means of knowing Others and that is SPEECH I explain as far as I am able What it is and poursuant to my first dessein I endeavour in this Discourse exactly to distinguish what it borrows of the Soul from what it holds of the Body I. To begin this Inquiry with the more certainty I do not reason but upon what I have found within my self in the Sixth Discourse of the lately mentioned Book and as if I had never yet been assured there were other Men besides my self I stay in the very beginning upon this Consideration viz. Whether it be necessary that all the Bodies which I see to be like mine be united to Souls like mine Resolving with my self not to believe it unless I have such evident signes thereof that I may doubt no more of it I examine What those Bodies do that 's most surprising and as long as I can rationally impute the Cause thereof to the Disposition of their Organs I think I may safely affirme they have no Soul But after having found in the sole Disposition of the parts of those Bodies that thence I can render a reason of Noise the Sounds the difference of the Voices and the very Words utter'd by Echo's and Parrets I am at length obliged to admit Souls in all the Bodies that resemble mine and to acknowledge it not possible for them to speak to such purpose as they do without being endowed with Reason 2. Next having found That to speak is in general nothing else but to Give signes of our Thoughts I observe some of those signes The first I consider are the Motions of the Eyes or Face and such Cryes as ordinarily accompany the differing states of the Body And I take notice that they are naturally conjoyn'd with the Passions of which the Soul is sensible on the occasion of changes in the Body and that the best way we have to manifest what she suffers is not to strain the Face Eyes or Voice I note likewise that this way of explicating our selves is the first of Tongues and the most Universal there being no Nation but understands it But I observe at the same time that the wickedness of Men hath made that the most deceitful of all Besides those Natural signes of the Passions of the Soul I discover others which are but Instituted ones by which she can express what ever she conceives I shew briefly the agreement and the difference of some of those signes to make all to be understood what I intend to deduce from thence in this place and reserving to my self to discourse of it more strictly and more to my purpose thereafter I stay to consider How one may invent a Language How a man may learn the Tongue of a Country where no body understands his and lastly How Children learn to speak I admire how their Reason is put to it in that Infant-age to make them discern and distinguish the signification of every word above all the Order which they follow for that purpose appears to Me surprising forasmuch as 't is altogether like that of the Grammar so that seeing how much this Art imitates Nature I find no difficulty to make it out How those that have given us the Rules thereof have learnt them from little Children And in this whole research I meet with so many Arguments to evince the Distinction of the Bâ—dy and Soul that to me it seems not there can any thing be more evidently known than â—he 3 After some reflexâ—â—ns â—nâ—â— important a Truth I betake my self for the yet better knowing of the nature of Speâ—ch to unfold in this place all what is to be found in it on the score of the Body I consider therefore in him that speaketh the manner how the Air enters into the Lungs why it maketh a sound in issuing out at the Wind-pipe How the Muscles that serve to open or shut this conduit diversifie the sound What parts of the mouth are employed to determine it in a Voyce What is the configuration of every one in these different terminations and what is the Change of the Throat the Tongue the Teeth and the Lips in all the Articulations Which giveth me to understand as much as needs what Speech is as far as it depends upon the Body I observe with the same accurateness the effect which by sound is produced in the Ear and Brain of him that heareth I find it is from the correspondency between the Brain and the other parts of every Animal that it can be so differently moved by different sounds and examining chiefly the use of the Nerves which diffuse themselves from the Ear to all the parts serving to form the voice I discover the reasons of many odd effects and amongst them of certain Birds imitating the singing of others and the sound of our Musical Instruments and often our very Words 4. I also draw from thence a convincing argument that Brutes need no soul to cry or to be moved by Voyces or even to imitate the sound of our words and that if the cry of those that are of the same species disposeth them to approach one another and maketh those that are of a different kind to retire the cause of that is to be sought no where else but in their Bodies and the different construction of their Organs But at the same time I find that in Men the motion of the parts which serve for the Voyce or of those that are moved by it is ever accompanied with some thoughts and that in Speech there are alwayes two things viz. the Formation of the Voyce which cannot proceed but from the Body and the Signification or the Idea that is joyn'd therewith which cannot come but from the Soul 5. And because hitherto I have said almost nothing of the Voice of Writing and of Signes but what may serve to declare what those three wayes of expressing our thoughts have common there having been no occasion sooner to observe the differences of each I take notice in this place of three sorts of Signes of two sorts of Writing and of two of Voices I stay principally upon the last on which occasion I finish the explication of what the order of the precedent matters had not permitted me to explicate sooner touching the easiness or difficulty there is in joyning certain Idea's to certain Words when we learn a Language And making out as accurately as I can how all that is done I find that the trouble which some have to conceive or to explain themselves is not an imperfection in the Soul and that that marvellous facility which others enjoy to express thâ—mselves proceeds only from an happy Disposition of the Brain and of all the parts that serve for the Voyce or for the Motions of the Body 6. On which occasion I inquire into the natural causes of Eloquence and find that to the perfection thereof are required two talents at once which by birth are never given to one and the same person
