Immortality being continually preserved by the Almighty Concourse of Him that created them Not that I think the Souls of Brutes to be capable of that Felicity or Misery the Souls of Men are but we may either suppose them to proceed from the Anima Mundi or Soul of the World which may also be supposed to be Immaterial and so return to it at the Dissolution or rather that when they are divested of their Bodies they take to themselves Aereal ones Some there are that will not admit but explode Aereal Vehicles who suppose That the Souls of them surviving Death doth so continue in a State of Inactivity Insensibility Sleep Silence and Stupor until by a Transmigration they re-assume new Bodies to act in for while Spirits are divested of Bodies they cannot exert any Action But this Supposition would destroy our own Assertion alrady laid down concerning the Active and Cogitant Nature of the Soul But least I should exceed my bounds in too long a Digression I shall now come to the next general Head proposed in Order to treat on and that is The Immortality of the Soul CHAP. VI. Of the Immortality of the Soul The Immortality of the Soul Proved FRom what hath been already alledged concerning the Nature Origin Union and Immateriality of the Soul may with great facility and by necessary consequence be gathered its Immortality also and the fore-precedent things may serve for Topics whence we may raise so many Arguments clearly to evince the same From its Nature The Nature of the Soul is so evident a Demonstraitve of its Immortality that whoever understands the one cannot but easily apprehend the other Is not Spirituality a plain Manifesto of a Durable Existence and Activity and Cogitancy and inseparable Concomitant of Immortality How undeniably doth Plato the Mirror of the Mirror of the World for Learning demonstrates from the Souls being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Self-moving that it is also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ever-moving Is it probable that those inestimable Creatures whose very Essence declares them to be made for a high or end were created for nothing but to actuate these Bodies for a momentary space and then to return to nothing Shall those Pious and Divine Souls who for hopes of the Fruition of the endless Pleasures of another Life have wich great alacrity and content of mind undergone the difficulties of this Mortal Pilgrimage find nothing at the end of their Journey for their reward but a final annihilation And shall the malevolent Slaves of the Devil who have lavished their Patrimony and spent their days in serving the God of this World and in doing Obeisance to their Lusts and Debauched Appetites be discharged from the Penalty of their horrid Crimes by a Cessation of their Essence What can prove a greater Derogation from the Equity of a just Creator than so gross and Supposition Will He From its Origin who hath formed a Creature so like himself so soon destroy it What can be a greater Reflexion on his Wisdom Shall that puff of Divine Breath which had its Rise from Gods Immediate Inspiration subside vanish and become a Non entity Certainly That hand that could immediately produce a Being out of nothing can by an Immediate Concourse preserve it from relapsing into nothing again neither are there any Motives to perswade him that can do this to will the contrary Were the Soul generated from the Parent it might then be corruptible but it hath its Origin from a higher Principle it must needs the◠be of a Nature more lasting permanent and durable From its Union It s Union also is another Test o◠its Immortal Existence if it were united to the Animal Spriit by in near Approximation to the Nature of it or if fixt and fastened to the Pineale Glandule this might be a plausible Pretext to make us entertain some thoughts of its Mortality and Perishing with the Body whereby it is so much influenced but seeing its Union is caused by its permeating the Body and extending and diffusing it self thro every part thereof and so by a vigorous Energy actuating the same certainly all such Imaginations conceiving it Mortal are now banisht and exploded Our Fourth Topic is not likewise empty of proof to demonstrate this Truth From its Immateriality Were the Soul a Substance compounded of the Four Elements or Five Chymic Principles Blended together we should have little reason to plead for its Immortality because all Corporeal Things are subject to Corruption and have that within the verge of their own Essence that in time will cause a Dissolution in them Nam contraria contraiis destruuntur For Contrary Things are destroyed by their Contraries and all Mixed Bodies have within themselves Qualities may I call them so repugnant one to another but the Soul as hath already been proved being of an Immaterial Nature is not obnoxious to any such Cause of Mutability And Nature it self teacheth us That whatsoever hath a Being will be possessed of it until it meet with something to destroy it But now what contrary Principles opposite Elements or repugnant Qualities can Psycotomists or Anatomists of Souls I mean those that hold them Material and so Mortal find in the Analysis of Spirits There are masty more Arguments of undubitable Verity and undeniable Evidence to evince the Souls Immortality as its Infinite Desire of More Mediums to prove the same and its Solicitude about an Immortal State in Dissatisfaction under all the Felicities of this Life and vehement Appetite and Desire after Eternal Beatitude the Fear of Death the Remorses and Stings of Conscience which all Men fall under upon the Sense of Guilt But the Largeness of the Subject and the intended Brevity to which I have limited myself will admit only of a Transitory Glance upon every Thing that occurs to our Speculation Of the Stale of the Soul after Death that it doth not sleep Having therefore proceeded thus far I shall add a little concerning the Manner of the State the Soul remains in immediately after its Dissolution from the Body and that it That I do not believe as some do That it remains in a State of Sleep and Stupor till the Resurrection but that it takes up an Aereal Vehicle and hereby its Motion is made Feasible which if the Soul were devoid of a Body it would be impossible to perform If the Soul immediately after its Separation from the Body pass not only into a State but a Place either of Eternal Misery or Everlasting Happiness it is contrary to the Laws of Nature it should be carried thither without a Body That Souls assume Vehicles after Death for Loco motion is a Property of Bodies and no way to be performed by Spirits separate from Bodies Besides to argue for Vehicles it is a Priviledge proper only to the Deity to live and act alone without Vital Union with a Body It is Natural to a Soul to inliven a
