some false Stitches I must let you understand it was huddl'd up in such hast out of a desire to have it joyned to my Booke of Poems as I took not so much time as to consider throughly For I writ it in lesse then three weekes and yet for all my hast it came a weeke too short of the Presse Besides my desire to have those Works Printed in England which I wrote in England before I leave England perswaded me to send it to the Presse without a further inlargement But I imagine my Readers will say that there is enough unless it were better I can only say I wish it were so good as to give satisfaction howsoever I pleased my selfe in the Study of it The Table OF Matter and Motion page 1. Of the Forme and the Minde 2. Of Eternall Matter 3. Of Infinite Matter 4. There is no proportion in Nature ib. Of one kinde of Matter 5. Of Infinite Knowledge ib. There is no Judge in Nature ib. Of Perfection 6. Of Inequalities ib. Of Unities 8. Of Thin and Thick Matter ib. Of Vacuum 9. The Unity of Nature ib Of Division 10 The order of Nature ib. Of War and no absolute power 11. Of Power ib. Similizing the Spirits or Innate Motion Of Operation 13. Of Natural or Sensitive War 14. Of Annihilation ib. Of Life 15. Of Change 20. Of Youth and Growth 21. Of Increasing 22. Of Decay 23. Of Dead and Death 24. Of locall Shapes 25. This visible Motions in Animals Vegetables and Minerals 26. Of the working of the severall Motions of Nature 27. Of the Minde 30. Of their severall Dances and Figures 31. The Sympathy and Antipathy of Spirits 33. The Sympathy of Sensitive and Rationall Spirits in one Figure 36. The Sympathy of the Rationall and Sensitive Spirits to the Figure they make and inhabit 37. Of Pleasure and Paine 38. Of the Minde ib. Of Thinking or the Minde and Thoughts 41. Of the motions of the Spirits 42. Of the Creation of the Animall Figure 45. Of the gathering of the Spirits 47. The moving of Innate Matter 49. Of Matter Motion and Knowledge or Understanding 52. Of the Animall Figure 54. What an Animall is 55. Of Sense and Reason exercis'd in their different Shapes 56. Of the dispersing of the Rationall Spirits 63. Of the Senses 64. Of motion that makes Light 65. Of Opticks ib. Of the flowing of the Spirits 66. Of Motion and Matter 67. Of the Braine 68. Of Darknesse ib. Of the Sun 69. Of the Clouds ib. Of the motion of the Planets 70. Of the motion of the Sea ib. I speak not here of Deiaticall Infinites but of grosse Infinites such as Philosophers call Chaos OF MATTER AND MOTION THERE is no first Matter nor first Motion for matter and motion are infinite and being infinite must consequently be Eternall and though but one matter yet there is no such thing as the whole matter that is as one should say All And though there is but one kinde of matter yet there are infinite degrees of matter as thinner and thicker softer and harder weightier and lighter and as there is but one matter so there is but one motion yet there are infinite degrees of motion as swifter and slower and infinite changes of motion And although there is but one matter yet there are infinite of parts in that matter and so infinites of Figures if infinite figures infinite sizes if infinite sizes infinite degrees of higness and infinite degrees of smalnesse infinite thicknesse infinite thinnesse infinite lightnesse infinite weightinesse if infinite degrees of motion infinite degrees of strengths if infinite degrees of strengths infinite degrees of power and infinite degrees of knowledge and infinite degrees of sense Of the Form and the Minde AS I sayd there is but one Matter thinner and thicker which is the Forme and the Minde that is Matter moving or Matter moved likewise there is but one motion though slower or swifter moving severall wayes but the slower or weaker motions are no lesse motion then the stronger or swifter So Matter that is thinnest or thickest softest or hardest yet it is but one Matter for if it were divided by degrees untill it came to an Atome that Atome would still be the same Matter as well as the greatest bulk But we cannot say smallest or biggest thickest or thinnest softest or hardest in Infinite Eternall Matter THat Matter which was solid and weighty from all Eternity may be so eternally and what was spungie and light from all Eternity may be so eternally and what had innate motion from Eternity may be so eternally and what was dull without innate motion from Eternity may be so eternally for if the degrees could change then there might be all thin and no thicke or all thicke and no thin all hard no soft and fluid or all fluid and no solidity For though contracting and dilating may bring and joyne parts together or separate parts asunder yet those parts shall not be any other wayes then by Nature they were Of Infinite matter INfinite Matter cannot have exact Forme or Figure