wits but are capable to rank severall words together and of them to compose a Discourse by which they make known their thoughts and that on the contrary there is no other creature how perfect or happily soever brought forth which can do the like The which happens not because they want organs for we know that Pyes and Parrots can utter words even as we can and yet cannot speak like us that is to say with evidence that they think what they say Whereas Men being born deaf and dumb and deprived of those organs which seem to make others speak as much or more then beasts usually invent of themselves to be understood by those who commonly being with them have the leisure to learn their expressions And this not onely witnesseth that Beasts have lesse reason than men but that they have none at all For we see there needs not much to learn to speak and forasmuch as we observe inequality amongst Beasts of the same kind aswell as amongst men and that some are more easily managed then others 't is not to be believed but that an Ape or a Parrot which were the most perfect of its kinde should therein equall the most stupid child or at least a child of a distracted brain if their souls were not of a nature wholly different from ours And we ought not to confound words with naturall motions which witness passions and may be imitated by Machines aswell as by Animals nor think as some of the Ancients that beasts speak although we do not understand their language for if it were true since they have divers organs which relate to ours they could aswell make themselves understood by us as by their like It s likewise very remarkable that although there are divers creatures which express more industry then we in some one of their actions yet we may well perceive that the same shew none at all in many others So that what they do better then we proves not at all that they have reason for by that reckoning they would have more then any of us and would do better in all other things but rather that they have none at all and that its Nature onely which works in them according to the disposition of their organs As wee see a Clock which is onely composed of wheels and springs can reckon the hours and measure the times more exactly then we can with all our prudence After this I had described the reasonable Soul and made it appear that it could no ways be drawn from the power of the Matter as other things whereof I had spoken but that it ought to have been expresly created And how it suffiseth not for it to be lodg'd in our humane body as a Pilot in his ship to move its members onely but also that its necessary it be joyned and united more strongly therewith to have thoughts and appetites like ours and so make a realâ— man I have here dilated my self a little on the subject of the Soul by reason 't is of most importance for next the errour of those who deny God which I think I have already sufficiently confuted there is none which sooner estrangeth feeble minds from the right way of vertue then to imagine that the soul of beasts is of the same nature as ours and that consequently we have nothing to fear nor hope after this life no more then flies or ants Whereas when we know how different they are we comprehend much better the reasons which prove that ours is of a nature wholly independing from the body and consequently that it is not subject to die with it And that when we see no other cause which destroys it we are naturally thence moved to judge that it 's immortall PART VI ITs now three years since I ended the Treatise which contains all these things and that I began to review it to send it afterwards to the Presse when I understood that persons to whom I submit and whose authority can no lesse command my actions then my own Reason doth my thoughts had disapproved an opinion in Physicks published a little before by another of which I will not say that I was but that indeed I had observed nothing therein before their censure which I could have imagined prejudiciall either to Religion or the State or consequently which might have hindred me from writing the same had my Reason perswaded mee thereto And this made me fear lest in the same manner there might be found some one amongst mine in which I might have been mistaken notwithstanding the great care I always had to admit no new ones into my belief of which I had not most certain demonstrations and not to write such as might turn to the disadvantage of any body Which was sufficient to oblige me to change my resolution of publishing them For although the reasons for which I had first of all taken it were very strong yet my inclination which alwayes made me hate the trade of Book-making presently found me out others enough to excuse my self from it And these reasons on the one and other side are such that I am not only somewhat concern'd to speak them but happily the Publick also to know them I never did much esteem those things which proceeded from mine own brain and so long as I have gathered no other fruits from the Method I use but onely that I have satisfied my self in some difficulties which belong to speculative Sciences or at least endeavoured to regulate my Manners by the reasons it taught me I thought my self not obliged to write any thing of them For as for what concerns Manners every one abounds so much in his own sense That we may finde as many Reformers as heads were it permitted to others besides those whom God hath established as Soveraigns over his people or at least to whom he