accustom our selves by admiring the structure of our Body to consider that 't is made by an incomparable Workman who is inimitable Besides if we are convinced that the Union of the Body and Soul proceeds only from the perfect correspondence which God hath establisht between the different changes of the brain and the different thoughts of the Soul we ought not to wonder that the one acts so easily upon the other and that their actions do always accompany one another so well as long as God Almighty preserves their Union But in regard that this is one of the most important verities that can fall under consideration it will not be amiss for the opening of all the difficulties thereof to observe that there are three kinds of Correspondencies between the Soul and the Body The first is natural and thâ—t is that necessary correspondence by which certain sensations rise alwayes in the Soul when certain motions are excited in the brain as motions are excited in the Body when the Soul hath a will to it And this correspondence cannot absolutely cease but with our life and that which wholly changes it causeth death Besides this there is a second Correspondence 'twixt the Idea's the Soul hath of things and the Impressions which those things leave in the brain This correspondence no more than the first cannot change altogether and whilst the Soul is united to the Body she never has the idea of things corporeal but their impression is in the brain But there is a third correspondence between the Name of every thing and its Idea which being only by Institution may be chang'd but yet in regard the sound of the first name men give to a thing is a sensation which the Soul strictly joyns to the Idea of that thing and since also the impression of that name is found joyn'd to that of the thing in the brain we find it a trouble to sever them Whence it is that when we begin to learn a Language we commonly explain by the first word by which we nam'd a thing the new word by which we intend to understand it in the tongue we are learning And there are even such whose brain is so disposed that when they learn a new Language they always joyn to the words of that which they already know the words of the second to represent to themselves what they signifie Others that have another disposition of the brain do so easily joyn the sound of a new word in it self to the Idea of the thing that that Idea is equally represented to them by the two words and they not obliged to think on the one to understand the other Thus one may so well joyn one and the same thought to many signes and to words of different Languages that one may with an equal facility use both to express it But with a very little consideration we may easily judge by the pains we find in the beginning to joyn the words of a new Tongue to the Image of every thing by the necessity we are in to joyn the image of a new word to that of an old which made it to be understood and even by the pains we experience in pronouncing those we learn that Speech indeed depends upon the relation and correspondency of many things and that if afterwards it becomes easie 't is only from the excellent composition of the brain and the admirable commerce between its motions and our thoughts For the rest me thinks if the Soul is oblig'd whilst she is united to the Body to joyn her thoughts to words which cannot be heard nor form'd without the organs of the tongue and the ear She might if that union ceased much more easily discover to every other Spirit what she did think And truly if it be a pain to him that examins it to conceive How the thought of a man that speaks is joyn'd to the motion of his brain and the motions of his brain to those of the parts serving for the Voice if it be difficult to comprehend How that Voice which is nothing but Air agitated strikes the ear and is able by moving the brain to excite in his soul that hears the sound of the words the Idea of the things signifi'd by them if that I say is so hard to conceive because we know there is so strange a difference between the nature of the Spirit and that of the Body we cannot but easily comprehend that if two Spirits were not united to Bodies they would find less difficulty to discover to one another their thoughts in regard there is naturally much more proportion between the thoughts of two like Spirits than between the thoughts and the motions of two Bodies and upon the least reflexion made on the facility and clearness with which one man conceives the thoughts of another by Speech we shall avow that a Soul might incomparably more clearly and more easily conceive the thoughts of another Spirit if both of them depended not from the organs of the Body For a spirit sure should more easily apprehend a thought which is a thing spiritual than the signe of that thought signes being things Corporeal Thus I esteem that 't is much more natural for spirits to manifest or to communicate to one another their thoughts in themselves and without any signes than to speak to one another that is to communicate their thoughts by signes that are of a nature so different from that of Thoughts The pains also which every one finds in conversation and on all occasions where men impart their thoughts by signes or speech is not to comprehend what another thinketh but to extricate his Thought from the signes or words which often agree not with it 'T is also the ignorance of the signes and words that is the cause why men bred in different Countries are a long while together without being able to understand one