That was the Product of the Meditation wherein you surpriz'd me the other day and when I seem'd to you to awake of a suddain I came farther a Field than you imagine He spoke this in so serious and positive a way that he seem'd to be in earnest It shall be your Fault added he if you are not convinc'd of the Truth of what I say and of the Experiment It is the most curious Secret in the World I am resolv'd to commit it but to very few but that Adherency which you have manifested until this time unto me will not suffer me to be reserv'd in any thing He went on without giving me time to complement his Generosity and related that extraordinary Event in all its Circumstances He told me that being six'd attentively upon the Question which the Princess Elizabeth had propos'd touching the Union of the Soul and Body and revolving in his Mind his former Thoughts upon that Subject in the midst of that extraordinary Application he found himself in such a strange Surprizal in an Instant that he was not capable when he told me of it to express himself clearly thereupon nor could he gain so distinct a Conception of it as when actually he was in it All that he could tell me was That it resembled a Trance because in that there is no use of the Senses one can neither See nor Hear nor Feel the Impression of External Objects unless they be extreamly violent and then there is an end of it But herein it was quite different since the Soul had Perceptions of it Self and was apprehensive of the Cessation of its Organical Functions Which in a Trance is nothing so That she was furnish'd with a World of Immaterial or purely Spiritual Notices of which he had sometime discours'd to us but in an abundantly more perfect and lively manner than when his Attention was disturb'd with the appearances of Fancy which constantly interrupt it That more Discoveries of Truth could be made thus in one Minute than in ten years by the ordinary means which Knowledg of Truth fill'd the Soul with so pure and satisfactory a Joy that nothing is more true than what Aristotle says likely upon the same Experience That the compleat Happiness of Man in this Life if there is any such thing consists in the Contemplation of God and Natural Beings But he told me he had no sense of that perfect Joy till he was fully enlightned upon the Point that then took up his Thoughts Which was done in a Moment He had the satisfaction not only to know but to be sensible in some measure of the Truth of the greatest part of those Things which had imploy'd his Meditations until that time and of the Evidence of the Idea's he had fram'd concerning the Essence of the Body and Soul to see her advanc'd upon her Pineal Gland he had conjectur'd and to see that the Union of the Soul with the Body was nothing less then that vertual or rather imaginary Extension by which she was suppos'd commensurate with the Limbs much less those imaginary Modes which the Schools makes use of to confound and plague the Conceptions of Youth But that which was of most Importance was to see that this Union was nothing in Effect but these actual Commerce and Correspondence the Soul and Body had with one another A Commerce that chiefly is maintain'd in this that the Nerves spread through the Body by their Vibration give occasion to the Soul of knowing the different impressions External Objects make upon the Senses and in that the Soul pursuant thereupon by the Motion she immediately impresses upon the Pineal Gland where all the Nerves concentre determines the Animal Spirits to their several marches through the Muscles to produce in the Body such several Motions as she shall please to give and especially those that are necessary to her Preservation After that pursu'd my old Friend M. Descartes entertain'd me with all that happen'd upon that occasion and all the other Reflections he had made The Principal of which was That his Soul in that juncture no longer perceiving the Motions external Objects caus'd upon his Body and by consequence that Commerce in which the Essence of Union consisted being broken she could behold her self as in a separate State though in the mean time she resided at her usual Abode that local Presence having the least share in her Union with the Body She then had a mind to disengage her self from the Body and see what would be the Event of that Separation No sooner had she wisht it than it was so And he farther experienc'd what he had often suggested to us before that if the Machine of the Body had all its Organs sound and free if it had its customary Heat in the Heart and Stomack the circulation of the Blood the filtration of the Humours and all those natural Functions all the Motions constantly perform'd in us without the notice of the Soul would go on as regularly in her absence as when she was there Moreover it fell out as she was busy in contemplating the operation of her Body at some paces distance from it a Fly fortun'd to tickle it in the Face presently the Hand rais'd it self to the place and unseated the Fly just as if the Soul had been actually in the Body So true it is that the greatest part of the Motions of our Body which we attribute to the Soul are owing to the sole Disposition of the Machine This Soul before she durst venture to wander very far from the Body made her entry and exit sundry times and judging by the disposition in which she saw it she might without any apparent danger leave it for some time she hazarded the undertaking a very long Voyage She arriv'd at Beitany in the Houses of her Relations and from thence she made a Sally unto Paris to the House of some other Acquaintance She was much concern'd to see that the People there had but an indiffernt Opinion of her Religion the Country M. Descartes had chose to live in and some unwaranted Inferences that one or other had drawn from his Principles had given occasion to those rash Censures It is notwithstanding true that all the time he liv'd and when he dy'd he was a sound and honest Catholick Finally such was the success the Soul found in her Rambles when separate from the Body that she could when she pleas'd in a Minute travel three or four thousand Leagues In so much that this of M. Descartes parting from Egmond about half an hour after eight in the Morning had travers'd all France in an hour and an half and was return'd at ten Bless me said I to my old Gentleman how expedient would that be for a Person that so passionately desires to see the Country as I do You shall gratify your Curiosity answer'd he but hear me out M. Descartes Soul being return'd from he Voyage in France found her Body almost in the
