Transient Bodies Are Only Subject To Destruction

Galen , In The Third Section Of His Book, "the Use Of The Limbs," Says Correctly That It Would Be In Vain To Expect To See Living Beings Formed Of The Blood Of Menstruous Women And The Semen Virile, Who Will Not Die, Will Never Feel Pain, Or Will Move Perpetually, Or Shine Like The Sun. This Dictum Of Galen Is Part Of The Following More General Proposition: Whatever Is Formed Of Matter Receives The Most Perfect Form Possible In That Species Of Matter; In Each Individual Case The Defects Are In Accordance With That Individual Matter.

The Corporeal Element In Man Is A Large Screen And Partition That Prevents Him From Perfectly Perceiving Abstract Ideals; This Would Be The Case Even If The Corporeal Element Were As Pure And Superior As The Substance Of The Spheres ; How Much More Must This Be The Case With Our Dark And Opaque Body. However Great The Exertion Of Our Mind May Be To Comprehend The Divine Being Or Any Of The Ideals, We Find A Screen And Partition Between God And Us.

All This Is Applicable To The Intellectual Faculties Of Man. There Is A Considerable Difference Between One Person And Another As Regards These Faculties, As Is Well Known To Philosophers.

The Knowledge Of God, The Formation Of Ideas, The Mastery Of Desire And Passion, The Distinction Between That Which Is To Be Chosen And That Which Is To Be Rejected, All These Man Owes To His Form.

No Form Remains Permanently In A Substance; A Constant Change Takes Place, One Form Is Taken Off And Another Is Put On.