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
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
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
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
pass that the Brain which thereby is often shaken in the same places sends such a plenty of spirits through the nerves that are inserted in the Muscles of the Throat that at length they easily move â—ll the cartilages which serve for that action as t is requisite they should be moved to form Sounds like those that have shaken the Brain Thus it is not enough that Bodies make Sounds form Voices and even articulate Words like those by which I express what I think to perswade me that they think what-ever they seem to say For example I ought not be so rash as to believe that a Parret hath any thought when he pronounces some Words For besides that I have observed that after having repeated to him exceedingly often the same words in a certain order he never returneth but the self same words and in the same coherence It seems to me that since he does not make these returns to purpose he imitates men less than Echo's doe which never answer but what hath been said to them and if there be any difference between Parrets and Echo's it is that Rocks tossing back the Air without changing at all the impressions it hath received render the same voices that have struck them whereas Parrets form another voice like that which hath struck the ear and often repeat words which are said to them no more But in short as I cannot say that Rocks speak when they return words so I dare not affirm that Parrets speak when they repeat them For it seems to me that to speak is not to repeat the same words which have struck the ear but to utter others to their purpose and sutable to them And as I have reason to believe that none of the Bodies that make Echo's do think though I hear them repeat my words seing they never render them but in the order I utter'd them in I should by the same reason judge that Parrets do not think neither But not to examine any further how it is with Parrets and so many other Bodies whose figure is very different from mine I shall continue the Inquiry which I need to know the inward constitution of those who resemble me so perfectly without and for that purpose I think I may after the disquisition I have been making of all what causeth noise sounds voices and words establish for a Principle That if the Bodies which are like mine had nothing but the facilness of pronouncing Words I should not therefore believe that they had the advantage of being united to Souls But then if I finde by all the Experiments I am capable to make that they use speech as I do I shall think I have infallible reason to beleive that they have a soul as I. To make this examen in such an order as leaves me no suspicion at all to have deceived my self I must consider before all what I mean by SPEECH To speak in my opinion is nothing else but to make known what we think to that creature which is capable to understand it And supposing that the Bodies which resemble mine have Souls I see that the only means to express to one another what we think is to give to our selves external signes thereof But me thinks I have found that there are many signes common to them and me by which we understand one another for seing that they answer to my signes by other signes which give me images agreeable to what I think I do not believe I am deceived when I perswade my self that they have understood my thought and that the new thought which their signes have excited in me is really that which they have Moreover I see I can agree with some of them that what commonly signifies one thing shall signifie another and that this succeeds so as that there are none but those with whom I have agreed about it that appear to me to understand what I think Whence I conceive that those signs are of Institution and as that Institution necessarily supposeth reason and thoughts in those that are capable to agree about it I should it may be advance nothing rashly if I now affirmed that those Bodies are united to Souls But that which might trouble me here is that if there be signs of Institution I think I know others that are alltogether natural For example all those by which I express my passions without any design to do so Thus a smiling Meen and certain motions of my eies or of the other parts of my Face make me often consider when I consult with the Looking-glass that if others saw me they would know my sadness my joy or the other passions stirring in me And that it may be If those bodies resembling mine have Souls is the surest means to discover to them the different constitutions of my Soul Yet if I take good heed I can render those signs very deceitful For I find that though naturally I appear outwardly chearful or sad when I am so indeed yet I have the power to constrain the motions of my face and eyes so as to make them have an Air quite differing from that which they would have if I left their motions free Which gives me to understand that though naturally certain motions of my face and even of my whole Body have been joyn'd to some of my thoughts yet this conjunction is not so necessary but that I can sometimes alter it by joyning those thoughts to other motions And though indeed that give me much pain yet I conceive that as we may form an easy habit of what at first appears very difficult I could also render these changes easy enough to me But what I am most of all to observe here is that although it be very convenient that as long as my Soul is united to my Body for the conservation whereof she hath divers passions her joy her sadness her desires or her fear be alwayes joyn'd with the motions which the good or ill disposition of that Body can beget in the Brain as also that that correspondence which is between the parts of the Brain and those of the Face or Eyes and all such as are external be the cause that what is within may never change unless there be marks of it without yet notwithstanding since those exteriour marks have no necessary relation but to the changes of the Brain and that the sole condition of the Body may be the cause thereof it might happen that though the Bodies which resemble mine should not be united to Souls that yet they would have the same motions of eyes and face which I often perceive in me according as they should be well or ill dispos'd within so that those external signes so like in those Bodies and mine are not alone an infallible argument that those bodies are endow'd with Souls Further since those motions of the face and eyes and even those cryes that are never wanting when nothing constrains them to follow the different conditions of
