But says your Author this Priviledge in Man is allay'd by another which is No living Creature is subject to absurdity but onely Man Certainly Madam I believe the contrary to wit that all other Creatures do as often commit mistakes and absurdities as Man and if it were not to avoid tediousness I could present sufficient proofs to you Wherefore I think not onely Man but also other Creatures may be Philosophers and subject to absurdities as aptly as Men for Man doth nor cannot truly know the Faculties and Abilities or Actions of all other Creatures no not of his own Kind as Man-Kind for if he do measure all men by himself he will be very much mistaken for what he conceives to be true or wise an other may conceive to be false and foolish But Man may have one way of Knowledge in Philosophy and other Arts and other Creatures another way and yet other Creatures manner or way may be as Intelligible and Instructive to each other as Man 's I mean in those things which are Natural Wherefore I cannot consent to what your Author says That Children are not endued with Reason at all till they have attained to the use of Speech for Reason is in those Creatures which have not Speech witness Horses especially those which are taught in the manage and many other Animals And as for the weak understanding in Children I have discoursed thereof in my Book of Philosophy The rest of this discourse lest I tyre you too much at once I shall reserve for the next resting in the mean time MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XI MADAM I sent you word in my last that your Author's opinion is That Children are not endued with Reason at all until they have attained to the use of Speech in the same Chapter he speaks to the same purpose thus Reason is not as Sense and Memory born with us nor gotten by experience onely as Prudence is but attained by industry To which I reply onely this That it might as well be said a Child when new born hath not flesh and blood because by taking in nourishment or food the Child grows to have more flesh and blood or that a Child is not born with two legs because he cannot go or with two arms and hands because he cannot help himself or that he is not born with a tongue because he cannot speak For although Reason doth not move in a Child as in a Man in Infancy as in Youth in Youth as in Age yet that doth not prove that Children are without Reason because they cannot run and prate I grant some other Creatures appear to have more Knowledg when new born then others as for example a young Foal has more knowledg than a young Child because a Child cannot run and play besides a Foal knows his own Dam and can tell where to take his food as to run and suck his Dam when as an Infant cannot do so nor all beasts though most of them can but yet this doth not prove that a Child hath no reason at all Neither can I perceive that man is a Monopoler of all Reason or Animals of all Sense but that Sense and Reason are in other Creatures as well as in Man and Animals for example Drugs as Vegetables and Minerals although they cannot slice pound or infuse as man can yet they can work upon man more subtilly wisely and as sensibly either by purging vomiting spitting or any other way as man by mincing pounding and infusing them and Vegetables will as wisely nourish Men as Men can nourish Vegetables Also some Vegetables are as malicious and mischievous to Man as Man is to one another witness Hemlock Nightshade and many more and a little Poppy will as soon nay sooner cause a Man to sleep though silently then a Nurse a Child with singing and rocking But because they do not act in such manner or way as Man Man judgeth them to be without sense and reason and because they do not prate and talk as Man Man believes they have not so much wit as he hath and because they cannot run and go Man thinks they are not industrious the like for Infants concerning Reason But certainly it is not local motion or speech that makes sense and reason but sense and reason makes them neither is sense and reason bound onely to the actions of Man but it is free to the actions forms figures and proprieties of all Creatures for if none but Man had reason and none but Animals sense the World could not be so exact and so well in order as it is but Nature is wiser then Man with all his Arts for these are onely produced through the variety of Natures actions and disputes through the superfluous varieties of Mans follies or ignorances not knowing Natures powerful life and knowledg But I wonder Madam your Author says in this place That Reason is not born with Man when as in another place he says That every man brought Philosophy that is Natural reason with him into the World Which how it agree I will leave to others to judg and to him to reconcile it remaining in the mean time MADAM Your Constant Friend and Faithful Servant XII MADAM TWo sorts of motions I find your Author doth attribute to Animals viz. Vital and Animal the Vital motions says he are begun in Generation and continued without Interruption through their whole life aud those are the Course of the Blood the Pulse the Breathing Conviction Nutrition Excretion c. to which motions there needs no help of Imaginations But the animal Motions otherwise called voluntary Motions are to go to speak to move any of our limbs in such manner as is first fancied in our minds And because going speaking and the like voluntary motions depend always upon a precedent thought of whither which way and what it is evident that the Imagination is the first Internal beginning of all voluntary Motion Thus far your Author Whereof in short I give you my opinion first concerning Vital Motions that it appears improbable if not impossible to me that Generation should be the cause and beginning of Life because Life must of necessity be the cause of Generation life being the Generator of all things for without life motion could not be and without motion not any thing could be begun increased perfected or dissolved Next that Imagination is not necessary to Vital Motions it is probable it may not but yet there is required Knowledg which I name Reason for if there were not Knowledg in all Generations or Productions there could not any distinct Creature be made or produced for then all Generations would be confusedly mixt neither would there be any distinct kinds or sorts of Creatures nor no different Faculties Proprieties and the like Thirdly concerning Animal Motions which your Author names Voluntary Motions as to go to speak to move any of our limbs in such manner as is first fancied in our minds
Animal-kind and reason in Man-kind for can any one think or believe that Nature is ignorant and dead in all her other parts besides Animals Truly this is a very unreasonable opinion for no man as wise as he thinks himself nay were all Man-kind joyned into one body yet they are not able to know it unless there were no variety of parts in nature but onely one whole and individeable body for other Creatures may know and perceive as much as Animals although they have not the same Sensitive Organs nor the same manmer or way of Perception Next your Author says The cause of Sense or Perception consists herein that the first organ of sense is touched and pressed For when the uttermost part of the organ is pressed it no sooner yields but the part next within it is pressed also and in this manner the pressure or motion is propagated through all the parts of the organ to the innermost And thus also the pressure of the uttermost part proceeds from the pressure of some more remote body and so continually till we come to that from which as from its fountain we derive the Phantasme or Idea that is made in us by our sense And this whatsoever it be is that we commonly call the object Sense therefore is some Internal motion in the Sentient Generated by some Internal motion of the Parts of the object and propagated through all the media to the innermost part of the organ Moreover there being a resistance or reaction in the organ by reason of its internal motion against the motion propagated from the object there is also an endeavour in the organ opposite to the endeavour proceeding from the object and when that endeavour inwards is the last action in the act of sense then from the reaction a Phantasme or Idea has its being This is your Authors opinion which if it were so perception could not be effected so suddenly nay I think the sentient by so many pressures in so many perceptions would at last be pressed to death besides the organs would take a great deal of hurt nay totally be removed out of their places so as the eye would in time be prest into the centre of the brain And if there were any Resistance Reaction or Indeavour in the organ opposite to the Endeavour of the object there would in my opinion be always a war between the animal senses and the objects the endeavour of the objects pressing one way and the senses pressing the other way and if equal in their strengths they would make a stop and the sensitive organs would be very much pained Truly Madam in my opinion it would be like that Custom which formerly hath been used at Newcastle when a man was married the guests divided themselves behind and before the Bridegroom the one party driving him back the other forwards so that one time a Bridegroom was killed in this fashion But certainly Nature hath a more quick and easie way of giving intelligence and knowledg to her Creatures and doth not use such constraint and force in her actions Neither is sense or sensitive perception a meer Phantasme or Idea but a Corporeal action of the sensitive and rational matter and according to the variation of the objects or patterns and the sensitive and rational motions the perception also is various produced not by external pressure but by internal self-motion as I have declared heretofore and to prove that the sensitive and rational corporeal motions are the onely cause of perception I say if those motions in an animal move in another way and not to such perceptions then that animal can neither hear see taste smell nor touch although all his sensitive organs be perfect as is evident in a man falling into a swoon where all the time he is in a swoon the pressure of the objects is made without any effect Wherefore as the sensitive and rational corporeal motions make all that is in nature so likewise they make perception as being perception it self for all self-self-motion is perception but all perception is not animal perception or after an animal way and therefore sense cannot decay nor die but what is called a decay or death is nothing else but a change or alteration of those Motions But you will say Madam it may be that one body as an object leaves the print of its figure in the next adjoyning body until it comes to the organ of sense I answer that then sost bodies onely must be pressed and the object must be so hard as to make a print and as for rare parts of matter they are not able to retain a print without self-self-motion Wherefore it is not probable that the parts of air should receive a print and print the same again upon the adjoyning part until the last part of the air print it upon the eye and that the exterior parts of the organ should print upon the interior till it come to the centre of the Brain without self-motion Wherefore in my opinion Perception is not caused either by the printing of objects nor by pressures for pressures would make a general stop of all natural motions especially if there were any reaction or resistence of sense but according to my reason the sensitive and rational corporeal motions in one body pattern out the Figure of another body as of an exterior object which may be done easily without any pressure or reaction I will not say that there is no pressure or reaction in Nature but pressure and reaction doth not make perception for the sensitive and rational parts of matter make all perception and variety of motion being the most subtil parts of Nature as self-moving as also divideable and composeable and alterable in their figurative motions for this Perceptive matter can change its substance into any figure whatsoever in nature as being not bound to one constant figure But having treated hereof before and being to say more of it hereaster this shall suffice for the present remaining always MADAM Your constant Friend and faithful Servant XIX MADAM TO discourse of the World and Stars is more then I am able to do wanting the art of Astronomy and Geometry wherefore passing by that Chapter of your Author I am come to that wherein he treats of Light Heat and Colours and to give you my opinion of Light I say it is not the light of the Sun that makes an Animal see for we can see inwardly in Dreams without the Suns light but it is the sensitive and rational Motions in the Eye and Brain that make such a figure as Light For if Light did press upon the Eye according to your Authors opinion it might put the Eye into as much pain as Fire doth when it sticks its points into our skin or flesh The same may be said of Colours for the sensitive motions make such a figure which is such a Colour and such a Figure which is such a Colour Wherefore Light Heat and Colour
the mind or barn-dores to receive bundles of pressures like sheaves of Corn For there being a thorow mixture of animate rational and sensitive and inanimate matter we canot assign a certain seat or place to the rational another to the sensitive and another to the inanimate but they are diffused and intermixt throughout all the body And this is the reason that sense and knowledg cannot be bound onely to the head or brain But although they are mixt together nevertheless they do not lose their interior natures by this mixture nor their purity and subtilty nor their proper motions or actions but each moves according to its nature and substance without confusion The actions of the rational part in Man which is the Mind or Soul are called Thoughts or thoughtful perceptions which are numerous and so are the sensitive perceptions for though Man or any other animal hath but five exterior sensitive organs yet there be numerous perceptions made in these sensitive organs and in all the body nay every several Pore of the flesh is a sensitive organ as well as the Eye or the Ear. But both sorts as well the rational as the sensitive are different from each other although both do resemble another as being both parts of animate matter as I have mentioned before Wherefore I 'le add no more onely let you know that I constantly remain MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXXVI MADAM THat all other animals besides man want reason your Author endeavours to prove in his discourse of method where his chief argument is That other animals cannot express their mind thoughts or conceptions either by speech or any other signs as man can do For sayes he it is not for want of the organs belonging to the framing of words as we may observe in Parrats and Pies which are apt enough to express words they are taught but understand nothing of them My answer is That one man expressing his mind by speech or words to an other doth not declare by it his excellency and supremacy above all other Creatures but for the most part more folly for a talking man is not so wise as a contemplating man But by reason other Creatures cannot speak or discourse with each other as men or make certain signs whereby to express themselves as dumb and deaf men do should we conclude they have neither knowledge sense reason or intelligence Certainly this is a very weak argument for one part of a mans body as one hand is not less sensible then the other nor the heel less sensible then the heart nor the legg less sensible then the head but each part hath its sense and reason and so consequently its sensitive and rational knowledg and although they cannot talk or give intelligence to each other by speech nevertheless each hath its own peculiar and particular knowledge just as each particular man has his own particular knowledge for one man's knowledge is not another man's knowledge and if there be such a peculiar and particular knowledg in every several part of one animal creature as man well may there be such in Creatures of different kinds and sorts But this particular knowledg belonging to each creature doth not prove that there is no intelligence at all betwixt them no more then the want of humane Knowledg doth prove the want of Reason for reason is the rational part of matter and makes perception observation and intelligence different in every creature and every sort of creatures according to their proper natures but perception observation and intelligence do not make reason Reason being the cause and they the effects Wherefore though other Creatures have not the speech nor Mathematical rules and demonstrations with other Arts and Sciences as Men yet may their perceptions and observations be as wise as Men's and they may have as much intelligence and commerce betwixt each other after their own manner and way as men have after theirs To which I leave them and Man to his conceited prerogative and excellence resting MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXXVII MADAM COncerning Sense and Perception your Authors opinion is That it is made by a motion or impression from the object upon the sensitive organ which impression by means of the nerves is brought to the brain and so to the mind or soul which onely perceives in the brain Explaining it by the example of a Man being blind or walking in dark who by the help of his stick can perceive when he touches a Stone a Tree Water Sand and the like which example he brings to make a comparison with the perception of Light For says he Light in a shining body is nothing else but a quick and lively motion or action which through the air and other transparent bodies tends towards the eye in the same manner as the motion or resistance of the bodies the blind man meets withal tends thorow the stick towards the hand wherefore it is no wonder that the Sun can display its rays so far in an instant seeing that the same action whereby one end of the stick is moved goes instantly also to the other end and would do the same if the stick were as long as Heaven is distant from Earth To which I answer first That it is not onely the Mind that perceives in the kernel of the Brain but that there is a double perception rational and sensitive and that the mind perceives by the rational but the body and the sensitive organs by the sensitive perception and as there is a double perception so there is also a double knowledg rational tional and sensitive one belonging to the mind the other to the body for I believe that the Eye Ear Nose Tongue and all the Body have knowledg as well as the Mind onely the rational matter being subtil and pure is not incumbred with the grosser part of matter to work upon or with it but leaves that to the sensitive and works or moves onely in its own substance which makes a difference between thoughts and exterior senses Next I say That it is not the Motion or Reaction of the bodies the blind man meets withal which makes the sensitive perception of these objects but the sensitive corporeal motions in the hand do pattern out the figure of the Stick Stone Tree Sand and the like And as for comparing the perception of the hand when by the help of the stick it perceives the objects with the perception of light I confess that the sensitive perceptions do all resemble each other because all sensitive parts of matter are of one degree as being sensible parts onely there is a difference according to the figures of the objects presented to the senses and there is no better proof for perception being made by the sensitive motions in the body or sensitive organs but that all these sensitive perceptions are alike and resemble one another for if they were not made in the body of the sentient but by the
