and saying That the Constituent Parts of Man are the Mind the Soul and the Flesh Of these the Mind and the Flesh are the two distant Extremes distant as Heaven and Earth are from each other and the Soul hath a middle Station between both like the Region where all the Storms and Meteors are form'd The Mind is the most Heroick and exalted Part the Breath the Beam the Image the Efflux of the Divinity This in the Man is as the King in the Body Politick its Tendencies and Motions are to Heaven and Happiness and it breaths nothing but what is Pure and Spiritual and Divine The Flesh quite contrary is like the Dregs of the People a vile and stupid rude and Tumultuous Mob the Sediment and Lees the Bruitish part of Man and this is perpetually dispos'd to Evil and sunk into Matter The Soul in its middle State like Persons of Quality in a Kingdom below the Best and above the Worst is capable of inclining to Good or to Evil and accordingly it is continually sollicited on both sides with great Importunity The Mind and the Flesh are ever struggling to win it over and according to the Side it takes it becomes either a Spiritual and Virtuous or a Vicious and Carnal Soul This is the Seat of all those Appetites and Passions implanted in us by Nature which consider'd simply and in themselves have neither Virtue nor Vice in them Such for Instance as Love that kind of it which we bear to our Friends and Relations and Fear such as that of Shame Compassion for Persons in Distress and Desire of a good Reputation This Distinction deserves the rather to be observ'd because it will assist us very much in the Knowledge of our selves and give Men a true Idea of their Actions which are otherwise apt to be misunderstood by passing Judgments upon a slight and superficial View and attributing That to the Mind which in reality proceeds from the Soul nay sometimes from the Flesh and mistaking That for Virtue which is meerly the effect of Nature nay the instigation of Vice For it is no breach of Charity to say that a great many noble and brave Actions have been done in Heat and Passion or else out of Humour and Fancy and natural Inclination not so much with a design to benefit Others as to please our Selves CHAP. III. Of the Humane Body and its Constituent Parts THE Body of Man is built and put together so as to consist of Parts vastly numerous both Within and Without And of These by far the greater Number are either Round or of a Figure not far distant from it Those Within are of Two sorts Some dispers'd all over the Body in large Quantities and great Numbers as for Instance The Bones which are the Bases and Pillars that support this Structure The Muscles which are the Instruments of Strength and Motion The Veins which are the Channels for conveying the Blood to the Heart and the Arteries which like so many Pipes feed them perpetually by sending it from the Heart to the several parts of the Body The Nerves which are distributed by Pairs and are the Instruments of Sense and Motion by vertue of the Animal Spirits contain'd in and diffus'd by them Of These some are soft which serve the Head and assist Our Sight our Hearing our Taste and our Speech Others are hard and these are laid along the Spina Dorsi and so inserted into the Muscles The Tendons the Ligaments and the Cartilages There are likewise the Four Humours the Blood Choler which provokes and hinders Obstructions throws off the the Excrementitious Parts and excites Cheerfulness Melancholy which whets the Appetite and moderates sudden Motions Phlegm which sweetens the two Humours last mention'd Yellow and Black Choler and checks inordinate Heats The Spirits which are a sort of generous Fumes evaporated by the Natural Heat and Radical Moisture and of These there are Three Degrees of Excellency the Natural the Vital and the Animal The Fat which is the thickest and Oyliest part of the Blood Other Parts are single and determin'd to some particular Place Now the whole Body may be conveniently enough divided into Four Stories or Apartments which are in a manner so many several Shops or Workhouses wherein Nature keeps her Powers and Faculties employ'd The First and Lowest of These is that concern'd in the propagation of the Species The Second and next above is the Entrails the Bowels and Stomach which in Situation enclines somewhat to the Left-Side its Form is round streighter below than above with two Orisices one at the Top to receive Nourishment another at the Bottom answering to the Guts whose Business 't is to discharge and empty it This Vessel receives collects mingles and concocts the several sorts of Nourishment taken in at our Mouths and from thence works off a Whitish Juice call'd Chyle proper for the Sustenance and Nutriment of the Body and afterwards wrought over again more accurately in the Meseraick Veins through which it passes into the Liver The Liver is hot and moist lying somewhat more to the Right-Side This is the proper Workhouse of the Blood the great Source of the Veins the Seat of the Vegetative Faculty Here the Chyle drawn off from the Meseraick Veins is converted into Blood which is taken into its Cavities by the Vena Porta and discharg'd again by the Vena Cava which issues from the Convex part and its Branches in abundance of Ducts like Rivulets