and timorous World hath rescued Philosophers from the trouble of dreadful Presages and the mischievous Consequences that arise from those superstitious Abodings For whatever the casual Coincidencies may be between those Phaenomena and the direful Events that are sometimes observed closely to attend them which as my Lord Bacon truly notes are observ'd when they bit not when they miss I say notwithstanding these the Real Experimental Philosophy makes it appear that they are Heavenly Bodies far above all the Regions of Vapours in which we are not concerned and so they are neither the Signs nor the Causes of our Mischiefs And for the other little things which afford Matter for the Tales about Prodigies and other ominous Appearings the knowledge of Nature by exciting worthy and magnificent conceptions of the God of Nature cures that blasphemous abuse of the adorable Majesty whereby foolish Men attribute every trivial event that may serve their turns against those they hate to his immediate extraordinary interposal For 't is ignorance of God and his Works that disposeth Men to absurd ridiculous Surmises uncharitable Censures seditious Machinations and so to Thoughts that are prejudicial to the Glory of God the Interests of Religion and the security of Government to that Justice and Charity we owe to others and to the happiness that we seek our selves To which I add That this kind of Superstition is a relique of Pagan Ignorance which made Men look on Thunder Eclipses Earthquakes and all the more terrifying Phaenomena of Nature as the immediate Effects of Powers Supernatural and to judge Events by flights of Birds and garbages of Cattel by the accidental occursions of this Creature and the other and almost every casual occurrence But these Particulars have been most ingeniously represented and reproved in a late very elegant Discourse about Prodigies And though I do not acquiesce in the Design of that excellently penn'd Book which is to discredit and take away all kinds of Presages Yet I think it hath done rarely well so far as it discovers the folly and mischiefs of that ignorant and superstitious Spirit that makes every thing a Prodigy With such apprehensions as these the knowledge of Nature fills those Minds that are instructed in it And there is no doubt but that the Antipathy the Real Philosophy bears to all the kinds of Superstition is one cause why zealous Ignorance brands those Researches with the mark of Atheism and Irreligion For superstitious Folly adopts those groundless Trifles which Philosophy contemns and reproves into the Family of Religion and therefore reproacheth the Despisers of them as Enemies to the Faith and Power of Godliness So it fared with some of the bravest Spirits of ancient times who have had black Characters fixt upon their great and worthy Names only for their Oppositions of the foolish Rites and Idolatries of the vulgar Heathen We know the case of Socrates And as to the interest of their Names that of Anaxagoras Theodorus Protagoras and Epicurus was much worse the causless infamy coming down the Stream as far as the last Ages Since then we know who was an Heretick for saying there were Antipodes and a Pope was taken for a Conjurer for being a Mathematician yea those noble Sciences were counted Diabolical and even the Sacred Language could scarce escape the suspicion In later times Galilaeo fell into the Inquisition for the Discoveries of his Telescopes and Campanella could not endeavour to assert and vindicate the freedom of his Mind without losing that of his Person I might come nearer to our own days and knowledge Gothick barharity and the Spirit of the Iuquisition is not quite worn out of the Reformation Though indeed it ordinarily remains but among the scum and dregs of Men And no one is either less Religious or less Wise for being accounted an Atheist by the common Rabble But where-ever the knowledge of Nature and God's Works hath in any degree obtain'd those vile Superstitions have been despised and put to an infamous flight But to take another step IV. THe Real Philosophy and knowledge of God's Works serves Religion against Enthusiasm another dreadful Enemy Now Enthusiasm is a false conceit of Inspiration and all the bold and mistaken Pretensions to the Spirit in our days are of this sort What particularly Religion hath suffer'd from it would be too long to reckon upon this occasion It will be enough to say in an Age that hath so much and such sad experience of it That Enthusiasm hath introduced much phantastry into Religion and made way for all imaginable Follies and even Atheism it self which it hath done two ways 1. By crying up the Excesses and Diseases of Imagination for the greatest height of Godliness And 2. By the disparagrment of sober Reason as an Enemy to the Principles of Faith And Philosophy assists Religion against both these FOR the first in order The real knowledge of Nature detects the dangerous imposture by shewing what strange things may be effected by no diviner a cause than a strong Fancy impregnated by Heated Melancholy For this sometimes warms the Brain to a degree that makes it very active and imaginative full of odd Thoughts and unexpected Suggestions so that if the Temper determine the Imagination to Religion it flies at high things at interpretations of dark and Prophetick Scriptures at Predictions of future Events and mysterious Discoveries which the Man expresseth fluently and boldly with a peculiar and pathetick Eloquence which pregnances being not ordinary but much beyond the usual tone and temper of the Enthusiast and he having heard great things of the Spirits immediate Motions and Inspirations cannot well fail of believing himself inspired and of intitling all the excursious of his Fancy to the immediate Actings of the Holy Ghost and those thoughts by the help of natural pride and self-love will work also exceedingly upon the heightned Affections and they upon the Body so far as to cast it sometimes into Raptures Extasies and Deliquiums of Sense in which every Dream is taken for a Prophesie every Image of the Fancy for a Vision and all the glarings of the Imagination for new Lights and Revelations Thus have our Modern Prophets been inspired by Temper and Imagination and not by Design only For we may not think they are all Hypocrites and knowing Impostors No they generally believe themselves and the strength of their highly invigorated Fancies shuts out the sober Light of Reason that should disabuse them as sleep doth that of our External Senses in our Dreams And the silly People that understand not Nature but are apt to take every thing that is vebement to be sacred are easily deceived into the belief of those Pretensions and thus Diseases have been worship'd for Religion This account the Philosophy of Humane Nature gives of that by which the World hath been so miserably abused And when we cast our eyes abroad we may plainly see that those glorious things are no more than what hath been done
can be kept to regular and uniform Motions 4. Mr. Hobbs attempts another way there is nothing in us according to this Philosopher but Matter and Motion All Sense is Reaction in Matter Leviath Chap. 1. the decay of that Motion and Reaction is Imagination Chap. 2. And Memory is the same thing expressing that decay Ib. So that according to M. H. all our Perceptions are Motions and so is Memory Concerning which I observe but two things 1. Neither the Brain nor Spirits nor any other material Substance within the Head can for any considerable time conserve Motion The Brain is such a clammy Consistence that it can no more retain it than a Quagmire The Spirits are more liquid than the Air which receives every Motion and loseth it as soon And if there were any other corporeal part in us as fitly temper'd to keep Motion as could be wisht yet 2. the Motions made in it would be quickly deadned by Counter-Motions and so we should never remember any thing longer than till the next Impression and it is utterly impossible that so many Motions should orderly succeed one another as things do in our Memories For they must needs ever and anon thwart interfere and obstruct one another and so there would be nothing in our Memories but Confusion and Discord Upon the whole we see that this seemingly plain Faculty the Memory is a Riddle also which we have not yet found the way to resolve I might now add many other difficulties concerning the Vnderstanding Fancy Will and Affections But the Controversies that concern these are so hotly managed by the divided Sohools and so voluminously handled by disputing Men that I shall not need insist on them The only Difficulties about the Will its nature and manner of following the Vnderstanding c. have confounded those that have enquired into it and shewn us little else but that our Minds are as blind as that Faculty is said to be by most Philosophers These Controversies like some Rivers the further they run the more they are hid And perhaps after all our Speculations and Disputes we conceive less of them now than did the more plain and simple Understandings of former times But whether we comprehend or not is not my present business to enquire since I have confined my self to an Account of some great Mysteries that do not make such a noise in the World And having spoken of some that relate to our Souls I come now to some others that concern II. BODIES I begin with our Own which though we see and feel and have them nearest to us yet their inward Constitution and Frame is hitherto an undiscovered Region And the saying of the Kingly Prophet that we are wonderfully made may well be understood of that admiration that is the Daughter of Ignorance For 1. There hath no good account been yet given how our Bodies are formed That there is Art in the contrivance of them cannot be denied even by those that are least beholden to Nature and so elegant is their composure that this very Consideration saved Galen from being an Atheist And I cannot think that the branded Epicurus Lucretius and their Fellows were in earnest when they resolv'd this Composition into a fortuitous range of Atoms 'T were much less absurd to suppose or say that