and Servant VII MADAM YOur Author being very earnest in arguing against those that maintain the opinion of Matter being self-moving amongst the rest of his arguments brings in this Suppose says he Matter could move it self would meer Matter with self-motion amount to that admirable wise contrivance of things which we see in the World All the evasion I can imagine our adversaries may use here will be this That Matter is capable of sense and the finest and most subtil of the most refined sense and consequently of Imagination too yea happily of Reason and Understanding I answer it is very probable that not onely all the Matter in the World or Universe hath Sense but also Reason and that the sensitive part of matter is the builder and the rational the designer whereof I have spoken of before and you may find more of it in my Book of Philosophy But says your Author Let us see if all their heads laid together can contrive the anatomical Fabrick of any Creature that liveth I answer all parts of Nature are not bound to have heads or tayls but if they have surely they are wiser then many a man's I demand says he Has every one of these Particles that must have a hand in the framing of the body of an animal the whole design of the work by the Impress of some Phantasme upon it or as they have several offices so have they several parts of the design I answer All the actions of self-moving Matter are not Impresses nor is every part a hand-labourer but every part unites by degrees into such or such a Figure Again says he How is it conceiveable that any one Particle of Matter or many together there not existing yet in Nature an animal can have the Idea Impressed of that Creature they are to frame I answer all figures whatsoever have been are or can be in Nature are existent in nature How says he can they in framing several parts confer notes by what language or speech can they communicate their Counsels one to another I answer Knowledg doth not always require speech for speech is an effect and not a cause but knowledg is a cause and not an effect and nature hath infinite more ways to express knowledg then man can imagine Wherefore he concludes that they should mutually serve one another in such a design is more impossible then that so many men blind and dumb from their nativity should joyn their forces and wits together to build a Castle or carve a statue of such a Creature as none of them knew any more in several then some one of the smallest parts thereof but not the relation it bore to the whole I answer Nature is neither blind nor dumb nor any ways defective but infinitely wife and knowing for blindness and dumbness are but effects of some of her particular actions but there is no defect in self-moving matter nor in her actions in general and it is absurd to conceive the Generality of wisdom according to an Irregular effect or defect of a particular Creature for the General actions of Nature are both life and knowledg which are the architects of all Creatures and know better how to frame all kinds and sorts of Creatures then man can conceive and the several parts of Matter have a more easie way of communication then Mans head hath with his hand or his hand with pen ink and paper when he is going to write which later example will make you understand my opinion the better if you do but compare the rational part of Matter to the head the sensitive to the hand the inanimate to pen ink and paper their action to writing and their framed figures to those figures or letters which are written in all which is a mutual agreement without noise or trouble But give me leave Madam to tell you That self-moving Matter may sometimes erre and move irregularly and in some parts not move so strong curious or subtil at sometimes as in other parts for Nature delights in variety Nevertheless she is more wise then any Particular Creature or part can conceive which is the cause that Man thinks Nature's wise subtil and lively actions are as his own gross actions conceiving them to be constrained and turbulent not free and easie as well as wise and knowing Whereas Nature's Creating Generating and Producing actions are by an easie connexion of parts to parts without Counterbuffs Joggs and Jolts producing a particular figure by degrees and in order and method as humane sense and reason may well perceive And why may not the sensitive and rational part of Matter know better how to make a Bee then a Bee doth how to make Honey and Wax or have a better communication betwixt them then Bees that fly several ways meeting and joyning to make their Combes in their Hives But pardon Madam for I think it a Crime to compare the Creating Generating and producing Coporeal Life and Wisdom of Nature unto any particular Creature although every particular Creature hath their share being a part of Nature Wherefore those in my opinion do grosly err that bind up the sensitive matter onely to taste touch hearing seeing and smelling as if the sensitive parts of Nature had not more variety of actions then to make five senses for we may well observe in every Creature there is difference of sense and reason according to the several modes of self-self-motion For the Sun Stars Earth Air Fire Water Plants Animals Minerals although they have all sense and knowledg yet they have not all sense and knowledg alike because sense and knowledg moves not alike in every kind or sort of Creatures nay many times very different in one and the same Creature but yet this doth not cause a general Ignorance as to be altogether Insensible or Irrational neither do the erroneous and irregular actions of sense and reason prove an annihilation of sense and reason as for example a man may become Mad or a Fool through the irregular motions of sense and reason and yet have still the Perception of sense and reason onely the alteration is caused through the alteration of the sensitive and rational corporeal motions or actions from regular to irregular nevertheless he has Perceptions Thoughts Ideas Passions and whatsoever is made by sensitive and rational Matter neither can Perception be divided from Motion nor Motion from Matter for all sensation is Corporeal and so is Perception I can add no more but take my leave and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant VIII MADAM YOur Author is pleased to say that Matter is a Principle purely passive and no otherwise moved or modified then as some other thing moves and modifies it but cannot move it self at all which is most demonstrable to them that contend for sense and perception in it For if it had any such perception it would by vertue of its self-motion withdraw its self from under the knocks of hammers or fury of the
for as composition and division do hinder and obstruct each other from running into Infinite so doth dilation hinder the Infinite contraction and contraction the Infinite dilation which as I said before causes a mean betwixt Nature's actions nevertheless there are Infinite dilations and contractions in Nature because there are Infinite contracted and dilated parts and so are infinite divisions because there are infinite divided parts but contraction dilation extension composition division and the like are onely Nature's several actions and as there can be no single part in Nature that is Infinite so there can neither be any single Infinite action But as for Matter Motion and Figure those are Individable and Inseparable and make but one body or substance for it is as impossible to divide them as impossible it is to your Author to separate the essential proprieties which he gives from an Immortal Spirit And as Matter Motion and Figure are inseparable so is likewise Matter Space Place and Duration For Parts Motion Figure Place and Duration are but one Infinite body onely the Infinite parts are the Infinite divisions of the Infinite body and the Infinite body is a composition of the Infinite parts but figure place and body are all one and so is time and duration except you will call time the division of duration and duration the composition of time but infinite time and infinite duration is all one in Nature and thus Nature's Principal motions and actions are dividing composing and disposing or ordering according to her Natural wisdom by the Omnipotent God's leave and permission Concerning the Sun which your Author speaks of in the same place and denies him to be a Spectator of our Particular affairs upon Earth saying there is no such divine Principle in him whereby he can do it I will speak nothing against nor for it but I may say that the Sun hath such a Principle as other Creatures have which is that he has sensitive and rational corporeal motions as well as animals or other Creatures although not in the same manner nor the same organs and if he have sensitive and rational motions he may also have sensitive and rational knowledge or perception as well as man or other animals and parts of Nature have for ought any body knows for it is plain to humane sense and reason that all Creatures must needs have rational and sensitive knowledg because they have all sensitive and rational matter and motions But leaving the Sun for Astronomers to contemplate upon I take my leave and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant X. MADAM YOur Author in his arguments against Motion being a Principle of Nature endeavours to prove that Beauty Colour Symmetry and the like in Plants as well as in other Creatures are no result from the meer motion of the matter and forming this objection It may be said says he That the regular motion of the matter made the first plant of every kind but we demand What regulated the motion of it so as to guide it to form it self into such a state I answer The Wisdom of Nature or infinite Matter did order its own actions so as to form those her Parts into such an exact and beautiful figure as such a Tree or such a Flower or such a Fruit and the like and some of her Parts are pleased and delighted with other parts but some of her parts are afraid or have an aversion to other parts and hence is like and dislike or sympathy and antipathy hate and love according as nature which is infinite self-moving matter pleases to move for though Natural Wisdom is dividable into parts yet these parts are united in one infinite Body and make but one Being in it self like as the several parts of a man make up but one perfect man for though a man may be wise in several causes or actions yet it is but one wisdom and though a Judg may shew Justice in several causes yet it is but one Justice for Wisdom and Justice though they be practised in several causes yet it is but one Wisdom and one Justice and so all the parts of a mans body although they move differently yet are they but one man's bodily actions Just as a man if he carve or cut out by art several statues or draw several Pictures those statues or pictures are but that one man's work The like may be said of Natures Motions and Figures all which are but one self-active or self-moving Material Nature But Wise Nature's Ground or Fundamental actions are very Regular as you may observe in the several and distinct kinds sorts and particulars of her Creatures and in their distinct Proprieties Qualities and Faculties belonging not onely to each kind and sort but to each particular Creature and since man is not able to know perfectly all those proprieties which belong to animals much less will he be able to know and judg of those that are in Vegetables Minerals and Elements and yet these Creatures for any thing Man knows may be as knowing understanding and wise as he and each as knowing of its kind or sort as man is of his But the mixture of ignorance and knowledg in all Creatures proceeds from thence that they are but Parts and there is no better proof that the mind of man is dividable then that it is not perfectly knowing nor no better proof that it is composeable then that it knows so much but all minds are not alike but some are more composed then others which is the cause some know more then others for if the mind in all men were alike all men would have the same Imaginations Fancies Conceptions Memories Remembrances Passions Affections Understanding and so forth The same may be said of their bodies for if all mens sensitive parts were as one and not dividable and composeable all their Faculties Properties Constitutions Complexions Appetites would be the same in every man without any difference but humane sense and reason doth well perceive that neither the mind life nor body are as one piece without division and composition Concerning the divine Soul I do not treat of it onely this I may say That all are not devout alike nor those which are are not at all times alike devout But to conclude some of our modern Philosophers think they do God good service when they endeavour to prove Nature as Gods good Servant to be stupid ignorant foolish and mad or any thing rather then wise and yet they believe themselves wise as if they were no part of Nature but I cannot imagine any reason why they should rail on her except Nature had not given them as great a share or portion as she hath given to others for children in this case do often rail at their Parents for leaving their Brothers and Sisters more then themselves However Nature can do more then any of her Creatures and if Man can Paint Imbroider Carve Ingrave curiously why may not Nature have more
figures of Natural matter for though all the parts of Matter are not self-moving yet there is not any part that is not moving or moved by and with the mover which is animate matter And thus I conclude and rest constantly MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XIII MADAM THat Matter is uncapable of Sense your Author proves by the example of dead Carcasses For says he Motion and Sense being really one and the same thing it must needs follow that where there is motion there is also sense and perception but on the contrary there is Reaction in dead Carkasses and yet no Sense I answer shortly That it is no consequence because there is no animal sense nor exterior perceptible local motion in a dead Carcass therefore there is no sense at all in it for though it has not animal sense yet it may nevertheless have sense according to the nature of that figure into which it did change from being an animal Also he says If any Matter have sense it will follow that upon reaction all shall have the like and that a Bell while it is ringing and a Bow while it is bent and every fack-in-a-box that School-boys play with shall be living animals I answer It is true if reaction made sense but reaction doth not make sense but sense makes reaction and though the Bell hath not an animal knowledg yet it may have a mineral life and knowledg and the Bow and the Jack-in-a-box a vegetable knowledg for the shape and form of the Bell Bow and Jack-in-a-box is artificial nevertheless each in its own kind may have as much knowledg as an animal in his kind onely they are different according to the different proprieties of their Figures And who can prove the contrary that they have not For certainly Man cannot prove what he cannot know but Mans nature is so that knowing but little of other Creatures he presently judges there is no more knowledg in Nature then what Man at least Animals have and confines all sense onely to Animal sense and all knowledg to Animal knowledg Again says your Author That Matter is utterly uncapable of such operations as we find in our selves and that therefore there is something in us Immaterial or Incorporeal for we find in our selves that one and the same thing both hears and sees and tastes and perceives all the variety of objects that Nature manifests unto us I answer That is the reason there is but one matter and that all natural perception is made by the animate part of matter but although there is but one matter in Nature yet there are several parts or degrees and consequently several actions of that onely matter which causes such a variety of perceptions both sensitive and rational the sensitive perception is made by the sensitive corporeal motions copying out the figures of forreign objects in the sensitive organs of the sentient and if those sensitive motions do pattern out forreign objects in each sensitive organ alike at one and the same time then we hear see taste touch and smell at one and the same time But Thoughts and Passions as Imagination Conception Fancy Memory Love Hate Fear Joy and the like are made by the rational corporeal motions in their own degree of matter to wit the rational And thus all perception is made by one and the same matter through the variety of its actions or motions making various and several figures both sensitive and rational But all this variety in sense and reason or of sensitive and rational perceptions is not made by parts pressing upon parts but by changing their own parts of matter into several figures by the power of self-motion For example I see a Man or Beast that Man or Beast doth not touch my eye in the least neither in it self nor by pressing the adjoyning parts but the sensitive corporeal motions streight upon the sight of the Man or Beast make the like figure in the sensitive organ the Eye and in the eyes own substance or matter as being in the eye as well as the other degrees of matter to wit the rational and inanimate for they are all mixt together But this is to be observed That the rational matter can and doth move in its own substance as being the purest and subtillest degree of matter but the sensitive being not so pure and subtil moves always with the inanimate Matter and so the perceptive figures which the rational Matter or rational corporeal Motions make are made in their own degree of Matter but those figures which the sensitive patterns out are made in the organs or parts of the sentient body proper to such or such a sense or perception as in an animal Creature the perception of sight is made by the sensitive corporeal motions in the Eye the perception of hearing in the Ear and so forth As for what your Author says That we cannot conceive any portion of Matter but is either hard or soft I answer That these are but effects of Matters actions and so is rare and dense and the like but there are some Creatures which seem neither perfectly rare nor dense nor hard nor soft but of mixt qualities as for example Quicksilver seems rare and yet is dense soft and yet is hard for though liquid Quicksilver is soft to our touch and rare to our sight yet it is so dense and hard as not to be readily dissolved from its nature and if there be such contraries and mixtures in one particular creature made of self-moving Matter what will there not be in Matter it self according to the old saying If the Man such praise shall have What the Master that keeps the knave So if a particular Creature hath such opposite qualities and mixtures of corporeal motions what will the Creator have which is self-moving Matter Wherefore it is impossible to affirm that self-moving Matter is either all rare or all dense or all hard or all soft because by its self-moving power it can be either or both and so by the change and variety of motion there may be soft and rare Points and hard and sharp Points hard and contracted Globes and soft and rare Globes also there may be pressures of Parts without printing and printing without pressures Concerning that part of Matter which is the Common Sensorium your Author demands Whether some point of it receive the whole Image of the object or whether it be wholly received into every point of it I answer first That all sensitive Matter is not in Points Next That not any single part can subsist of it self and then that one Part doth not receive all parts or any part into it self but that Parts by the power of self-motion can and do make several figures of all sizes and sorts and can Epitomize a great object into a very little figure for outward objects do not move the body but the sensitive and rational matter moves according to the figures of outward objects I do not say