112 The Tonsils Pag. 113 Why Women have clearer Voices than Men Pag. 114 The Neck Ib. The Vpper Venter or the Head its Divisions Pag. 115 The Pericranium and Periostium Pag. 116 The Dura Mater and Pia Mater Ib. The Ventricles of the Brain Ib. The Motion of the Brain consisting of a Systole and Diastole Pag. 117 Thae Glandula Pituitaria Pag. 118 The Infundibulum Ib. The Corpus Callosum Pag. 119 The Plexus Choroides Ib. The Glandula Pinealis its use Pag. 120 Eight Reeasons why it cannot be the Seat of the Soul Ib. and Pag. 121 The Fore-head and Eye-brows Pag. 123 The Eyes Ib. It s Muslces Tunics and Humours Pag. 124 125 The Ears Pag. 126 The Nose Pag. 127 The Cause of Sneezing Pag. 128 The Mouth Ib. The Tongue its Ligament Pag. 129 A pernicious Custom among Mid-wives Ib. The Artus Ib. The Hand and its Parts Ib. The Foot with its Parts Pag. 130 CHAP. X. Of the Humours Complexions and Temperaments Pag. 132 THe great use and benefit of the Knowledge of the Temperaments Pag. 133 134 135 Their number according to Galen Pag. 136 What Heat is and what Cold Pag. 137 What we are to understand by Moisture and Driness Ib. The Temperaments rightly distinguished according to the number of the Four Humours Pag. 138 The Sanguine Corstitution described Pag. 139 140 141 The Choleric Constitution Pag. 142 143 Signs of the Phlegmatic Temperament Pag. 144 How to distinguish when the Melancholy Humour is predominaâ—tâ— Pag. 145 146 147 The Doctrine of the Four Humours reconciled with that of the Five Chymic Principles Pag. 150 151 to Pag. 154. CHAP. XI Of the Functions of the Body Pag. 155 THe genuine Distribution of the Functions Pag. 156 The Nutritive Function Ib. How Nutritition is performed Pag. 158 Chylification or the First Concoction how this is done Pag. 159 160 Sanguification or the Second Concoction Pag. 161 How Chyle is transmuted into Blood Ib. The true Instrument that Nature makes use of in making Blood Pag. 163 The Excrements secerned from the Blood and how Pag. 164 165 c. The true Rise and Origin of Splenetic and Hypochondriac Affects Pag. 167 c. Assimulation Membrification or the Third Concoction Pag. 172 The Vital Function Pag. 173 What Vital Spirits are Pag. 174 The Archaeus of the Pseudo-Chymists a meer Fiction Ib. Pulsation how performed Pag. 175 Respiration its Parts Inspiration and Expiration Pag. 176 The use of Respiration in Eight Particulars Pag. 177 The Sensative Function Pag. 178 The Number of the Senses Ib. What things are requisite in every Sensation Ib. The Loco-motive Function Pag. 179 The Enunciative Function Ib. How a strong and weak Voice is caused Ib. The generative Function Pag. 180 The Nature and Origin of Seed Ib. Conception the Manner of it Pag. 183 Seven manifest Signs of Conception Pag. 184 The Position and Situation of the Infant in the Womb Pag. 186 The Manner of its Birth Pag. 187 In what Month the Birth commonly happens Pag. 188 CHAP. XII Of the Sexes Pag. 189 THe Distinction of Man into two Sexes Pag. 191 The Male Ib. His Natural Diffirence from the Female Ib. When a Male and when a Female is generated Ib. The Female Pag. 194 The Praise and Encomium of that Noble Sex both as to their Beauty and Phantasie Pag. 195 The Excellency of Marriage Pag. 196 Reflections on them that speak against and calummate Women Pag. 199 What befals them who abhorring Marriage contaminate themselves with polluted Women Pag. 199 CHAP. XIII Of the Ages of Man Pag. 201 THe Division of the Ages of Man Pag. 202 Child-hood the Character of an Infant Pag. 203 204 Youth his Character Pag. 206 The Consistent Age Pag. 208 Old Age Pag. 209 The Distempers with which Old Age is attended Pag. 210 211 The Conclusion Pag. 212. The Reader Courteous Correction of these with other small faults that have escaped the Press is humbly desired PAge 2 line ult r. Privative p. 9 l. 18 r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 16 l. â— r. Crany and l. 17 and l. 1â— r. Maâ—iner p 17 l. 12 r. Disinguens ab omni alio p. 18 l 14 r. identity p. 20 l. 19 r. convenerit and p. 21 r. Medetur l. 3 r. Mehercule p. 22 l. 10 r. a higher p. 23 l. 2 r for verfited 〈◊〉 manifested p. 29 l. ult r. there p. 47 l. 24 r. do p. 59 l. 3 f. Ascention r. Extention p. 60 r. Sectator p. 69 l. 21 r. Elicit p. 88 l. 10 r. Habet p 104 l. 2 f. â—dly r. 2dly p. 105 l. 12 r. Arteria p. 125 l. 12 r. an Artery dele Comms and l. 21 r. it p. 129 l. ult r. Hand p 130 l. 13 r. Cubituâ— p. 135 l. 1 r. Preservative and l. 23 r. Contaminate p 130 l. 25 r. Maladies p. 143 l. 28 r. Eysipela's p. 15â— l. 7 r. Congener p. 162 l. 28 dele by 165 l. 20 r. brought p. 181 l 8 r. do p. 182 l. 5 r. Volatility A DISCOURSE CONCERNING MAN A Proemial Introduction WHen God the Supreme Being within the boundless circumference of whose Omnipotence is the possibility of effecting all things in the beginning of time The Creation of the World by the Energy of his Puissance produced the Fabric of this World out of nothing and caused this Visible Structure to Emerge out of a confused Chaos He first animated that inert Matter which he had created with the Mundane Spirit which Vivifies the united Members of this Uniforme Globe he caused the Vigorous Active Soul of the World to move upon the Surface of the Waters and to agitate the Glideing Particles of that Fluid Element This Universal Soul by its â—nergetic and Efformative Efficience Permeating and Inhabiting all things was continually fluctuating and never quiescent till it had reduced its inordinate Domicil to so harmonious an Order to so regular and consonant a Situation and to so elegantly Organized a Contexture as we now see it Beautified with This is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Plasâ—ic Principle which by its Prolific Virtue preserves the Species of things and multiplies their Individuals determinates the Forms Shapes and Configurations of the same in their Generations After this Of Light he caused the glorious Light to shine forth out of private darkness hereby the substances of Bodies were rendered visible Des Cartes Princip Philosophiae and their Colours Shapes and Figures made conspicuous This is caused saith a Learned Philosopher by the Conatus of the Globules of the second Element gathered together about their Center to recede there from These Lucid Corpuscles at their firâ—t Creation were equally expanded through the Regions of the Air but now they flow and stream forth in a perpetual Current from their Center or Fountain these Rays or Emanations of Light by the Intervention of any Opace Body are reflected by the Interposition of a Semidiaphanous Body are refracted and they are contracted and united into a
But now a Form depends upon Matter in every if any of its Operations Again Thirdly the Soul is not one with the Body neither in Indentity as a Substantial Act according to the Peripateric Philosophy is the same with the â—ubstance not by inclusion or inherence as a Mode or Accident is one with its Subject but only in Composition as Two United Parts are one which still retain their proper Essences and can exiâ—t a part So that the Soul is an Essential part of the Composiuâ—um and not the Form thereof Lastly it is evident that the Specific difference and distinction of Man is taken as well from one part as from the other Man differs from Angelic Beings in his Body in his Soul from Inanimate Creatures yea in his Soul there is something which distinguisheth him from Angels and in his Body whereby he differs from other Bodies And as these two parts are so fitly composed and ordered that they make one compleat Being there are some particular Forms Properties and Modes which discriminate him from all other things in the whole System of this habitable Orb as Os homini sublime dedit coelumque tureri Jussit erectos ad sidera tollere vultur c. Now the definition which Aristotle gives of the Soul is far from explicating the Nature thereof Aristotle's Definition the Soul vidiculous and Pedantic neither is it any way satisfactory but Ignotum per ignotius explicans explaining an unknown thing by a thing abundantly more unkown and that is this Anima est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sive actus corporis Physici Organici vitam habentis in potentiâ The Soul is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or an act of a Physical and Organic Body having Life in Power An unintelligible Coacervation of Non-sence for who can interpret the meaning of Aristotle's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I cannot