The Soul of a Beast is a Substance distinct from its Body This Soul is Annihilated and therefore Substances may naturally be Annihilated Therefore though the Soul of Man be a Substance distinct from his Body it may be Annihilated when the Body is destroyed And thus the Immortality of the Humane Soul cannot be Demonstrated by Reason But if it be own'd to be most certain That no Substance can be naturally reduc'd to nothing the Soul of Beasts will subsist after Death and since they have no reward to hope for and are made for Bodies they must at least pass out of one to another that they may not remain useless in Nature Which seems to be the most reasonable Inference Now 't is Matter of Faith That God is just and Wise That he Loves not Disorder That Nature is corrupted That the Soul of Man is Immortal and that That of Beasts is Mortal Because indeed it is not a distinct Substance from their Body nor consequently capable of Knowledge and Love or of any Passions and Sensations like ours Therefore in the Stile of Monsieur de la Ville who condemns Men upon Consequences that he draws from their Principles the Cartesians may justly charge him with a Crime and all Mindkind besides for believing Beasts have Souls What would Monsieur de la Ville say if in his way of proceeding we should tax him of Impiety for entertaining Opinions from whence it might be concluded That God is not Just Wise or Powerful Opinions that overthrow Religion that are opposite to Original Sin that take away the only Demonstration Reason can give of the Immortality of the Soul What would he say if we should charge him with Injustice and Cruelty for making innocent Souls to suffer and even for Annihilating them to feed upon the Bodies which they Animate He is a Sinner but they are Innocent and yet for the Nourishment of his Body he kills Animals and Annihilates their Souls which are of greater Worth than his Body Yet if his Body could not subsist without the Flesh of Animals or if the Annihilation of a Soul should render his Body for ever Immortal this Cruelty as unjust as it is might perhaps be excusable But with what Pretence can he Annihilate Substances altogether innocent to sustain but a few days a Body justly condemn'd to Death because of Sin Would he be so little a Philosopher as to excuse himself upon the Custom of the Place he lives in But what if his Zeal should carry him into the Indies where the Inhabitants found Hospitals for Beasts and the Philosophers and the better and more gentile Part of them are so charitable to to the smallest Flies that for fear of killing them by Breathing and Walking they wear a fine Cloath before their Mouths and fan the Ways through which they pass Would he then fear to make innocent Souls to suffer or to Annihilate them for the Preservation of a Sinner's Body Would he not rather chuse to subscribe to their Opinion who give not Beasts a Soul more Noble than their Body or distinct from it and by publishing this Opinion acquit himself of the Crimes of Cruelty and Injustice which these People would charge upon him if having the same Principles he follow'd not their Custom This Example may suffice to shew that we are not permitted to treat Men as Hereticks and dangerous Persons because of Irreligious Consequences that may be deduc'd from their Principles when these Consequences are disown'd by them For though I think it would be an infinitely harder Task to answer the aforesaid Difficulties than those of M. de la Ville's yet the Cartesians would be very Ridiculous if they should accuse Monsieur de la Ville and others that were not of their Opinion of Impiety and Heresie 'T is only the Authority of the Church that may decide about Matters of Faith and the Church has not oblig'd us and probably whatever Consequence may be drawn from common Principles never will oblige us to believe that Dogs have not a Soul more Noble than their Body that they know not their Masters that they neither fear nor desire nor suffer any thing because it is not necessary that Christians should be instructed in these Truths ARGUMENT II. Almost all Men are perswaded That sensible Objects are the true Causes of Pleasure and Pain which we feel upon their Presence They believe that the Fire sends forth that agreeable Heat which rejoyces us and that our Aliments Act in us and give us the Welcome Sensations of Tasts They doubt not but 't is the Sun which makes the Fruits necessary for Life to thrive and that all sensible Objects have a peculiar Vertue by which they can do us a great deal of Good and Evil. Let us see if from these Principles we cannot draw Consequences contrary to Religion and Points of Faith A Consequence opposite to the first Principle of Morality which obliges us to love God with all our Strength and to fear none but Him 'T is a common Notion by which all Men Order their Behaviour That we ought to love and fear what has Power to do us Good and Harm to make us feel Pleasure and Pain to render us happy or miserable and that this Cause is to be lov'd or fear'd proportionably to its Power of Acting on us But the Fire the Sun the Objects of our Senses can truly Act on us and make us in some manner happy or miserable This is the Principle suppos'd we may therefore Love and Fear them This is the Conclusion which every one naturally makes and is the general Principle of the corruption of Manners 'T is evident by Reason and by the First of God's Commandments That all the motions of our Soul of Love or Fear Desire or Joy ought to tend to God and that all the Motions of our Body may be Regulated and Determin'd by encompassing Objects By the Motion of our Body we may approach a Fruit avoid a Blow fly a Beast that 's ready to devour us But we ought to Love and Fear none but God all the Motions of our Soul ought to tend to Him only we are to Love Him with all our strength this is an indispensible Law We can neither Love or Fear what is below us without disorder and corruption Freely to fear a Beast ready to devour us or to fear the Devil is to give them some honour to Love a Fruit to desire Riches to rejoyce in the light of the Sun as if he were the true cause of it to Love even our Father our Protector our Friend as if they were capable of doing us good is to pay them an Honour which is due to none but God in which sense it is lawful to Love none But we may and ought to Love our Neighbour by wisâ—ing and procuring him as Natural or Occasional Cause all that may make him happy and no otherwise For we to Love our Brothers not as if able to do
of a tender and delicate Body than in those of a more strong and robust Complection Thus Men who abound with Strength and Vigour are not at all hurt with the sight of a Massacre nor so much inclin'd to Compassion because the sight of it is an offence to their Body as because it shocks their Reason These Persons have no Pity for a Condemned Criminal as being both Inflexible and Inexorable Whereas Women and Children suffer much Pain by the Hurt and Wounds they see receiv'd by others They are machinally dispos'd to be very Pitiful and Compassionate to the Miserable And they are unable to see a Beast beaten or hear it cry without some disturbance of mind As for Infants which are still in their Mother's Womb the delicacy of the Fibres of their Flesh infinitely exceeding that of Women and Children the Course of their Spirits must necessarily produce more considerable Changes in them as will be seen in the Sequel of the Discourse We will still suffer what we have said to go for a simple Supposition if Men will have it so But they ought to endeavour well to comprehend it if they would distinctly conceive the things I presume to explain in this Chapter For these two Suppositions I have just made are the Principles of an infinite number of things which are generally believ'd very difficult and abstruse And which indeed seem impossible to be explain'd and clear'd up without them I will here give some instances of what I have said It was about seven or eight Years ago that there was seen in the Incurable a young Man who was born anâ—Idiot and whose Body was broken in the same places that Malefactors are broken on the Wheel He lived near twenty Years in the same condition many Persons went to see him and the late Queen-mother going to visit the Hospital had the Curiosity to see him and also to touch his Legs and Arms in the places were they were broken According to the Principles I have been establishing the cause of this Calamitous Accident was That his Mother hearing a Criminal was to be broken went to see the Execution All the blows which were given to the Condemned struck violently the Imagination of the Mother and by a kind of Repercussive blow the tender and delicate Brain of her Infant The Fibres of this Mother's Brain receiv'd a prodigious Concussion and were possibly broke in some places by the violent course of the Spirits produc'd at the Sight of so frightful a Spectacle But they had Consistency enough to prevent their total Dissolution The Fibres on the contrary of the Infant 's Brain not being able to resist the furious torrent of these Spirits were broke and shattered all to pieces And the havock was violent enough to make him lose his Intellect for ever This is the Reason why he come into the World deprived of Sense Now for the other why he was broken in the same parts of his Body as the Criminal whom his Mother had seen put to Death At the Sight of this Execution so capable of dismaying a timorous Woman the violent course of the Animal Spirits of the Mother made a forcible descent from her Brain towards all the Members of her Body which were Analogous to those of the Criminal and the same thing happened to the Infant But because the Bones of the Mother were capable of withstanding the violent Impression of these Spirits they receiv'd no dammage by them it may be too she felt not the least Pain nor the least Trembling in her Arms or Legs upon the Breaking of the Criminal But the rapid course of the Spirits was capable of bursting the soft and tender parts of the Infant 's Bones For the Bones are the last parts of the Body that are form'd and they have very little Consistence whilst Children are yet in their Mother 's Womb. And it ought to be observ'd that if this Mother had determin'd the Motion of these Spirits towards some other part of her Body by some powerful Titillation her Infant would have escaped the Fracture of his Bones But the part which was correspondent to that towards which the Mother had determined these Spirits would have been severely injured according to what I have already said The Reasons of this Accident are general enough to explain how it comes to pass that Women who whilst big with Child see Persons particularly mark'd in certain places of their Face imprint on their Infants the very same Marks and in the self-same places of the Body And 't is not without good Reason that they are caution'd to rub some latent part of the Body when they perceive any thing which surprises them or are agitated with some violent Passion For by this means the Marks will be delineated rather upon the hidden parts than the Faces of their Infants We should have frequent Instances of like Nature with this I have here related if Infants could live after they had receiv'd so great Wounds or Disruptions but generally they prove Abortions For it may be said that rarely any Child dies in the Womb if the Mother be not distemper'd that has any other cause of its ill fortune than some fright or impotent Desire or other violent Passion of the Mother This following is another Instance very unusual and particular It is no longer than a Year ago that a Woman having with too great an Application of Thought contemplated the Picture of St. Pius at the Celebration of his Feast of Canonization was deliver'd of a Child perfectly featur'd like the Representation of the Saint He had the Countenance of an Old Man as near as was possible for an Infant that was beardless His Arms were folded across upon his Breast His Eyes bent up towards Heaven and had very little Forehead because the Picture of the Saint being postur'd as looking up to Heaven and elevated towards the Roof of the Church had scarce any Fore-head to be seen He had a kind of Mitre reclining backwards on his Shoulders with many round prints in the places where the Mitres are imboss'd with Precious Stones In short this Infant was the very Picture of the Picture upon which the Mother had form'd it by the force of her Imagination This is a thing that all Paris might have seen as well as I since it was a considerable time preserv'd in Spirit of Wine This instance has This remarkable in it That it was not the Sight of a Man alive and acted with some violent Passion that mov'd the Spirits and Blood of the Mother to the Production of so strange an Effect but only the sight of a Picture which yet made a very sensible Impression and was accompanied with a mighty Commotion of Spirits whether by the Fervency and Application of the Mother or whether by the Agitation the noise of the Feast caus'd in her This Mother then beholding the Picture with great Application of Mind and Commotion of Spirits the Infant
