extend and shrink together and so grow less and bigger according to the extension of the body and when the body dies the soul in my opinion must contract to a very point and if one part of the body die before the other the soul must by degrees withdraw out of those parts also when a part of the body is cut off the soul must needs contract and grow less the like when a man is let blood Which contracting of the soul by your Authors leave doth seem to my imagination just like the contracting of Hodmandod into her shell Besides if the soul be individable and equally spread all over the body then to my opinion she must necessarily be of a human shape and if the body be deformed the soul must be deformed also and if the body be casually extended as by taking Poyson into the body the soul must be so too as being individable and filling every part and if a man be born with six fingers or toes the soul must be so too or if a dwarf the soul must be a dwarf also and if he be born deaf and dumb the soul must be so too But if two Twins as it may fall out should be born united in one body I would fain know then whether they would have two souls or but one As for example if they should have but one body and one stomack liver heart spleen lungs bowels and yet have four legs four hands and two heads It seems to my opinion that then two Immaterial Souls must be joyned as into one neither do I know yet how this could well be the monster having but one body nor how that Immaterial Soul can be divided being inseparably double when the body dies But Madam all this I speak of the Natural Soul of Man not of the Divine Soul which is not subject to natural imperfections and corporeal errors being not made by Nature but a supernatural and divine gift of the Omnipotent God who surely will not give any thing that is not perfect Wherefore it is not probable this Divine Soul being not subject to Nature should be an architect of the body as having an higher and more divine imployment viz. to fix her self on her Creator and being indued with supernatural faculties and residing in the body in a supernatural manner all which I leave to the Church for I should be loth to affirm any thing contrary to their Doctrine or the Information of the holy Scripture as grounding my belief onely upon the sacred Word of God and its true Interpretation made by the Orthodox Church but not upon the opinions of particular persons for particular mens opinions are not authentical being so different and various as a man would be puzled which to adhere to Thus Madam I avoid as much as ever I can not to mix Divinity with Natural Philosophy for I consider that such a mixture would breed more confusion in the Church then do any good to either witness the doctrine of the Soul of Man whereof are so many different opinions The onely cause in my opinion is that men do not conceive the difference between the Divine and Natural material Soul of Man making them both as one and mixing or confounding their faculties and proprieties which yet are quite different thus they make a Hodg-podg Bisk or Olio of both proving Divinity by Nature and Faith by Reason and bringing Arguments for Articles of Faith and sacred Mysteries out of Natural Arts and Sciences whereas yet Faith and Reason are two contrary things and cannot consist together according to the Proverb Where Reason ends Faith begins Neither is it possible that Divinity can be proved by Mathematical Demonstrations for if Nature be not able to do it much less is Art Wherefore it is inconvenient to mix supernatural Spirits with Air Fire Light Heat Cold c. and to apply corporeal actions and qualities to them and the Divine Soul with the Brain Blood Flesh Animal Spirits Muscles Nerves Bones c. of Man all which makes a confusion betwixt the Mind or Natural Soul of Man and the Supernatural and Divine Soul inspired into him by God for both their faculties and proprieties are different and so are their effects as proceeding from so different causes And therefore Madam as for Divinity I pray devoutly and believe without disputing but as for Natural Philosophy I reason freely and argue without believing or adhering to any ones particular opinion which I think is the best and safest way to choose for MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXVII MADAM YOur Author in the continuation of his discourse concerning the Immaterial Soul of Man demonstrating that her seat is not bound up in a certain place of the body but that she pervades all the body and every part thereof takes amongst the rest an argument from Passions and Sympathies Moreover says he Passions and Sympathies in my judgment are more easily to be resolved into this hypothesis of the Soul 's pervading the whole Body then in restraining its essential presence to one part thereof But it is evident that they arise in us against both our will and appetite For who would bear the tortures of fears and jelousies if he could avoid it Concerning Passions Madam I have given my opinion at large in my Book of Philosophy and am of your Authors mind that Passions are made in the Heart but not by an Immaterial spirit but by the Rational soul which is material and there is no doubt but that many Passions as Fear Jealousie c. arise against our will and appetite for so may forreign Nations invade any Kingdom without the will or desire of the Inhabitants and yet they are corporeal men The same may be said of Passions and several parts of matter may invade each other whereof one may be afraid of the other yet all this is but according as corporeal matter moves either Generally or Particularly Generally that is when many parts of Matter unite or joyn together having the like appetites wills designs as we may observe that there are general agreements amongst several parts in Plagues as well as Wars which Plagues are not onely amongst Men but amongst Beasts and sometimes but in one sort of animals as a general Rot amongst Sheep a general Mange amongst Dogs a general Farcy amongst Horses a general Plague amongst Men all which could not be without a general Infection one part infecting another or rather one part imitating the motions of the other that is next adjoyning to it for such infections come by the neer adhesion of parts as is observable which immaterial and individable natural Spirits could not effect that is to make such a general infection in so many several parts of so many several Creatures to the Creatures dissolution Also there will be several Invasions at one time as Plague and War amongst neighbouring and adjoining Creatures or Parts But this is to be observed That the sensitive corporeal motions make
Castle conveigh the intire shape of himself and his Horse thereby such as we find our selves able to imagine of a man on Horse-back which is a Truth as demonstrable as any Theorem in Mathematicks I answer first That there is no Particle single and alone by it self Next I say It is more easie for the rational matter to put it self into such figures and to make such encounters then for an Immaterial mind or sustance to imagine it for no imagination can be without figure and how should an Immaterial created substance present such Figures but by making them either in it self or upon matter For S. George and the Castle are figures and their encounters are real fighting actions and how such figures and actions can be in the mind or memory and yet not be is impossible to conceive for as I said those figures and actions must be either in the incorporeal mind or in the corporeal parts of matter and if the figures and motions may be in an incorporeal substance much more is it probable for them to be in a corporeal nay if the figures and their actions can be in gross corporeal matter why should they not be in the purest part of matter which is the rational matter And as for being made known to the whole body and every part thereof it is not necessary no more then it is necessary that the private actions of every Man or Family should be made known to the whole Kingdom or Town or Parish But my opinion of self-corporeal motion and perception may be as demonstrable as that of Immaterial Natural Spirits which in my mind is not demonstrable at all by reason it is not corporeal or material For how can that be naturally demonstrable which naturally is nothing But your