ordered otherwise they will do more hurt then good for Diseases are like Enemies which sometimes take away our Armes for their own uses But your Author says again That the Matter of a Fever floats not in the veins nor sits nigh the heart I answer There are several sorts of Fevers for all Fevers are not produced after one and the same manner or from one and the same cause as is very well known to wise and experienced Physicians but although some Fevers are not in the blood yet that doth not prove that the blood is never in a Fever for sometimes the blood is in a Fever and not the solid parts and sometimes the fluid and moveable humors and not the blood or solid parts and sometimes the solid parts and not the blood nor the liquid and moveable humors and sometimes they are all in a Fever and sometimes onely the radical parts and neither the blood humors nor solid parts and this last kind of Fever which is a hectick Fever in my opinion is incureable but the others may be cureable if there be not too many varieties of distempers or irregular motions And as for a Fever in the solid parts Letting of blood and taking away the humor may cure it for the veins being empty suck the heat out of the solid parts which solid parts cannot draw out a distempered heat in the veins and the opening of the veins gives vent to some of the interior heat to issue forth Wherefore it is very requisite that in all sorts of Fevers except Hectick-Fevers blood-letting should be used not onely once but often for 't is better to live with a little blood and a little strength which will soon be recovered then to die with too much or too hot and distempered blood Also Purging but especially Vomiting is very good for if the humors be in a Feaver they may infect the vital parts as also the blood but if they be not in a Fever yet the solid parts or blood may do the same and so make the contagion greater for the humors are as the moveables in a house which ought to be cast out if either they or the house should be on fire and if a disorder proceeds from the error of a particular part then care must be taken to rectifie that part for the health of the whole Wherefore Physicians use in some cases Blood-letting in some Purging in some Vomiting in some Bathing in some Sweating in some Cordials especially after much evacuation in some they prescribe a good diet and in some they mix and prescribe partly one and partly the other and in some cases they are forced to use all these remedies for though great evacuations may cause weakness yet they often save the life and there is no Patient but had rather lose some strength then life for life can gather strength again but all strong men are not always long lived nor all long-lived men very strong for many that are but weak will live to a very old age Lastly concerning what your Author says that there is but one Choler and Phlegme in Nature I answer That is more then he knows for all that is in Nature is not nor cannot be known by any Particular Creature and he might say as well the same of particular Metals as that there is but one sort of Gold or Silver when as there is great difference in the weight purity colour and gloss of several parts of Gold and Silver Neither is all Gold found in one place but some is found in Rocks some in Sand some in Mines some in Stones and so Silver some is found in the bowels of the Earth some in the veins of Stones and some in other Metals as Lead and Iron and some in Coals And the like may be said of Choler and Phlegme for they may be several in several places or parts of the body and be of different colours tastes odours and degrees of heat or cold thinness or thickness or the like for though there is but one Matter in Nature yet this onely Matter by its several actions or motions changes into several figures and so makes several sorts of Creatures and different particulars in every sort And thus Madam I have delivered unto you my opinion concerning the cure of Fevers by Blood-letting Which I submit to the correction of your better judgment and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXXIV MADAM YOur Author is not onely against Phlebotomy or Blood-letting but against all Purging Medicines which he condemns to carry a hidden poyson in them and to be a cruel and stupid invention But certainly he shall not have my assent for if they be Poyson they are a very beneficial Poyson and Physical Purgations in my opinion are very necessary and profitable for the prolonging of life and taking away of diseases provided they be proper for those diseases in which they are used and so is Phlebotomy Vomits and the like but Medicines are often wrong applyed and many times the disease is so various that it is as hard for a Physician to hit right with several Medicines as for a Gunner or Shooter to kill with Powder and small Shot a Bird flying in the Air not that it is not possible to be done but it is not ordinary or frequent neither doth the fault onely lie in the Gun Powder or Shot but in the swiftness of the flight of the Bird or in the various motion of the air or in a sudden wind or mist or the like for the same Gunner may perhaps easily kill a Bird sitting in a bush or hopping upon the ground The like may be said of Diseases Physicians and Medicines for some diseases have such sudden alterations by the sudden changes of motions that a wise Physician will not nor cannot venture to apply so many several medicines so suddenly as the alteration requires and shall therefore Physicians be condemned and not onely condemned for what cannot be helped by reason of the variety of irregular motions but what cannot be helped in Nature For some diseases are so deadly as no art can cure them when as otherwise Physicians with good and proper medicines have and do as yet rescue more people from death then the Laws do from ruine Nay I have known many that have been great enemies to Physick die in the flower of their age when as others which used themselves to Physick have lived a very long time But you may say Country-people and Labourers take little or no Physick and yet grow most commonly old whereas on the contrary Great and rich Persons take much Physick and do not live so long as the common sort of men doth I answer It is to be observed first that there are more Commons then Nobles or Great and rich persons and there is not so much notice taken of the death of a mean as of a noble great or rich person so that for want of information or knowledg one may easily be
more safe then Chymical Salts Tartars Spirits or the like Next concerning Issues and Cauteries your Author I say is so much against them as he counts them a blasphemy for says he I have beheld always an implicite blasphemy in a Cautery whereby they openly accuse the Creator of insufficiency in framing the emunctories for I have bidden above a thousand Issues to be filled up with flesh Also That which God hath made whole and entire that it might be very good seems to the Schools that it should be better if it be kept wounded Truly Madam in my opinion it is no blasphemy at all neither directly nor indirectly to make Issues but a meer superstition to believe the contrary viz. that they are blasphemy and a great folly not to make them when need requires it to the preservation of ones health God has made our body whole and intire says your Author by which he will prove that no holes must be made in the body to let out excrementious matter and therefore he thinks that body to be whole and intire which is without an Issue when as yet our bodies have numerousissues which are the pores of the skin to let out sweat and therefore if he counts that body not to be whole and intire that has issues then no humane body is intire Certainly no Artificial Issue will make the body maimed but it will nevertheless continue whole and intire although it has Issues He says it is Blasphemy But how will he prove it Surely not by the Scripture and if not by the Scripture then it is a blasphemy according to his own brain and fancy 'T is true God gave no express Command to make Issues but according to your Author God did never create Diseases and so there was no need either to make such Issues in bodies as to let out distempered Matter or to give any command for them but we might as well say we must not use any Physick because it is not so natural to man as food and serves not for the nourishment of the body but onely to keep off or drive out diseases Also no stone must be cut but man must rather indure torment and death But setting aside this superstitious doctrine of your Author it is evident enough and needs no proof that Cancers Fistula's Wenns Eating-evils Madness Fevers Consumptions Rheumes Pleurisies and numerous other diseases are not better cured then by Issues or making of wounds either by Lancets Pen-knifes Scissers Rasors Corrosives Causticks Leeches or the like And although your Author says That that Matter which proceeds from or out of an Issue is made in the lips of the wound and not in the body for it cannot possibly drain or draw out any moisture either from within or between the skin and the flesh having no passages Yet if this were so how come Fistula's Cancers and the like diseases to have passages from within the body to the exterior parts so as to make a wound out of which much sharp and salt humor issues which humor certainly is not made in the lips of the wound but in the body Also whence comes the humor that makes the Gout For though the swelling and inflammation will sometimes appear exteriously yet after some time those tumors and humors retire back into the body from whence they did flow but he might as well say that Pit-falls or Sluces do not drain Land from a superfluity of Water as that Issues do not drain the body of superfluous humors Wherefore I am absolutely of opinion that the Practice of the Schools is the best and wifest Practice as well in making Issues letting blood Purging by Siege or Vomits as any other means used by them for by Issues I have seen many cured when no other medicines would do any good with them and letting blood I am confident hath rescued more lives then the Universal Medicine could Chymists find it out perchance would do So also Clysters and Vomits skilfully applied have done great benefits to the life of men for every part and member hath its peculiar way to be purged and cleansed for example Clysters principally cleanse the Guts Purges the Stomack Vomits the Chest Sneezing the Head Bleeding the Veins and Issues drain the whole body of naughty humors All which remedies properly and timely used keep the body from being choak'd with superfluities ' There are several other ways of cures besides for several diseases but I leave those to learned and skilful Physicians who know best how and when to use them to the benefit and health of their Patients although your Author finds much fault with them and blames them for suffering men to die miserably but God has given power to Nature to make certain dissolutions although uncertain diseases and uncertain remedies Neither hath she in her power to give Immortal Life to particular Creatures for this belongs to God alone and therefore no Universal Medicine will keep out death or prolong life further then its thread is spun which I doubt is but a Chymaera and an impossible thing by reason there are not onely so many different varieties in several diseases but in one and the same disease as no Universal remedy would do any good But your Author is much pleased with Paradoxes and Paradoxes are not certain Truths Wherefore it is better in my judgment to follow the old approved and practised way of the Schools grounded upon Experience and Reason then his Paradoxical Opinions To which Schools as your Author is a great Enemy so I am a great Friend as well as MADAM Your Ladiships humble Servant XXXVI MADAM I Approve well of your Authors opinion That Drink ought not to be forbidden in Fevers but yet I would not allow so much as to drown and oppress the Patients life but onely so much as to refresh and moisten him and therefore the best way is to drink little and often But as for Wine which your Author commends in Fevers I am utterly against it unless the Fever proceed from a cold or crude cause otherwise cooling Ptisans are most beneficial to those that are sick of a continual Fever which for the most part is a general Fever throughout the whole body one part infecting the other until they be all infected like as in the Plague And to let you know the proof of it when I was once sick beyond the Seas I sent for a Doctor of Physick who was an Irish-man and hearing of some that knew him and his practice that he was not successful in his Cures but that his Patients most commonly died I asked him what he used to prescribe in such or such diseases where amongst the rest as I remember he told me That he allowed his Patients to drink Wine in a Fever I thought he was in a great error and told him my opinion that though Wine might be profitable perhaps to some few yet for the most part it was very hurtful and destructive alledging another famous
There was and There shall be but onely There is Neither can it properly be said from this to that place but onely in reference to the several moving parts of the onely Infinite Matter And thus much to your Questions I add no more but rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and humble Servant XXX MADAM IN your last you were pleased to express that some men who think themselves wise did laugh in a scornful manner at my opinion when I say that every Creature hath life and knowledg sense and reason counting it not onely ridiculous but absurd and asking whether you did or could believe a piece of wood metal or stone had as much sense as a beast or as much reason as a man having neither brain blood heart nor flesh nor such organs passages parts nor shapes as animals To which I answer That it is not any of these mentioned things that makes life and knowledg but life and knowledg is the cause of them which life and knowledg is animate matter and is in all parts of all Creatures and to make it more plain and perspicuous humane sense and reason may perceive that wood stone or metal acts as wisely as an animal As for example Rhubarb or the like drugs will act very wisely in Purging and Antimony or the like will act very wisely in Vomiting and Opium will act very wisely in Sleeping also Quicksilver or Mercury will act very wisely as those that have the French disease can best witness likewise the Loadstone acts very wisely as Mariners or Navigators will tell you Also Wine made of Fruit and Ale of Malt and distilled Aqua-vitae will act very subtilly ask the Drunkards and they can inform you Thus Infinite examples may be given and yet man says all Vegetables and Minerals are insensible and irrational as also the Planets and Elements when as yet the Planets move very orderly and wisely and the Elements are more active nay more subtil and searching then any of the animal Creatures witness Fire Air and Water As for the Earth she brings forth her fruit if the other Elements do not cause abortives in due season and yet man believes Vegetables Minerals and Elements are dead dull senseless and irrational Creatures because they have not such shapes parts nor passages as Animals nor such exterior and local motions as Animals have but Man doth not consider the various intricate and obscure ways of Nature unknown to any particular Creature for what our senses are not capable to know our reason is apt to deny Truly in my opinion Man is more irrational then any of those Creatures when he believes that all knowledg is not onely confined to one sort of Creatures but to one part of one particular Creature as the head or brain of man for who can in reason think that there is no other sensitive and rational knowledg in Infinite Matter but what is onely in Man or animal Creatures It is a very simple and weak conclusion to say Other Creatures have no eyes to see no ears to hear no tongues to taste no noses to smell as animals have wherefore they have no sense or sensitive knowledg or because they have no head nor brain as Man hath therefore they have no reason nor rational knowledg at all for sense and reason and consequently sensitive and rational knowledg extends further then to be bound to the animal eye ear nose tongue head or brain but as these organs are onely in one kind of Natures Creatures as Animals in which organs the sensitive corporeal motions make the perception of exterior objects so there may be infinite other kinds of passages or organs in other Creatures unknown to Man which Creatures may have their sense and reason that is sensitive and rational knowledg each according to the nature of its figure for as it is absurd to say that all Creatures in Nature are Animals so it is absurd to confine sense and reason onely to Animals or to say that all other Creatures if they have sense and reason life and knowledg it must be the same as is in Animals I confess it is of the same degree that is of the same animate part of matter but the motions of life and knowledg work so differently and variously in every kind and sort nay in every particular Creature that no single Creature can find them out But in my opinion not any Creature is without life and knowledg which life and knowledg is made by the self-moving part of matter that is by the sensitive and rational corporeal motions and as it is no consequence that all Creatures must be alike in their exterior shapes figures and motions because they are all produced out of one and the same matter so neither doth it follow that all Creatures must have the same interior motions natures and proprieties and so consequently the same life and knowledg because all life and knowledg is made by the same degree of matter to wit the animate Wherefore though every kind or sort of Creatures has different perceptions yet they are not less knowing for Vegetables Minerals and Elements may have as numerous and as various perceptions as Animals and they may be as different from animal perceptions as their kinds are but a different perception is not therefore no perception Neither is it the animal organs that make perception nor the animal shape that makes life but the motions of life make them But some may say it is Irreligious to believe any Creature has rational knowledg but Man Surely Madam the God of Nature in my opinion will be adored by all Creatures and adoration cannot be without sense and knowledg Wherefore it is not probable that onely Man and no Creature else is capable to adore and worship the Infinite and Omnipotent God who is the God of Nature and of all Creatures I should rather think it irreligious to confine sense and reason onely to Man and to say that no Creature adores and worships God but Man which in my judgment argues a great pride self-conceit and presumption And thus Madam having declared my opinion plainly concerning this subject I will detain you no longer at this present but rest MADAM Your constant Friend and faithful Servant XXXI MADAM I Perceive you do not well apprehend my meaning when I say in my Philosophical Opinions That the Infinite degrees of Infinite Matter are all Infinite For say you the degrees of Matter cannot be Infinite by reason there cannot be two Infinites but one would obstruct the other My answer is I do not mean that the degrees of Matter are Infinite each in its self that is that the animate and inanimate are several Infinite matters but my opinion is that the animate degree of matter is in a perpetual motion and the inanimate doth not move of it self and that those degrees are infinite in their effects as producing and making infinite figures for since the cause which is the onely matter is infinite the
