to make use of those external signs can manifest his thoughts to the Spirit he will inform so as no other shall know of it In effect in that state we now are in of discovering our thoughts we do nothing else but to Will and although that Will be joyned to motions which fail not to be in certain parts of our body as soon as we need it for the signifying our thoughts yet notwithstanding our souls are not the cause of those motions according to what we shewed in our 4th Discourse * In his book entitl'd Le Discernement du Corps de l' Ame. and they do nothing else to expresse themselves but to Will so that as long as they are united to our Bodies we cannot express the thoughts coming into our mind but by moving the Tongue the Throat and the Mouth this necessity is imposed on us by that union But as soon as there should be no such necessity to borrow motions for expressing what we think there would need no more to make other Spirits understand it but to will that they should understand and if we would have it hid from them there would need no more than not to will that they should know it I have elsewhere deliver'd the reasons by which it appears that all the action of the Soul consists in willing and I think I have sufficiently made it out that all what depends from Her is to determine herself to one thing or another so as I shall not need here to repeat any thing of what I have said on that subject But it will not be amiss to take notice in this place that although God do not make us conceive what is the substance of our Spirits nor how they will that is how they determine themselves yet we know clearly that we have a Spirit and that our Spirit hath the power of determining it self But now as we are assured that we speak not our thoughts but when we please we ought to believe that if we were in a state to need signes and voices no more we might then by our Will alone discover or hide our thoughts We are also to remember that 't is not more difficult to conceive that then we should make our thoughts to be apprehended by other Spirits than to conceive that the spirit of another man should apprehend in the present state what we think when we express it by voice or by signes For the rest when I say that Souls emancipated from the Body might hide or manifest their thoughts to one another that is to be understood if they had the same reason to hide their thoughts they have now in the present state But 't is apparent that if they shall be happy as they will have no thoughts but for the Glory of their Maker so they will be glad that all the Spirits should know them and if they for ever lose his grace they will have only such thoughts which being to serve to publish the effects of his justice will be known to all the Spirits Lastly we ought to remember that according to what I have deliver'd of the Action of Souls and Bodies in the fifth Discourse of the first part we say that one Soul acts upon another Soul as often as one hath new thoughts upon an occasion given by the other even as we say that one Body acts upon another Body as often as one Body receives some change upon occasion afforded by the other And as I have shewn that a Body never gives any motion to a Body but only for as much as their meeting together is an occasion to the Divine Power which moved one to apply it self to the other We are also to conceive that when one Soul will make known to another Soul what she thinketh that happens forasmuch as Almighty God brings it to pass that according to the will of the one the other comes to know it And even as the Will we have that our Body be mov'd does not make it move but is only an occasion to the First Power to move it after such a manner as we desire it should be mov'd so the Will also which we have that a Spirit should know what we think is an occasion to that Power so to order things that all may be disposed in such a way as that that Spirit may understand it Thence it necessarily results that 't is as impossible for our Souls to have new perceptions without God as 't is impossible for the Body to have new motions without Him And 't is evident besides that our Souls which depend from Him for their Being and for their Conservation depend not at all from Him for the Vse of their Will whereof he leaves the determination altogether free And I dare deliver it as a thing that will appear manifest to all men of good sense who shall attentively consider it that as the Body is a substance to which Extension belongs naturally so that it would as to effects naturall cease to be a Body if it ceas'd to be extended even so the Spirit is a substance to which the power of determining it self doth so naturally appertain that it would cease to be a Spirit if it ceas'd to will and God Almighty hath made it thus that he might be loved by it Which appears so evidently that if he had not declared it by so many miraculous testimonies of his tenderness which goes so far as to ask of us our Heart that is to say our Love we should be altogether perswaded that He will be the object of our Will in this World by this only consideration that there is no object so great but it can embrace it As to the power of knowing perhaps he hath not given us that so great at least not in this World But 't is certain that we have knowledge enough as not to fail if we use well the light we have and the power we are endowed with of judging of nothing but after we do