another But as soon as acquaintance hath afforded them all what 's requisite readily to unfold what every sign or word means they find no more trouble to conceive their thoughts of how different Nations soever they be Which evidently shews that men understand one another naturally that the thought of one is alwayes clear to another as soon as he can perceive it and that if there be men who conceive better than others what is said that facility of understanding comes from the structure of their brain which being so disposed as that the impressions I have spoken of are there more easily received better ranged and more distinctly marked makes the thoughts answering thereto to be also more easie more consequent and more clear whereas those who want that good conformation and disposition of the brain must needs be slower in conceiving by reason of that necessary correspondence and relation between the motions of the Brain and the thoughts of the Soul whilst she remains united to the Body But who seeth not that that entanglement would cease if the Soul were separated from
the Body by reason of the relation there is between all the parts thereof may very properly be call'd the natural signes of the State the Body is in I shall be careful to forbear when the eyes and face or even the Cryes of those Bodies shall not appear to me excited but by the objects that may benefit or hurt them to believe that those external motions are the signs of any Thought But yet when I shall see that those Bodies shall make signes that shall have no respect at all to the state they are in nor to their conservation when I shall see that those signs shall agree with those which I shall have made to express my thoughts When I shall see that they shall give me Idea's I had not before and which shall relate to the thing I had already in my mind Lastly when I shall see a great sequel between their signes and mine I shall not be reasonable If I believe not that they are such as I am Thus I have no more cause to doubt concerning this point for I have many a thousand like tryals and I have not onely seen a great connexion between their signs and my thoughts but I have also found so great an one between their signes and mine that I can doubt no longer of their thoughts And if the power I have to hinder that the exterior motions of my face and the other signes of my passions may not express them hath been one of the reasons I have had to acknowledge that my thoughts were very different from the motions that are wont to accompany them I can now assure not onely that those other Bodies which resemble mine have thoughts but also though they can as I my self not let them alwaies be so joyned to the motions which use to signifie them that one ought alwaies to trust them Yet I have found that they knew the art of constraining themselves and frequently after many signs on their side and mine which shew'd me that they understood my thoughts and made me believe that I understood theirs I perceived they had a design to deceive me Now then since I may doubt no longer that the Bodies which resemble mine are united to Souls and in a word since I am assured that there are other men besides my self I think I ought carefully to inquire into what remains to know of Speech Hitherto I have discours'd of it but in general and said only that To speak was to give signs of one's Thought But in regard that the little reflexion I have made on these signes hath already discover'd to me so important a truth and that I also see that those same signes are the only means to entertain Society amongst Men which is the greatest good they have in this World I intend as much as I can to observe the different sorts of them together with their properties and to endeavour to discover all the wonders of them to learn all their uses One of the chief things I finde worthy of consideration touching these signs is That they have not any resemblance to the Thoughts which men joyn to them by institution And indeed whether we express our thoughts by gestures by discourse or by characters which are the three sorts of the most used signs by which we manifest our thoughts we cannot but see if we consider it with some attention that there is nothing less resembling our Thoughts than is all that which serves us to express them For when a man to declare that he agrees not with me in such or such a thing is shaking his head and when the better to express it he moveth his throat tongue teeth and lips to form words or takes paper and with a pen traceâ— characters to write it to me I see so little resemblance betwixt all those motions of the Head of the Mouth or oâ— the Hand and what they teach me that I cannot enough wonder how they so easily give me the understanding of a thing they so ill represent But what is most admirable herein is That this vast difference between those Signs and our Thoughts doth by marking to us that which is between our Body and Soul teach us at the same time the whole Secret of their Union At least methinks that that strict union which the sole Institution or men is able to settle betwixt certain external Motions and our Thoughts is to him that will consider it the best means to conceive wherein in truth consists the Union of the Body and the Soul For cartainly if we do conceive that men can by institution joyn certain Motions to certain Thoughts it cannot be hard to conceive that the Author of Nature in forming a Man so well unites some Thoughts of his Soul to some motions of his Body that those motions cannot be raised