a Watch or other curious Automaton did perform divers exact and regular Motions by chance than 't is to affirm or think that this admirable Engine an Humane Body which hath so many Parts and Motions that orderly cooperate for the good of the whole was framed without the Art of some knowing Agent But who the skilful particular Archeus should be and by what Instruments and Art this Fabrick is erected is still unknown That God hath made us and fashion'd our Bodies in the nethermost parts of the Earth is undoubted But he is the first and universal Cause who transacts things in Nature by secondary Agents and not by his own immediate hand The supposal of this would destroy all Philosophy and enquiry after Causes So that He is still supposed but the Query is of the next and particular Agent that forms the Body in so exquisite a manner a Question that hath not yet been answered Indeed by some 't is thought enough to say That it is done by the Plastick Faculty and by others 't is believ'd that the Soul is that that forms it For the Plastick Faculty 't is a big word but it conveys nothing to the Mind For it signifies but this that the Body is formed by a formative Power that is 't is done by a power of doing it But the doubt remains still what the Agent is that hath this power The other Opinion of the Platonists hath two Branches some will have it to be the particular Soul that fashions its own Body others suppose it to be the general Soul of the World If the former be true By what knowledg doth it do it and how The means and manner are still occult though that were granted And for the other way by a general Soul That is an obscure Principle of which we can know but little and how that acts if we allow such a being whether by knowledg or without the Assertors of it may find difficulty to determine The former makes it little less than God himself and the latter brings us back to Chance or a Plastick Faculty There remains now but one account more and that is the Mechanical viz. That it is done by meer Matter moved after such or such a manner Be that so It will yet be said that Matter cannot move it self the question is still of the Mover The Motions are orderly and regular Query Who guides Blind Matter may produce an elegant effect for once by a great Chance as the Painter accidentally gave the Grace to his Picture by throwing his Pencil in rage and disorder upon it But then constant Uniformities and Determinations to a kind can be no Results of unguided Motions There is indeed a Mechanical Hypothesis to this purpose That the Bodies of Animals and Vegitables are formed out of such particles of Matter as by reason of their Figures will not lie together but in the order that is necessary to make such a Body and in that they naturally concur and rest which seems to be confirm'd by the artificial Resurrection of Plants of which Chymists speak and by the regular Figures of Salts and Minerals the hexagonal of Chrystal the Hemi-spherical of the Fairy-Stone and divers such like And there is an experiment mentioned by approved Authors that looks the same way It is That after a decoction of Herbs in a frosty Night the shape of the Plants will appear under the Ice in the Morning which Images are supposed to be made by the congregated Eâ—…uvia of the Plants themselves which loosly wandring up and down in the Water at last settle in their natural place and order and so make up an appearance of the Herbs from
whence they were emitted This account I confess hath something ingenious in it But it is no solution of the Doubt For how those heterogenous Atoms should hit into their proper places in the midst of such various and tumultuary Motions will still remain a question Let the aptness of their Figures be granted we shall be yet to seek for something to guide their Motions And let their natural Motion be what it will gravity or levity direct or oblique we cannot conceive how that should carry them into every particular place where they are to lie especially considering they must needs be sometimes diverted from their course by the occursion of many other Particles And as for the Regular Figures of many inaminate Bodies that consideration doth but multiply the doubt 2. The union of the parts of Matter is a thing as difficult as any of the former There is no account that I know hath yet appear'd worth considering but that of Des-Cartes viz. That they are united by juxta-position and rest And if this be all Why should not a bag of Dust be of as firm a Consistence as Marble or Adamant Why may not a Bar of Iron be as easily broken as a pipe of Glass and the Aegyptians Pyramids blown away as soon as those inverst ones of smoke The only reason of difference pretended by some is that the Parts of solid Bodies are held together by natural Hooks and strong ones by such Hooks as are more tough and firm But how do the parts of these Hooks stick together Either we must suppose infinite of them holding each other or come at last to parts united by meer juxta-position and rest The former is very absurd for it will be necessary That there should be some upon which the Cohesion of all the rest should depend otherwise all will be an heap of Dust. But in favour of the Hypothesis of Des-Cartes it may be said That the closeness and compactness of the parts resting together makes the strength of the Vnion For as that Philosopher saith Every thing continues in the state wherein it is except something more powerful alter it and therefore the Parts that rest close together will so continue till they are parted by some other stronger Body Now the more parts are pent together the more able they will be for resistance and what hath best compactness and by consequence fewer parts will not be able to make any alteration in a Body that hath more According to this Doctrine what is most dense and least porous will be most coherent and least discerpible which yet is contrary to experience For we find the most porous spongy Bodies to be oft-times the most tough of Consistence We easily break a Tube of Glass or Chrystal when one of Elm or Ash will hardly be torn in pieces and yet as the parts of the former are more so are they more at rest since the liquid Juice diffused through the Wood is in continual agitation which in Des-Cartes his Philosophy is the cause of fluidity so that according to his Principles the dryest Bodies should be the most firm when on the contrary we find that a proportionate humidity contributes much to the strength of the Vnion Sir K. Digby makes it the Cement it self and the driness of many Bodies is the cause of their fragility as we see 't is in Wood and Glass and divers other Things 3. We are as much at a loss about the composition of Bodies whether it be out of Indivisibles or out of parts always divisible For though this question hath been attempted by the subtilest Wits of all Philosophick Ages yet after all their distinctions and shifts their new-invented words and modes their niceties and tricks of subtilty the Matter stands yet unresolv'd For do what they can Actual Infinite extension every where Equality of all Bodies Impossibility of Motion and a world more of the most palpable Absurdities will press the Assertors of Infinite Divisibility Nor on the other side can it be avoided but that all Motions would be equal in velocity That the Lines drawn from side to side in a Pyramid would have more Parts than the Basis That all Bodies would be swallowed up in a Point and many other Inconsistencies will follow the Opinion of Indivisibles But because I have confined my self to the Difficulties that are not so usually noted I shall not insist on these but refer the Reader that hath the humour and leisure to inquire into such Speculations to Oviedo Pontius Ariaga Carelton and other Jesuites whose management of this Controversie with equal force on either side is a considerable Argument of the unaccountableness of this Theory and of the weakness of our present Understandings I might now take into consideration the Mysteries of Motion Gravity Light Colours Vision Sounds and infinite such like things obvious yet unknown but I insist no further on Instances but descend to the second thing I propounded to treat of viz. II. The CAVSES of our Ignorance and Mistakes And in them we shall find further evidence of the imperfection of our Knowledg The Causes to be consider'd are either 1. The Difficulties and Depth of Science Or 2. The present temper of our Faculties Science is the Knowledg of things in their Causes and so 't is defined by the Pretenders to it Let us now enquire a little into the difficulties of attaining such Knowledg 1. We know no Causes by Simple Intuition but by Consequence and Deduction and there is nothing we so usually infer from as Concomitancy for instance We always feel heat when we come near the Fire and still perceive Light when we see the Sun and thence we conclude that these are the Causes respectively of Heat and Light and so in other things But now in this way of inference there lies great uncertainty For if we had never seen more Sun or Stars than we do in cloudy weather and if the Day had always broke with a Wind which had increast and abated with the Light we should have believed firmly that one of them had been the cause of the other and so Smoke had been undoubtedly thought the efficient of the Heat if nothing else had appeared with it But the Philosophy of Des-Cartes furnisheth us with a better Instance All the World takes the Sun to be the Cause of Day from this Principle of Concomitance But that Philosopher teacheth That Light is caused by the Conamen or endeavour of the Matter of the Vortex to recede from the Centre of its Motion so that were there none of that fluid Aether in the midst of our World that makes up the Sun yet the pressure of the Globuli as he calls those Particles upon our Eyes would not be considerably less and so according to this Hypothesis there would be Light though there were no Sun or Stars and Evening and Morning might naturally be before and without the Sun Now I say not that this Opinion is true and
