OF THE SOUL OF THE WORLD AND OF Particular Souls IN A Letter to Mr. Lock occasioned by Mr. Keil's Reflections upon an Essay lately published concerning Reason By the Author of that Essay Minut. Fael in Octav. Veritas obvia sed requirentibus Erasmus in Hyperaspist l. 2. Verborum umbris territamur quùm in re nihil sit absurdi LONDON Printed for Daniel Brown at the Black Swan and Bible without Temple-Bar M DC XC IX TO JOHN LOCK Esq SIR IT may seem an improper way of making satisfaction for a former Trouble to give a new one yet since you have pardoned the Confidence that made a Present to you of my Essay concerning Reason and that some very sharp Reflections have been published on a part of that Essay I hold my self obliged to send you my Defence of it My Intention in this Address is not to ingage you in the Protection or to the Countenance of any Opinion further than as Reason allows it nor is it to insinuate that you are of mine to gain it the more Authority For tho I could not procure a greater Advantage to any Opinion I own than to have others perswaded that you are of it yet I must do you the justice to profess that I am wholly ignorant what yours is as to the Point in debate I only appeal unto you now as I did at first as to an Arbiter or Judg for which your excellent penetrating Understanding highly qualifies you without inviting you as a Party to come to my Assistance which at this time I hope I shall not need Mr. Keil in the Introduction to his Examination of Dr. Burnet's Theory of the Earth hath done me the Honor tho I am not sure he designed it for one to mention me with several very celebrated Persons but he doth it in that manner and with that Abatement that I have no great cause of being exalted on that regard After he had instanced in Spinosa Dr. More and Mr. Hobbs as Authors of great Discoveries which might well demand Esteem and Veneration if they were real he picks out some of their Opinions which he believed the most obnoxious that by them his Readers may see how well they deserve such a Character He then adds But a new Philosopher naming me who am not ambitious of that Title has much outdone any I have yet mentioned in a Book lately printed concerning Reason there he assures us that there is but one universal Soul in the World which is omnipresent and acts upon all particular Organized Bodies and makes them produce Actions more or less perfect in proportion to the good Disposition of their Organs So that in Beasts that Soul is the Principle of the sensitive and vital Functions in Men it does not only perform these but also all other rational Actions just as if you would suppose a Hand of a vast Extention and a prodigious number of Fingers playing upon all the Organ-pipes in the World and making every one sound a particular Note according to the Disposition and Frame of the Pipe So this universal Soul acting upon all Bodies makes every one produce various Actions according to the different Disposition and Frame of their Organs This Opinion he as confidently asserts to be true as other Men believe that it is salse tho it is impossible he should any other way be sure of it but by Revelation and I believe he will find but few that will take it upon his word Mr. Keil I hope will give me leave to tell him without offence that the Representation of my Opinion had he pleased to make it in my own Terms would have been less invidious and withal more just than it appears in his However since he hath endeavoured by a Comparison to illustrate or else to expose for I cannot well resolve which 't is the Sentiment I own and that this Comparison is capable of being applied unto it to good purpose I will my self make use of it my own way But first I must give a Plan of my true Notion which in short is this That the Mosaical Spirit called Gen. I. v. 2. the Spirit of God being a Spirit of Life and present every where in all the Parts of the Universe is the Original of all the Energy Motion and Action therein especially of that which is Animal And that particular Souls for such I acknowledg there be are Portions of that Spirit acting in the several particular Bodies in which they are according to the Capacities Dispositions and Qualities of those Bodies A Sentiment conformable to two received Maxims Quicquid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientis Actus activorum sunt in patiente disposito To make it imaginable let us suppose a vast Organ consisting of innumerable Pipes of different Sizes and Fabrick and this Organ to be filled with Wind blown into it and the Wind to be received and some portion of it appropriated by each particular Pipe Imagine also innumerable Fingers playing upon those several Pipes For then each particular Pipe being played upon will by means of the Wind be made to sound a particular Note differing from the Notes of all the other Pipes according as its Qualities Dispositions and Fabrick differ The World is as such an Organ an orderly Aggregate and the several sorts of Bodies that compose it are as the several Pipes of that Organ the Mosaical Spirit present every where throughout the whole World is as the Wind which is blown into the Organ This Spirit is received and apportioned by the several particular Bodies as the Wind in an Organ by the several particular Pipes and as these inspired with Wind being played upon do sound different Notes or Tunes so those animated with their respective Portions of the Mosaical Spirit