they are united to their Relations their Friends their City their Office and all sensible Goods the Preservation of which seems as necessary and valuable as that of their own Being Thus the Care of their Fortunes and the Desire of increasing them their Passion for Glory and Grandeur busies and imploys them infinitely more than the Perfection of their Soul Even Men of Learning and Dealers in Wit spend more than one half of their Life in Actions purely Animal or such as give us Reason to think their Health their Estates and Reputations are of dearer Concern than the Perfection of their Minds They study more to acquire a Chimerical Grandeur in the Imagination of others than to give their Mind greater Force and Comprehension They make a kind of Wardrobe of their Brain wherein they huddle without Order or Distinction whatever bears a certain Character of Learning I mean whatever can appear but Rare and Extraordinary and provoke others to admire them Their Ambition lies in resembling those Cabinets fill'd with Relicks and Curiosities which have nothing truly Rich or Valuable but derive their Worth from Fancy Passion or Chance and they rarely labour to make their Mind accurate and to regulate the Motions of their Heart Yet it should not be thought from hence that Men are intirely ignorant that they have a Soul and that this their Soul is the Principal part of their Being They have too been again and again convinc'd both by Reason and Experience that 't is no so considerable an Advantage to live in Reputation Affluence and Health the space of a few Years and in general that all Corporeal Goods all that are possess'd by Means and for the sake of the Body are Imaginary and Corruptible Goods They know 't is better to be Just than Rich to be Reasonable than Learned to have a Lively and Penetrating Mind than to have a Brisk and Active Body These are Truths indelibly imprinted on the Mind and infallibly discover'd whenever Men please to attend to them Homer for Instance who extols his Hero for his Swiftness might have perceiv'd if he would that 't was an Elogy fitter for a Race-Horse or a Greyhound Alexander so celebrated in History for his Illustrious Robberies heard sometimes from his most Retir'd Reason the same Reproaches as Villains and Thieves in spight of the confus'd Noise of a surrounding Crowd of Flatterers and Caesar when he pass'd the Rubicon could not help manifesting how these inward Lashes terrified him when at last he had resolv'd to sacrifice the Liberty of his Country to his Ambition The Soul however united very strictly to the Body is nevertheless united to GOD and at that very time of her receiving by her Body the lively and confus'd Sensations her Passions inspite into her she receives from the Eternal Truth presiding over her Understanding the Knowledge of her Duty and Irregularities When her treacherous Body deceives her GOD undeceives her When it indulges He wounds her When it gives her Incense and Applauses He strikes her inward with smarting Remorses and condemns her by the Manifestation of a more Pure and Holy Law than that of the Flesh which she has obey'd Alexander needed not that the Scythians should have come to teach him his Duty in a strange Language He knew from Him who teaches the Scythians and the most Barbarous Nations the Rules of Justice which he ought to follow The Light of Truth which enlightens the World enlightned him also and the Voice of Nature which speaks neither in Greek nor Scythian nor Barbarian Dialect spoke to him as to the rest of the World in a most clear and most intelligible Language In vain did the Scythians upbraid him with his Conduct their Words struck no deeper than his Ears And GOD not speaking home to his Heart or rather GOD speaking to his Heart whilst he heard only the Scythians who but provok'd his Passions and so led him out of himself he heard not the Voice of Truth though loud as Thunder nor saw its Light though it pierc'd him through and through 'T is true our Union with GOD diminishes and weakens proportionably as our other with things sensible strengthens and increases but 't is impossible the former Union should be absolutely lost without the destruction of our Being For however those who are immers'd in Vice and drench'd in Pleasures are insensible to Truth they are notwithstanding united to it It never deserts them 't is they that desert it Its Light shines in Darkness but does not always dispell it as the Light of the Sun surrounds the Blind and those that wink though it enlightens neither The case is the same with the Union of our Mind with the Body That Union decreases as fast as the other we have with God increases but it is never quite dissolv'd but by our Death For though we were as enlightned and as disingag'd from all things sensible as the Apostles themselves yet Adam's Fall would necessitate us to a Dependence on the Body and we should feel a Law of our Flesh constantly opposing and warring against the Law of our Mind Proportionably as the Mind increases its Union with GOD it grows purer and more luminous stronger and more capacious since 't is from this Union it derives all its Perfection On the other side it becomes corrupt blind weak and contracted by the same degrees as its Union with its Body corroborates and increases because this is the Source of all its Imperfection Thus a Man who judges of all things by his Senses who on all accounts pursues the Motions of his Passions who has no other than Sensible Perceptions and loves only Flattering Gratifications is in the most wretched State of Mind imaginable as being infinitely remote from Truth and from his Good But when a Man judges of things but by the pure Ideas of the Mind carefully avoids the confus'd Noise of the Creatures and retiring into himself hears his Sovereign Teacher in the calm Silence of the Senses and Passions he cannot possibly fall into Errour GOD never deceives those who interrogate Him by a serious Application and an entire Conversion of Mind towards Him though He does not always make them hear His Answers But when the Mind by its Aversion from GOD diffuses it self abroad when it consults only its Body to be instructed in the Truth and only listens to its Senses Imaginations and Passions which talk to it everlastingly it must inevitably be engag'd in Errour Wisdom Truth Perfection and Happiness are not Goods to be hop'd for from the Body There is none except ONE that is above us and from whom we receive our Being who can make it perfect This is what we are taught by these admirable Words of St. Austin Eternal Wisdom says he is the Principle of all Intellectual Creatures which persisting immutably the same never ceases to speak to the most secret and inward Reason of his Creatures to convert them
