irregular and disordered motions or strengthen the weak or reduce the straying or work any other ways according to the nature and propriety of their own substance and the disposition of the distempered parts Nevertheless those cures which are performed exteriously as to heal inward affects by an outwad bare co-touching are all made by natural motions in natural substances and not by Non-being substanceless Ideas or spiritual Rays for those that will cure diseases by Non-beings will effect little or nothing for a disease is corporeal or material and so must the remedies be there being no cure made but by a conflict of the remedy with the disease and certainly if a non-being fight against a being or a corporeal disease I doubt it will do no great effect for the being will be too strong for the non-being Wherefore my constant opinion is that all cures whatsover are perfected by the power of corporeal motions working upon the affected parts either interiously or exteriously either by applying external remedies to external wounds or by curing internal distempers either by medicines taken internally or by bare external co-touchings And such a remedy I suppose has been that which your Author speaks of viz. a stone of a certain Irish-man which by a meer external contact hath cured all kinds of diseases either by touching outwardly the affected parts or by licking it but with the tip of the Tongue if the disease was Internal But if the vertue of the Stone was such as your Author describes certainly what man soever he was that possessed such a jewel I say he was rather of the nature of the Devil then of man that would not divulge it to the general benefit of all mankind and I wonder much that your Author who otherwise pretends such extraordinary Devotion Piety and Religiousness as also Charity viz. that all his works he has written are for the benefit of his neighbour and to detect the errors of the Schools meerly for the good of man doth yet plead his cause saying That secrets as they are most difficultly prepared so they ought to remain in secret forever in the possession of the Privy Councel what Privy Counsels he means I know not but certainly some are more difficult to be spoken to or any thing to be obtained from then the preparation of a Physical Arcanum However a general good or benefit ought not to be concealed or kept in privy Councels but to be divulged and publickly made known that all sorts of People of what condition degree or Nation soever might partake of the general blessing and bounty of God But Madam you may be sure that many who pretend to know Physical secrets most commonly know the least as being for the most part of the rank of them that deceive the simple with strange tales which exceed truth and to make themselves more authentical they use to rail at others and to condemn their skill onely to magnifie their own I say many Madam as I have observed are of that nature especially those that have but a superficial knowledge in the Art of Physick for those that are thorowly learned and sufficiently practised in it scorn to do the like which I wish may prosper and thrive by their skill And so I rest MADAM Your Ladiships humble Servant XLIII MADAM YOur Author is pleased to relate a story of one that died suddenly and being disfected there was not the least sign of decay or disorder found in his body But I cannot add to those that wonder when no sign of distemper is found in a man's body after he is dead because I do not believe that the subtillest learnedst and most practised Anatomist can exactly tell all the Interior Government or motions or can find out all obscure and invisible passages in a man's body for concerning the motions they are all altered in death or rather in the dissolution of the animal figure and although the exterior animal figure or shape doth not alter so soon yet the animal motions may alter in a moment of time which sudden alteration may cause a sudden death and so the motions being invisible the cause of death cannot be perceived for no body can find that which is not to be found to wit animal motions in a dead man for Nature hath altered these motions from being animal motions to some other kind of motions she being as various in dissolutions as in productions indeed so various that her ways cannot be traced or known thorowly and perfecty but onely by piece-meals as the saying is that is but partly Wherefore man can onely know that which is visible or subject to his senses and yet our senses do not always inform us truly but the alterations of grosser parts are more easily known then the alterations of subtil corporeal motions either in general or in particular neither are the invisible passages to be known in a dead Carcass much less in a living body But I pray mistake me not when I say that the animal motions are not subject to our exterior senses for I do not mean all exterior animal motions nor all interior animal motions for though you do see no interior motion in an animal body yet you may feel some as the motion of the Heart the motion of the Pulse the motion of the Lungs and the like but the most part of the interior animal motions are not subject to our exterior senses nay no man he may be as observing as he will can possibly know by his exterior senses all the several and various interior motions in his own body nor all the exterior motions of his exterior parts and thus it remains still that neither the subtillest motions and parts of matter nor the obscure passages in several Creatures can be known but by several parts for what one part is ignorant of another part is knowing and what one part is knowing another part is ignorant thereof so that unless all the Parts of Infinite Matter were joyned into one Creature there can never be in one particular Creature a perfect knowledg of all things in Nature Wherefore I shall never aspire to any such knowledg but be content with that little particular knowledg Nature has been pleased to give me the chief of which is that I know my self and especially that I am MADAM Your constant Friend and faithful Servant XLIV MADAM I Perceive you are desirous to know the cause Why a man is more weak at the latter end of a disease then at the beginning and is a longer time recovering health then loosing health as also the reason of relapses and intermissions First as for weakness and strength my opinion is they are caused by the regular and irregular motions in several parts each striving to over-power the other in their conflict and when a man recovers from a disease although the regular motions have conquered the irregular and subdued them to their obedience yet they are not so quite obedient as they
