also be finite in its exterior figure as I have proved in the beginning by the example of a heap of grains of corn Certainly Madam I see no reason but since according to your Author God as the prime Cause Agent and Producer of all things and the action by which he produced all things is Infinite the Matter out of which he produced all particular Creatures may be Infinite also Neither doth it to my sense and reason imply any contradiction or impiety for it derogates nothing from the Glory and Omnipotency of God but God is still the God of Nature and Nature is his Servant although Infinite depending wholly upon the will and pleasure of the All-powerful God Neither do these two Infinites obstruct each other for Nature is corporeal and God is a supernatural and spiritual Infinite Being and although Nature has an Infinite power yet she has but an Infinite Natural power whereas Gods Omnipotency is infinitely extended beyond Nature But your Author is pleased to refute that argument which concludes from the effect to the cause and proves Matter to be infinite because God as the Cause is Infinite saying that this Rule doth onely hold in Univocal things by which I suppose he understands things of the same kind and nature and not in opposites Truly Madam by this he limits Gods power as if God were not able to work beyond Nature and Natural Reason or Understanding and measures Gods actions according to the rules of Logick which whether it be not more impious you may judg your self And as for opposites God and Nature are not opposites except you will call opposites those which bear a certain relation to one another as a Cause and its Effect a Parent and a Child a Master and a Servant and the like Nay I wonder how your Author can limit Gods action when as he confesses himself that the Creation of the World is an Infinite action God acted finitely says he by an Infinite action which in my opinion is meer non-sense and as much as to say a man can act weakly by a strong action basely by an honest action cowardly by a stout action The truth is God being Infinite cannot work finitely for as his Essence so his Actions cannot have any limitation and therefore it is most probable that God made Nature Infinite for though each part of Nature is finite in its own figure yet considered in general they are Infinite as well in number as duration except God be pleased to destroy them nay every particular may in a certain sense be said Infinite to wit Infinite in time or duration for if Nature be Infinite and Eternal and there be no annihilation or perishing in Nature but a perpetual successive change and alteration of natural figures then no part of Nature can perish or be annihilated and if no part of Nature perishes then it lasts infinitely in Nature that is in the substance of natural Matter for though the corporeal motions which make the figures do change yet the ground of the figure which is natural matter never changes The same may be said of corporeal motions for though motions change and vary infinite ways yet none is lost in Nature but some motions are repeated again As for example the natural motions in an Animal Creature although they are altered in the dissolution of the animal figure yet they may be repeated again by piece-meals in other Creatures like as a Commonwealth or united body in society if it should be dissolved and dispersed the particulars which did constitute this Commonwealth or society may joyn to the making of another society and thus the natural motions of a body do not perish when the figure of the body dissolves but joyn with other motions to the forming and producing of some other figures But to return to your Author I perceive his discourse is grounded upon a false supposition which appears by his way of arguing from the course of the Starrs and Planets to prove the finiteness of Nature for by reason the Stars and Planets rowl about and turn to the same point again each within a certain compass of time he concludes Nature or Natural Matter to be finite too And so he takes a part for the whole to wit this visible World for all Nature when as this World is onely a part of Nature or Natural Matter and there may be more and Infinite worlds besides Wherefore his conclusion must needs be false since it is built upon a false ground Moreover he is as much against the Eternity of Matter as he is against Infiniteness concluding likewise from the parts to the whole For says he since the parts of Nature are subject to a beginning and ending the whole must be so too But he is much mistaken when he attributes a beginning and ending to parts for there is no such thing as a beginning and ending in Nature neither in the whole nor in the parts by reason there is no new creation or production of Creatures out of new Matter nor any total destruction or annihilation of any part in Nature but onely a change alteration and transmigration of one figure into another which change and alteration proves rather the contrary to wit that Matter is Eternal and Incorruptible for if particular figures change they must of necessity change in the Infinite Matter which it self and in its nature is not subject to any change or alteration besides though particulars have a finite and limited figure and do change yet their species do not for Mankind never changes nor ceases to be though Peter and Paul die or rather their figures dissolve and divide for to die is nothing else but that the parts of that figure divide and unite into some other figures by the change of motion in those parts Concerning the Inanimate Matter which of it self is a dead dull and idle matter your Author denies it to be a co-agent or assistant to the animate matter For says he how can dead and idle things act To which I answer That your Author being or pretending to be a Philosopher should consider that there is difference betwixt a Principal and Instrumental cause or agent and although this inanimate or dull matter doth not act of it self as a principal agent yet it can and doth act as an Instrument according as it is imploy'd by the animate matter for by reason there is so close a conjunction and commixture of animate and inanimate Matter in Nature as they do make but one body it is impossible that the animate part of matter should move without the inanimate not that the inanimate hath motion in her self but the animate bears up the inanimate in the action of her own substance and makes the inanimate work act and move with her by reason of the aforesaid union and commixture Lastly your Author speaks much of Minima's viz. That all things may be resolved into their minima's and what is beyond them is nothing and
Hell either to enjoy Reward or to suffer Punishment according to man's actions in this life But as for the Natural Soul she being material has no need of any Vehicles neither is natural death any thing else but an alteration of the rational and sensitive motions which from the dissolution of one figure go to the formation or production of another Thus the natural soul is not like a Traveller going out of one body into another neither is air her lodging for certainly if the natural humane soul should travel through the airy regions she would at last grow weary it being so great a journey except she did meet with the soul of a Horse and so ease her self with riding on Horseback Neither can I believe Souls or Daemons in the Air have any Common-wealth Magistrates Officers and Executioners in their airy Kingdom for wheresoever are Governments Magistrates and Executioners there are also Offences and where there is power to offend as well as to obey there may and will be sometimes Rebellions and Civil Wars for there being different forts of Spirits it is impossible they should all fo well agree especially the good and evil Genii which certainly will fight more valiantly then Hector and Achilles nay the Spirits of one sort would have more Civil Wars then ever the Romans had and if the Soul of Caesar and Pompey should meet there would be a cruel fight between those two Heroical souls the like between Augustus's and Antonius's Soul But Madam all these as I said I take for fancies proceeding from the Religion of the Gentiles not fit for Christians to embrace for any truth for if we should we might at last by avoiding to be Atheists become Pagans and so leap out of the Frying-pan into the Fire as turning from Divine Faith to Poetical Fancy and if Ovid should revive again he would perhaps be the chief head or pillar of the Church By this you may plainly see Madam that I am no Platonick for this opinion is dangerous especially for married Women by reason the conversation of the Souls may be a great temptation and a means to bring Platonick Lovers to a neerer acquaintance not allowable by the Laws of Marriage although by the sympathy of the Souls But I conclude and desire you not to interpret amiss this my discourse as if I had been too invective against Poetical Fancies for that I am a great lover of them my Poetical Works will witness onely I think it not fit to bring Fancies into Religion Wherefore what I have writ now to you is rather to express my zeal for God and his true Worship then to prejudice any body and if you be of that same Opinion as above mentioned I wish my Letter may convert you and so I should not account my labour lost but judg my self happy that any good could proceed to the advancement of your Soul from MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXX MADAM I Sent you word in my last I would not meddle with writing any thing of the Divine Soul of Man by reason it belongs to Faith and Religion and not to Natural Philosophy but since you desire my opinion concerning the Immortality of the Divine Soul I cannot but answer you plainly that first I did wonder much you made question of that whose truth in my opinion is so clear as hardly any rational man will make a doubt of it for I think there is almost no Christian in the world but believes the Immortality of the Soul no not Christians onely but Mahometans and Jews But I left to wonder at you when I saw Wise and Learned Men and great Divines take so much pains as to write whole Volumes and bring so many arguments to prove the Immortality of the Soul for this was a greater Miracle to me then if Nature had shewed me some of her secret and hidden effects or if I had seen an Immaterial Spirit Certainly Madam it seems as strange to me to prove the Immortality of the Soul as to convert Atheists for it impossible almost that any Atheist should be found in the World For what Man would be so senceless as to deny a God Wherefore to prove either a God or the Immortality of the Soul is to make a man doubt of either for as Physicians and Surgeons apply strengthening Medicines onely to those parts of the body which they suppose the weakest so it is with proofs and arguments those being for the most part used in such subjects the truth of which is most questionable But in things Divine Disputes do rather weaken Faith then prove Truth and breed several strange opinions for Man being naturally ambitious and endeavouring to excel each other will not content himself with what God has been pleased to reveal in his holy Word but invents and adds something of his own and hence arise so many monstrous expressions and opinions that a simple man is puzzled not knowing which to adhere to which is the cause of so many schismes sects and divisions in Religion Hence it comes also that some pretend to know the very nature and essence of God his divine Counsels all his Actions Designs Rules Decrees Power Attributes nay his Motions Affections and Passions as if the Omnipotent Infinite God were of a humane shape so that there are already more divisions then Religions which disturb the peace and quiet both of mind and body when as the ground of our belief consists but in some few and short Articles which clearly explained and the moral part of Divinity well pressed upon the People would do more good then unnecessary and tedious disputes which rather confound Religion then advance it but if man had a mind to shew Learning and exercise his Wit certainly there are other subjects wherein he can do it with more profit and less danger then by proving Christian Religion by Natural Philosophy which is the way to destroy them both I could wish Madam that every one would but observe the Command of Christ and give to God what is Gods and to Caesar what is Caesars and so distinguish what belongs to the actions of Nature and what to the actions of Religion for it appears to my Reason that God hath given Nature his eternal Servant a peculiar freedom of working and acting as a self-moving Power from Eternity but when the Omnipotent God acts he acts supernaturally as beyong Nature of which devine actions none but the holy Church as one united body mind and soul should discourse and declare the truth of them according to the Revelation made by God in his holy Word to her Flock the Laity not suffering any one single person of what profession or degree soever indifferently to comment interpret explain and declare the meaning or sense of the Scripture after his own fancy And as for Nature's actions let those whom Nature hath indued with such a proportion of Reason as is able to search into the hidden causes of natural effects
effects and as for Water if he doth make it a Principle of Natural things I see no reason why he excludes the rest of the Elements But in my opinion Water and the rest of the Elements are but effects of Nature as other Creatures are and so cannot be prime causes The like the Ferment which to my sense and reason is nothing else but a natural effect of natural matter Concerning his opinion That Causes and Beginnings are all one or that there is but little difference betwixt them I do readily subscribe unto it but when he speaks of those things which are produced without life my reason cannot find out what or where they should be for certainly in Nature they are not Nature being Life and Soul her self and all her parts being enlivened and soulified so that there can be no generation or natural production without Life Neither is my sense and reason capable to understand his meaning when he says That the Seeds of things and the Spirits as the Dispensers thereof are divided from the Material Cause For I do see no difference betwixt the Seed and the material Cause but they are all one thing it being undeniable that the seed is the matter of that which is produced But your Author was pleased to say heretofore that there are but two beginnings or causes of natural things and now he makes so many more for says he Of Efficient and Seminal Causes some are efficiently effecting and others effectively effecting which nice distinctions in my opinion do but make a confusion in natural knowledg setting a mans brain on the rack for who is able to conceive all those Chymaeras and Fancies of the Archeus Ferment various Ideas Blas Gas and many more which are neither something nor no-thing in Nature but betwixt both except a man have the same Fancies Visions and Dreams your Author had Nature is easie to be understood and without any difficulty so as we stand in no need to frame so many strange names able to fright any body Neither do natural bodies know many prime causes and beginnings but there is but one onely chief and prime cause from which all effects and varieties proceed which cause is corporeal Nature or natural self-moving Matter which forms and produces all natural things and all the variety and difference of natural Creatures arises from her various actions which are the various motions in Nature some whereof are Regular some Irregular I mean Irregular as to particular Creatures not as to Nature her self for Nature cannot be disturbed or discomposed or else all would run into confusion Wherefore Irregularities do onely concern particular Creatures not Infinite Nature and the Irregularities of some parts may cause the Irregularities of other Parts as the Regularities of some parts do cause the Regularities of others And thus according as Regularities and Irregularities have power they cause either Peace or War Sickness or Health Delight and Pleasure or Grief and Pain Life or Death to particular Creatures or parts of Nature but all these various actions are but various Effects and not prime Causes which is well to be observed lest we confound Causes with Effects And so leaving this discourse for the present I rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant II. MADAM IT is no wonder your Author has so many odd and strange opinions in