Further we
must have a distinct conception of corporeal nature, which is
given partly in this Second, and partly in the Fifth and Sixth
Meditations. And finally we should conclude from all this,
that those things which we conceive clearly and distinctly as
being diverse substances, as we regard mind and body to be,
are really substances essentially distinct one from the other;
and this is the conclusion of the Sixth Meditation. This is
further confirmed in this same Meditation by the fact that we
cannot conceive of body excepting in so far as it is
divisible, while the mind cannot be conceived of excepting as
indivisible. For we are not able to conceive of the half of a
mind as we can do of the smallest of all bodies; so that we
see that not only are their natures different but even in some
respects contrary to one another. I have not however dealt
further with this matter in this treatise, both because what I
have said is sufficient to show clearly enough that the
extinction of the mind does not follow from the corruption of
the body, and also to give men the hope of another life after
death, as also because the premises from which the immortality
of the soul may be deduced depend on an elucidation of a
complete system of Physics.
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