Physician in France Dr. Davison who used in continual Fevers to prescribe onely cooling Ptisan made of a little Barley and a great quantity of Water so thin as the Barley was hardly perceived and a spoonfull of syrup of Limmon put into a quart of the said Ptisan but in case of a Flux he ordered some few seeds of Pomegranats to be put into it and this cold Ptisan was to be the Patients onely drink Besides once in Twenty four hours he prescribed a couple of potched Eggs with a little Verjuice and to let the Patient blood if he was dry and hot I mean dry exteriously as from sweat and that either often or seldom according as occasion was found Also he prescribed two grains of Laudanum every night but neither to give the Patient meat nor drink two hours before and after Which advice and Practice of the mentioned Physician concerning Fevers with several others I declared to this Irish Doctor and he observing this rule cured many and so recovered his lost esteem and repute But your Author being all for Wine and against cooling drinks or Julips in hot Fevers says That cooling means are more like to death to cessation from motion and to defect but heat from moderate Wine is a mean like unto life To which I answer first That cold or cooling things are as active as hot or heating things neither is death more cold then hot nor life more hot then cold for we see that Frost is as active and strong as burning heat and Water Air and Earth are as full of life as Fire and Vegetables Minerals and Elements have life as well as Animals But we feeling a Man's flesh cold when he is dissolving from an Animal think death is cold and seeing he was hot before the same alteration say Life is hot Also finding an animal when it is dissolving to be without external local Motion we say it is dead and when it hath as yet this local motion before its alteration we call it alive which certainly is not proper Next I say that a wise Man when his house is fired will fling or squirt water upon it to quench it and take out all moveables lest they should increase the flame likewise he will make vent for the flame to issue forth But perchance your Author may say that Fevers are not hot Truly in my opinion he might say as well that Fire is cold Again he may say That although the effect be hot yet the cause is cold I answer That in some diseases the effects become so firmly rooted and so powerfull that they must be more look'd upon then the cause for such variety there is in Nature that oftentimes that which was now an effect turns to be a cause and again a cause an effect For example A cold cause often produces a hot effect and this hot effect becomes again a cause of a cold effect Which variation is not onely a trouble but a great obstruction to wise Physicians for Nature hath more varieties in diseases then Physicians have remedies And as for drink if Fevers be neither hot nor dry nor require drink for want of moisture then I see no reason why drink should be urged and those Physicians blamed that forbid it for if thirst proceed from an evil digestion drink will rather weaken the stomack for heat and driness draw soon away the drink in the stomack and putting much into a weak stomack doth rather hurt then good But if necessity require it then I approve rather of raw and crude Water then of hot inflaming Wiue And so taking my leave I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and humble Servant XXXVII MADAM IN your Authors Treatise of Fevers I find one Chapter whose Inscription is A Perfect Curing of all Fevers wherein he declares the secrets of the Cures of Fevers consisting all in Chymical Medicines But considering that if all Fevers could be cured by such Medicines then all Physicians would strive to obtain them I can hardly believe by your Authors favour that any such perfect curing of all Fevers can be effected but that your Authors prescriptions if they should come to the tryal might fail as well as any other Likewise he mentions a Medicine of Paracelsus named Diaceltesson or the Coraline Secret which he says cures radically the Gout no less then Fevers Which if so I wonder why so many Great Noble and Rich Persons groan so much under the pains of the Gout certainly it is not for want of cost to have them prepared nor for want of an ingenious and experienced Chymist for this age doth not want skilful workmen in that Art nor worthy and wise Physicians which if they knew such soveraign medicines would soon apply them to their Patients but I suppose that they finding their effects to be less then the cost and labour bestowed upon them forbear to use them Moreover he mentions another remedy for most diseases by him call'd Driff prepared also by the Art of Chymistry but I believe all those remedies will not so often cure as fail of cure like as the Sympathetical Powder for if there were such soveraign medicines that did never fail of a successful effect certainly men being curious inquisitive and searching would never leave till they had found them out Also amongst Vegetables the herb Chameleon and Arsmart are in great request with your Author For says he they by their touching alone do presently take away cruel diseases or at leastwise ease them Which if so I wonder that there is not more use made of them and they held in greater esteem then they are Also that your Author doth not declare the vertue of them and the manner and way how and in what diseases to use them for the benefit of his neighbour to which end he says all his labours and actions are directed But again your Author confirms as an Eye-witness That the bone of the arm of a Toad presently has taken away the Tooth-ach at the first co-touching Which remedy if it was constant few in my opinion would suffer such cruel pains and cause their teeth to be drawn out especially if sound Likewise of the mineral Electrum or Amber of Paracelsus he affirms to have seen that hung about the neck it has freed those that were persecuted by unclean spirits and that many simples have done the like effects but surely Madam I cannot be perswaded that the Devil should be put away so easily for he being a Spirit will not be chased by corporeal means but by spiritual which is Faith and Prayer and the cure of dispossessing the Devil belongs to Divines and not to Natural Philosopers or Physicians But though exterior remedies as Amulets Pomanders and the like may perform sometimes such effects as to cure or preserve from some diseases yet they are not ordinary and constant but meerly by chance But there are more false remedies then true ones and if one remedy chance to work successfully with
ought which causes weakness Neither do the regular motions use so much force in Peace as in War for though animate matter cannot lose force yet it doth not always use force neither can the parts of Nature act beyond their natural power but they do act within their natural power neither do they commonly act to the utmost of their power And as for Health why it is sooner lost then recovered I answer That it is easier to make disorders then to rectifie them as for example in a Common-wealth the ruines of War are not so suddenly repaired as made But concerning Relapses and Intermissions of diseases Intermissions are like truces or cessations from War for a time and Relapses are like new stirs or tumults of Rebellion for Rebels are not so apt to settle in peace as to renew the war upon slight occasions and if the regular motions of the body be stronger they reduce them again unto obedience But diseases are occasioned many several ways for some are made by a home Rebellion and others by forreign enemies and some by natural and regular dissolutions and their cures are as different but the chief Magistrates or Governors of the animal body which are the regular motions of the parts of the body want most commonly the assistance of forreign Parts which are Medicines Diets and the like and if there be factions amongst these chief Magistrates or motions of the parts of the body then the whole body suffers a ruine But since there would be no variety in Nature nor no difference between Natures several parts or Creatures if her actions were never different but always agreeing and constant a war or rebellion in Nature cannot be avoided But mistake me not for I do not mean a war or rebellion in