the same time to the Exercise of its Vegetative and Sensitive Powers as we see plainly by Instances of Persons who have been raised from the Dead to live here below But this would not infer a Necessity of the same things for living in another State For those Faculties whose Exercise supports this Life we now lead are not thereby proved of such Consequence that no other kind of Life could be supported or enjoyed without them It is in this Case with the Soul as with the Sun for the same Instance will be of Use to illustrate our Argument in this Branch also which continues the same in himself every whit as entire and unblemished not in any Degree enfeebled though his Lustre and Vital Influences be sometimes intercepted and obstructed When his Face is cover'd with a Total Eclipse we lose the cheerful Light and cherishing Heat but though no sensible Effects of him appear yet he is in his own Nature the same Powerful Principle and Glorious Creature still Having thus as I hope sufficiently evidenced the Unity of the Soul It s Origine in each Individual animated by it let us in the next Place proceed to observe from whence it is deriv'd and how it makes its Entry into the Body Concerning the Former of these Particulars great Disputes have been maintained by Philosophers and Divines of all Ages Concerning the Origine of the Humane and Intellectual Soul I mean for as to the Vegetative and Sensitive attributed to Plants and Beasts those by general Consent have been esteemed to consist intirely of Matter to be transferred with the Seminal Principles and accordingly subject to Corruption and Death So that the whole Controversy turns upon the single Point of the Humane Soul and concerning this the Four most Celebrated Opinions have been these which follow I omit the Mention of any more which are almost lost in the Crowd because These have obtained so much more generally and gained greater Credit than the Rest The First of these is that Notion of the Stoicks embraced by Philo the Jew and after Him by the Manichees Priscillianists and others This maintains Reasonable Souls to be so many Extracts and genuine Productions of the Divine Spirit Partakers of the very same Nature and Substance with Almighty God himself who being said expresly to have breathed it into the Body these Persons have taken the Advantage of Moses's Words and fixed the sublimest Sense imaginable upon them He Breathed into him the Breath of Life by which they are not content to understand that the Soul of Man is a distinct Thing and of a different and more exalted Original than the Body a Spirit of greater Excellence than that which quickens any other Animal but they stretch it to a Communication of God's own Essence The Second was deriv'd from Aristotle receiv'd by Tertullian Apollinaris the Sect of the Luciferians and some other Christians and This asserts the Soul to be derived from our Parents as the Body is and in the same Manner and from the same Principles with that whence the Soul of Brutes and all that are confin'd to Sense and Vegetation only are generally believ'd to spring The Third is that of the Pythagoreans and Platonists entertained by most of the Rabbinical Philosophers and Jewish Doctors and after them by Origen and some other Christian Doctors too Which pretends that all Souls were created by God at the beginning of the World that they were then by Him commanded and made out of Nothing that they are reserv'd and deposited in some of the Heavenly Regions and afterwards as his Infinite Wisdom sees Occasion sent down hither into Bodies ready fitted for and disposed to entertain them Upon this Opinion was built another of Souls being well or ill dealt with here below and lodged in sound and healthful or else in feeble and sickly Bodies according to their Good or Ill Behaviour in a State and Region above antecedent to their being thus Incorporated with these Mortal and Fleshly Tabernacles How generally this Notion prevail'd we have a notable Hint from that great Master of Wisdom who gives this Account of his large improvements Wisd VIII 19 20. above the common Rate of Men I was a Witty Child and had a good Spirit yea rather being Good I came into a Body undefiled Thus intimating a Priority of Time as well as of Order and Dignity in the Soul and that its good Dispositions qualified it for a Body so disposed too The Fourth which hath met with the most general Approbation among Christians Especially holds that the Soul is created by God infus'd into a Body prepared duly for its Reception That it hath no Pre-existence in any separate State or former Vehicle but that its Creation and Infusion are both of the same Date These Four Opinions are all of them Affirmative There is yet a Fifth more modest and reserv'd than any of the former This undertakes not to determine Positively one way or other but is content Ingenuously to confess its own Ignorance and Uncertainty declares this a Matter of very abstruse Speculation a dark and deep Mystery which God hath not thought fit particularly to reveal and which Man by the Strength and Penetration of his own Reason can know but very little or nothing of Of this Opinion we find St. Augustine St. Gregory of Nice and some others But though they presume not so far as to give any definitive Sentence on any Side yet they plainly incline to think that of the Four Opinions here mention'd the Two latter carry a greater Appearance of Truth than the Two former But how The Entrance into the Body and when this Humane Soul for of the Brutal there is little or no Dispute nor is the present Enquiry concerned in it Whether This I say make its Entrance all at once or whether the Approaches are gradual and slow Whether it attain its just Essential Perfections in an Instant or whether it grow up to them by Time and Succession is another very great Question The More general Opinion which seems to have come from Aristotle is That the Vegetative and Sensitive Soul whose Essence is no other than Matter and Body is in the Principles of Generation that it descends lineally and is derived to us from the Substance of our Parents that This is finished and Perfected in Time and by Degrees and Nature acts in this Case a little like Art when That undertakes to form the Image of a Man where first the Out-Lines and rude Sketches are drawn then the Features specified yet These not of his whole Body at once but first the Painter finishes the Head then the Neck after that the Breast the Legs and so on till he have drawn the whole Length Thus the Vegetative and Sensitive Soul they tell you forms the Body in the Womb and when That is finished and made fit for the Reception of its new Inhabitant the Intellectual Soul comes from abroad and takes Possession
Opinions and maintain them for certain Truths without knowing any thing at all of the Matter this is too much in all Conscience and therefore some little Enquiry is made into the Causes and Reasons and Consequences tho' none at all is made concerning the Truth of the Thing We commonly ask What account can be given of This or What can be the manner of bringing That about all along taking the Mattr of Fact for granted and that Things really are as they are represented when there is nothing at all in it We write Tracts manage Arguments engage in Disputes enquire curiously after Causes and Effects of a Thousand Things which never had any Foundation in Nature and the whole Argument on both sides is false One contends it is This way another That way and in truth it neither is nor ever was Any way at all How many Jests and Banters pretended Miracles sham Visions and counterfeit Revelations have crafty People imposed upon Ours and some late Ages of the World And why should a Man believe such Pretensions to Events neither Humane nor Natural when they may be confounded and disproved by Natural and Humane Methods when Reason can say nothing for them and Revelation is so far from giving them Countenance that it says a great deal against them Truth and Falshood have Faces and Teatures alike Their Mien their Relish their Motions resemble one another and the same Eye judgeth of them both * Ita sunt sinitima salfa veris ut in praecipitem locum non debeat se sapiens committere Truth and Falshood says one border so close upon 〈◊〉 another that 〈◊〉 wise Man should not trust himself upon the Brink of them but move warily for fear of sliding into the Wrong No Man ought to be believed concerning Matters above the Power and Understanding of a Man except he come with Authority from above and bring such Credentials along with him as are supernatural and exceed the Operations of Humane Strength and such no Testimony can be but the Divine But it is to God alone that this Prerogative of right belongs To be believed in whatever he says for this single Reason because He says it The other Vice opposite to This is a Stupid and Obstinate Raslmess which condemns at all adventures and rejects every thing for false which Men either do not understand or are loath to believe and therefroe will by no means have That true which Interest or Inclination makes them wish may not be so This is a Property more especially visible in such as abound in their own Sense and think Themselves more capable and more judicious than their Neighbours such as Pedantick Pretenders to Learning Men addicted to Dispute and Those that are violent in any Party whether of Church or State They fancy some little sharpness in their Wit and that They see farther into Things than the generality of People do and This with a Byass of their own within makes them forward and sierce They take upon them to determine every thing with an Air of Authority and expect that their Sentence should be receiv'd for Law This Vice is yet worse and greater than the former for it is the Extremity of Folly and Madness to think we know the utmost Bounds of Possibilities the secret Springs and full Extent of Nature that We can comprehend the Operations of God and pronounce that He is able and what He will please to do To measure all Truth and Falshood by our own Capacities and Understanding and yet This ought to be the Measure of True and False to justifie the Confidence and the Fierceness which these sorts of Men express in all their Disputes and Definitions of Things For this is the Eternal Jargon they run you down with That 's Nonsense That 's False That 's Impossible and Absurd And yet how many Things are there which for a time have been thought extremely ridiculous and rejected as impossible and afterwards have brought such Evidence of their Truth that we have been forced to acknowledge and yield to them nay and after These have been establish'd we have by Them been led to the entertaining of Others yet more surprizing and odd than the former and on the other hand How many that have been received for Gospel have in time lost all their Veneration and Credit and been discovered to be mere Errors and Impostures and idle Fansies The Second Instance of this kind which indeed is an usual and a natural Consequence of the former 2. Assâ—ming and Condâ—mning is the being positive and stiff in asserting or denying approving or condemning according as we have been led to entertain or reject Opinions without sufficient Grounds for our Belief or Mistrust This differs from the former only in degree excepting that it adds Peremptoriness and Obstinacy to it and so the Presumption is worse and more apparent That Easiness and Credulity hardens in time and by degrees degenerates into a Self-Conceit and Positiveness which no Arguments can conquer no Persuasions move or correct Nay sometimes the Humour is carry'd on so far that Men are more eager in asserting what they do not know than what they do * Majorem fidem homines adhibent iis quae non intelligunt cupiditate humani ingenii lubentius obscura creâ—untur Men persuade themselves more firmly of the things they least understand and assent with greater readiness to Points dark and mysterious that they may be thought to comprehend what really they do not and from a natural eagerness of the Mind that catches at every thing greedily It is counted a Reflection to be out at any Point that is started or to yield a Dispute in which a Man is once engaged and therefore Men discourse with Resolution and Obstinacy and great Assurance and come ready fixed and determined to maintain their Ground at any rate how little soever they have to offer in defence of it Now this exceeding Positiveness and abounding in one's Own Sense are commonly Signs of Brutality and Ignorance attended with Arrogance and Folly The Third which is a natural product of those Two and the very Top and Extremity of Presumption 3. Persuading is The persuading others recommending and propagating our own Opinion and This not in a mild and gentle Method of fair Reasoning but with Authority and in a Dogmatical way to impose it as if they were oblig'd in Duty to believe us and ought not to ask Questions or doubt of any thing we say Now what insupportable Tyranny and Usurpation is This He that hath receiv'd an Opinion reckons it a work of Charity to win others over and convince as many as he can of it too and for the better effecting this Charitable Design he gives it all the Strength and Advantage he can represents every thing in its best Light and adds from his own Invention as much more as he thinks may be for his Purpose to make amends for any Defect or Opposition
