I doubt not but will bear it down to Posterity with a Glory that shall know no term but the Universal ruines Neither can the Pedantry or prejudice of the present Age any more obstruct its motion in that supreme sphear wherein its desert hath plac'd it then can the howling Wolves pluck Cynthia from her Orb who regardless of their noise securely glides through the undisturbed Aether Censure here will disparage it self not it He that accuseth the Sun of darkness shames his own blind eyes not its light The barking of Cynicks at that Hero 's Chariot-wheels will not sully the glory of his Triumphs But I shall supersede this endless attempt Sun-beams best commend themselves FINIS The Contents CHAP. I. A Display of the Perfections of Innocence with a conjecture at the manner of Adams Knowledge page 1. CHAP. II. Our decay and ruines by the fall descanted on of the now scantness of our knowledge 10. CHAP. III. Instances of our Ignorance 1 of things within our selves The nature of the Soul and its origine glanc't at and past by 1 It 's union with the body is unconceiveable So 2 is its moving the body consider'd either in the way of Sir K. Digby Des-Cartes or Dr. H. More and the Platonists 3 The manner of direction of the Spirits as unexplicable 17. CHAP. IV. 4 We can give no account of the manner of Sensation Nor 5 of the Nature of the Memory It is consider'd according to the Philosophy of Des-Cartes Sir K. Digby Aristotle and Mr. Hobbs and all in-effectual Some other unexplicables mention'd 27. CHAP. V. 6 How our bodies are form'd unexplicable The plastick signifies nothing The formation of Plants and Animals unknown in their principle Mechanism solves it not A new way propounded which also fails of satisfaction 2 No account is yet given how the parts of matter are united Some considerations on Des-Cartes his Hypothesis it fails of solution 3 The question is unanswerable whether matter be compounded of divisibles or indivisibles 41. CHAP. VI. Difficulties about the motion of a wheel which admit of no Solution 54. CHAP. VII Mens backwardness to acknowledge their own Ignorance and Errour though ready to find them in others The first cause of the shortness of our knowledge viz. the depth of Verity discourst of as of its admixtion in mens opinions with falshood the connexion of truths And their mutual dependence A second reason of the shortness of our knowledge viz. because we can perceive nothing but by proportion to our senses 62. CHAP. VIII A third reason of our Ignorance and Errour viz. the impostures and deceits of our Senses The way to rectifie these mis-informations propounded Des-Cartes his method the only way to Science The difficulty of the exact performance 69. CHAP. IX Two Instances of Sensitive deception 1 Of the Quiescence of the Earth Four cases in which motion is insensible applyed to the Earth's motion 75. CHAP. X. Another instance of the deceptions of our Senses which is of translating the Idea of our passions to things without us In propriety of speech our Senses themselves are never deceived prov'd by reason and the authority of St. Austin 87. CHAP. XI A fourth reason of our Ignorance and Errour viz. the fallacy of our Imaginations An account of the nature of that faculty instances of its deceptions Spirits are not in a place Intellection Volition Decrees c. cannot properly be ascrib'd to God It is not Reason that opposeth Faith but Phancy The Interest which Imagination hath in many of our Opinions in that it impresses a perswasion without Evidence 95. CHAP. XII A fifth reason the precipitancy of our understandings the reason of it The most close ingagements of our minds requisite to the finding of truth the difficulties of the performance of it Two instances of our precipitating 106. CHAP. XIII The sixth reason discourst of viz. the interest which our affections have in our Dijudications The cause why our affections mislead us Several branches of this mention'd and the first viz. constitutional Inclination largely insisted on 113. CHAP. XIV A second thing whereby our affections ingage us in Errour is the prejudice of Custom and Education A third interest 4 Love to our own productions 125. CHAP. XV. 5. Our affections are ingag'd by our reverence to Antiquity and Authority our mistake of Antiquity the unreasonableness of that kind of Pedantick Adoration Hence the vanity of affecting impertinent quotations the Pedantry on 't is derided The little improvement of Science through its successive derivations and whence it hath hapned 136. CHAP. XVI Reflexions on the Peripatetick Philosophy The Generality of its reception no argument of its deserts the first charge against that Philosophy 148. CHAP. XVII 2. Peripatetick Philosophy is litigious it hath no setled constant signification of words the inconveniences hereof Aristotle intended the cherishing controversies prov'd by his own double testimony Some of his impertinent arguings derided Disputes retard and are injurious to knowledge Peripateticks are most exercised in the controversal parts of Philosophy and know little of the practical and experimental A touch at School-Divinity 159. CHAP. XVIII 3. It gives no account of the Phaenomena Those that are remoter it attempts not it speaks nothing pertinent in the most ordinary its circular and general way of solution it resolves all things into occult qualities The absurdity of Aristotelian Hypothesis of the Heavens The Galaxy is no meteor The Heavens are corruptible Comets are above the Moon The sphear of fire derided Aristotle convicted of several other false assertions 169. Aristotle's Philosophy inept for new discoveries It hath been the Author of no one invention It 's founded on vulgarities and therefore makes nothing known beyond them The knowledge of Natures out-side conferrs not to practical improvements better hopes from the New Philosophy A fifth charge against Aristotle's Philosophy it is in many things impious and self-contradicting instances of both propounded The directing all this to the design of the discourse A caution viz. that nothing is here intended in favour of novelty in Divinity The reason why we may imbrace what is new in Philosophy while we reject Novelties in Theologie 177 178. CHAP. XX. It 's quaeried whether there be any Science in the sense of the Dogmatist 1 We cannot know any thing to be the cause of another but from its attending it and this way is not infallible declared by instances especially from the Philosophy of Des-Cartes 2 There 's no demonstration but where the contrary is impossible We can scarce conclude so of any thing Instances of supposed impossibles which are none A story of a Scholar that turn'd Gipsy and of the power of Imagination Of one mans binding anothers thought and a conjecture at the manner of its performance 188 189. CHAP. XXI Another instance of a supposed impossibility which may not be so Of conference at distance by impregnated Needles Away of secret conveyance by sympathized hands a relation to this purpose Of the magnetick cure of wounds 3 We cannot know any thing in Nature without the knowledge of the first springs of natural motion and these we are ignorant of Des-Cartes his Philosophy commendâ—d 202 CHAP. XXII 4 Because of the mutual dependence and concatenation of Causes we cannot know any one without knowing all Particularly declared by instances 5 All our Science câ—mes in at our senses their infallibility inquired into 213 CHAP. XXIII Considerations against Dogmatizing 1 'T is the effect of Ignorance 2 It argues untamed passions 3 It disturbs the world 4 It is ill manners and immodesty 5 It holds men captive in Errour 6 It betrayes a narrowness of Spirit 224. CHAP. XXIV An Apology for Philosophy 235. FINIS
