of Nature which puts it and preserves it in Motion by preserving it successively in different places by his bare Will in as much as an Almighty Being acts not with Instruments and his Will is necessarily follow'd by Effects I acknowledge then it 's possible that God may will that every thing remain in its present state whether it be Motion or Rest and that his Will may be the natural Power which Bodies have of remaining in the state they once have obtain'd And if so we must like M. des Cartes measure that Power conclude what ought to be the Effects of it and give Rules for the Force and Communication of Motions upon the Collision of different Bodies in proportion to their Magnitude since we have no other way of coming to the knowledge of that general and immutable Will of God who makes the different Power these Bodies have of acting upon and resisting one another consist in their different Magnitude and Swiftness But however I have no infallible proof that God wills by a positive Will that Bodies remain in Rest and one would think it sufficient for God to will the Existence of Matter not only to cause it to exist but to exist in Rest. The case is not the same with Motion since the Idea of a Matter mov'd certainly includes two Powers to which it is related viz. that which created and also that which mov'd it But the Idea of a Matter in Rest includes only the Idea of a Power which has created it whilst there is no necessity of any other Power to put it in Rest since if we barely conceive Matter without thinking on any Power we shall necessarily conceive it in Rest. Thus it is I conceive things for I am to judge by my Ideas and my Ideas tell me Rest is but the privation of Motion For God need but cease to will the Motion of a Body to make its Motion cease and to cause it to Rest. But I remember I have heard from many very ingenious Persons that Motion seem'd to them as much the privation of Rest as Rest the privation of Motion And some will not doubt to affirm for Reasons I can't comprehend that Motion seems rather a privation than rest I do not distinctly call to Mind the Reasons they alledge however this ought to make me suspicious lest my Ideas should be false For though most Men say what they please upon Subjects that seem of little moment yet I have Reason to believe the Persons I speak of were pleas'd to speak what they thought wherefore I must still examine my Ideas more carefully To me it seems a thing of undoubted Certainty and the Gentlemen before mention'd won't deny it that 't is the Will of God which moves Bodies The Force then which that Bowl I see in Motion has is the Will of God that moves it what now is God requir'd to do to stop it Must he Will by a positive Will that it should Rest or is it sufficient to cease to will its Motion 'T is plain that if God but cease to will the Motion of this Bowl the cessation of its Motion and consequently Rest will succeed the cessation of the Will of God For the Will of God which was the Force that moved the Bowl desisting that Force desists and the Bowl will be no longer mov'd Therefore the cessation of the moving Force produces Rest Rest then has no Force to cause it but is a bare privation that supposes no positive Will in God Thus we should admit in God a positive Will without any Reason or Necessity if we ascribed to Bodies any Force to remain in Rest. But to overthrow this Argument if possible Let us now suppose a Bowl at Rest as before we suppos'd it in Motion what must God do in order to agitate it Is it enough that he ceases to will its repose if so I have hitherto made no advance for that Motion will be equally the privation of Rest as Rest of Motion I suppose then that God desists to will the Rest of this Bowl but supposing it I see it not put in Motion and if any others do I desire them to inform me with what degree of Motion it is carried Certainly 't is impossible it should be mov'd or have any degree of Motion and 't is impossible to conceive any degree of Motion in it barely from our conceiving that God ceases to will it should be at Rest because it goes not with Motion as it does with Rest. Motions are infinitely various and are susceptible of more and less but Rest being nothing one cannot differ from another One and the same Bowl which moves twice as fast at one time as at another has twice as much Force or Motion at one time as at another But it cannot be said that the same Bowl has Rest double at one time to its Rest at another There must therefore be a positive Will in God to put a Bowl in Motion or to give it such a Force as it may move it self with But he need only cease to will it should be mov'd to cause its Motion to desist that is to make it Rest. Just as to the creating a World it is not enough that God cease to will its non-existence unless he likewise positively will the manner it shall exist in But in order to annihilate it there is no need of God's willing it should not exist since God cannot will Nothingness by a positive Will but barely that he cease to will its Being I consider not here Motion and Rest according to their relative Capacity for 't is manifest that resting Bodies have as real Relations to those about them as Bodies in Motion I only conceive that Bodies mov'd have a moving Force and that others at Rest have no Force at all to persevere in it because the Relations of mov'd to the circumambient Bodies perpetually changing they need a continual Force to produce these Changes it being indeed nothing but these Changes that cause all that Novelty we observe in Nature but there is no need of Force to do nothing When the Relation of a Body to those surrounding it is constantly the same there is nothing done and the Continuance of that Relation I mean the Action of the Will of God which preserves it is not different from that which preserves the Body it self If it be true as I conceive That Rest is but the Privation of Motion the least Motion or that of the least Body mov'd will include a greater Force or power than the Rest of the greatest Body and so the least Force and the least Body suppos'd to be mov'd in a Vacuum against another never so great and bulky will be capable of moving it since the largest Body at Rest will have no power of resisting the least Body that shall strike against it Therefore the Resistance which is made by the Parts of hard Bodies to hinder their Separation necessarily proceeds from
Foundation of his System from which may ever be deduc'd all the profit that could be expected from the true to make all necessary advances in the knowledge of Man Since then the Imagination consists only in the Power the Soul has of Forming the Images of Objects by imprinting them as I may so say in the Fibres of the Brain the greater and more distinct the Impresses of the Animal Spirits are which are the strokes of these Images the more strongly and distinctly the Soul will imagine Objects Now as the Largeness and Depth and Cleaverness of the strokes of any Sculpture depend upon the Forcible Acting of the Graving Instrument and the plyable yielding of the Plate so the Depth and the Distinctness of the Impresses of the Imagination depend on the Force of the Animal Spirits and the Constitution of the Fibres of the Brain And 't is the Variety that is found in these two things which is almost the universal Cause of that great Diversity we observe in the Minds of different Men. For 't is no hard thing to account for all the different Characters to be met with in the Minds of Men On the one hand by the Abundance and Scarcity by the Rapidness and Slowness by the Grossness and the Littleness of the Animal Spirits and on the other hand by the Fineness and Courseness by the Moisture and Driness by the Facility and Difficulty of the yielding of the Fibres of the Brain and lastly by the Relation the Animal Spirits may possibly have with these Fibres And it would be very expedient for every one forthwith to try to Imagine to himself all the different Combinations of these things and to apply himself seriously to the Consideration of all the Differences we have observ'd between the Minds of Men. Because it is ever more Useful and also more Pleasant for a Man to employ his own Mind and to accustom it to the finding out Truth by its own Industry than to suffer it to gather Rust by a careless Laziness in applying it only to things wholly digested and explain'd to his hands Besides that there are some things so delicately nice and fine in the different Character of Minds that a Man may easily sometimes discover them and be sensible of them himself but is unable to represent them or make them sensible to others But that we may explain as far as possibly we can all the Differences that are found in different Minds and that every Man may more easily observe in his own the Cause of all the Changes he sensibly perceives in it at different times it seems convenient to make a general Enquiry into the Causes of the Changes which happen in the Animal Spirits and in the Fibres of the Brain Since this will make way for the Discovery of all those which happen in the Imagination Man never continues long like himself all Mankind have sufficient Internal Convictions of their own Inconstancy A Man judges one while in one manner and another while in another concerning the same Subject In a word the Life of a Man consists only in the Circulation of the Blood and in another Circulation of Thoughts and Desires And I am of Opinion a Man can't employ his Time much better than in Searching for the Causes of these Changes we are subject to and entring into the Knowledge of our Selves CHAP. II. I. Of the Animal Spirits and the Changes they are subject to in general II. That the Chyle entering the Heart occasions a Change in the Spirits III. That Wine does the same thing 'T IS confess'd by all the World that the Animal Spirits are nothing but the more subtil and agitated parts of the Blood which Subtilty and Agitation is principally owing to the Fermentation it receives in the Heart and the violent Motion of the Muscles which constitute that part That these Spirits together with the rest of the Blood are conducted through the Arteries to the Brain And that there they are separated from it by some parts appropriated to that purpose but which they are it has not been yet agreed upon From whence we ought to conclude that in case the Blood be very subtil it will have abundance of Animal Spirits but if it be gross the Animal Spirits will be few That if the Blood be compos'd of parts easie to be inflam'd in the Heart or very fit for Motion the Spirits in the Brain will be extreamly heated and agitated And on the contrary if the Blood admits little Fermentation in the Heart the Animal Spirits will be languid unactive and without force And lastly according to the Solidity which is found in the parts of the Blood the Animal Spirits will have more or less solidity and consequently greater or lesser force in their Motion But these things ought to be explain'd more at large and the Truth of them made more sensibly apparent by Examples and uncontroverted Experiments that prove them The Authority of the Ancients has not only blinded some Mens Understandings but we may say has seal'd up their Eyes For there are still a sort of Men that pay so submissive a deference to Ancient Opinions or possibly are so stiff and obstinate that they will not see those things which they could not contradict would they but please to open once their Eyes We daily see Men in good Reputation and Esteem for their Study Write and Dispute publickly against the Visible and Sensible Experiments of the Circulation of the Blood against that of the Gravitation and Elastick force of the Air and others of the like Nature The Discovery Mr. Pacquet has made in our Time and which we have here occasion for is of the number of those that are mis-fortunate meerly for want of being Born Old and as a Man may say with a Venerable Beard I shall not however omit to make use of it and am under no Apprehension of being blam'd by Judicious Men for doing so According to that Discovery it is manifest that the Chyle does not immediately pass from the Viscera to the Liver through the Mesaraick Veins as was believ'd by the Ancients but that it passes out of the Bowels into the Lacteal Veins and from thence into several Receptacles where these Veins coterminate That from thence it ascends through the Ductus Thoracicus along the Vertebrae of the Back and proceeds to mix with the Blood in the Axillary Vein which enters into the Superiour Trunck of Vena Cava and thus being mingled with the Blood it discharges it self into the Heart It ought to be concluded from this Experiment that the Blood thus mingled with the Chyle being very different from that which has already circulated several times through the Heart the Animal Spirits that are only the more fine and subtil parts of it ought to be very different in Persons that are fasting and others after they have eaten Again because in the Meats and Drinks that are us'd there is an infinite Variety
to their Passions which proceed from the Commotion of the Animal Spirits I shall not explain these things more at large because it is easie to judge of this Age by the others before treated of and to conclude that Old Men have more difficulty than others at conceiving what is said to them that they are more zealously devoted to their Prejudices and Ancient Opinions and consequently are more confirmed and strengthened in their Errors in their corrupt Habits and other things of like Nature 'T is only to be advertis'd That the state of Old Age is not precisely determined to Sixty or Seventy Years that all Old Men are not Dotards and that those who have pass'd the Sixtieth Year are not always delivered from the Passions of Youth and that we ought not to draw too general Consequences from the Principles establish'd CHAP. II. That the Animal Spirits generally run in the Tracks of Idea's that are most familiar to us which is the Reason of our preposterous Judgments I Have I think explain'd in the fore-going Chapters the various Changes happening in the Animal Spirits and in the Constitution of the Fibres of the Brain according to different Ages Wherefore supposing a Man to have meditated a little upon what has been said upon that Subject he must necessarily have a distinct Knowledge enough of the Imagination and of the most common Natural Causes of the differences observable between the Minds of Men since all the Changes happening in the Imagination and the Mind are only the Consequences of those which are to be found in the Animal Spirits and the Fibres that compose the Brain But there are many particular and such as we may call Moral Causes of the Changes which happen in the Imagination of Men namely Their different Conditions their various Employments and in a word their several ways of Living which deserve to be attentively consider'd because these sorts of Changes are the Causes of a numberless multitude of Errors every Man judging of things with reference to his own Condition We think it not so much our Business to stand to explain the Effects of some less customary Causes such as great Diseases surprizing Misfortunes and other unexpected Accidents which make very violent Impressions in the Brain and which sometimes totally subvert it because these things are of very rare occurrence and besides the Error such sort of Persons fall into are too gross to be contagious since they are palpable and discernible to all Mankind But that we may perfectly comprehend all the Changes the different conditions and states of Life produce in the Imagination 't is absolutely necessary to be call'd to mind that our Imagining Objects is only the framing Images thereof to our Selves and that these Images are nothing but the Traces delineated by the Animal Spirits in the Brain that we Imagine things so much stronglier as these Traces are more deep and better cut and as the Animal Spirits more frequently and violently pass through them that these Spirits by their frequent course so plain and open the Passage as to enter the same Tracks with greater readiness than any other neighbouring parts through which they either have not pass'd or not so frequently This is the most ordinary Cause of the Confusion and Falsity of our Idea's For the Animal Spirits which were directed by the Action of External Objects or even by the orders of the Soul to the production of certain Traces frequently produce others which indeed have some resemblance with them but are not altogether the Traces of these same Objects nor those the Soul desir'd to represent because the Animal Spirits finding some Resistance in the parts of the Brain through which they ought to pass are easily diverted to throng into the deep Traces of Idea's which are most familiar to us Here are some very gross and sensible Instances of these things When those who are not extraordinary short-sighted behold the Moon they see in her two Eyes a Nose and a Mouth in a word it looks to them as if they saw a Face tho there be nothing in her of what they fancy they perceive Many Persons see in her quite another thing And those who believe the Moon to be such as she appears would quickly be undeceived did they but behold her with Telescopes though of a moderate size or did they only consult the Descriptions Hevelius Riccioli and others have made Publick Now the Reason why a Man usually sees a Face in the Moon and not those irregular Blotches that are in her is because the Traces of a Face which are imprinted in the Brain are very deep for that we frequently look on Faces and with great Attention So that the Animal Spirits meeting with opposition in the other parts of the Brain easily swerve from the Direction the Light of the Moon impresses on them when a Man beholds her to accomodate themselves to the Traces whereunto Nature has affix'd the Idea's of a Face Besides that the apparent Magnitude of the Moon differing not much from a common head at a certain Distance She by her Impression forms such Traces as have Connection with those which represent a Nose a Mouth and Eyes and so she determines the Spirits to take their course in the Traces of a Face There are some who discern in the Moon a Man on Horse-back or something else than a Face because their Imagination having been briskly smitten with some particular Objects the Traces of these Objects open at any thing that bears the least Analogy to them 'T is upon the same grounds we Imagine we see Chariots Men Lions and other Animals in the Clouds when there is any little resemblance between their Figures and these Animals and all Men especially those who are used to Designing see sometimes Heads of Men on Walls whereon there are many irregular stains 'T is for the same Reason still that the Spirits of Wine entering without any Direction of the Will into the most familiar Traces make Men betray their Secrets of the greatest concernment and that when a Man sleeps he usually dreams of Objects he has seen in the Day-time which have form'd very great Traces in the Brain because the Soul is ever representing those things whereof she has the greatest and deepest Traces But see other Examples of a more complex kind A Distemper is new and it makes such havock and destruction as amazes all Men. This imprints Traces so deep in the Brain that this Disease is never absent from the Mind If this Disease be call'd for instance the Scurvy all Diseases must presently be call'd Scurvy the Scurvy is new therefore all new Distempers is the Scurvy The Scurvy is accompany'd with a dozen Symptoms whereof many are common to other Distempers that matters not If a sick Person fortunes to have any one of the Symptoms he must needs be sick of the Scurvy and other Distempers are never suspected or thought of that have the same Symptoms 'T is
great Precipice which a Man sees under him and from which there is danger of falling or the Traces of some bulky Body imminent over his Head and ready to fall and crush him is naturally Connected with that which represents Death and with a Commotion of the Spirits which disposes him to flight or the desire of flying it This Connection admits no alteration because 't is necessary it should always be the same and it consists in a disposition of the Fibres of the Brain which we bring with us into the World All the Connections which are not Natural may and ought to break because the different Circumstances of times and places ought to change to the end they may be useful to the Preservation of Life 'T is convenient the Partridge for instance should fly the Sports-man with his Gun at the season and the places of his pursuing the Game But there 's no necessity it should fly him in other places or at other times Thus 't is necessary all Animals for their Preservation should have certain Connections of Traces easily made and easily broken and that they should have others very difficult to be sever'd and lastly others incapable of Dissolution 'T is of very great use to make diligent enquiry into the different Effects these different Connections are able to produce For there are Effects which as they are very numerous so they are no less important to the Knowledge of Man and all things relating to him We shall see hereafter that these things are the principal Causes of our Errors But 't is time to return to the Subject we have promis'd to Discourse on and to explain the different Changes which happen to the Imagination of Men by reason of their different ways and purposes of Life CHAP. IV. I. That Men of Learning are the most subject to Error II. The Causes why Men had rather be guided by Authority than make use of their own Reason THE Differences observable in Men as to their Ways and Purposes of Life are almost infinite Their different Conditions different Employments different Posts and Offices and different Communities are innumerable These Differences are the Reason of Men's acting upon quite different Designs and Reasoning upon different Principles Even in the same Community wherein there should be but one Character of Mind and all the same Designs you shall rarely meet with several Persons whose Aims and Views are not different Their various Employments and their many Adhesions necessarily diversifie the Method and Manner they would take to accomplish those various things wherein they agree Whereby 't is manifest that it would be an impossible Undertaking to go about to explain in particular the Moral Causes of Error nor would it turn to any great Account should we do it in this place I design therefore only to speak of those Ways of Living that lead us into great multitudes of Errors and Errors of most dangerous Importance When these shall be explain'd we shall have open'd the way for the Mind to proceed farther and every one may discover at a single View and with the greatest ease imaginable the most hidden Causes of many particular Errors the Explication whereof would cost a world of Pains and Trouble When once the Mind sees clearly it delights to run to Truth and it runs to it with an inexpressible swiftness The Imployment that seems most necessary to be treated of at present by Reason of its producing most considerable Changes in the Imagination of Men and its conducting them into Errors most is that of Men of Books and Learning who make greater use of their Memory than Thought For Experience has ever manifested that those who have applied themselves the most fervently to the Reading of Books and to the Search of Truth are the Men that have led us into a very great part of our Errors 'T is much the same with those that Study as with those that Travel When a Traveller has unfortunately mistaken his way the farther he goes at the greater distance he is from his Journey 's end and he stâ—ll deviates so much more as he is industrious and in haste to arrive at the place design'd So the vehement pursuits Men make after Truth cause them to betake themselves to the Reading of Books wherein they think to find it or put them upon framing some Phantastical System of the things they desire to know wherewith when their Heads are full and heated they try by some fruitless Sallies and Attempts of Thought to recommend them to the taste of others with hopes to receive the Honours that are usually pay'd to the first Founders of Systems These two Imperfections are now to be consider'd 'T is not easie to be understood how it comes to pass that Men of Wit and Parts choose rather to trust to the Conduct of other Men's Understanding in the Search of Truth than to their own which GOD has given them There is doubtless infinitely more Pleasure as well as Honour to be conducted by a Man 's own Eyes than those of others And a Man who has good Eyes in his Head will never think of shutting them or plucking them out under the hopes of having a Guide And yet the use of the Understanding is to the use of the Eyes as the Understanding is to the Eyes and as the Understanding is infinitely superiour to the Eyes so the use of the Understanding is accompany'd with more solid Satisfactions and gives another sort of Content than Light and Colours give the Sight Notwithstanding Men employ their Eyes in Guiding and Conducting themselves but rarely make use of their Reason in Discovery of Truth But there are many Causes which contribute to this overthrow of Reason First Men's Natural Carelessness and Oscitation that will not let them be at the Pains of Thinking Secondly Their Incapacity to Meditate which they have contracted for want of applying themselves to it from their Youth as has been explain'd in the Ninth Chapter Thirdly The inconcernedness and little Love they have for Abstract Truths which are the Foundation of all that can be known in this World The Fourth Reason is the Satisfaction which accrues from the knowledge of Probabilities which are very agreeable and extreamly moving as being founded upon sensible Notions The Fifth Cause is that ridiculous Vanity which makes us affect the seeming Learned For those go by the Name of Learned who have read most Books The Knowledge of Opinions is of greater use in Conversation and serves better to catch the Admiration of the Vulgar than the Knowledge of True Philosophy which is learned by Meditation In the sixth place we may reckon that unreasonable Fancy which supposes the Ancients were more enlightned than we can be and that there is nothing left for us but what they have succeeded in The Seventh is a Disingenuous Respect mix'd with an absurd Curiosity which makes Men admire things that are most Remote and Ancient such as are far fetch'd or
Kings of England have a greater Jurisdiction over the Spirituals than the Temporals of their Subjects because those wretched People those Children of this World are less concern'd for the Preservation of their faith than the Security of their Fortunes and readily embrace the Opinions of their Princes when their Temporal Interest stands not in the way The Revolutions which have happen'd to Religion in Sweden and Denmark may serve as a farther Evidence of the Power some Minds have over others though indeed all those Revolutions were contributed to by many other very considerable Causes Which surprizing Changes are so many Proofs of the Contagious Communication of the Imagination but Proofs too vast and mighty and such as confound and dazle the Mind rather than enlighten it because there are too many Causes concurring to the Production of these great Events When Courtiers and all Men else so commonly give up the Interest of Infallible Truths Essential Truths Truths that are necessary to be asserted unless a Man resolve upon Everlasting Destruction How can it be expected they should run any hazard in the Defence of Abstract Truths of as little Certainty as they are of Use If the Religion of the Prince makes the Religion of his Subjects the Reason of the Prince will be the Reason of his Subjects too and so the Sentiments of the Prince his Pleasures his Passions his Sports his Habit and generally all his Actions will be A-la-mode For the Prince himself being as the Original and Essential Mode nothing that is derived from him will be out of Fashion And since all the Irregularities of the Fashion become Graces and Beauties 't is no wonder that Princes act so forcibly on the Imagination of other Men. If Alexander holds his Head awry his Courtiers will have theirs in the same Posture If Dionysius the Tyrant apply himself to Geometry upon Plato's Arrival in Syracuse Geometry grows the Study of the Court and the King's Palace says Plutarch is presently fill'd with dust by the vast number of those that are drawing Figures in it But as soon as Plato is disgusted with the Tyrant and the Tyrant disliking his Study betakes himself afresh to his Pleasures The Courtiers turn Voluptuaries to accompany him One would think continues that Author they were enchanted and that some Circe had Metamorphos'd them into other Men. Their Affection for Philosophy grows into an Affection for Debauchery and their Abhorrence of Debauchery into the Abhorrence of Philosophy And thus Princes can change Vices into Vertues and Vertues into Vices and one word of their Mouth is able to reverse all the Idea's of them One Royal Word or Gesture a Frown or a Lip shall debase true Science and Learning into Pedantry entitle Rashness Brutality and Cruelty to the repute of Valour and Greatness of Courage and make Libertinism and Profaneness pass for Force and Liberty of Thought But this as all that I have been saying supposes that Princes have a Strong and Lively Imagination since if it were Weak and Languishing they could not Animate their Discourse nor give it that lively Turn and Vehemence requisite to Master and Inslave the weaker Minds And now if the Imagination all alone and unassisted with the supplies of Reason can produce so surprizing Effects there is nothing so Fantastical or Extravagant but it will perswade when back'd and supported with any apparent Reasons Here are some proofs of it 'T is related by an Ancient Author That in Ethiopia the Courtiers Crippl'd and Deform'd themselves lop't off a Limb or two and sometimes even died to imitate their Princes 'T was as scandalous to be seen with a Pair of Eyes or to walk upright in the Retinue of a Crooked and One-ey'd King as it would be ridiculous to appear at Court now a-days in Ruffs and Caps or in white Buskins and gilded Spurs This Ethiopian Fashion was as Extravagant and incommodious as can be imagin'd but yet it was the Fashion It was cheerfully follow'd by the Court and the Pain to be indur'd was less thought on than the Honour a Man purchas'd by manifesting so generous an Affection for his King In short this Mode when supported by a pretended Reason of Friendship grew up into a Custom and a Law that obtain'd a considerable Time We learn from the Relations of those who have travell'd in the Levant that this Custom is observ'd in several Countries as also some others as inconsistent with Reason and good Sense But there is no necessity of twice cutting the Line to see Unreasonable Laws and Customs religiously observ'd we may find the Patrons of Fantastical and Inconvenient Fashions nearer Home Our own Country will supply us with enow Where-ever there are Men not insensible to Passions and the Imagination has the supremacy over Reason there will be fantastical Humours and Humours unaccountable If there be not so much Pain to be suffer'd in going with bare Breasts in the most rigid Winter Season and stoving up the Body in the excessive Heats of Summer as in the plucking out an Eye or cutting off an Arm yet the Shame should certainly be greater I confess the Pain is not so great but neither is the Reason of undergoing it so apparent and so the Extravagance comes at least to an even poize For an Ethiopian might in justifying himself say he pluck'd out an Eye out of a point of Loyalty and Honour But what should a Christian Lady say for Exposing what Nature and Religion oblige her to conceal Perhaps that she did it because 't was the Fashion and for no other Reason But she ought to know That 't is an Extravagant Inconvenient Unseemly and Shameful Fashion on all Accounts and proceeds from nothing but a manifest Corruption of Reason and a secret Depravation of Heart and cannot be favour'd or follow'd without Scandal and openly siding with the Corruption of the Imagination against Reason with Impurity against Purity with the Spirit of the World against the Spirit of GOD. In a word to follow this Mode is to violate both the Laws of Reason and of the Gospel But what matters that you 'll say it is the Mode that is a Law more Sacred and Inviolable than That written by the Finger of GOD upon the Tables of Moses and those graven by his Spirit on the Hearts of Christians And indeed I cannot see that the English or French have much Reason to laugh at the Ethiopians and Savages At the first time of seeing a Crippl'd or One-ey'd King in the Front of a Train of Lame and Half-sighted Courtiers I confess a Man would scarce forbear lauging But time would make it familiar and instead of ridiculing them for an Infirmity of Mind he would more admire perhaps the Greatness of their Courage and Perfection of their Friendship But 't is not so with the Fashions of our modern Ladies Their Extravagancies have no pretended Reason to uphold them if they have the Advantage of being less troublesome they
loose and indefinite Notions engage not into Errour at least they are wholly unserviceable to the Discovery of Truth For though we know that there is in Fire a substantial Form attended with a Million of Faculties like to that of heating dilating melting Gold Silver and other Metals lightening burning roasting the Idea of that substantial Form with all its Faculties of producing Heat Fluidity Rarefaction will not help me to resolve this Question Why Fire hardens Clay and softens Wax There being no Connection betwixt the Ideas of Hardness in Clay and Softness in Wax and those of a substantial Form in Fire and its Faculties of Rarefaction Fluidity c. The same may be said of all general Ideas which are utterly insufficient for resolving any Question But when I know that Fire is nothing else but divided Wood whose Parts are in a continual Agitation by which alone it raises in me the Sensation of Heat and that the Softness of Clay consists in a Mixture of Water and Earth those Ideas being not general and confused but particular and distinct it will not be difficult to perceive that the Heat of Fire must harden Clay nothing being easier to conceive than that one Body may move another if it meet with it being it self in Motion We likewise easily perceive that since the Heat we feel near the Fire is caused by the Motion of the invisible Particles of Wood striking against our Hands Face c. if we expose Clay to the Heat of Fire the Particles of Water that are mixed with those of Earth being more thin and disunited and consequently more agitated by the Action and Impulse of the fiety Corpuscles than the gross Particles of Earth must be separated and expelled and the other remain dry and hard We shall perceive with the same Evidence that Fire must produce a quite contrary Effect upon Wax if we know that it is composed of Particles that are branched and almost of the same Bulk Thus may particular Ideas be subservient to the Enquiry after Truth whilst loose and undeterminate Notions are not only altogether unserviceable but also insensibly engage us into Errour For these Philosophers are not content to make use of those general Terms and uncertain Ideas which answer to them they moreover pretend that those Words signifie some particular Beings they give out that there is a Substance distinguished from Matter which is the Form of it and withal an infinite Number of little Beings really distinguished from that Matter and Form of which they suppose as many as they have different Sensations of Bodies or as those Bodies are supposed to produce different Effects However 't is visible to any attentive Person that those little Beings for instance that are said to be distinguished from Fire and suppos'd to be contained in it for the producing Heat Light Hardness Fluidity c. are but the Contrivances of the Imagination that rebells against Reason since Reason has no particular Idea that represents those little Beings When the Philosophers are asked What is the illuminating Faculty in Fire They only answer That 't is a Being which is the Cause that Fire is capable of producing Light So that their Idea of that illuminating Faculty differs not from the general Idea of Cause and the confused Idea of the Effect they see and therefore they have no clear Idea of what they say when they admit those particular Beings and so say what they not only understand not but what 's impossible to be understood CHAP. III. Of the most dangerous Errour in the Philosophy of the Ancients PHilosophers not only speak without understanding themselves when they explain the Effects of Nature by some Beings of which they have no particular Idea but also establish a Principle whence very false and pernicious Consequences may directly be drawn For supposing with them that there are in Bodies certain Entities distinguished from Matter and having no distinct Idea of those Entities 't is easie to imagine that they are the real or principal Causes of the Effects we see And this is the very Opinion of the vulgar Philosophers The prime Reason of their supposing those substantial Forms real Qualities and other such like Entities is to explain the Effects of Nature But when we come attentively to consider the Idea we have of Cause or Power of acting we cannot doubt but that it represents something Divine For the Idea of a Sovereign Power is the Idea of a Sovereign Divinity and the Idea of a subordinate Power the Idea of an inferiour Divinity yet a true Divinity at least according to the Opinion of the Heathens supposing it to be the Idea of a true Power or Cause And therefore we admit something Divine in all the Bodies that surround us when we acknowledge Forms Faculties Qualities Virtues and real Beings that are capable of producing some Effects by the force of their Nature and thus insensibly approve of the Sentiments of the Heathens by too great a Deference for their Philosophy Faith indeed corrects us but it may perhaps be said that the Mind is a Pagan whilst the Heart is a Christian. Moreover it is a hard Matter to persuade our selves that we ought neither to fear nor love true Powers and Beings that can act upon us punish us with some Pain or reward us with some Pleasure And as Love and Fear are a true Adoration it is hard again to imagine why they must not be ador'd For whatever can act upon us as a true and real Cause is necessarily above us according to Reason and St. Austin and by the same Reason and Authority 't is likewise an immutable Law That inferiour Beings should be subservient to superiour Whence that great Father concludes That the Body cannot operate upon the Soul and that nothing can be above her but God only The chief Reasons that God Almighty uses in the Holy Scriptures to prove to the Israelites that they ought to adore that is to love and fear him are drawn from his Power to reward or punish them representing to them the Benefits they have received from him the Punishments he has inflicted upon them and his Power that is always the same He forbids them to adore the Gods of the Heathens as such as have no Power over them and can doe them neither harm nor good He commands them to honour him alone as the only true Cause of Good and Evil Reward and Punishment none of which can befal a City according to the Prophet but what comes from him by reason that natural Causes are not the true Causes of the Hurt they seem to doe us and as it is God alone that acts in them so 't is He alone that must be fear'd and lov'd in them Soli Deo Honor Gloria Lastly The Sense of fearing and Loving what may be the true Cause of Good and Evil appears so natural and just that it is not possible to cast it off So that in that
false Supposition of the Philosophers which we are here endeavouring to destroy that the surrounding Bodies are the true Causes of our Pain and Pleasure Reason seems to justifie a Religion like the Pagan Idolatry and approve the universal Depravation of Morals Reason I grant teaches not to adore Onions and Leeks for instance as the Sovereign Divinity because they can never make us altogether happy when we have them or unhappy when we want them neither did the Heathens worship them with an equal Homage as their great Jupiter whom they fansied to be the God of Gods or as the Sun whom our Senses represent as the universal Cause that gives Life and Motion to all things and which we can hardly forbear to look on as the Sovereign Divinity if we suppose as the Pagan Philosophers that he Comprehends in his Being the true Causes of what he seems to produce as well upon our Soul and Body as upon all the Beings that surround us But if we must not pay a Sovereign Worship to Leeks and Onions they deserve at least some particular Adoration I mean they may be thought upon and loved in some manner if it be true that they can in some sort make us happy and may be honour'd proportionably to the good they doe us Surely Men that listen to the Reports of Sense think Pulse capable of doing them good otherwise the Israelites would not have bewailed the loss of them in the Wilderness or look'd on themselves as unhappy for being deprived thereof had they not fansied to themselves some great Happiness in the Enjoyment of them See what an Abyss of Corruption Reason plunges us into when it goes hand in hand with the Principles of Pagan Philosophy and follows the footsteps of the Senses But that the Falshood of that wretched Phylosophy and the Certainty of our Principles and Distinctness of our Ideas may not be longer doubted it will be necessary plainly to establish the Truths that contradict the Errours of the Ancient Philosophers or to prove in few words that there is but one true Cause since there is but one true God that the Nature and Force of every thing is nothing but the Will of God that all Natural things are not real but only occasional Causes and some other Truths depending on them It is evident that all Bodies great and little have no force to move themselves a Mountain a House a Stone a Grain of Sand the minutest and bulkiest Bodies imaginable are alike as to that We have but two sorts of Ideas viz. of Spirits and Bodies and as we ought not to speak what we conceive not so we must only argue from those two Ideas Since therefore our Idea of Bodies convinces us that they cannot move themselves we must conclude that they are moved by Spirits But considering our Idea of finite Spirits we see no necessary Connexion betwixt their Will and the Motion of any Body whatsoever on the contrary we perceive that there is not nor can be any Whence we must infer if we will follow Light and Reason That as no Body can move it self so no Created Spirit can be the true and principal Cause of its Motion But when we think on the Idea of God or of a Being infinitely perfect and consequently Almighty we are aware that there is such a Connexion betwixt his Will and the Motion of all Bodies that it is impossible to conceive he should will that a Body be moved and it should not be moved And therefore if we would speak according to our Conceptions and not according to our Sensations we must say that nothing but his Will can move Bodies The moving force of Bodies is not then in themselves this force being nothing but the Will of God Bodies then have no proper Action and when a moving Ball meets with another and moves it the former communicates nothing of its own to the latter as not having in it self the Impression it communicates though the former be the Natural Cause of the latter's Motion and therefore a natural Cause is not a true and real Cause but only an occasional which in such or such a Case determines the Author of Nature to act in such or such a manner 'T is certain that all things are produced by the Motion of visible or invisible Bodies for Experience teaches us that those Bodies whose parts are in greater Motion are always the most active and those that Cause the greatest Alterations in the World so that all the Forces of Nature are but the Will of God who Created the World because he will'd it who spake and it was done who moves all things and produces all the Effects we see because he has established some Laws by which Bodies Communicate their Motion to each other when they meet together and because those Laws are efficacious they and not the Bodies act There is then no Force Power nor true Cause in all the Material and sensible World Nor need we admit any Forms Faculties or real Qualities to produce Effects which the Bodies bring not forth or to divide with God his own Essential Force and Power As Bodies cannot be the true Causes of any thing so likewise the most Noble Spirits are subject to the same impotency on that respect They cannot know any thing unless God enlightens them nor have the Sensation of any thing unless he modifies them nor will unless he moves them towards himself They may indeed determine the Impression God has given them to himself towards other Objects but I doubt whether it can be call'd a Power For if to be able to sin is a Power it is such a one as the Almighty wants saith St. Austin somewhere If Men had of themselves the Power of loving Good it might be said that they have some Power but they cannot so much as love but because God Wills it and that his Will is Efficacious They love because God continually drives them towards Good in general that is towards himself for whom alone they are Created and preserved God moves them and not themselves towards Good in general and they only follow that Impression by a free Choice according to the Law of God or determine it towards false and seeming Goods according to the Law of the Flesh But they cannot determine it but by the sight of Good For being able to doe nothing without an Impression from above they are incapable of loving any thing but Good But though it should be supposed which is true in one sense that Spirits have in themselves the Power of knowing Truths and loving Good should their Thoughts and Will produce nothing outwardly it might still be said that they were impotent and unoperative Now it seems undeniable that the Will of Spirits is not able to move the smallest Body in the World it being evident there is no necessary Connexion betwixt the Will we may have of moving our Arm for instance and the Motion of the same Arm. It moves
