To the Readers

We undertook the composition of the work at hand out of a discussion with certain students who claimed that the human soul differs from the soul of an animal only in degree. This discussion was prompted by a report in a newspaper concerning the rescue of a shipwrecked man by a dog during the burning of the Monastery. To refute these misguided opinions, we composed a brief study entitled “On the Relationship and Difference Between the Human Soul and the Animal Soul,” consisting of only ten pages, which we published. The work, however, proved inadequate to the subject matter and incomplete, and consequently too weak to persuade our student friends, who brought forward many objections. This resistance kindled our zeal, and we resolved upon a bolder decision: we determined to study the question more thoroughly and to write, as much as possible, with greater completeness. The present work is the fruit of that decision. In the composition of this work, we set as our goal to demonstrate who man is, and how great is the distinction that separates man from the animal. According to this goal, we have developed the subject matter of our writing.

We have divided the work into four parts, according to the different perspectives from which we examine the question. In the first part, we examine man somatologically and psychologically, and demonstrate who man is. In the second part, we demonstrate the nobility of the human race. In the third part, we treat the origin and nature of the soul. And in the fourth part, we demonstrate that this soul is immortal. This is the work we have labored upon. In writing this, we set as our goal to make known to those in ignorance what and how great is the chasm that stands separating man from the animal, and what kind and how great is the nobility of mankind. We shall count ourselves happy if the work is regarded as sufficient and fulfills the purpose for which it was written; for the approval of it will be the only moral recompense for our labors.

Kyme, Euboea, September 10, 1893.

† Nektarios, Metropolitan of Pentapolis