of Man I shall give the following instances of our intellectual blindness not that I intend to poze them with those common Aenigma's of Magnetism Fluxes Refluxes and the like these are resolv'd into a confest ignorance and I shall not persue them to their old Asylum and yet it may be there is more knowable in these then in lesse acknowledg'd mysteries But I 'le not move beyond our selves and the most ordinary and trivial Phaenomena in nature in which we shall finde enough to shame confidence and unplume Dogmatizing CHAP. III. Instances of our Ignorance propounded 1 of things within our selves The nature of the Soul and its origine glanc'd at and past by 1 It 's union with the body is unconceivable So 2 is its moving the body consider'd either in the way of Sir K. Digby Des-Cartes or Dr. H. More and the Platonists 3 The manner of direction of the Spirits as unexplicable IN the prosecution of our intendment wee 'll first instance in some things in the generall which concern the soul in this state of terrestriall union and then speak more particularly to some faculties within us a scientificall account of which mortality is unacquainted with Secondly we intend to note some mysteries which relate to matter and Body And Thirdly to shew the unintelligible intricacy of some ordinary appearances § 1. It 's a great question with some what the soul is And unlesse their phancies may have a sight and sensible palpation of that more clarified subsistence they will prefer infidelity it self to an unimaginable Idea I 'le onely mind such that the soul is seen as other things in the Mirrour of its effects and attributes But if like children they 'll run behind the glass to see its naked face their expectation will meet with nothing but vacuity emptiness And though a pure Intellectual eye may have a sight of it in reflex discoveries yet if we affect a grosser touch like IxioÌ„ we shal embrace a cloud § 2. And it hath been no less a trouble to the world to determine whence it came then what it is Whether it were made by an immediate creation or seminall traduction hath been a Ball of contention to the most learned ages And yet after all the bandying attempts of resolution it is as much a question as ever and it may be will be so till it be concluded by immortality Some ingenious ones think the difficulties which are urged by each side against the other to be pregnant proofs of the falshood of both and substitute an hypothesis which for probability is supposed to have the advantage of either But I shall not stir in the waters which have been already mudded by so many contentious enquiries The great St. Austin and others of the gray heads of reverend Antiquity have been content to sit down here in a profest neutrality And I 'le not industiously endeavour to urge men to a confession of what they freely acknowledge but shall note difficulties which are not so usually observ'd but as insoluble as these § 3. It is the saying of divine Plato that Man is natures Horizon dividing betwixt the upper Hemisphere of immateriall intellects and this lower of Corporeity And that we are a Compound of beings distant in extreams is as clear as Noon But how the purer Spirit is united to this clod is a knot too hard for fallen Humanity to unty What cement should unite heaven and earth light and darkness natures of so divers a make of such disagreeing attributes which have almost nothing but Being in common This is a riddle which must be left to the coming of Elias How should a thought be united to a marble-statue or a sun-beam to a lump of clay The freezing of the words in the air in the northern climes is as conceivable as this strange union That this active spark this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Stoicks call it should be confined to a Prison it can so easily pervade is of less facill apprehension then that the light should be pent up in a box of Crystall and kept from accompanying its source to the lower world And to hang weights on the wings of the winde seems far more intelligible In the unions which we understand the extreams are reconciled by interceding participations of natures which have somewhat of either But Body and Spirit stand at such a distance in their essentiall compositions that to suppose an uniter of a middle constitution that should partake of some of the qualities of both is unwarranted by any of our faculties yea most absonous to our reasons since there is not any the least affinity betwixt length breadth and thickness and apprehension judgement and discourse The former of which are the most immediate results if not essentials of Matter the latter of Spirit § 4. Secondly We can as little give an account how the Soul moves the Body That that should give motion to an unwieldy bulk which it self hath neither bulk nor motion is of as difficil an apprehension as any mystery in nature For though conceiving it under some phancied appearance and pinning on it materiall affections the doubt doth not so sensibly touch us since under such conceptions we have the advantage of our senses to befriend us with parallels and gross appreâ—henders may not think it any more strange then that a Bullet should be moved by the rarified fire or the clouds carryed before the invisible winds yet if we defaecate the notion from materiality and abstract quantity locality and all kind of corporeity from it and represent it to our thoughts either under the notion of the ingenious Sir K. Digby as a pure Mind and Knowledge or as the admir'd Des-Cartes expresses it une chose qui pense as a thinking substance it will be as hard to apprehend as that an empty wish should remove Mountains a supposition which if realized would relieve Sisyphus Nor yet doth the ingenious hypothesis of the most excellent Cantabrigian Philosopher of the souls being an extended penetrable substance relieve us since how that which penetrates all bodies without the least jog or obstruction should impress a motion on any is by his own confession alike inconceivable Neither will its moving the Body by a vehicle of Spirits avail us since they are Bodies too though of a purer mould And to credit the unintelligibility both of this union and motion we need no more then to consider that when we would conceiue any thing which is not obvious to our senses we have recourse to our memories the store-house of past observations and turning over the treasure that is there seek for something of like kind which hath formerly come within the notice of our outward or inward senses So that we cannot conceive any thing which comes not within the verge of our senses but either by like experiments which we have made or at least by some remoter hints which we receive from them And where such are wanting I cannot
