by unlearned men And as Language is still Language though not understood so Knowledge is still Knowledge although not generall but if they be That we call dead then those letters that were rubbed out were never writ again which is the same knowledge never returnes into the same Figure Thus the Spirits of Knowledge or the Knowledge of Spirits which is their severall Motions may be ignorant and unacquainted with each other that is that some Motion may not know how other Motions move not only in several Spirits but in one and the same Spirit no more then every Effect can know their Cause And Motion is but the Effect of the Spirits which Spirits are a thin subtle Matter for there would be no Motion if there were no Matter for Nothing can move but there may be Matter without Selfe-motion but not Selfe-motion without Matter Matter prime knowes not what effects shall be Or how their severall motions will agree Because †t is Infinite and so doth move Eternally in which nothing can prove For Infinite doth not in compasse lye Nor hath Eternall Lines to measure by Knowledge is there none to comprehend That which hath no beginning nor no end Perfect Knowledge comprises all can be But nothing can comprise Eternity Destiny and Fates or what the like we call In Infinites they no power have at all Nature hath Generosity enough to give All Figures case whilst in that Form they live But Motion which innated Matter is By running crosse each severall paines it gives Of the Creation of the Animall Figure THe reason †that the sensitive spirits when they begin to create an animal Figure the figure that is created feels it not untill the modell be finished that is it cannot have an animall motion untill it hath an animall Figure for it is the shape which gives it locall motion and after the Fabrick is built they begin to furnish it with †strength and inlarge it with growth and the rationall Spirit which inhabits it chooseth his room which is the Head And although some rationall Spirits were from the first creating it yet had not such motions as when created besides at first they have not so much company as to make so much change as to take parts like Instruments of Musick which cannot make so much Division upon few strings as upon more The next the Figure being weak their motions cannot be strong besides before the Figure is inlarged by growth they want room to move in This is the reason that new-borne Animalls seeme to have no knowledge especially Man because the spirits do neither move so strong nor have such variety of change for want of company to make a Consort Yet some Animalls have more knowledge then others by reason of their strength as all Beasts know their Dams and run to their Dugs and know how to suck as soone as they are borne and Birds and Children and the like weak Creatures such do not But the Spirits of sense give them strength and the spirits of reason do direct them to their Food (†) the Spirits of sense give them Taste and Appetite and the spirits of reason choose their meat for all Animall Creatures are not of one dyet for that which will nourish one will destroy another The Gathering of Spirits IF the rationall Spirits should enter into a Figure newly created altogether and not by degrees a Childe for example would have as much understanding and knowledge in the Womb or when it is new-borne as when it is inlarged and fully grown But we finde by experience there are severall sorts and degrees of knowledge and understanding by the recourse of spirits Which is the reason some Figures have greater Proportion of understanding and knowledge and sooner then others yet it is increased by degrees according as rationall spirits increase Like as Children they must get strength before they can go So Learning and experience increase rationall spirits as Food the sensitive But experience and Learning is not alwayes tyed to the Eare for every Organ and Pore of the Body is as severall doores to let them in and out For the Rationall spirits living with the Sensitive spirits come in and go out with them but not in equall proportion but sometimes more sometimes fewer this makes understanding more perfect in Health then in Sicknesse and in our middle age more then in the latter age For in age and sicknesse there is more carryed out then brought in This is the Reason Children have not such understanding but their reason increaseth with their yeares But the Rationall spirits may be similized †to a company of Good fellows which have pointed a meeting and the Company coming from severall places makes their time the longer ere their numbers are compleated though many a braine is disappointed but in some Figures the rooms are not commodious to move in made in their Creation for want of helpe those are Changelings Innocents or Naturall Fooles The Rationall Spirits seem most to delight in spungy soft and liquid Matter as in the Blood Brain Nerves and in Vegetables as not only being neerest to their own nature but having more room to move in This makes the Rationall