or Streams from a Fountain In the Left-Side lies the Spleen which receives the Discharge and Excrementitious Humours of the Liver Then follow the Reins and the Guts which hang altogether in one Link and as according to the usual Proportion the Stature of a Man is seven times as much as the length of a common Foot so the Bowels when drawn out are usually seven times the length of a Man These Two former Apartments which some contract into One though the Offices of them are so very different as to justifie the distinguishing them into Two are by many Authors resembl'd to the lowest Region of the Universe the Elementary one which is the Seat of Generation and Corruption and here that which goes by the Name of the Concupiscible Soul keeps its peculiar Residence The Third Story is compar'd to the Aethereal Region and this is separated from the former by the Diaphragme as it is from That still above it by the Throat Here the Irascible Soul hath its Dwelling and Here those parts in the Breast lie which are termed the Praecordia as the Heart whose Situation is much about the Fifth Rib and its Point a little diverting towards the Left-Pap This is exceeding Hot the common Source of all the Arteries by which it distributes the Vital Blood there concocted through the whole Body and in that Blood the Vital Spirits And all this by a discharge so sensible and strong that each Evacuation creates that Motion which we call the Pulse Here
the Humane Mind Thus the old Poets represented it * Sanctius his Animal c. A Creature of a more exalted kind Was wanting yet Ovid Met. Lib. 1. and then was Man design'd Conscious of Thought of more capacious Breast And partly as an Ensign of Royalty some Characters whereof Naturalists have observ'd in some other petty Principalities such as the Crown in the Dolphin the Diadem in the Basilisk the Lion's stately Mane which serves as a Collar of Honour the Colour and the Eyes in the Eagle and the King among the Bees But Man being vested with an universal Monarchy walks stately upon the Earth like a Master in his own House He subdues and manages All either by fair means or by foul captivates and brings them to his hand by force or makes them tractable and tame by gentle and winning Usage Hence the same Poet proceeds For Empire form'd and fit to rule the rest He while the mute Creation downward bend Their Sight and to their Earthy Mother tend Looks up aloft and with erected Eyes Beholds his own Hereditary Skies Dryden His Body was form'd at first out of Virgin-Earth of a Red Complexion from whence the proper Name of Adam was deriv'd Adom Rufus Heb. Gen. 2.6 7. For the common Appellative of the Species in general is Ish And This well moisten'd was the common Materials of our Body So again the Poet * Mixtam fluvialibus undis Finxit in effigiem Earth the wise Maker temper'd into Paste And mix'd with living Streams the God-like Image cast In all Reason the Body must be before the Soul as we naturally conceive Matter antecedent to its Form as the House must be fram'd and fitted up before we can suppose an Inhabitant in it and a Shop made and furnish'd before any Trade can be exercis'd there When This was prepar'd and done the next thing in order was to animate this Body by the Infusion of a Soul convey'd thither by Divine Inspiration For God says Moses breathed into him the breath of Life and so Man became a living Soul Of which what Tradition the Heathen World retain'd may be learn'd from the same Author who proposes This as the first probable Solution of that wonderful Production * Hunc divino semine fecit Ille opifex rerum With Particles of Heavenly Fire The God of Nature did his Soul inspire And closes his Account †Sic modo quae fuerat rudis sine imagine tellus Induit ignotas hominum conversa figuras From such rude Principles our Form began And Earth was metamorphos'd into Man The same Order seems to be constantly observ'd in ordinary Generations and the forming of Natural Births ever since For here the Body is first formed and That according to the best Remarks which the Curious have been able to make in or somewhat near the following Method The first seven Days are employ'd in bringing the Seminal Principles to a due Consistency and perfecting the Conception to which some have been apt to think Job might allude Chap. X. v. 10. The next seven Days are taken up in Concocting Digesting and Changing those first Elements into Flesh and Blood which is as yet an unformed Mass but the proper Ground and Matter of the Humane Body In the third Week the Body in gross is formed so that after some one and twenty Days the three most Noble and Useful Parts of the Body are fashion'd the Liver the Heart and the Brain and These lie at length distant from one another in a kind of oval or oblong Figure and connected or just tack'd together by some thin loose Joynings which are afterwards sill'd up and resemble the Form of an Ant where you may observe Three grosser and fuller Parts coupled and held together by Two slenderer that lie betwixt The fourth Week which raises the Account to very near Thirty Days the whole Body is perfected and the Parts and Organs of it distinguishable and from thenceforth it ceases to be an Embryo as that denotes a rude shapeless Mass and is now in a Condition to