apprehend how the thing can be conceived If any think otherwise let them carefully examine their thoughts and if they finde a determinate intellection of any Modes of Being which were never in the least hinted to them by their externall or internall senses I 'le beleeve that such can realize Chimaera's But now in the cases before us there are not the least footsteps either of such an Union or Motion in the whole circumference of sensible nature And we cannot apprehend any thing beyond the evidence of our faculties § 5. Thirdly How the soul directs the Spirits for the motion of the Body according to the several animal exigents is as perplex in the theory as either of the former For the meatus or passages through which those subtill emissaries are conveyed to the respective members being so almost infinite and each of them drawn through so many meanders cross turnings and divers roades wherein other spirits are continually a journeying it is wonderfull that they should exactly perform their regular destinations without losing their way in such a wilderness neither can the wit of man tell how they are directed For that they are carried by the manuduction of a Rule is evident from the constant steddyness and regularity of their motion into the parts where their supplies are expected But what that regulating efficiency should be and how managed is not easily determin'd That it is performed by meer Mechanisme constant experience confutes which assureth us that our spontaâ—â—eous motions are under the Imperium of our will At least the first determination of the Spirits into such or such passages is from the soul what ever we hold of the after conveyances of which likewise I think that all the philosophy in the world cannot make it out to be purely Mechanicall But yet though we gain this that the soule is the principle of direction the difficulty is as formidable as ever For unless we allow it a kinde of inward sight of the Anatomicall frame of its owne body of every vein muscle and artery of the exact site and position of them with their severall windings and secret chanels it is as unconceivable how it should be the Directrix of such intricate motions as that a blind man should manage a game at Chess But this is a kinde of knowledge that we are not in the least aware of yea many times we are so far from an attention to the inward direction of the spirits that our employ'd mindes observe not any method in the outward performance even when 't is manag'd by variety of interchangeable motions in which a steady direction is difficult and a miscariage easy Thus an Artist will play a Lesson on an instrument without minding a stroke and our tongues will run divisions in a tune not missing a note even when our thoughts are totally engaged elsewhere which effects are to be attributed to some secret Art of the Soul which to us is utterly occult and without the ken of our Intellects CHAP. IV. 4 We can give no account of the manner of Sensation nor 5 of the nature of the Memory It is consider'd according to the philosophy of Des-Cartes Sir K. Digby Aristotle and Mr. Hobbs and all ineffectuall Some other unexplicables mention'd § 6. BUt besides those abstrusities that lie more deep and are of a more mysterious alloy we are at a loss for a scientificall account even of our Senses the most knowable of our facultyes Our eyes that see other things see not themselves And those principâ—â—â—â— foundations of knowledge are themselvs unknown That the soul is the sole Percipient which alone hath animadversion and sense properly so called and that the Body is only the receiver and conveyer of corporeall impressions is as certain as Philosophy can make it Aristotle himself teacheth so much in that Maxime of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Plato credits this position with his suffrage affirming that 't is the soul that hath life and sense but the body neither But this is so largly prosecuted by that wonder of men the Great Des-Cartes and is a Truth that shines so clear in the Eyes of all considering men that to goe about industriously to prove it were to light a candle to seek the Sun we 'll therefore suppose it as that which needs not amuse us but yet what are the instruments of sensible perceptions and particular conveyers of outward motions to the seat of sense is difficult and how the pure mind can receive information from that which is not in the least like it self and but little resembling what it represents I think inexplicable Whether Sensation be made by corporall emissions and materiall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or by motions imprest on the Aethereall matter and carryed by the continuity thereof to the Common sense I 'le not revive into a Dispute The ingenuity of the latter hath already given it almost an absolute victory over its Rivall But suppose which we will there are doubts not to be solv'd by either For how the soule by mutation made in matter a substance of another kind should be excited to action and how bodily alterations and motions should concern it which is subject to neither is a difficulty which confidence may triumph over sooner then conquer For body connot act on any thing but by motion motion cannot be received but by quantative dimension the soul is astranger to such gross substantiality and hath nothing of quantity but what it is cloathed with by our deceived phancies and therefore how can we conceive under a passsive subjection to material impressions and yet the importunity of pain and unavoydableness of sensations strongly perswade that we are so Some say that the soul indeed is not passive under the materiall phantasms but doth only intuitively view them by the necessity of her Nature and so observes other things in these there representatives But how is it and by what Art doth the soul read that such an image or stroke in matter whether that of her vehicle or of the Brain the case is the same signifies such an object Did we learn such an Alphabet in our Embryo-state And how comes it to pass that we are not aware of any such congenite apprehensions We know what we know but do we know any more That by diversity of motions we should spell out figures distances magnitudes colours things not resembled by them we must attribute to some secret deduction But what this deduction should be or by what mediums this Knowledge is advanc'd is as dark as Ignorance it self One that hath not the knowledge of Letters may see the Figures but comprehends not the meaning included in them An infant may hear the sounds and see the motion of the lips but hath no conception conveyed by them not knowing what they are intended to signify So our souls though they might have perceived the motions and images themselves by simple sense yet without some implicit inference it seems
