the Relation of the stronger Force to the larger Mouth But to solve this Problem by an Engine which sets better before the Eyes the Effect of the Muscles than the Former We must blow a little in a Foot-ball and hinder the Air from going out with a Sucker then put upon that Foot-ball half full of Wind a Stone of 5 or 600 weight or having set it on a Table lay on it a Board and on that Board a huge Stone or cause a heavy Man to sit upon the Board allowing him to hold by something that he may sit the faster upon the rising Foot-ball for if you blow again into it only with the Mouth it will raise the Stone that compresses it or the Man that sits upon it The Reason of this is that the Mouth of the Foot-ball is so small or at least must be suppos'd so in comparison to the Capaciousness of the Foot-ball that withstands the Weight of the Stone that by such means a very small is able to overcome a very great Force If we also consider that Breath alone is capable of violently driving a Leaden Ball through a long and strait Trunk because the Strength of the Breath is not dissipated but continually renew'd it will visibly appear that the necessary Proportion betwixt the Mouth and the largeness of the Foot-ball being suppos'd Breath alone may overcome a very considerable Force If we therefore conceive that the whole Muscles or each of the Fibres of which they are made have as this Foot-ball a competent Capacity to admit Animal Spirits that the Pores through which those Spirits flow are yet proportionably straiter than the Neck of a Bladder or the Aperture of the Foot-ball that the Spirits are detain'd in or driven through the Nerves almost as the Breath through a Trunk that the Spirits are more agitated than the Air of the Lungs and driven with a greater Violence to the Muscles than it is in a Bladder we shall perceive that the Motion of the Spirits which are dispers'd through the Muscles can conquer the Force of the heaviest Weight we carry and that if we cannot move other more ponderous this Want of Strength proceeds not so much from the Spirits as from the Fibres and Membranes of which the Muscles are compos'd which would burst should we make too great an Effort Besides If we observe that by the Laws of the Union betwixt Soul and Body the Motion of those Spirits as to their Determination depends on the Will of Man we shall see that the Motion of the Arm must needs be voluntary 'T is true that we move our Arm so readily that it seems at first sight incredible that the Course of the Spirits into the Muscles should be so swift as to effect that Motion But we ought to consider that those Spirits are extremely agitated always ready to pass from one Muscle into another and that a small quantity of that Spirituous Liquor may sufficiently swell them up so as to move them or to lift up from the Ground something very light For we cannot raise great Weights very readily because that Effort requires a great stretching and swelling of the Muscles which cannot be perform'd by the Spirits that are in the neighbouring or Antagonist Muscles and therefore some Time is requir'd to call in more Spirits to their help and in such a Quantity as that they may be able to withstand the Heaviness of the Weight Thus we see that those that are loaden cannot run and that a ponderous thing is not lifted up from the Ground so readily as a Straw If we consider that those that are of a fiery Temper or heated with Wine are quicker than others that amongst living Creatures those whose Spirits are more agitated as Birds move swifter than those in which Blood is colder as it is in Frogs and that in some of them as the Chamelion the Tortoise and some Insects the Spirits are so little agitated that their Muscles are not sooner fill'd than a Foot-ball would be by the Breath of a Man All these things being well observ'd may probably make our Explication acceptable But though that part of the Question propos'd which concerns Voluntary Motions be sufficiently resolv'd yet we must not assert that it is fully and perfectly or that nothing else in our Body contributes to those Motions besides what has been mention'd for most probably there are a Thousand Springs that facilitate them which will for ever be unknown even to those who give a better Guess upon the Works of God The second Part of the Question to be examin'd concerns the Natural Motions or those that have nothing extraordinary in them as Convulsions have but are absolutely necessary to the Preservation of our Machine and consequently altogether independent on our Will I first consider with all the possible Attention what Motions have those Conditions and whether they are perfectly alike And as I quickly perceive that they are for the most part different from each other lest I should perplex my self with too many things I shall only insist upon the Motion of the Heart which of all the inward Parts is the best known and its Motions the most sensible Whilst I examine its Construction I observe two Things amongst many others First That it is compos'd of Fibres as the other Muscles And Secondly That there are two remarkable Cavities in it And therefore I judge that its Motion may be perform'd by means of the Animal Spirits since it is a Muscle and that the Blood ferments and dilates in it since it has Cavities The first of these Judgments is founded upon what I have said before The second upon the Heart 's being much hotter than any other Parts of the Body and that it diffuses Heat together with Blood into all our Members and that those two Ventricles could neither be form'd nor preserv'd but by the Dilatation of the Blood So that they are subservient to the Cause that has produc'd them I can then give a sufficient Reason of the Motion of the Heart by the Spirits that agitate and the Blood that dilates it during the Fermentation For though the Cause I alledge of its Motion should not be true yet I plainly see that it is sufficient to produce it It may be that the Principle of Fermentation or Dilatation of Liquors is not so well known to all Readers as that I may pretend to have explain'd an Effect by generally shewing that it proceeds from Fermentation But all particular Questions are not to be resolv'd by ascending to the first Cause though that may be done too and a true System on which all particular Effects depend discover'd provided we only insist upon clear Ideas But that Way of Philosophizing is neither the exactest nor yet the shortest To comprehend this it must be observ'd that there are Questions of two sorts in the first it is requir'd to discover the Nature and Properties of some Thing in the others we only
the Minds of Men of different Countries The Gascons for instance have a more brisk and lively Imagination than the Normans Those of Rhoan and Dieppe and Picardie differ all from one another And yet farther from the Low-Normans though at no great distance from each other But if we consider Men that live in Countries more remote we shall find much stranger Differences between them For instance an Italian a Flemming and a Dutch-Man To conclude there are places celebrated in all Ages for the Wisdom of their Inhabitants as Theman and Athens and others as notorious for their Stupidity as Thebes and Abdera and some others Athenis tenue coelum ex quo acutiores etiam putantur Attici crassum Thebis Cic. de Fato Abderitanae pectora plebis habes Mart. Boeotum in crasso jurares aëre natum Hor. CHAP. IV. I. Of the Change of the Spirits caus'd by the Nerves which go to the Heart and Lungs II. Of that which is caus'd by the Nerves which go to the Liver to the Spleen and Viscera III. That all that is perform'd without the concurrence of our Will but yet it cannot be done without a Providence THE third cause of the Changes which happen to the Animal Spirits is the most ordinary and most active of them all because it is this which produces maintains and corroborates all the Passions For our better understanding this we must know that the Nerves of the fifth sixth and eighth Conjugation shoot out the greatest part of their Branches into the Breast and Belly where they are most advantagiously imploy'd for the Preservation of the Body but most dangerously in regard to the Soul Because these Nerves in their Action depend not on the Will of Men as do these us'd in moving the Legs and Arms and other External Parts of the Body And they have a greater influence upon the Soul than the Soul has upon them We must know then that many of the Branches of the Nerves of the eighth Conjugation fall in among the Fibres of the Principal of all the Muscles the Heart that they encircle its Orifices its Auricles and its Arteries That they expatiate also into the Substance of the Lungs and thus by their different Motions produce very considerable Changes in the Blood For the Nerves which are dispers'd among the Fibres of the Heart causing it to Dilate and Contract it self in too hasty and violent a manner throw with an unusual force abundance of Blood towards the Head and all other External Parts of the Body Though sometimes these same Nerves have a quite contrary Effect As for the Nerves which surround the Orifices of the Heart it s Auricles and Arteries their use is much the same with that of the Registers wherewith the Chymists moderate the Heat of their Furnaces or of Cocks which are instrumental in Fountains to regulate the Course of their Waters For the use of these Nerves is to contract and dilate diversly the Orifices of the Heart and by that manner to hasten and retard the Entrance and the Exit of the Blood and so to augment and diminish the Heat of it Lastly The Nerves which are dispers'd over the Lungs have the same employment For the Lungs being made up only of the Branches of the Trachea of the Vena Arteriosa and the Arteria Venosa interwoven one among another it is plain that the Nerves which are dispers'd through their Substance by their Contraction must obstruct the Air from passing so freely out of the Branches of the Trachea and the Blood out of those of the Vena Arteriosa into the Arteria Venosa to discharge it self into the Heart Thus these Nerves according to their different agitation augment and diminish still the Heat and Motion of the Blood All the Passions furnish us with very sensible Experiments of these different Degrees of Heat of our Heart we manifestly feel its Diminution and Augmentation sometimes on a sudden And as we falsly judge our Sensations to be in the Parts of our Body and by occasion of them to be Excited in our Soul as has been explain'd in the foregoing Book So the generality of Philosophers imagine the Heart to be the Principal Seat of the Passions of the Soul and 't is even at this day the most common and receiv'd Opinion Now because the Imaginative Faculty receives considerable Changes by the Changes which happen in the Animal Spirits and because the Animal Spirits are very different according to the different Fermentation of the Blood perform'd in the Heart it is easie to discover the Reason of Passionate People's imagining things quite otherwise than those who consider'd the same sedately and in cold Blood The other Cause which exceedingly contributes to the Diminution and Augmentation of these Extraordinary Fermentations of the Blood in the Heart consists in the Action of many other Branches of the Nerves whereof we have been speaking These Branches are dispers'd throughout the Liver which contains the more subtil part of the Blood or that which is commonly call'd the Bile through the Spleen which contains the grosser part or the Melancholy through the Pancreas which contains an acid Juice most proper for Fermentation through the Stomach the Guts and the other parts which contain the Chyle Finally They are dispers'd and spread about all the parts that can any ways contribute to the varying the Fermentation of the Blood in the Heart There is moreover nothing even to the Arteries and Veins which has not a Connection with these Nerves as Dr. Willis has discover'd of the Inferiour Trunck of the Great Artery which is connected to them near the Heart of the Axillary Artery on the right side of the Emulgent Vein and several others Thus the use of the Nerves being to agitate the parts to which they are fastened diverse ways it is easie to conceive how for instance the Nerve which surrounds the Liver may by constringing it drive a great quantity of Bile into the Veins and the Canalis Cysticus which mingling with the Blood in the Veins and with the Chyle through the Canalis Cysticus enters the Heart and produces a Heat therein much more fervent than ordinary Thus when a Man is mov'd with some kind of Passions the Blood boyls in the Arteries and in the Veins and the Heat is diffus'd throughout the Body the Fire flies up into the Head which is presently fill'd with such a prodigious quantity of over-brisk and rapid Animal Spirits as by their impetuous Current hinder the Imagination from representing other things than those whose Images they form in the Brain that is from thinking on other Objects than those of the Predominant Passion 'T is so again with the little Nerves which run into the Spleen or into other parts which contain a Matter more gross and course and less capable of Heat and Motion they render the Imagination wholly Languid Drousy and Unactive by pouring into the Chanels of the Blood a Matter that is
the Will of man as a Will it essentially depends on the Love that God bears to himself on the Eternal Law and in short on the Will of God It is only because God loves himself that we love any thing for if God did not love himself or did not continually influence the Soul of man with a Love like his own that is with the Motion of Love which a Man feels in himself for Good in general we should love nothing we should will nothing and consequently should be destitute of Will since Will is nothing else but that Impression of Nature that carries us towards Good in general as hath been said several times But the Will considered as the Will of Man essentially depends upon the Body since it is by reason of the Motion of the Blood and Animal Spirits that it feels its self affected with all its sensible Commotions And therefore I have called Natural Inclinations all the Motions which the Soul has common with pure Intelligences together with some in which the Body hath a great Share but of which it is only the indirect Cause and End and I have explained them in the foregoing Book Here I understand by Passions All the Motions which naturally affect the Soul on occasion of the extraordinary Motion of the Blood and Animal Spirits And so shall these sensible Commotions be the Subject of this Book Though the Passions be inseparable from the Inclinations and Men be only susceptible of a sensible Love and Hatred because they are capable of a Spiritual Love and Hatred however it was though fit to treat of them separately in order to prevent Confusion For if it be considered That the Passions are far stronger and livelyer than the Natural Inclinations that they have for the most part other Objects and are always produced by different Causes it will be granted That we do not distinguish without Reason things that are inseparable in their own Nature Men are capable of Sensations and Imaginations only because they are capable of pure Intellections the Senses and Imagination being inseparable from the Mind and yet none finds fault with those that distinctly treat of those Faculties of the Soul which are naturally inseparable Last of all the Senses and Imagination differ not more from the pure Understanding than the Passions from the Inclinations And therefore as the three first Faculties use to be distinguished so ought also the two last that we may the better distinguish what the Soul receives from its Author with Relation to its Body from that which it also has from him but without that Relation The only Inconveniency that may grow out of the distinction of two things so naturally united is the necessity of repeating some things that had been said before as is usual in the like occasions Man is one though he be Compounded of several parts and the union of those parts is so intimate that one of them cannot be affected without a Commotion of the whole All his Faculties are linked together and so subordinated that it is impossible to explain some of them without touching upon the others So that when we labour to find out a Method to prevent Confusion we necessarily fall into Repetitions but 't is better to repeat than not to be Methodical because we ought above all to be plain and intelligible and therefore whatever we can doe in this occasion is to repeat if possible without wearying the Reader The Passions of the Soul are Impressions of the Author of Nature which incline us to love our Body and whatever is useful for its preservation As the natural Inclinations are Impressions of the same Author that principally move us to love him as the Sovereign Good The natural or occasional Cause of these Impressions is the Motion of the Animal Spirits which disperse through the Body to produce and maintain in it a disposition suitable to the Object perceiv'd that the Mind and Body may in that conjuncture mutually help each other For 't is the Institution of God that our Willings be attended with such Motions of our Body as are fit to put them in execution and that the Motions of our Body which Machinally rise in us at the perception of some Object be follow'd with a Passion of the Soul that inclines us to will what seems at that time profitable to the Body It is the continual Impression of the Will of God upon us that keeps us so strictly united to a portion of matter for if that Impression of his Will should cease but a moment we should instantly be rid of the Dependency upon our Body and all the Changes it undergoes For I cannot understand what some people imagine that there is a necessary Connection betwixt the Motion of the Blood and Animal Spirits and the Commotions of the Soul Some small Particles of Choler violently move in the Brain must therefore the Soul be agitated with some Passion and must that Passion be Anger rather than Love What Relation can there be conceived betwixt the Idea of an Enemy's Imperfections the Passion of Contempt or Hatred and the Corporeal Motion of some Particles of the Blood that beat against some parts of the Brain How they can imagine that the one depend upon the other and that the Union or Connection of two things so distant and so incompatible as the Mind and Matter can be caused and preserved any otherwise than by the continual and Almighty Will of the Author of Nature is to me unconceivable Those that suppose that Bodies necessarily and by themselves communicate their Motion to each other in the instant of their concourse make but a probable supposition neither is their prejudice altogether groundless since Bodies seem to have an Essential Relation to Bodies But the Mind and Body are two sorts of Beings so opposite that those who think that the Commotions of the Soul necessarily follow upon the Motion of the Blood and Animal Spirits do it without the least probability For nothing but our own Consciousness of the Union of those two Beings and the Ignorance of the continual Operations of God upon his Creatures can make us imagine another Cause of the Union of our Soul and Body than the Will of God It is hard to determine whether that Union or Connection of the thoughts of the Mind of Man with the Motions of his Body is a punishment of Sin or a Gift of Nature And some persons believe it a rash and imprudent Attempt to chuse one of these Opinions rather than the other It is well known that Man before his Sin was not a Slave but absolute Master of his Passions and that he could merely by his Will stop at his pleasure the Agitation of the Blood that caused them But we can hardly persuade our selves that the Body did not importune the Soul of the first Man to find out such things as were fit for the preservation of his Life We can scarce believe but Adam before his
a Muscle it must needs swell up and produce in that part a Convulsive Motion If that Motion may easily be resisted 't is a sign that the Nerves are not yet obstructed by any Humour since we may empty the Muscle of the Spirits that have enter'd into it and determine them to swell up the opposite Muscle But if we cannot do it we must conclude that pungent and piercing Humours have some part at least in that Motion Even it may often happen that those Humours are the only Cause of Convulsions since they may determine the Course of the Spirits to some certain Muscles by opening some Passages that convey them and shutting others Besides that they may contract the Tendons and Fibres by penetrating their Pores When a very ponderous Weight hangs at the end of a Rope it may considerably be rais'd by only wetting that Cord because the Particles of Water penetrating as so many little Wedges betwixt the Threads of the Rope shorten it by dilating it So the piercing and pungent Humours insinuating into the Pores of the Nerves contract them stretch the Parts to which they are tied and produce in the Body Convulsive Motions that are extremely slow violent and painful and and often leave the Part sadly distorted for a long time As to the Convulsive Motions that are very swift they are caus'd by the Spirits but it is not necessary that those Spirits should receive any Fermentation 't is enough that the Conduits through which they pass be more open at one side than at the other When all the Parts of the Body are in their natural Situation the Animal Spirits diffuse themselves equally and readily through them according to the Necessities of the Machine and faithfully perform the Orders of the Will But when Humours disturb the Disposition of the Brain alter or variously move the Apertures of the Nerves or penetrate into the Muscles they agitate their Springs and the Spirits diffusing into those Parts after a new and unusual manner produce extraordinary Motions without the Consent of the Will However we may often by a strong Resistance hinder some of those Motions and insensibly diminish the Traces that produce them even when the Habit is wholly form'd Those that look carefully to themselves find little Difficulty in preventing Grimaces unbecoming Gestures and a sourish Countenance though their Body have a Disposition to them and may even conquer them when strengthen'd by Habit but with a great deal more Difficulty for such Dispositions should always be oppos'd in their Birth and before the Spirits have traced out a Way not easie to be stopp'd up The Cause of those Motions is often in the agitated Muscle and proceeds from some pungent Humour or fermenting Spirits but we must judge that it is in the Brain especially when the Convulsions agitate not one or two parts of the Body but most or all and withall in several Diseases which alter the natural Constitution of the Blood and Spirits 'T is true that one Nerve often having different Branches which disperse through Parts of the Body very remote as into the Face and Bowels it sometimes happens that a Convulsion the Cause of which lies in a Part to which some one of those Branches resorts may have Communication with those to which other Branches reach without proceeding from the Brain and without a Corruption of the Spirits But when the Convulsive Motions are common to most Parts of the Body we must needs say either that the Spirits ferment in a very extraordinary manner or that the Order and Disposition of the Parts of the Brain is disturb'd or that it proceeds from both Causes together I shall not insist any longer upon this Question because it grows so compound and depending on so many things when we enter into Particulars that it cannot easily be made serviceable to a clear Explication of the Rules we have given There is no Science which may supply us with more Examples to shew the Usefulness of those Rules than Geometry and especially Algebra since these two Sciences make a perpetual Use of them Geometry plainly discovers the Necessity always to begin with the most simple Things and which include the least Number of Relations It always examines those Relations by Measures that are clearly known it takes off whatever is unserviceable to discover them it divides into Parts Compound Questions disposes those Parts and examines them in order In short The only Fault to be found in this Science is as I have observ'd elsewhere that it affords no convenient Means to abridge Ideas and discover'd Relations So that though it regulates the Imagination and makes the Mind exact yet it increases not its Extent very much neither does it give a Capacity to discover very compound Truths But Algebra continually teaching to abridge and in the shortest Way imaginable Ideas and their Relations extremely improves the Capacity of the Mind for nothing so compound can be conceâv'd in the Relations of Magnitudes but the Mind may discover it in time by the Means it affords when we know the Way that ought to be taken The fifth Rule and the following which speak of the Method of abridging Ideas concern only that Science for none else has a convenient Way of abridging them so that I shall not insist upon their Explication Those who have a great Inclination for Mathematicks and desire to give their Mind all the Force and Extent it is capable of and to put themselves into a State of discovering without a Tutor an infinite Number of new Truths will perceive if they earnestly apply themselves to Algebra that the Usefulness of that Science as to the Enquiry after Truth proceeds from its observing the Rules we have prescrib'd But I must advertise that by Algebra I especially understand that which des Cartes and some others have made use of Before the Conclusion of this Book I shall set down an Example somewhat at large to shew the Usefulness of the whole Treatise I shall represent by it the Advances of a Man who in the Discussion of an important Question endeavours to free himself from Prejudices I shall at first make him fall into some Faults that they may excite the Remembrance of what has been said elsewhere But at last his Attention leading him to the Truth enquir'd after I induce him speaking positively and as one who pretends to have solv'd the Question he examin'd CHAP. IX The last Instance to shew the Vsefulness of this Treatise wherein the Cause of the Vnion of Parts in Bodies and withall the Rules of the Communication of Motion are examin'd BOdies are united together three different Ways by Continuity Contiguity and in a third manner that has no particular Name because it seldom happens I shall call it by the general Term of Union By Continuity or by the Causes of it I understand somewhat or other which causes the Parts of a Body to hold so strongly together that we must use violence
were true that God acted by particular Wills since Miracles are such only from their not happening by General Laws Therefore Miracles suppose these Laws and prove the Opinion I have establish'd But as to ordinary Effects they clearly and directly demonstrate General Laws or Wills If for Instance a Stone be dropp'd upon the Head of Passengers it will continually fall with equal speed not distinguishing the Piety or Quality or Good or Ill Disposition of those that pass If we examine any other Effect we shall see the same Constancy in the Action of the Cause of it But no Effect proves that God acts by particular Wills though Men commonly fancy God is constantly working Miracles in their Favour That way they would have God to act in being consonant to their own and indulgent to Self-love which centers all things on themselves and very proportionate to their Ignorance of the Complication of Occasional Causes which produce extraordinary Effects naturally falls into Mens Thoughts when but greenly studied in Nature and consult not with sufficient Attention the abstract Idea of an Infinite Wisdom of an Universal Cause of a Being Infinitely Perfect CONCERNING Nature and Grace DISCOURSE II. Of the Laws of GRACE in particular and of the Occasional Causes which regulate and determine their Efficacy PART I. Of the Grace of JESVS CHRIST I. SINCE none but GOD can act immediately and by himself on Minds and produce in them all the various Motions they are capable of 'T is he alone who sheds his Light within us and inspires us with certain Sensations which determine our diverse Volitions And therefore none but he can as a True Cause produce Grace in our Souls For Grace or that which is the Principle or Motive of all the Regular Motions of our Love is necessarily either a Light which instructs us or a confus'd Sensation that convinces us that God is our Good since we never begin to love an Object unless we see clearly by the Light of Reason or feel confusedly by the tast of Pleasure that this Object is good I mean capable of making us happier than we are II. But since all Men are involv'd in Original Sin and even by their Nature infinitely beneath the Majesty of God 'T is Jesus Christ alone that can by the Dignity of his Person and the Holiness of his Sacrifice have access to his Father reconcile him to us and merit his Favours for us and consequently be the meritorious Cause of Grace These Truths are certain But we are not seeking the Cause which produces Grace by its own Efficacy nor that which merits it by its Sacrifice and Good Works We enquire for that which regulates and determines the Efficacy of the General Cause and which we may term the Second Particular and Occasional III. For to the end the General Cause may act by General Laws or Wills and that his Action may be regular constant and uniform 't is absolutely necessary there should be some Occasional Cause to determine the Efficacy of these Laws and to help to fix them If the Collision of Bodies or something of like Nature did not determine the Efficacy of the General Laws of the Communication of Motions it would be necessary for God to move Bodies by particular Wills The Laws of Union of the Soul and Body become efficacious only from the Changes befalling one or other of these two Substances For if God made the Soul feel the Pain of pricking tho' the Body were not prick'd or though the same thing did not happen in the Brain as if it were he would not act by the General Laws of Union of the Soul and Body but by a particular Will If Rain fell on the Earth otherwise than by a necessary Consequence of the General Laws of Communication of Motions the Rain and the Fall of every Drop that composes it would be the Effect of a particular Will So that unless Order requir'd it should rain that Will would be absolutely unworthy of God 'T is necessary therefore that in the Order of Grace there should be some Occasional Cause which serves to fix these Laws and to determine their Efficacy And this is the Cause we must endeavour to discover IV. Provided we consult the Idea of intelligible Order or consider the sensible Order which appears in the Works of God we shall easily discover that Occasional Causes which determine the Efficacy of General Laws and are of use in fixing them must necessarily be related to the Design for which God has establish'd them For Example Experience evidences that God has not made and Reason certifies that he ought not to make the Courses of the Planets the Occasional Causes of the Union of our Soul and Body He ought not to will that our Arm should be mov'd in such or such a manner or that our Soul should feel the Tooth-ake when the Moon shall be in conjunction with the Sun if so be this Conjunction acts not on the Body God's Design being to unite our Soul to our Body he cannot in prosecuting that Design give the Soul Sensations of Pain save when there happen some Changes in the Body repugnant to it Wherefore we are not to seek out of our Soul or Body the Occasional Causes of their Union V. Hence it follows that God designing to form his Church by Jesus Christ could not according to that Design seek the Occasional Causes which serve to settle the General Laws of Grace by which the Spirit of Jesus diffus'd through his Members communicates Life and Holiness to them except in Jesus Christ and in the Creatures united to him by Reason Thus the Rain of Grace is not deriv'd to our Hearts by the diverse situations of the Stars nor by the Collision of certain Bodies nor even according to the different Courses of the animal Spirits which give us Motion and Life All that Bodies can do is to excite in us Motions and Sensations purely Natural For whatever arrives to the Soul through the Body is only for the Body VI. Yet as Grace is not given to all that desire it nor as soon as they desire it and is granted to those who do not ask it it thence follows that even our Desires are not the Occasional Causes of Grace For this sort of Causes have constantly and most readily their Effect and without them the Effect is not produc'd For Instance the Collision of Bodies being the Occasional Cause of the Change which happens in their Motion if two Bodies did not meet their Motions would not alter and if they alter'd we may be assur'd they met The general Laws which shed Grace upon our Hearts find nothing therefore in our Wills to determine their Efficacy as the general Laws which regulate the Rains are not founded on the Dispositions of the Places rain'd upon For it indifferently rains upon all Places on hollow and manur'd Grounds even on the Sands and the Sea it self VII We are therefore reduc'd to confess that
their Effect The Prayers and diverse Desires of Jesus Christ with reference to the Formation of his Body have likewise most constantly and speedily their Accomplishment God denies his Son nothing as we learn from Jesus Christ himself Occasional Causes produce not their Effect by their own Efficacy but by the Efficacy of the General Cause 'T is likewise by the Efficacy of the Power of God that the Soul of Jesus Christ operates in us and not by the Efficacy of Man's Will 'T is for this Reason that St. Paul represents Jesus Christ as praying to his Father without Intermission For he is oblâgâd to Pray in order to Obtain Occasional Causes have been establish'd by God for the determining the Efficacy of his General Wills and Jesus Christ according to the Scripture has been appointed by God after his Resurrection to govern the Church which he had purchas'd by his Blood For Jesus Christ became the Meritorious Cause of all Graces by his Sacrifice But after his Resurrection he entred ãâã the Holy of Holies as High Priest of future Goods to appear in the Presence of God and to endue us with the Graces which he has merited for us Therefore he himself applies and distributes his Gifts as Occasional Cause he disposes of all things in the House of God as a well-beloved Son in the House of his Father I think I have demonstrated in the Search after Truth that there is none but God who is the true Cause and who acts by his own Efficacy and that he communicates his Power to Creatures only in establishing them Occasional Causes for the producing some Effects I have proved for Example That Men have no Power to produce any Motion in their Bodies but because God has establish'd their Wills the Occasional Causes of these Motions That Fire has no power to make me feel Pain but because God has establish'd the Collision of Bodies the Occasional Cause of the Communication of Motions and the violent Vibration of the Fibres of my Flesh the Occasional Cause of my Pain I may here suppose a Truth which I have proved at large in the Third Chapter of the Second Part of the Sixth Book and in the Illustration upon the same Chapter and which those for whom it was principally written don't contest Now Faith assures us that all Power is given to Jesus Christ to form his Church All Power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth Which cannot be understood of Jesus Christ as to his Divinity for as God he has never received any thing And therefore it is certain that Jesus Christ as to his Humanity is the Occasional Cause of Grace supposing I have well proved that God only can act on Minds and that Second Causes have no Efficacy of their own Which those ought first to examine who would understand my Sentiments and give a Judgment of them XII I say farther that no one is sanctified but through the Efficacy of the Power which God has communicated to Jesus Christ in constituting him the Occasional Cause of Grace For if any Sinner were converted by a Grace whereof Jesus Christ was not the Occasional but only the Meritorious Cause that Sinner not receiving his New Life through the Efficacy of Jesus Christ would not be a Member of the Body of which Jesus Christ is the Head in that manner explain'd by St. Paul by these Words of the Epistle to the Ephesians That we may grow up into him in all things who is the Head even Christ from whom the whole Body fitly join'd together and compacted by that which every Joint supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every Part maketh increase of the Body unto the edifying it self in Love Which Words not only say Jesus Christ is the Meritorious Cause of all Graces but likewise distinctly signifie that Christians are the Members of the Body whereof Jesus Christ is the Head that 't is in him we increase and live with an entire new Life that 't is by his inward Operation ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that his Church is form'd and that thus he has been constituted by God the sole Occasional Cause who by his several Desires and Applications distributes the Graces which God as the True Cause showers down on Men. 'T is on this Account St. Paul says Christians are united to Jesus Christ as their Root Rooted and built up in him 'T is for the same Reason that Jesus Christ compares himself to a Vine and his Disciples to the Branches that derive their Life from him I am the Vine ye are the Branches On the same Grounds St. Paul affirms that Jesus Christ lives in us and that we live in him that we are rais'd up in our Head that our Life is hidden with Jesus Christ in God in a word that we have already Life Eternal in Jesus Christ. All these and many other Expressions of like nature clearly manifest that Jesus Christ is not only the Meritorious but also the Occasional Physical or Natural Cause of Grace and that as the Soul informs animates and consummates the Body so Jesus Christ diffuses through his Members as Occasional Cause the Graces he has merited to his Church by his Sacrifice For my part I cannot see how these Reasons can be call'd in question or upon what Grounds a most edifying Truth and as ancient as the Religion of Jesus Christ can be treated as a dangerous Novelty I grant my Expressions are novel but that 's because they seem to me the fittest of all others distinctly to explain a Truth which can be but confusedly demonstrated by Terms very loose and general These words Occasional Causes and Natural Laws seem necessary to give the Philosophers for whom I wrote this Treatise of Nature and Grace a distinct Understanding of what most Men are content to know confusedly New Expressions being no farther dangerous than involving Ambiguity or breeding in the Mind some Notion contrary to Religion I do not believe that Equitable Persons and conversant in the Theology of St. Paul will blame me for explaining my self in a particular manner when it only tends to make us Adore the Wisdom of God and strictly to unite us with Jesus Christ. First OBJECTION XIII 'T is Objected against what I have establish'd That neither Angels nor Saints of the Old Testament receiv'd Grace pursuant to the Desires of the Soul of Jesus since that Holy Soul was not then in Being and therefore though Jesus Christ be the meritorious Cause of all Graces he is not the Occasional Cause which distributes them to Men. As to Angels I Answer That 't is very probable Grace was given them but once So that if we consider things on that side I grant there is nothing can oblige the Wisdom of God to constitute an Occasional Cause for the Sanctification of Angels But if we consider these blessed Spirits as Members of the Body whereof Jesus Christ is the Head or suppose them
different Prospects and make other Discoveries of Truths sometimes they push on certain Enquiries which we out of Laziness have neglected or for want of Strength and Courage have deserted And upon this Prospect of Benefiting my self and some others I run the hazard of being an Author But that my Hopes may not prove abortive I throw in this Precaution That a Man should not be presently discourag'd though he meet with things that run counter to Common Opinions which he has all his Life long believ'd and found generally approved by all Men in all Ages of the World For they are These Universal Errours I more especially strive to extirpate Were Men throughly enlightned Universal Approbation would be an Argument but the case is quite contrary Let him therefore be once for all re-minded that nothing but Reason ought to preside over the Judgments we pass on all Humane Opinions which have no relation to Faith of which GOD alone informs us in a quite different way from that of our discovering Natural things Let him Retire into himself and press near to that Light which perpetually shines Within to the end his Reason may be more and more enlightned Let him industriously avoid all those too lively Sensations and all the Commotions of the Soul which fill the Capacity of the Mind For the least Noise or Glimmering of Light sometimes disturbs the View of the Mind And therefore 't is good to avoid all these things though not absolutely necessary And if after all the struggles he can make he finds himself unable to withstand the continual Impressions that his Body and the Prejudices of Childhood make upon his Imagination recourse to Prayer is needful that GOD may afford those Supplies wherewith his own Strength cannot furnish him Never failing still to resist his Senses For that ought to be the perpetual Employment of those who in imitation of St. Austin have a great love for Truth The CONTENTS of the First Volume CHAP. I. 1. OF the Nature and Properties of the Understanding 2. Of the Nature and Properties of the Will and wherein its Liberty consists Page 1 CHAP. II. 1. Of our Judgments and Reasonings 2. That they depend upon the Will 3. The Use which should be made of its Liberty on their account 4. Two General Rules for the avoiding Error and Sin 5. Some Necessary Reflexions on those Rules 4 CHAP. III. 1. The Answers to some Objections 2. Observations vpon what has been said concerning the Necessity of Evidence 7 CHAP. IV. 1. Of the Occasional Causes of Error whereof there are five Principal 2. The General Design of the whole Work 3. The Particular Design of the First Book 9 CHAP. V. Of the Senses 1. Two ways of Explaining how they were corrupted by Sin 2. That 't is our Liberty and not our Senses which is the true Cause of our Errors 3. A Rule for avoiding Error in the use of our Senses 10 CHAP. VI. 1. Of the Errors of Sight in respect of Extension absolutely consider'd 2. A Continuation of these Errors about Invisible Objects 3. Of the Errors of Sight touching Extension relatively considered 13 CHAP. VII 1. Of the Errors of Sight about Figures 2. We have no Knowledge of the least of them 3. The Knowledge we have of the Greater is not exact 4. An Explication of some Natural Judgments which prevent our Deception 5. That these very Judgments deceive us in some particular Junctures 18 CHAP. VIII 1. That our Eyes are incapable of informing us of the Quantity or Swiftness of Motion considered in it self 2. That Duration which is necessary to our Knowledge of the Quantity of Motion is unknown to us 3. An Instance of the Errors of Sight about Motion and Rest 19 CHAP. IX A Continuation of the same Subject 1. A General Demonstration of the Errors of our Sight concerning Motion 2. That the Distance of Objects is necessary to be known in order to judge of the Quantity of their Motion 3. The Mediums whereby we know the Distances of Objects are examin'd 21 CHAP. X. Of our Errors about Sensible Qualities 1. The Distinction of the Soul and Body 2. An Explication of the Organs of the Senses 3. To what part of the Body the Soul is immediately united 4. An Instance to explain the Effect which Objects have upon our Bodies 5. What it is they produce in the Soul and the Reasons why the Soul perceives not the Motions of the Fibres of the Body 6. Four things which are generally confounded in every Sensation 25 CHAP. XI 1. The Error we fall into concerning the Action of Objects against the external Fibres of our Senses 2. The Cause of this Error 3. An Objection and Answer 28 CHAP. XII 1. Of our Errors concerning the Motions of the Fibres of our Senses 2. That we have no Perception of these Motions or that we confound them with our Sensations 3. An Experiment that proves it 4. Three kinds of Sensations 5. The Errors that accompany them Ibid. CHAP. XIII 1. Of the Nature of Sensations 2. That a Man knows them better than he thinks he does 3. An Objection and Answer 4. Why a Man imagines he has no Knowledge of his own Sensations 5. That it is an Error to think all Men have the same Sensations of the same Objects 6. An Objection and Answer 31 CHAP. XIV 1. Of the false Judgments that accompany our Sensations and which we confound with them 2. The Reasons of these false Judgments 3. That Error is not in our Sensations but only in these Judgments 35 CHAP. XV. An Explication of the particular Errors of the Sight which may serve as an Exemplar of the general Errours of our Senses 37 CHAP. XVI 1. That the Errors of our Senses serve us instead of General and very Fruitful Principles from whence to draw false Conclusions and these Conclusions again become other Principles in their turn 2. The Origine of Essential Differences 3. Concerning Substantial Forms 4. Of some other Errors of the School-Philosophy 38 CHAP. XVII 1. Another Instance taken from Morality which shews that our Senses offer us nothing but false Goods 2. That God alone is our true and proper Good 3. The Origine of the Error of the Epicureans and Stoicks 39 CHAP. XVIII 1. That our Senses make us liable to Error even in things which are not sensible 2. An Example taken from the Conversation of Men. 3. That Sensible Manners are not to be regarded 41 CHAP. XIX Two other Examples 1. The first concerning our Errors about the Nature of Bodies 2. The second concerning those which respect the Qualities of the same Bodies 42 CHAP. XX. The Conclusion of the First Book 1. That our Senses are given us only for the Preservation of our Body 2. That we ought to doubt of the Reports they make 3. That 't is no little thing to doubt as we ought to do 44 Book the Second CHAP. I. 1. A General Idea of the Imagination 2. That it
Spirit according to our conception of Spirits 128 CHAP. X. Some Instances of Errors in Physicks wherein Men are engaged by supposing that the things which differ in their Nature their Qualities Extension Duration and Proportion are alike in all these things 130 CHAP. XI Instances of some Errors of Morality which depend on the same Principle 133 The Conclusion of the Three first Books 134 Book the Fourth CHAP. I. 1. Inclinations are as necessary to Spirits as Motions to Bodies 2. God gives no Motion to Spirits but what tends towards himself 3. The tendency Spirits have to particular Goods proceeds but from their Motion towards Good in general 4. The Original of our chiefest natural Inclinations which will make up the division of this Fourth Book 137 CHAP II. 1. The Inclination for Good in general is the Principle of the Restlesness of the Will 2. And consequently of our Inadvertency and Ignorance 3. The First Instance shewing that Morals are but little known by the generality of Men. 4. The Second Instance shewing that the Immortality of the Soul is controverted by some People 5. That we are in extreme Ignorance in point of abstract things and which have but little reference to us 139 CHAP. III. 1. Curiosity is natural and necessary 2. Three Rules to moderate it 3. An Explication of the first of these Rules 143 CHAP. IV. A Continuation of the same Subject 1. An Explication of the second Rule concerning Curiosity 2. An Explication of the Third 146 CHAP. V. 1. Of the second natural Inclination or of Self-love 2. The Division of it into love of Being and of Well-being or of Greatness and Pleasure 147 CHAP. VI. 1. Of the Inclination we have for whatever elevates us above others 2. Of the false Judgments of some Religious Persons 3. Of the false Judgments of the Superstitious and Hypocrites 4. Of Voetius Mr. Des Cartes's Enemy 148 CHAP. VII Of the Desire of Science and of the Judgments of the falsly Learned 151 CHAP. VIII 1. Of the Desire of seeming Learned 2. Of the conversation of the falsly Learn'd 3. Of their Works 153 CHAP. IX How the Inclination for Honours and Riches conduces to Error 155 CHAP. X. Of the Love of Pleasure with regard to Morality 1. That Pleasure is to be shunn'd though it make us happy 2. It ought not to carry us to the loving sensible Goods 156 CHAP. XI Of the love of Pleasure with reference to Speculative Sciences 1. How it disables us from discovering Truth 2. Some Instances 159 CHAP. XII Of the Effects which the Thoughts of Future Happiness and Misery are capable of producing in the Mind 163 CHAP. XIII 1. Of the third Natural Inclination viz. The Friendship we have for other Men. 2. It makes us approve the Thoughts of our Friends and deceive them by undue Praises 165 Tome II. Book V. CHAP. I. OF the Nature and Original of Passions in general Page 1 CHAP II. Of the Union of the Mind with sensible Things or of the Force and Extent of the Passions in general 3 CHAP. III. A particular Explanation of all the Changes happening either to the Body or Soul in every Passion 6 CHAP. IV. That the Pleasure and Motion of the Passions engage us in Errors and false Judgments about Good that we ought continually to resist them How to impugn Libertinism 10 CHAP. V. That the Perfection of the Mind consists in its Union with God by the knowledge of Truth and the love of Vertue and contrariwise That its Imperfection proceeds only from its dependency on the Body caused by the Disorder of the Senses and Passions 13 CHAP. VI. Of the more general Errors of the Passions with some particular Instances 16 CHAP. VII Of Passions in particular and first of Admiration and its ill Effects 18 CHAP. VIII A Continuation of the same Subject What good use can be made of Admiration and other Passions 24 CHAP. IX Of Love and Aversion and their principal Species 26 CHAP. X. Of Passions in particular and in general of the way to explain them and to know the Errors they cause 29 CHAP. XI That all the Passions justifie themselves What Judgments they cause us to make in their Vindication 31 CHAP. XII That such Passions as have Evil for their Object are the most dangerous and unjust and that those that have the least mixture of Knowledge are the most lively and sensible 34 Book the Sixth CHAP. I. The Design of this Book Two general ways to keep to Evidence in the Search of Truth which shall be the Subject of this Tract 36 CHAP. II. That attention is necessary to preserve Evidence in our Knowledge that the modifications of the Soul make her attentive but share and take up too much her Capacity of perceiving 37 CHAP. III. Of the use that can be made of the Passions and Senses to preserve the attention of the Mind 39 CHAP. IV. Of the use of Imagination to make the Mind attentive and especially of the usefulness of Geometry 41 CHAP. V. Of the means to improve the extent and capacity of the Mind That Arithmetick and Algebra are of absolute necessity to it 46 Book the Sixth Part II. CHAP. I. Of the Rules that are to be observed in the Search after Truth 50 CHAP. II. Of the general Rule that concerns the subject of our Studies That School Philosophers observe it not which is the cause of several Errors in their Physicks 51 CHAP. III. Of the most dangerous Error in the Philosophy of the Ancients 54 CHAP. IV. An Explication of the second part of the general Rule That the Philosophers observe it not but that Des Cartes has exactly followed it 57 CHAP. V. An Explication of the Principles of the Peripatetick Philosophy in which is shewn that Aristotle never observed the second part of the general Rule and his four Elements with the Elementary Qualities are examined 64 CHAP. VI. General and necessary Advices to proceed orderly in the Search after Truth and in the choice of the Sciences 70 CHAP. VII Of the use of the first Rule concerning particular Questions 74 CHAP. VIII An Application of the other Rules to particular Questions 79 CHAP. IX The last instance to shew the usefulness of this Treatise wherein the cause of the Union of parts in Bodies and withal the Rules of the Communication of Motion are examined 85 The Conclusion of the Three last Books 96 Illustrations upon the foregoing Books 98 F. Malbranche's Defence against the Accusation of Monsieur De la Ville 183 Of Light and Colours 193 The End of the Contents F. MALEBRANCHE'S TREATISE CONCERNING The Search after Truth BOOK the FIRST Concerning The ERRORS of the SENSES CHAP. I. I. Of the Nature and Properties of the UNDERSTANDING II. Of the Nature and Properties of the WILL and wherein the Liberty of the SOUL consists ERROR is the Vniversal Cause of the Misery of Mankind 't is the corrupt Principle that has Produc'd Evil in the World 'T is
in the Mind is altogether passive and includes no Action at all I call that Faculty or Capacity the Soul has of receiving all these things the UNDERSTANDING Whence we ought to conclude That 't is the Vnderstanding which perceives since 't is only its business to receive the Idea's of Objects For for the Soul to perceive an Object and to receive the Idea which represents it is one and the same thing 'T is also the Vnderstanding which perceives the Modifications of the Soul since I mean by this word Vnderstanding that passive Faculty of the Soul by means of which it receives all the different Modifications it is capable of For it is the same thing for the Soul to receive a mode of existence which we call pain as to perceive Pain since it has no other way of receiving Pain than by the Perception of it whence it may be inferr'd that 't is the Vnderstanding that imagines the Objects that are absent and is sensible of those that are present and that the Senses and Imagination are nothing but the Vnderstanding perceiving Objâcts by the Organs of the Body as shall be explain'd hereafter But because in the Sensation of Pain or any thing else Men generally perceive it by the mediation of the Organs of Sense they customarily say they are the Senses which perceive it without knowing distinctly what it is they mean by the word Sense They fancy there is some Faculty distinct from the Soul which renders It or the Body capable of Sensation as believing the Organs of Sense do really participate of our Perceptions They imagine the Body is so assistant to the Mind in its Sensations that if the Mind was separate from the Body it could have no Sensation at all But these thoughts are the effects of Prejudice and because in the State we are in we are sensible of nothing but through the use of the Instruments of Sense as shall be shewn elsewhere more at large 'T is by way of accommodating my self to the ordinary way of Speaking that I say in the Process of my Discourse the Senses perceive but by the word Sense I mean nothing but that passive Faculty of the Soul before-mention'd that is the Understanding perceiving any thing on occasion of what happens in the Organs of her Body according to the Institutions of Nature as shall be explain'd in another place The other Resemblance between the passive Faculty of the Soul and that of Matter is this That as Matter receives no real alteration by the change which happens in its Figure I mean for instance that as Wax receives no considerable change by becoming Round or Square so the Mind receives no change by the diversity of Idea's it contains I would say the Mind receives no considerable change though it receives the Idea of a Square or a Circle in perceiving a Square or a Circle Again As it may be said that Matter receives considerable Changes when it loses the Configuration peculiar to the parts of Wax to take that which is proper to those of Fire and Smoak when the Wax is chang'd into Fire and Smoak so it may be said that the Soul undergoes very considerable Changes when it alters its Modifications and suffers Pain after it has felt Pleasure Whence we ought to conclude That Idea's are to the Soul in a manner what Figures are to Matter and that Configurations are to Matter almost what Sensations are to the Soul There are still other Corrsepondencies betwixt the Figures and Configurations of Matter and the Idea's and Modifications of the Mind for Matter seems to be an Image or Representative of the Mind I mean only that there are Properties in Matter which have some mutual Respects between them not unlike those which we find between the Properties belonging to the Mind though the Nature of the Mind is very different from that of Matter as we shall clearly see in that which follows From what I have said I would have it well remember'd That by Vnderstanding I mean that passive Faculty the Soul has of Perceiving that is of receiving not only different Idea's bat also an abundance of different Sensations as Matter has a capacity of receiving all sorts of external Figures and internal Configurations The other Faculty of Matter is that of its being capable of receiving many Motions and the other Faculty of the Soul is that Power it has of receiving many Inclinations Let us make the Comparison between them As the Author of Nature is the Universal Cause of all those Motions which we find in Matter so also he is the general Cause of all those natural Inclinations which are found in the Mind And as all Motions proceed in a right line unless otherwise determin'd by the Rencounter of some foreign and particular Causes which by their Opposition put them into a Circular course so all the Inclinations we receive from God have a direct tendency and could only aim at the possession of Good and Truth were there not some extraneous cause which biass'd that natural Impression towards corrupt and mischievous Ends Now 't is that foreign Cause which is the cause of all our Evils and depraves all our Inclinations To understand this rightly we must know there 's a very considerable difference between the Impression or Motion the Author of Nature produces in Matter and the Impression or Motion towards Good in general wherewith the same Author of Nature continually influences our Soul For Matter is wholly inactive it has no power of retarding or stopping its Motion or determining and turning it one way rather than another It s Motion as I have said proceeds always in a right line and if at any time it is hindred from continuing it in that manner it describes the greatest circular Line it can and consequently that which comes nearest to a right because 't is God that impresses its Motion and rules its Determination But 't is not so with the Will which may in one sense be said to be Active and to have a Power in it self of giving a different Determination to the Inclination or Impression it receives from God for though it cannot stop this Impression it may in one sense cause a Deviation to what side it pleases and thereby produce all those Disorders which happen in its Inclinations and all the Miseries which are the certain and necessary Consequents of Sin So that by the Word WILL I would be conceiv'd to design That natural Motion or Impression which carries us towards Good universal and undetermin'd And by that of LIBERTY I mean nothing more than The Power the Mind has of turning that Impression towards agreeable Objects and terminating our natural Inclinations upon some particular Object which before were loose and undetermin'd except towards general or universal Good that is to say towards God who is alone universal Good since 't is he alone who comprehends in himself all Goods Whence it is easie to discover That
