the mind or barn-dores to receive bundles of pressures like sheaves of Corn For there being a thorow mixture of animate rational and sensitive and inanimate matter we canot assign a certain seat or place to the rational another to the sensitive and another to the inanimate but they are diffused and intermixt throughout all the body And this is the reason that sense and knowledg cannot be bound onely to the head or brain But although they are mixt together nevertheless they do not lose their interior natures by this mixture nor their purity and subtilty nor their proper motions or actions but each moves according to its nature and substance without confusion The actions of the rational part in Man which is the Mind or Soul are called Thoughts or thoughtful perceptions which are numerous and so are the sensitive perceptions for though Man or any other animal hath but five exterior sensitive organs yet there be numerous perceptions made in these sensitive organs and in all the body nay every several Pore of the flesh is a sensitive organ as well as the Eye or the Ear. But both sorts as well the rational as the sensitive are different from each other although both do resemble another as being both parts of animate matter as I have mentioned before Wherefore I 'le add no more onely let you know that I constantly remain MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXXVI MADAM THat all other animals besides man want reason your Author endeavours to prove in his discourse of method where his chief argument is That other animals cannot express their mind thoughts or conceptions either by speech or any other signs as man can do For sayes he it is not for want of the organs belonging to the framing of words as we may observe in Parrats and Pies which are apt enough to express words they are taught but understand nothing of them My answer is That one man expressing his mind by speech or words to an other doth not declare by it his excellency and supremacy above all other Creatures but for the most part more folly for a talking man is not so wise as a contemplating man But by reason other Creatures cannot speak or discourse with each other as men or make certain signs whereby to express themselves as dumb and deaf men do should we conclude they have neither knowledge sense reason or intelligence Certainly this is a very weak argument for one part of a mans body as one hand is not less sensible then the other nor the heel less sensible then the heart nor the legg less sensible then the head but each part hath its sense and reason and so consequently its sensitive and rational knowledg and although they cannot talk or give intelligence to each other by speech nevertheless each hath its own peculiar and particular knowledge just as each particular man has his own particular knowledge for one man's knowledge is not another man's knowledge and if there be such a peculiar and particular knowledg in every several part of one animal creature as man well may there be such in Creatures of different kinds and sorts But this particular knowledg belonging to each creature doth not prove that there is no intelligence at all betwixt them no more then the want of humane Knowledg doth prove the want of Reason for reason is the rational part of matter and makes perception observation and intelligence different in every creature and every sort of creatures according to their proper natures but perception observation and intelligence do not make reason Reason being the cause and they the effects Wherefore though other Creatures have not the speech nor Mathematical rules and demonstrations with other Arts and Sciences as Men yet may their perceptions and observations be as wise as Men's and they may have as much intelligence and commerce betwixt each other after their own manner and way as men have after theirs To which I leave them and Man to his conceited prerogative and excellence resting MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXXVII MADAM COncerning Sense and Perception your Authors opinion is That it is made by a motion or impression from the object upon the sensitive organ which impression by means of the nerves is brought to the brain and so to the mind or soul which onely perceives in the brain Explaining it by the example of a Man being blind or walking in dark who by the help of his stick can perceive when he touches a Stone a Tree Water Sand and the like which example he brings to make a comparison with the perception of Light For says he Light in a shining body is nothing else but a quick and lively motion or action which through the air and other transparent bodies tends towards the eye in the same manner as the motion or resistance of the bodies the blind man meets withal tends thorow the stick towards the hand wherefore it is no wonder that the Sun can display its rays so far in an instant seeing that the same action whereby one end of the stick is moved goes instantly also to the other end and would do the same if the stick were as long as Heaven is distant from Earth To which I answer first That it is not onely the Mind that perceives in the kernel of the Brain but that there is a double perception rational and sensitive and that the mind perceives by the rational but the body and the sensitive organs by the sensitive perception and as there is a double perception so there is also a double knowledg rational tional and sensitive one belonging to the mind the other to the body for I believe that the Eye Ear Nose Tongue and all the Body have knowledg as well as the Mind onely the rational matter being subtil and pure is not incumbred with the grosser part of matter to work upon or with it but leaves that to the sensitive and works or moves onely in its own substance which makes a difference between thoughts and exterior senses Next I say That it is not the Motion or Reaction of the bodies the blind man meets withal which makes the sensitive perception of these objects but the sensitive corporeal motions in the hand do pattern out the figure of the Stick Stone Tree Sand and the like And as for comparing the perception of the hand when by the help of the stick it perceives the objects with the perception of light I confess that the sensitive perceptions do all resemble each other because all sensitive parts of matter are of one degree as being sensible parts onely there is a difference according to the figures of the objects presented to the senses and there is no better proof for perception being made by the sensitive motions in the body or sensitive organs but that all these sensitive perceptions are alike and resemble one another for if they were not made in the body of the sentient but by the
There was and There shall be but onely There is Neither can it properly be said from this to that place but onely in reference to the several moving parts of the onely Infinite Matter And thus much to your Questions I add no more but rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and humble Servant XXX MADAM IN your last you were pleased to express that some men who think themselves wise did laugh in a scornful manner at my opinion when I say that every Creature hath life and knowledg sense and reason counting it not onely ridiculous but absurd and asking whether you did or could believe a piece of wood metal or stone had as much sense as a beast or as much reason as a man having neither brain blood heart nor flesh nor such organs passages parts nor shapes as animals To which I answer That it is not any of these mentioned things that makes life and knowledg but life and knowledg is the cause of them which life and knowledg is animate matter and is in all parts of all Creatures and to make it more plain and perspicuous humane sense and reason may perceive that wood stone or metal acts as wisely as an animal As for example Rhubarb or the like drugs will act very wisely in Purging and Antimony or the like will act very wisely in Vomiting and Opium will act very wisely in Sleeping also Quicksilver or Mercury will act very wisely as those that have the French disease can best witness likewise the Loadstone acts very wisely as Mariners or Navigators will tell you Also Wine made of Fruit and Ale of Malt and distilled Aqua-vitae will act very subtilly ask the Drunkards and they can inform you Thus Infinite examples may be given and yet man says all Vegetables and Minerals are insensible and irrational as also the Planets and Elements when as yet the Planets move very orderly and wisely and the Elements are more active nay more subtil and searching then any of the animal Creatures witness Fire Air and Water As for the Earth she brings forth her fruit if the other Elements do not cause abortives in due season and yet man believes Vegetables Minerals and Elements are dead dull senseless and irrational Creatures because they have not such shapes parts nor passages as Animals nor such exterior and local motions as Animals have but Man doth not consider the various intricate and obscure ways of Nature unknown to any particular Creature for what our senses are not capable to know our reason is apt to deny Truly in my opinion Man is more irrational then any of those Creatures when he believes that all knowledg is not onely confined to one sort of Creatures but to one part of one particular Creature as the head or brain of man for who can in reason think that there is no other sensitive and rational knowledg in Infinite Matter but what is onely in Man or animal Creatures It is a very simple and weak conclusion to say Other Creatures have no eyes to see no ears to hear no tongues to taste no noses to smell as animals have wherefore they have no sense or sensitive knowledg or because they have no head nor brain as Man hath therefore they have no reason nor rational knowledg at all for sense and reason and consequently sensitive and rational knowledg extends further then to be bound to the animal eye ear nose tongue head or brain but as these organs are onely in one kind of Natures Creatures as Animals in which organs the sensitive corporeal motions make the perception of exterior objects so there may be infinite other kinds of passages or organs in other Creatures unknown to Man which Creatures may have their sense and reason that is sensitive and rational knowledg each according to the nature of its figure for as it is absurd to say that all Creatures in Nature are Animals so it is absurd to confine sense and reason onely to Animals or to say that all other Creatures if they have sense and reason life and knowledg it must be the same as is in Animals I confess it is of the same degree that is of the same animate part of matter but the motions of life and knowledg work so differently and variously in every kind and sort nay in every particular Creature that no single Creature can find them out But in my opinion not any Creature is without life and knowledg which life and knowledg is made by the self-moving part of matter that is by the sensitive and rational corporeal motions and as it is no consequence that all Creatures must be alike in their exterior shapes figures and motions because they are all produced out of one and the same matter so neither doth it follow that all Creatures must have the same interior motions natures and proprieties and so consequently the same life and knowledg because all life and knowledg is made by the same degree of matter to wit the animate Wherefore though every kind or sort of Creatures has different perceptions yet they are not less knowing for Vegetables Minerals and Elements may have as numerous and as various perceptions as Animals and they may be as different from animal perceptions as their kinds are but a different perception is not therefore no perception Neither is it the animal organs that make perception nor the animal shape that makes life but the motions of life make them But some may say it is Irreligious to believe any Creature has rational knowledg but Man Surely Madam the God of Nature in my opinion will be adored by all Creatures and adoration cannot be without sense and knowledg Wherefore it is not probable that onely Man and no Creature else is capable to adore and worship the Infinite and Omnipotent God who is the God of Nature and of all Creatures I should rather think it irreligious to confine sense and reason onely to Man and to say that no Creature adores and worships God but Man which in my judgment argues a great pride self-conceit and presumption And thus Madam having declared my opinion plainly concerning this subject I will detain you no longer at this present but rest MADAM Your constant Friend and faithful Servant XXXI MADAM I Perceive you do not well apprehend my meaning when I say in my Philosophical Opinions That the Infinite degrees of Infinite Matter are all Infinite For say you the degrees of Matter cannot be Infinite by reason there cannot be two Infinites but one would obstruct the other My answer is I do not mean that the degrees of Matter are Infinite each in its self that is that the animate and inanimate are several Infinite matters but my opinion is that the animate degree of matter is in a perpetual motion and the inanimate doth not move of it self and that those degrees are infinite in their effects as producing and making infinite figures for since the cause which is the onely matter is infinite the
the same motions and parts of matter did return into the producers again which is impossible but I understand the like creature to wit that one and the same sort of particular motions would make all particular figures resemble so as if they were one and the same creature without any difference When I say Sensitive and Rational knowledg lives in sensitive and rational Matter and Animate liveth in Inanimate matter I mean they are all several parts and actions of the onely infinite matter inseparable from each other for wheresoever is matter there is also self-motion and wheresoever is self-motion there is sense and reason and wheresoever is sense and reason there is sensitive and rational knowledge all being but one body or substance which is Nature When I say The death of particular Creatures causes an obscurity of Knowledge and that particular Knowledges increase and decrease and may be more or less I mean onely that parts divide themselves from parts and joyn to other parts for every several Motion is a several Knowledge and as motion varies so doth knowledge but there is no annihilation of any motion and consequently not of knowledge in Nature And as for more or less knowledge I mean more or less alteration and variety of corporeal figurative motions not onely rational but sensitive so that that creature which has most variety of those perceptive motions is most knowing provided they be regular that is according to the nature and propriety of the figure whether animal vegetable mineral or elemental for though a large figure is capable of most knowledge yet it is not commonly or alwayes so wise or witty as a less by reason it is more subject to disorders and irregularities like as a private Family is more regular and better ordered then a great State or Common-wealth Also when I say That some particular Knowledge lasts longer then some other I mean that some corporeal motions in some parts do continue longer then in others When I say A little head may be full and a great head may be empty of rational matter I mean there may be as it were an ebbing or flowing that is more or less of Rational Matter joyned with the Sensitive and Inanimate And when I say That if all the heads of Mankind were put into one and sufficient quantity of Rational Matter therein that Creature would not onely have the knowledge of every particular but that Understanding and Knowledge would increase like Use-money my meaning is that if there were much of those parts of rational matter joyned they would make more variety by selfchange of corporeal motions When I name Humane sense and reason I mean such sensitive and rational perception and knowledge as is proper to the nature of Man and when I say Animal sense and reason I mean such as is proper to the nature of all Animals for I do not mean that the sensitive and rational corporeal motions which do make a man or any Animal are bound to such figures eternally but whilest they work and move in such or such figures they make such perceptions as belong to the nature of those figures but when those self-moving parts dissolve the figure of an Animal into a Vegetable or any other Creature then they work according to the nature of that same figure both exteriously and interiously When I say That Place Space Measure Number Weight Figures c. are mixed with Substance I do not mean they are incorporeal and do inhere in substance as so many incorporeal modes or accidents but my meaning is they are all corporeal parts and actions of Nature there being no such thing in Nature that may be called incorporeal for Place Figure Weight Measure c. are nothing without Body but Place and Body are but one thing and so of the rest Also when I say That sometimes Place sometimes Time and sometimes Number gives advantage I mean that several parts of Matter are getting or losing advantage When I say an Animal or any thing else that has exterior local motion goeth or moveth to such or such a place I mean to such or such a body and when such a Creature doth not move out of its place I mean it doth not remove its body from such or such parts adjoyning to it When I say The rational animate matter divides it self into as many parts and after as many several manners as their place or quantity will give way to I mean their own place and quantity also as other parts will give way to those parts for some parts will assist others and some do obstruct others When I say That the Nature of extension or dilation strives or endeavours to get space ground or compass I mean those corporeal motions endeavour to make place and space by their extensions that is to spread their parts of matter into a larger compass or body And when I say That Contractions endeavour to cast or thrust out space place ground or compass My meaning is That those corporeal motions endeavour to draw their parts of matter into a more close and solid body for there is no place nor space without body Also when I name several tempered substances and matters I mean several changes and mixtures of corporeal motions Also when I speak of Increase and Decrease I mean onely an alteration of corporeal figurative motions as uniting parts with parts and dissolving or separating parts from parts When I say That the motions of cold and the motions of moisture when they meet make cold and moist effects and when the motions of heat and moisture meet make hot and moist effects and so for the motions of cold and dryness I mean that when several parts do joyn in such several corporeal motions they cause such effects and when I say cold and heat presses into every particular Creature I mean that every Creatures natural and inherent perceptive motions make such patterns as their exterior objects are viz. hot or cold if they do but move regularly for if they be irregular then they do not as for example those in an Ague will shake for cold in a hot Summers day and those that are in a Fever will burn with heat although they were at the Poles When I say that hot motions and burning motions and hot figures and burning figures do not associate or joyn together in all Creatures I mean that the corporeal motions in some figures or creatures do act in a hot but not in a burning manner and when I say some creatures have both hot and burning motions and figures I mean the corporeal motions act both in a hot and burning manner for though heat is in a degree to burning yet it is not always burning for burning is the highest degree of heat as wetness is the highest degree of moisture When I say Warmth feeds other Creatures after a spiritual manner not a corporeal My meaning is not as if
heat were not corporeal but that those corporeal motions which make heat work invisibly and not visibly like as fire feeds on fuel or man on meat Also when I say Excercise amongst animals gets strength I mean that by excercise the inherent natural motions of an animal body are more active as being more industrious When I say That the passage whence cold and sharp winds do issue out is narrow I mean when as such or such parts disjoyn or separate from other parts as for example when dilating parts disjoyn from contracting parts and oftentimes the disjoyning parts do move according to the nature of those parts they disjoyn from Concerning the actions of Nature my meaning is that there is not any action whatsoever but was always in Nature and remains in Nature so long as it pleases God that Nature shall last and of all her actions Perception and self-love are her prime and chief actions wherefore it is impossible but that all her particular creatures or parts must be knowing as well as self-moving there being not one part or particle of Nature that has not its share of animate or self-moving matter and consequently of knowledge and self-love each according to its own kind and nature but by reason all the parts are of one matter and belong to one body each is unalterable so far that although it can change its figure yet it cannot change or alter from being matter or a part of Infinite Nature and this is the cause there cannot be a confusion amongst those parts of Nature but there must be a constant union and harmony betwixt them for cross and opposite actions make no confusion but onely a variety and such actions which are different cross and opposite not moving always after their usual and accustomed way I name Irregular for want of a better expression but properly there is no such thing as Irregularity in Nature nor no weariness rest sleep sickness death or destruction no more then there is place space time modes accidents and thelike any thing besides body or matter When I speak of unnatural Motions I mean such as are not proper to the nature of such or such a Creature as being opposite or destructive to it that is moving or acting towards its dissolution Also when I call Violence supernatural I mean that Violence is beyond the particular nature of such a particular Creature that is beyond its natural motions but not supernatural that is beyond Infinite Nature or natural Matter When I say A thing is forced I do not mean that the forced body receives strength without Matter but that some Corporeal Motions joyn with other Corporeal Motions and so double the strength by joyning their parts or are at least an occasion to make other parts more industrious By Prints I understand the figures of the objects which are patterned or copied out by the sensitive and rational corporeal figurative Motions as for example when the sensitive corporeal motions pattern out the figure of an exteriour object and the rational motions again pattern out a figure made by the sensitive motions those figures of the objects that are patterned out I name Prints as for example The sense of Seeing is not capable to receive the Print that is the figure or pattern of the object of the whole Earth And again The rational Motions are not alwayes exactly after the sensitive Prints that is after the figures made by the sensitive motions Thus by Prints I understand Patterns and by printing patterning not that the exteriour object prints its figure upon the exteriour sensitive organs but that the sensitive motions in the organs pattern out the figure of the object but though all printing is done by the way of patterning yet all patterning is not printing Therefore when I say that solid bodies print their figures in that which is more porous and soft and that those solid bodies make new prints perpetually and as they remove the prints melt out like verbal or vocal sounds which print words and set notes in the Air I mean the soft body by its own self-motion patterns out the figure of the solid body and not that the solid body makes its own print and so leaves the place of its own substance with the print in the soft body for place remains always with its own body and cannot be separated from it they being but one thing for example when a Seal is printed in Wax the Seal gives not any thing to the Wax but is onely an object patterned out by the figurative motions of the Wax in the action of printing or sealing When I make mention of what the Senses bring in I mean what the sensitive Motions pattern out of forreign objects And when I say that the pores being shut touch cannot enter I mean the sensitive corporeal motions cannot make patterns of outward objects Also when I say our Ears may be as knowing as our Eyes and so of the rest of the sensitive organs I mean the sensitive motions in those parts or organs When I say The more the Body is at rest the more active or busie is the Mind I mean when the sensitive Motions are not taken up with the action of patterning out forreign objects When I say the Air is fill'd with sound and that words are received into the ears as figures of exterior objects are received into the eyes I mean the sensitive motions of the Air pattern out sound and the sensitive motions of the Ears pattern out words as the sensitive figurative motions of the Eyes pattern out the figures of external objects Also when I speak of Thunder and Lightning to wit That Thunder makes a great noise by the breaking of lines My meaning is That the Air patterns out this sound or noise of the lines and by reason there are so many patterns made in the air by its sensitive motions the Ear cannot take so exact a copy thereof but somewhat confusedly and this is the reason why Thunder is represented or rather pattern'd out with some terrour for Thunder is a confused noise because the patterns are made confusedly But concerning Sound and Light I am forced to acquaint you Madam that my meaning thereof is not so well expressed in my Book of Philosophy by reason I was not of the same opinion at that time when I did write that Book which I am now of for upon better consideration and a more diligent search into the causes of natural effects I have found it more probable that all sensitive perception is made by the way of Patterning and so consequently the perception of Sound and of Light wherefore I beseech you when you find in my mentioned Book any thing thereof otherwise expressed do not judg of it as if I did contradict my self but that I have alter'd my opinion since upon more probable reasons Thus Madam you have a true declaration of my sence and meaning concerning those
