Selected quad for the lemma: reason_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
reason_n	body_n	soul_n	union_n	2,456	5	9.5499	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60202	The deaf and dumb man's discourse. Or A treatise concerning those that are born deaf and dumb containing a discovery of their knowledge or understanding; as also the method they use, to manifest the sentiments of their mind. Together with an additional tract of the reason and speech of inanimate creatures. By Geo. Sibscota.	Sibscota, George.; Deusing, Anton, 1612-1666.	1670 (1670)	Wing S3748B; ESTC R203573	28,715	98

Malabar I will I will and drew the Ship into the Sea without any further delay 72. Garcias ab Horto in the place above mentioned saith That there are some People in Cochin who affirm they saw a publike Register called an Attestation which did mention That there was an Elephant there that could Speak and did ask his Governour for food but he answered that the Cauldron in which he boyl'd Rice for him was full of holes c. which story is related before by Lipsius out of Acosta 73. But let us speak something of the Writing of Elephants which is a representation of the external speech Pliny out of Mucianus reports that one of these Creatures learnt the Greek Letters and Writ in that Language Ipse ego haec scripsi spolia Celtica dicavi And Philostratus They write saith he and Dance nay to the Pipe also But Aelian saith I my self have seen an Elephant Writing the Roman Letters in a Table-book with his Trunk and that withal they were writ very even not crooked Nay whilst he was Writing his Eyes were earnestly fixed upon the Table-book that you might plainly say they were intent and accustomed to Writing 74. Although the major part of Brutes have no articulate Voice and so do not make use of Speech properly so called Yet we see on all sides that they express their inward conceptions one with another and with Men also by the Gestures Sounds and Noises which they make with their Bodies and such other kind of means even as Dumb Men use gesticulations and various motions in lieu of Speech whereby they discourse very significantly among themselves as well as with other persons 75. Hither is to be referred that of Philostratus in the Life of Apollonius in his 4. Book ch 1. concerning the Sparrow who as a messenger by the raising of his chirping tone did signify to the rest that he had found out some place where there was good store of scattered Corn and so did communicate the food he had discovered to the rest of the Sparrows who hearing that Voice of his they all making a sudden noise immediately flew after him The like example was related to me by the most Noble and renowned Brinkins p. m. Burgomaster of Hardervick when living concerning a Goose who when she had found in any of the Fields a Stock of Corn took her flight immediately to the rest of her Consorts and making a noise among them the whole Flock followed her she flying foremost and shewing the rest where their food was We may daily observe in Dogs greater remarques whereby they signify their inward sense to others 76. And since it is so what must we think of the Reason of Brutes and their Sermocination whatsoever it be What is there wanting to make them rational Creatures or make them accounted to be of Humane society Are we not bound to acknowledge that there is in Brutes a kind of analogical Reason or estimative faculty that resembles Reason from whence their Ingenuity is derived and by virtue whereof they seem to be in some respects prudent 77. And truely since we see that Brute Animals do sometimes Rave and Dote for Apes when Drunk have a kind of delirium Dogs are troubled with the Hydrophobia or Madness which happens as is reported to Horses Oxen Asses and Camels it must needs also follow that they have Wit and the use of Reason in some measure for natural Potency and Impotency are to be referred to the same subject Hence we find that as that analogical Reason is in some more exquisite and vigorous so some Brutes differ from others in Ingenuity Prudence Docility and Stupidity Of which Subject I have variously Discoursed in Theatr. Natur. Univers part 2. Disputat 5. s 29. and the following Sections 78. Yet this Reason of Brutes is absolutely different from Humane Reason in its very essence for the former is a kind of sensitive or material faculty of the Soul to which that which is vulgarly called Cogitative in man or the estimative faculty it self illustrated with Reason from the presiding and hypostatical union of the rational Soul with the sensitive Body doth in some measure agree and yet this very Cogitative faculty in Man though it be material it is far more noble and excellent than the Reason in any species of Brutes can be and doth by many degrees surpass the Reason of Elephants then this Reason is apprehended to transcend the Reason of Gallus Africanus insomuch that there is herein a kind of irradiation or a represented Image in Man flowing from the Immortal Soul which also by its Native and Essential Reason is capacitated to imitate the Coelestial Intelligencies which bright light of Reason in Man communicates it self to the estimative faculty by reason of the intimate connexion