wicked Man or the Devil hath power over God for although one Part may have power over another yet not over Nature no more then one man can have power over all Mankind One Man or Creature may over-power another so much as to make him quit his natural form or figure that is to die and be dissolved and so to turn into another figure or creature but he cannot over-power all Creatures nay if he could and did yet he would not be an absolute destroyer and Creator but onely some weak and simple Transformer or rather some artificial disfigurer and misformer which cannot alter the world though he may disorder it But surely as there was always such a perpetual Motion in Nature which did and doth still produce and dissolve other Creatures which Production and Dissolution is nam'd birth and death so there is also a Motion which produces and dissolves Arts and this is the ordinary action and work of Nature which continues still and onely varies in the several ways or modes of dissolving and composing 6. Whether there be any Prime or Principal Figures in Nature and of the true Principles of Nature SOme are of opinion that the Prime or Principal figures of Nature are Globes or Globular figures as being the most perfect but I cannot conceive why a globular or spherical figure should be thought more perfect then any other for another figure may be as perfect in its kind as a round figure is in its kind for example we cannot say a Bird is a more perfect figure then a Beast or a Beast a more perfect figure then a Fish or Worm neither can we say Man is a more perfect figure then any of the rest of the Animals the like of Vegetables Minerals and Elements for every several sort has as perfect a figure as another according to the nature and propriety of its own kind or sort But put the case man's figure were more perfect then any other yet we could not say that it is the Principle out of which all other figures are made as some do conceive that all other figures are produced from the Globular or Spherical for there is no such thing as most or least perfect because there is no most nor least in Nature Others are of opinion that the Principle of all natural Creatures is salt and that when the World dissolves it must dissolve into salt as into its first Principle but I never heard it determined yet whether it be fixt or volatile salt Others again are of opinion that the first principle of all Creatures is Water which if so then seeing that all things must return into their first principle it will be a great hinderance to the conflagration of the world for there will be so much water produced as may chance to quench out the fire But if Infinite Nature has Infinite parts and those Infinite parts are of Infinite figures then surely they cannot be confined to one figure Sense and Reason proves that Nature is full of variety to wit of corporeal figurative motions which as they do not ascribe their original to one particular so neither do they end in one particular figure or creature But some will wonder that I deny any Part or Creature of Nature should have a supremacy above the rest or be called Prime or Principal when as yet I do say that Reason is the Prime Part of Nature To which I answer That when I say no Creature in Nature can be called Prime or Principal I understand Natural effects that is Natural composed Parts or Creatures as for example all those finite and particular Creatures that are composed of Life Soul and Body that is of the Animate both Rational and Sensitive and the Inanimate parts of Matter and none of those composed Creatures I mean has any superiority or supremacy above the rest so as to be the Principle of all other composed Creatures as some do conceive Water other Fire others all the four Elements to be simple bodies and the principles of all other Natural Creatures and some do make Globous bodies the perfectest figures of all others for all these being but effects and finite particulars can be no principles of their fellow-creatures or of Infinite Nature But when I say that Reason or the Rational part of Matter is the Prime Part of Nature I speak of the Principles of Nature out of which all other Creatures are made or produced which Principle is but one viz. Matter which makes all effects or Creatures of Nature to be material for all the effects must be according to their principle but this matter being of two degrees viz. animate and inanimate the animate is nothing but self-motion I call it animate matter by reason I cannot believe as some do that Motion is Immaterial there being nothing belonging to Nature which is not material and therefore corporeal self-motion or animate matter is to me one and the same and this animate matter is again subdivided into two degrees to wit the rational and sensitive the rational is the soul the sensitive the life and the inanimate the body of Infinite Nature all which being so intermixed and composed as no separation can be made of one from the other but do all constitute one Infinite and self-moving body of Nature and are found even in the smallest particles thereof if smallest might be said they are justly named the Principles of Nature whereof the rational animate matter or corporeal self-motion is the chief designer and surveigher as being the most active subtil and penetrating part and the sensitive the workman but the inanimate part of Matter being thorowly intermixed with this animate self-moving Matter or rather with this corporeal self-motion although it have no motion in it self that is in its own nature yet by vertue of the commixture with the animate is moving as well as moved for it is well to be observed that although I make a distinction betwixt animate and inanimate rational and sensitive Matter yet I do not say that they are three distinct and several matters for as they do make but one body of Nature so they are also but one Matter but as I mentioned before when I speak of self-motion I name it animate matter to avoid the mistake lest self-motion might be taken for immaterial for my opinion is that they are all but one matter and one material body of Nature And this is the difference between the cause or principle and the effects of Nature from the neglect of which comes the mistake of so many Authors to wit that they ascribe to the effects what properly belongs to the cause making those figures which are composed of the foresaid animate and inanimate parts of matter and are no more but effects the principles of all other Creatures which mistake causes many confusions in several mens brains and their writings But it may be they will account it paradoxical or absurd that I say Infinite Matter consists of
a faculty of knowing in every Creature do yet deny nay rail against Natures self-moving power condemning her as a dull inanimate senseless and irrational body as if a rational man could conceive that such a curious variety and contrivance of natural works should be produced by a senseless and irational motion or that Nature was full of immaterial spirits which did work Natural matter into such various figures or that all this variety should be caused by an Immaterial motion which is generated out of nothing and annihilated in a moment for no man can conceive or think of motion without body and if it be above thought then surely it is above act But I rather cease to wonder at those strange and irregular opinions of Man-kind since even they themselves do justifie and prove the variety of Nature for what we call Irregularities in Nature are really nothing but a variety of Natures motions and therefore if all mens conceits fancies and opinions were rational there would not be so much variety as there is Concerning those that say there is no variety in the Elemental Kingdom as Air Water and Earth Air and Water having no form at all unless a potentiality to be formed into globules and that the clods and parcels of Earth are all Irregular I answer This is more then Man is able to know But by reason their Microscopes cannot make such Hermaphroditical figures of the Elements as they can of Minerals Vegetables and Animals they conclude there is no such variety in them when as yet we do plainly perceive that there are several sorts of Air Fire Water Earth and no doubt but these several sorts and their particulars are as variously figured as other Creatures Truly it is no consequence to deny the being of that which we do not see or perceive for this were to attribute a Universal and Infinite knowledg to our weak and imperfect senses And therefore I cannot believe that the Omnipotent Creator has written and engraven his most mysterious Designs and Counsels onely in one sort of Creatures since all parts of Nature their various productions and curious contrivances do make known the Omnipotency of God not onely those of little but also those of great sizes for in all figures sizes and actions is apparent the curious variety of Nature and the Omnipotency of the Cretor who has given Nature a self-moving power to produce all these varieties in her self which varieties do evidently prove that Nature doth not work in all Creatures alike nor that she has but one Primary or Principal sort of motions by which she produces all Creatures as some do conceive the manner of wreathing and unwreathing which they have observed in the beard of a Wild-oat mentioned before to be the first foot step of sensation and animate motion and the most plain simple and obvious contrivance Nature has made use of to produce a motion next to that of rarefaction and condensation by heat and cold for this is a very wild and extravagant conceit to measure the infinite actions of Nature according to the rule of one particular sort of motions which any one that has the perfect use of his sense and reason may easily see and therefore I need not to bring many arguments to contradict it 16. Of the Providence of Nature and of some Opinions concerning Motion COncerning those that speak of the Providence of Nature the preserving of Vegetables to wit that Nature is very curious and careful in preserving their seminal principles and lays them in most convenient strong and delicate cabinets for their safer protection from outward danger I confess Nature may make such protections that one Creature may have some defence from the injuries and assaults of its fellow-Creatures but these assaults are nothing but dissolving motions as friendly and amiable associations are nothing else but composing motions neither can any thing be lost in Nature for even the least particle of Nature remains as long as Nature her self And if there be any Providence in Nature then certainly Nature has knowledg and wisdom and if she hath knowledg and wisdom then she has sense and reason and if sense and reason then she has self-motion and if Nature has self-motion then none of her parts can be called inanimate or soul-less for Motion is the life and soul of Nature and of all her parts and if the body be animate the parts must be so too there being no part of the animate body of Nature that can be dead or without motion whereof an instance might be given of animal bodies whose parts have all animal life as well as the body it self Wherefore those that allow a soul or an informing actuating and animating form or faculty in Nature and her parts and yet call some parts inanimate or soul-less do absolutely contradict themselves And those that say all the varieties of Nature are produced not by self-motion but that one part moves another must at last come to something that moves it self besides it is not probable that one part moving another should produce all things so orderly and wisely as they are in Nature But those that say Motion is no substance and consequently not material and yet allow a generation and annihilation of Motion speak in my opinion non-sence for first how can self-motion the Author and Producer of all things work all the varieties that are in Nature and be nothing it self Next how can that which is nothing for all that is not Material is nothing in Nature or no part of Nature be generated and annihilated Nay if Motion be Material as surely it is yet there can neither be a new generation nor an annihilation of any particular Motion in Nature for all that is material in Nature has its being in and from Infinite Matter which is from Eternity it being impossible that any other new Matter should be created besides this Infinite Matter out of which all natural things consist or that any part of this matter should be lost or annihilated But perhaps those that believe new generations and annihilations of particular motions may say that their opinion is not as if those particular Motions were generated out of some new matter but that the matter of such motions is the same with the matter of all other natural Creatures and that their perishing or annihilation is not an utter destruction or loss of their being out of Nature but onely of being such or such a motion like as some Vegetables and Elements are generated and perish in one night Truly if their meaning be thus then it were better to name it an alteration or change of Motion rather then a new Generation and a Perishing or Annihilation But my intention is not to plead for other mens opinions but rather to clear my own which is that Motion is material for Figure Motion and Matter are but one thing and that no particular Motion is or can be lost in Nature nor created anew as
but a Repetition of the same figure made by the same corporeal figurative motions and as there is a rational remembrance which is a repetition of the same figures made by the rational corporeal figurative motions so there is also a sensitive remembrance that is a repetition of the same figures made by the sensitive corporeal figurative motions For example I see an object the sensitive motions in the eye pattern out the figure of that object but as soon as the object is removed the perception is altered It may be I see the same object again in a dream or in a phrensie or the like distemper and then the same figure is repeated which was made first by the sensitive motions of the figure of the object when it was really present which is a sensitive remembrance whether the repetition be made after a Pattern or by rote although it is more proper to say that remembrance is onely a repetition of such figures as are made by rote then of those that are made after a Pattern for a repetition of those figures that are made after a Pattern is rather a present perception of a present object when as remembrance is of objects that are absent Q. 22. Whether the rational Parts can quit some Parts and join to others I answer Our sense and reason perceives they do or else there would be no Motion no Separation Composition Dilation Contraction Digestion Production Transformation Infancy Youth Age nor no Action in the World whatsoever And by this it also evident that as I said before particular rational and sensitive parts are not bound to move always together or to keep constantly to the same parts no not in the action of perception for though they most commonly work together when they move regularly yet many times they do not as for Example the sensitive do not always make perceptions of exterior objects but many times make figures by rote as 't is manifest in mad men and such as are in high Feavers and the like distempers which see or hear taste or smell such or such objects when none are present and the Rational Parts being regular do perceive both the sensitive figures made by rote and that there are no such exterior objects really present also the Rational parts make figures by rote and without any outward pattern but such voluntary figures cannot properly be named Perceptions by reason Perceptions are occasioned by outward objects but they are rather voluntary Conceptions Q. 23. If it be so that Parts can divide themselves from some Parts and join to other Parts Why may not the soul do the same and change its Vehicles that is leave such and take other Vehicles I answer Concerning the Natural soul of man which is part of Nature and consists of the purest and subtilest degree of matter which is the Rational it is without question that it is divideable and composeable because it is material and therefore subject to changes and transmutations But as for the supernatural soul because she is spiritual and consequently individable as having no parts and therefore not the propriety of a body which is to have figurative actions it cannot be said of her that she is subject to compositions divisions transmutations c. However put the case the supernatural soul should have those proprieties of a body although no body her self Yet there could be but one infinite