Consequences to settle the General Rules of our Behaviour though few there are that do it whilst daily Disputes arise about Questions of Morality which are the immediate and necessary Results of so self-evident a Principle as this before us The Geometricians are continually making new Discoveries in their Science and if they do not much advance it 't is because they have already drawn from their Principles the most useful and necessary consequences But the greatest part of Mankind seem incapable of concluding any thing from the First Principle of Morals All their Ideas vanish and dissipate when their Will inclines them barely to consider it Because they will not as they ought and they will not as they ought because they cannot taste it or that having tasted it are presently distasted For 't is an Abstract Metaphysical and purely Intellectual Principle and not attainable by Sense or Imagination And therefore seems to Carnal Eyes or Minds that see no farther than their Eyes to have no solidity Nothing appears in this Principle likely to settle and compose the restless agitation of their Will and thereupon to stop the View of their Mind and fix it attentively on considering it What hope then is there they should see it well comprehend it right and draw those direct Inferences from it which they ought Those who should have but an imperfect apprehension of this Geometrical Proposition That the sides of Similar Triangles are proportional could certainly be no great Geometricians But if besides that confus'd and imperfect Perception of that Fundamental Proposition of Geometry they had some Interest why the sides of Similar Triangles should not be proportional and if False Geometry were as suitable to their perverse Inclinations as False Morals we should see as absurd Paralogisms in Geometry as Morality because their Errours would be pleasant to them and Truth would only trouble perplex and confound them Hence we need not wonder at the Blindness of Men in former Ages who liv'd whilst Idolatry flourish'd in the World or of such as live at present unenlightned with the Sun-shine of the Gospel It was needful for Eternal Wisdom to cloath it self with Sensibility to instruct Men that enquire only of their Senses Four thousand Years together Truth was manifested by speaking to their Mind but not entring into themselves they did not hear it 't was requisite therefore it should speak unto their Ears The Light which enlightens all Men shin'd upon their Darkness without dispersing it and they could not behold it Intelligible Light must veil it self and become Visible The Word must be made Flesh and hidden and inaccessible Wisdom must instruct Men in a Carnal manner Carnaliter says St. Bernard The Generality of Men and especially the Poor who are the worthiest Object of their Creator's Mercy and Providence those who are oblig'd to labor for their Living are extremely ignorant and stupid They hear only because they have Ears and see only because they have Eyes But are incapable of retiring into themselves by any Effort of Reason there to examine Truth in the silence of their Senses and their Passions Truth they cannot apply to because they cannot relish it and commonly that application enters not their Heads because they cannot think of applying themselves to unaffecting Objects Their desultory and restless Will continually casts the View of their Mind upon all sensible Objects the Variety of which is pleasant and diverting For the Multiplicity and Diversity of Sensible Goods serve to conâ—eal their Vanity and to keep up our Hopes of finding among them the True Good which we desire Thus though the Counsels which JESUS CHRIST in quality of Man of the Way and of Author of our Faith gives us in the Gospel are much more proportion'd to the weakness of our Mind than those which the same CHRIST as He is Eternal Wisdom Internal Truth Intellectual Light inspires into our most inward Reason and though He renders these His Counsels delectable by His Grace sensible by His Example and convincing by His Miracles yet Men are so stupid and inconsiderate even as to things of greatest importance to be known that they scarce ever think of them as behooves them Not many perceive the Excellency of the Gospel nor the Soundness and Necessity of the Precepts of our LORD few there are that meditate on them so as to nourish and strengthen the Soul by them The continual tossing and agitation of the Will which looks for the Enjoyment of Good permitting not those Truths to be insisted on which seem to deprive the Soul of it Here follows another proof of what I am asserting Doubtless it much concerns and lies upon the Wicked to know whether their Soul is Mortal as they suppose it or Immortal as Faith and Reason assure as being a thing of geatest moment and importance to them since the Question lays their Eternity at stake and the quiet of their Mind depends on the resolve Whence comes it that they are ignorant or doubtful in the matter but from their want of serious Attention and the Restlesness and Corruptness of their Will not suffering the Mind to take a steady View of the Reasons which contradict the Opinion they wish to be true For in brief is it so difficult to discover the difference between the Body and Soul betwixt a Thinking and an Extended thing Must a Man bring so great an Attention to perceive that a Thought is neither Round nor Square that Extention is capable only of different Figures and Motions but not of Thought and Reasoning and so that what Thinks and what 's Extended are two Beings altogether opposite And yet this is all that 's requisite to demonstrate the Immortality of the Soul and that she is not perishable though the Body should be annihilated True it is when a Substance perishes that the Modes or Manners of its Existence perish with it as were a piece of Wax annihilated it is certain the Figures of that Wax would be annihilated also because the Roundness for instance of the Wax is really nothing but the Wax it self existing in such a manner and so cannot subsist without the Wax whose Mode it is But though God should destroy all the Wax in the World it would not follow from thence that any other Substance or Modes of Substance should be annihilated All Stones for example might subsist together with their Modes Because Stones are Substances or Beings and not Modes of Being of the Wax So though God should annihilate the half of a Body it would not follow that the other half was annihilated The latter half is united to the other but is not one with it And therefore one half being annihilated it might be reasonably inferr'd that the other half was no longer related to it but not that it did it self exist no longer for being a different Being it could not be reduc'd to nothing by the annihilation of the other Thence 't is manifest that Thought