they have better for the other side of the Question and such as will overthrew mine I am always ready to hear it and shall be both pleased and thankful for better Information But let them not think to run me down with Numbers and Authority for These have no weight with me except in Matters of Religion only and there Authority single is Argument sufficient to induce my Belief of things which my Reason cannot comprehend This is its proper Empire but out of these Territories Reason reigns and hath absolutely Jurisdiction as St. Augustin himself hath very truly and very ingenuously acknowledged 'T is a most unjust Vsurpation over our Native Rights and Liberties the very Madness of Tyranny and Rage to think to enslave us to All that either the Ancients have deliver'd or the Generality of the World entertained But especially the Latter since the greater Part of Mankind know neither what they do nor say None but Fools will suffer themselves to be led by the Nose at this rate and for such this Book I confess is not calculated if it should meet with Popular Acceptance I should suspect it did not answer its Character The Ancient Authors ought indeed to be heard and considered and duly respected but to be captivated by them is an Excess of Veneration they must not pretend to For though a Man should hear all and pay a Deference to some yet he must assent and yield up his Mind to none but Reason only And indeed put the Case we might and would be governed by Authorities yet I would be glad to know how this is possible to be done or how we shall find such an Agreement among them as shall enable us to say Authority is on our side Aristotle for Instance pretended to be the greatest Man that had then appeared in the World he took upon him to arraign and condemn all that had gone before him and yet he said and wrote more absurd things than all of Them put together had ever thought of Nay he is inconsistent with himself and many times does not know what he would be at of which his wild Notions concerning The Soul of Man The Eternity of the World The Generation of Winds and Waters c. are undeniable Testimonies And in truth a Man who considers the Matter will find that to have all People of the same Opinion would be infinitely more prodigious and amazing than to find them otherwise For Diversity of Opinions is as comely and beautiful in the Minds of Men as Variety is in the Works of Nature That Wise as well Inspired Apostle St. Paul allows a great Liberty in these Two Rules Let every Man be fully persuaded in his own Mind Rom. 14. iii v. and Let no Man condemn or despise others of a different Judgment and Behaviour And it is observable that these Directions are given in a Matter much nicer and of greater consequence than what we now treat of For they do not concern Actions merely Humane and External and civil Compliances in which I have declar'd that my Wise Man should not take upon him to be singular nor think it any Diminution of his Character to submit and conform to Custom and Prescription But St. Paul's Rules are of a Religious Consideration and relate to such Distinctions of Meats and Days as Men thought themselves bound upon a Principle of Conscience to make Whereas all the Hardiness and Freedom I contend for is only that which enlarges a Man's Thoughts and private Opinions from Captivity and Restraint and such as no other Person is or can be concern'd in but what a Man is entirely and solely accountable to himself for Fourthly However to give all reasonable Satisfaction even in this Point too In regard some things might seem too crude and hard for the weaker sort of People those of strong and sound Constitutions I am sensible will relish and digest them all very well in Tenderness and Condescension to such queasie Stomachs I have taken Care in this Second Edition to explain illustrate and soften any thing that might offend their seebler Judgments And accordingly do now present you with a Book diligently revis'd and considerably enlarged above what it was before Lastly I beg leave of the Reader who undertakes to pass a Judgment upon this Work that he will permit me to fore-warn him of Seven dangerous Mistakes which other Persons by falling into already have entertained a less favourable Opinion of the Former Edition than I have the Vanity to think it deserved The First is That he would make a Difference between Matter of Fact and Right and not from what is related as Done conclude That ought to be Done Secondly To make a great Difference between Acting and Judging and not conclude from any Liberty of Opinion maintain'd by me that I pretend to vindicate the same Liberty in Behaviorr Thirdly That he would not look upon all That as Resolved and Determined and Declared in Favour of which is only offered to Consideration Argued and Disputed Problematically and in the old Academick Way Fourthly That what I relate from or concerning other People be not imputed to Me or pass for my own Sense and Judgment of the Thing Fifthly That what is spoken of the Mind and its internal Qualifications be not appropriated to any Sort or Profession of Men or extended to outward and Particular Circumstances and Conditions Sixthly That what is spoken of Humane Opinion be not applyed to Religion and Matters of Faith And Seventhly That what belongs to Virtue and Actions merely Natural and Moral be not interpreted of Grace and Supernatural Operations Let my Reader but lay aside all Prejudice and Passion and take these Cautions along with him and I am well assured his own Scruples may be resolved by them the Objections raised by himself or others against this Treatise abundantly answered and the Design I had in it cleared from all Blame or Suspicion But if after all he be still dissatisfied let him come forth into fair Combat and attack me openly For to traduce and snarle and mangle an Author's Reputation in a Corner is I confess an casie but withal a Base and Pedantick Practice unworthy Men of Sense or Honour And since this Book makes particular Pretences to Ingenuity and fair Dealing I promise any generous Adversary either to do him the Honour of freely Acknowledging my Mistakes and submitting to his better Reasons or else to examine his Objections and endeavour to make both Him and the World sensible of their Impertinence and Folly An Explanation of the Figure in the Frontispiece of this Book AT the upper end of the Page and over the Title of the Book you have Wisdom represented by a beautiful Woman She is naked yet so that there is no offence given to the Chastest Eyes intimating that she needs not any Additional Beauties or the Assistance of Art to recommend her but is natural plain and simple yet so as in the midst of
others for he had his blind Side too That is he was a Man and consequently had the same Allay of Infirmity and Misery with other Men But here was the difference that he knew he was but a Man He consider'd his Condition and made no difficulty to acknowledge all the Imperfections of it and therefore he dealt honestly and acted wisely for he lived and behaved himself as a Man should do To this Purpose may that Reply be taken which Truth it self made to the haughty Pharisees Joh. 9.41 who in Derision said unto him What then Are we blind also If you were blind says he that is if ye were sensible of your Blindness ye would see better But because you say we see therefore ye remain stark-blind For those who have an Opinion of their own good Sight are really blind and those who are conscious of their own Blindness are the Men that see best How wretched a Folly is it to degenerate into Beasts by not considering carefully that we are Men * Homo cùm sis id fac semper intelligas Since Nature hath made thee a Man take care constantly to remember that thou art such We read that several great Persons have ordered that their Attendants should often ring it in their Ears That they were Men intending that Admonition for a Curb to their Exorbitancies And sure the Practice was admirable if as the Sound struck upon their Ears the Consideration entred their Hearts too What the Athenians said to Pompey the Great was not much amiss You are so far a God as you acknowledge your self a Man For thus much at least is beyond Contradiction That the way to be an excellently good Man is to be throughly possest with the sense of one's being a Man Now this Knowledge of ones self a thing by the way very difficult to be attain'd Means of coming to the Knowledge of one's self False ones and scarce to be met with as on the contrary the mistaking and passing wrong Judgments of one's self is exceeding obvious and easie This Knowledge I say is never to be acquir'd by the help of others My meaning is Not by comparing our selves with others measuring by them depending upon their Characters or observing what Agreement or Disagreement there is between our Practice and their Example so that a Man shall applaud or condemn himself for doing or not doing as they do or as they like or dislike * Plus aliis de te quam tu tibi credere noli What the World says thou art believe not true This Credit only to thy self is due Nor indeed can we depend upon our own Word or Opinion in the case For This oftentimes is short-sighted it discovers not all that is to be seen and it makes a false Report of what it discovers like a treacherous or a bribed Witness that shuffles in his Evidence and is afraid to speak out Nor can we form a Judgment from any single Action for this may come from a Man without being intended or so much as thought of it may be a sudden Push upon an unusual pressing occasion the Work of Necessity or the Work of Chance a lucky Hit or a sudden Sally and owing to Heat or Passion to one to all of these to any thing indeed rather than to the Man himself And therefore we can fix no Character from a thing which is not of our own growth One courageous Action no more proves a Man Brave nor one Act of Justice Just than the breadth and depth of a River and the strength of its Current is to be taken from a sudden accidental Flood when all the neighbouring Brooks empty themselves into it and swell it above its Banks For thus there are Circumstances and Accidents in Humane Life too which like strong Winds and rapid Torrents change our usual Course and carry us beyond our selves and this in so surprizing a manner that Vice it self hath sometimes put Men upon doing very good things So extremely nice a thing it is to know Men truly Again We can learn nothing to purpose by all the outward Appendages of the Man his Employments Preferments Honours Riches Birth good Acceptance and general Applause of great and common Men no nor yet by his Deportment when he appears abroad for there the Man plays in Check stands upon his Guard and every Motion is with Reserve and Constraint Fear and Shame and Ambition and a thousand other Passions put him upon playing the Part you see then acted To know him throughly you must follow him into his Closet see him in the Tireing-Room and in his every-day Garb. Alass he is oftentimes quite another thing at Home than what he appears in the Street at Court or upon the Exchange one sort of Man to Strangers and another to his own Family When he goes out of his House he dresses for the Stage and the Farce begins you can lay no stress upon what you