said they that granting that Hypothesis the Bread is not at all changed into the Body of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist but that after the Consecration the Bread still remains in the Host In order to their Demonstration they demanded of Father Mersennus and the old Gentleman I. Whether by the Principles of Descartes the Matter of all Bodies considered in it self and independently of the different Modifications of its Parts was not of the same Species They answered Yes II. If that which constituted the Specific Difference of Bodies was not according to them the different Configuration the different Situation and the different Motions of the Parts of those Bodies They acknowledged it That supposed said they we 'll evidently prove That the Substance in the Eucharist after its Consecration is nothing else but Bread for the Matter or the Substance which hath the same Configuration of Parts the same Motion and in a Word all the same Modifications that constitute the Essence of Bread is Bread according to the aforesaid Principle But the Substance found in the Dimensions of the Host after the Consecration has all those Modifications and 't is only by the Means of those Modifications we conceive it to have the same Superficies as the Bread taking the Word Superficies in the same Sense Descartes gives it And 't is in vertue of those Modifications that that Superficies makes the same Impressions on our Senses as the Bread did before the Consecration And 't is from the same Reason that it reflects its Light precisely to the same Angles as the Bread That it receives all the same Impulses and the same Determinations of the Matter that pushes it towards the Centre as the Bread That it communicates the same Vibrations to the Nerves of the Tongue as the Bread Therefore the Substance that is in the Space of the Host after the Consecration according to Descartes's Principles has the Form or the Essence of Bread therefore it is Bread which was to be demonstrated And from thence our Catholick Peripateticks concluded It was not without good Ground that Recourse was had to Absolute Accidents in the Explication of that Mystery They made yet one Reflection more upon a Saying Descartes adjoyns to his Explication and which ruines his Answer Notwithstanding says he the Body of Jesus Christ to speak properly is not there as in a Place but Sacramentally For said they What is it for God's sake to be in a Place in proper speaking but entirely to fill a Space to hinder the Passage of other Bodies that present themselves to reflect the Light to be pressed downward to have Motion c. But all this according to Descartes agrees to the Body of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the Host And on the contrary the Notion commonly received of a Sacramental Existence attributes not to a Body in that Capacity all those Properties for none of those that have spoke of the Body of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament have supposed it was that which reflects the Light c. Nay they say the quite contrary So they concluded deriding the Vanity of the Applause M. Descartes assumes to himself in that Place upon the Intelligible Manner wherewith he pretends to have explained that Mystery and upon the Obligations he has laid on the Orthodox Divines for having furnished them with an Opinion more agreeable with Divinity than those usually received Applause as well grounded as the Prophecy he made a little after by which one Day it shall come to pass that as soon as the World shall be reclaimed from the Prejudices of the School all the Opinions of our Old Philosophers and Divines thereupon shall disappear and vanish as Shadows at the Approach of that Light wherewith those Glorious Principles of the New Philosophy shall fill the Minds of all such as know how well to use them For my part I was of Opinion upon hearing Monsieur Descartes so refuted that he had better have stuck to his general Answer be it as bad as it will That he was a Philosopher and not a Divine and that he pretended not to explain the Mysteties of our Religion by the Principles of his Philosophy I was astonished too in that Occurrence That such sort of Answers had the good Luck to meet with no Reply especially having to do with M. Arnauld who would never willingly take the last Blow in Point of Disputes and Books But I am persuaded I have since found the Solution of that Difficulty in a Letter M. Decsartes wrote to a Father of the Oratory a Sorbon Doctor He says speaking of M. Arnauld That his only Judgment as young a Doctor as he was was of more Weight with him than that of half the Ancient Doctors of the Sorbon Was not a Clearing of that nature able to disarm the most incensed Adversary in the World During that Dispute wherein Father Mersennus and the Old Blade thought it unnecessary to keep to Mood and Figure and were content to evade the Objection by much raillery upon Absolute Accidents alledging they ought to be banish'd to the Desert of Scotus to make up his Train