in the Body but the thoughts must also be forthwith excited in the Soul and that reciprocally as soon as the Soul will have the Body move after a certain manner it be so at the same time For the rest 't is evident that from this so necessary relation which the Authour of Nature maintain betwixt the body and the soul it is that that necessity of making Signs to express our thoughts hath its rise For seeing the Soul can have no though but at the occasion whereof there will be made a motion in the Body and that also she cannot receive any Idea of what is without but by the motions excited in the Body which she animateth it must needs be that two Souls united to two different Bodies do express their thoughts by Motions or if you will by outward Signs But to know persectly how that is done there needs in my opinion to be made but a little reflexion on what I have already observ'd about the principal differences of Signs on the particular cause of each and on the reasons men have to use them And first if it be true that certain motions of the Face and certain Cryes do naturally follow certain conditions of the Body by vertue of the relation which is between all the parts thereof we must believe that the thoughts which are naturally joyn'd to those motions of the Face and to these Cryes are the passions which the Soul suffers at the occasion of the State the Body is in so that if a man hath well observed his Eyes his Face and all the outward parts of his Body during the time he hath been in certain passions he hath been able seeing the same motions in another man to Judg that that man felt the same passions 'T is true if at times he hath been so dextrous as to constrain himself in the like state he may have learn'd to mistruct those signes but still 't is manifest that they are naturally proper to declare passions and that the best means to make one understand what the Soul suffers is not to constrain the Face the Eyes or the Voice 't is the most natural way to
learn perfectly the Languâ—ge of the Countrey where they are born and that in less time than Men of age need to learn that of a Country where they should chance to travel and not find any body that understood theirs By this time it is not difficult to conceive why 't is so easie for us to learn a strange Language of a person that understands it and understands also ours For then we can easily enquire after the name of every thing By this means also we may learn many Tongues it being obvious that after we have learnt the word which signifies a thing in French we may also learn by what words the Italians the Spaniards and other Nations express that thing And what is remarkable is that when we have once agreed that many words shall signifie one and the same thing we so well joyn the Idea or the thought of that thing to each of those words that often we remember very well that the Idea of it hath been given us without remembring which of all those words was employ'd for it whence it comes to pass that when we are in company with persons of different Countries whose Tongues we understand we easily retain every news and all what was said upon the matters that were spoken of without remembring just the words nor the Language thâ—t was made use of to give us those images which remain of them in us This also shews very clearly methinks the distinction there is between our Thoughts and the Words whereby we express them And as the principal end for which I designed this Tract is to shew this distinction so I think I am not to omit in this place another Consideration which in my opinion maketh that so evident that 't is not possibe to doubt of it And that is that when a man speaks in publick and hath for his Auditors many persons of different Nations the sense of his words is not apprehended but by those who know the Language he useth although the sound of his words do equally affect all the rest But if the Soul were not distinct from the Body and if Thoughts were not distinct from Motions it would happen that when the Brain of many persons should be affected in the same manner they would all think the same thing at the same time because they equally have what in that matter depends from the Ear and Brain But because all have not agreed in this that certain motions of those parts should signifie certain things nor have joyned them to the images they have of them it happens that one speaks fruitlesly of those things before them and that they understand them not though the words employ'd to express them strike their Ear and Brain as they do the Ear and Brain of those that understand them The same thing may also be seen in those that study any Language They often know in one instant the signification of a word but know it no more in another and yet they well remember the word and they have also the image of the thing which it is to represent to them but they have not yet so well joyned the one to the other that that image returns to their mind when the word is pronounc'd which signifieth it Although I am perswaded I have hitherto said nothing but what is grounded on principles clear enough to leave no doubt and that possibly they might be sufficient to deduce other consequences from them which might also discover to us some truths important enough yet notwithstanding I believe that to cleâ—r up fully what remains to be said and even what hath been said alre dy it will be fit before we proceed well to discriminate all what is sound in Speech â—s depending from the Body from whâ—t there is in it as depending from the