certain but 't is possible and I know no absurdity in it and consequently our concluding a Causality from Concomitancy here and in other Instances may deceive us 2. Our best natural Knowledg is imperfect in that after all our confidence Things still are possible to be otherwise Our Demonstrations are raised upon Principles of our own not of Vniversal Nature And as my Lord Bacon notes we judg from the analogy of our selves not the Vniverse Now many things are certain according to the Principles of one Man that are absurd in the apprehensions of many others and some appear impossible to the vulgar that are easie to Men of more improved Understandings That is extravagant in one Philosophy which is a plain truth in another and perhaps what is most impossible in the apprehensions of Men may be otherwise in the Metaphysicks and Physiology of Angels The sum is We conclude this to be certain and that to be impossible from our own narrow Principles and little Scheams of Opinion And the best Principles of natural Knowledg in the World are but Hypotheses which may be and may be otherwise So that though we may conclude many things upon such and such Suppositions yet still our Knowledg will be but fair and hopeful Conjecture And therefore we may affirm that things are this way or that according to the Philosophy that we have espoused but we strangely forget our selves when we plead a necessity of their being so in Nature and an impossibility of their being otherwise The ways of God in Nature as in Providence are not as ours are Nor are the Models that we frame any way commensurate to the vastness and profundity of his Works which have a depth in them greater than the Well of Democritus 3. We cannot properly and perfectly know any thing in Nature without the knowledg of its first Causes and the Springs of Natural Motions And who hath any pretence to this Who can say he hath seen Nature in its beginnings We know nothing but Effects nor can we judg at their immediate Causes but by proportion to the things that do appear which no doubt are very unlike the Rudiments of Nature We see there is no resemblance between the Seed and the Herb and the Flowre between the Sperm and the Animal The Egg and the Bird that is hatcht of it And since there is so much dissimilitude between Cause and Effect in these apparent things we cannot think there is less between them and their first and invisible Efficients Now had not our Senses assured us of it we should never have suspected that Plants or Animals did proceed from such unlikely Originals never have imagined that such Effects should have come from such Causes and we can conceive as little now of the nature and quality of the Causes that are beyond the prospect of our Senses We may frame Fancies and Conjectures of them but to say that the Principles of Nature are just as our Philosophy makes them is to set bounds to Omnipotence and to circumscribe infinite Power and Wisdom by our narrow Thoughts and Opinions 4. Every thing in Nature hath relation to divers others so that no one Being can be perfectly known without the knowledg of many more Yea every thing almost hath relation to all things and therefore he that talks of strict Science pretends to a kind of Omniscience All things are linkt together and every Motion depends upon many prerequired Motors so that no one can be perfectly known singly We cannot for instance comprehend the cause of any Motion in a Watch unless we are acquainted with other dependent Motions and have insight into the whole mechanical contexture of it and we know not the most contemptible Plant that grows in any perfection and exactness until we understand those other things that have relation to it that is almost every thing in Nature So that each Science borrows from all the rest and we attain not any single one without comprehending the whole Circle of Knowledg I might say much more on this Subject but I may have further occasion of speaking to it under the second General viz. The Consideration II. Of the Imperfection of our present Faculties and the malign Influence our Senses and Affections have upon our Minds I begin with the SENSES and shall take notice 1. Of their Dulness and 2. of their liableness to Errour and Mistake 1. Our Senses are very scant and limited and the Operations of Nature subtil and various They are only its grosser Instruments and ways of working that are sensible the finer Threads and immediate Actions are out of reach Yea it 's greatest works are perform'd by invisible insensible Agents Now most of our Conceptions are taken from the Senses and we can scarce judg of any thing but by the help of material Images that are thence convey'd to us The Senses are the Fountain of natural Knowledg and the surest and best Philosophy is to be raised from the Phoenomena as they present them to us when we leave these and retire to the abstracted notions of our minds we build Castles in the Air and form Chymerical Worlds that have nothing real in them And yet when we take our accounts from those best Informers we can learn but very little from their Discoveries For we see but the shadows and outsides of things like the men in Plato's Den who saw but the Images of external Objects and but so many as came in through the narrow entrance of their Cave The World of God no doubt is an other thing than the World of Sense is and we can judg but little of its amplitude and glory by the imperfect Idea we have of it From this narrowness of our Senses it is that we have been so long ignorant of a World of Animals that are with us and about us which now at last the Glasses that in part cure this imperfection have discover'd and no doubt there is yet a great variety of living Creatures that our best Instruments are too gross to disclose There is Prodigious fineness and subtilty in the works of Nature which are too thin for our Senses with all the advantages Art can lend them And many the greatest and the best of its Objects are so remote that our Senses reach them not by any Natural or Artificial helps So that we cannot have other than short and confufed apprehensions of those works of Nature And I sometimes fear that we scarce yet see any thing as it is But this belongs to an other consideration viz. 2. Our Senses extremely deceive us in their reports and informations I mean they give occasion to our minds to deceive themselves They indeed represent things truely as they appear to them and in that there is no deception but then we judge the exterior Realities to be according to those appearances and here is the Error and Mistake But because the Senses afford the ground and occasion and we naturally judg according to
their impressions therefore the Fallacies and Deceits are imputed to their misinformations This I premise to prevent a Philosophical mistake but shall retain the common way of speaking and call those the errors of the Senses That these very frequently misreport things to us we are assured even from themselves a straight stick seems crooked in the Water and a square Towre round at a distance All things are Yellow to those that have the Jaundice and all Meats are bitter to the disaffected Palate To which vulgar Instances it will presently be answer'd that the Senses in those cases are not in their just circumstances but want the fit medium due distance and sound disposition which we know very well and learn there was somewhat amiss because our Senses represent those things otherwise at othertimes we see the stick is straight when it is out of the Water and the Tower is square when we are near it Objects have other Colours and Meats other tastes when the Body and its Senses are in their usual temper In such cases Sense rectifies its own mistakes and many times one the errors of another but if it did not do so we should have been alwayes deceived even in those Instances and there is no doubt but that there are many other like deceptions in which we have no contrary evidence from them to disabuse us not in the matters of common Life but in things of remoter speculation which this state seems not to be made for The Senses must have their due medium and distance and temper if any of these are amiss they represent their Objects otherwise to us than they are Now these we may suppose they generally have in the necessary matters of Life if not to report things to us as they are in themselves yet to give them us so as may be for our accommodation and advantage But how are we assur'd that they are thus rightly disposed in reference to things of Speculative Knowledg What medium what distance what temper is necessary to convey Objects to us just so as they are in the realities of Nature I observ'd before that our Senses are short imperfect and uncommensurate to the vastness and profundity of things and therefore cannot receive the just Images of them and yet we judg all things according to those confused and imperfect Idaeas which must needs lead us into infinite errors and mistakes If I would play the Sceptick here I might add That no one can be sure that any Objects appear in the same manner to the Senses of other men as they do to his Yea it may seem probable that they do not For though the Images Motions or whatever else is the cause of Sence may be alike as from them yet the representations may be much varied according to the nature and quality of the recipient we find things look otherwise to us through an Optick Tube then they do when we view them at a distance with our naked eyes the same Object appears red when we look at it through a Glass of that Colour but green when we behold it through one of such a Tincture Things seem otherwise when the Eye is distorted then they do when it is in its natural ordinary posture and some extraordinary alterations in the Brain double that to us which is but a single Object Colours are different according to different Lights and Positions as 't is in the necks of Doves and folds of Scarlet Thus difference in circumstances alters the sensation and why may we not suppose as much diversity in the Senses of several men as there is in those accidents in the perceptions of one There is difference in the Organs of Sense and more in the temper and configuration of the inward