all diseases and not the Rational although the Rational are many times the occasion that the sensitive do move into such or such a disease for all those that are sick by conceit their sicknesses are caused by the rational corporeal motions But being loth to make tedious repetitions hereof having discoursed of diseases and passions in my mentioned Book of Philosophy I will refer you thither and rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXVIII MADAM COncerning Dimness of Sight which your Author will have to proceed from the deficiency of the Animal Spirits My meaning in short is That when sight is dim though the sensitive organs are perfect this dimness is caused by the alteration onely of the sensitive motions in the organs not moving to the nature of sight And so is made Deafness Dumbness Lameness and the like as also Weariness for the Relaxation of strength in several parts is onely an alteration of such sorts of motions which make the nerves strong and if a man be more dull at one time then at another it is that there are not so many changes of motions nor so quick motions at that time as at another for Nature may use more or less force as she pleases Also she can and doth often use opposite actions and often sympathetical and agreeable actions as she pleases for Nature having a free power to move may move as she will but being wise she moves as she thinks best either in her separating or uniting motions for continuance as well as for variety But if according to your Author the Immaterial Soul should determinate matter in motion it would in my opinion make a confusion for the motions of the Matter would often oppose and cross the motions of the Immaterial Soul and so they would disagree as a King and his Subjects except God had given the Soul an absolute power of command and restrained matter to an irrisistible and necessitated obedience which in my opinion is not probable By which disagreement Nature and all that is in Nature would have been quite ruined at this time for no kinds sorts or particulars would keep any distinction if Matter did not govern it self and if all the parts did not know their own affairs abilities offices and functions Besides it would to my thinking take up a great deal of time to receive commands in every several action at least so much that for example a man could not have so many several thoughts in so short a time as he hath But concerning the Animal Spirits which your Author calls the Instruments Organs and Engines of the Incorporeal Soul I would fain know whether they have no motion but what comes from the Soul or whether they have their own motion of themselves If the first then the Soul must in my opinion be like a Deity and have a divine Power to give and impart Motion if the second then the spirits being material it follows that Matter hath motion of it self or is self-moving But if the Immaterial natural Soul can transfer her gifts upon corporeal matter then it must give numerous sorts of motions with all their degrees as also the faculty of figuring or moving figuratively in all corporeal Matter Which power in my judgment is too much for a Creature to give If you say the Immaterial Soul hath this power from God I answer Matter may have the same and I cannot imagine why God should make an Immaterial Spirit to be the Proxy or Vice-gerent of his Power or the Quarter-master General of his Divine Providence as your Author is pleased to style it when he is able to effect it without any Under-Officers and in a more easie and compendious way as to impart immediately such self-moving power to Natural Matter which man attributes to an Incorporeal Spirit But to conclude if the Animal Spirits be the Instruments of the Incorporeal Soul then the Spirits of Wine are more powerfull then the Animal Spirits nay then the Immaterial Soul her self for they can put them and all their actions quite out of order the same may be done by other material things Vegetables Minerals and the like And so leaving this discourse to your better consideration I take my leave for this time and rest MADAM Your faithful and affectionate Friend and Servant XXIX MADAM TOuching the State or Condition of the Supernatural and Divine Soul both in and after this life I must crave your excuse that I can give no account of it for I dare affirm nothing not onely that I am no professed Divine and think it unfit to take any thing upon me that belongs not to me but also that I am unwilling to mingle Divinity and Natural Philosophy together to the great disadvantage and prejudice of either for if each one did contain himself within the circle of his own Profession and no body did pretend to be a Divine Philosopher many absurdities confusions contentions and the like would be avoided which now disturb both Church and Schools and will in time cause their utter ruine and destruction For what is Supernatural cannot naturally be known by any natural Creature neither can any supernatural Creature but the Infinite and Eternal God know thorowly everything that is in Nature she being the Infinite servant of the Infinite God whom no finite Creature of what degree soever whether natural or supernatural can conceive for if no Angel nor Devil can know our thoughts much less will they know Infinite Nature nay one finite supernatural Creature cannot in my opinion know perfectly another supernatural Creature but God alone who is all-knowing And therefore all what is said of supernatural Spirits I believe so far as the Scripture makes mention of them further I dare not presume to go the like of the supernatural or divine Soul for all that I have writ hitherto to you of the Soul concerns the natural Soul of Man which is material and not the supernatural or divine Soul neither do I contradict any thing concerning this divine soul but I am onely against those opinions which make the natural soul of man an immaterial natural spirit and confound supernatural Creatures with natural believing those spirits to be as well natural Creatures and parts of Nature as material and corporeal beings are when as there is great difference betwixt them and nothing in Nature to be found but what is corporeal Upon this account I take all their relations of Daemons of the Genii and of the Souls after the departure from humane Bodies their Vehicles Shapes Habitations Converses Conferences Entertainments Exercises Pleasures Pastimes Governments Orders Laws Magistrates Officers Executioners Punishments and the like rather for Poetical Fictions then Rational Probabilities containing more Fancy then Truth and Reason whether they concern the divine or natural Soul for as for the divine Soul the Scripture makes no other mention of it but that immediately after her departure out of this natural life she goeth either to Heaven or
reason is not able to comprehend since there can be no figure without matter or substance they being inseparably united together so that where figure is there is also substance and where substance is there is also figure neither can any figure be made without a substance You may say Ideas though they are not material or corporeal beings themselves yet they may put on figures and take bodies when they please I answer That then they can do more then Immaterial Spirits for the Learned say That Immaterial Spirits are Immaterial substances but your Author says that Ideas are no substances and I think it would be easier for a substance to take a body then for that which is no substance But your Author might have placed his Ideas as well amongst the number of Immaterial Spirits to wit amongst Angels and Devils and then we should not have need to seek far for the causes of the different natures and dispositions of Mankind but we might say that Ill-natured men proceeded from Evil and Good-natured men from Good Spirits or Ideas However Madam I do not deny Ideas Images or Conceptions of things but I deny them onely to be such powerful beings and Principal efficient Causes of Natural effects especially they being to your Author neither bodies nor substances themselves And as for the Figure of a Cherry which your Author makes so frequent a repetition of made by a longing Woman on her Child I dare say that there have been millions of Women which have longed for some or other thing and have not been satisfied with their desires and yet their Children have never had on their bodies the prints or marks of those things they longed for but because some such figures are sometimes made by the irregular motions of animate Matter would this be a sufficient proof that all Conceptions Ideas and Images have the like effects after the same manner by piercing or penetrating each other and sealing or printing such or such a figure upon the body of the Child Lastly I cannot but smile when I read that your Author makes a Disease proceed from a non-being to a substantial being Which if so then a disease according to his opinion is made as the World was that is out of Nothing but surely luxurious persons find it otherwise who eat and drink more then their natural digestive motions can dispose for those that have infirm bodies caused by the irregular motions of animate matter find that a disease proceeds from more then a non-being But Madam I have neither such an Archeus which can produce in my mind an Idea of Consent or approbation of these your Authors opinions nor such a light that is able to produce a beam of Patience to tarry any longer upon the examination of them Wherefore I beg your leave to cut off my discourse here and onely to subscriibe my self as really I am MADAM Your humble and faithful Servant XII MADAM I Cannot well apprehend your Authors meaning when he says That Nature doth rise from its fall for if he understands Nature in general I cannot imagine how she should fall and rise for though Man did fall yet Nature never did nor cannot fall being Infinite And therefore in another place when he saith that Nature first being a beautiful Virgin was defiled by sin not by her own but by Mans sin for whose use she was created I think it too great a presumption and arrogancy to say that Infinite Nature was not onely defiled by the sin of Man but also to make Man the chief over all Nature and to believe Nature was onely made for his sake when as he is but a small finite part of Infinite Nature and almost Nothing in comparison to it But I suppose your Author doth not understand Nature in general but onely the nature of some Particulars when he speaks of the fall and rise of Nature however this fall and rise of the nature of Particulars is nothing but a change of their natural motions And so likewise I suppose he understands the nature of Particulars when he says in another place That Nature in diseases is standing sitting and lying for surely Nature in general has more several postures then sitting standing or lying As also when he speaks of the Vertues and Properties that stick fast in the bosom of Nature which I conceive to be a Metaphorical expression although I think it best to avoid Metaphorical similizing and improper expressions in Natural Philosophy as much as one can for they do rather obscure then explain the truth of Nature nay your Author himself is of this opinion and yet he doth nothing more frequent then bring in Metaphors and similitudes But to speak properly there is not any thing that sticks fast in the bosom of Nature for Nature is in a perpetual motion Neither can she be heightened or diminished by Art for Nature will be Nature in despite of her Hand-maid And as for your Authors opinion That there are no Contraries in Nature I am quite of a contrary mind viz. that there is a Perpetual war and discord amongst the parts of Nature although not in the nature and substance of Infinite Matter which is of a simple kind and knows no contraries in it self but lives in Peace when as the several actions are opposing and crossing each other and truly I do not believe that there is any part or Creature ofNature that hath not met with opposers let it be never so small or great But as War is made by the division of Natures parts and variety of natural actions so Peace is caused by the unity and simplicity of the nature and essence of onely Matter which Nature is peaceable being always one and the same and having nothing in it self to be crossed or opposed by when as the actions of Nature or natural Matter are continually striving against each other as being various and different Again your Author says That a Specifical being cannot be altered but by Fire and that Fire is the Death of other Creatures also that Alchymy as it brings many things to a degree of greater efficacy and stirs up a new being so on the other hand again it by a privy filching doth enfeeble many things I for my part wonder that Fire being as your Author says no substantial body but substanceless in its nature should work such effects but however I believe there are many alterations without Fire and many things which cannot be altered by Fire What your Authors meaning is of a new being I know not for to my reason there neither is nor can be made any new being in Nature except we do call the change of motions and figures a new Creation but then an old suit turned or dressed up may be called new too Neither can I conceive his Filching or Stealing For Nature has or keeps nothing within her self but what is her own and surely she cannot steal from her self nor can
Power as in the Purity And the disparity between the Natural and Divine Infinite is such as they cannot joyn mix and work together unless you do believe that Divine Actions can have allay But you may say Purity belongs onely to natural things and none but natural bodies can be said purified but God exceeds all Purity 'T is true But if there were infinite degrees of Purity in Matter Matter might at last become Immaterial and so from an Infinite Material turn to an Infinite Immaterial and from Natrue to be God A great but an impossible Change For I do verily believe that there can be but one Omnipotent God and he cannot admit of addition or diminution and that which is Material cannot be Immaterial and what is Immaterial cannot become Material I mean so as to change their natures for Nature is what God was pleased she should be and will be what she was until God be pleased to make her otherwise Wherefore there can be no new Creation of matter motion or figure nor any annihilation of any matter motion or figure in Nature unless God do create a new Nature For the changing of Matter into several particular Figures doth not prove an annihilation of particular Figures nor the cessation of particular Motions an annihilation of them Neither doth the variation of the Onely Matter produce an annihilation of any part of Matter nor the variation of figures and motions of Matter cause an alteration in the nature of Onely Matter Wherefore there cannot be new Lives Souls or Bodies in Nature for could there be any thing new in Nature or any thing annihilated there would not be any stability in Nature as a continuance of every kind and sort of Creatures but there would be a confusion between the new and old matter motions and figures as between old and new Nature In truth it would be like new Wine in old Vessels by which all would break into disorder Neither can supernatural and natural effects be mixt together no more then material and immaterial things or beings Therefore it is probable God has ordained Nature to work in herself by his Leave Will and Free Gift But there have been and are still strange and erroneous Opinions and great differences amongst Natural Philosophers concerning the Principles of Natural things some will have them Atoms others will have the first Principles to be Salt Sulphur and Mercury some will have them to be the four Elements as Fire Air Water and Earth and others will have but one of these Elements also some will have Gas and Blas Ferments Idea's and the like but what they believe to be Principles and Causes of natural things are onely Effects for in all Probability it appears to humane sense and reason that the cause of every particular material Creature is the onely and Infinite Matter which has Motions and Figures inseparably united for Matter Motion and Figure are but one thing individable in its Nature And as for Immaterial Spirits there is surely no such thing in Infinite Nature to wit so as to be Parts of Nature for Nature is altogether Material but this opinion proceeds from the separation or abstraction of Motion form Matter viz. that man thinks matter and motion to be dividable from each other and believes motion to be a thing by its self naming it an Imaterial thing which has a being but not a bodily substance But various and different effects do not prove a different Matter or Cause neither do they prove an unsetled Cause onely the variety of Effects hath obscured the Cause from the several parts which makes Particular Creatures partly Ignorant and partly knowing But in my opinion Nature is material and not any thing in Nature what belongs to her is immaterial but whatsoever is Immaterial is Supernatural Therefore Motions Forms Thoughts Ideas Conceptions Sympathies Antipathies Accidents Qualities as also Natural Life and Soul are all Material And as for Colours Sents Light Sound Heat Cold and the like those that believe them not to be substances or material things surely their brain or heart take what place you will for the forming of Conceptions moves very Irregularly and they might as well say Our sensitive Organs are not material for what Objects soever that are subject to our senses cannot in sense be denied to be Corporeal when as those things that are not subject to our senses can be conceived in reason to be Immaterial But some Philosophers striving to express their wit obstruct reason and drawing Divinity to prove Sense and Reason weaken Faith so as their mixed Divine Philosophy becomes meer Poetical Fictions and Romancical expressions making material Bodies immaterial Spirits and immaterial Spirits material Bodies and some have conceived some things neither to be Material nor Immaterial but between both Truly Madam I wish their Wits had been less and their Judgments more as not to jumble Natural and Supernatural things together but to distinguish either clearly for such Mixtures are neither Natural nor Divine But as I said the Confufion comes from their too nice abstractions and from the separation of Figure and Motion from Matter as not conceiving them individable but if God and his servant Nature were as Intricate and Confuse in their Works as Men in their Understandings and Words the Universe and Production of all Creatures would soon be without Order and Government so as there would be a horrid and Eternal War both in Heaven and in the World and so pittying their troubled Brains and wishing them the Light of Reason that they may clearly perceive the Truth I rest MADAM Your real Friend and faithful Servant III. MADAM IT seems you are offended at my Opinion that Nature is Eternal without beginning which you say is to make her God or at least coeqnal with God But if you apprehend my meaning rightly you will say I do not For first God is an Immaterial and Spiritual Infinite Being which Propriety God cannot give away to any Creature nor make another God in Essence like to him for Gods Attributes are not communicable to any Creature Yet this doth not hinder that God should not make Infinite and Eternal Matter for that is as easie to him as to make a Finite Creature Infinite Matter being quite of another Nature then God is to wit Corporeal when God is Incorporeal the difference whereof I have declared in my former Letter But as for Nature that it cannot be Eternal without beginning because God is the Creator and Cause of it and that the Creator must be before the Creature as the Cause before the Effect so that it is impossible for Nature to be without a beginning if you will speak naturally as human reason guides you and bring an Argument concluding from the Priority of the Cause before the Effect give me leave to tell you that God is not tied to Natural Rules but that he can do beyond our Understanding and therefore he is neither bound up to time
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
or self-moving matter do bear up and cause the inanimate parts to move and work with them and thus there is an activity in all parts of matter moving and working as one body without any fixation or rest for all is moveable moving and moved All which Madam if it were well observed there would not be so many strange opinions concerning nature and her actions making the purest and subtillest part of matter immaterial or incorporeal which is as much as to extend her beyond nature and to rack her quite to nothing But I fear the opinion of Immaterial substances in Nature will at last bring in again the Heathen Religion and make us believe a god Pan Bacchus Ceres Venus and the like so as we may become worshippers of Groves and shadows Beans and Onions as our Forefathers I say not this as if I would ascribe any worship to Nature or make her a Deity for she is onely a servant to God and so are all her parts or creatures which parts or creatures although they are transformed yet cannot be annihilated except Nature her self be annihilated which may be whensoever the Great God pleases for her existence and resolution or total destruction depends upon Gods Will and Decree whom she fears adores admires praises and prayes unto as being her God and Master and as she adores God so do all her parts and creatures and amongst the rest Man so that there is no Atheist in Infinite Nature at least not in the opinion of MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant V. MADAM I Cannot well conceive what your Author means by the Common Laws of Nature But if you desire my opinion how many Laws Nature hath and what they are I say Nature hath but One Law which is a wise Law viz. to keep Infinite matter in order and to keep so much Peace as not to disturb the Foundation of her Government for though Natures actions are various and so many times opposite which would seem to make wars between several Parts yet those active Parts being united into one Infinite body cannot break Natures general Peace for that which Man names War Sickness Sleep Death and the like are but various particular actions of the onely matter not as your Author imagines in a confusion like Bullets or such like things juggled together in a mans Hat but very orderly and methodical And the Playing motions of nature are the actions of Art but her serious actions are the actions of Production Generation and Transformation in several kinds sorts and particulars of her Creatures as also the action of ruling and governing these her several active Parts Concerning the Preeminence and Prerogative of Man whom your Author calls The flower and chief of all the products of nature upon this Globe of the earth I answer That Man cannot well be judged of himself because he is a Party and so may be Partial But if we observe well we shall find that the Elemental Creatures are as excellent as Man and as able to be a friend or foe to Man as Man to them and so the rest of all Creatures so that I cannot perceive more abilities in Man then in the rest of natural Creatures for though he can build a stately House yet he cannot make a Honey-comb and though he can plant a Slip yet he cannot make a Tree though he can make a Sword or Knife yet he cannot make the Mettal And as Man makes use of other Creatures so other Creatures make use of Man as far as he is good for any thing But Man is not so useful to his neighbour or fellow-creatures as his neighbour or fellow-creatures to him being not so profitable for use as apt to make spoil And so leaving him I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant VI. MADAM YOur Author demands Whether there was ever any man that was not mortal and whether there be any mortal that had not a beginning Truly if nature be eternal all the material figures which ever were are and can be must be also eternal in nature for the figures cannot be annihilated unless nature be destroyed and although a Creature is dissolved and transformed into numerous different figures yet all these several figures remain still in those parts of matter whereof that creature was made for matter never changes but is always one and the same and figure is nothing else but matter transposed or transformed by motion several modes or ways But if you conceive Matter to be one thing Figure another and Motion a third several distinct and dividable from each other it will produce gross errors for matter motion and figure are but one thing And as for that common question whether the Egg was before the Chick or the Chick before the Egg it is but a thred-bare argument which proves nothing for there is no such thing as First in Eternity neither doth Time make productions or generations but Matter and whatsoever matter can produce or generate was in matter before it was produced wherefore the question is whether Matter which is Nature had a beginning or not I say not for put the case the figures of Earth Air Water and Fire Light and Colours Heat and Cold Animals Vegetables and Minerals c. were not produced from all Eternity yet those figures have nevertheless been in Matter which is Nature from all eternity for these mentioned Creatures are onely made by the corporeal motions of Matter transforming Matter into such several figures Neither can there be any perishing or dying in Nature for that which Man calls so is onely an alteration of Figure And as all other productions are but a change of Matters sensitive motions so all irregular and extravagant opinions are nothing but a change of Matters rational motions onely productions by rational motions are interior and those by sensitive motions exterior For the Natural Mind is not less material then the body onely the Matter of the Mind is much purer and subtiller then the Matter of the Body And thus there is nothing in Nature but what is material but he that thinks it absurd to say the World is composed of meer self-moving Matter may consider that it is more absurd to believe Immaterial substances or spirits in Nature as also a spirit of Nature which is the Vicarious power of God upon Matter For why should it not be as probable that God did give Matter a self-moving power to her self as to have made another Creature to govern her For Nature is not a Babe or Child to need such a Spiritual Nurse to teach her to go or to move neither is she so young a Lady as to have need of a Governess for surely she can govern her self she needs not a Guardian for fear she should run away with a younger Brother or one that cannot make her a Jointure But leaving those strange opinions to the fancies of their Authors He add no more but that I am MADAM Your faithful Friend
to give such power to Matter as to an other Incorporeal substance But I suppose this opinion of natural Immaterial Spirits doth proceed from Chymistry where the extracts are vulgarly called Spirits and from that degree of Matter which by reason of its purity subtilty and activity is not subject to our grosser senses However these are not Incorporeal be they never so pure and subtil And I wonder much that men endeavour to prove Immaterial Spirits by corporeal Arts when as Art is not able to demonstrate Nature and her actions for Art is but the effect of Nature and expresses rather the variety then the truth of natural motions and if Art cannot do this much less will it be able to express what is not in Nature or what is beyond Nature as to trace the Visible or rather Invisible footsteps of the divine Councel and Providence or to demonstrate things supernatural and which go beyond mans reach and capacity But to return to Immaterial Spirits that they should rule and govern infinite corporeal matter like so many demy-Gods by a dilating nod and a contracting frown and cause so many kinds and sorts of Corporeal Figures to arise being Incorporeal themselves is Impossible for me to conceive for how can an Immaterial substance cause a Material corporeal substance which has no motion in it self to form so many several and various figures and creatures and make so many alterations and continue their kinds and sorts by perpetual successions of Particulars But perchance the Immaterial substance gives corporeal matter motion I answer My sense and reason cannot understand how it can give motion unless motion be different distinct and separable from it nay if it were yet being no substance or body it self according to your Authors and others opinion the question is how it can be transmitted or given away to corporeal matter Your Author may say That his Immaterial and Incorporeal spirit of Nature having self-motion doth form Matter into several Figures I answer Then that Immaterial substance must be transformed and metamorphosed into as many several figures as there are figures in Matter or there must be as many spirits as there are figures but when the figures change what doth become of the spirits Neither can I imagine that an Immaterial substance being without body can have such a great strength as to grapple with gross heavy dull and dead Matter Certainly in my opinion no Angel nor Devil except God Impower him would be able to move corporeal Matter were it not selfmoving much less any Natural Spirit But God is a Spirit and Immovable and if created natural Immaterials participate of that Nature as they do of the Name then they must be Immovable also Your Author Madam may make many several degrees of Spirits but certainly not I nor I think any natural Creature else will be able naturally to conceive them He may say perchance There is such a close conjunction betwixt Body and Spirit as I make betwixt rational sensitive and inanimate Matter I answer That these degrees are all but one Matter and of one and the same Nature as meer Matter different onely in degrees of purity subtilty and activity whereas Spirit and Body are things of contrary Natures In fine I cannot conceive how a Spirit should fill up a place or space having no body nor how it can have the effects of a body being none it self for the effects flow from the cause and as the cause is so are its effects And so confessing my ignorance I can say no more but rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXII MADAM YOur Author having assigned Indivisibility to the Soul or Spirit that moves and actuates matter I desire to know how one Indivisible Spirit can be in so many dividable parts For there being Infinite parts in Nature they must either have one Infinite Spirit to move them which must be dilated infinitely or this Spirit must move severally in every part of Nature If the first then I cannot conceive but all motion must be uniform or after one and the same manner nay I cannot understand how there can be any dilation and contraction or rather any motion of the same spirit by reason if it dilate then being equally spread out in all the parts of Matter it must dilate beyond Matter and if it contract it must leave some parts of matter void and without motion But if the Spirit moves every part severally then he is divisible neither can I think that there are so many Spirits as there are Parts in Nature for your Author says there is but one Spirit of Nature I will give an easie and plain example When a Worm is cut into two or three parts we see there is sensitive life and motion in every part for every part will strive and endeavour to meet and joyn again to make up the whole body now if there were but one indivisible Life Spirit and Motion I would fain know how these severed parts could move all by one Spirit Wherefore Matter in my opinion has self-motion in it self which is the onely soul and life of Nature and is dividable as well as composable and full of variety of action for it is as easie for several parts to act in separation as in composition and as easie in composition as in separation Neither is every part bound to one kind or sort of Motions for we see in exterior local motions that one man can put his body into several shapes and postures much more can Nature But is it not strange Madam that a man accounts it absurd ridiculous and a prejudice to Gods Omnipotency to attribute self-motion to Matter or a material Creature when it is not absurd ridiculous or any prejudice to God to attribute it to an Immaterial Creature What reason of absurdity lies herein Surely I can conceive none except it be absurd and ridiculous to make that which no man can know or conceive what it is viz. an immaterial natural Spirit which is as much as to say a natural No-thing to have motion and not onely motion but self-motion nay not onely self-motion but to move actuate rule govern and guide Matter or corporeal Nature and to be the cause of all the most curious varieties and effects in nature Was not God able to give self-motion as well to a Material as to an Immaterial Creature and endow Matter with a self-moving power I do not say Madam that Matter hath motion of it self so that it is the prime cause and principle of its own self-motion for that were to make Matter a God which I am far from believing but my opinion is That the self-motion of Matter proceeds from God as well as the self-motion of an Immaterial Spirit and that I am of this opinion the last Chapter of my Book of Philosophy will enform you where I treat of the Deitical Centre as the Fountain from whence all things do flow and which is the supream Cause Author