Soul and then to consider what it borrows from their Union Upon the account of the Body in him that forms the Voice it is to be consider'd that he hath Lungs into which the Air enters by the Wind-pipe when the Muscles of the Breast distend all the sides thereof by their motion just as Air enters in a pair of Bellows at the end when 't is expanded by separating the two sides thereof We are also to conceive that as the wind which issueth out of Bellows when they are closed would be capable to thrust the Air as many different ways as we should put different pipes at the place where the wind comes out even so the Air which issues out of the Lungs when the Breast subsides is diversly thrust according as the Entry of the Wind-pipe is differently disposed which I enlarge not upon because I suppose that 't is generally known that besides many small gristly rings serving to keep the sides of the membrane which forms that channel by which the Air enters into and issues out of the Lungs from approaching one another too near there are three considerable ones whereof one can shut it self so close that when it is in that position the Air cannot get out of the Lungs but with a great force And sometimes also it can so enlarge it self as that the Air may issue out very easily But as between the greatest and the smallest Aperture of which it is capable here is an infinite diversity of other Apertures of which every one makes a different impression on the Air we are not to think it strange that the Air which comes out of the mouth is able to make so many different effects I suppose also that every one easily conceives that the Cartilage which serveth to modify the Air is not destitute of the muscles that are requisit to open it to shut it and even to keep it in certain positions as there shall be need to make one and the same sound last These Muscles are disposed in so wonderful an order that 't is not possible to see it without admiration The other two Cartilages have also their Muscles and all things are so well ordered in that place that one may raise or depress that Entrance and open or close it and that either slowly or swiftly yet so that the motion of the small muscles which serve for some of those actions be not hindred by the motion of those that serve for others Which informs us that 't is from the sole disposition of that place of the Wind-pipe that the difference of the sounds depends And 't is to be observ'd that if there were but that part there would not be any difference betwixt the sounds it would make and those of a Flute that is it would make only uncertain sounds and no voices but to give them a certain determination the Mouth is so fashion'd that these sounds coming to be tun'd receive different terminations according to the different wayes it opens If for example you open the Mouth as much as you can in crying you cannot form but a voice in A. And for that reason the Character which in writing denotes
and if following that diversity of the shakings of the brain the body is diversly carried we need go no further than their bodies for a cause why Brutes of one and the same kind are mov'd to come to one another by the cryes they make and why their cryes often drive away those of another kind If we consider only that they have a body so mechanically disposed that the sole structure of it may be the cause that 't is carried to such Objects as may be good for them and from such as may hurt them me thinks that how wonderful soever their motions may seem to us we cannot rationally impute them and particularly their cryes but to the construction of their bodies since if we heed it well we shall find in our selves that the cries are not made but by the body alone For indeed if we cry 't is not because we have a Soul but because we have Lungs and other parts which can receive and force out the air with certain modifications Likewise if the Nerves of our Ears be mov'd by a voice that is by an air which other bodies have agitated so as that our brain shaken thereby diffuseth spirits into the muscles of all the parts whose motion can form a voice like that which mov'd it that is repell the air in a manner answerable to that which hath shaken it it is upon no other account but that of our having a Body Lastly if our brain when 't is shaken by a noise or voice sends the spirits rather into the muscles that serve to carry our body near to or far from those which caus'd that Noise than into the muscles of the Larinx or of the other parts serving to form a like voice it is because we have a Body So that if â—here be nothing found in Brutes but â—he like effects we cannot rationally â—ay that they have ought else but Body But as for Us we must avow whatever we adscribe to our bodies in what regards the causes and effects of â—he voice there is alwayes somewhat â—ccompanying them which cannot be â—rom the Soul For as 't is true to speak â—n general that it would be sufficient â—o have motions for which our body â—s fit and to receive the effects which â—re wrought upon it by the various obâ—ects that agitate the brain thereof to â—onserve our body for as much as the â—roportion and relation God hath put â—wixt it and the other bodies of the â—orld gives it without our thinking on 't all what can maintain it in a condition sutable to its nature So 't is true also to say that all that would be acted in us and yet we perceive nothing of it if we had nothing but the Body But now reflecting on what happens to us when some noise strikes the nerves of our ear we shall plainly