ANTHROPOLOGIE ABSTRACTED OR THE Idea of Humane Nature Reflected in briefe Philosophicall and Anatomicall COLLECTIONS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isaac-Casaubon in Elogio suo Audr Laurentij Anatom LONDON Printed for Henry Herringman at the Anchor in the lower walke in the New Exchange 1655. THE STATIONER TO THE READER c. WOuld Custom have dispensed I well might have presented this discourse to the World without the Formality of an Epistle it being in it self so rich and absolute as to deserve a candid and gratefull acceptance at the hands of all judicious persons But since use hath made it a Law that the Readers Appetite must be excited by some Prologue conteining either some Commendations of the Author or a Summary account of the Arguments treated of by him it concerns me to advertise you though briefly and plainly of some things the Knowledge whereof cannot but in some measure conduce both to your more easie Vnderstanding of the Design of this Orphan piece and the Justification of my Care and Cost bestowed upon the publishing of it As for the Author therefore be pleased to know that He was a Person so Eminent both for Wit and Learning that the Vniversity wherein He was educated and at length deservedly honoured with the Degree of Doctor in Physick esteemed him as one of the most hopefull of his Profession and one of the choicest Plants in all her Seminary and when the hasty hand of Fate had crop him in the Budd lamented his immature Death with Generall sorrow so that his Funerall Orator as I have been lately told was allowed to have spoken the genuine sense of his Auditory when he said Our losse is greater than to be felt at once 't is Time and the want of such another to succeed into his room that onely can teach us the just proportion of our misery and his Worth As for the Book it self though both the Subject Matter and Language are far above the sphere of my mean judgement yet I may adventure and safely too I presume to tell you from some others even of the highest Form of Scholars that it contains the Rudiments of that most excellent Knowledge the Knowledge of our selves and those too not onely disposed into the most advantageous Method as well for information as Memory but also clad in such proper and select Phrases as soften the hardnesse of the Notions and in every period refresh the Attention with variety of elegant Expressions So that it is a question and long may continue so whether Philosophy or Rhetorick can claim the greatest share in this Treatise Whether the Author ever intended to Communicate it to the Publique I could by no meanes learn but the Exactnesse of the work may in some sort warrant my Conjecture that he wrote it not onely for his own use it being not usuall for Learned men to bestow so much sweat and oyle upon polishing and adorning their private Collections and Memorialls as was necessary to make this so accurate However my good Fortune hath after more than a dozen years since the Authors decease brought it into my hands and I doubt not but the benefit you shall receive by the perusing thereof will fully convince you that the Consideration of somewhat beside my own Gain prevailed upon me to put the same into yours In the confidence whereof it becomes me to refer you to the Book it self H. Herringman OF THE NATURE OF THE HVMAN SOVL CHAP. I. ANTHROPOLOGIE or the History of Human Nature is in the Vulgar yet just impression distinguished into two Volumes The first entituled Psychologie the nature of the Rationall Soule discoursed the other Anatomie the Fabrick or structure of the body of man revealed in dissection This we shall visit only in transcursu and draw a transitory Landschip of so much only as may present the method of the Soules Oeconomy and her manner of dispensing orders to each distinct organ of the body of the former we shall in a distracted rehersall deliver our Collections The Soule called Anima by all the Friends of wisdome is considered in a double sense 1. as Principium altera pars compositi seu ut Forma corporis the principall halfe of the composition or the Forme of the body 2. as Efficiens operationum the Efficient of all actions Of the acception of the Soule in each of these respects briefly and first of the reasonable Soule as it is related to the body There is no one of the Philosophers whose judgement is in health denies the reasonable Soule to bee the Essentiall Forme of Man But since there is a double Forme 1. one called Forma informans which being the beginning and nobler part of the compound constitutes its specifich Essence and differenceth it from all other bodies 2. another named Assistens which doth not give to the thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be a specifick Essence but to a thing already rich and perfect in its own nature is superadded as Accessary or Adjutant to the performance of some nobler actions then of its selfe it could enterprise in this sence is the Pilot said to be the Essence or soul of the ship although he contribute not to the ship its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 its being but as an Accessarie or Auxiliary joyned with the ship is the Author or cause of its course and navigation which the ship of its owne single power cannot perform here it wil be seasonable to enquire An Anima hominis sit ejus forma informans an tantum assistens An Anima rationalis sit forma hominis informans alteraque ejus pars an verò tantum assistens quae homini jam perfecto formam specificam habenti adjungatur nobilioris in eo operationis alicujus puta intelligentiae causa sit Whether the Rationall Soul be the Form informing one chief part of man or only assistant which to a man already complete in his own distinct essence is adjoyned and is the cause of some nobler operation viz. intelligence in him The Arabian Averrhoes would betray our reason to an absurdity by his assertion Formam hominis esse cogitativam c. that the Essence of man is cogitative a narrow terme he is pleased to assigne it and absolutely distinct from the imagination and that by this man did make a distinct species but the Rationall Soule is onely the Assistant forme To this error our faith stands no way affected We shall declare for those that advise us that the rationall Soule is the true Essence of man and the one and nobler morty of him For Argument 1. if the Reasonable Soul were not the Forma informans of man he could owne the attribute of rationall with no lesse absurdity then a ship can be allowed to be intelligent onely because it carries a Pilot that is so Againe That Argument 2. whereby any thing does operate is the Forme or Essence of that thing to which we
ascribe the operation for nothing operates but by its Forme But to man Quatenùs man we attribute reason or intellection Ergo the rationall Soule is the Essentiall Forme of the body of man It satisfies not to conversion that the Heretiques to this truth urge that the understanding Faculty is accumulated to man per Phantasmata for these Phantasmes have no nearer a relation to the intellect then colours to the sight and as colours nor the subject on which they depend can bee capable of sight so can neither the Phantasmes nor their subject understand but are indeed understood Wherefore we may conclude thus That Argument 3. whereby one thing is in specie distinguished from another is its Essence but man by the rationall Soule is distinguished from all other living Creatures Ergo The rationall Soule is the Essence of Man To this one foot of Reason wee could add the other of Authority to make this opinion current but expansion in contraction is a Paradoxology The explication of this An Anima rationalis in omnibus hominibus sit una an verò in singulis peculiaris ushers our reason to the solution of a second question viz. An Anima rationalis in omnibus hominibus sit una numero an verò in singulis peculiaris whether there be but one numericall Soule in all mankind or whether a distinct one in every individuall They that determine the reasonable Soule to bee but Forma assistens dreame that it is not multiplied according to the number of men but that there is but one single Soule in all the Species which is the cause of intelligence in men This is è diametro in opposition to truth many waies For every Forma informans such as we have already acknowledged the ratiōal Soul to be is multiplyed as the individualls are multiplyed 2. If we allow but one Soul to all men it will be consequēt that all men are but one man for they would have but one and the same numericall Forme 3. The Operations and intellections or second acts are multiplyed according to the number of individualls for our intelligence is distinct from the intelligence of another Ergo the Soule which is the first act is multiplyed For the diversity of operations depends on the diversity of Formes 4. In one and the same intellect would be at the same instant contrary opinions for one man harbours one opinion a second another a third a quite contrary to both But we should supererogate to light a candle to the Sunne From this position that the Rationall Soule is the true forme of man a second Quere receives a hint to insinuate it selfe viz. An eadem sit immortalis An Anima sit immortalis seu an possit sine sui interitu à corpore separari Whether this Soule be immortall or whether it can bee divorced from the body without the destruction of its Essence For us Christians it is the easie businesse of our Faith grounded on the Magna Charta of our Religion to attest that the Soule is immortall and that the excellency of it is filed among those grand maximes on which as hinges Christianity is moved But whether it be not an object too subtile and sublime for reason though clarified by the bright perspective of Philosophy to discerne is an argument yet full of perplexity and trouble First let us with J.C. Scaliger Scaliger Exercit 61. sect 5. Excercit 307. sect 20. Solus Deus verè immortalis incorruptibilis quia solus ex se suum esse habet atque à nullo dependit Dei verò respectu oinnia creata mortalia corruptibilia sunt quae à Creatoris nutu deponi possunt ab ea essentia in qua constituta sunt Non corrumpuntur tamen quaedam ut Angeli Anima rationalis quia Creator non vult ea Corrumpi nihil contrarii ipsis à quo corrumpuntur condidit nec eas ita materiae immersit ut extra eam nec subsistere nec operari possint grant that God alone is truely immortall and incorruptible and inferr that there is one immortall which is superior to to decay or ruine and being absolutely simple in its owne nature receives being from its selfe and depends not on any second and such is God only and in respect of him all things may be said subject to change by Corruption For although Angells and the rationall Soule which are in a third sence allowed immortall because they are never actually corrupted consist of no contraries and are absolutely single in their Essences à subjecto yet because they are not absolute à Causa have not their Esse from themselves but derive it from another by which they may be returned to Non-entities againe For every dependant is lyable at the arbitrary resolve of that on which it doth depend to be changed and may at the pleasure of its principle be deposed from that Essence in which it was by it created But the reason why some created natures are not corrupted is the will and decree of the Creator who constituted them single and simple without the mixture of a contrary from which they might derive corruptibility nor so obliged them to matter as that they cannot subsist or operate without it And that amongst natures of this order the rational soul of man is to be listed and that it may be severed from the body without the ruine of its essence is the task of the wiser and modern Philosopher to prove vid. Marsil Ficin de immortalit Animae Lib. 5. Tolet. de Anim. Lib. 3. cap. 5. Quaest. 