since it rather respects Morals and Politicks than our Subject And whereas this Inclination is always accompany'd with the Passions it might perhaps be more appositly treated of in the next Book But 't is not of so great concern to be so nicely methodical in this Case That we may rightly comprehend the Cause and Effects of this Natural Inclination it is requisite to know that GOD loves all his Works and that he strictly unites them to one another for their mutual Preservation For Loving incessantly the Works he produces it being his Love that produces them he also continually impresses on our Heart a Love for his Works that is he produces constantly in our Heart a Love like his own And to the intent the Natural Love we have for our selves might not swallow up or too much infringe upon that which we have for exteriour things but on the contrary that these two Loves which GOD puts in us might cherish and strengthen each other he has so artfully united us with all things about us and especially with those Beings of the same Species as our selves that their Evils naturally afflict us their Joy rejoyces us their Rise their Fall or Diminution seem to augment or diminish respectively our own Being The new Honours of our Relations or Friends the fresh Atchievements of those who have the nearest Engagements to us The Conquests and Victories of our Prince and even the late Discoveries of the New World give as it were an additional growth to our Substance Belonging to all these things we rejoyce at their Grandure and Extent We gladly would that even the World was without Bounds and that Notion of some Philosophers that the Works of GOD are infinite not only seems worthy of GOD but most agreeable to Man who can conceive nothing nobler than the being a part of Infinity whilst as inconsiderable as he is in himself he fancies he feels himself infinitely enlarg'd by an expansion of Thought into the infinite Beings that surround him 'T is true the Union we have with all those Bodies that rowl in the vast spaces is not very binding and consequently insensible to the greatest part of Men and there are some who interess themselves so little in the Discoveries made in the Heavens that one would think they had no natural Union to them did we not know that it was for want of Knowledge or for their too applicative Adherencies to other things The Soul though united to the Body which she animates is not always sensible of the Motions that occur in it or if she be yet she does not always actually consider them The Passion whereby she 's acted being often greater than the Sensation wherewith she 's affected makes her seem to have a stricter Adherence to the Object of her Passion than to her own Body For 't is chiefly by the Passions that the Soul expands her self abroad and finds she is actually related to all surrounding Beings as it is especially by Sensation that she expands through her own Body and finds she is united to all the Parts that compose it But as we are not to conclude that the Soul of a Man in a Passion is not united to his Body because he exposes himself to Death and is unconcern'd for his own Preservation so it ought not to be imagin'd we are not naturally engag'd to all things because there are some we are not at all concern'd for Would you know for instance whether Men have any Adhesions to their Prince or their Country Enquire out such as are acquainted with the Interests of them and have no particular Engagements of their own to take them up and you will then see how earnest they are for News how impatient to hear of Battels how joyful for a Victory and how melancholy upon a Defeat And this will convince you how strictly Men are united to their Prince and their Country In like manner would you know whether Men are united to China Japan the Planets or Fix'd Stars Enquire out or only imagine to your self some whose Country or Family enjoy a settl'd Peace who have no particular Passions and that are not actually sensible of the Union that binds them to nearer Objects than the Heavens and you will find if they have any Knowledge of the Magnitude and Nature of these Stars they will rejoyce at the Discovery of any of them will consider them with Pleasure and if they have Art enough will willingly be at the pains of observing and calculating their Motions Such as are in the hurry of Business have little Curiosity for the Appearance of a Comet or the Incidence of an Eclipse but Men that have no such Dependencies to nearer things find themselves considerable Employment about such Events because indeed there is nothing but what we are united to though we have not always the Sense of this Union as a Man does not always feel the Soul united I don't say to his Arm or Hand but to his Heart and Brain The strongest Natural Union which GOD has establish'd between us and his Works is that which cements and binds us to our Fellow-Brethren Men. GOD has commanded us to love them as our Second-selves and to the end that Elective Love with which we prosecute them might be resolute and constant he supports and strengthens it continually with a Natural Love which he impresses on us and for that purpose has given us some invisible Bonds which bind and oblige us necessarily to love them to be watchful for their as our own Preservation to regard them as parts necessary to the whole which we constitute together with them and without which we could not subsist There is nothing more admirably contriv'd than those Natural Correspondencies observable between the Inclinations of Men's Minds between the Motions of their Bodies and again between these Inclinations and these Motions All this secret Chain-work is a Miracle which can never be sufficiently admir'd nor can ever be understood Upon the Sense of some sudden surprizing Evil or which a Man finds as it were too strong for him to overcome by his own Strength he raises suppose a loud Cry This Cry forc'd out frequently without thinking on it by the disposition of the Machine strikes infallibly into the Ears of those who are near enough to afford the Assistance that is wanted It pierces them and makes them understand it let them be of what Nation or Quality soever for 't is a Cry of all Nations and all Conditions as indeed it ought to be It makes a Commotion in the Brain and instantly changes the whole Disposition of Body in those that are struck with it and makes them run to give succour without so much as knowing it But it is not long before it acts upon their Mind and obliges their Will to desire and their Understanding to contrive means of assisting him who made that Natural Petition provided always that urgent Petition or rather Command be just and according
they are united to their Relations their Friends their City their Office and all sensible Goods the Preservation of which seems as necessary and valuable as that of their own Being Thus the Care of their Fortunes and the Desire of increasing them their Passion for Glory and Grandeur busies and imploys them infinitely more than the Perfection of their Soul Even Men of Learning and Dealers in Wit spend more than one half of their Life in Actions purely Animal or such as give us Reason to think their Health their Estates and Reputations are of dearer Concern than the Perfection of their Minds They study more to acquire a Chimerical Grandeur in the Imagination of others than to give their Mind greater Force and Comprehension They make a kind of Wardrobe of their Brain wherein they huddle without Order or Distinction whatever bears a certain Character of Learning I mean whatever can appear but Rare and Extraordinary and provoke others to admire them Their Ambition lies in resembling those Cabinets fill'd with Relicks and Curiosities which have nothing truly Rich or Valuable but derive their Worth from Fancy Passion or Chance and they rarely labour to make their Mind accurate and to regulate the Motions of their Heart Yet it should not be thought from hence that Men are intirely ignorant that they have a Soul and that this their Soul is the Principal part of their Being They have too been again and again convinc'd both by Reason and Experience that 't is no so considerable an Advantage to live in Reputation Affluence and Health the space of a few Years and in general that all Corporeal Goods all that are possess'd by Means and for the sake of the Body are Imaginary and Corruptible Goods They know 't is better to be Just than Rich to be Reasonable than Learned to have a Lively and Penetrating Mind than to have a Brisk and Active Body These are Truths indelibly imprinted on the Mind and infallibly discover'd whenever Men please to attend to them Homer for Instance who extols his Hero for his Swiftness might have perceiv'd if he would that 't was an Elogy fitter for a Race-Horse or a Greyhound Alexander so celebrated in History for his Illustrious Robberies heard sometimes from his most Retir'd Reason the same Reproaches as Villains and Thieves in spight of the confus'd Noise of a surrounding Crowd of Flatterers and Caesar when he pass'd the Rubicon could not help manifesting how these inward Lashes terrified him when at last he had resolv'd to sacrifice the Liberty of his Country to his Ambition The Soul however united very strictly to the Body is nevertheless united to GOD and at that very time of her receiving by her Body the lively and confus'd Sensations her Passions inspite into her she receives from the Eternal Truth presiding over her Understanding the Knowledge of her Duty and Irregularities When her treacherous Body deceives her GOD undeceives her When it indulges He wounds her When it gives her Incense and Applauses He strikes her inward with smarting Remorses and condemns her by the Manifestation of a more Pure and Holy Law than that of the Flesh which she has obey'd Alexander needed not that the Scythians should have come to teach him his Duty in a strange Language He knew from Him who teaches the Scythians and the most Barbarous Nations the Rules of Justice which he ought to follow The Light of Truth which enlightens the World enlightned him also and the Voice of Nature which speaks neither in Greek nor Scythian nor Barbarian Dialect spoke to him as to the rest of the World in a most clear and most intelligible Language In vain did the Scythians upbraid him with his Conduct their Words struck no deeper than his Ears And GOD not speaking home to his Heart or rather GOD speaking to his Heart whilst he heard only the Scythians who but provok'd his Passions and so led him out of himself he heard not the Voice of Truth though loud as Thunder nor saw its Light though it pierc'd him through and through 'T is true our Union with GOD diminishes and weakens proportionably as our other with things sensible strengthens and increases but 't is impossible the former Union should be absolutely lost without the destruction of our Being For however those who are immers'd in Vice and drench'd in Pleasures are insensible to Truth they are notwithstanding united to it It never deserts them 't is they that desert it Its Light shines in Darkness but does not always dispell it as the Light of the Sun surrounds the Blind and those that wink though it enlightens neither The case is the same with the Union of our Mind with the Body That Union decreases as fast as the other we have with God increases but it is never quite dissolv'd but by our Death For though we were as enlightned and as disingag'd from all things sensible as the Apostles themselves yet Adam's Fall would necessitate us to a Dependence on the Body and we should feel a Law of our Flesh constantly opposing and warring against the Law of our Mind Proportionably as the Mind increases its Union with GOD it grows purer and more luminous stronger and more capacious since 't is from this Union it derives all its Perfection On the other side it becomes corrupt blind weak and contracted by the same degrees as its Union with its Body corroborates and increases because this is the Source of all its Imperfection Thus a Man who judges of all things by his Senses who on all accounts pursues the Motions of his Passions who has no other than Sensible Perceptions and loves only Flattering Gratifications is in the most wretched State of Mind imaginable as being infinitely remote from Truth and from his Good But when a Man judges of things but by the pure Ideas of the Mind carefully avoids the confus'd Noise of the Creatures and retiring into himself hears his Sovereign Teacher in the calm Silence of the Senses and Passions he cannot possibly fall into Errour GOD never deceives those who interrogate Him by a serious Application and an entire Conversion of Mind towards Him though He does not always make them hear His Answers But when the Mind by its Aversion from GOD diffuses it self abroad when it consults only its Body to be instructed in the Truth and only listens to its Senses Imaginations and Passions which talk to it everlastingly it must inevitably be engag'd in Errour Wisdom Truth Perfection and Happiness are not Goods to be hop'd for from the Body There is none except ONE that is above us and from whom we receive our Being who can make it perfect This is what we are taught by these admirable Words of St. Austin Eternal Wisdom says he is the Principle of all Intellectual Creatures which persisting immutably the same never ceases to speak to the most secret and inward Reason of his Creatures to convert them