the nature of substance of Matter but between the several parts of Matter which are the several Creatures and their several Motions for Matter being always one and the same in its nature has nothing to war withal and surely it will not quarrel with its own Nature Next you desire to know that if Nature be in a Perpetual motion Whence comes a duration of some things and a Tiredness Weariness Sluggishness or Faintness I answer first That in some bodies the Retentive motions are stronger then the dissolving motions as for example Gold and Quicksilver or Mercury the separating and dissolving motions of Fire have onely power to melt and rarifie them for a time but cannot alter their nature so a Hammer or such like instrument when used may beat Gold and make it thin as a Cobweb or as dust but cannot alter its interior nature But yet this doth not prove it to be either without motion or to be altogether unalterable and not subject to any dissolution but onely that its retentive motions are too strong for the dissolving motions of the Fire which by force work upon the Gold and we might as well say that Sand or an Earthen Vessel or Glass or Stone or any thing else is unalterable and will last eternally if not disturbed But some of Natures actions are as industrious to keep their figures as others are to dissolve or alter them and therefore Retentive motions are more strong and active in some figures then dissolving motions are in others or producing motions in other Figures Next as for Tiredness or Faintness of motions there is no such thing as tiredness or faintness in Nature for Nature cannot be tired nor grow faint or sick nor be pained nor die nor be any ways defective for all this is onely caused through the change and variety of the corporeal motions of Nature and her several parts neither do irregular motions prove any defect in Nature but a prudence in Natures actions in making varieties and alterations of Figures for without such motions or actions there could not be such varieties and alterations in Nature as there are neither is slackness of some motions a defect for Nature is too wise to use her utmost force in her ordinary works and though Nature is infinite yet it is not necessary she should use an infinite force and power in any particular act Lastly you desire my opinion Whether there be motion in a dead animal Creature To which I answer I have declared heretofore that there is no such thing as death in Nature but what is commonly named death is but an alteration or change of corporeal motions and the death of an animal is nothing else but the dissolving motions of its figure for when a man is dying the motions which did formerly work to the consistence of his figure do now work to the dissolution of his figure and to the production of some other figures changing and transforming every part thereof but though the figure of that dead animal is dissolved yet the parts of that dissolved figure remain still in Nature although they be infinitely changed and will do so eternally as long as Nature lasts by the Will of God for nothing can be lost or annihilated in Nature And this is all Madam that I can answer to your questions wherein I hope I have obeyed your commands according to the duty of MADAM Your faithful Friend and humble Servant XLV MADAM I Have thus far discharged my duty that according to your commands I have given you my judgment of the works of those four famous Philosophers of our age which you did send me to peruse and have withal made reflexions upon some of their opinions in Natural Philosophy especially those wherein I did find them dissent from the Ground and Principles of my own Philosophy And since by your leave I am now publishing all those Letters which I have hitherto written to your concerning those aforesaid Authors and their Works I am confident I shall not escape the censures of their followers But I shall desire them that they will be pleased to do me this Justice and to examine first my opinions well without any partiality or wilful misinterpretation of my sence before they pass their censure Next I desire them to consider That I have no skill in School-learning and therefere for want of terms of Art may easily chance to slip or at least not express my opinions so clearly as my readers expected However I have done my endeavour and to my sense and reason they seem clear and plain enough especially as I have expressed them in those Letters I have sent you for concerning my other Work called Philosophical Opinions I must confess that it might have been done more exactly and perspicuously had I been better skilled in such words and expressions as are usual in the Schools of Philosophers and therefore if I be but capable to learn names and terms of Art although I find my self very untoward to learn and do despair of proving a Scholar I will yet endeavour to rectifie that work and make it more intelligible for my greatest ambition is to express my conceptions so that my Readers may understand them
fire or of its own accord approach to such things as are most agreeable to it and pleasing and that without the help of muscles it being thus immediately endowed with a self-moving power By his leave Madam I must tell you that I see no consequence in this argument Because some parts of matter cannot withdraw themselves from the force and power of other parts therefore they have neither sense reason nor perception For put the case a man should be overpowr'd by some other men truely he would be forced to suffer and no Immaterial Spirits I think would assist him The very same may be said of other Creatures or parts of Nature for some may over-power others as the fire hammer and hand doth over-power a Horse-shooe which cannot prevail over so much odds of power and strength And so likewise it is with sickness and health life and death for example some corporeal motions in the body turning Rebels by moving contrary to the health of an animal Creature it must become sick for not every particular creature hath an absolute power the power being in the Infinite whole and not in single divided parts Indeed to speak properly there is no such thing as an absolute power in Nature for though Nature hath power to move it self yet not beyond it self But mistake me not for I mean by an absolute Power not a circumscribed and limited but an unlimited power no ways bound or confined but absolutely or every way Infinite and there is not any thing that has such an absolute power but God alone neither can Nature be undividable being Corporeal or Material nor rest from motion being naturally self-moving and in a perpetual motion Wherefore though Matter is self-moving and very wise although your Author denies it calling those Fools that maintain this opinion yet it cannot go beyond the rules of its Nature no more then any Art can go beyond its Rules and Principles And as for what your Author says That every thing would approach to that which is agreeable and pleasant I think I need no demonstration to prove it sor we may plainly see it in all effects of Nature that there is Sympathy and Antipathy and what is this else but approaching to things agreeable and pleasant and withdrawing it self from things disagreeable and hurtful or offensive But of this subject I shall discourse more hereafter wherefore I finish here and rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant IX MADAM YOur Authors opinion is That Matter being once actually divided as far as possibly it can it is