his greatest Followers imitating his submission would submit themselves first of all For in short as they know by evident Demonstrations not only that 't is God that is the Cause of the motion in the least portion of the Matter but also that it is his Omnipotent hand which directs ordereth it throughout it would be much more easie for them than others to conceieve that the same Hand can direct the Motions of the Sun and of all the Celestial Matter about the Earth so as it should not receive the least shaking from it For the rest I think I cannot repeat too often that M. Des Cartes hath not pretended that his Hypothesis was true in all and hath even acknowledged that it was not so in certain things But once more I esteem he had reason to think that it was allowable for Men to make suppositions and that they were all receivable so they did satisfie all the Appearances and were not contrary to Religion You 'l find in some of his Letters that he took much pains when he was about to advance certain Propositions to know whether they had been condemned It is by the Motives of this discreet apprehension that he dedicated his Meditations to the Doctors of the Sorbon And in short it appears in his whole Conduct that he would not for all the knowledge and Honour of the World run the hazard of an Anathema I must tell you also that I think I know some of the best Wits which are much addicted to his Tenets and I know not one of them that would not abandon them if they had been condemned I doubt whether the same would be done by those that follow Aristotle if his Opinions should be condemned anew I say anew because you know that they have been so by the Laws and even by a Council And yet although nothing have been changed since in the Canons about it many think they may follow him notwithstanding My chief Design is not to blame Aristotle I intend only to justifie M. Des Cartes and I think I have done it sufficiently I am Reverend Father Your Humble and Obedient Servant Des FOVRNEILLIS At Paris Nov. 6. 1669. THE GENERAL SYSTEME OF THE CARTESIAN PHILOSOPHY By Francois Bayle Dr. of Physick at Tholose Englished out of French LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Moses Pitt at the White Hart in Little Britain 1670. A TABLE of the HEAD' 's of this SYSTEME I. OF Metaphysicks II. Of Logick III. Of Physiology in general IV. Of the Productions in the Bowels of the Earth V. Of Meteors VI. Of Sensible Qualities VII Of Plants VIII Of Animals IX Of Man X. Of the Passions XI Of Morals and the Soveraign Good of Nature THE GENERAL SYSTEME OF THE CARTESIAN PHILOSOPHY Of METAPHYSICKS HE that will have a Metaphysical certainty of the Existence of things may with reason and even ought to call in question all which the Senses represent to us because they do ordinarily deceive us But whilst he doubts of the existence of the Objects of the Senses he cannot possibly doubt that he or that part of himself we call Soul which doubteth and thinketh exists And because Thinking alone maketh the Soul know its existence she is convinced that she is a Substance whose Essence or Nature is to Think and nothing else and consequently that she thinks alwayes Whence it also follows that the Soul is more assured of her Existence than of that of any other thing and that she knows her self better than any other thing since she cannot discover any propriety of it but she must discover in her self a new one that is the faculty or propriety to know it If the Soul makes reflection upon the Idaea's or Conceptions she hath she will find one of them which represents to her a Being infinitely perfect which is God And observing that this Idaea contains by representation an Infinity of Perfections she will be constrained to acknowledge that this Idaea could not be in her if this infinitely perfect Being which she represents had not lodged it there and consequently that this Being which is God exists And because this very same Idaea contains the external Existence of this infinitely perfect Being which she represents the Soul is obliged by a new conviction to avow that Existence belongs to the Essence of God and by consequence that he exists necessarily Lastly Forasmuch as the Soul knows that there is not any necessity for her to exist to day because she did exist yesterday she is thence convinced that she needs to be conserved and because Conservation is nothing but a continual Production she must needs confess that God to whom alone belongs this Production exists and that 't is in vain here to have recourse to a progress in infinitum because the matter in question is the present Conservation the first cause of which must exist The Idaea we have of God whereby we apprehend him to be a Being soveraignly perfect although it be not complete because it comprehends not explicitly all that is intelligible of him yet it is very clear and very distinct because it clearly shews us his whole Nature just as we say that a man knows the whole Nature of a Triangle when he knows a Superficies bounded by three Lines although he do not know many of its Proprieties which perhaps will never be all known to the best Geometers Being most assured that there is a God and his Nature being such that he cannot deceive us we are certain that we shall never erre in things we know clearly and distinctly Wherefore having clear and distinct Idaea's of the Corporeal Nature or of Substance in general and also in particular of some Bodies which present themselves dayly to our mind by the Senses and knowing besides that we are not the Causes of those Idaea's since we often have them against our will we must necessarily conclude that they are excited in us by sensible Beings that are without us and actually exist in the World and that these Beings are really distinct from the Soul because that her Nature is altogether different from theirs whence it follows that she is Immortal And because the Idea's which we have of things corporeal are often different we have cause to believe that the Beings which produce them are different also And because these Idaea's are sometimes renewed after they have ceased to be for some time and that we have no reason to believe that a thing which is once should be anihilated we are obliged to hold that there are Beings which last even when they are not felt and this is the only means we have to assure our selves of the existence of the Number and Duration of Sensible Beings We are not only assured of the Existence of Bodies but also that there is one which is more properly ours than all others because it accompanies us every where and the Motions made therein excite some Thoughts in our Soul and the Thoughts of