it is nevertheless I do verily believe that the body of the Sun is far brighter then the light we see and that the substance of light and the patterns taken from light are not one and the same but very different And thus much of light As for Penetration I conceive it to be nothing else but division as when some parts pierce and enter through other parts as Duellers run each other thorow or as water runs through a sieve And this is the opinion of MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXIV MADAM HAving given you my opinion both of the substance and perception of Light in my last Letter I perceive your desire is to know how Shadows are made Truly Madam to my sense and reason it appears most probable that shadows are made by the way of patterning As for example when a Man 's or Trees or any other the like Creature 's shadow is made upon the Ground or Wall or the like those bodies as the Ground or Wall do in my opinion pattern out the interposing body that is between the light and them And the reason that the shadow is longer or shorter or bigger or less is according as the light is nearer or further off for when the light is perpendicular the interposing body cannot obscure the light because the light surrounding the interposing body by its brightness rather obscures the body then the body the light for the numerous and splendorous patterns of light taken from the body of the Sun do quite involve the interposing body Next you desire to know Whether the light we see in the Moon be the Moons own natural light or a borrowed light from the Sun I answer that in my opinion it is a borrowed light to wit that the Moon doth pattern out the light of the Sun and the proof of it is that when the Sun is in an Eclipse we do plainly perceive that so much of the Sun is darkned as the Moon covers for though those parts of the Moon that are next the Sun may for any thing we know pattern out the light of the Sun yet the Moon is dark on that side which is from the Sun I will not say but that part of the Moon which is towards the Earth may pattern out the Earth or the shadow of the Earth which may make the Moon appear more dark and sullen But when the Moon is in an Eclipse then it is plainly perceived that the Moon patterns out the Earth or the shadow of the Earth Besides those parts of the Moon that are farthest from the Sun are dark as we may observe when as the Moon is in the Wane and enlightened when the Sun is nearer But I will leave this argument to observing Astrologers and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXV MADAM IF acording to your Authors opinion In every particular world such as Man is especially his own Soul which is a Spirit be the peculiar and most perfective architect of the Fabrick of his Body as the Soul of the world is of it Then I cannot conceive in my reason how the separation is made in death for I see that all animals and so man-kind have a natural desire to live and that life and soul are unwilling to part And if the power lies in the Soul why doth she not continue with the Body and animate move and actuate it as she did before or order the matter so as not to dissolve But if the dissolution lies in the body then the body has self-motion Yet it is most probable if the soul be the architect of the body it must also be the dissolver of it and if there come not another soul into the parts of matter the body must either be annihilated or lie immoved as long as the world lasts which is improbable for surely all the bodies of men or other animals are imployed by Nature to some use or other However it is requisite that the soul must stay so long in the body until it be turned into dust and ashes otherwise the body having no self-motion would remain as it was when the soul left it that is entire and undissolved As for example when a man dies if there be no motion in his body and the soul which was the mover be gone it cannot possibly corrupt for certainly that we call corruptton is made by motion and the body requires as much motion to be dissolved or divided as it doth to be framed or composed Wherefore a dead body would remain in the same state continually if it had no self-motion in it And if another soul should enter into the body and work it to another figure then certainly there must be much more souls then bodies because bodies are subject to change into several forms but if the animal spirits which are left in the body after the soul is gone are able to dissolve it without the help of the soul then it is probable they could have fram'd it without the help of the soul and so they being material it must be granted that matter is self-moving But if corporeal matter have corporeal self-motion a self-moving Immaterial Spirit by reason of their different natures would make great obstruction and so a general confusion for the corporeal and incorporeal motions would hinder and oppose each other their natures being quite different and though they might subsist together without disturbance of each other yet it is not probable they should act together and that in such a conjunction as if they were one united body for it is in my opinion more probable that one material should act upon another material or one immaterial upon another immaterial then that an immaterial should act upon a material or corporeal Thus the consideration or contemplation of immaterial natural Spirits puts me always into doubts and raises so many contradictions in my sense and reason as I know not nor am not able to reconcile them However though I am doubtful of them yet I can assure your self that I continue MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXVI MADAM BY reason the Soul is a Spirit and therefore Contractible and Dilatable your Authors opinion is That it begins within less compass at first in organizing the fitly prepared matter and so bears it self on in the same tenour of work till the body hath attained its full growth and that the Soul dilates it self in the dilating of the Body and so possesses it through all the members thereof Truly Madam as for the contraction and dilation of an immaterial Spirit if I heard never so many arguments I should hardly be able to conceive the possibility of it For in my opinion dilating and contracting are motions and actions of Nature which belong to natural material Creatures and to none else for dilation and contraction cannot be without extension but extension belongs to parts which an immaterial Spirit hath not But suppose it be so then the Soul must contract and dilate
encounter and that the fruits which Antiquity hath believed to be mixt bodies and those composed from a concurrence of four Elements are materially of one onely Element also that those three Elements are naturally cold nor that native heat is any where in things except from Light Life Motion and an altering Blas In like manner that all actual moisture is of Water but all virtual moisture from the property of the seeds Likewise that dryness is by it self in the Air and Earth but in Fruits by reason of the Seeds and Coagulations and that there are not Contraries in Nature To give you my opinion hereof first I think it too great a presumption in any man to feign himself so much above the rest as to accuse all others of ignorance and that none but he alone hath the true knowledg of all things as infallible and undeniable and that so many Learned Wise and Ingenious Men in so many ages have been blinded with errors for certainly no particular Creature in Nature can have any exact or perfect knowledg of Natural things and therefore opinions cannot be infallible truths although they may seem probable for how is it possible that a single finite Creature should know the numberless varieties and hidden actions of Nature Wherefore your Author cannot say that he hath demonstrated any thing which could not be as much contradicted and perhaps with more reason then he hath brought proofs and demonstrations And thus when he speaks of Elements that there are not four in Nature and that they cannot go together or encounter it may be his opinion but others have brought as many reasons to the contrary and I think with more probability so as it is unnecessary to make a tedious discourse thereof and therefore I 'le refer you to those that have treated of it more learnedly and solidly then I can do But I perceive your Author is much for Art and since he can make solid bodies liquid and liquid bodies solid he believes that all bodies are composed out of the Element of Water and that Water therefore is the first Principle of all things when as Water in my opinion is but an Effect as all other natural Creatures and therefore cannot be a cause or principle of them Concerning the Natural coldness of Water Air and Earth it may be or not be so for any thing your Author can truly know but to my sense and reason it seems probable that there are things naturally hot and moist and hot and dry as well as cold and moist and cold and dry But all these are but several effects produced by the several actions of Natural Matter which Natural Matter is the onely Principle of all Natural Effects and Creatures whatever and this Principle I am confident your Author can no more prove to be Water then he can prove that Heat Light Life Motion and Blas are not material Concerning what he saith That Native Heat is no where in things except from Light Life Motion and an altering Blas I believe that motion of life makes not onely heat but all effects whatsoever but this native heat is not produced onely from the motions of Particular lives in particular Creatures but it is made by the motions of Natures life which life in all probability is the self-moving Matter which no doubt can and doth make Light and Blas without Heat and Heat without Light or Blas Wherefore Light and Blas are not principles of native Heat no more then native Heat is the principle of Light and Blas Neither is Water the Principle of Actual moisture nor the propriety of seeds the Principle of all Virtual moisture but self-moving Matter is the Principle of all and makes both actual and virtual moisture and there is no question but there are many sorts of moistures As for Dryness which he says is by it self in the Air and Earth and in Fruits by reason of the Seeds and Coagulations I cannot conceive how any thing can be by it self in Nature by reason there is nothing alone and single in Nature but all are inseparable parts of one body perchance he means it is naturally and essentially inherent in Air and Earth but neither can that be in my reason because all Creatures and Effects of Nature are Intermixt and there is as much dryness in other Creatures as in Air and Earth Lastly as for his opinion That there are no Contraries in Nature I believe not in the essence or nature of Matter but sense and reason inform us that there are Contraries in Natures actions which are Corporeal motions which cause mixtures qualities degrees discords as also harmonious conjunctions and concords compositions divisions and the like effects whatsoever But though your Author seems to be an enemy to the mixtures of Elements yet he makes such a mixture of Divinity and natural Philosophy that all his Philosophy is nothing but a meer Hotch-potch spoiling one with the other And so I will leave it to those that delight in it resting MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant IV. MADAM WAter according to your Authors opinion is frozen into Snow Ice or Hail not by Cold but by its own Gas But since I am not able to conceive what his Gas is being a term invented by himself I will briefly declare my own opinion which is That Snow Ice and Hail in my judgment are made in the like manner as Passions or Colours are made and raised in Man for a sad discourse or a cruel object will make a Man pale and cold and a fearful object will make him tremble whereas a wanton and obscene discourse will make some red and hot But yet these discourses and objects are onely external occasional and not immediate efficient causes of such alterations Also when a Man eats or drinks any thing that is actually hot or cold or enters into a cold or hot room bath or air he becomes hot or cold by the actions of those external agents that work upon him or rather whose motions the sensitive motions of his body do pattern out The like for diseases for they may be caused either by hearing ill reports or by taking either hurtful or superfluous food into the Body or by Infections inwardly or outwardly and many other ways Likewise may Colours be made different ways And so may Snow Ice and Hail for all loose rare and porous Bodies are more apt to alter and change then close solid and dense bodies and not onely to change from what they are but to rechange to what they were But Madam many studious persons study Nature more in her own substance then in her various actions which is the cause they arrive to no knowledg of Natures Works for the same parts of Matter may act or work several ways Like as a Man or other animal creature may put one part of his body into various and several postures and move it many different ways Your Author may say that although several Creatures may be
will say air may be cooled by moving it with a Fan or such like thing which can make wind wherefore it follows that air must needs be naturally cold I answer That doth not prove Air to be in its nature cold for this moving or making of wind may contract or condense the air into cold motions which may cause a cold wind like as Ventiducts where the air running thorow narrow Pipes makes a cold wind The same may be done with a mans breath for if he contract his lips close his breath will be cold but if he opens his mouth wide his breath will be warm Again you may say that rain is congealed by the coldness of the air into Snow Hail and Ice I answer Frost Ice Snow and Hail do not proceed from the coldness of the air but rather the coldness of the air proceeds from them for Ice Snow and Hail proceed from cold contraction and condensation of a vaporous or watery substance and as Frost and Snow cause air to be cold so Thunder and Lightning cause it to be hot so long as they last Thus Madam though Air may be altered either to heat or cold yet it is neither hot nor cold in it self And this is all for the present that I can say concerning the Temper of Air I conclude and rest MADAM Your constant Friend and faithful Servant VIII MADAM HAving hitherto considered your Authors Elements or Principles of Natural things you will give me leave to present you now with a short view of his Opinions concerning Wind Vacuum Rainbows Thunder Lightning Earth-quakes and the like which I will do as briefly as I can lest I betray my Ignorance for I confess my self not to be well versed in the knowledg of Meteors nor in those things which properly belong to the Mathematicks as in Astrology Geography Opticks and the like But your Author says in the first place That Natural Wind is nothing but a flowing Air moved by the Blas of the Stars Certainly Madam if this were so then in my judgment when the Stars blaze we should have constant Winds and the more they blaze the more violent winds there would be But I have rather observed the contrary that when the Stars blaze most apparently we have the calmest weather either in Summer or Winter Perchance your Author will say he doth not mean this apparant and visible Blas but another invisible Blas I answer I know not nor cannot conceive any other Blas in the Stars except I had seen it in a Vision neither do I think that Nature her self knows of any other But your Author doth refer himself upon the Authority of Hypocrates who says That not onely the Wind is a blast but that all Diseases are from blasts and that there is in us a Spirit stirring up all things by its Blas which Spirit by a Microcosmical Analogy or the proportion of a little World he compares to the blasts of the world As for my particular Madam I dare say I could never perceive by my sense and reason any such blazing Spirit in me but I have found by experience that when my mind and thoughts have been benighted with Melancholy my Imagination hath been more active and subtil then when my mind has been clear from dark Melancholy Also I find that my thoughts and conceptions are as active if not more in the night then in the day and though we may sometimes dream of several Lights yet I cannot perceive a constant light in us however Light Blazes and all those effects are no more then other effects of Nature are nor can they have more power on other Creatures then other Creatures have on them Neither are they made otherwise then by the corporeal motions of Natural Matter and are dissolved and transchanged as other Creatures out of one form or figure into another Next your Author discoursing whether there be any Vacuum in Nature doth incline to the affirming party that there is a Vacuum in the Air to wit There is in the air something that is less then a body which fills up the emptinesses or little holes and pores in the air and which is wholly annihilated by fire It is actually void of all matter and is a middle thing between a body and an Incorporeal Spirit and almost nothing in respect of bodies for it came from Nothing and so may easily be reduced to nothing All this Madam surpasses my capacity for I can in no ways conceive any thing between something and nothing as to be less then something and more then nothing for all that is corporeal in Nature is to my reason something that is some really existent thing but what is incorporeal in Nature is nothing and if there be any absolute vacuum in Nature as your Author endeavours to prove then certainly this Vacuum cannot be any thing whatsoever for a Vacuum is a pure Nothing But many ingenious and learned men have brought as many arguments and reasons against Vacuum as others bring for it and so it is a thing which I leave to them to exercise their brains withal The like is the opinion which many maintain concerning Place viz. that there is a constant succession of Place and Parts so that when one part removes another doth succeed in its place the truth and manner whereof I was never able to comprehend for in my opinion there can be no place without body nor no body without place body and place being all but one thing But as for the perpetual Creation and annihilation of your Authors Vacuities give me leave to tell you Madam that it would be a more laborious work then to make a new World or then it was to make this present World for God made this World in six days and rested the seventh day but this is a perpetual making of something out of nothing Again concerning Rainbows your Author says That a Rainbow is not a natural effect of a natural Cause but a divine Mystery in its original and that it has no matter but yet is in a place and has its colours immediately in a place but in the air mediately and that it is of the nature of Light This is indeed a great mystery to my reason for I cannot conceive as I said before a place without a body nor how Light and Colours can be bodiless But as for Rainbows I have observed when as water hath been blown up into the air into bubles that by the reflexion of light on the watery bubles they have had the like colours of the Rainbow and I have heard that there hath been often seen at the rising and setting of the Sun Clouds of divers colours Wherefore I cannot be perswaded to believe that a Rainbow should not have a natural cause and consequently be a natural effect For that God has made it a sign of the Covenant between him and mortal men is no proof that it is not a natural effect Neither can I believe that
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
I rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXXI MADAM YOur Author in opposition to the Schools endeavouring to prove that there are no humors in an animal body except blood proves many humors in himself But I can see no reason why Nature should not make several humors as well as several Elements Vegetables Minerals Animals and other Creatures and that in several parts of the body and many several ways for to mention but one sort of other Creatures viz. Vegetables they are as we see not onely produced many several ways but in many several grounds either by sowing setting or grafting either in clayie limy sandy chalky dry or wet grounds And why may not several humors be produced as well of other Creatures and parts as others are produced of them for all parts of Nature are produced one from another as being all of one and the same Matter onely the variation of corporeal motions makes all the difference and variety between them which variety of motions is impossible to be known by any particular Creature for Nature can do more then any Creature can conceive Truly Madam I should not be of such a mind as to oppose the Schools herein so eargerly as your Author doth but artificial actions make men to have erroneous opinions of the actions of Nature judging them all according to the rule and measure of Art when as Art oft deludes men under the cover of truth and makes them many times believe falshood for truth for Nature is pleased with variety and so doth make numerous absurdities doubts opinions disputations objections and the like Moreover your Author is as much against the radical moisture as he is against the four humors saying that according to this opinion of the Schools a fat belly through much grease affording more fuel to the radical moisture must of necessity live longer But this in my opinion is onely a wilful mistake for I am confident that the Schools do not understand radical moisture to be gross fat radical oyl but a thin oylie substance Neither do they believe radical heat to be a burning fiery and consuming heat but such a degree of natural heat as is comfortable nourishing refreshing and proper for the life of the animal Creature Wherefore radical heat and moisture doth not onely consist in the Grease of the body for a lean body may have as much and some of them more Radical moisture then fat bodies But your Author instead of this radical moisture makes a nourishable moisture onely as I suppose out of a mind to contradict the Schools when as I do not perceive that the Schools mean by Radical moisture any other then a nourishable moisture and therefore this distinction is needless Lastly he condemns the Schools for making an affinity betwixt the bowels and the brain But he might as will condemn Politicians for saying there is an affinity betwixt Governors and Subjects or betwixt command and obedience but as the actions of Particulars even from the meanest in a Common-wealth may chance to make a Publick disturbance so likewise in the Common-wealth of the body one single action in a particular part may cause a disturbance of the whole Body nay a total ruine and dissolution of the composed which dissolution is called Death and yet these causes are neither Light nor Blas nor Gas no more then men are shining Suns or flaming Torches or blazing Meteors or azure Skies Wherefore leaving your Author to his contradicting humor I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXXII MADAM I Do verily believe with the Schools the Purging of the Brain against your Author For I know no reason why all the parts of a man's body should not stand in need of evacuation and purging as well as some 'T is true if the substance or nourishment received were all useful and onely enough for the maintenance subsistance and continuance of the Creature and no more then there would be no need of such sort of evacuation but I believe the corporeal self-motions in a body discharge the superfluous matter out of every part of the body if the motions of the superfluous matter be not too strong and over-power the motions in the parts of the body but some parts do produce more superfluities then others by reason their property is more to dilate then to contract and more to attract then to retain or fix which parts are the brain stomack bowels bladder gall and the like wherefore as there is nourishment in all parts of the body so there are also excrements in all parts for there is no nourishment without excrement Next your Author says That the nourishment of the solid parts is made with the transmutation of the whole venal blood into nourishment without a separation of the pure from the impure But I pray give me leave to ask Madam whether the solid Parts are not Instruments for the nourishment of the Venal blood Truly I cannot conceive how blood should be nourished wanting those solid parts and their particular motions and imployments Again his opinion is That the brain is nourished by a few and slender veins neither doth a passage or channel appear whereby a moist excrement may derive or a vapour enter And by reason of the want of such a passage in another place he is pleased to affirm That nothing can fume up from the stomack into the brain and therefore Wine doth not make drunk with fuming from the stomach into the head but the Winie spirit is immediately snatched into the arteries out of the stomack without digestion and so into the head and there breeds a confusion First I am not of the opinion that all nourishment comes from the veins or from one particular part of the body no more do Excrements neither do I believe that every passage in the body is visible to Anatomists for Natures works are too curious and intricate for any particular Creature to find them out which is the cause that Anatomists and Chymists are so oft mistaken in natural causes and effects for certainly they sometimes believe great Errors for great Truths Next as for Drunkenness I believe that many who drink much Wine are drunk before such time as the Wine spirit can get into the Arteries but if there be Pores to the Brain as it is most probable the spirit of Wine may more easily ascend and enter those Pores then the Pores of the Arteries or the Mouth-veins and so make a circular journey to the Head But as for Excrements whereof I spake in the beginning as they are made several manners or ways and in several parts of the body so they are also discharged several ways from several parts and several ways from each particular part indeed so many several ways and manners as would puzzle the wisest man in the world nay your Authors Interior keeper of the Brain to find them out Wherefore to conclude he is the best Physician that can tell how to discharge
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
they make Ice Surely Nature is wiser then to trouble her self with unnecessary labour and to make an easie work difficult as Art her Creature doth or as some dull humane capacities conceive for it is more easie for Nature to make Snow by some sorts of cold contractions as she makes Ice by other sorts of cold contractions then to force Air and Wind to beat grinde or pound Ice into Snow which would cause a confusion and disturbance through the Irregularity of several parts being jumbled in a confused manner together The truth is it would rather cause a War in Nature then a natural production alteration or transformation Neither can I conceive in what region this turbulent and laborious work should be acted certainly not in the caverns of the Earth for snow descends from the upper Region But perchance this Author believes that Nature imploys Wind as a Hand and the Cold air as a Spoon to beat Ice like the white of an Egg into a froth of Snow But the great quantity of Snow in many places doth prove that Snow is not made of the fragments of Ice but that some sorts of cold contractions on a watery body make the figure of snow in the substance of water as other sorts of cold contractions make the figure of ice which motions and figures I have treated of in my Book of Philosophy according to that Judgment and Reason which Nature has bestowed upon me The Author of this Fancy gives the same reason for Snow being white For Ice says he is a transparent body and all transparent bodies when beaten into powder appear white and since Snow is nothing else but Ice powder d small it must of necessity shew white Truly Madam I am not so experienced as to know that all transparent bodies being beaten small shew white but grant it be so yet that doth not prove that the whiteness of snow proceeds from the broken parts of Ice unless it be proved that the whiteness of all bodies proceeds from the powdering of transparent bodies which I am sure he cannot do for Silver and millions of other things are white which were never produced from the powder of transparent bodies Neither do I know any reason against it but that which makes a Lilly white may also be the cause of the whiteness of Snow that is such a figure as makes a white colour for different figures in my opinion are the cause of different colours as you will find in my Book of Philosophy where I say that Nature by contraction of lines draws such or such a Figure which is such or such a Colour as such a Fgure is red and such a Figure is green and so of all the rest But the Palest colours and so white are the loosest and slackest figures Indeed white which is the nearest colour to light is the smoothest evenest and straightest figure and composed of the smallest lines As for example suppose the figure of 8. were the colour of Red and the figure of 1. the colour of White or suppose the figure of Red to be a z. and the figure of an r. to be the figure of Green and a straight l. the figure of White And mixt figures make mixt colours The like examples may be brought of other Figures as of a Harpsichord and its strings a Lute and its strings a Harp and its strings c. By which your Reason shall judg whether it be not easier for Nature to make Snow and its whiteness by the way of contraction then by the way of dissolution As for example Nature in making Snow contracts or congeals the exterior figure of Water into the figure of a Harp which is a Triangular figure with the figure of straight strings within it for the exterior figure of the Harp represents the exterior figure of Snow and the figure of the strings extended in straight lines represent the figure of its whiteness And thus it is easier to make Snow and its whiteness at one act then first to contract or congeal water into Ice and then to cause wind and cold air to beat and break that Ice into powder and lastly to contract or congeal that powder into flakes of Snow Which would be a very troublesom work for Nature viz. to produce one effect by so many violent actions and several labours when the making of two figures by one action will serve the turn But Nature is wiser then any of her Creatures can conceive for she knows how to make and how to dissolve form and transform with facility and ease without any difficulty for her actions are all easie and free yet so subtil curious and various as not any part or creature of Nature can exactly or throughly trace her ways or know her wisdom And thus leaving her I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XV. MADAM I Have taken several questions out of your new Author which I intend to answer in this present Letter according to the conceptions of my own sense and reason and to submit them to your censure which if you vouchsafe to grant me without partiality I shall acknowledge my self much obliged to you for this favour The first question is Why wet Linnen is dried in the Air I answer That according to my sense and reason the water which is spred upon the linnen being not united in a full and close body dilates beyond the Circle-degree of water and wetness and so doth easily change from water to vapour and from vapour to air whereby the linnen becomes as dry as it was before it became wet The second question is Why Water and Wine intermix so easily and suddenly together I answer All wet liquors although their exterior figures do differ yet their interior natures figures and forms are much alike and those things that are of the same interior nature do easily and suddenly joyn as into one Wherefore Wine and Water having both wet natures do soon incorporate together whereas were they of different natures they would not so peaceably joyn together but by their contrary natures become enemies and strive to destroy each other but this is to be observed that the sharp points of the Circle-lines of Wine by passing through the smooth Circle-lines of Water help to make a more hasty and sudden conjunction The third question is Why Light which in its nature is white shining through a coloured Glass doth appear of the same colour which the Glass is of either Blew Green Red or the like I answer The reason is that though Light in its nature be white and the Glass clear and transparent yet when as the Glass is stained or painted with colours both the clearness of the glass and the whiteness of the light is obstructed by the figure of that colour the glass is stained or painted withal and the light spreading upon or thorow the glass represents it self in the figure of that same colour indeed in all probability to sense and reason it appears that
Famous Physician and Chymist Van Helmont Which Works you have sent me not onely to peruse but also to give my judgment of them and to send you word by the usual way of our Correspondence which is by Letters how far and wherein I do dissent from these Famous Authors their Opinions in Natural Philosophy To tell you truly Madam your Commands did at first much affright me for it did appear as if you had commanded me to get upon a high Rock and fling my self into the Sea where neither a Ship nor a Plank nor any kind of help was near to rescue me and save my life but that I was forced to sink by reason I cannot swim So I having no Learning nor Art to assist me in this dangerous undertaking thought I must of necessity perish under the rough censures of my Readers and be not onely accounted a fool for my labour but a vain and presumptuous person to undertake things surpassing the ability of my performance but on the other side I considered first that those Worthy Authors were they my censurers would not deny me the same liberty they take themselves which is that I may dissent from their Opinions as well as they dissent from others and from amongst themselves And if I should express more Vanity then Wit more Ignorance then Knowledg more Folly then Discretion it being according to the Nature of our Sex I hoped that my Masculine Readers would civilly excuse me and my Female Readers could not justly condemn me Next I considered with my self that it would be a great advantage for my Book called Philosophical Opinions as to make it more perspicuous and intelligible by the opposition of other Opinions since two opposite things placed near each other are the better discerned for I must confess that when I did put forth my Philosophical Work at first I was not so well skilled in the Terms or Expressions usual in Natural Philosophy and therefore for want of their knowledg I could not declare my meaning so plainly and clearly as I ought to have done which may be a sufficient argument to my Readers that I have not read heretofore any Natural Philosophers and taken some Light from them but that my Opinions did meerly issue from the Fountain of my own Brain without any other help or assistance Wherefore since for want of proper Expressions my named Book of Philosophy was accused of obscurity and intricacy I thought your Commands would be a means to explain and clear it the better although not by an Artificial way as by Logical Arguments or Mathematical Demonstrations yet by expressing my Sense and Meaning more properly and clearly then I have done heretofore But the chief reason of all was the Authority of your Command which did work so powerfully with me that I could not resist although it were to the disgrace of my own judgment and wit and therefore I am fully resoved now to go on as far and as well as the Natural strength of my Reason will reach but since neither the strength of my Body nor of my understanding or wit is able to mark every line or every word of their works and to argue upon them I shall onely pick out the ground Opinions of the aforementioned Authors and those which do directly dissent from mine upon which I intend to make some few Reflections according to the ability of my Reason and I shall meerly go upon the bare Ground of Natural Philosophy and not mix Divinity with it as many Philosophers use to do except it be in those places where I am forced by the Authors Arguments to reflect upon it which yet shall be rather with an expression of my ignorance then a positive declaration of my opinion or judgment thereof for I think it not onely an absurdity but an injury to the holy Profession of Divinity to draw her to the Proofs in Natural Philosophy wherefore I shall strictly follow the Guidance of Natural Reason and keep to my own ground and Principles as much as I can which that I may perform the better I humbly desire the help and assistance of your Favour that according to that real and intire Affection you bear to me you would be pleased to tell me unfeignedly if I should chance to err or contradict but the least probability of truth in any thing for I honor Truth so much as I bow down to its shadow with the greatest respect and reverence and I esteem those persons most that love and honor Truth with the same zeal and fervor whether they be Ancient or Modern Writers Thus Madam although I am destitute of the help of Arts yet being supported by your Favour and wise Directions I shall not fear any smiles of scorn or words of reproach for I am confident you will defend me against all the mischievous and poisonous Teeth of malitious detractors I shall besides implore the assistance of the Sacred Church and the Learned Schools to take me into their Protection and shelter my weak endeavours For though I am but an ignorant and simple Woman yet I am their devoted and honest Servant who shall never quit the respect and honor due to them but live and die theirs as also MADAM Your Ladiships humble and faithful Servant II. MADAM BEfore I begin my Reflections upon the Opinions of those Authors you sent me I will answer first your Objection concerning the Ground of my Philosophy which is Infinite Matter For you were pleased to mention That you could not well apprehend how it was possible that many Infinites could be contained in one Infinite since one Infinite takes up all Place Imaginary leaving no room for any other Also if one Infinite should be contained in an other Infinite that which contains must of necessity be bigger then that which is contained whereby the Nater of Infinite would be lost as having no bigger nor less but being of an Infinite quantity First of all Madam there is no such thing as All in Infinite nor any such thing as All the Place for Infinite is not circumscribed nor limited Next as for that one Infinite cannot be in an other Infinite I answer as well as one Finite can be in another Finite for one Creature is not onely composed of Parts but one Part lies within another and one Figure within another and one Motion within another As for example Animal Kind have they not Internal and External Parts and so Internal and External Motions And are not Animals Vegetables and Minerals inclosed in the Elements But as for Infinites you must know Madam that there are several kindes of Infinites For there is first Infinite in quantity or bulk that is such a big and great Corporeal substance which exceeds all bounds and limits of measure and may be called Infinite in Magnitude Next there is Infinite in Number which exceeds all numeration and account and may be termed Infinite in Multitude Again there is Infinite in Quality as for example
