examine the effect it produceth in the Ear it striketh and in the Brain it shaketh In regard that the Anatomy of the Ear is a thing commonly known and that 't is sufficient for every one to be persuaded in the general that it is an Organ dispos'd to receive the air when 't is propelled by Bodies which by touching one another drive it from betwixt them or repelled by hard Bodies or issuing out of the Lungs of an Animal I shall make no description of it I desire only it may be observ'd that as many different shakings there are in the Air so many different sorts there are of its passing into the Ear and that according to those diversities it causeth a different agitation in the Membrane stretch'd out in the bottom of the Ear and in the Nerves answering thereto It may also be judged by what we know of the construction of Animals even of Beasts that according as the Agitation of the Nerves of the Ear is different the Brain must be agitated in different parts and likewise that 't is alwayes according as those different parts are agitated that the spirits are differently distributed into the members But all that is perform'd by a necessary sequel of the mechanical disposition of the whole Body of every Animal and even of every Beast which being of a certain kind that is made for one thing or another hath all what is necessary to effect what the Author of Nature proposed to himself in forming it It hath the Brain so adjusted according to its temperament for all what may conserve it that if the Objects which can hurt it move its Brain 't is alwayes after such a manner which maketh it to open in the places whence the spirits may flow into the muscles which serve to make it retire from those Objects and if the Objects which can benefit it move its Brain 't is alwayes in such a manner as maketh it to open in the places whence the spirits may be diffused into the muscles which serve to make it approach to those Objects so that if we suppose that one and the same noise striking the ears of two Beasts of differing kind do agitate at the same time their Brains we are to believe that that agitation being diversly made in each and in different parts of their Brain according as that which causes the noise shall be agreeable or contrary to it it will also happen that the course of the spirits being necessarily different in those two Beasts one of them shall be carried far from the object whilst the other approacheth to it Thus the howling of a Wolf may make a Sheep fly but at the same time bring to him another Wolf But 't is necessary to observe here that although the Art whereby the Brain of Animals is composed be infinitely varied and that 't is admirable herein that according to their different conformations 't is always found so artificially disposed that those Creatures must necessarily and according to all the rules of the Mechanicks approach to what is naturally good for them and retire from what is naturally noxious to them yet it was not possible that within the small compass of their Brain there should be so many differing springs that they could have a proportion necessary and always well suited to all sorts of Objects But instead thereof their Brain is made of a substance soft enough easily to receive new impressions and yet consistent enough to retain those which in some places thereof are made by certain objects which being neither naturally good nor ill for them do yet sometimes occasion considerable benefit or mischief to them and frequently those traces which at first were not in the Brain remain there so well marked that when the Objects which caused them present themselves the places keeping the impression being more agitated by them than the other diffuse thence such spirits into the muscles as serve to carry the Animal nearer to or further from those Objects according as they have been found beneficial or noxious to it Mean time whereas there is much more danger for the Animal to suffer the approach of the Objects that can hurt it than there would be in the not approaching those that might do it good at the time when there is yet no impression in its Brain at the occasion of an Object if then it happen that from a noise that Object begin to shake the Brain of the Creature it will never fail to fly especially if the Air hath been agitated strongly or in such a way that hath troubled the Brain I believe there is no body that hath not often felt in himself the effects of this surprise and experimented how much the Will which the Soul then hath to keep the Body in certain places is controled by this natural Disposition which maketh all the Spirits and Muscles conspire together to transport it far from those places where a noise is made especially when 't is so great that the whole Body is threatned to be there destroyed Every one may also have found what force the agitation made in the Brain by a noise not ordinary hath to make the Spirits without one's thinking on 't flow into the muscles that serve to transport the Body out of the places where that noise happens But since this is not yet the place proper to examine what the Soul's part is in Speech we must to finish the Observations of what she borrows from the Body for the formation of a Voice call to mind a Note I have already made which is that the same Nerves which answer to the Ears have branches going to the Teeth the Tongue the Entrance of the Wind-pipe and generally to all the places which serve to form or modifie the Voice so that following Nature's Institution the same shaking of the Auditory Nerves which affects the Brain with the motion caused by a voice in the Air is also the cause that the Spirits which flow from the Brain into the Nerves of all the parts serving for the Voice dispose their Muscles in a manner which answering to the Impression made by the Voice in the Brain puts them into a state to form a Voice altogether like it And if it have been necessary that the correspondence which is between the Auditory Nerves and the Brain should be such that when it should be moved by the concussions of the air that should be done in different places of it according to the diversity of Noises to the end that following that diversity the Spirits might diffuse themselves into the Muscles that can carry away or stay the Animal according as the causes of that noise are good or ill for the whole Body It was no less requisite there should be a sufficient commerce between the same Auditory Nerves and those of the parts that serve for the Voice to bring it to pass that when a voice should strike the ear the Muscles of those parts might immediately be