find that besides that shaking of the nerves of the Ear which continuing to the very internal parts of the brain doth there agitate the spirits and makes them flow into the muscles serving to move ouâ— whole body near to or far from thaâ— noise there is always conjoyn'd a Perception to every shake of our ear or of the other parts of our body And aâ— times we even find in us a Will altogether contrary to the motions which that noise excites in our body And although sometimes the impetuousness of those motions be such that we can hardly stop them in their carriere yet 't is manifest that that contrariety would not be found in us if what renders us capable to Will were not differing and altogether distinct from what makes uâ— capable to move But of those two things which we find in our selves besides Motion I mean the Perception which we have when-ever the nerves of our ear are shaken and the Will which we have by consequent to consent to the motion to which our whole body is excited or to restrain it me thinks the latter is so evidently distinct from our body that none but very inconsiderate persons can be without observing and knowing the distinction As to the Perception we have on the occasion of the shaking which the voice causeth in the nerves of the ear though it be somewhat difficult to be distinguisht from that shaking because it always accompanies it yet 't is easie to him that is a little accustom'd to judge of the effects by their causes to find that the shaking being a motion cannot appertain but to our Body and that the Perception being a Thought cannot belong but to our Soul And as we have found by other reflections that the Union of our Soul and Body only consists in this that certain Thoughts are so united to certain motions that the one are never excited without the others be so too at the same time we ought not to wonder any more to find that the nerves of our ear shall never be shaken but we shall presently feel in our Soul a Sensation or if you will a Perception answerable to the manner the nerves are shaken in nor ought we to believe that that agitation and that perception are one and the same thing although they always accompany one another We are therefore to consider two things in that we call Sound one is the manner in which the Air striking the nerve of our ear shakes our brain and the other is the Sensation of our Soul on the occasion of that agitation of the brain The former belongs necessarily to the Body because 't is nothing but a Motion and the latter belongs necessarily to the Soul because 't is a Perception So likewise in Speech there are two things viz. the Formation of the voice which cannot come but from the Body according to what we have already discours'd and the signification joyn'd with it which cannot be but from the Soul So that Speech is nothing else but a voice by which we signifie what we think 'T is true you may also as hath been already observ'd above joyn your thoughts to other signs besides the Voice as to the characters of Writing or to certain Gestures and that indeed all those ways of expressing our selves are nothing but ways of speaking to take the word in a general and large sense But then because the Voice is the most easie signe the word Speech hath been appropriated to it leaving to Characters the word of Writing and to other ways of expressing our selves the word Signe which is that of the Genus common to all those three Species's It may be I have already said enough of each of them to make them to be sufficiently distinguish't but possibly also since I have not examin'd them but on the score of what they have common among themselves it may not be useless or tedious to speak of them apart that it may appear wherein they differ one from another And to begin with that kind to which hath been left the name of the Genus I mean the Signes we must to comprehend in a
but yet that one of them being furnisht by Nature the defects of the other may be supply'd by Art And having remarked that that is not reciprocal I declare as far as I may in a Discourse where I am to explain but the Principles whence those defects proceed and by what they may be corrected and I do even examine without stepping into the Ethicks why an Orator ought to be a good man and how much Lying may impair the force or the grace of his action 7. Lastly having considered sufficiently how much Eloquence depends from the Temperament and how it may be corrected or perfected by exercise I examine Whether it is to be met with among Spirits not united to Bodies Which obliges me to enquire into the manner after which they may manifest their thoughts to one another and it makes me discover that even our Spirits would enjoy a more easie communication among themselves if the strict Vnion they have with the Body did not indispensably oblige them to make use of Signes The same raciocination teaches me also that the difficulty we meet with in entertainments is not to conceive the thoughts of those that speak to us but to unwrap it from the Signes they use to express it in which often do not sute with it Whence I conclude that the Thought of one Spirit is alwayes clear to another from the very instant he can perceive it And this truth which I discuss as far as I am capable serves me to resolve those difficulties which others have thought unsurmountable but by submission to Faith I well know 't is Faith that must teach us whether sundry things have a being indeed but there is not alwayes need of its aid to conceive them It belongs to it for example