able to know it but not one particular kind or sort of Creatures as for example all Man-kind that ever have liv'd or are at present living in this world could never find out the truth of Nature even in the least of her parts nay not in themselves For what man is he that knows the figurative corporeal motions which make him to be such a Creature as Man or that make any part of him and what Man or Art can inform us truly of the figurative motions that make the nature of blood flesh bones c. or can give a reason why the heart is triangular and the head spherical and so for every differently-shaped part of his body I will not say but that Man may guess at it but not infallibly know it by any Art wherefore Reason will more truly discover so much of Nature as is discoverable to one kind or fort of Creatures then Art can do for Art must attend Reason as the chief Mistris of Information which in time may make her a more prudent and profitable servant then she is for in this age she is become rather vain then profitable striving to act beyond her power as I do undertake to write beyond my experience for which 't is probable Artists will condemn me but if I err I ask their pardon and pray them to consider the Nature of our sex which makes us for the most part obstinate and wilful in our opinions and most commonly impertinently foolish And if the Art of Micrography can but find out the figurative corporeal motions that make or cause us to be thus it will be an Art of great same for by that Artists may come to discover more hidden causes and effects but yet I doubt they will hardly find out the interior nature of our fex by the exterior form of their faces or countenances although very curious and full of variety of several beauties nay I dare on the contrary say had a young beautiful Lady such a face as the Microscope expresses she would not onely have no lovers bnt be rather a Monster of Art then a picture of Nature and have an aversion at least a dislike to her own exterior figure and shape and perchance if a Lowse or Flea or such like insect should look through a Microscope it would be as much affrighted with its own exterior figure as a young beautiful Lady when she appears ill-favoured by Art I do not say this as if Optick Glasses could not present the true figure of an Original for if they do not exceed the compass of natural dimensions they may but when they endeavour to go beyond them and do more then Nature has done they rather present monstrous then truly natural figures Wherefore those in my opinion are the best Artists that keep nearest to Natures Rules and endeavour not to know more then what is possible for a finite part or creature to know for surely there is no better way to be rightly and truly informed of Natures works then by studying Natures corporeal figurative motions by the means of which study they will practise Arts as far as Art is able to be practised more easily and successfully then they will do without it But to conclude this discourse some parts of Nature are more indued with regular reason then others which is the cause that some creatures of one and the same fort or kind as for example Mankind are more wife and ingenious then others and therefore it is not art but regular sense and reason that makes some more knowing and some more wife and ingenious then others and the irregular motions of sense and reason that make some more ignorant or more extravagant in their opinions then others 5. Art cannot introduce new forms in Nature SOme account it a great honour That the Indulgent Creator although he gives not to Natural Creatures the power to produce one atome of matter yet allows them the power to introduce so many forms which Philosophers teach to be nobler then matter and to work such changes amongst Creatures that if Adam was now alive and should survelgh the great variety of mans production that are to be found in the shops of Artificers the Laboratories of Chymists and other well furnished Magazines of Art he would admire to see what a new world it were Where first I do not understand how man or any other creature should have the power of making or introducing new forms if those forms were not already in Nature for no Creature by any Art whatsoever is able to produce a new form no more then he can make an atome of new matter by reason the power lies in Nature and the God of Nature not in any of her Creatures and if Art may or can work changes amongst some fellow-creatures they are but natural by reason Nature is in a perpetual Motion and in some parts in a perpetual transformation Next as for the Question Whether forms be more noble then the matter my opinion is that this can with no more ground of truth be affirmed then that the effect is nobler then its cause and if any creature should have power to make forms which are more noble then matter it self then certainly that creature would be above Nature and a creator rather then a creature Besides form cannot be created without matter nor matter without form for form is no thing subsisting by it self without matter but matter and form make but one body and therefore he that introduces a new form must also introduce a new matter and though Art changes forms yet it cannot be said to introduce a new form for forms are and have been eternally in Nature as well as Matter so that nothing is created anew which never was in Nature before 'T is true if Adam were alive now he might see more variety but not more Truth for there are no more kinds and sorts of natural Creatures then there were at his time though never more metamorphosed or rather I may say disfigured unnatural and hermaphroditical issues then there are now which if they should make a new world by the Architecture of Art it would be a very monstrus one But I am sure art will never do it for the world is still as it was and new discoveries by Arts or the deaths and births of Creatures will not make a new world nor destroy the old no more then the dissolving and composing of several parts will make new Matter for although Nature delights in variety yet she is constant in her ground-works and it is a great error in man to study more the exterior faces and countenances of things then their interior natural figurative motions which error must undoubtedly cause great mistakes in so much as mans rules will be false compared to the true Principles of Nature for it is a false Maxime to believe that if some Creatures have power over others they have also power over Nature it might as well be believed that a
of variety then men of arguments which variety is the cause there are so many extravagant and irregular opinions in the world and I observe that most of the great and famous especially our modern Authors endeavour to deduce the knowledg of causes from their effects and not effects from their causes and think to find out Nature by Art not Art by Nature whereas in my opinion Reason must first consider the cause and then Sense may better perceive the effects Reason must judg Sense execute for Reason is the prime part of Nature as being the corporeal soul or mind of Nature But some are so much in love with Art as they endeavour to prove not onely Nature but also Divinity which is the knowledg of God by Art thus preferring Art before Nature when as Art is but Natures foolish changeling Child and the reason is that some parts of Nature as some Men not knowing all other parts believe there is no reason and but little sense in any part of Nature but themselves nay that it is irreligious to say that there is not considering that God is able to give Sense and Reason to Infinite Nature as well as to a finite part But those are rather irreligious that believe Gods power is confined or that it is not Infinite 8. Of Animal Spirits I am not of the opinion of those that place the cause of all Sense and Motion in the animal Spirits which they call the Purest and most aethereal particles of all bodies in the World whatsoever and the very top and perfection of all Natures operations For Animal Spirits in my opinion are no more then other effects of Nature onely they are not so gross as some but are parts of a most pure refined and rare sort of Inanimate Matter which being intermixed with the parts of Animate Matter and enlivened by them become very subtil and active I will not say that they are of the highest and last degree of Inanimate Matter nearest to the Animate as they do say they have the neerest alliance to spiritualities which in my opinion is as much as to say they are almost nothing or of the first degree of sensitive matter there being no such thing as first and last in Nature but that they are onely such pure and rare parts of Inanimate Matter as are not subject to the exterior perception of humane sense for example as the matter of respiration or the like for as there are Infinite parts of Inanimate Matter so there are also infinite degrees of strength weakness purity impurity hardness softness density rarity swiftness slowness knowledg ignorance c. as also several sorts and degrees of complexions statures constitutions humors wits understanding judgment life death and the like all which degrees although they be in and of the infinite body of Nature yet properly they belong to particular Creatures and have onely a regard to the several parts of Nature which being Infinite in number are also of Infinite degrees according to the Infinite changes of self-motion and the propriety and nature of each figure wherefore that opinion which makes Animal Spirits the prime or principal motion of all things and the chief Agent in Natures three Kingdoms Mineral Animal and Vegetable reduces Infinite Nature to a finite Principle whereas any one that enjoys but so much of humane sense and reason as to have the least perception or insight into Natural things may easily conceive that the Infinite effects of Nature cannot proceed from a finite particular cause nay I am firmly perswaded that they who believe any finite part to be the cause and Principle of Infinite self-moving Nature do in my opinion not onely sin against Nature but against God the Author of Nature who out of his Infinite bounty gave Nature the Power of self-motion But if any one desire to know what then the true cause and Principle of all Natures Creatures and Figures be I answer In my opinion it is not a Spirit or Immaterial substance but Matter but yet not the Inanimate part of Matter but the Animate which being of two degrees rational and sensitive both of them are the Infinite Life and Soul of the Infinite body of Nature and this Animate Matter is also the cause of all infinite works changes figures and parts of Nature as I have declar'd above more at large Now as great a difference as there is between Animate and Inanimate Body and Soul Part and Whole Finite and Infinite so great a difference there is also between the Animal Spirits and the Prime Agent or Movent of Nature which is Animate Matter or which is all one thing corporeal self-motion and as it would be paradoxical to make Inanimate Matter to be the cause of Animate or a part to be the cause of the whole whose part it is or a finite to be the cause of Infinite so paradoxical would it also be to make Animal Spirits the top and perfection of all Natures operations nay so far are they from being the Prime Movent of other bodies as they are but moved themselves for to repeat what I mentioned in the beginning Animal Spirits are onely some sorts of rare and pure Inanimate Matter which being thorowly intermixt with the animate parts of Matter are more active then some sorts of more dense and grosser parts of Inanimate Matter I say some for I do believe that some of the most solid bodies are as active as the most rare and fluid parts of Matter if not exteriously yet interiously and therefore we cannot say that rare and fluid parts are more active then fixt and solid or that fixt and solid are less active then fluid bodies because all parts are self-moving But if I was to argue with those that are so much for Animal Spirits I would ask them first whether Animal Spirits be self-moving If they say they are I am of their opinion and do infer thence that if animal spirits which are but a small part of Nature have self-motion much more has Nature her self But if not I would ask what gives them that motion they have If they say Nature then Nature must be self-moving Perchance they 'l say God moves Nature 'T is true God is the first Author of Motion as well as he is of Nature but I cannot believe that God should be the Prime actual Movent of all natural Creatures and put all things into local motion like as one wheel in a Clock turns all the rest for Gods Power is sufficient enough to rule and govern all things by an absolute Will and Command or by a Let it be done and to impart self-motion to Nature to move according to his order and decree although in a natural way Next I would ask whether any dead Creature have such Animal Spirits If they affirm it I am of their mind if not then I would ask what causes in dead bodies that dissolution which we see Thirdly I would ask whether those animal spirits
of the body there are so many several sorts consisting in features shapes and proportions of bodies as it is impossible to describe properly what Beauty is and wherein it really consists for what appears beautiful to some may seem ill-favoured to others and what seems extraordinary fair or handsom to one may have but an indifferent character of another so that in my opinion there 's no such thing as a Universal Beauty which may gain a general applause of all and be judged alike by every one that views it nay not by all immortal souls neither in body nor mind for what one likes another may dislike what one loves another may hate what one counts good another may proclaim bad what one names just another may call unjust And as for Temperance which he joins to Justice what may be temperance to one may be intemperance to another for no particular knows the just measures of Nature nay even one and the same thing which one man loves to day he may chance to hate or at least dislike to morrow for Nature is too various to be constant in her particulars by reason of the perpetual alterations and changes they are subject to which do all proceed from self-moving Matter and not from incorporeal Ideas Thus Rational souls are changeable which may be proved by the changes of their Fancies Imaginations Thoughts Judgments Understandings Conceptions Passions Affections and the like all which are effects or actions of the rational soul nay not onely natural rational souls but even divine souls if they were all good none would be bad nor vary as we find they do and therefore I cannot believe that all souls can have the same likeness being so different amongst themselves 3. Upon the Doctrine of Pythagoras 1. THe most Learned of the Pythagoreans do assert That things apparent to sense cannot be said Principles of the Universe for whatsoever consists of things apparent to sense is compounded of things not apparent and a Principle must not consist of any thing but be that of which the thing consists To which I answer First I cannot conceive what they mean by things apparent to sense if they mean the sensitive organs of humane Creatures they are mistaken for there may be and are really many things in Nature which are not apparent to humane sense and yet are not Principles but natural effects wherefore not all things that are not apparent to humane sense are principles of Nature Besides there may be many other Creatures which do far exceed Men or Animals in their sensitive perceptions and if things be not subject to humane sense they may be subject to the sense of other Creatures But if by sense they mean the sensitive life of Nature they commit a far greater error for there 's nothing which is not subject or has a participation of this Universal sense in Nature as well as of Reason 'T is true particular senses cannot perceive the infinite figurative motions of Nature neither can the subtilest sense have a perception of the interior innate figurative motions of any other Creature but I do not speak of particular senses but of that infinite sense and reason which is self-moving Matter and produces all the effects of Nature But you 'l say How can Infinite be a principle of particular Finites I answer As well as the Infinite God can be the Author of Nature and all natural Beings which though they be finite in their particular figures yet their number is Infinite 2. Concerning the Numbers of Pythagoras which he makes so great a value of I confess wheresoever are Parts and compositions and divisions of parts there must also be number but yet as parts cannot be principles so neither can numbers for self-moving Matter which is the onely principle of Nature is infinite and there are no more principles but this one 'T is true regular compositions and divisions are made by consent of parts and presuppose number and harmony but number and harmony cannot be the cause of any orderly productions without sense and reason for how should parts agree in their actions if they did not know each other or if they had no sense nor reason truly there can be no motion without sense nor no orderly motion without reason and though Epicurus's Atomes might move by chance without reason yet they could not move in a concord or harmony not knowing what they are to do or why or whither they move nay if they had no sense it is impossible they should have motion and therefore in my opinion it is the rational and sensitive parts which by consent make number and harmony and those that will deny this sensitive and rational self-moving Matter must deny the principles of motion and of all constant successions of all sorts and kinds of Creatures nay of all the variety that is in Nature Indeed I am puzled to understand Learned men what they mean by Principles by reason I see that they so frequently call Principles those which are but effects of Nature some count the Elements Principles some Numbers some Ideas some Atomes and the like And by their different opinions they confirm that there is as well discord and division as there is concord and composition of the parts of Nature for if this were not there would be no contrary actions and consequently no variety of figures and motions 3. Whatsoever is comprehended by man says Pythagoras is either body or incorporeal amongst which Incorporeals he reckons also time But this opinion is contradicted by regular sense and reason for no humane nor any other natural Creature is able to comprehend an incorporeal it self being corporeal and as for time place and the like they are one and the same with body which is so how can they be incorporeal Neither is it possible that incorporeal Beings should be principles of Nature because there is as much difference between corporeal and incorporeal as there is between Matter and no Matter but how no Matter can be a principle of matterial effects is not conceivable For God though he be an Immaterial Essence and yet the Author of material Nature and all natural Beings yet he is not a natural material Principle out of which all natural things consist and are framed but a supernatural decreeing ordering and commanding Principle which cannot be said of created Incorporeals for though Nature moves by the powerful Decree of God yet she cannot be governed by finite Incorporeals by reason they being finite have no power over a material Infinite neither can there be any other Infinite Spirit but God himself 4. Pythagoras's Doctrine is That the World in its nature is Corruptible but the Soul of the World is Incorruptible and that without the Heavens there is an Infinite Vacuum into which and out of which the World repairs As for the corruptibility of the World I cannot understand how the Soul can be incorruptible and the World it self corruptible for if the World should be
of it self it is not improbable but it may also have an interior fixt and innate knowledg of the Existency of God as that he is to be adored and worshipped And thus the Inanimate part may after its own manner worship and adore God as much as the other parts in their way for it is probable that God having endued all parts of Nature with self-knowledg may have given them also an Interior knowledg of himself that is of his Existency how he is the God of Nature and ought to be worshipped by her as his Eternal servant My later Thoughts excepted That not any Creature did truly know it self much less could it be capable of knowing God The former answered That this was caused through the variety of self-motion for all Creatures said they are composed of many several parts and every part has its own particular self-knowledg as well as self-motion which causes an ignorance between them for one parts knowledg is not another parts knowledg nor does one part know what another knows but all knowledg of exterior parts comes by perception nevertheless each part knows it self and its own actions and as there is an ignorance between parts so there is also an acquaintance especially in the parts of one composed Creature and the rational parts being most subtile active and free have a more general acquaintance then the sensitive besides the sensitive many times inform the rational and the rational the sensitive which causes a general agreement of all the parts of a composed figure in the execution of such actions as belong to it But how is it possible replied my later Thoughts that the inanimate part of matter can be living and self-knowing and yet not self-moving for Life and Knowledg cannot be without self-motion and therefore if the inanimate parts have Life and Knowledg they must necessarily also have self-motion The former answered That Life and Knowledg did no ways depend upon self-motion for had Nature no motion at all yet might she have Life and Kowledg so that self-motion is not the cause of Life and Knowledg but onely of Perception and all the various actions of Nature and this is the reason said they that the inanimate part of matter is not perceptive because it is not self-moving for though it hath life and self-knowledg as well as the Animate part yet it has not an active life nor a perceptive knowledg By which you may see that a fixt and interior self-knowledg may very well be without exterior perception for though perception presupposes an innate self-knowledg as its ground and principle yet self-knowledg does not necessarily require perception which is onely caused by self-motion for self-motion as it is the cause of the variety of Natures parts and actions so it is also of their various perceptions If it was not too great a presumtion said they we could give an instance of God who has no local self-motion and yet is infinitely knowing But we 'l forbear to go so high as to draw the Infinite Incomprehensible God to the proofs of Material Nature My later Thoughts replied first That if it were thus then one and the same parts of matter would have a double life and a double knowledg Next they said That if perception were an effect of self-motion then God himself must necessarily be self-moving or else he could not perceive Nature and her parts and actions Concerning the first objection my former thoughts answered That the parts of Nature could have a double life and knowledg no more then one man could be call'd double or treble You might as well said they make millions of men of one particular man nay call every part or action of his a peculiliar man as make one and the same part of matter have a double life and knowledg But mistake us not added my former thoughts when we say that one and the same part cannot have a double life and knowledg for we mean not the composed creatures of Nature which as they consist of several degrees of matter so they have also several degrees of lives and knowledges but it is to be understood of the essential or constitutive parts of Nature for as the rational part is not nor can be the sensitive part so it can neither have a sensitive knowledg no more can a sensitive part have a rational knowledg or either of these the knowledg of the inanimate part but each part retains its own life and knowledg Indeed it is with these parts as it is with particular creatures for as one man is not another man nor has another mans knowledg so it is likewise with the mentioned parts of matter and although the animate parts have an interior innate self-knowledg and an exterior perceptive knowledg yet these are not double knowledges but perception is onely an effect of interior self-knowledg occasioned by self-motion And as for the second they answered That the Divine Perception and Knowledg was not any ways like a natural Perception no more than God was like a Creature for Nature said they is material and her perceptions are amongst her infinite parts caused by their compositions and divisions but God is a Supernatural Individable and Incorporeal Being void of all Parts and Divisions and therefore he cannot be ignorant of any the least thing but being Infinite he has an Infinite Knowledg without any Degrees Divisions or the like actions belonging to Material Creatures Nor is he naturally that is locally self-moving but he is a fixt unalterable and in short an incomprehensible Being and therefore no comparison can be made between Him and Nature He being the Eternal God and Nature his Eternal Servant Then my later Thoughts said That as for the knowledg of God they would not dispute of it but if there was a fixt and interior innate knowledg in all Natures parts and Creatures it was impossible that there could be any error or ignorance between them The former answered that although Errors belonged to particulars as well as ignorance yet they proceeded not from interior self-knowledg but either from want of exterior particular knowledges or from the irregularity of motions and Ignorance was likewise a want not of interior but exterior knowledg otherwise called Perceptive knowledg for said they Parts can know no more of other parts but by their own perceptions and since no particular Creature or part of Nature can have an Infallible Universal and thorow perception of all other parts it can neither have an infallible and universal knowledg but it must content it self with such a knowledg as is within the reach of its own perceptions and hence it follows that it must be ignorant of what it does not know for Perception has but onely a respect to the exterior figures and actions of other parts and though the Rational part is more subtil and active then the Sensitive and may have also some perceptions of some interior parts and actions of other Creatures yet it cannot have an
