which in them cannot be as also they must want observation of the signs themselves and motives unto them both for want of time and for want of that affection that should spur thereunto Nor can these signs be of much force again on men or creatures very ancient where want of spirits in the brain must leave the appetite and affection to these very dull and almost delete and leave also the nerves and organs of the body so empty and hollow that they represent not with any steadiness or strength as also the experience of danger to arise must make them slow in new undertakings But to return to enquiry after the rise of knowledge and reason from instance in reading and learning At first every letter must by its often admission through the vissual nerve receive an answerable impression and figure in the brain before any difference can be estimated and valued between it and another letter by comparison for else could there be no difference put between any thing but what the eyâ— could see at once And this comprehension cannot be well made at first sight but according to appliableness of the organ and intention of mind in the learner and therefore in teaching of Birds and Beasts we use watchings corrections and rewards to make them attend In children that have their brain of a more tender substance and less distorted by former figures and have also according to their bigness more store of it then men we find how easie it s to teach them to read over older folks notwithstanding they have not usually the like desire and intention of mind So that the first step to knowledge is to feel and see well and to have good senses the next is to compare and make differences Younglings coming first to see look upon every thing with like amazement but because the light is the most usual thing they behold for the various session thereof makes colours they therefore after they have by custom past over its first dislike caused through strangeness first like the brightest and such colours as shew it most lively And hence they come to be pleased with glasses candles c. before shapes and figures and Babies come to be but after-plays to toys of shew for they see nothing without light but many shapes and figures besides those of men and women which shape again as being oftenest notified in comparison of all others comes to be most familiar pleasing And upon like reason come yonglings to like of that particular party that is most present to their sense it being much encreased by experience of indemnity So Ducks will follow the Hen that hatched them and so children that Nurse or other body that is most conversant familiar and kind unto them and they like and dislike others of the same kind as they resemble or differ most from these The pleasure of motion which young ones have in being rocked or in playing one with another seems to affect from that accustomed tumbling they had in the womb for feeling is the first of senses coming with life it self if not the same But then as the brain and animal spirit of each creature stands chiefly imployed in the womb in the motion and sense of feeling of the limbs and outward parts and doth thereupon prompt to exercise and delight in like agitation and motion afterwards yet when objects from the senses do afterwards come to imploy the brain and spirits inwardly and when sense from the inward parts do draw the fancy and intention that way then by degrees doth the exercise and delight in the motion of the limbs cease and men become not only sedentary and studious as in relation to figures entertained in the brain but also to be strongly affected with the pleasures of eating and drinking and such other enjoyments as may be performed with least shaking and dislocation of the stomack and other inward parts Those loud and harsher noises that prevail in quieting of children that cannot please from custom do take their effect from diversion that is by recalling their imagination from the sense of some other suffering to attend this strange noise now in their ears and not from pleasure of the noise it self which can please but by comparison of a less affliction to a greater But all our delights while very young are most corporal and have like to other Sensitives reference to our own sensible Customs But when we come to observe what rate the sense and custom of others put upon things persons or actions we then according to our own particular sense of the ability of the persons so rating them judge and conclude of their worth or otherwise which we call honour and dishonor And hence it comes that bigger Childrens most eager sports are usually made in imitation of what they see men do and the end of them to aim at victory and pre-excellence one above another And as we come to be in liking of persons and then of actions so children at first are imitating the actions of such they most converse with and take notice of so that sometimes they are washing sweeping making fires or the like from their converse and familiarity amongst servants but when they come abroad into the world persons of greatest honor come through the observation of the respect by others given that way to be most observed by them and consequently those actions that are performed by and to them to please above other actions For these having uniformity as being regulated by Law and Custom must affect above the lose incoherent and disorderly actions of others as handsome faces and good hands do above those that are common For it is not the persons but the dignity we affect And all actions and things that refer not to sensible good refer to honor and things come to have esteem as attendants and causes of honor For as honorable actions draw on our observation and esteem so self-respect leads us to