because it hath no Limits but being divided by motion into severall parts those Parts may have perfect Figures so long as those Figures last yet these parts cannot be taken from the Infinite Body And though parts may be divided in the Body Infinite and joyned severall wayes yet Infinite can neither be added nor diminished yet division is as infinite as the Matter divided No proportion in Nature IN Nature there is no such thing as Number or Quantity for Number Quantity have only reference to division neither is there any such thing as Time in Eternity for Time hath no reference but to the Present if there be any such thing as Present Of one Kinde of Matter ALthough there may be infinite degrees of matter yet the Nature and kind of Matter is finite for Infinite of severall kindes of Matter would make a Confusion Of Infinite knowledge THere can be no absolute Knowledge if infinite degrees of Knowledge nor no absolute power if there be infinite degrees of strength nor present if infinite degrees of Motion No Judge in Nature NO Intreaty nor Petition can perswade Nature nor any Bribes an corrupt or alter the course of Nature Justly there can be no complaints made against Nature nor to Nature Nature can give no redresse There are no Appeales can be made nor Causes determined because Nature is Infinite and eternall for Infinite cannot be confined or prescribed setled or altered rul'd or dispos'd because the Effects are as infinite as the Causes and what is infinite hath no absolute power for what is absolute is finite Finite cannot tel how Infinite doth flow Nor how Infinite Matter moveth to and fro For Infinite of Knowledge cannot guess Of Infinite of Matter more or lesse Nor Infinite of Causes cannot finde The Infinite Effects of every Kinde Of Perfection IN Infinite can no Perfection be For why Perfection is in Unity
not in such a Motion as to make a Thought in the Head of the touch in the heele which makes the thoughts to be as senselesse of that touch as any other part of the Body that hath not such paines made by such Motions And shall we say there is no sense in the heele because no knowledge of it in the Head we may as well say that when an Object stands just before an eye that is blind either by a contrary motion of the thoughts inward by some deep Contemplation or otherwise we may as well say there is no outward Object because the Rationall Spirits take no notice of that Object t is not that the stronger motion stops the lesse or the swifter the flower for then the motions of the Planets would stop one anothers course Some will say what sense hath man or any other Animall when they are dead It may be answered that the Figure which is a Body may have sense but not the Animall for that we call an Animall is such a temper'd Matter joyn'd in such a Figure moving with such kind of Motions but when those motions do generally alter that are proper to an Animall although the Matter and Figure remain yet it is no longer an Animall because those motions that help it to make an Animall are ceas'd So as the Animall can have no more knowledge of what kind of sense the Figure hath because it is no more an Animall then an Animall what sense dust hath And that is the reason that when any part is dead in an Animall if that those motions that belonged to the Animall are ceas'd in that part which alter it from being a part of the Animall and knowes no more what sense it hath then if a living man should carry a dead man upon his shoulders what sense the dead man feels whether any or no Of Matter Motion and Knowledge or Understanding WHatsoever hath an innate motion hath Knowledge and what matter soever hath this innate motion is knowing But according to the severall motions are severall knowledges made for Knowledge lives in motion as motion lives in matter for though the kind of matter never alters yet the manner of motions alters in that matter and as motions alter so Knowledge differs which makes the severall motions in severall Figures to give severall knowledge And where there is a likenesse of motion there is a likenesse of Knowledge As the Appetite of Sensitive spirits and the desire of rationall spirits are alike motions in severall degrees of matter And the Touch in the heel or any part of the body else is the like motion as the Thought thereof in the head the one is the motion of the sensitive spirits the other in the rationall spirits as touch from the sensitive spirits for thought is only a strong touch touch a weake thought So Sense is a weak knowledge and knowledge a strong sense made by the degrees of the Spirits for Animall spirits are stronger as I sayd before being of an higher extract as I may say in the Chymistry of Nature which makes the different degrees in knowledge by the difference in strengths and finenesse or subtlety of matter