as to be before for if we will do this we must not allow that the Eternal Son of God is Coeternal with the Father because nature requires a Father to exist before the Son but in God is no time but all Eternity and if you allow that God hath made some Creatures as Supernatural Spirits to live Eternally why should he not as well have made a Creature from all Eternity for Gods making is not our making he needs no Priority of Time But you may say the Comparison of the Eternal Generation of the Son of God is Mystical and Divine and not to be applied to natural things I answer The action by which God created the World or made Nature was it natural of supernatural surely you will say it was a Supernatural and God-like action why then will you apply Natural Rules to a God-like and Supernatural Action for what Man knows how and when God created Nature You will say the Scripture doth teach us that for it is not Six thousand years when God created this World I answer the holy Scripture informs us onely of the Creation of this Visible World but not of Nature and natural Matter for I firmly believe according to the Word of God that this World has been Created as is described by Moses but what is that to natural Matter There may have been worlds before as many are of the opinion that there have been men before Adam and many amongst Divines do believe that after the destruction of this World God will Create a new World again as a new Heaven and a new Earth and if this be probable or at least may be believed without any prejudice to the holy Scripture why may it not be probably believed that there have been other worlds before this visible World for nothing is impossible with God and all this doth derogate nothing from the Honour and Glory of God but rather increases his Divine Power But as for the Creation of this present World it is related that there was first a rude and indigested Heap or Chaos without form void and dark and God said Let it be light Let there be a Firmament in the midst of the Waters and let the Waters under the Heaven be gathered together and let the dry Land appear Let the Earth bring forth Grass the Herb yielding seed and the Fruit-tree yielding Fruit after its own kind and let there be Lights in the Firmament the one to rule the Day and the other the Night and let the Waters bring forth abundantly the moving Creature that hath life and let the Earth bring forth living Creatures after its kinde and at last God said Let us make Man and all what was made God saw it was good Thus all was made by Gods Command and who executed his Command but the Material servant of God Nature which ordered her self-moving matter into such several Figures as God commanded and God approved of them And thus Madam I verily believe the Creation of the World and that God is the Sole and omnipotent Creator of Heaven and Earth and of all Creatures therein nay although I believe Nature to have been from Eternity yet I believe also that God is the God and Author of Nature and has made Nature and natural Matter in a way and manner proper to his Omnipotency and Incomprehensible by us I will pass by natural Arguments and Proofs as not belonging to such an Omnipotent Action as for example how the nature of relative terms requires that they must both exist at one point of Time viz. a Master and his Servant and a King and his Subjects for one bearing relation to the other can in no ways be considered as different from one another in formiliness or laterness of Time but as I said these being meerly natural things I will nor cannot apply them to Supernatural and Divine Actions But if you ask me how it is possible that Nature the Effect and Creature of God can be Eternal without beginning I will desire you to answer me first how a Creature can be Eternal without end as for example Supernatural Spirits are and then I will answer you how a Creature can be Eternal without beginning For Eternity consists herein that it has neither beginning nor end and if it be easie for God to make a Being without end it is not difficult for Him to make a Being without beginning One thing more I will add which is That if Nature has not been made by God from all Eternity then the Title of God as being a Creator which is a Title and action upon which our Faith is grounded for it is the first Article in our Creed has been accessory to God as I said not full Six thousand years ago but there is not anything accessory to God he being the Perfection himself But Madam all what I speak is under the liberty of Natural Philosophy and by the Light of Reason onely not of Revelation and my Reason being not infallible I will not declare my Opinions for an infallible Truth Neither do I think that they are offensive either to Church or State for I submit to the Laws of One and believe the Doctrine of the Other so much that if it were for the advantage of either I should be willing to sacrifice my Life especially for the Church yea had I millions of Lives and every Life was either to suffer torment or to live in ease I would prefer torment for the benefit of the Church and therefore if I knew that my Opinions should give any offence to the Church I should be ready every minute to alter them And as much as I am bound in all duty to the obedience of the Church as much am I particularly bound to your Ladiship for your entire love and sincere affection towards me for which I shall live and die MADAM Your most faithful Friend and humble Servant IV. MADAM I Have chosen in the first place the Work of that famous Philosopher Hobbs called Leviathan wherein I find he sayes That the cause of sense or sensitive perception is the external body or Object which presses the Organ proper to each Sense To which I answer according to the ground of my own Philosophical Opinions That all things and therefore outward objects as well as sensitive organs have both Sense and Reason yet neither the objects nor the organs are the cause of them for Perception is but the effect of the Sensitive and rational Motions and not the Motions of the Perception neither doth the pressure of parts upon parts make Perception for although Matter by the power of self-self-motion is as much composeable as divideable and parts do joyn to parts yet that doth not make perception nay the several parts betwixt which the Perception is made may be at such a distance as not capable to press As for example Two men may see or hear each other at a distance and yet there may be other bodies between them
that do not move to those perceptions so that no pressure can be made for all pressures are by some constraint and force wherefore according to my Opinion the Sensitive and Rational free Motions do pattern out each others object as Figure and Voice in each others Eye and Ear for Life and Knowledge which I name Rational and Sensitive Matter are in every Creature and in all parts of every Creature and make all perceptions in Nature because they are the self-moving parts of Nature and according as those Corporeal Rational and Sensitive Motions move such or such perceptions are made But these self-moving parts being of different degrees for the Rational matter is purer then the Sensitive it causes a double perception in all Creatures whereof one is made by the Rational corporeal motions and the other by the Sensitive and though both perceptions are in all the body and in every part of the body of a Creature yet the sensitive corporeal motions having their proper organs as Work-houses in which they work some sorts of perceptions those perceptions are most commonly made in those organs and are double again for the sensitive motions work either on the inside or on the outside of those organs on the inside in Dreams on the out-side awake and although both the Rational and the Sensitive matter are inseparably joyned and mixed together yet do they not always work together for oftentimes the Rational works without any sensitive paterns and the sensitive again without any rational paterns But mistake me not Madam for I do not absolutely confine the sensitive perception to the Organs nor the rational to the Brain but as they are both in the whole body so they may work in the whole body according to their own motions Neither do I say that there is no other perception in the Eye but sight in the Ear but hearing and so forth but the sensitive organs have other perceptions besides these and if the sensitive and rational motions be irregular in those parts between which the perception is made as for example in the two fore-mentioned men that see and hear each other then they both neither see nor hear each other perfectly and if one's motions be perfect but the other 's irregular and erroneous then one sees and hears better then the other or if the Sensitive and Rational motions move more regularly and make perfecter paterns in the Eye then in the Ear then they see better then they hear and if more regularly and perfectly in the Ear then in the Eye they hear better then they see And so it may be said of each man singly for one man may see the other better and more perfectly then the other may see him and this man may hear the other better and more perfectly then the other may hear him whereas if perception were made by pressure there would not be any such mistakes besides the hard pressure of objects in my opinion would rather annoy and obscure then inform But as soon as the object is removed the Perception of it made by the sensitive motions in the Organs ceaseth by reason the sensitive Motions cease from paterning but yet the Rational Motions do not always cease so suddenly because the sensitive corporeal Motions work with the Inanimate Matter and therefore cannot retain particular figures long whereas the Rational Matter doth onely move in its own substance and parts of matter and upon none other as my Book of Philosophical Opinions will inform you better And thus Perception in my opinion is not made by Pressure nor by Species nor by matter going either from the Organ to the Object or from the Object into the Organ By this it is also manifest that Understanding comes not from Exterior Objects or from the Exterior sensitive Organs for as Exterior Objects do not make Perception so they do neither make Understanding but it is the rational matter that doth it for Understanding may be without exterior objects and sensitive organs And this in short is the opinion of MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant V. MADAM YOur Authours opinion is that when a thing lies still unless somewhat else stir it it will lie still for ever but when a thing is in motion it will eternally be in motion unless somewhat else stay it the reason is saith he because nothing can change it self To tell you truly Madam I am not of his opinion for if Matter moveth it self as certainly it doth then the least part of Matter were it so small as to seem Individable will move it self T is true it could not desist from motion as being its nature to move and no thing can change its Nature for God himself who hath more power then self-moving Matter cannot change himself from being God but that Motion should proceed from another exterior Body joyning with or touching that body which it moves is in my opinion not probable for though Nature is all Corporeal and her actions are Corporeal Motions yet that doth not prove that the Motion of particular Creatures or Parts is caused by the joining touching or pressing of parts upon parts for it is not the several parts that make motion but motion makes them and yet Motion is not the cause of Matter but Matter is the cause of Motion for Matter might subsist without Motion but not Motion without Matter onely there could be no perception without Motion nor no Variety if Matter were not self-moving but Matter if it were all Inanimate and void of Motion would lie as a dull dead and senseless heap But that all Motion comes by joining or pressing of other parts I deny for if sensitive and rational perceptions which are sensitive and rational motions in the body and in the mind were made by the pressure of outward objects pressing the sensitive organs and so the brain or interior parts of the Body they would cause such dents and holes therein as to make them sore and patched in a short time Besides what was represented in this manner would always remain or at least not so soon be dissolved and then those pressures would make a strange and horrid confusion of Figures for not any figure would be distinct Wherefore my opinion is that the sensitive and rational Matter doth make or pattern out the figures of several Objects and doth dissolve them in a moment of time as for example when the eye seeth the object first of a Man then of a Horse then of another Creature the sensitive motions in the eye move first into the figure of the Man then straight into the figure of the Horse so that the Mans figure is dissolved and altered into the figure of the Horse and so forth but if the eye sees many figures at once then so many several figures are made by the sensitive Corporeal Motions and as many by the Rational Motions which are Sight and Memory at once But in sleep both the sensitive and rational Motions make
impression of exterior objects there would be so much difference betwixt them by reason of the diversity of objects as they would have no resemblance at all But for a further proof of my own opinion did the perception proceed meerly from the motion impression and resistance of the objects the hand could not perceive those objects unless they touched the hand it self as the stick doth for it is not probable that the motions of the stone water sand c. should leave their bodies and enter into the stick and so into the hand for motion must be either something or nothing if something the stick and the hand would grow bigger and the objects touched less or else the touching and the touched must exchange their motions which cannot be done so suddenly especially between solid bodies But if motion has no body it is nothing and how nothing can pass or enter or move some body I cannot conceive T is true there is no part that can subsist singly by it self without dependance upon each other and so parts do always joyn and touch each other which I am not against but onely I say perception is not made by the exterior motions of exterior parts of objects but by the interior motions of the parts of the body sentient But I have discoursed hereof before and so I take my leave resting MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXXVIII MADAM ICannot conceive why your Author is so much for little and insensible parts out of which the Elements and all other bodies are made for though Nature is divideable yet she is also composeable and I think there is no need to dissect every creature into such little parts to know their nature but we can do it by another way as well for we may dissect or divide them into never so little parts and yet gain never the more knowledg by it But according to these principles he describing amongst the rest the nature of Water says That those little parts out of which Water consists are in figure somewhat long light and slippery like little Eeles which are never so closely joyned and entangled but may easily be separated To which I answer That I observe the nature and figure of water to be flowing dilating divideable and circular for we may see in Tides overflowings and breaking into parts as in rain it will always move in a round and circular figure And I think if its parts were long and entangled like a knot of Eeles it could never be so easily contracted and denced into snow or ice Neither do I think That Salt-water hath a mixture of somewhat grosser parts not so apt to bend for to my observation and reason the nature of salt-water consists herein that its circle-lines are pointed which sharp and pointed figure makes it so penetrating yet may those points be separated from the circle lines of water as it is seen in the making of Salt But I am not of your Authors opinion That those little points do stick so fast in flesh as little nails to keep it from putrefaction for points do not always fasten or else fire which certainly is composed of sharp-pointed parts would harden and keep other bodies from dissolving whereas on the contrary it separates and divides them although after several manners But Putrefaction is onely a dissolving and separating of parts after the manner of dilation and the motion of salt is contracting as well as penetrating for we may observe what flesh soever is dry-salted doth shrink and contract close together I will not say but the pointed parts of salt may fasten like nayls in some sorts of bodies but not in all they work on And this is the reason also that Sea-water is of more weight then fresh-water for being composed of points those points stick within each other and so become more strong But yet do they not hinder the circular dilating motion of water for the circle-lines are within and the points without but onely they make it more strong from being divided by other exterior bodies that swim upon it And this is the cause that Salt-water is not so easily forced or turned to vapour as Fresh for the points piercing into each other hold it more strongly together but this is to be considered that the points of salt are on the outside of the watry Circle not on the inside which causes it to be divideable from the watry Circles I will conclude when I have given the reason why water is so soon suckt up by sand lime and the like bodies and say that it is the nature of all spongy dry and porous bodies meeting with liquid and pliable bodies as water do draw and suck them up like as animal Creatures being thirsty do drink And so I take my leave and rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXXIX MADAM COncerning Vapour Clouds Wind and Rain I am of your Authors opinion That Water is changed into Vapour and Vapour into Air and that dilated Vapours make Wind and condensed Vapours Clouds and Mists But I am not for his little particles whereof he says Vapours are made by the motion of a rare and subtil matter in the pores of terrestrial bodies which certainly I should conceive to be loose atoms did he not make them of several figures and magnitude for in my opinion there are no such things in nature which like little Flyes or Bees do fly up into the air and although I grant that in Nature are several parts whereof some are more rare others more dense according to the several degrees of matter yet they are not single but all mixt together in one body and the change of motions in those joyned parts is the cause of all changes of figures whatever without the assistance of any forreign parts And thus Water of it self is changed to Snow Ice or Hail by its inherent figurative Motions that is the circular dilation of Water by contraction changes into the figure of Snow Ice or Hail or by rarifying motions it turns into the figure of Vapour and this Vapour again by contracting motions into the figure of hoar-frost and when all these motions change again into the former then the figure of Ice Snow Hail Vapour and Frost turns again into the figure of Water And this in all sense and reason is the most facil and probable way of making Ice Snow Hail c. As for rarefaction and condensation I will not say that they may be forced by forreign parts but yet they are made by change and alteration of the inherent motions of their own parts for though the motions of forreign parts may be the occasion of them yet they are not the immediate cause or actors thereof And as for Thunder that clouds of Ice and Snow the uppermost being condensed by heat and so made heavy should fall upon another and produce the noise of thunder is very improbable for the breaking of a little small string will make
Ingenuity Wit and Wisdom then any of her particular Creatures The same may be said of her Government And so leaving Wise Nature I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XI MADAM TO your Authors argument That if Motion belong naturally to Matter Matter being Uniform it must be alike moved in every part of particle imaginable of it by reason this Motion being natural and essential to Matter is alike every way I answer That this is no more necessary then that the several actions of one body or of one part of a body should be alike for though Matter is one and the same in its Nature and never changes yet the motions are various which motions are the several actions of one and the same Natural Matter and this is the cause of so many several Creatures for self-moving matter by its self-moving power can act several ways modes or manners and had not natural matter a self-acting power there could not be any variety in Nature for Nature knows of no rest there being no such thing as rest in Nature but she is in a perpetual motion I mean self-motion given her from God Neither do I think it Atheistical as your Author deems to maintain this opinion of self-motion as long as I do not deny the Omnipotency of God but I should rather think it Irreligious to make so many several Creatures as Immaterial Spirits like so many severall Deities to rule and govern Nature and all material substances in Nature for what Atheism doth there lie in saying that natural matter is naturally moving and wise in her self Doth this oppose the omnipotency and Infinite wisdom of God It rather proves and confirms it for all Natures free power of moving and wisdom is a gift of God and proceeds from him but I must confess it destroys the power of Immaterial substances for Nature will not be ruled nor governed by them and to be against Natural Immaterial substances I think is no Atheisme except we make them Deities neither is it Atheisme to contradict the opinion of those that believe such natural incorporeal Spirits unless man make himself a God But although Nature is wise as I said before and acts methodically yet the variety of motions is the cause of so many Irregularities in Nature as also the cause of Irregular opinions for all opinions are made by self-moving matters motions or which is all one by corporeal self-motion and some in their opinions do conceive Nature according to the measure of themselves as that Nature can nor could not do more then they think nay some believe they can do as much as Nature doth which opinions whether they be probable or regular I 'le let any man judg adding onely this that to humane sense and reason it appears plainly that as God has given Nature a power to act freely so he doth approve of her actions being wise and methodical in all her several Productions Generations Transformations and Designs And so I conclude for the present onely subscribe my self as really I am MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XII MADAM I Am of your Authors opinion concerning self-activity or self-motion That what is Active of it self can no more cease to be active then to be And I have been always of this opinion even from the first begining of my conceptions in natural Philosophy as you may see in my first Treatise of Natural Philosophy which I put forth eleven years since where I say That self-moving Matter is in a Perpetual motion But your Author endeavors srom thence to conclude That Matter is not self-active because it is reducible to rest To which I answer That there is no such thing as Rest in Nature Not do I say that all sorts of motions are subject to our senses for those that are subject to our sensitive Perceptions are but gross Motions in comparison to those that are not subject to our exterior senses as for example We see some bodies dilate others consume others corrupt yet we do not see how they dilate nor how they consume nor how they corrupt Also we see some bodies contract some attract some condense some consist c. yet we do not see their contracting attracting condensing consisting or retenting motions and yet we cannot say they are not corporeal motions because not subject to our exterior senses for if there were not contracting attracting retenting or consistent corporeal self-motions it had been impossible that any creature could have been composed into one united figure much less stayed and continued in the same figure without a general alteration But your Author says If Matter as Matter had Motion nothing would hold together but Flints Adamants Brass Iron yea this whole Earth would suddenly melt into a thinner substance then the subtil Air or rather it never had been condensated together to this consistency we find it But I would ask him what reason he can give that corporeal self-motion should make all matter rare and fluid unless he believe there is but one kind of motion in Nature but this human sense and reason will contradict for we may observe there are Infinite changes of Motion and there is more variety and curiosity in corporeal motions then any one single Creature can imagine much less know but I suppose he conceives all corporeal matter to be gross and that not any corporeal motion can be subtil penetrating contracting and dilating and that whatsoever is penetrating contracting and dilating is Individable But by his leave Madam this doth not follow for though there be gross degrees of Matter and strong degrees of Corporeal Motions yet there are also pure and subtil degrees of Matter and Motions to wit that degree of Matter which I name sensitive and rational Matter which is natural Life and Knowledg as sensitive Life and rational Knowledg Again your Author askes What glue or cement holds the parts of hard matter in Stones and Metals together I answer Consistent or retentive corporeal motions by an agreeable union and conjunction in the several parts of Metal or Stone and these retentive or consistent motions are as strong and active if not more then some dilative or contractive motions for I have mentioned heretofore that as sensitive and rational corporeal motions are in all Creatures so also in Stone Metal and any other dense body whatsoever so that not any one Creature or part of Matter is without Motion and therefore not any thing is at rest But Madam I dare say I could bring more reason and sense to prove that sensitive and rational Matter is fuller of activity and has more variety of motion and can change its own parts of self-moving Matter more suddenly and into more exterior figures then Immaterial Spirits can do upon natural Matter But your Author says That Immaterial Spirits are endued with Sense and Reason I say My sensitive and rational corporeal Matter is Sense and Reason it self and is the Architect or Creator of all
to give such power to Matter as to an other Incorporeal substance But I suppose this opinion of natural Immaterial Spirits doth proceed from Chymistry where the extracts are vulgarly called Spirits and from that degree of Matter which by reason of its purity subtilty and activity is not subject to our grosser senses However these are not Incorporeal be they never so pure and subtil And I wonder much that men endeavour to prove Immaterial Spirits by corporeal Arts when as Art is not able to demonstrate Nature and her actions for Art is but the effect of Nature and expresses rather the variety then the truth of natural motions and if Art cannot do this much less will it be able to express what is not in Nature or what is beyond Nature as to trace the Visible or rather Invisible footsteps of the divine Councel and Providence or to demonstrate things supernatural and which go beyond mans reach and capacity But to return to Immaterial Spirits that they should rule and govern infinite corporeal matter like so many demy-Gods by a dilating nod and a contracting frown and cause so many kinds and sorts of Corporeal Figures to arise being Incorporeal themselves is Impossible for me to conceive for how can an Immaterial substance cause a Material corporeal substance which has no motion in it self to form so many several and various figures and creatures and make so many alterations and continue their kinds and sorts by perpetual successions of Particulars But perchance the Immaterial substance gives corporeal matter motion I answer My sense and reason cannot understand how it can give motion unless motion be different distinct and separable from it nay if it were yet being no substance or body it self according to your Authors and others opinion the question is how it can be transmitted or given away to corporeal matter Your Author may say That his Immaterial and Incorporeal spirit of Nature having self-motion doth form Matter into several Figures I answer Then that Immaterial substance must be transformed and metamorphosed into as many several figures as there are figures in Matter or there must be as many spirits as there are figures but when the figures change what doth become of the spirits Neither can I imagine that an Immaterial substance being without body can have such a great strength as to grapple with gross heavy dull and dead Matter Certainly in my opinion no Angel nor Devil except God Impower him would be able to move corporeal Matter were it not selfmoving much less any Natural Spirit But God is a Spirit and Immovable and if created natural Immaterials participate of that Nature as they do of the Name then they must be Immovable also Your Author Madam may make many several degrees of Spirits but certainly not I nor I think any natural Creature else will be able naturally to conceive them He may say perchance There is such a close conjunction betwixt Body and Spirit as I make betwixt rational sensitive and inanimate Matter I answer That these degrees are all but one Matter and of one and the same Nature as meer Matter different onely in degrees of purity subtilty and activity whereas Spirit and Body are things of contrary Natures In fine I cannot conceive how a Spirit should fill up a place or space having no body nor how it can have the effects of a body being none it self for the effects flow from the cause and as the cause is so are its effects And so confessing my ignorance I can say no more but rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXII MADAM YOur Author having assigned Indivisibility to the Soul or Spirit that moves and actuates matter I desire to know how one Indivisible Spirit can be in so many dividable parts For there being Infinite parts in Nature they must either have one Infinite Spirit to move them which must be dilated infinitely or this Spirit must move severally in every part of Nature If the first then I cannot conceive but all motion must be uniform or after one and the same manner nay I cannot understand how there can be any dilation and contraction or rather any motion of the same spirit by reason if it dilate then being equally spread out in all the parts of Matter it must dilate beyond Matter and if it contract it must leave some parts of matter void and without motion But if the Spirit moves every part severally then he is divisible neither can I think that there are so many Spirits as there are Parts in Nature for your Author says there is but one Spirit of Nature I will give an easie and plain example When a Worm is cut into two or three parts we see there is sensitive life and motion in every part for every part will strive and endeavour to meet and joyn again to make up the whole body now if there were but one indivisible Life Spirit and Motion I would fain know how these severed parts could move all by one Spirit Wherefore Matter in my opinion has self-motion in it self which is the onely soul and life of Nature and is dividable as well as composable and full of variety of action for it is as easie for several parts to act in separation as in composition and as easie in composition as in separation Neither is every part bound to one kind or sort of Motions for we see in exterior local motions that one man can put his body into several shapes and postures much more can Nature But is it not strange Madam that a man accounts it absurd ridiculous and a prejudice to Gods Omnipotency to attribute self-motion to Matter or a material Creature when it is not absurd ridiculous or any prejudice to God to attribute it to an Immaterial Creature What reason of absurdity lies herein Surely I can conceive none except it be absurd and ridiculous to make that which no man can know or conceive what it is viz. an immaterial natural Spirit which is as much as to say a natural No-thing to have motion and not onely motion but self-motion nay not onely self-motion but to move actuate rule govern and guide Matter or corporeal Nature and to be the cause of all the most curious varieties and effects in nature Was not God able to give self-self-motion as well to a Material as to an Immaterial Creature and endow Matter with a self-moving power I do not say Madam that Matter hath motion of it self so that it is the prime cause and principle of its own self-self-motion for that were to make Matter a God which I am far from believing but my opinion is That the self-self-motion of Matter proceeds from God as well as the self-motion of an Immaterial Spirit and that I am of this opinion the last Chapter of my Book of Philosophy will enform you where I treat of the Deitical Centre as the Fountain from whence all things do flow and which is the supream Cause Author
forced them forth as soon as conceived and this made the first publishing of them so full of Imperfections which I am much sorry for But since that time I have not onely reviewed but corrected and altered them in several places so that the last Impression of my Philosophical Opinions you will find more perfect and exact then the former Next I pray you to take notice Madam that in the mentioned first Edition by the word Spirits I meant Material not Immaterial Spirits for observing that Learned Men do discourse much of Animal Spirits which are Material and that also high extracts in Chymistry are called Spirits I used that word purposely thinking it most proper and convenient to express my sense and meaning of that degree of matter which I call rational and sensitive But considering again that my opinions being new would be subject to misapprehensions and mis-interpretations to prevent those I thought it fitter to leave out the word Spirits in the second as also in the last Edition of my named Book of Philosophy lest my Readers should think I meant Immaterial Spirits for I confess really that I never understood nor cannot as yet apprehend Immaterial Spirits for though I believe the Scripture and the Church that there are Spirits and do not doubt the existency of them yet I cannot conceive the nature of Immaterial Spirits and what they are Wherefore I do onely treat of natural material substances and not of incorporeal also my discourse is of the Infinite servant of the Infinite God which servant is corporeal or material Nature God is onely to be admired adored and worshipped but not ungloriously to be discoursed of Which Omnipotent God I pray of his Infinite Mercy to give me Faith to believe in him and not to let presumption prevail with me so as to liken vain and idle conceptions to that Incomprehensible Deity These Madam are my humble Prayers to God and my request to you is that I may continue the same in your love and affection which I have been hitherto so shall I live content and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant SECT III. I. MADAM I Have discharged my duty thus far that in obedience to your commands I have given you my answers to the opinions of three of those famous and learned Authors you sent me viz. Hobbes Des Cartes and More and explained my own opinions by examining theirs My onely task shall be now to proceed in the same manner with that famous Philosopher and Chymist Van Helmont But him I find more difficult to be understood then any of the forementioned not onely by reason of the Art of Chymistry which I confess my self not versed in but especially that he has such strange terms and unusual expressions as may puzle any body to apprehend the sense and meaning of them Wherefore if you receive not that full satisfaction you expect from me in examining his opinions and arguments I beg your pardon before hand and desire you to remember that I sent you word in the beginning I did undertake this work more out of desire to clear my own opinions then a quarrelsome humor to contradict others which if I do but obtain I have my aim And so to the business When as your Author discourses of the causes and beginnings of Natural things he is pleased to say That Souls and Lives as they know no Degrees so they know no Parts which opinion is very different from mine For although I confess that there is but one kind of Life and one kind of Soul in Nature which is the sensitive Life and the rational Soul both consisting not onely of Matter but of one kind of Matter to wit Animate nevertheless they are of different degrees the matter of the rational Soul being more agil subtil and active then the matter of the sensitive Life which is the reason that the rational can act in its own substance or degree of matter and make figures in it self and its own parts when as the sensitive being of somewhat a grosser degree then the rational and not so subtil and active is confined to work with and upon the Inanimate matter But mistake me not Madam for I make onely a difference of the degrees of Subtilty Activity Agility Purity betwixt rational and sensitive Matter but as for the rational Matter it self it has no degrees of Purity Subtilty and Activity in its own Nature or Parts but is always one and the same in its substance in all Creatures and so is the sensitive You will ask me How comes then the difference of so many Parts and Creatures in Nature if there be no degrees of Purity Activity and Subtilty in the substance of the rational and in the substance of the sensitive Matter As for example if there were no such degrees of the Parts of rational Matter amongst themselves as also of the Parts of the sensitive there would be no difference betwixt Animals Vegetables Minerals and Elements but all Creatures would be alike without distinction and have the same manner of sense and reason life and knowledg I answer That although each sort or degree of animate Matter rational as well as sensitive has in it self or its own substance no degrees of purity rarity and subtilty but is one and the same in its nature or essence nevertheless each has degrees of quantity or parts which degrees of quantity do make the onely difference betwixt the several creatures or parts of Nature as well in their general as particular kinds for both the rational and sensitive matter being corporeal and so dividable into parts some creatures do partake more some less of them which makes them to have more or less and so different sense and reason each according to the nature of its kind Nay this difference of the degrees of quantity or parts in the substance of the rational and sensitive Matter makes also the difference betwixt particulars in every sort of Creatures as for example between several particular Men But as I said the nature or essence of the sensitive and rational Matter is the same in all for the difference consists not in the Nature of Matter but onely in the degrees of quantity and parts of Matter and in the various and different actions or motions of this same Matter And thus Matter being dividable there are numerous lives and souls in Nature according to the variousness of her several Parts and Creatures Next your Author mentioning the Causes and Principles of natural Bodies assigns two first or chief beginnings and corporeal causes of every Creature to wit the Element of Water and the Ferment or Leaven which Ferment he calls a formal created being neither a substance nor an accident but a neutral thing Truly Madam my reason is not able to conceive this neutral Being for it must either be something or nothing in Nature and if he makes it any thing betwixt both it is a strange Monster and will produce monstrous
effects and as for Water if he doth make it a Principle of Natural things I see no reason why he excludes the rest of the Elements But in my opinion Water and the rest of the Elements are but effects of Nature as other Creatures are and so cannot be prime causes The like the Ferment which to my sense and reason is nothing else but a natural effect of natural matter Concerning his opinion That Causes and Beginnings are all one or that there is but little difference betwixt them I do readily subscribe unto it but when he speaks of those things which are produced without life my reason cannot find out what or where they should be for certainly in Nature they are not Nature being Life and Soul her self and all her parts being enlivened and soulified so that there can be no generation or natural production without Life Neither is my sense and reason capable to understand his meaning when he says That the Seeds of things and the Spirits as the Dispensers thereof are divided from the Material Cause For I do see no difference betwixt the Seed and the material Cause but they are all one thing it being undeniable that the seed is the matter of that which is produced But your Author was pleased to say heretofore that there are but two beginnings or causes of natural things and now he makes so many more for says he Of Efficient and Seminal Causes some are efficiently effecting and others effectively effecting which nice distinctions in my opinion do but make a confusion in natural knowledg setting a mans brain on the rack for who is able to conceive all those Chymaeras and Fancies of the Archeus Ferment various Ideas Blas Gas and many more which are neither something nor no-thing in Nature but betwixt both except a man have the same Fancies Visions and Dreams your Author had Nature is easie to be understood and without any difficulty so as we stand in no need to frame so many strange names able to fright any body Neither do natural bodies know many prime causes and beginnings but there is but one onely chief and prime cause from which all effects and varieties proceed which cause is corporeal Nature or natural self-moving Matter which forms and produces all natural things and all the variety and difference of natural Creatures arises from her various actions which are the various motions in Nature some whereof are Regular some Irregular I mean Irregular as to particular Creatures not as to Nature her self for Nature cannot be disturbed or discomposed or else all would run into confusion Wherefore Irregularities do onely concern particular Creatures not Infinite Nature and the Irregularities of some parts may cause the Irregularities of other Parts as the Regularities of some parts do cause the Regularities of others And thus according as Regularities and Irregularities have power they cause either Peace or War Sickness or Health Delight and Pleasure or Grief and Pain Life or Death to particular Creatures or parts of Nature but all these various actions are but various Effects and not prime Causes which is well to be observed lest we confound Causes with Effects And so leaving this discourse for the present I rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant II. MADAM IT is no wonder your Author has so many odd and strange opinions in Philosophy since they do not onely proceed from strange Visions Apparitions and Dreams but are built upon so strange grounds and principles as Ideas Archeus Gas Blas Ferment and the like the names of which sound so harsh and terrifying as they might put any body easily into a fright like so many Hobgoblins or Immaterial spirits but the best is they can do no great harm except it be to trouble the brains of them that love to maintain those opinions for though they are thought to be powerful beings yet being not corporeal substances I cannot imagine wherein their power should consist for Nothing can do nothing But to mention each apart first his Archeus he calls the Spirit of Life a vital Gas or Light the Balsam preserving from Corruption the Vulcan or Smith of Generation the stirrer up and inward director of Generation an Air a skiey or airy Spirit cloathing himself presently with a bodily cloathing in things soulified walking through all the dens and retiring places of the seed and transforming the matter according to the perfect act of its own Image remaining the president and overseer or inward ruler of his bounds even till death the Principle of Life the Inn of Life the onely immediate Witness Executor and Instrument of Life the Prince and Center of Life the Ruler of the Stern the Keeper of Life and promoter of Transmutations the Porter of the Soul a Fountainous being a Flint These and many more names your Author attributes to his Archeus but what properly it is and what its Nature and its peculiar office I am not able to conceive In the next place Gas and Blas are to your Author also true Principles of Natural things for Gas is the Vapour into which Water is dissolved by Cold but yet it is a far more fine and subtil thing then Vapour which he demonstrates by the Art of Chymistry This Gas in another place he calls a Wild Spirit or Breath unknown hitherto which can neither be constrained by Vessels nor reduced into a visible body in some things it is nothing but Water as for example in Salt in Fruits and the like But Blas proceeds from the local and alterative motion of the Stars and is the general beginning of motion producing heat and cold and that especially with the changing of the Winds There is also Blas in all sublunary things witness Amulets or preserving Pomanders whereby they do constrain objects to obey them Which Incorporeal Blas of Government acts without a Corporeal Efflux even as the Moon makes the Sea to swell but the fleshly generation hath a Blas of its own and it is twofold one which existeth by a natural Motion the other voluntary which existeth as a mover to it self by an Internal Willing There is also a Blas of the Heart which is the fuel of the Vital Spirit and consequently of its heat The Ferment he describes to be A true Principle or Original beginning of things to wit a Formal Created being which is neither a substance nor an accident but a Neutral being framed from the beginning of the World in the places of its own Monarchy in the manner of Light Fire the magnal or sheath of the Air Forms c. that it may prepare stir up and go before the Seeds Lastly his Ideas are Certain formal seminal Lights mutually piercing each other without the adultery of Union For says he although at first that which is imagined is nothing but a meer being of reason yet it doth not remain such for truely the Fancy is a sealifying vertue