not the greatest that is possible Children in their Mother's Womb whose Bodies are not yet compleatly form'd and who are of themselves in a state of the greatest Weakness Impotency and Want that can possibly be conceiv'd ought to be united likewise to their Mothers in the strictest manner imaginable And though their Soul be separate from that of their Mothers yet since their Body is not loos'd and disengaged from her's it ought to be concluded they have the same Sentiments and the same Passions in a word all the same Thoughts as are excited in the Soul on occasion of the Motions which are produc'd in the Body Thus Infants see what their Mothers see they hear the same Cries they receive the same Impressions of Objects and are agitated with the same Passions For since the Air of the Face of a Man in a Passion pierces those which look upon him and Naturally impresses in them a Passion resembling that with which he is possess'd though the Union of that Man with those that consider him be not very great and binding one would think there were good Reason to believe the Mothers capable of imprinting on their Infants all the same Sentiments they are touch'd with and all the same Passions themselves are acted withal For in short the Body of an Infant in the Womb is all of a piece with the Body of the Mother the Blood and the Spirits are common to them both the Sensations and Passions are the Natural Result and Consequents of the Motions of the Blood and Spirits and these Motions are necessarily communicated from the Mother to the Child Therefore the Passions and Sensations and generally all the Thoughts occasion'd by the Body are common to the Mother and the Child These things seem to me beyond exception true for several Reasons which yet I advance not here but as a Supposition which I think will be sufficiently demonstrated by what follows For every Supposition that can stand the shock of all the Difficulties possible to be rais'd against it and repel them ought to pass for an indisputable Principle The invisible Bonds and Cements wherewith the Author of Nature has united all his Works are worthy of the Wisdom of GOD and the Admiration of Men there is nothing in the World at once more surprizing and instructing than this but we are too inconsiderate to regard it We leave our selves to be conducted without considering who conducts us or how he does it Nature is conceal'd from our Eyes as well as its Author and we feel the Motions that are produc'd in us without considering from what Springs they are And yet there are few things more necessary to be known by us since upon the Knowledge of them it is that the Explication of all things relating to Man depends There are certainly in our Brain some secret Springs and Movements which naturally incline us to Imitation for this is necessary to Civil Society It is not only necessary for Children to believe their Fathers for Disciples to believe their Masters and Inferiours their Superiours It is moreover necessary that all Men should be inclinable to take up the like Exteriour Manners and to do the same Actions as those with whom they mean to live For to the intent that Men should have a Connexion and Dependance on each other 't is necessary they come near to one another in the Characters hoth of Body and Mind This is the Fundamental Principle of Abundance of things we shall treat of in the following Discourse But as to what we have to say in this Chapter it is farther necessary to know that there are in the Brain some Natural Dispositions which incline us to Compassion as well as to Imitation It ought to be known then That the Animal Spirits do not only Naturally convey themselves into the Parts of our Body for the performing the same Actions and the same Motions which we see others do but farther for the Receiving after a manner their Hurts and Injuries and participating of their Miseries For Experience teaches us that when we very attentively consider a Man violently struck or dangerously wounded the Spirits impetuously hasten to the Parts of our Body correspondent to those we see wounded in another provided we turn not the current of them another way by a voluntary and forcible Titillation of a different Part from that which we see hurt or wounded Or that the Natural Course of the Spirits towards the Heart and Viscerous parts which is usual in sudden Commotions changes not the Determination of the Flux of the Spirits we are speaking of and hurries them along with them Or lastly unless some extraordinary Connection of the Traces of the Brain with the motions of the Spirits effects the same thing This Translation of the Spirits into the Parts of our Body which are Analogous to those we see injuriously treated in others makes a very sensible Impression on Persons of a fine and delicate Constitution who have a lively Imagination and very soft and tender Flesh. For they feel for instance a kind of shivering or trembling in their Legs by an attentive beholding any one that has a Sore there or actually receives a blow in them For a confirmation of this take what a Friend of mine wrote to me to the same purpose An Old Gentleman that liv'd with one of my Sisters being sick a Young Maid held the Candle whil'st he was Blooded in the Foot But as she saw the Surgeon strike in the Lancet she was seiz'd with such an Apprehension as to feel three or four days afterwards such a piercing Pain in the same part of her Foot as forc'd her to keep her Bed all that time The Reason whereof is this That the Spirits impetuously diffuse themselves into these parts of our Body that by keeping them more intense they may render them more Sensible to the Soul and may put her upon her guard and make her solicitous to avoid those Evils which we behold in others This Compassion in Bodies produces another Compassion in Minds It induces us to Condole and Comfort others in their Troubles because in so doing we Comfort and Solace our selves In fine it gives a check to our Malice and Cruelty For the horrour of Blood and the fear of Death in a word the sensible impression of Compassion often prevents those Persons from Butchering beasts who are the most convincingly perswaded they are meer Machines Because a great many Men are unable to Kill them without Wounding themselves by a Repercussive stroke of Compassion But that which here is most especially remarkable is That the Sensible View of a Wound receiv'd by another produces in those which behold it a so much greater Wound as their Constitution is more weak and delicate Because that sensible View impetuously throwing the Animal Spirits into the Parts of the Body which are correspondent to those they see hurt or wounded they must needs make a greater Impression in the Fibres
according to the first Supposition saw it with the like Application and Commotion The Mother being sensibly smitten imitated the Picture at least in outward posture according to the second Supposition For her Body being compleatly form'd and the Fibres of her Flesh hard enough to withstand the torrent of the Spirits she could not possibly imitate it or become perfectly like it in all things But the Fibres of the Infant 's Flesh being extreamly soft and consequently capable of being moulded into any Figure the rapid course of the Spirits produc'd in his Flesh all that was necessary to render him entirely like the Image which he saw And the Imitation to which Children are the most dispos'd was almost as perfect as it possibly could be But this Imitation having given the Body of the Child a shape too extraordinary was the occasion of its Death There are many other Instances to be met with in Authors of the Power of the Mother's Imagination and there is nothing so odd or extravagant but they sometimes miscarry of For they not only bring forth Deform'd and Mis-shapen Children but the Fruits they have long'd to Eat as Apples Pears Grapes and the like The Mother strongly imagining and impatiently longing to Eat Pears for instance the Infant receives the same impatient Longings and strong Imaginations and the current of the Spirits actuated with the Image of the desir'd Fruit diffusing it self through the little Body which by reason of it flexibility and softness is readily dispos'd for a change of its Figure the poor Infant is fashion'd in the shape of the thing it too ardently desires But the Mother suffers not in her Body by it because it is not soft and plyable enough to receive the Figure of the thing imagined and so she cannot imitate or make her self entirely like it Now it ought to be suppos'd that this Correspondence I have been explaining and which is sometimes the cause of such great Disorders is an unuseful thing and an inconvenient Ordinance in Nature On the contrary it seems to be very advantagious to the Propagation of an Humane Body and the Formation of the Foetus and it is absolutely necessary to the Transmitting several Dispositions of the Brain which ought to be different at different Seasons and in different Countries For it is necessary for instance that Lambs in particular Countries should have their Brain altogether dispos'd for the avoiding and flying Wolves by reason of their abounding in those places and being very formidable Creatures to them It is true this Communication between the Mother's and the Infant 's Brain is sometimes attended with unlucky Consequences when the Mothers suffer themselves to be transported with some outragious Passion Notwithstanding it seems to me that without this Communication Women and other Creatures could not easily Propagate their Young Ones in the same Species For though some Reason may be given for the Formation of the Foetus in general as Monsieur Des-Cartes has happily enough attempted yet it is most difficult without this Communication of the Mother's Brain with that of the Infant to explain why a Mare does not produce a Calf and a Hen an Egg which contains a little Partridge or some other Bird of a new Species And I am of opinion that those who have thought much upon the Formation of the Foetus will agree in the same Notion 'T is true that the most reasonable Opinion and that which is most agreeable to Experience touching that very difficult Question about the Formation of the Foetus is this That Infants are already wholly form'd even before the Action whereby they are conceiv'd and that their Mothers only bestow upon them the ordinary Growth in the time of their being big with them Nevertheless this Communication of Animal Spirits and of the Brain of the Mother with the Spirits and Brain of the Infant seems however to be serviceable in regulating this Growth and determining the parts imploy'd in its Nourishment to the posturing themselves almost in the same manner as in the Body of the Mother That is in rendring the Infant like to or of the same Species This is manifest enough by the Accidents which occur when the Imagination of the Mother is disordered and some tempestuous Passion changes the Natural Disposition of her Brain For then as we have just explain'd this Communication alters the Natural Formation of the Infant 's Body and the Mother proves Abortive sometimes of her Foetus so much more resembling the Fruits she longed for as the Spirits find less Resistance in the Fibres of the Infant 's Body We deny not however but GOD Almighty without that Communication we have been mentioning might have dispos'd all things necessary to the Propagation of the Species for infinite Ages in so exact and regular a manner that Mothers should never have miscarried but have always born Children of the same Bigness and Complection and perfectly alike in all things For we ought not to measure the Power of GOD by our weak Imagination and we are ignorant of the Reasons which might have determined Him in the Construction of his Work We daily see that without the help and assistance of this Communication Plants and Trees produce regularly enough their like and that Birds and many other Animals stand in no need of it for the Breeding and Hatching of their Young ones when they brood upon Eggs of a different Species as when a Hen sits on the Eggs of a Partridge For though we have reason to suppose that the Seeds and Eggs have originally contain'd in them the Plants and Birds which proceed from them and that the little Bodies of these Birds may have receiv'd their Conformation by the Communication before-mentioned and the Plants have receiv'd their's by another Communication which is equivalent yet this perhaps would be but a Conjecture But though it should be more than Conjecture yet we ought in no wise to judge by the things which GOD has made what those are which it is possible for Him to make Yet if it be consider'd that Plants which receive their Growth from the Action of their Mother-plant resemble it much more than those which proceed from the Seeds that the Tulips for instance which arise from the Root are of the same colour with their Mother-Tulip and that those which are deriv'd from the Seed are generally very different It cannot be doubted but that if the Communication of the generating Plant with the generated is not absolutely necessary to make it of the same Species it is always necessary to make it of the same Likeness So that though it were fore-seen by GOD that this Communication of the Mother's Brain with the Brain of her Child would sometimes be the occasion of the Death of the Foetus and the Generation of Monsters by reason of the disorderly Imagination of the Mother Yet this Communication is so admirable and so necessary for the Reasons I have alledg'd and for several others
great Precipice which a Man sees under him and from which there is danger of falling or the Traces of some bulky Body imminent over his Head and ready to fall and crush him is naturally Connected with that which represents Death and with a Commotion of the Spirits which disposes him to flight or the desire of flying it This Connection admits no alteration because 't is necessary it should always be the same and it consists in a disposition of the Fibres of the Brain which we bring with us into the World All the Connections which are not Natural may and ought to break because the different Circumstances of times and places ought to change to the end they may be useful to the Preservation of Life 'T is convenient the Partridge for instance should fly the Sports-man with his Gun at the season and the places of his pursuing the Game But there 's no necessity it should fly him in other places or at other times Thus 't is necessary all Animals for their Preservation should have certain Connections of Traces easily made and easily broken and that they should have others very difficult to be sever'd and lastly others incapable of Dissolution 'T is of very great use to make diligent enquiry into the different Effects these different Connections are able to produce For there are Effects which as they are very numerous so they are no less important to the Knowledge of Man and all things relating to him We shall see hereafter that these things are the principal Causes of our Errors But 't is time to return to the Subject we have promis'd to Discourse on and to explain the different Changes which happen to the Imagination of Men by reason of their different ways and purposes of Life CHAP. IV. I. That Men of Learning are the most subject to Error II. The Causes why Men had rather be guided by Authority than make use of their own Reason THE Differences observable in Men as to their Ways and Purposes of Life are almost infinite Their different Conditions different Employments different Posts and Offices and different Communities are innumerable These Differences are the Reason of Men's acting upon quite different Designs and Reasoning upon different Principles Even in the same Community wherein there should be but one Character of Mind and all the same Designs you shall rarely meet with several Persons whose Aims and Views are not different Their various Employments and their many Adhesions necessarily diversifie the Method and Manner they would take to accomplish those various things wherein they agree Whereby 't is manifest that it would be an