distinction between Acting and Thinking they commonly are displeas'd that any body should oppose Prejudices They fancy that it is not sufficient to observe the Rules of Civil Society to conform outwardly to the Opinions and Customs of the Country they live in They think it a prece of Temerity to examine Common Opinions and that to consult Truth is a breach of Charity because it is not so much Truth which unites Civil Societies as Opinion and Custom Aristotle is receiv'd in Universities as the Rule of Truth he is Quoted as Infallible It is a Philosophical Heresie to deny what he advances In a word he is respected as the Genius of Natures and those who are best vers'd in his Physicks can give no reason for any thing and perhaps are convinc'd of nothing and Scholars that have read their course of Philosophy dare hardly say before Men of Sense what they have learnt of their Masters That perhaps may make those who reflect upon it sensible of what we are to think of those sorts of Studies for a Science which we must forget to become reasonable does not seem very solid Nevertheless those would be look'd upon as inconsiderate and rash who should attempt to discover the falsity of the Reasons which Authorise so extraordinary a Conduct and they should not fail of being troubled by those who receive advantage by them if they were so happy as to undeceive the Public Is is not evident that the way to learn what we do not know is to use what we do know And that it would be a Jest to give a Frenchman a German Grammar in Verse to teach High Dutch Yet it is customary to give Children the Latin Verses of Despauterius to teach them Latin obscure Verses in all respects to Children who have much ado to apprehend the easiest things Reason and Experience are visible against that Custom for Children are a long while a learning Latin ill Nevertheless 't is Impudence to find fault with it should a Chinese hear this Custom he could not forbear laughing at it whilst on this part of the World we Inhabit the Wisest and the most Learned cannot forbear approving it If such false and such absurd Prejudices and Customs that are so unreasonable and of such great consequence have a World of Protectors how is it to be expected that People should submit to Reasons which engage Prejudices that are purely Speculative A little attention is sufficient to discover that the Method which is used to teach Children is none of the best and yet it is not minded Opinion and Custom prevail over Reason and Experience How then could any body expect that Works which overthrow a great number of Prejudices should not be condemn'd in many things even by those who pass for the most Learned and for the Wisest It is observable that those who pass in the World fox the best Judges and the best Scholars are those who have study'd most Books both good and bad they are those who have the Memories and whose Imagination is more lively and more extended than others Now those Men commonly Judge of things rashly and without deliberation They consult their Memory in which they find immediately the Law or the Prejudice according to which they decide without much Reflection As they think themselves Wiser than others they give but little heed to what they read Therefore it happens often that Women and Children discover the falsity of certain Prejudices which have been controverted because they dare not pass their Judgments upon them without Examination but use all the attention they are capable of in what they read whereas on the contrary the Learned persist in their Opinions because they will not give themselves the trouble to examine those of others when they are directly opposite to what they think already As for those that live with great Men they depend on so many things that they cannot easily retire into themselves nor afford a sufficient attention to distinguish what is true from what is likely Nevertheless they are not much wedded to certain Prejudices for the best way to hold strongly with the World is neither to be wedded to Truth nor Probability As apparent humility or good breeding and external moderation are qualifications that please every body and which are absolutely necessary to maintain Society among those who have a great deal of Pride and Ambition the Men of the World affect not to affirm any thing or to believe any thing as undeniable It ever was and ever will be the fashion to look upon all things as Problematical and to speak at random even of the most holy Truths lest they shou'd seem wedded to any thing For as those I am speaking of apply themselves to nothing and mind nothing but their Fortune no disposition can seem so convenient and so reasonable to them as that which custom justifies Therefore those who attack Prejudices flattering on the one hand the Pride and Laziness of the Men of the World they are well receiv'd by them but when they pretend to affirm any thing as undeniable and to discover the Truth of Religion and of Christian Morality they look upon them as conceited Men and as Persons who to avoid one precipice leap into another What I have said in my Opinion is sufficient to show what I could answer to the different Judgments divers persons have given against the Book Intituled A Search after Truth and I will forbear making an application which every one may make usefully and easily I am sensible that every body will not do it but it would look perhaps as if I would do my self Justice in defending my self as much as I could therefore I abandon my Right to the Judicious Readers who are the Natural Judges of Books And I conjure them to remember my Request in the Preface to the Search after Truth and elsewhere Only to Judge of my Sentiments according to the clear and distinct Answers they shall receive from the only Master of all Mankind after having made their application to him by a serious attention For if they consult their Prejudices as the decisive Laws of what they are to believe of the Book Intituled A Search after Truth I own that it is a very ill Book since it is written oh purpose to discover the Falsity and Injustice of those Laws Advertisement BEcause the following Explanations were writ to satisfy some particular Persons who desired a more special Explication of some Material Truths I think fit to premise that what I shall say may be clearly understood it will be necessary for every one to have some knowledge of the Principles I 've explain'd in the Search after Truth Therefore 't will be best not to meddle with these Observations till we 've first carefully read the whole Work for which they were written and at the second reading only examine them as they are referr'd to in the Margent Yet is not this Caution absolutely necessary to
Si ambo videmus verum esse quod dicis ambo videmns verum esse quod dico ubi quaeso id videmus Nec ego utique in te nec tu in me sed ambo in insa quae supra mentes nostras est incommutabili veritate and that we ought to value a Friend more than a Dog and I am very certain that there is no Man in the World but sees it as well as my self Now I see not these Truths in the mind of others neither do they see them in mine Therefore there must needs be an Universal Reason which informs me and all Intelligent Beings For if the Reason which I consult were not the same which answers the Chinese Conf. of St. Aug. B. 12. C. 25. it is evident that I could not be as certain as I am See St. Aug. de libero arbitrio B. 2. C. 8. and the following that the Chinese see the same Truths as I do So that the Reason we consult when we look within our selves is an universal Reason I say when we look within our selves for I speak not in this place of the Reason which is followed by a Passionate Man When a Man prefers his Horses Life before his Coachmans he has some Reasons for it but they are particular Reasons which a Rational Man abominates They are Reasons which at the bottom are not Reasonable because they are not consonant to the soveraign or universal Reason which all Men consult I am certain that the Ideas of things are immutable and that Eternal Truths and Laws are necessary It is impossible they should be otherwise than they are But I see nothing in my self that is immutable or necessary I might not be or not be what I am There may be Spirits who are not like me and yet I am certain there can be no Spirits who see other Truths and other Laws than I do For all Spirits see of necessity that two and two are four and that we ought to prefer our Friend before our Dog Therefore we must conclude that the Reason which all Spirits consult is an immutable and necessary Reason Moreover it is evident that this same Reason is infinite The Mind of Man conceives clearly that there are or may be an infinite number of intelligible Triangles Tetragones Pentagones and other the like Figures He does not only conceive that he shall never want the Ideas of Figures and that he shall alwayes discover new ones though he should only apply himself to those sort of Ideas to all Eternity but he also observes infinity in Extension The Mind sees clearly that the Number which multiplyed by it self produces 5 or any of the Numbers between 4 and and 9 between 9 and 16 between 16 and 25 c. is a Quantity a Relation a Fraction whose Terms contain more Figures than can reach between the two Poles of the World He sees clearly that it is a relation which none but God can apprehend and that it is impossible to express it exactly because to express it requires a Fraction whose two terms must be infinite I might give many Examples of this Nature from whence it may be concluded not only that the Mind of Man is bounded but also the Reason which he consults is infinite For the Mind clearly perceives infinity in this Reason though it does not comprehend it since it can compare incommensurable Numbers with one another and know their Relations though it cannot compare them with unity Or to stop only at that which is most sensible the Reason which Man consults is infinite since it cannot be exhausted and it has alwayes something to answer to whatever we demand But if it be true that the Reason whereof all Men participate is universal if it be true that it is infinite that it is immutable and necessary It is certain that it is not different from that of God himself For nothing but the Universal and Infinite Being includes in it self an Universal and Infinite Reason All Creatures are particular Beings therefore Universal Reason is not Created No Creatures are Infinite therefore Infinite Reason is not a Creature But the Reason which we consult is not only universal and infinite but also necessary and independant and in one sense we conceive it to be more independant than God himself For God can only act according to that Reason He has a dependance on it in one sense He must guide it and follow it God consults none but himself He has no dependance on any thing Therefore that Reason is not distinguished from himself It is Coeternal and Consubstantial with him We see clearly that he cannot punish an innocent Person that he cannot subject Spirits to Bodies that he is obliged to follow Order Therefore we see the Rule the Order the Reason of God For what Wisdom could we see besides the Wisdom of God when we presume to say that God is obliged to follow it But after all can we conceive a Wisdom that is not the Wisdom of God Does Solomon who speaks so well of Wisdom distinguish it into two kinds Does he not teach us that the Wisdom which is Coeternal with God himself and by which he has established the Order that we fee in his Works is the very same which presides over all Spirits and which Legislators consult to make Just and Reasonable Laws The Eighth Chapter of the Proverbs is sufficient to convince us of this Truth I am sensible the Holy Scripture speaks of a certain Wisdom which it calls the Wisdom of the Age Wisdom of Men. But it is because it speaks of things according to appearances or according to the common opinion For it teaches us elsewhere that that Wisdom is but Folly and Abomination not only before God but before all Men who consult Reason Certainly did Eternal Truths and Laws depend on God had they been established by the Creators Free Will in a word were not the Reason which we consult necessary and independent It appears evident to me that there would be no true Science and that we might very well be mistaken in affirming that the Arithmetick or Geometry of the Chinese is like ours For in fine if it were not absolutely necessary that 2 times 4 should make 8 or that the three Angles of a Triangle should be equal to two right ones what Proofs could we have that those kind of Truths were not like those which are received in some Universities or that only last a certain time Can we see clearly that God may not cease to Will what he has Will'd once with a Will absolutely free and indifferent Or rather do we see clearly that God might not have Will'd certain things for a certain time for a certain place for certain persons or for certain kinds of Beings supposing as the World will have it that he was absolutely free and indifferent in that Will For my part I can conceive no necessity in indifference nor reconcile two things
to the carnal and most ignorant That he might instruct them by that which caused their blindness and encline them to love him and loose them from sensible Objects by the same things that had captivated them For when he had to do with Fools he made use of a kind of simplicity to make them wise so that the most Religious and Faithful have not always the greatest Understanding They may know God by Faith and love him through the assistance of his Grace without discerning him to be their All after the same manner as Philosophers do and without reflecting that the abstracted knowledge of Truth is a kind of union with him We must not therefore be surprized if there are but few Persons who endeavour to strengthen their Natural Union they have with God by seeking after the Truth since to this end it would be necessary constantly to oppose the impression of the Senses and Passions after a very different manner from that which is familiar to the most Virtuous Persons for most good Men are not always perswaded that the Senses and Passions deceive us after the manner we have explained in the precedent Books Those Sensations and Thoughts wherein the Body has any share are the true and immediate cause of our Passions because 't is only the shaking of the Fibres of the Brain that excites any particular emotion in the Animal Spirits so that only our Sensations can sensibly convince us that we depend on certain things which they excite us to love But we feel not the Natural Union we have with God when we discover the Truth nor so much as think upon him for he is within us and operates after such a secret and insensible manner that we perceive him not Our Natural Union with him therefore does not excite us to love him But our Union with Sensible Things is quite different All our Sensations declare this Union and Bodies present themselves to our Eyes when they act in us nor is any thing they do concealed Even our own Body is more present to us than our Mind and we consider it as the best part of our selves Thus the Union we have with our Body and through that with all sensible Objects excites a violent love in us which increases this Union and makes us depend upon things that are infinitely below us CHAP. VI. Of the most general Errors of the Passions Some particular Examples of them IT 's the part of Moral Philosophy to enquire into all the particular Errors wherein our Passions engage us concerning good to oppose the irregularities of Love to establish the sincerity of the Heart and regulate the Manners But our chief intent here is to give Rules for the Mind and to discover the causes of our Errors in respect of Truth so that we shall pursue no further those things already mentioned which relate only to the love of the true Good We will then proceed to the Mind but shall not pass by tne Heart because it has the greatest influence over the Mind We will enquire after the Truth in it self and without thinking on the relation it has to us only so far as this relation is the occasion that Self-love disguises and conceals it from us for we judging of all things according to our Passions deceive our selves in all things the Judgments of the Passions never agreeing with the Judgments of the Truth 'T is what we may learn from these admirable words of St. Bernard * Amor sicut nec odium veritatis judicium nescit Vis judicium veritatis audire Joan 5.30 Sicut audio sic judico Non sicut odi non sicut amo non sicut timeo Est judicium odii ut illud Nos legem habemus secundum legem Nostram debet mori Joan 19.7 Est timoris ut illud si dimittimus eum sic venient Romani tollent Nostrum locum gentem Joan 11.48 Judicium vero amoris ut David de filiô parricidâ Parcite inquit puero Absalom 2 Reg. 18.5 St. Bern. de grad humilitatis Neither love nor hatred says he know how to judge according to truth But if you will hear a true Judgment I judge according to what I hear not as I hate love or fear This is a Judgment of hatred We have a law and according to our law he ought to die This is a Judgment of fear If we let him alone the Romans will come and take away our Place and Nation This is a Judgment of love as David speaks of his parricide son Spare the young Man Absalom Our Love Hatred and Fear cause us to make false Judgments only and nothing but the pure Light of Truth can enlighten our Mind 'T is only the distinct Voice of our common Master that instructs us to make solid Judgments and he will infallibly do it provided we only judge of what he says and according to what he says Sicut audio sic judico As I hear I judge But let us see after what manner our Passions seduce us that we may the more easily resist them The Passions have so great a relation to the Senses that 't will not be difficult to discover after what manner they engage us in Error if we but remember what has been said in the First Book For the general Causes of the Errors of our Passions are entirely like those of the Errors of our Senses The most general cause of the Errors of our Senses is as we have shewn in the First Book our attributing to our Body or to External Objects those Sensations which belong to our Soul affixing Colours to the Surfaces of Bodies diffusing of Light Sounds Odours in the Air and assigning Pain and Pleasure to those parts of our Body which receive any change by the motion of other Bodies which meet them The same thing may be said of our Passions we imprudently attribute to those Objects which cause or seem to cause them all the dispositions of our Heart Goodness Meekness Malice Ill-nature and all the other Qualities of our Mind Whatever Object produces any Passion in us in some manner seems to include in it self what it stirs up in us when we think upon it Even as sensible Objects appear to us to include the Sensations their presence excites When we love any Person we are naturally inclined to believe they love us and 't would be difficult for us to imagine that they had either any design to hurt us or to oppose our desires But if hatred succeeds love we cannot believe that they design us any good we interpret all their actions in the worst sense and are always suspicious and upon our guard although perhaps they think not of us or else intend to do us some service In short we unjustly attribute all the dispositions of our Heart to those Persons who excite any Passion in us even as we imprudently ascribe all the qualities of our Mind to sensible Objects Moreover by the same