of animate matter works variously and in divers motions by which it produces various and divers effects which are several Perceptions as Conception Imagination Fancy Memory Remembrance Understanding Judgment Knowledg and all the Passions with many more Wherefore this Reason is not in one undivided part nor bound to one motion for it is in every Creature more or less and moves in its own parts variously and in some Creatures as for example in some men it moves more variously then in others which is the cause that some men are more dull and stupid then others neither doth Reason always move in one Creature regularly which is the cause that some men are mad or foolish And though all men are made by the direction of Reason and endued with Reason from the first time of their birth yet all have not the like Capacities Understandings Imaginations Wits Fancies Passions c. but some more some less and some regular some irregular according to the motions of Reason or Rational part of animate matter and though some rational parts may make use of other rational Parts as one man of another mans Conceptions yet all these parts cannot associate together as for example all the Material parts of several objects no not their species cannot enter or touch the eye without danger of hurting or loosing it nevertheless the eye makes use of the objects by patterning them out and so doth the rational matter by taking patterns from the sensitive And thus knowledg or perception of objects both sensitive and rational is taken without the pressure of any other parts for though parts joyn to parts for no part can be single yet this joining doth not necessarily infer the pressure of objects upon the sensitive organs Whereof I have already discoursed sufficiently heretofore to which I refer you and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant X. MADAM UNderstanding says your Author is nothing else but Conception caused by speech and therefore if speech be peculiar to man as for ought I know it is then is understanding peculiar to him also Where he confineth Understanding onely to speech and to Mankind But by his leave Madam I surely believe that there is more understanding in Nature then that which is in speech for if there were not I cannot conceive how all the exact forms in Generations could be produced or how there could be such distinct degrees of several sorts and kinds of Creatures or distinctions of times and seasons and so many exact motions and figures in Nature Considering all this my reason perswadeth me that all Understanding which is a part of Knowledg is not caused by speech for all the motions of the Celestial Orbs are not made by speech neither is the knowledg or understanding which a man hath when sick as to know or understand he is sick made by speech nor by outward objects especially in a disease he never heard nor saw nor smelt nor tasted nor touched Wherefore all Perception Sensation Memory Imagination Appetite Understanding and the like are not made nor caused by outward objects nor by speech And as for names of things they are but different postures of the figures in our mind or thoughts made by the Rational matter But Reasoning is a comparing of the several figures with their several postures and actions in the Mind which joyned with the several words made by the sensitive motions inform another distinct and separate part as an other man of their minds conceptions understanding opinions and the like Concerning Addition and Substraction wherein your Author sayes Reasoning consists I grant that it is an act of Reasoning yet it doth not make Sense or Reason which is Life and Knowledge but Sense and Reason which is self-motion makes addition and substraction of several Parts of matter for had matter not self-motion it could not divide nor compose nor make such varieties without great and lingring retardments if not confusion Wherefore all what is made in Nature is made by self-moving matter which self-moving matter doth not at all times move regularly but often irregularly which causes false Logick false Arithmetick and the like and if there be not a certainty in these self-motions or actions of Nature much less in Art which is but a secundary action and therefore neither speech words nor exterior objects cause Understanding or Reason And although many parts of the Rational and Sensitive Matter joyned into one may be stronger by their association and over-power other parts that are not so well knit and united yet these are not the less pure onely these Parts and Motions being not equal in several Creatures make their Knowledge and Reason more or less For when a man hath more Rational Matter well regulated and so more Wisdom then an other that same man may chance to over-power the other whose Rational Matter is more irreregular but yet not so much by strength of the united Parts as by their subtilty for the Rational Matter moving regularly is more strong with subtilty then the sensitive with force so that Wisdom is stronger then Life being more pure and so more active for in my opinion there is a degree of difference between Life and Knowledge as my Book of Philosophical Opinions will inform you Again your Author sayes That Man doth excel all other Animals in this faculty that when he conceives any thing whatsoever he is apt to enquire the Consequences of it and what effects he can do with it Besides this sayes he Man hath an other degree of Excellence that he can by Words reduce the Consequences he finds to General Rules called Theoremes or Aphorisms that is he can reason or reckon not onely in Number but in all other things whereof one may be added unto or substracted from an other To which I answer That according to my Reason I cannot perceive but that all Creatures may do as much but by reason they do it not after the same manner or way as Man Man denies they can do it at all which is very hard for what man knows whether Fish do not Know more of the nature of Water and ebbing and flowing and the saltness of the Sea or whether Birds do not know more of the nature and degrees of Air or the cause of Tempests or whether Worms do not know more of the nature of Earth and how Plants are produced or Bees of the several sorts of juices of Flowers then Men And whether they do not make there Aphorismes and Theoremes by their manner of Intelligence For though they have not the speech of Man yet thence doth not follow that they have no Intelligence at all But the Ignorance of Men concerning other Creatures is the cause of despising other Creatures imagining themselves as petty Gods in Nature when as Nature is not capable to make one God much less so many as Mankind and were it not for Mans supernatural Soul Man would not be more Supreme then other Creatures in Nature
flame the smoak changing it self by its figurative motions into flame but when smoak is above the flame the flame cannot force the smoak to fire or enkindle it self for the flame cannot so well encounter it which shews as if smoak had a swifter motion then flame although flame is more rarified then smoak and if moisture predominate there is onely smoak if fire then there is flame But there are many figures that do not flame until they are quite dissolved as Leather and many other things Neither can fire work upon all bodies alike but according to their several natures like as men cannot encounter several sorts of creatures after one and the same manner for not any part in nature hath an absolute power although it hath self-motion and this is the reason that wax by fire is melted and clay hardened The third question is Why some few drops of water sprinkled upon fire do encrease its flame I answer by reason of their little quantity which being over-powred by the greater quantity and force of fire is by its self-motions converted into fire for water being of a rare nature and fire for the most part of a rarifying quality it cannot suddenly convert it self into a more solid body then its nature is but following its nature by force it turns into flame The fourth question is Why the flame of spirit of Wine doth consume the Wine and yet cannot burn or hurt a linnen cloth I answer The Wine is the fuel that feeds the flame and upon what it feeds it devoureth and with the food and feeder but by reason Wine is a rarer body then Oyle or Wood or any other fuel its flame is also weaker And thus much of these questions I rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XLII MADAM TO conclude my discourse upon the Opinions of these two famous and learned Authors which I have hitherto sent you in several Letters I could not chuse but repeat the ground of my own opinions in this present which I desire you to observe well left you mistake any thing whereof I have formerly discoursed First I am for self-moving matter which I call the sensitive and rational matter and the perceptive and architectonical part of nature which is the life and knowledg of nature Next I am of an opinion That all Perception is made by corporeal figuring self-motions and that the perception of forreign objects is made by patterning them out as for example The sensitive perception of forreign objects is by making or taking copies from these objects so as the sensitive corporeal motions in the eyes copy out the objects of sight and the sensitive corporeal motions in the ears copy out the objects of sound the sensitive corporeal motions in the nostrils copy out the objects of sent the sensitive corporeal motions in the tongue and mouth copy out the objects of taste and the sensitive corporeal motions in the flesh and skin of the body copy out the forreign objects of touch for when you stand by the fire it is not that the fire or the heat of the fire enters your flesh but that the sensitive motions copy out the objects of fire and heat As for my Book of Philosophy I must tell you that it treats more of the production and architecture of Creatures then of their perceptions and more of the causes then the effects more in a general then peculiar way which I thought necessary to inform you of and so I remain MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XLIII MADAM I Received your questions in your last the first was Whether there be more body compact together in a heavy then in a light thing I answer That purity rarity little quantity exteriour shape as also motion cause lightnesse and grossness of bulk density much quantity exterior figure and motion cause heaviness as it may be confirmed by many examples but lightness and heaviness are onely conceptions of man as also ascent and descent and it may be questioned whether there be such things really in nature for change of motions of one and the same body will make lightness and heaviness as also rarity and density besides the several figures and compositions of bodies will cause them to ascend or descend for Snow is a light body and yet descends fron the clouds and Water is a heavie body and yet ascends in springs out of the Earth Dust is a dense body and yet is apt to ascend Rain or Dew is a rare body and yet is apt to descend Also a Bird ascends by his shape and a small worm although of less body and lighter will fall down and there can be no other prof of light and heavy bodies but by their ascent and descent But as really there is no such thing as heavie or light in nature more then words and comparisons of different corporeal motions so there is no such thing as high or low place or time but onely words to make comparisons and to distinguish different corporeal motions The second question was When a Bason with water is wasted into smoak which fills up a whole Room Whether the air in the room doth as the sensitive motions of the eye pattern out the figure of the smoak or whether all the room is really fill'd with the vapour or smoak I answer If it be onely the pattern or figure of smoak or vapour the extension and dilation is not so much as man imagines but why may not the air which in my opinion hath self-motion pattern out the figure of smoak as well as the eye for that the eye surely doth it may be proved because smoak if it enter the eye makes it not onely smart and water much but blinds it quite for the present wherefore smoak doth not enter the eye when the eye seeth it but the eye patterns out the figure of smoak and this is perception In the same manner may the air pattern out the figure of smoak The third question was Whether all that they name qualities of bodies as thickness thinness hardness softness gravity levity transparentness and the like be substances I answer That all those they call qualities are nothing else but change of motion and figure of the same body and several changes of motions are not several bodies but several actions of one body for change of motion doth not create new matter or multiply its quantity for though corporeal motions may divide and compose contract and dilate yet they cannot create new matter or make matter any otherwise then it is by nature neither can they add or substract any thing from its nature And therefore my opinion is not that they are things subsisting by themselves without matter but that there can no abstraction be made of motion and figure from matter and that matter and motion being but one thing and inseparable make but one substance Wherefore density and rarity gravity and levity c. being nothing else but change of motions cannot be without matter
for as composition and division do hinder and obstruct each other from running into Infinite so doth dilation hinder the Infinite contraction and contraction the Infinite dilation which as I said before causes a mean betwixt Nature's actions nevertheless there are Infinite dilations and contractions in Nature because there are Infinite contracted and dilated parts and so are infinite divisions because there are infinite divided parts but contraction dilation extension composition division and the like are onely Nature's several actions and as there can be no single part in Nature that is Infinite so there can neither be any single Infinite action But as for Matter Motion and Figure those are Individable and Inseparable and make but one body or substance for it is as impossible to divide them as impossible it is to your Author to separate the essential proprieties which he gives from an Immortal Spirit And as Matter Motion and Figure are inseparable so is likewise Matter Space Place and Duration For Parts Motion Figure Place and Duration are but one Infinite body onely the Infinite parts are the Infinite divisions of the Infinite body and the Infinite body is a composition of the Infinite parts but figure place and body are all one and so is time and duration except you will call time the division of duration and duration the composition of time but infinite time and infinite duration is all one in Nature and thus Nature's Principal motions and actions are dividing composing and disposing or ordering according to her Natural wisdom by the Omnipotent God's leave and permission Concerning the Sun which your Author speaks of in the same place and denies him to be a Spectator of our Particular affairs upon Earth saying there is no such divine Principle in him whereby he can do it I will speak nothing against nor for it but I may say that the Sun hath such a Principle as other Creatures have which is that he has sensitive and rational corporeal motions as well as animals or other Creatures although not in the same manner nor the same organs and if he have sensitive and rational motions he may also have sensitive and rational knowledge or perception as well as man or other animals and parts of Nature have for ought any body knows for it is plain to humane sense and reason that all Creatures must needs have rational and sensitive knowledg because they have all sensitive and rational matter and motions But leaving the Sun for Astronomers to contemplate upon I take my leave and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant X. MADAM YOur Author in his arguments against Motion being a Principle of Nature endeavours to prove that Beauty Colour Symmetry and the like in Plants as well as in other Creatures are no result from the meer motion of the matter and forming this objection It may be said says he That the regular motion of the matter made the first plant of every kind but we demand What regulated the motion of it so as to guide it to form it self into such a state I answer The Wisdom of Nature or infinite Matter did order its own actions so as to form those her Parts into such an exact and beautiful figure as such a Tree or such a Flower or such a Fruit and the like and some of her Parts are pleased and delighted with other parts but some of her parts are afraid or have an aversion to other parts and hence is like and dislike or sympathy and antipathy hate and love according as nature which is infinite self-moving matter pleases to move for though Natural Wisdom is dividable into parts yet these parts are united in one infinite Body and make but one Being in it self like as the several parts of a man make up but one perfect man for though a man may be wise in several causes or actions yet it is but one wisdom and though a Judg may shew Justice in several causes yet it is but one Justice for Wisdom and Justice though they be practised in several causes yet it is but one Wisdom and one Justice and so all the parts of a mans body although they move differently yet are they but one man's bodily actions Just as a man if he carve or cut out by art several statues or draw several Pictures those statues or pictures are but that one man's work The like may be said of Natures Motions and Figures all which are but one self-active or self-moving Material Nature But Wise Nature's Ground or Fundamental actions are very Regular as you may observe in the several and distinct kinds sorts and particulars of her Creatures and in their distinct Proprieties Qualities and Faculties belonging not onely to each kind and sort but to each particular Creature and since man is not able to know perfectly all those proprieties which belong to animals much less will he be able to know and judg of those that are in Vegetables Minerals and Elements and yet these Creatures for any thing Man knows may be as knowing understanding and wise as he and each as knowing of its kind or sort as man is of his But the mixture of ignorance and knowledg in all Creatures proceeds from thence that they are but Parts and there is no better proof that the mind of man is dividable then that it is not perfectly knowing nor no better proof that it is composeable then that it knows so much but all minds are not alike but some are more composed then others which is the cause some know more then others for if the mind in all men were alike all men would have the same Imaginations Fancies Conceptions Memories Remembrances Passions Affections Understanding and so forth The same may be said of their bodies for if all mens sensitive parts were as one and not dividable and composeable all their Faculties Properties Constitutions Complexions Appetites would be the same in every man without any difference but humane sense and reason doth well perceive that neither the mind life nor body are as one piece without division and composition Concerning the divine Soul I do not treat of it onely this I may say That all are not devout alike nor those which are are not at all times alike devout But to conclude some of our modern Philosophers think they do God good service when they endeavour to prove Nature as Gods good Servant to be stupid ignorant foolish and mad or any thing rather then wise and yet they believe themselves wise as if they were no part of Nature but I cannot imagine any reason why they should rail on her except Nature had not given them as great a share or portion as she hath given to others for children in this case do often rail at their Parents for leaving their Brothers and Sisters more then themselves However Nature can do more then any of her Creatures and if Man can Paint Imbroider Carve Ingrave curiously why may not Nature have more
always but most commonly But says your Author How can so smal a Point receive the Images of so vast or so various objects at once without obliteration or confusion First I answer That as I said before sensitive Matter is not bound up to a Point nor to be a single self-subsisting Part. Next as for confusion I say that the sensitive matter makes no more confusion then an Engraver when he engraves several figures in a small stone and a Painter draws several figures in a small compass for a Carver will cut out several figures in a Cherry-stone and a Lady in a little black Patch and if gross and rude Art is able to do this why may not Ingenious and Wise Nature do And as Nature is ingenious and knowing in her self so in her Parts and her Parts in her for neither whole nor Parts are ignorant but have a knowledg each according to the motion of its own Parts for knowledg is in Motion and Motion in Matter and the diversity and variety of motion is the diversity and variety of knowledg so that every particular figure and motion hath its particular knowledg as well as its proper and peculiar parts and as the parts join or divide so doth knowledg which many times causes Arts to be lost and found and memory and remembrance in Particular Creatures I do not say they are utterly lost in nature but onely in respect to particular Creatures by the dissolving and dividing of their particular figures For the rational matter by reason it moves onely in its own parts it can change and rechange into several figures without division of parts which makes memory and remembrance But men not considering or believing there might be such a degree of onely matter namely rational it has made them erre in their judgments Nevertheless there is a difference between sensitive and rational parts and motions and yet they are agreeable most commonly in their actions though not always Also the rational can make such figures as the sensitive cannot by reason the rational has a greater power and subtiler faculty in making variety then the sensitive for the sensitive is bound to move with the inanimate but the rational moves onely in its own parts for though the sensitive and rational oftentimes cause each other to move yet they are not of one and the same degree of matter nor have they the same motions And this rational Matter is the cause of all Notions Conceptions Imaginations Deliberation Determination Memory and any thing else that belongs to the Mind for this matter is the mind of Nature and so being dividable the mind of all Creatures as the sensitive is the life and it can move as I said more subtilly and more variously then the sensitive and make such figures as the sensitive cannot without outward examples and objects But all diversity comes by change of motion and motions are as sympathetical and agreeing as antipathetical and disagreeing And though Nature's artificial motions which are her Playing motions are sometimes extravagant yet in her fundamental actions there is no extravagancy as we may observe by her exact rules in the various generations the distinct kinds and sorts the several exact measures times proportions and motions of all her Creatures in all which her wisdom is well exprest and in the variety her wise pleasure To which I leave her and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XIV MADAM IF there be any sense and perception in Matter says your Author it must needs be Motion or Reaction of one part of matter against another and that all diversity of sense and perception doth necessarily arise from the diversity of the Magnitude Figure Posture Vigour and Direction of Motion in Parts of the Matter In which variety of perceptions Matter hath none but such as are impressed by corporeal motions that is to say that are perceptions of some actions or modificated Impressions of parts of matter bearing one against another I have declared Madam my opinion concerning Perception in my former Letters that all Perception is not Impression and Reaction like as a Seal is printed on Was For example the corporeal rational motions in the mind do not print but move figuratively but the sensitive motions do carve print engrave and as it were pencil out as also move figuratively in productions and do often take patterns from the rational figures as the rational motions make figures according to the sensitive patterns But the rational can move without patterns and so the sensitive For surely were a man born blind deaf dumb and had a numb palsie in his exterior parts the sensitive and rational motions would nevertheless move both in body and mind according to the nature of his figure for though no copies were taken from outward objects yet he would have thoughts passions appetites and the like and though he could not see exterior objects nor hear exterior sounds yet no question but he would see and hear interiously after the manner of dreams onely they might not be any thing like to what is perceiveable by man in the World but if he sees not the Sun-light yet he would see something equivalent to it and if he hears not such a thing as Words yet he would hear something equivalent to words for it is impossible that his sensitive and rational faculties should be lost for want of an Ear or an Eye so that Perception may be without exterior object or marks or patterns for although the sensitive Motions do usually pattern out the figures of exterior objects yet that doth not prove but they can make interior figures without such objects Wherefore Perception is not always Reaction neither is Perception and Reaction really one thing for though Perception and Action is one and the same yet not always Reaction but did Perception proceed from the reaction of outward objects a blind and deaf man would not so much as dream for he would have no interior motion in the head having no other exterior sense but touch which if the body was troubled with a painful disease he would neither be sensible of but to feel pain and interiously feel nothing but hunger and fulness and his Mind would be as Irrational as some imagine Vegetables and Minerals are To which opinion I leave them and rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XV. MADAM YOur Author is pleased in Mirth and to disgrace the opinion of those which hold that Perception is made by figuring to bring in this following example Suppose says he one Particle should shape it self into a George on Horse-back with a Lance in his hand and another into an Inchanted Castle this George on Horse-back must run against the Castle to make the Castle receive his impress and similitude But what then Truly the Encounter will be very Vnfortunate for S. George indeed may easily break his Lance but it is impossible that he should by justling against the Particle in the form of a