the sensitive which is the Life of Nature as the other is the Soul not the Divine but natural Soul neither is this Soul Immaterial bnt Corporeal not composed of raggs and shreds but it is the purest simplest and subtillest matter in Nature But to conclude I desire you to remember Madam that this rational and sensitive Matter in one united and finite Figure or particular Creature has both common and particular actions for as there are several kinds and sorts of Creatures and particulars in every kind and sort so the like for the actions of the rational and sensitive matter in one particular Creature Also it is to be noted That the Parts of rational matter can more suddenly give and take Intelligence to and from each other then the sensitive nevertheless all Parts in Nature at least adjoyning parts have Intelligence between each other more or less because all parts make but one body for it is not with the parts of Matter as with several Constables in several Hundreds or several Parishes which are a great way distant from each other but they may be as close as the combs of Bees and yet as partable and as active as Bees But concerning the Intelligence of Natures Parts I have sufficiently spoken in other places and so I 'le add no more but that I unfeignedly remain MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XVI MADAM SEnsation in corporeal motion is first and Perception follows sayes your Author to which opinion I give no assent but do believe that Perception and Sensation are done both at one and the same time as being one and the same thing without division either in reason or sense and are performed without any knocks or jolts or hitting against But let me tell you Madam there arises a great mistake by many from not distinguishing well sensitive Motion and rational Motion for though all motions are in one onely matter yet that matter doth not move always in the same manner for then there could be no variety in Nature and truly if man who is but a part of Nature may move diversly and put himself into numerous postures Why may not Nature But concerning Motions and their variety to avoid tedious repetitions I must still referr you to my Book of Philosophical Opinions I 'le add onely this that it is well to be observed That all Motions are not Impressions neither do all Impressions make such dents as to disturb the adjoyning Parts Wherefore those in my opinion understand Nature best which say that Sensation and Perception are really one and the same but they are out that say there can be no communication at a distance unless by pressing and crowding for the patterning of an outward object may be done without any inforcement or disturbance jogging or crowding as I have declared heretofore for the sensitive and rational motions in the sensitive and rational parts of matter in one creature observing the exterior motions in outward objects move accordingly either regularly or irregularly in patterns and if they have no exterior objects as in dreams they work by rote And so to conclude I am absolutely of their opinion who believe that there is nothing existent in Nature but what is purely Corporeal for this seems most probable in sense and reason to me MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XVII MADAM OUtward Objects as I have told you before do not make Sense and Reason but Sense and Reason do perceive and judg of outward objects For the Sun doth not make sight nor doth sight make light but sense and reason in a Man or any other creature do perceive and know there are such objects as Sun and Light or whatsoever objects are presented to them Neither doth Dumbness Deafness Blindness c. cause an Insensibility but Sense through irregular actions causes them I say through Irregular actions because those effects do not properly belong to the nature of that kind of Creatures for every Creature if regularly made hath particular motions proper to its figure for natural Matters wisdom makes distinctions by her distinct corporeal motions giving every particular Creature their due Portion and Proportion according to the nature of their figures and to the rules of her actions but not to the rules of Arts Mathematical Compasses Lines Figures and the like And thus the Sun Stars Meteors Air Fire Water Earth Minerals Vegetables and Animals may all have Sense and Reason although it doth not move in one kind or sort of Creatures or in one particular as in another For the corporeal motions differ not onely in kinds and sorts but also in Particulars as is perceivable by human sense and reason Which is the cause that Elements have elemental sense and knowledg and Animals animal sense and knowledg and so of Vegetables Minerals and the like Wherefore the Sun and Stars may have as much sensitive and rational life and knowledg as other Creatures but such as is according to the nature of their figures and not animal or vegetable or mineral sense and knowledg And so leaving them I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XVIII MADAM YOur Author denying that Fancy Reason and Animadversion are seated in the Brain and that the Brain is figured into this or that Conception I demand says he in what knot loop or interval thereof doth this faculty of free Fancy and active Reason reside My answer is that in my opinion Fancy and Reason are not made in the Brain as there is a Brain but as there is sensitive and rational matter which makes not onely the Brain but all Thoughts Conceptions Imaginations Fancy Understanding Memory Remembrance and whatsoever motions are in the Head or Brain neither doth this sensitive and rational mattet remain or act in one place of the Brain but in every part thereof and not onely in every part of the Brain but in every part of the Body nay not onely in every part of a Mans Body but in every part of Nature But Madam I would ask those that say the Brain has neither sense reason nor self-motion and therefore no Perception but that all proceeds from an Immaterial Principle as an Incorporeal Spirit distinct from the body which moveth and actuates corporeal matter I would fain ask them I say where their Immaterial Ideas reside in what part or place of the Body and whether they be little or great Also I would ask them whether there can be many or but one Idea of God If they say many then there must be several distinct Deitical Ideas if but one Where doth this Idea reside If they say in the head then the heart is ignorant of God if in the heart then the head is ignorant thereof and so for all parts of the body but if they say in every part then that Idea may be disfigured by a lost member if they say it may dilate and contract then I say it is not the Idea of God for God can neither contract nor
there were none presented to the sensitive organs Nor is there any thing which can better prove the mind to be corporeal then that there may be several Figures in several parts of the body made at one time as Sight Hearing Tasting Smelling and Touching and all these in each several organ as well at one as at several times either by patterns or not which figuring without Pattern may be done as well by the sensitive motions in the organs as by the rational in the mind and is called remembrance As for example a Man may hear or see without an object which is that the sensitive and rational matter repeat such figurative actions or make others in the sensitive organs or in the mind and Thoughts Memory Imagination as also Passion are no less corporeal actions then the motion of the hand or heel neither hath the rational matter being naturally wise occasion to jumble and knock her parts together by reason every part knows naturally their office what they ought to do or what they may do But I conclude repeating onely what I have said oft before that all Perceptions Thoughts and the like are the Effects and Life and Knowledg the Nature and Essence of self-moving Matter And so I rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XX. MADAM IAm not able to conceive how the Mind of Man can be compared to a Table-book in which nothing is writ nor how to a Musician who being asleep doth not so much as dream of any Musick but being jogg'd and awakend by another who tells him two or three words of a Song and desires him to sing it presently recovers himself and sings upon so slight an Intimation For such intimations are nothing else but outward objects which the interior sense consents to and obeys for interior sense and reason doth often obey outward objects and in my opinion there is no rest in Nature and so neither in the Mind or natural Soul of Man which is in a perpetual motion and needs therefore no jogging to put it into any actual motion for it hath actual motion and knowledg in it self because it is a self-moving substance actually knowing and Material or Corporeal not Immaterial as your Author thinks and this material or corporeal Mind is nothing else but what I call the rational matter and the corporeal life is the sensitive matter But this is to be observed that the motions of the corporeal Mind do often imitate the motions of the sensitive Life and these again the motions of the mind I say oftentimes for they do it not always but each one can move without taking any pattern from the other And all this I understand of the Natural Soul of Man not of the Divine Soul and her powers and faculties for I leave that to Divines to inform us of onely this I say that men not conceiving the distinction between this natural and divine Soul make such a confusion betwixt those two Souls and their actions which causes so many disputes and opinions But if Nature hath power from God to produce all kinds of Vegetables Minerals Elements Animals and other sorts of Creatures Why not also Man Truly if all Creatures are natural Creatures Man must be so too and if Man is a natural Creature he must needs have natural sense and reason as well as other Creatures being composed of the same matter they are of Neither is it requisite that all Creatures being of the same matter must have the same manner of sensitive and rational knowledg which if so it is not necessary for Corn to have Ears to hear the whistling or chirping of Birds nor for Stones to have such a touch of feeling as animals have and to suffer pain as they do when Carts go over them as your Author is pleased to argue out of AEsopes Tales or for the Heliotrope to have eyes to see the Sun for what necessity is there that they should have humane sense and reason which is that the rational and sensitive matter should act and move in them as she doth in man or animals Certainly if there must be any variety in nature it is requisite she should not wherefore all Vegetables Minerals Elements and Animals have their proper motions different from each others not onely in their kinds and sorts but also in their particulars And though Stones have no progressive motion to withdraw themselves from the Carts going over them which your Author thinks they would do if they had sense to avoid pain nevertheless they have motion and consequently sense and reason according to the nature and propriety of their figure as well as man has according to his But this is also to be observed that not any humane Creature which is accounted to have the perfectest sense and reason is able always to avoid what is hurtful or painful for it is subject to it by Nature Nay the Immaterial Soul it self according to your Author cannot by her self-contracting faculty withdraw her self from pain Wherefore there is no manner of consequence to conclude from the sense of Animals to the sense of Minerals they being as much different as their Figures are And saying this I have said enough to express the opinion and mind of MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXI MADAM YOur Author endeavours very much to prove the Existency of a Natural Immaterial Spirit whom he defines to be an Incorporeal substance Indivisible that can move it self can penetrate contract and dilate it self and can also move and alter the matter Whereof if you will have my opinion I confess freely to you that in my sense and reason I cannot conceive it to be possible that there is any such thing in Nature for all that is a substance in Nature is a body and what has a body is corporeal for though there be several degrees of matter as in purity rarity subtilty activity yet there is no degree so pure rare and subtil that can go beyond its nature and change from corporeal to incorporeal except it could change from being something to nothing which is impossible in Nature Next there is no substance in Nature that is not divisible for all that is a body or a bodily substance hath extension and all extension hath parts and what has parts is divisible As for self-motion contraction and dilation these are actions onely of Natural Matter for Matter by the Power of God is self-moving and all sorts of motions as contraction dilation alteration penetration c. do properly belong to Matter so that natural Matter stands in no need to have some Immaterial or Incorporeal substance to move rule guide and govern her but she is able enough to do it all her self by the free Gift of the Omnipotent God for why should we trouble our selves to invent or frame other unconceivable substances when there is no need for it but Matter can act and move as well without them and of it self Is not God able
particular creature of Nature should have as much power to act or work as Nature her self but because neither Reason nor Art has found out as yet such a powerful opposite to Gold as can alter its nature men therefore conclude that it cannot be done Your Author relates to have seen the Gold-making stone which he says was of colour such as Saffron is in its powder but weighty and shining like unto powder'd Glass one fourth part of one grain thereof a grain he reckons the six hundredth part of one ounce being projected upon eight ounces of Quicksilver made hot in a Crucible and straight way there were found eight ounces and a little less then eleven grains of the purest Gold therefore one onely grain of that powder had transchanged 19186 parts of Quicksilver equal to it self into the best Gold Truly Madam I wish with all my heart the poor Royalists had had some quantity of that powder and I assure you that if it were so I my self would turn a Chymist to gain so much as to repair my Noble Husbands losses that his noble family might flourish the better But leaving Gold since it is but a vain wish I do verily believe that some of the Chymical medicines do in some desperate cases many times produce more powerful and sudden effects then the medicines of Galenistsi and therefore I do not absolutely condemn the art of Fire as if I were an enemy to it but I am of an opinion that my Opinions in Philosophy if well understood will rather give a light to that art then obscure its worth for if Chymists did but study well the corporeal motions or actions of Natures substantial body they would by their observations understand Nature better then they do by the observation of the actions of their Art and out of this consideration and respect I should almost have an ambition to become an Artist in Chymistry were I not too lazie and tender for that imployment but should I quit the one and venture the other I am so vain as to perswade my self I might perform things worthy my labour upon the ground of my own Philosophy which is substantial Life Sense and Reason for I would not study Salt Sulphur and Mercury but the Natural motions of every Creature and observe the variety of Natures actions But perchance you will smile at my vain conceit and it may be I my self should repent of my pains unsuccessfully bestowed my time vainly spent my health rashly endangered and my Noble Lords Estate unprofitably wasted in fruitless tryals and experiments Wherefore you may be sure that I will consider well before I act for I would not lose Health Wealth and Fame and do no more then others have done which truly is not much their effects being of less weight then their words But in the mean time my study shall be bent to your service and how to express my self worthily MADAM Your Ladiships humble and faithful Servant XIV MADAM I Have read your Authors discourse concerning Sensation but it was as difficult to me to understand it as it was tedious to read it Truly all the business might have have been easily declared in a short Chapter and with more clearness and perspicuity For Sensation is nothing else but the action of sense proceeding from the corporeal sensitive motions which are in all Creatures or parts of Nature and so all have sense and sensation although not alike after one and the same manner but some more some less each according to the nature and propriety of its figure But your Author speaks of Motion without Sense and Sense without Motion which is a meer impossibility for there is not nor cannot be any Motion in Nature without Sense nor any Sense without Motion there being no Creature without self-motion although not always perceptible by us or our external senses for all motion is not exteriously local and visible Wherefore not any part of Nature according to my opinion wants Sense and Reason Life and Knowledg but not such a substanceless Life as your Author describes but a substantial that is a corporeal Life Neither is Light the principle of Motion but Motion is the principle of Light Neither is Heat the principle of Motion but its effect as well as Cold is for I cannot perceive that Heat should be more active then Cold. Neither is there any such thing as Unsensibleness in Nature except it be in respect of some particular Sensation in some particular Figure As for example when an Animal dies or its Figure is dissolved from the Figure of an Animal we may say it hath not animal sense or motion but we cannot say it hath no sense or motion at all for as long as Matter is in Nature Sense and Motion will be so that it is absurd and impossible to believe or at least to think that Matter as a body can be totally deprived of Life Sense and Motion or that Life can perish and be corrupted be it the smallest part of Matter conceivable and the same turned or changed into millions of Figures for the Life and Soul of Nature is self-moving Matter which by Gods Power and leave is the onely Framer and Maker as also the Dissolver and Transformer of all Creatures in Nature making as well Light Heat and Cold Gas Blas and Ferments as all other natural Creatures beside as also Passions Appetites Digestions Nourishments Inclination Aversion Sickness and Health nay all Particular Ideas Thoughts Fancies Conceptions Arts Sciences c. In brief it makes all that is to be made in Nature But many great Philosophers conceive Nature to be fuller of Intricacy Difficulty and Obscurity then she is puzling themselves about her ordinary actions which yet are easie and free and making their arguments hard constrained and mystical many of them containing neither sense nor reason when as in my opinion there is nothing else to be studied in Nature but her substance and her actions But I will leave them to their own Fancies and Humors and say no more but rest MADAM Your humble and faithful Servant XV. MADAM COncerning Sympathy and Antipathy and attractive or magnetick Inclinations which some do ascribe to the influence of the Stars others to an unknown Spirit as the Mover others to the Instinct of Nature hidden Proprieties and certain formal Vertues but your Author doth attribute to directing Ideas begotten by their Mother Charity or a desire of Good Will and calls it a Gift naturally inherent in the Archeusses of either part If you please to have my opinion thereof I think they are nothing else but plain ordinary Passions and Appetites As for example I take Sympathy as also Magnetisme or attractive Power to be such agreeable Motions in one part or Creature as do cause a Fancy love and desire to some other part or Creature and Antipathy when these Motions are disagreeable and produce contrary effects as dislike hate and aversion to some part