Tympanum or Drum The Sight hath for its Organ the Retina more particularly the other parts of the Eye making the Rayes of Light or Colours which come from divers points of the Objects to affect divers points of the Retina There are three inward particular Senses that of Thirst which hath its Seat in the Throat that of Hunger in the Stomach that of the Passions in the Heart The Sense called the Common Sense hath its Seat in the Brain and because the Animal Motion and the Functions of all the Senses depend upon the Spirits that come from the Bloud 't is therefore that the Scripture saith that the Soul of the Beasts is in the Bloud Of MAN MAn is made up not only of a Body which as that of Animals hath a peculiar structure of Organs wherein consists in some sense the Form of this Body but also of a Soul which is the true and essential Form of Man or of the Humane Body as such after the manner that Aristotle taketh this Word Form in his First Book of Generation Chap. 10. By reason of the Union which is between the Soul and the Body the Impressions which the Objects make upon the Senses are cause that there do result in the Soul certain Sensations And not only the Soul perceiveth many Motions that are made in the Body but she also is able to produce or to hinder them 'T is true that this is only done by variously determining the Motion of the Animal Spirits by her Thoughts Man hath as many Exteriour and Interiour Senses as Animals but with this difference that in these all the Action of the Senses consists in the Motion of the Corporeal Organ whereas in Man the motion of the Organ is accompanied with a Thought or Perception of the Soul which is called the Sentiment of Sound of Light of Colour c. Of the PASSIONS MAn hath also his Passions which are perceptions of the Sentiments or Commotions of the Soul which are referred particularly to her and which are caused entertained and fortified by some Motion of the Spirits Admiration is a sudden surprisal of the Soul which maketh that she is carried with attention to consider the Objects that seem rare and extraordinary to her Love is a perception or motion of the Soul caused by the motion of the Spirits inciting her to join her self by the Will to the Objects which appear agreeable to her Hatred is a motion caused by the Spirits which inciteth the Soul to a separation from the Objects which present themselves as disagreeable or hurtful to her Desire is an agitation of the Soul caused by the Spirits which disposeth her to will future things which she represents to her self as sutable and beneficial Joy is an agreeable commotion of the Soul caused by the enjoyment she finds in a good which the Impressions of the Brain represent to her as hers Sadness is an unpleasing Languor caused by the Incommodities which the Soul receiveth of the Evil of Defect which the Impressions of the Brain represent to her as concerning her self These six Passions are primitive and all the Genus's whose Species all the others are According to the Institution of Nature all the Passions refer to the Body and are not given to the Soul but forasmuch as she is joined to 〈◊〉 So that their natural use consists only in this that they fortisie and make lasting in the Soul those Thoughts which 't is good she should conserve and by which she is incited to consent and to contribute to the Actions that may serve to keep the Body or to render it in some manner more perfect As also all the Evil which they can occasion consists in that they strengthen and entertain thoughts more than needs or else that they keep others which it is not good to indulge to Of MORALITY Of the Soveraign Natural Good IF we consider Goodness with relation to our selves the Soveraign Good of the Soul of every one in particular consists in a firm and constant will to do well and in the contentment produced thereby And 't is herein that all Virtues do consist Justice for example is nothing but a constant Will to give to every one what we judge to belong to him Boldness nothing but a constant Will to execute things dangerous when we believe them to be the best Humility nothing but a constant Will never to prefer ourselves before others and to think that others have their Free Will as well as we can use it as well as we c. Now 't is this alone which deserveth Praise and Honour 't is from hence alone that the greatest and most solid Contentment of Life results and consequently wherein the Soveraign Good consists There are two sorts of Indifference which appertain to humane Liberty One is from the Object 's part and this is not Essential on the contrary we are never more free than when we are less indifferent The other consists in the real and positive faculty we have to determin our selves to the one or the other of two Contraries and this is always found in the Will and agreeth perfectly well with all the impressions that are caused in her from God's part although we do not conceive how this agreement is made The Angels and the Saints in Heaven do love God freely but their Liberty consists not as Ours doth in a positive faculty to determin themselves to the one or the other of two Contraries but only in this that seeing God Soveraignly Good they love him in such a manner that they feel not any exteriour force constraining them thereto FINIS
were to be disposed for that purpose Wherefore chusing from among all the Figures those which might be most proper for the little Bodies which cause Light and seeing that those which he had described as Globules being moved in a certain manner would be satisfactory to all that is known of the Rayes which are made by the Light M. Des Cartes hath supposed that there were formed divers Vortexes or Whirl-pools of these little round Bodies and that many of them turning round about one and the same Center a part of the matter which fills up their Intervalls was gathered towards the Center whence it did propel the Globules which surrounded it so that this pressure of the Globules made Light in all those places where was found a sufficient conflux and heap of subtile matter But he adds that as in this beginning there was not yet a great plenty of these more subtil parts in the Centers of the Whirlpools the action which pressed the Globules did not reach far so that the places which its effect could not reach to remained in darkness whilst the other were already enlightned which agreeth admirably with the effect which Moses ascribeth to the first Word of the Lord which did separate the Light from the Darkness from the time it began to form it From thence also we may say according to Genesis that the Night was where the Darkness had remained and the Day where the Light had begun You will observe that by the Word Light we are here to understand nothing else but that which is the cause that the Bodies called Luminous excite in us the sentiment which makes us perceive them and not the sentiment it self Men do often confound these two things and 't is certainly from thence that all the doubts proceed that are met with on this Subject But me thinks that in what Moses hath written of Light 't is evident that he would only speak of what is found on the part of the Bodies and not of the Effect which it produceth in such Subjects as are capable to have the sense of it since it is certain according to Moses that when that which is called Light was created there was yet none of the other Creatures which are esteemed capable to perceive it I desire you to observe by the by another thing which is That this sentiment which we have from Luminous Bodies is in such a manner on the part of our Soul and hath such a necessary respect to the motion of certain parts of our Brain that very often without the excitation of the nerves of our Eyes by any Luminous body we have the sense of Light Thus in Dreams the fortuitous course of the Spirits moving those parts of our Brain the agitation whereof is designed to excite in