Castle conveigh the intire shape of himself and his Horse thereby such as we find our selves able to imagine of a man on Horse-back which is a Truth as demonstrable as any Theorem in Mathematicks I answer first That there is no Particle single and alone by it self Next I say It is more easie for the rational matter to put it self into such figures and to make such encounters then for an Immaterial mind or sustance to imagine it for no imagination can be without figure and how should an Immaterial created substance present such Figures but by making them either in it self or upon matter For S. George and the Castle are figures and their encounters are real fighting actions and how such figures and actions can be in the mind or memory and yet not be is impossible to conceive for as I said those figures and actions must be either in the incorporeal mind or in the corporeal parts of matter and if the figures and motions may be in an incorporeal substance much more is it probable for them to be in a corporeal nay if the figures and their actions can be in gross corporeal matter why should they not be in the purest part of matter which is the rational matter And as for being made known to the whole body and every part thereof it is not necessary no more then it is necessary that the private actions of every Man or Family should be made known to the whole Kingdom or Town or Parish But my opinion of self-corporeal motion and perception may be as demonstrable as that of Immaterial Natural Spirits which in my mind is not demonstrable at all by reason it is not corporeal or material For how can that be naturally demonstrable which naturally is nothing But your Author believes the Mind or rational Soul to be individable and therefore concludes that the Parts of the same Matter although at great distance must of necessity know each Particular act of each several Part but that is not necessary for if there were not ignorance through the division of Parts every man and other creatures would know alike and there is no better proof that matter or any particular creature in nature is not governed by a created Immaterial Spirit then that knowledg is in parts for the hand doth not know what pain the head feels which certainly it would do if the mind were not dividable into parts but an individable substance But this is well to be observed that some parts in some actions agree generally in one body and some not as for example temperance and appetite do not agree for the corporeal actions of appetite desire to join with the corporeal actions of such or such other parts but the corporeal actions of temperance do hinder and forbid it whereupon there is a faction amongst the several parts for example a Man desires to be drunk with Wine this desire is made by such corporeal actions as make appetite the rational corporeal motions or actions which make temperance oppose those that make appetite and that sort of actions which hath the better carryes it the hand and other parts of the body obeying the strongest side and if there be no wine to satisfie the appetite yet many times the appetite continues that is the parts continue in the same motions that make such an appetite but if the appetite doth not continue then those parts have changed their motions or when by drinking the appetite is satisfied and ceases then those parts that made the appetite have altered their former motions But oftentimes the rational corporeal motions may so agree with the sensitive as there may be no opposition or crossing at all but a sympathetical mutual agreement betwixt them at least an approvement so that the rational may approve what the sensitive covet or desire Also some motions of the rational as also of the sensitive matter may disagree amongst themselves as we see that a man will often have a divided mind for he will love and hate the same thing desire and not desire one and the same thing as to be in Heaven and yet to be in the World Moreover this is to be observed That all rational perceptions or cogitations are not so perspicuous and clear as if they were Mathematical Demonstrations but there is some obscurity more or less in them at least they are not so well perceivable without comparing several figures together which proves they are not made by an individable immaterial Spirit but by dividable corporeal parts As for example Man writes oftentimes false and seldom so exact but he is forced to mend his hand and correct his opinions and sometimes quite to alter them according as the figures continue or are dissolved and altered by change of motion and according as the actions are quick or slow in these alterations the humane mind is setled or wavering and as figures are made or dissolved and transformed Opinions Conceptions Imaginations Understanding and the like are more or less And according as these figures last so is constancy or inconstancy memory or forgetfulness and as those figures are repeated so is remembrance but sometimes they are so constant and permanent as they last as long as the figure of the body and sometimes it happens not once in an age that the like figures are repeated and sometimes they are repeated every moment As for example a man remembers or calls to mind the figure of another man his friend with all his qualities dispositions actions proprieties and the like several times in an hour and sometimes not once in a year and so as often as he remembers him as often is the figure of that man repeated and as oft as he forgets him so often is his figure dissolved But some imagine the rational motions to be so gross as the Trotting of a Horse and that all the motions of Animate matter are as rude and course as renting or tearing asunder or that all impressions must needs make dents or creases But as Nature hath degrees of corporeal matter so she hath also degrees of corporeal motions Matter and Motion being but one substance and it is absurd to judg of the interior motions of self-moving matter by artificial or exterior gross motions as that all motions must be like the tearing of a sheet of Paper or that the printing and patterning of several figures of rational and sensitive matter must be like the printing of Books nay all artificial Printings are not so hard as to make dents and impresses witness Writing Painting and the like for they do not disturb the ground whereon the letters are written or the picture drawn and so the curious actions of the purest rational matter are neither rude nor rough but although this matter is so subtil and pure as not subject to exterior human senses and organs yet certainly it is dividable not onely in several Creatures but in the several parts of one and the same Creature as well as
upon Earth because he exceeds all that we might compare or liken to him And as men ought to have a care of such similizing expressions so they ought to be careful in making Interpretations of the Scripture and expressing more then the Scripture informs for what is beyond the Scripture is Man 's own fancy and to regulate the Word of God after Man's fancy at least to make his fancy equal with the Word of God is Irreligious Wherefore men ought to submit and not to pretend to the knowledg of God's Counsels and Designs above what he himself hath been pleased to reveal as for example to describe of what Figure God is and to comment and descant upon the Articles of Faith as how Man was Created and what he did in the state of Innocence how he did fall and what he did after his fall and so upon the rest of the Articles of our Creed more then the Scripture expresses or is conformable to it For if we do this we shall make a Romance of the holy Scripture with our Paraphrastical Descriptions which alas is too common already The truth is Natural Philosophers should onely contain themselves within the sphere of Nature and not trespass upon the Revelation of the Scripture but leave this Profession to those to whom it properly belongs I am confident a Physician or any other man of a certain Profesion would not take it well if others who are not professed in that Art should take upon them to practise the same And I do wonder why every body is so forward to encroach upon the holy Profession of Divines which yet is a greater presumption then if they did it upon any other for it contains not onely a most hidden and mystical knowledg as treating of the Highest Subject which is the most Glorious and Incomprehensible God and the salvation of our Souls but it is also most dangerous if not interpreted according to the Holy Spirit but to the byass of man's fancy Wherefore Madam I am afraid to meddle with Divinity in the least thing lest I incur the hazard of offending the divine Truth and spoil the excellent Art of Philosophying for a Philosophical Liberty and a Supernatural Faith are two different things and suffer no co-mixture as I have declared sufficiently heretofore And this you will find as much truth as that I am MADAM Your constant Friend and faithful Servant XX. MADAM ALthough your Author is of the opinion of Plato in making Three sorts of Atheists One that believes no Gods Another which indeed admits of Gods yet such as are uncarefull of us and despisers of small matters and therefore also ignorant of us And lastly a third sort which although they believe the Gods to be expert in the least matters yet do suppose that they are flexible and indulgent toward the smallest cold Prayers or Petitions Yet I cannot approve of this distinction for I do understand but one sort of Atheists that is those which believe no God at all but those which believe that there is a God although they do not worship him truly nor live piously and religiously as they ought cannot in truth be called Atheists or else there would be innumerous sorts of Atheists to wit all those that are either no Christians or not of this or that opinion in Christian Religion besides all them that live wickedly impiously and irreligiously for to know and be convinced in his reason that there is a God and to worship him truly according to his holy Precepts and Commands are two several things And as for the first that is for the Rational knowledge of the Existence of God I cannot be perswaded to believe there is any man which has sense and reason that doth not acknowledg a God nay I am sure there is no part of Nature which is void and destitute of this knowledg of the Existence of an Infinite Eternal Immortal and Incomprehensible Deity for every Creature being indued with sense and reason and with sensitive and rational knowledg there can no knowledg be more Universal then the knowledg of a God as being the root of all knowledg And as all Creatures have a natural knowledg of the Infinite God so it is probable they Worship Adore and Praise his Infinite Power and Bounty each after its own manner and according to its nature for I cannot believe God should make so many kinds of Creatures and not be worshipped and adored but onely by Man Nature is God's Servant and she knows God better then any Particular Creature but Nature is an Infinite Body consisting of Infinite Parts and if she adores and worships God her Infinite Parts which are Natural Creatures must of necessity do the like each according to the knowledg it hath but Man in this particular goes beyond others as having not onely a natural but also a revealed knowledg of the most Holy God for he knows Gods Will not onely by the light of Nature but also by revelation and so more then other Creatures do whose knowledg of God is meerly Natural But this Revealed Knowledg makes most men so presumptuous that they will not be content with it but search more and more into the hidden mysteries of the Incomprehensible Deity and pretend to know God as perfectly almost as themselves describing his Nature and Essence his Attributes his Counsels his Actions according to the revelation of God as they pretend when as it is according to their own Fancies So proud and presumptuous are many But they shew thereby rather their weaknesses and follies then any truth and all their strict and narrow pryings into the secrets of God are rather unprofitable vain and impious then that they should benefit either themselves or their neighbour for do all we can God will not be perfectly known by any Creature The truth is it is a meer impossibility for a finite Creature to have a perfect Idea of an Infinite Being as God is be his Reason never so acute or sharp yet he cannot penetrate what is Impenetrable nor comprehend what is Incomprehensible Wherefore in my opinion the best way is humbly to adore what we cannot conceive and believe as much as God has been pleased to reveal without any further search lest we diving too deep be swallowed up in the bottomless depth of his Infiniteness Which I wish every one may observe for the benefit of his own self and of others to spend his time in more profitable Studies then vainly to seek for what cannot be found And with this hearty wish I conclude resting MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXI MADAM YOur Author is so much for Spirits that he doth not stick to affirm That Bodies scarce make up a moity or half part of the world but Spirits even by themselves have or possess their moity and indeed the whole world If he mean bodiless and incorporeal Spirits I cannot conceive how Spirits can take up any place for place belongs onely to body
irregular and disordered motions or strengthen the weak or reduce the straying or work any other ways according to the nature and propriety of their own substance and the disposition of the distempered parts Nevertheless those cures which are performed exteriously as to heal inward affects by an outwad bare co-touching are all made by natural motions in natural substances and not by Non-being substanceless Ideas or spiritual Rays for those that will cure diseases by Non-beings will effect little or nothing for a disease is corporeal or material and so must the remedies be there being no cure made but by a conflict of the remedy with the disease and certainly if a non-being fight against a being or a corporeal disease I doubt it will do no great effect for the being will be too strong for the non-being Wherefore my constant opinion is that all cures whatsover are perfected by the power of corporeal motions working upon the affected parts either interiously or exteriously either by applying external remedies to external wounds or by curing internal distempers either by medicines taken internally or by bare external co-touchings And such a remedy I suppose has been that which your Author speaks of viz. a stone of a certain Irish-man which by a meer external contact hath cured all kinds of diseases either by touching outwardly the affected parts or by licking it but with the tip of the Tongue if the disease was Internal But if the vertue of the Stone was such as your Author describes certainly what man soever he was that possessed such a jewel I say he was rather of the nature of the Devil then of man that would not divulge it to the general benefit of all mankind and I wonder much that your Author who otherwise pretends such extraordinary Devotion Piety and Religiousness as also Charity viz. that all his works he has written are for the benefit of his neighbour and to detect the errors of the Schools meerly for the good of man doth yet plead his cause saying That secrets as they are most difficultly prepared so they ought to remain in secret forever in the possession of the Privy Councel what Privy Counsels he means I know not but certainly some are more difficult to be spoken to or any thing to be obtained from then the preparation of a Physical Arcanum However a general good or benefit ought not to be concealed or kept in privy Councels but to be divulged and publickly made known that all sorts of People of what condition degree or Nation soever might partake of the general blessing and bounty of God But Madam you may be sure that many who pretend to know Physical secrets most commonly know the least as being for the most part of the rank of them that deceive the simple with strange tales which exceed truth and to make themselves more authentical they use to rail at others and to condemn their skill onely to magnifie their own I say many Madam as I have observed are of that nature especially those that have but a superficial knowledge in the Art of Physick for those that are thorowly learned and sufficiently practised in it scorn to do the like which I wish may prosper and thrive by their skill And so I rest MADAM Your Ladiships humble Servant XLIII MADAM YOur Author is pleased to relate a story of one that died suddenly and being disfected there was not the least sign of decay or disorder found in his body But I cannot add to those that wonder when no sign of distemper is found in a man's body after he is dead because I do not believe that the subtillest learnedst and most practised Anatomist can exactly tell all the Interior Government or motions or can find out all obscure and invisible passages in a man's body for concerning the motions they are all altered in death or rather in the dissolution of the animal figure and although the exterior animal figure or shape doth not alter so soon yet the animal motions may alter in a moment of time which sudden alteration may cause a sudden death and so the motions being invisible the cause of death cannot be perceived for no body can find that which is not to be found to wit animal motions in a dead man for Nature hath altered these motions from being animal motions to some other kind of motions she being as various in dissolutions as in productions indeed so various that her ways cannot be traced or known thorowly and perfecty but onely by piece-meals as the saying is that is but partly Wherefore man can onely know that which is visible or subject to his senses and yet our senses do not always inform us truly but the alterations of grosser parts are more easily known then the alterations of subtil corporeal motions either in general or in particular neither are the invisible passages to be known in a dead Carcass much less in a living body But I pray mistake me not when I say that the animal motions are not subject to our exterior senses for I do not mean all exterior animal motions nor all interior animal motions for though you do see no interior motion in an animal body yet you may feel some as the motion of the Heart the motion of the Pulse the motion of the Lungs and the like but the most part of the interior animal motions are not subject to our exterior senses nay no man he may be as observing as he will can possibly know by his exterior senses all the several and various interior motions in his own body nor all the exterior motions of his exterior parts and thus it remains still that neither the subtillest motions and parts of matter nor the obscure passages in several Creatures can be known but by several parts for what one part is ignorant of another part is knowing and what one part is knowing another part is ignorant thereof so that unless all the Parts of Infinite Matter were joyned into one Creature there can never be in one particular Creature a perfect knowledg of all things in Nature Wherefore I shall never aspire to any such knowledg but be content with that little particular knowledg Nature has been pleased to give me the chief of which is that I know my self and especially that I am MADAM Your constant Friend and faithful Servant XLIV MADAM I Perceive you are desirous to know the cause Why a man is more weak at the latter end of a disease then at the beginning and is a longer time recovering health then loosing health as also the reason of relapses and intermissions First as for weakness and strength my opinion is they are caused by the regular and irregular motions in several parts each striving to over-power the other in their conflict and when a man recovers from a disease although the regular motions have conquered the irregular and subdued them to their obedience yet they are not so quite obedient as they
them with a fine coloured Covering of Logick and Geometry and set them out in a handsome array by which I might have also cover'd my ignorance like as Stage-Players do cover their mean persons or degrees with fine Cloathes But as I said I being void of Learning and Art did put them forth according to my own conceptions and as I did understand them my self but since I have hitherto by the reading of those famous and learned Authors you sent me attained to the knowledg of some artificial Terms I shall not spare any labour and pains to make my opinions so intelligible that every one who without partiality spleen or malice doth read them may also easily understand them And thus I shall likewise endeavour to give such answers to your scruples objections or questions as may explain those passages which seem obscure and satisfie your desire In the first place and in general you desire to know Whether any truth may be had in Natural Philosophy for since all this study is grounded upon probability and he that thinks he has the most probable reasons for his opinion may be as far off from truth as he who is thought to have the least nay what seems most probable to day may seem least probable to morrow especially if an ingenious opposer bring rational arguments against it Therefore you think it is but vain for any one to trouble his brain with searching and enquiring after such things wherein neither truth nor certainty can be had To which I answer That the undoubted truth in Natural Philosophy is in my opinion like the Philopher's Stone in Chymistry which has been sought for by many learned and ingenious Persons and will be sought as long as the Art of Chymistry doth last but although they cannot find the Philosophers Stone yet by the help of this Art they have found out many rare things both for use and knowledg The like in Natural Philosophy although Natural Philosophers cannot find out the absolute truth of Nature or Natures ground-works or the hidden causes of natural effects neverthelss they have found out many necessary and profitable Arts and Sciences to benefit the life of man for without Natural Philosophy we should have lived in dark ignorance not knowing the motions of the Heavens the cause of the Eclipses the influences of the Stars the use of Numbers Measures and Weights the vertues and effects of Vegetables and Minerals the Art of Architecture Navigation and the like Indeed all Arts and Sciences do adscribe their original to the study of Natural Philosophy and those men are both unwise and ungrateful that will refuse rich gifts because they cannot be masters of all Wealth and they are fools that will not take remedies when they are sick because Medicines can onely recover them from death for a time but not make them live for ever But to conclude Probability is next to truth and the search of a hidden cause finds out visible effects and this truth do natural Philosophers find that there are more fools then wise men which fools will never attain to the honour of being Natural Philosophers And thus leaving them I rest MADAM Your Ladiships humble and faithful Servant XXVIII MADAM YOur desire is to know since I say Nature is Wise Whether all her parts must be wise also To which I answer That by your favour all her parts are not fools but yet it is no necessary consequence that because Nature is infinitely wise all her parts must be so too no more then if I should say Nature is Infinite therefore every part must be Infinite But it is rather necessary that because Nature is Infinite therefore not any single part of hers can be Infinite but must be finite Next you desire to know Whether Nature or the self-moving matter is subject to err and to commit mistakes I answer Although Nature has naturally an Infinite wisdom and knowledg yet she has not a most pure and intire perfection no more then she has an absolute power for a most pure and intire perfection belongs onely to God and though she is infinitely naturally wise in her self yet her parts or particular creatures may commit errors and mistakes the truth is it is impossible but that parts or particular Creatures must be subject to errors because no part can have a perfect or general knowledg as being but a part and not a whole for knowledg is in parts as parts are in Matter Besides several corporeal motions that is several self-moving parts do delude and oppose each other by their opposite motions and this opposition is very requisite in Nature to keep a mean and hinder extreams for were there not opposition of parts Nature would run into extreams which would confound her and all her parts And as for delusion it is part of Natures delight causing the more variety but there be some actions in Nature which are neither perfect mistakes nor delusions but onely want of a clear and thorow perception As for example when a man is sailing in a Ship he thinks the shore moves from the ship when as it is the ship that moves from the shore Also when a man is going backward from a Looking-glass he thinks the figure in the Glass goeth inward whereas it is himself that goes backward and not his figure in the glass The cause of it is That the perception in the eye perceives the distanced body but not the motion of the distance or medium for though the man may partly see the motion of the visible parts yet he doth not see the parts or motion of the distance or medium which is invisible and not subject to the perception of sight and since a pattern cannot be made if the object be not visible hence I conclude that the motion of the medium cannot make perception but that it is the perceptive motions of the eye which pattern out an object as it is visibly presented to the corporeal motions in the eye for according as the object is presented the pattern is made if the motions be regular For example a fired end of a stick if you move it in a circular figure the sensitive corporeal motions in the eye pattern out the figure of fire together with the exterior or circular motion and apprehend it as a fiery circle and if the stick be moved any otherwise they pattern out such a figure as the fired end of the stick is moved in so that the sensitive pattern is made according to the exterior corporeal figurative motion of the object and not according to its interior figure or motions And this Madam is in short my answer to your propounded questions by which I hope you understand plainly the meaning of MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXIX MADAM THe scruples or questions you sent me last are these following First you desire to be informed what I mean by Phantasmes and Ideas I answer They are figures made by the purest and subtilest degree of
Philosophical Letters OR MODEST REFLECTIONS Upon some Opinions in NATVRAL PHILOSOPHY MAINTAINED By several Famous and Learned Authors of this Age Expressed by way of LETTERS By the Thrice Noble Illustrious and Excellent Princess The Lady MARCHIONESS of NEWCASTLE LONDON Printed in the Year 1664. TO HER EXCELLENCY The Lady MARCHIONESS OF NEW CASTLE On her Book of Philosophical Letters T Is Supernatural nay 't is Divine To write whole Volumes ere I can a line I'mplor'd the Lady Muses those fine things But they have broken all their Fidle-strings And cannot help me Nay then I did try Their Helicon but that is grown all dry Then on Parnassus I did make a sallie But that 's laid level like a Bowling-alley Invok'd my Muse found it a Pond a Dream To your eternal Spring and running Stream So clear and fresh with Wit and Phansie store As then despair did bid me write no more W. Newcastle TO HIS EXCELLENCY The LORD MARQUIS of NEW CASTLE My Noble Lord ALthough you have always encouraged me in my harmless pastime of Writing yet was I afraid that your Lordship would be angry with me for Writing and Publishing this Book by reason it is a Book of Controversies of which I have heard your Lordship say That Controversies and Disputations make Enemies of Friends and that such Disputations and Controversies as these are a pedantical kind of quarrelling not becoming Noble Persons But your Lordship will be pleased to consider in my behalf that it is impossible for one Person to be of every one's Opinion if their opinions be different and that my Opinions in Philosophy being new and never thought of at least not divulged by any but my self are quite different from others For the Ground of my Opinions is that there is not onely a Sensitive but also a Rational Life and Knowledge and so a double Perception in all Creatures And thus my opinions being new are not so easily understood as those that take vp several pieces of old opinions of which they patch up a new Philosophy if new may be made of old things like a Suit made up of old Stuff bought at the Brokers Wherefore to find out a Truth at least a Probability in Natural Philosophy by a new and different way from other Writers and to make this way more known easie and intelligible I was in a manner forced to write this Book for I have not contradicted those Authors in any thing but what concerns and is opposite to my opinions neither do I any thing but what they have done themselves as being common amongst them to contradict each other which may as well be allowable as for Lawyers to plead at the Barr in opposite Causes For as Lawyers are not Enemies to each other but great Friends all agreeing from the Barr although not at the Barr so it is with Philosophers who make their Opinions as their Clients not for Wealth but for Fame and therefore have no reason to become Enemies to each other by being Industrious in their Profession All which considered was the cause of Publishing this Book wherein although I dissent from their opinions yet doth not this take off the least of the respect and esteem I have of their Merits and Works But if your Lordship do but pardon me I care not if I be condemned by others for your Favour is more then the World to me for which all the actions of my Life shall be devoted and ready to serve you as becomes My LORD Your Lordships honest Wife and humble Servant M. N. TO THE MOST FAMOUS UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE Most Noble Ingenious Learned and Industrious Students BE not offended that I dedicate to you this weak and infirm work of mine for though it be not an offering worthy your acceptance yet it is as much as I can present for this time and I wish from my Soul I might be so happy as to have some means or ways to express my Gratitude for your Magnificent favours to me having done me more honour then ever I could expect or give sufficient thanks for But your Generosity is above all Gratitude and your Favours above all Merit like as your Learning is above Contradiction And I pray God your University may flourish to the end of the World for the Service of the Church the Truth of Religion the Salvation of Souls the Instruction of Youth the preservation of Health and prolonging of Life and for the increase of profitable Arts and Sciences so as your several studies may be like several Magistrates united for the good and benefit of the whole Common-wealth nay the whole World May Heaven prosper you the World magnifie you and Eternity record your fame Which are the hearty wishes and prayers of Your most obliged Servant M. NEWCASTLE A PREFACE TO THE READER Worthy Readers I Did not write this Book out of delight love or humour to contradiction for I would rather praise then contradict any Person or Persons that are ingenious but by reason Opinion is free and may pass without a pass-port I took the liberty to declare my own opinions as other Philosophers do and to that purpose I have here set down several famous and learned Authors opinions and my answers to them in the form of Letters which was the easiest way for me to write and by so doing I have done that which I would have bone unto me for I am as willing to have my opinions contradicted as I do contradict others for I love Reason so well that whosoever can bring most rational and probable arguments shall have my vote although against my own opinion But you may say If contradictions were frequent there would be no agreement amongst Mankind I answer It is very true Wherefore Contradictions are better in general Books then in particular Families and in Schools better then in Publick States and better in Philosophy then in Divinity All which considered I shun as much as I can not to discourse or write of either Church or State But I desire so much favour or rather Justice of you Worthy Readers as not to interpret my objections or answers any other ways then against several opinions in Philosophy for I am confident there is not any body that doth esteem respect and honour learned and ingenious Persons more then I do Wherefore judg me neither to be of a contradicting humor nor of a vain-glorious mind for dissenting from other mens opinions but rather that it is done out of love to Truth and to make my own opinions the more intelligible which cannot better be done then by arguing and comparing other mens opinions with them The Authors whose opinions I mention I have read as I found them printed in my native Language except Des Cartes who being in Latine I had some few places translated to me out of his works and I must confess that since I have read the works of these learned men I understand the names and terms of Art a little better then