heel is touched the sensitive spirits who watch in that place do run up to the head and bring news to the mind Truly if the senses have no knowledg of themselves How comes it that a man born blind cannot tell what the light of the Sun is or the light of a Candle or the light of a Glow-worms tail For though some objects of one sense may be guessed by the perception of another sense as we may guess by touch the perception of an object that belongs to sight c. yet we cannot perfectly know it except we saw it by reason the perception of sight belongs onely to the optick sense But some may ask if a man be so blind that he cannot make use of his optick sense what is become of the sensitive motions in that same part of his body to wit the optick sensorium I answer The motions of that part are not lost because the man is blind and cannot see for a privation or absence of a thing doth not prove that it is quite lost but the same motions which formerly did work to the perception of sight are onely changed and work now to some other action then the perception of sight so that it is onely a change or alteration of motions in the same parts and not an annihilation for there 's no such thing as an annihilation in Nature but all the variety in Nature is made by change of motions Wherefore to conclude the opinion of sense and reason or a sensitive and rational knowledg in all parts of Nature is in my judgment more probable and rational then the Opinion which confines all knowledg of Nature to a mans Brains or Head and allows none neither to the Senses nor to any part of Nature 37. Several Questions and Answers concerning Knowledg and Perception I Am not ignorant that endless questions and objections may be raised upon one subject and to answer them would be an infinite labour But since I desire to be perspicuous in delivering my opinions and to remove all those scruples which seem to obstruct the sense thereof I have chosen rather to be guilty of prolixity and repetitions then to be obscure by too much brevity And therefore I will add to my former discourse of knowledg and perception the resolution of these following questions which I hope will render it more intelligible Q. 1. What difference is there between Self-knowledg and Perception I answer There is as much difference betwixt them as betwixt a whole and its parts or a cause and its effects For though Self-motion be the occasional cause of particular perceptions by reason it is the cause of all particular actions of Nature and of the variety of figures yet self-knowledg is the ground or fundamental cause of Perception for were there not selfknowledg there could not be perception by reason perceptions are nothing else but particular exterior knowledges or knowledges of exterior parts and actions occasioned by the various compositions and divisions of parts so that self-moving Matter has a perceptive self-knowledg and consisting of infinite Parts those parts have particular self-knowledges and perceptions according to the variety of the corporeal figurative motions which as they are particular cannot be infinite in themselves for although a whole may know its parts yet the parts cannot possibly know the whole because an infinite may know a finite but a finite cannot know an infinite Nevertheless when many parts are regularly composed those parts by a conjunction or union of their particular self-knowledges and perceptions of each other may know more and so judg more probably of infinite as I have declared above but as for single parts there is no such thing in Nature no more then there can be an Infinite part Q. 2. Whether the Inanimate Part of Matter may not have self-knowledg as well as the Animate I answer That in my opinion and according to the conceptions of my sense and reason the Inanimate part of matter has self-knowledg as well as the Animate but not Perception for it is onely the animate part of matter that is perceptive and this animate matter being of a two-fold degree sensitive and rational the rational not being incumbred with the inanimate parts has a more clear and freer perception then the sensitive which is well to be observed for though the rational sensitive and inanimate parts of matter make but one infinite self-moving body of Nature yet there are infinite particular self-knowledges for Nature is divided into infinite parts and all parts of Nature are self-knowing But as all are not animate so all are not perceptive for Perception though it proceeds from self-knowledg as its ground or principle yet it is also an effect of self-motion for were there no self-motion there would be no perception and because Nature is self-moving all her parts are so too and as all her parts are moving so they have all compositions and divisions and as all are subject to compositions and divisions so all have variety of self-knowledg so that no part can be ignorant And by reason self-knowledg is the ground and Principle of Perception it knows all the effects by the variety of their changes therefore the Inanimate part of Matter may for any thing I know or perceive be as knowing as the other parts of Nature for although it be the grossest part and so the dullest wanting self-motion yet by the various divisions and compositions which the animate parts do make the inanimate may be as knowing as the animate But some may say If Inanimate Matter were knowing of it self then it would also be sensible of it self I answer Self-knowledg is so far sensible of it self that it knows it self and therefore the inanimate part of Matter being self-knowing may be sensible of its own self-knowledg but yet it is not such a sense as self-moving matter has that is a perceptive sense for the difference of animate and inanimate Matter consists herein that one is self-moving and consequently perceptive but the other not and as animate matter is self-moving as well as self-knowing so it is the chief and architectonical part of Nature which causes all the variety that is in Nature for without animate Matter there could be no composition and division and so no variety and without inanimate Matter there could not be such solid compositions of parts as there are for the animate part of Matter cannot be so gross as the inanimate and therefore without these degrees there would be no variety of figures nor no composition of solid figures as Animals Vegetables Minerals c. so that those effects which our sense and reason perceives could not be without the degrees of animate and inanimate Matter neither could there be perception without animate Matter by which all the various effects of Nature are perceived for though one Creature cannot perceive all the effects yet the infinite parts of Nature by their infinite actions perceive infinitely Again Some may
be denied to be Material they can neither be accounted Irrational Insensible or Inanimate by reason there is no part nay not the smallest particle in Nature our reason is able to conceive which is not composed of Animate Matter as well as of Inanimate of Life and Soul as well as of Body and therefore no particular Creature can claim a prerogative in this case before an other for there is a thorow mixture of Animate and Inanimate Matter in Nature and all her Parts But some may object That if there be sense and reason in every part of Nature it must be in all parts alike and then a stone or any other the like Creature may have reason or a rational soul as well as Man To which I answer I do not deny that a Stone has Reason or doth partake of the Rational Soul of Nature as well as Man doth because it is part of the same Matter Man consists of but yet it has not animal or humane sense and reason because it is not of animal kind but being a Mineral it has Mineral sense and reason for it is to be observed that as Animate self-moving Matter moves not one and the same way in all Creatures so there can neither be the same way of knowledg and understanding which is sense and reason in all Creatures alike but Nature being various not onely in her parts but in her actions it causes a variety also amongst her Creatures and hence come so many kinds sorts and particulars of Natural Creatures quite different from each other though not in the General and Universal principle of Nature which is self-moving Matter for in this they agree all yet in their particular interior natures figures and proprieties Thus although there be Sense and Reason which is not onely Motion but a regular and well-ordered self-motion apparent in the wonderful and various Productions Generations Transformations Dissolutions Compositions and other actions of Nature in all Natures parts and particles yet by reason of the variety of this self-motion whose ways and modes do differ according to the nature of each particular figure no figure or creature can have the same sense and reason that is the same natural motions which another has and therefore no Stone can be said to feel pain as an Animal doth or be called blind because it has no Eyes for this kind of sense as Seeing Hearing Tasting Touching and Smelling is proper onely to an Animal figure and not to a Stone which is a Mineral so that those which frame an argument from the want of animal sense and sensitive organs to the defect of all sense and motion as for example that a Stone would withdraw it self from the Carts going over it or a piece of Iron from the hammering of a Smith conclude in my opinion very much against the artificial rules of Logick and although I understand none of them yet I question not but I shall make a better argument by the Rules of Natural Logick But that this difference of sense and reason is not altogether impossible or at least improbable to our understanding I will explain by another instance We see so many several Creatures in their several kinds to wit Elements Vegetables Minerals and Animals which are the chief distinctions of those kinds of Creatures as are subject to our sensitive perceptions and in all those what variety and difference do we find both in their exterior figures and in their interior natures truly such as most of both ancient and modern Philosophers have imagined some of them viz. the Elements to be simple bodies and the principles of all other Creatures nay those several Creatures do not onely differ so much from each other in their general kinds but there is no less difference perceived in their particular kinds for example concerning Elements what difference is there not between heavy and contracting Earth and between light and dilating Air between flowing Water and ascending Fire so as it would be an endless labour to consider all the different natures of those Creatures onely that are subject to our exterior senses And yet who dares deny that they all consist of Matter or are material Thus we see that Infinite Matter is not like a piece of Clay out of which no figure can be made but it must be clayie for natural Matter has no such narrow bounds and is not forced to make all Creatures alike for though Gold and Stone are both material nay of the same kind to wit Minerals yet one is not the other nor like the other And if this be true of Matter why may not the same be said of self-motion which is Sense and Reason Wherefore in all probability of truth there is sense and reason in a Mineral as well as in an Animal and in a Vegetable as well as in an Element although there is as great a difference between the manner and way of their sensitive and rational perceptions as there is between both their exterior and interior figures and Natures Nay there is a difference of sense and reason even in the parts of one and the same Creature and consequently of sensitive and rational perception or knowledg for as I have declared heretofore more at large every sensitive organ in man hath its peculiar way of knowledg and perception for the Eye doth not know what the Ear knows nor the Ear what the Nose knows c. All which is the cause of a general ignorance between Natures parts And the chief cause of all this difference is the variety of self-motion for if natural motion were in all Creatures alike all sense and reason would be alike too and if there were no degrees of matter all the figures of Creatures would be alike either all hard or all soft all dense or all rare and fluid c. and yet neither this variety of motion causes an absence of motion or of sense and reason nor the variety of figures an absence of Matter but onely a difference between the parts of Nature all being nevertheless self-moving sensible and rational as well as Material for wheresoever is natural Matter there is also self-motion and consequently sense and reason By this we may see how easie it is to conceive the actions of Nature and to resolve all the Phaenomena or appearances upon this ground and I cannot admire enough how so many eminent and learned Philosophers have been and are still puzled about the Natural rational soul of man Some will have her to be a Light some an Entilechy or they know not what some the Quintessence of the four Elements some composed of Earth and Water some of Fire some of Blood some an hot Complexion some an heated and dispersed Air some an Immaterial Spirit and some Nothing All which opinions seem the more strange the wiser their Authors are accounted for if they did proceed from some ignorant persons it would not be so much taken notice of but coming from great Philosophers
although the interior actions of all other parts do not appear to our senses yet they may be perceived by regular reason for what sense wants reason supplies which oftener rectifies the straying and erring senses then these do reason as being more pure subtile and free from labouring on the inanimate parts of Matter then sense is as I have often declared which proves that reason is far beyond sense and this appears also in Chymistry which yet is so much for sensitive experiments for when the effects do not readily follow according to our intentions reason is fain to consider and enquire into the causes that hinder or obstruct the success of our designs And if reason be above sense then Speculative Philosophy ought to be preferred before the Experimental because there can no reason be given for any thing without it I will not say that all Arts have their first origine from Reason for what we name chance does often present to the sensitive perception such things which the rational does afterwards take into consideration but my meaning is that for the most part Reason leads and directs the ways of Art and I am of opinion that Contemplative Philosophy is the best Tutoress and gives the surest instructions to Art and amongst the rest to the Art of Chymistry which no doubt is very profitable to man many several ways and very soveraign in many desperate diseases if discreetly and moderately used but if Chymical medicines should be so commonly applied as others they would sooner kill then cure and if Paracelsus was as frequently practised as Galen it would be as bad as the Plague Wherefore Chymical Medicines are to be used as the extreme Unction in desperate cases and that with great moderation and discretion 21. Of the Universal Medicine and of Diseases IAm not of the opinion that there can be a Universal Medicine for all diseases except it be proved that all kinds of Diseases whatsoever proceed from one cause which I am sure can never be done by reason there is as much variety in the causes of diseases as in the diseases themselves You may say All diseases proceed but from irregular motions I answer These irregular motions are so numerous different and various that all the Artists in Nature are not able to rectifie them Nay they might sooner make or create a new Matter then rectifie the irregularities of Nature more then Nature herself is pleased to do for though Art may be an occasion of the changes of some parts or motions of their compositions and divisions imitations and the like like as a Painter takes a copy from an original yet it cannot alter infinite Nature for a man may build or pull down a house but yet he cannot make the materials although he may fit or prepare them for his use so Artists may dissolve and compose several parts several ways but yet they cannot make the matter of those parts and therefore although they may observe the effects yet they cannot always give a true or probable reason why they are so nor know the several particular causes which make them to be so To see the effects belongs to the perception of sense but to judg of the cause belongs onely to reason and since there is an ignorance as well as a perceptive knowledg in Nature no creature can absolutely know or have a thorow perception of all things but according as the corporeal figurative motions are so are the perceptions not onely in one composed figure but also in every part and particle of the same figure for one and the same parts may make several perceptions in several Creatures according to their several figurative motions But reason being above sense is more inspective then sense and although sense doth many times inform reason yet reason being more subtile piercing and active doth oftener inform and rectifie the senses when they are irregular nay some rational parts inform others like as one man will inform another of his own voluntary conceptions or of his exterior perceptions and some sensitive parts will inform others as one Artist another and although Experimental Phylosophy is not to be rejected yet the Speculative is much better by reason it guides directs and governs the Experimental but as knowledg and understanding is more clear where both the rational and sensitive perception do join so Experimental and Speculative Philosophy do give the surest informations when they are joined or united together But to return to the Universal Medicine although I do not believe there is any nor that all Diseases are curable yet my advice is that no applications of remedies should be neglected in any disease whatsoever because diseases cannot be so perfectly known but that they may be mistaken and so even the most experienced Physician may many times be deceived and mistake a curable disease for an incurable wherefore Trials should be made as long as life lasts Of Dropsies Cancers Kings-evils and the like diseases I believe some may be cureable especially if taken at the first beginning and that without great difficuly and in a short time but such diseases which consist in the decay of the vital parts I do verily believe them incurable as for example those Dropsies Consumptions dead Palsies c. which are caused either through the decay of the vital parts or through want of radical substance Neither do I think a natural Blindness Dumbness Deafness or Lameness curable nor natural Fools or Idiots Nay I fear the best Chymist will be puzled to cure a setled or fixt Gout or the Stone in such bodies as are apt to breed it for Stones are produced several ways and as their productions are different so are they wherefore although many do pretend to great things yet were their cures so certain they would be more frequent I will not say but many times they perform great cures but whether it be by chance or out of a fundamental knowledg I know not but since they are so seldom performed I think them rather to be casual cures In my opinion the surest way both in Diseases and Applications of Remedies is to observe the corporeal figurative motions of both which are best and surest perceived by the rational perception because the sensitive is more apt to be deluded 22. Of Outward Remedies REmedies which are applied outwardly may be very beneficial by reason the bodies of Animal Cratures are full of Pores which serve to attract nourishment or foreign matter into the body and to vent superfluities Besides the interior parts of those bodies to which outward Remedies are applied may imitate the qualities or motions of the remedies by the help of their own sensitive motions and therefore the application of outward remedies is not altogether to be rejected But yet I do not believe that they do always or in all persons work the like effects or that they are so sure and soveraign as those that are taken inwardly The truth is as Remedies properly and