being produc'd by an Emanative Causality the Effects whereof dye in the removal of their Origine But this superannuated conceit deserves no more of our remembrance then it contributes to the apprehension of it And therefore I pass on to the last Which is that of Mr. Hobbs that Memory is nothing else but the knowledge of decaying Sense which is made by the reaction of one body against another or as he expresses it in his Humane Nature a Missing of Parts in an Object The foundation of this Principle as of many of its fellows is totally evers't by the most ingenious Commentator upon Immaterial Beings Dr. H. More in his book Of Immortality I shall therefore leave that cause in the hands of that most learned undertaker and only observe two things to my present purpose 1 Neither the Brain nor Spirits nor any other material substance within the Head can for any considerable space of time conserve motion The former is of such a clammy consistence that it can no more retain it then a Quagmire And the spirits for their liquidity are more uncapable then the fluid Medium which is the conveyer of Sounds to persevere in the continued repetition of vocal Airs And if there were any other substance within us as fitly temper'd to preserve motion as the Author of the opinion could desire Yet 2. which will equally press against either of the former this motion would be quickly deadned even to an utter cessation by counter-motions and we should not remember any thing but till the next impression Much less can this Principle give an account how such an abundance of motions should orderly succeed one another as things do in our memories And to remember a soug or tune it will be required that our Souls be an Harmony more then in a Metaphor◠continually running over in a silent whisper those Musical accents which our retentive faculty is preserver of Which could we suppose in a single Instance yet a multitude of Musical Consonancies would be as impossible as to play a thousand tunes on a Lute at once One motion would cross and destroy another all would be clashing and discord And the Musicians Soul would be the most disharmonious For according to the tenour of this opinion our memories will be stored with infinite variety of divers yea contrary motions which must needs interfere thwart and obstruct on another and there would be nothing within us but Ataxy and disorder § 8. Much more might be added of the difficulties which occurr touching the Understanding Phancy Will and Affections But the Controversies hereabout are so hotly manag'd by the divided Schools and so voluminously every where handled that it will be thought better to say nothing of them then a little The sole difficulties about the Will its nature and sequency to the Understanding c. have almost quite baffled inquiry and shewn us little else but that our Understandings are as blind as it is And the grand question depending hereon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I think will not be ended but by the final abolition of its object They that would lose their Knowledge here let them diligently inquire after it Search will discover that Ignorance which is as invincible as its Cause These Controversies like some Rivers the further they run the more they are hid And I think a less account is given of them now then some Centuries past when they were a subject of debate to the pious Fathers CHAP. V. How our Bodies are form'd unexplicable The Plastick signifies nothing the Formation of Plants and Animals unknown in their Principle Mechanisme solves it not A new way propounded which also fails of satisfaction 2. No account is yet given how the parts of Matter are united Some Considerations on Des-Cartes his Hypothesis it fails of Solution 3. The Question is unanswerable whether Matter be compounded of Divisibles or Indivisibles THerefore we 'l pass on to the next the consideration of our Bodies which though we see and feel and continually converse with yet its constitution and inward frame is an America a yet undiscovered Region The saying of the Kingly Prophet I am wonderfully made may well be understood of that admiration which is the Daughter of Ignorance And with reverence it may be applyed that in seeing we see and understand not Three things I 'le subjoyn concerning this Sensible matter the other part of our compositoin § 1. That our bodies are made according to the most curious Artifice and orderly contrivance cannot be denyed even by them who are least beholden to Nature The elegance of this composure sav'd the great Aesculapius Galen from a profest Atheism And I cannot think that the branded Epicurus Lucretius and their fellows were in earnest when they resolv'd this composition into a fortuitous range of Atoms To suppose a Watch or any other the most curious Automaton by the blind hits of Chance to perform diversity of orderly motions to indicate the hour day of the Moneth Tides age of the Moon and the like with an unparallel'd exactness and all without the regulation of Art this were the more pardonable absurdity And that this admirable Engine of our Bodies whose functions are carryed on by such a multitude of parts and motions which neither interfere nor impede one another in their operations but by an harmonious Sympathy promote the perfection and good of the whole That this should be an undesign'd effect is an assertion that is more then Melancholies Hyperbole I say therefore that if we do but consider this Fabrick with minds unpossest of an affected madness we will easily grant that it was some skilful Archeus who delineated those comely proportions and hath exprest such exactly Geometrical elegancies in its compositions But what this hidden Architect should be and by what instruments and art this frame is erected is as unknown to us as our Embryo-thoughts The Plastick faculty is a fine word But what it is how it works and whose it is we cannot learn no not by a return into the Womb neither will the Platonick Principles unriddle the doubt For though the Soul be supposed to be the Bodies Maker and the builder of its own house yet by what kind of Knowledge Method or Means is as unknown and that we should have a knowledge which we know not of is an assertion which some say hath no commission from our Faculties The Great Des-Cartes will allow it to be no better then a downright absurdity But yet should we suppose it it would be evidence enough of what we aim at Nor is the composition of our Bodies the only wonder we are as much non-plust by the most contemptible Worm and Plant we tread on How is a drop of Dew organiz'd into an Insect or a lump of Clay into animal Perfections How are the Glories of the Field spun and by what Pencil are they limn'd in their unaffected bravery By whose direction is the nutriment so regularly distributed unto