Imagine unless he do as Hermolaus a Famous Barbarian did who when he had got some Society and Colloque with the Devil the Devil demanded of him What he should do for him He said he desired nothing more than that â—e would explain unto him the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Aristotle's Definition Yea I can truly say concerning this with a Late Author in â—â re nemo crassius Aristotele peccavit qui talem protulit anima definitionem quae omnibus plene rebus corventrâ—t veluti commune emplastrum vulueribus omnibus inedetur praeterea quid nobis distincti per actusvocem innotescit nihil amplius me Hercule quam si quis lucem definiat actum corporis lucidi calorem actum corporis calidi In this thing no body hath more grosly erred than Aristotle who brought forth such a Definition of the Soul which is applicable almost to all things and as a Common Plaister heals all Wounds Besides what would he have us to understand by the word Act Nothing more truly than if anv one should define Light to be the Act of a Lucid Body and Heat the Act of a Calorific Body How manisest an Ambiguity saith a Learned Writer and how great an Obscurity is there in the word Act or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some translate perfection Such definitions as these are so far from augmenting our Knowledge and encreasing our Literature that they detrude us into inextricable Laby rinths and obnubilate those things which in themselves are evident Having thus laid down the reason why we cannot Assent to the Definition of Arstoile it is now incumbent upon us to produce the true and genuine definition of the Soul The true Definition of the Soul Its Essence consists in Cogitancy which is this The Soul is an Incorporeal Cogitant Substance or a Substance of a Spiritual and Incorporeal Nature whose Essence consists in Cogitation This Definition is very comprehensive and very intelligible The genus here ascribed to a Soul is al Substance it is not a Model an Accident a Form or Quality but a Being of a self-subsisting Nature It is a Spiritual and Incorporeal Substance not an Igneous Fiery Flammeous Avery Aetherial or any blementary Substance but a Substance of higher Nature It borrowed not its Origen from Matter nor derived its Rise from any Corporeal Being its very Essence and formal Reason is Cogitancy It never ceaseth from perfoâ—ming the Action of thinking be the Body never so profoundly Dormant be tho Animal Spirits never so Entoxicated be the Brain never so much Stupified the Soul is still Active Cogitating Ruminating or â—ontemplating it may be troubled and diverted from being intent in it Conceptions but the Act of thinking can never be impeded neither can any thing put an end to its Cogative Operations There is no Narcotic Dose can cause the Soul to sleep nor any Anodyne Medicine to Eutoxicate an Active Spirit No for when the Ventricles of the Brain are Obstructed by Opium the spissified Juice of Soporiferous Poppies or when the Spirits are Locked up by Laudanum a more refined and rectified Medicine the Soul is so far from being attached by the Narcotic Virtue thereof that it is hereby rendered more intent in its Operations abstracted from Matter When the Body is quiescent Cogitancy hath no dependance upon the Body it is not so diverted by sensible Objects as it is in vigilance when some External Objects do always present themselves to the Organs of Sensation CHAP. III. Of the Origen of the Soul HAving laid down the true Definition of the Soul and rersised the falsity of Aristotle's Desinition proved it to be spurious and illegitimate in the precedent Chapter We now proceed to in Rie and Origen and here we have to deal with a two-fold Antagonist Teh First are Those that suppost the Soul to prae-exist that is was created in the beginning of the World and so had a Subsittance long before it was united to the Body The others are those that ussert that the Soul is propagated extraduce or generated of the Soul of the Parents If the first Hypothesis were true That the Soul doth not praexest the Soul would have some remembrance of its former condition the things which it had cognizance of before it was incarcerated in the Body as the Platonists imagine would certainly be now recorded for the Memory is a faculty of the Soul and essential to the same And altho the Artcients did judge it altogether incongruous to bring God upon the stage perpetually Cudworth's Intellectual Systeme of the Universe and make him immediately interpose every where in the Generation of Men by the miraculous Productions of Souls out of nothing yet if we well consider we shall find that there may be very good reason on the other side for the successive Divine Creation of Souls namely that God did not do all at first that ever he could or would do and put forth all his Creative Vigor at once in a moment ever afterwards remaining a Spectator of the consequent results God might also for other
good and wise ends unknown to us reserve to himself the continual exercise of his Creative Power in the successive production of new Souls The other is Neither is it propogated Extraduce that the Soul is propogated Extraduce from the Soul of the Parent but the absurdity of this Opinion is evident enough from these following reasons Several Arguments against the Souls Propagt 1977. 1 This Hypothesis supposeth the Soul of the parent to be Discerpible and so to Communicate its own Essence to the Constituting the Soul of the Foet us which can be granted to no Incorporeal Being 2 It supposeth multitudes of Souls daily Created which never come to perfection as in Abortions and Effluxes of Seed and this suppofition cannot but too much derogate from the Wisdom of the Divine Architect 3 Such is the Genesis of any thing as is the Analysis but this is the Analysis of Man that the Body should return to the dust whence it came and the Spirit to God that gave it so that seeing the Spirit had its immediate Origen from God at its Creation doubtless at its Dissolution it doth immediatly retuen to him 4 Were the Soul Generated Extraduce it must either be from the Soul or from the Body of the Parent not from the SOul because nothing can be Generated of a thing Incorporeal Incorpireal Beings do not come under sch alterations not from the Body quia nil dat quod in se non habet Because no Incorporeal Thing can be produce out of a Thing Corporeal Not from both for then the Soul of the Partus would certainly participate of the Nature of them both and so become a Substance partly Corporeal and partly Incorporeal 5 The only Way and Method of its being done were it possible it could be done is enough to Induce us to believe the contrary for then the Soul would be a Substance Compounded of Two pieces of a Spirit the one abstracted from the Spirit of the Male the other from the Soul of the Famale Parent and these Two Pieccs or Paris Blended together into one to Compose a Rational Soul which supposal how Irrational Fictitious and Ridiculous it is any Rational Creature may presently apprehend The true Origen of a Soul viz. That it is immediately Created by God It reamins then that we lay down the true Origen of the Soul which is that it was immediately created by God and infased into the Body This Opinion though it be ancient yet several considerable reasons do incline me to believe it as Orthodox and Genuine and the verity of it may easily be manifested not only by the Confutation of the Two former Opinions but from the Testimony of Sacred Writ viz. he formed the Spirit of Man within him CHAP. IV. Of the Vnion of the Soul to the Body THe Soul being a Substance of an Active and Vigorous Nature