Of the Animall Figure WHatsoever hath motion hath sensitive spirits and what is there on Earth that is not wrought or made into Figures and then undone again by these Spirits So that all matter is moving or moved by the movers if so all things have sense because all things have of these Spirits in them and if Sensitive spirits why not rationall spirits For there is as much infinite of every severall degree of matter as if there were but one matter for there is no quantity in infinite for infinite is a continued thing If so who knowes but Vegetables and Mineralls may have some of those rationall spirits which is a minde or soule in them as well as Man Onely they want that Figure with such kinde of motion proper thereunto to expresse Knowledge that way For had Vegetables and Mineralls the same shape made by such motions as the sensitive spirits create then there might be Wooden men and Iron Beasts for though marks do not come in the same way yet the same marks may come in and be made by the same motion for the Spirits are so subtle as they can passe and repasse through the solidest matter Thus there may be as many severall and various motions in Vegetables and Mineralls as in Animals and as many internall figures made by the rationall spirits onely they want the Animall to expresse it the Animall way And if their Knowledge be not the same knowledge but different from the Knowledge of Animalls by reason of their different Figures made by other kinde of motion on other tempered matter yet it is Knowledge For shall we say A man doth not know because hee doth not know what another man knows or some higher Power What an Animall is AN Animall is that which wee call Sensitive spirit that is a Figure that hath locall motion that is such a kinde of Figure with such kinde of motions proper thereunto But when there is a generall alteration of those motions in it then it is no more That we call Animall because the Locall motion is altered yet we cannot knowingly say it is not a sensitive Creature so long as the Figure lasts besides when the Figure is dissolved yet every scattered part may have sense as long as any kinde of motion is in it and whatsoever hath an innate motion hath sense either increasing or decreasing motion but the sense is as different as the motions therein because those properties belonging to such a Figure are altered by other motions Of Sense and Reason exercised in their different shapes IF every thing hath sense and reason then There might be Beasts and Birds and Fish and Men As Vegetables and Minerals had they The Animall shape to expresse that way And Vegetables Minerals may know As Man though like to Trees and stones they grow Then Corall Trouts may through the water glide And pearled menows swim on either side And Mermayds which in the Sea delight Might all be made of watry Lillies white Set on salt watry Billows as they flow Which like green banks appeare thereon to grow And Marriners i th' midst their Shipp might stand In stead of Mast hold sayles in either hand On Mountaine tops the Golden Fleece might feed Some hundred yeares their Ewes bring forth their breed Large Deere of Oake might through the Forrest run Leaves on their heads might keepe them from the Sun In stead of shedding Hornes their Leaves might fall And Acornes to increase a Wood of Fawnes withall Then might a Squerrill for a Nut be crackt If Nature had that Matter so compact And the small Sprouts which on the Husk do grow Might be the Taile and make a brushing show Then might the Diamonds which on Rocks oft lye Be all like to some little sparkling Flye Then
by unlearned men And as Language is still Language though not understood so Knowledge is still Knowledge although not generall but if they be That we call dead then those letters that were rubbed out were never writ again which is the same knowledge never returnes into the same Figure Thus the Spirits of Knowledge or the Knowledge of Spirits which is their severall Motions may be ignorant and unacquainted with each other that is that some Motion may not know how other Motions move not only in several Spirits but in one and the same Spirit no more then every Effect can know their Cause And Motion is but the Effect of the Spirits which Spirits are a thin subtle Matter for there would be no Motion if there were no Matter for Nothing can move but there may be Matter without Selfe-motion but not Selfe-motion without Matter Matter prime knowes not what effects shall be Or how their severall motions will agree Because †t is Infinite and so doth move Eternally in which nothing can prove For Infinite doth not in compasse lye Nor hath Eternall Lines to measure by Knowledge is there none to comprehend That which hath no beginning nor no end Perfect Knowledge comprises all can be But nothing can comprise Eternity