and if following that diversity of the shakings of the brain the body is diversly carried we need go no further than their bodies for a cause why Brutes of one and the same kind are mov'd to come to one another by the cryes they make and why their cryes often drive away those of another kind If we consider only that they have a body so mechanically disposed that the sole structure of it may be the cause that 't is carried to such Objects as may be good for them and from such as may hurt them me thinks that how wonderful soever their motions may seem to us we cannot rationally impute them and particularly their cryes but to the construction of their bodies since if we heed it well we shall find in our selves that the cries are not made but by the body alone For indeed if we cry 't is not because we have a Soul but because we have Lungs and other parts which can receive and force out the air with certain modifications Likewise if the Nerves of our Ears be mov'd by a voice that is by an air which other bodies have agitated so as that our brain shaken thereby diffuseth spirits into the muscles of all the parts whose motion can form a voice like that which mov'd it that is repell the air in a manner answerable to that which hath shaken it it is upon no other account but that of our having a Body Lastly if our brain when 't is shaken by a noise or voice sends the spirits rather into the muscles that serve to carry our body near to or far from those which caus'd that Noise than into the muscles of the Larinx or of the other parts serving to form a like voice it is because we have a Body So that if â—here be nothing found in Brutes but â—he like effects we cannot rationally â—ay that they have ought else but Body But as for Us we must avow whatever we adscribe to our bodies in what regards the causes and effects of â—he voice there is alwayes somewhat â—ccompanying them which cannot be â—rom the Soul For as 't is true to speak â—n general that it would be sufficient â—o have motions for which our body â—s fit and to receive the effects which â—re wrought upon it by the various obâ—ects that agitate the brain thereof to â—onserve our body for as much as the â—roportion and relation God hath put â—wixt it and the other bodies of the â—orld gives it without our thinking on 't all what can maintain it in a condition sutable to its nature So 't is true also to say that all that would be acted in us and yet we perceive nothing of it if we had nothing but the Body But now reflecting on what happens to us when some noise strikes the nerves of our ear we shall plainly find that besides that shaking of the nerves of the Ear which continuing to the very internal parts of the brain doth there agitate the spirits and makes them flow into the muscles serving to move ouâ— whole body near to or far from thaâ— noise there is always conjoyn'd a Perception to every shake of our ear or of the other parts of our body And aâ— times we even find in us a Will altogether contrary to the motions which that noise excites in our body And although sometimes the impetuousness of those motions be such that we can hardly stop them in their carriere yet 't is manifest that that contrariety would not be found in us if what renders us capable to Will were not differing and altogether distinct from what makes uâ— capable to move But of those two things which we find in our selves besides Motion I mean the Perception which we have when-ever the nerves of our ear are shaken and the Will which we have by consequent to consent to the motion to which our whole body is excited or to restrain it me thinks the latter is so evidently distinct from our body that none but very inconsiderate persons can be without observing and knowing the distinction As to the Perception we have on the occasion of the shaking which the voice causeth in the nerves of the ear though it be somewhat difficult to be distinguisht from that shaking because it always accompanies it yet 't is easie to him that is a little accustom'd to judge of the effects by their causes to find that the shaking being a motion cannot appertain but to our Body and that the Perception being a Thought cannot belong but to our Soul And as we have found by other reflections that the Union of our Soul and Body only consists in this that certain Thoughts are so united to certain motions that the one are never excited without the others be so too at the same time we ought not to wonder any more to find that the nerves of our ear shall never be shaken but we shall presently feel in our Soul a Sensation or if you will a Perception answerable to the manner the nerves are shaken in nor ought we to believe that that agitation and that perception are one and the same thing although they always accompany one another We are therefore to consider two things in that we call Sound one is the manner in which the Air striking the nerve of our ear shakes our brain and the other is the Sensation of our Soul on the occasion of that agitation of the brain The former belongs necessarily to the Body because 't is nothing but a Motion and the latter belongs necessarily to the Soul because 't is a Perception So likewise in Speech there are two things viz. the Formation of the voice which cannot come but from the Body according to what we have already discours'd and the signification joyn'd with it which cannot be but from the Soul So that Speech is nothing else but a voice by which we signifie what we think 'T is true you may also as hath been already observ'd above joyn your thoughts to other signs besides the Voice as to the characters of Writing or to certain Gestures and that indeed all those ways of expressing our selves are nothing but ways of speaking to take the word in a general and large sense But then because the Voice is the most easie signe the word Speech hath been appropriated to it leaving to Characters the word of Writing and to other ways of expressing our selves the word Signe which is that of the Genus common to all those three Species's It may be I have already said enough of each of them to make them to be sufficiently distinguish't but possibly also since I have not examin'd them but on the score of what they have common among themselves it may not be useless or tedious to speak of them apart that it may appear wherein they differ one from another And to begin with that kind to which hath been left the name of the Genus I mean the Signes we must to comprehend in a
few words what may be known of it take notice that some of them are natural others that may be called ordinary or common and others that may be term'd particular The natural ones are those by which because of the necessary communion which is between the passions of the soul and the motions of the body we know from without the inward different states of the Soul I have said above that these motions are the same in all men But yet we are to remember that since we may purposely constrain them or excite them at pleasure we are not to trust them too much nor believe that they signifie always what they should signifie The signes which I call ordinary are those by which most men are wont to declare certain things and those are meerly of institution Some are more universal others less E. g. When we will without a voice say that we consent we give a signe with the head quite differing from that which we make to shew we consent not so we make certain signes with the hand to drive one away And these kinds of signes are general enough but those by which we declare our respect to one another though commonly they be the same in a whole Country yet they are very different in another The signes I call particular are those in which a whole Nation or a whole Commonalty agrees not but which are instituted 'twixt two persons or a few more to signifie certain things which they would not have others to take notice of As for Writing there is none that 's Natural and 't is by Art only that men have found out the secret