what disagreeableness which shocks and terrifies but the Mind perceives it not since the Senses are the only proper Judges of sensible Beauty and Deformity which are the Objects of these sorts of Passions A SEARCH AFTER TRUTH BOOK VI. Of Method CHAP. I. The Design of this Book and the two general Means to preserve Evidence in an Enquiry after Truth which will be the Subject of this Book IN the preceding Books we have seen how subject to Error the Mind of Man is that he is deceived every Moment by the Illusions of his (a) Book 1. Senses the (b) Book 2. Visions of his Imagination and Abstractions (c) Book 3. of his Mind that the Inclinations (d) Book 4. of his Will and his (e) Book 5. Passions are a Means to obscure the Truth and never suffer it to appear except it has a Tincture of those false Colours which flatter Concupiscence In a word we have in part discovered the Errors of the Mind and their Causes It is now Time to show the Way which will conduct us to the Knowledge of the Truth and give the Mind all the Power and Assistance we can to enable it to keep this Way without either straying or vainly fatiguing it self But to avoid giving the Reader any unnecessary Trouble in the Perusal of this last Book I think fit to advertise him that 't is only writ for those that wou'd of themselves seriously enquire into Truth and to this end employ the utmost Power of their own Minds I would have them for a time lay aside all probable Opinions and hot rely on the strongest Conjectures but neglect the Authority of all Philosophers and as much as possible divert themselves of their Prejudices Self-love and Passions Very much distrusting their Senses and Imaginations And in fine that they well remember the greatest Part of those things that have been told them in the preceding Books The Design of this last Book is an Endeavour to help the Mind to all the Perfection it is naturally capable of by furnishing it with whatsoever is necessary to render it more capacious and attentive and in prescribing such Rules as must be observed in an Enquiry after Truth to prevent its being ever deceived and to teach it in some time Time all that can be known If we were to carry this Design to its utmost Perfection which we pretend not to do since this is only an Essay it might be said That we ought to have given an universal Science that those that wou'd have made use of it might have been truly learned since they wou'd have had the Foundation of all particular Sciences and acquired them proportionably to the use they had made of this universal one For we endeavour by this Treatise to make the Mind capable of forming true and certain Judgments upon all Questions which shall be proportioned to it As a Memory that is able to retain all the Demonstrations of Euclid Archimedes Pappus Apollonius and all that have writ of Geometry is not suffic ent to make a Man a good Geometrician so neither is it enough to have read Plato Aristotle and Descartes and perfectly to know their Sentiments about Philosophy to make a Man a learned Philosopher The Knowledge of all the Opinions and Judgments of other Men whether Philosophers or Geometricians cannot so properly be called a Science as an History For true Science which alone can give the Mind of Man that Perfection it is now capable of consists in a certain Ability to judge solidly of all things that are adapted to it But not to lose Time and to prevent the prejudicing any Person by precipitated Judgments we will begin to treat of this important Matter We must first call to mind the Rule that has been proved and established in the beginning of the first Book because it is the Foundation and chief Principle of whatsoever we shall hereafter say therefore I 'll repeat it We ought never to give our intire Assent except to such Propositions as appear so evidently true that we cannot refuse it them without feeling some inward Pain and secret Reproaches of our Reason that is without a clear knowledge that we should make an ill use of our Liberty if we would not give our Assent Every Time we assent to Probabilities we put our selves into a certain Danger of being deceived and are almost always actually deceived and if we are not 't is a mere Effect of Chance and Good Fortune Thus a confused Sight of a great Number of Probabilities upon different Subjects can never add any Perfection to our Reason for 't is only a clear Sight of the Truth that can give either that or any solid Satisfaction The Conclusion therefore is very plain That Evidence only according to our first Rule can secure us from being deceived We ought above all things to be very careful to preserve this Evidence in all our Perceptions that we may be able to make a sound Judgment of whatsoever may be submitted to our Reason and to discover all the Truths we are capable of Such things as can either produce or preserve this Evidence are of two Sorts Some of which are within or in some manner depending on us and others which have no Connection with us For to see Objects distinctly it is necessary to have a good Sight and to give a good Attention to these Objects and both these are within us or in some manner depend upon us A good Understanding is likewise necessary and a strong Application for the penetrating into the Bottom of intelligible Truths which also are either in or in some manner depend upon us But as the Eye has need of Light to see and this Light depends upon external Causes The Mind also has need of Idea's to conceive and these Idea's as has been elsewhere proved depend not upon us but on an external Cause which furnishes us with them If therefore it shou'd happen that some Idea's of things were not presented to our Minds every time that we wished to have them and if he who enlightens the World wou'd conceal them from us 't wou'd be impossible to remedy it and to know any thing even as it is impossible for us to see Objects without Light But we shall never have any reason to fear it for the Presence of Idea's to our Mind being natural and depending on the general Will of God which is always constant and immoveable we can never fail of discovering such things as are naturally subjected to our Reason For the Sun that enlightens the Mind is not like the Sun that enlightens the Body It is never eclipsed and it penetrates every thing without having its Light divided The Idea's of all things being therefore continually present to us even when we do not consider them attentively there is nothing requisite in order to preserve this Evidence in all our Perceptions but to find a means of making our Minds more attentive and capacious
freezes the Water in Rivers We must say that the Air dryes the Earth because it agitates and sucks up the Water which is tempered with it And that the Air or subtle Matter freezes Rivers in Winter because it does not then communicate motion enough to the parts of which the Water is composed In a word we must if we can give the Natural and Particular Cause of the Effects produced But as the action of these Causes consist only in the Moving Power which acts them and that this Moving Power is nothing else but the Will of God who creates them or successively preserves them in different places we must not say that they have in themselves a Strength or Power to produce any Effects And when in Reasoning we are at last come to a general Effect whose Cause we seek 't would be a very ill way of Philosophizing to imagine any other besides the general one And to feign a Certain Nature a First Moveable an Vniversal Soul or some such like Chimera of which we have no clear and distinct Idea would be to argue like the Heathen Philosophers For instance When we are ask't whence it comes that some Bodies are in Motion or how the Air when agitated communicates its Motion to the Water or rather from whence it proceeds that Bodies impell one another As Motion and its communication is a general Effect whereupon all others depend it is necessary I dont say to be a good Christian but to be a Philosopher to recur to God who is the Universal Cause since 't is his Will which is the Moving Power of Bodies and which also regulates the communication of their Motions If he had Will'd there should be no new production in the World he would not have put the parts of it in Motion And if he should hereafter Will the incorruptibility of any of the Beings he has Created he would cease to Will certain communications of Motions in respect to these Beings The Third Proof All Labour would be useless 't would be un necessary to water and to give certain preparatory dispositions to Bodies to fit them for what we desire of them For God has no need of preparing the subjects upon which he acts ANSWER Suarez in the same place To which I Reply That God can absolutely do what he pleases without finding any dispositions in the subjects he works upon But he cannot do it without a Miracle or by Natural wayes that is according to the general Laws of the communication of the Motions he has established and according to which he generally acts God never multiplies his Wills without Reason but alwayes acts by the most simple wayes and therefore he makes use of the meeting of Bodies in giving them Motion not as their shock is absolutely necessary to move them as our Senses tell us but because that being the occasion of the communication of Motion there needs only a few Natural Laws to produce all the admirable Effects that we see For by this means we can reduce all the Laws of the communication of Motion to one only which is That Bodies which shock each other being look'd upon but as one in the moment of their contact or shock the Moving Power is at their separation divided between them according to the proportion of their magnitude But as concuring Bodies are incompassed with an infinite number of other Bodies which act upon them by vertue and efficacy of this Law how constant and uniform soever it may be it produces an infinite number of different communications because it acts upon infinite Bodies which all relate to one another See the last Chap. of the Search after Truth It is necessary to water a Plant to make it grow because according to the Laws of the communication of Motions there is scarce any other but watery Particles which by their Motion and Figure can insinuate themselves and enter the Fibres of the Plants and by various uniting themselves together take the Figure necessary for their Nourishment The subtle matter which the Sun continually diffuses may by agitating the Water draw it up into the Plants but it has not Motion enough to raise gross Particles of Earth However the Earth and even the Air are necessary to the growth of Plants The Earth to preserve the Water at their Root and the Air to excite a moderate fermentation in the same Water But the action of the Sun Air and Water consist only in the Motion of their parts and to speak properly none but God can act For as I have just said there is only he who by the efficacy of his Will and infinite extent of his Knowledge can produce and regulate the infinite communications or Motions which are made every moment and according to an infinite exact and regular proportion The Fourth Proof Can God oppose or resist himself Bodies meet shock and resist one another therefore God acts not in them except by his concurrence For if he only produced and preserved Motion in Bodies he would divert them before their meeting since he knows very well that they are impenetrable Why should Bodies be impelled to be thrown back again or made to advance that they may recoil Or wherefore are useless Motions produced and preserved Is it not extravagant to say that God fights against himself and destroys his own works when a Bull opposes a Lion or a Wolf devours a Sheep and a Sheep eats the Grass which he gave growth to Therefore there are Second Causes ANSWER Then Second Causes do every thing and God does nothing at all For God cannot act against himself and to concur is to act Concurring to contrary actions is giving contrary concourses and consequently a performing contrary actions To concur with the action of the Creatures which resist one another is to act against himself and to concur to useless Motions is to act unusefully Now God does nothing in vain he performs no actions contrary to one another Therefore he concurs not in the action of the Creatures who often destroy one another and make useless actions and motions Hither 't is that this Proof of Second Causes conducts us but let us examine what Reason teaches us about it God does all in every thing and nothing resists him He performs all things since 't is by his Wills that all Motions are produced and regulated and nothing resists him because whatever he wills is effected And thus it ought to be conceived He having resolved to produce by the most simple wayes as the most conformable to order this infinite variety of Creatures that we admire he determined Bodies to move in a right line because this line is the most simple But Bodies being impenetrable and their Motions inclining to opposite lines or such as intersect they must necessarily meet one another and consequently cease to move in the same manner God foresaw this and nevertheless positively willed the meeting or opposition of Bodies not because he was pleased