see of him there This is not the Man but the Character he sets himself to maintain And you will never know any thing of him till you make a difference between the Person of the Comedian that plays and the Person represented by him The knowledge of a Man's self then is not to be compassed by any True ones or all of these four ways nor can we relie upon or make any sure Conclusions from them The only way to arrive at it is by a true long constant study of a Man's self a serious and diligent Examination such as shall observe and nicely weigh not only his Words and Actions but even his most secret Thoughts and that so critically as to discern how they are first born upon what they feed and by what degrees they grow the time of their Continuance the manner and the frequency of their Returns upon him In short no Motion of his Mind must escape his notice no not his very Dreams He must view himself near must be eternally prying handling pressing probing nay pinching himself to the quick For there are many Vices in us that lurk close and lie deep and we know nothing of them because we do not take the pains to search far enough and ferret them out As the venomous Serpent while numm'd with cold is handled safely and stings not till he is warm'd And further yet when all this is done a sense and acknowledgment of particular Failings and personal Faults and an endeavour to mend them will not do the business but a Man must be convinced of his Weakness and Misery throughout that every part of him is tainted with it and from thence he must proceed to amend the whole and make the Reformation equally general To this purpose we will now apply our selves in the first Book of this Treatise to consider and understand Man by taking him in every sense The Division of this First Book looking upon him in the several Prospects he is capable of feeling his Pulse sounding
up there For thus it often happens when our Mind is very intent upon somewhat else the Eye never sees nor takes the least notice of those Objects that stand directly before it and present themselves to our View And Reason and Sense judge very differently of the Magnitude of the Sun and Stars and of the Shape of a Stick in the Water Other Living Creatures have a Share in this Gift of Nature as well as We These Senses are common to Men and Brutes and sometimes are more liberally dealt with in it For Some are quicker of Hearing than Men Others have a stronger and clearer Sight Others a nicer Smell and Others a more distinguishing Taste The general Opinion is that a Stag excells all other Creatures in Hearing an Eagle in Seeing a Dog in Smelling an Ape in Tasting and a Tortoise in Feeling But yet the Pre-eminence in this last hath been allow'd to Man which is not much for our Credit since This of all the Senses is reckon'd the grossest and most Brutal In the mean while this Reflexion upon what hath gone before may not be unseasonable That if the Senses are the Means and Instruments of Knowledge and Brutes have Senses too nay frequently more acute and penetrating than Ours there may a fair Argument be drawn from hence for Their partaking in Knowledge with us as well as they partake of the Helps and Means that convey it to us But though the Senses be the Instruments of Knowledge yet are they not the only Instruments It is hard to trust our Senses much less are our own Senses alone to be consulted or depended upon in the Case For if it happens that Brutes have from Their Senses a Report different from that which Ours make and the Judgment given upon that Evidence do consequently disagree with the Notions we form to our selves as in sundry Instances 't is plain it does happen which of these two Testimonies shall we believe Our Fasting-Spittle cleanses and heals our own Wounds and yet it kills a Serpent Now from Two so different Effects what Conclusion can be made concerning the true Nature of Humane Spittle Shall we say that it is of a Drying and a Cleansing or of a Poysonous and Killing Quality To make any certain Determination of the Operations of Sense we shou'd do well methinks to agree with the Brutes who have the same Faculties as well as We. But the least that can possibly be requir'd in order to it is That we shou'd be consistent with our own selves and that the same Judge and the same Evidence shou'd always concur in the same Sentence And yet even This we are not come to Shut your Eye and put your Finger upon part of the Lid and this Eye so press'd sees things after another manner than it does in the Natural and Common Posture Stop your Ear and the Sound is vastly different from what it is in the ordinary Impression These Disserences every Man when he will may make for himself But some there are which Nature hath made to our Hand A Child Tastes and Hears and Sees much otherwise than a Grown Man and a Man in his full Strength dislers no less from an Old Man One in perfect Health from a sick Person a Wise Man from a Fool. Now where the Diversity and Distance is so great nay where there is even a Contrariety of Perceptions where shall we fix or what can we depend upon for Truth Even One Sense contradicts and gives the Lye to another for a Piece of Painting which seems Raised and in Relief as they term it to the Eye when we come to feel it with the Hand is perfectly flat and smooth ADVERTISEMENT IN order to giving the Reader a right Notion of the Matter treated of in this Chapter I shall beg leave to detain him a little with the Consideration of these Three Particulars First What dependence may be had upon the Evidence of Sense Secondly Whence those Mistakes do really proceed which we find sometimes charg'd upon the Deceivableness of our Senses Thirdly Whether All our Knowledge depends upon our Senses so as that we can know nothing but by Their means I. As to the Evidence of Sense This is what all Mankind who have ever allow'd any thing of Knowledge or Certainty at all constantly look'd upon as the surest and most irrefragable in all those Cases which are the proper Objects of it And therefore He that went about to evacuate or weaken this was esteem'd a Man not fit to be disputed with Because one must needs despair of producing any better and more convincing Proofs and so he must continue in incurable Ignorance unless we cou'd suppose so absurd a Process in arguing as that a Man shou'd be persuaded of a thing more manifest by a Medium which is less so It were an Assront to Humane Nature to endeavour the establishing this by Arguments since none ever disclaim'd the Truth of it but They who wou'd not allow us to be sure that any Thing was true and consequently cou'd no more depend upon their own Objections against it than they cou'd upon the Thing they brought them against Therefore Lucretius hath very deservedly expos'd the Folly of such perverse Scepticks in his Fourth Book Denique nil sciri siquis putat c. He that says Nothing can be known o'erthrows His own Opinion for He Nothing knows So knows not That What need of long dispute Those Maxims kill Themselves Themselves confute But grant This might be known and grant He knew Yet since he hath discover'd nothing true What Mark and what Criterion then can show Or tell what 't is to know or not to know Or how cou'd He what 's Truth what 's Falshood learn How what was Doubt what Certainty discern From Sense all Truth and Certainty inferr In vain some strive to prove that Sense can err For that which wou'd convince which wou'd oppose The Senses must be surer far than those So that upon these Terms it is evident all Knowledge must be given up because if our Senses be false we can have no stronger Conviction than what arises from Them that any thing is true nor that there is such a thing as Truth or Falshood in the World But besides if it were proper to argue in such a Case any reasonable Person wou'd find no difficulty in the Belief of this Matter For if he only allow the Being of a God and considers the mighty consequence of our Senses to us in all our Affairs whatsoever it can never enter into one's Head that a Being of such Perfections wou'd leave his Creatures in perpetual Ignorance and Uncertainty and give them such Organs and Instruments as shou'd only deceive and confound them For God indeed is the true Efficient Cause of all our Sensations and the Foundation of our Certainty and his Goodness and Truth are our Pledges that we are not mistaken staken and always in the wrong in the due Use
some Strokes of the Pencil or Style bolder and stronger than the rest will of necessity create Imaginary Protuberances and imaginary Distances in the Last What Course then shall one take to prevent Errours in these Cases In general he must not be too hasty in giving Judgment but bring these things to the Test The First must be viewed with his Eye in its usual Form and Condition the Second he must make nearer Approaches to and view it close at Hand For the Third he may call in another Sense to his Assistance and if the Eye alone cannot the Touch must set him right But to this Charron replyes and not only He but Lucretius That no One Sense can possibly correct another An poterunt Oculos Aures reprehendere an Aures Tactus c. What Can the Ears convince the Eyes Can Those Confute the Hand the Palate or the Nose Tell them wherein they err when e'er they miss And give false Notices Fond Fancy this For Each a proper Use and Power enjoys A proper Object every Sense Employs But after all What is the true Meaning of this Argument and how much does it amount to No more than this That All the Senses are not equally adapted to receive and distinguish all manner of Objects that Each of them is equally Faithfull in those peculiar to it And consequently the Eyes cannot correct the Ear in Sounds nor the Ear the Nose in Smells But does it follow from hence that when two or more of these Evidences are joyned they will not corroborate the Testimony and give a firmer Assurance or that Reason which is the proper Judge may not sift out the Truth by confronting these Evidences against one another This is a Construction wholly foreign to the Place and to the Philosopher's Design And therefore says Empiricus as Physicians pronounce of a Disease not from One single Symptom but from the Concurrence of several and a Fover is distinguish'd not only by the quickness of the Pulse but by the Excess of Heat the Redness of the Complexion the Height of the Water the Excessive Thirst and other Characters known to the Skilful in that Art So a doubting Philosopher makes a Judgment of Truth by the Co-incidence and good Agreement of several Ideas compar'd together And to the same Purpose Macrobius hath described the Process sit for such Cases If says he a Man sees the Figure of an Apple at a Distance it does not presently follow that this is a real Apple because this Resemblance may be form'd out of other Materials Saturn 7.14 What then shall he do to satisfie himself Let him put it to the Tryal of another Sense and judge of it by the Smell But possibly it may have lain among Apples and retain the Scent Then consult the Touch and examine the Weight of it But perhaps the Cunning Artificer hath been very Nice in adjusting this too If so let him have recourse to the Tast and if he find the true Relish of an Apple these concurring Evidences leave no reasonable Doubt of its being really the very Fruit it at first seem'd to be From hence it does not only appear what Care ought to be taken in judging the Representations of Sense but likewise how it comes to pass that Men so often err upon this Occasion That it is meerly the Effect of Rashness and Negligence and the determining more than we have Evidence for For these Ideas and Impressions give us only the appearances and external Accidents of things and so long as we affirm them to Appear so to us we are safe and cannot Err. But if from these Accidents we shall undertake to determine of their Substance and Nature if we shall definitively say They actually Are what they Appear our own Mind misguides us and the Fault lies not in the Evidence which told us true but in the Judge who decides the Cause without canvasing the Witnesses and declares That for Right and Truth which was never pos'd before him My Reader will easily apply what hath been said here perhaps too tediously to what our Author insinuates of the mutual Cheat in his sixth Paragraph of this Chapter