hath dispensed grace and zeal enough to be Prophets to undertake the change of any thing therein And although my Speculations did very much please me I did beleeve that other men also had some which perhaps pleas'd them more But as soon as I had acquired some generall notions touching naturall Philosophy and beginning to prove them in divers particular difficulties I observed how far they might lead a man and how far different they were from the principles which to this day are in use I judg'd that I could not keep them hid without highly sinning against the Law which obligeth us to procure as much as in us lies the general good of all men For they made it appear to me that it was possible to attain to points of knowledge which may be very profitable for this life and that in stead of this speculative Philosophy which is taught in the Schools we might finde out a practicall one by which knowing the force and workings of Fire Water Air of the Starrs of the Heavens and of all other Bodies which environ us distinctly as we know the several trades of our Handicrafts
A Discourse OF A METHOD For the well guiding of REASON And the Discovery of Truth In the SCIENCES LONDON Printed by Thomas Newcombe MDCXLIX To the Vnderstanding READER THe Great Des Cartes who may justly challenge the first place amongst the Philosophers of this Age is the Author of this Discourse which in the Originall was so well known That it could be no mans but his own that his Name was not affix'd to it I need say no more either of Him or It He is best made known by Himself and his Writings want nothing but thy reading to commend them But as those who cannot compasse the Originals of Titian and Van-Dyke are glad to adorne their Cabinets with the Copies of them So be pleased favourably to receive his Picture from my hand copied after his own Designe You may therein observe the lines of a well form'd Minde The hightnings of Truth The sweetnings and shadowings of Probabilities The falls and depths of Falshood all which serve to perfect this Master-piece Now although my after-draught be rude and unpolished and that perhaps I have touch'd it too boldly The thoughts of so clear a Minde being so extremely fine That as the choisest words are too grosse and fall short fully to expresse such sublime Notions So it cannot be but being transvested it must necessarily lose very much of its native Lustre Nay although I am conscious notwithstanding the care I have taken neither to wrong the Authours Sense nor offend the Readers Ear of many escapes which I have made yet I so little doubt of being excused That I am confident my endeavour cannot but be gratefull to all Lovers of Learning for whose benefit I have Englished and to whom I addresse this Essay which contains a Method by the Rules whereof we may Shape our better part Rectifie or Reason Form our Manners and Square our Actions Adorn our Mindes and making a diligent Enquiry into Nature wee may attain to the Knowledge of the Truth which is the most desirable union in the World Our Authour also invites all letterd men to his assistance in the prosecution of this Search That for the good of Mankinde They would practise and communicate Experiments for the use of all those who labour for the perfection of Arts and Sciences Every man now being obliged to the furtherance of so beneficiall an Undertaking I could not but lend my hand to open the Curtain and discover this New Model of Philosophy which I now publish neither to humour the present nor disgust former times but rather that it may serve for an innocent Divertisement to those who would rather Reform themselves then the rest of the world and who having the same seeds and grounds and knowing That there is nothing New under the Sun That Novelty is but Oblivion and that Knowledge is but Remembrance will study to finde out in themselves and restore to Posterity those lost Arts which render Antiquity so venerable and strive if it be possible to go beyond them in other things as well as Time Who minde not those things which are above beyond or without them but would rather limit their desires by their power then change the Course of Nature Who seek the knowledge and labour for the Conquest of themselves Who have Vertue enough to make their own Fortune And who prefer the Culture of the Minde before the Adorning of the Body To such as these I present this Discourse whose pardon I beg for having so long detain'd them from so desirable a Conversation and conclude with this Advice of the Divine Plato Cogita in te praeter Animum nihil esse mirabile A DISCOURSE OF A METHOD For the wel-guiding of REASON AND The discovery of TRUTH in the SCIENCES IF this Discourse seem too long to be read at once it may be divided into six parts In the first are divers Considerations touching the Sciences In the second the principall Rules of that Method which the Author hath studyed In the third some of those in morality which he hath drawn from this Method In the fourth the reasons whereby the existence of God and of the humane Soul is proved which are the grounds of his Metaphysicks In the fift the order of these Physicall questions which he hath examined and particularly the explication of the hearts motion with some other difficulties relating to Physick as also the difference between our Souls and those of beasts In the last what he conceives requisit to make a further inquiry into Nature then hath hitherto been made And what reasons induc'd him to write PART I. RIght understanding is