being impressed and acted upon by Objects do perform their several vital Functions according to their several Dispositions and Fabrick Thus far the Comparison plainly holds but it may be carried a greater length and made serve to illustrate what I say in my Essay concerning the nature of Animals of Spirits and of Souls For it may be added that as the power of making an Organ sound at all or the power of making a particular Pipe to sound a particular Note arises not solely from the frame of the Organ or from that of the Pipe for the Organ sounds not at all if it be not inspired with Wind and tho inspired with Wind and consequently tho it gives a Sound yet it will not sound to such and such a particular Tune if it be not played upon with the Fingers In like manner the Power of making a Body live or of any particular Instrument of it exercise any particular Action of Cogitation as of Seeing or of Hearing arises not solely from the frame of the Body or from that of the particular Instrument the Eye or the Ear for the Body lives not if it be not animated with some Portion of the Mosaical Spirit and if it be
animated and consequently hath Life as the inspired Organ hath Sound yet it doth not exercise that Life in this or that particular manner of Cogitation by its several Instruments as in seeing by the Eye or hearing by the Ear if it be not acted upon and impressed by Objects any more than an Organ which is only inspired tho it sound will sound to this or that particular Tune if it be not played upon with the Fingers Thus Life originally comes from the Soul I say comes from the Soul for that speaking properly it is not in the Soul consider'd as a Soul any more than Motion is which properly is not in the Soul but from it And as Life so Cogitation which is a Species of Life proceeds from the Soul but the Specification of it from the Body And for the actual exercise of Cogitation in its several Species whether of Sensation or of Intellection it comes originally from the Impressions and Operations of Objects For Images and Ideas that is to say the Sentiments of the Sense and those of the Mind or Understanding they are nothing but different Modifications of Cogitation the former Modifications of Sensation the latter of Intellection after the same manner as different Notes or Tunes are but different Modifications or diverse Modulations of sound In this way of conceiving the Production of Images and Ideas is more perspicuous and intelligible as well as more connatural than in that of Malbranch which methinks in things of Nature instead of having recourse to natural Causes dotha little too unphilosophically too soon repair unto the first Cause which is the Author of Nature But as I said in the way before set out the Conception of it is very easy For Images and Ideas being but the Modifications of Cogitation they are made by Impressions and made different by different Impressions of Objects upon the Faculties as Notes and Tunes are made by the playing and different Notes and Tunes by the different playing of the Fingers upon the several Pipes of an Organ This Comparison of the World animated with the Spirit of God to an Organ filled with Wind blown into it cannot but be acknowledged to have much of Resemblance and Agreableness and the more if we consider that this Spirit of God is called Ruach in Hebrew a word signifying Wind and likewise that Pneumatical or Wind-Instruments of Musick are said tho but metaphorically to be animated as I think they are in Psalm 150. v. last For here it is said Let every thing that hath Neshamah the same Word that is used for the Soul of Man Gen. 2. 7. when God is said to breath into him the Breath of Life so here Let every thing that hath Neshamah every thing that is animated with Wind let every Wind-Instrument for the Coherence plainly carries it unto Musical Instruments Praise the Lord. And as Neshamah comes from Nasham Anhelare to pant or breath so likewise Nephesh another Word in Hebrew for a Soul derives from a Root of the like signification and often stands for Breath as well as for a Soul Nor was this a particular Sentiment only of the Jews but both the Greeks and Romans were in the same For in Greek the Name for Spirit is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to blow and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word for Soul derives from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to breathe With the Romans the word for Soul is sometimes Anima sometimes Animus words that come from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Wind as in like manner Spiritus does from Spiro When I affirm that Anima and Animus are often used promiscuously in Latin Authors I have good Authority to support it since Cotta in Cicero l. 3. de nat Deor. saying Quî magis quam praeter Animam unde Animantium quoque constet Animus exquo Anima dicitur intimates the same for there he calls the vital Principle of inferior Animals Animus and in effect says both that it consists of Anima or Breath which is inspired Air or Wind and that for this reason the Breath is called Anima because it is to inferior Animals what the Animus is to Man Animus ex quo Anima dicitur Anima it is Animus with a little distinction Anima is the Animus or Soul of Brutes and Animus is the Anima or Soul of Men as in the Holy Scripture where St. Paul speaks of Body Soul and Spirit what he means by Soul may be expressed by Anima what he intends by Spirit