a perfect contradiction it should be divided any further I answer Though Nature is Infinite yet her actions are not all dilative nor separative but some divide and some compose some dilate and some contract which causes a mean betwixt Natures actions or motions Next your Author says That as Infinite Greatness has no Figure so Infinite Littleness hath none also I answer Whatsoever hath a body has a figure for it is impossible that substance or body and figure should be separated from each other but wheresoever is body or substance there is also figure and if there be an infinite substance there must also be an infinite figure although not a certain determined or circumscribed figure for such a figure belongs onely to finite particulars and therefore I am of your Authors mind That it is a contradiction to say an Infinite Cube or Triangle for a Cube and a Triangle is a perfect circumscribed figure having its certain compass and circumference be it never so great or little wherefore to say an Infinite Cube would be as much as to say a Finite Infinite But as for your Authors example of Infinite matter space or duration divided into three equal parts all which he says must needs be Infinite or else the whole wil not be so and then the middle part of them will seem both Finite and Infinite I answer That Matter is not dividable into three equal parts for three is a finite number and so are three equal parts but I say that Matter being an Infinite body is dividable into Infinite parts and it doth not follow as your Author says That one of those infinite parts must be infinite also for else there would be no difference betwixt the whole and its parts I say whole for distinctions and better expressions sake and do not mean such a whole which hath a certain number of parts and is of a certain and limited figure although never so great but an Infinite whole which expression I must needs use by reason I speak of Infinite parts and that each one of these Infinite parts in number may be finite in substance or figure is no contradiction but very probable and rational nay I think it rather absurd to say that each part is infinite for then there would be no difference betwixt parts and whole as I said before Onely this is to be observed that the Infinite whole is Infinite in substance or bulk but the parts are Infinite in number and not in bulk for each part is circumscribed and finite in its exterior figure and substance But mistake me not when I speak of circumscribed and finite single parts for I do not mean that each part doth subsist single and by it self there being no such thing as an absolute single part in Nature but Infinite Matter being by self-motion divided into an infinite number of parts all these parts have so near a relation to each other and to the infinite whole that one cannot subsist without the other for the Infinite parts in number do make the Infinite whole and the Infinite whole consists in the Infinite number of parts wherefore it is onely their figures which make a difference betwixt them for each part having its proper figure different from the other which is circumscribed and limited it is called a finite single part and such a part cannot be said Infinitely dividable for infinite composition and division belong onely to the Infinite body of Nature which being infinite in substance may also be infinitely divided but not a finite and single part Besides Infinite composition doth hinder the Infinite division and Infinite division hinders the Infinite composition so that one part cannot be either infinitely composed or infinitely divided and it is one thing to be dividable and another to be divided And thus when your Author mentions in another place That if a body be divisible into Infinite Parts it hath an Infinite number of extended parts If by extension he mean corporeal dimension I am of his opinion for there is no part be it never so little in Nature but is material and if material it has a body and if a body it must needs have a bodily dimension and so every part will be an extended part but since there is no part but is finite in its self it cannot be divisible into infinite parts neither can any part be infinitely dilated or contracted
it is nevertheless I do verily believe that the body of the Sun is far brighter then the light we see and that the substance of light and the patterns taken from light are not one and the same but very different And thus much of light As for Penetration I conceive it to be nothing else but division as when some parts pierce and enter through other parts as Duellers run each other thorow or as water runs through a sieve And this is the opinion of MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXIV MADAM HAving given you my opinion both of the substance and perception of Light in my last Letter I perceive your desire is to know how Shadows are made Truly Madam to my sense and reason it appears most probable that shadows are made by the way of patterning As for example when a Man 's or Trees or any other the like Creature 's shadow is made upon the Ground or Wall or the like those bodies as the Ground or Wall do in my opinion pattern out the interposing body that is between the light and them And the reason that the shadow is longer or shorter or bigger or less is according as the light is nearer or further off for when the light is perpendicular the interposing body cannot obscure the light because the light surrounding the interposing body by its brightness rather obscures the body then the body the light for the numerous and splendorous patterns of light taken from the body of the Sun do quite involve the interposing body Next you desire to know Whether the light we see in the Moon be the Moons own natural light or a borrowed light from the Sun I answer that in my opinion it is a borrowed light to wit that the Moon doth pattern out the light of the Sun and the proof of it is that when the Sun is in an Eclipse we do plainly perceive that so much of the Sun is darkned as the Moon covers for though those parts of the Moon that are next the Sun may for any thing we know pattern out the light of the Sun yet the Moon is dark on that side which is from the Sun I will not say but that part of the Moon which is towards the Earth may pattern out the Earth or the shadow of the Earth which may make the Moon appear more dark and sullen But when the Moon is in an Eclipse then it is plainly perceived that the Moon patterns out the Earth or the shadow of the Earth Besides those parts of the Moon that are farthest from the Sun are dark as we may observe when as the Moon is in the Wane and enlightened when the Sun is nearer But I will leave this argument to observing Astrologers and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXV MADAM IF acording to your Authors opinion In every particular world such as Man is especially his own Soul which is a Spirit be the peculiar and most perfective architect of the Fabrick of his Body as the Soul of the world is of it Then I cannot conceive in my reason how the separation is made in death for I see that all animals and so man-kind have a natural desire to live and that life and soul are unwilling to part And if the power lies in the Soul why doth she not continue with the Body and animate move and actuate it as she did before or order the matter so as not to dissolve But if the dissolution lies in the body then the body has self-motion Yet it is most probable if the soul be the architect