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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A24071	The history of Hai Eb'n Yockdan, an Indian prince, or, The self-taught philosopher written originally in the Arabick tongue by Abi Jaafar Eb'n Tophail ... ; set forth not long ago in the original Arabick, with the Latin version by Edw. Pocock ... ; and now translated into English.; Risālat Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān. English	Ibn Ṭufayl, Muḥammad ibn ʻAbd al-Malik, d. 1185.; Pococke, Edward, 1604-1691.; Ashwell, George, 1612-1695.	1686 (1686)	Wing A151; ESTC R19263	86,160	248

Imprimatur C. Alston Jan. 27. 168 5 6. THE HISTORY OF Hai Eb'n Yockdan AN Indian Prince OR THE Self-Taught Philosopher Written Originally in the Arabick Tongue by Abi Jaafar Eb'n Tophail a Philosopher by Profession and a Mahometan by Religion Wherein is demonstrated by what Steps and degrees humane Reason improved by diligent Observation and Experience may arrive to the knowledge of natural things and from thence to the discovery of Supernaturals more especially of God and the Concernments of the other World Set forth not long ago in the Original Arabick with the Latin Version by EDW. POCOCK M. A. and Student of Christ-church Oxon. 1671. And now Translated into English LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell in S. Paul's Church-yard and William Thorp Bookseller in Banbury M DC LXXXVI TO THE Right Honourable PHILIPLd WENMAN Baron of Kilmaynham And Viscount TUAM My Lord YOU may please to remember that some while ago I acquainted your Lordship with my intention to Translate into English the Life of Hai Eb'n Yockdan or The Self-taught Philosopher which had been set forth some years before in Arabick and Latin by the Care and Pains of our Learned Professor of the Oriental Tongues in the University of Oxford At which time you were pleased not only to encourage me unto the work but even to ingage me to the undertaking it Since that I have dispatched it at last after many Diversions and amidst as many Interruptions And upon the Review have ventured to send it abroad into the World being willing to hope that it may not only please for the rarity of the Subject but profit also in some measure and Degree in regard of its Commodiousness and Seasonableness among the Men of this licentious Generation whereof some are too loose in their Principles and others in their Practices the one living by no Rule and the other by no certain one but giddily following their own Phancies or other Mens Opinions whom they have unadvisedly chosen to themselves for the Guides of their Faith and Manners Whereas the Philosopher whose life is here described will instruct them in such principles of Morality and Religion and such alone as the light of Nature discovers and which must needs be acknowledged for True by all those who will judge and act as Men according to the Dictates of Reason and the Conclusions resulting from Experience And I heartily wish indeed that All of us were arrived even thus far by the guidance of this light and agreed in such principles as humane Reason teacheth out of the Book of Nature which sets forth to our view Gods works of Creation and Providence For this foundation being laid there would be more hopes of agreement about that which the Supernatural light of Revelation discovers to our Faith and superstructs thereupon But your Lordship will find the usefulness of this History in its Philosophical and Theological discoveries more amply set down in the Preface which comprehends the chief particulars and acquaints the Reader with the main of it design And however my design in publishing this Translation thrive abroad in the World yet I have good hope that it will not fail of its end in obtaining your Lordship's favourable Acceptance and remain as a Testimonial of my Gratitude for the many and long continued favours received from your Lordship which as they do at present so will always ingage me for the future to shew and approve my self upon all good Opportunities My much honoured Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble Faithful and much Obliged Servant Geo. Ashwell THE PREFACE VVE are told by our learned Professour of the Oriental Tongues in the University of Oxford who caused this History to be set forth in the Original Arabick and thence translated into Latine that the Author hereof was Abi Jaafar Eb'n Tophail an Arabian Philosopher and a Mahometan otherwise called Abubecher As also that he was Contemporary with Eb'n Roshd usually called Averroes and somewhat Elder than He. Now this Averroes died being very Old in the year of the Heira 595 which is co-incident with the year of our Lord 1198. So that by this Computation this Author flourished about 500 years ago He wrote this History in the form of an Epistle and so entitles it for by this name the Arabians use to call their shorter Treatises That both the Author and the Book were of good credit appears by the Testimony not only of the Arabians his Countrymen but also of the Jews The said Averroes calls him The Honourable Judge Abubeoher Ben Tophail This History also of His was of old translated into Hebrew and well accepted of by the Jews For Moses Narbonensis in his Preface thereto and Comment there upon commends the Author So doth also Mardochaeus Comtino another Jew more than once The Design of the Author in this Book is to shew how far a Person of an excellent Wit and towardly Disposition being destitute of Humane Society and consequently without the direction and assistance of any other may advance Himself in Knowledge by improving his own Reason to the utmost Pitch in the search of Things both Natural and above Nature with the sole help and exercise of his own Meditation and Observations upon it Wherein he discovers and prescribes a Method unto those who will apply themselves to such Contemplations and delight to make a considerable Progress in them such a safe and easie method as may be very serviceable and useful to this present Age though so many Ages distant from that of the Author an Age so much inclined to Fanaticism Sadducism and Atheism He treads indeed a new unbeaten Path wherein by set and orderly Degrees He brings His Reader at length to the knowledge of God and the upper World beyond which steps thus by him discovered and forepassed no man can proceed any farther but by the Light and Guidance of Divine Revelation For Humane Reason is forced to fly hither when dazled with the excessive light of these heavenly Mysteries its poreblind sight not being able to discern Objects so high and so far off distant or rather groaping in the Dark to find them by reason of its innate Dimness This Author therefore justly condemns them who presume to make an over-curious search by natural light only into such things as neither Eye hath seen nor Ear heard nor are discoverable by the heart of man To prevent which our Author in his Preface admonisheth his Reader what to fly and what to follow and taxeth the errors not only of the vulgar but of some of the more learned Philosophers It must be granted indeed that some very ingenious and learned Men of this latter Age have endeavoured to demonstrate the main fundamental Truths of Religion by the Light of Humane Reason and the Principles of Natural Theology which are generally acknowledged by mankind although much differing in other points And this may seem to render such a Discourse as this of little or no use to the World in these