the sensitive and rational Motions which do not onely make the fear and conceit but also the disease for as a fright will sometimes cure diseases so it will sometimes cause diseases but as I said both fright cure and the disease are made by the rational and sensitive corporeal motions within the body and not by Supernatural Magick as Satanical Witchcraft entering from without into the body by spiritual rays But having discoursed hereof in my former Letter I will not trouble you with an unnecessary repetition thereof I conclude therefore with what I begun viz. that I believe natural Magick to be natural corporeal motions in natural bodies Not that I say Nature in her self is a Magicianess but it may be called natural Magick or Witchcraft meerly in respect to our Ignorance for though Nature is old yet she is not a Witch but a grave wise methodical Matron ordering her Infinite family which are her several parts with ease and facility without needless troubles and difficulties for these are onely made through the ignorance of her several parts or particular Creatures not understanding their Mistress Nature and her actions and government for which they cannot be blamed for how should a part understand the Infinite body when it doth not understand it self but Nature understands her parts better then they do her And so leaving Wise Nature and the Ignorance of her Particulars I understand my self so far that I am MADAM Your humble and faithful Servant XVII MADAM I Am not of your Authors opinion That Time hath no relation to Motion but that Time and Motion are as unlike and different from each other as Finite from Infinite and that it hath its own essence or being Immoveable Vnchangeable Individable and unmixed with things nay that Time is plainly the same with Eternity For in my opinion there can be no such thing as Time in Nature but what Man calls Time is onely the variation of natural motions wherefore Time and the alteration of motion is one and the same thing under two different names and as Matter Figure and Motion are inseparable so is Time inseparably united or rather the same thing with them and not a thing subsisting by it self and as long as Matter Motion and Figure have been existent so long hath Time and as long as they last so long doth Time But when I say Time is the variation of motion I do not mean the motion of the Sun or Moon which makes Days Months Years but the general motions or actions of Nature which are the ground of Time for were there no Motion there would be no Time and since Matter is dividable and in parts Time is so too neither hath Time any other Relation to Duration then what Nature her self hath Wherefore your Author is mistaken when he says Motion is made in Time for Motion makes Time or rather is one and the same with Time and Succession is no more a stranger to Motion then Motion is to Nature as being the action of Nature which is the Eternal servant of God But says he Certain Fluxes of Formerlinesses and Laternesses have respect unto frail moveable things in their motions wherewith they hasten unto the appointed ends of their period and so unto their own death or destruction but what relation hath all that to Time for therefore also ought Time to run with all and every motion Verily so there should be as many times and durations as there are motions I answer To my Reason there are as many times and durations as there are motions for neither time nor duration can be separated from motion no more then motion can be separated from them being all one But Time is not Eternity for Eternity hath no change although your Author makes Time and Eternity all one and a being or substance by it self Yet I will rather believe Solomon ' then him who says that there is a time to be merry and a time to be sad a time to mourn and a time to rejoyce and so forth making so many divisions of Time as there are natural actions whenas your Author makes natural actions strangers to Nature dividing them from their substances Which seemeth very improbable in the opinion of MADAM Your Ladiships faithful Friend and humble Servant XVIII MADAM YOur Authors opinion is That a bright burning Iron doth not burn a dead Carcass after an equal manner as it doth a live one For in live bodies saith he it primarily burts the sensitive Soul the which therefore being impatient rages after a wonderful manner doth by degrees resolve and exasperate its own and vital liquors into a sharp poyson and then contracts the fibres of the flesh and turns them into an escharre yea into the way of a coal but a dead Carcass is burnt by bright burning Iron no otherwise then if Wood or if any other unsensitive thing should be that is it burns by a proper action of the fire but not of the life To which opinion I answer That my Reason cannot conceive any thing to be without life and so neither without sense for whatsoever hath self-motion has sense and life and that self-motion is in every Creature is sufficiently discoursed of in my former Letters and in my Philosophical Opinions sor self-motion sense life and reason are the grounds and principles of Nature without which no Creature could subsist I do not say That there is no difference between the life of a dead Carcass and a live one for there is a difference between the lives of every Creature but to differ in the manner of life and to have neither life nor sense at all are quite different things But your Author affirms himself that all things have a certain sense of feeling when he speaks of Sympathy and Magnetisme and yet he denies that they have life And others again do grant life to some Creatures as to Vegetables and not sense Thus they vary in their Opinions and divide sense life and motion when all is but one and the same thing for no life is without sense and motion nor no motion without sense and life nay not without Reason for the chief Architect of all Creatures is sensitive and rational Matter But the mistake is that-most men do not or will not conceive that there is a difference and variety of the corporeal sensitive and rational motions in every Creature but they imagine that if all Creatures should have life sense and reason they must of necessity have all alike the same motions without any difference and because they do not perceive the animal motions in a Stone or Tree they are apt to deny to them all life sense and motion Truly Madam I think no man will be so mad or irrational as to say a Stone is an Animal or an Animal is a Tree because a Stone and Tree have sense life and motion for every body knows that their Natural figures are different and if their Natures be different then
they cannot have the same Motions for the corporeal motions do make the nature of every particular Creature and their differences and as the corporeal motions act work or move so is the nature of every figure Wherefore no body I hope will count me so senseless that I believe sense and life to be after the like manner in every particular Creature or part of Nature as for example that a Stone or Tree has animal motions and doth see touch taste smell and hear by such sensitive organs as an Animal doth but my opinion is that all Sense is not bound up to the sensitive organs of an Animal nor Reason to the kernel of a man's brain or the orifice of the stomack or the fourth ventricle of the brain or onely to a mans body for though we do not see all Creatures move in that manner as Man or Animals do as to walk run leap ride c. and perform exterior acts by various local motions nevertheless we cannot in reason say they are void and destitute of all motion For what man knows the variety of motions in Nature Do not we see that Nature is active in every thing yea the least of her Creatures For example how some things do unanimously conspire and agree others antipathetically flee from each other and how some do increase others decrease some dissolve some consist and how all things are subject to perpetual changes and alterations and do you think all this is done without motion life sense and reason I pray you consider Madam that there are internal motions as well as external alterative as well as constitutive and several other sorts of motions not perceptible by our senses and therefore it is impossible that all Creatures should move after one sort of motions But you will say Motion may be granted but not Life Sense and Reason I answer I would fain know the reason why not for I am confident that no man can in truth affirm the contrary What is Life but sensitive Motion what is Reason but rational motion and do you think Madam that any thing can move it self without life sense and reason I for my part cannot imagine it should for it would neither know why whither nor what way or how to move But you may reply Motion may be granted but not self-motion and life sense and reason do consist in self-motion I answer this is imposible for not any thing in Nature can move naturally without natural motion and all natural motion is self-motion If you say it may be moved by another My answer is first that if a thing has no motion in it self but is moved by another which has self-motion then it must give that immovable body motion of its own or else it could not move having no motion at all for it must move by the power of motion which is certain and then it must move either by its own motion or by a communicated or imparted motion if by a communicated motion then the self-moveable thing or body must transfer its own motion into the immoveable and lose so much of its own motion as it gives away which is impossible as I have declared heretofore at large unless it do also transfer its moving parts together with it for motion cannot be transfered without substance But experience and observation witnesseth the contrary Next I say if it were possible that one body did move another then most part of natural Creatures which are counted immoveable of themselves or inanimate and destitute of self-motion must be moved by a forced or violent and not by a natural motion for all motion that proceeds from an external agent or moving power is not natural but forced onely self-motion is natural and then one thing moving another in this manner we must at last proceed to such a thing whch is not moved by another but hath motion in it self and moves all others and perhaps since man and the rest of animals have self-motion it might be said that the motions of all other inanimate Creatures as they call them doth proceed from them but man being so proud ambitious and self-conceited would soon exclude all other animals and adscribe this power onely to himself especially since he thinks himself onely endued with Reason and to have this prerogative above all the rest as to be the sole rational Creature in the World Thus you see Madam what confusion absurdity and constrained work will follow from the opinion of denying self-self-motion and so consequently life and sense to natural Creatures But I having made too long a digresion will return to your Authors discourse And as for that he says A dead Carcass burns by the proper action of the fire I answer That if the dissolving motions of the fire be too strong for the consistent motions of that body which fire works upon then fire is the cause of its alteration but if the consistent motions of the body be too strong for the dissolving motions of the fire then the fire can make no alteration in it Again he says Calx vive as long as it remains dry it gnaws not a dead Carcass but it presently gnaws live flesh and makes an escharre and a dead carcass is by lime wholly resolved into a liquor and is combibed except the bone and gristle thereof but it doth not consume live flesh into a liquor but translates it into an escharre I will say no more to this but that I have fully enough declared my opinion before that the actions or motions of life alter in that which is named a dead Carcass from what they were in that which is called a Living body but although the actions of Life alter yet life is not gone or annihilated for life is life and remains still the same but the actions or motions of life change and differ in every figure and this is the cause that the actions of Fire Time and Calx-vive have not the same effects in a dead Carcass as in a living Body for the difference of their figures and their different motions produce different effects in them and this is the cause that one and the same fire doth not burn or act upon all bodies alike for some it dissolves and some not and some it hardens and some it consumes and some later some sooner For put things of several natures into the same Fire and you will see how they will burn or how fire will act upon them after several manners so that fire cannot alter the actions of several bodies to its own blas and therefore since a living and a dead Body as they call them are not the same for the actions or motions of life by their change or alteration have altered the nature or figure of the body the effects cannot be the same for a Carcass has neither the interior nor exterior motions of that figure which it was before it was a Carcass and so the figure is quite alter'd from what it was by the
irregular and disordered motions or strengthen the weak or reduce the straying or work any other ways according to the nature and propriety of their own substance and the disposition of the distempered parts Nevertheless those cures which are performed exteriously as to heal inward affects by an outwad bare co-touching are all made by natural motions in natural substances and not by Non-being substanceless Ideas or spiritual Rays for those that will cure diseases by Non-beings will effect little or nothing for a disease is corporeal or material and so must the remedies be there being no cure made but by a conflict of the remedy with the disease and certainly if a non-being fight against a being or a corporeal disease I doubt it will do no great effect for the being will be too strong for the non-being Wherefore my constant opinion is that all cures whatsover are perfected by the power of corporeal motions working upon the affected parts either interiously or exteriously either by applying external remedies to external wounds or by curing internal distempers either by medicines taken internally or by bare external co-touchings And such a remedy I suppose has been that which your Author speaks of viz. a stone of a certain Irish-man which by a meer external contact hath cured all kinds of diseases either by touching outwardly the affected parts or by licking it but with the tip of the Tongue if the disease was Internal But if the vertue of the Stone was such as your Author describes certainly what man soever he was that possessed such a jewel I say he was rather of the nature of the Devil then of man that would not divulge it to the general benefit of all mankind and I wonder much that your Author who otherwise pretends such extraordinary Devotion Piety and Religiousness as also Charity viz. that all his works he has written are for the benefit of his neighbour and to detect the errors of the Schools meerly for the good of man doth yet plead his cause saying That secrets as they are most difficultly prepared so they ought to remain in secret forever in the possession of the Privy Councel what Privy Counsels he means I know not but certainly some are more difficult to be spoken to or any thing to be obtained from then the preparation of a Physical Arcanum However a general good or benefit ought not to be concealed or kept in privy Councels but to be divulged and publickly made known that all sorts of People of what condition degree or Nation soever might partake of the general blessing and bounty of God But Madam you may be sure that many who pretend to know Physical secrets most commonly know the least as being for the most part of the rank of them that deceive the simple with strange tales which exceed truth and to make themselves more authentical they use to rail at others and to condemn their skill onely to magnifie their own I say many Madam as I have observed are of that nature especially those that have but a superficial knowledge in the Art of Physick for those that are thorowly learned and sufficiently practised in it scorn to do the like which I wish may prosper and thrive by their skill And so I rest MADAM Your Ladiships humble Servant XLIII MADAM YOur Author is pleased to relate a story of one that died suddenly and being disfected there was not the least sign of decay or disorder found in his body But