For hence it is that our Pannick Fears and other groundless and violent Passions of the Mind grow to such Excesses that they run away with the First Impressions and never call in Reason to calm and moderate the Disorder of the Spirits but are perfectly transported in the present Heat and Agitation and instead of examining magnify the tormenting Ideas to themselves All which is in no Degree owing to the natural Defect either of Sense or Reason but to strength of Passion and Neglect of such timely Remedies as Nature hath provided us with if not wholly to prevent yet at least to abate and soften and reduce it to a convenient Temper III. I proceed now to the last Enquiry Whether all our Knowledge depend upon the Senses so as that we can know nothing but by Their Means Here Gassendus forsakes me and fiercely vindicates that receiv'd Opinion of some old Philosophers That nothing can come at the Understanding except it pass through some of the Senses in its Way thither It is not asserted by those who undertake to maintain that Opinion that nothing more can be known by us than what the Impressions of Sense give us an immediate Perception of but that we are instructed from Reflection as well as Sensation so that by abstracting enlarging or otherwise modifying our Ideas we come to understand the Nature of things yet so as that we can understand nothing except the Ideas of it are entertain'd clearly and distinctly either so as to represent to us the thing it self or so as to give us sufficient Matter for Reflection to work upon in raising fresh Ideas from it I. Thus it is that they pretend to answer the Argument commonly urged against them from that very Power we find in our selves and the common Exercise of it to correct the Errors of Imagination For if all Perceptions of the Mind were Corporeal Images of the Brain we must necessarily judge according to the Report of our Sensitive Organs and so the Sun must be concluded no Bigger than he appears No say they for the Mind knows very well that Distance lessens the Object to the Eye and therefore reflecting agreeably to the Rules given in the former Particular it pronounces the Sun vastly bigger than it seems But still All this will not amount to those Reasons which adjust its Magnitude to be 160 times Bigger than the Earth Or if they would yet Proportions and Distances are meer Respects and such as we can have no Corporeal Images of These then are the Effect of another Principle and so is the Determinate Magnitude of this Body for though Inlarging the Idea and allowing for Distance would create an Image vastly Bulky perhaps yet this could not state the Exact Dimensions nor form the Comparison in such Odds between that Globe of Fire and
Opinion or to urge what is really Argument and Good Sense as to shew their Talent in opposing what any Body else shall say From hence it comes to pass that the Mind obstructs it self in its Business like Silkworms that are intangled in Webs of their own spinning For while it reaches forward and expects to attain some distant Truth and is led on in this Hope by I know not what imaginary Probabilities in the midst of his Course up start some fresh Difficulties and these multiply and cross the way upon the Man and so by putting him upon a new Scent carry him off from his first Design till he is quite intoxicated and bewildred in the Maze of his own Thoughts The End of all this anxious Pursuit is two-fold That which is more general Truth its End but not attainable and more natural indeed is Truth For of all the Desires that we feel our selves moved with there is not any of them more closely interwoven with our Nature than the Desire of Truth It is with great Eagerness and Diligence that we try all the Means capable of leading us to the Knowledge of it but alas our utmost Attempts are short and insufficient for Absolute Certainty is not a Prize allotted to us nor does it condescend to be taken and possessed by any the most assiduous Humane Soul Truth lodges in the Bosom of God there is its Retreat and proper Apartment Men understand not any thing in its utmost Perfection We know in part and here we see through a Glass darkly says the Fountain of all Truth We turn and tumble Objects about and grope like Men in the Dark for probable Reasons but these are to be found every where and Falshood as well as Truth hath somewhat to be alledg'd in its behalf We are born indeed to search and seek for Truth but the Enjoyment of it seems to be a Blessing reserv'd for some greater and more exalted Powers than any that Mortals are endu'd with That is the Happiness of Beings above us at present and is reserv'd for Mankind in a future State till he be purify'd from the Dross of Matter and Flesh and Infirmity and the Clouds that now hang before us and dim our Sight be scatter'd by Clear and Everlasting Day At present the Difference between one Man and another is not who reaches the Goal and gains the Prize and who not but who is distanced and who not who runs best and makes the nearest Approaches to that which none of us All can come up to If at any time it happens that a Man in the study of Nature fixes upon Truth This is more by a lucky Hit than otherwise and his good Fortune is to be extoll'd as much as his Industry and when he hath it 't is odds if he can keep it for many times a Man suffers it to be wrested out of his Hands again by Sophisms and Delusions and contrary Appearances for want of being Master of his Point and able to distinguish Truth from Falshood and Reality from the Counterfeit Errours are entertain'd by the same way that Truth is the Passage by which both enter our Souls is one and the same The Methods made use of for discovering it are Reason and Experience And both These are extremely weak and defective floating and uncertain hard to fix and changeable upon every slight occasion when we think they are sixed The great Argument of Truth is That of Universal Consent But what will all this amount to when a Man hath consider'd what a vast Majority of Fools there are and how very few Wise Men in the World And again To any one that observes how Opinions spread and become general Men take them from one another as they do Diseases by Infection And Applause is that Breath that corrupts the Air and bears about the Venom This Applause again is given commonly blindly and inconsiderately by them who never examine into the true Merits of the Cause and by them too who if they do pretend to examine are not capable of judging in the Case And thus when some few have begun the Dance the rest have nothing to do but to fall in with the Tune and follow them that lead it up of Course The other End aim'd at by the Mind is Invention Invention which if it have less of Nature yet hath more of Ambition and bold Pretension in it This is aspir'd to as its highest Point of Honour that which makes most Shew to the World and contributes most to its Reputation That which it looks big with and thinks the liveliest Image of the Divine Nature It is this particular Accomplishment to which all those noble Works have owed their Original which have fill'd the World with Transport and Wonder And those that have been of Publick Use among them have even Deify'd their Authors and immortaliz'd their Names What Renown have some gain'd that were mere Curiosities only for being eminent in their Kind though no Benesit at all accrued to Mankind by their means Such as Zeuxis's Vine Apelles's Venus Memnon's Statue the Colosse at Rhodes Archytas's Wooden Pigeon the Sphere of Sapores King of Persia and infinite others Now the Excellence of Art and Invention seems to consist not only in a good Imitation of Nature but in outdoing it This often happens in particular Instances for no Man nor Beast seems ever to have been so exquisitely formed in all its Parts nor the Proportions of any one and the same Body to have met together of Nature's Composition so exact as these Artists have delineated and represented them in Their Pieces There are likewise several Improvements and Exaltations of Nature in producing and compounding those things by Art which Nature alone never produces This is plain from the Mixtures of Simples and Ingredients which is the proper Business for Art to exercise it self in the Extraction of Spirits and Oyls and Distillation of Waters and compounding of Medicines more refin'd more powerful and efficacious than any Nature furnishes us with And yet after all These things are not so wonderful nor do they commend Humane Wisdom and Industry so highly as the generality of the World are apt to imagine For if we will pass that Judgment in this Matter which is agreeable to Truth and Duty and pay a just Deference and Acknowledgment to the First Author These are but Imitations and not properly Inventions They are Improvements but they only promote and perfect what God hath first revealed And what we commonly value and extol as our own Original Contrivance is nothing more than observing the Works of Nature arguing and concluding from what we find there and then reducing those Observations into Practice Thus Painting and Optiques were first rude and imperfect Hints taken from Shades and the Perfection they are now in consists only in a due and proper and beautiful Mixture of Colours which makes those Shades The Art of Dyalling comes from the Shadows cast by
then a miserable Sight our Head hanging down our Eyes fixed upon the Ground our Tongue Speechless our Limbs stiff and Motionless our Looks Wild and Confused our Ears Deaf and Insensible our Minds void of all Attention and composed Thought How distant is this from the Beauty the Dignity the Majesty of our Original Form and Temper Are these Men You may better call them walking Statues which only sweat forth Moisture at their Eyes like Niobe whom the Poets to represent the Miseries of Excessive Grief have feigned to be transformed into a weeping Marble But it were well if this Passion Impious and Unjust being Unnatural were the worst of it I have a yet much more heinous Accusation to charge it with For it flies in the Face of God himself and Arraigns his Justice and Wisdom and Providence What better Construction can any Man in Reason put upon our Rash Complaints and Outragious Passions than a Mind discontented with the Great Governour of the Universe and his Disposals of Us and our Affairs To murmur and repine at what is done by Him is to find Fault with him who does it and in an oblique and little more respectful Way to charge him with Folly or Hard-dealing The Law and Condition which he hath fixed to himself for the Government of the World is that all things in these Sublunary Regions shall be Changeable and Inconstant ever in Motion and subject to Decays and Death If then we know this to be their Condition why do we afflict our selves for that which is the common Fate of all here below for that which could not be New and should not be a Surprise to us what if we did not yet we might and ought to have expected And if we did not know this the truest and only reasonable Matter for grieving is our own most wretched Ignorance Of a Truth so Evident so Useful so Necessary to be known a Truth that Nature hath Graven every where in Characters so Large and Legible that it is impossible for us to go abroad and not meet it or to turn our Eyes any way at home and not read it Others our Selves and Every Thing carry this Inscription Alas we mistake our Post and Quality Man's Business here is not to give Laws but to receive and submit to them The Administration of Affairs is lodged in higher and better Hands The Order of the Universe is established and We who are but a very small Part of this vast Body must follow the Motions of the Whole and take contentedly what falls to our Share To fret and vex our selves is to be concern'd that Eternal Ordinances are not reversed and dissetled for our Sakes that We are not made an Exception to all Created Nature which besides the Intolerable Arrogance and Impiety it is guilty of against God is no less insupportable Folly with Respect to our selves for it mends not the Matter one whit but adds Weight to what Providence hath laid upon us already and makes all our Sufferings double For we must add too Destruâ—â—ve that it is exceeding destruâ—â—ve and of extreme ill Consequence to Men The Danger whereof is but the more increased by its