Philosophy since they do not onely proceed from strange Visions Apparitions and Dreams but are built upon so strange grounds and principles as Ideas Archeus Gas Blas Ferment and the like the names of which sound so harsh and terrifying as they might put any body easily into a fright like so many Hobgoblins or Immaterial spirits but the best is they can do no great harm except it be to trouble the brains of them that love to maintain those opinions for though they are thought to be powerful beings yet being not corporeal substances I cannot imagine wherein their power should consist for Nothing can do nothing But to mention each apart first his Archeus he calls the Spirit of Life a vital Gas or Light the Balsam preserving from Corruption the Vulcan or Smith of Generation the stirrer up and inward director of Generation an Air a skiey or airy Spirit cloathing himself presently with a bodily cloathing in things soulified walking through all the dens and retiring places of the seed and transforming the matter according to the perfect act of its own Image remaining the president and overseer or inward ruler of his bounds even till death the Principle of Life the Inn of Life the onely immediate Witness Executor and Instrument of Life the Prince and Center of Life the Ruler of the Stern the Keeper of Life and promoter of Transmutations the Porter of the Soul a Fountainous being a Flint These and many more names your Author attributes to his Archeus but what properly it is and what its Nature and its peculiar office I am not able to conceive In the next place Gas and Blas are to your Author also true Principles of Natural things for Gas is the Vapour into which Water is dissolved by Cold but yet it is a far more fine and subtil thing then Vapour which he demonstrates by the Art of Chymistry This Gas in another place he calls a Wild Spirit or Breath unknown hitherto which can neither be constrained by Vessels nor reduced into a visible body in some things it is nothing but Water as for example in Salt in Fruits and the like But Blas proceeds from the local and alterative motion of the Stars and is the general beginning of motion producing heat and cold and that especially with the changing of the Winds There is also Blas in all sublunary things witness Amulets or preserving Pomanders whereby they do constrain objects to obey them Which Incorporeal Blas of Government acts without a Corporeal Efflux even as the Moon makes the Sea to swell but the fleshly generation hath a Blas of its own and it is twofold one which existeth by a natural Motion the other voluntary which existeth as a mover to it self by an Internal Willing There is also a Blas of the Heart which is the fuel of the Vital Spirit and consequently of its heat The Ferment he describes to be A true Principle or Original beginning of things to wit a Formal Created being which is neither a substance nor an accident but a Neutral being framed from the beginning of the World in the places of its own Monarchy in the manner of Light Fire the magnal or sheath of the Air Forms c. that it may prepare stir up and go before the Seeds Lastly his Ideas are Certain formal seminal Lights mutually piercing each other without the adultery of Union For says he although at first that which is imagined is nothing but a meer being of reason yet it doth not remain such for truely the Fancy is a sealifying vertue
they cannot have the same Motions for the corporeal motions do make the nature of every particular Creature and their differences and as the corporeal motions act work or move so is the nature of every figure Wherefore no body I hope will count me so senseless that I believe sense and life to be after the like manner in every particular Creature or part of Nature as for example that a Stone or Tree has animal motions and doth see touch taste smell and hear by such sensitive organs as an Animal doth but my opinion is that all Sense is not bound up to the sensitive organs of an Animal nor Reason to the kernel of a man's brain or the orifice of the stomack or the fourth ventricle of the brain or onely to a mans body for though we do not see all Creatures move in that manner as Man or Animals do as to walk run leap ride c. and perform exterior acts by various local motions nevertheless we cannot in reason say they are void and destitute of all motion For what man knows the variety of motions in Nature Do not we see that Nature is active in every thing yea the least of her Creatures For example how some things do unanimously conspire and agree others antipathetically flee from each other and how some do increase others decrease some dissolve some consist and how all things are subject to perpetual changes and alterations and do you think all this is done without motion life sense and reason I pray you consider Madam that there are internal motions as well as external alterative as well as constitutive and several other sorts of motions not perceptible by our senses and therefore it is impossible that all Creatures should move after one sort of motions But you will say Motion may be granted but not Life Sense and Reason I answer I would fain know the reason why not for I am confident that no man can in truth affirm the contrary What is Life but sensitive Motion what is Reason but rational motion and do you think Madam that any thing can move it self without life sense and reason I for my part cannot imagine it should for it would neither know why whither nor what way or how to move But you may reply Motion may be granted but not self-motion and life sense and reason do consist in self-motion I answer this is imposible for not any thing in Nature can move naturally without natural motion and all natural motion is self-motion If you say it may be moved by another My answer is first that if a thing has no motion in it self but is moved by another which has self-motion then it must give that immovable body motion of its own or else it could not move having no motion at all for it must move by the power of motion which is certain and then it must move either by its own motion or by a communicated or imparted motion if by a communicated motion then the self-moveable thing or body must transfer its own motion into the immoveable and lose so much of its own motion as it gives away which is impossible as I have declared heretofore at large unless it do also transfer its moving parts together with it for motion cannot be transfered without substance But experience and observation witnesseth the contrary Next I say if it were possible that one body did move another then most part of natural Creatures which are counted immoveable of themselves or inanimate and destitute of self-motion must be moved by a forced or violent and not by a natural motion for all motion that proceeds from an external agent or moving power is not natural but forced onely self-motion is natural and then one thing moving another in this manner we must at last proceed to such a thing whch is not moved by another but hath motion in it self and moves all others and perhaps since man and the rest of animals have self-motion it might be said that the motions of all other inanimate Creatures as they call them doth proceed from them but man being so proud ambitious and self-conceited would soon exclude all other animals and adscribe this power onely to himself especially since he thinks himself onely endued with Reason and to have this prerogative above all the rest as to be the sole rational Creature in the World Thus you see Madam what confusion absurdity and constrained work will follow from the opinion of denying self-motion and so consequently life and sense to natural Creatures But I having made too long a digresion will return to your Authors discourse And as for that he says A dead Carcass burns by the proper action of the fire I answer That if the dissolving motions of the fire be too strong for the consistent motions of that body which fire works upon then fire is the cause of its alteration but if the consistent motions of the body be too strong for the dissolving motions of the fire then the fire can make no alteration in it Again he says Calx vive as long as it remains dry it gnaws not a dead Carcass but it presently gnaws live flesh and makes an escharre and a dead carcass is by lime wholly resolved into a liquor and is combibed except the bone and gristle thereof but it doth not consume live flesh into a liquor but translates it into an escharre I will say no more to this but that I have fully enough declared my opinion before that the actions or motions of life alter in that which is named a dead Carcass from what they were in that which is called a Living body but although the actions of Life alter yet life is not gone or annihilated for life is life and remains still the same but the actions or motions of life change and differ in every figure and this is the cause that the actions of Fire Time and Calx-vive have not the same effects in a dead Carcass as in a living Body for the difference of their figures and their different motions produce different effects in them and this is the cause that one and the same fire doth not burn or act upon all bodies alike for some it dissolves and some not and some it hardens and some it consumes and some later some sooner For put things of several natures into the same Fire and you will see how they will burn or how fire will act upon them after several manners so that fire cannot alter the actions of several bodies to its own blas and therefore since a living and a dead Body as they call them are not the same for the actions or motions of life by their change or alteration have altered the nature or figure of the body the effects cannot be the same for a Carcass has neither the interior nor exterior motions of that figure which it was before it was a Carcass and so the figure is quite alter'd from what it was by the
is to say to find some certain and limited Time and Place in which to begin a method of Seeking And from thence his thoughts run over the same places and times to find what action or other occasion might make him lose it This we call Remembrance or calling to mind Sometimes a man knows a place determinate within the compass whereof he is to seek and then his thoughts run over all the Parts thereof in the same manner as one would sweep a room to find a Jewel or as a Spaniel ranges the field till he find a sent or as a Man should run over the Alphabet to start a Rime Thus far your Author In which discourse I do not perceive that he defineth what the Mind is but I say that if according to his opinion nothing moves it self but one thing moves another then the Mind must do nothing but move backward and forward nay onely forward and if all actions were thrusting or pressing of parts it would be like a crowd of People and there would be but little or no motion for the crowd would make a stoppage like water in a glass the mouth of the Glass being turned downwards no water can pass out by reason the numerous drops are so closely press'd as they cannot move exteriously Next I cannot conceive how the Mind can run back either to Time or Place for as for Place the mind is inclosed in the body and the running about in the parts of the body or brain will not inform it of an Exterior place or object besides objects being the cause of the minds motion it must return to its Cause and so move until it come to the object that moved it first so that the mind must run out of the body to that object which moved it to such a Thought although that object were removed out of the World as the phrase is But for the mind to move backward to Time past is more then it can do Wherefore in my opinion Remembrance or the like is onely a repetition of such Figures as were like to the Objects and for Thoughts in Particular they are several figures made by the mind which is the Rational Part of matter in its own substance either voluntarily or by imitation whereof you may see more in my Book of Philosophical Opinions Hence I conclude that Prudence is nothing else but a comparing of Figures to Figures and of the several actions of those Figures as repeating former Figures and comparing them to others of the like nature qualities proprieties as also chances fortunes c. Which figuring and repeating is done actually in and by the Rational Matter so that all the observation of the mind on outward Objects is onely an actual repetition of the mind as moving in such or such figures and actions and when the mind makes voluntary Figures with those repeated Figures and compares them together this comparing is Examination and when several Figures agree and joyn it is Conclusion or Judgment likewise doth Experience proceed from repeating and comparing of several Figures in the Mind and the more several Figures are repeated and compared the greater the experience is One thing more there is in the same Chapter which I cannot let pass without examination Your Authour says That things Present onely have a being in Nature things Past onely a being in the Memory but things to come have no being at all Which how it possibly can be I am not able to conceive for certainly if nothing in nature is lost or annihilated what is past and what is to come hath as well a being as what is present and if that which is now had its being before why may it not also have its being hereafter It might as well be said that what is once forgot cannot be remembred for whatsoever is in Nature has as much a being as the Mind and there is not any action or motion or figure in Nature but may be repeated that is may return to its former Figure when it is altered and dissolved But by reason Nature delights in variety repetitions are not so frequently made especially of those things or creatures which are composed by the sensitive corporeal motions in the inanimate part of Matter because they are not so easily wrought as the Rational matter can work upon its own parts being more pliant in its self then the Inanimate matter is And this is the reason that there are so many repetitions of one and the same Figure in the Rational matter which is the Mind but seldom any in the Gross and inanimate part of Matter for Nature loves ease and freedom But to conclude Madam I perceive your Author confines Sense onely to Animal-kind and Reason onely to Man-kind Truly it is out of self-love when one Creature prefers his own Excellency before another for nature being endued with self-love all Creatures have self-love too because they are all Parts of Nature and when Parts agree or disagree it is out of Interest and Self-love but Man herein exceeds all the rest as having a supernatural Soul whose actions also are supernatural To which I leave him and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant IX MADAM WHen your Author discourseth of the use of Speech or Words and Names he is pleas'd to say That their use is to serve for marks and notes of Remembrance Whereof to give you my opinion I say That Speech is natural to the shape of Man and though sometimes it serves for marks or notes of remembrance yet it doth not always for all other Animals have Memory without the help of Speech and so have deaf and dumb men nay more then those that hear and speak Wherefore though Words are useful to the mind and so to the memory yet both can be without them whereas Words cannot be without Memory for take a Bird and teach him to speak if he had not Memory before he heard the words he could never learn them You will ask me Madam What then is Memory the Cause of Speech I answer Life and Knowledg which is Sense and Reason as it creates and makes all sorts of Creatures so also amongst the rest it makes Words And as I said before that Memory may be without the help of Speech or Words so I say also that there is a possibility of reckoning of numbers as also of magnitudes of swiftness of force and other things without words although your Author denies it But some men are so much for Art as they endeavour to make Art which is onely a Drudgery-maid of Nature the chief Mistress and Nature her Servant which is as much as to prefer Effects before the Cause Nature before God Discord before Unity and Concord Again your Author in his Chapter of Reason defines Reason to be nothing else but Reckoning I answer That in my opinion Reckoning is not Reason it self but onely an effect or action of Reason for Reason as it is the chiefest and purest degree