parts of the Brain by which motions are convey'd to the seat of Sense in the Nerves Humours and Spirits in respect of tenuity liquidity aptitude for motion and divers other circumstances of their nature from which it seems that great diversity doth arise in the manner of receiving the Images and consequently in the perceptions of their Objects So then though every man knows how things appear to himself yet what impressions they make upon the so different Senses of another he only knows certainly that is conscious to them And though all men agree to call the impression they feel from such or such an Object by the same name yet no one can assuredly tell but that the Sentiment may be different It may be one man hath the impression of Green from that which in another begets the Sense of Yellow and yet they both call it Green because from their infancy they were wont to join that word to that Sentiment which such an Object produc'd in their particular Sense though in several men it were a very divers one This I know some will think hard to be understood but I cannot help that Those that Consider will find it to be very plain and therefore I shall spend no more words about it The Sum is Our Senses are good Judges of Appearances as they concern us but how things are in themselves and how they are to others it should seem we cannot certainly learn from them And therefore when we determine that they are and must be according to the representations of our individual Senses we are very often grosly deceiv'd in such sentences to which yet we are exceeding prone and few but the most exercised minds can avoid them Of this I 'le give a great Instance or two 1. It is almost universally believ'd at least by the vulgar that the Earth rests on the Centre of the World and those ancient Philosophers have been extreamly hooted at and derided that have taught the contrary doctrine For my part I shall affirm nothing of the main question but this I say That the common inducement to believe it stands still viz the Testimony of Sense is no argument of it And whether the opinion of Pythagoras Copernicus Des-Cartes Galilaeo and almost all late Philosophers of the motion of the Earth be true or false the belief of its Rest as far as it ariseth from the presum'd evidence of Sence is an error That there is some common motion that makes the day and night and the varieties of seasons is very plain and sensible but whether the Earth or the Sun be the Body mov'd none of our Senses can determine To Sense the Sun stands still also and no Eye can perceive its Actual motion For though we find that in a little time it hath chang'd its Position and respect to us yet whether that change be caus'd by its translation from us or ours from it the Sense can never tell and yet from this and this only the greatest part of mankind believes its motion On the other side The standing still of the Earth is concluded the same way and yet though it did move it would appear fixt to us as now it doth since we are carried with it in a regular
by so uncertain and proverbially inconstant a thing as the Winds But I shall not trouble my self to remarque on Matters with which my Discourse hath nothing to do My business is with the pretended Answers to the Difficulties I mention as not well resolv'd by any yet known Hypothesis On which the Learned Man enters Plea 5th and in order begins with those about the SOUL in these words 1. In the third Chapter therefore of his most eloquent Discourse he objects our Ignorance of that thing we ought to be best acquainted with viz. our own SOVLS p. 30. This I do and to the Difficulties I propound about the Origine of the Soul It 's Vnion with the Body It 's moving of it and direction of the Spirits The general short Answer is That to suppose the Soul a Substance that may be made come and joinâ—…d to another a Subsistence Thing or Substance is a most important Error in Philosophy of which he saith none can doubt that is able to discern the opposition of one and many ibid. The meaning of which must be That the Soul is no distinct Substance from the Body And if so almost all the World hath hitherto been mistaken For if we inquire iâ—…to the Philosophy of the Soul as high as any accounts are given of it we shall find its real substantial distinction from the Body to have been the current belief of all Ages notwithstanding what this Gentleman saith That none can doubt that this is an error in Philosophy that knows the opposition of one and many For 1. The highest times of whose Doctrines we have any History believ'd its Preexistence and consequently that it is a certain Substance that might be made come and be join'd to another Of this I 'le say a few things If credit may be given to the Chaldean Oracles and perhaps more is due to them than some will allow Preexistence is of highest Antiquity We have that Doctrine plainly taught in those ancient Verses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oportet te festinare ad Lucem patris Lumina Vnde missa tibi est anima And afterwards more clearly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quaere tu animae canalem unde aut quo ordine Coâ—…pori inservieris in ordinem a quo effluxisti Rursuâ—… restituas And Isellus in his exposition of the Chaldean Theology tells us That according to their Doctrine Souls descended hither 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Either through the moultring of its Wings or the will of the Father of Spirits that they might adorn this Terrestrial State And again Zoroaâ—…ter speaking of Humane Souls saith they are sent down to Earth from Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Trismegistus if those remains that bear his Name may be allow'd is express in asserting the same Doctrine In his Minerva Mundi he brings in God threatning those he had placed in an happy condition of Life and injoyment with Bonds and Imprisonment in case of Disobedience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they transgressing he adds That he commanded the Souls to be put into Bodies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And in another place assigns this for the cause of their Imprisonment in Bodies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He would have them acknowledg that they sustain'd that punishment and imprisonment in Bodies for the things they had done before they came into them 3. It was also the Opinion of the Ancient Jews That all Souls were at first created together and resided in a place they call Goph a Celestial Region And therefore 't is said in the Mishna Non aderit filius David priusquam exhaustae fuerint universae Animae quae fuâ—…t in Goph So that they believ'd all Generations on Earth to be supplyed from that Promptuary and Element of Souls in Heaven whence they supposed them to descend by the North Pole and to ascend by the South whence the saying of the Cabalists Magnus Aquilo Scaturigo Animarum From which Tradition 't is like Homer had this Notion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Janua duplex Haec Boream Spectans homines demittit at illa Respiciens Austrum divinior invia prorsus Est homini praebâ—…tque viam immortalibus unis 4. 'T is notoriously known that Pythagoras and his Sectators held the Doctrine of Transmigration which supposeth Preexistence and both that the Soul is a Substance which can come and be join'd to another thing Some Pythagoreans write that Pythagoras himself after 216 years Transanimation returned to Life again Now this Opinion being so universally imputed to this Philosopher and his School I shall not need to insist on it as far as it concerns them but I take notice that both Jews Persians Indians Arabians and divers other Nations c. did of old and do still hold the same Doctrine Manasseh â—…en Israel ascribes the Opinion of Transmigration to Abraham and the Cabalists teach that every Soul is successively join'd to three Bodies So the same Soul they say was in Adam David and the Messias and the same in Seth Shem and Moses according to R. Simeon who as the Cabalists generally do stops the course in the third Transmigration as is noted from him by a Learned Man of our own There are at this day great Sects among the Indians of the East that retain this Doctrine of Transanimation believing that the Souls of some descend again into Humane Bodies but that others pass into the Bodies of Beasts So did some of the Ancient Pythagoreans who taught that good Men returned to their former blessed and happy Life but that the wicked in their first Transmigration chang'd their Sex in the second they descended into Beasts yea some supposed them at last to go into Trees and other Vegetables Now all these committed the great Error in Philos phy of which I am accused in supposing the Soul to be a certain Substance which may directly be made come and be join'd to another thing and so according to our Author They could none of them discern the opposition of one and many But 2. This pretended important Error in Philosophy of the Soul 's being a Thing and Substance and one distinct from the Body must be held by all that believe its natural Immortality for Separability is the greatest Argument of real distinction especially that which the Schools call Mutual Now the Soul's Immortality hath had a general Reception from the wiser and better part of Mankind The Egyptians Chaldeans Assyrians Indians Jews Greeks and universally all that had a name for Wisdom among the Ancients believ'd it And the same hath been the apprehension of latter Ages A Councel of the Church of Rome it self hath defin'd it and recommended the demonstrating of it to all Christian Philosophers And if the Soul lives after the dissolution of the Body 't is certainly a Substance distinct from it for nothing