that account we judge it is equally distant from us And thus upon the same grounds we conclude the Stars with the Azure which appears in the Heaven are rang'd in the same just distance in a vault perfectly convex since our Mind ever supposes Equality where it discovers no Inequality which yet it ought not positively to admit unless there be evident conviction for it I shall not here insist longer on the Errors of our Sight in respect of the Figures of Bodies since a Man may be sufficiently instructed in any Book of Opticks That Science in effect does only instruct us how to put fallacies on our Eyes and its whole drift and artifice consists meerly in finding means of making us form those Natural Judgments I have been speaking of at a time when they are most impertinent and unseasonable And this cheat may be acted in so many different ways that of all the Figures that are in the World there is not any single one but may be painted in a thousand different fashions so that the Sight must unavoidably be deceiv'd But this is not the proper place of explaining these things more throughly What I have said is sufficient to let us see we should not give over-much credit to the Testimony of our Eyes even in their Representations of the Figures of Bodies though in point of Figures their reports are much more faithful than in any other occasion CHAP. VIII I. That our Eyes are incapable of informing us of the Quantity or Swiftness of Motion considered in it self II. That Duration which is necessary to our Knowledge of the Quantity of Motion is unknown to us III. An Instance of the Errors of Sight about Motion and Rest. HAVING already discover'd the most Fundamental and General Errors of our Sight touching Extension and its Figures I come now to correct those in which this same Sight ingages us about the Motion of Matter And this has no great difficulty in it after what I have already said of Extension For there is so necessary a relation and dependence betwixt these two things that if we are deceiv'd in the Magnitude of Bodies we must as certainly be deceiv'd in their Motion too But that I may advance nothing but what is clear and distinct it is necessary to take off whatever is equivocal from the word Motion For this Term has generally two significations The first denotes a certain Power or Force which we imagine in the Body mov'd and which we suppose the cause of its Motion The second is the Translation or continued Conveyance of a Body either in its removal from or approaching to another which we consider as at rest When I say for Instance That a Boul has communicated its Motion to another the word Motion is to be understood in its first signification But if I say simply that I see a Boul in a great Motion it is to be taken in the second In a word the Term Motion signifies at once both Cause and Effect which are yet two things altogether different I am perswaded that Men are under most palpaple and most dangerous mistakes concerning the Force that gives this Motion and Translation to the Bodies mov'd Those fine Terms Nature and Impress'd Qualities are good for nothing but to shelter the Ignorance of the Falsly Learned and the Impieties of the Libertine as I could easily demonstrate But this is not a place proper to discourse of the Power that moves Bodies since that is not of a visible Nature and I am only speaking here of the Errors of our Eyes I defer it till a time when it will be more âeasonable Motion taken in the second sense that is for the Translation of a Body in its removal from another is something of a visible kind and the Subject of this Chapter I have I think sufficiently demonstrated in the sixth Chapter that our Sight does not acquaint us with the Quantity or Magnitude of Bodies in themselves but only with the mutual relation they stand in to each other and especially to our own From whence I infer that we are incapable of knowing the true and absolute Magnitude of their Motion that is of their swiftness or slowness but only the relation these Motions have to one another and more especially to the Motion ordinarily incident to our own Body Which I thus prove It is certain that we know not how to judge how great the Motion of a Body is but by the Length of the Space the Body has ran over Thus our Eyes not informing us of the true Length of the Space describ'd by the Motion it follows that 't is impossible for us to know the true Quantity of the Motion This Argument is only a Corollary of that which I have said of Extension and all the force it has proceeds from its being a necessary Conclusion of what I have there Demonstrated I shall now give one which depends on no Supposition I say then that supposing we were able clearly to discover the true Quantity of the Space describ'd it would no way follow that we could know the Quantity of Motion also The Greatness or the Swiftness of Motion includes two things The first is the Translation or Conveyance of a Body from one place to another as from Paris to St. Germains The second is the Time that necessarily goes to the making this Conveyance Now it is not enough to know exactly how far Paris is distant from St. Germains to know whether a Man has gone it with a Quick or a Slow Motion But it must moreover be known how much time he has imploy'd in his Journey Granting then that the Length of the Journey may be truly known I utterly deny we can have an exact knowledge by our Sight or indeed any other way whatever of the Time that is spent in the passage and of the true Quantity of Duration This is sufficiently evident in that at certain times one Hour seems to us as long as four and on the contrary at other times four Hours slip insensibly away When for Instance a Man's Mind is fill'd with Joy Hours seem no longer than a Moment because then the time passes away without thinking of it But when a Man is dejected with Grief and lies under some sensible Pain or Affliction every day is thought an entire Year The reason of which difference is That in this case the Mind is weary of its Duration because it is Painful The more it applies it self to the thought of it the more it discovers it and thereby finds it longer than in the season of Mirth and Joy or some diverting Imployment which as it were carries the Soul out of it self to fix her closer to the Object of her Joy or her Diversion For as a Man finds a piece of Painting so much larger by how much he stands to consider all the little things represented in it with greater attention or as he finds the head of a Fly considerably
will about them They have no Relish of Tasts unless some change happens in the disposition of the Fibres of their Tongue and Brain In short the Sensations have no manner of Dependence upon the Will of Men And 't is only he that created Men that still preserves them in that mutual correspondence of the Modifications of their Soul to those of their Body So that if a Man would have me represent to him Heat or Colour I cannot make use of words to do it But I must impress in the Organs of his Senses such Motions as Nature has affixt these Sensations to I must bring him to the Fire and shew him a piece of Painting And this is the reason why 't is impossible to give Men that are born Blind the least Knowledge of that which we understand by Red Green Yellow or the like For since 't is impossible for a Man to make another understand him when he that hears has not the same Idea's as he that speaks it is manifest that since Colours are neither conjoyn'd to the sound of words nor to the Motion of the Auditory but to that of the Optick Nerve we can never represent them to Men that are Blind since their Optick Nerve cannot be Vibrated by colour'd Objects We have therefore some sort of Knowledge of our Sensations Let us now see how it comes to pass that we are still casting about to know them and that we believe our selves destitute of any Knowledge of them The reason of it undoubtedly is this The Soul since the Original Sin is now as it were Corporeal in her Inclination the Love she has for sensible Objects is perpetually lessening the Union or the Relation she has with those that are intellectual She is disgusted and uneasy in conceiving things that will not enter by the Senses and is presently for leaving the Consideration of them She imploys her utmost endeavour to produce the Images that represent them in her Brain and she is so throughly inur'd to this kind of Conception from our Infancy that she thinks that she can have no Knowledge of what she can have no Imagination Notwithstanding there are a great many things which being not Corporeal cannot be represented to the Mind by Corporeal Images as to instance our Soul with all her Modifications At what time therefore our Soul would represent to her self her own Nature and her own Sensations she endeavours to form a Corporeal Image thereof She is in search of her self amongst all Corporeal Beings One while she takes her self for one Thing and another while for Another sometimes for Air sometimes for Fire or for the Harmony of the parts of her own Body And being thus desirous of finding her self among the mass of Bodies and of imagining her own Modifications which are her Sensations as the Modifications of Bodies we need not wonder if she 's bewildred in her wandrings and is misguided out of the Knowledge of her self That which induces the Soul to be still more fond of Imagining her Sensations is her judging them to be in the Objects And moreover that they are the Modifications of them and consequently that they are something Corporeal and fit to be Imagin'd She judges then that the Nature of her Sensations consists only in the motion which produces them or in some other Modification of a Body which is manifestly different from what she feels this being nothing Corporeal nor possible to be represented by Corporeal Images This is what confounds her and makes her believe she is altogether ignorant of her own Sensations As for those who make none of these fruitless Attempts to represent the Soul and its Modifications by Corporeal Images and yet are desirous of having their Sensations explain'd to them they must understand that neither the Soul nor its Modifications can be known by Idea's taking the word Idea in its most proper signification as I have determin'd and explain'd it in the third Book but only by Conscience or Internal Sensation So that when they ask us to explain the Soul and her Modifications by any Idea's they demand what is impossible for all the Men in the World put together to give them Because Men cannot instruct us by giving us Idea's of things but only by making us attentive to those we have already The second Error whereinto we fall about our Sensations is the attributing them to Objects which has been explain'd in the XI and XII Chapters The third is our judging that all Mankind have the same Sensations of the same Objects We believe for example that all the World sees the Sky Azure the Meadows Green and all visible Objects in the same manner as we see them and so likewise all the other sensible Qualities of the other Senses There are many who will wonder even that we call in question those things which they believe indubitable However I can certify them they have not any Reason to judge of these things as they do And though I cannot Mathematically demonstrate they are in an Error I can nevertheless demonstrate 't is the greatest chance in the World if they are not And I have Arguments strong enough to convince them they are certainly deceiv'd That the Truth of what I here advance may be here acknowledg'd we must call to mind what has been already prov'd namely That there is a vast difference betwixt our Sensations and the causes of our Sensations We may conclude from thence that absolutely speaking it is possible for similar Motions of the Internal Fibres of the Optick Nerves to produce in different Persons different Sensations that is to cause them to see different Colours And it may so fall out that a Motion which shall produce in one Person the Sensation of Blew shall cause the Sensation of Green or Gray in another or perhaps a new Sensation which never any man had besides It is certain I say that this is possible and there is no reason in the World that can prove the contrary However we will grant that it is not probable it should be so It is much more reasonable to believe that GOD acts always uniformly in the Union he has establish'd betwixt our Souls and our Bodies and that he has affixt the same Idea's and the same Sensation to similar Motions of the Internal Fibres of the Brain of different Persons Let it be granted then that the same Motions of the Fibres which terminate in the middle of the Brain are accompany'd with the same Sensations in all Men if it fortunes that the same Objects produce not the same Motions in their Brain they will not by consequence excite the same Sensations in their Soul Now to me it seems indisputable that the Organs of the Senses of all Men being not dispos'd in the same manner cannot receive the same Impressions from the same Objects The blows for instance that Porters give one another by way of Complement would cripple some sort of People The
Foundation of his System from which may ever be deduc'd all the profit that could be expected from the true to make all necessary advances in the knowledge of Man Since then the Imagination consists only in the Power the Soul has of Forming the Images of Objects by imprinting them as I may so say in the Fibres of the Brain the greater and more distinct the Impresses of the Animal Spirits are which are the strokes of these Images the more strongly and distinctly the Soul will imagine Objects Now as the Largeness and Depth and Cleaverness of the strokes of any Sculpture depend upon the Forcible Acting of the Graving Instrument and the plyable yielding of the Plate so the Depth and the Distinctness of the Impresses of the Imagination depend on the Force of the Animal Spirits and the Constitution of the Fibres of the Brain And 't is the Variety that is found in these two things which is almost the universal Cause of that great Diversity we observe in the Minds of different Men. For 't is no hard thing to account for all the different Characters to be met with in the Minds of Men On the one hand by the Abundance and Scarcity by the Rapidness and Slowness by the Grossness and the Littleness of the Animal Spirits and on the other hand by the Fineness and Courseness by the Moisture and Driness by the Facility and Difficulty of the yielding of the Fibres of the Brain and lastly by the Relation the Animal Spirits may possibly have with these Fibres And it would be very expedient for every one forthwith to try to Imagine to himself all the different Combinations of these things and to apply himself seriously to the Consideration of all the Differences we have observ'd between the Minds of Men. Because it is ever more Useful and also more Pleasant for a Man to employ his own Mind and to accustom it to the finding out Truth by its own Industry than to suffer it to gather Rust by a careless Laziness in applying it only to things wholly digested and explain'd to his hands Besides that there are some things so delicately nice and fine in the different Character of Minds that a Man may easily sometimes discover them and be sensible of them himself but is unable to represent them or make them sensible to others But that we may explain as far as possibly we can all the Differences that are found in different Minds and that every Man may more easily observe in his own the Cause of all the Changes he sensibly perceives in it at different times it seems convenient to make a general Enquiry into the Causes of the Changes which happen in the Animal Spirits and in the Fibres of the Brain Since this will make way for the Discovery of all those which happen in the Imagination Man never continues long like himself all Mankind have sufficient Internal Convictions of their own Inconstancy A Man judges one while in one manner and another while in another concerning the same Subject In a word the Life of a Man consists only in the Circulation of the Blood and in another Circulation of Thoughts and Desires And I am of Opinion a Man can't employ his Time much better than in Searching for the Causes of these Changes we are subject to and entring into the Knowledge of our Selves CHAP. II. I. Of the Animal Spirits and the Changes they are subject to in general II. That the Chyle entering the Heart occasions a Change in the Spirits III. That Wine does the same thing 'T IS confess'd by all the World that the Animal Spirits are nothing but the more subtil and agitated parts of the Blood which Subtilty and Agitation is principally owing to the Fermentation it receives in the Heart and the violent Motion of the Muscles which constitute that part That these Spirits together with the rest of the Blood are conducted through the Arteries to the Brain And that there they are separated from it by some parts appropriated to that purpose but which they are it has not been yet agreed upon From whence we ought to conclude that in case the Blood be very subtil it will have abundance of Animal Spirits but if it be gross the Animal Spirits will be few That if the Blood be compos'd of parts easie to be inflam'd in the Heart or very fit for Motion the Spirits in the Brain will be extreamly heated and agitated And on the contrary if the Blood admits little Fermentation in the Heart the Animal Spirits will be languid unactive and without force And lastly according to the Solidity which is found in the parts of the Blood the Animal Spirits will have more or less solidity and consequently greater or lesser force in their Motion But these things ought to be explain'd more at large and the Truth of them made more sensibly apparent by Examples and uncontroverted Experiments that prove them The Authority of the Ancients has not only blinded some Mens Understandings but we may say has seal'd up their Eyes For there are still a sort of Men that pay so submissive a deference to Ancient Opinions or possibly are so stiff and obstinate that they will not see those things which they could not contradict would they but please to open once their Eyes We daily see Men in good Reputation and Esteem for their Study Write and Dispute publickly against the Visible and Sensible Experiments of the Circulation of the Blood against that of the Gravitation and Elastick force of the Air and others of the like Nature The Discovery Mr. Pacquet has made in our Time and which we have here occasion for is of the number of those that are mis-fortunate meerly for want of being Born Old and as a Man may say with a Venerable Beard I shall not however omit to make use of it and am under no Apprehension of being blam'd by Judicious Men for doing so According to that Discovery it is manifest that the Chyle does not immediately pass from the Viscera to the Liver through the Mesaraick Veins as was believ'd by the Ancients but that it passes out of the Bowels into the Lacteal Veins and from thence into several Receptacles where these Veins coterminate That from thence it ascends through the Ductus Thoracicus along the Vertebrae of the Back and proceeds to mix with the Blood in the Axillary Vein which enters into the Superiour Trunck of Vena Cava and thus being mingled with the Blood it discharges it self into the Heart It ought to be concluded from this Experiment that the Blood thus mingled with the Chyle being very different from that which has already circulated several times through the Heart the Animal Spirits that are only the more fine and subtil parts of it ought to be very different in Persons that are fasting and others after they have eaten Again because in the Meats and Drinks that are us'd there is an infinite Variety
zealous Patrons and Defenders of certain Novelties in Divinity which ought to be had in abhorrence For 't is not their Terms and Language we disapprove which as unknown as they were to Antiquity are Authoriz'd by Custom 'T is the Errors they diffuse and support by the help of this Equivocal and confus'd Dialect which we condemn In point of Divinity we ought to be fond of Antiquity because we ought to love the Truth which Truth is found in Antiquity And all Curiosity ought to cease when once we have taken hold of Truth But in point of Philosophy we ought on the contrary to love Novelty for the same Reason that we ought always to love the Truth that we ought to retrieve it and ought to have an Indefatigable Curiosity for it If Plato and Aristotle were believed Infallible a Man should perhaps apply himself to the understanding of them only But Reason opposes the Belief of it Reason on the contrary would have us judge them more ignorant than the New Philosophers since in the Age we live in the World is two thousand Years older and has learned greater Experience than it had in the days of Aristotle and Plato as we have already said And the New Philosophers may know all the Truths the Ancients have left us and find out and add a great many more to them Yet Reason will not have us believe these New Philosophers any more than the Old upon their bare Word It bids us on the contrary examine attentively their Thoughts and withhold our consent till there is no longer room for doubting without being ridiculously prepossess'd with the Opinion of their vast Knowledge or the other specious Qualities of their Mind CHAP. VII Of the Prepossession of Commentators THIS Prepossession is no where apparent in so strange and excessive a degree as in the Commentators on an Author because the Undertakers of this Task which seems too low and servile for a Man of Sense imagine their Authors merit the Praise and Admiration of all the World They look upon them as part of themselves and fancy they are Body and Soul to one another and upon this View Self-love admirably plays its part They artfully accumulate Encomiums on their Authors they shed Light and Radiations round them they load them with Glory as knowing they shall have it themselves by reflection and rebound This great and lofty Idea not only magnifies Aristotle and Plato in the Mind of many of the Readers but imprints a respect in them for all that have Commented upon them and some of of them had never Deified their Authors had they not fancy'd themselves incircl'd as it were in the Rays of the same Glory Yet I will not say that all Commentators are so liberal in their Panegyricks on their Authors out of hopes of a Return some of them would start at such an Apprehension if they would consider a little They are sincere and well-meaning in their Praises without any Politick design and without thinking what they do but Self-love thinks for them and without their being aware of it Men are insensible of the heat that is in their Heart though it gives Life and Motion to all the other parts of their Body They must touch and handle themselves to be convinc'd of it because this Heat is Natural The cause is the same in respect of Vanity which is so congenial to the Mind of Man that he is insensible of it and though 't is this as a Man may say that gives Life and Motion to the greatest part of his Thoughts and Designs yet it often does it in a manner imperceptible by him He must handle and feel and sound himself inwards to know that he is vain 'T is not sufficiently understood that 't is Vanity which is the First mover in the greatest part of Humane Actions and though Self-love knows this well enough it knows it only to disguise it from the rest of Man A Commentator then being some ways related and allied to his Author that he works upon Self-love never fails to discover in him notable Subjects for Praise and Incense with design to make them redound to the advantage of the Offerer And this is perform'd in so Artificial so Subtil and Delicate a manner as to be wholly Imperceptible But this is not the proper place of exposing all the Wiles of Self-love and Interest Nor is the Prejudicate Esteem Commentators have conceiv'd for their Authors and the Honour they do themselves in praising them the only Reason of Sacrificing to them Custom is another Motive and because they think the Practise necessary There are Men who have no great Esteem either for certain Sciences or Authors who notwithstanding fall zealously to writing Comments on them because either their Imployment Chance or perhaps a capricious Humour has engag'd them in the Attempt and these too think they are under an Obligation to be excessive in the Praises of the Sciences and Authors which they work on whe nat the same time the Authors are Silly and Impertinent and the Sciences Ignoble and Useless And indeed what can be more ridiculous than for a Man to undertake to Comment on an Author whom he thought Impertinent and to write Seriously on a Subject he believ'd to be Insignificant and Useless 'T is necessary therefore to the Preserving his Reputation to Praise both the Authors and Sciences though both one and the other are Contemptible and nothing worth and the fault of Undertaking an ill work must be mended with another Which is the Reason that when Learned Men Comment on different Authors they fall into Absurdities and Contradictions Upon this Account it is that almost all prefaces have as little of Truth in them as good Sense If a Man Comments upon Aristotle he is the Genius of Nature If a Man writes upon Plato 't is the Divine Plato They hardly ever Comment upon the works of Plain Men but 't is always of Men wholly Divine of Men who have been the Admiration of their Age and who have been bless'd by Providence with Light and Understanding above the rest of Mankind 'T is the same thing too with the matter they treat on 'T is always the finest the most exalted and most necessary of all other But that I may not be credited upon my bare word I will deliver here the way where in a Famous Commentator among the Learned treats the Author that he Comments on I mean Averroes who speaks of Aristotle He says in his Preface upon the Physicks of that Philosopher that he was the Inventor of Logick Moral Philosophy and Metaphysicks and that he has carried them to the top of their perfection Complevit says he quia nullus eorum qui secuti sunt eum usque ad hoc tempus quod est mille quingentorum annorum quidquam addidit nec invenies in ejus verbis errorem alicujus quantitatis talem esse virtutem in individuo uno miraculosum extraneum existit haec
they are communicated to others with greater Facility The Study of Nature is undoubtedly more Noble than of Books Visible and Sensible Experiments afford us much more certain Proofs of things than the Reasonings of Men and no Objection can be made to those Men whose Circumstances of Life have engag'd them in the Study of Natural Philosophy for endeavouring to excel in it by making continual Experiments provided their greatest Application be made to the more necessary Sciences We find no fault with Experimental Philosophy nor the Improvers of it but only with their Defects The first of which is that usually 't is not the Light of Reason which conducts them in the Method of their Experiments but only Chance Which is the reason that they grow little more Learned or Skilful after having wasted much of their Time and Fortune therein The second is their insisting rather upon Curious and Extraordinary Experiments than on those that are more Common when 't is plain that the Commoner being the more simple they ought first to be dwelt upon before a Man applies himself to the more Compounded and to those which depend upon a multitude of Causes The third is their earnest and diligent Search after Profitable Experiments and their neglect of those which only serve to illuminate the Mind The fourth that they are too un-exact in their Observations of all the particular Circumstances of Time Place the Quality of the Drugs made use of though the least of these Circumstances is capable of frustrating the desir'd Effect For 't is observable that the Terms the Virtuoâi use are Equivocal The Word Wine for instance signifies so many different things as there are different Soils various Seasons and several ways of making and preserving it So that it may be said in general there are no where two Vessels of it altogether alike And when a Chymist says To make such an Experiment take wine we have but a very confus'd Idea of his meaning For which Reason they should use a most exact Circumspection in Experiments and not descend to the Compound sort till they are very well acquainted with the more Simple and Ordinary The fifth is That they make too many Deductions from a single Experiment when on the contrary to the Establishing any one good Conclusion there should go generally many Experiments Though a single Experiment may be assistant to the inferring many Conclusions Lastly The most part of Naturalists and Chymists consider only the particular Effects of Nature They never ascend up to the first Notions of the Things Bodies are compos'd of When yet it is most certain we can have no clear and distinct knowledge of any particular Phaenomena unless we are first masters of the most general Principles and run them up as high as Metaphysicks To conclude they commonly want Courage and Constancy and are tir'd and discourag'd with the Toil and Expence There are many other Faults these Gentlemen are subject to but I design not to reckon them all up The Causes of these Faults which I have remark'd are the want of Application the Properties of the Imagination explain'd in the Tenth and Eleventh Chapters and Men's judging of the Difference of Bodies and the Changes they undergo only from the Sensations they have of them according to the Explication given in the First Book The THIRD PART Concerning The CONTAGIOUS COMMUNICATION Of Strong IMAGINATIONS CHAP I. I. Of the Disposition we have to imitate others in all things which is the Original of the Communication of those Errors that depend on the Power of Imagination II. Two things that more especially increase this Disposition III. What that strong Imagination is IV. That there are several kinds of it Of Fools and of those that have a Srong Imagination in the Sense 't is here taken V. Two considerable Imperfections of Men of a Strong Imagination VI. Of the Power they have to perswade and impose on others HAVING already explain'd the Nature of the Imagination the Failings it is subject to and shewn how our own Imagination engages us in Error all that remains in this Second Book is to speak to the Contagious Communication of Strong Imaginations I mean that Sway and Power some Minds have of drawing others into their Errors Strong Imaginations are wondrously contagious They domineer over the weaker fashion them by degrees after their own Image and imprint the same Characters upon them And therefore since Men of Conceit and of a Vigorous and Strong Imagination are the least reasonable of any there are very few Causes of the Errors of Men more âniversal than this dangerous Communication of the Imagination In order to conceive what this Contagion is and how it 's transmitted from one to another we must know that Men are under a mutual necessity of one another's Assistance and are so fram'd as out of many Bodies to compound one whereof all the Parts have a muâual Correspondence For the preserving and cherishing of which Union GOD commanded them to have Charity for each other But whereas Self-love might by little and little extinguish Charity and break the Bond of Civil Society GOD thought fit for the Preservation of it to unite Men more firmly still by Natural Ties which might subsist in case Charity should fail and also defend it against the attacks of Self-love These Natural Ties which we have in common with Beasts consist in a certain Disposition of Brain which makes all Men prone to imitate the Actions of those they converse with to frame the same Judgments with them and to be acted with like Passions they see them possess'd with Which Disposition is a much straiter Obligation to bind them to each other than Charity founded upon Reason this Charity being rarely to be met with Now when a Man wants this Disposition of Brain whereby he may be affected with our Sentiments and Passions he is Naturally incapable of uniting and making up one Body with us He may be compar'd to those Irregular Stones that cannot be plac'd in a Building because they cannot be joyn'd with the others Oderunt hilarem tristes tristemque jocosi Sedatum celeres agilem gnavúmque remissi 'T is a more considerable Vertue than is imagin'd to keep fair with those who are untouch'd with our Passions and whose Notions are contrary to our own And we shall have Reason to think so if we consider that 't is a kind of Insulting when we see a Man that has just cause of Sorrow or Joy not to take part with him in his Sentiments When a Man is in Sorrow one should not come before him with a Gay and Airy look which bespeaks Joy and violently imprints the Motions thereof in his Imagination This being to disturb him from the state that is most convenient and pleasant to him for sorrow is the pleasantest of all the Passions to a Man under any Affliction There is then a certain Disposition of Brain in all Men whatever which naturally inclines
Communication of the Disorders and Distempers of the Imagination But these Truths deserve to be farther Illustrated by the Examples and known Experience of the World CHAP. II. General Instances of the Strength of Imagination CHILDREN in respect of their Fathers but especially Daughters in regard of their Mothers afford us very frequent Instances of this Communication of the Imagination The same things do Servants in relation to their Masters Maids in respect of their Mistresses Scholars of their Teachers Courtiers of their Kings and generally all Inferiours in respect of their Superiours supposing only that Fathers Masters and the rest of the Superiours have any Strength of Imagination themselves For otherwise 't is possible for Children and Servants to remain untouch'd or very little infected with the languid Imagination of their Fathers and Masters The Effects of this Communication may be likewise observ'd in Equals but that more rarely for want of that submissive Respect among them which qualifies and disposes the Mind for the Reception of the Impressions of strong Imaginations without examining them Last of all they are to be seen in Superiours also with respect to their Inferiours who sometimes are impower'd with so Lively and Authoritative an Imagination as to turn the Minds of their Masters and Superiours which way they please 'T will be easie to conceive how Fathers and Mothers make so very strong Impressions on the Imagination of their Children if it be consider'd that the Natural Dispositions of our Brain whereby we are inclin'd to imitate those we live with and to participate of their Sentiments and Passions are stronger in Children with respect to their Parents than in any others whereof several Reasons may be given The first is their being of the same Blood For as Parents commonly transmit to their Children the Seeds and Dispositions for certain Hereditary Distempers such as the Gout Stone Madness and generally all those that were not of Accidental Acquirement or whose sole and only Cause was not some extraordinary Fermentation of the Humours as Fevers and some others for of such 't is plain there can be no Communication So they imprint the Dispositions of their own Brain on the Brain of their Children and give a certain Turn to their Imagination that makes them wholly susceptible of the same Sentiments The second Reason is the little Acquaintance and Converse Children generally have with other Men who might sometimes stamp different Impresses on their Brain and in some measure interrupt the bent and force of the Paternal Impression For as a Man that was never abroad commonly Fancies that the Manners and Customs of Strangers are quite contrary to Reason because contrary to the usage of his Native Town or Custom of his Country whilst he yields to be carry'd by the current so a Child who was never from his Father's Home imagines his Parents Sentiments and Ways of Living to be Universal Reason or rather thinks there are no other Principles of Reason or Vertue to be had besides the Imitation of them Which makes him believe whatever he hears them say and do whatever he sees them do But this Parental Impression is so strong as not only to influence the Child's Imagination but to have its Effect on the other parts of the Body So that a young Lad shall Walk and Talk and have the same Gestures as his Father And a Girl shall Mimick the Mother in her Gate Discourse and Dress If the Mother Lisps the Daughter must Lisp too if the Mother has any odd fling with her Head the Daughter takes the same In short Children imitate their Parents in every thing even in their Bodily Defects Grimace and Faces as well as their Errors and Vices There are still many other Causes which add to the Effect of this Impression The chief of which are the Authority of the Parents the Dependence of Children and the mutual Love between them But these Causes are as common to Courtiers Servants and in general to all Inferiours as to Children I therefore choose to explain them by the Instance of the Court-Gentlemen There are those who judge by what 's in sight of that which is unapparent of the Greatness Strength and Reach of Wit and Parts which they see not by the Gallantry Honours and Riches which they know and measure the one by the other And that Dependency Men are in to the Great the Desire of partaking of their Greatness and that sensible Lustre that surrounds them makes them ascribe Honours Divine if I may so speak to Mortal Men. For GOD bestows on Princes Authority but Men attribute to them Infallibility Such an Infallibility as has no Boundaries prescrib'd to it on any subject or any occasion nor is confin'd to certain Ceremonies For the Great know all things naturally they are ever in the Right even in the Decision of Questions which they do not understand None attempt to examine their Positions but those who want Experience and the Art of Living and 't is Presumption and want of Respect to doubt of them But 't is no less than Rebellion at least down-right Folly Sottishness ãâã Madness to condemn them But when we are Honour'd with a Place in the Favour and Esteem of Great Men 't is no longer plain Obstinacy Conceitedness and Rebellion 't is a Crime of a deeper dye Ingratitude and Perfidiousness not to surrender implicitly to their Opinions 'T is such an unpardonable Offence as utterly incapacitates us for any of their future Favours Which is the Reason that Courtiers and by a necessary consequence the generality of the World indeliberately subscribe to the Sentiments of their Sovereign even so far as to Model their Faith by and make the Truths of Religion subservient to his Fantastic Humour and Folly England and Germany furnish us but with too many Instances of the blind and exorbitant Submission of the People to the Wills of their Irreligious Princes wherewith the Histories of the late Times abound And some Men of a considerable Age have been known to have chang'd their Religion four or five times by reason of the diverse changes of their Princes The Kings and even the Queens of England have the Government of all the States of their Kingdoms whether Ecclesiastical or Civil in all Causes 'T is they that are the Approvers of the Liturgies of the Festival Services of the way wherein the Sacraments ought to be Administred and Received They appoint for instance that our LORD shall not be adored in the Eucharist though they oblige to the Receiving it on the Knees according to the Ancient Custom In a word they arbitrarily change the whole Substance of their Liturgies to suit them to the New Articles of their Faith and together with their Parliamânt have equal Right of judging of these Articles as a Pope with a Councel as may be seen in the Statutes of England and Ireland made at the beginning of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth Lastly we may add that the
of Nothing because to the producing an Angel out of a Stone so far as that is possible to be done the Stone must be first Annihilated and afterwards the Angel Created but simply to Create an Angel there needs no Annihilation at all If then the Mind produces its Idea's from the Material Impressions the Brain receives from Objects it does still the same thing or a thing as difficult or even difficulter than if it Created them Since Idea's being Spiritual cannot be produc'd out of Material Images that are in the Brain to which they have no Proportion or Analogy But some will say That an Idea is not a Substance Be it so but still it is a Being and a Being of a Spiritual kind And as it is impossible to make a Square of a Spirit though a Square be not a Substance so 't is impossible to frame a Spiritual Idea out of a Material Substance tho' an Idea were not a Substance But suppose we should allow the Mind of Man to have an absolute Power of Creating and Annihilating the Idea's of things yet after all he would never imploy it to the producing them For as a Painter though never so excellent at his Art could not represent an Animal he had never seen or had no Idea of so that the Picture he was oblig'd to make of it would not be like that unknown Animal so a Man could not form the Idea of an Object unless he knew it before that is unless he had already the Idea of it which has no dependance on his Will But if he has the Idea of it already he knows the Object and 't is needless to form a new one of it 'T is therefore needless to attribute to the Mind of Man the power of producing its Idea's It may perhaps be said that the Mind has general and confus'd Idea's which it does not produce and that those which it produceth are particular more clever and distinct but it all comes to the same thing For as a Painter could not draw the Picture of a particular Man so as to be certify'd he had hit it right unless he had a distinct Idea of him and even unless the Person himself should sit so the Mind that had only the Idea for instance of Being or of an Animal in general could not represent to it self an Horse nor form any very distinct Idea thereof nor be assur'd this Idea perfectly resembled an Horse unless it had a former Idea thereof wherewith to collate this second Now if it had a former it is in vain to form a second And the Question proceeds upon that former Therefore c It is true that whilst we conceive a Square by pure Intellection we may besides imagine it that is perceive it by drawing the Image of it in the Brain But 't is to be observ'd in the first place that we are not the real and principal Cause of that Image but it would take up too much time to explain it And again that the second Idea which accompanies that Image is so far from being more distinct and accurate than the others that on the contrary it owes all its Exactness to its Resemblance with the first which serves to regulate the second For in brief it is not to be believ'd that the Imagination or even the Senses make us a more distinct Representation of Objects than the Pure Intellect but only that they make the Mind more concern'd and applicative For the Idea's of Sense and Imagination are not distinct any farther than they are conformable with those of Pure Intellection The Image of a Square for instance that the Imagination delineates in the Brain is no otherwise just and regular than as it conforms with the Idea of a Square which we have by Pure Intellection 'T is that Idea which regulates the Image 'T is the Mind that conducts the Imagination and obliges it as I may say to look time after time whether the Image painted by it be a Figure of four right and equal Lines whose Angles are exactly right In a word if that which is imagin'd be like that which is conceiv'd After what has been said I suppose no body can doubt but it is an Error in those that affirm the Mind can form the Idea's of Objects since they attribute to the Mind a Power of Creating and even of Creating with Wisdom and Order though it has no Knowledge of what it does a thing utterly inconceivable But the Cause of this their Error is that customary Judgment Men make of one thing 's being the Cause of another when they are found conjoin'd together supposing that the true Cause of this Effect be unknown to them 'T is for this Reason that every one concludes that a Bowl in motion meeting with another is the true and principal Cause of the motion it communicates to it that the Will of the Soul is the true and principal Cause of the motion of the Arm and such like Prejudices as these because it always happens that a Bowl is mov'd when it lies in the way of another that knocks against it and we move our Arms almost as often as we will it and we do not sensibly perceive what else could be the Cause of these Motions But when an Effect is not so constant an attendant on any thing that 's not the Cause of it there are ever very many who believe this thing to be the Cause of the Effect that happens though all Men fall not into this Error A Comet for instance appears and presently after a Prince goes off c. Stones are expos'd to the Moon and are eaten with Worms The Sun is in Conjunction with Mars at the Nativity of a Child and that Child has some Fortune extraordinary This is Argument sufficient to perswade a great many that the Comet the Moon the Conjunction of the Sun with Mars are the Causes of the Effects I have mention'd and of others that are like them And the Reason why all the World is not of the same Opinion is their Observation that the like Effects do not at all times attend these Causes But all Men having commonly Idea's of Objects present to their Mind when they desire it and this happening many times a day very few of them but conclude that the Will which accompanies the Production or rather Presence of Idea's is the true Cause of them because they see nothing at the same time to which they can attribute them And they imagine that Idea's cease to exist when out of the view of the Mind and that they begin to exist again when re-presented to it 'T is upon the same account too that some judge that External Objects send forth Images that resemble them so as has been said in the preceding Chapter For it being impossible to see Objects by themselves or any otherwise than by their Idea's they judge that the Object produces the Idea because when 't is present they see it
when absent it disappears and the presence of the Object almost always is found in company with the Idea that represents it to us However if Men were not rash and inconsiderate in their judgments they ought only to conclude from the Idea's of things being present to their Mind whenever they will have them that according to the order of Nature their Will is for the most part necessary to their having these Idea's but not that the Will is the True and Principal Cause that exhibits them to the Mind much less that the Will produces them out of nothing or in the manner they explain it Nor is there any more Reason for concluding that Objects emit Species that resemble them because the Soul has seldom any Perception of them but when they are present but only that the Object is for the most part necessary to the Idea's being present to the Mind Lastly They ought not to conclude that the Bowl in motion is the principal and true Cause of the motion of another which it meets in its way since the first has no power of moving it self They can only judge that the Collision of the two Bowls is an occasion to the Author of the motion of Matter to execute the decree of his Will which is the universal Cause of all things by communicating to the other Bowl a part of the motion of the first that is to speak more clearly by willing that the latter should acquire as much motion as the former lost for the impellent force of Bodies can be nothing but the Will of him that preserves them as will be made appear in another place CHAP. IV. That we perceive not Objects by means of Idea's Created with us That GOD does not produce them in us every moment we have need of them THE third Opinion is of those who pretend That all Idea's are Created with us For our better discovering how little likelihood there is in this Opinion we must consider that there are in the World many quite different things whereof we have Idea's But to mention only simple Figures it is certain that the number of them is infinite and even if we fix only on an Ellipsis 't is not to be doubted but the Mind can conceive an infinite number of Ellipses of a different Species inasmuch as it can conceive that one of its Diameters may be lengthened to Infinity the other remaining constantly the same So since the Height of a Triangle may be augmented or diminish'd to Infinity the side which serves for the Base being still the same we conceive there may be infinite Triangles upon the same Base of a different Species And moreover which I desire may be well consider'd here the Mind in some manner perceives that infinite number though it can imagine but a very few and a Man cannot at one and the same time have particular and distinct Idea's of many Triangles of a different Species But that which should be most especially attended to is that this general Idea the Mind has of an infinite number of Triangles of a different Species is a sufficient proof that if we cannot conceive by particular Idea's all these different Triangles in a word if we cannot comprehend Infinity 't is not for want of Idea's or because Infinity is not present to our Mind but meerly for want of the Mind's Capacity and Comprehension If a Man should apply himself to the considering the Properties of all the diverse Species of Triangles and even should eternally pursue this sort of Study he would find new and particular Idea's in an endless succession But his Mind would tire under the unprofitable Disquisition What I have now said of Triangles may be apply'd to Figures of five six an hundred a thousand or ten thousand sides and so up to infinity And if the sides of a Triangle being capable of infinite Relations with each other can make Triangles of infinite Species it is easie to be seen that the Figures of Four Five or of a Million of sides are capable of much greater Differences as being subject to a far greater number of Relations and Combinations of their sides than simple Triangles The Mind then discerns all these things and has Idea's of them all And 't is certain these Idea's will never be exhausted though it should imploy infinite Ages in the consideration of one Figure only and if it perceives not these infinite Figures all at once or if it comprehend not infinity 't is only because its Capacity is too short and limited It has then an infinite number of Idea's What said I an infinite number It has so many infinite numbers of Idea's as there are different Figures Insomuch that there being an infinite number of different Figures the Mind must have an infinity of infinite numbers of Idea's for the Knowledge of Figures only Now I demand of them Whether 't is probable that GOD has created so many things with the Mind of Man For my own part it can never enter into my Head especially since it might be done in another most simple and easie manner as we shall see by and by For whereas GOD acts always by the most simple means it seems unreasonable to explain our manner of knowing Objects by admitting the Creation of an infinity of âeings when the difficulty may be resolv'd in a way more easie and natural But what if the Mind had a Magazine of all the Idea's necessary to its Perception of things It would be still extreamly difficult to explain how the Soul could make choice of them to represent Objects to her self how for instance she could bring it about to perceive the Sun when it were present to the Eyes of the Body For since the Image the Sun imprints in the Brain is nothing like the Idea we have of it as has been formerly prov'd and since likewise the Soul perceives not the Motion the Sun produces in the Fund of the Eye and in the Brain it is not conceivable how among such an infinite number of Idea's which she had she could exactly divine which it was necessary to represent for the imagining or seeing of the Sun It cannot then be said that the Idea's of things were created with us and that this is sufficient for our perceiving the Objects that are round about us Nor can it be said that GOD produces every moment so many new Idea's as we perceive different things This is sufficiently refuted by what has been said in this Chapter Besides it is necessary we should actually have in our selves the Idea's of all things at all times since at all times we can Will the conceiving all things Which we could never do unless we had already a confus'd Perception of them that is unless we had an infinite number of Idea's present to our Mind For to conclude we cannot Will the Thinking on Objects whereof we have no Idea CHAP. V. That the Mind perceives neither the Essence nor the Existence of
which methinks could not happen were it not for the facility they have at considering the Idea of Being in general which is always present to their Mind through the intimate presence of Him who includes all Beings If the vulgar Philosophers would be content to let their Physicks go for simple Logicks which furnish'd out Terms for the Discoursing of Natural things and if they would give those Men leave to be quiet who affix to these Terms distinct and particular Idea's to make themselves intelligible we should have nothing to reprehend in their Conduct But they set up themselves for the explaining Nature by general and abstract Idea's as if Nature were her self abstract and will absolutely have the Physicks of their Master Aristotle to be real Physicks which searches to the bottom of things and not a simple Logick only though it has nothing sufferable in it except it be some Definitions so loose and indefinite and some so general Terms as may be employ'd in all sorts of Philosophy In fine their Heads are so full of these imaginary Entities and these loose and indeterminate Idea's which spring up naturally in their Minds that they are too incapable of fixing their Thoughts for any time upon the real Idea's of things to discover their solidity and evidence And this is the Cause of that their extream ignorance of the true Principles of Natural Philosophy 'T is necessary to give a proof of it The Philosophers are sufficiently agreed That that ought to be look'd upon as the Essence of a thing which is acknowledg'd the First in that thing which is inseparable from it and on which all the Properties which belong to it depend So that to discover wherein consists the Essence of Matter we must consider all the Properties that comport with it or are included in the Idea we have of it as Hardness Softness Fluidness Motion Rest Figure Divisibility Impenetrability and Extension and enquire immediately which of these Attributes is inseparable from it Thus Fluidity Hardness Softness Motion and Rest being to be separated from Matter since there are many Bodies without Hardness Fluidity or Softness which are not in Motion or lastly which are not at rest it clearly follows that none of these Attributes are essential to it And now there remain only four which we conceive inseparable from Matter namely Figure Divisibility Impenetrability and Extension wherefore in order to understand which Attribute is to be taken for its Essence we must no longer think of separating them but only examine which is the Primary and that supposes none before it Now we easily discover that Figure Divisibility and Impenetrability suppose Extension and that Extension presupposes nothing But this being given Divisibility Impenetrability and Figure necessarily follow Extension then ought to be concluded the Essence of Matter on Supposition it has no other Attributes than those beforemention'd and such as are like them and I am perswaded no Man in the World can doubt of it when he has seriously consider'd it But all the difficulty is to know Whether Matter has not some other Attributes different from Extension and its Dependants so that Extension it self may not be essential to it but may suppose some other thing both as its Subject and its Priâciple Many Men after having most attentively consider'd the Idea which they have of Matter by all the Attributes that are known of it after having meditated likewise on the Effects of Nature as much as their Strength and Capacity of Mind would permit them have been strongly convinc'd that Extension supposes not any thing in Matter whether because they have had no distinct and particular Idea of that thing pretended precedaneous to Extension or because they have found no visible Effect to prove it For even as to our being perswaded that a Watch hath no Entity different from the Matter it is compos'd of it suffices to know how the different Disposition of the Wheels is able to effect all the Movements of a Watch without having any other distinct Idea of what might possibly be the Cause of these Motions though there be many Logical to had So because these Persons have no distinct Idea of what could be in Matter were Extension taken away and see no Attribute that can explicate its Nature and because Extension being granted all the Attributes conceiv'd to belong to Matter are at the same time granted and because Matter is the Cause of no Effect which may not be conceiv'd producible by Extension diversly configur'd and diversly mov'd therefore they are perswaded that Extension is the Essence of Matter But as no Man can infallibly demonstrate there is not some Intelligence or New-created Entity in the Wheels of a Watch so no Man can without a particular Revelation be assur'd as of a Geometrical Demonstration that there is nothing but Extension diversly configur'd in a Stone For 't is absolutely possible for Extention to be joyn'd with something which we don't conceive because we have no Idea of it though it seems very unreasonable to believe and assert it it being contrary to Reason to assert what we neither know nor have any conception of Yet though we should suppose That there were something besides Extension in Matter yet that would be no Impediment if we well observe it why Extension should not be its Essence according to the Definition we have given of the Word For in short 't is absolutely necessary that every thing in the World should be either a Being or a Mode of being and no Thinking and Attentive Man can deny it But Extension is not the Mode of a Being therefore it is a Being But because Matter is not constituted of several Beings as Man who is compos'd of a Body and Mind Matter being one simple Being it is manifest that Matter is nothing but Extension Now to prove that Extension is not a Mode of Being but a real Being it must be observ'd That a Mode of Being cannot be conceiv'd but the Being must at the same time be conceiv'd whereof it is the Mode We cannot conceive Rotundity for Instance but we must conceive Extension because the Mode of Being or Existence being only the Being it self in such a sort of state the Roundness of tbe Wax for Instance being but the Wax it self in such a sort or fashion it is plain that we cannot conceive the Mode without the Being If then Extension were a Mode of Being we could not conceive Extension without the Being whereof Extension was the Mode whereas we easily conceive Extension all alone Wherefore it is not a Mode of Being but consequently a Being of it self And so it is the Essence of Matter since Matter is but a simple Being and not compos'd of many Beings as I have already said But many Philosophers have so accustom'd themselves to general Idea's and Logical Entities as to have their Mind more possess'd with them than those that are distinct particular and Physical Which is evident
it were only that these Beings having no Relation to us the Knowledge of them would be of little use to us as he has not given us Eyes acute enough to reckon the Teeth of an Hand-worm since 't would be useless to the Preservation of our Body to have so penetrating an Eye-sight But though we do not think it fit to judge hastily and rashly that all Being is divided into Spirit and Body yet we think it inconsistent with Reason for Philosophers in explaining Natural Effects to use other Idea's than those that depend on Thought and Extension these in Effect being the only distinct or particular that we have There is nothing more Unphilosophical and Irrational than to imagine vast numbers of Beings from simple Logical Idea's to bestow on them infinite properties and so to go about explaining things which no body understands by things which not only no body conceives but which indeed are impossible to be conceived This is to take the same course that Blind Men would do when intending to discourse of Colours and maintain the Theses that concern them they should make use of the Definitions they receive from the Philosophers and thence make their Inferences and Conclusions For as these blind Men's Arguings and Disputes about Colours must needs be pleasant and ridiculous enough since they could have no distinct Idea's of the Subjects in Question and would only argue from general and Logical Idea's So the Philosophers can never reason justly and solidly upon the Effects of Nature when they only employ general and Logical Idea's as of Act Power Being Cause Principle Form Quality and others of like Nature It is absolutely necessary for them to ground their Disputes and Reasonings only upon the distinct and particular Idea's of Thought and Extension and those which are contain'd in them as Figure Motion c. For we can never expect to arrive to the Knowledge of Nature but by the Consideration of the distinct Idea's we have of it and 't is better not to meditate at all than to throw our Meditation away upon Whimsies and Chimera's We ought not however to assert that there is nothing but Spirit and Body Thinking and Extended Beings in Nature since 't is impossible for us to be mistaken For though these are sufficient for the Explication of Nature and consequently we may conclude without danger of erring That all Natural things as far as our Knowledge goes depend upon Extension and Thought yet absolutely speaking it s not impossible but there may be others whereof we have no Idea nor see any Effect Men are therefore too rash and precipitate in judging as an indisputable Principle that all Substance is distinguish'd into Body and Spirit But they thence infer a rash and unadvis'd conclusion when they determine by the sole light of Reason that GOD is a Spirit 't is true that since we are created after His Image and Similitude and we are taught from several places of the Holy Scripture that GOD is a Spirit we ought to believe and call Him so But Reason all alone can never teach us so much It only tells us that GOD is a Being infinitely perfect and that he ought rather to be a Spirit than a Body since our Soul is more perfect than our Body but it cannot assure us there are not still other Beings more perfect than those Spirits within us and rang'd in an higher order above them than our Minds are above our Bodies But supposing there were such Beings as these as Reason makes it unquestionable that GOD was able to create them 't is evident they would have a nearer resemblance to their Maker than our selves And so the same Reason informs us that GOD would rather have their Perfections than ours which would be reckon'd but imperfections in comparison with them We ought not therefore precipitately to imagine that the word Spirit which we indifferently use to signifie what GOD is and what we are our selves is an univocal Term expressing the same things or very like GOD is farther exalted above Created Spirits than these Spirits are elevated above Bodies and we ought not to term GOD a Spirit so much for a positive Declaration of what He is as to signifie He is not material He is an infinitely perfect Being no Man can doubt of it But as we are not to imagine with the Anthropomorphites that he ought to have an Humane shape because that Figure seems the most perfect though we should suppose Him Corporeal so we ought not to think that the Spirit of GOD has Humane Thoughts and that his mind is like our own because we know nothing perfecter than our own Mind 'T is rather to be believ'd that as he includes in Himself the Perfections of Matter without being material for 't is certain that Matter has a Relation to some Perfection that is in God so He comprehends the Perfections of created Spirits without being a Spirit after our manner of conceiving Spirits that his true Name is HE THAT IS that is being without restriction all Being being Infinite and Universal CHAP. X. Some Instances of Errors in Physicks wherein Men are engag'd by supposing that the things which differ in their Nature their Qualities Extension Duration and Proportion are alike in these things IT has been shewn in the Fore-going Chapter That Men make a rash Judgment in concluding all Beings under two Heads either of Body or Spirit we will make it appear in the succeeding Chapters that they not only make rash Judgments but false too and which are the fruitful Principles of innumerable Errors when they judge that Beings are not different in their Relations and Modes because they have no Idea of these Differences 'T is certain that the Mind of Man searches only after the Relations of things First those which the Objects it considers have to it self and then those which they have with one another For Man's Mind is inquisitive only after its Good and Truth For the finding out its Good it considers carefully by Reason and by Taste or Sensation whether the Objects have any Relation of Agreement with it self For the discovering Truth it considers whether the Objects have any Relation of Equality or Similitude to each other or what precisely is the Quantity that is equal to their Inequality For as Good is not the Good of the Mind any farther than it is agreeable to it so Truth is not Truth but by the Relation of Equality or Resemblance which is found betwixt two things or more whether this Relation be between two or more Objects as between an Ell and a Piece of Cloth For 't is true that this is an Ell of Cloth because of the Equality between the Ell and the Cloth whether it be between two or more Idea's as between the two Idea's of Three and Three and that of Six for 't is true that Three and Three are Six because of the Equality between the two Idea's of Three and Three and the