Destiny and Fates or what the like we call In Infinites they no power have at all Nature hath Generosity enough to give All Figures case whilst in that Form they live But Motion which innated Matter is By running crosse each severall paines it gives Of the Creation of the Animall Figure THe reason †that the sensitive spirits when they begin to create an animal Figure the figure that is created feels it not untill the modell be finished that is it cannot have an animall motion untill it hath an animall Figure for it is the shape which gives it locall motion and after the Fabrick is built they begin to furnish it with †strength and inlarge it with growth and the rationall Spirit which inhabits it chooseth his room which is the Head And although some rationall Spirits were from the first creating it yet had not such motions as when created besides at first they have not so much company as to make so much change as to take parts like Instruments of Musick which cannot make so much Division upon few strings as upon more The next the Figure being weak their motions cannot be strong besides before the Figure is inlarged by growth they want room to move in This is the reason that new-borne Animalls seeme to have no knowledge especially Man because the spirits do neither move so strong nor have such variety of change for want of company to make a Consort Yet some Animalls have more knowledge then others by reason of their strength as all Beasts know their Dams and run to their Dugs and know how to suck as soone as they are borne and Birds and Children and the like weak Creatures such do not But the Spirits of sense give them strength and the spirits of reason do direct them to their Food (†) the Spirits of sense give them Taste and Appetite and the spirits of reason choose their meat for all Animall Creatures are not of one dyet for that which will nourish one will destroy another The Gathering of Spirits IF the rationall Spirits should enter into a Figure newly created altogether and not by degrees a Childe for example would have as much understanding and knowledge in the Womb or when it is new-borne as when it is inlarged and fully grown But we finde by experience there are severall sorts and degrees of knowledge and understanding by the recourse of spirits Which is the reason some Figures have greater Proportion of understanding and knowledge and sooner then others yet it is increased by degrees according as rationall spirits increase Like as Children they must get strength before they can go So Learning and experience increase rationall spirits as Food the sensitive But experience and Learning is not alwayes tyed to the Eare for every Organ and Pore of the Body is as severall doores to let them in and out For the Rationall spirits living with the Sensitive spirits come in and go out with them but not in equall proportion but sometimes more sometimes fewer this makes understanding more perfect in Health then in Sicknesse and in our middle age more then in the latter age For in age and sicknesse there is more carryed out then brought in This is the Reason Children have not such understanding but their reason increaseth with their yeares But the Rationall spirits may be similized †to a company of Good fellows which have pointed a meeting and the Company coming from severall places makes their time the longer ere their numbers are compleated though many a braine is disappointed but in some Figures the rooms are not commodious to move in made in their Creation for want of helpe those are Changelings Innocents or Naturall Fooles The Rationall Spirits seem most to delight in spungy soft and liquid Matter as in the Blood Brain Nerves and in Vegetables as not only being neerest to their own nature but having more room to move in This makes the Rationall Spirits to choose the Head in Animals for their chiefe room to dance their Figures in (†) for the Head is the biggest place that hath the spungy Materialls thus as soon as a Figure is created those Rationall Spirits choose a Room The moving of Innate Matter THough Motion makes Knowledge yet the Spirits give Motion for those Spirits or Essences are the Guiders Governours Directers The Motions are but their Instruments the Spirits are the Cause Motion but an Effect therefrom For that thin Matter which is Spirits can alter the Motion but Motion cannot alter the Matter or Nature of those Essences or Spirits so as the same Spirits may be in a Body but not one and the same Knowledge because not the same Motion that made that Knowledge As for Example How many severall Touches belong to the Body for every part of the Body hath a severall Touch which is a severall Knowledge belonging to every severall part for every severall part doth not know and feele every severall Touch For when the head akes the heele feels it not but only the Rationall Spirits which are free from the Incumbrance of dull Matter they are agile and quick to take notice of every particular Touch in or on every part of the Figure The like motions of a paine in the Body The like motion of the Rationall Spirits we call a griefe in the Mind for Touch in the Body is a thought in the Mind and to prove it is the like motion of the Rationall Spirits to the Sensitive which makes the knowledge of it is that when the Rationall Spirits are busily moved with some Fantasmes if any thing touches the Body it is not known to the Rationall Spirits because the Rationall Spirits move