well know it For God gives us all the â—ight we need we have idea's very distinct to know the things of Nature as much as 't is usefull to know them since we can when we use prudence discern wherein every one is beneficial or hurtfull to us And although according to what I have already observ'd he affordeth us not the advantage to know the very substance of things yet he so well discovers to us wherein they can hurt â—r profit us that to use it aright we are â—nly to will it As for those things which are above Nature although they infinitely surpass our knowledg yet we have very distinct notions of the Reasons why we are not able to conceive them and of the Reasons also why we are to believe them For if on the one hand in the doctrine of Faith there are things to be found that are beyond our natural light we have on the other such evident signes of the Obligation for us to submit our
of the food does not fail to excite them to repeat the same songs or words And to understand this well we must conceive that Brutes learn their cry from others of their kind and that ordinarily the food is the cause of it For their young ones having at the same time their Ears struck by the cries always made by their Dams at the presence of some food which they have not yet the possession of and their Eyes also struck by that food it self it must come to pass that the place of their brain which always receives those two agitations at once gets thence in time such an impression made in it that the spirits taking their course from that place to the throat and the muscles serving for the voice must needs dispose them after such a manner as answering to the impression of the brain causeth those young ones to make a cry like that of their Dam. But when they are brought up by men and when Linets for example are bred in a Cage and that in-stead of the cry of their Dam it happens that in the presence of the food certain strange songs or humane words strike their ears 't is no wonder if those words or songs making impression in the same place of the brain whence that food should have made the spirits to flow into the muscles of the throat and beak to cause them to make the noise which birds make at the presence of a food they hold not yet are cause that the spirits being otherwise directed do also otherwise dispose the muscles of the throat tongue and beak of those young Birds and make them sing songs and utter words instead of the cry which they would have form'd if their Dam had bred them This must needs so happen and even those songs or words may then be call'd their natural cry or song because having always accompany'd an action that hath made so deep an Impression on their brain it cannot be that that action should move their brain and the spirits should not also flow presently to the muscles which serve for that song or those words And likewise if they have been put in a certain condition or in a certain place to make them learn the better they will sooner repeat what they have been taught if they be put again in the same condition and place than in any other 'T is easie also to understand why it hath sometimes happn'd that a great noise as that of a Trumpet having at one blow shaken altogether the ear of a Bird hath made so strong an Impression in his brain that having struck out all the others the spirits have no more diffused themselves towards his throat than in such a manner as might dispose the muscles of the Larinx to return sounds altogether like that of a Trumpet And we must not wonder if the passages through which those spirits flow to the throat being more difficult to be moved than the brain to be shaken the Bird remains sometimes in a kind of silence for many days before he renders that sound nor also if that silence be perpetual when the parts which serve for the voice are not capable to form a like one to the sound which hath so strongly mov'd the Brain In short there is no intelligent man who after this discourse sees not why an Animal being born deaf must needs be dumb From all which it results with sufficient evidence to a considering Man first That 't is the Lungs and the structure of the Wind-pipe the mouth the palat the teeth and the muscles of all those parts which by receiving and repelling or in diversly modifying the Air is the cause enabling us to form Voices and to articulate them Secondly That 't is by reason of the communication which is between the brains and the other parts of the body of every Animal that it is diversly agitated by those Voices Thirdly That in every Animal capable to form Voices there is such a commerce from the ear to the brain and from the brain to all the parts serving for the voice that the same voice which shakes the brain by the intervention of the ear disposeth it also to diffuse the spirits into the muscles of those parts which spirits putting them into a posture answerable to the manner in which that voice did strike the brain make them form a voice altogether like it if some pressing necessity of the Animal diverts not the course of the spirits to another place Which being once well understood it will be easie to know a thousand things which commonly enough are not known touching the different effects of the cry and noise of Animals which I mean not to explain more particularly because that all those who have attention enough to conceive the few principles which I have laid down will from