Author believes the Mind or rational Soul to be individable and therefore concludes that the Parts of the same Matter although at great distance must of necessity know each Particular act of each several Part but that is not necessary for if there were not ignorance through the division of Parts every man and other creatures would know alike and there is no better proof that matter or any particular creature in nature is not governed by a created Immaterial Spirit then that knowledg is in parts for the hand doth not know what pain the head feels which certainly it would do if the mind were not dividable into parts but an individable substance But this is well to be observed that some parts in some actions agree generally in one body and some not as for example temperance and appetite do not agree for the corporeal actions of appetite desire to join with the corporeal actions of such or such other parts but the corporeal actions of temperance do hinder and forbid it whereupon there is a faction amongst the several parts for example a Man desires to be drunk with Wine this desire is made by such corporeal actions as make appetite the rational corporeal motions or actions which make temperance oppose those that make appetite and that sort of actions which hath the better carryes it the hand and other parts of the body obeying the strongest side and if there be no wine to satisfie the appetite yet many times the appetite continues that is the parts continue in the same motions that make such an appetite but if the appetite doth not continue then those parts have changed their motions or when by drinking the appetite is satisfied and ceases then those parts that made the appetite have altered their former motions But oftentimes the rational corporeal motions may so agree with the sensitive as there may be no opposition or crossing at all but a sympathetical mutual agreement betwixt them at least an approvement so that the rational may approve what the sensitive covet or desire Also some motions of the rational as also of the sensitive matter may disagree amongst themselves as we see that a man will often have a divided mind for he will love and hate the same thing desire and not desire one and the same thing as to be in Heaven and yet to be in the World Moreover this is to be observed That all rational perceptions or cogitations are not so perspicuous and clear as if they were Mathematical Demonstrations but there is some obscurity more or less in them at least they are not so well perceivable without comparing several figures together which proves they are not made by an individable immaterial Spirit but by dividable corporeal parts As for example Man writes oftentimes false and seldom so exact but he is forced to mend his hand and correct his opinions and sometimes quite to alter them according as the figures continue or are dissolved and altered by change of motion and according as the actions are quick or slow in these alterations the humane mind is setled or wavering and as figures are made or dissolved and transformed Opinions Conceptions Imaginations Understanding and the like are more or less And according as these figures last so is constancy or inconstancy memory or forgetfulness and as those figures are repeated so is remembrance but sometimes they are so constant and permanent as they last as long as the figure of the body and sometimes it happens not once in an age that the like figures are repeated and sometimes they are repeated every moment As for example a man remembers or calls to mind the figure of another man his friend with all his qualities dispositions actions proprieties and the like several times in an hour and sometimes not once in a year and so as often as he remembers him as often is the figure of that man repeated and as oft as he forgets him so often is his figure dissolved But some imagine the rational motions to be so gross as the Trotting of a Horse and that all the motions of Animate matter are as rude and course as renting or tearing asunder or that all impressions must needs make dents or creases But as Nature hath degrees of corporeal matter so she hath also degrees of corporeal motions Matter and Motion being but one substance and it is absurd to judg of the interior motions of self-moving matter by artificial or exterior gross motions as that all motions must be like the tearing of a sheet of Paper or that the printing and patterning of several figures of rational and sensitive matter must be like the printing of Books nay all artificial Printings are not so hard as to make dents and impresses witness Writing Painting and the like for they do not disturb the ground whereon the letters are written or the picture drawn and so the curious actions of the purest rational matter are neither rude nor rough but although this matter is so subtil and pure as not subject to exterior human senses and organs yet certainly it is dividable not onely in several Creatures but in the several parts of one and the same Creature as well as
to give such power to Matter as to an other Incorporeal substance But I suppose this opinion of natural Immaterial Spirits doth proceed from Chymistry where the extracts are vulgarly called Spirits and from that degree of Matter which by reason of its purity subtilty and activity is not subject to our grosser senses However these are not Incorporeal be they never so pure and subtil And I wonder much that men endeavour to prove Immaterial Spirits by corporeal Arts when as Art is not able to demonstrate Nature and her actions for Art is but the effect of Nature and expresses rather the variety then the truth of natural motions and if Art cannot do this much less will it be able to express what is not in Nature or what is beyond Nature as to trace the Visible or rather Invisible footsteps of the divine Councel and Providence or to demonstrate things supernatural and which go beyond mans reach and capacity But to return to Immaterial Spirits that they should rule and govern infinite corporeal matter like so many demy-Gods by a dilating nod and a contracting frown and cause so many kinds and sorts of Corporeal Figures to arise being Incorporeal themselves is Impossible for me to conceive for how can an Immaterial substance cause a Material corporeal substance which has no motion in it self to form so many several and various figures and creatures and make so many alterations and continue their kinds and sorts by perpetual successions of Particulars But perchance the Immaterial substance gives corporeal matter motion I answer My sense and reason cannot understand how it can give motion unless motion be different distinct and separable from it nay if it were yet being no substance or body it self according to your Authors and others opinion the question is how it can be transmitted or given away to corporeal matter Your Author may say That his Immaterial and Incorporeal spirit of Nature having self-motion doth form Matter into several Figures I answer Then that Immaterial substance must be transformed and metamorphosed into as many several figures as there are figures in Matter or there must be as many spirits as there are figures but when the figures change what doth become of the spirits Neither can I imagine that an Immaterial substance being without body can have such a great strength as to grapple with gross heavy dull and dead Matter Certainly in my opinion no Angel nor Devil except God Impower him would be able to move corporeal Matter were it not selfmoving much less any Natural Spirit But God is a Spirit and Immovable and if created natural Immaterials participate of that Nature as they do of the Name then they must be Immovable also Your Author Madam may make many several degrees of Spirits but certainly not I nor I think any natural Creature else will be able naturally to conceive them He may say perchance There is such a close conjunction betwixt Body and Spirit as I make betwixt rational sensitive and inanimate Matter I answer That these degrees are all but one Matter and of one and the same Nature as meer Matter different onely in degrees of purity subtilty and activity whereas Spirit and Body are things of contrary Natures In fine I cannot conceive how a Spirit should fill up a place or space having no body nor how it can have