affect and pursue the causes of them But unto the observation of the causes of honor children seldom reach for the effect must first so highly please as to provoke to ambition And therefore with them and the more ordinary sort of people flattery is apprehended to be the same with honor And for want of observatoin and intelligence wherein true honor doth consist they take all kind of praises and commendations to be the same with it And upon this score they may well indeed conclude that honor is in the honoring first and not in the honored for that there being no true cause or reason in the party this way honored why this praise or honor should be given but the cause and design of it taking issue from the flatterer it must thence follow that as honor is in the honored first so flattery in the flattered first From the custom of feeling before spoken of it is that very young infants or creatures finding nothing under them for support as they had in the
but to the Rulers benefit and then licentiousness which without respect of peace and Government or the good of others reacheth at all things without controul We may call it a desire of freedom from external impediments external I say because inwardly I cannot be divided against my self And though the Affections and Reason may have temporary disputes yet when the Will puts forth to the attaining any object the impediment that hinders my obtaining it must be without my self and I can lay no complaint or reparation elsewhere Wherefore this desire being external and of a thing in the power and possession of another for if it were in my own I should not deny my self or had reason to complain it will follow that this obtaining Liberty in me to acquire will be the loss of Liberty in him that is dispossessed For if our desires are as indeed usually they are most heightened and fixed to those things which are most rare and scarce in their kind and such as through the common endeavor of others have obtained price and estimation will it not come to pass that my liberty to get from him what is already in his possession or expectation will prove as great a loss of freedom to him as it is gain to me So that then Liberty as it is usually endeavoured and sought is but the acquisition of power to act or obtain something we have a minde unto which is now in the possession or power of another If then I laying claim to my natural liberty and forsaking the determination of my rightful superior will proceed to execution of mine own desires without considering those of others what can follow but confusion For all men having in Nature equal desires and claim why should mine prevail in mine own case so far as without leave to inflict on another what I did before complain of as a grievance towards my self For instance when fault is found with the yoak of Government in Church or State as oppressing the liberty of Conscience or person of the Subjects wrongfully and men in order thereunto seek to dispossess the present executioners as abusing their power and to settle it on themselves or such as they have most interest in or confidence of which must necessarily and doth always follow what is this to the advancement of liberty of Subjects in general or beyond their own particular party and is to shift but not to ease the Yoak What is this but for parties to take upon them to be Judges and for one part of the Subjects renouncing the sentence of judgement and determination that was before held as publike and indifferent to all parties now to usurp power over their fellows and equals If they plead it is not another Government they seek but say There ought to be no restraint in such and such things at all do they not hereby seek to introduce that liberty of Anarchy and overthrow all possibility of Peace and Agreement For since strife and competition can never happen but about such things as are desired by others as well as themseves if then in this prosecution of these desires on both sides the common rule of determination be not observed as indifferent must not one party fall out to be judge over the other Whereupon as that one party may in the conquest call themselves free so may the other being subjected and overcome call themselves slaves From all which we may gather the usual mistake in application of this notion of Liberty as proper to the governed when it is proper to the governor onely For to say the Liberty of a Subject is none other then a contradiction for wherein he is a Subject he is not at liberty and wherein any is at liberty he is not a Subject But because no government can be so extensive as not to remit some things to the choice of the Subject he may still justly be called a Subject even in what he is for the present free because having been therein restrainable by his superior his freedom and power to act therein by his own Will proceeded from the freedom and power of the other and is thereupon originally and truely the governors power and freedom and not the others For since to the stating of government an explicite act or execution is not always required but a true stating the Corelates of governing and governed whereby the Governor may act as he shall see occasion it will follow that freedom in the Subject or Patient will in order to polity depend on the freedom of the Governor and Agent and that as these are more or less obnoxious so will the governed be more or less free For as the brain could not impart sense to its own Membrances and Nerves if it were in its own substance in any sort patible and affected by impression of objects that way subjected unto it nor could the eye judge of colors if the Christaline humor stood any ways particularly tainted even so the freedom of Subjects can be but proportionable to that of