ingenuity and learning in the least but onely to shew by the difference of their opinions and mine that mine are not borrowed from theirs as also to make mine the more intelligible and clear and if possible to find out the truth in Natural Philosophy for which were they alive I question not but I should easily obtain their pardon 1. Vpon the Principles of Thales THales according to Historical Relation was the first that made disquisitions upon Nature and so the first Natural Philosoper His chief points in Philosophy are these 1. He says That Water is the Principle of all natural bodies 2. That Nature is full of Daemons and spiritual substances 3. That the Soul is a self-moving Nature and that it both moves it self and the body 4. That there is but one World and that finite 5. That the World is animate and God is the soul thereof diffused through every Part 6. That the World is contained in a place 7. That Bodies are divisible into infinite Concerning the First viz. That Water is the Principle of all natural things Helmont doth embrace this opinion as I have declared in my Philosophical Letters and in the foregoing part of this Book and have given withal my reasons why water cannot be a principle of natural things because it is no more but a natural effect for though humidity may be found in many parts or Creatures of Nature yet this doth not prove that water is a principle of all natural bodies no more then fire earth air or any other Creature of Nature and though most Philosophers are of opinion that Elements are simple bodies and all the rest are composed of them yet this is no ways probable to reason because they consist of the same matter as other bodies do and are all but effects of one cause or principle which is infinite Matter Next That Nature is full of Daemons or Spiritual substances is against sense and reason for what is incorporeal is no part of Nature and upon this account the soul cannot be immaterial although he makes her to be a self-moving Nature for what has a natural motion has also a natural body because Matter and Motion are but one thing neither can a Spiritual substance move a corporeal they being both of different natures As for the World That there is but one I do willingly grant it if by the World he did mean Nature but then it cannot be finite But Thales seems to contradict himself in this Theoreme when as he grants that Bodies are divisible in infinite for if there be infinite actions as infinite divisions in Nature then surely the body of Nature it self must be infinite Next he says That God is the Soul of the World which if so God being Infinite he cannot have a Finite body to animate it for a Finite Body and an Infinite Soul do never agree together but that God should be the Soul of the World no regular Reason can allow because the Soul of Nature must be corporeal as well as the Body for an incorporeal substance cannot be mixed with a corporeal Next the World as the body of Nature being dividable it would follow that God which is the Soul would be dividable also Thirdly Every part of the world would be a part of God as partaking of the same nature for every part if the Soul be diffused through all the Body would be animate Lastly Concerning Place as that the World is contained in a place my opinion is that place is nothing else but an affection of body and in no ways different or separable from it for wheresoever is body or matter there is place also so that place cannot be said to contain the world or else it would be bigger then the world it self for that which contains must needs in compass or extent exceed that which it contains 2. Some few Observations on Plato's Doctrine 1. PLato says That Life is two fold Contemplative and Active and that Contemplation is an office of the Intellect but Action an operation of the Rational soul To which I answer first That I know no other difference between Intellect and Reason but that Intellect is an effect or rather an Essential Propriety of Reason if Reason be the Principle of Nature for the Rational part is the most Intelligent part of animate Matter Next I say That Contemplation is as much an action as any other action of Nature although it be not so gross as the action of the body for it is onely an action of the mind which is more pure and subtile then either the sensitive or inanimate parts of matter are and acts within it self that is in its own substance or degree of Matter 2. He says That Sense is a passion of the Soul I answer There is as much difference between Sense and the Soul as there is between Sense and Reason or a sensitive life and a rational soul for the Rational parts of Matter are not the Sensitive nor the Sensitive the Rational a Fool may have his sense regular and his reason irregular and therefore sense and reason are not one and the same although they have an inseparable Communion in the body or substance of Nature 3. He argues thus That which moves in it self as being the principle of Motion in those things which are moved is always moved and consequently Immortal Ungenerable and Incorruptible but the Soul is so Ergo c. I answer Natural Matter being thus self-moving is the same 4. From says he is joined to Matter I answer Form and Matter are but one thing for it is impossible to separate Matter from Form or Form from Matter but what is not dividable is not composable and what cannot be separated cannot be joined 5. Qualities says he are incorporeal because they are accidents I answer If Qualities be Incorporeal they do not belong to Nature for since the Principle of Nature is Matter all that is natural must also be material or corporeal and therefore all natural qualities or accidents must of necessity be corporeal by reason quality can no more be divided from Matter then figure magnitude colour place and the like all which are but one and the same with body without any separation or abstraction 6. What Plato affirms of that which never is and never had a Beginning and of that which has a Beginning and not a Being is more then he or any body can rationally prove for what never was nor is no man can know or imagine because all what is known or imagined has its real being if not without yet within the Mind and all thoughts have not onely a being but a material being in Nature nay even the Thought of the existence of a Deity although Deity it self is Immaterial 7. I wonder so witty a Philosopher as Plato can believe that Matter in it self as it is the Principle of Nature is void of all form for he affirms himself That whatsoever hath parts hath also figure but Matter
Aristotle makes the Principles of Nature Matter Form and Privation and leaves out the chief which is Motion for were there no motion there would be no variety of figures besides Matter and Form are but one thing for wheresoever is Matter there is also form or figure but privation is a non-being and therefore cannot be a principle of natural bodies 4. There is no such thing as simple bodies in Nature for if Nature her self consists of a commixture of animate and inanimate Matter no part can be called simple as having a composition of the same parts besides no part can subsist single or by it self wherefore the distinction into simple and mixt bodies is needless for Elements are as much composed bodies as other parts of Nature neither do I understand the difference between perfect and imperfect mixt bodies for Nature may compose mix and divide parts as she pleaseth 5. The primary Qualities of the Elements as Heat and Cold Humidity and Siccity says Aristotle are the cause of Generation when heat and cold overcome the Matter I wonder he makes qualities to be no substances or bodies but accidents which is something between body and no body and yet places them above Matter and makes Generation their effect But whatsoever he calls them they are no more but effects of Nature and cannot be above their cause which is Matter neither is it probable there are but eighteen passive qualities he might have said as well there are but eighteen sorts of motions for natural effects go beyond all number as being infinite 6. Concerning the Soul Aristotle doth not believe That it moves by it self but is onely moved accidentally according to the Motion of the body but he doth not express from whence the motion of the Soul proceeds although he defines it to be that by which we live feel and understand Neither says he is there a Soul diffused through the World for there are inanimate bodies as well as animate but sense and reason perceives the contrary to wit that there is no part of Nature but is animate that is has a soul. Sense says he is not sensible of it self nor of its organ nor of any interior thing for sense cannot move it self but is a mutation in the organ caused by some sensible object But the absurdity of this opinion I have declared heretofore for it is contrary to humane Reason to believe first that sense should be sensible of an outward object and not of it self or which is all one have perception of exterior parts and not self-knowledg Next that an external object should be the cause of sense when as sense and reason are the chief principles of Nature and the cause of all natural effects Again Sense says he is in all Animals but Fancy is not for Fancy is not Sense Fancy acts in him that sleeps Sense not To which I answer first Fancy or Imagination is a voluntary action of Reason or of the rational parts of Matter and if reason be in all Animals nay in all Creatures Fancy is there also Next it is evident that Sense acts as much asleep as awake the difference I have expressed elsewhere viz. That the sensitive motions Work inwardly in sleep and outwardly awake The Intellect to Aristotle is that part of the Soul by which it knows and understands and is onely proper to man when as sense is proper to animals It is twofold Patient and Agent whereof this is Immortal Eternal not mixt with the body but separable from it and ever in action The Patient Intellect is mortal and yet void of corruptive passion not mixt with the body nor having any corporeal organs But these and many other differences of Intellects which he rehearses are more troublesome to the understanding then beneficial for the knowledg of Nature And why should we puzzle our selves with multiplicity of terms and distinctions when there 's no need of them Truly Nature's actions are easie and we may easily apprehend them without much ado If Nature be material as it cannot be proved otherwise sense and reason are material also and therefore we need not to introduce an incorporeal mind or intellect Besides if sense and reason be a constitutive principle of Nature all parts of Nature do partake of the same nor hath man a prerogative before other Creatures in that case onely the difference and variety of motions makes different figures and consequently different knowledges and perceptions and all Fancies Imaginations Judgment Memory Remembrance and the like are nothing else but the actions of reason or of the rational parts of Animate Matter so that there is no necessity to make a Patient and Agent Intellect much less to introduce incorporeal substances to confound and disturb corporeal Nature 6. Of Scepticisme and some other Sects of the Ancient THere are several sorts of Scepticks different from each other for though almost every one of the ancient Philosophers has his own opinions in Natural Philosophy and goes on his own grounds or principles yet some come nearer each other then others do and though Heraclitus Democritus Protagoras and others seem to differ from the Scepticks yet their opinions are not so far asunder but they may all be referred to the same sect Heraclitus is of opinion That contraries are in the same thing and Scepticks affirm That contraries appear in the same thing but I believe they may be partly both in the right and partly both in the wrong If their opinion be that there are or appear contraries in Nature or in the essence of Matter they are both in the wrong but if they believe that Matter has different and contrary actions they are both in the right for there are not onely real but also apparent or seeming contraries in Nature which are her irregularities to wit when the sensitive and rational parts of Matter do not move exactly to the nature of their particulars As for example Honey is sweet to those that are sound and in health but bitter to those that have the over-flowing of the Gall where it is to be observed that Honey is not changed from its natural propriety but the motions of the Gall being irregular make a false copy like as mad men who think their flesh is stone or those that apprehend a Bird for a Stone a Man for a Tree c. neither the Flesh nor Stone nor Tree are changed from their own particular natures but the motions of humane sense in the sentient are irregular and make false copies of true objects which is the reason that an object seems often to be that which really it is not However those irregularities are true corporeal motions and thus there are both real and seeming contraries in Nature but as I mentioned before they are not contrary matters but onely contrary actions Democritus says That Honey is neither bitter nor sweet by reason of its different appearance to differently affected persons but if so then he is like those that make
especially those that consist of different parts Besides the rational parts of matter being the surveighing ordering and designing parts do not suffer them in such actions to work as they please but order them all according to the Wisdom of Nature and though sometimes it may happen that they work or move irregularly yet that is not perpetual in all actions but sometimes for wheresoever is crossing and opposition there must of necessity be sometimes irregularities and disorders When in my Philosophical Letters I say That there is difference between Life and Knowledg by Life I understand Sense or the sensitive parts of matter and by Knowledg Reason or the Rational parts of Matter not as if the sensitive parts had not Knowledg as well as the rational or the rational Life as well as the sensitive but I speak comparatively in the same sense as I name the sensitive part the Life the rational the Soul and the inanimate the Body of Nature And thus much for the present There may be many more the like places in my Philosophical Works especially my Philosophical and Physical Opinions which may seem dubious and obscure but I will not trouble you now with a long Commentary or Explanation of them but if God grant me life I intend to rectifie that mentioned Book of Philosophical Opinions in the best manner I can because it contains the Ground of my Philosophy in which I hope there will be no labour lost but it will facilitate the Understanding of the Reader and render my Conceptions easie and intelligible which is the onely thing I am at and labour for THE DESCRIPTION OF A NEW WORLD CALLED The Blazing World WRITTEN By the Thrice Noble Illustrious and Excellent PRINCESSE THE Duchess of Newcastle LONDON Printed by A. Maxwell in the Year 1666. TO THE DUCHESSE OF NEWCASTLE ON HER New Blazing World OUr Elder World with all their Skill and Arts Could but divide the World into three Parts Columbus then for Navigation fam'd Found a new World America 't is nam'd Now this new World was found it was not made Onely discovered lying in Times shade Then what are You having no Chaos found To make a World or any such least ground But your creating Fancy thought it fit To make your World of Nothing but pure Wit Your Blazing-world beyond the Stars mounts higher Enlightens all with a Coelestial Fier William Newcastle TO THE READER If you wonder that I join a work of Fancy to my serious Philosophical Contemplations think not that it is out of a disparagement to Philosophy or out of an opinion as if this noble study were but a Fiction of the Mind for though Philosophers may err in searching and enquiring after the Causes of Natural effects and many times embrace falshoods for Truths yet this doth not prove that the Ground of Philosophy is meerly Fiction but the error proceeds from the different motions of Reason which cause different Opinions in different parts and in some are more irregular then in others for Reason being dividable because material cannot move in all parts alike and since there is but one Truth in Nature all those that hit not this Truth do err some more some less for though some may come nearer the mark then others which makes their Opinions seem more probable and rational then others yet as long as they swerve from this onely Truth they are in the wrong Nevertheless all do ground their Opinions upon Reason that is upon rational probabilities at least they think they do But Fictions are an issue of mans Fancy framed in his own Mind according as he pleases without regard whether the thing he fancies be really existent without his mind or not so that Reason searches the depth of Nature and enquires after the true Causes of Natural Effects but Fancy creates of its own accord whatsoever it pleases and delights in its own work The end of Reason is Truth the end of Fancy is Fiction But mistake me not when I distinguish Fancy from Reason I mean not as if Fancy were not made by the Rational parts of Matter but by Reason I understand a rational search and enquiry into the causes of natural effects and by Fancy a voluntary creation or production of the Mind both being effects or rather actions of the rational part of Matter of which as that is a more profitable and useful study then this so it is also more laborious and difficult and requires sometimes the help of Fancy to recreate the Mind and withdraw it from its more serious Contemplations And this is the reason why I added this Piece of Fancy to my Philosophical Observations and joined them as two Worlds at the ends of their Poles both for my own sake to divert my studious thoughts which I employed in the Contemplation thereof and to delight the Reader with variety which is always pleasing But left my Fancy should stray too much I chose such a Fiction as would be agreeable to the subject I treated of in the former parts it is a'Description of a New World not such as Lucian's or the French man's World in the Moon but a World of my own Creating which I call the Blazing-World The first part whereof is Romancical the second Philosophical and the third is meerly Fancy or as I may call it Fantastical which if it add any satisfaction to you I shall account my self a Happy Creatoress if not I must be content to live a melancholly Life in my own World I cannot call it a poor World if poverty be onely want of Gold Silver and Jewels for there is more Gold in it then all the Chymists ever did and as I verily believe will ever be able to make As for the Rocks of Diamonds I wish with all my soul they might be shared amongst my noble female friends and upon that condition I would willingly quit my part and of the Gold I should onely desire so much as might suffice to repair my Noble Lord and Husband's Losses For I am not Covetous but as Ambitious as ever any of my Sex was is or can be which makes that though I cannot be Henry the Fifth or Charles the Second yet I endeavour to be Margaret the First and although I have neither power time nor occasion to conquer the world as Alexander and Caesar did yet rather then not to be Mistress of one since Fortune and the Fates would give me none I have made a World of my own for which no body I hope will blame me since it is in every ones power to do the like THE DESCRIPTION OF A NEW WORLD CALLED The Blazing World A Merchant travelling into a forreign Country fell extreamly in Love with a young Lady but being a stranger in that Nation and beneath her both in Birth and Wealth he could have but little hopes of obtaining his desire however his love growing more and more vehement upon him even to the slighting of all difficulties he resolved at last
Emperesses soul with Scenes Songs Musick witty Discourses pleasant Recreations and all kinds of harmless sports so that the time passed away faster then they expected At last a Spirit came and told the Emperess that although neither the Emperour nor any of his subjects knew that her soul was absent yet the Emperours soul was so sad and melancholy for want of his own beloved soul that all the Imperial Court took notice of it Wherefore he advised the Emperess's Soul to return into the Blazing-world into her own body she left there which both the Dukes and Duchess's soul was very sorry for and wished that if it had been possible the Emperess's soul might have stayed a longer time with them but seeing it could not be otherwise they pacified themselves But before the Emperess returned into the Blazing-world the Duchess desired a favour of her to wit that she would be pleased to make an agreement between her Noble Lord and Fortune Why said the Emperess are they enemies Yes answered the Duchess and they have been so ever since I have been his Wife nay I have heard my Lord say that she hath crossed him in all things ever since he could remember I am sorry for that replied the Emperess but I cannot discourse with Fortune without the help of an Immaterial Spirit and that cannot be done in this World for I have no Fly-nor Bird-men here to send into the region of the Air where for the most part their habitations are The Duchess said she would intreat her Lord to send an Attorney or Lawyer to plead her cause Fortune will bribe them replied the Emperess and so the Duke may chance to be cast Wherefore the best way will be for the Duke to chuse a friend on his side and let Fortune chuse another and try whether by this means it be possible to compose the difference The Duchess said They will never come to an agreement unless there be a Judg or Umpire to decide the Case A Judg replied the Empersss is easie to be had but to get an Impartial Judg is a thing so difficult that I doubt we shall hardly find one for there is none to be had neither in Nature nor in Hell but onely from Heaven and how to get such a Divine and Celestial Judg I cannot tell Nevertheless if you will go along with me into the Blazing-world I 'le try what may be done 'T is my duty said the Duchess to wait on your Majesty and I shall most willingly do it for I have no other interest to consider Then the Duchess spake to the Duke concerning the difference between him and Fortune and how it was her desire that they might be friends The Duke answered That for his part he had always with great industry sought her friendship but as yet he could never obtain it for she had always been his enemy However said he I 'le try and send my two friends Prudence and Honesty to plead my cause Then these two friends went with the Duchess and the Emperess into the Blazing-world for it is to be observed that they are somewhat like Spirits because they are immaterial although their actions are corporeal and after their arrival there when the Emperess had refreshed her self and rejoiced with the Emperor she sent her Fly-men for some of the Spirits and defired their assistance to compose the difference between Fortune and the Duke of Newcastle But they told her Majesty That Fortune was so inconstant that although she would perhaps promise to hear their cause pleaded yet it was a thousand to one but she would never have the patience to do it Nevertheless upon Her Majesties request they tried their utmost and at last prevailed with Fortune so far that she chose Folly and Rashness for her Friends but they could not agree in chusing a Judg until at last with much ado they concluded that Truth should hear and decide the cause Thus all being prepared and the time appointed both the Emperess's and Duchess's soul went to hear them plead and when all the Immaterial company was met Fortune standing upon a Golden-Globe made this following Speech Noble Friends We are met here to hear a Cause pleaded concerning the difference between the Duke of Newcastle and my self and though I am willing upon the perswasions of the Ambassadors of the Emperess the Immaterial Spirits to yield to it yet it had been fit the Dukes Soul should be present also to speak for her self but since she is not here I shall declare my self to his Wife and his Friends as also to my Friends especially the Emperess to whom I shall chiefly direct my Speech First I desire your Imperial Majesty may know that this Duke who complains or exclaims so much against me hath been always my enemy for he has preferred Honesty and Prudence before me and slighted all my favours nay not onely thus but he did fight against me and preferred his Innocence before my Power His friends Honesty and Prudence said he most scornfully are more to be regarded then Inconstant Fortune who is onely a friend to Fools and Knaves for which neglect and scorn whether I have not just reason to be his enemy your Majesty may judg your self After Fortune had thus ended her Speech the Duchess's Soul rose from her seat and spake to the Immaterial Assembly in this manner Noble Friends I think it fit by your leave to answer Lady Fortuue in the behalf of my Noble Lord and Husband since he is not here himself and since you have heard her complaint concerning the choice my Lord made of his friends and the neglect and difrespect he seemed to cast upon her give me leave to answer that first concerning the Choice of his Friends He has proved himself a wise man in it and as for the dis-respect and rudeness her Ladiship accuses him of I dare say he is so much a Gentleman that I am confident he would never slight scorn or disrespect any of the Female Sex in all his life time but was such a servant and Champion for them that he ventured Life and Estate in their service but being of an honest as well as an honourable Nature he could not trust Fortune with that which he preferred above his life which was his Reputation by reason Fortune did not side with those that were honest and honourable but renounced them and since he could not be of both sides he chose to be of that which was agreeable both to his Conscience Nature and Education for which choice Fortune did not onely declare her self his open Enemy but fought with him in several Battels nay many times hand to hand at last she being a Powerful Princess and as some believe a Deity overcame him and cast him into a Banishment where she kept him in great misery ruined his Estate and took away from him most of his Friends nay even when she favoured many that were against her she still frowned on him all which