and so few wife didst make Good Nature move their braine another way And then as Beasts as Beasts perchance they may LOrd how the World delight to tell a Lye As if they thought they sav'd a Soule thereby More lyes they tell then they will Prayers say And run about to vent them every way Some bragging lyes and then he tells how free The Ladies were when he 's in Company Or else what such a Lord did say to him And so what answer he return'd to them Or any Action which great Fame hath won Then he saies streight t was by his counsell done When any Wit that comes abroad in print Then he sayes strait he had a finger in 't How he did rectifie and mend the same Or else he wrote it all or gav 't a Name Thus in the World thousands of lyes are told Which none but Fooles their words for truth will hold But in the World there are more Fooles then wise Which makes them passe for Truth when all are Lyes J Begun a Booke about three yeares since which I intend to name the Worlds Ollio and when I come into Flaunders where those Papers are I will if God give me live and health finish it and send it forth in Print I imagine all those that have read my former Books wil say that I have writ enough unless they were better but say what you will it pleaseth me and since my Delights are harmlesse I will satisfie my Humour For had my Braine as many Fancies in 't To fill the World would put them all in Print No matter whether they be well exprest My will is done and that please Woman best A Farewell to the MUSES FArewell my Muse thou gentle harmlesse Spirit That us'd to haunt me in the dead of Night And on my Pillow where my head I laid Thou sit'st close by and with my Fancies play'd Sometimes upon my Eyes you dancing skip Making a vision of some fine Land-skip Thus with your sportings kept me oft awake Not with your noise for nere a word you spake But with your Faiery dancing circling winde Upon a hill of thoughts within my minde When t was your sport to blow out every light Then I did rest and sleep out all the night GReat God from Thee all Infinites do flow And by thy power from thence effects do grow Thou order'dst all degrees of Matter just As t is thy will and pleasure move it must And by thy Knowledge orderd'st all the Best For in thy Knowledge doth thy Wisdome rest And wisdome cannot order things amisse For where disorder is no wisdome is Besides great God thy wil is just for why Thy will still on thy wisdome doth rely O pardon Lord for what I here now speak Upon a guesse my knowledge is but weak But thou hast made such Creatures as Man-kind And giv'st them something which we call a Minde Alwaies in Motion never quiet lyes Untill the Figure of his body dies His severall thoughts which severall Motions are Do raise up love hopes joyes doubts and feare As love doth raise up hope so feare doth doubt Which makes him seek to finde the great God out Selfe-love doth make him seek to finde if he Came from or shaell last to eternity But Motion being slow makes knowledge weake And then his thoughts 'gainst Ignorance doth beat As fluid waters 'gainst hard Rocks do flow Break their soft streames and so they backward go Just so do thoughts and then they backward slide Unto the place where first they did abide And there in gentle murmurs do complaine That all their care and labour is in vain But since none knowes the great Creator must Man seek no more but in his goodnesse trust FINIS Reason Thoughts I mean of Forme dull Matter Some think there was a Chaos a confused Heap The Readers may take either Opinion Severall Motions and severall Figures (†) Not the Matter but the Degrees (†) Not the Bigness of Figures but the manner of shapes which makes some shapes to have the Advantage over others much bigger as a Mouse will kill an Elephant (†) Which is in Likenesse (†) Unlikenesse One Shape hath power over another one Minde knowes more then another Either by Growth or Sense or Reason For when Matter comes to such a degree it quickens That it begins to move Motion is Life * I meane when I say Obstruct that it either turnes their motion another way or makes them move slower * I do not say that Bones are the solid'st matter in Nature †As the Figure of Man * All Motion is Life I mean the Figure of dul matter As a plentifull Crop or a great Brood These degrees are visible to us Dancing is a measur'd Motion †Scorching is when the Motion is too quick †That is when there come so many Spirits as they disagree pressing upon one another (†) Those Degrees that are neerest have the greatest Sympathy (†) Like Chess-men Table-men Nine-pins or the like * I say higher for expressions sake †Nothing can bee made or known absolute out of Infinite and Eternall †Though it may have other Motions yet not the Animall Motion †The Figure might bee without an Animall Motion but an Animall Motion cannot bee untill there is an Animall Figure (†) Which Food is when such Materialls are not proper for such a Figure †The greater the Number is the more variety of Motion is made which makes Figures in the braine (†) In Animall Shapes (†) A Pig of Lead (†) The Huske †To prove that it is the several Motion is that wee shall have the same sense in our sleep either to move Pleasure or feele Paine (†) Like Glass
is spirit but the spirits carry the dull matter Thus the spirits the innated matter move in dull matter and dull matter moveth by the spirits and if the matter be fine and not grosse which they build withall and their motion be regular then the Figure is beautifull and well proportioned Of Increasing THe reason that the corruption of one Figure is the cause of making of another of the same kinde is not onely that it is of such a tempered matter that can onely make such a kinde of figure but that the spirits make figures according to their strength So that the spirits that are in the Seed when they have undone the figure they are in by a generall expulsion which we call corruption they begin to create againe another figure of the same kinde if no greater power hinder it For the Matter that is proper to make such like Figures is fitted or temper'd to their strengths So as the Temper of the Matter and the strength of the Spirits are the Erectors of those Figures eternally And the reason that from one Seed lesse or more Numbers are increased and raisd is that though few begin the work more will come to their help And as their Numbers are increased their Figures are more or lesse weaker or stronger Of Decay WHen Spirits of Life have created a Figure and brought it to perfection if they did not pull it down again they would be idle having no work to do and Idlenesse is against the Nature of Life being a perpetuall Mption For as soon as a Figure is perfected the Spirits generally move to an Expulsive Motion This is the reason that Age hath not that strength as Full-growth But like an old house falling down by degrees shed their Haires or Leaves instead of Tiles the Windowes broke downe and stopped with Rubbish So Eyes in Animals grow hollow and dimme And when the Foundation of a house is loose every little wind shakes it So when the Nerves being slack and the Muscles untyed and the Joynts unhing'd the whole Body is weak and tottering which we call Palsies which Palsies as the wind shakes The Blood as the Springe dries up Rheumes as Raine fals down and Vapours as Dust flye up Of Dead and Death DEad is where there is a Generall Alteration of such Motion as is proper to such Figures But Death is an Annihilation of that Print or Figure by an Expulsive Motion And as that Figure dissolves the Spirits disperse about carrying their severall burthens to the making of other Figures Like as a house that is ruin'd by Time or spoyled by accident the severall Materials are imployed to other uses sometimes to the building of an house again But a house is longer a building then a pulling down by reason of the cutting carving laying carrying placing and fitting every part to make them joyn together so all the works of Nature are sooner dissolv'd then created Of Locall Shapes SOme Shapes have power over others but t is not alwaies in the size or bulck of the Figure but in the manner of their Formes that gives advantage or disadvantage A little Mouse will run through the Snowt of a great Elephant A little Flye will sting a great Figure to death A Worm will wind through a thick Body The Lions force lies in his Clawes The Horses in his Hoofe The Dogs in his Teeth The Bulls in his Hornes and Mans in his Armes and Hands Birdes in their Bills and Talons And the manner of their Shapes gives them severall properties or faculties As the Shape of a Bird causes them to flye a Worm to creep the Shape of a Beast to run the Shape of Fish to swim yet some flye swifter and higher then others as their Wings are made So some run nimbler then others according as their Limbs are made and some swim glider then others according as their Fins are made But Man surpasses the shape of all other Creatures because he hath a part as it were of every shape But the same