in the utmost extremity without sending any due proportion of spirits to the brain till they settle a little and grow more moderate Now when these motions are moderate they immediately send up some abundance of spirits to the brain which if they be in a convenient proportion are by the brain thrust into such nervs as are fit to receive them and swelling them they give motion to the muscles and tendons that are fastned to them and they move the whole body or what part of it is under command of those nervs that are thus fill'd and swell'd with spirits by the brain If the object was conformable to the living creature then the brain sends spirits into such nervs as carry the body to it but if otherwise it causes a motion of aversion or flight from it To the cause of this latter we give the name of Fear and the other that carries one to the pursuit of the object we call Hope Anger or Audacity is mixt of both these for it seeks to avoid an evil by embracing and overcoming it and proceeds out of abundance of spirits Now if the proportion of spirits sent from the heart be too great for the brain it hinders or perverts the due operation both in man and beast All which it will not be amiss to open a little more particularly and first why painful or displeasing objects contract the spirits and grateful ones contrariwise dilate them It is because the good of the heart consists in use that is in heat and moisture and 't is the nature of heat to dilate it self in moisture whereas cold and dry things contract the bodies they work on and such are enemies to the nature of men and beasts And accordingly experience as well as reason teaches us that all objects which be naturally good are hot and moist in due proportion to the creature that is affected and pleas'd with them Now the living creature being composed of the same principles as the world round about him is and the heart being an abridgment of the whole sensible creature and besides full of blood and that very hot it comes to pass that if any of these little extracts of the outward world arrive to the hot blood about the heart it works in this blood such like an effect as we see a drop of water falling into a glass of wine which is presently dispersed into a competent compass of the wine so that any little object must needs make a notable motion in the blood about the heart This motion according to the nature of the object will be either conformable or contrary unless it be so little a one as no effect will follow of it and then 't is of that kind which above we call'd indifferent If the ensuing effect be connatural to the heart there rises a motion of a certain fume about the heart which motion we call Pleasure and it never fails of accompanying all those motions which are good as Joy Love Hope and the like but if the motion be displeasing there is likewise a common sense of a heaviness about the heart which we call Grief and it is common to Sorrow Fear Hate and the like Now 't is manifest by experience that these motions are all different ones and strike against divers of those parts of of our body which encompass the heart out of which striking follows that the spirits sent from the heart affect the brain diversly and are by it convey'd into divers nerves and so set divers members in action Whence follows that certain Members are generally moved upon the motion of such a passion in the heart especially in beasts who have a more determinate course of working than man hath and if somtimes we see variety even in beasts upon knowledge of the circumstances we may easily guess at the causes of that variety The particularities of all which motions we remit Physicians and Anatomists advertising only that the fume of pleasure and the heaviness of grief plainly shew that the first motions participate of Dilatation and the latter of Compression Thus you see how by the senses a living creature becomes judg of what is good what bad for him which operation is perform'd more perfectly in Beasts and especially in those that live in the free air remote from humane conversation for their senses are fresh and untainted as nature made them than in Men. Yet without doubt nature has been as favourable in this particular to men as them were it not that with disorder and excess we corrupt and oppress our senses as appears evidently by the Story we have recorded of John of Leige as also by the ordinary practice of some Hermites in the Deserts who by their taste or smell would presently be inform'd whether the herbs and roots and fruits they met with were good or hurtful for them though they never before had had trial of them Of which excellency of the Senses there remains in us only some dim sparks in those qualities which we call sympathies and antipathies wherof the reasonss are plain out of our late discourse and are nothing else but a conformity or opposition of a living creature by some individual property of it to some body without it in such sort as its conformity or opposition to things by its specifical qualities is term'd natubal or against nature But of this we shall discourse more at large hereafter Thus it appears how the senses are seated in us principally for the end of moving us to or from objects that are good for or hurtful to us But though our Reader be content to allow this intent of nature in our three inferiour senses yet he may peradventure not be satisfied how the two more noble ones the Hearing and the Seeing cause such motions to or from objects as are requisite to be in living creatures for the preservation of them for may he say how can a man by only seeing an object or by hearing the sound of it tell what qualities it is imbued with or what motion of liking or disliking can be caus'd in his heart by his meer receiving the visible species of an object at his eyes or by his ears hearing some noise it makes And if there be no such motion there what should occasion him to prosecute or avoid that object When he tasts or smells or touches a thing he finds it sweet or bitter or stinking or hot or cold and is therwith either pleased or displeased but when he only sees or hears it what liking or disliking can he have of it in order to the preservation of his nature The solution of this difficulty may in part appear out of what we have already said But for the most part the objects of these two nobler senses move us by being joyn'd in the Memory with some other thing that either pleas'd or displeas'd some of the other three senses And from thence it is that the motion of going to imbrace the object or
I conceive his tale may be paâ—ed with that which tells us of another Fox who having his prey taken from him by an Eagle brought the next day a new prize into the same place having first rolled it in the fire so that some burning coals stuck upon it which the Eagle coming again and snatching from him carried to her Nest which was therby set on fire and the young ones falling down became the Foxes share instead of what their Dam had rob'd him of Such stories so quaintly contrived are fitter for a moral than for a natural Philosopher Aesope may entertain himself and his Disciples with them whiles all the reflection I shall make upon them is that when I hear any such finely order'd Tales I cannot doubt but they are well amended in the relation by those that tell them it being the inclination and custom of most men partly through a desire of having strange things come from them and partly out of a care that what they say may appear like truth and so be the easier believ'd to add circumstances beyond the truth of the matter which increasing at every new mans relation of the same accident for this humour reigns very generally at length so handsom and yet so strange a Tale is composed that the first Author or Teller of it wonders at it as well as others and cannot discern that his story begot this latter Therfore when one of these fine tales is proposed to speculate on and that I have no light to guide me in determining what part of them to allow and what to reject I think it better to expect an authentick record of it than to be too hasty at guesses leaving such as pretend ability in reading of Riddles to descant of the ways how such actions may be effected But for others that have a semblance of truth or happen ordinarily be they at the first sight never so like the operations of reason I doubt not but the causes of them may be reduced to the principles we have already established and the waies of performing them may be pitched upon by such discourses about them as we have made about those examples we have above produced Especially if the actions themselves were observ'd by one that could judg of them and were reported with a desire of expressing the truth nakedly as in it self it lieth for divers times it happens that men saying nothing but truth express it in such a manner and with such terms that the ignorant hearer conceives the thing quite another way than indeed it is meerly for the too emphatical expressions especially if the relator himself misses in conceiving the true causes of what he reports and so expresses it proportionably to those which he apprehends To conclude then this first branch we see how the Doubting the Resolving the Aiming the Inventing and the like which we experience in Beasts may by the vestigia's we have traced out be follow'd to their root as far as the division of Rarity and Density without needing repair to any higher principle but the wisdom of the Orderer and Architect of Nature in so admirably disposing and mingling these material gross and liveless bodies that strange effects and incomprehensible to them who will not look into their several joints may follow out of them for the good of the creature in whose behalf they are so order'd But before we go to the next point we cannot for bear mentioning their vanity as well as ignorance who to purchase the estimation of deeper knowers of Nature would have it believ'd that Beasts have compleat Languages as Men have to discourse with one another 〈◊〉 which they vanâ—d they had the intelligence of â—Tis 〈◊〉 that 〈◊〉 us speaking or talking is an operation of reason not because it flows immediately from reason but because by the command and direction of reason 't is form'd and is no where to be found without reason which those irrational Philosophers which pretended to understand the Language of Beasts allow'd them as well as the ability of talking to one another but it was because they had more pride than knowledg Of which rank one of the chief was Apollonius sirnamed from Thâ—na for if he had known how to look into the nature of beasts he would have perceiv'd the reason of the divers voices which the same beast in divers occasions forms This is evident that an Animals lungs and chest lying so neer as they do to his heart and all voice being made by the breath 's coming out of his mouth and through his windpipe it must necessarily follow that by the divers ordering of these instruments his voice will become divers and these instruments will be diversly order in him according to the divers motions of his heart that is by divers passions in him for so we may observe in our selvs that our breath is much changed by our being in passion And consequently as a beast is agitated by various passions he must needs utter variety of voices which cannot choose but make divers impressions in other beasts that have commerce with him whether they be of the same kind as he is or of a different And so we see that if a Dogg setts upon a Hog and the bitten hogs cry makes an impression in the other Hogs to come to their fellows rescue and in other Dogs to run after the crying Hog in like manner anger in a Dog makes snarling or barking pain whining desire another kind of barking and his joy of seeing a person that he uses to receive good by will break out in another kind of whining So in a Hen her divers passions work divers kinds of clocking as when she sees a Kite she hath one voice when she meets with meat another when she desires to gather her Chickens under her wings a third and so upon divers occasions a divers sound according to the divers ordering of her vocal instrustruments by the passion which presses her heart So that who would look curiously into the motions of the variously disposed vocal instruments of Beasts and into those of the spirits about a Beasts heart which motion we have shew'd is passion would be able to give account why every voice of that beast was such a one and what motion about the heart it were that caus'd it And as much may be observ'd in Men who in pains and griefs and other passions use to break out into those voices which we call Interjections and which signifie nothing in the Understanding of them that form them but to the Hearer are signs of the passion from whence they proceed which if a man heedfully mark in himself he will perceive that they are nothing else but the sudden eruptions of a great deal of breath together caus'd by some compression made within him by the pain he is in Which is the reason that the striving against groaning in certain occasions doth fick persons much harm for it disorders the natural motions of
man were nourish'd continually with such meat and greedily affected it which another had aversion from there would naturally follow much dislike between them unless some superiour regard should master this aversion of the sense And I remember to have seen two notable examples of it One in Spain of a Gentleman that had a horrour to Garlike who though he was very subject to the impressions of beauty could never wean himself from an aversion he had setled in him to a very handsome woman that used to eat much Garlike though to win him she forbore the use of that meat which to her was the most savoury of all others And the like I knew in England between two whereof one extremely loved Cheese and the other as much hated it and would fall into a strange agony and be reduced one would think to the point of death if by inadvertency or others trial of him he had swallow'd never so little of what the other would have quitted all meats else to live upon And not only such aversions as spring from differences of complexions in the constitutions of several animals cause these effects of fear and trembling and flying from those that make such impressions but even the seeing them angry and in fury doth the like for such passions alters the spirits and they issuing from the body of the animal in passion cannot choose but be receiv'd by another in a different manner than if they were of another temper Then if the one kind be agreeable to their nature the other must needs be displeasing And this may be the reason why Bees never sting such as are of a milde and gentle disposition and will never agree with others that are of a froward and angry nature And the same one may observe among Dogs And peradventure a mans fantasie may be raised to such a height of fury that the fiercest beast may be afraid to look on him and cannot endure that those mastering spirits which stream out of the mans eye should come into his so much they distemper his fantasie and therfore he will turn away from the man and avoid him Which discourse may be confirm'd by sundry examples of Lions and Bears that have run from angry and confident men and the like Since then a man that in his naturall hew gives no distast so much affrights fiercest beasts when he puts on his threatning looks 't is no wonder that beasts of a milder and softer nature should have fear of him setled in them when they never saw him otherwise than angry and working mischief to them And since their brood receive