prove that the mind is that power which though it want all notionall form yet being stired up can assimilate it self to every form and make notions of all things like after a manner to a sound eye which is in darkness and never saw the light for it wanteth all actuall notion of visible things yet comming into light and being stirred up it assimilates it selfe to the thing visible that it may make a notion Ora. Plato saith that judgement is then required when the sence ministers contrary things at once Id. He spake subtilly for when the touch confusedly finds hard and so ft or heavy and light one contrary in another then there is recourse to the understanding that it may judge of the quiddity of both so confusedly perceived that there are many things discreet So when the sight confusedly sees great and little is there not need of the discretive judgement of the understanding what is great and what little but if the sence were of it self sufficient there would no recourse be had to the judgements of the understanding as in the sight of that which is light when there is nothing presented which is contrary to it CHAP. V. How the minde is a living substance created in the body and of the manner how whether ther reason be in bruit beast and how the living minde is the description of the eternall wisdome Phil. ALmost all the Peripateticks say that the understanding which thou seemest to call the minde is a certain power of the Soul and that to understand is an accident what sayest thou to it Id. The minde is a living substance which we finde by experience doth inwardly speak and judge in us and which of all spirituall powers that we finde in our selves is more then any other power assimulated and made like to the infinite substance an absolute forme The office of the mind in this body to quicken it and from hence it is called the soul wherefore the minde is a substantiall forme or a power that after its fastion complicates in it selfe all things and by quickning the living soul whereby it animates the body complicates the vegetative and sensitive life and the power discoursive and intellectual and intelligible Phil. Wilt thou have the minde which thou confest to be also the intellectuall soul to have been before the body and afterwards incorporated as Pythagoras and the Platonists meane Id. In nature not in time for I compared it as thou hardest to the sight in darknesse now the sight was not actually before the eye but onely in nature wherefore because the minde is a certaine divine seed that by its own power doth notionally complicate the Samplers of all things therefore is it by God from whom it hath this power in asmuch as it received its being at the same time placed and in a convenient earth where it may bring forth fruit and of it selfe notionally explicate the university of things otherwise this seminall power had been given it in vaine if there had not been given withall oppertunity to break into act Phil. Thou speakest weightily But I much desire to heare how this is done in us Id. The divine manners or waies are never to be reached precisely yet wee make guesses and conjectures of them some more cleare and some more darke ones I thinke this similitude which I will tell thee sufficient For thou knowest that the fight by its owne proper nature doth not discern but in a certaine Globe and confusedly perceives the obectacle meeting it within the speare of its motion the eye which objectacle is generated by the multiplication of the species of the object into the eye Therefore if the sight be present in the eye with out discretion as in infants where the use of discretion is wanting then the minde comes so to the sensible soul as discretion to the sight by which it judgeth between colours And as this visive disc etion is found in perfect brute living wights as in Dogs that know their owne masters by sight and is by God given unto the sight as the perfection and forme of seeing so unto mans nature besides that discretion which is found in bruits there is given a higher power that is unto annimall discretion ust as that is to the sensible power so that the minde is the forme of the annimall discretion and the perfection thereof Phi. Exceedingly well and sweetly but me thinks thou drawest somewhat near the oppinion of the wise Philo that said there was reason in beasts Id. We finde by experience that there is in brute beasts a descretive discourse without which their nature could not well subsist Whereupon their discourse because it wants the forme namely the understanding or minde is confused for it wants judgement and knowledge and because all discretion is from reason therefore Philo seemes to have said as he did not without reason or absurdly Phil. Declare I pray thee how the minde is the forme of the discoursing reason Id. I have already told thee that as the sight seeth and knoweth not what it seeth without discretion to informe enlighten and perfect it so reason syllogyzeth and knoweth not what it syllogizeth without the minde but the mind enforms enlightens and perfects raciocination or discourse that may know what it syllogizeth as if an Idiot not knowing the power of words should read some booke reading proceeds from the force of reason for he readeth by running through the difference of letters which he compounds and devideth and this is the worke of reason and yet bee knoweth not what he reads and let there