the Fuga Vacui and shewn that the strange Effects which use to be ascribed to that general and obscure cause do arise from the native self-expansion of the Air. The extent of which Elastical Expansion he hath found divers ways to measure by his Engine which also discovers the Influence the Air hath on Flame Smoke and Fire That it hath none in Operations Magnetical That it is probably much interspersed in the Pores of Water and comprest by the incumbent Atmosphere even in those elose retreats What Operation the exsuction of the Air hath on other Liquors as Oil Wine Spirit of Vinegar Milk Eggs Spirit of Vrine Solution of Tartar and Spirit of Wine The gravity and expansion of the Air under Water The interest the Air hath in the vibrations of Pendulums and what it hath to do in the propagation of Sounds That Fumes and Vapours ascend by reason of the gravity of the Ambient and not from their own positive levity The nature of Suction the cause of Filtration and the rising of Water in Siphons The nature of Respiration and the Lungs illustrated by tryals made on several kinds of Animals and the interest the Air hath in the Operations of Corosive Liquors These and many more such-like beneficial Observations and Discoveries hath that great Man made by the help of his Pneumatick Engine and there is no doubt but more and perhaps greater things will be disclosed by it when future ingenuity and diligence hath improved and perfected this Invention For what great thing was absolute and perfect in its first rise and beginning And 't is like this Instrument hereafter will be used and applyed to things yet unthought of for the advancement of Knowledge and the conveniences of Life THus I have performed the first part of my promise by shewing what Advantages the latter Ages and particularly the ROYAL SOCIETY have for deep search into things both by Arts and Instruments newly invented or improved above those enjoy'd by Aristotle and the Ancients I am next II. To recount what Aids it hath received from our better acquaintance with the Phaenomena For this I must consider NATURAL HISTORY more particularly which is the Repository wherein these are lodg'd How this may be compiled in the best order and to the best advantage is most judiciously represented by the Immortal Lord Bacon and to shew how highly It hath been advanced in modern Times I need say little more than to amass in a brief Recollection some of the Instances of newly-discovered Phaenomena which are scatter'd under the Heads of the Arts and Instruments I have discours'd with the Addition of some others As In the HEAVENS those of the Spots and Dinettick motion of the Sun the mountanous protuberances and shadows in the Body of the Moon about nineteen Magnitudes more of Fixed Stars the Lunulae of Jupiter their mutual Eclipsing one another and its turning round upon its own Axis the Ring about Saturn and its shadow upon the Body of that Star the Phases of Venus the increment and decrement of Light among the Planets the appearing and disappearing of Fixed Stars the Altitude of Comets and nature of the Via Lactea By these Discoveries and more such the History of the Heavens hath been rectified and augmented by the Modern Advancers of Astronomy whom in their places I have cited In the AIR Its Spring the more accurate History and Nature of Winds and Meteors and the probable height of the Atmosphere have been added by the Lord Bacon Des-Cartes Mr. Boyle and others In the EARTH New Lands by Columbus Magellan and the rest of the Discoverers and in these new Plants new Fruits new Animals new Minerals and a kind of other World of Nature from which this is supplied with numerous conveniences of Life and many thousand Families of our own little one are continually sed and maintained In the WATERS the great Motion of the Sea unknown in elder Times and the particular Laws of flux and reflux in many places are discover'd The History of BATHES augmented by Savonarola Baccius and Blanchellus of METALS by Agricola and the whole SVBTERRANEOVS WORLD described by the universally Learned Kircher The History of PLANTS much improved by Matthiolus Ruellius Bauhinus and Gerard besides the late Account of English Vegetables publish'd by Dr. Merret a worthy Member of the ROYAL SOCIETY And another excellent Virtuoso of the same Assembly Mr. John Evelyn hath very considerably advanced the History of Fruit and Forest-Trees by his Sylva and Pomona and greater things are expected from his Preparations for Elysium Britanicum a noble Design now under his hands And certainly the inquisitive World is much indebted to this generous Gentleman for his very ingenious Performances in this kind as also for those others of Sculpture Picture Architecture and the like practical useful things with which he hath enrich'd it The History of ANIMALS hath been much enlarged by Gesner Rondeletius Aldrovandus and more accurately inquir'd into by the Micrographers And the late Travellers who have given us Accounts of those remote parts of the Earth that have been less known to these have described great variety of Living Creatures very different from the Animals of the nearer Regions among whom the ingenious Author of the History of the Caribbies deserves to be mentioned as an Instance In our own BODIES Natural History hath found a rich heap of Materials in the above-mentioned Particulars of the Venae Lacteae the Vasa Lymphatica the Valves and Sinus of the Veins the several new Passages and Glandules the Ductus Chyliferus the Origination of the Nerves the Circulation of the Blood and the rest And all the main Heads of Natural History have receiv'd aids and increase from the famous Verulam who led the way to substantial Wisdom and hath given most excellent Directions for the Method of such an HISTORY of NATVRE Thus I have dispatch'd the FIRST Part of my Method proposed in the beginning but stand yet ingaged for the other which is to shew II. That the later Ages have great Advantages in respect of Opportunities and Helps for the spreading and communicating of Knowledge and thereby of improving and enlarging it This I shall demonstrate in three great Instances viz. Printing the Compass and the Institution of the Royal Society For the FIRST Printing It was according to Polydore Virgil the Invention of John Cuthenberg of Mentz in Germany though others give the honour to one Fust of the same City and some to Laurentius a Burger of Harlem But whoever was the Author this is agreed That this excellent Art was first practised about the year 1440 and was utterly unknown in Elder Times at least in all the parts of the World that are on this side the Kingdom of China which they say had it more early but it signifies not to our purpose Now by reason of the Ancients want of this Invention Copies of excellent things could not be so much dispersed nor so well preserv'd either
Knowledge or for Life To perswade Men that there is worthier Imployment for them than tying Knots in Bulrushes and that they may be better accommodated in a well-built House than in a Castle in the Air We must seek and gather observe and examine and lay up in Bank for the Ages that come after This is the business of the Experimental Philosophers and in these Designs a progress hath been made sufficient to satisfie sober expectations But for those that look they should give them the Great Elixir the Perpetual Motion the way to make Glass malleable and Man immortal or they will object that the Philosophers have done nothing for such I say their impertinent Taunts are no more to be regarded than the chat of Ideots and Children But I think I am fallen into things of which the Ingenious Historian hath somewhere given better accounts However I shall briefly endeavour to shew the injustice of the Reproach of having done nothing as 't is applyed to the Royal Scociety by a single Instance in one of their Members who alone hath done enough to oblige all Mankind and to erect an eternal Monument to his Memory So that had this great Person lived in those days when Men deified their Benefactors he could not have miss'd one of the first places among their exalted Mortals And every one will be convinc'd that this is not vainly said when I have added That I mean the Illustrious Mr. BOYLE a Person by whose proper Merits that noble Name is as much adorned as by all the splendid Titles that it wears And that this Honourable Gentlemâ—… hath done such things for the benefit of the World and increase of Knowledge will easily appear to those that converse with Him in his excellent Writings 1. In his Book of the AIR we have a great improvement of the Magdeburg Experiment of emptying Glass Vessels by exsuction of the Air to far greater degrees of evacuation ease and conveniences for use as also an advance of that other famous one of Torticellius performed by the New Engine of which I have said some things above and call'd the AIR-PUMP By this Instrument as K have already intimated the Nature Spring Expansion Pressure and Weight of the Air the decrease of its farce when dilated the Doctrine of a Vacuum the Height of the Atmosphere the Theories of Respiration Sounds Fluidity Gravity Heat Flame the Magnet and several other useful and luciferous Matters are estimated illustrated and explain'd And 2. The great Doctrine of the Weight and Spring of the Air is solidly vindicated and further asserted by the Illustrious Author in another BOOK against HOBS and LINVS 3. In his PHYSIOLOGICAL and EXPERIMENTAL ESSAYS he nobly encourageth and perswades the making of Experiments and collecting Observations and gives the necessary Cautions that are to be used in such Designs He imparts a very considerable luciferous Experiment concerning the different parts and redintegration of Salt-petre whence he deduceth That Motion Figure and Disposition of parts may suffice to produce all the secondary Affections of Bodies and consequently That there is no need of the substintial Forms and Qualities of the Schools To this he adds a close History of Fluidity and Firmness which tends mightily to the elucidating of those useful Doctrines 4. In his SCEPTICAL CHYMIST he cautions against the sitting down and acquiescing in Chymical and Peripatetical Theories which many do to the great hinderance of the growth and improvement of Knowledge He therefore adviseth a more wary consideration and examen of those Doctrines before they are subscribed and for that purpose he assists them with many very considerable Observations and Experiments 5. In his VSEFVLNESS of EXPERIMENTAL PHILOSOPHY he makes it appear