the respective parts and how are they kept to their specifick uniformities If we attempt Mechanical solutions we shall never give an account why the Wood-cock doth not sometimes borrow colours of the Mag-pye why the Lilly doth not exchange with the Daysie or why it is not sometime painted with a blush of the Rose Can unguided matter keep it self to such exact conformities as not in the least spot to vary from the species That divers Limners at a distance without either copy or designe should draw the same Picture to an undistinguishable exactness both in form colour and features this is more conceivable then that matter which is so diversified both in quantity quality motion site and infinite other circumstances should frame it self so absolutely according to the Idea of its kind And though the fury of that Apelles who threw his Pencil in a desperate rage upon the Picture he had essayed to draw once casually effected those lively representations which his Art could not describe yet 't is not likely that one of a thousand such praecipitancies should be crowned with so an unexpected an issue For though blind matter might reach some elegancies in individual effects yet specifick conformities can be no unadvised productions but in greatest likelyhood are regulated by the immediate efficiency of some knowing agent which whether it be seminal Forms according to the Platonical Principles or what ever else we please to suppose the manner of its working is to us unknown or if these effects are meerly Mechanical yet to learn the method of such operations may be and hath indeed been ingeniously attempted but I think cannot be performed to the satisfaction of severer examination That all bodies both Animal Vegetable and Inanimate are form'd out of such particles of matter which by reason of their figures will not cohaere or lie together but in such an order as is necessary to such a specifical formation and that therein they naturally of themselves concurre and reside is a pretty conceit and there are experiments that credit it If after a decoction of hearbs in a Winter-night we expose the liquor to the frigid air we may observe in the morning under a crust of Ice the perfect appearance both in figure and colour of the Plants that were taken from it But if we break the aqueous Crystal those pretty images dis-appear and are presently dissolved Now these airy Vegetables are presumed to have been made by the reliques of these plantal emissions whose avolation was prevented by the condensed inclosure And therefore playing up and down for a while within their liquid prison they at last settle together in their natural order and the Atomes of each part finding out their proper place at length rest in their methodical Situation till by breaking the Ice they are disturbed and those counterfeit compositions are scatter'd into their first Indivisibles This Hypothesis may yet seem to receive further confirmation from the artificial resurrection of Plants from their ashes which Chymists are so well acquainted with And besides that Salt dissolved upon fixation returns to its affected cubes the regular figures of Minerals as the Hexagonal of Crystal the Hemi-sphaerical of the Fairy-stone the stellar figure of the stone Asteria and such like seem to look with probability upon this way of formation And I must needs say 't is handsomly conjectur'd But yet what those figures are that should be thus mechanically adapted to fall so unerringly into regular compositions is beyond our faculties to conceive or determine And how those heterogeneous atomes for such their figures are supposed should by themselves hit so exactly into their proper residence in the midst of such tumultuary motions cross thwartings and arietations of other particles especially when for one way of hitting right there are thousands of missing there 's no Hypothesis yet extant can resolve us And yet had heaven afforded that miracle of men the Illustrious Des-Cartes a longer day on earth we might have expected the utmost of what ingenuity could perform herein but his immature Fate hath unhappily disappointed us and prevented the most desirable Complement of his not to be equall'd Philosophy § 2. 2. It 's no less difficult to give an account how the Parts of the Matter of our Bodies are united For though superficial Enquirers may easily satisfie themselves by answering that it is done by muscles nerves and other like strings and ligaments which Nature hath destin'd to that office yet if we seek for an account how the parts of these do cohere we shall find the cause to be as latent as the effect of easie discovery Nothing with any shew of success hath yet appeared on the Philosophick Stage but the opinion of Des-Cartes that the Parts of Matter are united by Rest. Neither can I conceive how any thing can be substituted in its room more congruous to reason since Rest is most opposite to Motion the immediate cause of disunion But yet I cannot see how this can satisfie touching the almost indissolvible coherence of some bodies and the fragility and solubility of others For if the Union of the Parts consist only in Rest it would seem that a bagg of dust would be of as firm a consistence as that of Marble or Adamant a Bar of Iron will be as easily broken as a Tobacco-pipe and Bajazets Cage had been but a sorry Prison The Aegyptian Pyramids would have been sooner lost then the Names of them that built them and as easily blown away as those inverst ones of smoke If it be pretended for a difference that the parts of solid bodies are held together by hooks and angulous involutions I say this comes not home For the coherence of the parts of these hooks as hath been noted will be of as difficult a conception as the former And we must either suppose an infinite of them holding together on one another or at last come to parts that are united by a meer juxta-position Yea could we suppose the former yet the coherence of these would be like the hanging together of an infinite such of Dust which Hypothesis would spoil the Proverb and a rope of sand should be no more a phrase for Labour in vain For unless there be something upon which all the rest may depend for their cohesion the hanging of one by another will signifie no more then the mutual dependence of causes and effects in an infinite Series without a First the admission of which Atheism would applaud But yet to do the Master of Mechanicks right somewhat of more validity in the behalf of this Hypothesis may be assign'd Which is that the closeness and compactness of the Parts resting together doth much confer to the strength of the union For every thing continues in the condition wherein it is except something more powerful alter it And therefore the parts that rest close together must continue in the same relation to each other till some other body by motion disjoyn them
