THE VISIONS OF THE SOUL Before it comes into the BODY In Several DIALOGUES Written by a MEMBER OF THE Athenian Society There 's an innumerable Company of Pre-existent Souls those that transgress are sent down into Bodies so as being purify'd by such Discipline they may return again to their own Places Pythagoras LONDON Printed for Iohn Dunton at the Raven in the Poultrey 1692. The PREFACE to the Reader THE Occasion of this following Treatise was the extravagant Doctrine of Pre-existence which of laie hath been so warmly manag'd that it wants but a lâ—ttle more to be made a 13th Article in the Creed of some persons I have pursu'd the humour but yet as Comoedians do when they dress up an Ape to make it appear more ridiculous The Ingenious will discern it at first sight To such as enquire the real Design of this Publication I answer the graver Conferences carry their meaning in their Frontispiece and the more jocose are not without their most solid Morals which perhaps may be more taking to some Readers than if they had appear'd in a common Dress In the whole Discourse I have advanc'd many things wholly new and unblown upon more especially in the 14 th Dialogue where the Nature Conceptions and Actions of unbody'd Spirits are distinctly treated of If I am ask'd for my Authorities I answer What appears reasonable wants no other Recommendation than being so and as to what appears over strange Let the Reader consider that Philosophy had never been improv'd had it not been for new Opinions which afterwards were rectify'd by abler Pens and so the first Notions were lost and nameless under new Superstructures but such a Fate is too agreeable for my Iudgment to repine at or my Vanity to hope for Perhaps I have more reason to beg pardon of my Brethren the Members of the Athenian Society than of the World in that I have only â—â—â—tion'd the Subject to them without taking theâ—â— advice in the Composure but my Impatient Book-Seller alledging the nearness of the Term occasion'd the hurrying it into the Press some of our Members being just now gone out of Town some retir'd at present to their Estates in the Countrey However to make amends for any thing of Errors which have happen'd by haste and want of review which are many I think fit to promise the World Two more Pieces which shall have the inspection of the whole Society As this only pretends to Uisions of the Soul before it comes into the Body so the other two will treat of the Sentiments of the Soul when in the Body viz. in Infancy Dreams Trances Dotage c. and the manner of its Existence in a separate state till it is joyn'd again to the Body The First Treatise is Matter of Ridicule and a Dream see the last Dialogue The Two following will bear more grave Discourses being certain Truths and perhaps the deepest Mysteries that Revelation or Natural Philosophy can treat of and we hope they may be so manag'd as not to be a little welcome to the world both as to removing many false Notions and advancing something new One thing more I have to offer that whereever the Reader meets with such Terms as Time Place or Matter attributed 〈◊〉 Spirits he take 'em not according to the common acceptation but as something that bears such proportion to Spirits as Time Place and Matter do to Bodies I have done and doubt not but to meet with both Applauses and Hissing and in both Parties from such as think themselves sufficient Iudges But I beg their Pardon if I 'm conâ—ern'd at neither being resolv'd to continue as secret and invisible as the Bâ—iâ—gs of Pre existent Spirits The Contents of the Several DIALOGUES A Prefatory Dialogue between the Secretary of Fate and the Author's Soul 1. Between the Spirits of a Poet and a Drunkard 2. Between the Spirits of a Jacobite and a Williamite about the Royal Congress 3. Between the Spirits of a Bastard and a Necromancer 4. Between the Militia of Rational Souls 5. Between the Two Orders Rational and Vegitable 6. Between Mercury a Pre-existent Spirit a Dead Man Charon and Hobbs 7. Between Two Spirits upon the Ramble and the Spirit of an Usurer that had strangl'd himself and walk'd in a Church-yard about his own Tomb. 8. Between Two Spirits the Order of Vegitable Souls and Cupid 9. Between an Astrologer and a Mountebank 10. Between Two Spirits about the Retrogradation of the Dragon's-Head and Tail 11. Between a Spirit and his Friend lately Imbody'd in an Infant 12. Between the whole Order of Rational Souls and Two Intelligencers from the other World 13. Between the Spirits of an Emperor and a Beggar 14. Between Two Spirits that made a Contract to keep a Correspondence whoever came to be Embodied first 15. Betwixt Two Spirits about the Musick of the Spheres 16. Between The Spirits of a poor Doctor and his Friend and a modern Philosopher alias Sharper 17. Between Two Spirits on the Ramble and a Flight of Witches with their Guides 18. Between Two Spirits that are to be Mayor and Mayoress of a certain Corporation when they