that all the Passions which are excited in us at the sight of some external object does Mechanically imprint upon the face of those that are struck with it a suitable Air that is an Air that Mechanically disposes all those who see it to such Passions and Motions as are useful to the good of Society nay Admiration it self when it is only caused in us by the fight of something External and which others may consider as well as we diffuses through our Face an Air which Mechanically imprints Admiration in others and which even acts upon their Brain after so regulated a manner that the Spirits which are contained in it are impelled into the Muscles of their Face to form there an Air like ours This Communication of the Passions of the Soul and Motions of the Animal Spirits to unite Men together in relation to good and evil and to make 'em resemble each other not only by the disposition of their Minds but also by that of their Body is so much the greater and more observable as the Passions are more violent because then the Animal Spirits are agitated with more force Now this is necessary because the Evils being greater or more present we must apply our selves the more and be strongly united amongst our selves to shun or to discover them But when the Passions are very moderate as Admiration commonly is they don't sensibly communicate themselves nor produce such an Air by which they are accustomed to do it For since there 's no extraordinary occasion 't would be unnecessary to put any force upon the imagination of others or to divert them from their employments on which perhaps 't is more requisite they should be engag'd than in considering the Causes of these Passions There is nothing more surprising than this Oeconomy of our Passions and disposition of our Body in relation to those objects which encompass us Whatsoever is Machinally performed in us is most worthy the Wisdom of him who Created us And as God has made us capable Of all the Passions which act in us chiefly to unite us to all sensible things for the preservation of Society and of our own Bodies and his design is so faithfully executed by the construction of his work so we cannot but admire the Springs and curiosity thereof Yet our Passions and all these imperceptible Bands by which we are united to whatever is about us often prove through our faults very considerable Causes of our Errors and Irregularities For we make not that use we ought of our Passions we permit them every thing and do not so much as know the limits that should be prescribed to their Power Thus even these Passions which like Admiration are but weak and agitate us the least have yet power enough to lead us into Error Of which here follows some instances When Men and chiefly those who have a vigorous Imagination consider themselves on the best side they are commonly very well satisfied with themselves and their inward satisfaction never fails of encreasing when they compare themselves with such as are more dull and heavy than they Besides there is many Persons that admire 'em too and very few who oppose them with any success or applause for Reason is scarcely ever applauded in opposition to a strong and lively imagination and in short such a sensible Air of submission and respect is form'd upon the Face of all their Hearers who have likewise such lively traces of admiration at every new word they speak that they also admire themselves and their Imagination swells them up with all these advantages and makes 'em extreamly satisfied in their own Abilities For if we cannot see a Passionate Man without receiving some impression from his Passion or in some measure engaging our selves in his Sentiments how could it be possible for those who are surrounded with a great number of Admirers to give no reception to a Passion which so agreeably flatters Self-Love Now this high esteem that Persons of a strong and lively Imagination have of themselves and their good Qualities swell 'em up with Pride and makes them assume a Majestic and Decisive Air They hear others with Contempt answer 'em in Raillery and only think in relation to themselves Looking upon the attention of the Mind as a kind of Servitude even where 't is necessary to discover the Truth they become wholly Indocible Pride Ignorance and Blindness are always Companions The Mighty Wits or rather the Proud and Vain-glorious ones will never be Disciples of the Truth They never retire within themselves but to admire and applaud their own Acquirements So that he who resists the Proud shines in the midst of their darkness without dissipating it There is on the contrary a certain disposition in the Blood and Animal Spirits which gives us too mean an opinion of our selves Their scarcity heaviness and fineness joined to the grossness of the Fibres of the Brain make our Imagination weak and languishing And the Sight or rather confused Sensation of this weakness and languor of our Imaginations creates such a vicious humility in us as we may call meanness of Spirit All Men are capable of the Truth but do not apply themselves to him who is only able to teach them The Proud depend upon themselves and hearken to none else And these mistaken humble ones address themselves to the Proud and submit to all their Decisions Thus both listen only to Man The Mind of the Proud obeys the fermentation of their own Blood that is their own Imagination And that of the mean spirited submits to the commanding Air of the Proud so that both are subjected to Vanity and Lyes The Proud are like a rich and powerful Man who having a great Equipage measures his own greatness by the number of his Followers and his strength by that of his Horses which draw his Coach These mistaken humble ones having the same Spirit and same Principles resemble a poor miserable languishing wretch who imagines himself almost nothing because he possesses nothing Yet our Equipage is not our selves and so far is the abundance of the Blood and Spirits vigour and impetuosity of the Imagination from leading us to Truth that on the contrary there is nothing which diverts us more from it It is the dull if I may call them so the cold and sedate Minds which are most capable of discovering the most solid and intricate Troths In the silence of their Passions they may hearken to that Truth which teaches them in the most secret recesses of their Reason but unhappily they think not of applying themselves to its word because it speaks without a sensible lustre and in a low voice and nothing affects them but a noise Nothing convinces them but what seems sparkling great and magnificent to the Judgment of the Senses they are not pleased without they are dazled and choose rather to hearken to those Philosopbers who relate their Visions and Dreams to them and who with the false
prove Natural Truths by Humane Authority perhaps we may prove that Aristotle had such and such thoughts upon certain Subjects but 't wou'd not be very reasonable to read Aristotle or any other Author whatever with much assiduity and pains only to learn his Opinions Historically and to instruct others after the same manner We cannot without some dislike consider certain Universities which were Established only for an Enquiry into and Defence of the Truth that have now Espoused a particular Sect and Glory in studying and defending the Opinions of some Men Nor can we without some regret read those Philosophers and Physicians who fill their Books with lo many Citations that one wou'd rather take them for Commentaries upon Divinity and Civil Law than Treatises of Physicks or Medicine For who can be content to quit Reason and Experience blindly to follow the Imaginations of Aristotle Plato Epicurus or any other Philosopher whatever However we might perhaps continue unmoved and without reply at the sight of so strange a Conduct if we did not feel our selves offended by it I mean if those Gentlemen did not oppose themselves to the Truth to which only they ought to be united But their Admiration for the Visions of the Ancients inspires them with a blind Zeal against any new discoveries of the Truth they decry them without knowing them oppose them without apprehending them and by the power of their Imaginations infuse into the Mind and Heart of those who hear and admire them the same Sensations wherewith they are affected As they judge of these new Discoveries only by the esteem they have of their Authors and since those they have seen and with whom they converse have not this great and extraordinary Air that the Imagination attributes to Ancient Authors they cannot esteem them For the Idea of the Men of our own Age not being attended with these extraordinary motions which strike the Mind it naturally excites nothing but Contempt Limners and Statuaries never represent the Ancient Philosophers like other Men They make them great Heads large and high Foreheads long and magnificent Beards This is a good proof that the generality of Men naturally form a like Idea of them for Painters draw things as they appear to them they follow the natural motions of their Imaginations Thus we generally look upon the Ancients as extraordinary Men but on the contrary the Imagination represents the Men of our time like those we see every day and that producing no extraordinary motion in the Spirits it only excites in the Soul a contempt and indifferency for them I have seen D'Cartes says one of these Learned Men who only admire Antiquity I have known and discoursed with him many times he was an honest Man nor did he want Wit yet he had nothing extraordinary Thus he has a mean Idea of D'Cartes Philosophy because he had discoursed some moments with him and discovered nothing of this great and extraordinary Air in him which heats the Imagination He even thinks it a sufficient answer to any difficult Arguments of this Philosopher which perplex'd him a little to say considently that he had formerly known him It were to be wished that these sort of Men cou'd see Aristotle otherwise than in Painting and have an hours Conversation with him provided he spoke not to them in Greek but in their own Tongue without knowing who he was till after they had made a Judgment of him Whatever bears the Character of Novelty whether because it is new in it self or that it appear in a new order or situation it agitates us much for it affects the Brain in places which are so much the more sensible as they are less exposed to the course of the Spirits and such things as have a sensible mark of greatness also affects us much because they excite a great Motion of Spirits in us But what at the same time bears the Character of Greatness and Novelty too does not only agitate us it confounds elevates and astonisheth us by its violent agitations Those for Instance who speak Paradoxes make themselves admired for they say only such things as have the Character of Novelty Such as speak in Sentences and only use choice and proper Words cause themselves to be respected for they seem to say something great But those who join Eloquence to Novelty the Great to the Extraordinary seldom ever fail of ravishing and astonishing the vulgar sort altho' they speak nothing but impertinencies This pompous and magnificent Jargon insano fulgoret these false Lights of Orators commonly dazle weak Minds they make so lively and surprizing an impression upon their Imagination that they remain confounded and respect this power which abases and blinds them and admire as the brightest Truths such confused Sentiments as cannot be expressed CHAP. VIII A Continuation of the same Subject of the good Vse that may be made of Admiration and the rest of the Passions All the Passions have two very considerable Effects they apply the Mind and gain the Heart By the former they may be very useful to the discovery of Truth provided we know how to make use of them for application produces knowledge and knowledge discovers the Truth But in respect to their gaining the Heart they always produce an ill Effect because they only win it by corrupting the Reason and representing things to it not as they are in themselves or according to truth but according to the relation they bear to us Of all Passions that which least affects the Heart is Admiration For 't is the prospect of things that are either good or evil which agitates us for the sight of things as they are great or small without any other relation to us affects us very little or not at all Thus Admiration which accompanies the knowledge of the greatness or smallness of new things which we would consider corrupt the Reason much less than any other Passion and. it may even be of great use in the knowledge of the Truth provided we take care to hinder its being followed by any of the other Passions as it commonly happens In Admiration the Animal Spirits are forcibly impelled towards those places in the Brain which represent the new Object as it is in it self They make distinct Traces there and deep enough to continue a long time consequently the Mind has a clear Idea of them and can easily resolve them Thus we cannot deny but Admiration may be very useful in the Sciences since it applies and instructs the Mind It is not so with the rest of the Passions they apply the Mind but instruct it not They apply it because they stir up the Animal Spirits but they instruct it not or else do it by a false and deceitful light since after such a manner they impel these same Spirits as they represent Objects only according to the relation they have to us and not as they are in themselves There is nothing so difficult as to apply our selves long to
Truth ought to be very careful to shun as much as possible all strong Sensations as a great Noise too brisk a Light Pleasure Pain c. and continually to stir up the Purity of their Imagination and prevent its making in their Brain such deep Traces as continually disquiet and dissipate the Mind And above all to put a Stop to the Motions of their Passions which cause such powerful Impressions in the Body and Soul that 't is generally impossible the Mind shou'd think of any thing else For although the pure Idea's of Truth are always present to us we cannot consider them when the Capacity we have of thinking is filled with these Modifications which possess us However as it is impossible that the Soul shou'd exist without Passion Sensation or any other particular Modification We must make a Virtue of Necessity and even draw from these Modifications some Helps to render us more attentive Yet must we make use of much Artifice and Circumspection in the applying these Helps to gain some Advantage from them The need we have of them must be well examined and we must only make use of 'em so far as the Necessity of rendring our selves attentive constrains us to CHAP. III. Of the use that may be made of the Passions and Senses to preserve the Attention of the Mind THE Passions which it is necessary for us to make use of to excite us to an Enquiry after Truth are those that give us Strength and Courage enough to surmount all the Trouble we may meet with in endeavouring to render our selves attentive some of which are good and some bad of which the good are a Desire to find the Truth to acquire a sufficient Knowledge to conduct our selves to render us useful to our Neighbour and some others of the like Nature But the bad or dangerous ones are such as a desire to acquire Reputation to make some Establishment of our Fortune to raise our selves above our Neighbours and some others that are yet more irregular of which it is not necessary to speak In the unhappy Estate we now are in it often happens that the most unreasonable Passions do most powerfully excite us to search after the Truth and give us a more agreeable Satisfaction for all the Pains we take in our Pursuit than the most just and reasonable Passions do Vanity for instance excites us much more than the Love of Truth and we every Day see some continually applying themselves to Study when they find Persons to whom they may relate what they have learnt but who intirely abandon their Studies when they have not an Opportunity to discover their Acquirements The confused Prospect of some Glory they gain when they put off their Opinons maintains their Courage in the most barren and tiresome Studies But if by Chance or Necessity of their Affairs they find themselves far distant from their little flock of Admirers their Ardour is soon cooled and even the most solid Studies cannot attract them Disgust Wearisomness and Chagriu seizes them and they quit all Vanity triumphs over their natural Laziness but Laziness in its turn triumphs over the Love of Truth for Vanity sometimes resists Idleness but Idleness is generally victorious over the Love of Truth Yet the Passion for Gloty may be subservient to a good End since we may make use of it for the Glory of God and the Profit of others Some Persons may be permitted on several Occasions to make use of this Passion as an Help to make the Mind more attentive but we must take great Care to use it only when those reasonable Passions we have already mentioned are not sufficient and when our Duty obliges us to apply our selves to such Subjects as we are discouraged from First because this Passion is very dangerous in respect of the Conscience Secondly because it insensibly engages us in unprofitable Studies which have a more tempting Appearance than either Usefulness or Truth in them In fine because this Passion is very difficult to be moderated we are often abused by it and while we believe our Mind is illuminated by it we often strengthen our Concupiscence which not only corrupts the Heart but disperses such a Darkness through the Mind as is morally impossible to be dissipated We ought to consider that this Passion is insensibly encreased fortified and established in the Heart of Man and that when it is too violent instead of assisting the Mind in a Search after Truth it strangely blinds it and makes it believe things even as it wishes them to be Without doubt we shou'd not have met with so many false Inventions and imaginary Discoveries if Men had not suffered their Brains to be disordered by their Zeal of appearing Inventers For the firm and obstinate Perswasion many Men have had that they have found for instance the perpetual Motion the squaring of the Circle and Duplication of the Cube by common Geometry has apparently proceeded from the great Desire they had of appearing to have effected what many Persons had unsuccessfully attempted It is therefore better to excite those Passions in us which are so much the more useful in the Search after Truth as they are more strong and in the Excess of which there is least to be feared as the Desires of making a good use of our Wit of delivering our selves from Prejudices and Errors of acquiring so much Wisdom as will enable us to conduct our selves through whatsoever Condition we are in and other the like Passions which engage us not in unuseful Studies nor incline us to make too precipitate Judgments When we begin to taste the Pleasure that is found in the Exercise of the Mind discover the Advantage that recurs from it destroy those violent Passions and disdainfully reject those sensible Pleasures which whilst we imprudently permit them to tyrannize over our Reason we have no need of any other Passions than those we have before mentioned to make us attentive upon whatsoever Subject we wou'd consider But the Generality of Mankind are not in this Condition They have no good Relish of any thing but only what touches the Senses Their Imagination is corrupted with an almost infinite Number of deep Traces which only stir up false Idea's For they are united to every thing that falls under the Senses and Imagination and judge always according to the Impression they have received from them in Relation to themselves Pride Debauchery Engagements unquiet Desires to raise their Fortune so commonly obscure the Discovery of Truth in the Men of this World that it stifles in them the Sentiments of Piety because they separate them from God who only can enlighten us as he only can govern us For we cannot encrease our Union with sensible things without diminishing that which we have with intellectual Truths Since in the same Time we cannot be so strictly united to things that are so different and opposite Those therefore who have a pure and chaste Imagination I mean