be another which reads and knowes and understands what hee reads This is a certaine similitude of reason confused and reason formed by the minde for the minde hath the descretive judgement of the reasons which reason is good and which is sophisticall so that the minde is the discretive forme of reasons as reason is the discretive forme of sences and imaginations Phil. From whence hath the minde this judgement for she seeme to give judgement of all things Id. It hath it from hence because it is the image of the Samplar of all things for God is the Samplar of all things Therefore whereas the Smplar of all things shineth in the minde as the truth in the image it hath in it selfe that where it looketh and according to which it giveth judgement of outward things as if there were a living Law written that Law because living would read in it self the things that are to be judged Right so the minde is a living description of the eternall and infinite wisdome but in cur minds from the beginning that life is like unto one that is a sleepe untill it be stirred up by admiration proceeding from sensible things to be moved then by the motion of its intellectual life it finds described in it self that which it seeketh But thou must understand that this description is a resplendance or shining of the Samplar of all things after
thee to shew how infinite straightnesse or rightnesse is the samplar Id. This thou clearly discernest by thy self that infinit rightnesse hath it self so or is of the same habitude to all things as an infinite line if there were any such hath it self to all figures for if infinite rightnesse which is necessarily absolute were contracted to a line being contracted it must needs be found the complication precision rightnesse truth measure and perfection of all figurable figures Therefore absolute rightnesse being considered absolutely and uncontractedly to any line or any other thing whatsoever is likewise absolutely the samplar precision truth measure and perfection of all things Orat. These things are no wayes subject to doubt onely shew how an infinite line is the precision of all figures thou toldest me Yesterday how an infinite circle is the samplar of all figures and I understood it not and willing to be more clearly informed of it I came unto thee again and now thou sayest an infinite line is precision which I lesse understand Id. Thou hast heard how an infinite line is a circle so a triangle quadrangle Pentagone so all infinite figures coincide with an infinie line Hereupon an infinite line is the samplar of all figures which can be made of lines because an infinite line is an infinite act or form of all formable figures And when thou lookest upon a triangle and liftest thy self up to an infinite line thou shalt find it the most adequate samplar of this triangle after this maner consider an infinite triangle this infinit triangle is neither greater nor lesse than the aforesaid triangle For the sides of an infinite triangle are infinite and an infinite side being the greatest in which the less coincides is neither greater nor lesse than the given side So then the sides of an infinite triangle are neither greater nor lesse than the sides of the given triangle So neither the whole triangle is greater or lesse than the given triangle wherefore it must needs be that an infinite triangle is the precision and absolute form of a finite triangle But the three sides of an infinite triangle must of necessity be one infinite line because there cannot be many infinite lines So it would come to passe that an infinite line is the most precise samplar of the given triangle and as I have said of a triangle so likewise of all figures Orat. O wonderfull facility of difficult things I see now that all these things do most evidently follow the position or granting of an infinite line namely that it is the samplar precision rectitude truth measure or justice goodnesse or perfection of all figures figurable by a line And I see that in the simplicity of its straightnesse all things figurable are complicitely most truly formally and precisely without all confusion or defect infinitely more perfectly than be they can figured Id. Blessed be God who hath used me a most ignorant man as an instrument such as it is to open the eyes of thy mind for the beholding him with admirable easinesse after the manner that he hath made himself visible unto thee for when thou transferrest thy self from straightnesse contracted to a line to absolute infinite straightnesse then in that straightnesse thou shalt see complicated every thing formable and the kinds of all things as I have said before of figures And thou shalt further see how straightnesse it self is the samplar precision truth measure or justice goodnesse or perfection of all things which are or can be and the precise and unconfounded actuality of all things that are or are possible to be made so that to whatsoever kind or thing being thou turnest thine eyes if thou lift up thy mind to infinite straightnesse thou shalt find it the most precise and no way defective exemplar truth thereof As put the case thou see a man which is straight and a true man thou shalt see that he is nothing else but that straightnesse truth measure and perfection So contracted and terminated is a man And if thou consider his straightnesse which is finite and lift up thy self unto infinite straightnesse thou