on her in the air and Bear-and Worm-men to wait on her in Ships according to the Duchess's advice and indeed the Bear-men were as serviceable to her as the North-Star but the Bird-men would often rest themselves upon the Decks of the Ships neither would the Emperess being of a sweet and noble Nature suffer that they should tire or weary themselves by long flights for though by Lard they did often flye out of one Countrey into another yet they did rest in some Woods or on some Grounds especially at night when it was their sleeping time And therefore the Emperess was forced to take a great many Ships along with her both for transporting those several sorts of her loyal and serviceable Subjects and to carry provisions for them Besides she was so wearied with the Petitions of several others of her Subjects who desired to wait on her Majesty that she could not possibly deny them all for some would rather chuse to be drowned then not tender their duty to her Thus after all things were made fit and ready the Emperess began her Journey I cannot properly say she set Sail by reason in some Part as in the passage between the two Worlds which yet was but short the Ships were drawn under water by the Fish-men with Golden Chains so that they had no need of Sails there nor of any other Arts but onely to keep out water from entering into the Ships and to give or make so much Air as would serve for breath or respiration those Land Animals that were in the Ships which the Giants had so Artificially contrived that they which were therein found no inconveniency at all And after they had passed the Icy Sea the Golden Ships appeared above water and so went on until they came near the Kingdom that was the Emperess's Native Countrey where the Bear-men through their Telescopes discovered a great number of Ships which had beset all that Kingdom well rigg'd and mann'd The Emperess before she came in sight of the Enemy sent some of her Fish-and Bird-men to bring her Intelligence of their Fleet and hearing of their number their station and posture she gave order that when it was Night her Bird-men should carry on their backs some of the mentioned Fire-stones with the tops thereof wetted and the Fish-men should carry them likewise and hold them out of the Water for they were cut in the form of Torches or Candles and being many thousands made a terrible shew for it appear'd as if all the Air and Sea had been of a flaming Fire and all that were upon the Sea or near it did verily believe the time of Judgment or the Last Day was come which made them all fall down and Pray At the break of Day the Emperess commanded those Lights to be put out and then the Naval Forces of the Enemy perceived nothing but a Number of Ships without Sails Guns Arms and other Instruments of War which Ships seemed to swim of themselves without any help or assistance which sight put them into a great amaze neither could they perceive that those Ships were of Gold by reason the Emperess had caused them all to be coloured black or with a dark colour so that the natural colour of the Gold could not be perceived through the artificial colour of the paint no not by the best Telescopes All which put the Enemies Fleet into such a fright at night and to such wonder in the morning or at day time that they knew not what to judg or make of them for they knew neither what Ships they were nor what Party they belonged to insomuch that they had no power to stir In the mean while the Emperess knowing the Colours of her own Country sent a Letter to their General and the rest of the chief Commanders to let them know that she was a great and powerful Princess and came to assist them against their Enemies wherefore she desired they should declare themselves when they would have her help and assistance Hereupon a Councel was called and the business debated but there were so many cross and different Opinions that they could not suddenly resolve what answer to send the Emperess at which she grew angry insomuch that she resolved to return into her Blazing-world without giving any assistance to her Country-men But the Duchess of Newcastle in treated her Majesty to abate her passion for said she Great Councels are most commonly slow because many men have many several Opinions besides every Councellor striving to be the wisest makes long speeches and raises many doubts which cause retardments If I had long speeched Councellours replied the Emperess I would hang them by reason they give more Words then Advice The Duchess answered that her Majesty should not be angry but consider the differences of that and her Blazing-world for said she they are not both alike but there are grosser and duller understandings in this then in the Blazing-world At last a Messenger came out who returned the Emperess thanks for her kind profer but desired withal to know from whence she came and how and in what manner her assistance could be serviceable to them The Emperess answered That she was not bound to tell them whence she came but as for the manner of her assistance I will appear said she to your Navy in a splendorous Light surrounded with Fire The Messenger asked at what time they should expect her coming I 'le be with you answered the Emperess about one of the Clock at night With this report the Messenger returned which made both the poor Counsellers and Sea-men much afraid but yet they longed for the time to behold this strange sight The appointed hour being come the Emperess appear'd with Garments made of the Star-stone and was born or supported above the Water upon the Fish-mens heads and backs so that she seemed to walk upon the face of the Water and the Bird and Fish-men carried the Fire-stone lighted both in the Air and above the Waters Which sight when her Country-men perceived at a distance their hearts began to tremble but coming something nearer she left her Torches and appeared onely in her Garments of Light like an Angel or some Deity and all kneeled down before her and worshipped her with all submission and reverence But the Emperess would not come nearer then at such a distance where her voice might be generally heard by reason she would not have that of her Accoustrements any thing else should be perceived but the splendor thereof and when she was come so near that her voice could be heard and understood by all she made this following Speech Dear Country-men for so you are although you know me not I being a Native of this Kingdom and hearing that most part of this World had resolved to make War against it and sought to destroy it at least to weaken its Naval Force and Power have made a Voyage out of another World to lend you my assistance against
By Discourse I do not mean speech but an Arguing of the mind or a Rational inquiry into the Causes of Natural effects for Discourse is as much as Reasoning with our selves which may very well be done without Speech or Language as being onely an effect or action of Reason When I say That Art may make Pewter Brass c. I do not mean as if these Figures were Artificial and not Natural but my meaning is That if Art imitates Nature in producing of Artificial Figures they are most commonly such as are of mixt Natures which I call Hermaphroditical When I say That Respiration is a Reception and Emission of parts through the pores or passages proper to each particular figure so that when some parts issue others enter I do not mean at one and the same time or always through the same passages for as there is variety of Natural Creatures and Figures and of their perceptions so of the manner of their perceptions and of their passages and pores all which no particular Creature is able exactly to know or determine And therefore when I add in the following Chapter That Nature has more ways of composing and dividing of parts then by the way of drawing in and sending forth by pores I mean that not all parts of Nature have the like Respirations The truth is it is enough to know in general That there is Respiration in all parts of Nature as a general or universal action and that this Respiration is nothing else but a composition and division of Parts but how particular Respirations are performed none but Infinite Nature is capable to know When I say That there is a difference between Respiration and Perception and that Perception is an action of figuring or patterning but Respiration an action of Reception and Emission of Parts First I do not mean that all Percaption is made by patterning or imitation but I speak onely of the Perception of the exterior senses in Animals at least in man which I observe to be made by patterning or imitation for as no Creature can know the infinite perceptions in Nature so he cannot describe what they are or how they are made Next I do not mean that Respiration is not a Perceptive action for if Perception be a general and universal action in Nature as well as Respiration both depending upon the composition and division of parts it is impossible but that all actions of Nature must be perceptive by reason perception is an exterior knowledg of forreign parts and actions and there can be no commerce or intercourse nor no variety of figures and actions no productions dissolutions changes and the like without Perception for how shall Parts work and act without having some knowledg or perception of each other Besides wheresoever is self-motion there must of necessity be also Perception for self-motion is the cause of all exterior Perception But my meaning is That the Animal at least Humane respiration which is a receiveing of forreign parts and discharging or venting of its own in an animal or humane Figure or Creature is not the action of Animal Perception properly so call'd that is the perception of its exterior senses as Seeing Hearing Tasting Touching Smelling which action of Perception is properly made by way of patterning and imitation by the innate figurative motions of those Animal Creatures and not by receiving either the figures of the exterior objects into the sensitive Organs or by sending forth some invisible rayes from the Organ to the Object nor by pressure and reaction Nevertheless as I said every action of Nature is a Knowing and Perceptive action and so is Respiration which of necessity presupposes a knowledg of exterior parts especially those that are concern'd in the same action and can no ways be perform'd without perception of each other When I say That if all mens Opinions and Fancies were Rational there would not be such variety in Nature as we perceive there is by Rational I mean Regular according to the vulgar way of expression by which a Rational Opinion is call'd That which is grounded upon regular sense and reason and thus Rational is opposed to Irregular Nevertheless Irregular Fancies and Opinions are made by the rational parts of matter as well as those that are regular and therefore in a Philosophical and strict sense one may call Irregular Opinions as well Rational as those that are Regular but according to the vulgar way of expression as I said it is sooner understood of Regular then of Irregular Opinions Fancies or Conceptions When I say that None of Natures parts can be call'd Inanimate or Soul-less I do not mean the constitutive parts of Nature which are as it were the Ingredients whereof Nature consists and is made up whereof there is an inanimate part or degree of matter as well as animate but I mean the parts or effects of this composed body of Nature of which I say that none can be call'd inanimate for though some Philosophers think that nothing is animate or has life in Nature but Animals and Vegetables yet it is probable that since Nature consists of a commixture of animate and inanimate matter and is self-moving there can be no part or particle of this composed body of Nature were it an Atome that may be call'd Inaminate by reason there is none that has not its share of animate as well as inanimate matter and the commixture of these degrees being so close it is impossible one should be without the other When enumerating the requisites of the Perception of Sight in Animals I say that if one of them be wanting there is either no perception at all or it is an imperfect perception I mean there is no Animal perception of seeing or else an irregular perception When I say that as the sensitive perception knows some of the other parts of Nature by their effects so the rational perceives some effects of the Omnipotent Power of God My meaning is not as if the sensitive part of matter hath no knowledg at all of God for since all parts of Nature even the inanimate have an innate and fixt self-knowledg it is probable that they may also have an interior self-knowledg of the existency of the Eternal and Omnipotent God as the Author of Nature But because the rational part is the subtilest purest finest and highest degree of matter it is most conformable to truth that it has also the highest and greatest knowledg of God as far as a natural part can have for God being Immaterial it cannot properly be said that sense can have a perception of him by reason he is not subject to the sensitive perception of any Creature or part of Nature and therefore all the knowledg which natural Creatures can have of God must be inherent in every part of Nature and the perceptions which we have of the Effects of Nature may lead us to some conceptions of that Supernatural Infinite and
Incomprehensible Deity not what it is in its Essence or Nature but that it is existent and that Nature has a dependance upon it as an Eternal Servant has upon an Eternal Master But some might say How is it possible that a Corporeal finite part can have a conception of an Incorporeal infinite Being by reason that which comprehends must needs be bigger then that which is comprehended Besides no part of Nature can conceive beyond it self that is beyond what is Natural or Material and this proves that at least the rational part or the mind must be immaterial to conceive a Deity To which I answer That no part of Nature can or does conceive the Essence of God or what God is in himself but it conceives onely that there is such a Divine Being which is Supernatural And therefore it cannot be said that a natural Figure can comprehend God for it is not the comprehending of the Substance of God or its patterning out since God having no Body is without all Figure that makes the knowledg of God but I do believe that the knowledg of the existency of God as I mentioned before is innate and inherent in Nature and all her parts as much as self-knowledg is Speaking of the difference between Oil and other liquors for the better understanding of that place I thought fit to insert this Note Flame is fluid but not liquid nor wet Oil is fluid and liquid but not wet but Water is both fluid liquid and wet Oil will turn into flame and encrease it but Water is so quite opposite to flame that if a sufficient quantity be poured upon it it will totally extinguish it When I say that Sense and Reason shall be the Ground of my Philosophy and not particular natural effects My meaning is that I do not intend to make particular Creatures or Figures the Principles of all the infinite effects of Nature as some other Philosophers do for there is no such thing as a Prime or principal Figure of Nature all being but effects of one Cause But my Ground is Sense and Reason that is I make self-moving matter which is sensitive and rational the onely cause and principle of all natural effects When 't is said That Ice Snow Hail c. return into their former Figure of Water whensoever they dissolve I mean when they dissolve their exterior Figures that is change their actions When I say That the Exterior Object is the Agent and the Sentient Body the Patient I do not mean that the Object does chiefly work upon the Sentient or is the immediate cause of the Perception in the Sentient body and that the Sentient suffers the Agent to act upon it but I retain onely those words because they are used in Schools But as for their actions I am quite of a contrary Opinion to wit That the sentient body is the principal Agent and the external body the Patient for the motions of the sentient in the act of perception do figure out or imitate the motions of the object so that the object is but as a Copy that is figured out or imitated by the sentient which is the chiefly Agent in all transforming and perceptive actions that are made by way of patterning or imitation When I say That one finite part can undergo infinite changes and alterations I do not mean one single part whereof there is no such thing in nature but I mean one part may be infinitely divided and composed with other parts for as there are infinite changes compositions and divisions in Nature so they must be of parts there being no variety but of parts and though parts be finite yet the changes may be infinite for the finiteness of parts is but concerning the bulk or quantity of their figures and they are call'd finite by reason they have limited and circumscribed figures nevertheless as for duration their parts being the same with the body of Nature are as eternal and infinite as Nature her self and thus are subject to infinite and eternal changes VVhen I say A World of Gold is as active interiously as a world of Air is exteriously I mean it is as much subject to changes and alterations as Air for Gold though its motions are not perceptible by our exterior senses yet it has no less motion then the activest body of Nature onely its motions are of another kind then the motions of Air or of some other bodies for Retentive motions are as much motions as dispersing or some other sorts of motions although not so visible to our perception as these and therefore we cannot say that Gold is more at rest than other Creatures of Nature for there is no such thing as Rest in Nature although there be degrees of Motion VVhen I say That the parts of Nature do not drive or press upon each other but that all natural actions are free and easie and not constrained My meaning is not as if there was no pressing or driving of parts at all in Nature but onely that they are not the universal or principal actions of Natures body as it is the opinion of some Philosophers who think there is no other motion in nature but by pressure of parts upon parts Nevertheless there is pressure and reaction in Nature because there are infinite sorts of motions Also when I say in the same place That Natures actions are voluntary I do not mean that all actions are made by rote and none by imitation but by voluntary actions I understand self-actions that is such actions whose principle of motion is within themselves and doth not proceed from such an exterior Agent as doth the motion of the inanimate part of matter which having no motion of it self is moved by the animate parts yet so that it receives no motion from them but moves by the motion of the animate parts and not by an infused motion into them for the animate parts in carrying the inanimate along with them lose nothing of their own motion nor impart no motion to the inanimate no more than a man who carries a stick in his hand imparts motion to the stick and loses so much as he imparts but they bear the inanimate parts along with them by vertue of their own self-motion and remain self-moving parts as well as the inanimate remain without motion Again when I make a distinguishment between voluntary actions and exterior perceptions my meaning is not as if voluntary actions were not made by perceptive parts for whatsoever is self-moving and active is perceptive and therefore since the voluntary actions of Sense and Reason are made by self-moving parts they must of necessity be perceptive actions but I speak of Perceptions properly so call'd which are occasioned by Forreign parts and to those I oppose voluntary actions which are not occasioned but made by rote as for example the perception of sight in Animals when outward Objects present themselves to the Optick sense