hurting us under a Pretence of doing us Good It flatters with false Hopes and a fair shew of Relief but in Reality aggravates the Misfortune and while it professes to draw the Weapon out of our Side makes the Wound wider and deeper and thrusts a Dagger into our Hearts Besides these Thrusts are infinitely the more Difficult to defend our selves against because it is a Domestick Enemy that gives them One that we cannot run away from One that is fed and cherished within our own Bosoms and which we our selves have bred up and given Birth to merely to be a Vexation and a Punishment to us The Effects indeed of Grief Outwardly are Universally Mischievous they spread themselves quite over the whole Man and while they infect do very much impair every Part of him As to the external Appearance It Dishonours and is a Reproach to the Man by that Deformity and Change of Countenance brought upon him by this Means Do but observe when once Grief enters how it fills Men with Shame and Confusion so that they dare no more shew themselves in Publick nay so as to shun the Sight and Conversation even of their most intimate Friends and particular Acquaintance When once we are under the Dominion of this Passion the Light it self is offensive and our Great Care is to seek out some dark Corner some close Retreat to crouch and hide our selves in far from the Eyes and Observation of every Body Now what can be the Meaning of all This but a plain unnatural Confession of its own Indecency and how much Men ought to be asham'd of what they do at that time Is not this evidently to condemn it self and would you not be apt to think This was some Woman caught in Adultery that runs away and hides her Face and takes such Pains not to be seen or known Next to the Person observe the Habit what strange uncouth effeminate Things the Mourning Weeds are as if our very Clothes were intended to publish to the World that Grief utterly destroys and takes away all that is Manly and Brave about us and in its Room gives us all the Softnesses and Infirmities of Women Accordingly the Thracians always drest Men when they were in Mourning in direct Womens Habit and a certain Author observes that Grief enervates Men and wasts their Strength The old Roman Laws which were the most Noble and Masculine like the Spirits of those that made and lived under them strictly prohibited all such Effeminate Lamentations and long indulged Sorrow They thought very truly that it was a horrible Absurdity for Men to act in Contradiction to Nature and Reason and thus Unman themselves And all the Allowance they were content to make was only for the First Gush of Passion while it was fresh and tender or surprising For there are Tears that may be permitted to fall from the Eyes of Philosophers themselves A Man may keep up the Dignity of his Nature and yet not abandon the Humanity of it This we are bound to preserve as well as not to debase the other and therefore all that those Roman Laws and these Reflections aim at is so to Temper and get the Mastery over our Passion that while the Tears fall from our Eyes Virtue and Wisdom may not fall from our Hearts at the same time But the outward Fadings of the Beauty disfiguring the whole Man Inwardly and changing his Mein and Air and Behaviour so infinitely to Disadvantage no nor yet that corroding Venom which eats into our very Joints and Marrow and as the Wise Man expresses it drieth up the Bones these miserable Effects I say upon the Body are not All It goes deeper yet decays the Soul breaks all its Rest confounds and disturbs its Operations disables and draws off the
up in contrivance for the Management of his Person the Affecting a particular Motion of his Body an Air of his Face a Singularity of Address odd Sentences and uncommon Pronunciations and This he is insinitely delighted with as a Thing extremely graceful and engaging and what other People must needs admire and be taken with too Then how prodigiously vain and foolish are we in our Wishes and Desires from whence spring our ridiculous Opinions and our yet more ridiculous Hopes and Expectations And This again not only at such times as we surfeit with Leisure and have no other Business to employ our Thoughts but it very often interrupts our serious and most important Affairs and breaks our Thread in the very heat of Action So Natural is Vanity to us and so prevalent over us that it Spirits us away and pluckâ— us forcibly from Truth and Solidity and real Substance to lose us in Air and Emptiness and Nothing But of all Vanities the most refined in Folly is that anxious Care of what shall happen hereafter Concern for Futurity when we are gone and cannot feel it We stretch our Desires and Affections beyond our Persons and Subsistence and are much concerned for things to be done to us when we shall be in no capacity of receiving them How importunately do we covet Praise and Applause after Death and how egregious a Folly is This What can be vainer This is not Ambition as Men may be apt to imagine for That desires a Sensible Honour such as a Man can enjoy and reap some Benefit from So far as our good Name indeed is capable of doing Service to our Children or Relations or Friends that stay behind I own there is use of it and am content Men should desire it in proportion to this Convenience But to propose That as Our Own Happiness which can never reach or in any Degree affect our selves is meer Vanity Such another Folly is Theirs who perplex their Lives with Fears of their Wives marrying second Husbands and passionately desire they would continue single nay are content to purchase the Gratification of this Whimsie at a dear Rate by leaving in their Wills great part of their Estates to their Widows upon this Condition What an insupportable Folly and as it sometimes falls out what horrible Injustice is This How directly the Reverse of those Heroick Spirits in former Ages who upon their Death-Beds advis'd their Wives to Marry again as soon as Decency and Prudence would permit and to render Themselves useful by bringing Children to the Publick Some again Conjure their Friends to wear such a Ring or a Lock of Hair or some other Relick as a constant Remembrance of them when they are dead or leave Directions for some Particular thing to be done about their own Bodies What can we make of all This hath it not a very untoward Aspect Methinks it looks as if Men could be content to part with Life but could not even then submit to part with Vanity at any Rate Another Vanity is This That the Generality of Mankind live for Other People only and not for Themselves We are not half so much concern'd what we really and truly are in our own Persons and Dispositions as what the World takes us for and how we stand in Character and Reputation abroad And thus we frequently Cheat our selves and cast away the true Happiness and Advantages of Life and do a Thousand inconvenient Things Tho' at the same time we Torture our selves to be agreable to the Standers-by and to put on what we know is most in Vogue And this is plainly so not only in our Estatesâ— and our Bodies The Table the Equipage the Furniture the Dress the Figure all adapted to the present Mode and what the World expects from Persons in our Circumstances But which is a great deal worse and more deplorable in the Advantages of the Mind the Observation holds too For even These are thought of no Use or Worth unless they draw the Eyes and Approbation of other People And Virtue it self is neglected and disesteem'd if it be not publickly acknowledged and commended As if the Testimonies of ones own Breast were no Satisfaction As if those Things which were given for our proper Use and Benefit had lost all their Efficacy and changed their Nature when Others do not see and share in them as well as our Selves Nor is our Vanity consin'd to simple Thoughts and Desires and calm Discourse Commotions of the Mind but it often rises higher puts both Body and Mind into violent Agitations and Pains Men often teaze and torment themselves more for Matters of little or no Consequence than for Those which are of nearest Concern and upon which their All depends Our Soul is frequently thrown into violent Disorders by little Whimsies a meer Fansie a Dream a Shadow and empty Amusement without Substance without Ground and works it self up to all the Excesses of Anger and Revenge Joy and Grief and Confusion and all This with building Castles in the Air. The Ceremony of taking leave the Idea of some particular Gesture in a parting Friend strikes us deeper and gives us more real Trouble than all the Reasoning in the World upon Matters of greatest Moment is able to do The Sound of a Name repeated some certain Words and melancholy Accents pronounc'd Pathetically nay dumb Sighs and vehement Exclamations go to our very Hearts Tricks which all your formal Haranguers Enthusiasts Buffoons and Others whose Trade it is to move the Passions know and practise in great perfection And this airy Blast sometimes surprises the most cautious and transports the most resolved unless they set a more than common Guard upon themselves So strong an Influence hath Vanity and We so mighty a Tendency to it Nay as if it were not Reproach sufficient to be agitated and tossed about with Toys and Trifles even Falshood and Cheat hath the same Effect and which is strange even when we know it is nothing but Falshood and Cheat. Such Delight do we take such Industry do we use to Bubble our selves with our Eyes open and to feed upon Fable and Nothing * Ad fallendum nosmet ipsos ingeniosissimi sumus How dextrous we are to deceive our selves We need no other Instances than Those that cry heartily and fall into violent Passions upon hearing dismal Stories and seeing deep Tragedies at the same time that they know the moving Parts of These to have been invented and composed for Entertainment and Diversion at the Discretion of the Romancer or the Poet Nay some of them meer Fables so far from Truth now that they never were true in any Circumstance at all Shall I mention one Vanity more That of a Wretch possessed fond and dying for Love of an ugly old Hag One whose Age and Deformity he knows and knows that she Hates and Despises him too and notwithstanding all this is bewitched with a painted Face and Colours well laid the
at a Shadow he Worships the Wind he sweats and toils all Day and in the Evening when his Gains come to be computed a Mote is all the Wages he receives for his Work CHAP. XXXVII II. Weakness WE are now advancing to the Second Head under which Humane Nature is to be considered and This cannot be any Surprize after what hath been said already For how should so much Vanity be otherwise than Feeble and Frail Accordingly this Frailty is frankly confessed by all People and several Instances of it reckoned up which are too Plain not to be discerned But then it is not observed in its due Proportion nor in all Cases where it really hath a Part as in those for Instance which seem to have more of Strength and a less Mixture of Weakness such as Desire The Use and Enjoyment of what a Man is possest of In his Good and his Evil in short such as Man takes a Pride in and values himself upon And yet even These supposed Glories and Excellencies of his Nature are undeniable Arguments of his Weakness This may possibly seem a Paradox at first Sight but a few particular Reflexions will give us a clearer and more distinct View of the Thing First As for Desires It is manifest a Man cannot fix upon any Thing In desiring and choosing not even in Wish and Imagination so as to sit down with That and rest himself contented We have it not in our Power to Chuse what is necessary and sit for us nor to say in Particular what This would be And if Providence in Wisdom and Kindness bestow what we desire and what really is fit upon us yet it does not satisfie We are Eternally gaping at somewhat what Future and Unknown and find that what is present never fills never contents but what we have not is ever esteemed above it Could we suppose a Man so far indulged that a Blank should be put into his Hands to write his own Terms yet even That Fortune of his own Carving would not be so to his Palate but that in a short Time he would retract it some Alterations and Amendments something to be added or taken away In short he desires he knows not what How well soever the Particulars may