the person whom they serve both in order to the singleness and worth of the Commanders considered in themselves and also in regard of the paucity of precepts from them proceeding Hence as God can be onely perfectly free as being alone and onely in all kindes and degrees unsubjected so can his service be onely perfect freedom Not that service and obedience as such can be freedom but the singleness and high worth of the Commander must make the commanded to be comparatively free to all others even in the execution of the command it self And so will the abatement of number in the persons commanding do the like even until it comes to Unity or Monarchy so as to make the benefit and good of commanding and commanded to be reciprocal For considering the commanded as a voluntary Agent and so having an end proper to follow and not to be governed like the meer passive instrument the known good intention and power of the commander will be always so ready a stop to his reluctance that the performance of the Governors will shall be the same with his own as knowing his good to be in all things respected As these considerations will make the freedom of such as are Subjects to the Monarch onely to be greater then the freedom of servants because the Prince hath none but God to obey whereas the Master hath the Prince and Magistrates also so again will he be more free then the Subjects in Polarchies who have so many above them that they can by their equality neither have any eminence of freedom or honor amongst themselves so as to give it to their subjects nor can have such true reciprocal concern in their subjects good as upon the like assurance of their sincerity to make the obedience to their commands the continual object of their Wills as the Prince may for that cause do And also because in obeying him they do upon the matter obey God onely who
small Nay we ordinarily have a natural itch to variety and it may be observed that as the the same tune always played causeth weariness so to such as cannot understand the true reason of things that Religion soonest cloyeth whose exercise or doctrine hath least variety and most confinement and therefore set forms displease ordinary capacities as grave set set musick to those that are unskilled in the art pleaseth not so much as a Jig And as Musick being an abstracted Method is not examinable by any thing but the ear it self So in Religion the farther you sequester your self from Charity so much the more you confine its grounds to custom and opinion for if it be placed all in the ear as Musick is then being only a spiritual method it will follow that that method we apprehend best and consequently that Religion we are most used unto will without more ado please most and thereupon each person must be rendred an uncontrollable judge therein but so far as Love and Charity shall be taken in this being operative will make it fall within notice of other senses and so become examinable by other method For Charity having its ground in Reason and Nature as it is made to stand in harmony with them it may serve to justifie or condemn Religions as the goodness of the tree may be judged by its fruits To enquire into the reason of Comprehension and Method a little farther we are to conceive that the brain in each man being the common sense to discover what is of benefit or damage hath the Nerves as so many Scouts and Centinels for information Now as any thing is by these apprehended some impression is made in the soft substance of the brain This at first coming must make an unusal dislocation and posture therein and so displease within no otherwise then distortion of any member doth displease without And knowledge and comprehension is nothing else but the ready turning and cession of the brain to such figures as are offered and reasoning and discourse is succession of configuration according to such Concomitants and Appearances as have accompanied it which now more or less readily appearing and answering as they were formerly oftener seen or fancied therewith come thereupon to be esteemed more or less reason But all new ojects must for a time displease according to their strangeness for that this common sensory being thus wholly imployed and as it were imprisoned and confined in apprehending and configuring this new guest hath not time to watch and attend other informations that might be by sense offered to it at the same time For so we find that in great agitation of mind and when our fancies are intent on the contrivance of things more eminently pressing we are heedless of what else is presented unto us And hence it is that two things at once cannot be studied on if they be so differing as not comprisable in the same method Pain is more external and differs from this inward offence being the stoppage of Spirits in their methodical motions in the parts of the body whereby being hindred from recourse to their fountain the brain the place that obstructs them will through their irregular motion therein find pain and pleasure is when these spirits are excited in motion or evacuation with their proper humor When any violent or unusal posture is offered to the Nerves diffused in the senses and exterior parts the brain is sensible through them no otherwise then the Spider is of any thing that toucheth any part of her web in which every forraign touch makes her sensible by altering the posture of those threds unto which she is joyned For as the Spider sitting upon the Center and â—oition of her work with her body and having her legs extended to the several Angles thereof is hereby made preceptible of those touches and impressions which forraign bodies do make upon it even so the brain by those his long legs of nerves every where dispersed through the