impossible Undertaking to go about to explain in particular the Moral Causes of Error nor would it turn to any great Account should we do it in this place I design therefore only to speak of those Ways of Living that lead us into great multitudes of Errors and Errors of most dangerous Importance When these shall be explain'd we shall have open'd the way for the Mind to proceed farther and every one may discover at a single View and with the greatest ease imaginable the most hidden Causes of many particular Errors the Explication whereof would cost a world of Pains and Trouble When once the Mind sees clearly it delights to run to Truth and it runs to it with an inexpressible swiftness The Imployment that seems most necessary to be treated of at present by Reason of its producing most considerable Changes in the Imagination of Men and its conducting them into Errors most is that of Men of Books and Learning who make greater use of their Memory than Thought For Experience has ever manifested that those who have applied themselves the most fervently to the Reading of Books and to the Search of Truth are the Men that have led us into a very great part of our Errors 'T is much the same with those that Study as with those that Travel When a Traveller has unfortunately mistaken his way the farther he goes at the greater distance he is from his Journey 's end and he stâ—ll deviates so much more as he is industrious and in haste to arrive at the place design'd So the vehement pursuits Men make after Truth cause them to betake themselves to the Reading of Books wherein they think to find it or put them upon framing some Phantastical System of the things they desire to know wherewith when their Heads are full and heated they try by some fruitless Sallies and Attempts of Thought to recommend them to the taste of others with hopes to receive the Honours that are usually pay'd to the first Founders of Systems These two Imperfections are now to be consider'd 'T is not easie to be understood how it comes to pass that Men of Wit and Parts choose rather to trust to the Conduct of other Men's Understanding in the Search of Truth than to their own which GOD has given them There is doubtless infinitely more Pleasure as well as Honour to be conducted by a Man 's own Eyes than those of others And a Man who has good Eyes in his Head will never think of shutting them or plucking them out under the hopes of having a Guide And yet the use of the Understanding is to the use of the Eyes as the Understanding is to the Eyes and as the Understanding is infinitely superiour to the Eyes so the use of the Understanding is accompany'd with more solid Satisfactions and gives another sort of Content than Light and Colours give the Sight Notwithstanding Men employ their Eyes in Guiding and Conducting themselves but rarely make use of their Reason in Discovery of Truth But there are many Causes which contribute to this overthrow of Reason First Men's Natural Carelessness and Oscitation that will not let them be at the Pains of Thinking Secondly Their Incapacity to Meditate which they have contracted for want of applying themselves to it from their Youth as has been explain'd in the Ninth Chapter Thirdly The inconcernedness and little Love they have for Abstract Truths which are the Foundation of all that can be known in this World The Fourth Reason is the Satisfaction which accrues from the knowledge of Probabilities which are very agreeable and extreamly moving as being founded upon sensible Notions The Fifth Cause is that ridiculous Vanity which makes us affect the seeming Learned For those go by the Name of Learned who have read most Books The Knowledge of Opinions is of greater use in Conversation and serves better to catch the Admiration of the Vulgar than the Knowledge of True Philosophy which is learned by Meditation In the sixth place we may reckon that unreasonable Fancy which supposes the Ancients were more enlightned than we can be and that there is nothing left for us but what they have succeeded in The Seventh is a Disingenuous Respect mix'd with an absurd Curiosity which makes Men admire things that are most Remote and Ancient such as are far fetch'd or
out hereafter I am farther perswaded it is impossible to conceive a Mind without Thought though 't is easie enough to conceive one without Actual Sensation Imagination and even without Volition in like manner as 't is impossible to conceive any Matter without Extension though it be easie to conceive one that 's neither Earth nor Mettle neither square nor round and which likewise is not in Motion Hence we ought to conclude that as there may be a Portion of Matter that is neither Earth nor Mettal neither square nor round nor yet in Motion so there may be a Mind that neither feels Heat nor Cold neither Joy nor Sorrow that Imagines nothing and even Wills nothing so that all these Modifications are not essential to it Thought therefore is only the Essence of the Mind as Extension only is the Essence of Matter But as Matter or Extension were it without Motion would be altogether useless and incapable of that variety of Forms for which it is created and 't is not conceivable that an Intelligent Being design'd to produce it in that manner so were a Mind or Thought without Volition it is plain it would be wholly useless since that Mind would have no tendency towards the Objects of its Perceptions nor would it love Good for which it was created So that 't is impossible to be conceiv'd that an Intelligent Being should have produc'd it in such a condition Notwithstanding as Motion is not the Essence of Matter since it supposes Extension so Volition is not the Essence of the Mind since Volition supposes Perception Thought therefore all alone is what constitutes the Essence of the Mind and the different manners of Thinking as Sensation and Imagination are only the Modifications it is capable of but wherewith it is not always modify'd But Volition is a Property that always accompanies it whether in Conjunction with or Separation from the Body which yet is not Essential to it since it supposes Thought and 't is possible to conceive a Mind without Will as a Body without Motion However the Power of Willing is inseparable from the Mind though it be not essential to it as the Capacity of being mov'd is inseparable from Matter though it be not included in its Essence For as it is impossible to conceive any Matter that cannot be mov'd so 't is impossible to conceive any Mind that has not the Power of Willing or is incapable of any Natural Inclination But again as Matter may be conceiv'd to exist without any Motion so the Mind may be conceiv'd to exist without any Impression of the Author of Nature towards Good and consequently without Will For the Will is nothing but the Impression of the Author of Nature which carries us towards Good in general as we have explain'd more at large in the first Chapter of the First Book What has been said in that Treatise of the Senses and what we have now said of the Nature of the Mind does not suppose we know all the Modifications it is capable of We are far from making such like Suppositions believing on the contrary that the Mind has a Capacity of receiving an infinite succession of diverse Modifications which the same Mind knows nothing of The least portion of Matter is capable of receiving a Figure of three six ten or of ten thousand Sides also a Circular or Elliptic Figure which may be consider'd as Figures of infinite Sides and Angles The different Species of each of these Figures are innumerable Infinite are Triangles of a different Species and more still are the Figures of four six ten or ten thousand Sides and of infinite Polygones For a Circle an Ellipsis and in general every regular or irregular Curvilin'd Figure may be consider'd as an infinite Polygone An Ellipsis for instance as an infinite Polygone but whose Sides or Angles are unequal being greater towards the little Diameter than the great and so of other infinite Polygones more compound and irregular A plain piece of Wax therefore is capable of infinite or rather infinitely infinite different Modifications which no Mind can comprehend What reason is there then to imagine that the Soul which is far more noble than the Body should be capable only of those Modifications she has already receiv'd Had we never Felt Pleasure or Pain had we never Seen Light nor Colour or had we been with respect to all things as the Blind and Deaf are in regard to Sounds and Colours should we have had Reason to conclude we were incapable of all the Sensations we have of Objects For these Sensations are only the Modifications of our Soul as has been prov'd in the Book concerning the Senses It must be granted then that the Capacity the Soul has of Receiving different Modifications is probably greater than the Capacity it has of Conceiving I would say that as the Mind cannot exhaust or comprehend all the Figures Matter can be fashion'd in so it can't comprehend all the different Modifications possible for the Almighty Hand of GOD to Mint the Soul into though it knew as distinctly the Capacity of the Soul as it knows that of Matter which yet it cannot do for the Reasons I shall bring in the Seventh Chapter of the Second Part of this Book If the Soul whilst we are on Earth receives but few Modifications 't is because it is united to the Body and depends upon it All her Sensations have reference to her Body and as she has not the Fruition of GOD so she has none of those Modifications this Fruition should produce The Matter whereof our Body is compos'd is capable but of very few Modifications in our Life-time it cannot be resolv'd into Earth and Vapour till after our Death It cannot at present become Air Fire Diamond or Mettal it cannot grow round square or triangular it must necessarily be Flesh and have the Figure of a Man to the end the Soul may be united to it 'T is the same case with our Soul She must necessarily have the Sensations of Heat Cold Colour Light Sounds Odors Tasts and many other Modifications to the end she may continue united to her Body All her Sensations are subservient to the Preservation of her Machine They trouble her and dismay her if but the least inward Spring chance to break or slaken which necessarily subjects the Soul to her Body as long as her Body is subject to Corruption But when the Body shall be cloath'd with Immortality and we shall no longer fear the Dissolution of it parts 't is reasonable to believe the Soul shall be no longer touch'd with those incommodious Sensations which we feel against our Will but with infinite others of a different kind whereof we have at present no Idea which will exceed all that we can think and will be worthy the Greatness and Goodness of the GOD we shall enjoy 'T is therefore unreasonable for any one to think he so throughly comprehends the Nature of the Soul as
being not the Modification of Extension our Soul is not annihilated on supposition that our Body were annihilated by Death But we have no reason to imagine that even the Body is annihilated when it is destroy'd The parts that make it up are dissolv'd into Vapours and reduc'd into Dust we neither see nor know them any more I confess but we cannot hence conclude they exist not For the Mind perceives them still If we separate a Mustard-seed into two or four or twenty parts we annihilate it to our Eyes because we see it no longer But 't is not annihilated in it self or to the Mind for the Mind discerns it though divided into a thousand or an hundred thousand parts 'T is a common Notion and receiv'd by all that use their Reason rather than their Senses That nothing can be annihilated by the ordinary force of Nature For as 't is naturally impossible for something to be produc'd from nothing so 't is impossible for a Substance or Being to be reduc'd to nothing Bodies indeed may corrupt if you call Corruption the Changes that befall them but cannot be annihilated What is round may become square what is Flesh may become Earth Vapour and whatever you please for all Extention is capable of all sorts of Configuration But the Substance of what is round or Flesh can never perish There are certain settled Laws in Nature by which Bodies change successively their Forms because the successive Variety of these Forms makes the Beauty of the Universe and causes us to admire its Author But there is no Law in Nature for the annihilation of any Being because Nothingness wants all Beauty as well as Goodness and the Author of Nature is the Lover of his works Bodies then may change but can never perish But if any one sticking to the Verdict of his Senses shall obstinately maintain that the dissolution of Bodies is a true Annihilation because the parts they resolve into are invisible Let him do so much as remember that Bodies cannot be divided into these invisible parts but by reason of their Extension For if the Mind be not extended it must be indivisible and if indivisible must be acknowledg'd incorruptible in that sense But how can the Mind be imagin'd extended and divisible A right Line will divide a Square into two Triangles Parallelograms or Trapezia But by what Line may a Pleasure a Pain or a Desire be conceiv'd to be divided and what Figure would result from that Division Certainly I cannot believe the Imagination so fruitful in false Ideas as to satisfie it self in this particular The Mind therefore is neither extended nor divisible nor susceptible of the same changes as the Body and yet it must be own'd that it is not immutable by its Nature If the Body is capable of an infinite number of different Figures and different Configurations the Mind is likewise capable of a world of different Ideas and different Modifications And as after our Death the Substance of our Flesh will resolve into Earth Vapours and infinite other Bodies without annihilation so our Soul without falling back into Nothing will have Thoughts and Sensations very different from those she has during this Life At present 't is necessary that we live and that our Body be compos'd of Flesh and Bone and in order to live 't is necessary the Soul should have Ideas and Sensations relating to the Body she is joyn'd to But when she shall be divested of her Body she shall enter