and that they depend upon a precedent thought of whither which way and what and that Imagination is the first Internal beginning of them I think by your Authors leave it doth imply a contradiction to call them Voluntary Motions and yet to say they are caused and depend upon our Imagination for if the Imagination draws them this way or that way how can they be voluntary motions being in a manner forced and necessitated to move according to Fancy or Imagination But when he goes on in the same place and treats of Endeavour Appetite Desire Hunger Thirst Aversion Love Hate and the like he derives one from the other and treats well as a Moral Philosopher but whether it be according to the truth or probability of Natural Philosophy I will leave to others to judge for in my opinion Passions and Appetites are very different Appetites being made by the motions of the sensitive Life and Passions as also Imagination Memory c. by the motions of the rational Life which is the cause that Appetites belong more to the actions of the Body then the Mind T is true the Sensitive and Rational self-moving matter doth so much resemble each other in their actions as it is difficult to distinguish them But having treated hereof at large in my other Philosophical Work to cut off repetitions I will refer you to that and desire you to compare our opinions together But certainly there is so much variety in one and the same sort of Passions and so of Appetites as it cannot be easily express'd To conclude I do not perceive that your Author tells or expresses what the cause is of such or such actions onely he mentions their dependance which is as if a man should converse with a Nobleman's Friend or Servant and not know the Lord himself But leaving him for this time it is sufficient to me that I know your Ladyship and your Ladyship knows me that I am MADAM Your faithful Friend and humble Servant XIII MADAM HAving obey'd your Commands in giving you my opinion of the First Part of the Book of that famous and learned Author you sent me I would go on but seeing he treats in his following Parts of the Politicks I was forced to stay my Pen because of these following Reasons First That a Woman is not imployed in State Affairs unless an absolute Queen Next That to study the Politicks is but loss of Time unless a man were sure to be a Favourite to an absolute Prince Thirdly That it is but a deceiving Profession and requires more Craft then Wisdom All which considered I did not read that part of your Author But as for his Natural Philosophy I will send you my opinion so far as I understand it For what belongs to Art as to Geometry being no Scholar I shall not trouble my self withal And so I 'l take my leave of you when I have in two or three words answered the Question you sent me last which was Whether Nature be the Art of God Man the Art of Nature and a Politick Government the Art of Man To which I answer T is probable it may be so onely I add this That Nature doth not rule God nor Man Nature nor Politick Government Man for the Effect cannot rule the Cause but the Cause doth rule the Effect Wherefore if men do not naturally agree Art cannot make unity amongst them or associate them into one Politick Body and so rule them But man thinks he governs when as it is Nature that doth it for as nature doth unite or divide parts regularly or irregularly and moves the several minds of men and the several parts of mens bodies so war is made or peace kept Thus it is not the artificial form that governs men in a Politick Government but a natural power for though natural motion can make artificial things yet artificial things cannot make natural power and we might as well say nature is governed by the art of nature as to say man is ruled by the art and invention of men The truth is Man rules an artificial Government and not the Government Man just like as a Watch-maker rules his Watch and not the Watch the Watch-maker And thus I conclude and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XIV MADAM COncerning the other Book of that learned Author Hobbs you sent me called Elements of Philosophy I shall likewise according to your desire give you my judgment and opinion of it as I have done of the former not that I intend to prejudice him any ways thereby but onely to mark those places wherein I seem to dissent from his opinions which liberty I hope he will not deny me And in order to this I have read over the first Chapter of the mentioned Book treating of Philosophy in General wherein amongst the rest discoursing of the Utility of Natural Philosophy and relating the commodities and benefits which proceed from so many arts and sciences he is pleased to say that they are injoyed almost by all people of Europe Asia and some of Africa onely the Americans and those that live neer the Poles do want them But why says he have they sharper wits then these Have not all men one kind of soul and the same faculties of mind To which give me leave Madam to add That my opinion is that there is a difference between the Divine and the Natural soul of man and though the natural mind or soul is of one kind yet being made of rational matter it is divideable and composeable by which division and composition men may have more or less wit or quicker and slower wit the like for Judgments Imaginations Fancies Opinions c. For were the natural rational mind individeable all men would have the like degree of wit or understanding all men would be Philosophers or fools which by reason they are not it proves the natural rational mind is divideable and composeable making variations of its own several parts by self-motion for it is not the several outward objects or forreign instructions that make the variety of the mind neither is wit or ingenuity alike in all men for some are natural Poets Philosophers and the like without learning and some are far more ingenious then others although their breeding is obscure and mean Neither will learning make all men Scholars for some will continue Dunces all their life time Neither doth much experience make all men wise for some are not any ways advanced in their wisdom by much and long experiences And as for Poetry it is according to the common Proverb a Poet is born not made Indeed learning doth rather hurt Fancy for great Scholars are not always good Poets nor all States-men Natural Philosophers nor all Experienced Men Wise Men nor all Judges Just nor all Divines Pious nor all Pleaders or Preachers Eloquent nor all Moral Philosophers Vertuous But all this is occasioned by the various Motions of the rational self-moving matter which is the
Animal-kind and reason in Man-kind for can any one think or believe that Nature is ignorant and dead in all her other parts besides Animals Truly this is a very unreasonable opinion for no man as wise as he thinks himself nay were all Man-kind joyned into one body yet they are not able to know it unless there were no variety of parts in nature but onely one whole and individeable body for other Creatures may know and perceive as much as Animals although they have not the same Sensitive Organs nor the same manmer or way of Perception Next your Author says The cause of Sense or Perception consists herein that the first organ of sense is touched and pressed For when the uttermost part of the organ is pressed it no sooner yields but the part next within it is pressed also and in this manner the pressure or motion is propagated through all the parts of the organ to the innermost And thus also the pressure of the uttermost part proceeds from the pressure of some more remote body and so continually till we come to that from which as from its fountain we derive the Phantasme or Idea that is made in us by our sense And this whatsoever it be is that we commonly call the object Sense therefore is some Internal motion in the Sentient Generated by some Internal motion of the Parts of the object and propagated through all the media to the innermost part of the organ Moreover there being a resistance or reaction in the organ by reason of its internal motion against the motion propagated from the object there is also an endeavour in the organ opposite to the endeavour proceeding from the object and when that endeavour inwards is the last action in the act of sense then from the reaction a Phantasme or Idea has its being This is your Authors opinion which if it were so perception could not be effected so suddenly nay I think the sentient by so many pressures in so many perceptions would at last be pressed to death besides the organs would take a great deal of hurt nay totally be removed out of their places so as the eye would in time be prest into the centre of the brain And if there were any Resistance Reaction or Indeavour in the organ opposite to the Endeavour of the object there would in my opinion be always a war between the animal senses and the objects the endeavour of the objects pressing one way and the senses pressing the other way and if equal in their strengths they would make a stop and the sensitive organs would be very much pained Truly Madam in my opinion it would be like that Custom which formerly hath been used at Newcastle when a man was married the guests divided themselves behind and before the Bridegroom the one party driving him back the other forwards so that one time a Bridegroom was killed in this fashion But certainly Nature hath a more quick and easie way of giving intelligence and knowledg to her Creatures and doth not use such constraint and force in her actions Neither is sense or sensitive perception a meer Phantasme or Idea but a Corporeal action of the sensitive and rational matter and according to the variation of the objects or patterns and the sensitive and rational motions the perception also is various produced not by external pressure but by internal self-motion as I have declared heretofore and to prove that the sensitive and rational corporeal motions are the onely cause of perception I say if those motions in an animal move in another way and not to such perceptions then that animal can neither hear see taste smell nor touch although all his sensitive organs be perfect as is evident in a man falling into a swoon where all the time he is in a swoon the pressure of the objects is made without any effect Wherefore as the sensitive and rational corporeal motions make all that is in nature so likewise they make perception as being perception it self for all self-motion is perception but all perception is not animal perception or after an animal way and therefore sense cannot decay nor die but what is called a decay or death is nothing else but a change or alteration of those Motions But you will say Madam it may be that one body as an object leaves the print of its figure in the next adjoyning body until it comes to the organ of sense I answer that then sost bodies onely must be pressed and the object must be so hard as to make a print and as for rare parts of matter they are not able to retain a print without self-motion Wherefore it is not probable that the parts of air should receive a print and print the same again upon the adjoyning part until the last part of the air print it upon the eye and that the exterior parts of the organ should print upon the interior till it come to the centre of the Brain without self-motion Wherefore in my opinion Perception is not caused either by the printing of objects nor by pressures for pressures would make a general stop of all natural motions especially if there were any reaction or resistence of sense but according to my reason the sensitive and rational corporeal motions in one body pattern out the Figure of another body as of an exterior object which may be done easily without any pressure or reaction I will not say that there is no pressure or reaction in Nature but pressure and reaction doth not make perception for the sensitive and rational parts of matter make all perception and variety of motion being the most subtil parts of Nature as self-moving as also divideable and composeable and alterable in their figurative motions for this Perceptive matter can change its substance into any figure whatsoever in nature as being not bound to one constant figure But having treated hereof before and being to say more of it hereaster this shall suffice for the present remaining always MADAM Your constant Friend and faithful Servant XIX MADAM TO discourse of the World and Stars is more then I am able to do wanting the art of Astronomy and Geometry wherefore passing by that Chapter of your Author I am come to that wherein he treats of Light Heat and Colours and to give you my opinion of Light I say it is not the light of the Sun that makes an Animal see for we can see inwardly in Dreams without the Suns light but it is the sensitive and rational Motions in the Eye and Brain that make such a figure as Light For if Light did press upon the Eye according to your Authors opinion it might put the Eye into as much pain as Fire doth when it sticks its points into our skin or flesh The same may be said of Colours for the sensitive motions make such a figure which is such a Colour and such a Figure which is such a Colour Wherefore Light Heat and Colour
Authors opinion when he sayes That all bodies of this Universe are of one and the same matter really divided into many parts and that these parts are diversly moved But that these motions should be circular more then of any other sort I cannot believe although he thinks that this is the most probable way to find out the causes of natural effects for nature is not bound to one sort of motions more then to another and it is but in vain to indeavour to know how and by what motions God did make the World since Creation is an action of God and Gods actions are incomprehensible Wherefore his aethereal Whirlpooles and little particles of matter which he reduceth to three sorts and calls them the three elements of the Universe their circular motions several figures shavings and many the like which you may better read then I rehearse to you are to my thinking rather Fancies then rational or probable conceptions for how can we imagine that the Universe was set a moving as a Top by a Whip or a Wheele by the hand of a Spinster and that the vacuities were fill'd up with shavings for these violent motions would rather have disturbed and disordered Nature and though Nature uses variety in her motions or actions yet these are not extravagant nor by force or violence but orderly temperate free and easie which causes me to believe the Earth turns about rather then the Sun and though corporeal motions for variety make Whirl-winds yet Whirl-winds are not constant Neither can I believe that the swiftness of motion could make the matter more subtil and pure then it was by nature for it is the purity and subtilty of the matter that causes motion and makes it swifter or slower and not motion the subtilty and purity of matter motion being onely the action of matter and the self-moving part of matter is the working part of nature which is wise and knows how to move and form every creature without instruction and this self-motion is as much her own as the other parts of her body matter and figure and is one and the same with her self as a corporeal living knowing and inseparable being and a part of her self As for the several parts of matter I do believe that they are not all of one and the same bigness nor of one and the same figure neither do I hold their figures to be unalterable for if all parts in nature be corporeal they are dividable composable and intermixable and then they cannot be always of one and the same sort of figure besides nature would not have so much work if there were no change of figures and since her onely action is change of motion change of motion must needs make change of figures and thus natural parts of matter may change from lines to points and from points to lines from squares to circles and so forth infinite ways according to the change of motions but though they change their figures yet they cannot change their matter for matter as it has been so it remaines constantly in each degree as the Rational Sensitive and Inanimate none becomes purer none grosser then ever it was notwithstanding the infinite changes of motions which their figures undergo for Motion changes onely the figure not the matter it self which continues still the same in its nature and cannot be altered without a confusion or destruction of Nature And this is the constant opinion of MADAM Your faithful Friend and humble Servant XXXIV MADAM THat Rarefaction is onely a change of figure according to your Authors opinion is in my reason very probable but when he sayes that in rarified bodies