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
is to say to find some certain and limited Time and Place in which to begin a method of Seeking And from thence his thoughts run over the same places and times to find what action or other occasion might make him lose it This we call Remembrance or calling to mind Sometimes a man knows a place determinate within the compass whereof he is to seek and then his thoughts run over all the Parts thereof in the same manner as one would sweep a room to find a Jewel or as a Spaniel ranges the field till he find a sent or as a Man should run over the Alphabet to start a Rime Thus far your Author In which discourse I do not perceive that he defineth what the Mind is but I say that if according to his opinion nothing moves it self but one thing moves another then the Mind must do nothing but move backward and forward nay onely forward and if all actions were thrusting or pressing of parts it would be like a crowd of People and there would be but little or no motion for the crowd would make a stoppage like water in a glass the mouth of the Glass being turned downwards no water can pass out by reason the numerous drops are so closely press'd as they cannot move exteriously Next I cannot conceive how the Mind can run back either to Time or Place for as for Place the mind is inclosed in the body and the running about in the parts of the body or brain will not inform it of an Exterior place or object besides objects being the cause of the minds motion it must return to its Cause and so move until it come to the object that moved it first so that the mind must run out of the body to that object which moved it to such a Thought although that object were removed out of the World as the phrase is But for the mind to move backward to Time past is more then it can do Wherefore in my opinion Remembrance or the like is onely a repetition of such Figures as were like to the Objects and for Thoughts in Particular they are several figures made by the mind which is the Rational Part of matter in its own substance either voluntarily or by imitation whereof you may see more in my Book of Philosophical Opinions Hence I conclude that Prudence is nothing else but a comparing of Figures to Figures and of the several actions of those Figures as repeating former Figures and comparing them to others of the like nature qualities proprieties as also chances fortunes c. Which figuring and repeating is done actually in and by the Rational Matter so that all the observation of the mind on outward Objects is onely an actual repetition of the mind as moving in such or such figures and actions and when the mind makes voluntary Figures with those repeated Figures and compares them together this comparing is Examination and when several Figures agree and joyn it is Conclusion or Judgment likewise doth Experience proceed from repeating and comparing of several Figures in the Mind and the more several Figures are repeated and compared the greater the experience is One thing more there is in the same Chapter which I cannot let pass without examination Your Authour says That things Present onely have a being in Nature things Past onely a being in the Memory but things to come have no being at all Which how it possibly can be I am not able to conceive for certainly if nothing in nature is lost or annihilated what is past and what is to come hath as well a being as what is present and if that which is now had its being before why may it not also have its being hereafter It might as well be said that what is once forgot cannot be remembred for whatsoever is in Nature has as much a being as the Mind and there is not any action or motion or figure in Nature but may be repeated that is may return to its former Figure when it is altered and dissolved But by reason Nature delights in variety repetitions are not so frequently made especially of those things or creatures which are composed by the sensitive corporeal motions in the inanimate part of Matter because they are not so easily wrought as the Rational matter can work upon its own parts being more pliant in its self then the Inanimate matter is And this is the reason that there are so many repetitions of one and the same Figure in the Rational matter which is the Mind but seldom any in the Gross and inanimate part of Matter for Nature loves ease and freedom But to conclude Madam I perceive your Author confines Sense onely to Animal-kind and Reason onely to Man-kind Truly it is out of self-love when one Creature prefers his own Excellency before another for nature being endued with self-love all Creatures have self-love too because they are all Parts of Nature and when Parts agree or disagree it is out of Interest and Self-love but Man herein exceeds all the rest as having a supernatural Soul whose actions also are supernatural To which I leave him and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant IX MADAM WHen your Author discourseth of the use of Speech or Words and Names he is pleas'd to say That their use is to serve for marks and notes of Remembrance Whereof to give you my opinion I say That Speech is natural to the shape of Man and though sometimes it serves for marks or notes of remembrance yet it doth not always for all other Animals have Memory without the help of Speech and so have deaf and dumb men nay more then those that hear and speak Wherefore though Words are useful to the mind and so to the memory yet both can be without them whereas Words cannot be without Memory for take a Bird and teach him to speak if he had not Memory before he heard the words he could never learn them You will ask me Madam What then is Memory the Cause of Speech I answer Life and Knowledg which is Sense and Reason as it creates and makes all sorts of Creatures so also amongst the rest it makes Words And as I said before that Memory may be without the help of Speech or Words so I say also that there is a possibility of reckoning of numbers as also of magnitudes of swiftness of force and other things without words although your Author denies it But some men are so much for Art as they endeavour to make Art which is onely a Drudgery-maid of Nature the chief Mistress and Nature her Servant which is as much as to prefer Effects before the Cause Nature before God Discord before Unity and Concord Again your Author in his Chapter of Reason defines Reason to be nothing else but Reckoning I answer That in my opinion Reckoning is not Reason it self but onely an effect or action of Reason for Reason as it is the chiefest and purest degree
are not bare and bodiless qualities but such figures made by corporeal self-motions and are as well real and corporeal objects as other figures are and when these figures change or alter it is onely that their motions alter which may alter and change heat into cold and light into darkness and black colour into white But by reason the motions of the Sun are so constant as the motions of any other kind of Creatures it is no more subject to be altered then all the World unless Nature did it by the command of God for though the Parts of self-moving Matter be alterable yet all are not altered and this is the reason that the figure of Light in our eye and brain is altered as well as it is alterable but not the real figure of the Sun neither doth the Sun enter our eyes and as the Light of the Sun is made or patterned in the eye so is the light of Glow-worms-tails and Cats-eyes that shine in the dark made not by the Sun 's but their own motions in their own parts The like when we dream of Light the sensitive corporeal motions working inwardly make the figure of light on the inside of the eye as they did pattern out the figure of light on the out side of the eye when awake and the objects before them for the sensitive motions of the eye pattern out the figure of the object in the eye and the rational motions make the same figure in their own substance But there is some difference between those figures that perceive light and those that are light themselves for when we sleep there is made the figure of light but not from a copy but when the eye seeth light that figure is made from a copy of the real figure of the Sun but those lights which are inherent as in Glow-worms-tails are original lights in which is as much difference as between a Man and his Picture and as for the swiftness of the Motions of light and the violence of the Motions of fire it is very probable they are so but they are a certain particular kind or sort of swift and violent motions neither will all sorts of swift and violent motions make fire or light as for example the swift and violent Circular motion of a Whirlewind neither makes light nor fire Neither is all fire light nor all light fire for there is a sort of dead fire as in Spices Spirits Oyles and the like and several sorts of lights which are not hot as the light which is made in Dreams as also the inherent lights in Glow-worms Cats-eyes Fish-bones and the like all which several fires and lights are made by the self-moving matter and motions distinguishable by their figures for those Motions make such a figure for the Suns light such a figure for Glow-worms light such a figure for Cats-eyes light and so some alteration in every sort of light The same for Fire onely Fire-light is a mixt figure as partly of the figure of Fire and partly of the figure of Light Also Colours are made after the like manner viz. so many several Colours so many several Figures and as these Figures are less or more different so are the Colours Thus Madam whosoever will study Nature must consider the Figures of every Creature as well as their Motions and must not make abstractions of Motion and Figure from Matter nor of Matter from Motion and Figure for they are inseparable as being but one thing viz. Corporeal Figurative Motions and whosoever conceives any of them as abstract will in my opinion very much erre but men are apt to make more difficulties and enforcements in nature then nature ever knew But to return to Light There is no better argument to prove that all objects of sight are figured in the Eye by the sensitive voluntary or self-motions without the pressure of objects but that not onely the pressure of light would hurt the tender Eye but that the eye doth not see all objects according to their Magnitude but sometimes bigger sometimes less as for example when the eye looks through a small passage as a Prospective-glass by reason of the difficulty of seeing a body through a small hole and the double figure of the glass being convex and concave the corporeal motions use more force by which the object is enlarged like as a spark of fire by force is dilated into a great fire and a drop of water by blowing into a bubble so the corporeal motions do double and treble their strength making the Image of the object exceeding large in the eye for though the eye be contracted yet the Image in the eye is enlarged to a great extension for the sensitive and rational matter is extremely subtil by reason it is extreamly pure by which it hath more means and ways of magnifying then the Perspective-glass But I intend to write more of this subject in my next and so I break off here resting MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XX. MADAM SOme perhaps will question the truth or probability of my saying that Light is a Body objecting that if light were a body when the Sun is absent or retires under our Horizon its light would leave an empty place or if there were no empty place but all full the light of the Sun at its return would not have room to display it self especially in so great a compass as it doth for two bodies cannot be in one place at one time I answer all bodies carry their places along with them for body and place go together and are inseparable and when the light of the Sun is gone darkness succeeds and when darkness is gone light succeeds so that it is with light and darkness as with all Creatures else For you cannot believe that if the whole World were removed there would be a place of the world left for there cannot be an empty nothing no more then there can be an empty something but if the world were annihilated the place would be annihilated too place and body being one and the same thing and therefore in my opinion there be no more places then there are bodies nor no more bodies then there are places Secondly They will think it absurd that I say the eye can see without light but in my opinion it seems not absurd but very rational for we may see in dreams and some do see in the dark not in their fancy or imagination but really and as for dreams the sensitive corporeal motions make a light on the inside of the organ of sight really as I have declared in my former Letter But that we do not see ordinarily without exterior Light the reason is that the sensitive Motions cannot find the outward objects to pattern out without exterior light but all perception doth not proceed from light for all other perception besides animal sight requires not light Neither in my opinion doth the Perception of sight in all Creatures but Animals but yet
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
out the object of sent besides the nose but those are interior parts and take their patterns from the nose as the organ properly designed for it neither is their resentment the same because their motions are not alike for the stomack may perceive and pattern out a sent with aversion when the nose may pattern it out with pleasure And thus much also of Sent I conclude and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXIX MADAM COncerning your Learned Authors discourse of Density and Rality he defines Thick to be that which takes up more parts of a space given and thin which containes fewer parts of the same magnitude not that there is more matter in one place then in an other equal place but a greater quantity of some named body wherefore the multitude and paucity of the parts contained within the same space do constitute density and rarity Where of my opinion is That there is no more nor less space or place then body according to its ' dilation or contraction and that space and place are dilated and contracted with the body according to the magnitude of the body for body place and magnitude are the same thing only place is in regard of the several parts of the body and there is as well space betwixt things distant a hairs breadth from one another as betwixt things distant a million of miles but yet this space is nothing from the body but it makes that that body has not the same place with this body that is that this body is not that body and that this bodies place is not that bodies place Next your Author sayes He hath already clearly enough demonstrated that there can be no beginning of motion but from an external and moved body and that heavy bodies being once cast upwards cannot be cast down again but by external motion Truly Madam I will not speak of your Authors demonstrations for it is done most by art which I have no knowledg in but I think I have probably declared that all the actions of nature are not forced by one part driving pressing or shoving another as a man doth a wheel-barrow or a whip a horse nor by reactions as if men were at foot-ball or cuffs or as men with carts meeting each other in a narrow lane But to prove there is no self-motion in nature he goes on and says To attribute to created bodies the power to move themselves what is it else then to say that there be creatures which have no dependance upon the Creator To which I answer That if man who is but a single part of nature hath given him by God the power and a free will of moving himself why should not God give it to Nature Neither can I see how it can take off the dependance upon God more then Eternity for if there be an Eternal Creator there is also an Eternal Creature and if an Eternal Master an Eternal Servant which is Nature and yet Nature is subject to Gods Command and depends upon him and if all Gods Attributes be Infinite then his Bounty is Infinite also which cannot be exercised but by an Infinite Gift but a Gift doth not cause a less dependance I do not say That man hath an absolute Free-will or power to move according to his desire for it is not conceived that a part can have an absolute power nevertheless his motion both of body and mind is a free and self-motion and such a self-motion hath every thing in Nature according to its figure or shape for motion and figure being inherent in matter matter moves figuratively Yet do I not say That there is no hindrance obstruction and opposition in nature but as there is no particular Creature that hath an absolute power of self-moving so that Creature which hath the advantage of strength subtilty or policy shape or figure and the like may oppose and over-power another which is inferior to it in all this yet this hinderance and opposition doth not take away self-motion But I perceive your Author is much for necessitation and against free-will which I leave to Moral Philosophers and Divines And as for the ascending of light and descending of heavy bodies there may be many causes but these four are perceiveable by our senses as bulk or quantity of body grossness of substance density and shape or figure which make heavy bodies descend But little quantity purity of substance rarity and figure or shape make light bodies ascend Wherefore I cannot believe that there are certain little bodies as atoms and by reason of their smallness invisible differing from one another in consistence figure motion and magnitude intermingled with the air which should be the cause of the descending of heavy bodies And concerning air whether it be subject to our senses or not I say that if air be neither hot nor cold it is not subject but if it be the sensitive motions will soon pattern it out and declare it I 'le conclude with your Authors question What the cause is that a man doth not feel the weight of Water in Water and answer it is the dilating nature of Water But of this question and of Water I shall treat more fully hereafter and so I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXX MADAM I Am reading now the works of that Famous and most Renowned Author Des Cartes out of which I intend to pick out onely those discourses which I like best and not to examine his opinions as they go along from the beginning to the end of his books And in order to this I have chosen in the first place his discourse of motion and do not assent to his opinion when he defines Motion to be onely a Mode of a thing and not the thing or body it selfe for in my opinion there can be no abstraction made of motion from body neither really nor in the manner of our conception for how can I conceive that which is not nor cannot be in nature that is to conceive motion without body Wherefore Motion is but one thing with body without any separation or abstraction soever Neither doth it agree with my reason that one body can give or transferr motion into another body and as much motion it gives or transferrs into that body as much loses it As for example in two hard bodies thrown against one another where one that is thrown with greater force takes the other along with it and loses as much motion as it gives it For how can motion being no substance but onely a mode quit one body and pass into another One body may either occasion or imitate anothers motion but it can neither give nor take away what belongs to its own or another bodies substance no more then matter can quit its nature from being matter and therefore my opinion is that if motion doth go out of one body into another then substance goes too for motion and substance or body
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
but a dense or rare heavie or light matter is but one substance or body And thus having obeyed your commands I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XLIV MADAM IAm very ready to give you my opinion of those two questions you sent me whereof the first was Whether that which is rare and subtil be not withal pure To which I answer That all rare bodies are not subtil nor pure and that all which is dense is not gross and dull As for example Puddle-water or also clear water is rarer then Quicksilver and yet not so subtil and pure as Quicksilver the like of Gold for Quicksilver and Gold may be rarified to a transparentness and yet be so dense as not to be easily dissolved and Quicksilver is very subtil and searching so as to be able to force other bodies to divide as well as it can divide and compose its own parts Wherefore my opinion is that the purest and subtilest degree of matter in nature is that degree of matter which can dilate and contract compose and divide into any figure by corporeal self-motion Your second question was Why a man's hand cannot break a little hard body as a little nail whereas yet it is bigger then the nail I answer It is not because the hand is softer then the nail for one hard body will not break suddenly another hard body and a man may easily break an iron nail with his hand as I have bin informed but it is some kind of motion which can easier do it then another for I have seen a strong cord wound about both a man's hands who pulled his hands as hard and strongly asunder as he could and yet was not able to break it when as a Youth taking the same cord and winding it about his hands as the former did immediately broke it the cause was that he did it with another kind of motion or pulling then the other did which though he used as much force and strength as he was able yet could not break it when the boy did break it with the greatest ease and turning onely his hands a little which shews that many things may be done by a slight of motion which otherwise a great strength and force cannot do This is my answer and opinion concerning your proposed questions if you have any more I shall be ready to obey you as MADAM Your faithful Friend and humble Servant XLV MADAM I understand by your last that you are very desirous to know Whether there be not in nature such animal creatures both for purity and size as we are not capable to perceive by our sight Truly Madam in my opinion it is very probable there may be animal creatures of such rare bodies as are not subject to our exterior senses as well as there are elements which are not subject to all our exterior senses as for example fire is onely subject to our sight and feeling and not to any other sense water is subject to our sight taste touch and hearing but not to smelling and earth is subject to our sight taste touch and smelling but not to our hearing and vapour is onely subject to our sight and wind onely to our hearing but pure air is not subject to any of our senses but onely known by its effects and so there may likewise be animal creatures which are not subject to any of our senses both for their purity and life as for example I have seen pumpt out of a water pump small worms which could hardly be discerned but by a bright Sun-light for they were smaller then the smallest hair some of a pure scarlet colour and some white but though they were the smallest creatures that ever I did see yet they were more agil and fuller of life then many a creature of a bigger size and so small they were as I am confident they were neither subject to tast smell touch nor hearing but onely to sight and that neither without dificulty requiring both a sharp sight and a clear light to perceive them and I do verily believe that these small animal creatures may be great in comparison to others which may be in nature But if it be probable that there may be such small animal creatures in nature as are not subject to our exterior senses by reason of their littleness it is also probable that there may be such great and big animal creatures in nature as are beyond the reach and knowledg of our exterior senses for bigness and smallness are not to be judged by our exterior senses onely but as sense and reason inform us that there are different degrees in Purity and Rarity so also in shapes figures and sizes in all natural creatures Next you desired to know VVhether there can be an artificial Life or a Life made by Art My answer is Not for although there is Life in all natures parts yet not all the parts are life for there is one part of natural matter which in its nature is inanimate or without life and though natural Life doth produce Art yet Art cannot produce natural Life for though Art is the action of Life yet it is not Life it self not but that there is Life in Art but not art in life for Life is natural and not artificial and thus the several parts of a watch may have sense and reason according to the nature of their natural figure which is steel but not as they have an artificial shape for Art cannot put Life into the watch Life being onely natural not artificial Lastly your desire was to know Whether a part of matter may be so small as it cannot be made less I answer there is no such thing in nature as biggest or least nature being Infinite as well in her actions as in her substance and I have mentioned in my book of Philosophy and in a letter I sent you heretofore concerning Infinite that there are several forts of Infinites as Infinite in quantity or bulk Infinite in number Infinite in quality as Infinite degrees of hardness softness thickness thinness swiftness slowness c. as also Infinite compositions divisions creations dissolutions c. in nature and my meaning is that all these Infinite actions do belong to the Infinite body of nature which being infinite in substance must also of necessity be infinite in its actions but although these Infinite actions are inherent in the power of the Infinite substance of nature yet they are never put in act in her parts by reason there being contraries in nature and every one of the aforementioned actions having its opposite they do hinder and obstruct each other so that none can actually run into infinite for the Infinite degrees of compositions hinder the infinite degrees of divisions and the infinite degrees of rarity softness swiftness c. hinder the infinite degrees of density hardness slowness c. all which nature has ordered with great wisdom and Prudence to make an amiable combination between her parts
for if but one of these actions should run into infinite it would cause a horrid confusion between natures parts nay an utter destruction of the whole body of nature if I may call it whole as for example if one part should have infinite compositions without the hinderance or obstruction of division it would at last mount and become equal to the Infinite body of nature and so from a part change to a whole from being finite to infinite which is impossible Wherefore though nature hath an Infinite natural power yet she doth not put this power in act in her particulars and although she has an infinite force or strength yet she doth not use this force or strength in her parts Moreover when I speak of Infinite divisions and compositions creations and dissolutions c. in nature I do not mean so much the infinite degrees of compositions and divisions as the actions themselves to be infinite in number for there being infinite parts in nature and every one having its compositions and divisions creations and dissolutions these actions must of necessity be infinite too to wit in number according to the Infinite number of parts for as there is an Infinite number of parts in nature so there is also an infinite number and variety of motions which are natural actions However let there be also infinite degrees of these natural actions in the body or substance of infinite nature yet as I said they are never put in act by reason every action hath its contrary or opposite which doth hinder and obstruct it from running actually into infinite And thus I hope you conceive cleerly now what my opinion is and that I do not contradict my self in my works as some have falsly accused me for they by misapprehending my meaning judge not according to the truth of my sense but according to their own false interpretation which shews not onely a weakness in their understandings and passions but a great injustice and injury to me which I desire you to vindicate when ever you chance to hear such accusations and blemishes laid upon my works by which you will Infinitely oblige MADAM Your humble and faithful Servant SECT II. I. MADAM BEing come now to the Perusal of the Works of that learned Author Dr. Moor I find that the onely design of his Book called Antidote is to prove the Existence of a God and to refute or rather convert Atheists which I wonder very much at considering he says himself That there is no man under the cope of Heaven but believes a God which if so what needs there to make so many arguments to no purpose unless it be to shew Learning and wit In my opinion it were better to convert Pagans to be Christians or to reform irregular Christians to a more pious life then to prove that which all men believe which is the way to bring it into question For certainly according to the natural Light of Reason there is a God and no man I believe doth doubt it for though there may be many vain words yet I think there is no such atheistical belief amongst man-kind nay not onely amongst men but also amongst all other creatures for if nature believes a God all her parts especially the sensitive and rational which are the living and knowing parts and are in all natural creatures do the like and therefore all parts and creatures in nature do adore and worship God for any thing man can know to the contrary for no question but natures soule adores and worships God as well as man's soule and why may not God be worshipped by all sorts and kinds of creatures as well as by one kind or sort I will not say the same way but I believe there is a general worship and adoration of God for as God is an Infinite Deity so certainly he has an Infinite Worship and Adoration and there is not any part of nature but adores and worships the only omnipotent God to whom belongs Praise and Glory from and to all eternity For it is very improbable that God should be worshipped onely in part and not in whole and that all creatures were made to obey man and not to worship God onely for man's sake and not for God's worship for man's use and not God's adoration for mans spoil and not God's blessing But this Presumption Pride Vain-glory and Ambition of man proceeds from the irregularity of nature who being a servant is apt to commit errors and cannot be so absolute and exact in her devotion adoration and worship as she ought nor so well observant of God as God is observing her Nevertheless there is not any of her parts or creatures that God is not acknowledged by though not so perfectly as he ought which is caused by the irregularities of nature as I said before And so God of his mercy have mercy upon all Creatures To whose protection I commend your Ladiship and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant II. MADAM SInce I spake in my last of the adoration and worship of God you would faine know whether we can have an Idea of God I answer That naturally we may and really have a knowledge of the existence of God as I proved in my former letter to wit that there is a God and that he is the Author of all things who rules and governs all things and is also the God of Nature but I dare not think that naturally we can have an Idea of the essence of God so as to know what God is in his very nature and essence for how can there be a finite Idea of an Infinite God You may say As well as of Infinite space I answer Space is relative or has respect to body but there is not any thing that can be compared to God for the Idea of Infinite nature is material as being a material creature of Infinite material Nature You will say How can a finite part have an Idea of infinite nature I answer Very well by reason the Idea is part of Infinite Nature and so of the same kind as material but God being an Eternal Infinite Immaterial Individable Being no natural creature can have an Idea of him You will say That the Idea of God in the mind is immaterial I answer I cannot conceive that there can be any immaterial Idea in nature but be it granted yet that Immaterial is not a part of God for God is individable and hath no parts wherefore the Mind cannot have an Idea of God as it hath of Infinite nature being a part of nature for the Idea of God cannot be of the essence of God as the Idea of nature is a corporeal part of nature and though nature may be known in some parts yet God being Incomprehensible his Essence can by no wayes or means be naturally known and this is constantly believed by MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant III. MADAM ALthough I mentioned in my last that it is impossible to
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
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