soul in one infinite body and as the body did divide so the soul must of necessity do also otherwise one soul would have many bodies and some bodies would be soul-less which would cause a horrid confusion between souls and bodies Wherefore in my opinion Pythagoras's doctrine concerning the transmigration of souls or that one soul can take several bodies is as absurd as that one body can quit one place and acquire an other and so have more places then bodies which if it were thus we might with as much probability affirm that many bodies could be in one place and in the resurrection of bodies there would certainly arise a great dispute between several bodies for one soul and between several souls for one body especially if one body was particularly beloved of more then one soul all which would breed such a war between souls and bodies souls and souls and bodies and bodies that it would put all the world into a confusion and therefore my opinion is that Nature is but one onely infinite body which being self-moving is divideable and composeable and consists of infinite parts of several degrees which are so intermixt that in general they cannot be separated from each other or from the body of Nature and subsist single and by themselves Neither can it be otherwise unless Nature had several bodies but though she has infinite parts yet has she but one infinite body for parts and body are but one Corporeal self-moving self-living and self-knowing Nature And as for the degrees of animate and inanimate matter they are also but parts of that one body of Nature and the various and infinite knowledges perceptions lives c. considered in general are nothing else but the life knowledg and perception of the infinite body of Nature And from hence it follows that one man may have numerous souls as well as he has numerous parts and particles which as long as the whole figure of man lasts their functions and actions are according to the nature of that figure but when the figure of man dissolves which dissolution is nothing else but a change of those motions that were proper to the nature of its figure then all the parts of that figure if they be joined and composed with other parts and figures become not soul-less or life-less but because they consist all of a commixture of animate and inanimate matter they retain life and soul onely the actions of that life and soul are according to the nature of those figures which the parts of the animal body did change into Thus as I have mentioned in my Philosophical Letters no 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 And thus much of knowledg and perception which since it is not onely the ground of Natural Philosophy but a subject of a difficult Nature I have insisted somewhat longer upon it then I have done upon any other and endeavoured to clear it as well as I could so that now I hope all that I have declared hitherto will be sufficient to give the ingenious Reader a true information of my opinion thereof and a satisfactory answer to any other scruples that should happen to puzzle his brain I 'le add no more at this present but conclude with a brief repetition of those few Notes concerning the principles which by that small portion of Reason and Judgment that Nature has allowed me I have endeavoured to declare and prove in my
two parts viz. animate and inanimate and that the animate again is of two degrees rational and sensitive by reason the number of two is finite and a finite number cannot make one infinite whole which whole being infinite in bulk must of necessity also consist of infinite parts To which I answer My meaning is not that Infinite Nature is made up of two finite parts but that she consists out of a co-mixture of animate and inanimate Matter which although they be of two degrees or parts call them what you will yet they are not separated parts but make one infinite body like as life soul and body make but one man for animate matter is as I said before nothing else but self-motion which self-motion joyned with inanimate matter makes but one self-moving body which body by the same self-motion is divided into infinite figures or parts not separated from each other or from the body of Nature but all cohering in one piece as several members of one body and onely distinguished by their several figures every part whereof has animate and inanimate matter as well as the whole body Nay that every part has not onely sensitive but also rational matter is evident not onely by the bare motion in every part of Nature which cannot be without sense for wheresoever is motion there 's sense but also by the regular harmonious and well-ordered actions of Nature which clearly demonstrate that there must needs be reason as well as sense in every part and particle of Nature for there can be no order method or harmony especially such as appears in the actions of Nature without there be reason to cause that order and harmony And thus motion argues sense and the well-ordered motion argues Reason in Nature and in every part and particle thereof without which Nature could not subsist but would be as a dull indigested and unformed heap and Chaos Besides it argues that there is also knowledg in Nature and all her parts for wheresoever is sense and reason there is also sensitive and rational knowledg it being most improbable that such an exactly-ordered and harmonious consort of all the infinitely-various actions of Nature should be without any knowledg moving and acting producing transforming composing dissolving c. and not knowing how whether or why to move and Nature being infinite in her own substance as well as in her parts there in bulk here in number her knowledg in general must of necessity be infinite too but in her particulars it cannot but be finite and particular and this knowledg differs according to the nature of each figure or creature for I do not mean that this sense and knowledg I speak of is onely an animal sense and knowledg as some have mis-interpreted for animal sense and knowledg is but particular and belongs onely to that sort of Creatures which are Animals but I mean such sense and knowledg as is proper to the nature of each figure so that Animal Creatures have animal sense and knowledg Vegetables a vegetative sense and knowledg Minerals a mineral sense and knowledg and so of the rest of all kinds and sorts of Creatures And this is my opinion of the Principles of Nature which I submit to the examination of the ingenious and impartial Reader to consider whether it contains not as much probability as the opinion of those whose Principles are either Whirl-pools insensible Minima's Gas Blas and Archeus dusty Atomes thrusting backwards and forwards which they call reaction and the like or of those that make the ground and foundation of the knowledg of Nature artificial Experiments and prefer Art before Reason for my Principles and Grounds are sense and reason and if they cannot hold I know not what will for where sense and reason has no admittance there nothing can be in order but confusion must needs take place 7. Whether Nature be self-moving THere are some who cannot believe That any Man has yet made out how Matter can move it self but are of opinion that few bodies move but by something else no not Animals whose spirits move the nerves the nerves again the muscles and so forth the whole body But if this were so then certainly there must either be something else that moves the spirits or they must move of themselves and if the spirits move of themselves and be material then a material substance or body may move of it self but if immaterial I cannot conceive why a material substance should not be self-moving as well as an immaterial But if their meaning be that the Spirits do not move of themselves but that the Soul moves them and God moves the Soul then it must either be done by an All-powerful Command or by an Immediate action of God The later of which is not probable to wit that God should be the Immediate Motion of all things himself for God is an Immoveable and Immutable Essence wherefore it follows that it is onely done by an Omnipotent Command Will and Decree of God and if so Why might not Infinite Matter be decreed to move of it self as well as a Spirit or the Immaterial Soul But I perceive Man has a great spleen against self-moving corporeal Nature although himself is part of her and the reason is his Ambition for he would fain be supreme and above all other Creatures as more towards a divine Nature he would be a God if arguments could make him such at least God-like as is evident by his fall which came meerly from an ambitious mind of being like God The truth is some opinions in Philosophy are like the Opinions in several Religions which endeavouring to avoid each other most commonly do meet each other like Men in a Wood parting from one another in opposite ways oftentimes do meet again or like Ships which travel towards East and West must of necessity meet each other for as the learned Dr. Donn says the furthest East is West and the furthest West is East in the same manner do the Epicurean and some of our modern Philosophers meet for those endeavour to prove matter to be somewhat like a God and these endeavour to prove man to be something like God at least that part of man which they say is immaterial so that their several opinions make as great a noise to little purpose as the dogs barking or howling at the Moon for God the Author of Nature and Nature the servant of God do order all things and actions of Nature the one by his Immutable Will and All-powerful Command the other by executing this Will and Command the one by an Incomprehensible Divine and Supernatural Power the other in a natural manner and way for God's Will is obey'd by Natures self-motion which self-motion God can as easily give and impart to corporeal Nature as to an Immaterial Spirit but Nature being as much dividable as she is composeable is the cause of several opinions as well as of several other creatures for Nature is fuller
of variety then men of arguments which variety is the cause there are so many extravagant and irregular opinions in the world and I observe that most of the great and famous especially our modern Authors endeavour to deduce the knowledg of causes from their effects and not effects from their causes and think to find out Nature by Art not Art by Nature whereas in my opinion Reason must first consider the cause and then Sense may better perceive the effects Reason must judg Sense execute for Reason is the prime part of Nature as being the corporeal soul or mind of Nature But some are so much in love with Art as they endeavour to prove not onely Nature but also Divinity which is the knowledg of God by Art thus preferring Art before Nature when as Art is but Natures foolish changeling Child and the reason is that some parts of Nature as some Men not knowing all other parts believe there is no reason and but little sense in any part of Nature but themselves nay that it is irreligious to say that there is not considering that God is able to give Sense and Reason to Infinite Nature as well as to a finite part But those are rather irreligious that believe Gods power is confined or that it is not Infinite 8. Of Animal Spirits I am not of the opinion of those that place the cause of all Sense and Motion in the animal Spirits which they call the Purest and most aethereal particles of all bodies in the World whatsoever and the very top and perfection of all Natures operations For Animal Spirits in my opinion are no more then other effects of Nature onely they are not so gross as some but are parts of a most pure refined and rare sort of Inanimate Matter which being intermixed with the parts of Animate Matter and enlivened by them become very subtil and active I will not say that they are of the highest and last degree of Inanimate Matter nearest to the Animate as they do say they have the neerest alliance to spiritualities which in my opinion is as much as to say they are almost nothing or of the first degree of sensitive matter there being no such thing as first and last in Nature but that they are onely such pure and rare parts of Inanimate Matter as are not subject to the exterior perception of humane sense for example as the matter of respiration or the like for as there are Infinite parts of Inanimate Matter so there are also infinite degrees of strength weakness purity impurity hardness softness density rarity swiftness slowness knowledg ignorance c. as also several sorts and degrees of complexions statures constitutions humors wits understanding judgment life death and the like all which degrees although they be in and of the infinite body of Nature yet properly they belong to particular Creatures and have onely a regard to the several parts of Nature which being Infinite in number are also of Infinite degrees according to the Infinite changes of self-motion and the propriety and nature of each figure wherefore that opinion which makes Animal Spirits the prime or principal motion of all things and the chief Agent in Natures three Kingdoms Mineral Animal and Vegetable reduces Infinite Nature to a finite Principle whereas any one that enjoys but so much of humane sense and reason as to have the least perception or insight into Natural things may easily conceive that the Infinite effects of Nature cannot proceed from a finite particular cause nay I am firmly perswaded that they who believe any finite part to be the cause and Principle of Infinite self-moving Nature do in my opinion not onely sin against Nature but against God the Author of Nature who out of his Infinite bounty gave Nature the Power of self-motion But if any one desire to know what then the true cause and Principle of all Natures Creatures and Figures be I answer In my opinion it is not a Spirit or Immaterial substance but Matter but yet not the Inanimate part of Matter but the Animate which being of two degrees rational and sensitive both of them are the Infinite Life and Soul of the Infinite body of Nature and this Animate Matter is also the cause of all infinite works changes figures and parts of Nature as I have declar'd above more at large Now as great a difference as there is between Animate and Inanimate Body and Soul Part and Whole Finite and Infinite so great a difference there is also between the Animal Spirits and the Prime Agent or Movent of Nature which is Animate Matter or which is all one thing corporeal self-motion and as it would be paradoxical to make Inanimate Matter to be the cause of Animate or a part to be the cause of the whole whose part it is or a finite to be the cause of Infinite so paradoxical would it also be to make Animal Spirits the top and perfection of all Natures operations nay so far are they from being the Prime Movent of other bodies as they are but moved themselves for to repeat what I mentioned in the beginning Animal Spirits are onely some sorts of rare and pure Inanimate Matter which being thorowly intermixt with the animate parts of Matter are more active then some sorts of more dense and grosser parts of Inanimate Matter I say some for I do believe that some of the most solid bodies are as active as the most rare and fluid parts of Matter if not exteriously yet interiously and therefore we cannot say that rare and fluid parts are more active then fixt and solid or that fixt and solid are less active then fluid bodies because all parts are self-moving But if I was to argue with those that are so much for Animal Spirits I would ask them first whether Animal Spirits be self-moving If they say they are I am of their opinion and do infer thence that if animal spirits which are but a small part of Nature have self-motion much more has Nature her self But if not I would ask what gives them that motion they have If they say Nature then Nature must be self-moving Perchance they 'l say God moves Nature 'T is true God is the first Author of Motion as well as he is of Nature but I cannot believe that God should be the Prime actual Movent of all natural Creatures and put all things into local motion like as one wheel in a Clock turns all the rest for Gods Power is sufficient enough to rule and govern all things by an absolute Will and Command or by a Let it be done and to impart self-motion to Nature to move according to his order and decree although in a natural way Next I would ask whether any dead Creature have such Animal Spirits If they affirm it I am of their mind if not then I would ask what causes in dead bodies that dissolution which we see Thirdly I would ask whether those animal spirits