much of that Great and Majestick Air as is only fit for Sovereigns But to give a greater Example I say that Truth must be so manifested by others as it hath manifested it self All Men since the Fall of their first Parents have too weak a Sight to consider Truth in it self therefore the Sovereign Truth has rendred it self sensible by taking upon it our Humanity that it may attract our Thoughts enlighten us and make it self amiable in our Eyes Thus by its Example we may cover With any sensible thing those Truths that we wou'd comprehend our selves or teach to others Co that we may attract the Mind which loves what is sensible and which is not easily taken with any thing that does not flatter the Senses The Eternal Wisdom has made it self Sensible but not Resplendent It is become sensible not to make us acquiesce in sensible things but to raise us to intelligible things It became sensible to condemn and sacrifice in its own Person all sensible things we ought therefore in our Pursuit after the Truth to make use of such sensible things as dazle not too much or stop us at the Sensible Part But such as can only maintain the Presence of our Minds in the Contemplation of Truths purely intelligible Such sensible things we must make use of as we can dissipate annihilate or sacrifice with Pleasure as soon as we shall have discovered those Truths for which we made use of it The Eternal Wisdom has presented â—t self externally in a sensible manner to us not to deâ—ain us abroad but to recall us into our selves and â—hat according to the inward Man we might consider tt after an intelligible manner Thus in an Enquiry after Truth we ought to make use of such sensible things as may not stop us at their external Brightness but cause us to enter within our selves make us attentive and unite us to the eternal Truth which alone presides over the Mind and can instruct it in any Subject whatsoever CHAP. IV. Of the use that may be made of the Imagination to preserve the Attention of the Mind and of the Advantage of Geometry GReat Circumspection must be used in the Choice and Use of such Helps as may be drawn from our Passions and Senses to render us attentive to Truth Because our Passions and Senses too livelily affect us and after such a manner fill the Capacity of the Mind that we often see only our own Sensations when we think we have discovered the things themselves that we sought for but it is not the same with those Advantages that may be drawn from the Imagination They make the Mind become attentive without fruitlessly dividing its Capacity and so wonderfully assist us to perceive Objects clearly and distinctly that 't is for the most part beneficial to make use of them But we shall make this plain by some Instances We know that a Body is moved by two or many different Causes towards two or many different Places that these Forces impel it equally or unequally that they encrease or diminish continually according to such a continued Proportion And it may be demanded what is the Line this Body ought to move in the Place it must be in such a Moment what its Swiftness when arrived to such a Place and other things of the like Nature From the Point A where suppose it to be when this Body begins to move draw the indefinite Lines A B A C which make the Angle B A C is they cut each other for A B and A C are direct and cut not each other when the Motions they express are directly opposite After this manner is distinctly represented to the Imagination or if you will to the Senses the Way that this Body wou'd follow if there was only one of these forces which pushed it towards one of these Sides C or B. 2. If the Force which moves this Body towards B is equal to that which moves it towards C we must divide the Lines A B and A C into the Parts 1 2 3 4 and I II III IV equally distant from A. If the Force which moves it towards B is double to that which moves it towards C then take the Parts in A B double to those that are in A C. If this Force is subduple they must be taken subduple If three times greater or less they must be taken proportionably The Division of these Lines furtheâ— express to the Imagination the Magnitude of the different Powers which move these Bodies and in the same Time the Space they shall cause the Body to run through 3. Through these Divisions draw Parallels upon A B and A C to have the Lines 1 X 2 X 3 X c. equal to A I A II A III c. and I X II X III X equal to A 1 A 2 A 3. which express the Spaces that these Forces are capable of causing this Body to run through and through the Intersection of these Parallels draw the Line A X Y E which represents to the Imagination first the true Magnitude of the compound Motion of this Body that in the same time we conceive to be pushed towards B and towards C by two different Forces according to such or such a Proportion Secondly the Way it ought to keep In fine every Place where it must be in such a determined Time so that this Line serves not only to maintain the Presence of the Mind in the Enquiry after all Truths that we wou'd discover concerning the Question proposed But even represents the Resolution after a very sensible and convincing manner See the first Figures First This Line A X Y E expresses the true Magnitude of the compound Motion for we see sensibly if the Forces that produce it can each make this Body advance a Foot in a Minute its compound Motion shall be two Foot in a Minute if the compounding Motions perfectly agree For in this case it suffices to add A B to A C and if these Motions do not entirely agree the compounded A C shall be greater than one of the compounding A B or A C by the Line Y E. But if these Motions are opposite in any thing the compounded will be less than either of the compounding by the Line Y E and if they are intirely opposite it will be nothing at all Secondly This Line A X Y E represents to the Imagination the Way that this Body ought to follow and sensibly shows according to what Proportion it advances more on one Side than another It is evident also that all the compounded Motions are right when each of the compounding is always the same although they be unequal amongst themselves or else when the compounding are equal amongst themselves altho' they are not always the same In fine it is visible that the Lines which describe these Motions are Curves when the compounding are unequal amongst themselves and are not always the same This Line further represents to the Imagination
B or to A C which are known But for the Length of the Way that this Body will have run through before it arrives to this Point will be difficult to be known because the Line of its Motion A E being a Curve we cannot compare it to any of these right Lines But if we wou'd determine the infinite Points by which this Body must pass that is exactly and by a continued Motion describe the Line A E we must make a Pair of Compasse the Motion of whose legs should be regulated according to the Conditions expressed in the Computation we have already made which is often very difficult to invent impossible to excute and unuseful enough to discover the Relations that things have amongst themselves Since commonly we have not need of all the Points whereof this Line is composed but only of some of them which serve to guide the Imagination when it considers such Motions These Examples will be sufficient to show That we may express by Lines and so represent to our Imaginations the greatest Part of our Idea's and that Geomertry which shows us how to make all the Comparisons that are necessary in order to knowing the Proportion betwixt Lines is of a much more extensive Use than is commonly thought For in fine Astronomy Musick Mechanics and in general all Sciences which treat of Objects that are capable of more and less and which consequently we may look upon as extended that is all exact Sciences have Relation to Geometry Because all Speculative Truths consisting only in the Relation of things and in the Relation that is found between their Relations they may all relate to Lines We may draw from hence many Geometrical Consequences and these Consequences being made sensible by Lines which represent them it is almost impossible to deceive our selves and we may carry on Sciences very far with much Ease For instance the Means be which we discover very distinctly and precisely mark in Musick an Eighth a Fifth a Fourth is that Sounds may be expressed by Cords exactly divided and we know that a String which sounds an Eighth is in double Proportion to another by which an Eighth is made that the Fifth is in sesquialter Proportion or as 3 to 2 and so of the rest For the Ear only cannot judge of Sounds with that Preciseness and Justness which is necessary to a Science The most skilful Practitinoners who have the most delicate and fine Ear have not been hitherto sufficiently able to discover the Difference there is between certain Sounds and they falsely perswade themselves there is none because they judge of thing only by the Sensations they have of them Some cannot distinguish any Difference between an Octave and three Ditons and some even think that the greater Tone is not different from the less so that a Comma which constitutes the Difference is to them insensible and much more a Schisma which is but half a Comma It is only Reason therefore which manifestly shows that the Space of the Line which makes the Difference betwixt certain Sounds being divisible into many Parts there may also be a great Number of different Sounds which wou'd be useful in Musick that the Ear cannot discern from whence it is plain that without Arithmetick and Geometry regular and exact Musick wou'd be unknown to us and we cou'd not accomplish any thing in this Science but by chance and Imagination and so Musick wou'd no longer be a Science founded upon indisputable Demonstrations although Airs that are composed by the Strength of the Imagination are more fine and agreeable to the Senses than those that are composed by Rules So in Mechanicks the Gravity of some Weights and the Distance of the Center of Gravity of these Weights from the Fulciment being capable of more or less may be expressed by Lines so that we may very advantagiously make use of Geometry to discover and demonstrate an infinite Number of new Inventions that are very useful to Life and also very agreeable to the Mind because of the Evidence which accompanies them If for instance we have a Weight given of six Pound that we wou'd put in Equilibrio with one of three Pound only and that this Weight of six Pound be suspended on the Beam of a Ballance two Feet distant from the Fulciment only knowing the general Principle of all Mechanicks That the Weights to continue in Equilibrio must be in Reciprocal Proportion to their Distance from the Fulciment That is one Weight must be to the other Weight as the Distance which is between the last Weight from the Fulciment is to the Distance between the first from the same Fulciment it will be easily found by Geometry what the Distance of the Weight of three Pound ought to be so that both may be brought into Equilibrio in finding a fourth stance between the first from the same Fulciment it will be easily found by Geometry what the Distance of the Weight of three Pound ought to be so that both may be brought into Equilibrio in finding a fourth proportional Line according to the twelfth Propotition of the sixth Book of Euclid which will be of four Foot Thus only knowing the Fundamental Principle of Mechanicks we may clearly discover all the Truths that depend upon it by applying Geometry to Mechanicks that is by expressing by Lines all things that are to be considered in Mechanicks Geometrical Lines and Figures then are most proper to represent to the Imagination the Relation that is between Magnitudes or between things which differ as to more or less as Spaces Times Weights c. as well because they are very simple Objects as because they are imagined with great Facility We may even say further to the Advantage of Geometry that Lines can represent to the Imagination more things than the Mind can receive Since Lines can express the Relation of incommensurable Magnitudes that is of Magnitudes whose Relations we cannot know because they have no common Measure by which can compare them But this Advantage is not very considerable in an Enquiry after Truth since these sensible Representations of incommensurable Magnitudes discover nothing to the Mind Geometry is then very useful to render the Mind attentive to such things whose Relations we wou'd discover But it must be confessed that it is sometimes an Occasion of Error because we so very much apply our selves to evident and agreeable Demonstrations which this Science furnisheth us with that we do not sufficiently consider Nature 'T is chiefly for this Reason that all Machines that have been invented have not been perfected That all Musical Compositions wherein the Proportions of Consonancy's are the best observed are not the most agreeable and that the most exact Computations in Astronomy do not always best foretel the Greatness and Duration of Eclipses Nature is not abstracted Levers and Mechanical Wheels are not Mathematical Lines and Circles The Taste of Musical Airs is not always the same in all Men nor even
well Simple as Compound we should know all Relations as well Simple as Compound There are two sorts of them as we have already said Relations of Equality and Inequality It is plain that all Relations of Equality are alike and as soon as we know one thing is equal to another known thing we know exactly the Relation of it But it is not the same with those of Inequality we know that a Tower is commonly higher than six feet and lower than a thousand and yet we know not its just Magnitude nor the Relation it has to six Feet To compare things amongst themselves or rather exactly to measure the Relations of Inequality we must have an exact measure we must have a simple and infinitely Intelligible Idea which may be accommodated to all forts of Subjects This Measure is Unity by that it is that we exactly measure all things and without it is impossible to know any thing exactly But all Numbers being compounded of Unity it is self-evident that without the Idea's of Numbers and manner of comparing and measuring these Idea's that is without Arithmetick it is impossible to advance to the Knowledge of compounded Truths Idea's or the Relations between Idea's in a word Magnitudes when they are greater or less than other Magnitudes cannot be made equal except by More or Less which is compounded of Unity so many times repeated as is necessary So it is only by Addition and Substraction of Unity and the parts of Unity when we conceive it divided that we exactly measure all Magnitudes and discover all Truths Now of all the Sciences Arithmetick and Algebra are principally the only ones which teach us to make these Operations artificially instructively and admirably to manage the Capacity of the Mind since they furnish it with all the Perfection and Extension it is capable of because 't is by them only that we discover all knowable Truths with the greatest Exactness Common Geometry perfects the Imagination more than it does the Mind and the Truths which we discover by this Science are not always so evident as Geometers imagine For instance They think they have expressed the value of certain Magnitudes when they have proved them equal in value to certain Lines as the Hypothenusa's in right Angle Triangles whose Legs are known or of others which are determined by some of the Conick Sections But it is plain they deceive themselves for these Hypothenusa's for instance are themselves unknown We more exactly know the √ 8 or √ 20 than a Line that we imagine or describe upon Paper for the Hypothenuse of a right-angled Triangle whose sides are two whereof one is two and the other four We know at least that √ 8 approaches very near to 3 and that √ 20 is about 4 ½ and by certain Rules we can approach Infinitely nearer and nearer to their true Magnitude and if we cannot arrive to it 't is only because the Mind cannot comprehend Infinity But we have only a very confused Idea of the Magnitude of Hypothenusa's and we are even obliged to have recourse to √ 8 or √ 20 to express them Thus Geometrick