of the Moon He was incompass'd by a Croud of little I know not what you call them for they were not Beings but I think Formalities He was the first Father of them in the Philosophical World and he that gave them first Repute They be the prettyest littlest slender you'd think them next to nothing Perceiving we were Philosophers to be a little more affable than ordinary he began to ask us what we thought of an Vniversal a parte rei and whether we did not take it to be Objective Precisions Our old Gentleman who besides his Cartesian Ideas upon Philosophy had still a Relick of that gruff and surly Humour Aristotle's Compliments had provok'd answered him in a careless Air We concern not our Heads much with such insipid Trifles that it was but Irish Gibbrish and that none of us had any Pretensions to the Elogy Buchanan gives his Country Philosphers otherwise Men of Sense and Worth Gens ratione furens mentem pasta Chimeris Trifles and Chimera's reply'd Scotus They are the finest and most solid Questions in Philosophy By this it was we distinguished our selves in my time by that Subtilty wherewith I handled these Questions I was advanced to the quality of Doctor Subtilis Trifles and Chimeras quoth a You French Philosophers have you ever read the History of the Vniversity of Paris If you have not read it read it You will see if these things were look'd on heretofore as Trifles You will see under the Reign of the young Lewis one Rousselin of Britanny it the Head of the Nominals disputing Hand to Fist in the Vniversity of Paris against those who held an Universal a parte rei and from Arguments they came to Swords that there was Man slaughter in the Case You will see what I have been told is done since I quit your World That in the reign of Lewis the Eleventh the Court and Parliament interposed themselves in Philosophical Differences which you call Trifles that by the order of the King the Books of the Nominals were chain'd and pad-lock'd strictly prohibiting the opening them ever after And I would to God those Decrees had not been repeal'd by the Asserters of that empty Philosophy which will have Universality consist in Names and Conceptions Then at this day I should have reign'd absolute in the Schools But continu'd he taking Courage Are not you of that Party of Philosophers I have heard talk of some time since and whose Works I have likewise seen in a Visit I made Aristotle who have a certain British Cavilier for their Leader called Descartes Yea verily reply'd our old Cartesian and we take it as an Honour so to be Be gone cry'd he all in a Rage and Passion Away with you Hence Hereticks as you are who take it for an Honour to be of a Sect which by its Principles is oblig'd to renounce the Faith of our most Holy Mysteries Your Descartes holds that a determinate Extension is essential to a Body and that a Body being once of the size of a Cubical Foot it would be as great a Contradiction to lose that Extension as to conceive a Mountain without a Valley It will be then a Contradiction that the Body of the Saviour of the World which had the bulk of many Feet should be comprehended in the space of the least Particle of the Consecrated Host Once more be gone Excommunicates And since you will stay here in spight of me I abandon the place and forthwith he march'd off That his extraordinary Zeal was no less surprizing than diverting But that which pleas'd me most was That upon our leaving that place the two Aristotelian Souls which Voetius had deputed to accompany us began by the way to resume the Argument of Scotus and to urge it vigourously against Father Mersennus and my old Man who were much perplexed to rid their Hands of it But they proposed an Argument against the manner whereby M. Descartes and after him M. Rohault undertake to explain the Mystery of the Eucharist without the assistance of absolute Accidents which may merit a place in this Relation M. Descartes in his Answer to the fourth Set of Objections propos'd against his Metaphysical Meditations explains the Mystery of the Eucharist as follows He says That the Body of J. C. after the Consecration is in the self-same place the Bread was in before but that it is so precisely in the same space that in what place soever it was true to affirm before the Consecration here is Bread it is true to say after the Consecration here is the Body of J. C. So that if we conceive that before the Consecration there was whether in the Surface or in the Substance of the Bread little Piramidal Cubical or Triangular Spaces fill'd with Piramidal Cubical or Triangular Parts of Bread we must conceive after the Consecration those little Spaces are possessed in the same exactness by the Body of J. C. From whence it follows according to him That when 't is said the Body of J. C. is comprehended in the same Dimensions and the very Superficies as the Bread by that word Superficies is to be understood not only that external Surface that terminates the total Figure of the Bread but also that which terminates all the parts which are in the depth and substance of it separated from one another by the Pores and little Intervals that are fill'd up with Air or some other Heterogeneous Bodies In so much that should some insensible parts of the Bread be put in motion by the Air or some other Body the new Substance that takes the place of those insensible Parts is equally put in Motion Upon that Supposition M. Descartes argues thus Whatever makes an Impression upon our Senses is only the Superficies of a Body Every Body therefore that has the same Superficies as the Bread will make the same Impressions on our Senses as the Bread Therefore since the Body of J. C. is so precisely in the same space as the Bread that it hath the same Superficies to an Hair it must inevitably make the same Impressions on our Senses as the Bread that is it must reflect the Light as the Bread did and with the same Modifications And from hence we see in it the same Colour and the same Figure It must be press'd towards the Centre of the Earth by the Impulse of the same Matter that pressed the Bread before because of the Figuration of its Parts of which it was composed and hence we perceive in it the same Gravity It must vibrate the Nerves of our Tongue and insinuate it self into the Pores just as did the insensible parts of the Bread and hence we apprehend in it the same Taste c. From whence he concludes That Mystery may be admirably explained without the incumbrance of absolute Accidents which are kept in service without any occasion for them See then one Difficulty among many others our Peripateticks proposed against that Explication we will demonstrate
should be destroy'd and yet no other Body produc'd in its room Or thus which turns to the same Account I most distinctly conceive a part of Matter setting aside all others and I most distinctly conceive all other without that for Instance without conceiving the Air inclos'd in a Chamber My Hypothesis then is establish'd as well as the Consequences that naturally follow against your Opinion touching the Essence of Matter So that if you have any Inclination towards a Peace you will be content to say that considering Things in their natural Capacity Matter is necessarily extended but will willingly give up that Expression that hath disgusted all the World That Extension Matter and Space were all the very same thing That Insult which Aristotle made upon M. Descartes in bandying one part of his Principles against another worsted my old Gentleman's Patience and rattled him so that ' was ten to one but he had tore the Paper on the spot He propos'd our going off without acquainting Aristotle's Embassadors who were stragled a good way from us telling us the Company of such sort of Cattle was not very pleasing But we represented to him how dishonourable a thing and unbecoming of Descartes that would be That that Paper was not so much a Project of Peace as a Challenge and Defiance Aristotle had sent him that probably he might slight it and probably he might think it worth while to answer it That M. Descartes had so wonderful a Gift of persuading and captivating Spirits and the production of a World was a thing of that surprizing Nature that doubtless the two Souls that bore us Company must be converted to Cartesianism