are little intervals or pores filled up with some other subtil matter if he means that all rarified bodies are porous I dissent from him for it is not necessary that all rarified bodies should be porous and all hard bodies without pores but if there were a probability of pores I am of opinion it would be more in dense and hard than in rare and soft bodies as for example rarifying and dilating motions are plaining smoothing spreading and making all parts even which could not well be if there were holes or pores Earth is dense and hard and yet is porous and flame is rare and dilating and yet is not porous and certainly Water is not so porous as Earth Wherefore pores in my opinion are according to the nature or form of the figure and not according to the rarity or thinness and density or thickness of the substance As for his thin and subtil matter filling up the pores of porous bodies I assent to your Author so farr that I meane thin and thick or rare and dense substances are joyned and mixed together As for plaining smoothing and spreading I do not mean so much artificial plaining and spreading as for example when a piece of gold is beaten into a thin plate and a board is made plain and smooth by a Joyners tool or a napkin folded up is spread plain and even although when you observe these arts you may judge somewhat of the nature of natural dilations for a folded cloth is fuller of creases then when plain and the beating of a thin plate is like to the motion of dilation which is to spread out and the forme of rarifying is thinning and extending I add onely this that I am not of your Authors opinion that Rest is the Cause or Glue which keeps the parts of dense or hard bodies together but it is retentive motions And so I conclude resting MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXXV MADAM THat the Mind according to your Authors opinion is a substance really distinct from the body and may be actually separated from it and subsist without it If he mean the natural mind and soul of Man not the supernatural or divine I am far from his opinion for though the mind moveth onely in its own parts and not upon or with the parts of inanimate matter yet it cannot be separated from these parts of matter and subsist by its self as being a part of one and the same matter the inanimate is of for there is but one onely matter and one kind of matter although of several degrees onely it is the self-moving part but yet this cannot impower it to quit the same natural body whose part it is Neither can I apprehend that the Mind 's or Soul's seat should be in the Glandula or kernel of the Brain and there sit like a Spider in a Cobweb to whom the least motion of the Cobweb gives intelligence of a Flye which he is ready to assault and that the Brain should get intelligence by the animal spirits as his servants which run to and fro like Ants to inform it or that the Mind should according to others opinions be a light and imbroidered all with Ideas like a Heraulds Coat and that the sensitive organs should have no knowledg in themselves but serve onely like peepingholes for
but a dense or rare heavie or light matter is but one substance or body And thus having obeyed your commands I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XLIV MADAM IAm very ready to give you my opinion of those two questions you sent me whereof the first was Whether that which is rare and subtil be not withal pure To which I answer That all rare bodies are not subtil nor pure and that all which is dense is not gross and dull As for example Puddle-water or also clear water is rarer then Quicksilver and yet not so subtil and pure as Quicksilver the like of Gold for Quicksilver and Gold may be rarified to a transparentness and yet be so dense as not to be easily dissolved and Quicksilver is very subtil and searching so as to be able to force other bodies to divide as well as it can divide and compose its own parts Wherefore my opinion is that the purest and subtilest degree of matter in nature is that degree of matter which can dilate and contract compose and divide into any figure by corporeal self-motion Your second question was Why a man's hand cannot break a little hard body as a little nail whereas yet it is bigger then the nail I answer It is not because the hand is softer then the nail for one hard body will not break suddenly another hard body and a man may easily break an iron nail with his hand as I have bin informed but it is some kind of motion which can easier do it then another for I have seen a strong cord wound about both a man's hands who pulled his hands as hard and strongly asunder as he could and yet was not able to break it when as a Youth taking the same cord and winding it about his hands as the former did immediately broke it the cause was that he did it with another kind of motion or pulling then the other did which though he used as much force and strength as he was able yet could not break it when the boy did break it with the greatest ease and turning onely his hands a little which shews that many things may be done by a slight of motion which otherwise a great strength and force cannot do This is my answer and opinion concerning your proposed questions if you have any more I shall be ready to obey you as MADAM Your faithful Friend and humble Servant XLV MADAM I understand by your last that you are very desirous to know Whether there be not in nature such animal creatures both for purity and size as we are not capable to perceive by our sight Truly Madam in my opinion it is very probable there may be animal creatures of such rare bodies as are not subject to our exterior senses as well as there are elements which are not subject to all our exterior senses as for example fire is onely subject to our sight and feeling and not to any other sense water is subject to our sight taste touch and hearing but not to smelling and earth is subject to our sight taste touch and smelling but not to our hearing and vapour is onely subject to our sight and wind onely to our hearing but pure air is not subject to any of our senses but onely known by its effects and so there may likewise be animal creatures which are not subject to any of our senses both for their purity and life as for example I have seen pumpt out of a water pump small worms which could hardly be discerned but by a bright Sun-light for they were smaller then the smallest hair some of a pure scarlet colour and some white but though they were the smallest creatures that ever I did see yet they were more agil and fuller of life then many a creature of a bigger size and so small they were as I am confident they were neither subject to tast smell touch nor hearing but onely to sight and that neither without dificulty requiring both a sharp sight and a clear light to perceive them and I do verily believe that these small animal creatures may be great in comparison to others which may be in nature But if it be probable that there may be such small animal creatures in nature as are not subject to our exterior senses by reason of their littleness it is also probable that there may be such great and big animal creatures in nature as are beyond the reach and knowledg of our exterior senses for bigness and smallness are not to be judged by our exterior senses onely but as sense and reason inform us that there are different degrees in Purity and Rarity so also in shapes figures and sizes in all natural creatures Next you desired to know VVhether there can be an artificial Life or a Life made by Art My answer is Not for although there is Life in all natures parts yet not all the parts are life for there is one part of natural matter which in its nature is inanimate or without life and though natural Life doth produce Art yet Art cannot produce natural Life for though Art is the action of Life yet it is not Life it self not but that there is Life in Art but not art in life for Life is natural and not artificial and thus the several parts of a watch may have sense and reason according to the nature of their natural figure which is steel but not as they have an artificial shape for Art cannot put Life into the watch Life being onely natural not artificial Lastly your desire was to know Whether a part of matter may be so small as it cannot be made less I answer there is no such thing in nature as biggest or least nature being Infinite as well in her actions as in her substance and I have mentioned in my book of Philosophy and in a letter I sent you heretofore concerning Infinite that there are several forts of Infinites as Infinite in quantity or bulk Infinite in number Infinite in quality as Infinite degrees of hardness softness thickness thinness swiftness slowness c. as also Infinite compositions divisions creations dissolutions c. in nature and my meaning is that all these Infinite actions do belong to the Infinite body of nature which being infinite in substance must also of necessity be infinite in its actions but although these Infinite actions are inherent in the power of the Infinite substance of nature yet they are never put in act in her parts by reason there being contraries in nature and every one of the aforementioned actions having its opposite they do hinder and obstruct each other so that none can actually run into infinite for the Infinite degrees of compositions hinder the infinite degrees of divisions and the infinite degrees of rarity softness swiftness c. hinder the infinite degrees of density hardness slowness c. all which nature has ordered with great wisdom and Prudence to make an amiable combination between her parts
and Servant VII MADAM YOur Author being very earnest in arguing against those that maintain the opinion of Matter being self-moving amongst the rest of his arguments brings in this Suppose says he Matter could move it self would meer Matter with self-motion amount to that admirable wise contrivance of things which we see in the World All the evasion I can imagine our adversaries may use here will be this That Matter is capable of sense and the finest and most subtil of the most refined sense and consequently of Imagination too yea happily of Reason and Understanding I answer it is very probable that not onely all the Matter in the World or Universe hath Sense but also Reason and that the sensitive part of matter is the builder and the rational the designer whereof I have spoken of before and you may find more of it in my Book of Philosophy But says your Author Let us see if all their heads laid together can contrive the anatomical Fabrick of any Creature that liveth I answer all parts of Nature are not bound to have heads or tayls but if they have surely they are wiser then many a man's I demand says he Has every one of these Particles that must have a hand in the framing of the body of an animal the whole design of the work by the Impress of some Phantasme upon it or as they have several offices so have they several parts of the design I answer All the actions of self-moving Matter are not Impresses nor is every part a hand-labourer but every part unites by degrees into such or such a Figure Again says he How is it conceiveable that any one Particle of Matter or many together there not existing yet in Nature an animal can have the Idea Impressed of that Creature they are to frame I answer all figures whatsoever have been are or can be in Nature are existent in nature How says he can they in framing several parts confer notes by what language or speech can they communicate their Counsels one to another I answer Knowledg doth not always require speech for speech is an effect and not a cause but knowledg is a cause and not an effect and nature hath infinite more ways to express knowledg then man can imagine Wherefore he concludes that they should mutually serve one another in such a design is more impossible then that so many men blind and dumb from their nativity should joyn their forces and wits together to build a Castle or carve a statue of such a Creature as none of them knew any more in several then some one of the smallest parts thereof but not the relation it bore to the whole I answer Nature is neither blind nor dumb nor any ways defective but infinitely wife and knowing for blindness and dumbness are but effects of some of her particular actions but there is no defect in self-moving matter nor in her actions in general and it is absurd to conceive the Generality of wisdom according to an Irregular effect or defect of a particular Creature for the General actions of Nature are both life and knowledg which are the architects of all Creatures and know better how to frame all kinds and sorts of Creatures then man can conceive and the several parts of Matter have a more easie way of communication then Mans head hath with his hand or his hand with pen ink and paper when he is going to write which later example will make you understand my opinion the better if you do but compare the rational part of Matter to the head the sensitive to the hand the inanimate to pen ink and paper their action to writing and their framed figures to those figures or letters which are written in all which is a mutual agreement without noise or trouble But give me leave Madam to tell you That self-moving Matter may sometimes erre and move irregularly and in some parts not move so strong curious or subtil at sometimes as in other parts for Nature delights in variety Nevertheless she is more wise then any Particular Creature or part can conceive which is the cause that Man thinks Nature's wise subtil and lively actions are as his own gross actions conceiving them to be constrained and turbulent not free and easie as well as wise and knowing Whereas Nature's Creating Generating and Producing actions are by an easie connexion of parts to parts without Counterbuffs Joggs and Jolts producing a particular figure by degrees and in order and method as humane sense and reason may well perceive And why may not the sensitive and rational part of Matter know better how to make a Bee then a Bee doth how to make Honey and Wax or have a better communication betwixt them then Bees that fly several ways meeting and joyning to make their Combes in their Hives But pardon Madam for I think it a Crime to compare the Creating Generating and producing Coporeal Life and Wisdom of Nature unto any particular Creature although every particular Creature hath their share being a part of Nature Wherefore those in my opinion do grosly err that bind up the sensitive matter onely to taste touch hearing seeing and smelling as if the sensitive parts of Nature had not more variety of actions then to make five senses for we may well observe in every Creature there is difference of sense and reason according to the several modes of self-motion For the Sun Stars Earth Air Fire Water Plants Animals Minerals although they have all sense and knowledg yet they have not all sense and knowledg alike because sense and knowledg moves not alike in every kind or sort of Creatures nay many times very different in one and the same Creature but yet this doth not cause a general Ignorance as to be altogether Insensible or Irrational neither do the erroneous and irregular actions of sense and reason prove an annihilation of sense and reason as for example a man may become Mad or a Fool through the irregular motions of sense and reason and yet have still the Perception of sense and reason onely the alteration is caused through the alteration of the sensitive and rational corporeal motions or actions from regular to irregular nevertheless he has Perceptions Thoughts Ideas Passions and whatsoever is made by sensitive and rational Matter neither can Perception be divided from Motion nor Motion from Matter for all sensation is Corporeal and so is Perception I can add no more but take my leave and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant VIII MADAM YOur Author is pleased to say that Matter is a Principle purely passive and no otherwise moved or modified then as some other thing moves and modifies it but cannot move it self at all which is most demonstrable to them that contend for sense and perception in it For if it had any such perception it would by vertue of its self-motion withdraw its self from under the knocks of hammers or fury of the