receive the Soul which accordingly loses no time but comes and takes Possession of its new Dwelling at or before the Term of Forty Days that is at five or six Weeks When this proportion of Time is doubl'd namely after three Months the Animated Infant usually begins to move and much about the fourth Month the Hair and Nails set forward And after the same Term three times told that is after nine Months is the usual time of Maturity and coming into the World These may perhaps to some seem useless Curiosities and not altogether becoming a Treatise of this Nature But I must own that I think one great Advance towards the true and the best Wisdom would be to understand this part of our selves and sure Men could not but express a greater and more awful Regard of Almighty God did they but consider whose Hands have fashion'd and finish'd them who watch'd and brought forward their Substances when crude and imperfect wrote their Members in his Book and made them to be what they are after a fearful and very wonderful Manner CHAP. II. The first and general Distinction of Man MAN as if design'd to be all over Wonder is a Creature made up of Ingredients vastly different First into Two Parts nay directly opposite to one another For what can be more so than those two Constituent Parts His Soul and His Body Look upon him with regard to the former of These and He is a sort of inferiour Deity Turn your Eyes down to the latter and that Person which before you almost ador'd you will now be tempted as much to loath and despise For what is Man thus above a Beast What but a Load of Corruption and a Sink of Ill-Humours And yet this wonderful disparity notwithstanding these two so distant Parts are linked together with such amazing Art and embrace each other so close and kindly that there is at the same time eternal Quarrels and yet an inviolable Friendship between them They cannot live together peaceably and yet they cannot part contentedly Like a Man that hath a Wolf by the Ears and neither knows how to hold him nor to let him go So is each of these Principal Parts in Man and each may say to the other what the Poet did * Nec tecum possum vivere nec sine te My Help and Hindrance Health and Sickness I Cannot live with thee and without thee die But in regard one of these Parts admits of a Subdivision by reason of a great and manifest Difference in the Faculties and Parts of this Soul of ours Then into Three the One part Noble and Pure Intellectual and Divine the Other Mean and Sensual and Brutish The best and most lively Representation of Man and the surest Method of attaining to the Knowledge of him seems to be the making of this first Division to consist of Three Branches
kind as a piece of Gallantry and Accomplishment and suffering those Methods to be despised and ridiculed which both Divine and Humane Constitutions have assigned for satisfying Men's Natural Desires by Honest and Honourable Marriage For Directions and Remedies against this Vice consult Book III. Chap. 41. CHAP. XXIII Desires THE Sea it self hath not more Waves and Billows Desires infinite more inconstant nor more furious in their Tossings and Rollings than the Heart of Man hath Desires This is a vast and boundless Ocean too govern'd by Winds and Tides various and uncertain it is confus'd and irresolute sometimes wicked and detestable but very frequently vain and ridiculous in its Desires But the first and most necessary part of this Consideration Their Distinctions ought to be a due Care to distinguish them rightly for this is what they are very capable of And here you may observe That Some of these are Natural and they that be so are just and lawful and common to Us with Beasts They are likewise short and bounded in a narrow Compass a Man may easily see to the End of them For These there is abundant Provision and no Man is poor in this respect An Occasion of enlarging upon these will present it seif more conveniently hereafter for in truth they do not properly belong to the Subject we are now upon since strictly speaking they are not Passions The Others are either beside or beyond Nature they have no Foundation in our Frame and Temper but exist only in our Opinions and are the Off-spring of Fancy and Imagination these are Artificially form'd by Industry and strong Impression they are superfluous too serve only to gratifie our Humours not to supply any real Necessities And if you wou'd have them distinguish'd from the former by a different Name call them if you please the Covetings of the Soul These are entirely our own The Portion or the Scandal of our Species Beasts are altogether unacquainted with them Man is the only Creature irregular in his Appetites These have no certain Mark to aim at no End where to stop but are eternally in Motion run wild and at random and know not what they would have * Desideria naturalia sinita sunt Ex falsâ op niâ—ne nascentia ubi desinant non habent Nullus enim Terminus falso est Vià eunti aliquid extremum est Error immensus est Senec. The Desires which Nature suggests are determined and finite but those which arise from Opinion and Whimsie are infinite For Errour knows no Bounds A Man that goes in the Road must come to his Journey 's End at last but he that wanders out of the Way may wander for ever With regard