conceive them divided much less to separate them actually from each other and since Nature is one infinite body that is of an infinite bulk or extension and consists of animate and inanimate parts of Matter it must of necessity follow that these mentioned parts are infinite also for there is no particle of Nature whatever nay could it be an Atome that consists not of those mentioned parts or degrees Thus wheresoever I name Infinite degrees of Infinite Matter I call them Infinite not as divided or several but as united in one body producing infinite effects for as I said they make but one Infinite body of Nature Also when in my Philosophical Letters I say that the Animate part of Matter considered in it self could not produce Infinite effects without the Inanimate having nothing to work upon and withal some perhaps will think I contradict my self because in other places I have declared that the rational part of animate Matter works or makes figures in its own degree without the help either of the sensitive or inanimate besides it being matter or material why should it not be able to produce effects in it self as well as with other parts To which I answer my opinion is that the animate part of Matter by which I include the sensitive as well as the rational could not without the inanimate part of Matter produce such infinite variety of effects as Nature has and as are partly subject to our perception for without it there would be no grosser substance for the sensitive to work on nor nothing for the rational to direct besides there would be no such degrees of Matter as thicker and thinner rarer and denser c. nor no variety of figures nay were there no inanimate part of Matttr as well as animate all productions dissolutions and what actions soever would be done in an instant of time and a man or any other natural Creature would be produced as soon as a thought of the mind wherefore to poise or ballance the actions of Nature there must of necessity be an inanimate dull or passive degree of Matter as well as there is an animate active and self-moving and this triumvirate of the constitutive degrees of material nature is so necessary that Nature could not be what she is nor work such variety of figures as she doth without it When I say that Matter cannot know it self because it is infinite I do no not mean as if it had not selfknowledg for as Matter is self-moving so it is also self-knowing nay that the Inanimate part of Matter has also self-knowledg I have sufficiently declared heretofore but my meaning is that its knowledg cannot be limited or circumscribed and that it is an infinite natural self-knowledg Also when in the same place I say That Nature hath no free-will and that no change or alteration can be made in infinite and eternal Matter I mean concerning its own nature for Matter cannot go beyond its nature that is change from being Matter to something immaterial or from a natural being to a non-being nevertheless Nature in her particular actions works and changes her effects as she pleases and according to the wisdom and liberty God hath given her When I say that the sensitive animate part of Matter is the life of the rational soul I do not mean as if the rational part was not living as well as the sensitive but I speak comparatively in comparison to man who as he has humane life soul and body all three constituting or composing but one intire man so in the composition of Nature I name the Inanimate part the Body the Sensitive the Life and the Rational the Soul of Nature nevertheless all parts have life and knowledg for the inanimate although it is not selfmoving and has not an active life and a perceptive knowledg yet has it life and knowledg according to the nature of its degree that is an innate and fixt self-life and self-knowledg and the sensitive although it is not so subtile piercing and active a degree of self-moving Matter as the rational yet has it an active life and knowledg according to the Nature of its degree and it is well to be observed that each degree in their various commixtures do never change their natures for the sensitive doth not acquire a rational life and knowledg nor the rational a sensitive neither does the inanimate part get an active life and a perceptive knowledg for all they are so closely commixt but each retains the nature of its degree for as one part cannot be another part so one parts life and knowledg cannot become another parts life and knowledg or else it would produce a confusion in Nature and all her actions In what place soever both in my Philosophical Opinions and Letters I say that the inanimate part of Matter has neither life nor self-knowledg I mean it has not an active life and a perceptive self-knowledg such as the animate part of Matter has for though the inanimate part of Matter is moved yet it is not selfmoving but it moves by the help of the animate parts of Matter which by reason of their close and inseparable union and commixture bear it along in all their actions and operations and thus its motions or actions are onely passive not active Nevertheless although it has not self-motion yet may it have life and self-knowledg according to its own Nature for self-knowledg does not depend upon motion but is a fixt and innate being In short all parts or degrees of Matter are living and knowing but not all are self-moving but onely the animate When I say that all Matter lives in figures and Creatures and all figures and Creatures lie or live in Matter I mean that Infinite Matter moves figuratively and that all Creatures are composed by corporeal figurative motion for in what places soever of my Philosophical Works I say Figure and Motion I do not mean they are two several things distinct from body but I understand by it corporeal figurative motion or self-moving figurative Matter which is one and the same When I say That the Rational part of Matter lives in the Sensitive and the Sensitive in the Inanimate I do not mean that one lies within the other like as several Boxes are put together the lesser in the bigger but I use this expression onely to denote the close conjunction of these three degrees and that they are inseparably mixt together Concerning the Chapter of Vacuum in my Philosophical Opinions though I was doubtful then which opinion to adhere to yet I have sufficiently declared my meaning thereof in the foregoing observations to wit that there can be no vacuity in Natures body When I name six Principal Motions viz. Attraction Contraction Dilation Digestion Retention Expulsion I do not mean that they are the principles of all motions no more then a circular motion can be said the principle of all natural motions as
proper then Air and so the Vehicles of those souls that are in Purgatory cannot be airy but fiery and after this rate there can be but four places for humane souls to be in viz. Heaven Hell Purgatory and this World but as for Vehicles they are but fancies not real truths Then the Emperess asked them where Heaven and Hell was Your Saviour Christ answered the Spirits has informed you that there is Heaven and Hell but he did not tell you what nor where they are wherefore it is too great a presumption for you Mortals to inquire after it if you do but strive to get into Heaven it is enough though you do not know where or what it is for it is beyond your knowledg and understanding I am satisfied replied the Emperess and asked further whether there were any figures or characters in the Soul They answered where there was no body there could be no figure Then she asked them whether Spirits could be naked and whether they were of a dark or a light colour As for our nakedness it is a very odd question answered the Spirits and we do not know what you mean by a naked Spirit for you judg of us as of corporeal Creatures and as for Colour said they it is according to our Vehicles for Colour belongs to Body and as there is no Body that is colourless so there is no Colour that is bodiless Then the Emperess desired to be informed whether all souls were made at the first Creation of the World We know no more answered the Spirits of the origine of humane souls then we know of our selves She asked further whether humane bodies were not burthensome to humane souls They answered That bodies made Souls active as giving them motion and if action was troublesome to souls then bodies were so too She asked again whether souls did chuse bodies They answered That Platonicks believed the souls of Lovers lived in the bodies of their Beloved but surely said they if there be a multitude of souls in a world of Matter they cannot miss bodies for as soon as a soul is parted from one body it enters into another and souls having no motion of themselves must of necessity be cloathed or imbodied with the next parts of Matter If this be so replied the Emperess then I pray inform me whether all matter be soulified The Spirits answered They could not exactly tell that but if it was true that Matter had no other motion but what came from a spiritual power and that all matter was moving then no soul could quit a body but she must of necessity enter into another soulified body and then there would be two immaterial substances in one body The Emperess asked whether it was not possible that there could be two souls in one body As for immaterial souls answered the Spirits it is impossible for there cannot be two immaterials in one inanimate body by reason they want parts and place being bodiless but there may be numerous material souls in one composed body by reason every material part has a material natural soul for Nature is but one Infinite self-moving living and self-knowing body consisting of the three degrees of inanimate sensitive and rational Matter so intermixt together that no part of Nature were it an Atome can be without any of these three degrees the sensitive is the life the rational the soul and the inanimate part the body of Infinite Nature The Emperess was very well satisfied with this answer and asked further whether souls did not give life to bodies No answered they but Spirits and Divine Souls have a life of their own which is not partable being purer then a natural life for Spirits are incorporeal and consequently individable But when the Soul is in its Vehicle said the Emperess then me thinks she is like the Sun and the Vehicle like the Moon No answered they but the Vehicle is like the Sun and the Soul like the Moon for the Soul hath motion from the Body as the Moon has light from the Sun Then the Emperess asked the Spirits whether it was an evil Spirit that tempted Eve and brought all the mischiefs upon Mankind or whether it was the Serpent They answered That Spirits could not commit actual evils The Emperess said they might do it by perswasions They answered That Perswasions were actions but the Emperess not being contented with this answer asked whether there was not a supernatural Evil The Spirits answered That there was a supernatural Good which was God but they knew of no supernatural Evil that was equal to God Then she desired to know whether Evil Spirits were reckoned amongst the Beasts of the Field They answer'd That many Beasts of the field were harmless Creatures and very serviceable for Man's use and though some were accounted fierce and cruel yet did they exercise their cruelty upon other Creatures for the most part to no other end but to get themselves food and to satisfie their natural appetite but certainly said they you men are more cruel to one another then evil Spirits are to you and as for their habitations in desolate places we having no communion with them can give you no certain account thereof But what do you think said the Emperess of Good Spirits may not they be compared to the Fowls of the Air They answered There were many cruel and revenous Fowls as well in the Air as there were fierce and cruel Beasts on Earth so that the good are always mixt with the bad She asked further whether the fiery Vehicles were a Heaven or a Hell or at least a Purgatory to the Souls They answered That if the Souls were immaterial they could not burn and then fire would do them no harm and though Hell was believed to be an undecaying and unquenchable fire yet Heaven was no fire The Emperess replied That Heaven was a Light Yes saidthey but not a fiery Light Then she asked whether the different shapes and sorts of Vehicles made the Souls and other Immaterial Spirits miserable or blessed The Vehicles answered they make them neither better nor worse for though some Vehicles sometimes may have power over others yet these by turns may get some power gain over them according to the several advantages and disadvantages of particular natural parts The Emperess asked further whether animal life came out of the spiritual World and did return thither again The Spirits answered they could not exactly tell but if it were so then certainly animal lives must leave their bodies behind them otherwise the bodies would make the spiritual World a mixt World that is partly material and partly immaterial but the Truth is said they Spirits being immaterial cannot properly make a World for a World belongs to material not to immaterial Creatures If this be so replied the Emperess then certainly there can be no world of lives and forms without matter No answered the Spirits nor a world of Matter without lives and forms for
to be perceived the perception of the Sentient is an occasioned perception but whensoever either in dreams or in distempers the sensitive motions of the same Organ make such or such figures without any presentation of exterior objects then that action cannot properly be call'd an exterior perception but it is a voluntary action of the sensitive motions in the organ of sight not made after an outward pattern but by rote and of their own accord When I say That Ignorance is caused by division and knowledg by composition of parts I do not mean an interior innate self-knowledg which is and remains in every part and particle of Nature both in composition and division for wheresoever is matter there is life and self-knowledg nor can a part lose self-knowledg any more then it can lose life although it may change from having such or such a particular life and knowledg for to change and lose are different things but I mean an exterior perceptive knowledg of forreign parts caused by self-motion of which I say that as a union or combination of parts makes knowledg so a division or separation of parts makes Ignorance When I say There 's difference of Sense and Reason in the parts of one composed Figure I mean not as if there were different degrees of sense and different degrees of Reason in their own substance or matter for sense is but sense and reason is but reason but my meaning is That there are different sensitive and rational motions which move differently in the different parts of one composed Creature These are Courteous Reader the scruples which I thought might puzle your understanding in this present Work which I have cleared in the best manner I could and if you should meet with any other of the like nature my request is You would be pleased to consider well the Grounds of my Philosophy and as I desired of you before read all before you pass your Judgments and Censures for then I hope you 'l find but few obstructions since one place will give you an explanation of the other In doing thus you 'l neither wrong your self nor injure the Authoress who should be much satisfied if she could benesit your knowledg in the least if not she has done her endeavour and takes as much pleasure and delight in writing and divulging the Conceptions of her mind as perhaps some malicious persons will do in censuring them to the worst AN Argumental Discourse Concerning some Principal Subjects in Natural Philosophy necessary for the better understanding not onely of this but all other Philosophical Works hitherto written by the AUTHOEESSE WHen I was setting forth this Book of Experimental Observations a Dispute chanced to arise between the rational Parts of my Mind concerning some chief Points and Principles in Natural Philosophy for some New Thoughts endeavouring to oppose and call in question the Truth of my former Conceptions caused a war in my mind which in time grew to that height that they were hardly able to compose the differences between themselves but were in a manner necessitated to refer them to the Arbitration of the impartial Reader desiring the assistance of his judgment to reconcile their Controversies and if possible to reduce them to a setled peace and agreement The first difference did arise about the question How it came that Matter was of several degrees as Animate and Inanimate Sensitive and Rational for my latter thoughts would not believe that there was any such difference of degrees of Matter