provided M. Descartes would be at the pains of explaining his System to them in a plausible and familiar manner These Reasons setled him again and we pursued in the reading of the Paper in expectation of the two Souls From the Essence of the Body and Soul Aristotle passed on to their Union and the Relations they have betwixt themselves He began with great Encomiums on M. Descartes for having opened the Eyes of the Philosophers and shewing them the Unusefulness as well as Absurdity of their Intentional Species in many cases alledging That he had taught nothing on that Occasion that ought to be held so strange and incomprehensible by the Peripateticks had not they deserted the Sentiments of their acknowledged Master to follow the Whimsies and Imaginations of his Commentators That he himself had remarked in many Places That the Sense of Feeling was dispersed throughout the Body and through all the Organs of the other Senses That Vision Taste the Perception of Sounds and Smells were only caused by the local Motion of some Bodies that touch'd and moved the Organs of the different Senses that in effect if that Motion were insufficient for the Soul 's perceiving Objects those intentional Species substituted in their Place would be as far from serving Turn That he was not for rejecting M. Descartes's Doctrin concerning the Seat of the Soul in the Pineal Gland were it proposed only as a pure Hypothesis since all that others say amounts to nothing better but it was insufferable that System should be urged as a setled and demonstrated Truth And that the Respect M. Descartes still pretended for Truth and Experience ought to make him qualify and moderate his Assertions thereupon He intreated him likewise to be more Human and good-natured towards those who taught the Soul was expanded through the Body and this is what he added to shew the Cartesians were a little Unreasonable in that Affair For said he when you assert the Soul is placed in the Pineal Gland either you suppose she takes up all the extent of that Gland or that she only possesses one indivisible part of it if she possesses all the Capacity of the Gland she herself must thence be extended for that Consequence entirely resembles yours which you draw against the Philosophers who make the Soul expanded throughout the Body If she only possesses an indivisible Part thereof there must necessarily be some part of Matter that is indivisible and not extended And thus in admiting that disjunctive Proposition you appropriate to the Soul what you affirm belongs to Matter only otherwise you grant an Attribute to Matter which on all other occasions you deny and pretend according to your Principles however we understand it that it is the only peculiar of a Spiritual Soul Besides all the Nerves where are the Radiations of the Spirits that enter in and out of the Pineal Gland can neither part from the same indivisible Point of the Gland nor meet there so that if the Soul was in an indivisible Point of that Gland she could not have the Perception of all Objects there But if you reply The Soul is not in the Gland as a Body is in another Body or as a Body is in a Place but that the Soul in quality of a Spirit is not in that Gland but because she acts there because she thinks there wills there and perceives Objects there and that since the Different Impressions of Objects terminate in divers Points of the Gland where she is advertised of them it may be said the Soul is in all the Gland The Philosophers that undertake you are ready to take you up with a fresh Objection For if the Soul acts wills thinks apprehends Objects in all the Gland that is to say in a very devisible Space and if that be sufficient to affirm she is in all the Pineal Gland it will be true according to their Hypothesis to say The Soul is in all the Body since it acts and perceives Objects in all the Body she sees them in the Eye as you say she perceives them in that part of the Pineal Gland where the Optick Nerve doth point or the Rays of the Spirits that proceed from that Nerve she perceives Sounds in the Ear or as you say she perceives them in another Point of the Pineal Gland where the Nerves do center or the Rays that serve for that Perception Thus that pretended Bug-bear of Philosophy I mean the Presence of the Soul throughout the Body that causes her to feel in the Hand when that is prick'd and makes her move it presently and withdraw it upon the Sense of the Compunction that makes her stir the Foot in order to advance methinks is no longer monstrous or frightful nor a Prejudice of Infancy evidently false seeing that Presence of the Soul throughout the Body is no other than that which is allowed her in the Pineal Gland the Pineal Gland being extended as well as the whole Body for the Diminutivenss of the Extension makes nothing to the Purpose Why therefore should that Vertual Extension of a Spirit be turned to a Jest and Ridicule when 't is the same as is admitted by the Cartesians when both are well explained and undoubtedly all the Sensations may very near be as justly explained upon this Hypothesis as upon that of
same posture in which she left it But as yet she was not fully Satisfy'd She was unacquainted with the way and means that led her into this Condition And she consider'd it was an hazardous Exploit and that being once united to her Body she might never for ought she knew be disjoyn'd again till Death should cause a final Separation She apply'd her self therefore seriously to consider the Nature of her Body and the disposition of all its Organs She found that the Nerves imploy'd in Sentation and those that serve for Natural functions as the beating of the Heart the circulation of the Blood c. were of a Nature quite distinct She saw that these were vehemently distended and she concluded it might be for the better communicating the Animal Spirits to the Muscles with which the Nerves are united and capacitating them to maintain and continue those natural Motions the Soul is not aware of when united with the Body and that on the contrary the Nerves made use of in Sensation and by whose Means the Soul received the Impression of Objects were almost all unbraced and lax which might prevent the Motion caused by the Impulse of Objects from being continued unto the Seat of the Soul The Difficulty was to find the true Cause why one should be taxed without the other and how she might bring it about to distend those that formerly were laxed Mean while the Snush-Box which I mention'd his Body held in its left-Hand made M. Descartes call to mind That before his Extasie he had taken Tabaccco-Snush and he could not tell but so extraordinary an Effect might have been produced by the Vertue of that Tobacco That which he took of was an unusual kind which a Merchant of Amsterdam had brought over from an Island near China and presented him It was extreamly strong and M. Descartes to mollisie it had mix'd a certain Herb in it dryed to Powder whose Name he never would acquaint me with nor the Place where it grew though he presented me with a great Quantity of the same He laid a sufficient Dose upon the Back-Side of his Hand and gave it his Body to take and at the same Time happen'd this prodigious Effect in his Brain for all the Vapours raised there since his last taking were dislodged and dissipated in an instant He observed it was only the Particles of the Tobacco that scattered the Fumes of the Brain and that those