two parts as close as they are yet the Air cannot get in and therefore 't is that which compresses and constringes the two parts together and makes them so difficult to be disunited unless we glide them over one another For all this it is manifest that the Continuity Contiguity and Union of two Marbles would be one and the same thing in a vacuum for neither have we different Ideas of them so that it would be to talk without understanding our selves to make them differ absolutely and without any regard to the surrounding Bodies I now come to make some Reflexions upon M. Des Cartes's Opinion and the Original of his Errour I call his Opinion an Errour because I can find no sincere way of defending what he has said upon the Rules of Motion and the Cause of the Hardness of Bodies towards the end of the second Part of his Principles in several places and that he seems to have evidently prov'd the Truth of the contrary Opinion This great Man most distinctly conceiving that Matter could not naturally move it self but that the moving Force of all Bodies was nothing but the general Will of the Author of Nature and that therefore the Communications of their Motion upon their mutual Collision must come from the same Will yielded to be carry'd away with this Notion That the Rules of the different Communication of Motions must be fetch'd from the Proportion found between the different Magnitudes of Colliding Bodies it being impossible to penetrate into the Designs and Will of God And whereas he concluded that every thing had the Force to persevere in its present State whether it were in Motion or Rest because God whose Will constituted this Force acts always in the same manner he inferr'd that Rest had an equal Force with Motion Thus he measur'd the Effects of the Power of Rest by the Greatness of the Body it resided in as well as those of Motion And hence he gave the Rules of the Communication of Motion which are seen in his Principles and the Cause of the Hardness of Bodies which I have endeavour'd to refute 'T is a hard matter not to submit to the Opinion of Monsieur des Cartes when we contemplate it on the same side For once more since the Communication of Motions proceeds only from the Will of the Author of Nature and that we see all Bodies continue in the State they have once been put in whether it be Motion or Rest it seems that we ought to seek for the Rules of the different Communications of Motion upon the Concourse of Bodies not in the Will of God which is unknown to us but in the Proportion that is found between the Magnitudes of these same Bodies I do not therefore admire that Monsieur des Cartes should light upon this Notion but I only wonder he did not correct it when having push'd on his Discoveries he found out the Existence and some Effects of the subtile Matter which surrounds all Bodies I am surpriz'd to find him in the 132d Article of the Fourth Part attribute the Elastick Force of certain Bodies to the subtile Matter and yet not ascribe to it their Hardness and the Resistance they make to our Endeavours to bend and break them but only to the Rest of their Parts For I think it evident that the Cause of the Elasticity and Stiffness of some Bodies is the same with that which impowers them to resist the Violence that is us'd to break them For indeed the Force which is employ'd in breaking a piece of Steel has but an insensible Difference from that which is us'd to bend it I mean not to multiply Reasons here which one might give for the proving these things nor to answer some Difficulties possible to be urg'd about Bodies which are not sensibly springing and yet are difficultly bent For all these Difficulties vanish if we consider that the subtile Matter cannot easily make new Tracks in Bodies which break in bending as in Glass and temper'd Steel which it can easier do in such Bodies as are compos'd of branchy Parts and that are not brittle as in Gold and Lead And Lastly that there is no hard Body but has some kind of Elaterium 'T is a hard matter to persuade one's self that Monsieur des Cartes did positively believe the Cause of Hardness to be different from that which makes the Elasticity and what looks most likely is that he made not sufficient Reflexion on that matter When a Man has for a long time meditated on any Subject and is well satisfied about that of his present Enquiry he commonly thinks no farther on it he believes that the Conceptions he had of it are undeniable Truths and that it is needless to examine them any more But a Man has so many Things in him which disrelish his Application provoke him to precipitate Judgments and subject him to Errour that though his Mind remains apparently satisfied yet it is not always well instructed in the Truth Monsieur des Cartes was a Man like us No greater Solidity Accuracy Extent and Penetration of Thought is any where to be met with than in his Works I confess but yet he was not infallible Therefore 't is very probable he remain'd so settl'd in his Opinion from his not sufficiently reflecting that he asserted something in the Consequence of his Principles contrary to it He grounded it on very specious and probable Reasons but such notwithstanding as being not capable of themselves to force his Consent he might still have suspended his Judgment and consequently as a Philosopher he ought to have done it It was not enough to examine in a hard Body what was in it that might make it so but he ought likewise to have thought on the invisible Bodies which might give it Hardness as he did at the End of his Philosophical Principles when he ascrib'd to them the Cause of their Elasticity He ought to have made an exact Division and comprehensive of whatever might contribute to the Hardness of Bodies It was not enough to have sought the Causes of it in the Will of God he ought also to have thought on the subtile Matter which surrounds these Bodies For though the Existence of that violently agitated Matter was not yet proved in the place of his Principles where he speaks of Hardness it was not however rejected he ought therefore to have suspended his Judgment and have well remember'd that what he had written concerning the Cause of Hardness and of the Rules of Motion was fit to be revis'd which I believe was neglected by him or at least he has not sufficiently consider'd the true Reason of a thing very easie to be discover'd and which yet is of greatest Consequence in Natural Philosophy I thus explain my self Monsieur des Cartes well knew that to the Support of his System the Truth of which he could not reasonably suspect it was absolutely necessary that great Bodies should always communicate some
living in the Water God to let us understand that his Order constituted them in these Places produc'd them therein From the Earth he form'd Animals and Plants not that the Earth was capable of Generating or as if God had to that intent given it a force and Vertue which it retains till now For we are sufficiently agreed that the Earth does not Procreate Horses and Oxen but because out of the Earth the Bodies of Animals were form'd as is said in the following Chapter Out of the ground the Lord form'd every Beast of the field and every Fowl of the Air. The Animals were form'd out of the gound formatis de humo animantibus says the Vulgar Latin and not produc'd by it Therefore when Moses had related how Beasts and Fish were produc'd by Vertue of the Command which God gave the Earth and Water to produce them he adds that it was God that made them lest we should attribute their Production to the Earth and Water And God CREATED great Whales and every living Creature that moveth which the WATERS BROVGHT FORTH abundantly after their kind and every winged Fowl after his kind and a little lower after he had spoken of the formation of Animals he adjoyns And GOD MADE the Beast of the Earth after his kind and Cattel after their kind and every thing that creepeth on the Earth after his kind But 't is observable by the way That what the Vulgar Translates Producant aquae reptile animae viventis volatile super terram and our English Let the Water bring forth abundantly the moving Creature that hath Life and Fowl that may fly above the Earth the Hebrew has it Volatile VOLITET Let the Fowl fly above the Earth Which distinction shows as is evident from the fore-cited passage of the next Chapter that Fowls were not produc'd from the Water and that it was not Moses's design to prove that the Waters were truly empower'd to produce Fish and Fowl but only to denote the respective place design'd for each by the Order of God whether to live or to be produc'd in Et volatile VOLITET super Terram For commonly when we say that the Earth produces Trees and Plants we only mean to signifie that it furnishes Water and Salts which are necessary to the Germination and increase of Seeds But I dwell no longer on the Explication of these Scripture Passages which Literally taken make for Second Causes For we are so far from being oblig'd that it is sometimes dangerous to take Expressions in the Letter which are founded on common Opinion by which the Language is form'd For the vulgar part of Men speak of all things according to the Impressions of Sense and the Prejudices of Infancy The same Reason which constrains us to interpret Literally such Scripture Passages as directly oppose Prejudices gives us Reason to believe the Fathers never design'd ex proposito to maintain the Efficacy of Second Causes or the Nature of Aristotle For though they often speak in a manner that countenances Prejudices and the Judgments of Sense yet they sometimes so explain themselves as to manifest the disposition of their Mind and Heart St. Austin for instance gives us sufficiently to understand That he believed the Will of God to be the Force and Nature of every thing when he speaks thus We are wont to say but not truly that Prodigies are against Nature For the Nature of every Creature being but the Will of the Creator How can that which is done by the Will of God be contrary to Nature Miracles therefore and Prodigies are not against Nature but against what we know of it 'T is true St. Austin speaks in several places according to Prejudices But I affirm that that is no Argument for we are not Literally to explain but those Expressions which are contrary to them for which I have given the Reasons If St. Austin in his Works had said nothing against the Efficacy of Second Causes but had always favour'd this Opinion his Authority might be made use of to confirm it But if it should not appear that he had industriously examin'd that Question we might still have reason to think he had no settled and resolv'd Opinion about the Subject but was it may be drawn by the Impression of the Senses inconsiderately to believe a thing which no Man would doubt of before he had carefully examin'd it 'T is certain for example that St. Austin always speaks of Beasts as if they had a Soul I say not a Corporeal Soul for that Holy Father too well knew the distinction of the Soul and Body to think there were Corporeal Souls I say a Spiritual Soul for Matter is incapable of Sense And yet it would seem methinks more reasonable to employ the Authority of St. Austin to prove that Beasts have not a Soul than to prove they have For from the Principles which he has carefully examin'd and strongly establish'd it manifestly follows they have none as is shown by Ambrosius Victor in his Sixth Volume of Christian Philosophy But the Opinion that Beasts have a Soul and are sensible of Pain when we strike them being consonant to Prejudices for there is no Child but believes it we have still reason to believe that he speaks according to Custom and Vulgar Opinion and that if he had seriously examin'd the Question and once began to doubt and make reflexion he would never have said a thing so contrary to his Principles And thus though all the Fathers had constantly favour'd the Efficacy of Second Causes yet it may be no regard were due to their Opinion unless it appear'd that they had carefully Examin'd the Question and that their Assertions were not the results of common Speech which is form'd and founded upon Prejudices But the case is certainly quite contrary for the Fathers and such as were most Holy and best acquainted with Religion have commonly manifested in some places or other of their Works what was their Disposition of Mind and Heart in reference to the present Question The most Understanding and indeed the greatest number of Divines seeing that on one hand the Holy Scripture was repugnant to the Efficacy of Second Causes and on the other that the Impression of the Senses the publick Vote and especially Aristotle's Philosophy which was had in veneration by the Learned establish it For Aristotle believ'd God unconcern'd in the particulars of Sublunary Transactions That that change was below his Majesty and that Nature which he supposes in all Bodies suffic'd to produce all that was done below The Divines I say have so equally balanc'd these Two as to reconcile Faith with Heathen Philosophy Reason with Sense and to make Second Causes ineffective without the additional concourse of God Almighty But because that immediate concourse whereby God acts jointly with Second Causes includes great difficulties some Philosophers have rejected it pretending that in Order to their Acting there needs no more than
easier for him to preserve his Righteousness than for Us without the Grace of JESVS CHRIST since without this we have no Delight or Satisfaction in our Duty Albeit he misfortunately suffer'd himself to be seduc'd He lost that Uprightness by his Disobedience and the Principal Change he underwent and which was the cause of all the Confusion of his Senses and his Passions was that GOD by way of punitive Justice withdrew himself from him and would no longer be his Good or rather Ceas'd to make him sensible of that Pleasure which pointed out GOD as his Sovereign Good So that Sensible Pleasures which only carry'd him to the Injoyment of the Goods of the Body being left alone and no longer counterpois'd by those which drew him before to his True and Proper Good the close Union that he had with GOD was wonderfully loosen'd and that which he had with his Body as much strengthned or increas'd Sensible Pleasure having got the Dominion debauch'd his Moral Powers by fastening them upon all Sensible Objects and this Corruption of his Morals darkned his Intellectual Parts by turning him from that Light which Enlightned him and inducing him to form his Judgments on things only from the Relation or Analogy they could have to his Body But as to the Nature of the thing it self it cannot be said That the Change which happen'd on Part of the Senses was very considerable For as when two Weights are plac'd in Equilibrium in a Balance if you take away one of them the opposite Scale will be weigh'd down by the other without any alteration on part of the former weight since that still remains the same So after Sin the Pleasures of Sense bow'd and weigh'd down the Soul towards Sensible Objects for want of those Internal Delectations which before Sin counterpois'd that Inclination unto Sensible Good but without any so Substantial a Change in point of the Senses as is generally Imagin'd I come now to the Second Way of accounting for the Disorders introduc'd by Sin which is certainly more Reasonable than that we have been explaining It is very different from it because it is founded on a different Principle yet both these ways are very consistent and agreeable as to what respects the Senses Being we are made up of a Body and a Mind there are two sorts of Goods to imploy our Researches about the Goods of the Body and the Goods of the Mind We have likewise two means of Discovering whether a thing be good or ill for us either by using the Mind alone or by the use of the Mind in Conjunction with the Body We can discover our Good by a clear and evident Knowledge we can discover it likewise by a dark and confus'd Sensation Reason teaches me that Righteousness is Amiable My Taste informs me that such a Fruit is Good The Beauty of Righteousness is not Sensible nor the Goodness of a Fruit Intelligible The Goods of the Body deserve not the application of the Mind which GOD has created only for himself It must needs be then That the Mind discovers such kind of Goods without Examination and by the short and incontroverted Proof of Sensation Stones are not fit for Nourishment the Tryal is a convincing Argument and the Taste alone has made all Mankind agree to it Pleasure then and Pain are the Natural and undoubted Characters of Good and Evil I confess it But 't is only so in respect of those things which having no Power of being Good and Evil in themselves cannot be known for such by a Knowledge clear and evident 't is so in regard of those things only which being inferiour to the Mind can neither Punish nor Reward it In fine 't is only so in point of such things and Objects as are undeserving of the Soul's Applicacation and concern about them such things as GOD not willing we should be taken up with inclines us to only by Instinct that is by Agreeable or Disagreeable Sensations But as for GOD who is the True and only Good of the Mind who is alone above it who alone can Reward it in a thousand different ways who is only worthy of its Application and who is under no Fear of not being found Amiable by those that know him he is not content to be belov'd by a blind and Instinctive Love he will be lov'd by a Rational Love and a Love of Choice If the Mind saw only in Bodies what was really in them without being sensible of what was not therein it could not possibly Love them nor make use of them without great Pain and Reluctancy so that it is as it were necessary they should appear Agreeable by producing Sensations of which themselves are Destitute But 't is far from being so with GOD. 'T is sufficient to see him such as he is to be inclin'd to love him as we ought Nor is there any Necessity he should imploy that Instinct of Pleasure as a kind of Bait and Artifice to allure our Love without deserving it The Pleasure which the Blessed enjoy in the Possession of GOD is not so much an Instinct which inclines them to the Love of Him as the Recompence of their Love For it is not for the sake of that Pleasure that they Love GOD but because they manifestly know Him to be their True their Only Good This being the Case it ought to be concluded That Adam was not invited to the Love of GOD and the rest of his Duty by a Preventing Pleasure forasmuch as the Knowledge which he had of GOD as of his Good and the Joy he was continually possess'd with necessarily consequent to the View of his Felicity in his Uniting himself with GOD were sufficient Motives to recommend his Duty to him and to make his Actions more Meritorious than if he had been as it were determin'd by a Preventing Pleasure In this manner he was in perfect Liberty And 't is possibly in this Capacity the Scripture means to represent Him to us in these words He himself made Man from the beginning and left him in the hand of his Counsel to keep the Commandments c. Eccles. 15.14 That is kept him closely united to Himself only through the clear View he gave him of his Happiness and his Duty without alluring him to it by any Taste of a Preventing Pleasure But Experience has convinc'd us to the Eternal Reproach of Free Will and the Glory of GOD alone of the Frailty Adam was obnoxious to even in a State of such Perfect Order and Sublime Happiness as was that he was possess'd of before his Disobedience But it cannot be said Adam was inclin'd to the Searching out and Using of Sensible things through a nice and exact Knowledge of the Relation and Correspondence they might bear to his Body For indeed if it had been necessary for him to have examin'd the Configurations of the parts of any Fruit those likewise of all the parts of his Body
is perpendicularly over our Heads and 't is upon that account her Diameter grows greater in her Ascent above the Horizon because then she 's approaching nearest us The reason then that we see her Greater when she rises is not the Refraction of her Rays meeting with the Vapours which proceed from the Earth since the Image which is at that time form'd from those Rays is lesser but 't is the Natural Judgment we make of her Remoteness occasion'd by her appearing beyond those Lands which we see at a vast Distance from us as has been before explain'd and I am amaz'd to find Philosophers asserting that the reason of this Appearance and Delusion of our Sences is harder to be discover'd than the greatest Aequations of Algebra This Medium whereby we judge of the Remoteness of any Object by knowing the Distance of the things betwixt us and it is often of considerable use when the other means I have spoke of are wholly insignificant for by this last Medium we can judge that certain objects are many Leagues distant which we cannot do by any of the other And yet if we strictly survey it it will be found in several things deficient For first we can only make use of it about things upon the Earth since it can be but very rarely and then very unprofitably imploy'd upon those in the Air or in the Heavens Secondly it cannot be made use of on the Earth but about things a few Leagues distant In the third place we ought to be certain that there are neither Mountains nor Valleys nor any thing of the like nature betwixt us and the Object that hinders us from applying the afore-said Medium Lastly I am perswaded there is no body but has made sufficient Tryals upon the Subject to be convinc'd that it is a thing extreamly difficult to judge with any certainty of the Remoteness of Objects by a sensible View of the things lying betwixt us and them and we perhaps have dwelt two long upon it These then are all the Means we have to judge of the Distance of Objects in which since we have found considerable Imperfections we cannot but conclude that the Judgments that are grounded upon them must needs be very Precarious and Uncertain Hence it is easy to manifest the truth of the Propositions I have advanc'd The Object C was suppos'd considerably remote from A Therefore in many Instances it may be advanc'd on towards D or may have approach'd towards B and no one can discover it because there is no infallible Means whereby to judge of its Distance Nay it may recede towards D when it is thought to approach towards B because the Image of the Object is sometimes augmented and inlarged upon the Retina whether it be because the Air betwixt the Object and the Eye occasions a greater Refraction at one time than at another whether it proceeds from some little Tremlings which happen in the Optick Nerve or lastly that the Impression which is caus'd by an unexact Union of the Rays upon the Retina is diffus'd and communicated to the parts which ought to receive no Agitation from it which may proceed from any different causes Thus the Image of the same Objects being larger on these occasions gives the Soul reason to believe the Object approaches nearer The like may be said of the other Propositions Before I conclude this Chapter I would have it observ'd That it is of great concern to us in order to the Preservation of our Life to have a nicer Knowledge of the Motion or Rest of Bodies in Proportion to their Nighness to us and that it is a thing useless and insignificant to know exactly the truth of these things when happening in places very remote For this evidently shews that what I have generally advanc'd concerning all the Sences how they never Discover things to us as they are absolutely and in their own Nature but only in Relation to the Preservation of our Body is found exactly True in this particular since we know the Motion or Rests of Objects proportionably better as they approach nearer to us and are incapable of judging of them by the Sences when they are so remote as to seem to have no Relation at all or very little to our Body as for instance when they are five or six hundred Paces distant if they be of a Moderate Bigness or even Nearer than this when they are Lesser or somewhat farther off when they are proportionably Greater CHAP. X. Of our Errors about sensible Qualities I. The Distinction of the Soul and Body II. An Explication of the Organs of the Senses III. To what part of the Body the Soul is immediately united IV. An Instance to explain the Effect which Objects have upon our Bodies V. What it is they produce in the Soul and the Reasons why the Soul perceives not the Motions of the Fibres of the Body VI. Four things which are generally confounded in every Sensation WE have seen in the fore-going Chapters that the Judgments we form upon the Testimony of our Eyes concerning Extension Figure and Motion are never exactly true And yet it must not be allow'd that they are altogether false they contain so much Truth at least as this amounts to that there are Extension Figures and Motions whatever they be which are extrinsical or without our selves I confess we often see things that have no Existence nor ever had and it ought not to be concluded that a thing is Actually without us from our Seeing it without us There is no necessary Connexion between the Presence of an Idea to the Mind of a Man and the Existence of the Thing represented by the Idea Which is manifest enough from the Consideration of what happens to Men in a Dream or a Delirium And yet we may safely affirm that ordinarily Extension Figures and Motions are without us when we see them so These things are not in the Imagination only but are Real And we are not deceiv'd in believing them to have a Real Existence and wholly independent on our Mind tho' it be a very hard thing to prove it It is certain then that the Judgments we form concerning the Extension the Figures and Motions of Bodies contain some Truth But 't is another case in point of those Judgments we make concerning Light Colours Tasts Smells and all other Sensible Qualities For Truth has nothing to do with them as shall be made manifest in the remainder of this First Book We make not here any Distinction between Light and Colours because we suppose them to have no great Difference and that they cannot be separately Explain'd We shall likewise be oblig'd to speak of other Sensible Qualities in general at the same time we shall treat of these Two in particular because they may be accounted for upon the same Principles The things which follow demand the greatest Attention imaginable as being of the highest Importance and very different as to their
much and Fearing nothing from them whilst they keep them within those Boundaries I have prescrib'd them In this Second Book I shall Discourse concerning the Imagination as the Natural Order of things obliges me For there is so near a Relation and Affinity betwixt the Imagination and the Senses that they in no wise ought to be separated We shall see too in the Sequel of the Discourse that these two Powers are no farther Different than according to Degree of more or less This then is the Method which I have Observ'd in this Treatise It is divided into three Parts In the First I Explain the Natural Causes of the Disorder and Errors of the Imagination In the Second I make some Application of these Causes to the more General Errors of the Imagination and I Discourse of such as may be term'd the Moral Causes of these Errors In the Third I treat of the Contagious Communication of Strong Imaginations Though the greatest part of the things contain'd in this Tract may not be so new as those I have already deliver'd in Explaining the Errors of the Senses yet their Use and Advantage will be no less considerable Men of bright and clarify'd Understandings can easily discover the Errors and the Causes of the Errors I am treating of But there are few such Men as can make sufficient Reflection thereupon I pretend not to give Instructions to all the World my design is only to Inform the Ignorant and to Caution and Remind the rest or rather I try to be my own Instructour and Remembrancer It has been said in the First Book that the Organs of our Senses were compos'd of little Fibres which terminate on one hand upon the External parts of the Body and on the Skin and on the â—ther center in the middle of the Brain But these Fibres may be moved in a two-fold manner either by commencing their Motion at those Extremities which terminate in the Brain or at those which terminate on the Surface of the Body Being the Agitation of these Fibres cannot be communicated to the Brain but the Soul must have some Perception or other if the Agitation be begun by the Impression of Objects made upon the External Surface of the Fibres of the Nerves and be communicated to the Brain the Soul thereupon receives a Sensation and judges what she has the Sensation of to be without that is to say She perceives an Object as Present but if it be only the Internal Fibres that are agitated by the Course of the Animal Spirits or in some other manner the Soul Imagines and judges what she imagines to be not without but within the Brain that is she perceives an Object as Absent And this is the difference there is between Sensation and Imagination But it ought to be observ'd That the Fibres of the Brain are more violently agitated by the Impression of External Objects than by the Course of the Animal Spirits and that for this reason the Soul is more nearly touch'd by External Objects which she judges as present and as it were capable of making her instantly sensible of Pleasure or Pain than by the Course of the Animal Spirits And yet it happens sometimes in Persons whose Animal Spirits are put in extream Commotion by Fastings Watchings a scorching Fever or a violent Passion that these Spirits move the Internal Fibres of the Brain with as great a force as External Objects so that these Persons have the Sensation of what they should only have the Imagination and think they See Objects before their Eyes which they only Imagine in the Brain Which evidently shews that in regard of what occurs in the Body the Senses and Imagination differ but in Degree of more or less as I have before declar'd But in Order to give a more distinct and particular Idea of the Imagination we must know that as often as any Change happens in that part of the Brain where the Nerves unite there happens a Change also in the Soul That is as has been already explain'd if there happens any Motion in this part which alters the Order of its Fibres there happens at the same time a new Perception in the Soul and she either Feels or Imagines something afresh And that the Soul is incapable of receiving any fresh Sensation or Imagination without some Alteration in the Fibres of that part of the Brain So that the Faculty of Imagining or the Imagination consists only in the Power the Soul has of framing the Images of Objects by effecting a Change in the Fibres of that part of the Brain which may be call'd the Principal Part as being that which corresponds to all the Parts of our Body and is the Place where the Soul keeps her immediate Residence if I may be so allow'd to speak This manifestly shews that this Power which the Soul has of Forming these Images includes two things one that has its Dependence on the Soul and the other on the Body The first is the Action and the Command of the Will The second is the ready Obedience paid to it by the Animal Spirits which delineate those Images and by the Fibres of the Brain wherein they must be imprinted In this Tract both one and the other of these two things go indifferently by the Name of Imagination nor are they distinguish'd by the Terms Active and Passive which might be given them because the Sense of the thing spoken of easily determines which of the Two is understood whether the Active Imagination of the Soul or the Passive Imagination of the Body I shall not here particularly determine which is that Principal Part of the Brain before-mention'd First Because it would be but an useless thing to do it Secondly Because it is not perfectly and infallibly known And lastly Since I could not convince others it being a Matter incapable of Probation in this place though I should be infallibly assur'd which was this Principal Part I should think it more adviseable to say nothing of it Whether then it be according to the Opinion of Dr. Willis in the two little Bodies call'd by him Corpora Striata that the common Sense resides and the Cells of the Brain preserve the Species of the Memory and the Corpus Callosum be the Seat of Imagination Whether it be according to Fernelius's Opinion in the Pia Mater which involves the Substance of the Brain Whether it be in the Pineal Gland according to the Notion of Des-Cartes or lastly in some other part hitherto undiscover'd that our Soul exercises her Principal Functions is of no great concern to know 'T is enough to be assur'd that there is a Principal Part and this is moreover absolutely necessary and that the Basis of Mr. Des-Cartes's System stands its ground For 't is to be well observ'd that though he should be mistaken in assuring us it is the Pineal Gland to which the Soul is immediately united this could no ways injure the
and likewise those that use them have Bodies diversly dispos'd Two Persons after Dinner though rising from the same Table must sensibly perceive in their Faculty of Imagining so great a Variety of Alterations as is impossible to be describ'd I confess those who are in a perfect state of Health perform Digestion so easily that the Chyle flowing into the Heart neither augments nor diminishes the Heat of it and is scarce any Obstruction to the Blood 's fermenting in the very same manner as if it enter'd all alone So that their Animal Spirits and consequently their Imaginative Faculty admit hardly any Change thereby But as for Old and Infirm People they find in themselves very sensible Alterations after a Repast They generally grow dull and sleepy at least their Imagination flags and languishes and has no longer any Briskness or Alacrity They can conceive nothing distinctly and are unable to apply themselves to any thing In a word they are quite different and other sort of People from what they were before But that those of a more sound and robust Complection may likewise have sensible proofs of what I have said they need only make reflection on what happens to them in Drinking Wine somewhat more freely than ordinary or on what would fall out upon their drinking Wine at one Meal and Water at another For it is certain that unless they be extreamly stupid or that their Body be of a make very extraordinary they will suddainly feel in themselves some Briskness or little Drousiness or some such other accidental thing Wine is so spirituous that it is Animal Spirits almost ready made But Spirits a little too libertine and unruly that not easily submit to the orders of the Will by reason of their Solidity and excessive Agitation Thus it produces even in Men that are of a most strong and vigorous Constitution greater Changes in the Imagination and in all the parts of the Body than Meats and other Liquors It gives a Man a Foil in Plautus's Expression and produces many Effects in the Mind less advantagious than those describ'd by Horace in these Lines Quid non Ebrietas designat operta recludit Spes jubet esse ratas in praelia trudit inermem Sollicitis animis onus eximit addocet artes Foecundi calices quem non fecere disertum Contractâ quem non in paupertate solutum It would be no hard matter to give a Reason for all the Principal Effects produc'd in the Animal Spirits and thereupon in the Brain and in the Soul it self by this Commixture of the Chyle and Blood as to explain how Wine exhilarates and gives a Man a certain Sprightliness of Mind when taken with Moderation why it Brutifies a Man in process of time by being drunk to excess why a Man is drousie after a good Meal and a great many others of like Nature for which very ridiculous Accounts are usually given But besides that I am not writing a Tract of Physicks I must have been necessitated to have given some Idea of the Anatomy of the Brain or have made some Supposition as Monsieur Des-Cartes has done before me in his Treatise concerning Man without which it were impossible to explain ones self But finally if a Man shall read with Attention that Discourse of Monsieur Des-Cartes he will possibly be satisfy'd as to all these particular Inquiries because that Author explains all these things at least he furnishes us with sufficient Knowledge of them to be able of our selves to discover them by Meditation provided we are any whit acquainted with his Principles CHAP. III. That the Air imploy'd in Respiration causes some Change in the Animal Spirits THE second general Cause of the Changes which happen in the Animal Spirits is the Air we breath For though it does not forthwith make such sensible Impressions as the Chyle yet it causes at long run what the Juices of Meats do in a much shorter time This Air passes out of the Branches of the Trachea into those of the Arteria Venosa Hence it mingles and ferments with the rest of the Blood in the Heart and according to its own particular Disposition and that of the Blood it produces very great Changes in the Animal Spirits and consequently in the Imaginative Faculty I know there are some Persons who will not be persuaded that the Air mixes with the Blood in the Lungs and Heart because they cannot discover with their Eyes the Passages in the Branches of the Trachea and in those of the Arteria Venosa through which the Air is communicated But the Action of the Intellect ought not to stop when that of the Senses can go no farther It can penetrate that which to them is impenetrable and lay hold on things which have no handle for the Senses 'T is not to be question'd but some parts of the Blood continually pass through the Branches of the Vena Arteriosa into those of the Trachea The Smell and Moisture of the Breath sufficiently prove it and yet the Passages of that Communication are imperceptible Why then may not the subtil parts of Air be allow'd to pass through the Branches of the Trachea into the Arteria Venosa though the Passages of this Communication be undiscernible In fine a much greater quantity of Humours transpire through the imperceptible Pores of the Arteries and the Skin than escape through the other Avenues of the Body and even the Pores of the most solid Metals are not so close but there are found Bodies in Nature little enough to find a free passage through them since otherwise these Pores would quickly be entirely stopt It is true that the course and ragged parts of the Air cannot penetrate through the ordinary Pores of Bodies and that Water it self though extreamly gross can glide through those crannies which will not give admittance to them But we speak not here of the course or branch'd and ragged Parts of Air they seem to be of little use to Fermentation We only speak of the little stiff and pungent Parts and such as have none or very few Branches to impede their passage because these are the fittest for the Fermentation of the Blood I might notwithstanding affirm upon the Testimony of Silvius that even the coursest Air passes from the Trachea to the Heart who testifies he has seen it pass thither by the Art and Ingenuity of Mr. de Swammerdam For 't is more reasonable to believe a Man who says he has seen it than a thousand others who talk at random It is certain then that the most refin'd and subtil Parts of Air which we breath enter into the Heart and there together with the Blood and Chyle keep up the Fire which gives Life and Motion to our Body and that according to their different Qualities they introduce great Changes in the Fermentation of the Blood and in the Animal Spirits We daily discover the Truth of this by the various Humours and the different Characters of