us that sentiment maketh us clearly see Objects that are not present And by the same reason those who marching in a very obscure place hurt their head against the Wall are subject to see a thousand Fires whence we are to conclude that those motions of the Brain which have nothing that resembleth the thoughts which arise in the Soul on their occasion may be excited by other Bodies than those we call Luminous But it was very proper not to give this name but to Bodies whose figure and motion were so proportionate to the fineness and tenderness of our Eyes that their nerves might be moved by them without pain and without danger to the other parts of our Body Wherein me thinks M. Des Cartes hath succeeded admirably well it being not possible to assign to Luminous Bodies a fitter Figure than that which he hath given them nor a motion more convenient than that which he hath ascribed to them The SECOND DAY MOses relating what passed the Second Day for the formation of the Firmament expresseth himself in these terms God said let the Firmament be in the midst of the Waters and let it separate the one from the other He adds that the Firmament was presently made and the Waters were separated from the Waters so that there were some of them above and some under the Firmament which he called Heaven To understand how the Waters were separated one from the other by the formation of the Firmament according to the sentiment of M. Des Cartes we shall need only to relate what he teacheth of the Waters and of the Firmament Those who have read what he hath written thereof do know that after he had considered all the effects of Water he conceived that the particles which compose it must be smooth long and pliant and that by this supposition alone he hath rendred a reason of all what is observed in Water whether it be running or whether it enlarge it self in a Vessel or whether we see it in drops or in the form of a Scum or whether it rise in Vapours or whether remaining without motion it appear in Ice or Snow We know also that he supposeth that there hath been a great number of these particles very smooth and very pliant mingled with other bodies a great part of which had figures so embarassing that their Aggregate could form no other but hard Masses Lastly We know that he supposeth these last particles have been the matter of many Masses almost like the Earth and forasmuch as these Masses could not be very solid very hard but by an extream pressing of the Branchy particles which compose them it is evident that the particles of water which were mixed therewith were driven out of it and that so the surfaces of those great Masses were to be altogether covered with it This being supposed it is now to be observed that according to M. Des Cartes the formation of the Firmament is nothing else but a perfect disposition and ranging of all the Whirlpools of which I have already spoken in the Subject of Light Their number is so great and the space they fill so vast that the word Firmament according to the truest interpretation signifieth a vast extension There is nothing that deserveth more this name than their Aggregate But as we ought to mark the time of the formation of every thing only from the moment which giveth it its perfection M. Des Cartes having supposed that the Aggregate of all the whirlpools was not yet well ordered when the Light began nor their motion very free doth mark the time of the formation of the Firmament then only when they were so well adjusted that the Ecliptick of the one answering to the Poles of the other they began to move among themselves with a motion altogether free and so proportioned that not any one received a Let from all those which encompassed it 'T is at this instant that according to Des Cartes's Hypothesis the Masses which were in the same Vortex where the Earth was began to be separated from it by the matter of that Vortex which insinuated it self betwixt them and which kept them more or less distant from the Center
according to the difference of their grossness or solidity Now as we have noted that they were all covered with their Waters and that the matter of the Vortexes which according to this Doctrine is the matter of the Firmament separated them from the Earth it was true to say following the same Doctrine as well as that of Genesis that the Waters were severed from the Waters by the formation of the Firmament Thus M. Des Cartes who seems always to follow Moses disposeth the Waters so that they are some above and some under the Firmament For we know that what the Prophet calls in this place Vnder is the Earth we inhabit and all that is severed from it by the Celestial matter may be said in respect of us to be above the Firmament I do not explain this more at large nor do I examine how well these different Conservatories of Waters which M. Des Cartes placeth in several parts of Heaven do represent those Cataracts whence the Lord drew forth at the time of his wrath what served to overwhelm the Earth Neither do I make reflection upon the Changes which have happened to the Earth by this super-abundance of Waters This is perhaps the cause of the Clouds Rains and the first apparition of that admirable Phaenomenon which the Lord made use of to secure Noah against the apprehensions of a new Deluge when he promised him to shut up for ever those Cataracts which he had opened for his vengeance but this would carry us too far The THIRD DAY THe Third Day Moses observeth that the Waters covering the Globe of the Earth it was convenient to gather them together into certain places to the end that the other parts thereof remaining discovered the Earth might produce Herbs Plants and Trees of all kinds He saith that the same word which had operated the wonders of the precedent days wrought that also To which he adds that what appeared dry was called Earth and the collection of the Waters Sea Now it is evident that if the Earth had remained perfectly round the waters could not have been gathered into places to leave others dry We must therefore believe that the same day which saw the separation of the Waters from the Earth saw also the formation of the Hills and that certain parts of the Earth being raised above others left Vallies betwixt them for Beds to the waters and Cavities under their Elevations to receive a quantity of water approaching to that which should appear no more 'T is thus that M. Des Cartes explicateth the matter He declareth also how the Earth was enabled to produce herbs plants and trees and how the different Juices which run within the bosom of the Earth insinuate themselves into several Seeds whose pores are adapted to their figure I desire you in this place to observe that Moses saith not that God made any Soul for Plants he only saith that the Earth rendred fertile by the word of the Lord did produce them But those Philosophers who have alwaies had recourse to Souls when they would explicate the effects of certain Organical Bodies of which they could not discover the Springs have given one to every Plant. They have believed that it was impossible to give an accompt of Vegetation without it But M. Des Cartes without adding any thing to the Scripture where Moses speaketh of Plants of their Seeds of their increase and fruit without speaking of any Soul