how much that way tends to the advance of the Power and Empire of Man over the Creatures and the universal Benefit of the World confirming and illustrating his Discourse with innumerable new and useful Discoveries 6. In his HISTORY of COLD he hath to wonder cultivated that barren Subject and improved it as is noted in the Philosophical Transactions by near 200 choice Experiments and Observations He hath there given an account of the defectiveness of common Weather-Glasses the Advantages of the new Hermetical Thermometers and an Inquiry concerning the cause of the Condensation of the Air and Ascent of Water by Cold in the ordinary Weather-wisers All which afford valuable Considerations of Light and Vse But these are only Preliminaries The main Discourse presents us with an Account what Bodies are capable of freezing others and what of being frozen The ways to estimate the degrees of coldness How to measure the intenseness of Cold produced by Art beyond that imploy'd in ordinary Freezing In what proportion Water will be made to shrink by Snow and Salt How to measure the change produc'd in Water between the greatest heat of Summer the first degree of Winter-cold and the highest of Art How to discover the differing degrees of Coldness in different Regions A way of freezing without danger to the Vessel What may be the effects of Cold as to the preserving or destroying the texture of Bodies Whether specifick Virtues of Plants are lost through congelation and then thawing Whether Electrical and Magnetick Vertues are altered by Cold The expansion and contraction of Bodies by freezing how they are caused and how their quantity is to be measured The strength of the expansion of Water freezing and an Inquiry into the Cause of that prodigious force The Sphere of Activity of Cold. How far the Frost descends in Earth and Water An Experiment shewing whether Cold can act through an hot medium A way of accounting the solidity of Ice and the strength of the adhesion of its parts What Liquors are its quickest Dissolvents An Experiment of heating a cold Liquor with Ice These and many more such instructive and useful things are contained in that excellent Discourse To which is annex'd a very ingenious Examination and Disproof of the common obscure Doctrine of Antiperistasis and Mr. Hobbs his Notion of Cold. 7. In his EXPERIMENTAL HISTORY of COLOVRS he hath laid a foundation in 150 Experiments at least for grounded Theory about these Matters He hath shewn the grand mistake of the common belief That Colours inhere in their Objects and proved they depend upon the disposition of the external parts and the more inward texture of Bodies He hath stated and explained wherein the Disparity consists between the Real and Exphatical explicated the Nature of Whiteness and Blackness rectified some Chymical Principles compounded Colours by trajecting the Solar Beams through tinged Glasses shewed how by certain Tinctures it may be known whether any Salt be acid or sulphureous Hath proved there is no necessity of the Peripatetick FORMS for the production of Colours by making Green by nine kinds of mixtures compounded Colours real and phantastical turned the Blew of Violets by acid Salts into a Red and by the alcalizate into a Green and performed many
other extraordinary things on this Subject for the advantage of Knowledge and the uses of Life 8. In his HYDROSTATICAL PARADOXES he shew'd That the lower parts of Fluids are press'd by the upper That a lighter may gravitate upon one that is more ponderous That if a Body contiguous to it be lower than the highest level of the Water the lower end of the Body will be press'd upwards by the Water beneath That the weight of an external Fluid sufficeth to raise the Water in Pumps That the pressure of an external Fluid is able to keep an Heterogeneous Liquor suspended at the same height in several Pipes though they are of different Diameters That a Body under Water that hath its upper Surface parallel to the Horizon the direct pressure it sustains is no more than that of a Columne of Water which hath the mentioned Horizontal Superficies for its Basis. And if the incumbent Water be contained in Pipes open at both ends the pressure is to be estimated by the meight of a Pillar of Water whose Basis is equal to the lower Orifice of the Pipe parallel to the Horizon and its height equal to a Perpendicular reaching to the top of the Water though the Pipe be much inclined irregularly shaped and in some parts broader than the Orifice That a Body in a Fluid sustains a lateral pressure from it which increaseth in proportion to the depth of the immerst Body in the Fluid That Water may be made to depress a Body lighter than it self That a parcel of Oil lighter than Water may be kept from ascending in it That the cause of the ascension of Water in Syphons may be explained without the notion of abhorrence of a Vacuum That the heaviest Body known will not sink of it self without the assistance of the weight of the Water upon it when 't is at a depth greater than twenty times its own thickness though it will nearer the Surface This is the sum of the general Contents of that Discourse which contains things very useful to be known for the advantage of Navigation Salt-Works Chymistry and other practical purposes 9. In his Book of the ORIGINE of FORMS and QVALITIES he delivers the minds of Men from the imaginary and useless Notions of the Schools about them which have no foundation in the nature of things nor do any ways promote Knowledge or help Mankind but very much disserve those great Interests by setting the Understanding at rest in general obscurities or imploying it in airy Nicities and Disputes and so hindring its pursuit of particular Causes and Experimental Realities In this Treatise he lays the Foundations and delivers the Principles of the Mechanick Philosophy which he strengthneth and illustrates by several very pleasant and instructive Experiments He shews That the most admirable Things which have been taken for the Effects of substantial Forms and are used as proofs of the Notional Hypotheses may be the results of the meer texture and position of parts since Art is able to make Vitriol as well as Nature and Bodies by humane skill may be produced whose supposed Forms have been destroyed He gives many very ingenious instances to prove That the Mechanick Motions and order of the Parts is sufficient to yeeld an account of the difference of Bodies and their affections without having recourse to the Forms and Qualities of the Schools as in the restoration of Camphire to its former smell and nature after its dissolution and seeming extinction in the changes of the colour consistence fusibleness and other Qualites of Silver and Copper in the odd Phaenomena of a certain anomalous Salt and those of the Sea Salt dried powder'd and mix'd with Aqua-Fortis and in the Sal Mirabilis in the production of Silver out of Gold by his Menstruum Peracutum in the transmutation of Water into Earth in a certain Distillation of Spirit of Wine and Oil of Vitriol I say This excellent Person hath by Experiments rare and new about these Subjects made it evidently appear That the internal motions configuration and posture of the parts are all that is necessary for alterations and diversities of Bodies and consequently That substantial Forms and real Qualities are needless and precarious Beings These are some brief and general Hints of those great things this incomparable Person hath done for the information and benefit of Men and besides them there are several others that He hath by him and the Inquisitive expect in which real Philosophy and the World are no less concern'd I received a late Account of them from an ingenious Friend of his Mr. Oldenburgh Secretary to the ROYAL SOCIETY who also renders himself a great Benefactor to Mankind by his affectionate care and indefatigable diligence and endeavours in the maintaining Philosophical Intelligence and promoting the Designs and Interests of profitable and general Philosophy And these being some of the Noblest and most Publick Imployments in which the Services of generous Men can be ingaged loudly call for their Aids and Assistances for the carrying on a Work of so universal an importance But I shall have a fitter place to speak of this and therefore I return to the Illustrious Person of whom I was discoursing And for Philosophical News and further evidence of the Obligation the World hath to this Gentleman I shall here insert the Account of what he hath more yet unpublish'd for its advantage and instruction And I take the boldness to do it because himself hath been pleased to quote and refer to those Discourses in his publish'd Writings concerning which M. O's Account is more particular and he receiv'd it from the Author It speaks thus 1. Another Section of the Vsefulness of Experimental Philosophy as to the Empire of Man over inferiour Creatures where he intends to premise some general Considerations about the Means whereby Experimental Philosophy may become useful to Humane Life proceeding thence to shew That the Empire of Man may be promoted by the Naturalists skill in Chymistry by his skill in Mechanicks or the Application of Mathematicks to Instruments and Engines by his skill in Mathematicks both pure and mixt That the Goods of Mankind may be much increased by the Naturalist's insight into Trades That the Naturalist may much advantage Men by exciting and assisting their curiosity to discover take notice and make use of the home-bred Riches and Advantages of particular Countries and to increase their number by transferring thither those of others That a ground of high expectation from Experimental Philosophy is given by the happy Genius of this present Age and the productions of it That a ground of expecting considerable things from Experimental Philosophy is given by those things which have been found out by illiterate Tradesmen or lighted on by chance That some peculiar and concealed property of a natural thing may inable the knowers of it to perform with ease things that to others seem either not feasible or not practicable without great difficulty That by the
