientalis, upon ch. 10, pag. 76).
105.
The Immortality of the Soul, pp. 178, 198–199 (bk. 3, ch. 4, §9; ch. 9, §§2–3).
106.
The Immortality of the Soul, pp. 199–201 (bk. 3, ch. 9, §§3–6).
107.
The Immortality of the Soul, pp. vii–viii, 158–159 (The Preface, §7; bk. 3, ch. 1, §1).
108.
Origen 1973, p. 152 (bk. 2, ch. 11, §6).
109.
Ibid.
110.
Origen 1973, p. 145 (bk. 2, ch. 10, §3—sic, but actually §8).
111.
Origen 1965, p. 623b (bk. 7, ch. 32).
112.
The Immortality of the Soul, pp. 244–245 (bk. 3, ch. 17, §15).
113.
The Immortality of the Soul, p. 162 (bk. 3, ch. 1, axiome 33).
114.
The Immortality of the Soul, p. 162 (bk. 3, ch. 1, §9).
115.
Two Choice and Useful Treatises, second part, pp. 50–51, 81–82 (Annotations upon Lux Orientalis, upon ch. 8, pag. 67, and ch. 9, pag. 75).
116.
See The Complete Poems, pp. 92b–93a, 93a–94a (Democritus Platonissans, sts. 18–19, 23–32); Two Choice and Useful Treatises, second part, p. 52 (Annotations upon Lux Orientalis, upon ch. 9, pag. 69).
117.
The Immortality of the Soul, p. 254 (bk. 3, ch. 19, §5). See pp. 252–255 (§§1-6).
118.
The Immortality of the Soul, p. 247 (bk. 3, ch. 18, §3).
119.
The Immortality of the Soul, pp. 248–250 (bk. 3, ch. 18, §§7–13). See also the discussion in Ward 2000, p. 298.
120.
The Immortality of the Soul, p. 251 (bk. 3, ch. 18, §§14–15).

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Reid, J. (2012). The Life of the Soul. In: The Metaphysics of Henry More. International Archives of the History of Ideas Archives internationales d'histoire des idées, vol 207. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3988-8_10

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