by the word Animus the former word importing the sensitive Principle which is common to Beasts the latter the rational or intellectual which is proper to Men. To clear this Passage further which I have quoted out of Cicero and the sense I have given of it we ought to consider that the Stoicks held an opinion that all Souls were Fire and Balbus who was one of them taking it for granted is told by Cotta that he was too forward in assuming so much for says he 't is the probable Opinion that the vital Principle or Soul is not Breath only as most think or Fire only as Stoicks think but a Complex or Result of both probabilius videtur tale quiddam esse Animum ut sit ex igne at que animâ temperatum It is true Julius Scaliger in his 107th Exercitation against Cardan is extream severe upon that wonderfully knowing and learned Man for saying but by implication that other Souls besides the human were called Animi For Cardan having said Animi vires praecipuè humani c. Scaliger replies upon him Quasi verò alius sit Animus ab humano Insinuating thereby that to hold that every or indeed that any Soul might be called Animus is very absurd as in truth it would be if what he says was well grounded to wit that all wise Men did ever understand by Animus a Faculty of the human Soul which he says tho at the same time he confesses Cicero who it seems for this reason he thought not very wise to be in a different Opinion Nam tametsi Cicero says he Animal ab Animo dictum scribit tamen hominis proprium Animum id est Animae vim sapientes omnes intellexêre And to lessen Cicero's Authority in this particular he impeaches him of Inconstancy telling us that at another time speaking of Apronius he uses such Expressions as do evidently so distinguish between Anima and Animus that no room is left to imagine but that he took the latter for only a Power or Faculty of the former At says Scaliger non servabit Cicero constantiae opinionem invitis doctis viris ejus enim verba de Apronio sunt qui non modo Animum integrum sed ne Animam quidem puram conservare potuisset ubi apertè Animae facultatem innuit Animi appellatione But our Hypercritick has not exercised his Talent to advantage in this place
any other way be sure of it but by Revelation If he mean it is impossible I should be absolutely sure of it but by Revelation and that for this reason 't is a Presumption in me to assert the Opinion since I am not assured of it that way he must excuse me if I differ from him For in the first place I will take the liberty to tell him what I believe most others who consider would upon occasion that there are many Degrees of a just Confidence that yet do all fall much beneath Infallibility or absolute Certainty Besides methinks it should content him as being a sufficient ground of asserting any Opinion even with Confidence that there is Reason for the Opinion tho he that asserts it cannot be absolutely sure of it without a Revelation especially since Mr. Keil himself I dare say will not affirm he had a Revelation for all he confidently asserts in his Book of which yet he cannot be absolutely sure without one but what there is of Revelation in the Question between him and me he may be told hereafter and might have learned somewhat of it from the Essay where also he might have seen that there was some reason for the Opinion And whereas he says that I as confidently assert my Opinion to be true as other Men believe that it is false If I should yield him so much what would follow but this That if this be all 't is only Confidence on either side I confidently assert it to be true other men as confidently believe that it is false And when equal Confidence and nothing else is in both the Scales what shall turn them But certainly tho other Men if but other Men believe an Opinion to be false that any one affirms to be true it will not necessarily follow that 't is false indeed for if it should Mr. Keil himself who writes in opposition to other Men and those very worthy Men must believe himself in the wrong Box till he can convince them ay and all the rest of Mankind that think otherwise than he does for till then other Men will believe that what he says is false Indeed if my Opinion went contrary to common Sense and that all other Men or but all considerate wise and thinking Men were in another belief I should be very apt to suspect I was imposed upon by false Appearances but there is nothing of this in the matter as will be manifest presently Mr. Keil closes up his Censure for all he says against me is Censure only not Argument with telling his Readers his Belief which is that I will find but few that will take the Opinion upon my word In truth it is not my desire as it is not reason any should nor as it falls out is there any need they should for if a Revelation in the Holy Scriptures if the Authority of some of the most thinking and sagacious Philosophers and if Reasons taken from the Phaenomena of Nature can put any Sentiment beyond the Misfortune of being precarious mine is safe enough from that Imputation As for Revelation what interest it hath in this Opinion I have shewed in my Essay from Genesis Ch. 1. v. 2. compared with Psalm 147. v. 15 16 c. which I will not repeat only I will add that I think it abundantly confirmed by an Evidence I find in the Book intituled The Wisdom of Solomon where it is said Ch. 1. v. 7. The Spirit of the Lord filleth all the World and the same that maintaineth all things hath Knowledg of the Voice This Spirit as it hath in the Holy Scriptures the Denomination of the Spirit of God because it comes from him and is his hand in all his Influences upon the World so it hath that of the Spirit or Soul of the Creatures whether these be Plants Sensitives or Men as being that Vital Principle that acts and actuates them all Thus in Psal. 104. v. 29. that which is called the Breath of the Creatures or the immediate Principle that makes them live and is their Soul upon whose Departure they are said to die and to return to their Dust is in the 30th verse of the same Psalm called the Spirit of the Lord which being sent into them makes them live Thou sendest forth thy Spirit and they live and thou renewest the face of the Earth This is particularly affirmed as to Man by Elihu Job 33. 