Ingenuity Wit and Wisdom then any of her particular Creatures The same may be said of her Government And so leaving Wise Nature I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XI MADAM TO your Authors argument That if Motion belong naturally to Matter Matter being Uniform it must be alike moved in every part of particle imaginable of it by reason this Motion being natural and essential to Matter is alike every way I answer That this is no more necessary then that the several actions of one body or of one part of a body should be alike for though Matter is one and the same in its Nature and never changes yet the motions are various which motions are the several actions of one and the same Natural Matter and this is the cause of so many several Creatures for self-moving matter by its self-moving power can act several ways modes or manners and had not natural matter a self-acting power there could not be any variety in Nature for Nature knows of no rest there being no such thing as rest in Nature but she is in a perpetual motion I mean self-motion given her from God Neither do I think it Atheistical as your Author deems to maintain this opinion of self-motion as long as I do not deny the Omnipotency of God but I should rather think it Irreligious to make so many several Creatures as Immaterial Spirits like so many severall Deities to rule and govern Nature and all material substances in Nature for what Atheism doth there lie in saying that natural matter is naturally moving and wise in her self Doth this oppose the omnipotency and Infinite wisdom of God It rather proves and confirms it for all Natures free power of moving and wisdom is a gift of God and proceeds from him but I must confess it destroys the power of Immaterial substances for Nature will not be ruled nor governed by them and to be against Natural Immaterial substances I think is no Atheisme except we make them Deities neither is it Atheisme to contradict the opinion of those that believe such natural incorporeal Spirits unless man make himself a God But although Nature is wise as I said before and acts methodically yet the variety of motions is the cause of so many Irregularities in Nature as also the cause of Irregular opinions for all opinions are made by self-moving matters motions or which is all one by corporeal self-motion and some in their opinions do conceive Nature according to the measure of themselves as that Nature can nor could not do more then they think nay some believe they can do as much as Nature doth which opinions whether they be probable or regular I 'le let any man judg adding onely this that to humane sense and reason it appears plainly that as God has given Nature a power to act freely so he doth approve of her actions being wise and methodical in all her several Productions Generations Transformations and Designs And so I conclude for the present onely subscribe my self as really I am MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XII MADAM I Am of your Authors opinion concerning self-activity or self-motion That what is Active of it self can no more cease to be active then to be And I have been always of this opinion even from the first begining of my conceptions in natural Philosophy as you may see in my first Treatise of Natural Philosophy which I put forth eleven years since where I say That self-moving Matter is in a Perpetual motion But your Author endeavors srom thence to conclude That Matter is not self-active because it is reducible to rest To which I answer That there is no such thing as Rest in Nature Not do I say that all sorts of motions are subject to our senses for those that are subject to our sensitive Perceptions are but gross Motions in comparison to those that are not subject to our exterior senses as for example We see some bodies dilate others consume others corrupt yet we do not see how they dilate nor how they consume nor how they corrupt Also we see some bodies contract some attract some condense some consist c. yet we do not see their contracting attracting condensing consisting or retenting motions and yet we cannot say they are not corporeal motions because not subject to our exterior senses for if there were not contracting attracting retenting or consistent corporeal self-motions it had been impossible that any creature could have been composed into one united figure much less stayed and continued in the same figure without a general alteration But your Author says If Matter as Matter had Motion nothing would hold together but Flints Adamants Brass Iron yea this whole Earth would suddenly melt into a thinner substance then the subtil Air or rather it never had been condensated together to this consistency we find it But I would ask him what reason he can give that corporeal self-motion should make all matter rare and fluid unless he believe there is but one kind of motion in Nature but this human sense and reason will contradict for we may observe there are Infinite changes of Motion and there is more variety and curiosity in corporeal motions then any one single Creature can imagine much less know but I suppose he conceives all corporeal matter to be gross and that not any corporeal motion can be subtil penetrating contracting and dilating and that whatsoever is penetrating contracting and dilating is Individable But by his leave Madam this doth not follow for though there be gross degrees of Matter and strong degrees of Corporeal Motions yet there are also pure and subtil degrees of Matter and Motions to wit that degree of Matter which I name sensitive and rational Matter which is natural Life and Knowledg as sensitive Life and rational Knowledg Again your Author askes What glue or cement holds the parts of hard matter in Stones and Metals together I answer Consistent or retentive corporeal motions by an agreeable union and conjunction in the several parts of Metal or Stone and these retentive or consistent motions are as strong and active if not more then some dilative or contractive motions for I have mentioned heretofore that as sensitive and rational corporeal motions are in all Creatures so also in Stone Metal and any other dense body whatsoever so that not any one Creature or part of Matter is without Motion and therefore not any thing is at rest But Madam I dare say I could bring more reason and sense to prove that sensitive and rational Matter is fuller of activity and has more variety of motion and can change its own parts of self-moving Matter more suddenly and into more exterior figures then Immaterial Spirits can do upon natural Matter But your Author says That Immaterial Spirits are endued with Sense and Reason I say My sensitive and rational corporeal Matter is Sense and Reason it self and is the Architect or Creator of all
the sensitive which is the Life of Nature as the other is the Soul not the Divine but natural Soul neither is this Soul Immaterial bnt Corporeal not composed of raggs and shreds but it is the purest simplest and subtillest matter in Nature But to conclude I desire you to remember Madam that this rational and sensitive Matter in one united and finite Figure or particular Creature has both common and particular actions for as there are several kinds and sorts of Creatures and particulars in every kind and sort so the like for the actions of the rational and sensitive matter in one particular Creature Also it is to be noted That the Parts of rational matter can more suddenly give and take Intelligence to and from each other then the sensitive nevertheless all Parts in Nature at least adjoyning parts have Intelligence between each other more or less because all parts make but one body for it is not with the parts of Matter as with several Constables in several Hundreds or several Parishes which are a great way distant from each other but they may be as close as the combs of Bees and yet as partable and as active as Bees But concerning the Intelligence of Natures Parts I have sufficiently spoken in other places and so I 'le add no more but that I unfeignedly remain MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XVI MADAM SEnsation in corporeal motion is first and Perception follows sayes your Author to which opinion I give no assent but do believe that Perception and Sensation are done both at one and the same time as being one and the same thing without division either in reason or sense and are performed without any knocks or jolts or hitting against But let me tell you Madam there arises a great mistake by many from not distinguishing well sensitive Motion and rational Motion for though all motions are in one onely matter yet that matter doth not move always in the same manner for then there could be no variety in Nature and truly if man who is but a part of Nature may move diversly and put himself into numerous postures Why may not Nature But concerning Motions and their variety to avoid tedious repetitions I must still referr you to my Book of Philosophical Opinions I 'le add onely this that it is well to be observed That all Motions are not Impressions neither do all Impressions make such dents as to disturb the adjoyning Parts Wherefore those in my opinion understand Nature best which say that Sensation and Perception are really one and the same but they are out that say there can be no communication at a distance unless by pressing and crowding for the patterning of an outward object may be done without any inforcement or disturbance jogging or crowding as I have declared heretofore for the sensitive and rational motions in the sensitive and rational parts of matter in one creature observing the exterior motions in outward objects move accordingly either regularly or irregularly in patterns and if they have no exterior objects as in dreams they work by rote And so to conclude I am absolutely of their opinion who believe that there is nothing existent in Nature but what is purely Corporeal for this seems most probable in sense and reason to me MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XVII MADAM OUtward Objects as I have told you before do not make Sense and Reason but Sense and Reason do perceive and judg of outward objects For the Sun doth not make sight nor doth sight make light but sense and reason in a Man or any other creature do perceive and know there are such objects as Sun and Light or whatsoever objects are presented to them Neither doth Dumbness Deafness Blindness c. cause an Insensibility but Sense through irregular actions causes them I say through Irregular actions because those effects do not properly belong to the nature of that kind of Creatures for every Creature if regularly made hath particular motions proper to its figure for natural Matters wisdom makes distinctions by her distinct corporeal motions giving every particular Creature their due Portion and Proportion according to the nature of their figures and to the rules of her actions but not to the rules of Arts Mathematical Compasses Lines Figures and the like And thus the Sun Stars Meteors Air Fire Water Earth Minerals Vegetables and Animals may all have Sense and Reason although it doth not move in one kind or sort of Creatures or in one particular as in another For the corporeal motions differ not onely in kinds and sorts but also in Particulars as is perceivable by human sense and reason Which is the cause that Elements have elemental sense and knowledg and Animals animal sense and knowledg and so of Vegetables Minerals and the like Wherefore the Sun and Stars may have as much sensitive and rational life and knowledg as other Creatures but such as is according to the nature of their figures and not animal or vegetable or mineral sense and knowledg And so leaving them I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XVIII MADAM YOur Author denying that Fancy Reason and Animadversion are seated in the Brain and that the Brain is figured into this or that Conception I demand says he in what knot loop or interval thereof doth this faculty of free Fancy and active Reason reside My answer is that in my opinion Fancy and Reason are not made in the Brain as there is a Brain but as there is sensitive and rational matter which makes not onely the Brain but all Thoughts Conceptions Imaginations Fancy Understanding Memory Remembrance and whatsoever motions are in the Head or Brain neither doth this sensitive and rational mattet remain or act in one place of the Brain but in every part thereof and not onely in every part of the Brain but in every part of the Body nay not onely in every part of a Mans Body but in every part of Nature But Madam I would ask those that say the Brain has neither sense reason nor self-motion and therefore no Perception but that all proceeds from an Immaterial Principle as an Incorporeal Spirit distinct from the body which moveth and actuates corporeal matter I would fain ask them I say where their Immaterial Ideas reside in what part or place of the Body and whether they be little or great Also I would ask them whether there can be many or but one Idea of God If they say many then there must be several distinct Deitical Ideas if but one Where doth this Idea reside If they say in the head then the heart is ignorant of God if in the heart then the head is ignorant thereof and so for all parts of the body but if they say in every part then that Idea may be disfigured by a lost member if they say it may dilate and contract then I say it is not the Idea of God for God can neither contract nor
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
extend and shrink together and so grow less and bigger according to the extension of the body and when the body dies the soul in my opinion must contract to a very point and if one part of the body die before the other the soul must by degrees withdraw out of those parts also when a part of the body is cut off the soul must needs contract and grow less the like when a man is let blood Which contracting of the soul by your Authors leave doth seem to my imagination just like the contracting of Hodmandod into her shell Besides if the soul be individable and equally spread all over the body then to my opinion she must necessarily be of a human shape and if the body be deformed the soul must be deformed also and if the body be casually extended as by taking Poyson into the body the soul must be so too as being individable and filling every part and if a man be born with six fingers or toes the soul must be so too or if a dwarf the soul must be a dwarf also and if he be born deaf and dumb the soul must be so too But if two Twins as it may fall out should be born united in one body I would fain know then whether they would have two souls or but one As for example if they should have but one body and one stomack liver heart spleen lungs bowels and yet have four legs four hands and two heads It seems to my opinion that then two Immaterial Souls must be joyned as into one neither do I know yet how this could well be the monster having but one body nor how that Immaterial Soul can be divided being inseparably double when the body dies But Madam all this I speak of the Natural Soul of Man not of the Divine Soul which is not subject to natural imperfections and corporeal errors being not made by Nature but a supernatural and divine gift of the Omnipotent God who surely will not give any thing that is not perfect Wherefore it is not probable this Divine Soul being not subject to Nature should be an architect of the body as having an higher and more divine imployment viz. to fix her self on her Creator and being indued with supernatural faculties and residing in the body in a supernatural manner all which I leave to the Church for I should be loth to affirm any thing contrary to their Doctrine or the Information of the holy Scripture as grounding my belief onely upon the sacred Word of God and its true Interpretation made by the Orthodox Church but not upon the opinions of particular persons for particular mens opinions are not authentical being so different and various as a man would be puzled which to adhere to Thus Madam I avoid as much as ever I can not to mix Divinity with Natural Philosophy for I consider that such a mixture would breed more confusion in the Church then do any good to either witness the doctrine of the Soul of Man whereof are so many different opinions The onely cause in my opinion is that men do not conceive the difference between the Divine and Natural material Soul of Man making them both as one and mixing or confounding their faculties and proprieties which yet are quite different thus they make a Hodg-podg Bisk or Olio of both proving Divinity by Nature and Faith by Reason and bringing Arguments for Articles of Faith and sacred Mysteries out of Natural Arts and Sciences whereas yet Faith and Reason are two contrary things and cannot consist together according to the Proverb Where Reason ends Faith begins Neither is it possible that Divinity can be proved by Mathematical Demonstrations for if Nature be not able to do it much less is Art Wherefore it is inconvenient to mix supernatural Spirits with Air Fire Light Heat Cold c. and to apply corporeal actions and qualities to them and the Divine Soul with the Brain Blood Flesh Animal Spirits Muscles Nerves Bones c. of Man all which makes a confusion betwixt the Mind or Natural Soul of Man and the Supernatural and Divine Soul inspired into him by God for both their faculties and proprieties are different and so are their effects as proceeding from so different causes And therefore Madam as for Divinity I pray devoutly and believe without disputing but as for Natural Philosophy I reason freely and argue without believing or adhering to any ones particular opinion which I think is the best and safest way to choose for MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXVII MADAM YOur Author in the continuation of his discourse concerning the Immaterial Soul of Man demonstrating that her seat is not bound up in a certain place of the body but that she pervades all the body and every part thereof takes amongst the rest an argument from Passions and Sympathies Moreover says he Passions and Sympathies in my judgment are more easily to be resolved into this hypothesis of the Soul 's pervading the whole Body then in restraining its essential presence to one part thereof But it is evident that they arise in us against both our will and appetite For who would bear the tortures of fears and jelousies if he could avoid it Concerning Passions Madam I have given my opinion at large in my Book of Philosophy and am of your Authors mind that Passions are made in the Heart but not by an Immaterial spirit but by the Rational soul which is material and there is no doubt but that many Passions as Fear Jealousie c. arise against our will and appetite for so may forreign Nations invade any Kingdom without the will or desire of the Inhabitants and yet they are corporeal men The same may be said of Passions and several parts of matter may invade each other whereof one may be afraid of the other yet all this is but according as corporeal matter moves either Generally or Particularly Generally that is when many parts of Matter unite or joyn together having the like appetites wills designs as we may observe that there are general agreements amongst several parts in Plagues as well as Wars which Plagues are not onely amongst Men but amongst Beasts and sometimes but in one sort of animals as a general Rot amongst Sheep a general Mange amongst Dogs a general Farcy amongst Horses a general Plague amongst Men all which could not be without a general Infection one part infecting another or rather one part imitating the motions of the other that is next adjoyning to it for such infections come by the neer adhesion of parts as is observable which immaterial and individable natural Spirits could not effect that is to make such a general infection in so many several parts of so many several Creatures to the Creatures dissolution Also there will be several Invasions at one time as Plague and War amongst neighbouring and adjoining Creatures or Parts But this is to be observed That the sensitive corporeal motions make
contemplate freely without any restraint or consinement for Nature acts freely and so may natural Creatures and amongst the rest Man in things which are purely natural but as for things supernatural man cannot act freely by reason they are beyond his sphere of conception and understanding so as he is forced to set aside Reason and onely to work by Faith And thus Madam you see the cause why I cannot give you a full description of the Divine Soul of Man as I mentioned already in my last but that I do onely send you my opinion of the natural soul which I call the rational soul not that I dare say the supernatural soul is without natural reason but natural reason is not the divine soul neither can natural reason without Faith advance the divine soul to Heaven or beget a pious zeal without divine and supernatural Grace Wherefore Reason or the rational Soul is onely the Soul of Nature which being material is dividable and so becomes numerous in particular natural Creatures like as the sensitive life being also material and dividable becomes numerous as being in every Creature and in every part of every Creature for as there is life in every Creature so there is also a soul in every Creature nay not onely in every Creature but in every particle of every Creature by reason every Creature is made of rational and sensitive Matter and as all Creatures or parts of Nature are but one infinite body of Nature so all their particular souls and lives make but one infinite soul and life of Nature and this natural soul hath onely natural actions not supernatural nor has the supernatural soul natural actions for although they subsist both together in one body yet each works without disturbance to the other and both are Immortal for of the supernatural soul there is no question and of the natural soul I have said before that nothing is perishable or subject to annihilation in nature and so no death but what is called by the name of death is onely an alteration of the corporeal natural motions of such a figure to another figure and therefore as it is impossible that one part of Matter should perish in Nature so is it impossible that the natural or rational soul can perish being material The natural humane soul may alter so as not to move in an animal way or not to have animal motions but this doth not prove her destruction or annihilation but onely a change of the animal figure and its motions all remaining still in Nature Thus my Faith of the Divine and my opinion of the Natural Soul is that they are both Immortal as for the immediate actions of the Divine Soul I leave you to the Church which are the Ministers of God and the faithful dispensers of the sacred mysteries of the Gospel the true Expounders of the Word of God Reformers of mens lives and Tutors of the Ignorant to whom I submit my self in all that belongs to the salvation of my Soul and the regulating of the actions of my life to the honour and glory of God And I hope they will not take any offence at the maintaining and publishing my opinions concerning Nature and Natural effects for they are as harmless and as little prejudicial to them as my designs for my onely and chief design is and ever hath been to understand Nature rightly obey the Church exactly Believe undoubtedly Pray zealously Live vertuously and Wish earnestly that both Church and Schools may increase and flourish in the sacred knowledge of the true Word of God and that each one may live peaceable and happily in this world die quietly and rise blessedly and gloriously to everlasting Life and happiness Which happiness I pray God also to confer upon your Ladiship Till then I rest MADAM Your faithful and constant Friend to serve you XXXI MADAM I Will leave the Controversie of Free-Will and Necessity which your Author is discoursing of to Divines to decide it onely I say this that Nature hath a natural Free-will and power of self-moving and is not necessitated but yet that this Free-will proceeds from God who hath given her both will and power to act freely But as for the question whether there be nothing in the Universe but meer body I answer My opinion is not that there is nothing in the world but meer Body but that Nature is purely material or corporeal and that there is no part of Nature or natural Creature which is not Matter or Body or made of Matter also that there is not any thing else mixt with body as a copartner in natural actions which is distinct from Body or Matter nevertheless there may be supernatural spiritual beings or substances in Nature without any hinderance to Matter or corporeal Nature The same I may say of the natural material and the divine and supernatural Soul for though the divine Soul is in a natural body and both their powers and actions be different yet they cause no ruine or disturbance to each other but do in many cases agree with each other without incroachment upon each others powers or actions for God as he is the God of all things so the God of Order Wherefore it is not probable that created Immaterial or Incorporeal beings should order Corporeal Nature no more then Corporeal Nature orders Immaterial or Incorporeal Creatures Neither can in my opinion Incorporeal Creatures be clearly conceived by Corporeals although they may really exist and subsist in Nature onely as I said before it is well to be considered that there is difference betwixt being in Nature and being a part of Nature for bodiless things and so spiritual substances although they may exist in Nature yet they are not natural nor parts of Nature but supernatural Nature being meerly corporeal and Matter the ground of Nature and all that is not built upon this material ground is nothing in Nature But you will say The divine Soul is a part of Man and Man a part of Nature wherefore the divine Soul must needs be a part of Nature I answer Not For the divine Soul is not a part of Nature but supernatural as a supernatural Gift from God onely to Man and to no other Creature and although in this respect it may be called a part of Man yet it is no natural or material part of Man neither doth this supernatural Gift disturb Nature or natural Matter or natural Matter this supernatural Gist And so leaving them both I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXXII MADAM IF you desire my opinion concerning Witches whereof your Learned Author hath many Discourses and Stories I will tell you really that in my sense and reason I do not believe any except it be the witch of Endor which the Scripture makes mention of for though I believe that there is a Devil as the Word of God and the Church inform me yet I am not of the opinion that God should suffer
him to have such a familiar conjunction and make such contracts with Man as to impower him to do mischief and hurt to others or to foretell things to come and the like for I believe that all things Immaterial as Spirits Angels Devils and the divine Soul of Man are no parts of Nature but Supernatural Nature knowing of no Creature that belongs to her but what is material and since incorporeal Creatures are no parts of Nature they neither have natural actions nor are they concerned as copartners or co-agents in the actions of Nature and natural Creatures but as their substances so their actions are supernatural and beyond our conceivement As for Faires I will not say but there may be such Creatures in Nature and have airy bodies and be of a humane shape and have humane actions as I have described in my Book of Poems for there are many things in Nature whereof Man hath no knowledg at all and it would be a great folly for any one to deny what he doth not see or to ascribe all the unusual effects in Nature to Immaterial Spirits for Nature is so full of variety that she can and doth present sometimes such figures to our exterior senses as are not familiar to us so as we need not to take our refuge to Immaterial Spirits nay even those that are so much for Incorporeal Spirits must confess that they cannot be seen in their own natures as being Invisible and therefore have need to take vehicles of some grosser bodies to manifeft themselves to men and if Spirits cannot appear without bodies the neerest way is to ascribe such unusual effects or apparitions as happen sometimes rather to matter that is already corporeal and not to go so far as to draw Immaterial Spirits to Natural actions and to make those Spirits take vehicles fit for their purposes for Nature takes sometimes delight in unusual Varieties Concerning those stories which your Author relates of the strange effects of Food received into a mans body how they did work upon the Imagination and change and transform the humors of those that did feed upon them those I say seem very probable to me As for example of a Wench who being struck into an Epilepsy upon the seeing of a Malefactors Head cut off was advised to drink Cats-blood which being done she not long after degenerated into the nature and property of that Animal cried and jump'd like a Cat and hunted Mice with the same silence and watchfulness as they do Then of a Man being long fed with Swines-blood which took a special pleasure in wallowing and tumbling himself in the mire Also of a Girle which being nourished up with Goats-milk would skip like a Goat and brouze on Trees as Goats use to do And of a Man who by eating the brains of a Bear became of a Bear-like disposition All these stories I believe to be true for naturally the motions of a Man may sometimes sympathize so much with the received food as to make an alteration in his humour or disposition But although it be natural yet it is not regular at least not usual but proceeds from an irregular and unusual change of motions like as the conception and generation of a Monster For if it were ordinary then those which drink much of the blood of beasts would also degenerate into a beastly nature the contrary whereof is sufficiently known Likewise those that drink much of Cows-milk would change into their humors and natures But certainly some kinds of meats do not onely cause sickness but madness and strange Imaginations all which unnatural or unusual accidents are caused by Matter 's irregular motions Whereof I have declared my opinion in other places and so I rest MADAM Your faithful and constant Friend to serve you XXXIII MADAM YOu will have my opinion of the Book that treats of the Pre-existence of Souls and the Key that unlocks the Divine Providence but I have told you heretofore that there are so many different opinions concerning the Soul as I do not know which to embrace for the multiplicity confounds my choice and the cause of these various opinions in my simple judgment is that most men make no difference between the Divine and Natural Soul As for the Natural Soul humane sense and reason may perceive that it consists of Matter as being Material but as for the Divine Soul being not material no humane sense and reason is able naturally to conceive it for there cannot possibly be so much as an Idea of a natural nothing or an immaterial being neither can sense and reason naturally conceive the Creation of an Immaterial substance for as the Creation of material Creatures as of this World belongs to Faith and not to Reason so doth also the Creation of Immaterial substances as Spirits nay it is more difficult to understand a Natural Nothing to be made out of nothing then a Natural Something out of nothing And as for the Progress of Immaterial Souls which the same Author mentions I cannot conceive how No-thing can make a Progress and therefore I suppose it is an Improper or Metaphorical expression The truth is what is Immaterial belongs not to a Natural knowledg or understanding but is Supernatural and goes beyond a natural reach or capacity Concerning the Key of Divine Providence I believe God did never give or lend it to any man for surely God who is infinitely Wise would never intrust so frail and foolish a Creature as Man with it as to let him know his secret Counsels Acts and Decrees But setting aside Pride and Presumption Sense and Reason may easily perceive that Man though counted the best of Creatures is not made with such infinite Excellence as to pierce into the least secrets of God Wherefore I am in a maze when I hear of such men which pretend to know so much as if they had plundered the Celestial Cabinet of the Omnipotent God for certainly had they done it they could not pretend to more knowledg then they do But I Madam confess my Ignorance as having neither divine Inspirations nor extraordinary Visions nor any divine or humane learning but what Nature has been pleased to bestow upon me Yet in all this Ignorance I know that I am and ought to be MADAM Your humble and faithful Servant XXXIV MADAM SInce in my former Letters I have discoursed of Immaterial Spirits and declared my meaning that I do not believe them to be natural Creatures or parts of Nature you are of opinion as if I did contradict my self by reason that in the first Edition of my Book called Philosophical Opinions I name the rational and sensitive Matter rational and sensitive Spirits To which I answer first That when I did write my first Conceptions in Natural Philosophy I was not so experienced nor had I those observations which I have had since Neither did I give those first Conceptions time to digest and come to a maturity or perfect growth but
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
