examine the effect it produceth in the Ear it striketh and in the Brain it shaketh In regard that the Anatomy of the Ear is a thing commonly known and that 't is sufficient for every one to be persuaded in the general that it is an Organ dispos'd to receive the air when 't is propelled by Bodies which by touching one another drive it from betwixt them or repelled by hard Bodies or issuing out of the Lungs of an Animal I shall make no description of it I desire only it may be observ'd that as many different shakings there are in the Air so many different sorts there are of its passing into the Ear and that according to those diversities it causeth a different agitation in the Membrane stretch'd out in the bottom of the Ear and in the Nerves answering thereto It may also be judged by what we know of the construction of Animals even of Beasts that according as the Agitation of the Nerves of the Ear is different the Brain must be agitated in different parts and likewise that 't is alwayes according as those different parts are agitated that the spirits are differently distributed into the members But all that is perform'd by a necessary sequel of the mechanical disposition of the whole Body of every Animal and even of every Beast which being of a certain kind that is made for one thing or another hath all what is necessary to effect what the Author of Nature proposed to himself in forming it It hath the Brain so adjusted according to its temperament for all what may conserve it that if the Objects which can hurt it move its Brain 't is alwayes after such a manner which maketh it to open in the places whence the spirits may flow into the muscles which serve to make it retire from those Objects and if the Objects which can benefit it move its Brain 't is alwayes in such a manner as maketh it to open in the places whence the spirits may be diffused into the muscles which serve to make it approach to those Objects so that if we suppose that one and the same noise striking the ears of two Beasts of differing kind do agitate at the same time their Brains we are to believe that that agitation being diversly made in each and in different parts of their Brain according as that which causes the noise shall be agreeable or contrary to it it will also happen that the course of the spirits being necessarily different in those two Beasts one of them shall be carried far from the object whilst the other approacheth to it Thus the howling of a Wolf may make a Sheep fly but at the same time bring to him another Wolf But 't is necessary to observe here that although the Art whereby the Brain of Animals is composed be infinitely varied and that 't is admirable herein that according to their different conformations 't is always found so artificially disposed that those Creatures must necessarily and according to all the rules of the Mechanicks approach to what is naturally good for them and retire from what is naturally noxious to them yet it was not possible that within the small compass of their Brain there should be so many differing springs that they could have a proportion necessary and always well suited to all sorts of Objects But instead thereof their Brain is made of a substance soft enough easily to receive new impressions and yet consistent enough to retain those which in some places thereof are made by certain objects which being neither naturally good nor ill for them do yet sometimes occasion considerable benefit or mischief to them and frequently those traces which at first were not in the Brain remain there so well marked that when the Objects which caused them present themselves the places keeping the impression being more agitated by them than the other diffuse thence such spirits into the muscles as serve to carry the Animal nearer to or further from those Objects according as they have been found beneficial or noxious to it Mean time whereas there is much more danger for the Animal to suffer the approach of the Objects that can hurt it than there would be in the not approaching those that might do it good at the time when there is yet no impression in its Brain at the occasion of an Object if then it happen that from a noise that Object begin to shake the Brain of the Creature it will never fail to fly especially if the Air hath been agitated strongly or in such a way that hath troubled the Brain I believe there is no body that hath not often felt in himself the effects of this surprise and experimented how much the Will which the Soul then hath to keep the Body in certain places is controled by this natural Disposition which maketh all the Spirits and Muscles conspire together to transport it far from those places where a noise is made especially when 't is so great that the whole Body is threatned to be there destroyed Every one may also have found what force the agitation made in the Brain by a noise not ordinary hath to make the Spirits without one's thinking on 't flow into the muscles that serve to transport the Body out of the places where that noise happens But since this is not yet the place proper to examine what the Soul's part is in Speech we must to finish the Observations of what she borrows from the Body for the formation of a Voice call to mind a Note I have already made which is that the same Nerves which answer to the Ears have branches going to the Teeth the Tongue the Entrance of the Wind-pipe and generally to all the places which serve to form or modifie the Voice so that following Nature's Institution the same shaking of the Auditory Nerves which affects the Brain with the motion caused by a voice in the Air is also the cause that the Spirits which flow from the Brain into the Nerves of all the parts serving for the Voice dispose their Muscles in a manner which answering to the Impression made by the Voice in the Brain puts them into a state to form a Voice altogether like it And if it have been necessary that the correspondence which is between the Auditory Nerves and the Brain should be such that when it should be moved by the concussions of the air that should be done in different places of it according to the diversity of Noises to the end that following that diversity the Spirits might diffuse themselves into the Muscles that can carry away or stay the Animal according as the causes of that noise are good or ill for the whole Body It was no less requisite there should be a sufficient commerce between the same Auditory Nerves and those of the parts that serve for the Voice to bring it to pass that when a voice should strike the ear the Muscles of those parts might immediately be