from their parents a nature easily moved to fear or anger by the sight of what moved them 't is not strange that at the first sight they should tremble or swell according as the inward wotion of the spirits affords Now if this hath render'd the Birds in the wild Islands afraid of men who otherwise would be indifferent to them 't is no marvel to see more violent effects in the Lambs aversion from the Wolf or in the Larks from the Hobbey since they peradventure have over and above the hurt they use to do them a deformity in their constitutions and therfore though a Lark will flie as well from a man as from a Hobbey yet because there is one cause more for his dislike against the Hobbey than against the man namely the deformity of their constitutions he will flie into the mans hand to avoid the Hawks talons To some of these causes all Antipathies may be reduced and the like reason may be given for the Sympathies we see between some creatures The little corporeities which issue from the one have such a conformity with the temper of the other that it is therby moved to joyn it self to the body from whence they flow and affects union with it in that way as it receives the impression If the smell please it the beast will always be smelling at it if the tast nothing shall hinder it from feeding upon it when it can reach it The Fishermen upon the bank over against Newfound Land report that there flocks about them a kind of Bird so greedy of the Fishes livers which they take there as that to come at and feed on them they will suffer the men to take them in their hands and not flie away as long as any of their desired meat is in their eye whence the French-men that fish there call them Happe Foyes. The like power a certain Worm has with Nightingales And thus you see how they are strong impressions upon sense and not any discouse of reason that govern Beasts in their actions For if their avoiding men did proceed from any sâ—gacity in their nature surely they would exercise it when they see that for a bit of meat they incur their destruction and yet neither the examples of their fellows kill'd before their eyes in the same pursuit not the blows which themselvs do feel can serve them for warning where the sense is so strongly affected but as soon as the blow that removed them is passed if it miss killing or laming them and they be gotten on wing again they 'l return to their prey as eagerly and as confidently as if nothing were there to hinder them This then being the true reason of all Sympathy and Antipathy we cannot admit that any Beasts should love or hate one another for any other cause than some of those we have touched All which are reduced to local motion and to material application of bodies of one nature to bodies of another and are as well trasmitted to their young ones as begotten in themselvs And as the satisfying of their sense is more prevalent in the Happe Foyes than the fear which from other grounds is begotten in their fantasy and so makes them approach to what the other would drive them from In like manner any aversion of the fantasy may be master'd not only by a more powerful agent upon the present sense but also by assuefaction and bringing into the fantasy with pleasing circumstances that object which before was displeasing and affrightful to it As we see that all sorts of Beasts or Birds if they be taken young may be â—amed and will live quietly together Dogs that are used to hunt and kill Deer will live friendly with one that is bred with them and that Fawn which otherwise would have bin afraid of them by such education grows confident and plays boldly with them Of which we can no longer remain in doubt if we will believe the story of a Tyger accounted the cruellest beast of all others who being shut up with a Deer that had bin bred with him from a Kid and from his being a Whelp and no meat given him used means to break prison when he was half starved rather than he would hurt his familiar friend You will not suspect that it was a moral consideration which made him so kind but the Deer
could strike it But it is evident say you out of these pretended causes of this motion that such atomes cannot move so swiftly downwards as a great dense body since their littleness and their rarity are both of them hindering to their motion Therefore this cannot be cause of that effect which we call gravity To this I reply That to have the atoms give these blows to a descending dense body 't is not requir'd that their natural and ordinary motion should be swifter then the descent of such a dense body but the very descent of it occasions their striking it for as it falls and makes it self a way through them they divide themselves before it and swell on the sides and a little above it and presently close again behind it and over it assoon as it is past Now that closing to hinder vacuity of space is a sudden one and thereby attains great velocity which would carry the atoms in that degree of velocity further than the descending body if they did not encounter with it in their way to retard them which encounter and tarding implyes such strokes upon the dense body as we suppose to cause this motion And the like we see in water into which letting a stone fall presently the water that was divided by the stone and swells on the sides higher then it was before closes upon the back of the descending stone and follows it so violently that for a while after it leaves a purling hole in the place where the stone went down till by the repose of the stone the water returns likewise to its quiet and so its superficies becomes even In the third place an enquiry occurs emergent out of this doctrine of the cause of bodies moving upwards and downwards Which is Whether there would be any natural motion deep in the earth beyond the activity of the Sun beams for out of these principles it follows that there would not and consequently there must be a vast Orb in which there would be no motion of gravity or levity For suppose the Sun beams might pierce a thousand miles deep into the body of the earth yet there would still remain a mass whose Diameter would be near 5000 miles in which there would be no gravitation nor the contrary motion For my part I shall make no difficulty to grant the inference as far as concerns motion caused by our Sun for what inconvenience would follow out of it But I will not offer at determining whether there may not be enclosed within that great sphere of earth some other fire such as the Chymists talk of an Archeus a Demogorgon seated in the centre like the heart in animals which may raise up vapours and boyl an air out of them and divide gross bodies into atoms and accordingly give them motions answerable to ours but in different lines from ours according as that fire or Sun is situated Since the far-searching Authour of the Dialogues de Mundo hath left that speculation undecided after he had touched upon it in the Twelfth knot of his first Dialogue Fourthly it may be objected that if such descending atoms as we have described were the cause of a bodies gravity and descending towards the center the same body would at divers times descend more and less swiftly for example after midnight when the atoms begin to descend more slowly the same body would descend more slowly in a like proportion and not weigh so much as it did in the heat of the day The same may be said of Summer and Winter for in Winter time the atoms seem to be more gross and consequently to strike more strongly upon the bodies they meet with in their way as they descend yet on the other side they seem in the Summer to be more numerous as also to descend from a greater height both which circumstances will be cause of a stronger stroke and more vigorous impulse on the body they hit And the like may be objected of divers parts of the World for in the Torrid Zone it will always happen as in Summer in places of the Temperate Zone and in the Polar times as in deepest winter so that no where there should be any standard or certainty in the weight of bodies if it depended upon so mutable a cause And it makes to the same effect that a body which lies under a thick rock or any other very dense body that cannot be penetrated by any great store of atoms should not be so heavy as it would be in the open and free air where the atoms in their compleat numbers have their full strokes For answer to these and such like instances we are to note first that 't is not so much the number or violence of the percussion of the striking atoms as the density of the thing strucken which gives the measure to the descending of a weighty body and the chief thing which the stroak of the atoms gives to a dense body is a determination of the way which a dense body is to cut to it self therfore multiplication or lessening of the atoms will not make any sensible difference betwixt the weight of one dense body where manya toms strike and an other body of the same density where but a few strike so that the stroak downwards of the descending atoms be greater then the stroke upwards of the ascending atoms and therby determines it to weigh to the Centrewards and not rise floating upwards which is all the sensible effect we can perceive Next we may observe that the first particulars of the objection do not reach home to enfeeble our doctrine in this particular although we admit them to be in such sort as they are proposed for they withal imply such a perpetual variation of causes ever favourable to our position that nothing can be infer'd out of them to repugne against it As thus When there are many atoms descending in the air the same general cause which makes them be many makes them also be light in proportion to their multitude And so when they are few they are heavy likewise when the atoms are light the air is rarified and thin and when they are heavy the air is thick And so upon the whole matter 't is evident that we cannot make such a precise and exact judgement of the variety of circumstances as to be able to determine when there is absolutely more cause of weight and when less And as we find not weight enough in either side of these opposite circumstances to turn the scales in our discourse so likewise we find the same indifference in experience it self for the weights we use do weigh equally in mysty weather and in clear and yet in rigor of discourse we cannot doubt but that in truth they do not gravitate or weigh so much though the difference be imperceptible to sense when the air is thick and foggy as when its pure and rarified Which thickness of the Medium when it arrives to a very
is drawn the more must needs follow Now if there be floating in this air any other atoms subject to the current which the air takes they must also come with it to the fire and by it be rarified and exported out of that little orb Hence it is that men with very good reason hold that fire airs a chamber as we term it that is purifies it both because it purifies it as wind doth by drawing a current of air into it that sweeps through it or by making it purifie it self by motion as a stream of water doth by running as also because those vapours which approach the fire are burned dissolv'd So that the air being noisome and unwholesome by reason of its grossness proceeding from its standing unmoved like a stagnation of dead water in a marish place the fire takes away that cause of annoyance By this very rule we learn that other hot things which participate the nature of fire must likewise in other respects have a resemblance in this quality And accordingly we see that hot loaves in a Bakers shop newly drawn out of the Oven are accounted to draw to them any infection which is in the air The like we say of onyons and other strong breathing substances which by their smel shew much heat in them In like manner 't is conceiv'd that Pigeons and Rabbets and Cats easily take infection by reason of their extraordinary warmth which they have in themselvs And this is confirm'd by the practise of Physitians who use to lay warm Pigeons newly killed to the feet wrists or heads of sick persons and young Puppies to their stomacks and somtimes certain hot gums to their navels to draw out such vapours or humours as infest the body for the same reason they hang amulets of arsenick sublimate dryed Toads or Spiders about their patients necks to draw to them venimous qualities from their bodie Hence also it is that if a man be strucken by a Viper or a Scorpion they use to break the body of the beast it self that stung him if they can get it upon the wound but if the beast be crawl'd out of their finding they do the like by some other venimous creature as I have seen a bruised Toad laid to the biting of a Viper And they manifestly perceive the apply'd body to swel with the Poyson suck'd out from the wound the patient to be reliev'd have less poyson in the same manner as by cupping-glasses the poyson is likewise drawn out from the wound so that you may see the reason of both is the very same or at least very like one another Only we are to note that the proper body of the beast out of which the venome was driven into the wound is more efficacious than any other to suck it out And the like is to be observ'd in all other kinds that such vapours as are to be drawn come better and incorporate faster in bodies of like nature then in those which have only the common conditions of heat and dryness the one of which serves to attract the other to fasten and incorporate into itself the moisture which the first draws to it So we see that water soaks into a dry body whence it was extracted almost inseparably and is hidden in it as when it rains first after hot weather the ground is presently dried after the shower Likewise we see that in most cements you must mingle a dust of the nature of the things which are to be cemented if you will have them bind strongly Out of this discourse we may yield a reason for those Magical operations which some attribute to the Devils assistance peradventure because mans wickedness hath bin more ingenious then his good will and so has found more means to hurt then to help nay when he hath arrived some way to help those very helps have undergone the same calumny because of the likeness which their operations have to the others Without doubt very unjustly if there be truth in the effects For where have we any such good suggestions of the enemy of mankind proposed to us that we may with reason believe he would duly settledly and constantly concur to the help and service of all those he so much hates as he must needs do if he be the Author of such effects Or is it not a wrong to Almighty God and to his careful instruments rather to impute to the Devil the aids which to some may seem supernatural then to them of whom we may justly believe and expect such good Offices and assistances I mean those operations both good and bad which ordinarily are called Magnetical though peradventure wrongfully as not having that property whcih denominates the loadstone One thing I may assure that if the reports be true they have the perfect imitation of nature in them As for example that the Weapons-Salve or the Sympathetick-Powder requires in the using it to be conserved in an equal moderate temper and that the weapon which made the wound or the cloth upon which the blood remains that issued from it be orderly and frequently dressed or else the wounded person will not be cured Likewise the steam or spirits which at the giving of the wound enter'd into the pores of the weapon must not be driven out of it which will be done by fire and so when it is heated by holding over coals you may see a moisture sweat out of the blade at the opposite side to the fire as far as it entred into the wounded persons body which being once all sweated out you shall see no more the like steam upon the sword neither must the blood be washed out of the bloudy cloth for in these cases the powder or salve will work nothing Likewise if there be any excess either of heat or cold in keeping the medicated weapon or cloth the patient feels that as he would do if the like excess where in any remedy that were applyed to the wound it self Likewise if the medicated weapon or bloudy cloth be kept too close no effect follows Likewise the natures of the things used in these cures are of themselves soveraign for healing the like griefs though peradventure too violent if they were apply'd in body without much attenuation And truly if we will deny all effects of this kind we must in a manner renounce all humane faith men of all sorts and qualities and many of them such in my own knowledge as I cannot question their prudence in observing or their sincerity in relating having very frequently made experience of such medicines and all affirming after one fashion to have found the same effects Adde to these the multitude of other like effects appearing or conceited to appear in other things In some Countries 't is a familiar disease with Kine to have a swelling in the soles of their feet and the ordinary cure is to cut a turf upon which they have troden with their sore foot and to hang