come into their Bodies 19. Between the Parcae viz. Clotho Lachesis and Atropos and a Book-Seller 20. Between a Transmigrated Soul and an Unbodied Spirit 21. Between the whole Consistory of Spirits examining a Heretick Soul about some new Doctrines held forth in opposition to the common receiv'd Opinions of the Aetherial Fraternity 22. Between the whole Consistory of Spirits being a Discovery of Vulgar Errors receiv'd by that suppos'd Heretick Spirit yet a Prisoner 23. Between the Spirit of one that is to be a Member of the ATHFNIAN SOCIETY a Correspondent and of some that are to be Querists 24. Between the Spirits of a General a Midwife and an Executioner 25. Between the Spirits of Two Projectors 26. Between Two Travelling Spirits 27. Between the Spirit that is to be last Embodied and the Spirit that is to be first re-united to its Body at the Day of Judgment 28. Betwixt Two Spirits one that pretends to dedeny Pre-existence and the other to prove it PROPOSALS For Printing a Book Entituled The young Students LIBRARY Containing Extracts and Abridgments of all the most Valuable Books Printed either in England or in the Foreign Iournals from the Year 65 to this present Time To which will be added an Introduction to the Use of Books in A New Essay upon all sorts of Learning Written by the Athenian Society The Proposals are as follows I. THat this Volume will contain as is supposed about One Hundred and Twenty Sheets Printed in a very fair Letter and of the same size with our several Mercuries and Supplements that it may bind up with them or be sold single to those who desire it II. The Subscribers to give 10 s. for each Book in Quires whereof 5 s. to be paid at the Time of Subscription and 5 s. at the Delivery of the Book which considering
the excessive Dearness of Paper and Charge of procuring the Foreign Iournals is not dear III. To encourage all Persons that shall concontribute to the procuring of Subscriptions he or they that shall procure Subscriptions for 6 Books shall not only have a 7 th gratis which will reduce it to about 8 s. 7 d. per Book but shall also have given 'em in the New Essay upon Learning and an Emblem of the whole Athenian Society Drawn in a Folio Pâ—ate IV. That for a farther Encouragement to all Subscribers and to render our Undertaking the more compleat there shall also be a large Alphabetical Table given in to all those that subscribe which shall comprehend the Contents of this Volume and of all the Athenian Mercuries and Supplements Printed in the Year 1691. V. All who intend to assist in the Advancement of this Useful Work are desired to send in their Subscriptions and Money with all speed unto the Person hereunder named where Receipts will be given them And if they arise to any Competent Number the Book shall be finish'd by next Lady-Day that so it may be added as an Appendix to the Athenian Mercury for the Year 91 and be bound up with it we designing an Appendix at the End of every Year that shall comprehend all Books wanting in our several Supplements or otherwise the Design must be let fall by the Undertaker VI. If any Obstruction for want of sufficient Subscriptions or otherwise should happen to hinder the Printing of this Work the Money so received shall be paid back upon giving up the Receipts The Undertaker is Iohn Dunton at the Raven in the Poultrey where Proposals are to be had and of most Book-Sellers in London and in the Countrey A Prefatory Dialogue BETWEEN The Secretary of Fate and the Author's Soul Author's Soul PRay look over the Minutes of the Parcae and amongst those Eternal Volumes see when I am fated to commence Temporality Secret Fate In Iune Anno Dominl 1664. according to Humane Computation in that part of the Globe which you are designed for A. S. Well and what Fortune what Post hath the Lottery of Fate assigned me What Entertainment am I to expect in a new Material Mansion S. F. Your Curiosity seems to argue a Desire of fixing there but you 'll be of another Mind when I tell you that Incorporation is a Penalty inflicted upon Souls for their Extravagances in this World That the Body is a Prison a Clog the most officious Enemy you can meet with in betraying you to false Perceptions and irregular Conclusions In short you 'll find no agreeable Object but at such times as you withdraw and converse with Beings as simply immaterial as yourself Now you are an unconfin'd Agent a Stranger to those grosser Terms of Body Place and Time As yet you know nothing of Magnitude Quantity or Motion and those innumerable Errours that result from them by false Notions of their Nature And when you come into the other World you 'll be as great a Stranger to the Nature of Angels Spirits and Immaterial Beings as now you are of those material ones A. S. What surprizing Relations are these Shall I ever forget this inorganical way of Converse These immediate Conceptions without the Assistance of Sense This simple Particularity of Perception without Composition or Division In short this Nature that I carry about me If so dear Minister of Fate lay down some Rules for me to take along with me which after I am imbodied may restore this Knowledge to me and the unhappy Tribe of Humanity 'T will be a great Office of Charity if possible to be accomplished S. F. 