the most equally divided thing in the World for every one beleevs himself so well stor'd with it that even those who in all other things are the hardest to be pleas'd seldom desire more of it then they have wherein it is not likely that all Men are deceived But it rather witnesseth That the faculty of right-judging and distinguishing truth from falshood which is properly call'd Understanding or Reason is naturally equal in all Men And as the diversity of our Opinions is not because some are more reasonable then others but only that we direct our thoughts several ways neither do we consider the same things For 't is not enough to have good faculties but the principal is to apply them well The greatest Souls are as capable of the greatest Vices as of the most eminent Vertues And those who move but very slowly may advance much farther if they always follow the right way then those who run and straggle from it For my part I never presum'd that my Minde was more perfect in any thing then an ordinary Mans nay I have often wish'd to have had my thoughts as quick my imagination as clear and distinct and my memory as large and as ready as some other Men have had And I know no Qualities which serve more then those to the perfection of the Minde for as for Reason or Understanding forasmuch as it is the only thing which makes us Men and distinguisheth us from beasts I will beleeve it to be entire in every One and follow herein the common opinion of the Philosophers who say That there is only more or less among the Accidents and not amongst the Forms or nature of the Individuals of one species But I shall not stick to say That I beleeve my self very happy in having encountred from my youth with certain ways which have led me to considerations and Maximes from which I have found a Method whereby methinks I have the means by degrees to augment my knowledg and by little and little to raise it up to the highest pitch whereto the meaness of my capacity the short course of my life can permit it to attain For I have already reaped such fruits from it that although in the judgment I make of my self I endevour always rather to incline to mistrust then to presumption And looking on the divers actions and undertakings
corporeall things for although I supposed that I doted and that all that I saw or imagined was false yet could I not deny but that these Ideas were truly in my thoughts But because I had most evidently known in my self That the understanding Nature is distinct from the corporeall considering that all composition witnesseth a dependency and that dependency is manifestly a defect I thence judged that it could not be a perfection in God to be composed of those two Natures and that by consequence he was not so composed But that if there were any Bodies in the world or els any intelligences or other Natures which were not wholly perfect their being must depend from his power in such a manner that they could not subsist one moment without him Thence I went in search of other Truths and having proposed Geometry for my object which I conceived as a continued Body or a space indefinitely spred in length bredth height or depth divisible into divers parts which might take severall figures and bignesses and be moved and transposed every way For the Geometricians suppose all this in their object I past through some of their most simple demonstrations and having observed that this great certaintie which all the world grants them is founded only on this that men evidently conceived them following the rule I already mentioned I observed also that there was nothing at all in them which ascertain'd me of the existence of their object As for example I well perceive that supposing a Triangle three angles necessarily must be equall to two right ones but yet nevertheless I saw nothing which assured me that there was a Triangle in the world Whereas returning to examine the Idea which I had of a perfect Being I found its existence comprised in it in the same manner as it was comprised in that of a Triangle where the three angles are equall to two right ones or in that of a sphere where all the parts are equally distant from the center Or even yet more evidently and that by consequence it is at least as certain that God who is that perfect Being is or exists as any demonstration in Geometry can be But that which makes many perswade themselves that there is difficulty in knowing it as also to know what their Soul is 't is that they never raise their thoughts beyond sensible things and that they are so accustomed to consider nothing but by imagination which is a particular manner of thinking on materiall things that whatsoever is not imaginable seems to them not intelligible Which is manifest enough from this that even the Philosophers hold for a Maxime in the Schools That there is nothing in the understanding which was not first in the sense where notwithstanding its certain that the Ideas of God and of the Soul never were And me thinks those who use their imagination to comprehend them are just as those who to hear sounds or smell odours would make use of their eys save that there is yet this difference That the sense of seeing assures us no lesse of the truth of its objects then those of smelling or hearing do whereas neither our imagination nor our senses can ever assure us of any thing if our understanding intervenes not To be short if there remain any who are not enough perswaded of the existence of God and of their soul from the reasons I