of the Rational Soul with the Sensitive Body by which the whole Suppositum becomes Rational 79. And therefore 't is not without reason that Aristotle saith in the First Book of his Ethicks to Nicomachus the last Chapter That Man hath a twofold Reason the one he hath principally in himself viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very Mind or rational Soul the other that he is obedient to Parents and that he hath Reason by participation to wit that which he calls in Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or that part that is without the Humane Soul as the Sensitive faculty this first Reason of Man is the very Intellect it self so call'd by Aristotle which he saith 3. De Anim. cap. 5. t. 20. is separable immortal and impassible the latter the passive Intellect which he doth not affirm to be immortal and eternal because it perisheth with the universal sensitive faculty when the rational Soul is separated from the Body 80. The former sort of Reason in Man which is proper to the rational Soul or Mind and is its native faculty as the Mind of Man is an immaterial substance not at all enveloped in matter so that makes use of no corporeal organ in the exercise of its functions but soaring above all the Senses contemplates upon Divine Immortal and Eternal Beings and understands those things which no Sense of the Body can conceive and still desires that which the sensitive faculty wholly abhorrs So that Calvin in the first Book of his Institutes c. 5. S. 5. reprehends those and that not undeservedly who being addicted to preposterous subtilties would fain wrest that saying which teacheth that the Faculties of the Soul are organical to a contrary sense viz. from the sensitive faculty to the very rational Soul as well saith he to destroy the immortality of the Soul as to rob God of his proper right for saith he because the faculties of the Soul are organical by this pretext they so link it to the Body that it cannot subsist without it 81. The latter Reason of Man which is communicated to the sensitive or estimative faculty by participation as it is not corporeal nor intermixed with the Body as

Aristotle shews de Anim. l. 3. c. 4. text 6. because that it is a kind of communicated image and represented as it were in the Mirror of the Mind so neither doth it use any organ in its operations according to Arist in the forecited place although 't is busied about outward appearances as the object of its operations and can understand nothing without them as Aristotle teacheth c. 8. text 39. And in truth that which he hath in the last quoted place belongs to this passive Intellect or rather to Man as he is of a sensitive nature adorned with an active Intellect that an Intelligent person must Contemplate upon outward Phaenomena according to that common saying Nihil est in Intellectu quod non fuerat prius in sensu Nothing can be in the Intellect that hath not been first received by the Senses 82. For this sensitive faculty in Man though illustrated with Reason understands nothing of it self but is like a blank Paper or Book that is susceptible of any inscription 3. lib. de Anim 4. text 14. for it is capable of all things that are cognoscible by virtue of that light which darted from the rational Soul whereby it is illustrated and extends it self to all material immaterial individual abstracted Mortal and Eternal objects For as it is sensitive it perceives v. g. the Water Fire Flesh Magnitude and the like and forms an imagination of them which is also common to Brutes as well as Men but since Flesh is one thing and the Essence of Flesh another Magnitude is one thing and the Essence of Magnitude another and so of the rest it doth by another part of it self or by it self in another capacity viz. not as it is sensitive but cogitative or as it partakes of Reason and is enlightned by the rational Soul distinguish the Essence from the things themselves which fall under our Senses 83. But the former Reason of Man or the genuine faculty of the rational Soul as it is altogether immaterial so it challengeth a Knowledge proper and natural to it self not any way proceeding from Matter or the Senses of the Body For there is not alwayes one and the same but a different reason of the supernatural Knowledge of Divine Mysteries or of those things which exceed our Human Capacity and want the support of Faith whilst in the interim it renders that very Knowledge which is drawn from the Senses and inferiour Reason far more illustrious and more clearly discerns the truth it self 84. For this genuine faculty of the rational Soul hath within it self the connate principles and seeds of all manner of Knowledge which do not involve Divine Mysteries or else is furnished with such an Understanding that it can extract the truth of things out of their Womb by discourse and ratiocination So also the knowledge of God is engraven in the minds of men yet not so as if every man did acknowledge a Deity or that the existence of God is as it were written in their minds so soon as Born of which opinion Anselm and Hieronymus were according to Suarez Disputation 19. S. 2. § 3. but that by Nature there are such principles of a Deity implanted in our minds and such an