God who is its Prime Parent being the Father of Spirits deemed it requisite to bestow upon it a Body dilicately Fabricated not only that this might be its Domicil wherein it should lye Incarcerate That Spirits stand in need of Bodies to Act in as the Platonists would have us believe but he really intended that a part of a Spirits felicity should consist in its Union to some body or other which it might make Use of as a compleatly Organized Machin whereby the better to performe its Actions therefore to Angelic Spirits he gave AEthereal Lucid and Star-like Bodies to the Souls of Men while they continue in these Lower Regions Terrestial Bodies yet curiously Fabricated and fit for their Motions and Operations but when they are devested of these by the assaults of Death then he orders them to enter into Aerial Vehicles that so the easier they may Soar into the invisible Regions of the Coelestial Habitacle and to retain these till the Resurrection when they shall re-assume their former Bodies Transformed and Modified into the Nature of Angelic ones But I shall refer a further Procedure upon this till I come to the Immortality of the Soul and shall here treat a little of the manner of its Union to these our Bodies This is a thing so sublime that it transcends the reach of humane intellect to conceive so capacious that it exceeds the limits of Reason to comprehend so abstruse and difficult that it puzzels the Wits of all Philosophers to demonstrate how Two Substances the one Spiritual the other Corporeal things of a quite contrary Nature should constitute but one Compositum what Medium these can be found for their Union by what means the more principal part doth Vivifiâ— and Actuate the part more inferiour what moving Virtue it doth Exert and Communicate to the Body and by what kind of contact this is done Surely these are things that none but he that is the Sole Author of these Phoenomena can demonstrate how or in what manner they are performed yet that they are performed is very apparent and such is the curiosity of that busie and Pragmatic Creature Man that he cannot contain himself from Prying into the Causes of those things the effects whereof declare them so to be tho they are never so abstruse He thinks there is nothing so locked up in the Cabinet of Nature but by his diligence he may find the Key or that there are no Rareties Treasured up in the Magazine of this Created World that he by a diligent Scrutiny cannot find out Some therefore will tell us That in Man there are Three Essential parts a Body a Soul and a Spirit the Body say they is a Substance made of the Grosser Matter viz. Flesh Blood Bones Nerves Cartilages Veins Arteries c. The Soul is a Substance tho Material yet of an AEtherial and Subtilized Nature Fiery and Flammeous Participating both of the Nature of a Body and of a Spirit and the Spirit which is their Third ingredient in their noble Composition is altogether Incorporeal United to the Body by the mediation of the Corporeal Soul Others will affirm that the Soul being the Ruling part The Cartesians sits like a Queen in the Palace of the Brain upon her Throne the Conarion which is a little Glansâ—lous Body almost in the midst thereof there she Contemplates of the Regions of her Kingdom and the Members of that Common-wealth being always attended with her Viceroy the Animal Spirit whereby she doth at Pleasure send an Embassy into the most Remote Parts of this little World thro the nerves But how well the Authors or Abetters of these Two Opinions have hit the Mark. I leave to the Credulous Reader to determine concerning the First I shall only Query a few things That the Soul is not United by the Mediatioc of the Corporeal Soul evinced by several Queries 1 Whether it be sense to say a Meterial Soul 2 Suppose it be whether there be any such thing as they imagine by it in the Body of Man 3 Whether Body and Spirit be not things of
a quite different Nature 4 Whether Rarefaction or Subtilization make a Body to be less a Body or more a Spirit than it was before 5 Whether a Red-hot Iron have any nearer Approximation to Life than it had before or the Flame of a Candle than the Extinguisht Snuff or Tallow of it 6 Whether this Corporeal Spirit be Semicorporeal and Semi-spiritual As for the Second Opinion let me Query Neither is it only United to the Glandula pinealis and thence Influences the Body First why the Soul should sit upon the Glandula pinealis more than upon any other part of the Body and whence it appears that it doth 2 Whether or no it be extended thro every part of the Conarion or is only one point of it If extended thro every part then why not as well thro the whole Body If in a point how it Acts and Insluenceth the Body 3 Whether this Virtue which the Soul doth Exert and Communicate in its Operations be the Essence of the Soul or no Now these Two Opinions seeming to disagree with the Canons of Reason and True Philosophy it will not I hope be unkindly resented if I exhibit another to the deliberate perusal of the unprejudiced which altho at the first it may seem a little Uncouth yet I am perswaded after some Consideration it will appear to be attended with lesser Inducements to make any Wise Man Incredulous of its verity than either of the former But by its Extension thro the the Body it Actuates all its parts and that is this that the Soul is United to the Body by its Extension thro every one of its parts that the Soul is Extended is not my busienss here to Demonstrate having designed a particular Chapter for it to which I shall refer the Reader and where I shall endeavour to remove the difficulties wherewith this Truth may seem to be burthened If this then be proved how easily may we Imagine an Union of the Soul with the Body to result from its Extension and Diffusion thro the parts thereof CHAP. V. Of the Immateriality of the Soul THe Immateriality of the Soul is a Truth so Undubitably certain and so generally believed that those who have arrived to that height of Audacity as to deny it are justly looked upon to be no better than Atheists for whoever is become so grosly erroneous as to believe his own Soul to be material is consequently reduced may I say Blasphemously to Averr the Nullity of A Deity O Incredulity not to be parallelled O Atheisme absurd and abominable the Immateriality of the Soul may be evinced First from its Activity In-activity is a property pertinent to Matter for Matter can exert no action of it self no not so much as Local Motion unless it be agitated by some External Cause there being no such thing as Natural Motion Matter being a Thing Naturally Inert and Passive but a Spirit which is of a Nature far transcending Matter is always Active and therefore Plato called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 self-moving it is an imprevaricable Law with all Bodies that nothing whatsoever can move unless it be moved by another and hence it followeth that the Soul that moveth without being excited by any thing else Acting and Operating from its own Intrinsic Power and Faculty is of a higher Race than they From its large Capacity and Discursive Faculty and consequently Incorporeal 2 The large Capacity and Discoursive Faculty of the Soul Demonstrates its Spirituality when we consider the multitude of things that are at once contained in the Soul as likewise its Power of Exerting those Notions and Apprehensions which it had Imbibed in Discourse how can we Conceive any otherwise than that she is Spiritual in her Essence 3 Its Simplicity Uniformity Immortality Self-reflection and Perfection are Infallible Manifesto's of its Incorporeity we may also add Cogitation a