hath believed there needed none to be supposed to give a reason of their Nutrition and he hath so clearly shewed that Vegetation is performed by the local motion of the parts which come in afresh and by the fitness of their figure to the pores of that plant which they are proper to increase that I think I may assure that there is none how little soever accustomed to Ratiocination but will acknowledge after he hath examined what he saith on this Subject that there remains not the least probability to maintain that Plants have Souls Yet you know that there are yet some who will defend that there are Vegetative Souls But what I pray can authorize them Not Reason surely That tells us all that things ought not to be multiplied without necessity and since we do manifestly see that Figure and Motion may be the entire cause of Vegetation we ought not to no purpose have recourse to Souls Nor can it be the Authority either of Man or of the H. Scripture for that of Man cannot be considerable against the evidence of natural Notions and against the Experiments by which this Errour is convinced As to that of Sacred Writ it is manifest that that is not on their side and nothing appears there that may come near to what they would attribute to Plants viz. a Vegetative Soul The FOURTH DAY THe Fourth Word did form two great Luminaries in the Firmament to divide perfectly the Day from the Night and to mark the difference of Dayes Seasons and Years The same Word formed also the Stars according to the History of Moses M. Des Cartes explaining this as a Naturalist saith that the several Vortexes which had been formed of all the Celestial matter having been adapted to one another as was most convenient for the continuation of their motions there flowed so much of the most subtil matter towards the Center of each of them by the pressure of the Globules which tended to recede from it that at length each of the Whirlpools came to have in his middle so great a quantity of this matter that it was able to propel the globules to the extremities ' of the Whirlpool and by this action to form such Rays as those are whose force makes us see the shining Sun He adds that this subtil matter gathered at the Center of each Vortex may have force enough to thrust the Globules of the Neighbouring Vortexes and to make there its action sensible So that according to this Author the shining collection of subtil matter which was made in the Center of this Vortex wherein was the Earth was in respect of it the greatest Luminary that is the Sun Those that were made in the other Vortexes were Stars and that of all the great Masses which was found nearest and most disposed to propel towards it the Light of the Sun was the lesser Luminary that is the Moon I shall say no more of it and 't is so well known that the difference of Dayes Nights and Seasons comes from the different situation wherein the Earth the Sun other Stars are found that I should be tedious to repeat here what M. Des Cartes hath written on this Subject The FIFTH SIXTH DAY THe Fifth Day God said Let the Waters produce the Moving Creature that hath a living Soul and Fowl that fly above the Earth And the Sixth Day he said Let the Earth bring forth the Living Creature after its kind Cattel and creeping things and Beasts of the Earth I do not add the rest for it is
enough to say that God would have it so to let men know that it was so This Place teaching us that if it may be said that Fish and the other Brute Animals have Souls these Souls are produced by the Waters and the Earth M. Des Cartes had reason to believe that what is here called Soul is nothing else but little Bodies so adjusted to the Organs of Fishes and other Brutes that they make them live move and grow He hath admirably explained upon this Subject the Circulation of the Bloud the manner how it is heated in the Heart how it runs into the Arteries whose different pores let out the particles which their figure maketh fit for the nourishment of the Members and how the finest parts of all extricate themselves from the rest to go to the Brain whence they are distributed into Muscles where they serve for the motion of the whole Body He doth give such an accurate accompt of all these things only by the figure and the motion of the little Bodies and the disposition of the Organs that there can remain no doubt of them And that it may not seem a wonder what he saith of the heat of the Bloud which he maketh the chief Spring of all those Functions commonly called Vital and Animal he proves that they must necessarily be performed by Bodies without the need of any Soul adding to his Reasons the example of certain Liquors which are cold to the touch when they are asunder but grow presently hot even to a degree of ebullition when they are blended together As this effervescence happens to Liquors which are not so much as suspected to have Souls M. Des Cartes hath me thinks advanced nothing but what is rational when he saith That the heat of the Bloud joined to the disposition and the dependance of the Organs is able without a Soul to cause the nutrition and motion of Brutes Me thinks also that he had reason since what the Vulgar Translation calls a Living Soul was produced by the Waters and the Earth to believe that this kind of Souls were only Bodies And indeed there are so many places whereby we may know that this was the meaning of Moses that 't is a wonder to me to find men still doubting thereof I should tire you to recite them all to you let me only desire you to reflect a little on Lev. 17. 11. where you will plainly find what it is that enlivens Flesh and Beasts The Soul of all Flesh is in the Bloud The same saith M. Des Cartes But Deut. 12. 23. Moses expresseth himself yet more clearly to make us understand that Beasts have no other Souls than the Bloud Only be sure that thou eat not the Bloud for the Bloud is the Soul And that it might be yet more understood he adds And therefore thou maist not eat the Soul but shalt pour it upon the Earth as water Is there not then all the reason in the world that those Souls which the earth produceth which may be eaten and poured out upon the earth as water should be counted among Bodies I grant indeed that the bloud when it is heated is exhaled in very subtil parts and that these fine parts are those which do nourish and move But how subtil soever they be they are Bodies and they have nothing more of spiritual in them than flame composed of parts yet more subtil which yet never any man was so unadvised as to call spiritual I wonder for my part that those who have given Souls to all that is nourish'd have given none to a Flame which converts into it all the bodies it lays hold on And what is more I wonder how men could come to attribute to Souls the cause of Nutrition and Motion whereas we see nothing but Body that is capable to be moved and that Nutrition is nothing else but an addition of Bodies to Bodies But without insisting so much upon Ratiocination is it not visible that Moses who certainly ought to be believed acknowledges no other thing for the cause of the motion and nutrition of Beasts but the bloud I think not that any man who considers it will contend about it any longer But that you may the better know the force of all these passages which hitherto I have