the effects of a body being none it self for the effects flow from the cause and as the cause is so are its effects And so confessing my ignorance I can say no more but rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXII MADAM YOur Author having assigned Indivisibility to the Soul or Spirit that moves and actuates matter I desire to know how one Indivisible Spirit can be in so many dividable parts For there being Infinite parts in Nature they must either have one Infinite Spirit to move them which must be dilated infinitely or this Spirit must move severally in every part of Nature If the first then I cannot conceive but all motion must be uniform or after one and the same manner nay I cannot understand how there can be any dilation and contraction or rather any motion of the same spirit by reason if it dilate then being equally spread out in all the parts of Matter it must dilate beyond Matter and if it contract it must leave some parts of matter void and without motion But if the Spirit moves every part severally then he is divisible neither can I think that there are so many Spirits as there are Parts in Nature for your Author says there is but one Spirit of Nature I will give an easie and plain example When a Worm is cut into two or three parts we see there is sensitive life and motion in every part for every part will strive and endeavour to meet and joyn again to make up the whole body now if there were but one indivisible Life Spirit and Motion I would fain know how these severed parts could move all by one Spirit Wherefore Matter in my opinion has self-motion in it self which is the onely soul and life of Nature and is dividable as well as composable and full of variety of action for it is as easie for several parts to act in separation as in composition and as easie in composition as in separation Neither is every part bound to one kind or sort of Motions for we see in exterior local motions that one man can put his body into several shapes and postures much more can Nature But is it not strange Madam that a man accounts it absurd ridiculous and a prejudice to Gods Omnipotency to attribute self-motion to Matter or a material Creature when it is not absurd ridiculous or any prejudice to God to attribute it to an Immaterial Creature What reason of absurdity lies herein Surely I can conceive none except it be absurd and ridiculous to make that which no man can know or conceive what it is viz. an immaterial natural Spirit which is as much as to say a natural No-thing to have motion and not onely motion but self-motion nay not onely self-motion but to move actuate rule govern and guide Matter or corporeal Nature and to be the cause of all the most curious varieties and effects in nature Was not God able to give self-motion as well to a Material as to an Immaterial Creature and endow Matter with a self-moving power I do not say Madam that Matter hath motion of it self so that it is the prime cause and principle of its own self-motion for that were to make Matter a God which I am far from believing but my opinion is That the self-motion of Matter proceeds from God as well as the self-motion of an Immaterial Spirit and that I am of this opinion the last Chapter of my Book of Philosophy will enform you where I treat of the Deitical Centre as the Fountain from whence all things do flow and which is the supream Cause Author
it is nevertheless I do verily believe that the body of the Sun is far brighter then the light we see and that the substance of light and the patterns taken from light are not one and the same but very different And thus much of light As for Penetration I conceive it to be nothing else but division as when some parts pierce and enter through other parts as Duellers run each other thorow or as water runs through a sieve And this is the opinion of MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXIV MADAM HAving given you my opinion both of the substance and perception of Light in my last Letter I perceive your desire is to know how Shadows are made Truly Madam to my sense and reason it appears most probable that shadows are made by the way of patterning As for example when a Man 's or Trees or any other the like Creature 's shadow is made upon the Ground or Wall or the like those bodies as the Ground or Wall do in my opinion pattern out the interposing body that is between the light and them And the reason that the shadow is longer or shorter or bigger or less is according as the light is nearer or further off for when the light is perpendicular the interposing body cannot obscure the light because the light surrounding the interposing body by its brightness rather obscures the body then the body the light for the numerous and splendorous patterns of light taken from the body of the Sun do quite involve the interposing body Next you desire to know Whether the light we see in the Moon be the Moons own natural light or a borrowed light from the Sun I answer that in my opinion it is a borrowed light to wit that the Moon doth pattern out the light of the Sun and the proof of it is that when the Sun is in an Eclipse we do plainly perceive that so much of the Sun is darkned as the Moon covers for though those parts of the Moon that are next the Sun may for any thing we know pattern out the light of the Sun yet the Moon is dark on that side which is from the Sun I will not say but that part of the Moon which is towards the Earth may pattern out the Earth or the shadow of the Earth which may make the Moon appear more dark and sullen But when the Moon is in an Eclipse then it is plainly perceived that the Moon patterns out the Earth or the shadow of the Earth Besides those parts of the Moon that are farthest from the Sun are dark as we may observe when as the Moon is in the Wane and enlightened when the Sun is nearer But I will leave this argument to observing Astrologers and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXV MADAM IF acording to your Authors opinion In every particular world such as Man is especially his own Soul which is a Spirit be the peculiar and most perfective architect of the Fabrick of his Body as the Soul of the world is of it Then I cannot conceive in my reason how the separation is made in death for I see that all animals and so man-kind have a natural desire to live and that life and soul are unwilling to part And if the power lies in the Soul why doth she not continue with the Body and animate move and actuate it as she did before or order the matter so as not to dissolve But if the dissolution lies in the body then the body has self-motion Yet it is most probable if the soul be the architect of the body it must also be the dissolver of it and if there come not another soul into the parts of matter the body must either be annihilated or lie immoved as long as the world lasts which is improbable for surely all the bodies of men or other animals are imployed by Nature to some use or other However it is requisite that the soul must stay so long in the body until it be turned into dust and ashes otherwise the body having no self-motion would remain as it was when the soul left it that is entire and undissolved As for example when a man dies if there be no motion in his body and the soul which was the mover be gone it cannot possibly corrupt for certainly that we call corruptton is made by motion and the body requires as much motion to be dissolved or divided as it doth to be framed or composed Wherefore a dead body would remain in the same state continually if it had no self-motion in it And if another soul should enter into the body and work it to another figure then certainly there must be much more souls then bodies because bodies are subject to change into several forms but if the animal spirits which are left in the body after the soul is gone are able to dissolve it without the help of the soul then it is probable they could have fram'd it without the help of the soul and so they being material it must be granted that matter is self-moving But if corporeal matter have corporeal self-motion a self-moving Immaterial Spirit by reason of their different natures would make great obstruction and so a general confusion for the corporeal and incorporeal motions would hinder and oppose each other their natures being quite different and