Constructions which serve to express the values of unknown quantities are not so useful in regulating the Mind and discovering the Relations or Truths which we enquire after as to regulate the Imagination But as we are much more pleased to make use of our Imagination than our Mind Studious Persons have commonly more Esteem for Geometry than for Arithmetick and Algebra To Make it perfectly apprehended that Arithmetick and Algebra together are the true Logick which serves to discover things as they are and to give the Mind all the Extension it is capable of It ill be sufficient to make some Reflections upon the Rules of these Sciences We have a little before said that all Truths are only Relations that the most simple and best known is that of Equality That this is the begining from whence others must be measured to have an exact Idea of Inequality that the Measure we are obliged to make use of is Unity that we must add of substract it as many times as is necessary to measure the Excess or Defect of the Inequality of these Magnitudes From thence it is plain that all Operations which may be of use to discover the Relations of Equality are only Additions or Substractions Additions of Magnitudes to Equal Magnitudes Additions of Relations to equal Relations or to place Magnitudes in Proportion In short Addition of relations to equal relations or to put Magnitudes in compounded Proportion To equal 2 to 4 it is only requisite to add 2 to 2 or cut off 2 from 4 or to add unity to 2 and substract it from 4. To make the relation of 8 to 2 equal to the relation of 6 to 3 we must not add 3 to 2 nor substract 3 from 8 so that the excess of one number to the other may be equal to 3 which is the excess of 6 above 3 that would be only an Addition and equalling simple Magnitudes We must first see what is the Magnitude of the Ratio of 8 to 2 or which is all one 8 2 and we find by dividing 8 by 2 that the Quote of this Ratio is 4 or that 8 2 is equal to 4 we must also examine what the Magnitude of the Relation of 6 to 3 is and fin that 't is equal to 2. Thus we discover that these twe Ratio's 8 2 is equal to 4 and 6 3 equal to 2 differ only by 2 so that to equal them we may either add 6 3 equal to 2 to 6 3 which makes 12 3 which is a relation equal to 8 2 or else substract 4 2 equal to 2 from 8 2 and there remains 4 2 which will be a Ratio equal to 6 3 or in fine add unity to 6 3 and substract it from 8 2 and we shall have 9 3 and 6 2 which are equal Ratio's for 9 is to 3 as 6 to 2. Lastly To find the Magnitude of the Inequality between Relations which result the one from a compounded Ratio or from the relation of the relation of 12 to 3 and of 3 to 1 and the other of the compounded Ratio or of the relation of the relation of 8 to 2 and of 2 to 1 the same method must be taken First The Magnitude of the Ratio of 12 to 3 is design'd by 4 or 4 is the Quote of the Ratio of 12 to 3 and 3 is the Quote of that of 3 to 1 and the Quote of the Ratio of the Quotes of 4 and 3 is 4 3. Secondly The Quote of 8 to 2 is 4 and that of 2 to 1 is 2 and the Quote of the Quotes 4 and 2 is 2. In fine The Inequality between the relations which result from the relations of the relations is the difference between 4 2 and 2 viz. 2 3. Therefore 2 3 added to the relation of the Ratio's of 12 to 3 and 3 to 1 or substracted
only upon the false and confused Idea's of the Senses since this Rule which preserves Light and Evidence in all just and solid Arguments only breeds Confusion in their Discourses It is not possible to expose the Fantasticalness and Extravagances of the Explanations that Aristotle gives of all sorts of Matters when the Subjects he treats of are simple and easie his Errors are simple and very easily discovered but when he pretends to explain compounded things and such as depend upon many Causes his Errors are at least as compounded as the Subjects he treats on and it is impossible to take them in Pieces so as to discover them all to others This great Genius which they pretend has done so well in his Rules for Definitions did not so much as know what things were necessary to be defined Because putting no Distinction between a clear and distinct knowledge and a Sensible one he imagined he was able to know and explain things to others which he had no distinct Idea of himself Definitions must explain both the Nature of Things and the Terms which compose them and stir up in the Mind distinct and clear Idea's of them But 't is impossible after this manner to define the Sensible Qualities of Heat Cold Colour Taste c. when we confound the Cause with the Effect and the Motion of Bodies with the Sensation which accompanies it because Sensations being Modifications of the Soul which we know not by clear Idea's but only by an inward Sensation as I have explained in the third Book it is impossible to affix Words to Idea's we have not As we have clear and distinct Idea's of a Circle a Square a Triangle and so distinctly know the Nature of them we may give good Definitions thereof We can even deduce the Idea's we have of these Figures all their Properties and explain them to others by Terms to which these Idea's are affixed but we cannot define either Heat or Cold being only Sensible Qualities for we know them neither distinctly nor by Idea but only by Conscience or Internal Sensation Nor must we define Heat which is external by any Effects For if we substitute in its Place the Definition that we shall give it we shall soon see that this Definition will only deceive us If for instance we define Heat to be what assembles things of the same kind without saying any thing more we may in following this Definition take such things for Heat as have no Relation to it We may say that the Loadstone assembles the Filings of Iron and separates them from those of Silver because it is hot that a Pigeon eats Hemp-Seed and leaves other Grain because she is hot That a Covetous Man separates his Gold from his Silver because he is hot In fine there is no Extravagancy that this Definition will not engage us in if we were stupid enough to follow it This Definition then does not explain the Nature of Heat nor can we make use of it to deduce all its Properties since if we keep precisely to its Terms we conclude Impertinences and if we put it in the Place of the thing defined we shall have a strange Piece of Nonsence Yet if we carefully distinguish Heat from the Cause of it although we cannot define it since it is a Modification of the Soul whereof we have no Idea we may define the Cause of it since we have a distinct Idea of Motion But Care must be had that Heat taken for such a Motion does not always cause the Sensation of Heat in us For Water for instance is hot since its Parts are fluid and in Motion and 't is apparent that Fish feel it warm at least warmer than Ice whose Parts are more in Rest but it is cold in relation to us because it has less Motion than the Parts of our Bodies For what hath less Motion than another Body is in some manner in rest in respect to that Body So that 't is not in Relation to the Motion of the Fibres of our Bodies that we must define the Cause of Heat or the Motion which excites it We must if we can define this Motion absolutely and in it self and then the Definitions we shall give may serve to discover the Nature and Properties of Heat I do not think my self obliged to examine the Philosophy of Aristotle any further and to unravel the extreamly confused and perplext Errors of this Author It seems to me that I have already shewn that he does not prove his four Elements and that he defines them ill That his Elementary Qualities are not such as he pretends that he knows not the Nature of them and that all second Qualities are not compounded of them And lastly although we should grant him that all Bodies were composed of four Elements as second Qualities of the first his whole System would be useless in a Search after Truth since his Idea's are not clear enough always to preserve Evidence in our Ratiotinations If 't is doubted that I have not related the true Opinions of Aristotle it may easily be seen by examining the Books he has writ of the Heavens of Generation and Corruption for 't is from them that I have taken almost all that I have said I had no Design to relate any thing of his Eight Books of Physicks because there is some learned Men who pretend that 't is only a Discourse of Logick And 't is very probable since we find there many indetermined and trifling Words As Atistotle often contradicts himself and as we may maintain almost any manner of Opinion from some Passages taken out of him I doubt not but we may prove by Aristotle even some Opinions contrary to those I have attributed to him but I am not afraid of it it is sufficient that I have the Book by me I cited him from to prove what I have said Nay I shall not give my self any great Trouble to examine whether these Books are Aristotle's or not I take them as for such and as they are commonly received For we ought not to disquiet our selves to know the true Genealogy of things for which we have no Esteem CHAP. VI. Some general Advices which are necessary to conduct us regularly in a Search after Truth and in a Choice of the Sciences THAT it may not be said I only destroy without establishing any thing certain and indisputable in this Work It will be proper to shew in a few Words the Order we ought to keep in our Studies to avoid being deceived and that I even note some most necessary Truths and Sciences in which we may meet with such Evidence as we cannot hinder our selves from consenting to them without suffering the secret Reproaches of our Reason I shall not explain these Truths and Sciences at large because 't is already done I do not pretend to make a new Impression of other Persons Works but content my self with referring to them I will only shew the Order we ought to
We have in our selves the Idea's of Numbers and Extension whose Existence is undoubted and whose Nature is immutable which would eternally furnish our Thoughts if we would know all their Relations And it is necessary for us to begin to exercise our Minds upon these Idea's for Reasons that will not be unnecessary to remark whereof the chief are these three The first is That these Idea's are the most clear and evident of all For if to shun Error we ought always to preserve Evidence in our Reasonings it is plain that we ought rather to reason upon the Idea's of Numbers and Extension than upon the confused and compound Idea's of Physicks Morality Mechanicks Chymistry and all other Sciences The second is These Idea's are the most distinct and exact of all chiefly those of Numbers So that the Habit we gain in Arithmetick and Geometry of not contenting our selves without knowing precisely the Relations of things gives the Mind a certain Exactness that those have not who content themselves with the Probability that is to be met with in other Sciences The third and greatest of all is That these Idea's are the immutable Rules and common Measures of all other things that we know or can know Those who perfectly know the Relations of Numbers and Figures or rather the Art of making the Comparisons necessary for the knowing their Relations have a kind of universal Science and a most certain means to discover evidently and certainly whatsoever exceeds not the common limits of the Mind But those that have not this Art can never certainly discover any Truths if but a little compounded although they have very clear Idea's of those things whose compounded Relations they endeavour to know These or the like are the Reasons which induced the Ancients to make young Men study Arithmetick Algebra and Geometry Without doubt they knew that Arithmetick and Algebra gave a certain Penetration to the Mind that could not be acquired by other Studies and that Geometry so well regulates the Imagination that it is not easily confounded for this Faculty of the Soul so necessary for the Sciences acquires a certain just Extension by the use of Geometry which promotes and preserves the clear view of the Mind in the most perplexing Difficulties If we would then always preserve Evidence in our Perceptions and discover the pure Truth without any Obscurity or Mixture of Error we ought first to study Arithmetick Algebra and Geometry at least after having acquired some Knowledge of our selves and the Soveraign Being If we would have any Book which Facilitates these Sciences I would prefer Descartes's Meditations to know God and our selves and to learn Arithmetick and Algebra we may read the Mathematical Elements for common Geometry Tacquet's Elements and for Conick Sections and the Resolution of Geometrick Problems De la Here 's Conicks his Geometrick Places and Construction of Equations to which we may add Descartes's Geometry I would not advise to the reading of the Mathematical Elements for Arithmetick and Algebra if I knew of any Author that had clearly demonstrated these Sciences but the Truth obliges me to a thing which some Men will oppose Algebra and Arithmetick being absolutely necessary to discover compounded Truths I believe it a Duty to testifie some Esteem for a Book which directs very far in these Sciences and which according to the Opinion of some Learned Men explains them more clearly than any one has yet done When with Care and Application we have studied these general Sciences we shall evidently discover a great number of Truths that are for all exact and particular Sciences Afterwards we may study Physicks and Morality because these Sciences are very useful although they are not so fit to make the Mind exact and penetrating And if we would always preserve Evidence in our Perceptions we must be very careful that we are never prejudiced in favour of any Principle that is not evident and from which the Chinese for instance would not be supposed to dissent after having throughly weighed and considered it So for Physicks we must only admit the Notions common to all Men viz. The Axioms of Geometricians and clear Idea's of Extension Figure Motion and Rest or any others as clear as these It may perhaps be said That the Essence of Matter is not Extension but what signifies that It is enough that the World which we conceive to be formed of Extension appears like to that which we see if it be not of this matter which is useless and unintelligible although we make such a noise about it It is not absolutely necessary to examine whether there are indeed External Beings which answer to these Idea's for we reason not upon these Beings but upon their Idea's We ought only to take care that the Reasonings we make upon the Properties of things agree with the Sensations we have of them viz. That what we think perfectly agrees with Experience because we endeavour in Physicks to discover the Order and Connection of Effects with their Causes or in Bodies if they Exist or in the Sensations we have of them if they have no Being Indeed we cannot doubt whether there are actually any Bodies when we consider that God is no Deceiver or reflect upon the just Order which he hath instituted in our Sensations whether in Natural Occurrences or in those things only that happen to make us believe what we could not naturally comprehend But it is not necessary at first sight to make deep Reflections upon a thing which no body doubts of and which is not very useful in the Knowledge of Physicks if considered as a true Science Nor must we trouble our selves much to know whether there is or is not any other Qualities in those Bodies that surround us than such as we have clear Idea's of for we must reason only according to our Idea's And if there is any thing else of which we have not a dear distinct and particular Idea we can never know any thing of it nor reason justly upon it Whereas if we reason according to our Idea's we follow Nature and discover that it is not so hidden as we commonly imagine So those that have not studied the Properties of Numbers often imagine that 't is not possible to resolve certain Problems although most Simple and Easie and those that have not thought upon the Properties of Extension Figure and Motion are extreamly inclined to believe and maintain that Physical Questions are inexplicable We must not stop at the Opinion of those that have examined nothing or have examined nothing with a necessary Application For although there are few Truths concerning Natural Things which are fully demonstrated it is certain that there are some general ones of which it is not possible to doubt although it is very possible not to think of them be ignorant and deny them If we would meditate regularly and with all necessary Application we should discover many of these certain Truths that I speak