to These no Man ever was none ever can be Rich or Contented Somewhat constantly falls short or some fresh thing is wanting Of these it is that the Poet speaks Scilicet improbae Creseunt Divitiae tamen Curtae nescio quid semper abest rei Creech Horat. Od. XXIV Lib. III. Their Stores increase and yet I know not what Still they do something want Which neither Pains can get nor Heaven cangrant To swell their narrow to a full Estate To such wanton Longings of the Soul the Characters set down at the beginning of this Chapter agree and They are what we mean and are now treating of under this Head of Passions These are the things we sweat and toil so vehemently for the gaining what we might very well be without and the satisfying Desires which we ought not to entertain 'T is upon the Account and for the Sake of These That we compass Sea and Land that we take up Arms and kill one another nay that Men kill and drown themselves betray and ruine themselves which gave just grounds for saying that Covetousness is the Root of all Evil. The Matter indeed is sometimes so order'd by Providence that this inordinate Passion of the Mind should be made its own Punishment and while Men are greedy to gratisie their fantastical Wants and glut themselves with the Riches and Pleasures of Fortune they lose a real Good and cut themselves off from the Advantages of Nature Which are so much more valuable than the other that Diogenes who refus'd the large Present of Money offer'd by Alexander desir'd as a greater Favour that he wou'd please to stand aside and not hinder him from the Comfort and Brightness of the warm Sun-shine CHAP. XXIV Hope and Despair THOSE Desires which are Natural and these Covetings last mention'd which are Accidental and Diseases to the Soul are cherish'd by Hope This inspires them with Warmth and Strength this blows up our extravagant Imaginations with a gentle and pleasing Breath kindles a Fire in our Minds but raises so thick a Smoak withal that it quite blinds the Understanding our Thoughts are lost and bewilder'd and violently carry'd away with it it keeps us in perpetual Suspense and makes us dream with our Eyes waking As long as ever our Hopes last we never let go our Desires But on the other hand when once Despair takes possession of us the Soul is perfectly put upon the Rack and the Thought that we shall never be able to obtain what we aim at is so torturing and violent that it bears down all before it and we lose what we stand actually possest of for the sake of somewhat which we apprehend impossible to be possest This Passion is like froward Children who when you take away one of their Play-things throw the rest into the Fire for Madness It grows angry with it self turns its own Executioner and revenges its Misfortunes upon its own Head It refuses to live under Disappointments and Crosses and chooses rather not to be at all than to be without the Thing which it hath once imagin'd necessary to its Happiness And thus you have had a short account of those Passions which have some apparent Good for their Object we will proceed in the next place to consider those others which arise from the Apprehension of Evil. CHAP. XXV Of Anger ANger is a foolish and a frantick Passion which puts us quite besides our selves Description and by seeking some means of beating back the Evil that either approaches and threatens or hath already reached and fallen upon us makes the Blood boil in our Hearts and raises wild and furious Vapours in our Mind such as blind and pervert our Reason and thrust us headlong upon any tho' never so desperate Attempts that may contribute to the satisfying those Desires we have of taking Revenge and doing Mischief upon the Person that gave the Provocation It is a short Madness and dangerous not only for the time it continues but as it prepares and opens the way for a lasting Phrensie and Distraction The Motions of it are so sudden the Violence so strong that it overpowers all our other Passions swallows them up quite or carries them along with it by the force of its own Torrent
grievance is not owing to what we complain of but to our own humour and imagination If we will go to the Reason of the thing all places are alike and a Man 's All is every where equally For two words indeed comprehend the whole of what a Wise Man values and those two are Nature and Virtue The same Nature is common to all Countries the same Sky the same Elements The same Sun shines the same Stars rise and set and their Motion their Extent the Proportion they appear in the same And sure if any part of Nature he to be valued that above us is much more worthy of Consideration and Esteem than this Sediment and gross and drossy part which we tread under our fect The farthest prospect of the Earth which we can take does not amount to more than Ten or Twelve I eagues So that a Soul which settles its Affections upon this part shuts it self up in a very narrow compass But the Face of this glorious Firmament adorned and beautified with such insinite Constellations which like so many grafts of Jewels glister over our heads expands it self and that it may be more effectually and distinctly viewed the Motion is perpetual and circular and every part turned towards us so that every point is visible to every