though they might subsist together without disturbance of each other yet it is not probable they should act together and that in such a conjunction as if they were one united body for it is in my opinion more probable that one material should act upon another material or one immaterial upon another immaterial then that an immaterial should act upon a material or corporeal Thus the consideration or contemplation of immaterial natural Spirits puts me always into doubts and raises so many contradictions in my sense and reason as I know not nor am not able to reconcile them However though I am doubtful of them yet I can assure your self that I continue MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXVI MADAM BY reason the Soul is a Spirit and therefore Contractible and Dilatable your Authors opinion is That it begins within less compass at first in organizing the fitly prepared matter and so bears it self on in the same tenour of work till the body hath attained its full growth and that the Soul dilates it self in the dilating of the Body and so possesses it through all the members thereof Truly Madam as for the contraction and dilation of an immaterial Spirit if I heard never so many arguments I should hardly be able to conceive the possibility of it For in my opinion dilating and contracting are motions and actions of Nature which belong to natural material Creatures and to none else for dilation and contraction cannot be without extension but extension belongs to parts which an immaterial Spirit hath not But suppose it be so then the Soul must contract and dilate
all diseases and not the Rational although the Rational are many times the occasion that the sensitive do move into such or such a disease for all those that are sick by conceit their sicknesses are caused by the rational corporeal motions But being loth to make tedious repetitions hereof having discoursed of diseases and passions in my mentioned Book of Philosophy I will refer you thither and rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXVIII MADAM COncerning Dimness of Sight which your Author will have to proceed from the deficiency of the Animal Spirits My meaning in short is That when sight is dim though the sensitive organs are perfect this dimness is caused by the alteration onely of the sensitive motions in the organs not moving to the nature of sight And so is made Deafness Dumbness Lameness and the like as also Weariness for the Relaxation of strength in several parts is onely an alteration of such sorts of motions which make the nerves strong and if a man be more dull at one time then at another it is that there are not so many changes of motions nor so quick motions at that time as at another for Nature may use more or less force as she pleases Also she can and doth often use opposite actions and often sympathetical and agreeable actions as she pleases for Nature having a free power to move may move as she will but being wise she moves as she thinks best either in her separating or uniting motions for continuance as well as for variety But if according to your Author the Immaterial Soul should determinate matter in motion it would in my opinion make a confusion for the motions of the Matter would often oppose and cross the motions of the Immaterial Soul and so they would disagree as a King and his Subjects except God had given the Soul an absolute power of command and restrained matter to an irrisistible and necessitated obedience which in my opinion is not probable By which disagreement Nature and all that is in Nature would have been quite ruined at this time for no kinds sorts or particulars would keep any distinction if Matter did not govern it self and if all the parts did not know their own affairs abilities offices and functions Besides it would to my thinking take up a great deal of time to receive commands in every several action at least so much that for example a man could not have so many several thoughts in so short a time as he hath But concerning the Animal Spirits which your Author calls the Instruments Organs and Engines of the Incorporeal Soul I would fain know whether they have no motion but what comes from the Soul or whether they have their own motion of themselves If the first then the Soul must in my opinion be like a Deity and have a divine Power to give and impart Motion if the second then the spirits being material it follows that Matter hath motion of it self or is self-moving But if the Immaterial natural Soul can transfer her gifts upon corporeal matter then it must give numerous sorts of motions with all their degrees as also the faculty of figuring or moving figuratively in all corporeal Matter Which power in my judgment is too much for a Creature to give If you say the Immaterial Soul hath this power from God I answer Matter may have the same and I cannot imagine why God should make an Immaterial Spirit to be the Proxy or Vice-gerent of his Power or the Quarter-master General of his Divine Providence as your Author is pleased to style it when he is able to effect it without any Under-Officers and in a more easie and compendious way as to impart immediately such self-moving power to Natural Matter which man attributes to an Incorporeal Spirit But to conclude if the Animal Spirits be the Instruments of the Incorporeal Soul then the Spirits of Wine are more powerfull then the Animal Spirits nay then the Immaterial Soul her self for they can put them and all their actions quite out of order the same may be done by other material things Vegetables Minerals and the like And so leaving this discourse to your better consideration I take my leave for this time and rest MADAM Your faithful and affectionate Friend and Servant XXIX MADAM TOuching the State or Condition of the Supernatural and Divine Soul both in and after this life I must crave your excuse that I can give no account of it for I dare affirm nothing not onely that I am no professed Divine and think it unfit to take any thing upon me that belongs not to me but also that I am unwilling to mingle Divinity and Natural Philosophy together to the great disadvantage and prejudice of either for if each one did contain himself within the circle of his own Profession and no body did pretend to be a Divine Philosopher many absurdities confusions contentions and the like would be avoided which now disturb both Church and Schools and will in time cause their utter ruine and destruction For what is Supernatural cannot naturally be known by any natural Creature neither can any supernatural Creature but the Infinite and Eternal God know thorowly everything that is in Nature she being the Infinite servant of the Infinite God whom no finite Creature of what degree soever whether natural or supernatural can conceive for if no Angel nor Devil can know our thoughts much less will they know Infinite Nature nay one finite supernatural Creature cannot in my opinion know perfectly another supernatural Creature but God alone who is all-knowing And therefore all what is said of supernatural Spirits I believe so far as the Scripture makes mention of them further I dare not presume to go the like of the supernatural or divine Soul for all that I have writ hitherto to you of the Soul concerns the natural Soul of Man which is material and not the supernatural or divine Soul neither do I contradict any thing concerning this divine soul but I am onely against those opinions which make the natural soul of man an immaterial natural spirit and confound supernatural Creatures with natural believing those spirits to be as well natural Creatures and parts of Nature as material and corporeal beings are when as there is great difference betwixt them and nothing in Nature to be found but what is corporeal Upon this account I take all their relations of Daemons of the Genii and of the Souls after the departure from humane Bodies their Vehicles Shapes Habitations Converses Conferences Entertainments Exercises Pleasures Pastimes Governments Orders Laws Magistrates Officers Executioners Punishments and the like rather for Poetical Fictions then Rational Probabilities containing more Fancy then Truth and Reason whether they concern the divine or natural Soul for as for the divine Soul the Scripture makes no other mention of it but that immediately after her departure out of this natural life she goeth either to Heaven or