16. Fran. Picol Lib. 3. de Hum. ment Colleg. Conimbr in Tract de Anim. Separat disput 1. art 3. c. The state of all which businesse is briefly thus Every thing is known by its effects and every form reveals it selfe by its operations wherefore since the actions of man are so Noble and Divine that they cannot be attributed to a mortal substance deeply plunged in matter it may without obscurity be collected that the rational soul from which these transcendent and divine actions flow is immortal and separable from matter For the intellect does abstract and devest things of that matter judgeth of them without the conditions of matter quantity or figure contemplates them as unbodied and enlarged from the grosser bondage of their materials is not as the frailer sense offended either with the multitude or vehemence of objects but can comprehend things infinite in number yet stil reserves room for more can multiply their number to a higher finity reflects on its self and is familiar with not only others but it s own nature and understands that it doth understand its own intelligence can decree and repeal and resolve and labour with an insatiable desire of knowledg Eternity Beatitude which since it is uncapable of satisfaction in this life we have reason to believe that there is reserved for it a future estate in which this
Mutilates if he be destitute of power to procreate another man perfect and altogether such as himself This hath prevailed upon most Naturalists many Divines to conclude That man does absolutely procreate man and the whole man which could not be if the procreator did not communicate the Soul to his issue for since man consists of a body and a Soul if the Soul be not communicative from the Genitors man cannot propagate man This also is consentaneous to the sence of sacred Scripture For God Gen. 1. verse 28. distributed to man equally with all other living creatures his virtual benediction of crescite multiplicamini by the lineal inheritance of which the whole man does propagate the whole man And were it not a frustration of the Energy of the Almighties blessing if our opinions concede the Soul deduceable from any Extrinsec cause For whatsoever belongs to the essential integrity of human nature Arg. 2. doth man propagate by generation but not only the body but the Soul also is essentiall to human integrity Ergo the soul is also propagated by generation Hence Damascen Lib. de Orth. Fide defines generation to be ex concursu maris et faeminae similis substantiae individui procreationem Neither is the Souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or transcendent excellence to be derived from her Creation For not quicquid creatur est immortale but rather every created nature if we regard its principal is per se mortal and the reason why some natures are mortal others immortal is not deducible from the condition of their materials but from the omnipotent sic placuit and voluntary decretal of the Creator who created whatsoever whensoever and howsoever he pleased And such is the human nature as the eternal will of God resolved it and firmly conserving the essence granted is according to the institutiō of the same wil propagated Argu. 2◠Our other firmer Basis on which our affirmation of the Souls extraduction relies is the propagation and hereditary transmission of sin together with the Soul from our fist Grandfather Adam to all posterity and is erected by an argument betraying to impossibility or absurdity thus If the Soul be created by infusion or infused by Creation God either created the Soul evil and depraved or infused a tincture of evil into it after it was created both which while they allow God to be the immediate original of the Soul inferre a dangerous impiety and conclude him the Author of sin Or secondly the Soul being by her creation perfect white and immaculate doth contract her inquination corruption and blemishes from the body But according to the Canon Law of Metaphysicks no material can agere on an immaterial by a natural act True it is by a general confession that the customary inclinations of the mind do more then frequently confesse their subjection to the influence of the constitution of the body but this is done actu morali by inclination and disposition not by impression of any real Physical miasme or pollution by the same way whereby the stars rule us and God the starres 2ly Our Saviour Mat. 15. V. 2. expresly declares that from the Heart as from a polluted fountain do spring the streams that render man sullied and impure and that which commeth out of the mouth defileth man i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the mind and radical Concupiscence are the common sources from which all sin is derivative Or thirdly we must compulsively concede that sin is transmitted or descended from Adam to us by way of imitation not propagation or production which error of Pelagius is hissed out of the Schooles by the Arminians But Peter du Moulin conceives to himself an easie protection from the danger of these rocks by affirming that God created the Soul morally good and perfect but by supervention of Adams 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 precipitous fall destitute of supernaturall light and therefore because the Soul is by the natural swindge of Essential appetite rapt on to good but for want of the manuduction of divine light 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is purblind and insufficient to steer it selfe to the true supream good viz. God it violently pursues the creatures viz. Bonum jucundum et utile and thus by aberration from and dereliction of the principal and true good doth become spiritually depraved and tainted But this way of evasion is unsafe upon a maturer sounding and this resolve without impeachment of the honour due to so much learning too narrow a tablet to pourtraict the nature of Original sin on as if it could be nothing but barely the privation of supernatural light by the dictates whereof it might direct to and fix on the summary good where the Soul is purely passive When Gen. Chap. 8. Verse 22. it is intituled Figmentum Cordis the contrivment or Poesie of the heart evill and totally corrupted from the Cradle because like a Potter it moulds fashions and actuates lusts and concupiscence as if in our soul were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a conformative power whereby our hearts can fashion and proportion evil Truly the cause procatarctica or provocative is from without but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the native and preconceptive is in the very Soul 2ly That universal determination of Divines that the Soul in supernaturalibus est deprivata in naturalibus depravata Whence therefore is this Cymmerian dimnes and obscurity of the understanding even in the businesse of her own proper objects viz naturals and intelligibles to which is no way required the assistance of divine light when our ingenerated protogenitor Adam before his transgression contracted a black cloud over his reason and obnubilated its primitive clarity was exactly read and experienced in the natures of Animals and hence accommodated appellaations to each distinct species 3ly Why in the Sacrament of Baptism doth the element of water Symbolize washing clensing and purging unlesse in implicite relation to our uncleannesse and the Minera of our polluted Nature the reaty or guilt though not the reality whereof is absterged and expunged by Baptism And were it not a Parergie we could urge the same of Circumcision 4. Lastly if we perpend the nature and symptomes of the primitive crime of Adam we shall discover a tract or view of it deeply impressed in all his succession so that thence we may sympathetically confesse it to be malum haereditarium an evil radically and lineally descending to all posterity a desire of knowledg a palliation and extenuation of the fact a translation of the guilt on others et quod nemini obtrudi potest on God himselfe All which are the Vestigia of the first sin and evidently conclude in the phrase of the sacred Historiographer Gen. Chap. 5. Ver. 3. that Adam begot sons in his likenesse after his own image which image all Divines conclude to include Original sin and the penalty of eternal death which he propagated in his issue in the room of that Majestick image of Divinity received