gross and difficult to be put in Motion As for those Nerves which environ the Arteries and Veins their Use is to put a stop to the current of the Blood and by their Pressure and Constriction of the Veins and Arteries oblige it to flow into those places where it meets with a passage more free and open Thus that part of the great Artery which furnishes all the parts of the Body below the Heart with Blood being bound and straitned by these Nerves the Blood must necessarily enter the Head in greater quantities and so produce a Change in the Animal Spirits and consequently in the Imagination But it ought to be well observ'd that all this is perform'd by mere Mechanism I mean that all the different Movements of these Nerves in all the different Passions are not affected by the Command of the Will but on the contrary are perform'd without its orders and even in contradiction to them Insomuch that a Body without a Soul dispos'd like that of a â—ound Man would be capable of all the Movements which accompany our Passions And thus Beasts themselves might have such as nearly resembled them though they were only pure Machines This is the thing for which we ought to admire the Incomprehensible Wisdom of Him who has so regularly rang'd and contriv'd all these Natural Wheels and Movements as to make it sufficient for an Object to move the Optick Nerve in such and such a manner to produce so many diverse Motions in the Heart in the other inward parts of the Body and on the Face it self For it has lately been discover'd that the same Nerve which shoots some of its Branches into the Heart and into other Internal parts communicates also some of its Branches into the Eye the Mouth and other parts of the Face so that no Passion can rise or mutiny within but it must betray presently it self without because there can be no Motion in the Branches extended to the Heart but there must another happen in those which are spread o'er the Face The Correspondence and Sympathy which is found between the Nerves of the Face and some others answering to other places of the Body not to be nam'd is still much more Remarkable and that which occasions this great Sympathy is as in the other Passions because these little Nerves which climb into the Face are only Branches of that which descends lower When a Man is overtaken with some violent Passion if he is careful to make a Reflection upon what he feels in his Entrails and in other parts of his Body where the Nerves insinuate themselves as also upon the Changes of Countenance which accompany it and if he considers that all these divers Agitations of the Nerves are altogether involuntary and that they happen in spite of all the Resistance that our Will can make to them he will find it no hard matter to suffer himself to embrace this simple Exposition that hath been given of all these Relations and Correspondencies betwixt the Nerves But if a Man examines the Reasons and the End of all these things so much Order and Wisdom will be found in them that a little Soberness of Thought and Attention will be able to convince the most devoted Admirers of Epicurus and Lucretius that there is a Providence that governs the World When I see a Watch I have reason to conclude that there is some Intelligent Being since it is Impossible for Chance and Hap-hazard to produce to range and posture all its Wheels How then could it be possible that Chance and a confus'd Jumble of Atoms should be capable of ranging in all Men and Animals such abundance of different secret Springs and Engines with that Exactness and Proportion I have just Explain'd and that Men and Animals should thereby procreate others exactly like themselves So ridiculous it is to think or to say with Lucretius That all the parts which go to the Composition of Man were pack't together by Chance that his Eyes were not made with any design of Seeing but that he afterwards thought of Seeing because he found he had Eyes And thus with the other parts of the Body These are his Words Lumina ne facias oculorum clara creata Prospicere ut possimus ut proferre vidi Proceros passus ideo fastigia posse Surarum ac foeminum pedibus fundata plicari Brachia tum poro validis ex apta lacertis Esse manúsque datas utraque à parte ministras Vt facere ad vitam possimus quae foret usus Caetera de genere hoc inter quaecunque pretantur Omnia perversa praepostera sunt ratione Nil adeo quoniam natum ' st in corpore ut uti Possemus sed quod natum ' st id procreat usum Must not he needs have a strange Aversion to a Providence who would thus voluntarily put out his Eyes for fear of seeing it and endeavour to render himself insensible to Arguments so strong and convincing as those Nature furnishes us withal I confess when once Men affect to be thought bold or rather Atheistical Wits as did the Epicureans they presently find themselves benighted in darkness and see only false glimmerings for the future they peremptorily deny the most clear and Self-evident Truths and as haughtily and Magisterially affirm the falsest and obscurest Things in the World The Poet I have just cited may serve as a Proof of that Blindness of these venturous Wits he confidently pronounces and against all appearance of Truth about the most difficult and obscurest Questions when at the same time it may well be thought he has no Preception of Idea's that are most clear and evident If I should stand to transcribe passages of that Author to justifie what I say I should make too long and tedious a Digression for though it may be permitted me to make some Reflections which stay and fasten the Mind for a Moment upon essential Truths yet I should never attone for making Digressions which throw off the Mind a considerable time from its Attention to its principal Subject to apply it to things of little or no Importance CHAP. V. I. Of the Memory II. Of the Habits WE have been explaining the general Causes as well External as Internal which effect a Change in the Animal Spirits and consequently in the Imaginative Faculty We have shewn that the External are the Meats we feed upon and the Air we take in for Respiration And that the Internal consist in the Involuntary Agitation of certain Nerves We know no other general Causes and we are confident there are none In so much that the Faculty of Imagining as to the Body depends only on two things namely the Animal Spirits and the Disposition of the Brain whereon they act There nothing more remains at present to to give us a perfect Knowledge of the Imagination than the manifestation of the different Changes that may happen in the Substance of the Brain They shall be examined by us as
Custom Why Men by use of Speaking obtain so great a Dexterity at it as to pronounce their Words with an incredible swiftness and even without considering them as is but too often customary with those who say the Prayers which they have been us'd to several Years together And yet many things go to the Pronunciation of one Word many Muscles must be mov'd at once in a certain time and a definite Order as those of the Tongue the Lips the Throat and Diaphragm But a Man may with a little Meditation give himself satisfaction upon these Questions as upon many others very curious and no less useful and it is not necessary to dwell any longer upon them It is manifest from what has been said that there is a great affinity between the Memory and Habits and that in one sense the Memory may pass for a Species of Habit. For as the Corporeal Habits consist in the Facility the Spirits have acquir'd of passing into certain places of our Body So the Memory consists in the Traces the same Spirits have imprinted in the Brain which are the cause of that Facility we have of Recollecting and Remembring things In so much that were there no Perceptions affix'd to the courses of the Animal Spirits and the Traces they leave behind them there would be no difference between the Memory and the other Habits Nor is there greater difficulty to conceive how Beasts though void of Soul and incapable of any Perception may remember after their way the things that have made an Impression in their Brain than to conceive how they are capable of acquiring different Habits and after what I have explain'd concerning the Habits I see no greater difficulty to represent to a Man's self how the Members of their Body procure different Habits by degrees than how an Engine newly made cannot so easily be play'd as after it has been some time made use of CHAP. VI. I. That the Fibres of the Brain are not subject to so sudden Changes as the Spirits II. Three different Changes incident to the three different Ages ALL the Parts of Animate Bodies are in a continual Motion whether they be Solid or Fluid the Flesh no less than the Blood There is only this difference between the Motion of one and the other that the Motion of the parts of the Blood is sensible and visible and that the Particles of the Fibres of our Flesh are altogether Imperceptible There is then this difference between the Animal Spirits and the Substance of the Brain That the Animal Spirits are very rapidly mov'd and very fluid but the Substance of the Brain has some Solidity and Consistence So that the Spirits divide themselves into little Parts and are dispers'd in a few Hours by transpiring through the Pores of the Vessels that contain them and others often succeed in their Place not altogether like the former But the Fibres of the Brain are not so easie to be dissipated there seldom happen any considerable Alterations in them and their whole Substance can't be chang'd but by the successive tract of many Years The most considerable Differences that are found in the Brain of one and the same Person during his whole Life are in his Infancy in his Maturity and in his Old Age. The Fibres in the Brain in a Man's Child-hood are soft flexible and delicate A Riper and more consummate Age dries hardens and corroborates them but in Old Age they grow altogether inflexible gross and intermix'd with superfluous Humours wich the faint and languishing Heat of that Age is no longer able to disperse For as we see that the Fibres which compose the Flesh harden by Time and that the Flesh of a young Partridge is without dispute more tender than that of an old one so the Fibres of the Brain of a Child or a young Person must be much more soft and delicate than those of Persons more advanc'd in Years We shall understand the Ground and the Reason of these Changes if we consider that the Fibres are continually agitated by the Animal Spirits which whirl about them in many different manners For as the Winds parch and dry the Earth by their blowing upon it so the Animal Spirits by their perpetual Agitation render by degrees the greatest part of the Fibres of Man's Brain more dry more close and solid so that Persons more stricken in Age must necessarily have them almost always more inflexible than those of a lesser standing And as for those who are of the same Age your Drunkards which for many Years together have drank to excess either Wine or such Intoxicating Liquors must needs have them more solid and more inflexible than those who have abstain'd from the use of such kind of Liquors all their Lives Now the different Constitutions of the Brain in Children in Adult Persons and in Old People are very considerable Causes of the Difference observable in the Imaginative Faculty of these Three Ages which we are going to speak of in the following Chapters CHAP. VII I. Of the Communication there is between the Brain of a Mother and that of her Infant II. Of the Communication that is between our Brain and the other Parts of our Body which inclines us to Imitation and to Compassion III. An Explication of the Generation of Monstrous Children and the Propagation of the Species IV. An Explication of some Irregularities of the Vnderstanding and of some Inclinations of the Will V. Concerning Concupiscence and Original Sin VI. Objections and Answers IT is I think sufficiently manifest that there is some kind of Tye and Connection between us and all the rest of the World and that we have some Natural Relations to or Correspondencies with all things that encompass us which Relations are very advantagious both as to the Preservation and welfare of our Lives But all these Relations are not equally binding There is a closer Connection betwixt us and our Native Country than China we have a nearer Relation to the Sun than to any of the Stars to our own Houses than that of our Neighbours There are invisible Ties that fasten us with a stricter Union unto Men than Beasts to our Relations and Friends than Strangers to those on whom we have our Dependence for the Preservation of our Being than to such as can neither be the Objects of our Hopes or Fears That which is more especially remarkable in this Natural Union betwixt us and other Men is That it is so much greater by how much we stand more in need of their Kindness or Assistance Relations and Friends are intimately united to one another We may say that their Pains and Miseries are common as well as their Pleasures and Happiness For all the Passions and Sentiments of our Friends are communicated to us by the Impression their Mein and Manner and the Air of their Countenance make upon us But because we may absolutely live without them the Natural Union betwixt them and us is
of a tender and delicate Body than in those of a more strong and robust Complection Thus Men who abound with Strength and Vigour are not at all hurt with the sight of a Massacre nor so much inclin'd to Compassion because the sight of it is an offence to their Body as because it shocks their Reason These Persons have no Pity for a Condemned Criminal as being both Inflexible and Inexorable Whereas Women and Children suffer much Pain by the Hurt and Wounds they see receiv'd by others They are machinally dispos'd to be very Pitiful and Compassionate to the Miserable And they are unable to see a Beast beaten or hear it cry without some disturbance of mind As for Infants which are still in their Mother's Womb the delicacy of the Fibres of their Flesh infinitely exceeding that of Women and Children the Course of their Spirits must necessarily produce more considerable Changes in them as will be seen in the Sequel of the Discourse We will still suffer what we have said to go for a simple Supposition if Men will have it so But they ought to endeavour well to comprehend it if they would distinctly conceive the things I presume to explain in this Chapter For these two Suppositions I have just made are the Principles of an infinite number of things which are generally believ'd very difficult and abstruse And which indeed seem impossible to be explain'd and clear'd up without them I will here give some instances of what I have said It was about seven or eight Years ago that there was seen in the Incurable a young Man who was born anâ—Idiot and whose Body was broken in the same places that Malefactors are broken on the Wheel He lived near twenty Years in the same condition many Persons went to see him and the late Queen-mother going to visit the Hospital had the Curiosity to see him and also to touch his Legs and Arms in the places were they were broken According to the Principles I have been establishing the cause of this Calamitous Accident was That his Mother hearing a Criminal was to be broken went to see the Execution All the blows which were given to the Condemned struck violently the Imagination of the Mother and by a kind of Repercussive blow the tender and delicate Brain of her Infant The Fibres of this Mother's Brain receiv'd a prodigious Concussion and were possibly broke in some places by the violent course of the Spirits produc'd at the Sight of so frightful a Spectacle But they had Consistency enough to prevent their total Dissolution The Fibres on the contrary of the Infant 's Brain not being able to resist the furious torrent of these Spirits were broke and shattered all to pieces And the havock was violent enough to make him lose his Intellect for ever This is the Reason why he come into the World deprived of Sense Now for the other why he was broken in the same parts of his Body as the Criminal whom his Mother had seen put to Death At the Sight of this Execution so capable of dismaying a timorous Woman the violent course of the Animal Spirits of the Mother made a forcible descent from her Brain towards all the Members of her Body which were Analogous to those of the Criminal and the same thing happened to the Infant But because the Bones of the Mother were capable of withstanding the violent Impression of these Spirits they receiv'd no dammage by them it may be too she felt not the least Pain nor the least Trembling in her Arms or Legs upon the Breaking of the Criminal But the rapid course of the Spirits was capable of bursting the soft and tender parts of the Infant 's Bones For the Bones are the last parts of the Body that are form'd and they have very little Consistence whilst Children are yet in their Mother 's Womb. And it ought to be observ'd that if this Mother had determin'd the Motion of these Spirits towards some other part of her Body by some powerful Titillation her Infant would have escaped the Fracture of his Bones But the part which was correspondent to that towards which the Mother had determined these Spirits would have been severely injured according to what I have already said The Reasons of this Accident are general enough to explain how it comes to pass that Women who whilst big with Child see Persons particularly mark'd in certain places of their Face imprint on their Infants the very same Marks and in the self-same places of the Body And 't is not without good Reason that they are caution'd to rub some latent part of the Body when they perceive any thing which surprises them or are agitated with some violent Passion For by this means the Marks will be delineated rather upon the hidden parts than the Faces of their Infants We should have frequent Instances of like Nature with this I have here related if Infants could live after they had receiv'd so great Wounds or Disruptions but generally they prove Abortions For it may be said that rarely any Child dies in the Womb if the Mother be not distemper'd that has any other cause of its ill fortune than some fright or impotent Desire or other violent Passion of the Mother This following is another Instance very unusual and particular It is no longer than a Year ago that a Woman having with too great an Application of Thought contemplated the Picture of St. Pius at the Celebration of his Feast of Canonization was deliver'd of a Child perfectly featur'd like the Representation of the Saint He had the Countenance of an Old Man as near as was possible for an Infant that was beardless His Arms were folded across upon his Breast His Eyes bent up towards Heaven and had very little Forehead because the Picture of the Saint being postur'd as looking up to Heaven and elevated towards the Roof of the Church had scarce any Fore-head to be seen He had a kind of Mitre reclining backwards on his Shoulders with many round prints in the places where the Mitres are imboss'd with Precious Stones In short this Infant was the very Picture of the Picture upon which the Mother had form'd it by the force of her Imagination This is a thing that all Paris might have seen as well as I since it was a considerable time preserv'd in Spirit of Wine This instance has This remarkable in it That it was not the Sight of a Man alive and acted with some violent Passion that mov'd the Spirits and Blood of the Mother to the Production of so strange an Effect but only the sight of a Picture which yet made a very sensible Impression and was accompanied with a mighty Commotion of Spirits whether by the Fervency and Application of the Mother or whether by the Agitation the noise of the Feast caus'd in her This Mother then beholding the Picture with great Application of Mind and Commotion of Spirits the Infant
according to the first Supposition saw it with the like Application and Commotion The Mother being sensibly smitten imitated the Picture at least in outward posture according to the second Supposition For her Body being compleatly form'd and the Fibres of her Flesh hard enough to withstand the torrent of the Spirits she could not possibly imitate it or become perfectly like it in all things But the Fibres of the Infant 's Flesh being extreamly soft and consequently capable of being moulded into any Figure the rapid course of the Spirits produc'd in his Flesh all that was necessary to render him entirely like the Image which he saw And the Imitation to which Children are the most dispos'd was almost as perfect as it possibly could be But this Imitation having given the Body of the Child a shape too extraordinary was the occasion of its Death There are many other Instances to be met with in Authors of the Power of the Mother's Imagination and there is nothing so odd or extravagant but they sometimes miscarry of For they not only bring forth Deform'd and Mis-shapen Children but the Fruits they have long'd to Eat as Apples Pears Grapes and the like The Mother strongly imagining and impatiently longing to Eat Pears for instance the Infant receives the same impatient Longings and strong Imaginations and the current of the Spirits actuated with the Image of the desir'd Fruit diffusing it self through the little Body which by reason of it flexibility and softness is readily dispos'd for a change of its Figure the poor Infant is fashion'd in the shape of the thing it too ardently desires But the Mother suffers not in her Body by it because it is not soft and plyable enough to receive the Figure of the thing imagined and so she cannot imitate or make her self entirely like it Now it ought to be suppos'd that this Correspondence I have been explaining and which is sometimes the cause of such great Disorders is an unuseful thing and an inconvenient Ordinance in Nature On the contrary it seems to be very advantagious to the Propagation of an Humane Body and the Formation of the Foetus and it is absolutely necessary to the Transmitting several Dispositions of the Brain which ought to be different at different Seasons and in different Countries For it is necessary for instance that Lambs in particular Countries should have their Brain altogether dispos'd for the avoiding and flying Wolves by reason of their abounding in those places and being very formidable Creatures to them It is true this Communication between the Mother's and the Infant 's Brain is sometimes attended with unlucky Consequences when the Mothers suffer themselves to be transported with some outragious Passion Notwithstanding it seems to me that without this Communication Women and other Creatures could not easily Propagate their Young Ones in the same Species For though some Reason may be given for the Formation of the Foetus in general as Monsieur Des-Cartes has happily enough attempted yet it is most difficult without this Communication of the Mother's Brain with that of the Infant to explain why a Mare does not produce a Calf and a Hen an Egg which contains a little Partridge or some other Bird of a new Species And I am of opinion that those who have thought much upon the Formation of the Foetus will agree in the same Notion 'T is true that the most reasonable Opinion and that which is most agreeable to Experience touching that very difficult Question about the Formation of the Foetus is this That Infants are already wholly form'd even before the Action whereby they are conceiv'd and that their Mothers only bestow upon them the ordinary Growth in the time of their being big with them Nevertheless this Communication of Animal Spirits and of the Brain of the Mother with the Spirits and Brain of the Infant seems however to be serviceable in regulating this Growth and determining the parts imploy'd in its Nourishment to the posturing themselves almost in the same manner as in the Body of the Mother That is in rendring the Infant like to or of the same Species This is manifest enough by the Accidents which occur when the Imagination of the Mother is disordered and some tempestuous Passion changes the Natural Disposition of her Brain For then as we have just explain'd this Communication alters the Natural Formation of the Infant 's Body and the Mother proves Abortive sometimes of her Foetus so much more resembling the Fruits she longed for as the Spirits find less Resistance in the Fibres of the Infant 's Body We deny not however but GOD Almighty without that Communication we have been mentioning might have dispos'd all things necessary to the Propagation of the Species for infinite Ages in so exact and regular a manner that Mothers should never have miscarried but have always born Children of the same Bigness and Complection and perfectly alike in all things For we ought not to measure the Power of GOD by our weak Imagination and we are ignorant of the Reasons which might have determined Him in the Construction of his Work We daily see that without the help and assistance of this Communication Plants and Trees produce regularly enough their like and that Birds and many other Animals stand in no need of it for the Breeding and Hatching of their Young ones when they brood upon Eggs of a different Species as when a Hen sits on the Eggs of a Partridge For though we have reason to suppose that the Seeds and Eggs have originally contain'd in them the Plants and Birds which proceed from them and that the little Bodies of these Birds may have receiv'd their Conformation by the Communication before-mentioned and the Plants have receiv'd their's by another Communication which is equivalent yet this perhaps would be but a Conjecture But though it should be more than Conjecture yet we ought in no wise to judge by the things which GOD has made what those are which it is possible for Him to make Yet if it be consider'd that Plants which receive their Growth from the Action of their Mother-plant resemble it much more than those which proceed from the Seeds that the Tulips for instance which arise from the Root are of the same colour with their Mother-Tulip and that those which are deriv'd from the Seed are generally very different It cannot be doubted but that if the Communication of the generating Plant with the generated is not absolutely necessary to make it of the same Species it is always necessary to make it of the same Likeness So that though it were fore-seen by GOD that this Communication of the Mother's Brain with the Brain of her Child would sometimes be the occasion of the Death of the Foetus and the Generation of Monsters by reason of the disorderly Imagination of the Mother Yet this Communication is so admirable and so necessary for the Reasons I have alledg'd and for several others
that might still be brought that the fore-knowledge of these inconveniences ought not to have prevented GOD from executing his Design It may be affirm'd in one Sense that GOD had never a Design of making Monsters for it seems evident to me that supposing he should make but one Animal he would never make it Monstrous But his Design being to produce an admirably contriv'd Work by the most simple means and to unite all his Creatures to one another he fore-saw certain Effects that would necessarily follow from that Order and Nature of Things and that was not sufficient to make him change his Purpose and Design For though in conclusion a Monster consider'd disjunctively be an imperfect Work yet when conjoyn'd with the rest of the Creation it renders not the World imperfect We have sufficiently explain'd what the Imagination of a Mother is capable of working upon the Body of her Child Let us now examine the influence she has upon his Mind and let us try to discover the first and topmost irregularities of the Vnderstanding and Will of Men in their Original For this is our main and principal Design 'T is certain that the Traces of the Brain are accompany'd with Sensations and Idea's of the Soul and that the Motions of the Animal Spirits are never excited in the Body but there are Motions in the Soul correspondent to them In a word it is certain that all the Corporeal Passions and Sensations are attended with real Sensations and Passions of the Soul Now according to our first Supposition Mothers communicate to their Children the Traces of their Brain and consequently the Motions of their Animal Spirits Therefore they breed in the Mind of their Infants the same Sensations and Passions themselves are affected with and consequently corrupt their Moral and Intellectual Capacity several ways If it be so common for Children to bear imprinted in their Faces the Marks or Traces of the Idea that made an impression on their Mother though the Cutaneous Fibres make a stronger resistance to the current of the Spirits than the soft and tender parts of the Brain and the Spirits are in a greater Agitation in the Brain than towards the Surface of the Body it can't be reasonably doubted but the Animal Spirits of the Mother produce in the Brain of their Children many Tracks and Footsteps of their disorderly Motions Now the great Traces of the Brain and the Emotions of the Spirits answering to them being a long time preserv'd and sometimes for the whole course of a Man's Life it is plain that as there are few Women but have their Weaknesses and Failings and are disturb'd with some Passion or other during the Season of their Breeding there must needs be but few Children but what bring into the World with them a Mind some way or other preposterously fram'd and are born Slaves to some domineering Passion We have but too frequent Experience of these things and all Men know well enough that there are whole Families subject to great Weaknesses of Imagination which have been hereditarily transmitted from their Ancestors But it would be unnecessary here to give particular instances On the contrary it is more expedient for the Consolation of some Persons to affirm that these Infirmities of their Fore-fathers being not Natural or essential to the Nature of Man the Traces and Impresses of the Brain which were the cause of them may by degrees wear out and in time be quite effac'd Yet it will not be amiss to relate here an Instance of James I. King of England which is mention'd by Sir Kenelm Digby in his Book that he publish'd concerning Sympathetick Powder He asserts in that Book that Mary Stuart being big with King James some Scotch Lords rush'd into her Chamber and kill'd her Secretary who was an Italian before her Face though she interpos'd her self between them to prevent the Assassination that this Princess receiv'd some slight hurts and that the Fright she was put into made such deep impressions in her Imagination as were communicated to the Infant she bore in her Womb insomuch that King James her Son was unable all his Life to behold a naked Sword He says he experimentally knew it at the time he was Knighted For the King when he should have laid the Sword upon his Shoulder run it directly against his Face and had wounded him with it if some one had not guided it to the proper place There are so many Examples of this kind that it would be needless to turn over Authors for them And I believe there is no body will dispute the truth of these things For in short we see very many Persons that can't endure the sight of a Rat a Mouse a Cat or a Frog and especially creeping Creatures as Snakes and Serpents and who know no other Reason of these their extraordinary Aversions than the Fears their Mothers were put in by these several Creatures at the time of their going with Child But that which I would above all have observ'd upon this subject is That there are all appearances imaginable of Men's preserving to this day in their Brain the Traces and Impressions of their first Parents For as Animals produce others that are like them and with the like impresses in their Brain which are the Cause that Animals of the same Species have the same Sympathies and Antipathies and perform the same Actions at the same junctures and the like occasions So our First Parents after their Sin receiv'd such great Prints and deep Traces in their Brain through the impression of sensible Objects as might easily have been communicated to their Children Insomuch that the great Adheâ—ion which is found in us from our Mother's Womb to sensible Objects and the great distance betwixt us and GOD in this our imperfect state may in some measure be accounted for by what we have been saying For since there is a necessity from the establish'd Order of Nature that the Thoughts of the Soul should be conformable to the Traces of the Brain we may affirm that from the time of our Formation in our Mother's Belly we are under Sin and stain'd with the Corruption of our Parents since we Date from thence our vehement Application to sensible Pleasures Having in our Brain the like Characters and Impresses with those Persons who gave us Being we must necessarily have the same Thoughts and the same Inclinations with respect to Sensible Objects And thus we must come into the World with Concupiscence about us and infected with Original Sin We must be born with Concupiscence if Concupiscence be nothing but a Natural Effort made by the Traces of the Brain upon the Mind to unite it to things sensible And we must be born with Original Sin if Original Sin be nothing but the Reign of Concupiscence and that Effort grown as it were victorious and Master of the Infant 's Heart and Mind Now there is great probability that this Reign or Victory of
Concupiscence is what we call Original Sin in Infants and Actual Sin in Men that have liberty of Acting It only seems as if one might conclude from the Principles I have establish'd a thing repugnant to Experience to wit that the Mother must always communicate to her Infant Habits and Inclinations like those she has her self and the facility of Imagining and learning the same things she understands For all these things depend only as have been said on the Traces and Impresses of the Brain And it is certain that the Traces and Impresses of the Mother's Brain are communicated to her Children This has been Experimentally prov'd by the Instances that have been related concerning Men and has been farther confirm'd from the Example of Animals whose young ones have their Brain fill'd with the same Impresses as those they proceeded from Which is the Reason that all those of the same Species have the same Voice the same way of moving their Limbs in short the same Stratagems for seizing their Prey and of defending themselves against their Enemies From hence it must follow that since all the Traces of the Mother are engraven and imprinted on the Brain of the Child the Child must be born with the same Habits and the other Qualities of the Mother And also must preserve them generally through the course of his Life since the Habits which have been contracted in our more tender Age are more lasting than the other which notwithstanding contradicts Experience In Answer to this Objection we must understand that there are two kinds of Traces in the Brain The one Natural or peculiar to the Nature of Man the other Acquired The Natural are Extraordinary deep and 't is impossible they should be quite effaced The Acquired on the contrary may be easily lost because ordinarily they are not so deep Now though the Natural and Acquired differ only in Degree of more or less and often the former are less forcible than the latter since we daily accustom Animals to the doing those things which are quite contrary to those their Natural Traces lead them to A Dog for instance has been train'd up not to touch the Bread before him and not to pursue a Partridge which he is in scent and sight of Yet there is this Difference between these Traces that the Natural are as one may say connected with imperceptible Ties to the other parts of our Body For all the Wheels and Contrivances of our Machine are assistant to each other to their continuing in their Natural state All the parts of our Body mutually contribute to all things necessary to the Preservation or Restauration of these Natural Traces thus they can never be wholly abolish'd and they begin to revive again when we thought them quite destroy'd On the contrary the Acquired Traces though greater and deeper and stronger than the Natural are lost and vanish by degrees unless care be taken to preserve them by a perpetual application of the Causes which produce them because the other parts of the Body lend no assistance to their Preservation but contrariwise continually labour to expunge and blot them out We may compare these Traces to the ordinary wounds of a Body they are hurts which our Brain has receiv'd which close up of themselves as other wounds do by the Admirable Construction of the Machine As then there is nothing in the whole Body but what is friendly and conformable to these Natural Traces they are delivered down to the Children in all their force and strength Thus Parrots breed their young with the same cries and the same Natural Notes with themselves But because the Acquired Traces are only in the Brain and make no Radiations into the rest of the Body or very little as suppose when they are imprest on it by the Motions which accompany violent Passions they ought not to be transmitted to their Infants Thus a Parrot who bids his Master Good Morrow and Good Night produces not a Young one so expert as himself nor do Men of Sense and Learning beget Children answerable to their Fathers So that though it be true that all that happens in the Mother's Brain happens likewise at the same time in the Brain of her Infant and that the Mother can neither see nor feel nor imagine but the Infant must see and feel and imagine the same thing And lastly that all the illegitimate Traces of the Mother Corrupt the Imagination of the Child yet these Traces being not Natural in the Sense we have just explain'd it 't is no wonder if they usually close up as soon as the Child proceeds from the Mother 's Womb. For then the Cause which delineated these Traces and fed and nourish'd them subsists no longer the Natural Constitution of the whole Body lends an hand to their Destruction and Sensible Objects produce a new Set extraordinary deep and numerous which efface the greatest part of those the Child had in its Mother 's Womb. For it daily happening that a great Pain makes us forgetful of those that have preceded it 't is not imaginable but such lively Sensations as are those of Infants when first the delicate Organs of their Senses receive the Impressions of External objects must destroy the greatest part of those Traces which they only receiv'd before from the same Objects by a kind of rebound from their Mother when they lay as it were sheltred from them by the inclosing of the Womb. Notwithstanding when these Traces are form'd upon a strong Passion and are accompany'd with a most violent Agitation of the Blood and Spirits in the Mother they act so forcibly on the Brain of the Child and the rest of its Body as to imprint therein Characters as deep and durable as the Natural Traces As in the instance of Sir Kenelm Digby in that of the Child who was born an Ideot and a Cripple in whose Brain and all his Members such ravage was made by the Imagination of the Mother and lastly in the instance of the general Corruption of the Nature of Mankind And we need not wonder that the King of England's Children were not subject to the same Infirmity as their Father First Because this sort of Traces diffuse not their Impression so far into the Body as the Natural Secondly Because the Mother having not the same Infirmity as the Father by her good Constitution prevented its descending to her Children And lastly Because the Mother acts infinitely more on the Brain of the Child than the Father as is evident from what has been already said But it must be observ'd That all these Reasons which shew that King James's Children might escape the Infirmity of their Father make nothing against the Explication of Original Sin or of that predominant Inclination towards things sensible nor of that great Alienation from GOD which we derive from our Parents because the Traces which sensible Objects have imprinted on the Brain of the first Founders of Mankind were stamp'd extreamly deep were
That the Knowledge Men acquire by Reading without Meditation and with design only of retaining the Opinions of others in a word all Science that depends on Memory is properly the Science that puffs up and makes them Arrogant because this is that which glitters most to appearance and makes the possessors vain and conceited And thus we generally observe those that are this way Learned to be proud haughty and presuming pretending to have a right of judging of all things though very little qualify'd for that purpose which is the Reason of their falling into multitudes of Errors But this false Science is the Cause of a greater mischief still For those Persons fall not into Error along but draw whole troops of Vulgar Minds along with them as also a vast retinue of Young People who Believe their Decisions as Articles of Faith These falsly Learned having oppress'd and overborn them by the weight of their profound Literature and maz'd them with the Doctrine of uncouth and extravagant Opinions and the Names of Ancient and Unknown Authors gain such an irresistible Sway and Authority over their Minds that they reverence and admire as Oracles whatever proceeds from their Mouth and blindfold and implicitly subscribe to all their Sentiments Nay Men of far greater Understanding and Judgment who had never known them and who should not be inform'd what and who they were seeing them talk in so Magisterial a way and Decisive a strain in so haughty so imperious and so grave an Air could scarce forbear having a Respect and Esteem for what they say because 't is an hard matter to be unaffected with the Air the Carriage and Sensible manners of the Speaker For as it often happens that your Arrogant and Confident Men are too hard for others of greater Abilities but that are more Judicious and reserved so those Men that maintain things neither true nor probable often silence their Opponents by talking in an Imperious Haughty or grave strain that surprizes and amuses them Now those of whom we speak have so much Value and Esteem for themselves and Contempt for others as to be confirm'd in a certain Fastuous Habit mix'd with a sort of Gravity and Fictitious Modesty which prepossesses and wins the Hearer's Mind For it ought to be observ'd that all the different Airs and Behaviours of Men of different Conditions are only the Natural Results and Consequences of the Esteem every Man has for himself in Relation to others as is easie to be seen if a Man considers them a little Thus an Haughty and a Brutal Air is peculiar to a Man that highly esteems himself and disregards the Esteem of other Men An Air of Modesty is the Air of a Man that sets little by himself but has much Esteem for others The Grave Air is that of a Man who has a great Esteem for himself and desire of being Esteem'd by others The Simple and Down-right Air and Carriage is that of a Man neither solicitous about himself nor others Thus all the different Airs which are almost infinite are only the Effects which the different degrees of Esteem every Man has for himself and for those with whom he converses naturally produce in his Face and in all the External parts of his Body We have explain'd in the Fourth Chapter that Correspondence which is between the Nerves which excite the Passions within us and those that evidence them outwardly by the Air they imprint upon the Face CHAP. VI. That Men of Learning generally are so Opinionated with an Author that their Principal Drift is the Knowing what he held without caring to know what ought to be held THERE is still another Defect of very great Importance that Men of Reading are ordinarily subject to which is that they grow conceited with an Author If there be any thing true or good in a Book they are presently extravagant in extolling it 'T is all true 't is all excellent and admirable They please themselves in admiring what they do not understand and would fain have all the World to admire it with them The Encomiums they bestow on these obscure Authors they make redound to their own glory Since others are hereby perswaded that they perfectly understand them and this administers fuel to their Vanity They esteem themselves above the rest of Mankind upon the strength of being perswaded they understand some Impertinence of an Ancient Author or of a Man perhaps that did not understand himself What a multitude have sweat and laboured in the Illustration of the obscure Passages of some of the Ancient Philosophers and Poets And what abundance of fine Wits are there in these Days still the main Pleasure of whose Life consists in Criticizing on a Word or the Opinion of an Author But 't will not be amiss at present to bring some Proof of what I say The Question concerning the Immortality of the Soul is without doubt a Question of very great Importance We cannot find fault with the Philosophers for laying out themselves so industriously towards the Resolution of it And though they heap up mighty Volumes to prove after a slender fashion a Truth that may be Demonstrated in a few Words or a few Pages yet they are excusable But when they are very solicitous and concern'd about deciding what Aristotle thought of it they are as pleasant Gentlemen as one could wish It is in my Mind of very little use and benefit to those who live at present to know whether there was ever such a Man as was call'd Aristotle whether this Man was the Author of those Books which go under his Name whether he understood this or that in such a part of his Works This can neither make a Man wiser nor happier But it is very material to know whether what he says be true or false in it self 'T is then very useless to know what was Aristotle's Opinion concerning the Immortality of the Soul though it be of great Advantage to know the Soul to be Immortal Yet I make no scruple to affirm that there have been many Scholars more solicitous to know Aristotle's Sentiment on this Subject than the Truth of the thing it self Since there have been those who have wrote Books purposely to explain what that Philosopher's Belief was of it but have not done so much to know what ought to be believ'd concerning it But though there have been a multitude of Men who have harrassed and fatigued their Mind in resolving what Aristotle's Opinion was yet their fatigues and pains have been all in vain since they cannot yet agree about this ridiculous Question Which evidenceth how mis-fortunate the followers of Aristotle are in having a Man so dark and obscure to enlighten them and who even affects Obscurity as he declar'd in a Letter that he wrote to Alexander The Opinion then of Aristotle about the Immortality of the Soul has been a mighty Question and very noted amongst the Learned But that it may not be imagin'd that I