and Attendance with all his little Formalities We crossed the Calm Sea and turning short to the Right we passed through Hipparchus Ptolomeus and the Peninsula of the Stars and from thence we cut through the Sea of Clouds We entred into the Demy-Island of Dreams I mentioned in the beginning so called from the little Mansions in the Globe of the Moon inhabited for the most Part with Chymists that are in Pursuit of the Philosopher's Stone having not been able to find it upon Earth and a World of Judicial Astrologers who still are as great Asses as they were in the other World and spend all their Time in making Almanacks and correcting by exact Supputations the false Horoscopes they made in their Life time Among others we found Cardan who though he was possessed of a good Copy-hold Eastward on the Shoar of the Ocean of Tempests could not yet forbear making frequent Visits of his Brethren of the same Society He passed away his Time but discontentedly having not yet conquered the Shagrin and Melancholy occasioned by that Notable Horoscope of Edward VI. King of England whose most remarkable Fortunes and Adventures he had foretold quite to the Fiftieth Year of his Age who yet had the confounded Luck to die at Fifteen Two other things much of the same Nature entertained his Thoughts in that deep Melancholy The first was the Death of his Son whose Horoscope had proved Faulty he having not foreseen what yet came to pass That he should be executed at Milan in the four and twentieth Year of his Age for poysoning his Wife The other thing was the uncharitable behaviour of Scaliger and Monsieur de Thou in publishing in their Books to all Posterity That he was suffered to dye with Hunger For after all said he to us they are Lyars for were I dead 't was impossible I
Meditations throughout his Divinity and the Affair was carried on so far that M. Descartes Friends advised him to interpose the Authority of the Prince of Orange and the French Embassador to put a Stop to its Progress But he satisfied himself to proclaim he was injured and to demand Justice of the Procurators of Leyden who thought they had done him a special Favour in obliging their Doctors Silence and prohibiting them the mentioning Descartes and his Opinions in their Academick Exercises a Proceedure that was not very Satisfactory to M. Descartes He was a little better satisfied on the part of the Vniversity of Groiningue which at the Solicitation of the French Embassador severely check'd Schooks Outragious Conduct But all this was nothing in comparison with his great Concernment at Vtrecht where Voetius fell like a Lion loose upon him Voetius was one of the Supports of the Vniversity whom the Quality of Divinity Professor as also that of Minister and Rector joyned with his Reverend Grey Heirs rendred awful and venerable to a Town in which the Corporation of the University maintained a very considerable Grandeur He had learn'd how to employ these Advantages to the gaining absolute Authority and Command over the Minds of Men insomuch that his Sentiments were the Decisions in the University and Oracles in the Town 'T is known what they were in regard of the New Philosophy which was the Reason why those of Descartes's Party durst not declare themselves Notwithstanding at last Regius the Physician whom Descartes styles Lett. de Desc his Proto-martyr could no longer stifle the Hatred he had conceived against Substantial Forms he affixed his Theses wherein he had banished them to substitute in their Room the different Configuration of the insensible Parts of every Body This makes a great Noise in the Vniversity some take one Side some another This is the whole Discourse of the Town News and Politicks are hush'd and the Exchange now rings with nothing but Substantial Forms Mean time Voetius slept not in an Affair of this Importance he went to the first Disputes of Regius suborned a great many Scholars he had gained and placed them in several Parts of the Hall who as soon as Regius his Disciple began to talk of Subtil Matter of the Balls of the Second Element of Ramous and Chamfer'd Particles burst out a Laughing set up an Hiss clapt their Hands and were seconded by the Doctors the Friends of Voetius That tumultuous Outcry dismounted poor Regius and obliged him to cut off his Disputations He wrote to M. Descartes Tom. 1. des Lett. de Desc desiring Counsel in this Conjuncture and how he ought to behave himself in respect of Voetius who had forthwith put up Theses in Defence of Substantial Forms and against the other Points of the Cartesian Philosophy He had particularly addressed them to the Faculty of Medicine and the Professors of Philosophy imploring their Protection of Substantial Forms against Regius M. Descartes's Advice was Tom. 1. Let. 89. That he should forbear Publick Disputations endeavour to draw over Voetius to answer his Theses but with all the deference and civility imaginable to manifest a grand Respect and Esteem for his Adversary yet so as still couragiously to maintain the Cause of