Infinite degrees of softness hardness thickness thinness heat and cold c. also Infinite degrees of Motion and so Infinite Creations Infinite Compositions Dissolutions Contractions Dilations Digestions Expulsions also Infinite degrees of Strength Knowledg Power c. Besides there is Infinite in Time which is properly named Eternal Now when I say that there is but one Infinite and that Infinite is the Onely Matter I mean infinite in bulk and quantity And this Onely matter because it is Infinite in bulk must of necessity be divisible into infinite Parts that is infinite in number not in bulk or quantity for though Infinite Parts in number make up one infinite in quantity yet they considered in themselves cannot be said Infinite because every Part is of a certain limited and circumscribed Figure Quantity and Proportion whereas Infinite hath no limits nor bounds besides it is against the nature of a single Part to be Infinite or else there would be no difference between the Part and the whole the nature of a Part requiring that it must be less then its whole but all what is less hath a determined quantity and so becomes finite Therefore it is no absurdity to say that an Infinite may have both Finite and Infinite Parts Finite in Quantity Infinite in Number But those that say if there were an Infinite Body that each of its Parts must of necessity be Infinite too are much mistaken for it is a contradiction in the same Terms to say One Infinite Part for the very Name of a Part includes a Finiteness but take all parts of an Infinite Body together then you may rightly say they are infinite Nay Reason will inform you plainly for example Imagine an Infinite number of grains of Corn in one heap surely if the number of Grains be Infinite you must grant of necessity the bulk or body which contains this infinite number of grains to be Infinite too to wit Infinite in quantity and yet you will find each Grain in it self to be Finite But you will say an Infinite Body cannot have parts for if it be Infinite it must be Infinite in Quantity and therefore of one bulk and one continued quantity but Infinite parts in number make a discrete quantity I answer it is all one for a Body of a continued quantity may be divided and severed into fo many Parts either actually or mentally in our Conceptions or thoughts besides nature is one continued Body for there is no such Vacuum in Nature as if her Parts did hang together like a linked Chain nor can any of her Parts subsist single and by it self but all the Parts of Infinite Nature although they are in one continued Piece yet are they several and discerned from each other by their several Figures And by this I hope you will understand my meaning when I say that several Infinites may be included or comprehended in one Infinite for by the one Infinite I understand Infinite in Quantity which includes Infinite in Number that is Infinite Parts then Infinite in Quality as Infinite degrees of Rarity Density Swiftness Slowness Hardness Softness c. Infinite degrees of Motions Infinite Creations Dissolutions Contractions Dilations Alterations c. Infinite degres of Wisdom Strength Power c. and lastly Infinite in Time or Duration which is Eternity for Infinite and Eternal are inseparable All which Infinites are contained in the Onely Matter as many Letters are contained in one Word many Words in one Line many Lines in one Book But you will say perhaps if I attribute an Infinite Wisdom Strength Power Knowledge c. to Nature then Nature is in all coequal with God for God has the same Attributes I answer Not at all for I desire you to understand me rightly when I speak of Infinite Nature and when I speak of the Infinite Deity sor there is great difference between them for it is one thing a Deitical or Divine Infinite and another a Natural Infinite You know that God is a Spirit and not a bodily substance again that Nature is a Body and not a Spirit and therefore none of these Infinites can obstruct or hinder each other as being different in their kinds for a Spirit being no Body requires no place Place being an attribute which onely belongs to a Body and therefore when I call Nature Infinite I mean an Infinite extension of Body containing an Infinite number of Parts but what doth an Infinite extension of Body hinder the Infiniteness of God as an Immaterial Spiritual being Next when I do attribute an Infinite Power Wisdom Knowledge c. to Nature I do not understand a Divine but a Natural Infinite Wisdom and Power that is such as properly belongs to Nature and not a supernatural as is in god For Nature having Infinite parts of Infinite degrees must also have an Infinite natural wisdom to order her natural Infinite parts and actions and consequently an Infinite natural power to put her wisdom into act and so of the rest of her attributes which are all natural But Gods Attributes being supernatural transcend much these natural infinite attributes for God being the God of Nature has not onely Natures Infinite Wisdom and Power but besides a Supernatural and Incomprehensible Infinite Wisdom and Power which in no wayes do hinder each other but may very well subsist together Neither doth Gods Infinite Justice and his Infinite Mercy hinder each other for Gods Attributes though they be all several Infinites yet they make but one Infinite But you will say If Nature's Wisdom and Power extends no further then to natural things it is not Infinite but limited and restrained I answer That doth not take away the Infiniteness of Nature for there may be several kinds of Infinites as I related before and one may be as perfect an Infinite as the other in its kind For example Suppose a Line to be extended infinitely in length you will call this Line Infinite although it have not an Infinite breadth Also if an infinite length and breadth joyn together you will call it an Infinite Superficies although it wants an infinite depth and yet every Infinite in its kinde is a Perfect Infinite if I may call it so Why then shall not Nature also be said to have an Infinite Natural Wisdom and Power although she has not a Divine Wisdom and Power Can we say Man hath not a free Will because he hath not an absolute free Will as God hath Wherefore a Natural Infinite and the Infinite God may well stand together without any opposition or hinderance or without any detracting or derogating from the Omnipotency and Glory of God for God remains still the God of Nature and is an Infinite Immaterial Purity when as Nature is an Infinite Corporeal Substance and Immaterial and Material cannot obstruct each other And though an Infinite Corporeal cannot make an Infinite Immaterial yet an Infinite Immaterial can make an Infinite Corporeal by reason there is as much difference in the
that do not move to those perceptions so that no pressure can be made for all pressures are by some constraint and force wherefore according to my Opinion the Sensitive and Rational free Motions do pattern out each others object as Figure and Voice in each others Eye and Ear for Life and Knowledge which I name Rational and Sensitive Matter are in every Creature and in all parts of every Creature and make all perceptions in Nature because they are the self-moving parts of Nature and according as those Corporeal Rational and Sensitive Motions move such or such perceptions are made But these self-moving parts being of different degrees for the Rational matter is purer then the Sensitive it causes a double perception in all Creatures whereof one is made by the Rational corporeal motions and the other by the Sensitive and though both perceptions are in all the body and in every part of the body of a Creature yet the sensitive corporeal motions having their proper organs as Work-houses in which they work some sorts of perceptions those perceptions are most commonly made in those organs and are double again for the sensitive motions work either on the inside or on the outside of those organs on the inside in Dreams on the out-side awake and although both the Rational and the Sensitive matter are inseparably joyned and mixed together yet do they not always work together for oftentimes the Rational works without any sensitive paterns and the sensitive again without any rational paterns But mistake me not Madam for I do not absolutely confine the sensitive perception to the Organs nor the rational to the Brain but as they are both in the whole body so they may work in the whole body according to their own motions Neither do I say that there is no other perception in the Eye but sight in the Ear but hearing and so forth but the sensitive organs have other perceptions besides these and if the sensitive and rational motions be irregular in those parts between which the perception is made as for example in the two fore-mentioned men that see and hear each other then they both neither see nor hear each other perfectly and if one's motions be perfect but the other 's irregular and erroneous then one sees and hears better then the other or if the Sensitive and Rational motions move more regularly and make perfecter paterns in the Eye then in the Ear then they see better then they hear and if more regularly and perfectly in the Ear then in the Eye they hear better then they see And so it may be said of each man singly for one man may see the other better and more perfectly then the other may see him and this man may hear the other better and more perfectly then the other may hear him whereas if perception were made by pressure there would not be any such mistakes besides the hard pressure of objects in my opinion would rather annoy and obscure then inform But as soon as the object is removed the Perception of it made by the sensitive motions in the Organs ceaseth by reason the sensitive Motions cease from paterning but yet the Rational Motions do not always cease so suddenly because the sensitive corporeal Motions work with the Inanimate Matter and therefore cannot retain particular figures long whereas the Rational Matter doth onely move in its own substance and parts of matter and upon none other as my Book of Philosophical Opinions will inform you better And thus Perception in my opinion is not made by Pressure nor by Species nor by matter going either from the Organ to the Object or from the Object into the Organ By this it is also manifest that Understanding comes not from Exterior Objects or from the Exterior sensitive Organs for as Exterior Objects do not make Perception so they do neither make Understanding but it is the rational matter that doth it for Understanding may be without exterior objects and sensitive organs And this in short is the opinion of MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant V. MADAM YOur Authours opinion is that when a thing lies still unless somewhat else stir it it will lie still for ever but when a thing is in motion it will eternally be in motion unless somewhat else stay it the reason is saith he because nothing can change it self To tell you truly Madam I am not of his opinion for if Matter moveth it self as certainly it doth then the least part of Matter were it so small as to seem Individable will move it self T is true it could not desist from motion as being its nature to move and no thing can change its Nature for God himself who hath more power then self-moving Matter cannot change himself from being God but that Motion should proceed from another exterior Body joyning with or touching that body which it moves is in my opinion not probable for though Nature is all Corporeal and her actions are Corporeal Motions yet that doth not prove that the Motion of particular Creatures or Parts is caused by the joining touching or pressing of parts upon parts for it is not the several parts that make motion but motion makes them and yet Motion is not the cause of Matter but Matter is the cause of Motion for Matter might subsist without Motion but not Motion without Matter onely there could be no perception without Motion nor no Variety if Matter were not self-moving but Matter if it were all Inanimate and void of Motion would lie as a dull dead and senseless heap But that all Motion comes by joining or pressing of other parts I deny for if sensitive and rational perceptions which are sensitive and rational motions in the body and in the mind were made by the pressure of outward objects pressing the sensitive organs and so the brain or interior parts of the Body they would cause such dents and holes therein as to make them sore and patched in a short time Besides what was represented in this manner would always remain or at least not so soon be dissolved and then those pressures would make a strange and horrid confusion of Figures for not any figure would be distinct Wherefore my opinion is that the sensitive and rational Matter doth make or pattern out the figures of several Objects and doth dissolve them in a moment of time as for example when the eye seeth the object first of a Man then of a Horse then of another Creature the sensitive motions in the eye move first into the figure of the Man then straight into the figure of the Horse so that the Mans figure is dissolved and altered into the figure of the Horse and so forth but if the eye sees many figures at once then so many several figures are made by the sensitive Corporeal Motions and as many by the Rational Motions which are Sight and Memory at once But in sleep both the sensitive and rational Motions make
Animal-kind and reason in Man-kind for can any one think or believe that Nature is ignorant and dead in all her other parts besides Animals Truly this is a very unreasonable opinion for no man as wise as he thinks himself nay were all Man-kind joyned into one body yet they are not able to know it unless there were no variety of parts in nature but onely one whole and individeable body for other Creatures may know and perceive as much as Animals although they have not the same Sensitive Organs nor the same manmer or way of Perception Next your Author says The cause of Sense or Perception consists herein that the first organ of sense is touched and pressed For when the uttermost part of the organ is pressed it no sooner yields but the part next within it is pressed also and in this manner the pressure or motion is propagated through all the parts of the organ to the innermost And thus also the pressure of the uttermost part proceeds from the pressure of some more remote body and so continually till we come to that from which as from its fountain we derive the Phantasme or Idea that is made in us by our sense And this whatsoever it be is that we commonly call the object Sense therefore is some Internal motion in the Sentient Generated by some Internal motion of the Parts of the object and propagated through all the media to the innermost part of the organ Moreover there being a resistance or reaction in the organ by reason of its internal motion against the motion propagated from the object there is also an endeavour in the organ opposite to the endeavour proceeding from the object and when that endeavour inwards is the last action in the act of sense then from the reaction a Phantasme or Idea has its being This is your Authors opinion which if it were so perception could not be effected so suddenly nay I think the sentient by so many pressures in so many perceptions would at last be pressed to death besides the organs would take a great deal of hurt nay totally be removed out of their places so as the eye would in time be prest into the centre of the brain And if there were any Resistance Reaction or Indeavour in the organ opposite to the Endeavour of the object there would in my opinion be always a war between the animal senses and the objects the endeavour of the objects pressing one way and the senses pressing the other way and if equal in their strengths they would make a stop and the sensitive organs would be very much pained Truly Madam in my opinion it would be like that Custom which formerly hath been used at Newcastle when a man was married the guests divided themselves behind and before the Bridegroom the one party driving him back the other forwards so that one time a Bridegroom was killed in this fashion But certainly Nature hath a more quick and easie way of giving intelligence and knowledg to her Creatures and doth not use such constraint and force in her actions Neither is sense or sensitive perception a meer Phantasme or Idea but a Corporeal action of the sensitive and rational matter and according to the variation of the objects or patterns and the sensitive and rational motions the perception also is various produced not by external pressure but by internal self-motion as I have declared heretofore and to prove that the sensitive and rational corporeal motions are the onely cause of perception I say if those motions in an animal move in another way and not to such perceptions then that animal can neither hear see taste smell nor touch although all his sensitive organs be perfect as is evident in a man falling into a swoon where all the time he is in a swoon the pressure of the objects is made without any effect Wherefore as the sensitive and rational corporeal motions make all that is in nature so likewise they make perception as being perception it self for all self-motion is perception but all perception is not animal perception or after an animal way and therefore sense cannot decay nor die but what is called a decay or death is nothing else but a change or alteration of those Motions But you will say Madam it may be that one body as an object leaves the print of its figure in the next adjoyning body until it comes to the organ of sense I answer that then sost bodies onely must be pressed and the object must be so hard as to make a print and as for rare parts of matter they are not able to retain a print without self-motion Wherefore it is not probable that the parts of air should receive a print and print the same again upon the adjoyning part until the last part of the air print it upon the eye and that the exterior parts of the organ should print upon the interior till it come to the centre of the Brain without self-motion Wherefore in my opinion Perception is not caused either by the printing of objects nor by pressures for pressures would make a general stop of all natural motions especially if there were any reaction or resistence of sense but according to my reason the sensitive and rational corporeal motions in one body pattern out the Figure of another body as of an exterior object which may be done easily without any pressure or reaction I will not say that there is no pressure or reaction in Nature but pressure and reaction doth not make perception for the sensitive and rational parts of matter make all perception and variety of motion being the most subtil parts of Nature as self-moving as also divideable and composeable and alterable in their figurative motions for this Perceptive matter can change its substance into any figure whatsoever in nature as being not bound to one constant figure But having treated hereof before and being to say more of it hereaster this shall suffice for the present remaining always MADAM Your constant Friend and faithful Servant XIX MADAM TO discourse of the World and Stars is more then I am able to do wanting the art of Astronomy and Geometry wherefore passing by that Chapter of your Author I am come to that wherein he treats of Light Heat and Colours and to give you my opinion of Light I say it is not the light of the Sun that makes an Animal see for we can see inwardly in Dreams without the Suns light but it is the sensitive and rational Motions in the Eye and Brain that make such a figure as Light For if Light did press upon the Eye according to your Authors opinion it might put the Eye into as much pain as Fire doth when it sticks its points into our skin or flesh The same may be said of Colours for the sensitive motions make such a figure which is such a Colour and such a Figure which is such a Colour Wherefore Light Heat and Colour
Ear which is the first organ of hearing is strucken and the drum being stricken the Pia Mater is also shaken and with it the arteries inserted into it by which the action propagated to the heart it self by the reaction of the heart a Phantasme is made which we call Sound Thus far your Author To which give me leave to reply that I fear if the Ear was bound to hear any loud Musick or another sound a good while it would soundly be beaten and grow sore and bruised with so many strokes but since a pleasant sound would be rendred very unpleasant in this manner my opinion is that like as in the Eye so in the Ear the corporeal sensitive motions do pattern out as many several figures as sounds are presented to them but if these motions be irregular then the figure of the sound in the ear is not perfect according to the original for if it be that the motions are tyred with figuring or the object of sound be too far distant from the sensitive organ then they move slowly and weakly not that they are tyred or weak in strength but with working and repeating one and the same object and so through love to variety change from working regularly to move irregularly so as not to pattern outward objects as they ought and then there are no such patterns made at all which we call to be deaf and sometimes the sensitive motions do not so readily perceive a soft sound near as a stronger farther off But to prove it is not the outward object of sound with its striking or pressing motion nor the medium that causes this perception of sense if there be a great solid body as a wall or any other partition betwixt two rooms parting the object and the sensitive organ so as the sound is not able to press it nevertheless the perception will be made And as for pipes to convey sounds the perception is more fixt and perfecter in united then in dilated or extended bodies and then the sensitive motions can make perfecter patterns for the stronger the objects are the more perfect are the figures and patterns of the objects and the more perfect is the perception But when the sound is quite out of the ear then the sensitive motions have altered the patterning of such figures to some other action and when the sound fadeth by degrees then the figure or pattern alters by degrees but for the most part the sensitive corporeal motions alter according as the objects are presented or the perception patterns out Neither do they usually make figures of outward objects if not perceived by the senses unless through Irregularities as in Mad men which see such and such things when as these things are not neer and then the sensitive motions work by rote or after their own voluntary invention As for Reflexion it is a double perception and so a double figure of one object like as many pictures of one man where some are more perfect then others for a copy of a copy is not so perfect as a copy of an original But the recoyling of sound is that the sensitive motions in the ear begin a new pattern before they dissolved the former so as there is no perfect alteration or change from making to dissolving but pattern is made upon pattern which causes a confusion of figures the one being neither perfectly finished nor the other perfectly made But it is to be observed that not always the sensitive motions in the organs take their pattern from the original but from copies as for example the sensitive motions in the eye pattern out the figure of an eye in a glass and so do not take a pattern from the original it self but by an other pattern representing the figure of the eye in a Looking-glass The same doth the Ear by patterning out Ecchoes which is but a pattern of a pattern But when as a man hears himself speak or make a sound then the corporeal sensitive motions in the Ear pattern out the object or figure made by the motions of the tongue and the throat which is voice By which we may observe that there may be many figures made by several motions from one original as for example the figure of a word is made in a mans mouth then the copy of that figure is made in the ear then in the brain and then in the memory and all this in one Man Also a word being made in a mans mouth the air takes a copy or many copies thereof but the Ear patterns them both out first the original coming from the mouth and then the copy made in the air which is called an Eccho and yet not any strikes or touches each others parts onely perceives and patterns out each others figure Neither are their substances the same although the figures be alike for the figure of a man may be carved in wood then cut in brass then in stone and so forth where the figure may be always the same although the substances which do pattern out the figure are several viz. Wood Brass Stone c. and so likewise may the figure of a stone be figured in the fleshy substance of the Eye or the figure of light or colour and yet the substance of the Eye remains still the same neither doth the substantial figure of a stone or tree patterned out by the sensitive corporeal motions in the flesh of an animal eye change from being a vegetable or mineral to an animal and if this cannot be done by nature much less by art for if the figure of an animal be carved in wood or stone it doth not give the wood or stone any animal knowledg nor an animal substance as flesh bones blood c. no more doth the patterning or figuring of a Tree give a vegetable knowledg or the substance of wood to the eye for the figure of an outward object doth not alter the substance that patterns it out or figures it but the patterning substance doth pattern out the figure in it self or in its own substance so as the figure which is pattern'd hath the same life and knowledg with the substance by and in which it is figured or pattern'd and the inherent motions of the same substance and according as the sensitive and rational self-moving matter moves so figures are made and thus we see that lives knowledges motions and figures are all material and all Creatures are indued with life knowledg motion and figure but not all alike or after the same manner But to conclude this discourse of perception of Sound the Ear may take the object of sound afar off as well as at a near distance not onely if many figures of the same sound be made from that great distance but if the interposing parts be not so thick close or many as to hinder or obscure the object from the animal Perception in the sensitive organ for if a man lays his Ear near to the Ground the Ear may hear