Times Yet I am willing to think otherwise when I consider that the Discourses of these learned Men concerning this Subject consist for the general of such Notions Grounds and Proofs as are too subtle sublime and metaphysical for common understandings so that they leave men still in the dark yea more perplexed than they were before Whereas this Author proceeds by such gentle steps in an easie and familiar way of reasoning which is obvious to every ones apprehension that He leads his Reader in sensibly onward without any toilsom labour or perplexing of his Brains in the search of the Truth till He have brought him before he is aware unto the end of his journey Or like the easie ascent of winding Stairs which conduct to the top of an high Tower or Pyramid such as that in Aegypt Or rather like the leisurely mounting of Jacob's Ladder whereon he saw the Angels ascending as well as descending for like the Rounds of that are the degrees whereby He conducts his Reader till He have brought him up to the very top of the Ladder where God presents Himself unto his view This History then being thus Englished and so communicated to the view of all whereas before it was locked up to most in an unknown language may I hope prove not altogether unuseful unto many in this idle worldly and voluptuous Age wherein men generally seek after little else besides the concerns of this present life studying and busying themselves about their Profit or their Pleasure either in heaping up Riches with much Care and Toil or spending their Days in Ease and carnal Delights and making it their study how they may pass away their time without any Care or Trouble at all Whereas this History shews the true and genuine Concerns of humane life with the means of obtaining that felicity which Man was born for which it makes to consist in a right and useful Exercise of those faculties which God hath bestowed upon us and improving them to the best Advantage by an industrious and continued experimenting of all Things that come in our way the knowledge whereof may be useful to us and making proper Observations upon them as this Self-taught Philosopher is said to have done and as any other Man is capable of doing in like manner who is endued with the same sagacity of mind and ingenuity of Disposition And such as are not may be his Scholars and learn with more ease such lessons as these by what they find him to have experimented and observed For here we find set down by what means and by what Degrees in the seven Septenaries of his Age whereinto his Life is divided in this History and the Observations He made in each of them He arrived to a proportionable measure of knowledge concerning all the Accommodations of humane Life in this lower World how he came to find them out and in what manner He managed and improved them Then what he observed as concerning the brute Creatures which He found in the Island wherein He is said to have been bred but more especially concerning himself both as to his Body with its several Parts and faculties and to his Soul with its spiritual and immortal nature and all the Excellencies that attend it how He came to find them out and what Reasons He grounded his Observations upon Then how He examined the Natures Properties and uses of the Elements and how He thence ascended to the Contemplation of the Heavenly Bodies with their Light Motions and Influences So that we have here set before us opened and exposed to our Eyes the whole Book of Nature to read with the ways and means whereby almost all Arts and Sciences came to be invented namely Physiology Anatomy Astronomy and Geometry also Logick and Metaphysicks and the Rules of Morality which He set to himself and whereby He governed his whole Life But the utmost Height and Perfection of his Learning whereunto all the rest tended as so many Steps or Degrees consisted in that natural Theology which He arrived to from the serious and attentive Consideration of Gods works and more particularly of himself whence He concluded that God was the supereminent the sole and independent Being of infinite Greatness and Goodness Wisdom and Power Majesty and Glory whose all-seeing Eye and over-ruling Hand of Providence extend themselves to all his Creatures who is also most Just and Righteous in all his Dealings with and towards Mankind and therefore will one Day call all Men to give an Account of their lives when He will sentence and reward them according to their Works Whereupon He discourseth of the Resurrection and the last Judgment with the Felicities and Miseries that attend Men after the Judgment is past answerably to the condition and quality of their lives which they led here on Earth The former He makes to consist in the Beatifical Vision of God But the latter He describes in such figurative Expressions which although not altogether irrational for a meer natural Philosopher to conjecture yet I suppose are taken out of the Alcoran the Author of this History being a Mahometan by Religion Yet he brings in his Self taught Philosopher making some Exceptions against that Book as it was described to him by his Friend Asal and taxing it of Imperfection in several particulars whereto He makes no particular Reply This is the Summ and the main Design of the ensuing History which possibly being thus Englished may do some good as I even now said in this Profane and Fanatical as well as lewd and luxurious Age. Let them then who wilfully shut their Eyes against the light of Revelation as being too pure and bright for them at least suffer themselves to be guided by the less splendid and more familiar light of natural Reason Let the Enthusiasts also who pretend so much to supernatural Revelations and are dazled with their fanciful lights and sublime speculations through the delusion of the Prince of Darkness transforming himself into an Angel of Light learn from hence to know themselves better and to be wise unto Sobriety Let the profane Jesters and Scoffers who speak slightingly and scornfully of the most serious and sacred things and turn all Religion into ridiculous Drollery learn to speak more reverently of God and things Divine from a meer natural Philosopher who is the Subject of this History and a Mahometan who is the Author of it Let them who are unkind and unneighbourly to those they live amongst and so far from succouring and relieving them in their Dangers and Distresses that they make no Conscience of getting what they can from them either by fraud or force whensoever it lies in their Power and they can find an Opportunity learn of this Self-Taught Philosopher to be kindly affectioned towards their Neighbours whenas they find him so kind towards all his fellow-Creatures though of a diverse kind so ready to supply their wants and to free them from whatsoever evils that molested them Let