I cannot add to those that wonder when no sign of distemper is found in a man's body after he is dead because I do not believe that the subtillest learnedst and most practised Anatomist can exactly tell all the Interior Government or motions or can find out all obscure and invisible passages in a man's body for concerning the motions they are all altered in death or rather in the dissolution of the animal figure and although the exterior animal figure or shape doth not alter so soon yet the animal motions may alter in a moment of time which sudden alteration may cause a sudden death and so the motions being invisible the cause of death cannot be perceived for no body can find that which is not to be found to wit animal motions in a dead man for Nature hath altered these motions from being animal motions to some other kind of motions she being as various in dissolutions as in productions indeed so various that her ways cannot be traced or known thorowly and perfecty but onely by piece-meals as the saying is that is but partly Wherefore man can onely know that which is visible or subject to his senses and yet our senses do not always inform us truly but the alterations of grosser parts are more easily known then the alterations of subtil corporeal motions either in general or in particular neither are the invisible passages to be known in a dead Carcass much less in a living body But I pray mistake me not when I say that the animal motions are not subject to our exterior senses for I do not mean all exterior animal motions nor all interior animal motions for though you do see no interior motion in an animal body yet you may feel some as the motion of the Heart the motion of the Pulse the motion of the Lungs and the like but the most part of the interior animal motions are not subject to our exterior senses nay no man he may be as observing as he will can possibly know by his exterior senses all the several and various interior motions in his own body nor all the exterior motions of his exterior parts and thus it remains still that neither the subtillest motions and parts of matter nor the obscure passages in several Creatures can be known but by several parts for what one part is ignorant of another part is knowing and what one part is knowing another part is ignorant thereof so that unless all the Parts of Infinite Matter were joyned into one Creature there can never be in one particular Creature a perfect knowledg of all things in Nature Wherefore I shall never aspire to any such knowledg but be content with that little particular knowledg Nature has been pleased to give me the chief of which is that I know my self and especially that I am MADAM Your constant Friend and faithful Servant XLIV MADAM I Perceive you are desirous to know the cause Why a man is more weak at the latter end of a disease then at the beginning and is a longer time recovering health then loosing health as also the reason of relapses and intermissions First as for weakness and strength my opinion is they are caused by the regular and irregular motions in several parts each striving to over-power the other in their conflict and when a man recovers from a disease although the regular motions have conquered the irregular and subdued them to their obedience yet they are not so quite obedient as they
for all parts belong to one body which is Nature nay if any thing could subsist of it self it were a God and not a Creature Wherefore not any Creature can challenge a soul absolutely to himself unless Man who hath a divine soul which no other Creature hath But that which makes so many confusions and disputes amongst learned men is that they conceive first there is no rational soul but onely in man next that this rational soul in every man is individable But if the rational soul is material as certainly to all sense and reason it is then it must not onely be in all material Creatures but be dividable too for all that is material or corporeal hath parts and is dividable and therefore there is no such thing in any one Creature as one intire soul nay we might as well say there is but one Creature in Nature as say there is but one individable natural soul in one Creature Your Tenth question is Whether Souls are producible or can be produced I answer in my opinion they are producible by reason all parts in Nature are so But mistake me not for I do not mean that any one part is produced out of Nothing or out of new matter but one Creature is produced by another by the dividing and uniting joyning and disjoyning of the several parts of Matter and not by substanceless Motion out of new Matter And because there is not any thing in Nature that has an absolute subsistence of it self each Creature is a producer as well as a produced in some kind or other for no part of Nature can subsist single and without reference and assistance of each other or else every single part would not onely be a whole of it self but be as a God without controle and though one part is not another part yet one part belongs to another part and all parts to one whole and that whole to all the parts which whole is one corporeal Nature And thus as I said before productions of one or more creatures by one or more producers without matter meerly by immaterial motions are impossible to wit that something should be made or produced out of nothing for if this were so there would consequently be an annihilation or turning into nothing and those Creatures which produce others by the way of immaterial motions would rather be as a God then a part of Nature or Natural Matter Besides it would be an endless labour and more trouble to create particular Creatures out of nothing then a World at once whereas now it is easie for Nature to create by production and transmigration and therefore it is not probable that any one Creature hath a particular life soul or body to it self as subsisting by it self and as it were precised from the rest having its own subsistence without the assistance of any other nor is it probable that any one Creature is new for all that is was and shall be till the Omnipotent God disposes Nature otherwise As for the rest of your questions as whether the Sun be the cause of all motions and of all natural productions and whether the life of a Creature be onely in the blood or whether it have its beginning from the blood or whether the blood be the chief architect of an animal or be the seat of the soul sense and reason in my opinion doth plainly contradict them for concerning the blood if it were the seat of the Soul then in the circulation of the blood if the Soul hath a brain it would become very dizzie by its turning round but perchance some may think the Soul to be a Sun and the Blood the Zodiack and the body the Globe of the Earth which the Soul surrounds in such time as the Blood is flowing about And so leaving those similizing Fancies I 'le add no more but repeat what I said in the beginning viz. that I rely upon the goodness of your Nature from which I hope for pardon if I have not so exactly and solidly answered your desire for the argument of this discourse being so difficult may easily lead me into an error which your better judgment will soon correct and in so doing you will add to those favours for which I am already MADAM Your Ladiships most obliged Friend and humble Servant III. MADAM You thought verily I had mistaken my self in my last concerning the Rational Souls of every particular Creature because I said all Creatures had numerous Souls and not onely so but every particular Creature had numerous Souls Truly Madam I did not mistake my self for I am of the same opinion still for though there is but one Soul in infinite Nature yet that soul being dividable into parts every part is a soul in every single creature were the parts no bigger in quantity then an atome But you ask whether Nature hath Infinite souls I answer That Infinite Nature is but one Infinite body divided into Infinite parts which we call Creatures and therefore it may as well be said That Nature is composed of Infinite Creatures or Parts as she is divided into Infinite Creatures or Parts for Nature being Material is dividable and composable The same may be said of Nature's Soul which is the Rational part of the onely infinite Matter as also of Nature's Life which is the sensitive part of the onely Infinite self-moving Matter and of the Inanimate part of the onely Infinite Matter which I call the body for distinction sake as having no self-motion in its own nature for Infinite Material Nature hath an Infinite Material Soul Life and Body But Madam I desire you to observe what I said already viz. that the parts of Nature are as apt to divide as to unite for the chief actions of Nature are to divide and to unite which division is the cause that it may well be said every particular Creature hath numerous souls for every part of rational Matter is a particular Soul and every part of the sensitive Matter is a particular Life all which mixed with the Inanimate Matter though they be Infinite in parts yet they make but one Infinite whole which is Infinite Nature and thus the Infinite division into Infinite parts is the cause that every particular Creature hath numerous Souls and the transmigration of parts from and to parts is the reason that not any Creature can challenge a single soul or souls to it self the same for life But most men are unwilling to believe that Rational Souls are material and that this rational Matter is dividable in Nature when as humane sense and reason may well perceive that Nature is active and full of variety and action and variety cannot be without motion division and composition but the reason that variety division and composition runs not into confusion is that first there is but one kind of Matter next that the division and composition of parts doth ballance each other into a union in the whole But to conclude those
in it self for Nature and her creatures know of no rest but are in a perpetual motion though not always exterior and local yet they have their proper and certain motions which are not so easily perceived by our grosser senses nevertheless the motion of the bowl would not move by such an exterior local motion did not the motion of the hand or any other exterior moving body give it occasion to move that way Wherefore the motion of the hand may very well be said to be the cause of that exterior local motion of the bowl but not to be the same motion by which the bowl moves Neither is it requisite that the hand should quit its own motion because it uses it in stirring up or putting on the motion of the bowl for it is one thing to use and another to quit as for example it is one thing to offer his life for his friends service another to imploy it and another to quit or lose it But Madam there may be infinite questions or exceptions and infinite answers made upon one truth but the wisest and most probable way is to rely upon sense and reason and not to trouble the mind thoughts and actions of life with improbabilities or rather impossibilities which sense and reason knows not of nor cannot conceive You may say A Man hath sometimes improbable or impossible Fancies Imaginations or Chymaera's in his mind which are No-things I answer That those Fancies and Imaginations are not No-things but as perfectly imbodied as any other Creatures but by reason they are not so grosly imbodied as those creatures that are composed of more sensitive and inanimate matter man thinks or believes them to be no bodies but were they substanceless figures he could not have them in his mind or thoughts The truth is the purity of reason is not so perspicuous and plain to sense as sense is to reason the sensitive matter being a grosser substance then the rational And thus Madam I have answered your proposed question according to the ability of my Reason which I leave to your better examination and rest in the mean while MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant VII MADAM HAving made some mention in my former Letter of the Receiving of Food and discharging of Excrements as also of Respiration which consists in the sucking in of air and sending out of breath in an animal body you desire to know Whether Respiration be common to all animal Creatures Truly I have not the experience as to tell you really whether all animals respire or not for my life being for the most part solitary and contemplative but not active I please my self more with the motions of my thoughts then of my senses and therefore I shall give you an answer according to the conceivement of my reason onely which is That I believe all animals require Respiration not onely those which live in the air but those also which live in waters and within the earth but they do not respire all after one and the same manner for the matter which they imbreath is not every where the same nor have they all the same organs or parts nor the same motions As for example Some Creatures require a more thin and rarer substance for their imbreathing or inspiring then others and some a more thick and grosser substance then others according to their several Natures for as there are several kinds of Creatures according to their several habitations or places they live in so they have each a distinct and several sort of matter or substance for their inspiraration As for example Some live in the Air some upon the face of the Earth some in the bowels of the Earth and some in Waters There is some report of a Salamander who lives in the Fire but it being not certainly known deserves not our speculation And as in my opinion all animal Creatures require Respiration so I do verily believe that also all other kinds of Creatures besides animals have some certain manmer of imbreathing and transpiring viz. Vegetables Minerals and Elements although not after the same way as Animals yet in a way peculiar and proper to the nature of their own kind For example Take away the earth from Vegetables and they will die as being in my opinion stifled or smothered in the same manner as when the Air is taken away from some Animals Also take Minerals out of the bowels of the Earth and though we cannot say they die or are dead because we have not as yet found out the alterative motions of Minerals as well as of Vegetables or Animals yet we know that they are dead from production and increase for not any Metal increases being out of the Earth And as for Elements it is manifest that Fire will die for want of vent but the rest of the Elements if we could come to know the matter manner and ways of their Vital Breathing we might kill or revive them as we do Fire And therefore all Creatures to my Reason require a certain matter and manner of inspiration and expiration which is nothing else but an adjoyning and disjoyning of parts to and from parts for not any natural part or creature can subsist single and by it self but requires assistance from others as this and the rest of my opinions in Natural Philosophy desire the assistance of your favour or else they will die to the grief of MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant VIII MADAM TH other day I met with the Work of that Learned Author Dr. Ch. which treats of Natural Philosophy and amongst the rest in the Chapter of Place I found that he blames Aristotle for saying there are none but corporeal dimensions Length Breadth and Depth in Nature making besides these corporeal other incorporeal dimensions which he attributes to Vacuum Truly Madam an incorporeal dimension or extension seems in my opinion a meer contradiction for I cannot conceive how nothing can have a dimension or extension having nothing to be extended or measured His words are these Imagine we therefore that God should please to annihilate the whole stock or mass of Elements and all concretions resulting therefrom that is all corporeal substances now contained within the ambit or concave of the lowest Heaven or Lunar sphear and having thus imagined can we conceive that all the vast space or region circumscribed by the concave superfice of the Lunar sphere would not remain the same in all its dimensions after as before the reduction of all bodies included therein to nothing To which I answer That in my opinion he makes Nature Supernatural for although God's Power may make Vacuum yet Nature cannot for God's and Nature's Power are not to be compared neither is God's invisible Power perceptible by Natures parts but according to Natural Perception it is impossible to conceive a Vacuum for we cannot immagine a Vacuum but we must think of a body as your Author of the Circle of the Moon neither could he think of