'T is utterly impossible A. S. Why so S. F. Because that a finite Power and an infinite Subject are incompatible A. S. How far then is it possible for Humanity to conceive S. F. When the Infinite Eternal Mind was pleas'd to create Matter Time and Place he extended the 〈◊〉 Empyreum to confine 'em in Whatever is beyond this vast Convex this spacious 〈◊〉 is what has been from Eternity Shou'd I say really what that is Mankind cou'd not understand it because of an Incongruity as urged before betwixt the Power and Subject I might as well enjoyn 'em to smell with their Eyes or tune an Instrument by their Taste But however to speak as near as I can to their Capacities Quantity and Place beyond the Coelum Empyreum are swallowed up as Time is in Eternity Before this Coelum Empyreum and its material Inclosures were created all was as now is beyond it and when the last Fire a part of that material Fabrick shall burn up all the rest of Matter and by the Fiat of its awful Creator consume it self there shall be no more Matter Time or Place but all return to the first Eternal Constitution Not so much as Bodies immortalliz'd shall be Matter according to the Definition now made of it but a new inexpressible Something which cannot be translated out of the Language of Spirits into that of Men Matter is not so perfect as Immateriality Time as Eternity Place as Incircumscriptability And whatever Humane Philosophers wou'd be at I can expâ—rimentally assure 'em that they come as near an Adequate Conception of these things when they think not at all of them as they do in their most Elevated Contemplations However not to leave 'em altogether in the dark a Collection of what you now do in this pre-existent State will if deliver'd according to their Capacities not make 'em less ignorant especially when they are put in mind of the Method of their own Living before they came into their Bodies A. S. Perhaps they will not believe they ever acted such things but look upon all as a Dream or Fiction What think you of Pythagoras his Collections before he went into his Body A Copy of such an Original must be authentick upon your Subscription and consequently useful to Mankind S. F. I must attend the Destinies who are now Sitting in Council but when I return I 'll bring you the Original out of the Registry which you may translate as near as the Language of Spirits can be adapted to the Language of Men. DIALOGUE I. Between the Spirits of a Poet and a Drunkard D. WEll met Brother Which way is your Flight design'd P. I have just left the Bosom of Causes to take a Prospect of the lower World to see if there be any Preparation for my Reception there And yet I 'm much troubl'd at the Apprehension of being clogg'd with that uneasie restless Lump of Humanity and the attending Consequences make me very impatient D. Why so What Conjectures have ye P. 'T is the want of reasonable Conjectures for by all the Observations I can make of my Temper I cannot resolve my self whether I 'm a Male or a Female Spirit But why do I thus busie my self about Sexes Certainly 't is ominous and argues my Imbodying near at hand But if after Six Thousand Years
reads the same Lesson to you o'er again in another World 2 Sp. I 'll consider on 't and in the mean time if I shou'd consent I hope you 'll see me better rigg'd than the rest of my Neighbours 1 Sp. Yes yes never fear that 2 Sp. Then I 'm yours but I won't say I love you lest you shou'd tell me again what Love is DIALOGUE XIX Between the Parcae viz. Clotho Lachesis and Atropos and a Book-Seller Parcae UP Mr. Letter-monger and prepare for your Body we are drawing out the first Thred of your Temporality Booksâ—ller VVhat mine Pray lay that Distaffe by and take another do dear Lady aâ—d let not me be a Prisoner these hundred years I 'm afraid of Incorporation for even divinity-Divinity-Books are a meer Drug but perhaps in a hundred years more Times may be better I never intreated before deny me not now Parcae We 'll grant your Request assoon as any Body 's else but the Dice are cast and there 's no resisting Fate you must budge whether you will or no Come don't think to wheedle and persuade us like Customers you aren't got behind the Counter yet Bookseller I know it very well and since there 's no Intreaty that can prevail I 've done Now must I stand Centry seven years with my fingers in my mouth and bare-headed the better to receive the Impression of the cunning Mystery Methinks I have got it already Now for a fine Fetch with that Author about Supernumeraries or Printing a greater Number secretly than I contracted for Can't I handsomly interlope with my Neighbour H 's Copy 't is a very good one