of the Herb which he had tempered with it being not so fine and having very little Motion fastned themselves in the Nerves that cause Sensation and and made them looser than they were before Seeing that Effect he no longer doubted but concluded it to be the Herb which he mix'd with the Tobacco that caus'd his Trance and took away his Senses and that the Tobacco at the same Time unharbouring all the Fumes that might benight the Brain left the Soul with the entire Liberty of knowing and reflecting on it's self as she had then experienc'd After which he thought that Hungary Water was sufficient to brace the Nerves afresh that serve for Sensation since it is often used to recal those Persons that swoon away The Soul takes the Bottle I not long since mentioned and brings it in the Air from the far Side of the Chamber to his Body and therein consists exactly the Magick of which I then suspected M. Descartes guilty and moistens his Nostrils with it The subtile Vapour of that Liquor effected what he aimed at presently the laxed Nerves erect themselves and the Soul streight seats it self in the Pineal Gland and finds itself confederate with the Body as before It was in that instant I perceived Descartes to come to himself I told you he lock'd himself forthwith in another Room it was to make a second Experiment of his Tobacco and his Herb which succeeded to his Hearts Desire Since when it was a Business of nothing for his Soul to leave the Body and since his imparting to me the Secret his Soul and mine have made an hundred Expeditions together to instruct our selves of the greatest Curiosities in Nature As those that read the Works of M. Descartes are unacquainted with all that I have been relating they with just Cause are amazed at a thing which you will not startle at for the future I mean the Particulars he descends to in his Physicks concerning the Properties of his three Elements at how great soever remove from Sense they lie concerning their Figure their Motion their Rank and File in the Composition of his World and all particular Bodies concerning the Disposition of his Vortexes in which he proceeds so far as to observe the different size of the Balls of the second Element of which they consist Part. 3. Princip in their respective Places how those that come nearest the Centre of the Water are the least of all those that are a little removed are somewhat bigger increasing still in Bigness unto a determinate Distance after which they all are equal Concerning the Formation of their Parts chamfer'd in Fashion of a Skrew with which he explains the Nature and the different Phenomena's of the Load-Stone in a way so fine and easie Phoenomena's that till then had puzled and confounded all the Philosophers even those that had so ready a Method of explaining all things by the Assistance of their occult Qualities All this he saw intuitively and of himself and for me that speak to you is it possible to think That at the Age of seventy seven and being of so weak a Constitution as I am I say is it possible for you to think I should have lived to this and preserved my Health and Vigour as I do unless I had had a perfect Knowledge of the Machine of my Body Unless I had still silled and made up the Breaches whereat Life leaks and runs out continually I mean not in applying the Remedies that Medicine prescribes whose conjectures are so very uncertain and from the Use of which Monsieur Descartes has so frequently dissuaded the Princess Elizabeth Lett. de Descartes But in the Practice of that Critical Knowledge my Soul has of my Body of which she perfectly is and can be instructed as often as she pleases by putting herself in the Capacity I have now been speaking of I must acknowledg Sir replyed I then it is a most admirable Secret and of Infinite Use I am impatient till I learn it of you and as soon as I know it I am persuaded I shall improve it to as great a Benefit as Adam would have done the Tree of Life in Paradise if he had continued there And I doubt not but if Origen had known it he that looks upon the History of Scripture as Allegory he would have believed the Tree of Life to be nothing but this Mystery which God had communicated unto Adam But that which you was speaking of your Health creates one Scruple in me How Monsieur Descartes having
the Advantage of this fine Knowledg came to dye at the Age of fifty four Was he so much out of Love with his Life as to neglect the repairing those effluxes of his Machine whose Failures and Disasters he could so easily foresee Do you believe then returned he that M. Descartes is dead I know not said I how you understand it but methinks the Corps of a Man should not be buried unless he was dead before and all the World knows that in the Year 1650. the Body of M. Descartes was interred at Stockholm with great Pomp and Solemnity M. Chersilier pref de Lett. de M. Descartes by the Care of M. Chanut his particular Friend and then Embassador of France at the Court of Sweden That since M. Dalibert hath ordered his Bones to be removed to Paris and to be disposed of in the Church of S. Geneve where his Epitaph is to be seen engraven upon a fair White Marble It seems to me once more That all this supposes a Man as dead as dead can be All these Particulars are true said my Cartesian but for all that it is false that M. Descartes is dead for that we call Death is when our Body becoming incapable of Vital Functions either by the Defailure of the Organs which are wore out in the Succession of Years or corrupted by some Disease or endammaged by some Hurt or Wound the Soul is oblig'd to quit her Habitation following the Laws of their Union establish'd by the Sovereign Master of the Universe But Cartesius's Soul was by no means separated from his Body after this manner Hear then the Matter of Fact About three or four Months after his Arrival in Swedeland where Queen Christina had invited him and did him the Honour to entertain him in her Library an Hour in a Morning every Day Pref. de lett de Descartes He was seized in the midst of Winter with an Inflammation of the Lungs seconded with a Giddiness in the Brain but the Fever having left his Brain there had been no great Difficulty in his Recovery Lett. de Descartes Himself had wrote a little Time before to one of his Friends That he had made some Discoveries in Anatomy that insur'd his Life for an hundred Years And 't is known that M. Descartes did not use to go by Guessing or advance any thing without a firm Assurance but an unseasonable Misfortune rendred his Prediction fruitless seeing he had not rested well that Night his Soul had a Mind to take a little Turn for Recreation-sake he takes his usual Dose of Snush and his Soul leaves his Body in the Bed By ill Luck the Physician contrary to his Custom came to visit him at Midnight the Noise he made in entring the Chamber did not awake his Body whose Senses were perfectly laid asleep by vertue of the Herb of which I spoke that was mingled with the Tobacco But having put to his Nose a Vial of extreamly Spirituous Liquor to fortifie the Brain it made a more quick and lively Sally upon the Organ of Sense than Hungary Water used to do which M. Descartes Soul made use of when she would re-enter the Body and conclude its Trance it caused it to open its Eyes and to give some Groans The Physician ask'd it how he did The Machine accustomed some Days ago to answer to that Question That he was very ill made still the