a strong bituminous smel in them All which circumstances shew that this electrical virtue consists in a certain degree of rarity or density of the bodies unctuous emanations Now if these refined and viscuous thrids of Jet or Amber in their streaming abroad meet with a piece of straw or hay or dried leaf or some such light and spungy body 't is no marvel if they glew themselvs to it like birdlime and that in their shrinking back by being condens'd again and repuls'd through the coldness of the air they carry it along with them to their entire body Which they that only see the effect and cannot penetrate into a possibility of a natural cause therof are much troubled withal And this seems to me to bear a fairer semblance of truth then what Cabeus delivers for the cause of Electrical attractions whose speculation herein though I cannot allow for solid yet I must for ingenious And certainly even errours are to be commended when they are witty ones and proceed from a casting-further-about then the beaten Tract of verbal learning or rather terms which explicate not the nature of the thing in question He sayes that the coming of straws and such other light bodies to Amber Jet and the like proceeds from a wind raised by the forcible breaking out of subtile emanations from the Electrical bodies into the air which brings those light bodies along with it to the Electrical ones But this discourse cannot hold For First 't is not the nature of unctuous emanation generally speaking to cause smart motions singly of themselvs Secondly although they should raise a wind I do not comprehend how this wind should drive bodies directly back to the source that raised it but rather any other way and so consequently should drive the light bodies it meets with in its way rather from then towards the Electrical body Thirdly if there should be such a wind raised and it should bring light bodies to the Electrical ones yet it could not make them stick therto which we see they do turn them which way you will as though they were glew'd together Neither do his experiences convince any thing For what he saies that the light bodies are somtimes brought to the Electrical body with such a violence that they rebound back from it and then return again to it makes rather against him for if wind were the cause of their motion they would not return again after they had leaped back from the Electrical body no more then we can imagine that the wind it self doth The like is of his other experience when he observ'd that some little grains of Saw-dust hanging at an Electrical body the furthermost of them not only fell off but seem'd to be driven away forcibly for they did not fall directly down but side-wayes and besides flew away with a violence and smartness that argued some strong impulse The reason wherof might be that new emanations might smite them which not sticking and fast'ning upon them wherby to draw them nearer must needs push them further or it might be that the emanations to which they were glew'd shrinking back to their main body the later grains were shoulder'd off by others that already besieg'd the Superficies and then the emanations retiring swiftly the grains must break off with a force or else we may conceive it was the force of the air that bore them up a little which made an appearance of their being driven away as we see feathers and other light things descend not straight down CHAP. XX. Of the Loadstones generation and its particular motions THere is yet remaining the great Mystery of the Loadstone to discourse of Which all Authors both ancient and modern have agreed upon as an undeniable example and evidence of the shortness of mans reach in comprehending and of the impossibility of his reason in penetrating into and explicating such secrets as nature hath a mind to hide from us Wherfore our Reader I am sure will not in this subject expect clear satisfaction or plain demonstrations at our hands but will judg we have fairly acquitted our selves if what we say be any whit plausible Therefore to use our best indeavours to content him let us reflect upon the disposition of parts of this habitable Globe wherof we are Tenants for life And we shall find that the Sun by his constant course under the Zodiack heats a great part of it unmeasurably more then he doth the rest And consequently that this Zodiack being in the mid'st between two as it were ends which we call the Poles these Poles must necessarily be extremely cold in respect of the Torrid Zone for so we call that part of the earth which lies under the Zodiack Now looking into the consequence of this we find that the Sun or the Suns heat which reflects from the earth in the Torrid Zone must rarifie the air extremely and according to the nature of all heat and fire must needs carry away from thence many parts of the air and earth sticking to that heat in such sort as we have formerly declared Whence it follows that other air must necessarily come from the Regions towards both the Poles to supply what is carried away from the middle as is the course in other fires and as we have explicated above Especially considering that the air which comes from the Polewards is heavier then the air of the Torrid Zone and therfore must naturally press to be still nearer the earth and so as it were shoulders on the air of the Torrid Zone towards the circumference by rolling into its place and this in great quantities and consequently the polar air must draw a great train after it Which if we consider the great extent of the Torrid Zone we shall easily perswade our selvs must reach on each side to the very Pole For taking from Archimedes that the Spherical Superficies of a portion of a Sphere is to the Superficies of the whole Sphere according as the parts of the axis of that Sphere comprised within the said portion is to the whole axis and considering that in our case the part of the axis comprised within the Torrid Zone is to the whole axis of the earth in about the proportion of 4. to 10 it must of necessity follow that a fire or great heat reigning in so vast an extent will draw air very powerfully from the rest of the world Neither let any man apprehend that this course of the Sun 's elevating so great quantities of Atoms in the Torrid Zone should hinder the course of gravity there For first the medium is much rarer in thâ— Torrid Zone then in other parts of the earth and therfore the force of the descending Atoms needs not be so great there as in other places to make bodies descend there as fast as they do elsewhere Secondly there being a perpetual supply of fresh air from the Polar parts streaming continually into the Torrid Zone it must of
necessity happen that in the air there come Atoms to the Torrid Zone of that grossness that they cannot suddenly be so much rarified as the subtiler parts of air that are there and therfore the more those subtiler parts are rarified and therby happen to be carried up the stronger and the thicker the heavier Atoms must descend And thus this concourse of air from the Polar parts maintains gravity under the Zodiack where otherwise all would be turned into fire and so have no gravity Now who considers the two Hemispheres which by the Equator are divided will find that they are not altogether of equal complexions but that our Hemisphere in which the Northpole is comprised is much dryer then the other by reason of the greater continent of land in this and the vast tract of Sea in the other and therfore the supply which comes from the divers Hemispheres must needs be of different natures that which comes from towards the Southpole being compared to that which comes from towards the North as the more wet to the more dry Yet of how different complexions soever they be you see they are the emanations of one and the same body Not unlike to what nature hath instituted in the rank of Animals among whom the Male and Female are so distinguish'd by heat and cold moisture and drought that nevertheless all belongs but to one nature and that in degrees though manifestly different yet so near together that the body of one is in a manner the same thing as the body of the other Even so the complexions of the two Hemispheres are in such sort different in the same qualities that nevertheless they are of the same nature and are unequal parts of the same body which we call the Earth Now Alchimists assure us that if two extractions of one body meet together they will incorporate one with the other especially if there be some little difference in the complexion of the extractions Whence it follows that these two streams of air making up one continuate floud of various currents â—om one end of the world to the other each stream that come to the Equator from its own Pole by the extraction of the Sun and that is still supply'd with new matter flowing from its own Pole to the Equator before the Sun can sufficiently rarifie and lift up the Atomes that came first Perpendicularly under its beams as it uses to happen in the effects of Physical causes which cannot be rigorously ajusted but must have some latitude in which nature inclines ever rather to abundance then to defect will pass even to the other pole by the conduct of his fellow in case he be by some occasion driven back homewards For as we see in a Bowl or Pail full of water or rather in a Pipe through which the water runs along if there be a little hole at the bottome or side of it the water will wriggle and change its course to creep out at that Pipe especially if there be a little spiggot or quill at the outside of the hole that by the narrow length of it helps in some sort as it were to suck it So if any of the files of the army or floud of Atoms sucked from one of the Poles to the Equator do there find any gaps or chinks or lanes of retiring files in the front of the other poles battalia of atomes they will press in there in such mannner as we have above declared that water doth by the help of a label of cotten and as is exemplyfied in all the attractions of venime by venimous bodies wherof we have given many examples above and they will go along with them the course they go For as when a thick short gilded ingot of silver is drawn out into a long subtile wyre the wyre continuing still perfectly guilded all over manifestly shews that the outside and the inside of the ingot strangely meet together and intermix in the drawing out so this little stream which like an Eddy current runs back from the Equator towards its own Pole will continue to the end still tincted with the mixture of the other Poles atoms it was incorporated with at his coming to the Equator Now that some little rivolets of air and atoms should run back to their own Pole contrary to the course of their main stream will be easy enough to conceive if we but consider that at certain times of the year winds blow more violently and strongly from some determinate part or Rombe of the world then they do at other times and from other parts As for example our East India Marriners tell us of the famous Monsones they find in those parts whch are strong winds that reign constantly six moneths of the year from one polewards and the other six moneths from the other pole beginning precisely about the Suns entring into such a sign or degree of the Zodiac and continue til about its entrance into the opposite degree And in our parts of the world certain smart Easterly or Northeasterly winds reign about the end of March and beginning of April when it seems that some snows are melted by the spring heats of the Sun And other winds have their courses in other seasons upon other causes All which evidently convince that the course of the air and vapours from the poles to the Equator cannot be so regular and uniform but that many impediments and crosses light in the way to make breaches in it and therby to force it in some places to an opposite course In such sort as we see happens in eddy waters and in the course of a tide wherin the stream ruÌ„ning swiftly in the middle beats the edges of the water to the shore and therby makes it run back at the shore And hence we may conclude that although the main course of air atoms for example from North to South in our Hemisphere can never fail of going on towards the Equator constantly at the same rate in gross nevertheless in several particular little parts of it and especially at the edges of those streams that are driven on faster then the rest by an extraordinary and accidental violent cause it is variously interrupted and somtimes intirely stop'd and other times even driven back to the Northwards And if peradventure any man should think that this will not fall out because each stream seems to be always coming from his one Pole to the Equator and therfore will oppose and drive back any bodies that with less force should strive to swim against it or if they stick to them will carry them back to the Equator We answer that we must not conceive the whole air in body doth every where equally incroach from the Polewards upon the Torrid Zone but as it were in certain brooks or rivulets according as the contingency of all causes put together makes it fall out Now then out of what we have said it will follow that since all