disposed as they ought to be to form another perfectly like it And to manifest this necessity better 't is requisite to make two reflections The first is that if it concern Animals to have their Brain shaken by the noise of certain Bodies before they approach too near them that so they may avoid them it concerns them likewise to have their Brain moved by some other Bodies to the end that they may be carried towards them when they are remoter from them than is requisite for their conservation or conveniency The other is that as considering only each Animal according to its species there is nothing more noxious to it than those of a contrary species so there is nothing that can be more beneficial to it than those of its own kind That being so 't is evident that nothing could be so useful as this communication which is between the Ears and the parts serving to form the voice For by this means the cry of one Beast shaking the Brain of another of its kind it presently comes to pass that not only it is carried towards that which maketh the cry according to what hath been said but besides the Muscles of its Throat do so dispose themselves that it makes at the same time a like cry and this new cry striking the Brain of that which cried first causeth the spirit to flow into the Muscles which serve to carry it toward the second so that they sooner meet and may according to the causes of the cry that made them approach draw from one another what may contribute to their conservation I very well know that this necessity of forming cryes or voyces like those that have struck the Ears is not so universal that it must so fall out always and that there are two cases wherein it happens otherwise even in Brutes The first is when that Creature whose Ear is struck and whose Brain is agitated by a Cry is not of the same kind with that which maketh the Cry For we know by what hath been above deliver'd not only that the dispositions of the parts which form the voice in Animals of different species being altogether different that cannot come to pass but also that what is the cause why a Brute makes a cry like that which is made by another of its own kind is only that they may the sooner come together in cases of need which they may stand in of one another The other is that it may often happen even among Animals of the same kind that the Brain of the one is mov'd by the Voice or Cry of the other after such a manner that it shall be more beneficial for that creature whose Brain hath been mov'd by that cry to have the spirits flow into other Muscles than those which serve to make a like voice For example if a Cock makes that noise he useth to make when he meets with a grain of corn it may be that that noise striking the ears of the Hens will shake their Brain in such a manner as shall make them run to the place where that grain is without forming a voice like that which made them come thither As also it may happen that one Animal cries so on the occasion of a dangerous object as that it maketh all the other of the same species run away without forming any cry like it But as often as a Brute is not pressed by such necessities which do alwayes strongliest determine the course of the spirit in its Body when its ear is struck by a Cry that communication betwixt the Ears and the Larinx maketh that from the same place where the Nerves of the Ear have made a motion in its Brain the spirits do necessarily flow into the Muscles of the Larinx which disposing it in such a way as is suitable to the impression of the Brain do make the Animal form a cry altogether like it Thence it comes that Birds excite one another to sing And in short this commerce between the Nerves of the Ear and those of the parts serving for the voice is in general so much the cause of the noise which most Brutes make that provided they are not in any urgent need when their ears are excited by some noise the impression it makes in their Brain causes the spirits that are not diverted another way take their course to the Larinx to dispose it to make a like noise And as the noise which hath shaken their Brain cannot alwayes be imitated by the voices which they are capable to make according to the natural conformation of their Throat they often return such as are very differing Hence it is that Musical Instruments excite Birds to sing yet their songs are so different from all that is play'd on such Instruments But to shew that that proceeds only from the little conformity there is between those Instruments and the disposition of the Throat of the Bird which hinders the imitation we find that as often as there is a proportion between their throat and the voices that strike their Ears they fail not to form at length such as are like them Thus Linets learn in time the note of Nightingales the songs of other Birds and what ever is play'd on Instruments and they learn even as Parrets to pronounce some of our words because they have the Tongue and Beak disposed to articulate them If they be long in learning the songs of other Birds or our words 't is because the Nerves which communicate from their ears to the muscles of their Throat Tongue and Beak cannot be so soon adjusted to those new ways of voices as to cause their formation presently but it appears at last that from the time that those parts are capable to form those voices they do actually utter them And we ought above all things to observe that the change which happens in them when they learn is that their Brain being divers times struck in the same place by the same Songs or the same Words the impression thereof remains so strong in that place that the spirits which thence issue to flow into the muscles of their Throat Tongue and Beak do at last dispose them to repeat those songs or words It is likewise to be well observ'd that they never return the songs and words they have learnt but when they are in no such need which diverts their spirits another way and if in those necessities they form a cry or voice 't is ever the cry or voice of their kind so that they form not strange songs nor utter human words but when they want nothing and when the spirits abounding or much heated run without any diversion to their course from the place of the brain which those songs or words have most agitated to the parts that serve for the voice except great care have been taken to give them none of the food they needed but at the time when some body did sing or speak near them for then the presence