of it As they saw that they could make Gestures and Voices to signifie what-ever they had a mind to so they thought that giving significations to Characters which the hand might form those would be signes which remaining for a long time after us would make our thoughts known not only to those that should be far off but also to them that should be born a great while after them And this hath been done divers ways At first were used such characters whereof each signified a Thing but this way was troublesome forasmuch as men were to learn too many Characters and to remember too many significations besides that by that means there could only be signified Things but Actions not conveniently Afterwards as it was observ'd that all the diversities of Speech proceeded only from the different ways of forming Voices or articulating them and that Five voices only differently articulated or diversly assembled did form all the words it was thought fit to give a Character to each of those Voices next there were instituted Characters to mark their Articulations and the assembling of those different characters made syllables which being joyn'd together did compose entire words so that disposing those Characters in an order like that we form the voices in or the articulations which they represent we remember the words and those words make us remember the things they signifie Thus we see that writing is a way of speaking to the Eyes which 't is true demands more time to express but then it lasts also much longer It hath likewise this other defect that few persons can see at the same time the Thoughts of him that useth it but since that is made up by this admirable advantage of being able to signifie the thoughts of the Writer notwithstanding the distance of places and times it hath alwaies seem'd so great a convenience that in seeking to supply what is wanted men have at last found the Art of Printing that is of making Characters of mettal or wood which being once ranged and charged with ink or colour can mark all the leaves needfull to gratifie many to read at the same time and in divers places the same thing I do not discourse here that there are wayes of writing that are ordinary and others called Cifers which are peculiar to certain people Neither do I recite the way of expressing Numbers upon paper by characters that bear most commonly the name of Cifers nor that of expressing Sounds by other characters called Notes For all that is sufficiently understood of it self As to the way of expressing ones-self by the Voice to which principally hath been given the name of Speech we may say that there are Voices natural as those that are put forth in Grief in Joy and in the other passions But as I have already said of Signes natural we must not always trust those voices and they be often strained or used to make others believe that we resent what indeed we resent not There are other Voices which men make use of to express to one another their thoughts Some are more univerversally receiv'd as those are which compose the Language of a whole People others are more particular used by persons that agree amongst themselves of words altogether new to signify their thoughts I have already taken notice how we begin to speak when we are little Children how one may learn a new Language and if there be any thing left to be said on this subject it will be to consider in this place how he that learns a new Language may turn it into a habit For that we are to observe that we joyn from the time of the first Language we learn the Idea or image of a thing to the sound of a word which is entirely upon the score of the Soul For the sensation call'd Sound and the Image of the thing made to be signified thereby are all from the Soul as we have already made out From the Body's part there is a motion of the spirits and brain which every voice excites and an Impression which every thing leaves there But that motion is alwaies joyned to that Impression as the Perception of every sound is always joyned in the Soul with the particular image of this or that thing so that when we will expresse the Idea of that thing we conceive at the same time the sound of the voice which signifies it then on the occasion of that Idea and of the Will which the Soul hath that the brain should duly dispose it self to diffuse the spirits into the parts which are to form it it comes to pass that it is shaken at the place where the impression of that thing did remain from whence the spirits flow into the muscles of the parts which serve for the voice to dispose them to form that which signifies what we have a mind to say And as we have learned to joyn all those things from our Birth that conjunction follows so close the will we have to speak that we imagine that what is so readily done must needs be much more simple and since we see not any Engin much composed but it performs its effects with much difficulty we can scarce believe seeing the facility there is in speaking that there should need so many parts to be acted for that purpose But we must
accustom our selves by admiring the structure of our Body to consider that 't is made by an incomparable Workman who is inimitable Besides if we are convinced that the Union of the Body and Soul proceeds only from the perfect correspondence which God hath establisht between the different changes of the brain and the different thoughts of the Soul we ought not to wonder that the one acts so easily upon the other and that their actions do always accompany one another so well as long as God Almighty preserves their Union But in regard that this is one of the most important verities that can fall under consideration it will not be amiss for the opening of all the difficulties thereof to observe that there are three kinds of Correspondencies between the Soul and the Body The first is natural and thâ—t is that necessary correspondence by which certain sensations rise alwayes in the Soul when certain motions are excited in the brain as motions are excited in the Body when the Soul hath a will to it And this correspondence cannot absolutely cease but with our life and that which wholly changes it causeth death Besides this there is a second Correspondence 'twixt the Idea's the Soul hath of things and the Impressions which those things leave in the brain This correspondence no more than the first cannot change altogether and whilst the Soul is united to the Body she never has the idea of things corporeal but their impression is in the brain But there is a third correspondence between the Name of every thing and its Idea which being only by Institution may be chang'd but yet in regard the sound of the first name men give to a thing is a sensation which the Soul strictly joyns to the Idea of that thing and since also the impression of that name is found joyn'd to that of the thing in the brain we find it a trouble to sever them Whence it is that when we begin to learn a Language we commonly explain by the first word by which we nam'd a thing the new word by which we intend to understand it in the tongue we are learning And there are even such whose brain is so disposed that when they learn a new Language they always joyn to the words of that which they already know the words of the second to represent to themselves what