infallible and thorow perception of all their interior parts and motions which is a knowledg impossible for any particular Creature to attain to Again my later Thoughts objected That it was impossible that the parts of one and the same degree could be ignorant of each others actions how various soever since they were capable to change their actions to the like figures The former answered first That although they might make the like figures yet they could not make the same because the parts were not the same Next they said that particular parts could not have infinite perceptions but that they could but perceive such objects as were subject to that sort of perception which they had no not all such for oftentimes objects were obscured and hidden from their perceptions that although they could perceive them if presented or coming within the compass and reach of their perceptive faculty or power yet when they were absent they could not besides said they the sensitive parts are not so subtile as to make perceptions into the interior actions of other parts no not the rational are able to have exact perceptions thereof for Perception extends but to adjoining parts and their exterior figures and actions and if they know any thing of their interior parts figures or motions it is onely by guess or probable conclusions taken from their exterior actions or figures and made especially by the rational parts which as they are the most inspective so they are the most knowing parts of Nature After these and several other objections questions and answers between the later and former thoughts and conceptions of my mind at last some Rational thoughts which were not concerned in this dispute perceiving that they became much heated and fearing they would at last cause a Faction or Civil War amongst all the rational parts which would breed that which is called a Trouble of the Mind endeavoured to make a Peace between them and to that end they propounded that the sensitive parts should publickly declare their differences and controversies and refer them to the Arbitration of the judicious and impartial Reader This proposition was unanimously embraced by all the rational parts and thus by their mutual consent this Argumental Discourse was set down and published after this manner In the mean time all the rational parts of my Mind inclined to the opinion of my former conceptions which they thought much more probable then those of the later and since now it is your part Ingenious Readers to give a final decision of the Cause consider well the subject of their quarrel and be impartial in your judgment let not Self-love or Envy corrupt you but let Regular Sense and Reason be your onely Rule that you may be accounted just Judges and your Equity and Justice be Remembred by all that honour and love it THE TABLE OF All the Principal Subjects contained and discoursed of in this BOOK Observations upon Experimental Philosophy 1. OF Humane Sense and Perception 2. Of Art and Experimental Philosophy 3. Of Micrography and of Magnifying and Multiplying Glasses 4. Of the production of Fire by Flint and Steel 5. Of Pares 6. Of the Effluviums of the Loadstone 7. Of the Stings of Nettles and Bees 8. Of the Beard of a wild Oat 9. Of the Eyes of Flyes 10. Of a Butter-Flye 11. Of the walking Motions of Flyes and other Creatures 12. Whether it be possible to make man and some other Animal Creatures flye as Birds do 13. Of Snails and Leeches and whether all Animals haue Blood 14. Of Natural Productions 15. Of the Seeds of Vegetables 16. Of the Providence of Nature and some Opinions concerning Motion 17. Des Cartes Opinion of Motion Examined 18. Of the blackness of a Charcoal and of Light 19. Of the Pores of a Charcoal and of Emptiness 20. Of Colours 21. Whether an Idea haue a Colour and of the Idea of of a Spirit 22. Of Wood petrified 23. Of the Nature of Water 24. Of Salt and of Sea or Salt-water 25. Of the motions of Heat and Cold. 26. Of the Measures Degrees and different sorts of Heat and Cold. 27. Of Congelation or Freezing 28. Of Thawing or dissolving of frozen Bodies 29. Several Questions resolved concerning Cold and Frozen Bodies 30. Of Contraction and Dilation 31. Of the Parts of Nature and of Atomes 32. Of the Celestial parts of this World and whether they be alterable 33. Of the Substance of the Sun and of Fire 34. Of Telescopes 35. Of Knowledge and Perception in general 36. Of the different Perceptions of Sense and Reason 37. Several Questions and Answers concerning Knowledg and Perception Further Observations upon Experimental Philosophy reflecting withall upon some Principal Subjects in Contemplative Philosophy 1. Ancient Learning ought not to be Exploded nor the Experimental Part of Philosophy preferred before the Speculative 2. Whether Artificial Effects may be called Natural and in what sense 3. Of Natural Matter and Motion 4. Nature cannot be known by any of her Parts 5. Art cannot produce new Forms in Nature 6. Whether there be any Prime or Principal Figures in Nature and of the true Principles of Nature 7. Whether Nature be self-moving 8. Of Animal Spirits 9. Of the Doctrine of the Scepticks concerning the Knowledg of Nature 10. Of Natural Sense and Reason 11. Of a general Knowledg and Worship of God given him by all Natural Creatures 12. Of a particular Worship of God given him by those that are his Chosen and Elect People 13. Of the Knowledg of man 14. A Natural Philosopher cannot be an Atheist 15. Of the Rational Soul of Man 16. Whether Animal Parts separated from their Bodies have life 17. Of the Spleen 18. Of Anatomy 19. Of preserving the Figures of Animal Creatures 20. Of Chymistry and Chymical Principles 21. Of the Vniversal Medicine and of Diseases 22. Of outward Remedies 23. Of several sorts of Drink and Meat 24. Of Fermentation 25. Of the Plague 26. Of Respiration Observations upon the Opinions of some Ancient Philosophers 1. Vpon the Principles of Thales 2. Some few Observations on Plato's Doctrine 3. Vpon the Doctrine of Pythagoras 4. Of Epicurus his Principles of Philosophy 5. On Aristotle's Philosophical Principles 6. Of Scepticism and some other Sects of the Ancient An Explanation of some obscure and doubtful Passages occurring in the Philosophical Works hitherto Publish'd by the Authoress A CATALOGUE OF ALL THE WORKS Hitherto Published by the AUTHORESSE SInce it is the fashion to declare what Books one has put forth to the publick view I thought it not amiss to follow the Mode and set down the Number of all the Writings of mine which hitherto have been Printed 1. Poems in Fol. Printed twice whereof the last Impression is much mended 2. Natures Pictures or Tales in Verse and Prose in Fol. 3. A Little Tract of Philosophy in 8º 4. Philosophical and Physical Opinions in Fol. 5. The same much Enlarged and Altered in Fol. 6. Philosophical Letters in Fol.
7. The Worlds Olio now to be reprinted 8. Playes in Fol. 9. Orations in Fol. 10. Sociable Letters in Fol. There are some others that never were Printed yet which shall if God grant me Life and Health be Published ere long OBSERVATIONS UPON EXPERIMENTAL PHILOSOPHY 1. Of Humane Sense and Perception BEfore I deliver my observations upon that part of Philosophy which is call'd Experimental I thought it necessary to premise some discourse concerning the Perception of Humane Sense It is known that man has five Exterior Senses and every sense is ignorant of each other for the Nose knows not what the Eyes see nor the Eyes what the Ears hear neither do the Ears know what the Tongue tastes and as for Touch although it is a general Sense yet every several part of the body has a several touch and each part is ignorant of each others touch And thus there is a general ignorance of all the several parts and yet a perfect knowledg in each part for the Eye is as knowing as the Ear and the Ear as knowing as the Nose and the Nose as knowing as the Tongue and one particular Touch knows as much as another at least is capable thereof Nay not onely every several Touch Taste Smell Sound or Sight is a several knowledg by it self but each of them has as many particular knowledges or perceptions as there are objects presented to them Besides there are several degrees in each particular sense As for example some Men I will not speak of other animals their perception of sight taste smell touch or hearing is quicker to some sorts of objects then to others according either to the perfection or imperfection or curiosity or purity of the corporeal figurative motions of each sense or according to the presentation of each object proper to each sense for if the presentation of the objects be imperfect either through variation or obscurity or any other ways the sense is deluded Neither are all objects proper for one sense but as there are several senses so there are several sorts of objects proper for each several sense Now if there be such variety of several knowledges not onely in one Creature but in one sort of sense to wit the exterior senses of one humane Creature what may there be in all the parts of Nature 'T is true there are some objects which are not at all perceptible by any of our exterior senses as for example rarified air and the like But although they be not subject to our exterior sensitive perception yet they are subject to our rational perception which is much purer and subtiler then the sensitive nay so pure and subtil a knowledg that many believe it to be immaterial as if it were some God when as it is onely a pure fine and subtil figurative Motion or Perception it is so active and subtil as it is the best informer and reformer of all sensitive Perception for the rational Matter is the most prudent and wisest part of Nature as being the designer of all productions and the most pious and devoutest part having the perfectest notions of God I mean so much as Nature can possibly know of God so that whatsoever the sensitive Perception is either defective in or ignorant of the rational Perception supplies But mistake me not by Rational Perception and Knowledg I mean Regular Reason not Irregular where I do also exclude Art which is apt to delude sense and cannot inform so well as Reason doth for Reason reforms and instructs sense in all its actions But both the rational and sensitive knowledg and perception being divideable as well as composeable it causes ignorance as well as knowledg amongst Natures Creatures for though Nature is but one body and has no sharer or copartner but is intire and whole in it self as not composed of several different parts or substances and consequently has but one Infinite natural knowledg and wisdom yet by reason she is also divideable and composeable according to the nature of a body we can justly and with all reason say That as Nature is divided into infinite several parts so each several part has a several and particular knowledg and perception both sensitive and rational and again that each part is ignorant of the others knowledg and perception when as otherwise considered altogether and in general as they make up but one infinite body of Nature so they make also but one infinite general knowledg And thus Nature may be called both Individual as not having single parts subsisting without her but all united in one body and Divideable by reason she is partable in her own several corporeal figurative motions and not otherwise for there is no Vacuum in Nature neither can her parts start or remove from the Infinite body of Nature so as to separate themselves from it for there 's no place to flee to but body and place are all one thing so that the parts of Nature can onely joyn and disjoyn to and from parts but not to and from the body of Nature And since Nature is but one body it is intirely wise and knowing ordering her self-moving parts with all facility and ease without any disturbance living in pleasure and delight with infinite varieties and curiosities such as no single Part or Creature of hers can ever attain to 2. Of Art and Experimental Philosophy SOme are of opinion That by Art there can be a reparation made of the Mischiefs and Imperfections mankind has drawn upon it self by negligence and intemperance and a wilful and superstitious deserting the Prescripts and Rules of Nature whereby every man both from a derived Corruption innate and born with him and from his breediug and converse with men is very subject to slip into all sorts of Errors But the all-powerful God and his servant Nature know that Art which is but a particular Creature cannot inform us of the Truth of the Infinite parts of Nature being but finite it self for though every Creature has a double perception rational and sensitive yet each creature or part has not an Infinite perception nay although each particular creature or part of Nature may have some conceptions of the Infinite parts of Nature yet it cannot know the truth of those Infinite parts being but a finite part it self which finiteness causes errors in Perceptions wherefore it is well said when they confess themselves That the uncertainty and mistakes of humane actions proceed either from the narrowness and wandring of our senses or from the slipperiness or delusion of our memory or from the confinement or rashness of our understandiug But say they It is no wonder that our power over natural Causes and Effects is so slowly improved seeing we are not onely to contend with the obscurity and difficulty of the things whereon we work and think but even the forces of our minds conspire to betray us And these being the dangers in the process of Humane Reason the remedies can onely proceed
and disordered when as yet sense and reason may perceive that Nature works both easily and orderly and therefore I rather believe that as all other Creatures so also light is patterned out by the corporeal figurative and perceptive motions of the optick sense and not that its perception is made by its'entrance into the eye or by pressure and reaction or by confused mixtures by reason the way of Patterning is an easie alteration of parts when as all others are forced and constrained nay unsetled inconstant and uncertain for how should the fluid particles of air and light be able to produce a constant and setled effect being so changeable themselves what instances soever of Geometrical figures be drawn hither to evince it if Man knew Natures Geometry he might perhaps do something but his artificial figures will never find out the architecture of Nature which is beyond his perception or capacity But some may object That neither colour nor any other object can be seen or perceived without light and therefore light must needs be the cause of colours as well as of our optick perception To which I answer Although we cannot regularly see any other bodies without light by reason darkness doth involve them yet we perceive darkness and night without the help of light They will say We perceive darkness onely by the absence of light I answer If all the Perception of the optick sense did come from light then the Perception of night or darkness would be no perception at all which is a Paradox and contrary to common experience nay to sense and reason for black requires as much Perception as white and so doth darkness and night Neither could we say it is dark or it is night if we did not perceive it to be so or had no perception at all of it The truth is we perceive as much darkness as we do light and as much black as we do white for although darkness doth not present to our view other objects so as light doth but conceals them yet this doth not infer that darkness is not perceived for darkness must needs do so by reason it is opposite to light and its corporeal figurative motions are quite contrary to the motions of light and therefore it must also of necessity have contrary effects wherefore the error of those that will not allow darkness to be a corporeal figurative motion as well as light but onely a privation or absence of light cannot make it nothing but it is on the contrary well known that darkness has a being as well as light has and that it is something and not nothing by reason we do perceive it but he that perceives must needs perceive something for no perception can be of nothing besides I have declared elsewhere that we do see in dreams and that mad men see objects in the dark without the help of light which proves it is not the presence or entering of light into the eye that causes our seeing nor the absence of light which takes away our optick Perception but light onely doth present exterior objects to our view so as we may the better perceive them Neither is a colour lost or lessened in the dark but it is onely concealed from the ordinary perception of humane sight for truly if colours should not be colours in the dark then it might as rationally be said that a man's flesh and blood is not flesh and blood in the dark when it is not seen by a humane eye I will not say that the smalness and fineness of parts may not make colours appear more glorious for colours are like artificial Paintings the gentler and finer their draughts and lines are the smoother and glossier appear their works but smalness and fineness is not the true cause of colours that is it doth not make colours to be colours although it makes colours fine And thus black is not black through the absence of Light no more then white can be white by the presence of light but blackness is one sort of colour whiteness another redness another and so of the rest Whereof some are superficial and changeable to wit such as are made by the reflection of light others fixt and inherent viz. such as are in several sorts of Minerals Vegetables and Animals and others again are produced by Art as by Dying and Painting which Artists know best how to order by their several mixtures 19. Of the Pores of a Charcoal and of Emptiness ALthough I cannot believe that the absence of Light in the Pores of a Charcoal is the cause of its blackness yet I do not question the truth of its Pores for that all or most Creatures have Pores I have declared before which Pores are nothing else but passages to receive and discharge some parts of matter and therefore the opinion of those that believe an entering of some Particles of exterior bodies through the Pores of animal Creatures and an intermixing with their interior parts as that for example in the bathing in Mineral Waters the liquid and warm vehicles of the Mineral Particles do by degrees insinuate themselves into the pores of the skin and intermix with the inner parts of the body is very rational for this is a convenient way of conveighing exteterior parts into the body and may be effectual either to good or bad and although the pores be very small yet they are numerous so that the number of the pores supplies the want of their largeness But yet although Pores are passages for other bodies to issue or enter nevertheless they are not empty there being no such thing as an emptiness in Nature for surely God the fulness and Perfection of all things would not suffer any Vacuum in Nature which is a Pure Nothing Vacuum implies a want and imperfection of something but all that God made by his All-powerful Command was good and perfect Wherefore although Charcoals and other bodies have Pores yet they are fill'd with some subtile Matter not subject to our sensitive perception and are not empty but onely call'd so by reason they are not fill'd up with some solid and gross substance perceptible by our senses But some may say if there be no emptiness in Nature but all fulness of body or bodily parts then the spiritual or divine soul in Man which inhabits his body would not have room to reside in it I answer The Spiritual or Divine Soul in Man is not Natural but Supernatural and has also a Supernatural way of residing in man's body for Place belongs onely to bodies and a Spirit being bodiless has no need of a bodily place But then they will say That I make Spirit and Vacuum all one thing by reason I describe a Spirit to be a Natural Nothing and the same I say of Vacuum and hence it will follow that particular Spirits are particular Emptinesses and an Infinite Spirit an Infinite Vacuum My answer is That although a Spirit is a Natural nothing yet it is
a Supernatural something but a Vacnum is a Pure nothing both Naturally and Supernaturally and God forbid I should be so irreligious as to compare Spirits and consequently God who is an Infinite Spirit to a Vacuum for God is All-fulfilling and an Infinite Fulness and Perfection though not a Corporeal or Material yet a Supernatural Spiritual and Incomprehensible fulness when as Vacuum although it is a corporeal word yet in effect or reality is nothing and expresses a want or imperfection which cannot be said of any supernatural Creature much less of God 20. Of Colours ALthough the sensitive perception doth pattern out the exterior figure of Colours as easily as of any other object yet all perceptions of Colours are not made by Patterning for as there are many perceptions which take no patterns from outward objects so there are also perceptions of Colours which never were presented to our sensitive organs Neither is any perception made by exterior objects but by interior corporeal figurative motions for the object doth not print or act any way upon the eye but it is the sensitive motions in the eye which pattern out the figure of the object and it is to be observed that as the parts of some bodies do consist of several different figures which the learned call Heterogeneous one figure being included within another and some again their parts are but of one kind of figure which they call Homogeneous bodies as for example Water so it may be with Colours for some their parts may be quite thorow of one colour and others again may be of several colours and indeed most Creatures as they have different parts so those different parts have also different colours and as those parts do alter so do their colours For example a Man that is in good health looks of a sanguine complexion but being troubled with the Yellow or black Jaundies his complexion is of the colour of the humor either black or yellow yet it doth not proceed always from the over-flowing of the humor towards the exterior parts for many times when the humor is obstructed it will cause the same effect but then the corporeal motions in the extream parts alter by way of Imitation or Metamorphosing as from a sanguine colour into the colour of the predominant humor Wherefore it is no more wonder to see colours change in the tempering of Steel as some are pleased to alledg this experiment then to see Steel change and rechange its temper from being hard to soft from tough to brittle c. which changes prove that colours are material as well as steel so that the alteration of the corporeal parts is the alteration of the corporeal figures of colours They also prove that Light is not essential to colours for although some colours are made by several Reflexions Refractions and Positions of Light yet Light is not the true and natural cause of all colours but those colours that are made by light are most inconstant momentany and alterable by reason light and its effects are very changeable Neither are colours made by a bare motion for there is no such thing as a bare or immaterial Motion in Nature but both Light and Colours are made by the corporeal figurative motions of Nature and according to the various changes of those Motions there are also various and different Lights and Colours and the perception of light and Colours is made and dissolved by the sensitive figurative motions in the optick sensorium without the exchange of exterior objects but as the slackest loosest or rarest parts are of least solid or composed corporeal figures so are they most apt to change and rechange upon the least disorder as may well be observed in colours raised by Passions as fear anger or the like which will change not onely the complexion and countenance but the very features will have some alteration for a short time and many times the whole body will be so altered as not to be rightly composed again for a good while nay often there follows a total dissolution of the whole figure which we call death And at all this we need not wonder if we do but consider that Nature is full of sense and reason that is of sensitive and rational perception which is the cause that oftentimes the disturbance of one part causes all other parts of a composed figure to take an alarum for as we may observe it is so in all other composed bodies even in those composed by Art as for example in the Politick body of a Common-wealth one Traytor is apt to cause all the Kingdom to take armes and although every member knows not particularly of the Traytor and of the circumstances of his crime yet every member if regular knows its particular duty which causes a general agreement to assist each other and as it is with a Common-wealth so it is also with an animal body for if there be factions amongst the parts of an animal body then straight there arises a Civil War Wherefore to return to Colours a sudden change of Colours may cause no wonder by reason there is oftentimes in Nature a sudden change of parts that is an alteration of figures in the same parts Neither is it more to be admired that one colour should be within another then one figurative part is within another for colours are figurative parts and as there are several Creatures so there are also several Colours for the Colour of a Creature is as well corporeal as the Creature it self and to express my self as clearly as I can Colour is as much a body as Place and Magnitude which are but one thing with body wherefore when the body or any corporeal part varies whether solid or rare Place Magnitude Colour and the like must of necessity change or vary also which change is no annihilation or perishing for as no particle of Matter can be lost in Nature nor no particular motion so neither can Colour and therefore the opinion of those who say That when Flax or Silk is divided into very small threads or fine parts those parts lose their colours and being twisted regain their colours seems not conformable to Truth for the division of their parts doth not destroy their colours nor the composing of those parts regain them but they being divided into such small and fine parts it makes their colours which are the finest of their exterior parts not to be subject to our optick perception for what is very small or rare is not subject to the humane optick sense wherefore there are these following conditions required to the optick perception of an exterior object First The object must not be too subtil rare or little but of a certain degree of magnitude Next It must not be too far distant or without the reach of our sight then the medium must not be obstructed so as to hinder our perception And lastly our optick sensorium must be perfect and the sensitive motions regular of