for as composition and division do hinder and obstruct each other from running into Infinite so doth dilation hinder the Infinite contraction and contraction the Infinite dilation which as I said before causes a mean betwixt Nature's actions nevertheless there are Infinite dilations and contractions in Nature because there are Infinite contracted and dilated parts and so are infinite divisions because there are infinite divided parts but contraction dilation extension composition division and the like are onely Nature's several actions and as there can be no single part in Nature that is Infinite so there can neither be any single Infinite action But as for Matter Motion and Figure those are Individable and Inseparable and make but one body or substance for it is as impossible to divide them as impossible it is to your Author to separate the essential proprieties which he gives from an Immortal Spirit And as Matter Motion and Figure are inseparable so is likewise Matter Space Place and Duration For Parts Motion Figure Place and Duration are but one Infinite body onely the Infinite parts are the Infinite divisions of the Infinite body and the Infinite body is a composition of the Infinite parts but figure place and body are all one and so is time and duration except you will call time the division of duration and duration the composition of time but infinite time and infinite duration is all one in Nature and thus Nature's Principal motions and actions are dividing composing and disposing or ordering according to her Natural wisdom by the Omnipotent God's leave and permission Concerning the Sun which your Author speaks of in the same place and denies him to be a Spectator of our Particular affairs upon Earth saying there is no such divine Principle in him whereby he can do it I will speak nothing against nor for it but I may say that the Sun hath such a Principle as other Creatures have which is that he has sensitive and rational corporeal motions as well as animals or other Creatures although not in the same manner nor the same organs and if he have sensitive and rational motions he may also have sensitive and rational knowledge or perception as well as man or other animals and parts of Nature have for ought any body knows for it is plain to humane sense and reason that all Creatures must needs have rational and sensitive knowledg because they have all sensitive and rational matter and motions But leaving the Sun for Astronomers to contemplate upon I take my leave and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant X. MADAM YOur Author in his arguments against Motion being a Principle of Nature endeavours to prove that Beauty Colour Symmetry and the like in Plants as well as in other Creatures are no result from the meer motion of the matter and forming this objection It may be said says he That the regular motion of the matter made the first plant of every kind but we demand What regulated the motion of it so as to guide it to form it self into such a state I answer The Wisdom of Nature or infinite Matter did order its own actions so as to form those her Parts into such an exact and beautiful figure as such a Tree or such a Flower or such a Fruit and the like and some of her Parts are pleased and delighted with other parts but some of her parts are afraid or have an aversion to other parts and hence is like and dislike or sympathy and antipathy hate and love according as nature which is infinite self-moving matter pleases to move for though Natural Wisdom is dividable into parts yet these parts are united in one infinite Body and make but one Being in it self like as the several parts of a man make up but one perfect man for though a man may be wise in several causes or actions yet it is but one wisdom and though a Judg may shew Justice in several causes yet it is but one Justice for Wisdom and Justice though they be practised in several causes yet it is but one Wisdom and one Justice and so all the parts of a mans body although they move differently yet are they but one man's bodily actions Just as a man if he carve or cut out by art several statues or draw several Pictures those statues or pictures are but that one man's work The like may be said of Natures Motions and Figures all which are but one self-active or self-moving Material Nature But Wise Nature's Ground or Fundamental actions are very Regular as you may observe in the several and distinct kinds sorts and particulars of her Creatures and in their distinct Proprieties Qualities and Faculties belonging not onely to each kind and sort but to each particular Creature and since man is not able to know perfectly all those proprieties which belong to animals much less will he be able to know and judg of those that are in Vegetables Minerals and Elements and yet these Creatures for any thing Man knows may be as knowing understanding and wise as he and each as knowing of its kind or sort as man is of his But the mixture of ignorance and knowledg in all Creatures proceeds from thence that they are but Parts and there is no better proof that the mind of man is dividable then that it is not perfectly knowing nor no better proof that it is composeable then that it knows so much but all minds are not alike but some are more composed then others which is the cause some know more then others for if the mind in all men were alike all men would have the same Imaginations Fancies Conceptions Memories Remembrances Passions Affections Understanding and so forth The same may be said of their bodies for if all mens sensitive parts were as one and not dividable and composeable all their Faculties Properties Constitutions Complexions Appetites would be the same in every man without any difference but humane sense and reason doth well perceive that neither the mind life nor body are as one piece without division and composition Concerning the divine Soul I do not treat of it onely this I may say That all are not devout alike nor those which are are not at all times alike devout But to conclude some of our modern Philosophers think they do God good service when they endeavour to prove Nature as Gods good Servant to be stupid ignorant foolish and mad or any thing rather then wise and yet they believe themselves wise as if they were no part of Nature but I cannot imagine any reason why they should rail on her except Nature had not given them as great a share or portion as she hath given to others for children in this case do often rail at their Parents for leaving their Brothers and Sisters more then themselves However Nature can do more then any of her Creatures and if Man can Paint Imbroider Carve Ingrave curiously why may not Nature have more
the sensitive which is the Life of Nature as the other is the Soul not the Divine but natural Soul neither is this Soul Immaterial bnt Corporeal not composed of raggs and shreds but it is the purest simplest and subtillest matter in Nature But to conclude I desire you to remember Madam that this rational and sensitive Matter in one united and finite Figure or particular Creature has both common and particular actions for as there are several kinds and sorts of Creatures and particulars in every kind and sort so the like for the actions of the rational and sensitive matter in one particular Creature Also it is to be noted That the Parts of rational matter can more suddenly give and take Intelligence to and from each other then the sensitive nevertheless all Parts in Nature at least adjoyning parts have Intelligence between each other more or less because all parts make but one body for it is not with the parts of Matter as with several Constables in several Hundreds or several Parishes which are a great way distant from each other but they may be as close as the combs of Bees and yet as partable and as active as Bees But concerning the Intelligence of Natures Parts I have sufficiently spoken in other places and so I 'le add no more but that I unfeignedly remain MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XVI MADAM SEnsation in corporeal motion is first and Perception follows sayes your Author to which opinion I give no assent but do believe that Perception and Sensation are done both at one and the same time as being one and the same thing without division either in reason or sense and are performed without any knocks or jolts or hitting against But let me tell you Madam there arises a great mistake by many from not distinguishing well sensitive Motion and rational Motion for though all motions are in one onely matter yet that matter doth not move always in the same manner for then there could be no variety in Nature and truly if man who is but a part of Nature may move diversly and put himself into numerous postures Why may not Nature But concerning Motions and their variety to avoid tedious repetitions I must still referr you to my Book of Philosophical Opinions I 'le add onely this that it is well to be observed That all Motions are not Impressions neither do all Impressions make such dents as to disturb the adjoyning Parts Wherefore those in my opinion understand Nature best which say that Sensation and Perception are really one and the same but they are out that say there can be no communication at a distance unless by pressing and crowding for the patterning of an outward object may be done without any inforcement or disturbance jogging or crowding as I have declared heretofore for the sensitive and rational motions in the sensitive and rational parts of matter in one creature observing the exterior motions in outward objects move accordingly either regularly or irregularly in patterns and if they have no exterior objects as in dreams they work by rote And so to conclude I am absolutely of their opinion who believe that there is nothing existent in Nature but what is purely Corporeal for this seems most probable in sense and reason to me MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XVII MADAM OUtward Objects as I have told you before do not make Sense and Reason but Sense and Reason do perceive and judg of outward objects For the Sun doth not make sight nor doth sight make light but sense and reason in a Man or any other creature do perceive and know there are such objects as Sun and Light or whatsoever objects are presented to them Neither doth Dumbness Deafness Blindness c. cause an Insensibility but Sense through irregular actions causes them I say through Irregular actions because those effects do not properly belong to the nature of that kind of Creatures for every Creature if regularly made hath particular motions proper to its figure for natural Matters wisdom makes distinctions by her distinct corporeal motions giving every particular Creature their due Portion and Proportion according to the nature of their figures and to the rules of her actions but not to the rules of Arts Mathematical Compasses Lines Figures and the like And thus the Sun Stars Meteors Air Fire Water Earth Minerals Vegetables and Animals may all have Sense and Reason although it doth not move in one kind or sort of Creatures or in one particular as in another For the corporeal motions differ not onely in kinds and sorts but also in Particulars as is perceivable by human sense and reason Which is the cause that Elements have elemental sense and knowledg and Animals animal sense and knowledg and so of Vegetables Minerals and the like Wherefore the Sun and Stars may have as much sensitive and rational life and knowledg as other Creatures but such as is according to the nature of their figures and not animal or vegetable or mineral sense and knowledg And so leaving them I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XVIII MADAM YOur Author denying that Fancy Reason and Animadversion are seated in the Brain and that the Brain is figured into this or that Conception I demand says he in what knot loop or interval thereof doth this faculty of free Fancy and active Reason reside My answer is that in my opinion Fancy and Reason are not made in the Brain as there is a Brain but as there is sensitive and rational matter which makes not onely the Brain but all Thoughts Conceptions Imaginations Fancy Understanding Memory Remembrance and whatsoever motions are in the Head or Brain neither doth this sensitive and rational mattet remain or act in one place of the Brain but in every part thereof and not onely in every part of the Brain but in every part of the Body nay not onely in every part of a Mans Body but in every part of Nature But Madam I would ask those that say the Brain has neither sense reason nor self-motion and therefore no Perception but that all proceeds from an Immaterial Principle as an Incorporeal Spirit distinct from the body which moveth and actuates corporeal matter I would fain ask them I say where their Immaterial Ideas reside in what part or place of the Body and whether they be little or great Also I would ask them whether there can be many or but one Idea of God If they say many then there must be several distinct Deitical Ideas if but one Where doth this Idea reside If they say in the head then the heart is ignorant of God if in the heart then the head is ignorant thereof and so for all parts of the body but if they say in every part then that Idea may be disfigured by a lost member if they say it may dilate and contract then I say it is not the Idea of God for God can neither contract nor
to give such power to Matter as to an other Incorporeal substance But I suppose this opinion of natural Immaterial Spirits doth proceed from Chymistry where the extracts are vulgarly called Spirits and from that degree of Matter which by reason of its purity subtilty and activity is not subject to our grosser senses However these are not Incorporeal be they never so pure and subtil And I wonder much that men endeavour to prove Immaterial Spirits by corporeal Arts when as Art is not able to demonstrate Nature and her actions for Art is but the effect of Nature and expresses rather the variety then the truth of natural motions and if Art cannot do this much less will it be able to express what is not in Nature or what is beyond Nature as to trace the Visible or rather Invisible footsteps of the divine Councel and Providence or to demonstrate things supernatural and which go beyond mans reach and capacity But to return to Immaterial Spirits that they should rule and govern infinite corporeal matter like so many demy-Gods by a dilating nod and a contracting frown and cause so many kinds and sorts of Corporeal Figures to arise being Incorporeal themselves is Impossible for me to conceive for how can an Immaterial substance cause a Material corporeal substance which has no motion in it self to form so many several and various figures and creatures and make so many alterations and continue their kinds and sorts by perpetual successions of Particulars But perchance the Immaterial substance gives corporeal matter motion I answer My sense and reason cannot understand how it can give motion unless motion be different distinct and separable from it nay if it were yet being no substance or body it self according to your Authors and others opinion the question is how it can be transmitted or given away to corporeal matter Your Author may say That his Immaterial and Incorporeal spirit of Nature having self-motion doth form Matter into several Figures I answer Then that Immaterial substance must be transformed and metamorphosed into as many several figures as there are figures in Matter or there must be as many spirits as there are figures but when the figures change what doth become of the spirits Neither can I imagine that an Immaterial substance being without body can have such a great strength as to grapple with gross heavy dull and dead Matter Certainly in my opinion no Angel nor Devil except God Impower him would be able to move corporeal Matter were it not selfmoving much less any Natural Spirit But God is a Spirit and Immovable and if created natural Immaterials participate of that Nature as they do of the Name then they must be Immovable also Your Author Madam may make many several degrees of Spirits but certainly not I nor I think any natural Creature else will be able naturally to conceive them He may say perchance There is such a close conjunction betwixt Body and Spirit as I make betwixt rational sensitive and inanimate Matter I answer That these degrees are all but one Matter and of one and the same Nature as meer Matter different onely in degrees of purity subtilty and activity whereas Spirit and Body are things of contrary Natures In fine I cannot conceive how a Spirit should fill up a place or space having no body nor how it can have the effects of a body being none it self for the effects flow from the cause and as the cause is so are its effects And so confessing my ignorance I can say no