the Vital would anihilate the Annimal spirit but since there is assigned a peculiar royal organ the Brain to its preparation and elaboration and it is inservient to those noble uses which the Vital cannot enterprise for a member though hountifully perfused and vivified by the vital yet destitute of the influx of the Animal spirits suffers abolishment of sence and motion as in the Apoplexy Palsey and stupor we cannot but discover we have reason to acknowledge not only its existence but soveraignty and determine it to be the immediate instrument of sense and motion generated of the purer vital spirit translated by the Carotides and neck arteries first into the basis then into the substance of the brain and of the aire inspired by the Nostrills To the organical parts is required their peculiar singular constitution Partss Organice which is a fit composure and connexion of the homogeneous parts into one form convenient to the performance of their proper actions And to this composition conspire 1. a definit number of the parts component 2. a just magnitude 3. a decent conformation which includes 1. a comely Figure or exact proportion 2. the cavities and sluces 3. a superficies smooth or rough according as the nature of the part requires 4. the situation 5. the connexion with other parts Thus far our pen has ranged in the blunt declarement of generals that is of things common to all parts and necessary to all actions in the body our Clue of method will henceforward conduct us into sharper angles and the precise though brief enumeration of the particular parts by which and in what manner the particular functions discharge their duties CHAP. IV. Of Nutrition ANd since Facultas Vegetativa by the Law of Nature it is ordained Guardian paramont of our minority and obtaines situation as in the lowest region of our body so also at a neerer distance to our knowledge we should invert the method of Life Anatomy and Reason not to assigne the Van of our succeeding lines to the vegetative faculty Under this are comprehended the subservient faculties 1. Neutritive 2. Augmentative 3. Generative And first concerning Nutrition and Augmentation Since these mutations arise from the extraneous accession of Aliment and that at first application is heterogeneous and alien to our substance that it may be elaborated and subdued to a qualification analogous and an aptitude for assimilation it must first suffer the impressions of many concoctions And this concoction is 1. private Conoctio which is made in every singular part 2. Publick which is ordained for the common use of the whole body and is chiefly performed in the stomack and spleen The first digestion therefore is made in the ventricle or stomack Appetitus which for this reason is endued with a twofold appetite 1. Natural 1. Naturalis whereby it is provoked to the acquisition of aliment 2. Animalis sufficient for it selfe 2. Animal which excites and stimulates it to the affection and admission of provision for the supportment of the whole body and instauration of the threefold substance which the uncessant activity of our native chymistry devours For when man Manducatio to lenifie the sharp vellication and silence the convulsive importunity of hunger receives in food the first preparation or alteration of it is made in the mouth for there it undergoes manducation fraction or contrition by the teeth which for this reason though they concur to the formation of speech also are given to man to the number in most practical constitutions of thirty two in each jaw sixteen some whereof are called incisores Cutters Dentes others canini dogs teeth and the remnant Molares grinders the cutters or fore-teeth are foure in each jaw the Canine two the grinders ten Moreover the meat is altered by the permistion of the salivous humidity contained in and by the heat of the mouth and being thus bruised and masticated it is immediately by the auxiliary motion of the tongue detruded by the then gaping throat into the stomach Deglutio This thus prepared the stomach by the ministerial Contraction of oblique Fibers welcomes with close embracement and coarctation and firmly retains until by its concoctive faculty and proper heat Chylificatio it be transformed into a masse or consistence not much unlike the cream of a decoction of blanched barly which is called the Chylus The Chylus thus exquisirely Crooked is by the Pylorus Janitor or inferior orifice of the stomach discharged into the intestines or guts and by their immutative action attaines one degree more of elaboration and fermentation The intestins are double or rather of two sorts 1. Thin Inteflina which are three viz. 1. Duodenum dodek adaktylon or gut of twelve fingers length though in the minorated dwarfish race of man in our sickly age it be found far short of that measure then Jejunum or empty thirdly the Ileon or circumgyrated gut 2. Crass or thick which are three also First the Caecum or blind Secondly the Colon or Collick Thirdly the Rectum or straight gut But since no meat Excrementa primae Coction though the purest can be all converted into aliment but yeelds some dregs and excrementitious residence altogether uselesse to the nourishment of the body Choice nature like a subtle Chymist in this first as in both the other concoctions extracts the benign and wholesome parts but rejects the unprofitable and faeculent viz. the thinner and lixivious by urine the grosser and terren by stool The exclusion of the faeces is done Exclusio Faecum alvi partly by the intestines in their superiour parts contracting and coangustating themselves by the circular and transverse Fibres wherewith both their inward and outward coats are furnished and partly by the mutual aid of the Muscles of the Abdomen by which the belly is compressed The thinner aquosity or tartareous lixivium Vina materia is not presently excerned but incorporated with the Chylus becomes the vehicle to it whereby thinned and diluted it may with the more ease and lesse danger of obstruction permeate or glide through the narrow veines of the mesentery and liver The first concoction thus absolved or finished Cococtio the Chylus is by the vermicular exuction of the lacteous or milky slender veines which in infinite number are with open orifices inserted into the intestines attracted predisposed to sanguification and per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by distribution convey'd to the Liver But that the milky liquor may arrive at the Liver Lie nis Vsus the more pure defecated in its journey thither the Crass and faeculent part together with the lixiviated serosity is extracted by and by the splenie branch derived into the spleen which converts it that is so much of it as the spleens Haematopoietick power can conquer and the refractory matter submit unto into blood for the maintenance of it self and the other vulgar
3. Objectum the sensible object or more strictly sensible diffusive qualities for although in a randome acception it be no impropriety to call the objects singular and corporeal substances yet they strike not the sense quatenus substances but as they are endued with sensible qualities and contain in them the formality of sensibility But since to every action is required corporeal contaction and the object is very often at a large distance beyond the line of contiguity removed from the sensorium it is no idle quaerie by what manner and by what medium the object doth beyond it selfe invade the Organ Our solution shall be the sober resolution of most heads of Mediocrity that it is done by certain emanations and invisible raies carrying with them the qualities simulachra or representations of the sensible objects from which they are emitted For sensible objects are not restrained only to the poverty and course operations of reall and materiall but are enriched with the finer endowments of spiritual and intentional qualities which are nothing but the purer images of themselves by subtle radiation and tenuous continued effluviums flowing from themselves and that there are such spiritual effluxions we cannot deny unless we make invalid the chief inducement of belief our experience for in summer when to contemperate the aestuation of the Suns perpendicular embraces we secure our selves in the gentle refrigerium and solace of the Groves the best most natural Vmbradoes recreate us by accubation under verdant Arbors if we wil but take the pains to observe it we shal see our garments apparently infected with the green tincture of the supereminent leaves and if we place a white linnen cloth or fine white paper collateral to a Venice-glasse filled with Claret-wine it will in apparition wear the crimson Livery of your wine and many other examples many whereof are enumerated by Scaliger Et in genere Artificialia specula hoc decent quae imagines visibiles etiam dissitarum rerum recipiunt Exercitat 80. Sect. 8. et exercit 298. S. 3. do with Autoptical testimony establish that the intentional qualities or representative formes of sensibles are by emanation from their grosser materials delivered at a distance These sensibles Sensibilia in this abstracted notion accepted 1. Propria are 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proper which fall under the comprehension of one solitary sense and hold no relation to any other thus lucid and colorated objects are subject to perception only of the sight sounds are the businesse only of the hearing Sapors only affect the Gusto or tast Odors the smel and Tangibles concern only the Touch. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Common 2. Communia which are perceptible by all or most senses such are Figure Magnitude Number Motion and Quiescence The last coadjutor is a Medium 4. Medium Lib. de Anima cap. 11. text 114 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de An. cap. 9. text 89. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. which Aristotle seduced by the concurrents to manner of vision by an infirm illation from a plurality to an universality concludes of uncontrollable necessity to all sension But under favour of so mighty a Prince of knowledge this assertion though by undenyable truth it hold good in vision and by probable explication may be maintained in hearing and smelling yet how it can be made out in the touch and tast to which is required an immediate contact and corporeall imposition of the objects on their proper sensoriums seems no easie problem and threatens despaire of determination to the boldest inquiry Concerning that grand question with so much ardor of contention An sensio sit tantum passio an vero etiam actio banded betwixt the surly disciples of Plato and the more passionate scholars of Aristotle An sensio sit tantum passio an verò etiam actio whether sension be a meer passion and nothing more then the bare reception of sensible species or whether besids this admission there be required also an action done by the sensator We conceive it the duty of our method to supersede the nauseous enumeration of the arguments which are planted by each faction to defend their own and batter the adversaries opinion and only to present that positive and verisimilous assertion which may best deserve our assent And this is it that the object emitting the sensible image or imaginary Idea is not the agent or active principium of sension but doth by tender and oblation of the sensible species objectively move the sense Dari 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 naturales suadere id videtur hoc quod aliqui quoties volunt abstractionem aberrationem mentis a Corpore pati possint Cardan de Varietâ—rerum de seipso Facio patre id testatur ac quoties vellent animis sic abreptos scribit ut nullum omninò dolorem in eo statu sentirent August de Civit. Dei lib. 14. cap. 24. Simile quid narrat de quodam presbytero c. Et Anima aliis rebus ita intenta esse potest ut speciem visibilem etiam oculo praesentem vocem aures circumsonantem oculo aure sana non percipiat Neither can sensation be justly defined to be onely a passive reception as may be evidenced by this that very frequently although the sensibles are passively admitted into the Organ yet is not the Organ actively deduced into sensation when the soule in a naturall Extasie withdrawes her self from the distraction of the sense and neglects the Cognition of objects but is also a determinate action performed by the Sensator whose dignity wee shall highly disparage to deny it the prime activity in its own proper businesse More briefly thus the soul so farre forth as it discernes and gives judgement of the objects may with safety of reason be said to be active but so far forth as the species are conveyed to the sense by admission into the Organs in which the soul affectively resides it may without danger of absurdity be affirmed to be passive That the Externall senses exceed not the number of five Sensus Externi tantum is the resolution of Philosophy as uncontrollable as generall for five invincible reasons for in Natures wide Amphitheatre the Universe are ordained but five simple bodies and for ought we know no distraction ever fell on so wild an Alogy and gross absurdity as to dream of more the Heaven and the four Elements to which the senses by familiar analogy correspond the sight if we admit the doctrine of the sober Platonicks claimes Kindred of the starrs for its object is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shining and not burning the smell resembles the fire for all Aromaticks confesse an Empyreuma and large participation of that Element and therefore Fragrantia quasi Flagrantia is more then a Grammarians Etymology the hearing by relation to its object which is Aëriall is allyed to the Aer the Tast for
the same reason is cozen German once removed to the Water and lastly the object of the Touch derives it self from the dominion of Earth 2. In the great All that is so much as lies in the narrow sphear of Human comprehension are discoverable but five proper objects viz. Colours Sounds Odors Sapors Tactile Qualities and who will find more must gt out of Trismegistus Circle and hunt on the outside of the world for them 3. The Mediums required to the production of sension are capable of alteration and predisposition but by five waies which we must such is the command of our method with industry forget and referr the disquisition of our friends to receive plenary determination from Arist Lib. 3. de Anima 4. There are no more nor lesse then five senses necessary ad Esse benè Esse vitae 5. Experience the grand inducement of our knowledge on which we may most safely erect determination witnesseth that no discovery hath or can point out more then five Organs either in man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the perfection and therefore the norma or rule of all sublunary creatures or in any other Animal CHAP. VIII Of the Sight HAving thus with temerity crowded through the conflux of Generalls wee are admitted to particulars and the sense which deservedly first arrest the eye of our observation is the sight For although that immortall controversie betwixt the two grandees in the common-wealth of learning the Philosopher and the Physician two happy starrs in conjunction but opposed they portend a deluge of Barbarisme whether is more excellent the sight or touch depend in aequilibrio yet have we thought it no impeachment to our profession to side with the Philosopher and vote for the primacy of the sight as by unquestionable right and the prerogative of Natures bounty properly belonging to it witnesse these subsequent considerations 1. This demonstrats to us more variety and differences of objects then any other sence for all at least most bodies appear clad either in the livery of some one single colour or in a variegated and versicolor dresse and so fal under the perception of the sight but not of the touch 2. Besides its own proper object it runs with unlimited commission through all the common ones and surveyes the Figure Magnitude Number Motion Site and Distance of each visible so that from hence should any derive the pedigree of all Arts and Sciences and affirm that from this Divine sence as from the protoplast all honorable inventions those aërial ones of Musick excepted have received their fruitful productions and successive multiplications we confesse we could not disallow the probability of the Genealogy 3. Vision is performed by a motion swifter then that of ill-spent time even at the remotest distāce for this reason should we character the sight to be the shaddowes or representative reflex of the soul as that is of Divinity the resemblance would be our warrant for as this comprehends the Idea's of things exalted above the contagion of their materials so that admits the incorporeal and intentional images of the objects as the one is capable of two contraries at one and the same instant of time and distinguisheth betwixt true and false so the other at once discernes white and black and while it receives one contrary is not hindered from the perfect dignotion of the other the intellect enjoyes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a deliberation and arbitrary power of election and resolution which submits to no compulsion the sight in its action is uncontrolled and boasts a liberty which the indulgence of nature hath conferr'd upon it but denyed to the younger brethren the other senses for the ears stand ever open to the admission of sounds and the nostrils have no guard but what they borrow from the hand to protect them from the incursion of ingrateful and offensive odors but the eyes are fortifyed with counter-scarfs or curtains wherewith at pleasure they may repulse the invasion of the destructive object 3. The sight by its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exquisite and infaillible dignotion and certitude contributes more to our intelligence for a Canon it is in the Civil Law worn into a proverb plus valet oculatus testis quam auriti decem the testimony of one eye-witnesse carries more assurance and authority then of ten that assume their information from the eare From these and other reasons of equal perswasive validity we adventure to deduce the error of Theophrastus who mistook the sight for the essence of man and that laps of Anaxagoras who affirmed that vision was the prime end of our creation How wonderful are the works of thy hands Visus elogium Oh Lord were but the Persian learned in the Opticks how soon would he become this senses Proselyte with blushes red as his angry deity forgoe his fond Idolatry of the Sun and addresse his more pardonable devotiō to the more glorious Luminary the Eye wherein the image of Divinity is far more resplendent for the Sun irradiates the world yet without comfort or benefit to it selfe but the bright Gemini of the lesser world do not only illuminate the body but inform and delight themselves in the beauty they discover When the Sun goes down to wake the Antipodes and leaves our Hemisphear benegro'd we can delude the Tyranny of Night with Tapers and kindle an artificiall day but when once our own lights suffer extinction what an eternal blackness surrounds us from which no beams but those of the Sun of glory can relieve us which in this life is an affliction that anticipats the horid opacity of the Grave and had not the purblind Soul of Momus been more ignorant then his calumny would have made Nature appear he had discovered those windows in the eyes which his blasphemy proclaimed deficient in the composure of man or according to the charracter given them by Alexander the Pertpatetick Mirantur Oculi a lamant concupiscunt Amoris irae furoris misericordiae ultionis indices sunt in audacia prosiliunt in reverentia subsident in amore blandiuntur in dio efferantur gaudente animo hilares subsident in cogitatione ac cura quiescunt quasi cum mente simul intenti c. Laur. Lib. de Sens Org. 11. Cap. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are the mirror of the Soul wherein all her closet conceptions whether peaceful or passionate are written in the spiritual alphabet of looks and intuitively legible witnesse the mute intelligence of Lovers who can converse like Angels and conceive each other by glances that significantly deliver their apprehensions and carry with them the notion and contents of their desires But we reduce our pen that had not wanderd but in hope to have met with some encomium that might have run parralel to the dignity of this learned sense and so expiated the digression back from this licentious seduction and chain it to the definitive expressions of more severe Philosophy
