The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1909-09-25
THE SOUL OF MAN AND
THE SPIRIT OF THE BEAST

A childless married woman, who laHishes her af-
fectlons on dog said to friend of ours the other
! day: Il sure Flosse' has soul the same as
You and | have. If she could speak she would tell
US So" Our friend, COMPOUNDED by the difficulty
of the philosophic problem. automatically an
swered: "Quite so, I entirely agree with YOU"
What is the soul? Catholic philosophy tells us
that it is Simple substance spiritual and subsist
ing independently, but incomplete, and naturally
and substantially united to the body of which it is
the form" This definition is beyond the under
standing of the average reader and requires to he
ampifed Scripturaly, the word soul is difficult to
define, for in many places in the Bible it means the
rational principle of life in man; that which ami
mates beasts; for life itself, and in the Book of
Numbers, for desire, love, inclination, etc. 1t is
distinct from animal life, or spirit, which is com
mon to man and to the brute. St Paul in his Epis-
tie to the Hebrews distinguishes the soul from the
spirit when he tells them: "The word of God Is
living and active, and sharper than any two-edged
sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul
and spirit"
But, besides this spirit which is the principle of
animal life common to men and brutes, and which
is dispersed after DEATH there is in man spiritual
reasoning and immortal soul, the origin of our
thoughts, desires and reflection or reasoning, which
separates us from the brute creation and in which
essentially consists our likeness to God. our Gre
ator. We also resemble God in our bodies. be-
cause the human nature and the divine nature are
lnseparable In God, and Son, the Sacred Person of
the Adorable Trinity. Herein consists the serious
gravity OF sins of the flesh. The soul is spiritual
because 1t thinks thought is of the very essence of
the soul The soul must be immortal because it is
spiritual and immaterial. 1t is distinct from the
body, for, without it the body is dead and from it
the body gets life, feeling and motion The soul
lives alter death, and, after the last Judgment will
be 1nseparably united to its own body and they two
will enter into endless Joy or sorrow
The immortality of the soul is fundamental
doctrine of revealed religion. The ancient patri-
archs lived and died persuaded of this truth; and it
was In the hope of another life that they received
the promises When BALKAN asked of God that his
death might be like that of the just he did so in |
the hope and expectation of happy resurrection
But what of the soul of "Flossie" and of all an
imals?
The souls of beasts, or animal souls, are cor
porea; that is, they adhere to matter and dissolve
with matter Animals do not reason Reason is
an attribute of immortality. The cleverest ami
' iih0 VIC uoS, nave property OF tnelf own AKIN
TO thought, and would seem, at times, by their ac-
IONS to cross the divisionary line separating reason
rom their own peculiar domain of action man
alone, however, holds, has always held and will ever
lold, the right to think, reason and conclude
In no case has an animal been known to reason.
t attains its purpose by process seemingly men
al and which, TO the person of low mentality, like
he owner of NFossie" appears to be reason, but it
not
On this point theology and science are in har-
nony. Theologians have always held that animals
cannot reason; today science not only knows that
animals cannot reason, but it is able to explain that
mental process which, in dogs like "Flossie' gives