Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	blood_n	body_n	heart_n	5,603	5	5.0093	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36433	A voyage to the world of Cartesius written originally in French, translated into English by T. Taylor, of Magdalen Colledge in Oxford.; Voyage du monde de Descartes. English	Daniel, Gabriel, 1649-1728.; Taylor, Thomas, 17th cent.	1694 (1694)	Wing D202; ESTC R29697	171,956	322

Principle as the Indivisibility of the Soul it was easy for him to prove she kept her Court no where but in the Brain There it is that the Nerves do center or rather from thence they have their Origin It is there that the Philosophers if you except a few and in those Vanhelmont who seiz'd with a Whim plac'd the Soul in the Breast it is there I say that the Philosophers generally agree to be found that which we call the Common Sense that is to say the only place where the Soul can be advis'd of all the different Impressions that external Objects make upon the Senses But since the Brain is of large Extent and besides that soft and whitish Substance which commonly goes by that Name hath Membranes Glands Ventricles or Cavities it was something intricate to resolve and precisely to determine in what place the Soul was seated M. Descartes throughly examin'd the different Opinions of Philosophers and Physicians thereupon and after having solidly confuted the greatest part of their Sentiments that were founded upon but weak and unsound Principles he evidently concludes The seat of the Soul must have three Conditions First it must be one to the end that the Action of the same Object that at the same time strikes two Organs of the same Sense should make no more than one Impression on the Soul as to instance she might not see two Men where there was but one Tom. 2. Let. 36. Secondly it must be very near the Source of the Animal Spirits that by their means she might easily move the Members And in the third Place it must be Moveable that the Soul causing it to move immediately might be able to deter mine the Animal Spirits to glide towards some certain Muscles rather than others Conditions no where to be met with but in a little Gland call'd Pineale or Conarium situated betwixt all the Concavities of the Brain supported and incompass'd with Arteries which made up the Lacis Choroides It is that Lacis we may be assur'd that is the source of the Spirits which ascending from the Heart along the Carotides receive the form of an Animal Spirit in that Gland disengaging themselves there from the more gross parts of the Blood and from thence they take their Course towards the different Muscles of our Body partly dependently partly independently on the Soul as the Author of Nature has order'd it with reference to the end he propos'd to himself in the production of Mankind So far M. Descartes took Reason along with him for his Guide and for ought I know he might have stop'd there had not Fortune or rather the good Providence of God who often encourages the laudable Curiosity of those that apply themselves to the consideration of his wonderful Works reveal'd to him in an extraordinary manner the Secret that he was in search of And that was without doubt one of the most strange Effects of the desires of a Philosophical Soul P. Malle● branche which a famous Author stiles a Natural Prayer that never fails to be heard when it is joyned with a prudent and exact Management of our Reason Should you believe me added he if I should tell you M. Descartes had often Fits of Extasy Why not Said I that 's no such incredible thing of so Contemplative a Man as he was nor is it a Case without a President Who has not heard of those of the famous Archimedes in which he often lost himself through his vehement Application to Mathematical Speculations and in one of them his Life Syracuse being taken by the Roman Army whilst he was drawing Figures in his Chamber with that earnestness of Mind the Tumult of a Town taken by Storm was not loud enough to wake him And he sooner was run through by the Soldiers that had forc'd his House than he was apprehensive of their Approach Alas reply'd he with a Sigh you 'll see in the Consequence of what I am relating That the Extasies of M. Descartes were no less fatal tho' they were not of the same Nature and proceeded from a far different Cause It happen'd one Day whilst we were at Egmond a little Town in Holland which he delighted in that he entred his Stove very early in the Morning which he had caus'd to be built like that in Germany where he began his Philosophy and set himself to thinking as he us'd to do Two Hours after I came in I found him leaning over the Table his Head hanging forward supported with his left Hand in which he held a little Snush Box having his Finger near his Nose as if he was taking Snush As for the rest he was Immoveable and held his Eyes open The noise that I made in entring the Room not causing him to stir I had the Patience to observe him half an Hour postur'd in that manner without his perceiving of me In the mean while there happen'd an Adventure that much surpriz'd me There stood upon the Cornish of the Wainscot in the Stove a Bottle of the Queen of Hungary's Water I was amaz'd to see it descend whilst no Body came near it and to pass through the Air towards M. Descartes The Cork with which it was stopt came out of its own Accord and the Bottle fastning it self to his Nose hung there for some time I protest I durst have swore at that moment there had been no small Conjuring in the Business of our Philosopher and that some familiar Demon like that of Socrates had inspir'd him with all the fine Things he still had taught us But I was convinc'd not long after that there was nothing less in it and I desire you to suspend your Judgment thereon He awaken'd a little while after as in a start and striking his Hand upon the Table This time at last said he I have it I thought him still in a Dream And springing up forth with upon his Chair transported with Joy without seeing me he cut two Capers in the middle of the Room still repeating I have it I have it I burst out with Laughter to see that Frolick a thing not customary with M. Descartes being naturally of a Grave and Melancholy Temper who hearing and seeing me at the same time presently redden'd and afterwards fell a Laughing as well as I. And as I was urgent with him to give me the Reason of his Joy and Rapture To punish you says he for having observed an Indecorum unbecoming a Philosopher you shall not know 't so soon And with that he left the Room in which we were and entred into his Closet bolting it upon him Nevertheless two days after he imparted to me the Mystery We took a turn together out of Town and after occasional Discourse of several Things Well said he abruptly without recourse to Mercury's Caduceus I have found out the Secret not only of the Union of the Soul and Body but also how to separate them when I please I have experienc'd it already