proceed from their feeling an Uneasiness and Regret to retire into themselves there to discover their Weaknesses and Infirmities and their being pleas'd with Curious Enquiries and gayer sort of Sciences Being always Abroad they are insensible of the Disorders that happen at Home within themselves They think all 's right because there 's a Stupor on their Soul and find fault with those who knowing their Distemper betake to Remedies saying they make themselves sick because they try for Cure But these Great Genius's who pierce into the most Mysterious Secrets of Nature who lift themselves in Opinion as high as Heaven and descend to the bottom of the Abyss ought to remember what they are These great Objects it may be do but dazle them The Mind must needs depart out of it self to compass so many things and this it can't do without scattering its Force Men came not into the World to be Astronomers or Chymists to spend their whole Life at the end of a Telescope or labouring at a Furnace to deduce trifling Consequences from their painful Observations Grant that an Astronomer made the first Discoveries of Continent and Sea and Mountains in the Moon that he first observ'd the Spots that circuit upon the Sun and that he had exactly calculated their Motions Suppose that a Chymist had found out at length the Secret of fixing Mercury or of making the Alkaest wherewith Van-helmont boasted to dissolve all Bodies What are they the wiser or happier for all this It perhaps has set them up in Reputation with the World but if they would reflect upon it they would find that Reputation did but increase their Bondage Astronomy Chymistry and most of the other Sciences may be look'd on as proper Divertisements for a Gentleman But Men should never be enamour'd with their Gayety not prefer them before the Science of Humane Nature For though the Imagination fixes a certain Idea of Greatness to Astronomy by reason of its considering Great and Glorious Objects and seated infinitely above all other things the Mind is not blindly to prostrate it self to that Idea but sit its Master and its Judge and strip it of that Sensible Pomp which amazes Reason The Mind must pronounce of all things according to its Internal Light without hearkening to the false and confus'd Verdict of its Senses and Imagination and whilst it examines all Humane Sciences by the Pure Light of Truth which enlightens it we doubt not to affirm it will disesteem most of them and set a greater Price on that which teaches us to know our selves than on all the other put together Therefore we choose rather to advise such as wish well to Truth to judge of the Subject of this Treatise by the Responses they shall receive from the Sovereign Instructor of all Men after having interrogated him by some Serious Reflexions than to forestall them with a long anticipating Discourse which perhaps they might look on as Common-place Matter or the Vain Ornaments of a Preface If they are persuaded this is a Subject worthy their Study and Application we desire them once more not to judge of the Things contain'd in it by the good or ill Manner they are express'd in but still to retire into themselves and there to hear the Decisions they are to follow and to judge by Being thus fully persuaded that Men cannot teach one another and that those who hear us learn not the Truths we speak to their Ears unless at the same time He who taught them us manifest them likewise to their Mind We think our selves farther oblig'd to advertise the Readers that would profit by this not to credit us on our Word out of any Inclination and Good-liking nor withstand our Sentiments out of Prejudice or Aversion For though we think nothing be therein advanc'd but what we learn'd at the Expence of Meditation we should however be very sorry that others should be contented with the Remembrance and Belief without the Knowledge of our Notions and fall into Errour for want of Understanding us or because we have Err'd before them That presumptuous Pride of some of the Learned who demand our Belief upon their Word seems intolerable They are angry with us for Interrogating GOD when once they have spoke to us because they Interrogate Him not themselves They grow warm upon every Opposition to their Opinions requiring an absolute Preference should be given to the Mists and Darkness of their Imagination before the Pure Light of Truth which illuminates the Mind We are Thanks to GOD very remote from this way of proceeding though it be often charg'd upon us We demand indeed a Resignation to Matters of Fact and the Experiments we produce because there are things not learn'd by the Applying the Mind to Sovereign and Universal Reason But as to Truths discoverable in the True Ideas of things which the Eternal Wisdom suggests to us in our most inward and secret Reason herein we expresly caution against resting upon what we have thought of them as judging it no small Crime thus to equalize our selves with GOD by usurping a Power over the Minds of Men. The chief Reason why we are so earnestly desirous that those who read this Work bring all possible Application along with them is that we are willing to be reprehended for the Faults we have been guilty of For we pretend not to be Infallible We have so strict an Union with and so strong a Dependence on our Body that we are justly apprehensive lest we have sometimes mistaken the confus'd Noise wherewith it fills the Imagination for the Pure Voice of Truth which speaks to the Understanding Were it GOD only who spoke and did we judge only according to what we heard we might perhaps say in the words of our LORD As I hear I judge and my Judgment is just But we have a Body that speaks lowder than GOD Himself but never speaks the Truth We have Self-love which corrupts the Words of GOD which are all Truth and we have Pride which emboldens us to judge without staying for the Words of Truth which ought to be the Rule of all our Judgments For the principal Cause of our Errours is that our Judgments reach farther than our Pure Intellectual Perceptions Wherefore I intreat those to whom GOD shall discover my Wandrings to put me in the Right Way that so this Treatise which I offer as an Essay whose Subject is well worthy the Application of Men may by degrees arrive to its Perfection This Undertaking was at first ettempted only with design of instructing my self But some Persons being of Opinion it might be of use if publish'd I the willinger submitted to their Reasons because one of the principal so well suited with the desire I had of advantaging my self The best means said they of being inform'd in any Matter is to communicate our Opinions about it to the Learned This quickens our own Attention as well as provokes theirs Sometimes they have