zealous Patrons and Defenders of certain Novelties in Divinity which ought to be had in abhorrence For 't is not their Terms and Language we disapprove which as unknown as they were to Antiquity are Authoriz'd by Custom 'T is the Errors they diffuse and support by the help of this Equivocal and confus'd Dialect which we condemn In point of Divinity we ought to be fond of Antiquity because we ought to love the Truth which Truth is found in Antiquity And all Curiosity ought to cease when once we have taken hold of Truth But in point of Philosophy we ought on the contrary to love Novelty for the same Reason that we ought always to love the Truth that we ought to retrieve it and ought to have an Indefatigable Curiosity for it If Plato and Aristotle were believed Infallible a Man should perhaps apply himself to the understanding of them only But Reason opposes the Belief of it Reason on the contrary would have us judge them more ignorant than the New Philosophers since in the Age we live in the World is two thousand Years older and has learned greater Experience than it had in the days of Aristotle and Plato as we have already said And the New Philosophers may know all the Truths the Ancients have left us and find out and add a great many more to them Yet Reason will not have us believe these New Philosophers any more than the Old upon their bare Word It bids us on the contrary examine attentively their Thoughts and withhold our consent till there is no longer room for doubting without being ridiculously prepossess'd with the Opinion of their vast Knowledge or the other specious Qualities of their Mind CHAP. VII Of the Prepossession of Commentators THIS Prepossession is no where apparent in so strange and excessive a degree as in the Commentators on an Author because the Undertakers of this Task which seems too low and servile for a Man of Sense imagine their Authors merit the Praise and Admiration of all the World They look upon them as part of themselves and fancy they are Body and Soul to one another and upon this View Self-love admirably plays its part They artfully accumulate Encomiums on their Authors they shed Light and Radiations round them they load them with Glory as knowing they shall have it themselves by reflection and rebound This great and lofty Idea not only magnifies Aristotle and Plato in the Mind of many of the Readers but imprints a respect in them for all that have Commented upon them and some of of them had never Deified their Authors had they not fancy'd themselves incircl'd as it were in the Rays of the same Glory Yet I will not say that all Commentators are so liberal in their Panegyricks on their Authors out of hopes of a Return some of them would start at such an Apprehension if they would consider a little They are sincere and well-meaning in their Praises without any Politick design and without thinking what they do but Self-love thinks for them and without their being aware of it Men are insensible of the heat that is in their Heart though it gives Life and Motion to all the other parts of their Body They must touch and handle themselves to be convinc'd of it because this Heat is Natural The cause is the same in respect of Vanity which is so congenial to the Mind of Man that he is insensible of it and though 't is this as a Man may say that gives Life and Motion to the greatest part of his Thoughts and Designs yet it often does it in a manner imperceptible by him He must handle and feel and sound himself inwards to know that he is vain 'T is not sufficiently understood that 't is Vanity which is the First mover in the greatest part of Humane Actions and though Self-love knows this well enough it knows it only to disguise it from the rest of Man A Commentator then being some ways related and allied to his Author that he works upon Self-love never fails to discover in him notable Subjects for Praise and Incense with design to make them redound to the advantage of the Offerer And this is perform'd in so Artificial so Subtil and Delicate a manner as to be wholly Imperceptible But this is not the proper place of exposing all the Wiles of Self-love and Interest Nor is the Prejudicate Esteem Commentators have conceiv'd for their Authors and the Honour they do themselves in praising them the only Reason of Sacrificing to them Custom is another Motive and because they think the Practise necessary There are Men who have no great Esteem either for certain Sciences or Authors who notwithstanding fall zealously to writing Comments on them because either their Imployment Chance or perhaps a capricious Humour has engag'd them in the Attempt and these too think they are under an Obligation to be excessive in the Praises of the Sciences and Authors which they work on whe nat the same time the Authors are Silly and Impertinent and the Sciences Ignoble and Useless And indeed what can be more ridiculous than for a Man to undertake to Comment on an Author whom he thought Impertinent and to write Seriously on a Subject he believ'd to be Insignificant and Useless 'T is necessary therefore to the Preserving his Reputation to Praise both the Authors and Sciences though both one and the other are Contemptible and nothing worth and the fault of Undertaking an ill work must be mended with another Which is the Reason that when Learned Men Comment on different Authors they fall into Absurdities and Contradictions Upon this Account it is that almost all prefaces have as little of Truth in them as good Sense If a Man Comments upon Aristotle he is the Genius of Nature If a Man writes upon Plato 't is the Divine Plato They hardly ever Comment upon the works of Plain Men but 't is always of Men wholly Divine of Men who have been the Admiration of their Age and who have been bless'd by Providence with Light and Understanding above the rest of Mankind 'T is the same thing too with the matter they treat on 'T is always the finest the most exalted and most necessary of all other But that I may not be credited upon my bare word I will deliver here the way where in a Famous Commentator among the Learned treats the Author that he Comments on I mean Averroes who speaks of Aristotle He says in his Preface upon the Physicks of that Philosopher that he was the Inventor of Logick Moral Philosophy and Metaphysicks and that he has carried them to the top of their perfection Complevit says he quia nullus eorum qui secuti sunt eum usque ad hoc tempus quod est mille quingentorum annorum quidquam addidit nec invenies in ejus verbis errorem alicujus quantitatis talem esse virtutem in individuo uno miraculosum extraneum existit haec
Communication of the Disorders and Distempers of the Imagination But these Truths deserve to be farther Illustrated by the Examples and known Experience of the World CHAP. II. General Instances of the Strength of Imagination CHILDREN in respect of their Fathers but especially Daughters in regard of their Mothers afford us very frequent Instances of this Communication of the Imagination The same things do Servants in relation to their Masters Maids in respect of their Mistresses Scholars of their Teachers Courtiers of their Kings and generally all Inferiours in respect of their Superiours supposing only that Fathers Masters and the rest of the Superiours have any Strength of Imagination themselves For otherwise 't is possible for Children and Servants to remain untouch'd or very little infected with the languid Imagination of their Fathers and Masters The Effects of this Communication may be likewise observ'd in Equals but that more rarely for want of that submissive Respect among them which qualifies and disposes the Mind for the Reception of the Impressions of strong Imaginations without examining them Last of all they are to be seen in Superiours also with respect to their Inferiours who sometimes are impower'd with so Lively and Authoritative an Imagination as to turn the Minds of their Masters and Superiours which way they please 'T will be easie to conceive how Fathers and Mothers make so very strong Impressions on the Imagination of their Children if it be consider'd that the Natural Dispositions of our Brain whereby we are inclin'd to imitate those we live with and to participate of their Sentiments and Passions are stronger in Children with respect to their Parents than in any others whereof several Reasons may be given The first is their being of the same Blood For as Parents commonly transmit to their Children the Seeds and Dispositions for certain Hereditary Distempers such as the Gout Stone Madness and generally all those that were not of Accidental Acquirement or whose sole and only Cause was not some extraordinary Fermentation of the Humours as Fevers and some others for of such 't is plain there can be no Communication So they imprint the Dispositions of their own Brain on the Brain of their Children and give a certain Turn to their Imagination that makes them wholly susceptible of the same Sentiments The second Reason is the little Acquaintance and Converse Children generally have with other Men who might sometimes stamp different Impresses on their Brain and in some measure interrupt the bent and force of the Paternal Impression For as a Man that was never abroad commonly Fancies that the Manners and Customs of Strangers are quite contrary to Reason because contrary to the usage of his Native Town or Custom of his Country whilst he yields to be carry'd by the current so a Child who was never from his Father's Home imagines his Parents Sentiments and Ways of Living to be Universal Reason or rather thinks there are no other Principles of Reason or Vertue to be had besides the Imitation of them Which makes him believe whatever he hears them say and do whatever he sees them do But this Parental Impression is so strong as not only to influence the Child's Imagination but to have its Effect on the other parts of the Body So that a young Lad shall Walk and Talk and have the same Gestures as his Father And a Girl shall Mimick the Mother in her Gate Discourse and Dress If the Mother Lisps the Daughter must Lisp too if the Mother has any odd fling with her Head the Daughter takes the same In short Children imitate their Parents in every thing even in their Bodily Defects Grimace and Faces as well as their Errors and Vices There are still many other Causes which add to the Effect of this Impression The chief of which are the Authority of the Parents the Dependence of Children and the mutual Love between them But these Causes are as common to Courtiers Servants and in general to all Inferiours as to Children I therefore choose to explain them by the Instance of the Court-Gentlemen There are those who judge by what 's in sight of that which is unapparent of the Greatness Strength and Reach of Wit and Parts which they see not by the Gallantry Honours and Riches which they know and measure the one by the other And that Dependency Men are in to the Great the Desire of partaking of their Greatness and that sensible Lustre that surrounds them makes them ascribe Honours Divine if I may so speak to Mortal Men. For GOD bestows on Princes Authority but Men attribute to them Infallibility Such an Infallibility as has no Boundaries prescrib'd to it on any subject or any occasion nor is confin'd to certain Ceremonies For the Great know all things naturally they are ever in the Right even in the Decision of Questions which they do not understand None attempt to examine their Positions but those who want Experience and the Art of Living and 't is Presumption and want of Respect to doubt of them But 't is no less than Rebellion at least down-right Folly Sottishness 〈◊〉 Madness to condemn them But when we are Honour'd with a Place in the Favour and Esteem of Great Men 't is no longer plain Obstinacy Conceitedness and Rebellion 't is a Crime of a deeper dye Ingratitude and Perfidiousness not to surrender implicitly to their Opinions 'T is such an unpardonable Offence as utterly incapacitates us for any of their future Favours Which is the Reason that Courtiers and by a necessary consequence the generality of the World indeliberately subscribe to the Sentiments of their Sovereign even so far as to Model their Faith by and make the Truths of Religion subservient to his Fantastic Humour and Folly England and Germany furnish us but with too many Instances of the blind and exorbitant Submission of the People to the Wills of their Irreligious Princes wherewith the Histories of the late Times abound And some Men of a considerable Age have been known to have chang'd their Religion four or five times by reason of the diverse changes of their Princes The Kings and even the Queens of England have the Government of all the States of their Kingdoms whether Ecclesiastical or Civil in all Causes 'T is they that are the Approvers of the Liturgies of the Festival Services of the way wherein the Sacraments ought to be Administred and Received They appoint for instance that our LORD shall not be adored in the Eucharist though they oblige to the Receiving it on the Knees according to the Ancient Custom In a word they arbitrarily change the whole Substance of their Liturgies to suit them to the New Articles of their Faith and together with their Parliamâ—nt have equal Right of judging of these Articles as a Pope with a Councel as may be seen in the Statutes of England and Ireland made at the beginning of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth Lastly we may add that the
Imagination which are the Ingredients of the Fine Wit 'T is the glittering and not the solid Mind that pleases the generality because they love what touches the Senses above that which instructs their Reason And thus taking the Fineness of Imagination for the Fineness of the Mind we may say that Montagne had a Mind Fine and indeed extraordinary His Idea's are false but handsom His Expressions irregular and bold but taking His discourses ill-season'd but well imagin'd There appears throughout his Book the Character of an Original that is infinitely pleasing As great a Copyer as he is the Copyer is not discern'd his strong and bold Imagination giving always the turn of an Original even to what was the most stol'n To conclude he has every thing necessary either for pleasing us or imposing on us And I think I have sufficiently shewn that 't is not by convincing their Reason he gets into the Favour and Admiration of Men but by turning their Mind by an ever-victorious Vivacity of his imperious Imagination CHAP. VI. I. Of Witches in Imagination and of Wolf-men II. The Conclusion of the two first Books THE strangest effect of the force of Imagination is the immoderate Fear of the Apparition of Spirits Witchcraft Spells and Charms Lycanthropes or Wolf-men and generally of whatever is suppos'd to depend on the Power of the Devil There is nothing more terrible or that frightens the Mind more and makes deeper impressions in the Brain than the Idea of an invisible Power intent upon doing us mischief and to which we can make no resistance Whatever Discourses raise that Idea are attended to with dread and curiosity Now Men affecting all that 's extraordinary take a whimsical delight in relating surprizing and prodigious Stories of the Power and Malice of Witches both to the scaring others and themselves And so we need not wonder that Sorcerers and Witches are so common in some Countries where the belief of the Witches-Sabbath is deeply rooted in the Mind Where all the most extravagant Relations of Witchcrafts are listen'd to as Authentic Histories and where Mad-men and Visionists whose Imagination has been distemper'd through the recital of these Stories and the corruption of their Hearts are burnt for real Sorcerers and Witches I know well enough I shall incur the blame of a great many for attributing the most part of Witchcrafts to the power of Imagination as knowing Men love to be scar'd and frightned that they are angry with such as would disabuse them and are like those imaginary sick People who respectfully harken to and punctually execute the orders of Physicians who prognosticate direful accidents to them For Superstitions are not easily either destroy'd or oppos'd without finding a great number of Patrons and Defenders And that Inclination to a blind-fold Belief of all the Dreams and Illusions of Demonographers is produc'd and upheld by the same Cause which makes the Superstitious stiff and untractable as it were easie to demonstrate However this ought not to discourage me from shewing in a few words how I believe such Opinions as these take footing A Shepherd in his Cottage after Supper gives his Wife and Children a Narrative of the adventures of the Witches-Sabbath And having his Imagination moderately warm'd by the Vapours of strong Liquors and fancying he has been often an Assistant at that imaginary Rendezvous fails not to deliver himself in a manner strong and lively His natural Eloquence together with the Disposition his whole Family is in to hearken to a Subject so new and terrible must doubtless produce prodigious Impressions in weak Imaginations nor is it naturally possible but his Wife and Children must be dismay'd must be affected and convinc'd with what they hear him say 'T is an Husband 't is a Father that speaks of what himself has been an Eye-witness and Agent He is belov'd and respected and why should he not be believ'd The Shepherd repeats the same thing one day after another his Wifâ—'s and Children's Imagination receive deeper and deeper Impressions of it by degrees till at last it grows familiar their Fears vanish but Conviction stays behind and at length Curiosity invites them to go to it themselves They anoint themselves and lay them down to sleep This Disposition of Heart gives an additional heat to their Imagination and the Traces the Shepherd had imprinted on their Brain open so as to make them fancy in their sleep all the Motions of the Ceremony he had describ'd to them present and real They wake and ask each other and give a mutual Relation of what they say And thus they strengthen the Traces of their Vision and he who has the strongest Imagination having the best knack at perswading the rest fails not in a few Nights time to Methodize the Imaginary History of the Sabbath Here now are your finish'd Witches of the Shepherd's making and these in their turn will make many others if having a strong and lively Imagination they be not deterr'd by Fear from telling the like Stories There have been known such hearty down-right Witches as made no scruple to confess to every body their going to the Sabbath and who were so throughly convinc'd of it that though several Persons watch'd them and assur'd them they never stirr'd out of their Bed yet have withstood their Testimony and persisted in their own perswasion We all know that when Children hear Tales of Spirits what frights they are put into and that they have not courage to stay without Light and Company Because at that time their Brain receiving not the Impressions of any present Object opens in those Traces that are form'd in it by the Story and that with so much force as frequently to set before their Eyes the Objects represented to them And yet these Stories are not told them as if they were true nor spoken in a manner denoting the Belief of them in the Speaker and sometimes coldly and without the least concern Which may make it less to be admir'd that a Man who believes he has been present at the Witches-Sabbath and consequently affirms it in a serious tone and with a look of assurance should easily convince his respectful Auditory of all the circumstances he describes to them and thereby transmit into their Imagination Impressions like those he was himself abus'd with Men in speaking engrave in our Brain such Impressions as they have themselves When they are deep they speak in a way that makes a deep Impression upon others For they never speak but they make them like themselves in some thing or other Children in their Mother's Womb have only the Perceptions of their Mothers and when brought into the World imagine little more than what their Parents are the cause of even the wisest Men take their Measures rather from the Imagination of others that is from Opinion and Custom than from the Rules of Reason Thus in the places where Witches are burnt we find great numbers of them it being taken for
procure them which Union engages us in infinite Errors and excessive Miseries though we are not always sensible of these Miseries no more than we are of the Errors that occasion them I give here a remarkable Instance The Union that we had with our Mothers in their Womb which is the strictest possible to be had with Mankind was the Cause of two of the greatest Evils namely Sin and Concupiscence which are the Original of all our Miseries And yet for the forming of our Body it was necessary that Union should be so close and strict as it is This Union which was broken at our Birth was succeeded by another whereby Children are con-sociated to their Parents and their Nurses This second Union was not so strict as the former and therefore did us not so much mischief having only inclin'd us to believe and imitate all that our Parents and Nurses do and say 'T is plain this second Union was farther necessary not as the first for the forming but the preserving of our Body that we might know all the things useful or advantagious to it and might accommodate it to such Motions as are necessary to obtain them Last of all the Union which we have at present with all Men is unavoidably the cause of a great deal of Evil to us though it be not so strait as being less necessary to the Preservation of our Body For 't is upon the score of this Union we live by Opinion that we esteem and love what is esteem'd and lov'd in the World in spight of the Remorse of our Consciences and the true Idea's that we have of things I speak not here of the Union we have with the Mind of other Men in behalf of which it may be said we receive instruction from it I speak only of the sensible Union that is between our Imagination and the Air and Manner of those that speak to us We see then how all the Thoughts we have by the Dependance on the Body are false and so much the more dangerous to the Soul as they are the more useful to the Body Which being so let us try to rid our selves by degrees of the Delusions of our Sense of the Vision and Chimera's of our Imagination and of the Impression made by other Men's Imaginations on our Mind Let us carefully reject all the confus'd Idea's we have contracted through the Dependance we are in to our Body and let us only admit the clear and evident Idea's which the Mind receives through its necessary Union with the Divine Logos or with Eternal Wisdom and Truth as we shall explain in the following Book which treats Of the Vnderstanding or Pure Mind F. MALEBRANCHE'S TREATISE CONCERNING The Search after TRUTH BOOK the THIRD Concerning The UNDERSTANDING OR The Pure Intellect CHAP. I. I. Thought is only essential to the Mind Sensation and Imagination are only the Modifications of it II. We know not all the Modifications our Soul is capable of III. They are different from our Knowledge and our Love nor are they always Consequences of them THE Subject of this Third Book is somewhat dry and barren In which we enquire into the Mind consider'd alone and without any reference to the Body in order to discover the Infirmities peculiar to it and the Errors deriving only from it The Senses and Imagination are exuberant and inexhaustible Sources of Error and Deception But the Mind acting by it self is not so subject to straying and misconduct It was a difficult thing to put an end to the two last Treatises and 't is no less difficult to begin this not that there is not enough to be said on the Nature and Properties of the Mind but because we enquire not here so much into its Properties as its Weaknesses 'T is not therefore to be wonder'd if this Tract is not so large nor discovers so many Errors as the two fore-going nor ought it to be complain'd of for being somewhat Dry Abstract and Applicative For 't is impossible in all Discourses to move the Senses and Imaginations of others nor ought it always to be done A Subject of an abstract Nature in becoming sensible commonly grows obscure and 't is enough to be made intelligible So that nothing is more unjust than the usual Complaints of those who would know every thing and yet take pains for nothing who take pet if you desire them to be attentive who would ever be touch'd and mov'd and have their Senses and their Passions eternally gratify'd But we confess our selves unable to give them Satisfaction Writers of Comedies and Romances are oblig'd to please and to procure Attention but for us it 's sufficient if we can instruct even those that labour to make themselves attentive The Errors of the Senses and Imagination proceed from the Nature and Constitution of the Body and are expos'd to view by considering what Dependency the Soul 's in to it But the Errors of the Pure Understanding cannot be discover'd but by considering the Nature of the Mind it self and of the Idea's that are necessary to its knowing Objects And therefore to penetrate into the Causes of the Errors of the Pure Understanding 't will be necessary to insist in this Book on the consideration of the Nature of the Mind and of Intellectual Idea's In the first place I shall treat of the Mind consider'd in its own Nature without any Relation to the Body to which it is united So that what I shall say on this point will extend to pure Intelligences and by stronger Reason to what we call Pure Understanding For by the Word Pure Vnderstanding I mean only to design that Faculty the Mind has of knowing External Object without forming Corporeal Images of them in the Brain to represent them by After which I shall discourse of Intellectual Idea's by means of which the Pure Vnderstanding perceives Exteriour Objects I am perswaded no Man can doubt after he has seriously thought on it but the Essence of the Mind consists only in Thought as the Essence of Matter consists only in Extension and that according to the different Modifications of Thought the Mind one while Wills and another while Imagines or has many other particular Forms as according to the different Modifications of Extension Matter is sometimes Water sometimes Wood and sometimes Fire or has abundance of other particular Forms I only advertise thus much That by the word Thought I understand not here the particular Modifications of the Soul that is this or that particular Thought but Thought capable of all sorts of Modifications or of all sorts of Thoughts as by Extension is not meant this or that Extension round or square for instance but Extension capable of all sorts of Modifications or of Figures And this Comparison would have no difficulty in it but that we have not so clear an Idea of Thought as we have of Extension for we only know Thought by Internal Sentiment or Conscience as I make
has pretended not to be ignorant of that adventitious Whiteness in the Hairs of Old Men and has given several Reasons for it in several places of his Books But being the Genius of Nature he has not stopt there but penetrated much farther He has moreover discover'd that the Cause which turn'd Old Men's Hairs white was the self-same with that which made some Men and some Horses have one Eye Blue and the other of another Colour These are his Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is very surprizing but there is nothing un-intelligible to this Great Man who gives Reasons for such a vast number of things in almost all parts of his Physics as the most enlightned Men of this Age believe impenetrable which must needs give good grounds for an Author 's saying He was given us by GOD that we might be ignorant of nothing possible to be known Aristotelis est SVMMAVERITAS quoniam ejus Intellectus fuit finis humani intellectûs Quare bene dicitur de illo quod ipse fuit creatus datus nobis divinâ Providentiâ ut non ignoremus possibilia sciri Averroês ought too to have said That Aristotle was given us by Divine Providence for the understanding what was impossible to be understood For certainly that Philosopher teaches us not only the things that may be known but since we must believe him on his word his Doctrine being the Soveraign Truth SVMMAVERITAS he teaches us likewise those things which 't is impossible to know Undoubtedly a Man must have a strong Faith thus to believe Aristotle when he only gives us Logical Reasons and explains the Effects of Nature by the confus'd Notions of the Senses especially when he positively determines upon Questions which we cannot see possible for Men ever to resolve Yet Aristotle takes particular care of admonishing us to believe him on his word it being an uncontroverted Axiom with this Author That a Disciple is to believe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 True sometimes Disciples are oblig'd to believe their Masters But their Faith should reach no farther than to Experiments and matters of Fact For would they become true Philosophers they ought to examine their Master's Reasons and never receive them till they had discover'd their Evidence by their own But to become a Peripatetic Philosopher there is no more requisite than to believe and to remember The same Disposition of Mind going to the reading that Philosophy as to the reading of an History For should a Man take the freedom of using his Mind and his Reason he must not expect to grow any considerable Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the Reason why Aristotle and a great many other Philosophers have pretended to know what can never be known is their not well distinguishing the difference betwixt knowing and knowing betwixt having a Certain and Evident Knowledge and only a Probable and Obscure And the Reason of their not having observ'd that Distinction is their being taken up always with subjects of a greater Reach and Comprehension than their own Mind so that they have usually seen only some parts thereof without being able to take them all in together which suffices to the Discovery of many Probabilities but not for the evident Discovery of Truth Besides which Vanity being the Motive to their seeking Science and Probabilities making more for their Esteem among Men than Truth it self as being more proportion'd to the ordinary stature and ability of the Mind they neglected to search for the necessary means of augmenting its Capacity and giving it a greater Growth and Comprehension for which reason they have not been able to go to the bottom of Truths that lay any thing deep and conceal'd The Geometricians only have well discover'd the narrow Capacity of the Mind at least have taken such a Method in their Studies as shews they have a perfect Knowledge of it especially those who use Algebra and Analytics which Vieta and Des-Cartes have re-establish'd and perfected in this Age. Which is herein apparent that these Men never attempted the Resolution of Difficulties very Compound till after having most clearly known the more Simple which they depend on they never fix'd to the consideration of Crooked Lines as of Conick Sections till they we perfect Masters of common Geometry But what is peculiar to the Analysts is that seeing their Mind incapable of Attention to many Figures at once and unable to imagine Solids of more than three Dimensions though there were frequent necessity of conceiving such as had more they made use of common Letters that are very familiar to us to express and abridge their Idea's And thus the Mind being not confounded or taken up with the Representation it would be oblig'd to make of a great many Figures and an infinite number of Lines can survey at a single view what otherwise was impossible to be seen Forasmuch as the Mind can launch out farther and penetrate into a great many more things when its Capacity is manag'd to the best advantage So that all the Skill and Artifice there is in making the Mind deeper-sighted and more comprehensive consists as shall be explain'd in another place in a dexterous management of its Strength and Capacity and in not laying it out impertinently on things not necessary to the discovery of the Truth it is in search of Which is a thing well worthy to be observ'd For this one thing makes it evident that the ordinary Logicks are more proper to straiten the Capacity of the Mind than enlarge it it being visible that by imploying the Rules they give in the finding out any Truth the Capacity of the Mind must be taken up with them and so it must have the less Liberty for attending to and comprehending the whole extent of the subject it examines 'T is manifest enough then from what hath been said that most Men have made but little Reflection on the Nature of the Mind when they would imploy it in The Search of Truth that they have not been throughly convinc'd of its little Extent and the necessity there is of Husbanding it well and increasing it and that this is one of the most considerable Causes of their Errors and of their so ill success in their Studies This is not said with Presumption that there were ever any who knew not their Mind was limited and straitned in its Capacity and Comprehension This doubtless has been known and is still confess'd by all the World But the generality know it only confusedly and confess it no farther than Teeth-outwards For the conduct they take in their Studies gives the Lye to their Confession since they act as if they truly believ'd their Mind was Infinite and are desirous of diving into things which depend on a great many Causes whereof they commonly know not any one There is still another Failing very customary with Studious Men and that is their applying to too many Sciences at once so that if they study
six hours a day they sometimes study six different things 'T is visible that this fault proceeds from the same Cause as the others I have been speaking of For there is great probability that if those who studied in this manner knew evidently how disproportion'd it was to the Capacity of their Mind and that it was more apt to fill it with Error and Confusion than with true Science they would not let themselves be transported with the disorderly motives of their Passion and Vanity For indeed this is not the way to be satisfy'd in our pursuits but the most ready means to know nothing at all CHAP. IV. I. The Mind cannot dwell long upon Objects that have no Relation to it or that include not something of Infinity in them II. The Inconstancy of the Will is the Cause of that want of Application and consequently of Error III. Our Sensations take us up more than the Pure Idea's of the Mind IV. Which is the Source of the Corruption of our Morals V. And of the Ignorance of the Vulgar sort of Men. THE Mind of Man is not only subject to Error for want of being Infinite or for being of less Extent than the Objects of its Consideration as has been explain'd in the two last Chapters But because it is Inconstant and nothing Resolute in its Action and unable to keep the View fixt and steady on the Object long enough to examine all the parts of it The better to conceive the Cause of this Inconstancy and Levity of the Mind we must know that the Will is the Directress of its Action that the Will applies it to the Objects which it loves and that the same Will is it self in perpetual fluctuation and disquietude whereof I assign this to be the Cause 'T is not to be doubted but GOD is the Author of all things and has made them only for Himself and that he draws the Heart of Man towards him by a Natural and Invincible Impression which he perpetually influences him withal 'T is impossible for GOD to have will'd that there should be any Will that did not love Him or that lov'd Him less than any other Good if there could be any other besides Himself it being impossible for Him to ordain that a Will should not love that which was supreamly Amiable or should love that more which was less lovely And thus Natural Love must needs carry us to GOD as proceeding from GOD and nothing being able to stop the motions thereof unless GOD Himself that impresses them There is then no Will whatever but necessarily follows the motions of this Love The Righteous and the Wicked the Blessed and the Damned love GOD with this Love and 't is this Love in one sense that is the Cause of the Misery of the latter For this Natural Love we have for GOD being the same thing with the Natural Impression which carries us towards Good in general towards Infinite Soveraign Good 't is manifest that all Minds love GOD with this Love since there is no other that is the Universal the Infinite the Soveraign Good For lastly All Spirits and even the Divels passionately desire to be Happy and to possess the Soveraign Good and they desire it without Choice Deliberation and Liberty by the bent and necessity of their Nature Being therefore made for GOD for an Infinite Good for a Good that comprehends in Himself all Goods the Natural Motion of our Heart can never stop till we arrive to the possession of this Good The Will then labouring thus with a perpetual thirst being toss'd and agitated with Desires Eagerness and Restless longings for that Good it is not in Possession of cannot but with much Uneasiness suffer the Mind to dwell any time upon Abstract Truths which don't affect it and which it judges incapable of making it Happy It therefore pushes the Mind forward continually to the Research of other Objects and when in this hurry and agitation communicated to it by the Will it meets with any Object that carries the Mark of Good I mean that by approaching the Soul makes it sensible of some internal Delight or Satisfaction then this Thirst of the Heart rises anew these Desires Eagernesses and Fervencies are re-kindled and the Mind oblig'd to wait on them fixes it self only on the Object that either is or seems to be the cause of them to approximate it to the Soul that regales and feeds upon it for some time But the Emptiness of the Creatures being unable to fill the Infinite Capacity of the Heart of Man these little Pleasures instead of extinguishing its Thirst only provoke and inflame it and give the Soul a foolish and vain Hope of being satisfy'd in the multiplicity of Earthly Pleasures which produces a far greater Inconstancy and an inconceivable Levity in the Mind which ought to make the Discovery to the Soul of all these Goods It 's true when the Mind falls by chance upon an Object of an Infinite Nature or which includes something great and mighty in it its unsettledness and casting about ceases for some time For finding that this Object bears the badge and character of that which the Soul desires it dwells upon it and closes in with it for a considerable time But this closing and adhesion or rather obstinacy of the Mind to examine Subjects infinite or too vast and unweildy is as useless to it as that Levity wherewith it considers those that are proportion'd to its Capacity since 't is too weak to accomplish so difficult an Enterprise and in vain it endeavours to effect it That which must render the Soul happy is not as I may speak the Comprehension of an Infinite Object this she is not capable of but the Love and Fruition of an Infinite Good whereof the Will is capable through the Motion of Love continually impress'd on it by GOD Himself Which being thus we need not wonder at the Ignorance and Blindness of Mankind because their Mind being subjected to the Inconstancy and Levity of their Heart which incapacitate it from considering any thing with a serious Application is unable to penetrate into a subject any whit perplex'd and difficult For in short the Attention of the Mind is to intelligible Objects what a steady View of the Eyes is to those of Sight And as a Man that can't fix his Eyes on the Bodies that are about him can never see them well enough to distinguish the differences of their least parts and to discover all the Relations those little parts have to one another So a Man who cannot fix the Eye of his Mind upon the things desir'd to be known can never have a sufficient Knowledge to distinguish all the parts and to observe all the Relations that may possibly be between themselves or themselves and other subjects Yet it is certain that all our Knowledge consists in a clear View of the Relations things stand in to one another So that when it happens as