Truth Regius took that Method not without Fear it might cost him his Chair and certainly he ran a great Risque Voetius undertook him put young Voetius his Son and Schook upon writing against him And a little more had caused him to be condemned as an Heretick by the Divines He had him before the Magistrates nor had he so escaped but upon giving Security for the exact Performance of what they ordered in a Publick Decree Never to teach Descartes's Philosophy to hold fast to the ancient Dogma's and to make no Attaque for the future on Substantial Forms That Blow went with M. Descartes to the Quick though he seems in his Letter to Regius to make slight on 't insomuch that he could not forbear revenging himself venting a Phamplet under-hand called the History of Voetius in which he scurvily treated him and ridiculed him severely That turned the Bent of Voetius's Fury on himself who quitting thenceforward Regius whom he saw foiled and groveling and looked upon as a Forlorn-Hope sent out to Piqueer and Skirmish by Descartes thought he must double his Forces to make an On-set on this New Sect and assault it in its Leader As ill Fortune still would have it Descartes and Regius fell to Swords-points and sharpned their Quills against each other as if it had been the Fate of that Philosopher at that Time to have all the Learned Men of Holland for his Enemies whose Names did terminate in Ius Revius Demmatius the two Voetius's and Regius The first thing that was done at Vtrecht Let. de Dese was to damn Descartes in all Companies as an Atheist as another Vaninus who under pretence of establishing by his Arguments the Existence of a God aim'd only to rout and confute it Voetius declaim'd eternally against him in his Lectures in his Disputations in his Sermons He pitch'd purposely on Theses of Atheism where he brought in every thing that might bring an Odium on Descartes And so successfully did they decry him that when the News of his Death arriv'd several Years after at Vtrecht Prejudice was so deeply rooted as to make an addition of dreadful Circumstances and it was the Current Report of the Town That he dyed the most impious and wicked Villain in the World without Faith without Religion like Julian the Apostate Greighton Ep. ad Regium casting up a thousand Blasphemies against Jesus Christ Voetius indeavour'd to uncement the most intimate Friends he had Tom. 2. des Let. de Desc and as much a Protestant Minister as he was wrote to Father Mersennus in France to enter in a League with him and to excite him to write against Descartes but sped not in that Negotiation He accus'd him of being a Clandestine Enemy to the Religion of the Country and seem'd by that to be willing to impeach him as a Traytor to the State He added he was an Emissary and Spy of the Jesuits and held an Epistolary Correspondence with them and produc'd one Letter especially against him which he had wrote to Father Dinet sometime after Confessor to the King So true it is that Titus Oats is not the first that thought of persuading the Protestants of his Country the Jesuits gave Commissions in England to levy an Army Hist Conjur Angleterre in which they had the Disposal of all places of trust and made general Officers Colonels and Captains In short Voetius partly by his Reputation and Vogue partly by his Intrigues brought it about that Descartes's Philosophy should be condemn'd throughout the University of which he was Rector He cited him by the order of the Magistrates with a great noise at the sound of a Bell by
the Advantage of this fine Knowledg came to dye at the Age of fifty four Was he so much out of Love with his Life as to neglect the repairing those effluxes of his Machine whose Failures and Disasters he could so easily foresee Do you believe then returned he that M. Descartes is dead I know not said I how you understand it but methinks the Corps of a Man should not be buried unless he was dead before and all the World knows that in the Year 1650. the Body of M. Descartes was interred at Stockholm with great Pomp and Solemnity M. Chersilier pref de Lett. de M. Descartes by the Care of M. Chanut his particular Friend and then Embassador of France at the Court of Sweden That since M. Dalibert hath ordered his Bones to be removed to Paris and to be disposed of in the Church of S. Geneve where his Epitaph is to be seen engraven upon a fair White Marble It seems to me once more That all this supposes a Man as dead as dead can be All these Particulars are true said my Cartesian but for all that it is false that M. Descartes is dead for that we call Death is when our Body becoming incapable of Vital Functions either by the Defailure of the Organs which are wore out in the Succession of Years or corrupted by some Disease or endammaged by some Hurt or Wound the Soul is oblig'd to quit her Habitation following the Laws of their Union establish'd by the Sovereign Master of the Universe But Cartesius's Soul was by no means separated from his Body after this manner Hear then the Matter of Fact About