to tell us whether there be other Spirits more enlightned that serve to direct ours but when once it hath declared to us that truth me thinks our reason can attain to it And I esteem that reflecting a little on what the thred of my subject hath obliged me to write of it in this Tract we shall find it more easie to conceive how pure Spirits can inspire us with their sentiments than to conceive how one Man can inspire his thoughts to another I might have proceeded further in this Inquiry but having proposed to my self only to examine what serves to Speech I thought I was to make an end after I had consider'd the sundry wayes by which Thoughts may be communicated seeing that that is properly what we call To speak I could wish that the discourse I have made of it might prove as pleasant to others as the reflexions it hath obliged me to make have been to me I avow they have been all the divertisement I have enjoyed during the last Vacations and as it is at least in that time permitted to comply with our inclinations the pleasure I have found in it sollicits me strongly to spend in the same manner all the other hours wherein I may be permitted to divert my self To conclude this Argument is so pleasant and so fertile that one needs but to propose it and it will beget a thousand pleasing thoughts And I doubt not but all those that excell me in genius will find by occasion of this Discourse a thousand pretty things which I have omitted so that without boasting of my Book I may affirm that the more wit a man hath the more pleasure he will find to read it A DISCOURSE OF SPEECH AMongst the Bodies I see in the World I perceive some that are in all things like mine and I confess I have a great inclination to believe that they are united to Souls as mine is But when I come to consider that my Body hath so many operations distinct from those of my Soul and that nothing of what maketh it subsist depends at all from Her I think I have at least ground to doubt that those Bodies are united to Souls until I have examin'd all their actions And I do even see that by the maximes of good sense I shall be obliged to believe that they have no Soul if they do only such things whereof I have found in my self that the Body alone may be the cause Thus if I see that the Objects make different impressions on them by the Eyes Ears Nose or Touch and if I see them eat sleep wake feed breath walk and dye nothing of all that oughâ— to make me believe that there is any other thing in them but a certain disposition of organs and parts which indeed is admirable but yet so dependent from the course and order of the other matter that I have acknowledged that to be the only cause in me of Nutrition Sleep Respiration and of the power which objects have to move the Brain so many surprising wayes 'T is true I have observ'd that cerâ—â—in Thoughts alwayes accompani'd in me most of the motions of my Organs but yet 't is true also that by the exactest preciseness with which I have distinguish't what was in all my operations on the account of the Body and what on the score of the Soul I have found manifestly that if I had nothing but the Body I might have all what appears to me in the other Bodies which resemble mine It behoves me therefore to observe those Bodies neerer and to examine whether I may not perceive by any of their Actions that they are ruled by Souls I see that ordinarily they are carried to places where the Air seems most proper to entertain by respiration a due temper in the Bloud I see that they withdraw likewise from places where the Cold might too much retard the motion and from those where the Heat might render it too quick I see that they often flye with vehemence from the encounter of many other Bodies that appear to me of a Shape and Motion capable to destroy them and I see also that they approach those which may be beneficial to them And all these actions appear to me to be done with a discerning such as I find in me when I do the same actions Mean time when I reflect that I have found by other Contemplations that the sole Disposition of the Organs is the cause of all those operations in me I fear I affirm too much if I attribute the different motions of the Bodies that surround me to another cause than to the agreement there is between their Brain and the Objects and then as long as I do not see them do but what is for their good as to eat to drink to seek after coolness or warmth and whatever may maintain them in a state sutable to their nature I am not to believe there is any other thing in them but the Organs which may suffice for that But me-thinks I see them often do things that relate not at all to themselves nor their preservation I see some of them that meet with other Bodies the encounter whereof must in all appearance