upon a perfect Liberty of receiving all sorts of Ideas and Modifications very different from those she has at present as the Body on its part shall be free to receive all sorts of Figures and Canfigurations nothing like those it is oblig'd to make the Body of a living Man It is if I mistake not manifest from what I have said That the Immortality of the Soul is no such hard thing to comprehend Whence comes it then that so many doubt of it but from their Inadvertency and want of Attention to the Reasons that are requisite to convince them or whence proceeds this negligence but from the Unsetledness and Inconstancy of the Will incessantly disturbing the Understanding So as not to give it leasure for a distinct Preception even of Ideas that are the most present to it such as are those of Thought and Extension as a Man in the heat of a Passion casting his Eyes round about him seldom distinguishes the Objects that are nearest and most expos'd to View For indeed the Question of the Immortality of the Soul is one of the easiest to be resolv'd when without listning to the Imagination we bring the Mind attentively to consider the clear and distinct Idea of Extension and the Relation it can have with Thought If the Inconstancy and Levity of the Will hinders the Understanding from piercing to the bottom of things that are most present to it and of mightiest Importance to be known 't is easie to judge what greater Remoras it will afford the Mind to prevent its Meditating on such as are Remote and Unconcerning So that if we are under the Grossest Ignorance and Blindness as to most things of greatest consequence to be known I can't tell how we should be very Intelligent and Enlightened as to those that seem altogether Impertinent and Fruitless This I need not stand to prove by tedious Instances and which contain no considerale Truths for if we must be ignorant of any thing that best can be despens'd with which is of no use and I had rather not be credited than make the Reader lose time by unprofitable things Though there are but very few that are seriously taken up with things altogether Vain and Useless yet those few are too many But the number can't be too great of such as neglect them and despise them provided only they forbear to judge of them A limited Understanding is not blameable for not knowing several things but only for judging of them For Ignorance is an unavoidable Evil But Errour both may and ought to be avoided Ignorance of many things is excusable but headlong inconsiderate Judgments never When things are nearly related to us are Sensible and easily Imaginable we may say that the Mind intends them and that some Knowledge of them is attainable for knowing that they relate to us we think of them with some inclination and feeling them to affect us our Application grows pleasant and delightful So that we should as to many things be wiser than we are but for the Restlesness and Agitation of our Will that perpetually troubles and fatigues our Attention But when things are abstract and insensible 't is difficult to acquire any certain Knowledge of them not that abstract things are in their own Nature intricate and puzling but because the Attention and View of the Mind commonly begins and ends with the Sensible View of Objects for as much as we mostly think of only what we see and feel and
the Christians is quite different from that they deny not but Pain is an Evil and that it is hard to be separated from those things to which Nature has united us or to rid our selves from the Slavery Sin has reduc'd us to They agree that it is a Disorder that the Soul shall depend upon her Body but they own withall that she depends upon it and even so much that she cannot free her self from that Subjection but by the Grace of our Lord. I see saith St. Paul another Law in my Members warring against the Law of my Mind and bringing me into Captivity to the Law of Sin which is in my Members O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death the Grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord shall do it The Son of God his Apostles and all his true Disciples command us above all to be Patient because they know that Misâ—ry must be the Expectâ—tion and Portion of the Righteous In short true Christians or true Philosophers say nothing but what is agreeable to sound Reason and Experience whereas all Nature continually impugns the proud Opinion and presumption of the Stoicks The Christians know that to free themselves in some manner from the Subjection they are under they must endeavour to deprive themselves of all those things that they cannot enjoy without Pleasure nor want without Pain it being the only means to preserve that Peace and Liberty of Mind which they owe to their Deliverer's Beneficence On the contrary the Stoicks following the false Notions of their Chimerical Philophy imagine that they are wise and happy and that they need but think upon Vertue and Independency to become Vertuous and Independent Sound Reason and Experience assure us that the best way not to feel the smart of stinging is to shun the Nettle but the Stoicks say Sting me never so much I shall by the strength of my Mind and the help of my Philosophy raise my self so high above my Body that all your pricking shall not reach me I can demonstrate that my Happiness depends not upon it and that Pain is not an Evil and you shall see by the Colour of my Face and by the whole deportment of my Body that my Philosophy has made me invulnerable Their Pride bears up their Courage however it hinders not but that they should suffer Pain with Vexation and be really miserable so that their Union with their Body is not destroyed nor their Pain vanished but all this proceeds from their Union with other Men strengthened by the desire of their Esteem which in some manner withstands the Union of their Soul with their Body The sensible view of the Spectators to whom they are united stops the Course of the Animal Spirits that should follow upon the pain and blots out the Impression they would make upon their Face for was there no body to look on them that Phantasm of Constancy and Liberty of Mind would presently vanish So that the Stoicks do only in some degree withstand the Union of their Soul to their Body by making themselves greater Slaves to other Men to whom they are united by a drift of Glory And 't is therefore an undoubted truth that all Men are united to all sensible things both by Nature and their Concupiscence which may sufficiently be known by Experience and of which all the Actions of Mankind are sensible demonstrations though Reason seems to oppose it Though this Union be common to all Men 't is not however of an equal Extent and Strength in all for as it proceeds from the Knowledge of the Mind so it may be said that we are not actually united to unknown Objects A Clown in his Cottage does not concern himself with the Glory of his Prince and Country but only with the honour of his own and the Neighbouring Villages because his Knowledge does not extend farther The Union with such Objects as we have seen is stronger than the Union to those we have only imagin'd or heard relation of because by Sensation we are more strictly united to sensible things as leaving deeper Impressions in our Brain and moving the animal Spirits in a more violent manner than when they are only imagin'd Neither is that Union so strong in those that continually oppose it that they may adhere to the Goods of the Mind as it is in those who suffer themselves to be carried away and inslav'd by their Passions since Concupiscence increases and strengthens that Union Last of all the several Employments and States of this Life together with the various dispositions of divers Persons cause a considerable difference in that sensible Union which Men have with Earthly Goods Great Lords have greater Dependencies than other Men and their Chains as I may call them are longer The General of an Army depends on all his Souldiers because all his Souldiers reverence him This Slavery is often the Cause of his Valour and the desire of being esteem'd by those that are Witnesses of his Actions often drives him to Sacrifice to it more sensible and rational desires The same may be said of all Superiours and those that make a great Figure in the World Vanity being many times the Spur of their Vertue because the love of Glory is ordinarily stronger than the love of Truth I speak here of the love of Glory not as a simple Inclination but a Passion since that love may become sensible and is often attended with very lively and violent Commotions of the Animal Spirits Again the different Ages and Sexes are primary Causes of the difference of Passions Children love not the same things as adult and old Men or at least love them not with that Force and Constancy Women depend only on their Family and Neighbourhood but the dependencies of Men extend to their whole Country because 't is their part to defend it and that they are mightily taken up with those great Offices Honours and Commands that the State may bestow upon them There is such a variety in the Employments and Engagements of Men that it is impossible to explain them all The disposition of Mind in a Married Man is altogether different from that of a single Person for the former is in a manner wholly taken up with the care of his Family A Fryar has a Soul of another make and depends upon fewer things than the Men of the World and even than Secular Ecclesiasticks but he is stronger fastned to those few things One may argue in the same manner concerning the different States of Men in general but the little sensible engagements cannot be explain'd because they differ almost in every private Person it often hapning that men have particular Engagements altogether opposite to those that they ought to have in reference to their condition But though the different Genius and Inclinations of Men Women Old Men Young Men Rich Poor Learned and Ignorant in short of all the different Sexes Ages and
Conditions might be fully treated of in general yet they are too well known by those that are conversant with the World and of all the thinking part of Mankind to increase with them the Bulk of this Book especially seeing that our Eyes may afford us a very pleasant and solid Instruction of all such matters But if any chuse to read them in Greek rather than to learn them by his own reflection on what he sees I refer him to the second Book of the Rhetoricks of Aristotle which I take to be the Master-Piece of that Philosopher because he says there few things in which he can be mistaken and that he seldom ventures to prove what he asserts It is therefore evident that the sensible Union of the Mind of Men with whatever has any Relation to the preservation of their Life or of the Society of which they are Members differs in different Persons reaching farther in those that have more Knowledge that are in a higher Station and are indued with a larger Fancy whereas that Union is stricter and stronger in those that are more sensible that have a livelyer Imagination and have more blindly given up themselves to the violence of their Passions Such Considerations upon the almost infinite Bands that fasten Men to sensible Objects are of an extraordinary Use and the best way to become a great proficient in this sort of Learning is the study and observation of our selves since from the Inclinations and Passions of which we are conscious in our selves we can be fully assur'd of all the inclinations of other Men and can make a good guess at a great part of the Passions they are subject to to which adding the Information we can get of their particular Exgagements and of the different Judgments that follow from every different Passion of which we shall speak hereafter it may perhaps not prove so hard a Task to guess most part of their Actions as it is for an Astronomer to foretell an Eclipse For though Men be free yet it seldom happens that they make use of their Liberty in opposition to their natural Inclinations and violent Passions Before the Close of this Chapter I must observe that it is one of the Laws of the Union of the Soul and Body that all the Inclinations of the Soul even those she has for Goods that have no relation to the Body should be attended with Commotions of the Animal Spirits that render those Inclinations sensible because Man being not a pure Spirit it is impossible he should have any Inclination altogether pure and without mixture of any Passion whatsoever So that the love of Truth Justice Vertue of God himself is always attended by some Motion of the Animal Spirits that render that love sensible though we be not aware of their sensibility being then taken up with livelyer Sensations Just as the Knowledge of Spiritual things is always accompanied with traces on the Brain which indeed make that Knowledge more lively but commonly more confused 'T is true we are frequently inapprehensive of the Imagining Faculty's mixing in any manner with the Conception of an abstracted Truth The Reason of it is that those Truths are not represented by Images or traces of Nature's Institution and that all the traces that raise such Ideas have no Relation with them but such as proceeds from Chance or the Free-will of Men. For Instance Arithmeticians and Algebraists who apply themselves to very abstracted Objects make however a very great use of their Imagination in order to fix the view of their Mind upon these Spiritual Ideas The Cyphers the Letters of the Alphabet and the other Figures which they see or imagine are always join'd to those Ideas though the traces that are wrought by these Characters have no proper Relation to those abstracted Objects and so can neither change nor obscure them Whence follows that by a proper Use and Application of these Cyphers and Letters they come to discover such remote and difficult Truths as could not be found out otherwise Since therefore the Ideas of such things as are only perceivable by the pure Understanding can be connected with the traces of the Brain and that the sight of Objects that are beloved hated or fear'd by a Natural Inclination can be attended with the Motion of the Animal Spirits it plainly appears that the thoughts of Eternity the fear of Hell