corporeall things for although I supposed that I doted and that all that I saw or imagined was false yet could I not deny but that these Ideas were truly in my thoughts But because I had most evidently known in my self That the understanding Nature is distinct from the corporeall considering that all composition witnesseth a dependency and that dependency is manifestly a defect I thence judged that it could not be a perfection in God to be composed of those two Natures and that by consequence he was not so composed But that if there were any Bodies in the world or els any intelligences or other Natures which were not wholly perfect their being must depend from his power in such a manner that they could not subsist one moment without him Thence I went in search of other Truths and having proposed Geometry for my object which I conceived as a continued Body or a space indefinitely spred in length bredth height or depth divisible into divers parts which might take severall figures and bignesses and be moved and transposed every way For the Geometricians suppose all this in their object I past through some of their most simple demonstrations and having observed that this great certaintie which all the world grants them is founded only on this that men evidently conceived them following the rule I already mentioned I observed also that there was nothing at all in them which ascertain'd me of the existence of their object As for example I well perceive that supposing a Triangle three angles necessarily must be equall to two right ones but yet nevertheless I saw nothing which assured me that there was a Triangle in the world Whereas returning to examine the Idea which I had of a perfect Being I found its existence comprised in it in the same manner as it was comprised in that of a Triangle where the three angles are equall to two right ones or in that of a sphere where all the parts are equally distant from the center Or even yet more evidently and that by consequence it is at least as certain that God who is that perfect Being is or exists as any demonstration in Geometry can be But that which makes many perswade themselves that there is difficulty in knowing it as also to know what their Soul is 't is that they never raise their thoughts beyond sensible things and that they are so accustomed to consider nothing but by imagination which is a particular manner of thinking on materiall things that whatsoever is not imaginable seems to them not intelligible Which is manifest enough from this that even the Philosophers hold for a Maxime in the Schools That there is nothing in the understanding which was not first in the sense where notwithstanding its certain that the Ideas of God and of the Soul never were And me thinks those who use their imagination to comprehend them are just as those who to hear sounds or smell odours would make use of their eys save that there is yet this difference That the sense of seeing assures us no lesse of the truth of its objects then those of smelling or hearing do whereas neither our imagination nor our senses can ever assure us of any thing if our understanding intervenes not To be short if there remain any who are not enough perswaded of the existence of God and of their soul from the reasons I have produc'd I would have them know that all other things whereof perhaps they think themselves more assured as to have a body and that there are Stars and an earth and the like are less certain For although we had such a morall assurance of these things that without being extravagant we could not doubt of them However unless we be unreasonable when a metaphysicall certainty is in question we cannot deny but we have cause enough not to be wholly confirm'd in them when we consider that in the same manner we may imagine being asleep we have other bodies and that we see other Stars and another earth though there be no such thing For how doe we know that those thoughts which we have in our dreams are rather false then the others seeing often they are no less lively and significant and let the ablest men study it as long as they please I beleeve they can give no sufficient reason to remove this doubt unless they presuppose the existence of God For first of all that which I even now took for a rule to wit that those things which were most clearly and distinctly conceived are all true is certain only by reason that God is or exists and that he is a perfect being and that all which we have comes from him Whence it follows that our Idea's or notions being reall things and which come from God in all wherein they are clear and distinct cannot therein be but true So that if we have very often any which contain falshood they cannot be but of such things which are somewhat confus'd and obscure because that therein they signifie nothing to us that 's to say that they are thus confus'd in us only because we are not wholly perfect And it 's evident that there is no less contrariety that falshood and imperfection should proceed from God as such then there is in this that truth and falshood proceed from nothing But if we know not that whatsoever was true and reall in us comes from a perfect and infinite being how clear and distinct soever our Idea's were we should have no reason to assure us that they had the perfection to be true Now after that the knowledge of God and of the Soul hath rendred us thus certain of this rule it 's easie to know that the extravaganceys which we imagin in our sleep ought no way to make us doubt of the truth of those thoughts which we have being awake For if it should happen that even sleeping we should have a very distinct Idea as for example A Geometritian should invent some new demonstration his sleeping would not hinder it to be true And for the most ordinary error of our dreames which consists in that they represent unto us severall objects in the same manner as our exterior senses doe it matters not though it give us occasion to mistrust the truth of those Ideas because that they may also often enough cozen us when we doe not sleep As when to those who have the Jaundies all they see seems yellow or as the Stars or other bodies at a distance appear much less then they are For in fine whether we sleep or wake we ought never to suffer our selves to be perswaded but by the evidence of our Reason I say which is observable Of our Reason and not of our imagination or of our senses As although we see the Sun most clearly we are not therefore to judge him to be of the bigness we see him of and we may well distinctly imagine the head of a Lion set on the body of