4. The Spirit of God hath made me and the Breath of the Almighty hath given me Life By Job himself Chap. 27. v. 3. All the while my Breath is in me and the Spirit of God is in my Nostrils And by Elihu again more comprehensively Job Chap. 34. v. 14 15. If he set his Heart upon Man to take notice of him and remark his Iniquities and consequently gather unto himself his Spirit and his Breath all Flesh shall perish together and Man shall turn again unto Dust. Plainly intimating that the Spirit of God as if it were a common Soul is the Original Principle of Life and vital Operation in Man as well as in all things else that have Life See Isa. 42. 5. The Prophetical Scheme in Ezekiel Ch. 37. concerning the dry Bones is very pertinent and full to the same purpose For when the dry Bones are to be made to live God is introduced saying to them v. 5. Behold I will cause Breath to enter into you and you shall live And he effects it by the same steps and in the same manner as he created Man at first For first he organized Bodies v. 7 8. The Bones came together Bone to his Bone the Sinews and the Flesh came upon them and the Skin covered them above But tho the Bodies were organized yet being not inspir'd for there was no Breath in them they were not made to live as yet and therefore to make them living Bodies and put Soul into them the Prophet had a Commission to the MUNDANE SPIRIT to come and animate them v. 9 10. Then said he unto me Prophesy unto the Wind prophesy Son of Man and say to the Wind Thus saith the Lord God Come from the four Winds O Breath and breathe upon these slain that they may live So I prophesied as he commanded me and the Breath came into them and they lived Where it may be observed that the Spirit that quickneth and giveth Life to those Bodies is compared to inspired Wind or Breath that this Spirit of Life or quickening Breath is diffused throughout the Universe in all the Quarters thereof and that it is intirely at the Command and Beck of God For it is Breath is called upon to come and quicken those Bodies and it is called upon to come and quicken them from the four Winds and it is no sooner called upon but it comes forthwith and quickens them It may also be observed that the Breath or common Spirit of Life that blew upon those Bodies as it came upon them all so it was apportioned by
to be Spirits that are always every where in waiting for an Office which is hard to be admitted I say and those too to be Spirits for that 't is certain that mere corporeal Souls as some call them suffice not for Animal Operations even tho we should conceive them as those do to consist of Flame for vital Actions and of Light for the sensitive ones for if Matter be not radically vital and so there be no need at all of Spirit or Mind and then there is no such thing it will be absolutely unconceivable how Flame and Light which are only Matter under greater comminution of its parts of a particular Texture and in rapid Motion can of themselves be vital and perceptive or make other things become so But to return Mr. Lewenhoec's Experiment of pepper'd Water every Drop whereof affords as he says so many thousands of Animalcles is a sensible Demonstration of an omnipresent vital Principle that acts as occasion is and a sensible Demonstration too of spontaneous equivocal Generations for so I call the Productions of Animals that do not come from Seeds in the common Acceptation of this word I acknowledg it almost a Scandal but to name equivocal Productions at this time they are now so generally disbelieved and exploded but for my part I am not ashamed to confess that as yet I have not observed so much said by the excellent Redi or by any other Author against the Reality of them as to oblige me to depart from a Sentiment that hath been the common Belief of most Inquirers into Nature in all Ages before this last And the Hypothesis of a mundane Soul will make Productions of that kind conceivable without which indeed it will be hard to apprehend how they can be Dr. Cox in a Process of extracting volatile Salt and Spirit out of Vegetables which is described in the Philosophical Transactions intimates this Observation That many of the Herbs putrefied and fermented after his way did swarm with Maggots especially at the Bottom and in the Middle where he tells us Flies and other Insects could have no access to deposite their Eggs and where the Heat is so violent that they could not possibly subsist Some years after that learned Person I find another the experienced Juncken in Processes of much a like nature making the like Observation that in the Putrefaction and Fermentation of the Vegetables great