body may be conceived to be much more sensible of those several forms of twitching and convulsion made in its membranes by the like impression made upon its nerves by any forraign touch And as by degrees and many tryals from our infancy our senses are enabled to conform themselves unto outward figures and objects so is the brain also by degrees brought to receive and retain those and doth as easily fall into the like posture or figure when those objects shall be raised in the fancy which did usually accompany them If there be alteration in the body of the brain it self without forraign touch of feeling it is not then called pain but horror confusion amazement or the like For the Spirits used to watch in the senses themselves without are now here extraordinarily imployed in putting this new object into method whereby it may be capable of memory and use and do thereupon for a time make disturbance as in a Crowd So that Pain and Pleasure are properly only in touch or sense of feeling the objects of other senses being by them immediately let into the brain as having the nerves that serve them more contiguous to his substance they impart not pleasure and pain to it as directly from themselves nor are capable thereof as senses but as outward parts and organs to be affected by forraign touch Now health is negative to sickness as pleasure is for the most part but absence of pain and is when each individual body hath its humours enjoying their wonted proportion seats and motions according to the proper constitution thereof so as the spirits may not be inwardly stopped to make us inwardly sensible as pain makes us outwardly But sicknesse affects more generally because the obstruction being in common passages of all parts of the body the sense thereof must be more universal then in pain where a single nerve it may be is only affected But then again pain is more quick as more intire and unite For in sickness till it be mortal there is not a total stoppage because the bowels and other passages have some recourse left them to the stomack c. and thereupon those nerves that attend them can be but in part stopped But usually sicknesse hath some pain as having some part or passage more obstructed then another When I see a heavy thing tend downwards it is a motion so conformable to all other that as a thing whose operation and concernment is alâ—eady fully known it is passed over with content of security and mastery But the operation of the Loadstone seeming proper to it self distracts and puzzles us for want of ability to conceive and consequently to apply it to knowledge and use For knowledge refers to use as truth doth to goodness for from the observation of the motions and operations of Loadstones men apply them to nautical and some other uses And Bonum differs from Verum but in application things being true as they are real and good as they
womb do when we would make shew of letting them fall put their bodies and parts into posture of resistance and aversion not against falling it self as knowing the danger or damage to follow thereupon but because they find their present posture strange and uneasie And therefore for want of the like sustentation to be left under them they are teady to catch at new hold and support For to a childe new born that hath not apprehended the difference of sights the fright of falling from a precipice will be but equal to that of falling out of its Nourses lap And children receive displeasure at first from lying on any thing that makes them not sensible of a like general and equal sopport they had in the womb And therefore we find them laid on beds and laps made even and yet hardly enduring the unequal application of arms or legs under them until they are so swadled up that these partial supports seem thereby to be equal and even For the motion of gravity or propriety of place being a necessary property of all bodies and their parts it will follow to be soonest and so consequently most universally known Therefore this strugling of children is caused through sense of feeling to avoid a present injury it now feels through uneasiness and not out of innate conception of danger as some do think For if such instincts and knowledge were then would children be afraid of drowning or burning or the like This instance hath been prosecuted to give occasion to discover how we may come to be habituated and affected to certain postures in the exercise and enjoyment of our minde and will as well as of our bodies and how that thereupon those restraints which Government imposeth upon our liberties in the one most cause reluctance and desire of release as well as in the other and that sense and experience of alteration and discomposure is the cause of dislike in our wills aswel as our bodies When therefore these things are ascribed to nature it must be understood of secondary or acquired nature For children or creatures new born for want of experience and observation stand affected from no sense but that of feeling Nor do the objects of other senses please or displease at first unless they imprint and move so violently as to induce feeling by affecting the heart and other parts and habits of the body by means of those inward pares of nerves Whereupon the humors and parts within do heighten as it were by their proper experience the relish of that figure or object in the brain to like or dislike after the rate they stood themselves formerly made sensible thereof from it And therefore time and experience being required to make fear or other passions strong we find that mandkind till they come to ripeness and tryal stand not apprehensive or averse to Government After which sense and knowledge of its use and benefit and also of his own suffering thereunder