of the food does not fail to excite them to repeat the same songs or words And to understand this well we must conceive that Brutes learn their cry from others of their kind and that ordinarily the food is the cause of it For their young ones having at the same time their Ears struck by the cries always made by their Dams at the presence of some food which they have not yet the possession of and their Eyes also struck by that food it self it must come to pass that the place of their brain which always receives those two agitations at once gets thence in time such an impression made in it that the spirits taking their course from that place to the throat and the muscles serving for the voice must needs dispose them after such a manner as answering to the impression of the brain causeth those young ones to make a cry like that of their Dam. But when they are brought up by men and when Linets for example are bred in a Cage and that in-stead of the cry of their Dam it happens that in the presence of the food certain strange songs or humane words strike their ears 't is no wonder if those words or songs making impression in the same place of the brain whence that food should have made the spirits to flow into the muscles of the throat and beak to cause them to make the noise which birds make at the presence of a food they hold not yet are cause that the spirits being otherwise directed do also otherwise dispose the muscles of the throat tongue and beak of those young Birds and make them sing songs and utter words instead of the cry which they would have form'd if their Dam had bred them This must needs so happen and even those songs or words may then be call'd their natural cry or song because having always accompany'd an action that hath made so deep an Impression on their brain it cannot be that that action should move their brain and the spirits should not also flow presently to the muscles which serve for that song or those words And likewise if they have been put in a certain condition or in a certain place to make them learn the better they will sooner repeat what they have been taught if they be put again in the same condition and place than in any other 'T is easie also to understand why it hath sometimes happn'd that a great noise as that of a Trumpet having at one blow shaken altogether the ear of a Bird hath made so strong an Impression in his brain that having struck out all the others the spirits have no more diffused themselves towards his throat than in such a manner as might dispose the muscles of the Larinx to return sounds altogether like that of a Trumpet And we must not wonder if the passages through which those spirits flow to the throat being more difficult to be moved than the brain to be shaken the Bird remains sometimes in a kind of silence for many days before he renders that sound nor also if that silence be perpetual when the parts which serve for the voice are not capable to form a like one to the sound which hath so strongly mov'd the Brain In short there is no intelligent man who after this discourse sees not why an Animal being born deaf must needs be dumb From all which it results with sufficient evidence to a considering Man first That 't is the Lungs and the structure of the Wind-pipe the mouth the palat the teeth and the muscles of all those parts which by receiving and repelling or in diversly modifying the Air is the cause enabling us to form Voices and to articulate them Secondly That 't is by reason of the communication which is between the brains and the other parts of the body of every Animal that it is diversly agitated by those Voices Thirdly That in every Animal capable to form Voices there is such a commerce from the ear to the brain and from the brain to all the parts serving for the voice that the same voice which shakes the brain by the intervention of the ear disposeth it also to diffuse the spirits into the muscles of those parts which spirits putting them into a posture answerable to the manner in which that voice did strike the brain make them form a voice altogether like it if some pressing necessity of the Animal diverts not the course of the spirits to another place Which being once well understood it will be easie to know a thousand things which commonly enough are not known touching the different effects of the cry and noise of Animals which I mean not to explain more particularly because that all those who have attention enough to conceive the few principles which I have laid down will from thence draw all what is necessary to explain it and because those that are not capable of such an attention would not conceive what I could say of it even in a more particular discourse I shall only stay to consider here that according to these Principles Brutes need no Soul to cry or to be moved by cries For if they be toucht in any place or their nerves struck with force enough to cause a great shake in their Brain 't is sufficiently easie to conceive that that action agitating the spirits these must flow much more swiftly into the muscles and by this means the swiftness of those that run incessantly to the heart augmenting must render the pulses thereof more precipitate which maketh it propel so great a plenty of bloud into the Artery of the Lungs that this Artery being more distended than ordinarily presseth the Wind-pipe and maketh the air to be driven out of the Lungs with an impetuosity answerable to that whereby the bloud enter'd there The second effect of this quick agitation of the spirits is that at the same time they flow to the heart some of them diffuse themselves also to all the other muscles that are in a continual action as those of the breast because whereas the passages through which the spirits are conveyed in those sorts of muscles are alwayes open by reason of the necessity of their continual action the spirits cannot receive a new motion without presently communicating it to those Muscles which causeth those of the Diaphragme and Breast press the Breast in such a manner as makes the air issue out with unusual force and seeing the muscles of the Larinx are also strongly agitated the air thence getting out is beaten in a manner which holds somewhat of that agitation Thus it may be conceived from the sole disposition of the Body why a Brute cries And to know how it may be moved by cries without having a Soul you need but remember the communion there is between the brain the parts serving for the voice and all the parts of the body For if according to the difference of cries the brains are diversly moved