Power as in the Purity And the disparity between the Natural and Divine Infinite is such as they cannot joyn mix and work together unless you do believe that Divine Actions can have allay But you may say Purity belongs onely to natural things and none but natural bodies can be said purified but God exceeds all Purity 'T is true But if there were infinite degrees of Purity in Matter Matter might at last become Immaterial and so from an Infinite Material turn to an Infinite Immaterial and from Natrue to be God A great but an impossible Change For I do verily believe that there can be but one Omnipotent God and he cannot admit of addition or diminution and that which is Material cannot be Immaterial and what is Immaterial cannot become Material I mean so as to change their natures for Nature is what God was pleased she should be and will be what she was until God be pleased to make her otherwise Wherefore there can be no new Creation of matter motion or figure nor any annihilation of any matter motion or figure in Nature unless God do create a new Nature For the changing of Matter into several particular Figures doth not prove an annihilation of particular Figures nor the cessation of particular Motions an annihilation of them Neither doth the variation of the Onely Matter produce an annihilation of any part of Matter nor the variation of figures and motions of Matter cause an alteration in the nature of Onely Matter Wherefore there cannot be new Lives Souls or Bodies in Nature for could there be any thing new in Nature or any thing annihilated there would not be any stability in Nature as a continuance of every kind and sort of Creatures but there would be a confusion between the new and old matter motions and figures as between old and new Nature In truth it would be like new Wine in old Vessels by which all would break into disorder Neither can supernatural and natural effects be mixt together no more then material and immaterial things or beings Therefore it is probable God has ordained Nature to work in herself by his Leave Will and Free Gift But there have been and are still strange and erroneous Opinions and great differences amongst Natural Philosophers concerning the Principles of Natural things some will have them Atoms others will have the first Principles to be Salt Sulphur and Mercury some will have them to be the four Elements as Fire Air Water and Earth and others will have but one of these Elements also some will have Gas and Blas Ferments Idea's and the like but what they believe to be Principles and Causes of natural things are onely Effects for in all Probability it appears to humane sense and reason that the cause of every particular material Creature is the onely and Infinite Matter which has Motions and Figures inseparably united for Matter Motion and Figure are but one thing individable in its Nature And as for Immaterial Spirits there is surely no such thing in Infinite Nature to wit so as to be Parts of Nature for Nature is altogether Material but this opinion proceeds from the separation or abstraction of Motion form Matter viz. that man thinks matter and motion to be dividable from each other and believes motion to be a thing by its self naming it an Imaterial thing which has a being but not a bodily substance But various and different effects do not prove a different Matter or Cause neither do they prove an unsetled Cause onely the variety of Effects hath obscured the Cause from the several parts which makes Particular Creatures partly Ignorant and partly knowing But in my opinion Nature is material and not any thing in Nature what belongs to her is immaterial but whatsoever is Immaterial is Supernatural Therefore Motions Forms Thoughts Ideas Conceptions Sympathies Antipathies Accidents Qualities as also Natural Life and Soul are all Material And as for Colours Sents Light Sound Heat Cold and the like those that believe them not to be substances or material things surely their brain or heart take what place you will for the forming of Conceptions moves very Irregularly and they might as well say Our sensitive Organs are not material for what Objects soever that are subject to our senses cannot in sense be denied to be Corporeal when as those things that are not subject to our senses can be conceived in reason to be Immaterial But some Philosophers striving to express their wit obstruct reason and drawing Divinity to prove Sense and Reason weaken Faith so as their mixed Divine Philosophy becomes meer Poetical Fictions and Romancical expressions making material Bodies immaterial Spirits and immaterial Spirits material Bodies and some have conceived some things neither to be Material nor Immaterial but between both Truly Madam I wish their Wits had been less and their Judgments more as not to jumble Natural and Supernatural things together but to distinguish either clearly for such Mixtures are neither Natural nor Divine But as I said the Confufion comes from their too nice abstractions and from the separation of Figure and Motion from Matter as not conceiving them individable but if God and his servant Nature were as Intricate and Confuse in their Works as Men in their Understandings and Words the Universe and Production of all Creatures would soon be without Order and Government so as there would be a horrid and Eternal War both in Heaven and in the World and so pittying their troubled Brains and wishing them the Light of Reason that they may clearly perceive the Truth I rest MADAM Your real Friend and faithful Servant III. MADAM IT seems you are offended at my Opinion that Nature is Eternal without beginning which you say is to make her God or at least coeqnal with God But if you apprehend my meaning rightly you will say I do not For first God is an Immaterial and Spiritual Infinite Being which Propriety God cannot give away to any Creature nor make another God in Essence like to him for Gods Attributes are not communicable to any Creature Yet this doth not hinder that God should not make Infinite and Eternal Matter for that is as easie to him as to make a Finite Creature Infinite Matter being quite of another Nature then God is to wit Corporeal when God is Incorporeal the difference whereof I have declared in my former Letter But as for Nature that it cannot be Eternal without beginning because God is the Creator and Cause of it and that the Creator must be before the Creature as the Cause before the Effect so that it is impossible for Nature to be without a beginning if you will speak naturally as human reason guides you and bring an Argument concluding from the Priority of the Cause before the Effect give me leave to tell you that God is not tied to Natural Rules but that he can do beyond our Understanding and therefore he is neither bound up to time
as to be before for if we will do this we must not allow that the Eternal Son of God is Coeternal with the Father because nature requires a Father to exist before the Son but in God is no time but all Eternity and if you allow that God hath made some Creatures as Supernatural Spirits to live Eternally why should he not as well have made a Creature from all Eternity for Gods making is not our making he needs no Priority of Time But you may say the Comparison of the Eternal Generation of the Son of God is Mystical and Divine and not to be applied to natural things I answer The action by which God created the World or made Nature was it natural of supernatural surely you will say it was a Supernatural and God-like action why then will you apply Natural Rules to a God-like and Supernatural Action for what Man knows how and when God created Nature You will say the Scripture doth teach us that for it is not Six thousand years when God created this World I answer the holy Scripture informs us onely of the Creation of this Visible World but not of Nature and natural Matter for I firmly believe according to the Word of God that this World has been Created as is described by Moses but what is that to natural Matter There may have been worlds before as many are of the opinion that there have been men before Adam and many amongst Divines do believe that after the destruction of this World God will Create a new World again as a new Heaven and a new Earth and if this be probable or at least may be believed without any prejudice to the holy Scripture why may it not be probably believed that there have been other worlds before this visible World for nothing is impossible with God and all this doth derogate nothing from the Honour and Glory of God but rather increases his Divine Power But as for the Creation of this present World it is related that there was first a rude and indigested Heap or Chaos without form void and dark and God said Let it be light Let there be a Firmament in the midst of the Waters and let the Waters under the Heaven be gathered together and let the dry Land appear Let the Earth bring forth Grass the Herb yielding seed and the Fruit-tree yielding Fruit after its own kind and let there be Lights in the Firmament the one to rule the Day and the other the Night and let the Waters bring forth abundantly the moving Creature that hath life and let the Earth bring forth living Creatures after its kinde and at last God said Let us make Man and all what was made God saw it was good Thus all was made by Gods Command and who executed his Command but the Material servant of God Nature which ordered her self-moving matter into such several Figures as God commanded and God approved of them And thus Madam I verily believe the Creation of the World and that God is the Sole and omnipotent Creator of Heaven and Earth and of all Creatures therein nay although I believe Nature to have been from Eternity yet I believe also that God is the God and Author of Nature and has made Nature and natural Matter in a way and manner proper to his Omnipotency and Incomprehensible by us I will pass by natural Arguments and Proofs as not belonging to such an Omnipotent Action as for example how the nature of relative terms requires that they must both exist at one point of Time viz. a Master and his Servant and a King and his Subjects for one bearing relation to the other can in no ways be considered as different from one another in formiliness or laterness of Time but as I said these being meerly natural things I will nor cannot apply them to Supernatural and Divine Actions But if you ask me how it is possible that Nature the Effect and Creature of God can be Eternal without beginning I will desire you to answer me first how a Creature can be Eternal without end as for example Supernatural Spirits are and then I will answer you how a Creature can be Eternal without beginning For Eternity consists herein that it has neither beginning nor end and if it be easie for God to make a Being without end it is not difficult for Him to make a Being without beginning One thing more I will add which is That if Nature has not been made by God from all Eternity then the Title of God as being a Creator which is a Title and action upon which our Faith is grounded for it is the first Article in our Creed has been accessory to God as I said not full Six thousand years ago but there is not anything accessory to God he being the Perfection himself But Madam all what I speak is under the liberty of Natural Philosophy and by the Light of Reason onely not of Revelation and my Reason being not infallible I will not declare my Opinions for an infallible Truth Neither do I think that they are offensive either to Church or State for I submit to the Laws of One and believe the Doctrine of the Other so much that if it were for the advantage of either I should be willing to sacrifice my Life especially for the Church yea had I millions of Lives and every Life was either to suffer torment or to live in ease I would prefer torment for the benefit of the Church and therefore if I knew that my Opinions should give any offence to the Church I should be ready every minute to alter them And as much as I am bound in all duty to the obedience of the Church as much am I particularly bound to your Ladiship for your entire love and sincere affection towards me for which I shall live and die MADAM Your most faithful Friend and humble Servant IV. MADAM I Have chosen in the first place the Work of that famous Philosopher Hobbs called Leviathan wherein I find he sayes That the cause of sense or sensitive perception is the external body or Object which presses the Organ proper to each Sense To which I answer according to the ground of my own Philosophical Opinions That all things and therefore outward objects as well as sensitive organs have both Sense and Reason yet neither the objects nor the organs are the cause of them for Perception is but the effect of the Sensitive and rational Motions and not the Motions of the Perception neither doth the pressure of parts upon parts make Perception for although Matter by the power of self-motion is as much composeable as divideable and parts do joyn to parts yet that doth not make perception nay the several parts betwixt which the Perception is made may be at such a distance as not capable to press As for example Two men may see or hear each other at a distance and yet there may be other bodies between them
Motions though they proceed from sensitive matter yet are they so different from the free and Prime Natural Motions that they seem as it were quite of another nature And this distinction neglected is the Cause that many make Appetites and Passions Perceptions and Objects and the like as one without any or but little difference But having discoursed of the difference of these Motions in my former Letter I will not be tedious to you with repeating it again but remain MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant VII MADAM YOur Authours opinion concerning Dreams seemeth to me in some part very rational and probable in some part not For when he sayes that Dreams are onely Imaginations of them that sleep which imaginations have been before either totally or by parcels in the Sense and that the organs of Sense as the Brain and the Nerves being benumb'd in sleep as not easily to be moved by external objects those Imaginations proceed onely from the agitation of the inward parts of mans body which for the connexion they have with the Brain and other organs when they be distemper'd do keep the same in motion whereby the Imaginations there formerly made appear as if a man were waking This seems to my Reason not very probable For first Dreams are not absolutely Imaginations except we do call all Motions and Actions of the Sensitive and Rational Matter Imaginations Neither is it necessary that all Imaginations must have been before either totally or by parcels in the Sense neither is there any benumbing of the organs of Sense in sleep But Dreams according to my opinion are made by the Sensitive and Rational Corporeal Motions by figuring several objects as awake onely the difference is that the Sensitive motions in Dreams work by rote and on the inside of the Sensitive organs when as awake they work according to the patterns of outward objects and exteriously or on the outside of the sensitive Organs so that sleep or dreams are nothing else but an alteration of motions from moving exteriously to move interiously and from working after a Pattern to work by rote I do not say that the body is without all exterior motions when asleep as breathing and beating of the Pulse although these motions are rather interior then exterior but that onely the sensitive organs are outwardly shut so as not to receive the patterns of outward Objects nevertheless the sensitive Motions do not cease from moving inwardly or on the inside of the sensitive Organs But the rational matter doth often as awake so asleep or in dreams make such figures as the sensitive did never make either from outward objects or of its own accord for the sensitive hath sometimes liberty to work without Objects but the Rational much more which is not bound either to the patterns of Exterior objects or of the sensitive voluntary Figures Wherefore it is not divers distempers as your Authour sayes that cause different Dreams or Cold or Heat neither are Dreams the reverse of our waking Imaginations nor all the Figures in Dreams are not made with their heels up and their heads downwards though some are but this error or irregularity proceeds from want of exterior Objects or Patterns and by reason the sensitive Motions work by rote neither are the Motions reverse because they work inwardly asleep and outwardly awake for Mad-men awake see several Figures without Objects In short sleeping and waking is somewhat after that manner when men are called either out of their doors or stay within their houses or like a Ship where the Mariners work all under hatches whereof you will find more in my Philosophical Opinions and so taking my leave I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant VIII MADAM YOur Author going on in his discourse of Imagination says That as we have no Imagination whereof we have not formerly had sense in whole or in parts so we have not Transition from one Imagination to another whereof we never had the like before in our senses To which my answer is in short that the Rational part of Matter in one composed figure as in Man or the like Creature may make such figures as the senses did never make in that composed Figure or Creature And though your Authour reproves those that say Imaginations rise of themselves yet if the self-moving part of Matter which I call Rational makes Imaginations they must needs rise of themselves for the Rational part of matter being free and self-moving depends upon nothing neither Sense nor Object I mean so as not to be able to work without them Next when your Author defining Vnderstanding says that it is nothing else but an Imagination raised by words or other voluntary signs My Answer is that Understanding and so Words and Signs are made by self-moving Matter that is Sense and Reason and not Sense and Reason by Words and Signs wherefore Thoughts are not like Water upon a plain Table which is drawn and guided by the finger this or that way for every Part of self-moving matter is not alwayes forced perswaded or directed for if all the Parts of Sense and Reason were ruled by force or perswasion not any wounded Creature would fail to be healed or any disease to be cured by outward Applications for outward Applications to Wounds and Diseases might have more force then any Object to the Eye But though there is great affinity and sympathy between parts yet there is also great difference and antipathy betwixt them which is the cause that many objects cannot with all their endeavours work such effects upon the Interiour parts although they are closely press'd for Impressions of objects do not always affect those parts they press Wherefore I am not of your Author's opinion that all Parts of Matter press one another It is true Madam there cannot be any part single but yet this doth not prove that parts must needs press each other And as for his Train of Thoughts I must confess that Thoughts for the most part are made orderly but yet they do not follow each other like Geese for surely man has sometimes very different thoughts as for Example a man sometime is very sad for the death of his Friend and thinks of his own death and immediately thinks of a wanton Mistress which later thought surely the thought of Death did not draw in wherefore though some thought may be the Ring-leader of others yet many are made without leaders Again your Author in his description of the Mind sayes that the discourse of the mind when it it is govern'd by design is nothing but seeking or the Faculty of Invention a hunting out of the Causes of some Effects present or past or of the Effects of some present or past Cause Sometimes a man seeks what he has lost and from that Place and Time wherein he misses it his mind runs back from place to place and time to time to find where and when he had it that