more but rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXII MADAM YOur Author having assigned Indivisibility to the Soul or Spirit that moves and actuates matter I desire to know how one Indivisible Spirit can be in so many dividable parts For there being Infinite parts in Nature they must either have one Infinite Spirit to move them which must be dilated infinitely or this Spirit must move severally in every part of Nature If the first then I cannot conceive but all motion must be uniform or after one and the same manner nay I cannot understand how there can be any dilation and contraction or rather any motion of the same spirit by reason if it dilate then being equally spread out in all the parts of Matter it must dilate beyond Matter and if it contract it must leave some parts of matter void and without motion But if the Spirit moves every part severally then he is divisible neither can I think that there are so many Spirits as there are Parts in Nature for your Author says there is but one Spirit of Nature I will give an easie and plain example When a Worm is cut into two or three parts we see there is sensitive life and motion in every part for every part will strive and endeavour to meet and joyn again to make up the whole body now if there were but one indivisible Life Spirit and Motion I would fain know how these severed parts could move all by one Spirit Wherefore Matter in my opinion has self-motion in it self which is the onely soul and life of Nature and is dividable as well as composable and full of variety of action for it is as easie for several parts to act in separation as in composition and as easie in composition as in separation Neither is every part bound to one kind or sort of Motions for we see in exterior local motions that one man can put his body into several shapes and postures much more can Nature But is it not strange Madam that a man accounts it absurd ridiculous and a prejudice to Gods Omnipotency to attribute self-motion to Matter or a material Creature when it is not absurd ridiculous or any prejudice to God to attribute it to an Immaterial Creature What reason of absurdity lies herein Surely I can conceive none except it be absurd and ridiculous to make that which no man can know or conceive what it is viz. an immaterial natural Spirit which is as much as to say a natural No-thing to have motion and not onely motion but self-motion nay not onely self-motion but to move actuate rule govern and guide Matter or corporeal Nature and to be the cause of all the most curious varieties and effects in nature Was not God able to give self-motion as well to a Material as to an Immaterial Creature and endow Matter with a self-moving power I do not say Madam that Matter hath motion of it self so that it is the prime cause and principle of its own self-motion for that were to make Matter a God which I am far from believing but my opinion is That the self-motion of Matter proceeds from God as well as the self-motion of an Immaterial Spirit and that I am of this opinion the last Chapter of my Book of Philosophy will enform you where I treat of the Deitical Centre as the Fountain from whence all things do flow and which is the supream Cause Author
encounter and that the fruits which Antiquity hath believed to be mixt bodies and those composed from a concurrence of four Elements are materially of one onely Element also that those three Elements are naturally cold nor that native heat is any where in things except from Light Life Motion and an altering Blas In like manner that all actual moisture is of Water but all virtual moisture from the property of the seeds Likewise that dryness is by it self in the Air and Earth but in Fruits by reason of the Seeds and Coagulations and that there are not Contraries in Nature To give you my opinion hereof first I think it too great a presumption in any man to feign himself so much above the rest as to accuse all others of ignorance and that none but he alone hath the true knowledg of all things as infallible and undeniable and that so many Learned Wise and Ingenious Men in so many ages have been blinded with errors for certainly no particular Creature in Nature can have any exact or perfect knowledg of Natural things and therefore opinions cannot be infallible truths although they may seem probable for how is it possible that a single finite Creature should know the numberless varieties and hidden actions of Nature Wherefore your Author cannot say that he hath demonstrated any thing which could not be as much contradicted and perhaps with more reason then he hath brought proofs and demonstrations And thus when he speaks of Elements that there are not four in Nature and that they cannot go together or encounter it may be his opinion but others have brought as many reasons to the contrary and I think with more probability so as it is unnecessary to make a tedious discourse thereof and therefore I 'le refer you to those that have treated of it more learnedly and solidly then I can do But I perceive your Author is much for Art and since he can make solid bodies liquid and liquid bodies solid he believes that all bodies are composed out of the Element of Water and that Water therefore is the first Principle of all things when as Water in my opinion is but an Effect as all other natural Creatures and therefore cannot be a cause or principle of them Concerning the Natural coldness of Water Air and Earth it may be or not be so for any thing your Author can truly know but to my sense and reason it seems probable that there are things naturally hot and moist and hot and dry as well as cold and moist and cold and dry But all these are but several effects produced by the several actions of Natural Matter which Natural Matter is the onely Principle of all Natural Effects and Creatures whatever and this Principle I am confident your Author can no more prove to be Water then he can prove that Heat Light Life Motion and Blas are not material Concerning what he saith That Native Heat is no where in things except from Light Life Motion and an altering Blas I believe that motion of life makes not onely heat but all effects whatsoever but this native heat is not produced onely from the motions of Particular lives in particular Creatures but it is made by the motions of Natures life which life in all probability is the self-moving Matter which no doubt can and doth make Light and Blas without Heat and Heat without Light or Blas Wherefore Light and Blas are not principles of native Heat no more then native Heat is the principle of Light and Blas Neither is Water the Principle of Actual moisture nor the propriety of seeds the Principle of all Virtual moisture but self-moving Matter is the Principle of all and makes both actual and virtual moisture and there is no question but there are many sorts of moistures As for Dryness which he says is by it self in the Air and Earth and in Fruits by reason of the Seeds and Coagulations I cannot conceive how any thing can be by it self in Nature by reason there is nothing alone and single in Nature but all are inseparable parts of one body perchance he means it is naturally and essentially inherent in Air and Earth but neither can that be in my reason because all Creatures and Effects of Nature are Intermixt and there is as much dryness in other Creatures as in Air and Earth Lastly as for his opinion That there are no Contraries in Nature I believe not in the essence or nature of Matter but sense and reason inform us that there are Contraries in Natures actions which are Corporeal motions which cause mixtures qualities degrees discords as also harmonious conjunctions and concords compositions divisions and the like effects whatsoever But though your Author seems to be an enemy to the mixtures of Elements yet he makes such a mixture of Divinity and natural Philosophy that all his Philosophy is nothing but a meer Hotch-potch spoiling one with the other And so I will leave it to those that delight in it resting MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant IV. MADAM WAter according to your Authors opinion is frozen into Snow Ice or Hail not by Cold but by its own Gas But since I am not able to conceive what his Gas is being a term invented by himself I will briefly declare my own opinion which is That Snow Ice and Hail in my judgment are made in the like manner as Passions or Colours are made and raised in Man for a sad discourse or a cruel object will make a Man pale and cold and a fearful object will make him tremble whereas a wanton and obscene discourse will make some red and hot But yet these discourses and objects are onely external occasional and not immediate efficient causes of such alterations Also when a Man eats or drinks any thing that is actually hot or cold or enters into a cold or hot room bath or air he becomes hot or cold by the actions of those external agents that work upon him or rather whose motions the sensitive motions of his body do pattern out The like for diseases for they may be caused either by hearing ill reports or by taking either hurtful or superfluous food into the Body or by Infections inwardly or outwardly and many other ways Likewise may Colours be made different ways And so may Snow Ice and Hail for all loose rare and porous Bodies are more apt to alter and change then close solid and dense bodies and not onely to change from what they are but to rechange to what they were But Madam many studious persons study Nature more in her own substance then in her various actions which is the cause they arrive to no knowledg of Natures Works for the same parts of Matter may act or work several ways Like as a Man or other animal creature may put one part of his body into various and several postures and move it many different ways Your Author may say that although several Creatures may be
Art steal from Nature she may trouble Nature or rather make variety in Nature but not take any thing from her for Art is the insnarled motions of Nature But your Author being a Chymist is much for the Art of Fire although it is impossible for Art to work as Nature doth for Art makes of natural Creatures artificial Monsters and doth oftner obscure and disturb Natures ordinary actions then prove any Truth in Nature But Nature loving variety doth rather smile at Arts follies then that she should be angry with her curiosity like as for example a Poet will smile in expressing the part or action of a Fool. Wherefore Pure natural Philosophers shall by natural sense and reason trace Natures ways and observe her actions more readily then Chymists can do by Fire and Furnaces for Fire and Furnaces do often delude the Reason blind the Understanding and make the Judgment stagger Nevertheless your Author is so taken with Fire that from thence he imagines a Formal Light which he believes to be the Tip-top of Life but certainly he had in my opinion not so much light as to observe that all sorts of light are but Creatures and not Creators for he judges of several Parts of Matter as if they were several kinds of Matter which causes him often to err although he conceits himself without any Error In which conceit I leave him and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and humble Servant XIII MADAM THe Art of Fire as I perceive is in greater esteem and respect with your Author then Nature her self For he says That some things can be done by Art which Nature cannot do nay he calls Art The Mistress of Nature and subjects whole Nature unto Chymical speculation For nothing says he doth more fully bring a Man that is greedy of knowing to the knowledg of all things knowable then the Fire for the root or radical knowledg of natural things consists in the Fire It pierces the secrets of Nature and causes a further searching out in Nature then all other Sciences being put together and pierces even into the utmost depths of real truth It creates things which never were before These and many more the like expressions he has in the praise of Chymistry And truly Madam I cannot blame your Author for commending this Art because it was his own profession and no man will be so unwise as to dispraise his own Art which he professes but whether those praises and commendations do not exceed truth and express more then the Art of Fire can perform I will let those judg that have more knowledg therein then I But this I may say That what Art or Science soever is in Nature let it be the chief of all yet it can never be call'd the Mistress of Nature nor be said to perform more then Nature doth except it be by a divine and supernatural Power much less to create things which never were before for this is an action which onely belongs to God The truth is Art is but a Particular effect of Nature and as it were Nature's Mimick or Fool in whose playing actions she sometimes takes delight nay your Author confesses it himself when he calls the Art of Chymistry Nature's emulating Ape and her Chamber-maid and yet he says she is now and then the Mistress of Nature which in my opinion doth not agree for I cannot conceive how it is possible to be a Chamber-maid and yet to be the Mistress too I suppose your Author believes they justle sometimes each other out or take by turns one anothers place But whatever his opinion be I am sure that the Art of Fire cannot create and produce so as Nature doth nor dissolve substances so as she doth nor transform and transchange as she doth nor do any effect like Nature And therefore I cannot so much admire this Art as others do for it appears to me rather to be a troubler then an assistant to Nature producing more Monsters then perfect Creatures nay it rather doth shut the Gates of Truth then unlock the Gates of Nature For how can Art inform us of Nature when as it is but an effect of Nature You may say The cause cannot be better known then by its effect for the knowledg of the effect leads us to the knowledg of the cause I answer T is true but you will consider that Nature is an Infinite cause and has Infinite effects and if you knew all the Infinite effects in nature then perhaps you might come to some knowledg of the cause but to know nature by one single effect as art is is impossible nay no man knows this particular effect as yet perfectly For who is he that has studied the art of fire so as to produce all that this art may be able to afford witness the Philosophers-stone Besides how is it possible to find out the onely cause by so numerous variations of the effects Wherefore it is more easie in my opinion to know the various effects in Nature by studying the Prime cause then by the uncertain study of the inconstant effects to arrive to the true knowledg of the prime cause truly it is much easier to walk in a Labyrinth without a Guide then to gain a certain knowledg in any one art or natural effect without Nature her self be the guide for Nature is the onely Mistress and cause of all which as she has made all other effects so she has also made arts for varieties sake but most men study Chymistry more for imployment then for profit not but that I believe there may be some excellent Medicines found out and made by that art but the expence and labour is more then the benefit neither are all those Medicines sure and certain nor in all diseases safe neither can this art produce so many medicines as there are several diseases in Nature and for the Universal Medicine and the Philosophers-stone or Elixir which Chymists brag of so much it consists rather in hope and expectation then in assurance for could Chymists find it out they would not be so poor as most commonly they are but richer then Solomon was or any Prince in the World and might have done many famous acts with the supply of their vast Golden Treasures to the eternal and immortal fame of their Art nay Gold being the Idol of this world they would be worshipped as well for the sake of Gold as for their splendorous Art but how many have endeavored and laboured in vain and without any effect Gold is easier to be made then to be destroyed says your Author but I believe one is as difficult or impossible nay more then the other for there is more probability of dissolving or destroying a natural effect by Art then of generating or producing one for Art cannot go beyond her sphere of activity she can but produce an artificial effect and Gold is a natural Creature neither were it Justice that a