stories in brief is this My Sense and Reason doth inform me that there is Natural Witchcraft as I may call it which is Sympathy Antipathy Magnetisme and the like which are made by the sensitive and rational motions between several Creatures as by Imagination Fancy Love Aversion and many the like but these Motions being sometimes unusual and strange to us we not knowing their causes For what Creature knows all motions in Nature and their ways do stand amazed at their working power and by reason we cannot assign any Natural cause for them are apt to ascribe their effects to the Devil but that there should be any such devillish Witchcraft which is made by a Covenant and Agreement with the Devil by whose power Men do enchaunt or bewitch other Creatures I cannot readily believe Certainly I dare say that many a good old honest woman hath been condemned innocently and suffered death wrongfully by the sentence of some foolish and cruel Judges meerly upon this suspition of Witchcraft when as really there hath been no such thing for many things are done by slights or juggling Arts wherein neither the Devil nor Witches are Actors And thus an English-man whose name was Banks was like to be burnt beyond the Seas for a Witch as I have been inform'd onely for making a Horse shew tricks by Art There have been also several others as one that could vomit up several kinds of Liquors and other things and another who did make a Drum beat of it self But all these were nothing but slights and jugling tricks as also the talking and walking Bell and the Brazen-Head which spake these words Time was Time is and Time is past and so fell down Which may easily have been performed by speaking through a Pipe conveighed into the said head But such and the like trifles will amaze many grave and wise men when they do not know the manner or way how they are done so as they are apt to judg them to be effected by Witchcraft or Combination with the Devil But as I said before I believe there is Natural Magick which is that the sensitive and rational Matter oft moves such a way as is unknown to us and in the number of these is also the bleeding of a murdered body at the presence of the Murderer which your Author mentions for the corporeal motions in the murthered body may move so as to work such effects which are more then ordinary for the animal Figure being not so quickly dissolved the animal motions are not so soon altered for the dissolving of the Figure is nothing else but an alteration of its Motions and this dissolution is not done in an instant of time but by degrees But yet I must confess it is not a common action in Nature for Nature hath both common and singular or particular actions As for example Madness natural Folly and many the like are but in some particular persons for if those actions were general and common then all or most men would be either mad or fools but though there are too many already yet all men are not so and so some murthered bodies may bleed or express some alterations at the presence of the Murtherer but I do not believe that all do so for surely in many not any alteration will be perceived and others will have the same alterations without the presence of the Murtherer And thus you see Madam that this is done naturally without the help of the Devil nay your Author doth himself confess it to be so for says he The act of the Witch is plainly Natural onely the stirring up of the vertue or power in the Witch comes from Satan But I cannot understand what your Author means by the departing of spiritual rays from the Witch into Man or any other animal which she intends to kill or hurt nor how Spirits wander about in the Air and have their mansions there for men may talk as well of impossibilities as of such things which are not composed of Natural Matter If man were an Incorporeal Spirit himself he might perhaps sooner conceive the essence of a Spirit as being of the same Nature but as long as he is material and composed of Natural Matter he might as well pretend to know the Essence of God as of an Incorporeal Spirit Truly I must confess I have had some fancies oftentimes of such pure and subtil substances purer and subtiler then the Sky or AEthereal substance is whereof I have spoken in my Poetical Works but these substances which I conceived within my fancy were material and had bodies though never so small and subtil for I was never able to conceive a substance abstracted from all Matter for even Fancy it self is material and all Thoughts and Conceptions are made by the rational Matter and so are those which Philosophers call Animal Spirits but a material Fancy cannot produce immaterial effects that is Ideas of Incorporeal Spirits And this was the cause that in the first impression of my Philosophical Opinions I named the sensitive and rational Matter sensitive and rational Spirits because of its subtilty activity and agility not that I thought them to be immaterial but material Spirits but since Spirits are commonly taken to be immaterial and Spirit and Body are counted opposite to one another to prevent a misapprehension in the thoughts of my Readers as if I meant Incorporeal Spirits I altered this expression in the last Edition and call'd it onely sensitive and rational Matter or which is all one sensitive and rational corporeal motions You will say perhaps That the divine Soul in Man is a Spirit but I desire you to call to mind what I oftentimes have told you to wit that when I speak of the Soul of Man I mean onely the Natural not the Divine Soul which as she is supernatural so she acts also supernaturally but all the effects of the natural Soul of which I discourse are natural and not divine or supernatural But to return to Magnetisme I am absolutely of opinion that it is naturally effected by natural means without the concurrence of Immaterial Spirits either good or bad meerly by natural corporeal sensitive and rational motions and for the most part there must be a due approach between the Agent and the Patient or otherwise the effect will hardly follow as you may see by the Loadstone and Iron Neither is the influence of the Stars performed beyond a certain distance that is such a distance as is beyond sight or their natural power to work for if their light comes to our Eyes I know no reason against it but their effects may come to our bodies And as for infectious Diseases they come by a corporeal imitation as by touch either of the infected air drawn in by breath or entring through the Pores of the Body or of some things brought from infected places or else by hearing but diseases caused by Conceit have their beginning as all alterations have from
infectious Vegetables so that Infections may be caused several ways either by inbreathing and attracting or sucking in the Poyson of the Plague or by eating and converting it into the substance of the body for some kinds of poyson are so powerful as to work onely by way of inbreathing Also some sorts of Air may be full of infection and infect many Men Beasts Birds Vegetables and the like for Infections are variously produced Internally as well as Externally amongst several particular Creatures for as the Plague may be made internally or within the body of a particular Creature without any exterior infection entring from without into the body so an external Infection again may enter many several ways into the body And thus there be many contagious diseases caused meerly by the internal motions of the body as by fright terror conceit fancy imagination and the like and many by the taking of poysonous matter from without into the body but all are made by the natural motions or actions of animate matter by which all is made that is in Nature and nothing is new as Solomon says but what is thought or seems to be new is onely the variation of the Motions of this old Matter which is Nature And this is the reason that not every Age Nation or Creature has always the like diseases for as all the actions of Nature vary so also do diseases But to speak of the Plague although I am of opinion that the Plague of Beasts doth not infect Men unless they be eaten nor the plague of Men Beasts yet Magistrates do wisely in some places that in the beginning of the plague of Men they command Dogs and Cats to be kill'd by reason as your Author saith The skins and flesh of Brutes may be defiled with our Plague and they may be pestiferous contagions unto us I will add one thing more which doth concern the Poyson of Measels whereof your Author is saying That it is onely proper to humane kind What kind of Measles he means I know not but certainly Hogs are often affected with that disease as is vulgarly known but whether they be different diseases in their kinds and proceed from different motions I will let others inquire And so I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XL. MADAM COncerning the disease of the Stone your Author seems to be of an opinion That the stone in the Bladder and the stone in the Kidnies are not made after one and the same manne For says he The Bladder and the same Vrine in number procreates a duelech of another condition then that which is made in the Kidney And truly Madam it may be so for there are several ways or modes in irregularities as well as regularities and not every kind is alike no not every Particular but there is some difference between them Wherefore it may very well be that the corporeal motions that make the stone in the Kidneys are not just alike to those that make the stone in the Bladder and as each sort of stone is different so their particular causes ought to be different but this is to be observed that generally all diseases which produce hardness are made by contracting condensing and retenting motions and therefore the remedies of them must be dilating rarifying and dissolving Next your Author says The Stone is not bred by heat but heat is rather an effect of the stone neither is a certain muscilage or a slimy snivelly Phlegme the cause or matter of the stone but the stone is the cause of the phlegme But in my judgment it seems more probable that a slimy matter is more proper for a stone to be made of then that a stone should make slime except it be in its dissolution that is when the stone as in its generation or production it did change from a slimy or liquid substance to a stone by condensing and contracting motions doth by dilating and rarifying motions dissolve again into such a liquid and slimy body I will not say always to wit that the stone must needs be resolved into a slimy matter but oftentimes it may be so Neither can I absolutely affirm that either heat or cold onely is the cause of a stone for some may be produced by hot and some by cold contractions and densations there being as many several sorts of stones as there are of other Creatures But this is to be well noted that as some sorts of hot contractions do make stones so some sorts of hot dilations do dissolve them The like of cold contractions and dilations Again your Author speaking of the womb wherein the stone is made Every generated thing or being says he must of necessity have a certain place or womb where it is produced for there must needs be places wherein things may be made before they are bred I answer As there is not any body without place nor any place without body so the womb is not the place of the body generated neither before nor after its generation no more then a man can be said to be in a room when he is not there but every body carries its place along with it Moreover concerning the voiding of bloody Urine which happens sometimes in the disease of the Stone my opinion is That it doth not always proceed from the Stone but many times from the breaking or voluntary opening of some Veins But as for the cure of the disease of the Stone your Author is pleased to affirm That no disease is incurable and so neither the disease oâ— the Stone For he himself has cured many of the Stone to which they had been obedient for some years Indeed Madam I fear his words are more cheerful then effectual however it may be possible if the Kidneys be no ways impaired or the Bladder hurt but if there be some such imperfection in either or both then it is as much in my opinion as to say Man can do more then Nature doth Neither can I believe that then any of your Authors Chymical preparations as Aroph Ludus Alkahest and the like if they were to be had would do any good no nor Daucus or wild Carrot-seed if the disease be as yet curable will prove an effectual remedy for it although your Author is pleased to relate an example of a man to whom it did much good for I can affirm the contrary by other the like Examples that it never did any good to those that used it nor the liquor of the Birch-tree whose vertue and efficacy I do not believe to be so great as your Author describes But for the stoppage of Urine Marsh-mallow and oyl of Almonds which he despises I approve to be good and better then any of his Unknown Chymical Secrets for those Chymical Medicines as he himself confesses are hard to be had especially Alkahest which is onely to be obtained by a Particular favour from Heaven and is rather a supernatural Gift then a natural remedy
For which I would not spare any labour or pains but be as industrious as those that gain their living by their work and I pray to God that Nature may give me a capacity to do it But as for those that will censure my works out of spite and malice rather then according to justice let them do their worst for if God do but bless them I need not to fear the power of Nature much less of a part of Nature as Man Nay if I have but your Ladiships approbation it will satisfie me for I know you are so wife and just in your judgment that I may safely rely upon it For which I shall constantly and unfeignedly remain as long as I live MADAM Your Ladiships most faithful Friend and humble Servant SECT IV. I. MADAM I Perceive you take great delight in the study of Natural Philosophy since you have not onely sent me some Authors to peruse and give my judgment of their opinions but are very studious your self in the reading of Philosophical Works and truly I think you cannot spend your time more honourably profitably and delightfully then in the study of Nature as to consider how Variously Curiously and Wisely she acts in her Creatures for if the particular knowledg of a man's self be commendable much more is the knowledg of the general actions of Nature which doth lead us to the knowledg of our selves The truth is by the help of Philosophy our Minds are raised above our selves into the knowledg of the Causes of all natural effects But leaving the commending of this noble study you are pleased to desire my opinion of a very difficult and intricate argument in Natural Philosophy to wit of Generation or Natural Production I must beg leave to tell you first that some though foolishly believe it is not fit for Women to argue upon so subtil a Mystery Next there have been so many learned and experienced Philosophers Physicians and Anatomists which have treated of this subject that it might be thought a great presumption for me to argue with them having neither the learning nor experience by practice which they had Lastly There are so many several ways and manners of Productions in Nature as it is impossible for a single Creature to know them all For there are Infinite variations made by self-motion in Infinite Matter producing several Figures which are several Creatures in that same Matter But you would fain know how Nature which is Infinite Matter acts by self-motion Truly Madam you may as well ask any one part of your body how every other part of your body acts as to ask me who am but a small part of Infinite Matter how Nature works But yet I cannot say that Nature is so obscure as her Creatures are utterly ignorant for as there are two of the outward sensitive organs in animal bodies which are more intelligible then the rest to wit the Ear and the Eye so in Infinite Matter which is the body of Nature there are two parts which are more understanding or knowing then the rest to wit the Rational and Sensitive part of Infinite Matter for though it be true That Nature by self-division made by self-self-motion into self-figures which are self-parts causes a self-obscurity to each part motion and figure nevertheless Nature being infinitely wise and knowing its infinite natural wisdom and knowledg is divided amongst those infinite parts of the infinite body and the two most intelligible parts as I said are the sensitive and rational parts in Nature which are divided being infinite into every Figure or Creature I cannot say equally divided no more then I can say all creatures are of equal shapes sizes properties strengths quantities qualities constitutions semblances appetites passions capacities forms natures and the like for Nature delights in variety as humane sense and reason may well perceive for seldom any two creatures are just alike although of one kind or sort but every creature doth vary more or less Wherefore it is not probable that the production or generation of all or most Creatures should be after one and the same manner or way for else all Creatures would be just alike without any difference But this is to be observed that though Nature delights in variety yet she doth not delight in confusion but as it is the propriety of Nature to work variously so she works also wisely which is the reason that the rational and sensitive parts of Nature which are the designing and architectonical parts keep the species of every kind of Creatures by the way of Translation in Generation or natural Production for whatsoever is transferred works according to the nature of that figure or figures from whence it was transferred But mistake me not for I do not mean always according to their exterior Figure but according to their interior Nature for different motions in one and the same parts of matter make different figures wherefore much more in several parts of matter and changes of motion But as I said Translation is the chief means to keep or maintain the species of every kind of Creatures which Translation in natural production or generation is of the purest and subtilest substances to wit the sensitive and rational which are the designing and architectonical parts of Nature You may ask me Madam what this wise and ingenious Matter is I answer It is so pure subtil and self-active as our humane shares of sense and reason cannot readily or perfectly perceive it for by that little part of knowledg that a humane creature hath it may more readily perceive the strong action then the purer substance for the strongest action of the purest substance is more perceivable then the matter or substance it self which is the cause that most men are apt to believe the motion and to deny the matter by reason of its subtilty for surely the sensitive and rational matter is so pure and subtil as not to be expressed by humane sense and reason As for the rational-matter it is so pure fine and subtil that it may be as far beyond lucent matter as lucent matter is beyond gross vapours or thick clouds and the sensitive matter seems not much less pure also there is very pure inanimate matter but not subtil and active of it self for as there are degrees in the animate so there are also degrees in the inanimate matter so that the purest degree of inanimate matter comes next to the animate not in motion but in the purity of its own degree for it cannot change its nature so as to become animate yet it may be so pure in its own nature as not to be perceptible by our grosser senses But concerning the two degrees of animate Matter to wit the sensitive and rational I say that the sensitive is much more acute then Vitriol Aqua-fortis Fire or the like and the rational much more subtil and active then Quicksilver or Light so as I cannot find a comparison fit to express them
onely that this sensitive and rational self-moving Matter is the life and soul of Nature But by reason this Matter is not subject to our gross senses although our senses are subject to it as being made subsisting and acting through the power of its actions we are not apt to believe it no more then a simple Country-wench will believe that Air is a substance if she neither hear see smell taste or touch it although Air touches and surrounds her But yet the effects of this animate matter prove that there is such a matter onely as I said before this self-moving matter causing a self-division as well as a general action is the cause of a self-obscurity which obscurity causes doubts disputes and inconstancies in humane opinions although not so much obscurity as to make all Creatures blindfold for surely there is no Creature but perceives more or less But to conclude The Rational degree of Matter is the most intelligible and the wisest part of Nature and the Sensitive is the most laborious and provident part in Nature both which are the Creators of all Creatures in Infinite Matter and if you intend to know more of this Rational and Sensitive Matter you may consult my Book of Philosophy to which I refer you And so taking my leave for the present I rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant II. MADAM I Understand by your last that you have read the Book of that most learned and famous Physician and Anatomist Dr. Harvey which treats of Generation and in the reading of it you have mark'd several scruples which you have framed into several questions concerning that subject to which you desire my answer Truly Madam I am loth to imbarque my self in this difficult argument not onely for the reasons I have given you heretofore but also that I do not find my self able enough to give you such a satisfactory answer as perhaps you do expect But since your Commands are so powerful with me that I can hardly resist them and your Nature so good that you easily pardon any thing that is amiss I will venture upon it according to the strength of my Natural Reason and endeavour to give you my opinion as well and as clearly as I can Your first question is Whether the action of one or more producers be the onely cause of Natural Production or Generation without imparting or transferring any of their own substance or Matter I answer The sole co-action of the Producers may make a change of exterior forms or figures but not produce another Creature for if there were not substance or matter as well as action both transferred together there would not be new Creatures made out of old Matter but every production would require new Matter which is impossible if there be but one Matter and that infinite and certainly humane sense and reason may well perceive that there can be but one Matter for several kinds of Matter would make a confusion and thus if new Creatures were made onely by substanceless motion it would not onely be an infinite trouble to Nature to create something out of nothing perpetually but as I said it would make a confusion amongst all Nature's works which are her several Parts or Creatures But by reason there is but one Matter which is Infinite and Eternel and this Matter has self-motion in it both Matter and Motion must of necessity transmigrate or be transferred together without any separation as being but one thing to wit Corporeal Motion 'T is true one part of animate or self-moving Matter may without Translation move or rather occasion other parts to move but one Creature cannot naturally produce another without the transferring of its corporeal motions But it is well to be observed that there is great difference between the actions of Nature for all actions are not generating but some are patterning and some transforming and the like and as for the transforming action that may be without translation as being nothing else but a change of motions in one and the same part or parts of Matter to wit when the same parts of Matter do change into several figures and return into the same figures again Also the action of Patterning is without Translation for to pattern out is nothing else but to imitate and to make a figure in its own substance or parts of Matter like another figure But in generation every producer doth transfer both Matter and Motion that is Corporeal Motion into the produced and if there be more producers then one they all do contribute to the produced and if one Creature produces many Creatures those many Creatures do partake more or less of their producer But you may say If the producer transfers its own Matter or rather its own corporeal motions into the produced many productions will soon dissolve the producer and he will become a sacrifice to his off-spring I answer That doth not follow for as one or more Creatures contribute to one or more other Creatures so other Creatures do contribute to them although not after one and the same manner or way but after divers manners or ways but all manners and ways must be by translation to repair and assist for no Creature can subsist alone and of it self but all Creatures traffick and commerce from and to each other and must of necessity do so since they are all parts of the same Matter Neither can Motion subsist without Matter nor quit Matter nor act without Matter no more then an Artificer can work without materials and without self-self-motion Matter would be dead and useless Wherefore Matter and Motion must upon necessity not onely be inseparable but be one body to wit corporeal motion which motion by dividing and composing its several parts and acting variously is the cause of all Production Generation Metamorphosing or any other thing that is done in Nature But if according to your Author the sole action be the cause of Generation without transferring of substance then Matter is useless and of none or little effect which in my opinion is not probable Your second question is Whether the Production or Generation of animals is as the Conceptions of the Brain which the Learned say are Immaterial I answer The Conceptions of the Brain in my opinion are not Immaterial but Corporeal for though the corporeal motions of the brain or the matter of its conceptions is invisible to humane Creatures and that when the brain is dissected there is no such matter found yet that doth not prove that there is no Matter because it is not so gross a substance as to be perceptible by our exterior senses Neither will your Authors example hold that as a builder erects a house according to his conception in the brain the same happens in all other natural productions or generations for in my opinion the house is materially made in the brain which is the conception of the builder although not of such gross materials as Stone Brick Wood
there is none in Nature for Nature is Regular but that which Man who is but a small part of Nature and therefore but partly knowing names Irregularities or Imperfections is onely a change and alteration of motions for a part can know the variety of motions in Nature no more then Finite can know Infinite or the bare exterior shape and figure of a mans body can know the whole body or the head can know the mind for Infinite natural knowledg is corporeal and being corporeal it is dividable and being dividable it cannot be confined to one part onely for there is no such thing as an absolute determination or subsistence in parts without relation or dependance upon one another And since Matter is Infinite and acts wisely and all for the best it may be as well for the best of Nature when parts are divided antipathetically as when they they are united sympathetically Also Matter being Infinite it cannot be perfect neither can a part be called perfect as being a part But mistake me not Madam for when I say there is no perfection in Nature as I do in my Philosophical Opinions I mean by Perfection a finiteness absoluteness or compleatness of figure and in this sense I say Nature has no perfection by reason it is Infinite but yet I do not deny but that there is a perfection in the nature or essence of Infinite Matter for Matter is perfect Matter that is pure and simple in its own substance or nature as meer Matter without any mixture or addition of some thing that is not Matter or that is between Matter and no Matter and material motions are perfect motions although Infinite just as a line may be called a perfect line although it be endless and Gold or other Mettal may be called perfect Gold or perfect Metal although it be but a part And thus it may be said of Infinite Nature or Infinite Matter without any contradiction that it is both perfect and not perfect perfect in its nature or substance not perfect in its exterior figure But you may say If Infinite Matter be not perfect it is imperfect and what is imperfect wants something I answer That doth not follow for we cannot say that what is not perfect must of necessity be imperfect because there is something else which it may be to wit Infinite for as imperfection is beneath perfection so perfection is beneath Infinite and though Infinite Matter be not perfect in its figure yet it is not imperfect but Infinite for Perfection and Imperfection belongs onely to Particulars and not to Infinite And thus much for the present I conclude and rest MADAM Your Ladiships most obliged Friend and humble servant V. MADAM The Author mentioned in my former Letter says That Quietness is the degree of Infinite slowness and that a moveable body passing from quietness passes through all the degrees of slowness without staying in any But I cannot conceive that all the Parts of Matter should be necessitated to move by degrees for though there be degrees in Nature yet Nature doth not in all her Actions move by degrees You may say for example from one to twenty there are eighteen degrees between One and Twenty and all these degrees are included in the last degree which is twenty I answer That may be but yet there is no progress made through all those degrees for when a body doth move strong at one time and the next time after moves weak I cannot conceive how any degrees should really be made between You may say By Imagination But this Imagination of degrees is like the conception of Space and Place when as yet there is no such thing as Place or Space by it self for all is but one body and Motion is the action of this same body which is corporeal Nature and because a particular body can and doth move after various manners according to the change of its corporeal motions this variety of motions man call's Place Space Time Degrees c. confidering them by themselves and giving them peculiar names as if they could be parted from body or at least be conceived without body for the Conception or Imagination it self is corporeal and so are they nothing else but corporeal motions But it seems as if this same Author conceived also motion to be a thing by it self and that motion begets motion when he says That a body by moving grows stronger in motion by degrees when as yet the strength was in the matter of the body eternally for Nature was always a grave Matron never a sucking Infant and though parts by dissolving and composing may lose and get acquaintance of each other yet no part can be otherwise in its nature then ever it was Wherefore change of corporeal motions is not losing nor getting strength or swiftness for Nature doth not lose force although she doth not use force in all her various actions neither can any natural body get more strength then by nature it hath although it may get the assistance of other bodies joyned to it But swiftness and slowness are according to the several figurative actions of self-moving matter which several actions or motions of Nature and their alterations cannot be found out by any particular Creature As for example the motions of Lead and the motions of Wood unless Man knew their several causes for Wood in some cases may move slower then Lead and Lead in other cases slower then Wood. Again the same Author says That an heavy moveable body descending gets force enough to bring it back again to as much height But I think it might as well be said That a Man walking a mile gets as much strength as to walk back that mile when 't is likely that having walked ten miles he may not have so much strength as to walk back again one mile neither is he necessitated to walk back except some other more powerful body do force him back for though Nature is self-moving yet every part has not an absolute power for many parts may over-power fewer also several corporeal motions may cross and oppose as well as assist each other for if there were not opposition as well as agreement and assistance amongst Nature's parts there would not be such variety in Nature as there is Moreover he makes mention of a Line with a weight hung to its end which being removed from the perpendicular presently falls to the same again To which I answer That it is the appetite and desire of the Line not to move by constraint or any forced exterior motion but that which forces the Line to move from the Perpendicular doth not give it motion but is onely an occasion that it moves in such a way neither doth the line get that motion from any other exterior body but it is the lines own motion for if the motion of the hand or any other exterior body should give the line that motion I pray from which doth it receive the
motion to tend to its former state Wherefore when the Line moves backwards or forwards it is not that the Line gets what it had not before that is a new corporeal motion but it uses its own motion onely as I said that exterior body is the occasion that it moves after such a manner or way and therefore this motion of the line although it is the lines own motion yet in respect of the exterior body that causes it to move that way it may be called a forced or rather an occasioned motion And thus no body can get motion from another body except it get matter too for all that motion that a body has proceeds from the self-moving part of matter and motion and matter are but one thing neither is there any inanimate part of matter in Nature which is not co-mixed with the animate and consequently there is no part which is not moving or moved the Animate part of matter is the onely self-moving part and the Inanimate the moved not that the animate matter doth give away its own motion to the inanimate and that the inanimate becomes self-moving but the animate by reason of the close conjunction and commixture works together with the inanimate or causes the inanimate to work with it and thus the inanimate remains as simple in its own nature as the animate doth in its nature although they are mixt for those mixtures do not alter the simplicity of each others Nature But having discoursed of this subject in my former Letters I take my leave and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant VI. MADAM IT seems my former Letter concerning Motion has given you occasion to propound this following question to me to wit When I throw a bowl or strike a ball with my hand whether the motion by which the bowl or ball is moved be the hands or the balls own motion or whether it be transferred out of my hand into the ball To which I return this short answer That the motion by which for example the bowl is moved is the bowls own motion and not the hands that threw it for the hand cannot transfer its own motion which hath a material being out of it self into the bowl or any other thing it handles touches or moves or else if it did the hand would in a short time become weak and useless by losing so much substance unless new motions were as fast created as expended You 'l say perhaps that the hand and the bowl may exchange motions as that the bowls own motion doth enter into the hand and supply that motion which went out of the hand into the bowl by a close joyning or touch for in all things moving and moved must be a joyning of the mover to the moved either immediate or by the means of another body I answer That this is more probable then that the hand should give out or impart motion to the bowl and receive none from the bowl but by reason motion cannot be transferred without matter as being both inseparably united and but one thing I cannot think it probable that any of the animate or self-moving matter in the hand quits the hand and enters into the bowl nor that the animate matter which is in the bowl leaves the bowl and enters into the hand because that self-moving substance is not readily prepared for so sudden a Translation or Transmigration You may say It may as easily be done as food is received into an animal body and excrement discharged or as air is taken in and breath sent out by the way of respiration and that all Creatures are not onely produced from each other but do subsist by each other and act by each others assistance I answer It is very true that all Creatures have more power and strength by a joyned assistance then if every part were single and subsisted of it self But as some parts do assist each other so on the other side some parts do resist each other for though there be a unity in the nature of Infinite Matter yet there are divisions also in the Infinite parts of Infinite Matter which causes Antipathy as much as Sympathy but they being equal in assistance as well as in resistance it causes a conformity in the whole nature of Infinite Matter for if there were not contrary or rather I may say different effects proceeding from the onely cause which is the onely matter there could not possibly be any or at least so much variety in Nature as humane sense and reason perceives there is But to return to our first argument You may say that motion may be transferred out of one body into another without transferring any of the Matter I answer That is impossible unless motion were that which some call No-thing but how No-thing can be transferred I cannot imagine Indeed no sense and reason in Nature can conceive that which is No-thing for how should it conceive that which is not in Nature to be found You 'l say perhaps It is a substanceless thing or an incorporeal immaterial being or form I answer In my opinion it is a meer contradiction to say a substanceless thing form or being for surely in Nature it cannot be But if it be not possible that motion can be divided from matter you may say that body from whence the motion is transferred would become less in bulk and weight and weaker with every act of motion and those bodies into which corporeal motion or self-moving matter was received would grow bigger heavier and stronger To which I answer That this is the reason which denies that there can be a translation of motion out of the moving body into the moved for questionless the one would grow less and the other bigger that by loosing so much substance this by receiving Nay if it were possible as it is not that motion could be transferred without matter the body out of which it goes would nevertheless grow weaker for the strength lies in the motion unless you believe this motion which is transferred to have been useless in the mover and onely useful to the moved or else it would be superfluous in the moved except you say it became to be annihilated after it was transferr'd and had done its effect but if so then there would be a perpetual and infinite creation and annihilation of substanceless motion and how there could be a creation and annihilation of nothing my reason cannot conceive neither is it possible unless Nature had more power then God to create Nothing and to annihilate Nothing The truth is it is more probable for sense and reason to believe a Creation of Something out of Nothing then a Creation of Nothing out of Nothing Wherefore it cannot in sense and reason be that the motion of the hand is transferr'd into the bowl But yet I do not say that the motion of the hand doth not contribute to the motion of the bowl for though the bowl hath its own natural motion
Power as in the Purity And the disparity between the Natural and Divine Infinite is such as they cannot joyn mix and work together unless you do believe that Divine Actions can have allay But you may say Purity belongs onely to natural things and none but natural bodies can be said purified but God exceeds all Purity 'T is true But if there were infinite degrees of Purity in Matter Matter might at last become Immaterial and so from an Infinite Material turn to an Infinite Immaterial and from Natrue to be God A great but an impossible Change For I do verily believe that there can be but one Omnipotent God and he cannot admit of addition or diminution and that which is Material cannot be Immaterial and what is Immaterial cannot become Material I mean so as to change their natures for Nature is what God was pleased she should be and will be what she was until God be pleased to make her otherwise Wherefore there can be no new Creation of matter motion or figure nor any annihilation of any matter motion or figure in Nature unless God do create a new Nature For the changing of Matter into several particular Figures doth not prove an annihilation of particular Figures nor the cessation of particular Motions an annihilation of them Neither doth the variation of the Onely Matter produce an annihilation of any part of Matter nor the variation of figures and motions of Matter cause an alteration in the nature of Onely Matter Wherefore there cannot be new Lives Souls or Bodies in Nature for could there be any thing new in Nature or any thing annihilated there would not be any stability in Nature as a continuance of every kind and sort of Creatures but there would be a confusion between the new and old matter motions and figures as between old and new Nature In truth it would be like new Wine in old Vessels by which all would break into disorder Neither can supernatural and natural effects be mixt together no more then material and immaterial things or beings Therefore it is probable God has ordained Nature to work in herself by his Leave Will and Free Gift But there have been and are still strange and erroneous Opinions and great differences amongst Natural Philosophers concerning the Principles of Natural things some will have them Atoms others will have the first Principles to be Salt Sulphur and Mercury some will have them to be the four Elements as Fire Air Water and Earth and others will have but one of these Elements also some will have Gas and Blas Ferments Idea's and the like but what they believe to be Principles and Causes of natural things are onely Effects for in all Probability it appears to humane sense and reason that the cause of every particular material Creature is the onely and Infinite Matter which has Motions and Figures inseparably united for Matter Motion and Figure are but one thing individable in its Nature And as for Immaterial Spirits there is surely no such thing in Infinite Nature to wit so as to be Parts of Nature for Nature is altogether Material but this opinion proceeds from the separation or abstraction of Motion form Matter viz. that man thinks matter and motion to be dividable from each other and believes motion to be a thing by its self naming it an Imaterial thing which has a being but not a bodily substance But various and different effects do not prove a different Matter or Cause neither do they prove an unsetled Cause onely the variety of Effects hath obscured the Cause from the several parts which makes Particular Creatures partly Ignorant and partly knowing But in my opinion Nature is material and not any thing in Nature what belongs to her is immaterial but whatsoever is Immaterial is Supernatural Therefore Motions Forms Thoughts Ideas Conceptions Sympathies Antipathies Accidents Qualities as also Natural Life and Soul are all Material And as for Colours Sents Light Sound Heat Cold and the like those that believe them not to be substances or material things surely their brain or heart take what place you will for the forming of Conceptions moves very Irregularly and they might as well say Our sensitive Organs are not material for what Objects soever that are subject to our senses cannot in sense be denied to be Corporeal when as those things that are not subject to our senses can be conceived in reason to be Immaterial But some Philosophers striving to express their wit obstruct reason and drawing Divinity to prove Sense and Reason weaken Faith so as their mixed Divine Philosophy becomes meer Poetical Fictions and Romancical expressions making material Bodies immaterial Spirits and immaterial Spirits material Bodies and some have conceived some things neither to be Material nor Immaterial but between both Truly Madam I wish their Wits had been less and their Judgments more as not to jumble Natural and Supernatural things together but to distinguish either clearly for such Mixtures are neither Natural nor Divine But as I said the Confufion comes from their too nice abstractions and from the separation of Figure and Motion from Matter as not conceiving them individable but if God and his servant Nature were as Intricate and Confuse in their Works as Men in their Understandings and Words the Universe and Production of all Creatures would soon be without Order and Government so as there would be a horrid and Eternal War both in Heaven and in the World and so pittying their troubled Brains and wishing them the Light of Reason that they may clearly perceive the Truth I rest MADAM Your real Friend and faithful Servant III. MADAM IT seems you are offended at my Opinion that Nature is Eternal without beginning which you say is to make her God or at least coeqnal with God But if you apprehend my meaning rightly you will say I do not For first God is an Immaterial and Spiritual Infinite Being which Propriety God cannot give away to any Creature nor make another God in Essence like to him for Gods Attributes are not communicable to any Creature Yet this doth not hinder that God should not make Infinite and Eternal Matter for that is as easie to him as to make a Finite Creature Infinite Matter being quite of another Nature then God is to wit Corporeal when God is Incorporeal the difference whereof I have declared in my former Letter But as for Nature that it cannot be Eternal without beginning because God is the Creator and Cause of it and that the Creator must be before the Creature as the Cause before the Effect so that it is impossible for Nature to be without a beginning if you will speak naturally as human reason guides you and bring an Argument concluding from the Priority of the Cause before the Effect give me leave to tell you that God is not tied to Natural Rules but that he can do beyond our Understanding and therefore he is neither bound up to time