makes him proportionably contented or reluctant Proportionably I say for that as Reason and Religion do out of sense of duty more or less bear sway over the more natural and bodily sense of suffering and restraint of will so will Government be to each one more or less offensive there being but these two great motives for children and subjects obedience sense of benefit and interest and sense of conscience and duty For want of true experience and knowledge whereof the family as well as the Kingdom comes to be troubled with mutinies and insurrections even for that ignorance and incogitancy of the benefit or harm to arise to themselves by obedience or the contrary leaves them to be lead by the present sense of trouble in being guided by the direction of another which must thereupon come to be by them that are not able to apprehend their own advantages by peace and submission nor that their benefits are reciprocal interpreted as done out of private interest and design of their Prince and father only Nor need we wonder that in the course of our lives Custom should bear such sway since life it self is but custom that is a Methodical and Customary motion of an active spirit which by means of his circular and regular course is diverted from eager pursuit of penitration and ascension For the heat of the Sun or parental body by degrees turning into spirit or ayr such portion of seed or first matter as is apt to sublime this spirit according to its lighter nature grows presently motive and restless as seeking a more high and open habitation but partly out of similitude of the matter whereof it was bred and the similitude and constancy of the same degree of heat it now hath to that which begot it and partly through the present succession of skinny enclosure arising from the slymy nature of the matter it self and partly through those other inclosures of skins and shels in Wombs Eggs c. it is invited and contented at length to satisfie its proneness to direct upward motion with this circular passage as being from habit cozened to take and choose this easier way rather then to press earnestly any more to that direct course in which it had been so often diverted by such high difficulties And as this Spirit is by reason of its tenuity made motive and naturally desirous of enlargement and aire so again by reason of its smaller and more indifferent degree of sublimation as being generated by that moderate heat of the body of a substance which is neither suffered to addle through cold nor harden through heat it is therefore kept so well allayed as to be retarded both in ability and desire of penetration Which is also holpen on by the closeness of those vessels and cells where it is contained and by the likeness and proximity of that matter whereof it is generated and wherewith it is accompanied which is not only the same with that whereof it was begotten but also is but one degree beneath it in thinness For it is to be supposed that the Chylus being turned into blood as it doth attain some degree towards sublimation it self So also that most attenuated and concocted spirit which is in the cells of the brain doth likewise still retain a good degree towards condensation even so as according to course and vicissitude to be again apt to be turned back into sâ—eam and so into blood Like as also the blood on the contrary stands ready and affected to turn into steam and so into spirit in their circulation and passage up and down the body In which course of Version and Transmutation they are holpen by the mediation of the humour remaining in the arteries being as it were a mixture of spirit and blood caused through the refinement of the blood in its passage through the heart Whereupon we find that nature hath provided a thicker coat for them then for that thicker blood which is contained in the veins even as the finer animal spirit
this peculier erected posture yet for further ease of the weight thereof wanting support like other Creatures that use four feet some way of leaning and standing comes to be affected bringing on crookedness and so farther shortning the trunk also Upon which consideration we may suppose mens Limbs fitted for upright going even as Parats have one claw turned backward that is because the whole race of them feeding out of their feet and not being able to hold their meat to their mouths without turning their claws it came at last so to settle although the distortion be still apparent And yet why may not men naturally enough go on their hinde feet onely as we see some horses born amblers for as in them custom and habit do often pass by traduction so all men being goers why should not children be naturally walkers and since it may be presumed that Adam and Eve were set upright why not their posterity insomuch as there should be no sort of people without this posture It may be so if we could have spoken without teaching but as Adam was to have his knowledge infused and not acquired from childhood so the faculty of upright going also if he had it otherwise it is like he would not have so gone more then spoken But this gate no doubt is of great advantage to mans use in some things and that even in the exercise of the faculties of his minde and judgement because he is hereby able to carry his head and neck more steadily then when they should be prominent and hang out fore-right whereupon the senses Nerves and parts of the body may have a more direct and steady entercourse with the brain so as to hold on and keep fresh such objects and figures as shall be entertained therein that so by summoning all its concomitant impressions after each parties artificial way of topical method and adjudication a full discovery may be made to serve for instruction or use against