them For instance that those Persons who speak several Tongues are as many individual Men as they know different Languages since Speech distinguishes us from Beasts that the Ignorance of Tongues deprives us of a multitude of things since Ancient Philosophers and Strangers are more Learned then we Suppose but these and the like Principles and Conclusions and you 'll quickly form such Judgments as are fit to beget the Passion for Tongues and consequently like those wherewith the same Passion inspires the Linguists to vindicate their Studies There is not a Science so abject and contemptible but some part of it will shine very bright to the Imagination and dazle the Mind when Passion heightens those false Glimpses That Splendour I own vanishes when the Blood and Spirits cool and the Light of Truth begins to shine but that Light disappears also when the Imagination grows warm again and leaves but some transitory Shadows of those solid Reasons which pretended to condemn our Passion Farthermore when the Passion that agitates us finds it self a dying it repents not of its demeanour but on the contrary it disposes all things either to an honourable Funeral or to be reviv'd spedily again that is to say it always prepares the Mind to frame Judgments in its Vindication In this condition it makes a sort of Alliance with such other Passions as may keep it up in its weakness supply it with Spirits and Blood in its necessity raise it out of its Ashes and give it a new Birth For Passions are not unconcern'd for one another and those that can live together faithfully contribute to their mutual preservation So that all the Passions that are not contrary to the Studies of Tongues or of any thing else do continually sollicite and fully confirm those Judgments that are made to vindicate it A Pretender to Learning imagines himself now as surrounded with respectfull Hearers then as Conquerour of those whom he has amaz'd with his unintelligible words and almost always as one rais'd far above the common sort of Men. He flatters himself with the Commendations he receives with the Preferments that are proposed to him with the Courtship that is made to him He 's of all Times and Countries He is not limited as vulgar Wits to the present nor confin'd within the Walls of his Town but is continually communicating himself abroad and his Communication makes his Delight See how many Passions combine together to manage the Cause of pretended Learning how hotly they prosecute their Judgments and bribe the Mind in its favour Should every Passion act separately without caring for the rest they would vanish immediately after their Rise not being able to make a sufficient number of false Judgments to maintain themselves and defend the Glimmerings of Imagination against the Light of Reason But all Passions concur admirably well to their mutual Preservation assisting and strengthning each other though never so remote provided they be not declared Enemies as though they were minded to follow the Rules of a well-order'd State If the Passion of Desire were alone all the Judgments it might pass would only amount to represent the Good as attainable For the Desire of Love consider'd as such is produced by the Judgments we make that it is possible to enjoy such a Good And so this Desire could only form Judgments about the Possibility of enjoying it since the Judgments which follow and preserve the Passions are exactly like those which precede and produce them But that Desire is animated by Love fortified by Hope increased by Joy renewed by Fear attended by Courage Emulation Anger Irresolution and several other Passions that form each in their turn a great variety of Judgments which succeed each other and maintain the Desire that has produced them 'T is not therefore strange that the desire of a mere Trifle or of a Thing that is evidently hurtful or fruitless should however justifie it self against Reason for many Years nay during the whole Life of a Man that is agitated with it since so many other Passions endeavour to vindicate it I shall here set down in few Words how Passions justifie themselves that I may explain Things by distinct Ideas Every Passion agitates the Blood and Spirits which when agitated are driven into the Brain by the sensible Sight of the Object or the Strength of the Imagination in such a manner as is fit to imprint deep Tracks representing that Object They bend and even sometimes break by their impetuous Course the Fibres of the Brain and thereby leave the Imagination soil'd and corrupted For these Traces obey not the Commands of Reason nor will they be blotted out when it pleases on the contrary they put a Force upon it and oblige it incessantly to consider Objects in such a manner as moves and inclines it to favour the Passions Thus the Passions act upon the Imagination and the corrupted Imagination makes an Effort against Reason by continually representing Things not as they are in themselves that the Mind might pronounce a true Judgment but as they are in reference to the present Passion that it might pass a favourable Sentence in its behalf The Passions not only bribe the Imagination and Mind in their favour but produce in other Parts of the Body such Dispositions as are necessary to preserve them The Spirits they move stop not in the Brain but run as I have elsewhere shewn to all other Parts of the Body especially to the Heart the Liver the Spleen and the Nerves that surround the principal Arteries and lastly to all Parts whatsoever that may supply necessary Spirits for the maintenance of the predominant Passion But while these Spirits disperse themselves into all the Parts of the Body they destroy all along and by degrees whatever might hinder their Course and make their Passages so slippery and smooth that a very inconsiderable Object exceedingly moves us and consequently inclines us to make such Judgments as favour the Passions Thus it comes to pass that they establish and justifie themselves If we consider how various the Constitution of the Fibres of the Brain and withal the Commotion and Quantity of the Spirits and Blood may be in the different Sexes and Ages we shall easily and nearly conjecture to what Passions some Persons are most subject and consequently what Judgments they pass upon Objects For instance we may make a very near Guess by the plenty or want of Spirits that is observable in some People the same Thing being proposed and explained to them in the same manner that some of them will make Judgments of Hope and Joy whilst others shall pass such Judgments as proceed from Fear and Sorrow For those that abound with Blood and Spirits as young Men cholerick Persons and those that are of a Sanguine Complexion use to doe being very susceptible of Hope because of the secret Sense of their Strength will not believe that they shall meet with any Opposition to their Designs which