have produc'd I would have them know that all other things whereof perhaps they think themselves more assured as to have a body and that there are Stars and an earth and the like are less certain For although we had such a morall assurance of these things that without being extravagant we could not doubt of them However unless we be unreasonable when a metaphysicall certainty is in question we cannot deny but we have cause enough not to be wholly confirm'd in them when we consider that in the same manner we may imagine being asleep we have other bodies and that we see other Stars and another earth though there be no such thing For how doe we know that those thoughts which we have in our dreams are rather false then the others seeing often they are no less lively and significant and let the ablest men study it as long as they please I beleeve they can give no sufficient reason to remove this doubt unless they presuppose the existence of God For first of all that which I even now took for a rule to wit that those things which were most clearly and distinctly conceived are all true is certain only by reason that God is or exists and that he is a perfect being and that all which we have comes from him Whence it follows that our Idea's or notions being reall things and which come from God in all wherein they are clear and distinct cannot therein be but true So that if we have very often any which contain falshood they cannot be but of such things which are somewhat confus'd and obscure because that therein they signifie nothing to us that 's to say that they are thus confus'd in us only because we are not wholly perfect And it 's evident that there is no less contrariety that falshood and imperfection should proceed from God as such then there is in this that truth and falshood proceed from nothing But if we know not that whatsoever was true and reall in us comes from a perfect and infinite being how clear and distinct soever our Idea's were we should have no reason to assure us that they had the perfection to be true Now after that the knowledge of God and of the Soul hath rendred us thus certain of this rule it 's easie to know that the extravaganceys which we imagin in our sleep ought no way to make us doubt of the truth of those thoughts which we have being awake For if it should happen that even sleeping we should have a very distinct Idea as for example A Geometritian should invent some new demonstration his sleeping would not hinder it to be true And for the most ordinary error of our dreames which consists in that they represent unto us severall objects in the same manner as our exterior senses doe it matters not though it give us occasion to mistrust the truth of those Ideas because that they may also often enough cozen us when we doe not sleep As when to those who have the Jaundies all they see seems yellow or as the Stars or other bodies at a distance appear much less then they are For in fine whether we sleep or wake we ought never to suffer our selves to be perswaded but by the evidence of our Reason I say which is observable Of our Reason and not of our imagination or of our senses As although we see the Sun most clearly we are not therefore to judge him to be of the bigness we see him of and we may well distinctly imagine the head of a Lion set on the body of
very hot vessel For after this I need say no more for to unfold the motion of the heart but that when these concavities are not full of bloud necessarily there runs some from the vena cava into the right and from the veinous artery into the left for that these two vessels are always full of it and that their openings which are towards the heart cannot then be shut But that assoon as there is thus but two drops of bloud entred one in either of these concavities these drops which cannot but be very big by reason that their openings whereby they enter are very large and the vessels whence they come very full of bloud are rarified and dilated because of the heat which they find therein By means whereof causing all the heart to swel they drive and shut the five little doors which are at the entry of the two vessels whence they come hindering thereby any more bloud to fall down into the heart and continuing more and more to rarifie themselves they drive and open the six other little doors which are at the entry of the other two vessels whence they issue causing by that means all the branches of the arterious vein and of the great artery to swel as it were at the same time with the heart which presently after fals as those arteries also do by reason that the bloud which is entred therein grows colder and their six little doors shut up again and those five of the vena cava and of the veinous artery open again and give way to two other drops of bloud which again swell the heart and the arteries in the same manner as the preceding did And because the bloud which thus enters into the heart passeth thorow those two purses which are call'd the ears thence it comes that their motion is contrary to the heart's and that they fall when that swels Lastly That they who know not the force of Mathematical demonstrations and are not accustomed to distinguish true reasons from probable ones may not venture to deny this without examining it I shall advertise them that this motion which I have now discovered as necessarily follows from the onely disposition of the organs which may plainly be seen in the heart and from the heat which we may feel with our fingers and from