shalt straight see how infinite and absolute straightnesse can be neither greater nor lesse than that straightnesse contracted to a man whereby the man is a straight and true man but is the truest justest and best precision thereof So infinite truth is the precision of finite truth and absolutely infinite the precision measure truth and perfection of every thing finite And as we have said of a man so understand of all things else Thus now thou hast that which is granted us to contemplate in eternall Wisdome that thou mayest behold all things in a most simple rectitude most truly precisely unconfusedly and perfectly though in an Aenigmatical mean without which the vision of God cannot be in this world until he shall grant that without any shadow he shall be made visible unto us And this is the facility of the difficult things of wisdome which according to thy fervour and devotion God vouchsafe to make every day more clear both to thee and me untill he translate us into the glorious fruition of the truth there to remain eternally Amen The end of the Second Book of the Idiot The Third Book concerning the Mind Wherein the speakers are The AUTHOUR The PHILOSOPHER The ORATOUR The IDIOT CHAP. I. How the Philosopher came unto the Idiot to learn something of the nature of the Mind How the Mind is of it self the Mind and by its Office the Soul and hath its name from measuring Authour WHen many people from every part flocked to Rome because of the Jubile with wonderfull devotion it was reported that a certain Philosopher the chiefest of all that then lived was found upon the bridge whom the passengers did much admire A certain Oratour very desirous of knowledge sought for him carefully and knowing him by the palenesse of his face his long robe and other things that shewed the gravity of a contemplative man he courteously saluting him demanded Orat. What cause is it that holds thee fixed in this place Phil. Admiration Orat. Admiration seemes to be the spur of all men that desire to know any thing And therefore I cannot but imagine seeing thou art accounted the chief among learned men that it is some great cause of admiration that makes thee so attentive Phil. Thou sayest well my friend for when I see innumerable people passe by from almost all climates in so great presse I do wonder at so great a Uniformity in the faith of them all in so great diversity of bodies For though there be no one of them like another yet there is one faith of them all which from the ends of the earth hath brought them hither with so great Devotion Orat. Certainty it must needs be the gift of God that Idiots do more clearly see and reach by faith than Philosophers by reason for thou knowest how great enquiry he hath need of that doth
likenesse of beings for those things that agree to the Divine mind as to infinite truth agree to our mind as the nearest image of truth If all things be in the Divine mind as in their precise and proper truth all things are in our mind as in the image or similitude of their proper truth to wit notionally for knowledge is by likenesse All things are in God but there the samplars of things all things are in our mind but here the similitudes of things As God is the absalute entity which is the complication of all things that are so our mind is the image of that infinite entity which is the complication of all images no otherwise then the first picture of an unknown King is the samplar of all other copies that are painted according to it for the knowledge or face of God descends not but in the mentall nature whereof truth is the object and further it descendeth not but by the mind so that the mind is the image of God and the samplar of all the images of God after it self Therefore look how much all things after the simple mind do partake of the mind so much do they also partake of Gods image so that the mind of it self is the image of God and all things after the mind no wayes but by the mind CHAP. IV. How our mind is not the explication but a certaine image of the eternall complication how those things that are after the mind are not such an image How the mind is without notions and yet hath a conere ate judgement and why the body it necessary for it Phil. Hou seemest out of the great fulnesse of thy mind as though thou meantest that as the infinite minde is the absolute formative power so the finite minde is the conformative or configurative power Id. I doe indeed for that which is to be said cannot conveniently be expressed therefore is the multiplication of speech very profitable Now marke further than an image is one thing and an explication another for equality is the image of unitie for from unitie once ariseth equalitie Therefore is equality the image of unitie yet is not equality but plurality the explication of unitie therefore is equally the image of the explication of of unity not the explication So doe I meane that the minde is the most simple image of the divine minde amongst all the images of divine complication And so is the minde the first image of that divine complication which by his simplicity and power complicateth all images of complication For as God is the complication of complications so the minde which is the image of God is the image of the complication of complications and after the images are the plurality of things which explicate the divine complication As number explicates unity motion rests time