There was and There shall be but onely There is Neither can it properly be said from this to that place but onely in reference to the several moving parts of the onely Infinite Matter And thus much to your Questions I add no more but rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and humble Servant XXX MADAM IN your last you were pleased to express that some men who think themselves wise did laugh in a scornful manner at my opinion when I say that every Creature hath life and knowledg sense and reason counting it not onely ridiculous but absurd and asking whether you did or could believe a piece of wood metal or stone had as much sense as a beast or as much reason as a man having neither brain blood heart nor flesh nor such organs passages parts nor shapes as animals To which I answer That it is not any of these mentioned things that makes life and knowledg but life and knowledg is the cause of them which life and knowledg is animate matter and is in all parts of all Creatures and to make it more plain and perspicuous humane sense and reason may perceive that wood stone or metal acts as wisely as an animal As for example Rhubarb or the like drugs will act very wisely in Purging and Antimony or the like will act very wisely in Vomiting and Opium will act very wisely in Sleeping also Quicksilver or Mercury will act very wisely as those that have the French disease can best witness likewise the Loadstone acts very wisely as Mariners or Navigators will tell you Also Wine made of Fruit and Ale of Malt and distilled Aqua-vitae will act very subtilly ask the Drunkards and they can inform you Thus Infinite examples may be given and yet man says all Vegetables and Minerals are insensible and irrational as also the Planets and Elements when as yet the Planets move very orderly and wisely and the Elements are more active nay more subtil and searching then any of the animal Creatures witness Fire Air and Water As for the Earth she brings forth her fruit if the other Elements do not cause abortives in due season and yet man believes Vegetables Minerals and Elements are dead dull senseless and irrational Creatures because they have not such shapes parts nor passages as Animals nor such exterior and local motions as Animals have but Man doth not consider the various intricate and obscure ways of Nature unknown to any particular Creature for what our senses are not capable to know our reason is apt to deny Truly in my opinion Man is more irrational then any of those Creatures when he believes that all knowledg is not onely confined to one sort of Creatures but to one part of one particular Creature as the head or brain of man for who can in reason think that there is no other sensitive and rational knowledg in Infinite Matter but what is onely in Man or animal Creatures It is a very simple and weak conclusion to say Other Creatures have no eyes to see no ears to hear no tongues to taste no noses to smell as animals have wherefore they have no sense or sensitive knowledg or because they have no head nor brain as Man hath therefore they have no reason nor rational knowledg at all for sense and reason and consequently sensitive and rational knowledg extends further then to be bound to the animal eye ear nose tongue head or brain but as these organs are onely in one kind of Natures Creatures as Animals in which organs the sensitive corporeal motions make the perception of exterior objects so there may be infinite other kinds of passages or organs in other Creatures unknown to Man which Creatures may have their sense and reason that is sensitive and rational knowledg each according to the nature of its figure for as it is absurd to say that all Creatures in Nature are Animals so it is absurd to confine sense and reason onely to Animals or to say that all other Creatures if they have sense and reason life and knowledg it must be the same as is in Animals I confess it is of the same degree that is of the same animate part of matter but the motions of life and knowledg work so differently and variously in every kind and sort nay in every particular Creature that no single Creature can find them out But in my opinion not any Creature is without life and knowledg which life and knowledg is made by the self-moving part of matter that is by the sensitive and rational corporeal motions and as it is no consequence that all Creatures must be alike in their exterior shapes figures and motions because they are all produced out of one and the same matter so neither doth it follow that all Creatures must have the same interior motions natures and proprieties and so consequently the same life and knowledg because all life and knowledg is made by the same degree of matter to wit the animate Wherefore though every kind or sort of Creatures has different perceptions yet they are not less knowing for Vegetables Minerals and Elements may have as numerous and as various perceptions as Animals and they may be as different from animal perceptions as their kinds are but a different perception is not therefore no perception Neither is it the animal organs that make perception nor the animal shape that makes life but the motions of life make them But some may say it is Irreligious to believe any Creature has rational knowledg but Man Surely Madam the God of Nature in my opinion will be adored by all Creatures and adoration cannot be without sense and knowledg Wherefore it is not probable that onely Man and no Creature else is capable to adore and worship the Infinite and Omnipotent God who is the God of Nature and of all Creatures I should rather think it irreligious to confine sense and reason onely to Man and to say that no Creature adores and worships God but Man which in my judgment argues a great pride self-conceit and presumption And thus Madam having declared my opinion plainly concerning this subject I will detain you no longer at this present but rest MADAM Your constant Friend and faithful Servant XXXI MADAM I Perceive you do not well apprehend my meaning when I say in my Philosophical Opinions That the Infinite degrees of Infinite Matter are all Infinite For say you the degrees of Matter cannot be Infinite by reason there cannot be two Infinites but one would obstruct the other My answer is I do not mean that the degrees of Matter are Infinite each in its self that is that the animate and inanimate are several Infinite matters but my opinion is that the animate degree of matter is in a perpetual motion and the inanimate doth not move of it self and that those degrees are infinite in their effects as producing and making infinite figures for since the cause which is the onely matter is infinite the
effects must of necessity be infinite also the cause is infinite in its substance the effects are Infinite in number And this is my meaning when I say that although in Nature there is but one kind of matter yet there are Infinite degrees Infinite motions and Infinite parts in that onely matter and though Infinite and Eternal matter has no perfect or exact figure by reason it is Infinite and therefore unlimited yet there being infinite parts in number made by the infinite variations of motions in infinite Matter these parts have perfect or exact figures considered as parts that is single or each in its particular figure And therefore if there be Infinite degrees considering the effects of the animate and inanimate matter infinite motions for changes infinite parts for number infinite compositions and divisions for variety and diversity of Creatures then there may also be infinite sizes each part or figure differing more or less infinite smalness and bigness lightness and heaviness rarity and density strength and power life and knowledg and the like But by reason Nature or Natural matter is not all animate or inanimate nor all composing or dividing there can be no Infinite in a part nor can there be something biggest or smallest strongest or weakest heaviest or lightest softest or hardest in Infinite Nature or her parts but all those several Infinites are as it were included in one Infinite which is Corporeal Nature or Natural Matter Next you desire my opinion of Vacuum whether there be any or not for you say I determine nothing of it in my Book of Philosophical Opinions Truly Madam my sense and reason cannot believe a Vacuum because there cannot be an empty Nothing but change of motion makes all the alteration of figures and consequently all that which is called place magnitude space and the like for matter motion figure place magnitude c. are but one thing But some men perceiving the alteration but not the subtil motions believe that bodies move into each others place which is impossible because several places are onely several parts so that unless one part could make it self another part no part can be said to succeed into anothers place but it is impossible that one part should make it self another part for it cannot be another and it self no more then Nature can be Nature and not Nature wherefore change of place is onely change of motion and this change of motion makes alteration of Figures Thirdly you say You cannot understand what I mean by Creation for you think that Creation is a production or making of Something out of Nothing To tell you really Madam this word is used by me for want of a better expression and I do not take it in so strict a sense as to understand by it a Divine or supernatural Creation which onely belongs to God but a natural Creation that is a natural production or Generation for Nature cannot create or produce Something out of Nothing And this Production may be taken in a double sence First in General as for example when it is said that all Creatures are produced out of Infinite Matter and in this respect every particular Creature which is finite that is of a circumscribed and limited figure is produced of Infinite Matter as being a part thereof Next Production is taken in a more strict sense to wit when one single Creature is produced from another and this is either Generation properly so called as when in every kind and sort each particular produces its like or it is such a Generation whereby one creature produces another each being of a different kind or species as for example when an Animal produces a Mineral as when a Stone is generated in the Kidneys or the like and in this sence one finite creature generates or produces another finite creature the producer as well as the produced being finite but in the first sence finite creatures are produced out of infinite matter Fourthly you confess You cannot well apprehend my meaning when I say that the several kinds are as Infinite as the particulars for your opinion is That the number of particulars must needs exceed the number of kinds I answer I mean in general the Infinite effects of Nature which are Infinite in number and the several kinds or sorts of Creatures are Infinite in duration for nothing can perish in Nature Fifthly When I say that ascending and descending is often caused by the exterior figure or shape of a body witness a Bird who although he is of a much bigger size and bulk then a Worm yet can by his shape lift himself up more agilly and nimbly then a Worm Your opinion is That his exterior shape doth not contribute any thing towards his flying by reason a Bird being dead retains the same shape but yet cannot fly at all But truly Madam I would not have you think that I do exclude the proper and interior natural motion of the figure of a Bird and the natural and proper motions of every part and particle thereof for that a Bird when dead keeps his shape and yet cannot fly the reason is that the natural and internal motions of the Bird and the Birds wings are altered towards some other shape or figure if not exteriously yet interiously but yet the interior natural motions could not effect any flying or ascending without the help of the exterior shape for a Man or any other animal may have the same interior motions as a Bird hath but wanting such an exterior shape he cannot fly whereas had he wings like a Bird and the interior natural motions of those wings he might without doubt fly as well as a Bird doth Sixthly Concerning the descent of heavy bodies that it is more forcible then the ascent of light bodies you do question the Truth of this my opinion Certainly Madam I cannot conceive it to be otherwise by my sense and reason for though Fire that is rare doth ascend with an extraordinary quick motion yet this motion is in my opinion not so strong and piercing as when grosser parts of Creatures do descend but there is difference in strength and quickness for had not Water a stronger motion and another sort of figure then Fire it could not suppress Fire much less quench it But Smoak which is heavier then Flame flies up or rises before or rather above it Wherefore I am still of the same opinion that heavy bodies descend more forcibly then light bodies do ascend and it seems most rational to me Lastly I perceive you cannot believe that all bodies have weight by reason if this were so the Sun and the Stars would have long since cover'd the Earth In answer to this objection I say That as there can be no body without figure and magnitude so consequently not without weight were it no bigger then an atome and as for the Sun 's and the Stars not falling down or rising higher the reason is not their
the same motions and parts of matter did return into the producers again which is impossible but I understand the like creature to wit that one and the same sort of particular motions would make all particular figures resemble so as if they were one and the same creature without any difference When I say Sensitive and Rational knowledg lives in sensitive and rational Matter and Animate liveth in Inanimate matter I mean they are all several parts and actions of the onely infinite matter inseparable from each other for wheresoever is matter there is also self-motion and wheresoever is self-motion there is sense and reason and wheresoever is sense and reason there is sensitive and rational knowledge all being but one body or substance which is Nature When I say The death of particular Creatures causes an obscurity of Knowledge and that particular Knowledges increase and decrease and may be more or less I mean onely that parts divide themselves from parts and joyn to other parts for every several Motion is a several Knowledge and as motion varies so doth knowledge but there is no annihilation of any motion and consequently not of knowledge in Nature And as for more or less knowledge I mean more or less alteration and variety of corporeal figurative motions not onely rational but sensitive so that that creature which has most variety of those perceptive motions is most knowing provided they be regular that is according to the nature and propriety of the figure whether animal vegetable mineral or elemental for though a large figure is capable of most knowledge yet it is not commonly or alwayes so wise or witty as a less by reason it is more subject to disorders and irregularities like as a private Family is more regular and better ordered then a great State or Common-wealth Also when I say That some particular Knowledge lasts longer then some other I mean that some corporeal motions in some parts do continue longer then in others When I say A little head may be full and a great head may be empty of rational matter I mean there may be as it were an ebbing or flowing that is more or less of Rational Matter joyned with the Sensitive and Inanimate And when I say That if all the heads of Mankind were put into one and sufficient quantity of Rational Matter therein that Creature would not onely have the knowledge of every particular but that Understanding and Knowledge would increase like Use-money my meaning is that if there were much of those parts of rational matter joyned they would make more variety by selfchange of corporeal motions When I name Humane sense and reason I mean such sensitive and rational perception and knowledge as is proper to the nature of Man and when I say Animal sense and reason I mean such as is proper to the nature of all Animals for I do not mean that the sensitive and rational corporeal motions which do make a man or any Animal are bound to such figures eternally but whilest they work and move in such or such figures they make such perceptions as belong to the nature of those figures but when those self-moving parts dissolve the figure of an Animal into a Vegetable or any other Creature then they work according to the nature of that same figure both exteriously and interiously When I say That Place Space Measure Number Weight Figures c. are mixed with Substance I do not mean they are incorporeal and do inhere in substance as so many incorporeal modes or accidents but my meaning is they are all corporeal parts and actions of Nature there being no such thing in Nature that may be called incorporeal for Place Figure Weight Measure c. are nothing without Body but Place and Body are but one thing and so of the rest Also when I say That sometimes Place sometimes Time and sometimes Number gives advantage I mean that several parts of Matter are getting or losing advantage When I say an Animal or any thing else that has exterior local motion goeth or moveth to such or such a place I mean to such or such a body and when such a Creature doth not move out of its place I mean it doth not remove its body from such or such parts adjoyning to it When I say The rational animate matter divides it self into as many parts and after as many several manners as their place or quantity will give way to I mean their own place and quantity also as other parts will give way to those parts for some parts will assist others and some do obstruct others When I say That the Nature of extension or dilation strives or endeavours to get space ground or compass I mean those corporeal motions endeavour to make place and space by their extensions that is to spread their parts of matter into a larger compass or body And when I say That Contractions endeavour to cast or thrust out space place ground or compass My meaning is That those corporeal motions endeavour to draw their parts of matter into a more close and solid body for there is no place nor space without body Also when I name several tempered substances and matters I mean several changes and mixtures of corporeal motions Also when I speak of Increase and Decrease I mean onely an alteration of corporeal figurative motions as uniting parts with parts and dissolving or separating parts from parts When I say That the motions of cold and the motions of moisture when they meet make cold and moist effects and when the motions of heat and moisture meet make hot and moist effects and so for the motions of cold and dryness I mean that when several parts do joyn in such several corporeal motions they cause such effects and when I say cold and heat presses into every particular Creature I mean that every Creatures natural and inherent perceptive motions make such patterns as their exterior objects are viz. hot or cold if they do but move regularly for if they be irregular then they do not as for example those in an Ague will shake for cold in a hot Summers day and those that are in a Fever will burn with heat although they were at the Poles When I say that hot motions and burning motions and hot figures and burning figures do not associate or joyn together in all Creatures I mean that the corporeal motions in some figures or creatures do act in a hot but not in a burning manner and when I say some creatures have both hot and burning motions and figures I mean the corporeal motions act both in a hot and burning manner for though heat is in a degree to burning yet it is not always burning for burning is the highest degree of heat as wetness is the highest degree of moisture When I say Warmth feeds other Creatures after a spiritual manner not a corporeal My meaning is not as if