only taken according to the Vulgar Translation and which according to this version leave no difficulty although the word Soul have been there employed I shall now make use of a means which wil prevail upon your spirit and better perswade you than any other You know more than one Language and among others you know the Hebrew which I understand not I shall tell you then that a while ago reflecting on that place of Scripture where is described the work of the Fifth and that of the Sixth Day there appeared to me so great a difference betwixt the manner in which the formation of Brutes and that of Man was made that I believed what word soever was used in the Vulgar there must be used very differing Expressions in the Hebrew I saw that the Vulgar said that the Beasts have a Living Soul and that the same Translation used the same word to signifie the Life of Man But I found withal that besides that living Soul which the Vulgar gives to Man as it doth to Brutes 't is added that Man was made to the Image of his Maker whom I knew to be a pure Spirit Whence I concluded that since this Resemblance could not be drawn from the Body the Creator having none it must needs be taken from something of a superiour order and in a word from the Spirit To this I added what the Vulgar expresseth speaking of Man in the Second Chap. of Gen. Where I saw that the Lord who had made him a living Creature as the Beasts had breathed into him something which Beasts had not and which me thought should be in him the Principle of a Life altogether different from theirs and the cause of that advantageous resemblance which he was to have with his Maker All these things did already sway much with me for the advantage of Man but believing that I might yet better discover the sense of those places by getting the Interpretation of the Hebrew I consulted Monsieur de Compiegne who is known to be the ablest we have in this Language I prayed him to give me the Version of the first and second Chapter of Genesis and in this Version I found the full proof of what I always thought and of what M. Des Cartes had written on this Subject For I saw that in the place which speaks of the Production of Fishes and other Brutes where the Vulgar saith Let the Waters and the Earth bring forth Living Souls my Interpreter said Let the Earth and the Water produce Living Individuals which carrieth with it a very good sense and expresseth the thing in a far more conceivable manner For it is very intelligible that the Earth and Waters have
our Soul produce reciprocally some Motions in the Body Which convinceth us of the Union there is between the Soul and the Body which consists not only in their mutual presence but in a true mode which in its nature is such that we cannot comprehend it by our Understanding nor by our Imagination but we infer it only by the Experiments of the Senses Our Errors proceed from the ill use of our Freedom in that our Will being in some manner of a vaster extent than our Understanding we do not contain that within the Bounds of this but we either judge of things we do not clearly conceive or we judge of them otherwise than we conceive them For it belongs to the Understanding alone to conceive or to represent Objects simply whereas the Judgment and all other determination is an Act of the Will The chief perfection of Man consists in the good use of his Freedom and in never judging otherwise of things than he conceives them which is so proper to every one that even those who have their Understanding less enlightened may altogether possess this perfection forasmuch as 't is alwayes in their power to suspend their Judgment that is to keep themselves from asserting or from denying a thing of which they have not clear and distinct Idaea's which is to be understood of those only that belong to the Instruction of the Mind for very often we ought not to look for evidence in things which concern the Conduct of our Life and less in those which pertain to Religion because knowing evidently that God cannot deceive us and that there are infinite things in him which are above the reach of our Spirit his Authority ought to produce in us a certainty which surpasseth that of the greatest Evidence We may distinguish three degrees in each sense In the first we are to consider nothing but the Motion which the external Objects do immediately cause in the corporeal Organ and 't is this alone we have common with Brutes The second contains all that results immediately in our Mind because it is united to the Corporeal Organ mov'd and dispos'd by those Objects Such are the Sentiments of Heat of Titillation c. And this is all we ought to refer to Sense if we will exactly distinguish it from the Vnderstanding The third comprehends all the Judgments which we have been accustom'd to make from our Infancy concerning things that are about us upon the occasion of the Impressions that are made in the Organs of our Senses and 't is in these Judgments that our principal Errors do consist so that when we say that the certainty of our Understanding is greater than that of our Senses we mean nothing else than that the judgments we form in a riper age by reason of some new Observations we have made are more certain than those we have formed from our Infancy without having reflected on them Of LOGICK IT cannot be said that the Precepts which are commonly taught in Schools are to be altogether rejected or despised since they are established upon very good Reasons nor that a great number of Questions which are treated therein and which at first sight appear odd enough are of no use For although it be not valuable to know the truths which they explain yet the difficulty there is in examining them exerciseth the Mind and renders it more able to penetrate and to clear up the Difficulties which are met with in weighty matters provided Men use this Caution that by too much applying the Mind to those things which subsist no otherwise than in an Idaea they be not taken for real Beings and such as do exist without the Understanding Thus Geometricians make themselves capable promptly to explicate the most difficult Problemes in those matters which are of use in the life of Man by exercising themselves in the most knotty and the most abstract Questions of Algebra and by making Magical Squares and other things which are of no use in themselves But to speak precisely no man of good sense that acts candidly and labours only to find out Truth either alone or jointly with others without any design of deceiving them and without any ground of fearing to be deceived himself by any Sophism needs any other Precepts of Logick but these four ensuing The first is never to receive any thing for true which is not evidently known to be such that is never to take in more into our Judgments than what presents it self so clearly and so distinctly that we cannot at all doubt thereof The second to divide each of the difficulties which we discuss into as many small parts as is possible and necessary for examining them the better The third orderly to conduct our Thoughts by beginning with the most simple and the most easily knowable Objects and so by degrees to ascend to the knowledge of the more compounded The fourth to make throughout such complete Enumerations and such universal Reviews