little parts of the substance which we chew in our Teeth and which passes over it You may observe how if we take any herb or fruit and having chop'd or beaten it small put it into a wooden dish of water and squeeze it a little the juice communicating and mingling it self with the water infects it with the tast of it self and remaining a while in the bowl sinks by little and little into the very pores of the wood as is manifest by its retaining a long time after the tast and smell of that herb In like manner nature hath taught us by chewing our meat and by turning it in our mouths and pressing it a little that we may the more easily swallow it to imbue our Spittle with such little parts as easily diffuse themselvs in water And then our Spittle being continuate to the moysture within our tongue in such sort as we declared of the moisture of the earth that soaks into the root of a plant and particularly in the sinews of it must of necessity affect those little sensible strings with the qualities which these petty bodies mixed every where with the moisture are themselves imbued withal And if thou ask what motions or qualities these be Physitians to whom it belongs most particularly to look into them will tell you that some dilate the tongue more and some less as if some of these little bodies had an aereal and others a watry disposition and these two they express by the names of sweet and fatty That some contract and draw the tongue together as choaky and rough things do most and next to them crabby and immature sharpness That some corrode and pierce the Tongue as Salt and sowre things That bitter things search the outside of it as if they swept it and that other things as it were prick it as spices and hot drinks Now all these are sensible material things which admit to be explicated clearly by the varieties of rarity and density concurring to their compositions and are so proportionable to such material instruments as we cannot doubt but they may be throughly declared by our former principles The next Element above Water is Air which our Nostrils being our Instrument to suck in we cannot doubt but what affects a man by his Nose must come to him in Breath or Air. And as humidity receives grosser and weightier parts so those which are more subtile and light rise up into the Air and these we know attain to this lightness by the commixtion of fire which is hot and dry And therfore we cannot doubt but that the nature of Smells is more or less tending to heat and drought which is the cause that their commixtion with the brain proves comfortable to it because of its own disposition it is usually subject to be too moist and too cold Whether there be any immediate instrument of this sense to receive the passion or effect which by it other bodies make upon us or whether the sense it self be nothing but a passage of these exhalations and little bodies to the brain fitly accommodated to discern what is good or hurtful for it and accordingly to move the body to admit or reject them it imports not us at present to determine let Physicians and Anatomists resolve that question Whiles it suffices us to understand that the operations of bodies by Odours upon our sense are perform'd by real and solid parts of the whole substance which are truly material though very little bodies and not by imaginary qualities And those bodies when they proceed out of the same things that yield also tastive particles although without such material violence and in a more subtile manner must of necessity have in them the same nature which those have that affect the tast and they must both of them affect a man much alike by his tast by his smell and so are very proportionate to one another excepting in those properties which require more cold or liquidity then can well stand with the nature of a smell And accordingly the very names which men have imposed to express the affections of both many times agree as savour and sweet which are common both to the smell and tast the strongest of which we see oftentimes make themselves known as well by the one as by the other sense and either of them in excess will turn a mans stomack And the Physicians that write of these senses find them very conformable whence it happens that the losing of one of them is the losse also of the other And experience teaches us in all Beasts that the Smell is given to living creatures to know what meats are good for them and what are not And accordingly we see them still smell for the most part at any unknown meat before they touch it which seldom fails of informing them rightly nature having provided this remedy against the gluttony which could not choose but follow the convenient disposition and temper of their parts and humours through which they often swallow their meat greedily and suddenly without expecting to try it first by their tast Besides that many meats are so strong that their very tasting them after their usual manner would poison or at least greatly annoy them and therfore nature hath provided this sense to prevent their tast which being far more subtile then their tast the final atoms by which it is perform'd are not so very noxious to the health of the Animal as the other grosser atoms are And doubtlesly the like use men would make of this sense had they not on the one side better means then it to know the qualities of meats and therfore this is not much reflected on And on the other side were they not continually stuff'd and clogg'd with gross vapours of streamy meats which are daily reeking from the Table and their stomacks and permit not purer Atomes of bodies to be discerned which require clear and uninfected organs to take notice of them As we see it fare with doggs who have not so true and sensible noses when they are high fed and lie in the kitchin amidst the steams of meat as when they are kept in their kennel with a more spare diet fit for hunting One full example this age affords us in this kind of a man whose extremity of fear wrought upon him to give us this experiment He was born in some Village of the Countrey of Liege and therfore among strangers he is known by the name of John of Liege I have been informed of this story by several whom I dare confidently believe that have had it from his own mouth and have question'd him with great curiosity particularly about it When he was a little boy there being wars in the Countrey as that State is seldom without molestations from abroad when they have no distempers at home which is an inseparable effect of a Countries situation upon the Frontiers of powerful neighbouring Princes that are at variance the
aversion from it immediately proceeds As when a dog sees a man that uses to give him meat the species of the man coming into his fansie calls out of his memory the others which are of the same nature and are former participations of that man as well as this fresh one is but these are joyn'd with spicies of meat because at other times they did use to come in together and therfore the meat being a good unto him and causing him in the manner we have said to move towards it it will follow that the dog will presently move towards that man and express a contentedness in being with him And this is the ground of all assuefaction in beasts and of making them capable of receiving any instructions CHAP. XXXV Of the material instruments of Knowledge and Passion Of the several effects of Passions Of Pain and Pleasure and how the vital spirits are sent from the brain into the intended parts of the body without mistaking their way TO conclude this great business which concerns all the mutations and motions that are made by outward Agents in a living creature it will not be amiss to take a short and general survey of the material instruments which concur to this effect Wherof the brain being principal or at least the first and next of the principals we may take notice that it contains towards the middle of its substance four concavities as some count them but in truth these four are but one great concavity in which four as it were divers rooms may be distinguished The nether part of these concavities is very unequal having joyn'd to it a kind of a net wrought by the entangling of certain little arteries and of small emanations from a Sinus which are interwoven together Besides this it is full of kernels which make it yet more uneven Now two rooms of this great concavity are divided by a little body somwhat like a skin though more fryable which of it self is clear but there it is somwhat dim'd by reason that hanging a little slack it somwhat shrivels together and this Anatomists call Septum lucidum or speculum and 't is a different body from all the rest that are in the brain This transparent body hangs as it were straightwards from the forehead towards the hinder part of the head and divides the hollow of the brain as far as it reaches into the right and the left ventricles This part seems to me after weighing all circumstances and considering all the conveniencies and fitnesses to be that and only that in which the fansie or common sense resides though Monsir des Cartes has rather chosen a kernel to place it in The reasons of my assertions are First that it is in the middle of the brain which is the most convenient situation to receive the messages from all our body that come by nervs some from before and some from behind Secondly that with its two sides it seems conveniently opposed to all such of our senses as are double the one of them sending its little messengers or atomes to give it advertisements on one side the other on the other side so that it is capable of receiving impression indifferently from both Again by the nature of the body it seems more fit to receive all differences of motion than any other body near it It is also most conformable to the nature of the eye which being our principal outward sense must needs be in the next degree to that which is elevated a strain above our outward senses Fifthly it is of a singular and peculiar nature wheras the kernels are many and all of them of the same condition quality and appearance Sixthly it is seated in the very hollow of the brain which of necessity must be the place and receptacle where the specieses and similitudes of things reside and where they are moved and tumbled up and down when we think of many things And lastly the situation we put our head in when we think earnestly of any thing favours this opinion for then we hang our head forwards as it were forcing the specieses to settle towards our forehead that from thence they may rebound and work upon this diaphanous substance This then supposed let us consider that the atomes or likenesses of bodies having given their touch upon this Septum or Speculum do thence retire back into the concavities and stick as by chance it happens in some of the inequalities they encounter with there But if some wind or forcible steam should break into these caves and as it were brush and sweep them over it must follow that these little bodies will loosen themselvs and begin to play in the vapour which fills this hollow place and so floting up and down come anew to strike and work upon the Speculum or fantasy Which being also a soluble body many times these atomes striking on it carry some little corporeal substance from it sticking upon them whence ensues that they returning again with those tinctures or participations of the very substance of the fantasy make us remember not only the objects themselvs but also that we have thought of them before Further we are to know that all the nervs of the brain have their beginnings not far from this speculum of which we shall more particularly consider two that are call'd the sixth pair or couple which pair has this singularity that it begins in a great many little branches that presently grow together and make two great ones contain'd within one skin Now this being the property of a sense which requires to have many fibers in it that it may be easily and vigorously strucken by many parts of the object lighting upon many parts of those little fibers it gives us to understand that this sixth couple hath a particular nature conformable to the nature of an extern sense and that the Architect who placed it there intended by the several conduits of it to give notice to some part they go to of what passes in the brain And accordingly one branch of this nerve reaches to the heart not only to the Pericardium as Galen thought but even to the very substance of the heart it self as later Anatomists have discover'd by which we plainly see how the motion which the senses make in the Speculum may be derived down to the heart Now therfore let us consider what effects the motions so convey'd from the brain will work in the heart First remembring how all that moves the heart is either pain or pleasure though we do not use to call it pain but grief when the evil of sense moves us only by memory and not by being actually in the sense and then calling to mind how pain as Naturalists teach us consists in some division of a nerve which they call Solutio continui and must be in a nerve for that no solution can be the cause of pain without sense nor sense be without nerves we may conclude
thither the objects that come into the brain and this we shall find carries back to the brain the passion or motion which by the object is rais'd in the heart Concerning this part of our body you are to note that it is a musculous membrane which in the middle of it hath a sinewy circle wherto is fastned the case of the heart call'd the Pericardium This Diaphragma is very sensible receiving its vertue of feeling from the above mention'd branch of the sixth couple of nervs and being of a trembling nature is by our respiration kept in continual moon and flaps upon all occasions as a drum head would do if it were slack and moist or as a sail would do that were brought into the wind Out of this description of it 't is obvious to conceive that all the changes of motion in the heart must needs be express'd in the Diaphragma For the heart beating upon the Pericardium and the Pericardium being join'd to the Diaphragma such jogs and vibrations must needs be imprinted and ecchoed there as are formed in the heart which from thence cannot chuse but be carried to the brain by the sixth couple of nervs And thus it comes about that we feel and have sensation of all the passions that are moved in our heart Which peradventure is the reason why the Greeks call this part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and from it derive the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that in Latine signifies Sapere with Us to Savour or to like for by this part of our body we have a liking of any object or a motion of inclination towards it from whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is derived by composition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a prudent man is he that likes and is moved to compass wholsom and good things Which Etymology of the word seems to me more natural than from the phrensy from whence some derive it because a great distemper or inflammation in the Diaphragma often causes that disease Now because the object is covey'd from the brain to the heart some part of its way by the same passage as the motion of the heart is re-convey'd back to the brain it must of necessity follow that who is more attentive to outward sense less considers or reflects on his passion and who is more attentive to observe and be govern'd by what passes in his heart is less wrought upon by external things For if his fantasy draws strongly to it the emanations from outward agents upon the senses the stream of those emanations will descend so strongly from the overfill'd fantasy into the heart that it will hinder the ascent of any fewer and weaker spirits by the same pipe But if the current set strongest upwards from the heart by the Diaphragma to the brain then it will so fill the pipe by which it ascends that little of a weaker tide can make a contrary eddy water in the same channel And by this means nature effects a second pleasure or pain in a living creature which moves it oftentimes very powerfully in absence of the primary object as we may observe when thinking of any pleasing or displeasing action we find about our heart a motion which entices us to it or averts us from it For as the first pleasure was occasioned by the stroke which the object apply'd to the outward sense made upon the fantasy which can judg of nothing without being strucken by it so the second pleasure springs from the spirits moved in the heart