of animate matter works variously and in divers motions by which it produces various and divers effects which are several Perceptions as Conception Imagination Fancy Memory Remembrance Understanding Judgment Knowledg and all the Passions with many more Wherefore this Reason is not in one undivided part nor bound to one motion for it is in every Creature more or less and moves in its own parts variously and in some Creatures as for example in some men it moves more variously then in others which is the cause that some men are more dull and stupid then others neither doth Reason always move in one Creature regularly which is the cause that some men are mad or foolish And though all men are made by the direction of Reason and endued with Reason from the first time of their birth yet all have not the like Capacities Understandings Imaginations Wits Fancies Passions c. but some more some less and some regular some irregular according to the motions of Reason or Rational part of animate matter and though some rational parts may make use of other rational Parts as one man of another mans Conceptions yet all these parts cannot associate together as for example all the Material parts of several objects no not their species cannot enter or touch the eye without danger of hurting or loosing it nevertheless the eye makes use of the objects by patterning them out and so doth the rational matter by taking patterns from the sensitive And thus knowledg or perception of objects both sensitive and rational is taken without the pressure of any other parts for though parts joyn to parts for no part can be single yet this joining doth not necessarily infer the pressure of objects upon the sensitive organs Whereof I have already discoursed sufficiently heretofore to which I refer you and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant X. MADAM UNderstanding says your Author is nothing else but Conception caused by speech and therefore if speech be peculiar to man as for ought I know it is then is understanding peculiar to him also Where he confineth Understanding onely to speech and to Mankind But by his leave Madam I surely believe that there is more understanding in Nature then that which is in speech for if there were not I cannot conceive how all the exact forms in Generations could be produced or how there could be such distinct degrees of several sorts and kinds of Creatures or distinctions of times and seasons and so many exact motions and figures in Nature Considering all this my reason perswadeth me that all Understanding which is a part of Knowledg is not caused by speech for all the motions of the Celestial Orbs are not made by speech neither is the knowledg or understanding which a man hath when sick as to know or understand he is sick made by speech nor by outward objects especially in a disease he never heard nor saw nor smelt nor tasted nor touched Wherefore all Perception Sensation Memory Imagination Appetite Understanding and the like are not made nor caused by outward objects nor by speech And as for names of things they are but different postures of the figures in our mind or thoughts made by the Rational matter But Reasoning is a comparing of the several figures with their several postures and actions in the Mind which joyned with the several words made by the sensitive motions inform another distinct and separate part as an other man of their minds conceptions understanding opinions and the like Concerning Addition and Substraction wherein your Author sayes Reasoning consists I grant that it is an act of Reasoning yet it doth not make Sense or Reason which is Life and Knowledge but Sense and Reason which is self-motion makes addition and substraction of several Parts of matter for had matter not self-motion it could not divide nor compose nor make such varieties without great and lingring retardments if not confusion Wherefore all what is made in Nature is made by self-moving matter which self-moving matter doth not at all times move regularly but often irregularly which causes false Logick false Arithmetick and the like and if there be not a certainty in these self-motions or actions of Nature much less in Art which is but a secundary action and therefore neither speech words nor exterior objects cause Understanding or Reason And although many parts of the Rational and Sensitive Matter joyned into one may be stronger by their association and over-power other parts that are not so well knit and united yet these are not the less pure onely these Parts and Motions being not equal in several Creatures make their Knowledge and Reason more or less For when a man hath more Rational Matter well regulated and so more Wisdom then an other that same man may chance to over-power the other whose Rational Matter is more irreregular but yet not so much by strength of the united Parts as by their subtilty for the Rational Matter moving regularly is more strong with subtilty then the sensitive with force so that Wisdom is stronger then Life being more pure and so more active for in my opinion there is a degree of difference between Life and Knowledge as my Book of Philosophical Opinions will inform you Again your Author sayes That Man doth excel all other Animals in this faculty that when he conceives any thing whatsoever he is apt to enquire the Consequences of it and what effects he can do with it Besides this sayes he Man hath an other degree of Excellence that he can by Words reduce the Consequences he finds to General Rules called Theoremes or Aphorisms that is he can reason or reckon not onely in Number but in all other things whereof one may be added unto or substracted from an other To which I answer That according to my Reason I cannot perceive but that all Creatures may do as much but by reason they do it not after the same manner or way as Man Man denies they can do it at all which is very hard for what man knows whether Fish do not Know more of the nature of Water and ebbing and flowing and the saltness of the Sea or whether Birds do not know more of the nature and degrees of Air or the cause of Tempests or whether Worms do not know more of the nature of Earth and how Plants are produced or Bees of the several sorts of juices of Flowers then Men And whether they do not make there Aphorismes and Theoremes by their manner of Intelligence For though they have not the speech of Man yet thence doth not follow that they have no Intelligence at all But the Ignorance of Men concerning other Creatures is the cause of despising other Creatures imagining themselves as petty Gods in Nature when as Nature is not capable to make one God much less so many as Mankind and were it not for Mans supernatural Soul Man would not be more Supreme then other Creatures in Nature
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
Animals do often see in the dark and in sleep I will not say but that the animate matter which by self-motion doth make the Perception of light with other perceptive Figures and so animal perceptive light may be the presenter or ground perceptive figure of sight yet the sensitive corporeal motions can make other figures without the help of light and such as light did never present But when the eye patterns out an exterior object presented by light it patterns also out the object of light for the sensitive motions can make many figures by one act not onely in several organs but in one organ as for example there is presented to sight a piece of Imbroydery wherein is silk silver and gold upon Sattin in several forms or figures as several flowers the sensitive motions streight by one and the same act pattern out all those several figures of flowers as also the figures of Silk Silver Gold and Sattin without any pressure of these objects or motions in the medium for if they all should press the eye would no more see the exterior objects then the nose being stopt could smell a presented perfume Thirdly They may ask me if sight be made in the eye and proceeds not from the outward object what is the reason that we do not see inwardly but outwardly as from us I answer when we see objects outwardly as from us then the sensitive motions work on the outside of the organ which organ being outwardly convex causes us to see outwardly as from us but in dreams we see inwardly also the sensitive motions do pattern out the distance together with the object But you will say the body of the distance as the air cannot be perceived and yet we can perceive the distance I answer you could not perceive the distance but by such or such an object as is subject to your sight for you do not see the distance more then the air or the like rare body that is between grosser objects for if there were no stars nor planets nor clouds nor earth nor water but onely air you would not see any space or distance but light being a more visible body then air you might figure the body of air by light but so as in an extensive or dilating way for when the mind or the rational matter conceives any thing that hath not such an exact figure or is not so perceptible by our senses then the mind uses art and makes such figures which stand like to that as for example to express infinite to it self it dilates it parts without alteration and without limitation or circumference Likewise when it will conceive a constant succession of Time it draws out its parts into the figure of a line and if eternity it figures a line without beginning and end But as for Immaterial no mind can conceive that for it cannot put it self into nothing although it can dilate and rarifie it self to an higher degree but must stay within the circle of natural bodies as I within the circle of your Commands to express my self MADAM Your faithful Friend and obedient Servant XXI MADAM HEat and Cold according to your Authors opinion are made by Dilation and Contraction for says he When the Motion of the ambient aethereal substance makes the spirits and fluid parts of our bodies tend outwards we acknowledg heat but by the indeavour inwards of the same spirits and humors we feel cold so that to cool is to make the exterior parts of the body endeavour inwards by a motion contrary to that of calefaction by which the internal parts are called outwards He therefore that would know the cause of Cold must find by what motion the exterior parts of any body endeavour to retire inwards But I desire you to consider Madam that there be moist Colds and dry Heats as well as dry Colds and moist Heats wherefore all sorts of Cold are not made by the retyring of parts inwards which is contraction or attraction neither are all sorts of Heat made by parts tending outwards which is dilation or rarefaction for a moist cold is made by dilation and a dry heat by contraction as well as a moist heat is made by dilation and a dry cold by contraction But your Author makes not this difference but onely a difference between a dilated heat and a contracted cold but because a cold wind is made by breath blown thorow pinched or contracted lips and an hot wind by breath through opened and extended lips should we judg that all heat and cold must be made after one manner or way The contracted mouth makes Wind as well as the dilated but yet Wind is not made that way as heat and cold for it may be that onely the air pressed together makes wind or it may be that the corporeal motions in the air may change air into wind as they change water into vapour and vapour into air or it may be something else that is invisible and rare as air and there may be several sorts of wind air heat cold as of all other Creatures more then man is capable to know As for your Authors opinion concerning the congealing of Water and how Ice is made I will not contradict it onely I think nature hath an easier way to effect it then he describes Wherefore my opinion is that it is done by altering motions as for example the corporeal motions making the figure of water by dilation in a Circle figure onely alter from such a dilating circular figure into a contracted square which is Ice or into such a contracted triangle as is snow And thus water and vapour may be changed with ease without any forcing pressing raking or the like The same may be said of hard and bent bodies and of restitution as also of air thunder and lightning which are all done by an easie change of motion and changing into such or such a figure is not the motion of Generation which is to build a new house with old materials but onely a Transformation I say a new house with old materials not that I mean there is any new Creation in nature of any thing that was not before in nature for nature is not God to make new beings out of nothing but any thing may be called new when it is altered from one figure into another I add no more at this time but rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXII MADAM THe Generation of sound according to your worthy Authors opinion is as follows As Vision says he so hearing is Generated by the medium but but not in the same manner for sight is from pressure that is from an endeavour in which there is no perceptible progression of any of the parts of the medium but one part urging or thrusting on another propagateth that action successively to any distance whatsoever where as the motion of the medium by which sound is made is a stroke for when we hear the drum of the
corporeal optick motions may work by rote without objects but that is irregular as in some distempers And thus Madam I have given you my opinion also to this your question if you have any more scruples I pray let me know of them and assure your self that I shall be ready upon all occasions to express my self MADAM Your humble and faithful Servant XXVII MADAM YOur desire is to know why sound is louder in a Vault and in a large Room then in a less I answer A Vault or arched Figure is the freest from obstruction as being without corners and points so as the sensitive and rational corporeal motions of the Ear can have a better perception like as the Eye can see farthest from a hill then being upon a level ground because the prospect is freer from the hill as without obstruction unless it be so cloudy that the clouds do hinder the perception And as the eye can have a better prospect upon a hill so the ear a stronger perception in a Vault And as for sound that it is better perceived in a large then in a little close room or place it is somewhat like the perception of sent for the more the odorous parts are bruised the stronger is that perception of sent as being repeated double or treble which makes the perception stronger like as a thick body is stronger then a thin one So likewise the perception of sound in the air for though not all the parts of the air make repetitions yet some or many make patterns of the sound the truth is Air is as industrious to divulge or present a found by patterns to the Ear as light doth objects to the Eye But then you may ask me Why a long hollow pipe doth convey a voice to the ear more readily then any large and open place My answer is That the Parts of the air in a long pipe are more Composed and not at liberty to wander so that upon necessity they must move onely to the patterning out of the sound having no choice which makes the sound much stronger and the perception of the Ear perfecter But as for Pipes Vaults Prospects as also figures presented in a room through a little hole inverted and many the like belongs more to Artists then to my study for though Natural Philosophy gives or points out the Ground and shews the reason yet it is the Artist that Works Besides it is more proper for Mathematicians to discourse of which study I am not versed in and so leaving it to them I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXVIII MADAM FRom Sound I am come to Sent in the discourse whereof your Author is pleased to set down these following propositions 1. That smelling is hindred by cold and helped by heat 2. That when the Wind bloweth from the object the smell is the stronger and when it blowes from the sentient towards the obiect the weaker which by experience is found in dogs that follow thetrack of beasts by the Sent 3. That such bodies as are last pervious to the fluid medium yield less smell then such as are more pervious 4. That such bodies as are of their own nature odorous become yet more odorous when they are bruised 5. That when the breath is stopped at least in man nothing can be smelt 6. That the Sense of smelling is also taken away by the stopping of the Nostrils though the mouth be left open To begin from the last I say that the nose is like the other sensitive organs which if they be stopt the corporeal sensitive motions cannot take copies of the exterior objects and therefore must alter their action of patterning to some other for when the eye is shut and cannot perceive outward objects then it works to the Sense of Touch or on the inside of the organ to some phantasmes and so do the rest of the Senses As for the stopping of breath why it hinders the Sent the cause is that the nostrils and the mouth are the chief organs to receive air and to let out breath but though they be common passages for air and breath yet taste is onely made in the mouth and tongue and sent in the nose not by the pressure of meat and the odoriferous object but by patterning out the several figures or objects of sent and taste for the nose and the mouth will smell and taste one nay several things at the same time like as the eye will see light colour and other objects at once which I think can hardly be done by pressures and the reason is that the sensitive motions in the sensitive organs make patterns of several objects at one time which is the cause that when flowers and such like odoriferous bodies are bruised there are as many figures made as there are parts bruised or divided and by reason of so many figures the sensitive knowledg is stronger but that stones minerals and the like seem not so strong to our smell the reason is that their parts being close and united the sensitive motions in the organ cannot so readily perceive and pattern them out as those bodies which are more porous and divided But as for the wind blowing the sent either to or from the sentient it is like a window or door that by the motion of opening and shutting hinders or disturbeth the sight for bodies coming between the object and the organ make a stop of that perception And as for the Dogs smelling out the track of Beasts the cause is that the earth or ground hath taken a copy of that sent which copy the sensitive motions in the nose of the Dog do pattern out and so long as that figure or copy lasts the Dog perceives the sent but if he doth not follow or hunt readily then there is either no perfect copy made by the ground or otherwise he cannot find it which causes him to seek and smell about until he hath it and thus smell is not made by the motion of the air but by the figuring motions in the nose Where it is also to be observed that not onely the motions in one but in millions of noses may pattern out one little object at one time and therefore it is not that the object of sent fills a room by sending out the sent from its substance but that so many figures are made of that object of sent by so many several sensitive motions which pattern the same out and so the air or ground or any other creature whose sensitive motions pattern out the object of sent may perceive the same although their sensitive organs are not like to those of animal creatures for if there be but such sensitive motions and perceptions it is no matter for such organs Lastly it is to be observed That all Creatures have not the same strength of smelling but some smell stronger some weaker according to the disposition of their sensitive motions Also there be other parts in the body which pattern
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
