The Human Images, etc.

We find ourselves still not moved to reject that feeling; at least not as long as the opponents fail to provide something better and more probable in its place. It is believed that if a method were to be invented to keep the mechanics of man in full motion and operation without internal disruption or variation of the spirits, much would be perceived differently from what is currently seen in the magnificent images and in the teachings of the doctors. But I would much rather trust my own spirit and honor the good thoughts of others outside myself, in the likelihood that I would hold them in esteem, than subject myself to becoming a dissector of men merely as a test.

Benedictus de Spinoza, who probably posits that the Universe is God, stated firmly that the body cannot determine the soul to think, nor can the soul compel the body to move or rest, but rather that the body and soul are one and the same thing, comprehended now under the attribute of movement, and then under the attribute of thought. He further concludes that what determines the soul to think is merely a mode of thinking; these modes of thinking have God (namely the Universe) as their sole cause. Likewise, the movement and rest of the body come only from another body, which has been determined by yet another body to move or rest. Here is not the place to refute this barbaric idea, and we are preoccupied.