I did before but it is not so much as to make me a Scholar nor yet so little but that had I read more before I did begin to write my other Book called Philosophical Opinions they would have been more intelligible for my error was I began to write so early that I had not liv'd so long as to be able to read many Authors I cannot say I divulged my opinions as soon as I had conceiv'd them but yet I divulged them too soon to have them artificial and methodical But since what is past cannot be recalled I must desire you to excuse those faults which were committed for want of experience and learning As for School-learning had I applied my self to it yet I am confident I should never have arrived to any for I am so uncapable of Learning that I could never attain to the knowledge of any other Language but my native especially by the Rules of Art wherefore I do not repent that I spent not my time in Learning for I consider it is better to write wittily then learnedly nevertheless I love and esteem Learning although I am not capable of it But you may say I have expressed neither Wit nor Learning in my Writings Truly if not I am the more sorry for it but self-conceit which is natural to mankind especially to our Sex did flatter and secretly perswade me that my Writings had Sense and Reason Wit and Variety but Judgment being not called to Counsel I yielded to Self-conceits flattery and so put out my Writings to be Printed as fast as I could without being reviewed or corrected Neither did I fear any censure for Self-conceit had perswaded me I should be highly applauded wherefore I made such haste that I had three or four Books printed presently after each other But to return to this present Work I must desire you worthy Readers to read first my Book called Philosophical and Physical Opinions before you censure this for this Book is but an explanation of the former wherein is contained the Ground of my Opinions and those that will judge well of a Building must first consider the Foundation to which purpose I will repeat some few Heads and Principles of my Opinions which are these following First That Nature is Infinite and the Eternal Servant of God Next That she is Corporeal and partly self-moving dividable and composable that all and every particular Creature as also all perception and variety in Nature is made by corporeal self-motion which I name sensitive and rational matter which is life and knowledg sense and reason Again That these sensitive and rational parts of matter are the purest and subtilest parts of Nature as the active parts the knowing understanding and prudent parts the designing architectonical and working parts nay the Life and Soul of Nature and that there is not any Creature or part of nature without this Life and Soul and that not onely Animals but also Vegetables Minerals and Elements and what more is in Nature are endued with this Life and Soul Sense and Reason and because this Life and Soul is a corporeal Substance it is both dividable and composable for it divides and removes parts from parts as also composes and joyns parts to parts and works in a perpetual motion without rest by which actions not any Creature can challenge a particular Life and Soul to it self but every Creature may have by the dividing and composing nature of this self-moving matter more or fewer natural souls and lives These and the like actions of corporeal Nature or natural Matter you may find more at large described in my afore-mentioned Book of Philosophical Opinions and more clearly repeated and explained in this present T is true the way of arguing I use is common but the Principles Heads and Grounds of my Opinions are my own not borrowed or stolen in the least from any and the first time I divulged them was in the year 1653. since which time I have reviewed reformed and reprinted them twice for at first as my Conceptions were new and my own so my Judgment was young and my Experience little so that I had not so much knowledge as to declare them artificially and methodically for as I mentioned before I was always unapt to learn by the Rules of Art But although they may be defective for want of Terms of Art and artificial expressions yet I am sure they are not defective for want of Sense and Reason And if any one can bring more Sense and Reason to disprove these my opinions I shall not repine or grieve but either acknowledge my errour if I find my self in any or defend them as rationally as I can if it be but done justly and honestly without deceit spight or malice for I connot chuse but acquaint you Noble Readers I have been informed that if I should be answered in my Writings it would be done rather under the name and cover of a Woman then of a Man the reason is because no man dare or will set his name to the contradiction of a Lady and to confirm you the better herein there has one Chapter of my Book called The Worlds Olio treating of a Monastical Life been answer'd already in a little Pamphlet under the name of a woman although she did little towards it wherefore it being a Hermaphroditical Book I judged it not worthy taking notice of The like shall I do to any other that will answer this present work of mine or contradict my opinions indirectly with fraud and deceit But I cannot conceive why it should be a disgrace to any man to maintain his own or others opinions against a woman so it be done with respect and civility but to become a cheat by dissembling and quit the Breeches for a Petticoat meerly out of spight and malice is base and not fit for the honour of a man or the masculine sex Besides it will easily be known for a Philosopher or Philosopheress is not produced on a sudden Wherefore although I do not care nor fear contradiction yet I desire it may be done without fraud or deceit spight and malice and then I shall be ready to defend my opinions the best I can whilest I live and after I am dead I hope those that are just and honorable will also defend me from all sophistry malice spight and envy for which Heaven will bless them In the mean time Worthy Readers I should rejoyce to see that my Works are acceptable to you for if you be not partial you will easily pardon those faults you find when you do consider both my sex and breeding for which favour and justice I shall always remain Your most obliged Servant M. N. Philosophical Letters SECT 1. 1. MADAM YOu have been pleased to send me the Works of four Famous and Learned Authors to wit of two most Famous Philosophers of our Age Des Gartes and Hobbs and of that Learned Philosopher and Divine Dr. More as also of that
Motions though they proceed from sensitive matter yet are they so different from the free and Prime Natural Motions that they seem as it were quite of another nature And this distinction neglected is the Cause that many make Appetites and Passions Perceptions and Objects and the like as one without any or but little difference But having discoursed of the difference of these Motions in my former Letter I will not be tedious to you with repeating it again but remain MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant VII MADAM YOur Authours opinion concerning Dreams seemeth to me in some part very rational and probable in some part not For when he sayes that Dreams are onely Imaginations of them that sleep which imaginations have been before either totally or by parcels in the Sense and that the organs of Sense as the Brain and the Nerves being benumb'd in sleep as not easily to be moved by external objects those Imaginations proceed onely from the agitation of the inward parts of mans body which for the connexion they have with the Brain and other organs when they be distemper'd do keep the same in motion whereby the Imaginations there formerly made appear as if a man were waking This seems to my Reason not very probable For first Dreams are not absolutely Imaginations except we do call all Motions and Actions of the Sensitive and Rational Matter Imaginations Neither is it necessary that all Imaginations must have been before either totally or by parcels in the Sense neither is there any benumbing of the organs of Sense in sleep But Dreams according to my opinion are made by the Sensitive and Rational Corporeal Motions by figuring several objects as awake onely the difference is that the Sensitive motions in Dreams work by rote and on the inside of the Sensitive organs when as awake they work according to the patterns of outward objects and exteriously or on the outside of the sensitive Organs so that sleep or dreams are nothing else but an alteration of motions from moving exteriously to move interiously and from working after a Pattern to work by rote I do not say that the body is without all exterior motions when asleep as breathing and beating of the Pulse although these motions are rather interior then exterior but that onely the sensitive organs are outwardly shut so as not to receive the patterns of outward Objects nevertheless the sensitive Motions do not cease from moving inwardly or on the inside of the sensitive Organs But the rational matter doth often as awake so asleep or in dreams make such figures as the sensitive did never make either from outward objects or of its own accord for the sensitive hath sometimes liberty to work without Objects but the Rational much more which is not bound either to the patterns of Exterior objects or of the sensitive voluntary Figures Wherefore it is not divers distempers as your Authour sayes that cause different Dreams or Cold or Heat neither are Dreams the reverse of our waking Imaginations nor all the Figures in Dreams are not made with their heels up and their heads downwards though some are but this error or irregularity proceeds from want of exterior Objects or Patterns and by reason the sensitive Motions work by rote neither are the Motions reverse because they work inwardly asleep and outwardly awake for Mad-men awake see several Figures without Objects In short sleeping and waking is somewhat after that manner when men are called either out of their doors or stay within their houses or like a Ship where the Mariners work all under hatches whereof you will find more in my Philosophical Opinions and so taking my leave I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant VIII MADAM YOur Author going on in his discourse of Imagination says That as we have no Imagination whereof we have not formerly had sense in whole or in parts so we have not Transition from one Imagination to another whereof we never had the like before in our senses To which my answer is in short that the Rational part of Matter in one composed figure as in Man or the like Creature may make such figures as the senses did never make in that composed Figure or Creature And though your Authour reproves those that say Imaginations rise of themselves yet if the self-moving part of Matter which I call Rational makes Imaginations they must needs rise of themselves for the Rational part of matter being free and self-moving depends upon nothing neither Sense nor Object I mean so as not to be able to work without them Next when your Author defining Vnderstanding says that it is nothing else but an Imagination raised by words or other voluntary signs My Answer is that Understanding and so Words and Signs are made by self-moving Matter that is Sense and Reason and not Sense and Reason by Words and Signs wherefore Thoughts are not like Water upon a plain Table which is drawn and guided by the finger this or that way for every Part of self-moving matter is not alwayes forced perswaded or directed for if all the Parts of Sense and Reason were ruled by force or perswasion not any wounded Creature would fail to be healed or any disease to be cured by outward Applications for outward Applications to Wounds and Diseases might have more force then any Object to the Eye But though there is great affinity and sympathy between parts yet there is also great difference and antipathy betwixt them which is the cause that many objects cannot with all their endeavours work such effects upon the Interiour parts although they are closely press'd for Impressions of objects do not always affect those parts they press Wherefore I am not of your Author's opinion that all Parts of Matter press one another It is true Madam there cannot be any part single but yet this doth not prove that parts must needs press each other And as for his Train of Thoughts I must confess that Thoughts for the most part are made orderly but yet they do not follow each other like Geese for surely man has sometimes very different thoughts as for Example a man sometime is very sad for the death of his Friend and thinks of his own death and immediately thinks of a wanton Mistress which later thought surely the thought of Death did not draw in wherefore though some thought may be the Ring-leader of others yet many are made without leaders Again your Author in his description of the Mind sayes that the discourse of the mind when it it is govern'd by design is nothing but seeking or the Faculty of Invention a hunting out of the Causes of some Effects present or past or of the Effects of some present or past Cause Sometimes a man seeks what he has lost and from that Place and Time wherein he misses it his mind runs back from place to place and time to time to find where and when he had it that
but a dense or rare heavie or light matter is but one substance or body And thus having obeyed your commands I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XLIV MADAM IAm very ready to give you my opinion of those two questions you sent me whereof the first was Whether that which is rare and subtil be not withal pure To which I answer That all rare bodies are not subtil nor pure and that all which is dense is not gross and dull As for example Puddle-water or also clear water is rarer then Quicksilver and yet not so subtil and pure as Quicksilver the like of Gold for Quicksilver and Gold may be rarified to a transparentness and yet be so dense as not to be easily dissolved and Quicksilver is very subtil and searching so as to be able to force other bodies to divide as well as it can divide and compose its own parts Wherefore my opinion is that the purest and subtilest degree of matter in nature is that degree of matter which can dilate and contract compose and divide into any figure by corporeal self-motion Your second question was Why a man's hand cannot break a little hard body as a little nail whereas yet it is bigger then the nail I answer It is not because the hand is softer then the nail for one hard body will not break suddenly another hard body and a man may easily break an iron nail with his hand as I have bin informed but it is some kind of motion which can easier do it then another for I have seen a strong cord wound about both a man's hands who pulled his hands as hard and strongly asunder as he could and yet was not able to break it when as a Youth taking the same cord and winding it about his hands as the former did immediately broke it the cause was that he did it with another kind of motion or pulling then the other did which though he used as much force and strength as he was able yet could not break it when the boy did break it with the greatest ease and turning onely his hands a little which shews that many things may be done by a slight of motion which otherwise a great strength and force cannot do This is my answer and opinion concerning your proposed questions if you have any more I shall be ready to obey you as MADAM Your faithful Friend and humble Servant XLV MADAM I understand by your last that you are very desirous to know Whether there be not in nature such animal creatures both for purity and size as we are not capable to perceive by our sight Truly Madam in my opinion it is very probable there may be animal creatures of such rare bodies as are not subject to our exterior senses as well as there are elements which are not subject to all our exterior senses as for example fire is onely subject to our sight and feeling and not to any other sense water is subject to our sight taste touch and hearing but not to smelling and earth is subject to our sight taste touch and smelling but not to our hearing and vapour is onely subject to our sight and wind onely to our hearing but pure air is not subject to any of our senses but onely known by its effects and so there may likewise be animal creatures which are not subject to any of our senses both for their purity and life as for example I have seen pumpt out of a water pump small worms which could hardly be discerned but by a bright Sun-light for they were smaller then the smallest hair some of a pure scarlet colour and some white but though they were the smallest creatures that ever I did see yet they were more agil and fuller of life then many a creature of a bigger size and so small they were as I am confident they were neither subject to tast smell touch nor hearing but onely to sight and that neither without dificulty requiring both a sharp sight and a clear light to perceive them and I do verily believe that these small animal creatures may be great in comparison to others which may be in nature But if it be probable that there may be such small animal creatures in nature as are not subject to our exterior senses by reason of their littleness it is also probable that there may be such great and big animal creatures in nature as are beyond the reach and knowledg of our exterior senses for bigness and smallness are not to be judged by our exterior senses onely but as sense and reason inform us that there are different degrees in Purity and Rarity so also in shapes figures and sizes in all natural creatures Next you desired to know VVhether there can be an artificial Life or a Life made by Art My answer is Not for although there is Life in all natures parts yet not all the parts are life for there is one part of natural matter which in its nature is inanimate or without life and though natural Life doth produce Art yet Art cannot produce natural Life for though Art is the action of Life yet it is not Life it self not but that there is Life in Art but not art in life for Life is natural and not artificial and thus the several parts of a watch may have sense and reason according to the nature of their natural figure which is steel but not as they have an artificial shape for Art cannot put Life into the watch Life being onely natural not artificial Lastly your desire was to know Whether a part of matter may be so small as it cannot be made less I answer there is no such thing in nature as biggest or least nature being Infinite as well in her actions as in her substance and I have mentioned in my book of Philosophy and in a letter I sent you heretofore concerning Infinite that there are several forts of Infinites as Infinite in quantity or bulk Infinite in number Infinite in quality as Infinite degrees of hardness softness thickness thinness swiftness slowness c. as also Infinite compositions divisions creations dissolutions c. in nature and my meaning is that all these Infinite actions do belong to the Infinite body of nature which being infinite in substance must also of necessity be infinite in its actions but although these Infinite actions are inherent in the power of the Infinite substance of nature yet they are never put in act in her parts by reason there being contraries in nature and every one of the aforementioned actions having its opposite they do hinder and obstruct each other so that none can actually run into infinite for the Infinite degrees of compositions hinder the infinite degrees of divisions and the infinite degrees of rarity softness swiftness c. hinder the infinite degrees of density hardness slowness c. all which nature has ordered with great wisdom and Prudence to make an amiable combination between her parts