The sight is an exterior sense Visus 1. Difinitio 2. Organon that receives and discernes external visible objects by the ministration or benefit of the eye which is the adaequate organ of vision This lesser microcosme the eye is the instrument of sight Oculi composed of six Muscles three the externall and conjunctive excepted Coats or Membranes three Humors two Nerves very many Veins and Arteries and a large quantity of Fat Of these parts we shall only meet with so many as immediately are officiall to vision and the first that among them salutes our observation is the Cornea Tunica Horny Membrane This coat being originally a derivation 1. Corea Tunica or processe of the Dura meninx and enshrining the whole eye wears the Epithites 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Corneous and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hard from the manifest similitude betwixt it and a Horn shaved to a transparent thinnesse for in substance it is 1. perspicuous or tralucid 1. Perspicua that the visible species may have admission or transitus into the eye 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 void of all colour that the images may permeate into the eye clad in their native purity and not disguised with the infection of any colour but their own 3. hard 3. Durus that it may the better oppose externall injuries 4. dense 4. Densa that the iimages after progression through a thinner medium the Aer arriving on a thicker medium this Membrane may be refracted for we are to observe in general that since vision is made by refraction and refraction is made for the variety of the diaphanum that all parts of the eye that are immediately inservient to sight do performe their office as they are tralucide and perspicuous and differ in diaphanity according to their tenuity and thicknesse The figure of this coat is round 5. Rotunda that the eye might discern objects greater then it selfe Si enim Oculus non esset rotundus quantitati rei capiendae non sufficerit Vid. Perspect Comm. Lib. 1. propos 29. Between this Membrane and the Chrystalline Humor 2. Humor Aqueus is lodged a liquid substance called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Aqueous or Albugineous Humor which is ordained diaphanous and void of all colour for the same reasons the Horny coat is so and more rare then it that here the species may suffer a second refraction This liquor effused 3. Vuea Tunica the next considerable that occurs is the second coat called fo the the grapy Tunicle Versicolor from the resemblance in colour and superficies it holds with the kernel of a grape and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because as the Chorion it receives and supports the disseminations of the Vessells which is a production of the Pia Mater immediately investing the Optick Nerve expansed into a membrane This of all parts of the eye onely is diversicolor for on the outside where it toucheth on the horny Coat it bears sables a colour not to be found in any other part of the body if Galens inquisition satisfie Lib. de usu part 10. cap. 3. on the inside where it faceth the Aqueous and Christalline Humors it is of a dark grey Nigredinis usus or duskish brown inclining to black but where it constituteth the greater Circle Iris or the Rainbow it appears sometimes skycoloured sometimes green and very often black Luces debiles in locis obscurit magis apparent in luminosis latent Concerning the black tincture of this Coat in that part that respecteth the Chrystalline Humor Anatomists and the masters of the opticks agree that Nature intended it either that the Chrystalline Humor being herewith veiled over might the better recollect and congregate his own brightnesse for according to the position of Alhazen Lib. 1. prop. 33. a small light in a dark obscure place is better perceptible and diffuses a brighter lustre then in a wide light place and makes the circumjacent parts more visible so the internall splendor of the eye becomes more bright and the visible images appeare more illustrious in the Chrystalline Humor because the inner circumference of the whole eye is lined with this dark and obscure membrane by whose shadow the Chrystalline is eclipsed so that his refulgent brightnesse reflecting back from the opposite opacity of the membrane is assembled and united in a more vigorous lustre or for the collection recreation and refection of the visive spirits for when the Chrystalline is offended by a too vehement light we for remedy close our eyes and the spirits recoyling back upon this naturall darknesse of the Coat are reassembled and refreshed or for the interception of light for since the anterior perforation of the grapy coat is the only portal built and destined to the immission of the visible images and there ought to be no second passage whereby the light might intrude it selfe what could Nature more conveniently have thought on to exclude the light then the interjection of this black curtain when experience hath confirmed it an Axiome that nothing better intercepts and shuts out light then the interpositiō of opace bodies Iridis usus But concerning the main intention of Nature in her embrodery of this Coat in that part which looketh outward and makes the particoloured rainbow with such variety of dies Iris oritur exinde quod uvee Tunicae limbus varios colores habet and whether she contrived it either for necessary use which is most probable or pleasant ornament we find the Curiosities of Oculists rather amazed Pupilla then their disquisitions satisfied Wherefore wee think it safe for us to fix on nothing but a scepticall neutrality and to acquiesce in no other resolution then to sit down and modestly expect the determination of future discovery In the forepart of this membrane is a small Foramen or perforation through which the visible images ae intromitted to the Chrystalline called the Pupilla which vulgarity translates the Apple of the Eye the narrow circumference of this comparatively to that of the Chrystalline or Cornea principally conduceth to the perfection and distinction of vision Dilatatio Contractio yet in many the amplitude varies and those in whom Nature hath framed it very narrow are quick and acute sighted but those who have it more dilated see but weakly and obtusely This Apple of the Eye is daily Coangusted and dilated and appeares much more coarctated in a luminous then in an obscure crepusculous place For since an Excesse of light is destructive and the defect of it insufficient to vision the Eternall wisdom hath in the very entrance of the Eye contrived this window capable of dilatation and contraction in dilatation to admit so much of the weaker light as is required to perfect and distinct vision Dilatationis Causa in contraction to exclude so much of the copious and excessive as would either offend or perish the Organ
When we enquire the cause of this dilatation Common and popular Philosophy referrs us to the Animal Spirit and believes that the Apple of one Eye is dilated when the other Eye is closed because of the conflux and congregation of all the visive spirits into the open Eye But this doth not satisfie our scrutiny since though both eyes are open yet wee plainly discover this dilatation and Contraction For according to the annotation of Io. Bap. Porta Lib. 3. de refract cap. 6. and the confession of Hieron Fabricius ab Aquapendente Lib. de vision part 3. c. 6. if we look into the Eyes of any opened against the Sun we cannot but perceive the Pupilla to be so straightly coangustated that there will appear hardly room enough to admit the point of a needle The learned Schegkius in his Book de Spirit Animal teacheth us that the Foramen of the Uvea tunica is ampliated and widened by the Contraction of Muscles in the root of the Eye which immediately invirons the optick Nerve but contracted by the relaxation of the same for the Coates seem terminated in the Extream or root of the Eye And in our approbation this weighs heaviest in the ballance of Truth This admirable constitution of the Uvea occasioneth those three naturall degrees Gradus visionis or graduall differences of our Sight 1. Perfectissimus 1. Visus perfectissimus in indivisibili constitutus when we with the exquisite distinction discern 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 minute atomicall bodies 2. Perfectus 2. perfectus when at a proportionate distance we distinctly see the object but not apprehend the minimum the smallest particle of each 3. Confusus 3. imperfectus when besides those objects which are è directo opposed we also have a confused and glimmering apparition of other placed ad latera on the right or left hand The cause of which difference is thus made out Graduum visus causa since the comprehension of the visible image is made per pyramidem by an acute angle but the Certification is made per Axem by a direct line and onely that perpendicular radius which is called the Axis and is not refracted doth powerfully and distinctly represent the object but all other oblique radij by how much they are nearer unto or removed from the Axis are by so much the more or lesse efficacious and conducible to representation Hence comes it that when the Pupilla is contracted to a smaller circumference onely the direct and perpendicular radius in the visive Pyramid enters to the Center of the Chrystalline or together with it those radij which are nearest to the Axis but when it is dilated many other oblique and refracted beams rush together with the perpēdicular and confuse the vision And the barbarous experiment of * Dyonysius upra carcerem tenibricosum domum extruxit lucidissimam clarissimam calce illitam homines carcere obscuro diu conclusos ex profundis tenebris in lucem splendi-dissimam Educendo occaeavit Dionysius the Sicilian Prodigy hath with learned tyranny confirmed that if the Pupilla when it is dilated be suddainly of Plato's Jubilee apply themselves to every visible hold a voluntary verticity to the object Parvula sic magnum pervisit pupula Coelum And of these ocular Muscles there are in man just so many as there are motions four direct and two circular all situated within the cavity of the scul and accompanying the Optick Nerve and all conjoyning their tendons at the corneous do constitute the namelesse Tunicle so named by Columbus as if it had escaped the observation of the antient Anatomists Galen L. 10. de usu partium cap. 2. 