same reply but to other Questions the Physician proposed since the Soul was not there to talk rationally and answer to the purpose the Answers were full of Extravagance and Delirium just as the Machine was determined by the Voice of the Doctor It talked eternally of the Separation of its Soul from its Body because the last Thoughts the Soul entertained in the Act of separating herself were those of that Separation which had left some Figures or Traces stamp'd upon the Brain answering to those Thoughts and determining the Tongue to a Motion requisite to pronounce such sort of Words These Symptoms enduc'd the Doctor to believe he was again transported with a Raving in his Head wherefore he is out of Hand blooded in the Foot Cupping-Glasses are apply'd and several other Violent Remedies which so exhausted and altered his poor Body that in a short Time it had spent all its Strength it 's natural Heat began to faint and lose itself by little and little a Defluction of his Brain fell into his Breast and in a Word it became a meer Cadaver and unable to perform the Duties of Life and to receive his Soul Thus it happened so that you see a Man may truly say M. Descartes is not dead Assuredly Sir said I this is not to dye according to due Form and Method nevertheless the Swedish Physician would be held Guiltless before all the Faculties of Europe for he has followed the Rules of his Art he acted according to appearance and if he did but understand what you are teaching me That M. Descartes is not dead he might boast of the Greatest and most unprecedented Exploit that was ever known in Medicine I mean to have killed a Man without causing him to die But Sir I beseech you continued I acquaint me if you know What was the Destiny of M. Descartes Soul for according to the uncontroverted Principles of our Faith a Soul in leaving this World receives her Arrest for Eternity and either has her Portion in Paradice Hell or Purgatory for some Time That Question ruffled my old Gentleman And in the Name of God said he almost in a Passion rid your self of that Ridiculous Custom you have taken up in the Schools of introducing Questions of Religion in Matters purely Philosophical M. Descartes had once thought to renounce his Philosophy or at least refuse to publish his Works to save him the Trouble of answering those impertinent Objections which were made at every turn and upon all occasions I am giving you clear Matter of Fact and you desire me to Account for the Conduct of God But in brief have not I forestall'd all your Difficulties when I told you M. Descartes was not Dead And since he is not Dead why demand you if he has submitted to a Judgment the Dead are only concern'd in I beg'd his Pardon for my Imprudence and agreed with him That nothing was more unseasonable and inconvenient than such sort of occasional Questions to a Philosopher that had made a System without regard to any thing of that Nature And that likewise put me in mind of entreating my Readers to use the same Candor towards me That they will not wrangle with me upon the Point of separate Souls whole Shoals of which I meet with in my Voyage to the World of Descartes nor tye me to answer all the Scruples they might be able to raise on that Account For therein bottom the most agreeable Passages of my History with which I should not present the Publick but upon that Condition I would entreat them to
composed That Concussion is communicated to the Brain and to the place of Residence of the Soul and it is pursuant to and on the Account of that Concussion the Soul forms an Idea of the Object which she perceives or apprehends in the manner we call Seeing And it is according to the various Modifications of that Concussion that she sees Objects at several distances under divers Figures and of different Colours From whence it follows that the Perceptions or Ideas of the Soul have no necessary dependence on the Objects but only on the exteriour Organ which may be prov'd by a thousand Experiments but especially by that of Phrenetick People who perceive Objects quite different from what they really are and see them where they are not Now that you may perceive a Body in the place where I am when no such thing is there it is sufficient that your interiour Organ should be moved in such a manner as it would be if a Body was really there That 's the thing I now am actually doing upon your Optick Nerve to make you know that I am here That is it which causes you to see a Body though in truth there is none to see And what I act upon the Organ of Sight to make a Body appear the same I do in proportion upon that of Hearing to find you Sounds and Words I impress a like Motion upon the Strings of your Nerves of the fifth Conjugation as would the Vibrations and Undulations of the Air were it agitated by the Motion of a Tongue and the Mouth of a Man who should stand where I seem to do and should utter the same Words you at present hear Upon these Principles it was F. Maignan that a Father of our Order has most ingeniously unfolded the Mysteries of the Holy Sacrament without the assistance of that Medly of absolute Accidents that could never be conceiv'd For says he when we are taught the Body of J. C. is under the appearance of Bread nothing more is intimated than that the Body of J. C. is truly there where the Bread was and seems still to us to be to the end that Bread may appear where the Body of J. C. actually is God acts upon our Senses He there produces the self-same Motions and makes the same Impressions the Bread did before So when our Lord presented himself to St. Magdalen in the form of a Gardiner it was by acting upon her Eyes just as the Visage and Habit of the Gardiner would have done and not by cloathing himself with the absolute Accidents of a Gardiner But that which you may gather from this present Experience is the manner how the Dead appear who sometimes by God's Permission present themselves to those alive For they appear by the same Method as I do actually my self And those Bodies of Air or Water which some pretend they attire themselves withal are only the Whymsies and Forgeries of their imagination who have treated of Devils craft in supposing the Principles of the School Philosophy Have you any farther Difficulty said he upon that Point Ah! Father reply'd I you have made it as clear as the Sun and have given me infinite Satisfaction Your Discourse is altogether Spiritual I rely not much upon the Explication of that Father of your Order upon the Mystery of the Eucharist I take it for a Maxim with the wisest of the Catholick Philosophers That all Novelty in such sort of Things is dangerous at least always ought to be suspected You have absolutely dispers'd the Doubts that troubled me It was indeed long ago that I had a Notion Sensation was caus'd by the Local Motion of the Organs but that Idea was not unperplex'd Aristotle had said it before Cartesius Arist in Probl. but had not explain'd it From this time forth I renounce for ever a great part of the Ideas I had fram'd thereupon I solemnly abjure before you all the Axioms that respect the Active Passive and passible Intellect I acknowledg they are Terms that signifie nothing and are of no use but to make the Ignorant to stare who cannot understand them but imagine the Philosophers can After that Protestation Father Mersennus's Soul mov'd my Organ in such a manner as gave me to apprehend he was well pleas'd Which made me take the