It may be
supposed “that the souls of brutes, being but so many
eradiations or effuxes from that source of life above, are, as soon
as ever those organized bodies of theirs, by reason of their
indisposition, become uncapable of being further acted upon by them,
then to be resumed again and retracted back to their original head
and fountain. Since it cannot be doubted but what creates
anything out of nothing, or sends it forth from itself, by free and
voluntary emanation, may be able either to retract the same back
again to its original source, or else to annihilate it at
pleasure. And I find that there have not wanted some among the
Gentile philosophers themselves who have entertained this opinion,
whereof Porphyry is one, λύεται
ἑκάστη
δύναμις
ἀλογος εἰς
τὴν ὅλην
ζωὴν τοῦ
πάντος.” Cudworth,
i. 35.