that those words express nothing else but the variety of motions in Nature for men are apt to make more distinctions then Nature doth Nature knows of nothing else but of corporeal figurative Motions when as men make a thousand distinctions of one thing and confound and entangle themselves so with Beings Non-beings and Neutral-beings Corporeals and Incorporeals Substances and Accidents or manners and modes of Substances new Creations and Annihilations and the like as neither they themselves nor any body else is able to make any sense thereof for they are like the tricks and slights of Juglers 't is here 't is gone and amongst those Authors which I have read as yet the most difficult to be understood is this Author which I am now perusing who runs such divisions and cuts Nature into so small Parts as the sight of my Reason is not sharp enough to discern them Wherefore I will leave them to those that are more quick-sighted then I and rest MADAM Your constant Friend and faithful Servant XXIV MADAM YOur Author relates how by some the Immortal Soul is divided into two distinct parts the Inferior or more outward which by a peculiar name is called the Soul and the other the Superior the more inward the which is called the bottom of the Soul or Spirit in which Part the Image of God is specially contained unto which is no access for the Devil because there is the Kingdom of God and each part has distinct Acts Proprieties and Faculties Truly Madam I wonder how some men dare discourse so boldly of the Soul without any ground either of Scripture or Reason nay with such contradiction to themselves or their own opinions For how can that be severed into parts which in its nature is Individable and how can the Image of God concern but one Part of the Soul and not the other Certainly if the Soul is the Image of God it is his Image wholly and not partially or in parts But your Author has other as strange and odd opinions as these some whereof I have mentioned in my former Letters viz. the Souls being a Light her Figure her Residence and many the like Amongst the rest there is one thing which your Author frequently makes mention of I know not what to call it whether a thing or a being or no-thing for it is neither of them not a substance nor an accident neither a body nor a spirit and this Monster sor I think this is its proper name since none other will fit it is the Lacquey of the Soul to run upon all errands for the Soul sitting in her Princely Throne or Residence which is the orifice of the stomack cannot be every where her self neither is it fit she should as being a disgrace to her to perform all offices her self for want of servants therefore she sends out this most faithful and trusty officer your Author calls him Ideal Entity who being prepared for his journey readily performs all her commands as being not tied up to no commands of places times or dimensions especially in Women with Child he operates most powerfully for sometime he printed a Cherry on a Child by a strong Idea of the Mother but this Ideal Entity or servant of the Soul hath troubled my brain more then his Mistress the Soul her self for I could not nor cannot as yet conceive how he might be able to be the Jack of all offices and do Journies and travel from one part of the body to another being no body nor substance himself nor tyed to any place time and dimension and therefore I will leave him Your Author also speaks much of the Inward and Outward Man but since that belongs to Divinity I will declare nothing of it onely this I say that in my opinion the Inward and Outward man do not make a double Creature neither properly nor improperly properly as to make two different men improperly as we use to call that man double whose heart doth not agree with his words But by the Outward man I understand the sinful actions of flesh and blood and by the Inward man the reformed actions of the Spirit according to the Word of God and therefore the Outward and Inward man make but one Man Concerning the Natural Soul your Author speaks of her more to her disgrace then to her honor for he scorns to call her a substance neither doth he call her the Rational Soul but he calls her the Sensitive Soul and makes the Divine Soul to be the Rational Natural Soul and the cause of all natural actions for he being a Divine Philosopher mixes Divine and Natural things together But of the Frail Mortal Sensitive Soul as he names her which is onely the sensitive Life his opinions are that she is neither a substance nor an accident but a Neutral Creature and a Vital Light which hath not its like in the whole World but the light of a Candle for it is extinguished and goes out like the flame of a Candle it is locally present and entertained in a place and yet not comprehended in a place Nevertheless although this sensitive soul is no substance yet it has the honor to be the Inn or Lodging-place of the Immortal Soul or Mind and these two souls being both lights do pierce each other but the Mortal soul blunts the Immortal soul with its cogitation of the corruption of Adam These opinions Madam I confess really I do not know what to make of them for I cannot imagine how this Mortal soul being no substance can contain the Immortal soul which is a substance nor how they can pierce each other and the Mortal soul being substanceless get the better over an Immortal substance and vitiate corrupt and infect it neither can I conceive how that which in a manner is nothing already can be made less and annihilated Wherefore my opinion is that the Natural Soul Life and Body are all substantial parts of Infinite Nature not subsisting by themselves each apart but inseparably united and co-mixed both in their actions and substances for not any thing can and doth subsist of it self in Nature but God alone and things supernatural may for ought I know T is true there are several Degrees several particular Natures several Actions or Motions and several Parts in Nature but none subsists single and by it self without reference to the whole and to one another Your Author says the Vital Spirit sits in the Throne of the Outward man as Vice Roy of the Soul and acts by Commission of the Soul but it is impossible that one single part should be King of the whole Creature since Rational and Sensitive Matter is divided into so many parts which have equal power and force of action in their turns and severall imployments for though Nature is a Monarchess over all her Creatures yet in every particular Creature is a Republick and not a Monarchy for no part of any Creature has a sole supreme
Superfluities which bear onely a relation to a particular Creature which hath more Motion and Matter then is proper for the nature of its figure And thus much of this subject for the present from MADAM Your faithful Friend and humble Servant XXVII MADAM In my last I remember I told you of your Authors opinion concerning the seat of Diseases viz. that Diseases are properly in living bodies and consist in the life it self but when I consider his definition of Life and of a Disease I cannot conceive how they should consist together for he describes a Disease to be a real material and substantial being truly subsisting in a body but life to be a meer nothing and yet the immediate mansion of a disease the inward subject yea and workman of the same and that with the life all diseases depart into nothing Surely Madam it exceedeth my understanding for first I cannot conceive how life which is a meer Nothing can be a lodging to something Next how Nothing can depart and die and thirdly how Something can become Nothing I think your Author might call a dead Carcass as well No-thing as Life and since he names Diseases the Thieves of Life they must needs be but poor Thieves because they steal No-thing But your Author compares Life to Light and calls it an Extinguishable Light like the light of a Candle which if so then the old saying is verified That life goes out like the snuff of a Candle But I wonder Madam that grave and wise men will seriously make use of a fimilifing old Proverb or of a Poetical Fancy in matter of natural Philosophy for I have observed that Homer Lucian Ovid Virgil Horace c. have been very ferviceable to great Philosophers who have taken the ground of their Fictions and transferred them into Natural Philosophy as Immaterial substances Non-beings and many the like but they can neither do any good nor hurt to Nature but onely spoil Philosophical Knowledg and as Nature is ignorant of Immaterials and Non-beings so Art is ignorant of Nature for Mathematical Rules Measures and Demonstrations cannot rule measure nor demonstrate Nature no more then Chymical Divisions Dissolutions and Extractions or rather distractions nay I may say destructions can divide dissolve extract compose and unite as Nature doth Wherefore their Instruments Figures Furnaces Limbecks and Engines cannot instruct them of the truth of Natures Principles but the best and readiest way to find out Nature or rather some truth of Nature is sense and reason which are Parts of Natures active substance and therefore the truest informers of Nature but the Ignorance of Nature has caused Ignorance amongst Philosophers and the Ignorance of Philosophers hath caused numerous Opinions and numerous Opinions have caused various Discourses and Disputes which Discourses and Disputes are not Sense and Reason but proceed from Irregular Motions and Truth is not found in Irregularities But to return to Life it seems your Author hath taken his opinion from Lucian's Kingdom of Lights the Lights being the Inhabitants thereof and when any was adjudged to die his Light was put out which was his punishment And thus this Heathenish Fiction is become a Christian Verity when as yet your Author rayls much at those that insist upon the Opinions and Doctrine of Pagan Philosophers Wherefore I will leave this Poetical Fancy of Life and turn to Death and see what opinion your Author hath of that First concerning the cause or original of Death Neither God says he nor the Evil Spirit is the Creator of Death but Man onely who made death for himself Neither did Nature make death but Man made death natural Which if it be so then Death being to my opinion a natural Creature as well as Life Sickness and Health Man certainly had great Power as to be the Creator of a natural Creature But I would fain know the reason why your Author is so unwilling to make God the Author of Death and Sickness as well as of Damnation Doth it imply any Impiety or Irreligiousness Doth not God punish as well as reward and is not death a punishment for our sin You may say Death came from sin but sin did not come from God Then some might ask from whence came sin You will say From the Transgression of the Command of God as the eating of the Forbidden Fruit. But from whence came this Transgression It might be answer'd From the Perswasion of the Serpent From whence came this Perswasion From his ill and malitious nature to oppose God and ruine the race of Mankind From whence came this ill Nature From his Fall Whence came his Fall From his Pride and Ambition to be equal with God From whence came this Pride From his Free-will From whence came his Free-will From God Thus Madam if we should be too inquisitive into the actions of God we should commit Blasphemy and make God Cruel as to be the Cause of Sin and consequently of Damnation But although God is not the Author of Sin yet we may not stick to say that he is the Author of the Punishment of Sin as an Act of his Divine Justice which Punishment is Sickness and Death nay I see no reason why not of Damnation too as it is a due punishment for the sins of the wicked for though Man effectively works his own punishment yet Gods Justice inflicts it Like as a just Judg may be call'd the cause of a Thief being hang'd But these questions are too curious and some men will be as presumptuous as the Devil to enquire into Gods secret actions although they be sure that they cannot be known by any Creature Wherefore let us banish such vain thoughts and onely admire adore love and praise God and implore his Mercy to give us grace to shun the punishments for our sins by the righteousness of our actions and not endeavour to know his secret designs Next I dissent from your Author That Death and all dead things do want roots whereby they may produce For death and dead things in my opinion are the most active producers at least they produce more numerously and variously then those we name living things for example a dead Horse will produce more several Animals besides other Creatures then a living Horse can do but what Archeus and Ideas a dead Carcass hath I can tell no more then what Blas or Gas it hath onely this I say that it has animate Matter which is the onely Archeus or Master-workman that produces all things creates all things dissolves all things and transforms all things in Nature but not out of Nothing or into Nothing as to create new Creatures which were not before in Nature or to annihilate Creatures and to reduce them to nothing but it creates and transforms out of and in the same Matter which has been from all Eternity Lastly your Author is pleased to say That he doth not behold a disease as an abstracted Quality and that Apoplexy
deceived in the number of each sort of persons Next the Vulgar sort use laborious exercises and spare diet when as noble and rich persons are most commonly lazie and luxurious which breeds superfluities of humors and these again breed many distempers For example you shall find few poor men troubled with the Gout Stone Pox and the like diseases nor their Children with Rickets for all this cometh by luxury and no doubt but all other diseases are sooner bred with luxury then temperance but whatsoever is superfluous may if not be taken away yet mediated with lenitive and laxative medicines But as for Physicians surely never age knew any better in my opinion then this present and yet most of them follow the rules of the Schools which are such as have been grounded upon Reason Practice and Experience for many ages Wherefore those that will wander from the Schools and follow new and unknown ways are in my opinion not Orthodoxes but Hereticks in the Art of Physick But to return to your Author give me leave Madam to consider what his opinions are concerning the Purging of Choler Come on says he to the Schools Why doth that your Choler following with so swift an efflux stink so horribly which but for one quarter of an hour before did not stink To which it may be answered That though humors may not stink in themselves yet the excrements mixt with the humors may stink also the very passing thorow the excrements will cause a strong savour But your Author thinks That by passing through so suddenly the humors cannot borrow such a smell of stinking dung from the Intestines Truly 't is easily said but hardly proved and the contrary is manifest by putting clear pure water into a stinking vessel which straightway is corrupted with an ill smell He talks also of Vitriol dissolved in Wine which if it be taken presently provokes vomit but if after drinking it any one shall drink thereupon a draught of Ale or Beer or Water c. he indeed shall suffer many stools yet wholly without stink I answer This expresses Vitriol to be more poysonous by taking away the natural savour of the bowels then Scammony Coloquintida Manna Cassia Sena Rhubarb c. to all which your Author is a great enemy and it is well known to experienced Physicians that Medicines prepared by the art of fire are more poysonous and dangerous then natural drugs nay I dare say that many Chymical Medicines which are thought to be Cordials and have been given to Patients for that purpose have proved more poysonous then any Purging Physick Again your Author says It is worthy of Lamentation that Physicians would have loosening things draw out one humor and not another by selection or choyce My answer is That natural drugs and simples are as wise in their several operations as Chymists in their artificial distillations extractions sublimations and the like but it has long been observed by Physicians that one simple will work more upon one part of the body then upon another the like may be said of humors But give me leave to tell you Madam that if your Author believes magnetick or attractive cures as he doth and in whose behalf he makes very long discourses he doth in this opinion contradict himself He may say perhaps There is no such thing as what Physicians name humors But grant there be none yet he cannot deny that there are offensive juices or moveable substances made by evil as irregular digestions which may be troublesom and hurtful to the nature of the body Or perchance he will say There are such humors but they are beneficial