print another body I answer if any thing could print yet it is not probable that so soft and rare bodies as light and air could print such solid bodies as glass nor could air by reverberation make such a sound as Eccho But mistake me not for I do not say that the Corporeal motions of light or air cannot or do not pencil copie or pattern out any figure for both light and air are very active in such sorts of Motions but I say they cannot do it on any other bodies but their own But to cut off tedious and unnecessary disputes I return to the expressing of my own opinion and believe that the glass in its own substance doth figure out the copy of the face or the like and from that copy the sensitive motions in the eyes take another copy and so the rational from the sensitive and in this manner is made both rational and sensitive perception sight and knowledg The same with Ecchoes for the air patterns out the copy of the sound and then the sensitive corporeal motions in the ear pattern again this copy from the air and so do make the perception and sense of hearing You may ask me Madam if it be so that the glass and the air copy out the figure of the face and of sound whether the Glass may be said to see and the Air to speak I answer I cannot tell that for though I say that the air repeats the words and the glass represents the face yet I cannot guess what their perceptions are onely this I may say that the air hath an elemental and the glass a mineral but not an animal perception But if these figures were made by the pressures of several objects or parts and by reaction there could not be such variety as there is for they could but act by one sort of motion Likewise is it improbable that sounds words or voices should like a company of Wild-Geese fly in the air and so enter into the ears of the hearers as they into their nests Neither can I conceive how in this manner a word can enter so many ears that is be divided into every ear and yet strike every ear with an undivided vocal sound You will say as a small fire doth heat and warm all those that stand by for the heat issues from the fire as the light from the Sun I answer all what issues and hath motion hath a Body and yet most learned men deny that sound light and heat have bodies But if they grand of light that it has a body they say it moves and presses the air and the air the eye and so of heat which if so then the air must not move to any other motion but light and onely to one sort of light as the Suns light for if it did move in any other motion it would disturb the light for if a Bird did but fly in the air it would give all the region of air another motion and so put out or alter the light or at least disturb it and wind would make a great disturbance in it Besides if one body did give another body motion it must needs give it also substance for motion is either something or nothing body or no body substance or no substance if nothing it cannot enter into another body if something it must lessen the bulk of the body it quits and increase the bulk of the body it enters and so the Sun and Fire with giving light and heat would become less for they cannot both give and keep at once for this is as impossible as for a man to give to another creature his human Nature and yet to keep it still Wherefore my opinion is for heat that when many men stand round about a fire and are heated and warmed by it the fire doth not give them any thing nor do they receive something from the fire but the sensitive motions in their bodies pattern out the object of the fires heat and so they become more or less hot according as their patterns are numerous or perfect And as for air it patterns out the light of the Sun and the sensitive motions in the eyes of animals pattern out the light in the air The like for Ecchoes or any other sound and for the figures which are presented in a Looking-glass And thus millions of parts or creatures may make patterns of one or more objects and the objects neither give nor loose any thing And this I repeat here that my meaning of Perception may be the better understood which is the desire of MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXV MADAM I Perceive you are not fully satisfied with my former Letter concerning Eccho and a figure presented in a Looking-glass for you say how is it possible if Eccho consists in the ears patterning out of a voice or sound but that it will make a confusion in all the parts of the air My answer is that I doe not say that Eccho is onely made by the patterning out of the voice or sound but by repeating the same voice or sound which repetition is named an Eccho for millions of ears in animals may pattern out a voice or words and yet never repeat them and so may millions of parts of the air wherefore Eccho doth not consist in the bare patterning out but in the repetition of the same sound or words which are pattern'd out and so some parts of the air may at one and the same time pattern out a sound and not repeat it and some may both pattern out and repeat it but some may neither pattern out nor repeat it and therefore the Repetition not the bare Patterning out is called Eccho Just as when two or more men do answer or mock each other and repeat each others words it is not necessary if there were a thousand standers by that they should all do the same And as for the figure presented in a Looking-glass I cannot conceive it to be made by pressure and reaction for although there is both pressure and reaction in nature and those very frequent amongst natures Parts yet they do neither make perception nor production although both pressure and reaction are made by corporeal self-motions Wherefore the figure presented in a Looking-glass or any other smooth glassie body is in my opinion onely made by the motions of the Looking-glass which do both pattern out and present the figure of an external object in the Glass But you will say why do not the motions of other bodies pattern out and present the figures of external objects as well as smooth glassie bodies do I answer they may pattern out external objects for any thing I know but the reason that their figures are not presented to our eyes lies partly in the presenting subject it self partly in our sight for it is observed that two things are chiefly required in a subject that will present the figure of an external object first it must be smooth even
corporeal optick motions may work by rote without objects but that is irregular as in some distempers And thus Madam I have given you my opinion also to this your question if you have any more scruples I pray let me know of them and assure your self that I shall be ready upon all occasions to express my self MADAM Your humble and faithful Servant XXVII MADAM YOur desire is to know why sound is louder in a Vault and in a large Room then in a less I answer A Vault or arched Figure is the freest from obstruction as being without corners and points so as the sensitive and rational corporeal motions of the Ear can have a better perception like as the Eye can see farthest from a hill then being upon a level ground because the prospect is freer from the hill as without obstruction unless it be so cloudy that the clouds do hinder the perception And as the eye can have a better prospect upon a hill so the ear a stronger perception in a Vault And as for sound that it is better perceived in a large then in a little close room or place it is somewhat like the perception of sent for the more the odorous parts are bruised the stronger is that perception of sent as being repeated double or treble which makes the perception stronger like as a thick body is stronger then a thin one So likewise the perception of sound in the air for though not all the parts of the air make repetitions yet some or many make patterns of the sound the truth is Air is as industrious to divulge or present a found by patterns to the Ear as light doth objects to the Eye But then you may ask me Why a long hollow pipe doth convey a voice to the ear more readily then any large and open place My answer is That the Parts of the air in a long pipe are more Composed and not at liberty to wander so that upon necessity they must move onely to the patterning out of the sound having no choice which makes the sound much stronger and the perception of the Ear perfecter But as for Pipes Vaults Prospects as also figures presented in a room through a little hole inverted and many the like belongs more to Artists then to my study for though Natural Philosophy gives or points out the Ground and shews the reason yet it is the Artist that Works Besides it is more proper for Mathematicians to discourse of which study I am not versed in and so leaving it to them I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXVIII MADAM FRom Sound I am come to Sent in the discourse whereof your Author is pleased to set down these following propositions 1. That smelling is hindred by cold and helped by heat 2. That when the Wind bloweth from the object the smell is the stronger and when it blowes from the sentient towards the obiect the weaker which by experience is found in dogs that follow thetrack of beasts by the Sent 3. That such bodies as are last pervious to the fluid medium yield less smell then such as are more pervious 4. That such bodies as are of their own nature odorous become yet more odorous when they are bruised 5. That when the breath is stopped at least in man nothing can be smelt 6. That the Sense of smelling is also taken away by the stopping of the Nostrils though the mouth be left open To begin from the last I say that the nose is like the other sensitive organs which if they be stopt the corporeal sensitive motions cannot take copies of the exterior objects and therefore must alter their action of patterning to some other for when the eye is shut and cannot perceive outward objects then it works to the Sense of Touch or on the inside of the organ to some phantasmes and so do the rest of the Senses As for the stopping of breath why it hinders the Sent the cause is that the nostrils and the mouth are the chief organs to receive air and to let out breath but though they be common passages for air and breath yet taste is onely made in the mouth and tongue and sent in the nose not by the pressure of meat and the odoriferous object but by patterning out the several figures or objects of sent and taste for the nose and the mouth will smell and taste one nay several things at the same time like as the eye will see light colour and other objects at once which I think can hardly be done by pressures and the reason is that the sensitive motions in the sensitive organs make patterns of several objects at one time which is the cause that when flowers and such like odoriferous bodies are bruised there are as many figures made as there are parts bruised or divided and by reason of so many figures the sensitive knowledg is stronger but that stones minerals and the like seem not so strong to our smell the reason is that their parts being close and united the sensitive motions in the organ cannot so readily perceive and pattern them out as those bodies which are more porous and divided But as for the wind blowing the sent either to or from the sentient it is like a window or door that by the motion of opening and shutting hinders or disturbeth the sight for bodies coming between the object and the organ make a stop of that perception And as for the Dogs smelling out the track of Beasts the cause is that the earth or ground hath taken a copy of that sent which copy the sensitive motions in the nose of the Dog do pattern out and so long as that figure or copy lasts the Dog perceives the sent but if he doth not follow or hunt readily then there is either no perfect copy made by the ground or otherwise he cannot find it which causes him to seek and smell about until he hath it and thus smell is not made by the motion of the air but by the figuring motions in the nose Where it is also to be observed that not onely the motions in one but in millions of noses may pattern out one little object at one time and therefore it is not that the object of sent fills a room by sending out the sent from its substance but that so many figures are made of that object of sent by so many several sensitive motions which pattern the same out and so the air or ground or any other creature whose sensitive motions pattern out the object of sent may perceive the same although their sensitive organs are not like to those of animal creatures for if there be but such sensitive motions and perceptions it is no matter for such organs Lastly it is to be observed That all Creatures have not the same strength of smelling but some smell stronger some weaker according to the disposition of their sensitive motions Also there be other parts in the body which pattern
as afore-mentioned are all one thing and then all bodies that receive motion from other bodies must needs increase in their substance and quantity and those bodies which impart or transferr motion must decrease as much as they increase Truly Madam that neither Motion nor Figure should subsist by themselves and yet be transferrable into other bodies is very strange and as much as to prove them to be nothing and yet to say they are something The like may be said of all others which they call accidents as skill learning knowledge c. saying they are no bodies because they have no extension but inherent in bodies or substances as in their subjects for although the body may subsist without them yet they being always with the body body and they are all one thing And so is power and body for body cannot quit power nor power the body being all one thing But to return to Motion my opinion is That all matter is partly animate and partly inanimate and all matter is moving and moved and that there is no part of Nature that hath not life and knowledg for there is no Part that has not a comixture of animate and inanimate matter and though the inanimate matter has no motion nor life and knowledg of it self as the animate has nevertheless being both so closely joyned and commixed as in one body the inanimate moves as well as the animate although not in the same manner for the animate moves of it self and the inanimate moves by the help of the animate and thus the animate is moving and the inanimate moved not that the animate matter transfers infuses or communicates its own motion to the inanimate for this is impossible by reason it cannot part with its own nature nor alter the nature of inanimate matter but each retains its own nature for the inanimate matter remains inanimate that is without self-motion and the animate loses nothing of its self-motion which otherwise it would if it should impart or transferr its motion into the inanimate matter but onely as I said heretofore the inanimate works or moves with the animate because of their close union and commixture for the animate forces or causes the inanimate matter to work with her and thus one is moving the other moved and consequently there is life and knowledg in all parts of nature by reason in all parts of nature there is a commixture of animate and inanimate matter and this Life and Knowledg is sense and reason or sensitive and rational corporeal motions which are all one thing with animate matter without any distinction or abstraction and can no more quit matter then matter can quit motion Wherefore every creature being composed of this commixture of animate and inanimate matter has also selfe-motion that is life and knowledg sense and reason so that no part hath need to give or receive motion to or from another part although it may be an occasion of such a manner of motion to another part and cause it to move thus or thus as for example A Watch-maker doth not give the watch its motion but he is onely the occasion that the watch moves after that manner for the motion of the watch is the watches own motion inherent in those parts ever since that matter was and if the watch ceases to move after such a manner or way that manner or way of motion is never the less in those parts of matter the watch is made of and if several other figures should be made of that matter the power of moving in the said manner or mode would yet still remain in all those parts of matter as long as they are body and have motion in them Wherefore one body may occasion another body to move so or so but not give it any motion but everybody though occasioned by another to move in such a way moves by its own natural motion for self-motion is the very nature of animate matter and is as much in hard as in fluid bodies although your Author denies it saying The nature of fluid bodies consists in the motion of those little insensible parts into which they are divided and the nature of bard bodies when those little particles joyned closely together do rest for there is no rest in nature wherefore if there were a World of Gold and a World of Air I do verily believe that the World of Gold would be as much interiously active as the World of Air exteriously for Natures motions are not all external or perceptible by our senses neither are they all circular or onely of one sort but there is an infinite change and variety of motions for though I say in my Philosophical opinions As there is but one onely Matter so there is but one onely Motion yet I do not mean there is but one particular sort of motions as either circular or straight or the like but that the nature of motion is one and the same simple and intire in it self that is it is meer motion or nothing else but corporeal motion and that as there are infinite divisions or parts of matter so there are infinite changes and varieties of motions which is the reason that I call motion as well infinite as matter first that matter and motion are but one thing and if matter be infinite motion must be so too and secondly that motion is infinite in its changes and variations as matter is in its parts And thus much of motion for this time I add no more but rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXXI MADAM I Observe your Author in his discourse of Place makes a difference betwixt an Interior and Exterior place and that according to this distinction one body may be said to change and not to change its place at the same time and that one body may succeed into anothers place But I am not of this opinion for I believe not that there is any more place then body as for example Water being mix'd with Earth the water doth not take the Earths place but as their parts intermix so do their places and as their parts change so do their places so that there is no more place then there is water and earth the same may be said of Air and Water or Air and Earth or did they all mix together for as their bodies join so do their places and as they are separated from each other so are their places Say a man travels a hundred miles and so a hundred thousand paces but yet this man has not been in a hundred thousand places for he never had any other place but his own he hath joined and separated himselfe from a hundred thousand nay millions of parts but he has left no places behind him You will say if he travel the same way back again then he is said to travel thorow the same places I answer It may be the vulgar way of expression or the common phrase but to speak properly
impression of exterior objects there would be so much difference betwixt them by reason of the diversity of objects as they would have no resemblance at all But for a further proof of my own opinion did the perception proceed meerly from the motion impression and resistance of the objects the hand could not perceive those objects unless they touched the hand it self as the stick doth for it is not probable that the motions of the stone water sand c. should leave their bodies and enter into the stick and so into the hand for motion must be either something or nothing if something the stick and the hand would grow bigger and the objects touched less or else the touching and the touched must exchange their motions which cannot be done so suddenly especially between solid bodies But if motion has no body it is nothing and how nothing can pass or enter or move some body I cannot conceive T is true there is no part that can subsist singly by it self without dependance upon each other and so parts do always joyn and touch each other which I am not against but onely I say perception is not made by the exterior motions of exterior parts of objects but by the interior motions of the parts of the body sentient But I have discoursed hereof before and so I take my leave resting MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXXVIII MADAM ICannot conceive why your Author is so much for little and insensible parts out of which the Elements and all other bodies are made for though Nature is divideable yet she is also composeable and I think there is no need to dissect every creature into such little parts to know their nature but we can do it by another way as well for we may dissect or divide them into never so little parts and yet gain never the more knowledg by it But according to these principles he describing amongst the rest the nature of Water says That those little parts out of which Water consists are in figure somewhat long light and slippery like little Eeles which are never so closely joyned and entangled but may easily be separated To which I answer That I observe the nature and figure of water to be flowing dilating divideable and circular for we may see in Tides overflowings and breaking into parts as in rain it will always move in a round and circular figure And I think if its parts were long and entangled like a knot of Eeles it could never be so easily contracted and denced into snow or ice Neither do I think That Salt-water hath a mixture of somewhat grosser parts not so apt to bend for to my observation and reason the nature of salt-water consists herein that its circle-lines are pointed which sharp and pointed figure makes it so penetrating yet may those points be separated from the circle lines of water as it is seen in the making of Salt But I am not of your Authors opinion That those little points do stick so fast in flesh as little nails to keep it from putrefaction for points do not always fasten or else fire which certainly is composed of sharp-pointed parts would harden and keep other bodies from dissolving whereas on the contrary it separates and divides them although after several manners But Putrefaction is onely a dissolving and separating of parts after the manner of dilation and the motion of salt is contracting as well as penetrating for we may observe what flesh soever is dry-salted doth shrink and contract close together I will not say but the pointed parts of salt may fasten like nayls in some sorts of bodies but not in all they work on And this is the reason also that Sea-water is of more weight then fresh-water for being composed of points those points stick within each other and so become more strong But yet do they not hinder the circular dilating motion of water for the circle-lines are within and the points without but onely they make it more strong from being divided by other exterior bodies that swim upon it And this is the cause that Salt-water is not so easily forced or turned to vapour as Fresh for the points piercing into each other hold it more strongly together but this is to be considered that the points of salt are on the outside of the watry Circle not on the inside which causes it to be divideable from the watry Circles I will conclude when I have given the reason why water is so soon suckt up by sand lime and the like bodies and say that it is the nature of all spongy dry and porous bodies meeting with liquid and pliable bodies as water do draw and suck them up like as animal Creatures being thirsty do drink And so I take my leave and rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXXIX MADAM COncerning Vapour Clouds Wind and Rain I am of your Authors opinion That Water is changed into Vapour and Vapour into Air and that dilated Vapours make Wind and condensed Vapours Clouds and Mists But I am not for his little particles whereof he says Vapours are made by the motion of a rare and subtil matter in the pores of terrestrial bodies which certainly I should conceive to be loose atoms did he not make them of several figures and magnitude for in my opinion there are no such things in nature which like little Flyes or Bees do fly up into the air and although I grant that in Nature are several parts whereof some are more rare others more dense according to the several degrees of matter yet they are not single but all mixt together in one body and the change of motions in those joyned parts is the cause of all changes of figures whatever without the assistance of any forreign parts And thus Water of it self is changed to Snow Ice or Hail by its inherent figurative Motions that is the circular dilation of Water by contraction changes into the figure of Snow Ice or Hail or by rarifying motions it turns into the figure of Vapour and this Vapour again by contracting motions into the figure of hoar-frost and when all these motions change again into the former then the figure of Ice Snow Hail Vapour and Frost turns again into the figure of Water And this in all sense and reason is the most facil and probable way of making Ice Snow Hail c. As for rarefaction and condensation I will not say that they may be forced by forreign parts but yet they are made by change and alteration of the inherent motions of their own parts for though the motions of forreign parts may be the occasion of them yet they are not the immediate cause or actors thereof And as for Thunder that clouds of Ice and Snow the uppermost being condensed by heat and so made heavy should fall upon another and produce the noise of thunder is very improbable for the breaking of a little small string will make