wits but are capable to rank severall words together and of them to compose a Discourse by which they make known their thoughts and that on the contrary there is no other creature how perfect or happily soever brought forth which can do the like The which happens not because they want organs for we know that Pyes and Parrots can utter words even as we can and yet cannot speak like us that is to say with evidence that they think what they say Whereas Men being born deaf and dumb and deprived of those organs which seem to make others speak as much or more then beasts usually invent of themselves to be understood by those who commonly being with them have the leisure to learn their expressions And this not onely witnesseth that Beasts have lesse reason than men but that they have none at all For we see there needs not much to learn to speak and forasmuch as we observe inequality amongst Beasts of the same kind aswell as amongst men and that some are more easily managed then others 't is not to be believed but that an Ape or a Parrot which were the most perfect of its kinde should therein equall the most stupid child or at least a child of a distracted brain if their souls were not of a nature wholly different from ours And we ought not to confound words with naturall motions which witness passions and may be imitated by Machines aswell as by Animals nor think as some of the Ancients that beasts speak although we do not understand their language for if it were true since they have divers organs which relate to ours they could aswell make themselves understood by us as by their like It s likewise very remarkable that although there are divers creatures which express more industry then we in some one of their actions yet we may well perceive that the same shew none at all in many others So that what they do better then we proves not at all that they have reason for by that reckoning they would have more then any of us and would do better in all other things but rather that they have none at all and that its Nature onely which works in them according to the disposition of their organs As wee see a Clock which is onely composed of wheels and springs can reckon the hours and measure the times more exactly then we can with all our prudence After this I had described the reasonable Soul and made it appear that it could no ways be drawn from the power of the Matter as other things whereof I had spoken but that it ought to have been expresly created And how it suffiseth not for it to be lodg'd in our humane body as a Pilot in his ship to move its members onely but also that its necessary it be joyned and united more strongly therewith to have thoughts and appetites like ours and so make a realâ— man I have here dilated my self a little on the subject of the Soul by reason 't is of most importance for next the errour of those who deny God which I think I have already sufficiently confuted there is none which sooner estrangeth feeble minds from the right way of vertue then to imagine that the soul of beasts is of the same nature as ours and that consequently we have nothing to fear nor hope after this life no more then flies or ants Whereas when we know how different they are we comprehend much better the reasons which prove that ours is of a nature wholly independing from the body and consequently that it is not subject to die with it And that when we see no other cause which destroys it we are naturally thence moved to judge that it 's immortall PART VI ITs now three years since I ended the Treatise which contains all these things and that I began to review it to send it afterwards to the Presse when I understood that persons to whom I submit and whose authority can no lesse command my actions then my own Reason doth my thoughts had disapproved an opinion in Physicks published a little before by another of which I will not say that I was but that indeed I had observed nothing therein before their censure which I could have imagined prejudiciall either to Religion or the State or consequently which might have hindred me from writing the same had my Reason perswaded mee thereto And this made me fear lest in the same manner there might be found some one amongst mine in which I might have been mistaken notwithstanding the great care I always had to admit no new ones into my belief of which I had not most certain demonstrations and not to write such as might turn to the disadvantage of any body Which was sufficient to oblige me to change my resolution of publishing them For although the reasons for which I had first of all taken it were very strong yet my inclination which alwayes made me hate the trade of Book-making presently found me out others enough to excuse my self from it And these reasons on the one and other side are such that I am not only somewhat concern'd to speak them but happily the Publick also to know them I never did much esteem those things which proceeded from mine own brain and so long as I have gathered no other fruits from the Method I use but onely that I have satisfied my self in some difficulties which belong to speculative Sciences or at least endeavoured to regulate my Manners by the reasons it taught me I thought my self not obliged to write any thing of them For as for what concerns Manners every one abounds so much in his own sense That we may finde as many Reformers as heads were it permitted to others besides those whom God hath established as Soveraigns over his people or at least to whom he hath dispensed grace and zeal enough to be Prophets to undertake the change of any thing therein And although my Speculations did very much please me I did beleeve that other men also had some which perhaps pleas'd them more But as soon as I had acquired some generall notions touching naturall Philosophy and beginning to prove them in divers particular difficulties I observed how far they might lead a man and how far different they were from the principles which to this day are in use I judg'd that I could not keep them hid without highly sinning against the Law which obligeth us to procure as much as in us lies the general good of all men For they made it appear to me that it was possible to attain to points of knowledge which may be very profitable for this life and that in stead of this speculative Philosophy which is taught in the Schools we might finde out a practicall one by which knowing the force and workings of Fire Water Air of the Starrs of the Heavens and of all other Bodies which environ us distinctly as we know the several trades of our Handicrafts
