Don't wander off course. With every impulse and desire, do what is right. Always be careful to see clearly what each thought really is when it appears.
Not to wander out of the way, but upon every motion and desire, to perform that which is just: and ever to be careful to attain to the true natural apprehension of every fancy, that presents itself.
This answers the question about souls surviving after death for a while on their own. And here we can think about something else. Besides all the bodies buried in the earth, consider how many animals we and other creatures eat. Even though countless animals are consumed daily and buried in the bodies of those who eat them, the same space can hold them all. This happens because they change form — partly into blood, partly into air and fire. What is the real truth in all this? It is to divide things into what receives action (the material) and what causes action (the form).
This, upon a supposition that the souls after death do for a while subsist single, may be answered. And here, (besides the number of bodies, so buried and contained by the earth), we may further consider the number of several beasts, eaten by us men, and by other creatures. For notwithstanding that such a multitude of them is daily consumed, and as it were buried in the bodies of the eaters, yet is the same place and body able to contain them, by reason of their conversion, partly into blood, partly into air and fire. What in these things is the speculation of truth? to divide things into that which is passive and material; and that which is active and formal.