of the body it must also be the dissolver of it and if there come not another soul into the parts of matter the body must either be annihilated or lie immoved as long as the world lasts which is improbable for surely all the bodies of men or other animals are imployed by Nature to some use or other However it is requisite that the soul must stay so long in the body until it be turned into dust and ashes otherwise the body having no self-motion would remain as it was when the soul left it that is entire and undissolved As for example when a man dies if there be no motion in his body and the soul which was the mover be gone it cannot possibly corrupt for certainly that we call corruptton is made by motion and the body requires as much motion to be dissolved or divided as it doth to be framed or composed Wherefore a dead body would remain in the same state continually if it had no self-motion in it And if another soul should enter into the body and work it to another figure then certainly there must be much more souls then bodies because bodies are subject to change into several forms but if the animal spirits which are left in the body after the soul is gone are able to dissolve it without the help of the soul then it is probable they could have fram'd it without the help of the soul and so they being material it must be granted that matter is self-moving But if corporeal matter have corporeal self-motion a self-moving Immaterial Spirit by reason of their different natures would make great obstruction and so a general confusion for the corporeal and incorporeal motions would hinder and oppose each other their natures being quite different and though they might subsist together without disturbance of each other yet it is not probable they should act together and that in such a conjunction as if they were one united body for it is in my opinion more probable that one material should act upon another material or one immaterial upon another immaterial then that an immaterial should act upon a material or corporeal Thus the consideration or contemplation of immaterial natural Spirits puts me always into doubts and raises so many contradictions in my sense and reason as I know not nor am not able to reconcile them However though I am doubtful of them yet I can assure your self that I continue MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXVI MADAM BY reason the Soul is a Spirit and therefore Contractible and Dilatable your Authors opinion is That it begins within less compass at first in organizing the fitly prepared matter and so bears it self on in the same tenour of work till the body hath attained its full growth and that the Soul dilates it self in the dilating of the Body and so possesses it through all the members thereof Truly Madam as for the contraction and dilation of an immaterial Spirit if I heard never so many arguments I should hardly be able to conceive the possibility of it For in my opinion dilating and contracting are motions and actions of Nature which belong to natural material Creatures and to none else for dilation and contraction cannot be without extension but extension belongs to parts which an immaterial Spirit hath not But suppose it be so then the Soul must contract and dilate
reason is not able to comprehend since there can be no figure without matter or substance they being inseparably united together so that where figure is there is also substance and where substance is there is also figure neither can any figure be made without a substance You may say Ideas though they are not material or corporeal beings themselves yet they may put on figures and take bodies when they please I answer That then they can do more then Immaterial Spirits for the Learned say That Immaterial Spirits are Immaterial substances but your Author says that Ideas are no substances and I think it would be easier for a substance to take a body then for that which is no substance But your Author might have placed his Ideas as well amongst the number of Immaterial Spirits to wit amongst Angels and Devils and then we should not have need to seek far for the causes of the different natures and dispositions of Mankind but we might say that Ill-natured men proceeded from Evil and Good-natured men from Good Spirits or Ideas However Madam I do not deny Ideas Images or Conceptions of things but I deny them onely to be such powerful beings and Principal efficient Causes of Natural effects especially they being to your Author neither bodies nor substances themselves And as for the Figure of a Cherry which your Author makes so frequent a repetition of made by a longing Woman on her Child I dare say that there have been millions of Women which have longed for some or other thing and have not been satisfied with their desires and yet their Children have never had on their bodies the prints or marks of those things they longed for but because some such figures are sometimes made by the irregular motions of animate Matter would this be a sufficient proof that all Conceptions Ideas and Images have the like effects after the same manner by piercing or penetrating each other and sealing or printing such or such a figure upon the body of the Child Lastly I cannot but smile when I read that your Author makes a Disease proceed from a non-being to a substantial being Which if so then a disease according to his opinion is made as the World was that is out of Nothing but surely luxurious persons find it otherwise who eat and drink more then their natural digestive motions can dispose for those that have infirm bodies caused by the irregular motions of animate matter find that a disease proceeds from more then a non-being But Madam I have neither such an Archeus which can produce in my mind an Idea of Consent or approbation of these your Authors opinions nor such a light that is able to produce a beam of Patience to tarry any longer upon the examination of them Wherefore I beg your leave to cut off my discourse here and onely to subscriibe my self as really I am MADAM Your humble and faithful Servant XII MADAM I Cannot well apprehend your Authors meaning when he says That Nature doth rise from its fall for if he understands Nature in general I cannot imagine how she should fall and rise for though Man did fall yet Nature never did nor cannot fall being Infinite And therefore in another place when he saith that Nature first being a beautiful Virgin was defiled by sin not by her own but by Mans sin for whose use she was created I think it too great a presumption and arrogancy to say that Infinite Nature was not onely defiled by the sin of Man but also to make Man the chief over all Nature and to believe Nature was onely made for his sake when as he is but a small finite part of Infinite Nature and almost Nothing in comparison to it But I suppose your Author doth not understand Nature in general but onely the nature of some Particulars when he speaks of the fall and rise of Nature however this fall and rise of the nature of Particulars is nothing but a change of their natural motions And so likewise I suppose he understands the nature of Particulars when he says in another place That Nature in diseases is standing sitting and lying for surely Nature in general has more several postures then sitting standing or lying As also when he speaks of the Vertues and Properties that stick fast in the bosom of Nature which I conceive to be a Metaphorical expression although I think it best to avoid Metaphorical