Property only Essential to a Spiritual Being From Cogitation for as we said before Matter cannot move it self how much less then is it able to perform that excellent Operation of deeming and thinking I am not Insensible how some do endeavour to evade this Argument for a Late Author doth pretend to Solve the manner of Cogitation Mr. Hobbs his Evasion without recourse to an Incorporeal Principle for faith he the very Motion of Reaction of one part of Matter on another or at least the Continuation of this Reaction can easily effect this for we find by experience when we are Occupied in serious Meditations or diligently incumbent upon our Studies a great Commotion in our Heads and a kind of Confusion in the Parts of the Brain which would not happen except Perception and Cogitation did depend on Matter and were made by the Motion and Agitation of the Particles of the Brain There might be some probability in this It s Solution if the Author could drive us to believe that there was nothing else but Matter in the whole Universe but seeing this is altogether impossible we shall condemn the other as false and ridiculous for if this were true why may not also the Bodies of Men when defunct be endued with the same Power of Cogitation For they are then no less capable of Reaction or Susceptive of Corporeal Impressions besides if we divide Matter into Monads or Minute Physic Particles I Query whether these Monads being seperated one from another may be capable of Perception and Cogitation or only the Compositum resulting there-from Now I think there is no one so a Friend to Atoms that he should think them to have Intelligence for who can believe that the smallest Particle of Matter is indued with Sense and Perception But if it be the whole Compositum what can be the Reason that out of Insensible Things should Emerge Things capable of Sense and Apprehension How is it possible that from the various Coition of Atoms which are Senseless and Incogitant should be produced a Cogitant Animal Having thus proved the Immateriality of the Soul A Digression concerning the Soul of Brutes I must crave leave here to make a little Digression concerning the Souls of Brutes whether their Souls be Immaterial or no Concerning which I shall Nominate Three Opinions all which have been very plausibly received by many First The Opinion of the Lord Bacon Dr. Willis and Gassendus who who do thus Philosophize viz. That Brutes have a Corporeal Soul which being of an Ignite and Fiery Nature doth move the Organized Bodies of these Animals For this See Willis de Anima Brutorum Du. Hamel de Corpore Animato Bacon's Natural History and Learned Mr. Gales Philosophia Generalis Secondly The Hypothesis of Renowned Des Cartes viz. That Brutes are nothing else but Machins curiously Fabricated by the chief Opifex of Nature being Acted and Moved by no other than a Mechanic Motion having neither Sense nor Perception in them and this Opinion saith Monsieur Fernelius seems to be taken from the Philosophy of Moses
repugnant to the Opinion of the Ancients they holding that these four first qualities Gassendus as they call them are essential to and deduced from the four Elements but we from the Magnitude Figure and Motion of Atoms as Hot or Colorific Atoms are those that are Exile in Magnitude Sphaericin Figure and Swift in Motion What Heat is and what Cold. Cold or Frigorific Atoms are not so Exile in Magnitude of a Tetrahedic or Pyramidal Figure consisting of four Sides or equilateral Triangles which is a Figure most opposite to a Sphere and they are slow in Motion What we are to understand by Moisture and Driness Moisture is but a Species of Fluidity which consists in the smoothness of the Parts and the interspersion of Inanity for Quick-silver and melted Lead are Fluid Bodies yet not Humid and Siccity or Driness is a meer Privation of Humidity I shall not therefore treat of the Temperaments according to those Qualities but according to the number of the Humours tho there also we cannot in all things agree with the Ancients as I shall hereafter declare The Temperaments rightly distinguisht according to the number of the four Humours The Humours are four Blood Choller Phlegm and Melancholy and in whatsoever Persons any of these Humours are predominant their Temperament hath its denomination thence so that from hence we learn that there are four sorts of Temperaments The Sanguine wherein Blood the Choleric wherein Choler or Bile the Phlegmatic wherein Phlegm the Malancholic wherein Melancholy hath the predominancy I shall now lay down the Characters of every of them whereby any intelligent Person by a diligent perusal of the following Specimen and a due reflection upon himself may easily be informed what Constitution Temperament or Complexion he is of I shall begin with the Sanguine The Sanguine Constitution described The Sanguine hath the preheminence before any of the rest those of this Complexion are hot and moist the habit of their Body is Fleshy and well Compact not Fat neither too Lean for the heat doth not emaciate and make Lean the Body being alone predominant and so consume the Body but it is qualified with a proportionality of Moisture which serves for Fuel for the vivifying Heat neither is the Body made gross and fat by the abundance of Moisture which affords Vapors by which Fat is generated it being well tempered with a sufficient quantity of Heat which dissipates the abounding Humidity the first of which effects always happens in the Choleric Complexion which is hot and dry and the other in Phelgmatic which is quite contrary to that viz. Cold and Moist The streams of fluid Blood that circulate in the Veins and Arteries are briskly agitated by the penetrating particles of Fire and these ignite Particles are kept from causing a Conflagration in the mass of Blood by the Moisture whereby it is duly moderated so that the Heat actuates and enlivens the Moisture and the Moisture supplies the Heat with a sufficient Pabulum hence for the most part the Colour of their Face is fresh and flourishing the delicate Sanguine Liquor flowing thro its proper Vessels causeth the Cheeks to be tinctur'd with a Crimson Red their Hair also which is an Excrement resembles the predominant Humour for it is either of a bright or light Colour which by its glistering Eradiations manifests the Body from which it results to abound with Spirits or else it is Red the very colour of the Humour whereof it is generated They are very Active Brisk Lively Vigorous Spirituous very Cheerful and Merry and of a smiling Countenance by reason of Spirits wherewith they of this Complexion do most of all abound their Imagination is very pregnant and comprehensive because impressions are easily made upon things that are Moist tho not so long retained hence they are very subject to Oblivion and Forgetfulness yet some do frequently commit Actions which manifest Stolidity as immoderate Laughing and Impudence in others too much Bashfulness and others Actions of Folly In Discourse they are commonly very free and liberal they have an extraordinary Propension and Inclination to Love being very much influenc'd by Venus and Cupid and have very impetuous desires after Venereal Pleasures tho not so much as those that are Choleric by reason of the acrimony of the Seed in that Constitution They sleep indifferently well not so much as those that are Phlegmatic they are nimble in Motion and Exercise but soon weary they have a moderate Appetite unless Humours abound whereby it is clog'd and satiated also a moderate Thirst their Pulse is great yet slow they have frequent and copious Evacuations of Blood at Nose in the Haemorrhoids