another time before that figure be parted with And therefore we may observe that while we are in great inquiry and study concerning any thing we hold our heads very steady whereas those that have a loose carriage of their necks are proportionably weak in their intellectuals And truly to be a good Peripatetick is a great step to be a good Philosopher because in this erect gate the bones being in a straight line do bear the weight of the body so as the brain may not be diverted from its inward work and agitation to any great supply of the Nerves and Muscles without And besides this we have some advantage to knowledge by keeping our hands by this means more tender whereby to imprint more exactly by feeling with them But then again there is no doubt but in many bodily exercises the other motion and gate would be advantageous as in leaping running climbing and all sorts of nimbleness And for tryal sake hereof it were not amiss that some children were so brought up and nourished as to be without sight of company that they might take their natural course herein until some degree of years at least those that come to them to feed or teach them to speak should come upon all four and then sit after the eastern fashion but the greatest and best advantage would be if men could conveniently be brought to use both ways of gate upon occasion but this by the way Now as there is an creation of body so is there an erection of minde wherein indeed the pourtrait and image of God is to be sought And unto this estate of upright walking and looking towards heaven we are by more slow and difficult degrees reduced in our souls then we are in our bodies even because of those natural and inbred affections of Pride Covetousness Sensuality Stubbornness and the like whereby we are carryed with a perpetual delight to lye groveling on the things of this world The first great help to this straightness of minde are those swathings of Precepts and discipline wherewith and whereby from our infancy and from the same time we begin to go we have the Rebellion and irregularities of our nature rectifyed by the Laws and Rules of our Parents by the due application and exercise whereof while our affections as well as our limbs are yet pliant and tender we come to be well fitted and prepared to undergo and act as Christians and subjects in our political relation that measure of duty and submission which in our Oeconomical relation we had been habituated unto as children when either our heavenly Father or the Father of our Country shall have farther occasion to make tryal of our growth and steadiness in perfection by those afflictions and hardships which through humility and obedience to them we shall be put unto So that there will be these differences between the erection of the body and that of the soul. All the difficulty of upright going in the first sort rests in our infancy even in keeping the limbs of our body straight whereas the difficulty of upright walking in the other sort is chiefly afterwards when by reason of obdurate natural stubborness and crookedness of disposition we stand in more need of the ligaments and tyes of Laws and Discipline then before After we come to growth the elevation of our minde is helping to the body in continuance of this his elevation even through pride and affection as striving to excel in that which we see to be so generally practised whereas to the true elevation and upright walking of the inward man the pride and haughtiness of the outward man is altogether averse and there is no surer way to the true raising and dignifying of our mindes then by the depressing and keeping under of our bodies when as by due applycation and use of afflictions and Patience we may make those true Christian graces of humility and lowliness of minde in our own and worldly esteem to become our true glory and exaltation in the sight of God For it is to be considered that there are ghostly and gracious habits as well as bodily and natural ones and that these as the more worthy ought to take up our chief endeavour To proceed farther into search of the degrees of knowledge and comprehension we may observe that those that can perfectly read are past the trouble of spelling and those that can do that well do it so without disturbance to their fancy that they can intend the matter treated of without distraction through notice of the words more then the action of walking doth disturb the party from entertaining other objects and thoughts As for the usual tryal and difficulty of rubbing with one hand and patting with another both at once it proceeds from want of custom whereby the brain cannot accommodate it self to both actions at the same instant but through practice and custom both may be done and yet the fancy have ability and leisure to intend something else even as Turners and Spinsters
he could not but thereupon be knowing of the shape thereof And therefore the erect stature and size of men in his new illumination seemed most to resemble that of trees of any other which he could know For it is to be conceived he could not reach beyond the trunks of them And therefore Feeling being the next informer of the understanding or rather understanding it self is to be looked upon as the original and most exact sense sight and other senses being only necessary for the quaintity and extent of its information whose reports having but respect to the appearances of things are not farther capable of evidence and certainty then as consenting with and controulable by feeling Which sense as it began to be with our selves and shall last leave us as being the assurance of that life by which we are we So is to us the assurance of the realities of things in nature even by making us perceptible of that