by messengers from the brain which by the Diaphragma rebound a stroke back again upon the fantasy And from hence it proceeds that Memory delights or afflicts us and that we think of past things with sweetness or with remorse and therby assuefaction is wrought in beasts as far as the appetitive part contributes therto to perfect what was begun in their cognoscitive part by the ingression of corporeal specieses into their fantasy in order to the same effect as we have touch'd before But now let us examine how so small a quantity of a body as comes from an object into our sense can be the cause of so great a motion about our heart To which purpose we are to remember that this motion is perform'd in the most subtile and thin substance that can be imagin'd They are the vital spirits that do all this work which are so subtile so agil and so hot that they may in some sort be termed fire Now if we reflect how violent fire is we need not wonder at the suddain and great motion of these passions But we must further take notice that they are not in the greatest excess but where the living creature hath been long inured and exercised to them either directly or indirectly so that they arrive not to that pitch so much out of the power of the agent as out of the preparation and disposition of the patient As when cold water hath been often heated by extinguishing red hot irons in it after some repetitions a few quenchings will reduce it from cold to boiling that at the first would scarce have made it lukewarm and accordingly we see a heart that for a long time hath loved and vehemently desired enjoying is transported in a high degree at the least sight and renuance of strokes from its beloved object and is as much dejected upon any the least deprivation of it For to such an object the living creature is hurried away by a force much resembling the gravity or celerity of a dense body that is set on runing down a steep hill to which the only taking away of a weak let or the least stop gives a precipitate course not out of the force of what is done to it but out of the force which was formerly in the thing though for the present it lay there undiscovered and so likewise in these cases the object rather gives the occasion of the violent motion than the force or power to it These things being thus determined some peradventure may ask how it comes to pass that the spirits which cause motion being sent on their errand by the brain alwayes hit the right way and light duly into those very sinews which move the living creature according as is requisite for its nature Since all the passages are open what is it that governs them so as they never mistake and the animal is never driven towards harm in stead of flying from it Who is their guide in these obscure paths But it were to impute ignorance to the Maker to think that he framed all the passages alike and so every one of them promiscuously apt to receive into them all sorts of spirits however they be moved And therfore we may assure our selvs that since in these diversities of occasions there are likewise divers kinds of motions from the heart either there is proportionable to them divers kinds of passages fit to receive and entertain
the first the doubting of Beasts and their long wavering somtimes between objects that draw them several ways and at last their resolving upon some one of them and their steady pursuance of that afterwards these will not be matter of hard digestion to him that shall have well relished meditated on the contents of the last Chapter For 't is evident that if several objects of different natures at the same time present themselvs to a living creature they must of necessity make divers impressions in the heart of it proportionable to the causes from whence they proceed so that if one of them be a motion of hope and the other of fear it cannot choose but follow thence that what one of them begins the other will presently break off By which means it will come to pass that in the Beasts heart there must needs be such waverings as we may observe in the Sea when at the beginning of a tide of flood it meets with a bank that checks the coming in of the waves and for a while bears them back as fast as they press upon it they offer at getting over it and by and by retire back again from the steepness of it as though they were apprehensive of some danger on the other side and then again attempt it afresh and thus continue labouring one while one way another while another till at length the floud increasing the water seems to grow bolder and breaks amain over the banks and then flows on till it meets with another that resists it as the first did And thus you see how the Sea can doubt and resolve without any discoursing In like manner it fares with the heart of a Beast whose motions steer the rest of the body when it beats betwen hope and fear or between any other two contrary passions without requiring any other principles from whence to deduce it than those we have already explicated But now to speak of their invention I must confess that among several of them there appears so much cunning in laying of their plots which when they have compassed they seem to grow careless and unbend their intention as having obtain'd what with earnestness they desired that one might think they wrought by design and had a distinct view of an end for the effecting of which they used discourse to choose the likeliest means To this purpose the subtilties of the Fox are of most note They say he uses to lie as if he were dead therby to make Hens and Ducks come boldly to him That in the night when his body is unseen he will fix his eyes upon poultry and so make them come down to him from their roost That to rid himself of the fleas that afflict him in the Summer he will sink his body by little and little into the water while the fleas creep up to his head to save themselves from drowning and from thence to a bough he holds in his mouth and will then swim away leaving them there That to cousen the Badger of his earth he will piss in it as knowing that the rank smell of his Urine will drive the other cleanlier beast to quit it That when Dogs are close upon him and catching at him he will piss upon his Tail and by firking that up and down will endeavour you may believe to make their eyes smart and so retard their pursuit that he may escape from them And there are particular stories that express yet more cunning than all these As of a Fox that being sore hunted hang'd himself by the teeth among dead vermin in a Warren till the Doggs were pass'd by him and had lost him Of another that in like distress would take into his mouth a broom bush growing upon a sleep cliff on the side hand neer his Den which had another way to it easie enough of access and by help of that would securely cast himself into his hole while the Dogs that follow'd him hastily and were ignorant of the danger would break their necks down the rocks 'T is said that in Thracia the Countrey people know whether the rivers that are frozen in the winter will bear them or no by marking whether the Foxes venture boldly over them or retire after they have lai'd their ears to the Ice to listen whether they can hear the noise of the water running under it from whence you may imagine they collect that if they hear the current of the stream the Ice must needs be thin and consequently dangerous to trust their weight to it And to busie my self no longer with their subtilties I will conclude with a famous tale of one of these crafty animals that having kill'd a Goose on the other side of the river and being desirous to swim over with it to carry it to his den before he would attempt it lest his prey might prove too heavy for him to swim withal and so he might lose it he first weigh'd the Goose with a piece of wood and then tri'd to carry that over the river whiles he left his Goose behind in a safe place which when he perciev'd he was able to do with ease he then came back again and ventured over with his heavy bird They say it is the nature of the Iacatray to hide it self and imitate the voice of such beasts as it uses to prey upon which makes them come to him as to one of their own fellows and then he seises on and devours them The Iaccal that has a subtile sent hunts after beasts and in the chase by his barking guides the Lion whose nose is not so good till they overtake what they hunt which peradventure would be too strong for the Iaccall but the Lion kills the quarry and having first fed himself leaves the Iaccal his share and so between them both by the ones dexterity and the others strength they get meat for nourishment of them both Like stories are recorded of some Fishes And every day we see the invention of Beasts to save themselvs from catching as Hares when they are hunted seeks always to confound the sent somtimes by taking hedges otherwhiles waters somtimes running among sheep and other beasts of stronger sent somtimes making doubles and treading the same path over and over and somtimes leaping with great jumps hither and thither before they betake themselves to their rest that so the continuateness of the sent may not lead doggs to their form Now to penetrate into the causes of these and of such like actions we may remember how we shew'd in the last Chapter that the beating of the heart works two things one is that it turns about the specieses or little corporeities streaming from outward objects which remain in the memory the other is that it is always pressing on to some motion or other Out of which it happens that when the ordinary ways of getting victuals or escaping from enemies fail a creature whose constitution is active it lights somtimes though
Their stories tell us that at their first arrival upon those coasts where it seems men had never been the birds would not flie away but suffer'd the Mariners to take them in their hands nor the beasts which with us are wild would run from them but their discourteous guests used them so hardly as they soon chang'd their confidence into distrust and aversion and by little and little grew by their commerce with men and receiving injuries from them to be as wild as any of the like kind in our parts From the Dams and Sires this apprehension and fear at the sight of men so deeply rooted in them is doubtless transmitted to their young ones for it proceeds out of the disposition of the body and the passion immediately made in the heart and that is as truly a material motion as any whatever can be and must have setled material instruments fitted to it if it be constant as well as any other natural operation whatever And this passion of the heart proceeds again from a perpetual connexion of the two objects in the memory which being a perpetually constant thing is as true a quality of that beasts brain in whom it is as the being of a quick or dull apprehension or apt to know one kind of meat from another which is natural to the whole species or any other quality whatever residing in that beast Wherfore 't is no wonder that it passes by generation to the off-spring which is a thing so common even in mankind as there can be no doubt of it and is at first made by a violent cause that greatly alters the body and consequently the seed must be imbew'd with a like disposition and so it passes together with the nature of the Sire or of the Dam into the brood From hence proceeds that children love the same meats and exercises that their Fathers and Mothers were affected with and fear the like harms This is the reason why a Grand-child of my Lord of Dorset whose honour'd name must never be mention'd by me without a particular respect and humble acknowledgment of the noble and steady friendship he hath ever been pleas'd to honour me with was always extremely sick if but the Nurse did eat any Capers against which my Lord's antipathy is famous whiles she gave suck to that pretty infant The Children of great Mathematicians who have been used to busie their fantasies continually with figures and proportions have been oftentimes observ'd to have a natural bent to those Sciences And we may note that even in particular gestures and in little singularities in familiar conversation children will oftentimes resemble their Parents as well as in the lineaments of their faces The young ones of excellent setting Dogs will have a notable aptitude to that exercise and may be taught with half the pains that their sire or dam was if they were chosen out of a race of Spaniels not trained to setting All which effects can proceed from no other cause but as we have touch'd already that the fantasy of the parent alters the temper and disposition of his body and seed according as it self is temper'd and disposed and consequently such a creature must be made of it as retains the same qualities as 't is said that sufficient Tartar put at the root of a tree will make the fruit have a winy taste But nothing confirms this so much as certain notable accidents wherof though every one in particular would seem incredible yet the number of them and the weight of the reporters who are the witnesses cannot choose but purchase a general credit to the kind of them These accidents are that out of some strong imagination of the parents but especially of the mother in the time of conception the children draw such main differences as were incredible if the testifying authority were not so great but being true they convince beyond all question the truth we have proposed of the parents imagination working upon and making an impression in the seed wherof children or young ones of their kind are made Some children of white parents are reported to havebeen black upon occasion of a Black-moors picture too much in the mothers eye Others are said to have been born with their skins all hairy out of the sight of St Baptist's picture as he was in the desart or of some other hairy image Another child is famed to have been born disformed so as Devils are painted because the sather was in a Devils habit when he got the child There was a Lady a kinswoman of mine who used much to wear black patches upon her face as was the fashion among young women which I to put her from used to tell her in jest that the next child she should go with whiles the sollicitude and care of those patches was so strong in her fantasy would come into the world with a great black spot in the midst of its forehead and this apprehension was so lively in her imagination at the time she proved with child that her daughter was born mark'd just as the mother had fansied which there are at hand witnesses enough to confirm but non more pregnant than the young Lady her self upon whom the mark is yet remaining Among other creatures 't is said that a Hen hatch'd a Chicken with a Kites bill because she was frighted with a Kite whiles the Cock was treading her The story of Jacol's Sheep is known to all and some write that the painting of beautiful colour'd pigeons in a Dove-house will make the following race become like them and in Authors store of such examples may be found To give a reasonable and fully satisfying cause of this great effect I confess is very difficult since for the most part the parents seed is made long time before the accoupling of the male and female and though it were not we should be mainly to seek for a rational ground to discourse in particular upon it Yet not to leav our Reader without a hint which way to drive his inquisition we will note thus much that Aristotle and other natural Philosophers and Physicians affirm that in some persons the passion is so great in the time of their accoupling that for the present it quite bereavs them of the use of reason and they are for the while in a kind of short fit of an Epilepsie By which 't is manifest that abundance of animal spirits then part from the head and descend into those parts which are the instruments of generation Wherfore if there be abundance of specieses of any one kind of object then strong in the imagination it must of necessity be carryed down together with the spirits into the seed and by consequence when the seed infected with this nature begins to separate and distribute it self to the forming of the several parts of the Embryon the spirits which resort into the brain of the child as to their proper Element and from thence finish all the