beneath the Grandeur and prostrate it self before the Lustre of Riches But if I consider that the Body is infinitely inferiour to the Mind that it is not its Master nor can instruct it in Truth nor any ways illuminate it and if upon this Scene and Prospect I re-enter into or enquire of my self or rather since I am neither my own Master nor my own Light if I approach unto GOD and in the calm and silence of my Senses and Passions make this Demand Whether Riches or Vertue is preferable I shall hear a clear and distinct Answer concerning what is to be done an Eternal Answer that has been always given and which is and always will be an Answer that 's not necessary to be explain'd since every body know it such as read this and such as do not read it which is neither Greek nor Latin nor French nor German but which all Nations under Heaven understand An Answer lastly that consolates the Just in their Poverty and desolates Sinners in the abundance of their Riches I shall hear this Answer and remain convinc'd and then shall laugh at the Visions of my Imagination and the Delusions of my Senses The Internal Man that is in me shall ridicule the Animal and Terrestrial Man that I carry about me In fine the New Man shall thrive and the Old Man shall be destroy'd provided in the mean time I continually obey the Voice of Him who delivers Himself so clearly in the most secret recess of my Reason and who becoming sensible to accommodate Himself to my Weakness and Disease and to give me Life by that which gave me Death speaks to me anew in a most strong and lively and familiar way by my Senses I mean by the preaching of His Gospel But if I interrogate Him in all Metaphysical Natural and purely Philosophical Questions as well as those which respect the Rule of Manners I shall always have a faithful Master who will never deceive me I shall not only be a Christian but a Philosopher I shall be a sound Thinker and a Lover of what is Good In a word I shall follow the Road that leads me to all Perfection I am capable of either by Nature or by Grace We ought then to conclude from all that has been said that to make the best use possible of the Faculties of our Soul of our Senses Imagination and Vnderstanding we must apply them only to those things for which they were given us We ought carefully to distinguish our Sensations and Imaginations from our Pure Idea's and judge by the former of the Relations our Body has with those about us but never make use of them in discovering Truths which they always confound Whereas Pure Idea's must be us'd in the finding out of Truths but omitted when we judge of the Correspondencies between Exteriour Bodies and our own because their Idea's have never reach and extent enough to give a thorough Representation of them 'T is impossible for Men to have sufficient Knowledge of all the Figures and Motions of the little parts of their Body and Blood and of those of a particular Fruit at a certain Season of their Sickness to know whether there is a Relation of Agreement between that Fruit and their Body and that if they eat of it they shall recover Thus our Senses alone are more useful for the Conversation of our Body than the Rules of Experimental Medicine and Experimental Medicine than Theoretical But Theoretical Medicine that deferrs much to Experience and more to the Senses is the best of all Because all these should be caball'd together Reason then is of universal use and this is the Privilege it obtains over the Senses and Imagination which are limited and conâin'd to Sensible things yet this is to be regularly employ'd for though it be the principal part of Our selves it often happens to deceive us by our letting it act too much because it cannot act enough without tiring I mean it cannot know enough to make a right Judgment and yet it will still be judging F. MALEBRANCHE's TREATISE Concerning the SEARCH after TRUTH BOOK IV. Concerning the Inclinations or Natural Motions of the Mind CHAP. I. I. Inclinations are as necessary to Spirits as Motions to Bodies II. GOD gives no Motion to Spirits but what tends towards Himself III. The Tendency Spirits have to particular Goods proceeds but from their Motion towards Good in general IV. The Original of our chiefest Natural Inclinations Which will make up the Division of this Fourth Book THERE had been no occasion of Treating on the Natural Inclinations which are to be the Subject of this Fourth Book nor on the Passions which I am to speak to in the Fifth to discover the Causes of our Errours did not the Understanding depend on the Will in the Perception of Objects But because the Understanding receives its Direction from the Will and is determin'd and fix'd by it rather to some Objects than others in order to penetrate into the Causes of the Errours whereunto we are subject it will be absolutely necessary to be well acquainted with the Nature of our Inclinations Had God in the Creation of the World produc'd a Matter infinitely Extended without imprinting on it any Motion there had been no diversity in Bodies The whole Visible World at this day would have been nothing but an unweildy Mass of Matter or Extension which might perhaps have serv'd to shew the Greatness and Power of its Author but wanting that Succession of Forms and Variety of Bodies wherein the Beauty of the Universe consists would have little to invite Spiritual Beings to admire and adore the Infinite Wisdom of its Governour Now the Inclinations of Spirits seem to be in the Spiritual World what the Motions of Bodies are in the Material and that if Spirits had no Inclinations or Volitions that Variety would be wanting to the Order of Spiritual things which not only excites to the Admiration of the profound Wisdom of God as does the diversity observ'd in Material things but also of his Mercy Justice and Goodness and all his other Attributes in general The difference then of Inclinations has an Effect in Spirits much like that which the diversity of Motions produces in Bodies and the Inclinations of Spirits together with the Motions of Bodies make up all the Beauty of Created Beings So that 't is requisite for the former to have several Inclinations as for the latter to have different Motions But let us try to discover what Inclinations these ought to be Were not our Nature corrupted we should not need to seek by Reason as we are now to do what should be the Natural Inclinations of Created Spirits We need but have descended into our own Breast to have discover'd by an inward Feeling or Self-consciousness of what passes within us all the Inclinations we ought Naturally to have But since we are taught by Faith that Sin has inverted the Order of Nature and even by
as long as we see and feel it 'T is certain that if the Mind could easily keep up to clear and distinct Ideas without being as it were supported by some Sensation and without having its Attention perpetually disturb'd by the Restlesness of the Will we should find no great difficulties in infinite Natural Questions but in a short time should get rid of our Ignorance and Errours about them which we now look upon as inexplicable For instance 't is an indisputable Truth to every Man that makes use of his Reason that Creation and Annihilation exceed the ordinary force of Nature Should we now stick to the consideration of that pure Notion of the Mind and Reason we should not so readily admit the Creation and Annihilation of such innumerable multitudes of New Beings as of Substantial Forms Real Qualities and Faculties and the like We should look for the reason of Natural Effects in the distinct Ideas of Extension Figure and Motion and this is not so difficult as is imagin'd For all Nature hangs in a continued chain and the parts of it mutually prove each other The Effects of Fire as those of Cannons and Mines are very wonderful and their Cause as secret and conceal'd Nevertheless if Men instead of adhering to the Impressions of their Senses and false and delusive Experiments should insist on that sole Notion of Pure Intellect That 't is impossible for a Body gently mov'd to produce a Violent Motion in another since it cannot communicate more moving Force than it has it self it would be easie from that single Notion to conclude there is some subtile and invisible Matter that it is violently agitated and universally diffus'd among all Bodies and several things of like kind which might serve to explain the Nature of Fire and to discover other yet more intricate and hidden Truths For seeing so great Motions produc'd in a Cannon or a Mine and all the visible surrounding Bodies in too little Commotion to effect them we are infallibly assur'd there are other invisible and insensible Bodies which have at least so much Motion as the Cannon Bullet but being extremely fine and subtile may when alone pass freely and without bursting any thing through the Pores of the Cannon before it is fir'd that is as may be seen explain'd at large in Mr. des Cartes before they have surrounded the hard and gross parts of the Saltpeter which the Powder is compos'd of But when the Fire is kindled that is when these most subtile and agitated particles have encompassed the gross and solid parts of the Saltpeter and so have communicated their most forcible and violent Motion to them all must necessarily burst because the the Pores of the Cannon which gave a free passage on all sides to the subtile parts we speak of when alone are not large enough to receive the gross parts of the Saltpeter and others that make the Powder when agitated by the subtile particles that environ them For as the Water of a River shakes not the Bridge it runs under because of the minuteness of its parts So this most fine and subtile Matter continually passes through the pores of all Bodies without causing any sensible alteration But as again that River is able to overturn a Bridge when bearing down its Stream huge massy pieces of Ice or other more solid Bodies it dashes them against it with the same Force that it self is mov'd by so the subtile Matter is capable of those astonishing Effects observable in Cannons and Mines when having communicated to the parts of the Powder swimming in the midst of it an infinitely more violent and rapid Motion than that of Rivers and Torrents these same parts of the Gunpowder cannot freely pass through the Pores of the including Bodies because of their too great bulk and therefore open themselves a way by violently breaking what withstands them But 't is not very easie to imagine these so subtile and refin'd Bodies and they are look'd upon as Chimeras because they cannot be seen Contemplatio fere desinit cum aspectu says My Lord Bacon And indeed the greatest part of Philosophers had rather invent some New Entity than be silent about things they do not understand If it be objected to their false and inconceivable Suppositions that Fire must necessarily be compos'd of parts rapidly mov'd because of those violent Motions it produces whilst nothing can communicate what it has not which surely is a most clear and solid Objection they will be sure to confound all by some childish and imaginary Distinction such as Causes univocal and equivocal that they may seem to say something when indeed they say nothing at all For in fine 't is a receiv'd Maxim with all considering Men That there can be no equivocal Cause in Nature and Ignorance has only invented them Those then who are desirous of knowing Nature should take care to fix more to clear and distinct Notions They should a little check and resist that Levity and Inconstancy of their Will if they would penetrate to the bottom of things for their Minds will ever be feeble superficial and desultory whilst their Wills remain roving fickle and inconstant It must be confess'd that 't is a painful and tiresome thing and full of constraint to become attentive and go to the bottom of the things we have a mind to know But nothing can be had without pains Mean time 't is a reproach to Men of Sense and Philosophers who are oblig'd by all manner of reasons to the Search and Defence of Truth to talk they know not what and to be satisfied with what they do not understand CHAP. III. I. Curiosity is natural and necessary II. Three Rules to moderate it III. An Explication of the first of these Rules AS long as Men shall have an Inclination for a Good that exceeds their Strength and they shall not enjoy it they will ever have a secret Inclination for whatever carries the Character of New and Extraordinary They will constantly be persuing after things which they have not yet consider'd with hopes of finding what they seek for and whereas their Minds can never be fully satisfied without the Intuition of him for whom they are created so they will always be restless and tossing about till He appears to them in His Glory This Disposition of Minds is doubtless very consonant to their Condition it being infinitely better restlesly to search after Truth and Happiness which they do not possess than to fix on a false and ill-grounded security by taking up with Falshood and Seeming Goods the ordinary Desserts they feed on Men ought not to be insensible to Truth and Hapiness and what is New and Extraordinary ought to quicken them For there is a Curiosity which we may permit them or rather which we ought to recommend to them So then common and ordinary things containing not the true Good and the Ancient Opinions of Philosophers being most uncertain it is reasonable we should
us The second is a New Determination of the Motion of the Will towards that Object provided it be or seem to be a Good Before that View the Natural Motion of the Soul was either undetermin'd that is to say she was carried towards Good in general or it otherwise determined by the knowledge of some particular Object But in the very instant of the mind 's perceiving that Relation of the new Object to it self that general Motion of the Will is forthwith determin'd conformably to the perception of the Mind The Soul advances near that Object by her Love that she may relish it and discover her good in it through a sensible delectation which the Author of Nature affords her as a Natural Reward of her Inclination to Good She judged that that Object was a Good by an abstracted and unpathetick Reason but she persists in the persuasion of it through the Efficacy of Sensation and the livelyer that Sensation is the stronger is her adhesion to the Good that seems to be the Cause of it But if that particular Object be considered as Evil or able to deprive us of some Good there happens no New Determination in the Motion of the Will but only the Motion towards the Good oppos'd to that seemingly evil Object is augmented which augmentation is greater or lesâer as the Evil seems to be more or less formidable to us For indeed we hate only because we love and the Evil that is without us is judg'd no farther Evil than with reference to the Good of which it deprives us So that Evil being consider'd as a privation of Good to fly from Evil is to fly the privation of Good which is the same thing as to tend towards Good and therefore there happens no new determination of the Natural Motion of the Will at the presence of an unwelcome Object but only a Sensation painful distasteful or imbitter'd which the Author of Nature inflicts on the Soul as a pain naturally consequent to her being depriv'd of Good Reason alone had not been sufficient to carry her to it wherefore this painful and vexing Sensation is superadded to quicken her Thence I conclude that in any Passion whatsoever all the Motions of the Soul towards Good are the Motions of Love But as we are affected with divers Sensations according to the various Circumstances that attend the View of Good and the Motion of the Soul towards it so we come to confound our Sensations with the Commotions of the Soul and to imagine as many different Motions in the Passions as there are different Sensations Upon this head it must be observed that Pain is a true and real Evil and no more the Privation of Pleasure than Pleasure the Privation of Pain for there is a great difference betwixt not feeling or being depriv'd of such a Sensation of Pleasure and the actual enduring of Pain So that every Evil is not precisely so because it deprives us of Good but only that Evil as I have explain'd that is without us or is not a Modification of our Soul Nevertheless as by Goods and Evils we commonly understand things good or evil and not the Sensations of Pleasure and Pain which are rather the natural Tokens by which the Soul distinguishes Good from Evil it may be said methinks without Equivocation that Evil is nothing but the privation of Good and that the natural motion of the Soul that removes us from Evil is the same with that which carries us to good for in brief all natural Motion being an Impression of the Author of Nature whose acting centers in himself and who can incline us only towards himself The true Motion of the Soul is always essentially the Love of Good and but accidentally an Aversion from Evil. I grant that Pain may be consider'd as an Evil and in that sense the Motion of the Passions which is stir'd up by it is not real since we never will Pain and though we positively will the absence of Pain yet 't is only because we positively will the Preservation or Perfection of our Being The third thing to be observ'd in every Passion is the Sensation that attends them the Sensation of Love Hatred Desire Joy Sorrow which are all different in the different Passions The fourth thing is a new Determination of the course of the Animal Spirits and Blood to the outward and inward parts of the Body Before the View of the Object of the Passion the vital Spirits were dispers'd throughout the whole Body for the preservation of all its parts in general but at the appearance of that new Object all this Order and Oeconomy is disturb'd and most part of the Spirits are thrown into the Muscles of the Arms Legs Face and other exteriour parts of the Body to put them in a disposition suitable to the ruling Passion and to give it such a gesture and motion as are necessary for the obtaining or avoiding the imminent Good or Evil But if its own Forces are insufficient for its occasions these same Spirits are distributed in such a manner as make it machinally utter certain words and cries and which diffuse over the Face and the rest of the Body such an air and comportment as is capable of actuating others with the same Passion it self is possess'd with For Men and Beasts having a mutual cohesion by the Eyes and Ears when any one of them is in a violent Commotion it necessarily affects the Spectators and Hearers and naturally makes upon their Imagination such an Impression as troubles them and moves them to preserve it As to the rest of the Animal Spirits they violently descend into the Heart Lungs Liver Spleen and other Viscera thence to draw contributions and to hasten those parts to send forth a sufficient and timely supply of Spirits necessary to preserve the Body in that extraordinary Contention The fifth thing is a sensible Commotion of the Soul who feels her self agitated by an unexpected overflow of Spirits This sensible Commotion of the Soul always attends that Motion of the Spirits that the Soul may participate of all that affects the Body even as the Motion of Spirits is raised in the Body when the Soul is carried toward any Object For the Body and Soul being mutually united their Motions are reciprocal The sixth thing are several Sensations of Love Hatred Joy Desire Sorrow that are produced not by the Intellectual view of Good or Evil as those that have been already mention'd but by the various concussions that are caused in the Brain by the Animal Spirits The seventh thing is a certain Sensation of Joy or rather internal Satisfaction which detains the Soul in her Passion and assures her that she is in the fittest State she can be in reference to the Object she considers This internal satisfaction attends all the Passions whatsoever whether they proceed from the sight of an Evil or from the sight of a Good Sorrow as well as Joy This satisfaction makes
all the Passions pleasant and induces us to yield our consent and give up our selves to them and 't is that satisfaction which must be overcome by the Delights of Grace and the Comforts of Faith and Reason For as the Joy of the Mind is the result of a certain or evident Knowledge that we are in the best state that can be in relation to the Objects perceiv'd by the Understanding so the pleasantness of the Passions is a natural consequence of that confused Sensation we have of being in the best state we can be in reference to those things we perceive by our Senses Now 't is by the Joy of the Mind and the Comforts of Grace that the false delight of the Passions which makes us Slaves to sensible Goods must be vanquished All the forementioned things are to be found in all the Passions unless they be raised by confused Sensations and that the Mind perceive not the Good or Evil from whence they proceed for then 't is plain that they have not the three first qualifications It likewise appears that all these things are not free since they are in us without our Consent and even against it since the Sin but that the Consent of our Will is the only thing which is really in our power However it will be fit to explain all these things more at large and to make them more sensible by some Instances Let us suppose a Man to whom an Affront has been actually offer'd or one whose Imagination is either naturally strong and lively or over-heated by some Accident as a Disease or a Surfeit of Sorrow and Melancholy This Man in his Closet fancies that such a one who perhaps does not think upon him is willing and ready to wrong him The sensible View or the Imagination of the Opposition betwixt the Actions of his Enemy and his own designs will be the first Cause of his Passion That the Motion of this Man's Will may acquire some new determination it is not absolutely necessary that he should receive or imagine he receives any Affront for 't is sufficient that his Mind only should think on it without his Body's being concern'd in it However as this new determination would not be the determination of a Passion but only a most weak and languishing Inclination 'T is better to suppose that some great opposition is actually made to this Man's Designs or that he strongly fancies that it will be so than to make another Supposition wherein the Senses and Imagination are little or not at all concern'd The second thing to be consider'd in this Man's Passion is an increase of the Motion of his Will towards that Good of which his real or pretended Enemy endeavours to deprive him the stronger the opposition is or appears the more considerable will be the increase He at first hates his Adversary only because he loves that Good and his Hatred against him grows in proportion to his Love for it because the Motion of the Will in the Passion of Hatred is at bottom nothing else but a Motion of Love that Motion of the Soul towards Good not differing from that by which she avoids its Privation as has been already observ'd The third thing is a Sensation suitable to that Passion in our Instance 't is a Sensation of Hatred But though the Motion of Hatred be the same with that of Love yet the Sensation of Hatred is altogether different from that of Love as any one may experience in himself Motions are Actions of the Will but Sensations are Modifications of the Mind The Motions of the Will are natural Causes of the Sensations of the Mind and these Sensations of the Mind reciprocally encourage and keep up the Motions of the Will in their Determination The Sensation of Hatred is in the Man before us the natural result of the Motion of his Will excited upon the view of Evil and this Motion is afterwards maintained by the Sensation it hath produced What we have just now said of this Man might happen to him though he had not a Body But because he 's made up of two Substances naturally united the Motions of his Soul are communicated to his Body and those of his Body to his Soul so that the new Determination or the increase of the Motion of his Will naturally causes a new Determination in the Motion of the Animal Spirits which is always different in all the Passions though the Motion of the Soul be still almost the same The Spirits therefore are violently driven into the Arms Legs and Face to dispose the Body in a manner adapted to the Passion and to shed over the Face the Look of an injured Person with reference to all the Circumstances of the Injury receiv'd and to the Quality and Capacity both of the Agent and Patient That Expansion of the Spirits is so much the more strong abundant and quick as the Good is greater the Opposition more vehement and the Brain livelyer affected And therefore if the Person whereof we speak only imagine himself injur'd or if he receive a real but slight injury that makes no considerable concussion in the Brain the Expansion of the Animal Spirits will prove weak and languishing and perhaps insufficient to alter the natural and ordinary Disposition of the Body But if the Outrage be exceeding great or the Imagination enflam'd the Brain will be extraordinarily shaken and the Spirits so violently dispers'd that in a moment they will imprint on the Face and Body the Symptoms of the ruling Passion If he be strong enough to obtain the Victory his Countenance will be fierce and threatning If weak and unable to withstand the overwhelming Evil he will appear humble and submissive His Moans and Tears naturally exciting in the Spectators and even in his Enemy Motions of Pity he will draw from thence those succours which he could not expect from his own strength True it is that if the Spirits and Fibres of the Brain in the Spectators and Adversary of that unhappy Wretch be already agitated with a violent Motion contrary to that which breeds Compassion in the Soul the bemoanings of the Distress'd will but increase their Fury and so would his undoing be inevitable should he always keep the same Countenance and Aspect But Nature has provided for it for at the sight of the imminent loss of a great good there are naturally produced on the Face such strange and surprizing Characters of Rage and Despair as to disarm the most Barbarous Enemies and to make them as it were unmovable That frightfull and unexpected sight of the Lineaments of Death drawn by the Hand of Nature upon the Face of an unfortunate Person stops in the very Enemy stricken therewith the Motions of the Spirits and Blood that carried him to Revenge and in that favourable moment of Audience Nature printing again an humble submissive air upon the Face of the poor Wretch that begins to entertain some hopes because of the unmovableness and
is not strange that our Sensations should agitate us and quicken our love for sensible things whereas our Light dissipates and vanishes without producing any zeal and ardency for Truth 'T is true that several Men are persuaded that God is their real Good love him as their All and earnestly desire to strengthen and increase their Union with him But few evidently know that by meditating on the Truth we unite our selves to God as far as natural strength can attain that it is a sort of Enjoyment of him to contemplate the true Ideas of things and that that abstracted view of some general and immutable Truths on which all the particulars depend are flights of a Mind that sequesters it self from the Body to unite it self to God Metaphysicks speculative Mathematicks and all those universal Sciences which regulate and contain the particular as the Universal Being comprehends all particular Beings seem to be Chimerical to most Men as well to the pious as to those that do not love God So that I dare hardly make bold to say that the study of those Sciences is the most pure and perfect Application to God that the Mind may be naturally capable of and that it is by the sight of the Intellectual World which is their Object that God has produced and still knows this sensible World from which Bodies receive their Life as Spirits live from the other Those that purely follow the Impressions of their Senses and motions of their Passions are not capable of relishing the Truth because it flatters them not And even the Vertuous who constantly oppose their Passions when they proffer them false Goods do not always resist them when they conceal from them the Truth and make it despicable because one may be pious without being a Man of parts To please God we need not exactly know that our Senses Imagination and Passions always represent things otherwise than they are since it appears not that our Lord and his Apostles ever intended to undeceive us of several Errours upon this matter which Descartes has discover'd to us There is a great difference betwixt Faith and Understanding the Gospel and Philosophy the greatest Clowns are capable of Faith but few can attain to the pure Knowledge of Evident Truth Faith represents to vulgar Men God as the Creator of Heaven and Earth which is a sufficient motive of Love and Duty towards him whereas Reason knowing that God was God before he was Creator not only considers him in his Works but also endeavours to contemplate him in himself or in that immense Idea of the infinitely perfect Being which is included in him The Son of God who is the Wisdom of his Father or the Eternal Truth made himself Man and became sensible that he might be known by Men of Flesh and Blood by gross material Men that he might instruct them by that which was the Cause of their Blindness and draw them to the love of him and disengage them from sensible goods by the same things that had enslav'd them for having to doe with Fools he thought fit to take upon him a sort of Folly whereby to make them wise So that the most pious Men and truest Believers have not always the greatest Understanding They may know God by Faith and love him by the help of his Grace without understanding that he is their All in the sense Philosophers understand him and without thinking that the abstracted Knowledge of Truth is a sort of a Union with him We ought not therefore to be surprized if so few Persons labour to strengthen their natural Union with God by the Knowledge of Truth since to this there is required a continual opposition of the Impressions of the Senses and Passions in a very different way from that which is usual with the Vertuous who are not always persuaded that the Senses and Passions abuse them in the manner that has been explain'd in the foregoing Books The Sensations and Thoughts in which the Body has a share are the sole and immediate Cause of the Passions as proceeding from the Concussion of the Fibres of the Brain raising some particular Commotion in the Animal Spirits And therefore Sensations are the only sensible proofs of our dependence on some things which they excite us to love but we feel not our Natural Union with God when we know the Truth and do not so much as think upon him because he is and operates in us so privately and insensibly as to be imperceptible to our selves And this is the Reason that our natural Union with God raises not our Love for him But it goes quite otherwise with our Union to sensible things All our Sensations prove it and Bodies appear before our Eyes when they act in us Their Action is visible and manifest Our Body is even more present to us than our Mind and we consider the former as the best part of our Selves So that our Union to our Body and by it to sensible Objects excites in us a violent Love which increases that Union and makes us depend on things that are infinitely below us CHAP. VI. Of the more general Errours of the Passions with some particular Instances 'T IS the part of Moral Philosophy to discover the particular Errours concerning Good in which our Passions engage us to oppose irregular affections to restore the Integrity of the Heart and to rule the Course of our Life But here we chiefly aim at giving Rules to the Mind and finding out the Causes of our Errours in reference to Truth so that we shall not proceed farther in those Matters that relate to the Love of true Good We are tending to the Instruction of the Mind and only take the Heart in the way in as much as the Heart is its Master We search into Truth it self without a special Respect to our selves and we consider its Relation with us only because that Relation is the Spring of Self-love's disguising and concealing it from us for we judge of all things by our Passions whence it is that we mistake in all things the Judgments of Passions never agreeing with the Judgments of Truth 'T is what we learn in these excellent Words of St. Bernard Neither Love nor Hatred know how to make a Judgment according to Truth Will you hear a true Judgment As I hear I judge says our Lord he says not as I hate as I love or as I fear Here you have a Judgment of Hatred We have a Law say the Jews and by that Law he ought to die Here a Judgment of Fear If we let him alone say the Pharisees the Romans shall come and take away our Place and Nation Here another of Love as that of David speaking of his Parricide Son Spare the young Man Absalom Our Love Hatred and Fear cause us to make false Judgments only Nothing but the pure Light of Truth can illuminate our Mind nothing but the distinct Voice of our common Master can cause us to make
true Judgments provided we only judge of what he says and as he says in Imitation only of our Lord as I hear I judge But let 's see how it is that our Passions seduce us that we may the easier resist them The Passions are so nearly related to the Senses that remembring what hath been said in the first Book it will not be difficult to explain how they lead us into Errour because the general Causes of the Errours of the Passions are altogether like to those of the Errours of the Senses The most general Cause of the Errours of the Senses is as we there have shewn our attributing to external Objects or to the Body the proper Sensations of our Soul annexing Colours to the Superficies of Bodies diffusing Light Sounds and Odours in the Air and fixing Pain and Titillation to those Parts of our Body that receive some Changes by the Motion of other contiguous Bodies Almost the same thing may be said of the Passions we too rashly ascribe to the Objects that cause or seem to cause them all the Dispositions of our Heart our Goodness Meekness Malice Sowreness and all the other Qualities of our Mind The Object that begets some Passion in us seemes afrer a sort to contain in it self the Passion produced in us when we consider it as sensible things seem to contain in themselves the Sensations which their Presence excites in us When we love any Person we are naturally inclin'd to believe that he loves us and can hardly imagine that he designs to hurt us or to oppose our Desires But if Hatred succeed in the place of Love we cannot Persuade our selves that he has any Affection for us we interpret all he does in the worst Sense we are always distrustful and upon our Guard though he thinks not upon us or perhaps intended to doe us Service In short we unjustly attribute to the Person that stirs up a passion in us all the Dispositions of our Heart and with as much Imprudence as we ascribe to the Objects of the Senses all the Qualities of our Mind Moreover by the same Reason that we believe other Men receive the same Sensations from the same Objects as we do we think they are agitated with the same Passions for the same Subjects if they are in a State of being susceptible of them We suppose them to love and desire the same things as we our selves do whence proceed secret Jealousies and Hatreds if the desired Good cannot be enjoyed entire by several for the contrary happens in Goods that can be possessed without Division by several Persons as Science Vertue the Sovereign Good and the like We also suppose that they hate fear or fly from the same things that we do whence proceed secret Plots or publick Associations according to the nature and state of the thing hated by which means we hope to rid our selves of our Miseries We therefore ascribe to the Objects of our Passions the Commotions they produce in us thinking that all other Men and even sometimes Beasts are agitated as we are and besides judge yet more rashly the Cause of our Passions which is often but imaginary is really in some Object When we have a passionate Love for any Body his Grimace and Faces are charming his Ugliness is not distastful his ill-composed Motions and Gestures are regular or at least natural If he never speak he is wise if he be a great Talker he is witty if he speak upon all adventures he 's Universal if he continually interrupt others it is because he 's full of Fire of Life and Spirit if he pretend to top and sway every where 't is because he deserves it Thus can Passion cover or dissemble the Imperfections of Friends and advantagiously set off their most inconsiderable Qualities But when that Friendship which only proceeds as other Passions do from the Agitation of the Blood and Animal Spirits comes to cool through want of Heat and Spirits fit to nourish it when Interest or some false Relation alters the Disposition of the Brain then Hatred succeeding Love is sure to represent to us in that Object of our Passion all the Defects that are capable of stirring up our just Aversion We perceive in him Qualities quite contrary to those we admired before We are asham'd of having lov'd him and the ruling Passion never fails to justifie it self and to ridicule that which it has follow'd The Power and Injustice of Passions are not included within such narrow Limits as those we have described but extend infinitely farther not only disguising their principal Object but also whatever has any reference to it They make us love not only the Qualities of our Friends but also most part of those of the Friends to our Friends And in those who are endued with any strength and extent of Imagination the Passions have so vast a reach and out-let that it is not possible to determine their Limits Those Things I have mention'd are such general and fruitful Principles of Errour Prejudice and Injustice that it is impossible to observe all the Consequences of them Most of the Truths or rather Errours entertained in some Places Times Commonalties and Families proceed from thence What is followed in Spain is rejected in France what is true at Paris is false at Rome what is certain amongst the Dominicans is uncertain amongst the Franciscans and what appears undoubted to the Black Fryars seems an Errour to the White The Dominicans believe themselves obliged to stick to St. Thomas Why Because that Doctor was one of their Order Whereas the Franciscans follow the Opinion of Scotus because he was a Black Fryar There are likewise Truths and Errours proper to certain Times The Earth turned two thousand Years ago then it remain'd unmovable till our Days wherein it has began to turn again Aristotle was formerly burnt and a Provincial Council approved by the Pope most wisely forbad his Physicks to be taught He was admired ever since and falls now again into Contempt Opinions that are now publickly received in the Schools were formerly rejected as Heresies and their Assertors excommunicated by the Bishops because Passions stirring up Factions Factions establish those sorts of Truths or Errours that are as inconsistent as the Principle they proceed from Men may indeed be indifferent as to the Unmovableness of the Earth or the Essence of Bodies consider'd in themselves but they are no longer so when they look on those Opinions as defended by their Adversaries Thus Hatred kept up by a confused sense of Piety breeds an indiscreet Zeal that kindles by degrees and at last produces such Events as are not so surprizing to all the World till a great while after their arrival We can hardly imagine that Passions should reach so far because we know not that their Impetuosity extends to whatever may satisfie them Perhaps Hâman would have done no harm to the Jewish People but because Mordecai a Jew forbore to salute him he
for instance to be humble and timorous and even outwardly to testifie that Disposition of the Mind by a modest Look and respectful or timorous Deportment when we are in the Presence of a Person of Quality or one that is proud and powerful It being almost ever profitable for the Good of the Body that the Imagination should stoop before sensible Grandeur and give it outward Marks of its inward Submission and Veneration But this is done naturally and machinally without the Consent of the Will and sometimes notwithstanding its Opposition Even such Beasts as Dogs which stand in need of prevailing upon those with whom they live have ordinarily their Bodies so disposed that it machinally takes the Posture that is most suitable in reference to those that are about them For that is absolutely necessary to their Preservation And if Birds and some other Creatures want such a Disposition 't is because they need not asswage the Fury of those whom they can escape by Flight or whose Help is not necessary for the Preservation of their Life It can never be too much observ'd that all the Passions which are raised in us at the sight of something external machinally spread on the Face those Looks that are fit and suited to our present State that is those that are apt by their Impression machinally to dispose the Spectators to such Passions and Motions as are useful for the Good of Civil Society Admiration it self when produced in us by the Perception of something external which others can consider as well as we puts the Face in such a Shape as is fit to strike others with a machinal Impression of Admiration and which acts so regularly on the Brain that the Spirits contain'd in it are driven to the Muscles of the Face to fashion it into a Look altogether like our own This Communication of the Passions of the Soul and the Animal Spirits to unite Men together in reference to Good and Evil and to make them altogether like not only by the Disposition of their Mind but also by the Posture of their Body is so much the greater and more observable as the Passions are more violent by reason that the Animal Spirits are then agitated with more strength And this must needs be so because the Good and Evil being then greater or more present requires a greater Application and a stricter Association of Men to seek or avoid them But when the Passions are moderate as Admiration usually is their Communication is insensible and they do not alter the Countenance by which the Communication uses to be wrought For there being no urgent Occasion it would be needless to put a Force on the Imagination of others or to take them off from their Business to which their Application is perhaps more requisite than to the looking on the Causes of those Passions There is nothing more wonderful than that Oeconomy of the Passions and Dispositions of the Body in reference to the surrounding Objects All our machinal Actions are most becoming the Wisdom of our Maker God has made us susceptible of all those Passions chiefly to unite us with all sensible Things for the Preservation of Society and of our corporeal Being and his Design is so exactly perform'd by the Construction of his Work that we cannot but admire his Wisdom in the Contrivance of the Springs and Texture of it However our Passions and all those imperceptible Bands which tie us to the surrounding Objects often prove by our own Fault fruitful Causes of Errours and Disorders For we make not of our Passions the Use we ought to do we allow them every thing and know not so much as the Bounds we ought to prescribe to their Power so that the weakest and least moving Passions as Admiration for instance have strength enough to draw us into Errour Some Examples whereof are these When Men and especially those that are endu'd with a lively Imagination contemplate the best side of themselves they find for the most part a great deal of Self-complacency and Satisfaction and their internal Satisfaction is increased by the Comparison they make betwixt themselves and others that are not so airy and spirituous Besides that they have many Admirers and that few of their Opposers gain Success and Applause for Reason is seldom or never applauded in opposition to a strong and lively Imagination In short the Face of their Hearers takes on such submissive and dutiful Looks and expresses at every new Word they say such lively Strokes of Admiration that they admire themselves too and that their Imagination pufft up with their pretended Advantages fills them with an extraordinary Satisfaction of themselves And since we cannot see Men in the heighth of a Passion without receiving some impression from it and adopting as I may say their Sentiments how should it be possible that those who are surrounded with a Throng of Admirers should give no access to a Passion that is so flattering and so grateful to Self-love Now that high Esteem which Persons of a strong and lively Imagination have of themselves and their good Qualities puffs them up with Pride and gives them a Magisterial and Decisive Comportment they listen to others but with Contempt they answer but with Jeering they think but with reference to themselves and as they look on the Attention of the Mind that is so requisite for the discovery of Truth as a Slavery so they are altogether indocible Pride Ignorance and Blindness go hand in hand The bold or rather vain-glorious Wits will not be the Disciples of Truth and never retire into themselves unless it be to contemplate and admire their supposed Perfections so that he who resists the Proud shines in the middle of their Darkness without dissipating it There is on the contrary a certain Disposition of the Blood and Animal Spirits that occasions too mean Thoughts of our selves The Scarcity the Dulness and Fineness of the Animal Spirits join'd to the Coursness of the Fibres of the Brain cause the Imagination to be weak and languishing And the Contemplation or rather the confused Sense of that Faintness of Imagination is what breeds in us a vicious Humility which we may call Meanness of Spirit All Men are susceptible of the Truth but all apply not themselves to him who alone is able to teach it The Proud make their Address and listen but to themselves and the Dis-spirited make their Application to the Proud and submit themselves to their Determinations Both the one and the other give ear to bare Men. Proud Minds follow the Fermentation of their own Blood that is their own Imagination and the Low-spirited are over-sway'd by the over-ruling Countenance of the Proud and so are both subjected to Vanity and Lies The Proud is like a rich and powerful Man who has a great Retinue who measures his own Greatness by the number of his Attendants and his Strength by that of the Horses of his Coach whereas the Low-spirited is like
a poor weak and languishing Wretch who though he have the same Spirit and Principles yet because he is Master of Nothing imagines he is almost Nothing himself However our Retinue is not our self and so far is the plenty of the Blood and Animal Spirits the vigour and impetuousness of the Imagination from leading us to the Truth that on the contrary nothing carries us so far from it whereas 't is the Dull if I may so call them that is the cool and sedate Minds that are the fittest for the Discovery of solid and hidden Truths Their Passions being silent and quiet they may listen in the Recess of their Reason to the Truth that teaches them but most unhappily they mind not its Words because it speaks low without a forcible sound and that nothing wakens them but a mighty Noise Nothing convinces them but what glitters to appearance and is judg'd great and magnificent by the Senses they love to be dazled with Brightness and rather chuse to hear those Philosophers who tell them their Stories and Dreams and assert as the false Prophets of former times that the Truth has spoken to them though it has not than to listen to Truth it self For they have already suffer'd four thousand Years and that without opposition humane Pride to entertain them with Lies which they reverence and keep to as to Holy and Divine Traditions It seems the God of Truth is wholly gone from them they think on him and consult him no more they meditate no more and cover their neglect and laziness with the delusive pretences of a sacred Humility 'T is true that we cannot of our selves discover the Truth but we can doe it at all times with the assistance of him that enlightens us and can never doe it with that of all the Men in the World Those that know it best cannot shew it to us unless we ask it of him to whom they have made their Application and unless he be pleased to answer our Questions that is our Attention as he has done theirs We are not therefore to believe because Men say this or that for every Man is a Liar but because he that cannot deceive speaks to us and we must perpetually interrogate him for the solution of our Difficuties We ought not to trust to them that speak only to the Ears instruct but the Body or at the utmost move but the Imagination But we ought attentively to listen unto and faithfully believe him who speaks to the Mind informs the Reason and piercing into the most abstruse Recesses of the inward Man is able to enlighten and strengthen him against the outward and sensible Man that continually labours to seduce and corrupt him I often repeat these things because I believe them most worthy of a serious Consideration God alone is to be honour'd because he only can endue us with Knowledge as 't is he alone that can fill us with Pleasure There is sometimes in the animal Spirits and the rest of the Body a Disposition that provokes to Hunting Dancing Running and other Corporeal Exercises wherein the Force and Activity of the Body are most conspicuous Which Disposition is very ordinary to young Men especially before their Body be in a State of Consistency Children cannot stay in one place and will always be moving if they follow their humour For whereas all their Muscles are not yet strengthened nor perfectly finisht therefore God who as the Author of Nature regulates the Pleasures of the Soul with reference to the Good of the Body causes them to be delighted with such Exercises as may invigorate it Thus whilst the Flesh and Fibres of their Nerves are yet soft the Channels through which the animal Spirits must necessarily flow to produce all sorts of Motion are wore and kept open Humours have no time to settle and all Obstructions and Causes of Corruption are removed The confused Sensation that young Men have of that Disposition of their Body makes them pleased with the thoughts of their Strength and Dexterity They admire themselves when they know how to measure their Motions and to make extraordinary ones and are ambitious of being in the presence of Spectators and Admirers Thus they strengthen by degrees their Inclination to Corporeal Exercises which is one of the principal Causes of Ignorance and Brutishness For besides the time that is by that meanes lavisht away the little use they make of their Understanding causes the chief part of the Brain in whose tractableness the force and quickness of the Mind especially consists to become altogether inflexible and the animal Spirits through disuse are difficultly dispers'd in the Brain in a manner requisite to think of what they please This incapacitates most part of the Nobility and Gentry especially such as follow the War to apply themselves to any thing They answer with a Word and a Blow as the Proverb says for if you speak any thing that they don't willingly hear instead of thinking upon a suitable Reply their Animal Spirits insensibly flow into the Muscles that raise the Arm and make them answer without Consideration with a Blow or a Threatning Gesture because their Spirits agitated by the Words they hear are conveyed to such Places as are most open through Habit and Exercise The sense of their Corporeal Strength confirms them in those insulting Manners and the submissive Aspect of their Hearers puffs 'em up with such an absurd Confidence as makes them believe they have said very fine things when they have but haughtily and brutishly uttered Impertinencies being flater'd by the Fear and Caution of the Standers by It is not possible to have applied our selves to any Study or to make actual profession of any Science to be either Author or Doctor without being conscious of it But that very Consciousness naturally produces in some Men such a vast Number of Imperfections that it would be better with them if they wanted those Honourable Qualities As they look upon them as their most considerable Perfections so they are extreamly pleased with that Contemplation they set them before the Eyes of others with all the possible Dexterity and conceive they have thereby right to judge of every thing without Examination If any be so couragious as to contradict them they at first endeavour skillfully and with a sweet and obliging Countenance to insinuate what they are and what right they have to determine of such Matters And if any still presume to oppose them and that they be at a loss for an Answer they do not stick openly to declare what they think of themselves and of their Adversaries Every inward Sense of any Qualification we enjoy naturally swells up the Courage A Trooper well mounted and accoutred who neither wants Blood nor Spirits is ready to undertake any thing that Disposition inspiring him with an undaunted Boldness So it goes with a Man of Letters when he fansies himself to be Learned and that the Haughtiness of his Heart has
great and solid Truth which they have rendred familiar and which bears 'em up and strengthens them in all Occasions CHAP. IX Of Love and Aversion and their principal Species LOve and Hatred are the Passions that immediately succeed Admiration for we dwell not long upon the Consideration of an Object without discovering the Relations it hath to us or to something we love The Object we love and to which consequently we are united by that Passion being for the most part present as well as that which we actually admire our Mind quickly and without any considerable Reflection makes the necessary Comparisons to find out the Relations they have to each other and to us or else is naturally aware of them by a preventing Sense of Pleasure and Pain Then it is that the Motion of Love we have for our selves and for the beloved Object extends to that which is admired if the Relation it has immediately to us or to something united to us appear advantageous either by Knowledge or Sensation Now that new Motion of the Soul or rather that Motion of the Soul newly determin'd join'd to that of the Animal Spirits and followed with the Sensation that attends the new Disposition that the same new Motion of the Spirits produces in the Brain is the Passion we call here Love But when we feel by any Pain or discover by a clear and evident Knowledge that the Union or Relation of the admired Object would prove disserviceable to us or to something united to us then the Motion of the Love we have for our selves or for the Thing united to us terminates in us or cleaves to the united Object without following the View of the Mind or being carried to the admired Thing But as the Motion towards Good in general which the Author of Nature continually imprints on the Soul carries her to whatever is known and felt because what is either intelligible or sensible is Good in it self so it may be said that the Resistance of the Soul against that natural Motion which attracts it is a kind of voluntary Motion which terminates in Nothingness Now that voluntary Motion of the Soul being join'd to that of the Spirits and Blood and followed by the Sensation that attends the new Disposition which that Motion of the Spirits produces in the Brain is the Passion we call here Aversion or Hatred That Passion is altogether contrary to Love and yet 't is never without Love It is altogether contrary to it because Aversion separates and Love unites the former has most commonly Nothingness for its Object and the latter has always a Being The former resists the natural Motion and makes it of no effect whereas the latter yields to it and makes it victorious However Aversion is never separated from Love because Evil the Object of the former is the Privation of Good so that to fly from Evil is to fly from the Privation of Good that is to say to tend to Good And therefore the Aversion of the Privation of Good is the Love of Good But if Evil be taken for Pain the Aversion of Pain is not the Aversion of the Privation of Pleasure because Pain is as real a Sensation as Pleasure and therefore is not the Privation of it But the Aversion of Pain being the Aversion of some internal Misery we should not be affected with that Passion should we not love our selves Lastly If Evil be taken for what causes Pain in us or for whatever deprives us of Good then Aversion depends on Self-love or on the Love of something to which we desire to be united So that Love and Aversion are two Mother-Passions opposite to each other but Love is the First the Chief and the most Universal As at that great Distance and Estrangement we are from God since the Fall we look upon our Being as the Chief Part of the Things to which we are united so it may be said in some sense that our Motion of Love for any thing whatsoever is an Effect of Self-love We love Honours because they raise us our Riches because they maintain and preserve us our Relations Prince and Country because we are concern'd in their Preservation Our Motion of Self-love reaches to all the Things that relate to us and to which we are united because 't is that Motion which unites us to them and spreads our Being if I may so speak on those that surround us proportionably as we discover by Reason or by Sensation that it is our Interest to be united to them And therefore we ought not to think that since the Fall Self-Love is only the Cause and Rule of all other Affections but that most part of other Affections are Species of Self-love For when we say that a Man loves any new Object we must not suppose that a new Motion of Love is produc'd in him but rather that knowing that Object to have some Relation or Union with him he loves himself in that Object and that with a Motion of Love coeval to himself For indeed without Grace there is nothing but Self-love in the Heart of Man The Love of Truth of Justice of God himself and every other Love that is in us by the first Institution of Nature have ever since the Fall been a Sacrifice to Self-love There is no doubt however but the most wicked and barbarous Men Idolaters and Atheists themselves are united to God by a natural Love of which consequently Self-love is not the Cause for they are united to him by their Love to Truth Justice and Vertue they praise and esteem good Men and do not love them because they are Men but because they see in them such Qualities as they cannot forbear to love because they cannot forbear to admire and judge them amiable And therefore we love something besides our selves but Self-love over-rules all the rest and Men forsake Truth and Justice for the smallest Concerns For when by their natural Force they venture their Goods and Lives to defend oppress'd Innocence or on any other Occasion their greatest Spur is mere Vanity and the hopes of getting a Name by the seeming Possession of a Vertue which is reverenc'd by all the World They love Truth and Justice when on their side but never against themselves because without Grace they cannot obtain the least Victory over Self-love There are many other sorts of natural Love We naturally love our Prince Country Relations those that have any Conformity of Humour Designs and Employments with us But all those sorts of Love are very weak as well as the Love of Truth and Justice and Self-love being the most violent of all conquers them so easily as to find no other Resistance but what it creates against it self Bodies that strike against others lose their Motion proportionably as they communicate it to the stricken and after having moved many other Bodies may at last entirely lose their own Motion It is not so with Self-love It determines every