we might in the same manner employ them to all uses to which they are fit and so become masters and possessours of Nature Which is not onely to be desired for the invention of very many expedients of Arts which without trouble might make us enjoy the fruits of the earth and all the conveniencies which are to be found therein But chiefly also for the preservation of health which without doubt is the first good and the foundation of all other good things in this life For even the minde depends so much on the temper and disposition of the organs of the body that if it be possible to finde any way of making men in the generall wiser and more able then formerly they were I beleeve it ought to be sought in Physick True it is that which is now in use contains but few things whose benefit is very remarkable But without any designe of slighting of it I assure my self there is none even of their own profession but will consent that whatsoever is known therein is almost nothing in comparison of what remains to be known And that we might be freed from very many diseases aswell of the body as of the mind and even also perhaps from the weaknesses of old age had we but knowledge enough of their Causes and of all the Remedies wherewith Nature hath furnished us Now having a designe to employ all my life in the enquiry of so necessary a Science and having found a way the following of which me thinks might infallibly lead us to it unless we be hindred by the shortness of life or by defect of experiments I judg'd that there was no better Remedie against those two impediments but faithfully to communicate to the publique all that little I should discover and to invite all good Wits to endevour to advance farther in contributing every one according to his inclination and power to those Experiments which are to be made and communicating also to the publique all the things they should learn so that the last beginning where the precedent ended and so joyning the 〈◊〉 and labors of many in one we might all together advance further then any particular Man could do I also observ'd touching Experiments that they are still so much the more necessary as we are more advanc'd in knowledg For in the beginning it 's better to use those only which of themselves are presented to our senses and which we cannot be ignorant of if we do but make the least reflections upon them then to seek out the rarest and most studied ones The reason whereof is that those which are rarest doe often deceive when we seldome know the same of the most common ones and that the circumstances on which they depend are as it were always so particular and so small that it 's very uneasie to finde them out But the order I observed herein was this First I endevoured to finde in generall the Principles or first Causes of whatsoever is or may be in the world without considering any thing for this end but God alone who created it or drawing them elsewhere then from certain seeds of Truth which naturally are in our souls After this I examined what were the first and most ordinary Effects which might be deduced from these Causes And me thinks that thereby I found out Heavens Starrs an Earth and even on the Earth Water Air and Fire Minerals and some other such like things which are the most common and the most simple of all and consequently the most easie to be understood Afterwards when I would descend to those which were more particular there were so many severall ones presented themselves to me that I did beleeve it impossible for a humane understanding to distinguish the forms and species of Bodies which are on the earth from an infinite number of others which might be there had it been the will of God so to place them Nor by consequence to apply them to our use unless we set the Effects before the Causes and make use of divers particular experiments In relation to which revolving in my minde all those objects which ever were presented to my senses I dare boldly say I observed nothing which I could not fitly enough explain by the principles I had found But I must also confesse that the power of Nature is so ample and vast and these principles are so simple and generall that I can observe almost no particular Effect but that I presently know it might be deduced from thence in many severall ways and that commonly my greatest difficulty is to finde in which of these ways it depends thereon for I know no other expedient for that but again to seek some experiments which may be such that their event may not be the same if it be in one of those ways which is to be exprest as if it were in another In fine I am gotten so far That me thinks I see well enough what course we ought to hold to make the most part of those experiments which may tend to this effect But I also see they are such and of so great a number that neither my hands nor my estate though I had a thousand times more then I have could ever suffice for all So that according as I shall hereafter have conveniency to make more or fewer of them I shall also advance more or lesse in the knowledge of Nature which I hop'd I should make known by the Treatise which I had written and therein so clearly shew the benefit which the Publick may receive thereby that I should oblige all those in general who desire the good of Mankinde that is to say all those who are indeed vertuous and not so seemingly or by opinion only aswell to communicate such experiments as they have already made as to help me in the enquiry of those which are to be made But since that time other reasons have made me alter my opinion and think that I truly ought to continue to write of all those things which I judg'd of any importance according as I should discover the truth of them and take the same care as if I were to print them as well that I might have so much the more occasion throughly to examine them as without doubt we always look more narrowly to what we offer to the publick view then to what we compose onely for our own use and oftentimes the same things which seemed true to me when I first conceived them appear'd afterwards false to me when I was committing them to paper as also that I might lose no occasion of benefiting the Publick if I were able and that if my Writings were of any value those to whose hands they should come after my death might to make what use of them they think fit But that I ought not any wayes to consent that they should be published during my life That neither the opposition and controversies whereto perhaps they might be obnoxious nor even the reputation