they signifie Others that have another disposition of the brain do so easily joyn the sound of a new word in it self to the Idea of the thing that that Idea is equally represented to them by the two words and they not obliged to think on the one to understand the other Thus one may so well joyn one and the same thought to many signes and to words of different Languages that one may with an equal facility use both to express it But with a very little consideration we may easily judge by the pains we find in the beginning to joyn the words of a new Tongue to the Image of every thing by the necessity we are in to joyn the image of a new word to that of an old which made it to be understood and even by the pains we experience in pronouncing those we learn that Speech indeed depends upon the relation and correspondency of many things and that if afterwards it becomes easie 't is only from the excellent composition of the brain and the admirable commerce between its motions and our thoughts For the rest me thinks if the Soul is oblig'd whilst she is united to the Body to joyn her thoughts to words which cannot be heard nor form'd without the organs of the tongue and the ear She might if that union ceased much more easily discover to every other Spirit what she did think And truly if it be a pain to him that examins it to conceive How the thought of a man that speaks is joyn'd to the motion of his brain and the motions of his brain to those of the parts serving for the Voice if it be difficult to comprehend How that Voice which is nothing but Air agitated strikes the ear and is able by moving the brain to excite in his soul that hears the sound of the words the Idea of the things signifi'd by them if that I say is so hard to conceive because we know there is so strange a difference between the nature of the Spirit and that of the Body we cannot but easily comprehend that if two Spirits were not united to Bodies they would find less difficulty to discover to one another their thoughts in regard there is naturally much more proportion between the thoughts of two like Spirits than between the thoughts and the motions of two Bodies and upon the least reflexion made on the facility and clearness with which one man conceives the thoughts of another by Speech we shall avow that a Soul might incomparably more clearly and more easily conceive the thoughts of another Spirit if both of them depended not from the organs of the Body For a spirit sure should more easily apprehend a thought which is a thing spiritual than the signe of that thought signes being things Corporeal Thus I esteem that 't is much more natural for spirits to manifest or to communicate to one another their thoughts in themselves and without any signes than to speak to one another that is to communicate their thoughts by signes that are of a nature so different from that of Thoughts The pains also which every one finds in conversation and on all occasions where men impart their thoughts by signes or speech is not to comprehend what another thinketh but to extricate his Thought from the signes or words which often agree not with it 'T is also the ignorance of the signes and words that is the cause why men bred in different Countries are a long while together without being able to understand one another But as soon as acquaintance hath afforded them all what 's requisite readily to unfold what every sign or word means they find no more trouble to conceive their thoughts of how different Nations soever they be Which evidently shews that men understand one another naturally that the thought of one is alwayes clear to another as soon as he can perceive it and that if there be men who conceive better than others what is said that facility of understanding comes from the structure of their brain which being so disposed as that the impressions I have spoken of are there more easily received better ranged and more distinctly marked makes the thoughts answering thereto to be also more easie more consequent and more clear whereas those who want that good conformation and disposition of the brain must needs be slower in conceiving by reason of that necessary correspondence and relation between the motions of the Brain and the thoughts of the Soul whilst she remains united to the Body But who seeth not that that entanglement would cease if the Soul were separated from
except he were honest and that we should have such contrary sentiments But not to mix here Morality farther than 't is sutable to a Discouse of Natural Philosophy it will be to our purpose to examine in this place whence it is that not only an Orator ought to be a man of integrity but also that he cannot be perfectly eloquent unless he be so And this is not hard to conceive for if it be agreed on that to be perfectly eloquent a man must know the Art to instruct his Auditors and that of raising or allaying Passions according as it shall conduce to the end that is proposed we must also agree in this that an Orator that speaks the contrary to what he knows will not so easily find words to expresse it as if he spoke the truth and if to avoid mistaking he studies what he is to say it must be acknowleged that his Discourse which will be but a piece of Memory can never have that grace nor force which is found in that of a person who having learnt to speak well and speaking what he thinks fears not he should mistake Again it must be granted that if he that is not an honest man will excite in others the motions and passions which really are not in himself 't will always go off coldly to express passions studied and if to surmount the effect of that constraint which appears when a man will refrain his own motions to fain others he will blot out all the strokes and the little motions by which his Countenance Eyes and Gesture would shew the contrary to what his Words do express he must so exceedingly strain that not only he loses the grace without which a man cannot please nor persuade but also renders himself odious and is so far from exciting in others the motions which he hath not in himself that he begets horror in all those who perswade themselves that he indeed feels the violence of the passions wherewith he appears to be moved In a word 't is evident that there is naturally such a relation between the Sentiments of men and the Signes and Words used to express them that one and the same person can never tell a Lye so gracefully as a Truth And as a man cannot be very eloquent when he constrains to say what he doth not think or to express what he feels not 't is impossible to be very eloquent unless one be very sincere and honest seeing it belongs only to a man of integrity to speak nâ—kedly what he thinks his motions are so just that he needs not to put on any constraint besides the Truth which accompanies all his words and that love of Justice which animates all his motions give so much weight and grace to his action that 't is in a manner impossible to resist it and which is the chief we are easily carried away by the motions of a man whom we believe to be Virtuous and when he that speaks hath the advantage of exciting in others the same passions which himself resents as he is soon master of their thoughts so he soon renders their judgment favorable to what he aims at And since we