intellectual light connate with them that we may by the strength of our own Genius without any assistance from the Senses attain the knowledge of the Power and Divinity of the Supreme Deity Just as we do truly assert that Geometrical truths are connate in us though we do not originally understand the Elements of Euclid 85. And as the dull and rude Vulgar who use not to abstract the Mind from the Body and therefore have no other knowledge but what is exerted by the Senses and the dictates of inferiour or cogitative Reason understand and conceive the invisible things of God from the Creation of the World by Works so that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which may be known of God as our Version hath it in the first to the Romans may be understood by the very Plebeians so Philosophers and such as are conversant with more sublime Speculations or have learnt to free their minds from this terrene incarceration attain unto the knowledge of the Deity by the inward qualifications of their minds without being obliged to the testimony of Sense And really those very seeds that are naturally planted in the minds of men do sometimes so powerfully exert themselves into action that they bind the very Consciences of the most obstinate and such as deny the very dictates of Senses And herein we may affirm with Calvin in the first Book of his Institutes c. 3. § 1. That beyond all Controversy there is by a natural instinct a kind of sense of the Divinity in the mind of Man for God hoth endued all persons with the Intelligence of his Deity that no man should shelter himself under the pretext of Ignorance who by a constant recollection of his memory furnisheth him with fresh instillations 87. But as to the Reason of Brute Animals being it depends upon the sensitive Soul it is absolutely material and drowned in the Body it is altogether inseparable from it and perisheth with the Individuum and therefore is conversant with nothing but what is Corporeal and Mortal The same faculty is in all the species of Brutes imployed about some certain and determinate object to which all of them are hurried by a natural propensity and not as it is in Man indifferent to any thing So Nature instructs Swallows to build their Nests of Clay Beasts to get Coverts or Dens Dogs hunt the Hare and Cats watch for Mice which neither the Reason of a Cow nor an Ass prompts them to nor can they by Art be brought to it 88. And although probably some species of these Brute Animals are more freely exercised about various objects by raciocination than others as we find in Elephants Apes Monkies the Cynocephali and Dogs themselves and the like yet they are apprehensive of the objects themselves no otherwise than under the notion of singulars For they perceive the Water Fire Flesh Magnitude and the like and then frame some fantasms of these very things and these they either compound or divide and so judge or esteem of the species so receiv'd but Flesh being one thing and the Essence thereof another Magnitude one thing and the Essence thereof another c. as Aristotle speaks they cannot discern the Essence of things from the things themselves nor can they abstract individuals from universals So that their universal Reason consists in particular and material things and therefore they are incapable of Learning which is comprehended under certain Maxims and Rules 89. Besides if it could possibly be maintain'd that some Brute Animals have a kind of Sense of Divinity it is reported that that Idolatrous Religion consisting in the Worship of the Sun Moon and Stars did proceed from Elephants or that some faint image or shadow of Piety may be distill'd

into them yet by that they cannot conceive any thing of God unlesse it be by corporeal reason and so have no Conception of God nor can they ever be able to dispute concerning God by the deduction of Causes or by the successive end nor by conclusions drawn from the principles imprinted in their minds but only by the singular commodity or use or the more splendid appearance of the particular individual body viz. of the Sun or Moon and so they cannot apprehend the invisible things of God but can only frame a conception or imagination of the corporeal Idea of those things which proximately move the Senses 90. Undoubtedly that which is purely Incorporeal and Divine or which is the true Essence of Divinity which is only Religiously to be Worshipped cannot fall under the apprehension of a faculty meerly corporeal But if there do appear in Elephants as well the shadow of many Virtues as a certain kind of imaginary Idea of Religion as Lipsius hath heaped together many Examples out of divers Authors to that purpose what wonder is it that the Celestial Bodies strike the Senses with greatest admiration and yet are not exquisitely apprehended by the Senses that that representation of Religion whatsoever it be should be directly apprehended And so they be believed by Plutarch and Aelian to Worship the Rising Sun and by Pliny and Aelian the New Moon 91. Finally the Wisdom of Brutes consists only in that part wherein they also suffer a delirium but Man's Wisdom also consists in the mind or active Intellect in which they never dote and herein they evidently differ from Beasts who have not this faculty So that that passage of Hippocrates Aphor. 