please yet when the Account comes to be summed up nothing contents him for to say the Truth he is Uneasie and discontented with his own self His Weakness is still Greater and more conspicuous in the Use and Enjoyment of what he hath In Using and Enjoying than in the Desire of what he hath not and that in several Respects First in that he cannot manage nor reap the Benefit of Things as they really are and in their Native Purity but there is a Necessity of disguising and adulterating them that they may be accommodated to our Purpose Elements Metals and other Things in their Primitive Simplicity are perfectly useless to us Pleasures and Delights and never to be enjoyed without a Mixture of Pain and Inconvenience * Medio de fonte leporum Surgit amari aliquid quod in ipsis floribus angat Lucret. L. 4. For still some bitter Thought destroys Our fancied Mirth and Poisons all our Joys Creech Extremity of Pleasure carries with it an Air of Melancholy and Complaint and the highest Gratifications of Sense are Weakness and Faintings And that which gives True and Perfect Contentment hath much more Solidity and a severe Satisfaction than of Gayety and Transport in it †Ipsa felicitas se nisi temperat premit Even Happiness it self if it do not moderate it self oppresses and destroys it self Which gave occasion to one of the Antients to say That God sold us all the good Things we receive from him meaning that none of them are Pure and Unmingled and we cannot be said to have That gratis for which we pay the Price of that Evil and Uneasiness which attends it The Case is directly the same with Grief too for This is never without some sort of Pleasure annexed to it ‖ Labor voluptasque dissimillima naturà societate quadam naturali inter se sunt juncta est quaedam flere voluptas Pleasure and Pain tho' in their Natures the most unlike that can be are yet so contrived by Nature as to be constant Companions and go Hand in Hand Even Tears are shed for Pleasure and Relief And Humorous Man turns Epicure in Grief Thus all Things in this World are mingled and tempered with their Contraries and it is not amiss to Observe what Masters in Painting teach us That the very same Motions and Muscles of the Face are employed both in Laughing and Crying And common Experience shews us that excessive Laughter brings Tears There is no good Quality in us without some Tincture of Vice as shall be shewn in its proper Place hereafter nor is there any Evil without some abatement of Good * Nullum sine authoramento malum est Every Misfortune is capable of being turned to Advantage there is no Good without Evil no Evil without Good in Man every Thing is a Mixture and nothing comes to our Hands sincere and unmingled Secondly All that happens to us is mismanaged and taken by the wrong Handle Our Palats are humorsom and uncertain and know not how to relish Things as they ought and from This variety of Tasts it is That the endless Disputes and Inreconcileable Opinions concerning the Chief Good have proceeded The very best Things oftentimes decay and die upon our Hands are corrupted by our Weakness or our Wickedness or are lost and come to nothing for want of Ability to make the Best of them nay sometimes they do not only turn to No Account but to a very Ill One and what is Good in it self proves to Us a mighty Evil and manifest Disadvantage But the Weakness of Humane Nature is most copiously display'd In Good and Evil. with regard to Good and Evil to Virtue and Vice My Meaning is That a Man with all his Industry and Endeavours cannot be entirely Good nor entirely Wicked He is Master of nothing Virtue and Vice in short Upon this occasion we will consider Three Points The first is That it is not possible to exercise every kind of Virtue The Reason is See Advertisements at the End of the Chapter that some of them are incompatible and can never dwell together the same Persons and the same Circumstances are not capable of them As for Instance The Chastity of a Virgin and that of a Widow the Virtues of a Single and those of a Married Life These Latter in each Kind Widowhood and Marriage being Conditions of much more Encumbrance and Trouble more Difficulty and therefore more Virtue than the quiet and undisturbed State of Celibacy and Virginity though Those on the other Hand have the Advantage in Purity and Grace and Freedom from Business and Care The Constancy and Greatness of Mind which exerts it self in Poverty and Want in
oftentimes is mere Vanity no one Stroke of a Judicious Man no one eminently Good Quality discernible in it and accordingly the Authors themselves under whose Names good Things are published are often known to be Persons of weak Parts and very indifferent Judgment loose in their Principles and debauch'd in their Morals And how much better than all this is it to hear a good honest Farmer or a common Shopkeeper talking in their own Gibberish plain downright Truths in a dry rough way without Trick or Dress to adorn and set them off and giving good useful Advice which is the Natural Product of sound Sense and an unsophisticated Judgment Thus much for our Understanding The Will The Will is in no degree inferiour in Misery but hath at least as many Sources and the Instances of it are more deplorable than any under the former Head These are indeed innumerable some few of them are such as follow 1. The being more desirous to be thought Virtuous and Good than really to be so and when one does good Actions doing them more for the sake of Others than our Own making Reputation a more powerful Motive and Principle of Virtue than Conscience coveting and taking greater Satisfaction in the Commendation and Applause of the World than in the secret Consciousness and Comfort of having done our Duty 2. The being much more forward and eager to revenge an Injury or Affront than to acknowledge a Favour and return a Kindness Insomuch that to own an Obligation is a perfect Trouble and Mortification a lessening one's self but the taking Satisfaction reputed a Pleasure a Pride an Advantage And what can be a greater Reproach to our Nature what more betray the Baseness and Malignity of it than the verifying that Observation * Gratia oneri est Ultio in quaestu habetur Thanks are a Toil and a Burden but a Retaliation of Injuries is esteemed an Addition and a Gain 3. The being more violent and fierce in the Passion of Hatred than in That of â—â—ve more disposed to more vehement in Detraction and Calumnies than in our Commendations and good Characters of Men and Actions to seed upon Evil rather than Good and entertain ill Reports and an odious Representation of our Neighbour with more sensible Relish than his Praises To enlarge more willingly upon These allow them a greater Share in our Conversation to employ one's Wit and Arts of Expression upon this Subject rather than the Contrary As the generality of Historians Orators and Poets do who are cold and flat in relating Men's Virtues but sharp and poignant eloquent and moving in the Description of their Vices And thus we find that the Expressions and Figures of Rhetorick which serve to expose and blacken Men and Things are mighty different much more full and copious more emphatical and significative than Those which are employed in Recommendation and Praise 4. The declining Evil Book II. Chap. 3. and addicting one's Self to Good upon false and improper Ends when This is not the result of Virtuous Motions and Inclinations from within nor the Dictate of Natural Reason nor the Love of Virtue nor the Sense of Duty but some Consideration altogether foreign and wide of the Matter Some mean and sordid Prospect of Gain and Interest the Itch of Vain-glory the Hope of Advancement the Fear of Reproach Complyance with Custom Obsequiousness to the Company and in a Word the not doing Good for the sake of doing it and because it becomes us and binds our Conscience but upon some occasional Motive and external Circumstance that happen'd to fall in with us at that time And at this rate the greatest part of Mankind are only good by Chance Which gives the true Reason of their being so extremely various and unequal and sickle and inconsistent with Themselves for so must all things needs be that are govern'd by Impulse and Accident and nothing but true and well-weigh'd Principles grounded upon Duty and Reason can produce a steddy constand and uniform Virtue 5. The lessening our Affection for the Persons we have wronged and that for no other Reason but merely because we have done them an Injury Is not this very odd What account can be given of it We cannot pretend that this Coldness always proceeds from Apprehensions of Revenge for perhaps the injur'd Party hath no such Thought and is as kindly disposed to Us as ever But the Reason seems to be that the very Sight and Remembrance of him accuses Us to our Selves and our Conscience takes these Occasions to fly in our Faces and reproach our Baseness and Indiscretion So that if the Person offending does not abate of his Kindness this is a good Argument that he did not offend wilfully and is not conscious to himself of any thing that can give him a just Dissatisfaction at his own Proceedings For commonly speakking Every one that offends knowingly and with a malicious Design changes in his Affection afterwards and either turns an Enemy or at least very cold and indifferent according to that usual Proverb * Chi offende mai non pardonna He that does the Wrong never forgives 6. And Observation not much unlike the former may be made concerning Persons who have highly oblig'd us The Sight of such is often an Uneasiness it upbraids us with a Debt and awakens ungrateful Remembrances of our Want either of Disposition or of Power to require Then Nay sometimes Men are so abominably wicked as even to rejoyce at the Death of a Benefactor because it eases them of this sort of Pain according to the Remark of an Old Author Some the more they have been obliged the worse they hate A small Debt makes a Man your Friend but a great one will be sure to make him your Enemy 7. The taking Delight in Mischief being glad at the Pains and Dangers and Difficulties of other People and conceiving a secret Indignation and Displeasure at their Prosperity and Promotion Nor do I mean here any such Envy or Uneasiness as proceeds from Passion and particular Resentment for this is chargeable upon the Vices of single Persons only But the Thing I aim at is the common Temper and natural Condition of Mankind in general which without any Pique or Spleen or Provocation disposes even Good Men †Suave Mari magno c. Lib. 2. to receive a sort of Satisfaction from the Risques of Men in Seas and Storms to be angry at any Preference of our Friends before Us either in point of Merit or Fortune to laugh at any little Misfortune that happens to them * All this argues the Seeds of Ill-Nature to be thick sown and to have taken deep Root in us The First of these Instances which of all the rest seems most hard-hearted Lucretius gives a much more innocent account of and acquits it of the severe Imputation laid upon it here in the beginning of this Second Book And indeed what is said There upon that one