him to have such a familiar conjunction and make such contracts with Man as to impower him to do mischief and hurt to others or to foretell things to come and the like for I believe that all things Immaterial as Spirits Angels Devils and the divine Soul of Man are no parts of Nature but Supernatural Nature knowing of no Creature that belongs to her but what is material and since incorporeal Creatures are no parts of Nature they neither have natural actions nor are they concerned as copartners or co-agents in the actions of Nature and natural Creatures but as their substances so their actions are supernatural and beyond our conceivement As for Faires I will not say but there may be such Creatures in Nature and have airy bodies and be of a humane shape and have humane actions as I have described in my Book of Poems for there are many things in Nature whereof Man hath no knowledg at all and it would be a great folly for any one to deny what he doth not see or to ascribe all the unusual effects in Nature to Immaterial Spirits for Nature is so full of variety that she can and doth present sometimes such figures to our exterior senses as are not familiar to us so as we need not to take our refuge to Immaterial Spirits nay even those that are so much for Incorporeal Spirits must confess that they cannot be seen in their own natures as being Invisible and therefore have need to take vehicles of some grosser bodies to manifeft themselves to men and if Spirits cannot appear without bodies the neerest way is to ascribe such unusual effects or apparitions as happen sometimes rather to matter that is already corporeal and not to go so far as to draw Immaterial Spirits to Natural actions and to make those Spirits take vehicles fit for their purposes for Nature takes sometimes delight in unusual Varieties Concerning those stories which your Author relates of the strange effects of Food received into a mans body how they did work upon the Imagination and change and transform the humors of those that did feed upon them those I say seem very probable to me As for example of a Wench who being struck into an Epilepsy upon the seeing of a Malefactors Head cut off was advised to drink Cats-blood which being done she not long after degenerated into the nature and property of that Animal cried and jump'd like a Cat and hunted Mice with the same silence and watchfulness as they do Then of a Man being long fed with Swines-blood which took a special pleasure in wallowing and tumbling himself in the mire Also of a Girle which being nourished up with Goats-milk would skip like a Goat and brouze on Trees as Goats use to do And of a Man who by eating the brains of a Bear became of a Bear-like disposition All these stories I believe to be true for naturally the motions of a Man may sometimes sympathize so much with the received food as to make an alteration in his humour or disposition But although it be natural yet it is not regular at least not usual but proceeds from an irregular and unusual change of motions like as the conception and generation of a Monster For if it were ordinary then those which drink much of the blood of beasts would also degenerate into a beastly nature the contrary whereof is sufficiently known Likewise those that drink much of Cows-milk would change into their humors and natures But certainly some kinds of meats do not onely cause sickness but madness and strange Imaginations all which unnatural or unusual accidents are caused by Matter 's irregular motions Whereof I have declared my opinion in other places and so I rest MADAM Your faithful and constant Friend to serve you XXXIII MADAM YOu will have my opinion of the Book that treats of the Pre-existence of Souls and the Key that unlocks the Divine Providence but I have told you heretofore that there are so many different opinions concerning the Soul as I do not know which to embrace for the multiplicity confounds my choice and the cause of these various opinions in my simple judgment is that most men make no difference between the Divine and Natural Soul As for the Natural Soul humane sense and reason may perceive that it consists of Matter as being Material but as for the Divine Soul being not material no humane sense and reason is able naturally to conceive it for there cannot possibly be so much as an Idea of a natural nothing or an immaterial being neither can sense and reason naturally conceive the Creation of an Immaterial substance for as the Creation of material Creatures as of this World belongs to Faith and not to Reason so doth also the Creation of Immaterial substances as Spirits nay it is more difficult to understand a Natural Nothing to be made out of nothing then a Natural Something out of nothing And as for the Progress of Immaterial Souls which the same Author mentions I cannot conceive how No-thing can make a Progress and therefore I suppose it is an Improper or Metaphorical expression The truth is what is Immaterial belongs not to a Natural knowledg or understanding but is Supernatural and goes beyond a natural reach or capacity Concerning the Key of Divine Providence I believe God did never give or lend it to any man for surely God who is infinitely Wise would never intrust so frail and foolish a Creature as Man with it as to let him know his secret Counsels Acts and Decrees But setting aside Pride and Presumption Sense and Reason may easily perceive that Man though counted the best of Creatures is not made with such infinite Excellence as to pierce into the least secrets of God Wherefore I am in a maze when I hear of such men which pretend to know so much as if they had plundered the Celestial Cabinet of the Omnipotent God for certainly had they done it they could not pretend to more knowledg then they do But I Madam confess my Ignorance as having neither divine Inspirations nor extraordinary Visions nor any divine or humane learning but what Nature has been pleased to bestow upon me Yet in all this Ignorance I know that I am and ought to be MADAM Your humble and faithful Servant XXXIV MADAM SInce in my former Letters I have discoursed of Immaterial Spirits and declared my meaning that I do not believe them to be natural Creatures or parts of Nature you are of opinion as if I did contradict my self by reason that in the first Edition of my Book called Philosophical Opinions I name the rational and sensitive Matter rational and sensitive Spirits To which I answer first That when I did write my first Conceptions in Natural Philosophy I was not so experienced nor had I those observations which I have had since Neither did I give those first Conceptions time to digest and come to a maturity or perfect growth but
stories in brief is this My Sense and Reason doth inform me that there is Natural Witchcraft as I may call it which is Sympathy Antipathy Magnetisme and the like which are made by the sensitive and rational motions between several Creatures as by Imagination Fancy Love Aversion and many the like but these Motions being sometimes unusual and strange to us we not knowing their causes For what Creature knows all motions in Nature and their ways do stand amazed at their working power and by reason we cannot assign any Natural cause for them are apt to ascribe their effects to the Devil but that there should be any such devillish Witchcraft which is made by a Covenant and Agreement with the Devil by whose power Men do enchaunt or bewitch other Creatures I cannot readily believe Certainly I dare say that many a good old honest woman hath been condemned innocently and suffered death wrongfully by the sentence of some foolish and cruel Judges meerly upon this suspition of Witchcraft when as really there hath been no such thing for many things are done by slights or juggling Arts wherein neither the Devil nor Witches are Actors And thus an English-man whose name was Banks was like to be burnt beyond the Seas for a Witch as I have been inform'd onely for making a Horse shew tricks by Art There have been also several others as one that could vomit up several kinds of Liquors and other things and another who did make a Drum beat of it self But all these were nothing but slights and jugling tricks as also the talking and walking Bell and the Brazen-Head which