impression of exterior objects there would be so much difference betwixt them by reason of the diversity of objects as they would have no resemblance at all But for a further proof of my own opinion did the perception proceed meerly from the motion impression and resistance of the objects the hand could not perceive those objects unless they touched the hand it self as the stick doth for it is not probable that the motions of the stone water sand c. should leave their bodies and enter into the stick and so into the hand for motion must be either something or nothing if something the stick and the hand would grow bigger and the objects touched less or else the touching and the touched must exchange their motions which cannot be done so suddenly especially between solid bodies But if motion has no body it is nothing and how nothing can pass or enter or move some body I cannot conceive T is true there is no part that can subsist singly by it self without dependance upon each other and so parts do always joyn and touch each other which I am not against but onely I say perception is not made by the exterior motions of exterior parts of objects but by the interior motions of the parts of the body sentient But I have discoursed hereof before and so I take my leave resting MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXXVIII MADAM ICannot conceive why your Author is so much for little and insensible parts out of which the Elements and all other bodies are made for though Nature is divideable yet she is also composeable and I think there is no need to dissect every creature into such little parts to know their nature but we can do it by another way as well for we may dissect or divide them into never so little parts and yet gain never the more knowledg by it But according to these principles he describing amongst the rest the nature of Water says That those little parts out of which Water consists are in figure somewhat long light and slippery like little Eeles which are never so closely joyned and entangled but may easily be separated To which I answer That I observe the nature and figure of water to be flowing dilating divideable and circular for we may see in Tides overflowings and breaking into parts as in rain it will always move in a round and circular figure And I think if its parts were long and entangled like a knot of Eeles it could never be so easily contracted and denced into snow or ice Neither do I think That Salt-water hath a mixture of somewhat grosser parts not so apt to bend for to my observation and reason the nature of salt-water consists herein that its circle-lines are pointed which sharp and pointed figure makes it so penetrating yet may those points be separated from the circle lines of water as it is seen in the making of Salt But I am not of your Authors opinion That those little points do stick so fast in flesh as little nails to keep it from putrefaction for points do not always fasten or else fire which certainly is composed of sharp-pointed parts would harden and keep other bodies from dissolving whereas on the contrary it separates and divides them although after several manners But Putrefaction is onely a dissolving and separating of parts after the manner of dilation and the motion of salt is contracting as well as penetrating for we may observe what flesh soever is dry-salted doth shrink and contract close together I will not say but the pointed parts of salt may fasten like nayls in some sorts of bodies but not in all they work on And this is the reason also that Sea-water is of more weight then fresh-water for being composed of points those points stick within each other and so become more strong But yet do they not hinder the circular dilating motion of water for the circle-lines are within and the points without but onely they make it more strong from being divided by other exterior bodies that swim upon it And this is the cause that Salt-water is not so easily forced or turned to vapour as Fresh for the points piercing into each other hold it more strongly together but this is to be considered that the points of salt are on the outside of the watry Circle not on the inside which causes it to be divideable from the watry Circles I will conclude when I have given the reason why water is so soon suckt up by sand lime and the like bodies and say that it is the nature of all spongy dry and porous bodies meeting with liquid and pliable bodies as water do draw and suck them up like as animal Creatures being thirsty do drink And so I take my leave and rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXXIX MADAM COncerning Vapour Clouds Wind and Rain I am of your Authors opinion That Water is changed into Vapour and Vapour into Air and that dilated Vapours make Wind and condensed Vapours Clouds and Mists But I am not for his little particles whereof he says Vapours are made by the motion of a rare and subtil matter in the pores of terrestrial bodies which certainly I should conceive to be loose atoms did he not make them of several figures and magnitude for in my opinion there are no such things in nature which like little Flyes or Bees do fly up into the air and although I grant that in Nature are several parts whereof some are more rare others more dense according to the several degrees of matter yet they are not single but all mixt together in one body and the change of motions in those joyned parts is the cause of all changes of figures whatever without the assistance of any forreign parts And thus Water of it self is changed to Snow Ice or Hail by its inherent figurative Motions that is the circular dilation of Water by contraction changes into the figure of Snow Ice or Hail or by rarifying motions it turns into the figure of Vapour and this Vapour again by contracting motions into the figure of hoar-frost and when all these motions change again into the former then the figure of Ice Snow Hail Vapour and Frost turns again into the figure of Water And this in all sense and reason is the most facil and probable way of making Ice Snow Hail c. As for rarefaction and condensation I will not say that they may be forced by forreign parts but yet they are made by change and alteration of the inherent motions of their own parts for though the motions of forreign parts may be the occasion of them yet they are not the immediate cause or actors thereof And as for Thunder that clouds of Ice and Snow the uppermost being condensed by heat and so made heavy should fall upon another and produce the noise of thunder is very improbable for the breaking of a little small string will make
have an Idea of God yet your Author is pleased to say That he will not stick to affirm that the Idea or notion of God is as easie as any notion else whatsoever and that we may know as much of him as of any thing else in the world To which I answer That in my opinion God is not so easily to be known by any creature as man may know himself nor his attributes so well as man can know his own natural proprieties for Gods Infinite attributes are not conceivable and cannot be comprehended by a finite knowledg and understanding as a finite part of nature for though nature's parts may be Infinite in number and as they have a relation to the Infinite whole if I may call it so which is Infinite nature yet no part is infinite in it self and therefore it cannot know so much as whole nature and God being an Infinite Deity there is required an Infinite capacity to conceive him nay Nature her self although Infinite yet cannot posibly have an exact notion of God by reason of the disparity between God and her self and therefore it is not probable if the Infinite servant of God is not able to conceive him that a finite part or creature of nature of what kind or sort soever whether Spiritual as your Author is pleased to name it or Corporeal should comprehend God Concerning my belief of God I submit wholly to the Church and believe as I have bin informed out of the Athanasian Creed that the Father is Incomprehensible the Sonne Incomprehensible and the Holy Ghost Incomprehensible and that there are not three but one Incomprehensible God Wherefore if any man can prove as I do verily believe he cannot that God is not Incomprehensible he must of necessity be more knowing then the whole Church however he must needs dissent from the Church But perchance your Author may say I raise new and prejudicial opinions in saying that matter is eternal I answer The Holy Writ doth not mention Matter to be created but onely Particular Creatures as this Visible World with all its Parts as the history or description of the Creation of the World in Genesis plainly shews For God said Let it it be Light and there was Light Let there be a Firmament in the midst of the Waters and let it divide the Waters from the Waters and Let the Waters under the Heaven be gathered together unto one place and let the dry Land appear and let the Earth bring forth Grass the Herb yielding Seed and the Fruit-tree yielding Fruit after his kind and let there be Lights in the Firmament of the Heaven to divide the Day from the Night c. Which proves that all creatures and figures were made and produced out of that rude and desolate heap or chaos which the Scripture mentions which is nothing else but matter by the powerful Word and Command of God executed by his Eternal Servant Nature as I have heretofore declared it in a Letter I sent you in the beginning concerning Infinite Nature But least I seem to encroach too much upon Divinity I submit this Interpretation to the Church However I think it not against the ground of our Faith for I am so far from maintaining any thing either against Church or State as I am submitting to both in all duty and shall do so as long as I live and rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant IV. MADAM SInce your Worthy and Learned Author is pleased to mention That an ample experience both of Men and Things doth enlarge our Understanding I have taken occasion hence to enquire how a mans Understanding may be encreased or inlarged The Understanding must either be in Parts or it must be Individable as one if in Parts then there must be so many Understandings as there are things understood but if Individable and but one Understanding then it must dilate it self upon so many several objects I for my part assent to the first That Understanding increases by Parts and not by Dilation which Dilation must needs follow if the Mind or Understanding of man be Indivisible and without parts but if the Mind or Soul be Individable then I would fain know how Understanding Imagination Conception Memory Remembrance and the like can be in the mind You will say perhaps they are so many faculties or properties of the Incorporeal Mind but I hope you do not intend to make the Mind or Soul a Deity with so many attributes Wherefore in my opinion it is safer to say That the Mind is composed of several active Parts but of these Parts I have treated in my Philosophy where you will find that all the several Parts of Nature are Living and Knowing and that there is no part that has not Life and Knowledg being all composed of rational and sensitive matter which is the life and soul of Nature and that Nature being Material is composable and dividable which is the cause of so many several Creatures where every Creature is a part of Nature and these Infinite parts or creatures are Nature her self for though Nature is a self-moving substance and by self-motion divides and composes her self several manners or ways into several forms and figures yet being a knowing as well as a living substance she knows how to order her parts and actions wisely for as she hath an Infinite body or substance so she has an Infinite life and knowledg and as she hath an Infinite life and knowledg so she hath an infinite wisdom But mistake me not Madam I do not mean an Infinite Divine Wisdom but an Infinite Natural Wisdom given her by the Infinite bounty of the Omnipotent God but yet this Infinite Wisdom Life and Knowledg in Nature make but one Infinite And as Nature hath degrees of matter so she has also degrees and variety of corporeal motions for some parts of matter are self-moving and some are moved by these self-moving parts of matter and all these parts both the moving and moved are so intermixed that none is without the other no not in any the least Creature or part of Nature we can conceive for there is no Creature or part of Nature but has a comixture of those mentioned parts of animate and inanimate matter and all the motions are so ordered by Natures wisdom as not any thing in Nature can be otherwise unless by a Supernatural Command and Power of God for no part of corporeal matter and motion can either perish or but rest one part may cause another part to alter its motions but not to quit motion no more then one part of matter can annihilate or destroy another and therefore matter is not meerly Passive but always Active by reason of the thorow mixture of animate and inanimate matter for although the animate matter is onely active in its nature and the inanimate passive yet because they are so closely united and mixed together that they make but one body the parts of the animate
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
always but most commonly But says your Author How can so smal a Point receive the Images of so vast or so various objects at once without obliteration or confusion First I answer That as I said before sensitive Matter is not bound up to a Point nor to be a single self-subsisting Part. Next as for confusion I say that the sensitive matter makes no more confusion then an Engraver when he engraves several figures in a small stone and a Painter draws several figures in a small compass for a Carver will cut out several figures in a Cherry-stone and a Lady in a little black Patch and if gross and rude Art is able to do this why may not Ingenious and Wise Nature do And as Nature is ingenious and knowing in her self so in her Parts and her Parts in her for neither whole nor Parts are ignorant but have a knowledg each according to the motion of its own Parts for knowledg is in Motion and Motion in Matter and the diversity and variety of motion is the diversity and variety of knowledg so that every particular figure and motion hath its particular knowledg as well as its proper and peculiar parts and as the parts join or divide so doth knowledg which many times causes Arts to be lost and found and memory and remembrance in Particular Creatures I do not say they are utterly lost in nature but onely in respect to particular Creatures by the dissolving and dividing of their particular figures For the rational matter by reason it moves onely in its own parts it can change and rechange into several figures without division of parts which makes memory and remembrance But men not considering or believing there might be such a degree of onely matter namely rational it has made them erre in their judgments Nevertheless there is a difference between sensitive and rational parts and motions and yet they are agreeable most commonly in their actions though not always Also the rational can make such figures as the sensitive cannot by reason the rational has a greater power and subtiler faculty in making variety then the sensitive for the sensitive is bound to move with the inanimate but the rational moves onely in its own parts for though the sensitive and rational oftentimes cause each other to move yet they are not of one and the same degree of matter nor have they the same motions And this rational Matter is the cause of all Notions Conceptions Imaginations Deliberation Determination Memory and any thing else that belongs to the Mind for this matter is the mind of Nature and so being dividable the mind of all Creatures as the sensitive is the life and it can move as I said more subtilly and more variously then the sensitive and make such figures as the sensitive cannot without outward examples and objects But all diversity comes by change of motion and motions are as sympathetical and agreeing as antipathetical and disagreeing And though Nature's artificial motions which are her Playing motions are sometimes extravagant yet in her fundamental actions there is no extravagancy as we may observe by her exact rules in the various generations the distinct kinds and sorts the several exact measures times proportions and motions of all her Creatures in all which her wisdom is well exprest and in the variety her wise pleasure To which I leave her and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XIV MADAM IF there be any sense and perception in Matter says your Author it must needs be Motion or Reaction of one part of matter against another and that all diversity of sense and perception doth necessarily arise from the diversity of the Magnitude Figure Posture Vigour and Direction of Motion in Parts of the Matter In which variety of perceptions Matter hath none but such as are impressed by corporeal motions that is to say that are perceptions of some actions or modificated Impressions of parts of matter bearing one against another I have declared Madam my opinion concerning Perception in my former Letters that all Perception is not Impression and Reaction like as a Seal is printed on Was For example the corporeal rational motions in the mind do not print but move figuratively but the sensitive motions do carve print engrave and as it were pencil out as also move figuratively in productions and do often take patterns from the rational figures as the rational motions make figures according to the sensitive patterns But the rational can move without patterns and so the sensitive For surely were a man born blind deaf dumb and had a numb palsie in his exterior parts the sensitive and rational motions would nevertheless move both in body and mind according to the nature of his figure for though no copies were taken from outward objects yet he would have thoughts passions appetites and the like and though he could not see exterior objects nor hear exterior sounds yet no question but he would see and hear interiously after the manner of dreams onely they might not be any thing like to what is perceiveable by man in the World but if he sees not the Sun-light yet he would see something equivalent to it and if he hears not such a thing as Words yet he would hear something equivalent to words for it is impossible that his sensitive and rational faculties should be lost for want of an Ear or an Eye so that Perception may be without exterior object or marks or patterns for although the sensitive Motions do usually pattern out the figures of exterior objects yet that doth not prove but they can make interior figures without such objects Wherefore Perception is not always Reaction neither is Perception and Reaction really one thing for though Perception and Action is one and the same yet not always Reaction but did Perception proceed from the reaction of outward objects a blind and deaf man would not so much as dream for he would have no interior motion in the head having no other exterior sense but touch which if the body was troubled with a painful disease he would neither be sensible of but to feel pain and interiously feel nothing but hunger and fulness and his Mind would be as Irrational as some imagine Vegetables and Minerals are To which opinion I leave them and rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XV. MADAM YOur Author is pleased in Mirth and to disgrace the opinion of those which hold that Perception is made by figuring to bring in this following example Suppose says he one Particle should shape it self into a George on Horse-back with a Lance in his hand and another into an Inchanted Castle this George on Horse-back must run against the Castle to make the Castle receive his impress and similitude But what then Truly the Encounter will be very Vnfortunate for S. George indeed may easily break his Lance but it is impossible that he should by justling against the Particle in the form of a
him to have such a familiar conjunction and make such contracts with Man as to impower him to do mischief and hurt to others or to foretell things to come and the like for I believe that all things Immaterial as Spirits Angels Devils and the divine Soul of Man are no parts of Nature but Supernatural Nature knowing of no Creature that belongs to her but what is material and since incorporeal Creatures are no parts of Nature they neither have natural actions nor are they concerned as copartners or co-agents in the actions of Nature and natural Creatures but as their substances so their actions are supernatural and beyond our conceivement As for Faires I will not say but there may be such Creatures in Nature and have airy bodies and be of a humane shape and have humane actions as I have described in my Book of Poems for there are many things in Nature whereof Man hath no knowledg at all and it would be a great folly for any one to deny what he doth not see or to ascribe all the unusual effects in Nature to Immaterial Spirits for Nature is so full of variety that she can and doth present sometimes such figures to our exterior senses as are not familiar to us so as we need not to take our refuge to Immaterial Spirits nay even those that are so much for Incorporeal Spirits must confess that they cannot be seen in their own natures as being Invisible and therefore have need to take vehicles of some grosser bodies to manifeft themselves to men and if Spirits cannot appear without bodies the neerest way is to ascribe such unusual effects or apparitions as happen sometimes rather to matter that is already corporeal and not to go so far as to draw Immaterial Spirits to Natural actions and to make those Spirits take vehicles fit for their purposes for Nature takes sometimes delight in unusual Varieties Concerning those stories which your Author relates of the strange effects of Food received into a mans body how they did work upon the Imagination and change and transform the humors of those that did feed upon them those I say seem very probable to me As for example of a Wench who being struck into an Epilepsy upon the seeing of a Malefactors Head cut off was advised to drink Cats-blood which being done she not long after degenerated into the nature and property of that Animal cried and jump'd like a Cat and hunted Mice with the same silence and watchfulness as they do Then of a Man being long fed with Swines-blood which took a special pleasure in wallowing and tumbling himself in the mire Also of a Girle which being nourished up with Goats-milk would skip like a Goat and brouze on Trees as Goats use to do And of a Man who by eating the brains of a Bear became of a Bear-like disposition All these stories I believe to be true for naturally the motions of a Man may sometimes sympathize so much with the received food as to make an alteration in his humour or disposition But although it be natural yet it is not regular at least not usual but proceeds from an irregular and unusual change of motions like as the conception and generation of a Monster For if it were ordinary then those which drink much of the blood of beasts would also degenerate into a beastly nature the contrary whereof is sufficiently known Likewise those