have an Idea of God yet your Author is pleased to say That he will not stick to affirm that the Idea or notion of God is as easie as any notion else whatsoever and that we may know as much of him as of any thing else in the world To which I answer That in my opinion God is not so easily to be known by any creature as man may know himself nor his attributes so well as man can know his own natural proprieties for Gods Infinite attributes are not conceivable and cannot be comprehended by a finite knowledg and understanding as a finite part of nature for though nature's parts may be Infinite in number and as they have a relation to the Infinite whole if I may call it so which is Infinite nature yet no part is infinite in it self and therefore it cannot know so much as whole nature and God being an Infinite Deity there is required an Infinite capacity to conceive him nay Nature her self although Infinite yet cannot posibly have an exact notion of God by reason of the disparity between God and her self and therefore it is not probable if the Infinite servant of God is not able to conceive him that a finite part or creature of nature of what kind or sort soever whether Spiritual as your Author is pleased to name it or Corporeal should comprehend God Concerning my belief of God I submit wholly to the Church and believe as I have bin informed out of the Athanasian Creed that the Father is Incomprehensible the Sonne Incomprehensible and the Holy Ghost Incomprehensible and that there are not three but one Incomprehensible God Wherefore if any man can prove as I do verily believe he cannot that God is not Incomprehensible he must of necessity be more knowing then the whole Church however he must needs dissent from the Church But perchance your Author may say I raise new and prejudicial opinions in saying that matter is eternal I answer The Holy Writ doth not mention Matter to be created but onely Particular Creatures as this Visible World with all its Parts as the history or description of the Creation of the World in Genesis plainly shews For God said Let it it be Light and there was Light Let there be a Firmament in the midst of the Waters and let it divide the Waters from the Waters and Let the Waters under the Heaven be gathered together unto one place and let the dry Land appear and let the Earth bring forth Grass the Herb yielding Seed and the Fruit-tree yielding Fruit after his kind and let there be Lights in the Firmament of the Heaven to divide the Day from the Night c. Which proves that all creatures and figures were made and produced out of that rude and desolate heap or chaos which the Scripture mentions which is nothing else but matter by the powerful Word and Command of God executed by his Eternal Servant Nature as I have heretofore declared it in a Letter I sent you in the beginning concerning Infinite Nature But least I seem to encroach too much upon Divinity I submit this Interpretation to the Church However I think it not against the ground of our Faith for I am so far from maintaining any thing either against Church or State as I am submitting to both in all duty and shall do so as long as I live and rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant IV. MADAM SInce your Worthy and Learned Author is pleased to mention That an ample experience both of Men and Things doth enlarge our Understanding I have taken occasion hence to enquire how a mans Understanding may be encreased or inlarged The Understanding must either be in Parts or it must be Individable as one if in Parts then there must be so many Understandings as there are things understood but if Individable and but one Understanding then it must dilate it self upon so many several objects I for my part assent to the first That Understanding increases by Parts and not by Dilation which Dilation must needs follow if the Mind or Understanding of man be Indivisible and without parts but if the Mind or Soul be Individable then I would fain know how Understanding Imagination Conception Memory Remembrance and the like can be in the mind You will say perhaps they are so many faculties or properties of the Incorporeal Mind but I hope you do not intend to make the Mind or Soul a Deity with so many attributes Wherefore in my opinion it is safer to say That the Mind is composed of several active Parts but of these Parts I have treated in my Philosophy where you will find that all the several Parts of Nature are Living and Knowing and that there is no part that has not Life and Knowledg being all composed of rational and sensitive matter which is the life and soul of Nature and that Nature being Material is composable and dividable which is the cause of so many several Creatures where every Creature is a part of Nature and these Infinite parts or creatures are Nature her self for though Nature is a self-moving substance and by self-motion divides and composes her self several manners or ways into several forms and figures yet being a knowing as well as a living substance she knows how to order her parts and actions wisely for as she hath an Infinite body or substance so she has an Infinite life and knowledg and as she hath an Infinite life and knowledg so she hath an infinite wisdom But mistake me not Madam I do not mean an Infinite Divine Wisdom but an Infinite Natural Wisdom given her by the Infinite bounty of the Omnipotent God but yet this Infinite Wisdom Life and Knowledg in Nature make but one Infinite And as Nature hath degrees of matter so she has also degrees and variety of corporeal motions for some parts of matter are self-moving and some are moved by these self-moving parts of matter and all these parts both the moving and moved are so intermixed that none is without the other no not in any the least Creature or part of Nature we can conceive for there is no Creature or part of Nature but has a comixture of those mentioned parts of animate and inanimate matter and all the motions are so ordered by Natures wisdom as not any thing in Nature can be otherwise unless by a Supernatural Command and Power of God for no part of corporeal matter and motion can either perish or but rest one part may cause another part to alter its motions but not to quit motion no more then one part of matter can annihilate or destroy another and therefore matter is not meerly Passive but always Active by reason of the thorow mixture of animate and inanimate matter for although the animate matter is onely active in its nature and the inanimate passive yet because they are so closely united and mixed together that they make but one body the parts of the animate
and Servant VII MADAM YOur Author being very earnest in arguing against those that maintain the opinion of Matter being self-moving amongst the rest of his arguments brings in this Suppose says he Matter could move it self would meer Matter with self-motion amount to that admirable wise contrivance of things which we see in the World All the evasion I can imagine our adversaries may use here will be this That Matter is capable of sense and the finest and most subtil of the most refined sense and consequently of Imagination too yea happily of Reason and Understanding I answer it is very probable that not onely all the Matter in the World or Universe hath Sense but also Reason and that the sensitive part of matter is the builder and the rational the designer whereof I have spoken of before and you may find more of it in my Book of Philosophy But says your Author Let us see if all their heads laid together can contrive the anatomical Fabrick of any Creature that liveth I answer all parts of Nature are not bound to have heads or tayls but if they have surely they are wiser then many a man's I demand says he Has every one of these Particles that must have a hand in the framing of the body of an animal the whole design of the work by the Impress of some Phantasme upon it or as they have several offices so have they several parts of the design I answer All the actions of self-moving Matter are not Impresses nor is every part a hand-labourer but every part unites by degrees into such or such a Figure Again says he How is it conceiveable that any one Particle of Matter or many together there not existing yet in Nature an animal can have the Idea Impressed of that Creature they are to frame I answer all figures whatsoever have been are or can be in Nature are existent in nature How says he can they in framing several parts confer notes by what language or speech can they communicate their Counsels one to another I answer Knowledg doth not always require speech for speech is an effect and not a cause but knowledg is a cause and not an effect and nature hath infinite more ways to express knowledg then man can imagine Wherefore he concludes that they should mutually serve one another in such a design is more impossible then that so many men blind and dumb from their nativity should joyn their forces and wits together to build a Castle or carve a statue of such a Creature as none of them knew any more in several then some one of the smallest parts thereof but not the relation it bore to the whole I answer Nature is neither blind nor dumb nor any ways defective but infinitely wife and knowing for blindness and dumbness are but effects of some of her particular actions but there is no defect in self-moving matter nor in her actions in general and it is absurd to conceive the Generality of wisdom according to an Irregular effect or defect of a particular Creature for the General actions of Nature are both life and knowledg which are the architects of all Creatures and know better how to frame all kinds and sorts of Creatures then man can conceive and the several parts of Matter have a more easie way of communication then Mans head hath with his hand or his hand with pen ink and paper when he is going to write which later example will make you understand my opinion the better if you do but compare the rational part of Matter to the head the sensitive to the hand the inanimate to pen ink and paper their action to writing and their framed figures to those figures or letters which are written in all which is a mutual agreement without noise or trouble But give me leave Madam to tell you That self-moving Matter may sometimes erre and move irregularly and in some parts not move so strong curious or subtil at sometimes as in other parts for Nature delights in variety Nevertheless she is more wise then any Particular Creature or part can conceive which is the cause that Man thinks Nature's wise subtil and lively actions are as his own gross actions conceiving them to be constrained and turbulent not free and easie as well as wise and knowing Whereas Nature's Creating Generating and Producing actions are by an easie connexion of parts to parts without Counterbuffs Joggs and Jolts producing a particular figure by degrees and in order and method as humane sense and reason may well perceive And why may not the sensitive and rational part of Matter know better how to make a Bee then a Bee doth how to make Honey and Wax or have a better communication betwixt them then Bees that fly several ways meeting and joyning to make their Combes in their Hives But pardon Madam for I think it a Crime to compare the Creating Generating and producing Coporeal Life and Wisdom of Nature unto any particular Creature although every particular Creature hath their share being a part of Nature Wherefore those in my opinion do grosly err that bind up the sensitive matter onely to taste touch hearing seeing and smelling as if the sensitive parts of Nature had not more variety of actions then to make five senses for we may well observe in every Creature there is difference of sense and reason according to the several modes of self-motion For the Sun Stars Earth Air Fire Water Plants Animals Minerals although they have all sense and knowledg yet they have not all sense and knowledg alike because sense and knowledg moves not alike in every kind or sort of Creatures nay many times very different in one and the same Creature but yet this doth not cause a general Ignorance as to be altogether Insensible or Irrational neither do the erroneous and irregular actions of sense and reason prove an annihilation of sense and reason as for example a man may become Mad or a Fool through the irregular motions of sense and reason and yet have still the Perception of sense and reason onely the alteration is caused through the alteration of the sensitive and rational corporeal motions or actions from regular to irregular nevertheless he has Perceptions Thoughts Ideas Passions and whatsoever is made by sensitive and rational Matter neither can Perception be divided from Motion nor Motion from Matter for all sensation is Corporeal and so is Perception I can add no more but take my leave and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant VIII MADAM YOur Author is pleased to say that Matter is a Principle purely passive and no otherwise moved or modified then as some other thing moves and modifies it but cannot move it self at all which is most demonstrable to them that contend for sense and perception in it For if it had any such perception it would by vertue of its self-motion withdraw its self from under the knocks of hammers or fury of the
extend nor can the Idea it self dilate and contract being immaterial for contraction and dilation belong onely to bodies or material beings Wherefore the comparisons betwixt Nature and a particular Creature and between God and Nature are improper much more betwixt God and Natures particular motions and figures which are various and changeable although methodical The same I may ask of the Mind of Man as I do of the Idea in the Mind Also I might ask them what they conceive the natural mind of man to be whether material or immaterial If material their opinion is rational and so the mind is dividable and composable if immaterial then it is a Spirit and if a Spirit it cannot possibly dilate nor contract having no dimension nor divisibility of parts although your Author proves it by the example of Light but I have exprest my meaning heretofore that light is divisible and if it have no dimension how can it be confined in a material body Wherefore when your Author says the mind is a substance it is to my reason very probable but not when he says it is an immaterial substance which will never agree with my sense and reason for it must be either something or nothing there being no medium between in Nature But pray mistake me not Madam when I say Immaterial is nothing for I mean nothing Natural or so as to be a part of Nature for God forbid I should deny that God is a Spiritual Immaterial substance or Being neither do I deny that we can have an Idea notion conception or thought of the Existence of God for I am of your Authors opinion That there is no Man under the cope of Heaven that doth not by the light of Nature know and believe there is a God but that we should have such a perfect Idea of God as of any thing else in the World or as of our selves as your Author says I cannot in sense and reason conceive to be true or possible Neither am I against those Spirits which the holy Scripture mentions as Angels and Devils and the divine Soul of Man but I say onely that no Immaterial Spirit belongs to Nature so as to be a part thereof for Nature is Material or Corporeal and whatsoever is not composed of matter or body belongs not to Nature nevertheless Immaterial Spirits may be in Nature although not parts of Nature But there can neither be an Immaterial Nature nor a Natural Immaterial Nay our very thoughts and conceptions of Immaterial are Material as made of self-moving Matter Wherefore to conclude these opinions in Men proceed from a Vain-glory as to have found out something that is not in Nature to which I leave them and their natural Immaterial Substances like so many Hobgoblins to fright Children withal resting in the mean time MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XIX MADAM THere are various opinions concerning the seat of Common Sense as your Author rehearseth them in his Treatise of the Immortality of the Soul But my opinion is That common sense hath also a common place for as there is not any part of the body that hath not sense and reason so sense and reason is in all parts of the body as it is observable by this that every part is subject to pain and pleasure and all parts are moveable moving and moved also appetites are in every part of the body As for example if any part itches it hath an appetite to be scratched and every part can pattern out several objects and so several touches and though the rational part of matter is mixt in all parts of the body yet it hath more liberty to make variety of Motions in the head heart liver spleen stomack bowels and the like then in the other parts of the body nevertheless it is in every part together with the sensitive but they do not move in every part alike but differ in each part more or less as it may be observed and although every part hath some difference of knowledg yet all have life and knowledg sense and reason some more some less and the whole body moves according to each part and so do all the bodily Faculties and Proprieties and not according to one single part the rational Soul being in all parts of the body for if one part of the body should have a dead Palsie it is not that the Soul is gone from that part but that the sensitive and rational matter has altered its motion and figure from animal to some other kind for certainly the rational Soul and so life is in every part as well in the Pores of the skin as in the ventricles of the brain and as well in the heel as in the head and every part of the body knows its own office what it ought to do from whence follows an agreement of all the parts And since there is difference of knowledg in every part of one body well may there be difference between several kinds and sorts and yet there is knowledg in all for difference of knowledg is no argument to prove they have no knowledg at all Wherefore I am not of the opinion that that which moves the whole body is as a Point or some such thing in a little kernel or Glandula of the Brain as an Ostrich-egge is hung up to the roof of a Chamber or that it is in the stomack like a single penny in a great Purse neither is it in the midst of the heart like a Lady in a Lobster nor in the bloud like as a Menow or Sprat in the Sea nor in the fourth Ventricle of the Brain as a lousie Souldier in a Watch-tower But you may say it is like a farthing Candle in a great Church I answer That Light will not enlighten the by Chappels of the Church nor the Quest-house nor the Belfrey neither doth the Light move the Church though it enlightens it Wherefore the Soul after this manner doth not move the corporeal body no more then the Candle moves the Church or the Lady moves the Lobster or the Sprat the Sea as to make it ebb and flow But this I desire you to observe Madam that though all the body of man or any other Creature hath sense and reason which is life and knowledg in all parts yet these parts being all corporeal and having their certain proportions can have no more then what is belonging or proportionable to each figure As for example if a Man should feed and not evacuate some ways or other he could not live and if he should evacuate and not feed he could not subsist wherefore in all Natures parts there is ingress and egress although not always perceived by one creature as Man but all exterior objects do not enter into Man or any other Creature but are figured by the rational and some by the sensitive parts or motions in the body wherefore it is not rational to believe that exterior objects take up any more room then if
there were none presented to the sensitive organs Nor is there any thing which can better prove the mind to be corporeal then that there may be several Figures in several parts of the body made at one time as Sight Hearing Tasting Smelling and Touching and all these in each several organ as well at one as at several times either by patterns or not which figuring without Pattern may be done as well by the sensitive motions in the organs as by the rational in the mind and is called remembrance As for example a Man may hear or see without an object which is that the sensitive and rational matter repeat such figurative actions or make others in the sensitive organs or in the mind and Thoughts Memory Imagination as also Passion are no less corporeal actions then the motion of the hand or heel neither hath the rational matter being naturally wise occasion to jumble and knock her parts together by reason every part knows naturally their office what they ought to do or what they may do But I conclude repeating onely what I have said oft before that all Perceptions Thoughts and the like are the Effects and Life and Knowledg the Nature and Essence of self-moving Matter And so I rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XX. MADAM IAm not able to conceive how the Mind of Man can be compared to a Table-book in which nothing is writ nor how to a Musician who being asleep doth not so much as dream of any Musick but being jogg'd and awakend by another who tells him two or three words of a Song and desires him to sing it presently recovers himself and sings upon so slight an Intimation For such intimations are nothing else but outward objects which the interior sense consents to and obeys for interior sense and reason doth often obey outward objects and in my opinion there is no rest in Nature and so neither in the Mind or natural Soul of Man which is in a perpetual motion and needs therefore no jogging to put it into any actual motion for it hath actual motion and knowledg in it self because it is a self-moving substance actually knowing and Material or Corporeal not Immaterial as your Author thinks and this material or corporeal Mind is nothing else but what I call the rational matter and the corporeal life is the sensitive matter But this is to be observed that the motions of the corporeal Mind do often imitate the motions of the sensitive Life and these again the motions of the mind I say oftentimes for they do it not always but each one can move without taking any pattern from the other And all this I understand of the Natural Soul of Man not of the Divine Soul and her powers and faculties for I leave that to Divines to inform us of onely this I say that men not conceiving the distinction between this natural and divine Soul make such a confusion betwixt those two Souls and their actions which causes so many disputes and opinions But if Nature hath power from God to produce all kinds of Vegetables Minerals Elements Animals and other sorts of Creatures Why not also Man Truly if all Creatures are natural Creatures Man must be so too and if Man is a natural Creature he must needs have natural sense and reason as well as other Creatures being composed of the same matter they are of Neither is it requisite that all Creatures being of the same matter must have the same manner of sensitive and rational knowledg which if so it is not necessary for Corn to have Ears to hear the whistling or chirping of Birds nor for Stones to have such a touch of feeling as animals have and to suffer pain as they do when Carts go over them as your Author is pleased to argue out of AEsopes Tales or for the Heliotrope to have eyes to see the Sun for what necessity is there that they should have humane sense and reason which is that the rational and sensitive matter should act and move in them as she doth in man or animals Certainly if there must be any variety in nature it is requisite she should not wherefore all Vegetables Minerals Elements and Animals have their proper motions different from each others not onely in their kinds and sorts but also in their particulars And though Stones have no progressive motion to withdraw themselves from the Carts going over them which your Author thinks they would do if they had sense to avoid pain nevertheless they have motion and consequently sense and reason according to the nature and propriety of their figure as well as man has according to his But this is also to be observed that not any humane Creature which is accounted to have the perfectest sense and reason is able always to avoid what is hurtful or painful for it is subject to it by Nature Nay the Immaterial Soul it self according to your Author cannot by her self-contracting faculty withdraw her self from pain Wherefore there is no manner of consequence to conclude from the sense of Animals to the sense of Minerals they being as much different as their Figures are And saying this I have said enough to express the opinion and mind of MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXI MADAM YOur Author endeavours very much to prove the Existency of a Natural Immaterial Spirit whom he defines to be an Incorporeal substance Indivisible that can move it self can penetrate contract and dilate it self and can also move and alter the matter Whereof if you will have my opinion I confess freely to you that in my sense and reason I cannot conceive it to be possible that there is any such thing in Nature for all that is a substance in Nature is a body and what has a body is corporeal for though there be several degrees of matter as in purity rarity subtilty activity yet there is no degree so pure rare and subtil that can go beyond its nature and change from corporeal to incorporeal except it could change from being something to nothing which is impossible in Nature Next there is no substance in Nature that is not divisible for all that is a body or a bodily substance hath extension and all extension hath parts and what has parts is divisible As for self-motion contraction and dilation these are actions onely of Natural Matter for Matter by the Power of God is self-moving and all sorts of motions as contraction dilation alteration penetration c. do properly belong to Matter so that natural Matter stands in no need to have some Immaterial or Incorporeal substance to move rule guide and govern her but she is able enough to do it all her self by the free Gift of the Omnipotent God for why should we trouble our selves to invent or frame other unconceivable substances when there is no need for it but Matter can act and move as well without them and of it self Is not God able
forced them forth as soon as conceived and this made the first publishing of them so full of Imperfections which I am much sorry for But since that time I have not onely reviewed but corrected and altered them in several places so that the last Impression of my Philosophical Opinions you will find more perfect and exact then the former Next I pray you to take notice Madam that in the mentioned first Edition by the word Spirits I meant Material not Immaterial Spirits for observing that Learned Men do discourse much of Animal Spirits which are Material and that also high extracts in Chymistry are called Spirits I used that word purposely thinking it most proper and convenient to express my sense and meaning of that degree of matter which I call rational and sensitive But considering again that my opinions being new would be subject to misapprehensions and mis-interpretations to prevent those I thought it fitter to leave out the word Spirits in the second as also in the last Edition of my named Book of Philosophy lest my Readers should think I meant Immaterial Spirits for I confess really that I never understood nor cannot as yet apprehend Immaterial Spirits for though I believe the Scripture and the Church that there are Spirits and do not doubt the existency of them yet I cannot conceive the nature of Immaterial Spirits and what they are Wherefore I do onely treat of natural material substances and not of incorporeal also my discourse is of the Infinite servant of the Infinite God which servant is corporeal or material Nature God is onely to be admired adored and worshipped but not ungloriously to be discoursed of Which Omnipotent God I pray of his Infinite Mercy to give me Faith to believe in him and not to let presumption prevail with me so as to liken vain and idle conceptions to that Incomprehensible Deity These Madam are my humble Prayers to God and my request to you is that I may continue the same in your love and affection which I have been hitherto so shall I live content and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant SECT III. I. MADAM I Have discharged my duty thus far that in obedience to your commands I have given you my answers to the opinions of three of those famous and learned Authors you sent me viz. Hobbes Des Cartes and More and explained my own opinions by examining theirs My onely task shall be now to proceed in the same manner with that famous Philosopher and Chymist Van Helmont But him I find more difficult to be understood then any of the forementioned not onely by reason of the Art of Chymistry which I confess my self not versed in but especially that he has such strange terms and unusual expressions as may puzle any body to apprehend the sense and meaning of them Wherefore if you receive not that full satisfaction you expect from me in examining his opinions and arguments I beg your pardon before hand and desire you to remember that I sent you word in the beginning I did undertake this work more out of desire to clear my own opinions then a quarrelsome humor to contradict others which if I do but obtain I have my aim And so to the business When as your Author discourses of the causes and beginnings of Natural things he is pleased to say That Souls and Lives as they know no Degrees so they know no Parts which opinion is very different from mine For although I confess that there is but one kind of Life and one kind of Soul in Nature which is the sensitive Life and the rational Soul both consisting not onely of Matter but of one kind of Matter to wit Animate nevertheless they are of different degrees the matter of the rational Soul being more agil subtil and active then the matter of the sensitive Life which is the reason that the rational can act in its own substance or degree of matter and make figures in it self and its own parts when as the sensitive being of somewhat a grosser degree then the rational and not so subtil and active is confined to work with and upon the Inanimate matter But mistake me not Madam for I make onely a difference of the degrees of Subtilty Activity Agility Purity betwixt rational and sensitive Matter but as for the rational Matter it self it has no degrees of Purity Subtilty and Activity in its own Nature or Parts but is always one and the same in its substance in all Creatures and so is the sensitive You will ask me How comes then the difference of so many Parts and Creatures in Nature if there be no degrees of Purity Activity and Subtilty in the substance of the rational and in the substance of the sensitive Matter As for example if there were no such degrees of the Parts of rational Matter amongst themselves as also of the Parts of the sensitive there would be no difference betwixt Animals Vegetables Minerals and Elements but all Creatures would be alike without distinction and have the same manner of sense and reason life and knowledg I answer That although each sort or degree of animate Matter rational as well as sensitive has in it self or its own substance no degrees of purity rarity and subtilty but is one and the same in its nature or essence nevertheless each has degrees of quantity or parts which degrees of quantity do make the onely difference betwixt the several creatures or parts of Nature as well in their general as particular kinds for both the rational and sensitive matter being corporeal and so dividable into parts some creatures do partake more some less of them which makes them to have more or less and so different sense and reason each according to the nature of its kind Nay this difference of the degrees of quantity or parts in the substance of the rational and sensitive Matter makes also the difference betwixt particulars in every sort of Creatures as for example between several particular Men But as I said the nature or essence of the sensitive and rational Matter is the same in all for the difference consists not in the Nature of Matter but onely in the degrees of quantity and parts of Matter and in the various and different actions or motions of this same Matter And thus Matter being dividable there are numerous lives and souls in Nature according to the variousness of her several Parts and Creatures Next your Author mentioning the Causes and Principles of natural Bodies assigns two first or chief beginnings and corporeal causes of every Creature to wit the Element of Water and the Ferment or Leaven which Ferment he calls a formal created being neither a substance nor an accident but a neutral thing Truly Madam my reason is not able to conceive this neutral Being for it must either be something or nothing in Nature and if he makes it any thing betwixt both it is a strange Monster and will produce monstrous