effects and as for Water if he doth make it a Principle of Natural things I see no reason why he excludes the rest of the Elements But in my opinion Water and the rest of the Elements are but effects of Nature as other Creatures are and so cannot be prime causes The like the Ferment which to my sense and reason is nothing else but a natural effect of natural matter Concerning his opinion That Causes and Beginnings are all one or that there is but little difference betwixt them I do readily subscribe unto it but when he speaks of those things which are produced without life my reason cannot find out what or where they should be for certainly in Nature they are not Nature being Life and Soul her self and all her parts being enlivened and soulified so that there can be no generation or natural production without Life Neither is my sense and reason capable to understand his meaning when he says That the Seeds of things and the Spirits as the Dispensers thereof are divided from the Material Cause For I do see no difference betwixt the Seed and the material Cause but they are all one thing it being undeniable that the seed is the matter of that which is produced But your Author was pleased to say heretofore that there are but two beginnings or causes of natural things and now he makes so many more for says he Of Efficient and Seminal Causes some are efficiently effecting and others effectively effecting which nice distinctions in my opinion do but make a confusion in natural knowledg setting a mans brain on the rack for who is able to conceive all those Chymaeras and Fancies of the Archeus Ferment various Ideas Blas Gas and many more which are neither something nor no-thing in Nature but betwixt both except a man have the same Fancies Visions and Dreams your Author had Nature is easie to be understood and without any difficulty so as we stand in no need to frame so many strange names able to fright any body Neither do natural bodies know many prime causes and beginnings but there is but one onely chief and prime cause from which all effects and varieties proceed which cause is corporeal Nature or natural self-moving Matter which forms and produces all natural things and all the variety and difference of natural Creatures arises from her various actions which are the various motions in Nature some whereof are Regular some Irregular I mean Irregular as to particular Creatures not as to Nature her self for Nature cannot be disturbed or discomposed or else all would run into confusion Wherefore Irregularities do onely concern particular Creatures not Infinite Nature and the Irregularities of some parts may cause the Irregularities of other Parts as the Regularities of some parts do cause the Regularities of others And thus according as Regularities and Irregularities have power they cause either Peace or War Sickness or Health Delight and Pleasure or Grief and Pain Life or Death to particular Creatures or parts of Nature but all these various actions are but various Effects and not prime Causes which is well to be observed lest we confound Causes with Effects And so leaving this discourse for the present I rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant II. MADAM IT is no wonder your Author has so many odd and strange opinions in Philosophy since they do not onely proceed from strange Visions Apparitions and Dreams but are built upon so strange grounds and principles as Ideas Archeus Gas Blas Ferment and the like the names of which sound so harsh and terrifying as they might put any body easily into a fright like so many Hobgoblins or Immaterial spirits but the best is they can do no great harm except it be to trouble the brains of them that love to maintain those opinions for though they are thought to be powerful beings yet being not corporeal substances I cannot imagine wherein their power should consist for Nothing can do nothing But to mention each apart first his Archeus he calls the Spirit of Life a vital Gas or Light the Balsam preserving from Corruption the Vulcan or Smith of Generation the stirrer up and inward director of Generation an Air a skiey or airy Spirit cloathing himself presently with a bodily cloathing in things soulified walking through all the dens and retiring places of the seed and transforming the matter according to the perfect act of its own Image remaining the president and overseer or inward ruler of his bounds even till death the Principle of Life the Inn of Life the onely immediate Witness Executor and Instrument of Life the Prince and Center of Life the Ruler of the Stern the Keeper of Life and promoter of Transmutations the Porter of the Soul a Fountainous being a Flint These and many more names your Author attributes to his Archeus but what properly it is and what its Nature and its peculiar office I am not able to conceive In the next place Gas and Blas are to your Author also true Principles of Natural things for Gas is the Vapour into which Water is dissolved by Cold but yet it is a far more fine and subtil thing then Vapour which he demonstrates by the Art of Chymistry This Gas in another place he calls a Wild Spirit or Breath unknown hitherto which can neither be constrained by Vessels nor reduced into a visible body in some things it is nothing but Water as for example in Salt in Fruits and the like But Blas proceeds from the local and alterative motion of the Stars and is the general beginning of motion producing heat and cold and that especially with the changing of the Winds There is also Blas in all sublunary things witness Amulets or preserving Pomanders whereby they do constrain objects to obey them Which Incorporeal Blas of Government acts without a Corporeal Efflux even as the Moon makes the Sea to swell but the fleshly generation hath a Blas of its own and it is twofold one which existeth by a natural Motion the other voluntary which existeth as a mover to it self by an Internal Willing There is also a Blas of the Heart which is the fuel of the Vital Spirit and consequently of its heat The Ferment he describes to be A true Principle or Original beginning of things to wit a Formal Created being which is neither a substance nor an accident but a Neutral being framed from the beginning of the World in the places of its own Monarchy in the manner of Light Fire the magnal or sheath of the Air Forms c. that it may prepare stir up and go before the Seeds Lastly his Ideas are Certain formal seminal Lights mutually piercing each other without the adultery of Union For says he although at first that which is imagined is nothing but a meer being of reason yet it doth not remain such for truely the Fancy is a sealifying vertue
and in this respect is called Imaginative because it forms the Images of Likenesses or Ideas of things conceived and doth characterize them in its own Vital Spirit and therefore that Idea is made a spiritual or seminal powerful being to perform things of great moment And those Ideas he makes various and numerous as Archeal Ideas Ideas of Diseases Sealifyiug Ideas Piercing Ideas Forreign and strange Ideas Mad Ideas Irrational and Incorrigible Ideas Staggering Ideas and a hundred others the like of Gas Blas and the rest Thus Madam I have made a rehearsal of your Authors strange and hitherto unknown Principles as his Confession is of Natural things which to my sense and reason are so obscure intricate and perplex as is almost impossible exactly to conceive them when as Principles ought to be easie plain and without any difficulty to be understood Wherefore what with his Spirits meer-beings non-beings and neutralbeings he troubles Nature and puzles the brains of his Readers so that I think if all men were of his opinion or did follow the way of his Philosophy Nature would desire God she might be annihilated Onely of all other she doth not fear his Non-beings for they are the weakest of all and can do her the least hurt as not being able to obstruct real and corporeal actions of Nature for Nature is a corporeal substance and without a substance Motion cannot be and without Motion opposition cannot be made nor any action in Nature whether Prints Seals Stamps Productions Generations Thoughts Conceptions Imaginations Passions Appetites or the like and if motions cannot be without substance then all Creatures their properties faculties natures c being made by corporeal motions cannot be Non-beings no nor anything else that is in Nature for non-beings are not in the number of Natural things Nature containing nothing within her but what is substantially really and corporeally existent But your Authors Ideal Entity whereof he is speaking in another place of his Works which performs all the Works of Nature seems to me as if it were the Jack of all Offices or like the Jack in a Clock that makes every Wheel move for it hath an admirable power to put off and on Corporeality and Incorporeality and to make it self Something and Nothing as often as it has occasion but if this Proteus have such power it may well be named the Magick of Nature Your Author saith it is not the Devil nor any effect thereof but certainly in my opinion according to its description and the effects laid to its performance it must be more then the Devil wherefore in my Reason I cannot conceive it neither am I able to understand his Phantastick Activity Fancy of Forms the Souls acting by an insensible way and many more such like expressions But I conceive that all these can be nothing else but the several motions of the sensitive and rational matter which is the Active Ingenious Distinguishing Knowing Wise and Understanding part of Infinite corporeal Nature and though Infinite Matter hath Infinite parts in general yet there is a finiteness in every part considered by it self not that I think a Part can really subsist single and by it self but it is onely considered so in the manner of our Conception by reason of the difference and variousness of natural Creatures for these being different from each other in their figures and not all alike so that we can make a distinction betwixt them this difference and distinction causes us to conceive every part of a different figure by it self but properly and according to the Truth of Nature there is no part by it self subsisting for all parts are to be considered not onely as parts of the whole but as parts of other parts all parts being joyned in Infinite Nature and tied by an inseparable tie one way or other although we do not altogether perceive it But to return to Ideas I had almost forgot to tell you Madam of another kind of Ideas by your Author named Bewitching or Inchanting Ideas which are for the most part found in Women against which I cannot but take exception in the behalf of our Sex For says he Women stamp Ideas on themselves whereby they no otherwise then Witches driven about with a malignant spirit of despair are oftentimes governed or snatched away unto those things which otherwise they would not and do bewail unto us their own and unvoluntary Madness These Ideas are hurtful to themselves and do as it were Inchant Infatuate and weaken themselves for so as Plutarch witnesses a desire of death by hanging took hold of all the young Maids in the Island Chios By this it appears that your Author has never been in Love or else he would have found that Men have as well bewitching Ideas as Women and that they are as hurtful to Men as to Women Neither can I be perswaded to believe that men should not have as well Mad Ideas as Women for to mention no other example some I will not speak of your Author their Writings and strange Opinions in Philosophy do sufficiently witness it but whence those Ideas do proceed whether from the Bride-bed of the Soul or the Splene your Author doth not declare As for the young Maids in Chios I must confess it is a very strange example but I think there have been as many Men that have killed themselves as Women if not more However I hope by the Grace of God the young Maids in this Kingdom are better advised for if they should do the like it would be a sad fate for all young Men. To conclude Madam all these rehearsed opinions of your Author concerning the Grounds or Principles of Natural Philosophy if you desire my Unfeigned Judgment I can say no more but that they shew more Fancy then Reason and Truth and so do many others and perhaps my opinions may be as far from Truth as his although their Ground is Sense and Reason for there is no single Creature in Nature that is able to know the perfectest Truth but some opinions to humane sense and reason may have more probability then others and every one thinks his to be most probable according to his own fancy and imagination and so I think of mine nevertheless I leave them to the censure of those that are endued with solid judgment and reason and know how to discern betwixt things of fancy and reason and amongst the rest I submit them to the censure of your Ladiship whose solid and wise Judgment is the rule of all the actions of MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant III. MADAM YOur Author relating how he dissents from the False Doctrine as he terms it of the Schools concerning the Elements and their Mixtures Qualities Temperaments Discords c. in order to Diseases is pleased to say as follows I have sufficiently demonstrated that there are not four Elements in Nature and by consequence if there are onely three that four cannot go together or
it has not been before the Flood and before it was made a sign by God as your Author imagines for though it was no sign before the Flood yet it may nevertheless have had its being and existence before the Flood Moreover as for Thunder and Lightning your Authors opinion is That although they may have concurring natural Causes yet the mover of them is an Incorporeal Spirit which is the Devil who having obtained the Principality of this world that he may be a certain executer of the Judgments of the chief Monarch and so the Umpire and Commissioner of Lightning and Thunder stirs up a monstrous and sudden Blas in the Air yet under Covenanted Conditions for unless his power were bridled by divine Goodness he would shake the Earth with one stroke so as to destroy all mortal men and thus the cracking noise or voice of Thunder is nothing but a spiritual Blas of the Evil Spirit I will not deny Madam that Thunder and Lightning do argue the Power of the most Glorious God for so do all the rest of the Creatures but that this is the onely and immediate cause which your Author assigns of Thunder and Lightning I cannot believe for surely in my opinion Thunder and Lightning are as much natural effects as other Creatures in Nature and are not the Devils Blas for I think they may be made without the help of the Devil nay I believe he may be as much affraid of Thunder as those Creatures that live on Earth But what the causes are and how Thunder and Lightning are made I have elsewhere declared more at large especially in my Philosophical Opinions Again your Author speaking of the Trembling of the Earth thinks it is nothing else but the Judgment of God for the sins of Impenitent men For my part Madam I can say little to it either concerning the divine or the natural cause of Earthquakes As for the divine and supernatural Cause which your Author gives if it was so then I wonder much why God should command Earth-quakes in some parts of the World more frequent then in others As for example we here in these parts have very seldom Earthquakes and those we have which is hardly one in many ages are not so furious as to do much harm and so in many other places of the World are as few and as gentle Earth-quakes as here when as in others Earth-quakes are very frequent and dreadful From whence it must needs follow if Earth-quakes be onely a Judgment from God for the sins of Impenitent Men and not a natural effect that then those places where the Earth is not so apt to tremble are the habitations of the blessed and that they which inhabit those parts that are apt to tremble are the accursed when as yet in those places where Earthquakes are not usual and frequent or none at all People are as wicked and impious if not more then in those where Earthquakes are common But the questions is Whether those parts which suffer frequent and terrible Earthquakes would not be so shaken or have such trembling fits were they uninhabited by Man or any other animal Creature Certainly in my opinion they would But as for the Natural Cause of Earthquakes you must pardon me Madam that I cannot knowingly discourse thereof by reason I am not so well skilled in Geography as to know the several Soils Climats Parts Regions or Countries nor what disposed matter may be within those parts that are subject to frequent Earthquakes Onely this I may say that I have observed that the light of a small Fire or Candle will dilate it self round about or rather that the air round about the Fire or Candle will pattern out both its light and its heat Also I have observed That a Man in a raging fit of Madness will have such an unsual strength as ten strong men shall hardly be able to encounter or bind him when as this violent fit being past a single man nay a youth may over-master him Whence I conclude that the actions as the motions of Nature are very powerful when they use their force and that the ordinary actions of Nature are not so forcible as necessary but the extraordinary are more forcible then necessary Lastly your Author takes great pains to prove That the Sun with his light rules the Day and the Moon with hers the Night and that the Moon has her own Native light and that Bats Mice Dormice Owles and many others as also Men which rise at night and walk in their sleep see by the light and power of the Moon also that Plants are more plentifully nourished by the night But lest it might be concluded that all this is said without any probability of Truth by reason the Moon doth not every night shine upon the Earth he makes a difference between the Manner of the Sun 's and Moon 's enlightning the Earth to wit that the Sun strikes his beams in a right line towards the Earth but the Moon doth not respect the Centre of the World which is the Earth in a right line but her Centre is always excentrical and she respects the Earth onely by accident when she is concentrical with the World And therefore he thinks there is another light under the Earth even at Midnight whereby many Eyes do see which owes also its rise to the Moon This opinion of your Author I leave to be examined by those that have skill in Astronomy and know both the Light and the Course of the Moon I will onely say thus much that when the Moon is concentrical as he calls it with the World as when it is Full and New Moon she doth not shine onely at night but also in the day and therefore she may rule the day as well as the night and then there will be two lights for the ruling of the day or at least there will be a strife betwixt the Sun and the Moon which shall rule But as for Men walking asleep by the light of the Moon my opinion is That blind men may walk as well by the light of the Sun as sleeping men by the light of the Moon Neither is it probable that the Moon or her Blas doth nourish Plants for in a cold Moon-shiny night they will often die but it is rather the Regular motions in well tempered matter that cause fruitful productions and maturity And so I repose my Pen lest it trespass too much upon your Patience resting MADAM Your humble and faithful Servant IX MADAM IN my former when I related your Authors opinion concerning Earthquakes I forgot to tell you that he counts the the Doctrine of the Schools absurd when they say that Air or any Exhalation is the cause of them For says he There is no place in the Pavements or soils of the Earth wherein any airy body may be entertained whether that body be a wind or an airy exhalation But since I promised I would not offer to
stories in brief is this My Sense and Reason doth inform me that there is Natural Witchcraft as I may call it which is Sympathy Antipathy Magnetisme and the like which are made by the sensitive and rational motions between several Creatures as by Imagination Fancy Love Aversion and many the like but these Motions being sometimes unusual and strange to us we not knowing their causes For what Creature knows all motions in Nature and their ways do stand amazed at their working power and by reason we cannot assign any Natural cause for them are apt to ascribe their effects to the Devil but that there should be any such devillish Witchcraft which is made by a Covenant and Agreement with the Devil by whose power Men do enchaunt or bewitch other Creatures I cannot readily believe Certainly I dare say that many a good old honest woman hath been condemned innocently and suffered death wrongfully by the sentence of some foolish and cruel Judges meerly upon this suspition of Witchcraft when as really there hath been no such thing for many things are done by slights or juggling Arts wherein neither the Devil nor Witches are Actors And thus an English-man whose name was Banks was like to be burnt beyond the Seas for a Witch as I have been inform'd onely for making a Horse shew tricks by Art There have been also several others as one that could vomit up several kinds of Liquors and other things and another who did make a Drum beat of it self But all these were nothing but slights and jugling tricks as also the talking and walking Bell and the Brazen-Head which spake these words Time was Time is and Time is past and so fell down Which may easily have been performed by speaking through a Pipe conveighed into the said head But such and the like trifles will amaze many grave and wise men when they do not know the manner or way how they are done so as they are apt to judg them to be effected by Witchcraft or Combination with the Devil But as I said before I believe there is Natural Magick which is that the sensitive and rational Matter oft moves such a way as is unknown to us and in the number of these is also the bleeding of a murdered body at the presence of the Murderer which your Author mentions for the corporeal motions in the murthered body may move so as to work such effects which are more then ordinary for the animal Figure being not so quickly dissolved the animal motions are not so soon altered for the dissolving of the Figure is nothing else but an alteration of its Motions and this dissolution is not done in an instant of time but by degrees But yet I must confess it is not a common action in Nature for Nature hath both common and singular or particular actions As for example Madness natural Folly and many the like are but in some particular persons for if those actions were general and common then all or most men would be either mad or fools but though there are too many already yet all men are not so and so some murthered bodies may bleed or express some alterations at the presence of the Murtherer but I do not believe that all do so for surely in many not any alteration will be perceived and others will have the same alterations without the presence of the Murtherer And thus you see Madam that this is done naturally without the help of the Devil nay your Author doth himself confess it to be so for says he The act of the Witch is plainly Natural onely the stirring up of the vertue or power in the Witch comes from Satan But I cannot understand what your Author means by the departing of spiritual rays from the Witch into Man or any other animal which she intends to kill or hurt nor how Spirits wander about in the Air and have their mansions there for men may talk as well of impossibilities as of such things which are not composed of Natural Matter If man were an Incorporeal Spirit himself he might perhaps sooner conceive the essence of a Spirit as being of the same Nature but as long as he is material and composed of Natural Matter he might as well pretend to know the Essence of God as of an Incorporeal Spirit Truly I must confess I have had some fancies oftentimes of such pure and subtil substances purer and subtiler then the Sky or AEthereal substance is whereof I have spoken in my Poetical Works but these substances which I conceived within my fancy were material and had bodies though never so small and subtil for I was never able to conceive a substance abstracted from all Matter for even Fancy it self is material and all Thoughts and Conceptions are made by the rational Matter and so are those which Philosophers call Animal Spirits but a material Fancy cannot produce immaterial effects that is Ideas of Incorporeal Spirits And this was the cause that in the first impression of my Philosophical Opinions I named the sensitive and rational Matter sensitive and rational Spirits because of its subtilty activity and agility not that I thought them to be immaterial but material Spirits but since Spirits are commonly taken to be immaterial and Spirit and Body are counted opposite to one another to prevent a misapprehension in the thoughts of my Readers as if I meant Incorporeal Spirits I altered this expression in the last Edition and call'd it onely sensitive and rational Matter or which is all one sensitive and rational corporeal motions You will say perhaps That the divine Soul in Man is a Spirit but I desire you to call to mind what I oftentimes have told you to wit that when I speak of the Soul of Man I mean onely the Natural not the Divine Soul which as she is supernatural so she acts also supernaturally but all the effects of the natural Soul of which I discourse are natural and not divine or supernatural But to return to Magnetisme I am absolutely of opinion that it is naturally effected by natural means without the concurrence of Immaterial Spirits either good or bad meerly by natural corporeal sensitive and rational motions and for the most part there must be a due approach between the Agent and the Patient or otherwise the effect will hardly follow as you may see by the Loadstone and Iron Neither is the influence of the Stars performed beyond a certain distance that is such a distance as is beyond sight or their natural power to work for if their light comes to our Eyes I know no reason against it but their effects may come to our bodies And as for infectious Diseases they come by a corporeal imitation as by touch either of the infected air drawn in by breath or entring through the Pores of the Body or of some things brought from infected places or else by hearing but diseases caused by Conceit have their beginning as all alterations have from
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
that those words express nothing else but the variety of motions in Nature for men are apt to make more distinctions then Nature doth Nature knows of nothing else but of corporeal figurative Motions when as men make a thousand distinctions of one thing and confound and entangle themselves so with Beings Non-beings and Neutral-beings Corporeals and Incorporeals Substances and Accidents or manners and modes of Substances new Creations and Annihilations and the like as neither they themselves nor any body else is able to make any sense thereof for they are like the tricks and slights of Juglers 't is here 't is gone and amongst those Authors which I have read as yet the most difficult to be understood is this Author which I am now perusing who runs such divisions and cuts Nature into so small Parts as the sight of my Reason is not sharp enough to discern them Wherefore I will leave them to those that are more quick-sighted then I and rest MADAM Your constant Friend and faithful Servant XXIV MADAM YOur Author relates how by some the Immortal Soul is divided into two distinct parts the Inferior or more outward which by a peculiar name is called the Soul and the other the Superior the more inward the which is called the bottom of the Soul or Spirit in which Part the Image of God is specially contained unto which is no access for the Devil because there is the Kingdom of God and each part has distinct Acts Proprieties and Faculties Truly Madam I wonder how some men dare discourse so boldly of the Soul without any ground either of Scripture or Reason nay with such contradiction to themselves or their own opinions For how can that be severed into parts which in its nature is Individable and how can the Image of God concern but one Part of the Soul and not the other Certainly if the Soul is the Image of God it is his Image wholly and not partially or in parts But your Author has other as strange and odd opinions as these some whereof I have mentioned in my former Letters viz. the Souls being a Light her Figure her Residence and many the like Amongst the rest there is one thing which your Author frequently makes mention of I know not what to call it whether a thing or a being or no-thing for it is neither of them not a substance nor an accident neither a body nor a spirit and this Monster sor I think this is its proper name since none other will fit it is the Lacquey of the Soul to run upon all errands for the Soul sitting in her Princely Throne or Residence which is the orifice of the stomack cannot be every where her self neither is it fit she should as being a disgrace to her to perform all offices her self for want of servants therefore she sends out this most faithful and trusty officer your Author calls him Ideal Entity who being prepared for his journey readily performs all her commands as being not tied up to no commands of places times or dimensions especially in Women with Child he operates most powerfully for sometime he printed a Cherry on a Child by a strong Idea of the Mother but this Ideal Entity or servant of the Soul hath troubled my brain more then his Mistress the Soul her self for I could not nor cannot as yet conceive how he might be able to be the Jack of all offices and do Journies and travel from one part of the body to another being no body nor substance himself nor tyed to any place time and dimension and therefore I will leave him Your Author also speaks much of the Inward and Outward Man but since that belongs to Divinity I will declare nothing of it onely this I say that in my opinion the Inward and Outward man do not make a double Creature neither properly nor improperly properly as to make two different men improperly as we use to call that man double whose heart doth not agree with his words But by the Outward man I understand the sinful actions of flesh and blood and by the Inward man the reformed actions of the Spirit according to the Word of God and therefore the Outward and Inward man make but one Man Concerning the Natural Soul your Author speaks of her more to her disgrace then to her honor for he scorns to call her a substance neither doth he call her the Rational Soul but he calls her the Sensitive Soul and makes the Divine Soul to be the Rational Natural Soul and the cause of all natural actions for he being a Divine Philosopher mixes Divine and Natural things together But of the Frail Mortal Sensitive Soul as he names her which is onely the sensitive Life his opinions are that she is neither a substance nor an accident but a Neutral Creature and a Vital Light which hath not its like in the whole World but the light of a Candle for it is extinguished and goes out like the flame of a Candle it is locally present and entertained in a place and yet not comprehended in a place Nevertheless although this sensitive soul is no substance yet it has the honor to be the Inn or Lodging-place of the Immortal Soul or Mind and these two souls being both lights do pierce each other but the Mortal soul blunts the Immortal soul with its cogitation of the corruption of Adam These opinions Madam I confess really I do not know what to make of them for I cannot imagine how this Mortal soul being no substance can contain the Immortal soul which is a substance nor how they can pierce each other and the Mortal soul being substanceless get the better over an Immortal substance and vitiate corrupt and infect it neither can I conceive how that which in a manner is nothing already can be made less and annihilated Wherefore my opinion is that the Natural Soul Life and Body are all substantial parts of Infinite Nature not subsisting by themselves each apart but inseparably united and co-mixed both in their actions and substances for not any thing can and doth subsist of it self in Nature but God alone and things supernatural may for ought I know T is true there are several Degrees several particular Natures several Actions or Motions and several Parts in Nature but none subsists single and by it self without reference to the whole and to one another Your Author says the Vital Spirit sits in the Throne of the Outward man as Vice Roy of the Soul and acts by Commission of the Soul but it is impossible that one single part should be King of the whole Creature since Rational and Sensitive Matter is divided into so many parts which have equal power and force of action in their turns and severall imployments for though Nature is a Monarchess over all her Creatures yet in every particular Creature is a Republick and not a Monarchy for no part of any Creature has a sole supreme
Souls in Heaven as well as on Earth have reason to adore love and praise God But Madam my study is in natural Philosophy not in Theology and therefore I 'le refer you to Divines and leave your Author to his own fancy who by his singular Visions tells us more news of our Souls then our Saviour did after his Death and Resurrection Resting in the mean time MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXVI MADAM COncerning those parts and chapters of your Authors Works which treat of Physick before I begin to examine them I beg leave of you in this present to make some reflections first upon his Opinions concerning the Nature of Health and Diseases As for Health he is pleased to say That it consists not in a just Temperature of the body but in a sound and intire Life for otherwise a Temperature of body is as yet in a dead Carcass newly kill'd where notwithstanding there is now death but not life not health Also he says That no disease is in a dead Carcass To which I answer That in my opinion Life is in a dead Carcass as well as in a living Animal although not such a Life as that Creature had before it became a Carcass and the Temperature of that Creature is altered with the alteration of its particular life for the temperature of that particular life which was before in the Animal doth not remain in the Carcass in such a manner as it was when it had the life of such or such an Animal nevertheless a dead Carcass hath life and such a temperature of life as is proper and belonging to its own figure for there are as many different lives as there be different creatures and each creature has its particular life and soul as partaking of sensitive and rational Matter And if a dead Carcass hath life and such a temperature of motions as belong to its own life then there is no question but these motions may move sometimes irregularly in a dead Carcass as well as in any other Creature and since health and diseases are nothing else but the regularity or irregularity of sensitive corporeal Motions a dead Carcass having Irregular motions may be said as well to have diseases as a living body as they name it although it is no proper or usual term for other Creatures but onely for Animals However if there were no such thing as a disease or term it what you will I will call it Irregularity of sensitive motions in a dead Carcass How comes it that the infection of a disease proceeds often from dead Carcasses into living Animals For certainly it is not meerly the odour or stink of a dead body for then all stinking Carcasses would produce an Infection wherefore this Infection must necessarily be inherent in the Carcass and proceed from the Irregularity of its motions Next I 'le ask you Whether a Consumption be a disease or not If it be then a dead Carcass might be said to have a disease as well as a living body and the AEgyptians knew a soveraign remedy against this disease which would keep a dead Carcass intire and undissolved many ages but as I said above a dead Carcass is not that which it was being a living Animal wherefore their effects cannot be the same having not the same causes Next your Author is pleased to call with Hippocrates Nature the onely Physicianess of Diseases I affirm it and say moreover that as she is the onely Physicianess so she is also the onely Destroyeress and Murtheress of all particular Creatures and their particular lives for she dissolves and transforms as well as she frames and creates and acts according to her pleasure either for the increase or decrease augmentation or destruction sickness or health life or death of Particular Creatures But concerning Diseases your Authors opinion is That a Disease is as Natural as Health I answer 't is true Diseases are natural but if we could find out the art of healing as well as the art of killing and destroying and the art of uniting and composing as well as the art of separating and dividing it would be very beneficial to man but this may easier be wished for then obtained for Nature being a corporeal substance has infinite parts as well as an infinite body and Art which is onely the playing action of Nature and a particular Creature can easier divide and separate parts then unite and make parts for Art cannot match unite and joyn parts so as Nature doth for Nature is not onely dividable and composeable being a corporeal substance but she is also full of curiosity and variety being partly self-moving and there is great difference between forced actions and natural actions for the one sort is regular the other irregular But you may say Irregularities are as natural as Regularities I grant it but Nature leaves the irregular part most commonly to her daughter or creature Art that is she makes irregularities for varieties sake but she her self orders the regular part that is she is more careful of her regular actions and thus Nature taking delight in variety suffers irregularities for otherwise if there were onely regularities there could not be so much variety Again your Author says That a disease doth not consist but in living bodies I answer there is not any body that has not life for if life is general then all figures or parts have life but though all bodies have life yet all bodies have not diseases for diseases are but accidental to bodies and are nothing else but irregular motions in particular Creatures which may be not onely in Animals but generally in all Creatures for there may be Irregularities in all sorts of Creatures which may cause untimely dissolutions but yet all dissolutions are not made by irregular motions for many creatures dissolve regularly but onely those which are untimely In the same place your Author mentions That a Disease consists immediately in Life it self but not in the dregs and filthinesses which are erroneous forreigners and strangers to the life I grant that a Disease is made by the motions of Life but not such a life as your Author describes which doth go out like the snuff of a Candle or as one of Lucian's Poetical Lights but by the life of Nature which cannot go out without the destruction of Infinite Nature and as the Motions of Nature's life make diseases or irregularities so they make that which man names dregs and filths which dregs filths sickness and death are nothing but changes of corporeal motions different from those motions or actions that are proper to the health perfection and consistence of such or such a figure or creature But to conclude there is no such thing as corruption sickness or death properly in Nature for they are made by natural actions and are onely varieties in Nature but not obstructions or destructions of Nature or annihilations of particular Creatures and so is that we name