that drink much of Cows-milk would change into their humors and natures But certainly some kinds of meats do not onely cause sickness but madness and strange Imaginations all which unnatural or unusual accidents are caused by Matter 's irregular motions Whereof I have declared my opinion in other places and so I rest MADAM Your faithful and constant Friend to serve you XXXIII MADAM YOu will have my opinion of the Book that treats of the Pre-existence of Souls and the Key that unlocks the Divine Providence but I have told you heretofore that there are so many different opinions concerning the Soul as I do not know which to embrace for the multiplicity confounds my choice and the cause of these various opinions in my simple judgment is that most men make no difference between the Divine and Natural Soul As for the Natural Soul humane sense and reason may perceive that it consists of Matter as being Material but as for the Divine Soul being not material no humane sense and reason is able naturally to conceive it for there cannot possibly be so much as an Idea of a natural nothing or an immaterial being neither can sense and reason naturally conceive the Creation of an Immaterial substance for as the Creation of material Creatures as of this World belongs to Faith and not to Reason so doth also the Creation of Immaterial substances as Spirits nay it is more difficult to understand a Natural Nothing to be made out of nothing then a Natural Something out of nothing And as for the Progress of Immaterial Souls which the same Author mentions I cannot conceive how No-thing can make a Progress and therefore I suppose it is an Improper or Metaphorical expression The truth is what is Immaterial belongs not to a Natural knowledg or understanding but is Supernatural and goes beyond a natural reach or capacity Concerning the Key of Divine Providence I believe God did never give or lend it to any man for surely God who is infinitely Wise would never intrust so frail and foolish a Creature as Man with it as to let him know his secret Counsels Acts and Decrees But setting aside Pride and Presumption Sense and Reason may easily perceive that Man though counted the best of Creatures is not made with such infinite Excellence as to pierce into the least secrets of God Wherefore I am in a maze when I hear of such men which pretend to know so much as if they had plundered the Celestial Cabinet of the Omnipotent God for certainly had they done it they could not pretend to more knowledg then they do But I Madam confess my Ignorance as having neither divine Inspirations nor extraordinary Visions nor any divine or humane learning but what Nature has been pleased to bestow upon me Yet in all this Ignorance I know that I am and ought to be MADAM Your humble and faithful Servant XXXIV MADAM SInce in my former Letters I have discoursed of Immaterial Spirits and declared my meaning that I do not believe them to be natural Creatures or parts of Nature you are of opinion as if I did contradict my self by reason that in the first Edition of my Book called Philosophical Opinions I name the rational and sensitive Matter rational and sensitive Spirits To which I answer first That when I did write my first Conceptions in Natural Philosophy I was not so experienced nor had I those observations which I have had since Neither did I give those first Conceptions time to digest and come to a maturity or perfect growth but
forced them forth as soon as conceived and this made the first publishing of them so full of Imperfections which I am much sorry for But since that time I have not onely reviewed but corrected and altered them in several places so that the last Impression of my Philosophical Opinions you will find more perfect and exact then the former Next I pray you to take notice Madam that in the mentioned first Edition by the word Spirits I meant Material not Immaterial Spirits for observing that Learned Men do discourse much of Animal Spirits which are Material and that also high extracts in Chymistry are called Spirits I used that word purposely thinking it most proper and convenient to express my sense and meaning of that degree of matter which I call rational and sensitive But considering again that my opinions being new would be subject to misapprehensions and mis-interpretations to prevent those I thought it fitter to leave out the word Spirits in the second as also in the last Edition of my named Book of Philosophy lest my Readers should think I meant Immaterial Spirits for I confess really that I never understood nor cannot as yet apprehend Immaterial Spirits for though I believe the Scripture and the Church that there are Spirits and do not doubt the existency of them yet I cannot conceive the nature of Immaterial Spirits and what they are Wherefore I do onely treat of natural material substances and not of incorporeal also my discourse is of the Infinite servant of the Infinite God which servant is corporeal or material Nature God is onely to be admired adored and worshipped but not ungloriously to be discoursed of Which Omnipotent God I pray of his Infinite Mercy to give me Faith to believe in him and not to let presumption prevail with me so as to liken vain and idle conceptions to that Incomprehensible Deity These Madam are my humble Prayers to God and my request to you is that I may continue the same in your love and affection which I have been hitherto so shall I live content and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant SECT III. I. MADAM I Have discharged my duty thus far that in obedience to your commands I have given you my answers to the opinions of three of those famous and learned Authors you sent me viz. Hobbes Des Cartes and More and explained my own opinions by examining theirs My onely task shall be now to proceed in the same manner with that famous Philosopher and Chymist Van Helmont But him I find more difficult to be understood then any of the forementioned not onely by reason of the Art of Chymistry which I confess my self not versed in but especially that he has such strange terms and unusual expressions as may puzle any body to apprehend the sense and meaning of them Wherefore if you receive not that full satisfaction you expect from me in examining his opinions and arguments I beg your pardon before hand and desire you to remember that I sent you word in the beginning I did undertake this work more out of desire to clear my own opinions then a quarrelsome humor to contradict others which if I do but obtain I have my aim And so to the business When as your Author discourses of the causes and beginnings of Natural things he is pleased to say That Souls and Lives as they know no Degrees so they know no Parts which opinion is very different from mine For although I confess that there is but one kind of Life and one kind of Soul in Nature which is the sensitive Life and the rational Soul both consisting not onely of Matter but of one kind of Matter to wit Animate nevertheless they are of different degrees the matter of the rational Soul being more agil subtil and active then the matter of the sensitive Life which is the reason that the rational can act in its own substance or degree of matter and make figures in it self and its own parts when as the sensitive being of somewhat a grosser degree then the rational and not so subtil and active is confined to work with and upon the Inanimate matter But mistake me not Madam for I make onely a difference of the degrees of Subtilty Activity Agility Purity betwixt rational and sensitive Matter but as for the rational Matter it self it has no degrees of Purity Subtilty and Activity in its own Nature or Parts but is always one and the same in its substance in all Creatures and so is the sensitive You will ask me How comes then the difference of so many Parts and Creatures in Nature if there be no degrees of Purity Activity and Subtilty in the substance of the rational and in the substance of the sensitive Matter As for example if there were no such degrees of the Parts of rational Matter amongst themselves as also of the Parts of the sensitive there would be no difference betwixt Animals Vegetables Minerals and Elements but all Creatures would be alike without distinction and have the same manner of sense and reason life and knowledg I answer That although each sort or degree of animate Matter rational as well as sensitive has in it self or its own substance no degrees of purity rarity and subtilty but is one and the same in its nature or essence nevertheless each has degrees of quantity or parts which degrees of quantity do make the onely difference betwixt the several creatures or parts of Nature as well in their general as particular kinds for both the rational and sensitive matter being corporeal and so dividable into parts some creatures do partake more some less of them which makes them to have more or less and so different sense and reason each according to the nature of its kind Nay this difference of the degrees of quantity or parts in the substance of the rational and sensitive Matter makes also the difference betwixt particulars in every sort of Creatures as for example between several particular Men But as I said the nature or essence of the sensitive and rational Matter is the same in all for the difference consists not in the Nature of Matter but onely in the degrees of quantity and parts of Matter and in the various and different actions or motions of this same Matter And thus Matter being dividable there are numerous lives and souls in Nature according to the variousness of her several Parts and Creatures Next your Author mentioning the Causes and Principles of natural Bodies assigns two first or chief beginnings and corporeal causes of every Creature to wit the Element of Water and the Ferment or Leaven which Ferment he calls a formal created being neither a substance nor an accident but a neutral thing Truly Madam my reason is not able to conceive this neutral Being for it must either be something or nothing in Nature and if he makes it any thing betwixt both it is a strange Monster and will produce monstrous
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
it has not been before the Flood and before it was made a sign by God as your Author imagines for though it was no sign before the Flood yet it may nevertheless have had its being and existence before the Flood Moreover as for Thunder and Lightning your Authors opinion is That although they may have concurring natural Causes yet the mover of them is an Incorporeal Spirit which is the Devil who having obtained the Principality of this world that he may be a certain executer of the Judgments of the chief Monarch and so the Umpire and Commissioner of Lightning and Thunder stirs up a monstrous and sudden Blas in the Air yet under Covenanted Conditions for unless his power were bridled by divine Goodness he would shake the Earth with one stroke so as to destroy all mortal men and thus the cracking noise or voice of Thunder is nothing but a spiritual Blas of the Evil Spirit I will not deny Madam that Thunder and Lightning do argue the Power of the most Glorious God for so do all the rest of the Creatures but that this is the onely and immediate cause which your Author assigns of Thunder and Lightning I cannot believe for surely in my opinion Thunder and Lightning are as much natural effects as other Creatures in Nature and are not the Devils Blas for I think they may be made without the help of the Devil nay I believe he may be as much affraid of Thunder as those Creatures that live on Earth But what the causes are and how Thunder and Lightning are made I have elsewhere declared more at large especially in my Philosophical Opinions Again your Author speaking of the Trembling of the Earth thinks it is nothing else but the Judgment of God for the sins of Impenitent men For my part Madam I can say little to it either concerning the divine or the natural cause of Earthquakes As for the divine and supernatural Cause which your Author gives if it was so then I wonder much why God should command Earth-quakes in some parts of the World more frequent then in others As for example we here in these parts have very seldom Earthquakes and those we have which is hardly one in many ages are not so furious as to do much harm and so in many other places of the World are as few and as gentle Earth-quakes as here when as in others Earth-quakes are very frequent and dreadful From whence it must needs follow if Earth-quakes be onely a Judgment from God for the sins of Impenitent Men and not a natural effect that then those places where the Earth is not so apt to tremble are the habitations of the blessed and that they which inhabit those parts that are apt to tremble are the accursed when as yet in those places where Earthquakes are not usual and frequent or none at all People are as wicked and impious if not more then in those where Earthquakes are common But the questions is Whether those parts which suffer frequent and terrible Earthquakes would not be so shaken or have such trembling fits were they uninhabited by Man or any other animal Creature Certainly in my opinion they would But as for the Natural Cause of Earthquakes you must pardon me Madam that I cannot knowingly discourse thereof by reason I am not so well skilled in Geography as to know the several Soils Climats Parts Regions or Countries nor what disposed matter may be within those parts that are subject to frequent Earthquakes Onely this I may say that I have observed that the light of a small Fire or Candle will dilate it self round about or rather that the air round about the Fire or Candle will pattern out both its light and its heat Also I have observed That a Man in a raging fit of Madness will have such an unsual strength as ten strong men shall hardly be able to encounter or bind him when as this violent fit being past a single man nay a youth may over-master him Whence I conclude that the actions as the motions of Nature are very powerful when they use their force and that the ordinary actions of Nature are not so forcible as necessary but the extraordinary are more forcible then necessary Lastly your Author takes great pains to prove That the Sun with his light rules the Day and the Moon with hers the Night and that the Moon has her own Native light and that Bats Mice Dormice Owles and many others as also Men which rise at night and walk in their sleep see by the light and power of the Moon also that Plants are more plentifully nourished by the night But lest it might be concluded that all this is said without any probability of Truth by reason the Moon doth not every night shine upon the Earth he makes a difference between the Manner of the Sun 's and Moon 's enlightning the Earth to wit that the Sun strikes his beams in a right line towards the Earth but the Moon doth not respect the Centre of the World which is the Earth in a right line but her Centre is always excentrical and she respects the Earth onely by accident when she is concentrical with the World And therefore he thinks there is another light under the Earth even at Midnight whereby many Eyes do see which owes also its rise to the Moon This opinion of your Author I leave to be examined by those that have skill in Astronomy and know both the Light and the Course of the Moon I will onely say thus much that when the Moon is concentrical as he calls it with the World as when it is Full and New Moon she doth not shine onely at night but also in the day and therefore she may rule the day as well as the night and then there will be two lights for the ruling of the day or at least there will be a strife betwixt the Sun and the Moon which shall rule But as for Men walking asleep by the light of the Moon my opinion is That blind men may walk as well by the light of the Sun as sleeping men by the light of the Moon Neither is it probable that the Moon or her Blas doth nourish Plants for in a cold Moon-shiny night they will often die but it is rather the Regular motions in well tempered matter that cause fruitful productions and maturity And so I repose my Pen lest it trespass too much upon your Patience resting MADAM Your humble and faithful Servant IX MADAM IN my former when I related your Authors opinion concerning Earthquakes I forgot to tell you that he counts the the Doctrine of the Schools absurd when they say that Air or any Exhalation is the cause of them For says he There is no place in the Pavements or soils of the Earth wherein any airy body may be entertained whether that body be a wind or an airy exhalation But since I promised I would not offer to
particular creature of Nature should have as much power to act or work as Nature her self but because neither Reason nor Art has found out as yet such a powerful opposite to Gold as can alter its nature men therefore conclude that it cannot be done Your Author relates to have seen the Gold-making stone which he says was of colour such as Saffron is in its powder but weighty and shining like unto powder'd Glass one fourth part of one grain thereof a grain he reckons the six hundredth part of one ounce being projected upon eight ounces of Quicksilver made hot in a Crucible and straight way there were found eight ounces and a little less then eleven grains of the purest Gold therefore one onely grain of that powder had transchanged 19186 parts of Quicksilver equal to it self into the best Gold Truly Madam I wish with all my heart the poor Royalists had had some quantity of that powder and I assure you that if it were so I my self would turn a Chymist to gain so much as to repair my Noble Husbands losses that his noble family might flourish the better But leaving Gold since it is but a vain wish I do verily believe that some of the Chymical medicines do in some desperate cases many times produce more powerful and sudden effects then the medicines of Galenistsi and therefore I do not absolutely condemn the art of Fire as if I were an enemy to it but I am of an opinion that my Opinions in Philosophy if well understood will rather give a light to that art then obscure its worth for if Chymists did but study well the corporeal motions or actions of Natures substantial body they would by their observations understand Nature better then they do by the observation of the actions of their Art and out of this consideration and respect I should almost have an ambition to become an Artist in Chymistry were I not too lazie and tender for that imployment but should I quit the one and venture the other I am so vain as to perswade my self I might perform things worthy my labour upon the ground of my own Philosophy which is substantial Life Sense and Reason for I would not study Salt Sulphur and Mercury but the Natural motions of every Creature and observe the variety of Natures actions But perchance you will smile at my vain conceit and it may be I my self should repent of my pains unsuccessfully bestowed my time vainly spent my health rashly endangered and my Noble Lords Estate unprofitably wasted in fruitless tryals and experiments Wherefore you may be sure that I will consider well before I act for I would not lose Health Wealth and Fame and do no more then others have done which truly is not much their effects being of less weight then their words But in the mean time my study shall be bent to your service and how to express my self worthily MADAM Your Ladiships humble and faithful Servant XIV MADAM I Have read your Authors discourse concerning Sensation but it was as difficult to me to understand it as it was tedious to read it Truly all the business might have have been easily declared in a short Chapter and with more clearness and perspicuity For Sensation is nothing else but the action of sense proceeding from the corporeal sensitive motions which are in all Creatures or parts of Nature and so all have sense and sensation although not alike after one and the same manner but some more some less each according to the nature and propriety of its figure But your Author speaks of Motion without Sense and Sense without Motion which is a meer impossibility for there is not nor cannot be any Motion in Nature without Sense nor any Sense without Motion there being no Creature without self-motion although not always perceptible by us or our external senses for all motion is not exteriously local and visible Wherefore not any part of Nature according to my opinion wants Sense and Reason Life and Knowledg but not such a substanceless Life as your Author describes but a substantial that is a corporeal Life Neither is Light the principle of Motion but Motion is the principle of Light Neither is Heat the principle of Motion but its effect as well as Cold is for I cannot perceive that Heat should be more active then Cold. Neither is there any such thing as Unsensibleness in Nature except it be in respect of some particular Sensation in some particular Figure As for example when an Animal dies or its Figure is dissolved from the Figure of an Animal we may say it hath not animal sense or motion but we cannot say it hath no sense or motion at all for as long as Matter is in Nature Sense and Motion will be so that it is absurd and impossible to believe or at least to think that Matter as a body can be totally deprived of Life Sense and Motion or that Life can perish and be corrupted be it the smallest part of Matter conceivable and the same turned or changed into millions of Figures for the Life and Soul of Nature is self-moving Matter which by Gods Power and leave is the onely Framer and Maker as also the Dissolver and Transformer of all Creatures in Nature making as well Light Heat and Cold Gas Blas and Ferments as all other natural Creatures beside as also Passions Appetites Digestions Nourishments Inclination Aversion Sickness and Health nay all Particular Ideas Thoughts Fancies Conceptions Arts Sciences c. In brief it makes all that is to be made in Nature But many great Philosophers conceive Nature to be fuller of Intricacy Difficulty and Obscurity then she is puzling themselves about her ordinary actions which yet are easie and free and making their arguments hard constrained and mystical many of them containing neither sense nor reason when as in my opinion there is nothing else to be studied in Nature but her substance and her actions But I will leave them to their own Fancies and Humors and say no more but rest MADAM Your humble and faithful Servant XV. MADAM COncerning Sympathy and Antipathy and attractive or magnetick Inclinations which some do ascribe to the influence of the Stars others to an unknown Spirit as the Mover others to the Instinct of Nature hidden Proprieties and certain formal Vertues but your Author doth attribute to directing Ideas begotten by their Mother Charity or a desire of Good Will and calls it a Gift naturally inherent in the Archeusses of either part If you please to have my opinion thereof I think they are nothing else but plain ordinary Passions and Appetites As for example I take Sympathy as also Magnetisme or attractive Power to be such agreeable Motions in one part or Creature as do cause a Fancy love and desire to some other part or Creature and Antipathy when these Motions are disagreeable and produce contrary effects as dislike hate and aversion to some part