particular creature of Nature should have as much power to act or work as Nature her self but because neither Reason nor Art has found out as yet such a powerful opposite to Gold as can alter its nature men therefore conclude that it cannot be done Your Author relates to have seen the Gold-making stone which he says was of colour such as Saffron is in its powder but weighty and shining like unto powder'd Glass one fourth part of one grain thereof a grain he reckons the six hundredth part of one ounce being projected upon eight ounces of Quicksilver made hot in a Crucible and straight way there were found eight ounces and a little less then eleven grains of the purest Gold therefore one onely grain of that powder had transchanged 19186 parts of Quicksilver equal to it self into the best Gold Truly Madam I wish with all my heart the poor Royalists had had some quantity of that powder and I assure you that if it were so I my self would turn a Chymist to gain so much as to repair my Noble Husbands losses that his noble family might flourish the better But leaving Gold since it is but a vain wish I do verily believe that some of the Chymical medicines do in some desperate cases many times produce more powerful and sudden effects then the medicines of Galenistsi and therefore I do not absolutely condemn the art of Fire as if I were an enemy to it but I am of an opinion that my Opinions in Philosophy if well understood will rather give a light to that art then obscure its worth for if Chymists did but study well the corporeal motions or actions of Natures substantial body they would by their observations understand Nature better then they do by the observation of the actions of their Art and out of this consideration and respect I should almost have an ambition to become an Artist in Chymistry were I not too lazie and tender for that imployment but should I quit the one and venture the other I am so vain as to perswade my self I might perform things worthy my labour upon the ground of my own Philosophy which is substantial Life Sense and Reason for I would not study Salt Sulphur and Mercury but the Natural motions of every Creature and observe the variety of Natures actions But perchance you will smile at my vain conceit and it may be I my self should repent of my pains unsuccessfully bestowed my time vainly spent my health rashly endangered and my Noble Lords Estate unprofitably wasted in fruitless tryals and experiments Wherefore you may be sure that I will consider well before I act for I would not lose Health Wealth and Fame and do no more then others have done which truly is not much their effects being of less weight then their words But in the mean time my study shall be bent to your service and how to express my self worthily MADAM Your Ladiships humble and faithful Servant XIV MADAM I Have read your Authors discourse concerning Sensation but it was as difficult to me to understand it as it was tedious to read it Truly all the business might have have been easily declared in a short Chapter and with more clearness and perspicuity For Sensation is nothing else but the action of sense proceeding from the corporeal sensitive motions which are in all Creatures or parts of Nature and so all have sense and sensation although not alike after one and the same manner but some more some less each according to the nature and propriety of its figure But your Author speaks of Motion without Sense and Sense without Motion which is a meer impossibility for there is not nor cannot be any Motion in Nature without Sense nor any Sense without Motion there being no Creature without self-motion although not always perceptible by us or our external senses for all motion is not exteriously local and visible Wherefore not any part of Nature according to my opinion wants Sense and Reason Life and Knowledg but not such a substanceless Life as your Author describes but a substantial that is a corporeal Life Neither is Light the principle of Motion but Motion is the principle of Light Neither is Heat the principle of Motion but its effect as well as Cold is for I cannot perceive that Heat should be more active then Cold. Neither is there any such thing as Unsensibleness in Nature except it be in respect of some particular Sensation in some particular Figure As for example when an Animal dies or its Figure is dissolved from the Figure of an Animal we may say it hath not animal sense or motion but we cannot say it hath no sense or motion at all for as long as Matter is in Nature Sense and Motion will be so that it is absurd and impossible to believe or at least to think that Matter as a body can be totally deprived of Life Sense and Motion or that Life can perish and be corrupted be it the smallest part of Matter conceivable and the same turned or changed into millions of Figures for the Life and Soul of Nature is self-moving Matter which by Gods Power and leave is the onely Framer and Maker as also the Dissolver and Transformer of all Creatures in Nature making as well Light Heat and Cold Gas Blas and Ferments as all other natural Creatures beside as also Passions Appetites Digestions Nourishments Inclination Aversion Sickness and Health nay all Particular Ideas Thoughts Fancies Conceptions Arts Sciences c. In brief it makes all that is to be made in Nature But many great Philosophers conceive Nature to be fuller of Intricacy Difficulty and Obscurity then she is puzling themselves about her ordinary actions which yet are easie and free and making their arguments hard constrained and mystical many of them containing neither sense nor reason when as in my opinion there is nothing else to be studied in Nature but her substance and her actions But I will leave them to their own Fancies and Humors and say no more but rest MADAM Your humble and faithful Servant XV. MADAM COncerning Sympathy and Antipathy and attractive or magnetick Inclinations which some do ascribe to the influence of the Stars others to an unknown Spirit as the Mover others to the Instinct of Nature hidden Proprieties and certain formal Vertues but your Author doth attribute to directing Ideas begotten by their Mother Charity or a desire of Good Will and calls it a Gift naturally inherent in the Archeusses of either part If you please to have my opinion thereof I think they are nothing else but plain ordinary Passions and Appetites As for example I take Sympathy as also Magnetisme or attractive Power to be such agreeable Motions in one part or Creature as do cause a Fancy love and desire to some other part or Creature and Antipathy when these Motions are disagreeable and produce contrary effects as dislike hate and aversion to some part
or a corporeal substance and millions of immaterial Spirits nay were their number infinite cannot possess so much place as a small Pinspoint for Incorporeal Spirits possess no place at all which is the reason that an Immaterial and a Material Infinite cannot hinder oppose or obstruct each other and such an Infinite Immaterial Spirit is God alone But as for Created Immaterial Spirits as they call them it may be questioned whether they be Immaterial or not for there may be material Spirits as well as immaterial that is such pure subtil and agil substances as cannot be subject to any humane sense which may be purer and subtiller then the most refined air or purest light I call them material spirits onely for distinctions sake although it is more proper to call them material substances But be it that there are Immaterial Spirits yet they are not natural but supernatural that is not substantial parts of Nature for Nature is material or corporeal and so are all her Creatures and whatsoever is not material is no part of Nature neither doth it belong any ways to Nature Wherefore all that is called Immaterial is a Natural Nothing and an Immaterial Natural substance in my opinion is non-sense And if you contend with me that Created Spirits as good and bad Angels as also the Immortal Mind of Man are Immaterial then I say they are Supernatural but if you say they are Natural then I answer they are Material and thus I do not deny the existence of Immaterial Spirits but onely that they are not parts of Nature but supernatural for there may be many things above Nature and so above a natural Understanding and Knowledg which may nevertheless have their being and existence although they be not Natural that is parts of Nature Neither do I deny that those supernatural Creatures may be amongst natural Creatures that is have their subsistence amongst them and in Nature but they are not so commixed with them as the several parts of Matter are that is they do not joyn to the constitution of a material Creature for no Immaterial can make a Material or contribute any thing to the making or production of it but such a co-mixture would breed a meer confusion in Nature wherefore it is quite another thing to be in Nature or to have its subsistence amongst natural Creatures in a supernatural manner or way and to be a part of Nature I allow the first to Immaterial Spirits but not the second viz. to be parts of Nature But what Immaterial Spirits are both in their Essence or Nature and their Essential Properties it being supernatural and above natural Reason I cannot determine any thing thereof Neither dare I say they are Spirits like as God is that is of the same Essence or Nature no more then I dare say or think that God is of a humane shape or figure or that the Nature of God is as easie to be known as any notion else whatsoever and that we may know as much of him as of any thing else in the world For if this were so man would know God as well as he knows himself but God and his Attributes are not so easily known as man may know himself and his own natural Proprieties for God and his Attributes are not conceiveable or comprehensible by any humane understanding which is not onely material but also finite for though the parts of Nature be infinite in number yet each is finite in it self that is in its figure and therefore no natural Creature is capable to conceive what God is for he being infinite there is also required an infinite capacity to conceive him Nay Nature her self although she is Infinite yet cannot possibly have an exact notion of God by reason she is Material and God is Immaterial and if the Infinite servant of God is not able to conceive God much less will a finite part of Nature do it Besides the holy Church doth openly confess and declare the Incomprehensibility of God when in the Athanasian Creed she expresses that the Father is Incomprehensible the Son Incomprehensible and the Holy Ghost Incomprehensible and that there are not three but one Incomprehensible God Therefore if any one will prove the contrary to wit that God is Comprehensible or which is all one that God is as easie to be known as any Creature whatsoever he surely is more then the Church But I shall never say or believe so but rather confess my ignorance then betray my folly and leave things Divine to the Church to which I submit as I ought in all Duty and as I do not meddle with any Divine Mysteries but subject my self concerning my Faith or Belief and the regulating of my actions for the obtaining of Eternal Life wholly under the government and doctrine of the Church so I hope they will also grant me leave to have my liberty concerning the contemplation of Nature and natural things that I may discourse of them with such freedom as meer natural Philosophers use or at least ought to do and thus I shall be both a good Chistian and a good Natural Philosopher Unto which to make the number perfect I will add a third which is I shall be MADAM Your real and faithful Friend and Servant XXII MADAM THough I am loth as I have often told you to imbarque my self in the discourse of such a subject as no body is able naturally to know which is the supernatural and divine Soul in Man yet your Author having in my judgment strange opinions both of the Essence Figure Seat and Production of the Soul and discoursing thereof with such liberty and freedom as of any other natural Creature I cannot chuse but take some notice of his discourse and make some reflections upon it which yet shall rather express my ignorance of the same subject then in a positive answer declare my opinion thereof for in things divine I refer my self wholly to the Church and submit onely to their instructions without any further search of natural reason and if I should chance to express more then I ought to do and commit some errror it being out of ignorance rather then set purpose I shall be ready upon better information to mend it and willingly subject my self under the censure and correction of the holy Church as counting it no disgrace to be ignorant in the mysteries of Faith since Faith is of things unknown but rather a duty required from every Lay-man to believe simply the Word of God as it is explained and declared by the Orthodox Church without making Interpretations out of his own brain and according to his own fancy which breeds but Schismes Heresies Sects and Confusions But concerning your Author I perceive by him first that he makes no distinction between the Natural or Rational Soul or Mind of Man and between the Divine or Supernatural Soul but takes them both as one and distinguishes onely the Immortal Soul from the sensitive Life of
For which I would not spare any labour or pains but be as industrious as those that gain their living by their work and I pray to God that Nature may give me a capacity to do it But as for those that will censure my works out of spite and malice rather then according to justice let them do their worst for if God do but bless them I need not to fear the power of Nature much less of a part of Nature as Man Nay if I have but your Ladiships approbation it will satisfie me for I know you are so wife and just in your judgment that I may safely rely upon it For which I shall constantly and unfeignedly remain as long as I live MADAM Your Ladiships most faithful Friend and humble Servant SECT IV. I. MADAM I Perceive you take great delight in the study of Natural Philosophy since you have not onely sent me some Authors to peruse and give my judgment of their opinions but are very studious your self in the reading of Philosophical Works and truly I think you cannot spend your time more honourably profitably and delightfully then in the study of Nature as to consider how Variously Curiously and Wisely she acts in her Creatures for if the particular knowledg of a man's self be commendable much more is the knowledg of the general actions of Nature which doth lead us to the knowledg of our selves The truth is by the help of Philosophy our Minds are raised above our selves into the knowledg of the Causes of all natural effects But leaving the commending of this noble study you are pleased to desire my opinion of a very difficult and intricate argument in Natural Philosophy to wit of Generation or Natural Production I must beg leave to tell you first that some though foolishly believe it is not fit for Women to argue upon so subtil a Mystery Next there have been so many learned and experienced Philosophers Physicians and Anatomists which have treated of this subject that it might be thought a great presumption for me to argue with them having neither the learning nor experience by practice which they had Lastly There are so many several ways and manners of Productions in Nature as it is impossible for a single Creature to know them all For there are Infinite variations made by self-motion in Infinite Matter producing several Figures which are several Creatures in that same Matter But you would fain know how Nature which is Infinite Matter acts by self-motion Truly Madam you may as well ask any one part of your body how every other part of your body acts as to ask me who am but a small part of Infinite Matter how Nature works But yet I cannot say that Nature is so obscure as her Creatures are utterly ignorant for as there are two of the outward sensitive organs in animal bodies which are more intelligible then the rest to wit the Ear and the Eye so in Infinite Matter which is the body of Nature there are two parts which are more understanding or knowing then the rest to wit the Rational and Sensitive part of Infinite Matter for though it be true That Nature by self-division made by self-motion into self-figures which are self-self-parts causes a self-obscurity to each part motion and figure nevertheless Nature being infinitely wise and knowing its infinite natural wisdom and knowledg is divided amongst those infinite parts of the infinite body and the two most intelligible parts as I said are the sensitive and rational parts in Nature which are divided being infinite into every Figure or Creature I cannot say equally divided no more then I can say all creatures are of equal shapes sizes properties strengths quantities qualities constitutions semblances appetites passions capacities forms natures and the like for Nature delights in variety as humane sense and reason may well perceive for seldom any two creatures are just alike although of one kind or sort but every creature doth vary more or less Wherefore it is not probable that the production or generation of all or most Creatures should be after one and the same manner or way for else all Creatures would be just alike without any difference But this is to be observed that though Nature delights in variety yet she doth not delight in confusion but as it is the propriety of Nature to work variously so she works also wisely which is the reason that the rational and sensitive parts of Nature which are the designing and architectonical parts keep the species of every kind of Creatures by the way of Translation in Generation or natural Production for whatsoever is transferred works according to the nature of that figure or figures from whence it was transferred But mistake me not for I do not mean always according to their exterior Figure but according to their interior Nature for different motions in one and the same parts of matter make different figures wherefore much more in several parts of matter and changes of motion But as I said Translation is the chief means to keep or maintain the species of every kind of Creatures which Translation in natural production or generation is of the purest and subtilest substances to wit the sensitive and rational which are the designing and architectonical parts of Nature You may ask me Madam what this wise and ingenious Matter is I answer It is so pure subtil and self-active as our humane shares of sense and reason cannot readily or perfectly perceive it for by that little part of knowledg that a humane creature hath it may more readily perceive the strong action then the purer substance for the strongest action of the purest substance is more perceivable then the matter or substance it self which is the cause that most men are apt to believe the motion and to deny the matter by reason of its subtilty for surely the sensitive and rational matter is so pure and subtil as not to be expressed by humane sense and reason As for the rational-matter it is so pure fine and subtil that it may be as far beyond lucent matter as lucent matter is beyond gross vapours or thick clouds and the sensitive matter seems not much less pure also there is very pure inanimate matter but not subtil and active of it self for as there are degrees in the animate so there are also degrees in the inanimate matter so that the purest degree of inanimate matter comes next to the animate not in motion but in the purity of its own degree for it cannot change its nature so as to become animate yet it may be so pure in its own nature as not to be perceptible by our grosser senses But concerning the two degrees of animate Matter to wit the sensitive and rational I say that the sensitive is much more acute then Vitriol Aqua-fortis Fire or the like and the rational much more subtil and active then Quicksilver or Light so as I cannot find a comparison fit to express them
there is none in Nature for Nature is Regular but that which Man who is but a small part of Nature and therefore but partly knowing names Irregularities or Imperfections is onely a change and alteration of motions for a part can know the variety of motions in Nature no more then Finite can know Infinite or the bare exterior shape and figure of a mans body can know the whole body or the head can know the mind for Infinite natural knowledg is corporeal and being corporeal it is dividable and being dividable it cannot be confined to one part onely for there is no such thing as an absolute determination or subsistence in parts without relation or dependance upon one another And since Matter is Infinite and acts wisely and all for the best it may be as well for the best of Nature when parts are divided antipathetically as when they they are united sympathetically Also Matter being Infinite it cannot be perfect neither can a part be called perfect as being a part But mistake me not Madam for when I say there is no perfection in Nature as I do in my Philosophical Opinions I mean by Perfection a finiteness absoluteness or compleatness of figure and in this sense I say Nature has no perfection by reason it is Infinite but yet I do not deny but that there is a perfection in the nature or essence of Infinite Matter for Matter is perfect Matter that is pure and simple in its own substance or nature as meer Matter without any mixture or addition of some thing that is not Matter or that is between Matter and no Matter and material motions are perfect motions although Infinite just as a line may be called a perfect line although it be endless and Gold or other Mettal may be called perfect Gold or perfect Metal although it be but a part And thus it may be said of Infinite Nature or Infinite Matter without any contradiction that it is both perfect and not perfect perfect in its nature or substance not perfect in its exterior figure But you may say If Infinite Matter be not perfect it is imperfect and what is imperfect wants something I answer That doth not follow for we cannot say that what is not perfect must of necessity be imperfect because there is something else which it may be to wit Infinite for as imperfection is beneath perfection so perfection is beneath Infinite and though Infinite Matter be not perfect in its figure yet it is not imperfect but Infinite for Perfection and Imperfection belongs onely to Particulars and not to Infinite And thus much for the present I conclude and rest MADAM Your Ladiships most obliged Friend and humble servant V. MADAM The Author mentioned in my former Letter says That Quietness is the degree of Infinite slowness and that a moveable body passing from quietness passes through all the degrees of slowness without staying in any But I cannot conceive that all the Parts of Matter should be necessitated to move by degrees for though there be degrees in Nature yet Nature doth not in all her Actions move by degrees You may say for example from one to twenty there are eighteen degrees between One and Twenty and all these degrees are included in the last degree which is twenty I answer That may be but yet there is no progress made through all those degrees for when a body doth move strong at one time and the next time after moves weak I cannot conceive how any degrees should really be made between You may say By Imagination But this Imagination of degrees is like the conception of Space and Place when as yet there is no such thing as Place or Space by it self for all is but one body and Motion is the action of this same body which is corporeal Nature and because a particular body can and doth move after various manners according to the change of its corporeal motions this variety of motions man call's Place Space Time Degrees c. confidering them by themselves and giving them peculiar names as if they could be parted from body or at least be conceived without body for the Conception or Imagination it self is corporeal and so are they nothing else but corporeal motions But it seems as if this same Author conceived also motion to be a thing by it self and that motion begets motion when he says That a body by moving grows stronger in motion by degrees when as yet the strength was in the matter of the body eternally for Nature was always a grave Matron never a sucking Infant and though parts by dissolving and composing may lose and get acquaintance of each other yet no part can be otherwise in its nature then ever it was Wherefore change of corporeal motions is not losing nor getting strength or swiftness for Nature doth not lose force although she doth not use force in all her various actions neither can any natural body get more strength then by nature it hath although it may get the assistance of other bodies joyned to it But swiftness and slowness are according to the several figurative actions of self-moving matter which several actions or motions of Nature and their alterations cannot be found out by any particular Creature As for example the motions of Lead and the motions of Wood unless Man knew their several causes for Wood in some cases may move slower then Lead and Lead in other cases slower then Wood. Again the same Author says That an heavy moveable body descending gets force enough to bring it back again to as much height But I think it might as well be said That a Man walking a mile gets as much strength as to walk back that mile when 't is likely that having walked ten miles he may not have so much strength as to walk back again one mile neither is he necessitated to walk back except some other more powerful body do force him back for though Nature is self-moving yet every part has not an absolute power for many parts may over-power fewer also several corporeal motions may cross and oppose as well as assist each other for if there were not opposition as well as agreement and assistance amongst Nature's parts there would not be such variety in Nature as there is Moreover he makes mention of a Line with a weight hung to its end which being removed from the perpendicular presently falls to the same again To which I answer That it is the appetite and desire of the Line not to move by constraint or any forced exterior motion but that which forces the Line to move from the Perpendicular doth not give it motion but is onely an occasion that it moves in such a way neither doth the line get that motion from any other exterior body but it is the lines own motion for if the motion of the hand or any other exterior body should give the line that motion I pray from which doth it receive the