forced them forth as soon as conceived and this made the first publishing of them so full of Imperfections which I am much sorry for But since that time I have not onely reviewed but corrected and altered them in several places so that the last Impression of my Philosophical Opinions you will find more perfect and exact then the former Next I pray you to take notice Madam that in the mentioned first Edition by the word Spirits I meant Material not Immaterial Spirits for observing that Learned Men do discourse much of Animal Spirits which are Material and that also high extracts in Chymistry are called Spirits I used that word purposely thinking it most proper and convenient to express my sense and meaning of that degree of matter which I call rational and sensitive But considering again that my opinions being new would be subject to misapprehensions and mis-interpretations to prevent those I thought it fitter to leave out the word Spirits in the second as also in the last Edition of my named Book of Philosophy lest my Readers should think I meant Immaterial Spirits for I confess really that I never understood nor cannot as yet apprehend Immaterial Spirits for though I believe the Scripture and the Church that there are Spirits and do not doubt the existency of them yet I cannot conceive the nature of Immaterial Spirits and what they are Wherefore I do onely treat of natural material substances and not of incorporeal also my discourse is of the Infinite servant of the Infinite God which servant is corporeal or material Nature God is onely to be admired adored and worshipped but not ungloriously to be discoursed of Which Omnipotent God I pray of his Infinite Mercy to give me Faith to believe in him and not to let presumption prevail with me so as to liken vain and idle conceptions to that Incomprehensible Deity These Madam are my humble Prayers to God and my request to you is that I may continue the same in your love and affection which I have been hitherto so shall I live content and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant SECT III. I. MADAM I Have discharged my duty thus far that in obedience to your commands I have given you my answers to the opinions of three of those famous and learned Authors you sent me viz. Hobbes Des Cartes and More and explained my own opinions by examining theirs My onely task shall be now to proceed in the same manner with that famous Philosopher and Chymist Van Helmont But him I find more difficult to be understood then any of the forementioned not onely by reason of the Art of Chymistry which I confess my self not versed in but especially that he has such strange terms and unusual expressions as may puzle any body to apprehend the sense and meaning of them Wherefore if you receive not that full satisfaction you expect from me in examining his opinions and arguments I beg your pardon before hand and desire you to remember that I sent you word in the beginning I did undertake this work more out of desire to clear my own opinions then a quarrelsome humor to contradict others which if I do but obtain I have my aim And so to the business When as your Author discourses of the causes and beginnings of Natural things he is pleased to say That Souls and Lives as they know no Degrees so they know no Parts which opinion is very different from mine For although I confess that there is but one kind of Life and one kind of Soul in Nature which is the sensitive Life and the rational Soul both consisting not onely of Matter but of one kind of Matter to wit Animate nevertheless they are of different degrees the matter of the rational Soul being more agil subtil and active then the matter of the sensitive Life which is the reason that the rational can act in its own substance or degree of matter and make figures in it self and its own parts when as the sensitive being of somewhat a grosser degree then the rational and not so subtil and active is confined to work with and upon the Inanimate matter But mistake me not Madam for I make onely a difference of the degrees of Subtilty Activity Agility Purity betwixt rational and sensitive Matter but as for the rational Matter it self it has no degrees of Purity Subtilty and Activity in its own Nature or Parts but is always one and the same in its substance in all Creatures and so is the sensitive You will ask me How comes then the difference of so many Parts and Creatures in Nature if there be no degrees of Purity Activity and Subtilty in the substance of the rational and in the substance of the sensitive Matter As for example if there were no such degrees of the Parts of rational Matter amongst themselves as also of the Parts of the sensitive there would be no difference betwixt Animals Vegetables Minerals and Elements but all Creatures would be alike without distinction and have the same manner of sense and reason life and knowledg I answer That although each sort or degree of animate Matter rational as well as sensitive has in it self or its own substance no degrees of purity rarity and subtilty but is one and the same in its nature or essence nevertheless each has degrees of quantity or parts which degrees of quantity do make the onely difference betwixt the several creatures or parts of Nature as well in their general as particular kinds for both the rational and sensitive matter being corporeal and so dividable into parts some creatures do partake more some less of them which makes them to have more or less and so different sense and reason each according to the nature of its kind Nay this difference of the degrees of quantity or parts in the substance of the rational and sensitive Matter makes also the difference betwixt particulars in every sort of Creatures as for example between several particular Men But as I said the nature or essence of the sensitive and rational Matter is the same in all for the difference consists not in the Nature of Matter but onely in the degrees of quantity and parts of Matter and in the various and different actions or motions of this same Matter And thus Matter being dividable there are numerous lives and souls in Nature according to the variousness of her several Parts and Creatures Next your Author mentioning the Causes and Principles of natural Bodies assigns two first or chief beginnings and corporeal causes of every Creature to wit the Element of Water and the Ferment or Leaven which Ferment he calls a formal created being neither a substance nor an accident but a neutral thing Truly Madam my reason is not able to conceive this neutral Being for it must either be something or nothing in Nature and if he makes it any thing betwixt both it is a strange Monster and will produce monstrous
or Creature And as there are many sorts of such motions so there are many sorts of Sympathyes and Antipathyes or Attractions and Aversions made several manners or ways For in some subjects Sympathy requires a certain distance as for example in Iron and the Loadstone for if the Iron be too far off the Loadstone cannot exercise its power when as in other subjects there is no need of any such certain distance as betwixt the Needle and the North-pole as also the Weapon-salve for the Needle will turn it self towards the North whether it be near or far off from the North-pole and so be the Weapon which inflicted the wound never so far from the wounded Person as they say yet it will nevertheless do its effect But yet there must withal be some conjunction with the blood for as your Author mentions the Weapon shall be in vain anointed with the Unguent unless it be made bloody and the same blood be first dried on the same Weapon Likewise the sounding of two eights when one is touched must be done within a certain distance the same may be said of all Infectious and catching Diseases amongst Animals where the Infection be it the Infected Air or a Poysonous Vapour or any thing else must needs touch the body and enter either through the Mouth or Nostrils or Ears or Pores of the body for though the like Antipathies of Infectious Diseases as of the Plague may be in several places far distant and remote from each other at one and the same time yet they cannot infect particular Creatures or Animals without coming near or without the sense of Touch For example the Plague may be in the East Indies and in this Kingdom at one and the same time and yet be strangers to each other for although all Men are of Mankind yet all have not Sympathy or Antipathy to each other the like of several Plagues although they be of the same kind of disease yet being in several places at one time they may not be a kin to each other nor one be produced by the other except the Plague be brought over out of an infected Country into a sound Country by some means or other And thus some Sympathy and Antipathy is made by a close conjunction or corporeal uniting of parts but not all neither is it required that all Sympathy and Antipathy must be mutual or equally in both Parties so that that part or party which has a Sympathetical affection or inclination to the other must needs receive the like sympathetical affection from that part again for one man may have a sympathetical affection to another man when as this man hath an antipathetical aversion to him and the same may be for ought we know betwixt Iron and the Loadstone as also betwixt the Needle and the North for the Needle may have a sympathy towards the North but not again the North towards the Needle and so may the Iron have towards the Loadstone but not again the Loadstone towards the Iron Neither is Sympathy or Antipathy made by the issuing out of any invisible rayes for then the rays betwixt the North and the Needle would have a great way to reach But a sympathetical inclination in a Man towards another is made either by sight or hearing either present or absent the like of infectious Diseases I grant that if both Parties do mutually affect each other and their motions be equally agreeable then the sympathy is the stronger and will last the longer and then there is a Union Likeness or Conformableness of their Actions Appetites and Passions For this kind of Sympathy works no other effects but a conforming of the actions of one party to the actions of the other as by way of Imitation proceeding from an internal sympathetical love and desire to please for Sympathy doth not produce an effect really different from it self or else the sympathy betwixt Iron and the Loadstone would produce a third Creature different from themselves and so it would do in all other Creatures But as I mentioned above there are many sorts of attractions in Nature and many several and various attractions onely in one sort of Creatures nay so many in one particular as not to be numbred for there are many Desires Passions and Appetites which draw or intice a man to something or other as for example to Beauty Novelty Luxury Covetousness and all kinds of Vertues and Vices and there are many particular objects not in every one of these as for example in Novelty For there are so many several desires to Novelty as there are Senses and so many Novelties that satisfie those desires as a Novelty to the Ear a Novelty to the Sight to Touch Taste and Smell besides in every one of these there are many several objects To mention onely one example for the novelty of Sight I have seen an Ape drest like a Cavalier and riding on Horse-back with his sword by his side draw a far greater multitude of People after him then a Loadstone of the same bigness of the Ape would have drawn Iron and as the Ape turn'd so did the People just like as the Needle turns to the North and this is but one object in one kind of attraction viz. Novelty but there be Millions of objects besides In like manner good Cheer draws abundance of People as is evident and needs no Demonstration Wherefore as I said in the beginning Sympathy is nothing else but natural Passions and Appetites as Love Desire Fancy Hunger Thirst c. and its effects are Concord Unity Nourishment and the like But Antipathy is Dislike Hate Fear Anger Revenge Aversion Jealousie c. and its effects are Discord Division and the like And such an Antipathy is between a Wolf and a Sheep a Hound and a Hare a Hawk and a Partridg c. For this Antipathy is nothing else but fear in the Sheep to run away from the Wolf in the Hare to run from the Hound and in the Partridg to flie from the Hawk for Life has an Antipathy to that which is named Death and the Wolf's stomack hath a sympathy to food which causes him to draw neer or run after those Creatures he has a mind to feed on But you will say some Creatures will fight and kill each other not for Food but onely out of an Antipathetical nature I answer When as Creatures fight and endeavour to destroy each other if it be not out of necessity as to preserve and defend themselves from hurt or danger then it is out of revenge or anger or ambition or jealousie or custom of quarrelling or breeding As for example Cocks of the Game that are bred to fight with each other and many other Creatures as Bucks Staggs and the like as also Birds will fight as well as Men and seek to destroy each other through jealousie when as had they no Females amongst them they would perhaps live quiet enough rather as sympathetical Friends then
and the like yet of such matter as is the Rational Matter that is the house when it is conceived in the brain is made by the rational corporeal figurative motions of their own substance or degree of Matter But if all Animals should be produced by meer fancies and a Man and a Woman should beget by fancying themselves together in copulation then the produced would be a true Platonick Child But if a Woman being from her Husband should be so got with Child the question is whether the Husband would own the Child and if amorous Lovers which are more contagious for appetite and fancy then Married persons should produce Children by Immaterial contagions there would be more Children then Parents to own them Your third question is Whether Animals may not be produced as many Diseases are by contagion I answer Although contagions may be made at a distance by perception yet those diseases are not begotten by immaterial motions but by the rational and sensitive corporeal motions which work such diseases in the body of a Creature by the association of parts like as the same disease is made in another body Neither are diseases always produced after one and the same manner but after divers manners whereas animals are produced as animals that is after one natural and proper way for although all the effects in particular be not alike yet the general way or manner to produce those effects is the same As for example there is no other way to produce a fruitful Egg but by a Cock and a Hen But a Contagious disease as the small-Pox or the like may be produced by the way of Surfeits or by Conceit which may cause the sensitive corporeal parts through the irregular motions of the rational corporeal parts to work and produce such a disease or any other ways But neither a disease nor no creature else can be produced without matter by substanceless motion for wheresoever is motion there is also matter matter and motion being but one thing Your fourth question is Whether an Animal Creature is perfectly shaped or formed at the first Conception I answer If the Creature be composed of many and different parts my opinions is it cannot be You may say That if it hath not all his parts produced at once there will be required many acts of generation to beget or produce every part otherwise the producers would not be the Parents of the produced in whole but in part I answer The Producer is the designer architect and founder of the whole Creature produced for the sensitive and rational corporeal motions which are transferred from the producer or producers joyn to build the produced like to the producer in specie but the transferred parts may be invisible and insensible to humane Creatures both through their purity and little quantity until the produced is framed to some visible degree for a stately building may proceed from a small beginning neither can humane sense tell what manner of building is designed at the first foundation But you may say That many Eggs may be made by one act of the producers to wit the Cock and the Hen and those many Eggs may be laid at several times as also hatched at several times and become Chickens at several times I answer It may well and easily be so for the rational and sensitive parts or corporeal motions which were transferred in one act designed many produced through that one act for those transferred corporeal motions although they have not a sufficient quantity of themselves to make all the produced in their perfect shapes at once yet they are the chief designer architect and founder of all that are to be produced for the corporeal motions which are transferred joyn with those they are transferred to and being associates work to one design the sensitive being the architect the rational the designer which together with the inanimate parts of matter can never want materials neither can the materials want labourers for the degrees of matter are inseparable and do make but one body or substance Again you may say That some parts of Matter may produce another Creature not like to the producer in its species as for example Monsters I answer That is possible to be done but yet it is not usual for Monsters are not commonly born but those corporeal motions which dwell in one species work according to the nature of the same species and when the parts of Matter are transferred from Creature to Creature that is are separated from some parts and joyned to other pars of the same species and the same nature those transferred parts of matter although invisible in quantity by reason of their purity and subtilty begin the work of the produced according to its natural species and the labourers in other parts of matter work to the same end just as it is in the artificial building of a house where the house is first designed by the Architect or Master and then the labourers work not after their own fancy else it would not be the same house that was designed nor any uniformity in it but according to the architects or surveyors design so those parts of matter or corporeal motions that are transferred from the producer are like the architect but the labourers or workmen are the assisting and adjoyning parts of matter But you will say How comes it that many creatures may be made by one or two I answer As one owner or two partners may be the cause of many buildings so few or more transferred rational and sensitive corporeal motions may make and produce as many creatures as they can get materials and labourers for if they get one they get the other by reason the degrees of matter viz. animate and inanimate are inseparably mixt and make but one body or substance and the proof of it is that all animals are not constant in the number of their off-spring but sometimes produce more and sometimes fewer and sometimes their off-spring is less and sometimes larger according to the quantity of matter Again you may say That in some Creatures there is no passage to receive the transferred matter into the place of the architecture I answer That all passages are not visible to humane sense and some humane Creatures have not a sufficient humane reason to conceive that most of Natures works are not so gross as to be subject to their exterior senses but as for such parts and passages whether exterior or interior visible or invisible as also for copulation conception formation nourishment and the like in Generation I leave you to Physicians and Anatomists And to conclude this question we may observe that not any animal Creatures shape dissolveth in one instant of time but by degrees why should we believe then that Animals are generated or produced in their perfect shape in one instant of time and by one act of Nature But sense and reason knows by observation that an animal Creature requires more time