see that those whom a like disposition of body maketh lyable to the like motions have ordinarily the same sentiments about the same things we may justly believe that the fairest means to gain others to the same opinion with ours is to raise motions in them altogether like ours For indeed which particular cannot be too often repeated as long as our Souls remain united to our Bodies all our motions will be so consonant with our sentiments that we shall never be able to inspire the one but by the other This reflexion maketh me think that as we can conceive Spirits not united to Bodies if there be eloquence amongst them that cannot be by the means of Motions because they are not capable of them But supposing that those Spirits are in that state of liberty wherein they can determine themselves to this or that thing 't is easie to conceive that if one of them being more enlightned than others hath a passion for a thing which a meer spirit is capable to have a passion for as for example for his own glory he may put his thoughts which he shall manifest to others upon that subject into an order which shall appear so excellent that it shall excite in some the same passion which he resents and on the other hand to keep to the same example a Spirit yet more illuminated and better inclined than the former may make those who might have fallen into that error to conceive that whereas that Glory can appertain to none but the Soverain Power 't is a folly for any one to pretend to it when he is not God It might after the same manner be conceived how meer spirits might inspire one another with divers sentiments touching all such things for which they were capable to have passions supposing as hath been said that they were in a state of chusing one of two But to draw from this notion no more than may serve for my intent it is to be considered that if for speaking a man needs the motion of the parts that serve for the voice and if for hearing there is need of the agitation of the parts that serve for Hearing there needs nothing between two Spirits to communicate their thoughts to one another but to will it And since we find that the thought of one man is easily understood by another from the time that the first hath spoken that is from the time that by the motions which serve to beat the Air he hath moved the Ear of him to whom he will have his thought known 't is also easie to apprehend that if two Spirits who depend not from the Body in their operations will discover to one another their thoughts they have nothing to do but to will it There is me thinks much less difficulty to conceiv the one than the other as I have already observed For in Speech there are two things viz. the Will to communicate one's thoughts and the Motions by which they are communicated but those Motions have so little affinity in themselves to the thoughts that it seems very strange how a thought can be so well united to a motion as that the one should be an occasion to know the other whereas in the manifestation which two Spirits make to one another of their thoughts there needs nothing but the Will to communicate them and Spirits being of one and the same nature 't is evident that one Thought may much easier be the occasion of another thought than Motion But next what hath been said of the Communication of two meer Spirits ought to be said of the commerce that may be betwixt a Spirit united to a Body and one that is not For certainly what incapacitates two men to communicate their thoughts to one another without motions is that they have Bodies
and that the one cannot be advertis'd by the other but by the motions occasion'd by the Body to which the Soul is united But supposing that one of the Spirits have no Body it is capable to render it self present by its very thoughts to that which hath a Body as it doth to that which is destitute of a Body and reciprocally that Spirit which is united to a Body will be able without the intervention of the Voice to express its thoughts to every Spirit that is Body-less Mean time we are so accustom'd to judge of all things by those we see that since men make use of a voice and very easily understand one another we rashly judge that it would be very difficult to two Spirits mutually to communicate their thoughts And some judge it even impossible that a Spirit destitute of Body for example an Angel should communicate with Vs But 't is evident that that proceeds only from the precipitation of our Spirit who maketh no reflection on what befals him in the communication he hath with the spirit of another Man For if he did consider that the beating of the Air and the other things which serve to make him understand the thoughts of the person that discourses with him have nothing in them resembling those thoughts he would more wonder that he understands him than he wonders when one will perswade him that two Angels speak to one another or that even one Angel can converse with Vs without the assistance of a voice I cannot in this place forbear to take notice how much the reflexion we make on what passeth within us is capable to make us judge aright of what is done or at least may be done elsewhere And the Example I draw from the manner after which we converse with men is so proper to make it to be conceived what might pass betwixt Spirits destitute of such Bodies as we have and even between those Spirits and Us that the thing being well examin'd there will be found no other difference between those two sorts of Communications but that that which is between Man and Man will prove the more difficult to conceive in regard it is made by the means of Motions which are quite different from Thoughts whereas that which we may have with meer Spirits is less sensible because 't is perform'd without any of those motions which render as 't were sensible to us the thoughts of the men whose voice striketh our Ears And this may be also the cause why we are inform'd that when Spirits would give any important advertisements to Men they borrow'd Bodies and form'd Voices like those of Men. But those Extraordinary things are not to hinder us from conceiving that naturally we can communicate with meer Spirits more easily than with Men. So that if Faith teaches us there are Spirits not united to Bodies and that he who hath created them as he hath us having committed to them the care of conducting us they are always present to our Spirit to direct it without constraining it there is nothing in that which is above those things we think we know best For in short as we conceive that the communication between two Men is made by Speech that is by a Will to express what they think and by the motions answering to that will we may also me thinks conceive that the converse of two Spirits may be made by the sole Will of manifesting themselves to one another and that if a meer Spirit communeth with a Man though that be in a way less sensible than is that of ordinary Words yet 't is after a manner intelligible which may insensibly give him the thoughts he needs for his conduct which in a word is to inspire him Even so may we easily conceive that God who causeth our Spirits to move Bodies can if need be give to an Angel the same power to make himself to be understood by speech Now me things I see what is properly meant by the word