Agricola talks about the nature of the soul

1. (The Roman:) "See, the soul as a spiritual substance is completely a person, in figure as well as in all its limbs and components according to the body! And if this would not be so, she could not make the possible perfect use of its body. The hands of the soul are in the hands of the body, its feet in the feet of the body and so forth all parts of the soul in the corresponding parts of the body. If the body becomes ill, the soul is also present in the ill body parts and endeavours to heal such. If she does not succeed therein, she becomes inactive therein and the result thereof is, that such a body part becomes paralysed, nearly without feeling and thus inactive. This is a good and true teaching of all old and new psychologists. But the question is here how such wise found out about this secret. This question can be answered quite easily.

2. Firstly a sober thinker is guided by reason to it; for if the soul is the actual life principle of man in all his parts, it must be present in all parts of the body, since otherwise certain parts of the body would obviously not be alive and would be just as dead as the whole body is dead if the soul has left it. And as such the soul is, already based on the infallible reasons of a pure and healthy person, undoubtedly totally a person in spiritual substance and has its seat - nota bene - in the whole body.

3. However, somebody could say: 'Yes, this sounds quite good; but where are the tangible proofs for it, which can only serve as long-lasting witnesses for the full truth of reason?'