their Colours have and if their opinions be as changeable as inconstant Atomes and variable Lights then their experiments will be of no great benefit and use to the world Neither will Artificial Characters and Geometrical Figures be able to make their opinions and experiments more probable for they appear to me like Dr. Dee's numbers who was directed by I know not what spirits which Kelley saw in his holy stone which neither of them did understand much less will Dioptrical glasses give any true Information of them but they rather delude the sight for Art is not onely intricate and obscure but a false informer and rather blinds then informs any particular Creature of the Truth of Nature but my reason perceives that Nature loves sometimes to act or work blind-fold in the actions of Art for although they be natural yet they are but Natures blind at least her winking or jugling actions causing some parts or Creatures to deceive others or else they are her politick actions by which she deceives her Creatures expectations and by that means keeps them from knowing and understanding her subtile and wise Government 21. Whether an Idea haue a Colour and of the Idea of a Spirit I Have declared in my former discourse that there is no Colour without body nor a body without colour for we cannot think of a body without we think of colour too To which some may object That if colour be as proper to a body as matter and if the mind be corporeal then the mind is also coloured I answer The Mind in my opinion has as much colour as other parts of Nature But then perhaps they will ask me what colour the Mind is of My answer is That the Mind which is the rational part of Nature is no more subject to one colour then the Infinite parts of Nature are subject to one corporeal figurative motion for you can no more confine the corporeal mind to a particular complexion then you can confine Infinite matter to one particular colour or all colours to one particular figure Again they may ask Whether an Idea have a colour and if so whether the Idea of God be coloured To which I answer If the Ideas be of corporeal finite figures they have colours according to the nature or property or figure of the original but as for the Idea of God it is impossible to have a corporeal Idea of an infinite incorporeal Being for though the finite parts of Nature may have a perception or knowledg of the existence of God yet they cannot possibly pattern or figure him he being a Supernatural Immaterial and Infinite Being But put the case although it is very improbable nay against sense and reason there were natural immaterial Idea's if those Idea's were finite and not infinite yet they could not possibly express an infinite which is without limitation by a finite figure which hath a Circumference Some may say An Immaterial Idea hath no Circumference But then I answer It is not a finite Idea and it is impossible for an Idea to be Infinite for I take an Idea to be the picture of some object and there can be no picture without a perfect form neither can I conceive how an immaterial can have a form not having a body wherefore it is more impossible for Nature to make a picture of the Infinite God then for Man which is but a part of Nature to make a picture of infinite Nature for Nature being material has also a figure and matter they being all one so that none can be without the other no more then Nature can be divided from her self Thus it is impossible for Man to make a figure or picture of that which is not a part of Nature for pictures are as much parts of Nature as any other parts nay were they monstrous as we call them for Nature being material is also figurative and being a self-moving matter or substance is divideable and composeable and as she hath infinite corporeal figurative motions and infinite parts so she hath infinite figures of which some are pictures others originals and if any one particular Creature could picture out those infinite figures he would picture out Nature but Nature being Infinite cannot be pictured or patterned by any finite and particular Creature although she is material nevertherless she may be patterned in parts And as for God He being individeable and immaterial can neither be patterned in part nor in whole by any part of Nature which is material nay not by infinite Nature her self Wherefore the notions of God can be no otherwise but of his existence to wit that we know there is something above Nature who is the Author and God of Nature for though Nature hath an infinite natural knowledg of the Infinite God yet being divideable as well as composeable her parts cannot have such an infinite knowledg or perception and being composeable as much as divideable no part can be so ignorant of God as not to know there is a God Thus Nature hath both an infinite and finite perceptions infinite in the whole as I may say for better expressions sake and finite in parts But mistake me not I do not mean that either the infinite perception of Nature or the finite perceptions of natural parts and Creatures are any otherwise of that supernatural and divine being then natural but yet they are the most purest parts being of the rational part of Nature moving in a most elevating and subtile manner as making no exact figure or form because God hath neither form nor figure but that subtile matter or corporeal perceptive motion patterns out onely an over-ruling power which power all the parts of Nature are sensible of and yet know not what it is like as the perception of Sight seeeth the ebbing and flowing of the Sea or the motion of the Sun yet knows not their cause and the perception of Hearing hears Thunder yet knows not how it is made and if there be such ignorance of the corporeal parts of Nature what of God But to conclude my opinion is That as the sensitive perception knows some of the other parts of Nature by their effects so the rational perceives some effects of the Omnipotent power of God which effects are perceptible by finite Creatures but not his Infinite Nature nor Essence nor the cause of his Infiniteness and Omnipotency Thus although Gods Power may be perceived by Natures parts yet what God is cannot be known by any part and Nature being composeable there is a general acknowledgment of God in all her parts but being also divideable it is the cause there are particular Religions and opinions of God and of his divine Worship and Adoration 22. Of Wood Petrified I Cannot admire as some do that Wood doth turn into stone by reason I observe that Slime Clay Dirt nay Water may and doth often the same which is further off from the nature of Stone then Wood is as being less dense and its
is of the exterior object and the sentient or else the perception of all exterior objects would be made by such an intermixture which is against sense and reason and therefore even in such a commixture where the parts of the object enter into the body of the sentient as fire doth into fuel the perception of the motions of fire in the fuel and the fuels consumption or burning is not made by the fire but by the fuels own perceptive motions imitating the motions of the fire so that fire doth not turn the fuel into ashes but the fuel doth change by its own corporeal figurative motions and the fire is onely an occasion of it The same may be said of Cold. Neither is every Creatures perception alike no more then it can be said that one particular Creature as for example Man hath but one perception for the perception of sight and smelling and so of every sence are different nay one and the same sense may have as many several perceptions as it hath objects and some sorts of peceptions in some Creatures are either stronger or weaker then in others for we may observe that in one and the same degree of heat or cold some will have quicker and some slower perceptions then others for example in the perception of touch if several men stand about a fire some will sooner be heated then others the like for Cold some will apprehend cold weather sooner then others the reason is that in their perception of Touch the sensitive motions work quicker or slower in figuring or patterning out heat or cold then in the perception of others The same may be said of other objects where some sentient bodies will be more sensible of some then of others even in one and the same kind of perception But if in all perceptions of cold cold should intermix with the bodies of animals or other Creatures like as several Ingredients then all bodies upon the perception of cold would dissolve their figures which we see they do not for although all dissolving motions are knowing and perceptive because every particular motion is a particular knowledg and perception yet not every perception requires a dissolution or change of its figure 'T is true some sorts or degrees of exterior heat and cold may occasion some bodies to dissolve their interior figures and change their particular natures but they have not power to dissolve or change all natural bodies Neither doth heat or cold change those bodies by an intermixture of their own particles with the parts of the bodies but the parts of the bodies change themselves by way of imitation like as men put themselves into a mode-fashion although oftentimes the senses will have fashions of their own without imitating any other objects for not all sorts of perceptions are made by Imitation or patterning but some are made voluntarily or by rote as for example when some do hear and see such or such things without any outward objects Wherefore it is not certain steams or agitated particles in the air nor the vapours and effluviums of exterior objects insinuating themselves into the pores of the sentient that are the cause of the Perception of Heat and Cold as some do imagine for there cannot probably be such differences in the pores of animal Creatures of one sort as for example of Men which should cause such a different perception as is found in them for although exterior heat or cold be the same yet several animals of the same sort will have several and different perceptions of one and the same degrees of exterior heat and cold as above mentioned which difference would not be if their perception was caused by a real entrance of hot and cold particles into the pores of their bodies Besides Burning-Fevers and Shaking-Agues prove that such effects can be without such exterior causes Neither can all sorts of Heat and Cold be expressed by Wind Air and Water in Weather-glasses for they being made by Art cannot give a true information of the Generation of all natural heat and cold but as there is great difference between Natural and Artificial Ice Snow Colours Light and the like so between Artificial and Natural Heat and Cold and there are so many several sorts of heat and cold that it is impossible to reduce them all to one certain cause or principle or confine them to one sort of Motions as some do believe that all sorts of Heat and Cold are made by motions tending inward and outward and others that by ascending and descending or rising and depressing motions which is no more probable then that all Colours are made by the reflexion of Light and that all White is made by reflecting the beams of light outward and all black by reflecting them inward or that a Man when he is on Horse-back or upon the top of an House or Steeple or in a deep Pit or Mine should be of another figure then of the figure and nature of man unless he were dissolved by death which is a total alteration of his figure for neither Gravity nor Levity of Air nor Almospherical Pillars nor any Weather-glasses can give us a true information of all natural heat and cold but the several figurative corporeal motions which make all things in Nature do also make several sorts of heat and cold in several sorts of Creatures But I observe experimental Philosophers do first cry up several of their artificial Instruments then make doubts of them and at last disapprove them so that there is no trust nor truth in them so much as to be relied on for it is not an age since Weather-glasses were held the onely divulgers of heat and cold or change of weather and now some do doubt they are not such infallible Informers of those truths by which it is evident that Experimental Philosophy has but a brittle inconstant and uncertain ground and these artificial Instruments as Microscopes Telescopes and the like which are now so highly applauded who knows but may within a short time have the same fate and upon a better and more rational enquiry be found deluders rather then true Informers The truth is there 's not any thing that has and doth still delude most mens understandings more then that they do not consider enough the variety of Natures actions and do not imploy their reason so much in the search of natures actions as they do their senses preferring Art and Experiments before Reason which makes them stick so close to some particular opinions and particular sorts of Motions or Parts as if there were no more Motions Parts or Creatures in Nature then what they see and find out by their Artificial Experiments Thus the variety of Nature is a stumbling-block to moft men at which they break their heads of understanding like blind men that run against several posts or walls and how should it be otherwise since Natures actions are Infinite and Mans understanding finite for they consider not so much
the interior Natures of several Creatures as their exterior figures and Phonomena's which makes them write many Paradoxes but few Truths supposing that Sense and Art can onely lead them to the knowledg of truth when as they delude rather their judgments instead of informing them But Nature has placed Sense and Reason together so that there is no part or particle of Nature which has not its share of reason as well as of sense for every part having self-motion hath also knowledg which is sense and reason and therefore it is fit we should not onely imploy our senses but chiefly our reason in the search of the causes of natural effects for Sense is onely a workman and Reason is the designer and surveigher and as reason guides and directs so ought sense to work But seeing that in this age sense is more in fashion then reason it is no wonder there are so many irregular opinions and judgments amongst men However although it be the mode yet I for my part shall not follow it but leaving to our Moderns their Experimental or Mode-Philosophy built upon deluding Art I shall addict my self to the study of Contemplative-Philosophy and Reason shall be my guide Not that I despise sense or sensitive knowledg but when I speak of sense I mean the perception of our five exterior senses helped or rather deluded by Art and Artificial instruments for I see that in this present Age Learned men are full of Art and Artificial trials and when they have found out something by them they presently judg that all natural actions are made the same way as for example when they find by Art that Salt will make Snow congeal into Ice they instantly conclude from thence that all natural congelations are made by saline particles and that the Primum Frigidum or the Principal cause of all natural cold must needs be salt by reason they have found by Art that salt will do the same effect in the aforesaid commixture with Snow But how grosly they are deceived rational men may judg If I were a Chymist and acknowledged their common Principles I might perchance have some belief in it but not whilest I follow reason nay I perceive that oftentimes our senses are deluded by their own irregularities in not perceiving always truly and rightly the actions of Art but mistaking them which is a double error and therefore that particular sensitive knowledg in man which is built meerly upon artificial experiments will never make him a good Philosopher but regular sense and reason must do it that is a regular sensitive and rational inquisition into the various actions of Nature For put the case a Microscope be true concerning the magnifying of an exterior object but yet the magnitude of the object cannot give a true information of its interior parts and their motions or else great and large bodies would be interiously known even without Microscopes The truth is our exterior senses can go no further then the exterior figures of Creatures and their exterior actions but our reason may pierce deeper and consider their inherent natures and interior actions and although it do sometimes erre for there can be no perfect or universal knowledg in a finite part concerning the Infinite actions of Nature yet it may also probably guess at them and may chance to hit the Truth Thus Sense and Reason shall be the ground of my Philosophy and no particular natural effects nor artificial instruments and if any one can shew me a better and surer ground or Principle then this I shall most willingly and joyfully embrace it 26. Of the Measures Degrees and different sorts of Heat and Cold. SOme Experimental Philosophers are much inquisitive into the measures of Heat and Cold and as we have setled standards for weight and magnitude and time so they endeavour to measure the varying temperature and gradual differences of heat and cold but do what they can their artificial measures or weights neither will nor can be so exact as the natural are to wit so as not to make them err in more or less Neither is it possible that all the degrees of heat and cold in Nature can be measured for no man can measure what he doth not know and who knows all the different sorts of heats and colds Nay if man did endeavour to measure onely one sort of heat or cold as for example the degrees of the heat or coldness of the air how is it possible that he should do it by reason of the continual change of the motions of heat or cold of the air which are so inconstant that it were surer to measure the fluidity of the air then to measure the degrees of heat or cold of the air for the temper of the air and of its heat and cold may vary so as many times we shall never find the same measure again Wherefore if we desire to have some knowledg of the degrees of some sorts of heat or cold my opinion is that we may more easily attain to it by the help of rational perception then by a sensitive inspection of artificial Weather-glasses or the like for reason goes beyond sense and although the sensitive perception is best next the rational yet the rational is above the sensitive But some of the learned conceive the degrees of heat and cold are made by bare divisions whenas in my opinion they are made by the several degrees of their corporeal figurative motions They do also imagine that there 's no degree but must ascend from one to two from two to three and so forth through all numbers and that from one to twenty there be so many degrees as there be numbers when as in my opinion there 's no more but one degree required from one to a Million or more for though both in Nature and Art there are degrees from one single figure to another yet there may also be but one degree from one to a million without reckoning any intermediate degrees or figures so that a body when it moves quick or slow needs not to go through all the intermediate degrees of quickness or slowness as to move quicker and quicker slower and slower but may immediately move from a very slow to a very quick degree the truth is no man is able to measure the infinite degrees of natural motions for though Nature consists of particular finites yet it doth also consist of infinite particulars finite in figure infinite in number and who can number from finite to infinite But having discoursed hereof elsewhere I return to heat and cold aud let others dispute whether the degrees of heat and cold in the air be the same with the degrees of animal perceptions or with the degrees of animal cold and heat my opinion is that there being several sorts and several particular heats and colds they cannot be just alike each other but there 's some difference betwixt them as for example there are shaking freezing chilly windy numb