eternity composition simplicity time the present greatness a point motion a moment inequality equality diversity identity and so of the rest From hence gather the admirable power of our minde for in the vertue thereof is complicated the assimulative power of the complication of a point by which it finds in it self a power wherein it assimulates it selfe to every greatnesse So also because of the assimulative power of the complication of unity it hath power to assimulate it selfe to every multitude And so by the assimulative power of the complication of now or the present it hath power assimulate it selfe to all time and so by the assimulative power of th complication of rests to all motion and of simplicity to every composition and of identity to all diversity and of equality to all inaquality and of conjunctionto every dis-junction And by the image of the absolute complication which is the infinite minde it hath power by which it can assimulate it selfe to every explication and many such things thou seest of thy selfe may be said which our mind hath because it is a certaine image of the infinite simplicity which complicateth all things Phil. It seemeth then that onely the mind is the image of God Id. So it is properly because all things that are after or beneath the mind are not the image of God but only ly so far forth as the mind shineth or appeareth in them as it more shineth in perfect living wights then in imperfect ones and more insensible things then in vegetables and more in vegetables then in minerals so that creatures that want the mind are rather explications then images of the Divine simplicity although according to the shining or appearing of the mentall image in explication they do diversly partake of the image Phil. Aristotle said there was no notion concreate or made together with the minder or soul because he likened it to a smooth and shaven table but Plato saith there were notions concreated with it yet that for the moles and weights of the body the soul forgot them what do'st thou thinke to be the truh Id. Undoubtedly our mind was by God put into this body to the profit and advantage thereof and therefore it must needs have from God all that without which it could not acquire that profit and advantage it is not therefore credible that there were notions concreated with the soul which it lost in the body but because it hath need of a body that the concreated power may proceed unto act As the visive power of the soul cannot see actually except it be stirred up by the object and that cannot be but by the representing of multiplied specis by then esn of the organ and so it hath need of the eye Even so the power of the mind which is the comprehensive and nationall power cannot porceed to its opperations except it be stirred up by sensible things which it cannot be but by the mediation of sensible phantasmis Therefore it hath need of an organicall body and such an one without which it could not be stired up In this therefore Aristotle seems to have thought aright that there are no notions of the soul concreated from the beginning which it lost by being incorporated But because it cannot profit if it want all udgement as a deaf man can never profit to become a lutenist because he hath in himself no judgement of harmony by which he may discerne whether he do profit therefore our soul hath a concreated judgement without which it could not profit This judging power is naturally concreated with the mind by which of it self it judgeth whether discourses be weak strong or concluding Which power if Plato called a concreated notion he was not out of the way at all Phil. How clear is thy delivery which every man that hears is forced to assent unto These things must be diligently marked for we plainly find a spirit in our mind speaking and judging this good that just the other true and reprehending us if we decline from the just which speech and judgement it learned not and therefore it is connate or concreate Id. By this we
that a number is compounded of the same in regard of the common or universall of that which is divers in regard of singulars or particulars which both are waies of the minds understanding Phil. Go on I pray thee to declare how the minde may be said to be a number moving it selfe Id. I thinke no man can deny but that the minde is a certaine divine living number excellently proportioned to the resplendence of manifesting and shewing of the divine harmony and complicating every sensible rational and intellectual harmony and whatsoever can be better expressed about this matter Insomuch that every number proportion and harmony which proceeds from our minde doth as little reach or come near our minde as our minde doth to the infinite minde For the minde though it be a divine number yet it is so a number that it is a simple unity by its own power putting forth its number So that look what proportion there is between God and his workes the same there is between the workes of the minde and the minde it selfe Phil. There are very many that would have our minde to be of the divine nature and most meerly conjoyned to the divine minde ld I doe not think they meant any otherwise then as I have laid although they had another manner of speaking For between the divine minde and ours there is the same difference that there is between doing and seeing for the divine minde by conceiving creates but ours by