and that the one cannot be advertis'd by the other but by the motions occasion'd by the Body to which the Soul is united But supposing that one of the Spirits have no Body it is capable to render it self present by its very thoughts to that which hath a Body as it doth to that which is destitute of a Body and reciprocally that Spirit which is united to a Body will be able without the intervention of the Voice to express its thoughts to every Spirit that is Body-less Mean time we are so accustom'd to judge of all things by those we see that since men make use of a voice and very easily understand one another we rashly judge that it would be very difficult to two Spirits mutually to communicate their thoughts And some judge it even impossible that a Spirit destitute of Body for example an Angel should communicate with Vs But 't is evident that that proceeds only from the precipitation of our Spirit who maketh no reflection on what befals him in the communication he hath with the spirit of another Man For if he did consider that the beating of the Air and the other things which serve to make him understand the thoughts of the person that discourses with him have nothing in them resembling those thoughts he would more wonder that he understands him than he wonders when one will perswade him that two Angels speak to one another or that even one Angel can converse with Vs without the assistance of a voice I cannot in this place forbear to take notice how much the reflexion we make on what passeth within us is capable to make us judge aright of what is done or at least may be done elsewhere And the Example I draw from the manner after which we converse with men is so proper to make it to be conceived what might pass betwixt Spirits destitute of such Bodies as we have and even between those Spirits and Us that the thing being well examin'd there will be found no other difference between those two sorts of Communications but that that which is between Man and Man will prove the more difficult to conceive in regard it is made by the means of Motions which are quite different from Thoughts whereas that which we may have with meer Spirits is less sensible because 't is perform'd without any of those motions which render as 't were sensible to us the thoughts of the men whose voice striketh our Ears And this may be also the cause why we are inform'd that when Spirits would give any important advertisements to Men they borrow'd Bodies and form'd Voices like those of Men. But those Extraordinary things are not to hinder us from conceiving that naturally we can communicate with meer Spirits more easily than with Men. So that if Faith teaches us there are Spirits not united to Bodies and that he who hath created them as he hath us having committed to them the care of conducting us they are always present to our Spirit to direct it without constraining it there is nothing in that which is above those things we think we know best For in short as we conceive that the communication between two Men is made by Speech that is by a Will to express what they think and by the motions answering to that will we may also me thinks conceive that the converse of two Spirits may be made by the sole Will of manifesting themselves to one another and that if a meer Spirit communeth with a Man though that be in a way less sensible than is that of ordinary Words yet 't is after a manner intelligible which may insensibly give him the thoughts he needs for his conduct which in a word is to inspire him Even so may we easily conceive that God who causeth our Spirits to move Bodies can if need be give to an Angel the same power to make himself to be understood by speech Now me things I see what is properly meant by the word Inspiration and I believe I am not deceived when I say that 't is by that means only that those thoughts may come into our mind which have no affinity to any of those that naturally are in our Soul only because we have a Body Next I see that we know no more the Spirits of any of all those men that speak to us when they inspire us with their thoughts than those meer Spirits which I think capable to inspire us better thoughts And as the new thoughts which come into our mind by the conversation we have with men are a sure testimony to any of us that they have a Spirit like ours we are to take the new thoughts coming in to us without being able to find the cause of them in our selves or impute it to the discourse of men for an assured testimony that there are yet other Spirits that may inspire us with them I find also that the custome of understanding the thoughts of other men by gestures and the voice maketh that way to affect us more than the things which are inspired us without it But if I heed it well I see that we do not more know the â—â—â—rits of meâ— th t speak to us than tâ—â—â—pâ—rits th◠〈…〉 us A like Air t◠〈◊〉 out b◠〈…〉 â—â—s of him that discourses wâ—â—h â—s striking our ears exciteth upon the agitation of the Brain sounds in our Soul and at the same time the images or conceptions which we have joyned to those sounds But in truth neither that propelled Air nor any thing of what passeth into the Body from him that speaks to us is his thought and if we have any reason to believe him to have thoughts 't is only because we feel that he excites new ones in us But if all the reason we have to believe there are Spirits united to the Bodies of the men that speak to us is that they give us often new thoughts such as we had not or that they oblige us to alter those we had can we doubt when new thoughts come into us that are above our natural light and contrary to the sentiments which the Body may excite in us can we I say when no men inspire us with them doubt of their being inspired us by other Spirits I judge we cannot reasonably and the custome we have to receive them by the means of Speech which is a sensible way ought not to make us disadvow those that are inspired us by a way different from that of the senses I know also that if we be free to hide our thoughts whilst our Soul is united to a Body we might have the same liberty if it were separated from it and that in some manner that freedome would yet be greater in regard that often when we speak to a person the signes and the voices by which we express our selves may be perceived or understood by a Third to whom we would not discover our thoughts whereas a pure Spirit who is not obliged