and Women thro those passages which Nature hath destin'd to carry the Superfluity of Humours that abound in that moist Sex in their periodic or monthly Evacuations Their Urine as to its quantity is very copious as to its quality it is of a laudible Colour and good Consistency Their Skin to the touch is hot and soft their Vessels are very large and Veins very conspicuous they are very subject to a Plethora and very obnoxious to Feavers and other Acute Distempers These are the Signs of the Sanguine Complexion the next is the Choleric which is the hot and dry Complexion They of this Constitution are always Lean The Choleric Constitution Pale or Yellow especially under their Eyes their Hair is Yellow imitating the Colour of Bile â—â—metimes blackish where the Choler is more adust they are soon Bald by reason of Siccity which is here the predominant quality they are of a sharp Wit very solert and crafty of an expedite Ingeny they are prone to Anger Fury Rage Audacity Boldness Boasting Bragging and desire of Revenge They sleep very little they dream of Fires Burnings Scoldings Fightings and Tumults they have exquisite Sense and are very quick in Hearing their Pulse is great and quick they have very little Appetite sometimes loath eating especially in the Summer they love those Meats most that are cold but they find great prejudice by fasting they have an insatiable Thirst and drink frequently they grow apace and quickly wax Old because their radical Moisture is soon consumed by the abundance of heat they have a wonderful proclivity to Venery because of the acrimony of their Seed they are very much injur'd by the immoderate use of it because their Spirits 〈◊〉 easily dissipated by reason of their tenuity They are prone to all bilose Distempers as Tertian Agues Phrensies Pleurisies Vomitings Diarrheas Erisipala's Shingles Pushes and Pimples on their Faces The next is the Phlegmatic Constitution they of this Temperament are Cold and Moist Signs of the Phlegmatick Temperament the colour of their Skin is white they are fat and obese yet not fleshy their Hair is brown and streight they are cold to the touch especially their Hands and Feet they have a tollerable Imagination and indifferent good Perception but a very shallow
the Nutritive Faculty into its three Branches Chylification Sanguification and Membrification or Assimulation that so we may the better understand the Processes of Nature in these Operations Chylification the first branch of this Function called the first Concoction how it is done First we must enquire into the method of Chylification This which is the first Concoction is thus performed When the Food is sufficiently chewed in the Mouth by the Dentes molares those Grinders appointed by Nature for Mastication it is detruded into the Ventricle or Stomach for Deglution is made by Detrusion wherewith the Stomach being replenisht the Appetite being satiate it doth dilate it self and being also endued with a power of Contracting its Membranous Tunicles according to the proportion of the Food received it doth closely and strictly embrace the same on all sides and then shut both its upper and lower Orifice the upper that Vapours may not ascend to the Brains and that Concoctions might be more perfect the lower lest any of the Meat should descend into the Guts before it be converted into perfect Chyle The Meat thus received into and embraced by the Stomach is by and by moistened and diluted partly by the drink received with it and partly by an Acid Humour the Relicts of the last Concoction which being endued with an Incisive Penetrating and Dissolving Faculty doth as it were cut and dissolve the Solid Meat into very small pieces and like an excellent Menstruum extracts a Tincture from its more Laudible and Alimentary Parts This Mixture being advanced Vsque ad Minima to the least Particles there presently succeeds a Fermentation whereby at last the whole Mixture is brought to a new Consistence and Colour not much unlike the Cream of Barley and is that which Physicians call the Chyle The Chyle being thus perfectly concocted is by the Gradual Contraction of the Stomach detruded into the Guts where the Guts by a Perisâ—altiâ— Motion contracting them downwards and this passing by the Intestines it s more pure and defecate parts are distributed thro the Milky Veins and the excrementitious and unprofitable parts are excluded by Stool These Lactean Veins carry the Chyle into the Common Receptacle called Receptaculum Commune and from hence it is transmitted thro the Ductus Thoracici to the Subilavian Branches of the Vena Cava near the extern Jugular Veins their being mixed with the Blood it is by the Ascendent Ttrunk of the Vena Cava soon imported into the right Ventricle of the Heart Sanguification or the Second Concoction The next Branch of the Nutritive Function is that of Sanguification it is in this Concoction that the Chyle receiving yet farther Exaltations by a greater Solution of the more Noble and active Principles once again deposites its old Color and Consistence and so at length becomes perfectly changed into that true Liquor How Chyle is transmuted into Blood which is called Blood for as soon as the Vena Cava hath committed the Matter of Nourishment into the right Ventricle of the Heart the Ferment therein contained working suddenly and throly upon it sets the Active Principles at a great freedom and so inducing a new motion and effervescence into the Blood doth happily impregnate it with Vitality hereby its Nature is exalted and those Natural Spirits contained in it are advanced into Vital or more Sublime and Active ones while the Vital Spirits pre-existent in the Ventricle of the Heart do enkindle the same Heat and cause the same diffusive or expansive motion in the Natural which they themselves have formerly acquired As for the Primary Agent or Efficient occupied in the Office of Sanguification it is not the Liver as Galen and his Sectators fictitiously conceived nor the Veins as some Anatomists have dream'd nor truly the Heart as Aristotle and his Disciples with several late Judicious Writers have asserted but by the Vital Heat residing in the Blood for the Heart borrows all its Activity meerly from the Vital Blood contained in its Ventricles The true Instrument that Nature makes use of in makeing Blood and distributed into them by the Coronary Arteries of which Vital Influx were the Heart deprived some few moments It would surcease its Activity and desist from its Sanguifying Function yea it would become as Torpid and Motionless as any other part of the whole Body so far is it from exalting the Chyle into so Noble a Nectar as the Blood is by any Simular Action of its own Yet we must acknowledge the Heart to be the Center and Chief Place of Residence for this Vital Flame and may notwithstanding be still properly styled the Fountain of Life As the Chyle in the first Concoction was seperated from its Faeces so in this second Concoction the Crimson Juice is depurated from its unprofitable Excrementitious Parts for the blood being an Heterogeneous Substance consisting of several different Principles when those Parts which are most prone to Volatility are dissipated and consumed and when the Sweet and Inflamable Spirits are exhausted certainly the remaining Mass must needs become useless and incommodious to Nature and so degenerating into Excrements ought as soon as may be to be sequestred from the Pure Mass of Blood â— which wholesome Liquor those Excrementitious Parts are no longer deemed fit to remain Ingredients The Excrements secerned from the Blood The Excrements that are seperated from the Blood are Choler