the lines or beams of light which are straight small even and parallel do contract in their entrance through the glass into the figure of the colour the glass is stained or painted with so that the light passes through the glass figuratively in so much as it seems to be of the same colour the glass is of although in it self it is white lucent and clear and as the light appears so the eye receives it if the sight be not destructive The fourth question is Whether as your Authors opinion is kisses feel pleasing and delightful by the thinness of the parts and a gentle stirring and quavering of the tangent spirits that give a pleasing tact I answer If this were so then all kisses would be pleasing which surely are not for some are thought very displeasing especially from thin lips wherefore in my opinion it is neither the thinness of the parts of the lips nor the quavering of the tangent spirits but the appetites and passions of life reason and soul that cause the pleasure Nevertheless I grant the stirring up of the spirits may contribute to the increasing heightning or strengthning of that tact but it is not the prime cause of it The fifth question is Whether the greatest man have always the greatest strength I answer Not for strength and greatness of bulk doth not always consist together witness experience for a little man may be and is oftentimes stronger then a tall man The like of other animal Creatures As for example some Horses of a little or middle size have a great deal more strength then others which are high and big for it is the quantity of sensitive matter that gives strength and not the bigness or bulk of the body The sixth question is Whether this World or Vniverse be the biggest Creature I answer It is not possible to be known unless Man could perfectly know its dimension or extension or whether there be more Worlds then one But to speak properly there is no such thing as biggest or least in Nature The seventh question is Whether the Earth be the Center of Matter or of the World As for Matter it being Infinite has no Center by reason it has no Circumference and as for this World its Center cannot be known unless man knew the utmost parts of its circumference for no Center can be known without its circumference and although some do imagine this world so little that in comparison to Infinite Matter it would not be so big as the least Pins head yet their knowledg cannot extend so far as to know the circumference of this little World by which you may perceive the Truth of the old saying Man talks much but knows little The eighth question is Whether all Centers must needs be full and close as a stufft Cushion and whether the matter in the Center of the Vniverse or World be dense compact and heavy I answer This can no more be known then the circumference of the World for what man is able to know whether the Center of the world be rare or dense since he doth not know where its Center is and as for other particular Centers some Centers may be rare some dense and some may have less matter then their circumferences The ninth question is Whether Finite Creatures can be produced out of an Infinite material cause I answer That to my sense and reason an Infinite cause must needs produce Infinite effects though not in each Particular yet in General that is Matter being Infinite in substance must needs be dividable into Infinite parts in number and thus Infinite Creatures must needs be produced out of Infinite Matter but Man being but a finite part thinks all must be finite too not onely each particular Creature but also the Matter out of which all Creatures are produced which is corporeal Nature Nevertheless those Infinite effects in Nature are equalized by her different motions which are her different actions for it is not non-sence but most demonstrable to sense and reason that there are equalities or a union in Infinite The tenth question is Whether the Elements be the onely matter out of which all other Creatures are produced I answer The Elements as well as all other Creatures as it appears to humane sense and reason are all of one and the same Matter which is the onely Infinite Matter and therefore the Elements cannot be the Matter of all other Creatures for several sorts of Creatures have several ways of productions and I know no reason to the contrary but that Animals Vegetables and Minerals may as well derive their essence from each other as from the Elements or the Elements from them for as all Creatures do live by each other so they are produced from each other according to the several ways or manners of productions But mistake me not Madam for I speak of production in General and not of such natural production whereby the several species of Creatures are maintained As for example Generation in Animals for an Element cannot generate an Animal in that manner as an Animal can generate or produce its like for as Nature is wise so her actions are all wise and orderly or else it would make a horrid confusion amongst the Infinite parts of Nature The eleventh question is What is meant by Natural Theology I answer Natural Theology in my opinion is nothing else but Moral Philosophy for as for our belief it is grounded upon the Scripture and not upon Reason These Madam are the Questions which I have pickt out of your new Author together with my answers of which I desire your impartial Judgment But I must add onething more before I conclude which is I am much pleased with your Authors opinion That Sound may be perceived by the Eye Colour by the Ear and that Sound and Colour may be smell'd and tasted and I have been of this opinion eleven years since as you will find in my Book of Poems whose first Edition was printed in the Year 1653. And thus I take my leave of you and remain constantly MADAM Your Faithful Friend to serve you XVI MADAM COncerning your question of the ascending nature of fire I am absolutely of Aristotle's Opinion that it is as natural for Fire to ascend as it is for Earth to descend And why should we believe the nature of one and doubt the nature of the other For if it be granted that there are as well ascending as descending bodies in Nature as also low and high places according to the situation of Particulars and Circumferences as well as Centers considering the shape of bodies I cannot perceive by humane reason but that the Nature of fire is ascending and that it is very improbable it should have a descending or contracting nature as to tend or endeavour to a Center But Madam give me leave to ask what sort of Fire you mean whether a Celestial or a Terrestrial Fire viz. that which is named an Elemental fire or any
abolish'd the intended benefit and banish'd equity and instead of keeping Peace they make War causing enmity betwixt men As for Natural Philosophy they will not suffer sense and reason to appear in that study And as for Physick they have kill'd more men then Wars Plagues or Famine Wherefore from nice distinctions and Logistical sophistry Good God deliver us especially from those that concern Divinity for they weaken Faith trouble Conscience and bring in Atheism In short they make controversies and endless disputes But least the opening of my meaning in such plain terms should raise a controversie also between you and me I 'le cut off here and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXI MADAM YEsterday I received a visit from the Lady N. M. who you know hath a quick wit rational opinions and subtil conceptions all which she is ready and free to divulge in her discourse But when she came to my Chamber I was casting up some small accounts which when she did see What said she are you at Numeration Yes said I but I cannot number well nor much for I do not understand Arithrnetick Said she You can number to three Yes said I I can number to four Nay faith said she the number of three is enough if you could but understand that number well for it is a mystical number Said I There is no great mystery to count that number for one and two makes three Said she That is not the mystery for the mystery is That three makes one and without this mystery no man can understand Dlvinity Nature nor himself Then I desired her to make me understand that mystery She said It required more time to inform me then a short visit for this mystery was such as did puzle all wise men in the world aud the not understanding of this mystery perfectly had caused endless divisions and disputes I desired if she could not make me understand the mystery she would but inform me how three made one in Divinity Nature and Man She said That was easie to do for in Divinity there are three Persons in one Essence as God the Father the Son and the holy Ghost whose Essence being individable they make but one God And as for Philosophy there is but Matter Motion and Figure which being individable make but one Nature And as for Man there is Soul Life and Body all three joyned in one Man But I replied Man's Life Soul and Body is dividable That is true said she but then he is no more a Man for these three are his essential parts which make him to be a man and when these parts are dissolved then his interior nature is changed so that he can no longer be call'd a man As for example Water being turned into Air and having lost its interior nature can no more be called Water but it is perfect Air the same is with Man But as long as he is a Man then these three forementioned parts which make him to be of that figure are individably united as long as man lasts Besides said she this is but in the particular considering man single and by himself but in general these three as life soul and body are individably united so that they remain as long as manking lasts Nay although they do dissolve in the particulars yet it is but for a time for they shall be united again at the last day which is the time of their resurrection so that also in this respect we may justly call them individable for man shall remain with an united soul life and body eternally And as she was thus discoursing in came a Sophisterian whom when she spied away she went as fast as she could but I followed her close and got hold of her then asked her why she ran away She answer'd if she stayed the Logician would dissolve her into nothing for the profession of Logicians is to make something nothing and nothing something I pray'd her to stay and discourse with the Logician Not for a world said she for his discourse will make my brain like a confused Chaos full of senseless minima's and after that he will so knock jolt and jog it and make such whirls and pits as will so torture my brain that I shall wish I had not any Wherefore said she I will not stay now but visit you again to morrow And I wish with all my heart Madam you were so near as to be here at the same time that we three might make a Triumvirate in discourse as well as we do in friendship But since that cannot be I must rest satisfied that I am MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXII MADAM YOu were pleased to desire my opinion of the works of that Learned and Ingenious Writer B. Truly Madam I have read but some part of his works but as much as I have read I have observed he is a very civil eloquent and rational Writer the truth is his style is a Gentleman's style And in particular concerning his experiments I must needs say this that in my judgment he hath expressed himself to be a very industrious and ingenious person for he doth neither puzle Nature nor darken truth with hard words and compounded languages or nice distinctions besides his experiments are proved by his own action But give me leave to tell you that I observe he studies the different parts and alterations more then the motions which cause the alterations in those parts whereas did he study and observe the several and different motions in those parts how they change in one and the same part and how the different alterations in bodies are caused by the different motions of their parts he might arrive to a vast knowledg by the means of his experiments for certainly experiments are very beneficial to man In the next place you desire my opinion of the Book call'd The Discourses of the Virtuosi in France I am sorry Madam this book comes so late to my hands that I cannot read it so slowly and observingly as to give you a clear judgment of their opinions or discourses in particular however in general and for what I have read in it I may say it expresses the French to be very learned and eloquent Writers wherein I thought our English had exceeded them and that they did onely excel in wit and ingenuity but I perceive most Nations have of all sorts The truth is ingenious and subtil wit brings news but learning and experience brings proofs at least argumental discourses and the French are much to be commended that they endeavour to spend their time wisely honourably honestly and profitably not onely for the good and benefit of their own but also of other Nations But before I conclude give me leave to tell you that concerning the curious and profitable Arts mentioned in their discourses I confess I do much admire them and partly believe they may arrive to the use of many of them but there are two arts which I
effects must of necessity be infinite also the cause is infinite in its substance the effects are Infinite in number And this is my meaning when I say that although in Nature there is but one kind of matter yet there are Infinite degrees Infinite motions and Infinite parts in that onely matter and though Infinite and Eternal matter has no perfect or exact figure by reason it is Infinite and therefore unlimited yet there being infinite parts in number made by the infinite variations of motions in infinite Matter these parts have perfect or exact figures considered as parts that is single or each in its particular figure And therefore if there be Infinite degrees considering the effects of the animate and inanimate matter infinite motions for changes infinite parts for number infinite compositions and divisions for variety and diversity of Creatures then there may also be infinite sizes each part or figure differing more or less infinite smalness and bigness lightness and heaviness rarity and density strength and power life and knowledg and the like But by reason Nature or Natural matter is not all animate or inanimate nor all composing or dividing there can be no Infinite in a part nor can there be something biggest or smallest strongest or weakest heaviest or lightest softest or hardest in Infinite Nature or her parts but all those several Infinites are as it were included in one Infinite which is Corporeal Nature or Natural Matter Next you desire my opinion of Vacuum whether there be any or not for you say I determine nothing of it in my Book of Philosophical Opinions Truly Madam my sense and reason cannot believe a Vacuum because there cannot be an empty Nothing but change of motion makes all the alteration of figures and consequently all that which is called place magnitude space and the like for matter motion figure place magnitude c. are but one thing But some men perceiving the alteration but not the subtil motions believe that bodies move into each others place which is impossible because several places are onely several parts so that unless one part could make it self another part no part can be said to succeed into anothers place but it is impossible that one part should make it self another part for it cannot be another and it self no more then Nature can be Nature and not Nature wherefore change of place is onely change of motion and this change of motion makes alteration of Figures Thirdly you say You cannot understand what I mean by Creation for you think that Creation is a production or making of Something out of Nothing To tell you really Madam this word is used by me for want of a better expression and I do not take it in so strict a sense as to understand by it a Divine or supernatural Creation which onely belongs to God but a natural Creation that is a natural production or Generation for Nature cannot create or produce Something out of Nothing And this Production may be taken in a double sence First in General as for example when it is said that all Creatures are produced out of Infinite Matter and in this respect every particular Creature which is finite that is of a circumscribed and limited figure is produced of Infinite Matter as being a part thereof Next Production is taken in a more strict sense to wit when one single Creature is produced from another and this is either Generation properly so called as when in every kind and sort each particular produces its like or it is such a Generation whereby one creature produces another each being of a different kind or species as for example when an Animal produces a Mineral as when a Stone is generated in the Kidneys or the like and in this sence one finite creature generates or produces another finite creature the producer as well as the produced being finite but in the first sence finite creatures are produced out of infinite matter Fourthly you confess You cannot well apprehend my meaning when I say that the several kinds are as Infinite as the particulars for your opinion is That the number of particulars must needs exceed the number of kinds I answer I mean in general the Infinite effects of Nature which are Infinite in number and the several kinds or sorts of Creatures are Infinite in duration for nothing can perish in Nature Fifthly When I say that ascending and descending is often caused by the exterior figure or shape of a body witness a Bird who although he is of a much bigger size and bulk then a Worm yet can by his shape lift himself up more agilly and nimbly then a Worm Your opinion is That his exterior shape doth not contribute any thing towards his flying by reason a Bird being dead retains the same shape but yet cannot fly at all But truly Madam I would not have you think that I do exclude the proper and interior natural motion of the figure of a Bird and the natural and proper motions of every part and particle thereof for that a Bird when dead keeps his shape and yet cannot fly the reason is that the natural and internal motions of the Bird and the Birds wings are altered towards some other shape or figure if not exteriously yet interiously but yet the interior natural motions could not effect any flying or ascending without the help of the exterior shape for a Man or any other animal may have the same interior motions as a Bird hath but wanting such an exterior shape he cannot fly whereas had he wings like a Bird and the interior natural motions of those wings he might without doubt fly as well as a Bird doth Sixthly Concerning the descent of heavy bodies that it is more forcible then the ascent of light bodies you do question the Truth of this my opinion Certainly Madam I cannot conceive it to be otherwise by my sense and reason for though Fire that is rare doth ascend with an extraordinary quick motion yet this motion is in my opinion not so strong and piercing as when grosser parts of Creatures do descend but there is difference in strength and quickness for had not Water a stronger motion and another sort of figure then Fire it could not suppress Fire much less quench it But Smoak which is heavier then Flame flies up or rises before or rather above it Wherefore I am still of the same opinion that heavy bodies descend more forcibly then light bodies do ascend and it seems most rational to me Lastly I perceive you cannot believe that all bodies have weight by reason if this were so the Sun and the Stars would have long since cover'd the Earth In answer to this objection I say That as there can be no body without figure and magnitude so consequently not without weight were it no bigger then an atome and as for the Sun 's and the Stars not falling down or rising higher the reason is not their
being without weight but their natural and proper motion which keeps them constantly in their spheres and it might as well be said a Man lives not or is not because he doth not fly like a Bird or dive and catch fish like a Cormorant or dig and undermine like a Mole for those are motions not proper to his nature And these Madam are my answers to your objections which if they do satisfie you it is all I desire if not I shall endeavour hereafter to make my meaning more intelligible and study for other more rational arguments then these are to let you see how much I value both the credit of my named Book and your Ladiships Commands which assure you self shall never be more faithfully performed then by MADAM Your Ladiships most obliged Friend and humble Servant XXXII MADAM SInce my opinion is that the Animate part of Matter which is sense and reason life and knowledg is the designer architect and creator of all sigures in Nature you desire to know whence this Animate Matter sense and reason or life and knowledg call it what you will for it is all one and the same thing is produced I answer It is eternal But then you say it is coequal with God I answer That cannot be for God is above all Natural sense and reason which is Natural life and knowledg and therefore it cannot be coequal with God except it be meant in Eternity as being without beginning and end But if Gods Power can make Man's Soul as also the good and evil Spirits to last eternally without end he may by his Omnipotency make as well things without beginning You will say If Nature were Eternal it could not be created for the word Creation is contrary to Eternity I answer Madam I am no Scholar for words for if you will not use the word Creation you may use what other word you will for I do not stand upon nice words and terms so I can but express my conceptions Wherefore if it be as in Reason it cannot be otherwise that nothing in Nature can be annihilated nor any thing created out of nothing but by Gods special and all-powerful Decree and Command then Nature must be as God has made her until he destroy her But if Nature be not Eternal then the Gods of the Heathens were made in time and were no more then any other Creature which is as subject to be destroyed as created for they conceived their Gods as we do men to have Material Bodies but an Immaterial Spirit or as some Learned men imagine to be an Immaterial Spirit but to take several shapes and so to perform several corporeal actions which truly is too humble and mean a conception of an Immaterial Being much more of the Great and Incomprehensible God which I do firmly believe is a most pure all-powerful Immaterial Being which doth all things by his own Decree and Omnipotency without any Corporeal actions or shapes such as some fancy of Daemons and the like Spirits But to return to the former question you might as well enquire how the world or any part of it was created or how the variety of creatures came to be as ask how Reason and sensitive corporeal Knowledg was produced Nevertheless I do constantly believe that both sensitive and rational Knowledg in Matter was produced from God but after what manner or way is impossible for any creature or part of Nature to know for Gods wayes are incomprehensible and supernatural And thus much I believe That as God is an Eternal Creator which no man can deny so he has also an Eternal Creature which is Nature or natural Matter But put the case Nature or natural Matter was made when the World was created might not God give this Natural Matter self-motion as well as he gave self-motion to Spirits and Souls and might not God endue this Matter with Sense and Reason as well as he endued Man Shall or can we bind up Gods actions with our weak opinions and foolish arguments Truly if God could not act more then Man is able to conceive he were not a God of an infinite Power but God is Omnipotent and his actions are infinite supernatural and past finding out wherefore he is rather to be admired adored and worshipped then to be ungloriously discoursed of by vain and ambitious men whose foolish pride and presumption drowns their Natural Judgment and Reason to which leaving them I rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXXIII MADAM IN obedience to your commands I here send you also an explanation and clearing of those places and passages in my Book of Philosophy which in your last Letter you were pleased to mark as containing some obscurity and difficulty of being understood First When I say Nature is an Individable Matter I do not mean as if Nature were not dividable into parts for because Nature is material therefore she must also needs be dividable into parts But my meaning is that Nature cannot be divided from Matter nor Matter from Nature that is Nature cannot be Immaterial nor no part of Nature but if there be any thing Immaterial it doth not belong to Nature Also when I call Nature a Multiplying Figure I mean that Nature makes infinite changes and so infinite figures Next when I say There are Infinite Divisions in Nature my meaning is not that there are Infinite divisions of one single part but that Infinite Matter has Infinite parts sizes figures and motions all being but one Infinite Matter or corporeal Nature Also when I say single parts I mean not parts subsisting by themselves precised from each other but single that is several or different by reason of their different figures Likewise when I name Atomes I mean small parts of Matter and when I speak ofPlace and Time I mean onely the variation of corporeal figurative motions Again when I say Nature has not an absolute Power because she has an Infinite power I mean by absolute as much as finite or circumscribed and in this sense Nature cannot have an absolute power for the Infiniteness hinders the absoluteness but when in my former Letters I have attributed an absolute Power onely to God and said that Nature has not an absolute power but that her power although it be Infinite yet cannot extend beyond Nature but is an Infinite natural power I understand by an absolute Power not a finite power but such a power which onely belongs to God that is a supernatural and divine power which power Nature cannot have by reason she cannot make any part of her body immaterial nor annihilate any part of her Creatures nor create any part that was not in her from Eternity nor make her self a Deity for though God can impower her with a supernatural gift and annihilate her when he pleases yet she is no ways able to do it her self Moreover when I say That one Infinite is contained within another I mean the several