same posture in which she left it But as yet she was not fully Satisfy'd She was unacquainted with the way and means that led her into this Condition And she consider'd it was an hazardous Exploit and that being once united to her Body she might never for ought she knew be disjoyn'd again till Death should cause a final Separation She apply'd her self therefore seriously to consider the Nature of her Body and the disposition of all its Organs She found that the Nerves imploy'd in Sentation and those that serve for Natural functions as the beating of the Heart the circulation of the Blood c. were of a Nature quite distinct She saw that these were vehemently distended and she concluded it might be for the better communicating the Animal Spirits to the Muscles with which the Nerves are united and capacitating them to maintain and continue those natural Motions the Soul is not aware of when united with the Body and that on the contrary the Nerves made use of in Sensation and by whose Means the Soul received the Impression of Objects were almost all unbraced and lax which might prevent the Motion caused by the Impulse of Objects from being continued unto the Seat of the Soul The Difficulty was to find the true Cause why one should be taxed without the other and how she might bring it about to distend those that formerly were laxed Mean while the Snush-Box which I mention'd his Body held in its left-Hand made M. Descartes call to mind That before his Extasie he had taken Tabaccco-Snush and he could not tell but so extraordinary an Effect might have been produced by the Vertue of that Tobacco That which he took of was an unusual kind which a Merchant of Amsterdam had brought over from an Island near China and presented him It was extreamly strong and M. Descartes to mollisie it had mix'd a certain Herb in it dryed to Powder whose Name he never would acquaint me with nor the Place where it grew though he presented me with a great Quantity of the same He laid a sufficient Dose upon the Back-Side of his Hand and gave it his Body to take and at the same Time happen'd this prodigious Effect in his Brain for all the Vapours raised there since his last taking were dislodged and dissipated in an instant He observed it was only the Particles of the Tobacco that scattered the Fumes of the Brain and that those of the Herb which he had tempered with it being not so fine and having very little Motion fastned themselves in the Nerves that cause Sensation and and made them looser than they were before Seeing that Effect he no longer doubted but concluded it to be the Herb which he mix'd with the Tobacco that caus'd his Trance and took away his Senses and that the Tobacco at the same Time unharbouring all the Fumes that might benight the Brain left the Soul with the entire Liberty of knowing and reflecting on it's self as she had then experienc'd After which he thought that Hungary Water was sufficient to brace the Nerves afresh that serve for Sensation since it is often used to recal those Persons that swoon away The Soul takes the Bottle I not long since mentioned and brings it in the Air from the far Side of the Chamber to his Body and therein consists exactly the Magick of which I then suspected M. Descartes guilty and moistens his Nostrils with it The subtile Vapour of that Liquor effected what he aimed at presently the laxed Nerves erect themselves and the Soul streight seats it self in the Pineal Gland and finds itself confederate with the Body as before It was in that instant I perceived Descartes to come to himself I told you he lock'd himself forthwith in another Room it was to make a second Experiment of his Tobacco and his Herb which succeeded to his Hearts Desire Since when it was a Business of nothing for his Soul to leave the Body and since his imparting to me the Secret his Soul and mine have made an hundred Expeditions together to instruct our selves of the greatest Curiosities in Nature As those that read the Works of M. Descartes are unacquainted with all that I have been relating they with just Cause are amazed at a thing which you will not startle at for the future I mean the Particulars he descends to in his Physicks concerning the Properties of his three Elements at how great soever remove from Sense they lie concerning their Figure their Motion their Rank and File in the Composition of his World and all particular Bodies concerning the Disposition of his Vortexes in which he proceeds so far as to observe the different size of the Balls of the second Element of which they consist Part. 3. Princip in their respective Places how those that come nearest the Centre of the Water are the least of all those that are a little removed are somewhat bigger increasing still in Bigness unto a determinate Distance after which they all are equal Concerning the Formation of their Parts chamfer'd in Fashion of a Skrew with which he explains the Nature and the different Phenomena's of the Load-Stone in a way so fine and easie Phoenomena's that till then had puzled and confounded all the Philosophers even those that had so ready a Method of explaining all things by the Assistance of their occult Qualities All this he saw intuitively and of himself and for me that speak to you is it possible to think That at the Age of seventy seven and being of so weak a Constitution as I am I say is it possible for you to think I should have lived to this and preserved my Health and Vigour as I do unless I had had a perfect Knowledge of the Machine of my Body Unless I had still silled and made up the Breaches whereat Life leaks and runs out continually I mean not in applying the Remedies that Medicine prescribes whose conjectures are so very uncertain and from the Use of which Monsieur Descartes has so frequently dissuaded the Princess Elizabeth Lett. de Descartes But in the Practice of that Critical Knowledge my Soul has of my Body of which she perfectly is and can be instructed as often as she pleases by putting herself in the Capacity I have now been speaking of I must acknowledg Sir replyed I then it is a most admirable Secret and of Infinite Use I am impatient till I learn it of you and as soon as I know it I am persuaded I shall improve it to as great a Benefit as Adam would have done the Tree of Life in Paradise if he had continued there And I doubt not but if Origen had known it he that looks upon the History of Scripture as Allegory he would have believed the Tree of Life to be nothing but this Mystery which God had communicated unto Adam But that which you was speaking of your Health creates one Scruple in me How Monsieur Descartes having