Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	change_n	part_n	perception_n	25	3	16.0700	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70920	A general collection of discourses of the virtuosi of France, upon questions of all sorts of philosophy, and other natural knowledg made in the assembly of the Beaux Esprits at Paris, by the most ingenious persons of that nation / render'd into English by G. Havers, Gent.; Recueil général des questions traitées és conférences du Bureau d'adresse. 1-100. English	Bureau d'adresse et de rencontre (Paris, France); Havers, G. (George); Renaudot, Théophraste, 1586-1653.; Renaudot, Eusèbe, 1613-1679.; Renaudot, Isaac, d. 1680.	1664 (1664)	Wing R1034; ESTC R1662	597,620	597

That the three sorts of goods being found in the reception of presents sent us by friends for they testifie the honour which they do us the least present brings some profit to the receiver and no benefit is receiv'd without some pleasure 't is no wonder if men who have from all time assign'd some day to every thing which they esteem'd good have also thought fit to solemnize the Feast of Presents or Benefits and to testifie their esteem thereof have made the Year begin by it for good augury Indeed nothing is so powerful as Presents because they make and reconcile amity the greatest Gift which God hath given to men They pierce the best-guarded Gates as Philip of Macedon said and Jupiter found nothing so fitting as a Golden-showre whereby to convey himself into Danae's lap Homer with his Muses is thrust out by the shoulders if he brings nothing with him whereas a course Varlet laden with booty is admitted even into the Closet Whereof men are so perswaded that there was never a Religion but had its offerings And God forbids any to come before him with empty hands Especially gifts are agreeable when the proportion of the receiver with the giver is observ'd So the poverty of the Greek Epigrammatist made Augustus well pleas'd with the peny which he presented to him But the price of a thing or in defect thereof its novelty or the excellence of the work-man-ship the place and time is most considerable this latter making such things as would have no acceptance at another season pass for courtesies in the beginning of the year CONFERENCE XCVI I. Of Place II. Of Hieroglyphicks I. Of Place ALL created things having a finite and circumscrib'd essence have also a proper place which serves for a bound to their nature which is the principle of their motions and actions which cannot be but in some place the six differences whereof namely above below before behind the right side and the left sufficiently prove its existence since differences presuppose a genus But its nature and essence is no less hard to be known then its existence is plain To omit the sundry considerations of its several Sciences here we understand by place that which contains things plac'd and 't is either common to more or proper to one alone this either external or internal and generally 't is either Physical or Mathematical or rather the same sometimes provided and sometimes devested of accidents in its pure dimensions This place cannot be the space of every body because space is nothing else but a vacuum which is wholly opposite to place which being an affection ' of body must be something of reality 'T is therefore well defin'd the first internal and unmoveable surface of the ambient body First that is immediate and proximate because it must be equal to the body which it contains internal for if it were the external surface it would be greater as vessels are larger then what they contain Lastly it must be immoveable which is not to be understood of the real place or real surface environing the body because this surface changes when the body changes place or whilst the body remains unmov'd the ambient air is chang'd every moment but of that place or imaginary surface which encompasses the body on all sides remaining always immoveable Which is more satisfactory then to say as some do that the place of bodies is immoveable although they and their surfaces change place because from thence to the centre and principal parts of the world there is always the same distance and respect The Second said That Aristotle shew'd more subtilety then truth when in stead of defining place internally corresponding to the extension of the parts he defin'd it by an outward circumference by which account Souls Angels and other spiritual substances should not be contain'd in a place as 't is certain they are though definitively not circumscriptively in regard they move from one place to another Yea the whole world should not have a place since it cannot be contain'd by any thing but contains all 'T is also incongruous to say with some that the place of the world is its centre which is too small to design the place of so great a body and if a point were the place of the world the place of a Pismire should be greater then that of the world What others say That place is only the extension of things cannot consist with the place of spiritual forms which yet have a distinct extension as other corporeal forms have and we change place every moment although we have always the same extension I conceive therefore the place being relative to the thing plac'd ought to be defin'd by it according to the nature of relatives and so place is nothing but the space occupi'd by the body plac'd which is that long broad and deep interval which receives the same Moreover space which would be void if one body did not succeed another hath all the conditions requisite to the nature of place For first 't is nothing of the thing plac'd being a pure nothing 2. 'T is immoveable being of it self incapable of motion 3. 'T is equal to the body plac'd the whole space answering to the whole body and every part to every part 4. It receives sometimes one body and sometimes another And lastly two equal spaces contain as much the one as the other The Third said That place defin'd the immoveable surface of an ambient body cannot agree to the air because its surface is not immoveable But if this immobility be meant of the whole body of the air this inconvenience will follow that the external surface of the air is not proportionate to the quantity of the particular body which it encompasseth The defining of place to be the space occupi'd by the body plac'd explicates the place of bodies but not of incorporeal things as the Soul and Angels which having no extension should have no space and consequently be in no place Wherefore I conceive that place being an external affection of figure and quantity must not be taken in the concave superficies of the body which touches it but in the convex of that which is contain'd And so this superficies will be immoveable since the quantity of the body remains the same and always equal to the body contain'd without penetration because it hath no profundity Likewise every body will be likewise in its own place And as for things incorruptible and incorporeal the Angels and the Heavens their place will be always the extremity of their substance The Fourth said That if there were any place in nature which receives bodies it must either be a body it self or a vacuum A body it cannot be for then two absurdities will follow namely penetration of dimensions one body being within another and a progress to infinity for place being a body it must be in another place this in a third this third in a fourth and so to