thence draw all what is necessary to explain it and because those that are not capable of such an attention would not conceive what I could say of it even in a more particular discourse I shall only stay to consider here that according to these Principles Brutes need no Soul to cry or to be moved by cries For if they be toucht in any place or their nerves struck with force enough to cause a great shake in their Brain 't is sufficiently easie to conceive that that action agitating the spirits these must flow much more swiftly into the muscles and by this means the swiftness of those that run incessantly to the heart augmenting must render the pulses thereof more precipitate which maketh it propel so great a plenty of bloud into the Artery of the Lungs that this Artery being more distended than ordinarily presseth the Wind-pipe and maketh the air to be driven out of the Lungs with an impetuosity answerable to that whereby the bloud enter'd there The second effect of this quick agitation of the spirits is that at the same time they flow to the heart some of them diffuse themselves also to all the other muscles that are in a continual action as those of the breast because whereas the passages through which the spirits are conveyed in those sorts of muscles are alwayes open by reason of the necessity of their continual action the spirits cannot receive a new motion without presently communicating it to those Muscles which causeth those of the Diaphragme and Breast press the Breast in such a manner as makes the air issue out with unusual force and seeing the muscles of the Larinx are also strongly agitated the air thence getting out is beaten in a manner which holds somewhat of that agitation Thus it may be conceived from the sole disposition of the Body why a Brute cries And to know how it may be moved by cries without having a Soul you need but remember the communion there is between the brain the parts serving for the voice and all the parts of the body For if according to the difference of cries the brains are diversly moved
pass that the Brain which thereby is often shaken in the same places sends such a plenty of spirits through the nerves that are inserted in the Muscles of the Throat that at length they easily move â—ll the cartilages which serve for that action as t is requisite they should be moved to form Sounds like those that have shaken the Brain Thus it is not enough that Bodies make Sounds form Voices and even articulate Words like those by which I express what I think to perswade me that they think what-ever they seem to say For example I ought not be so rash as to believe that a Parret hath any thought when he pronounces some Words For besides that I have observed that after having repeated to him exceedingly often the same words in a certain order he never returneth but the self same words and in the same coherence It seems to me that since he does not make these returns to purpose he imitates men less than Echo's doe which never answer but what hath been said to them and if there be any difference between Parrets and Echo's it is that Rocks tossing back the Air without changing at all the impressions it hath received render the same voices that have struck them whereas Parrets form another voice like that which hath struck the ear and often repeat words which are said to them no more But in short as I cannot say that Rocks speak when they return words so I dare not affirm that Parrets speak when they repeat them For it seems to me that to speak is not to repeat the same words which have struck the ear but to utter others to their purpose and sutable to them And as I have reason to believe that none of the Bodies that make Echo's do think though I hear them repeat my words seing they never render them but in the order I utter'd them in I should by the same reason judge that Parrets do not think neither But not to examine any further how it is with Parrets and so many other Bodies whose figure is very different from mine I shall continue the Inquiry which I need to know the inward constitution of those who resemble me so perfectly without and for that purpose I think I may after the disquisition I have been making of all what causeth noise sounds voices and words establish for a Principle That if the Bodies which are like mine had nothing but the facilness of pronouncing Words I should not therefore believe that they had the advantage of being united to Souls But then if I finde by all the Experiments I am capable to make that they use speech as I do I shall think I have infallible reason to beleive that they have a soul as I. To make this examen in such an order as leaves me no suspicion at all to have deceived my self I must consider before all what I mean by SPEECH To speak in my opinion is nothing else but to make known what we think to that creature which is capable to understand it And supposing that the Bodies which resemble mine have Souls I see that the only means to express to one another what we think is to give to our selves external signes thereof But me thinks I have found that there are many signes common to them and me by which we understand one another for seing that they answer to my signes by other signes which give me images agreeable to what I think I do not believe I am deceived when I perswade my self that they have understood my thought and that the new thought which their signes have