their peculiar Animals The certainty of which I believe the improvement of Microscopical Observations will discover From whence I infer That since this little Spot is so thickly peopled in every Atom of it ' â—…is weakness to think that all the vast spaces above and hollows under Ground are desert and uninhabited And if both the superiour and lower Continents of the Universe have their Inhabitants also 't is exceedingly improbable arguing from the same Analogy that they are all of the meer sensible Nature but that there are at least some of the Rational and Intellectual Orders Which supposed there is good foundation for the belief of Witches and Apparitions though the Notion of a Spirit should prove as absurd and unphilosophical as I judg the Denial of it And so this first Objection comes to nothing I descend then to the second Prejudice which may be thus formed in behalf of the Objectors II. II. THere are Actions in most of those Relations ascribed to Witches which are ridiculous and impossible in the nature of things such are 1. their flying out of Windows after they have anointed themselves to remote places 2. Their transformation into Cats Hares and other Creatures 3. Their feeling all the hurts in their own Bodies which they have received in those 4. Their raising Tempests by mattering some nonsensical words or performing Ceremonies alike impertinent as ridiculous And 5. their being suck'd in a certain private place of their Bodies by a Familiar These are presumed to be actions inconsistent with the nature of Spirits and above the powers of those poor and miserable Agents And therefore the Objection supposeth them performed only by the Fancy and that the whole mystery of Witchcraft is but an illusion of crasie Imagination To this aggregate Objection I return 1. In the general The more absurd and unaccountable these Actions seem the greater confirmations are they to me of the truth of those Relations and the reality of what the Objectors would destroy For these Circumstances being exceeding unlikely judging by the measures of common belief 't is the greater probability they are not fictitious For the contrivers of Fictions use to form them to as near a conformity as they can to the most unsuspected Realities endeavouring to make them look as like Truth as is possible in the main Supposals though withal they make them strange in the Circumstance None but a Fool or Madman would relate with a purpose of having it believed that he saw in Ireland Men with Horns on their Heads and Eyes in their Breasts or if any should be so ridiculously vain as to be serious in such an incredible Romance it cannot be supposed that all Travellers that come into those parts after him should tell the same Story There is a large Field in Fiction and is all those Relations were Arbitrary Compositions doubtless the first Romancers would have framed them more agreeable to the common Doctrine of Spirits at least after these supposed Absurdities had been a thousand times laugh'd at People by this time would have learn'd to correct those obnoxious Extravagancies and though they have not yet more Veracity than the Ages of Ignorance and Superstition yet one would expect they should have got more Cunning. This suppos'd Impossibility then of these Performances seems to me a probable Argument that they are not wilful and designed Forgeries And if they are Fancies 't is somewhat strange that Imagination which is the most various thing in all the World should infinitely repeat the same Conceits in all Times and Places BUT again 2. the strange Actions related of Witches and presumed to be impossible are not ascribed to their own Powers but to the Agency of those wicked Confederates they imploy And to affirm that those evil Spirits cannot do that which we conceit impossible is boldly to stint the powers of Creatures whose Natures and Faculties we know not and to measure the world of Spirits by the narrow Rules of our own impotent Beings We see among our selves the Performances of some out-go the Conceits and Possibilities of others and we know many things may be done by the Mathematicks and Mechanick Artifice which common Heads think impossible to be effected by the honest ways of Art and Nature And doubtless the subtilties and powers of those mischievous Fiends are as much beyond the reach and activities of the most knowing Agents among us as theirs are beyond the wit and ability of the most rustick and illiterate So that the utmost that any Man's Reason in the World can amount to in this particular is only this That he cannot conceive how such things can be performed which only argues the weakness and imperfection of our Knowledg and Apprehensions not the impossibility of those Performances and we can no more from hence form an Argument against them than against the most ordinary Effects in Nature We cannot conceive how the Fâ—… is form'd in the Womb nor as much as how a Plant springs from the Earth we tread on we know not how our Souâ—…s move the Body nor how these distant and extream Natures are united as I have shewn elsewhere And if we are ignoâ—…t of the most obvious things about us and the most considerable within our selves 't is then no wonder that we know not the Constitution and Powers of the Creatures to whom we are such strangers Briefly then Matters of Fact well proved ought not to be denied because we cannot conceive how they can be performed Nor is it a reasonable method of Inference first to presume the thing impossible and thence to conclude that the Fact cannot be proved On the contrary we should judg of the Action by the Evidence and not the Evidence by our Fancies about the Action This is proudly to exalt our own Opinions above the clearest Testimonies and most sensible Demonstrations of Fact and so to give the Lye to all Mankind rather than distrust the Conceits of our bold Imaginations But yet further 3. I think there is nothing in the Instances mention'd but what may as well be accounted for by the Rules of Reason and Philosophy as the ordinary Affairs of Nature For in resolving Natural Phaenomena we can only assign the probable Causes shewing how things may be not presuming how they are And in the particulars under our Examen we may give an account how 't is possible and not unlikely that such things though somewhat varying from the common road of Nature may be acted And if our narrow and contracted Minds can furnish us with apprehensions of the way and manner of such Performances though perhaps not the true ones 't is an argument that such things may be effected by Creatures whose Powers and Knowledg are so vastly exceeding ours I shall endeavour therefore briefly to suggest some things that may render the possibility of such performances conceivable in order to the removal of this Objection that they are Contradictions and impossible For the first then That the
Confederate Spirit should transport the Witch through the Air to the place of general Rendezvous there is no difficulty in conceiving it and if that be true which great Philosophers affiâ—… concerning the real separability of the Soul from the Body without Death there is yet less for then 't is easie to apprehend that the Soul having left its gross and sluggish Body behind it and being cloth'd only with its immedâ—…e Vehicle of Air or more subtile Matter may be quickly conducted to any place by those officious Spirits that attend it And though I adventure to affirm nothing concerning the truth and certainty of this Supposition yet I must needs say it doth not seem to me unreasonable Our experience of Apoplexies Epilepsies Extasies and the strange things Men report to have seen during those Deliquiums look favourably upon this Conjecture which seems to me to contradict no Principle of Reason or Philosophy since Death consists not so much in the actual separation of Soul and Body as in the indisposition and unfitness of the Body for Vital Union as an excellent Philosopher hath made good On which Hypothesis the Witch's anointing her self before she takes her flight may perhaps serve to keep the Body tenantable and in fit disposition to receive the Spirit at its return These things I say we may conceive though I affirm nothing about them and there is not any thing in such Conceptions but what hath been own'd by Men of Worth and Name and may seem fair and accountable enough to those who judg not altogether by customary Opinions There 's a saying of the great Apostle that seems to countenance this Platonick Notion what is the meaning else of that Expression Whether in the Body or out of the Body I cannot tell except the Soul may be separated from the Body without death Which if it be granted poâ—…sible 't is sufficient for my purpose And 2. The Transformations of Witches into the shapes of other Animals upon the same supposal is very conceivable since then 't is easie to apprehend that the Power of Imagination may form those passive and pliable Vehicles into those shapes with more ease than the Fancy of the Mother can the stubborn Matter of the Foetus in the Womb as we see it frequently doth in the Instances that occur of Signatures and monstrous Singularities and perhaps sometimes the confederate Spirit puts tricks upon the Senses of the Spectators and those Shapes are only Illusions But then 3. when they feel the Hurts in their gross Bodies that they receive in their Aiery Vehicles they must be supposed to have been really present at least in these latter and 't is no more difficult to apprehend how the hurts of those should be translated upon their other Bodies than how Diseases should be inflicted by the Imagination or how the Fancy of the Mother should wound the Foetus as several credible Relations do attest And 4. for their raising Storms and Tempests They do it not by their own but by the power of those Evil Spirits that reside in the Air and the Ceremonies that are enjoyn'd them are doubtless nothing else but Entertainments for their Imaginations and likely design'd to perswade them that they do those strange things themselves Lastly For their being suck'd by the Familiar I say 1. we know so little of the nature of Daemons and Spirits that 