numbers of Insects and little Animals were generated tho as he says the Vessels were never so close stopp'd And indeed it is commonly observ'd that Putrefactions do terminate in Animals of one sort or other The Relations of Barnacles that are said to be Birds arising out of the putrefied Relicks of shipwrack'd Planks which Relations have been confirmed to me by an Eye-witness of unsuspected Credit are further confirmed by the Testimony of an Eagle-eyed Philosopher who tells us he hath seen a Creature of that kind for so I understand Julius Scaliger when in his 59 Exercitation against Cardan he says In Oceano Britannico magis mireris ignotam avem anatis facie rostro pendere de reliquiis putridis naufragiorum quoad absolvatur atque abeat quaesitum sibi pisces unde alatur hanc quoque vidimus nos To the former Story Scaliger in the same Exercitation adds another which he calls miraculous it is of an Oyster-shell not very great that was presented unto Francis King of France and contained in it a little Bird almost finished with Pinions Feet and the Bill sticking to the Extremities of the Shell This Bird he says some Learned Men believed a Transformation of the Oyster His own words are these Singularis nunc miraculi subtexenda historia est ubi de aquis agimus Allata est Francisco regi opt max. Concha non admodum magna cum aviculâ intus penè perfectâ alarum fastigiis rostro pedibus haerente extremis oris ostraci Viri docti mutatum in aviculam Ostreum ipsum existimarunt My Lord Bacon in his natural History Century 4th Exp. 228. tells us That if the Spirits be not merely detained but protrude a little and that Motion be confused and inordinate there followeth Putrefaction which ever dissolveth the consistence of the Body into much inequality as in Flesh rotten Fruits shining Wood c. and also in the Rust of Metals but if that Motion be in a certain order there followeth Vivification and Figuration as both in living Creatures bred of Putrefaction and in living Creatures perfect But if the Spirits issue out of the Body there followeth Desiccation c. In Experiment 339. his Lordship further tells us that all Moulds are Inceptions of Putrefaction as the Mould of Pyes and Flesh the Moulds of Oranges and Lemmons which Moulds afterwards turn into Worms or more odious Putrefactions c. And methinks the Production of Plants without Seed affords a very weighty Argument for the like Production of Animals My Lord Bacon gives us many Instances of the former in the 6th Century of his natural History where he tells us Experiment 563. That it is certain that Earth taken out of the Foundation of Vaults and Houses and Bottoms of Wells and then put into Pots will put forth sundry kinds of Herbs but some time is required for the Germination for if it be taken from a Fathom deep it will put forth the first year if much deeper not till after a year or two And in the 565th Experiment adds that the nature of the Plants growing out of the Earth so taken up doth follow the nature of the Mould it self as if the Mould be soft and fine it putteth forth soft Herbs as Grass Plantane and the like if the Earth be harder and coarser it putteth forth Herbs more rough as Thistles Furs c. Scaliger in his 323d Exercitation against Cardan speaking of the Production of Frogs that sometimes have been rained in great abundance of which there he gives several Instances tells Cardan who affirmed them to be bred of Frogs-Eggs or Spawn that they were spontaneous or equivocal as being Productions of a general Nature and not seminal ones which kind of Animal Productions he evinceth to be possible the same way that I have by shewing that there are the like in Plants Quid multa says he nonne quotidiana foetura caelestis genii quae natura est potentiam declarant Plantae nullis ortae seminiis My Lord Bacon assures us for a certain truth that Toads have been found in the middle of a Free-stone where it cannot be imagined that an Animal of that kind should come and lay her Eggs and I have been credibly informed that-very lately a living Toad was found in the Heart or Middle of a large Oak when it was felled The Animation of Horse-hairs lying in the Summer time in Pools has been observed of many some of which I have discoursed concerning it and an understanding Man of my acquaintance assured me that more than once he hath made an Experiment which
very much confirms the truth thereof He takes a Hair with the Root pluck'd from the Main or Tail of a Mare that is proud and in a warm Season puts it into a wooden Dish full of Water where letting it lie two or three Days the Hair in that space will for the most part become quickned with a strong Motion and a Head like that of a Serpent grow out of its Root The infectious Water of the Showers that accompany the Tornadoes on the African Coast standing any where do as Mr. Terry tells us in his Relation of a Voyage to East-India presently bring forth many little offensive Creatures which is likewise affirmed by Mr. Herbert The Vermination in Human as well as other Animal Bodies of which there are innumerable Instances in Medical Writers as in Bartholinus's Centuries in Borellus's in Tulpius's Observations c. is another weighty Argument for spontaneous Generations but I will mention only one A Worm of an unusual Figure with the Head of a Serpent found in the left Ventricle of the Heart of a Gentleman whose name was John Pennant The Relation well attested together with the Figure of