are so much for expansion confess themselves that water is thicker and heavier in Winter then in Summer and that Ships draw less water and that the water can bear greater burdens in Winter then in Summer which doth not prove a rarefaction and expansion but rather a contraction and condensation of water by cold They likewise affirm that some spirituous liquors of a mixt nature will not expand but on the contrary do visibly contract in the act of freezing Concerning the levity of Ice I cannot believe it to be caused by expansion for expansion will not make it lighter but 't is onely a change of the exterior shape or figure of the body Neither doth Ice prove Light because it will float above water for a great Ship of wood which is very heavy will swim when as other sorts of bodies that are light and little will sink Nor are minute bubbles the cause of the Ice's levity which some do conceive to stick within the Ice and make it light for this is but a light and airy opinion which has no firm ground and it might as well be said that airy bubles are the cause that a Ship keeps above water but though wind and sails make a Ship swim faster yet they will not hinder it from sinking The truth is the chief cause of the levity or gravity of bodies is quantity of bulk shape purity and rarity or grosness and density and not minute bubles or insensible atomes or pores unless porous bodies be of less quantity in water then some dense bodies of the same magnitude And thus it is the Triangular figure of Snow that makes it light and the squareness that makes Ice heavier then Snow for if Snow were porous and its pores were fill'd with atomes it would be much heavier then its principle Water Besides It is to be observed that not all kind of Water is of the same weight by reason there are several sorts of Circle-lines which make water and therefore those that measure all water alike may be mistaken for some Circle-lines may be gross some fine some sharp some broad some pointed c. all which may cause a different weight of water Wherefore freezing in my opinion is not caused by rarifying and dilating but by contracting condensing and retenting motions and truly if Ice were expanded by congelation I would fain know whether its expansions be equal with the degrees of its hardness which if so a drop of water might be expanded to a great bigness nay if all frozen liquors should be inlarged or extended in magnitude according to the strength of the freezing motions a drop of water at the Poles would become I will not say a mountain but a very large body Neither can rarefaction in my opinion be the cause of the Ice's expansion for not all rarified bodies do extend and therefore I do rather believe a clarefaction in Ice then a rarefaction which are different things But some may object That hot and swelling bodies do dilate and diffuse heat and scent without an expansion of their substance I answer That is more then any one is able to prove the truth is when a fiery-coal and an odoriferous body cast heat and scent as we use to say 't is not that they do really and actually expand or dilate heat or scent without body for there can be no such thing as an immaterial heat or scent neither can Nothing be dilated or expanded but both heat and scent being one thing with the hot and smelling body are as exterior objects patterned out by the sensitive motions of the sentient body and so are felt and smelt not by an actual emission of their own parts or some heating and smelling atomes or an immaterial heat and smell but by an imitation of the perceptive motions in the sentient subject The like for cold for great shelves or mountains of Ice do not expand cold beyond their icy bodies but the air patterns out the cold and so doth the perception of those Seamen that sail into cold Countries for it is well to be observed that there is a stint or proportion in all natures corporeal figurative motions to wit in her particulars as we may plainly see in every particular sort or species of Creatures and their constant and orderly productions for though particular Creatures may change into an infinite variety of figures by the infinite variety of natures corporeal figurative motions yet each kind or sort is stinted so much as it cannot run into extreams nor make a confusion although it makes a distinguishment between every particular Creature even in one and the same sort And hence we may conclude that Nature is neither absolutely necessitated nor has an absolute free-will for she is so much necessitated that she depends upon the All-powerfull God and cannot work beyond her self or beyond her own nature and yet hath so much liberty that in her particulars she works as she pleaseth and as God has given her power but she being wise acts according to her infinite natural wisdom which is the cause of her orderly Government in all particular productions changes and dissolutions so that all Creatures in their particular kinds do move and work as Nature pleases orders and directs and therefore as it is impossible for Nature to go beyond her self so it is likewise impossible that any particular body should extend beyond it self or its natural figure I will not say that heat or cold or other parts and figures of Nature may not occasion other bodies to dilate or extend but my meaning is that no heat or cold can extend without body or beyond body and that they are figured and patterned out by the motions of the sentient which imitating or patterning motions of the sentient body cannot be so perfect or strong as the original motions in the object it self Neither do I say that all parts or bodies do imitate but some and at some times there will be more Imitators then at others and sometimes none at all and the imitations are according as the imitating or patterning parts are disposed or as the object is presented Concerning the degrees of a visible expansion they cannot be declared otherwise then by the visibly extended body nor be perceived by us but by the optick sense But mistake me not I do not mean that the degrees of heat and cold can onely be perceived by our optick sense but I speak of bodies visibly expanded by heat and cold for some degrees and sorts of heat and cold are subject to the humane perception of sight some to the perception of touch some to both and some to none of them there being so many various sorts and degrees both of heat and cold as they cannot be altogether subject to our grosser exterior senses but those which are are perceived as I said by our perception of sight and touch for although our sensitive perceptions do often commit errors and mistakes either through their own
pores of the flesh through which they must enter I cannot readily believe it nay the Motions and Prints would grow so weak and faint in their journey especially if the object be a great way off as they would become of no effect But if their opinion be that Ideas can change and alter then all immaterial substances may do the same and spirits may change and alter into several immaterial figures which in my opinion cannot be for what is supernatural is unalterable and therefore the opinion of Ideas in perception is as irregular as the opinion of senseless atomes in the framing of a Regular World Again Some of our Modern Philosophers are of opinion That the subject wherein Colour and Image are inherent is not the object or thing seen for Image and Colour say they may be there where the thing seen is not As for example The Sun and other visible objects by reflexion in Water or Glass so that there is nothing without us really which we call Image or Colour for the Image or Colour is but an apparition unto us of the motion and agitation which the object works in the brain or spirits and divers times men see directly the same object double as two Candles for one and the like To which I answer That all this doth not prove that the object is not perceived or that an object can be without image or colour or that figure and colour are not the same with the object but it proves that the object enters not the eye but is onely patterned out by the perceptive motions in the optick sense for the reflection of the Sun in Water or Glass is but a copy of the original made by the figurative perceptive motions in the Glass or Water which may pattern out an object as well as we do which copy is patterned out again by our optick perception and so one copy is made by another The truth is Our optick sense could not perceive either the original or copy of an exterior object if it did not make those figures in its own parts and therefore figure and colour are both in the object and the eye and not as they say neither in the object nor in the eye for though I grant that one thing cannot be in two places at once yet there may be several copies made of one original in several parts which are several places at one and the same time which is more probable then that figure and colour should neither be in the object nor in the eye or according to their own words that figure and colour should be there where the thing seen is not which is to separate it from the object a thing against all possibility sense and reason or else that a substanceless and senseless Motion should make a progressive journey from the object to the sentient and there print figure and colour upon the optick sense by a bare agitation or concussion so that the perception or apparition as they call it of an object should onely be according to the stroke the agitation makes as for example the perception of light after such a manner figure after such and colour after another for if Motion be no substance or body and besides void of sense not knowing what it acts I cannot conceive how it should make such different strokes upon both the sensitive organ and the brain and all so orderly that every thing is perceived differently and distinctly Truly this opinion is like Epicurus's of Atomes but how absurd it is to make senseless corpuscles the cause of sense and reason and consequently of perception is obvious to every ones apprehension and needs no demonstration Next as Colour according to their opinion is not inherent any otherwise in the object but by an effect thereof upon us caused by such a motion in the object so neither say they is sound in the thing we hear but in our selves for as a man may see so he may hear double or trebble by multiplication of Ecchoes which are sounds as well as the Original and not being in one and the same place cannot be inherent in the body for the Clapper has no sound in it but motion and maketh motion in the inward parts of the Bell neither has the Bell motion but sound and imparts motion to the air the air again imparts motion to the ear and nerves until it comes to the brain which has motion not sound from the brain it rebounds back into the nerves outward and then it becoms an apparition without which we call sound But Good Lord what a confusion would all this produce if it were thus What need is there of imparting Motion when Nature can do it a much easier way I wonder how rational men can believe that motion can be imparted without matter Next that all this can be done in an instant Again that it is the organ of the sentient that makes colour sound and the like and that they are not really inherent in the object it self For were there no men to perceive such or such a colour figure or sound can we rationally think that object would have no colour figure nor sound at all I will not say That there is no pressure or reaction but they do not make sense or reason several parts may produce several effects by their several compositions but yet this does not prove that there can be no perception but by pressure upon the organ and consequently the brain and that the thing perceived is not really existent in the object but a bare apparition to the sentient the Clapper gives no Motion to the Bell but both the Clapper and the Bell have each their own Motion by which they act in striking each other and the conjunction of such or such parts makes a real sound were there no Ear to hear it Again Concerning the sense of Touch the heat say they we feel from the Fire is in us for it is quite different from that in the fire our heat is pleasure or pain according as it is great or moderate but in the Coal there is no such thing I answer They are so far in the right that the heat we feel is made by the perceptive motions of and in our own parts and not by the fires parts acting upon us but yet if the fire were not really such a thing as it is that is a hot and burning body our sense would not so readily figure it out as it does which proves it is a real copy of a real object and not a meer fantasme or bare imparted motion from the object to the sentient made by pressure and reaction for if so the fire would waste in a moment of time by imparting so much motion to so many sentients besides the several strokes which the several imparted motions make upon the sentient and the reaction from the sentient to the exterior parts would cause such a strong and confused agitation in the sentient that it would
when the sensitive do not To which I answer 'T is probable that the rational do many times move to other perceptions then the sensitive as I have often declared but if their actions be orderly and regular then most commonly they move to one and the same perception but reason being the purer and freer part has a more subtil perception then sense for there is great difference between sense and reason concerning the subtilty of their actions sense does perceive as it were in part when as reason perceives generally and in whole for if there be an object which is to be patterned out with all its proprieties the colour of it is perceived onely by sight the smell of it is perceived by the Nose its Sound is perceived by the Ear its taste is perceived by the Tongue and its hardness or softness coldness or heat dryness or moisture is perceived by Touch so that every sense in particular patterns out that object which is proper for it and each has but so much knowledg of the said object as it patterns out for the sight knows nothing of its taste nor the taste of its touch nor the touch of its smell and so forth But the mind patterns out all those figures together so that they are but as one object to it without division which proves that the rational perception being more general is also more perfect then the sensitive and the reason is because it is more free and not incumbred with the burdens of other parts Wherefore the rational can judg better of objects then the sensitive as being more knowing and knows more because it has a more general perception and hath a more general perception because it is more subtile and active and is more subtil and active because it is free and not necessitated to labour on or with any other parts But some may say How is it possible that the rational part being so closely intermixed with the sensitive and the inanimate can move by it self and not be a labourer as well as the sensitive I answer The reason is because the rational part is more pure and finer then the sensitive or any other part of Matter which purity and fineness makes that it is so subtile and active and consequently not necessitated to labour with or on other parts Again Some may ask Whether those intermixed parts continue always together in their particulars as for example whether the same rational parts keep constantly to the same sensitive and inanimate parts as they are commixed I answer Nature is in a perpetual motion and her parts are parts of her own self-moving body wherefore they must of necessity divide and compose but if they divide and compose they cannot keep constantly to the same parts Nevertheless although particular parts are divideable from each other yet the Triumvirate of Nature that is the three chief degrees or parts of Matter to wit rational sensitive and inanimate which belong to the constitution of Nature cannot be separated or divided from each other in general so that rational matter may be divided from sensitive and inanimate and these again from the rational but they must of necessity continue in this commixture as long as Nature lasts In short rational sensitive and inanimate Matter are divideable in their particulars that is such a particular part of inanimate Matter is not bound to such a particular part of sensitive or rational Matter c. but they are individeable in general that is from each other for wheresoever is body there is also a commixture of these three degrees of Matter 4. Some may say How is it possible That Reason can be above Sense and that the rational perception is more subtile and knowing then the sensitive since in my Philosophical Opinions I have declared that the sensitive perception doth inform the rational or that Reason perceives by the information of the senses To which I answer My meaning is not that Reason has no other perception but by the information of the senses for surely the rational perception is more subtile piercing and penetrating or inspective then the sensitive and therefore more intelligent and knowing but when I say that sense informs reason I speak onely of such perceptions where the rational figurative motions take patterns from the sensitive and do not work voluntarily or by rote Besides It is to be observed That in the mentioned Book I compare Thoughts which are the actions of the rational figurative motions to the sensitive Touch so that Touch is like a Thought in sense and Thought like a Touch in reason But there is great difference in their purity for though the actions of Touch and Thought are much after the same manner yet the different degrees of sense and reason or of animate sensitive and rational matter cause great difference between them and as all sensitive perception is a kind of touch so all rational perception is a kind of thoughtfulness But mistake me not when I say Thought is like Touch for I do not mean that the rational perception is caused by the conjunction or joining of one part to another or that it is an exterior touch but an interior knowledg for all self-knowledg is a kind of thoughtfulness and that Thought is a rational Touch as Touch is a sensitive Thought for the exterior perceptions of reason resemble the interior actions or knowledg of sense Neither do I mean that the perception of touch is made by pressure and reaction no more then the perception of sight hearing or the like but the patterns of outward objects being actions of the body sentient are as it were a self-touch or self-feeling both in the sensitive and rational perceptions Indeed that subtile and learned Philosopher who will perswade us that Perception is made by pressure and reaction makes Perception onely a fantasme For says he Reaction makes a Fantasme and that is Perception 5. Some perhaps will say That if the Perception of the exterior animal senses be made by Patterning then that animal which hath two or more eyes by patterning out an exterior object will have a double or trebble perception of it according to the number of its eyes I answer That when the corporeal motions in each eye move irregularly as for example when one eye moves this and the other another way or when the eyes look asquint then they do not pattern out the object directly as they ought but when the eyes move regularly then they pattern out one and the same object alike as being fixt but upon one point and the proof thereof is if there be two eyes we may observe that both have their perceptions apart as well as jointly because those parts that are in the middle of each eye do not make at the same time the same perceptions with those that are the side or extream parts thereof but their perceptions are different from each other For example the eyes of a Man or some other Animal pattern
as fire is beyond smoak which cannot be but dangerous and unfit to be used except it be to encounter opposite extreams By extreams I mean not the extreams of Nature but the height of a distemper when it is grown so far that it is upon point of destroying or dissolving a particular animal figure for Nature being infinite has no extreams neither in her substance nor actions for she has nothing that is opposite to Matter neither is there any such thing as most or least in Nature she being infinite and all her actions are ballanced by their opposites as for example there is no dilation but hath opposite to it contraction no condensation but has its opposite viz. rarefaction no composition but hath its opposite division no gravity without levity no grossness without purity no animate without inanimate no regularity without irregularity All which produces a peaceable orderly and wise Government in Natures Kingdom which wise Artists ought to imitate But you may say How is it possible That there can be a peaceable and orderly Government where there are so many contrary or opposite actions for contraries make war not peace I answer Although the actions of Nature are opposite yet Nature in her own substance is at peace because she is one and the same that is one material body and has nothing without her self to oppose and cross her neither is she subject to a general change so as to alter her own substance from being Matter for she is Infinite and Eternal but because she is self-moving and full of variety of figures this variety cannot be produced without variety of actions no not without opposition which opposition is the cause that there can be no extreams in particulars for it ballances each action so that it cannot run into infinite which otherwise would breed a horrid confusion in Nature And thus much of Principles Concerning the particulars of Chymical preparations I being not versed in that Art am not able to give my judgment thereof neither do I understand their terms and expressions as first what Chymists mean by Fixation for there 's nothing in Nature that can properly be called fixt because Nature and all her parts are perpetually self-moving onely Nature cannot be altered from being material nor from being dependant upon God Neither do I apprehend what some mean by the unlocking of bodies unless they understand by it a separation of natural parts proper for artificial uses neither can natural effects be separated by others any otherwise but occasionally so that some parts may be an occasion of such or such alterations in other parts But I must say this that according to humane sense and reason there is no part or particle in Nature which is not alterable by reason Nature is in a perpetual motion and full of variety 'T is true some bodies as Gold and Mercury seem to be unalterable from their particular natures but this onely appears thus to our senses because their parts are more fixt and retentive then others and no Art has been found out as yet which could alter ther proper and particular figures that is untie and dissolve or rather cause an alteration of their corporeal retentive motions that bind them into so fixt and consistent a body but all that is mixt with them has hitherto been found too weak for the alteration of ther inherent motions Nevertheless this doth not prove that they are not altogether unalterable for though Art cannot do it yet Nature may but it is an argument that they are not composed of straying Atomes or most minute particles for not to mention what I have often repeated before that there cannot be such most minute bodies in Nature by reason Nature knows of no extreams it is altogether improbable nay impossible that wandering corpuscles should be the cause of such fixt effects and by their association constitute such indissoluble masses or clusters as some do conceive which they call primary concretions for there is no such thing as a primary concretion or composition in Nature onely there are several sorts and degrees of motions and several sorts of compositions and as no particular creature can know the strength of motion so neither can it know the degrees of strength in particular natural bodies Wherefore although composition and division of parts are general motions and some figures may be more composed then others that is consist of more or fewer parts then others yet there is none that hath not a composition of parts The truth is there is nothing prime or principal amongst the effects of Nature but onely the cause from which they are produced which is self-moving Matter which is above particular effects yet Nature may have more ways then our particular reason can apprehend and therefore it is not to be admired that Camphor and the like bodies do yield differing effects according to the different occasions that make them move thus or thus for though changes and alterations of particulars may be occasioned by others yet they move by their own corporeal figurative motions as it is evident by the power of fire which makes other bodies move or change their parts and figures not by its own transforming motion but onely by giving an occasion to the inherent figurative motions of those bodies which by imitating the motions of fire change into such or such figures by their own proper innate and inherent motions otherwise if the alteration of combustible bodies proceeded from fire they would all have the like motions which is contradicted by experience I will not deny but there is as much variety in occasioning as there is in acting for the imitation is according to the object but the object is not the immediate agent but onely an occasional efficient so that according to my opinion there is no such difference as the learned make between Patient and Agent when they call the exterior occasional cause as for example Fire the Agent and the combustible body the Patient for they conceive that a body thrown into fire acts nothing at all but onely in a passive way suffers the fire to act upon it according to the degree of its own to wit the fires strength which sense and reason perceives otherwise for to pass by what I mentioned before that those bodies on which they suppose fire doth work change according not to the fires but their own inherent figurative motions it is most certain that if Nature and all her parts be self-moving which regular reason cannot deny and if Self-motion be corporeal then every part of Nature must of necessity move by its own motion for no body can impart motion to another body without imparting substance also and though particular motions in particular bodies may change infinite ways yet they cannot quit those bodies so as to leave them void and destitute of all motion because Matter and Motion are but one thing and therefore though fire be commixed with the parts of the fuel yet