in difficult Questions that the Mind must survey at one sight a multiplicity of Relations that are between two things or more it is plain that if it has not consider'd these things very attentively or if it has but a confus'd Knowledge of them it can never have a distinct Perception of their Relation and consequently cannot make any solid Judgment of them One of the main Causes of our Mind 's wanting Application for Abstract Truths is our seeing them as at a Distance whilst other things are continually offering themselves to the Mind that are nearer at hand The great Attention of the Mind brings home as I may say the remote Idea's of the Objects we consider But it often falls out that when a Man is very intent on Metaphysical Speculation he is easily thrown off from them by some accidental Sensations breaking in upon the Soul which sit closer to it than those Idea's For there needs no more than a little Pleasure or Pain to do it The Reason whereof is that Pleasure and Pain and all Sensations in general are within the very Soul They modifie her and touch her more to the quick than the simple Idea's of Objects of Pure Intellection which though present to the Mind neither touch nor modifie it at all And thus the Mind on one hand being of a straitned and narrow reach and on the other unable to prevent feeling Pain and all its other Sensations has its Capacity fill'd up with them and so cannot at one and the same time be sensible of any thing and think freely of other Objects that are not sensible The Humming of a Fly or of any other little Animal supposing it communicated to the principal part of the Brain and perceiv'd by the Soul is capable do what we can of interrupting our Consideration of very Abstract and Sublime Truths because no Abstract Idea's modifie the Soul whereas all Sensations do From hence arises that Stupidity and Drousiness of the Mind in regard of the most Fundamental Truths of Christian Morality which Men know only in a Speculative and Fruitless manner without the Grace of JESVS CHRIST All the World knows there is a GOD and that this GOD is to be serv'd and worshipp'd But who is it that serves and worships him without the Divine Grace which alone gives us a relish of Delight and Pleasure in these Duties There are but very few that do not perceive the Emptiness and Inconstancy of Earthly Goods and that are not convinc'd with an Abstract though most certain and evident Conviction that they are indeserving of our Cares and Application But where are those who despise these Goods in their Practice and deny their Pains and Application to acquire them 'T is only they that perceive some Bitterness and Distaste in the Injoyment of them or that Grace has made sensible to Spiritual Goods by an inward Delectation affix'd to them by GOD 't is these only who vanquish the Impressions of Sense and the Strugglings of Concupiscence A View of the Mind alone can never make us resist them as we should do but besides that View there must be a certain Sensation of the Heart That Intellectual Light all alone is if you please the Sufficient Grace which makes only for our Condemnation which acquaints us with our own Weakness and of our Duty of flying by Prayer to Him who is our Strength But the Sensation of the Heart is a Lively and Operative Grace 'T is this which touches us inward which fills us and perswades the Heart and without it there is no body that considers with the Heart Nemo est qui recogitet corde All the most certain Truths of Morality lye conceal'd in the folds and doubles and secret corners of the Mind and as long as they continue there are barren and inactive since the Soul has no relish of them But the Pleasures of the Senses dwell nearer to the Soul and since she cannot be insensible to or out of love with her Pleasure 't is impossible to disengage her self from the Earth and to get rid of the Charms and Delusions of her Senses by her own Strength and Abilities I deny not however but the Righteous whose Heart has been already vigorously turn'd towards GOD by a preventing Delectation may without that particular Grace perform some Meritorious Actions and resist the Motions of Concupiscence There are those who are couragious and constant in the Law of GOD by the strength of their Faith by the care they have to deprive themselves of Sensible Goods and by the contempt and dislike of every thing that can give them any temptation There are such as act for the most part without the taste of Indeliberate or Preventing Pleasure That sole Joy they find in acting according to the Will of GOD is the only Pleasure they taste and that Pleasure suffices to make them persevere in their state and to confirm the Disposition of their Heart Those who are Novice Converts have generally need of an Indeliberate or Preventing Pleasure to disintangle them from Sensible Goods to which they are fastened by other Preventing and Indeliberate Pleasures Sorrow and Remorse of their Consciences are not sufficient for this purpose and as yet they taste no Joy But the Just can live by Faith and that in Indigence and 't is likewise in this Estate they merit most Forasmuch as Men being Reasonable Creatures GOD will be lov'd by them with a Love of Choice and not with a Love of Instinct or an Indeliberate Love like that wherewith we love Sensible things without knowing they be Good otherwise than from the Pleasure we receive in them Notwithstanding most Men having but little Faith and yet constant opportunities of tasting Pleasures cannot long preserve their Elective Love for GOD against their Natural Love for sensible Goods unless the Delectation of Grace support them against the Efforts of Pleasure For the Delectation of Grace produces preserves and augments Charity as Sensible Pleasures Cupidity It is apparent enough from what has been said that Men being never free from some Passion or some pleasant or troublesome Sensations have their Capacity and Extent of Mind much taken up and when they would imploy the remainder of its Capacity in examining any Truth they are frequently diverted by some new Sensations through the dislike they take to that Exercise and the Inconstancy of the Will which tosses and bandies the Mind from Object to Object without letting it stand still So that unless we have habituated our selves from our Youth to the conquering all these Oppositions as I have explain'd in the Second Part we find our selves at last incapable of piercing into any thing that 's somewhat difficult and demands something of Application Hence we are to conclude That all Sciences and especially such as include Questions very hard to be clear'd up and explain'd abound with an infinite number of Errors And that we ought to have in suspicion those bulky
the same Inclinations I know likewise that GOD will never make Spirits undesirous of Happiness or that can be desirous of being Miserable But I know it with evidence and certainty since 't is GOD that teaches me for who could inform me of the Designs and Wills of GOD but GOD Himself But when the Body is a partner in that which occurrs within me I am almost ever deceiv'd if I measure others by my self I feel Heat I see a thing of such a Size or such a Colour I have such or such a Tast upon the application of certain Bodies to my Palate and I am deceiv'd if I judge of others by my self I am subject to particular Passions I have a kindness or aversion to this or that thing and I judge that others have the like but my Conjecture is often false Thus the Knowledge we have of other Men is very obnoxious to Error if we judge of them only from the Sensations we have of our selves Whether there are any Beings different from GOD our selves Bodies and Pure Spirits is unknown to us We can hardly perswade our selves there are and after we have examin'd the Reasons of some Philosophers who pretend the contrary we have found them false Which has confirm'd us in the Notion we had taken up that all Men being of the same Nature we have all the same Idea's as having all need of the Knowledge of the same things CHAP. VIII I. The intimate Presence of the indefinite Idea of Being in general is the cause of all the disorderly Abstractions of the Mind and the most part of the Chimera's of the Vulgar Philosophy which hinder many Philosophers from acknowledging the solidity of true Principles of Physicks II. An Instance concerning the Essence of Matter THAT clear intimate and necessary Presence of GOD I mean that presence of Being without any particular Limitation of Being infinite and in general to the Mind acts stronglier upon it than the preâ—ence of all finite Objects It is impossible to divest it self absolutely of this general Idea of Being since 't is impossible to subsist out of GOD. Perhaps it may be said that the Mind can separate it self from him because it can think on particular Beings But this is a mistake For the Mind in considering any Being in particular does not so much separate and recede from GOD as approach nearer some of His Perfections if I may be permitted so to speak by removing farther off from others However it doth not distance it self in that manner as quite to lose sight of them but is ever in a Capacity of seeking them out and approaching near them They are ever present to the Mind yet the Mind perceives them not but in an unexplicable confusion by reason of its Littleness and the Greatness of the Idea of Being A Man may indeed be some time without thinking on himself but he cannot as I think subsist a moment without thinking on Being and even at the time a Man believes he thinks of nothing he is necessarily full of the indeterminate and general Idea of Being But because the things which are customary to us and which don 't affect us alarum not the Mind with any vehemence nor oblige it to make reflection on them this Idea of being so great so vast so real and positive as it is is so familiar to us and makes so little impression that we fancy that we hardly see it that we make no reflection on it and consequently judge there is little reality in it and that 't is only form'd from a confus'd collection of all particular Idea's though on the contrary it is in this and by this only we perceive all Beings in particular Though that Idea which we receive through our immediate union with the WORD of GOD never deceives us of it self as do those we derive from the union we have with our Body which represents things to us otherwise than they are yet I scruple not to say That we make so bad use of the best things that the indelible presence of this Idea is one of the principal Causes of all the disorderly Abstractions of the Mind and consequently of all that Abstract and Chimerical Philosophy which explains all Natural Effects by the general terms of Act Power Cause Effect Substantial Forms Faculties Occult Qualities Sympathy Antipathy c. For 't is certain these Terms and a great many others excite no other Idea's in the Mind than indeterminate and general Idea's that is Idea's which readily offer themselves to the Mind without any trouble and application on our own part Let a Man read with all Attention possible all the Definitions and Explications given of Substantial â—orms let him do his best to search wherein consists the Essence of all these Entities which the fruitful Imagination of Philosophers produces in such multitudes at pleasure that they are forc'd to divide them and subdivide them over and over again and I dare engage that he shall never excite in his Mind any other Idea of all these things than that of Being and of Cause in general For let us take a view of the customary proceedings of Philosophers They observe some new Effect and presently imagine some new Entity must produce it The Fire heats there is then in the Fire some Entity to produce this Effect which differs from the Matter the Fire is compos'd of And because Fire is capable of many different Effects as of separating Bodies Pulverizing Vitrifying Drying Hardning Softning Dilating Purifying and Enlightning them c. therefore they liberally bestow on Fire so many Faculties or real Qualities as it is capable of producing different Effects But if we reflect on all the Definitions they give of these Faculties we shall find they are nothing else but Logical Definitions which raise no other Idea's than that of Being and Cause in general which the Mind refers to the Effect that is produc'd So that a Man is nothing the wiser when he has studied them never so long For all that is got by this sort of Study is the imagining we know better than others what indeed we know much worse not only because we admit many Entities that never were but also in being prepossess'd we make our selves incapable of conceiving how 't is possible for Matter all alone as that of Fire in being mov'd against Bodies differently dispos'd to produce all the different Effects we see Fire produce It is manifest to all those who have read any thing That almost all the Books of Science and especially those which treat of Physicks Medicine and Chymistry and of all particular things of Nature are full of nothing but Argumentations founded on the Elementary and Secondary Qualities as Attractive Retentive Concoctive Expulsive and such like upon others which they term Occult upon specifick Vertues and many other Entities which Men frame and make up out of the general Idea of Being and out of the Cause of the Effect which they see
obligation to believe to serve for a Rule and Principle for the guiding our Reasonings in Philosophy where nothing but Evidence ought to perswade us We are not to change the clear and distinct Idea's of Extension Figure and Local Motion for the general and confus'd Idea's of Principle or of subject of Extension of Form of Quiddities and Real Qualities and of all those Motions of Generation Corruption and Alteration and others which differ from Local Motion Real Idea's will produce real Science but from general and Logical Idea's can proceed nothing but a random superficial and a barren Science Wherefore we ought with serious Reflection to attend to the distinct and particular Idea's of things for the discovering the Properties they contain and thereby study Nature instead of losing our selves in these Chimera's which are only the litter or off-spring of some Philosopher's Brains CHAP. IX I. The last general Cause of our Errors II. That the Idea's of things are not always present to the Mind when we would have them III. That every finite Mind is subject to Error and why IV. That we ought not to judge that there is nothing but Body and Spirit Nor that GOD is a Spirit according to our conception of Spirits WE have hitherto treated of such Errors as may have some occasional Cause assigned in the Nature of the pure Intellect or of the Mind consider'd as acting by it self and in the nature of Idea's that is to say in the manner of the Mind 's perceiving external Objects There remains only one Cause now to be explain'd which may be term'd the universal and general Cause of our Errors because we can conceive no Error that has not some sort of dependance on it The Cause is this That Nothing having no Idea to represent it the Mind is carried to believe that the things whereof it has no Idea have no Existence 'T is certain that the general Source of our Errors as we have often said is our Judgment 's having greater extent and latitude than our Perceptions For when we consider any Object we commonly take the prospect but on one side of it but we are not content to judge only of that side we have consider'd but we pronounce of it all entire And so it often fortunes that we are deceiv'd for though the thing be true on the part we have Examin'd it is commonly false on the other we have not and what we believe true is no more than probable Now 't is manifest that we should not judge thus absolutely on things as we do did we not think we had consider'd all the parts of them or suppose them all like that which we have examin'd So the general Cause of our Errors lies in this that having no Idea of the other Faces of the Object or of their difference with that which is present to our Thoughts we believe those other Faces don't exist or at least we suppose they have no particular difference This manner of acting we think reasonable enough For since Nothing cannot form any Idea in the Mind we have some pretence to believe that the things that form no Idea in the Mind at the time of our Examining them resemble Nothing And that which confirms us in this Opinion is our being perswaded by a sort of Instinct that the Idea's of things are due to our Nature and are in such wise subjected to the Mind that they are oblig'd to pay their attendance when the Mind commands them However if we would make a little Reflection upon the present state of our Nature we should hardly be so strongly bent upon believing all the Idea's of things so much at our beck and command Man as I may say is only Flesh and Blood since Adam's Transgression The least impression of his Senses and his Passions interrupts the strongest Application of his Mind and the current of the Spirits and Blood hurry it along with them and drive it continually upon sensible Objects In vain it strives to withstand the Torrent it is carried by and rarely it is that it thinks of resisting it so pleasant it finds it to follow and so troublesome to struggle against the stream The Mind therefore is discourag'd and dejected as soon as it has made an attempt to hold and fix it self upon a Truth and 't is absolutely false in the state we are in that the Idea's of things are present to the Mind as often as we would consider them And therefore we ought not to judge that things are not in being upon the only score of our having no Idea's of them But though we should suppose Man absolute Master of his Mind and its Idea's yet he would still be subject to Error by the necessity of his Nature For the Mind of Man is limited and every limited Mind is by Nature liable to Error The reason whereof is this that the least things have Infinite Relations betwixt them and require an Infinite Mind to comprehend them And therefore a limited Mind being unable to embrace and comprehend all these Relations after all that ever it can do a Man 's inclin'd to believe that those which he does not perceive don't exist especially when he does not consider the Weakness and Limitation of his Mind as 't is customary for him not to do And thus the Finiteness of the Mind alone brings along with it the Capacity of falling into Error Notwithstanding if Men even in this their state of Infirmity and Corruption made always good use of their Liberty they would never be deceiv'd And for this reason every one that falls into Error is justly blameable and deservedly obnoxious to punishment For no more is requisite for the avoiding Error than to judge only of what a Man sees and not to form compleat judgments on things before he is assur'd he has examin'd them in all their parts and this is possible for Men to do But they had rather subjugate themselves to Error than conform to the Rule of Truth and love to arbitrate without the trouble of Enquiry And so we need not wonder if they are guilty of infinite Errors and frequently stand chargeable with uncertain and unwarrantable Judgments All the Idea's for instance that Men have of Substance are those of Spirit and of Body that is of a thinking and extended Substance and thereupon they take upon them to determine that whatever exists is either of Body or Spirit This is not said as if I presum'd to affirm there were any Substance neither Body nor Spirit it being too hazardous to maintain those things exist whereof we have no Idea since 't is suppos'd that GOD who conceals not his Works from us would have given us some Idea of them Yet I think we ought to determine nothing concerning the number of the kinds of Beings which GOD has created from the Idea's we have of them Since absolutely speaking there may be Reasons why GOD should conceal them from us if
Creatures which are either useful to our selves oâ— those we love We have yet many other particular Inclinations which depend on these which probably we may treat of elsewhere In this Fourth Book my only Design is to reduce the Errours of our Inclinations to three Heads to the Inclination we have for Good in general to Love of of Our selves and of our Neighbour CHAP. II. I. The Inclination for Good in general is the Principle of the Restlesness of of the Will II. And consequently of our Inadvertency and Ignorance III. The first Instance shewing that Morals are but little known by the generality of Men. IV. The second Instance shewing that the Immortality of the Soul is controverted by some People V. That we are in extreme Ignorance in point of Abstract things and which have but little reference to us THAT vast Capacity which the Will has for all Goods in general by reason of its being made for a Good that comprehends in it all Goods can't be fill'd by all the things the Mind represents to it and yet the continual Motion which God impresses it withall is never stopt which necessarily gives a perpetual Disturbance and agitation to the Mind The Will which seeks after what it desires obliges the Understanding to represent all sorts of Objects which when represented by the Understanding the Soul cannot taste or if she tastes she remains unsatisfied She cannot taste them because the View of the Mind is seldom accompanied with Pleasure which is the Seasoning whereby the Soul relishes her Good and she is not satisfied because nothing can stop the Motion of the Soul except the Author of the Impression Whatever the Mind represents as the Good of the Soul is finite and whatever is finite may detain her Love for a moment but cannot fix it When new and extraordinary Objects come under the consideration of the Mind or such as have a Character of Infinite the Will gladly bears with an attentive Discussion for some time as hoping to find what she is in Search of because that which appears Infinite bears the Signature of its real Good but after a while is disgusted with this as with the rest and leaves it Hence it is ever restless and fluctuating because it is fated to seek what it never can find though always in hopes of And it loves whatever is Great Extraordinary and Infinite because having miss'd of its true Good in common and familiar things it fancies it may be found in such as are unknown We shall shew in this Chapter that the Restlessness of our Will is one of the Principal Causes of our Ignorance and the Errours we are guilty of upon infinite subjects and in the two following shall explain what it is that breeds that our Inclination for all that 's Great and Extraordinary First It is plain enough from what has been said That the Will is only solicitous to apply the Understanding to those Objects which are related to us and is very negligent as to the rest For that being by a Natural Impression ever longing and Impatient after Happiness it turns the Understanding only upon those things which afford us Pleasure and Advantage Secondly That the Will permits not the Understanding to busie it self long even about things that afford some Pleasure because as has been said all Created things may please us for a season but they quickly grow distastful and then our Mind declines them and takes new ways to other Delights and Satisfactions Thirdly That the Will is prompted to put the Understanding on these desultory advances from Object to Object from that confus'd and as it were distant Representation the Understanding gives of Him who includes in Himself all Beings as has been said in the Third Book For the Will desiring as I may so speak to bring its real good closer so as to be affected by it and to receive its quickning Motion excites the Understanding to represent it by peice-meal But then this is no longer the General the Universal and infinitely Perfect Being which the Mind perceives but something of a limited and imperfect Nature which the Will speedily abandons as finding it unable to stops Its Motion and please It any considerable time and so pursues after another Object Mean while the Advertency and Application of the Mind being absolutely necessary to the discovery of Truths ever so little abstruse it is manifest that the Vulgar of Men must be most grosly Ignorant even in point of such things as have some reference to them but inconceivably Blind as to all Abstract Truths and to which they have no sensible Relation But we must try to make these things manifest by some examples There is no Science that stands in so near a Relation to us as Moral Philosophy which teaches us our Duties to God and our King our Kindred and Friends and in general to all about us Besides it points out the way we must follow to become eternally Happy so that all Men are under an Essential Obligation or rather an dispensible Necessity of resigning themselves to the Study of it Notwithstanding Generations of Men have successively continued six thousand Years and yet this Science is still very imperfect That part of Morals which respects our Duty to God and which questionless is the Principal of all as relating to Eternity has been little known by Men of the greatest Learning and there are still to be found Men of Sense who have no Knowledge of it though the easiest part of all Moral Philosophy For first of all What difficulty is there to find out the Existence of a God Every of his works is a proof of it All the Actions of Men and Beasts prove it Whatever we think whatever we see whatever we feel demonstrates it In a word there is nothing in the World but proves that there is a God or at least may prove it to Men of attentive Minds who seriously betake themselves to Search after the Author of all things Again it is evident that we must pursue the Orders of God if we will be happy For since He is Just and powerful we cannot Disobey him without being punish'd nor obey Him without a recompence But what is it he requires of us That we love Him that our Thoughts be possess'd with Him and our Heart set upon Him For what end had God in Creating Minds and all things else Certainly no other than Himself So that being made for Him we are indispensibly oblig'd from diverting elsewhere the Impression of Love which He perpetually maintains in us in order to our perpetual loving Him These Truths are not very difficult to be discover'd by any attentive and considering Man and yet this sole Moral Principle That to become Vertuous and Happy 't is absolutely necessary to Love God above all things and in all things is the Foundation of all Christian Morality Nor is there need of very great Application to deduce from thence all necessary
Iron than to make it go when 't is perfectly made so a Soul should rather be admitted in the Egg for the Formation of the Chicken than for making the Chicken live when entirely form'd But Men don't see with their eyes the admirable Conduct that goes to the forming of a Chicken as they still sensibly observe its method of looking out what 's necessary to its own Preservation And therefore they are not dispos'd to believe there are Souls in Eggs from any sensible Impression of those Motions which are requisite to transform them into Chickens but they ascribe Souls to Animals by reason of the sensible Impression they receive from the external Actions these Animals perform for their vital Preservation though the Reason I have here alledg'd is stronger for the Souls of Eggs than of Chickens This second Reason namely that Matter is incapable of Sensation and Desire is without doubt a Demonstration against those who ascribe Sense to Animals whilst they confess their Souls corporeal But Men will rather eternally-confound and perplex these Reasons than acknowledge a thing repugnant to barely probable but most sensible and pathetick Arguments and there is no way fully to convince them but by opposing other Sensible Proofs to theirs and giving an ocular Demonstration that all the Parts of Animals are mere Mechanism and that they may move without a Soul by the bare Impression of Objects and their own particular Frame and Constitution as Monsieur Des Cartes has begun to do in his Treatise concerning Man For all the most certain and evident Reasons of the pure Intellect will never obviate the obscure Proofs they have from the Senses and it were to expose our selves to the Laughter of superficial and inattentive Persons to pretend to prove by Reasons somewhat higher than ordinary that Animals have no Sense We must therefore well remember that the strong Inclination we have for Divertisements Pleasures and in general for whatever affects us exposes us to a multitude of Errours because our Capacity of Mind being limited this Inclination constantly disturbs our Attention to the clear and distinct Ideas of the Pure Understanding proper for the Discovery of Truth to apply it to the false obscure and deceitful Ideas of the Senses which influence the Will more by the Hope of Good and Pleasure than they inform the Mind by their Light and Evidence CHAP. XII Of the Effects which the Thoughts of future Happiness and Misery are capable of producing in the Mind IF it often happens that little Pleasures and light Pains which we actually feel or even which we expect to feel strangely confound our Imagination and disable us from judging on things by their true Ideas we cannot imagine but the Expectation of Eternity must needs work upon our Mind But 't is requisite to consider what it is capable of producing in 't We must in the first place observe That the Hope of an Eternity of Pleasures does not work so strongly on our Minds as the Fear of an Eternity of Torments The Reason is Men love not Pleasure so much as they hate Pain Again by a Self-conscious Sensation which they have of their Corruptions they know they are worthy of Hell and they see nothing in themselves deserving of so great Rewards as is the participating the Felicity of God himself They are sensible as often as they will and even sometimes against their Will that far from meriting Rewards they deserve the greatest Punishments for their Conscience never quits them But they are not so constantly convinc'd that GOD will manifest his Mercy upon Sinners after having satisfy'd his Justice upon his SON So that even the Righteous have more lively Apprehensions of an Eternity of Torments than Hopes of an Eternity of Pleasures Therefore the prospect of Punishment works more upon them than the prospect of Reward Here follows what it is capable of producing not all alone but as a principal Cause It begets infinite Scruples in the Mind and strengthens them in such a manner that 't is almost impossible to get rid of them It stretches Faith as I may so speak as far as Prejudices and makes Men pay that Worship which is due to GOD alone to imaginary Powers It obstinately fixes their Mind on vain or dangerous Superstitions and causes them fervently and zealously to embrace Humane Traditions and Practices needless to Salvation Jew and Pharisaick-like Devotions which servile Dread has invented Finally it flings some Men into the darkness of Despair so that confusedly beholding Death as Nothing they brutally wish to perish that they may be freed of those dreadful Anxieties and Disquiets that torment and frighten them The Scrupulous and Superstitious have commonly more of Charity than Self-love but only Self-love possesses the Desperate for rightly to conceive it a Man must extremely love himself who rather chuses no Being than an ill one Women Young People and those of a weak and timorous Mind are most obnoxious to Scruples and Superstitions and Men more liable to Despair 'T is easie to conceive the Reasons of all this For the Idea of Eternity being manifestly the greatest most terrible and dreadful of all those that astonish the Mind and strike the Imagination must needs be attended with a large Retinue of additional Ideas all which contribute to a wonderful effect upon the Mind by reason of the Analogy they have to that great and terrible Idea of Eternity Whatever has any relation to Infinite cannot be a little thing or if it be little in it self by that relation it grows so vast and immense as not to be compar'd with any thing Finite Therefore whatever has or is fancied to have any relation to that unavoidable Dilemma concluding for an Eternity either of Torments or Delights necessarily dismays the Mind that 's capable of any Reflexion or Thought Women Young People and feeble Minds having as I have formerly said the Fibres of their Brain soft and pliable receive very deep Traces or Impressions from that two-edg'd Consideration and when through the plenty of their Spirits they are more dispos'd to Sensation than just Reflexion on things they admit through the Vivacity of their Imagination a great number of spurious Impressions and false accessary Ideas which have no natural Relation to the principal Nevertheless that Relation though imaginary nourishes and confirms those spurious Traces and false accessary Ideas which it has produc'd When Men are engag'd in a troublesome Law-suit which they don't understand and it takes up all their Thoughts they commonly fall into needless Fears and Apprehensions that there are certain things prejudicial to their Cause which the Judges never think of and which a Lawyer would not fear The Success of the Affair is of so great Concernment to them that the Concussion it produces in their Brain spreads and propagates it self to distant Traces that have naturally no relation to it 'T is just so with the Scrupulous they causlesly fancy to themselves Subjects of
the Christians is quite different from that they deny not but Pain is an Evil and that it is hard to be separated from those things to which Nature has united us or to rid our selves from the Slavery Sin has reduc'd us to They agree that it is a Disorder that the Soul shall depend upon her Body but they own withall that she depends upon it and even so much that she cannot free her self from that Subjection but by the Grace of our Lord. I see saith St. Paul another Law in my Members warring against the Law of my Mind and bringing me into Captivity to the Law of Sin which is in my Members O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death the Grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord shall do it The Son of God his Apostles and all his true Disciples command us above all to be Patient because they know that Misâ—ry must be the Expectâ—tion and Portion of the Righteous In short true Christians or true Philosophers say nothing but what is agreeable to sound Reason and Experience whereas all Nature continually impugns the proud Opinion and presumption of the Stoicks The Christians know that to free themselves in some manner from the Subjection they are under they must endeavour to deprive themselves of all those things that they cannot enjoy without Pleasure nor want without Pain it being the only means to preserve that Peace and Liberty of Mind which they owe to their Deliverer's Beneficence On the contrary the Stoicks following the false Notions of their Chimerical Philophy imagine that they are wise and happy and that they need but think upon Vertue and Independency to become Vertuous and Independent Sound Reason and Experience assure us that the best way not to feel the smart of stinging is to shun the Nettle but the Stoicks say Sting me never so much I shall by the strength of my Mind and the help of my Philosophy raise my self so high above my Body that all your pricking shall not reach me I can demonstrate that my Happiness depends not upon it and that Pain is not an Evil and you shall see by the Colour of my Face and by the whole deportment of my Body that my Philosophy has made me invulnerable Their Pride bears up their Courage however it hinders not but that they should suffer Pain with Vexation and be really miserable so that their Union with their Body is not destroyed nor their Pain vanished but all this proceeds from their Union with other Men strengthened by the desire of their Esteem which in some manner withstands the Union of their Soul with their Body The sensible view of the Spectators to whom they are united stops the Course of the Animal Spirits that should follow upon the pain and blots out the Impression they would make upon their Face for was there no body to look on them that Phantasm of Constancy and Liberty of Mind would presently vanish So that the Stoicks do only in some degree withstand the Union of their Soul to their Body by making themselves greater Slaves to other Men to whom they are united by a drift of Glory And 't is therefore an undoubted truth that all Men are united to all sensible things both by Nature and their Concupiscence which may sufficiently be known by Experience and of which all the Actions of Mankind are sensible demonstrations though Reason seems to oppose it Though this Union be common to all Men 't is not however of an equal Extent and Strength in all for as it proceeds from the Knowledge of the Mind so it may be said that we are not actually united to unknown Objects A Clown in his Cottage does not concern himself with the Glory of his Prince and Country but only with the honour of his own and the Neighbouring Villages because his Knowledge does not extend farther The Union with such Objects as we have seen is stronger than the Union to those we have only imagin'd or heard relation of because by Sensation we are more strictly united to sensible things as leaving deeper Impressions in our Brain and moving the animal Spirits in a more violent manner than when they are only imagin'd Neither is that Union so strong in those that continually oppose it that they may adhere to the Goods of the Mind as it is in those who suffer themselves to be carried away and inslav'd by their Passions since Concupiscence increases and strengthens that Union Last of all the several Employments and States of this Life together with the various dispositions of divers Persons cause a considerable difference in that sensible Union which Men have with Earthly Goods Great Lords have greater Dependencies than other Men and their Chains as I may call them are longer The General of an Army depends on all his Souldiers because all his Souldiers reverence him This Slavery is often the Cause of his Valour and the desire of being esteem'd by those that are Witnesses of his Actions often drives him to Sacrifice to it more sensible and rational desires The same may be said of all Superiours and those that make a great Figure in the World Vanity being many times the Spur of their Vertue because the love of Glory is ordinarily stronger than the love of Truth I speak here of the love of Glory not as a simple Inclination but a Passion since that love may become sensible and is often attended with very lively and violent Commotions of the Animal Spirits Again the different Ages and Sexes are primary Causes of the difference of Passions Children love not the same things as adult and old Men or at least love them not with that Force and Constancy Women depend only on their Family and Neighbourhood but the dependencies of Men extend to their whole Country because 't is their part to defend it and that they are mightily taken up with those great Offices Honours and Commands that the State may bestow upon them There is such a variety in the Employments and Engagements of Men that it is impossible to explain them all The disposition of Mind in a Married Man is altogether different from that of a single Person for the former is in a manner wholly taken up with the care of his Family A Fryar has a Soul of another make and depends upon fewer things than the Men of the World and even than Secular Ecclesiasticks but he is stronger fastned to those few things One may argue in the same manner concerning the different States of Men in general but the little sensible engagements cannot be explain'd because they differ almost in every private Person it often hapning that men have particular Engagements altogether opposite to those that they ought to have in reference to their condition But though the different Genius and Inclinations of Men Women Old Men Young Men Rich Poor Learned and Ignorant in short of all the different Sexes Ages and
us The second is a New Determination of the Motion of the Will towards that Object provided it be or seem to be a Good Before that View the Natural Motion of the Soul was either undetermin'd that is to say she was carried towards Good in general or it otherwise determined by the knowledge of some particular Object But in the very instant of the mind 's perceiving that Relation of the new Object to it self that general Motion of the Will is forthwith determin'd conformably to the perception of the Mind The Soul advances near that Object by her Love that she may relish it and discover her good in it through a sensible delectation which the Author of Nature affords her as a Natural Reward of her Inclination to Good She judged that that Object was a Good by an abstracted and unpathetick Reason but she persists in the persuasion of it through the Efficacy of Sensation and the livelyer that Sensation is the stronger is her adhesion to the Good that seems to be the Cause of it But if that particular Object be considered as Evil or able to deprive us of some Good there happens no New Determination in the Motion of the Will but only the Motion towards the Good oppos'd to that seemingly evil Object is augmented which augmentation is greater or lesâ—er as the Evil seems to be more or less formidable to us For indeed we hate only because we love and the Evil that is without us is judg'd no farther Evil than with reference to the Good of which it deprives us So that Evil being consider'd as a privation of Good to fly from Evil is to fly the privation of Good which is the same thing as to tend towards Good and therefore there happens no new determination of the Natural Motion of the Will at the presence of an unwelcome Object but only a Sensation painful distasteful or imbitter'd which the Author of Nature inflicts on the Soul as a pain naturally consequent to her being depriv'd of Good Reason alone had not been sufficient to carry her to it wherefore this painful and vexing Sensation is superadded to quicken her Thence I conclude that in any Passion whatsoever all the Motions of the Soul towards Good are the Motions of Love But as we are affected with divers Sensations according to the various Circumstances that attend the View of Good and the Motion of the Soul towards it so we come to confound our Sensations with the Commotions of the Soul and to imagine as many different Motions in the Passions as there are different Sensations Upon this head it must be observed that Pain is a true and real Evil and no more the Privation of Pleasure than Pleasure the Privation of Pain for there is a great difference betwixt not feeling or being depriv'd of such a Sensation of Pleasure and the actual enduring of Pain So that every Evil is not precisely so because it deprives us of Good but only that Evil as I have explain'd that is without us or is not a Modification of our Soul Nevertheless as by Goods and Evils we commonly understand things good or evil and not the Sensations of Pleasure and Pain which are rather the natural Tokens by which the Soul distinguishes Good from Evil it may be said methinks without Equivocation that Evil is nothing but the privation of Good and that the natural motion of the Soul that removes us from Evil is the same with that which carries us to good for in brief all natural Motion being an Impression of the Author of Nature whose acting centers in himself and who can incline us only towards himself The true Motion of the Soul is always essentially the Love of Good and but accidentally an Aversion from Evil. I grant that Pain may be consider'd as an Evil and in that sense the Motion of the Passions which is stir'd up by it is not real since we never will Pain and though we positively will the absence of Pain yet 't is only because we positively will the Preservation or Perfection of our Being The third thing to be observ'd in every Passion is the Sensation that attends them the Sensation of Love Hatred Desire Joy Sorrow which are all different in the different Passions The fourth thing is a new Determination of the course of the Animal Spirits and Blood to the outward and inward parts of the Body Before the View of the Object of the Passion the vital Spirits were dispers'd throughout the whole Body for the preservation of all its parts in general but at the appearance of that new Object all this Order and Oeconomy is disturb'd and most part of the Spirits are thrown into the Muscles of the Arms Legs Face and other exteriour parts of the Body to put them in a disposition suitable to the ruling Passion and to give it such a gesture and motion as are necessary for the obtaining or avoiding the imminent Good or Evil But if its own Forces are insufficient for its occasions these same Spirits are distributed in such a manner as make it machinally utter certain words and cries and which diffuse over the Face and the rest of the Body such an air and comportment as is capable of actuating others with the same Passion it self is possess'd with For Men and Beasts having a mutual cohesion by the Eyes and Ears when any one of them is in a violent Commotion it necessarily affects the Spectators and Hearers and naturally makes upon their Imagination such an Impression as troubles them and moves them to preserve it As to the rest of the Animal Spirits they violently descend into the Heart Lungs Liver Spleen and other Viscera thence to draw contributions and to hasten those parts to send forth a sufficient and timely supply of Spirits necessary to preserve the Body in that extraordinary Contention The fifth thing is a sensible Commotion of the Soul who feels her self agitated by an unexpected overflow of Spirits This sensible Commotion of the Soul always attends that Motion of the Spirits that the Soul may participate of all that affects the Body even as the Motion of Spirits is raised in the Body when the Soul is carried toward any Object For the Body and Soul being mutually united their Motions are reciprocal The sixth thing are several Sensations of Love Hatred Joy Desire Sorrow that are produced not by the Intellectual view of Good or Evil as those that have been already mention'd but by the various concussions that are caused in the Brain by the Animal Spirits The seventh thing is a certain Sensation of Joy or rather internal Satisfaction which detains the Soul in her Passion and assures her that she is in the fittest State she can be in reference to the Object she considers This internal satisfaction attends all the Passions whatsoever whether they proceed from the sight of an Evil or from the sight of a Good Sorrow as well as Joy This satisfaction makes