other Love by its Impressions upon it and its own Motion diminishes not on the contrary it gets new Strength by its new Victories For as that Motion never goes out of the Heart so it cannot be lost though it be continually communicated Self-love is therefore the Ruling and Universal Love since it is to be found and bears the sway every where so that all the Passions having no proper Motion of their own it may be said that Self-love is the most extensive and powerful of all Passions or the Ruling and Universal Passion And as all Vertues are but Species of that first Vertue we call Charity according to St. Austin so all Vices and Passions are but as so many Effects and Sorts of Self-love or of that general Vice we call Concupiscence We often distinguish in Morals the Vertues or Species of Charity by the Difference of Objects but that sometimes confounds the true Idea we ought to have of Vertue which rather depends on its own Motive than any thing else And therefore we shall not follow that Method in treating of the Passions nor distinguish them by the Objects because one and the same Object may excite them all and that ten thousand Objects may raise but one For though Objects differ from each other yet they differ not always in relation to us nor do they stir up in us different Passions The promis'd Staff of a Mareschal of France differs from a Bishop's Crosier or Pastoral Staff promis'd yet those two Marks of Honour excite almost the same Passion in the Ambitious since they raise in the Mind of both the same Idea of Good But the same Mareschal's Staff when promised granted enjoyed taken away stirs up Passions altogether different because it raises in the Mind different Ideas of Good We must not then multiply the Passions by their different Objects that cause them but only admit as many as there are accessary Ideas that attend the chief Idea of Good or Evil and considerably alter it in relation to us For the general Idea of Good or the Sensation of Pleasure which is good to him that enjoys it agitating the Soul and Animal Spirits produces the general Passion of Love and the accessary Ideas of that Good determine that general Agitation of Love and Course of the Spirits in such a particular manner as puts the Mind and Body in a convenient Disposition in relation to the perceived Good And thus they produce all the particular Passions And therefore the general Idea of Good produces an indeterminate Love which is but an Extension of Self-love The Idea of Good as possess'd produces a Love of Joy The Idea of Good not as possess'd but hop'd for that is as judg'd possible to be possess'd produces a Love of Desire And lastly The Idea of any Good that is neither possess'd nor hop'd for or which is the same the Love of any Good which we cannot hope to enjoy without losing some other or which we cannot preserve when we are possess'd of it produces a Love of Sorrow Those are the Three simple and primitive Passions that have Good for their Object for the Hope that produces Joy is not a Commotion of the Soul but a simple Judgment However we must observe That Men confine not their own being within themselves but extend it to all Things and Persons to whom they believe it their Advantage to unite themselves So that we must conceive that they are possess'd in some manner of a Good when enjoy'd by their Friends though they do not possess it immediately themselves And therefore when I say That the Possession of Good produces Joy I understand it not only of an immediate Possession or Union but also of any other for we naturally feel a Joy upon the Success or good Fortune of those we love Evil as I said can be taken Three ways for the Privation of Good for Pain and for the Thing that causes the Privation of Good or produces Pain In the first sense the Idea of Evil being the same with the Idea of a Good not enjoy'd it is plain that Idea produces Sorrow or Desire or even Joy for Joy is always excited from that we find our selves exempt of the Privation of Good that is to say when we possess Good So that those Passions that refer to Evil taken in that sense are the same as those that relate to Good because at the Bottom they have likewise Good for their Object When Evil signifies Pain which alone is always a real Evil to him that suffers it whilst he suffers it then the Sense of that Evil produces those Passions of Sorrow Desire and Joy that are Species of Aversion and not of Love because their Motion is altogether opposite to that which accompanies the Perception of Good that Motion being but the Resistance of the Soul against the natural Impression The Actual Sense of Pain produces an Aversion of Sorrow The Pain we suffer not but are afraid to suffer produces an Aversion of Desire And lastly the Pain we neither suffer nor are afraid to suffer or what is the same the Pain that shall be attended by a considerable Reward or the Pain from which we are freed produces an Aversion of Joy Those are the Three simple or primitive Passions that have Evil for their Object for the Fear that produces Sorrow is not a Commotion of the Soul but a bare Judgment Lastly If by Evil we understand the Person or the Thing that deprives us of Good or causes us to endure Pain the Idea of Evil produces a Motion of Love and Aversion together or only a Motion of Aversion The former when the Evil is that which deprives us of Good for by the same Motion we tend towards Good and fly from that which hinders its Possession And the latter when 't is the Idea of an Evil which causes Pain in us for 't is by the same Motion of Aversion that we hate Pain and whatever produces it And therefore there are Three simple or primitive Passions that relate to Good and as many that refer to Pain or to that which causes it viz. Joy Desire and Sorrow For we are joyful when Good is present and Evil is past we are sorrowful when Good is gone and Pain is present and we are agitated with Desires when Good and Evil are to come Those Passions that relate to Good are particular Determinations of that Motion God gives us for Good in general and therefore have a real Object but others who have not God for the Cause of their Motion terminate only in Nothingness CHAP. X. Of Passions in particular and in general of the way to explain them and to know the Errours they cause WHen we consider how Passions are formed it visibly appears that their Number is undeterminable or that there are more than we have Terms to express them by For Passions differ not only by the various Complication of the Three first Primitive which would not encrease them to
a great Number but also differ by the different Perceptions and Judgments that cause or accompany them Those different Judgments of the Soul concerning Good or Evil produce different Motions in the Animal Spirits to dispose the Body in relation to the Object and consequently cause in the Soul Sensations that are not altogether like Whence it proceeds that some Passions are observ'd to differ from each other though their Commotions be not different In the mean while the Commotion of the Soul being the chief Thing observable in every Passion 't is better to refer them to the Three original Passions in which those Commotions are very different than to treat confusedly and disorderly of them in reference to the different Perceptions we may have of the Good and Evil that raises them For we may have so many different Perceptions of Objects in reference to Time to our selves to what belongs to us to the Persons or Things to which we are united either by Nature or Choice that it is wholly impossible to make an accurate Enumeration of them When the Soul perceives any Good which she cannot enjoy it may perhaps be said that she hopes for it though she desires it not However 't is plain that this her Hope is not a Passion but a simple Judgment And therefore 't is the Commotion that attends the Idea of any Good of which we take the Enjoyment to be possible that adopts Hope into a true Passion It is the same when Hope grows into Security For the latter is a Passion only because of the Commotion of Joy that mixes with that of Desire since the Judgment of the Soul that considers any Good as certain is a Passion but as much as it is a foregoing Taste of the Good that affects us Last of all When Hope diminishes and is succeeded by Despair 't is visible again that the latter is a Passion but because of the Commotion of Sorrow that mixes with that of Desire for the Judgment of the Soul that considers any Good as unattainable would not be a Passion should we not be actuated by that Judgment But because the Soul never looks upon Good or Evil without any Commotion and even without any Alteration in the Body we often give the Name of Passion to the Judgment that produces it confounding together whatever happens both to the Soul and Body at the sight of any Good or Evil For the Words Hope Fear Boldness Shame Impudence Anger Pity Derision Grief and the Names of all other Passions in common use are short Expressions made up of several Terms by which can be explain'd in particular whatever Passions contain We understand by the Word Passion the View of the Relation any thing has to us the Commotion and Sensation of the Soul the Concussion of the Brain and the Motion of the Spirits a new Commotion and Sensation of the Soul and lastly a Sensation of Pleasure that always attends the Passions and makes them grateful All these we commonly understand by the Name of Passions but sometimes it only signifies either the Judgment that raises it or only the Commotion of the Soul or the bare Motion of the Spirits and Blood or lastly something else that accompanies the Commotion of the Soul It is very useful for the Knowledge of Truth to abridge Ideas and Expressions but that often causes some considerable Errour especially when those Ideas are abridg'd by popular Use For we ought never to abridge them but when we have made them very clear and distinct by a great Application of Mind and not as 't is ordinarily done as to Passions and sensible Things when we have made them familiar to us by their Sensations and the mere Action of the Imagination which easily imposes on the Mind There is a great difference betwixt the pure Ideas of the Mind and the Sensations or Commotions of the Soul Pure Ideas are clear and distinct but 't is a hard Task to make them familiar whereas Sensations and Commotions are intimate with us but can never plainly and distinctly be known Numbers Extension and their Properties may be clearly known but unless we make them sensible by some expressive Characters 't is very difficult to represent them to our Mind because whatever is abstracted moves us not On the contrary the Commotions and Sensations of the Soul may easily be represented to the Mind though the Knowledge we have of them be but confused and imperfect for all the Words that raise them lively strike the Soul and make it attentive Thence it proceeds that we often imagine we rightly understand some Discourses that are altogether incomprehensible and that reading some Descriptions of the Sensations and Passions of the Soul we persuade our selves that we perfectly comprehend them because they strongly move us and that all the Words that reverberate upon our Eyes agitate our Soul The hearing of the very Names of Shame Despair Impudence c. straightway excite in our Mind a confused Idea and obscure Sensation that powerfully influences us and because this Sensation is very familiar to us and presents it self without any Trouble or Endeavour of the Mind we fancy it to be clear and distinct These Words however are the Names of compounded Passions and by consequence abridg'd Expressions which popular Use has made up of many confused and obscure Ideas Seeing we are oblig'd to employ such Terms as common Use has approv'd of the Reader should not be surpriz'd to meet with Obscurity and sometimes with a sort of Contradiction in our Words And if it were but consider'd that the Sensations and Commotions of the Soul that answer to the Terms us'd in such Discourses are not wholly the same in all Men because of their different Dispositions of Mind they would not so easily condemn us when they could not enter into our Opinions This I say not so much to prevent Objections against my self as that we may understand the Nature of the Passions and what we are to think of Books treating of such Matters After so many Cautions I shall not stick to say that all the Passions may be referr'd to the three Primitive namely Desire Joy and Sorrow and that it is specially by the different Judgments the Soul makes of Goods and Evils that such as relate to the same Primitive Passion differ from each other For Instance I may say that Hope Fear and Irresolution that is the Mean betwixt them both are Species of Desire That Boldness Courage and Emulation c. have a greater Relation to Hope than to all others and that Timidity Cowardise Jealousie c. are Species of Fear I may say that Alacrity and Glory Kindness and Gratefulness are Species of Joy caused by the Sight of the Good that we know to be in us or in those to whom we are united as Derision or Jeering is a sort of Joy commonly arising at the Sight of the Evil that befalls those from whom we are separated Lastly That Distaste
Brutal They find Pleasure in living by the Impressions of their Passion and suffer inward Pain in resisting it which is sufficient to make Reason that commonly descends to be the Slave to Pleasure to argue in such a manner as may best defend the Cause of it If therefore it be true that all Passions justifie themselves 't is evident that Desire must of it self move us to judge favourably of its Object if it be a Desire of Love and unkindly if it be a Desire of Aversion The Desire of Love is a Motion of the Soul raised by the Spirits that provoke it to the Enjoyment or Use of such things as are not in its power for we desire even the Continuation of our Enjoyment because future things depend not on us 'T is then necessary for the Justification of that Desire that the Object which produces it be esteemed good in it self or in reference to something else the contrary must be said of that Desire which is a kind of Aversion I grant we cannot judge any thing to be good or bad without some Reason but Passions have no Object which is not good in some sense And if it may be said there are some which contain no real Goodness and therefore cannot be contemplated as Good by the Mind yet no one can say but they may be enjoyed as Good since they are supposed to agitate us and that Commotion Enjoyment or Sense is more than sufficient to move the Soul to entertain a kind Opinion of the Object If we so easily judge that Fire contains in it self the Heat we feel and Bread the Savour we relish because of the Sensation those Bodies excite in us though that be never so incomprensible to the Mind which cannot conceive Heat and Savour as Modifications of a Body thence it follows That there is no Object of our Passions how vile and contemptible soever it appears but we may judge it good when the Enjoyment of it affects us with pleasure For as we imagine that Heat goes out of Fire when we feel it so we blindly believe that the Objects of the Passions cause the pleasure which we receive in their Enjoyment and that therefore they are good since they are able to doe us good The like may be said of the Passions that have Evil for their Object But as I said just before there is nothing but deserves either Love or Aversion either by it self or by something else to which it relates and when we are agitated with some Passion we quickly discover in its Object the Good or Evil that may nourish the same It is therefore easie to know by Reason the Judgments which our Passions make whilst agitating us For if a Desire of Love move us we may well conceive that it will not fail to justifie it self by the favourable Judgments it shall make of its Object We easily perceive that those Judgments will have more Extent as the Desire shall be more violent and that they will be sometimes absolute and without exception though but a very small part of the thing appears good We may without difficulty understand that those favourable Judgments will reach all things that shall have or seem to have any Connection with the principal Object of the Passion proportionably to the strength of the Passion and the Extent of the Imagination The contrary will happen if it be a Desire of Aâversion the Reasons of which are as easily comprehended and perfectly confirmed and made good by Experience But let us make these Truths more sensible and familiar by some Instances Men naturally desire Knowledge because all Minds are created for Truth But that Desire how just and reasonable soever it may be in it self often becomes a dangerous Vice by the false Judgments that attend it Curiosity frequently offers to the Mind vain Objects of its Study and Lucubrations ascribes to them false Ideas of Greatness ennobles them with the deceiving Lustre of Rarity and dresses them up with such gay and splendid Apparel that one can hardly forbear to Contemplate them with too much Pleasure and Application There is no Trifle but will wholly take up some Persons whose fruitless Toil is still justified by the false Judgments that arise from their vain Curiosity For instance those that bestow their time in Learning Tongues imagine that all the Sciences consist in the Knowledge of Terms and find out a Thousand Reasons to justifie themselves and the Veneration those pay them whom an unknown Term confounds is none of the weakest though the least reasonable Some Persons employ their whole lives in learning to speak who ought perhaps to hold their Peace all the while since 't is evident he ought to be silent who has nothing worth the hearing to say But 't is not that which they propose from their Learning They should know that he must think well use his Understanding to exactness discern Truth from Falshood clear Ideas from obscure those of the Mind from those of the Imagination that will speak accurately They imagine themselves fine and uncommon Wits because they know how to please the Ear with an Elegant Harmony how to flatter the Passions by Figures and âaking Gestures how to rejoyce the Imagination by lively and sensible Expressions whilst they leave the Mind empty of Ideas void of Light and Understanding Some probable reason may justifie their Passion that spend a great deal of time in the study of their own Tongue since they make use of it all their Life but as to those who indifferently apply themselves to all sorts of Languages I know not what to say in their behalf The Passion of those who make a complete Library of all sorts of Dictionaries may be excusable as well as the Curiosity of those who make a collection of Coins and Medals of all Countries and Times that may be useful in some occasions and if it doe them not much good at least it does them no harm a Store-house of such Curiosities being not cumberâome since they carry not with them either their Books or Medals But how may the Passion of those be justifiable that make their Head a Library of Dictionaries that neglect their Affairs and Essential Duties for words of no use They are smatterers in their own Tongue frequently mingling strange and unknown words in their Discourses and never paying their Countreymen with Current Money Their Reason seems not to be better guided than their Tongue for all the Corners and Recesses of their Memory are so full of Etymologies that their Minds must lie as stifl'd under the innumerable number of words that are perpetually flying about it However it must be granted that Philologers and Linguists will not stick for Reasons to justifie their capricious Studies Which to know you need but to listen to the Judgments those pretenders to Science make of Tongues or suppose some Opinions that are taken amongst them for undoubted Axioms together with the Inferences that may be deduc'd from
may dissipate their Errours yet their Imagination being disorder'd by Fear and their Heart corrupted by Hatred and false Zeal those Reasons how solid soever they might be could not long stop the impetuous Stream of those violent Passions nor hinder them from speedily justifying themselves by sensible and convincing Proofs For we ought to observe that there are transitory Passions which never return whereas there are others that are constant and permanent Those that are not kept up by the sight of the Mind but are only produced and fortified by the sensible View of an Object and the Fermentation of the Blood are not lasting but commonly die soon after their Birth whereas those that are associated with the Contemplation of the Mind are steady because the Principle that produces them is not subject to change as Blood and Humours are So that Hatred Fear and all other Passions that are excited or preserved by the Knowledge of the Mind and not raised by the sensible View of Evil must needs be durable and withal very violent and unjust However those Passions are not the most lively and sensible as we shall now shew The Perception of Good and Evil which raises the Passions is produced Three ways by the Senses by the Imagination and by the Mind By way of the Senses it produces very quick and sensible Passions by way of the Imagination much weaker but those which proceed from the Perception of Good and Evil by the Mind alone are true Passions on no other account than as that View of Good and Evil is always attended by some Motion of the Animal Spirits Passions are only given us for the good of the Body and for uniting us by it to sensible Things For though sensible Things are neither good nor bad in reference to the Mind yet they are so in relation to the Body to which the Mind is united So that the Senses and Imagination discovering much better than the Mind the Relation of sensible Objects to our Body must needs raise Passions far livelier than a clear and evident Knowledge But because our Knowledge is always attended with some Commotion of the Spirits a clear and evident Knowledge of a great Good or a great Evil not to be discover'd by the Senses always raises some secret Passion However all clear and evident Knowledge of any Good or Evil is not always followed with a sensible and perceptible Passion as all our Passions are not accompanied with an intellectual Knowledge For as we sometimes think upon Good or Evil without being conscious of any Commotion so we often feel our selves agitated with Passion without knowing or sometimes without being sensible of the Cause A Man that sucks in a good Air is affected with Joy and knows not why nor what sort of Good he enjoys that produces it And if some invisible Corpuscle mixes with his Blood and hinders its Fermentation he is taken with Sorrow and may even ascribe the Cause of it to something visible that offers it self to him in the time of his Passion Of all Passions none are more sensible nor quick and consequently less mingled with Knowledge than Horrour and Antipathy Agreeableness and Sympathy A Man sleeping under the Shadow of a Tree often starts up when a Fly stings him or a Leaf tickles him as though a Serpent had bitten him The confused Sense of a Thing as terrible as Death it self frightens him and he finds himself surpriz'd with a very strong and violent Passion which is an Aversion of Desire before he bethinks himself On the contrary a Man in want discovers by chance some small Good the Sweetness of which surprizes him and he is inconsiderately taken up with that Trifle as though it were the greatest Good in the World without making any Reflection on it The same happens in the Motions of Sympathy and Antipathy We see in a Company a Person whose Deportment and Manners have some secret Agreeableness to the present Disposition of our Body so his Sight pierces and strikes us and we are inclined without Reflection to love and wish him well Thus we are agitated by I don't know what since Reason has no Share in it The contrary befals those whose Aspect and Looks shed as it were Disgust and Aversion They have I know not what that offends and puts us back for the Mind understands nothing in it the Senses only are competent Judges of sensible Beauty and Ugliness which are the Objects of those kinds of Passions F. MALEBRANCHE's TREATISE Concerning the SEARCH after TRUTH BOOK VI. Concerning METHOD CHAP. I. The Design of this Book Two general Ways for the Preserving Evidence in the Search of Truth which shall be the Subject of this Tract WE have seen in the foregoing Books that the Mind of Man is very obnoxious to Errour that the Deceptions of his Senses the Visions of his Imagination and the Abstractions of his Mind lead him into frequent Mistakes that the Inclinations of his Will and the Passions of his Heart almost ever conceal the Truth from him and never suffer it to appear without being tinged with those false Colours that flatter Concupiscency In short we have partly discover'd the Errours of the Mind with their Causes Now 't is time we should shew the Way that leads to the Knowledge of Truth and give the Mind all the possible Skill and Strength to walk therein without straying or wearying it self in vain But to spare the Readers an unprofitable Labour we think fit to advise them this Last Book is only made for such as earnestly desire to seek the Truth by themselves and to make use of the Force of their own Mind for that purpose I require them to despise for a while all probable Opinions to wave the strongest Conjectures to neglect the Authority of all the Philosophers to free themselves as far as possible from all Prejudice Interest and Passion to enter into an extreme Mistrust of their Senses and Imagination In a word well to remember the greatest part of the Things that have been said in the former Books I attempt in this last Book to give the Mind all the Perfection it can naturally attain to by supplying it with the necessary Helps to become more attentive and enlarg'd and prescribing it those Rules that must be observed in the Inquiry after Truth that it may never mistake but learn in time whatever can be known Could I carry this Design to its utmost Perfection which I pretend not this being but an Essay towards it I might boast to have found out an Universal Science which would make those truly learned that knew how to make use of it since they would have the Foundation of all the particular Sciences which they would acquire proportionably as they should make use of that Universal Science For by this Treatise we endeavour to render the Mind capable of passing a true and certain Judgment upon all the Questions that are not beyond its reach
engages us to apply our selves to Subjects that are very disgusting First because that Passion is very dangerous to the Conscience Secondly because it insensibly draws us into ill Studies that have more Lustre than Use or Truth in them and Lastly because it is very difficult to moderate it and that we often become its Fool and Property and instead of enlightning the Mind we only strengthen the Concupiscence of Pride which both corrupts our Moral Powers and darkens our Understanding with an undissolvable Obscurity For it must be consider'd how That Passion insensibly increases settles and fortifies it self in the Heart of Man and when it is too violent instead of helping the Mind in the Search of Truth it strangely blinds it and even persuades it that Things are just as it desires they should be Sure it is there would not be so many false Inventions nor imaginary Discoveries were not Men's Heads giddy'd by the ardent Desire of appearing Inventors For the firm and obstinate Persuasion wherein several Persons have been to have found for Instance the Perpetual Motion the Quadrature of the Circle the Duplication of the Cube by ordinary Geometry in all likelihood proceeded from an extraordinary Desire of seeming to have perform'd what others have vainly attempted And therefore 't is fitter to excite in us such Passions as are so much more useful to our searching out of Truth as they are more strong and wherein the Excess is not to be fear'd Such are the Desires of making a good Use of our Mind of freeing our selves from Prejudices and Errours of getting a sufficient Light to behave our selves in our Condition and such others as neither engage us into fruitless Studies nor carry us on to rash and inconsiderate Judgments When we have begun to taste the pleasure of making use of our Mind to be sensible of the Profit that arises from it have freed our selves of violent Passions and have disrelish'd sensible Pleasures which always prove the Masters of or rather the Tyrants over Reason in those that indiscreetly give up themselves to them we need not other Passions but such as we have spoken of to become attentive upon the Subjects on which we desire to meditate But most Men are not in that Condition they have neither Taste nor Understanding nor Curiosity for any thing but what affects the Senses their Imagination is corrupted by an almost infinite Number of deep Traces which raise none but false Ideas and as they depend upon all the Objects that resort to the Senses and Imagination so they always judge by the Impression they receive from them that is with reference to themselves Pride Debauchery the various Engagements the restless Desires of Advancement which are so common amongst the Men of the World darken the Sight of Truth and stifle in them the Sense of Piety because they separate them from God who alone is able to enlighten as he alone is able to govern us For we cannot increase our Union with sensible Things without diminishing that which we have with intellectual Truth since we cannot be at the same time strictly united with Things so different and opposite Those whose Imagination is pure and chaste that is whose Brain is not fill'd up with deep Traces that fasten them to visible Things may easily unite themselves to God listen attentively to the Truth that speaks to them and even forbear the Use of the most just and rational Passions But as to those that live amongst the Great who depend upon too many things and whose Imagination is soil'd by the false and obscure Ideas of sensible Objects they cannot apply themselves to the Truth unless they be born up by some Passion strong enough to countervail the Weight of the Body that carries them down and to imprint Traces on their Brain that may make a Revulsion upon the Animal Spirits However as every Passion can only by it self perplex our Ideas they ought to use that Help but so far as Necessity requires and all Men ought to study themselves that they may proportionate their Passions to their Weakness It is no hard matter to find a Method of raising in us such Passions as we desire since the Knowledge we have given in the foregoing Books of the Union betwixt Soul and Body has sufficiently open'd the way to it In a word no more is requir'd than to think attentively upon those Objects that by the Institution of Nature are able to raise the Passions Thus we may almost at any time excite in our Hearts whatever Passion we have occasion for but because we can easier excite them at any time than suppress them or remedy the Disorders they cause in the Imagination we must be very sober and cautious in employing them Above all we must take care not to judge of Things by Passion but only by the clear Sight of the Truth which is almost impossible when the Passions are somewhat lively they ought only to raise our Attention but they never fail of stirring up their proper Ideas and violently driving the Will to judge of Things by those Ideas that affect it rather than by the pure and abstracted Ideas of Truth that make no Impression upon it So that we often make Judgments which last no longer than the Passion because they are not produced by the clear Sight of the immutable Truth but by the Circulation of the Blood True it is that Men are wonderfully obstinate in some Errours which they maintain as long as they live but then those Errours have other Causes than the Passions or at least depend on such as are permanent and lasting proceeding from the Constitution of the Body from Interest or from some other durable Cause For Instance Interest being a Motive of a continual standing produces a Passion that never dies and the Judgments that arise from it are very long liv'd But all the other Sentiments of Men which depend upon particular Passions are as inconstant as the Fermentation of their Humours They say one while this another while that and yet what they say is commonly conformable to what they think And as they run from one counterfeit Good to another by the Motion of their Passion and are disgusted at it when that Motion ceases so they run from one false System into another and ardently assert a false Opinion when Passion makes it probable which the Passion ebbing they afterwards forsake By their Passions they taste of every Good without finding any really so and by the same Passions see all Truths without discovering any thing absolutely true though in the time of their Passion what they taste seems to them the Sovereign God and what they see an undeniable Truth The Senses are the second Spring whence we can draw Succours to make the Mind attentive Sensations are the very Modifications of the Soul and differ from the pure Ideas of the Mind the former raising a much stronger Attention than the latter So that 't is plain that
to supply the want of Application to insensible Truths it may be fit to express them in a sensible and moving manner 'T is for that Reason that Geometricians express by sensible Lines the Proportions that are betwixt several Magnitudes for by drawing Lines upon Paper they draw as I may say answerable Ideas upon their Mind and make them more familiar by Seeing them at the same time that they Conceive them Thus several very difficult Things may be taught to Children though they be not susceptible of abstracted Truths by reason of the Nicety of the Fibres of their Brain Their Eyes see nothing but Colours Pictures Images but their Mind considers the Ideas that answer those sensible Objects But we must take a special Care not to over-shadow the Objects which we will consider or represent to others with so much Sensibility that the Mind should be more taken up with it than with the Truth it self which is a most considerable and common Fault for we meet every day with Men that apply themselves only to what moves the Senses and express themselves in such a sensible manner that Truth is as stifled under a vain and pompous Apparel of their false Eloquence so that their Hearers being more affected with the Measure of their Periods and the Motions of their Figures than by the Reasons they alledge give way to be persuaded without so much as knowing what causes their Persuasion or what they are persuaded of And therefore we must so carefully moderate the Sensibility of our Expressions as only just to make the Mind attentive There is nothing more beautiful than Truth neither can we pretend to make it handsomer by daubing it with sensible Colours that have no Solidity in them and are pleasing but a short time We might perhaps make it more fine and delicate but should enerve and emasculate it So that we ought not to set it off with so much Lustre and Brightness that the Mind be more taken up with the Ornaments than with the Body it self this being to deal with it as some Persons do with themselves when loaded with such abundance of Gold and precious Stones they appear the least considerable part of the whole which they make up with their Clothes We must dress the Truth as are those Magistrates of Venice who are oblig'd to wear a plain Gown and a Cap to distinguish them from the Commonalty that Men may look on their Faces with Reverence and Attention without admiring their Apparel Lastly We must take care not to surcharge it with too great a Retinue of delightful Things that dissipate the Mind and obstruct its View lest we should give to any thing else the Honours due to it As it often happens to Princes who cannot be distinguish'd amongst the great Number of their Courtiers and Attendants who assume to themselves that Air of Greatness and Majestical Countenance which only becomes the Sovereigns themselves But to give a more considerable Instance I say that Truth must be proposed to others as it manifests it self The Sight of Men since the Fall of their Fore-fathers is too weak to look on Truth it self and therefore Sovereign Truth has made it self sensible by coming invested with our Humanity that it might attract our Thoughts enlighten our Mind and appear lovely to our Eyes So we may according to that Pattern adorn with something sensible the Truths we endeavour to understand our selves and to teach others that we may fix the Mind upon them which loves what is sensible and is not easily delighted by Things that flatter not the Senses The Eternal Wisdom has made it self sensible but not glittering and pompous becoming sensible not to fasten us to what is sensible but to raise us to what is intellectual and to condemn and sacrifice Sensibility in his own Person So we must make use in the Knowledge of Truth of something sensible but not too splendid that cannot indear too much the sensible Object but only keep open the Eye of our Mind in the Contemplation of mere intellectual Truths Such Sensibility should be employ'd as we may dissipate annihilate and willingly sacrifice upon the Sight of the Truth to which it has conducted us The Eternal Wisdom has offer'd it self to us from without in a sensible manner not to keep us abroad but that we may retire within our selves and that the Inner Man might intellectually consider it So we must in our Search of Truth make use of something sensible which may not keep us abroad gazing on its Lustre but make us enter into our selves and strengthen our Attention and Union to the Eternal Truth which only is able to rule the Mind and enlighten it upon any Subject whatsoever CHAP. IV. Of the Vse of Imagination to make the Mind attentive and especially of the Vsefulness of Geometry WE had need be very circumspect and cautious in the Choice and Use of those Helps that we may draw from our Senses and Passions to become attentive to the Truth because our Senses and Passions too vividly affect us and so much fill up the Capacity of the Mind that it often sees nothing but its own Sensations when it proposes to discover Things in their own Nature But as to those Succours which our Imagination may afford us they make the Mind attentive without fruitlesly dividing its Capacity and wonderfully help us to a clear and distinct Perception of Objects so that they are for the most part very useful as will be made plain by some Instances We know that a Body is moved by two or several different Causes towards two or several different Places whereunto it is equally or unequally driven by these Forces that the Force of the Motion perpetually increases or decreases according to some known Proportion We are asked what way that Body goes in what place it shall be at such or such a Moment with what degree of Celerity it shall be endued when 't is come to such a place and other like Questions 2. But if the Force that moves it towards B be equal to that which moves it towards C then divide the Lines AB and AC into the parts 1 2 3 4. I II III IV equally distant from A If the Force that moves it towards B be double of that which moves it towards C take in the Line AB Parts that are double of those that you cut in AC If that Force be subduple take them subduple if it be thrice greater or lesser cut them likewise thrice greater or lesser and so proportionably The Divisions of those Lines will represent to the Imagination the different Degrees of those moving Forces and withal the Space that they shall cause the Body to run over First That Line AXYE expresses the true Degrees of the compound Motion For we sensibly perceive that if each of the Forces which produce it can promote the Body a Foot in a Minute its composed Motion will be of two Foot in a Minute if both
false Supposition of the Philosophers which we are here endeavouring to destroy that the surrounding Bodies are the true Causes of our Pain and Pleasure Reason seems to justifie a Religion like the Pagan Idolatry and approve the universal Depravation of Morals Reason I grant teaches not to adore Onions and Leeks for instance as the Sovereign Divinity because they can never make us altogether happy when we have them or unhappy when we want them neither did the Heathens worship them with an equal Homage as their great Jupiter whom they fansied to be the God of Gods or as the Sun whom our Senses represent as the universal Cause that gives Life and Motion to all things and which we can hardly forbear to look on as the Sovereign Divinity if we suppose as the Pagan Philosophers that he Comprehends in his Being the true Causes of what he seems to produce as well upon our Soul and Body as upon all the Beings that surround us But if we must not pay a Sovereign Worship to Leeks and Onions they deserve at least some particular Adoration I mean they may be thought upon and loved in some manner if it be true that they can in some sort make us happy and may be honour'd proportionably to the good they doe us Surely Men that listen to the Reports of Sense think Pulse capable of doing them good otherwise the Israelites would not have bewailed the loss of them in the Wilderness or look'd on themselves as unhappy for being deprived thereof had they not fansied to themselves some great Happiness in the Enjoyment of them See what an Abyss of Corruption Reason plunges us into when it goes hand in hand with the Principles of Pagan Philosophy and follows the footsteps of the Senses But that the Falshood of that wretched Phylosophy and the Certainty of our Principles and Distinctness of our Ideas may not be longer doubted it will be necessary plainly to establish the Truths that contradict the Errours of the Ancient Philosophers or to prove in few words that there is but one true Cause since there is but one true God that the Nature and Force of every thing is nothing but the Will of God that all Natural things are not real but only occasional Causes and some other Truths depending on them It is evident that all Bodies great and little have no force to move themselves a Mountain a House a Stone a Grain of Sand the minutest and bulkiest Bodies imaginable are alike as to that We have but two sorts of Ideas viz. of Spirits and Bodies and as we ought not to speak what we conceive not so we must only argue from those two Ideas Since therefore our Idea of Bodies convinces us that they cannot move themselves we must conclude that they are moved by Spirits But considering our Idea of finite Spirits we see no necessary Connexion betwixt their Will and the Motion of any Body whatsoever on the contrary we perceive that there is not nor can be any Whence we must infer if we will follow Light and Reason That as no Body can move it self so no Created Spirit can be the true and principal Cause of its Motion But when we think on the Idea of God or of a Being infinitely perfect and consequently Almighty we are aware that there is such a Connexion betwixt his Will and the Motion of all Bodies that it is impossible to conceive he should will that a Body be moved and it should not be moved And therefore if we would speak according to our Conceptions and not according to our Sensations we must say that nothing but his Will can move Bodies The moving force of Bodies is not then in themselves this force being nothing but the Will of God Bodies then have no proper Action and when a moving Ball meets with another and moves it the former communicates nothing of its own to the latter as not having in it self the Impression it communicates though the former be the Natural Cause of the latter's Motion and therefore a natural Cause is not a true and real Cause but only an occasional which in such or such a Case determines the Author of Nature to act in such or such a manner 'T is certain that all things are produced by the Motion of visible or invisible Bodies for Experience teaches us that those Bodies whose parts are in greater Motion are always the most active and those that Cause the greatest Alterations in the World so that all the Forces of Nature are but the Will of God who Created the World because he will'd it who spake and it was done who moves all things and produces all the Effects we see because he has established some Laws by which Bodies Communicate their Motion to each other when they meet together and because those Laws are efficacious they and not the Bodies act There is then no Force Power nor true Cause in all the Material and sensible World Nor need we admit any Forms Faculties or real Qualities to produce Effects which the Bodies bring not forth or to divide with God his own Essential Force and Power As Bodies cannot be the true Causes of any thing so likewise the most Noble Spirits are subject to the same impotency on that respect They cannot know any thing unless God enlightens them nor have the Sensation of any thing unless he modifies them nor will unless he moves them towards himself They may indeed determine the Impression God has given them to himself towards other Objects but I doubt whether it can be call'd a Power For if to be able to sin is a Power it is such a one as the Almighty wants saith St. Austin somewhere If Men had of themselves the Power of loving Good it might be said that they have some Power but they cannot so much as love but because God Wills it and that his Will is Efficacious They love because God continually drives them towards Good in general that is towards himself for whom alone they are Created and preserved God moves them and not themselves towards Good in general and they only follow that Impression by a free Choice according to the Law of God or determine it towards false and seeming Goods according to the Law of the Flesh But they cannot determine it but by the sight of Good For being able to doe nothing without an Impression from above they are incapable of loving any thing but Good But though it should be supposed which is true in one sense that Spirits have in themselves the Power of knowing Truths and loving Good should their Thoughts and Will produce nothing outwardly it might still be said that they were impotent and unoperative Now it seems undeniable that the Will of Spirits is not able to move the smallest Body in the World it being evident there is no necessary Connexion betwixt the Will we may have of moving our Arm for instance and the Motion of the same Arm. It moves
indeed whenever we will it and we may be call'd in that sense the natural cause of the Motion of our Arm yet natural Causes are not true but only occasional as acting by the mere force and efficacy of the Will of God as we have already explain'd For how is it possible for us to move our Arm To perform this 't is requir'd we should have Animal Spirits and send them through certain Nerves towards certain Muscles to swell up and contract them for so that Motion is perform'd as some pretend though others deny it and assert that the Mystery is not yet discover'd However it be most Men know not so much as that they have Spirits Nerves and Muscles and yet move their Arms with as much and more dexterity than the most skilful Anatomists Men therefore will the moving their Arm but 't is God that is able and knows how to doe it If a Man cannot overthrow a Tower yet he knows what must be done to effect it but not one amongst them knows what the Animal Spirits must doe to move one of his Fingers How should they then move the whole Arm of themselves These things appear very evident to me and I suppose to all thinking Persons though they may be incomprehensible to others such as are only used to the confused voice of the Senses But Men are so far from being the true Causes of the Motions produc'd in their Body that it seems to imply a Contradiction they should be so For a true Cause is that betwixt which and its Effect the Mind percieves a necessary connexion for so I understand it But there is none besides the infinitely perfect Being betwixt whose Will and the Effects the Mind can perceive a necessary Connexion and therefore none but God is the true Cause or has a real Power of moving Bodies Nay it seems unconceivable that God should communicate this Power either to Angels or Men And those that pretend that the Power we have of moving our Arm is a true Power must by Consequence grant that God can give Spirits the Power of creating annihilating and doing all possible things in short that he can make them Almighty as I am going to pove God needs not Instruments to act 't is enough he should Will the Existence of a thing in order to its Existing because it is contradictory that he should will a thing and his Will should not be fulfilled And therefore his Power is his Will and to communicate his Power is to communicate his Will so that to communicate his Will to a Man or an Angel can signifie nothing else but to will that whenever that Man or Angel shall desire that such or such a Body be moved it may actually be moved In which Case I see two Wills concurring together that of God and that of the Angel and to know which of them is the true Cause of the Motion of that Body I enquire which is the Efficacious I see a necessary Connexion betwixt the Will of God and the thing willed in this Case God wills that whenever the Angel shall desire that such a Body be moved it be really so There is then a necessary Connexion betwixt the Will of God and the Motion of that Body and consequently God is the true Cause of that Motion and the Will of the Angel is only occasional Again to make it more evidently manifest let us suppose God wills it should happen quite contrary to the Desire of some Spirits as may be thought of the Devils or some other wicked Spirits in Punishment of their Sins In that Case it cannot be said God communicates his Power to them since nothing happens of what they wish However the Will of those Spirits shall be the natural Cause of the produced Effects as such a Body shall be removed to the Right because they wish it were moved to the Left and the Desires of those Spirits shall determine the Will of God to act as the Will of moving the Parts of our Body determine the first Cause to move them and therefore the Desires of all finite Spirits are but occasional Causes If after all these Reasons it be still asserted that the Will of an Angel moving a Body is a true and not a bare occasional Cause 't is evident that the self-same Angel might be the true Cause of the Creation and Annihilation of all things since God might as well communicate to him his Power of Creating and annihilating Bodies as that of moving them if He should will that they should be created and annihilated in a word if he will'd that all things should be performed according to the Angel's Desires as he wills that Bodies be moved as the Angel pleases if therefore it may be said that an Angel or Man are true Movers because God moves Bodies as they desire that Man or Angel might likewise be call'd true Creatours since God might create Beings on occasion of their Will Nay perhaps it might be said that the vilest of Animals or even mere Matter is the real Cause of the Creation of some Substance if it be supposed with some Philosophers that God produces substantial Forms whenever the Disposition of Matter requires it And lastly since God has resolved from all Eternity to create some certain things at some certain times those Times might also be called the Causes of the Creation of such Beings with as much right as 't is pretended that a Ball meeting with another is the true Cause of the Motion that is communicated to it because God by his general Will that constitutes the Order of Nature has decreed that such or such Communication of Motions should follow upon the Concourse of two Bodies There is then but one true Cause as there is one true God Neither must we imagine that what precedes an Effect does really produce it God himself cannot communicate his Power to Creatures according to the Light of Reason He cannot make them true Causes and change them into Gods But though he might doe it we conceive not why he should will it Bodies Spirits pure Intelligences all can doe nothing 'T is he who has made Spirits that enlightens and moves them 't is he who has created Heaven and Earth that regulates all their Motions In fine 't is the Authour of our Being that performs our Desires Semel jussit semper paret He moves even our Arms when we use them against his Orders for he complains by his Prophets That we make him subservient to our unjust and criminal Desires All those little Divinities of the Heathens all those particular Causes of Philosophers are Chimeras which the wicked Spirit endeavours to set up that he may destroy the Worship of the true God The Philosophy we have received from Adam teaches us no such things but that which has been propagated by the Serpent for ever since the Fall the Mind of Man is turned Heathen That Philosophy join'd to the Errours of the Senses has made
as their Motion will allow It must not seem strange that I now say that Metals have less force to continue their direct Motion than Earth Water and other less solid Bodies though I have formerly said that the most solid Bodies have more strengh than others to continue their direct Motion For the Reason why Metals are not so apt to continue to move as Earth and Stones is that Metals have less Motion in themselves it being true however that of two Bodies unequal in solidity but moved with an equal swiftness that the most solid will have more force to pursue its Motion in a right Line because the most solid has then the greater Motion and that Motion is the Cause of strength But if we would understand the Reason why Bodies gross and solid are heavy towards the Center of Vortexes but light at a considerable distance from it we must know that these Bodies receive their Motion from the subtle matter that invirons them and in which they swim Now that subtle matter actually moving in a Circular Line and only tending to move in a right Line it only Communicates that Circular Motion to the gross Bodies it carries along with it and as to its tendency to remove from the Centre in a Right Line it only communicates that to them as far as it is a necessary sequel of the Circular communicated Motion For it must be observed that the Parts of the subtle matter tending to different sides can only compress the gross Body they convey since that Body cannot go several different ways at the same time But because the subtle Matter that lies about the Centre of the Vortex has a far greater Motion than that which it spends in circulating and because it communicates only its Motion Circular and common to all its Parts to the gross Bodies which it carries and that if these Bodies should chance to have more Motion than what is common to the Vortex they would soon lose that overplus by communicating it to the little Bodies they meet with thence 't is evident that gross Bodies towards the Centre of the Vortex have not so much Motion as the Matter in which they swim each part of which has its own particular and various Motion besides the Cicular and common Now if gross Bodies have less Motion they have less Tendency to move in a right Line and if they have less Tendency they are forc'd to yield to those that have more and consequently to approach the Centre of the Vortex that is in short they must be heavyer as they are more gross and solid But when solid Bodies are very remote from the Centre of the Vortex as the Circular Motion of the subtle Matter is then very great because it spends very near its whole Motion in wheeling about Bodies have then so much more Motion as they have more Solidity because they go as swift as the subtle Matter in which they swim and so they have more force to continue their direct Motion Wherefore gross Bodies at a certaine distance from the Centre of the Vortex are so much lighter as they are more solid This makes it apparent that the Earth is metallick towards the Centre and not so solid about the Circumference that Water and Air must remain in the Situation wherein we see them but that all those Bodies are ponderous the Air as well as Gold and Quick-silver because they are more solid and gross than the first and second Element This shews likewise that the Moon is at too great a distance from the Centre of the Vortex of the Earth to be heavy though it be solid that Mercury Venus the Earth Mars Jupiter and Saturn cannot fall into the Sun and that they are not solid enough to travel out of this Vortex as the Comets do that they are in Aequilibrio with the Matter in which they swim and that if a Musket Ball or a Cannon Bullet could be shot high enough those two Bodies would become little Planets or perhaps Comets that would not stay in any Vortex as being endued with a competent Solidity I pretend not to have sufficiently explain'd all the things I have mention'd or to have deduced from the simple Principles of Extension Figure and Motion all the possible Inferences I only intended to shew the Method Des Cartes has used in the discovery of Natural things that this Method and his Ideas may be compared with those of other Philosophers I design'd here no more and yet I may venture to assert that if one would supersede admiring the Virtue of the Loadstone the regular Motion of the ebbing and flowing of the Sea the noise of Thunder the Generation of Meteors in short if any desire to get a well-grounded Knowledge of Natural Philosophy as he can doe nothing better than to read and mediâate his Books so he can doe nothing at all unless he follows his Method I mean unless he Reason as he did upon clear Ideas still beginning with the most simple and familiar Neither do I pretend that this Author is Infallible for I think I can demonstrate that he has been mistaken in several places of his works But 't is more advantageous for his Readers to believe that he hath been deceived than if they were persuaded that whatever he said was true A Man that should take him to be infalible would read him without Examination believe him without understanding what he says learn his Opinions as we learn History and would never form and perfect his Mind He himself advertises his Readers to observe whether he be deceived and to believe nothing of what he says but what the Evidence compells them to For he is not like those false pretenders to Science who endeavouring to Lord it over the Minds will be believed upon their own word and who instead of making Men the Disciples of the inward Truth by proposing only clear and distinct Ideas labour what they can to submit them to the Authority of Heathens and press upon Men incomprehensible Opinions by unintelligible Reasons The chief thing that is found fault with in Des Cartes's System is the manner in which he feigns that the Sun Stars Earth and all the Bodies that surround us have been produced forasmuch as it seems contrary to what Holy Writ teaches us of the Creation of the World since according to him one would say that the whole Universe has been formed of its own accord so as we see it now a-days to which several Answers may be made First As to the pretended Contrarieties betwixt Moses and Des Cartes those that assert it have not perhaps examin'd them both with as much Attention as those who have shewn by publick Writings that the sacred History of the Creation perfectly agrees with the opinion of that Philosopher But the chief Answer is that Des Cartes never pretended that things should ever have been made by degrees and as he describes them For at the first Article of the