Spirits to choose the Head in Animals for their chiefe room to dance their Figures in (†) for the Head is the biggest place that hath the spungy Materialls thus as soon as a Figure is created those Rationall Spirits choose a Room The moving of Innate Matter THough Motion makes Knowledge yet the Spirits give Motion for those Spirits or Essences are the Guiders Governours Directers The Motions are but their Instruments the Spirits are the Cause Motion but an Effect therefrom For that thin Matter which is Spirits can alter the Motion but Motion cannot alter the Matter or Nature of those Essences or Spirits so as the same Spirits may be in a Body but not one and the same Knowledge because not the same Motion that made that Knowledge As for Example How many severall Touches belong to the Body for every part of the Body hath a severall Touch which is a severall Knowledge belonging to every severall part for every severall part doth not know and feele every severall Touch For when the head akes the heele feels it not but only the Rationall Spirits which are free from the Incumbrance of dull Matter they are agile and quick to take notice of every particular Touch in or on every part of the Figure The like motions of a paine in the Body The like motion of the Rationall Spirits we call a griefe in the Mind for Touch in the Body is a thought in the Mind and to prove it is the like motion of the Rationall Spirits to the Sensitive which makes the knowledge of it is that when the Rationall Spirits are busily moved with some Fantasmes if any thing touches the Body it is not known to the Rationall Spirits because the Rationall Spirits move
it were the Essence of Spirits as the Spirit of Spirits This is the Minde or Soule of Animalls For as the Sensitive Spirits are a weak knowledge so this is a stronger Knowledge As to similize them I may say there is as much difference betwixt them as Aqua Fortis to ordinary Vitrioll These Rationall Spirits as I may call them worke not upon dull Matter as the Sensitive Spirits do but only move in measure and number which make Figures which Figures are Thoughts as Memory Understanding Imaginations or Fancy and Remembrance and Will Thus these Spirits moving in measure casting and placing themselves into Figures make a Consort and Harmony by Numbers Where the greater Quantity or Numbers are together of those rationall Spirits the more variety of Figure is made by their severall Motion they dance severall dances according to their Company Of their severall Dances or Figures WHat Object soever is presented unto them by the senses they straite dance themselves into that Figure this is Memory And when they dance the same figure without the helpe of the outward object this is Remembrance When they dance figures of their owne invention as I may say then that is Imagination or Fancie Understanding is when they dance perfectly as I may say not to misse the least part of those figures that are brought through the senses Will is to choose a dance that is to move as they please and not as they are perswaded by the sensitive spirits But when their motion and measures be not regular or their quantity or numbers sufficient to make the figures perfect then is the minde weak and infirme as I may say they dance out of time and measure But where the greatest number of these or quantity of these Essences are met and joyn'd in the most regular motion there is the clearest Understanding the deepest Judgement the perfectest Knowledge the finest Fancies the more Imagination the stronger Memory the obstinatest Will But sometimes their motions may be regular but society is so small so as they cannot change into so many severall figures then we say he hath a weak minde or a poor soule But be their quantity or numbers few or great yet if they move confusedly and out of order wee say the minde is distracted And the reason the minde or soule is improveable or decayable is that the quantity or numbers are increaseable or decreaseable and their motions regular and irregular A Feaver in the Body is the same motion amongst the sensitive spirits as madnesse is in the minde amongst the rationall Spirits So lkewise Paine in the Body is like those Motions that make Griefe in the Minde So Pleasure in the Body is the like Motions as make Delight and Joy in the Minde All Convulsive Motions in the Body are like the Motions that cause Feare in the Minde All Expulsive motions amongst the Rational Spirits are a dispersing their Society As Expulsity in the Body is the dispersing of dull Matter by the Sensitive Spirits All Drugs have an Opposite Motion to the Matter they work on working by an Expulsive Motion and if they move strongly having great quantity of Spirits gathered together in a little dul Matter they do not only cast out superfluous matter but pul down the very Materials of a Figure But al Cordials have a Sympatheticall Motion to the Matter they meet giving strength by their help to those Spirits they finde tired as one may say that it is to be over-power'd