the figures without patterns that is exterior objects which is the cause that they are often erroneous whereas if it were the former Impression of the Objects there could not possibly be imperfect Dreams or Remembrances for fading of Figures requires as much motion as impression and impression and fading are very different and opposite motions nay if Perception was made by Impression there could not possibly be a fading or decay of the figures printed either in the Mind or Body whereas yet as there is alteration of Motions in self-moving Matter so there is also an alteration of figures made by these motions But you will say it doth not follow if Perception be made by Impression that it must needs continue and not decay for if you touch and move a string the motion doth not continue for ever but ceaseth by degrees I answer There is great difference between Prime self-motion and forced or Artificial Motions for Artificial Motions are onely an Imitation of Natural Motions and not the same but caused by Natural Motions for although there is no Art that is not made by Nature yet Nature is not made by Art Wherefore we cannot rationally judg of Perception by comparing it to the motion of a string and its alteration to the ceasing of that motion for Nature moveth not by force but freely 'T is true 't is the freedom in Nature for one man to give another a box on the Ear or to trip up his heels or for one or more men to fight with each other yet these actions are not like the actions of loving Imbraces and Kissing each other neither are the actions one and the same when a man strikes himself and when he strikes another and so is likewise the action of impression and the action of self-figuring not one and the same but different for the action of impression is forced and the action of self-figuring is free Wherefore the comparison of the forced motions of a string rope watch or the like can have no place here for though the rope made of flax or hemp may have the perception of a Vegetable yet not of the hand or the like that touched or struck it and although the hand doth occasion the rope to move in such a manner yet it is not the motion of the hand by which it moveth and when it ceases its natural and inherent power to move is not lessened like as a man that hath left off carving or painting hath no less skill then he had before neither is that skill lost when he plays upon the Lute or Virginals or plows plants and the like but he hath onely altered his action as from carving to painting or from painting to playing and so to plowing and planting which is not through disability but choice But you will say it is nevertheless a cessation of such a motion I grant it but the ceasing of such a motion is not the ceasing of self-moving matter from all motions neither is cessation as much as annihilation for the motion lies in the power of the matter to repeat it as oft it will if it be not overpowred for more parts or more strength or more motions may over-power the less Wherefore forced or artificial and free Natural motions are different in their effects although they have but one Cause which is the self-moving matter and though Matter is but active and passive yet there is great Variety and so great difference in force and liberty objects and perceptions sense and reason and the like But to conclude perception is not made by the pressure of objects no more then hemp is made by the Rope-maker or metal by the Bell-founder or Ringer and yet neither the rope nor the metal is without sense and reason but the natural motions of the metal and the artificial motions of the Ringer are different wherefore a natural effect in truth cannot be produced from an artificial cause neither can the ceasing of particular forced or artificial motions be a proof for the ceasing of general natural free motions as that matter it self should cease to move for there is no such thing as rest in Nature but there is an alteration of motions and figures in self-moving matter which alteration causeth variety as well in opinions as in every thing else Wherefore in my opinion though sense alters yet it doth not decay for the rational and sensitive part of matter is as lasting as matter it self but that which is named decay of sense is onely the alteration of motions and not an obscurity of motions like as the motions of memory and forgetfulness and the repetition of the same motions is called remembrance And thus much of this subject for the present to which I add no more but rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant VI. MADAM YOur Authour discoursing of Imagination saith That as soon as any object is removed from our Eyes though the Impression that is made in us remain yet other objects more present succeeding and working on us the Imagination of the past is obscured and made weak To which I answer first that he conceives Sense and Imagination to be all one for he says Imagination is nothing else but a fading or decaying sense whereas in my opinion they are different not onely their matter but their motions also being distinct and different for Imagination is a rational perception and sense a sensitive perception wherefore as much as the rational matter differs from the sensitive as much doth Imagination differ from Sense Next I say that Impressions do not remain in the body of sensitive matter but it is in its power to make or repeat the like figures Neither is Imagination less when the object is absent then when present but the figure patterned out in the sensitive organs being altered and remaining onely in the Rational part of matter is not so perspicuous and clear as when it was both in the Sense and in the Mind And to prove that Imagination of things past doth not grow weaker by distance of time as your Authour says many a man in his old age will have as perfect an Imagination of what is past in his younger years as if he saw it present And as for your Authours opinion that Imagination and Memory are one and the same I grant that they are made of one kind of Matter but although the Matter is one and the same yet several motions in the several parts make Imagination and Memory several things As for Example a Man may Imagine that which never came into his Senses wherefore Imagination is not one and the same thing with Memory But your Author seems to make all Sense as it were one Motion but not all Motion Sense whereas surely there is no Motion but is either Sensitive or Rational for Reason is but a pure and refined Sense and Sense a grosser Reason Yet all sensitive and rational Motions are not one and the same for forced or Artificial
is to say to find some certain and limited Time and Place in which to begin a method of Seeking And from thence his thoughts run over the same places and times to find what action or other occasion might make him lose it This we call Remembrance or calling to mind Sometimes a man knows a place determinate within the compass whereof he is to seek and then his thoughts run over all the Parts thereof in the same manner as one would sweep a room to find a Jewel or as a Spaniel ranges the field till he find a sent or as a Man should run over the Alphabet to start a Rime Thus far your Author In which discourse I do not perceive that he defineth what the Mind is but I say that if according to his opinion nothing moves it self but one thing moves another then the Mind must do nothing but move backward and forward nay onely forward and if all actions were thrusting or pressing of parts it would be like a crowd of People and there would be but little or no motion for the crowd would make a stoppage like water in a glass the mouth of the Glass being turned downwards no water can pass out by reason the numerous drops are so closely press'd as they cannot move exteriously Next I cannot conceive how the Mind can run back either to Time or Place for as for Place the mind is inclosed in the body and the running about in the parts of the body or brain will not inform it of an Exterior place or object besides objects being the cause of the minds motion it must return to its Cause and so move until it come to the object that moved it first so that the mind must run out of the body to that object which moved it to such a Thought although that object were removed out of the World as the phrase is But for the mind to move backward to Time past is more then it can do Wherefore in my opinion Remembrance or the like is onely a repetition of such Figures as were like to the Objects and for Thoughts in Particular they are several figures made by the mind which is the Rational Part of matter in its own substance either voluntarily or by imitation whereof you may see more in my Book of Philosophical Opinions Hence I conclude that Prudence is nothing else but a comparing of Figures to Figures and of the several actions of those Figures as repeating former Figures and comparing them to others of the like nature qualities proprieties as also chances fortunes c. Which figuring and repeating is done actually in and by the Rational Matter so that all the observation of the mind on outward Objects is onely an actual repetition of the mind as moving in such or such figures and actions and when the mind makes voluntary Figures with those repeated Figures and compares them together this comparing is Examination and when several Figures agree and joyn it is Conclusion or Judgment likewise doth Experience proceed from repeating and comparing of several Figures in the Mind and the more several Figures are repeated and compared the greater the experience is One thing more there is in the same Chapter which I cannot let pass without examination Your Authour says That things Present onely have a being in Nature things Past onely a being in the Memory but things to come have no being at all Which how it possibly can be I am not able to conceive for certainly if nothing in nature is lost or annihilated what is past and what is to come hath as well a being as what is present and if that which is now had its being before why may it not also have its being hereafter It might as well be said that what is once forgot cannot be remembred for whatsoever is in Nature has as much a being as the Mind and there is not any action or motion or figure in Nature but may be repeated that is may return to its former Figure when it is altered and dissolved But by reason Nature delights in variety repetitions are not so frequently made especially of those things or creatures which are composed by the sensitive corporeal motions in the inanimate part of Matter because they are not so easily wrought as the Rational matter can work upon its own parts being more pliant in its self then the Inanimate matter is And this is the reason that there are so many repetitions of one and the same Figure in the Rational matter which is the Mind but seldom any in the Gross and inanimate part of Matter for Nature loves ease and freedom But to conclude Madam I perceive your Author confines Sense onely to Animal-kind and Reason onely to Man-kind Truly it is out of self-love when one Creature prefers his own Excellency before another for nature being endued with self-love all Creatures have self-love too because they are all Parts of Nature and when Parts agree or disagree it is out of Interest and Self-love but Man herein exceeds all the rest as having a supernatural Soul whose actions also are supernatural To which I leave him and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant IX MADAM WHen your Author discourseth of the use of Speech or Words and Names he is pleas'd to say That their use is to serve for marks and notes of Remembrance Whereof to give you my opinion I say That Speech is natural to the shape of Man and though sometimes it serves for marks or notes of remembrance yet it doth not always for all other Animals have Memory without the help of Speech and so have deaf and dumb men nay more then those that hear and speak Wherefore though Words are useful to the mind and so to the memory yet both can be without them whereas Words cannot be without Memory for take a Bird and teach him to speak if he had not Memory before he heard the words he could never learn them You will ask me Madam What then is Memory the Cause of Speech I answer Life and Knowledg which is Sense and Reason as it creates and makes all sorts of Creatures so also amongst the rest it makes Words And as I said before that Memory may be without the help of Speech or Words so I say also that there is a possibility of reckoning of numbers as also of magnitudes of swiftness of force and other things without words although your Author denies it But some men are so much for Art as they endeavour to make Art which is onely a Drudgery-maid of Nature the chief Mistress and Nature her Servant which is as much as to prefer Effects before the Cause Nature before God Discord before Unity and Concord Again your Author in his Chapter of Reason defines Reason to be nothing else but Reckoning I answer That in my opinion Reckoning is not Reason it self but onely an effect or action of Reason for Reason as it is the chiefest and purest degree
of animate matter works variously and in divers motions by which it produces various and divers effects which are several Perceptions as Conception Imagination Fancy Memory Remembrance Understanding Judgment Knowledg and all the Passions with many more Wherefore this Reason is not in one undivided part nor bound to one motion for it is in every Creature more or less and moves in its own parts variously and in some Creatures as for example in some men it moves more variously then in others which is the cause that some men are more dull and stupid then others neither doth Reason always move in one Creature regularly which is the cause that some men are mad or foolish And though all men are made by the direction of Reason and endued with Reason from the first time of their birth yet all have not the like Capacities Understandings Imaginations Wits Fancies Passions c. but some more some less and some regular some irregular according to the motions of Reason or Rational part of animate matter and though some rational parts may make use of other rational Parts as one man of another mans Conceptions yet all these parts cannot associate together as for example all the Material parts of several objects no not their species cannot enter or touch the eye without danger of hurting or loosing it nevertheless the eye makes use of the objects by patterning them out and so doth the rational matter by taking patterns from the sensitive And thus knowledg or perception of objects both sensitive and rational is taken without the pressure of any other parts for though parts joyn to parts for no part can be single yet this joining doth not necessarily infer the pressure of objects upon the sensitive organs Whereof I have already discoursed sufficiently heretofore to which I refer you and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant X. MADAM UNderstanding says your Author is nothing else but Conception caused by speech and therefore if speech be peculiar to man as for ought I know it is then is understanding peculiar to him also Where he confineth Understanding onely to speech and to Mankind But by his leave Madam I surely believe that there is more understanding in Nature then that which is in speech for if there were not I cannot conceive how all the exact forms in Generations could be produced or how there could be such distinct degrees of several sorts and kinds of Creatures or distinctions of times and seasons and so many exact motions and figures in Nature Considering all this my reason perswadeth me that all Understanding which is a part of Knowledg is not caused by speech for all the motions of the Celestial Orbs are not made by speech neither is the knowledg or understanding which a man hath when sick as to know or understand he is sick made by speech nor by outward objects especially in a disease he never heard nor saw nor smelt nor tasted nor touched Wherefore all Perception Sensation Memory Imagination Appetite Understanding and the like are not made nor caused by outward objects nor by speech And as for names of things they are but different postures of the figures in our mind or thoughts made by the Rational matter But Reasoning is a comparing of the several figures with their several postures and actions in the Mind which joyned with the several words made by the sensitive motions inform another distinct and separate part as an other man of their minds conceptions understanding opinions and the like Concerning Addition and Substraction wherein your Author sayes Reasoning consists I grant that it is an act of Reasoning yet it doth not make Sense or Reason which is Life and Knowledge but Sense and Reason which is self-motion makes addition and substraction of several Parts of matter for had matter not self-motion it could not divide nor compose nor make such varieties without great and lingring retardments if not confusion Wherefore all what is made in Nature is made by self-moving matter which self-moving matter doth not at all times move regularly but often irregularly which causes false Logick false Arithmetick and the like and if there be not a certainty in these self-motions or actions of Nature much less in Art which is but a secundary action and therefore neither speech words nor exterior objects cause Understanding or Reason And although many parts of the Rational and Sensitive Matter joyned into one may be stronger by their association and over-power other parts that are not so well knit and united yet these are not the less pure onely these Parts and Motions being not equal in several Creatures make their Knowledge and Reason more or less For when a man hath more Rational Matter well regulated and so more Wisdom then an other that same man may chance to over-power the other whose Rational Matter is more irreregular but yet not so much by strength of the united Parts as by their subtilty for the Rational Matter moving regularly is more strong with subtilty then the sensitive with force so that Wisdom is stronger then Life being more pure and so more active for in my opinion there is a degree of difference between Life and Knowledge as my Book of Philosophical Opinions will inform you Again your Author sayes That Man doth excel all other Animals in this faculty that when he conceives any thing whatsoever he is apt to enquire the Consequences of it and what effects he can do with it Besides this sayes he Man hath an other degree of Excellence that he can by Words reduce the Consequences he finds to General Rules called Theoremes or Aphorisms that is he can reason or reckon not onely in Number but in all other things whereof one may be added unto or substracted from an other To which I answer That according to my Reason I cannot perceive but that all Creatures may do as much but by reason they do it not after the same manner or way as Man Man denies they can do it at all which is very hard for what man knows whether Fish do not Know more of the nature of Water and ebbing and flowing and the saltness of the Sea or whether Birds do not know more of the nature and degrees of Air or the cause of Tempests or whether Worms do not know more of the nature of Earth and how Plants are produced or Bees of the several sorts of juices of Flowers then Men And whether they do not make there Aphorismes and Theoremes by their manner of Intelligence For though they have not the speech of Man yet thence doth not follow that they have no Intelligence at all But the Ignorance of Men concerning other Creatures is the cause of despising other Creatures imagining themselves as petty Gods in Nature when as Nature is not capable to make one God much less so many as Mankind and were it not for Mans supernatural Soul Man would not be more Supreme then other Creatures in Nature
Animal-kind and reason in Man-kind for can any one think or believe that Nature is ignorant and dead in all her other parts besides Animals Truly this is a very unreasonable opinion for no man as wise as he thinks himself nay were all Man-kind joyned into one body yet they are not able to know it unless there were no variety of parts in nature but onely one whole and individeable body for other Creatures may know and perceive as much as Animals although they have not the same Sensitive Organs nor the same manmer or way of Perception Next your Author says The cause of Sense or Perception consists herein that the first organ of sense is touched and pressed For when the uttermost part of the organ is pressed it no sooner yields but the part next within it is pressed also and in this manner the pressure or motion is propagated through all the parts of the organ to the innermost And thus also the pressure of the uttermost part proceeds from the pressure of some more remote body and so continually till we come to that from which as from its fountain we derive the Phantasme or Idea that is made in us by our sense And this whatsoever it be is that we commonly call the object Sense therefore is some Internal motion in the Sentient Generated by some Internal motion of the Parts of the object and propagated through all the media to the innermost part of the organ Moreover there being a resistance or reaction in the organ by reason of its internal motion against the motion propagated from the object there is also an endeavour in the organ opposite to the endeavour proceeding from the object and when that endeavour inwards is the last action in the act of sense then from the reaction a Phantasme or Idea has its being This is your Authors opinion which if it were so perception could not be effected so suddenly nay I think the sentient by so many pressures in so many perceptions would at last be pressed to death besides the organs would take a great deal of hurt nay totally be removed out of their places so as the eye would in time be prest into the centre of the brain And if there were any Resistance Reaction or Indeavour in the organ opposite to the Endeavour of the object there would in my opinion be always a war between the animal senses and the objects the endeavour of the objects pressing one way and the senses pressing the other way and if equal in their strengths they would make a stop and the sensitive organs would be very much pained Truly Madam in my opinion it would be like that Custom which formerly hath been used at Newcastle when a man was married the guests divided themselves behind and before the Bridegroom the one party driving him back the other forwards so that one time a Bridegroom was killed in this fashion But certainly Nature hath a more quick and easie way of giving intelligence and knowledg to her Creatures and doth not use such constraint and force in her actions Neither is sense or sensitive perception a meer Phantasme or Idea but a Corporeal action of the sensitive and rational matter and according to the variation of the objects or patterns and the sensitive and rational motions the perception also is various produced not by external pressure but by internal self-motion as I have declared heretofore and to prove that the sensitive and rational corporeal motions are the onely cause of perception I say if those motions in an animal move in another way and not to such perceptions then that animal can neither hear see taste smell nor touch although all his sensitive organs be perfect as is evident in a man falling into a swoon where all the time he is in a swoon the pressure of the objects is made without any effect Wherefore as the sensitive and rational corporeal motions make all that is in nature so likewise they make perception as being perception it self for all self-motion is perception but all perception is not animal perception or after an animal way and therefore sense cannot decay nor die but what is called a decay or death is nothing else but a change or alteration of those Motions But you will say Madam it may be that one body as an object leaves the print of its figure in the next adjoyning body until it comes to the organ of sense I answer that then sost bodies onely must be pressed and the object must be so hard as to make a print and as for rare parts of matter they are not able to retain a print without self-motion Wherefore it is not probable that the parts of air should receive a print and print the same again upon the adjoyning part until the last part of the air print it upon the eye and that the exterior parts of the organ should print upon the interior till it come to the centre of the Brain without self-motion Wherefore in my opinion Perception is not caused either by the printing of objects nor by pressures for pressures would make a general stop of all natural motions especially if there were any reaction or resistence of sense but according to my reason the sensitive and rational corporeal motions in one body pattern out the Figure of another body as of an exterior object which may be done easily without any pressure or reaction I will not say that there is no pressure or reaction in Nature but pressure and reaction doth not make perception for the sensitive and rational parts of matter make all perception and variety of motion being the most subtil parts of Nature as self-moving as also divideable and composeable and alterable in their figurative motions for this Perceptive matter can change its substance into any figure whatsoever in nature as being not bound to one constant figure But having treated hereof before and being to say more of it hereaster this shall suffice for the present remaining always MADAM Your constant Friend and faithful Servant XIX MADAM TO discourse of the World and Stars is more then I am able to do wanting the art of Astronomy and Geometry wherefore passing by that Chapter of your Author I am come to that wherein he treats of Light Heat and Colours and to give you my opinion of Light I say it is not the light of the Sun that makes an Animal see for we can see inwardly in Dreams without the Suns light but it is the sensitive and rational Motions in the Eye and Brain that make such a figure as Light For if Light did press upon the Eye according to your Authors opinion it might put the Eye into as much pain as Fire doth when it sticks its points into our skin or flesh The same may be said of Colours for the sensitive motions make such a figure which is such a Colour and such a Figure which is such a Colour Wherefore Light Heat and Colour
Animals do often see in the dark and in sleep I will not say but that the animate matter which by self-motion doth make the Perception of light with other perceptive Figures and so animal perceptive light may be the presenter or ground perceptive figure of sight yet the sensitive corporeal motions can make other figures without the help of light and such as light did never present But when the eye patterns out an exterior object presented by light it patterns also out the object of light for the sensitive motions can make many figures by one act not onely in several organs but in one organ as for example there is presented to sight a piece of Imbroydery wherein is silk silver and gold upon Sattin in several forms or figures as several flowers the sensitive motions streight by one and the same act pattern out all those several figures of flowers as also the figures of Silk Silver Gold and Sattin without any pressure of these objects or motions in the medium for if they all should press the eye would no more see the exterior objects then the nose being stopt could smell a presented perfume Thirdly They may ask me if sight be made in the eye and proceeds not from the outward object what is the reason that we do not see inwardly but outwardly as from us I answer when we see objects outwardly as from us then the sensitive motions work on the outside of the organ which organ being outwardly convex causes us to see outwardly as from us but in dreams we see inwardly also the sensitive motions do pattern out the distance together with the object But you will say the body of the distance as the air cannot be perceived and yet we can perceive the distance I answer you could not perceive the distance but by such or such an object as is subject to your sight for you do not see the distance more then the air or the like rare body that is between grosser objects for if there were no stars nor planets nor clouds nor earth nor water but onely air you would not see any space or distance but light being a more visible body then air you might figure the body of air by light but so as in an extensive or dilating way for when the mind or the rational matter conceives any thing that hath not such an exact figure or is not so perceptible by our senses then the mind uses art and makes such figures which stand like to that as for example to express infinite to it self it dilates it parts without alteration and without limitation or circumference Likewise when it will conceive a constant succession of Time it draws out its parts into the figure of a line and if eternity it figures a line without beginning and end But as for Immaterial no mind can conceive that for it cannot put it self into nothing although it can dilate and rarifie it self to an higher degree but must stay within the circle of natural bodies as I within the circle of your Commands to express my self MADAM Your faithful Friend and obedient Servant XXI MADAM HEat and Cold according to your Authors opinion are made by Dilation and Contraction for says he When the Motion of the ambient aethereal substance makes the spirits and fluid parts of our bodies tend outwards we acknowledg heat but by the indeavour inwards of the same spirits and humors we feel cold so that to cool is to make the exterior parts of the body endeavour inwards by a motion contrary to that of calefaction by which the internal parts are called outwards He therefore that would know the cause of Cold must find by what motion the exterior parts of any body endeavour to retire inwards But I desire you to consider Madam that there be moist Colds and dry Heats as well as dry Colds and moist Heats wherefore all sorts of Cold are not made by the retyring of parts inwards which is contraction or attraction neither are all sorts of Heat made by parts tending outwards which is dilation or rarefaction for a moist cold is made by dilation and a dry heat by contraction as well as a moist heat is made by dilation and a dry cold by contraction But your Author makes not this difference but onely a difference between a dilated heat and a contracted cold but because a cold wind is made by breath blown thorow pinched or contracted lips and an hot wind by breath through opened and extended lips should we judg that all heat and cold must be made after one manner or way The contracted mouth makes Wind as well as the dilated but yet Wind is not made that way as heat and cold for it may be that onely the air pressed together makes wind or it may be that the corporeal motions in the air may change air into wind as they change water into vapour and vapour into air or it may be something else that is invisible and rare as air and there may be several sorts of wind air heat cold as of all other Creatures more then man is capable to know As for your Authors opinion concerning the congealing of Water and how Ice is made I will not contradict it onely I think nature hath an easier way to effect it then he describes Wherefore my opinion is that it is done by altering motions as for example the corporeal motions making the figure of water by dilation in a Circle figure onely alter from such a dilating circular figure into a contracted square which is Ice or into such a contracted triangle as is snow And thus water and vapour may be changed with ease without any forcing pressing raking or the like The same may be said of hard and bent bodies and of restitution as also of air thunder and lightning which are all done by an easie change of motion and changing into such or such a figure is not the motion of Generation which is to build a new house with old materials but onely a Transformation I say a new house with old materials not that I mean there is any new Creation in nature of any thing that was not before in nature for nature is not God to make new beings out of nothing but any thing may be called new when it is altered from one figure into another I add no more at this time but rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXII MADAM THe Generation of sound according to your worthy Authors opinion is as follows As Vision says he so hearing is Generated by the medium but but not in the same manner for sight is from pressure that is from an endeavour in which there is no perceptible progression of any of the parts of the medium but one part urging or thrusting on another propagateth that action successively to any distance whatsoever where as the motion of the medium by which sound is made is a stroke for when we hear the drum of the
at a far distance as well as the Eye can see for it may hear the noise of a troop afar off perception being very subtil and active Also there may several Copies be made from the Original and from the last Copy nearest to the Ear the Ear may take a pattern and so pattern out the noise in the organ without any strokes to the Ear for the subtil matter in all Creatures doth inform and perceive But this is well to be observed that the figures of objects are as soon made as perceived by the sensitive motions in their work of patterning And this is my Opinion concerning the Perception of Sound which together with the rest I leave to your Ladyships and others wiser Judgment and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXIII MADAM I Perceive by your last that you cannot well apprehend my meaning when I say that the print or figure of a Body Printed or Carved is not made by the motions of the body Printing or Carving it but by the motions of the body or substance Printed or Carved for say you Doth a piece of Wood carve it self or a black Patch of a Lady cut its own figure by its own motions Before I answer you Madam give me leave to ask you this question whether it be the motion of the hand or the Instrument or both that print or carve such or such a body Perchance you will say that the motion of the hand moves the Instrument and the Instrument moves the Wood which is to be carved Then I ask whether the motion that moves the Instrument be the Instruments or the Hands Perchance you will say the Hands but I answer how can it be the Hands motion if it be in the Instrument You will say perhaps the motion of the hand is tranferred out of the hand into the instrument and so from the instrument into the carved figure but give me leave to ask you was this motion of the hand that was transferred Corporeal or Incorporeal If you say Corporeal then the hand must become less and weak but if Incorporeal I ask you how a bodiless motion can have force and strength to carve and cut But put an Impossible proposition as that there is an Immaterial motion and that this Incorporeal motion could be transferred out of one body into another then I ask you when the hand and instrument cease to move what is become of the motion Perhaps you will say the motion perishes or is annihilated and when the hand and the instrument do move again to the carving or cutting of the figure then a new Incorporeal Motion is created Truly then there will be a perpetual creation and annihilation of Incorporeal motions that is of that which naturally is nothing for an Incorporeal being is as much as a natural No-thing for Natural reason cannot know nor have naturally any perception or Idea of an Incorporeal being besides if the motion be Incorporeal then it must needs be a supernatural Spirit for there is not any thing else Immaterial but they and then it will be either an Angel or a Devil or the Immortal Soul of man but if you say it is the supernatural Soul truly I cannot be perswaded that the supernatural Soul should not have any other imployment then to carve or cut prints or figures or move in the hands or heels or legs or arms of a Man for other animals have the same kind of Motions and then they might have a Supernatural Soul as well as Man which moves in them But if you say that these tranferrable motions are material then every action whereby the hand moves to the making or moving of some other body would lessen the number of the motions in the hand and weaken it so that in the writing of one letter the hand would not be able to write a second letter at least not a third But I pray Madam consider rationally that though the Artificer or Workman be the occasion of the motions of the carved body yet the motions of the body that is carved are they which put themselves into such or such a figure or give themselves such or such a print as the Artificer intended for a Watch although the Artist or Watch-maker be the occasional cause that the Watch moves in such or such an artificial figure as the figure of a Watch yet it is the Watches own motion by which it moves for when you carry the Watch about you certainly the Watch-makers hand is not then with it as to move it or if the motion of the Watch-makers hand be transferred into the Watch then certainly the Watch-maker cannot make another Watch unless there be a new creation of new motions made in his hands so that God and Nature would be as much troubled and concerned in the making of Watches as in the making of a new World for God created this World in six days and rested the seventh day but this would be a perpetual Creation Wherefore I say that some things may be Occasional causes of other things but not the Prime or Principal causes and this distinction is very well to be considered for there are no frequenter mistakes then to confound these two different causes which make so many confusions in natural Philosophy and this is the Opinion of MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXIV MADAM IN answer to your question What makes Eccho I say it is that which makes all the effects of Nature viz. self-moving matter I know the common opinion is that Eccho is made like as the figure of a Face or the like in a Looking-glass and that the Reverberation of sound is like the Reflection of sight in a Looking-glass But I am not of that opinion for both Eccho and that wich is called the Reflection in a Looking-glass are made by the self-moving matter by way of patterning and copying out But then you will ask me whether the glass takes the copy of the face or the face prints its copy on the glass or whether it be the medium of light and air that makes it I answer although many Learned men say that as all perception so also the seeing of ones face in a Looking-glass and Eccho are made by impression and reaction yet I cannot in my simplicity conceive it how bodies that come not near or touch each other can make a figure by impression and reaction They say it proceeds from the motions of the Medium of light or air or both viz. that the Medium is like a long stick with two ends whereof one touches the object the other the organ of sense and that one end of it moving the other moves also at the same point of Time by which motions it may make many several figures But I cannot conceive how this motion of pressing forward and backward should make so many figures wherein there is so much variety and curiosity But say light and air are as one figure and like as a seal do
corporeal optick motions may work by rote without objects but that is irregular as in some distempers And thus Madam I have given you my opinion also to this your question if you have any more scruples I pray let me know of them and assure your self that I shall be ready upon all occasions to express my self MADAM Your humble and faithful Servant XXVII MADAM YOur desire is to know why sound is louder in a Vault and in a large Room then in a less I answer A Vault or arched Figure is the freest from obstruction as being without corners and points so as the sensitive and rational corporeal motions of the Ear can have a better perception like as the Eye can see farthest from a hill then being upon a level ground because the prospect is freer from the hill as without obstruction unless it be so cloudy that the clouds do hinder the perception And as the eye can have a better prospect upon a hill so the ear a stronger perception in a Vault And as for sound that it is better perceived in a large then in a little close room or place it is somewhat like the perception of sent for the more the odorous parts are bruised the stronger is that perception of sent as being repeated double or treble which makes the perception stronger like as a thick body is stronger then a thin one So likewise the perception of sound in the air for though not all the parts of the air make repetitions yet some or many make patterns of the sound the truth is Air is as industrious to divulge or present a found by patterns to the Ear as light doth objects to the Eye But then you may ask me Why a long hollow pipe doth convey a voice to the ear more readily then any large and open place My answer is That the Parts of the air in a long pipe are more Composed and not at liberty to wander so that upon necessity they must move onely to the patterning out of the sound having no choice which makes the sound much stronger and the perception of the Ear perfecter But as for Pipes Vaults Prospects as also figures presented in a room through a little hole inverted and many the like belongs more to Artists then to my study for though Natural Philosophy gives or points out the Ground and shews the reason yet it is the Artist that Works Besides it is more proper for Mathematicians to discourse of which study I am not versed in and so leaving it to them I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXVIII MADAM FRom Sound I am come to Sent in the discourse whereof your Author is pleased to set down these following propositions 1. That smelling is hindred by cold and helped by heat 2. That when the Wind bloweth from the object the smell is the stronger and when it blowes from the sentient towards the obiect the weaker which by experience is found in dogs that follow thetrack of beasts by the Sent 3. That such bodies as are last pervious to the fluid medium yield less smell then such as are more pervious 4. That such bodies as are of their own nature odorous become yet more odorous when they are bruised 5. That when the breath is stopped at least in man nothing can be smelt 6. That the Sense of smelling is also taken away by the stopping of the Nostrils though the mouth be left open To begin from the last I say that the nose is like the other sensitive organs which if they be stopt the corporeal sensitive motions cannot take copies of the exterior objects and therefore must alter their action of patterning to some other for when the eye is shut and cannot perceive outward objects then it works to the Sense of Touch or on the inside of the organ to some phantasmes and so do the rest of the Senses As for the stopping of breath why it hinders the Sent the cause is that the nostrils and the mouth are the chief organs to receive air and to let out breath but though they be common passages for air and breath yet taste is onely made in the mouth and tongue and sent in the nose not by the pressure of meat and the odoriferous object but by patterning out the several figures or objects of sent and taste for the nose and the mouth will smell and taste one nay several things at the same time like as the eye will see light colour and other objects at once which I think can hardly be done by pressures and the reason is that the sensitive motions in the sensitive organs make patterns of several objects at one time which is the cause that when flowers and such like odoriferous bodies are bruised there are as many figures made as there are parts bruised or divided and by reason of so many figures the sensitive knowledg is stronger but that stones minerals and the like seem not so strong to our smell the reason is that their parts being close and united the sensitive motions in the organ cannot so readily perceive and pattern them out as those bodies which are more porous and divided But as for the wind blowing the sent either to or from the sentient it is like a window or door that by the motion of opening and shutting hinders or disturbeth the sight for bodies coming between the object and the organ make a stop of that perception And as for the Dogs smelling out the track of Beasts the cause is that the earth or ground hath taken a copy of that sent which copy the sensitive motions in the nose of the Dog do pattern out and so long as that figure or copy lasts the Dog perceives the sent but if he doth not follow or hunt readily then there is either no perfect copy made by the ground or otherwise he cannot find it which causes him to seek and smell about until he hath it and thus smell is not made by the motion of the air but by the figuring motions in the nose Where it is also to be observed that not onely the motions in one but in millions of noses may pattern out one little object at one time and therefore it is not that the object of sent fills a room by sending out the sent from its substance but that so many figures are made of that object of sent by so many several sensitive motions which pattern the same out and so the air or ground or any other creature whose sensitive motions pattern out the object of sent may perceive the same although their sensitive organs are not like to those of animal creatures for if there be but such sensitive motions and perceptions it is no matter for such organs Lastly it is to be observed That all Creatures have not the same strength of smelling but some smell stronger some weaker according to the disposition of their sensitive motions Also there be other parts in the body which pattern
out the object of sent besides the nose but those are interior parts and take their patterns from the nose as the organ properly designed for it neither is their resentment the same because their motions are not alike for the stomack may perceive and pattern out a sent with aversion when the nose may pattern it out with pleasure And thus much also of Sent I conclude and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXIX MADAM COncerning your Learned Authors discourse of Density and Rality he defines Thick to be that which takes up more parts of a space given and thin which containes fewer parts of the same magnitude not that there is more matter in one place then in an other equal place but a greater quantity of some named body wherefore the multitude and paucity of the parts contained within the same space do constitute density and rarity Where of my opinion is That there is no more nor less space or place then body according to its ' dilation or contraction and that space and place are dilated and contracted with the body according to the magnitude of the body for body place and magnitude are the same thing only place is in regard of the several parts of the body and there is as well space betwixt things distant a hairs breadth from one another as betwixt things distant a million of miles but yet this space is nothing from the body but it makes that that body has not the same place with this body that is that this body is not that body and that this bodies place is not that bodies place Next your Author sayes He hath already clearly enough demonstrated that there can be no beginning of motion but from an external and moved body and that heavy bodies being once cast upwards cannot be cast down again but by external motion Truly Madam I will not speak of your Authors demonstrations for it is done most by art which I have no knowledg in but I think I have probably declared that all the actions of nature are not forced by one part driving pressing or shoving another as a man doth a wheel-barrow or a whip a horse nor by reactions as if men were at foot-ball or cuffs or as men with carts meeting each other in a narrow lane But to prove there is no self-motion in nature he goes on and says To attribute to created bodies the power to move themselves what is it else then to say that there be creatures which have no dependance upon the Creator To which I answer That if man who is but a single part of nature hath given him by God the power and a free will of moving himself why should not God give it to Nature Neither can I see how it can take off the dependance upon God more then Eternity for if there be an Eternal Creator there is also an Eternal Creature and if an Eternal Master an Eternal Servant which is Nature and yet Nature is subject to Gods Command and depends upon him and if all Gods Attributes be Infinite then his Bounty is Infinite also which cannot be exercised but by an Infinite Gift but a Gift doth not cause a less dependance I do not say That man hath an absolute Free-will or power to move according to his desire for it is not conceived that a part can have an absolute power nevertheless his motion both of body and mind is a free and self-motion and such a self-motion hath every thing in Nature according to its figure or shape for motion and figure being inherent in matter matter moves figuratively Yet do I not say That there is no hindrance obstruction and opposition in nature but as there is no particular Creature that hath an absolute power of self-moving so that Creature which hath the advantage of strength subtilty or policy shape or figure and the like may oppose and over-power another which is inferior to it in all this yet this hinderance and opposition doth not take away self-motion But I perceive your Author is much for necessitation and against free-will which I leave to Moral Philosophers and Divines And as for the ascending of light and descending of heavy bodies there may be many causes but these four are perceiveable by our senses as bulk or quantity of body grossness of substance density and shape or figure which make heavy bodies descend But little quantity purity of substance rarity and figure or shape make light bodies ascend Wherefore I cannot believe that there are certain little bodies as atoms and by reason of their smallness invisible differing from one another in consistence figure motion and magnitude intermingled with the air which should be the cause of the descending of heavy bodies And concerning air whether it be subject to our senses or not I say that if air be neither hot nor cold it is not subject but if it be the sensitive motions will soon pattern it out and declare it I 'le conclude with your Authors question What the cause is that a man doth not feel the weight of Water in Water and answer it is the dilating nature of Water But of this question and of Water I shall treat more fully hereafter and so I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXX MADAM I Am reading now the works of that Famous and most Renowned Author Des Cartes out of which I intend to pick out onely those discourses which I like best and not to examine his opinions as they go along from the beginning to the end of his books And in order to this I have chosen in the first place his discourse of motion and do not assent to his opinion when he defines Motion to be onely a Mode of a thing and not the thing or body it selfe for in my opinion there can be no abstraction made of motion from body neither really nor in the manner of our conception for how can I conceive that which is not nor cannot be in nature that is to conceive motion without body Wherefore Motion is but one thing with body without any separation or abstraction soever Neither doth it agree with my reason that one body can give or transferr motion into another body and as much motion it gives or transferrs into that body as much loses it As for example in two hard bodies thrown against one another where one that is thrown with greater force takes the other along with it and loses as much motion as it gives it For how can motion being no substance but onely a mode quit one body and pass into another One body may either occasion or imitate anothers motion but it can neither give nor take away what belongs to its own or another bodies substance no more then matter can quit its nature from being matter and therefore my opinion is that if motion doth go out of one body into another then substance goes too for motion and substance or body
