[Footnote 8: Four different opinions have been entertained
concerning the origin of human souls: 1. That they are
eternal and divine. 2. That they were created in a separate
state of existence, before their union with the body. 3.
That they have been propagated from the original stock of
Adam, who contained in himself the mental as well as the
corporeal seed of his posterity. 4. That each soul is
occasionally created and embodied in the moment of
conception. - The last of these sentiments appears to have
prevailed among the moderns; and our spiritual history is
grown less sublime, without becoming more intelligible.]