gross and difficult to be put in Motion As for those Nerves which environ the Arteries and Veins their Use is to put a stop to the current of the Blood and by their Pressure and Constriction of the Veins and Arteries oblige it to flow into those places where it meets with a passage more free and open Thus that part of the great Artery which furnishes all the parts of the Body below the Heart with Blood being bound and straitned by these Nerves the Blood must necessarily enter the Head in greater quantities and so produce a Change in the Animal Spirits and consequently in the Imagination But it ought to be well observ'd that all this is perform'd by mere Mechanism I mean that all the different Movements of these Nerves in all the different Passions are not affected by the Command of the Will but on the contrary are perform'd without its orders and even in contradiction to them Insomuch that a Body without a Soul dispos'd like that of a â—ound Man would be capable of all the Movements which accompany our Passions And thus Beasts themselves might have such as nearly resembled them though they were only pure Machines This is the thing for which we ought to admire the Incomprehensible Wisdom of Him who has so regularly rang'd and contriv'd all these Natural Wheels and Movements as to make it sufficient for an Object to move the Optick Nerve in such and such a manner to produce so many diverse Motions in the Heart in the other inward parts of the Body and on the Face it self For it has lately been discover'd that the same Nerve which shoots some of its Branches into the Heart and into other Internal parts communicates also some of its Branches into the Eye the Mouth and other parts of the Face so that no Passion can rise or mutiny within but it must betray presently it self without because there can be no Motion in the Branches extended to the Heart but there must another happen in those which are spread o'er the Face The Correspondence and Sympathy which is found between the Nerves of the Face and some others answering to other places of the Body not to be nam'd is still much more Remarkable and that which occasions this great Sympathy is as in the other Passions because these little Nerves which climb into the Face are only Branches of that which descends lower When a Man is overtaken with some violent Passion if he is careful to make a Reflection upon what he feels in his Entrails and in other parts of his Body where the Nerves insinuate themselves as also upon the Changes of Countenance which accompany it and if he considers that all these divers Agitations of the Nerves are altogether involuntary and that they happen in spite of all the Resistance that our Will can make to them he will find it no hard matter to suffer himself to embrace this simple Exposition that hath been given of all these Relations and Correspondencies betwixt the Nerves But if a Man examines the Reasons and the End of all these things so much Order and Wisdom will be found in them that a little Soberness of Thought and Attention will be able to convince the most devoted Admirers of Epicurus and Lucretius that there is a Providence that governs the World When I see a Watch I have reason to conclude that there is some Intelligent Being since it is Impossible for Chance and Hap-hazard to produce to range and posture all its Wheels How then could it be possible that Chance and a confus'd Jumble of Atoms should be capable of ranging in all Men and Animals such abundance of different secret Springs and Engines with that Exactness and Proportion I have just Explain'd and that Men and Animals should thereby procreate others exactly like themselves So ridiculous it is to think or to say with Lucretius That all the parts which go to the Composition of Man were pack't together by Chance that his Eyes were not made with any design of Seeing but that he afterwards thought of Seeing because he found he had Eyes And thus with the other parts of the Body These are his Words Lumina ne facias oculorum clara creata Prospicere ut possimus ut proferre vidi Proceros passus ideo fastigia posse Surarum ac foeminum pedibus fundata plicari Brachia tum poro validis ex apta lacertis Esse manúsque datas utraque à parte ministras Vt facere ad vitam possimus quae foret usus Caetera de genere hoc inter quaecunque pretantur Omnia perversa praepostera sunt ratione Nil adeo quoniam natum ' st in corpore ut uti Possemus sed quod natum ' st id procreat usum Must not he needs have a strange Aversion to a Providence who would thus voluntarily put out his Eyes for fear of seeing it and endeavour to render himself insensible to Arguments so strong and convincing as those Nature furnishes us withal I confess when once Men affect to be thought bold or rather Atheistical Wits as did the Epicureans they presently find themselves benighted in darkness and see only false glimmerings for the future they peremptorily deny the most clear and Self-evident Truths and as haughtily and Magisterially affirm the falsest and obscurest Things in the World The Poet I have just cited may serve as a Proof of that Blindness of these venturous Wits he confidently pronounces and against all appearance of Truth about the most difficult and obscurest Questions when at the same time it may well be thought he has no Preception of Idea's that are most clear and evident If I should stand to transcribe passages of that Author to justifie what I say I should make too long and tedious a Digression for though it may be permitted me to make some Reflections which stay and fasten the Mind for a Moment upon essential Truths yet I should never attone for making Digressions which throw off the Mind a considerable time from its Attention to its principal Subject to apply it to things of little or no Importance CHAP. V. I. Of the Memory II. Of the Habits WE have been explaining the general Causes as well External as Internal which effect a Change in the Animal Spirits and consequently in the Imaginative Faculty We have shewn that the External are the Meats we feed upon and the Air we take in for Respiration And that the Internal consist in the Involuntary Agitation of certain Nerves We know no other general Causes and we are confident there are none In so much that the Faculty of Imagining as to the Body depends only on two things namely the Animal Spirits and the Disposition of the Brain whereon they act There nothing more remains at present to to give us a perfect Knowledge of the Imagination than the manifestation of the different Changes that may happen in the Substance of the Brain They shall be examined by us as