boldness of proposing a second Scruple Father said I I don 't well understand what that World is of M. Descartes where you would conduct me For in reading M. Descartes I did conceive his World was nothing else but this of ours explain'd by the Principles of his Philosophy And I distinctly remember I have read in a Letter he had formerly wrote these Words That he should think himself undeserving of the Name of a Natural Philosopher if he could only tell how Things might be without demonstrating they could not be otherwise There he Bravado's it a little Let. 37. Tom. 2. But that confirms me that when he speaks the contrary and says he pretends not to give an Account of Things as they are in the World but only how they ought to be in a World that he imagins he would be angry should we credit him thereupon What you say is true reply'd Father Mersennus M. Descartes design'd not to be believed in that Particular So that the World of M. Descartes is in earnest this World explain'd by the Principles of his Philosophy But it is also true that there is or rather will be very speedily another World that may more properly be call'd Descartes's World since it will be of his own Contrivance And that 's the World with which this Gentleman your Friend has entertain'd you and that we shall give you a sight of if you please Nothing certainly said I will be more diverting I would quit the Racing or the Festivals of Versailles to be Spectator of this Prodigy which doubtless is the compleatest Work of Philosophy and the almost Master-piece of Human Nature But Sir said I turning to my old Gentleman the Story of Descartes you have formerly related gives me some disturbance The Voyage you know is very long and a World like this he is about is not to be built in one Hour's time I know my Soul loves her Body very well and would be much concern'd at her return to find it incapacitated to receive her And an hundred Accidents may happen against which no one can give Security We are provided for them all said he Look towards the bottom of your Bed Good God! I cry'd out scar'd out of my Senses What is' t I see The Devil then is one of your Club Wretched Mortal that I am I am lost undone However I 'll die without any familiarity with him Monsieur avaunt I renounce utterly your Enchantments and your Magick Softly foftly said he why all this Alarm He is no Devil that you see though Black He 's far from being a Devil This is the Soul of a little Black that waits upon Descartes To ease
you of all Scruples and Disquiet in a word or two I 'll give you an Abbreviate of him This Little Black was formerly Valet to M. Regius the famous Professor of Physick in the Vniversity of Vtrecht who as is known Diverses letters de Descartes was then the intimate Friend Disciple and Admirer of M. Descartes Upon these Accounts he mexited the communication of his Secret for the separating the Soul and Body Since that they broke with each other in so much that M. Descartes thought himself oblig'd to Write against him Because he deprav'd his Doctrin and made it give Offence M. Regius who if Descartes's Character be true was none of the most Honourable and gentilest Gentlemen in the World to revenge himself and shew how he scorn'd and trampled on a thing Cartesius set so high a rate upon taught it this litle Negro One time above the rest he went to make use of it Returning one day from the Country where his Master had sent him much tir'd he sate himself under the shade of an Oak His Soul left his Body to its repose and rambled for Diversion I know not where Mean while some Highway-men kill'd a Man hard by him The Grand Provost who was near being advis'd of the Murder came speedily with his Sergeants The Noise they made was such that it awak't the Body of the Little Black And there happen'd something in the Adventure not unlike that I told you lately of Descartes For the Machine determin'd by the Noise and the strong Impression the Presence of arm'd Men made upon his Organ began to fly They pursue him overtake him and examine him He contradicts himself at every Word in his Answers which in the absence of his Soul were not likely to be very coherent The Grand Provost who was a little too expeditious in the Business took his Flight and the Astonishment that appear'd in his Countenance and his Words for an Evident convicton of the Crime and caus'd him to be hang'd upon a Tree as an Accomplice of the Murder'd that was committed The Soul returning not long after found her Body hanging in that rascally Posture of a Malefactour Forc'd then as she was to seek a now Abode she was in a miserable condition The majority of separate Souls which play in all the vast extent of the World being Souls of Philosophers and Souls of great Importance and having in a Convention held by the most considerable of them declar'd that Opinion of Philosophy true that holds an enequality in Souls of the same Species They would no ways admit that the Soul of an ignorant Negro should enjoy the same Priviledge as they and gave her chase throughout the Universe In short her good Fortune would that she should attempt to pass our Vortex and arrive at the very place Descartes's Soul had pitch'd upon to Meditate He had Compassion on her and allow'd her the liberty to live with him Father Mersennus brought her hither in Case there should be occasion and we 'll leave her with your Body to take care on 't The Retail of a Story so well circumstanc'd induc'd me to credit what was said as true I intreated both the Spirits to excuse the Transport I was guilty of telling them that the Figure and Colour he made use of to appear in being the same the Devil furnishes himself with all when he would be visible had imprinted on my Mind that horrible Idea I desir'd them to give me some Instructions how I must be rigg'd to accompany them in that wondrous Voyage that they propos'd saying I hop'd to make infinite Advantage of the Favour they vouchsafed me and in their Society to return so choice a Treasure of Knowledge as would distinguish me from the rest of Mankind Three things say's Father Mersennus you have to do The first is To dismantle your Mind of all the Prejudices of Childhood and the ordinary Philosophy For 't is strange to see how the Prejudices the Soul sucks in but by the Senses should make so deep impression on the Understanding with Time and Custom which she chooses for the Rule of her Opinions In so much that Souls separated form their Bodies otherwise than by Death although during that separation they act independently on the Senses do yet think judge and reason conformably to their prejudice Without that Precaution you 'l make a fruitless Voyage and be but where you are at your return The second Requisite before our embarquing is That you give Orders to this little Spirit after what Method he must treat your Body in your absence Whereupon it is advisable to let you know that when your Soul shall be in state of Separation all things will be carried on in the usual Road not only as to Natural Functions but as to those Motions caus'd by External Objects provided that you leave the Machine mounted in the same manner as it is at present So that if you us'd to wake and rise at the sound of an Alarm or at a certain Hour as soon as that Hour shall strike the Motion of the Timpanum of your Ears communicated to your Brain shall make way for the Animal Spirits to glide along the Muscles and to produce in your Legs and Arms