Inspiration and I believe I am not deceived when I say that 't is by that means only that those thoughts may come into our mind which have no affinity to any of those that naturally are in our Soul only because we have a Body Next I see that we know no more the Spirits of any of all those men that speak to us when they inspire us with their thoughts than those meer Spirits which I think capable to inspire us better thoughts And as the new thoughts which come into our mind by the conversation we have with men are a sure testimony to any of us that they have a Spirit like ours we are to take the new thoughts coming in to us without being able to find the cause of them in our selves or impute it to the discourse of men for an assured testimony that there are yet other Spirits that may inspire us with them I find also that the custome of understanding the thoughts of other men by gestures and the voice maketh that way to affect us more than the things which are inspired us without it But if I heed it well I see that we do not more know the â—â—â—rits of meâ— th t speak to us than tâ—â—â—pâ—rits th◠〈…〉 us A like Air t◠〈◊〉 out b◠〈…〉 â—â—s of him that discourses wâ—â—h â—s striking our ears exciteth upon the agitation of the Brain sounds in our Soul and at the same time the images or conceptions which we have joyned to those sounds But in truth neither that propelled Air nor any thing of what passeth into the Body from him that speaks to us is his thought and if we have any reason to believe him to have thoughts 't is only because we feel that he excites new ones in us But if all the reason we have to believe there are Spirits united to the Bodies of the men that speak to us is that they give us often new thoughts such as we had not or that they oblige us to alter those we had can we doubt when new thoughts come into us that are above our natural light and contrary to the sentiments which the Body may excite in us can we I say when no men inspire us with them doubt of their being inspired us by other Spirits I judge we cannot reasonably and the custome we have to receive them by the means of Speech which is a sensible way ought not to make us disadvow those that are inspired us by a way different from that of the senses I know also that if we be free to hide our thoughts whilst our Soul is united to a Body we might have the same liberty if it were separated from it and that in some manner that freedome would yet be greater in regard that often when we speak to a person the signes and the voices by which we express our selves may be perceived or understood by a Third to whom we would not discover our thoughts whereas a pure Spirit who is not obliged
but yet that one of them being furnisht by Nature the defects of the other may be supply'd by Art And having remarked that that is not reciprocal I declare as far as I may in a Discourse where I am to explain but the Principles whence those defects proceed and by what they may be corrected and I do even examine without stepping into the Ethicks why an Orator ought to be a good man and how much Lying may impair the force or the grace of his action 7. Lastly having considered sufficiently how much Eloquence depends from the Temperament and how it may be corrected or perfected by exercise I examine Whether it is to be met with among Spirits not united to Bodies Which obliges me to enquire into the manner after which they may manifest their thoughts to one another and it makes me discover that even our Spirits would enjoy a more easie communication among themselves if the strict Vnion they have with the Body did not indispensably oblige them to make use of Signes The same raciocination teaches me also that the difficulty we meet with in entertainments is not to conceive the thoughts of those that speak to us but to unwrap it from the Signes they use to express it in which often do not sute with it Whence I conclude that the Thought of one Spirit is alwayes clear to another from the very instant he can perceive it And this truth which I discuss as far as I am capable serves me to resolve those difficulties which others have thought unsurmountable but by submission to Faith I well know 't is Faith that must teach us whether sundry things have a being indeed but there is not alwayes need of its aid to conceive them It belongs to it for example to tell us whether there be other Spirits more enlightned that serve to direct ours but when once it hath declared to us that truth me thinks our reason can attain to it And I esteem that reflecting a little on what the thred of my subject hath obliged me to write of it in this Tract we shall find it more easie to conceive how pure Spirits can inspire us with their sentiments than to conceive how one Man can inspire his thoughts to another I might have proceeded further in this Inquiry but having proposed to my self only to examine what serves to Speech I thought I was to make an end after I had consider'd the sundry wayes by which Thoughts may be communicated seeing that that is properly what we call To speak I could wish that the discourse I have made of it might prove as pleasant to others as the reflexions it hath obliged me to make have been to me I avow they have been all the divertisement I have enjoyed during the last Vacations and as it is at least in that time permitted to comply with our inclinations the pleasure I have found in it sollicits me strongly to spend in the same manner all the other hours wherein I may be permitted to divert my self To conclude this Argument is so pleasant and so fertile that one needs but to propose it and it will beget a thousand pleasing thoughts And I doubt not but all those that excell me in genius will find by occasion of this Discourse a thousand pretty things which I have omitted so that without boasting of my Book I may affirm that the more wit a man hath the more pleasure he will find to read it A DISCOURSE OF SPEECH AMongst the Bodies I see in the World I perceive some that are in all things like mine and I confess I have a great inclination to believe that they are united to Souls as mine is But when I come to consider that my Body hath so many operations distinct from those of my Soul and that nothing of what maketh it subsist depends at all from Her I think I have at least ground to doubt that those Bodies are united to Souls until I have examin'd all their actions And I do even see that by the maximes of good sense I shall be obliged to believe that they have no Soul if they do only such things whereof I have found in my self that the Body alone may be the cause Thus if I see that the Objects make different impressions on them by the Eyes Ears Nose or Touch and if I see them eat sleep wake feed breath walk and dye nothing of all that oughâ— to make me believe that there is any other thing in them but a certain disposition of organs and parts which indeed is admirable but yet so dependent from the course and order of the other matter that I have acknowledged that to be the only cause in me of Nutrition Sleep Respiration and of the power which objects have to move the Brain so many surprising wayes 'T is true I have observ'd that cerâ—â—in Thoughts alwayes accompani'd in me most of the motions of my Organs but yet 't is true also that by the exactest preciseness