for instance to be humble and timorous and even outwardly to testifie that Disposition of the Mind by a modest Look and respectful or timorous Deportment when we are in the Presence of a Person of Quality or one that is proud and powerful It being almost ever profitable for the Good of the Body that the Imagination should stoop before sensible Grandeur and give it outward Marks of its inward Submission and Veneration But this is done naturally and machinally without the Consent of the Will and sometimes notwithstanding its Opposition Even such Beasts as Dogs which stand in need of prevailing upon those with whom they live have ordinarily their Bodies so disposed that it machinally takes the Posture that is most suitable in reference to those that are about them For that is absolutely necessary to their Preservation And if Birds and some other Creatures want such a Disposition 't is because they need not asswage the Fury of those whom they can escape by Flight or whose Help is not necessary for the Preservation of their Life It can never be too much observ'd that all the Passions which are raised in us at the sight of something external machinally spread on the Face those Looks that are fit and suited to our present State that is those that are apt by their Impression machinally to dispose the Spectators to such Passions and Motions as are useful for the Good of Civil Society Admiration it self when produced in us by the Perception of something external which others can consider as well as we puts the Face in such a Shape as is fit to strike others with a machinal Impression of Admiration and which acts so regularly on the Brain that the Spirits contain'd in it are driven to the Muscles of the Face to fashion it into a Look altogether like our own This Communication of the Passions of the Soul and the Animal Spirits to unite Men together in reference to Good and Evil and to make them altogether like not only by the Disposition of their Mind but also by the Posture of their Body is so much the greater and more observable as the Passions are more violent by reason that the Animal Spirits are then agitated with more strength And this must needs be so because the Good and Evil being then greater or more present requires a greater Application and a stricter Association of Men to seek or avoid them But when the Passions are moderate as Admiration usually is their Communication is insensible and they do not alter the Countenance by which the Communication uses to be wrought For there being no urgent Occasion it would be needless to put a Force on the Imagination of others or to take them off from their Business to which their Application is perhaps more requisite than to the looking on the Causes of those Passions There is nothing more wonderful than that Oeconomy of the Passions and Dispositions of the Body in reference to the surrounding Objects All our machinal Actions are most becoming the Wisdom of our Maker God has made us susceptible of all those Passions chiefly to unite us with all sensible Things for the Preservation of Society and of our corporeal Being and his Design is so exactly perform'd by the Construction of his Work that we cannot but admire his Wisdom in the Contrivance of the Springs and Texture of it However our Passions and all those imperceptible Bands which tie us to the surrounding Objects often prove by our own Fault fruitful Causes of Errours and Disorders For we make not of our Passions the Use we ought to do we allow them every thing and know not so much as the Bounds we ought to prescribe to their Power so that the weakest and least moving Passions as Admiration for instance have strength enough to draw us into Errour Some Examples whereof are these When Men and especially those that are endu'd with a lively Imagination contemplate the best side of themselves they find for the most part a great deal of Self-complacency and Satisfaction and their internal Satisfaction is increased by the Comparison they make betwixt themselves and others that are not so airy and spirituous Besides that they have many Admirers and that few of their Opposers gain Success and Applause for Reason is seldom or never applauded in opposition to a strong and lively Imagination In short the Face of their Hearers takes on such submissive and dutiful Looks and expresses at every new Word they say such lively Strokes of Admiration that they admire themselves too and that their Imagination pufft up with their pretended Advantages fills them with an extraordinary Satisfaction of themselves And since we cannot see Men in the heighth of a Passion without receiving some impression from it and adopting as I may say their Sentiments how should it be possible that those who are surrounded with a Throng of Admirers should give no access to a Passion that is so flattering and so grateful to Self-love Now that high Esteem which Persons of a strong and lively Imagination have of themselves and their good Qualities puffs them up with Pride and gives them a Magisterial and Decisive Comportment they listen to others but with Contempt they answer but with Jeering they think but with reference to themselves and as they look on the Attention of the Mind that is so requisite for the discovery of Truth as a Slavery so they are altogether indocible Pride Ignorance and Blindness go hand in hand The bold or rather vain-glorious Wits will not be the Disciples of Truth and never retire into themselves unless it be to contemplate and admire their supposed Perfections so that he who resists the Proud shines in the middle of their Darkness without dissipating it There is on the contrary a certain Disposition of the Blood and Animal Spirits that occasions too mean Thoughts of our selves The Scarcity the Dulness and Fineness of the Animal Spirits join'd to the Coursness of the Fibres of the Brain cause the Imagination to be weak and languishing And the Contemplation or rather the confused Sense of that Faintness of Imagination is what breeds in us a vicious Humility which we may call Meanness of Spirit All Men are susceptible of the Truth but all apply not themselves to him who alone is able to teach it The Proud make their Address and listen but to themselves and the Dis-spirited make their Application to the Proud and submit themselves to their Determinations Both the one and the other give ear to bare Men. Proud Minds follow the Fermentation of their own Blood that is their own Imagination and the Low-spirited are over-sway'd by the over-ruling Countenance of the Proud and so are both subjected to Vanity and Lies The Proud is like a rich and powerful Man who has a great Retinue who measures his own Greatness by the number of his Attendants and his Strength by that of the Horses of his Coach whereas the Low-spirited is like