till engaged to it by iterated impressions except the first impulse be very strong and violent Thus in the clearest night we cannot see some of the smaller Stars upon the first cast of the Eye to their Celestial Residence yet a more intent view discovers them though very likely their Motion reach't the Brain assoon as the more noted impress of their Fellows Thus upon a slight turn of our sight we omit many particularities in nearer objects which a more fixed look presents us with And thus the swiftest motions though they knock at the dore yet they are gone before the soul can come to take an account of their Errand 2. If Regularity and steddiness accompany Velocity the motion then leaves not the least track in the sensitive Thus a French Top the common recreation of School-boys thrown from a cord which was wound about it will stand as it were fixt on the floor it lighted and yet continue in its repeated Gyrations while the sense discovers not the least footsteps of that praecipitate Rotation The reason is much what the same with the former For that meeting no joggs or counter-motions to interrupt it the return of the parts is so quick that the mind cannot take notice of their succession to each other For before it can fix to the observation of any one its object is gone whereas were there any considerable thwart in the Motion it would be a kind of stop or arrest by the benefit of which the Soul might have a glance of the fugitive Transient But I pass these they concern not our present enquiry 3. If the Motion be very slow we perceive it not Thus Vegetables spring up from their Mother Earth and we can no more discern their accretive Motion then we can their most hidden cause Thus the sly shadow steals away on Times Account-Book the Dyal and the quickest Eye can tell no more but that it 's gone If a reason of this be demanded I conceive it may be to some satisfaction return'd That 't is because Motion cannot be perceived without the perception of its Terms viz. The parts of space which it immediately left and those which it next acquires Now the space left and acquir'd in every sensible moment in such slow progressions is so inconsiderable that it cannot possibly move the sense which by reason either of its constitutional dulness or the importunity of stronger impressions cannot take notice of such parvitudes and therefore neither can the Motion depending thereon be aâ—y more observable then it is 4. If the sentient be carryed passibus aequis with the body whose motion it would observe supposing the former condition that it be regular and steddy In this case especially the remove is insensible at least in its proper subject Thus while in a Ship we perceive it not to move but our sense transfers its motion to the neighbouring shores as the Poet Littus campique recedunt And I question not but if any were born and bred under Deck and had no other information but what his sense affords he would without the least doubt or scruple opinion that the house he dwelt in was as stable and fixt as ours To express the reason according to the Philosophy of Des-Cartes I suppose it thus Motion is not perceived but by the successive strikings of the object upon divers filaments of the Brain which diversifie the representation of its site and distance But now when the motion of the object is common with it to our selves it retains the same relation to our sense as if we both rested For striking still on the same strings of the Brain it varies not its site or distance from us and therefore we cannot possibly sense its motion nor yet upon the same account our own least of all when we are carryed without any conamen and endeavour of ours which in our particular progressions betrayes them to our notice Now then the Earths motion if we suppose it to have any having the joynt concurrence of the two last to render it insensible I think we shall need no more proof to conclude the necessity of its being so For though the Third seems not to belong to the present case since the supposed motion will be near a thousand miles an hour under the Equinoctial line yet it will seem to have no Velocity to the sense any more then the received motion of the Sun and for the same reason Because the distant points in the Celestial expanse from a various and successive respect to which the length and consequently the swiftness of this motion must be calculated appear to the Eye in so small a degree of elongation from one another as bears no proportion to what is real For since the Margin of the Visible Horizon in the Heavenly Globe is Parallel with that in the Earthly accounted but 120 miles diameter Sense must needs measure the Azimuths or Vertical Circles by triplication of the same diameter of 120. So that there will be no more proportion betwixt the sensible and real celerity of the Terrestrial Motion then there is between the visible and rational dimension of the celestial Hemisphear which is none at all But if sensitive prejudice will yet confidently maintain the Impossibility of the Hypothesis from the supposed unwieldiness of its massy bulk grounded on our experience of the ineptitude of great and heavy bodies to Motion I say this is a meer Imposture of our Senses the fallacy of which we may avoid by considering that the Earth may as easily move notwithstanding this pretended indisposition of its magnitude as those much vaster Orbs of Sun and Stars He that made it could as well give motion to the whole as to the parts the constant agitation of which is discover'd in natural productions and to both as well as Rest to either Neither will it need the assistance of an Intelligence to perpetuate the begun Rotation Since according to the Indispensable Law of Nature That every thing should continue in the state wherein it is except something more powerful hinder it it must persevere in Motion unless obstructed by a Miracle Neither can Gravity which makes great bodies hard of Remove be any hinderance to the Earths motion since even the Peripatetick Maxime Nihil gravitat in suo loco will exempt it from this indisposing quality which is nothing but the tendency of its parts which are ravish't from it to their desired Centre And the French Philosophy will inform us that the Earth as well as other bodies is indifferent in it self to Rest or its contrary I have done with this instance and my Brevity in the following shall make some amends for my prolixity in this He that would be inform'd in this subject of the Earths Mobility may find it largely and ingeniously discuss'd in Galilaeo's systema Cosmicum CHAP. X. Another instance of the deceptions of our Senses which is of translating the Idea of our Passions to things without us Properly and