flame the smoak changing it self by its figurative motions into flame but when smoak is above the flame the flame cannot force the smoak to fire or enkindle it self for the flame cannot so well encounter it which shews as if smoak had a swifter motion then flame although flame is more rarified then smoak and if moisture predominate there is onely smoak if fire then there is flame But there are many figures that do not flame until they are quite dissolved as Leather and many other things Neither can fire work upon all bodies alike but according to their several natures like as men cannot encounter several sorts of creatures after one and the same manner for not any part in nature hath an absolute power although it hath self-motion and this is the reason that wax by fire is melted and clay hardened The third question is Why some few drops of water sprinkled upon fire do encrease its flame I answer by reason of their little quantity which being over-powred by the greater quantity and force of fire is by its self-motions converted into fire for water being of a rare nature and fire for the most part of a rarifying quality it cannot suddenly convert it self into a more solid body then its nature is but following its nature by force it turns into flame The fourth question is Why the flame of spirit of Wine doth consume the Wine and yet cannot burn or hurt a linnen cloth I answer The Wine is the fuel that feeds the flame and upon what it feeds it devoureth and with the food and feeder but by reason Wine is a rarer body then Oyle or Wood or any other fuel its flame is also weaker And thus much of these questions I rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XLII MADAM TO conclude my discourse upon the Opinions of these two famous and learned Authors which I have hitherto sent you in several Letters I could not chuse but repeat the ground of my own opinions in this present which I desire you to observe well left you mistake any thing whereof I have formerly discoursed First I am for self-moving matter which I call the sensitive and rational matter and the perceptive and architectonical part of nature which is the life and knowledg of nature Next I am of an opinion That all Perception is made by corporeal figuring self-motions and that the perception of forreign objects is made by patterning them out as for example The sensitive perception of forreign objects is by making or taking copies from these objects so as the sensitive corporeal motions in the eyes copy out the objects of sight and the sensitive corporeal motions in the ears copy out the objects of sound the sensitive corporeal motions in the nostrils copy out the objects of sent the sensitive corporeal motions in the tongue and mouth copy out the objects of taste and the sensitive corporeal motions in the flesh and skin of the body copy out the forreign objects of touch for when you stand by the fire it is not that the fire or the heat of the fire enters your flesh but that the sensitive motions copy out the objects of fire and heat As for my Book of Philosophy I must tell you that it treats more of the production and architecture of Creatures then of their perceptions and more of the causes then the effects more in a general then peculiar way which I thought necessary to inform you of and so I remain MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XLIII MADAM I Received your questions in your last the first was Whether there be more body compact together in a heavy then in a light thing I answer That purity rarity little quantity exteriour shape as also motion cause lightnesse and grossness of bulk density much quantity exterior figure and motion cause heaviness as it may be confirmed by many examples but lightness and heaviness are onely conceptions of man as also ascent and descent and it may be questioned whether there be such things really in nature for change of motions of one and the same body will make lightness and heaviness as also rarity and density besides the several figures and compositions of bodies will cause them to ascend or descend for Snow is a light body and yet descends fron the clouds and Water is a heavie body and yet ascends in springs out of the Earth Dust is a dense body and yet is apt to ascend Rain or Dew is a rare body and yet is apt to descend Also a Bird ascends by his shape and a small worm although of less body and lighter will fall down and there can be no other prof of light and heavy bodies but by their ascent and descent But as really there is no such thing as heavie or light in nature more then words and comparisons of different corporeal motions so there is no such thing as high or low place or time but onely words to make comparisons and to distinguish different corporeal motions The second question was When a Bason with water is wasted into smoak which fills up a whole Room Whether the air in the room doth as the sensitive motions of the eye pattern out the figure of the smoak or whether all the room is really fill'd with the vapour or smoak I answer If it be onely the pattern or figure of smoak or vapour the extension and dilation is not so much as man imagines but why may not the air which in my opinion hath self-motion pattern out the figure of smoak as well as the eye for that the eye surely doth it may be proved because smoak if it enter the eye makes it not onely smart and water much but blinds it quite for the present wherefore smoak doth not enter the eye when the eye seeth it but the eye patterns out the figure of smoak and this is perception In the same manner may the air pattern out the figure of smoak The third question was Whether all that they name qualities of bodies as thickness thinness hardness softness gravity levity transparentness and the like be substances I answer That all those they call qualities are nothing else but change of motion and figure of the same body and several changes of motions are not several bodies but several actions of one body for change of motion doth not create new matter or multiply its quantity for though corporeal motions may divide and compose contract and dilate yet they cannot create new matter or make matter any otherwise then it is by nature neither can they add or substract any thing from its nature And therefore my opinion is not that they are things subsisting by themselves without matter but that there can no abstraction be made of motion and figure from matter and that matter and motion being but one thing and inseparable make but one substance Wherefore density and rarity gravity and levity c. being nothing else but change of motions cannot be without matter
for as composition and division do hinder and obstruct each other from running into Infinite so doth dilation hinder the Infinite contraction and contraction the Infinite dilation which as I said before causes a mean betwixt Nature's actions nevertheless there are Infinite dilations and contractions in Nature because there are Infinite contracted and dilated parts and so are infinite divisions because there are infinite divided parts but contraction dilation extension composition division and the like are onely Nature's several actions and as there can be no single part in Nature that is Infinite so there can neither be any single Infinite action But as for Matter Motion and Figure those are Individable and Inseparable and make but one body or substance for it is as impossible to divide them as impossible it is to your Author to separate the essential proprieties which he gives from an Immortal Spirit And as Matter Motion and Figure are inseparable so is likewise Matter Space Place and Duration For Parts Motion Figure Place and Duration are but one Infinite body onely the Infinite parts are the Infinite divisions of the Infinite body and the Infinite body is a composition of the Infinite parts but figure place and body are all one and so is time and duration except you will call time the division of duration and duration the composition of time but infinite time and infinite duration is all one in Nature and thus Nature's Principal motions and actions are dividing composing and disposing or ordering according to her Natural wisdom by the Omnipotent God's leave and permission Concerning the Sun which your Author speaks of in the same place and denies him to be a Spectator of our Particular affairs upon Earth saying there is no such divine Principle in him whereby he can do it I will speak nothing against nor for it but I may say that the Sun hath such a Principle as other Creatures have which is that he has sensitive and rational corporeal motions as well as animals or other Creatures although not in the same manner nor the same organs and if he have sensitive and rational motions he may also have sensitive and rational knowledge or perception as well as man or other animals and parts of Nature have for ought any body knows for it is plain to humane sense and reason that all Creatures must needs have rational and sensitive knowledg because they have all sensitive and rational matter and motions But leaving the Sun for Astronomers to contemplate upon I take my leave and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant X. MADAM YOur Author in his arguments against Motion being a Principle of Nature endeavours to prove that Beauty Colour Symmetry and the like in Plants as well as in other Creatures are no result from the meer motion of the matter and forming this objection It may be said says he That the regular motion of the matter made the first plant of every kind but we demand What regulated the motion of it so as to guide it to form it self into such a state I answer The Wisdom of Nature or infinite Matter did order its own actions so as to form those her Parts into such an exact and beautiful figure as such a Tree or such a Flower or such a Fruit and the like and some of her Parts are pleased and delighted with other parts but some of her parts are afraid or have an aversion to other parts and hence is like and dislike or sympathy and antipathy hate and love according as nature which is infinite self-moving matter pleases to move for though Natural Wisdom is dividable into parts yet these parts are united in one infinite Body and make but one Being in it self like as the several parts of a man make up but one perfect man for though a man may be wise in several causes or actions yet it is but one wisdom and though a Judg may shew Justice in several causes yet it is but one Justice for Wisdom and Justice though they be practised in several causes yet it is but one Wisdom and one Justice and so all the parts of a mans body although they move differently yet are they but one man's bodily actions Just as a man if he carve or cut out by art several statues or draw several Pictures those statues or pictures are but that one man's work The like may be said of Natures Motions and Figures all which are but one self-active or self-moving Material Nature But Wise Nature's Ground or Fundamental actions are very Regular as you may observe in the several and distinct kinds sorts and particulars of her Creatures and in their distinct Proprieties Qualities and Faculties belonging not onely to each kind and sort but to each particular Creature and since man is not able to know perfectly all those proprieties which belong to animals much less will he be able to know and judg of those that are in Vegetables Minerals and Elements and yet these Creatures for any thing Man knows may be as knowing understanding and wise as he and each as knowing of its kind or sort as man is of his But the mixture of ignorance and knowledg in all Creatures proceeds from thence that they are but Parts and there is no better proof that the mind of man is dividable then that it is not perfectly knowing nor no better proof that it is composeable then that it knows so much but all minds are not alike but some are more composed then others which is the cause some know more then others for if the mind in all men were alike all men would have the same Imaginations Fancies Conceptions Memories Remembrances Passions Affections Understanding and so forth The same may be said of their bodies for if all mens sensitive parts were as one and not dividable and composeable all their Faculties Properties Constitutions Complexions Appetites would be the same in every man without any difference but humane sense and reason doth well perceive that neither the mind life nor body are as one piece without division and composition Concerning the divine Soul I do not treat of it onely this I may say That all are not devout alike nor those which are are not at all times alike devout But to conclude some of our modern Philosophers think they do God good service when they endeavour to prove Nature as Gods good Servant to be stupid ignorant foolish and mad or any thing rather then wise and yet they believe themselves wise as if they were no part of Nature but I cannot imagine any reason why they should rail on her except Nature had not given them as great a share or portion as she hath given to others for children in this case do often rail at their Parents for leaving their Brothers and Sisters more then themselves However Nature can do more then any of her Creatures and if Man can Paint Imbroider Carve Ingrave curiously why may not Nature have more
the sensitive which is the Life of Nature as the other is the Soul not the Divine but natural Soul neither is this Soul Immaterial bnt Corporeal not composed of raggs and shreds but it is the purest simplest and subtillest matter in Nature But to conclude I desire you to remember Madam that this rational and sensitive Matter in one united and finite Figure or particular Creature has both common and particular actions for as there are several kinds and sorts of Creatures and particulars in every kind and sort so the like for the actions of the rational and sensitive matter in one particular Creature Also it is to be noted That the Parts of rational matter can more suddenly give and take Intelligence to and from each other then the sensitive nevertheless all Parts in Nature at least adjoyning parts have Intelligence between each other more or less because all parts make but one body for it is not with the parts of Matter as with several Constables in several Hundreds or several Parishes which are a great way distant from each other but they may be as close as the combs of Bees and yet as partable and as active as Bees But concerning the Intelligence of Natures Parts I have sufficiently spoken in other places and so I 'le add no more but that I unfeignedly remain MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XVI MADAM SEnsation in corporeal motion is first and Perception follows sayes your Author to which opinion I give no assent but do believe that Perception and Sensation are done both at one and the same time as being one and the same thing without division either in reason or sense and are performed without any knocks or jolts or hitting against But let me tell you Madam there arises a great mistake by many from not distinguishing well sensitive Motion and rational Motion for though all motions are in one onely matter yet that matter doth not move always in the same manner for then there could be no variety in Nature and truly if man who is but a part of Nature may move diversly and put himself into numerous postures Why may not Nature But concerning Motions and their variety to avoid tedious repetitions I must still referr you to my Book of Philosophical Opinions I 'le add onely this that it is well to be observed That all Motions are not Impressions neither do all Impressions make such dents as to disturb the adjoyning Parts Wherefore those in my opinion understand Nature best which say that Sensation and Perception are really one and the same but they are out that say there can be no communication at a distance unless by pressing and crowding for the patterning of an outward object may be done without any inforcement or disturbance jogging or crowding as I have declared heretofore for the sensitive and rational motions in the sensitive and rational parts of matter in one creature observing the exterior motions in outward objects move accordingly either regularly or irregularly in patterns and if they have no exterior objects as in dreams they work by rote And so to conclude I am absolutely of their opinion who believe that there is nothing existent in Nature but what is purely Corporeal for this seems most probable in sense and reason to me MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XVII MADAM OUtward Objects as I have told you before do not make Sense and Reason but Sense and Reason do perceive and judg of outward objects For the Sun doth not make sight nor doth sight make light but sense and reason in a Man or any other creature do perceive and know there are such objects as Sun and Light or whatsoever objects are presented to them Neither doth Dumbness Deafness Blindness c. cause an Insensibility but Sense through irregular actions causes them I say through Irregular actions because those effects do not properly belong to the nature of that kind of Creatures for every Creature if regularly made hath particular motions proper to its figure for natural Matters wisdom makes distinctions by her distinct corporeal motions giving every particular Creature their due Portion and Proportion according to the nature of their figures and to the rules of her actions but not to the rules of Arts Mathematical Compasses Lines Figures and the like And thus the Sun Stars Meteors Air Fire Water Earth Minerals Vegetables and Animals may all have Sense and Reason although it doth not move in one kind or sort of Creatures or in one particular as in another For the corporeal motions differ not onely in kinds and sorts but also in Particulars as is perceivable by human sense and reason Which is the cause that Elements have elemental sense and knowledg and Animals animal sense and knowledg and so of Vegetables Minerals and the like Wherefore the Sun and Stars may have as much sensitive and rational life and knowledg as other Creatures but such as is according to the nature of their figures and not animal or vegetable or mineral sense and knowledg And so leaving them I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XVIII MADAM YOur Author denying that Fancy Reason and Animadversion are seated in the Brain and that the Brain is figured into this or that Conception I demand says he in what knot loop or interval thereof doth this faculty of free Fancy and active Reason reside My answer is that in my opinion Fancy and Reason are not made in the Brain as there is a Brain but as there is sensitive and rational matter which makes not onely the Brain but all Thoughts Conceptions Imaginations Fancy Understanding Memory Remembrance and whatsoever motions are in the Head or Brain neither doth this sensitive and rational mattet remain or act in one place of the Brain but in every part thereof and not onely in every part of the Brain but in every part of the Body nay not onely in every part of a Mans Body but in every part of Nature But Madam I would ask those that say the Brain has neither sense reason nor self-motion and therefore no Perception but that all proceeds from an Immaterial Principle as an Incorporeal Spirit distinct from the body which moveth and actuates corporeal matter I would fain ask them I say where their Immaterial Ideas reside in what part or place of the Body and whether they be little or great Also I would ask them whether there can be many or but one Idea of God If they say many then there must be several distinct Deitical Ideas if but one Where doth this Idea reside If they say in the head then the heart is ignorant of God if in the heart then the head is ignorant thereof and so for all parts of the body but if they say in every part then that Idea may be disfigured by a lost member if they say it may dilate and contract then I say it is not the Idea of God for God can neither contract nor
him to have such a familiar conjunction and make such contracts with Man as to impower him to do mischief and hurt to others or to foretell things to come and the like for I believe that all things Immaterial as Spirits Angels Devils and the divine Soul of Man are no parts of Nature but Supernatural Nature knowing of no Creature that belongs to her but what is material and since incorporeal Creatures are no parts of Nature they neither have natural actions nor are they concerned as copartners or co-agents in the actions of Nature and natural Creatures but as their substances so their actions are supernatural and beyond our conceivement As for Faires I will not say but there may be such Creatures in Nature and have airy bodies and be of a humane shape and have humane actions as I have described in my Book of Poems for there are many things in Nature whereof Man hath no knowledg at all and it would be a great folly for any one to deny what he doth not see or to ascribe all the unusual effects in Nature to Immaterial Spirits for Nature is so full of variety that she can and doth present sometimes such figures to our exterior senses as are not familiar to us so as we need not to take our refuge to Immaterial Spirits nay even those that are so much for Incorporeal Spirits must confess that they cannot be seen in their own natures as being Invisible and therefore have need to take vehicles of some grosser bodies to manifeft themselves to men and if Spirits cannot appear without bodies the neerest way is to ascribe such unusual effects or apparitions as happen sometimes rather to matter that is already corporeal and not to go so far as to draw Immaterial Spirits to Natural actions and to make those Spirits take vehicles fit for their purposes for Nature takes sometimes delight in unusual Varieties Concerning those stories which your Author relates of the strange effects of Food received into a mans body how they did work upon the Imagination and change and transform the humors of those that did feed upon them those I say seem very probable to me As for example of a Wench who being struck into an Epilepsy upon the seeing of a Malefactors Head cut off was advised to drink Cats-blood which being done she not long after degenerated into the nature and property of that Animal cried and jump'd like a Cat and hunted Mice with the same silence and watchfulness as they do Then of a Man being long fed with Swines-blood which took a special pleasure in wallowing and tumbling himself in the mire Also of a Girle which being nourished up with Goats-milk would skip like a Goat and brouze on Trees as Goats use to do And of a Man who by eating the brains of a Bear became of a Bear-like disposition All these stories I believe to be true for naturally the motions of a Man may sometimes sympathize so much with the received food as to make an alteration in his humour or disposition But although it be natural yet it is not regular at least not usual but proceeds from an irregular and unusual change of motions like as the conception and generation of a Monster For if it were ordinary then those which drink much of the blood of beasts would also degenerate into a beastly nature the contrary whereof is sufficiently known Likewise those that drink much of Cows-milk would change into their humors and natures But certainly some kinds of meats do not onely cause sickness but madness and strange Imaginations all which unnatural or unusual accidents are caused by Matter 's irregular motions Whereof I have declared my opinion in other places and so I rest MADAM Your faithful and constant Friend to serve you XXXIII MADAM YOu will have my opinion of the Book that treats of the Pre-existence of Souls and the Key that unlocks the Divine Providence but I have told you heretofore that there are so many different opinions concerning the Soul as I do not know which to embrace for the multiplicity confounds my choice and the cause of these various opinions in my simple judgment is that most men make no difference between the Divine and Natural Soul As for the Natural Soul humane sense and reason may perceive that it consists of Matter as being Material but as for the Divine Soul being not material no humane sense and reason is able naturally to conceive it for there cannot possibly be so much as an Idea of a natural nothing or an immaterial being neither can sense and reason naturally conceive the Creation of an Immaterial substance for as the Creation of material Creatures as of this World belongs to Faith and not to Reason so doth also the Creation of Immaterial substances as Spirits nay it is more difficult to understand a Natural Nothing to be made out of nothing then a Natural Something out of nothing And as for the Progress of Immaterial Souls which the same Author mentions I cannot conceive how No-thing can make a Progress and therefore I suppose it is an Improper or Metaphorical expression The truth is what is Immaterial belongs not to a Natural knowledg or understanding but is Supernatural and goes beyond a natural reach or capacity Concerning the Key of Divine Providence I believe God did never give or lend it to any man for surely God who is infinitely Wise would never intrust so frail and foolish a Creature as Man with it as to let him know his secret Counsels Acts and Decrees But setting aside Pride and Presumption Sense and Reason may easily perceive that Man though counted the best of Creatures is not made with such infinite Excellence as to pierce into the least secrets of God Wherefore I am in a maze when I hear of such men which pretend to know so much as if they had plundered the Celestial Cabinet of the Omnipotent God for certainly had they done it they could not pretend to more knowledg then they do But I Madam confess my Ignorance as having neither divine Inspirations nor extraordinary Visions nor any divine or humane learning but what Nature has been pleased to bestow upon me Yet in all this Ignorance I know that I am and ought to be MADAM Your humble and faithful Servant XXXIV MADAM SInce in my former Letters I have discoursed of Immaterial Spirits and declared my meaning that I do not believe them to be natural Creatures or parts of Nature you are of opinion as if I did contradict my self by reason that in the first Edition of my Book called Philosophical Opinions I name the rational and sensitive Matter rational and sensitive Spirits To which I answer first That when I did write my first Conceptions in Natural Philosophy I was not so experienced nor had I those observations which I have had since Neither did I give those first Conceptions time to digest and come to a maturity or perfect growth but
encounter and that the fruits which Antiquity hath believed to be mixt bodies and those composed from a concurrence of four Elements are materially of one onely Element also that those three Elements are naturally cold nor that native heat is any where in things except from Light Life Motion and an altering Blas In like manner that all actual moisture is of Water but all virtual moisture from the property of the seeds Likewise that dryness is by it self in the Air and Earth but in Fruits by reason of the Seeds and Coagulations and that there are not Contraries in Nature To give you my opinion hereof first I think it too great a presumption in any man to feign himself so much above the rest as to accuse all others of ignorance and that none but he alone hath the true knowledg of all things as infallible and undeniable and that so many Learned Wise and Ingenious Men in so many ages have been blinded with errors for certainly no particular Creature in Nature can have any exact or perfect knowledg of Natural things and therefore opinions cannot be infallible truths although they may seem probable for how is it possible that a single finite Creature should know the numberless varieties and hidden actions of Nature Wherefore your Author cannot say that he hath demonstrated any thing which could not be as much contradicted and perhaps with more reason then he hath brought proofs and demonstrations And thus when he speaks of Elements that there are not four in Nature and that they cannot go together or encounter it may be his opinion but others have brought as many reasons to the contrary and I think with more probability so as it is unnecessary to make a tedious discourse thereof and therefore I 'le refer you to those that have treated of it more learnedly and solidly then I can do But I perceive your Author is much for Art and since he can make solid bodies liquid and liquid bodies solid he believes that all bodies are composed out of the Element of Water and that Water therefore is the first Principle of all things when as Water in my opinion is but an Effect as all other natural Creatures and therefore cannot be a cause or principle of them Concerning the Natural coldness of Water Air and Earth it may be or not be so for any thing your Author can truly know but to my sense and reason it seems probable that there are things naturally hot and moist and hot and dry as well as cold and moist and cold and dry But all these are but several effects produced by the several actions of Natural Matter which Natural Matter is the onely Principle of all Natural Effects and Creatures whatever and this Principle I am confident your Author can no more prove to be Water then he can prove that Heat Light Life Motion and Blas are not material Concerning what he saith That Native Heat is no where in things except from Light Life Motion and an altering Blas I believe that motion of life makes not onely heat but all effects whatsoever but this native heat is not produced onely from the motions of Particular lives in particular Creatures but it is made by the motions of Natures life which life in all probability is the self-moving Matter which no doubt can and doth make Light and Blas without Heat and Heat without Light or Blas Wherefore Light and Blas are not principles of native Heat no more then native Heat is the principle of Light and Blas Neither is Water the Principle of Actual moisture nor the propriety of seeds the Principle of all Virtual moisture but self-moving Matter is the Principle of all and makes both actual and virtual moisture and there is no question but there are many sorts of moistures As for Dryness which he says is by it self in the Air and Earth and in Fruits by reason of the Seeds and Coagulations I cannot conceive how any thing can be by it self in Nature by reason there is nothing alone and single in Nature but all are inseparable parts of one body perchance he means it is naturally and essentially inherent in Air and Earth but neither can that be in my reason because all Creatures and Effects of Nature are Intermixt and there is as much dryness in other Creatures as in Air and Earth Lastly as for his opinion That there are no Contraries in Nature I believe not in the essence or nature of Matter but sense and reason inform us that there are Contraries in Natures actions which are Corporeal motions which cause mixtures qualities degrees discords as also harmonious conjunctions and concords compositions divisions and the like effects whatsoever But though your Author seems to be an enemy to the mixtures of Elements yet he makes such a mixture of Divinity and natural Philosophy that all his Philosophy is nothing but a meer Hotch-potch spoiling one with the other And so I will leave it to those that delight in it resting MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant IV. MADAM WAter according to your Authors opinion is frozen into Snow Ice or Hail not by Cold but by its own Gas But since I am not able to conceive what his Gas is being a term invented by himself I will briefly declare my own opinion which is That Snow Ice and Hail in my judgment are made in the like manner as Passions or Colours are made and raised in Man for a sad discourse or a cruel object will make a Man pale and cold and a fearful object will make him tremble whereas a wanton and obscene discourse will make some red and hot But yet these discourses and objects are onely external occasional and not immediate efficient causes of such alterations Also when a Man eats or drinks any thing that is actually hot or cold or enters into a cold or hot room bath or air he becomes hot or cold by the actions of those external agents that work upon him or rather whose motions the sensitive motions of his body do pattern out The like for diseases for they may be caused either by hearing ill reports or by taking either hurtful or superfluous food into the Body or by Infections inwardly or outwardly and many other ways Likewise may Colours be made different ways And so may Snow Ice and Hail for all loose rare and porous Bodies are more apt to alter and change then close solid and dense bodies and not onely to change from what they are but to rechange to what they were But Madam many studious persons study Nature more in her own substance then in her various actions which is the cause they arrive to no knowledg of Natures Works for the same parts of Matter may act or work several ways Like as a Man or other animal creature may put one part of his body into various and several postures and move it many different ways Your Author may say that although several Creatures may be
antipathetical Foes and all such Quarrels proceed from a sympathy to their own interest But you may ask me what the reason is that some Creatures as for example Mankind some of them will not onely like one sort of meat better then another of equal goodness and nourishment but will like and prefer sometimes a worse sort of meat before the best to wit such as hath neither a good taste nor nourishment I answer This is nothing else but a particular and most commonly an inconstant Appetite for after much eating of that they like best especially if they get a surfeit their appetite is changd to aversion for then all their feeding motions and parts have as much if not more antipathy to those meats as before they had a sympathy to them Again you may ask me the reason why a Man seeing two persons together which are strangers to him doth affect one better then the other nay if one of these Persons be deformed or ill-favoured and the other well-shaped and handsom yet it may chance that the deformed Person shall be more acceptable in the affections and eyes of the beholder then he that is handsom I answer There is no Creature so deformed but hath some agreeable and attractive parts unless it be a Monster which is never loved but for its rarity and novelty and Nature is many times pleased with changes taking delight in variety and the proof that such a sympathetical affection proceeds from some agreeableness of Parts is that if those persons were vail'd there would not proceed such a partial choice or judgment from any to them You may ask me further whether Passion and Appetite are also the cause of the sympathy which is in the Loadstone towards Iron and in the Needle towards the North I answer Yes for it is either for nourishment or refreshment or love and desire of association or the like that the Loadstone draws Iron and the Needle turns towards the North. The difference onely betwixt the sympathy in the Needle towards the North and betwixt the sympathy in the Loadstone towards the Iron is that the Needle doth always turn towards the North but the Loadstone doth not always draw Iron The reason is because the sympathy of the Needle towards the North requires no certain distance as I said in the beginning and the North-pole continuing constantly in the same place the Needle knows whither to turn when as the sympathy between the Loadstone and Iron requires a certain distance and when the Loadstone is not within this compass or distance it cannot perform its effect to wit to draw the Iron but the effect ceases although the cause remains in vigour The same may be said of the Flower that turns towards the Sun for though the Sun be out of sight yet the Flower watches for the return of the Sun from which it receives benefit Like as faithful Servants watch and wait for their Master or hungry Beggers at a Rich man's door for relief and so doth the aforesaid Flower nay not the Flower onely but any thing that has freedom and liberty of motion will turn towards those Places or Creatures whence it expects relief Concerning ravenous Beasts that feed on dead Carcasfes they having more eager appetites then food make long flights into far distant Countries to seek food to live on but surely I think if they had food enough at home although not dead Carcasses they would not make such great Journies or if a battel were fought and many slain and they upon their journey should meet with sufficient food they would hardly travel further before they had devoured that food first But many Birds travel for the temper of the Air as well as for food witness Woodcocks Cranes Swallows Fieldfares and the like some for cold some for hot and some for temperate Air. And as for such Diseases as are produced by conceit and at distance the cause is the fearfulness of the Patient which produces Irregularities in the Mind and these occasion Irregularities in the Body which produce such a disease as the Mind did fearfully apprehend when as without that Passion and Irregularity the Patient would perhaps not fall sick of that disease But to draw towards an end I 'le answer briefly to your Authors alledged example which he gives of Wine that it is troubled while the Vine flowreth The reason in my opinion may perhaps be that the Wine being the effect of the Vine and proceeding from its stock as the producer has not so quite alter'd Nature as not to be sensible at all of the alteration of the Vine For many effects do retain the proprieties of their causes for example many Children are generated which have the same proprieties of their Parents who do often propagate some or other vertuous or vitious qualities with their off-spring And this is rather a proof that there are sensitive and rational motions and sensitive and rational knowledge in all Creatures and so in Wine according to the nature or propriety of its Figure for without motion sense and reason no effect could be nor no sympathy or antipathy But it is to be observed that many do mistake the true Causes and ascribe an effect to some cause which is no more the cause of that same effect then a particular Creature is the cause of Nature and so they are apt to take the Fiddle for the hot Bricks as if the Fiddle did make the Ass dance when as it was the hot Bricks that did it for several effects may proceed from one cause and one effect from several causes and so in the aforesaid example the Wine may perhaps be disturbed by the alteration of the weather at the same time of the flowring of the Vines and so may Animals as well as Vegetables and other Creatures alter alike at one and the same point of time and yet none be the cause of each others alteration And thus to shut up my discourse I repeat again that sympathy and antipathy are nothing else but ordinary Passions and Appetites amongst several Creatures which Passions are made by the rational animate Matter and the Appetites by the sensitive both giving such or such motions to such or such Creatures for cross motions in Appetites and Passions make Antipathy and agreeable motions in Appetites and Passions make Sympathy although the Creatures be different wherein these motions Passions and Appetites are made and as without an object a Pattern cannot be so without inherent or natural Passions and Appetites there can be no Sympathy or Antipathy And there being also such Sympathy betwixt your Ladiship and me I think my self the happiest Creature for it and shall make it my whole study to imitate your Ladiship and conform all my actions to the rule and pattern of yours as becomes MADAM Your Ladiships faithful Friend and humble Servant XVI MADAM MY opinion of Witches and Witchcraft of whose Power and strange effects your Author is pleased to relate many
they cannot have the same Motions for the corporeal motions do make the nature of every particular Creature and their differences and as the corporeal motions act work or move so is the nature of every figure Wherefore no body I hope will count me so senseless that I believe sense and life to be after the like manner in every particular Creature or part of Nature as for example that a Stone or Tree has animal motions and doth see touch taste smell and hear by such sensitive organs as an Animal doth but my opinion is that all Sense is not bound up to the sensitive organs of an Animal nor Reason to the kernel of a man's brain or the orifice of the stomack or the fourth ventricle of the brain or onely to a mans body for though we do not see all Creatures move in that manner as Man or Animals do as to walk run leap ride c. and perform exterior acts by various local motions nevertheless we cannot in reason say they are void and destitute of all motion For what man knows the variety of motions in Nature Do not we see that Nature is active in every thing yea the least of her Creatures For example how some things do unanimously conspire and agree others antipathetically flee from each other and how some do increase others decrease some dissolve some consist and how all things are subject to perpetual changes and alterations and do you think all this is done without motion life sense and reason I pray you consider Madam that there are internal motions as well as external alterative as well as constitutive and several other sorts of motions not perceptible by our senses and therefore it is impossible that all Creatures should move after one sort of motions But you will say Motion may be granted but not Life Sense and Reason I answer I would fain know the reason why not for I am confident that no man can in truth affirm the contrary What is Life but sensitive Motion what is Reason but rational motion and do you think Madam that any thing can move it self without life sense and reason I for my part cannot imagine it should for it would neither know why whither nor what way or how to move But you may reply Motion may be granted but not self-motion and life sense and reason do consist in self-motion I answer this is imposible for not any thing in Nature can move naturally without natural motion and all natural motion is self-motion If you say it may be moved by another My answer is first that if a thing has no motion in it self but is moved by another which has self-motion then it must give that immovable body motion of its own or else it could not move having no motion at all for it must move by the power of motion which is certain and then it must move either by its own motion or by a communicated or imparted motion if by a communicated motion then the self-moveable thing or body must transfer its own motion into the immoveable and lose so much of its own motion as it gives away which is impossible as I have declared heretofore at large unless it do also transfer its moving parts together with it for motion cannot be transfered without substance But experience and observation witnesseth the contrary Next I say if it were possible that one body did move another then most part of natural Creatures which are counted immoveable of themselves or inanimate and destitute of self-motion must be moved by a forced or violent and not by a natural motion for all motion that proceeds from an external agent or moving power is not natural but forced onely self-motion is natural and then one thing moving another in this manner we must at last proceed to such a thing whch is not moved by another but hath motion in it self and moves all others and perhaps since man and the rest of animals have self-motion it might be said that the motions of all other inanimate Creatures as they call them doth proceed from them but man being so proud ambitious and self-conceited would soon exclude all other animals and adscribe this power onely to himself especially since he thinks himself onely endued with Reason and to have this prerogative above all the rest as to be the sole rational Creature in the World Thus you see Madam what confusion absurdity and constrained work will follow from the opinion of denying self-motion and so consequently life and sense to natural Creatures But I having made too long a digresion will return to your Authors discourse And as for that he says A dead Carcass burns by the proper action of the fire I answer That if the dissolving motions of the fire be too strong for the consistent motions of that body which fire works upon then fire is the cause of its alteration but if the consistent motions of the body be too strong for the dissolving motions of the fire then the fire can make no alteration in it Again he says Calx vive as long as it remains dry it gnaws not a dead Carcass but it presently gnaws live flesh and makes an escharre and a dead carcass is by lime wholly resolved into a liquor and is combibed except the bone and gristle thereof but it doth not consume live flesh into a liquor but translates it into an escharre I will say no more to this but that I have fully enough declared my opinion before that the actions or motions of life alter in that which is named a dead Carcass from what they were in that which is called a Living body but although the actions of Life alter yet life is not gone or annihilated for life is life and remains still the same but the actions or motions of life change and differ in every figure and this is the cause that the actions of Fire Time and Calx-vive have not the same effects in a dead Carcass as in a living Body for the difference of their figures and their different motions produce different effects in them and this is the cause that one and the same fire doth not burn or act upon all bodies alike for some it dissolves and some not and some it hardens and some it consumes and some later some sooner For put things of several natures into the same Fire and you will see how they will burn or how fire will act upon them after several manners so that fire cannot alter the actions of several bodies to its own blas and therefore since a living and a dead Body as they call them are not the same for the actions or motions of life by their change or alteration have altered the nature or figure of the body the effects cannot be the same for a Carcass has neither the interior nor exterior motions of that figure which it was before it was a Carcass and so the figure is quite alter'd from what it was by the