Superfluities which bear onely a relation to a particular Creature which hath more Motion and Matter then is proper for the nature of its figure And thus much of this subject for the present from MADAM Your faithful Friend and humble Servant XXVII MADAM In my last I remember I told you of your Authors opinion concerning the seat of Diseases viz. that Diseases are properly in living bodies and consist in the life it self but when I consider his definition of Life and of a Disease I cannot conceive how they should consist together for he describes a Disease to be a real material and substantial being truly subsisting in a body but life to be a meer nothing and yet the immediate mansion of a disease the inward subject yea and workman of the same and that with the life all diseases depart into nothing Surely Madam it exceedeth my understanding for first I cannot conceive how life which is a meer Nothing can be a lodging to something Next how Nothing can depart and die and thirdly how Something can become Nothing I think your Author might call a dead Carcass as well No-thing as Life and since he names Diseases the Thieves of Life they must needs be but poor Thieves because they steal No-thing But your Author compares Life to Light and calls it an Extinguishable Light like the light of a Candle which if so then the old saying is verified That life goes out like the snuff of a Candle But I wonder Madam that grave and wise men will seriously make use of a fimilifing old Proverb or of a Poetical Fancy in matter of natural Philosophy for I have observed that Homer Lucian Ovid Virgil Horace c. have been very ferviceable to great Philosophers who have taken the ground of their Fictions and transferred them into Natural Philosophy as Immaterial substances Non-beings and many the like but they can neither do any good nor hurt to Nature but onely spoil Philosophical Knowledg and as Nature is ignorant of Immaterials and Non-beings so Art is ignorant of Nature for Mathematical Rules Measures and Demonstrations cannot rule measure nor demonstrate Nature no more then Chymical Divisions Dissolutions and Extractions or rather distractions nay I may say destructions can divide dissolve extract compose and unite as Nature doth Wherefore their Instruments Figures Furnaces Limbecks and Engines cannot instruct them of the truth of Natures Principles but the best and readiest way to find out Nature or rather some truth of Nature is sense and reason which are Parts of Natures active substance and therefore the truest informers of Nature but the Ignorance of Nature has caused Ignorance amongst Philosophers and the Ignorance of Philosophers hath caused numerous Opinions and numerous Opinions have caused various Discourses and Disputes which Discourses and Disputes are not Sense and Reason but proceed from Irregular Motions and Truth is not found in Irregularities But to return to Life it seems your Author hath taken his opinion from Lucian's Kingdom of Lights the Lights being the Inhabitants thereof and when any was adjudged to die his Light was put out which was his punishment And thus this Heathenish Fiction is become a Christian Verity when as yet your Author rayls much at those that insist upon the Opinions and Doctrine of Pagan Philosophers Wherefore I will leave this Poetical Fancy of Life and turn to Death and see what opinion your Author hath of that First concerning the cause or original of Death Neither God says he nor the Evil Spirit is the Creator of Death but Man onely who made death for himself Neither did Nature make death but Man made death natural Which if it be so then Death being to my opinion a natural Creature as well as Life Sickness and Health Man certainly had great Power as to be the Creator of a natural Creature But I would fain know the reason why your Author is so unwilling to make God the Author of Death and Sickness as well as of Damnation Doth it imply any Impiety or Irreligiousness Doth not God punish as well as reward and is not death a punishment for our sin You may say Death came from sin but sin did not come from God Then some might ask from whence came sin You will say From the Transgression of the Command of God as the eating of the Forbidden Fruit. But from whence came this Transgression It might be answer'd From the Perswasion of the Serpent From whence came this Perswasion From his ill and malitious nature to oppose God and ruine the race of Mankind From whence came this ill Nature From his Fall Whence came his Fall From his Pride and Ambition to be equal with God From whence came this Pride From his Free-will From whence came his Free-will From God Thus Madam if we should be too inquisitive into the actions of God we should commit Blasphemy and make God Cruel as to be the Cause of Sin and consequently of Damnation But although God is not the Author of Sin yet we may not stick to say that he is the Author of the Punishment of Sin as an Act of his Divine Justice which Punishment is Sickness and Death nay I see no reason why not of Damnation too as it is a due punishment for the sins of the wicked for though Man effectively works his own punishment yet Gods Justice inflicts it Like as a just Judg may be call'd the cause of a Thief being hang'd But these questions are too curious and some men will be as presumptuous as the Devil to enquire into Gods secret actions although they be sure that they cannot be known by any Creature Wherefore let us banish such vain thoughts and onely admire adore love and praise God and implore his Mercy to give us grace to shun the punishments for our sins by the righteousness of our actions and not endeavour to know his secret designs Next I dissent from your Author That Death and all dead things do want roots whereby they may produce For death and dead things in my opinion are the most active producers at least they produce more numerously and variously then those we name living things for example a dead Horse will produce more several Animals besides other Creatures then a living Horse can do but what Archeus and Ideas a dead Carcass hath I can tell no more then what Blas or Gas it hath onely this I say that it has animate Matter which is the onely Archeus or Master-workman that produces all things creates all things dissolves all things and transforms all things in Nature but not out of Nothing or into Nothing as to create new Creatures which were not before in Nature or to annihilate Creatures and to reduce them to nothing but it creates and transforms out of and in the same Matter which has been from all Eternity Lastly your Author is pleased to say That he doth not behold a disease as an abstracted Quality and that Apoplexy
insomuch as none would escape but by miracle epecially if dangerously hurt Concerning the Coveteousness of Physicians although sickness is chargeable yet I think it is not Charitable to say or to think that Physitians regard more their Profit then their Patients health for we might as well condemn Divines for taking their Tithes and Stipends as Physicians for taking their Fees but the holy Writ tells us that a Labourer is Worthy of his hire or reward and for my part I think those commit a great sin which repine at giving Rowards in any kind for those that deserve well by their endeavours ought to have their rewards and such Meritorious Persons I wish with all my Soul may prosper and thrive Nevertheless as for those persons which for want of means are not able to reward their Physicians I think Physicians will not deal so unconscionably as to neglect their health and lives for want of their Fees but expect the reward from God and be recompenced the better by those that have Wealth enough to spare And this good opinion I have of them So leaving them I rest MADAM Your constant Friend and faithful Servant XXIX MADAM I Am of your Authors mind That heat is not the cause of digestion but I dissent from him when he says That it is the Ferment of the stomach that doth cause it For in my opinion Digestion is onely made by regular digestive motions and ill digestion is caused by irregular motions and when those motions are weak then there is no digestion at all but what was received remains unaltered but when they are strong and quick then they make a speedy digestion You may ask me what are digestive motions I answer They are transchanging or transforming motions but since there be many sorts of transchanging motions digestive motions are those which transchange food into the nourishment of the body and dispose properly fitly and usefully of all the Parts of the food as well of those which are converted into nourishment as of those which are cast forth For give me leave to tell you Madam that some parts of natural Matter do force or cause other parts of Matter to move and work according to their will without any change or alteration of their parts as for example Fire and Metal for Fire will cause Metal to flow but it doth not readily alter it from its nature of being Metal neither doth Fire alter its nature from being Fire And again some parts of Matter will cause other parts to work and act to their own will by forcing these over-powred parts to alter their own natural motions into the motions of the victorious Party and so transforming them wholly into their own Figure as for example Fire will cause Wood to move so as to take its figure to wit the figure of Fire that is to change its own figurative motions into the motions of Fire and this latter kind of moving or working is found in digestion for the regular digestive motions do turn all food received from its own nature or figure into the nourishment figure or nature of the body as into flesh blood bones and the like But when several parts of Matter meet or joyn with equal force and power then their several natural motions are either quite altered or partly mixt As for example some received things not agreeing with the natural constitution of the body the corporeal motions of the received and those of the receiver do dispute or oppose each other for the motions of the received not willing to change their nature conformable to the desire of the digestive motions do resist and then a War begins whereby the body suffers most for it causes either a sickness in the stomack or a pain in the head or in the heart or in the bowels or the like Nay if the received food gets an absolute victory it dissolves and alters oftentimes the whole body it self remaining intire and unaltered as is evident in those that die of surfeits But most commonly these strifes and quarrels if violent do alter and dissolve each others forms or natures And many times it is not the fault of the Received but of the Receiver as for example when the digestive and transforming motions are either irregular or weak for they being too weak or too few the meat or food received is digested onely by halves and being irregular it causes that which we call corruption But it may be observed that the Received food is either agreeable or disagreeable to the Receiver if agreeable then there is a united consent of Parts to act regularly and perfectly in digestion if disagreeable then the Received acts to the Ruine that is to the alteration or dissolution of the Nature of the Receiver but if it be neutral that is neither perfectly agreeable nor perfectly disagreeable but between both then the receiver or rather the digestive Motions of the receiver use a double strength to alter and transform the received But you may ask me Madam what the reason is that many things received after they are dissolved into small parts those parts will keep their former colour and savour I answer The cause is that either the retentive Motions in the Parts of the received are too strong for the digestive and alterative Motions of the receiver or perchance this colour and savour is so proper to them as not to be transchanged but you must observe that those digestive alterative and transchanging motions do not act or move all after one and the same manner for some do dissolve the natural figure of the received some disperse its dissolved parts into the parts of the body some place the dispersed parts fitly and properly for the use benefit and consistence of the body for there is so much variety in this one act of digestion as no man is able to conceive and if there be such variety in one Particular natural action what variety will there not be in all Nature Wherefore it is not as I mentioned in the beginning either Ferment or Heat or any other thing that causes digestion for if all the constitution and nature of our body was grounded or did depend upon Ferment then Brewers and Bakers and those that deal with Ferments would be the best Physicians But I would fain know the cause which makes Ferment You may say saltness and sowreness But then I ask From whence comes saltness and sowreness You may say From the Ferment But then I shall be as wise as before The best way perhaps may be to say with your Author that Ferment is a Primitive Cause and a beginning or Principle of other things and it self proceeds from nothing But then it is beyond my imagination how that can be a Principle of material things which it self is nothing that is neither a substance nor an accident Good Lord what a stir do men make about nothing I am amazed to see their strange Fancies and Conceptions vented for the Truest Reasons
Wherefore I will return to my simple opinion and as I cannot conceive any thing that is beyond Matter or a Body so I believe according to my reason that there is not any part in Nature be it never so subtil or small but is a self-moving substance or endued with self-motion and according to the regularity and irregularity of these motions all natural effects are produced either perfect or imperfect timely births or untimely and monstrous births death health and diseases good and ill dispositions natural and extravagant Appetites and Passions I say natural that is according to the nature of their figures Sympathy and Antipathy Peace and War Rational and Phantastical opinions Nevertheless all these motions whether regular or irregular are natural for regularity and irregularity hath but a respect to particulars and to our conceptions because those motions which move not after the ordinary common or usual way or manner we call Irregular But the curiosity and variety in Nature is unconceiveable by any particular Creature and so leaving it I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXX MADAM YOur Author says it is an ancient Truth That whatsoever things meats being digested and cast out by vomit are of a sowre taste and smell yea although they were seasoned with much sugar But I do not assent to this opinion for I think that some Vomits have no more taste then pure Water hath Neither am I of his mind That Digestion is hastened by sharpness or tartness For do but try it by one simple experiment take any kind of flesh-meat boyl or stew it with Vinegar or sowre wine or with much salt and you will find that it doth require a longer time or rather more motions to dissolve then if you boyl it in fair water without such ingredients as are sowre sharp or salt also if you do but observe you will find the dregs more sandy stony and hard being drest with much salt and sharp wine or vinegar then when they are not mixt with such contracting and fixing Ingredients Wherefore if the Ferment of the stomack hath such a restringent and contracting quality certainly digestions will be but slow and unprofitable but Nature requires expulsion as much as attraction and dilation as much as contraction and digestion is a kind of dilation Wherefore in my judgment contracting tartness and sharpness doth rather hinder digestion then further it Next I perceive your Author inclines to the opinion That Choler is not made by meat But I would ask him whether any humor be made ofmeat or whether blood flesh c. are made and nourished by meat If they be not then my answer is That we eat to no purpose but if they be then Choler is made so too But if he says That sorne are made and some not then I would ask what that humor is made of that is not made by meat or food received into the body But we find that humors blood flesh c. will be sometimes more sometimes less according either to feeding or to digestion which digestion is a contribution of food to every several part of the body for its nourishment and when there is a decay ofthose parts then it is caused either by fasting or by irregular digestion or by extraordinary evacuation or by distempered matter c. all which causes sickness paleness leanness weakness and the like Again your Author is against the opinion of the Schools That the Gall is a receptacle of superfluous humors and dregs for he says it has rather the constitution of a necessary and vital bowel and is the balsom of the liver and blood Truly it may be so for any thing I know or it may be not for your Author could but guess not assuredly know unless he had been in a man as big as the Whale in whose belly Jonas was three days and had observed the interior parts and motions of every part for three years time and yet he might perchance have been as ignorant at the coming forth as if he never had been there for Natures actions are not onely curious but very various and not onely various but very obscure in so much as the most ingenious Artists cannot trace her ways or imitate her actions for Art being but a Creature can do or know no more then a Creature and although she is an ingenious Creature which can and hath found out some things profitable and useful for the life of others yet she is but a handmaid to Nature and not her Mistress which your Author in my opinion too rashly affirms when he says That the Art of Chymistry is not onely the Chambermaid and emulating Ape but now and then the Mistress of Nature For Art is an effect of Nature and to prefer the effect before the cause is absurd But concerning Chymistry I have spoken in another place I 'le return to my former Discourse and I wonder much why your Author is so opposite to the Schools concerning the doctrine of the Gall's being a receptacle for superfluities and dregs for I think there is not any Creature that has not places or receptacles for superfluous matter such as we call dregs for even the purest and hardest Mineral as Gold has its dross although in a less proportion then some other Creatures nay I am perswaded that even Light which your Author doth so much worship may have some superfluous matter which may be named dregs and since Nature has made parts in all Creatures to receive and discharge superfluous matter which receiving and discharging is nothing else but a joyning and dividing of parts to and from parts why may not the Gall be as well for that use as any other part But I pray mistake me not when I say superfluous matter or dregs for I understand by it that which is not useful to the nourishment or confistence of such or such a Creature but to speak properly there is neither superfluity of matter nor dregs in Nature Moreover your Author mentions a six-fold digestion and makes every digestion to be performed by inbreathing or inspiration For in the first digestion he says The spleen doth inspire a sowre Ferment into the Meat In the second The Gall doth inspire a ferment or fermental blas into the slender entrails In the third The Liver doth inspire a bloody ferment into the veins of the Mensentery c. I answer first I am confident Nature has more ways then to work onely by Inspirations not onely in General but in every Particular Next I believe there are not onely six but many more digestions in an animal Creature for not onely every sort of food but every bit that is eaten may require a several digestion and every several part of the body works either to expel or preserve or for both so that there are numerous several Motions in every Creature and many changes of motions in each particular part but Nature is in them all And so leaving her
ordered otherwise they will do more hurt then good for Diseases are like Enemies which sometimes take away our Armes for their own uses But your Author says again That the Matter of a Fever floats not in the veins nor sits nigh the heart I answer There are several sorts of Fevers for all Fevers are not produced after one and the same manner or from one and the same cause as is very well known to wise and experienced Physicians but although some Fevers are not in the blood yet that doth not prove that the blood is never in a Fever for sometimes the blood is in a Fever and not the solid parts and sometimes the fluid and moveable humors and not the blood or solid parts and sometimes the solid parts and not the blood nor the liquid and moveable humors and sometimes they are all in a Fever and sometimes onely the radical parts and neither the blood humors nor solid parts and this last kind of Fever which is a hectick Fever in my opinion is incureable but the others may be cureable if there be not too many varieties of distempers or irregular motions And as for a Fever in the solid parts Letting of blood and taking away the humor may cure it for the veins being empty suck the heat out of the solid parts which solid parts cannot draw out a distempered heat in the veins and the opening of the veins gives vent to some of the interior heat to issue forth Wherefore it is very requisite that in all sorts of Fevers except Hectick-Fevers blood-letting should be used not onely once but often for 't is better to live with a little blood and a little strength which will soon be recovered then to die with too much or too hot and distempered blood Also Purging but especially Vomiting is very good for if the humors be in a Feaver they may infect the vital parts as also the blood but if they be not in a Fever yet the solid parts or blood may do the same and so make the contagion greater for the humors are as the moveables in a house which ought to be cast out if either they or the house should be on fire and if a disorder proceeds from the error of a particular part then care must be taken to rectifie that part for the health of the whole Wherefore Physicians use in some cases Blood-letting in some Purging in some Vomiting in some Bathing in some Sweating in some Cordials especially after much evacuation in some they prescribe a good diet and in some they mix and prescribe partly one and partly the other and in some cases they are forced to use all these remedies for though great evacuations may cause weakness yet they often save the life and there is no Patient but had rather lose some strength then life for life can gather strength again but all strong men are not always long lived nor all long-lived men very strong for many that are but weak will live to a very old age Lastly concerning what your Author says that there is but one Choler and Phlegme in Nature I answer That is more then he knows for all that is in Nature is not nor cannot be known by any Particular Creature and he might say as well the same of particular Metals as that there is but one sort of Gold or Silver when as there is great difference in the weight purity colour and gloss of several parts of Gold and Silver Neither is all Gold found in one place but some is found in Rocks some in Sand some in Mines some in Stones and so Silver some is found in the bowels of the Earth some in the veins of Stones and some in other Metals as Lead and Iron and some in Coals And the like may be said of Choler and Phlegme for they may be several in several places or parts of the body and be of different colours tastes odours and degrees of heat or cold thinness or thickness or the like for though there is but one Matter in Nature yet this onely Matter by its several actions or motions changes into several figures and so makes several sorts of Creatures and different particulars in every sort And thus Madam I have delivered unto you my opinion concerning the cure of Fevers by Blood-letting Which I submit to the correction of your better judgment and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXXIV MADAM YOur Author is not onely against Phlebotomy or Blood-letting but against all Purging Medicines which he condemns to carry a hidden poyson in them and to be a cruel and stupid invention But certainly he shall not have my assent for if they be Poyson they are a very beneficial Poyson and Physical Purgations in my opinion are very necessary and profitable for the prolonging of life and taking away of diseases provided they be proper for those diseases in which they are used and so is Phlebotomy Vomits and the like but Medicines are often wrong applyed and many times the disease is so various that it is as hard for a Physician to hit right with several Medicines as for a Gunner or Shooter to kill with Powder and small Shot a Bird flying in the Air not that it is not possible to be done but it is not ordinary or frequent neither doth the fault onely lie in the Gun Powder or Shot but in the swiftness of the flight of the Bird or in the various motion of the air or in a sudden wind or mist or the like for the same Gunner may perhaps easily kill a Bird sitting in a bush or hopping upon the ground The like may be said of Diseases Physicians and Medicines for some diseases have such sudden alterations by the sudden changes of motions that a wise Physician will not nor cannot venture to apply so many several medicines so suddenly as the alteration requires and shall therefore Physicians be condemned and not onely condemned for what cannot be helped by reason of the variety of irregular motions but what cannot be helped in Nature For some diseases are so deadly as no art can cure them when as otherwise Physicians with good and proper medicines have and do as yet rescue more people from death then the Laws do from ruine Nay I have known many that have been great enemies to Physick die in the flower of their age when as others which used themselves to Physick have lived a very long time But you may say Country-people and Labourers take little or no Physick and yet grow most commonly old whereas on the contrary Great and rich Persons take much Physick and do not live so long as the common sort of men doth I answer It is to be observed first that there are more Commons then Nobles or Great and rich persons and there is not so much notice taken of the death of a mean as of a noble great or rich person so that for want of information or knowledg one may easily be
deceived in the number of each sort of persons Next the Vulgar sort use laborious exercises and spare diet when as noble and rich persons are most commonly lazie and luxurious which breeds superfluities of humors and these again breed many distempers For example you shall find few poor men troubled with the Gout Stone Pox and the like diseases nor their Children with Rickets for all this cometh by luxury and no doubt but all other diseases are sooner bred with luxury then temperance but whatsoever is superfluous may if not be taken away yet mediated with lenitive and laxative medicines But as for Physicians surely never age knew any better in my opinion then this present and yet most of them follow the rules of the Schools which are such as have been grounded upon Reason Practice and Experience for many ages Wherefore those that will wander from the Schools and follow new and unknown ways are in my opinion not Orthodoxes but Hereticks in the Art of Physick But to return to your Author give me leave Madam to consider what his opinions are concerning the Purging of Choler Come on says he to the Schools Why doth that your Choler following with so swift an efflux stink so horribly which but for one quarter of an hour before did not stink To which it may be answered That though humors may not stink in themselves yet the excrements mixt with the humors may stink also the very passing thorow the excrements will cause a strong savour But your Author thinks That by passing through so suddenly the humors cannot borrow such a smell of stinking dung from the Intestines Truly 't is easily said but hardly proved and the contrary is manifest by putting clear pure water into a stinking vessel which straightway is corrupted with an ill smell He talks also of Vitriol dissolved in Wine which if it be taken presently provokes vomit but if after drinking it any one shall drink thereupon a draught of Ale or Beer or Water c. he indeed shall suffer many stools yet wholly without stink I answer This expresses Vitriol to be more poysonous by taking away the natural savour of the bowels then Scammony Coloquintida Manna Cassia Sena Rhubarb c. to all which your Author is a great enemy and it is well known to experienced Physicians that Medicines prepared by the art of fire are more poysonous and dangerous then natural drugs nay I dare say that many Chymical Medicines which are thought to be Cordials and have been given to Patients for that purpose have proved more poysonous then any Purging Physick Again your Author says It is worthy of Lamentation that Physicians would have loosening things draw out one humor and not another by selection or choyce My answer is That natural drugs and simples are as wise in their several operations as Chymists in their artificial distillations extractions sublimations and the like but it has long been observed by Physicians that one simple will work more upon one part of the body then upon another the like may be said of humors But give me leave to tell you Madam that if your Author believes magnetick or attractive cures as he doth and in whose behalf he makes very long discourses he doth in this opinion contradict himself He may say perhaps There is no such thing as what Physicians name humors But grant there be none yet he cannot deny that there are offensive juices or moveable substances made by evil as irregular digestions which may be troublesom and hurtful to the nature of the body Or perchance he will say There are such humors but they are beneficial and not offensive to the nature of the body I answer Then he must make an agreement with every part of the body not to make more of these humors then is useful for the body Also he mentions some few that took Purging Physick and died Truly so they might have done without taking it but he doth not tell how many have died for want of proper and timely Purges In truth Madam 't is an easie thing to find fault but not so easie to mend it And as for what he speaks of the weighing of those humors and excrements which by purging were brought out of some Princes body and how much by the Schools rules remained and of the place which should maintain the remainder I onely say this that all the several sorts of juices humors or moveable substances in a body do not lie in one place but are dispersed and spread all about and in several parts and places in the body so that the several Laxative medicines do but draw them together or open several parts that they may have freedom to travel with their chief Commanders which are the Purging medicines But your Author says the Loadstone doth not draw rust And I say no more do Purging drugs draw out pure Matter for it may be as natural for such medicines to draw or work onely upon superfluities that is corrupted or evil-affected humors juices or moveable substances as for the Loadstone to draw Iron and so it may be the property of Purges to draw onely the rust of the body and not the pure metal which are good humors But few do consider or observe sufficiently the variety of Natures actions and the motions of particular natural Creatures which is the cause they have no better success in their cures And so leaving them to a more diligent inquisition and search into Nature and her actions I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and humble Servant XXXV MADAM I Find your Author to be as great an enemy to Issues Cauteries Clysters and the like as he is to Blood-letting and Purging especially to Issues which he counts to be blasphemous against the Creator and blames much the Schools for prescribing them But concerning Blood-letting and Purging I have declared my opinion in my former Letters and if you desire my judgment of Clysters and Issues I must needs tell you that it is well known these many ages that in such diseases which lie in the guts and cause pain in the head and stop the ureteres Clysters have been very beneficial but wise Physicians do not prescribe them unless upon necessity As for example if the disease in the Guts proceed from cold or wind they prescribe a Sack-Clyster with oyl of Walnuts and if the disease in the guts proceed from a sharp or bitter humor then they prescribe Milk or Posset sweetned with Sugar the same if the guts be too full of excrements or slime But in case of diseases in the head or stomack they prescribe attractive Clysters to wit such as draw down from the upper into the lower parts wherein the Physical drugs are and if the guts be too dry or dryer then their nature requires they prescribe moistening Clysters such as have not onely wetting but slimy qualities And surely Clysters properly and timely applyed are a safe speedy easie and profitable medicine and far