and not offensive to the nature of the body I answer Then he must make an agreement with every part of the body not to make more of these humors then is useful for the body Also he mentions some few that took Purging Physick and died Truly so they might have done without taking it but he doth not tell how many have died for want of proper and timely Purges In truth Madam 't is an easie thing to find fault but not so easie to mend it And as for what he speaks of the weighing of those humors and excrements which by purging were brought out of some Princes body and how much by the Schools rules remained and of the place which should maintain the remainder I onely say this that all the several sorts of juices humors or moveable substances in a body do not lie in one place but are dispersed and spread all about and in several parts and places in the body so that the several Laxative medicines do but draw them together or open several parts that they may have freedom to travel with their chief Commanders which are the Purging medicines But your Author says the Loadstone doth not draw rust And I say no more do Purging drugs draw out pure Matter for it may be as natural for such medicines to draw or work onely upon superfluities that is corrupted or evil-affected humors juices or moveable substances as for the Loadstone to draw Iron and so it may be the property of Purges to draw onely the rust of the body and not the pure metal which are good humors But few do consider or observe sufficiently the variety of Natures actions and the motions of particular natural Creatures which is the cause they have no better success in their cures And so leaving them to a more diligent inquisition and search into Nature and her actions I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and humble Servant XXXV MADAM I Find your Author to be as great an enemy to Issues Cauteries Clysters and the like as he is to Blood-letting and Purging especially to Issues which he counts to be blasphemous against the Creator and blames much the Schools for prescribing them But concerning Blood-letting and Purging I have declared my opinion in my former Letters and if you desire my judgment of Clysters and Issues I must needs tell you that it is well known these many ages that in such diseases which lie in the guts and cause pain in the head and stop the ureteres Clysters have been very beneficial but wise Physicians do not prescribe them unless upon necessity As for example if the disease in the Guts proceed from cold or wind they prescribe a Sack-Clyster with oyl of Walnuts and if the disease in the guts proceed from a sharp or bitter humor then they prescribe Milk or Posset sweetned with Sugar the same if the guts be too full of excrements or slime But in case of diseases in the head or stomack they prescribe attractive Clysters to wit such as draw down from the upper into the lower parts wherein the Physical drugs are and if the guts be too dry or dryer then their nature requires they prescribe moistening Clysters such as have not onely wetting but slimy qualities And surely Clysters properly and timely applyed are a safe speedy easie and profitable medicine and far
onely that this sensitive and rational self-moving Matter is the life and soul of Nature But by reason this Matter is not subject to our gross senses although our senses are subject to it as being made subsisting and acting through the power of its actions we are not apt to believe it no more then a simple Country-wench will believe that Air is a substance if she neither hear see smell taste or touch it although Air touches and surrounds her But yet the effects of this animate matter prove that there is such a matter onely as I said before this self-moving matter causing a self-division as well as a general action is the cause of a self-obscurity which obscurity causes doubts disputes and inconstancies in humane opinions although not so much obscurity as to make all Creatures blindfold for surely there is no Creature but perceives more or less But to conclude The Rational degree of Matter is the most intelligible and the wisest part of Nature and the Sensitive is the most laborious and provident part in Nature both which are the Creators of all Creatures in Infinite Matter and if you intend to know more of this Rational and Sensitive Matter you may consult my Book of Philosophy to which I refer you And so taking my leave for the present I rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant II. MADAM I Understand by your last that you have read the Book of that most learned and famous Physician and Anatomist Dr. Harvey which treats of Generation and in the reading of it you have mark'd several scruples which you have framed into several questions concerning that subject to which you desire my answer Truly Madam I am loth to imbarque my self in this difficult argument not onely for the reasons I have given you heretofore but also that I do not find my self able enough to give you such a satisfactory answer as perhaps you do expect But since your Commands are so powerful with me that I can hardly resist them and your Nature so good that you easily pardon any thing that is amiss I will venture upon it according to the strength of my Natural Reason and endeavour to give you my opinion as well and as clearly as I can Your first question is Whether the action of one or more producers be the onely cause of Natural Production or Generation without imparting or transferring any of their own substance or Matter I answer The sole co-co-action of the Producers may make a change of exterior forms or figures but not produce another Creature for if there were not substance or matter as well as action both transferred together there would not be new Creatures made out of old Matter but every production would require new Matter which is impossible if there be but one Matter and that infinite and certainly humane sense and reason may well perceive that there can be but one Matter for several kinds of Matter would make a confusion and thus if new Creatures were made onely by substanceless motion it would not onely be an infinite trouble to Nature to create something out of nothing perpetually but as I said it would make a confusion amongst all Nature's works which are her several Parts or Creatures But by reason there is but one Matter which is Infinite and Eternel and this Matter has self-motion in it both Matter and Motion must of necessity transmigrate or be transferred together without any separation as being but one thing to wit Corporeal Motion 'T is true one part of animate or self-moving Matter may without Translation move or rather occasion other parts to move but one Creature cannot naturally produce another without the transferring of its corporeal motions But it is well to be observed that there is great difference between the actions of Nature for all actions are not generating but some are patterning and some transforming and the like and as for the transforming action that may be without translation as being nothing else but a change of motions in one and the same part or parts of Matter to wit when the same parts of Matter do change into several figures and return into the same figures again Also the action of Patterning is without Translation for to pattern out is nothing else but to imitate and to make a figure in its own substance or parts of Matter like another figure But in generation every producer doth transfer both Matter and Motion that is Corporeal Motion into the produced and if there be more producers then one they all do contribute to the produced and if one Creature produces many Creatures those many Creatures do partake more or less of their producer But you may say If the producer transfers its own Matter or rather its own corporeal motions into the produced many productions will soon dissolve the producer and he will become a sacrifice to his off-spring I answer That doth not follow for as one or more Creatures contribute to one or more other Creatures so other Creatures do contribute to them although not after one and the same manner or way but after divers manners or ways but all manners and ways must be by translation to repair and assist for no Creature can subsist alone and of it self but all Creatures traffick and commerce from and to each other and must of necessity do so since they are all parts of the same Matter Neither can Motion subsist without Matter nor quit Matter nor act without Matter no more then an Artificer can work without materials and without self-motion Matter would be dead and useless Wherefore Matter and Motion must upon necessity not onely be inseparable but be one body to wit corporeal motion which motion by dividing and composing its several parts and acting variously is the cause of all Production Generation Metamorphosing or any other thing that is done in Nature But if according to your Author the sole action be the cause of Generation without transferring of substance then Matter is useless and of none or little effect which in my opinion is not probable Your second question is Whether the Production or Generation of animals is as the Conceptions of the Brain which the Learned say are Immaterial I answer The Conceptions of the Brain in my opinion are not Immaterial but Corporeal for though the corporeal motions of the brain or the matter of its conceptions is invisible to humane Creatures and that when the brain is dissected there is no such matter found yet that doth not prove that there is no Matter because it is not so gross a substance as to be perceptible by our exterior senses Neither will your Authors example hold that as a builder erects a house according to his conception in the brain the same happens in all other natural productions or generations for in my opinion the house is materially made in the brain which is the conception of the builder although not of such gross materials as Stone Brick Wood
heat were not corporeal but that those corporeal motions which make heat work invisibly and not visibly like as fire feeds on fuel or man on meat Also when I say Excercise amongst animals gets strength I mean that by excercise the inherent natural motions of an animal body are more active as being more industrious When I say That the passage whence cold and sharp winds do issue out is narrow I mean when as such or such parts disjoyn or separate from other parts as for example when dilating parts disjoyn from contracting parts and oftentimes the disjoyning parts do move according to the nature of those parts they disjoyn from Concerning the actions of Nature my meaning is that there is not any action whatsoever but was always in Nature and remains in Nature so long as it pleases God that Nature shall last and of all her actions Perception and self-love are her prime and chief actions wherefore it is impossible but that all her particular creatures or parts must be knowing as well as self-moving there being not one part or particle of Nature that has not its share of animate or self-moving matter and consequently of knowledge and self-love each according to its own kind and nature but by reason all the parts are of one matter and belong to one body each is unalterable so far that although it can change its figure yet it cannot change or alter from being matter or a part of Infinite Nature and this is the cause there cannot be a confusion amongst those parts of Nature but there must be a constant union and harmony betwixt them for cross and opposite actions make no confusion but onely a variety and such actions which are different cross and opposite not moving always after their usual and accustomed way I name Irregular for want of a better expression but properly there is no such thing as Irregularity in Nature nor no weariness rest sleep sickness death or destruction no more then there is place space time modes accidents and thelike any thing besides body or matter When I speak of unnatural Motions I mean such as are not proper to the nature of such or such a Creature as being opposite or destructive to it that is moving or acting towards its dissolution Also when I call Violence supernatural I mean that Violence is beyond the particular nature of such a particular Creature that is beyond its natural motions but not supernatural that is beyond Infinite Nature or natural Matter When I say A thing is forced I do not mean that the forced body receives strength without Matter but that some Corporeal Motions joyn with other Corporeal Motions and so double the strength by joyning their parts or are at least an occasion to make other parts more industrious By Prints I understand the figures of the objects which are patterned or copied out by the sensitive and rational corporeal figurative Motions as for example when the sensitive corporeal motions pattern out the figure of an exteriour object and the rational motions again pattern out a figure made by the sensitive motions those figures of the objects that are patterned out I name Prints as for example The sense of Seeing is not capable to receive the Print that is the figure or pattern of the object of the whole Earth And again The rational Motions are not alwayes exactly after the sensitive Prints that is after the figures made by the sensitive motions Thus by Prints I understand Patterns and by printing patterning not that the exteriour object prints its figure upon the exteriour sensitive organs but that the sensitive motions in the organs pattern out the figure of the object but though all printing is done by the way of patterning yet all patterning is not printing Therefore when I say that solid bodies print their figures in that which is more porous and soft and that those solid bodies make new prints perpetually and as they remove the prints melt out like verbal or vocal sounds which print words and set notes in the Air I mean the soft body by its own self-motion patterns out the figure of the solid body and not that the solid body makes its own print and so leaves the place of its own substance with the print in the soft body for place remains always with its own body and cannot be separated from it they being but one thing for example when a Seal is printed in Wax the Seal gives not any thing to the Wax but is onely an object patterned out by the figurative motions of the Wax in the action of printing or sealing When I make mention of what the Senses bring in I mean what the sensitive Motions pattern out of forreign objects And when I say that the pores being shut touch cannot enter I mean the sensitive corporeal motions cannot make patterns of outward objects Also when I say our Ears may be as knowing as our Eyes and so of the rest of the sensitive organs I mean the sensitive motions in those parts or organs When I say The more the Body is at rest the more active or busie is the Mind I mean when the sensitive Motions are not taken up with the action of patterning out forreign objects When I say the Air is fill'd with sound and that words are received into the ears as figures of exterior objects are received into the eyes I mean the sensitive motions of the Air pattern out sound and the sensitive motions of the Ears pattern out words as the sensitive figurative motions of the Eyes pattern out the figures of external objects Also when I speak of Thunder and Lightning to wit That Thunder makes a great noise by the breaking of lines My meaning is That the Air patterns out this sound or noise of the lines and by reason there are so many patterns made in the air by its sensitive motions the Ear cannot take so exact a copy thereof but somewhat confusedly and this is the reason why Thunder is represented or rather pattern'd out with some terrour for Thunder is a confused noise because the patterns are made confusedly But concerning Sound and Light I am forced to acquaint you Madam that my meaning thereof is not so well expressed in my Book of Philosophy by reason I was not of the same opinion at that time when I did write that Book which I am now of for upon better consideration and a more diligent search into the causes of natural effects I have found it more probable that all sensitive perception is made by the way of Patterning and so consequently the perception of Sound and of Light wherefore I beseech you when you find in my mentioned Book any thing thereof otherwise expressed do not judg of it as if I did contradict my self but that I have alter'd my opinion since upon more probable reasons Thus Madam you have a true declaration of my sence and meaning concerning those