discern it It cannot be that we should reach it any otherwise then by the most close meditation and engagement of our minds by which we must endeavour to estrange our assent from every thing which is not clearly and distinctly evidenc't to our faculties But now this is so difficult and as hath been intimated so almost infeasable that it may well drive modesty to despair of Science For though possibly Assiduity in the most fixed cogitation be no trouble or pain to immaterializ'd spirits yet is it more then our embodyed souls can bear without lassitude or distemper For in this terrestrial state there are few things transacted even in our Intellectual part but through the help and furtherance of corporal Instruments which by more then ordinary usage lose their edge and fitness for action and so grow inept for their respective destinations Upon this account our senses are dull'd and spent by any extraordinary intention and our very Eyes will ake if long fixt upon any difficultly discerned object Now though Meditation be to be reckoned among the most abstracted operations of our minds yet can it not be performed without a considerable proportion of Spirits to assist in the Action though indeed such as are furnish't out of the bodies purer store This I think to be hence evidenc't in that fixed seriousness herein heats the brain in some to distraction causeth an aking and diziness in founder heads hinders the works of Nature in its lower and animal functions takes away or lessens pain in distemper'd parts and seldom leaves any but under a weary some dullness and inactivity which I think to be arguments of sufficient validity to justifie our assent to this that the spirits are imploy'd in our most intense cogitations yea in such whose objects are most elevated above material Now the managing and carrying on of this work by the Spirits instrumental co-efficiency requires that they be kept together without distraction or dissipation that so they may be ready to receive and execute the orders and commissions of the commanding faculty If either of these happen all miscarries as do the works of Nature when they want that heat which is requisite for their intended perfection And therefore for the prevention of such inconveniences in meditation we choose recess and solitude But now if we consider the volatile nature of those officious Assistants and the several causes which occur continually even from the meer Mechanism of our Bodies to scatter and disorder them besides the excursions of our roving phancies which cannot be kept to a close attendance it will be found very hard to retain them in any long service but do what we can they 'l get loose from the Minds Regimen So that it 's no easie matter to bring the body to be what it was intended for the Souls servant and to confine the imagination of as facil a performance as the Goteham's design of hedging in the Cuckow And though some constitutions are genially disposited to this mental seriousness yet they can scarce say Nos numeri sumus yea in the most advantag'd tempers this disposition is but comparative when as the most of men labour under disadvantages which nothing can rid them of but that which loosens them from this mass of flesh Thus the boyling bloud of youth fiercely agitating the fluid Air hinders that serenity and fixed stayedness which is necessary to so severe an intentness And the frigidity of decrepite age is as much its enemy not only through penury of spirits but by reason of its clogging them with its dulling moisture And even in the temperate zone of our life there are few bodies at such an aequipoiz of humours but that the prevalency of some one indisposeth the spirits for a work so difficult and serious For temperamentum ad pondus may well be reckon'd among the three Philosophical unattainables Besides the bustle of business the avocations of our senses and external pleasures and the noyse and din of a clamorous world are impediments not to be master'd by feeble endeavours And to speak the full of my Sentiments I think never Man could boast it without the Precincts of Paradise but He that came to gain us a better Eden then we lost So then to direct all this to our end the mind of man being thus naturally amorous of and impatient for Truth and yet averse to and almost incapacitated for that diligent and painful search which is necessary to its discovery it must needs take up short of what is really so and please it self in the possession of imaginary appearances which offering themselves to its embraces in the borrowed attire of that which the enamour'd Intellect is in pursuit of our impatient minds entertain these counterfeits without the least suspicion of their cousenage For as the Will having lost its true and substantial Good now courts the shadow and greedily catches at the vain shews of superficial bliss so our no less degenerate understandings having suffered as sad a divorce from their dearest object are as forward to defile themselves with every meretricious semblance that the variety of opinion presents them with Thus we see the inconsiderate vulgar prostrating their assent to every shallow appearance and those who are beholden to Prometheus for a finer mould are not furnisht with so much truth as otherwise they might be owners of did not this precipitancy of concluding prevent them As 't is said of the industrious Chymist that by catching at it too soon he lost the long expected treasure of the Philosophical Elixir I 'le illustrate this Head by a double instance and close it 1. Hence it is that we conclude many things within the list of Impossibilities which yet are easie Feasables For by an unadvised transiliency leaping from the effect to its remotest cause we observe not the connexion through the interposal of more immediate causalities which yet at last bring the extreams together without a Miracle And hereupon we hastily conclude that impossible which we see not in the proximate capacity of its Efficient Hence that a single Hair should root up an Oak which the Mathematicks teach us to be possible will be thought fit to be number'd with the story of the Brazen-head or that other of the wishing Hat The relation of Archimedes's lifting up the ships of Marcellus among many finds but little more credit then that of the Gyants shouldering Mountains And his other exploits sound no better to common Ears then those of Amadis de Gaule and the Knight of the Sun And yet Mathematicians know that by multiplying of Mechanical advantages any power may conquer any resistance and the great Syracusian wit wanted but Tools and a place to stand on to remove the Earth So the brag of the Ottoman that he would throw Malta into the Sea might be performed at an easier rate then by the shovels of his Ianizaries And from this last noted head ariseth that other of joyning causes with irrelative effects which