Men pay their Worship to the Sun and is still the universal Cause of the Disorders of their Mind and the Corruption of their Heart Why say they by their Actions and sometimes by their Words should we not love Bodies since they are able to afford us Pleasure And why are the Israelites blam'd for lamenting the Loss of the Garlick and Onions of Egypt since the Privation of those things which enjoyed afforded them some Happiness made them in some sort unhappy But the Philosophy that is mis-call'd New and represented as a Bugbear to frighten weak Minds that is despised and condemned without hearing that New Philsosophy I say since it must have that name destroys all the Pretences of the Libertines by the establishing its very first Principle that perfectly agrees with the first Principle of the Christian Religion namely That we must love and fear none but God since none but He alone can make us happy As Religion declares that there is but one true God so this Philosophy shews that there is but one true Cause As Religion teaches that all the Heathen Divinities are but dead Metals and immovable Stone so this Philosophy discovers that all the second Causes or Divinities of the Philosophers are but unactive Matter and ineffective Wills As Religion commands not to bow to those Gods that are not Gods so this Philosophy teaches not to prostrate our Minds and Imagination before the phantastick Grandeur and Power of pretended Causes which are not Causes which we ought neither to love nor to fear nor be taken up with but think upon God alone see and adore love and fear him in all things But that 's not the Inclination of some Philosophers they will neither see God nor think upon him for ever since the Fall there is a secret Opposition betwixt God and Man They delight in Gods of their own Invention in loving and fearing the Contrivances of their Heart as the Heathens did the Works of their Hands They are like those Children who tremble at the sight of their Play-Fellows after they have dawb'd and blacken'd them Or if they desire a more noble Comparison though perhaps not so just they resemble those famous Romans who reverenced the Fictions of their Mind and foolishly adored their Emperours after they themselves had let loose the Eagle at their Canonization CHAP. IV. An Explication of the Second Part of the General Rule That the Philosophers observe it not but that Des Cartes has exactly followed it WE have been shewing to what Errours Men are liable when they reason upon the false and confused Ideas of the Senses and their rambling and undetermin'd Notions of Logick whence it appears that to keep to Evidence in our Perceptions 't is absolutely necessary exactly to observe that Rule we have prescrib'd and to examine which are the clear and distinct Ideas of things that we may only argue by deduction from them In that same general Rule concerning the Subject of our Studies there is yet a remarkable Circumstance namely That we must still begin with the most simple and easie things and insist long upon them before we undertake the Enquiry after the more composed and difficult For if to preserve Evidence in all our Perceptions we must only reason upon distinct Ideas 't is plain that we must never meddle with the Enquiry of compound things before the simple on which they depend have been carefully examin'd and made familiar to us by a nice Scrutiny since the Ideas of compound things neither are nor can be clear as long as the most simple of which they are composed are but confusedly and imperfectly known We know things imperfectly when we are not sure to have considered all their Parts and we know them confusedly when they are not familiar enough to the Mind though we may be certain of having consider'd all their Parts When we know them but imperfectly our Argumentations are only probable when we perceive them confusedly there is neither Order not Light in our Inferences and often we know not where we are or whither we are going But when we know them both imperfectly and confusedly which is the commonest of all we know not so much as what we would look for much less by what Means we are to find it So that it is altogether necessary to keep strictly to that Order in our Studies Of still beginning by the most simple Things examining all their Parts and being well acquainted with them before we meddle with the more composed that depend on the former But that Rule agrees not with the Inclination of Man who naturally despises whatever appears easie his Mind being made for an unlimited Object and almost incomprehensible cannto make a long Stay on the Consideration of those simple Ideas which want the Character of Infinite for which he is created On the contrary and for the same Reason he has much Veneration and an eager Passion for great obscure and mysterious Things and such as participate of Infinity Not that he loves Darkness but that he hopes to find in those deep Recesses a Good and Truth capable of satisfying his Desires Vanity likewise gives a great Commotion to the Spirits stirring them to what is great and extraordinary and encouraging them with a foolish Hope of hitting right Experience teaches that the most accurate Knowledge of ordinary Things gives no great Name in the World whereas to be acquainted with uncommon Things though never so confusedly and imperfectly always procures the Esteem and Reverence of those who willingly conceive a great Idea of whatever is out of their depth of Understanding And that Experience determines all those who are more sensible to Vanity than to Truth which certainly make up the greatest Number to a blind-fold Search of a specious though chimerical Knowledge of what is great rare and unintelligible How many are there that reject the Cartesian Philosophy for that ridiculous Reason That its Principles are too simple and easie There are in this Philosophy no obscure and mysterious Terms Women and Persons unskill'd in Greek and Latin are capable of learning it It must then be say they something very inconsiderable and unworthy the Application of great Genius's They imagine that Principles so clear and simple are not fruitful enough to explain the Effects of Nature which they supposed to be dark intricate and confused They see not presently the Use of those Principles that are too simple and easie to stop their Attention long enough to make them understand their Use and Extent They rather chuse to explain Effects whose Causes are unknown to them by unconceivable Principles than by such as are both simple and intelligible For the Principles these Philosophers are wont to explain obscure Things by are not only obscure themselves but utterly incomprehensible Those that pretend to explain Things extremely intricate by Principles clear and generally receiv'd may easily be refuted if they succeed not since to know whether what they say