the hope of an Eternal Happiness though they be Objects never so insensible can however raise in us very violent Passions And therefore we can say that we are united in a sensible manner not only to such things as relate to the preservation of our Life but also to Spiritual things with which the Mind is immediately and by it self united And even it often happens that Faith Charity and Self-Love make that Union with Spiritual things stronger than that by which we are join'd to all sensible Objects The Soul of the true Martyrs is more united to God than to their Body and those that suffer Death for asserting a false Religion which they believe to be true give us sufficiently to know that the fear of Hell has more power upon them than the fear of Death There is for the most part so much heat and obstinacy on both sides in the Wars of Religion and the defence of Superstitions that it cannot be doubted but some Passion has a hand in it and even a Passion far stronger and stedfaster than others because it is kept up by an Appearance of Reason both in such as are deceived and in those that follow the Truth We are then united by our Passions to whatever seems to be the Good or the Evil of the Mind as well as to that which we take for the Good or Evil of the Body Whatever can be known to have any relation to us can affect us and of all the things we know there is not one but it has some reference or other to us We are somewhat concern'd even for the most abstracted Truths when we know them because there is at least that Relation of Knowledge betwixt them and our Mind and that in some manner we look on them as our Property by virtue of that Knowledge We feel our selves as wounded when they are impugned and if we be wounded then surely we are affected and disturb'd So that the Passions have such a vast and comprehensive Dominion that it is impossible to conceive any thing in reference to which it may be said that Men are exempt from their Empire But let 's now see what is their Nature and endeavour to discover whatever they comprehend CHAP. III. A particular Explanation of all the Changes happening either to the Body or Soul in every Passion SEven things may be distinguished in each of our Passions save Admiration only which is indeed but an Imperfect Passion The first is the Judgment the Mind makes of an Object or rather the confused or distinct View of the Relation that Object has to
of our Heart This is the utmost possible Blindness 't is according to St. Paul the temporal Punishment of Impiety and Idolatry that is to say the Desert of the most enormous Crimes And herein indeed the greatness of this terrible Punishment consists that instead of allaying the Anger of God as do all the others in this World it continually exasperates and encreases it till that dreadful Day comes wherein his just Wrath shall break out to the Confusion of Sinners Their Arguings however seem likely enough as being agreeable to common Sense countenanc'd by the Passions and such I am sure as all the Philosophy of Zeno could never overthrow We must love Good say they Pleasure is the Sign which Nature has affix'd to it to make it known and that Sign can never be fallacious since God has instituted it to distinguish Good from Evil. We must avoid Evil say they again Pain is the Character which Nature has annex'd to it and a Token in which we cannot be mistaken since it was instituted by God for the distinguishing it from Good We feel Pleasure in complying with our Passions Trouble and Pain in opposing them and therefore the Author of Nature will have us to give up our selves to our Passions and never to resist them since the Pleasure and Pain wherewith he affects us in those Cases are the infallible Criterion of his Will And consequently it is to follow God to comply with the Desire of our Hearts and 't is to obey his Voice to yield to the Instinct of Nature which moves us to the satisfying our Senses and our Passions This is their way of Reasoning whereby they confirm themselves in their infamous Opinions And thus they think to shun the secret Reproofs of their Reason and in Punishment of their Crime God suffers them to be dazzled by those false Glimpses delusive Glarings which blind them instead of inlightning them and strike them with such an insensible Blindness as they do not so much as wish to be cured of it God delivers them to a reprobate Sense he gives them up to the Desires of their corrupt Heart to shameful Passions to Actions unworthy of Men as the Holy Scripture speaks that having fatned themselves by their Debauches they may to all Eternity be the fit Sacrifice of his Vengeance But let us solve this Difficulty which they offer The Sect of Zeno not knowing how to untie the Knot has cut it by denying that Pleasure is a Good and Pain an Evil But that 's too venturous a Stroke and a Subterfuge unbecoming Philosophers and very unlikely I am sure to convert those who are convinc'd by Experience That a great Pain is a great Evil. Since therefore Zeno and all his Heathen Philosophy cannot solve the Difficulty of the Epicures we must have recourse to a more solid and inlightned Philosophy 'T is true that Pleasure is Good and Pain Evil and that Pleasure and Pain have been join'd by the Author of Nature to the Use of certain Things by which we judge whether they are Good or Evil which make us persue the Good and fly from the Evil and almost ever follow the Motions of the Passions All this is true but relates only to the Body which to preserve and keep long a Life much like to that of Beasts we must suffer our selves to be ruled by our Passions and Desires The Senses and Passions are only given us for the good of the Body sensible Pleasure is the indelible Character which Nature has affix'd to the Use of certain Things that without putting our Reason to the trouble of examining them we might presently imploy them for the preservation of the Body but not with intent that we should love them For we ought only to love those Things which Reason undoubtedly manifests to be our Good We are Reasonable Beings and God who is our Sovereign Good requires not of us a blind an instinctive a compell'd Love as I may say but a Love of Choice an enlightned Love a Love that submits to him our whole Intellectual and Moral Powers He inclines us to the Love of him in shewing us by the Light that attends the Delectation of his Grace that he is our Chief Good but he moves us towards the Good of the Body only by Instinct and a confused Sensation of Pleasure because the Good of the Body is undeserving of either the Attention of our Mind or the Exercise of our Reason Moreover our Body is not our selves 't is something that belongs to us and absolutely speaking we cannot subsist without it The Good of the Body therefore is not properly our Good for Bodies can be but the Good of Bodies We may make use of them for the Body but we must not be taken up with them Our Soul has also her own Good viz. the only Good that is superiour to her the only one that preserves her that alone produces in her Sensations of Pleasure and Pain For indeed none of the Objects of the Senses can of themselves give us any Sensation of them it is only God who assures us of their Presence by the Sensation he gives us of them which is a Truth that was never understood by the Heathen Philosophers We may and must love that which is able to make us sensible of Pleasure I grant it But by that very Reason we ought only to love God because he only can act upon our Soul and the utmost that sensible Objects can do is to move the Organs of our Senses But what matters it you 'll say from whence those grateful Sensations come I will taste ' em O thou ungrateful Wretch know the Hand that showres down Good upon thee You require of a just God unjust Rewards You desire he should recompence you for the Crimes you commit against him and even at the very time of committing them you make use of his immutable Will which is the Order and Law of Nature to wrest from him undeserved Favours for with a guilty Managery you produce in your Body such Motions as oblige him to make you relish all sorts of Pleasures But Death shall dissolve that Body and God whom you have made subservient to your unjust Desires will make you subservient to his just Anger and mock at you in his turn 'T is very hard I confess that the Enjoyment of Corporeal Good should be attended with Pleasure and that the Possession of the Good of the Soul should often be conjoin'd with Pain and Anguish We may indeed believe it to be a great Disorder by this Reason that Pleasure being the Character of Good and Pain of Evil we ought to possess a Satisfaction infinitely greater in loving God than in making use of sensible Things since He is the true or rather the only Good of the Mind So doubtless will it be one Day and so was it most probably before Sin entred into the World At least 't is very certain that before the Fall Man suffered
and greatness worthy of the Wisdom and the Power of its Author Man then may be consider'd after his Sin without a Restorer but under the Expectation of one In considering him without a Restorer we plainly see he ought to have no Society with God that that he is unable of himself to make the least approaches to him that God must needs repel him and severely use him when he offers to leave the Body to unite himself to him that is to say that Man after the Sin must lose the power of getting clear of sensible impressions and motions of concupiscence He ought likewise to be annihilated for the foremention'd Reasons But he expects a Restorer and if we consider him under that Expectation we see clearly that he must subsist He and his Posterity whence his Restorer is to arise and thus it is necessary that Man after his Sin preserve still the power of diversely moving all those parts of the Body whose motion may be serviceable to his Preservation 'T is true that Men abuse daily the power they have of producing certain motions and that their power of moving their tongue for Example several ways is the cause of innumerable Evils But if it be minded that power will appear absolutely necessary to keep up Society to comfort one another in the Exigences of thiâ— present Life and to instruct them in Religion which affords hope of a Redeemer for whom the World subsists If we carefully examine what are the motions we produce in us and in what parts of our Body we can affect them we shall clearly see that God has left us the power of our Body no farther than is necessary to the preservation of Life and the cherishing and upholding civil Society For example the Beating of the Heart the Dilatation of the Midriff the peristaltick motion of the Guts the Circulation of the Spirits and Blood and the diverse motions of the Nerves in the Passions are produc'd in us without staying for the order of the Soul As they ought to be much what the same on all occasions nothing obliges God to submit them now to the will of Man But the motions of the Muscles imploy'd in stirring the Tongue the Arms and Legs being to change every minute according to the almost infinite diversity of good or evil Objects all about us it was necessary these motions should depend on the will of Men. But we are to remember That God acts always by the simplest ways and that the Laws of Nature ought to be general and that so God having given us the power of moving our Arm and Tongue he ought not to take away that of striking a Man unjustly or of slandering or reproaching him For if our natural Faculties depended on our Designs there would be no Uniformity nor certain Rule in the Laws of Nature which however must be most simple and general to be answerable to the Wisdom of God and suitable to Order So that God in pursuance of his Decrees chuses rather to cause the Materiality of Sin as say the Divines or to make use of the Injustice of Men as says one of the Prophets than by changing his Will to put a stop to the Disorders of Sinners But he defers his revenging the injurious Treatment which they give him till the time when it shall be permitted him to do it without swerving from his immutable Decrees that is to say when Death having corrupted the Body of the voluptuous God shall be freed from the necessity he has impos'd on himself of giving them Sensations and Thoughts relating to it OBJECTION against the Eleventh and Twelfth Articles Original Sin not only enslaves Man to his Body and subjects him to the Motions of Concupiscence but likewise fills him with Vices wholly Spiritual not only the Body of the Infant before Baptism being corrupted but also his Soul and all his Faculties stain'd and infected with Sin Though the Rebellion of the Body be the principle of some grosser Vices such as Intemperance and Vncleanness yet it is not the Cause of Vices purely Spiritual as are Pride and Envy And therefore Original Sin is something very different from Concupiscence which is born with us and is more likely the Privation of Grace or of Original Righteousness ANSWER I acknowledge That Children are void of Original Righteousness and I prove it in shewing That they are not born upright and that God hates them For methinks one cannot give a clearer Idea of Righteousness and Vprightness than to say a Will is upright when it loves God and that it is crooked and perverse when it draws towards Bodies But if by Righteousness or Original Grace we understand some unknown Qualities like those which God is said to have infus'd into the Heart of the first Man to adorn him and render him pleasing in his sight it is still evident that the Privation of this is not Original Sin for to speak properly that Privation is not hereditarily transmitted If Children have not these Qualities 't is because God does not give 'em them and if God does not bestow them 't is because they are unworthy to receive them and 't is that Vworthiness which is transmitted and which is the Cause of the Privation of Original Righteousness And so that Vnworthiness is properly Original Sin Now this Unworthiness which consists as I have shewn in this That the Inclinations of Children are actually corrupt and their Heart bent upon the Love of Bodies this I say is really in them 'T is not the Imputation of the Sin of their Father they are actually themselves in a disorder'd State In like manner as those who are justify'd by JESUS CHRIST of whom Adam was the Type are not justify'd by Imputation But are really restor'd to Order by an inward Righteousness different from that of our LORD though it be he that has merited it for them The Soul has but two natural or essential Relations the one to God and the other to her Body Now 't is evident That the Relation or Union which she has with God cannot vitiate or corrupt her and therefore she is neither vicious nor corrupt at the first instant of her Creation but by the relation she has to her Body Thus one of the two must needs be said either that Pride and other which we call Spiritual Vices can be communicated by the Body or that Children are not subject to them at the moment of their Birth I say at the moment of their Birth for I do not deny but these ill Habits are easily acquir'd Though pure Intelligences had no other relation than to God and at the instant of their Creation were subject to no Vice yet they fell into Disorder But the Cause of it was their making a wrong use of their Liberty whereof Infants have made no use at all For Original Sin is not of a free Nature But to come to the Point I am of Opinion That they err who think that the Rebellion