the Worm was in the year 1639. printed at London by one George Miller to which Relation I refer the Reader This Phaenomenon of Vermination is a good Evidence of SPONTANEOUS GENERATION and this a weighty Confirmation of the Existence of a mundane Soul Another Argument for it may be taken from the Difficulties that the admittance thereof will remove as to the Production of Human Souls which some conceive to come as they express it ex traduce not indeed by way of Eduction from the Power of the Matter for they acknowledg no such Power therein but by propagation But others think them immediately created by God either all at once as those do who hold the Doctrine of Praeexistence or as most imagin on occasion according to the exigence of Matter As for the first Opinion that of Traduction I find it in Nemesius lib. de nat human cap. 2. where he tells us it was the Sentiment of Apollinarius that Souls do propagate Souls as Bodies do Bodies and Julius Scaliger concurs with him affirming that Souls may come from Souls ut lumen de lumine that is that Souls do propagate one another after the same manner as Candles light one another Poiret believes as the two former that Souls are propagated but extends the business of Propagation somewhat further than they do and upon other Grounds For in his Cogitat rational l. 1. c. 5. in Annot. he affirms that all things are Prolifick and that as Matter produces Matter and Motion is productive of Motion so in like manner one Soul or Spirit may generate and produce another But there are many Difficulties in this Opinion of all which I will insist on this only That a Soul if it be an immaterial Substance as most conceive it to be is as uncapable of Propagation otherwise than by a Metaphor as it is of Discerption or actual Division For even the Propagation of Light is by Discerption some Effluvia or Emanations of the enlightning Candle passing into that which is lightned And for the Propagation of Motion the way thereof is so obscure it cannot afford Light to this Subject Only this is certain that in local Motion derived from Body to Body so much of it as is imparted unto one departs from the other which I suppose will not be admitted in the Propagation of Spirits And as to the Prolifickness of Matter I should think but few will allow thereof who consider that there is no more of Matter in the World now than ever was and that Matter is ingenerable and incorruptible being a Subject of all substantial Mutations but not the Term of anâ—â—… so that 〈◊〉 if the Generation of Souls has noâ—…â—â—…r or no better Foundation than this 〈◊〉 Soul is productive of Soul as Matter 〈◊〉 of Matter I conclude the belief thereof will never become general with knowing Men. As for Creation of Souls an Opinion generally held by Divines and among our late Philosophers particularly embraced by des Cartes many Objections lie against it of which I will touch but one or two as sticking most with me The first is that it seems a little unphilosophical to call in a supernatural Agent for a Business and Work of Nature such as is if any is the Propagation of Kind My full consent is with Julius Scaliger when he says nihil quod est in naturâ praeter naturam est Nothing is in Nature that hath not a Cause in Nature Again it may be further argued that if human Souls are immediately created by God it must be admitted that those of Beasts are so too since nothing can be clearer even to Sense than that Men and Beasts do propagate their kinds the same way whether that way be by Creation by Traduction or by any other whatever There is in Mankind as well as in the kinds of Beasts a Distinction of Sexes for the Business of Generation a Furniture and Disposition of Organs for it in both and in both a like Use and Application of Organs All Men and Beasts are alike conceived in their respective Wombs alike nourished and augmented and both come out in the same manner and therefore there being the same Evidence it is but reason to make the same Conclusion for both I know this Argument will have but little effect upon Gartesians who against the testimony of Sense believing that Beasts are only Machins without any conscious Perception or Knowledg do not own them to have Souls as Men have in the proper Sense of the World But yet it cannot want its due Weight with all others who believing their own refuse not Senses unto Beasts as thinking they have reason to conclude that Beasts see and hear c. as Men themselves do because they have Eyes and Ears c. as Men themselves have and to all appearance make the same use of them upon occasion as Men themselves upon the like would do And all these will find the same reason to infer that Men and Beasts beget their like the same way because there are the same Appearances to make us think they should These Appearances are obvious and they ought to be considered nor are they capable I think of being solved or the other Difficulties that do lie in both the ways of Creation and Traduction capable of being removed otherwise than on the Hypothesis I have proposed by acknowledging a Mundane Soul that according to the Exigence and Disposition of the Matter is always ready with a Portion of it self to animate and actuate it so that there is no need of any new Creation of Praeexistence or of any Traduction of particular Souls But to proceed There is another Phaenomenon very obvious that is better solved on this Hypothesis of a mundane Soul than it can be on any other to wit that certain Animals do move and stir and