Phlegm and Melancholy to which we may add or under these compehend Urine Sweat Tears and the Lymphatic Liquor Choler is a bitter Excrement generated of the Saline and Sulphureous Parts of the Blood exalted by Adustion and seperated from the Blood thro the Parenchyma of the Liver by a kind of Percolation and thence conveyed by its proper Vessels into the Intestines there rendring the Excrement of the first Concoction fluxile being excluded with them This Bilious Excrement is also in a small quantity effused out of the Capillary Arteries and collected in the Meatus Auditorius or Cavity of the Ears and there appears under the Form of that thick yellow and bitter Excrement we call Ear-wax Phlegm is a Cold and Moist Excrement as for its Sapor it is sometimes Salt somtimes Sweet and sometimes Acid to which we may add its Insipidness as another and as for its Consistence it is sometimes thin and serous sometimes thick viscid and mucilaginous and then it is called Glassy Phlegm and when it putrifies and corrodes it becomes Salt and Eruginous it is seperated from the Blood while it is wrought thro the Branches of the Celiacal Arterie terminated in the Stomach and there by Transudation immitted into the Cavity of it where it is found endowed with some Acidity It is also spewed forth out of the Mesenteric Arteries into the Substance of the Guts and transmitted into their Cavity by insensible passages here it is insipid without any Taste at all It also distils from the Brain being excern'd from the Blood either by the
Memory they are dull and blockish of a very slow and obtuse Ingeny they are very placable and soon reconciled extreamly devoted to sleep they dream of Cold Waters Floods Ponds Seas Rain Snow Drownings and white Things their Pulse is little and slow they have a small Appetite little or no Thirst they grow Old very slowly and have very little Inclination to Venery but in the moderate use find much benefit because by stirring up in them the Natural Heat which is almost Dormant the Phelgm is concocted and the Body made more temperate They are better in fair Weather and always worse in cold and rainy Weather the Distempers â—â—at they are most addicted to are Catarrhs Coughs Dropsies Cachexies Lethargies Palsies Appoplexies c. They excern a crass white and insipid Excrement thro the Mouth and Nostrils their Urine is white and thin and Women of this Complexion are often troubled with that which they call the Whites which is an efflux of a thin white Humour thro the Vterus either continually or at least in no Order or certain Period The last of the Four Complexions which yet remains is the Melancholic How to distinguish when the Melancholic Humour iâ— predominant Those of this Constitution are cold and dry their Colour is brown or somewhat black they are of a lean habit of Body their Veins are very streight and narrow their Hair is black hard rough or crass slowly encreasing and soon hastening to the Canities of Old Age they are very obnoxious to â—ear and sadness and that sometimes without any known or manifest cause yet they are prudent cautious wary constant and ingenous but where this atrabilous Humour is adust they are treacherous and unfaithful they are very difficult to be moved to Anger but when they are they are almost implacable they have a very strong Memory by reason of Siccity they are very wakeful and sleep very interruptedly and disquietly they dream of black Things Murthers dead Bodies Graves and the Devils c. They have a very uncertain Aspect and sad Countenance their Pulse is tardy and hard they have for the most part a good Appetite because of the Acidity of this Humour which is prepared for the concoction of Food in the Ventricles and stirring up of Cold yet sometimes thro the Vitiation of this Humour the Appetite is very much dejected they have but little Thrist because of the Serum and Spittle which abounds in this Constitution they have often sower Belchings which arise from those Crudities wherewith Melancholy Persons do abound they are very tardy in the performance of Venereal Acts and receive very much injury from the frequent use of them yet those are more prone to them that abound with Flatulencies and are hereby often excited to Venereal Actions they are very subject to Tumours and hardnesses of the Spleen and Hypochondriac Affects to Tertian Agues Leprosies Warts and Haemorrhoids c. They often vomit and spit frequently Hence Melancholy Persons are often called Sputatores they are commonly Costive and their Excrements are blackish they also avoid black Blood thro the Haemorrhoids their Urine is thin and white sometimes crass and livid Thus we have given a brief Specimen of the Four Constitutions let me now subjoyn that I would not have the Reader think me so much devoted to the trite old Galenic way as to think that the Blood is a Composition of these Four Humours blended together or that I am so strict a Chymist as to explode and utterly reject the Notion of the Four Humours as a useless and unprofitable Fiction and only adhere to their Doctrine tho very ingenuous of the Five Principles But our Apprehensions are that tho it be utterly untrue that there are in the Vessels Four distinct Humours Dr. Castle 's Chymical Galenist for whatsoever is contained in the Arteries and Veins is either the stale deflragrated Blood or the Alimentary Juice fresh come into the Vessels or else the Serum or Whey returned by the Lymphaducts or else some particles of Nitre and other Bodies received in by the Lungs and Mouths of the Veins from the Ambient and tho the Blood differ in several Bodies only as to the abundance or defect of Natural Heat yet Men are not improperly said to be of a Melancholic Choleric or some other Temperament insomuch as by how much the more vigorous or remiss the Bowels and Entrails are by so much the more weakly or powerfully Concoctions are performed Willis de Fermentatione Febribus and consequently the Blood apt to be overcharged with stale and adust or else crude and phlegmatic Excrements in which the Person either way disposed is not improperly said to be of a Phlegmatic or Choleric Temper and if the adust or raw Excrement be not rightly and duly seperated out of the Mass by the effervescency of the Blood I see no reason why I may not say A Man abounds with a Melancholic Phlegmatic or Choleric Humour and it so than the Notions about Pharmacy aiming at an evacuation or else alteration of the Humours are not framed amiss nor without good reason for I suppose it alters not much the case as to practice whether we suppose there is too great a redundancy of one of the Humours in the Blood or whether which is the right Notion we apprehend the Blood depraved with a phlegmatic or raw Juice or a bilose Excrement consisting of Salt and Sulphur or the Melancholic in which the Caput Mortuum or earthy part is predominant for either of these Notions will direct us when the Blood is unable to fine it self to assist it with those Alteratives which time and experience hath recommended to us as proper in those cases and those Purgers which have been long observed more particularily to make separation either of the Pituitous Choleric or Melancholic Parts of the Blood for tho it be irrational to think that Purgers do with a certain knowledge or choice lay hold of one Humour rather than another yet is that distinction of Purgers into Cholagoga Phlegmagoga Melanagoga and Hydragoga of very good use and founded upon Observation and Experience insomuch as the several Purgers by causing very different Fermentations and variously agitating the particles of the Blood may with good reason cause different Seperations and so one Purger to evacuate that sort of Excrement Barm or Lee which another cannot The Doctrine of the Four Humours reconciled with that of the Five Chymic Principles Thus our Doctrine of the Four Humours doth not destroy that of the Five Principles for altho it is apparent that in the Blood there are five Principles as Spirit which is the Subtile and Volatle part of it whose Particles being always expanded endeavouring to take their flight do agitate the gross Corpuscles of the other Principles wherein they are ininvolved and so keep them in that continual Motion of Fermentation Sulphur which is a Principle of a Consistence somewhat more crass than Spirit