which is not like to that we see for Fire is often but in potentia in the Bodies that are made of it What signifie all these Peripatetick Discourses That there is Fire in all Bodies either actual or potential that is to say that all Bodies are compos'd of something we see not and the Nature of which is wholly unknown unto us Now we have made a very fair Progress But though Aristotle shews us not the Nature of Fire and other Elements of which all Bodies are made up yet one may imagine that he will at least discover their principal Qualities and Properties Let us also examine what he says upon that Account He declares that there are four principal Qualities which belong to the Sense of Touching viz. Heat Cold Humidity and Siccity of which all the other are compos'd He distributes those primitive Qualities into the four Elements ascribing Heat and Dryness to Fire Heat and Moisture to the Air Cold and Moisture to Water and Cold and Dryness to Earth He asserts that Heat and Cold are active Qualities but that Dryness and Moisture are passive He defines Heat What congregates Things of the same kind Cold What congregates Things either of the same or of different Species Moisture What cannot easily be contain'd in its own Limits but is easily kept within foreign Bounds and Dryness What is easily contain'd within its own Limits but will hardly be adapted to the Bounds of surrounding Bodies Thus according to Aristotle Fire is a hot and dry Element and therefore congregates Homogeneous Things is easily contain'd within its own Limits and hardly within others Air is a hot and moist Element and therefore congregates Homogeneous Things can hardly be kept within its own Limits but easily within others Water is a cold and moist Element and therefore congregates both Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Things is hardly contain'd within its own Limits but easily within others And lastly Earth is a cold and dry Element or such an one as aggregates Things both of the same and different Natures is easily contain'd within its own Limits but can hardly be adapted to others There you have the Elements explain'd according to the Opinion of Aristotle or the Definitions he has given of their principal Qualities and because if we may believe him the Elements are simple Bodies out of which others are constituted and their Qualities are simple Qualities of which all others are compos'd the Knowledge of those Elements and Qualities must be very clear and distinct since the whole Natural Philosophy or the Knowledge of all sensible Bodies which are made of them must be deduc'd from thence Let us then see what may be wanting to those Principles First Aristotle fixes no distinct Idea to the Word Quality It cannot be known whether by Quality he understands a real Being distinguish'd from Matter or only a Modification of Matter he seems one while to take it in the former and at another time in the latter Sense I grant that in the 8th Chapter of his Categories he defines Quality that by which Things are denominated so or so but that is not plain and satisfactory Secondly His Definitions of the four Primitive Qualities viz. Heat Cold Moisture and Dryness are either false or useless We will begin with his Definition of Heat Heat says he is that which congregates Homogeneous Things First Though that Definition should be true That Heat always congregates Homogeneous Bodies yet we cannot see how it perfectly explains the Nature of Heat Secondly 'T is false that Heat congregates Homogeneous Things for Heat dissipates the Particles of Water into Vapour instead of heaping them together It congregates not likewise the Parts of Wine or any Liquor or Fluid Body whatsoever even to Quick-silver On the contrary it resolves and separates both Solid and Fluid Bodies whether of the same or different Natures and if there be any the Parts of which Fire cannot dissipate it is not because they are homogeneous but because they are too gross and solid to be carry'd away by the Motion of the fiery Particles Thirdly Heat in reality can neither congregate nor segregate the Parts of any Body whatsoever for that the Parts of Bodies may be congregated separated or dissipated they must be moved But Heat can move nothing or at least it appears not that it can move Bodies for though we consider Heat with all the possible Attention we cannot discover that it may communicate to Bodies a Motion which it has not it self We see indeed that Fire moves and separates the Parts of such Bodies as lie expos'd to its Action but it is not perhaps by its Heat it being not evident whether it has any it is rather by the Action of its Parts which we visibly perceive to be in a continual Motion for these fiery Particles striking against a Body must needs impart to it somewhat of their Motion whether there is or is not any Heat in Fire If the Parts of that Body be not very solid Fire will dissipate them but if they be very gross and solid Fire can but just move them and make them slide one over the other And Lastly If there be a Mixture of subtile and gross Parts Fire will only dissipate those which it can push so far as to separate them from the others So that Fire can only separate and if it congregate 't is only by Accident But Aristotle asserts quite contrary Separating says he which some ascribe to Fire is but congregating Homogeneous Things for 't is only by Accident that Fire carries off Things of different Nature If this Philosopher had at first distinguished the Sensation of Heat from the Motion of the small Particles of which the Bodies called hot are composed and had afterwards defined Heat taken from the Motion of Parts by saying that Heat is what agitates and separates the invisible Parts or which visible Bodies are made up he would have given a tolerable definition of Heat though not full and satisfactory because it would not accurately discover the Nature of Motion in hot Bodies Aristotle defines Cold what congregates Bodies of the same or different Nature but that Definition is worth nothing for Cold congregates not Bodies To congregate them it must move them but if we consult our Reason we shall find that Cold can move nothing for we understand by that word either what we feel when we are cold or what causes our Sensation As to our Sensation 't is plain that it is merely Passive and can neither move nor drive any thing And as to the Cause of that Sensation reason tells us if we examine things that it is merely rest or a Cessation of Motion So that Cold in Bodies being no more than the Cessation of that sort of Motion which attends Heat 't is evident that if Heat separate Cold does not And therefore Cold coacervates neither things of the same nor of different nature since what cannot drive on Bodies cannot amass
if they were just and good And none perhaps could forbear laughing if instead of the Definitions which Aristotle gives of Hunger and Thirst when he says that Hunger is the desire of what is hot and dry and Thirst the desire of what is cold and moist we should substitute the Definitions of those words calling Hunger the desire of that which coacervates things of the same nature and is easily contained within its own Limits and difficultly within others and defining Thirst the desire of that which congregates things of the same and different natures and which can hardly be contained within its own bounds but is easily kept within others Surely 't is a very useful Rule to know whether Terms have been well defined and to avoid mistakes in reasoning often to put the Definition instead of the thing defined for that shews whether the words are equivocal and the Measures of the Relations false and imperfect or whether we argue consequently If it be so what Judgment can be made of Aristotle's Arguments which become an impertinent and ridiculous Nonsence when we make use of that Rule and what may also be said of all those who argue upon the false and confused Ideas of the Senses since that Rule which preserves Light and Evidence in all exact and solid Reasonings brings nothing but confusion in their Discourses 'T is not possible to lay open the foolish Capriciousness and Extravagance of Aristotle's Explications upon all sorts of matters When he treats of simple and easie Subjects his Errours are plain and obvious to be discover'd but when he pretends to explain very composed things and depending on several Causes his Errours are as much compounded as the Subjects he speaks of so that it is impossible to unfold them all and set them before others That great Genius who is said to have so well succeeded in his Rules for defining well knows not so much as which are the things that may be defined because he puts no Distinction betwixt a clear and distinct and a sensible Knowledge and pretends to know and explain other things of which he has not so much as a distinct Idea Definitions ought to explicate the Nature of things and the words of which they consist must raise in the Mind distinct and particular Notions But 't is impossible to define in that manner sensible Qualities as Heat Cold Colour Savour c. When you confound the Cause with the Effect the Motion of Bodies with the Sensation that attends it because Sensations being Modifications of the Soul which are not to be known by clear Ideas but only by internal Sensation as I have explain'd it in the third Book it is impossible to fix to those words Ideas which we have not As we have Distinct Ideas of a Circle a Square a Triangle and therefore know distinctly their Nature so we can give good Difinitions of them and even deduce from our Ideas of those Figures all their Properties and explain them to others by such words as are fixed to those Ideas But we cannot define either Heat or Cold in as much as they are sensible Qualities because we know them not distinctly and by Ideas but only by Conscience and inward Sensation Neither must we define the Heat that is without us by any of its Effects For if we substitute such a Definition in its place we shall find that it will only conduce to lead us into Errour For Instance if Heat be defined what congregates homogeneous things without adding any thing else we may by that Definition mistake for Heat such things as have no Relation to it For then it might be said that the Loadstone collects the Filings of Iron and separates them from those of Silver because 't is hot that a Dove eats Hempseed when it leaves other Grain because that Bird is hot that a covetous Man separates his Guineas from his Silver because he is hot In short there is no impertinency but that Definition would induce one into it were he dull enough to follow it And therefore that Definition explains not the nature of Heat nor can it be imploy'd to deduce all its properties from it since by literally insisting upon it we should draw ridiculous Conclusions and by putting it instead of the thing defined fall into Nonsense However if we carefully distinguish Heat from its Cause though it cannot be defined in as much as it is a Modification of the Soul whereof we have no Idea yet its Cause may be defined since we have a distinct Idea of Motion But we must observe that Heat taken for such a Motion causes not always in us the Sense of Heat For Instance Water is hot since its Parts are fluid and in Motion and most probably it feels warm to Fishes at least 't is warmer than Ice whose Parts are more quiet but 't is cold to us because it has less Motion than the Parts of our Body what has less Motion than another being in some manner quiet in respect of that And therefore 't is not with reference to the Motion of the Fibres of our Body that the Cause of Heat or the Motion that excites it ought to be defined We must if possible define that Motion absolutely and in it self for then our Definition will be subservient to know the Nature and Properties of Heat I hold not my self oblig'd to examine farther the Philosophy of Aristotle and to extricate his so much confus'd and puzling Errours I have shewn methinks that he proves not the Existence of his four Elements and defines them wrong that his Elementary Qualities are not such as he pretends that he knows not their Nature and that all the Second Qualities are not made of them and lastly that though we should grant him that all Bodies are compos'd of the four Elements and the Second Qualities of the First his whole System would still prove useless for the finding out of Truth since his Ideas are not clear enough to preserve Evidence in all our Reasonings If any doubt whether I have propos'd the true Opinions of Aristotle he may satisfie himself by consulting his Books of the Heavens and of Generation and Corruption whence I have exextracted almost all that I have said of him I would relate nothing out of his Eight Books of Physicks because some learned Men pretend they are but a mere Logick which is very apparent since nothing but rambling and undetermin'd Words are to be found in them As Aristotle often contradicts himself and that almost all sorts of Opinions may be defended by some Passages drawn out of him I doubt not but some Opinions contrary to those I have ascrib'd to that Philosopher may be prov'd out of himself And I shall not warrant for him but it is sufficient for me that I have the Books I have quoted to justifie what I have said of him and I care little whether those Books are Aristotle's or not taking them for such as I find them upon the
deduce them from their natural Principles that they may know evidently by Reason what Faith has already taught them with an absolute Certainty Thus they will convince themselves that the Gospel is the most solid Book in the World that Christ perfectly knew the Disorders and Distempers of Nature that he has rectified and cured them in a manner the most useful to us and most worthy of himself that can be conceived But that the Light of Philosophers is nothing but a dark Night and their most splendid Vertues an intolerable Pride In short that Aristotle Seneca and all the rest are but Men to say nothing worse CHAP. VII Of the Vse of the First Rule concerning particular Questions WE have sufficiently insisted upon the general Rule of Method more especially regarding the Subject of our Studies and shewn that Des Cartes has exactly followed it in his System of the World whereas Aristotle and his Disciples have not observed it We proceed now to the particular Rules that are necessary to resolve all sorts of Questions The Questions that may be formed upon all sorts of Subjects are of so many Kinds as that it is not easie to enumerate them However I shall set down the principal Sometimes we search after the unknown Causes of some Effects that are known and sometimes after unknown Effects by known Causes Fire burns and dissipates Wood we enquire after the Cause of it Fire consists in a violent Motion of the fiery Particles we desire to know what Effects that Motion is able to produce whether it may harden Clay melt Iron c. Sometimes we seek the Nature of a thing by its Properties and sometimes its Properties by its Nature that is known to us We know or suppose that Light is transmitted in a moment and however that it is reflected and collected by a concave Mirrour so as to consume and melt the most solid Bodies and we design to make use of those Properties to discover its Nature On the contrary we know that all the space that reaches from the Earth to the Heavens is full of little Spherical and most movable Bodies which continually endeavour their removal from the Sun We desire to discover whether the endeavour of those small Bodies may be transmitted in an instant whether being reflected by a concave Glass they must unite themselves and dissipate or melt the solidest Bodies Sometimes we enquire after all the Parts of the Whole and sometimes after the Whole by its Parts We search after all the unknown Parts of a Whole that is known when we seek all the Aliquot Parts of a Number all the Roots of an Equation all the Right Angles of a Figure c. And we enquire after an unknown Whole all the Parts of which are known when we seek the Summ of several Numbers the Area of many Figures the Dimensions of different Vessels Or we seek a Whole one Part of which is known and whose other Parts though unknown include some known Relation with that which is unknown as when we seek what is that Number one Part of which as 15 being known makes with the other part the half or the third of an unknown Number or when we seek an unknown Number equal to 15 and to the double of the Root of that unknown Number Lastly We often enquire whether some things are equal or like to others and how much they are unequal or different As when we desire to know whether Saturn is greater than Jupiter and how much the former surpasses the latter Whether the Air of Rome is hotter than that of London and how many degrees What is general in all Questions is that they are formed for the Knowledge of some Truths and because all Truths are Relations it may generally be said that in all Questions we search but after the Knowledge of some Relations either betwixt things or betwixt Ideas or betwixt things and their Ideas There are Relations of several sorts as betwixt the Nature of things betwixt their Magnitudes their Parts their Attributes their Qualities Effects Causes c. but they may all be reduced to two viz. to Relations of Magnitude and of Quality comprehending under the former all those in which things are consider'd as suceptible of more and less and all the others under the latter So that it may be said that all Questions tend to discover some Relation either of Magnitude or of Quality The first and chief Rule is That we must very distinctly know the state of the Question to be resolv'd and have such distinct Ideas of its Terms that we may compare them together and discover their unknown Relations We must then first very clearly perceive the unknown Relation enquired after for 't is plain that if we have no certain Mark to distinguish it when 't is sought for or when 't is found our labour will be fruitless Secondly We must as far as possible make the Ideas which answer to the Terms of the Question distinct by taking off their Equivocation and make them clear by considering them with all the possible Attention for if those Ideas are so confused and obscure as that we cannot make the necessary Comparisons to discover the Relations we look for we are not yet in a state of resolving the Question Thirdly We must consider with all possible Attention the Conditions expressed in the Question if any there be since without that we can but confusedly understand the state of that Question besides that the Conditions commonly trace out the way to resolve it So that when the state of a Question and its Conditions are rightly understood we not only know what we enquire after but also sometimes by what means it may be discovered I grant that Conditions are not express'd in all Questions but then those Questions are undeterminate and may resolved several ways as when 't is required to find out a Square Number a Triangle c. without specifying any other particulars Or it may be that the Querist knows not how to resolve or that he conceals them in order to puzzle the Resolver as when 't is required to find out Two mean Proportionals betwixt Two Lines without adding by the Intersection of the Circle and Parabola or of the Circle and Ellipsis c. And therefore 't is altogether necessary that the distinguishing Character of what is searched after be very distinct and not equivocal or that it be only proper to the thing enquired otherwise we could not be certain whether the Question proposed is resolved We must likewise carefully separate from the Question all the Conditons that make it intricate and without which it subsists entire because they fruitlessly divide the capacity of the Mind Besides that we have not a distinct perception of the state of the Question as long as the Conditions that attend it are useless Suppose for instance a Question were proposed in these Words to cause that a Man besprinkled with some Liquors and crowned with a
to another more exact by which we might accurately know how much London is larger than that open place contained in it There are therefore several sorts of Questions First There are some in which we seek a perfect Knowledge of all the exact Relations of two or several things betwixt each other Secondly There are some in which we search after the perfect Knowledge of some exact Relation betwixt two or several things Thirdly There are some in which we enquire after the perfect Knowledge of some Relation nearly approaching to the exact Relation that is betwixt two or more several things Fourthly There are some in which we are content to find a general and indefinite Relation 'T is evident First That to resolve the Questions of the First sort and perfectly to know all the exact Relations of Magnitude and Quality betwixt two or more things we must have distinct Ideas perfectly representing them and compare them together in all the possible manners We may for Instance resolve all the Questions that tend to discover the exact Relations betwixt 2 and 8 because both Numbers being accurately known may be compared together as much as is necessary to know the exact Relations of their Magnitude and Quality We may know that 8 is 4 times 2 and that 8 and 2 are even but not square Numbers 'T is plain Secondly That to resolve Questions of the second sort and accurately to know some Relation of Magnitude or Quality which is betwixt two or more things 't is necessary and sufficient distinctly to know those Faces by which they must be compared to discover the enquired Relation For Instance to resolve such Questions as tend to discover some exact Relations betwixt 4 and 16 as that 4 and 16 are even and square Numbers it 's sufficient exactly to know that 4 and 16 can be divided into equal parts without Fractions and that both are the product of a Number multiplied by it self and 't is to no purpose to examine what is their true Magnitude It being plain that to know the exact Relations of Quality betwixt things a distinct Idea of their Quality is sufficient without thinking on their Magnitude and that to know the exact Relations of Magnitude we need not search after the true Quality an accurate Knowledge of their Magnitude being all that is required Thirdly It clearly appears that to resolve the Questions of the third sort or to know some Relation very near approaching the exact Relation that is betwixt two or several things it is enough nearly to know the Faces by which they must be compared to discover the Relation required whether it be of Magnitude or Quality For Instance I may evidently know that the â 8 is greater than 2 because I may very near know the true Magnitude of the â 8 but I cannot discover how much the â 8 is greater than 2 because I cannot exactly find out the true Magnitude of the â 8. Lastly 'T is evident that to resolve the Questions of the fourth sort or to discover general and undefinite Relations it is enough to know things in a manner propotion'd to the need we stand in of comparing them together to find out the required Relation So that 't is not necessary to the Solution of all sorts of Questions to have very distinct Ideas of their Terms or perfectly to know the things expressed by those words But our knowledge must be the more exact as the Relations we search after are more accurate and numerous For as we have said in imperfect Questions imperfect Ideas of the things consider'd are sufficient to resolve them perfectly that is as far as they reach And many Questions may be resolved even without any distinct Idea of their Terms as when we are ask'd whether Fire is capable of melting Salt hardning Clay resolving Lead into Vapours and the like we understand perfectly those Questions and may very well solve them though we have no distinct Idea of Fire Salt Clay c. Because the Querists only desire to know whether we are ascertained by sensible Experiments that Fire produces those Effects And therefore may receive a satisfactory Answer by a knowledge drawn from the Senses CHAP. VIII An Application of the other Rules to particular Questions QUestion 's are of two sorts some are simple and others compound The former may be solved by the bare Attention of the Mind to the Ideas of the words in which they are expressed but the Solution of the latter must be perform'd by comparing them to a third or to many other Ideas We cannot find out the unknown Relations that are express'd in the Terms of a Question by immediately comparing the Ideas of those Terms since they can neither be joined nor compared We must then have one or several mean Ideas that we may make such Comparisons as are necessary to discover those Relations taking a special Care that those mean Ideas be the more clear and distinct as the Relations enquired after are more exact and numerous That Rule is but a Consequence of the first but of an equal importance with it For if exactly to know the Relation of the things compared it is necessary to have clear and distinct Ideas of them It plainly follows from the same Reason that we must have an accurate knowledge of the mean Ideas by which we intend to make our Comparisons since we must distinctly know the Relation of measure with each of the things measured to find out their Relations I shall give some Instances of it When we put a piece of Cork or other small and light Vessel in the Water with a Loadstone in it and offer to the North Pole of that Stone the same Pole of another Magnet which we keep in our Hands we presently perceive that the former Load-stone flies back as though it were driven by a violent Wind. 'T is requir'd to discover the Cause of that Effect 'T is plain that to render a Reason of the Motion of that Load-stone it is not sufficient to know the Relations it has to the other for we might perfectly know them all and yet not understand how two Bodies could repel each other without meeting We must therefore examine what are the Things which we distinctly conceive capable according to the Course of Nature of moving Bodies for 't is requir'd to find out the natural Cause of the Motion of a Load-stone which is certainly a Body And therefore we must not have recourse to any Quality Form or Being which by a clear Knowledge we cannot conceive capable of moving Bodies neither must we ascribe their Effect to an understanding Agent since we are not assur'd that Intelligences are the ordinary Causes of the natural Motions of Bodies and know not so much as whether they can produce Motion We plainly know that it is a natural Law that Bodies should move each other when they meet We must then endeavour to explain the Motion of the Load-stone by the Means of
some concurrent Body 'T is true that something besides a Body may move it but as long as we have no distinct Idea of that Thing we must not admit it as a proper Means to discover what is searched after nor to explain it to others for to contrive a Cause which none clearly conceives is not to give account of an Effect We must not then trouble our selves to enquire whether there is or is not any other natural Cause of the Motion of Bodies besides the mutual Impulse but rather suppose that there is none and attentively consider what Bodies may meet with and move that Load-stone We presently see that it is not mov'd by the Magnet we keep in our Hands since it touches it not but because 't is mov'd only when that Magnet is brought near it and that it moves not of it self we must infer that it is mov'd by some small Effluviums or little Bodies that proceed from that Magnet and are driven to the other Load-stone To discover those Corpuscles we must not open our Eyes nor nearly consider that Magnet for our Senses might impose upon our Reason and make us judge that nothing proceeds out of it because we perceive it not Perhaps we should not reflect that we see not the most impetuous Winds nor several other Bodies that produce very surprizing Effects We must then keep close to that clear and intelligible Means and carefully examine all the Effects of a Load-stone to discover how that Magnet may continually vent so many little Bodies without diminishing for the Experiments we shall make will discover that the small Particles that evaporate at one side immediately re-enter through another and will serve to explain all the Difficulties that may be objected against the Method of solving this Question But it must be observ'd that this Medium must not be forsaken though we should not be able to answer some Objections proceeding from our Ignorance in several things If we desire not to examine why Load-stones remove from each other when their Poles of the same Name are in Opposition to each other but rather why they approach and endeavour to unite together when the North Pole of one is opposite to the South Pole of the other the Question will be more difficult and one Medium alone will not be sufficient to resolve it for it is not enough exactly to know the Relations betwixt the Poles of those two Load-stones nor to have recourse to the Medium propos'd in the fore-going Question for that Means seems only fit to hinder the Effect whereof the Cause is sought for Neither must we propose any of those Things that are not clearly known to be the natural and ordinary Causes of Corporeal Motion nor evade the Difficulty of the Question by the rambling and uncertain Notion of an Occult Quality in Load-stones by which they attract each other for the Mind cannot conceive any such Attraction in Bodies The Impenetrability of Bodies plainly convinces us that Motion may be communicated by Impulsion and Experience evidently proves that it is communicated that way But there is no Reason nor Experiment that clearly demonstrates the Motion of Attraction for when the true and certain Cause of the Experiments which are alledg'd to prove that sort of Motion is found out it is visible that what appear'd to be done by Attraction is produc'd by Impulsion We must not therefore insist upon any other Communication of Motion but that effected by Impulsion since this Way is sure and undeniable whereas all the others imaginable have at least some Obscurity in them But though it might be demonstrated that mere Corporeal Things have some other Principles of Motion besides the Concourse of Bodies this might not however be reasonably rejected but must rather be insisted upon preferably to all others it being the most clear and most evident and appearing so undeniable that we may confidently assert that it has always been receiv'd by all Nations and Ages in the World Experience shews that a Load-stone freely swimming upon the Water draws towards that which we keep in our Hands when their different Poles are opposite to each other we must then conclude that the Load-stone upon the Water is driven to it But as the Magnet we hold cannot drive the other seeing this other approaches it and that the free Load-stone only moves at the Presence of the other Magnet 't is plain that to resolve this Question by the receiv'd Principle of the Communication of Motions we must have recourse to two Means at least If we know that the Parts of the Air are in perpetual Agitation as those of all fluid Bodies use to be we shall not doubt but they continually strike against the Load-stone c which they surround but because they strike it equally on all sides they impel it one way no more than another as long as there is an equal Quantity of Air on all sides It being so 't is easie to judge that the Magnet C hinders lest there should be as much Air towards a as towards b which cannot be done but by its diffusing some other Corpuscles betwixt C and c and therefore there exâale such Particles ouâ of both Load-stones which filling up that Space and carrying away the Air about a make the Load-stone c less press'd on that side than on the other and it must by consequence approach the Magnet C since all Bodies move towards the side on which there is the least Pressure or Resistance But if in the Load-stone c about the Pole a there were not many Pores fit to receive the small Particles streaming out of the Pole B of the Magnet C and too small to admit those of the Air 't is plain that those small Particles being more agitated than the Air since they are to chase it from betwixt the Load-stones they would drive the Load-stone c and remove it from the Magnet C Therefore since the Load-stone c approaches to or removes from the Magnet C according as they are oppos'd by different or the same Poles we must needs infer that the Poles a and b of the Load-stone c are full of different Pores otherwise the small Particles issuing out of the Magnet C could not have a free Passage without impelling the Load-stone c at the side a nor would they repel it at the side b. What I say of one of these Load-stones must be understood of the other 'T is plain that we always learn something by that Method of Arguing from clear Ideas and undeniable Principles For we have discover'd that the Air which environs the Load-stone c was driven from thence by Corpuscles perpetually flowing out of the Pores of both Load-stones which Corpuscles find a free Passage at one side but are shut out at the other If we desir'd nearly to discover the Bigness and Figure of the Pores of the Load-stone through which those Particles pass we ought to make other Experiments but that would lead us to Subjects which we
intend not to treaâ of The Curious may consult des Cartes's Principles of Philosophy I only observe as an Answer to an Objection which will presently be made against this Hypothesis that is Why those small Particles cannot re-enter through the Pores from whence they came That besides that the Pores of the Load-stones may be suppos'd to be wrought like the Channelling of a Screw which may pruduce the propos'd Effect it may be said likewise that the small Branches of which those Pores are made bend one way to obey and yield to the Motion of the entring Particles whereas they stand on end and shut them out another way So that we must not be surpriz'd at this Difference betwixt the Pores of the Load-stone for it may be explain'd in several manners and the only Difficulty consists in chusing the best If we had endeavour'd to resolve the fore-mention'd Question beginning with the Corpuscles that are suppos'd to stream out of the Magnet C we should have found the same and likewise discover'd that Air is compos'd of an infinite Number of Parts that are in a perpetual Motion without which it would be impossible that the Load-stone c could approach the Magnet C. I insist not on the Explication of this because there is no Difficulty in it Here follows a Question more compound and complicate than the fore-going for the Solution of which 't is necessary to make use of many Rules 'T is ask'd Which may be the Natural and Mechanical Cause of the Motion of our Members The Idea of Natural Cause is clear and distinct when understood as I have explain'd it in the former Question But the Words Motion of our Members are equivocal and confus'd because there are several such Motions some being Voluntary others Natural and others Convulsive There are also different Members in the Humane Body and therefore according to the first Rule I must ask Of which of these Motions the Cause is requir'd from me But if the Question be left undetermin'd and to my Discretion I examine it after this manner I attentively consider the Properties of those Motions and discovering at first that Voluntary Motions are sooner perform'd than Convulsive I infer that their Cause is different and therefore that I may and must examine the Question by Parts for it seems to require a long Discussion I restrain then my self to consider only Voluntary Motions and because several of our Members are employ'd about them I content my self for the present with the Consideration of the Arm. I observe that it is compos'd of several Muscles which are most or all in Action when we raise soâething from the Ground or remove it from one place to the other But I only insist upon one being willing to suppose that the others are very near fashion'd after the same manner I inform my self of its Texture and Shape by some Book of Anatomy or rather by the sensible Sight of its Fibres and Tendons which I cause to be dissected in my presence by some skilful Anatomist to whom I put all the Queries which in the sequel may exhibit to my Mind a Medium to find out what I seek for After such a serious Consideration I cannot doubt but the Principle of the Motion of my Arm depends on the Contraction of its Muscles which compose it I am likewise content lest I should puzzle my self with too many Difficulties to suppose according to the common Opinion that this Contraction is perform'd by the Animal Spirits which filling up the Ventricle of those Muscles may cause their Extremities to come nearer Now the whole Question concerning Voluntary Motion is reduc'd to this Point How the small Quantity of Animal Spirits which are contain'd in our Arm may at the Command of the Will so suddenly swell the Muscles as to afford a sufficient Strength to list up an Hundred Weight or more Upon an attentive Reflexion thereupon the first Means that offers it self to the Imagination is commonly that of a quick and violent Fermentation like to that of Gun-powder or of some Liquors fill'd with Volatile Salt when they are mix'd with others that are Acid or full of a fixed Salt A small quantity of Gun-powder is able when kindled to raise not only an Hundred Weight but even a Tower and a Mountain Earthquakes that overthrow Cities and shake whole Countries proceed from Spirits kindling under the Ground almost as Gun-powder So that supposing in the Arm such a Cause of the Fermentation and Dilatation of the Spirits it may be look'd upon as the Principle of that Force by which Men perform so sudden and violent Motions But as we ought to mistrust those Means that are offer'd to the Mind by the Senses and of which we have no clear and evident Knowledge so we must not easily admit this for it is not sufficient to give an Account of the Strength and Quickness of our Motions by a Comparison For this is both a confus'd and imperfect Account because we are here to explain a voluntary Motion and Fermentation is not so The Blood is exceedingly fermented in Fevers and we cannot hinder it The Spirits are inflam'd and agitated in the Brain but we cannot rule their Agitation nor lessen it by our Desire When a Man moves the Arm several Ways a Thousand Fermentations great and small swift and âlow ought to begin and what is harder to explain to end likewise in a Moment as often and as soon as it is desir'd if this Hypothesis were true Besides Those Fermentations ought not to dissipate all their Matter but need always be ready to take Fire When a Man has walk'd Twenty Miles how many Thousand times must the Muscles employ'd in walking have been fill'd and empty'd and what a vast quantity of Spirits would be requir'd if Fermentation should dissipate and deaden them so often And therefore this Supposition is insufficient to explain such Motions of our Body as entirely depend upon our Will 'T is plain that the present Question may be reduc'd to this Problem of Mechanicks To find âut by Pneumatick Engines a Means to overcome such a Force as an Hundred Weight by another Force though never so small as that of an Ounce Weight And that the Application of that small Force may produce the desir'd Effect at the Discretion of the Will The Solution of that Problem is easie and the Demonstration of it clear It may be solv'd by a Vessel which hath two Orifices one of which is a little more than 1600 times larger than the other in which the Pipes of two equal Bellows are inserted and let a Force precisely 1600 times stronger than the other be apply'd to the Bellows of the larger Mouth for then the Force 1600 times weaker shall overcome the stronger The Demonstration of which is clear in Mechanicks since the Forces are not exactly in a reciprocal Proportion with their Mouths and that the Relation of the weaker Force to the smaller Mouth is greater than
desire to know whether a Thing has such or such Properties or if we know it has we desire only to discover what is the Cause of them To solve the Questions of the first sort we must consider Things in their Birth and Original and conceive that they are always produc'd by the most simple and natural Ways But the Solution of the others requires a very different Method for they must be resolv'd by Suppositions and then we must examine whether those Suppositions induce into any Absurdity or whether they lead to any Truth plainly and clearly known For instance We desire to discover the Properties of the Roulet or some one of the Conick Sections We must consider those Lines in their Generation and form them by the most simple and least perplexing Ways for that is the best and shortest Means to discover their Nature and Properties We easily see that the Subâendent of the Roulet is equal to the Circle whence it is form'd And if we discover not many of its Properties that way 't is because the Circular Line that produces it is not sufficiently known But as to Lines merely Mathematical the Relations of which may be more clearly known such as are Conick Sections 't is sufficient for the discovering a vast Number of their Properties to consider them in their Generation Only we must observe that as they may be produc'd by a Regular Motion several Ways so all sorts of Generation are not equally proper to enlighten the Mind that the most simple are the best and that it often happens notwithstanding that some particular Methods are fitter than others to demonstrate some particular Properties But when it is not requir'd to discover in general the Properties of a Thing but to know whether such a Thing has such a Property then we must suppose that it actually enjoys it and carefully examine the Consequences of that Supposition whether it induces into a manifest Absurdity or leads to an undeniable Truth that may serve as a Means to find out what is sought for That is the Method which Geometricians use to solve their Problems They suppose what they seek and examine what will follow of it they attentively consider the Relations that result from the Supposition they represent all those Relations that contain the Conditions of the Problem by Equations and then reduce those Equations according to the usual Rules so that what is unknown is found equal to one or several Things perfectly known I say therefore that when 't is requir'd to discover in general the Nature of Fire and of the different Fermentations which are the most universal Causes of natural Effects the shortest and surest Way is to examine them in their Principle We must consider the Formation of the most agitated Bodies the Motion of which is diffus'd into those that ferment We must by clear Ideas and by the most simple Ways examine what Motion may produce in Matter And because Fire and the various Fermentations are very general Things and consequently depending upon few Causes there will be no need of considering very long what Matter is able to perform when animated by Motion to find out the Nature of Fermentation in its very Principle and we shall learn withall several other Things altogether requisite to the Knowledge of Physicks Whereas he that would in such a Question argue from Suppositions so as to ascend to the first Causes even to the Laws of Nature by which all things are form'd would make a great many of them that should prove false and unprofitable He might perhaps discover that the Cause of the Fermentation is the Motion of an invisible Matter communicated to the agitated Parts of Matter For 't is sufficiently known that Fire and the various Fermentations of Bodies consist in their Agitation and that by the Laws of Nature Bodies receive their immediate Motion only from their meeting with others that are more agitated So that he might discover that there is an invisible Matter the Motion of which is communicated to visible Bodies by Fermentation But 't is morally impossible that he should ever by his Suppositions find out how all that is perform'd which however is not so hard to do when we examine the Formation of Elements or of Bodies of which there is a greater Number of the same Nature as is to be seen in Monsieur des Cartes's System The Third Part of the Question concerning Convulsive Motions will not be very difficult to solve if we suppose that there are in our Bodies Animal Spirits susceptible of Fermentation and withall Humours so piercing as to insinuate themselves into the Pores of the Nerves through which the Spirits are diââus'd into the Muscles provided always that we pretend not to determine the true Texture and Disposition of those invisible Parts that contribute to these Convulsions When we have separated a Muscle from the rest of the Body and hold it by the two Ends we sensibly perceive that it endeavours to contract it self when prick'd in the Middle 'T is likely that this depends on the Construction of the imperceptible Parts of which it is made which are as so many Springs determin'd to some certain Motions by that of Compunction But who can be sure he has found out the true Disposition of the Parts employ'd in the Production of that Motion and who can give an uncontroverted Demonstration of it Certainly that appears altogether impossible though perhaps by long thinking we might imagine such a Construction of Muscles as would be fit to perform all the Motions we know them to be capable of we must not therefore pretend to determine the true Construction of the Muscles However because it cannot be reasonably doubted but that there are Spirits susceptible of some Fermentation by the Mixture of a very subtile heterogeneous Matter and that acriminious and pungent Humours may creep into the Nerves that Hypothesis may be suppos'd Now to proceed to the Solution of the Question propos'd We must first examine how many sorts of Convulsive Motions there are and because their Number is indefinite we must insist on the Principal the Causes of which seem to be different We must consider in what Parts they are made what Diseases precede and follow them whether they are attended with Pain or free from it and above all what are the Degrees of their Swiftness and Violence for some are very swift and violent others are very swift but not violent a third sort are violent and not swift and others again are free from both these Symptoms Some finish and begin afresh perpetually others keep the Parts rigid and unmoveable for some time and others deprive us of their Use and altogether deform them All this being well weigh'd it will be no hard matter to explain in general after what has been said concerning Natural and Voluntary Motions how the Convulsive are perform'd For if we conceive that some Matter capable of fermenting the Spirits mixes with those contain'd in
to grant that we ought not to consider a Vessel on the Water as at Rest. I grant likewise that all the parts of the environing Water are âubservient to the new Motion imprinted by the Waterman though it be but too visible by the decrease of the Boat 's Motion that they resist it more on the side where it makes than on the other whence it is driven Notwithstanding which supposition I say that of all the Parts of Water in the River according to M. Des Cartes there are none which can promote the Motion of the Vessel except those which immediately touch it on the side it is driven on For according to that Philosopher The Water being fluid all the parts that go to its Composition act not conjointly against the Body we would move but only those which touching it conjointly bear upon it But those which conjointly bear upon the Vessel and the Boat's-man together are twenty times more inconsiderable than the Boat 'T is plain therefore from the Explication given by M. Des Cartes in this Article concerning the difficulty we find to break a Nail between our Fingers that a little Body is capable of moving one much bigger than it self For in short our Hands are not so fluid as Water and when we would break a Nail there are more parts that act jointly in our hands than in the Water which pushes against a Vessel But here 's a more sensible Experiment Take a Plank well smooth'd or any other very hard Plain drive in it a Nail half way and set this Plain in a somewhat inclining posture then place a Bar of Iron an hundred times thicker than the Nail an Inch or two above it and letting it slide down it will not break it Mean time it is observable that according to Des Cartes all the parts of the Bar as being hard and solid act jointly upon the Nail If therefore there were no other Câment than Rest to unite the parts of the Nail the Bar of Iron being an hundred times bigger ought by the Fifth Rule of M. Des Cartes and according to Reason communicate somewhat of its Motion to the part of the Nail it fell upon that is to break it and pass on even though this Bar should slide with a very gentle Motion Therefore we must seek some other Cause than the Rest of Bodies that makes them hard and capable of resisting the violence that is offer'd to break them since Rest has no Force to withstand Motion And I am persuaded these Experiences are sufficient to evince that the abstracted Proofs we have given are not false We must then examine the third Thing we supposed before might be the cause of the strict Union found between the Parts of hard Bodies namely an invisible Matter which surrounds them and which being rapidly mov'd pushes most violently the external and internal Parts of these Bodies and constringes them in such a manner as requires greater strength to separate them than has that invisible and extremely agitated Matter Methinks I might reasonably conclude that the Union of the constituent Parts of hard Bodies depends on an invisible Matter which surrounds and compresses them since the two other things supposed possible Causes of this union have been discover'd not to be truly so For since I meet with Resistance in breaking a Piece of Iron which Resistance proceeds not from the Iron nor the Will of God as I think I have proved it must necessarily proceed from some invisible Matter which can be no other than that which immediately surrounds and compresses it Nevertheless I shall give some positive Proofs of this Opinion after I have more largely explain'd it by some Instance Take a Globe of any hard Metal which is hollow within and divided in two Halfs join them together with a little Bond of Wax at the place of their Union and then extract the Air these two half Globes will be so firmly join'd to one another that two Teams of Horses fastned to the Rings on the opposite sides of the Globe shall not separate them provided they be large in proportion to the Number of Horses when yet if the Air be suffer'd to enter one Man shall separate them with a great deal of Ease From this Experiment 't is easie to conclude that what united the two Hemispheres to one another was the Pressure of the surrounding Air upon their outward and convex Surface whilst there was no Compression in their concave and inward parts so that the Action of the Horses which drew the two Hemispheres on either side could not conquer the Resistance made by innumerable little Parts of Air by their pressing these two Halfs But the least Force is capable of dividing them when the Air entring in the Copper Globe drives against the Concave and inward Surfaces as much as the external Air presses against the outward and convex Take on the contrary the Bladder of a Carp and put it in a Vessel from which the Air is pump'd this Bladder being full of Air will crack and burst because then there is no exteriour Air to resist that within the Bladder 'T is likewise for the same Reason I have given of the first Experiment that two Glass or Marble Plains ground and polish'd upon one another so cling together that Violence must be us'd to separate them one way because the two parts of the Marble are press'd and constring'd by the external Air that surrounds them and are not so strongly press'd by that between I might produce infinite other Experiments to prove that the gross Air which surrounds Bodies strongly unites their Parts But what I have said is enough to give a distinct Explication of my Thoughts upon the present Question I say then that what causes the Parts of hard Bodies and the little Fetters before-mentioned to hang so closely united to each other is there being other little Bodies infinitely more agitated than the course Air we breath which bear against them and compress them and that which makes it so hard to separate them is not their Rest but the Agitation of these little surrounding Bodies So that that which resists Motion is not Rest this being but the Privation of it and has no Force at all but some contrary Motion This simple Exposition of my Opinion perhaps seems reasonable yet I foresee that many Persons will not easily be induc'd to yield to it Hard Bodies make so great Impression on the Senses when they strike us or when we use Violence to break them that we are inclin'd to believe their Parts more strictly united than they really are And on the contrary the little Bodies which I have said encompass them and to which I have ascribed the Force of causing this Union making no Impression on our Senses seem too weak to produce so sensible an Effect But to take away this Prejudice which bottoms on the Impressions of our Senses and on the Difficulty we find to imagine Bodies more little
and agitated than those we daily see 't is to be consider'd that the Hardness of Bodies is not to be measur'd with relation to our Hands or the Endeavours we are able to make which are different at different times For indeed if the greatest Force of Men be nothing in comparison with that of the subtle Matter we should be much to blame to believe that Diamonds and the hardest Stones cannot derive their Hardness from the Compression of those little rapid Bodies which environ them Now we may visibly discover how inconsiderably weak is Humane Force if it be consider'd that Man's Power of moving his Body in so many manners proceeds from a very moderate Fermentation of the Blood which somewhat agitates the smaller Parts of it and so produces the Animal Spirits For 't is the Agitation of these Spirits which makes the Strength of the Body and gives us the Power of making those Endeavours which we groundlesly regard as something great and mighty But it must be observ'd that this Fermentation of our Blood is but a small Communication of that subtle Matter 's Motion we have been speaking of For all the Fermentations of visible Bodies are nothing but Communications of Motion from the Invisible since every Body receives its Agitation from some other 'T is not therefore to be wonder'd if our Force be not so great as that of the same subtle Matter we receive it from But if our Blood fermented as much in our Heart as Gun-Powder ferments and is agitated when Fire is put to it that is if our Blood receiv'd as great a Communication of Motion from the subtle Matter as Gun-Powder receives we might do extraordinary things with a great deal of Ease as break a Bar of Iron overturn an House c. provided we suppose a competent proportion between our Members and our Blood so violently agitated We must therefore rid our selves of our Prejudice and not following the Impression of our Senses imagine that the Parts of hard Bodies are so strongly united to one another because of the Difficulty we find to break them But if moreover we consider the Effects of Fire in Mines the Gravity of Bodies and several other natural Effects which have no other Cause then the Commotion of these insensible Corpuscles as is prov'd by M. Des Cartes in many places of his Works we shall manifestly discover that it does not exceed their Force to unite and bind together the Parts of hard Bodies so powerfully as we find them For in short I fear not to affirm that a Cannon-Bullet whose Motion seems so extraordinary receives not the thousandth part of the Motion of the subtle Matter which surrounds it My Assertion will not be doubted of if it be consider'd First That the Gun-Powder is not all inflam'd nor at the same instant Secondly That though it were all on Fire in the self-same Moment yet it floats a very short time in the subtle Matter and Bodies swimming but a little while in others can receive no great Motion from them as may be seen in Boats when riding in a Stream which receive their Motion by degrees Thirdly and principally That each part of the Powder can receive but a collateral Motion which the subtle Matter yields to For Water only communicates to the Vessel the direct Motion which is common to all the parts of it which Motion is generally very inconsiderable in respect of the others I might still prove to M. Des Cartes's Followers the Greatness of the subtle Matter 's Motion by the Motion of the Earth and the Heaviness of Bodies from whence might be drawn very certain and exact Proofs if that were necessary to my Subject But in order to have one sufficient Proof of the violent Agitation of the subtle Matter to which I ascribe the Hardness of Bodies it suffices without seeing Des Cartes's Works to read attentively what I have written in the second Chapter of the fourth Book towards the End Being now deliver'd from our Prejudices which induc'd us to believe our Efforts very potent and those of the subtle Matter which surrounds and constringes hard Bodies very feeble being likewise satisfied of the vehement Commotion of this Matter by what has been said of Gun-Powder 't will be no hard Matter to discover that 't is absolutely necessary that this Matter acting infinitely more on the Surface than the Inside of the hard Bodies it encompasses and compresses should be the Cause of their Hardness or of the Resistance we feel when we endeavour to break them But since there are always many Parts of this invisible Matter passing through the Pores of hard Bodies they not only render them hard as I have before explain'd but are also the Causes that some are springing and elastical that others stand bent and others still are Fluid and liquid and in short are the Cause not only of the Force which the Parts of hard Bodies have to remain close by one another but of that likewise which the parts of fluid Bodies have to separate or which is the same thing are the Cause of the Hardness of some Bodies and the Fluidity of others But whereas 't is absolutely necessary to know distinctly the Physicks of M. Des Cartes the Figure of his Elements and of the parts which constitute particular Bodies to account for the stiffness of some and the flexibility of others I shall not insist upon explaining it Such as have read the Works of that Philosopher will easily imagine what may be the cause of these things whereas it would be a difficult task for me to explain it and those who are unaquainted with that Author would have a very confus'd Notion of the Reasons I might offer Nor shall I stand to resolve a vast number of Difficulties which I foresee will be urg'd against what I have been establishing because if those who propose them have no knowledge of true natural Philosophy I should but tire and confound them instead of satisfying them But if they were Men of Science I could not answer them without a long train of diagrams and reasoning Wherefore I think it best to intreat those who shall find any Difficulty in what I have said to give this Discourse a more careful perusal not doubting but if they read it and consider it as they ought all their Objections will fall to the Ground But after all if they think my Request inconvenient let them sit still there being no great danger in the Ignorance of the Cause of the Hardness of Bodies I speak not here of contiguity for 't is manifest that contiguous things touch so little that there 's always a good quantity of subtle Matter passing between them which endeavouring to continue its Motion in a right Line hinders them from uniting As to the union found between two Marbles that have been polish't one upon another I have already explain'd it and 't is easie to see that though the subtle Matter passes constantly between the
two parts as close as they are yet the Air cannot get in and therefore 't is that which compresses and constringes the two parts together and makes them so difficult to be disunited unless we glide them over one another For all this it is manifest that the Continuity Contiguity and Union of two Marbles would be one and the same thing in a vacuum for neither have we different Ideas of them so that it would be to talk without understanding our selves to make them differ absolutely and without any regard to the surrounding Bodies I now come to make some Reflexions upon M. Des Cartes's Opinion and the Original of his Errour I call his Opinion an Errour because I can find no sincere way of defending what he has said upon the Rules of Motion and the Cause of the Hardness of Bodies towards the end of the second Part of his Principles in several places and that he seems to have evidently prov'd the Truth of the contrary Opinion This great Man most distinctly conceiving that Matter could not naturally move it self but that the moving Force of all Bodies was nothing but the general Will of the Author of Nature and that therefore the Communications of their Motion upon their mutual Collision must come from the same Will yielded to be carry'd away with this Notion That the Rules of the different Communication of Motions must be fetch'd from the Proportion found between the different Magnitudes of Colliding Bodies it being impossible to penetrate into the Designs and Will of God And whereas he concluded that every thing had the Force to persevere in its present State whether it were in Motion or Rest because God whose Will constituted this Force acts always in the same manner he inferr'd that Rest had an equal Force with Motion Thus he measur'd the Effects of the Power of Rest by the Greatness of the Body it resided in as well as those of Motion And hence he gave the Rules of the Communication of Motion which are seen in his Principles and the Cause of the Hardness of Bodies which I have endeavour'd to refute 'T is a hard matter not to submit to the Opinion of Monsieur des Cartes when we contemplate it on the same side For once more since the Communication of Motions proceeds only from the Will of the Author of Nature and that we see all Bodies continue in the State they have once been put in whether it be Motion or Rest it seems that we ought to seek for the Rules of the different Communications of Motion upon the Concourse of Bodies not in the Will of God which is unknown to us but in the Proportion that is found between the Magnitudes of these same Bodies I do not therefore admire that Monsieur des Cartes should light upon this Notion but I only wonder he did not correct it when having push'd on his Discoveries he found out the Existence and some Effects of the subtile Matter which surrounds all Bodies I am surpriz'd to find him in the 132d Article of the Fourth Part attribute the Elastick Force of certain Bodies to the subtile Matter and yet not ascribe to it their Hardness and the Resistance they make to our Endeavours to bend and break them but only to the Rest of their Parts For I think it evident that the Cause of the Elasticity and Stiffness of some Bodies is the same with that which impowers them to resist the Violence that is us'd to break them For indeed the Force which is employ'd in breaking a piece of Steel has but an insensible Difference from that which is us'd to bend it I mean not to multiply Reasons here which one might give for the proving these things nor to answer some Difficulties possible to be urg'd about Bodies which are not sensibly springing and yet are difficultly bent For all these Difficulties vanish if we consider that the subtile Matter cannot easily make new Tracks in Bodies which break in bending as in Glass and temper'd Steel which it can easier do in such Bodies as are compos'd of branchy Parts and that are not brittle as in Gold and Lead And Lastly that there is no hard Body but has some kind of Elaterium 'T is a hard matter to persuade one's self that Monsieur des Cartes did positively believe the Cause of Hardness to be different from that which makes the Elasticity and what looks most likely is that he made not sufficient Reflexion on that matter When a Man has for a long time meditated on any Subject and is well satisfied about that of his present Enquiry he commonly thinks no farther on it he believes that the Conceptions he had of it are undeniable Truths and that it is needless to examine them any more But a Man has so many Things in him which disrelish his Application provoke him to precipitate Judgments and subject him to Errour that though his Mind remains apparently satisfied yet it is not always well instructed in the Truth Monsieur des Cartes was a Man like us No greater Solidity Accuracy Extent and Penetration of Thought is any where to be met with than in his Works I confess but yet he was not infallible Therefore 't is very probable he remain'd so settl'd in his Opinion from his not sufficiently reflecting that he asserted something in the Consequence of his Principles contrary to it He grounded it on very specious and probable Reasons but such notwithstanding as being not capable of themselves to force his Consent he might still have suspended his Judgment and consequently as a Philosopher he ought to have done it It was not enough to examine in a hard Body what was in it that might make it so but he ought likewise to have thought on the invisible Bodies which might give it Hardness as he did at the End of his Philosophical Principles when he ascrib'd to them the Cause of their Elasticity He ought to have made an exact Division and comprehensive of whatever might contribute to the Hardness of Bodies It was not enough to have sought the Causes of it in the Will of God he ought also to have thought on the subtile Matter which surrounds these Bodies For though the Existence of that violently agitated Matter was not yet proved in the place of his Principles where he speaks of Hardness it was not however rejected he ought therefore to have suspended his Judgment and have well remember'd that what he had written concerning the Cause of Hardness and of the Rules of Motion was fit to be revis'd which I believe was neglected by him or at least he has not sufficiently consider'd the true Reason of a thing very easie to be discover'd and which yet is of greatest Consequence in Natural Philosophy I thus explain my self Monsieur des Cartes well knew that to the Support of his System the Truth of which he could not reasonably suspect it was absolutely necessary that great Bodies should always communicate some