give other Tokens of Life and Sensation tho cut in several pieces such as Eels Snakes Earthworms Butterflies c. This in the common way is hard to be conceived since it must infer either that there is a Discerption and actual Division of Souls of which if Souls be immaterial they are absolutely uncapable or else that vital Effects may remain in being after that the Soul which is the next immediate Cause of those Effects is departed contrary to the Maxim Sublata causa tollitur effectus But the Reason of this Phaenomenon if we suppose an universal mundane Soul will be very plain for since the Parts of those divided Animals do retain for some time the same Qualities and Dispositions that they had before their Separations there not being in them as in those of other Animals that sudden Dissolution of the Texture or of the Spirits it follows that they must receive the same Influences which they had before from the mundane Soul and consequently that for some time they must continue to live and in convenient Circumstances would longer for like Reasons as the Parts of Vegetables do which tho separated from their Wholes yet continue to live in Slips in Buds in Grafts when inserted into other Wholes Nor do I see but that the Parts of Animals might be inoculated or ingrafted into Animals as well as those of Vegetables are into Vegetables if the Qualities and Dispositions of Animal Parts when separated could be as well preserved as those of Vegetables and a Coalition of them as well made a Sentiment that is confirmed by the Experiment of Taliacotius and by all the others that the Chirurgia Curtorum affords Thus I have instanced in a few Phaenomena of Nature to which I might have added many others of a higher Quality but these sufficiently confirm my Hypothesis against which I cannot imagine any Objection of moment capable of being rais'd except this that it does seem to render the Distinction between human and inferior Souls less conceivable and in consequence the Immortality of the former But this Objection will soon vanish if we but suppose there is a firm and indissolvable Union between the Spirit of God and its Vehicle in Man and that there is not the like Union between it and its Vehicle in inferior Animals And this Supposal is not without ground For such a firm indissolvable Union betwixt the Spirit of God and its Vehicle must be admitted to be in Angels if they are as they are immortal and then the Ligament or Bond of that Union provided it be natural must consist in a natural but a naturally immutable Congruity Now the System of Spirits that in Man is the Vehicle of the mundane Soul must be owned to have more Alliance unto that of Angels than the Vehicles of it in inferior Animals have if we consider the advantage the Human Understanding hath in excellency of Operations above the Imagination of Beasts and also consider that the Souls of Men are capable of the Divine Image which those of Beasts are not for thence it will evidently follow that the former have more of a natural congruity to the Spirit of God which is the Soul of the World than the latter have those as to their Vehicles being of a celestial but these of a terrestrial and an elementary matter No wonder then if the Spirit of a Man when he dies goes upward but that of a Beast goes downward Thus Sir I think I have evinced from the holy Scriptures and from several Phaenomena of Nature that there is a Principle of Life diffused throughout the Universe and I have likewise evinced that it was the Sentiment of many great Philosophers so that tho I am not very fond of any Opinion I hope I may say of this without Injustice to Mr. Keil that what he hath offered in contradiction to it does in no degree impeach its Credit or lessen mine for asserting it However I do own I am obliged to that ingenious Gentleman for the occasion he hath given me of further explaining and confirming my Hypothesis and thereby too of professing a second time before the World that I am with the greatest Respect SIR Your Devoted Humble Servant Rich. 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each for the Breath must be in them And where the Breath is in all each hath his Portion of it in particular and then may say as Job Chap. 27. v. 3. All the while my Breath is in me and the Spirit of God is in my Nostrils c. So long his Breath is in him as the Spirit of God is in his Nostrils Thus every Man hath his own Soul but this Soul is only a Portion of the Spirit of God that as a Soul does permeate the Universe so that it is as in Pythagoras's Expression which I find in Lucretius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Spark of Ether or as others choose to express it particula Aur ae Divinae which according to the grounds that I have laid in my Essay I would render a Portion of Mind in Matter So much for my Opinion from the Authority of Revelation As for that of Philosophy I produced in my Essay as Vouchers of my Hypothesis not only the great Philosopher last named who was Founder of the Italick Sect but also Zeno Seneca Plutarch Marcus Antoninus and Apuleius To all which from as many as would fill a Volume I will add a few more Thales the Father of the Ionick Sect held as Laertius tells us that Water was the Principle of all things and that the World was animated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In which Doctrines as is very probable he was