To which my former conceptions answered That Nature being Eternal and Infinite it could not be known how she came to be such no more then a reason could be given how God came to be for Nature said they is the Infinite Servant of God and her origine cannot be described by any finite or particular Creature for what is infinite has neither beginning nor end but that Natural Matter consisted of so many degrees as mentioned was evidently perceived by her effects or actions by which it appeared first that Nature was a self-moving body and that all her parts and Creatures were so too Next That there was not onely an animate or self-moving and active but also an inanimate that is a dull and passive degree of Matter for if there were no animate degree there would be no motion and so no action nor variety of figures and if no inanimate there would be no degrees of natural figures and actions but all actions would be done in a moment and the figures would all be so pure fine and subtil as not to be subject to any grosser perception such as our humane or other the like perceptions are This Inanimate part of Matter said they had no self-motion but was carried along in all the actions of the animate degree and so was not moving but moved which Animate part of Matter being again of two degrees viz. Sensitive and Rational the Rational being so pure fine and subtil that it gave onely directions to the sensitive and made figures in its own degree left the working with and upon the Inanimate part to the Sensitive degree of Matter whose Office was to execute both the rational parts design and to work those various figures that are perceived in Nature and those three degrees were so inseparably commixt in the body of Nature that none could be without the other in any part or Creature of Nature could it be divided to an Atome for as in the Exstruction of a house there is first required an Architect or Surveigher who orders and designs the building and puts the Labourers to work next the Labourers or Workmen themselves and lastly the Materials of which the House is built so the Rational part said they in the framing of Natural Effects is as it were the Surveigher or Architect the Sensitive the labouring or working part and the Inanimate the materials and all these degrees are necessarily required in every composed action of Nature To this my latter thoughts excepted that in probability of sense and reason there was no necessity of introducing an inanimate degree of Matter for all those parts which we call gross said they are no more but a composition of self-moving parts whereof some are denser and some rarer then others and we may observe that the denser parts are as active as the rarest for example Earth is as active as Air or Light and the parts of the Body are as active as the parts of the Soul or Mind being all self-moving as it is perceiveable by their several various compositions divisions productions and alterations nay we do see that the Earth is more active in the several productions and alterations of her particulars then what we name Coelestial Lights which observation is a firm argument to prove that all Matter is animate or self-moving onely there are degrees of motion that some parts move flower and some quicker Hereupon my former Thoughts answered that the difference consisted not
and subtil in their corporeal actions then the sensitive by reason they were of a purer and finer degree of Matter and free from labouring on the inanimate parts but withal they told them that the several different and opposite actions of Nature hindred each other from running into extreams And as for the degrees of Matter there could not possibly be more then Animate and Inanimate neither could any degree go beyond Matter so as to become immaterial The truth is said they to balance the actions of Nature it cannot be otherwise but there must be a Passive degree of Matter opposite to the active which passive part is that we call Inanimate for though they are so closely intermixt in the body of Nature that they cannot be separated from each other but by the power of God nevertheless sense and reason may perceive that they are distinct degrees by their distinct and different actions and may distinguish them so far that one part is not another part and that the actions of one degree are not the actions of the other Wherefore as several self-moving parts may be joined in one composed body and may either act differently without hinderance and obstruction to each other or may act jointly and agreeably to one effect so may the sensitive parts carry or bear along with them the inanimate parts without either transferring and communicating motion to them or without any co-operation or self-action of the inanimate parts and as for Matter as there can be no fewer degrees then Animate and Inanimate sensitive and rational so neither can there be more for as we mentioned heretofore were there nothing but animate or self-moving Matter in Nature the parts of Nature would be too active and quick in their several productions alterations and dissolutions and all things would be as soon made as thoughts Again were there no Inanimate degree of Matter the sensitive corporeal motions would retain the figures or patterns of exterior objects as the rational do which yet we perceive otherwise for so soon as the object is removed the sensitive perception is altered and though the sensitive parts can work by rote as in dreams and some distempers yet their voluntary actions are not so exact as their Exterior perceptive actions nor altogether and always so regular as the rational and the reason is that they are bound to bear the inanimate parts along with them in all their actions Also were there no degree of Inanimate Matter Natures actions would run into extreams but because all her actions are ballanced by opposites they hinder both extreams in Nature and produce all that Harmonious variety that is found in Natures parts But said my later Thoughts wheresoever is such an opposition and crossing of actions there can be no harmony concord or agreement and consequently no orderly productions dissolutions changes and alterations as in Nature we perceive there be The former answered That though the actions of Nature were different and opposite to each other yet they did cause no disturbance in Nature but they were ruled and governed by Natures wisdom for Nature being peaceable in her self would not suffer her actions to disturb her Government wherefore although particulars were crossing and opposing each other yet she did govern them with such wisdom and moderation that they were necessitated to obey her and move according as she would have them but sometimes they would prove extravagant and refractory and hence came that we call Irregularities The truth is said they contrary and opposite actions are not always at war for example two men may meet each other contrary ways and one may not onely stop the other from going forward but even draw him back again the same way he came and this may be done with love and kindness and with his good will and not violently by power and force The like may be in some actions of Nature Nevertheless we do not deny but there is many times force and power used between particular parts of Nature so that some do over-power others but this causes no disturbance in Nature for if we look upon a well-ordered Government we find that the particulars are often at strife and difference with each other when as yet the Government is as orderly and peaceable as can be My later thoughts replied That although the several and contrary actions in Nature did not disturb her Government yet they moving severally in one composed figure at one and the same time proved that Motion Figure and Body could not be one and the same thing The former answered That they had sufficiently declared heretofore that Matter was either moving or moved viz. That the Animate part was self-moving and the Inanimate moved or carried along with and by the Animate and these degrees or parts of Matter were so closely intermixt in the body of Nature that they could not be separated from each other but did constitute but one body not onely in general but also in every particular so that not the least part if least could be nay not that which some call an Atome was without this commixture for wheresoever was Inanimate there was also Animate Matter which Animate Matter was nothing else but corporeal self-motion and if any difference could be apprehended it was said they between these two degrees to wit the Animate and Inanimate part of Matter and not between the animate part and self-motion which was but one thing and could not so much as be conceived differently and since this Animate Matter or corporeal self-motion is thorowly intermixt with the Inanimate parts they are but as one body like as soul and body make but one man or else it were impossible that any Creature could be composed consist or be dissolved for if there were Matter without Motion there could be no composition or dissolution of such figures as are named Creatures nor any if there were Motion without Matter or which is the same an Immaterial Motion For can any part of reason that is regular believe that that which naturally is nothing should produce a natural something Besides said they Material and Immaterial are so quite opposite to each other as 't is impossible they should commix and work together or act one upon the other nay if they could they would make but a confusion being of contrary natures Wherefore it is most probable and can to the perception of Regular sense and reason be no otherwise but that self-moving Matter or corporeal figurative self-motion does act and govern wisely orderly and easily poising cr ballancing extreams with proper and fit oppositions which could not be done by immaterials they being not capable of natural compositions and divisions neither of dividing Matter nor of being divided In short although there are numerous corporeal figurative motions in one composed figure yet they are so far from disturbing each other that no Creature could be produced without them and as the actions of retention are different from the actions of
and disordered when as yet sense and reason may perceive that Nature works both easily and orderly and therefore I rather believe that as all other Creatures so also light is patterned out by the corporeal figurative and perceptive motions of the optick sense and not that its perception is made by its'entrance into the eye or by pressure and reaction or by confused mixtures by reason the way of Patterning is an easie alteration of parts when as all others are forced and constrained nay unsetled inconstant and uncertain for how should the fluid particles of air and light be able to produce a constant and setled effect being so changeable themselves what instances soever of Geometrical figures be drawn hither to evince it if Man knew Natures Geometry he might perhaps do something but his artificial figures will never find out the architecture of Nature which is beyond his perception or capacity But some may object That neither colour nor any other object can be seen or perceived without light and therefore light must needs be the cause of colours as well as of our optick perception To which I answer Although we cannot regularly see any other bodies without light by reason darkness doth involve them yet we perceive darkness and night without the help of light They will say We perceive darkness onely by the absence of light I answer If all the Perception of the optick sense did come from light then the Perception of night or darkness would be no perception at all which is a Paradox and contrary to common experience nay to sense and reason for black requires as much Perception as white and so doth darkness and night Neither could we say it is dark or it is night if we did not perceive it to be so or had no perception at all of it The truth is we perceive as much darkness as we do light and as much black as we do white for although darkness doth not present to our view other objects so as light doth but conceals them yet this doth not infer that darkness is not perceived for darkness must needs do so by reason it is opposite to light and its corporeal figurative motions are quite contrary to the motions of light and therefore it must also of necessity have contrary effects wherefore the error of those that will not allow darkness to be a corporeal figurative motion as well as light but onely a privation or absence of light cannot make it nothing but it is on the contrary well known that darkness has a being as well as light has and that it is something and not nothing by reason we do perceive it but he that perceives must needs perceive something for no perception can be of nothing besides I have declared elsewhere that we do see in dreams and that mad men see objects in the dark without the help of light which proves it is not the presence or entering of light into the eye that causes our seeing nor the absence of light which takes away our optick Perception but light onely doth present exterior objects to our view so as we may the better perceive them Neither is a colour lost or lessened in the dark but it is onely concealed from the ordinary perception of humane sight for truly if colours should not be colours in the dark then it might as rationally be said that a man's flesh and blood is not flesh and blood in the dark when it is not seen by a humane eye I will not say that the smalness and fineness of parts may not make colours appear more glorious for colours are like artificial Paintings the gentler and finer their draughts and lines are the smoother and glossier appear their works but smalness and fineness is not the true cause of colours that is it doth not make colours to be colours although it makes colours fine And thus black is not black through the absence of Light no more then white can be white by the presence of light but blackness is one sort of colour whiteness another redness another and so of the rest Whereof some are superficial and changeable to wit such as are made by the reflection of light others fixt and inherent viz. such as are in several sorts of Minerals Vegetables and Animals and others again are produced by Art as by Dying and Painting which Artists know best how to order by their several mixtures 19. Of the Pores of a Charcoal and of Emptiness ALthough I cannot believe that the absence of Light in the Pores of a Charcoal is the cause of its blackness yet I do not question the truth of its Pores for that all or most Creatures have Pores I have declared before which Pores are nothing else but passages to receive and discharge some parts of matter and therefore the opinion of those that believe an entering of some Particles of exterior bodies through the Pores of animal Creatures and an intermixing with their interior parts as that for example in the bathing in Mineral Waters the liquid and warm vehicles of the Mineral Particles do by degrees insinuate themselves into the pores of the skin and intermix with the inner parts of the body is very rational for this is a convenient way of conveighing exteterior parts into the body and may be effectual either to good or bad and although the pores be very small yet they are numerous so that the number of the pores supplies the want of their largeness But yet although Pores are passages for other bodies to issue or enter nevertheless they are not empty there being no such thing as an emptiness in Nature for surely God the fulness and Perfection of all things would not suffer any Vacuum in Nature which is a Pure Nothing Vacuum implies a want and imperfection of something but all that God made by his All-powerful Command was good and perfect Wherefore although Charcoals and other bodies have Pores yet they are fill'd with some subtile Matter not subject to our sensitive perception and are not empty but onely call'd so by reason they are not fill'd up with some solid and gross substance perceptible by our senses But some may say if there be no emptiness in Nature but all fulness of body or bodily parts then the spiritual or divine soul in Man which inhabits his body would not have room to reside in it I answer The Spiritual or Divine Soul in Man is not Natural but Supernatural and has also a Supernatural way of residing in man's body for Place belongs onely to bodies and a Spirit being bodiless has no need of a bodily place But then they will say That I make Spirit and Vacuum all one thing by reason I describe a Spirit to be a Natural Nothing and the same I say of Vacuum and hence it will follow that particular Spirits are particular Emptinesses and an Infinite Spirit an Infinite Vacuum My answer is That although a Spirit is a Natural nothing yet it is