Motion and the same Matter without the shape could not give such Externall Properties since all Internall Properties are wrought out of dull Matter So as it is their shapes joyned with such Motions proper thereunto that give strength Agilenesse But the Internall Qualities may be alike in every Figure because Rationall Spirits worke not upon dull Matter but Figures themselves The Visible Motion in Animals Vegetables and Minerals THE Externall Motions of Animals are running turning winding tumbling leaping jumping shoving throwing darting climbing creeping drawing heaving lifting carrying holding or staying piercing digging flying swimming diving The Internall Motion is contriving directing examining comparing or judging contemplating or reasoning approving or disapproving resolving From whence arise all the Passions and severall Dispositions These and the like are the visible Internall Motions in Animals The Internall Motions of Vegetables and Minerals are in operation As contracting dilating which is Attractive Retentive Digestive Expulsive The Vegetables Externall Motion is increasing decreasing that is enlarging or lasting although there may be Matter not moving yet there is no Matter which is not moved Of the Working of severall Motions of Nature MOtions do work according as they finde Matter that 's fit and proper for each kinde Sensitive Spirits work not all one way But as the Matter is they cut carve lay Joyning together Matter solid Light And build form some Figures streight upright Or make them bending and so jutting out And some are large and strong and big about And some are thick and hard and close unite Others are flat and low and loose and light But when they meet with Matter fine and thin Then they do weave as Spiders when they spin All that is woven is soft smooth thin things As flowry Vegetables Animall Skins Observe the Graine of every thing you le see Like inter-woven Threads lye evenly And like to Diaper Damask wrought In severall workes that for our Table 's bought Or like to Carpets which the Persian made Or Sattin smooth which is the Florence Trade Some Matter they ingrave like Ring and Seale Which is the Stamp of Natures Common-weale T is Natures Armes where she doth print On all her Works as Coyne that 's in the Mint Some severall sorts they joyn together glu'd As Matter solid with some that 's fluid Like to the Earthly ball where some are mixt Of severall sorts although not fixt For though the Figure of the Earth may last Longer then others yet at last may waste And so the Sun and Moon and Planets all Like other Figures at the last may fall The Matter 's still the same but Motion may Alter it into Figures every way Yet keepe the property to make such kind Of Figures fit which Motion out can find Thus may the Figures change if Motion hurles That Matter of her waies for other Worlds Of the Minde THere is a degree of stronger Spirits then the Sensitive Spirits as
it were the Essence of Spirits as the Spirit of Spirits This is the Minde or Soule of Animalls For as the Sensitive Spirits are a weak knowledge so this is a stronger Knowledge As to similize them I may say there is as much difference betwixt them as Aqua Fortis to ordinary Vitrioll These Rationall Spirits as I may call them worke not upon dull Matter as the Sensitive Spirits do but only move in measure and number which make Figures which Figures are Thoughts as Memory Understanding Imaginations or Fancy and Remembrance and Will Thus these Spirits moving in measure casting and placing themselves into Figures make a Consort and Harmony by Numbers Where the greater Quantity or Numbers are together of those rationall Spirits the more variety of Figure is made by their severall Motion they dance severall dances according to their Company Of their severall Dances or Figures WHat Object soever is presented unto them by the senses they straite dance themselves into that Figure this is Memory And when they dance the same figure without the helpe of the outward object this is Remembrance When they dance figures of their owne invention as I may say then that is Imagination or Fancie Understanding is when they dance perfectly as I may say not to misse the least part of those figures that are brought through the senses Will is to choose a dance that is to move as they please and not as they are perswaded by the sensitive spirits But when their motion and measures be not regular or their quantity or numbers sufficient to make the figures perfect then is the minde weak and infirme as I may say they dance out of time and measure But where the greatest number of these or quantity of these Essences are met and joyn'd in the most regular motion there is the clearest Understanding the deepest Judgement the perfectest Knowledge the finest Fancies the more Imagination the