by opposite Motions in dull Matter The Sympathy and Antipathy of Spirits PLeasure and Delight Discontent and Sorrow which is Love and Hate is like Light and Darknesse the one is a quick equall and free Motion the other is a slow irregular and obstructed Motion When there is the like Motion of Rationall Spirits in opposite Figures then there is a like Understanding and Disposition Just as when there is the like Motion in the Sensitive Spirits then there is the like Constitution of Body So when there is the like quantity laid in the same Symmetry then the Figures agree in the same Proportions and Lineaments of Figures The reason that the Rationall Spirits in one Figure are delighted with the outward Forme of another Figure is that the Motions of those sensitive Spirits which move in that Figure agree with the Motion of the rationall Spirits in the other This is Love of Beauty And when the sensitive Motions alter in the Figure of the Body and the Beauty decaies then the Motion of the rationall Spirits alter and the love or goodliking ceases If the Motion of the rationall Spirits are crosse to the Motion of the sensitive Spirits in opposite Figures then it is dislike So if the Motion be just crosse and contrary of the rationall Spirits in opposite Figures it is Hate but if they agree it is Love But these Sympathies which are made only by a likenesse of Motions without an Intermixture last not longe because those Spirits are at a distance changing their Motion without the knowledge or consent of either side But the way that the Rationall Spirits intermix is through the Organs of the Body especially the Eyes and Eares which are the common doors which let the Spirits out and in For the Vocall and Verbal Motion from the mouth carry the spirits through the eares down to the Heart where Love and Hate is lodged And the Spirits from the Eyes issue out in Beames and Raies as from the Sun which heat or scorch †the Heart which either raise a fruitful crop of Love making the ground fertile or dries it so much as makes it insipid that nothing of good will grow there unlesse stinking Weeds of Hate But if the ground be fertile although every Crop is not so rich as some yet it never growes barren unlesse they take out the strength with too much kindness As the old Proverb they kill with too much kindnesse which Murther is seldome committed But the rationall spirits †are apt to take Surfet as wel as sensitive spirits which makes Love and Good-will so often to be ill rewarded neglected and disdain'd The Sympathy of Sensitive and Rationall Spirits in one Figure THere is a stronge Sympathy and agreement or Affection as I may say betwixt the rationall spirits and the sensitive spirits joyned in one Figure Like Fellow-labourers that assist one another to help to finish their work For when they disagree as the rationall spirits will move one way sometimes and the sensitive spirits another that is when Reason strives to abate the Appetite of the Senses yet it is by a loving direction rather to admonish them by a gentle contrary Motion for them to imitate and follow in the like Motions yet it is as they alwayes agree at last Like the Father and the Son For though the Father rules by command and the Son obeies through obedience yet the Father out of love to his Son as willing to please him submits to
is spirit but the spirits carry the dull matter Thus the spirits the innated matter move in dull matter and dull matter moveth by the spirits and if the matter be fine and not grosse which they build withall and their motion be regular then the Figure is beautifull and well proportioned Of Increasing THe reason that the corruption of one Figure is the cause of making of another of the same kinde is not onely that it is of such a tempered matter that can onely make such a kinde of figure but that the spirits make figures according to their strength So that the spirits that are in the Seed when they have undone the figure they are in by a generall expulsion which we call corruption they begin to create againe another figure of the same kinde if no greater power hinder it For the Matter that is proper to make such like Figures is fitted or temper'd to their strengths So as the Temper of the Matter and the strength of the Spirits are the Erectors of those Figures eternally And the reason that from one Seed lesse or more Numbers are increased and raisd is that though few begin the work more will come to their help And as their Numbers are increased their Figures are more or lesse weaker or stronger Of Decay WHen Spirits of Life have created a Figure and brought it to perfection if they did not pull it down again they would be idle having no work to do and Idlenesse is against the Nature of Life being a perpetuall Mption For as soon as a Figure is perfected the Spirits generally move to an Expulsive Motion This is the reason that Age hath not that strength as Full-growth But like an old house falling down by degrees shed their Haires or Leaves instead of Tiles the Windowes