to what we find of them in our mind and not according to what they are in themselvs which two several considerations have quite different faces though 't is true those impressions are made by the things and are the only means by which we may rightly judg of them provided that we consider them as they are in the things and not as they are in us Now this conjunction of apprehensions by the mediation and glew of Being is the most natural and fitting not only in regard of the things but even of us for as we have already shew'd it is of all others the most common and universal the most simple or uncomposed and the most natural and deepest rooted in man Out of all which 't is evident that this union of apprehensions by the means of Being is in truth an Identification of them for Unity being a negation of multiplicity it follows that what is one is the same and this Identification is truly and naturally expressed by saying that the one is the other But insisting a little further upon this consideration how different apprehensions become joyn'd and united together by the notion of Being we may observe that this happens not only to two single ones but to more according as more than two may belong to one thing and it may so fall out that more than one be on either side the common ligament Thus when we say A man is a discursive creature or a rational Soul is an immortal substance the two apprehensions of discursive and creature are joyn'd together in a third of Man by the tye of one Being and the two apprehensions of Immortal and Substance are likewise united to the two others of Rational and of Soul by the ligament of one single Being Evident it is then that the extremes are united by one Being but how the two apprehenons that are rank'd together on the same side of the ligament as in our former examples the apprehensions of Discursive Creature of Rational and Soul of Immortal and Substance are between themselvs joyn'd to one another is not so easy to express 'T is clear that it is not done by meer conglobation for we may observe that they belong or are apprehended to belong to the same thing and the very words that express them intimate so much by one of them being an Ajective which shews they are not two things for if they were they would require two Substantives to describe them and consequently it follows that one of them must needs appertain to the other and so both of them make but one thing And there is no doubt but in the inward apprehension there is a variety correspondent to the variety of words which express it since all variety of words that is made by intention results out of some such variety of apprehensions Therfore since the words import that the things have a dependance one of the other we cannot doubt but that our apprehensions have so too Which will be conceiv'd best by looking into the act of our mind when it frames such variety of apprehensions belonging to one thing correspondent to the variety in words of an Adjective glew'd to its Substantive and attending heedfully to what we mean when we speak so The Hebrews express this union or comprising of two different apprehensions under one notion by putting in the Genitive case the word which expresses one of them much like the rule in Lillie's Grammar that When two Substantives come together if they belong to the same thing the one is put in the Genitive case As when in the Scripture we weet with these words the Judge of injustice the Spence of wickedness the man of sin or of death which in our phrase of speaking signify an unjust Judge a wicked Spence and a sinful or dead man In which 't is evident that as well the manner of understanding as of speaking takes each pair of these notions to belong to one thing that is to have both of them one and the same Existence though there intervene not the formal expression of their being one Thus we see how one Being serves two different ways to joyn and unite several apprehensions and if we will examine all the negotiations of our understanding we shall hardly find any notions so far distant but may be brought together either by the one of these ways or by the other But this composition and joyning of several apprehensions by the glew of Being is not sufficient to make us deem a thing to be really such as their union paints in the mind or as the words so tied together express in speech Well may it cause us to think of the thing but to think or deem it such an one which word deeming we shall be obliged hence forward to use frequently because the word thinking is subject to equivocation requires the addition of somthing more than barely this composition of apprehensions which unless they be kept straight by some level may as well swarve from the subject as make a true picture of it Here then we are to examine what it is that makes us think any thing to be such as we apprehend it This we are sure of that when we do so our actions which proceed upon reason and have relation to that thing are govern'd and steer'd in every circumstance just as if the thing were truly so As for example if a man really deem the weather to be cold or that his body is distemper'd he puts on warmer cloaths or takes physick though peradventure he is mistaken in both for his deeming them to be so makes him demean himself as if really they were so 'T is then evident that by such thinking or deeming the nature conceiv'd is made an active principle in us To which if we add that all the knowledge we have of our Soul is no more but that it is an active force in us it seems that a thing by having apprehensions made of it in our mind and being really thought agreeable to such apprehensions becomes as it were a part or affection of our Soul and one thing with it And this peradventure is the cause why an understanding man cannot easily leave an opinion once deeply rooted in him but wrestles and strives against all arguments that would force him from it as if part of his Soul or Understanding were to be torn from him in such manner as a beast will cry and struggle to save his body from having any of his limbs disjonted or pull'd in pieces But this observing the effect which follows of our deeming a thing to be thus or so is not sufficient to inform us what it is that causes that deeming We must therefore take the matter a little higher and look into its immediate principles and there we shall find that 't is the knowing of what we say to be true and the assurance that the things are as we deem them which quiets our Soul and makes it consent to
convenient answers to what is asked of fit replyes to what is said and in a word to speak oppositely and to the purpose whereto neither Beast nor dead Instrument can be brought unless the Artificer be able to endue it with understanding All other arts instruct us how to work orderly upon beasts and insensible bodies By some of them we cultivate living creatures as when Husband-men nourish sheep oxen foul and the like for slaughter by others we discipline them as when we teach Horses Dogs Apes Hawks Parrats and some kind of Fishes to hunt to play and in a word to do somwhat either for our profit or for our pleasure and again by others we use their natures to our end as when we lay baits to catch them when we set eggs under hens to have the chickens and the like By other arts we work as powerfully upon insensible creatures among which by knowing the natures of divers Trees Herbs Minerals c. we are able to bring any of them to what use soever we find most expedient for our service From hence grow all those Arts and Trades in which we see men daily spend their whole lives so as it is needless to insist upon the particulars of them since Towns and the Cities are composed of the several Tribes of persons that profess and live by them But we must not leave this subject without noting how admirably mans wit turns it self to so different sorts and to such an infinite variety of things For what man is there if he be a man but might have become Master in any of these so differing Trades in cause he had apply'd himself as constantly to that as he hath done to some other he is perfect in Again let us consider how it happens often that he doth not the same thing twice the same way but according to his own or another mans fansie changes his work at will now doing it after one fashion now after another as having no law or determination from nature but being wholly left to his own direction There remains one art not yet spoken of which knows not where to challenge a place whether among the Moderatours of our own actions or among those wherby we govern things and that is Arithmetick which seems to belong to things and yet it medles not with them and again it seems to be a main directour of our internal actions and yet belongs neither to Morals nor to Logick Wher'so're its due be to be placed I am sure it s not to be forgotten seeing it is so principal an one as our life can hardly consist without it It works upon notions that are no where for every thing that is in the World is but one to be or to make a number cannnot happen without an understanding The affections likewise of them are as the subject all invisible as to be even or odd to be cubes squares roots c. and yet how great the power and extent of this art is none can rightly understand or believe but he that hath the knowledge or hath seen the vertue and efficacity of it All these arts consist in common rules which require the second of those qualities wherby we said humane actions are govern'd to apply them to their particular matter and that is Prudence which we may define to be a quality or power by whose assistance we apply to the matter we are to work on such Instruments as in our present judgment appear fittest to bring it to that pass which serves best for our intentions when by our senses or other guesses we know the particular dispositions of the matter and of the Instruments wherwith we are to change it Now although this occurs generally in all Arts yet its special place and necessity is in governing and moderating our own or other mens Moral actions and accordingly its name is especially addicted therto and that man is said to be prudent or discreet who governs himself and others well This quality of Moral Prudence in general is divided into three particular ones the first of which belongs to a Governor in a State or Commonwealth the next may be assign'd to him that is skilful in the Laws and the third concerns the managing and conduct of Military actions The reason of this long-receiv'd distribution peradventure is because in these occurrences our passion sways us generally more than in any others and the operation and effect of Prudence whose Province is to curb and moderate our Passions by Reason is greatest and appears most in those subjects where Passion reigns usually with greatest impetuosity Thus have we run over the main parts of discourse and the general heads of mans action as Man which peradventure may through their numerousness appear to be as it were but loosly scatter'd from our pen as happens to all materials that must serve for after buildings and that till they be employ'd require no more but sorting and laying together in several heaps to the end they may be ready for use and therfore before we go any further it will not be amiss to make reflexions on what we have said and to draw it nearer our intended scope and to square out and give some figure and polishing to these stones here where we dig them out of the quarry wherby they may hereafter with less ado fit the places we have assign'd them in the structure we intend And so a little trouble here while our tools are still in our hands and our matter lyes ready for our strokes and our thoughts are warm with working upon them may save us a great deal there where our main imployment will be to lay artificially and to joyn closely what now we but hew out and therfore will require finer instruments and a sharper edge than what at present serves our turn Let us then bring back to account all we have said in this Chapter and when we have well reflected upon every particular we shall find they all agree in this that they are nothing else but a due Ordering of one thing with another A Syllogism is an Ordering of some few Notions a Science is an Ordering of Syllogisms so as a new Proposition may follow out of those which went before and as we see that when in our thoughts divers Syllogisms are well-order'd hidden things come to be disclosed in our understanding even so among bodies if things whose proprieties are known be likewise Order'd and put together those very Effects which were discover'd by the Ordering of Notions in our Head will spring forth in Nature As for example if by knowing the natures of fire and tow our discourse finds that tow put to fire will presently become fire the same will happen in nature if we put material tow or some other body that hath the qualities of it to real fire or to some other substance that is endew'd with the vertues of fire In like manner if by knowing that Colours are nothing
