Caulfield (fl. 1778)

An Essay on the Immateriality and Immortality of the Soul, and Its Instinctive Sense of Good and Evil

London

Printed for J. Dodsley

1778

"A thirst for knowledge, which can never be gratified, would not have been implanted; a mind which was to be chained to the earth, would never have been bent on the skies"

Even the pleasure that we feel from self-approbation, and the pains with which we are tormented, when condemned by our minds, in my opinion, clearly demonstrate that we are to be accountable in a future life. Our sense of right and wrong, proves that we are immortal--for we cannot suppose that the Almighty would have wantonly tortured us with stings of conscience, any more than he has, the beasts of the field, if we, like them, were to perish. If we had been designed, merely to animate these gross bodies--with an existence [end page 32] bounded by the life of man, his goodness would never have imbittered the sweets, that are within the reach of the beings of a day--like the brutes, we should have been permitted to taste every pleasure, unalloyed by any sense of guilt. A thirst for knowledge, which can never be gratified, would not have been implanted; a mind which was to be chained to the earth, would never have been bent on the skies. The Almighty--who does nothing in vain--would never have given us abilities to comprehend the order of our system--and amidst the meridian blaze, discover the planets in their career, if we were the animals of a century, only born to be----insensible. Why should such miserable reptiles, have been turned aside from the dull paths of life, and the sensual pleasures of the brute--to contemplate the heavens--on which their eyes are so soon to be for ever closed? It is impossible to reflect on our abilities and propensities, and yet doubt our being designed for immortality.
(pp. 32-3)

Body::Eating and Drinking::Thirst Plant::Implanting Fetters::Chain

Gale's Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO).

Only 1 entry in ESTC (1778).

See An Essay on the Immateriality and Immortality of the Soul, and Its Instinctive Sense of Good and Evil; in Opposition to the Opinions Advanced in the Essays Introductory to Dr. Priestley's Abridgment of Dr. Hartley's Observations on Man. to Which Are Added, Strictures on Dr. Hartley's Theory; ... With an Appendix, in Answer to Dr. Priestley's Disquisitions on Matter and Spirit. by the Author of the Letters in Proof of a Particular, As Well As a General Providence, Which Were Addressed to Dr. Hawkesworth ... Under the Signature of a Christian (London: Printed for J. Dodsley, 1778). <Link to ESTC>

07/18/2005

05/26/2011