ingenuity and learning in the least but onely to shew by the difference of their opinions and mine that mine are not borrowed from theirs as also to make mine the more intelligible and clear and if possible to find out the truth in Natural Philosophy for which were they alive I question not but I should easily obtain their pardon 1. Vpon the Principles of Thales THales according to Historical Relation was the first that made disquisitions upon Nature and so the first Natural Philosoper His chief points in Philosophy are these 1. He says That Water is the Principle of all natural bodies 2. That Nature is full of Daemons and spiritual substances 3. That the Soul is a self-moving Nature and that it both moves it self and the body 4. That there is but one World and that finite 5. That the World is animate and God is the soul thereof diffused through every Part 6. That the World is contained in a place 7. That Bodies are divisible into infinite Concerning the First viz. That Water is the Principle of all natural things Helmont doth embrace this opinion as I have declared in my Philosophical Letters and in the foregoing part of this Book and have given withal my reasons why water cannot be a principle of natural things because it is no more but a natural effect for though humidity may be found in many parts or Creatures of Nature yet this doth not prove that water is a principle of all natural bodies no more then fire earth air or any other Creature of Nature and though most Philosophers are of opinion that Elements are simple bodies and all the rest are composed of them yet this is no ways probable to reason because they consist of the same matter as other bodies do and are all but effects of one cause or principle which is infinite Matter Next That Nature is full of Daemons or Spiritual substances is against sense and reason for what is incorporeal is no part of Nature and upon this account the soul cannot be immaterial although he makes her to be a self-moving Nature for what has a natural motion has also a natural body because Matter and Motion are but one thing neither can a Spiritual substance move a corporeal they being both of different natures As for the World That there is but one I do willingly grant it if by the World he did mean Nature but then it cannot be finite But Thales seems to contradict himself in this Theoreme when as he grants that Bodies are divisible in infinite for if there be infinite actions as infinite divisions in Nature then surely the body of Nature it self must be infinite Next he says That God is the Soul of the World which if so God being Infinite he cannot have a Finite body to animate it for a Finite Body and an Infinite Soul do never agree together but that God should be the Soul of the World no regular Reason can allow because the Soul of Nature must be corporeal as well as the Body for an incorporeal substance cannot be mixed with a corporeal Next the World as the body of Nature being dividable it would follow that God which is the Soul would be dividable also Thirdly Every part of the world would be a part of God as partaking of the same nature for every part if the Soul be diffused through all the Body would be animate Lastly Concerning Place as that the World is contained in a place my opinion is that place is nothing else but an affection of body and in no ways different or separable from it for wheresoever is body or matter there is place also so that place cannot be said to contain the world or else it would be bigger then the world it self for that which contains must needs in compass or extent exceed that which it contains 2. Some few Observations on Plato's Doctrine 1. PLato says That Life is two fold Contemplative and Active and that Contemplation is an office of the Intellect but Action an operation of the Rational soul To which I answer first That I know no other difference between Intellect and Reason but that Intellect is an effect or rather an Essential Propriety of Reason if Reason be the Principle of Nature for the Rational part is the most Intelligent part of animate Matter Next I say That Contemplation is as much an action as any other action of Nature although it be not so gross as the action of the body for it is onely an action of the mind which is more pure and subtile then either the sensitive or inanimate parts of matter are and acts within it self that is in its own substance or degree of Matter 2. He says That Sense is a passion of the Soul I answer There is as much difference between Sense and the Soul as there is between Sense and Reason or a sensitive life and a rational soul for the Rational parts of Matter are not the Sensitive nor the Sensitive the Rational a Fool may have his sense regular and his reason irregular and therefore sense and reason are not one and the same although they have an inseparable Communion in the body or substance of Nature 3. He argues thus That which moves in it self as being the principle of Motion in those things which are moved is always moved and consequently Immortal Ungenerable and Incorruptible but the Soul is so Ergo c. I answer Natural Matter being thus self-moving is the same 4. From says he is joined to Matter I answer Form and Matter are but one thing for it is impossible to separate Matter from Form or Form from Matter but what is not dividable is not composable and what cannot be separated cannot be joined 5. Qualities says he are incorporeal because they are accidents I answer If Qualities be Incorporeal they do not belong to Nature for since the Principle of Nature is Matter all that is natural must also be material or corporeal and therefore all natural qualities or accidents must of necessity be corporeal by reason quality can no more be divided from Matter then figure magnitude colour place and the like all which are but one and the same with body without any separation or abstraction 6. What Plato affirms of that which never is and never had a Beginning and of that which has a Beginning and not a Being is more then he or any body can rationally prove for what never was nor is no man can know or imagine because all what is known or imagined has its real being if not without yet within the Mind and all thoughts have not onely a being but a material being in Nature nay even the Thought of the existence of a Deity although Deity it self is Immaterial 7. I wonder so witty a Philosopher as Plato can believe that Matter in it self as it is the Principle of Nature is void of all form for he affirms himself That whatsoever hath parts hath also figure but Matter
has parts by reason there can be no single part in Nature but wheresoever is body or matter there are parts also and therefore matter cannot be void of figure But if by Form he mean the innate and inherent self-motion of Matter he contradicts himself for how can all things be made of matter as their principle if matter be destitute of self-motion Wherefore Infinite Matter has not onely self-motion but also figure though not a circumscribed or limited figure Neither can it be proved that Nature being infinite is not qualitative no more then she can be proved to have no parts or to be finite In short it is impossible for my reason to believe that Matter should be capable of and subject to all forms and yet be void of all quality form and species for whatsoever has neither form figure nor quality is no body and therefore Plato's Matter is immaterial or incorporeal If it were possible that there could be some converse or meeting between his and my soul I would ask his soul how he would prove that one and the same thing could exist and not exist at one and the same time that is how matter could be no matter or something and nothing at the same time and whence it came to be thus For though our reason does believe that the Omnipotent Creator can make something of nothing and reduce something into nothing yet no reason is able to comprehend how God could make a being which is neither something nor nothing neither corporeal nor incorporeal But Plato concludes that Matter is destitute of all form because it is subject to change of forms and figures in its particulars which is a very great mistake for the changes of forms or figures do not alter the nature of Matter but prove rather that wheresoever there is form or figure there is matter also so that none can be without the other at no time A piece of Wax may be transformed into millions of figures but it can never be deprived of all figure no more can Matter 8. Concerning Ideas Plato's Opinion is That they are Principles of Nature and the Eternal Notions of God perfect in themselves or an External exemplar of things which are according to Nature But I would ask him what Notions are and whence they come and if they be pictures or patterns of all things in Nature What makes or causes them He will say They are the Thoughts of God But what Creature in the Universe is able to describe the Thoughts or Notions of God For though I do humbly acknowledg God to be the Author of Nature and with the greatest reverence and fear adore that Infinite Deity yet I dare not attribute any Notions or Ideas to God nor in any manner or way express him like our humane condition for I fear I should speak irreverently of that Incomprehensible Essence which is above all finite Capacity Reason or Idea Next he says That those Ideas are not of things made by Art nor of singulars nor of preternatural accidents as diseases nor of vile and abject things nor of Relatives Which if so I would enquire whence those effects do proceed for if the Eternal Ideas according to his opinion are Principles of all natural things they must also be principles of the aforementioned effects they being also natural If they do not proceed from any principle they must proceed from themselves which cannot be by reason they are effects of Nature but if they have another principle besides the Eternal Notions or Ideas then there must be another power besides these which power would oppose the divine power or the power God has endued Nature withal In short If the Ideas of God be the Principle of Nature they must be a principle of all natural things for that which is not Universal can never be a principle which if so then the Ideas or Notions of God would not onely be the Cause and Principle of all Goodness but of all evil effects and if there be more wicked or evil souls in the World then good ones there would proceed more evil from God then good which is not onely impossible but impious to affirm But Perchance he will say That the Ideas of the aforementioned effects are generated and annihilated I answer As for Nature she being Eternal and Infinite is not subject to new generations and annihilations in her particulars neither can Principles be generated and annihilated and as for supernatural or immaterial Ideas they being incorporeal cannot be subject to a new generation or annihilation for what is supernatural is not capable of natural affections nor subject to a natural capacity any ways In truth Plato with his Ideas in God in the Angelick Mind in the Soul c. makes a greater stir then needs and breeds more confusion in Nature then she really knows of for Nature is as easie to be understood in her general principles that regular sense and reason may conceive them without framing any such Ideas or Minds He distinguishes also the Idea or exemplar of an house which the architect has in his mind and as his pattern exactly strives to imitate from the building or structure of the house it self by this that he calls that intelligible but this material and sensible when as yet the form or pattern in the Architects mind is as much material as the builded house it self the onely difference is that the Exemplar or figure in the Mind is formed of the rational matter onely which is the purest finest and subtilest degree and the other is made of grosser materials 9. The Soul of the World he makes immaterial but the body material and hence he concludes the World to be Eternal because the soul is such which is not capable to be without body and although it be incorporeal yet its office is to rule and govern corporeal Nature But concerning the Soul of Nature I have sufficiently declared my opinion thereof in other places to wit that it is impossible she should be immaterial for if the body of Nature be dividable and composable the soul must be so too but that which is not material cannot admit of division nor composition wherefore the soul cannot be immaterial or else some parts of the world would be destitute of a soul which might deserve it as well as the rest which would argue a partiality in the Creator I wonder wise men will attribute bodily affections to immaterial beings when as yet they are not able to conceive or comprehend them by which they confound and disturb Nature which knows of no Immaterials but her Essence is Matter 10. As for his Ethicks where he speaks of Beauty Strength Proportion c. I 'le onely say this That of all these there are different sorts for there 's the strength of the Mind and the strength of the Body and these are so various in their kinds and particulars that they cannot be exactly defined also Beauty considering onely that which is
destroyed what will become of the Soul I will not say That the All-powerfull God may not destroy it when he pleases but the infiniteness and perpetual self-motion of Nature will not permit that Nature should be corruptible in it self for God's Power goes beyond the power of Nature But it seems Pythagoras understands by the World no more then his senses can reach so that beyond the Celestial Orbs he supposes to be an infinite Vacuum which is as much as to say an infinite Nothing and my reason cannot apprehend how the World can breath and respire into nothing and out of nothing 5. Neither am I able to conceive the Truth of his assertion That all lines are derived from points and all numbers from unity and all figures from a circle for there can be no such thing as a single point a single unity a single circle in Nature by reason Nature is infinitely dividable and composable neither can they be principles because they are all but effects 6. Concerning the Soul the Pythagoreans call her a self-moving number and divide her into two parts rational and irrational and derive the beginning of the soul from the heat of the brain The Sould of Animate Creatures as they call them they allow to be rational even those which others call irrational to wit those in all other animals besides man but they act not according to reason for want of speech The Rational Soul say they is immortal and a self-moving number where by number they understand the Mind which they call a Monad These and the like opinions which Pythagoreans have of the Soul are able to puzle Solomons wit or understanding to make any conformity of Truth of them and I will not strictly examine them but set down these few Paradoxes 1. I cannot apprehend how the same soul can be divided into substances of such differing nay contrary proprieties and natures as to be rational and irrational mortal and immortal 2. How the heat of the brain can be the Principle of the soul since the soul is said to actuate move and inform the body and to be a Principle of all bodily actions Besides all brains have not the like Temperament but some are hot and some cold and some hotter then others whence it will follow that all animals are not endued with the like souls but some souls must of necessity be weaker and some stronger then others 3. How Irrational Creatures can have a Rational Soul and yet not act according to Reason for want of speech for Irrational Creatures are called so because they are thought to have no reason and as for speech it is an effect and not a Principle of Reason for shall we think a dumb man irrational because he cannot speak 4. I cannot conceive how it is possible that the soul is a self-moving number and yet but a Monad or Unite for a Unite they say is no number but a principle of number Not how the Soul being incorporeal can walk in the air like a body for incorporeal beings cannot have corporeal actions no more then corporeal beings can have the actions of incorporeals Wherefore I will leave those points to the examination of more Learned Persons then my self and as for the Pythagorean Transmigration of Souls I have declared my opinion thereof heretofore in the first part 4. Of Epicurus his Principles of Philosophy 1. COncerning the World Epicurus is of opinion That it is not Eternal and Incorruptible but that it was generated and had a beginning and shall