instructed by the Mosaick Tradition of the Waters and the Spirit that moved upon them for unto this his Dogmata are very conformable There are in Plato so many Testimonies of a mundane Soul and his Opinion is so generally known that it were to overdo to instance Particulars I have mentioned Zeno Cittieus in my Essay but seeing he was Founder of the Stoick Sect and that I find in Laertius who wrote his Life a fuller State of his Opinion and in more particulars consonant to mine than what I have mentioned already I will produce him again He then as Laertius tells us asserted a Mind that permeated every Portion of the World after the same manner that the Soul in us doth permeate the Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But through some more through others less 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For instance some he says it pervaded only as a Habit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as through the Bones and Nerves but through others as a Mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as through the understanding or rational part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Sentiment of a Divine Virtue that pervaded the whole Universe was in antient time so generally received that even the Tyrant Phalaris in an Epistle Consolatory written by him to the Children of Stesichorus if indeed he was the Author of those Epistles passing in his name mentions it as such an one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. which his honoured and very learned Translator renders thus Immortalis quippe Dei vis quae per universum diffunditur mihi nihil nisi haec ipsa harmonia videtur He is also understood by that excellent Person in his Annotations to mean the mundane Soul of the Pythagoreans when in his 104. Epistle which is to the Inhabitants of Catana he says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Si enim Divinae sortis quemadmodum caetera naturae elementa c. And even Aristotle tho a great Opposer of the Platonick Soul yet being prevailed upon by irresistible Experience he in a Paragraph quoted out of him by Julius Scaliger in his 26th Exercitation against Cardan comes somewhat near to my Opinion For there he affirms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That both Animals and Plants are produced in the Earth and in the Waters for that there is as in the Earth Moisture so in the Water Spirit and throughout the Universe an animating vivifick Heat insomuch that after a sort it is true that all things are full of Soul To those Philosophers I will add the well-known Testimony of a Philosophical Poet Virgil Aen. 6. Principio coelum acterras camposque liquentes Lucentemque globum lunae Titaniaque astra Spiritus intus alit totamque infusa per Artus Mens agitat molem magno se corpore miscet Rendered by Eugenius Philalethes thus The Heavens the Earth and all the liquid-Main nian The Moon 's bright Globe and Stars Tita A Spirit within maintains and their whole Mass doth pass A Mind which through each part infus'd Fashions and works and wholly doth transpierce All this great Body of the Universe I begin to be fatigued with the unpleasant Drudgery of quoting and transcribing and therefore wholly omitting modern Testimonies I will add but one more of the antient and that shall be from Cicero who l. 2. de natur Deor. introduces Balbus demonstrating that all things in the World are subject to a sentient perceptive nature and are administred and governed by it This he evidences by shewing that particular works of Nature have infinitely more of the Beauties of Art and Contrivance than the most noble Productions of Human Skill and yet that no particular Operation of Nature for example the Production of a Vine of a Tree or of that of the Body of any Animal can shew as to Conformation Order and Situation of Parts or as to Adjustment and Fitness of them for ends and uses that wonderful Sagacity that Subtilty of Invention or that wise Contrivance that shines with great brightness in the general frame of the World whence he confidently but justly infers that the whole World is under the Conduct and wise Administration of a sentient and perceptive Nature or else that nothing at all is so Aut igitur says he nihil est quod à sentiente Naturâ regatur aut mundum regi confitendum est This last Testimony as it is an Evidence so it is also an internal Argument and being taken from the Phaenomena of Nature reminds me of what I undertook to do in the third place which was to shew that my Opinion had Reasons for it in Nature and grounded upon things themselves And these I will now produce The First is taken from the Uniformity even in Difformity the mutual Relation and the Harmony of Parts that is in the World in its general Fabrick if it may be allowed to make a judgment of the whole Frame by that of a particular System which we our selves belong unto But I will not now insist any longer on this Argument because it is set out at large in my Essay in many Instances and the learned Reader will find more in Nemesius de nat Humanâ Again this Hypothesis accounts for another Phaenomenon that cannot be so well accounted for any other way that whenever any Matter becomes disposed for Animal Life this is presently afforded to it which how it should come to pass is easily conceived on supposal of a mundane Soul or a Principle of vital Energy diffused every where but otherwise one must imagine particular Souls and those too