similizing and improper expressions in Natural Philosophy as much as one can for they do rather obscure then explain the truth of Nature nay your Author himself is of this opinion and yet he doth nothing more frequent then bring in Metaphors and similitudes But to speak properly there is not any thing that sticks fast in the bosom of Nature for Nature is in a perpetual motion Neither can she be heightened or diminished by Art for Nature will be Nature in despite of her Hand-maid And as for your Authors opinion That there are no Contraries in Nature I am quite of a contrary mind viz. that there is a Perpetual war and discord amongst the parts of Nature although not in the nature and substance of Infinite Matter which is of a simple kind and knows no contraries in it self but lives in Peace when as the several actions are opposing and crossing each other and truly I do not believe that there is any part or Creature ofNature that hath not met with opposers let it be never so small or great But as War is made by the division of Natures parts and variety of natural actions so Peace is caused by the unity and simplicity of the nature and essence of onely Matter which Nature is peaceable being always one and the same and having nothing in it self to be crossed or opposed by when as the actions of Nature or natural Matter are continually striving against each other as being various and different Again your Author says That a Specifical being cannot be altered but by Fire and that Fire is the Death of other Creatures also that Alchymy as it brings many things to a degree of greater efficacy and stirs up a new being so on the other hand again it by a privy filching doth enfeeble many things I for my part wonder that Fire being as your Author says no substantial body but substanceless in its nature should work such effects but however I believe there are many alterations without Fire and many things which cannot be altered by Fire What your Authors meaning is of a new being I know not for to my reason there neither is nor can be made any new being in Nature except we do call the change of motions and figures a new Creation but then an old suit turned or dressed up may be called new too Neither can I conceive his Filching or Stealing For Nature has or keeps nothing within her self but what is her own and surely she cannot steal from her self nor can
Souls in Heaven as well as on Earth have reason to adore love and praise God But Madam my study is in natural Philosophy not in Theology and therefore I 'le refer you to Divines and leave your Author to his own fancy who by his singular Visions tells us more news of our Souls then our Saviour did after his Death and Resurrection Resting in the mean time MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXVI MADAM COncerning those parts and chapters of your Authors Works which treat of Physick before I begin to examine them I beg leave of you in this present to make some reflections first upon his Opinions concerning the Nature of Health and Diseases As for Health he is pleased to say That it consists not in a just Temperature of the body but in a sound and intire Life for otherwise a Temperature of body is as yet in a dead Carcass newly kill'd where notwithstanding there is now death but not life not health Also he says That no disease is in a dead Carcass To which I answer That in my opinion Life is in a dead Carcass as well as in a living Animal although not such a Life as that Creature had before it became a Carcass and the Temperature of that Creature is altered with the alteration of its particular life for the temperature of that particular life which was before in the Animal doth not remain in the Carcass in such a manner as it was when it had the life of such or such an Animal nevertheless a dead Carcass hath life and such a temperature of life as is proper and belonging to its own figure for there are as many different lives as there be different creatures and each creature has its particular life and soul as partaking of sensitive and rational Matter And if a dead Carcass hath life and such a temperature of motions as belong to its own life then there is no question but these motions may move sometimes irregularly in a dead Carcass as well as in any other Creature and since health and diseases are nothing else but the regularity or irregularity of sensitive corporeal Motions a dead Carcass having Irregular motions may be said as well to have diseases as a living body as they name it although it is no proper or usual term for other Creatures but onely for Animals However if there were no such thing as a disease or term it what you will I will call it Irregularity of sensitive motions in a dead Carcass How comes it that the infection of a disease proceeds often from dead Carcasses into living Animals For certainly it is not meerly the odour or stink of a dead body for then all stinking Carcasses would produce an Infection wherefore this Infection must necessarily be inherent in the Carcass and proceed from the Irregularity of its motions Next I 'le ask you Whether a Consumption be a disease or not If it be then a dead Carcass might be said to have a disease as well as a living body and the AEgyptians knew a soveraign remedy against this disease which would keep a dead Carcass intire and undissolved many ages but as I said above a dead Carcass is not that which it was being a living Animal wherefore their effects cannot be the same having not the same causes Next your Author is pleased to call with Hippocrates Nature the onely Physicianess of Diseases I affirm it and say moreover that as she is the onely Physicianess so she is also the onely Destroyeress and Murtheress of all particular Creatures and their particular lives for she dissolves and transforms as well as she frames and creates and acts according to her pleasure either for the increase or decrease augmentation or destruction sickness or health life or death of Particular Creatures But concerning Diseases your Authors opinion is That a Disease is as Natural as Health I answer 't is true Diseases are natural but if we could find out the art of healing as well as the art of killing and destroying and the art of uniting and composing as well as the art of separating and dividing it would be very beneficial to man but this may easier be wished for then obtained for Nature being a corporeal substance has infinite parts as well as an infinite body and Art which is onely the playing action of Nature and a particular Creature can easier divide and separate parts then unite and make parts for Art cannot match unite and joyn parts so as Nature doth for Nature is not onely dividable and composeable being a corporeal substance but she is also full of curiosity and variety being partly self-moving and there is great difference between forced actions and natural actions for the one sort is regular the other irregular But you may say Irregularities are as natural as Regularities I grant it but Nature leaves the irregular part most commonly to her daughter or creature Art that is she makes irregularities for varieties sake but she her self orders the regular part that is she is more careful of her regular actions and thus Nature taking delight in variety suffers irregularities for otherwise if there were onely regularities there could not be so much variety Again your Author says That a disease doth not consist but in living bodies I answer there is not any body that has not life