also have an end and perish For says he It is necessary that all compounded things be also dissipated and resolved into those things of which they were compounded By the World he understands a portion of the universe that is the circumference of Heaven containing the Stars the Earth and all things visible For Heaven he supposes to be the extreme or outmost part of the World and by the Universe he understands Infinite Nature which consists of Body and Vacuum for he thinks bodies could not move were there no Vacuum to move in Whereof I do briefly declare my opinion thus If the Universe or Nature it self be Infinite Eternal and Incorruptible all parts of Nature or the Universe must be so too I mean in themselves as they are Matter or Body for were it possible that some of them could perish or be annihilated the Universe would be imperfect and consequently not infinite as wanting some parts of its own body 'T is true particular natural figures may be infinitely changed dissolved transformed but they can never be dissolved from being Matter or parts of Nature and if not they cannot perish no not the figures of finite parts for as Matter cannot perish so neither can figure because matter and figure are but onething and though one part be transformed into millions of figures yet all those figures do not perish in their changes and alterations but continue still in Nature as being parts of Nature and therefore material Thus change alteration dissolution division composition and all other species of motions are no annihilation or perishing neither can it be proved that parts dissolve more then they unite because dissolution or division and composition of parts are but one act for whensoever parts separate themselves from some they must of necessity join to others which doth also prove that there can be no Vacuum in Nature for if there were there would be division without composition besides there would be no parts but all parts would be several wholes by reason they would subsist by themselves Thus Nature would not be one infinite body composed of Infinite parts but every part being a whole by it self would make some kind of a finite world and those parts which separate themselves from each other by the intervals of Vacuum would subsist precised from each other as having no relation to one another and so become wholes of parts nay if several of those intire and single bodies should join closely together they would make such a gap of Vacuum as would cause a confusion and disturbance both amongst themselves and in the Universe Wherefore sense and reason contradicts the opinion of Vacuum neither is there any necessity of introducing it by reason of the motion of natural bodies for they may move without Vacuum better then within Vacuum since all bodies are not of the like Nature that is dense close or compact but there are fluid bodies as well as hard bodies rare as well as dense subtile as well as gross because there is animate and inanimate matter in Nature But concerning the World it seems Epicurus doth not mean by the dissolution of the world an absolute annihilation but onely a reduction into its former principles which are Atomes however if this be his meaning he contradicts himself when he affirms that the universe whose portion the World is was ever such as it is now and shall ever be thus for if it shall continue so for
ever as it is now how is it possible that it should be reduced into Atomes He says also That the Vniniverse is immovable and immutable If he mean it to be so in its Essence or Nature so that it cannot be changed from being material and that it is immovable so that it cannot be moved beyond or without it self I am of his opinion For Nature being purely and wholly material cannot be made immaterial without its total destruction and being infinite has nothing without it self to move into Otherwise Nature is not onely a self-moving body but also full of changes and varieties I mean within her self and her particulars As for his infinite Worlds I am not different from his opinion if by Worlds he mean the parts of infinite Nature but my Reason will not allow that those infinite Worlds do subsist by themselves distinguished from each other by Vacuum for it is meer non-sense to say the Universe consists of body and Vacuum that is of something and nothing for nothing cannot be a constitutive principle of any thing neither can it be measured or have corporeal dimensions for what is no body can have no bodily affections or properties God by his Omnipotency may reduce the World into nothing but this cannot be comprehended by natural reason 2. The Matter or Principle of all natural Beings Epicurus makes Atomes For say he There are Simple and Compounded bodies in the Universe the Simple bodies are the first matter out of which the Compounded bodies consist and those are Atomes that is bodies indivisible immutable and in themselves void of all mutation consisting of several infinite figures some bigger and some less Which opinion appears very Paradoxical to my reason for if Atomes be bodies I do not see how they can be indivisible by reason wheresoever is body there are also parts so that divisibility is an essential propriety or attribute of Matter or Body He counts it impossible that one finite part should be capable of infinite divisions but his Vacuum makes him believe there are single finite parts distinguished from each other by little spaces or intervals of vacuity which in truth cannot be but as soon as parts are divided from such or such parts they immediately join to other parts for division and composition as I mentioned before are done by one act and one countervails the other 'T is true there are distinctions of parts in Nature or else there would be no variety but these are not made by little intervals of vacuity but by their own figures interior as well as exterior caused by self-motion which make a difference between the infinite parts of Nature But put the case there were such Atomes out of which all things are made yet no man that has his sense and reason regular can believe they did move by chance or at least without sense and reason in the framing of the world and all natural bodies if he do but consider the wonderful order and harmony that is in Nature and all her parts Indeed I admire so witty and great a Philosopher as Epicurus should be of such an extravagant opinion as to divide composed bodies into animate and inanimate and derive them all from one Principle which are senseless and irrational Atomes for if his Atomes out of which all things consist be self-moving or have as he says some natural impulse within themselves then certainly all bodies that are composed of them must be the same He places the diversity of them onely in figure weight and magnitude but not in motion which he equally allows to all nay moreover he says that although they be of different fifiures weight and magnitude yet they do all move equally swift but if they have motion they must of necessity have also sense that is life and knowledg there being no such thing as a motion by chance in Nature because Nature is full of reason as well as of sense and wheresoevever is reason there can be no chance Chance is onely in respect to particulars caused by their ignorance for particulars being finite in themselves can have no Infinite or Universal knowledg and where there is no Universal knowledg there must of necessity be some ignorance Thus ignorance which proceeds from the division of parts causes that which we call chance but Nature being an infinite self-moving body has also infinite knowledg and therefore she knows of no chance nor is this visible World or any part of her made by chance or a casual concourse of senseless and irrational Atomes but by the All-powerful Decree and Command of God out of that pre-existent Matter that was from all Eternity which is infinite Nature for though the Scripture expresses the framing of this World yet it doth not say that Nature her self was then created but onely that this world was put into such a frame and state as it is now and who knows but there may have been many other Worlds before and of another figure then this is nay if Nature be infinite there must also be infinite Worlds for I take with Epicurus this World but for a part of the Universe and as there is self-motion in Nature so there are also perpetual changes of particulars although God himself be immovable for God acts by his All-powerful Decree or Command and not after a natural way 3. The Soul of Animals says Epicurus is corporeal and a most tenuious and subtile body made up of most subtile particles in figure smooth and round not perceptible by any sense and this subtile contexture of the soul is mixed and compounded of four several natures as of something fiery something aerial something flatuous and something that has no name by means whereof it is indued with a sensitive faculty And as for reason that is likewise compounded or little bodies but the smoothest and roundest of all and of the quickest motion Thus he discourses of the Soul which I confess surpasses my understanding for I shall never be able to conceive how senseless and irrational Atomes can produce sense and reason or a sensible and rational body such as the soul is although he affirms it to be possible 'T is true different effects may proceed from one cause or principle but there is no principle which is senseless can produce sensitive effects nor no rational effects can flow from an irrational cause neither can order method and harmony proceed from chance or confusion and I cannot conceive how Atomes moving by chance should onely make souls in animals and not in other bodies for if they move by chance and not by knowledg and consent they might by their conjunction as well chance to make souls in Vegetables and Minerals as in Animals 4. Concerning Perception and in particular the Perception of sight Epicurus affirms that it is performed by the gliding of some images of external objects into our eyes to wit that there are certain effluxions of Atomes sent out from the surfaces of bodies preserving
Aristotle makes the Principles of Nature Matter Form and Privation and leaves out the chief which is Motion for were there no motion there would be no variety of figures besides Matter and Form are but one thing for wheresoever is Matter there is also form or figure but privation is a non-being and therefore cannot be a principle of natural bodies 4. There is no such thing as simple bodies in Nature for if Nature her self consists of a commixture of animate and inanimate Matter no part can be called simple as having a composition of the same parts besides no part can subsist single or by it self wherefore the distinction into simple and mixt bodies is needless for Elements are as much composed bodies as other parts of Nature neither do I understand the difference between perfect and imperfect mixt bodies for Nature may compose mix and divide parts as she pleaseth 5. The primary Qualities of the Elements as Heat and Cold Humidity and Siccity says Aristotle are the cause of Generation when heat and cold overcome the Matter I wonder he makes qualities to be no substances or bodies but accidents which is something between body and no body and yet places them above Matter and makes Generation their effect But whatsoever he calls them they are no more but effects of Nature and cannot be above their cause which is Matter neither is it probable there are but eighteen passive qualities he might have said as well there are but eighteen sorts of motions for natural effects go beyond all number as being infinite 6. Concerning the Soul Aristotle doth not believe That it moves by it self but is onely moved accidentally according to the Motion of the body but he doth not express from whence the motion of the Soul proceeds although he defines it to be that by which we live feel and understand Neither says he is there a Soul diffused through the World for there are inanimate bodies as well as animate but sense and reason perceives the contrary to wit that there is no part of Nature but is animate that is has a soul. Sense says he is not sensible of it self nor of its organ nor of any interior thing for sense cannot move it self but is a mutation in the organ caused by some sensible object But the absurdity of this opinion I have declared heretofore for it is contrary to humane Reason to believe first that sense should be sensible of an outward object and not of it self or which is all one have perception of exterior parts and not self-knowledg Next that an external object should be the cause of sense when as sense and reason are the chief principles of Nature and the cause of all natural effects Again Sense says he is in all Animals but Fancy is not for Fancy is not Sense Fancy acts in him that sleeps Sense not To which I answer first Fancy or Imagination is a voluntary action of Reason or of the rational parts of Matter and if reason be in all Animals nay in all Creatures Fancy is there also Next it is evident that Sense acts as much asleep as awake the difference I have expressed elsewhere viz. That the sensitive motions Work inwardly in sleep and outwardly awake The Intellect to Aristotle is that part of the Soul by which it knows and understands and is onely proper to man when as sense is proper to animals It is twofold Patient and Agent whereof this is Immortal Eternal not mixt with the body but separable from it and ever in action The Patient Intellect is mortal and yet void of corruptive passion not mixt with the body nor having any corporeal organs But these and many other differences of Intellects which he rehearses are more troublesome to the understanding then beneficial for the knowledg of Nature And why should we puzzle our selves with multiplicity of terms and distinctions when there 's no need of them Truly Nature's actions are easie and we may easily apprehend them without much ado If Nature be material as it cannot be proved otherwise sense and reason are material also and therefore we need not to introduce an incorporeal mind or intellect Besides if sense and reason be a constitutive principle of Nature all parts of Nature do partake of the same nor hath man a prerogative before other Creatures in that case onely the difference and variety of motions makes different figures and consequently different knowledges and perceptions and all Fancies Imaginations Judgment Memory Remembrance and the like are nothing else but the actions of reason or of the rational parts of Animate Matter so that there is no necessity to make a Patient and Agent Intellect much less to introduce incorporeal substances to confound and disturb corporeal Nature 6. Of Scepticisme and some other Sects of the Ancient THere are several sorts of Scepticks different from each other for though almost every one of the ancient Philosophers has his own opinions in Natural Philosophy and goes on his own grounds or principles yet some come nearer each other then others do and though Heraclitus Democritus Protagoras and others seem to differ from the Scepticks yet their opinions are not so far asunder but they may all be referred to the same sect Heraclitus is of opinion That contraries are in the same thing and Scepticks affirm That contraries appear in the same thing but I believe they may be partly both in the right and partly both in the wrong If their opinion be that there are or appear contraries in Nature or in the essence of Matter they are both in the wrong but if they believe that Matter has different and contrary actions they are both in the right for there are not onely real but also apparent or seeming contraries in Nature which are her irregularities to wit when the sensitive and rational parts of Matter do not move exactly to the nature of their particulars As for example Honey is sweet to those that are sound and in health but bitter to those that have the over-flowing of the Gall where it is to be observed that Honey is not changed from its natural propriety but the motions of the Gall being irregular make a false copy like as mad men who think their flesh is stone or those that apprehend a Bird for a Stone a Man for a Tree c. neither the Flesh nor Stone nor Tree are changed from their own particular natures but the motions of humane sense in the sentient are irregular and make false copies of true objects which is the reason that an object seems often to be that which really it is not However those irregularities are true corporeal motions and thus there are both real and seeming contraries in Nature but as I mentioned before they are not contrary matters but onely contrary actions Democritus says That Honey is neither bitter nor sweet by reason of its different appearance to differently affected persons but if so then he is like those that make