to make use of those external signs can manifest his thoughts to the Spirit he will inform so as no other shall know of it In effect in that state we now are in of discovering our thoughts we do nothing else but to Will and although that Will be joyned to motions which fail not to be in certain parts of our body as soon as we need it for the signifying our thoughts yet notwithstanding our souls are not the cause of those motions according to what we shewed in our 4th Discourse * In his book entitl'd Le Discernement du Corps de l' Ame. and they do nothing else to expresse themselves but to Will so that as long as they are united to our Bodies we cannot express the thoughts coming into our mind but by moving the Tongue the Throat and the Mouth this necessity is imposed on us by that union But as soon as there should be no such necessity to borrow motions for expressing what we think there would need no more to make other Spirits understand it but to will that they should understand and if we would have it hid from them there would need no more than not to will that they should know it I have elsewhere deliver'd the reasons by which it appears that all the action of the Soul consists in willing and I think I have sufficiently made it out that all what depends from Her is to determine herself to one thing or another so as I shall not need here to repeat any thing of what I have said on that subject But it will not be amiss to take notice in this place that although God do not make us conceive what is the substance of our Spirits nor how they will that is how they determine themselves yet we know clearly that we have a Spirit and that our Spirit hath the power of determining it self But now as we are assured that we speak not our thoughts but when we please we ought to believe that if we were in a state to need signes and voices no more we might then by our Will alone discover or hide our thoughts We are also to remember that 't is not more difficult to conceive that then we should make our thoughts to be apprehended by other Spirits than to conceive that the spirit of another man should apprehend in the present state what we think when we express it by voice or by signes For the rest when I say that Souls emancipated from the Body might hide or manifest their thoughts to one another that is to be understood if they had the same reason to hide their thoughts they have now in the present state But 't is apparent that if they shall be happy as they will have no thoughts but for the Glory of their Maker so they will be glad that all the Spirits should know them and if they for ever lose his grace they will have only such thoughts which being to serve to publish the effects of his justice will be known to all the Spirits Lastly we ought to remember that according to what I have deliver'd of the Action of Souls and Bodies in the fifth Discourse of the first part we say that one Soul acts upon another Soul as often as one hath new thoughts upon an occasion given by the other even as we say that one Body acts upon another Body as often as one Body receives some change upon occasion afforded by the other And as I have shewn that a Body never gives any motion to a Body but only for as much as their meeting together is an occasion to the Divine Power which moved one to apply it self to the other We are also to conceive that when one Soul will make known to another Soul what she thinketh that happens forasmuch as Almighty God brings it to pass that according to the will of the one the other comes to know it And even as the Will we have that our Body be mov'd does not make it move but is only an occasion to the First Power to move it after such a manner as we desire it should be mov'd so the Will also which we have that a Spirit should know what we think is an occasion to that Power so to order things that all may be disposed in such a way as that that Spirit may understand it Thence it necessarily results that 't is as impossible for our Souls to have new perceptions without God as 't is impossible for the Body to have new motions without Him And 't is evident besides that our Souls which depend from Him for their Being and for their Conservation depend not at all from Him for the Vse of their Will whereof he leaves the determination altogether free And I dare deliver it as a thing that will appear manifest to all men of good sense who shall attentively consider it that as the Body is a substance to which Extension belongs naturally so that it would as to effects naturall cease to be a Body if it ceas'd to be extended even so the Spirit is a substance to which the power of determining it self doth so naturally appertain that it would cease to be a Spirit if it ceas'd to will and God Almighty hath made it thus that he might be loved by it Which appears so evidently that if he had not declared it by so many miraculous testimonies of his tenderness which goes so far as to ask of us our Heart that is to say our Love we should be altogether perswaded that He will be the object of our Will in this World by this only consideration that there is no object so great but it can embrace it As to the power of knowing perhaps he hath not given us that so great at least not in this World But 't is certain that we have knowledge enough as not to fail if we use well the light we have and the power we are endowed with of judging of nothing but after we do well know it For God gives us all the â—ight we need we have idea's very distinct to know the things of Nature as much as 't is usefull to know them since we can when we use prudence discern wherein every one is beneficial or hurtfull to us And although according to what I have already observ'd he affordeth us not the advantage to know the very substance of things yet he so well discovers to us wherein they can hurt â—r profit us that to use it aright we are â—nly to will it As for those things which are above Nature although they infinitely surpass our knowledg yet we have very distinct notions of the Reasons why we are not able to conceive them and of the Reasons also why we are to believe them For if on the one hand in the doctrine of Faith there are things to be found that are beyond our natural light we have on the other such evident signes of the Obligation for us to submit our