three or four Months after his Arrival in Swedeland where Queen Christina had invited him and did him the Honour to entertain him in her Library an Hour in a Morning every Day Pref. de lett de Descartes He was seized in the midst of Winter with an Inflammation of the Lungs seconded with a Giddiness in the Brain but the Fever having left his Brain there had been no great Difficulty in his Recovery Lett. de Descartes Himself had wrote a little Time before to one of his Friends That he had made some Discoveries in Anatomy that insur'd his Life for an hundred Years And 't is known that M. Descartes did not use to go by Guessing or advance any thing without a firm Assurance but an unseasonable Misfortune rendred his Prediction fruitless seeing he had not rested well that Night his Soul had a Mind to take a little Turn for Recreation-sake he takes his usual Dose of Snush and his Soul leaves his Body in the Bed By ill Luck the Physician contrary to his Custom came to visit him at Midnight the Noise he made in entring the Chamber did not awake his Body whose Senses were perfectly laid asleep by vertue of the Herb of which I spoke that was mingled with the Tobacco But having put to his Nose a Vial of extreamly Spirituous Liquor to fortifie the Brain it made a more quick and lively Sally upon the Organ of Sense than Hungary Water used to do which M. Descartes Soul made use of when she would re-enter the Body and conclude its Trance it caused it to open its Eyes and to give some Groans The Physician ask'd it how he did The Machine accustomed some Days ago to answer to that Question That he was very ill made still the same reply but to other Questions the Physician proposed since the Soul was not there to talk rationally and answer to the purpose the Answers were full of Extravagance and Delirium just as the Machine was determined by the Voice of the Doctor It talked eternally of the Separation of its Soul from its Body because the last Thoughts the Soul entertained in the Act of separating herself were those of that Separation which had left some Figures or Traces stamp'd upon the Brain answering to those Thoughts and determining the Tongue to a Motion requisite to pronounce such sort of Words These Symptoms enduc'd the Doctor to believe he was again transported with a Raving in his Head wherefore he is out of Hand blooded in the Foot Cupping-Glasses are apply'd and several other Violent Remedies which so exhausted and altered his poor Body that in a short Time it had spent all its Strength it 's natural Heat began to faint and lose itself by little and little a Defluction of his Brain fell into his Breast and in a Word it became a meer Cadaver and unable to perform the Duties of Life and to receive his Soul Thus it happened so that you see a Man may truly say M. Descartes is not dead Assuredly Sir said I this is not to dye according to due Form and Method nevertheless the Swedish Physician would be held Guiltless before all the Faculties of Europe for he has followed the Rules of his Art he acted according to appearance and if he did but understand what you are teaching me That M. Descartes is not dead he might boast of the Greatest and most unprecedented Exploit that was ever known in Medicine I mean to have killed a Man without causing him to die But Sir I beseech you continued I acquaint me if you know What was the Destiny of M. Descartes Soul for according to the uncontroverted Principles of our Faith a Soul in leaving this World receives her Arrest for Eternity and either has her Portion in Paradice Hell or Purgatory for some Time That Question ruffled my old Gentleman And in the Name of God said he almost in a Passion rid your self of that Ridiculous Custom you have taken up in the Schools of introducing Questions of Religion in Matters purely Philosophical M. Descartes had once thought to renounce his Philosophy or at least refuse to publish his Works to save him the Trouble of answering those impertinent Objections which were made at every turn and upon all occasions I am giving you clear Matter of Fact and you desire me to Account for the Conduct of God But in brief have not I forestall'd all your Difficulties when I told you M. Descartes was not Dead And since he is not Dead why demand you if he has submitted to a Judgment the Dead are only concern'd in I beg'd his Pardon for my Imprudence and agreed with him That nothing was more unseasonable and inconvenient than such sort of occasional Questions to a Philosopher that had made a System without regard to any thing of that Nature And that likewise put me in mind of entreating my Readers to use the same Candor towards me That they will not wrangle with me upon the Point of separate Souls whole Shoals of which I meet with in my Voyage to the World of Descartes nor tye me to answer all the Scruples they might be able to raise on that Account For therein bottom the most agreeable Passages of my History with which I should not present the Publick but upon that Condition I would entreat them to