insomuch as none would escape but by miracle epecially if dangerously hurt Concerning the Coveteousness of Physicians although sickness is chargeable yet I think it is not Charitable to say or to think that Physitians regard more their Profit then their Patients health for we might as well condemn Divines for taking their Tithes and Stipends as Physicians for taking their Fees but the holy Writ tells us that a Labourer is Worthy of his hire or reward and for my part I think those commit a great sin which repine at giving Rowards in any kind for those that deserve well by their endeavours ought to have their rewards and such Meritorious Persons I wish with all my Soul may prosper and thrive Nevertheless as for those persons which for want of means are not able to reward their Physicians I think Physicians will not deal so unconscionably as to neglect their health and lives for want of their Fees but expect the reward from God and be recompenced the better by those that have Wealth enough to spare And this good opinion I have of them So leaving them I rest MADAM Your constant Friend and faithful Servant XXIX MADAM I Am of your Authors mind That heat is not the cause of digestion but I dissent from him when he says That it is the Ferment of the stomach that doth cause it For in my opinion Digestion is onely made by regular digestive motions and ill digestion is caused by irregular motions and when those motions are weak then there is no digestion at all but what was received remains unaltered but when they are strong and quick then they make a speedy digestion You may ask me what are digestive motions I answer They are transchanging or transforming motions but since there be many sorts of transchanging motions digestive motions are those which transchange food into the nourishment of the body and dispose properly fitly and usefully of all the Parts of the food as well of those which are converted into nourishment as of those which are cast forth For give me leave to tell you Madam that some parts of natural Matter do force or cause other parts of Matter to move and work according to their will without any change or alteration of their parts as for example Fire and Metal for Fire will cause Metal to flow but it doth not readily alter it from its nature of being Metal neither doth Fire alter its nature from being Fire And again some parts of Matter will cause other parts to work and act to their own will by forcing these over-powred parts to alter their own natural motions into the motions of the victorious Party and so transforming them wholly into their own Figure as for example Fire will cause Wood to move so as to take its figure to wit the figure of Fire that is to change its own figurative motions into the motions of Fire and this latter kind of moving or working is found in digestion for the regular digestive motions do turn all food received from its own nature or figure into the nourishment figure or nature of the body as into flesh blood bones and the like But when several parts of Matter meet or joyn with equal force and power then their several natural motions are either quite altered or partly mixt As for example some received things not agreeing with the natural constitution of the body the corporeal motions of the received and those of the receiver do dispute or oppose each other for the motions of the received not willing to change their nature conformable to the desire of the digestive motions do resist and then a War begins whereby the body suffers most for it causes either a sickness in the stomack or a pain in the head or in the heart or in the bowels or the like Nay if the received food gets an absolute victory it dissolves and alters oftentimes the whole body it self remaining intire and unaltered as is evident in those that die of surfeits But most commonly these strifes and quarrels if violent do alter and dissolve each others forms or natures And many times it is not the fault of the Received but of the Receiver as for example when the digestive and transforming motions are either irregular or weak for they being too weak or too few the meat or food received is digested onely by halves and being irregular it causes that which we call corruption But it may be observed that the Received food is either agreeable or disagreeable to the Receiver if agreeable then there is a united consent of Parts to act regularly and perfectly in digestion if disagreeable then the Received acts to the Ruine that is to the alteration or dissolution of the Nature of the Receiver but if it be neutral that is neither perfectly agreeable nor perfectly disagreeable but between both then the receiver or rather the digestive Motions of the receiver use a double strength to alter and transform the received But you may ask me Madam what the reason is that many things received after they are dissolved into small parts those parts will keep their former colour and savour I answer The cause is that either the retentive Motions in the Parts of the received are too strong for the digestive and alterative Motions of the receiver or perchance this colour and savour is so proper to them as not to be transchanged but you must observe that those digestive alterative and transchanging motions do not act or move all after one and the same manner for some do dissolve the natural figure of the received some disperse its dissolved parts into the parts of the body some place the dispersed parts fitly and properly for the use benefit and consistence of the body for there is so much variety in this one act of digestion as no man is able to conceive and if there be such variety in one Particular natural action what variety will there not be in all Nature Wherefore it is not as I mentioned in the beginning either Ferment or Heat or any other thing that causes digestion for if all the constitution and nature of our body was grounded or did depend upon Ferment then Brewers and Bakers and those that deal with Ferments would be the best Physicians But I would fain know the cause which makes Ferment You may say saltness and sowreness But then I ask From whence comes saltness and sowreness You may say From the Ferment But then I shall be as wise as before The best way perhaps may be to say with your Author that Ferment is a Primitive Cause and a beginning or Principle of other things and it self proceeds from nothing But then it is beyond my imagination how that can be a Principle of material things which it self is nothing that is neither a substance nor an accident Good Lord what a stir do men make about nothing I am amazed to see their strange Fancies and Conceptions vented for the Truest Reasons
For which I would not spare any labour or pains but be as industrious as those that gain their living by their work and I pray to God that Nature may give me a capacity to do it But as for those that will censure my works out of spite and malice rather then according to justice let them do their worst for if God do but bless them I need not to fear the power of Nature much less of a part of Nature as Man Nay if I have but your Ladiships approbation it will satisfie me for I know you are so wife and just in your judgment that I may safely rely upon it For which I shall constantly and unfeignedly remain as long as I live MADAM Your Ladiships most faithful Friend and humble Servant SECT IV. I. MADAM I Perceive you take great delight in the study of Natural Philosophy since you have not onely sent me some Authors to peruse and give my judgment of their opinions but are very studious your self in the reading of Philosophical Works and truly I think you cannot spend your time more honourably profitably and delightfully then in the study of Nature as to consider how Variously Curiously and Wisely she acts in her Creatures for if the particular knowledg of a man's self be commendable much more is the knowledg of the general actions of Nature which doth lead us to the knowledg of our selves The truth is by the help of Philosophy our Minds are raised above our selves into the knowledg of the Causes of all natural effects But leaving the commending of this noble study you are pleased to desire my opinion of a very difficult and intricate argument in Natural Philosophy to wit of Generation or Natural Production I must beg leave to tell you first that some though foolishly believe it is not fit for Women to argue upon so subtil a Mystery Next there have been so many learned and experienced Philosophers Physicians and Anatomists which have treated of this subject that it might be thought a great presumption for me to argue with them having neither the learning nor experience by practice which they had Lastly There are so many several ways and manners of Productions in Nature as it is impossible for a single Creature to know them all For there are Infinite variations made by self-motion in Infinite Matter producing several Figures which are several Creatures in that same Matter But you would fain know how Nature which is Infinite Matter acts by self-motion Truly Madam you may as well ask any one part of your body how every other part of your body acts as to ask me who am but a small part of Infinite Matter how Nature works But yet I cannot say that Nature is so obscure as her Creatures are utterly ignorant for as there are two of the outward sensitive organs in animal bodies which are more intelligible then the rest to wit the Ear and the Eye so in Infinite Matter which is the body of Nature there are two parts which are more understanding or knowing then the rest to wit the Rational and Sensitive part of Infinite Matter for though it be true That Nature by self-division made by self-motion into self-figures which are self-parts causes a self-obscurity to each part motion and figure nevertheless Nature being infinitely wise and knowing its infinite natural wisdom and knowledg is divided amongst those infinite parts of the infinite body and the two most intelligible parts as I said are the sensitive and rational parts in Nature which are divided being infinite into every Figure or Creature I cannot say equally divided no more then I can say all creatures are of equal shapes sizes properties strengths quantities qualities constitutions semblances appetites passions capacities forms natures and the like for Nature delights in variety as humane sense and reason may well perceive for seldom any two creatures are just alike although of one kind or sort but every creature doth vary more or less Wherefore it is not probable that the production or generation of all or most Creatures should be after one and the same manner or way for else all Creatures would be just alike without any difference But this is to be observed that though Nature delights in variety yet she doth not delight in confusion but as it is the propriety of Nature to work variously so she works also wisely which is the reason that the rational and sensitive parts of Nature which are the designing and architectonical parts keep the species of every kind of Creatures by the way of Translation in Generation or natural Production for whatsoever is transferred works according to the nature of that figure or figures from whence it was transferred But mistake me not for I do not mean always according to their exterior Figure but according to their interior Nature for different motions in one and the same parts of matter make different figures wherefore much more in several parts of matter and changes of motion But as I said Translation is the chief means to keep or maintain the species of every kind of Creatures which Translation in natural production or generation is of the purest and subtilest substances to wit the sensitive and rational which are the designing and architectonical parts of Nature You may ask me Madam what this wise and ingenious Matter is I answer It is so pure subtil and self-active as our humane shares of sense and reason cannot readily or perfectly perceive it for by that little part of knowledg that a humane creature hath it may more readily perceive the strong action then the purer substance for the strongest action of the purest substance is more perceivable then the matter or substance it self which is the cause that most men are apt to believe the motion and to deny the matter by reason of its subtilty for surely the sensitive and rational matter is so pure and subtil as not to be expressed by humane sense and reason As for the rational-matter it is so pure fine and subtil that it may be as far beyond lucent matter as lucent matter is beyond gross vapours or thick clouds and the sensitive matter seems not much less pure also there is very pure inanimate matter but not subtil and active of it self for as there are degrees in the animate so there are also degrees in the inanimate matter so that the purest degree of inanimate matter comes next to the animate not in motion but in the purity of its own degree for it cannot change its nature so as to become animate yet it may be so pure in its own nature as not to be perceptible by our grosser senses But concerning the two degrees of animate Matter to wit the sensitive and rational I say that the sensitive is much more acute then Vitriol Aqua-fortis Fire or the like and the rational much more subtil and active then Quicksilver or Light so as I cannot find a comparison fit to express them
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-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
for all parts belong to one body which is Nature nay if any thing could subsist of it self it were a God and not a Creature Wherefore not any Creature can challenge a soul absolutely to himself unless Man who hath a divine soul which no other Creature hath But that which makes so many confusions and disputes amongst learned men is that they conceive first there is no rational soul but onely in man next that this rational soul in every man is individable But if the rational soul is material as certainly to all sense and reason it is then it must not onely be in all material Creatures but be dividable too for all that is material or corporeal hath parts and is dividable and therefore there is no such thing in any one Creature as one intire soul nay we might as well say there is but one Creature in Nature as say there is but one individable natural soul in one Creature Your Tenth question is Whether Souls are producible or can be produced I answer in my opinion they are producible by reason all parts in Nature are so But mistake me not for I do not mean that any one part is produced out of Nothing or out of new matter but one Creature is produced by another by the dividing and uniting joyning and disjoyning of the several parts of Matter and not by substanceless Motion out of new Matter And because there is not any thing in Nature that has an absolute subsistence of it self each Creature is a producer as well as a produced in some kind or other for no part of Nature can subsist single and without reference and assistance of each other or else every single part would not onely be a whole of it self but be as a God without controle and though one part is not another part yet one part belongs to another part and all parts to one whole and that whole to all the parts which whole is one corporeal Nature And thus as I said before productions of one or more creatures by one or more producers without matter meerly by immaterial motions are impossible to wit that something should be made or produced out of nothing for if this were so there would consequently be an annihilation or turning into nothing and those Creatures which produce others by the way of immaterial motions would rather be as a God then a part of Nature or Natural Matter Besides it would be an endless labour and more trouble to create particular Creatures out of nothing then a World at once whereas now it is easie for Nature to create by production and transmigration and therefore it is not probable that any one Creature hath a particular life soul or body to it self as subsisting by it self and as it were precised from the rest having its own subsistence without the assistance of any other nor is it probable that any one Creature is new for all that is was and shall be till the Omnipotent God disposes Nature otherwise As for the rest of your questions as whether the Sun be the cause of all motions and of all natural productions and whether the life of a Creature be onely in the blood or whether it have its beginning from the blood or whether the blood be the chief architect of an animal or be the seat of the soul sense and reason in my opinion doth plainly contradict them for concerning the blood if it were the seat of the Soul then in the circulation of the blood if the Soul hath a brain it would become very dizzie by its turning round but perchance some may think the Soul to be a Sun and the Blood the Zodiack and the body the Globe of the Earth which the Soul surrounds in such time as the Blood is flowing about And so leaving those similizing Fancies I 'le add no more but repeat what I said in the beginning viz. that I rely upon the goodness of your Nature from which I hope for pardon if I have not so exactly and solidly answered your desire for the argument of this discourse being so difficult may easily lead me into an error which your better judgment will soon correct and in so doing you will add to those favours for which I am already MADAM Your Ladiships most obliged Friend and humble Servant III. MADAM You thought verily I had mistaken my self in my last concerning the Rational Souls of every particular Creature because I said all Creatures had numerous Souls and not onely so but every particular Creature had numerous Souls Truly Madam I did not mistake my self for I am of the same opinion still for though there is but one Soul in infinite Nature yet that soul being dividable into parts every part is a soul in every single creature were the parts no bigger in quantity then an atome But you ask whether Nature hath Infinite souls I answer That Infinite Nature is but one Infinite body divided into Infinite parts which we call Creatures and therefore it may as well be said That Nature is composed of Infinite Creatures or Parts as she is divided into Infinite Creatures or Parts for Nature being Material is dividable and composable The same may be said of Nature's Soul which is the Rational part of the onely infinite Matter as also of Nature's Life which is the sensitive part of the onely Infinite self-moving Matter and of the Inanimate part of the onely Infinite Matter which I call the body for distinction sake as having no self-motion in its own nature for Infinite Material Nature hath an Infinite Material Soul Life and Body But Madam I desire you to observe what I said already viz. that the parts of Nature are as apt to divide as to unite for the chief actions of Nature are to divide and to unite which division is the cause that it may well be said every particular Creature hath numerous souls for every part of rational Matter is a particular Soul and every part of the sensitive Matter is a particular Life all which mixed with the Inanimate Matter though they be Infinite in parts yet they make but one Infinite whole which is Infinite Nature and thus the Infinite division into Infinite parts is the cause that every particular Creature hath numerous Souls and the transmigration of parts from and to parts is the reason that not any Creature can challenge a single soul or souls to it self the same for life But most men are unwilling to believe that Rational Souls are material and that this rational Matter is dividable in Nature when as humane sense and reason may well perceive that Nature is active and full of variety and action and variety cannot be without motion division and composition but the reason that variety division and composition runs not into confusion is that first there is but one kind of Matter next that the division and composition of parts doth ballance each other into a union in the whole But to conclude those