Physician in France Dr. Davison who used in continual Fevers to prescribe onely cooling Ptisan made of a little Barley and a great quantity of Water so thin as the Barley was hardly perceived and a spoonfull of syrup of Limmon put into a quart of the said Ptisan but in case of a Flux he ordered some few seeds of Pomegranats to be put into it and this cold Ptisan was to be the Patients onely drink Besides once in Twenty four hours he prescribed a couple of potched Eggs with a little Verjuice and to let the Patient blood if he was dry and hot I mean dry exteriously as from sweat and that either often or seldom according as occasion was found Also he prescribed two grains of Laudanum every night but neither to give the Patient meat nor drink two hours before and after Which advice and Practice of the mentioned Physician concerning Fevers with several others I declared to this Irish Doctor and he observing this rule cured many and so recovered his lost esteem and repute But your Author being all for Wine and against cooling drinks or Julips in hot Fevers says That cooling means are more like to death to cessation from motion and to defect but heat from moderate Wine is a mean like unto life To which I answer first That cold or cooling things are as active as hot or heating things neither is death more cold then hot nor life more hot then cold for we see that Frost is as active and strong as burning heat and Water Air and Earth are as full of life as Fire and Vegetables Minerals and Elements have life as well as Animals But we feeling a Man's flesh cold when he is dissolving from an Animal think death is cold and seeing he was hot before the same alteration say Life is hot Also finding an animal when it is dissolving to be without external local Motion we say it is dead and when it hath as yet this local motion before its alteration we call it alive which certainly is not proper Next I say that a wise Man when his house is fired will fling or squirt water upon it to quench it and take out all moveables lest they should increase the flame likewise he will make vent for the flame to issue forth But perchance your Author may say that Fevers are not hot Truly in my opinion he might say as well that Fire is cold Again he may say That although the effect be hot yet the cause is cold I answer That in some diseases the effects become so firmly rooted and so powerfull that they must be more look'd upon then the cause for such variety there is in Nature that oftentimes that which was now an effect turns to be a cause and again a cause an effect For example A cold cause often produces a hot effect and this hot effect becomes again a cause of a cold effect Which variation is not onely a trouble but a great obstruction to wise Physicians for Nature hath more varieties in diseases then Physicians have remedies And as for drink if Fevers be neither hot nor dry nor require drink for want of moisture then I see no reason why drink should be urged and those Physicians blamed that forbid it for if thirst proceed from an evil digestion drink will rather weaken the stomack for heat and driness draw soon away the drink in the stomack and putting much into a weak stomack doth rather hurt then good But if necessity require it then I approve rather of raw and crude Water then of hot inflaming Wiue And so taking my leave I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and humble Servant XXXVII MADAM IN your Authors Treatise of Fevers I find one Chapter whose Inscription is A Perfect Curing of all Fevers wherein he declares the secrets of the Cures of Fevers consisting all in Chymical Medicines But considering that if all Fevers could be cured by such Medicines then all Physicians would strive to obtain them I can hardly believe by your Authors favour that any such perfect curing of all Fevers can be effected but that your Authors prescriptions if they should come to the tryal might fail as well as any other Likewise he mentions a Medicine of Paracelsus named Diaceltesson or the Coraline Secret which he says cures radically the Gout no less then Fevers Which if so I wonder why so many Great Noble and Rich Persons groan so much under the pains of the Gout certainly it is not for want of cost to have them prepared nor for want of an ingenious and experienced Chymist for this age doth not want skilful workmen in that Art nor worthy and wise Physicians which if they knew such soveraign medicines would soon apply them to their Patients but I suppose that they finding their effects to be less then the cost and labour bestowed upon them forbear to use them Moreover he mentions another remedy for most diseases by him call'd Driff prepared also by the Art of Chymistry but I believe all those remedies will not so often cure as fail of cure like as the Sympathetical Powder for if there were such soveraign medicines that did never fail of a successful effect certainly men being curious inquisitive and searching would never leave till they had found them out Also amongst Vegetables the herb Chameleon and Arsmart are in great request with your Author For says he they by their touching alone do presently take away cruel diseases or at leastwise ease them Which if so I wonder that there is not more use made of them and they held in greater esteem then they are Also that your Author doth not declare the vertue of them and the manner and way how and in what diseases to use them for the benefit of his neighbour to which end he says all his labours and actions are directed But again your Author confirms as an Eye-witness That the bone of the arm of a Toad presently has taken away the Tooth-ach at the first co-touching Which remedy if it was constant few in my opinion would suffer such cruel pains and cause their teeth to be drawn out especially if sound Likewise of the mineral Electrum or Amber of Paracelsus he affirms to have seen that hung about the neck it has freed those that were persecuted by unclean spirits and that many simples have done the like effects but surely Madam I cannot be perswaded that the Devil should be put away so easily for he being a Spirit will not be chased by corporeal means but by spiritual which is Faith and Prayer and the cure of dispossessing the Devil belongs to Divines and not to Natural Philosopers or Physicians But though exterior remedies as Amulets Pomanders and the like may perform sometimes such effects as to cure or preserve from some diseases yet they are not ordinary and constant but meerly by chance But there are more false remedies then true ones and if one remedy chance to work successfully with
and the like yet of such matter as is the Rational Matter that is the house when it is conceived in the brain is made by the rational corporeal figurative motions of their own substance or degree of Matter But if all Animals should be produced by meer fancies and a Man and a Woman should beget by fancying themselves together in copulation then the produced would be a true Platonick Child But if a Woman being from her Husband should be so got with Child the question is whether the Husband would own the Child and if amorous Lovers which are more contagious for appetite and fancy then Married persons should produce Children by Immaterial contagions there would be more Children then Parents to own them Your third question is Whether Animals may not be produced as many Diseases are by contagion I answer Although contagions may be made at a distance by perception yet those diseases are not begotten by immaterial motions but by the rational and sensitive corporeal motions which work such diseases in the body of a Creature by the association of parts like as the same disease is made in another body Neither are diseases always produced after one and the same manner but after divers manners whereas animals are produced as animals that is after one natural and proper way for although all the effects in particular be not alike yet the general way or manner to produce those effects is the same As for example there is no other way to produce a fruitful Egg but by a Cock and a Hen But a Contagious disease as the small-Pox or the like may be produced by the way of Surfeits or by Conceit which may cause the sensitive corporeal parts through the irregular motions of the rational corporeal parts to work and produce such a disease or any other ways But neither a disease nor no creature else can be produced without matter by substanceless motion for wheresoever is motion there is also matter matter and motion being but one thing Your fourth question is Whether an Animal Creature is perfectly shaped or formed at the first Conception I answer If the Creature be composed of many and different parts my opinions is it cannot be You may say That if it hath not all his parts produced at once there will be required many acts of generation to beget or produce every part otherwise the producers would not be the Parents of the produced in whole but in part I answer The Producer is the designer architect and founder of the whole Creature produced for the sensitive and rational corporeal motions which are transferred from the producer or producers joyn to build the produced like to the producer in specie but the transferred parts may be invisible and insensible to humane Creatures both through their purity and little quantity until the produced is framed to some visible degree for a stately building may proceed from a small beginning neither can humane sense tell what manner of building is designed at the first foundation But you may say That many Eggs may be made by one act of the producers to wit the Cock and the Hen and those many Eggs may be laid at several times as also hatched at several times and become Chickens at several times I answer It may well and easily be so for the rational and sensitive parts or corporeal motions which were transferred in one act designed many produced through that one act for those transferred corporeal motions although they have not a sufficient quantity of themselves to make all the produced in their perfect shapes at once yet they are the chief designer architect and founder of all that are to be produced for the corporeal motions which are transferred joyn with those they are transferred to and being associates work to one design the sensitive being the architect the rational the designer which together with the inanimate parts of matter can never want materials neither can the materials want labourers for the degrees of matter are inseparable and do make but one body or substance Again you may say That some parts of Matter may produce another Creature not like to the producer in its species as for example Monsters I answer That is possible to be done but yet it is not usual for Monsters are not commonly born but those corporeal motions which dwell in one species work according to the nature of the same species and when the parts of Matter are transferred from Creature to Creature that is are separated from some parts and joyned to other pars of the same species and the same nature those transferred parts of matter although invisible in quantity by reason of their purity and subtilty begin the work of the produced according to its natural species and the labourers in other parts of matter work to the same end just as it is in the artificial building of a house where the house is first designed by the Architect or Master and then the labourers work not after their own fancy else it would not be the same house that was designed nor any uniformity in it but according to the architects or surveyors design so those parts of matter or corporeal motions that are transferred from the producer are like the architect but the labourers or workmen are the assisting and adjoyning parts of matter But you will say How comes it that many creatures may be made by one or two I answer As one owner or two partners may be the cause of many buildings so few or more transferred rational and sensitive corporeal motions may make and produce as many creatures as they can get materials and labourers for if they get one they get the other by reason the degrees of matter viz. animate and inanimate are inseparably mixt and make but one body or substance and the proof of it is that all animals are not constant in the number of their off-spring but sometimes produce more and sometimes fewer and sometimes their off-spring is less and sometimes larger according to the quantity of matter Again you may say That in some Creatures there is no passage to receive the transferred matter into the place of the architecture I answer That all passages are not visible to humane sense and some humane Creatures have not a sufficient humane reason to conceive that most of Natures works are not so gross as to be subject to their exterior senses but as for such parts and passages whether exterior or interior visible or invisible as also for copulation conception formation nourishment and the like in Generation I leave you to Physicians and Anatomists And to conclude this question we may observe that not any animal Creatures shape dissolveth in one instant of time but by degrees why should we believe then that Animals are generated or produced in their perfect shape in one instant of time and by one act of Nature But sense and reason knows by observation that an animal Creature requires more time
Creatures which have their rational parts most united are the wisest and those that have their rational parts most divided are the wittiest and those that have much of this rational matter are much knowing and those which have less of this rational matter are less knowing and there is no Creature that hath not some for like as all the parts of a humane body are indued with life and soul so are all the parts of Infinite Nature and though some parts of Matter are not animate in themselves yet there is no part that is not mixt with the animate matter so that all parts of Nature are moving and moved And thus hoping I have cleared my self in this point to your better understanding I take my leave and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant IV. MADAM IN the Works of that most famous Philosopher and Mathematician of our age Gal. which you thought worth my reading I find he discourses much of upwards and downwards backwards and forwards but to tell you really I do not understand what he means by those words for in my opinion there is properly no such thing as upwards downwards backwards or forwards in Nature for all this is nothing else but natural corporeal motions to which in respect of some particulars we do attribute such or such names for if we conceive a Circle I pray where is upwards and downwards backwards and forwards Certainly it is in my opinion just like that they name Rest Place Space Time c. when as Nature her self knows of no such things but all these are onely the several and various motions of the onely Matter You will say How can Rest be a motion I answer Rest is a word which expresses rather mans ignorance then his knowledg for when he sees that a particular Creature has not any external local motion perceptible by his sight he says it resteth and this rest he calls a cessation from motion when as yet there is no such thing as cessation from motion in Nature for motion is the action of natural Matter and its Nature is to move perpetually so that it is more probable for motion to be annihilated then to cease But you may say It is a cessation from some particular motion I answer You may rather call it an alteration of a particular motion then a cessation for though a particular motion doth not move in that same manner as it did before nevertheless it is still there and not onely there but still moving onely it is not moving after the same manner as it did move heretofore but has changed from such a kind of motion to another kind of motion and being still moving it cannot be said to cease Wherefore what is commonly called cessation from motion is onely a change of some particular motion and is a mistake of change for rest Next I find in the same Author a long discourse of circular and strait motions to wit That they are simple motions and that all others are composed out of them and are mixt motions Also That the Circular Motion is perfect and the Right imperfect and that all the parts of the world if moveable of their own nature it is impossible that their motions should be Right or any other then Circular That a Circular motion is never to be gotten naturally without a preceding right motion That a Right motion cannot naturally be perpetual That a Right motion is impossible in the World well ordered and the like First I cannot conceive why natural Matter should use the Circle-figure more then any other in the motions of her Creatures for Nature which is Infinite Matter is not bound to one particular motion or to move in a Circle more then any other figure but she moves more variously then any one part of hers can conceive Wherefore it is not requisite that the natural motions of natural bodies should be onely Circular Next I do not understand why a Circular Motion cannot be gotten naturally without a precedent right motion for in my opinion corporeal motions may be round or circular without being or moving straight before and if a straight line doth make a circle then an imperfect figure makes a perfect but in my opinion a circle may as well make a straight line as a strait line a circle except it be like a Gordian knot that it cannot be dissolved or that Nature may make some corporeal motions as constant as she makes others inconstant for her motions are not alike in continuance and alteration And as for right motion that naturally it cannot be perpetual my opinion is that it cannot be if Nature be finite but if Nature be infinite it may be But the circular motion is more proper for a finite then an infinite because a circle-figure is perfect and circumscribed and a straight line is infinite or at least producible in infinite and there may be other worlds in infinite Nature besides these round Globes perceptible by our sight which may have other figures for though it be proper for Globes or Spherical bodies to move round yet that doth not prove that Infinite Matter moves round or that all worlds must be of a Globous figure for there may be as different Worlds as other Creatures He says That a Right motion is impossible in the World well ordered But I cannot conceive a Right motion to be less orderly then a Circular in Nature except it be in some Particulars but oftentimes that which is well ordered in some cases seems to some mens understandings and perceptions ill ordered in other cases for man as a part most commonly considers but the Particulars not the Generals like as every one in a Commonwealth considers more himself and his Family then the Publick Lastly Concerning the simplicity of Motions as that onely circular and straight motions are simple motions because they are made by simple Lines I know not what they mean by simple Lines for the same Lines which make straight and circular figures may make as well other figures as those but in my opinion all motions may be called simple in regard of their own nature for they are nothing else but the sensitive and rational part of Matter which in its own nature is pure and simple and moves according to the Nature of each Figure either swiftly or slowly or in this or that sort of motion but the most simple purest and subtillest part is the rational part of matter which though it be mixed with the sensitive and inanimate in one body yet it can and doth move figuratively in its own matter without the help or assistance of any other But I desire you to remember Madam that in the compositions and divisions of the parts of Nature there is as much unity and agreement as there is discord and disagreement for in Infinite there is no such thing as most and least neither is there any such thing as more perfect or less perfect in Matter And as for Irregularities properly
motion to tend to its former state Wherefore when the Line moves backwards or forwards it is not that the Line gets what it had not before that is a new corporeal motion but it uses its own motion onely as I said that exterior body is the occasion that it moves after such a manner or way and therefore this motion of the line although it is the lines own motion yet in respect of the exterior body that causes it to move that way it may be called a forced or rather an occasioned motion And thus no body can get motion from another body except it get matter too for all that motion that a body has proceeds from the self-moving part of matter and motion and matter are but one thing neither is there any inanimate part of matter in Nature which is not co-mixed with the animate and consequently there is no part which is not moving or moved the Animate part of matter is the onely self-moving part and the Inanimate the moved not that the animate matter doth give away its own motion to the inanimate and that the inanimate becomes self-moving but the animate by reason of the close conjunction and commixture works together with the inanimate or causes the inanimate to work with it and thus the inanimate remains as simple in its own nature as the animate doth in its nature although they are mixt for those mixtures do not alter the simplicity of each others Nature But having discoursed of this subject in my former Letters I take my leave and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant VI. MADAM IT seems my former Letter concerning Motion has given you occasion to propound this following question to me to wit When I throw a bowl or strike a ball with my hand whether the motion by which the bowl or ball is moved be the hands or the balls own motion or whether it be transferred out of my hand into the ball To which I return this short answer That the motion by which for example the bowl is moved is the bowls own motion and not the hands that threw it for the hand cannot transfer its own motion which hath a material being out of it self into the bowl or any other thing it handles touches or moves or else if it did the hand would in a short time become weak and useless by losing so much substance unless new motions were as fast created as expended You 'l say perhaps that the hand and the bowl may exchange motions as that the bowls own motion doth enter into the hand and supply that motion which went out of the hand into the bowl by a close joyning or touch for in all things moving and moved must be a joyning of the mover to the moved either immediate or by the means of another body I answer That this is more probable then that the hand should give out or impart motion to the bowl and receive none from the bowl but by reason motion cannot be transferred without matter as being both inseparably united and but one thing I cannot think it probable that any of the animate or self-moving matter in the hand quits the hand and enters into the bowl nor that the animate matter which is in the bowl leaves the bowl and enters into the hand because that self-moving substance is not readily prepared for so sudden a Translation or Transmigration You may say It may as easily be done as food is received into an animal body and excrement discharged or as air is taken in and breath sent out by the way of respiration and that all Creatures are not onely produced from each other but do subsist by each other and act by each others assistance I answer It is very true that all Creatures have more power and strength by a joyned assistance then if every part were single and subsisted of it self But as some parts do assist each other so on the other side some parts do resist each other for though there be a unity in the nature of Infinite Matter yet there are divisions also in the Infinite parts of Infinite Matter which causes Antipathy as much as Sympathy but they being equal in assistance as well as in resistance it causes a conformity in the whole nature of Infinite Matter for if there were not contrary or rather I may say different effects proceeding from the onely cause which is the onely matter there could not possibly be any or at least so much variety in Nature as humane sense and reason perceives there is But to return to our first argument You may say that motion may be transferred out of one body into another without transferring any of the Matter I answer That is impossible unless motion were that which some call No-thing but how No-thing can be transferred I cannot imagine Indeed no sense and reason in Nature can conceive that which is No-thing for how should it conceive that which is not in Nature to be found You 'l say perhaps It is a substanceless thing or an incorporeal immaterial being or form I answer In my opinion it is a meer contradiction to say a substanceless thing form or being for surely in Nature it cannot be But if it be not possible that motion can be divided from matter you may say that body from whence the motion is transferred would become less in bulk and weight and weaker with every act of motion and those bodies into which corporeal motion or self-moving matter was received would grow bigger heavier and stronger To which I answer That this is the reason which denies that there can be a translation of motion out of the moving body into the moved for questionless the one would grow less and the other bigger that by loosing so much substance this by receiving Nay if it were possible as it is not that motion could be transferred without matter the body out of which it goes would nevertheless grow weaker for the strength lies in the motion unless you believe this motion which is transferred to have been useless in the mover and onely useful to the moved or else it would be superfluous in the moved except you say it became to be annihilated after it was transferr'd and had done its effect but if so then there would be a perpetual and infinite creation and annihilation of substanceless motion and how there could be a creation and annihilation of nothing my reason cannot conceive neither is it possible unless Nature had more power then God to create Nothing and to annihilate Nothing The truth is it is more probable for sense and reason to believe a Creation of Something out of Nothing then a Creation of Nothing out of Nothing Wherefore it cannot in sense and reason be that the motion of the hand is transferr'd into the bowl But yet I do not say that the motion of the hand doth not contribute to the motion of the bowl for though the bowl hath its own natural motion
in it self for Nature and her creatures know of no rest but are in a perpetual motion though not always exterior and local yet they have their proper and certain motions which are not so easily perceived by our grosser senses nevertheless the motion of the bowl would not move by such an exterior local motion did not the motion of the hand or any other exterior moving body give it occasion to move that way Wherefore the motion of the hand may very well be said to be the cause of that exterior local motion of the bowl but not to be the same motion by which the bowl moves Neither is it requisite that the hand should quit its own motion because it uses it in stirring up or putting on the motion of the bowl for it is one thing to use and another to quit as for example it is one thing to offer his life for his friends service another to imploy it and another to quit or lose it But Madam there may be infinite questions or exceptions and infinite answers made upon one truth but the wisest and most probable way is to rely upon sense and reason and not to trouble the mind thoughts and actions of life with improbabilities or rather impossibilities which sense and reason knows not of nor cannot conceive You may say A Man hath sometimes improbable or impossible Fancies Imaginations or Chymaera's in his mind which are No-things I answer That those Fancies and Imaginations are not No-things but as perfectly imbodied as any other Creatures but by reason they are not so grosly imbodied as those creatures that are composed of more sensitive and inanimate matter man thinks or believes them to be no bodies but were they substanceless figures he could not have them in his mind or thoughts The truth is the purity of reason is not so perspicuous and plain to sense as sense is to reason the sensitive matter being a grosser substance then the rational And thus Madam I have answered your proposed question according to the ability of my Reason which I leave to your better examination and rest in the mean while MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant VII MADAM HAving made some mention in my former Letter of the Receiving of Food and discharging of Excrements as also of Respiration which consists in the sucking in of air and sending out of breath in an animal body you desire to know Whether Respiration be common to all animal Creatures Truly I have not the experience as to tell you really whether all animals respire or not for my life being for the most part solitary and contemplative but not active I please my self more with the motions of my thoughts then of my senses and therefore I shall give you an answer according to the conceivement of my reason onely which is That I believe all animals require Respiration not onely those which live in the air but those also which live in waters and within the earth but they do not respire all after one and the same manner for the matter which they imbreath is not every where the same nor have they all the same organs or parts nor the same motions As for example Some Creatures require a more thin and rarer substance for their imbreathing or inspiring then others and some a more thick and grosser substance then others according to their several Natures for as there are several kinds of Creatures according to their several habitations or places they live in so they have each a distinct and several sort of matter or substance for their inspiraration As for example Some live in the Air some upon the face of the Earth some in the bowels of the Earth and some in Waters There is some report of a Salamander who lives in the Fire but it being not certainly known deserves not our speculation And as in my opinion all animal Creatures require Respiration so I do verily believe that also all other kinds of Creatures besides animals have some certain manmer of imbreathing and transpiring viz. Vegetables Minerals and Elements although not after the same way as Animals yet in a way peculiar and proper to the nature of their own kind For example Take away the earth from Vegetables and they will die as being in my opinion stifled or smothered in the same manner as when the Air is taken away from some Animals Also take Minerals out of the bowels of the Earth and though we cannot say they die or are dead because we have not as yet found out the alterative motions of Minerals as well as of Vegetables or Animals yet we know that they are dead from production and increase for not any Metal increases being out of the Earth And as for Elements it is manifest that Fire will die for want of vent but the rest of the Elements if we could come to know the matter manner and ways of their Vital Breathing we might kill or revive them as we do Fire And therefore all Creatures to my Reason require a certain matter and manner of inspiration and expiration which is nothing else but an adjoyning and disjoyning of parts to and from parts for not any natural part or creature can subsist single and by it self but requires assistance from others as this and the rest of my opinions in Natural Philosophy desire the assistance of your favour or else they will die to the grief of MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant VIII MADAM TH other day I met with the Work of that Learned Author Dr. Ch. which treats of Natural Philosophy and amongst the rest in the Chapter of Place I found that he blames Aristotle for saying there are none but corporeal dimensions Length Breadth and Depth in Nature making besides these corporeal other incorporeal dimensions which he attributes to Vacuum Truly Madam an incorporeal dimension or extension seems in my opinion a meer contradiction for I cannot conceive how nothing can have a dimension or extension having nothing to be extended or measured His words are these Imagine we therefore that God should please to annihilate the whole stock or mass of Elements and all concretions resulting therefrom that is all corporeal substances now contained within the ambit or concave of the lowest Heaven or Lunar sphear and having thus imagined can we conceive that all the vast space or region circumscribed by the concave superfice of the Lunar sphere would not remain the same in all its dimensions after as before the reduction of all bodies included therein to nothing To which I answer That in my opinion he makes Nature Supernatural for although God's Power may make Vacuum yet Nature cannot for God's and Nature's Power are not to be compared neither is God's invisible Power perceptible by Natures parts but according to Natural Perception it is impossible to conceive a Vacuum for we cannot immagine a Vacuum but we must think of a body as your Author of the Circle of the Moon neither could he think of
that there is one maximum or biggest which is the world and what is beyond that is Infinite Truly Madam I must ingeniously confess I am not so high learned as to penetrate into the true sense of these words for he says they are both divisible and indivisible and yet no atomes which surpasses my Understanding for there is no such thing as biggest and smallest in Nature or in the Infinite matter for who can know how far this World goes or what is beyond it There may be Infinite Worlds as I said before for ought we know for God and Nature cannot be comprehended ' nor their works measured if we cannot find out the nature of particular things which are subject to our exterior senses how shall we be able to judg of things not subject to our senses But your Author doth speak so presumptuously of Gods Actions Designs Decrees Laws Attributes Power and secret Counsels and describes the manner how God created all things and the mixture of the Elements to an hair as if he had been Gods Counsellor and Assistant in the work of Creation which whether it be not more impiety then to say Matter is Infinite I 'le let others judg Neither do I think this expression to be against the holy Scripture for though I speak as a natural Philosopher and am unwilling to cite the Scripture which onely treats of things belonging to Faith and and not to Reason yet I think there is not any passage which plainly denies Matter to be Infinite and Eternal unless it be drawn by force to that sense Solomon says That there is not any thing new and in another place it is said That God is all fulfilling that is The Will of God is the fulfilling of the actions of Nature also the Scripture says That Gods ways are unsearchable and past finding out Wherefore it is easier to treat of Nature then the God of Nature neither should God be treated of by vain Philosophers but by holy Divines which are to deliver and interpret the Word of God without sophistry and to inform us as much of Gods Works as he hath been pleased to declare and make known And this is the safest way in the opinion of MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XI MADAM YOur new Author endeavours to prove that Water in its own proper nature is thicker then Earth which to my sense and reason seems not probable for although water is less porous then earth in its exterior figure yet 't is not so thick as earth in its interior nature Neither can I conceive it to be true that water in its own nature and as long as it remains water should be as hard as Crystal or stone as his opinion is for though Elements are so pliant being not composed of many different parts and figures as they can change and rechange their exterior figures yet they do not alter their interior nature without a total dissolution but your Author may as well say that the interior nature of man is dust and ashes as that water in its interior nature is as thick as earth and as hard as Christal or stone whereas yet a man when he becomes dust and ashes is not a man and therefore when water is become so thick as earth or so hard as stone it is not water I mean when it is so in its interior nature not in its exterior figure for the exterior figure may be contracted when yet the interior nature is dilative and so the exterior may be thick or hard when the interior is soft and rare But you may say that water is a close and heavy as also a smooth and glossy body I answer That doth not prove its interior nature to be hard dense thick or contracted for the interior nature and parts of a body may be different from the exterior figure or parts neither doth the close joyning of parts hinder dilatation for if so a line or circle could not dilate or extend But this close uniting of the parts of water is caused through its wet and glutinous quality which wet and sticking quality is caused by a watery dilatation for though water hath not interiously so rare a dilatation as Air Fire and Light yet it hath not so close a contraction as Earth Stone or Metal neither are all bodies that are smooth and shining more solid and dense then those that are rough and dark for light is more smooth glossy and shining then Water Metal Earth or Transparent-stones and yet is of a dilative nature But because some bodies and figures which are transparent and smooth are dense hard and thick we cannot in reason or sense say that all bodies and figures are so As for Transparency it is caused through a purity of substance and an evenness of parts the like is glossiness onely glossiness requires not so much regularity as transparency But to return to Water its exterior Circle-figure may easily dilate beyond the degree of the propriety or nature of water or contract beneath the propriety or nature of water Your Author may say Water is a globous body and all globous bodies tend to a Center I answer That my sense and reason cannot perceive but that Circles and Globes do as easily dilate as contract for if all Globes and Circles should endeavour to draw or fall from the circumference to the Center the Center of the whole World or at least of some parts of the World would be as a Chaos besides it is against sense and reason that all Matter should strive to a Center for humane sense and reason may observe that all Creatures and so Matter desire liberty and a Center is but a Prison in comparison to the Circumference wherefore if Matter crowds it is rather by force then a voluntary action You will say All Creatures desire rest and in a Center there 's rest I answer Humane sense and reason cannot perccive any rest in Nature for all things as I have proved heretofore are in a perpetual motion But concerning Water you may ask me Madam Whether congeal'd Water as Ice if it never thaw remains Water To which I answer That the interior nature of Water remains as long as the Ice remains although the outward form is changed but if Ice be contracted into the firmness and density of Crystal or Diamond or the like so as to be beyond the nature of Water and not capable to be that Water again then it is transformed into another Creature or thing which is neither Water nor Ice but a Stone for the Icy contraction doth no more alter the interior nature of Water which is dilating then the binding of a man with Chains alters his nature from being a man and it might be said as well that the nature of Air is not dilating when inclosed in a bladder as that Water doth not remain Water in its interior nature when it is contracted into Ice But you may ask Whether one extreme can change into another I