6. Sect. 2. belongs only to the passive Intellect so far as it resides in the sensitive faculty where he saith That those who are troubled in any part of the Body and are hardly sensible of the pain their mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as Galen interprets it in his Commentary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is disstempered for they are deceived by a defect of the inward Senses which Brutes have in common with Men and stand alwayes in need of their Ministry whilst tied to the fetters of the Body 92. Therefore Men are truely said to be distinguished from Beasts by Reason because Brute Animals have not any foot-steps of that Reason that is natural to the rational Soul or the active Intellect but they only have some kind of shadow of that Reason which is communicated to the sensitive faculty or of the passive Intellect so that they are said to have Reason Analogically 93. Now as to the Speech which is apprehended to be in some Brutes that have organs fit for the emission of an articulate Voice what kind of Reason that may be and how it differs from Humane Speech is the thing to be discussed And as the speech of Parrets Crows and other Birds wo are taught by Art is nothing else but a certain articulate Voice without any mental understanding to which they are trained up by Custome not knowing for the most part what is signified by this or that word So that Parret that rehearsed the Apostles Creed did not at all understand the thing signified by those words And therefore this sort of speech is not at all a representation of the intrinsick reason and so consequently no true speech 94. But if sometimes it so fall out that they seem appositely to appropriate the Names of things to the things themselves or retain the signification of them that is the work of the Memory by which they do accommodate those things which they by their docility have gained to particular things as they have been accustomed to them and according to their often repeated appellations But their speech extends no farther to other things than Custome hath directed them And as that Parret which fell into the River call'd for help and promis'd a Reward it must necessarily be that she had by practice learnt those words being oftentimes before in the like danger 95. And since it is undeniable that not only Elephants but some other Creatures as Dogs and Horses though these are not altogether so capable do in some manner conceive the Speech of Man to which they are accustomed or understand what is meant by such and such words as they are taught and as they by the motion or gesture of their Masters know what they would have though some more exactly than others Is it a greater wonder for these Brutes if they have organs fit for Speech to be able by outward expressions as they have learnt by Custom to signify the single conceptions of their estimative faculty to others which they frame within themselves according to the common speech they are accustomed to than that they should by the usual gestures of the Body and other various ways which is also the Speech of Mutes be able to adumbrate their inward conceptions to others Or what wonder is it for a Parret Pie Crow or Starling to express what they inwardly conceive or desire by an articulate Voice or such as they have learnt by custom 96. And those Creatures that have been us'd to Speech can count numbers and yet they have no formal conception of those numbers because that cannot be done but by abstracting and so consequently by the immaterial faculty For in the numbring of any thing proposed or the collecting a definite multitude out of unities it is requisitely necessary that the mind have an Idea of some number be known and that it appear how the third differs from the fourth and the fourth from the tenth and so on to the end that the number may be rightly appropriated to any multitude propos'd according as the thing requires But this does not at all come within the reach of the material faculty with which Brutes are only endued 97. Since therefore number is not properly form'd but by the Intellect which Aristotle himself confesseth 4. Phys t. 131. it must necessarily follow that the names of Number are only repeated by the Memory in Brutes that name it but the Essence of Number or difference of the fourth and fifth or twentieth is not in them 98. As to the Writing of Inanimate Creatures since that Elephants use the Proboscis as a Hand and almost as readily as we do for they will take the smallest peice of Money off from the ground and ordinarily manage a Sword like a Fencer handle a Gun level it and discharge as we our selves that have been eye-witnesses can testify it need not seem an impossibility for them to Write some Letters whose figures they have been taught either singly or joyntly and so reduced them into words and perhaps by Writing to express their conception of any particular thing according to custom as other Brutes use to notify their conceptions by gestures or other wayes suitable to their nature 99. But it is sufficiently apparent by what hath been said how infinitely the Speech of Inanimate