of But that we may the more easily discover them it is requisite to read Descartes's Principles carefully without receiving any thing he says except when the Force and Evidence of his Reasons permit us not to doubt of it As Morality is the most necessary of all Sciences we must also study it very carefully for 't is chiefly in that Science that 't is dangerous to follow the Opinions of Men But that we may not deceive our selves in it but preserve Evidence in our Perceptions we must only meditate upon undoubted Principles such as are confessed by all those whose Minds are not blinded with Pride for there is no undoubted Principle of Morality for Spirits of Flesh and Blood and such as aspire to the Quality of great Wits These sort of Men comprehend not the most simple Truths or if they comprehend them at least they always dispute them through a Spirit of Contradiction and to preserve such a Reputation Some of these most general Principles of Morality are That God having made all things for himself he has created our Minds to know and our Hearts to love him That being also as Just and Powerful as he is we cannot be Happy if we do not follow his Orders nor Unhappy if we do That our Nature is Corrupt that our Minds depend upon our Bodies our Reason upon our Senses and our Wills upon our Passions That we are uncapable to do what we see clearly to be our Duties and that we have need of a Saviour There are also many other Principles of Morality as That a retreat from the eager Pursuit of the World and Repentance are necessary to disunite us from Sensible Objects and to increase that which we have with intelligible and true Goods I mean those of the Mind That we cannot enjoy violent Pleasure without becoming Slaves to it That we must never undertake any thing through the Incitement of Passion Nor seek an Establishment in this Life c. But because these last Principles depend upon the precedent and on the Knowledge of Man they ought not immediately to pass for undoubted If we consider these Principles orderly and with as much Care and Application as the weight of the Subject requires and receive for true only the Conclusions consequently deduced from these Principles we shall have a certain Morality which perfectly agrees with that of the Gospel although it is not compleat and large It is true in Moral Reasonings it is not so easie to preserve Evidence and Exactness as in some other Sciences and the Knowledge of Man is absolutely necessary to those that would make any great Progress And this is the reason that the generality of Men do not succeed in it They will not consult themselves to know the Weakness of their own Nature They omit to enquire of the Master who inwardly teaches them his own Will which is the Immutable and Eternal Law and the true Principles of Morality They do not hear him with Pleasure who speaks not to their Senses who answers not according to their Desires nor Flatters their Secret Pride They have no respect for such words as do not dazle the Imagination which are pronounced without a Noise and are never clearly heard but in the Silence of the Creatures Yet with Pleasure and Deference they consult Aristotle Seneca and some new Philosophers who seduce them either by the Obscurity of their Words the Turn of their Expressions or Probability of their Reasons Since the Sin of Adam we esteem only what relates to the Preservation of the Body and Conveniency of Life And because we discover these sort of Goods only by the Means of our Senses we make use of them in all Occurrences The Eternal Wisdom who is our true Life and the only Light which can illuminate us often shines before the Blind and speaks only to the Deaf when it speaks in the Recesses of the Soul for we are almost always out of our selves As we continually interrogate all Creatures to learn some new Good which we enquire after it is requisite as I have already said that this Wisdom presents it self before us without our going out of our selves to teach us by sensible Words and convincing Examples the way to arrive at true Felicity God continually imprints a Natural Love in us for him that we may always Love him and by this same Motion of Love we continually Estrange our selves from him by running with all the Power he has given us after Sensible Goods which he has forbid us to do So that willing to be loved by us he renders himself Sensible and presents himself before us by the Delights of his Grace to fix all our Vain Agitatitions and to begin our Cure by Sensations or Delectations like to those which had been the Original of our Disease Therefore I do not pretend that Men may by the Power of their Minds so easily discover all the Rules of Morality which are necessary to Salvation and much less that they are able to act according to what they know for their Heart is yet more Corrupted than their Minds I only say that if they admit none but evident Principles and consequently reason upon these Principles they will discover even the very Truths that we learn in the Bible because 't is the same Wisdom which immediately speaks from it self to those who discover Truths from the Evidence of Reasoning and who speaks by the Holy Scriptures to those who learn it from their Senses We must then study Morality in the Gospel to spare our selves the Trouble of Meditation and Certainly to learn those Laws according to which we ought to regulate our Manners For those who are not contented with Certainty because it only convinces the Mind without enlightning it must carefully Meditate upon these Laws and deduce them from their Natural Principles that they may evidently discover by their Reason what they already know by Faith with an entire Certainty This way they will be convinced that the Gospel is the most Solid of all Books That JESVS CHRIST perfectly knew the Disorder and Distemper of Nature That he has procured a Remedy the most Useful for us and the most Worthy of himself But that the Light of Philosophers is only thick Darkness and their brightest Vertues only an insupportable Pride and in a word that Aristotle Seneca c. are only at best but Men to say no worse of them CHAP. VII Of the Vse of the first Rule which respects Particular Questions WE have sufficiently explained the General Rule for Method which chiefly regards the Subject of our Studies and to prove that Descartes has exactly followed it in his System of the World but that Aristotle and his Followers have not observed it It is now proper to descend to particular Rules which are necessary to resolve all sorts of Questions The Questions that may be formed upon all manner of Subjects are of diverse kinds of which it will not be easie to give a
the Father begot his Son and that the Father and the Son produced the Holy Ghost for these Emanations are necessary But the World not being a necessary Emanation of God those who see his Being the most clearly do not see evidently which are his external productions Nevertheless I do believe that the Blessed are certain that there is a World but it is because God assures them of it in making his Will known to them after a manner which is unknown to us And even we here below are certain of it because Faith teaches us that God has Created this World and that this Faith is Consonant to our Natural Judgments or to our compound Sensations when they are confirm'd by all our Senses corrected by our Memory and rectified by our Reason It is true it seems at first that the Proof or Principle of our Faith supposes there are Bodies Fides ex auditu It seems to suppose Prophets Apostles Holy Writ and Miracles But if we observe it strictly we shall find that though we only suppose appearances of Men of Prophets of Apostles of Holy Writ of Miracles c. What we have learn'd by those pretended appearances is absolutely undeniable since as I have prov'd it in divers parts of this Work God alone can represent those pretended appearances to the Mind and God is no deceiver for Faith it self supposes all this Now in the appearance of Holy Scripture and Miracles we learn that God has Created an Heaven and an Earth that the Word was made Flesh and other Truths of this kind which suppose the existence of a Created World So that it is certain by Faith that there are Bodies and thereby all those appearances become Realities I need not inlarge any farther to answer an Objection which appears too abstruse to the common sort of Men and I am of Opinion that this will suffice to satisfie all those who are not too difficult Therefore we must conclude from all this that we can and even that we ought to correct the Natural Judgments or compound perceptions which have a relation to sensible Qualities which we attribute to external Bodies or to that which we animate But as to the Natural Judgments that have a relation to the actual Existence of Bodies though we might absolutely forbear forming free Judgments agreeable to them we ought not to do it because those Natural Judgments agree perfectly with Faith Besides I have particularly made this Remark that Men should seriously reflect upon this Truth That nothing but Eternal Wisdom can inlighten us and that all the sensible knowledge in which our Body has any share is deceitful or at least is attended with that Light to which we feel our selves oblig'd to submit I am sensible that the common sort of Men will not approve these Thoughts and that according to the abundance or defect of their Animal Spirits they will either laugh or be frightned at these Arguments For the Imagination cannot indure abstract and extraordinary Truths It either looks upon them as frightful Spectres or ridiculous Phantasms But I had rather be expos'd to the raillery of strong and bold Imaginations and to the Indignation and Fear of the weak and timorous than to be wanting in what I owe to Truth and to those generous defenders of the Mind against the efforts of the Body who know how to distinguish the answers of illuminating Wisdom from the confused noise of a perplexing and seducing Imagination AN EXPLANATION OF THE Fifth Chapter of the Second Book Of Memory and Spiritual Habits I Forbear speaking of Memory and Spiritual Habits in this Chapter for several Reasons the chief of which is that we have no clear Idea of our Soul For what means have we clearly to explain the dispositions which the Operations of the Soul leave in it which dispositions are its Habits since we do hot even clearly know the Nature of the Soul It is evident that we cannot distinctly know the alterations a Being is capable of when we do not distinctly know the Nature of that Being For if for instance Men had no clear Idea of extension they would in vain endeavour to discover the Figures of it However since some are desirous I should speak upon a matter which in it self is not known to me this is the method I will observe to follow none but clear Idea's in it I suppose that God only acts in the Mind and represents the Idea's of all things to it and that when the Mind perceives any Object by a very clear and lively Idea it is because God represents that Idea to it after a very perfect manner I suppose moreover that the Will of God being absolutely consonant to Order and Justice it is sufficient to have a right to a thing to obtain it These Suppositions which are distinctly conceiv'd being made the Spiritual Memory explains it self easily for Order requiring that Persons who have often thought on some Object should the easier think on it again and have a clearer and more lively Idea of it than those who have thought but little on it the Will of God which operates continually according to Order represents to their Mind as soon as they desire it the clear and lively Idea of that Object So that according to that Explanation the Memory and other Habits of pure Intelligences consist not in a facility of operation which results from certain Modifications of their Being but from an immutable Order of God and in a Right which the Mind acquires over those things Which have already been submitted to it and the sole power of the Mind depends immediately arid only on God the force or facility which all Creatures find in their Operations being in that sense only the Efficacious Will of the Creator And I do not think we are obliged to abandon this Explanation upon the account of the ill habits of Sinners and of the Damn'd for tho' God does whatever is real and positive in the Actions of Sinners it is evident by what I have said in the first Explanation that God is not the Author of Sin However I do believe and think my self oblig'd to believe that after the action of the Soul there still remains some alterations which do dispose it to that same Action But as I know them not I cannot explain them for I have no clear Idea of my Mind in which I can discover all the Modifications it is capable of I believe by Theological Proofs and not by clear and evident ones See the Explanation on the 7th Chap. of the 2d part of the third Book that the Reason for which pure Intelligences see Objects which they have already consider'd more clearly than others is not meerly because God represents those Objects to them in a more lively and more perfect manner but because they are really better dispos'd to receive the same Action from God in them Just as the facility which some persons have acquir'd to play upon some Instruments does
credit to the testimony of our Senses or of some Men who dare speak to us as our Masters Experience whatever Men may say does not countenance Prejudices For our Senses as well as our Masters according to the Flesh are only occasional causes of the instruction which the Eternal Wisdom gives us in the most secret part of our Reason But whereas that Wisdom teaches us by an operation which is no wise sensible we fancy that it is our Eyes or the Worlds of those who strike the Air at our Ears which produce that Light or pronounce that intelligible Voice which instructs us 'T is for that Reason as I have said elsewhere that Jesus Christ was not only satisfied with instructing us after an intelligible manner by his Divinity he thought fit also to instruct us after a sensible one by his Humanity He would show us that he was our Master in all things And because we cannot easily look within our selves to consult him as Eternal Truth Immutable Order and Intelligible Light he has made Truth sensible by his Words Order lovely by his Example Light visible by a Body which diminishes the splendour of it and yet we are still so ingrateful so injust so stupid and sensless as to look not only upon other Men as our Masters contrary to his express prohibition but perhaps even upon the most despicable and vile Bodies SECOND OBJECTION The Soul being more perfect than Bodies why should it not contain that in it self which represents them Why should not the Idea of Extension be one of its Modifications God only acts in it and modifies it We grant it But why should it see Bodies in God if it can see them in its own substance It is not material it is true But God though a pure Spirit sees Bodies in himself Why then should not the Soul see them in beholding it self though it be Spiritual ANSWER Do we not see that there is this difference between God and the Soul of Man that God is an Unlimited Universal and Infinite Being and that the Soul is a particular Species of Being 'T is one of the Properties of Infinity to be at once one and all things composed as it were of an Infinity of Perfections and so simple that every Perfection it possesses includes all others without any real distinction for as every Divine Perfection is Infinite it constitutes the whole Divine Being But the Soul being a Limited Being it cannot have Extension in it self without becoming Material Therefore God includes in himself all Bodies after an intelligible manner He sees their Essences or Ideas in his Wisdom and their Existence in his Love or in his Will It is necessary to say so since God made Bodies and knows what he has made even before any thing was made But the Soul cannot see that within it self which it does not include Moreover it cannot clearly see that which it does include it can only feel it confusedly But to explain this The Soul does not include intelligible Extension as one of its manners of Being because Extension is not a manner of Being it is really a Being We conceive Extension alone or without thinking on any thing else but we cannot conceive manners of Being without perceiving the Subject or Being whereof they are the manners We perceive that Extension without thinking on our Mind besides we cannot conceive Extension can be a Modification of ones Mind Extension being limited makes some figure and the limits of the Mind cannot be figured Extension having parts may be divided at least in some sense and we see nothing in the Soul that is divisible Therefore Extension which we see is not a manner pf the Minds Being and therefore cannot see it in it self How is it possible to see in one kind of Being all sorts of Beings and in one particular and finite Being a Triangle in general and an infinite number of Triangles For in fine the Soul perceives a Triangle or a Circle in general though it implyes a contradiction that the Soul could have a Modification in general The Sensations of Colour which the Soul ascribes to Figures make them particular because none of the Modifications of a particular Being can be general Certainly we may affirm what we conceive clearly We clearly conceive that Extension which we see is a thing distinct from us Therefore we may say that Extension is no Modification of our Being and it is really something that is distinct from us For we must observe that the Sun for instance which we see is not that which we behold The Sun and whatever is in the material World is not visible in it self I have proved it elsewhere The Soul cannot see the Sun to which it is immediately united Now we clearly see and plainly feel that the Sun is something distinct from us Therefore we speak against our Knowledge and our Conscience when we say that the Soul sees all Bodies which surround it in its own Modifications Pleasure Pain Taste Heat Colour all our Sensations and Passions are Modifications of our Soul But though they are so do we know them clearly Can we compare Heat with Taste Odour with Colour Can we distinguish the affinity there is between Red and Green and even between Green and Green It is not so with Figures we compare them one with another we exactly know their proportions we precisely perceive that the Square of the Diagonal of a Square is double to that Square What affinity can there be between those intelligible Figures which are very clear Ideas and the Modifications of our Soul which are only confused Sensations And why should we pretend that those intelligible Figures cannot be perceived by the Soul unless they are Modifications of it since the Soul knows nothing of what happens to it by clear Ideas but only by Conscience or Internal Sensation as I have proved elsewhere and shall prove it again in the following Explanation If we could only see the Figure of Bodies in our selves they would on the contrary be unintelligible to us for we know not our selves We are only darkness to our selves and must look out of our selves to see our selves and we shall never know what we are until we consider our selves in him who is our Light and in whom all things become Light For it is only in God that the most material Beings are perfectly intelligible but out of him the most Spiritual Substances become absolutely invisible The Idea of Extension which we see in God is very clear But as we do not see the Idea of our Soul in God we feel indeed that we are and what we actually have But it is impossible for us to discover what we are or any of the Modifications whereof we are capable THIRD OBJECTION There is nothing in God that is moveable there is nothing in him that is Figured if there be a Sun in the intelligible World that Sun is always equal to it self and the visible Sun appears