and your whole Body such Motions as daily you your self produc'd for the taking of your Breeches then your Doublet and the rest of your Appurtenances after one an other and dressing you from Head to Foot It shall walk as it us'd to do traverse all the House upstairs and down It shall seat it self at Table as soon as the voice of the Page crying Dinner Sir is ready shall strike upon its Ears It shall Eat shall Drink and in a word perform every Action it has been accustom'd to the Animal Spirits never failing to take their course towards certain parts of the Body at the presence of certain Objects and by consequence producing always certain Motions in the Body in certain Circumstances Now in all External Actions that we do there is nothing but Motion produc'd this way And hence it is that Beasts who are undoubtedly as Meer Machines as our Body seem to us at the same time to act both with Variety and Uniformity The only Mischief that you need to fear is in case a Friend should come to visit you Because the Body without the Soul would be incapable to maintain discourse and must answer very impertinent to the Thing in hand For betwixt our selves it is only by Discourse that we Cartesians know that those Bodies we commonly call Men are truly Men and not meerly Machines Let. 53. de Desc Tom. 1. But herein it is this Little Negro will be serviceable M. Descartes hath taught him all the different Motions possible to be made upon the Pineal Gland and all the various Determinations of which the Animal Spirits are capable by its means And how the Words are form'd in the Mouth only by the motion of the Muscles that
stir the Tongue the lower Jaw and Lips And how particular Words are fram'd only by the certain Motions of the Muscles caus'd by that of the Animal Spirits according to the different Questions a Friend suppose that gives you a visit in the absence of your Soul should propound to you The Little Negro by the various Motions he shall then impress upon your Gland and from thence upon the Animal Spirits and Muscles shall form without failure in your Mouth the Words that ought to be spoke and such Answers as the Questions shall demand And fear not he should make your Body speak any thing unbecoming of your Soul For I 'll say that for him Negro as he is he is no Fool. You may take yet an other way It is but leaving your Body in the Bed where it is and in the Trance you 'l put it by the taking Snush for the separating of your Soul That Trance which consists in slackning the Sensitive Nerves is not attended with any further trouble Mean while this little Negro shall make your Figure and shall so exactly Personate you as if your Soul had made no expedition And in that there'l be no difficuty no more than is in my appearing in the Formalities of a Friar and this Gentleman 's in the same Physiognomy and dress you us'd to see him as I have but just now explain'd it to you And to observe to you by the by you see the Cartesian Philosophy teaches without any Sin what Apollonius Thyanaeus and many other Magicians could not do without first giving themselves to the Devil The third and last Thing you have to do is To take a little of the Gentleman's Snush which he has brought you so we 'll hoise Sale and stand off for the Road that will bring us to M. Descartes Having return'd thanks to Father Mersennus for the Instructions and Light he was pleas'd to give me I assur'd him as for the first Article I durst undertake for that I had all along been somewhat Sceptical in point of School-Philosophy and that my Mind was free from the contagion of Prejudice that commonly is caught there And as to the Prejudices of Infancy the reading M. Descartes had taught me to distrust them And that whilst he was Discoursing I had arm'd my self with a fresh Resolution of assenting to nothing but what I should most distinctly conceive following M. Descartes's advice I forbore to mention another Resolution I had made which was To fore-arm my self at least as much against the Opinionativeness of the Cartesians as the ordinary Philosophers well knowing they were as much conceited as their Neighbours Touching his Directions that respected my Body in my Soul's Absence I closed with the second Proposal Seeing said I Reverent Father it seems more simple and feasible than the former I like it well quoth he since 't is one of our Maxims in any System to choose the most simple way and that which costs least Trouble However that was not the Reason that resolv'd me but because I thought therein less Danger and was not so firmly persuaded that my Body would be so expert and active in the Absence of my Soul as was pretended and also because the Instance of Brutes which was urged made little Impression on my Mind unable to discard those Prejudices a Soul capable of Sense and Reason had confirmed I desired Father Mersennus to give Orders to the Little Black to sute himself with my Peson to see if it would fit him Forth with it was done and I beheld another me at my Beds Feet as the Sosia of Amphitryon saw another Sosia before his Lady's Gate at his Return from the Camp only with this Difference that I at my Bed's Feet asked very courteously to me in the Bed whereas the Sosia who return'd from the Army was well oudgelled by himself Sosia who stood before the Gate of Alcmena I recommended to him above all the fast bolting of my Chamber door that no Body might enter and the frequent visiting my Body Day by Day and admonishing him to take Care it might always lye in a Convenient Posture Upon my old Sophister's presenting me a Dose of Snush I demanded if it was the True For I remembred I had heard a Story of one Apuleius that one Qui pro Quo metamorphosed into an Ass at the same Time he expected to become a Bird. He told me he carried but one sort and that there was no Danger of Mistaking I then presently took it and sneezed God bless me three or four Times with mighty Violence Hereupon I fell into a Swoon like that of M. Descartes I described before and in an instant my Soul by the only Act of the Will perceived her enlargement from the Body I intend not to enter upon the Retail of Reflections I made upon my Soul and on my Body when they were divorced from one another I will only say I began from that Moment to perceive the Strength of Prejudice and Conceit in obstructing the Knowledg of Truth and how wise and rational is the Advice M. Descartes and his Followers give precautioning us on that Respect and yet at the same time how little Care those Gentlemen had to make use of the Rules they prescribe to others For the first thing my Gentlemen would persuade me whether I would or not was that my Soul in the instant of Separation saw herself seated on the pineal Gland As I judged it unfitting to begin with them by a palpable Contradiction I made answer That the Separation was performed so heedlesly I had no Time to make that Observation What I said was true and was also the least disobliging Answer I could find for I perfectly remembred and was throughly convinc'd of what I had lately read in M. Stenon the great Anatomist who was a great admirer of M. Descartes and look'd upon him as the ingenious Contriver of a Novel Man Anatomie du cerveau but shew'd and prov'd by ocular Demonstration this Man of his a quite different Creature from that which God Created And that the pineal Gland has not the Situation much less is capable of those Motions attributed to it upon that Hypothesis That the Vessels with which it is encompassed are not Arteries which might supply it with the Matter of the Animal Spirits as M. Descartes supposes but only Veins that by consequence the Honour and Priviledge it has given it of being the Closet of the Soul is without Foundation and that perhaps it deserves not to be advanced upon any more considerable Employ it has above the other Glands whose Office is usually of no great Importance in an Animal Body These were my Thoughts though I kept them to my self and I was desirous as much as possible to accompany them in their Sentiments I first observed to them how Digestion was performed in my Body though my Soul was absent by the only Vertue of that Acid Humor in the Stomach which by