conceiving assimilates in making notions or intellectual visions The divine minde is a power making things to be but ours an assimilative power Orat. I see that the Philosopher hath not time enough to satisfie himselfe and therefore I have kept silence a long time I have heard many and very pleasing things yet would I faine heare further how the minde of it selfe puts forth the formes of things by way of assimulation Id. The minde is so assimilative that in the sight it makes it selfe like visible things and in the hearing to audible things in the taste to things tastable in the smell to things odorable in the touch to things tangible in the sense to things sensible in the imagination to things imaginable and in the reason to reasonable things For the image in the absence of sensible things is as some sense without the discretion of sensible things for it conformes it selfe to sensible things absent but confusedly and without discerning of state from state But in reason it conformes it selfe to things with discerning of state from state In all those places our minde is carried in the spirit of the Arteries vvhich being stir'd up by meeting vvith species multipli'd from the objects to the spirits assimilates it selfe by the things to the species that by assimilation it may give judgement of the objects Whereupon that subtile spirit of the Arteries which is enlivened by the minde is so by the minde conform'd unto the similitude of the species which was objected to the motion of the spirit As soft wax is by a man having the use and art of the minde configured unto the thing then presently presented to the work-man for all configurations whether in the art of carving painting or hammering cannot be done without the mind for it is the mind which terminates all things Therefore if we could imagine a piece of wax inform'd by the minde then the minde being within it would configure it or make it like to every figure presented unto it as now the minde of the Artificer being applied from without labours to doe So likewise of clay and every flexible or fashionable thing So in our body the minde according to the various flexiblenesse of the spirits of the Arteries in the Organs makes divers configurations subtile and grosse and one spirit is not configurable to that to which another is because the spirit in the optick nerve cannot be met withall and incountred by the species of sounds but onely by the species of colours therefore is configurable to the species of colours and not of sounds and so of the rest There is likewise another spirit which is configurable to all sensible species which is in the Organ of the imaginative power but after a grosse and indiscreet or undistinguished manner And there is another in the Organ of the ratiocinative or discursive power which is configurable to al sensible things discretly and clearly And all these configurations are assimilations to sensible things when thy are done by the meanes of corporall spirits though never so subtile wherefore when the minde makes these assimilations that it may have the motions of sensible things and so is drownned in the corporall spirit then it acteth as the soul animating a body by which animation the power of a living wight is constituted And hereupon the soul of brute beasts makes the like assimilation after its manner though more confused that it may after its manner attaine to notions But our power of the minde from such notions as these so elicited drawn out by assimilation makes Mechanick arts physicall and logicall conjectures and reacheth things in the manner whereby they are conceived in the possibility of being or matter and in the manner whereby the possibility of being or matter is determined by the forme Wherefore seeing that by these assimilations it reacheth none but the notions of sensible things where the formes of things are not true but shadowed with the variablenesse of matter therefore all such notions are rather conjectures then truth for this cause I say that the notions which are reached by rationall assimilations are uncertain because they are rather according to the images of formes then the truths Afterwards our minde not as drowned in the body which it animates but as it is the minde of it selfe yet in possibility of being united to the body while it lookes unto its immutability makes assimilation of formes not as they are drowned in the matter but as they are in and of themselves and conceives the immutable quiddities of things using it selfe for an instrument without any organicall spirit As whilst it conceives that a circle is a figure from whose center all the lines drawne to the circumference are equall after which manner of being a circle without the minde cannot be in matter for it is impossible there should be given in matter two equall lines and it is lesse possible that such a circle should be figured and therefore a circle in the mind is the Samplar and measure of the truth of a circle in the pavement So wee say that the truth of things in the minde is in the necessity of complexion to wit after the manner that the truth of a thing requireth as we have said of the circle And because the minde as in it selfe and abstracted from matter makes these assimilations therefore it assimilateth it selfe to abstracted formes And according to this power it shewes or puts forth certain mathematicall sciences and finds its power to bee