Augustine goes farther than St. Gregory his Faithful Disciple Propinquior nobis qui fecit quà m multa quae facta sunt In illo enim vivimus movemur sumus Istorum autem pleraque remota sunt a mente nostra propter dissimilitudinem sui generis For though he grants that we only know God at present after a very imperfect manner he nevertheless assures us in several places that God is more known to us than those things which we fancy we know best He that has made all things sayes he is nearer to us than those things he has made For 't is in him we have Life Motion and Being Most of the things he has made are not proportioned to our Mind because they are Corporeal and of a Species of Being distinct from him And a little lower Those who have known the Secrets of Nature are justly condemned in the Book of Wisdom Rectè culpantur in libro sapientiae inquisitores hujus saeculi for if they have been able to penetrate into these things which are most concealed from Men with how much more ease might they have discovered the Author and Soveraign of the Vniverse The Foundations of the Earth are concealed from our Eyes but he who has laid those Foundations is near to our Mind 'T is for that Reason that holy Doctor believes Si enim tantum inquit potuerunt valere ut possent aestimare saeculum quomodo ejus Dominum non faciliùs invenerunt Ignota enim sunt fundamenta oculis nostris qui fundavit terram propinquat mentibus nostris De Gen. ad litt l. 5. c. 16. De Trinitate l. 8. c. 8. even that he who has Charity knows God better than he knows his Brother Ecce sayes he jam potest notiorem Deum habere quà m fratrem Plane notiorem quia praesentiorem Notiorem quia interiorem Notiorem quia certiorem I bring no other Proofs of Saint Augustines Sentiment If any Man is desirous of them he may find them of all sorts in the Learned Collection Ambrose Victor has made of them in the Second Volume of Christian Philosophy But to return to the passage of St. John Deum nemo vidit unquam I believe the Evangelists design when he affirms that no Man has ever seen God is to make us believe the difference which is between the Old and New Testament between Jesus Christ and the Patriarchs and Prophets of whom it is written that they have seen God For Jacob Moses Isaiah and others have only seen God with their Bodily Eyes and under an unknown Form They have not seen him in himself Deum nemo vidit unquam But the only Son of the Father who is in his Bosom has acquainted us with what he has seen Vnigenitus qui est in sinu Patris ipse enarravit OBJECTION St. Paul Writing to Timothy sayes That God inhabits inaccessible Light that no Man has ever seen him and moreover that none can see him If the Light of God be inaccessible we cannot see all things in it ANSWER St. Paul cannot be contrary to St. John St. Cyril of Alexandria upon these words of St. John Erat Lux vera who assures us that Jesus Christ is the true Light which lightens all Men that come into this World For the Spirit of Man which several Fathers * In accessibilem dixit sed omni homini humana sapienti Scriptura quippe sacra omnes carnalium sectatoris humanitatis nomine notare solet St. Greg. in cap. 28. Job call Illuminated or Inlightned Light St. Aug. Tr. 14. upon St. John Lumen Illuminarum is only inlightened by the Light of Eternal Wisdom St. Greg. ch 27. of Job which the said Fathers for that Reason call the Light which inlightens Lumen Illuminans David exhorts us to draw near unto God to be inlightned by him Accedite ad eum illuminamini But how can we be inlightned by him if we cannot see the Light by which we are to be inlightned Therefore when St. Paul sayes that this Light is inaccessible he means that it is so to Carnal Men who never look within themselves to contemplate it Or if he speaks of all Men it is because they are all diverted from the Contemplation of Truth because our Body continually disturbs the attention of our Mind OBJECTION God answering Moses who was desirous to see him said Thou canst not see my Face for no Man can see me and live Non videbit me homo vivit ANSWER It is evident That the Literal Sense of this Passage is not contrary to what I have said hitherto For I pretend not that we can see God in this Life in the manner Moses desired it I Answer nevertheless that we must Dye to see God For the Soul unites it self to Truth proportionably as it forsakes the Body 'T is a Truth which we do not sufficiently think upon Those who follow the motions of their Passions whose Imagination is sullyed by the injoyment of Pleasures who have augmented the Union and Correspondence of their Mind with their Body in a word those who Live cannot see God For they cannot look within themselves there to consult Truth Sapientia non invenitur in terra suaviter viventium Job 18. Therefore happy are those who have a pure Heart whose Mind is free and whose Imagination is clean who are not tyed to the World and hardly to their Body in a word happy are those who are Dead for they shall see God Wisdom has declared it publickly upon the Mountain and it also sayes it secretly to those who consult it by looking within themselves Those who continually excite Concupiscence and Pride in themselves who perpetually form a thousand ambitious designs who not only unite but subject their Soul not only to their Body but to all things which are about them in a word those who live not only a Bodily Life but also the Life of this World cannot see God For Wisdom inhabits the most secret part of Reason but those perpetually incline towards external things Yet those who continually mortifie the Activity of their Senses who are careful to preserve the purity of their Imagination who couragiously resist the Motions of their Passions in a word those who break all the Tyes which make others Slaves to the Body and sensible Greatness may discover a World of Truths and see that Wisdom which is concealed from the Eyes of all Mortals Abscondita est ab Oculis omnium viventium Job 28.2 They do in some measure cease to live when they look within themselves They quiet the Body when they approach to Truth For the Mind of Man is situate after such a manner between God and Bodies that it cannot leave Bodies without drawing near unto God as it cannot run after them without removing from him But whereas we cannot quit the Body wholly before Death I own we cannot be perfectly united to God before that time We may now
his Physician and though the Physician should prescribe bitter Medicines and which indeed are kinds of Poyson yet they must be taken for 't is experienced that these Poysons stay not in the Body but drive out with them those ill Humours that are the Cause of the Distemper Here it is that Reason or rather Experience must command the Senses provided the horrour of the presented Medicine is not new for if this horrour was as old as the Disease 't is a sign the Medicine is of the same Nature as the ill Humours that caused the Distemper and then perhaps it would only exasperate it However I believe that before we take strong Medicines to which we are averse we ought to begin with such as are more gentle and natural as by drinking much Water or taking an easie Vomit if the Appetite is lost and if we have much difficulty to vomit Water may attenuate the over-thick Humours and facilitate the Circulation of the Blood in all the parts of the Body Vomits cleanse the Blood and hinder the received Nourishment from any longer corrupting and feeding the intermitting Feavers But I must no further insist upon these things I believe that we ought to follow the Counsel of Wise Physicians who are not over-hasty nor rely too much upon their Medicines nor too quick in prescribing Remedies for when one is sick for one Medicine that does good there are always many that do hurt The Sick are impatient and as 't is not for the Honour of Physicians or the Profit of Apothecaries to visit the Sick without prescribing to them so also Physicians visit too seldom and prescribe too often therefore when one is sick he should pray his Phisician to hazard nothing but to follow Nature and fortifie it as much as he can he should acquaint him that he has more Reason and Patience than to take it ill that he is often visited without Relief for on these Occasions he sometimes does a great deal who does no hurt I believe then we should consult Physicians and not refuse to obey them if we would be well for though they cannot assure us a Recovery yet they may sometimes contribute much to it by reason of the repeated Experiments they make upon different Distempers They know little of any thing certainly yet they know more than we and if they take the pains to know our Constitutions carefully observe all the Accidents of the Distemper and have much regard to our own Sensations we may expect from them all the Assistance that we can reasonably hope from Men. What we have said of Phisicians may be also said of Divines it is absolutely necessary to consult them on some occasions and it is commonly profitable But it often happens that it is very unprofitable and sometimes very dangerous to consult them For Instance 'T is commonly said That Humane Reason is subject to Errour but there is something equivocal in this which we are not sufficiently aware of for we must not imagine that the Reason which Man consults is depraved or that it ever deceives when faithfully consulted I have said and still repeat it That it is sovereign Reason alone which makes us reasonable it is sovereign Truth which enlightens us and it is God only who speaks clearly to us and knows how to instruct us We have only one True Master Jesus Christ our Lord the Eternal Wisdom and the Word of the Father in whom are all the Treasures of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God and it is Impiety to say that this Eternal Reason of which all Men participate and through which they are only reasonable should be subject to Errour and capable of deceiving us For it is not the Reason of Man but his Heart that deceives him it is not his Light which hinders him from seeing his Darkness it is not the Union he has with God that deceives him it is not even in one Sense that he has with his Body It is his dependance upon his Body or rather it is because he will deceive himself because he will injoy the Pleasure of Judging before he has been at the Trouble of Examining because he will rest before he is come to the Place of Truth I have more exactly explained the Cause of our Errour in many places of the Search after Truth and here I suppose what I have there said And now I affirm it needless to consult Divines when we are assured that Truth speaks to us and it is certain that Truth speaks to us when we meet with Evidence in the Answers that are made to our Demands or the Attention of our Mind Therefore when we return into our selves and in the silence of our Senses and Passions hear a Voice so clear and intelligible that it is impossible to doubt of it let Men think what they please we must not consider Custom and secret Inclinations or have too great a respect for their Answers who are called Learned We must not suffer our selves to be seduced with an appearance of false Piety nor be dejected through their Oppositions who know not the Spirit that animates them but we must patiently suffer their Insults without condemning their Intentions or despising their Persons We must with simplicity of Heart rejoice at the Light of Truth which enlightens us and although its Answers condemn us we must prefer them before all the Subtle Distinctions which the Imagination invents for the Justification of the Passions Every Man for Instance who knows how to examine himself and to still the Noise of his Senses and Passions clearly discovers that all the Motion which God puts into us should be terminated upon himself and that even God cannot dispense with the Obligation we have of loving him in all things It is evident that God cannot but act for himself that he cannot create or preserve our Will to will any thing but him or to will any thing besides what he himself wills for I cannot see how it 's conceivable that God should will a Creature to have more love for what is less lovely or love chiefly or as its end what is not most lovely I know well that Men who consult their Passions instead of Order can easily imagine that God has no other Rule of his Wills than the same Wills and that if God follows Order 't is surely from this that he has willed it by a Will that is absolutely free and indifferent There are some who think there is no Order that is immutable and necessary by its nature and that the Order or Wisdom of God according to which he made all Things although the first of Creatures is it self a Creature made by a Free-will of God and not begotten of his Substance by the necessity of his Being But this Opinion which shakes all the Foundations of Morality by taking away from Order and the Eternal Laws which depend upon it their Immutability and which overturns all the Superstructure of the Christian Religion by despoyling