with which I have distinguish't what was in all my operations on the account of the Body and what on the score of the Soul I have found manifestly that if I had nothing but the Body I might have all what appears to me in the other Bodies which resemble mine It behoves me therefore to observe those Bodies neerer and to examine whether I may not perceive by any of their Actions that they are ruled by Souls I see that ordinarily they are carried to places where the Air seems most proper to entertain by respiration a due temper in the Bloud I see that they withdraw likewise from places where the Cold might too much retard the motion and from those where the Heat might render it too quick I see that they often flye with vehemence from the encounter of many other Bodies that appear to me of a Shape and Motion capable to destroy them and I see also that they approach those which may be beneficial to them And all these actions appear to me to be done with a discerning such as I find in me when I do the same actions Mean time when I reflect that I have found by other Contemplations that the sole Disposition of the Organs is the cause of all those operations in me I fear I affirm too much if I attribute the different motions of the Bodies that surround me to another cause than to the agreement there is between their Brain and the Objects and then as long as I do not see them do but what is for their good as to eat to drink to seek after coolness or warmth and whatever may maintain them in a state sutable to their nature I am not to believe there is any other thing in them but the Organs which may suffice for that But me-thinks I see them often do things that relate not at all to themselves nor their preservation I see some of them that meet with other Bodies the encounter whereof must in all appearance
disposed as they ought to be to form another perfectly like it And to manifest this necessity better 't is requisite to make two reflections The first is that if it concern Animals to have their Brain shaken by the noise of certain Bodies before they approach too near them that so they may avoid them it concerns them likewise to have their Brain moved by some other Bodies to the end that they may be carried towards them when they are remoter from them than is requisite for their conservation or conveniency The other is that as considering only each Animal according to its species there is nothing more noxious to it than those of a contrary species so there is nothing that can be more beneficial to it than those of its own kind That being so 't is evident that nothing could be so useful as this communication which is between the Ears and the parts serving to form the voice For by this means the cry of one Beast shaking the Brain of another of its kind it presently comes to pass that not only it is carried towards that which maketh the cry according to what hath been said but besides the Muscles of its Throat do so dispose themselves that it makes at the same time a like cry and this new cry striking the Brain of that which cried first causeth the spirit to flow into the Muscles which serve to carry it toward the second so that they sooner meet and may according to the causes of the cry that made them approach draw from one another what may contribute to their conservation I very well know that this necessity of forming cryes or voyces like those that have struck the Ears is not so universal that it must so fall out always and that there are two cases wherein it happens otherwise even in Brutes The first is when that Creature whose Ear is struck and whose Brain is agitated by a Cry is not of the same kind with that which maketh the Cry For we know by what hath been above deliver'd not only that the dispositions of the parts which form the voice in Animals of different species being altogether different that cannot come to pass but also that what is the cause why a Brute makes a cry like that which is made by another of its own kind is only that they may the sooner come together in cases of need which they may stand in of one another The other is that it may often happen even among Animals of the same kind that the Brain of the one is mov'd by the Voice or Cry of the other after such a manner that it shall be more beneficial for that creature whose Brain hath been mov'd by that cry to have the spirits flow into other Muscles than those which serve to make a like voice For example if a Cock makes that noise he useth to make when he meets with a grain of corn it may be that that noise striking the ears of the Hens will shake their Brain in such a manner as shall make them run to the place where that grain is without forming a voice like that which made them come thither As also it may happen that one Animal cries so on the occasion of a dangerous object as that it maketh all the other of the same species run away without forming any cry like it But as often as a Brute is not pressed by such necessities which do alwayes strongliest determine the course of the spirit in its Body when its ear is struck by a Cry that communication betwixt the Ears and the Larinx maketh that from the same place where the Nerves of the Ear have made a motion in its Brain the spirits do necessarily flow into the Muscles of the Larinx which disposing it in such a way as is suitable to the impression of the Brain do make the Animal form a cry altogether like it Thence it comes that Birds excite one another to sing And in short this commerce between the Nerves of the Ear and those of the parts serving for the voice is in general so much the cause of the noise which most Brutes make that provided they are not in any urgent need when their ears are excited by some noise the impression it makes in their Brain causes the spirits that are not diverted another way take their course to the Larinx to dispose it to make a like noise And as the noise which hath shaken their Brain cannot alwayes be imitated by the voices which they are capable to make according to the natural conformation of their Throat they often return such as are very differing Hence it is that Musical Instruments excite Birds to sing yet their songs are so different from all that is play'd on such Instruments But to shew that that proceeds only from the little conformity there is between those Instruments and the disposition of the Throat of the Bird which hinders the imitation we find that as often as there is a proportion between their throat and the voices that strike their Ears they fail not to form at length such as are like them Thus Linets learn in time the note of Nightingales the songs of other Birds and what ever is play'd on Instruments and they learn even as Parrets to pronounce some of our words because they have the Tongue and Beak disposed to articulate them If they be long in learning the songs of other Birds or our words 't is because the Nerves which communicate from their ears to the muscles of their Throat Tongue and Beak cannot be so soon adjusted to those new ways of voices as to cause their formation presently but it appears at last that from the time that those parts are capable to form those voices they do actually utter them And we ought above all things to observe that the change which happens in them when they learn is that their Brain being divers times struck in the same place by the same Songs or the same Words the impression thereof remains so strong in that place that the spirits which thence issue to flow into the muscles of their Throat Tongue and Beak do at last dispose them to repeat those songs or words It is likewise to be well observ'd that they never return the songs and words they have learnt but when they are in no such need which diverts their spirits another way and if in those necessities they form a cry or voice 't is ever the cry or voice of their kind so that they form not strange songs nor utter human words but when they want nothing and when the spirits abounding or much heated run without any diversion to their course from the place of the brain which those songs or words have most agitated to the parts that serve for the voice except great care have been taken to give them none of the food they needed but at the time when some body did sing or speak near them for then the presence