because that next the Stars I know nothing in the world but Fire which produceth light I studied to make all clearly understood which belongs to its nature how it 's made how it 's fed how sometimes it hath heat onely without light and sometimes onely light without heat how it can introduce several colours into several bodies and divers other qualities how it dissolves some and hardens others how it can consume almost all or convert them into ashes and smoak and last of all how of those ashes by the only violence of its action it forms glass For this transmutation of ashes into glass seeming to me to be as admirable as any other operation in Nature I particularly took pleasure to describe it Yet would I not inferre from all these things that this World was created after the manner I had proposed For it is more propable that God made it such as it was to be from the beginning But it 's certain and 't is an opinion commonly received amongst the Divines That the action whereby he now preserveth it is the same with that by which he created it So that although at the beginning he had given it no other form but that of a Chaos provided that having established the Laws of Nature he had afforded his concurrence to it to work as it used to do we may beleeve without doing wrong to the miracle of the Creation that by that alone all things which are purely material might in time have rendred themselves such as we now see them and their nature is far easier to conceive when by little and little we see them brought forth so then when we consider them quite form'd all at once From the description of inanimate Bodies and Plants I pass'd to that of Animals and particularly to that of Men But because I had not yet knowledge enough to speak of them in the same stile as of the others to wit in demonstrating effects by their causes and shewing from what seeds and in what manner Nature ought to produce them I contented my self to suppose That God form'd the body of a Man altogether like one of ours aswel in the exteriour figure of its members as in the interiour conformity of its organs without framing it of other matter then of that which I had described and without putting in it at the beginning any reasonable soul or any other thing to serve therein for a vegetative or sensitive soul unless he stirr'd up in his heart one of those fires without light which I had already discovered and that I conceiv'd of no other nature but that which heats hay when it s housed before it be dry or which causeth new Wines to boyl when it works upon the rape For examining the functions which might be consequently in this body I exactly found all those which may be in us without our thinking of them and to which our soul that is to say that distinct part from our bodies whose nature as hath been said before is onely to think consequently doth not contribute and which are all the same wherein we may say unreasonable creatures resemble us Yet could I not finde any of those which depending from the thought are the onely ones which belong unto us as Men whereas I found them all afterwards having supposed that God created a reasonable soul and that he joyn'd it to this body after a certain manner which I describ'd But that you might see how I treated this matter I shall here present you with the explication of the motion of the heart and of the arteries which being the first and most general which is observed in animals we may thereby easily judge what we ought to think of all the rest And that we may have the less difficulty to understand what I shall say thereof I wish those who are not versed in Anatomy would take the pains before they read this to cause the heart of some great animal which hath lungs to be dissected for in all of them its very like that of a Man and that they may have shewn them the two cels or concavities which are there First that on the right side whereto two large conduits answer to wit the vena cava which is the principal receptacle of bloud and as the body of a tree whereof all the other veins of the body are branches and the arterious vein which was so mis-call'd because that in effect its an artery which taking its origine from the heart divides it self after being come forth into divers branches which every way spred themselves through the lungs Then the other which is on the left side whereunto in the same manner two pipes answer which are as large or larger then the former to wit the veinous artery which was also il named forasmuch as it s nothing else but a vein which comes from the lungs where it s divided into several branches interlaid with those of the arterious vein and those of that pipe which is called the Whistle by which the breath enters And the great artery which proceeding from the heart disperseth its branches thorow all the body I would also that they would carefully observe the eleven little skins which as so many little doors open and shut the four openings which are in these two concavities to wit three at the entry of the vena cava where they are so disposed that they can no wayes hinder the bloud which it contains from running into the right concavity of the heart and yet altogether hinder it from coming out Three at the entry of the arterious vein which being disposed quite contrary permit only the bloud which is in that concavity to pass to the lungs but not that which is in the lungs to return thither And then two others at the entry of the veinous artery which permits the bloud to run to the left concavity of the heart but opposeth its return And three at the entry of the great artery which permit it to go from the heart but hinder its return thither Neither need we seek any other reason for the number of these skins save only that the opening of the veinous artery being oval-wise by reason of its situation may be fitly shut with two whereas the other being round may the better be clos'd with three Besides I would have them consider that the great artery and the arterious vein are of a composition much stronger then the veinous artery or the vena cava And that these two later grow larger before they enter into the heart and make as it were two purses call'd the ears of the heart which are composed of a flesh like it and that there is always more heat in the heart then in any other part of the body And in fine that if any drop of bloud enter into these concavities this heat is able to make it presently swell and dilate it self as generally all liquors do when drop by drop we let them fall into a