1. Attollens s when in truth it had not the mētion of Galen The first of those implanted in the superior part of the eye and draweth it upward whence it is called Attollens the lifter up and superbus the proud for this we use in haughty and sublime looks The second situated in the inferior part 2. Deprimens is Antagonist to the former and stoops the eye down toward the cheek and from this is called Deprimens the depressor and Humilis the humble Muscle for this position of the eye speaks the dejection and humility of the mind The third seated in the Major Canthus or angle of the eye 3. Adducens and leading it toward the Nose is called Adducens et Bibitorius for in large draughts we often contractit The opponent to this is the Muscle in the minor Angle 4. Abducens which abduceth the eye ad latera therefore called Abducens et indignatorius for when we would look with contempt and indignation we by the contraction of this Muscle hale the eye into an oblique and scornful position If all these four work together the eye is drawn inward fixed and established which kind of motion Physicians call motus Tonicus we in our language the Set or wist-look The fift slender oblique Muscle 5. Obliquus running betwixt the eye and the tendons of the second and third Muscles by the outward angle ascends to the superior part of the eye and inserted neer to the Rainbow circumgyrats the eye downward The last and smallest 6. Trochiea twisted into a long Tendon circumrotates the Eye towards the interior angle and is called the Trochlea Muscle or pully These two circumactors are surnamed Amatorij the Lovers Muscles for these are they that wheele about the Eye in wanton or amorous glances Objectum visus Although our reason embrace for a verity that admits no dubitation that the object of Sight is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Visible in generall whatever submits to the comprehension of the Sight and in particular that the proper and adaequate object of this sence is Colour for nothing is visible but under the gloss and vernish of Colour nay Light it self which some entertein for the second object of vision submits not to the discernment of the Eye quatenus Lux under the notion of its own formality but instar albedinis as it retaines to whitenesse yet when it attempts an established and satisfactory theory of the true nature of Colours it soon runns to a stand and discovers nothing of more certainty then that this jewell the knowledge of the nature of colours is only digged out by the miners after Knowledge but no hand was ever yet so happy as to be constellated to the Exantlation or landings of it 1. For the subtle Genius of Nature Lib de sensu sensili cap. 3. defines Colours to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the extremity of a diaphanum terminated and subjoines that Colours belongs to al things ratione perspicuitatis and that the diaphanum or pellucid body terminated is the subject of Colour For if the perspicuum suffer condensation to the amission of its transparency and so forbid the transmission of the visible species it become colourated and may be said to be
and a power in which are united the opposite impossibilities of the rest is actuated into apprehension partly by the interposition of a medium and partly by the contiguity and approximity of the object Wee may therefore define Smeling to be the middle sense of the five externall 1. Definitio which perceives the Odors of things drawn in by the nostrills to the mamillary processes of the brain for the use and Commodity of the Creature That the Object of Smelling is an Odour 2. Objectum is a universall Theorem oraculously established beyond the deniall of any but what the nature of an Odour is hath been a Catholick Problem mysteriously removed above the comprehension of most Heraclitus cited by Aristotle Lib. de sens sensili cap. 5. many of the primitive Philosophers and most of the Family of Aesculapius have left on record for an indubitable maxime that the smell is not affected only with an incorporeall quality or spirituall species but that a certain aerial subtile substance or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a vaporous exhalation is expired from the Odorate Object which doth substantially move the sense and Galen de instrum Olfactus cap. 2. though the Charity of Casserius Placentinus attempts a witty vindication of so honorable a judgement from the guilt of Error and would have us by substantia under Subjectum Odoris stroke in with them and resolved thus that which exhaleth from the bodies of things is the substance of an Odor On the contrary Aristotle and all his tribe determine an intentionall and no substantiall Emission Odores non sunt substantiae and that onely the bare image exhaling from the odorate body is delated unto and apprehended by the Organ of smelling And in truth this latter latter opinion deserves priority provided wee admit it with modest Caution and discreet limitation although the former includes something of reason and but in part deviates from the tract of truth For first the magick of no arguments must seduce us to admit that Odors are corporeall substances Sensus enim substantias non percipiunt sed tantum earum accidentia and wee have already demonstrated that no sense is actuated into sensation by the reall or materiall but by the spirituall or intentionall quality of the object Wherefore we shall be unreasonably partiall to deny the same to the smell and must conclude that nothing corporeall but onely the species by Aporrhoia's streaming from the odorate body doth invade the Organ of smelling And on the other side the infidelity of no Academick can be so obstinate as not to acknowledge that there is an Effluvium or exhalation from the odorate object diffused into and transported through the Aer for quotidian experience learns us that odorate exhalations extend their subtile Energy not onely to the production of divers affections in the brain proportionate to their own variety and vehemence to the comfort or affliction of it by the communication of their own excesses in first or second or formall friēdship or emnity in third and occult qualities as the Oracle of Cous observed Aphor. 28. Sect. 5. Odoramentorum suffitus muliebria educit ad alia plerumque utilis esset nisi capitis gravitatem inferret But even to the painfull vellication and rosion of the nostrills eyes and the tender parts of the face And again we observe most perfumed bodies in tract of time to fall into minoration of gravity and substantiall contabescence and the Odor to continue vigorous in the Aer a long time after the remove of the body from which it was effluxed All which are manifesto's sufficient to ascertain us that from odorate bodies there doth ascend a certain corporeall exhalation carrying with it the faoulty of Calefaction Frigefaction exiccation humectation and other efficiencies which no Philosophy can expect from the naked immateriall species or representative forms of odors therfore we willingly subscribe thus much that from most odorables there doth an odorate vapour exhale and that this exhalation is corporeall but yet that there is presumed and required a spirituall or intentional image of this odor to the act of the sense or smel of it is our asseveration and we hope the sense of Truth But whether there be required a concurrence of both or whether the species of an Odor An species odoris semper vaporis vehiculo indigeat which is only and properly the object of smel be alway in conjunction with some corporeal subject or vapor without whose association it cannot be delated to the sensorium is yet in dispute and indeed the Axis on which the weight of the whole controversy is moved We are satisfyed that the coadjutancy of a vapour is not semper in omnibus et singulis necessary that this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or exahalation evaporated from the object does not alway accompany the Odor to the Nostrials yea that frequently the object emits no corporeall effluvium at all and that the smelling is very often excited by spirituall qualities or the species only of an odor expired from the odorate body and arriving at the Organ For whoever grants this exhalation to be alway concomitant to the Odor as the vehicle or transporter of it must infer an alogy not a little derogatory to the great attribute of God his wisdome that is mutilate the whole fifth daies work rob all the Citizens of the Ocean of one sense which by the charter of their Creation they stand possessed of and subvert the experiment of Anglers who perfume their baits Boeoti apud Antiquos stoliditatis et stupiditatis nomine malè audierunt ut innuit Horat. in Epist Boeotum incrasso jurares aere natum For since the Soul of an Odor consists in Sicco à calore elaborato and all exhalations by natural propensity ascend to unite with the congenerous element of Fire how much a Boeotian is that headpiece that can conceive they shift their essence and descends to the earth in the bottom of the water or when therer arrived that they can conserve the integrity of their nature since all odorate bodies no sooner meet with humectation but they bid adieu to their odorable endowments Moreover whence came so large and diuturnous an effluvium which serves to qualifie a wast quantity of Aer be maintained Assuredly if the odorate bodies which are frequently of very small bulk were wholly at once resolved into vapors they would not suffice to the expletion or tincture of halfe that spatious room which the odors possesse And 't is no rarity to observe perfumes of minute bodies a long time to maintain the prodigal expence of odors without a marasmus of substance or minoration of gravity Our hopes tell us we shall offend but venially A digression though we here make a short excursion on the negative of that question An odores nutriendi vim babeant whether odors are endowed with the power of nutrition For since the aliment of