answer To my sense and reason it were possible if extremes were in Nature but I do not perceive that in Nature there be any although my sense and reason doth perceive alterations in the effects of Nature for though one and the same part may alter from contraction to dilation and from dilation to contraction yet this contraction and dilation are not extremes neither are they performed at one and the same time but at different times But having sufficiently declared my opinion hereof in my former Letters I 'l add no more but rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XII MADAM MY discourse of Water in my last Letter has given you occasion to enquire after the reason Why the weight of a great body of water doth not press so hard and heavily as to bruise or crush a body when it is sunk down to the bottom As for example If a man should be drowned and afterwards cast out from the bottom of a great Sea or River upon the shore he would onely be found smother'd or choak'd to death and not press'd crush'd or bruised by the weight of water I answer The reasons are plain for first the nature of a mans respiration requires such a temperature of breath to suck in as is neither too thick nor too thin for his lungs and the rest of his interior parts as also for the organs and passages of his exterior senses but fit proper and proportionable to those mentioned parts of his body As for example in a too thin and rarified air man will be as apt to die for want of breath as in a too gross and thick air he is apt to die with a superfluity of the substance he imbreaths for thick smoak or thick vapour as also too gross air will soon smother a man to death and as for choaking if a man takes more into his throat then he can swallow he will die and if his stomack be filled with more food then it is able to digest if it cannot discharge it self he will die with the excess of food and if there be no food or too little put into it he will also die for want of food So the eye if it receives too many or too gross or too bright objects it will be dazled or blinded and some objects through their purity are not to be seen at all The same for Hearing and the rest of the exterior senses And this is the reason why man or some animal Creatures are smother'd and choak'd with water because water is thicker then the grossest air or vapour for if smoak which is rarer then water will smother and choak a man well may water being so much thicker But yet this smothering or choaking doth not prove that water hath an interior or innate density as your Authors opinion is no more then smoak or thick and gross air hath but the density of water is caused more through the wet and moist exterior parts joyning and uniting closely together and the interior nature of smoak being more moist or glutinous then thin air and so more apt to unite its exterior parts it makes it to come in effect nearer to water for though water and smoak are both of rare natures yet not so rare as clear and pure air neither is water or smoak so porous as pure air by reason the exterior parts of water and smoak are more moist or glutinous then pure air But the thickness of water and smoak is the onely cause of the smothering of men or some animals as by stopping their breath for a man can no more live without air then he can without food and a well tempered or middle degree of air is the most proper for animal Respiration for if the air be too thick it may soon smother or choak him and if too thin it is not sufficient to give him breath And this is the reason that a man being drown'd is not onely smother'd but choak'd by water because there enters more through the exterior passages into his body then can be digested for water is apt to flow more forcibly and with greater strength then air not that it is more dilating then air but by reason it is thicker and so stronger or of more force for the denser a body is the stronger it is and a heavy body when moved is more forcible then a light body But I pray by this expression mistake not the nature of water for the interior nature of water hath not that gravity which heavy or dense bodies have its nature being rare and light as air or fire but the weight of water as I said before proceeds onely from the closeness and compactness of its exterior parts not through a contraction in its interior nature and there is no argument which proves better that water in its interior nature is dilating then that its weight is not apt to press to a point for though water is apt to descend through the union of its parts yet it cannot press hard by reason of its dilating nature which hinders that heavy pressing quality for a dilating body cannot have a contracted weight I mean so as to press to a Center which is to a point and this is the reason that when a grave or heavy body sinks down to the bottom of water it is not opprest hurt crusht or bruised by the weight of water for as I said the nature of water being dilating it can no more press hard to a center then vapour air or fire The truth is water would be as apt to ascend as descend if it were not for the wet glutinous and sticking cleaving quality of its exterior parts but as the quantity and quality of the exterior parts makes water apt to sink or descend so the dilating nature makes it apt to flow if no hinderance stop its course also the quantity and quality of its exterior parts is the cause that some heavy bodies do swim without sinking as for example a great heavy Ship will not readily sink unless its weight be so contracted as to break asunder the united parts of water for the wet quality of water causing its exterior parts to joyn close gives it such an united strength as to be able to bear a heavy burden if the weight be dilated or level and not piercing or penetrating for those bodies that are most compact will sink sooner although of less weight then those that are more dilated although of greater weight Also the exterior and outward shape or form makes some bodies more apt to sink then others Indeed the outward form and shape of Creatures is one of the chief causes of either sinking or swimming But to conclude water in its interior nature is of a mean or middle degree as neither too rare nor too grave a body and for its exterior quality it is in as high a degree for wetness as fire is for heat and being apt both to divide and to unite it can bear a burden and devour a
understand then what I do understand for first I do not understand their sophistical Logick as to perswade with arguments that black is white and white is black and that fire is not hot nor water wet and other such things for the glory in Logick is rather to make doubts then to find truth indeed that Art now is like thick dark clouds which darken the light of truth Next I do not understand in particular what they mean by second matter for if they name figures and forms second matter they may as well say all several motions which are the several actions of Nature are several matters and so there would be infinite several matters which would produce a meer confusion in Nature Neither do I understand when they say a body dissolves into the first matter for I am not able to conceive their first matter nor what they mean by magna and major materia for I believe there is but one matter and the motion of that matter is its action by which it produces several figures and effects so that the nature of the matter is one and the same although its motions that is its actions be various for the various effects alter not the nature or unity of the onely matter Neither do I understand what they mean by corruption for surely Nature is not corruptible Nor do I understand their individables in Nature nor a bodiless form nor a privation nor a being without a body nor any such thing as they call rest for there 's not any thing without motion in Nature Some do talk of moving minima's but they do not tell what those minima's or their motions are or how they were produced or how they came to move Neither do I understand when they say there is but one World and that finite for if there be no more Matter then that which they call the whole World and may be measured by a Jacob's staff then certainly there is but little matter and that no bigger then an atome in comparison to Infinite Neither can my reason comprehend when they say that not any thing hath power from its interior nature to move exteriously and locally for common sense and reason that is sight and observation doth prove the contrary Neither do I know what they mean by making a difference between matter and form power and act for there can be no form without matter nor no matter without form and as act includes power so power is nothing without act Neither can I conceive Reason to be separable from matter nor what is meant when they say that onely that is real which moves the understanding without Nor do I understand what they mean by intentionals accidentals incorporeal beings formal ratio formal unity and hundreds the like enough to puzle truth when all is but the several actions of one cause to wit the onely matter But most men make such cross narrow and intricate ways in Nature with their over-nice distinctions that Nature appears like a Labyrinth whenas really she is as plain as an un-plowed ditched or hedged champion Nay some make Nature so full that she can neither move nor stir and others again will have her so empty as they leave not anything within her and some with their penetrations pressings squeezings and the like make such holes in her as they do almost wound press and squeeze her to death And some are so learned witty and ingenious as they understand and know to discourse of the true compass just weight exact rules measures and proportions of the Universe as also of the exact division of the Chaos and the architecture of the world to an atome Thus Madam I have made my confession to you of what I understand not and have endeavoured to make my ignorance as brief as I could but the great God knows that my ignorance is longer then that which is named life and death and as for my understanding I can onely say that I understand nothing better but my self to be MADAM Your most faithful Friend and humble Servant XIX MADAM SInce I have given you in my last an account how much I did understand the Philosophical works of both the ancient and modern Philosophers or rather what I did not understand of them you would fain have my opâ—â—â—on now of the persons themselves Truly Madam as for those that are dead or those that are living I cannot say any thing but that I believe they all were or are worthy persons men of vast understandings subtil conceptions ingenious wits painful students and learned writers But as for their works as I told you heretofore I confess ingeniously I understand them not by reason I am ignorant in their Scholastical Arts as Logick Metaphysick Mathematicks and the like For to my simple apprehension when as Logicians argue of natural causes and effects they make natural causes to produce natural effects with more difficulty and enforcement then Nature knows of and as for Mathematicians they endeavour to inchant Nature with Circles and bind her with lines so hard as if she were so mad that she would do some mischief when left at liberty Geometricians weigh Nature to an Atome and measure her so exactly as less then a hairs breadth besides they do press and squeeze her so hard and close as they almost stifle her And Natural Philosophers do so stuff her with dull dead senceless minima's like as a sack with meal or sand by which they raise such a dust as quite blinds Nature and natural reason But Chymists torture Nature worst of all for they extract and distil her beyond substance nay into no substance if they could As for natural Theologers I understand them least of any for they make such a gallamalfry of Philosophy and Divinity as neither can be distinguished from the other In short Madam They all with their intricate definitions and distinctions set my brain on the rack but some Philosophers are like some Poets for they endeavour to write strong lines You may ask me what is meant by strong lines I answer Weak sense To which leaving them I rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XX. MADAM I Am not of your opinion That nice distinctions and Logistical arguments discover truth dissolve doubts and clear the understanding but I say they rather make doubts of truth and blind-fold the understanding Indeed nice distinctions and sophistical arguments are very pernicious both in Schools Church and State As for the Church although in Divinity there is but one Truth yet nice distinctions and Logistical sophistry have made such confufion in it as has caused almost as many several opinions as there are words in the Scripture and as for natural Theology which is moral Philosophy they have divided vertues and vices into so many parts and minced them so small that neither can be clearly distinguished The same in Government they endeavour to cut between command and obedience to a hairs breadth Concerning causes of Law they have
wish with all my heart I could obtain the first is to argue without error in all kinds modes and figures in a quarter of an hour and the other is to learn a way to understand all languages in six hours But as for the first I fear if I want a thorow-understanding in every particular argument cause or point a general art or mode of words will not help me especially if I being a woman should want discretion And as for the second my memory is so bad that it is beyond the help of Art so that Nature has made my understanding harder or closer then Glass through which the Sun of verity cannot pass although its light doth and therefore I am confident I shall not be made or taught to learn this mentioned Art in six hours no not in six months But I wish all Arts were as easily practised as mentioned and thus I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXIII MADAM COncerning your Question Whether a Point be something or nothing or between both My opinion is that a natural point is material but that which the learned name a Mathematical point is like their Logistical Egg whereof there is nothing in Nature any otherwise but a word which word is material as being natural for concerning immaterial beings it is impossible to believe there be any in Nature and though witty Students and subtil Arguers have both in past and this present age endeavoured to prove something nothing yet words and disputes have not power to annihilate any thing that is in Nature no more then to create something out of nothing and therefore they can neither make something nothing nor nothing to be something for the most witty student nor the subtilest disputant cannot alter Nature but each thing is and must be as Nature made it As for your other question Whether there be more then five Senses I answer There are as many senses as there are sensitive motions and all sensation or perception is by the way of patterning and whosoever is of another opinion is in my judgment a greater friend to contradiction then to truth at least to probability Lastly concerning your question why a Gun the longer its barrel is made the further it will shoot until it come to a certain degree of length after which the longer it is made the weaker it becomes so that every degree further makes it shoot shorter and shorter whereas before it came to such a degree of length it shot further and further Give me leave to tell you Madam that this question would be put more properly to a Mathematician then to me who am ignorant in the Mathematicks However since you are pleased to desire my opinion thereof I am willing to give it you There are in my judgment but three reasons which do produce this alteration The one may be the compass of the stock or barrel which being too wide for the length may weaken the force or being too narrow for the length may retard the force the one giving liberty before the force is united the other inclosing it so long by a streight passage as it loses its force before it hath liberty so that the one becomes stronger with length the other weaker with length The second reason in my opinion is That degrees of strength may require degrees of the medium Lastly It may be that Centers are required for degrees of strength if so every medium may be a Center and the middle length to such a compass may be a Center of such a force But many times the force being weaker or stronger is caused by the good or ill making of the Powder or Locks or the like But Madam such questions will puzle me as much as those of M r V. Z. concerning those glasses one of which being held close in ones hand and a little piece being broke of its tail makes as great a noise as the discharging of a Gun Wherefore I beseech you Madam do not trouble my brain with Mathematical questions wherein I have neither skill learning nor experience by Practice for truly I have not the subtilty to find out their mystery nor the capacity to understand arts no more then I am capable to learn several languages If you command me any thing else I am able to do assure your self there is none shall more readily and cheerfully serve you then my self who am and shall ever continue MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXIV MADAM I Have heard that Artists do glory much in their Glasses Tubes Engines and Stills and hope by their Glasses and Tubes to see invisible things and by their Engines to produce incredible effects and by their Stills Fire and Furnaces to create as Nature doth but all this is impossible to be done For Art cannot arrive to that degree as to know perfectly Natures secret and fundamental actions her purest matter and subtilest motions and it is enough if Artists can but produce such things as are for mans conveniencies and use although they never can see the smallest or rarest bodies nor great and vast bodies at a great distance nor make or create a Vegetable Animal or the like as Nature doth for Nature being Infinite has also Infinite degrees of figures sizes motions densities rarities knowledg c. as you may see in my Book of Philosophy as also in my book of Poems especially that part that treats of little minute Creatures which I there do name for want of other expressions Fairies for I have considered much the several sizes of Creatures although I gave it out but for a fancy in the mentioned book lest I should be thought extravagant to declare that conception of mine for a rational truth But if some small bodies cannot be perfectly seen but by the help of magnifying glasses and such as they call Microscopia I pray Nature being Infinite What figures and sizes may there not be which our eyes with all the help of Art are not capable to see for certainly Nature hath more curiosities then our exterior senses helped by Art can perceive Wherefore I cannot wonder enough at those that pretend to know the least or greatest parts or creatures in Nature since no particular Creature is able to do it But concerning Artists you would fain know Madam whether the Artist be beholden to the conceptions of the Student To which I return this short answer That in my judgment without the Students conceptions the Artist could not tell how to make experiments The truth is the conceptions of studious men set the Artists on work although many Artists do ungratefully attribute all to their own industry Neither doth it always belong to the studious Concepter to make trials or experiments but he leaves that work to others whose time is not so much imployed with thoughts or speculations as with actions for the Contemplator is the Designer and the Artist the Workman or Labourer who ought to acknowledg him his Master as I do your Ladiship
for I am in all respects MADAM Your Ladiships humble and faithful Servant XXV MADAM YOur Command in your last was to send you my opinion concerning the division of Religions or of the several opinions in Religions I suppose you mean the division of the Religion not of Religions for certainly there is but one divine Truth and consequently but one true Religion But natural men being composed of many divers parts as of several motions and figures have divers and several Ideas which the grosser corporeal motions conceive to be divers and several gods as being not capable to know the Great and Incomprehensible God who is above Nature For example Do but consider Madam what strange opinions the Heathens had of God and how they divided him into so many several Persons with so many several bodies like men whereas surely God considered in his Essence he being a Spirit as the Scripture describes him can neither have Soul nor body as he is a God but is an Immaterial Being Onely the Heathens did conceive him to have parts and so divided the Incomprehensible God into several Deities at least they had several Deitical Ideas or rather Fancies of him But Madam I confess my ignorance in this great mystery and honour and praise the Omnipotent Great and Incomprehensible God with all fear and humility as I ought beseeching his infinite mercy to keep me from such presumption whereby I might prophane his holy Name and to make me obedient to the Church as also to grant me life and health that I may be able to express how much I am MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXVI MADAM SInce I spake of Religion in my last I cannot but acquaint you that I was the other day in the company of Sir P. H. and Sir R. L. where amongst other discourses they talk'd of Predestination and Free-will Sir P. H. accounted the opinion of Predestination not onely absurd but blasphemous for said he Predestination makes God appear Cruel as first to create Angels and Man and then to make them fall from their Glory and damn them eternally For God said he knew before he made them they would fall Neither could he imagine from whence that Pride and Presumption did proceed which was the cause of the Angels fall for it could not proceed from God God being infinitely Good Sir R. L. answer'd That this Pride and Presumption did not come from God but from their own Nature But replyed Sir P. H. God gave them that Nature for they had it not of themselves but all what they were their Essence and Nature came from God the Creator of all things and to suffer that which was in his power to hinder was as much as to act Sir R. L. said God gave both Angels and Man a Free-will at their Creation Sir P. H. answered that a Free-will was a part of a divine attribute which surely God would not give away to any Creature Next said he he could not conceive why God should make Creatures to cross and oppose him for it were neither an act of Wisdom to make Rebels nor an act of Justice to make Devils so that neither in his Wisdom Justice nor Mercy God could give leave that Angels and Man should fall through sin neither was God ignorant that Angels and Man would fall for surely said he God knew all things past present and to come wherefore said he Free-will doth weaken the Power of God and Predestination doth weaken the power of man and both do hinder each other Besides said he since God did confirm the rest of the Angels in the same state they were before so as they could not fall afterwards he might as well have created them all so at first But Sir R. L. replied That God suffered Angels and Man to fall for his Glory to shew his Justice in Devils and his Mercy in Man and that the Devils express'd God's Omnipotency as much as the Blessed To which Sir P. H. answered That they expressed more God's severity in those horrid torments they suffer through their Natural Imperfections then his power in making and suffering them to sin Thus they discoursed And to tell you truly Madam my mind was more troubled then delighted with their discourse for it seemed rather to detract from the honour of the great God then to increase his Glory and no Creature ought either to think or to speak any thing that is detracting from the Glory of the Creator Wherefore I am neither for Predestination nor for an absolute Free-will neither in Angels Devils nor Man for an absolute Free-will is not competent to any Creature and though Nature be Infinite and the Eternal Servant to the Eternal and Infinite God and can produce Infinite Creatures yet her Power and Will is not absolute but limited that is she has a natural free-will but not a supernatural for she cannot work beyond the power God has given her But those mystical discourses belong to Divines and not to any Lay-person and I confess my self very ignorant in them Wherefore I will nor dare not dispute God's actions being all infinitely wise but leave that to Divines who are to inform us what we ought to believe and how we ought to live And thus taking my leave of you for the present I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXVII MADAM YOu are pleased to honor me so far that you do not onely spend some time in the perusing of my Book called Philosophical Opinions but take it so much into your consideration as to examine every opinion of mine which dissents from the common way of the Schools marking those places which seem somewhat obscure and desiring my explanation of them All which I do not onely acknowledg as a great favour but as an infallible testimony of your true and unfeigned friendship and I cannot chuse but publish it to all the world both for the honour of your self as to let every body know the part of so true a friend who is so much concerned for the honour and benefit of my poor Works as also for the good of my mentioned Book which by this means will be rendred more intelligible for I must confess that my Philosophical Opinions are not so plain and perspicuous as to be perfectly understood at the first reading which I am sorry for And there be two chief reasons why they are so First Because they are new and never vented before for they have their original meerly from my own conceptions and are not taken out of other Philosophers Next because I being a Woman and not bred up to Scholarship did want names and terms of Art and therefore being not versed in the Writings of other Philosophers but what I knew by hearing I could not form my named Book so methodically and express my opinions so artificially and clearly as I might have done had I been studious in the reading of Philosophical Books or bred a Scholar for then I might have dressed
self-moving matter that is to say by the rational corporeal motions and are the same with thoughts or conceptions Next your question is what I do understand by Sensitive Life I answer It is that part of self-moving matter which in its own nature is not so pure and subtil as the rational for it is but the labouring and the rational the designing part of matter Your third question is Whether this sensitive self-moving matter be dense or rare I answer density and rarity are onely effects caused by the several actions that is the corporeal motions of Nature wherefore it cannot properly be said that sensitive matter is either dense or rare for it has a self-power to contract and dilate compose and divide and move in any kind of motion whatsoever as is requisite to the framing of any figure and thus I desire you to observe well that when I say the rational part of matter is purer in its degree then the sensitive and that this is a rare and acute matter I do not mean that it is thin like a rare egg but that it is subtil and active penetrating and dividing as well as dividable Your fourth question is What this sensitive matter works upon I answer It works with and upon another degree of matter which is not self-moving but dull stupid and immoveable in its own nature which I call the inanimate part or degree of matter Your fifth question is Whether this inanimate Matter do never rest I answer It doth not for the self-moving matter being restless in its own nature and so closely united and commixed with the inanimate as they do make but one body will never suffer it to rest so that there is no part in Nature but is moving the animate matter in it self or its own nature the inanimate by the help or means of the animate Your sixth question is If there be a thorow mixture of the parts of animate and inanimate matter whether those parts do retain each their own nature and substance so that the inanimate part of matter remains dull and stupid in its essence or nature and the animate full of self-motion or all self motion I answer Although every part and particle of each degree are closely intermixed nevertheless this mixture doth not alter the interior nature of those parts or degrees As for example a man is composed of Soul and Body which are several parts but joyned as into one substance viz. Man and yet they retain each their own proprieties and natures for although soul and body are so closely united as they do make but one Man yet the soul doth not change into the body nor the body into the soul but each continues in its own nature as it is And so likewise in Infinite Matter although the degrees or parts of Matter are so throughly intermixed as they do make but one body or substance which is corporeal Nature yet each remains in its nature as it is to wit the animate part of matter doth not become dull and stupid in its nature but remains self-moving and the inanimate although it doth move by the means of the animate yet it doth not become self-moving but each keeps its own interior nature and essence in their commixture The truth is there must of necessity be degrees of matter or else there would be no such various and several effects in Nature as humane sense and reason do perceive there are and those degrees must also retain each their own nature and proprieties to produce those various and curious effects Neither must those different degrees vary or alter the nature of Infinite Matter for Matter must and doth continue one and the same in its Nature that is Matter cannot be divided from being Matter And this is my meaning when I say in my Philosophical Opinions There is but one kind of Matter Not that Matter is not dividable into several parts or degrees but I say although Matter has several parts and degrees yet they do not alter the nature of Matter but Matter remains one and the same in its own kind that is it continues still Matter in its own nature notwithstanding those degrees and thus I do exclude from Matter all that which is not Matter and do firmly believe that there can be no commixture of Matter and no Matter in Nature for this would breed a meer confusion in Nature Your seventh question is Whether that which I name the rational part of self-moving Matter makes as much variety as the sensitive To which I answer That to my sense and reason the rational part of animate or self-moving Matter moves not onely more variously but also more swiftly then the sensitive for thoughts are sooner made then words spoke and a certain proof of it are the various and several Imaginations Fancies Conceptions Memories Remembrances Understandings Opinions Judgments and the like as also the several sorts of Love Hate Fear Anger Joy Doubt and the like Passions Your eighth question is Whether the Sensitive Matter can and doth work in it self and its own substance and degree My answer is That there is no inanimate matter without animate nor no animate without inanimate both being so curiously and subtilly intermixt as they make but one body Nevertheless the several parts of this one body may move several ways Neither are the several degrees bound to an equal mixture no more then the several parts of one body are bound to one and the same size bigness shape or motion or the Sea is bound to be always at the high tide or the Moon to be always at the Full or all the Veins or Brains in animal bodies are bound to be of equal quantity or every Tree of the same kind to bear fruit or have leaves of equal number or every Apple Pear or Plum to have an equal quantity of juice or every Bee to make as much honey and wax as the other Your nineth question is Whether the Sensitive Matter can work without taking patterns My answer is That all corporeal motion is not patterning but all patterning is made by corporeal motion and there be more several sorts of corporeal motions then any single Creature is able to conceive much less to express But the perceptive corporeal motions are the ground-motions in Nature which make rule and govern all the parts of Nature as to move to Production or Generation Transformation and the like Your tenth question is How it is possible that numerous figures can exist in one part of matter for it is impossible that two things can be in one place much less many My answer in short is That it were impossible were a part of Matter and the numerous figures several and distinct things but all is but one thing that is a part of Matter moving variously for there is neither Magnitude Place Figure nor Motion in Nature but what is Matter or Body Neither is there any such thing as Time Wherefore it cannot properly be said
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