and the Author is at work again Suppose to get the next Copy I go and out-bid for this now 't is too late and tell the Author he was Wheedled and Chous'd out of his Labours I must squeeze that Book binder 't will help towards the loss of my late Impression This Copy-Money runs away with a great deal of my Gains Can't I turn Plagiary and with a handsom sleight of Hand put a new Title upon that old Book or were 't not best to turn Author my self by pillaging other Mens Works Right that will do I 'll part with no more Copy-Money these seven years This Collection which I have already made would pass with a good Title Page M R and I can invent some specious one for it 'T is not a Farthing matter whether 't is agreeable to the Subject within treated of But how shall I come off with those Scandalous Pamphlets I shall print under the Name of Iohn a Nokes upon Tower-hill Grub-street the Strand or any where else Shall I suffer for another's Pamphletteering for telling News before it happens and sometimes such as always has is and will be a Notorious Lye No I thank ye so long as I know how to be in League with the Messenger of the Press and some body else I 'll run the hazard Now for a Body with all the satisfaction imaginable for when I come into the other World possibly I may attain to be as crafty as my Neighbours and if so I 'll venture one step further to get above 'em I have only one Request to make Dear Mistress of Fate that you will send but a few Booksellers and a great many Authors into the World for these Threescore and Ten Years DIALOGUE XX. Betwixt a Transmigrated Soul and an Vnbodied Spirit Transmig Spirit WELL how fare our Friends Brother I long to be a Member again of your Society and to be freed from the strange Alliances I have contracted Unbody'd Spirit Why what Relations have you now Tr. Sp. My present Relations are a forward Crop of Beans but what Kindred I shall meet with the next Harvest I know not I came out of a Sprat the last Year having finish'd my Circuition and Change through all the Watry Inhabitants Unbody'd Sp. Pray what sort of Fish gave you the most troublesome Entertainment Tr. Sp. The Porpus by far to be sure every Westerly Wind I was Drunk with tumbling o'er and o'er if it had not been for a pittying Collier who by a lucky Shot made a hole just big enough to creep out of my Prison I might have lain in Salt pickle these forty years longer but 't is all one for I was turn'd out of one Prison to be Chain'd in another for I can't expect to clâ—nge the Laws of Fate and have my Transmigrations finisht before another Thousand Years more are expired Unb. Sp. Why so Tr. Sp. Because I must run through all things Terrestrial Marine and Volatile before I have finisht my Task and expiated the wickedness of my Pre-existent State which expiation always lasts three thousand years 't is an unalterable Decree that all Spirits are to be purify'd by such a Discipline only here 's the difference that Spirits are to actuate mostly in those Creatures that are of the same Dispositions as they were as for Instance The Justice of Fate assigns such as are Angry and Malicious into Serpents the Ravenous into Wolves the Fraudulent into Foxes and so of the rest only here and there 's a good Spirit whose actions being most rational transmigrates out of one Man into another finishing most of the three Thousand years in humane Bodies and as for other Creatures the Fates take care that they speedily die that that part of the Transmigration may be quickly over and reason good for if by chance they shou'd be unjustly confin'd beyond the three Thousand Years there 's no amends to be made but some preferment amongst the Officers of Fate who are always exempt from the Duties of Humanity Unb. Sp. Pray give an Instance of some Soul that has animated several Humane Bodies Tr. Sp. I my self was first infus'd into 〈◊〉 then pass'd into Euphorbus then into 〈◊〉 then 〈◊〉 Pyrrhus then into Pythagoras then I left Humanity and Transmigrated into an Elephant and so on through every distinct Species in the Creation and now at last I 'm got into a Bean. Unb. Sp. I can get into a Bean too if I please But here 's the Question Is this Bean my proper Residence and am I by a Virtual Contact confin'd more to it than to any other Being or Place whatever I am rather of Opinion that all this noise about Transmigration is no more than thus That such as are of an equal Temper Judgment Inclination c. may be said to be unanimous or acted by the same Spirit especially if they live in different Ages I can't conceive it to be any thing else but like Care Motion Study c. of some dead Person appearing in some living one and thus you if you acted Pythagoras you were no more Euphorbus Hermotinus or Pyrrhus than as you had an Inclination to the several Excellencies that appeared in those Persons and thus a Transmigration into Fishes Trees Plants c. is nothing else but a study of their Nature Tr. Sp. You might have added That 't