for if life is general then all figures or parts have life but though all bodies have life yet all bodies have not diseases for diseases are but accidental to bodies and are nothing else but irregular motions in particular Creatures which may be not onely in Animals but generally in all Creatures for there may be Irregularities in all sorts of Creatures which may cause untimely dissolutions but yet all dissolutions are not made by irregular motions for many creatures dissolve regularly but onely those which are untimely In the same place your Author mentions That a Disease consists immediately in Life it self but not in the dregs and filthinesses which are erroneous forreigners and strangers to the life I grant that a Disease is made by the motions of Life but not such a life as your Author describes which doth go out like the snuff of a Candle or as one of Lucian's Poetical Lights but by the life of Nature which cannot go out without the destruction of Infinite Nature and as the Motions of Nature's life make diseases or irregularities so they make that which man names dregs and filths which dregs filths sickness and death are nothing but changes of corporeal motions different from those motions or actions that are proper to the health perfection and consistence of such or such a figure or creature But to conclude there is no such thing as corruption sickness or death properly in Nature for they are made by natural actions and are onely varieties in Nature but not obstructions or destructions of Nature or annihilations of particular Creatures and so is that we name
Superfluities which bear onely a relation to a particular Creature which hath more Motion and Matter then is proper for the nature of its figure And thus much of this subject for the present from MADAM Your faithful Friend and humble Servant XXVII MADAM In my last I remember I told you of your Authors opinion concerning the seat of Diseases viz. that Diseases are properly in living bodies and consist in the life it self but when I consider his definition of Life and of a Disease I cannot conceive how they should consist together for he describes a Disease to be a real material and substantial being truly subsisting in a body but life to be a meer nothing and yet the immediate mansion of a disease the inward subject yea and workman of the same and that with the life all diseases depart into nothing Surely Madam it exceedeth my understanding for first I cannot conceive how life which is a meer Nothing can be a lodging to something Next how Nothing can depart and die and thirdly how Something can become Nothing I think your Author might call a dead Carcass as well No-thing as Life and since he names Diseases the Thieves of Life they must needs be but poor Thieves because they steal No-thing But your Author compares Life to Light and calls it an Extinguishable Light like the light of a Candle which if so then the old saying is verified That life goes out like the snuff of a Candle But I wonder Madam that grave and wise men will seriously make use of a fimilifing old Proverb or of a Poetical Fancy in matter of natural Philosophy for I have observed that Homer Lucian Ovid Virgil Horace c. have been very ferviceable to great Philosophers who have taken the ground of their Fictions and transferred them into Natural Philosophy as Immaterial substances Non-beings and many the like but they can neither do any good nor hurt to Nature but onely spoil Philosophical Knowledg and as Nature is ignorant of Immaterials and Non-beings so Art is ignorant of Nature for Mathematical Rules Measures and Demonstrations cannot rule measure nor demonstrate Nature no more then Chymical Divisions Dissolutions and Extractions or rather distractions nay I may say destructions can divide dissolve extract compose and unite as Nature doth Wherefore their Instruments Figures Furnaces Limbecks and Engines cannot instruct them of the truth of Natures Principles but the best and readiest way to find out Nature or rather some truth of Nature is sense and reason which are Parts of Natures active substance and therefore the truest informers of Nature but the Ignorance of Nature has caused Ignorance amongst Philosophers and the Ignorance of Philosophers hath caused numerous Opinions and numerous Opinions have caused various Discourses and Disputes which Discourses and Disputes are not Sense and Reason but proceed from Irregular Motions and Truth is not found in Irregularities But to return to Life it seems your Author hath taken his opinion from Lucian's Kingdom of Lights the Lights being the Inhabitants thereof and when any was adjudged to die his Light was put out which was his punishment And thus this Heathenish Fiction is become a Christian Verity when as yet your Author rayls much at those that insist upon the Opinions and Doctrine of Pagan Philosophers Wherefore I will leave this Poetical Fancy of Life and turn to Death and see what opinion your Author hath of that First concerning the cause or original of Death Neither God says he nor the Evil Spirit is the Creator of Death but Man onely who made death for himself Neither did Nature make death but Man made death natural Which if it be so then Death being to my opinion a natural Creature as well as Life Sickness and Health Man certainly had great Power as to be the Creator of a natural Creature But I would fain know the reason why your Author is so unwilling to make God the Author of Death and Sickness as well as of Damnation Doth it imply any Impiety or Irreligiousness Doth not God punish as well as reward and is not death a punishment for our sin You may say Death came from sin but sin did not come from God Then some might ask from whence came sin You will say From the Transgression of the Command of God as the eating of the Forbidden Fruit. But from whence came this Transgression It might be answer'd From the Perswasion of the Serpent From whence came this Perswasion From his ill and malitious nature to oppose God and ruine the race of Mankind From whence came this ill Nature From his Fall Whence came his Fall From his Pride and Ambition to be equal with God From whence came this Pride From his Free-will From whence came his Free-will From God Thus Madam if we should be too inquisitive into the actions of God we should commit Blasphemy and make God Cruel as to be the Cause of Sin and consequently of Damnation But although God is not the Author of Sin yet we may not stick to say that he is the Author of the Punishment of Sin as an Act of his Divine Justice which Punishment is Sickness and Death nay I see no reason why not of Damnation too as it is a due punishment for the sins of the wicked for though Man effectively works his own punishment yet Gods Justice inflicts it Like as a just Judg may be call'd the cause of a Thief being hang'd But these questions are too curious and some men will be as presumptuous as the Devil to enquire into Gods secret actions although they be sure that they cannot be known by any Creature Wherefore let us banish such vain thoughts and onely admire adore love and praise God and implore his Mercy to give us grace to shun the punishments for our sins by the righteousness of our actions and not endeavour to know his secret designs Next I dissent from your Author That Death and all dead things do want roots whereby they may produce For death and dead things in my opinion are the most active producers at least they produce more numerously and variously then those we name living things for example a dead Horse will produce more several Animals besides other Creatures then a living Horse can do but what Archeus and Ideas a dead Carcass hath I can tell no more then what Blas or Gas it hath onely this I say that it has animate Matter which is the onely Archeus or Master-workman that produces all things creates all things dissolves all things and transforms all things in Nature but not out of Nothing or into Nothing as to create new Creatures which were not before in Nature or to annihilate Creatures and to reduce them to nothing but it creates and transforms out of and in the same Matter which has been from all Eternity Lastly your Author is pleased to say That he doth not behold a disease as an abstracted Quality and that Apoplexy