of their Motion to the lesser which they met with and that the latter should rebound at the Encounter of the former without the like Loss of their own For otherwise the first Element would not have all the Motion that is necessary above the second nor the second above the third and so all his System would be absolutely false as is manifest to those who have a little consider'd it But in supposing that Rest has Force to resist Motion and that a great Body in Rest cannot be mov'd by another less than it self though most violently striking against it 't is plain that great Bodies must have much less Motion than an equal Mass of little ones since they may always by that Supposition communicate their own Motion but cannot always receive any from the lesser Thus this Supposition being not contrary to all that Monsieur des Cartes had laid down in his Principles from the beginning to the Establishment of his Rules of Motion and according very well with the Consequence of these same Principles he thought the Rules of Motion which he believ'd he had demonstrated in their Cause were sufficiently confirm'd by their Effects I agree with Monsieur des Cartes in the Bottom of the Thing that great Bodies communicate their Motion much easier than the lesser and that therefore his first Element is more agitated than the second and the second than the third but the Cause is manifest without recourse to his Supposition Little and fluid Bodies as Water Air c. can but communicate to any great ones an uniform Motion which is common to all their Parts The Water of a River can only communicate to a Boat a descending Motion which is common to all the little Parts the Water is composed of each of which Particles besides its common Motion has infinite others which are particular Which Reason makes it evident that a Boat for instance cannot have so much Motion as an equal Volume of Water since the Boat can only receive from the Water a direct Motion and common to all the Parts of it If twenty Parts of a fluid Body drive against any other Body on one side whilst there are as many urging it on the other it remains immoveable and all the Particles of the surrounding Fluid it swims in rebound without losing any thing of their Motion Therefore gross Bodies whose Parts are united one to the other can receive only a circular and uniform Motion from the Vortex of the encompassing subtile Matter This Reason seems sufficient to give us to understand why gross Bodies are not so much agitated as little ones and that it is not necessary to the explaining these things to suppose any Force in Rest to resist Motion The Certainty of Monsieur des Cartes's Philosophical Principles cannot therefore be of Use in proving or defending his Rules of Motion And we have Reason to believe that if Monsieur des Cartes himself had without Prepossession examin'd his Principles afresh at the same time weighing such Reasons as I have alledg'd he would not have believ'd the Effects of Nature had corroborated his Rules nor have fallen into a Contradiction in attributing the Hardness of hard Bodies only to the Rest of their Parts and their Elasticity to the Effort of the subtile Matter I now come to give the Rules of the Communication of Motion in a Vacuum which follow upon what I have before establish'd concerning the Nature of Rest. Bodies being not hard in a Vacuum since they are only so by the pressure of the subtile Matter that surrounds them if two Bodies meet together they would flatten without rebounding We must therefore suppose them hard by their own Nature and not by the pressure of the subtile Matter to give these Rules Rest having no Force to resist Motion and many Bodies being to be consider'd but as one at the Instant of their Collision 't is plain they ought not to rebound save when they are equal in their Bulk and Swiftness or that their Swiftness compensates for the Want of Bulk or their Bulk the Want of Swiftness And 't is easie from hence to conclude that they ought in all other Cases so to communicate their Motion as afterwards to proceed along together with an equal Pace Wherefore to know what ought to happen in all the different Suppositions of the Magnitude and Celerity of Colliding Bodies we need only add together all the Degrees of Motion of two or more which ought to be consider'd but as one in the Moment of their Concourse and afterwards divide the Summ of the whole Motion proportionably to the Bulk of each respective Body Hence I conclude that of the seven Rules of Motion Monsieur des Cartes has given the three first are good That the Fourth is false and that B ought to communicate its Motion to C in proportion to the bigness of the same C and after go along in Company so as if C be double to B and B have three Degrees of Motion it must give away two of them For I have sufficiently prov'd that Monsieur des Cartes ought not to have suppos'd in Rest a Force to resist Motion That the Fifth is true That the Sixth is false and that B ought to communicate half of its Motion to C. And that the Seventh is false and that B ought ever to communicate its Motion to C in proportion to the Magnitude and Motion of both B and C. But that if according to the Supposition C be double to B and have three Degrees of Motion whilst C has but two they must proceed together in Company C and B being but one Body at the time of their Collision and therefore we must add together the Degrees of Swiftness which are five and afterwards divide them in proportion to their bigness and so distribute 1 3 2 to B and 3 â
to C which is double to B. But these Rules though certain from what I have said are yet contrary to Experience since we are not in a Vacuum The chief of those Experiences which are contrary to what I have said about the Rules of Motion is the constant rebounding of hard Bodies when they meet one one way and another another or at least their not going in Company after their Encounter In Answer to which we must call to mind what we have formerly said of the Cause of Elasticity namely That there is a Matter of a strangely-violent Motion which continually passes into the Parts of hard Bodies and makes them so by its compressing both their outward and inward Parts For it will be easie from hence to see that at the time of Percussion two encountring Bodies drive and turn off the Current of this Matter from the places nearest to the stricken which Matter resisting with great Violence repells the two Bodies which strike against each other and restores its Passage which the Percussion had stopp'd up That which more clearly still proves my Opinion is
this That if two Bowls of Lead or of any other less Elastick Matter meet they rebound not after their Collision but proceed almost according to the Rules before establish'd which they keep to so much more exactly as they are less springing Bodies therefore rebound after their Percussion because they are hard that is as I have explain'd because there is an extremely agitated Matter which compresses them and which passing through their Pores with an extreme Violence repel the Bodies which strike against them But it ought to be suppos'd that the Percutient Bodies break not those which they dash against by a Motion over-powering the Resistance the little Parts of the subtile Matter are capable of making as when we discharge a Musket against a piece of Wood. 'T is true the subtile Matter compresses soft Bodies and passes with a rapid Course through their Pores no less than through those of hard and yet these soft Bodies have no Elasticity The Reason whereof is this that the Matter passing through soft Bodies can with a great deal of Ease open it self new Passages by reason of the Minuteness of the Parts composing them or of some other particular Configuration proper for that Effect which hard Bodies will not admit by reason of the Largeness and Situation of their Parts which are contrary to the same Thus when a hard Body strikes another that is soft it alters all the Roads the subtile Matter us'd to pass through which is commonly visible as in a Musket-Bullet which flattens when it is smitten But when a hard Body strikes against another like it it either makes none or very few new Paths and the subtile Matter in its Pores is oblig'd to return upon the same Ground or else must repel the Body which blocks up its little Avenues Lastly It seems evident that every mov'd Body continually endeavouring to tend in a Right Line and declining from it as little as is possible when it meets Resistance ought never to rebound since by that Motion it extremely deviates from a Right 'T is necessary therefore either that Bodies should grow flat or that the stronger should conquer the weaker and make it bear it company But because Bodies are springing and hard they cannot go in company since if A pushes a a repels A and so they must recede from one another Notwithstanding if two Bodies were in a Vacuum though never so hard they would go in company because having no Body to surround them they could have no Elastick Force the Striker making no Resistance to the Striking but Air Gravitation c. resisting the great Motion which the striking Body gives the stricken the stricken resists the striking and hinders it from following For Experience teaches us that Air and Gravity resist Motion and that this Resistance is so much greater as the Motion is more violent 'T is easie to discover from what I have been saying how it comes to pass that in the Percussion of different Bodies encompass'd with Air or Water c. sometimes the Smiting rebounds sometimes communicates all its Motion and remains as it were unmoveable and sometimes it follows the Smitten but always with less Degrees of Swiftness if one or other of them be not perfectly soft For all this depends on the Proportion that is found between the Magnitude the Hardness and the Weight of one and the other supposing them mov'd with an equal Swiftness If they are very hard the Smiting rebounds more because the Elaterium is stronger If the Smiting is very little the Smitten very large and weighty the Smiting rebounds still much because of the Weight and the great Mass of Air surrounding the Smitten which withstands the Motion Last of all If the Force of the Hardness is as it were abated by the little Volume of Air answering the Littleness of the stricken Body or the contrary it may happen that the Smiting may remain as immoveable after the Percussion We need therefore but compare the Hardness of percutient Bodies and the Air which the Percuss'd ought to agitate anew at the time of Percussion whereby to move to give a pretty exact Conjecture concerning what must happen in the Percussion of different Bodies I still suppose an equal Swiftness in the striking for the Air more resists a great Motion than a little one and there is as much Motion in a Body twice as little as in another when proceeding twice as fast as that other Thus the Smitten being driven as fast again may be consider'd as having a Volume of Air twice as big to repel in order to its moving But it ought still to be observ'd that at the Moment of one Body's striking another the Parts of this same Body have two contrary Motions for those on the Fore-side have a backward Tendency by reason of the Collision when at the same time those behind tend forwards on the Account of the first Motion and 't is that Counter-motion which flattens soft Bodies and is the Cause that some hard Bodies break in pieces but when Bodies are very hard this Counter-stroke which vibrates some of the Parts and makes a sort of Trepidation in them as appears from the Sound they give always produces some Changes in the Communication of Motion which are very difficult to be known for many Reasons and 't is in my Mind to little purpose to examine them in particular Would a Man meditate on all these things I believe he would easily answer some Difficulties which might still be rais'd upon the Subject but if I thought that what I have said were insufficient to shew that Rest has no Force to resist Motion and that the Rules of the Communication of Motions given by Monsieur des Cartes are in part false I would here make out that it is impossible by his Supposition to move our selves in the Air And that which makes the Circulation of Motion in Fluid Bodies possible without recurring to a Vacuum is that the first Element easily divides it self in several different manners the Repose of its Parts having no Force to resist Motion The CONCLUSION of the Three last BOOKS I Have if I mistake not sufficiently shewn in the Fourth and Fifth Books that Men's natural Inclinations and Passions frequently occasion their falling into Errour because they induce them more to a precipitate Judgment than a careful Examination of Things I have shewn in the Fourth Book that our Inclination for Good in general is the Cause of the Restlesness of the Will that this Restlesness of the Will puts the Mind in continual Agitation and that a Mind continually agitated is utterly unfit for the Discovery of any the least intricate and hidden Truths That the Love of new and extraordinary Things frequently prepossesses us in their behalf and that whatever bears the Character of Infinite is capable of confounding our Imagination and mis-leading us I have explain'd how our Inclination for Greatness Elevation and Independency insensibly engage us in a falsly-pretended
it to circumambient Objects and so remove us from the Divine Light which would penetrate and illuminate us Nor does Man give himself new Modifications For the Motion of Love which God constantly imprints on us is neither augmented nor diminish'd whether we do or do not actually love I mean whether this natural Motion of Love be or be not determin'd by some Idea of our Mind Nor does this Motion cease by its Acquiescence in the Possession of Good as Motion of Bodies ceases by their Rest. There is great likelihood that God pushes us at all times alike with an even Force towards him for he pushes us on towards Good in general as fast as we are capable and we are at all times equally capable because our Will or our natural Capacity of Willing is always equal to it self Thus I say the Impression or natural Motion which carries us towards Good never encreases or diminishes I confess we have no clear Idea nor indeed inward Sensation of the Evenness of that Impression or natural Motion towards Good But this comes from our not knowing it by Idea which I have formerly prov'd and from our not being conscious of our Faculties whilst they do not actually operate We feel not what is natural and common and always the same in us as the Heat and Beating of the Heart We are even insensible of our Habits and whether we are deserving of the Love or Wrath of God We have perhaps infinite Faculties which are perfectly unknown to us For we are not inwardly conscious of all that we are but only of all that we feel Had we never felt Pain nor desir'd particular Goods we could not by our Self-Consciousness have told whether we are capable of feeling Pain or of willing those Goods It being our Memory and not our internal Sense which teaches us we are capable of feeling what we do not feel or of being mov'd by such Passions as do not actually agitate us There is nothing therefore that can hinder our believing that God draws us towards him with an equal Force though in a very different manner and that he preserves in our Soul an equal Capacity of willing or one and the same Will as he preserves in Matter collectively taken an equal quantity of Motion But though this should not be certain yet I can't see how it can be said that the Augmentation or Diminution of the Natural Motion of our Soul depends on us since we cannot be the Cause of the Extent of our own Will It is moreover certain from what I said before That God produces and preserves in us all that 's real and positive in the particular Determinations of the Motion of our Soul namely our Ideas and Sensations For this it is which determines our Motion towards Good in general to particular Goods but not in an irresistible manner because we have a tendency to go farther Hence all that is done on our part when we sin is our not doing all we yet have the power to do by means of our impression towards Him who comprehends all Goods for all our Power is deriv'd from our Union with Him who works all in us Now the principal cause of our sinning is that preferring Enjoyment to Examination by reason of the Pleasure accruing to our Enjoying and the Pain attending our Examining we desist to employ the Motion which is given us for the pursuit and disquisition of Good and we dwell upon the enjoyment of things which we should no more than make use of But if we observe the Matter nearly we shall see that in this there is nothing real on our part but only an intermission and cessation of Enquiry which corrupts as I may say the Action of God in us but yet can never destroy it So then when we do not sin What is it we do We do all that God does in us for we do not confine to a particular Good or rather a False one the Love which God impresses on us for the True And when we sin What do we do then Nothing For we love a false Good to which God does not carry us by an irresistible impression we cease to persue the true Good and frustrate the Motion God gives us towards it Now whilst we love a particular good only or against ORDER we receive as great an impression of Love from God as if we did not fix upon it Moreover this particular Determination which is neither necessary nor invincible is given us of God and therefore in sinning we produce no new Modification in our selves However I own that when we sin not but resist Temptation we may be said in one sense to give our selves a new Modification because we chuse to think on other things than the seeming Goods wherewith we are tempted But all that we then do is produc'd by the Action which God puts in us that is either by our Motion towards Good in general or by our Will assisted by Grace I mean enlightned by Knowledge and forwarded by a preventing delectation For in fine If the willing different things be suppos'd to be giving different Modifications I deny not but in this Sense the Mind may diversly modifie it self by the Action it receives from God But 't is always to be observ'd that this Action deriv'd into us from God depends upon our selves and is not irresistible with respect to particular Goods For upon the presentation of a particular Good we are inwardly conscious of our Liberty on its behalf as we are of our Pleasure and Pain when they sensibly affect us And the same Reason convinces us we are Free that convinces us we Exist for 't is the inward consciousness or feeling of our own Thoughts that give us to know we have a Being And if at the same time that we are sensible of our Liberty with respect to a particular Good we ought to doubt of it for want of having a clear Idea thereof we ought no less to doubt of our Pain and our Existence at the time of our Misery since we have no clear Idea either of our Soul or Pain It goes quite otherwise with our inward Sensation or Conscience than with our outward Senses The latter always deceive us in something when we follow their reports but the former never deceives us 'T is by the outward Senses I see Colours on the surface of Bodies that I hear Sound in the Air that I feel Pain in my Hand and their Testimony deceives me if I rely upon it But 't is by my inward Sensation that I see Colour that I hear Sound that I suffer Pain and I err not in believing I see when I see hear when I hear and suffer when I suffer provided I stop and go no farther These things are too self-evident to be longer insisted on Therefore being inwardly conscious of our Liberty at the time of a particular Good 's being present to the Mind we are not to be doubtful of
our Freedom on its respect But whereas this inward Sensation is sometimes absent from our Mind and we consult only what confus'd remains it has left in our Memory we may by the consideration of abstracted reasons which keep us from an inward feeling persuade our selves that 't is impossible for Man to be free Just as a Stoick who in want of nothing and Philosophizing at his Case may imagine that Pain is no Evil because the Internal Sense he has of himself does not actually convince him of the contrary and so he may prove like Seneca by reasons in one sense most true that 't is a contradiction for the wise man to be miserable But though our Self-consciousness were insufficient to convince us of our Freedom yet Reason might evince as much For since the light of Reason assures us that God acts only for himself and that he can give no Motion to us but what must tend towards him the Impression towards Good in general may be irresistible but 't is plain that that which we have for particular Goods must be necessarily free For if it were invincible we should have no Motion to carry us to God though he gives it only for himself and we should be constrain'd to settle on particular Goods though GOD ORDER and REASON forbid us So that Sin could not be laid at our door and God would be the real Cause of our Corruptions forasmuch as we should not be Free but purely Natural and altogether necessary Agents Thus though inward Sensation did not teach us we were free Reason would discover it was necessary for Man to be created so if we suppose him capable of desiring particular Goods and only capable of desiring them through the Impression or Motion which God perpetually gives us for himself Which likewise may be prov'd by Reason But our capacity to suffer Pain cannot be prov'd this way but can only be discover'd by Conscience or inward Sensation and yet no Man can doubt but a Man is liable to suffer Pain As we know not our Soul by any clear Idea we have of it as I have before explain'd so 't is in vain to try to discover what it is in us that terminates the Action which God impresses or that yields to be conquer'd by a resistible Determination and which we may change by our Will or by our Impression towards all Good and our Union with him who includes the Ideas of all Beings For in short we have no clear Idea of any Modification of our Soul Nothing but our Internal Sense can teach us that we are and what we are and this only must be consulted to convince us we are free And its Answers are clear and satisfactory enough upon the Point when we actually propose to our selves any particular Good for no Man whatever can doubt whether he be invinsibly inclin'd to eat of a Fruit or avoid some slight inconsiderable Pain But if instead of hearkning to our Inward Sensation we attend to abstracted Reasons which throw us off the Contemplation of our selves possibly losing sight of them we may forget that we are in Being and trying to reconcile the prescience of God and his absolute power over us with our Liberty we shall plunge into an Errour that will overturn all the Principles of Religion and Morality I produce here an Objection which is usually made against what I have been saying which though but very weak and defective is strong enough to give a great many trouble to evade The Hating of God say they is an Action which does not partake of Good and therefore is all the Sinner's God having no part in it And consequently Man acts and gives himself new Modifications by an action which does not come from God I Answer That Sinners hate not God but because they freely and falsly judge that he is Evil for Good consider'd as such cannot be the Object of Hatred Therefore they hate God with that very Motion of Love he influences them with towards Good Now the Reason why they conclude he is not Good is their making an undue use of their Liberty for being not convinc'd with irresistible Evidence that he is not Good they ought not to believe him Evil nor consequently to hate him In Hatred two things may be distinguish'd viz. the Sensation of the Soul and Motion of the Will This Sensation cannot be Evil for it is a Modification of the Soul and has neither Moral Good nor Ill in it Nor is the Motion more corrupt since it is not distinguishable from that of Love For External Evil being only the privation of Good 't is manifest that to fly Evil is to fly the privation of Good that is to pursue Good Wherefore all that is real and positive even in our Hatred of God himself has nothing Evil in it and the Sinner cannot hate God without an abominable abuse of the action which God incessantly gives to incline him to the Love of Him God works whatever is real in the Sensations of Concupiscence and yet is not the Author of Concupiscence AS the Difficulties that are rais'd about Concupiscence are near akin to those before explain'd I think it convenient to shew that God is not the Author of Concupiscence though it be he that works all in us even in the production of sensible Pleasure It ought I think to be granted for the Reasons produc'd in the Fifth Chapter of the First Book of the preceding Treatise and elsewhere that by the natural Laws of the Union of the Soul and Body Man even before the Fall was inclin'd by preventing Pleasures to the use of sensible Goods and that as often as such and such Traces were delineated in the principal part of his Brain such and such Thoughts arose in his Mind Now those Laws were most Proper and Equitable for the Reasons I there have given Which being suppos'd as before the Trangressions all things were perfectly well order'd so Man had necessarily that Power over his Body as that he could prevent the production of these Traces when he would Order requiring that his Mind should have the Dominion over his Body Which Power of his Mind precisely consisted in this that according to its different Desires and Applications it stopt the Communication of Motions which were produc'd in his own Body by circumambient Objects over which his Will had not an immediate and direct Authority as over his proper Body And it cannot I think be conceiv'd how he could hinder the Formation of the Traces in his Brain any other way Therefore the Will of God or the general Law of Nature which is the true Cause of the Communication of Motions depended on some occasions upon the Will of Adam For God had that consideration for him that he produc'd not without his consent new Motions in his Body or at least in the principal part to which his Soul was immediately uniâed Such was the Institution of Nature before the Sin ORDER would
have it so and consequently HE whose essential and necessary Will is always conformable to ORDER Which Will remaining immutably the same the Establish'd Order was subverted by the first Man's Disobedience because for the demerits of his Sin it was consonant to Order that he should be Lord of nothing It is not reasonable that the Sinner should suspend the Communication of Motions that the Will of God should conform to his or that any exceptions should be made to the Law of Nature on his Behalf In so much that Man is subject to Concupiscence his Mind depends on his Body he feels in himself indeliberate Pleasures and involuntary and rebellious Motions pursuant to that most just and exact Law which unites the two Parts of which he is compos'd Thus the formal Reason of Concupiscence no less than that of Sin is nothing real and positive being no more in Man than the loss of the Power he had to wave and suspend to the Communication of Motions on some occasions Nor are we to admit any positive Will in God to produce it For this loss which Man has sustain'd was not a consequence of Order or of the immutable Will of God which never swerves from it and is constantly the same but only a consequence of Sin which has rendred Man unworthy of an Advantage due only to his Innocence and Uprightness Wherefore we may say that not God but Sin only has been the Cause of Concupiscence Nevertheless God Works all that is Real and Positive in the Sensations and Motions of Concupiscence for God does every thing but all that has nothing of Evil. 'T is by the general Law of Nature that is by the Will of God that sensible Objects produce in Man's Body certain Motions and that these Motions raise in the Soul certain Sensations useful to the preservation of the Body or the Porpagation of the Species Who then dare presume to say these things are not good in themselves I know it is said that Sin is the Cause of certain Pleasures But do they that say it conceive it Can it be thought that Sin which is nothing should actually produce something Can nothing be suppos'd to be a real Cause However 't is so said but possibly for want of taking due pains of seriously considering what they say or because they are unwilling to enter on an Explication that is contrary to the Discourses they have heard from Men who it may be talk with more Gravity and Assurance than Reflexion and Knowledge Sin is the Cause of Concupiscence but not of Pleasure as Free Will is the Cause of Sin though not of the natural Motion of the Soul The Pleasure of the Soul is good as well as its Motion or Love and there is nothing good but what God does The Rebellion of the Body and the guilt of Pleasure proceed from Sin As the Adherency of the Soul to a particular Good or its Rest proceeds from the Sinner But these are only Privations and Nothings whereof the Creature is capable Every Pleasure is Good and likewise in some measure makes happy the Possessour at least for the time of the Enjoyment But it may be said to be evil because instead of elevating the Mind to Him that is the true Cause of it through the Errour of our Intellectual and corruption of our Moral Part it prostrates it before sensible Objects that only seem to produce it Again it is evil in as much as it is Injustice in us who are Sinners and consequently meriting rather to be punish'd than rewarded to oblige God pursuant to his Primitive Will to recompense us with pleasant Sensations In a word not to repeat here what I have said in other places it is evil because God at present forbids it by Reason of its alienating the Mind from himself for whom he hath made and preserves it For that which was ordain'd by God to preserve Righteous Man in his Innocence now fixes sinful Man in his Sin and the Sensations of Pleasure which he wisely establish'd as the easiest and most obvious Expedients to teach Man without calling off his Reason from his true Good whether he ought to unite himself with the invironing Bodies at present fill the Capacity of his Mind and fasten him on Objects incapable of acting in him and infinitely below him because he looks upon these Objects to be the true Causes of the Happiness he enjoys occasionally from them THE SECOND ILLUSTRATION UPON THE First CHAPTER of the First BOOK Where I say That the Will cannot diversly determine its Propensity to Good but by commanding the Vnderstanding to represent to it some particular Object IT must not be imagin'd that the Will commands the Understanding any other Way than by its Desires and Motions there being no other Action of the Will nor must it be believ'd that the Understanding obeys the Will by producing in it self the Ideas of Things which the Soul desires for the Understanding acts not at all but only receives Light or the Ideas of Things through its necessary Union with Him who comprehends all Beings in an intelligible manner as is explain'd in the Third Book Here then is all the Mystery Man participates of the Sovereign Reason and Truth displays it self to him proportionably to his Application and his praying to it Now the Desire of the Soul is a Natural Prayer that is always heard it being a natural Law that Ideas should be so much readier and more present to the Mind as the Will is more earnest in desiring them Thus provided our Thinking Capacity or Understanding be not clogg'd and fill'd up by the confus'd Sensations we receive occasionally from the Motions occurring in our Body we should no sooner desire to think on any Object but its Idea would be always present to our Mind which Idea Experience witnessing is so much more present and clear as our Desire is more importunate and our confus'd Sensations furnish'd to us by the Body less forcible and applicative as I have said in the foregoing Illustration Therefore in saying that the Will commands the Understanding to represent to it some particular Object I meant no more than that the Soul willing to consider that Object with Attention draws near it by her Desire because this Desire consequently to the efficacious Wills of God which are the inviolable Laws of Nature is the Cause of the Presence and Clearness of the Idea that represents the Object I could not at that time speak otherwise than I did nor explain my self as I do at present as having not yet prov'd God the sole Author of our Ideas and our particular Volitions only the occasional Causes of them I spoke according to the common Opinion as I have been frequently oblig'd to do because all cannot be said at once The Reader ought to be equitable and give Credit for some time if he would have Satisfaction for none but Geometricians pay always down in hand THE ILLUSTRATION UPON THE
to furnisâ an Animal with parts quite useless and to congeal the Fruits after they are perfectly formed Is not this rather because God does what he pleases and that his power supersedes all Order and Rule For to mention things of greater Importance than the Fruits of the Earth wherewith he may do as he sees good the Clay whereof God makes Vessels of wrath is the same with that which he fashions Vessels of Mercy ANSWER These are the difficulties which serve only to obscure the Truth as proceeding from the darkness of the Mind We know that God is just we see that the wicked are Happy ought we to deny what wee see ought we to doubt of what we know because we may possibly be so stupid as not to know and so Libertine as not to believe what Religion teaches us of future Torments So we know that God is Wise and all that he does is Good mean while we see Monsters or defective Works What are we to believe that God is out of his aim or that these Monsters are not his handiwork Certainly if we have sence and constancy of Mind we shall believe neither the one nor the other For 't is manifest that God does all and that whatever he does is as perfect as possible with relation to the simplicity and fewness of the means he imploys in the Formation of his Work We must hold fast to what we see and not quit our ground for any difficulties impossible to be resolv'd when our Ignorance is the cause of that Impossibility If Ignorance must raise Difficulties and such like Difficulties overthrow the best establisht Opinions what will remain certain among Men who know not all things What Shall not the brightest Lights be able to disperse the least Darkness and shall any little shadow Eclipse the clearest and the liveliest Light But though the answering such sort of Difficulties might be dispenc'd with without Prejudice to the fore-establisât Principle yet it is not amiss to show they are not unanswerable For the Mind of Man is so unjust in its Judgments that it may possibly prefer the Opinions which seem to result from these imaginary Difficulties before certain Truths which no Man can doubt of but because he will and with that design ceases to examine them I say then that God wills order though there are Monsters and 't is moreover because God wills order that there are Monsters and this is my reason Order requires that the Laws of nature whereby God produces that infinite Variety so conspicuous in the World should be very simple and very few in number Now 't is the simplicity of these general Laws which in some particular Junctures and because of the Disposition of the subject produces irregular Motions or rather Monstrous Combinations and consequently God's willing order is the cause of these Monsters Thus God does not positively or directly will the Existence of Monsters but he positively wills certain Laws of the Communication of Motions whereof Monsters are the necessary consequences because these Laws though of a most simple kind are nevertheless capable of producing that variety of forms which can't be sufficiently admired For Example In consequence of the general Laws of the Communication of Motions there are some Bodies which are driven near the Centre of the Earth The Body of a Man or an Animal is one of these that which upholds him in the Air breaks under his Feet is it just or according to Order that God should change his general Will for that particular Case Surely it seems not probable That Animal therefore must necessarily break or maim its Body And thus we ought to argue about the generation of Monsters ORDER requires that all Beings should have what 's necessary to their Preservation and the Propagation of the Species provided this may be done by most simple Means and worthy the Wisdom of God And so we see that Animals as also Plants have general Means to preserve themselves and to continue their Species and if some Animals fail thereof in some particular Occasions 't is because these general Laws whereby they were form'd reach not these private Emergencies because they respect not Animals separately but generally extend to all Beings and that the Good of the Publick must be preferr'd before Particular Advantages 'T is evident That if God made but one Animal it would not be Monstrous But Order would require That he should not make that Animal by the same Laws that he at present forms all others for the Action of God must be proportion'd to his Design By the Laws of Nature he designs not the making one Animal but a whole World and he must make it by the simpliest Means as Order requires 'T is enough then that the World be not monstrous or that the general Effects be suitable to the general Laws to vindicate the Work of God from Censure and Reproach If for all particular Changes God had instituted so many particular Laws or if He had constituted in every Being a particular Nature or Principle of all the Motions that arrive in it I confess it would be hard to juâtifie his Wisdom against so visible Disorders We should perhaps be forc'd to confess either that God wills not Order or that he knows not how or is not able to rectifie Disorder For in short it seems to me impossible to ascribe an almost infinite Number of second Causes of natural Forces Vertues Qualities and Faculties to what we call the Sports and Disorders of Nature with a Salvo to the infinite Power and Wisdom of the Author of all things OBJECTION against the Second Article GOD can never act for Himself A wise Being will do nothing useless but whatever God should do for himself would be useless because he wants nothing God wills nothing for himself if by the Necessity of his Essence he has all the Perfection he can desire And if God desires nothing for himself he works nothing for himself since he works only by the Efficacy of his Will The Nature of Good is to be communicative and diffusive 't is to be useful to others and not to it self 't is to seek out 't is if it be possible to create Persons whom it may make happy Therefore it is a Contradiction for God who is essentially and supremely good to act for himself ANSWER GOD may be said to act for himself two ways either with intent to derive some Advantage from what he does or to the end his Creature may find its Happiness and Perfection in him I enquire not at present whether God acts for himself in the first sense and whether to receive an Honour worthy of himself he has made and restor'd all things by his SON in whom according to the Scripture all things subsist I only assert that God cannot create and preserve Spirits in order to know and love created Beings 'T is an Immutable Eternal and necessary Law That they should know and love God as I
by these Sensations what he ought to do for the preservation of his Life But he was never willing to be perturbated by them in spight of his VVill. For that 's a Contradiction Moreover when he desir'd to apply himself to the contemplation of Truth without any distraction of Thought his Senses and his Passions kept an intire Silence Order would it should be so for that 's a necessary sequel of that absolute power he had over his Body I answer secondly that it is not true that the Pleasure of the Soul is the same thing with its Motion and its Love Pleasure and Love are modes of the Souls Existence But Pleasure has no necessary relation to the object that seems to cause it and Love is necessarily related unto Good Pleasure is to the Soul what Figure is to Body and Motion is to Body what Love is to the Soul But the Motion of a Body is very different from its Figure I grant that the Soul which has a constant Propeâsity to Good advances as I may say more readily towards it when instigated by a sense of Pleasure that when discourag'd by her suffering Pain as a Body when driven runs easier along if it have a Spherical than if it have a Cubical Figure But the figure of a Body differs from its Motion and it may be Spherical and yet remain at rest 'T is true in this case it goes not with Spirits as with Bodies those cannot feel a Pleasure but they must be in motion because God who only makes and preserves them for himself drives them perpetually on towards good But that does not prove that the pleasure of the Soul is the same thing as its Motion For two things though differing from each other may yet be always found inseparably together I answer lastly that although pleasure were not different from the Love or Motion of the Soul yet that which the first Man felt in the use of the goods of the Body did not incline him to the Loving Bodies 'T is true Pleasure carries the Soul towards the object that causes it in her But it is not the Fruit that we eat with Pleasure which causes the Pleasure in us Not Bodies but God only can act upon the Soul and in any manner make it happy And we are in an Error to think that Bodies have in them what we feel occasionally from their presence Adam before his Sin being not so stupid as to imagine that Bodies were the causes of his Pleasures was not carry'd to the love of them by the motions that accompany'd his Pleasures If pleasure contributed to the fall of the first Man it was not by working in him what at present it does in us But only by filling up or dividing his capacity of Thought it effac'd or diminish'd in his Mind the presence of his true good and of his Duty OBJECTION against the sixth Article What likelyhood is there that the immutable Will of God had a dependance on the will of Man and that on Adam's behalf there were exceptions made to the general Law of the Communication of Motions ANSWER At least it is not evident but such exception might be made now it is evident that immutable order requires the subjection of the Body to the Mind and 't is a contradiction for God not to love and will order for God necessarily loves his Son Therefore it was necessary before the Sin of the first Man that exceptions should be made in his favour to the general Law of the Communication of Motions This seems it may be of a too abstracted nature Here then is somewhat of a more sensible kind Man though a Sinner has the power of moving and stopping his Arm when he pleases Therefore according to the different Volitions of Man the Animal Spirits are determin'd to the raising or stopping some Motions in his Body which certainly cannot be perform'd by the general Law of the Communication of Motions If then the will of God be still submitted to our own why might it not be submitted to the will of Adam If for the good of the Body and of civil Society God stops the communication of motions in Sinners why would he not do the like in favour of a Righteous Man for the good of his Soul and for the preservation of the Union and Society with his God for whom only he was made As God will have no Society with Sinners so after the Sin he depriv'd them of the power they had to sequester themselves as it were from the Body to unite themselves with him But he has left them the Power of stopping or changing the communication of Motions with reference to the preservation of Life and of Civil Society Because he was not willing to destroy his Work having before the construction of it decreed according to St. Paul to re-establish and renew it in Jesus Christ. OBJECTION against the Seventh Article Man in his present state conveys his Body all manner of ways he moves at pleasure all the parts of it which are necessary to be mov'd for the prosecution and shunning of sensible good and evil and consequently he stops or changes every moment the natural communication of motions not only for trifles and things of little importance but also for things useless to Life and civil Society and even for Crimes which violate Society shorten Life and dishonour God all manner of ways God wills order it is true But will order have the laws of motions violated for the sake of Evil and kept inviolable on the account of Good Why must Man lose the power of stopping the motions which sensible objects produce in his Body since these Motions keep him from doing good from repairing to God and returning to his duty and yet retain the power of doing so much evil by his Tongue and his Arm and other parts of his Body whose motions depend upon his will ANSWER To the answering this Objection it must be consider'd that Man having sin'd ought to have return'd to his Original nothing For being no longer in Order nor able to retrieve it he ought to cease to Exist God loves only order the Sinner is not in order and therefore not in the Love of God The Sinner therefore cannot subsist since the subsistence of Creatures depends on the will of the Creator but he wills not that they should exist if he does not love them The Sinner cannot by himself regain lost order because he cannot justifie himself and all that he can suffer cannot atone for his offence He must then be reduc'd to nothing But as it is unreasonable to think that God makes a Work to annihilate it or to let it fall into a state worse than annihilation 't is evident that God would not have made Man nor permitted his Sin which he foresaw unless he had had in view the Incarnation of his Son in whom all things subsist and by whom the Universe receives a Beauty a Perfection
Experience of the ablest Physicians THE ILLUSTRATION UPON THE Third CHAPTER of the Fifth BOOK That Love is different from Pleasure and Joy THE Mind commonly confounds things that are very different when they happen at the same time and are not contrary to each other As I have shown by many Instances in this Work because herein chiefly consist our Errors in Respect of what passes within us Being we have no clear Idea of âhat constitutes the Nature or Essence of our Mind nor of any of the Modification it can receive it often falls out that to our confounding different things they need but happen in us at the same time For we easily confound what we know not by a clear and distinct Ideâ It is not only impossible clearly to conceive wherein consists the difference of our Internal Motions it is even difficult to discover any difference between them For to do this we must turn our Eyes inward and retire into our selves not to consider them with reference to Good and Evil which we do willingly enough But to contemplate our selves with an abstract and barren consideration which costs us great trouble and distraction of Thought We easily conceive that the Roundness of a Body differs from its Motion and though we know by Experience that a Bowl on a plane cannot be press'd without being mov'd and so Motion and Roundness are found together Yet we use not to confound them with one another because we conceive Motion and Figure by clear and distinct Ideas But 't is not so with Pleasure and Love which we almost always confound together Our Mind grows as it were Moveable by Pleasure as a Bowl by it's roundness and because it is never void of an impression towards Good it immediately puts it self in Motion towards the Objects which causes or seems to cause the Pleasure So that the Motion of Love happening in the Soul at the very time of it's feeling this Pleasure is sufficient to make her undistinguish or confound them because she has no clear Idea of her Love and Pleasure as she has of Figure and Motion And for this Reason some are perswaded that Pleasure and Love are not different and that I distinguish too many things in each of our Passions But that it may clearly appear that Pleasure and Love are two very different things I divide Pleasures into two sorts the one sort precedes Reason as are agreeable Sensations and go commonly by the Name of the Pleasures of the Body The other sort neither precede Reason nor the senses and are generally call'd the Pleasures of the Soul Such is the Joy that arise in us in pursuance of a clear knowledge of confus'd sensation we have of some Good that either does or shall accrue to us For Example a Man in tasting a Fruit which he does not know finds pleasure in eating it if it be good for Nourishment Which is a preceding or preventing Pleasure for since he feels it before he knows whether the Fruit be good 't is evident it prevents his Reason An Huntsman when hungry expects to find or actually finds something Eatable which gives him an actual sense of Joy Now this Joy is a Pleasure which follows the knowledge of his present or future good It is perhaps evident by this distinction of Pleasure into that which follows and that which prevents Reason that neither of them but differs from Love For preventing pleasure undoubtedly precedes Love since it precedes all Knowledge which some way or other is always suppos'd by Love On the contrary Joy or the Pleasure which supposes foregoing Knowledge presupposes likewise Love since Joy supposes either a confus'd Sensation or a clear Knowledge of the present or future Possession of what we Love For if we possess'd a thing for which we have no Love we should receive no Joy from it Therefore Pleasure is very different from Love since that which prevents Reason prevent and causes Love and that which follows Reason necessarily supposes Love as an Effect supposes the Cause Moreover if Pleasure and Love were the same thing there could be no Pleasure without Love nor Love without Pleasure otherwise a thing could be without it self Nevertheless a Christian Loves his Enemy and a well-educated Child his Father though never so irrational and unkind The Sight of their Duty the Fear of God the Love of Order and Justice causes them to Love not only without Pleasure but even with a sort of Horrour those Persons that are no ways delightful I own they sometimes have the Sense of Pleasure or Joy upon the Reflection that they perform their Duty or upon the Hopes of being rewarded as they do deserve But besides that this Pleasure is very manifestly different from the Love they bear to their Father and Enemy though perhaps it may be the Motive of it it sometimes is not so much as the Motive of their acting but 't is only an abstract View of Order or a Notion of Fear which preserves their Love In one sense it may be truly said they have a Love for these Persons even whilst they do not think of them For Love remains in us during the Avocations of Thought and in Sleep But I conceive that Pleasure has no longer a Substance in the Soul than she is aware of it Thus Love or Charity remaining in us without Pleasure or Delectation cannot be maintain'd to be the very same thing Since Pleasure and Pain are two contraries if Pleasure were the same with Love Pain would not differ from Hatred But 't is evident that Pain is different from Hatred because it often subsists without it A Man for Instance who is wounded unawares suffers a most real and cutting Pain whilst he is free from Hatred For he knows not even the Cause of his Pain or the Object of his Hatred or rather the Cause of his Pain not deserving his Hatred cannot raise it Thus he Hates not that Cause of his Pain though his Pain moves or disposes him to Hatred 'T is true he deservedly Hates Pain but the Hatred of Pain is not Pain but supposes it Hatred of Pain does not Merit our Hatred as does Pain For the former is on the contrary very agreeable in that we are pleased in Hating it as we are displeased in Suffering it Pain therefore not being Hatred the Pleasure which is contrary to Pain is not Love which is contrary to Hatred and consequently the Pleasure which is precedaneous to Reason is not the same thing as Love I prove likewise that Joy or the Pleasure which pursues Reason is distinguish'd from Love Joy and Sorrow being contraries if Joy were the same thing with Love Sorrow and Hatred would be all one But it is evident that Sorrow differs from Hatred because it sometimes has a separate Subsistence A Man for Example by chance finds himself depriv'd of things that he has need of this is enough to make him sorrowful But it cannot provoke him to Hatred Either
because he knows not what it was that depriv'd him of this necessary thing or because being unworthy of his Hatred it could not excite it 'T is true this Man Hates the Privation of the Good which he Loves But it is manifest that this kind of Hatred is really Love For he Hates the Privation of Good meerly because he Loves Good and since to fly the Privation of Good is to tend towards Good Is is evident that the Motion of his Hatred is not different from that of his Love Therefore his Hatred if he have any being not contrary to his Love and Sorrow being always contrary to Joy it is evident that his Sorrow is not his Hatred and consequently Joy is different from Love Lastly It is evident that Sorrow proceeds from the Presence of something which we hate or rather from the Absence of something which we Love Therefore Sorrow supposes Hatred or rather Love but 't is very different from them both I know St. Austin defines Pain to be an Aversion the Soul conceives from the Bodies being disposed otherwise than she would have it and that he often confounds Delectation with Charity Pleasure with Joy Pain with Sorrow Pleasure and Joy with Love Pain and Sorrow with Aversion or Hatred But there 's great Probability this Holy Father in all this follow'd the common way of speaking of the Vulgar who confound most of those things which occur in them at one and the same time Or it may be did not examine these things in so Nice and Philosophical a manner as he might have done Yet I think I both may and ought to say that to me it seems necessary exactly to distinguish these things if we would explain our selves clearly and without Equivocation upon most of the Questions handled by him For even Men of a quite opposite Opinion use to build upon the Authority of this great Man because of the various Senses and Constructions his Speech will afford which is not always Nice and accurate enough to reconcile Persons who are perhaps more eager to dispute than desirous to agree THE ILLUSTRATION UPON THE Third CHAPTER of the Second PART of the Sixth BOOK Concerning the Efficacy ascribed to Second Causes EVER since the Transgression of our first Parent the Mind rambling constantly abroad forgets both it self and Him who pierces and enlightens it and is so absurdly pliant to the Seducements of its Body and those about it as to imagine its own Happiness and Perfection is to be found in them He that alone is able to act in us is at present hidden from our Eyes His Operations are of an insensible kind and though he produces and preserves all Beings yet the Mind whilst the earnest Enquirer of the Cause of all things cannot easily know him though it meets him every moment Some Philosophers chuse rather to imagine a Nature and particular Faculties as the Causes of those which we term Natural Effects than to render to God all the Honour that is due to his Power And though they have no Proof nor even clear Idea of this pretended Nature and Faculties as I hope to make appear they had rather talk without knowing what they say and reverence a purely imaginary Power than by any Essay of Thought to discover that Invisible Hand which works all in all things 'T is unavoidable for me to believe that one of the most deplorable Consequences of Original Sin is our having no Taste nor Sense for God or our Incapacity of Tasting or Meeting him without a sort of Dread and Abhorrence We ought to see God in all things to be sensible of his Power and Force in all Natural Effects to admire his Wisdom in the wonderful Order of his Creatures In a word to Worship to Fear to Love Him only in all his Works But in our present State there is a Secret Opposition between Man and GOD Man conscious of his being a Sinner hides himself flies the Light and is afraid to meet his Maker and therefore had rather imagine in surrounding Bodies a blind Power or Nature with which he can be familiar than find in them the terrible Power of an Holy and Just GOD who knows and Operates all in all I confess there are very many Persons who from another Principle than that of the Heathen Philosophers follow their Opinion about Nature and Second Causes But I hope to convince them in the Process of this Discourse that they fall into this Sentiment out of a Prejudice which 't is impossible to shake off without those Succours which are furnish'd by the Principles of a Philosophy that has not always been sufficiently known For in all likelihood this is what has kept them from declaring for an Opinion which I think my self oblig'd to espouse I have a great many Reasons which will not let me attribute to Second or Natural Causes a Force Power or Efficacy to produce any thing whatever The chief whereof is That this Opinion is to me utterly inconceivable Though I use all possible Endeavours to comprehend it I cannot find in my self the Idea to represent to me what can be that Force or Power ascrib'd to the Creatures And I need not fear passing a rash Judgment in affirming that those who hold that the Creatures are endued with a Force and Power advance what they do not clearly conceive For in short if the Philosophers clearly conceive that Second Causes have a true Force to act and produce their Like I being a Man as well as they and participating of the same Sovereign Reason might in all probability discover the Idea which represent to them that Force But all the efforts that my Mind can make can discover no other Force Efficacy or Power than in the Will of the Infinitely perfect Being Besides when I think upon the different Opinions of Philosophers upon this subject I can no longer doubt of my assertion For if they saw clearly what this Power of Creatures was or what was in them truly powerful they would agree in their Opinion about it When Men cannot accord though they have no private Interest to hinder them 't is a certain Sign they have no clear Idea of what they say and that they understand not one another especially if they dispute on subjects that are not of a Complex Nature and of difficult discussion like this before us For there would be no difficulty to resolve it if Men had a clear Idea of a created Force or Power Here then follow some of their Opinions that we may see how little agreement there is among them There are Philosophers who maintain that second Causes act by their Matter Figure and Motion and these in one sense are right enough Others by their substantial form Many by Accidents or Qualities some by Matter and Form others by Form and Accidents and others still by certain vertues or faculties distinct from all this There are of them who affirm that the substantial Form produces Forms