and next to it most active from this Principle ariseth the variety of Colours and Smells the pulchritude and deformity of Bodies and the diversity of Tastes in a great measure that this Principle is copious in the Blood is evident from this that we are for the most part fed with Fat and Sulphurious Things From the solution of this it is very probable that the Crimson Tincture of the Blood ariseth for sulphureous Bodies do above all others tinge their dissolving Menstruums with a red Colour and when by reason of Crudity the Sulphur is not dissolved the Blood becomes pale and watery and will scarce make red a Linnen Cloth that is dipt in it The Mass of Blood thus impregnated with a considerable quantity of Sulphur together with abundance of Spirits becomes very fermentescible Salt which is a principle of a Nature more fixt than either Spirit or Sulphur neither so disposed for Volatility is that which makes Bodies compact and solid also ponderous and durable it promotes the coagulation of Bodies and Retards their Dissolutions resists Corruptions and Inflamability and because Spirit and Sulphur are too Volatile it fixeth them by its embracing them that this Principle is in the Blood is manifest by its Gusto when the saline Particles in the Blood are not enough exalted by reason of a bad Digestion but remain crude and for the most part fixt the Blood hence becomes thick and unable to perform its due circulation so that from hence arise Obstructions in the Bowels and solid parts and hence Serous Crudities are abundandantly generated but if by reason of the Deficience and Depression of the Spirit the Salt be too much exalted and reduced to a fluor a sharp austere Diathesis doth then accost the Blood such as is observed in Scorbutic Persons and in those that are attended with Quartian Agues Phlegm or Water which is the Vehicle of Sulphur and Spirit and the Medium to unite them together with the Salt for the other Principles being dissolved or at least diluted in this are kept in motion but without it they become stiff and congealed it is upon this Principle that the Fluidity of the blood depends hereby also its Conflagration and Adustion is restrained and its Heat tempered Earth is that which gives Consistency and Magnitude to Bodies by this the too great Volatilization of the Blood and its Accension is hindered Now tho these Principles are those whereof the Mass of Blood be composed yet this doth not at all destroy our former Assertion of the four Humours for while the Blood is circulating in its containing Vessels some of its Parts do continually wax old and new ones do supply their Deficience hence either by Crudity or too much Concoction something of necessity must become useless and Excrementicious which by the Fermentation and Effervescence of the Blood as in the Effervescence and Depuration of Wine it is secerned and seperated from its Mass Thus that watery Humour that is percolated in the Cavities of the Stomach and Intestines is called Phlegm those Particles of Salt and Sulphur and and some other adust ones secerned in the Liver and received by the Vasa Choledocha is that which they call Bile or Choler and the Earthy Feculencies sometimes in the Spleen is that we call Melancholy But these things I shall more fully handle in the subsequent Chapter where I shall Discover something of the Depuration of the Blood CHAP. XI Of the Functions of the Body NOt to tread in the footsteps of the Ancients farther than their Sentiments are agreeable to the Canons of Reason and Experience I shall not here confine my self to proceed in their Method it being inclusive of some particulars altogether ridiculous and exploded by all the ingenious for whoever will so devote himself to all their Tenents must of necessity restrain his mind from believing not only Maxims of undeniable Verity but also demonstrations of infallible Experience Thus those that conform their Opinion to theirs about the Subdivision of the Nutritive Faculty into the Attractive Retentive Concoctive and Expulsive must necessarily thwart their own Experience at least nullifie the constant Rules of Nature in imagining new and fictitious ones viz. By the attractive Faculty they would have us conceive that in the parts of this Body there is resident some charming Vertue whereby the Proxime Aliment is allured to them or that they by a kind of Magnetic Influence do effectually draw unto them the adjacent Nourishment By the Retentive they would have us believe that the parts of the Body finding this Aliment so agreeable and consimular to their Nature are so inamour'd with them as to retain them by voluntary Embraces The Genuine Distribution of the Functions The Genuine therefore and Legitime Distribution of the Functions are into these seven viz. The Nutritive the Vital the Sensitive the Locomotive the Enunciative and the Generative The Nutritive Function First the Nutritive Function forasmuch as Animals can perform those Actions which their Nature is capable of while they continue in that state in which they were first formed the God of Nature hath ordered that a Nutrition should succeed which might dilate and amplifie their slender Fibres by interweaving and assimulating so many more congeners to them as might reduce their Bodies to a convenient magnitude besides which is a great end aspired after by Nature in this necessary Function this greatly conduceth and almost solely serves for the Conservation of the Animals for since the primary Principle of Life in every Animal is a certain vital Flame and indegenary Heat such as is the rectified Spirit of Wine upon Ascention which penetrates and briskly agitates the fluid parts continually feeding upon them as its proper Pabulum or Fuel which Sulphureous and Oily Particles afford Aliment to that lamp of Life this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or innate Heat at first kindled by the Vegetative Soul or rather the Plastic Spirit in the Blood constantly burning in the Heart as in its Fountain or Primary Focus and thence by Diffusion of it self thro the Arteries warming enlivening and cherishing the Parts would soon consume and dissipate all its soluble Particles had it not a constant supply and continual Reparation or Renovation of those decays it causes to exhale and evaporate by a substitution and assimulation of equivalent Particles in the room of those dispersed and absum'd and so at last a Marasmus or Consumption would immediately ensue and the fluid parts being quite exhausted or dispersed and the vital Flame being quite destitute and devoid of Sustenance Life would totally be extinguisht but to anticipate such sad Effects and that this Principle of Life might not become our intern mortal Enemy so soon to destroy us our Mother Nature hath constituted this noble Function How Nutrition is performed which how it is performed is now incumbent upon me a little to explicate and that this may be done in a regular procedure we must subdivide