one distempered person it may fail of its success applyed to others in the same kind of distemper nay it may cure perhaps one and the same person of a distemper once and in the return of the same disease effect little or nothing witness those remedies that are applyed in Agues Tooth-aches and the like especially Amulets for one and the same disease in several persons or in one and the same person at several times may vary and change so often and proceed from so different causes and be of so different tempers and have such different motions as one and the same medicine can do no good And what would the skill of Physicians be if one remedy should cure all diseases Why should they take so much pains in studying the various causes motions and tempers of diseases if one medicine had a general power over all Nay for what use should God have created such a number of different simples Vegetables and Minerals if one could do all the business Lastly your Author rehearses some strange examples of Child-bearing Women who having seen terrible and cruel sights as Executions of Malefactors and dismembring of their bodies have brought forth monstrous births without heads hands arms leggs c. according to the objects they had seen I must confess Madam that all Creatures are not always formed perfect for Nature works irregularly sometimes wherefore a Child may be born defective in some member or other or have double members instead of one and so may other animal Creatures but this is nevertheless natural although irregular to us but to have a Child born perfect in the womb and the lost member to be taken off there and so brought forth defective as your Author mentions cannot enter my belief neither can your Author himself give any reason but he makes onely a bare relation of it for certainly if it was true that the member was chopt rent or pluckt off from the whole body of the Child it could not have been done without a violent shock or motion of the Mother which I am confident would never have been able to endure it for such a great alteration in her body would of necessity besides the death of the Child have caused a total dissolution of her own animal parts by altering the natural animal motions But as I said above those births are caused by irregular motions and are not frequent and ordinary for if upon every strange sight or cruel object a Child-bearing-woman should produce such effects Monsters would be more frequent then they are In short Nature loves variety and this is the cause of all strange and unusual natural effects and so leaving Nature to her will and pleasure my onely delight and pleasure is to be MADAM faithful Friend and humble Servant XXXVIII MADAM YOur Author reproving the Schools that they forbid Salt to some diseased persons as pernicious to their health Good God says he how unsavoury are the Schools and how unsavoury do they bid us to be But I suppose the Schools do not absolutely forbid all diseased persons to abstein from salt but onely not to use it excessively or too frequently for experience proves that salt meats have not onely increased but caused diseases as the Stone the Gout Sciatica Fistula's Cancers sore Eyes sore Throats and the like I do not say that those diseases are always bred with the excess of salt diets for diseases of one and the same kind may be bred variously but this hath been observed that whosoever is affected with such diseases shall after a salt meal find himself in more pain then before wherefore a constant or common salt diet cannot but be hurtful Neither are those persons that feed much on salt meats or use strong drinks take number for number so healthful or long-lived as those that are temperate and abstaining Next your Author bewails The shameful simplicity of those that give their Patients Leaf-Gold Pearls and bruised or powderd pretious Stones as Cordials in fainting fits and other distempers For says he they may be dissolved but not altered wherefore they cannot produce any powerful effect to the health of the Patient Truly Madam I am not of his mind for were it that those remedies or cordials could not be transchanged yet their vertues may nevertheless be very beneficial to the fick For example a man that is assaulted by enemies or by chance is fallen into a deep Pit or is ready to be strangled and in all not able to help himself yet by the help of another man may be rescued and freed from his danger and from death using such means as are able to release him which either by drawing his Sword against his ememies or by throwing a rope down into the Pit and haling him out or by cutting the rope by which he hung may save him and yet neither the man nor any of his Instruments as Sword Rope Knife and the like need to be transchanged The like may be said of the aforementioned medicines or remedies which if they be not transchangeable yet they may nevertheless do such operations as by their natural active qualities and proprieties to over-power the irregular motions in the natural parts of the body of the Patient for many diseases proceed more from irregular motions then irregular parts and although there is no motion without matter yet one and the same matter may have divers and various changes of motions and moving parts will either oppose or assist each other without transchanging And truly Madam I wonder that your Author doth condemn such Cordials made of Leaf-gold Pearls powdered precious Stones or the like and yet verily believe that Amber Saphires Emeraulds Beads Bracelets c. outwardly applied or worn can cure more then when inwardly taken surely if this be so they cure more by Faith then by Reason But it seems your Author regulates the actions of Nature to the artificial actions of his Furnace which although sometimes they produce wonderful effects yet not such as Nature doth for if they cure one they commonly kill ten nay the best of their Medicine is so dangerous as it ought not to be applied but in desperate cases Wherefore Wise Physicians must needs be Provident and Cautious when they use them And so leaving them I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and humble Servant XXXIX MADAM I Will not dispute your Authors opinion concerning the Plague of Men which he says doth not infect Beasts neither doth the plague of Beasts infect Men but rather believe it to be so for I have observed that Beasts infect onely each other to wit those of their own kind as Men do infect other Men. For example the Plague amongst Horses continues in their own kind and so doth the Plague amongst Sheep and for any thing we know there may be a plague amongst Vegetables as well as amongst Animals and they may not onely infect each other but also those Animals that do feed on those