spake these words Time was Time is and Time is past and so fell down Which may easily have been performed by speaking through a Pipe conveighed into the said head But such and the like trifles will amaze many grave and wise men when they do not know the manner or way how they are done so as they are apt to judg them to be effected by Witchcraft or Combination with the Devil But as I said before I believe there is Natural Magick which is that the sensitive and rational Matter oft moves such a way as is unknown to us and in the number of these is also the bleeding of a murdered body at the presence of the Murderer which your Author mentions for the corporeal motions in the murthered body may move so as to work such effects which are more then ordinary for the animal Figure being not so quickly dissolved the animal motions are not so soon altered for the dissolving of the Figure is nothing else but an alteration of its Motions and this dissolution is not done in an instant of time but by degrees But yet I must confess it is not a common action in Nature for Nature hath both common and singular or particular actions As for example Madness natural Folly and many the like are but in some particular persons for if those actions were general and common then all or most men would be either mad or fools but though there are too many already yet all men are not so and so some murthered bodies may bleed or express some alterations at the presence of the Murtherer but I do not believe that all do so for surely in many not any alteration will be perceived and others will have the same alterations without the presence of the Murtherer And thus you see Madam that this is done naturally without the help of the Devil nay your Author doth himself confess it to be so for says he The act of the Witch is plainly Natural onely the stirring up of the vertue or power in the Witch comes from Satan But I cannot understand what your Author means by the departing of spiritual rays from the Witch into Man or any other animal which she intends to kill or hurt nor how Spirits wander about in the Air and have their mansions there for men may talk as well of impossibilities as of such things which are not composed of Natural Matter If man were an Incorporeal Spirit himself he might perhaps sooner conceive the essence of a Spirit as being of the same Nature but as long as he is material and composed of Natural Matter he might as well pretend to know the Essence of God as of an Incorporeal Spirit Truly I must confess I have had some fancies oftentimes of such pure and subtil substances purer and subtiler then the Sky or AEthereal substance is whereof I have spoken in my Poetical Works but these substances which I conceived within my fancy were material and had bodies though never so small and subtil for I was never able to conceive a substance abstracted from all Matter for even Fancy it self is material and all Thoughts and Conceptions are made by the rational Matter and so are those which Philosophers call Animal Spirits but a material Fancy cannot produce immaterial effects that is Ideas of Incorporeal Spirits And this was the cause that in the first impression of my Philosophical Opinions I named the sensitive and rational Matter sensitive and rational Spirits because of its subtilty activity and agility not that I thought them to be immaterial but material Spirits but since Spirits are commonly taken to be immaterial and Spirit and Body are counted opposite to one another to prevent a misapprehension in the thoughts of my Readers as if I meant Incorporeal Spirits I altered this expression in the last Edition and call'd it onely sensitive and rational Matter or which is all one sensitive and rational corporeal motions You will say perhaps That the divine Soul in Man is a Spirit but I desire you to call to mind what I oftentimes have told you to wit that when I speak of the Soul of Man I mean onely the Natural not the Divine Soul which as she is supernatural so she acts also supernaturally but all the effects of the natural Soul of which I discourse are natural and not divine or supernatural But to return to Magnetisme I am absolutely of opinion that it is naturally effected by natural means without the concurrence of Immaterial Spirits either good or bad meerly by natural corporeal sensitive and rational motions and for the most part there must be a due approach between the Agent and the Patient or otherwise the effect will hardly follow as you may see by the Loadstone and Iron Neither is the influence of the Stars performed beyond a certain distance that is such a distance as is beyond sight or their natural power to work for if their light comes to our Eyes I know no reason against it but their effects may come to our bodies And as for infectious Diseases they come by a corporeal imitation as by touch either of the infected air drawn in by breath or entring through the Pores of the Body or of some things brought from infected places or else by hearing but diseases caused by Conceit have their beginning as all alterations have from
But your Author doth wisely to commend such remedies as can never or with great difficulty be obtained and then to say that no disease is incurable And so leaving him to his unknown secrets and those to them that will use them I am resolved to adhere to the Practice of the Schools which I am confident will be more beneficial to the health of MADAM Your real and faithful Friend and Servant XLI MADAM YOur Author speaking of the Gout and of that kind of Gout which is called Hereditary says It consists immediately in the Spirit of Life First as for that which is called an Hereditary Disease propagated from Parents upon their Children my opinion is That it is nothing else but the same actions of the animate matter producing the same effect in the Child as they did in the Parent For example the same motions which made the Gout in the Parent may make the same disease in the Child but every Child has not his Parents diseases and many Children have such diseases as their Parents never had neither is any disease tied to a particular Family by Generation but they proceed from irregular motions and are generally in all Mankind and therefore properly there is no such thing as an hereditary propagation of diseases for one and the same kind of disease may be made in different persons never a kin to one another by the like motions but because Children have such a neer relation to their Parents by Generation if they chance to have the same diseases with their Parents men are apt to conclude it comes by inheritance but we may as well say that all diseases are hereditary for there is not any disease in Nature but is produced by the actions of Nature's substance and if we receive life and all our bodily substance by Generation from our Parents we may be said to receive diseases too for diseases are inherent in the matter or substance of Nature which every Creature is a part of and are real beings made by the corporeal motions of the animate matter although irregular to us for as this matter moves so is Life or Death Sickness or Health and all natural effects and we consisting of the same natural matter are naturally subject as well to diseases as to health according as the Matter moves Thus all diseases are hereditary in Nature nay the Scripture it self confirms it informing us that diseases as well as death are by an hereditary propagation derived from Adam upon all Posterity But as for the Gout your Authors doctrine is That Life is not a body nor proper to a body nor of the off-spring of corporeal Proprieties but a meer No-thing and that the Spirit of Life is a real being to wit the arterial blood resolved by the Ferment of the heart into salt air and enlightned by life and that the Gout doth immediately consist in this spirit of life All which how it doth agree I cannot conceive for that a real being should be enlightned by Nothing and be a spirit of Nothing is not imaginable nor how the Gout should inhabit in the spirit of life for then it would follow that a Child as soon as it is brought forth into the world would be troubled with the Gout if it be as natural to him as life or have its habitation in the Spirit of Life Also your Author is speaking of an Appoplexy in the head which takes away all sense