place within the single Revolution of each Day and Night The Earth which taking the Seas and ambient Atmosphere into the account is computed not to be above the hundred and sixtieth part as big as the Sun is to Us incomparably less still for it is not visible to us in any part except that little spot that single Point upon which we stand But were it otherwise what does this Change of our standing signifie We think it a hard case to be born in one place and driven to another Have we any propriety in the place of our Birth Our Mothers might have been delivered in any other place as well as that where they were and nothing is more entirely Casual than the particular Spot where we first drew Breath for there was in Nature the same possibility of our being born any where Besides every Climate produces and carries Men sustains them with its Fruits and furnishes them with all the Necessaries of Life so that there is little fear of Perishing any where Every Country settles us among our Relations too for all Mankind are so nearly allied in Blood and nearer yet in Charity and Affection Friends too may be found any where we need only be at the pains to make them which will soon be done if we are careful to win their Hearts by our Virtue and Wisdom Every quarter of the Habitable World is a Wise-man's Country or rather indeed no part of it is his Country It were an injury and disparagement to suppose him a Stranger any where and a weakness and littleness of Spirit in him to esteem himself so A Man ought to use his Privilege and assert his natural Right which consists in living every where as if he were at home and dwelt in his own In * Omnes terras tanquam suas videre suas tanquam omnium looking upon all places as if he had a propriety in them and upon his own Estate or native Seil as if it were in common to all Mankind But farther what alteration what inconvenience can possibly come to us by this changing our Residence Do not we still carry the same Soul about with us And will not our Virtue keep us company where ever we go What can hinder a Man said Brutus from carrying his Excellencies all he is really and truly worth into Banishment or Captivity The Mind and its commendable Qualities are subject to no consinement circumscribed within no determinate space of ground but can live and act and exert themselves in all places indifferently A good Man is a Citizen of the whole World frank and free content and cheerful wherever his Lot casts him always at home in his own Quarters and always sixt and settled however this Case or Portmantean that incloses and conveys him may be hurried and jumbbied from one place to another †Animus facer aternus ubique est diis cognatus omni mundo aevo par The holy and immortal Sâ—ul is an Vbiquetary of near resemblance and affinity to God himself and like him diffused equally and ever present to all the stages of time and all the distances of place And wheresoever a Man feels himself well and easie and in full enjoyment that is his home call the Country by what name you will And it is evident that Ease and comfortable Enjoyment is not entailed upon particular Cities or Climates this is what no place can give he can only depend upon his own mind for it and that can give it him in any place equally How many very significant Men have found cause to choose and impose a voluntary Banishment upon themselves How many others when sent and driven away and afterwards invited back again have refused to return into their own Native Country and been so far from thinking their Exile an insupportable Misery and Punishment that they have taken great delight and satisfaction in it and reckoned no part of their time so well spent or so worthy the name of living as that in which they were debarred their own Country This was the case of some generous Romans Rutilius and Marcellus in particular And again how many do we read of whom good Fortune hath taken by the hand as it were and led them abroad put them in the way of Honour and Preferment in foreign Lands such as they could have no probable prospect of ever attaining at home CHAP. XXV Of Poverty and Want and Lesses THis is a very vulgar and like the rest of theirs a very silly and poor spirited Complaint for it supposes the whole or at least the most considerable part of a Man's Happiness to depend upon the advantages of Fortune and looks upon a low and mean Condition as a real and sore Evil. But now to shew what that is in truth we must observe that there are two sorts of Poverty One is That Extremity of it which we properly call Penury or want of Bread when those supplies are lacking which are necessary to the support of humane Nature And this is a Calamity which happens but very seldom For Providence hath been so bountiful and Nature so prudent that there are but a few of these absolutely necessary things The very Frame of our Bodies is a good defence in this case and so far from exposing us to a needy Condition that a little will serve the turn and that little is to be had almost every where Nay it is to be had in such quantities as will not only reach to the keeping Life and Soul together but are a sufficient Competency for moderate and frugal Persons If we do not affect to lay it on thick and squander away our Provisions if we would