any real meaning is beyond the criticisms of a Mother Tongue except it describes our modern Acts of Parliaments Sure that definition is not very conspicuous whose Genus pos'd the Devil The Philosopher that prov'd motion by walking did in that action better define it And that puzled Candidate who being ask'd what a circle was decrib'd it by the rotation of his hand gave an account more satisfying In some things we must indeed give an allowance for words of Art But in defining obvious appearances we are to use what is most plain and easie that the mind be not misled by Amphibologies or ill conceived notions into fallacious deductions To give an account of all the insignificancies of this Philosophy would be almost to transcribe it a task that I should never engage in though I ow'd no account for my idle hours 'T will need a pardon from the Ingenious for the minutes already spent though in a confutation CHAP. XVII 2. Peripatetick Philosophy is litigious it hath no setled constant signification of words the inconveniences hereof Aristotle intended the cherishing Controversies prov'd by his own double testimony Some of his impertinent arguings derided Disputes retard and are injurious to knowledge Peripateticks are most exercised in the Controversal parts of Philosophy and know little of the practical and experimental A touch at School-Divinity THat this Philosophy is litigious the very spawn of disputations and controversies as undecisive as needless is the natural result of the former Storms are the products of vapours For where words are imposed arbitrariously having no stated real meaning or else distorted from their common use and known significations the mind must needs be led into confusion and misprision and so things plain and easie in their naked natures made full of intricacy and disputable uncertainty For we cannot conclude with assurance but from clearly apprehended premises and these cannot be so conceiv'd but by a distinct comprehension of the words out of which they are elemented So that where they are unfixt or ambiguous our propositions must be so and our deductions can be no better One reason therefore of the uncontroverted certainty of Mathematical Science is because 't is built upon clear and settled significations of names which admit of no ambiguity or insignificant obscurity But in the Aristotelian Philosophy it's quite otherwise Words being here carelesly and abusively admitted and as inconstantly retained it must needs come to pass that they will be diversly apprehended by contenders and so made the subject of controversies there are endless both for use and number And thus being at their first step out of the way to Science by mistaking in simple terms in the progress of their enquiries they must needs lose both themselves and the Truth in a Verbal Labyrinth And now the entangled disputants as Master Hobs ingeniously observeth like Birds that came down the Chimney betake them to the false light seldom suspecting the way they enter'd But attempting by vain impertinent and coincident distinctions to escape the absurdity that pursues them do but weary themselves with as little success as the silly Bird attempts the window The mis-stated words are the original mistake and every other essay is a new one Now these canting contests the usual entertainment of the Peripatum are not only the accidental vitiosities of the Philosophers but the genuine issues of the Philosophy it self And Aristotle seems purposely to intend the cherishing of controversal digladiations by his own affectation of an intricate obscurity Himself acknowledg'd it when he said his Physicks were publish'd and not so And by that double advice in his Topicks 't is as clear as light In one place he adviseth his Sectatours in disputations to be ambiguous and in another to bring forth any thing that occurs rather then give way to their Adversary Counsel very well becoming an Enquirer after Verity Nor did he here advise them to any thing but what he followeth himself and exactly copies out in his practise The multitudes of his lame abrupt equivocal self-conttadicting expressions will evidence it as to the first part which who considers may be satisfied in this that if Aristotle found Nature's face under covert of a veil he hath not removed the old but made her a new one And for the latter his frequent slightness in arguing doth abundantly make it good To instance he proves the world to be perfect because it consists of bodies and that bodies are so because they consist of a triple dimension and that a triple dimension is perfect because three are all and that three are all because when 't is but one or two we can't say all but when 't is three we may Is not this an absolute demonstration We can say All at the number three Therefore the world is perfect Tobit went forth and his Dog follow'd him therefore there 's a world in the Moon were an argument as Apodictical In another place he proves the world to be but one For were there another our Earth would fall unto it This is a pitiful deduction from the meer prejudice of Sense and not unlike theirs who thought if there were Antipodes they must needs as it 's said of Erasmus in Coelum descendere As if were there more worlds each of them would not have its proper Centre Elsewhere shewing why the Heavens move this way rather then another he gives this for a reason because they move to the more honourable and before is more honourable then after This is like the Gallant who sent his man to buy an Hat that would turn up behind As if had the Heavens moved the other way that term had not been then before which is now the contrary This Inference is founded upon a very weak supposition viz. That those alterable respects are realities in Nature which will never be admitted by a considerate discerner Thus Aristotle acted his own instructions and his obsequious Sectators have super-erogated in observance They have so disguised his Philosophy by obscuring Comments that his revived self would not own it And were he to act another part with mortals he 'd be but pitiful Peripatetick every Sophister would out-talk him Now this disputing way of Enquiry is so far from advancing Science that 't is no inconsiderable retarder For in Scientifical discoveries many things must be consider'd which the hurrey of a dispute indisposeth for and there is no way to truth but by the most clear comprehension of simple notions and as wary an accuracy in deductions If the Fountain be disturb'd there 's no seeing to the bottom and here 's an exception to the Proverb 'T is no good fishing for Verity in troubled waters One mistake of either simple apprehension or connexion makes an erroneous conclusion So that the precipitancy of disputation and the stir and noise of Passions that usually attend it must needs be prejudicial to Verity its calm insinuations can no more be heard in such a bustle then a whisper