counting for numbers are onely marks of remembrance But what do you think of the number of Four said she which Cabbalists make such ado withal and of the number of Ten when they say that Ten is all and that all numbers are virtually comprehended in four We think answered they that Cabbalists have nothing else to do but to trouble their heads with such useless fancies for naturally there is no such thing as prime or all in numbers nor is there any other mystery in numbers but what man's fancy makes but what men call Prime or All we do not know because they do not agree in the number of their opinion Then the Emperess asked whether the number of six was a symbole of Matrimony as being made up of Male and Female for two into three is six If any number can be a symbole of Matrimony answered the Spirits it is not Six but Two if two may be allowed to be a number for the act of Matrimony is made up of two joined in one She asked again what they said to the number of Seven whether it was not an Embleme of God because Cabbalists say that it is neither begotten nor begets any other number There can be no Embleme of God answered the Spirits for if we do not know what God is how can we make an Embleme of him Nor is there any number in God for God is the perfection himself but numbers are imperfect and as for the begetting of numbers it is done by Multiplication and Addition but Substraction is as a kind of death to numbers If there be no mystery in numbers replied the Emperess then it is in vain to refer the Creation of the World to certain numbers as Cabbalists do The onely mystery of numbers answered they concerning the Creation of the World is that as numbers do multiply so does the world The Emperess asked how far numbers did multiply The Spirits answered to Infinite Why said she Infinite cannot be reckoned nor numbred No more answered they can the parts of the Universe for God's Creation being an Infinite action as proceeding from an Infinite Power could not rest upon a finite number of Creatures were it never so great But leaving the mystery of numbers proceeded the Emperess Let me now desire you to inform me whether the Suns and Planets were generated by the Heavens or AEthereal Matter The Spirits answered That the Stars and Planets were of the same matter which the Heavens the AEther and all other natural Creatures did consist of but whether they were generated by the Heavens or AEther they could not tell if they be said they they are not like their Parents for the Sun Stars and Planets are more splendorous then the AEther as also more solid and constant in their motions But put the case the Stars and Planets were generated by the Heavens and the AEthereal Matter the question then would be out of what these are generated or produced if these be created out of nothing and not generated out of something then it is probable the Sun Stars and Planets are so too nay it is more probable of the Stars and Planets then of the Heavens or the fluid AEther by reason the Stars and Planets seem to be further off from mortality then the particular parts of the AEther for no doubt but the parts of the AEthereal Matter alter into several forms which we do not perceive of the Stars and Planets The Emperess asked further whether they could give her information of the three principles of Man according to the doctrine of the Platonists as first of the Intellect Spirit or Divine Light 2. Of the Soul of Man her self and 3. Of the Image of the Soul that is her vital operation on the body The Spirits answered that they did not understand these three distinctions but that they seem'd to corporeal sense and reason as if they were three several bodies or three several corporeal actions however said they they are intricate conceptions of irregular fancies If you do not understand them replied the Emperess hovv shall humane Creatures do then Many both of your modern and ancient Philosophers answered the Spirits endeavour to go beyond sense and reason vvhich makes them commit absurdities for no corporeal Creature can go beyond sense and reason no not we Spirits as long as vve are in our corporeal Vehicles Then the Emperess asked them vvhether there vvere any Atheists in the World The Spirits answered that there vvere no more Atheists then vvhat Cabbalists make She asked them further Whether Spirits vvere of a globous or round Figure They ansvvered That Figure belonged to body but they being immaterial had no figure She asked again Whether Spirits were not like Water or Fire They answered that Water and Fire was material were it the purest and most refined that ever could be nay were it above the Heavens But we are no more like Water or Fire said they then we are like Earth but our Vehicles are of several forms figures and degrees of substances Then she desired to know whether their Vehicles were made of Air Yes answered the Spirits some of our Vehicles are of thin Air. Then I suppose replied the Emperess That those airy Vehicles are your corporeal summersuits She asked further whether the Spirits had not ascending and descending motions as well as other Creatures They answered That properly there was no ascension or descension in Infinite Nature but onely in relation to particular parts and as for us Spirits said they we can neither ascend nor descend without corporeal Vehicles nor can our Vehicles ascend or descend but according to their several shapes and figures for there can be no motion without body The Emperess asked them further whether there was not a World of Spirits as well as there is of material Creatures No answered they for the word World implies a quantity or multitude of corporeal Creatures but we being Immaterial can make no world of Spirits Then she desired to be informed when Spirits were made We do not know answered they how and when we were made nor are we much inquisitive after it nay if we did it would be no benefit neither for us nor for you mortals to know it The Emperess replied That Cabbalists and Divine Philosophers said mens rational Souls were Immaterial and stood as much in need of corporeal Vehicles as Spirits did If this be so answered the Spirits then you are Hermaphrodites of Nature but your Cabbalists are mistaken for they take the purest and subtillest parts of Matter for Immaterial Spirits Then the Emperess asked when the souls of Mortals went out of their bodies whether they went to Heaven or Hell or whether they remained in airy Vehicles God's Justice and Mercy answered they is perfect and not imperfect but if you mortals will have Vehicles for your Souls and a place that is between Heaven and Hell it must be Purgatory which is a place of Purification for which action Fire is more
assist you by the help of sensitive expressions with the best instructions they are able to give you The Emperess being thus perswaded by the Duchess to make an imaginary World of her own followed her advice and after she had quite finished it and framed all kinds of Creatures proper and useful for it strengthened it with good Laws and beautified it with Arts and Sciences having nothing else to do unless she did dissolve her imaginary world or made some alterations in the Blazing-world she lived in which yet she could hardly do by reason it was so well ordered that it could not be mended for it was governed without secret and deceiving Policy neither was there any ambition factions malicious detractions civil dissensions or home-bred quarrels divisions in Religion forreign Wars c. but all the people lived in a peaceful society united Tranquillity and Religious Conformity she was desirous to see the world the Duchess came from and observe therein the several soveraign Governments Laws and Customs of several Nations The Duchess used all the means she could to divert her from that Journey telling her that the world she came from was very much disturbed with factions divisions and wars but the Emperess would not be perswaded from her design and lest the Emperour or any of his subjects should know of her travel and obstruct her design she sent for some of the Spirits she had formerly conversed withal and inquired whether none of them could supply the place of her soul in her body at such a time when she was gone to travel into another World They answered Yes they could for not onely one said they but many Spirits may enter into your body if you please The Emperess replied she desired but one Spirit to be Vice-Roy of her body in the absence of her Soul but it must be an honest and ingenious Spirit and if it was possible a female Spirit The Spirits told her that there was no difference of Sexes amongst them but said they we will chuse an honest and ingenious Spirit and such a one as shall so resemble your soul that neither the Emperour nor any of his subjects although the most Divine shall know whether it be your own soul or not which the Emperess was very glad at and after the Spirits were gone asked the Duchess how her body was supplied in the absence of her soul who answered Her Majesty That her body in the absence of her soul was governed by her sensitive and rational corporeal motions Thus those two female souls travelled together as lightly as two thoughts into the Duchess her native World and which is remarkable in a moment viewed all the parts of it and all the actions of all the Creatures therein especially did the Emperess's soul take much notice of the several actions of humane Creatures in all the several Nations and parts of that World and wonder'd that for all there were so many several Nations Governments Laws Religions Opinions c. they should all yet so generally agree in being Ambitious Proud Self-conceited Vain Prodigal Deceitful Envious Malicious Unjust Revengeful Irreligious Factious c. She did also admire that not any particular State Kingdom or Common-wealth was contented with their own shares but endeavoured to encroach upon their neighbours and that their greatest glory was in Plunder and Slaughter and yet their victorie's less then their expenses and their losses more then their gains but their being overcome in a manner their utter ruine But that she wonder'd most at was that they should prize or value dirt more then mens lives and vanity more then tranquillity for the Emperor of a world said she injoys but a part not the whole so that his pleasure consists in the opinions of others It is strange to me answered the Duchess that you should say thus being your self an Emperess of a World and not onely of a world but of a peaceable quiet and obedient world 'T is true replied the Emperess but although it is a peaceable and obedient world yet the Government thereof is rather a trouble then a pleasure for order cannot be without industry contrivance and direction besides the Magnificent state that great Princes keep or ought to keep is troublesome Then by your Majesties discourse said the Duchess I perceive that the greatest happiness in all Worlds consist in Moderation No doubt of it replied the Emperess and after these two souls had visited all the several places Congregations and Assemblies both in Religion and State the several Courts of Judicature and the like in several Nations the Emperess said That of all the Monarchs of the several parts of that World she had observed the Grand-Signior was the greatest for his word was a Law and his power absolute But the Duchess pray'd the Emperess to pardon her that she was of another mind for said she he cannot alter Mahomets Laws and Religion so that the Law and Church do govern the Emperor and not the Emperor them But replied the Emperess he has power in some particulars as for example to place and displace subjects in their particular Governments of Church and State and having that he has the Command both over Church and State and none dares oppose him 'T is true said the Duchess but if it pleases your Majesty we will go into that part of the world whence I came to wait on your Majesty and there you shall see as powerful a Monarch as the Grand-Signior for though his Dominions are not of so large extent yet they are much stronger his Laws are easie and safe and he governs so justly and wisely that his subjects are the happiest people of all the Nations or parts of that world This Monarch said the Emperess I have a great mind to see Then they both went and in a short time arrived into his Dominions but coming into the Metropolitan City the Emperess's soul observed many Galants go into an house and enquiring of the Duchess's soul what house that was She told her It was one of the Theatres where Comedies and Tragedies were acted The Emperess asked Whether they were real No said the Duchess They are feigned Then the Emperess desired to enter into the Theatre and when she had seen the Play that was acted the Duchess asked her how she liked that Recreation I like it very well said the Emperess but I observe that the Actors make a better show then the Spectators and the Scenes a better then the Actors and the Musick and Dancing is more pleasant and acceptable then the Play it self for I see the Scenes stand for wit the Dancing for humour and the Musick is the Chorus I am sorry replied the Duchess to hear your Majesty say so for if the Wits of this part of the world should hear you they would condemn you What said the Emperess would they condemn me for preferring a natural face before a sign-post or a natural humour before an artificial dance or Musick
before a true and profitable Relation As for relation replied the Duchess our Poets defie and condemn it into a Chimney-corner fitter for old Womens Tales then Theatres Why said the Emperess do not your Poets actions comply with their judgments for their Plays are composed of old stories either of Greek or Roman or some new-found World The Duchess answered her Majesty that it was true that all or most of their Plays were taken out of old Stories but yet they had new actions which being joined to old stories together with the addition of new Prologues Scenes Musick and Dancing made new Plays After this both the Souls went to the Court where all the Royal Family was together attended by the chief of the Nobles of their Dominions which made a very magnificent show and when the soul of the Emperess viewed the King and Queen she seemed to be in amaze which the Duchess's soul perceiving asked the Emperess how she liked the King the Queen and all the Royal Race She answered that in all the Monarchs she had seen in that World she had not found so much Majesty and affability mixt so exactly together that none did overshadow or eclipse the other and as for the Queen she said that Vertue sate Triumphant in her face and Piety was dwelling in her heart and that all the Royal Family seem'd to be endued with a Divine splendor but when she had heard the King discourse she believ'd that Mercury and Apollo had been his Celestial instructors and my dear Lord and Husband added the Duchess has been his Earthly Governour But after some short stay in the Court the Duchess's soul grew very Melancholy the Emperess asking the cause of her sadness She told her that she had an extreme desire to converse with the soul of her noble Lord and dear Husband and that she was impatient of a longer stay The Emperess desired the Duchess to have but patience so long until the King the Queen and the Royal Family were retired and then she would bear her company to her Lord and Husbands Soul who at that time lived in the Country some 112 miles off which she did and thus these two souls went towards those parts of the Kingdom where the Duke of Newcastle was But one thing I forgot all this while which is That although thoughts are the natural language of souls yet by reason souls cannot travel without Vehicles they use such language as the nature and propriety of their Vehicles require and the Vehicles of those two souls being made of the purest and finest sort of air and of a humane shape this purity and fineness was the cause that they could neither be seen nor heard by any humane Creature when as had they been of some grosser sort of Air the sound of that Airs language would have been as perceptible as the blowing of Zephyrus And now to return to my former Story when the Emperess's and Duchess's Soul were travelling into Nottingham-shire for that was the place where the Duke did reside passing through the forrest of Sherewood the Emperess's soul was very much delighted with it as being a dry plain and woody place very pleasant to travel in both in Winter and Summer for it is neither much dirty nor dusty at no time at last they arrived