to make use of those external signs can manifest his thoughts to the Spirit he will inform so as no other shall know of it In effect in that state we now are in of discovering our thoughts we do nothing else but to Will and although that Will be joyned to motions which fail not to be in certain parts of our body as soon as we need it for the signifying our thoughts yet notwithstanding our souls are not the cause of those motions according to what we shewed in our 4th Discourse * In his book entitl'd Le Discernement du Corps de l' Ame. and they do nothing else to expresse themselves but to Will so that as long as they are united to our Bodies we cannot express the thoughts coming into our mind but by moving the Tongue the Throat and the Mouth this necessity is imposed on us by that union But as soon as there should be no such necessity to borrow motions for expressing what we think there would need no more to make other Spirits understand it but to will that they should understand and if we would have it hid from them there would need no more than not to will that they should know it I have elsewhere deliver'd the reasons by which it appears that all the action of the Soul consists in willing and I think I have sufficiently made it out that all what depends from Her is to determine herself to one thing or another so as I shall not need here to repeat any thing of what I have said on that subject But it will not be amiss to take notice in this place that although God do not make us conceive what is the substance of our Spirits nor how they will that is how they determine themselves yet we know clearly that we have a Spirit and that our Spirit hath the power of determining it self But now as we are assured that we speak not our thoughts but when we please we ought to believe that if we were in a state to need signes and voices no more we might then by our Will alone discover or hide our thoughts We are also to remember that 't is not more difficult to conceive that then we should make our thoughts to be apprehended by other Spirits than to conceive that the spirit of another man should apprehend in the present state what we think when we express it by voice or by signes For the rest when I say that Souls emancipated from the Body might hide or manifest their thoughts to one another that is to be understood if they had the same reason to hide their thoughts they have now in the present state But 't is apparent that if they shall be happy as they will have no thoughts but for the Glory of their Maker so they will be glad that all the Spirits should know them and if they for ever lose his grace they will have only such thoughts which being to serve to publish the effects of his justice will be known to all the Spirits Lastly we ought to remember that according to what I have deliver'd of the Action of Souls and Bodies in the fifth Discourse of the first part we say that one Soul acts upon another Soul as often as one hath new thoughts upon an occasion given by the other even as we say that one Body acts upon another Body as often as one Body receives some change upon occasion afforded by the other And as I have shewn that a Body never gives any motion to a Body but only for as much as their meeting together is an occasion to the Divine Power which moved one to apply it self to the other We are also to conceive that when one Soul will make known to another Soul what she thinketh that happens forasmuch as Almighty God brings it to pass that according to the will of the one the other comes to know it And even as the Will we have that our Body be mov'd does not make it move but is only an occasion to the First Power to move it after such a manner as we desire it should be mov'd so the Will also which we have that a Spirit should know what we think is an occasion to that Power so to order things that all may be disposed in such a way as that that Spirit may understand it Thence it necessarily results that 't is as impossible for our Souls to have new perceptions without God as 't is impossible for the Body to have new motions without Him And 't is evident besides that our Souls which depend from Him for their Being and for their Conservation depend not at all from Him for the Vse of their Will whereof he leaves the determination altogether free And I dare deliver it as a thing that will appear manifest to all men of good sense who shall attentively consider it that as the Body is a substance to which Extension belongs naturally so that it would as to effects naturall cease to be a Body if it ceas'd to be extended even so the Spirit is a substance to which the power of determining it self doth so naturally appertain that it would cease to be a Spirit if it ceas'd to will and God Almighty hath made it thus that he might be loved by it Which appears so evidently that if he had not declared it by so many miraculous testimonies of his tenderness which goes so far as to ask of us our Heart that is to say our Love we should be altogether perswaded that He will be the object of our Will in this World by this only consideration that there is no object so great but it can embrace it As to the power of knowing perhaps he hath not given us that so great at least not in this World But 't is certain that we have knowledge enough as not to fail if we use well the light we have and the power we are endowed with of judging of nothing but after we do well know it For God gives us all the â—ight we need we have idea's very distinct to know the things of Nature as much as 't is usefull to know them since we can when we use prudence discern wherein every one is beneficial or hurtfull to us And although according to what I have already observ'd he affordeth us not the advantage to know the very substance of things yet he so well discovers to us wherein they can hurt â—r profit us that to use it aright we are â—nly to will it As for those things which are above Nature although they infinitely surpass our knowledg yet we have very distinct notions of the Reasons why we are not able to conceive them and of the Reasons also why we are to believe them For if on the one hand in the doctrine of Faith there are things to be found that are beyond our natural light we have on the other such evident signes of the Obligation for us to submit our