insomuch as none would escape but by miracle epecially if dangerously hurt Concerning the Coveteousness of Physicians although sickness is chargeable yet I think it is not Charitable to say or to think that Physitians regard more their Profit then their Patients health for we might as well condemn Divines for taking their Tithes and Stipends as Physicians for taking their Fees but the holy Writ tells us that a Labourer is Worthy of his hire or reward and for my part I think those commit a great sin which repine at giving Rowards in any kind for those that deserve well by their endeavours ought to have their rewards and such Meritorious Persons I wish with all my Soul may prosper and thrive Nevertheless as for those persons which for want of means are not able to reward their Physicians I think Physicians will not deal so unconscionably as to neglect their health and lives for want of their Fees but expect the reward from God and be recompenced the better by those that have Wealth enough to spare And this good opinion I have of them So leaving them I rest MADAM Your constant Friend and faithful Servant XXIX MADAM I Am of your Authors mind That heat is not the cause of digestion but I dissent from him when he says That it is the Ferment of the stomach that doth cause it For in my opinion Digestion is onely made by regular digestive motions and ill digestion is caused by irregular motions and when those motions are weak then there is no digestion at all but what was received remains unaltered but when they are strong and quick then they make a speedy digestion You may ask me what are digestive motions I answer They are transchanging or transforming motions but since there be many sorts of transchanging motions digestive motions are those which transchange food into the nourishment of the body and dispose properly fitly and usefully of all the Parts of the food as well of those which are converted into nourishment as of those which are cast forth For give me leave to tell you Madam that some parts of natural Matter do force or cause other parts of Matter to move and work according to their will without any change or alteration of their parts as for example Fire and Metal for Fire will cause Metal to flow but it doth not readily alter it from its nature of being Metal neither doth Fire alter its nature from being Fire And again some parts of Matter will cause other parts to work and act to their own will by forcing these over-powred parts to alter their own natural motions into the motions of the victorious Party and so transforming them wholly into their own Figure as for example Fire will cause Wood to move so as to take its figure to wit the figure of Fire that is to change its own figurative motions into the motions of Fire and this latter kind of moving or working is found in digestion for the regular digestive motions do turn all food received from its own nature or figure into the nourishment figure or nature of the body as into flesh blood bones and the like But when several parts of Matter meet or joyn with equal force and power then their several natural motions are either quite altered or partly mixt As for example some received things not agreeing with the natural constitution of the body the corporeal motions of the received and those of the receiver do dispute or oppose each other for the motions of the received not willing to change their nature conformable to the desire of the digestive motions do resist and then a War begins whereby the body suffers most for it causes either a sickness in the stomack or a pain in the head or in the heart or in the bowels or the like Nay if the received food gets an absolute victory it dissolves and alters oftentimes the whole body it self remaining intire and unaltered as is evident in those that die of surfeits But most commonly these strifes and quarrels if violent do alter and dissolve each others forms or natures And many times it is not the fault of the Received but of the Receiver as for example when the digestive and transforming motions are either irregular or weak for they being too weak or too few the meat or food received is digested onely by halves and being irregular it causes that which we call corruption But it may be observed that the Received food is either agreeable or disagreeable to the Receiver if agreeable then there is a united consent of Parts to act regularly and perfectly in digestion if disagreeable then the Received acts to the Ruine that is to the alteration or dissolution of the Nature of the Receiver but if it be neutral that is neither perfectly agreeable nor perfectly disagreeable but between both then the receiver or rather the digestive Motions of the receiver use a double strength to alter and transform the received But you may ask me Madam what the reason is that many things received after they are dissolved into small parts those parts will keep their former colour and savour I answer The cause is that either the retentive Motions in the Parts of the received are too strong for the digestive and alterative Motions of the receiver or perchance this colour and savour is so proper to them as not to be transchanged but you must observe that those digestive alterative and transchanging motions do not act or move all after one and the same manner for some do dissolve the natural figure of the received some disperse its dissolved parts into the parts of the body some place the dispersed parts fitly and properly for the use benefit and consistence of the body for there is so much variety in this one act of digestion as no man is able to conceive and if there be such variety in one Particular natural action what variety will there not be in all Nature Wherefore it is not as I mentioned in the beginning either Ferment or Heat or any other thing that causes digestion for if all the constitution and nature of our body was grounded or did depend upon Ferment then Brewers and Bakers and those that deal with Ferments would be the best Physicians But I would fain know the cause which makes Ferment You may say saltness and sowreness But then I ask From whence comes saltness and sowreness You may say From the Ferment But then I shall be as wise as before The best way perhaps may be to say with your Author that Ferment is a Primitive Cause and a beginning or Principle of other things and it self proceeds from nothing But then it is beyond my imagination how that can be a Principle of material things which it self is nothing that is neither a substance nor an accident Good Lord what a stir do men make about nothing I am amazed to see their strange Fancies and Conceptions vented for the Truest Reasons
and the like yet of such matter as is the Rational Matter that is the house when it is conceived in the brain is made by the rational corporeal figurative motions of their own substance or degree of Matter But if all Animals should be produced by meer fancies and a Man and a Woman should beget by fancying themselves together in copulation then the produced would be a true Platonick Child But if a Woman being from her Husband should be so got with Child the question is whether the Husband would own the Child and if amorous Lovers which are more contagious for appetite and fancy then Married persons should produce Children by Immaterial contagions there would be more Children then Parents to own them Your third question is Whether Animals may not be produced as many Diseases are by contagion I answer Although contagions may be made at a distance by perception yet those diseases are not begotten by immaterial motions but by the rational and sensitive corporeal motions which work such diseases in the body of a Creature by the association of parts like as the same disease is made in another body Neither are diseases always produced after one and the same manner but after divers manners whereas animals are produced as animals that is after one natural and proper way for although all the effects in particular be not alike yet the general way or manner to produce those effects is the same As for example there is no other way to produce a fruitful Egg but by a Cock and a Hen But a Contagious disease as the small-Pox or the like may be produced by the way of Surfeits or by Conceit which may cause the sensitive corporeal parts through the irregular motions of the rational corporeal parts to work and produce such a disease or any other ways But neither a disease nor no creature else can be produced without matter by substanceless motion for wheresoever is motion there is also matter matter and motion being but one thing Your fourth question is Whether an Animal Creature is perfectly shaped or formed at the first Conception I answer If the Creature be composed of many and different parts my opinions is it cannot be You may say That if it hath not all his parts produced at once there will be required many acts of generation to beget or produce every part otherwise the producers would not be the Parents of the produced in whole but in part I answer The Producer is the designer architect and founder of the whole Creature produced for the sensitive and rational corporeal motions which are transferred from the producer or producers joyn to build the produced like to the producer in specie but the transferred parts may be invisible and insensible to humane Creatures both through their purity and little quantity until the produced is framed to some visible degree for a stately building may proceed from a small beginning neither can humane sense tell what manner of building is designed at the first foundation But you may say That many Eggs may be made by one act of the producers to wit the Cock and the Hen and those many Eggs may be laid at several times as also hatched at several times and become Chickens at several times I answer It may well and easily be so for the rational and sensitive parts or corporeal motions which were transferred in one act designed many produced through that one act for those transferred corporeal motions although they have not a sufficient quantity of themselves to make all the produced in their perfect shapes at once yet they are the chief designer architect and founder of all that are to be produced for the corporeal motions which are transferred joyn with those they are transferred to and being associates work to one design the sensitive being the architect the rational the designer which together with the inanimate parts of matter can never want materials neither can the materials want labourers for the degrees of matter are inseparable and do make but one body or substance Again you may say That some parts of Matter may produce another Creature not like to the producer in its species as for example Monsters I answer That is possible to be done but yet it is not usual for Monsters are not commonly born but those corporeal motions which dwell in one species work according to the nature of the same species and when the parts of Matter are transferred from Creature to Creature that is are separated from some parts and joyned to other pars of the same species and the same nature those transferred parts of matter although invisible in quantity by reason of their purity and subtilty begin the work of the produced according to its natural species and the labourers in other parts of matter work to the same end just as it is in the artificial building of a house where the house is first designed by the Architect or Master and then the labourers work not after their own fancy else it would not be the same house that was designed nor any uniformity in it but according to the architects or surveyors design so those parts of matter or corporeal motions that are transferred from the producer are like the architect but the labourers or workmen are the assisting and adjoyning parts of matter But you will say How comes it that many creatures may be made by one or two I answer As one owner or two partners may be the cause of many buildings so few or more transferred rational and sensitive corporeal motions may make and produce as many creatures as they can get materials and labourers for if they get one they get the other by reason the degrees of matter viz. animate and inanimate are inseparably mixt and make but one body or substance and the proof of it is that all animals are not constant in the number of their off-spring but sometimes produce more and sometimes fewer and sometimes their off-spring is less and sometimes larger according to the quantity of matter Again you may say That in some Creatures there is no passage to receive the transferred matter into the place of the architecture I answer That all passages are not visible to humane sense and some humane Creatures have not a sufficient humane reason to conceive that most of Natures works are not so gross as to be subject to their exterior senses but as for such parts and passages whether exterior or interior visible or invisible as also for copulation conception formation nourishment and the like in Generation I leave you to Physicians and Anatomists And to conclude this question we may observe that not any animal Creatures shape dissolveth in one instant of time but by degrees why should we believe then that Animals are generated or produced in their perfect shape in one instant of time and by one act of Nature But sense and reason knows by observation that an animal Creature requires more time
for all parts belong to one body which is Nature nay if any thing could subsist of it self it were a God and not a Creature Wherefore not any Creature can challenge a soul absolutely to himself unless Man who hath a divine soul which no other Creature hath But that which makes so many confusions and disputes amongst learned men is that they conceive first there is no rational soul but onely in man next that this rational soul in every man is individable But if the rational soul is material as certainly to all sense and reason it is then it must not onely be in all material Creatures but be dividable too for all that is material or corporeal hath parts and is dividable and therefore there is no such thing in any one Creature as one intire soul nay we might as well say there is but one Creature in Nature as say there is but one individable natural soul in one Creature Your Tenth question is Whether Souls are producible or can be produced I answer in my opinion they are producible by reason all parts in Nature are so But mistake me not for I do not mean that any one part is produced out of Nothing or out of new matter but one Creature is produced by another by the dividing and uniting joyning and disjoyning of the several parts of Matter and not by substanceless Motion out of new Matter And because there is not any thing in Nature that has an absolute subsistence of it self each Creature is a producer as well as a produced in some kind or other for no part of Nature can subsist single and without reference and assistance of each other or else every single part would not onely be a whole of it self but be as a God without controle and though one part is not another part yet one part belongs to another part and all parts to one whole and that whole to all the parts which whole is one corporeal Nature And thus as I said before productions of one or more creatures by one or more producers without matter meerly by immaterial motions are impossible to wit that something should be made or produced out of nothing for if this were so there would consequently be an annihilation or turning into nothing and those Creatures which produce others by the way of immaterial motions would rather be as a God then a part of Nature or Natural Matter Besides it would be an endless labour and more trouble to create particular Creatures out of nothing then a World at once whereas now it is easie for Nature to create by production and transmigration and therefore it is not probable that any one Creature hath a particular life soul or body to it self as subsisting by it self and as it were precised from the rest having its own subsistence without the assistance of any other nor is it probable that any one Creature is new for all that is was and shall be till the Omnipotent God disposes Nature otherwise As for the rest of your questions as whether the Sun be the cause of all motions and of all natural productions and whether the life of a Creature be onely in the blood or whether it have its beginning from the blood or whether the blood be the chief architect of an animal or be the seat of the soul sense and reason in my opinion doth plainly contradict them for concerning the blood if it were the seat of the Soul then in the circulation of the blood if the Soul hath a brain it would become very dizzie by its turning round but perchance some may think the Soul to be a Sun and the Blood the Zodiack and the body the Globe of the Earth which the Soul surrounds in such time as the Blood is flowing about And so leaving those similizing Fancies I 'le add no more but repeat what I said in the beginning viz. that I rely upon the goodness of your Nature from which I hope for pardon if I have not so exactly and solidly answered your desire for the argument of this discourse being so difficult may easily lead me into an error which your better judgment will soon correct and in so doing you will add to those favours for which I am already MADAM Your Ladiships most obliged Friend and humble Servant III. MADAM You thought verily I had mistaken my self in my last concerning the Rational Souls of every particular Creature because I said all Creatures had numerous Souls and not onely so but every particular Creature had numerous Souls Truly Madam I did not mistake my self for I am of the same opinion still for though there is but one Soul in infinite Nature yet that soul being dividable into parts every part is a soul in every single creature were the parts no bigger in quantity then an atome But you ask whether Nature hath Infinite souls I answer That Infinite Nature is but one Infinite body divided into Infinite parts which we call Creatures and therefore it may as well be said That Nature is composed of Infinite Creatures or Parts as she is divided into Infinite Creatures or Parts for Nature being Material is dividable and composable The same may be said of Nature's Soul which is the Rational part of the onely infinite Matter as also of Nature's Life which is the sensitive part of the onely Infinite self-moving Matter and of the Inanimate part of the onely Infinite Matter which I call the body for distinction sake as having no self-motion in its own nature for Infinite Material Nature hath an Infinite Material Soul Life and Body But Madam I desire you to observe what I said already viz. that the parts of Nature are as apt to divide as to unite for the chief actions of Nature are to divide and to unite which division is the cause that it may well be said every particular Creature hath numerous souls for every part of rational Matter is a particular Soul and every part of the sensitive Matter is a particular Life all which mixed with the Inanimate Matter though they be Infinite in parts yet they make but one Infinite whole which is Infinite Nature and thus the Infinite division into Infinite parts is the cause that every particular Creature hath numerous Souls and the transmigration of parts from and to parts is the reason that not any Creature can challenge a single soul or souls to it self the same for life But most men are unwilling to believe that Rational Souls are material and that this rational Matter is dividable in Nature when as humane sense and reason may well perceive that Nature is active and full of variety and action and variety cannot be without motion division and composition but the reason that variety division and composition runs not into confusion is that first there is but one kind of Matter next that the division and composition of parts doth ballance each other into a union in the whole But to conclude those
in it self for Nature and her creatures know of no rest but are in a perpetual motion though not always exterior and local yet they have their proper and certain motions which are not so easily perceived by our grosser senses nevertheless the motion of the bowl would not move by such an exterior local motion did not the motion of the hand or any other exterior moving body give it occasion to move that way Wherefore the motion of the hand may very well be said to be the cause of that exterior local motion of the bowl but not to be the same motion by which the bowl moves Neither is it requisite that the hand should quit its own motion because it uses it in stirring up or putting on the motion of the bowl for it is one thing to use and another to quit as for example it is one thing to offer his life for his friends service another to imploy it and another to quit or lose it But Madam there may be infinite questions or exceptions and infinite answers made upon one truth but the wisest and most probable way is to rely upon sense and reason and not to trouble the mind thoughts and actions of life with improbabilities or rather impossibilities which sense and reason knows not of nor cannot conceive You may say A Man hath sometimes improbable or impossible Fancies Imaginations or Chymaera's in his mind which are No-things I answer That those Fancies and Imaginations are not No-things but as perfectly imbodied as any other Creatures but by reason they are not so grosly imbodied as those creatures that are composed of more sensitive and inanimate matter man thinks or believes them to be no bodies but were they substanceless figures he could not have them in his mind or thoughts The truth is the purity of reason is not so perspicuous and plain to sense as sense is to reason the sensitive matter being a grosser substance then the rational And thus Madam I have answered your proposed question according to the ability of my Reason which I leave to your better examination and rest in the mean while MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant VII MADAM HAving made some mention in my former Letter of the Receiving of Food and discharging of Excrements as also of Respiration which consists in the sucking in of air and sending out of breath in an animal body you desire to know Whether Respiration be common to all animal Creatures Truly I have not the experience as to tell you really whether all animals respire or not for my life being for the most part solitary and contemplative but not active I please my self more with the motions of my thoughts then of my senses and therefore I shall give you an answer according to the conceivement of my reason onely which is That I believe all animals require Respiration not onely those which live in the air but those also which live in waters and within the earth but they do not respire all after one and the same manner for the matter which they imbreath is not every where the same nor have they all the same organs or parts nor the same motions As for example Some Creatures require a more thin and rarer substance for their imbreathing or inspiring then others and some a more thick and grosser substance then others according to their several Natures for as there are several kinds of Creatures according to their several habitations or places they live in so they have each a distinct and several sort of matter or substance for their inspiraration As for example Some live in the Air some upon the face of the Earth some in the bowels of the Earth and some in Waters There is some report of a Salamander who lives in the Fire but it being not certainly known deserves not our speculation And as in my opinion all animal Creatures require Respiration so I do verily believe that also all other kinds of Creatures besides animals have some certain manmer of imbreathing and transpiring viz. Vegetables Minerals and Elements although not after the same way as Animals yet in a way peculiar and proper to the nature of their own kind For example Take away the earth from Vegetables and they will die as being in my opinion stifled or smothered in the same manner as when the Air is taken away from some Animals Also take Minerals out of the bowels of the Earth and though we cannot say they die or are dead because we have not as yet found out the alterative motions of Minerals as well as of Vegetables or Animals yet we know that they are dead from production and increase for not any Metal increases being out of the Earth And as for Elements it is manifest that Fire will die for want of vent but the rest of the Elements if we could come to know the matter manner and ways of their Vital Breathing we might kill or revive them as we do Fire And therefore all Creatures to my Reason require a certain matter and manner of inspiration and expiration which is nothing else but an adjoyning and disjoyning of parts to and from parts for not any natural part or creature can subsist single and by it self but requires assistance from others as this and the rest of my opinions in Natural Philosophy desire the assistance of your favour or else they will die to the grief of MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant VIII MADAM TH other day I met with the Work of that Learned Author Dr. Ch. which treats of Natural Philosophy and amongst the rest in the Chapter of Place I found that he blames Aristotle for saying there are none but corporeal dimensions Length Breadth and Depth in Nature making besides these corporeal other incorporeal dimensions which he attributes to Vacuum Truly Madam an incorporeal dimension or extension seems in my opinion a meer contradiction for I cannot conceive how nothing can have a dimension or extension having nothing to be extended or measured His words are these Imagine we therefore that God should please to annihilate the whole stock or mass of Elements and all concretions resulting therefrom that is all corporeal substances now contained within the ambit or concave of the lowest Heaven or Lunar sphear and having thus imagined can we conceive that all the vast space or region circumscribed by the concave superfice of the Lunar sphere would not remain the same in all its dimensions after as before the reduction of all bodies included therein to nothing To which I answer That in my opinion he makes Nature Supernatural for although God's Power may make Vacuum yet Nature cannot for God's and Nature's Power are not to be compared neither is God's invisible Power perceptible by Natures parts but according to Natural Perception it is impossible to conceive a Vacuum for we cannot immagine a Vacuum but we must think of a body as your Author of the Circle of the Moon neither could he think of
burden so that some bodies may swim and others sink and the cause that a sunk body is not opprest crush'd or squeesed is the dilating nature and quality of water which hinders its parts from pressing or crowding towards a point or center for although water is heavy and apt to descend yet its weight is not caused by a contraction of its substance but by a union of its parts Thus Madam I have obeyed your commands in giving you my reasons to your propounded question which if you approve I have my aim if not I submit to your better judgment for you know I am in all respects MADAM Your Faithful Friend to serve you XIII MADAM I Am glad you are pleased with my reasons I gave to your propounded question concerning the weight of Water and since you have been pleased to send me some more of that subject I shall be ready also to give my answer to them according to the capacity of my judgment First you desire to know How it comes that Water will by degrees ascend through a narrow pipe when the pipe is placed straight upright or perpendicular The reason in my opinion is that Water having a dilative nature when it finds an obstruction to descend or flow even will dilate it self ascendingly according as it hath liberty or freedom and strength or quantity the truth is water would be more apt to ascend then to descend were it not for the close uniting of its liquid Parts which causes its exterior density and this density makes it of more weight then its nature is and the proof that water is apt in its nature to ascend is that some sorts of vapours are made onely by the dilation and rarefaction of ascending Water Your second question is Why the surface of water seems to be concave in its middle and higher on every side I answer The interior figure of water is a circular figure which being a round figure is both concave and convex for where one is the other must be and the motions of ebbing and flowing and ascending or descending are partly of that figure and so according to the exterior dilating strength or weakness the exterior parts of water become either concave or convex for in a full strength as a full stream the exterior parts of water flow in a convex figure but when they want strength they ebb in a concave figure Your third question is What makes frozen water apt to break those Vessels wherein it is contained in the act of freezing or congealing I answer The same cause that makes water clear as also more swell'd then usually it is which cause is the inherent dilative nature of water for water being naturally dilative when as cold attractions do assault it the moist dilations of water in the conflict use more then their ordinary strength to resist those cold contracting motions by which the body of water dilates it self into a larger compass according as it hath liberty or freedom or quantity of parts and the cold parts not being able to drive the water back to its natural compass bind it as it is extended like as if a beast should be bound when his legs and neck are thrust out at the largest extent in striving to kick or thrust away his enemies and imprisoners And so the reason why water breaks those vessels wherein it is inclosed in the act of its freezing or congealing is that when the cold contractions are so strong as they endeavour to extinguish the dilating nature of water the water resisting forces its parts so as they break the vessel which incloses them The same reason makes Ice clear and transparent for it is not the rarefaction of water that doth it but the dilation which causes the parts of water to be not onely more loose and porous but also more smooth and even by resisting the clold contractions for every part endeavours to defend their borders with a well ordered and regular flowing or streaming and not onely to defend but to enlarge their compass against their enemies Your fourth question is How it comes that Snow and Salt mixt together doth make Ice The reason in my judgment is that Salt being very active and partly of the nature of fire doth sometimes preserve and sometimes destroy other bodies according to its power or rather according to the nature of those bodies it works on and salt being mixt with snow endeavours to destroy it but having not so much force melts it onely by its heat and reduces it into its first principle which is water altering the figure of snow but the cold contractions remaining in the water and endeavouring to maintain and keep their power straight draw the water or melted snow into the figure of ice so as neither the salts heat nor the waters dilative nature are able to resist or destroy those cold contractions for although they destroy'd the first figure which is snow yet they cannot hinder the second which is Ice Your last question is How the Clouds can hang so long in the Skie without falling down Truly Madam I do not perceive that Clouds being come to their full weight and gravity do keep up in the air but some of them fall down in showres of rain others in great and numerous flakes of snow some are turned into wind and some fall down in thick mists so that they onely keep up so long until they are of a full weight for descent or till their figure is altered into some other body as into air wind rain lightning thunder snow hail mist and the like But many times their dilating motions keep or hinder them from descending to which contracting motions are required In my opinion it is more to be admired that the Sea doth not rise then that Clouds do not fall for as we see Clouds fall very often as also change from being Clouds to some other figure Wherefore it is neither the Sun nor Stars nor the Vapours which arise from the Earth and cause the Clouds nor the porositity of their bodies nor the Air that can keep or hinder them from falling or changing to some other body but they being come to their full weight fall or change according as is fittest for them And these are all the reasons I can give you for the present if they do not satisfie you I will study for others and in all occasions endeavour to express my self MADAM Your constant Friend and faithful Servant XIV MADAM SInce in my last I made mention of the Congealing of Water into Ice and Snow I cannot choose but by the way tell you that I did lately meet with an Author who is of opinion That Snow is nothing else but Ice broken or ground into small pieces To which I answer That this opinion may serve very well for a Fancy but not for a Rational Truth or at least for a Probable Reason For why may not the cold motions make snow without beating or grinding as well as
effects must of necessity be infinite also the cause is infinite in its substance the effects are Infinite in number And this is my meaning when I say that although in Nature there is but one kind of matter yet there are Infinite degrees Infinite motions and Infinite parts in that onely matter and though Infinite and Eternal matter has no perfect or exact figure by reason it is Infinite and therefore unlimited yet there being infinite parts in number made by the infinite variations of motions in infinite Matter these parts have perfect or exact figures considered as parts that is single or each in its particular figure And therefore if there be Infinite degrees considering the effects of the animate and inanimate matter infinite motions for changes infinite parts for number infinite compositions and divisions for variety and diversity of Creatures then there may also be infinite sizes each part or figure differing more or less infinite smalness and bigness lightness and heaviness rarity and density strength and power life and knowledg and the like But by reason Nature or Natural matter is not all animate or inanimate nor all composing or dividing there can be no Infinite in a part nor can there be something biggest or smallest strongest or weakest heaviest or lightest softest or hardest in Infinite Nature or her parts but all those several Infinites are as it were included in one Infinite which is Corporeal Nature or Natural Matter Next you desire my opinion of Vacuum whether there be any or not for you say I determine nothing of it in my Book of Philosophical Opinions Truly Madam my sense and reason cannot believe a Vacuum because there cannot be an empty Nothing but change of motion makes all the alteration of figures and consequently all that which is called place magnitude space and the like for matter motion figure place magnitude c. are but one thing But some men perceiving the alteration but not the subtil motions believe that bodies move into each others place which is impossible because several places are onely several parts so that unless one part could make it self another part no part can be said to succeed into anothers place but it is impossible that one part should make it self another part for it cannot be another and it self no more then Nature can be Nature and not Nature wherefore change of place is onely change of motion and this change of motion makes alteration of Figures Thirdly you say You cannot understand what I mean by Creation for you think that Creation is a production or making of Something out of Nothing To tell you really Madam this word is used by me for want of a better expression and I do not take it in so strict a sense as to understand by it a Divine or supernatural Creation which onely belongs to God but a natural Creation that is a natural production or Generation for Nature cannot create or produce Something out of Nothing And this Production may be taken in a double sence First in General as for example when it is said that all Creatures are produced out of Infinite Matter and in this respect every particular Creature which is finite that is of a circumscribed and limited figure is produced of Infinite Matter as being a part thereof Next Production is taken in a more strict sense to wit when one single Creature is produced from another and this is either Generation properly so called as when in every kind and sort each particular produces its like or it is such a Generation whereby one creature produces another each being of a different kind or species as for example when an Animal produces a Mineral as when a Stone is generated in the Kidneys or the like and in this sence one finite creature generates or produces another finite creature the producer as well as the produced being finite but in the first sence finite creatures are produced out of infinite matter Fourthly you confess You cannot well apprehend my meaning when I say that the several kinds are as Infinite as the particulars for your opinion is That the number of particulars must needs exceed the number of kinds I answer I mean in general the Infinite effects of Nature which are Infinite in number and the several kinds or sorts of Creatures are Infinite in duration for nothing can perish in Nature Fifthly When I say that ascending and descending is often caused by the exterior figure or shape of a body witness a Bird who although he is of a much bigger size and bulk then a Worm yet can by his shape lift himself up more agilly and nimbly then a Worm Your opinion is That his exterior shape doth not contribute any thing towards his flying by reason a Bird being dead retains the same shape but yet cannot fly at all But truly Madam I would not have you think that I do exclude the proper and interior natural motion of the figure of a Bird and the natural and proper motions of every part and particle thereof for that a Bird when dead keeps his shape and yet cannot fly the reason is that the natural and internal motions of the Bird and the Birds wings are altered towards some other shape or figure if not exteriously yet interiously but yet the interior natural motions could not effect any flying or ascending without the help of the exterior shape for a Man or any other animal may have the same interior motions as a Bird hath but wanting such an exterior shape he cannot fly whereas had he wings like a Bird and the interior natural motions of those wings he might without doubt fly as well as a Bird doth Sixthly Concerning the descent of heavy bodies that it is more forcible then the ascent of light bodies you do question the Truth of this my opinion Certainly Madam I cannot conceive it to be otherwise by my sense and reason for though Fire that is rare doth ascend with an extraordinary quick motion yet this motion is in my opinion not so strong and piercing as when grosser parts of Creatures do descend but there is difference in strength and quickness for had not Water a stronger motion and another sort of figure then Fire it could not suppress Fire much less quench it But Smoak which is heavier then Flame flies up or rises before or rather above it Wherefore I am still of the same opinion that heavy bodies descend more forcibly then light bodies do ascend and it seems most rational to me Lastly I perceive you cannot believe that all bodies have weight by reason if this were so the Sun and the Stars would have long since cover'd the Earth In answer to this objection I say That as there can be no body without figure and magnitude so consequently not without weight were it no bigger then an atome and as for the Sun 's and the Stars not falling down or rising higher the reason is not their
heat were not corporeal but that those corporeal motions which make heat work invisibly and not visibly like as fire feeds on fuel or man on meat Also when I say Excercise amongst animals gets strength I mean that by excercise the inherent natural motions of an animal body are more active as being more industrious When I say That the passage whence cold and sharp winds do issue out is narrow I mean when as such or such parts disjoyn or separate from other parts as for example when dilating parts disjoyn from contracting parts and oftentimes the disjoyning parts do move according to the nature of those parts they disjoyn from Concerning the actions of Nature my meaning is that there is not any action whatsoever but was always in Nature and remains in Nature so long as it pleases God that Nature shall last and of all her actions Perception and self-love are her prime and chief actions wherefore it is impossible but that all her particular creatures or parts must be knowing as well as self-moving there being not one part or particle of Nature that has not its share of animate or self-moving matter and consequently of knowledge and self-love each according to its own kind and nature but by reason all the parts are of one matter and belong to one body each is unalterable so far that although it can change its figure yet it cannot change or alter from being matter or a part of Infinite Nature and this is the cause there cannot be a confusion amongst those parts of Nature but there must be a constant union and harmony betwixt them for cross and opposite actions make no confusion but onely a variety and such actions which are different cross and opposite not moving always after their usual and accustomed way I name Irregular for want of a better expression but properly there is no such thing as Irregularity in Nature nor no weariness rest sleep sickness death or destruction no more then there is place space time modes accidents and thelike any thing besides body or matter When I speak of unnatural Motions I mean such as are not proper to the nature of such or such a Creature as being opposite or destructive to it that is moving or acting towards its dissolution Also when I call Violence supernatural I mean that Violence is beyond the particular nature of such a particular Creature that is beyond its natural motions but not supernatural that is beyond Infinite Nature or natural Matter When I say A thing is forced I do not mean that the forced body receives strength without Matter but that some Corporeal Motions joyn with other Corporeal Motions and so double the strength by joyning their parts or are at least an occasion to make other parts more industrious By Prints I understand the figures of the objects which are patterned or copied out by the sensitive and rational corporeal figurative Motions as for example when the sensitive corporeal motions pattern out the figure of an exteriour object and the rational motions again pattern out a figure made by the sensitive motions those figures of the objects that are patterned out I name Prints as for example The sense of Seeing is not capable to receive the Print that is the figure or pattern of the object of the whole Earth And again The rational Motions are not alwayes exactly after the sensitive Prints that is after the figures made by the sensitive motions Thus by Prints I understand Patterns and by printing patterning not that the exteriour object prints its figure upon the exteriour sensitive organs but that the sensitive motions in the organs pattern out the figure of the object but though all printing is done by the way of patterning yet all patterning is not printing Therefore when I say that solid bodies print their figures in that which is more porous and soft and that those solid bodies make new prints perpetually and as they remove the prints melt out like verbal or vocal sounds which print words and set notes in the Air I mean the soft body by its own self-motion patterns out the figure of the solid body and not that the solid body makes its own print and so leaves the place of its own substance with the print in the soft body for place remains always with its own body and cannot be separated from it they being but one thing for example when a Seal is printed in Wax the Seal gives not any thing to the Wax but is onely an object patterned out by the figurative motions of the Wax in the action of printing or sealing When I make mention of what the Senses bring in I mean what the sensitive Motions pattern out of forreign objects And when I say that the pores being shut touch cannot enter I mean the sensitive corporeal motions cannot make patterns of outward objects Also when I say our Ears may be as knowing as our Eyes and so of the rest of the sensitive organs I mean the sensitive motions in those parts or organs When I say The more the Body is at rest the more active or busie is the Mind I mean when the sensitive Motions are not taken up with the action of patterning out forreign objects When I say the Air is fill'd with sound and that words are received into the ears as figures of exterior objects are received into the eyes I mean the sensitive motions of the Air pattern out sound and the sensitive motions of the Ears pattern out words as the sensitive figurative motions of the Eyes pattern out the figures of external objects Also when I speak of Thunder and Lightning to wit That Thunder makes a great noise by the breaking of lines My meaning is That the Air patterns out this sound or noise of the lines and by reason there are so many patterns made in the air by its sensitive motions the Ear cannot take so exact a copy thereof but somewhat confusedly and this is the reason why Thunder is represented or rather pattern'd out with some terrour for Thunder is a confused noise because the patterns are made confusedly But concerning Sound and Light I am forced to acquaint you Madam that my meaning thereof is not so well expressed in my Book of Philosophy by reason I was not of the same opinion at that time when I did write that Book which I am now of for upon better consideration and a more diligent search into the causes of natural effects I have found it more probable that all sensitive perception is made by the way of Patterning and so consequently the perception of Sound and of Light wherefore I beseech you when you find in my mentioned Book any thing thereof otherwise expressed do not judg of it as if I did contradict my self but that I have alter'd my opinion since upon more probable reasons Thus Madam you have a true declaration of my sence and meaning concerning those