and the Accidental Form Accidents Others say that the Forms produce both other Forms and Accidents Others still that bare Accidents are not only capable of producing Accidents but even Forms But it must not be imagin'd that those for instance who say that Accidents can produce Forms by vertue of the Form they are join'd to understand it the same way For one part of them will have Accidents to be the very Force or Virtue of the Substantial Form Another that they imbibe into them the Influence of the Form and only act so by vertue of it A Third lastly will have them to be but Instrumental Causes But neither are these latter sort altogether agreed about what is meant by Instrumental Cause and the vertue they receive from the Principal Nor can the Philosophers compromise about the Action whereby second Causes produce their Effects For some of them pretend that Causality ought not to be produc'd since it is this which produces Others will that they truly act by their own Action But they are involv'd in so many Labyrinths in explaining precisely wherein this Action consists and there are so many different Opinions about it that I cannot find in my Heart to recite them Such is the strange variety of Opinions though I have not produc'd those of the Ancient Philosophers or that were born in very remote Countries But we have sufficient Reason to conclude that they are no more agreed upon the subject of second Causes than those before alledg'd Avicenna for instance is of Opinion that Corporeal Substances cannot produce any thing but Accidents This according to Ruvio is his Hypothesis He supposes that God produces immediately a most perfect Spiritual Substance That this produces another less perfect and this a third and so on to the last which produces all Corporeal Substances and Corporeal Substances Accidents But Avicembrom not able to comprehend how Corporeal Substances which cannot penetrate each other should cause alterations in them supposes that there are Spirits which are capable of acting on Bodies because they alone can penetrate them For these Gentlemen not admitting the Vacuum nor the Atoms of Democritus nor having sufficient knowledge of the subtil matter of M. des Cartes could not with the Gassendists and Cartesians think of Bodies which were little enough to insinuate into the pores of those that are hardest and most solid Methinks this diversity of Opinions justifies this thought of ours that Men often talk of things which they understand not and that the Power of Creatures being a Fiction of Mind of which we have naturally no Idea every Man makes it and imagines it what he pleases 'T is true this Power has been acknowledg'd for a Real and True by most Men in all Ages but it has never yet been prov'd I say not demonstratively but in any wise so as to make an impression upon an Attentive thinking Man For the confus'd Proofs which are built only upon the fallacious Testimony of the Senses and Passions are to be rejected by those who know how to exercise their Reason Aristotle speaking of what they call Nature says it is Ridiculous to go about to prove that Natural Bodies have an inward Principle of Motion and Rest because says he it is a thing that 's Self-Evident He likewise does not doubt but a Bowl which strikes another has the force of putting it in Motion This is witnessed by his Eyes and that 's enough for him who seldom follows any other Testimony than of the Senses very rarely that of his Reason and is very indifferent whether it be intelligible or not Those who impugn the Opinion of some Divines who have written against Second Causes say like Aristotle that the Senses convince us of their Efficacy And this is their first and principal Proof 'T is evident say they that the Fire burns that the Sun shines that Water cools and he must be out of his Senses who can doubt of it The Authors of the other Opinion says the great Averroes are out of their Wits We must say almost all the Peripateticks use sensible Proofs for their Conviction who deny this Efficacy and so oblige them to confess we are capable of acting on them and wounding them 'T is a judgment which Aristotle has already pronounc'd against them and it ought to be put in Execution But this pretended Demonstration cannot but create Pity For it gives us to know the Weakness of an Humane Mind And that the Philosophers themselves are infinitely more sensible than Reasonable It evinces that those who glory in being the Inquirers of Truth know not even whom they are to consult to hear any News of it Whether Soveraign Reason which never deceives but always speaks things as they are in themselves or the Body which speaks only out of Interest and with reference to the preservation and convenience of Life For in fine what prejudices will not be justified if we set up our Senses for Judges to which most of them owe their Birth As I have shown in The Search after Truth When I see a Bowl shock another my Eyes tell me or seem to tell me that it is the True Cause of the motion it impresses for the true cause that moves Bodies is not visible to my Eyes But if I interrogate my Reason I evidently see that Bodies having no Power to move themselves and their moving force being nothing but the Will of God which preserves them successively in different places they cannot communicate a Power which they have not nor could communicate if they had it For 't is plain that there must be Wisdom and that Infinite to regulate the communication of motions with that exactness Proportion and Uniformity which we see A Body cannot know that infinite multitude of impuls'd Bodies round about it and though we should suppose it to have knowledge yet it would not have enough so proportionably to regulate and distribute at the instant of protrusion the moving force it self is carried with When I open my Eyes the Sun appears to me splendidly glorious in Light And it seems not only to be visible it self but to make all the World so too Methinks 't is he that arrays the Earth with flowers and enriches it with Fruits That gives Life to Animals and striking by His Heat into the very Womb of the Earth impregnates Her with Stones Marbles and Metalls But in consulting my Reason I see nothing of all this And if I faithfully consult it I plainly discover the seducement of my Senses and find that God Works all in all For knowing that all the changes which accrue to Bodies have no other principle than the different Communications of Motions which occur in visible and invisible Bodies I see that God does all since 't is his Will that causes and his Wisdom that regulates all these Communications I suppose that Local Motion is the principle of Generations Corruptions Alterations and Universally of all the changes
incident to the Corporeal World which is an Opinion sufficiently now receiv'd among Men of Letters But let their Opinion about it be what it will that matters not much since it seems much easier to conceive that a Body drives another when it strikes it than to comprehend how Fire can produce Heat and Light and educe from the power of matter a substance that was not in it before And if it be necessary to acknowledge that God is the True Cause of the different Communications of Motion by a much stronger reason we should conclude that none but He can Create and Annihilate real Qualities and substantial Forms I say Create and Annihilate For it seems to me at least as difficult to educe from matter a substance that was not in it or to reduce it into it again whilst yet there nothing remains of it as to create it or Annihilate it But I stick not to the Terms And I make use of those because there are no other that I know of which express without Obscurity and Ambiguity the changes suppos'd by the Philosophers to arrive every moment by the force of second Causes I had some scruple to set down here the other Arguments which are commonly urg'd for the Force and Efficacy of natural Causes For they appear so weak and trifling to those who withstand Prejudices and prefer their Reason before their Senses that I can scarce believe methinks that Reasonable Men could be perswaded by them However I produce and answer them since there are many Philosophers who urge them ARGUMENT I. If second Causes did not Operate say Suarez Fonseca and some others Animate things could not be distinguish'd from Inanimate since neither one nor the other would have an inward principle of their Actions ANSWER I answer that Men would have the same sensible proofs that have convinc'd them of the distinction they make between things Animate and Inanimate They would still see Animals do the same Actions as eat grow cry run bound c. and would discern nothing like this in Stones And this one thing makes the vulgar Philosophers believe that Beasts live and that Stones do not For we are not to fancy that they know by a clear and distinct view of Mind what is the Life of a Dog 'T is their Senses which regulate their Decisions upon this Question If it were necessary I could prove here that the principle of the Life of a Dog differs not from the principle of the Motion of a Watch. For the Life of Bodies whatever they be can consist but in the Motion of their Parts And we may easily judge that the same subtil matter which causes the Fermentation of the Blood and Animal Spirits in a Dog and which is the principle of his Life is no perfecter than that which gives Motion to the Spring of a Watch or which causes the Gravitation in the Weights of a Clock which is the principle of their Life or to speak as others do of their Motion It behoves the Peripateticks to give those whom they stile Cartesians a clear Idea of what they call the Life of Beasts Corporeal Soul Body which Perceives and Desires Sees Feels Wills and then we shall clearly resolve their Difficulties if after that they shall persist in raising them ARGUMENT II. It were impossible to discover the Differences or Powers of the Elements So that Fire might refrigerate as Water and nothing would be of a settled and fix'd Nature ANSWER I answer That whilst Nature remains as it is that is to say whilst the Laws of the Communication of Motions remain constantly the same it is a Contradiction that Fire should not burn or separate the Parts of certain Bodies Fire cannot refrigerate like Water unless it becomes Water for Fire being only Fewel whose Parts have been violently agitated by an invisible surrounding Matter as is easie to demonstrate it is impossible its Parts should not Communicate some of their Motion to approaching Bodies Now as these Laws are constant the Nature of Fire its Virtues and Qualities are unchangeable But this Nature and these Vertues are only Consequences of the General and Efficacious Will of GOD who does all in all things Therefore the Study of Nature is in all respects false and vain when we look for other true Causes than the Wills of the ALMIGHTY I confess that we are not to have recourse to God or the Universal Cause when we require the Reason of particular Effects For we should be ridiculous to assert for Instance That GOD dries the Ways or Freezes the Water in the River We must say The Air dries the Earth because it moves and bears off the Water with it that dilutes it Or that the Air or the subtil Matter Freezes the River in Winter because at that time it communicates not sufficient Motion to the Parts that constitute the Water In a Word we must if we can assign the Natural and particular Cause of the Effects propos'd to Examination But because the Action of these Causes consists in the moving Force which actuates them which moving Force is the Will of GOD which create them we ought not to say they have in themselves a Force or Power to produce any Effects And when in Reasoning we are at last arriv'd to a general Effect of which we seek the Cause 't is no good Philosophy to imagine any other than the general And to feign a certain Nature a first Moveable and universal Soul or some such Chimera whereof we have no clear and distinct Idea would be to argue like an Heathen Philosopher For Example when we are ask'd whence it comes that some Bodies are in motion or that the agitated Air communicates its Motion to the Water or rather whence proceeds the mutual Protrusion of Bodies Motion and its Communication being a general Effect on which all others depend we cannot answer I do'nt say like Christians but Philosophers without ascending to God who is the Universal Cause Since 't is His Will that is the moving Force of Bodies and that regulates the Communication of their Motions Had he will'd there should be no new Production in the World he would not have put its Parts in motion And if hereafter He shall will the Incorruptibility of some of the Beings he had made he shall cease to will the Communication of Motions in point of those Beings ARGUMENT III. 'T is needless to Plow to Water and give several preparatory Dispositions to Bodies to fit them for what we desire from them For GOD has no need of preparing the Subjects on which he Works ANSWER I answer That GOD may do absolutely all he pleases without finding any Dispositions in the Subjects he works upon But he cannot do it without a Miracle or by Natural ways that is by the General Laws of the Communication of Motions which he has constituted and which he almost always follows in his Actings GOD never multiplies his Wills without Reason
but acts always by the simplest Ways and for that Reason he makes use of the Collision of Bodies in giving them Motion Not that this Collision is absolutely necessary to it as our Senses tell us but that being the Occasion of the Communication of Motions there need be but very few Natural Laws to produce all the admirable Effects we see For by this means we may reduce all the Laws of the Communication of Motions to one Viz. That percutient Bodies being considered as but one at the Moment of their Contact or Collision the moving Force is divided between them at their Separation according to the Proportion of their Magnitude But whereas concurrent Bodies are surrounded with infinite others which act upon them by Virtue and Efficacy of this Law however constant and uniform this Law be it produces a World of quite different Communications because it acts upon infinite Bodies which are all related to one another It is necessary to Water a Plant to make it grow because by the Laws of the Communication of Motions hardly any other than Watry Particles can by their Motion and by reason of their Figure insinuate and Wind up themselves into the Fibres of Plants and by variously fastning and combining together take the Figure that 's necessary to their Nourishment The subtil Matter which is constantly flowing from the Sun may by its agitating the Water lift it into the Plants but it has not a competent Motion to raise gross Earthy Particles Yet Earth and Air too are necessary to the Growth of Plants Earth to preserve the Water at their Root and Air to give this Water a Moderate Fermentation But the Action of the Sun the Air and Water consisting but in the Motion of their Parts in proper speaking GOD is the only Agent For as I have said there is none but He that can by the efficacy of his Will and by the Infinite Extent of his Knowledge cause and regulate those infinitely infinite Communications of Motions which are made every moment and in a Proportion infinitely exact and regular ARGUMENT IV. Can God resist and Fight against Himself Bodies justle strike and resist one another therefore Gods Acts not in them unless it be by his concourse For if it were he only that produc'd and preserv'd Motion in Bodies he would take care to divert them before the Collision as knowing well that they are impenetrable To what purpose are Bodies driven to be beaten back again why must they proceed to recoil Or what signifies it to produce and Preserve useless Motions Is it not an Absurdity to say that God impugns himself and that He destroys his Works when a Bull fights with a Lyon when a Wolf devours a Sheep and a Sheep eats the Grass which God makes to grow Therefore there are Second Causes ANSWER Therefore Second Causes do all and God does nothing at all For God cannot act against himself but Concourse is Action The concurring to contrary Actions is giving contrary Concourse and consequently doing contrary Actions To concur with the Action of Creatures that resist each other is to Act against himself To concur to useless Motions is to Act in vain But God does nothing needless or in vain he does no contrary Actions and therefore concurs not to the Action of Creatures that often destroy one another and makes useless Actions and Motions See where this proof of Second Causes leads us But let us see what Reason says to it God Works all in every thing and nothing resists him He Works all in all things in as much as his Will both makes and regulates all Motions And nothing resists him because he does what ever he Wills But let us see how this is to be conceiv'd Having resolv'd to produce by the simplest ways as most conformable to Order that infinite Variety of Creatures which we admire he will'd that Bodies should move in a right line because that is the most simple But Bodies being impenetrable and their Motions tending in Lines that oppose or intersect one another they must necessarily fall foul together and consequently cease moving in the same manner God foresaw this yet notwithstanding positively will'd the Collision or shock of Bodies not that he 's delighted in impugning himself but because he design'd to make use of this Collision as an Occasion for his establishing the General Law of the Communication of Motions by which he foresaw he must produce an infinite Variety of admirable Effects For I am perswaded that these two Natural Laws which are the simplest of all others Namely that All Motion tends to make it self in a right line and that in the Collision Motions are Communicated proportionably to the magnitude of the Colliding Bodies are sufficient to produce such a World as we see That is the Heaven and Stars and Planets and Comets Earth Water Air and Fire In a Word the Elements and all Unorganiz'd and inanimate Bodies For Organiz'd Bodies depend on many other Natural Laws which are perfectly unknown It may be living Bodies are not form'd like others by a determinate number of Natural Laws For there is great probability they were all form'd at the Creation of the World and that Time only gives them a necessary Growth to make them Visible to our Eyes Nevertheless it is certain they receive that Growth by the General Laws of Nature whereby all other Bodies are form'd which is the Reason that their Increase is not always Regular I say then that God by the first of Natural Laws positively Wills and consequently Causes the Collision of Bodies and afterwards imploys this Collision as an Occasion of establishing the Second Natural Law which regulates the Communication of Motions and that thus the actual Collision is the Natural or Occasional Cause of the Actual Communication of Motions If this be well consider'd it will be evidently acknowledg'd that nothing can be better Order'd But supposing that God had not so Ordain'd it and that he had diverted Bodies when ready to encounter as if there were a Vacuum to receive them First they would not be subject to that perpetual Vicissitude which makes the Beauty of the Universe For the Generation of some Bodies is perform'd by the Corruption of Others and 't is the contrariety of their Motion which produces their Variety Secondly God would not act in the most simple manner For if Bodies ready to meet should continue on their Motion without touching they must needs describe Lines curv'd in a thousand different Fashions and consequently different Wills must be admitted in God to determine their Motions Lastly if there were no Uniformity in the Action of Natural Bodies and that their Motion were not made in a right Line we should have no certain Principle for our Reasonings in natural Philosophy nor for our conduct in many Actions of our Life 'T is not a disorder that Lyons eat Wolves and that Wolves eat Sheep and Sheep grass of which God has had so
is because his Wisdom which in this respect is an Abyss to our apprehensions Wills it so Lastly 't is because this Conduct is more worthy of God than could be any other more favourable for the Reprobate For even they are condemn'd hy an Order as worthy our Adorations as that whereby the Elect are sanctified and sav'd And nothing but our Ignorance of Order and our Self-love make us blame a Conduct which the Angels and Saints eternally admire But let us return to the proofs of the efficacy of second Causes ARGUMENT V. If Bodies had not a certain Nature or Force to act with and if God did all things there would be nothing but what was Supernatural in the most ordinary effects The distinction of Natural and Supernatural which has been so well receiv'd in the World and establisht by the universal approbation of the Learn'd would be Chimerical and Extravagant ANSWER I answer that distinction is absurd in the Mouth of Aristotle since the Nature he has establisht is a meer Chimera I say that distinction is not clear in the mouth of the Vulgar part of Men who judge of things by the Impression they make upon their Senses For they know not precisely what they mean when they say the Fire burns by it's Nature I say that this distinction may pass in the mouth of a Divine if he means by natural Effects the consequences of the General Laws which God has settled for the production and preservation of all things And by supernatural Effects those which are independent on these Laws In this sense the Distinction is true But the Philosophy of Aristotle together with the Impression of the senses makes it as I think dangerous because it may divert from God the too respectful admirers of the Opinions of that wretched Philosopher or such as consult their senses instead of retiring into themselves to consult the Truth And therefore that distinction is not to be made use of without an Explication St. Austin having us'd the word fortune retracted it though there are few that could be deceiv'd by it St. Paul speaking of meats offer'd to Idols advertises that an Idol is nothing If the Nature of the Heathen Philosophy be a fiction if that nature be nothing it should be precaution'd for that there are many who are abus'd by it And more than we suppose who inconsiderately attribute to it the Works of God who are taken up with this Idol or fiction of the Humane mind and pay it those Honours which are only due to the Divinity They are willing to let God be Author of Miracles and some Extraordinary effects which in one sense are little worthy of his Greatness and Wisdom and they refer to the Power of their Imaginary nature those constant and regular Effects which none but the Wise know how to admire They suppose too that this so wonderful disposition which all living Bodies have to preserve themselves and beget their like is a production of their Nature For according to these Philosophers the Sun and Man beget a Man We may still distinguish between supernatural and natural Order several ways For we may say that the supernatural relates to future Goods that it is establish't upon consideration of the merits of CHRIST that it is the first and principal in the designs of God and other things enough to preserve a distinction which they are vainly apprehensive should fall to the ground ARGUMENT VI. The main proof which is brought by the Philosophers for the Efficacy of second Causes is drawn from the will and liberty of Man Man wills and determines of himself But to Will and Determine is to Act. 'T is certainly Man who commits Sin God not being the Author of it any more than of Concupiscence and Error Therefore Man acts ANSWER I have sufficiently explain'd in several Places of the Treatise about the Search of Truth what is the Will and Liberty of Man and especially in the first Chapter of the first Book and in the first Illustration upon it so that it is needless to repeat it again I acknowledge Man Wills and Determines himself in as much as God causes him to Will incessantly carries him towards good and gives him all the Idea's and Sensations by which he determines his Impression I know likewise that Man alone commits Sin But I deny that therein he does any thing For Sin Errour and even Concupiscence are nothing I have explain'd my self upon this Point in the first Illustration Man wills but his Volitions are impotent in themselves they produce nothing and God works all notwithstanding them For 't is even God that makes our Will by the Impression he gives us towards Good All that Man has from himself are Errour and Sin which are nothing There is a great difference between our Minds and Bodies that are about us I grant Our Mind in one sense Wills Acts and Determines it self Our own inward Consciousness is an evident Conviction If we were destitute of Liberty there could be no future Recompence and Punishment for 't is our Liberty that makes our Actions good or bad and without it Religion would be but a Phantasm and a Dream But that which we cannot see clearly is That Bodies have a force of Acting This it is we cannot comprehend and this we deny when we deny the Efficacy of Second Causes Even the Mind acts not in that measure which is imagin'd I know that I will and that I Will freely I have no Reason to doubt of it which is stronger than that inward feeling I have of my self Nor do I deny it but I deny that my Will is the true Cause of the Motion of my Arm of the Idea's of my Mind and of other things which accompany my Volitions For I see no Relation between so different things Nay I most clearly see there can be no Analogy between my Will to move my Arm and the Agitation of some little Bodies whose Motion and Figure I do not know which make choice of certain Nervous Canals amongst a Million of others unknown to me in Order to cause in me the Motion I desire by a World of Motions which I desire not I deny that my Will produces in me my Idea's I cannot see how 't is possible it should for since it cannot Act or Will without Knowledge it supposes my Idea's but does not make them Nay I do not so much as know precisely what an Idea is I cannot tell whether we produce them out of nothing and send them back to the same nothing when we cease to perceive them I speak after the Notion of some Persons I produce you 'll say my Idea's by the Faculty which God gives me of Thinking I move my Arm because of the Union which God has establish'd between my Mind and Body Faculty Vnion are Logical Terms of loose and indeterminate Signification There is no particular Being nor Mode of Being which is either Faculty or Vnion Therefore
these Terms ought to be explain'd If you 'll say that the Union of my Mind and Body consists in God's willing That upon my Desire to move my Arm the Animal Spirits should betake themselves to the Muscles it is compos'd of to move it in the manner desir'd I clearly understand this Explication and receive it But this is exactly my own Assertion For if my Will determine that of God 't is evident that my Arm is mov'd not by my Will which is impotent of it self but by the Will of God which never fails of its Effect But if it be said The Union of my Mind and Body consists in God's giving me a Force to move my Arm as he has given my Body likewise a Force of making me feel Pleasure and Pain to the end I may be sollicitous for this Body and be concern'd for its Preservation certainly this is to suppose the thing in dispute and to make a Circle No Man has a clear Idea of that Force which the Soul has over the Body or the Body over the Soul nor knows very well what he says when he positively asserts it That Opinion has been embrac'd through Prejudice has been learn'd in Infancy and in the Age of Sense But Understanding Reason and Reflexion have no part in it which is manifest enough from what I have said in the foregoing Treatise But you 'll say I know by my inward Conscience of my Action that I really have this Force and therefore am not mistaken in believing it I answer That when I move my Arm I am conscious to my self of the Actual Volition by which I move it and I err not in believing I have that Volition I have moreover an inward Sense of a certain Effort or Endeavour which accompanies this Volition and it is to believ'd that I make this Endeavour Last of all I grant that I have an inward feeling of the Motion of my Arm at the instant of this Effort which suppos'd I agree to what is said That the Motion of the Arm is perform'd at the instant a Man feels this Effort or has a practical Volition of moving his Arm. But I deny that this Effort which is no more than a Modification or Sensation of the Soul which is given us to make us understand our Weakness and to afford us a confus'd and obscure Sensation of our Strength can be capable of moving and determining the Spirits I deny there is any Analogy or Proportion between our Thoughts and the Motions of Matter I deny that the Soul has the least Knowledge of the Animal Spirits which she imploys to move the Body Animated by her Last of all Though the Soul exactly knew the Animal Spirits and were capable of moving them or determining their Motions yet I deny that with all this she could make choice of these Ductus of the Nerves of which she has no Knowledge so as to drive the Spirits into them and thereby move the Body with that Readiness Exactness and Force as is observable even in those who are the least acquainted with the Structure of their Body For supposing that our Volitions are truly the moving Force of Bodies howbeit that seems inconceivable how can we conceive the Soul moves her Body The Arm for Example is mov'd by means of an inflation or contraction caus'd by the Spirits in some of the Muscles that compose it But to the end the Motion imprinted by the Soul on the Spirits in the Brain may be Communicated to those in the Nerves and from thence to others in the Muscles of the Arm the Volitions of the Soul must needs multiply or change in proportion to those almost infinite shocks or Collisions that are made by the little Bodies that constitute the Spirits But this is inconceivable without admitting in the Soul an infinite number of Volitions upon the least Motion of the Body since the moving it would necessarily demand an innumerable multitude of Communications of Motions For in short the Soul being but a particular Cause and not able to know exactly the degrees of agitation and the dimensions of infinite little Corpuscles which encounter upon the dispersion of the Spirits into the Muscles she could not settle a General Law for the Communication of these Spirits Motion nor follow it exactly if she had establish't it Thus it is evident the Soul could not move her Arm although she had the Power of determining the Motion of the Animal Spirits These things are too clear to be longer insisted on The case is the same with our Thinking Faculty We are inwardly conscious that we Will the Thinking on something that we make an effort to that purpose and that in the Moment of our desire and effort the Idea of the thing presents it self to our Mind but our inward Sensation does not tell us that our Will or Effort produces our Idea Reason does not assure us that it 's possible and only prejudice makes us believe that our desires are the causes of our Ideas whilst we experiment an hundred times a Day that the latter accompany or pursue the former As God and his Operations have nothing sensible in them and as we are not conscious of any thing but our desires that precede the presence of our Ideas so we do not think our Ideas can have any other cause than these desires But view the thing closely and we shall see no force in us to produce them neither Reason nor Conscience giving us any information thereupon I don't think my self oblig'd to transcribe all the other proofs employ'd by the patrons for the Efficacy of Second Causes Because they seem so trifling that I might be thoughts to design to render them Ridiculous And I should make my self so if I gave them a Serious Answer An Author for Example very gravely asserts in behalf of his Opinion Created Beings are true Material Formal Final Causes why must not they likewise be Efficient or Efficacious I fancy I should give the World little satisfaction if to answer this Gentlemans Question I should stand to explain so gross an Ambiguity and show the difference between an Efficacious cause and that which the Philosophers are pleas'd to call material Therefore I leave such arguments as these to come to those which are drawn from Holy-Writ ARGUMENT VII The Defenders of the Efficacay of Second Causes commonly alledge the following Passages to support their Opinion Let the Earth bring forth Grass Let the Waters bring forth the moving Creature that hath Life and Fowl that may fly c. Therefore the Earth and Water by the Word of God receiv'd the Power of producing Plants and Animals Afterwards God Commanded the Fowls and Fishes to multiply Be fruitful and multiply and fill the Waters in the Seas and let Fowl multiply in the Earth Therefore he gave them a Power of begetting their like Our Saviour in the fourth Chapter of St. Mark says the Seed which falls on good Ground brings forth
their Operation So likewise in point of free Causes I believe that God incessantly gives the Mind an Impression towards Good in General and that he moreover determines this Impression towards particular Goods by the Idea's or Sensations that he gives us as I have explain'd in the first Illustration which is the same with what the Divines intend by affirming That God moves and prevents our Wills Thus the Force which puts our Minds in Motion is the Will of God which Animates us and inclines us towards Good For God Creates not Beings to constitute the moving force of Minds for the same Reason that he Creates none to be the moving force of Bodies The Wills of God being of themselves Efficacious He need but Will to do And we ought not to multiply Beings without necessity Besides whatever is real in the determinations of our Motions proceeds likewise from the Action of God in us as appears from the first Illustration But all we Act or produce is by our Wills that is by the Impression of the Will of God which is our moving force For our Wills are Efficacious no farther than they are of God as mov'd Bodies impel not others but in as much as they have a moving force that translates them which is no other than the Will of God which Creates or preserves them successively in different places Therefore we Act no otherwise than by the Concourse of God and our Action consider'd as Efficacious and capable of producing any Effect differs not from his but is as say most Divines the self same Action eadem numero actio Now all the Changes which arrive in the World have no other Natural Cause than the Motions of Bodies and Volitions of Minds For First by the General Laws of the Communications of Motions the invisible Bodies which surround the visible produce by their various Motions all these divers Changes whose Cause is not apparent And Secondly by the Laws of Union of our Soul and Body when circumambient Bodies Act upon our own they produce in our Soul a multiplicity of Sensations Idea's and Passions Thirdly Our Mind by its Volitions produces in it self infinite different Idea's for they are our Volitions which as Natural Causes intend and Modifie our Mind Their Efficacy nevertheless proceeds from the Laws which God has establish'd And Lastly when our Soul acts upon our Body she produces several Changes in it by vertue of the Laws of her Union with it and by means of our Body she effects in those about it abundance of Changes by vertue of the Laws of Communication of Motions So that the Motions of Bodies and the Volitions of Minds are the only Natural or Occasional Causes of Natural Effects which no Man will deny who uses any Attention supposing only he be not prepossest by those who understand not what they say who fancy perpetually to themselves such Beings as they have no clear Idea's of and who offer to explain things which they do not understand by others absolutely incomprehensible Thus having shown that God by his Concourse or rather by his Efficacious Will performs whatever is done by the Motions of Bodies and the Wills of Minds as Natural or Occasional Causes it appears that God does every thing by the same Action of the Creature Not that the Creatures have of themselves any Efficacious Action but that the Power of God is in a manner Communicated to them by the Natural Laws which God has establish'd on their account This then is all that I can do to reconcile my Thoughts to the Opinion of those Divines who defend the necessity of immediate Concourse and hold that God does All in all things by an Action no ways differing from the Creatures For as to the rest of the Divines I think their Opinions utterly indefensible and especially that of Durandus together with the Sentiments of some of the Ancients refuted by St. Austin who absolutely deniâd the necessity of God's Concurrence pretending that Second Causes did all things by the Power which God in their Creation gave them For though this Opinion be less intricate and perplex'd than that of other Divines yet to me it seems so repugnant to Scripture and so suitable to Prejudices to say no worse of it that I think it altogether unwarrantable I confess that the School-Men who make God's immediate concourse to be the same Action with that of the Creatures do not perfectly agree with my Explication and all those that I have read except Biel and Cardinal d' Ailly are of Opinion That the Efficacy which produces Effects proceeds from the Second Cause as well as the First But as I make it indispensable for me to speak nothing but what I clearly conceive and always to take the side that best comports with Religion I think I am not liable to blame for deserting an Opinion which to many Men seems still more inconceiveable as they strive more to comprehend it and for establishing another which agrees perfectly not only with Reason but also with the Sacredness of our Religion and Christian Morality which is a Truth already prov'd in the Chapter that 's the Subject of these Reflexions However 't is not inconvenient to say something to it that I may fully verifie what I have said upon the present Question Both Reason and Religion evince That God will be Lov'd and rever'd by his Creatures Lov'd as Good and Rever'd as Power Which is such a Truth as it would be Impiety and Madness to doubt of To love God as he requires and deserves we must according to the First Commandment both of the Law and Gospel and by Reason it self as I have somewhere shown Love Him with all our Strength or with the whole extent of our Loving Capacity 'T is not sufficient to prefer Him before all things unless we moreover Love Him in all things For otherwise our Love is not so perfect as it ought to be and we return not to God all the Love that he gives us and gives us only for Himself in whom every one of His Actions Center So to render to God all the Reverence that is due to Him 't is not enough to adore Him as the Supreme Power and fear Him more than His Creatures we must likewise fear and adore Him in all His Creatures all our respects must perpetually tend towards Him to whom alone Honour and Glory are to be ascrib'd Which is what God Commands us in these Words Thou shalt Love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy Strength And in these Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve Thus the Philosophy that convinces us that the Efficacy of Second Causes is a Fiction of the Mind that the Nature of Aristotle and some other Philosophers is a Chimera that none but God is Strong and Powerful enough not only to Act on our Soul but even to give the
least Motion to Matter This Philosophy I say perfectly Accommodates with Religion whose end is to Unite us to God in the strictest Bonds 'T is Customary with us to Love only those things which are capable of doing us some Good This Philosophy therefore Authorises only the Love of God and Condemns the Love of every thing else We ought to fear nothing but what is able to do us some Evil. Therefore this Philosophy approves the fear of God and absolutely Condemns all other Thus it justifies all the just and Reasonable Motions of our Soul and Condemns all those that are contrary to Reason and Religion For we can never justifie the Love of Riches the desire of Greatness the Extravagance of Debauchery by this Philosophy by the Principles whereof the Love for Bodies is absurd and ridiculous 'T is an indisputable Truth 't is a Natural Opinion 't is even a Common Notion that we ought to Love the cause of our Pleasure and to Love it proportionably to the Felicity it either Actually does or is able to possess us with 'T is not only just but as it were necessary that the cause of our happiness should be the Object of our Love Therefore this Philosophy will teach us to Love God only as being the only Cause of our Felicity That surrounding Bodies cannot Act upon that we Animate and consequently much less upon our Mind That 't is not the Sun which enlightens us and gives us Life and Motion Nor that fills the Earth with Fruits and Beautifies it with Flowers and supplies us with Food and Nourishment This Philosophy seconding the Scripture teaches that 't is God alone who gives us Rain and Regulates the Seasons that fills our Bodies with Food and our hearts with Joy that he alone is able to do us good and thereby has given a perpetual Testimony of what he is though in the ages passed he suffer'd all Nations to walk in their own ways According to the Language of this Philosophy we must not say that 't is Nature that fills us with good nor that it is God and Nature together But that it is God alone speaking thus without Ambiguity for fear of deceiving the Ignorant For we must distinctly acknowledge one cause of our happiness if we we make it the only Object of our Love 'T is likewise an undeniable Truth That we ought to fear things that are able to harm us and to fear them in Proportion to the Evil they can do us But this Philosophy teaches us that God only can do us evil that 't is he as says Isaiah who forms the Light and creates Darkness who makes Peace and creates Evil and there is no Evil but what he does as says the Prophet Amos. Therefore it is he only that is to be fear'd We must not fear either Plague or War or Famine or our Enemies or even Devils themselves But God alone We ought to shun the Sword when we see a Blow a coming we are to fly the Fire and avoid a ruinous House that 's ready to crush us but we must not fear these things We may fly from those Bodies which are the Occasional or Natural Causes of Evil but we must fear God as the true Cause of all the misfortunes of Sinners and hate only Sin which necessarily provokes the cause of our Happiness to become the Cause of our Misery In a Word all the Motions of our Mind must center upon God since he alone 's above it and the Motions of our Body may relate to the Bodies round it This is what we learn from that Philosophy that admits not the Efficacy of Second Causes But this Efficacy being suppos'd I cannot see but we have reason to fear and Love Bodies and that to regulate our Love by Reason we need but prefer God before all things the First and Vniversal to every Second and Particular Cause We can see no need of Loving him with all our Strength Ex totâ mente ex toto corde ex totâ animâ ex totis viribus as says the Scripture Yet when a Man contents himself in preferring God to all things and adoring him with a Worship and a Love of Preference without making a continual Effort to Love and Honour him in all things It often fortunes that he deceives himself that his Charity vanishes and is lost And that he is more taken up with sensible than the supream Good For should it be demanded of the greatest Sinners and even Idolaters whether they preferr'd the universal to particular Causes they would make no scruple to answer amidst their Debauches Errours and Extravagance that they are not wanting to their essential Duty and that they are very sensible of what they owe to God 'T is acknowledg'd that they are deceiv'd But take away the Efficacy of Second Causes and they have no probable Pretext left to justifie their Conduct and Behaviour whilst if it be granted them they will think and Discourse with themselves in the following manner when blinded by their Passions and attentive to the Testimony of their Senses I am made for Happiness Neitheir can I nor indeed ought I to supersede my Love and Respect for whatever can be the Cause of my Felicity Why then must not I Love and respect sensible Objects if they be the true Causes of the Happiness I find in their Enjoyment I acknowledge the Sovereign Being as only worthy of Sovereign Worship and I prefer Him before all the World But since I see not that He requires any thing from me I enjoy the Goods he affords by Means of Second Causes to which he has subjected me And I pay not my Gratitude to him which perhaps would be to his Dishonour As he gives me no Blessing immediately and by himself or at least without the Assistance of his Creatures 't is a Sign he requires not the immediate Application of my Mind and Heart at least that he desires the Creatures should partake with him in the Acknowledgments and Resentments of my Heart and Mind Seeing he has communicated Part of his Power and Glory to the Sun has environ'd him with Splendour and Majesty and has given him the Supremacy in all his Works and seeing from the Influence of this great Luminary we receive all the necessary Blessings of Life Why should we not employ a part of this indebted Life in rejoicing in his Light and testifying the Sense we have of his Greatness and his Benefits Wou'd it not be the most shameful Ingratitude to receive from that excellent Creature abundance of all things and yet to shew no Sense of Gratitude to him for them And should we not be unspeakably blind and stupid to be unmov'd with Fear and Veneration in Respect of him whose Absence freezes us to Death and whose too near Approach can burn and destroy us I say it again that God is preferable to all things and infinitely more estimable than his Creatures But we are to fear and Love
be enquir'd why GOD who so loves the Glory he receives in the Establishment of His Church had not begun it many Ages before Thus it suffices to say That an Eternity ought to forego the Incarnation of the WORD to manifest why this Great Mystery was accomplish'd neither sooner nor later GOD then must have created the Universe for the Church and the Church for JESUS CHRIST and JESUS CHRIST that He might find in Him a Sacrifice and High-Priest worthy of the Divine Majesty We shall not doubt of this Order of the Designs of GOD if it be observ'd that He can have no other End of his Actions than Himself And if it be conceiv'd that Eternity does not belong to Creatures we shall acknowledge they were produc'd when 't was requisite they should be Which Truths suppos'd let us try to discover something in the Method GOD takes for the Execution of His Grand Design VII Were I not persuaded that all Men are no farther Reasonable than enlightned by Eternal Wisdom it would no doubt be great Temerity to speak of the Designs of GOD and offer to discover any of His Ways in the Production of His Work But whereas it is certain that the word Eternal is the Universal Reason of Minds and that by the Light which he continually sheds in us we may have some Communication with GOD I ought not to be blam'd for consulting that Light which though Consubstantial with GOD Himself fails not to answer those who know how to enquire of it by a serious Attention VIII However I confess that Faith teaches a great many Truths not discoverable by the natural Union of the Mind with Reason Eternal Truth answers not to all we ask since we ask sometimes more than we can receive But this must not serve for a Pretence to justifie our Laziness and Inapplication IX Vulgar Heads are soon wearied with the Natural Prayer the Mind by its Attention ought to make to inward Truth in order to receive Light and Understanding from it and thus fatigu'd by that painful Exercise they talk of it in a contemptuous manner They dishearten one another and cover their Weakness and Ignorance under the delusive Appearances of a counterfeit Humility X. But their Example is not to infuse into us that agreeable Vertue which cherishes Carelessness and Negligence in the Mind and comforts it under its Ignorance of most necessary Truths We must pray constantly to Him who enlightens all Men That he will bestow His Light upon us recompence our Faith with the Gift of Understanding and especially to prevent us from mistaking Probability and confus'd Sensations which precipitate proud Minds into Darkness and Errour for the Evidence which accompanies His Resolves XI When we design to speak of GOD with any exactness we must not consult our selves nor the vulgar part of Men but elevate our Thoughts above all Creatures and with great Reverence and Attention consult the vast and immense Idea of a Being infinitely perfect which representing the true GOD very different from what the Vulgar fancy Him to themselves we are not to treat of Him in popular Language Every Body is allow'd to say with the Scripture that GOD Repented Him that He created Man that He was Angry with his People that he deliver'd Israel from Captivity by the Strength of His Arm. But these or the like Expressions are not permitted Divines when they should speak accurately and justly Therefore 't is not to be wondred if in the Sequel of Discourse my Expression shall be found uncommon It ought rather to be carefully observ'd whether they be clear and perfectly adapted to the Idea which all Men have of an Infinitely Perfect Being XII This Idea of a Being infinitely perfect includes two Attributes absolutely necessary to the Creation of the World an unlimited Wisdom and an irresistible Power The Wisdom of GOD affords infinite Ideas of different Works and all possible Ways for the executing His Designs and His Power renders Him so absolutely Master of all things and so independent of all Assistances whatever that He need but Will to execute what he Wills For we must above all take notice that GOD needs no Instruments to work with that His Wills are necessarily efficacious in a Word that as His Wisdom is His own Understanding His Power is no other than His Will Among these innumerable Ways whereby GOD might have executed His Design let us see which was preferable to all other and let us begin with the Creation of this Visible World from which and in which He forms the Invisible which is the Eternal Object of His Love XIII An excellent Artist ought to proportion his Action to his Work he does not that by Ways compound which may be perform'd by more simple he acts not without End and never makes insignificant Essays Whence we are to conclude that GOD discovering in the infinite Treasures of His Wisdom an Infinity of possible Worlds as necessary Consequences of the Laws of Motion which he could establish was determin'd to the Creation of that which might be produc'd and preserv'd by the simplest Laws or which should be the perfectest that could be considering the simplicity of the Ways necessary to its Production and Preservation XIV GOD might doubtless have made a perfecter World than that we inhabit He might for Instance have caus'd the Rain which fecundates the Earth to have fallen more regularly on Plow'd Lands than in the Sea where it is not necessary But in order to this He must have chang'd the Simplicity of His Ways and have multiplied the Laws of the Communications of Motions by which our World subsists and so there would not have been that Proportion between the Action of GOD and His Work which is necessary to determine an infinitely wise Being to act or at least there would not have been the same Proportion between the Action of GOD and this so perfect World as there is between the Laws of Nature and the World we inhabit For our World imagine it as imperfect as you will is sounded on so Simple and Natural Laws of Motion as make it perfectly worthy of the infinite Wisdom of its Author And indeed I am of Opinion that the Laws of Motion necessary to the Production and Preservation of the Earth and all the Stars in the Heavens are reduc'd to these Two First That mov'd Bodies tend to continue their Motion in a right line Secondly That when two Bodies meet their Motion is distributed to each in proportion to their Magnitude so that after the Collision they ought to move with equal degrees of Celerity These two Laws are the Cause of all those Motions which produce that variety of Forms which we admire in Nature XVI 'T is own'd notwithstanding that the second is âever manifestly observable in the Experiments that can be made upon the Subject but that comes from our seeing only what happens in visible Bodies and our not thinking on the invisible that surround
them which by the Efficacy of the same Law giving the Elasticity to visible Bodies oblige them to rebound and hinder them from observing it But this I ought not to explain more at length XVII Now these two Laws are so Simple so Natural and at the same time so Fruitful that though we had no other Reason to conclude they are observ'd in Nature we should be induc'd to believe them establish'd by Him who works always by the simplest Ways in whose Action there is nothing but what 's so justly uniform and wisely proportion'd to his Work that He does infinite Wonders by a very small Number of Wills XVIII It fares not so with the General Cause as with the Particular with infinite Wisdom as with limited Understandings GOD foreseeing before the Establishment of Natural Laws all that could follow from them ought not to have constituted them if He was to disannul them The Laws of Nature are constant and immutable and general for all Times and Places Two Bodies of such degrees of Magnitude and Swiftness meeting rebound so now as they did heretofore If the Rain falls upon some Grounds and the Sun scorches others if a seasonable Time for Harvest is follow'd by a destructive Hail if an Infant comes into the World with a monstrous and useless Head growing from his Breast that makes him wretched this proceeds not from the particular Wills of GOD but from the Settlement of the Laws of Communication of Motions whereof these Effects are necessary Consequences Laws at once so simple and so fruitful that they serve to produce all we see Noble in the World and even to repair in a little time the most general Barrenness and Mortality XIX He that having built an House throws one Wing of it down that he may rebuild it betrays his Ignorance and he who having planted a Vine plucks it up as soon as it has taken root manifests his Levity because he that wills and unwills wants either Knowledge or Resolution of Mind But it cannot be said that GOD acts either by this Freakishness or Ignorance when a Child comes into the World with superfluous Members that make him leave it again or that an Hail-stone breaks off a Fruit half ripe If he causes this 't is not because he wills and unwills for GOD acts not like particular Causes by particular Wills nor has he establish'd the Laws of the Communications of Motions with design to produce Monsters or to make Fruit fall before Maturity it not being their Sterility but Fecundity for which He will'd these Laws Therefore what He once will'd He still wills and the World in general for which these Laws were constituted will eternally subsist XX. 'T is here to be observ'd That the Essential Rule of the Will of GOD is Order and that if Man for example had not sinn'd a Supposition which had quite chang'd the Designs then Order not suffering him to be punish'd the Natural Laws of the Communications of Motions would never have been capable to incommodate his Felicity For the Law of Order which requires that a righteous Person should suffer nothing against his Will being Essential to GOD the Arbitrary Law of the Communication of Motions must have been necessarily subservient to it XXI There are still some uncommon Instances where these General Laws of Motions ought to cease to produce their Effect not that GOD changes or corrects His Laws but that some Miracles must happen on particular Occasions by the Order of Grace which ought to supersede the Order of Nature Besides 't is fit Men should know that GOD is so Master of Nature that if He submits it to His Laws establish'd 't is rather because He wills it so than by an absolute Necessity XXII If then it be true that the General Cause ought not to produce His Work by particular Wills and that GOD ought to settle certain constant and invariable Laws of the Communication of Motions by the Efficacy whereof He foresaw the World might subsist in the State we find it in one Sense it may be most truly said that GOD desires all his Creatures should be perfect that He wills not the Abortion of Children nor loves monstrous Productions nor has made the Laws of Nature with design of causing them and that if it were possible by ways so simple to make and preserve a perfecter World He would never have establish'd those Laws whereof so great a Number of Monsters are the necessary Results But that it would have been unworthy His Wisdom to multiply His Wills to prevent some particular Disorders which by their Diversity make a kind of Beauty in the Universe XXIII GOD has given to every Seed a Cicatricle which contains in Miniature the Plant and Fruit another Cicatricle adjoining to the former which contains the Root of the Plant which Root contains another Root still whose imperceptible Branches expand themselves into the two Lobes or Meal of the Seed Does not this manifest that in one most real Sense He designs all Seeds should produce their like For why should He have given to those Grains of Corn He design'd should be barren all the Parts requisite to render them Fecund Nevertheless Rain being necessary to make them thrive and this falling on the Earth by General Laws which distribute it not precisely on well manur'd Grounds and in the fittest Seasons all these Grains come not to good or if they do the Hail or some other mischievous Accident which is a Necessary Consequence of these same Natural Laws prevents their earing Now GOD having constituted these Laws might be said to will the Fecundity of some Seeds rather than others if we did not otherwise know that it not becoming a General Cause to work by Particular Wills nor an infinitely wise Being by Complicated Ways GOD ought not to take other Measures than He has done for the Regulating the Rains according to Time and Place or by the Desire of the Husbandman Thus much is suffiâient for the Order of Nature Let us explain that of Grace a little more at large and especially remember that 't is the same Wisdom and the same Will in a word the same GOD who has establish'd them both PART II. Of the Necessity of the General Laws of GRACE XXIV GOD loving Himself by the Necessity of His Being and willing to procure an Infinite Glory and Honour on all Hands worthy of himself consults His Wisdom for the accomplishing His Desires This Divine Wisdom fill'd with Love for Him from whom He receives His Being by an Eternal and Ineffable Generation seeing nothing in all possible Creatures worthy of the Majesty of His Father offers Himself to establish to His Honour an Eternal Worship and to present Him as High Priest a Sacrifice which through the Dignity of His Person should be capable of contenting Him He represents to Him infinite Models for the Temple to be rais'd to His Glory and at the same time all possible Ways to execute His Designs
as Jesus Christ alone can merit Grace for us so it is he alone that can administer Occasions to the General Laws by which it is distributed to Men. For the Principle or Foundation of these General Laws or that which determines their Efficacy being necessarily either in us or in Jesus Christ since it is certain that it is not in us it must needs be found in him VIII Besides when Man had sinn'd did it behoove God to have any more regard to his Desires Being we are all in a disorder'd State we can no longer be an Occasion of God's shewing us Favour But a Mediatour was needful not only to give us Access towards God but to be the Occasional Cause of the Favours we hope from him IX Whereas God had a Design of making his Son the Head of his Church it was requisite he should constitute him the Occasional or Natural Cause of the Grace which sanctifies it For 't is the Head which communicates Life and Motion to the Limbs and with that Prospect God permitted Sin For if Man had continued in Innocence as his Will had been meritorious of Grace and even of Glory so the inviolable Laws of Order would have requir'd that God should have appointed in Man the Occasional Cause of his Perfection and his Happiness In so much that Jesus Christ would not have been the Head of the Church or at most had been but the Head of those Influences which all the Members might have easily dispens'd with X. If our Soul were in our Body before it was form'd and if by her diverse Volitions all the Parts which compose it were rang'd and postur'd with how many various Sensations and different Motions would she be touch'd upon consideration of all the Effects which were to follow her Volitions Especially if she were extremely desirous of forming the most vigorous and best made Body pobssile XI Now Holy Scripture does not only say that Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church but also that he begets it and fashions it and gives it increase that he suffers merits acts and influences continually in it The Zeal which Jesus Christ has for his Father's Glory and the Love he bears to his Church constantly suggest to him the Desire of making it the most ample the most magnificent and the perfectest that can be Therefore as the Soul of Jesus has not an infinite Capacity and yet would endow his Church with infinite Beauties and Ornaments we have all reason to believe that there is in his holy Soul a continual Chain of Thoughts and Desires with reference to the mystical Body which he constantly forms XII Now they are these continual Desires of the Soul of Jesus that tend to sanctifie his Church and render it worthy of his Father's Majesty which God has establish'd the Occasional Causes of the Efficacy of the general Laws of Grace For we are taught by Faith that God hath given his Son an absolute Power over Men in constituting him Head of his Church which yet cannot be conceiv'd unless the several Volitions of Jesus Christ are follow'd by their Effects For 't is manifest I should have no Power over my Arm if it mov'd when I would not have it and remain'd dead and motionless when I desir'd to move it XIII This Sovereign Power Jesus Christ has merited over Men as also that Quality of Head of the Church by the Sacrifice he offer'd upon Earth on full Possession of which Right he entred after his Resurrection 'T is now that he is High Priest of future Goods and that He by his diverse Desires prays indefatigably for Men to the Father And since his Desires are Occasional Causes his Prayers are always heard His Father denies him nothing as the Scripture assures us and yet his Prayers and Desires are necessary to obtain Because Occasional Physical Natural Causes for these three Terms have here the same Signification have no Power of themselves and all the Creatures even Jesus Christ consider'd as Man are in themselves but Weakness and Impotence XIV Therefore the Soul of Jesus having a Succession of various Thoughts with reference to the diverse Dispositions whereof Souls in general are capable has these Thoughts attended with certain Desires relating to the Sanctification of these Souls Which Desires being Occasional Causes of Grace ought to shed it on those Persons in particular whose Dispositions resemble that which the Soul of Jesus Christ actually thinks on and this Grace ought to be so much stronger and more abundant as his Desires are more strong and lasting XV. When a Person considers any Part of his Body that is not form'd as it ought to be he naturally has certain Desires relating to it and to the Use he would make of it in a sociable Life which Desires are prosecuted with certain insensible Motions of the Animal Spirits and tend to the posturing or proportioning it in a due manner When the Body is quite form'd and the Flesh is grown solid and consistent these Motions cannot change the Contexture of the Parts but only give them certain Dispositions which we call Corporeal Habits But when the Body is not completely form'd and the Flesh is extremely soft and tender these Motions which accompany the Desires of the Soul not only give the Body particular Dispositions but also change its Construction Which is sufficiently manifest in Children unborn For they are not only mov'd with the same Passions as their Mothers but also receive on their Bodies the Marks of these Passions from which their Mothers are always exempt XVI The Mystical Body of Jesus Christ is not yet grown into a Perfect Man nor will be till the Accomplishment of Ages but he continually is forming it For he is the Head which gives all the Members their increase by the Efficacy of his Influence according to the proportion convenient for each to the end it may be form'd and edified by Charity Which are Truths we are taught by St. Paul Now since Jesus Christ has no other Action than the diverse Motions of his Will 't is necessary that his Desires should be follow'd with the Influence of Grace which only can form him in his Members and give them that Beauty and Proportion which ought to be the Eternal Object of Divine Love XVII The diverse Motions of the Soul of Jesus being the Occasional Causes of Grace we need not wonder if it be sometimes given to the greatest Sinners or to Persons that make no use of it For the Soul of Jesus desiring to raise a Temple of a vast Extent and of infinite Beauty may wish that Grace may be given to the greatest Sinners and if in that Moment Jesus Christ thinks actually on the Covetous for Instance the Covetous shall receive Grace Or Jesus Christ wanting for the Construction of his Church Minds of a certain Character commonly not attainable but by those who suffer certain Persecutions whereof the Passions of Men are the natural