their unserviceableness he sometimes bestows them in great number which nevertheless produces but little Effect Why all these Ambages and indirect wayes Would it not have been sufficient for him to have will'd the Conversion of a Sinner to have effected it after an efficacious and invincible manner Is it not plain that 't is because he acts by the most simple wayes and that Order requires it although we do not alwayes see it For God can only act according to Order and Wisdom although his Order and Wisdom are often impenetrable abysses to the Mind of Man There are certain very simple Laws in the Order of Grace consonant to which God commonly acts For this Order has its Rules as well as that of Narure although we know them not as we see in the Communication of Motions Let us only follow the Counsel given us in the Holy Gospel by him who perfectly knew the Laws of Grace I say this to quiet the unjust Complaints of Sinners who despise the Advice given them by JESVS CHRIST and who charge God with their Malice and Disorders They would have him to perform Miracles in their Favour and dispence with the common Laws of Grace They live in Pleasure seek after Honour and continually renew those Wounds which sensible Objects have made in their Brain and often add more to them and yet would have God cure them by a Miracle Like to wounded Men who in the excess of their Pain rend their Cloaths tear up their Wounds and then at the sight of approaching Death complain of the Cruelty of their Surgeons They would have God save them because say they he is Good Wise and Powerful and need but Will it and we are Happy He ought not surely to have made us to Damn us But they ought to know that God has done all that could be done by Order and Wisdom which he consults We should not believe that he leaves us since he has given us his own Son to be our Mediator and Sacrifice Yes God would have us all saved But by such wayes as we ought carefully to study and exactly to follow He consults not our Passions in the execution of these designs but only his Wisdom and follows Order And Order requires us to imitate JESVS CHRIST and to follow his Counsel that we may be sanctified and saved But if God has not predestinated all Men to be conformable to the Image of his Son who is the Model and Exemplar 't is because in this he acts by the most simple wayes in relation to his designs which tend all to his Glory And God is an Universal Cause and ought not to act like Particular Causes which have particular wills for whatever they do 'T is also because his Wisdom which in this respect is an Abyss to our Understandings wills it should be so In fine 'T is because this conduct is more worthy of God than any other which would be more favourable to Reprobates For even the Order which condemns them is as worthy of our Adorations as that whereby the Elect are sanctified and saved And nothing but our Ignorance of Order and our Self-love could make us condemn such a Conduct as Angels and Saints will eternally admire But let us return to the Proofs of the Efficacy of Second Causes The Fifth Proof If Bodies had not a certain Nature or Power to act and if God did all things there would be nothing but what was Supernatural in the most Common Effects The distinction of Natural and Supernatural which is so well received in the World and established by the universal consent of all the Learned would be Chimerical and Extravagant ANSWER I Answer That this distinction is as ridiculous in the Mouth of Aristotle for the Nature that this Philosopher has established is a pure Chimera I say that this distinction is not clear in the mouth of the Vulgar who judge of things by the impression they make upon their Senses For they know not precisely what they mean when they say that Fire burns by its own Nature I confess this distinction may pass from the Mouth of Divines if by Natural Effects they mean those which are consequences of General Laws that God has established for the general production and preservation of all things and that Supernatural Effects are such as depend not upon these Laws In this sense this distinction is true But the Philosophy of Aristotle joyn'd to the impression of the Senses I think makes it dangerous because this distinction may turn those from God who have too much respect for the Opinions of this wretched Philosopher or such as consult their Senses instead of entering within themselves to seek the Truth there So that we ought not to make use of this distinction without explaining it St. Austin having used the word Fortune L. 1. de Retract 1 Cor. 10.19 retracted it although there were few persons who could be deceived by it St. Paul speaking of Meats offered to Idols tells us That Idols are Nothing If the Nature of the Heathen Philosophy is a Chimera a Nothing Men ought to be advertized of it for there are many Men who will be deceived by it And more than we suppose who inconsiderately attribute the Works of God to it who are taken up with this Idol or Fiction of Mans Mind and render it Honours which are only due to the Divinity They are willing that God should be the Author of Miracles and certain extraordinary Effects which in one sense are unworthy of his Greatness and Wisdom and they refer to the Power of their imaginary Nature those constant and regulated Effects that Wise Men only know how to admire They likewise pretend that this wonderful disposition which all living Bodies have to preserve themselves and beget their like is a production of Nature For according to these Philosophers 't is the Sun and Moon which begets a Man We may further distinguish Supernatural from Natural Order in many respects For we may say that the Supernatural refers to future good that it is established in consideration of the Merits of JESVS CHRIST that it is the first and chief of all Gods designs and many other things sufficient to preserve a distinction which they are vainly apprehensive should fall to the ground The Sixth Proof The Chief Proof that Philosophers bring to prove the Efficacy of Second Causes is deducted from the Will and Liberty of Man Man wills and determines of himself and to will and determine is to act It is certain it is Man who commits sin God is no more the Author of it than he is of Concupiscence and Error Therefore Man acts ANSWER In many places of the Search after Truth I have sufficiently explained what the Will and Liberty of Man is and principally in the First Chapter of the First Book and in the First Explanation upon that Chapter It is useless to repeat it here I confess that Man wills and determines of himself because
the execution of his designs Therefore 't will not be useless for me to prove and explain this Truth for 't is of the greatest consequence not only for the knowledge of Nature but much more for the knowledge of Religion and Morality By the word God we understand a Being infinitely Perfect whose Wisdom and Knowledge have no limits and who consequently knows all the means whereby he can execute his designs This being granted I say God acts alwayes by the shortest means and most simple wayes That I may be the better understood I 'll make use of a sensible Example I suppole that God wills the Body A should strike the Body B. Since God knows every thing he perfectly knows that A. can go to strike B. by an infinite number of Curve-Lines and but by one Right-Line only Now God only wills the shock of B. by A. and we suppose that he only wills the transferring of A. to B. to effect this shock Therefore A. must be transferred to B. by the shortest way or by a Right-Line For if the Body A. were transported to B. by a Curve Line that would show either that the Transporter knew no other way or else that he not only will'd the concurrence of these Bodies but also the means to produce it which is against the supposition There 's as much more action requisite to transfer a Body A. to B. by a Curve-Line than by a Right-Line as the Curve is greater than the Right If God therefore should transfer A. to B. by a Curve-Line which is double to a Right half the Action of God would be wholly useless consequently produced without design or end as well as without effect Moreover Action in God is Will therefore there must be more Will in God to cause A. to be transported circularly than directly Now we have already supposed that God had no Will in respect to the motion of A but only as it relates to the shock Therefore there is not Will enough in God to move A. by a Curve-Line And consequently this motion of A. to B. is a contradiction Thus 't is a contradiction that God should not act by the most simple wayes except we suppose that God in the choice of wayes he makes use of to execute his designs has something else in view besides these designs which is a contradiction in our supposition When I say there is more Will in God to transfer a Body from A. to B. by a Curve than by a Right Line we must from thence conclude nothing against the simplicity of the Being and Action of God For it must be confessed that it cannot be comprehended either how the simplicity of an Infinite Being includes all the different Perfections of Finite Beings nor how his Will continuing alwayes the same and alwayes conformable to Order changes with reference to the different Beings it produces and preserves I speak only according to our manner of conceiving It seems to me now that we clearly conceive when God Wills and for instance creates a Cubic Foot of Matter he Wills another thing than if he creates two For 't is evident that God could not create two different things nor know whether he had created one or two feet of Matter or if he conveyed a Body circularly or directly if there was not some difference in his Wills in respect to Matter or to its Motion since God sees only in himself and in his Wills the variety of his Creatures Now whatever that Action is in God which relates to the different Beings he produces or preserves I call it the differences augmentations and diminutions of Wills in God And according to this manner of conceiving things I say God cannot imploy more Will than is necessary to execute his designs So that God alwayes acts by the most simple wayes in reference to them I don't deny however but God may have a great number of wayes equally simple to produce the same effects or that he may produce them by different means but he alwayes produces them by the most simple provided they are all of the same kind for 't is a contradiction that a Being infinitely Wise should have useless and irregular Wills If we would apply this Principle to Morality we shall see that those secure their Salvation who so prepare themselves for Grace by Self-denyal Repentance and an exact Obedience to the Commands of our Saviour that God acting in them by the most simple wayes I mean by giving them but few New Graces operates very much in them For although God would have all Men be saved he will only save those that can be saved by the most simple means which have relation to the great design he has of Sanctifying through JESVS CHRIST a certain number of the Elect and he will multiply the Children of Eve till that number be fulfilled for 't is because God is willing to sanctifie us through the most simple means that after Sin it was necessary for him to multiply the Children of Men to compleat the number of his Elect since there are many persons who cause their own Damnation by withdrawing themselves from the Order of God Now as God acts not as a particular Cause we must not imagine that he has like us particular Wills for every thing he produces for if it were so it appears evident to me that the generation of Monsters would be impossible and that it would never happen that one work should destroy another As God cannot have contrary Wills we should have recourse to a Principle of Evil as the Manichses had for instance to freeze the Fruits produced by God This being so we are methinks obliged to suppose that there are some general Rules according to which God predestinates and sanctifies the Elect and that those Laws are what we call the Order of Grace as his general Wills whereby God produces and preserves whatever is in the World are the Order of Nature I don't know whether I am not mistaken but methinks from this Principle a great many Consequences may be drawn which perhaps would resolve some Difficulties about which there has been much Controversie some years since but I don't think my self obliged to deduce them every one may do it according to his own Capacity 'T is more convenient to be silent than to say such things as are not necessary to be known and which perhaps will one day be more easily agreed upon than they would now I would only have it known that the most simple ways of our Sanctification are Self-denyal and Repentance or that at least we should continually reflect that our Blessed LORD distinctly knowing the Laws of the Order of Grace we run perpetual dangers when we don't follow the wayes that he has showed us not only by his Words but also by his Actions But as in the course of our Lives there happens particular Occurrances wherein we don't know which way to determine our selves because of the contrary Reasons that may be
disadvantageous Sentiments against their Neighbour This is against all Rules of Charity and Justice But the Cartesians say they receive Principles whose Consequences are dangerous I grant it since they will have it so but they own not these Consequences They are perhaps so gross and stupid that they see them not included in their Principles yet they imagine they can separate them and think other Philosophers ought not to be believed upon their word They are not uncharitable to those who maintain Principles full of dangerous Consequences and also contrary to Religion and good Sense For in fine we may easily judge by the mischievous Consequences which I have drawn from these very Principles upon which Peripatetics pretend to triumph over their Adversaries how many I might draw from others and even the most mischievous if I would give my self the trouble of choosing out of their Body of Philosophy the most exceptionable But what advantage soever there is in Theological Contestations as also in publick Disputations I had rather defend my self weakly than overcome and triumph as an Agressor For in fine I do not comprehend how these who submit to all the Decisions of the Church can be pleased in making any Men impious and heretical upon Consequences they disavow Victory seems to me to be fatal which spills the Blood of our own Country-men But I believe I have not advanced in the Search after Truth any Principle of Philosophy whose Consequences are dangerous But on the contrary if I forsake Monsieur Des Cartes in some places and Aristotle almost every where 't is because I cannot reconcile that with Truth or this either with Truth or Religion This I leave to Men of more Judgment and Invention than my self I have said the Essence of Matter consists in Extension because I believe its evident that I have demonstrated it and thereby given clear and incontestable Proofs that the Soul is immortal and distinct from the Body A Truth which is essential to Religion and which Philosophers are obliged to prove by the last Lateran * Sess 8. Council But I never thought this Principle which is so fruitful in Truths that are serviceable to Religion was contrary to the Council of Trent Monsieur de la Ville ought not to assert it This can do no good This is the Conduct of the Religionaries in Holland Vitichius * Theo. pac ch 4. Poiret †L. 3. ch 13. cog nat and many others I say not this to call his Faith in question but I am much afraid that his Conduct will give them occasion to assert that we own in France that to be a good Catholick it 's necessary to believe that the parts of Bodies may exist without any actual Extension because a Book dedicated to the Bishops Published in Form with Approbation and Priviledge treats the Cartesians as Hereticks upon this Point I fear lest by his Probabilities he may shake the Faith of many who know not precisely what is necessary to make an Article of Faith but I am yet more apprehensive lest Libertines should be fortified in their Sentiments That the Soul is Corporeal and consequently Immortal That the Subject which he thinks is the same with that which is extended because according to them and Monsieur de la Ville Extension being only a Manner of Being whose Essence is unknown to us we have no Argument from Reason that this Being is incapable of striking and we have many Arguments from Sense Arguments however false they are yet very convincing and even demonstrative to all persons that will not be at the pains of Reasoning Hence I believe I am obliged to assert with all the Confidence which a sight of Truth affords me that I have demonstrated Extension is not a * Search after Truth p. 2. ch Manner of Being but a Being a Thing a Substance in a word a Body And there are many Answers in the Search after Truth to these Proofs of Sense by which Libertines confound the two Substances whereof Man is composed I maintain moreover that Monsieur de la Ville has not shown that this Opinion of the Essence of Matter is contrary to Transubstantiation that he has objected only such Answers as are easie to be resolved that he might more easily triumph over his Adversaries that he has only impugned mine and probably not so much as understood them and that in the humour I now find him I don't think my self obliged to inform him Lastly That he has added to the * It is forbidden by this Bull under Pain of Excommunication to give any Explanation of the Decrees of the Council Ullum omnino interpretationis genus super ipsius Consilii decretis quocunque modo edere c. This Power is reserv'd to the Pope Council of Trent more Articles of Faith or more Explications than any private person has a right to do after the express prohibitions contained in the Bull which confirms the same Council As for what respects me I desire the Readers not to believe Monsieur de la Ville upon his word but examine him cautiously Even where he asserts with the greatest Confidence he boasts himself upon his Sincerity and Ingenuity and I don't desire to dispute those qualities with him which are indispensable to every honest Man but I cannot forbear saying in defence of Truth and for my own Justification that he has often forgot himself in his Book of which I will give one notorious Instance In the Frontispiece of his Work he has inserted an Advertisement which has an Air of Sincerity for 't is composed only to make me a kind of a Reparation 'T is in these terms That there came to his Hands a Copy of the Search after Truth of the Strasbourg Edition Anno 1677 which obliges him to advertise his dear Reader that I had retracted an Error in this Edition which I had advanced in the first But it 's so true that I either know little in Divinity or am so very presumptuous that I could not retract one Error without advancing two others His whole Advertisement is only to make me a Charitable Reparation However 't is false 1. That I retracted that pretended Error about Original Sin the same Proposition being in the same words in the Edition he cites * In the Edition of Strasbourgh p. 190. In the 1st Edition at Paris p. 172. In the 3d p. 107. In the 4th p. 95. and in all those made at Paris 2. This Proposition is not my particular Opinion since 't is commonly taught in the Schools But though it were not taught at present yet 't is certainly no Error much less †p. 90. a very pernicious one as he elsewhere calls it 3. The two Errors which he supposes me to substitute in the room of that pretended one are two things which I never said and which he puts upon me Those that read what he has written in relation to the Question