Vegetables and the Fire and in the power of their corporeal figurative motions as any other figure whatsoever otherwise it would never have been produced nay not onely Glass but millions of other figures might be obtained from those parts they being subject to infinite changes for the actions of self-moving Matter are so infinitely various that according to the mixture or composition and division of parts they can produce what figures they please not by a new Creation but only a change or alteration of their own parts and though some parts act not to the production of such or such figures yet we cannot say that those figures are not in Nature or in the power of corporeal figurative self-motion we might say as well that a man cannot go when he sits or has no motion when he sleeps as believe that it is not in the power of Nature to produce such or such effects or actions when they are not actually produced for as I said before although Nature be but one material substance yet there are infinite mixtures of infinite parts produced by infinite self-motion infinite ways in so much that seldom any two Creatures even those of one sort do exactly resemble each other But some may say How is it possible That figure being all one with Matter can change and matter remain still the same without any change or alteration I answer As well as an animal body can put it self into various and different postures without any change of its interior animal figure for though figure cannot subsist without matter nor matter without figure generally considered yet particular parts of matter are not bound to certain particular figures Matter in its general nature remains always the same and cannot be changed from being Matter but by the power of self-motion it may change from being such or such a particular figure for example Wood is as much matter as Stone but it is not of the same figure nor has it the same interior innate motions which Stone hath because it has not the like composition of parts as other creatures of other figures have and though some figures be more constant or lasting then others yet this does not prove that they are not subject to changes as well as those that alter daily nay every moment much less that they are without motion for not all motions are dividing or dissolving but some are retentive some composing some attractive some expulsive some contractive some dilative and infinite other sorts of motions as 't is evident by the infinite variety which appears in the differing effects of Nature Nevertheless it is no consequence that because the effects are different they must also have different principles For first all effects of Nature are material which proves they have but one principle which is the onely infinite Matter Next they are all self-moving which proves that this material principle has self-motion for without self-motion there would be no variety or change of figures it being the nature of self-motion to be perpetually acting Thus Matter and Self-motion being inseparably united in one infinite body which is self-moving material Nature is the onely cause of all the infinite effects that are produced in Nature and not the Aristoteleon Elements or Chymists Tria prima which sense and reason perceives to be no more but effects or else if we should call all those Creatures principles which by the power of their own inherent motions change into other figures we shall be forced to make infinite principles and so confound principles with effects and after this manner that which is now an effect will become a principle and what is now a principle will become an effect which will lead our sense and reason into a herrid confusion and labyrinth of ignorance Wherefore I will neither follow the Opinions of the Ancient nor of our Moderns in this point but search the truth of Nature by the light of regular reason for I perceive that most of our modern Writings are not fill'd with new Inventions of their own but like a lumber stuff'd with old Commodities botch'd and dress'd up anew contain nothing but what has been said in former ages Nor am I of the opinion of our Divine Philosophers who mince Philosophy and Divinity Faith and Reason together and count it Irreligious if not Blasphemy to assert any other principles of Nature then what they I will not say by head and shoulders draw out of the Scripture especially out of Genesis to evince the finiteness and beginning of Nature when as Moses doth onely describe the Creation of this World and not of Infinite Nature But as Pure natural Philosophers do not meddle with Divinity or things Supernatural so Divines ought not to intrench upon Natural Philosophy Neither are Chymists the onely natural Philosophers because they are so much tied to the Art of Fire and regulate or measure all the effects of Nature according to their Artificial Experiments which do delude rather then inform their sense and reason and although they pretend to a vast and greater knowledg then all the rest yet they have not dived so deep into Nature yet as to perceive that she is full of sense and reason which is life and knowledg and in parts orders parts proper to parts which causes all the various motions figures and changes in the infinite parts of Nature Indeed no Creature that has its reason regular can almost believe that such wise and orderly actions should be done either by chance or by straying Atomes which cannot so constantly change and exchange parts and mix and join so properly and to such constant effects as are apparent in Nature And as for Galenists if they believe that some parts of Nature connot leave or pass by other parts to join meet or encounter others they are as much in an error as Chymists concerning the power of fire and furnace for it is most frequently observed thus amongst all sorts of Animals and if amongst Animals I know no reason but all other kinds and sorts of Creatures may do the like nay both sense and reason inform us they do as appears by the several and proper actions of all sorts of drugs as also Minerals and Elements and the like so that none ought to wonder how it is possible that medicines that must pass through digestions in the body should neglecting all other parts shew themselves friendly onely to the brain or kidnies or the like parts for if there be sense and reason in Nature all things must act wisely and orderly and not confusedly and though Art like an Emulating Ape strives to imitate Nature yet it is so far from producing natural figures that at best it rather produces Monsters instead of natural effects for it is like the Painter who drew a Rose instead of a Lion nevertheless Art is as active as any other natural Creature and doth never want imployment for it is like all other parts in a perpetual self-motion and
Logicians the Gyants her Architects c. But before all things she having got a soveraign power from the Emperor over all the World desired to be informed both of the manner of their Religion and Government and to that end she called the Priests and States-men to give her an account of either Of the States-men she enquired first Why they had so few Laws To which they answered That many Laws made many Divisions which most commonly did breed factions and at last brake out into open wars Next she asked Why they preferred the Monarchical form of Government before any other They answered That as it was natural for one body to have but one head so it was also natural for a Politick body to have but one Governor and that a Common-wealth which had many Governors was like a Monster of many heads besides said they a Monarchy is a divine form of Government and agrees most with our Religion for as there is but one God whom we all unanimously worship and adore with one Faith so we are resolved to have but one Emperor to whom we all submit with one obedience Then the Empress seeing that the several sorts of her Subjects had each their Churches apart asked the Priests whether they were of several Religions They answered her Majesty That there was no more but one Religion in all that World nor no diversity of opinions in that same Religion for though there were several sorts of men yet had they all but one opinion concerning the Worship and Adoration of God The Empress asked them Whether they were Jews Turks or Christians We do not know said they what Religions those are but we do all unanimously acknowledg worship and adore the Onely Omnipotent and Eternal God with all reverence submission and duty Again the Empress enquired Whether they had several Forms of Worship They answered No For our Devotion and Worship consists onely in Prayers which we frame according to our several necessities in Petitions Humiliations Thanksgiving c Truly replied the Empress I thought you had been either Jews or Turks because I never perceived any Women in your Congregations But what is the reason you bar them from your religious Assemblies It is not fit said they that Men and Women should be promiscuously together in time of Religious Worship for their company hinders Devotion and makes many instead of praying to God direct their devotion to their Mistresses But asked the Empress Have they no Congregation of their own to perform the duties of Divine Worship as well as Men No answered they but they stay at home and say their Prayers by themselves in their Closets Then the Empress desir'd to know the reason why the Priests and Governors of their World were made Eunuchs They answer'd To keep them from Marriage For Women and Children most commonly make disturbance both in Church and State But said she Women and Children have no employment in Church or State 'T is true answer'd they but although they are not admitted to publick employments yet are they so prevalent with their Husbands and Parents that many times by their importunate perswasions they cause as much nay more mischief secretly then if they had the management of publick affairs The Empress having received an information of what concerned both Church and State passed some time in viewing the Imperial Palace where she admired much the skil and ingenuity of the Architects and enquired of them first why they built their Houses no higher then two stories from the Ground They answered her Majesty That the lower their buildings were the less were they subject either to the heat of the Sun to Wind Tempest Decay c. Then she desired to know the reason why they made them so thick They answered That the thicker the Walls were the warmer were they in Winter and cooler in Summer for their thickness kept out both cold and heat Lastly she asked why they arched their roofs and made so many Pillars They replied That Arches and Pillars did not onely grace a building very much and caused it to appear Magnificent but made it also firm and lasting The Empress was very well satisfied with their answers and after some time when she thought that her new founded societies of the Vertuoso's had made a good progress in their several employments which she had put them upon she caused a Convocation first of the Bird-men and commanded them to give her a true relation of the two Celestial bodies viz. the Sun and Moon which they did with all the obedience and faithfulness befitting their duty The Sun as much as they could observe they related to be a firm or solid Stone of a vast bigness of colour yellowish and of an extraordinary splendor but the Moon they said was of a whitish colour and although she looked dim in the presence of the Sun yet had she her own light and was a shining body of her felf as might be perceived by her vigorous appearance in Moon-shiny nights the difference onely betwixt her own and the Suns light was that the Sun did strike his beams in a direct line but the Moon never respected the Centre of their World in a right line but her Centre was always excentrical The spots both in the Sun and Moon as far as they were able to perceive they affirmed to be nothing else but flaws and stains of their stony bodies Concerning the heat of the Sun they were not of one opinion some would have the Sun hot in it self alledging an old Tradition that it should at some time break asunder and burn the Heavens and consume this world into hot embers which said they could not be done if the Sun were not fiery of it self Others again said This opinion could not stand with reason for Fire being a destroyer of all things the Sun-stone after this manner would burn up all the near adjoining bodies besides said they Fire cannot subsist withoutfuel and the Sun-stone having nothing to feed on would in a short time consume it self wherefore they thought it more probable that the Sun was not actually hot but onely by the reflection of its light so that its heat was an effect of its light both being immaterial But this opinion again was laught at by others and rejected as ridiculous who thought it impossible that one immaterial should produce another and believed that both the light and heat of the Sun proceeded from a swift Circular motion of the aethereal Globules which by their striking upon the optick nerve caused light and their motion produced heat But neither would this opinion hold for said some then it would follow that the sight of Animals is the cause of light and that were there no eyes there would be no light which was against all sense and reason Thus they argued concerning the heat and light of the Sun but which is remarkable none did say that the Sun was a globous fluid body and had a swift circular
Jews Cabbala Several have endeavoured it answered the Spirits but those that came nearest although themselves denied it were one Dr. Dee and one Edward Kelly the one representing Moses and the other Aaron for Kelly was to Dr. d ee as Aaron to Moses Is there not Divine Reason as well as there is Natural No answered they for there is but a Divine Faith and as for Reason it is onely natural but you Mortals are so puzled about this divine Faith and natural Reason that you do not know well how to distinguish them but confound them both which is the cause you have so many divine Philosophers who make a Gallimafry both of Reason and Faith Then she asked Whether pure natural Philosophers were Cabbalists They answered No but onely your Mystical or Divine Philosophers such as study beyond sense and reason She enquired further Whether there was any Cabbala in god or whether God was full of Ideas They answered There could be nothing in God nor could God be full of any thing either forms or figures but of himself for God is the Perfection of all things and an Unexpressible Being beyond the conception of any Creature either Natural or Supernatural Then I pray inform me said the Emperess Whether the Jews or any other Cabbala consist in numbers The Spirits answered No for numbers are odd and different and would make a disagreement in the Cabbala But said she again Is it a sin then not to know or understand the Cabbala God is so merciful answered they and so just that he will never damn the ignorant and save onely those that pretend to know him and his secret Counsels by their Cabbala's but he loves those that adore and worship him with fear and reverence and with a pure heart She asked further which of these two Cabbala's was most approved the Natural or Theological The Theological answered they is mystical and belongs onely to Faith but the Natural belongs to Reason Then she asked them Whether Divine Faith was made out of Reason No answered they for Faith proceeds onely from a Divine saving Grace which is a peculiar Gift of God How comes it then replied she that Men even those that are of several opinions have Faith more or less A natural belief answered they is not a Divine Faith But proceeded the Emperess How are you sure that God cannot be known The several opinions you Mortals have of God answered they are sufficient witnesses thereof Well then replied the Emperess leaving this inquisitive knowledg of God I pray inform me whether you Spirits give motion to natural bodies No answered they but on the contrary natural material bodies give Spirits motion for we Spirits being incorporeal have no motion but from our corporeal vehicles so that we move by the help of our bodies and not the bodies by the help of us for pure Spirits are immovable If this be so replied the Emperess How comes it then that you can move so suddenly at a vast distance They answered That some sorts of matter were more pure rare and consequently more light and agil then others and this was the reason many in this age do think their Fore-fathers have been Fools by which they prove themselves to be such The Emperess asked further whether there was any Plastick power in Nature Truly said the Spirits Plastick power in a hard word signifies no more then the power of the corporeal figurative motions of Nature After this the Emperess desired the Spirits to inform her where the Paradise was whether it was in the midst of the World as a Centre of pleasure or whether it was the whole world or a peculiar world by it self as a world of life and not of matter or whether it was mixt as a world of living animal Creatures They answered That Paradise was not in the world she came from but in that world she lived in at present and that it was the very same place where she kept her Court and where her Palace stood in the midst of the Imperial City The Emperess asked further whether in the beginning and Creation of the World all Beasts could speak They answered That no Beasts could speak but onely those sorts of Creatures which were Fish-men Bear-men Worm-men and the like which could speak in the first Age as well as they do now She asked again whether they were none of those Spirits that frighted Adam out of the Paradise at least caused him not to return thither again They answered they were not Then she desired to be informed whither Adam fled when he was driven out of the Paradise Out of this World said they you are now Emperess of into the world you came from If this be so replied the Emperess then surely those Cabbalists are much out of their story who believe the Paradise to be a world of Life onely without Matter for this world though it be most pleasant and fruitful yet it is not a world of meer immaterial life but a world of living material Creatures Without question they are answered the Spirits for not all Cabbalas are true Then the Emperess asked That since it is mentioned in the story of the Creation of the World that Eve was tempted by the Serpent whether the Devil was within the Serpent or whether the Serpent tempted her without the Devil They answered That the Devil was within the Serpent But how came it then replied she that the Serpent was cursed They answered because the Devil was in him for are not those men in danger of damnation which have the Devil within them who perswades them to believe and act wickedly The Emperess asked further whether Light and the Heavens were all one They answered That that Region which contains the Lucid natural Orbs was by mortals named Heaven but the beatifical Heaven which is the Habitation of the blessed Angels and Souls was so far beyond it that it could not be compared to any natural Creature Then the Emperess asked them whether all Matter was fluid at first They answered That Matter was always as it is and that some parts of Matter were rare some dense some fluid some solid c. Neither was God bound to make all matter fluid at first She asked further whether Matter was immovable init self We have answered you before said they That there is no motion but in Matter and were it not for the motion of Matter we Spirits could not move nor give you any answer to your several questions After this the Emperess asked the Spirits whether the Universe was made within the space of six days or whether by those six days were ment so many Decrees or Commands of God They answered her that the World was made by the All-powerful Decree and Command of God but whether there were six Decrees or Commands or fewer or more no creature was able to tell Then she inquired whether there was no mystery in numbers No other mystery answered the Spirits but reckoning or