Tertullian — On the Soul 27
How then is the animal conceived? Is the substance of body and of soul cast together at once, or with one of them preceding? No — we say both are conceived and finished and perfected together, as they are also brought forth, nor does any moment intervene in the conception by which place is ordered. Think back from the last things to the first: if death is determined as nothing other than the disjoining of body and soul, the contrary of death — life — will be defined as nothing other than the joining of body and soul. If the disjoining befalls both substances together through death, the form of joining ought to have commanded this of a meeting that comes to both substances alike through life. Further, we acknowledge life from conception, because we claim the soul from conception; for from then is life, from which is soul. So they are fitted into life together who are separated into death together.
Nature is to be revered, not blushed at. Desire has fouled intercourse, not the condition. Excess is impure, not the state — since the state is blessed with God: grow and advance into a multitude. In this solemn office of the sexes that mixes male and female we know soul and flesh act together — soul by desire, flesh by work. Most faithful are the examples of the beginning. Flesh in Adam from mud. What else is mud than a rich liquor? From there will be the genital fluid. Soul from God's breath. What else is God's breath than vapor of spirit? From there will be what we breathe out through that fluid. When therefore in the beginning two diverse and divided things, mud and breath, had driven one man together, both substances already mixed in one also mixed their seeds and from then handed on the form for propagating the race, so that even now two, though diverse, yet also united, flow out together and, sown together in their furrow and field, sprout a man together from either substance. Therefore from one man is this whole overflow of souls, nature observing God's edict: grow and advance into a multitude. For in the preface of the one work — let us make man — the whole posterity was preached in the plural: and let them rule the fish of the sea. No wonder — the promise of a crop is in the seed.
Latin
[1] Quomodo igitur animal conceptum? Simulne conflata utriusque substantia corporis animaeque an altera earum praecedente? Immo simul ambas et concipi et confici, perfici dicimus, sicut et promi, nec ullum interuenire momentum in conceptu quo locus ordinetur. [2] Recogita enim de nouissimis prima: si mors non aliud determinatur quam disiunctio corporis animaeque, contrarium morti uita non aliud definietur quam coniunctio corporis animaeque; si disiunctio simul utrique substantiae accidit per mortem, hoc debet coniunctionis forma mandasse pariter obuenientis per uitam utrique substantiae. [3] Porro uitam a conceptu agnoscimus, quia animam a conceptu uindicamus; exinde enim uita, quo anima. Pariter ergo in uitam compinguntur quae pariter in mortem separantur. Tunc si alteri primatum damus, alteri secundatum, seminis quoque discernenda sunt tempora pro statu ordinis. Et quando collocabitur corporis semen, quando animae? [4] Immo si tempora seminum diuidentur, et materiae diuersae habebuntur ex distantia temporum. Nam etsi duas species confitebimur seminis, corporalem et animalem, indiscretas tamen uindicamus et hoc modo contemporales eiusdemque momenti. Ne itaque pudeat necessariae interpretationis. Natura ueneranda est, non erubescenda. Concubitum libido, non condicio foedauit. Excessus, non status est impudicus, siquidem benedictus status apud deum: crescite et in multitudinem proficite, excessus uero maledictus, adulteria et stupra et lupanaria.
[5] In hoc itaque sollemni sexuum officio quod marem ac feminam miscet, in concubitu dico communi, scimus et animam et carnem simul fungi, animam concupiscentia, carnem opera, animam instinctu, carnem actu. Vnico igitur impetu utriusque toto homine concusso despumatur semen totius hominis habens ex corporali substantia humorem, ex animali calorem. Et si frigidum nomen est anima Graecorum, quare corpus exempta ea friget? [6] Denique ut adhuc uerecundia magis pericliter quam probatione, in illo ipso uoluptatis ultimae aestu quo genitale uinis expellitur, nonne aliquid de anima quoque sentimus exire atque adeo marcescimus et deuigescimus cum lucis detrimento? Hoc erit semen animale, protinus ex animae destillatione, sicut et uirus illud corporale semen ex carnis defaecatione. [7] Fidelissima primordii exempla. De limo caro in Adam. Quid aliud limus quam liquor opimus? Inde erit genitale uirus. Ex afflatu dei anima. Quid aliud afflatus dei quam uapor spiritus? Inde erit quod per uirus illud efflamus. [8] Cum igitur in primordio duo diuersa atque diuisa, limus et flatus, unum hominem coegissent, confusae substantiae ambae iam in uno semina quoque sua miscuerunt atque exinde generi propagando formam tradiderunt, ut et nunc duo, licet diuersa, etiam unita pariter effluant pariterque insinuata sulco et aruo suo pariter hominem ex utraque substantia effruticent, in quo rursus semen suum insit secundum genus, sicut omni condicioni genitali praestitutum est. [9] Igitur ex uno homine tota haec animarum redundantia, obseruante scilicet natura dei edictum: crescite et in multitudinem proficite. Nam et in ipsa praefatione operis unius, faciamus hominem, uniuersa posteritas pluraliter praedicata est: et praesint piscibus maris. Nihil mirum repromissio segetis in semine.