Actual Activities

We should point out with few words what a stained conscience is, what a weak conscience is, and why a modest person, for the sake of conscience, must be subject to higher powers. Indeed, how can it be that we have a co-awareness of something that is false, without there being the slightest error in the conscience itself? It is only indicating how we have judged or done something. Thus it follows that someone, due to lack of education, or knowledge of the truth, can do wrong with a good conscience, or an accusing co-awareness. Because a misguided person considers the good as bad, and the bad as good, due to a lack of judgment or crafty teaching (in which their error lies), they are indeed aware of such judgment through their conscience, but their conscience is in no way the cause of the error or that judgment; nor does it err itself. However, we have been occupied with these matters for too long, and we should also regret it if we had not intended to deal with more necessary matters, which are closer to the soul and human studies.

The anatomists and philosophers have long debated, and disagreed about the place where the actual dwelling of the soul in man was. Some placed it in the heart, others in the stomach, others in the entire blood, or through the entire body, and the latter have most likely placed it in the brain. And truly those who observe the cortex of the brain, and the use of the five senses in the legitimacy of the work.

Translation Notes:

Conscientie: Translates to 'conscience'. In historical texts, it often refers to a moral or ethical sense. Slinxe Onderwijſinge: Crafty or sly teaching, implying misleading or cunning education or instruction.