the Pineal Gland From all which Aristotle concluded That M. Descartes had better acknowledg with the wisest and least conceited of the Philosophers that the Relation the Soul had with the Body in the Perception of Objects was an incomprehensible Mystery to the Mind of Man That the manner of Objects acting on the Senses as also how their Action was carried to the Brain might be very well explained but that a Bar was put to all farther Progress unless a Man would run himself into an unintelligible Jargon or advance Propositions dangerous in themselves or in the Conclusions that might be deduced from them He went on in commending M. Descartes for his Integrity Lett. de Desc Tom. 1. Lett. 69. manifested in his declaring there was nothing in the Idea of a Soul or a Spirit that included an Impossibility of the Production of Motion by them and at once he blamed the Inconsiderateness of the Cartesians who fool-hardily advanced That no Creature whatsoever had the Power of producing Motion It is true adjoyned he with a little dash of Malice that Paradox as ill founded as it is is one of the Principal Pillars of the Cartesian System For without it how should an equal Quantity of Motion be kept up in the World where there are so many Souls so many Angels and so many Devils whose greatest Pastime it is to produce and create Hurly-burlies every Moment But M. Descartes is so much more Praise-worthy for preferring the Interests of Truth before those of his own System as dear and beloved as it was The next Article was upon that grand Paradox of M. Descartes In resp ad 5. object Let. 110. Tom. 1. That the Essences of Things and Truths commonly called necessary are not independent of God and that they are only eternal and immutable because God hath will'd it so That God is the total and efficient Cause of the Truth of Propositions That it was equally arbitrary for God to cause that it should be false that all the Lines drawn from the center to the Circumference should be equal as to create the World See then the Abridgment of what Aristotle spoke at length upon that Subject He said He did not well understand what was the Sense and Meaning of those Words God is the efficient and total Cause of the Truth of Propositions For the Truth of a Proposition since it is not a Being but a meer Relation of Conformity that it hath with its Object could not to speak properly have an efficient Cause and if in some Sense it might be said to have an efficient Cause that could be nothing but the Mind or Tongue of him that Frames and Pronounces the Proposition Again he demanded if M. Descartes spoke in general of all Necessary Truths or only of some Particulars He could not continued he speak of all For doubtless he did not believe that God was or had been able to make these Propositions false There is a God God is the free Cause of all Beings God is a necessary Being He must therefore only speak of Propositions relating to the Creatures because according as he expresses himself in one of his Letters Ibid. God is the Author of the Essence as well as the Existence of the Creatures But that he had made a Reflection That the Truths which respect the Essence of the Creatures have a necessary Connexion with those that appertain to the Essence of God and that if it was possible for the one to be false the other might be so too As for example this The Creature essentially depends on God is a Proposition belonging to the Essence of the Creature which if it could be false that other would fall into the same Circumstance God is the absolute Master and free Cause of all Beings for neither the one could be true without the other's being so nor could the one be false unless the other was likewise false Whereupon Aristotle advised M. Descartes to have a special Care lest the profound Respect he affected towards the Omnipotence of God should not only degenerate into Superstition but should proceed so far as to bring him to Blasphemous Conclusions After that Aristotle made a frank and honest Acknowledgment That Descartes had explain'd the Nature of most sensible Qualities in a siner and exacter way than he had done As of the Hardness of Bodies of Liquidity of the Power of the Elaverium of Cold of Heat c. And to manifest he had no other Concern than for the Interests of Truth he retracted without Ceremony his Position of the Eternity of the World and his Sphere of Fire But since that Sphere of Fire makes one of the principal Parts of the Peripatetick System and is one of the chief Ornaments of his World he presumed that M. Descartes could do no less than abandon all his Vortexes in Exchange against which he urged many Reasons But Voetius having understood from us that M. Descartes was ready to put his World in Execution and the Design of our Journey was that we might be Witnesses of that mighty Action he wrote a Postscript in the Margent in which he promis'd to submit himself to that Experience and supposing it should answer the Pretensions of M. Descartes his Vortexes should be received at least as a good Hypothesis for the explaining the Phenomena of the World which God hath made But he farther adjoyned That in case M. Descartes should fail in his Attempt he should be oblig'd thus far to condescend That his Physicks which turn for the most part upon those Hinges is an Edifice without Foundation And that he should rest contented with the Praise common to all the Leaders of a Sect viz. That his Philosophy had something that was Good and True in it and that he should avow with the rest of Mankind that to build a World and establish a System of Philosophy true in all its Principles and Conclusions was a Point the Mind of Man in its utmost Endeavours could never reach Lastly as to M. Descartes's Demonstrations touching the Existence of God the Rules of Motion and some other Opinions for which that Philosopher had engag'd a greater Zeal and Earnestness and which required a more through Discussion Aristotle proposed to him the pitching on some Neutral and Unprejudic'd Place where they might confer together before disinterested Arbitratours to whose Determinations they should submit themselves He concluded with a gracious Offer of associating him in the Empire of Philosophy upon those only Conditions compriz'd in that Project He admonish'd him to six some Bounds to his Ambition assuring him of the Vanity of his Hopes if he pursu'd to carry them any farther for that his own Authority was too well establish'd throughout all Europe to be indangered by the Enterprizes of a new Comer That almost all Universities and Colleges had renew'd the Oath of Allegiance to him and had made an Offensive and Defensive League against the New Philosophy That some Ladies