true Judgments provided we only judge of what he says and as he says in Imitation only of our Lord as I hear I judge But let 's see how it is that our Passions seduce us that we may the easier resist them The Passions are so nearly related to the Senses that remembring what hath been said in the first Book it will not be difficult to explain how they lead us into Errour because the general Causes of the Errours of the Passions are altogether like to those of the Errours of the Senses The most general Cause of the Errours of the Senses is as we there have shewn our attributing to external Objects or to the Body the proper Sensations of our Soul annexing Colours to the Superficies of Bodies diffusing Light Sounds and Odours in the Air and fixing Pain and Titillation to those Parts of our Body that receive some Changes by the Motion of other contiguous Bodies Almost the same thing may be said of the Passions we too rashly ascribe to the Objects that cause or seem to cause them all the Dispositions of our Heart our Goodness Meekness Malice Sowreness and all the other Qualities of our Mind The Object that begets some Passion in us seemes afrer a sort to contain in it self the Passion produced in us when we consider it as sensible things seem to contain in themselves the Sensations which their Presence excites in us When we love any Person we are naturally inclin'd to believe that he loves us and can hardly imagine that he designs to hurt us or to oppose our Desires But if Hatred succeed in the place of Love we cannot Persuade our selves that he has any Affection for us we interpret all he does in the worst Sense we are always distrustful and upon our Guard though he thinks not upon us or perhaps intended to doe us Service In short we unjustly attribute to the Person that stirs up a passion in us all the Dispositions of our Heart and with as much Imprudence as we ascribe to the Objects of the Senses all the Qualities of our Mind Moreover by the same Reason that we believe other Men receive the same Sensations from the same Objects as we do we think they are agitated with the same Passions for the same Subjects if they are in a State of being susceptible of them We suppose them to love and desire the same things as we our selves do whence proceed secret Jealousies and Hatreds if the desired Good cannot be enjoyed entire by several for the contrary happens in Goods that can be possessed without Division by several Persons as Science Vertue the Sovereign Good and the like We also suppose that they hate fear or fly from the same things that we do whence proceed secret Plots or publick Associations according to the nature and state of the thing hated by which means we hope to rid our selves of our Miseries We therefore ascribe to the Objects of our Passions the Commotions they produce in us thinking that all other Men and even sometimes Beasts are agitated as we are and besides judge yet more rashly the Cause of our Passions which is often but imaginary is really in some Object When we have a passionate Love for any Body his Grimace and Faces are charming his Ugliness is not distastful his ill-composed Motions and Gestures are regular or at least natural If he never speak he is wise if he be a great Talker he is witty if he speak upon all adventures he 's Universal if he continually interrupt others it is because he 's full of Fire of Life and Spirit if he pretend to top and sway every where 't is because he deserves it Thus can Passion cover or dissemble the Imperfections of Friends and advantagiously set off their most inconsiderable Qualities But when that Friendship which only proceeds as other Passions do from the Agitation of the Blood and Animal Spirits comes to cool through want of Heat and Spirits fit to nourish it when Interest or some false Relation alters the Disposition of the Brain then Hatred succeeding Love is sure to represent to us in that Object of our Passion all the Defects that are capable of stirring up our just Aversion We perceive in him Qualities quite contrary to those we admired before We are asham'd of having lov'd him and the ruling Passion never fails to justifie it self and to ridicule that which it has follow'd The Power and Injustice of Passions are not included within such narrow Limits as those we have described but extend infinitely farther not only disguising their principal Object but also whatever has any reference to it They make us love not only the Qualities of our Friends but also most part of those of the Friends to our Friends And in those who are endued with any strength and extent of Imagination the Passions have so vast a reach and out-let that it is not possible to determine their Limits Those Things I have mention'd are such general and fruitful Principles of Errour Prejudice and Injustice that it is impossible to observe all the Consequences of them Most of the Truths or rather Errours entertained in some Places Times Commonalties and Families proceed from thence What is followed in Spain is rejected in France what is true at Paris is false at Rome what is certain amongst the Dominicans is uncertain amongst the Franciscans and what appears undoubted to the Black Fryars seems an Errour to the White The Dominicans believe themselves obliged to stick to St. Thomas Why Because that Doctor was one of their Order Whereas the Franciscans follow the Opinion of Scotus because he was a Black Fryar There are likewise Truths and Errours proper to certain Times The Earth turned two thousand Years ago then it remain'd unmovable till our Days wherein it has began to turn again Aristotle was formerly burnt and a Provincial Council approved by the Pope most wisely forbad his Physicks to be taught He was admired ever since and falls now again into Contempt Opinions that are now publickly received in the Schools were formerly rejected as Heresies and their Assertors excommunicated by the Bishops because Passions stirring up Factions Factions establish those sorts of Truths or Errours that are as inconsistent as the Principle they proceed from Men may indeed be indifferent as to the Unmovableness of the Earth or the Essence of Bodies consider'd in themselves but they are no longer so when they look on those Opinions as defended by their Adversaries Thus Hatred kept up by a confused sense of Piety breeds an indiscreet Zeal that kindles by degrees and at last produces such Events as are not so surprizing to all the World till a great while after their arrival We can hardly imagine that Passions should reach so far because we know not that their Impetuosity extends to whatever may satisfie them Perhaps Hâ—man would have done no harm to the Jewish People but because Mordecai a Jew forbore to salute him he
when it thinks upon nothing Should that Idea vanish my Mind it seems should vanish with it or at least become smaller and narrower if it should fix upon a less considerable Idea so that the preservation of that great Idea being the preservation of my own Greatness and the perfection of my Being I am in the right to admire nay others ought to admire me for it should they give me my due For I am really something great by the Relation I have to great things and I enjoy them in some manner by my Admiration and that Foretast which a sort of Hope affords me Other Men would be Happy as well as I am my self if knowing my Greatness they should fix themselves upon the Cause that produces it but they are blind and insensible to great and fine things and know not how to raise and make themselves considerable It may be said That the Mind naturally and without Reflection argues in some such manner when it it suffers it self to be led away by the abusive Meteors of the Passions Those Reasonings have some Likelihood though their Weakness be sufficiently visible however that Probability or rather the confused Sense of the Probobility that attends natural and inconsiderate Arguments is so prevalent that they never fail of seducing us when we stand not upon our guard For Instance When Poetry History Chymistry or any other Humane Science has struck the Imagination of a young Man with some Motions of Admiration if he do not carefully watch the Attempt these Motions make upon his Mind if he examine not to the bottom the Use of those Sciences if he compare not the Trouble of learning them with the Benefits that may accrue to him in short if he be not as nice in his Judgment as he ought to be he runs the hazard of being seduced by his Admiration shewing him only the fairest Part of those Sciences and 't is even to be feared lest they should so far corrupt his Heart as that he should never awake out of his Dream even when he comes to know it to be but a Dream because it is not possible to blot out of the Brain deep Tracks engraven and widened by a long-continued Admiration And therefore we ought to take diligent care to keep our Imagination untainted that is to say to hinder the formation of dangerous Traces that corrupt the Heart and Mind I shall here set down a very useful Way to prevent not only the Excess of Admiration but also of all other Passions in general When the Motion of the Animal Spirits is so violent as to imprint on the Brain deep Traces that corrupt the Imagination it is always attended with some Commotion of the Soul And as the Soul cannot be moved without being conscious of it she is thereby sufficiently warn'd to stand upon her guard and to examine whether it be for her good to suffer those Traces to be enlarged and finished But at the time of the Commotion the Mind is not so free as rightly to judge of the Usefulness of those Traces because the same Commotion deceives and inclines it to indulge them We must therefore endeavour to stop that Commotion or to turn to some other Place the Current of the Spirits that cause it and in the mean while 't is absolutely necessary to suspend our Judgment But we ought not to imagine that the Soul always can by her bare Will stop the Course of the Spirits that hinder her from making use of her Reason her ordinary Power being not sufficient to quell Motions not raised by her so that she must dexterously endeavour to deceive an Enemy that attacks her unawares As the Motions of the Spirits stir up respective Thoughts in the Soul so our Thoughts excite such and such Motions in the Brain so that to stop a rising Motion of the Spirits a bare Will is not sufficient but Stratagem must be us'd and we must skilfully represent to our selves such Things as are contrary to those that stir up and indulge that Motion whence a Revulsion will arise But if we would only determine another way the Motion of the Spirits already risen we must not think of contrary but only different Things from those that have produced it which will certainly make a Diversion But because the Diversion and Revulsion are great or little as the new Thoughts are accompanied with a greater or less Motion of the Spirits we must carefully observe what sort of Thoughts agitate us most that we may in urging Occasions represent them to our seducing Imagination and use our selves so much to that sort of Resistance that no surprizing Motion may affect our Soul If we take care firmly to unite the Idea of Eternity or some other solid Thought to those violent and extraordinary Motions they will never be stirr'd up for the future without raising that Idea and furnishing us with Weapons to resist them This appears from Experience and from the Reason mention'd in the Chapter Of the Connection of Ideas so that we must not imagine it absolutely impossible by a dexterous Managery to conquer our Passions when we are stedfastly resolv'd upon it However by that Resistance we ought not to pretend to Impeccability nor to the avoiding of all Errours whatsoever First Because 't is very difficult to acquire and preserve such a Habit as that our extraordinary Motions shall raise in us Ideas fit to oppose them Secondly Though we should have gotten that Habit those Motions of the Spirits will directly excite the Ideas to be impugned and but indirectly supply us with the necessary Weapons to assault them So that the Evil Ideas being still the principal will be stronger than the Good that are but accessary and the latter ever stand in need of the Help of the Will Thirdly Those Motions of the Spirits may be so violent as to take up the whole Capacity of the Soul so that there will remain no room if I may so speak for the reception of the accessary Idea that is proper to make a Revulsion in the Spirits or not at least for such a Reception as may incite us to an attentive Contemplation of it Lastly There are so many particular Circumstances that can make that Remedy useless that though it ought not to be neglected yet we must not relie too much upon it We must have a perpetual Recourse to Prayer that we may receive from Heaven necessary Helps in the time of Temptation and in the mean while endeavour to present to the Mind some Truths so solid and prevalent as that they may overcome the most violent Passions For I must needs add by the way That several pious Persons often return into the same Faults because they fill their Mind with a great many Truths that are more glittering than solid and fitter to weaken and dissolve than to fortifie it against Temptations whereas others that are not endued with so much Knowledge faithfully stick to their Duty because of some
As to be a good Mathematician 't is not sufficient to learn by Heart all the Demonstrations of Euclid Pappus Archimedes Apollonius and others that have written of Geometry so to be a Learned Philosopher 't is not enough to have read Plato Aristotle Des Cartes and perfectly to know their Sentiments upon Philosophical Questions For the Knowledge of all the Opinions and Judgments of other Men either Philosophers or Geometricians is rather a History than a Science the true Science that perfects as far as possible the Mind consisting in a certain Ability of solidly judging of all things proportion'd to its Reach But not to lose time nor prepossess the Reader with precipitate Judgments let us begin to treat of such an important Matter First of all we ought to remember the Rule that has been established and proved at the beginning of the First Book because 't is the Foundation and Principle of whatever we shall say hereafter And therefore I repeat it We must never give a full Consent but to those Propositions that appear so evidently true that they cannot be denied it without feeling an inward Pain and the secret Reproaches of our Reason that is to say without clearly knowing we should make a wrong Use of our Liberty by with-holding our Consent For as many times as we yield to Probabilities we certainly venture to be mistaken and 't is but by good Chance or a lucky Hit if we be not really deceived So that the confused Sight of a great number of Probabilities upon different Subjects makes not our Reason more perfect nothing but the clear View of the Truth being able to afford it any real Perfection and Satisfaction Thence 't is easie to conclude That since according to our first Rule nothing but Evidence can assure us that we are not deceived we ought to take a special care to preserve that Evidence in all our Perceptions that we may pass a sound Judgment upon all the Things to which our Reason can attain and discover as many Truths as we are capable of The Things that can produce and preserve that Evidence are of two sorts some are within us and in some manner depending on us others are out of our Jurisdiction For as to see distinctly visible Objects 't is required to have a good Sight and to fix it steadfastly upon them which two Things are in us or in some manner depending on us So 't is requisite to have a sound Understanding and a strong Application in order to pierce into the bottom of intelligible Truths which two Things are in us or in some sort in our power But as the Eyes stand in need of Light to see which Light depends upon foreign Causes so the Mind needs Ideas to conceive which as it has been proved elsewhere have no Dependency upon us but are furnished to us by a foreign Cause So that should the Ideas of Things supersede being present to our Minds as often as we desire to see them should he that enlightens the World conceal them from us it would not be more possible for us to redress it or to know any thing than it is to see visible Objects when the Light is gone But we have no reason to fear it For the Presence of Ideas being natural to our Minds and depending on the general Will of God which is constant and immutable they can never disappear nor fail us in the Discovery of such Things as are attainable by Natural Reason For the Sun that enlightens the Minds is not like that which illuminates Bodies it is never eclipsed nor goes ever down but penetrates every thing without dividing its Light The Ideas of all Things being then continually present to us even when we do not attentively consider them all that we need doe to make all our Perceptions evident is only to look for such Means as can increase the Attention and Extent of the Mind as nothing else is required on our side to distinguish visible and present Objects but to have good Eyes and to fix them thereupon However because the Objects we consider have more Relations than we can discover at once by a simple Essay of Thought we still need some Rules skilfully to unfold the Difficulties by which Succours the Mind being grown more attentive and extended may with a full Evidence discover all the Relations of the Thing examined We shall divide this Sixth Book into Two Parts We shall treat in the First of those Supplies that may afford the Mind more Attention and Extent and in the Second we shall prescribe those Rules that it must follow in the Inquiry after Truth to pass sound and undeceivable Judgments CHAP. II. That Attention is necessary to preserve Evidence in our Knowledge That the Modifications of the Soul make her attentive but share and take up too much her Capacity of Perceiving WE have shewn at the Beginning of this Work that the Understanding does nothing but perceive and that as to its Concern there is no difference betwixt bare Perceptions Judgments and Reasonings unless it be that the second and third are Perceptions more composed than the first because they not only represent many Things but also the Relations they have together For naked Perceptions represent only Things to the Mind whereas Judgments represent the Relations that are betwixt Things and Reasonings the Relations that are betwixt the Relations of Things provided they be simple Reasonings for if they were Complex they would represent Relations of Relations or compound Relations which are between the Relation of Things and so ad infinitum For proportionably as Relations multiply so the Reasonings that represent them to the Mind become more composed However Judgments and simple Reasonings as well as those that are composed are but as to the Understanding bare Perceptions since it does no more than simply perceive as has been already observed Whence it appears that the Understanding never falls into Errour since there is none in Perceptions and that Errour it self is not of an intelligible nature For as we have already said many times it consists in a too hasty Consent of the Will which suffers it self to be dazzled by some false Glimpse and instead of keeping its Liberty as long as possible negligently relies upon the Appearance of Truth Notwithstanding as it commonly happens that the Understanding has but confused and imperfect Perceptions of Things so 't is really a Cause of our Errours though only occasional For as the Corporeal Sight leads us into Mistake when it represents outward Objects confusedly and imperfectly confusedly when they are at too great a distance or for want of Light and imperfectly when it only shews such Faces of them as look towards us So the Understanding often having but a confused and imperfect Conception of Things because they are not sufficiently present to it and that it discovers not all their Parts causes the Will that too easily yields to those obscure and imperfect Conceptions to fall into
we conceive it right the Soul cannot think more at one time than another whether it be then that she perceives many Objects or is taken up with one or even when she is said to think upon nothing But the Reason why we imagine that we think more at one time than another is that we do not sufficiently distinguish betwixt confused and distinct Perceptions More Thought is doubtless required or the Capacity of Thinking must be more fill'd distinctly to perceive several Objects than one alone but we need not more Thought to perceive many Things confusedly than one alone distinctly Thus the Degrees or Quantity of Thought is equal in the Soul when she considers many Things and when she considers only one For when she is taken up with one Thing she has always a clearer Idea of it than when she applies her self to many For 't is fit to be observed That a simple Perception sometimes contains as much Thought or fills as much the Thinking Capacity of the Mind as a Judgment and even a composed Reasoning since Experience teaches us that the simple but lively clear and evident Perception of one Thing engages our Application and possesses us as much as a composed Reasoning or the obâ—cure and confused Perception of several Relations betwixt many Things For as there is as much or more Sensation in the sensible Sight of an Object which I hold near my Eyes and curiously examine than in the Sight of a spacious Field on which I cast a negligent and careless Eye because the nearness of the Sensation of the Object near my Eyes makes up for the Extent of that confused Sensation of those many Things which I slightly and unattentively look upon in a Field So the spiritual Sight the Mind hath of an Object is often so lively and distinct that it contains as much and more Thought than the View of the Relations betwixt many Things True it is that at some certain times it seems to us as though we thought but upon one Thing which yet we can hardly comprehend whereas at other times we comprehend that Thing and several others with great easiness Thence we imagine that the Soul has more Extent and a larger Capacity of Thinking at one time than at another But our Mistake is visible for the Reason why at some certain times we can scarce conceive the easiest Things proceeds not from the Capacity of the Soul 's being straitned or impair'd but from its being fill'd with some lively Sensation of Pain or Pleasure or with a great number of weak and dark Sensations that cause a sort of Giddiness which is commonly nothing else but the confused Sensation of a great number of Things A Piece of Wax is susceptible of a very distinct Figure but cannot admit two without a Mixture of both since it cannot be perfectly round and square at the same time and if one should pretend to give it a Million of Figures none of them would be distinct And in that Case supposing that Piece of Wax capable of knowing its own Figures yet it could not tell which it is that terminates it on all sides the number would be so great It is even so with our Soul when a very great number of Modifications take up her Capacity she can perceive none distinctly because she has not a separate Sensation of them and so thinks she is sensible of nothing She cannot say that she feels Pain Pleasure Light Sound Savour 't is none of those Qualities and yet 't is them all together she is sensible of And though we should suppose that the Soul is not subject to the confused and unruly Motion of the Animal Spirits and so free from the Contagion of her Body as to have her Thoughts altogether independent on what happens in it yet it might fall out that we should easier understand some Things at one time than at another without any Enlargement or Diminution in the Capacity of our Soul for then we might think upon particular Objects or of Being indefinite and in general The general Idea of Infinite is inseparable from the Mind and wholly takes up its Capacity whenever it thinks upon no particular Thing For when we say that we think on nothing it signifies not that we think not upon that general Idea but only that our Thoughts are not applied to any particular Object And certainly if that Idea did not fill our Mind we could not think as we do upon all sorts of Things since we cannot think upon Objects of which we have no Knowledge And if that Idea were not more present to the Mind when we suppose we think upon nothing than when we are busie about some particular Object we could as easily think upon whatever we please when we are mightily taken up with some particular Truth as when we are not attentive unto any thing Which is repugnant to Experience For to instance when we are strongly engag'd in meditating on some Geometrical Proposition we find not so much easiness to think upon other Things as when we are diverted by no particular Thought And therefore we think more on the General and Infinite Being when we think less on the Particular and Finite and we think always as much at one time as at another We cannot then improve the Extent and Capacity of the Mind by swelling it up as I may say and giving it more Reality than it has received from Nature But only by a skilful and dexterous managing thereof which is done to the best advantage by Arithmetick and Algebra For those Sciences afford Means of abridging Ideas so methodically and reducing them into such an Order as that the Mind with its little Extent is capable with their Assistance of discovering very composed Truths and such as appear at first sight incomprehensible But we must draw these Things from their Principle that we may explain them with more clearness and certainty Truth is nothing else but a real Relation either of Equality or Inequality Whereas Falsehood is but the Negation of Truth or a false and fantastick Relation Truth is that which is and Falsehood is not or if you will is that which is not We never mistake when we see Relations that are since we cannot be deceived when we see the Truth But we always mistake when we judge that we see some Relations that are not in being for then we see a Falsehood we see what is not or rather we see not at all Whoever sees a Relation of Equality betwixt two times Two and Four sees a Truth because there is such a Relation as he sees and whoever sees a Relation of Inequality betwixt twice Two and Five sees a Truth because he sees a Relation that really is But whoever judges that he sees a Relation of Equality betwixt two times Two and Five mistakes because he sees or rather supposes he sees a Relation of Equality where there is none Truths are but Relations and the Knowledge of Truths is
Motion of the foresaid Globules Besides the Circular Motion common to all the Parts of the Vortex that subtle Matter must yet have another particular and almost direct from the Circle of the Vortex to the Circumference through the Intervals of the Globules that leave a Passage open So that the Motion composed of those Motions will represent a Spiral Line That fluid Matter call'd by Des Cartes the first Element being divided into Parts that are much smaller and have not so much strength to continue their direct Motion as the Globules or second Element 't is evident that the first Element must take up the Centre of the Vortex and fill the empty Spaces which the Parts of the Second leave between them and that the rest of the Vortex must be filled with those Parts of the Second and come nearer to the Circumference proportionably to their Bulk or to the Force they have of continuing their Motion in a Direct Line As to the Figure of the whole Vortex after what has been said it cannot be doubted but that the Distance from one Pole to the other will be shorter than that of the Line which cuts the Equator And if we consider that the Vortexes surround and compress each other unequally we shall plainly see that their Equator is a crooked irregular Line that comes near to an Ellipsis These are the Things that offer themselves naturally to the Mind when we attentively consider what should happen to the Parts of Extension perpetually tending to move in a Right Line that is in the most simple Motion If we now suppose a Thing which seems most worthy the Divine Power and Wisdom namely That God has formed the whose Universe at once in the same State those Parts would have naturally fallen into and disposed themselves in time by the most simple Ways and that he preserves them by the same natural Laws In a word if we compare our Ideas with the visible Objects we shall conclude that the Sun is the Centre of the Vortex that the Corporeal Light which it diffuses every where is nothing but the continual Effort of the little Globules tending to remove from the Centre of the Vortex which Light must be communicated in an Instant through those vast Spaces because they being full of those Globules one cannot be press'd upon without the Motion of all the others that are opposite to it Several other Consequences may be drawn from what has been said because the most simple Principles are the most fruitful to explain the Works of a Being which always acts by the most simple Ways But we still want to consider some Things that will be incident to Matter Let us then imagine that there are several Vortexes like to that we have described in few Words that the Stars which are so many Suns are the Centres of those Vortexes which surround each other and are disposed in such a manner as that they hinder one anothers Motion the least they can but that before Things came to that Perfection the weakest Vortexes were carried away and as it were swallowed up by the strongest To understand this we need but suppose that the first Element which is at the Centre may fly and perpetually flies out through the Intervals of the Globules towards the Circumference of the Vortex and that at the same time that this Centre or Star empties it self through the Equator other Matter of the first Element comes into it through the Poles for neither the Star nor its Poles can empty themselves at one side without being fill'd at another since there is no Vacuity in Extension But as an infinite number of Causes may hinder a great Quantity of the first Element from coming into that Star the Parts of the first Element that shall be forced to remain in it will be necessitated to adapt themselves so as to move one and the same way which causes them to fasten and link themselves together and constitutes them into Spots which condensing and thickning into Crusts cover by degrees the Centre and out of the most subtil and agitated of all Bodies are form'd into gross and solid Matter This course sort of Matter is called by Des Cartes the third Element and is endued with an infinite number of Shapes and Figures as is the first Element from which it is generated and produced That Star being thus over-grown with Spots and Crusts and become like the other Planets has no longer a sufficient Strength to defend its Vortex against the continual Struggle and Irruptions of those that surround it therefore it insensibly diminishes The Matter that composes it is dispersed on all sides and the strongest of the neighbouring Vortexes carries the greatest part away and at last involves the Planet that is the Centre of it This Planet being wholly surrounded with the Matter of the great Vortex swims along in it only keeping together with some of the Matter of its own Vortex its former Circular Motion and takes at last such a Situation as puts it in Aequilibrio with an equal Quantity of the Matter in which it swims If it has but little Solidity and Magnitude it descends very near the Centre of the surrounding Vortex because having no great Force to continue its Motion in a Right Line it must take such a Place in that Vortex as that an equal Quantity of the second Element endeavouring to remove from the Centre may be in Aequilibrio with it that being the only Place where it can be exactly balanc'd If that Planet be of greater Bulk and Solidity it must seek its Aequilibrium in a Place more distant from the Centre of the Vortex And lastly If there is no Place in the Vortex in which an equal Quantity of its Matter hath as much Solidity as this Planet and consequently as much Strength to continue its Motion in a Direct Line perhaps because the Planet shall be very bulky and over-grown with very solid and condens'd Crusts it shall not stop in that Vortex as finding no Aequilibrium in the Matter that composes it but pass from Vortex to Vortex until it meets with a Place in which it may be equally balanced by a competent Quantity of Matter so that it will sometimes be seen in its Passage as the Comets are when it shall be in our Vortex and at a convenient Distance from us But it will not be seen in a long time when it shall be in other Vortexes or in the utmost Boundary of ours If we hereupon conclude that a single Vortex may by reason of its Bulk Strength and advantageous Situation insensibly undermine involve and carry away several Vortexes and even such as shall have conquer'd others it will necessarily follow that the Planets that have been form'd in the Centre of the conquer'd Vortexes being entered into the great and conquering Vortex place themselves in Aequilibrio with an equal Volume of the Matter in which they swim So that if those Planets are unequal in
if they were just and good And none perhaps could forbear laughing if instead of the Definitions which Aristotle gives of Hunger and Thirst when he says that Hunger is the desire of what is hot and dry and Thirst the desire of what is cold and moist we should substitute the Definitions of those words calling Hunger the desire of that which coacervates things of the same nature and is easily contained within its own Limits and difficultly within others and defining Thirst the desire of that which congregates things of the same and different natures and which can hardly be contained within its own bounds but is easily kept within others Surely 't is a very useful Rule to know whether Terms have been well defined and to avoid mistakes in reasoning often to put the Definition instead of the thing defined for that shews whether the words are equivocal and the Measures of the Relations false and imperfect or whether we argue consequently If it be so what Judgment can be made of Aristotle's Arguments which become an impertinent and ridiculous Nonsence when we make use of that Rule and what may also be said of all those who argue upon the false and confused Ideas of the Senses since that Rule which preserves Light and Evidence in all exact and solid Reasonings brings nothing but confusion in their Discourses 'T is not possible to lay open the foolish Capriciousness and Extravagance of Aristotle's Explications upon all sorts of matters When he treats of simple and easie Subjects his Errours are plain and obvious to be discover'd but when he pretends to explain very composed things and depending on several Causes his Errours are as much compounded as the Subjects he speaks of so that it is impossible to unfold them all and set them before others That great Genius who is said to have so well succeeded in his Rules for defining well knows not so much as which are the things that may be defined because he puts no Distinction betwixt a clear and distinct and a sensible Knowledge and pretends to know and explain other things of which he has not so much as a distinct Idea Definitions ought to explicate the Nature of things and the words of which they consist must raise in the Mind distinct and particular Notions But 't is impossible to define in that manner sensible Qualities as Heat Cold Colour Savour c. When you confound the Cause with the Effect the Motion of Bodies with the Sensation that attends it because Sensations being Modifications of the Soul which are not to be known by clear Ideas but only by internal Sensation as I have explain'd it in the third Book it is impossible to fix to those words Ideas which we have not As we have Distinct Ideas of a Circle a Square a Triangle and therefore know distinctly their Nature so we can give good Difinitions of them and even deduce from our Ideas of those Figures all their Properties and explain them to others by such words as are fixed to those Ideas But we cannot define either Heat or Cold in as much as they are sensible Qualities because we know them not distinctly and by Ideas but only by Conscience and inward Sensation Neither must we define the Heat that is without us by any of its Effects For if we substitute such a Definition in its place we shall find that it will only conduce to lead us into Errour For Instance if Heat be defined what congregates homogeneous things without adding any thing else we may by that Definition mistake for Heat such things as have no Relation to it For then it might be said that the Loadstone collects the Filings of Iron and separates them from those of Silver because 't is hot that a Dove eats Hempseed when it leaves other Grain because that Bird is hot that a covetous Man separates his Guineas from his Silver because he is hot In short there is no impertinency but that Definition would induce one into it were he dull enough to follow it And therefore that Definition explains not the nature of Heat nor can it be imploy'd to deduce all its properties from it since by literally insisting upon it we should draw ridiculous Conclusions and by putting it instead of the thing defined fall into Nonsense However if we carefully distinguish Heat from its Cause though it cannot be defined in as much as it is a Modification of the Soul whereof we have no Idea yet its Cause may be defined since we have a distinct Idea of Motion But we must observe that Heat taken for such a Motion causes not always in us the Sense of Heat For Instance Water is hot since its Parts are fluid and in Motion and most probably it feels warm to Fishes at least 't is warmer than Ice whose Parts are more quiet but 't is cold to us because it has less Motion than the Parts of our Body what has less Motion than another being in some manner quiet in respect of that And therefore 't is not with reference to the Motion of the Fibres of our Body that the Cause of Heat or the Motion that excites it ought to be defined We must if possible define that Motion absolutely and in it self for then our Definition will be subservient to know the Nature and Properties of Heat I hold not my self oblig'd to examine farther the Philosophy of Aristotle and to extricate his so much confus'd and puzling Errours I have shewn methinks that he proves not the Existence of his four Elements and defines them wrong that his Elementary Qualities are not such as he pretends that he knows not their Nature and that all the Second Qualities are not made of them and lastly that though we should grant him that all Bodies are compos'd of the four Elements and the Second Qualities of the First his whole System would still prove useless for the finding out of Truth since his Ideas are not clear enough to preserve Evidence in all our Reasonings If any doubt whether I have propos'd the true Opinions of Aristotle he may satisfie himself by consulting his Books of the Heavens and of Generation and Corruption whence I have exextracted almost all that I have said of him I would relate nothing out of his Eight Books of Physicks because some learned Men pretend they are but a mere Logick which is very apparent since nothing but rambling and undetermin'd Words are to be found in them As Aristotle often contradicts himself and that almost all sorts of Opinions may be defended by some Passages drawn out of him I doubt not but some Opinions contrary to those I have ascrib'd to that Philosopher may be prov'd out of himself And I shall not warrant for him but it is sufficient for me that I have the Books I have quoted to justifie what I have said of him and I care little whether those Books are Aristotle's or not taking them for such as I find them upon the
desire to know whether a Thing has such or such Properties or if we know it has we desire only to discover what is the Cause of them To solve the Questions of the first sort we must consider Things in their Birth and Original and conceive that they are always produc'd by the most simple and natural Ways But the Solution of the others requires a very different Method for they must be resolv'd by Suppositions and then we must examine whether those Suppositions induce into any Absurdity or whether they lead to any Truth plainly and clearly known For instance We desire to discover the Properties of the Roulet or some one of the Conick Sections We must consider those Lines in their Generation and form them by the most simple and least perplexing Ways for that is the best and shortest Means to discover their Nature and Properties We easily see that the Subâ—endent of the Roulet is equal to the Circle whence it is form'd And if we discover not many of its Properties that way 't is because the Circular Line that produces it is not sufficiently known But as to Lines merely Mathematical the Relations of which may be more clearly known such as are Conick Sections 't is sufficient for the discovering a vast Number of their Properties to consider them in their Generation Only we must observe that as they may be produc'd by a Regular Motion several Ways so all sorts of Generation are not equally proper to enlighten the Mind that the most simple are the best and that it often happens notwithstanding that some particular Methods are fitter than others to demonstrate some particular Properties But when it is not requir'd to discover in general the Properties of a Thing but to know whether such a Thing has such a Property then we must suppose that it actually enjoys it and carefully examine the Consequences of that Supposition whether it induces into a manifest Absurdity or leads to an undeniable Truth that may serve as a Means to find out what is sought for That is the Method which Geometricians use to solve their Problems They suppose what they seek and examine what will follow of it they attentively consider the Relations that result from the Supposition they represent all those Relations that contain the Conditions of the Problem by Equations and then reduce those Equations according to the usual Rules so that what is unknown is found equal to one or several Things perfectly known I say therefore that when 't is requir'd to discover in general the Nature of Fire and of the different Fermentations which are the most universal Causes of natural Effects the shortest and surest Way is to examine them in their Principle We must consider the Formation of the most agitated Bodies the Motion of which is diffus'd into those that ferment We must by clear Ideas and by the most simple Ways examine what Motion may produce in Matter And because Fire and the various Fermentations are very general Things and consequently depending upon few Causes there will be no need of considering very long what Matter is able to perform when animated by Motion to find out the Nature of Fermentation in its very Principle and we shall learn withall several other Things altogether requisite to the Knowledge of Physicks Whereas he that would in such a Question argue from Suppositions so as to ascend to the first Causes even to the Laws of Nature by which all things are form'd would make a great many of them that should prove false and unprofitable He might perhaps discover that the Cause of the Fermentation is the Motion of an invisible Matter communicated to the agitated Parts of Matter For 't is sufficiently known that Fire and the various Fermentations of Bodies consist in their Agitation and that by the Laws of Nature Bodies receive their immediate Motion only from their meeting with others that are more agitated So that he might discover that there is an invisible Matter the Motion of which is communicated to visible Bodies by Fermentation But 't is morally impossible that he should ever by his Suppositions find out how all that is perform'd which however is not so hard to do when we examine the Formation of Elements or of Bodies of which there is a greater Number of the same Nature as is to be seen in Monsieur des Cartes's System The Third Part of the Question concerning Convulsive Motions will not be very difficult to solve if we suppose that there are in our Bodies Animal Spirits susceptible of Fermentation and withall Humours so piercing as to insinuate themselves into the Pores of the Nerves through which the Spirits are diâ—â—us'd into the Muscles provided always that we pretend not to determine the true Texture and Disposition of those invisible Parts that contribute to these Convulsions When we have separated a Muscle from the rest of the Body and hold it by the two Ends we sensibly perceive that it endeavours to contract it self when prick'd in the Middle 'T is likely that this depends on the Construction of the imperceptible Parts of which it is made which are as so many Springs determin'd to some certain Motions by that of Compunction But who can be sure he has found out the true Disposition of the Parts employ'd in the Production of that Motion and who can give an uncontroverted Demonstration of it Certainly that appears altogether impossible though perhaps by long thinking we might imagine such a Construction of Muscles as would be fit to perform all the Motions we know them to be capable of we must not therefore pretend to determine the true Construction of the Muscles However because it cannot be reasonably doubted but that there are Spirits susceptible of some Fermentation by the Mixture of a very subtile heterogeneous Matter and that acriminious and pungent Humours may creep into the Nerves that Hypothesis may be suppos'd Now to proceed to the Solution of the Question propos'd We must first examine how many sorts of Convulsive Motions there are and because their Number is indefinite we must insist on the Principal the Causes of which seem to be different We must consider in what Parts they are made what Diseases precede and follow them whether they are attended with Pain or free from it and above all what are the Degrees of their Swiftness and Violence for some are very swift and violent others are very swift but not violent a third sort are violent and not swift and others again are free from both these Symptoms Some finish and begin afresh perpetually others keep the Parts rigid and unmoveable for some time and others deprive us of their Use and altogether deform them All this being well weigh'd it will be no hard matter to explain in general after what has been said concerning Natural and Voluntary Motions how the Convulsive are perform'd For if we conceive that some Matter capable of fermenting the Spirits mixes with those contain'd in
