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
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
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