answer To my sense and reason it were possible if extremes were in Nature but I do not perceive that in Nature there be any although my sense and reason doth perceive alterations in the effects of Nature for though one and the same part may alter from contraction to dilation and from dilation to contraction yet this contraction and dilation are not extremes neither are they performed at one and the same time but at different times But having sufficiently declared my opinion hereof in my former Letters I 'l add no more but rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XII MADAM MY discourse of Water in my last Letter has given you occasion to enquire after the reason Why the weight of a great body of water doth not press so hard and heavily as to bruise or crush a body when it is sunk down to the bottom As for example If a man should be drowned and afterwards cast out from the bottom of a great Sea or River upon the shore he would onely be found smother'd or choak'd to death and not press'd crush'd or bruised by the weight of water I answer The reasons are plain for first the nature of a mans respiration requires such a temperature of breath to suck in as is neither too thick nor too thin for his lungs and the rest of his interior parts as also for the organs and passages of his exterior senses but fit proper and proportionable to those mentioned parts of his body As for example in a too thin and rarified air man will be as apt to die for want of breath as in a too gross and thick air he is apt to die with a superfluity of the substance he imbreaths for thick smoak or thick vapour as also too gross air will soon smother a man to death and as for choaking if a man takes more into his throat then he can swallow he will die and if his stomack be filled with more food then it is able to digest if it cannot discharge it self he will die with the excess of food and if there be no food or too little put into it he will also die for want of food So the eye if it receives too many or too gross or too bright objects it will be dazled or blinded and some objects through their purity are not to be seen at all The same for Hearing and the rest of the exterior senses And this is the reason why man or some animal Creatures are smother'd and choak'd with water because water is thicker then the grossest air or vapour for if smoak which is rarer then water will smother and choak a man well may water being so much thicker But yet this smothering or choaking doth not prove that water hath an interior or innate density as your Authors opinion is no more then smoak or thick and gross air hath but the density of water is caused more through the wet and moist exterior parts joyning and uniting closely together and the interior nature of smoak being more moist or glutinous then thin air and so more apt to unite its exterior parts it makes it to come in effect nearer to water for though water and smoak are both of rare natures yet not so rare as clear and pure air neither is water or smoak so porous as pure air by reason the exterior parts of water and smoak are more moist or glutinous then pure air But the thickness of water and smoak is the onely cause of the smothering of men or some animals as by stopping their breath for a man can no more live without air then he can without food and a well tempered or middle degree of air is the most proper for animal Respiration for if the air be too thick it may soon smother or choak him and if too thin it is not sufficient to give him breath And this is the reason that a man being drown'd is not onely smother'd but choak'd by water because there enters more through the exterior passages into his body then can be digested for water is apt to flow more forcibly and with greater strength then air not that it is more dilating then air but by reason it is thicker and so stronger or of more force for the denser a body is the stronger it is and a heavy body when moved is more forcible then a light body But I pray by this expression mistake not the nature of water for the interior nature of water hath not that gravity which heavy or dense bodies have its nature being rare and light as air or fire but the weight of water as I said before proceeds onely from the closeness and compactness of its exterior parts not through a contraction in its interior nature and there is no argument which proves better that water in its interior nature is dilating then that its weight is not apt to press to a point for though water is apt to descend through the union of its parts yet it cannot press hard by reason of its dilating nature which hinders that heavy pressing quality for a dilating body cannot have a contracted weight I mean so as to press to a Center which is to a point and this is the reason that when a grave or heavy body sinks down to the bottom of water it is not opprest hurt crusht or bruised by the weight of water for as I said the nature of water being dilating it can no more press hard to a center then vapour air or fire The truth is water would be as apt to ascend as descend if it were not for the wet glutinous and sticking cleaving quality of its exterior parts but as the quantity and quality of the exterior parts makes water apt to sink or descend so the dilating nature makes it apt to flow if no hinderance stop its course also the quantity and quality of its exterior parts is the cause that some heavy bodies do swim without sinking as for example a great heavy Ship will not readily sink unless its weight be so contracted as to break asunder the united parts of water for the wet quality of water causing its exterior parts to joyn close gives it such an united strength as to be able to bear a heavy burden if the weight be dilated or level and not piercing or penetrating for those bodies that are most compact will sink sooner although of less weight then those that are more dilated although of greater weight Also the exterior and outward shape or form makes some bodies more apt to sink then others Indeed the outward form and shape of Creatures is one of the chief causes of either sinking or swimming But to conclude water in its interior nature is of a mean or middle degree as neither too rare nor too grave a body and for its exterior quality it is in as high a degree for wetness as fire is for heat and being apt both to divide and to unite it can bear a burden and devour a
burden so that some bodies may swim and others sink and the cause that a sunk body is not opprest crush'd or squeesed is the dilating nature and quality of water which hinders its parts from pressing or crowding towards a point or center for although water is heavy and apt to descend yet its weight is not caused by a contraction of its substance but by a union of its parts Thus Madam I have obeyed your commands in giving you my reasons to your propounded question which if you approve I have my aim if not I submit to your better judgment for you know I am in all respects MADAM Your Faithful Friend to serve you XIII MADAM I Am glad you are pleased with my reasons I gave to your propounded question concerning the weight of Water and since you have been pleased to send me some more of that subject I shall be ready also to give my answer to them according to the capacity of my judgment First you desire to know How it comes that Water will by degrees ascend through a narrow pipe when the pipe is placed straight upright or perpendicular The reason in my opinion is that Water having a dilative nature when it finds an obstruction to descend or flow even will dilate it self ascendingly according as it hath liberty or freedom and strength or quantity the truth is water would be more apt to ascend then to descend were it not for the close uniting of its liquid Parts which causes its exterior density and this density makes it of more weight then its nature is and the proof that water is apt in its nature to ascend is that some sorts of vapours are made onely by the dilation and rarefaction of ascending Water Your second question is Why the surface of water seems to be concave in its middle and higher on every side I answer The interior figure of water is a circular figure which being a round figure is both concave and convex for where one is the other must be and the motions of ebbing and flowing and ascending or descending are partly of that figure and so according to the exterior dilating strength or weakness the exterior parts of water become either concave or convex for in a full strength as a full stream the exterior parts of water flow in a convex figure but when they want strength they ebb in a concave figure Your third question is What makes frozen water apt to break those Vessels wherein it is contained in the act of freezing or congealing I answer The same cause that makes water clear as also more swell'd then usually it is which cause is the inherent dilative nature of water for water being naturally dilative when as cold attractions do assault it the moist dilations of water in the conflict use more then their ordinary strength to resist those cold contracting motions by which the body of water dilates it self into a larger compass according as it hath liberty or freedom or quantity of parts and the cold parts not being able to drive the water back to its natural compass bind it as it is extended like as if a beast should be bound when his legs and neck are thrust out at the largest extent in striving to kick or thrust away his enemies and imprisoners And so the reason why water breaks those vessels wherein it is inclosed in the act of its freezing or congealing is that when the cold contractions are so strong as they endeavour to extinguish the dilating nature of water the water resisting forces its parts so as they break the vessel which incloses them The same reason makes Ice clear and transparent for it is not the rarefaction of water that doth it but the dilation which causes the parts of water to be not onely more loose and porous but also more smooth and even by resisting the clold contractions for every part endeavours to defend their borders with a well ordered and regular flowing or streaming and not onely to defend but to enlarge their compass against their enemies Your fourth question is How it comes that Snow and Salt mixt together doth make Ice The reason in my judgment is that Salt being very active and partly of the nature of fire doth sometimes preserve and sometimes destroy other bodies according to its power or rather according to the nature of those bodies it works on and salt being mixt with snow endeavours to destroy it but having not so much force melts it onely by its heat and reduces it into its first principle which is water altering the figure of snow but the cold contractions remaining in the water and endeavouring to maintain and keep their power straight draw the water or melted snow into the figure of ice so as neither the salts heat nor the waters dilative nature are able to resist or destroy those cold contractions for although they destroy'd the first figure which is snow yet they cannot hinder the second which is Ice Your last question is How the Clouds can hang so long in the Skie without falling down Truly Madam I do not perceive that Clouds being come to their full weight and gravity do keep up in the air but some of them fall down in showres of rain others in great and numerous flakes of snow some are turned into wind and some fall down in thick mists so that they onely keep up so long until they are of a full weight for descent or till their figure is altered into some other body as into air wind rain lightning thunder snow hail mist and the like But many times their dilating motions keep or hinder them from descending to which contracting motions are required In my opinion it is more to be admired that the Sea doth not rise then that Clouds do not fall for as we see Clouds fall very often as also change from being Clouds to some other figure Wherefore it is neither the Sun nor Stars nor the Vapours which arise from the Earth and cause the Clouds nor the porositity of their bodies nor the Air that can keep or hinder them from falling or changing to some other body but they being come to their full weight fall or change according as is fittest for them And these are all the reasons I can give you for the present if they do not satisfie you I will study for others and in all occasions endeavour to express my self MADAM Your constant Friend and faithful Servant XIV MADAM SInce in my last I made mention of the Congealing of Water into Ice and Snow I cannot choose but by the way tell you that I did lately meet with an Author who is of opinion That Snow is nothing else but Ice broken or ground into small pieces To which I answer That this opinion may serve very well for a Fancy but not for a Rational Truth or at least for a Probable Reason For why may not the cold motions make snow without beating or grinding as well as
the lines or beams of light which are straight small even and parallel do contract in their entrance through the glass into the figure of the colour the glass is stained or painted with so that the light passes through the glass figuratively in so much as it seems to be of the same colour the glass is of although in it self it is white lucent and clear and as the light appears so the eye receives it if the sight be not destructive The fourth question is Whether as your Authors opinion is kisses feel pleasing and delightful by the thinness of the parts and a gentle stirring and quavering of the tangent spirits that give a pleasing tact I answer If this were so then all kisses would be pleasing which surely are not for some are thought very displeasing especially from thin lips wherefore in my opinion it is neither the thinness of the parts of the lips nor the quavering of the tangent spirits but the appetites and passions of life reason and soul that cause the pleasure Nevertheless I grant the stirring up of the spirits may contribute to the increasing heightning or strengthning of that tact but it is not the prime cause of it The fifth question is Whether the greatest man have always the greatest strength I answer Not for strength and greatness of bulk doth not always consist together witness experience for a little man may be and is oftentimes stronger then a tall man The like of other animal Creatures As for example some Horses of a little or middle size have a great deal more strength then others which are high and big for it is the quantity of sensitive matter that gives strength and not the bigness or bulk of the body The sixth question is Whether this World or Vniverse be the biggest Creature I answer It is not possible to be known unless Man could perfectly know its dimension or extension or whether there be more Worlds then one But to speak properly there is no such thing as biggest or least in Nature The seventh question is Whether the Earth be the Center of Matter or of the World As for Matter it being Infinite has no Center by reason it has no Circumference and as for this World its Center cannot be known unless man knew the utmost parts of its circumference for no Center can be known without its circumference and although some do imagine this world so little that in comparison to Infinite Matter it would not be so big as the least Pins head yet their knowledg cannot extend so far as to know the circumference of this little World by which you may perceive the Truth of the old saying Man talks much but knows little The eighth question is Whether all Centers must needs be full and close as a stufft Cushion and whether the matter in the Center of the Vniverse or World be dense compact and heavy I answer This can no more be known then the circumference of the World for what man is able to know whether the Center of the world be rare or dense since he doth not know where its Center is and as for other particular Centers some Centers may be rare some dense and some may have less matter then their circumferences The ninth question is Whether Finite Creatures can be produced out of an Infinite material cause I answer That to my sense and reason an Infinite cause must needs produce Infinite effects though not in each Particular yet in General that is Matter being Infinite in substance must needs be dividable into Infinite parts in number and thus Infinite Creatures must needs be produced out of Infinite Matter but Man being but a finite part thinks all must be finite too not onely each particular Creature but also the Matter out of which all Creatures are produced which is corporeal Nature Nevertheless those Infinite effects in Nature are equalized by her different motions which are her different actions for it is not non-sence but most demonstrable to sense and reason that there are equalities or a union in Infinite The tenth question is Whether the Elements be the onely matter out of which all other Creatures are produced I answer The Elements as well as all other Creatures as it appears to humane sense and reason are all of one and the same Matter which is the onely Infinite Matter and therefore the Elements cannot be the Matter of all other Creatures for several sorts of Creatures have several ways of productions and I know no reason to the contrary but that Animals Vegetables and Minerals may as well derive their essence from each other as from the Elements or the Elements from them for as all Creatures do live by each other so they are produced from each other according to the several ways or manners of productions But mistake me not Madam for I speak of production in General and not of such natural production whereby the several species of Creatures are maintained As for example Generation in Animals for an Element cannot generate an Animal in that manner as an Animal can generate or produce its like for as Nature is wise so her actions are all wise and orderly or else it would make a horrid confusion amongst the Infinite parts of Nature The eleventh question is What is meant by Natural Theology I answer Natural Theology in my opinion is nothing else but Moral Philosophy for as for our belief it is grounded upon the Scripture and not upon Reason These Madam are the Questions which I have pickt out of your new Author together with my answers of which I desire your impartial Judgment But I must add onething more before I conclude which is I am much pleased with your Authors opinion That Sound may be perceived by the Eye Colour by the Ear and that Sound and Colour may be smell'd and tasted and I have been of this opinion eleven years since as you will find in my Book of Poems whose first Edition was printed in the Year 1653. And thus I take my leave of you and remain constantly MADAM Your Faithful Friend to serve you XVI MADAM COncerning your question of the ascending nature of fire I am absolutely of Aristotle's Opinion that it is as natural for Fire to ascend as it is for Earth to descend And why should we believe the nature of one and doubt the nature of the other For if it be granted that there are as well ascending as descending bodies in Nature as also low and high places according to the situation of Particulars and Circumferences as well as Centers considering the shape of bodies I cannot perceive by humane reason but that the Nature of fire is ascending and that it is very improbable it should have a descending or contracting nature as to tend or endeavour to a Center But Madam give me leave to ask what sort of Fire you mean whether a Celestial or a Terrestrial Fire viz. that which is named an Elemental fire or any