except he were honest and that we should have such contrary sentiments But not to mix here Morality farther than 't is sutable to a Discouse of Natural Philosophy it will be to our purpose to examine in this place whence it is that not only an Orator ought to be a man of integrity but also that he cannot be perfectly eloquent unless he be so And this is not hard to conceive for if it be agreed on that to be perfectly eloquent a man must know the Art to instruct his Auditors and that of raising or allaying Passions according as it shall conduce to the end that is proposed we must also agree in this that an Orator that speaks the contrary to what he knows will not so easily find words to expresse it as if he spoke the truth and if to avoid mistaking he studies what he is to say it must be acknowleged that his Discourse which will be but a piece of Memory can never have that grace nor force which is found in that of a person who having learnt to speak well and speaking what he thinks fears not he should mistake Again it must be granted that if he that is not an honest man will excite in others the motions and passions which really are not in himself 't will always go off coldly to express passions studied and if to surmount the effect of that constraint which appears when a man will refrain his own motions to fain others he will blot out all the strokes and the little motions by which his Countenance Eyes and Gesture would shew the contrary to what his Words do express he must so exceedingly strain that not only he loses the grace without which a man cannot please nor persuade but also renders himself odious and is so far from exciting in others the motions which he hath not in himself that he begets horror in all those who perswade themselves that he indeed feels the violence of the passions wherewith he appears to be moved In a word 't is evident that there is naturally such a relation between the Sentiments of men and the Signes and Words used to express them that one and the same person can never tell a Lye so gracefully as a Truth And as a man cannot be very eloquent when he constrains to say what he doth not think or to express what he feels not 't is impossible to be very eloquent unless one be very sincere and honest seeing it belongs only to a man of integrity to speak nâ—kedly what he thinks his motions are so just that he needs not to put on any constraint besides the Truth which accompanies all his words and that love of Justice which animates all his motions give so much weight and grace to his action that 't is in a manner impossible to resist it and which is the chief we are easily carried away by the motions of a man whom we believe to be Virtuous and when he that speaks hath the advantage of exciting in others the same passions which himself resents as he is soon master of their thoughts so he soon renders their judgment favorable to what he aims at And since we see that those whom a like disposition of body maketh lyable to the like motions have ordinarily the same sentiments about the same things we may justly believe that the fairest means to gain others to the same opinion with ours is to raise motions in them altogether like ours For indeed which particular cannot be too often repeated as long as our Souls remain united to our Bodies all our motions will be so consonant with our sentiments that we shall never be able to inspire the one but by the other This reflexion maketh me think that as we can conceive Spirits not united to Bodies if there be eloquence amongst them that cannot be by the means of Motions because they are not capable of them But supposing that those Spirits are in that state of liberty wherein they can determine themselves to this or that thing 't is easie to conceive that if one of them being more enlightned than others hath a passion for a thing which a meer spirit is capable to have a passion for as for example for his own glory he may put his thoughts which he shall manifest to others upon that subject into an order which shall appear so excellent that it shall excite in some the same passion which he resents and on the other hand to keep to the same example a Spirit yet more illuminated and better inclined than the former may make those who might have fallen into that error to conceive that whereas that Glory can appertain to none but the Soverain Power 't is a folly for any one to pretend to it when he is not God It might after the same manner be conceived how meer spirits might inspire one another with divers sentiments touching all such things for which they were capable to have passions supposing as hath been said that they were in a state of chusing one of two But to draw from this notion no more than may serve for my intent it is to be considered that if for speaking a man needs the motion of the parts that serve for the voice and if for hearing there is need of the agitation of the parts that serve for Hearing there needs nothing between two Spirits to communicate their thoughts to one another but to will it And since we find that the thought of one man is easily understood by another from the time that the first hath spoken that is from the time that by the motions which serve to beat the Air he hath moved the Ear of him to whom he will have his thought known 't is also easie to apprehend that if two Spirits who depend not from the Body in their operations will discover to one another their thoughts they have nothing to do but to will it There is me thinks much less difficulty to conceiv the one than the other as I have already observed For in Speech there are two things viz. the Will to communicate one's thoughts and the Motions by which they are communicated but those Motions have so little affinity in themselves to the thoughts that it seems very strange how a thought can be so well united to a motion as that the one should be an occasion to know the other whereas in the manifestation which two Spirits make to one another of their thoughts there needs nothing but the Will to communicate them and Spirits being of one and the same nature 't is evident that one Thought may much easier be the occasion of another thought than Motion But next what hath been said of the Communication of two meer Spirits ought to be said of the commerce that may be betwixt a Spirit united to a Body and one that is not For certainly what incapacitates two men to communicate their thoughts to one another without motions is that they have Bodies