the nature of the bloud which we may know by experience as the motions of a clock doth by the force situation and figure of its weight and wheels But if it be asked how it comes that the bloud of the veins is not exhausted running so continually into the heart and how that the arteries are not too full since all that which passeth thorow the heart dischargeth it self into them I need answer nothing thereto but what hath been already writ by an English Physician to whom this praise must be given to have broken the ice in this place and to be the first who taught us That there are several little passages in the extremity of the arteries whereby the bloud which they receive from the heart enters the little branches of the veins whence again it sends it self back towards the heart so that its course is no other thing but a perpetuall circulation Which he very wel proves by the ordinary experience of Chirurgians who having bound the arm indifferently hard above the the place where they open the vein which causeth the bloud to issue more abundantly then if it had not been bound And the contrary would happen were it bound underneath between the hand and the incision or bound very hard above For its manifest that the band indifferently tyed being able to hinder the bloud which is already in the arm to return towards the heart by the veins yet it therefore hinders not the new from coming always by the arteries by reason they are placed under the veins and that their skin being thicker are less easie to be press'd as also that the bloud which comes from the heart seeks more forcibly to passe by them towards the hand then it doth to return from thence towards the heart by the veins And since this bloud which issues from the arm by the incision made in one of the veins must necessarily have some passage under the bond to wit towards the extremities of the arm whereby it may come thither by the arteries he also proves very well what he sayes of the course of the bloud through certain little skins which are so disposed in divers places along the veins which permit it not to pass from the middle towards the extremities but onely to return from the extremities towards the heart And besides this experience shews That all the bloud which is in the body may in a very little time run out by one onely artery's being cut although it were even bound very neer the heart and cut betwixt it and the ligature So that we could have no reason to imagine that the bloud which issued thence could come from any other part But there are divers other things which witness that the true cause of this motion of the bloud is that which I have related As first The difference observed between that which issues out of the veins and that which comes out of the arteries cannot proceed but from its being rarified and as it were distilled by passing thorow the heart it s more subtil more lively and more hot presently after it comes out that is to say being in the arteries then it is a little before it enters them that is to say in the veins And if you observe you will finde that this difference appears not well but about the heart and not so much in those places which are farther off Next the hardnesse of the skin of which the artery vein and the great artery are composed sheweth sufficiently that the bloud beats against them more forcibly then against the veins And why should the left concavity of the heart and the great artery be more large and ample then the right concavity and the arterious vein unless it were that the bloud of the veinous artery having bin but onely in the lungs since its passage thorow the heart is more subtil and is rarified with more force and ease then the bloud which immediately comes from the vena cava And what can the Physicians divine by feeling of the pulse unlesse they know that according as the bloud changeth its nature it may by the heat of the heart be rarified to be more or lesse strong and more or lesse quick then before And if we examine how this heat is communicated to the other members must we not avow that 't is by means of the bloud which passing the heart reheats it self there and thence disperseth it self thorow the whole body whence it happens that if you take away the bloud from any part the heat by the same means also is taken away And although the heart were as burning as hot iron it were not sufficient to
a Goat but therefore we ought not to conclude that there is a Chimera in the world For reason doth not dictate to us that what we see or imagine so is true But it dictates that all our Idea's or notions ought to have some grounds of truth For it were not possible that God who is all perfect and all truth should have put them in us without that And because that our reasonings are never so evident nor so entire while we sleep as when we wake although sometimes our imaginations be then as much or more lively and express It also dictates to us that our thoughts seeing they cannot be all true by reason that we are not wholly perfect what they have of truth ought infallibly to occur in those which we have being awake rather then in our dreams PART V. I Should be glad to pursue this Discourse and shew you the whole Series of the following Truths which I have drawn from the former But because for this purpose it were now necessary for me to treat of severall questions which are controverted by the learned with whom I have no desire to imbroil my self I beleeve it better for me to abstain from it and so in generall