not fail of probable Reasons to confound the Soul with the Body Experience they 'll say teaches us That the Body is capable of Feeling Thinking and Reasoning 'T is the Body which is sensible of Pleasure and Pain 'T is the Brain which thinks and reasons The weight of the Body makes heavy the Mind Madness is a true distemper and those who have most Wisdom lose it when that part of the Brain where it resides is diseas'd The Essences of Beings are unknown to us and therefore Reason cannot discover of what they are susceptible So that reason refers us to Experience and Experience confounds the Soul with the Body and teaches us that this is capable of thinking Such would be their Reasons And in Truth those who assure us That the Essences of Being are unknown and make it Criminal for Philosophers to demonstrate Extension no Modification of Being but the very Essence of Matter would do well to consider the mischievous Consequences deducible from their Principles and not go to overthrow the only Demonstration we have for the Distinction between the Soul and Body For in fine the Distinction of these two Parts of our Selves prov'd by clear Ideas is the most Fruitful and necessary of all Truths in point of Philosophy and perhaps of Divinity and Christian Morality But this Distinction is likewise exactly demonstrated in many Places of the Search after Truth And I undertake to Monsieur de la Ville notwithstanding his Answer fraught with Ambiguities Figures and Contradictions or rather I undertake to the Libertines for as for him I believe him so setled in his Faith as not to want such sort of Proofs I undertake I say to the Libertines That they will never find any Sophism in my Demonstration That 't is impossible to conceive it clearly and distinctly without embracing it and that all the Proofs they offer to confound the Soul with the Body are drawn from Senses that they are obscure and confus'd and can never perswade such as Judge of things by clear and distinct Ideas From this Principal That the Essence of Body consists not in Extension and that the Essences of things are unknown I could still draw many other Consequences opposite to Faith But that is not necessary and I would rather if it were possible reconcile all false as well as true Philosophies with Religion However impious and Heretical would be the Consequences I could deduce from the Opinions of Philosophers I should think I wanted the Charity which I owe them if I endeavoured to make their Faith suspected So far am I from imitating the Conduct of Monsieur de la Ville who leaving a Principle demonstrated in all its Strength and receiv'd by all Ages lays out himself in drawing Heretical Consequences from it tho' of no use but to strengthen the Calvinists and encrease their Number and to disturb the Faith of the Orthodox I would on the contrary that no one should think on these Consequences or disown them as false and wrong-inferr'd from the Principal All Truths hang in a Chain together and no false Principle can be held but those who are any thing vers'd in the Art of Reasoning may infer from it abundance of Consequences repugnant to Religion So that if it were permitted to blacken the Faith of others upon Consequences drawn from Principles believ'd by them since there is no Man but Errs in something we might treat all the World as Heretical Wherefore the allowing Men to Dogmatize and to make others Faith suspected who are not of their Opinion would be opening a Gap to infinite Quarrels Schisms Disturbances and even Civil Wars and all Mankind is concern'd to look upon the Abettors of such a Conduct as Slanderers and Disturbers of the publick Peace For in short the different Parties in Religion which are almost always form'd from such like Consequences produce strange Events in a State which all Histories abound with But the Liberty to Philosophize or to reason upon Common Notions is not to be denied Men it being a Right which is as natural to them as to breath Divines ought to distinguish Theology from Philosophy Articles of our Faith from Opinions of Men. Truths which GOD imparts to all Christians by a visible Authority from those which he bestows on some particular Persons in Recompence of their Attention and Industry They should not confound things that depend on so different Principles No Question Humane Sciences ought to be made subservient to Religion but with a Spirit of Peace and Charity without condemning one another so long as we agree about Truths which the Church has determin'd For this is the way for Truth to shine out and all Sciences to be brought to greater and greater Perfection by the Addition of New Discoveries to the Ancient But the Imaginations of most Men cannot be reconcil'd to New Discoveries but even Novelty in Opinions never so advantageous to Religion frights them whilst they easily inure themselves to the falsest and obscurest Principles provided some Ancient has advanc'd them But when once these Principles are grown familiar they find them evident though never so obscure They believe them most useful though extremely dangerous And they are so well us'd to say and hear what they do not conceive and to slurr a real Difficulty by an imaginary Distinction that they are ever well satisfy'd with their false Idea's and can't endure to be talkt to in a clear and distinct Language like Men coming out of a dark Room they are fearful of the Light which strikes too violently on their Eyes and they imagine we go to blind them when we try to dissipate the involving Darkness Thus though I have shown by many Consequences that 't is dangerous for Example to maintain that Beasts have a Soul more noble than the Body yet since this Opinion is ancient and most Men are accustom'd to Believe it whilst the contrary bears the Character of Novelty Those who judge of the Harshness of Opinions rather by the Fear they produce in the Imagination than by the Evidence and Light they shed in the Mind will be sure to vote the Cartesians Opinion dangerous and will condemn these Philosophers as rash and presumptuous rather than those who make Beasts capable of Reasoning Let a Man but say in Company with an Air of Gravity or rather with a Look into which the Imagination scar'd with something extraordinary forms the Face Really the Cartesians are strange People They maintain That Beasts have no Soul I am afraid in a little time they will say as much of Man And this will be enough to perswade a great many that this is a dangerous Opinion No Reasons can prevent the Effect of this Discourse upon weak Imaginations and unless there happen to be some brisk Wit that with the gayety of Carriage shall re-embolden the Company from the Fear they had conceiv'd the Cartesians might tire themselves to Death before they could by their Reasonings obliterate