her Infant the Mother is the cause of the Sin and the Father has no part in it Yet St. Paul teaches us that by Man came sin into the World He does not so much as speak of the Woman Therefore c. ANSWER David assures us that his Mother conceiv'd him in iniquity and the Son of Syrach says Of the Woman came the beginning of Sin and by her we all dy Neither of them speak of Man St. Paul on the contrary says that by Man Sin entred into the World and speaks not of the Woman How will these Testimonies accord and which of the two is to be justify'd if it be necessary to vindicate either In discourse we never attribute to the Woman any thing peculiar to the Man wherein she has no part But that is often ascrib'd to the Man which is proper to the VVoman because her Husband is her Master and Head We see that the Evangelists and also the Holy Virgin call Joseph the Father of Jesus when she says to her Son Behold thy Father and I have sought thee sorrowing Therefore seeing we are assur'd by Holy Writ that Woman has subjected us to Sin and Death it is absolutely necessary to believe it nor can it be thrown upon the Man But though it testifies in several places that 't is by Man that Sin enters into the World yet there is not an equal necessity to believe it since what is of the Woman is commonly attributed to the Man And if we were oblig'd by Faith to excuse either the Man or the Woman it would be more reasonable to excuse the former than the latter However I believe these forecited passages are to be litterally explain'd and that we are to say both the Man and Woman are the true causes of Sin each in their own way The Woman in that by her Sin is communicated it being by her that the Man begets the Children and the Man in that his Sin is the cause of Concupiscence as his action is the cause of the fecundity of the Woman or of the communication that is between her and her Infant It is certain that 't is the Man that impregnates the Woman and consequently is the cause of that communication between her Body and the Child's since that communication is the Principle of its Life Now that Communication not only gives the Child's Body the dispositions of its Mother's but also gives its Mind the dispositions of her Mind Therefore we may say with St. Paul that by one Man sin entred into the world and nevertheless by reason of that communication we may say that Sin came from a Woman and by her we all dye and that our Mother has conceiv'd us in Iniquity as is said in other places of Scripture It may be said perhaps that though Man had not sinn'd yet Woman had produc'd sinful Children for having her self sinn'd she had lost the Power God gave her over her Body and thus though Man had remain'd Innocent she had corrupted the Brain and consequently the Mind of her Child by reason of that communication between them But this surely looks not very probable For Man whilst righteous knowing what he does cannot give the Woman that wretched fecundity of conceiving sinful Children If he remains Righteous he wills not any Children but for God to whom Infant Sinners cannot be well pleasing for I suppose not here a Mediator I grant however that in that case the Marriage had not been dissolv'd and that the Man had known his Wife But it is certain that the Body of the Woman belong'd to her Husband since it was taken out of his and was the same Flesh. Duo in carne una It is moreover certain that Children are as much the Fathers as the Mothers Which being so we can't be persuaded that the Woman would have lost the Power over her Body if her Husband had not sinn'd as well as she For if the Woman had been depriv'd of that Power whilst the Man remain'd Innocent there had been this Disorder in the Universe that an upright Man should have a corrupt Body and sinful Children Whereas it is against Order or rather a contradiction that a just God should punish a perfectly Innocent Man And for this reason Eve feels no involuntary and rebellious Motions immediately after her sin as yet she is not asham'd of her Nakedness nor goes to hide her self On the contrary she comes to her Husband though naked as her self her Eyes are not yet open'd but she is still as before the absolute Comptroller of her own Body Order requir'd that immediately after her Sin her Soul should be disturb'd by the rebellion of her Body and by the shame of her own and her Husband's nakedness for there was no reason that God should any longer suspend on her behalf the Laws of the Communication of Motions as I have said in the seventh Article But because her Body is her Husband 's who is as yet Innocent she is not punish'd in this Body but this punishment is deferr'd till the time that he should eat himself of the Fruit which she presented him Then it was they both began to feel the rebellion of their Body that they saw they were naked and that shame oblig'd them to cover themselves with Fig-leaves Thus we must say that Adam was truly the cause of Original Sin and Concupiscence since it was his Sin that depriv'd both himself and his Wife of their power over their Body by which defectiveness of power the Woman produces in the Brain of her Child such tracks as corrupt its Soul at the very instant of its Creation OBJECTION against the Twelfth Article 'T is but random divining to say the communication between the Mother's and the Infant 's Brain is necessary or useful to the conformation of the foetus For there is no such Communication between the Brain of an Hen and that of her Chickens which notwithstanding are perfectly and compleatly form'd ANSWER I answer that in the seventh Chapter of the Second Book I have sufficiently demonstrated that Communication by the use I make of it in explaining the Generation of Monsters as also certain natural Marks and Fears deriv'd from the Mother For 't is evident that a Man who swoons away at the sight of a Snake because his Mother was frighted with one when she bore him in her Womb could not be subject to that Infirmity but because formerly such Traces had been imprinted on his Brain as these which open upon seeing a Snake and that they were accompany'd with a like Accident And herein I am no Diviner for I do not venture to determine wherein that Communication precisely consists I might say it was perform'd by those Fibres which the Foetus shoots into the Matrix of the Mother and by the Nerves wherewith that part is very probably fill'd and in saying so I should no more divine than would a Man who had never seen the Engines call'd La Samaritaine in affirming
Philosophy But to return to the passage of St. John No man has seen God at any time I believe the design of the Evangelist in affirming no Man has seen God is to state the difference between the Old and New Testament Between JESUS CHRIST and the Patriarchs and Prophets of whom it is written that they have seen God For Moses Jacob Isaiah and others saw God only with corporeal Eyes and under an unknown Form They have not seen him in himself Deum nemo vidit unquam But the only Son who is in the Bosom of the Father has instructed us in what He has seen Vnigenitus qui est in sinu Patris Ipse enarravit OBJECTION St. Paul writing to Timothy says that God inhabits inaccessible Light which no man hath seen nor can see if the Light of God cannot be approach'd to we cannot see all things in it ANSWER St. Paul cannot be contrary to St. John who assures us that JESUS CHRIST is the true Light that lightens all Men who come into the World For the mind of Man which many of the Fathers call Illuminated or Enlightned Light Lumen Illuminatum is Enlightned only with the Light of Eternal Wisdom which the Fathers therefore call Illuminating Light Lumen Illuminations David advises to approach to God and to be englightned by him Accedite ad eum illuminamini But how can we be enlightned by it if we cannot see the Light by which we are to be enlightned Therefore when St. Paul says that Light is inaccessible he means to Carnal Man who cannot retire into himself to contemplate it Or if he speaks of all Men 't is because there are none but are disturb'd from the perfect Contemplation of Truth because our Body incessantly troubles the attension of our mind OBJECTION God answering Moses when he desired to see him says Thou canst not see my Face for there shall no man see Me and live ANSWER It is evident that the literal sence of this Passage is not contrary to what I have said hitherto For I do not suppose it possible to see God in this life as Moses desired to see Him However I Answer that we must die to see God For the Soul unites herself to Truth proportionably as she quits her union with the Body Which is a Truth that cannot be sufficiently consider'd Those who follow the Motions of their passions those whose Imagination is defil'd with the enjoyment of Pleasures Those who have strengthned the Union and Correspondence of their Mind with their Body In a word those who live cannot see God For they cannot retire into themselves to consult the Truth Happy therefore are they who have a pure Heart a disengag'd Spirit a clear Imagination who have no dependance on the World and hardly any on the Body In a word happy are the Dead for they shall see God Wisdom has publish'd it openly upon the Mountain and Wisdom whispers it secretly to those who consult Her by retiring into themselves Those who are constantly quickning in them the Concupiscence of Pride who are indefatigably forming a thousand Ambitious designs who unite and even enslave their Soul not only to the Body but all surrounding Objects In a word those who Live not only the Life of the Body but also that of the World cannot see God For WISDOM inhabits the most retired and inward Reason whilst they perpetually expand themselves abroad But such as constantly deaden the Activity of their Senses who faithfully preserve the Purity of their Imagination who couragiously resist the Motions of their Passions In a word that break all those Bonds whereby others continue enchain'd to the Body and sensible grandeur may discover infinite Truths and see that Wisdom which is bid from the Eyes of all Living They after a sort do cease to live when they retire into themselves They relinquish the Body when they draw near to Truth For the mind of Man obtains that Site and Position between God and Bodies that it can never quit the one but it must approach the other It cannot draw towards God but it must remove from Bodies nor pursue Bodies but it must recede from God But because we cannot give an absolute Farewell to the Body till Death makes the separation I confess it impossible till then to be perfectly united to God We may at present as says St. Paul see God confusedly as in a Glass but we cannot see him face to face Non videbit me homo vivet Yet we may see him in part that is imperfectly and confusedly It must not be imagin'd that life is equal in all Men living or that it consists in an indivisible point The Dominion of the Body over the Mind which withstands our uniting our selves with God by the Knowledge of Truth is susceptible of more and less The Soul is not equally in all Men united by Sensations to the Body which she animates nor by Passions to those her Inclinations carry her to And there are some who so mortifie the Concupiscence of Pleasure and of Pride within them that they scarce retain any Commerce with their Body or the World and so are as it were Dead St. Paul is a great instance hereof who chastis'd his Body and brought it to subjection who was so humbled and destroy'd that he thought no longer on the World nor the World on him For the World was dead and crucified to him as he was dead and crucified in the World And on this account it was says St. Gregory that he was so sensible to Truth and so prepar'd to receive those Divine Lights which are included in his Epistles which however all glorious and splendid make no impression save on those who mortifie their Senses and Passions by his Example For as he says himself the carnal and sensible Man cannot comprehend Spiritual things Because Worldly address the tast of the Age to fineness of Wit the Nicety the Liveliness the Beauty of Imagination whereby we live to the World and the World to us infuse into our Mind an incredible stupidity and a sad insensibility to all those Truths which cannot be perfectly conceiv'd unless in the silence and calm of the Senses and Passions We must therefore desire that Death which unites us to God or at least the image of that Death that is the Mysterious Sleep in which all our External Senses being lock'd up we may hear the Voice of internal Truth which is never audible but in the silence of the Night when Darkness involves sensible Objects and when the World is as it were dead to us Thus it is says St. Gregory that the Spouse heard the Voice of her beloved in her sleep when she said I sleep but my heart wakes Outwardly I slumber but my heart watches within For having no life nor sense with reference to External Objects I become extreamly sensible to the Voice of inward Truth which accosts me in my inmost reason Hinc