Motions though they proceed from sensitive matter yet are they so different from the free and Prime Natural Motions that they seem as it were quite of another nature And this distinction neglected is the Cause that many make Appetites and Passions Perceptions and Objects and the like as one without any or but little difference But having discoursed of the difference of these Motions in my former Letter I will not be tedious to you with repeating it again but remain MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant VII MADAM YOur Authours opinion concerning Dreams seemeth to me in some part very rational and probable in some part not For when he sayes that Dreams are onely Imaginations of them that sleep which imaginations have been before either totally or by parcels in the Sense and that the organs of Sense as the Brain and the Nerves being benumb'd in sleep as not easily to be moved by external objects those Imaginations proceed onely from the agitation of the inward parts of mans body which for the connexion they have with the Brain and other organs when they be distemper'd do keep the same in motion whereby the Imaginations there formerly made appear as if a man were waking This seems to my Reason not very probable For first Dreams are not absolutely Imaginations except we do call all Motions and Actions of the Sensitive and Rational Matter Imaginations Neither is it necessary that all Imaginations must have been before either totally or by parcels in the Sense neither is there any benumbing of the organs of Sense in sleep But Dreams according to my opinion are made by the Sensitive and Rational Corporeal Motions by figuring several objects as awake onely the difference is that the Sensitive motions in Dreams work by rote and on the inside of the Sensitive organs when as awake they work according to the patterns of outward objects and exteriously or on the outside of the sensitive Organs so that sleep or dreams are nothing else but an alteration of motions from moving exteriously to move interiously and from working after a Pattern to work by rote I do not say that the body is without all exterior motions when asleep as breathing and beating of the Pulse although these motions are rather interior then exterior but that onely the sensitive organs are outwardly shut so as not to receive the patterns of outward Objects nevertheless the sensitive Motions do not cease from moving inwardly or on the inside of the sensitive Organs But the rational matter doth often as awake so asleep or in dreams make such figures as the sensitive did never make either from outward objects or of its own accord for the sensitive hath sometimes liberty to work without Objects but the Rational much more which is not bound either to the patterns of Exterior objects or of the sensitive voluntary Figures Wherefore it is not divers distempers as your Authour sayes that cause different Dreams or Cold or Heat neither are Dreams the reverse of our waking Imaginations nor all the Figures in Dreams are not made with their heels up and their heads downwards though some are but this error or irregularity proceeds from want of exterior Objects or Patterns and by reason the sensitive Motions work by rote neither are the Motions reverse because they work inwardly asleep and outwardly awake for Mad-men awake see several Figures without Objects In short sleeping and waking is somewhat after that manner when men are called either out of their doors or stay within their houses or like a Ship where the Mariners work all under hatches whereof you will find more in my Philosophical Opinions and so taking my leave I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant VIII MADAM YOur Author going on in his discourse of Imagination says That as we have no Imagination whereof we have not formerly had sense in whole or in parts so we have not Transition from one Imagination to another whereof we never had the like before in our senses To which my answer is in short that the Rational part of Matter in one composed figure as in Man or the like Creature may make such figures as the senses did never make in that composed Figure or Creature And though your Authour reproves those that say Imaginations rise of themselves yet if the self-moving part of Matter which I call Rational makes Imaginations they must needs rise of themselves for the Rational part of matter being free and self-moving depends upon nothing neither Sense nor Object I mean so as not to be able to work without them Next when your Author defining Vnderstanding says that it is nothing else but an Imagination raised by words or other voluntary signs My Answer is that Understanding and so Words and Signs are made by self-moving Matter that is Sense and Reason and not Sense and Reason by Words and Signs wherefore Thoughts are not like Water upon a plain Table which is drawn and guided by the finger this or that way for every Part of self-moving matter is not alwayes forced perswaded or directed for if all the Parts of Sense and Reason were ruled by force or perswasion not any wounded Creature would fail to be healed or any disease to be cured by outward Applications for outward Applications to Wounds and Diseases might have more force then any Object to the Eye But though there is great affinity and sympathy between parts yet there is also great difference and antipathy betwixt them which is the cause that many objects cannot with all their endeavours work such effects upon the Interiour parts although they are closely press'd for Impressions of objects do not always affect those parts they press Wherefore I am not of your Author's opinion that all Parts of Matter press one another It is true Madam there cannot be any part single but yet this doth not prove that parts must needs press each other And as for his Train of Thoughts I must confess that Thoughts for the most part are made orderly but yet they do not follow each other like Geese for surely man has sometimes very different thoughts as for Example a man sometime is very sad for the death of his Friend and thinks of his own death and immediately thinks of a wanton Mistress which later thought surely the thought of Death did not draw in wherefore though some thought may be the Ring-leader of others yet many are made without leaders Again your Author in his description of the Mind sayes that the discourse of the mind when it it is govern'd by design is nothing but seeking or the Faculty of Invention a hunting out of the Causes of some Effects present or past or of the Effects of some present or past Cause Sometimes a man seeks what he has lost and from that Place and Time wherein he misses it his mind runs back from place to place and time to time to find where and when he had it that
But says your Author this Priviledge in Man is allay'd by another which is No living Creature is subject to absurdity but onely Man Certainly Madam I believe the contrary to wit that all other Creatures do as often commit mistakes and absurdities as Man and if it were not to avoid tediousness I could present sufficient proofs to you Wherefore I think not onely Man but also other Creatures may be Philosophers and subject to absurdities as aptly as Men for Man doth nor cannot truly know the Faculties and Abilities or Actions of all other Creatures no not of his own Kind as Man-Kind for if he do measure all men by himself he will be very much mistaken for what he conceives to be true or wise an other may conceive to be false and foolish But Man may have one way of Knowledge in Philosophy and other Arts and other Creatures another way and yet other Creatures manner or way may be as Intelligible and Instructive to each other as Man 's I mean in those things which are Natural Wherefore I cannot consent to what your Author says That Children are not endued with Reason at all till they have attained to the use of Speech for Reason is in those Creatures which have not Speech witness Horses especially those which are taught in the manage and many other Animals And as for the weak understanding in Children I have discoursed thereof in my Book of Philosophy The rest of this discourse lest I tyre you too much at once I shall reserve for the next resting in the mean time MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XI MADAM I sent you word in my last that your Author's opinion is That Children are not endued with Reason at all until they have attained to the use of Speech in the same Chapter he speaks to the same purpose thus Reason is not as Sense and Memory born with us nor gotten by experience onely as Prudence is but attained by industry To which I reply onely this That it might as well be said a Child when new born hath not flesh and blood because by taking in nourishment or food the Child grows to have more flesh and blood or that a Child is not born with two legs because he cannot go or with two arms and hands because he cannot help himself or that he is not born with a tongue because he cannot speak For although Reason doth not move in a Child as in a Man in Infancy as in Youth in Youth as in Age yet that doth not prove that Children are without Reason because they cannot run and prate I grant some other Creatures appear to have more Knowledg when new born then others as for example a young Foal has more knowledg than a young Child because a Child cannot run and play besides a Foal knows his own Dam and can tell where to take his food as to run and suck his Dam when as an Infant cannot do so nor all beasts though most of them can but yet this doth not prove that a Child hath no reason at all Neither can I perceive that man is a Monopoler of all Reason or Animals of all Sense but that Sense and Reason are in other Creatures as well as in Man and Animals for example Drugs as Vegetables and Minerals although they cannot slice pound or infuse as man can yet they can work upon man more subtilly wisely and as sensibly either by purging vomiting spitting or any other way as man by mincing pounding and infusing them and Vegetables will as wisely nourish Men as Men can nourish Vegetables Also some Vegetables are as malicious and mischievous to Man as Man is to one another witness Hemlock Nightshade and many more and a little Poppy will as soon nay sooner cause a Man to sleep though silently then a Nurse a Child with singing and rocking But because they do not act in such manner or way as Man Man judgeth them to be without sense and reason and because they do not prate and talk as Man Man believes they have not so much wit as he hath and because they cannot run and go Man thinks they are not industrious the like for Infants concerning Reason But certainly it is not local motion or speech that makes sense and reason but sense and reason makes them neither is sense and reason bound onely to the actions of Man but it is free to the actions forms figures and proprieties of all Creatures for if none but Man had reason and none but Animals sense the World could not be so exact and so well in order as it is but Nature is wiser then Man with all his Arts for these are onely produced through the variety of Natures actions and disputes through the superfluous varieties of Mans follies or ignorances not knowing Natures powerful life and knowledg But I wonder Madam your Author says in this place That Reason is not born with Man when as in another place he says That every man brought Philosophy that is Natural reason with him into the World Which how it agree I will leave to others to judg and to him to reconcile it remaining in the mean time MADAM Your Constant Friend and Faithful Servant XII MADAM TWo sorts of motions I find your Author doth attribute to Animals viz. Vital and Animal the Vital motions says he are begun in Generation and continued without Interruption through their whole life aud those are the Course of the Blood the Pulse the Breathing Conviction Nutrition Excretion c. to which motions there needs no help of Imaginations But the animal Motions otherwise called voluntary Motions are to go to speak to move any of our limbs in such manner as is first fancied in our minds And because going speaking and the like voluntary motions depend always upon a precedent thought of whither which way and what it is evident that the Imagination is the first Internal beginning of all voluntary Motion Thus far your Author Whereof in short I give you my opinion first concerning Vital Motions that it appears improbable if not impossible to me that Generation should be the cause and beginning of Life because Life must of necessity be the cause of Generation life being the Generator of all things for without life motion could not be and without motion not any thing could be begun increased perfected or dissolved Next that Imagination is not necessary to Vital Motions it is probable it may not but yet there is required Knowledg which I name Reason for if there were not Knowledg in all Generations or Productions there could not any distinct Creature be made or produced for then all Generations would be confusedly mixt neither would there be any distinct kinds or sorts of Creatures nor no different Faculties Proprieties and the like Thirdly concerning Animal Motions which your Author names Voluntary Motions as to go to speak to move any of our limbs in such manner as is first fancied in our minds
and glassie next it must not be transparent the first is manifest by experience for the subject being rough and uneven will never be able to present such a figure as for example A piece of steel rough and unpolished although it may perhaps pattern out the figure of an external object yet it will never present its figure but as soon as it is polished and made smooth and glassie the figure is presently perceived But this is to be observed that smooth and glassie bodies do not always pattern out exterior objects exactly but some better some worse like as Painters have not all the same ingenuity neither do all eyes pattern out all objects exactly which proves that the perception of sight is not made by pressure and reaction o herwise there would be no difference but all eyes would see alike Next I say it is observed that the subject which will present the figure of an external object must not be transparent the reason is that the figure of Light being a substance of a piercing and penetrating quality hath more force on transparent then on other solid dark bodies and so disturbs the figure of an external object pattern'd out in a transparent body and quite over-masters it But you wil say you have found by experience that if you hold a burning Candle before a Transparent-glass although it be in an open Sun-light yet the figure of light and flame of the Candle will clearly be seen in the Glass I answer that it is an other thing with the figure of Candle-light then of a duskish or dark body for a Candle-light though it is not of the same sort as the Suns light yet it is of the same nature and quality and therefore the Candle-light doth resist and oppose the light of the Sun so that it cannot have so much power over it as over the figures of other bodies patterned out and presented in Transparent-glass Lastly I say that the fault often-times lies in the perceptive motions of our sight which is evident by a plain and Concave-glass for in a plain Looking-glass the further you go from it the more your figure presented in the glass seems to draw backward and in a Concave-glass the nearer you go to it the more seems your figure to come forth which effects are like as an house or tree appears to a Traveller for as the man moves from the house or tree so the house or tree seems to move from the man or like one that sails upon a Ship who imagines that the Ship stands still and the Land moves when as yet it is the Man and the Ship that moves and not the House or Tree or the Land so when a Man turns round in a quick motion or when his head is dizzie he imagines the room or place where he is turns round Wherefore it is the Inherent Perceptive motions in the Eye and not the motions in the Looking-glass which cause these effects And as for several figures that are presented in one glass it is absurd to imagine that so many several figures made by so many several motions should touch the eye certainly this would make such a disturbance if all figures were to enter or but to touch the eye as the eye would not perceive any of them at least not distinctly Wherefore it is most probable that the glass patterns out those figures and the sensitive corporeal motions in the eye take again a pattern from those figures patterned out by the glass and so make copies of copies but the reason why several figures are presented in one glass in several places is that two perfect figures cannot be in one point nor made by one motion but by several corporeal motions Concerning a Looking-glass made in the form or shape of a Cylinder why it represents the figure of an external object in an other shape and posture then the object is the cause is the shape and form of the Glass and not the patterning motions in the Glass But this discourse belongs properly to the Opticks wherefore I will leave it to those that are versed in that Art to enquire and search more after the rational truth thereof In the mean time my opinion is that though the object is the occasion of the figure presented in a Looking-glass yet the figure is made by the motions of the glass or body that presents it and that the figure of the glass perhaps may be patterned out as much by the motions of the object in its own substance as the figure of the object is patterned out and presented by the motions of the glass in its own body or substance And thus I conclude and rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXVI MADAM SInce I mentioned in my last that Light did disturb the figures of External objects presented in Transparent bodies you were pleased to ask Whether light doth penetrate transparent bodies I answer for any thing I know it may for when I consider the subtil piercing and penetrating nature of light I believe it doth but again when I consider that light is presented to our sight by transparent bodies onely and not by duskish and dark bodies and yet that those duskish bodies are more porous then the transparent bodies so that the light hath more passage to pass through them then through transparent bodies but that on the contrary those dark bodies as Wood and the like do quite obscure the light when as transparent bodies as Glass c. transmit it I am half perswaded that the transparent bodies as Glass rather present the Light by patterning it out then by giving it passage Also I am of a mind that the air in a room may pattern out the Light from the Glass for the Light in a room doth not appear so clear as in the Glass also if the Glass be any way defective it doth not present the Light so perfectly whereas if it were the penetration of light through the glass the light would pass through all sorts of glass alike which it doth not but is more clearly seen through some and more obscurely through others according to the goodness or purity of the glass But you may say that the light divulges the imperfection or goodness of the glass I answer so it doth of any other objects perceived by our sight for light is the presenter of objects to the sense and perception of sight and for any thing I know the corporeal optick motions make the figure of light the ground figure of all other figures patterned out by the corporeal optick motions as in dreams or when as some do see in the dark that is without the help of exterior light But you may say That if the glass and the air in a room did pattern out the figure of light those patterns of light would remain when light is absent I answer That is not usual in nature for when the object removes the Pattern alters I will not say but that the
Authors opinion when he sayes That all bodies of this Universe are of one and the same matter really divided into many parts and that these parts are diversly moved But that these motions should be circular more then of any other sort I cannot believe although he thinks that this is the most probable way to find out the causes of natural effects for nature is not bound to one sort of motions more then to another and it is but in vain to indeavour to know how and by what motions God did make the World since Creation is an action of God and Gods actions are incomprehensible Wherefore his aethereal Whirlpooles and little particles of matter which he reduceth to three sorts and calls them the three elements of the Universe their circular motions several figures shavings and many the like which you may better read then I rehearse to you are to my thinking rather Fancies then rational or probable conceptions for how can we imagine that the Universe was set a moving as a Top by a Whip or a Wheele by the hand of a Spinster and that the vacuities were fill'd up with shavings for these violent motions would rather have disturbed and disordered Nature and though Nature uses variety in her motions or actions yet these are not extravagant nor by force or violence but orderly temperate free and easie which causes me to believe the Earth turns about rather then the Sun and though corporeal motions for variety make Whirl-winds yet Whirl-winds are not constant Neither can I believe that the swiftness of motion could make the matter more subtil and pure then it was by nature for it is the purity and subtilty of the matter that causes motion and makes it swifter or slower and not motion the subtilty and purity of matter motion being onely the action of matter and the self-moving part of matter is the working part of nature which is wise and knows how to move and form every creature without instruction and this self-motion is as much her own as the other parts of her body matter and figure and is one and the same with her self as a corporeal living knowing and inseparable being and a part of her self As for the several parts of matter I do believe that they are not all of one and the same bigness nor of one and the same figure neither do I hold their figures to be unalterable for if all parts in nature be corporeal they are dividable composable and intermixable and then they cannot be always of one and the same sort of figure besides nature would not have so much work if there were no change of figures and since her onely action is change of motion change of motion must needs make change of figures and thus natural parts of matter may change from lines to points and from points to lines from squares to circles and so forth infinite ways according to the change of motions but though they change their figures yet they cannot change their matter for matter as it has been so it remaines constantly in each degree as the Rational Sensitive and Inanimate none becomes purer none grosser then ever it was notwithstanding the infinite changes of motions which their figures undergo for Motion changes onely the figure not the matter it self which continues still the same in its nature and cannot be altered without a confusion or destruction of Nature And this is the constant opinion of MADAM Your faithful Friend and humble Servant XXXIV MADAM THat Rarefaction is onely a change of figure according to your Authors opinion is in my reason very probable but when he sayes that in rarified bodies are little intervals or pores filled up with some other subtil matter if he means that all rarified bodies are porous I dissent from him for it is not necessary that all rarified bodies should be porous and all hard bodies without pores but if there were a probability of pores I am of opinion it would be more in dense and hard than in rare and soft bodies as for example rarifying and dilating motions are plaining smoothing spreading and making all parts even which could not well be if there were holes or pores Earth is dense and hard and yet is porous and flame is rare and dilating and yet is not porous and certainly Water is not so porous as Earth Wherefore pores in my opinion are according to the nature or form of the figure and not according to the rarity or thinness and density or thickness of the substance As for his thin and subtil matter filling up the pores of porous bodies I assent to your Author so farr that I meane thin and thick or rare and dense substances are joyned and mixed together As for plaining smoothing and spreading I do not mean so much artificial plaining and spreading as for example when a piece of gold is beaten into a thin plate and a board is made plain and smooth by a Joyners tool or a napkin folded up is spread plain and even although when you observe these arts you may judge somewhat of the nature of natural dilations for a folded cloth is fuller of creases then when plain and the beating of a thin plate is like to the motion of dilation which is to spread out and the forme of rarifying is thinning and extending I add onely this that I am not of your Authors opinion that Rest is the Cause or Glue which keeps the parts of dense or hard bodies together but it is retentive motions And so I conclude resting MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXXV MADAM THat the Mind according to your Authors opinion is a substance really distinct from the body and may be actually separated from it and subsist without it If he mean the natural mind and soul of Man not the supernatural or divine I am far from his opinion for though the mind moveth onely in its own parts and not upon or with the parts of inanimate matter yet it cannot be separated from these parts of matter and subsist by its self as being a part of one and the same matter the inanimate is of for there is but one onely matter and one kind of matter although of several degrees onely it is the self-moving part but yet this cannot impower it to quit the same natural body whose part it is Neither can I apprehend that the Mind 's or Soul's seat should be in the Glandula or kernel of the Brain and there sit like a Spider in a Cobweb to whom the least motion of the Cobweb gives intelligence of a Flye which he is ready to assault and that the Brain should get intelligence by the animal spirits as his servants which run to and fro like Ants to inform it or that the Mind should according to others opinions be a light and imbroidered all with Ideas like a Heraulds Coat and that the sensitive organs should have no knowledg in themselves but serve onely like peepingholes for
but a dense or rare heavie or light matter is but one substance or body And thus having obeyed your commands I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XLIV MADAM IAm very ready to give you my opinion of those two questions you sent me whereof the first was Whether that which is rare and subtil be not withal pure To which I answer That all rare bodies are not subtil nor pure and that all which is dense is not gross and dull As for example Puddle-water or also clear water is rarer then Quicksilver and yet not so subtil and pure as Quicksilver the like of Gold for Quicksilver and Gold may be rarified to a transparentness and yet be so dense as not to be easily dissolved and Quicksilver is very subtil and searching so as to be able to force other bodies to divide as well as it can divide and compose its own parts Wherefore my opinion is that the purest and subtilest degree of matter in nature is that degree of matter which can dilate and contract compose and divide into any figure by corporeal self-motion Your second question was Why a man's hand cannot break a little hard body as a little nail whereas yet it is bigger then the nail I answer It is not because the hand is softer then the nail for one hard body will not break suddenly another hard body and a man may easily break an iron nail with his hand as I have bin informed but it is some kind of motion which can easier do it then another for I have seen a strong cord wound about both a man's hands who pulled his hands as hard and strongly asunder as he could and yet was not able to break it when as a Youth taking the same cord and winding it about his hands as the former did immediately broke it the cause was that he did it with another kind of motion or pulling then the other did which though he used as much force and strength as he was able yet could not break it when the boy did break it with the greatest ease and turning onely his hands a little which shews that many things may be done by a slight of motion which otherwise a great strength and force cannot do This is my answer and opinion concerning your proposed questions if you have any more I shall be ready to obey you as MADAM Your faithful Friend and humble Servant XLV MADAM I understand by your last that you are very desirous to know Whether there be not in nature such animal creatures both for purity and size as we are not capable to perceive by our sight Truly Madam in my opinion it is very probable there may be animal creatures of such rare bodies as are not subject to our exterior senses as well as there are elements which are not subject to all our exterior senses as for example fire is onely subject to our sight and feeling and not to any other sense water is subject to our sight taste touch and hearing but not to smelling and earth is subject to our sight taste touch and smelling but not to our hearing and vapour is onely subject to our sight and wind onely to our hearing but pure air is not subject to any of our senses but onely known by its effects and so there may likewise be animal creatures which are not subject to any of our senses both for their purity and life as for example I have seen pumpt out of a water pump small worms which could hardly be discerned but by a bright Sun-light for they were smaller then the smallest hair some of a pure scarlet colour and some white but though they were the smallest creatures that ever I did see yet they were more agil and fuller of life then many a creature of a bigger size and so small they were as I am confident they were neither subject to tast smell touch nor hearing but onely to sight and that neither without dificulty requiring both a sharp sight and a clear light to perceive them and I do verily believe that these small animal creatures may be great in comparison to others which may be in nature But if it be probable that there may be such small animal creatures in nature as are not subject to our exterior senses by reason of their littleness it is also probable that there may be such great and big animal creatures in nature as are beyond the reach and knowledg of our exterior senses for bigness and smallness are not to be judged by our exterior senses onely but as sense and reason inform us that there are different degrees in Purity and Rarity so also in shapes figures and sizes in all natural creatures Next you desired to know VVhether there can be an artificial Life or a Life made by Art My answer is Not for although there is Life in all natures parts yet not all the parts are life for there is one part of natural matter which in its nature is inanimate or without life and though natural Life doth produce Art yet Art cannot produce natural Life for though Art is the action of Life yet it is not Life it self not but that there is Life in Art but not art in life for Life is natural and not artificial and thus the several parts of a watch may have sense and reason according to the nature of their natural figure which is steel but not as they have an artificial shape for Art cannot put Life into the watch Life being onely natural not artificial Lastly your desire was to know Whether a part of matter may be so small as it cannot be made less I answer there is no such thing in nature as biggest or least nature being Infinite as well in her actions as in her substance and I have mentioned in my book of Philosophy and in a letter I sent you heretofore concerning Infinite that there are several forts of Infinites as Infinite in quantity or bulk Infinite in number Infinite in quality as Infinite degrees of hardness softness thickness thinness swiftness slowness c. as also Infinite compositions divisions creations dissolutions c. in nature and my meaning is that all these Infinite actions do belong to the Infinite body of nature which being infinite in substance must also of necessity be infinite in its actions but although these Infinite actions are inherent in the power of the Infinite substance of nature yet they are never put in act in her parts by reason there being contraries in nature and every one of the aforementioned actions having its opposite they do hinder and obstruct each other so that none can actually run into infinite for the Infinite degrees of compositions hinder the infinite degrees of divisions and the infinite degrees of rarity softness swiftness c. hinder the infinite degrees of density hardness slowness c. all which nature has ordered with great wisdom and Prudence to make an amiable combination between her parts
have an Idea of God yet your Author is pleased to say That he will not stick to affirm that the Idea or notion of God is as easie as any notion else whatsoever and that we may know as much of him as of any thing else in the world To which I answer That in my opinion God is not so easily to be known by any creature as man may know himself nor his attributes so well as man can know his own natural proprieties for Gods Infinite attributes are not conceivable and cannot be comprehended by a finite knowledg and understanding as a finite part of nature for though nature's parts may be Infinite in number and as they have a relation to the Infinite whole if I may call it so which is Infinite nature yet no part is infinite in it self and therefore it cannot know so much as whole nature and God being an Infinite Deity there is required an Infinite capacity to conceive him nay Nature her self although Infinite yet cannot posibly have an exact notion of God by reason of the disparity between God and her self and therefore it is not probable if the Infinite servant of God is not able to conceive him that a finite part or creature of nature of what kind or sort soever whether Spiritual as your Author is pleased to name it or Corporeal should comprehend God Concerning my belief of God I submit wholly to the Church and believe as I have bin informed out of the Athanasian Creed that the Father is Incomprehensible the Sonne Incomprehensible and the Holy Ghost Incomprehensible and that there are not three but one Incomprehensible God Wherefore if any man can prove as I do verily believe he cannot that God is not Incomprehensible he must of necessity be more knowing then the whole Church however he must needs dissent from the Church But perchance your Author may say I raise new and prejudicial opinions in saying that matter is eternal I answer The Holy Writ doth not mention Matter to be created but onely Particular Creatures as this Visible World with all its Parts as the history or description of the Creation of the World in Genesis plainly shews For God said Let it it be Light and there was Light Let there be a Firmament in the midst of the Waters and let it divide the Waters from the Waters and Let the Waters under the Heaven be gathered together unto one place and let the dry Land appear and let the Earth bring forth Grass the Herb yielding Seed and the Fruit-tree yielding Fruit after his kind and let there be Lights in the Firmament of the Heaven to divide the Day from the Night c. Which proves that all creatures and figures were made and produced out of that rude and desolate heap or chaos which the Scripture mentions which is nothing else but matter by the powerful Word and Command of God executed by his Eternal Servant Nature as I have heretofore declared it in a Letter I sent you in the beginning concerning Infinite Nature But least I seem to encroach too much upon Divinity I submit this Interpretation to the Church However I think it not against the ground of our Faith for I am so far from maintaining any thing either against Church or State as I am submitting to both in all duty and shall do so as long as I live and rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant IV. MADAM SInce your Worthy and Learned Author is pleased to mention That an ample experience both of Men and Things doth enlarge our Understanding I have taken occasion hence to enquire how a mans Understanding may be encreased or inlarged The Understanding must either be in Parts or it must be Individable as one if in Parts then there must be so many Understandings as there are things understood but if Individable and but one Understanding then it must dilate it self upon so many several objects I for my part assent to the first That Understanding increases by Parts and not by Dilation which Dilation must needs follow if the Mind or Understanding of man be Indivisible and without parts but if the Mind or Soul be Individable then I would fain know how Understanding Imagination Conception Memory Remembrance and the like can be in the mind You will say perhaps they are so many faculties or properties of the Incorporeal Mind but I hope you do not intend to make the Mind or Soul a Deity with so many attributes Wherefore in my opinion it is safer to say That the Mind is composed of several active Parts but of these Parts I have treated in my Philosophy where you will find that all the several Parts of Nature are Living and Knowing and that there is no part that has not Life and Knowledg being all composed of rational and sensitive matter which is the life and soul of Nature and that Nature being Material is composable and dividable which is the cause of so many several Creatures where every Creature is a part of Nature and these Infinite parts or creatures are Nature her self for though Nature is a self-moving substance and by self-self-motion divides and composes her self several manners or ways into several forms and figures yet being a knowing as well as a living substance she knows how to order her parts and actions wisely for as she hath an Infinite body or substance so she has an Infinite life and knowledg and as she hath an Infinite life and knowledg so she hath an infinite wisdom But mistake me not Madam I do not mean an Infinite Divine Wisdom but an Infinite Natural Wisdom given her by the Infinite bounty of the Omnipotent God but yet this Infinite Wisdom Life and Knowledg in Nature make but one Infinite And as Nature hath degrees of matter so she has also degrees and variety of corporeal motions for some parts of matter are self-moving and some are moved by these self-moving parts of matter and all these parts both the moving and moved are so intermixed that none is without the other no not in any the least Creature or part of Nature we can conceive for there is no Creature or part of Nature but has a comixture of those mentioned parts of animate and inanimate matter and all the motions are so ordered by Natures wisdom as not any thing in Nature can be otherwise unless by a Supernatural Command and Power of God for no part of corporeal matter and motion can either perish or but rest one part may cause another part to alter its motions but not to quit motion no more then one part of matter can annihilate or destroy another and therefore matter is not meerly Passive but always Active by reason of the thorow mixture of animate and inanimate matter for although the animate matter is onely active in its nature and the inanimate passive yet because they are so closely united and mixed together that they make but one body the parts of the animate
Hell either to enjoy Reward or to suffer Punishment according to man's actions in this life But as for the Natural Soul she being material has no need of any Vehicles neither is natural death any thing else but an alteration of the rational and sensitive motions which from the dissolution of one figure go to the formation or production of another Thus the natural soul is not like a Traveller going out of one body into another neither is air her lodging for certainly if the natural humane soul should travel through the airy regions she would at last grow weary it being so great a journey except she did meet with the soul of a Horse and so ease her self with riding on Horseback Neither can I believe Souls or Daemons in the Air have any Common-wealth Magistrates Officers and Executioners in their airy Kingdom for wheresoever are Governments Magistrates and Executioners there are also Offences and where there is power to offend as well as to obey there may and will be sometimes Rebellions and Civil Wars for there being different forts of Spirits it is impossible they should all fo well agree especially the good and evil Genii which certainly will fight more valiantly then Hector and Achilles nay the Spirits of one sort would have more Civil Wars then ever the Romans had and if the Soul of Caesar and Pompey should meet there would be a cruel fight between those two Heroical souls the like between Augustus's and Antonius's Soul But Madam all these as I said I take for fancies proceeding from the Religion of the Gentiles not fit for Christians to embrace for any truth for if we should we might at last by avoiding to be Atheists become Pagans and so leap out of the Frying-pan into the Fire as turning from Divine Faith to Poetical Fancy and if Ovid should revive again he would perhaps be the chief head or pillar of the Church By this you may plainly see Madam that I am no Platonick for this opinion is dangerous especially for married Women by reason the conversation of the Souls may be a great temptation and a means to bring Platonick Lovers to a neerer acquaintance not allowable by the Laws of Marriage although by the sympathy of the Souls But I conclude and desire you not to interpret amiss this my discourse as if I had been too invective against Poetical Fancies for that I am a great lover of them my Poetical Works will witness onely I think it not fit to bring Fancies into Religion Wherefore what I have writ now to you is rather to express my zeal for God and his true Worship then to prejudice any body and if you be of that same Opinion as above mentioned I wish my Letter may convert you and so I should not account my labour lost but judg my self happy that any good could proceed to the advancement of your Soul from MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXX MADAM I Sent you word in my last I would not meddle with writing any thing of the Divine Soul of Man by reason it belongs to Faith and Religion and not to Natural Philosophy but since you desire my opinion concerning the Immortality of the Divine Soul I cannot but answer you plainly that first I did wonder much you made question of that whose truth in my opinion is so clear as hardly any rational man will make a doubt of it for I think there is almost no Christian in the world but believes the Immortality of the Soul no not Christians onely but Mahometans and Jews But I left to wonder at you when I saw Wise and Learned Men and great Divines take so much pains as to write whole Volumes and bring so many arguments to prove the Immortality of the Soul for this was a greater Miracle to me then if Nature had shewed me some of her secret and hidden effects or if I had seen an Immaterial Spirit Certainly Madam it seems as strange to me to prove the Immortality of the Soul as to convert Atheists for it impossible almost that any Atheist should be found in the World For what Man would be so senceless as to deny a God Wherefore to prove either a God or the Immortality of the Soul is to make a man doubt of either for as Physicians and Surgeons apply strengthening Medicines onely to those parts of the body which they suppose the weakest so it is with proofs and arguments those being for the most part used in such subjects the truth of which is most questionable But in things Divine Disputes do rather weaken Faith then prove Truth and breed several strange opinions for Man being naturally ambitious and endeavouring to excel each other will not content himself with what God has been pleased to reveal in his holy Word but invents and adds something of his own and hence arise so many monstrous expressions and opinions that a simple man is puzzled not knowing which to adhere to which is the cause of so many schismes sects and divisions in Religion Hence it comes also that some pretend to know the very nature and essence of God his divine Counsels all his Actions Designs Rules Decrees Power Attributes nay his Motions Affections and Passions as if the Omnipotent Infinite God were of a humane shape so that there are already more divisions then Religions which disturb the peace and quiet both of mind and body when as the ground of our belief consists but in some few and short Articles which clearly explained and the moral part of Divinity well pressed upon the People would do more good then unnecessary and tedious disputes which rather confound Religion then advance it but if man had a mind to shew Learning and exercise his Wit certainly there are other subjects wherein he can do it with more profit and less danger then by proving Christian Religion by Natural Philosophy which is the way to destroy them both I could wish Madam that every one would but observe the Command of Christ and give to God what is Gods and to Caesar what is Caesars and so distinguish what belongs to the actions of Nature and what to the actions of Religion for it appears to my Reason that God hath given Nature his eternal Servant a peculiar freedom of working and acting as a self-moving Power from Eternity but when the Omnipotent God acts he acts supernaturally as beyong Nature of which devine actions none but the holy Church as one united body mind and soul should discourse and declare the truth of them according to the Revelation made by God in his holy Word to her Flock the Laity not suffering any one single person of what profession or degree soever indifferently to comment interpret explain and declare the meaning or sense of the Scripture after his own fancy And as for Nature's actions let those whom Nature hath indued with such a proportion of Reason as is able to search into the hidden causes of natural effects