and motion But surely in my opinion it is impossible that all sense and motion should be out of the head onely that sense and motion which is proper to the head and to the nature of that Creature is altered to some other sensitive and rational motions which are proper to some other figure for there is no part or particle of matter that has not motion and sense I pray consider Madam is there any thing in Nature that is without motion Perchance you will say Minerals but that is proved otherwise as for example by the sympathetical motion between the Loadstone and Iron and between the Needle and the North as also by the operation of Mercury and several others Wherefore there is no doubt but all kinds sorts and particulars of Creatures have their natural motions although they are not all visible to us but not such motions as are made by Gas or Blas or Ideas c. but corporeal sensitive and rational motions which are the actions of Natural Matter You may say Some are of opinion that Sympathy and Antipathy are not Corporeal motions Truly whosoever says so speaks no reason for Sympathy and Antipathy are nothing else but the actions of bodies and are made in bodies the Sympathy betwixt Iron and the Loadstone is in bodies the Sympathy between the Needle and the North is in bodies the Sympathy of the Magnetick powder is in bodies The truth is there is no motion without a body nor no body without motion Neither doth Sympathy and Antipathy work at distance by the power of Immaterial Spirits or rays issuing out of their bodies but by agreeable or disagreeable corporeal motions for if the motions be agreeable there is Sympathy if disagreeable there is Antipathy and if they be equally found in two bodies then there is a mutual Sympathy or Antipathy but if in one body onely and not in the other there is but Sympathy or Antipathy on one side or in one Creature Lastly concerning swoonings or fainting fits your Authors opinion is that they proceed from the stomack Which I can hardly believe for many will swoon upon the sight of some object others at a sound or report others at the smell of some disagreeable odour others at the taste of some or other thing that is not agreeable to their nature and so forth also some will swoon at the apprehension or conceit of something and some by a disorder or irregularity of motions in exterior parts Wherefore my opinion is that swoonings may proceed from any part of the body and not onely from the stomack But Madam I being no Physicianess may perhaps be in an error and therefore I will leave this discourse to those that are thorowly learned and practised in this Art and rest satisfied that I am MADAM Your Ladiships humble Servant XLII MADAM YOur Author is inquiring whether some cures of diseases may be effected by bare co-touchings and I am of his opinion they may for co-touchings of some exterior objects may cause alterations of some particular motions in some particular parts of matter without either transferring their own motions into those parts for that this is impossible I have heretofore declared or without any corporeal departing from their own parts of matter into them and alterations may be produced both in the motions and figures of the affected parts but these cures are not so frequent as those that are made by the entring of medicines into the diseased parts and either expel the malignant matter or rectifie the
being without weight but their natural and proper motion which keeps them constantly in their spheres and it might as well be said a Man lives not or is not because he doth not fly like a Bird or dive and catch fish like a Cormorant or dig and undermine like a Mole for those are motions not proper to his nature And these Madam are my answers to your objections which if they do satisfie you it is all I desire if not I shall endeavour hereafter to make my meaning more intelligible and study for other more rational arguments then these are to let you see how much I value both the credit of my named Book and your Ladiships Commands which assure you self shall never be more faithfully performed then by MADAM Your Ladiships most obliged Friend and humble Servant XXXII MADAM SInce my opinion is that the Animate part of Matter which is sense and reason life and knowledg is the designer architect and creator of all sigures in Nature you desire to know whence this Animate Matter sense and reason or life and knowledg call it what you will for it is all one and the same thing is produced I answer It is eternal But then you say it is coequal with God I answer That cannot be for God is above all Natural sense and reason which is Natural life and knowledg and therefore it cannot be coequal with God except it be meant in Eternity as being without beginning and end But if Gods Power can make Man's Soul as also the good and evil Spirits to last eternally without end he may by his Omnipotency make as well things without beginning You will say If Nature were Eternal it could not be created for the word Creation is contrary to Eternity I answer Madam I am no Scholar for words for if you will not use the word Creation you may use what other word you will for I do not stand upon nice words and terms so I can but express my conceptions Wherefore if it be as in Reason it cannot be otherwise that nothing in Nature can be annihilated nor any thing created out of nothing but by Gods special and all-powerful Decree and Command then Nature must be as God has made her until he destroy her But if Nature be not Eternal then the Gods of the Heathens were made in time and were no more then any other Creature which is as subject to be destroyed as created for they conceived their Gods as we do men to have Material Bodies but an Immaterial Spirit or as some Learned men imagine to be an Immaterial Spirit but to take several shapes and so to perform several corporeal actions which truly is too humble and mean a conception of an Immaterial Being much more of the Great and Incomprehensible God which I do firmly believe is a most pure all-powerful Immaterial Being which doth all things by his own Decree and Omnipotency without any Corporeal actions or shapes such as some fancy of Daemons and the like Spirits But to return to the former question you might as well enquire how the world or any part of it was created or how the variety of creatures came to be as ask how Reason and sensitive corporeal Knowledg was produced Nevertheless I do constantly believe that both sensitive and rational Knowledg in Matter was produced from God but after what manner or way is impossible for any creature or part of Nature to know for Gods wayes are incomprehensible and supernatural And thus much I believe That as God is an Eternal Creator which no man can deny so he has also an Eternal Creature which is Nature or natural Matter But put the case Nature or natural Matter was made when the World was created might not God give this Natural Matter self-motion as well as he gave self-motion to Spirits and Souls and might not God endue this Matter with Sense and Reason as well as he endued Man Shall or can we bind up Gods actions with our weak opinions and foolish arguments Truly if God could not act more then Man is able to conceive he were not a God of an infinite Power but God is Omnipotent and his actions are infinite supernatural and past finding out wherefore he is rather to be admired adored and worshipped then to be ungloriously discoursed of by vain and ambitious men whose foolish pride and presumption drowns their Natural Judgment and Reason to which leaving them I rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXXIII MADAM IN obedience to your commands I here send you also an explanation and clearing of those places and passages in my Book of Philosophy which in your last Letter you were pleased to mark as containing some obscurity and difficulty of being understood First When I say Nature is an Individable Matter I do not mean as if Nature were not dividable into parts for because Nature is material therefore she must also needs be dividable into parts But my meaning is that Nature cannot be divided from Matter nor Matter from Nature that is Nature cannot be Immaterial nor no part of Nature but if there be any thing Immaterial it doth not belong to Nature Also when I call Nature a Multiplying Figure