to grant that we ought not to consider a Vessel on the Water as at Rest. I grant likewise that all the parts of the environing Water are â—ubservient to the new Motion imprinted by the Waterman though it be but too visible by the decrease of the Boat 's Motion that they resist it more on the side where it makes than on the other whence it is driven Notwithstanding which supposition I say that of all the Parts of Water in the River according to M. Des Cartes there are none which can promote the Motion of the Vessel except those which immediately touch it on the side it is driven on For according to that Philosopher The Water being fluid all the parts that go to its Composition act not conjointly against the Body we would move but only those which touching it conjointly bear upon it But those which conjointly bear upon the Vessel and the Boat's-man together are twenty times more inconsiderable than the Boat 'T is plain therefore from the Explication given by M. Des Cartes in this Article concerning the difficulty we find to break a Nail between our Fingers that a little Body is capable of moving one much bigger than it self For in short our Hands are not so fluid as Water and when we would break a Nail there are more parts that act jointly in our hands than in the Water which pushes against a Vessel But here 's a more sensible Experiment Take a Plank well smooth'd or any other very hard Plain drive in it a Nail half way and set this Plain in a somewhat inclining posture then place a Bar of Iron an hundred times thicker than the Nail an Inch or two above it and letting it slide down it will not break it Mean time it is observable that according to Des Cartes all the parts of the Bar as being hard and solid act jointly upon the Nail If therefore there were no other Câ—ment than Rest to unite the parts of the Nail the Bar of Iron being an hundred times bigger ought by the Fifth Rule of M. Des Cartes and according to Reason communicate somewhat of its Motion to the part of the Nail it fell upon that is to break it and pass on even though this Bar should slide with a very gentle Motion Therefore we must seek some other Cause than the Rest of Bodies that makes them hard and capable of resisting the violence that is offer'd to break them since Rest has no Force to withstand Motion And I am persuaded these Experiences are sufficient to evince that the abstracted Proofs we have given are not false We must then examine the third Thing we supposed before might be the cause of the strict Union found between the Parts of hard Bodies namely an invisible Matter which surrounds them and which being rapidly mov'd pushes most violently the external and internal Parts of these Bodies and constringes them in such a manner as requires greater strength to separate them than has that invisible and extremely agitated Matter Methinks I might reasonably conclude that the Union of the constituent Parts of hard Bodies depends on an invisible Matter which surrounds and compresses them since the two other things supposed possible Causes of this union have been discover'd not to be truly so For since I meet with Resistance in breaking a Piece of Iron which Resistance proceeds not from the Iron nor the Will of God as I think I have proved it must necessarily proceed from some invisible Matter which can be no other than that which immediately surrounds and compresses it Nevertheless I shall give some positive Proofs of this Opinion after I have more largely explain'd it by some Instance Take a Globe of any hard Metal which is hollow within and divided in two Halfs join them together with a little Bond of Wax at the place of their Union and then extract the Air these two half Globes will be so firmly join'd to one another that two Teams of Horses fastned to the Rings on the opposite sides of the Globe shall not separate them provided they be large in proportion to the Number of Horses when yet if the Air be suffer'd to enter one Man shall separate them with a great deal of Ease From this Experiment 't is easie to conclude that what united the two Hemispheres to one another was the Pressure of the surrounding Air upon their outward and convex Surface whilst there was no Compression in their concave and inward parts so that the Action of the Horses which drew the two Hemispheres on either side could not conquer the Resistance made by innumerable little Parts of Air by their pressing these two Halfs But the least Force is capable of dividing them when the Air entring in the Copper Globe drives against the Concave and inward Surfaces as much as the external Air presses against the outward and convex Take on the contrary the Bladder of a Carp and put it in a Vessel from which the Air is pump'd this Bladder being full of Air will crack and burst because then there is no exteriour Air to resist that within the Bladder 'T is likewise for the same Reason I have given of the first Experiment that two Glass or Marble Plains ground and polish'd upon one another so cling together that Violence must be us'd to separate them one way because the two parts of the Marble are press'd and constring'd by the external Air that surrounds them and are not so strongly press'd by that between I might produce infinite other Experiments to prove that the gross Air which surrounds Bodies strongly unites their Parts But what I have said is enough to give a distinct Explication of my Thoughts upon the present Question I say then that what causes the Parts of hard Bodies and the little Fetters before-mentioned to hang so closely united to each other is there being other little Bodies infinitely more agitated than the course Air we breath which bear against them and compress them and that which makes it so hard to separate them is not their Rest but the Agitation of these little surrounding Bodies So that that which resists Motion is not Rest this being but the Privation of it and has no Force at all but some contrary Motion This simple Exposition of my Opinion perhaps seems reasonable yet I foresee that many Persons will not easily be induc'd to yield to it Hard Bodies make so great Impression on the Senses when they strike us or when we use Violence to break them that we are inclin'd to believe their Parts more strictly united than they really are And on the contrary the little Bodies which I have said encompass them and to which I have ascribed the Force of causing this Union making no Impression on our Senses seem too weak to produce so sensible an Effect But to take away this Prejudice which bottoms on the Impressions of our Senses and on the Difficulty we find to imagine Bodies more little
of their Motion to the lesser which they met with and that the latter should rebound at the Encounter of the former without the like Loss of their own For otherwise the first Element would not have all the Motion that is necessary above the second nor the second above the third and so all his System would be absolutely false as is manifest to those who have a little consider'd it But in supposing that Rest has Force to resist Motion and that a great Body in Rest cannot be mov'd by another less than it self though most violently striking against it 't is plain that great Bodies must have much less Motion than an equal Mass of little ones since they may always by that Supposition communicate their own Motion but cannot always receive any from the lesser Thus this Supposition being not contrary to all that Monsieur des Cartes had laid down in his Principles from the beginning to the Establishment of his Rules of Motion and according very well with the Consequence of these same Principles he thought the Rules of Motion which he believ'd he had demonstrated in their Cause were sufficiently confirm'd by their Effects I agree with Monsieur des Cartes in the Bottom of the Thing that great Bodies communicate their Motion much easier than the lesser and that therefore his first Element is more agitated than the second and the second than the third but the Cause is manifest without recourse to his Supposition Little and fluid Bodies as Water Air c. can but communicate to any great ones an uniform Motion which is common to all their Parts The Water of a River can only communicate to a Boat a descending Motion which is common to all the little Parts the Water is composed of each of which Particles besides its common Motion has infinite others which are particular Which Reason makes it evident that a Boat for instance cannot have so much Motion as an equal Volume of Water since the Boat can only receive from the Water a direct Motion and common to all the Parts of it If twenty Parts of a fluid Body drive against any other Body on one side whilst there are as many urging it on the other it remains immoveable and all the Particles of the surrounding Fluid it swims in rebound without losing any thing of their Motion Therefore gross Bodies whose Parts are united one to the other can receive only a circular and uniform Motion from the Vortex of the encompassing subtile Matter This Reason seems sufficient to give us to understand why gross Bodies are not so much agitated as little ones and that it is not necessary to the explaining these things to suppose any Force in Rest to resist Motion The Certainty of Monsieur des Cartes's Philosophical Principles cannot therefore be of Use in proving or defending his Rules of Motion And we have Reason to believe that if Monsieur des Cartes himself had without Prepossession examin'd his Principles afresh at the same time weighing such Reasons as I have alledg'd he would not have believ'd the Effects of Nature had corroborated his Rules nor have fallen into a Contradiction in attributing the Hardness of hard Bodies only to the Rest of their Parts and their Elasticity to the Effort of the subtile Matter I now come to give the Rules of the Communication of Motion in a Vacuum which follow upon what I have before establish'd concerning the Nature of Rest. Bodies being not hard in a Vacuum since they are only so by the pressure of the subtile Matter that surrounds them if two Bodies meet together they would flatten without rebounding We must therefore suppose them hard by their own Nature and not by the pressure of the subtile Matter to give these Rules Rest having no Force to resist Motion and many Bodies being to be consider'd but as one at the Instant of their Collision 't is plain they ought not to rebound save when they are equal in their Bulk and Swiftness or that their Swiftness compensates for the Want of Bulk or their Bulk the Want of Swiftness And 't is easie from hence to conclude that they ought in all other Cases so to communicate their Motion as afterwards to proceed along together with an equal Pace Wherefore to know what ought to happen in all the different Suppositions of the Magnitude and Celerity of Colliding Bodies we need only add together all the Degrees of Motion of two or more which ought to be consider'd but as one in the Moment of their Concourse and afterwards divide the Summ of the whole Motion proportionably to the Bulk of each respective Body Hence I conclude that of the seven Rules of Motion Monsieur des Cartes has given the three first are good That the Fourth is false and that B ought to communicate its Motion to C in proportion to the bigness of the same C and after go along in Company so as if C be double to B and B have three Degrees of Motion it must give away two of them For I have sufficiently prov'd that Monsieur des Cartes ought not to have suppos'd in Rest a Force to resist Motion That the Fifth is true That the Sixth is false and that B ought to communicate half of its Motion to C. And that the Seventh is false and that B ought ever to communicate its Motion to C in proportion to the Magnitude and Motion of both B and C. But that if according to the Supposition C be double to B and have three Degrees of Motion whilst C has but two they must proceed together in Company C and B being but one Body at the time of their Collision and therefore we must add together the Degrees of Swiftness which are five and afterwards divide them in proportion to their bigness and so distribute 1 3 2 to B and 3 â…“ to C which is double to B. But these Rules though certain from what I have said are yet contrary to Experience since we are not in a Vacuum The chief of those Experiences which are contrary to what I have said about the Rules of Motion is the constant rebounding of hard Bodies when they meet one one way and another another or at least their not going in Company after their Encounter In Answer to which we must call to mind what we have formerly said of the Cause of Elasticity namely That there is a Matter of a strangely-violent Motion which continually passes into the Parts of hard Bodies and makes them so by its compressing both their outward and inward Parts For it will be easie from hence to see that at the time of Percussion two encountring Bodies drive and turn off the Current of this Matter from the places nearest to the stricken which Matter resisting with great Violence repells the two Bodies which strike against each other and restores its Passage which the Percussion had stopp'd up That which more clearly still proves my Opinion is
and the Accidental Form Accidents Others say that the Forms produce both other Forms and Accidents Others still that bare Accidents are not only capable of producing Accidents but even Forms But it must not be imagin'd that those for instance who say that Accidents can produce Forms by vertue of the Form they are join'd to understand it the same way For one part of them will have Accidents to be the very Force or Virtue of the Substantial Form Another that they imbibe into them the Influence of the Form and only act so by vertue of it A Third lastly will have them to be but Instrumental Causes But neither are these latter sort altogether agreed about what is meant by Instrumental Cause and the vertue they receive from the Principal Nor can the Philosophers compromise about the Action whereby second Causes produce their Effects For some of them pretend that Causality ought not to be produc'd since it is this which produces Others will that they truly act by their own Action But they are involv'd in so many Labyrinths in explaining precisely wherein this Action consists and there are so many different Opinions about it that I cannot find in my Heart to recite them Such is the strange variety of Opinions though I have not produc'd those of the Ancient Philosophers or that were born in very remote Countries But we have sufficient Reason to conclude that they are no more agreed upon the subject of second Causes than those before alledg'd Avicenna for instance is of Opinion that Corporeal Substances cannot produce any thing but Accidents This according to Ruvio is his Hypothesis He supposes that God produces immediately a most perfect Spiritual Substance That this produces another less perfect and this a third and so on to the last which produces all Corporeal Substances and Corporeal Substances Accidents But Avicembrom not able to comprehend how Corporeal Substances which cannot penetrate each other should cause alterations in them supposes that there are Spirits which are capable of acting on Bodies because they alone can penetrate them For these Gentlemen not admitting the Vacuum nor the Atoms of Democritus nor having sufficient knowledge of the subtil matter of M. des Cartes could not with the Gassendists and Cartesians think of Bodies which were little enough to insinuate into the pores of those that are hardest and most solid Methinks this diversity of Opinions justifies this thought of ours that Men often talk of things which they understand not and that the Power of Creatures being a Fiction of Mind of which we have naturally no Idea every Man makes it and imagines it what he pleases 'T is true this Power has been acknowledg'd for a Real and True by most Men in all Ages but it has never yet been prov'd I say not demonstratively but in any wise so as to make an impression upon an Attentive thinking Man For the confus'd Proofs which are built only upon the fallacious Testimony of the Senses and Passions are to be rejected by those who know how to exercise their Reason Aristotle speaking of what they call Nature says it is Ridiculous to go about to prove that Natural Bodies have an inward Principle of Motion and Rest because says he it is a thing that 's Self-Evident He likewise does not doubt but a Bowl which strikes another has the force of putting it in Motion This is witnessed by his Eyes and that 's enough for him who seldom follows any other Testimony than of the Senses very rarely that of his Reason and is very indifferent whether it be intelligible or not Those who impugn the Opinion of some Divines who have written against Second Causes say like Aristotle that the Senses convince us of their Efficacy And this is their first and principal Proof 'T is evident say they that the Fire burns that the Sun shines that Water cools and he must be out of his Senses who can doubt of it The Authors of the other Opinion says the great Averroes are out of their Wits We must say almost all the Peripateticks use sensible Proofs for their Conviction who deny this Efficacy and so oblige them to confess we are capable of acting on them and wounding them 'T is a judgment which Aristotle has already pronounc'd against them and it ought to be put in Execution But this pretended Demonstration cannot but create Pity For it gives us to know the Weakness of an Humane Mind And that the Philosophers themselves are infinitely more sensible than Reasonable It evinces that those who glory in being the Inquirers of Truth know not even whom they are to consult to hear any News of it Whether Soveraign Reason which never deceives but always speaks things as they are in themselves or the Body which speaks only out of Interest and with reference to the preservation and convenience of Life For in fine what prejudices will not be justified if we set up our Senses for Judges to which most of them owe their Birth As I have shown in The Search after Truth When I see a Bowl shock another my Eyes tell me or seem to tell me that it is the True Cause of the motion it impresses for the true cause that moves Bodies is not visible to my Eyes But if I interrogate my Reason I evidently see that Bodies having no Power to move themselves and their moving force being nothing but the Will of God which preserves them successively in different places they cannot communicate a Power which they have not nor could communicate if they had it For 't is plain that there must be Wisdom and that Infinite to regulate the communication of motions with that exactness Proportion and Uniformity which we see A Body cannot know that infinite multitude of impuls'd Bodies round about it and though we should suppose it to have knowledge yet it would not have enough so proportionably to regulate and distribute at the instant of protrusion the moving force it self is carried with When I open my Eyes the Sun appears to me splendidly glorious in Light And it seems not only to be visible it self but to make all the World so too Methinks 't is he that arrays the Earth with flowers and enriches it with Fruits That gives Life to Animals and striking by His Heat into the very Womb of the Earth impregnates Her with Stones Marbles and Metalls But in consulting my Reason I see nothing of all this And if I faithfully consult it I plainly discover the seducement of my Senses and find that God Works all in all For knowing that all the changes which accrue to Bodies have no other principle than the different Communications of Motions which occur in visible and invisible Bodies I see that God does all since 't is his Will that causes and his Wisdom that regulates all these Communications I suppose that Local Motion is the principle of Generations Corruptions Alterations and Universally of all the changes
that God should continue to them their Vertue he endow'd them with in their Creation And since this Opinion is exactly agreeable with Prejudice because of the insensible Operation of God in Second Causes it is commonly embrac'd by the vulgar sort of Men and such as have more studied Ancient Naturalists and Physicians than Theology and Truth Most are of Opinion that God created all things at first and gave them all the Qualities and Faculties that were necessary to their preservation that he has for example given the first Motion of Matter and left it afterwards to it self to produce by the Communication of its Motions that admirable variety of Forms we see 'T is Ordinarily suppos'd that Bodies can move one another and this is said to be Mr. des Cartes's Opinion though he speaks expresly against it in the Thirty Sixth and Seventh Articles of the Second Part of his Philosophical Principles Since Men must unavoidably acknowledge that the Creatures depend on God they lessen and abridge as much as possible that dependance whether out of a secret Aversion to God or a strange and wretched stupidity and insensibility to his Operation But whereas this Opinion is receiv'd but by those who have not much studied Religion and have preferr'd their Senses to their Reason and Aristotle's Authority to that of Holy Writ we have no reason to fear its making way into the Mind of those who have any Love for Truth and Religion for provided a Man seriously examin'd it he must needs discover its falsity But the Opinion of God's Immediate Concourse to every Action of Second Causes seems to accord with those Passages of Scripture which often attribute the same Effect both to GOD and the Creature We must consider then that there are places in Scripture where 't is said that God is the only Agent I am the Lord that maketh all things that stretcheth forth the Heavens alone that spreadeth abroad the Earth by my self Ego sum Dominus says Isaiah faciens OMNIA Extendens coelos SOLVS stabiliens Terram NVLLVS Mecum A Mother Animated with the Spirit of God tells her Children it was not her that form'd them I cannot tell how you came into my Womb For I neither gave you Breath nor Life neither was it I that form'd the Members of every one of you But doubtless the Creator of the World c. Nescio qualiter in utero meo apparuistis singulorum membra NON EGO IPSA COMPEGI sed mundi Creator She does not say with Aristotle and the School of the Peripateticks that to her and the Sun they ow'd their Birth but to the Creator of the Universe Which Opinion that God only Works and forms Children in their Mothers Womb not being conformable to Prejudice and Common Opinion These Sentences according to the pre-establish'd Principle must be explain'd in the Literal Sense But on the contrary the Notion of Second Causes falling in with the vulgar Opinion and being Suited to the sensible impression the Passages which expresly make for the separate Efficacy of Second Causes must be reckon'd invalid when compar'd with the former Concourse therefore is insufficient to reconcile the different Texts of Scripture and all Force Power and Efficacy must be ascrib'd to God But though the immediate concurrence of God with Second Causes were fit to accommodate the disagreeing passages of Holy Writ yet after all it is a question whether it ought to be admitted For the Sacred Books were not compos'd for the Theologists of these times but for the People of the Jews So that if this People had not understanding or Subtilty enough to imagine a Concourse such as is admitted in School-Divinity and to agree to a thing which the greatest Divines are hard put to to explain it follows if I mistake not that the Holy Scripture which Attributes to God and even to God alone the production and preservation of all things would have betray'd them into Error And the Holy Pen-Men had stood chargeable with writing not only in an unintelligible but deceitful Language For in saying that God Work'd all they would have design'd no more than that God assisted to all things with his concourse which was not probably so much as thought on by the Jews Those amongst them who were not very great Philosophers believing that God Work'd all and not that he concurr'd to all But that we may pass a more certain judgement about this Concourse it would be requisite to explain with care the different Hypotheses of the School-Men upon it For besides those impenetrable Clouds and Obscurities which involve all the Opinions that cannot be explain'd and defended without loose and indefinite Terms there are upon this Matter so great a variety of Opinions that it would be no hard Matter to discover the cause of them But I design not to engage in a discussion that would be so wearisom to my self as well as the greatest part of Readers On the contrary I had rather try to show that my Opinions may in some thing accord with those of the greater number of Scholastick Divines though I cannot but say their Language looks very Ambiguous and confus'd To explain my self I am of Opinion as I have said elsewhere that Bodies for example have no Force to move themselves and that therefore their moving force is nothing but the Action of God or not to make use of a Term which has no distinct import their moving force is nothing but the Will of God always necessarily Efficacious which successively preserves them in different Places For I believe not that God Creates any particular Beings to make the moving force of Bodies not only because I have no Idea of such a kind of Being nor see how they could move Bodies But also because these Beings themselves would have need of others to move them and so in infinitum For none but God is truely Immoveable and Mover altogether Which being so when a Body strikes and moves another I may say that it Acts by the Concurrence of God and that this Concurrence is not distinct from its own Action For a Body meeting another moves it by its Action or its moving force which at bottom is nothing but the Will of God preserving the Body successively in different Places the translation of a Body being not it's Action or moving force but the Effect of it Almost all Divines say too that the Action of Second Causes is not different from that of God's Concurrence with them For though they have a various Meaning yet they suppose that God Acts in the Creatures by the same Action as the Creatures And they are oblig'd if I mistake not thus to speak For if the Creatures Acted by an Action which God Work'd not in them their Action consider'd as such would no doubt be independent But they acknowledge as it becomes them that the Creatures depend immediately on God not only as to their Being but likewise as to
their Operation So likewise in point of free Causes I believe that God incessantly gives the Mind an Impression towards Good in General and that he moreover determines this Impression towards particular Goods by the Idea's or Sensations that he gives us as I have explain'd in the first Illustration which is the same with what the Divines intend by affirming That God moves and prevents our Wills Thus the Force which puts our Minds in Motion is the Will of God which Animates us and inclines us towards Good For God Creates not Beings to constitute the moving force of Minds for the same Reason that he Creates none to be the moving force of Bodies The Wills of God being of themselves Efficacious He need but Will to do And we ought not to multiply Beings without necessity Besides whatever is real in the determinations of our Motions proceeds likewise from the Action of God in us as appears from the first Illustration But all we Act or produce is by our Wills that is by the Impression of the Will of God which is our moving force For our Wills are Efficacious no farther than they are of God as mov'd Bodies impel not others but in as much as they have a moving force that translates them which is no other than the Will of God which Creates or preserves them successively in different places Therefore we Act no otherwise than by the Concourse of God and our Action consider'd as Efficacious and capable of producing any Effect differs not from his but is as say most Divines the self same Action eadem numero actio Now all the Changes which arrive in the World have no other Natural Cause than the Motions of Bodies and Volitions of Minds For First by the General Laws of the Communications of Motions the invisible Bodies which surround the visible produce by their various Motions all these divers Changes whose Cause is not apparent And Secondly by the Laws of Union of our Soul and Body when circumambient Bodies Act upon our own they produce in our Soul a multiplicity of Sensations Idea's and Passions Thirdly Our Mind by its Volitions produces in it self infinite different Idea's for they are our Volitions which as Natural Causes intend and Modifie our Mind Their Efficacy nevertheless proceeds from the Laws which God has establish'd And Lastly when our Soul acts upon our Body she produces several Changes in it by vertue of the Laws of her Union with it and by means of our Body she effects in those about it abundance of Changes by vertue of the Laws of Communication of Motions So that the Motions of Bodies and the Volitions of Minds are the only Natural or Occasional Causes of Natural Effects which no Man will deny who uses any Attention supposing only he be not prepossest by those who understand not what they say who fancy perpetually to themselves such Beings as they have no clear Idea's of and who offer to explain things which they do not understand by others absolutely incomprehensible Thus having shown that God by his Concourse or rather by his Efficacious Will performs whatever is done by the Motions of Bodies and the Wills of Minds as Natural or Occasional Causes it appears that God does every thing by the same Action of the Creature Not that the Creatures have of themselves any Efficacious Action but that the Power of God is in a manner Communicated to them by the Natural Laws which God has establish'd on their account This then is all that I can do to reconcile my Thoughts to the Opinion of those Divines who defend the necessity of immediate Concourse and hold that God does All in all things by an Action no ways differing from the Creatures For as to the rest of the Divines I think their Opinions utterly indefensible and especially that of Durandus together with the Sentiments of some of the Ancients refuted by St. Austin who absolutely deniâ—d the necessity of God's Concurrence pretending that Second Causes did all things by the Power which God in their Creation gave them For though this Opinion be less intricate and perplex'd than that of other Divines yet to me it seems so repugnant to Scripture and so suitable to Prejudices to say no worse of it that I think it altogether unwarrantable I confess that the School-Men who make God's immediate concourse to be the same Action with that of the Creatures do not perfectly agree with my Explication and all those that I have read except Biel and Cardinal d' Ailly are of Opinion That the Efficacy which produces Effects proceeds from the Second Cause as well as the First But as I make it indispensable for me to speak nothing but what I clearly conceive and always to take the side that best comports with Religion I think I am not liable to blame for deserting an Opinion which to many Men seems still more inconceiveable as they strive more to comprehend it and for establishing another which agrees perfectly not only with Reason but also with the Sacredness of our Religion and Christian Morality which is a Truth already prov'd in the Chapter that 's the Subject of these Reflexions However 't is not inconvenient to say something to it that I may fully verifie what I have said upon the present Question Both Reason and Religion evince That God will be Lov'd and rever'd by his Creatures Lov'd as Good and Rever'd as Power Which is such a Truth as it would be Impiety and Madness to doubt of To love God as he requires and deserves we must according to the First Commandment both of the Law and Gospel and by Reason it self as I have somewhere shown Love Him with all our Strength or with the whole extent of our Loving Capacity 'T is not sufficient to prefer Him before all things unless we moreover Love Him in all things For otherwise our Love is not so perfect as it ought to be and we return not to God all the Love that he gives us and gives us only for Himself in whom every one of His Actions Center So to render to God all the Reverence that is due to Him 't is not enough to adore Him as the Supreme Power and fear Him more than His Creatures we must likewise fear and adore Him in all His Creatures all our respects must perpetually tend towards Him to whom alone Honour and Glory are to be ascrib'd Which is what God Commands us in these Words Thou shalt Love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy Strength And in these Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve Thus the Philosophy that convinces us that the Efficacy of Second Causes is a Fiction of the Mind that the Nature of Aristotle and some other Philosophers is a Chimera that none but God is Strong and Powerful enough not only to Act on our Soul but even to give the
them Amongst which he considers his Church Jesus Christ who is the Head of it and all the Persons which in consequence of some General Laws establish'd ought to compose it In brief upon Consideration of Jesus Christ and all his Members he constitutes Laws for his own Glory Which being so is it not evident that Jesus Christ who is the Principle of all the Glory redounding to God from his Work is the first of the Predestinate and that all the Elect are likewise truly lov'd and predestined gratis in Jesus Christ because they may honour God in his Son That lastly they are all under infinite Obligations to God who without regard to their Merit has settled the General Laws of Grace which ought to sanctifie them and conduct them to the Glory they shall eternally possess LV. You 'll say perhaps that these Laws are so simple and exuberant that God must prefer them to all other and that since he only loves his own Glory his Son ought to become incarnate and so has done nothing purely for his Elect. I confess God has done nothing purely for his Elect For St. Paul teaches us that he has made his Elect for Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ for himself If God cannot be rendred amiable to Men unless we make him act purely for them or not in the wisest manner I had rather be silent Reason teaches me that we render God amiable by shewing him to be infinitely perfect and by representing him so full of Love for his Creatures as not to produce any one with Design of making him miserable For if all are not so happy as to enjoy his Presence 't is because Order requiring that so great a Good should be merited all do not deserve it for the Reasons I have given Surely this is to make God lovely to represent him such as even the Reprobate cannot choose but adore his Conduct and repent them of their Negligence LVI Yet for their Satisfaction who will have God to predestine every of his Elect by a particular Will it may be said with a Salvo to the foregoing Hypothesis That God before he created Souls to unite them to Bodies foresaw all that could befall them by the General Laws of Nature and Grace and all that they should do in all possible Circumstances Therefore being able to create as is suppos'd the Soul of Paul or of Peter and to unite it to a Body which he foresaw should be that of a Predestinate Person he resolved from all Eternity to create the Soul of Paul by a Benevolent Will had for him and to predestine him by this Choice to Life Eternal whereas he creates the Soul of Peter not for any Benevolent Will had to him but by a kind of Necessity by Reason of the Laws of Union which he has most wisely establish'd betwixt Souls and Bodies by which he is oblig'd as soon as Bodies are form'd to unite Souls to them which would have been advantageous to all if Man had not sinned But the Body of Peter being begotten of an Heathen Father or of one that is careless of his Children's Education or Lastly Peter being engag'd by the Fortune of his Birth Places Times Employments which induce him to Evil will infallibly be one of the Reprobate Yet Peter shall be useful to the Designs of God For though he himself shall not enter into the Number of the Predestinate yet he shall by some of his Posterity He shall be subservient to the Beauty and Grandeur of the Church of Jesus Christ by the infinite Relations he shall have to the Elect. Furthermore he shall not be miserable but in proportion to the wrong use he has made of his Liberty since God punishes with Pain only voluntary Disorders This is what may be offer'd for the Satisfaction of some Persons Inclination though I cannot clearly see how it can be altogether rely'd on LVII Such as ascribe to God particular Designs and Wills for all the particular Effects produc'd in Consequence of General Laws commonly employ the Authority of Scripture to justifie their Opinion But being the Scripture is made for all the World for the Simple as well as the Intelligent it abounds with Anthropologies It not only ascribes to God a Body a Throne a Chariot and Equipage Passions of Joy Sorrow Wrath Repentance and other Motions of the Soul but also attributes to him the customary Ways of humane Actings that it may speak to the Simple in a more sensible manner If Jesus Christ became Man 't was in part to satisfie the Inclination of Men who love what is like them and are studious of what affects them 'T was by this real and true kind of Anthropology to persuade Men of those Truths they were incapable to comprehend any other way Thus St. Paul to accommodate himself to the World speaks of the Sanctification and Predestination of the Saints as if God continually work'd in them by particular Wills and even Jesus Christ speaks of his Father as if he took care by such like Wills to adorn the Lilies and to preserve every Hair of the Head of his Disciples Because in truth the Goodness of God to his Creatures being extreme these Expressions afford a great Idea of it and recommend God to the Affections of the grossest Souls and such as are most infected with Self-love Yet as by the Idea we have of God and by the Passages of Scripture conformable to that Idea we correct the Sense of other Texts which attribute to God Members and Passions like ours so when we would speak with Exactness of the manner of God's acting in the Order of Grace or Nature we ought to explain those Passages which make him act as a Man or a particular Cause by the Idea we have of his Wisdom and Goodness and other Scripture Passages comporting with that Idea For in fine if we may say or rather if we are oblig'd to say from the Idea we have of God that he causes not every drop of Rain to fall by particular Wills though the natural Sense of some Scripture Passages authorises that Opinion there is the same Necessity to think notwithstanding some Authorities of the Scripture that God gives not by particular Wills to some Sinners all those good Motions which are useless to them and which would be useful to several others For otherwise I see not how 't is possible to reconcile the Holy Scripture either with Reason or it self as I think I have prov'd If I thought what I have said insufficient to convince attentive Persons that God acts not by particular Wills like particular Causes and finite Understandings I would proceed to shew that there were very few Truths that would admit of greater Probation on Supposition that God governs the World and that the Nature of the Heathen Philosophers is nothing For indeed every thing in Nature proves this Opinion except Miracles which yet would not be Miracles or different from those we call Natural Effects if it