excited in me is really that which they have Moreover I see I can agree with some of them that what commonly signifies one thing shall signifie another and that this succeeds so as that there are none but those with whom I have agreed about it that appear to me to understand what I think Whence I conceive that those signs are of Institution and as that Institution necessarily supposeth reason and thoughts in those that are capable to agree about it I should it may be advance nothing rashly if I now affirmed that those Bodies are united to Souls But that which might trouble me here is that if there be signs of Institution I think I know others that are alltogether natural For example all those by which I express my passions without any design to do so Thus a smiling Meen and certain motions of my eies or of the other parts of my Face make me often consider when I consult with the Looking-glass that if others saw me they would know my sadness my joy or the other passions stirring in me And that it may be If those bodies resembling mine have Souls is the surest means to discover to them the different constitutions of my Soul Yet if I take good heed I can render those signs very deceitful For I find that though naturally I appear outwardly chearful or sad when I am so indeed yet I have the power to constrain the motions of my face and eyes so as to make them have an Air quite differing from that which they would have if I left their motions free Which gives me to understand that though naturally certain motions of my face and even of my whole Body have been joyn'd to some of my thoughts yet this conjunction is not so necessary but that I can sometimes alter it by joyning those thoughts to other motions And though indeed that give me much pain yet I conceive that as we may form an easy habit of what at first appears very difficult I could also render these changes easy enough to me But what I am most of all to observe here is that although it be very convenient that as long as my Soul is united to my Body for the conservation whereof she hath divers passions her joy her sadness her desires or her fear be alwayes joyn'd with the motions which the good or ill disposition of that Body can beget in the Brain as also that that correspondence which is between the parts of the Brain and those of the Face or Eyes and all such as are external be the cause that what is within may never change unless there be marks of it without yet notwithstanding since those exteriour marks have no necessary relation but to the changes of the Brain and that the sole condition of the Body may be the cause thereof it might happen that though the Bodies which resemble mine should not be united to Souls that yet they would have the same motions of eyes and face which I often perceive in me according as they should be well or ill dispos'd within so that those external signes so like in those Bodies and mine are not alone an infallible argument that those bodies are endow'd with Souls Further since those motions of the face and eyes and even those cryes that are never wanting when nothing constrains them to follow the different conditions of
examine the effect it produceth in the Ear it striketh and in the Brain it shaketh In regard that the Anatomy of the Ear is a thing commonly known and that 't is sufficient for every one to be persuaded in the general that it is an Organ dispos'd to receive the air when 't is propelled by Bodies which by touching one another drive it from betwixt them or repelled by hard Bodies or issuing out of the Lungs of an Animal I shall make no description of it I desire only it may be observ'd that as many different shakings there are in the Air so many different sorts there are of its passing into the Ear and that according to those diversities it causeth a different agitation in the Membrane stretch'd out in the bottom of the Ear and in the Nerves answering thereto It may also be judged by what we know of the construction of Animals even of Beasts that according as the Agitation of the Nerves of the Ear is different the Brain must be agitated in different parts and likewise that 't is alwayes according as those different parts are agitated that the spirits are differently distributed into the members But all that is perform'd by a necessary sequel of the mechanical disposition of the whole Body of every Animal and even of every Beast which being of a certain kind that is made for one thing or another hath all what is necessary to effect what the Author of Nature proposed to himself in forming it It hath the Brain so adjusted according to its temperament for all what may conserve it that if the Objects which can hurt it move its Brain 't is alwayes after such a manner which maketh it to open in the places whence the spirits may flow into the muscles which serve to make it retire from those Objects and if the Objects which can benefit it move its Brain 't is alwayes in such a manner as maketh it to open in the places whence the spirits may be diffused into the muscles which serve to make it approach to those Objects so that if we suppose that one and the same noise striking the ears of two Beasts of differing kind do agitate at the same time their Brains we are to believe that that agitation being diversly made in each and in different parts of their Brain according as that which causes the noise shall be agreeable or contrary to it