else but various mixtures of light and of darkness in bodies our Discourse assures us that by several compoundings of these extreams Reds Blews Yellows Greens and all other intermediate colours may be generated accordingly we shall find in effect that by the several minglings of black and white bodies because they reflect or drown light most powerfully or by interweaving streams of pure light and shadows one with another we may procreate new colours in bodies and beget new luminous appearances to our eys So that hence it appears clearly that the same nature is in our Understanding and in the Things and that the same Ordering which in the one makes Science in the other causes natural transmutations Another reflexion which will be fit for us to make upon these long discourses is this that of necessity there must be a joyning of some things now actually in our knowledg to other things we think not of For it is manifest that we cannot at the same time actually think of a whole book of Euclide and yet to the due knowledg of some of the last Propositions the knowledg of almost all the former is required likewise it is impossible we should at the same time think of all the multitude of rules belonging to any Art as of Grammar of Metering of Architecture and yet when we write in Latine make a Poem or lay the design of a House we practise them whiles we think not of them and are assured we go not against them however we remember them not Nay even before we know a thing we seem to know it for since we can have a desire of nothing but of what we know how could we desire to know such or such a thing unless we know both it and the knowledg of it And for the most part we see a horse or man or herb or workmanship and by our sense have knowledg that such a thing it is before we know what or who or how it is That grows afterwards out of the diligent observation of what we see which is that wherby learned men differ from the unlearned For what strikes the sense is known alike by them both but then here is the difference between them the latter sort sits still with those notions that are made at first by the beating of our sense upon us without driving them any further and those that are learned resolve such compounded notions into others made by more common beatings and therfore more simple and this is all the odds in regard of knowledg that a Scholar has of an unletter'd man One observation more we will draw out of what we have said and then end this Chapter it is how a man oftentimes enquires among his own thoughts and turns up and down the images he hath in his head and beats his brains to call such things into his mind as are useful to him and are for the present out of his memory Which as we see so necessary that without it no matter of importance can be perform'd in the way of discourse wherof I my self have too frequent experience in writing this Treatise so on the other side we cannot perceive that any creature besides Man doth it of set purpose and formally as man doth CHAP. IV. How a man proceeds to Action HAving thus taken a summary view of the principal Qualities a man is endued with Apprehending Judging and Discoursing and shew'd how he is inrich'd in and by them with the natures of all things in the world it remains for our last work in this part to consider in what manner he makes use of this treasure in his ordinary Actions which 't is evident are of two different kinds and consequently have two several principles Understanding and Sense they sway by turns and somtimes joyn together to produce a mixed action of both If only Sense were the fountain from whence his actions spring we should observe no other strain in any of them than meerly that according to which Beasts perform theirs they would proceed evermore in a constant unvariable tenour according to the law of material things one body working upon another in such sort as we have declared in the former Treatise On the other side if a man were all Understanding and had not this bright lamp enclosed in a pitcher of clay the beams of it would shine without any allay of dimness thorough all he did and he could do nothing contrary to reason in pursuit of the highest end he hath prefix'd unto himself For he neither would nor could do any thing whatever till he had first consider'd all the particular circumstances that had relation to his action in hand and had then concluded that upon the whole matter at this time and in this place to attain this End 't is fitting and best to do thus or thus which conclusion could be no sooner made but the action would without any further disposition on his side immediately ensue agreeable to the principles it spring from Both parts of this assertion are manifest For the first 't is evident that whenever an Agent works by knowledge he is unresolved whether he shall work or not work as also of his manner of working till his knowledg that ought to direct and govern his working be perfect and complete but that cannot be as long as any circumstance not-as-yet consider'd may make it seem fit or unfit to proceed and therfore such actions as are done without exact consideration of every particular circumstance do not flow from a pure understanding From whence it follows that when an understanding is not satisfied of every particular circumstance and consequently cannot determine what he must immediately do but apprehends that some of the circumstances not-as-yet consider'd may or rather must change some part of his action he must of necessity be undetermin'd in respect of the immediate action and consequently must refrain absolutely from working The other part is clear to wit that when the understanding upon consideration of all circumstances knows absolutely what is best the action follows immediately as far as depends of the understanding without any further disposition on his behalf For since nothing but knowledge belongs to the understanding he who supposes all knowledg in it allows all that is requisite or possible for it to work by Now if all be put nothing is wanting that should cause it to work but where no cause is wanting but all requisite causes actually in being the effect must also actually be and follow immediately out of them and consequently the action is done in as much as concerns the understanding and indeed absolutely unless some other cause fail as soon as the understanding knows all the circumstances belonging to it So as it is manifest out of this whole discourse that if a man wrought only by his understanding all his actions would be discreet and rational in respect of the end he hath proposed to himself and till he were assured what were best he
Soul ayms is evident since the perfection of every thing in the end for which it is made the perfection then and end of the Soul being evidence she being capable of infinite evidence let us inquire whether in this life she may compass it or no. To determine this question let us compare infinite evidence to that evidence which the greatest and most knowing man that ever lived hath acquir'd by the work of nature alone or to the evidence which by aym we may imagine possible ever to happen any one man should arrive to and balancing them well together let us judg whether all that any man can know here is not in respect of what a mans Soul is capable of to be stiled as nothing and deservs not the name of evidence nor to be accounted of that nature And if our sentence conclude upon this let us acknowledg that our Soul arrives not to her perfection nor enjoys her end in this world and therfore must have infallibly an other habitation inthe next world to which nature intends her Experience teaches us that we cannot fully comprehend any one of natures works and those Philosophers who in a disciplinable way search into nature therfore are called Mathematicians after they have written large volums of some very slender subject ever find that they have left untouch'd an endless abyss of knowledg for whomsoever shall please to build upon their foundations that they can never arrive near saying all that may be said â—f hat subject though they have said never so much of it We may not then make difficulty to believe that the wisest and learnedest men in the world have reason to profess with the father of Philosophers that indeed they know nothing And if so how far are they from that happiness perfection which consists in knowing all things Of which full sea we nevertheless find even in this low ebb our Soul is a chanel capable and is framed a fit vessel and instrument to receive it when the tide shall come in upon it which we are sure it can not do till the banks of our Body which hinder it be broken down This last consideration without doubt hath added no small corroboration to our former proofs which are so numerous so clear as peradventure it may appear superfluous to say any more to this point since one convinceing argument establishes the verity of a conclusion as efficaciously as a hundred therfore Mathematicians use but one single proof in all their Propositions after which other supernumerary ones would be but tedious Nevertheless since all the several ways by which we may look into the nature of our Soul the importantest subject we can busie our thoughts upon cannot fail of being pleasing and delightful to us we must not omit to reflect a little upon that great property of our Soul by which she is able to move to work without her self being moved or touched To which adding that all Life consists in motion and that all motion of Bodies comes from some other thing without them we may evidently conclude that our Soul who can move withot receiving her motion from abroad hath in her se lf a spring of life for which she is not beholding as Bodies are o some extrinsecal cause of a nature like to her but only to him who gave her to be what she is But if she have such a spring of Life within her it were unreasonable to imagine that she died upon the occasion of the death of anohther thing that exercises no action of life but as it is caused by another Neither we may neglect that ordinary consideration which takes notice that our Soul makes use of Propositions of eternal truth which we have above produced among our proofs for her being of a spiritual nature and shall now imploy it for the proving her Immortal by considering that the notion of Being which settles these Propositions so as they fear no mutation or shaking by time is the very riot of the Soul that which gives her nature which shews it self in all her operations So that if from Being arrives to these Propositions to fear no time the like must of necessity betide also the substance of the Soul And thus we see that her nature is out of the reach of time that she can comprehend time and set it limits can think of things beyond it and cast about for them All which are clear testimonies that she is free and secure from the all-devouring and destroying tyranny of that Saturnial Conqueror of the whole world of matter and of Bodies whose servant is Death After all these proofs drawn from the nature of the Soul it self every one of them of force to convince her Immortality I must crave leave to add one consideration more though it seems to belong to anothers harvest namely to the Science of Morals and it is that the position of mortality in the Soul takes away all morality and changes men into beasts by taking away the ground of all difference in those things which are to govern our actions For supposing that the Soul dyes with the Body and seeing that man hath a comprehension or notion of time without end 't is evident that the spain of this life must needs appear contemptible to him that well considers and weighs it against the other infinite duration And by consequence all the goods and evils which are parts of this life must needs become as despicable and inconsiderable so that better or worse in this life hath not any appearance of difference between them at least not enough to make him labour with paâ—n to compass the one and eschew the other and for that end to cross his present inclination in any thing and engage himself in any the least difficult task And so it would ensue that if to an understanding man some course or actions were proposed as better than that he were going about or for the instant had a mind to he would relish it as a great Merchant or a Banquier would do whom dealing for Millions one should presse with earnestness to change his resolved course for the gain of a farthing more this way than the other which being inconsiderable he would not trouble his head with it nor stop at what he was in hand with In like manner whoever is perswaded that for an infinite of time he shall be nothing without sense of all things he scorns for this little twinkling of his life to take any present pains to be in the next moment well or to avoid being ill since in this case dying is a secure remedy to any present evil and he is as ready to die now as a hundred years hence Nor can he esteem the loss of a hundred years to be a matter of moment and therfore he will without any further guidance or discourse betake himself to do whatever his present inclination bears him to with most facility
concerning the motion of the heart 5. The motion of the heart depends originally of its fibers irrigated by bloud 6. An objection answer'd against the former doctrine 7. The Circulation of the Bloud and other effects that follow the motions of the heart 8. Of Nutrition 9. Of Argumentation 10. Of Death and Sickness 1. The connxeion of the subsequent chapters with the precedent 2. Of the Senses and sensible qualities in general And of the end for which they serve 3. Of the sense of Touching and that both it and its qualities are bodies 4. Of the Tast and its qualities that they are bodies 5. That the Smell and its qualities are real bodies 6. Of the conformity betwixt the two Senses of Smelling and Tasting 7. The reason why the sense of Smelling is not so perfect in man as in beasts with a wonderful history of a man who could wind a scent as a well as any beast 1. Of the sense of Hearing and that Sound is purely motion 2. Of divers arts belonging to the sense of Hearing all which confirm that Sound is nothing but motion 3. To same is confirm'd by the effects caused by great noises 4. That solid bodies may convey the motion of the ayr or sound to the organ of hearing 5. Where the motion is interrupted there is no sound 6. That not only the motion of the air but all other motions coming to our ears make sounds 7. How own sense may supply the want of an other 4. Of one who could discern sounds of words with his eyes 9. Divers reasons to prove sound to be nothing else but a motion of some real body 1. That Colours are nothing but light mingled with darkness or the disposition of a bodies superficies apt to reflect light so mingled 2. Concerning the disposition of those bodies which produce white or black coulours 3. The former doctrine confirm'd by Aristotles authority reason experience 4. How the diversity of colours follows out of various degrees of rarity and density 5. Why some bodies are Diaphanous others Opacous 6. The former doctrine of colours confirm'd by the generation of white and black in bodies 1. Apparitions of colours through a Prism or triangular-glass are of two sorts 2. The several parts of the object make several angles at their entrance into the Prism 6 The reason why somtimes the same object appears through the Prism in two places and in one place mor lively in the other place more dim 4 The reason of the various colours that appear in looking through a Prism 5. The reason why the Prism in one position may make the colours appear quite contrary to what they did when it was in another position 6. The reason of the various colours in general by pure light passing through a Prism 7. Upon what side every colour appears this is made by pure light passing through a Prism 1. The reason of each several colour in particular caused by light passing through a Prism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—ing the Prism 3 Of the Rainbow and how by the colour of any body we may know the composition of the body it self 4 That all the Sensible Qualities are real bodies resulting out of several mixtures of Rarity and Density 5 Why the Senses are only Five in number with a conclusion of all the former doctrine concerning them 1. Monsir des Cartes his opinion touching Sensation 2. The Authors opinion touching sensation 3. Reasons to perswade the Authors opinion 4. That Vital Spirits are the immediate instruments of Sensation by conveying sensible qualities to the brain 5. How found is convey'd to the brain by vital spirits 6. How colours are convey'd to the brain by Vital Spirits 7. Reasons against Monsir des Cartes his opinion 8. That the symptome of the Palsie do no way confirm Monsir des Cartes his opinion 9. That Mâ—asir des Cartes his opinion cannot give a good account how things are conserv'd in the Memory 1. How things are conserv'd in the Memory 2. How things conserv'd in the Memory are brought back into the Phantasie 3. A Confirmation of the former doctrine 4. How things renew'd in the fantasie return with the same circumstances they had at first 5 How the memory of things past is lost or confounded and how it is repair'd again 1. Of what matter the brrain is composed 2. What is voluntary motion 3. What those powers are which are called Natural Faculties 4. How the Attractive and Secretive faculties work 5. Concerning the concoctive faculty 6. Concerning the Retentive and Expulsive faculties 7. Concerning expulsion made by Physick 9. How the brain is moved to work Voluntary motion 9. Why pleasing objects dilate the spirits and displeasing ones contract them 10. Concerning the Five Senses of what Use and End they are 1. That 〈◊〉 Luc dum is the seat of the fansie 2. What causes us to remember not only the object it self but also that we have thought of it before 3. How the motions of the fantasie are derived to the heart 4. Of Pain and Pleasure 5. Of Passion 6. Of several Pulses caused by Passion 7. Of several other effects caused naturally in the body by passions 8. Of the Diaphragma 9. Concerning pain and pleasure caused by the memory of things past 10. How so small bodies as atomes are can cause so great motions in the heart How the vital spirits sent from thebrain run to the intended part of the body without mistake 1. How men are blinded by passion 1. The order and connexion of the subsequent Chapters 2. From whence proceeds the doubting of beasts 3. Concerning the invention of Foxes and other beast 4. Of Foxes that catch hens by lying under their roost and by gazing upon them 5. From whence proceeds the Foxes invention to rid himself of Flea 6. An explication of two other inventions of Foxes 7. Concerning Montagues argument to prove that Dogs make syllogisms 8. A declaration how some tricks are perform'd by Foxes which seem to argue discourse 9. Of the Jaccatrays invention in calling beasts to himself 10. Of the Jaccils designe in serviâ—g the Lion 11. Of several intentions of Fishes 12 A discovery of divers things done by Hares which seem to argue discourse 13. Of a Fox reported to have weighâ— a Goose before he would venture with it over a River and of fabulous stories in common 14. Of the several Cryings and Tones of Beasts with a refutation of those Authors who maintain them to have compleat Languages 1. How Hawks and other creatures are taught to do what they are brought up to 2. Of the Baboon that plaid on a Guittar 3 Of the teaching of Elephants and other beasts to do divers tricks 4. Of the orderly â—ain of actions perrformd by 〈◊〉 in breeding their young ones 1. Why beasts are afrad of men 2. How some qualities caus'd at first by chance in beasts may pass by generation to the whole off-spring 3. How the parents fantasy oftentimes works strange