that we be assured we omit nothing Of NATURAL PHILOSOPHY Of the Systeme of the World and the Causes of the Disposition and Order of the most considerable parts thereof THE extension into length breadth and thickness is that we call Body or First Matter and whosoever shall attentively consider the Idaea he hath of this Matter will be convinced that a Vacuum is impossible that Rarefaction is made only by the acquisition of some new Matter and Condensation by the loss of some other that the interior place of a Body is not different from that Body that the World is indefinite that 't is repugnant there be more Worlds than one although there may be many Bodies that may be inhabited as our Earth is that the Matter of the Heavens and that of things Sublunary are of the same kind Lastly that a Cubique Foot of Lead holds not more Matter than a Cubique Foot of Cork Divisibility Figure and Impenetrability are the Essential Proprieties of Matter Motion Light Colours c. are its common Accidents That which Philophers call the Quantity of a Body is not the extension of that Body precisely but its Extension as such that is forasmuch as it may be measur'd by such and such a number of Feet Fathoms or the like measure Divisibility is the most fertil of all the proprieties of Matter 't is from thence that the several Magnitudes and Figures of her parts are derived and from the different disposition of these do proceed all the different Beings which make up the World The Matter cannot be actually divided but by Local Motion and this being taken formally is nothing else but the successive application of a Body in all it hath outwardly to the several parts of the Bodies which touch it immediately Motion which is called Efficient consists in the force or power of moving which God from the beginning hath put into the parts of the Matter and which he still conserveth therein in the same quantity for which cause he is called the
given to the Pores of Hard Bodies when we bend them is the dispositive Cause of the force they have of redressing themselves and the Matter of the second Element passing through these Pores is the Efficient Cause of the same The Suppleness of hard Bodies consisteth in the texture and connection of their parts Their Fragility in that their parts do but immediately touch without being otherwise locked in with one another The Heat of hot Bodies consists in the agitation of all their insensible parts about their own Center whence it follows that the greater this agitation is the stronger is the heat and consequently there can be nothing hotter than a Flame there being nothing more agitated as Experience confirms it All the diversities of Flames proceed from this that the parts which compose them are more or less gross and consequently more or less capable to agitate the Bodies which are the Subject of their Action The propriety of Heat is always to dissipate and never to congregate but by accident Forasmuch as it consists in Motion it must rarifie certain Bodies and condense others at the same time according as the parts of those Bodies are equal or unequal and diversly ranged and disposed Cold consists in whatsoever can make an hot Body lose that kind of Motion wherein Heat consists and because one Body cannot take from another Body the Motion it hath without losing the same it self it follows from thence that whatever Body refrigerates another must grow hot it self Odors in scenting Objects are nothing else than the insensible parts of the same which being sever'd from one another swim up and down in the Air and being taken in together with the inspired Air excite a Motion in the extremities of the Olfactory Nerves which they do so many several ways as we find several kinds of Smells Tasts in savoury Bodies consist only in the parts of the same forasmuch as they are subtil enough and sufficiently agitated to penetrate the Pores of the Tongue and to move the Nerves serving for the Organ of Tast All the diversity of Tasts depends upon the size shape and motion of the Savoury Bodies Sound is double the one from the Body resonant which is called the primitive cause of Sound and the other from the Medium which ordinarily is the Air. The Sound of this latter consists only in a simple tremulous Motion of the Air which striketh our Ear and exciteth the Organ of Hearing The Sound from the resonant Body consists in general in the force it hath to excite that trembling in the Air but in particular this force depends upon many Modes of Being which are very different as appears in Bells and strings of Instruments A sharp sound comes from thence that the trepidations of the Air do closely follow one upon another The grave that those Motions of the Air are less frequent The Consonancies and Dissonancies depend upon this that the impressions which several resonant Bodies make in the Air at the same time do meet or not meet at all Light in luminous Bodies consists in an actual Motion of all their parts and in transparent Bodies it depends upon this that the Matter of the second Element which is in their Pores and which reacheth to our Eyes is thrust forward by the parts of the luminous Body whence it follows 1. That it is not so much a Motion as an inclination to Motion 2. That it passeth in an instant to all sorts of distances 3. That it is nothing material in the Medium through which it passeth and that it doth but mark in what manner the Luminous Body acts against that which it enlightens 4. That many Lights do not confound one another 5. That Light must refract and reflect and in short have all those proprieties that are observed in it Colours in general are nothing else but Light it self modified by the Surface of the Bodies we call colour'd The White Colour particularly consists in this that the Superficies of the white Body is asperated by innumerable small Surfaces of an almost specular nature which are so placed that some looking this way and some that way they yet reflect the Rays of Light falling on them not towards one another but outwards to our Eyes The Black consists in this that the Surface of the Black Body is asperous after such a manner that it altogether deads the Rays of Light which fall upon it and keeps them from reflecting back again to the Spectators eyes All other Colours consist in this that the Superficies of the Bodies thus coloured are in such a manner unequal that the little Globes of the second Element which enter into the composition of the Rays encountring them do reflect losing a part of their direct Motion and acquiring in stead of it somewhat of a Circular Motion And 't is also in the several proportions to be met with between these two Motions that all the several Colours do consist And because these Proportions may be changed a thousand different wayes 't is no wonder we see so many different Colours The Humors which compose our Eyes are contrived by Nature to determine the Rayes that come from one and the same point of the Object to re-unite in one and the same point of the Retina whence 't is that it may be said that there is formed a true Image of the Object on the bottom of the Eye Yet this Image doth not consist in a resemblance to the Object but only in this that it is capable to give to the Soul an occasion to perceive all the several Qualities of