't is no wonder we cannot certainly divine the Reason of so strange an Action And yet 2. we may conjecture at some things that may render it less improbable For some have thought that the Genii whom both the Platonical and Christian Antiquity thought embodied are recreated by the Reeks and Vapours of Humane Blood and the Spirits that proceed from them Which supposal if we allow them Bodies is not unlikely every thing being refresh'd and nourish'd by its Like And that they are not perfectly abstract from all Body and Matter besides the Reverence we owe to the wisest Antiquity there are several considerable Arguments I could alledge to render exceeding probable Which things supposed the Devil 's sucking the Sorceress is no great wonder nor difficult to be accounted for Or perhaps 3. this may be only a Diabolical Sacrament and Ceremony to confirm the Hellish Covenant To which I add 4. That the Familiar doth not only suck the Witch but in the Action infuseth some poisonous Ferrnent into Her which gives her Imagination and Spirits a Magical Tincture whereby they become mischievously influential and the word Vâ—…nesica intimates some such Matter Now that the Imagination hath a mighty power in Operation is feen in the just-now mention'd Signatures and Diseases that it causeth and that the Fancy is modified by the Qualities of the Blood and Spirits is too evident to need proof Which things supposed 't is plain to conceive that the Evil Spirit having breath'd some vile Vapour into the Body of the Witch it may taint her Blood and Spirits with a noxious Quality by which her infected Imagination heightned by Melancholy and this worse Cause may do much hurt upon Bodies that are obnoxious to such Influences And 't is very likely that this Ferment disposeth the Imagination of the Sorceress to cause the mentioned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or separation of the Soul from the Body and may perhaps keep the Body in fit temper for its re-entry as also it may facilitate transformation which it may be could not be effected by ordinary and unassisted Imagination Thus we see 't is not so desperate to form an apprehension of the manner of these odd Performances and though they are not done the way I have describ'd yet what I have said may help us to a conceit of the Possibility which sufficeth for my purpose And though the Hypothesis I have gone upon will seem as unlikely to some as the things they attempt to explain are to others yet I must desire their leave to suggest that most things seem improbable especially to the conceited and opinionative at first proposal And many great Truths are strange and odd till Custom and Acquaintance have reconciled them to our Fancies And I 'le presume to add on this occasion though I love not to be confident in affirming that there is none of the Platonical Supposals I have used but what I could make appear to be indifferently fair and reasonable III. III. A Nother Prejudice against the being of Witches is That 't is very improbable that the Devil who is a Wise and Mighty Spirit should be at the beck of a poor Hag and have so little to do as to attend the Errands and impotent Lusts of a sil'y old Woman To which I might answer 1. That 't is much more improbable that all the World should be deceiv'd in Matters of Fact and Circumstances of the clearest Evidence and Conviction than that the Devil who is wicked should be also unwise and that He that perswades all his Subjects and Accomplices out of their Wits should himself
and Illusions To make a due return to this we must consider a great and difficult Problem which is What is a Real Miracle And for answer to this weighty Question I think 1. That it is not the strangeness or unaccountableness of the thing done simply from whence we are to conclude a Miracle For then we are so to account of all the Magnalia of Nature and all the Mysteries of those honest Arts which we do not understand Nor 2. is this the Criterion of a Miracle That it is an Action or Event beyond all Natural Powers for we are ignorant of the Extent and Bounds of Nature's Sphere and Possibilities And if this were the character and essential Mark of a Miracle we could not know what was so except we could determine the extent of natural causalities and fix their Bounds and be able to say to Nature Hitherto canst thou go and no further And he that makes this his measure whereby to judge a Miracle is himself the greatest Miracle of Knowledge or Immodesty Besides though an Effect may transcend really all the Powers of meer Nature yet there is a world of Spirits that must be taken into our Account And as to them also I say 3. Every thing is not a Miracle that is done by Agents Supernatural There is no doubt but that Evil Spirits can make wonderful Combinations of Natural Causes and perhaps perform many things immediately which are prodigious and beyond the longest Line of Nature but yet these are not therefore to be called Miracles for they are Saecred Wonders and suppose the Power to be Divine But how shall the Power be known to be so when we so little understand the Capacities and extent of the Abilities of Lower Agents The Answer to this Question will discover the Criterion of Miracles which must be supposed to have all the former Particulars viz. They are unaccountable beyond the Powers of meer Nature and done by Agents Supernatural And to these must be superadded 4. That they have peculiar Circumstances that speak them of a Divine Original Their mediate Authors declare them to be so and they are always Persons of Simplicity Truth and Holiness void of Ambition and all secular Designs They seldom use Ceremonies or Natural Applications and yet surmount all the Activities of known Nature They work those wonders not to raise admiration or out of the vanity to be talkt of but to seal and confirm some Divine Doctrine or Commission in which the Good and Happiness of the World is concern'd I say by such Circumstances as these Wonderful Actions are known to be from a Divine Cause and that makes and distinguisheth a Miracle And thus I am prepared for an Answer to the Objection to which I make this brief return That though Witches by their Confederate Spirit do those odd and astonishing things we believe of them yet are they no Miracles there being evidence enough from the badness of their Lives and the ridiculous Ceremonies of their Performances from their malice and mischievous Designs that the Power that works and the end for which those things are done is not Divine but Diabolical And by singular Providence they are not ordinarily permitted as much as to pretend to any new Sacred Discoveries in Matters of Religion or to act any thing for confirmation of Doctrinal Impostures So that whether Miracles are ceased or not these are none And that such Miracles as are only strange and unaccountable Performances above the common Methods of Art or Nature are not ceas'd we have a late great evidence in the famous GREATREX concerning whom it will not be impertinent to add the following account which I had in a Letter from Dr. G. R. Lord Bishop of D. in the Kingdom of Ireland a Person of singular Piery and Vertue and a great-Philosopher He is pleased thus to write THe great discourse now at the Coffee-Houses and every-where is about M.G. the famous Irish Stroker concerning whom it is like you expect an account from me He undergoes various Censures here some take him to be a Conjurer and some an Impostor but others again adore him as an Apostle I confess I think the Man is free from all Design of a very agreeable Conversation not addicted to any Vice nor to any Sect or Party but is I believe a sincere Protestant I was three weeks together with him at my Lord Conwayes and saw him I think lay his hands upon a thousand Persons and really there is something in it more than ordinary but I am convinc'd it is not miraculous I have seen pains strangely fly before his hand till he hath chased them out of the Body Dimness cleared and Deafness cured by his Touch twenty Persons at several times in Fits of the Falling-Sickness were in two or three minutes brought to themselves so as to tell where their pain was and then he hath pursued it till he hath driven it out at some extream part Running Sores of the Kings-Evil dried up and Kernels brought to a Suppuration by his hand grievous Sores of many months date in few dayes healed Obstructions and Stoppings removed Cancerous Knots in the Breast dissolved c. But yet I have many Reasons to perswade me that nothing of all this is Miraculous He pretends not to give Testimony to any Doctrine the manner of his Operation speaks it to be natural the Cure seldom succeeds without reiterated Touches his Patients often relapse he fails frequently he can do nothing where there is any decay in Nature and many Distempers are not at all obedient to his Touch. So that I confess I refer all his Vertue to his particular Temper and Complexion and I take his Spirits to be a kind of Elixir and Vniversal Ferment and that he cures as Dr. M. expresseth it by a Sanative Contagion This Sir was the first Account of the Healer I had from that Reverend Person which with me signifies more than the Attestations of multitudes of ordinary Reporters and no doubt but it will do so likewise with all that know that excellent Bishop's singular Integrity and Judgment But besides this upon my inquiry into some other Particulars about this Matter I received these further Informations from the same Learned Hand As for M.G. what Opinion he hath of his own Gift and how he came to know it I Answer He hath a different apprehension of it from yours and mine and certainly believing it to be an immediate Gift from Heaven and 't is no wonder for he is no Philosopher And you will wonder less when you hear how he came to know it as I have often received it from his own Mouth About three or four years ago he had a strong impulse upon his Spirit that continually pursued him from what-ever he was about at his Business or Devotion alone or in company that spake to him by this inward Suggestion I have given thee the Gift of Curing the Evil. This Suggestion was so importunate that he