it will also happen that the course of the spirits being necessarily different in those two Beasts one of them shall be carried far from the object whilst the other approacheth to it Thus the howling of a Wolf may make a Sheep fly but at the same time bring to him another Wolf But 't is necessary to observe here that although the Art whereby the Brain of Animals is composed be infinitely varied and that 't is admirable herein that according to their different conformations 't is always found so artificially disposed that those Creatures must necessarily and according to all the rules of the Mechanicks approach to what is naturally good for them and retire from what is naturally noxious to them yet it was not possible that within the small compass of their Brain there should be so many differing springs that they could have a proportion necessary and always well suited to all sorts of Objects But instead thereof their Brain is made of a substance soft enough easily to receive new impressions and yet consistent enough to retain those which in some places thereof are made by certain objects which being neither naturally good nor ill for them do yet sometimes occasion considerable benefit or mischief to them and frequently those traces which at first were not in the Brain remain there so well marked that when the Objects which caused them present themselves the places keeping the impression being more agitated by them than the other diffuse thence such spirits into the muscles as serve to carry the Animal nearer to or further from those Objects according as they have been found beneficial or noxious to it Mean time whereas there is much more danger for the Animal to suffer the approach of the Objects that can hurt it than there would be in the not approaching those that might do it good at the time when there is yet no impression in its Brain at the occasion of an Object if then it happen that from a noise that Object begin to shake the Brain of the Creature it will never fail to fly especially if the Air hath been agitated strongly or in such a way that hath troubled the Brain I believe there is no body that hath not often felt in himself the effects of this surprise and experimented how much the Will which the Soul then hath to keep the Body in certain places is controled by this natural Disposition which maketh all the Spirits and Muscles conspire together to transport it far from those places where a noise is made especially when 't is so great that the whole Body is threatned to be there destroyed Every one may also have found what force the agitation made in the Brain by a noise not ordinary hath to make the Spirits without one's thinking on 't flow into the muscles that serve to transport the Body out of the places where that noise happens But since this is not yet the place proper to examine what the Soul's part is in Speech we must to finish the Observations of what she borrows from the Body for the formation of a Voice call to mind a Note I have already made which is that the same Nerves which answer to the Ears have branches going to the Teeth the Tongue the Entrance of the Wind-pipe and generally to all the places which serve to form or modifie the Voice so that following Nature's Institution the same shaking of the Auditory Nerves which affects the Brain with the motion caused by a voice in the Air is also the cause that the Spirits which flow from the Brain into the Nerves of all the parts serving for the Voice dispose their Muscles in a manner which answering to the Impression made by the Voice in the Brain puts them into a state to form a Voice altogether like it And if it have been necessary that the correspondence which is between the Auditory Nerves and the Brain should be such that when it should be moved by the concussions of the air that should be done in different places of it according to the diversity of Noises to the end that following that diversity the Spirits might diffuse themselves into the Muscles that can carry away or stay the Animal according as the causes of that noise are good or ill for the whole Body It was no less requisite there should be a sufficient commerce between the same Auditory Nerves and those of the parts that serve for the Voice to bring it to pass that when a voice should strike the ear the Muscles of those parts might immediately be
disposed as they ought to be to form another perfectly like it And to manifest this necessity better 't is requisite to make two reflections The first is that if it concern Animals to have their Brain shaken by the noise of certain Bodies before they approach too near them that so they may avoid them it concerns them likewise to have their Brain moved by some other Bodies to the end that they may be carried towards them when they are remoter from them than is requisite for their conservation or conveniency The other is that as considering only each Animal according to its species there is nothing more noxious to it than those of a contrary species so there is nothing that can be more beneficial to it than those of its own kind That being so 't is evident that nothing could be so useful as this communication which is between the Ears and the parts serving to form the voice For by this means the cry of one Beast shaking the Brain of another of its kind it presently comes to pass that not only it is carried towards that which maketh the cry according