broke downe and stopped with Rubbish So Eyes in Animals grow hollow and dimme And when the Foundation of a house is loose every little wind shakes it So when the Nerves being slack and the Muscles untyed and the Joynts unhing'd the whole Body is weak and tottering which we call Palsies which Palsies as the wind shakes The Blood as the Springe dries up Rheumes as Raine fals down and Vapours as Dust flye up Of Dead and Death DEad is where there is a Generall Alteration of such Motion as is proper to such Figures But Death is an Annihilation of that Print or Figure by an Expulsive Motion And as that Figure dissolves the Spirits disperse about carrying their severall burthens to the making of other Figures Like as a house that is ruin'd by Time or spoyled by accident the severall Materials are imployed to other uses sometimes to the building of an house again But a house is longer a building then a pulling down by reason of the cutting carving laying carrying placing and fitting every part to make them joyn together so all the works of Nature are sooner dissolv'd then created Of Locall Shapes SOme Shapes have power over others but t is not alwaies in the size or bulck of the Figure but in the manner of their Formes that gives advantage or disadvantage A little Mouse will run through the Snowt of a great Elephant A little Flye will sting a great Figure to death A Worm will wind through a thick Body The Lions force lies in his Clawes The Horses in his Hoofe The Dogs in his Teeth The Bulls in his Hornes and Mans in his Armes and Hands Birdes in their Bills and Talons And the manner of their Shapes gives them severall properties or faculties As the Shape of a Bird causes them to flye a Worm to creep the Shape of a Beast to run the Shape of Fish to swim yet some flye swifter and higher then others as their Wings are made So some run nimbler then others according as their Limbs are made and some swim glider then others according as their Fins are made But Man surpasses the shape of all other Creatures because he hath a part as it were of every shape But the same Motion and the same Matter without the shape could not give such Externall Properties since all Internall Properties are wrought out of dull Matter So as it is their shapes joyned with such Motions proper thereunto that give strength Agilenesse But the Internall Qualities may be alike in every Figure because Rationall Spirits worke not upon dull Matter but Figures themselves The Visible Motion in Animals Vegetables and Minerals THE Externall Motions of Animals are running turning winding tumbling leaping jumping shoving throwing darting climbing creeping drawing heaving lifting carrying holding or staying piercing digging flying swimming diving The Internall Motion is contriving directing examining comparing or judging contemplating or reasoning approving or disapproving resolving From whence arise all the Passions and severall Dispositions These and the like are the visible Internall Motions in Animals The Internall Motions of Vegetables and Minerals are in operation As contracting dilating which is Attractive Retentive Digestive Expulsive The Vegetables Externall Motion is increasing decreasing that is enlarging or lasting although there may be Matter not moving yet there is no Matter which is not moved Of the Working of severall Motions of Nature MOtions do work according as they finde Matter that 's fit and proper for each kinde Sensitive Spirits work not all one way But as the Matter is they cut carve lay Joyning together Matter solid Light And build form some Figures streight upright Or make them bending and so jutting out And some are large and strong and big about And some are thick and hard and close unite Others are flat and low and loose and light But when they meet with Matter fine and thin Then they do weave as Spiders when they spin All that is woven is soft smooth thin things As flowry Vegetables Animall Skins Observe the Graine of every thing you le see Like inter-woven Threads lye evenly And like to Diaper Damask wrought In severall workes that for our Table 's bought Or like to Carpets which the Persian made Or Sattin smooth which is the Florence Trade Some Matter they ingrave like Ring and Seale Which is the Stamp of Natures Common-weale T is Natures Armes where she doth print On all her Works as Coyne that 's in the Mint Some severall sorts they joyn together glu'd As Matter solid with some that 's fluid Like to the Earthly ball where some are mixt Of severall sorts although not fixt For though the Figure of the Earth may last Longer then others yet at last may waste And so the Sun and Moon and Planets all Like other Figures at the last may fall The Matter 's still the same but Motion may Alter it into Figures every way Yet keepe the property to make such kind Of Figures fit which Motion out can find Thus may the Figures change if Motion hurles That Matter of her waies for other Worlds Of the Minde THere is a degree of stronger Spirits then the Sensitive Spirits as