reason is not able to comprehend since there can be no figure without matter or substance they being inseparably united together so that where figure is there is also substance and where substance is there is also figure neither can any figure be made without a substance You may say Ideas though they are not material or corporeal beings themselves yet they may put on figures and take bodies when they please I answer That then they can do more then Immaterial Spirits for the Learned say That Immaterial Spirits are Immaterial substances but your Author says that Ideas are no substances and I think it would be easier for a substance to take a body then for that which is no substance But your Author might have placed his Ideas as well amongst the number of Immaterial Spirits to wit amongst Angels and Devils and then we should not have need to seek far for the causes of the different natures and dispositions of Mankind but we might say that Ill-natured men proceeded from Evil and Good-natured men from Good Spirits or Ideas However Madam I do not deny Ideas Images or Conceptions of things but I deny them onely to be such powerful beings and Principal efficient Causes of Natural effects especially they being to your Author neither bodies nor substances themselves And as for the Figure of a Cherry which your Author makes so frequent a repetition of made by a longing Woman on her Child I dare say that there have been millions of Women which have longed for some or other thing and have not been satisfied with their desires and yet their Children have never had on their bodies the prints or marks of those things they longed for but because some such figures are sometimes made by the irregular motions of animate Matter would this be a sufficient proof that all Conceptions Ideas and Images have the like effects after the same manner by piercing or penetrating each other and sealing or printing such or such a figure upon the body of the Child Lastly I cannot but smile when I read that your Author makes a Disease proceed from a non-being to a substantial being Which if so then a disease according to his opinion is made as the World was that is out of Nothing but surely luxurious persons find it otherwise who eat and drink more then their natural digestive motions can dispose for those that have infirm bodies caused by the irregular motions of animate matter find that a disease proceeds from more then a non-being But Madam I have neither such an Archeus which can produce in my mind an Idea of Consent or approbation of these your Authors opinions nor such a light that is able to produce a beam of Patience to tarry any longer upon the examination of them Wherefore I beg your leave to cut off my discourse here and onely to subscriibe my self as really I am MADAM Your humble and faithful Servant XII MADAM I Cannot well apprehend your Authors meaning when he says That Nature doth rise from its fall for if he understands Nature in general I cannot imagine how she should fall and rise for though Man did fall yet Nature never did nor cannot fall being Infinite And therefore in another place when he saith that Nature first being a beautiful Virgin was defiled by sin not by her own but by Mans sin for whose use she was created I think it too great a presumption and arrogancy to say that Infinite Nature was not onely defiled by the sin of Man but also to make Man the chief over all Nature and to believe Nature was onely made for his sake when as he is but a small finite part of Infinite Nature and almost Nothing in comparison to it But I suppose your Author doth not understand Nature in general but onely the nature of some Particulars when he speaks of the fall and rise of Nature however this fall and rise of the nature of Particulars is nothing but a change of their natural motions And so likewise I suppose he understands the nature of Particulars when he says in another place That Nature in diseases is standing sitting and lying for surely Nature in general has more several postures then sitting standing or lying As also when he speaks of the Vertues and Properties that stick fast in the bosom of Nature which I conceive to be a Metaphorical expression although I think it best to avoid Metaphorical similizing and improper expressions in Natural Philosophy as much as one can for they do rather obscure then explain the truth of Nature nay your Author himself is of this opinion and yet he doth nothing more frequent then bring in Metaphors and similitudes But to speak properly there is not any thing that sticks fast in the bosom of Nature for Nature is in a perpetual motion Neither can she be heightened or diminished by Art for Nature will be Nature in despite of her Hand-maid And as for your Authors opinion That there are no Contraries in Nature I am quite of a contrary mind viz. that there is a Perpetual war and discord amongst the parts of Nature although not in the nature and substance of Infinite Matter which is of a simple kind and knows no contraries in it self but lives in Peace when as the several actions are opposing and crossing each other and truly I do not believe that there is any part or Creature ofNature that hath not met with opposers let it be never so small or great But as War is made by the division of Natures parts and variety of natural actions so Peace is caused by the unity and simplicity of the nature and essence of onely Matter which Nature is peaceable being always one and the same and having nothing in it self to be crossed or opposed by when as the actions of Nature or natural Matter are continually striving against each other as being various and different Again your Author says That a Specifical being cannot be altered but by Fire and that Fire is the Death of other Creatures also that Alchymy as it brings many things to a degree of greater efficacy and stirs up a new being so on the other hand again it by a privy filching doth enfeeble many things I for my part wonder that Fire being as your Author says no substantial body but substanceless in its nature should work such effects but however I believe there are many alterations without Fire and many things which cannot be altered by Fire What your Authors meaning is of a new being I know not for to my reason there neither is nor can be made any new being in Nature except we do call the change of motions and figures a new Creation but then an old suit turned or dressed up may be called new too Neither can I conceive his Filching or Stealing For Nature has or keeps nothing within her self but what is her own and surely she cannot steal from her self nor can
particular creature of Nature should have as much power to act or work as Nature her self but because neither Reason nor Art has found out as yet such a powerful opposite to Gold as can alter its nature men therefore conclude that it cannot be done Your Author relates to have seen the Gold-making stone which he says was of colour such as Saffron is in its powder but weighty and shining like unto powder'd Glass one fourth part of one grain thereof a grain he reckons the six hundredth part of one ounce being projected upon eight ounces of Quicksilver made hot in a Crucible and straight way there were found eight ounces and a little less then eleven grains of the purest Gold therefore one onely grain of that powder had transchanged 19186 parts of Quicksilver equal to it self into the best Gold Truly Madam I wish with all my heart the poor Royalists had had some quantity of that powder and I assure you that if it were so I my self would turn a Chymist to gain so much as to repair my Noble Husbands losses that his noble family might flourish the better But leaving Gold since it is but a vain wish I do verily believe that some of the Chymical medicines do in some desperate cases many times produce more powerful and sudden effects then the medicines of Galenistsi and therefore I do not absolutely condemn the art of Fire as if I were an enemy to it but I am of an opinion that my Opinions in Philosophy if well understood will rather give a light to that art then obscure its worth for if Chymists did but study well the corporeal motions or actions of Natures substantial body they would by their observations understand Nature better then they do by the observation of the actions of their Art and out of this consideration and respect I should almost have an ambition to become an Artist in Chymistry were I not too lazie and tender for that imployment but should I quit the one and venture the other I am so vain as to perswade my self I might perform things worthy my labour upon the ground of my own Philosophy which is substantial Life Sense and Reason for I would not study Salt Sulphur and Mercury but the Natural motions of every Creature and observe the variety of Natures actions But perchance you will smile at my vain conceit and it may be I my self should repent of my pains unsuccessfully bestowed my time vainly spent my health rashly endangered and my Noble Lords Estate unprofitably wasted in fruitless tryals and experiments Wherefore you may be sure that I will consider well before I act for I would not lose Health Wealth and Fame and do no more then others have done which truly is not much their effects being of less weight then their words But in the mean time my study shall be bent to your service and how to express my self worthily MADAM Your Ladiships humble and faithful Servant XIV MADAM I Have read your Authors discourse concerning Sensation but it was as difficult to me to understand it as it was tedious to read it Truly all the business might have have been easily declared in a short Chapter and with more clearness and perspicuity For Sensation is nothing else but the action of sense proceeding from the corporeal sensitive motions which are in all Creatures or parts of Nature and so all have sense and sensation although not alike after one and the same manner but some more some less each according to the nature and propriety of its figure But your Author speaks of Motion without Sense and Sense without Motion which is a meer impossibility for there is not nor cannot be any Motion in Nature without Sense nor any Sense without Motion there being no Creature without self-motion although not always perceptible by us or our external senses for all motion is not exteriously local and visible Wherefore not any part of Nature according to my opinion wants Sense and Reason Life and Knowledg but not such a substanceless Life as your Author describes but a substantial that is a corporeal Life Neither is Light the principle of Motion but Motion is the principle of Light Neither is Heat the principle of Motion but its effect as well as Cold is for I cannot perceive that Heat should be more active then Cold. Neither is there any such thing as Unsensibleness in Nature except it be in respect of some particular Sensation in some particular Figure As for example when an Animal dies or its Figure is dissolved from the Figure of an Animal we may say it hath not animal sense or motion but we cannot say it hath no sense or motion at all for as long as Matter is in Nature Sense and Motion will be so that it is absurd and impossible to believe or at least to think that Matter as a body can be totally deprived of Life Sense and Motion or that Life can perish and be corrupted be it the smallest part of Matter conceivable and the same turned or changed into millions of Figures for the Life and Soul of Nature is self-moving Matter which by Gods Power and leave is the onely Framer and Maker as also the Dissolver and Transformer of all Creatures in Nature making as well Light Heat and Cold Gas Blas and Ferments as all other natural Creatures beside as also Passions Appetites Digestions Nourishments Inclination Aversion Sickness and Health nay all Particular Ideas Thoughts Fancies Conceptions Arts Sciences c. In brief it makes all that is to be made in Nature But many great Philosophers conceive Nature to be fuller of Intricacy Difficulty and Obscurity then she is puzling themselves about her ordinary actions which yet are easie and free and making their arguments hard constrained and mystical many of them containing neither sense nor reason when as in my opinion there is nothing else to be studied in Nature but her substance and her actions But I will leave them to their own Fancies and Humors and say no more but rest MADAM Your humble and faithful Servant XV. MADAM COncerning Sympathy and Antipathy and attractive or magnetick Inclinations which some do ascribe to the influence of the Stars others to an unknown Spirit as the Mover others to the Instinct of Nature hidden Proprieties and certain formal Vertues but your Author doth attribute to directing Ideas begotten by their Mother Charity or a desire of Good Will and calls it a Gift naturally inherent in the Archeusses of either part If you please to have my opinion thereof I think they are nothing else but plain ordinary Passions and Appetites As for example I take Sympathy as also Magnetisme or attractive Power to be such agreeable Motions in one part or Creature as do cause a Fancy love and desire to some other part or Creature and Antipathy when these Motions are disagreeable and produce contrary effects as dislike hate and aversion to some part
Souls in Heaven as well as on Earth have reason to adore love and praise God But Madam my study is in natural Philosophy not in Theology and therefore I 'le refer you to Divines and leave your Author to his own fancy who by his singular Visions tells us more news of our Souls then our Saviour did after his Death and Resurrection Resting in the mean time MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXVI MADAM COncerning those parts and chapters of your Authors Works which treat of Physick before I begin to examine them I beg leave of you in this present to make some reflections first upon his Opinions concerning the Nature of Health and Diseases As for Health he is pleased to say That it consists not in a just Temperature of the body but in a sound and intire Life for otherwise a Temperature of body is as yet in a dead Carcass newly kill'd where notwithstanding there is now death but not life not health Also he says That no disease is in a dead Carcass To which I answer That in my opinion Life is in a dead Carcass as well as in a living Animal although not such a Life as that Creature had before it became a Carcass and the Temperature of that Creature is altered with the alteration of its particular life for the temperature of that particular life which was before in the Animal doth not remain in the Carcass in such a manner as it was when it had the life of such or such an Animal nevertheless a dead Carcass hath life and such a temperature of life as is proper and belonging to its own figure for there are as many different lives as there be different creatures and each creature has its particular life and soul as partaking of sensitive and rational Matter And if a dead Carcass hath life and such a temperature of motions as belong to its own life then there is no question but these motions may move sometimes irregularly in a dead Carcass as well as in any other Creature and since health and diseases are nothing else but the regularity or irregularity of sensitive corporeal Motions a dead Carcass having Irregular motions may be said as well to have diseases as a living body as they name it although it is no proper or usual term for other Creatures but onely for Animals However if there were no such thing as a disease or term it what you will I will call it Irregularity of sensitive motions in a dead Carcass How comes it that the infection of a disease proceeds often from dead Carcasses into living Animals For certainly it is not meerly the odour or stink of a dead body for then all stinking Carcasses would produce an Infection wherefore this Infection must necessarily be inherent in the Carcass and proceed from the Irregularity of its motions Next I 'le ask you Whether a Consumption be a disease or not If it be then a dead Carcass might be said to have a disease as well as a living body and the AEgyptians knew a soveraign remedy against this disease which would keep a dead Carcass intire and undissolved many ages but as I said above a dead Carcass is not that which it was being a living Animal wherefore their effects cannot be the same having not the same causes Next your Author is pleased to call with Hippocrates Nature the onely Physicianess of Diseases I affirm it and say moreover that as she is the onely Physicianess so she is also the onely Destroyeress and Murtheress of all particular Creatures and their particular lives for she dissolves and transforms as well as she frames and creates and acts according to her pleasure either for the increase or decrease augmentation or destruction sickness or health life or death of Particular Creatures But concerning Diseases your Authors opinion is That a Disease is as Natural as Health I answer 't is true Diseases are natural but if we could find out the art of healing as well as the art of killing and destroying and the art of uniting and composing as well as the art of separating and dividing it would be very beneficial to man but this may easier be wished for then obtained for Nature being a corporeal substance has infinite parts as well as an infinite body and Art which is onely the playing action of Nature and a particular Creature can easier divide and separate parts then unite and make parts for Art cannot match unite and joyn parts so as Nature doth for Nature is not onely dividable and composeable being a corporeal substance but she is also full of curiosity and variety being partly self-moving and there is great difference between forced actions and natural actions for the one sort is regular the other irregular But you may say Irregularities are as natural as Regularities I grant it but Nature leaves the irregular part most commonly to her daughter or creature Art that is she makes irregularities for varieties sake but she her self orders the regular part that is she is more careful of her regular actions and thus Nature taking delight in variety suffers irregularities for otherwise if there were onely regularities there could not be so much variety Again your Author says That a disease doth not consist but in living bodies I answer there is not any body that has not life for if life is general then all figures or parts have life but though all bodies have life yet all bodies have not diseases for diseases are but accidental to bodies and are nothing else but irregular motions in particular Creatures which may be not onely in Animals but generally in all Creatures for there may be Irregularities in all sorts of Creatures which may cause untimely dissolutions but yet all dissolutions are not made by irregular motions for many creatures dissolve regularly but onely those which are untimely In the same place your Author mentions That a Disease consists immediately in Life it self but not in the dregs and filthinesses which are erroneous forreigners and strangers to the life I grant that a Disease is made by the motions of Life but not such a life as your Author describes which doth go out like the snuff of a Candle or as one of Lucian's Poetical Lights but by the life of Nature which cannot go out without the destruction of Infinite Nature and as the Motions of Nature's life make diseases or irregularities so they make that which man names dregs and filths which dregs filths sickness and death are nothing but changes of corporeal motions different from those motions or actions that are proper to the health perfection and consistence of such or such a figure or creature But to conclude there is no such thing as corruption sickness or death properly in Nature for they are made by natural actions and are onely varieties in Nature but not obstructions or destructions of Nature or annihilations of particular Creatures and so is that we name
I rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXXI MADAM YOur Author in opposition to the Schools endeavouring to prove that there are no humors in an animal body except blood proves many humors in himself But I can see no reason why Nature should not make several humors as well as several Elements Vegetables Minerals Animals and other Creatures and that in several parts of the body and many several ways for to mention but one sort of other Creatures viz. Vegetables they are as we see not onely produced many several ways but in many several grounds either by sowing setting or grafting either in clayie limy sandy chalky dry or wet grounds And why may not several humors be produced as well of other Creatures and parts as others are produced of them for all parts of Nature are produced one from another as being all of one and the same Matter onely the variation of corporeal motions makes all the difference and variety between them which variety of motions is impossible to be known by any particular Creature for Nature can do more then any Creature can conceive Truly Madam I should not be of such a mind as to oppose the Schools herein so eargerly as your Author doth but artificial actions make men to have erroneous opinions of the actions of Nature judging them all according to the rule and measure of Art when as Art oft deludes men under the cover of truth and makes them many times believe falshood for truth for Nature is pleased with variety and so doth make numerous absurdities doubts opinions disputations objections and the like Moreover your Author is as much against the radical moisture as he is against the four humors saying that according to this opinion of the Schools a fat belly through much grease affording more fuel to the radical moisture must of necessity live longer But this in my opinion is onely a wilful mistake for I am confident that the Schools do not understand radical moisture to be gross fat radical oyl but a thin oylie substance Neither do they believe radical heat to be a burning fiery and consuming heat but such a degree of natural heat as is comfortable nourishing refreshing and proper for the life of the animal Creature Wherefore radical heat and moisture doth not onely consist in the Grease of the body for a lean body may have as much and some of them more Radical moisture then fat bodies But your Author instead of this radical moisture makes a nourishable moisture onely as I suppose out of a mind to contradict the Schools when as I do not perceive that the Schools mean by Radical moisture any other then a nourishable moisture and therefore this distinction is needless Lastly he condemns the Schools for making an affinity betwixt the bowels and the brain But he might as will condemn Politicians for saying there is an affinity betwixt Governors and Subjects or betwixt command and obedience but as the actions of Particulars even from the meanest in a Common-wealth may chance to make a Publick disturbance so likewise in the Common-wealth of the body one single action in a particular part may cause a disturbance of the whole Body nay a total ruine and dissolution of the composed which dissolution is called Death and yet these causes are neither Light nor Blas nor Gas no more then men are shining Suns or flaming Torches or blazing Meteors or azure Skies Wherefore leaving your Author to his contradicting humor I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXXII MADAM I Do verily believe with the Schools the Purging of the Brain against your Author For I know no reason why all the parts of a man's body should not stand in need of evacuation and purging as well as some 'T is true if the substance or nourishment received were all useful and onely enough for the maintenance subsistance and continuance of the Creature and no more then there would be no need of such sort of evacuation but I believe the corporeal self-motions in a body discharge the superfluous matter out of every part of the body if the motions of the superfluous matter be not too strong and over-power the motions in the parts of the body but some parts do produce more superfluities then others by reason their property is more to dilate then to contract and more to attract then to retain or fix which parts are the brain stomack bowels bladder gall and the like wherefore as there is nourishment in all parts of the body so there are also excrements in all parts for there is no nourishment without excrement Next your Author says That the nourishment of the solid parts is made with the transmutation of the whole venal blood into nourishment without a separation of the pure from the impure But I pray give me leave to ask Madam whether the solid Parts are not Instruments for the nourishment of the Venal blood Truly I cannot conceive how blood should be nourished wanting those solid parts and their particular motions and imployments Again his opinion is That the brain is nourished by a few and slender veins neither doth a passage or channel appear whereby a moist excrement may derive or a vapour enter And by reason of the want of such a passage in another place he is pleased to affirm That nothing can fume up from the stomack into the brain and therefore Wine doth not make drunk with fuming from the stomach into the head but the Winie spirit is immediately snatched into the arteries out of the stomack without digestion and so into the head and there breeds a confusion First I am not of the opinion that all nourishment comes from the veins or from one particular part of the body no more do Excrements neither do I believe that every passage in the body is visible to Anatomists for Natures works are too curious and intricate for any particular Creature to find them out which is the cause that Anatomists and Chymists are so oft mistaken in natural causes and effects for certainly they sometimes believe great Errors for great Truths Next as for Drunkenness I believe that many who drink much Wine are drunk before such time as the Wine spirit can get into the Arteries but if there be Pores to the Brain as it is most probable the spirit of Wine may more easily ascend and enter those Pores then the Pores of the Arteries or the Mouth-veins and so make a circular journey to the Head But as for Excrements whereof I spake in the beginning as they are made several manners or ways and in several parts of the body so they are also discharged several ways from several parts and several ways from each particular part indeed so many several ways and manners as would puzzle the wisest man in the world nay your Authors Interior keeper of the Brain to find them out Wherefore to conclude he is the best Physician that can tell how to discharge
deceived in the number of each sort of persons Next the Vulgar sort use laborious exercises and spare diet when as noble and rich persons are most commonly lazie and luxurious which breeds superfluities of humors and these again breed many distempers For example you shall find few poor men troubled with the Gout Stone Pox and the like diseases nor their Children with Rickets for all this cometh by luxury and no doubt but all other diseases are sooner bred with luxury then temperance but whatsoever is superfluous may if not be taken away yet mediated with lenitive and laxative medicines But as for Physicians surely never age knew any better in my opinion then this present and yet most of them follow the rules of the Schools which are such as have been grounded upon Reason Practice and Experience for many ages Wherefore those that will wander from the Schools and follow new and unknown ways are in my opinion not Orthodoxes but Hereticks in the Art of Physick But to return to your Author give me leave Madam to consider what his opinions are concerning the Purging of Choler Come on says he to the Schools Why doth that your Choler following with so swift an efflux stink so horribly which but for one quarter of an hour before did not stink To which it may be answered That though humors may not stink in themselves yet the excrements mixt with the humors may stink also the very passing thorow the excrements will cause a strong savour But your Author thinks That by passing through so suddenly the humors cannot borrow such a smell of stinking dung from the Intestines Truly 't is easily said but hardly proved and the contrary is manifest by putting clear pure water into a stinking vessel which straightway is corrupted with an ill smell He talks also of Vitriol dissolved in Wine which if it be taken presently provokes vomit but if after drinking it any one shall drink thereupon a draught of Ale or Beer or Water c. he indeed shall suffer many stools yet wholly without stink I answer This expresses Vitriol to be more poysonous by taking away the natural savour of the bowels then Scammony Coloquintida Manna Cassia Sena Rhubarb c. to all which your Author is a great enemy and it is well known to experienced Physicians that Medicines prepared by the art of fire are more poysonous and dangerous then natural drugs nay I dare say that many Chymical Medicines which are thought to be Cordials and have been given to Patients for that purpose have proved more poysonous then any Purging Physick Again your Author says It is worthy of Lamentation that Physicians would have loosening things draw out one humor and not another by selection or choyce My answer is That natural drugs and simples are as wise in their several operations as Chymists in their artificial distillations extractions sublimations and the like but it has long been observed by Physicians that one simple will work more upon one part of the body then upon another the like may be said of humors But give me leave to tell you Madam that if your Author believes magnetick or attractive cures as he doth and in whose behalf he makes very long discourses he doth in this opinion contradict himself He may say perhaps There is no such thing as what Physicians name humors But grant there be none yet he cannot deny that there are offensive juices or moveable substances made by evil as irregular digestions which may be troublesom and hurtful to the nature of the body Or perchance he will say There are such humors but they are beneficial and not offensive to the nature of the body I answer Then he must make an agreement with every part of the body not to make more of these humors then is useful for the body Also he mentions some few that took Purging Physick and died Truly so they might have done without taking it but he doth not tell how many have died for want of proper and timely Purges In truth Madam 't is an easie thing to find fault but not so easie to mend it And as for what he speaks of the weighing of those humors and excrements which by purging were brought out of some Princes body and how much by the Schools rules remained and of the place which should maintain the remainder I onely say this that all the several sorts of juices humors or moveable substances in a body do not lie in one place but are dispersed and spread all about and in several parts and places in the body so that the several Laxative medicines do but draw them together or open several parts that they may have freedom to travel with their chief Commanders which are the Purging medicines But your Author says the Loadstone doth not draw rust And I say no more do Purging drugs draw out pure Matter for it may be as natural for such medicines to draw or work onely upon superfluities that is corrupted or evil-affected humors juices or moveable substances as for the Loadstone to draw Iron and so it may be the property of Purges to draw onely the rust of the body and not the pure metal which are good humors But few do consider or observe sufficiently the variety of Natures actions and the motions of particular natural Creatures which is the cause they have no better success in their cures And so leaving them to a more diligent inquisition and search into Nature and her actions I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and humble Servant XXXV MADAM I Find your Author to be as great an enemy to Issues Cauteries Clysters and the like as he is to Blood-letting and Purging especially to Issues which he counts to be blasphemous against the Creator and blames much the Schools for prescribing them But concerning Blood-letting and Purging I have declared my opinion in my former Letters and if you desire my judgment of Clysters and Issues I must needs tell you that it is well known these many ages that in such diseases which lie in the guts and cause pain in the head and stop the ureteres Clysters have been very beneficial but wise Physicians do not prescribe them unless upon necessity As for example if the disease in the Guts proceed from cold or wind they prescribe a Sack-Clyster with oyl of Walnuts and if the disease in the guts proceed from a sharp or bitter humor then they prescribe Milk or Posset sweetned with Sugar the same if the guts be too full of excrements or slime But in case of diseases in the head or stomack they prescribe attractive Clysters to wit such as draw down from the upper into the lower parts wherein the Physical drugs are and if the guts be too dry or dryer then their nature requires they prescribe moistening Clysters such as have not onely wetting but slimy qualities And surely Clysters properly and timely applyed are a safe speedy easie and profitable medicine and far
one distempered person it may fail of its success applyed to others in the same kind of distemper nay it may cure perhaps one and the same person of a distemper once and in the return of the same disease effect little or nothing witness those remedies that are applyed in Agues Tooth-aches and the like especially Amulets for one and the same disease in several persons or in one and the same person at several times may vary and change so often and proceed from so different causes and be of so different tempers and have such different motions as one and the same medicine can do no good And what would the skill of Physicians be if one remedy should cure all diseases Why should they take so much pains in studying the various causes motions and tempers of diseases if one medicine had a general power over all Nay for what use should God have created such a number of different simples Vegetables and Minerals if one could do all the business Lastly your Author rehearses some strange examples of Child-bearing Women who having seen terrible and cruel sights as Executions of Malefactors and dismembring of their bodies have brought forth monstrous births without heads hands arms leggs c. according to the objects they had seen I must confess Madam that all Creatures are not always formed perfect for Nature works irregularly sometimes wherefore a Child may be born defective in some member or other or have double members instead of one and so may other animal Creatures but this is nevertheless natural although irregular to us but to have a Child born perfect in the womb and the lost member to be taken off there and so brought forth defective as your Author mentions cannot enter my belief neither can your Author himself give any reason but he makes onely a bare relation of it for certainly if it was true that the member was chopt rent or pluckt off from the whole body of the Child it could not have been done without a violent shock or motion of the Mother which I am confident would never have been able to endure it for such a great alteration in her body would of necessity besides the death of the Child have caused a total dissolution of her own animal parts by altering the natural animal motions But as I said above those births are caused by irregular motions and are not frequent and ordinary for if upon every strange sight or cruel object a Child-bearing-woman should produce such effects Monsters would be more frequent then they are In short Nature loves variety and this is the cause of all strange and unusual natural effects and so leaving Nature to her will and pleasure my onely delight and pleasure is to be MADAM faithful Friend and humble Servant XXXVIII MADAM YOur Author reproving the Schools that they forbid Salt to some diseased persons as pernicious to their health Good God says he how unsavoury are the Schools and how unsavoury do they bid us to be But I suppose the Schools do not absolutely forbid all diseased persons to abstein from salt but onely not to use it excessively or too frequently for experience proves that salt meats have not onely increased but caused diseases as the Stone the Gout Sciatica Fistula's Cancers sore Eyes sore Throats and the like I do not say that those diseases are always bred with the excess of salt diets for diseases of one and the same kind may be bred variously but this hath been observed that whosoever is affected with such diseases shall after a salt meal find himself in more pain then before wherefore a constant or common salt diet cannot but be hurtful Neither are those persons that feed much on salt meats or use strong drinks take number for number so healthful or long-lived as those that are temperate and abstaining Next your Author bewails The shameful simplicity of those that give their Patients Leaf-Gold Pearls and bruised or powderd pretious Stones as Cordials in fainting fits and other distempers For says he they may be dissolved but not altered wherefore they cannot produce any powerful effect to the health of the Patient Truly Madam I am not of his mind for were it that those remedies or cordials could not be transchanged yet their vertues may nevertheless be very beneficial to the fick For example a man that is assaulted by enemies or by chance is fallen into a deep Pit or is ready to be strangled and in all not able to help himself yet by the help of another man may be rescued and freed from his danger and from death using such means as are able to release him which either by drawing his Sword against his ememies or by throwing a rope down into the Pit and haling him out or by cutting the rope by which he hung may save him and yet neither the man nor any of his Instruments as Sword Rope Knife and the like need to be transchanged The like may be said of the aforementioned medicines or remedies which if they be not transchangeable yet they may nevertheless do such operations as by their natural active qualities and proprieties to over-power the irregular motions in the natural parts of the body of the Patient for many diseases proceed more from irregular motions then irregular parts and although there is no motion without matter yet one and the same matter may have divers and various changes of motions and moving parts will either oppose or assist each other without transchanging And truly Madam I wonder that your Author doth condemn such Cordials made of Leaf-gold Pearls powdered precious Stones or the like and yet verily believe that Amber Saphires Emeraulds Beads Bracelets c. outwardly applied or worn can cure more then when inwardly taken surely if this be so they cure more by Faith then by Reason But it seems your Author regulates the actions of Nature to the artificial actions of his Furnace which although sometimes they produce wonderful effects yet not such as Nature doth for if they cure one they commonly kill ten nay the best of their Medicine is so dangerous as it ought not to be applied but in desperate cases Wherefore Wise Physicians must needs be Provident and Cautious when they use them And so leaving them I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and humble Servant XXXIX MADAM I Will not dispute your Authors opinion concerning the Plague of Men which he says doth not infect Beasts neither doth the plague of Beasts infect Men but rather believe it to be so for I have observed that Beasts infect onely each other to wit those of their own kind as Men do infect other Men. For example the Plague amongst Horses continues in their own kind and so doth the Plague amongst Sheep and for any thing we know there may be a plague amongst Vegetables as well as amongst Animals and they may not onely infect each other but also those Animals that do feed on those
irregular and disordered motions or strengthen the weak or reduce the straying or work any other ways according to the nature and propriety of their own substance and the disposition of the distempered parts Nevertheless those cures which are performed exteriously as to heal inward affects by an outwad bare co-touching are all made by natural motions in natural substances and not by Non-being substanceless Ideas or spiritual Rays for those that will cure diseases by Non-beings will effect little or nothing for a disease is corporeal or material and so must the remedies be there being no cure made but by a conflict of the remedy with the disease and certainly if a non-being fight against a being or a corporeal disease I doubt it will do no great effect for the being will be too strong for the non-being Wherefore my constant opinion is that all cures whatsover are perfected by the power of corporeal motions working upon the affected parts either interiously or exteriously either by applying external remedies to external wounds or by curing internal distempers either by medicines taken internally or by bare external co-touchings And such a remedy I suppose has been that which your Author speaks of viz. a stone of a certain Irish-man which by a meer external contact hath cured all kinds of diseases either by touching outwardly the affected parts or by licking it but with the tip of the Tongue if the disease was Internal But if the vertue of the Stone was such as your Author describes certainly what man soever he was that possessed such a jewel I say he was rather of the nature of the Devil then of man that would not divulge it to the general benefit of all mankind and I wonder much that your Author who otherwise pretends such extraordinary Devotion Piety and Religiousness as also Charity viz. that all his works he has written are for the benefit of his neighbour and to detect the errors of the Schools meerly for the good of man doth yet plead his cause saying That secrets as they are most difficultly prepared so they ought to remain in secret forever in the possession of the Privy Councel what Privy Counsels he means I know not but certainly some are more difficult to be spoken to or any thing to be obtained from then the preparation of a Physical Arcanum However a general good or benefit ought not to be concealed or kept in privy Councels but to be divulged and publickly made known that all sorts of People of what condition degree or Nation soever might partake of the general blessing and bounty of God But Madam you may be sure that many who pretend to know Physical secrets most commonly know the least as being for the most part of the rank of them that deceive the simple with strange tales which exceed truth and to make themselves more authentical they use to rail at others and to condemn their skill onely to magnifie their own I say many Madam as I have observed are of that nature especially those that have but a superficial knowledge in the Art of Physick for those that are thorowly learned and sufficiently practised in it scorn to do the like which I wish may prosper and thrive by their skill And so I rest MADAM Your Ladiships humble Servant XLIII MADAM YOur Author is pleased to relate a story of one that died suddenly and being disfected there was not the least sign of decay or disorder found in his body But I cannot add to those that wonder when no sign of distemper is found in a man's body after he is dead because I do not believe that the subtillest learnedst and most practised Anatomist can exactly tell all the Interior Government or motions or can find out all obscure and invisible passages in a man's body for concerning the motions they are all altered in death or rather in the dissolution of the animal figure and although the exterior animal figure or shape doth not alter so soon yet the animal motions may alter in a moment of time which sudden alteration may cause a sudden death and so the motions being invisible the cause of death cannot be perceived for no body can find that which is not to be found to wit animal motions in a dead man for Nature hath altered these motions from being animal motions to some other kind of motions she being as various in dissolutions as in productions indeed so various that her ways cannot be traced or known thorowly and perfecty but onely by piece-meals as the saying is that is but partly Wherefore man can onely know that which is visible or subject to his senses and yet our senses do not always inform us truly but the alterations of grosser parts are more easily known then the alterations of subtil corporeal motions either in general or in particular neither are the invisible passages to be known in a dead Carcass much less in a living body But I pray mistake me not when I say that the animal motions are not subject to our exterior senses for I do not mean all exterior animal motions nor all interior animal motions for though you do see no interior motion in an animal body yet you may feel some as the motion of the Heart the motion of the Pulse the motion of the Lungs and the like but the most part of the interior animal motions are not subject to our exterior senses nay no man he may be as observing as he will can possibly know by his exterior senses all the several and various interior motions in his own body nor all the exterior motions of his exterior parts and thus it remains still that neither the subtillest motions and parts of matter nor the obscure passages in several Creatures can be known but by several parts for what one part is ignorant of another part is knowing and what one part is knowing another part is ignorant thereof so that unless all the Parts of Infinite Matter were joyned into one Creature there can never be in one particular Creature a perfect knowledg of all things in Nature Wherefore I shall never aspire to any such knowledg but be content with that little particular knowledg Nature has been pleased to give me the chief of which is that I know my self and especially that I am MADAM Your constant Friend and faithful Servant XLIV MADAM I Perceive you are desirous to know the cause Why a man is more weak at the latter end of a disease then at the beginning and is a longer time recovering health then loosing health as also the reason of relapses and intermissions First as for weakness and strength my opinion is they are caused by the regular and irregular motions in several parts each striving to over-power the other in their conflict and when a man recovers from a disease although the regular motions have conquered the irregular and subdued them to their obedience yet they are not so quite obedient as they
space but from one side of the Circle to the other so that in his mind he brings two sides together and yet will have them distant but the motions of his thoughts being subtiler and swifter then his senses skip from side to side without touching the middle parts like as a Squirrel from bough to bough or an Ape from one table to another without touching the ground onely cutting the air Next he says That an absolute Vacuum is neither an Accident nor a Body nor yet Nothing but Something because it has a being which opinion seems to me like that of the divine Soul but I suppose Vacuum is not the divine Soul nor the divine Soul Vacuum or else it could not be sensible of the blessed happiness in Heaven or the Torments in Hell Again he says Let us screw our supposition one pin higher and farther imagine that God after the annihilation of this vast machine the Universe should create another in all respects equal to this and in the same part of space wherein this now consists First we must conceive that as the spaces were immense before God created the world so also must they eternally persist of infinite extent if he shall please at any time to destroy it Next that these immense spaces are absolutely immoveable By this opinion it seems that Gods Power cannot so easily make or annihilate Vacuum as a substance because he believes it to be before all Matter and to remain after all Matter which is to be eternal but I cannot conceive why Matter or fulness of body should not as well be Infinite and Eternal as his conceived Vacuum for if Vacuum can have an eternal and infinite being why may not fulness of body or Matter But he calls Vacuum Immovable which in my opinion is to make it a God for God is onely Immoveable and Unalterable and this is more Glorious then to be dependant upon God wherefore to believe Matter to be Eternal but yet dependent upon God is a more humble opinion then his opinion of Vacuum for if Vacuum be not created and shall not be annihilated but is Uncreated Immaterial Immoveable Infinite and Eternal it is a God but if it be created God being not a Creator of Nothing nor an annihilator of Nothing but of Something he cannot be a Creator of Vacuum for Vacuum is a pure Nothing But leaving Nothing to those that can make something of it I will add no more but rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant IX MADAM THat Learned Author of whom I made mention in my last is pleased to say in his Chapter of Time that Time is the Twin-brother to Space but if Space be as much as Vacuum then I say they are Twin-nothings for there can be no such thing as an empty or immaterial space but that which man calls space is onely a distance betwixt several corporeal parts and time is onely the variation of corporeal motions for were there no body there could not be any space and were there no corporeal motion there could not be any time As for Time considered in General it is nothing else but the corporeal motions in Nature and Particular times are the Particular corporeal motions but Duration is onely a continuance or continued subsistence of the same parts caused by the consistent motions of those parts Neither are Time Duration Place Space Magnitude c. dependents upon corporeal motions but they are all one and the same thing Neither was Time before nor can be after corporeal motion for none can be without the other being all one And as for Eternity it is one fixed instant without a flux or motion Concerning his argument of Divisibility of Parts my opinion is That there is no Part in Nature Individable no not that so small a part which the Epicureans name an Atome neither is Matter separable from Matter nor Parts from Parts in General but onely in Particulars for though parts can be separated from parts by self-motion yet upon necessity they must joyn to parts so as there can never be a single part by it self But hereof as also of Place Space Time Motion Figure Magnitude c. I have sufficiently discoursed in my former Letters as also in my Book of Philosophy and as for my opinion of Atoms their figures and motions if any such things there be I will refer you to my Book of Poems out of which give me leave to repeat these following lines containing the ground of my opinion of Atomes All Creatures howsoe're they may be nam'd Are of long square flat or sharp Atomes fram'd Thus several figures several tempers make But what is mixt doth of the four partake The onely cause why things do live and die 'S according as the mixed Atomes lie Thus life and death and young and old Are as the several Atoms hold Wit understanding in the brain Are as the several atomes reign And dispositions good or ill Are as the several atomes still And every Passion which doth rise Is as each several atome lies Thus sickness health and peace and war Are as the several atomes are If you desire to know more you may read my mentioned Book of Poems whose first Edition was printed in the year 1653. And so taking my leave of you I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant X. MADAM I Received the Book of your new Author that treats of Natural Philosophy which I perceive is but lately come forth but although it be new yet there are no new opinions in it for the Author doth follow the opinions of some old Philosophers and argues after the accustomed Scholastical way with hard intricate and nonsensical words Wherefore I shall not take so much pains as to read it quite over but onely pick out here and there some few discourses which I shall think most convenient for the clearing of my own opinion in the number of which is first that of Matter whereof the Author is pleased to proclaim the opinion that holds Matter to be Infinite not onely absurd but also impious Truly Madam it is easily said but hardly proved and not to trouble you with unnecessary repetitions I hope you do remember as yet what I have written to you in the beginning concerning the infiniteness of Nature or natural Matter where I have proved that it implies no impiety absurdity or contradiction at all to believe that Matter is Infinite for your Authors argument concluding from the finiteness of particular Creatures to Nature her self is of no force for though no part of Nature is Infinite in bulk figure or quantity nevertheless all the parts of Infinite Nature are Infinite in number which infinite number of parts must needs make up one Infinite body in bulk or quantity for as a finite body or substance is dividable into finite parts so an Infinite body as Nature or natural Matter must of necessity be dividable into infinite parts in number and yet each part must