and that the one cannot be advertis'd by the other but by the motions occasion'd by the Body to which the Soul is united But supposing that one of the Spirits have no Body it is capable to render it self present by its very thoughts to that which hath a Body as it doth to that which is destitute of a Body and reciprocally that Spirit which is united to a Body will be able without the intervention of the Voice to express its thoughts to every Spirit that is Body-less Mean time we are so accustom'd to judge of all things by those we see that since men make use of a voice and very easily understand one another we rashly judge that it would be very difficult to two Spirits mutually to communicate their thoughts And some judge it even impossible that a Spirit destitute of Body for example an Angel should communicate with Vs But 't is evident that that proceeds only from the precipitation of our Spirit who maketh no reflection on what befals him in the communication he hath with the spirit of another Man For if he did consider that the beating of the Air and the other things which serve to make him understand the thoughts of the person that discourses with him have nothing in them resembling those thoughts he would more wonder that he understands him than he wonders when one will perswade him that two Angels speak to one another or that even one Angel can converse with Vs without the assistance of a voice I cannot in this place forbear to take notice how much the reflexion we make on what passeth within us is capable to make us judge aright of what is done or at least may be done elsewhere And the Example I draw from the manner after which we converse with men is so proper to make it to be conceived what might pass betwixt Spirits destitute of such Bodies as we have and even between those Spirits and Us that the thing being well examin'd there will be found no other difference between those two sorts of Communications but that that which is between Man and Man will prove the more difficult to conceive in regard it is made by the means of Motions which are quite different from Thoughts whereas that which we may have with meer Spirits is less sensible because 't is perform'd without any of those motions which render as 't were sensible to us the thoughts of the men whose voice striketh our Ears And this may be also the cause why we are inform'd that when Spirits would give any important advertisements to Men they borrow'd Bodies and form'd Voices like those of Men. But those Extraordinary things are not to hinder us from conceiving that naturally we can communicate with meer Spirits more easily than with Men. So that if Faith teaches us there are Spirits not united to Bodies and that he who hath created them as he hath us having committed to them the care of conducting us they are always present to our Spirit to direct it without constraining it there is nothing in that which is above those things we think we know best For in short as we conceive that the communication between two Men is made by Speech that is by a Will to express what they think and by the motions answering to that will we may also me thinks conceive that the converse of two Spirits may be made by the sole Will of manifesting themselves to one another and that if a meer Spirit communeth with a Man though that be in a way less sensible than is that of ordinary Words yet 't is after a manner intelligible which may insensibly give him the thoughts he needs for his conduct which in a word is to inspire him Even so may we easily conceive that God who causeth our Spirits to move Bodies can if need be give to an Angel the same power to make himself to be understood by speech Now me things I see what is properly meant by the word Inspiration and I believe I am not deceived when I say that 't is by that means only that those thoughts may come into our mind which have no affinity to any of those that naturally are in our Soul only because we have a Body Next I see that we know no more the Spirits of any of all those men that speak to us when they inspire us with their thoughts than those meer Spirits which I think capable to inspire us better thoughts And as the new thoughts which come into our mind by the conversation we have with men are a sure testimony to any of us that they have a Spirit like ours we are to take the new thoughts coming in to us without being able to find the cause of them in our selves or impute it to the discourse of men for an assured testimony that there are yet other Spirits that may inspire us with them I find also that the custome of understanding the thoughts of other men by gestures and the voice maketh that way to affect us more than the things which are inspired us without it But if I heed it well I see that we do not more know the â—â—â—rits of meâ— th t speak to us than tâ—â—â—pâ—rits th◠〈…〉 us A like Air t◠〈◊〉 out b◠〈…〉 â—â—s of him that discourses wâ—â—h â—s striking our ears exciteth upon the agitation of the Brain sounds in our Soul and at the same time the images or conceptions which we have joyned to those sounds But in truth neither that propelled Air nor any thing of what passeth into the Body from him that speaks to us is his thought and if we have any reason to believe him to have thoughts 't is only because we feel that he excites new ones in us But if all the reason we have to believe there are Spirits united to the Bodies of the men that speak to us is that they give us often new thoughts such as we had not or that they oblige us to alter those we had can we doubt when new thoughts come into us that are above our natural light and contrary to the sentiments which the Body may excite in us can we I say when no men inspire us with them doubt of their being inspired us by other Spirits I judge we cannot reasonably and the custome we have to receive them by the means of Speech which is a sensible way ought not to make us disadvow those that are inspired us by a way different from that of the senses I know also that if we be free to hide our thoughts whilst our Soul is united to a Body we might have the same liberty if it were separated from it and that in some manner that freedome would yet be greater in regard that often when we speak to a person the signes and the voices by which we express our selves may be perceived or understood by a Third to whom we would not discover our thoughts whereas a pure Spirit who is not obliged