Subtilty of Foxes and Religion of Divines Planets Mars War Luna Hunting Jupiter Emperours Mercury Oratours Satur. Contemplation Venus Love  Arts and Manufactures Prudence and Knowledge of Good and Evil. Speculative Wisdow and Knowledge of True and False Parts and Offices in the Commonwealth Labourers and Artisans and Soldiers Magistrates discreet and provident Persons Prelates Divines and Philosphers Qualities of different Ages Young Men Aukward and Unapt Grown Men good Managers and Men of Business Old Men Grave Wise and Thoghtful These are the peculiar Excellencies and most remarkable Distinctions which may be attributed to this general Division of North and South The Nations that lie Westward and the People that dwell upon the Mountains approach and have a great Affinity to the Northern Climates because of the Cold to which those Situations are more expos'd which is also the Case of Them who live at a great distance from the Sea They are Warlike and Fierce Lovers of Liberty and have more Honesty and Simplicity in their Tempers And so again the Eastern Countries resemble the Southern as do also Those that dwell in the Champaign and great Valleys and the Borderers upon the Sea They are more Tender and Effeminate by reason of the Fruitfulness of their Soil for Fertility inclines Men to Softness and Pleasure And your Islanders are commonly Subtle and Cunning and Deceitful by reason of that Commerce and Correspondence they hold with Men and Nations of different Tempers abroad From this whole Discourse we may conclude in general that the Privilege of the Northern Climates lies chiefly in the Qualifications of the Body Strength and a Robust Constitution is their peculiar Excellence and Portion The Southern have the Advantage in the Mind Subtilty and Penetration and Quickness of Parts is Their Talent The Middle Regions have somewhat of Both and partake of all These Excellencies but of Each in less Degrees and moderate Proportions From hence likewise we may understand that the Manners and Original Dispositions of Men simply consider'd are not Vices or Virtnes in their own Nature but Necessary and Natural Effects And the absolute renouncing or devesting our selves of These nay the perfect Reformation of them is something more than difficult it is in some Cases out of our Power But the sweetning and moderating and reducing these Natural Extremes to Temper and a due Medium the watching over them carefully and restraining their Motions This is properly our Duty and the Business of Wisdom and Virtue CHAP. XLIII The Second Distinction and nicer Difference which regards the Souls of Men or the Internal Qualifications and Capacities of their Minds THis Second Distinction which concerns the Minds of Men Three Sorts and Degrees of Men in the World and their inward Accomplishments is by no means so manifest as the former It is not obvious to Sense at all nor does it fall within the compass of every one's Notice and Observation The Causes of it are likewise compounded for it depends partly upon Nature and partly upon Industry and Art and so extends to our Acquir'd Excellencies as well as to Those that are born and bred with us According to this Distinction there are as was observ'd before Three sorts of Men which divide them into Three Classes or Degrees of Souls In the First and lowest of these Ranks we may place those weak and mean Souls which are almost of a Level with Body and Matter of slender and narrow Capacities almost perfectly passive and such as Nature seems to have made on purpose to Endure and Obey to live under Subjection and Management and tamely to follow their Leaders In a Word such as are but just Men and no more In the Second and middle Row are Those of a tolerable Judgment and Understanding and such as make some Pretensions to Wit and Learning Management and Address These Men know Something but they are not sufficiently acquainted with Themselves They are content to take up with Opinions commonly receiv'd and stick fast to their first Impressions without troubling Themselves or indeed being judicious enough to enquire into the Truth and Bottom of Things nay were they capable of finding their deep and most abstruse Causes they think this an unlawful Curiosity and so make the Submission of their Judgments a Principle of Duty and Conscience They look no farther than that little Spot of Ground where they stand Themselves and take it for granted that Matters are or ought to be all the World over exactly the same with what they see them at home and all that differ from them in Customs or Opinion they look upon with Pity or Disdain and allow no better Names to than Ignorant and Unciviliz'd Wild and Barbarons They live in perfect Slavery to local Laws and the Vogue of that Village or City where they have dwelt ever since they were hatch'd and this they do not only in a quiet Complyance and orderly Obedience to them which it is the Duty of every Man even the ablest and most judicious to do but they conform their Sense and their Soul to them and are verily persuaded that what is believ'd and practis'd in their own Town is the infallible Standard of Truth the Only or the Best Rule of Virtue and that all Men's Notions of Right and Wrong ought to be measur'd by Theirs These sorts of Men belong to the School and District of Aristotle They are Positive and Peremptory abounding in their own Sense and impatient of Contradiction They look more at Convenience than Truth and consider what will make most for the Benefit of the World and turn to best Account rather than make it their Business to find Things as they really are and recommend what is Best in it self This Class consists of infinite Subdivisions great Variety of Attainments and Degrees the Uppermost and most capable among them are such as sit at Helm and govern the World Those that hold Empires and Kingdoms in their Hand and either give Commands or counsel those that do In the Third and Highest Order are the Men blest with a lively clear and penetrating Wit a sound solid and stable Judgment that do not content Themselves with bare Hearsay nor set up their Rest in general and receiv'd Opinions that suffer not their Minds to be prepossest and won over by the publick Vogue nor are at all kept in Awe or afraid to oppose and diffent from the common Cry as being very well satisfy'd how many Cheats there are abroad in the World and that some Things no better than Falshood and Jest at the bottom have been entertain'd approv'd extoll'd nay even reverenc'd and ador'd For such were the greatest part of the old Philosophy and Physick such the Divinations and Oracles and all the Idolatry and Trumpery of the Pagan Worship which prevail'd even in the most refin'd Countries for many Generations together and kept Mankind in slavery to most wicked and miserable Delusions These Men therefore are for bringing every
Things in the World and instead of helping forward does but provoke us to nauseate our Happiness * Pinguis amor nimiumque potens in taedia nobis Vertitur Stomacho dulcis ut esca nocet Ovid. Amor. L. 2. Eleg. 19. Gross easie Love does like gross Diet pall In squeasie Stomachs Honey turns to Gall. Dryden The greatest Interruption to our Enjoyments and the most distasteful Thing that can happen to us is Abundance To be cloy'd is to lose All. And therefore we may say that Princes are not capable of such a thing as Action for this cannot be lively and vigorous without some Degree of Difficulty and Resistance Other Men may be said to live and move and act who meet with Obstruction and Opposition but They who meet with none may more truly be said to dream or walk in their Sleep or to glide along insensibly thro' the whole Course of their Lives The Third Particular in which they find Themselves aggrieved above others is in their Marriage In their Marriage The Matches made by Persons of inferiour Quality are infinitely more free and easie the effect of Choice the result of Affection more void of Constraint and full of Satisfaction One great Reason no doubt of this Difference is that Common Men have greater Choice and may find great Variety and Numbers equal with Themselves to take a Wife out of But Kings and Princes are but few and therefore if They resolve to marry suitably to Themselves there can be no great picking and choosing in the Case But the other Reason is and indeed the more considerable of the Two That Private Persons have nothing farther to aim at beyond their own particular Concerns They consult their own Comfort and Convenience but Princes are often confin'd and ty'd up by publick Considerations Their Marriages are vast Intrigues of State and design'd to be instrumental in securing the Happiness and Peace of the World in general Great Persons do not Marry for Themselves but for the common Good of Nations and Kingdoms And this is what they ought to be more in love with and tender of than of their Wife and Children Upon this Account they are frequently obliged to hearken to Proposals where there is neither Affection nor Delight to invite them they often engage themselves to Persons whom they are so far from being taken with that sometimes they never know nor see them till it is out of their Power to retreat There is no such thing as Love or Liking between the Parties but the short of the Matter is Such a great Prince marries such a great Princess which if he had been in another Capacity he would never have chosen or consented to But the Publick was concern'd and is served by it and he is content to enslave Himself for his whole Life because that Alliance was necessary to be contracted for the strengthening his Interest and the security of his Kingdoms and the mutual Benefit and Ease which Nations may receive by such a convenient Union I may reckon this for a Fourth Disadvantage that They can have no part in those Tryals and little Emulations which other Men are continually exercised in towards one another by the Jealousie they express of their Honour or signalizing their Valour their Wit or their Bodily Strength which after all is one of the most sensible Pleasures Men enjoy in Conversation with one another The Reason is obvious because every Man thinks himself bound in good Manners to yield to Them to save a Decency and not suffer them to be outdone and had rather balk their Own Honour and abate of what they could do upon these Occasions than give Offence to a Prince whom they know Ambitious of being thought the Conqueror of all that contend with him Now the Bottom and Truth of all this Matter is that upon pretence of Deference and Respect such Great Men are abus'd and treated with great Scorn and secret Contempt which gave occasion to a wise Man to say that the Children of Princes were in a very ill way of Education for they learnt nothing as they should do except the Art of Riding a Manag'd Horse because in all other Cases Men yield and adjudge the Prize to them but this Beast who is not capable of Flattery nor hath learnt the Arts of Courtship and Complaisance makes no difference between the Prince and his Groom and throws either of them without distinction Several great Men have therefore refused the Applauses of Spectators and scorn'd their formal Commendations saying I should take this kindly and be proud of it if it came from Persons that durst say otherwise and who would take that generous Freedom of finding Fault with Me when I gave them a just occasion of doing so The Fifth Inconvenience is Their being debarr'd the Liberty of going Abroad Incapacity of Travelling and the mighty Advantages of seeing the World For they are perfectly Imprison'd within their own Country and generally cooped up within the Precincts of their Court and there they are hedg'd in as it were with their own Creatures expos'd to the View of Spectators and the Censure of Impertinent Tattlers and Busie-bodies that watch and dog them every where even in their most secret Actions Which made King Alphonso say that in this Respect the very Asses had more Liberty and were in a better Condition than Kings The Sixth Topick of their Miseries is As also of mutual and cordial Friendship the being shut out from all sincere Friendship and mutual Society which is the very sweetest and most valuable Advantage of Humane Life but such a one as can never be enjoy'd except among Equals or such at least between whom there is no very great Inequality Now the Elevation of a Prince is so high and the Distance at which his Subjects stand below him so very great that it makes any intimate and free Correspondence impracticable All the Services and Compliments and humble Formalities paid them come from such Hands as must do what they do and dare not do otherwise They are by no means the effect of Friendship but of servile Submission and Interest and Design All their zealous Professions are not for His sake but their Own to ingratiate and to raise Themselves or else they are a Matter of Custom and Shew only Which we see plainly they often are from the vilest and most wicked Kings being serv'd and reverenc'd and addrest to in the very same manner with the best and most truly deserving those Honours and even Them whom the People hate and curse with Those whom they cordially love and adore But still whether a Prince be the One or the Other of these no body can make any Conjecture at all from outward Forms and Appearances The Pomp the Ceremony the Complement and the whole Face and Behaviour of a Court is always alike Which Julian the Emperour was so sensible of that when some of his Courtiers commended his Justice he