which is the foundation and original to wit of that their principle of existence or being For hereby onely we come to gather our assurance that any thing at all really is whereas by the other we do but discover farther of the manner how which must proportionably have dependance on the truth of the existence or being of thing it self And therefore is the eye is of largest contribution to the intellect not from generality of object and receipt at distance only but because it can take in more of the Figure and Appearance of the object then the others by means of those several colorate rays emitted from the several corners and object parts of opacous bodies into the expanded end of the optick nerve spread round the puple of the eye Even so to the encrease and extent of mans knowledge above beasts in the sense of feeling we are advantaged by our hands which serve to inform the brain by the spinal marow as other senses do by their inward pares of nerves And then this paradox may be brought in that mens hands are greatest outward advantages to their knowlesge For in them men having excellence above other things do not only excel them as Mechanicks but by them they are able also to understand more And even as Cats that play most catch best so also because we are by them and the speading of the fingers made perceptible of divers parts of the object body at once and thereby able to make more full figure thereof as the retina tunica doth to the visual nerve Whereas in the touchings that are apprehended by other parts so small a circuit of the object body is placed upon so small an extension and portion of the nerves of my body that no such perception of difference can arise between touch and touch as to beget knowledge and affection to one thing much above another And therefore we may observe that men cannot let their hats remain on their heads in the same posture they are put on by others but must again place themselves to that kind of settlement they were accustomed unto For the hat covering and pressing the head round and in divers parts at once must render it in a higher degree perceptible and affected with differences then where in that and other parts of the body forraign touches are in so small measure received But because each sense can but inform in its own proper sphere and object we will see a little how they lead to error when brought from the controul of feeling The Sun and Moon c. have neither to fight their true Dimensions nor Figures and this because nothing could be felt at distance An oar in the water hath such a different Posture or Scite that mine eyes alone can never inform me that that part which is within and that part which is without the water do make but one streight piece And multiplying glasses deceive us by numbers as travelling by water doth deceive us in motion and this upon no other reason but because the same direction and crossing of lines is made by my passing by the trees and land as would be if they passed by me or one another And the like is for hearing and other senses which having their single proper objects must refer to feeling for science and assurance in other things not proper unto them For although a perfect sight hearing smelling or tasting can never fail with due mediums in differencing of colours noises and savours without and beyond controul of feeling which hath nothing to do with these things but by these his proper organs yet can they not know farther then as from and for him And the more remote any thing is from feeling the more uncertain its discovery Which happens to sight chiefly because it undertakes at greatest distance from it Whereupon we find that colours come to be lost afar off and pictures land-scapes c. do make things that are plain and even to seem such risings as by sight alone having reference to like shadows in faces and things that had such risings we might be deceived For different session of light or colour making Figure conceivable in our sense and not any real quality in the object as the Painters Art which is able to express all Figures by colours only doth clearly demonstrate it must follow that Figure and all the rest are as we said truly demonstrable from feeling only which also deceives the brain in crossing of nerves as it is deceived by sight in crossing of lines for from hence it comes to pass that one bullet felt by two fingâ—â—s a cross seems to be two But now although motion be not so inseparable a property of bodies and so ordinarily the object of sense as some of the rest yet because it is of so great variety in its self it gives the greatest information to the understanding of all others For that it denotes more of the inward qualities of a body And again you cannot conceive any one figure or proportion not capable of divers motions But then though a body is many times seen and so may be imagined without motion yet as it was never seen alone so motion cannot be conceived without a figurate body and therefore although again this property of figure be not so directive as of it self yet it is more necessary as to method by its presence and assistance because my fancy cannot be comprehensive of any object without a Figure And this we cannot forbid our selves in the contemplation of God himself and all other spiritual substances namely to fancy them under one shape or another wherein we conceive those attributes and operations we ascribe to them should be most fitly exercised Which as it was the main rise to Idolatry so was it of Heresie Schism and Superstition also mistaking Gods attributes under a wrong figure which always coming far short of expressing his ability to act must fall short also of rendring his Almightiness in all kinds of due esteem in our understandings And again