which of the two is absolutely to be preferr'd before the other but it lies in the power of prudence to determine according to the variety of cases CONFERENCE XLII I. Of the Diversity of Languages II. Whether is to be preferr'd a good stature or a small I. Of the diversity of Languages WE have two notable examples in the Scripture one of God's displeasure when the Builders of the Tower of Babel were separated by the confusion of their Language the other of his favour when the Apostles were at the feast of Pentecost as it were united and incorporated into all Nations by the gift of Tongues Here we only adore Mysteries but fathom them not we seek the natural causes of the variety of speech and whether as there was but one at the first so the same may be recover'd again or any other found that may be universal to all people As to the first the variety alone of the Organs seems sufficient to diversifie speech Those Nations whose wind-pipes were more free easily retain'd the Hebrew aspirations if so be this Language were the first and not the Syriack as some hold alledging that its characters speak greatest antiquity or the Samaritane because the Thorath which is the law of God was written in it as also the most ancient Medals found in Palestine were stamp'd with it They whose breasts were more robust fram'd the German and other Languages which are pronounc'd with greater impetuosity the more delicate made the Greek Tongue the middle sort the Latine and their posterity degenerating the Italian which is pronounc'd only with the outer part of the lips and so of all the rest Whence it is that strangers never pronounce our Language perfectly nor we theirs which caus'd Scaliger to tell a German who spoke to him in Latine but pronounc'd it after his own way that he must excuse him for he did not understand Dutch Now every one of these Original Languages was chang'd again proportionably to the distance from its centre as circles made by a stone cast into the water lose their figure as they become wider Afterwards hapned the transplantations of Nations who with the confusion of blood and manners brought also that of speech for the Conquerours desiring to give Law to the vanquish'd as well in this as in all other things and the Organs of the people being unapt for the pronuntiation of a forreign tongue hence of the mixture of two arose a third Thus much for the first point But as for the second which is to reduce all Languages to one I hold the thing impossible For all things which are meerly of humane institution as Language is are as different as opinions are And if one and the same Tongue hath sundry very different Idiomes and Dialects as the French hath the Breton the Gascon the Poitevin the Parisian and many others as different as the French from the Italian which hath in like manner the Roman the Tusean the Neapolitan and the Sicilian all very differing with much more reason shall Nations divided by Seas and Climates speak diversely The opinions of men even of Philosophers themselves touching the same subject could never be reconcil'd and can it be imagin'd that all tongues should ever agree Nature affects nothing so much as variety which serves for discrimination of individuals Two men never writ or spake alike and we see that even the gestures and postures of others cannot be perfectly imitated by those who use their utmost care therein how then shall conformity be found in the expression of our thoughts besides there being no connexion or affinity between things and words which not onely signifie several things in several Languages but have different acceptions in the same Language witness Homonymous words 't is loss of time to think of such a designe The Second said That to judge of a River it must be taken at its source Languages are the several ways of interpreting or declaring our conceptions and these are the means which our mind makes use of to conceive the species or images of things It knows them according as they are represented to it and they are represented to it according to the truth of the object when the conditions requisite to sensation or perception by sense concur namely a due disposition of the object medium and Organ As therefore when all these conditions are right it cannot be but all persons of the world must agree in one and the same judgement and all say e. g. that this Rose is red and that other white so it may seem that men should agree together in the copy and transcript since they do so in the Prototype that is have one and the same Language since they have one and the same conception Otherwise as to this communication with his own species man will be inferior to other animals who signifie their passions and inclinations so plainly and intelligibly among themselves that they answer one the other afar off Moreover abundance of words are the express and natural image of the things designed by them as Taffata to hisse to creak or clash to bounce to howle or yell and many others There are words which keep the same number of letters in all the learned Languages particularly the name of God which holds also in some modern as in the French Dutch c. but not in ours There are others which vary not at all but are one and the same among all Nations as the word Sac. Many things express'd by the same characters in writing are read by each people in their own Tongue as Figures or Cyphers which are read and pronounc'd otherwise in Hebrew and Greek then in Latine or French and yet they are taken by all to signifie the same thing The same may be said of the Hieroglyphicks and letters of China yea of all the figures of the Mathematicks For every one knows a Circle a Triangle and a Square although each Nation denominate the same diversly What hinders then but as all Nations have conspir'd and agreed together in those visible words so they may do too in those which are pronounc'd The Third said That to the end words may make things understood by all the world they ought to be signs of them either natural as smoak is of fire or by institution depending upon a very intelligible principle or occasion as when a Bush denotes a Tavern As for the first many dumb persons express their conceptions so genuinely by signs that all the world understands them and the Mimicks and Pantomimes of Rome were so excellent in this kind that Roscius one of them sometimes bid defiance to Ciero that he would express as perfectly by his gestures and postures whatsover he pleas'd as that incomparable Orator could do by his words And as those who are not given to writing have the best memories so those who have not that use of speech are more excellent then others in speaking by signs and understanding them there being