onely to discover what they are that I may leave the wisest to judge whether it were profitable to inform the publick more particularly of them I alwayes remained constant to my resolution to suppose no other Principle but that which I now made use of for the demonstration of the Existence of God and of the Soul and to receive nothing for true which did not seem to me more clear and more certain then the demonstrations of Geometry had formerly done And yet I dare say that I have not onely found out the means to satisfie my self in a short time concerning all the principall difficulties which are usually treated in Philosophy But that also I have observed certain Laws which God hath so established in Nature and of which he hath imprinted such notions in our Souls that when we shall have made sufficient reflections upon them we cannot doubt but that they are exactly observed in whatsoever either is or is done in the World Then considering the connexion of these Laws me thinks I have discovered divers Truths more usefull and important then whatever I learn'd before or ever hop'd to learn But because I have endeavoured to lay open the principall of them in a Treatise which some considerations hinder me from publishing I can no way better make them known then by relating summarily what it contains I had a designe to comprehend all what I thought I knew before I would write it touching the nature of material things But even as Painters not being able equally well to represent upon a flat all the severall facies of a solid body chuse the principall of them which they place towards the light and shadowing the others make them appear no more then they do to our sight So fearing lest I should not bring into this Discourse all which was in my thoughts I onely undertook to set forth at large my conceptions touching the light and upon that occasion to add somewhat of the Sun and of the fix'd Stars by reason that it proceeds almost all from thence of the Heavens because they transmit it of the Planets of the Comets and of the Earth because they cause it to reflect and in particular of all Bodies which are on the earth whether for that they are either coloured or transparent or luminous and last of all of Man because he is the Spectator thereof As also in some mnner to shadow out all these things and that I might the more freely speak what I judg'd without being obliged to follow or to refute the opinions which are received amongst the Learned I resolved to leave all this world here to their disputes and to speak onely of what would happen in a new one if God now created some where in those imaginary spaces matter enough to compose it and that he diversly and without order agitated the severall parts of this matter so as to compose a Chaos of it as confused as the Poets could feign one and that afterwards he did nothing but lend his ordinary concurrence to Nature and leave her to work according to the Laws he hath established Thus first of all I described this Matter and endevoured to represent it such that me thinks there is nothing in the world more clear or more intelligible except what was beforesaid of God and of the Soul For even I expresly supposed that there was in it none of those forms and qualities which are disputed in the Schools nor generally any thing but that the knowledge thereof was so naturall to our understandings that we could not even feigne to be ignorant of it Besides I made known what the Laws of Nature were and without grounding my reasons on any other principles but on the infinite perfections of God I did endeavour to demonstrate all those which â—â—ght be questioned and to make them appear to be such that although God had created divers worlds there could have been none where they were not observed Afterwards I shewed how the greater part of the Matter of this Chaos ought according to those Laws to dispose and order it self in a certain manner which would make it like our Heavens And how some of these parts were to compose an Earth and some Planets and Commets some others a Sun and fix'd Starrs And here enlarging my self on the subject of Light I at length explain'd what that light was which was to be in the Sun and Stars and thence how it travers'd in an instant the immense spaces of the Heavens and how it reflected it self from Planets and Commets towards the Earth I added also divers things touching the substance situation the motions and all the several qualities of these heavens and these stars So that I thought I had saâ—â— enough to make known That there is nothing remarkable in those of this world which ought not or at least could not appear altogether like to these of that world which I described Thence I came to speak particularly of the Earth how although I had expresly supposed that God had placed no weight in the Matter whereof it was composed yet all its parts exactly tended towards its center How that there being water and air upon its superficies the disposition of the Heavens and of the Starrs and chiefly of the Moon ought to cause a floud and an ebb which in all circumstances was like to that which we observe in our Seas And besides a certain course aswel of the water as of the air from East to West as is also observed between the Tropicks How the Mountains the Seas the Springs and Rivers might naturally be form'd therein and Metals run in the mines and Plants grow in the Fields and generally all bodies be therein engendered which are call'd mixt or composed And amongst other things