correspond with Tangible that wee may safely avouch that sentence of Aristotle Gustabile est quoddam tangibile Wherefore we must acknowledge the Tast a peculiar Sense declaring its dependency on and distinction from the Touch both Objecto and Organo For the object of one is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tangible of the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gustable and the Touch conserving its integrity and vigor in the tongue the Tast may be abolished or depraved ubicunque est Tactus ibi non etiam est Gustus It is generally defined to bee one of the five externall senses 1. Definitio whereby wee discerne the difference of Sapours The proper and approximate instrument of Tasting is the Tongue 2. Organon and in particular not the investing Tunicle as Galen and after him Valesius opinioned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inest pars sentiens saporem lingua Arist Lib. 1. de Histor Anim. nor the gustatory nerve expansed into the investment as some conceive by tradition from Columbus the pulpe or carneous substance of it which being of a peculiar and unparralelled constitution soft lax rare and spongy doth imbibe the sapours comprehended in their own liquid principles and conservatories and impregnated by the slaver or salival humidity of the mouth External medium there is none 3. Medium for the gustatory Faculty is not invited into the act of comprehension by the distantiall but contiguous position and immediate admotion of the sapid object to the Organ but the internal medium is the porous pellicle or spongy integument of the Tongue assisted by the concurrence and coefficiency of the spittle or salival exudation of it For this humidity is natures menstruum ordained for the maceration extraction and impraegnation of sapors which having passed the corrective or auxiliant operation of this liquid mediator are through the incontinuities or interstitiall divisions of the obducted Membrane soaked into the pulpous substance of the Tongue and therein perfected into gustation Vtenim Color objectum visus est tamen sine lumine videri non potest ita sapor objectum gustus est qui etiam non gustatur sine humido quod est veluti actus medij was the expression of Aristotle The object of the tast is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. Objectum a Sapour this is a position whose certitude is erected on no meaner foundations then the infallible and scientifick doctrine of our sense whose information in its own proper businesse is thought superior to the incroachment of delusion and carries authority sufficient to convert or silence contradiction and the aggregated affirmation of all Authors whose judgments savour any thing of reason But what the nature and original of a sapour is hath empuzled the enquiries and retired from the knowledge of those antient worthies Empedocles Democritus Lucippus Anaxagoras Galen Ariflotle and all succeeding Philosophers who had not with more then one eye looked into the Arcana of Chymistry and whose caecutiency had missed the illumination of a Spagyrick Collyrium For though Galen and the Peripateticks hunt a sapour from Elements A digression concerning Sapors and their causes and the determinate contemperation of their first qualities thus There is no elemental or homogeneous body qualified with a sapour which is properly an affection of compound materialls requiring to its production the syndrome and syncriticall union of three principles viz. 1. Terrestrious siccity 2. Aqueous humidity 3. Heat the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or active ingredient which carries the masculine efficiency in operations naturall for water in the simplicicitie of its primitive constitution being insipid if percolated through siccum terrestre acquireth a sapidity proportionate to the intense or remiss adustion of the materiall dissolved into concorporation as we cannot but observe in fountains which contract to their streams the various sapors of those sundry veins of earth through whose straits they have steered in their subterraneous voyages and in a lixivium or lie which admits the amaritude or salsedo discernable in the tast of it from its transcolation through ashes yet the essence of a sapour consists more in Humido then Sicco and is a qualitie affecting the Tast Saporis definitio owing its production to the permistion of an aqueous Humidum with a terrestrious siccum in compound bodies But since the contemperature is various and the Aqueous Humidum united with the earthy Siccium which is the subject of sapors hath its consistence participating sometimes of crassitude or thicknesse and sometimes of tenuity or thinnesse and the Heat which is the active efficient varies its activity according to the graduality of intention or remission hence do those various and different kinds of sapors derive their Original And though Physicians on the tradition of these principles found the invention of remedies and erect rules for the investigation of the manifest faculties of Medicaments by the dignotion of their sapors Fernel Method Met. lib. 4. cap. 3. and to this end constitute nine differences or ground distinctions of sapors as they are enumerated by that mouth of the Arabian Oracles Eernelius thus A sharp or keen sapor is that which affects the mouth and tongue with an acrimony 1. Acer compunction and calefaction this is conspicious in Pepper Pellitory Euphorbium c. It is suscitated from a thin dry and hot matter nor can it subsist in a subject of any other constitution Acide 2. Acidus or sharp is that which penetrats and bites the tongue but without any sence of heat such is deprehended in Vinegar juice of Limons Citrons some Malacotones and Quinces this flowes from a thin dry matter or that whose innate heat is expired by putrefaction or whose Original frigidity is concomitant to tenuity 3. Pinguis Fat or luscious sollicites the gusto neither with heat nor acrimony but furres or daubs the mouth with an unctuous lentor or viscidity such is chiefly discerned in Oyles either simple or amygdaline in butter fat which hath no rancidity either acquired by antiquity or originary and naturall such as the fat of Lions and Wolves in mucilaginous plants as Althaea c. This hath its production from a thin aeriall matter temperate in heat and cold A salt sapor doth not very much calefy 4. Salsus but by a sharp siccity bite the tongue this is manifest chiefly in salt and Nitre but more obscurely in the herb Crithmum or sampier it subsists in a matter whose ingredients heat and siccity are equall For in water which is not exquisitely simple the externall heat in duration of time torrefying and exiccating those particles or atomicall portions of Earth which are incorporated with it induceth a saltnesse and brackishnesse perceptible by the tast There is another salt sapor produced by Chymistry out of the most drie and earthy matter which the extream and most intense activity of fire hath torrefied to Cinefaction And there is no compound body
virtuall and medicinal sense by which the great Physician of the world was pleased to restore sight to the blind strength and activity to the lame hearing to the deaf to extinguish the feaver of Peters Mother-law stop the inveterate issue of his Haemorrhoidal Patient unlock the gates of death and reduce the Widowes Son from the total privation back to the perfect habit of life Concerning this sense there are no mean controversies among Philosophers and the first enquirie is An tactus sit unus numero sensus An tactus unus numero sensus sit Whether there be only one single power of touching as there is one faculty of seeing a second of hearing a third of smelling a fourth of tasting or many distinct powers Aristotle moves this query Lib. de Anima cap. 2. and subjoynes this reason of his dubitation Vnus sensus est unius primae contrarietatis c. One single sense hath but one proper object to which all that it perceives may be referred But the touch seemes not to have one common object but many for it judgeth hot and cold dry and moist heavy and light hard and soft rough and smooth thick and thin c. which are not reducible to any one common Genus and the same reason according to which they are qualified for the perception of the touch And by the treachery of this ignis fatuus the facilitie of some who were far on their journey toward Athens hath been seduced so wide off the tract of truth as to fall upon the absurd belief Plures esse Tactus that there is a plurality of touching Faculties and of these some make two one for the discernment of calidity and frigidity another for the dignotion of humidity and siccity others superadd a third for the perception of gravity and levity a third sect determines that there are as many distinct powers of touching as there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 differences and contrarieties of tangibles a fourth hath yet multiplied their number and superaded others to the sensation of pain and pleasure delectation venery hunger and thirst On the contrary many conclude on the singularity of the touch which although it comprehend objects in number numerous and in nature various and repugnant yet doth apprehend them all under one common reason and determinate qualification after the same manner that the sight discerns white black red yellow green and all sub communi colori coloris ratione Although we confesse our judgment below the decision of this high dispute and that many great Clerks have determined of nothing but the immpossibility of its determination yet probability invites us to this latter opinion unam esse tangendi potentiam For although there be a certain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or materiall immutation in the Organ preambulous to Taction and this alteration is various and different according to the variety and difference of tangibles yet from this the unity of the Touch is not aestimated but only from the spirituall alteration since it is proper to every sense to receive not the substantiall but intentionall formes of its proper object And this spirituall alteration which is the same in all the contrarieties of the tangible objects constitutes one individuall sense otherwaies we may find no lesse varietie in any of the other senses Neither shall we need to grant a plurality of Touches for pain and pleasure since pain and pleasure are not perceived and distinguished by the Touch but the objects of those passions The other greyheaded contention devolved from great antiquity to the present Organum tactus and not unlikely to descend to the bottom of future times is concerning the instrument of this sense some concluding for the Flesh others the Skin and most the Nerves how lame and inconsistent with the integrity of truth each of these opinions is our succeeding lines will attempt to declare Adaequatum est Membrane Since every sense hath its peculiar Organ without which the facultie must remain uselesse and unactive and this Organ is by the provident law of constitution and praedisposition subject to the admission of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or affection which the object shall impose or impresse on it and that part is to be accounted the Organ which is manifestly affected and altered by the object we suppose the induction good if applyed to the touch that in all members which discern tactile qualities there is the instrument of touching and that part which in every place of the body is affected and changed by tactile qualities is the Organ of touching And since the touch resides in no part which is not furnished with a membrane and ècontra wheresoever any membrane is there is the sense of touching also we conclude that the Heart Membranes are the true prime and adaequate Organs of the Touch and that all parts receive their sensibilitie from them Some have endeavoured the subversion of this opinion but with vain and inconsiderable objections Non Caro. for what they urge that the Flesh is endowed with the sense of feeling is manifestly false For the Flesh feels not per se or by any sensible power inhaerent to it selfe but as it is furnished with Nervous or Membranous Fibres which are bestowed on the substance of the Muscles But the Flesh of the viscera and glandules whose substance is unprovided of Fibres is wholly devoid of sensibility And although Galen teach us Nee Necuus Lib. de placit 7. Cap. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that every part furnished with a Nerve enjoys the sense of feeling yet are we to allow his Axiom tru ōly in a qualified sense that is quatenus ipsi nervi membranosi sunt as the nerves themselves are membranous and disseminate their fibrous surcles and capillary productions on the parts Otherwise if we consider the Nerves in sensu diviso in the naked simplicitie of their own natures as they are strictly and properly nerves they are not the proper instrument of touching but Canales or conduits inservient to the distribution and transvection of the Animall spirits into all parts of the body in which respect they are officiall to the touch no more then to the rest of the senses But that qualification and endowment of sensibility they possesse they borrow from the membranes wherewith they are invested as ordinary observation of wounds of the Nerves especially the greater ones wil inform us for the meduallary substance may be handled and drawn forth of the wound without any pain at all but if the coat or membrane be but touched most exquisite and invincibletorments immediately ensue Concerning the skin Cutis est instrumentum tactus praecipuum sed non adaequatum we grant it to be the common integument of the body whose principal and publick action is esse tactus instrumentum ad subjectarum partium tutelam to be the instrument of Touching and discern external injurious instruments that invade the body and we beleeve that Galen said very truely Cutem maxime quae est in manu omnium sensibilium normam esse tactus instrumentum prudentissimo Animali proprium qua ut communi instrumento adres tangendas apprehendendas omnium qualitatum tangibilium differentiae melius quam ulla alia corporis parte dignoscuntur Yet we cannot concede it to be unicum et adaequatum tactus Organum the only and adaequate instrument of touching but since other parts could not want this sense for the avoidance of destructive and noxious objects nature hath been far more bountifull and diffused it into the most retired parts and for this reason the Membranes are dispersed through all the body and by their mediation the sense of touching which in many of the internal parts is most exquisite and acute The collection of all is that the praecipuous Organ of the touch is the skin chiefly that part wherewith the hands are lined as destined to the common apprehension of all things tangible but the adaequate are the membranes by the benefit whereof all other parts the skin excepted obtain the sense of Feeling FINIS
limple apprehension the Species arrests and wholy possesses the intellect so that it desists from any further prosecution or disquisition as when it is barely imployed in the first conception of a man Ox or Horse c. Reflex doubled or reciprocated when the minde reflects on the knowledge of its selfe and doth understand its owne intellection and discernes it selfe to be an intellect that is an Essence pure and immateriall a bright nature irradiated by the reflexive glory of the Eternall Wisedome Here our Aversion to obscurity may excuse a short digression Abstractio quid if we insert that by Abstraction we intend a separation of singling in the understanding out of one thiug from all others For in abstraction not all things inherent in the subject are knowne but onely that which is abstracted V. G. to abstract Animal ab Equo the living Creature from the Horse is to consider onely the Animality the Equiety being altogether incousidered and superseded Lastly Voluntas the will Voluntas is the other power of the rationall Soul whereby we prosecute or abhor embrace or reject the objects known by the Undersanding Or is the intellect expansed diffused to admit or execute what it understands This also by some is termed Appetitus Rationalis the reasonable appetite For as the sensitive appetite followes the Knowledge of the Sense So doth a proper and peculiar desire of fruition attend the knowledge of the mind which for distinction from the former becomes the appellation of the Will and that the rationall doth absolutely differ from the sensitive appetite is familiar from this Videatur Aurelij Prude ntij 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seu de Compugâ—â—n tia Animae liber that they have too frequent Conflicts and Contentions betwixt them This Antipathy or Duello betwixt these two indigenae the ingenuous frailty of Saint Paul discovered to be radicated beyond all possibility of reconcilement untill our Exaltation from the residence of sensuality therefore with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Ejaculates his Vote for Emancipation from the tyranny of Flesh And were this Philosophy lectured to the Junior Pharisees of our Age though would Charity dispence wee may fear their incapacity of Fixation but by ignition or reduction but by distillation per descensum it would deride their ambition of singular and divine purity and humble them to confession of their large sympathicall distemper from the Common wounds of Humanity But we ask pardon for our Parenthesis The object Ejus Objectum Bonum malum which provokes the will is Bonum Malum Good and Evill so conceived by the understanding and tendred to the will hence it prosecutes good and abhors evill The Actions of the will are 1. Volition 2. Nolition and these are double 1. Elicitae chosen or elected which the will by it selfe and not by the inservient Faculties doth select and execute 2. imperatae injunctive which the Will commands to bee done by the subordinate powers These subservient Faculties which by the Law of Fate are subjects to the Scepter of the Will are 1. the Locomotive 2. the Sensitive Appetite For our motion and quiescence succeed each other at the pleasure and command of the Will But that dominon which the Will before our Grandfathers apostasy from the rule of reason extended over the sensuall Appetite is contracted and diminished by the usurped incroachment of Sensuality and that harmonious concord which at the primitive constitution was maintained betwixt both faculties so confusedly infringed that the revolted sensitive Appetite renounces all conformity to the sober adviso'es of the rationall Will and may with an easie Metaphor assimilate Ovids Fertur equis Auriga nec audit Currus habenas or that diviner distich of Hermanus Hugo Lib. 2. de piis Votis Frena nihil patitur minùs atque libido vovendi Nec se lege sinunt libera vota premi There 's naught abhorrs Confinement like our lust Nor are our Votes Conformed to what 's just But to a Lordship over the Vegetive Faculty the Charter of the Will extends not for that workes positively and absolutely naturall neither is our Nutrition Accretion or majoration at the improvement or dispensation of the Will CHAP. II. Of the Traduction of the Human Soul THE second grand Remora's which retard the Soul in her voyage for the discovery of wisdom and Charme her Compasse to a variation from the pacifick Sea of Truth to the dangerous Torrent of Error are 1. servile Credulity 2. Vainglorious Singularity To the first most have cowardly or supinely prostituted their habilities of disquisition and have so firmly vowed implicite homage to the superstitious Soveraignty of Antiquity that if but a Tradition be contradicted it proves Criminall and Reason and Experience the two best Counsellors are deposed as innovators The other inveigles her disciples into the opposite extream and would demolish the substantial buildings on which the reverend hand of Authority hath recorded Truth in deep ingravements that on their ruines the pageant superstructures of solitary dreams may find advancement From this we may we hope without Treason against the Majesty of justice affirm our endeavours diverted from the former we despair not to relieve our Reader who noe sooner with but halfe an eye glances on the inscription of this leafe but presumes our discouse Erroneous because inquisitive into the Antient and popular assertion that the Human Soul is created by insusion If any shall here arrest us for an incroachment on the sacred royalty of Theology our plea is that whatsoever of the Human Soules Originall is within the borders of reason lyes in Common also to Philosophy that our thoughts are so clear from design to propagate Haeresie or oppose our Conceptions to any Fundametnall of Faith that we humbly tender them as Positions most probable and consentaneous to Verity but not obtrude them as Magisteriall dictates Our first Article is that the Human soul is 1. Thesis by the hereditary vertue of the divine benediction Crescite multiplicamini propagated and traduced by the see of Parents to their issue Our first Argument hopes supportment from that Axiome Argument 1. Simile Simile generat Simile Simile generat so appositely attested by Aristotle Lib. de An. c. 4. T. 34 in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. rehearsed thus This operation of all other is most naturall to Animals those I mean which are perfect not defective or mutilated and are not generated without seed for every one to procreate his like an Animal an Animal a Plant a Plant That by this way as far as they are able they may enterprise perpetuity For when the wise Creator constituted every thing in its kind perfect but man as his masterpiece and abridgement in whom the idaea's of all other created natures are collectively refulgent most perfect and exact he cannot justly owne the attribute of perfection but must be enrolled amongst Aristotles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