judgment can acquire no denomination of perfection or deficiency from length or shortness for they belong originally to the matter of the judgment and the judgment must accordingly fit it self to that and therfore is liable neither to commendations nor reproach for being long or short It remains then that the vertue in judging answerable to the quantity of motion must consist in quickness and celerity and the contrary vice in slowness and heaviness As for order in the several parts of motion we know that if they be well order'd they are distinct and easily discernable which vertue in our subject is called clearness of judgment as the contrary vice is confusion CHAP. III. Of Discoursing IN the last Chapter we have shew'd how two Apprehensions joyn'd together make a Judgment How in this our first employment will be to shew how three of these thoughts or Judgments well chosen and duly order'd compose the first and most simple of perfect discourses which Logicians call a Syllogism whose end and effect is to gain the knowledge of somthing before hidden and unknown The means wherby this is compassed is thus By the two first Judgments we joyn the extremes of the proposition we desire to know to some third thing and then by seeing that they both are one third thing and that one can be but one we come to discern that truly one of them is the other which before we saw not So that the Identity which first made an Identical proposition be known and agreed to and afterwards caused the like assent to be yielded to those maximes whose Identification presently shew'd it self now by a little circuit and bringing in of a third term makes the two first whose Identification was hidden and obscure whiles we look'd upon the terms themselvs appear to be in very truth but one thing The various mingling and disposing of these three terms in the two first propositions begets a variety in the Syllogisms composed of them and it consists in this that the assumed term to which the other two are interchangably joyn'd is either said of them or they of it And from hence spring three different kinds of Syllogisms for either the assumed or middle term is said of both the other two or both they are said of it or it is said of one of them and the other is said of it Nither is there any deeper mystery than this in the three figures our great Clerks talk so much of which being brought into Rules to help our memory in the ready use of this transposition of the terms if we spin our thoughts upon them into over small threds and therof weave too intricate webs mean while not reflecting upon the solid ground within our selvs wheron these rules are built nor considering the true end why we may spend our time in trivial and useless subtilities and at length confound and misapply the right use of our natural discourse with a multitude of precepts drawn from artificial Logick But to return to our matter in hand Under this primary threefold variety is another of greater extent growing out of the divers composition of the three terms as they are qualifyed by affirmation or negation and by universality or particularity for that unity which the two terms whose Identification is enquired after must have by being joyn'd with the third becomes much varied by such divers application and from hence shoots up that multitude of kinds of Syllogisms which our Logicians call Moods All which I have thus particularly expressed to the end we may observe how this great variety hangs upon the sole string of Identity Now these Syllogisms being as it were interlaced and woven one within another so that many of them make a long chain wherof each is a link breed or rather are all the variety of mans life They are the steps by which we walk in all our conversations and businesses Man as Man doth nothing else but weave such chains whatever he doth swerving from this work he doth as deficient from the nature of man and if he do ought beyond this by breaking out into divers sorts of exteriour actions he findes nevertheless in this linked sequel of simple discourses the art the cause the rule the bounds and the model of it Let us take a summary view of the vast extent of it in what an immense Ocean one may securely sail by that never varying Compass when the needle is rightly touch'd and fitted to a well moulded box making still new discoveries of regions far out of the sight and belief of them who stand upon the hither shore Humane Operations are comprised under the two general heads of Knowledge and Action if we look but in gross upon what an infinity of divisions these branch themselvs into we shall become giddy our brains will turn our eyes grow weary and dim with aiming only at a suddain and roving measure of the most conspicuous among them in the way of knowledge We see what mighty works men have intended their labours to not only by wild discourses of which huge volums are composed but even in the rigorous method of Geometry Arithmetick and Algebra in which an Euclide an Apollonius an Archimedes a Diophantus and their followers have reach'd such admirable heights and have wound up such vast bottoms Somtimes shewing by effects that the thing proposed must needs be as they have set down and cannot possibly be any otherwise otherwhiles appaying the understanding which is never truly at rest till it hath found the Causes of the effects it sees by exposing how it comes to be so that the Reader calling to mind how such a thing was taught him before and now finding another unexpectedly convinced upon him easily sees that these two put together make and force that third to be wherof he was before in admiration how it could be effected which two ways of discourse are ordinarily known by the names of Demonstrations the one called a priori the other a posteriori Now if we look into the extent of the deductions outof these we shall find no end In the Heavens we may perceive Astronomy measuring whatever we can imagine and ordering those glorious lights which our Creatour hath hang'd out for us and shewing them their ways and picking out their paths and prescribing them for as many ages as he pleases before hand the various motions they may not swerve from in the least circumstance Nor want their Sublime Souls that tell us what metal they are made of what figures they have upon what pillars they are fixed upon what gimals they move and perform their various perious witness that excellent and admirable work I have so often mention'd in my former Treatise If we look upon the Earth we shal meet with those that will tell us how thick it is and how much room it takes up they will shew us how Men and Beasts are hang'd to it by the heels how the Water
and Air covers it what force and power Fire has upon them all what working is in the depths of it and of what composition the main body of it is framed where neither our eys can reach nor any of our Senses sends its messengers to gather and bring back any relations of it Yet are not our Masters contented with all this the whole world of Bodies is not enough to satisfy them the knowledg of all corporeal things and of this machine of heaven and earth with all that they enclose cannot quench the unlimited thirst of a noble mind once set on fire with the beauty and love of Truth Aestuat infoelix angusto limite mundi Ut Gyâ—rae clausus scopulis parvaque Seripho But such heroick spirits cast their subtile nets into another world after the winged inhabitants of the heavens and find means to bring them also into account and to serve them how imperceptible soever they be to the senses as dainties at the Souls table They enquire after a Maker of the world we see and are our selves a main part of and having found Him they conclude Him out of the force of contradiction to be Eternal Infinite Omnipotent Omniscient Immutable and a thousand other admirable qualities they determine of him They search after his Tools and Instruments wherwith he built this vast and admirable pallace and seek to grow acquainted with the Officers and Stewards that under him govern this orderly and numerous Family They find them to be Invisible Creatures exalted above us more than we can estimate yet infinitely farther short of their and our Maker than we are of them If this occasion them to cast their thoughts upon Man himself they find a nature in him 't is true much inferiour to these admirable Intelligences yet such an one as they hope may one day arrive to the likeness of them and that even at the present is of so noble a mould as nothing is too big for it to fathome nor any thing too small for it to discern Thus we see knowledg hath no limits nothing escapes the toils of Science all that ever was that is or can ever be is by them circled in their extent is so vast that our very thoughts and ambitions are too weak and too poor to hope for or aim at what by them may be compassed And if any man that is not inured to raise his thoughts above the pitch of the outward objects he converses daily with should suspect what I have now said is rather like the longing dreams of passionate Lovers whose desires feed them with impossibilities than that it is any real truth or should imagine it but a Poetick Idea of Science that never was nor will be in act or if any other that hath his discoursing faculty vitiated and perverted by having been imbued in the Schools with unsound and umbratile principles should perswade himself that however the pretenders to learning and Science may talk loud of all things and make a noise with Scholastick terms and perswade their ignorant hearers that they speak and unfold deep mysteries yet in very truth nothing at all can be known I shall beseech them both to suspend their conjectures or beliefs herein and to reserve their censure of me whether or no I have strain'd too far till the learned Author of the Dialogues of the World hath enriched it with the Work he hath composed of Metaphysicks in which going orderly and rigorously by continued propositions as Mathematicians demonstrate their undertakings he hath left no scope for wrangling brains to make the least cavil against his doctrine and casting his sharp-sighted thoughts over the whole extent of nature and driving them up to the Almighty Author of it he hath left nothing out of the verge of those rules and all-comprehending principles he gives of true Science And then I doubt not but they will throughly absolve me from having used any amplification in aiming at the reach of this all grasping power For my part the best expression I am able to make of this admirable piece I must borrow from witty Galileus when he speaks of Archimedes's long miss'd Book of Glasses and profess that having some of the Elements or Books of it entrusted in my hands by the Author I read them over with extreme amazement as well as delight for the wonderful subtilty and solidness of them Thus much for knowledge Now let us cast an eye upon humane actions All that we do if we do it as we should and like men is govern'd and steer'd by two sorts of qualities the one of which we call Arts the other Prudence An Art is a collection of general rules comprehending some one subject upon which we often work The matters we work on out of which the particular subjects of Arts do spring are of three kinds our Selves our Neighbours and such dumb or insensible things as compose the Rest of the World Our actions on our Selves are the highest and noblest of all the rest and those by which we live and work as men or to express my self better they are those by which we perfect that part of us which makes us men and by which we direct and level all we do according to the rule of reason not suffering our actions to swerve from what she dictates to us This is done by multiplying and heightning the thoughts of those things which maintain us in reason whether the motives be moral as the examples of worthy persons and the precepts and perswasions of wise men and the like or natural as the consideration of the sweet and contented life which vertue givs us here by good conversation honour profit quiet pleasure and what else soever grows out of so excellent a root as also of the Beatitude and Happiness it brings us to in the next state and of the contrary effects which spring from vice Again by observing the motives and wayes of our passions and animal desires we learn how to prevent them how to terrifie them and how to wear them away by little and little through sometimes giving them diversions otherwhiles restraining them with moderation and oftentimes cutting off the occasions and abridging them of their natural encreasings All these things are brought into art and rule whose lessons were men but as careful and industrious to study as they are to become masters in vain and trivial things they would enjoy happy lives In the next place we are to consider the actions wherby we work upon our Neighbours They are chiefly government and negotiation both which are of one kind and have but this difference that the one is done in common the other is perform'd in particular The means by which we command are rewards and punishments which who hath in his hands may assuredly by wise using them bring to pass whatever he has a mind to Upon occasion of mentioning these two powerful motives which have so main an influence in mens actions we may note