at Welbeck a House where the Duke dwell'd surrounded all with Wood so close and full that the Emperess took great pleasure and delight therein and told the Duchess she never had observed more wood in so little a compass in any part of the Kingdom she had passed through The truth is said she there seems to be more wood on the Seas she meaning the Ships then on the Land The Duchess told her the reason was that there had been a long Civil War in that Kingdom in which most of the best Timber-trees and Principal Palaces were ruined and destroyed and my dear Lord and Husband said she has lost by it half his Woods besides many Houses Land and moveable Goods so that all the loss out of his particular Estate did amount to above half a Million of Pounds I wish said the Emperess he had some of the Gold that is in the Blazing-world to repair his losses The Duchess most humbly thank'd her Imperial Majesty for her kind wishes but said she wishes will not repair his ruines however God has given my Noble Lord and Husband great Patience by which he bears all his losses and misfortunes At last they enter'd into the Dukes House an habitation not so magnificent as useful and when the Emperess saw it Has the Duke said she no other house but this Yes answered the Duchess some five miles from this place he has a very fine Castle called Bolesover That place then said the Emperess I desire to see Alas replied the Duchess it is but a naked house and uncloath'd of all Furniture However said the Emperess I may see the manner of its structure and building That you may replied the Duchess and as they were thus discoursing the Duke came out of the House into the Court to see his Horses of mannage whom when the Duchess's soul perceived she was so overjoyed that her aereal Vehicle became so splendorous as if it had been enlightned by the Sun by which we may perceive that the passions of Souls or Spirits can alter their bodily Vehicles Then these two Ladies Spirits went close to him but he could not perceive them and after the Emperess had observed the Art of Mannage she was much pleased with it and commended it as a noble pastime and an exercise fit and proper for noble and heroick Persons But when the Duke was gone into the house again those two Souls followed him where the Emperess observing that he went to the exercise of the Sword and was such an excellent and unparallell'd Master thereof she was as much pleased with that exercise as she was with the former But the Duchess's soul being troubled that her dear Lord and Husband used such a violent exercise before meat for fear of overheating himself without any consideration of the Emperess's soul left her aereal Vehicle and entred into her Lord. The Emperess's soul perceiving this did the like And then the Duke had three Souls in one Body and had there been but some such Souls more the Duke would have been like the Grand-Signior in his Seraglio onely it would have been a Platonick Seraglio But the Dukes soul being wise honest witty complaisant and noble afforded such delight and pleasure to the Emperess's soul by her conversation that these two souls became enamoured of each other which the Duchess's soul perceiving grew jealous at first but then considering that no Adultery could be committed amongst Platonick Lovers and that Platonism was Divine as being derived from Divine Plato cast forth of her mind that Idea of Jealousie Then the Conversation of these three souls was so pleasant that it cannot be expressed for the Dukes soul entertained the
Emperesses soul with Scenes Songs Musick witty Discourses pleasant Recreations and all kinds of harmless sports so that the time passed away faster then they expected At last a Spirit came and told the Emperess that although neither the Emperour nor any of his subjects knew that her soul was absent yet the Emperours soul was so sad and melancholy for want of his own beloved soul that all the Imperial Court took notice of it Wherefore he advised the Emperess's Soul to return into the Blazing-world into her own body she left there which both the Dukes and Duchess's soul was very sorry for and wished that if it had been possible the Emperess's soul might have stayed a longer time with them but seeing it could not be otherwise they pacified themselves But before the Emperess returned into the Blazing-world the Duchess desired a favour of her to wit that she would be pleased to make an agreement between her Noble Lord and Fortune Why said the Emperess are they enemies Yes answered the Duchess and they have been so ever since I have been his Wife nay I have heard my Lord say that she hath crossed him in all things ever since he could remember I am sorry for that replied the Emperess but I cannot discourse with Fortune without the help of an Immaterial Spirit and that cannot be done in this World for I have no Fly-nor Bird-men here to send into the region of the Air where for the most part their habitations are The Duchess said she would intreat her Lord to send an Attorney or Lawyer to plead her cause Fortune will bribe them replied the Emperess and so the Duke may chance to be cast Wherefore the best way will be for the Duke to chuse a friend on his side and let Fortune chuse another and try whether by this means it be possible to compose the difference The Duchess said They will never come to an agreement unless there be a Judg or Umpire to decide the Case A Judg replied the Empersss is easie to be had but to get an Impartial Judg is a thing so difficult that I doubt we shall hardly find one for there is none to be had neither in Nature nor in Hell but onely from Heaven and how to get such a Divine and Celestial Judg I cannot tell Nevertheless if you will go along with me into the Blazing-world I 'le try what may be done 'T is my duty said the Duchess to wait on your Majesty and I shall most willingly do it for I have no other interest to consider Then the Duchess spake to the Duke concerning the difference between him and Fortune and how it was her desire that they might be friends The Duke answered That for his part he had always with great industry sought her friendship but as yet he could never obtain it for she had always been his enemy However said he I 'le try and send my two friends Prudence and Honesty to plead my cause Then these two friends went with the Duchess and the Emperess into the Blazing-world for it is to be observed that they are somewhat like Spirits because they are immaterial although their actions are corporeal and after their arrival there when the Emperess had refreshed her self and rejoiced with the Emperor she sent her Fly-men for some of the Spirits and defired their assistance to compose the difference between Fortune and the Duke of Newcastle But they told her Majesty That Fortune was so inconstant that although she would perhaps promise to hear their cause pleaded yet it was a thousand to one but she would never have the patience to do it Nevertheless upon Her Majesties request they tried their utmost and at last prevailed with Fortune so far that she chose Folly and Rashness for her Friends but they could not agree in chusing a Judg until at last with much ado they concluded that Truth should hear and decide the cause Thus all being prepared and the time appointed both the Emperess's and Duchess's soul went to hear them plead and when all the Immaterial company was met Fortune standing upon a Golden-Globe made this following Speech Noble Friends We are met here to hear a Cause pleaded concerning the difference between the Duke of Newcastle and my self and though I am willing upon the perswasions of the Ambassadors of the Emperess the Immaterial Spirits to yield to it yet it had been fit the Dukes Soul should be present also to speak for her self but since she is not here I shall declare my self to his Wife and his Friends as also to my Friends especially the Emperess to whom I shall chiefly direct my Speech First I desire your Imperial Majesty may know that this Duke who complains or exclaims so much against me hath been always my enemy for he has preferred Honesty and Prudence before me and slighted all my favours nay not onely thus but he did fight against me and preferred his Innocence before my Power His friends Honesty and Prudence said he most scornfully are more to be regarded then Inconstant Fortune who is onely a friend to Fools and Knaves for which neglect and scorn whether I have not just reason to be his enemy your Majesty may judg your self After Fortune had thus ended her Speech the Duchess's Soul rose from her seat and spake to the Immaterial Assembly in this manner Noble Friends I think it fit by your leave to answer Lady Fortuue in the behalf of my Noble Lord and Husband since he is not here himself and since you have heard her complaint concerning the choice my Lord made of his friends and the neglect and difrespect he seemed to cast upon her give me leave to answer that first concerning the Choice of his Friends He has proved himself a wise man in it and as for the dis-respect and rudeness her Ladiship accuses him of I dare say he is so much a Gentleman that I am confident he would never slight scorn or disrespect any of the Female Sex in all his life time but was such a servant and Champion for them that he ventured Life and Estate in their service but being of an honest as well as an honourable Nature he could not trust Fortune with that which he preferred above his life which was his Reputation by reason Fortune did not side with those that were honest and honourable but renounced them and since he could not be of both sides he chose to be of that which was agreeable both to his Conscience Nature and Education for which choice Fortune did not onely declare her self his open Enemy but fought with him in several Battels nay many times hand to hand at last she being a Powerful Princess and as some believe a Deity overcame him and cast him into a Banishment where she kept him in great misery ruined his Estate and took away from him most of his Friends nay even when she favoured many that were against her she still frowned on him all which
came to a fight they would moulder into dust and ashes and so leave the purer Immaterial Spirits naked nay were it also possible that those dead bodies could be preserved from stinking and dissolving yet the souls of such bodies would not suffer Immaterial Spirits to rule and order them but they would enter and govern them themselves as being the right owners thereof which would produce a War between those Immaterial Souls and the Immaterial Spirits in Material Bodies all which would hinder them from doing any service in the actions of War against the Enemies of my Native Countrey You speak Reason said the Emperor and I wish with all my Soul I could advise any manner or way that you might be able to assist it but you having told me of your dear Platonick Friend the Duchess of Neweastle and of her good and prositable Counsels I would desire you to send for her Soul and conser with her about this business The Emperess was very glad of this motion of the Emperor and immediately sent for the Soul of the said Duchess which in a minute waited on her Majesty Then the Emperess declared to her the grievance and sadness of her mind and how much she was troubled and afflicted at the News brought her by the Immaterial Spirits desiring the Duchess if possible to assist her with the best counsels she could that she might shew the greatness of her love and affection which she bore to her Native Countrey Whereupon the Duchess promised her Majesty to do what lay in her power and since it was a business of great Importance she desired some time to consider of it for said she Great Affairs require deep considerations which the Emperess willingly allowed her And after the Duchess had considered some little time she desired the Emperess to send some of her Syrenes or Mear-Men to see what passages they could find out of the Blazing-World into the World she came from for said she if there be a passage for a Ship to come out of that World into this then certainly there may also a Ship pass thorow the same passage out of this World into that Hereupon the Mear-or Fish-men were sent out who being many in number employ'd all their industry and did swim several ways at last having found out the passage they returned to the Emperess and told her That as their Blazing-World had but one Emperor one Government one Religion and one Language so there was but one Passage into that World which was so little that no Vessel bigger than a Packet-Boat could go thorow neither was that Passage always open but sometimes quite frozen up At which Relation both the Emperess and Duchess seemed somewhat troubled fearing that this would perhaps be an hinderance or obstruction to their Design At last the Duchess desired the Emperess to send for her Ship-wrights and all her Architects which were Giants who being called the Duchess told them how some in her own World had been so ingenious and contrived Ships that could swim under Water and asked whether they could do the like The Gyants answered They had never heard of that Invention nevertheless they would try what might be done by Art and spare no labour or industry to find it out In the mean time while both the Emperess and Duchess were in a serious Counsel after many debates the Duchess desired but a few Ships to transport some of the Bird-Worm-and Bear-men Alas said the Emperess What can such sorts of Men do in the other World especially so few They will be soon destroyed for a Musket will destroy numbers of Birds at one shot The Duchess said I desire your Majesty will have but a little patience and rely upon my advice and you shall not fail to save your own Native Country and in a manner become Mistress of all that World you came from The Emperess who loved the Duchess as her own Soul did so the Gyants returned soon after and told her Majesty that they had found out the Art which the Duchess had mentioned to make such Ships as could swim under Water which the Emperess and Duchess were both very glad at and when the Ships were made ready the Duchess told the Emperess that it was requisite that her Majesty should go her self in body as well as in Soul but I said she can onely wait on your Majesty after a Spiritual manner that is with my Soul Your Soul said the Emperess shall live with my Soul in my Body for I shall onely desire your Counseland Advice Then said the Duchess Your Majesty must command a great number of your Fish-men to wait on your Ships for you know that your Ships are not made for Cannons and therefore are no ways serviceable in War for though by the help of your Engines they can drive on and your Fish-men may by the help of Chains or Ropes draw them which way they will to make them go on or flye back yet not so as to fight And though your Ships be of Gold and cannot be shot thorow but onely bruised and battered yet the Enemy will assault and enter them and take them as Prizes wherefore your Fish-men must do you Service instead of Cannons But how said the Emperess can the Fish-men do me service against an Enemy without Canons and all sorts of Arms That is the reason answered the Duchess that I would have numbers of Fish-men for they shall destroy all your Enemies Ships before they can come near you The Emperess asked in what manner that could be Thus answered the Duchess Your Majesty must send a number of Worm-men to the Burning-Mountains for you have good store of them in the Blazing-World which must get a great quantity of the Fire-stone whose property you know is that it burns so long as it is wet and the Ships in the other World being all made of Wood they may by that means set them all on fire and if you can but destroy their Ships and hinder their Navigation you will be Mistress of all that World by reason most parts thereof cannot live without Navigation Besides said she the Fire-stone will serve you instead of light or torches for you know that the World you are going into is dark at nights especially if there be no Moon-shine or if the Moon be overshadowed by Clouds and not so full of Blazing-Stars as this World is which make as great a light in the absence of the Sun as the Sun doth when it is present for that World hath but little blinking Stars which make more shadows then light and are onely able to draw up Vapours from the Earth but not to rarifie or clarifie them or to convert them into serene air This Advice of the Duchess was very much approved and joyfully embraced by the Emperess who forthwith sent her Worm-men to get a good quantity of the mentioned Fire-Stone She also commanded numbers of Fish-men to wait on her under water and Bird-men to wait