est quod sponsa in canticis canticorum sponsi vocem quasi per somnium audierat quae dicebat Ego dormio cor meum vigilat Ac si diceret dum exteriores sensus ab â—ujus vitae sollicitudinibus sopio vacante mente vivacius interna cognosco Foris dormio sed intus cor vigilat quia dum exteriora quasi non sentio interiora solerter apprehendo Bene ergo Eliu ait quod per somnium loquitur Deus St. Gregory's Morals upon the 33. Ch. of Job THE ILLUSTRATION UPON THE Seventh CHAPTER of the Second PART of the Third BOOK Where I prove That we have no clear Idea of the Nature or Modifications of our Soul I Have often said and think sufficiently prov'd in the third Book of the preceding Treatise that we have no clear Idea but only the Conscience or inward Sensation of our Soul and that therefore we have a much more imperfect knowledge thereof than we have of Extension Which to me seem'd so evident that I did not think it necessary to prove it more at large But the Authority of M. des Cartes who possitively says That the nature of the Mind is better known than that of any other thing has so prepossess'd some of his Disciples that what I have said upon that Subject serves only to make them think me a weak Person unable to reach to and hold fast abstracted Truths which have nothing in them to welcome and retain the attention of their Contemplators I confess I am extreamly Feeble Sensible and Heavy and my Mind depends on my Body more ways than I can express I know it I feel it and I continually labour to increase this knowledge I have of my self For though we cannot help our being miserable we ought at least to have the knowledge and the sense of it we ought at least to be humbled upon the sight of our inward Miseries and to acknowledge the need we have of being deliver'd from this Body of Death which throws trouble and confusion into all the faculties of our Soul But yet the Question before us is so well proportion'd to the Mind that I can see no need of any great Application to resolve it and for that reason I did not insist upon it For I think it may be affirm'd that most Mens ignorance about the Soul as of its distinction from the Body of its Spirituality Immortality of its other properties is sufficiently demonstrative that we have no clear and distinct Idea of it It may be said that we have a clear Idea of Body because we need but consult the Idea that represents it to discover what Modifications it is capable of We plainly see that it may be either round or square in Rest or Motion We easily conceive that a square may be divided into two Triangles two Parallelograms or two Trapezia We never are at a stand what to answer to the demand whether this or that be implied or denied in Extension because the Idea of Extension being clear we may easily and by a bare perception discover what it includes and what it excludes But it does not appear to me that we have any such Idea of our Mind as can discover when we consult it the Modifications it will admit Had we never felt either Pleasure or Pain we could not tell whether our Soul were susceptible of either If a Man had never eaten a Melon felt Smart or seen Red or Blue he might have consulted long enough this pretended Idea of his Soul before he could distinctly discover whether it was capable or not of such Sensations or Modifications I say farther that though a Man actually feel Pain or sees Colour he cannot discover by a simple view whether these Qualities belong to the Soul He 'll imagine that Pain is in the Body which occasions him to suffer it and that Colour is diffus'd upon the surface of Objects though it be clearly conceiv'd that these Objects are distinguish'd from the Soul To be satisfied whether or no sensible Qualities are Modes of the Mind's existence this pretended Idea of the Soul is never consulted On the contrary the Cartesians themselves consult the Idea of Extension and reason in this manner Heat Pain Colour cannot be Modifications of Extension For this is capable but of different figures and Motions Now there are but two kinds of Beings Bodies and Minds Therefore Heat Pain and Colour and all other sensible Qualities are the Furniture of the Mind Whilst they are oblig'd to consult their Idea of Extension to discover whether sensible Qualities are Modifications of their Soul is it not evident they have no clear Idea of it For otherwise would they ever bethink themselves of so indirect a Conduct When a Philosopher would know whether Rotundity belongs to Extension does he enquire into the Idea of the Soul or any other besides that of Extension Does he not see clearly in the same Idea of Extension that Rotundity is a Modification of it And would it not be extravagance in him to argue thus to be instructed There are only two sorts of Beings Minds and Bodies Roundness is not a Modification of a Mind therefore it is a Modification of a Body We discover then by a bare perception without Argumentation and by the meer Application of the Mind to the Idea of Extension that Roundness and every other Figure is a Modification belonging to Body and that Pleasure Pain Heat and all other sensible Qualities are not Modifications of it There can be no Question propos'd about what does or does not appertain to Extension but may be easily readily and boldly answer'd by the sole consideration of the Idea that represents it All Men are agreed in their notion and beliefe upon this Point For those who will have Matter capable of Thought do not imagine this Faculty is to be attributed to iâ— because of Extension being perswaded that Extension consider'd precisely as such cannot Think But Men are not so well agreed about what they are to think of the Soul and her Modifications for some there are who fancy that Pain and Heat or at least that Clour does not belong to her And a Man would be laught at among some Cartesians that should affirm the Soul grows actually Blue Red Yellow and that she is dyed with all the Colours of the Rain-Bow when she contemplates it There are many who doubt and more that don't believe that the Soul becomes formally stinking upon the smell of carrion and that the tast of Sugar Pepper and Salt are properties belonging to her Where then is the clear Idea of the Soul that the Cartesians may consult it and may all agree about the subject where Colours Savours Odours ought to enter But though the Cartesians were agreed upon these difficulties yet we were not to conclude from their agreement that we have a clear Idea of the Soul For if they agree at last that 't is she which is actually Green or Red when a
quod dicis amâ—o videmus verum esse quod diâ—o ubi quaeso id videmus Nec ego utique in te nec tu in me sed ambo in ipsa quae supra mentes nostras est incommutabili veritate Confess de S. Aug. l. 12. c. 25. See St. Austin De libero arbitrio c. Book 2. Chap. 8. Nec natura potest justo secernere iniquum Lucretius Diogenes * And now O Inhabitants of Jerusalem judge betwixt me and my Vineyard Isa. 5.3 Art 6. 8. See the Fifth Dialogue of Christian Conversations See the first Illustration Est quippe supâ—rbâ—a peccâ—â—um maximum uti daâ—is taâ—quam innaris S Bern. de diligendo Deo This is omitted in some Editions Ch. 1.18 Ch. 4. â—â— Cor. 13. L. 31. c. 20 Propinquior nobis qui fecit quam multa quae facta sunt In illo enim vivimus movemur sumus Istorum autem pleraque remota sunt à mente nostra propter dissimilitudinem sui generis Recte culpantur in libro sapientia inquisitores hujus saeculi Si enim tantum inquit potuerunt valere ut possent aestimare saeculum quomodo ejus Dominum non facilius invenerunt Ignota enim sunt fundamenta oculis nostris qui fundavit â—erram propinquat mentibus nostris De Gen. ad litt l. 5. ch 16 De Trinitate lib. 8. ch 8. 1 Tim. 16.16 * St. Cyrill of Alexandria upon the words of St. John Erat lux vera St. Aug. Tr. 14. upon St. John St. Greg. c. 27. upon 28 of Job †Inaccessibilem dixit sed omni homini â—umana sapienti Scriptura quippe sacra omnes carnalium sectatores humanitatis nomine notare solet St. Greg. in cap. 28. Job Ex. 33 20. Neither is it found in the land of the living Job 28.13 Job 28.31 Now we see through a Glass darkly but then face to face Now I know in part c. 1 Cor. 13.2 The natural Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him 1 Cor. c. 2.14 Ad Moysen dicitur non videbit me homo vivet ac si aperte diceretur Nullus unquam Deum spiritualiter videt qui mundo carnaliter vivit St. Greg. upon the 28. of Job ch 28. Answer to the fifth Objection against the second Meditation towards the end Eccl. c. 9.1 I judge not mine own self For I known nothing by my self yet I am not hereby justified but â—e that judgeth me is the Lord 1 Cor. â— 4.4 John 13.37 Eccl. 21.18 Book 1. Mark 12.30 For the most extraordinary of these Opinions See Suarez Metaphysicks Disp. 18. Sect. 2. Assert 2. 3. Scot. in 4. Sent. Dist. 12.1 D. 37.2 D. 17. Palaudan in 4. Sent. D. 12. Q. 1 Art 1. Perer. 8. Phys. Ch. 3. Conimbr upon Aristotle's Physicks and many others cited by Suarez See Eonseca's Metaphys qu. 13. Sect. 3. and Soncin and Javell upon the same Question Ruvio lib. 2. Ph. Tract 4. qu. 2. See Suarez Disp. 18. Sect. 1. Ch. 1. of the second Book of his Physicks See Fonsesa Suarez and others before cited * Book 1. of his Topicks C. 1. * In his Metaph. Disp. 18. Sect. 1. Assert 1. †In Metaph Arist. qu. 7. Sect. 2. See Book 4. Ch. 11. toward the end and Book 6. Part 2. Ch. 7. See Ch. 2. Book IV. Suarez ib. See Chap. the last of The Search * See the Illustration upon the Fourth Chapter of the second Part concerning Method †See the first Illustration upon the Fifth Chapter Lib. 1. de Retract 1 Cor. 10.19 * Nemo habet de suo nisi mendacium peccatum Concil Araus 2. Can. 22. * In the Sence explain'd in the Chapter belonging to this Illustration * I still mean a true and efficacious Force * It seems evident to me that the Mind knows not by internal Sensation or Conscience the motion of the Arm she Animates She knows by Conscience only what she feels or thinks By inward Sensation or Conscience we know the sense we have of the Motion of our Arm. But Conscience does not notify the Motion of our Arm or the pain we suffer in it any more than the Colours we see upon Objects Or if this will not be granted I say that inward Sensation is not infallible for Error is generally found in the Sensations when they are compos'd I have sufficiently prov'd it in the first Book of the Search after Truth Gen. 1. Isa. 44.24 Job 10.8 * Vulg. totum 2 Macc. Ch. 7. v 22 23. Acts 17 25. Psal. 104 14. Engl. Poverty and Riches Eccl. 11.14 Gen. 2.19 Ch. 1.21 Omnia quippe portenta contra naturam dicimus esse sed non sunt Quomodo enim est contra naturam quod Dei fit voluntate Cum voluntas tanti utique creatoris conditae rei cujusque natura sit Portentum ergo fit non contra naturam sed contra quà m est nota natura S. Aug. de Civita De i l. 21. c. 8. Some of St. Austin's Principles are these What has never sinned can not suffer evil But according to him Pain is the greatest Evil and Beasts suffer it That the more Noble cannot have the less Noble for its end But with him the Soul of Beasts is Spiritual and more Noble than the Body and yet has no other End That what is Spiritual is Immortal yet the Soul of Beasts though Spiritual is subject to Death Many such like Principles there are in his Works whereby it may be concluded That Beasts have no such Spiritual Soul as he admits in them Ch. 44.24 2 Mac. 7.22 23. Sol homo generant â—ominem Arist. Phy. Ausc. l. 2. c. 2. See St. Th. upon the Text. V. Suarez l. 1. de concursu Dei cum voluntate Durand in 2 dist Qu. 5. Dist. 37. De Genesi ad liâ—eram l. 5. c. 20. In 4 Sent. Dist. 1. q. 1. D Aliaco ibid. * Book 4. c. 1. Deut. c. 6. * Acts 14.15.16 Ergo nihil agis ingratissime mortalium qui te negas Deo debere sed naturae quia nec naturae Deo est nec Deus sine natura sed idem est utrumque nec distat Officium si quod a Seneca accepisses Annaeo diceres te debere vel Lucio Non creditorem mutares sed nomen Sen. l. 4. de Benef. Isa. 45.7 Amos. 3.6 â— Moses Maimonid Vide Vossium lib. 2. de Idololatriâ— Ipsi qui irridentur Aegyptii nulâ—am belluam nisi ob aliquam 〈◊〉 quam ex ea caperent consecrâ—vâ—rant Cic. l. 1. de Nâ—tura Deorum Phil. 3.9 * No Whoremonger nor unclean Person nor covetous Man who is an Idolater Eph. 5.5 †They that worship him must Worship him in Spirit and in Truth Joh. 4.24 Nos si hominem patrem vocamus honorem aâ—aâ—i deferimus non Authorem vitae nostrae ostendimus Hier. in c. 33. Matth. 1 Cor. 9.22 10.33 Eph. 6.6 Col. 3.22 * Ep. 3. Ch. 2.28 Ch. 2.57 Ch. 6. contra Epist. Manichei Ch. 16. de Tran. l. 10. alibi Part 2. Ch. 3. Art 6. * De Quantitate animae Ch. 31 32. c. Lib. 4. de anima ejus origine Ch. 12. alibi Lins. c. 37. * Book IV. Chap. 2. Book VI. Part II. Chap. 7. Book III. Part II. Chap. 8. * Sess. 8. * Th. Pac. ch 4. †L. 3. ch 13. Cog. Nat. * By that Bull it is forbidden under Pain of Excommunication to give any Explication of the Decrees of the Council Vlium omnino interpretationis genus super ipsius Concilii decretis quocunque modo edere c. That Power is reserv'd to the Pope * Edit Strasb p. 190. Par. Edit 1. p. 172. in the second p. 190. in the third 187 in the fourth 95. * Pag. 90. Search after Truth Ch. ult Prov. 8.22 Eccl. 24.5 14. Eph. 14.21 22 23.2.10 21 22.4.13 16. Coll. 1.15 16 17 18 19. Ps. 72.17 Joh. 17 15.24 Rom. 8.29 1 Peâ— 1 2â— Apâ—c 13.8.1.8 c. Apoc. 21.23 Col. 1.18.2.20 Ephes. 1. â—2 Rom. 11.32 Gal. 3.22 Isaiah 5.3 4. 1 Cor. 8.11 * By True Cause I understand that which acts by its own Force Eph. 1.22 23.4.16 Col. 1.24.2.19 1 Cor. 12.27 Acts 1.24 c. Joh. 7.39 Heb. 7.25 Rom. 8.34 1 Joh. 2.1 Eph. 4.13 Ibid. 15 16. Joh. 5.4 5. 2 Cor. 13.2 Rom. 5.14.17 18 19. 1 Cor. 15.48 1 John 2.27 Luk. 10. Eph. 11.12 Heb. 2. 1 Cor. 12.27 Eph. 5.30 c. * Illustrations upon the Search after Truth First Illustration on the 7 th Ch. of the 2 d. Part of the 3 d. Book of the Search Second Illustration Col. 2.19 Heb. 7.25.9.24 Joh. 11.42 Mat. 28.18 Chap. 4 13 15 16. Col. 2.19 Col. 2.7 Joh. 1.17 Hebr. 4. Hebr. 7.16 17. Joh. 16.7 To the Intent that now unto the Principalities and Powers in Heavenly Places might be known by the Church the manifold Wisdom of God Eph. 3.10 1 Joh. 2.1 Mat. 9.15 Joh. 11.42