stronger Memory the obstinatest Will But sometimes their motions may be regular but society is so small so as they cannot change into so many severall figures then we say he hath a weak minde or a poor soule But be their quantity or numbers few or great yet if they move confusedly and out of order wee say the minde is distracted And the reason the minde or soule is improveable or decayable is that the quantity or numbers are increaseable or decreaseable and their motions regular and irregular A Feaver in the Body is the same motion amongst the sensitive spirits as madnesse is in the minde amongst the rationall Spirits So lkewise Paine in the Body is like those Motions that make Griefe in the Minde So Pleasure in the Body is the like Motions as make Delight and Joy in the Minde All Convulsive Motions in the Body are like the Motions that cause Feare in the Minde All Expulsive motions amongst the Rational Spirits are a dispersing their Society As Expulsity in the Body is the dispersing of dull Matter by the Sensitive Spirits All Drugs have an Opposite Motion to the Matter they work on working by an Expulsive Motion and if they move strongly having great quantity of Spirits gathered together in a little dul Matter they do not only cast out superfluous matter but pul down the very Materials of a Figure But al Cordials have a Sympatheticall Motion to the Matter they meet giving strength by their help to those Spirits they finde tired as one may say that it is to be over-power'd by opposite Motions in dull Matter The Sympathy and Antipathy of Spirits PLeasure and Delight Discontent and Sorrow which is Love and Hate is like Light and Darknesse the one is a quick equall and free Motion the other is a slow irregular and obstructed Motion When there is the like Motion of Rationall Spirits in opposite Figures then there is a like Understanding and Disposition Just as when there is the like Motion in the Sensitive Spirits then there is the like Constitution of Body So when there is the like quantity laid in the same Symmetry then the Figures agree in the same Proportions and Lineaments of Figures The reason that the Rationall Spirits in one Figure are delighted with the outward Forme of another Figure is that the Motions of those sensitive Spirits which move in that Figure agree with the Motion of the rationall Spirits in the other This is Love of Beauty And when the sensitive Motions alter in the Figure of the Body and the Beauty decaies then the Motion of the rationall Spirits alter and the love or goodliking ceases If the Motion of the rationall Spirits are crosse to the Motion of the sensitive Spirits in opposite Figures then it is dislike So if the Motion be just crosse and contrary of the rationall Spirits in opposite Figures it is Hate but if they agree it is Love But these Sympathies which are made only by a likenesse of Motions without an Intermixture last not longe because those Spirits are at a distance changing their Motion without the knowledge or consent of either side But the way that the Rationall Spirits intermix is through the Organs of the Body especially the Eyes and Eares which are the common doors which let the Spirits out and in For the Vocall and Verbal Motion from the mouth carry the spirits through the eares down to the Heart where Love and Hate is lodged And the Spirits from the Eyes issue out in Beames and Raies as from the Sun which heat or scorch †the Heart which either raise a fruitful crop of Love making the ground fertile or dries it so much as makes it insipid that nothing of good will grow there unlesse stinking Weeds of Hate But if the ground be fertile although every Crop is not so rich as some yet it never growes barren unlesse they take out the strength with too much kindness As the old Proverb they kill with too much kindnesse which Murther is seldome committed But the rationall spirits †are apt to take Surfet as wel as sensitive spirits which makes Love and Good-will so often to be ill rewarded neglected and disdain'd The Sympathy of Sensitive and Rationall Spirits in one Figure THere is a stronge Sympathy and agreement or Affection as I may say betwixt the rationall spirits and the sensitive spirits joyned in one Figure Like Fellow-labourers that assist one another to help to finish their work For when they disagree as the rationall spirits will move one way sometimes and the sensitive spirits another that is when Reason strives to abate the Appetite of the Senses yet it is by a loving direction rather to admonish them by a gentle contrary Motion for them to imitate and follow in the like Motions yet it is as they alwayes agree at last Like the Father and the Son For though the Father rules by command and the Son obeies through obedience yet the Father out of love to his Son as willing to please him submits to