the Objects which it relateth to which it doth by the simple Motions wherein it consists Although one only Object imprints two Images at once in the two Eyes yet we do not therefore see double because the Eyes are not the immediate Organs of Sight but the Brain alone in which the two Impressions made in the Eyes do re-unite by the intervention of the Sympaticall strings of the Optick Nerves before the Soul perceives it Of PLANTS THE form of Plants consists in the particular texture of their Fibres and in the size shape and disposition of the parts which compose them Whence do result in Plants such Channels and Tubes as are fit to receive those Juices which are proper for them and no other and the Matter of the first and second Element is determined to make those Juices to run to be variously agitated and fermented to concoct and prepare them that they may serve according to their several parts for Matter to nourish the Wood Pith and Bark and to produce Leaves Flowers and Fruits The Vicissitude of Day and Night of Winds warm and cold dry and moist contributeth much to cause the Juice which from the Root of the Plant hath passed into the Bark to be attenuated to run with more force to jelly and fix and to run afresh As the vicissitude of the Seasons of the Year maketh that this Juice runs more
plenteously sometimes to the Body and Branches and sometimes towards the Roots When this Juice is too copious it relaxeth the texture of the Fibres of Plants and suffocates their natural Heat which depends upon the quantity of the first Element agitating that Juice whose force ceaseth assoon as the Interstices of the Fibres do considerably change their natural state If this Juice be in too small a quantity the Plant is dried up little by little but if it be too copious or if the shapes of its parts are very different from those of the Pores of the Plant it spoyles and destroyes the woof of the fibres in the Bark of the Roots or maketh it degenerate into another Plant especially in its first rise by changing this same texture and thereby making it fit to receive the Juice by which that Plant is nourish'd into which 't is made to degenerate Whence it is that certain Seeds are infallibly corrupted when they are cast into certain Earths and that others degenerate in them as Wheat sometimes produces Tares or Barley or Oats It is not at all necessary that there should be a Soul in Plants to cause the Juice which serveth them for nourishment to be distributed into all the parts to increase them and to form Flowers and Fruits no more than there needs a Soul to make Liquors rise to a considerable height in filtration or in a little Tube of Glass against their own weight variously to fix themselves according to the diversity of their parts and of the Channels through which they run Plants have their life potentially or in the first act as the Schools speak by the sole contrivance and structure of their parts but they live actually when the Juice runs through their Pores c. Of ANIMALS THE Form of Animals as that of Plants consists in the Magnitude Figure and Structure of the parts of which they are composed with this difference that the nature of Animals is of a more complicated and more excellent contrivance by reason of the manifold and more particular functions they have need of for their conservation For they not being fixed to the Earth as Plants are to draw thence their nourishment it was requisite that they should be able to move to and fro for finding their necessary food and that they should be composed so artificially that the little particles which exhale out of Bodies or the Light which results thence striking certain Organs might be able to determine them to pursue after that which should be convenient for them to flee from or to repel that which should be noxious to them Forasmuch as most of the Motions that are observ'd in Animals are accompanied in us with some knowledge it hath been believed that there was in Animals a principle of knowledge which is called the Sensitive Soul that produced them without considering that the same Motions are very often made in us without our Soul 's contributing any thing to them seeing she doth not think on them and that at times they are made against her will And those can hardly disabuse themselves who do not know that God hath put motion into Matter in general that he hath contriv'd the Bodies of Animals after a certain way and that he hath establish'd certain Rules of Motion But those that have this knowledge observing that they see nothing but Motion in brute Animals they find the true cause of it in the general state of the world and the determination in the particular structure of the the Body of Brutes and they know by the Laws of the Mechanicks the necessity there is it should be done in such a manner What concerns the Nutrition of Animals the Food they have swallow'd is digested and changed into Chyle in the Stomach by a gentle fermentation which is wrought by the mixture made of the Aliments and Spittle and the acid Juice which is distill d into the Stomach and of the remainder of the precedent Food There is also made in the small Intestines another fermentation by the means of the Gall and the Pancreatique Juice which maketh the Chyle more fluid and causeth the good to be more easily separable from what is useless and gross The Chyle is changed into Bloud in the Heart by a special fermentation which is there made by the means of a Fire that shineth not and of the fermented Bloud which remains in the Heart to which the mixture of the Lympha contributeth not a little which comes from above and that of the Gall which comes from beneath together with the Bloud which is conveyed by the Vena Cava into the right Ventricle of the Heart The Ears of the Heart two Muscles of an admirable structure which shews their use do propel the Bloud in the Ventricles of the Heart when this relaxeth or subsideth and the Heart closing it self after the Bloud is ratified and fermented thrusts it towards all the parts of the Body by the Arteries which then make the motion called the Pulse for Nutrition But what sticks not to the parts is carried from the Lungs to the Heart by the Venal Artery and from the rest of the Body by the Vena Cava The most spirituous part of the Bloud is carried to the Brain where the Spirits are separated from it to serve for the functions call'd Animal whence flowing into the Nerves that pass to the Organs of Sense and filling them they keep their fibres tense whilst the Animal is awake Hence it is that the impressions of the Objects can be transmitted into the Brain and there change the disposition of the extremities of the Nerves that are distributed in certain Muscles and determine the Spirits to flow there to make them swell and to move the Members to which these Muscles are fixed And because there may be an infinite variety in the Impressions made by the Objects upon the Senses there may also be an innumerable variety in the determinations of the Spirits to flow into the Muscles and by consequence an infinite variety in the Motions of Animals and that the more because there is a greater variety of parts and more contrivance and Art in the structure During Sleep the Nerves of the Organs of the Senses not being full nor their fibres tense the impressions of the Objects unless they be very violent are not transmitted to the Brain to determine there any Motion There are five outward Senses and they all receive the impression of the Objects by mediate or immediate contact The grossest Sense is called the Touch to which all the Membranous and Nervous parts serve for Organ The Tast hath it Seat in that woof of Nervous Filaments which is spred over the Tongue and Palat but chiefly upon the end of the Tongue The Smell hath its Residence in that fine Membrane which is extended in the cavity of the Nostrils The Hearing hath for its Organ small Nerves which end in the extremities of that Membrane we call the