abolish'd the intended benefit and banish'd equity and instead of keeping Peace they make War causing enmity betwixt men As for Natural Philosophy they will not suffer sense and reason to appear in that study And as for Physick they have kill'd more men then Wars Plagues or Famine Wherefore from nice distinctions and Logistical sophistry Good God deliver us especially from those that concern Divinity for they weaken Faith trouble Conscience and bring in Atheism In short they make controversies and endless disputes But least the opening of my meaning in such plain terms should raise a controversie also between you and me I 'le cut off here and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXI MADAM YEsterday I received a visit from the Lady N. M. who you know hath a quick wit rational opinions and subtil conceptions all which she is ready and free to divulge in her discourse But when she came to my Chamber I was casting up some small accounts which when she did see What said she are you at Numeration Yes said I but I cannot number well nor much for I do not understand Arithrnetick Said she You can number to three Yes said I I can number to four Nay faith said she the number of three is enough if you could but understand that number well for it is a mystical number Said I There is no great mystery to count that number for one and two makes three Said she That is not the mystery for the mystery is That three makes one and without this mystery no man can understand Dlvinity Nature nor himself Then I desired her to make me understand that mystery She said It required more time to inform me then a short visit for this mystery was such as did puzle all wise men in the world aud the not understanding of this mystery perfectly had caused endless divisions and disputes I desired if she could not make me understand the mystery she would but inform me how three made one in Divinity Nature and Man She said That was easie to do for in Divinity there are three Persons in one Essence as God the Father the Son and the holy Ghost whose Essence being individable they make but one God And as for Philosophy there is but Matter Motion and Figure which being individable make but one Nature And as for Man there is Soul Life and Body all three joyned in one Man But I replied Man's Life Soul and Body is dividable That is true said she but then he is no more a Man for these three are his essential parts which make him to be a man and when these parts are dissolved then his interior nature is changed so that he can no longer be call'd a man As for example Water being turned into Air and having lost its interior nature can no more be called Water but it is perfect Air the same is with Man But as long as he is a Man then these three forementioned parts which make him to be of that figure are individably united as long as man lasts Besides said she this is but in the particular considering man single and by himself but in general these three as life soul and body are individably united so that they remain as long as manking lasts Nay although they do dissolve in the particulars yet it is but for a time for they shall be united again at the last day which is the time of their resurrection so that also in this respect we may justly call them individable for man shall remain with an united soul life and body eternally And as she was thus discoursing in came a Sophisterian whom when she spied away she went as fast as she could but I followed her close and got hold of her then asked her why she ran away She answer'd if she stayed the Logician would dissolve her into nothing for the profession of Logicians is to make something nothing and nothing something I pray'd her to stay and discourse with the Logician Not for a world said she for his discourse will make my brain like a confused Chaos full of senseless minima's and after that he will so knock jolt and jog it and make such whirls and pits as will so torture my brain that I shall wish I had not any Wherefore said she I will not stay now but visit you again to morrow And I wish with all my heart Madam you were so near as to be here at the same time that we three might make a Triumvirate in discourse as well as we do in friendship But since that cannot be I must rest satisfied that I am MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXII MADAM YOu were pleased to desire my opinion of the works of that Learned and Ingenious Writer B. Truly Madam I have read but some part of his works but as much as I have read I have observed he is a very civil eloquent and rational Writer the truth is his style is a Gentleman's style And in particular concerning his experiments I must needs say this that in my judgment he hath expressed himself to be a very industrious and ingenious person for he doth neither puzle Nature nor darken truth with hard words and compounded languages or nice distinctions besides his experiments are proved by his own action But give me leave to tell you that I observe he studies the different parts and alterations more then the motions which cause the alterations in those parts whereas did he study and observe the several and different motions in those parts how they change in one and the same part and how the different alterations in bodies are caused by the different motions of their parts he might arrive to a vast knowledg by the means of his experiments for certainly experiments are very beneficial to man In the next place you desire my opinion of the Book call'd The Discourses of the Virtuosi in France I am sorry Madam this book comes so late to my hands that I cannot read it so slowly and observingly as to give you a clear judgment of their opinions or discourses in particular however in general and for what I have read in it I may say it expresses the French to be very learned and eloquent Writers wherein I thought our English had exceeded them and that they did onely excel in wit and ingenuity but I perceive most Nations have of all sorts The truth is ingenious and subtil wit brings news but learning and experience brings proofs at least argumental discourses and the French are much to be commended that they endeavour to spend their time wisely honourably honestly and profitably not onely for the good and benefit of their own but also of other Nations But before I conclude give me leave to tell you that concerning the curious and profitable Arts mentioned in their discourses I confess I do much admire them and partly believe they may arrive to the use of many of them but there are two arts which I
them with a fine coloured Covering of Logick and Geometry and set them out in a handsome array by which I might have also cover'd my ignorance like as Stage-Players do cover their mean persons or degrees with fine Cloathes But as I said I being void of Learning and Art did put them forth according to my own conceptions and as I did understand them my self but since I have hitherto by the reading of those famous and learned Authors you sent me attained to the knowledg of some artificial Terms I shall not spare any labour and pains to make my opinions so intelligible that every one who without partiality spleen or malice doth read them may also easily understand them And thus I shall likewise endeavour to give such answers to your scruples objections or questions as may explain those passages which seem obscure and satisfie your desire In the first place and in general you desire to know Whether any truth may be had in Natural Philosophy for since all this study is grounded upon probability and he that thinks he has the most probable reasons for his opinion may be as far off from truth as he who is thought to have the least nay what seems most probable to day may seem least probable to morrow especially if an ingenious opposer bring rational arguments against it Therefore you think it is but vain for any one to trouble his brain with searching and enquiring after such things wherein neither truth nor certainty can be had To which I answer That the undoubted truth in Natural Philosophy is in my opinion like the Philopher's Stone in Chymistry which has been sought for by many learned and ingenious Persons and will be sought as long as the Art of Chymistry doth last but although they cannot find the Philosophers Stone yet by the help of this Art they have found out many rare things both for use and knowledg The like in Natural Philosophy although Natural Philosophers cannot find out the absolute truth of Nature or Natures ground-works or the hidden causes of natural effects neverthelss they have found out many necessary and profitable Arts and Sciences to benefit the life of man for without Natural Philosophy we should have lived in dark ignorance not knowing the motions of the Heavens the cause of the Eclipses the influences of the Stars the use of Numbers Measures and Weights the vertues and effects of Vegetables and Minerals the Art of Architecture Navigation and the like Indeed all Arts and Sciences do adscribe their original to the study of Natural Philosophy and those men are both unwise and ungrateful that will refuse rich gifts because they cannot be masters of all Wealth and they are fools that will not take remedies when they are sick because Medicines can onely recover them from death for a time but not make them live for ever But to conclude Probability is next to truth and the search of a hidden cause finds out visible effects and this truth do natural Philosophers find that there are more fools then wise men which fools will never attain to the honour of being Natural Philosophers And thus leaving them I rest MADAM Your Ladiships humble and faithful Servant XXVIII MADAM YOur desire is to know since I say Nature is Wise Whether all her parts must be wise also To which I answer That by your favour all her parts are not fools but yet it is no necessary consequence that because Nature is infinitely wise all her parts must be so too no more then if I should say Nature is Infinite therefore every part must be Infinite But it is rather necessary that because Nature is Infinite therefore not any single part of hers can be Infinite but must be finite Next you desire to know Whether Nature or the self-moving matter is subject to err and to commit mistakes I answer Although Nature has naturally an Infinite wisdom and knowledg yet she has not a most pure and intire perfection no more then she has an absolute power for a most pure and intire perfection belongs onely to God and though she is infinitely naturally wise in her self yet her parts or particular creatures may commit errors and mistakes the truth is it is impossible but that parts or particular Creatures must be subject to errors because no part can have a perfect or general knowledg as being but a part and not a whole for knowledg is in parts as parts are in Matter Besides several corporeal motions that is several self-moving parts do delude and oppose each other by their opposite motions and this opposition is very requisite in Nature to keep a mean and hinder extreams for were there not opposition of parts Nature would run into extreams which would confound her and all her parts And as for delusion it is part of Natures delight causing the more variety but there be some actions in Nature which are neither perfect mistakes nor delusions but onely want of a clear and thorow perception As for example when a man is sailing in a Ship he thinks the shore moves from the ship when as it is the ship that moves from the shore Also when a man is going backward from a Looking-glass he thinks the figure in the Glass goeth inward whereas it is himself that goes backward and not his figure in the glass The cause of it is That the perception in the eye perceives the distanced body but not the motion of the distance or medium for though the man may partly see the motion of the visible parts yet he doth not see the parts or motion of the distance or medium which is invisible and not subject to the perception of sight and since a pattern cannot be made if the object be not visible hence I conclude that the motion of the medium cannot make perception but that it is the perceptive motions of the eye which pattern out an object as it is visibly presented to the corporeal motions in the eye for according as the object is presented the pattern is made if the motions be regular For example a fired end of a stick if you move it in a circular figure the sensitive corporeal motions in the eye pattern out the figure of fire together with the exterior or circular motion and apprehend it as a fiery circle and if the stick be moved any otherwise they pattern out such a figure as the fired end of the stick is moved in so that the sensitive pattern is made according to the exterior corporeal figurative motion of the object and not according to its interior figure or motions And this Madam is in short my answer to your propounded questions by which I hope you understand plainly the meaning of MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXIX MADAM THe scruples or questions you sent me last are these following First you desire to be informed what I mean by Phantasmes and Ideas I answer They are figures made by the purest and subtilest degree of
effects must of necessity be infinite also the cause is infinite in its substance the effects are Infinite in number And this is my meaning when I say that although in Nature there is but one kind of matter yet there are Infinite degrees Infinite motions and Infinite parts in that onely matter and though Infinite and Eternal matter has no perfect or exact figure by reason it is Infinite and therefore unlimited yet there being infinite parts in number made by the infinite variations of motions in infinite Matter these parts have perfect or exact figures considered as parts that is single or each in its particular figure And therefore if there be Infinite degrees considering the effects of the animate and inanimate matter infinite motions for changes infinite parts for number infinite compositions and divisions for variety and diversity of Creatures then there may also be infinite sizes each part or figure differing more or less infinite smalness and bigness lightness and heaviness rarity and density strength and power life and knowledg and the like But by reason Nature or Natural matter is not all animate or inanimate nor all composing or dividing there can be no Infinite in a part nor can there be something biggest or smallest strongest or weakest heaviest or lightest softest or hardest in Infinite Nature or her parts but all those several Infinites are as it were included in one Infinite which is Corporeal Nature or Natural Matter Next you desire my opinion of Vacuum whether there be any or not for you say I determine nothing of it in my Book of Philosophical Opinions Truly Madam my sense and reason cannot believe a Vacuum because there cannot be an empty Nothing but change of motion makes all the alteration of figures and consequently all that which is called place magnitude space and the like for matter motion figure place magnitude c. are but one thing But some men perceiving the alteration but not the subtil motions believe that bodies move into each others place which is impossible because several places are onely several parts so that unless one part could make it self another part no part can be said to succeed into anothers place but it is impossible that one part should make it self another part for it cannot be another and it self no more then Nature can be Nature and not Nature wherefore change of place is onely change of motion and this change of motion makes alteration of Figures Thirdly you say You cannot understand what I mean by Creation for you think that Creation is a production or making of Something out of Nothing To tell you really Madam this word is used by me for want of a better expression and I do not take it in so strict a sense as to understand by it a Divine or supernatural Creation which onely belongs to God but a natural Creation that is a natural production or Generation for Nature cannot create or produce Something out of Nothing And this Production may be taken in a double sence First in General as for example when it is said that all Creatures are produced out of Infinite Matter and in this respect every particular Creature which is finite that is of a circumscribed and limited figure is produced of Infinite Matter as being a part thereof Next Production is taken in a more strict sense to wit when one single Creature is produced from another and this is either Generation properly so called as when in every kind and sort each particular produces its like or it is such a Generation whereby one creature produces another each being of a different kind or species as for example when an Animal produces a Mineral as when a Stone is generated in the Kidneys or the like and in this sence one finite creature generates or produces another finite creature the producer as well as the produced being finite but in the first sence finite creatures are produced out of infinite matter Fourthly you confess You cannot well apprehend my meaning when I say that the several kinds are as Infinite as the particulars for your opinion is That the number of particulars must needs exceed the number of kinds I answer I mean in general the Infinite effects of Nature which are Infinite in number and the several kinds or sorts of Creatures are Infinite in duration for nothing can perish in Nature Fifthly When I say that ascending and descending is often caused by the exterior figure or shape of a body witness a Bird who although he is of a much bigger size and bulk then a Worm yet can by his shape lift himself up more agilly and nimbly then a Worm Your opinion is That his exterior shape doth not contribute any thing towards his flying by reason a Bird being dead retains the same shape but yet cannot fly at all But truly Madam I would not have you think that I do exclude the proper and interior natural motion of the figure of a Bird and the natural and proper motions of every part and particle thereof for that a Bird when dead keeps his shape and yet cannot fly the reason is that the natural and internal motions of the Bird and the Birds wings are altered towards some other shape or figure if not exteriously yet interiously but yet the interior natural motions could not effect any flying or ascending without the help of the exterior shape for a Man or any other animal may have the same interior motions as a Bird hath but wanting such an exterior shape he cannot fly whereas had he wings like a Bird and the interior natural motions of those wings he might without doubt fly as well as a Bird doth Sixthly Concerning the descent of heavy bodies that it is more forcible then the ascent of light bodies you do question the Truth of this my opinion Certainly Madam I cannot conceive it to be otherwise by my sense and reason for though Fire that is rare doth ascend with an extraordinary quick motion yet this motion is in my opinion not so strong and piercing as when grosser parts of Creatures do descend but there is difference in strength and quickness for had not Water a stronger motion and another sort of figure then Fire it could not suppress Fire much less quench it But Smoak which is heavier then Flame flies up or rises before or rather above it Wherefore I am still of the same opinion that heavy bodies descend more forcibly then light bodies do ascend and it seems most rational to me Lastly I perceive you cannot believe that all bodies have weight by reason if this were so the Sun and the Stars would have long since cover'd the Earth In answer to this objection I say That as there can be no body without figure and magnitude so consequently not without weight were it no bigger then an atome and as for the Sun 's and the Stars not falling down or rising higher the reason is not their
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