were true that God acted by particular Wills since Miracles are such only from their not happening by General Laws Therefore Miracles suppose these Laws and prove the Opinion I have establish'd But as to ordinary Effects they clearly and directly demonstrate General Laws or Wills If for Instance a Stone be dropp'd upon the Head of Passengers it will continually fall with equal speed not distinguishing the Piety or Quality or Good or Ill Disposition of those that pass If we examine any other Effect we shall see the same Constancy in the Action of the Cause of it But no Effect proves that God acts by particular Wills though Men commonly fancy God is constantly working Miracles in their Favour That way they would have God to act in being consonant to their own and indulgent to Self-love which centers all things on themselves and very proportionate to their Ignorance of the Complication of Occasional Causes which produce extraordinary Effects naturally falls into Mens Thoughts when but greenly studied in Nature and consult not with sufficient Attention the abstract Idea of an Infinite Wisdom of an Universal Cause of a Being Infinitely Perfect CONCERNING Nature and Grace DISCOURSE II. Of the Laws of GRACE in particular and of the Occasional Causes which regulate and determine their Efficacy PART I. Of the Grace of JESVS CHRIST I. SINCE none but GOD can act immediately and by himself on Minds and produce in them all the various Motions they are capable of 'T is he alone who sheds his Light within us and inspires us with certain Sensations which determine our diverse Volitions And therefore none but he can as a True Cause produce Grace in our Souls For Grace or that which is the Principle or Motive of all the Regular Motions of our Love is necessarily either a Light which instructs us or a confus'd Sensation that convinces us that God is our Good since we never begin to love an Object unless we see clearly by the Light of Reason or feel confusedly by the tast of Pleasure that this Object is good I mean capable of making us happier than we are II. But since all Men are involv'd in Original Sin and even by their Nature infinitely beneath the Majesty of God 'T is Jesus Christ alone that can by the Dignity of his Person and the Holiness of his Sacrifice have access to his Father reconcile him to us and merit his Favours for us and consequently be the meritorious Cause of Grace These Truths are certain But we are not seeking the Cause which produces Grace by its own Efficacy nor that which merits it by its Sacrifice and Good Works We enquire for that which regulates and determines the Efficacy of the General Cause and which we may term the Second Particular and Occasional III. For to the end the General Cause may act by General Laws or Wills and that his Action may be regular constant and uniform 't is absolutely necessary there should be some Occasional Cause to determine the Efficacy of these Laws and to help to fix them If the Collision of Bodies or something of like Nature did not determine the Efficacy of the General Laws of the Communication of Motions it would be necessary for God to move Bodies by particular Wills The Laws of Union of the Soul and Body become efficacious only from the Changes befalling one or other of these two Substances For if God made the Soul feel the Pain of pricking tho' the Body were not prick'd or though the same thing did not happen in the Brain as if it were he would not act by the General Laws of Union of the Soul and Body but by a particular Will If Rain fell on the Earth otherwise than by a necessary Consequence of the General Laws of Communication of Motions the Rain and the Fall of every Drop that composes it would be the Effect of a particular Will So that unless Order requir'd it should rain that Will would be absolutely unworthy of God 'T is necessary therefore that in the Order of Grace there should be some Occasional Cause which serves to fix these Laws and to determine their Efficacy And this is the Cause we must endeavour to discover IV. Provided we consult the Idea of intelligible Order or consider the sensible Order which appears in the Works of God we shall easily discover that Occasional Causes which determine the Efficacy of General Laws and are of use in fixing them must necessarily be related to the Design for which God has establish'd them For Example Experience evidences that God has not made and Reason certifies that he ought not to make the Courses of the Planets the Occasional Causes of the Union of our Soul and Body He ought not to will that our Arm should be mov'd in such or such a manner or that our Soul should feel the Tooth-ake when the Moon shall be in conjunction with the Sun if so be this Conjunction acts not on the Body God's Design being to unite our Soul to our Body he cannot in prosecuting that Design give the Soul Sensations of Pain save when there happen some Changes in the Body repugnant to it Wherefore we are not to seek out of our Soul or Body the Occasional Causes of their Union V. Hence it follows that God designing to form his Church by Jesus Christ could not according to that Design seek the Occasional Causes which serve to settle the General Laws of Grace by which the Spirit of Jesus diffus'd through his Members communicates Life and Holiness to them except in Jesus Christ and in the Creatures united to him by Reason Thus the Rain of Grace is not deriv'd to our Hearts by the diverse situations of the Stars nor by the Collision of certain Bodies nor even according to the different Courses of the animal Spirits which give us Motion and Life All that Bodies can do is to excite in us Motions and Sensations purely Natural For whatever arrives to the Soul through the Body is only for the Body VI. Yet as Grace is not given to all that desire it nor as soon as they desire it and is granted to those who do not ask it it thence follows that even our Desires are not the Occasional Causes of Grace For this sort of Causes have constantly and most readily their Effect and without them the Effect is not produc'd For Instance the Collision of Bodies being the Occasional Cause of the Change which happens in their Motion if two Bodies did not meet their Motions would not alter and if they alter'd we may be assur'd they met The general Laws which shed Grace upon our Hearts find nothing therefore in our Wills to determine their Efficacy as the general Laws which regulate the Rains are not founded on the Dispositions of the Places rain'd upon For it indifferently rains upon all Places on hollow and manur'd Grounds even on the Sands and the Sea it self VII We are therefore reduc'd to confess that
as Jesus Christ alone can merit Grace for us so it is he alone that can administer Occasions to the General Laws by which it is distributed to Men. For the Principle or Foundation of these General Laws or that which determines their Efficacy being necessarily either in us or in Jesus Christ since it is certain that it is not in us it must needs be found in him VIII Besides when Man had sinn'd did it behoove God to have any more regard to his Desires Being we are all in a disorder'd State we can no longer be an Occasion of God's shewing us Favour But a Mediatour was needful not only to give us Access towards God but to be the Occasional Cause of the Favours we hope from him IX Whereas God had a Design of making his Son the Head of his Church it was requisite he should constitute him the Occasional or Natural Cause of the Grace which sanctifies it For 't is the Head which communicates Life and Motion to the Limbs and with that Prospect God permitted Sin For if Man had continued in Innocence as his Will had been meritorious of Grace and even of Glory so the inviolable Laws of Order would have requir'd that God should have appointed in Man the Occasional Cause of his Perfection and his Happiness In so much that Jesus Christ would not have been the Head of the Church or at most had been but the Head of those Influences which all the Members might have easily dispens'd with X. If our Soul were in our Body before it was form'd and if by her diverse Volitions all the Parts which compose it were rang'd and postur'd with how many various Sensations and different Motions would she be touch'd upon consideration of all the Effects which were to follow her Volitions Especially if she were extremely desirous of forming the most vigorous and best made Body pobssile XI Now Holy Scripture does not only say that Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church but also that he begets it and fashions it and gives it increase that he suffers merits acts and influences continually in it The Zeal which Jesus Christ has for his Father's Glory and the Love he bears to his Church constantly suggest to him the Desire of making it the most ample the most magnificent and the perfectest that can be Therefore as the Soul of Jesus has not an infinite Capacity and yet would endow his Church with infinite Beauties and Ornaments we have all reason to believe that there is in his holy Soul a continual Chain of Thoughts and Desires with reference to the mystical Body which he constantly forms XII Now they are these continual Desires of the Soul of Jesus that tend to sanctifie his Church and render it worthy of his Father's Majesty which God has establish'd the Occasional Causes of the Efficacy of the general Laws of Grace For we are taught by Faith that God hath given his Son an absolute Power over Men in constituting him Head of his Church which yet cannot be conceiv'd unless the several Volitions of Jesus Christ are follow'd by their Effects For 't is manifest I should have no Power over my Arm if it mov'd when I would not have it and remain'd dead and motionless when I desir'd to move it XIII This Sovereign Power Jesus Christ has merited over Men as also that Quality of Head of the Church by the Sacrifice he offer'd upon Earth on full Possession of which Right he entred after his Resurrection 'T is now that he is High Priest of future Goods and that He by his diverse Desires prays indefatigably for Men to the Father And since his Desires are Occasional Causes his Prayers are always heard His Father denies him nothing as the Scripture assures us and yet his Prayers and Desires are necessary to obtain Because Occasional Physical Natural Causes for these three Terms have here the same Signification have no Power of themselves and all the Creatures even Jesus Christ consider'd as Man are in themselves but Weakness and Impotence XIV Therefore the Soul of Jesus having a Succession of various Thoughts with reference to the diverse Dispositions whereof Souls in general are capable has these Thoughts attended with certain Desires relating to the Sanctification of these Souls Which Desires being Occasional Causes of Grace ought to shed it on those Persons in particular whose Dispositions resemble that which the Soul of Jesus Christ actually thinks on and this Grace ought to be so much stronger and more abundant as his Desires are more strong and lasting XV. When a Person considers any Part of his Body that is not form'd as it ought to be he naturally has certain Desires relating to it and to the Use he would make of it in a sociable Life which Desires are prosecuted with certain insensible Motions of the Animal Spirits and tend to the posturing or proportioning it in a due manner When the Body is quite form'd and the Flesh is grown solid and consistent these Motions cannot change the Contexture of the Parts but only give them certain Dispositions which we call Corporeal Habits But when the Body is not completely form'd and the Flesh is extremely soft and tender these Motions which accompany the Desires of the Soul not only give the Body particular Dispositions but also change its Construction Which is sufficiently manifest in Children unborn For they are not only mov'd with the same Passions as their Mothers but also receive on their Bodies the Marks of these Passions from which their Mothers are always exempt XVI The Mystical Body of Jesus Christ is not yet grown into a Perfect Man nor will be till the Accomplishment of Ages but he continually is forming it For he is the Head which gives all the Members their increase by the Efficacy of his Influence according to the proportion convenient for each to the end it may be form'd and edified by Charity Which are Truths we are taught by St. Paul Now since Jesus Christ has no other Action than the diverse Motions of his Will 't is necessary that his Desires should be follow'd with the Influence of Grace which only can form him in his Members and give them that Beauty and Proportion which ought to be the Eternal Object of Divine Love XVII The diverse Motions of the Soul of Jesus being the Occasional Causes of Grace we need not wonder if it be sometimes given to the greatest Sinners or to Persons that make no use of it For the Soul of Jesus desiring to raise a Temple of a vast Extent and of infinite Beauty may wish that Grace may be given to the greatest Sinners and if in that Moment Jesus Christ thinks actually on the Covetous for Instance the Covetous shall receive Grace Or Jesus Christ wanting for the Construction of his Church Minds of a certain Character commonly not attainable but by those who suffer certain Persecutions whereof the Passions of Men are the natural
Principle In a word Jesus Christ needing Minds of particular Dispositions for the causing particular Effects may in general apply to them and by that Application infuse into them sanctifying Grace As the Mind of a Projector thinks in general of square Stones when these Stones are actually necessary to his Building XVIII But the Soul of Jesus being not a general Cause we have reason to think it has often particular Desires in regard to particular Persons When we intend to speak of God we must not consult our selves and make him act like us but consider the Idea of a Being infinitely perfect and make God act according to that Idea But in speaking of the Action of the Soul of Jesus we may look into our selves and make him act like particular Causes For Example We have reason to believe that the Conversion of St. Paul was owing to the Efficacy of a particular Desire of Jesus Christ. And we are to look upon the Desires of the Soul of Jesus which have a general respect to Minds of a certain Character as particular Desires though they comprehend many Persons because these Desires change daily like those of particular Causes But the general Laws by which God acts are always the same because the Wills of God ought to be firm and constant by reason that his Wisdom is infinite XIX The diverse Desires of the Soul of Jesus distributing Grace we clearly conceive why it is not equally dispers'd to all Men and why bestow'd on some more abundantly at one time than another For his Soul not thinking on all Men at once cannot at the same time have all the Desires whereof it is capable So that he acts not on his Members in a particular manner except by successive Influences as the Soul moves not at once all the Muscles of our Body For the Animal Spirits are unequally and successively distributed into our Members according to the various Impressions of Objects the diverse Motions of our Passions and the several Desires we freely excite within us XX. True it is that all the Righteous constantly receive the Influence of their Head which gives them Life and that when they act by the Spirit of Jesus Christ they merit and receive new Graces though it be not necessary that the Soul of Jesus should have any particular Desires as the occasional Causes of them For Order which requires that every Desert should be rewarded is not an arbitrary but a necessary Law and independent from any occasional Cause But though he who performs a meritorious Action may be rewarded for it whilst the Soul of Jesus has no actual Desires relating to him yet 't is certain that he merited not this Grace but by the Dignity and Sanctity of the Spirit which Christ has communicated to him For Men are not well-pleasing to God nor able to do good but in as much as they are united to his Son by Charity XXI It must be farther acknowledg'd that those who observe the Counsels of Jesus Christ out of an Esteem they have for them and through the Fear of future Punishment sollicite as I may say by their Obedience the Charity of Christ to think on them though they act from a Principle of Self-love But their Actions are not the Occasional Causes either of Grace since it does not infallibly follow them or even of the Motions of the Soul of Jesus in their Favour since these Motions never fail to communicate it Thus only the Desires of Jesus Christ as Occasional Causes have infallibly their Effect because God having constituted him Head of the Church ought by him only to communicate his sanctifying Grace to his Elect. XXII Now we may consider in the Soul of Jesus Christ Desires of two sorts viz. Actual Transitory and Particular that have but a short-liv'd Efficacy and Stable and Permanent which consist in a setled and constant Disposition of the Soul of Jesus Christ with relation to certain Effects which tend to the Execution of his Design in general If our Soul by its various Motions communicated to our Body all that was necessary to its Formation and Growth we might distinguish in her two kinds of Desire For it would be by the actual and transitory Desires that she would drive into the Muscles of the Body the Spirits which gave it a certain Disposition with reference to present Objects or to the actual Thoughts of the Mind But it would be by stable and permanent Desires that she would give to the Heart and Lungs the natural Motions by which Respiration and the Circulation of the Blood were perform'd By these Desires she would digest the Aliments and distribute them to all the Parts that needed them in as much as that sort of Action is at all times necessary to the Preservation of the Body XXIII By the actual transitory and particular Desires of the Soul of Jesus Grace is deriv'd to unprepar'd Persons in a manner somewhat singular and extraordinary But 't is by his permanent Desires that it is given regularly to those who receive the Sacraments with the necessary Dispositions For the Grace we receive by the Sacraments is not given us precisely because of the Merit of our Action though we receive them in Grace but because of the Merits of Jesus Christ which are freely applied to us in consequence of his permanent Desires We receive in the Sacraments much more Grace than our Preparation deserves and it suffices to our receiving some Influence from them that we do not oppose and resist it But 't is abusing what is most Sacred in Religion to receive them unworthily XXIV Amongst the actual and transitory Desires of the Soul of Jesus there are certainly some more durable and frequent than others and the Knowledge of these Desires is of greatest Consequence in Point of Morality Doubtless he thinks oftner on those who observe his Counsels than on other Men. His Motions of Charity for Believers are more frequent and lasting than those for Libertines and Atheists And as all Believers are not equally prepar'd to enter into the Church of the Predestinate the Desires of the Soul of Jesus are not equally lively frequent and durable on the account of them all Man more earnestly desires the Fruits that are fittest for the Nourishment of his Body he 〈◊〉 oftner on Bread and Wine than on Meats of difficult Digestion So Jesus Christ designing the Formation of his Church ought to be more taken up with those who can most easily enter than on others which are extremely remote The Scripture likewise teaches us that the Humble the Poor the Penitent receive greater Graces than other Men because the Despisers of Honours Riches and Pleasures are the fittest for the Kingdom of Heaven Those for Example who have learn'd of Jesus Christ to be meek and humble in Heart shall find Rest to their Souls The Yoke of Christ which is insupportable to the Proud will become easie and light by the Assistances of Grace For God
produce in us contrary Pleasures and Aversions to those of Concupiscence Pleasures for the True and Aversions or Dislikes for sensible Goods Thus the Grace whereof Jesus Christ is the Occasional Cause and which he incessantly sheds on us as Head of the Church is not a Grace of Light though he has merited that Grace likewise for us and sometimes may communicate it as I shall say by and by But 't is a Grace of Sensation 't is the preventing Delectation which begets and nurses Charity in our Hearts For Pleasure naturally produces and cherishes the Love of those Objects which cause or seem to cause it 'T is likewise the Disgust which sometimes sensible Objects give us which create an Aversion to them and capacitate us to guide the Motions of our Love by Light or Knowledge XXXII We must oppose the Grace of Sensation to Concupiscence Pleasure to Pleasure Dislike to Dislike that the Influence of Jesus Christ may be directly opposite to the Influence of the First Man The Remedy must be contrary to the Disease that it may cure it For illuminating Grace cannot heat an Heart that is wounded by Pleasure this Pleasure must cease or another succeed it Pleasure is the Weight of the Soul and naturally bears it along with it and sensible Pleasures weigh it down to Earth In order to her determining her self these Pleasures must vanish or delectable Grace must raise her up towards Heaven and instate her well-nigh in Equilibrio Thus it is the New Man may war against the Old the Influence of our Head may resist that of our Progenitor and Jesus Christ may conquer in us all our Domestick Enemies The First Man being free from Concupiscence before his Sin needed not to be invited to the Love of the True Good by preventing Delectation He knew clearly that God was his Good and there was no Necessity he should have the Sense of it 'T was not fit he should be allur'd by Pleasure to the Love of him since nothing withstood this Love and he knew him perfectly deserving it But after the Sin the Grace of Delectation was necessary to counterpoize the continual Struggle of Concupiscence Therefore Light is the Grace of the Creator Delectation is that of the Restorer Light is communicated by Jesus Christ as Eternal Wisdom Delectation is given by him as Wisdom Incarnate Light in its Original was mere Nature Delectation has ever been Pure Grace Light after the Sin was granted us only for the Merits of Jesus Christ. Delectation is granted both for the Merits and by the Efficacy of the same Jesus Lastly Light is shed into our Souls according to our own several Volitions and various Applications as I shall explain by and by But the Delectation of Grace is infus'd into our Hearts according to the diverse Desires of the Soul of Jesus Christ. XXXIII 'T is true Pleasure produces Light because the Soul is more attentive to Objects that give her Pleasure Since most Men despise or neglect the Truths of Religion because abstract or unaffecting it may be said that the Delectation of Grace instructs them For that rendring these Truths more sensible they more easily learn them by the Attention they afford And for this Reason St. John says That the Unction we receive from Jesus Christ teaches all things and that those who have receiv'd it have need of no Instructor XXXIV Yet it must be observ'd That this Unction does not produce Light immediately and by its self it only excites our Attention which is the Natural or Occasional Cause of our Knowledge So we see that Men of the greatest Charity are not always the most Understanding All Men being not equally capable of Attention all the Receivers of the same Unction are not equally instructed by it Therefore though Light may be shed on the Soul by a supernatural Infusion and Charity often produces it yet we are always to look upon this kind of Grace but as a Natural Effect For ordinarily Charity produces not Light in the Mind save in proportion to the Inducement it gives the Soul to desire the Knowledge of what she loves For in fine the diverse Desires of the Soul are the Natural or Occasional Causes of the Discoveries we make on any Subject whatsoever But these things we must explain more at large in the Second Part of this Discourse PART II. Of the Grace of the CREATOR XXXV I Know but two Principles that directly and of themselves determine the Motion of our Love Light and Pleasure Light to discover our several Goods and Pleasure to make us tast them But there is a great difference betwixt Light and Pleasure the former leaves us absolutely to our selves and makes no Intrenchment on our Liberty It does not efficaciously carry us to Love nor produce in us Natural or Necessary Love but only induces us to carry our selves to the loving with a Love of choice the Objects it discovers or which is the same thing only causes us to determine to particular Goods the general Impression of Love God constantly gives us for the General But Pleasure effectually determines our Will and as it were conveys us to the Object which causes or seems to cause it It produces in us a Natural and Necessary Love weakens our Liberty divides our Reason and leaves us not perfectly to our own Conduct An indifferent Attention to the Sense we have of our internal Motions will convince us of these Differences Thus Man before the Sin being perfectly free and having no Concupiscence to hinder him from prosecuting his Light in the Motions of his Love and knowing clearly that God was infinitely amiable ought not to be determin'd by preventing Delight as I have already said or by any other Graces of Sensation which might have lessen'd his Merit and induc'd him to love by Instinct the Good which should only be lov'd by Reason But after he had sinned he besides the Grace of Light had need of that of Sensation to resist the Motions of Concupiscence For Man having an invincible Desire for Happiness cannot possibly sacrifice his Pleasure to his Light his Pleasure which makes him actually Happy and subsists in him in spight of his Resistance to his Light which subsists but by a painful Application of Thought and dies at the presence of the least actual Pleasure and lastly which promises no solid Happiness till after Death which to the Imagination seems a perfect Annihilation Light therefore is due to Man to conduct him in the quest of Happiness and belongs to Natural Order and supposes neither Corruption nor Reparation in Nature But Pleasure which relates to the true Good is pure Grace For naturally the true Good ought not to be belov'd otherwise than by Reason Therefore the Occasional Causes of the Graces of Sensation ought to be found in Jesus Christ because he is the Author of this Grace But the Occasional Causes of Light ought to be ordinarily found in the Order of Nature because Light is
full of Obscurity and Darkness are founded on the Ignorance we are in of the Properties of our Soul 'T is from our having as I have elsewhere proved no clear Idea of our Being and that what is in us which gives way to be conquer'd by a Determination not invincible is absolutely unknown to us Furthermore if I cannot clearly answer these Objections I can answer by others which to me seem more incapable of Solution I can from Principles oppos'd to mine deduce more harsh and unlucky Consequences than those which are presum'd to follow from Liberty such as I have suppos'd in us But I engage not on the Particulars of all this as taking no delight to walk in the dark and to lead others upon Precipices THE ILLUSTRATION OR CONTINUATION OF THE TREATISE CONCERNING Nature and Grace What is meant by acting by General and Particular Wills I. I Say that God acts by General Wills when he acts in consequence of the General Laws which he has establish'd For Example I say that God acts in me by General Wills when he gives me the Sense of Pain when I am prick'd since in pursuance of the General and Efficacious Laws of Union of my Soul and Body which he has constituted he makes me suffer Pain when my Body's ill dispos'd So when a Bowl strikes another I say God moves the stricken by a General Will because he moves it in pursuance of the General and Efficacious Laws of the Communications of Motions God having generally Ordain'd that at the Instant of Collision of two Bodies the Motion should be distributed between them according to certain Proportions and 't is by the Efficacy of that General Will that Bodies have the force of moving one another II. I say on the contrary that God acts by Particular Wills when the Efficacy of his Will is not determin'd by some General Law to the producing any Effect Thus supposing God should make me feel the Pain of pricking whilst there happen'd no Change in my Body or in any Creature whatsover which determines him to act in me by some General Law I say that then God acts by Particular Wills So again supposing a Body begins to move without being stricken by another or without any Alteration happening in the Will of Spirits or in any other Creature which determines the Efficacy of some General Laws I say that God would move that Body by a Particular Will III. According to these Definitions it plainly appears that so far from denying Providence I suppose on the contrary that God works all in all things that the Nature of the Heathen Philosophers is a Chimera and that to speak properly Nature is nothing but the General Laws which God has establish'd for the Construction or Preservation of his Work by the simplest ways by an Action always uniform constant perfectly worthy of an infinite Wisdom and an universal Cause But that which I here suppose though certain for the Reasons I have given in The Search after Truth is not absolutely necessary to what I design to prove For if it be suppos'd that God had communicated his Power to the Creatures in such a manner as that surrounding Bodies had a real and true Force by which they might act on our Soul and make her happy and miserable by Pleasure and Pain and that Bodies in Motion had in themselves a certain Entity which they call Impress'd Quality that they can communicate it to those about them and with that Celerity and Uniformity we observe it would be still equally easie to prove what I intend For then the Efficacy of the concurrent Action of the General Cause would be necessarily determin'd by the Action of the Particular Cause God for Instance would be oblig'd by these Principles to afford his Concourse to a Body at the Instant of Collision that it might communicate its Motion to others which is still to act by virtue of a General Law Yet I do not argue upon that Supposition as believing it utterly false as I have shewn in the Third Chapter and Second Part of the Sixth Book of The Search after Truth in the Illustration of the same Chapter and elsewhere Which Truths suppos'd here follow the Notes by which we may discover whether an Effect be produc'd by a General or Particular Will MARKS by which we may judge whether an Effect be produc'd by a General or Particular Will IV. When we see an Effect immediately produc'd after the Action of an Occasionl Cause we ought to judge it produc'd by the Efficacy of a General Will. A Body moves immediately after the Collision the Collision of Bodies is the Action of an Occasional Cause Therefore this Body moves by a General Will. A Stone falls on the Head of a Man and kills him and this Stone falls like all others that is continues its Motion almost in Arithmetical Proportion 1 3 5 7 9 c. Which suppos'd I say it moves by the Efficacy of a General Will or by the Laws of the Communications of Motions as is easie to demonstrate V. When we see an Effect produc'd without the Mediation of the known Occasional Cause we have reason to think it produc'd by a Particular Will supposing this Effect be not manifestly unworthy of its Cause as I shall say hereafter For Example When a Body 's mov'd without being smitten by another there 's great Probability it was mov'd by a Particular Will but yet we cannot be confident of it For on Supposition of a General Law that Bodies should move according to the several Volitions of Angels or the like 't is visible this Body might be put in Motion without Impulsion the particular Will of some Angel being in this case able to determine the Will of the general Cause to move it Thus we may be often positive that God acts by general Wills but we cannot have the like Assurance that he acts by particular Wills even in the most averr'd Miracles VI. Since we have not a competent Knowledge of the various Combinations of Occasional Causes to discover whether such and such Effects arrive in consequence of their Action and are not sufficiently Intelligent to discover for Instance whether such a Rain be Natural or Miraculous produc'd by a necessary Consequence of the Communication of Motions or by a particular Will we must judge an Effect is produc'd by a General Will when 't is visible the Cause did not propose it self a particular End For the Wills of Intelligences have necessarily an End general Wills a general End and particular Wills a particular Design Nothing can be more plain and evident For Example Though I cannot discover whether a Shower of Rain which falls on a Meadow falls in consequence of general Laws or by a particular Will of God I have reason to think it falls by a general Will if I see it fall as well on the neighbouring Grounds or on the River which bounds the Meadow no less than on the Meadow it self For
if God caus'd it to rain on this Meadow by a particular Benevolence to the Owner this Rain would not fall on the River where 't is insignificant since it could not fall there without a Cause or Will in God which has necessarily some End VII But we have still more Reason to think an Effect is produc'd by a general Will when this Effect is contrary or even useless to the Design which we are taught by Faith or Reason the Cause propos'd For Instance The End which God proposes in the various Sensations he affords the Soul in our tasting different Fruits is that we may eat those which are fit for Nourishment and reject the rest I suppose thus Therefore when God gives a grateful Sensation at the Instant of our eating Poisons or empoison'd Fruits he acts not in us by particular Wills So we ought to conclude since that agreeable Sensation is the Cause of our Death whilst the End of God's giving us diverse Sensations is to preserve our Life by a convenient Nourishment for I once more suppose thus For I speak only with reference to the Grace which God gives us doubtless to convert us so that 't is visible God showers it not on Men by particular Wills since it frequently renders them more Culpable and Criminal For God cannot have so Fatal a Design God gives us not therefore agreeable Sensations by particular Wills when we eat poisonous Fruits But because a poisonous Fruit excites in our Brain Motions like those produc'd by wholsome Fruits God gives us the same Sensations by reason of the general Laws which unite the Soul to the Body that she might be wakeful for its Preservation So likewise God gives not those who have lost an Arm Sensations of Pain relating to it but by a general Will For 't is useless to the Body of this Man that his Soul should suffer Pain relating to an Arm that 's lost 'T is the same case with Motions produc'd in the Body of a Man in the Commission of a Crime Finally supposing we are obliged to think that God scatters his Rain upon the Earth witâ— Intent to make it fruitful we cannot believe he distributes it by particular Wills since it falls upon the Sands and in the Sea as well as on plow'd Lands and is often so excessive on seeded Ground as to extirpate the Corn and frustrate the Labours of the Husbandman Thus it is certain that Rains which are useless or noxious to the Fruits of the Earth are necessary Consequences of the general Laws of the Communications of Motions which God has establish'd for the producing better Effects in the World supposing which I again repeat that God cannot will by a particular Volition that Rain should cause the Barrenness of the Earth VIII Lastly When an Effect happens which has something extraordinary 't is reasonable to believe it is not produc'd by a general Will. Nevertheless 't is impossible to be sure of it If for Example in the Procession of the Holy Sacrament it rains on the Assistants save on the Priests and those which carry it we have reason to think this proceeds from a particular Will of the universal Cause yet we cannot be certain because an occasional intelligent Cause may have this particular Design and so determine the Efficacy of the general Law to execute it IX When the preceding Marks are not sufficient for us to judge whether a certain Effect is or is not produc'd by a general Will we are to believe it is if it be certain there is an Occasional Cause establish'd for the like Effects For Example We see it rain to some Purpose in a Field we do not examine whether this Rain falls or not in the great Roads we know not whether it be noxious to the bordering Grounds nay we suppose it only does good and that all the attending Circumstances are perfectly accommodated to the Design for which we are oblig'd to believe that God would have it rain Nevertheless I say that we ought to judge this Rain is produc'd by a general Will if we know that God has setled an Occasional Cause for the like Effects For we must not have recourse to Miracles without Necessity We ought to suppose that God acts herein by the simplest ways and though the Lord of the Field ought to return Thanks to God for the Bounty yet he ought not to imagine it was caus'd in a miraculous manner by a particular Will The Owner of the Field ought to thank God for the Good he receives since God saw and will'd the good Effect of the Rain when he establish'd the general Laws whereof it is a necessary Consequence and that it was for the like Effects they were establish'd On the contrary if the Rains are sometimes hurtful to the Earth as it was not to render them unfruitful that God establish'd the Laws which make it rain since Drought suffices to make them barren 't is plain we ought to thank God and to adore the Wisdom of his Providence even when we do not â—eel the Effects of the Laws establish'd in our Favour X. But to conclude when we cannot be certified by the Circumstances which accompany certain Effects that there is an Occasional Cause establish'd to produce them 't is sufficient to know they are very common and relate to the principal Design of the general Cause in order to judge they are produc'd by a general Will. For Example The Springs which water the Surface of the Earth are subservient to the principal Design of God which is that Mâ—n should not want things necessary to Life I suppose so Besides these Fountains are very common therefore we ought to conclude they are foâ—m'd by some General Laws For as there is much more Wisdom in executing his Designs by Simple and General Means than by Complicated and Particular as I think I have sufficiently prov'd elsewhere We owe that Honour to God as to believe his way of acting is general uniform constant and proportion'd to the Idea we have of an infinite Wisdom These are the Marks by which we are to judge whether an Effect be produc'd by a general Will. I now come to prove that God bestows his Grace on Men by general Laws and that Jesus Christ has been establishâ—d the Occasional Cause to determine their Efficacy I begin by the Proofs of Holy Scripture XI St. Paul teaches us That Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church That he constantly influences it with Spirit and Life That he forms the Members and animates them as the Soul animates the Body or to speak still more clearly the Holy Scripture teaches us two things The first that Jesus Christ prays continually for his Members The second that his Prayers or Desires are always heard Whence I conclude that he was constituted by God the Occasional Cause of Grace and likewise that Grace is never given to Sinners but through his Means The Occasional Causes have constantly and readily
ought to act wisely God cannot deny himself His Ways of acting ought to bear the Character of his Attributes Now God knows all and foresees all his Understanding has no Bounds Therefore his manner of acting ought to bear the Character of an Infinite Intelligence But to make Choice of Occasional and to establish General Laws for the executing any work manifests a Knowledge infinitely more comprehensive than to change Volitions every moment or to act by Particular Wills Therefore God executes his Designs by General Laws whose Efficacy is determin'd by Occasional Causes Certainly there is a greater Extent of Thought requir'd to make a Watch which according to the Rules of Mechanicks goes regularly of it self whether it be carried about with us or hung up or shaken as we please than to make one which can go well no longer than he that made it is continually changing something in it according to the Situations it is put in For when there is a greater Number of Relations to be compared and combined together there is required a greater Understanding An infinite Prescience is requisite to foresee all the Effects which will happen in consequence of a General Law and there is nothing of all this to be foreseen when the Wills are chang'd every moment Therefore to establish General Laws and to choose the most simple and at the same time the most exuberant is a manner of acting worthy of him whose Wisdom has no Bounds And on the contrary to act by Particular Wills shews a straitned Understanding and which cannot compare the Consequences or Effects of the least fruitful Causes The same Truth might farther be demonstrated a priori by some other Attributes of God as by his Immutability by which M. Des Cartes proves That every Body tends to move in a right Line that there is always the same Quantity of Motion in the World and other Truths But these Truths a priori are too abstract to convince the Generality of Men of the Truth advanc'd It is more to the Purpose to prove it by the Marks I have given before to distinguish Effects produced by Particular Wills from those which are the necessary Consequences of some General Law God being infinitely Wise neither wills nor does any thing without Design or End But Grace falls often on Hearts so dispos'd as to frustrate his Operation and therefore falls not on them by a Particular Will but only by a necessary Consequence of General Laws for the same Reason that Rain falls on the Sands and in the Sea no less than on Seed-Grounds XVI Though God may punish Sinners or make them more miserable than they are he can have no Design of making them more culpable and criminal which yet is an Effect of Grace and God knows certainly that according to their actual Dispositions the Graces he bestows will have that calamitous Event Therefore Graces are not shed on corrupt Hearts by a Particular Will of God but by a necessary Consequence of General Laws establish'd for the Production of the best Effects by the same Reason that on some Occasions too abundant Rains corrupt and putrifie the Fruits of the Earth though God by his General Will causes it to rain to make them thrive XVII If God was minded that some Lands should continue barren he need but have ceas'd to will that the Rain should water them So if God purpos'd that the Hearts of some Sinners should remain hardned as it would be sufficient for the Rain of Grace not to water them he need but leave them to themselves and they would corrupt fast enough Why must we attribute a Particular Will to God to make so cruel and unhappy use of the Price of his Son's Blood But many others will say God in giving Grace to Sinners has never that Design and this doubtless seems more reasonable But if God gives his Grace by a Particular Will he has some Particular Design and whereas Grace has that sad Effect God is frustrated in his Expectation since he gave it with a Design and that a particular one of doing good to a Sinner For I speak not here of the Graces or rather Gifts explain'd by St. Paul in the 12th Chapter of his First Epistle to the Corinthians I speak of the Grace which God gives for the Conversion of him it is given to and not of those Gifts God bestows on some for the Profit of others such as are the Gifts of Prophecy of Discernment of Spirits of Speaking diverse Tongues of Healing the Sick and the like XVIII When the Rain falls in such excess that the Floods extirpate the Fruits of the Earth we ought to conclude this Rain comes by a necessary Consequence of the General Laws God has establish'd for better Effects Yet it is certain God may have appointed it by a Particular Will For God for the Punishment of Men may will that the Rains ordain'd to fecundate the Earth may make it barren on some Occasions But it is not so with the Rain of Grace since God cannot dispense it with Design of punishing Men much less of making them more culpable and criminal Thus 't is much more certain that the Rain of Grace falls by General Wills than that the common Rains do so yet most Men can easily believe that Rains are the necessary Consequences of the General Laws of the Communication of Motions whilst there are few but find some Reluctancy in believing God gives us by General Wills all these Motions of Graces whose Effects we our selves prevent There 's great likelihood this Disposition of Mind naturally grows from our thinking God acts almost like our selves and that he has on all Occasions Particular Wills for all Men in something resembling those Desires we have for our Friends For though we outwardly confess that there is an infinite Difference between God's way of acting and our own yet since we ordinarily judge of others with relation to our selves without considering few Persons seriously consult the Idea of an Infinitely Perfect Being when they would speak of God And because there is some Air of Novelty in what I say it creates a sort of Pain in the Mind which is reasonably mistrustful of what is not common and ordinary I have a particular Honour and Esteem for all those who in Matter of Religion have a secret Aversion for all Novelties When this is the Motive which induces them to oppose my Opinions they give me no Offence and whilst their Prejudices are legitimate though they should give me hainous Provocations I should preserve a Respect for them For their Disposition of Mind is infinitely more reasonable than that of others who fall foul upon all that bears the Character of Novelty Nevertheless as I believe that we are bound to love and search out Truth with all our Strength and communicate it to others when we believe we have found it I think that supposing the Doctrines of Faith undeniable we may and even ought endeavour to confirm