I mean that Nature makes infinite changes and so infinite figures Next when I say There are Infinite Divisions in Nature my meaning is not that there are Infinite divisions of one single part but that Infinite Matter has Infinite parts sizes figures and motions all being but one Infinite Matter or corporeal Nature Also when I say single parts I mean not parts subsisting by themselves precised from each other but single that is several or different by reason of their different figures Likewise when I name Atomes I mean small parts of Matter and when I speak ofPlace and Time I mean onely the variation of corporeal figurative motions Again when I say Nature has not an absolute Power because she has an Infinite power I mean by absolute as much as finite or circumscribed and in this sense Nature cannot have an absolute power for the Infiniteness hinders the absoluteness but when in my former Letters I have attributed an absolute Power onely to God and said that Nature has not an absolute power but that her power although it be Infinite yet cannot extend beyond Nature but is an Infinite natural power I understand by an absolute Power not a finite power but such a power which onely belongs to God that is a supernatural and divine power which power Nature cannot have by reason she cannot make any part of her body immaterial nor annihilate any part of her Creatures nor create any part that was not in her from Eternity nor make her self a Deity for though God can impower her with a supernatural gift and annihilate her when he pleases yet she is no ways able to do it her self Moreover when I say That one Infinite is contained within another I mean the several
there were none presented to the sensitive organs Nor is there any thing which can better prove the mind to be corporeal then that there may be several Figures in several parts of the body made at one time as Sight Hearing Tasting Smelling and Touching and all these in each several organ as well at one as at several times either by patterns or not which figuring without Pattern may be done as well by the sensitive motions in the organs as by the rational in the mind and is called remembrance As for example a Man may hear or see without an object which is that the sensitive and rational matter repeat such figurative actions or make others in the sensitive organs or in the mind and Thoughts Memory Imagination as also Passion are no less corporeal actions then the motion of the hand or heel neither hath the rational matter being naturally wise occasion to jumble and knock her parts together by reason every part knows naturally their office what they ought to do or what they may do But I conclude repeating onely what I have said oft before that all Perceptions Thoughts and the like are the Effects and Life and Knowledg the Nature and Essence of self-moving Matter And so I rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XX. MADAM IAm not able to conceive how the Mind of Man can be compared to a Table-book in which nothing is writ nor how to a Musician who being asleep doth not so much as dream of any Musick but being jogg'd and awakend by another who tells him two or three words of a Song and desires him to sing it presently recovers himself and sings upon so slight an Intimation For such intimations are nothing else but outward objects which the interior sense consents to and obeys for interior sense and reason doth often obey outward objects and in my opinion there is no rest in Nature and so neither in the Mind or natural Soul of Man which is in a perpetual motion and needs therefore no jogging to put it into any actual motion for it hath actual motion and knowledg in it self because it is a self-moving substance actually knowing and Material or Corporeal not Immaterial as your Author thinks and this material or corporeal Mind is nothing else but what I call the rational matter and the corporeal life is the sensitive matter But this is to be observed that the motions of the corporeal Mind do often imitate the motions of the sensitive Life and these again the motions of the mind I say oftentimes for they do it not always but each one can move without taking any pattern from the other And all this I understand of the Natural Soul of Man not of the Divine Soul and her powers and faculties for I leave that to Divines to inform us of onely this I say that men not conceiving the distinction between this natural and divine Soul make such a confusion betwixt those two Souls and their actions which causes so many disputes and opinions But if Nature hath power from God to produce all kinds of Vegetables Minerals Elements Animals and other sorts of Creatures Why not also Man Truly if all Creatures are natural Creatures Man must be so too and if Man is a natural Creature he must needs have natural sense and reason as well as other Creatures being composed of the same matter they are of Neither is it requisite that all Creatures being of the same matter must have the same manner of sensitive and rational knowledg which if so it is not necessary for Corn to have Ears to hear the whistling or chirping of Birds nor for Stones to have such a touch of feeling as animals have and to suffer pain as they do when Carts go over them as your Author is pleased to argue out of AEsopes Tales or for the Heliotrope to have eyes to see the Sun for what necessity is there that they should have humane sense and reason which is that the rational and sensitive matter should act and move in them as she doth in man or animals Certainly if there must be any variety in nature it is requisite she should not wherefore all Vegetables Minerals Elements and Animals have their proper motions different from each others not onely in their kinds and sorts but also in their particulars And though Stones have no progressive motion to withdraw themselves from the Carts going over them which your Author thinks they would do if they had sense to avoid pain nevertheless they have motion and consequently sense and reason according to the nature and propriety of their figure as well as man has according to his But this is also to be observed that not any humane Creature which is accounted to have the perfectest sense and reason is able always to avoid what is hurtful or painful for it is subject to it by Nature Nay the Immaterial Soul it self according to your Author cannot by her self-contracting faculty withdraw her self from pain Wherefore there is no manner of consequence to conclude from the sense of Animals to the sense of Minerals they being as much different as their Figures are And saying this I have said enough to express the opinion and mind of MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXI MADAM YOur Author endeavours very much to prove the Existency of a Natural Immaterial Spirit whom he defines to be an Incorporeal substance Indivisible that can move it self can penetrate contract and dilate it self and can also move and alter the matter Whereof if you will have my opinion I confess freely to you that in my sense and reason I cannot conceive it to be possible that there is any such thing in Nature for all that is a substance in Nature is a body and what has a body is corporeal for though there be several degrees of matter as in purity rarity subtilty activity yet there is no degree so pure rare and subtil that can go beyond its nature and change from corporeal to incorporeal except it could change from being something to nothing which is impossible in Nature Next there is no substance in Nature that is not divisible for all that is a body or a bodily substance hath extension and all extension hath parts and what has parts is divisible As for self-motion contraction and dilation these are actions onely of Natural Matter for Matter by the Power of God is self-moving and all sorts of motions as contraction dilation alteration penetration c. do properly belong to Matter so that natural Matter stands in no need to have some Immaterial or Incorporeal substance to move rule guide and govern her but she is able enough to do it all her self by the free Gift of the Omnipotent God for why should we trouble our selves to invent or frame other unconceivable substances when there is no need for it but Matter can act and move as well without them and of it self Is not God able