also be finite in its exterior figure as I have proved in the beginning by the example of a heap of grains of corn Certainly Madam I see no reason but since according to your Author God as the prime Cause Agent and Producer of all things and the action by which he produced all things is Infinite the Matter out of which he produced all particular Creatures may be Infinite also Neither doth it to my sense and reason imply any contradiction or impiety for it derogates nothing from the Glory and Omnipotency of God but God is still the God of Nature and Nature is his Servant although Infinite depending wholly upon the will and pleasure of the All-powerful God Neither do these two Infinites obstruct each other for Nature is corporeal and God is a supernatural and spiritual Infinite Being and although Nature has an Infinite power yet she has but an Infinite Natural power whereas Gods Omnipotency is infinitely extended beyond Nature But your Author is pleased to refute that argument which concludes from the effect to the cause and proves Matter to be infinite because God as the Cause is Infinite saying that this Rule doth onely hold in Univocal things by which I suppose he understands things of the same kind and nature and not in opposites Truly Madam by this he limits Gods power as if God were not able to work beyond Nature and Natural Reason or Understanding and measures Gods actions according to the rules of Logick which whether it be not more impious you may judg your self And as for opposites God and Nature are not opposites except you will call opposites those which bear a certain relation to one another as a Cause and its Effect a Parent and a Child a Master and a Servant and the like Nay I wonder how your Author can limit Gods action when as he confesses himself that the Creation of the World is an Infinite action God acted finitely says he by an Infinite action which in my opinion is meer non-sense and as much as to say a man can act weakly by a strong action basely by an honest action cowardly by a stout action The truth is God being Infinite cannot work finitely for as his Essence so his Actions cannot have any limitation and therefore it is most probable that God made Nature Infinite for though each part of Nature is finite in its own figure yet considered in general they are Infinite as well in number as duration except God be pleased to destroy them nay every particular may in a certain sense be said Infinite to wit Infinite in time or duration for if Nature be Infinite and Eternal and there be no annihilation or perishing in Nature but a perpetual successive change and alteration of natural figures then no part of Nature can perish or be annihilated and if no part of Nature perishes then it lasts infinitely in Nature that is in the substance of natural Matter for though the corporeal motions which make the figures do change yet the ground of the figure which is natural matter never changes The same may be said of corporeal motions for though motions change and vary infinite ways yet none is lost in Nature but some motions are repeated again As for example the natural motions in an Animal Creature although they are altered in the dissolution of the animal figure yet they may be repeated again by piece-meals in other Creatures like as a Commonwealth or united body in society if it should be dissolved and dispersed the particulars which did constitute this Commonwealth or society may joyn to the making of another society and thus the natural motions of a body do not perish when the figure of the body dissolves but joyn with other motions to the forming and producing of some other figures But to return to your Author I perceive his discourse is grounded upon a false supposition which appears by his way of arguing from the course of the Starrs and Planets to prove the finiteness of Nature for by reason the Stars and Planets rowl about and turn to the same point again each within a certain compass of time he concludes Nature or Natural Matter to be finite too And so he takes a part for the whole to wit this visible World for all Nature when as this World is onely a part of Nature or Natural Matter and there may be more and Infinite worlds besides Wherefore his conclusion must needs be false since it is built upon a false ground Moreover he is as much against the Eternity of Matter as he is against Infiniteness concluding likewise from the parts to the whole For says he since the parts of Nature are subject to a beginning and ending the whole must be so too But he is much mistaken when he attributes a beginning and ending to parts for there is no such thing as a beginning and ending in Nature neither in the whole nor in the parts by reason there is no new creation or production of Creatures out of new Matter nor any total destruction or annihilation of any part in Nature but onely a change alteration and transmigration of one figure into another which change and alteration proves rather the contrary to wit that Matter is Eternal and Incorruptible for if particular figures change they must of necessity change in the Infinite Matter which it self and in its nature is not subject to any change or alteration besides though particulars have a finite and limited figure and do change yet their species do not for Mankind never changes nor ceases to be though Peter and Paul die or rather their figures dissolve and divide for to die is nothing else but that the parts of that figure divide and unite into some other figures by the change of motion in those parts Concerning the Inanimate Matter which of it self is a dead dull and idle matter your Author denies it to be a co-agent or assistant to the animate matter For says he how can dead and idle things act To which I answer That your Author being or pretending to be a Philosopher should consider that there is difference betwixt a Principal and Instrumental cause or agent and although this inanimate or dull matter doth not act of it self as a principal agent yet it can and doth act as an Instrument according as it is imploy'd by the animate matter for by reason there is so close a conjunction and commixture of animate and inanimate Matter in Nature as they do make but one body it is impossible that the animate part of matter should move without the inanimate not that the inanimate hath motion in her self but the animate bears up the inanimate in the action of her own substance and makes the inanimate work act and move with her by reason of the aforesaid union and commixture Lastly your Author speaks much of Minima's viz. That all things may be resolved into their minima's and what is beyond them is nothing and
answer To my sense and reason it were possible if extremes were in Nature but I do not perceive that in Nature there be any although my sense and reason doth perceive alterations in the effects of Nature for though one and the same part may alter from contraction to dilation and from dilation to contraction yet this contraction and dilation are not extremes neither are they performed at one and the same time but at different times But having sufficiently declared my opinion hereof in my former Letters I 'l add no more but rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XII MADAM MY discourse of Water in my last Letter has given you occasion to enquire after the reason Why the weight of a great body of water doth not press so hard and heavily as to bruise or crush a body when it is sunk down to the bottom As for example If a man should be drowned and afterwards cast out from the bottom of a great Sea or River upon the shore he would onely be found smother'd or choak'd to death and not press'd crush'd or bruised by the weight of water I answer The reasons are plain for first the nature of a mans respiration requires such a temperature of breath to suck in as is neither too thick nor too thin for his lungs and the rest of his interior parts as also for the organs and passages of his exterior senses but fit proper and proportionable to those mentioned parts of his body As for example in a too thin and rarified air man will be as apt to die for want of breath as in a too gross and thick air he is apt to die with a superfluity of the substance he imbreaths for thick smoak or thick vapour as also too gross air will soon smother a man to death and as for choaking if a man takes more into his throat then he can swallow he will die and if his stomack be filled with more food then it is able to digest if it cannot discharge it self he will die with the excess of food and if there be no food or too little put into it he will also die for want of food So the eye if it receives too many or too gross or too bright objects it will be dazled or blinded and some objects through their purity are not to be seen at all The same for Hearing and the rest of the exterior senses And this is the reason why man or some animal Creatures are smother'd and choak'd with water because water is thicker then the grossest air or vapour for if smoak which is rarer then water will smother and choak a man well may water being so much thicker But yet this smothering or choaking doth not prove that water hath an interior or innate density as your Authors opinion is no more then smoak or thick and gross air hath but the density of water is caused more through the wet and moist exterior parts joyning and uniting closely together and the interior nature of smoak being more moist or glutinous then thin air and so more apt to unite its exterior parts it makes it to come in effect nearer to water for though water and smoak are both of rare natures yet not so rare as clear and pure air neither is water or smoak so porous as pure air by reason the exterior parts of water and smoak are more moist or glutinous then pure air But the thickness of water and smoak is the onely cause of the smothering of men or some animals as by stopping their breath for a man can no more live without air then he can without food and a well tempered or middle degree of air is the most proper for animal Respiration for if the air be too thick it may soon smother or choak him and if too thin it is not sufficient to give him breath And this is the reason that a man being drown'd is not onely smother'd but choak'd by water because there enters more through the exterior passages into his body then can be digested for water is apt to flow more forcibly and with greater strength then air not that it is more dilating then air but by reason it is thicker and so stronger or of more force for the denser a body is the stronger it is and a heavy body when moved is more forcible then a light body But I pray by this expression mistake not the nature of water for the interior nature of water hath not that gravity which heavy or dense bodies have its nature being rare and light as air or fire but the weight of water as I said before proceeds onely from the closeness and compactness of its exterior parts not through a contraction in its interior nature and there is no argument which proves better that water in its interior nature is dilating then that its weight is not apt to press to a point for though water is apt to descend through the union of its parts yet it cannot press hard by reason of its dilating nature which hinders that heavy pressing quality for a dilating body cannot have a contracted weight I mean so as to press to a Center which is to a point and this is the reason that when a grave or heavy body sinks down to the bottom of water it is not opprest hurt crusht or bruised by the weight of water for as I said the nature of water being dilating it can no more press hard to a center then vapour air or fire The truth is water would be as apt to ascend as descend if it were not for the wet glutinous and sticking cleaving quality of its exterior parts but as the quantity and quality of the exterior parts makes water apt to sink or descend so the dilating nature makes it apt to flow if no hinderance stop its course also the quantity and quality of its exterior parts is the cause that some heavy bodies do swim without sinking as for example a great heavy Ship will not readily sink unless its weight be so contracted as to break asunder the united parts of water for the wet quality of water causing its exterior parts to joyn close gives it such an united strength as to be able to bear a heavy burden if the weight be dilated or level and not piercing or penetrating for those bodies that are most compact will sink sooner although of less weight then those that are more dilated although of greater weight Also the exterior and outward shape or form makes some bodies more apt to sink then others Indeed the outward form and shape of Creatures is one of the chief causes of either sinking or swimming But to conclude water in its interior nature is of a mean or middle degree as neither too rare nor too grave a body and for its exterior quality it is in as high a degree for wetness as fire is for heat and being apt both to divide and to unite it can bear a burden and devour a
they make Ice Surely Nature is wiser then to trouble her self with unnecessary labour and to make an easie work difficult as Art her Creature doth or as some dull humane capacities conceive for it is more easie for Nature to make Snow by some sorts of cold contractions as she makes Ice by other sorts of cold contractions then to force Air and Wind to beat grinde or pound Ice into Snow which would cause a confusion and disturbance through the Irregularity of several parts being jumbled in a confused manner together The truth is it would rather cause a War in Nature then a natural production alteration or transformation Neither can I conceive in what region this turbulent and laborious work should be acted certainly not in the caverns of the Earth for snow descends from the upper Region But perchance this Author believes that Nature imploys Wind as a Hand and the Cold air as a Spoon to beat Ice like the white of an Egg into a froth of Snow But the great quantity of Snow in many places doth prove that Snow is not made of the fragments of Ice but that some sorts of cold contractions on a watery body make the figure of snow in the substance of water as other sorts of cold contractions make the figure of ice which motions and figures I have treated of in my Book of Philosophy according to that Judgment and Reason which Nature has bestowed upon me The Author of this Fancy gives the same reason for Snow being white For Ice says he is a transparent body and all transparent bodies when beaten into powder appear white and since Snow is nothing else but Ice powder d small it must of necessity shew white Truly Madam I am not so experienced as to know that all transparent bodies being beaten small shew white but grant it be so yet that doth not prove that the whiteness of snow proceeds from the broken parts of Ice unless it be proved that the whiteness of all bodies proceeds from the powdering of transparent bodies which I am sure he cannot do for Silver and millions of other things are white which were never produced from the powder of transparent bodies Neither do I know any reason against it but that which makes a Lilly white may also be the cause of the whiteness of Snow that is such a figure as makes a white colour for different figures in my opinion are the cause of different colours as you will find in my Book of Philosophy where I say that Nature by contraction of lines draws such or such a Figure which is such or such a Colour as such a Fgure is red and such a Figure is green and so of all the rest But the Palest colours and so white are the loosest and slackest figures Indeed white which is the nearest colour to light is the smoothest evenest and straightest figure and composed of the smallest lines As for example suppose the figure of 8. were the colour of Red and the figure of 1. the colour of White or suppose the figure of Red to be a z. and the figure of an r. to be the figure of Green and a straight l. the figure of White And mixt figures make mixt colours The like examples may be brought of other Figures as of a Harpsichord and its strings a Lute and its strings a Harp and its strings c. By which your Reason shall judg whether it be not easier for Nature to make Snow and its whiteness by the way of contraction then by the way of dissolution As for example Nature in making Snow contracts or congeals the exterior figure of Water into the figure of a Harp which is a Triangular figure with the figure of straight strings within it for the exterior figure of the Harp represents the exterior figure of Snow and the figure of the strings extended in straight lines represent the figure of its whiteness And thus it is easier to make Snow and its whiteness at one act then first to contract or congeal water into Ice and then to cause wind and cold air to beat and break that Ice into powder and lastly to contract or congeal that powder into flakes of Snow Which would be a very troublesom work for Nature viz. to produce one effect by so many violent actions and several labours when the making of two figures by one action will serve the turn But Nature is wiser then any of her Creatures can conceive for she knows how to make and how to dissolve form and transform with facility and ease without any difficulty for her actions are all easie and free yet so subtil curious and various as not any part or creature of Nature can exactly or throughly trace her ways or know her wisdom And thus leaving her I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XV. MADAM I Have taken several questions out of your new Author which I intend to answer in this present Letter according to the conceptions of my own sense and reason and to submit them to your censure which if you vouchsafe to grant me without partiality I shall acknowledge my self much obliged to you for this favour The first question is Why wet Linnen is dried in the Air I answer That according to my sense and reason the water which is spred upon the linnen being not united in a full and close body dilates beyond the Circle-degree of water and wetness and so doth easily change from water to vapour and from vapour to air whereby the linnen becomes as dry as it was before it became wet The second question is Why Water and Wine intermix so easily and suddenly together I answer All wet liquors although their exterior figures do differ yet their interior natures figures and forms are much alike and those things that are of the same interior nature do easily and suddenly joyn as into one Wherefore Wine and Water having both wet natures do soon incorporate together whereas were they of different natures they would not so peaceably joyn together but by their contrary natures become enemies and strive to destroy each other but this is to be observed that the sharp points of the Circle-lines of Wine by passing through the smooth Circle-lines of Water help to make a more hasty and sudden conjunction The third question is Why Light which in its nature is white shining through a coloured Glass doth appear of the same colour which the Glass is of either Blew Green Red or the like I answer The reason is that though Light in its nature be white and the Glass clear and transparent yet when as the Glass is stained or painted with colours both the clearness of the glass and the whiteness of the light is obstructed by the figure of that colour the glass is stained or painted withal and the light spreading upon or thorow the glass represents it self in the figure of that same colour indeed in all probability to sense and reason it appears that
abolish'd the intended benefit and banish'd equity and instead of keeping Peace they make War causing enmity betwixt men As for Natural Philosophy they will not suffer sense and reason to appear in that study And as for Physick they have kill'd more men then Wars Plagues or Famine Wherefore from nice distinctions and Logistical sophistry Good God deliver us especially from those that concern Divinity for they weaken Faith trouble Conscience and bring in Atheism In short they make controversies and endless disputes But least the opening of my meaning in such plain terms should raise a controversie also between you and me I 'le cut off here and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXI MADAM YEsterday I received a visit from the Lady N. M. who you know hath a quick wit rational opinions and subtil conceptions all which she is ready and free to divulge in her discourse But when she came to my Chamber I was casting up some small accounts which when she did see What said she are you at Numeration Yes said I but I cannot number well nor much for I do not understand Arithrnetick Said she You can number to three Yes said I I can number to four Nay faith said she the number of three is enough if you could but understand that number well for it is a mystical number Said I There is no great mystery to count that number for one and two makes three Said she That is not the mystery for the mystery is That three makes one and without this mystery no man can understand Dlvinity Nature nor himself Then I desired her to make me understand that mystery She said It required more time to inform me then a short visit for this mystery was such as did puzle all wise men in the world aud the not understanding of this mystery perfectly had caused endless divisions and disputes I desired if she could not make me understand the mystery she would but inform me how three made one in Divinity Nature and Man She said That was easie to do for in Divinity there are three Persons in one Essence as God the Father the Son and the holy Ghost whose Essence being individable they make but one God And as for Philosophy there is but Matter Motion and Figure which being individable make but one Nature And as for Man there is Soul Life and Body all three joyned in one Man But I replied Man's Life Soul and Body is dividable That is true said she but then he is no more a Man for these three are his essential parts which make him to be a man and when these parts are dissolved then his interior nature is changed so that he can no longer be call'd a man As for example Water being turned into Air and having lost its interior nature can no more be called Water but it is perfect Air the same is with Man But as long as he is a Man then these three forementioned parts which make him to be of that figure are individably united as long as man lasts Besides said she this is but in the particular considering man single and by himself but in general these three as life soul and body are individably united so that they remain as long as manking lasts Nay although they do dissolve in the particulars yet it is but for a time for they shall be united again at the last day which is the time of their resurrection so that also in this respect we may justly call them individable for man shall remain with an united soul life and body eternally And as she was thus discoursing in came a Sophisterian whom when she spied away she went as fast as she could but I followed her close and got hold of her then asked her why she ran away She answer'd if she stayed the Logician would dissolve her into nothing for the profession of Logicians is to make something nothing and nothing something I pray'd her to stay and discourse with the Logician Not for a world said she for his discourse will make my brain like a confused Chaos full of senseless minima's and after that he will so knock jolt and jog it and make such whirls and pits as will so torture my brain that I shall wish I had not any Wherefore said she I will not stay now but visit you again to morrow And I wish with all my heart Madam you were so near as to be here at the same time that we three might make a Triumvirate in discourse as well as we do in friendship But since that cannot be I must rest satisfied that I am MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXII MADAM YOu were pleased to desire my opinion of the works of that Learned and Ingenious Writer B. Truly Madam I have read but some part of his works but as much as I have read I have observed he is a very civil eloquent and rational Writer the truth is his style is a Gentleman's style And in particular concerning his experiments I must needs say this that in my judgment he hath expressed himself to be a very industrious and ingenious person for he doth neither puzle Nature nor darken truth with hard words and compounded languages or nice distinctions besides his experiments are proved by his own action But give me leave to tell you that I observe he studies the different parts and alterations more then the motions which cause the alterations in those parts whereas did he study and observe the several and different motions in those parts how they change in one and the same part and how the different alterations in bodies are caused by the different motions of their parts he might arrive to a vast knowledg by the means of his experiments for certainly experiments are very beneficial to man In the next place you desire my opinion of the Book call'd The Discourses of the Virtuosi in France I am sorry Madam this book comes so late to my hands that I cannot read it so slowly and observingly as to give you a clear judgment of their opinions or discourses in particular however in general and for what I have read in it I may say it expresses the French to be very learned and eloquent Writers wherein I thought our English had exceeded them and that they did onely excel in wit and ingenuity but I perceive most Nations have of all sorts The truth is ingenious and subtil wit brings news but learning and experience brings proofs at least argumental discourses and the French are much to be commended that they endeavour to spend their time wisely honourably honestly and profitably not onely for the good and benefit of their own but also of other Nations But before I conclude give me leave to tell you that concerning the curious and profitable Arts mentioned in their discourses I confess I do much admire them and partly believe they may arrive to the use of many of them but there are two arts which I
them with a fine coloured Covering of Logick and Geometry and set them out in a handsome array by which I might have also cover'd my ignorance like as Stage-Players do cover their mean persons or degrees with fine Cloathes But as I said I being void of Learning and Art did put them forth according to my own conceptions and as I did understand them my self but since I have hitherto by the reading of those famous and learned Authors you sent me attained to the knowledg of some artificial Terms I shall not spare any labour and pains to make my opinions so intelligible that every one who without partiality spleen or malice doth read them may also easily understand them And thus I shall likewise endeavour to give such answers to your scruples objections or questions as may explain those passages which seem obscure and satisfie your desire In the first place and in general you desire to know Whether any truth may be had in Natural Philosophy for since all this study is grounded upon probability and he that thinks he has the most probable reasons for his opinion may be as far off from truth as he who is thought to have the least nay what seems most probable to day may seem least probable to morrow especially if an ingenious opposer bring rational arguments against it Therefore you think it is but vain for any one to trouble his brain with searching and enquiring after such things wherein neither truth nor certainty can be had To which I answer That the undoubted truth in Natural Philosophy is in my opinion like the Philopher's Stone in Chymistry which has been sought for by many learned and ingenious Persons and will be sought as long as the Art of Chymistry doth last but although they cannot find the Philosophers Stone yet by the help of this Art they have found out many rare things both for use and knowledg The like in Natural Philosophy although Natural Philosophers cannot find out the absolute truth of Nature or Natures ground-works or the hidden causes of natural effects neverthelss they have found out many necessary and profitable Arts and Sciences to benefit the life of man for without Natural Philosophy we should have lived in dark ignorance not knowing the motions of the Heavens the cause of the Eclipses the influences of the Stars the use of Numbers Measures and Weights the vertues and effects of Vegetables and Minerals the Art of Architecture Navigation and the like Indeed all Arts and Sciences do adscribe their original to the study of Natural Philosophy and those men are both unwise and ungrateful that will refuse rich gifts because they cannot be masters of all Wealth and they are fools that will not take remedies when they are sick because Medicines can onely recover them from death for a time but not make them live for ever But to conclude Probability is next to truth and the search of a hidden cause finds out visible effects and this truth do natural Philosophers find that there are more fools then wise men which fools will never attain to the honour of being Natural Philosophers And thus leaving them I rest MADAM Your Ladiships humble and faithful Servant XXVIII MADAM YOur desire is to know since I say Nature is Wise Whether all her parts must be wise also To which I answer That by your favour all her parts are not fools but yet it is no necessary consequence that because Nature is infinitely wise all her parts must be so too no more then if I should say Nature is Infinite therefore every part must be Infinite But it is rather necessary that because Nature is Infinite therefore not any single part of hers can be Infinite but must be finite Next you desire to know Whether Nature or the self-moving matter is subject to err and to commit mistakes I answer Although Nature has naturally an Infinite wisdom and knowledg yet she has not a most pure and intire perfection no more then she has an absolute power for a most pure and intire perfection belongs onely to God and though she is infinitely naturally wise in her self yet her parts or particular creatures may commit errors and mistakes the truth is it is impossible but that parts or particular Creatures must be subject to errors because no part can have a perfect or general knowledg as being but a part and not a whole for knowledg is in parts as parts are in Matter Besides several corporeal motions that is several self-moving parts do delude and oppose each other by their opposite motions and this opposition is very requisite in Nature to keep a mean and hinder extreams for were there not opposition of parts Nature would run into extreams which would confound her and all her parts And as for delusion it is part of Natures delight causing the more variety but there be some actions in Nature which are neither perfect mistakes nor delusions but onely want of a clear and thorow perception As for example when a man is sailing in a Ship he thinks the shore moves from the ship when as it is the ship that moves from the shore Also when a man is going backward from a Looking-glass he thinks the figure in the Glass goeth inward whereas it is himself that goes backward and not his figure in the glass The cause of it is That the perception in the eye perceives the distanced body but not the motion of the distance or medium for though the man may partly see the motion of the visible parts yet he doth not see the parts or motion of the distance or medium which is invisible and not subject to the perception of sight and since a pattern cannot be made if the object be not visible hence I conclude that the motion of the medium cannot make perception but that it is the perceptive motions of the eye which pattern out an object as it is visibly presented to the corporeal motions in the eye for according as the object is presented the pattern is made if the motions be regular For example a fired end of a stick if you move it in a circular figure the sensitive corporeal motions in the eye pattern out the figure of fire together with the exterior or circular motion and apprehend it as a fiery circle and if the stick be moved any otherwise they pattern out such a figure as the fired end of the stick is moved in so that the sensitive pattern is made according to the exterior corporeal figurative motion of the object and not according to its interior figure or motions And this Madam is in short my answer to your propounded questions by which I hope you understand plainly the meaning of MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXIX MADAM THe scruples or questions you sent me last are these following First you desire to be informed what I mean by Phantasmes and Ideas I answer They are figures made by the purest and subtilest degree of
it has not been before the Flood and before it was made a sign by God as your Author imagines for though it was no sign before the Flood yet it may nevertheless have had its being and existence before the Flood Moreover as for Thunder and Lightning your Authors opinion is That although they may have concurring natural Causes yet the mover of them is an Incorporeal Spirit which is the Devil who having obtained the Principality of this world that he may be a certain executer of the Judgments of the chief Monarch and so the Umpire and Commissioner of Lightning and Thunder stirs up a monstrous and sudden Blas in the Air yet under Covenanted Conditions for unless his power were bridled by divine Goodness he would shake the Earth with one stroke so as to destroy all mortal men and thus the cracking noise or voice of Thunder is nothing but a spiritual Blas of the Evil Spirit I will not deny Madam that Thunder and Lightning do argue the Power of the most Glorious God for so do all the rest of the Creatures but that this is the onely and immediate cause which your Author assigns of Thunder and Lightning I cannot believe for surely in my opinion Thunder and Lightning are as much natural effects as other Creatures in Nature and are not the Devils Blas for I think they may be made without the help of the Devil nay I believe he may be as much affraid of Thunder as those Creatures that live on Earth But what the causes are and how Thunder and Lightning are made I have elsewhere declared more at large especially in my Philosophical Opinions Again your Author speaking of the Trembling of the Earth thinks it is nothing else but the Judgment of God for the sins of Impenitent men For my part Madam I can say little to it either concerning the divine or the natural cause of Earthquakes As for the divine and supernatural Cause which your Author gives if it was so then I wonder much why God should command Earth-quakes in some parts of the World more frequent then in others As for example we here in these parts have very seldom Earthquakes and those we have which is hardly one in many ages are not so furious as to do much harm and so in many other places of the World are as few and as gentle Earth-quakes as here when as in others Earth-quakes are very frequent and dreadful From whence it must needs follow if Earth-quakes be onely a Judgment from God for the sins of Impenitent Men and not a natural effect that then those places where the Earth is not so apt to tremble are the habitations of the blessed and that they which inhabit those parts that are apt to tremble are the accursed when as yet in those places where Earthquakes are not usual and frequent or none at all People are as wicked and impious if not more then in those where Earthquakes are common But the questions is Whether those parts which suffer frequent and terrible Earthquakes would not be so shaken or have such trembling fits were they uninhabited by Man or any other animal Creature Certainly in my opinion they would But as for the Natural Cause of Earthquakes you must pardon me Madam that I cannot knowingly discourse thereof by reason I am not so well skilled in Geography as to know the several Soils Climats Parts Regions or Countries nor what disposed matter may be within those parts that are subject to frequent Earthquakes Onely this I may say that I have observed that the light of a small Fire or Candle will dilate it self round about or rather that the air round about the Fire or Candle will pattern out both its light and its heat Also I have observed That a Man in a raging fit of Madness will have such an unsual strength as ten strong men shall hardly be able to encounter or bind him when as this violent fit being past a single man nay a youth may over-master him Whence I conclude that the actions as the motions of Nature are very powerful when they use their force and that the ordinary actions of Nature are not so forcible as necessary but the extraordinary are more forcible then necessary Lastly your Author takes great pains to prove That the Sun with his light rules the Day and the Moon with hers the Night and that the Moon has her own Native light and that Bats Mice Dormice Owles and many others as also Men which rise at night and walk in their sleep see by the light and power of the Moon also that Plants are more plentifully nourished by the night But lest it might be concluded that all this is said without any probability of Truth by reason the Moon doth not every night shine upon the Earth he makes a difference between the Manner of the Sun 's and Moon 's enlightning the Earth to wit that the Sun strikes his beams in a right line towards the Earth but the Moon doth not respect the Centre of the World which is the Earth in a right line but her Centre is always excentrical and she respects the Earth onely by accident when she is concentrical with the World And therefore he thinks there is another light under the Earth even at Midnight whereby many Eyes do see which owes also its rise to the Moon This opinion of your Author I leave to be examined by those that have skill in Astronomy and know both the Light and the Course of the Moon I will onely say thus much that when the Moon is concentrical as he calls it with the World as when it is Full and New Moon she doth not shine onely at night but also in the day and therefore she may rule the day as well as the night and then there will be two lights for the ruling of the day or at least there will be a strife betwixt the Sun and the Moon which shall rule But as for Men walking asleep by the light of the Moon my opinion is That blind men may walk as well by the light of the Sun as sleeping men by the light of the Moon Neither is it probable that the Moon or her Blas doth nourish Plants for in a cold Moon-shiny night they will often die but it is rather the Regular motions in well tempered matter that cause fruitful productions and maturity And so I repose my Pen lest it trespass too much upon your Patience resting MADAM Your humble and faithful Servant IX MADAM IN my former when I related your Authors opinion concerning Earthquakes I forgot to tell you that he counts the the Doctrine of the Schools absurd when they say that Air or any Exhalation is the cause of them For says he There is no place in the Pavements or soils of the Earth wherein any airy body may be entertained whether that body be a wind or an airy exhalation But since I promised I would not offer to
appoint or assign any natural causes of Earthquakes I have only taken occasion hence to enquire whether it may not be probably affirmed that there is air in the bowels of the Earth And to my reason it seems very probable I mean not this Exterior air flowing about the circumference of the Earth we inhabite but such an airy matter as is pure refined and subtil there being great difference in the Elements as well as in all other sorts of Creatures for what difference is there not between the natural heat of an animal and the natural heat of the Sun and what difference is there not between the natural moisture of an Animal and the natural moisture of Water And so for the Purity of Air Dryness of Earth and the like Nay there is great difference also in the production of those Effects As for example the heat of the Earth is not produced from the Sun nor the natural heat in Animals nor the natural heat in Vegetables for if it were so then all Creatures in one Region or place of the Earth would be of one temper As for example Poppy Night-shade Lettuce Thyme Sage Parsly c. would be all of one temper and degree growing all in one Garden and upon one patch of Ground whereon the Sun equally casts his beams when as yet they are all different in their natural tempers and degrees And so certainly there is Air Fire and Water in the bowels of the Earth which were never made by the Sun the Sea and this Exterior elemental Air. Wherefore those in my opinion are in gross Errors who imagine that these Interior Effects in the Earth are produced from the mentioned Exterior Elements or from some other forreign and external Causes for an external cause can onely produce an external effect or be an occasion to the production of such or such an effect but not be the immediate efficient or essential cause of an interior natural effect in another Creature unless the Interior natures of different Creatures have such an active power and influence upon each other as to work interiously at a distance such effects as are proper and essential to their Natures which is improbable for though their natures and dispositions may mutually agree and sympathize yet their powers cannot work upon their Interior Natures so as to produce internal natural effects and proprieties in them The truth is it cannot be for as the Cause is so is the Effect and if the Cause be an exterior Cause the Effect must prove so too As for example the heat of the Sun and the heat of the Earth although they may both agree yet one is not the cause of the other for the Suns heat cannot pierce into the bowels of the Earth neither can the heat of the Earth ascend so far as to the Center of the Sun As for the heat of the Earth it is certain enough and needs no proof but as for the heat of the Sun our senses will sufficiently inform us that although his beams are shot forth in direct lines upon the face of the Earth yet they have not so much force as to pierce into a low Celler or Vault Wherefore it is not probable that the Earth hath its natural heat from the Sun and so neither its dryness from the Air nor its moisture from the Sea but these interior effects in the Earth proceed from some other interior causes And thus there may be great difference between the heat cold moisture and drought which is in the Elements and between those which are in Vegetables Minerals and Animals not onely in their General kinds but also in their Particulars And not onely a difference in the aforesaid qualities of heat cold moisture and drought but also in all other motions as Dilations Contractions Rarefactions Densations c. nay in their Mixtures and Temperaments As for example the temper of a Mineral is not the temper of an Animal or of a Vegetable neither is the temper of these the temper of the exterior Elements no more then the temper of the Elements is the temper of them for every Creature has a temper natural and peculiar to it self nay every particular Creature has not onely different tempers compositions or mixtures but also different productions or else if there were no difference in their productions every Creature would be alike when as yet there are seldom two that do exactly resemble each other But I desire you to understand me well Madam when I speak of Particular heats colds droughts and moistures for I do not believe that all Creatures are made out of the four Elements no more then that the Elements are produced from other Creatures for the Matter of all Creatures is but one and the same but although the Matter is the same nevertheless the Tempers Compositions Productions Motions c. of particular Creatures may be different which is the cause of their different exterior figures or shapes as also of their different Interiour Natures Qualities Properties and the like And so to conclude there is no impossibility or absurdity in affirming that there may be Air Fire and Water in the bowels of the Earth proper for those Creatures which are in her although not such an Elemental Air Fire and Water as is subject here to our senses but another kind of Air Fire and Water different from those But this being a subject for Learned and Ingenious men to work and contemplate upon better perhaps then I can do I will leave it to them and so remain MADAM Your constant Friend and faithful Servant X. MADAM YOur Author mentioning in his Works several Seeds of several Creatures makes me express my opinion thus in short concerning this Subject Several Seeds seem to me no otherwise then several Humours or several Elements or several other Creatures made of one and the same Matter that produce one thing out of another and the barrenness of seeds proceeds either from the irregularity of their natural motions or from their unaptness or unactivity of producing But it is to be observed Madam that not every thing doth produce always its like but one and the same thing or one and the same Creature hath many various and different productions for sometimes Vegetables do produce Animals Animals produce Minerals Minerals produce Elements and Elements again Minerals and so forth for proof I will bring but a mean and common example Do not Animals produce Stones some in one and some in another part of their bodies as some in the Heart some in the Stomack some in the Head some in the Gall some in the Kidnies and some in the Bladder I do not say that this Generation of Stone is made the same way as the natural generation of Animals as for example Man is born of his Parents but I speak of the generation or production of Creatures in general for otherwise all Creatures would be alike if all generations were after one and the same manner and way