to what hath been said but besides the Muscles of its Throat do so dispose themselves that it makes at the same time a like cry and this new cry striking the Brain of that which cried first causeth the spirit to flow into the Muscles which serve to carry it toward the second so that they sooner meet and may according to the causes of the cry that made them approach draw from one another what may contribute to their conservation I very well know that this necessity of forming cryes or voyces like those that have struck the Ears is not so universal that it must so fall out always and that there are two cases wherein it happens otherwise even in Brutes The first is when that Creature whose Ear is struck and whose Brain is agitated by a Cry is not of the same kind with that which maketh the Cry For we know by what hath been above deliver'd not only that the dispositions of the parts which form the voice in Animals of different species being altogether different that cannot come to pass but also that what is the cause why a Brute makes a cry like that which is made by another of its own kind is only that they may the sooner come together in cases of need which they may stand in of one another The other is that it may often happen even among Animals of the same kind that the Brain of the one is mov'd by the Voice or Cry of the other after such a manner that it shall be more beneficial for that creature whose Brain hath been mov'd by that cry to have the spirits flow into other Muscles than those which serve to make a like voice For example if a Cock makes that noise he useth to make when he meets with a grain of corn it may be that that noise striking the ears of the Hens will shake their Brain in such a manner as shall make them run to the place where that grain is without forming a voice like that which made them come thither As also it may happen that one Animal cries so on the occasion of a dangerous object as that it maketh all the other of the same species run away without forming any cry like it But as often as a Brute is not pressed by such necessities which do alwayes strongliest determine the course of the spirit in its Body when its ear is struck by a Cry that communication betwixt the Ears and the Larinx maketh that from the same place where the Nerves of the Ear have made a motion in its Brain the spirits do necessarily flow into the Muscles of the Larinx which disposing it in such a way as is suitable to the impression of the Brain do make the Animal form a cry altogether like it Thence it comes that Birds excite one another to sing And in short this commerce between the Nerves of the Ear and those of the parts serving for the voice is in general so much the cause of the noise which most Brutes make that provided they are not in any urgent need when their ears are excited by some noise the impression it makes in their Brain causes the spirits that are not diverted another way take their course to the Larinx to dispose it to make a like noise And as the noise which hath shaken their Brain cannot alwayes be imitated by the voices which they are capable to make according to the natural conformation of their Throat they often return such as are very differing Hence it is that Musical Instruments excite Birds to sing yet their songs are so different from all that is play'd on such Instruments But to shew that that proceeds only from the little conformity there is between those Instruments and the disposition of the Throat of the Bird which hinders the imitation we find that as often as there is a proportion between their throat and the voices that strike their Ears they fail not to form at length such as are like them Thus Linets learn in time the note of Nightingales the songs of other Birds and what ever is play'd on Instruments and they learn even as Parrets to pronounce some of our words because they have the Tongue and Beak disposed to articulate them If they be long in learning the songs of other Birds or our words 't is because the Nerves which communicate from their ears to the muscles of their Throat Tongue and Beak cannot be so soon adjusted to those new ways of voices as to cause their formation presently but it appears at last that from the time that those parts are capable to form those voices they do actually utter them And we ought above all things to observe that the change which happens in them when they learn is that their Brain being divers times struck in the same place by the same Songs or the same Words the impression thereof remains so strong in that place that the spirits which thence issue to flow into the muscles of their Throat Tongue and Beak do at last dispose them to repeat those songs or words It is likewise to be well observ'd that they never return the songs and words they have learnt but when they are in no such need which diverts their spirits another way and if in those necessities they form a cry or voice 't is ever the cry or voice of their kind so that they form not strange songs nor utter human words but when they want nothing and when the spirits abounding or much heated run without any diversion to their course from the place of the brain which those songs or words have most agitated to the parts that serve for the voice except great care have been taken to give them none of the food they needed but at the time when some body did sing or speak near them for then the presence