Principle In a word Jesus Christ needing Minds of particular Dispositions for the causing particular Effects may in general apply to them and by that Application infuse into them sanctifying Grace As the Mind of a Projector thinks in general of square Stones when these Stones are actually necessary to his Building XVIII But the Soul of Jesus being not a general Cause we have reason to think it has often particular Desires in regard to particular Persons When we intend to speak of God we must not consult our selves and make him act like us but consider the Idea of a Being infinitely perfect and make God act according to that Idea But in speaking of the Action of the Soul of Jesus we may look into our selves and make him act like particular Causes For Example We have reason to believe that the Conversion of St. Paul was owing to the Efficacy of a particular Desire of Jesus Christ. And we are to look upon the Desires of the Soul of Jesus which have a general respect to Minds of a certain Character as particular Desires though they comprehend many Persons because these Desires change daily like those of particular Causes But the general Laws by which God acts are always the same because the Wills of God ought to be firm and constant by reason that his Wisdom is infinite XIX The diverse Desires of the Soul of Jesus distributing Grace we clearly conceive why it is not equally dispers'd to all Men and why bestow'd on some more abundantly at one time than another For his Soul not thinking on all Men at once cannot at the same time have all the Desires whereof it is capable So that he acts not on his Members in a particular manner except by successive Influences as the Soul moves not at once all the Muscles of our Body For the Animal Spirits are unequally and successively distributed into our Members according to the various Impressions of Objects the diverse Motions of our Passions and the several Desires we freely excite within us XX. True it is that all the Righteous constantly receive the Influence of their Head which gives them Life and that when they act by the Spirit of Jesus Christ they merit and receive new Graces though it be not necessary that the Soul of Jesus should have any particular Desires as the occasional Causes of them For Order which requires that every Desert should be rewarded is not an arbitrary but a necessary Law and independent from any occasional Cause But though he who performs a meritorious Action may be rewarded for it whilst the Soul of Jesus has no actual Desires relating to him yet 't is certain that he merited not this Grace but by the Dignity and Sanctity of the Spirit which Christ has communicated to him For Men are not well-pleasing to God nor able to do good but in as much as they are united to his Son by Charity XXI It must be farther acknowledg'd that those who observe the Counsels of Jesus Christ out of an Esteem they have for them and through the Fear of future Punishment sollicite as I may say by their Obedience the Charity of Christ to think on them though they act from a Principle of Self-love But their Actions are not the Occasional Causes either of Grace since it does not infallibly follow them or even of the Motions of the Soul of Jesus in their Favour since these Motions never fail to communicate it Thus only the Desires of Jesus Christ as Occasional Causes have infallibly their Effect because God having constituted him Head of the Church ought by him only to communicate his sanctifying Grace to his Elect. XXII Now we may consider in the Soul of Jesus Christ Desires of two sorts viz. Actual Transitory and Particular that have but a short-liv'd Efficacy and Stable and Permanent which consist in a setled and constant Disposition of the Soul of Jesus Christ with relation to certain Effects which tend to the Execution of his Design in general If our Soul by its various Motions communicated to our Body all that was necessary to its Formation and Growth we might distinguish in her two kinds of Desire For it would be by the actual and transitory Desires that she would drive into the Muscles of the Body the Spirits which gave it a certain Disposition with reference to present Objects or to the actual Thoughts of the Mind But it would be by stable and permanent Desires that she would give to the Heart and Lungs the natural Motions by which Respiration and the Circulation of the Blood were perform'd By these Desires she would digest the Aliments and distribute them to all the Parts that needed them in as much as that sort of Action is at all times necessary to the Preservation of the Body XXIII By the actual transitory and particular Desires of the Soul of Jesus Grace is deriv'd to unprepar'd Persons in a manner somewhat singular and extraordinary But 't is by his permanent Desires that it is given regularly to those who receive the Sacraments with the necessary Dispositions For the Grace we receive by the Sacraments is not given us precisely because of the Merit of our Action though we receive them in Grace but because of the Merits of Jesus Christ which are freely applied to us in consequence of his permanent Desires We receive in the Sacraments much more Grace than our Preparation deserves and it suffices to our receiving some Influence from them that we do not oppose and resist it But 't is abusing what is most Sacred in Religion to receive them unworthily XXIV Amongst the actual and transitory Desires of the Soul of Jesus there are certainly some more durable and frequent than others and the Knowledge of these Desires is of greatest Consequence in Point of Morality Doubtless he thinks oftner on those who observe his Counsels than on other Men. His Motions of Charity for Believers are more frequent and lasting than those for Libertines and Atheists And as all Believers are not equally prepar'd to enter into the Church of the Predestinate the Desires of the Soul of Jesus are not equally lively frequent and durable on the account of them all Man more earnestly desires the Fruits that are fittest for the Nourishment of his Body he ãâã oftner on Bread and Wine than on Meats of difficult Digestion So Jesus Christ designing the Formation of his Church ought to be more taken up with those who can most easily enter than on others which are extremely remote The Scripture likewise teaches us that the Humble the Poor the Penitent receive greater Graces than other Men because the Despisers of Honours Riches and Pleasures are the fittest for the Kingdom of Heaven Those for Example who have learn'd of Jesus Christ to be meek and humble in Heart shall find Rest to their Souls The Yoke of Christ which is insupportable to the Proud will become easie and light by the Assistances of Grace For God
hears the Prayers of the Humble he will comfort them justfie them and save them he will fill them with Blessings and will debase the high Mind of the Proud Blessed are the Poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven but woe to the Rich âor they have their Consolation in this World How hard is it says our Saviour for those that have much Wealth to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven 'T is harder for a Camel to pass through the Eye of a Needle which cannot be done without a Miracle As for those who like David humble their Souls with Fasting change their Garments for Sack-cloth in a word afflict themselves upon sight of their Sins and the Holiness of God they are the worthy Objects of the Compassion of Jesus For God despises not a broken and contrite Heart We constantly disarm the Anger of God when we take his Part against our selves and revenge his Quarrel The Will of Jesus Christ being entirely conformable to Order whereof all Men have naturally some Idea we might still discover by Reason that he has more Thoughts and Desires in regard to some Persons than others For Order requires that more Graces should be shed on those for Example who are call'd to Holy Orders than on others whose Employment necessarily engages them in Worldly Commerce in a word On those who constitute the Principal Parts of the Church Militant than on such as have no regard to any body or that meddle in the Ecclesiastical State or raise themselves above others out of Ambition or Interest For though it be requisite that Jesus Christ should give them Graces in relation to their Charge they merit not the Gift of that Grace which may sanctifie them in the Station they have chosen out of Self-love They may have the Gift of Prophecy whilst they may want Charity as we are taught by Scripture XXVI But though we may discover by the Light of Reason and the Authority of Holy Writ something of the diverse Wills of the Soul of Jesus yet that Order and Process of Desires which accomplish the Predestination of the Saints and which tend only to the honouring God in the Establishment of his Church is an unfathomable Abyss to the Mind of Man For if St. Paul had not taught us that God would that all Men should be included in Unbelief that he might exercise his Mercy towards them should we ever have thought that the Jews were to fall into a wilful Blindness not only that the multitude of the Nations might enter into the Church but that they themselves might receive Mercy at the Accomplishment of Ages The future World being to be a Work of pure Mercy and to have infinite Ornaments whereof we have no Idea since the Substance of Spirits is unknown to us it is plain we can discover very little in the different Desires of the Soul of Jesus these Desires being related to Designs we are ignorant of Thus in the Distribution God makes of his Graces we ought to cry out with St. Paul O the depth of the Riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his Judgments and his Ways past finding out XXVII We have prov'd that the diverse Designs of the Soul of Jesus are the Occasional Causes of Grace and we have endeavour'd to discover something of these Desires Let us now see of what sort of Grace they are the Occasional Causes For though Jesus Christ be the meritorious Cause of all Graces it is not necessary he should be the Occasional Cause of the Graces of Light and of certain external Graces which are Preparatory to the Conversion of the Heart and which do not opperate For Jesus Christ is always the Occasional or Necessary Cause according to the Establish'd Order of God in point of all those Graces which opperate Salvation XXVIII In order to our distinct understanding what this Grace is which Jesus Christ as Head of the Church diffuses in his Members we ought to know what is that Concupiscence which the First Man has communicated to all his Posterity For the Second Adam came to remedy the Disorders which the First Adam was the Cause of And there is such an Affinity between the Sinful and Earthly and the Innocent and Heavenly Adam that St. Paul looks upon the former communicating Sin to his Children by his Disobedience as the Type and Figure of the latter infusing Justice and Holiness into Christians by his Obedience XXIX Order requires that the Mind should have the Supremacy over the Body and not be divided against its Will by all those Sensations and Motions which apply it to sensible Objects Therefore the First Man before his Sin was so absolute over his Senses and Passions that they were mute and silent as soon as he desir'd it nothing could give him an involuntary Diversion from his Duty and all the Pleasures which at present precede Reason did only respectfully caution him in a ready and easie manner of what ought to be done for the Preservation of his Life But after his Sin he lost on a sudden that Power over his Body So that not being able to stop the Motions nor obliterate the Traces which sensible Objects produc'd in the principal Part of his Braiâ his Soul by the Order of Nature and in Punishment of his Disobedience found her self miserably enslav'd to the Law of Concupiscence to that Carnal Law which constantly wars against the Mind inspiring it with the Love of sensible Goods and so ruling it by strong and lively and at once soft and agreeable Passions that it cannot and indeed will not make the necessary Struggles for its breaking the captivating Bonds For the Contagion of Sin is spread through the Children of Adam by an unavoidable Consequence of the Order of Nature as I have explain'd in another place XXX The Heart of Man is the constant Slave of Pleasure and when Reason teaches us that 't is not convenient to enjoy it we put it off but with Design of finding it more delicate and solid We willingly sacrifice little Pleasures to the greater but the invincible Impression we are under for Happiness will not permit us to deny our selves all our Life the Satisfaction we enjoy when we give our selves up to follow our Passions XXXI 'T is certain that Pleasure makes happy the Possessour at least whilst he enjoys it Therefore Men being made to be Happy Pleasure always gives the Will the first shock and puts it constantly in Motion towards the Good that causes or seems to cause it The contrary is to be said of Pain Now Concupiscence consisting only in a continual train of Sensations and Motions antecedent to Reason and not subject to it of Pleasures which seeming to flow from surrounding Objects inspire into us the Love of them and of Pains which rendring the Exercise of Vertue rough and painful make us hate it The Second Adam to remedy the Disorders of the First ought to
produce in us contrary Pleasures and Aversions to those of Concupiscence Pleasures for the True and Aversions or Dislikes for sensible Goods Thus the Grace whereof Jesus Christ is the Occasional Cause and which he incessantly sheds on us as Head of the Church is not a Grace of Light though he has merited that Grace likewise for us and sometimes may communicate it as I shall say by and by But 't is a Grace of Sensation 't is the preventing Delectation which begets and nurses Charity in our Hearts For Pleasure naturally produces and cherishes the Love of those Objects which cause or seem to cause it 'T is likewise the Disgust which sometimes sensible Objects give us which create an Aversion to them and capacitate us to guide the Motions of our Love by Light or Knowledge XXXII We must oppose the Grace of Sensation to Concupiscence Pleasure to Pleasure Dislike to Dislike that the Influence of Jesus Christ may be directly opposite to the Influence of the First Man The Remedy must be contrary to the Disease that it may cure it For illuminating Grace cannot heat an Heart that is wounded by Pleasure this Pleasure must cease or another succeed it Pleasure is the Weight of the Soul and naturally bears it along with it and sensible Pleasures weigh it down to Earth In order to her determining her self these Pleasures must vanish or delectable Grace must raise her up towards Heaven and instate her well-nigh in Equilibrio Thus it is the New Man may war against the Old the Influence of our Head may resist that of our Progenitor and Jesus Christ may conquer in us all our Domestick Enemies The First Man being free from Concupiscence before his Sin needed not to be invited to the Love of the True Good by preventing Delectation He knew clearly that God was his Good and there was no Necessity he should have the Sense of it 'T was not fit he should be allur'd by Pleasure to the Love of him since nothing withstood this Love and he knew him perfectly deserving it But after the Sin the Grace of Delectation was necessary to counterpoize the continual Struggle of Concupiscence Therefore Light is the Grace of the Creator Delectation is that of the Restorer Light is communicated by Jesus Christ as Eternal Wisdom Delectation is given by him as Wisdom Incarnate Light in its Original was mere Nature Delectation has ever been Pure Grace Light after the Sin was granted us only for the Merits of Jesus Christ. Delectation is granted both for the Merits and by the Efficacy of the same Jesus Lastly Light is shed into our Souls according to our own several Volitions and various Applications as I shall explain by and by But the Delectation of Grace is infus'd into our Hearts according to the diverse Desires of the Soul of Jesus Christ. XXXIII 'T is true Pleasure produces Light because the Soul is more attentive to Objects that give her Pleasure Since most Men despise or neglect the Truths of Religion because abstract or unaffecting it may be said that the Delectation of Grace instructs them For that rendring these Truths more sensible they more easily learn them by the Attention they afford And for this Reason St. John says That the Unction we receive from Jesus Christ teaches all things and that those who have receiv'd it have need of no Instructor XXXIV Yet it must be observ'd That this Unction does not produce Light immediately and by its self it only excites our Attention which is the Natural or Occasional Cause of our Knowledge So we see that Men of the greatest Charity are not always the most Understanding All Men being not equally capable of Attention all the Receivers of the same Unction are not equally instructed by it Therefore though Light may be shed on the Soul by a supernatural Infusion and Charity often produces it yet we are always to look upon this kind of Grace but as a Natural Effect For ordinarily Charity produces not Light in the Mind save in proportion to the Inducement it gives the Soul to desire the Knowledge of what she loves For in fine the diverse Desires of the Soul are the Natural or Occasional Causes of the Discoveries we make on any Subject whatsoever But these things we must explain more at large in the Second Part of this Discourse PART II. Of the Grace of the CREATOR XXXV I Know but two Principles that directly and of themselves determine the Motion of our Love Light and Pleasure Light to discover our several Goods and Pleasure to make us tast them But there is a great difference betwixt Light and Pleasure the former leaves us absolutely to our selves and makes no Intrenchment on our Liberty It does not efficaciously carry us to Love nor produce in us Natural or Necessary Love but only induces us to carry our selves to the loving with a Love of choice the Objects it discovers or which is the same thing only causes us to determine to particular Goods the general Impression of Love God constantly gives us for the General But Pleasure effectually determines our Will and as it were conveys us to the Object which causes or seems to cause it It produces in us a Natural and Necessary Love weakens our Liberty divides our Reason and leaves us not perfectly to our own Conduct An indifferent Attention to the Sense we have of our internal Motions will convince us of these Differences Thus Man before the Sin being perfectly free and having no Concupiscence to hinder him from prosecuting his Light in the Motions of his Love and knowing clearly that God was infinitely amiable ought not to be determin'd by preventing Delight as I have already said or by any other Graces of Sensation which might have lessen'd his Merit and induc'd him to love by Instinct the Good which should only be lov'd by Reason But after he had sinned he besides the Grace of Light had need of that of Sensation to resist the Motions of Concupiscence For Man having an invincible Desire for Happiness cannot possibly sacrifice his Pleasure to his Light his Pleasure which makes him actually Happy and subsists in him in spight of his Resistance to his Light which subsists but by a painful Application of Thought and dies at the presence of the least actual Pleasure and lastly which promises no solid Happiness till after Death which to the Imagination seems a perfect Annihilation Light therefore is due to Man to conduct him in the quest of Happiness and belongs to Natural Order and supposes neither Corruption nor Reparation in Nature But Pleasure which relates to the true Good is pure Grace For naturally the true Good ought not to be belov'd otherwise than by Reason Therefore the Occasional Causes of the Graces of Sensation ought to be found in Jesus Christ because he is the Author of this Grace But the Occasional Causes of Light ought to be ordinarily found in the Order of Nature because Light is
the Grace of the Creator XXXVI In the establish'd Order of Nature I can see but two Occasional Causes which shed Light on Minds and so determine the General Laws of the Grace of the Creator one which is in us and depends in some measure on us the other which is found in the Relation we have with surrounding Objects The former is nothing but the diverse Motions of our Will the second is the Occurrence of sensible Objects which act on our Mind in consequence of the Laws of Union of our Soul with our Body XXXVII We are taught by our own inward Consciousness That the Love of Light produces it and that Attention of Mind is a Natural Prayer by which we obtain Instruction of God for all the Enquirers of Truth who apply themselves to Truth discover it in proportion to their Application And if our Prayer were not interrupted nor our Attention disturb'd if we had any Idea of what we ask and should ask it with a competent Perseverance we should not fail to obtain whilst we were capable of receiving it But our Prayers are continually interrupted unless Self-interess'd our Senses and Imagination muddy and confound all our Ideas And âhough the Truth we consult answers our Enquiries the confus'd Noise of our Passions deafens us to its Answers or makes us speedily forget them XXXVIII If it be consider'd that Man before the Fall was animated with Charity and possess'd with all that was requisite to his Perseverance in Innocence and that by his Perseverance and Application he ought to merit his Reward 't will easily be conceiv'd that the several Desires of his Will were establish'd the Occasional Causes of the Light receiv'd in his Understanding otherwise his Distraction had not been voluntary nor his Attention meritorious But Nature however corrupted is not destroy'd God has not desisted to will what he once will'd And the same Laws still subsist Therefore our manifold Volitions are still the Occasional or Natural Causes of the Presence of Ideas to our Mind But because the Union of the Soul with the Body is chang'd into a Dependence on it by a Natural Consequence of Sin and the immutable Will of God as I have explain'd elsewhere our Body at present disturbs our Ideas and speaks so loud in favour of its respective Goods that the Mind but seldom consults and distractedly listens to Internal Truth XXXIX Moreover Experience daily teaches us that our Conversation with Understanding Persons is capable of instructing us by raising our Attention that Preaching Reading Converse a thousand Occurrences of all sorts may raise some Ideas in us and likewise inspire us with good Thoughts The Death of a Friend is doubtless capable of putting us in Mind of Death unless some great Passion takes us up And when a Preacher of great Natural Endowments undertakes to demonstrate a most simple Truth and convince others of it it must be own'd that he may persuade his Hearers and even move their Conscience give them Fear and Hope and raise in them such other Passions as put them in a less State of Opposition to the Influence of the Grace of Jesus Christ. Men being made for a sociable Life 't was requisite they should mutually communicate their Thoughts and Motions 'T was fit they should be united in Mind as well as Body and that speaking by the Voice to their Ears and by Writing to their Eyes they should infuse Light and Understanding into one anothers Minds XL. But Light whatever way produc'd in us whether by particular Desires or fortuitous Instances as the Occasional Causes of it may be call'd Grace especially when it nearly relates to Salvation though it be but a Consequence of the Order of Nature because since Sin God owes us nothing and all the Good we have is merited for us by Jesus Christ in whom our very Being subsists But this kind of Grace though merited for us by Jesus Christ is not the Grace of our Lord but that of the Creator since Jesus Christ is not usually the Occasional Cause of it but the Cause of it is discoverable in the Order of Nature XLI There are still several other Natural Effects which we might reasonably look upon as Graces For Example Two Persons have at the same time two Desires of Curiosity The one to go see an Opera the other to hear a celebrated Preacher If they satisfie their Curiosity he that goes to the Opera shall find such Objects as according to his present Disposition of Mind shall raise in him Passions that will damn him whilst the other shall find in the Preacher so great Force and Light that the Grace of Conversion working in him at that moment shall be able to save him Which suppos'd Let but a shower of Rain or any other Accident happen that may stay them at home Though the Rain be a Natural Effect as depending on the Natural Laws of the Communication of Motions yet it may be said to be a Grace in respect of him whose Damnation it prevents and a Punishment to him whose Conversion it hinders XLII Grace being conjoin'd to Nature all the Motions of our Soul and Body have some relation to Salvation This Man is sav'd by having in a State of Grace made a false Step which happily broke his Neck and another is damn'd by having on some Occasion misfortunately avoided the Ruines of a falling House We know not what is for our Advantage but we well know there is nothing of it self so indifferent but has some reference to our Salvation because of the Mixture and Combination of Effects depending on the General Laws of Nature with others that depend on the General Laws of Grace XLIII As therefore Light points out to us the True Good the Means to obtain it our Duties to God in a word the Ways we are to follow it is sufficient to cause those who are animated with Charity to do good to merit new Graces and to conquer some Temptations as I shall explain in another Place so I think we may lawfully give it the Name of Grace though Jesus Christ be only the Meritorious Cause of it And whereas External Graces which have no immediate Influence on the Mind come nevertheless into the Order of Predestination of Saints I consider them also as True Graces In a word I see not why we may not give the Name of Grace to all Natural Effects when relating to Salvation subservient to the Grace of Jesus Christ and delivering us from some Hindrances to his Efficacy Yet if others will not agree with me I shall not contend with them about Words XLIV All these Graces if we may be allow'd to call them so being those of the Creator the General Laws of these Graces are the General Laws of Nature For we must still observe that Sin has not destroy'd Nature though it has corrupted it The General Laws of the Communications of Motions are always the same and those of the Union of the Soul
they had committed in murthering our Saviour it was fit that Jesus Christ should come into the World about the Reign of Herod supposing that People by the necessary Consequence of the Order of Nature was to be divided about that time that Civil Wars and perpetual Seditions were to weaken them and that lastly the Romans were to ruine and disperse them with the total Destruction of their City and Temple 'T is true there seems to be something extraordinary in the Desolation of the Jews But as it shews greater Wisdom in God to produce so surprizing Effects by the most simple and general Laws of Nature than by particular Wills which are always Miracles I question whether on that Occasion we are to fly unto a Miracle But for my part I dispute it not here since 't is a Fact that we cannot easily nor need we explain our selves upon And I produce this Instance only to make some Application of my Principles and to make them more easily intelligible to others I have I think said enough of Nature and Grace to satisfie all equitable and moderate Persons about an infinite Number of Difficulties which disturb only their Minds who must needs judge of God by themselves For if Men would consult the Idea of an Infinitely Perfect Being of a General Cause of an Infinite Wisdom and if they would consent to the Principles I have establish'd conformable to that Idea I believe they would neither be surpriz'd nor offended at the Conduct of GOD and that they would change their Murmurs and Censures into Wonder and Adoration CONCERNING Nature and Grace DISCOURSE III. Of the Manner of GRACE's acting in us PART I. Concerning Liberty I. THERE is nothing more rude and unform'd than the Substance of Spirits if we separate it from God For what 's a Mind void of Understanding and Reason destitute of Motion and Love Yet it is the Word and Wisdom of God which is the universal Reason of Minds and 't is the Love whereby God loves himself that gives the Soul the Motion she has towards Good If the Mind knows Truth 't is by its Natural and Necessary Union with Truth it self If it is reasonable 't is so through supreme Reason Lastly If it be a Spirit or Intelligence 't is in one sense because its Substance is enlightned penetrated and perfected by the Light of God himself These Truths I have explain'd in another Place So likewise the Substance of the Soul is not capable of loving Good save by its Natural and Necessary Union with the Eternal and Substantial Love of the Supreme Good it advances not towards Good any farther than convey'd by God it is volent only from the Motion it continually receives from him it lives only through Charity and wills merely through the Love of Good which God makes it participate though it abuses it For in fine God making and preserving Minds only for himself inclines them towards him as long as he preserves their Being and communicates the Love of Good to them whilst they are capable of receiving it Now that natural and continual Motion of the Soul towards Good in general towards Good indefinite towards God is what I here call Will Since 't is that Motion which capacitates the Substance of the Soul to love different Goods II. This Natural Motion of the Soul towards Good in general is invincible for 't is not in our Power not to will to be happy We necessarily love what we clearly know and lively feel to be our Good All Minds love God by the Necessity of their Nature and if they love any thing else by a Free Choice of their Will 't is not because they seek not God or the Cause of their Felicity but because they are deceiv'd 'T is because perceiving by a confus'd Sensation that surrounding Bodies make them happy they consider them as good and by an Ordinary and Natural Consequence love them and unite to them III. But the Love of all these particular Goods is not naturally invincible Man consider'd in his Original State might supersede loving those Goods that fill'd not the whole Capacity of his Affection There being but one Good which includes all others he might sacrifice every other Love to the Love of this For God having made Minds only for himself cannot invincibly carry them to the loving any thing besides him or without relation to him Lastly our own inward Consciousness informs us that we can reject a Fruit though we are inclin'd to take it Now that Power of loving or not loving particular Goods the Non-invincibility which is found in the Motion which carries Minds to the loving what does not seem every way inclusive of all Goods That Power or Non-invincibility is what I call Liberty Thus placing the Definition instead of the thing defin'd that Expression our Will is free signifies that the Natural Motion of the Soul towards Good in general is not invincible in point of Good in particular To the Word Free the Idea of Voluâtary is commonly annex'd but in the Sequel of this Discourse I shall take the Word in the Sense I have observ'd as being the most Natural and Ordinary IV. The Word Good is equivocal and may signifie either Pleasure which makes formally happy or the true or seeming Cause of Pleasure In this Discourse I shall constantly take the Word Good in the second Sense because indeed Pleasure is imprinted on the Soul that she may love the Cause that makes her happy that she may advance towards it by the Motion of her Love and may strictly unite to it to be perpetually happy When the Soul loves nothing but her own Pleasure she in effect loves nothing distinct from her self For Pleasure is only a Condition or Modification of the Soul which renders her actually happy and content But whilst the Soul cannot be the Cause of her own Pleasure she 's unjust ungrateful and blind if she loves her Pleasure and forgets to pay the Love and Devotion which is due to the true Cause that produces it in her As none but God can act immediately and by himself on the Soul and make her sensible of Pleasure by the actual Efficacy of his all-potent Will so he alone is truly Good However I term the Creatures Good which are the seeming Causes of the Pleasures we feel occasionally from them For I am unwilling to deviate from the customary way of Speaking any farther than is necessary to explain my self clearly All Creatures though Good in themselves or Perfect with reference to the Designs of God are not Good with reference to us They are not our Good nor the true Cause of our Pleasure or Felicity V. The natural Motion which God constantly imprints on the Soul to carry it to love him or to make use of a Term which is the Abridgement of several Ideas and can be no longer equivocal or confus'd after the Definition I have given of it the Will is determin'd towards particular Goods either
full of Obscurity and Darkness are founded on the Ignorance we are in of the Properties of our Soul 'T is from our having as I have elsewhere proved no clear Idea of our Being and that what is in us which gives way to be conquer'd by a Determination not invincible is absolutely unknown to us Furthermore if I cannot clearly answer these Objections I can answer by others which to me seem more incapable of Solution I can from Principles oppos'd to mine deduce more harsh and unlucky Consequences than those which are presum'd to follow from Liberty such as I have suppos'd in us But I engage not on the Particulars of all this as taking no delight to walk in the dark and to lead others upon Precipices THE ILLUSTRATION OR CONTINUATION OF THE TREATISE CONCERNING Nature and Grace What is meant by acting by General and Particular Wills I. I Say that God acts by General Wills when he acts in consequence of the General Laws which he has establish'd For Example I say that God acts in me by General Wills when he gives me the Sense of Pain when I am prick'd since in pursuance of the General and Efficacious Laws of Union of my Soul and Body which he has constituted he makes me suffer Pain when my Body's ill dispos'd So when a Bowl strikes another I say God moves the stricken by a General Will because he moves it in pursuance of the General and Efficacious Laws of the Communications of Motions God having generally Ordain'd that at the Instant of Collision of two Bodies the Motion should be distributed between them according to certain Proportions and 't is by the Efficacy of that General Will that Bodies have the force of moving one another II. I say on the contrary that God acts by Particular Wills when the Efficacy of his Will is not determin'd by some General Law to the producing any Effect Thus supposing God should make me feel the Pain of pricking whilst there happen'd no Change in my Body or in any Creature whatsover which determines him to act in me by some General Law I say that then God acts by Particular Wills So again supposing a Body begins to move without being stricken by another or without any Alteration happening in the Will of Spirits or in any other Creature which determines the Efficacy of some General Laws I say that God would move that Body by a Particular Will III. According to these Definitions it plainly appears that so far from denying Providence I suppose on the contrary that God works all in all things that the Nature of the Heathen Philosophers is a Chimera and that to speak properly Nature is nothing but the General Laws which God has establish'd for the Construction or Preservation of his Work by the simplest ways by an Action always uniform constant perfectly worthy of an infinite Wisdom and an universal Cause But that which I here suppose though certain for the Reasons I have given in The Search after Truth is not absolutely necessary to what I design to prove For if it be suppos'd that God had communicated his Power to the Creatures in such a manner as that surrounding Bodies had a real and true Force by which they might act on our Soul and make her happy and miserable by Pleasure and Pain and that Bodies in Motion had in themselves a certain Entity which they call Impress'd Quality that they can communicate it to those about them and with that Celerity and Uniformity we observe it would be still equally easie to prove what I intend For then the Efficacy of the concurrent Action of the General Cause would be necessarily determin'd by the Action of the Particular Cause God for Instance would be oblig'd by these Principles to afford his Concourse to a Body at the Instant of Collision that it might communicate its Motion to others which is still to act by virtue of a General Law Yet I do not argue upon that Supposition as believing it utterly false as I have shewn in the Third Chapter and Second Part of the Sixth Book of The Search after Truth in the Illustration of the same Chapter and elsewhere Which Truths suppos'd here follow the Notes by which we may discover whether an Effect be produc'd by a General or Particular Will MARKS by which we may judge whether an Effect be produc'd by a General or Particular Will IV. When we see an Effect immediately produc'd after the Action of an Occasionl Cause we ought to judge it produc'd by the Efficacy of a General Will. A Body moves immediately after the Collision the Collision of Bodies is the Action of an Occasional Cause Therefore this Body moves by a General Will. A Stone falls on the Head of a Man and kills him and this Stone falls like all others that is continues its Motion almost in Arithmetical Proportion 1 3 5 7 9 c. Which suppos'd I say it moves by the Efficacy of a General Will or by the Laws of the Communications of Motions as is easie to demonstrate V. When we see an Effect produc'd without the Mediation of the known Occasional Cause we have reason to think it produc'd by a Particular Will supposing this Effect be not manifestly unworthy of its Cause as I shall say hereafter For Example When a Body 's mov'd without being smitten by another there 's great Probability it was mov'd by a Particular Will but yet we cannot be confident of it For on Supposition of a General Law that Bodies should move according to the several Volitions of Angels or the like 't is visible this Body might be put in Motion without Impulsion the particular Will of some Angel being in this case able to determine the Will of the general Cause to move it Thus we may be often positive that God acts by general Wills but we cannot have the like Assurance that he acts by particular Wills even in the most averr'd Miracles VI. Since we have not a competent Knowledge of the various Combinations of Occasional Causes to discover whether such and such Effects arrive in consequence of their Action and are not sufficiently Intelligent to discover for Instance whether such a Rain be Natural or Miraculous produc'd by a necessary Consequence of the Communication of Motions or by a particular Will we must judge an Effect is produc'd by a General Will when 't is visible the Cause did not propose it self a particular End For the Wills of Intelligences have necessarily an End general Wills a general End and particular Wills a particular Design Nothing can be more plain and evident For Example Though I cannot discover whether a Shower of Rain which falls on a Meadow falls in consequence of general Laws or by a particular Will of God I have reason to think it falls by a general Will if I see it fall as well on the neighbouring Grounds or on the River which bounds the Meadow no less than on the Meadow it self For
ought to act wisely God cannot deny himself His Ways of acting ought to bear the Character of his Attributes Now God knows all and foresees all his Understanding has no Bounds Therefore his manner of acting ought to bear the Character of an Infinite Intelligence But to make Choice of Occasional and to establish General Laws for the executing any work manifests a Knowledge infinitely more comprehensive than to change Volitions every moment or to act by Particular Wills Therefore God executes his Designs by General Laws whose Efficacy is determin'd by Occasional Causes Certainly there is a greater Extent of Thought requir'd to make a Watch which according to the Rules of Mechanicks goes regularly of it self whether it be carried about with us or hung up or shaken as we please than to make one which can go well no longer than he that made it is continually changing something in it according to the Situations it is put in For when there is a greater Number of Relations to be compared and combined together there is required a greater Understanding An infinite Prescience is requisite to foresee all the Effects which will happen in consequence of a General Law and there is nothing of all this to be foreseen when the Wills are chang'd every moment Therefore to establish General Laws and to choose the most simple and at the same time the most exuberant is a manner of acting worthy of him whose Wisdom has no Bounds And on the contrary to act by Particular Wills shews a straitned Understanding and which cannot compare the Consequences or Effects of the least fruitful Causes The same Truth might farther be demonstrated a priori by some other Attributes of God as by his Immutability by which M. Des Cartes proves That every Body tends to move in a right Line that there is always the same Quantity of Motion in the World and other Truths But these Truths a priori are too abstract to convince the Generality of Men of the Truth advanc'd It is more to the Purpose to prove it by the Marks I have given before to distinguish Effects produced by Particular Wills from those which are the necessary Consequences of some General Law God being infinitely Wise neither wills nor does any thing without Design or End But Grace falls often on Hearts so dispos'd as to frustrate his Operation and therefore falls not on them by a Particular Will but only by a necessary Consequence of General Laws for the same Reason that Rain falls on the Sands and in the Sea no less than on Seed-Grounds XVI Though God may punish Sinners or make them more miserable than they are he can have no Design of making them more culpable and criminal which yet is an Effect of Grace and God knows certainly that according to their actual Dispositions the Graces he bestows will have that calamitous Event Therefore Graces are not shed on corrupt Hearts by a Particular Will of God but by a necessary Consequence of General Laws establish'd for the Production of the best Effects by the same Reason that on some Occasions too abundant Rains corrupt and putrifie the Fruits of the Earth though God by his General Will causes it to rain to make them thrive XVII If God was minded that some Lands should continue barren he need but have ceas'd to will that the Rain should water them So if God purpos'd that the Hearts of some Sinners should remain hardned as it would be sufficient for the Rain of Grace not to water them he need but leave them to themselves and they would corrupt fast enough Why must we attribute a Particular Will to God to make so cruel and unhappy use of the Price of his Son's Blood But many others will say God in giving Grace to Sinners has never that Design and this doubtless seems more reasonable But if God gives his Grace by a Particular Will he has some Particular Design and whereas Grace has that sad Effect God is frustrated in his Expectation since he gave it with a Design and that a particular one of doing good to a Sinner For I speak not here of the Graces or rather Gifts explain'd by St. Paul in the 12th Chapter of his First Epistle to the Corinthians I speak of the Grace which God gives for the Conversion of him it is given to and not of those Gifts God bestows on some for the Profit of others such as are the Gifts of Prophecy of Discernment of Spirits of Speaking diverse Tongues of Healing the Sick and the like XVIII When the Rain falls in such excess that the Floods extirpate the Fruits of the Earth we ought to conclude this Rain comes by a necessary Consequence of the General Laws God has establish'd for better Effects Yet it is certain God may have appointed it by a Particular Will For God for the Punishment of Men may will that the Rains ordain'd to fecundate the Earth may make it barren on some Occasions But it is not so with the Rain of Grace since God cannot dispense it with Design of punishing Men much less of making them more culpable and criminal Thus 't is much more certain that the Rain of Grace falls by General Wills than that the common Rains do so yet most Men can easily believe that Rains are the necessary Consequences of the General Laws of the Communication of Motions whilst there are few but find some Reluctancy in believing God gives us by General Wills all these Motions of Graces whose Effects we our selves prevent There 's great likelihood this Disposition of Mind naturally grows from our thinking God acts almost like our selves and that he has on all Occasions Particular Wills for all Men in something resembling those Desires we have for our Friends For though we outwardly confess that there is an infinite Difference between God's way of acting and our own yet since we ordinarily judge of others with relation to our selves without considering few Persons seriously consult the Idea of an Infinitely Perfect Being when they would speak of God And because there is some Air of Novelty in what I say it creates a sort of Pain in the Mind which is reasonably mistrustful of what is not common and ordinary I have a particular Honour and Esteem for all those who in Matter of Religion have a secret Aversion for all Novelties When this is the Motive which induces them to oppose my Opinions they give me no Offence and whilst their Prejudices are legitimate though they should give me hainous Provocations I should preserve a Respect for them For their Disposition of Mind is infinitely more reasonable than that of others who fall foul upon all that bears the Character of Novelty Nevertheless as I believe that we are bound to love and search out Truth with all our Strength and communicate it to others when we believe we have found it I think that supposing the Doctrines of Faith undeniable we may and even ought endeavour to confirm
videbimus eum sicuti est Joh. Ep. 1. ch 3. v. 2. * Corpus quod corrumpitur aggravat animam Sap. 9.10 Terrena inhabitatio deprimit sensum multa cogitantem difficile aestimamus quae in terra sunt quae in prospectu sunt invenimus cum labore Sap. 9.15 â Deus intelligibilis lux in quo a quo per quem intelligibiliter lucent omnia 1. Sol. Insinuavit nobis Christus animam humanam non vegetari non illuminari non beatificari nisi ab ipsa substantia Dei August in Joh. Illa autoritas divina dicenda est quae non solum in sensibilibus signis transcendit omnem humanam facultatem sed ipsum hominem agens ostendit ei quousque se propter ipsum depresserit non teneri sensibus quibus videntur illa miranda sed ad intellectum jubet evolare simul demonstrans quanta hic possit cur haec faciat quam parvi pendat Aug. 2. de Ord. 9. * Tract in Joan. 27. Et si cognovimus secundum carnem Christum jam non secundum carnem novimus 2 ad Cor. Nolite putare quenquam hominem aliquid discere ab homine Admonere possumus per strepitum vocis nostrae si non sit intus qui doceat inanis fit strepitus noster Aug. in Joan. Auditus per me factus intellectus per quem Dixit aliquis ad cor vestrum sed non eum videtis Si intellexistis fratres dictum est cordi vestro Munus Dei est intelligentia August Johan Tract 40. Noli putare te ipsam esse lucem Aug. in Psal. Sicut audio sic judico judicium meum justum est quia non quaero voluntatem meam Johan cap. 5.30 Qui hoc videre non potest oret agat ut posse mereatur nec ad hominem disputatorem pulset ut quod not legit legat sed ad Deum Salvatorem ut quod non valet valeat Epist. 112. cap. 12. Supplexque illi qui lumen mentis accendit attendat ut intelligat Conf. Ep. Fund cap. 33. Nullo modo resistitur Corporis sensibus quae nobis sacratissima disciplina est si per eos inflictis plagis vulneribusque blandimur Ep. 72. * See the 6 th Book Of the Nature Properties of the Vnderstanding II. Of the Nature and Properties of the Will and of its Liberty * See the Illustrations * See the Illustrations I. Of our Judgments and Reasonings II. That Judgments and Reasonings depend upon the Will Geometricians love not Truth but only the Knowledg of Truth tho' it be otherwise said III. What use should be made of our Liberty that we never may be deceiv'd IV. General Rules for the avoiding Error and Sin A necessary Reflexion on the two Rules I. The Answer to some Objections II. Observations on what has been said concerning the necessity of Evidence See the Illustrations I. Of the Occasional Causes of our Errors and that there are five principal II. The General Design of the whole Work III. The particular Design of the first Book I. Two ways of explaining how our Senses were corrupted by Sin S. Gregor Homil. 39. upon the Gospels * Fr. Son ââur â Fr. Son Esprit See the Illustrations Deus ab initio constituit hominem reliquit illum in manu Consilii sui adjecit mandata praecepta sua c. Ec. 15.14 A Remedy for the Disorder which Original Sin has caus'd in the World and the Foundation of Christian Morality * See the Illustrations II. That our Liberty not our Senses is the true cause of our Errors III. A Rule for avoiding Error in the use of our Senses I. Of the Errors of sight in respect of Extension absolutely consider'd * See the Journal of the Learned Nov. 12. 1668. Fr. Le germe * The Cicatricle or the Sperm of the Egg is a little white spot upon the Yolk See Malpigh de Formatione Pulli in Ova â See Swammerdam 's Miraculum naturae II. A Continuation of these Errors about Invisible Objects III. Of the Errors of sight touching Extension relatively consider'd I. Of the Errors of sight about Figures II. We have no knowledge of the least of them III. The knowledge we have of the greater is not exact IV. An Explication of some Natural judgments which prevent our deception V. That these very judgments deceive us in some particular junctures See the 9. Chapter towards the end See the 3 d. Ch. of the 2 d. Part of the 6 Book I. That our Eyes are incapable of informing us of the Quantity or Swiftness of Motion consider'd in it self II. That Duration which is necessary to our knowledge of the Quantity of Motion is unknown to us III. An Instance of the Errors of Sight in respect of Motion and Rest. I. A general Demonstration of the Errors of our Sight concerning Motion II. That the Distance of Objects is necessary to be known in order to judge of the Quantity of their Motion III. The Mediums whereby we know the Distances of Objects are examined The Soul does not make all those judgments I aâtribute to her these Natural judgments are nothing but Sensations and I only speak thus the better to explain things The second Medium whereby to judge of the Distance of Objctes The third Medium whereby to judge of the Distance of Objects The fourtâ and fifth Mediums The sixth Medium whereby to judge of the Distance of Objects * Seethe Illustrations * I call by the Name of Idea here whatever is the Immediate Object of the Mind I. The Distinction of the Soul and Body II. An Explication of the Organs of the Senses III. The Soul is immediately united to that part of the Brain where the Fibres of the Organs of the Senses centre IV. An Instance to explain the effect which Objects have upon our Bodies V. What it is that Objects produce in the Soul and the Reasons why the Soul perceives not the Motions of the Fiâres of the Body This confus'd Reasoning or this Natural Judgement is only a Compound Sensation See what I have said before of Natural Judgements and the first Ch. of the 3 d. Book VI. Four things which are generally confounded in every Sensation I. Of the Error we fall into concerning the Action of Objects against the External Fibres of our Senses III. The Cause of this Error III. An Objection and Answer I. Of our Errors concerning the Motions or Vibrations of the Fibres of our Senses II. That we confound them with the Sensations of our Soul and sometimes have no Perception of them III. An Experiment that proves it IV. An Explication of three sorts of Sensations of the Soul V. The Errors that accompany the Sensations I. The Definition of the Sensations II. That a Man knows his own Sensations better than he thinks he does III. An Objection and Answer IV. From whence it proceeds that a Man imagines he has no knowledge of
Garland of Flowers be not able to rest though he sees nothing that is capable of moving him We must enquire whether the word Man is Metaphorical whether the word Rest is equivocal whether it relates to local Motions or to Passions as the last words though he sees nothing that is capable of moving him seem to hint Lastly We must enquire whether the Conditions besprinkled with some Liquors and crowned with a Garland of Flowers are essential Lastly The state of that ridiculous and undeterminate Question being thus plainly known 't will be easie to resolve it by saying that we need but put a Man in a Ship with the Conditions expressed in the Question The Skill of those that propose such Questions is to join some Conditions to them that seem necessary though they be not so that the Mind of the Resolver may be diverted to things that are unserviceable as to the Solution of it As in this Question which Servant-Maids often put to Children I have seen say they Hunters or rather Fishers which carried with them what they could not catch and threw into the Water what they catch'd the Mind being prepossessed with the Ideas of Fishers that take Fish cannot understand the state of that Foolish Question the whole Difficulty of which comes from hence that we think not that Hunters and Fishers as well as other Men often seek in their Cloaths some little Animals which they throw away if they catch and carry with them if they find them not Sometimes all the Conditions that are necessary to resolve a Question are not mention'd which makes them as hard as the expressing of unserviceable Characters as in the following to make a Man unmovable without binding or wounding him or rather by putting his little Finger into his Ear so that he shall not be able to stir until he takes his little Finger out of his Ear that at first appears impossible and 't is really so for any one may walk having his little Finger in his Ear but there wants a Condition which if it were express'd would remove the whole Difficulty for you need but make a Man embrace a Bed-post or something like and put his little Finger into his Ear so that the Post be included between his Arm and Ear it being plain he cannot stir without taking out his Finger It is not mentioned that there is yet something to be done on purpose that the Mind should not seek for nor discover it But those that undertake the resolving of such Questions must make all the Queries that are requisite to understand the point wherein lies the Stress of the Difficulty Those arbitrary Questions appear to be foolish and are indeed so in one Sense as far as nothing is learn'd by their Solution However they are not so different from natural Questions as may be imagin'd for both are resolved by a Method that is very near the same And as the Skill or Maliciousness of Men makes arbitrary Questions intricate and difficult so natural Effects are of themselves surrounded with Obscurity and Darkness that must be dissipated by the Attention of the Mind and by Experiments which are a sort of Queries put to the Author of Nature even as Equivocations and useless Circumstances are taken off from arbitrary Questions by the skilful Queries that are made to the Proposers Let us explain these things methodically and in a more serious and instructing Manner There are many Questions which appear very difficult because they are not understood which should rather be taken for Axioms that need some Explication than for true Questions for some Propositions which are undeniable when the Terms that compose them are rightly understood must not methinks be ranked in the Number of Questions For Instance It is proposed as a very difficult Question Whether the Soul be immortal because they who propose or pretend to resolve it do not distinctly apprehend the Sense of the Terms For as the Words Soul and immortal signifie different things and that they know not how to understand them so they cannot tell whether the Soul is immortal having no distinct Idea either of what they ask or enquire after By the Word Soul may be understood a Substance that thinks wills feels c. or it may be taken for the Motion or Circulation of the Blood and the Configuration of the parts of the Body and lastly for the Blood it self and the Animal Spirits Likewise by the Word immortal we understand what cannot perish by the ordinary Force of Nature or what cannot be changed or lastly what cannot be corrupted or dissipated as a Vapour or Smoke The Words Soul and immortal being suppos'd thus distinguished into their several Significations a very mean Attention of the Mind will be able to judge whether she is immortal or not First 't is plain that the Soul taken in the first Sense or for a thinking Substance is immortal if you explain immortal in the first Sense what cannot perish by the ordinary Force of Nature since 't is not conceivable that any Substance should be annihilated but that to conceive the Possibility of it we must have Recourse to the Omnipotence of God Secondly The Soul is immortal taking immortal in the third Sense for what cannot be corrupted nor resolved into Vapour or Smoke since 't is evident that what cannot be divided into several Parts cannot be corrupted nor resolved into Vapours Thirdly The Soul is not immortal taking it in the second Sense for what is unchangeable for we have convincing Proofs enow of the Alterations of our Soul which feels one while Pain and another Pleasure which often desires some things which she afterwards ceases to desire which is united to a Body from which she may be separated c. If the Word Soul be taken in some other Sense it will be as easie to perceive whether she is immortal fixing a determin'd Sense to that Epithet And therefore what makes such Questions difficult is that they are not distinctly understood or that the Words in which they are express'd are equivocal so that they rather need Explication than Proof There are some People so dull and others so fanciful as that they always take the Soul for some Configuration of the Parts of the Brain and for the Motion of the Spirits 'T is indeed impossible to prove that the Soul is immortal and unperishable in that Sense the contrary being evident so that this is not a Question difficult to be resolved but a Proposition which 't is not easie to make some people apprehend because they have not the same Ideas as we and that they labour all they can not to have them and to blind themselves When we are asked whether the Soul is immortal or any other Question whatsoever we must first take off the Equivocation of Words and know in what Sense they are understood that we may distinctly conceive the State of the Question If those that propose it are ignorant of the Signification