A DISCOURSE Written to a LEARNED FRIER BY M. DES FOVRNEILLIS SHEWING That the SYSTEME of M. DES CARTES and particularly his Opinion concerning BRUTES does contain nothing dangerous and that all he hath written of both seems to have been taken out of the First Chapter of GENESIS To which is annexed the SYSTEME GENERAL Of the same CARTESIAN PHILOSOPHY By Francis Bayle Dr. of Physick at Tholose Englished out of French LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Moses Pitt at the White Hart in Little Britain 1670. A DISCOURSE Written to a Learned Frier shewing that the Systeme of M. Des Cartes and particularly his Opinion concerning Brutes does contain nothing dangerous and that all he hath written of both seems to have been taken out of the First Chapter of GENESIS My Reverend Father I Know very well that Moses hath not written his Genesis with a design to explain to men the Secrets of Nature but I do also know that being inspired by God as he was he could say nothing about the production of the World which is not true And therefore I esteem that to find the Principles of Natural Philosophy infallible they are not to be sought but in that History which He hath given us of the Creation of the World or at least that we ought to esteem false whatever is said of Nature when it cannot be reconciled with all the Circumstances of this History Do not wonder therefore that I so often refer you to Genesis and that I lay so much weight upon the Principles of Monsieur Des Cartes Most of his Tenets are so conform to what Moses hath said that it seems he became a Philosopher only by the Reading of this Prophet But that you may the more easily apprehend how great an agreement there is between that Sacred Writing and his Philosophy I intend to expound unto you the first Chapter of Genesis literally and you 'l see that in doing so I shall discourse to you almost the same things which I told you last when I explained to you the Principles of M. Des Cartes The only difference you 'l find is that M. Des Cartes writeth things more particularly and with a design to make them known what they are in themselves whereas Moses writeth like an Historian who discourseth of Nature only so far as was needful to make us admire the power of the Author thereof Thus the one speaketh only of the principal things and the other dives more into particulars and yet all these particulars are clearly nothing else but a more ample explication and a Sequel of those main things which Moses hath recited in so concise so bold and so true a manner I told you the other day that M. Des Cartes in the beginning of his Principles useth much reasoning to shew That there is a God That all what is is only by him That he begun this great piece of Workmanship which we call the World by creating Bodies That from that time he moved them and that he still continues to move them I also told you that among so many differences which the Figures may make between Bodies M. Des Cartes takes notice of three principal ones that he shews there is a very great Number of such as are round like little Balls others subtil enough to fill the spaces left by these Balls between themselves and others again whose irregular Figures do so entangle them one with another that they may compose the greater Masses I added that examining the several changes which the Matter or the Aggregate of all these Bodies may have suffered successively M. Des Cartes sheweth that there may have been formed many Masses of different bignesses of a figure approaching to that of the Earth above which he sheweth that there was to remain a number of particles some like those which compose the Water and others like those which compose the Fire That this Aggregate of Earth Water and Air was to be mixed and surrounded with an almost infinite number of those little Bodies made in the form of Globules and with these other subtiler ones that were to fill up their Intervalls And that lastly M. Des Cartes repeats often that God entertains in a continual motion this subtile matter which else could not be moved Now all this if you mark it is nothing else than to describe Philosophically and exactly for the making out of the least circumstances of it the same wonders which Moses hath described Historically in these few Lines God created in the beginning Heaven and Earth Now the Earth was void and brought forth nothing because it was covered with deep waters Darkness was upon the face of this Abyss and the Lord moved a subtil matter upon the Waters He that shall well examine what the Prophet hath said will find that 't is the same thing which the Philosopher hath endeavoured to explain The FIRST DAY IF we shall follow the one in the progress of his Reasonings and the other in the progress of his History we may judge that it is of Moses that Des Cartes hath learned that the Light was made before the Sun at least it will appear that this place of Genesis which for so many ages hath perplexed mens spirits is found happily cleared according to the Letter by the Principles of M. Des Cartes Moses having shewed that the Earth was infertile because of the Waters encompassing it and the Celestial matter useless because the motions of it were not regulated he goes on to shew that God who does nothing in vain began for the ordering of all these things with the Creation of Light He expresseth himself magnificently as he is wont to do and maketh the Almighty speak on this occasion in such a manner which is capable all alone to perswade that it is the Lord himself that made him speak thus Behold his Expressions And God said Let there be Light and there was Light He adds That God saw his work was good that he divided the Light from the Darkness and that he gave the name of Day to the Light and the name of Night to Darkness There is no man of good sense who sees not that Moses having declared that in the beginning God created Heaven Earth that certain Bodies subtil enough to be called Spirits were carried to and fro does signifie that all the Bodies were already created and that God did maintain from that time in the whole mass of matter as much motion as he conserves in it now and that what he hath made in all the following six dayes was only to put those Bodies in order and to regulate all their motions So that if speaking like an Historian Moses hath marked out the first day of this admirable Contrivance by the formation of Light this signifies only to us that God disposed the Bodies as they ought to be to produce this wonderful effect which was sufficient for an Historian but the Philosopher was to make it out how these Bodies