a thousand other such Sayings by which they remarkably argued a distrust of their own Judgments The rest of them though upon some occasions they have proceeded somewhat dogmatically and delivered their Minds boldly and positively yet seem rather to have dissembled their Doubts than not to have had any and to put the best face they could upon the matter that the World might see how far their Wit would carry them in the Search of Truth a Thing * Quam Docti fingunt magis quà m nôrunt which Learned Men seem rather to have framed an Idea of to themselves than to have known her as she is For after all their boasts of attaining her their Courage fails them at last and the Things uttered by them they dare not venture to bestow any more honourable Titles upon than that of Probabilities and Appearances of Truth and while they represent them variously sometimes in one prospect and form and sometimes in another by Questions and Problems and Ambiguous Disputes as if their design was rather to enquire than to teach and that they sought Information themselves while they pretend to give it to others from all this I say and the whole current of their Style we may reasonably gather that they wrote and spoke not so much with a design to establish a Notion or render it unquestionable as for Diversion and to Exercise their Wits as one says We cannot be sure what their opinions were or that they really believed their own Writings for indeed * Noâ—â—â—â—m id sensiffe quod dicerent quà m exercere ingenia maâ—â—â—â—â—â—â—â—â—cultate voluisse videntur they seem not to have designed we should gather their Sense of things so much as that we should observe and admire their Parts and Skill by those Trials which the nicety and difficulty of their Subject put them upon And who can ever persuade himself that Plato intended his Republick and fanciful Ideas should ever pass for Current Doctrine or that Pythagoras in advancing his Numbers and Epicurus his Atoms spoke their own real Opinions and such as they thought were weighed and measured Truths They pleased and entertained their own Minds with these nice Speculations but †〈…〉 singuntur non ex Scientiae vi the Notions were owing more to the Fruitfulness of their own Inventions than to any strength of Proof or force of Knowledge And indeed they may seem sometimes to have gone out of the common road on purpose and with great Industry to have sought somewhat of Difficulty the better to amuse the world by thus concealing the Vanity of the Subjects they were upon and to furnish matter for the gratifying their Reader 's Curiosity How wretchedly is Aristotle the very Idol of these Dogmatists confounded and at a loss How inconsistent with himself and forced sometimes to confess the Impotence of Human Nature and how short the most inquistive come of the Truth Those that afterwards signalized themselves by a more positive and magisterial way of Writing and from thence got the Title of Dogmatists were Men of a Pedantick and presumptuous Temper They it is true condemn and detest this Rule of Wisdom and were fonder of a Hot-headed peremptory Fellow though contrary to their own Party and Judgment than of a peaceable sedate and modest Man who contents himself with Doubting and declines the pronouncing any thing definitively that is in plain English they esteem a rash Fool more than a Cautious Wise Man Like Women who take it ill not to be contradicted and had rather be answered rudely than not at all Because they think the Coldness and Indifference of Silence argues greater Contempt and Disdain than it is possible for the most injurious Language to express In which they betray great perverseness and injustice For what reason can be given why a Man should not be allowed to suspend his Judgment and still to deliberate upon things as Doubtful without venturing to affirm on either side when They at the same time take a privilege of determining as They see fit Is not there the same Equity at least the same Right for the one as for the other and what mighty Crime is it frankly to confess one's self Ignorant when he is really so and to say nothing when he cannot speak with good Assurance and full Satisfaction It is certain that all Philosophers are agreed so much to our disadvantage as to pronounce that we are Ignorant of a great deal more than we know nay that our Knowledge is not comparable not fit to be mentioned in competition with our Ignorance The Causes of which are infinite for we may be mistaken in the Objects of our Enquiry by reason of their being too near or too distant too great or too small of too long or too short duration and in perpetual Flux and Uncertainty These Causes of Error proceed from the Object but then there are infinite Others owing to our Selves and our Manner of Perception which in truth is not yet universally agreed upon nor perfectly well understood What we think our selves sure of we do not really know nor can we be secure of continuing in our present Opinion any time For how often do we see fresh Arguments extort it from us or if our Obstinacy will hold it fast in despight of all Reasons to the Contrary yet at least they raise a dust and disturb us in the Possession of it Now I would be glad to know which way a man shall ever be capable of improving his Judgment if he fasten himself down to some certain notions resolving to look and examine no farther nor enduring to hear any thing offered in prejudice of an Opinion which he fancieth himself abundantly satisfied in already The plain Truth is Men are asham'd of this Suspense I am treating of because they have a wrong Notion of it They look upon it as a Sign of Want of Judgment whereas in reality the Greatest and most judicious Philosophers that ever lived were the most frank in this Point The Idea of Positiveness and Presumption hath taken such fast hold of them and they think Dogmaticalness and Learning so inseparable that they are out of Countenance in any case to own their Ignorance lest This should be thought a Reflection upon their Parts and Attainments There is no persuading them that there is a sort of Ignorance and Doubt more Learned more Generous and consistent with better Assurance and more accurate Knowledge than all Their boasted Science and Certainty This gave that great renown to Socrates and entitled him to the Character of the Wisest Man of his Age This is the Fruit of Study and deep enquiry it is a modest candid innocent and hearty acknowledgement of the sublime mysterious Nature of Truth and the Defects and Poverty of our own Understanding so weak within so beset with Mists and Darkness without and from Both so uncertain and unsteady in its Resolutions The Lord knoweth the Thoughts of Man that they are but
vain says the Psalmist And another Author that * Cogitationes mortalium timidae incertae adinventiones nostrae Providentiae The thoughts of Mortal Men are full of Fears and Misgivings their Inventions uncertain and all their Forecasts Dark and Confused And I for my own part am so fully possess'd of this Truth that I have order'd this Motto I know not Je ne scay to be engraved over the Gate of my little House which I built at Condom Now there are a sort of Persons who take it ill that Men should not submit themselves absolutely and fix on some certain Principles which ought they tell you never to be examined or controverted at all Now I allow that if These be such as manifest themselves to a Man's Reason they ought to be received but that merely upon the account of their Reasonableness and not for the pompous Name of Principles To impose any thing unconditionally is Tyranny and Usurpation and though upon due Consideration and the Approbation of my own Judgment I allow them yet if they will not admit me to try whether they be Sterling or Counterfeit before I take them for current Coin this is a Condition full of Hardship and such as I can never yield to For who I would fain know hath power to give Law to our Thoughts to enslave our Minds and set up Principles which it shall not be lawful to enquire into or admit any manner of doubt concerning them I can own no such Power in any but God and He hath it upon the account of his being Truth it self the Supreme Spirit and the only Principle and Source of all things which makes it as reasonable to believe Him upon his bare word as it is not to believe other people barely upon Theirs For this Foundation of our Belief being One of his Incommunicable Perfections it will unavoidably follow that no other thing is injured or disparaged by out refusing the same entire Resignation to it and challenging our Right of Examining before we yield our Assent If a Man requires my Belief to what are commonly stiled by the Name of Principles my Answer shall be the same with that of a late Prince to the several Sects in his Kingdom Agree among your selves first and then I will give my Consent too Now the Controversies are really as great about these Principles as they are concerning the Conclusions advanced upon them as many doubts upon the Generals as the Particulars so that in the midst of so many contending Parties there is no coming in to any One without giving offence and proclaiming War upon all the rest They tell us farther that it is a horrid uneasy state of Mind to be always thus upon the Float and never coming to any setled Resolution to live in Eternal Doubt and Perplexity of Thought nay that it is not only painful but very difficult and almost impracticable to continue long in such Uncertainty They speak this I suppose from their own Experience and tell us what they feel themselves But this is an Uneasiness peculiar to foolish and weak people To the Former because Fools are presumptuous and passionate and Violent espousers of Parties and Opinions full of Prejudices and strong Possessions fierce Condemners of all that differ from them never yielding the Cause nor giving out the Dispute though they be really convinced and supplying the want of Reason by Heat and Anger instead of ingenuous Acknowledgments of their Error If they find themselves obliged to change their Opinion you have them then as peremptory and furious in their new Choice as ever they were in their first Principles in short They know not what it is to maintain an Argument without Passion and when they dispute it is not for the sake of Truth or Improvement but purely for Contradiction and the Last Word and to assert their own Notions These Men I make no Scruple to call Fools for in truth they know nothing not so much as what it is to know so exceeding pert and confident are they and insult as if they carried Truth about in their Pockets and it was their own incommunicable Property As for Men of Weak Judgments and such as are not able to stand upon their own Legs it is very necessary they should not be left alone but seek a Support from persons of better and more discerning Abilities But These are not concerned in my present Rule it is their Misfortune to be born to Slavery and out of all Capacity to enjoy the Freedom I am treating of But as for Wise Men who are qualified for it Men of Modesty and Reserve and prudent Candor It is the most composed State of Mind that can be and puts us into a Condition of Firmness and Freedom of Stable and Uninterrupted Happiness * Hoe liberiores solutiores sumus quia integra nobis judicandi potestas manet We are so much less under Constraint than other Men by how much more our Minds enlarge themselves and the Liberty of judging is preserved entire This is a safe course to steer and keeps us off from many dangerous Rocks and Shelves which Warmth and Rashness and a Positive conceited Humour Drives Men upon It delivers us from the vain prepossessions of Fancy and Popular Mistakes from the Precipitation of thinking wrong at first and the Shame of retracting when we come to think better afterwards from Quarrels and Disputes and engaging in or becoming offensive to Parties For take which side you please you are sure to have a great many against you And a Zealous Espouser of any Cause must unavoidably live in a constant State of Wrangling and War In a Word This Suspension of the Judgment keeps us snug and under a Covert where the Inconveniences and Calamities which affect the Publick will seldom sensibly affect and scarce can ever involve us At a distance from those Vices and vehement Agitations which ruffle and discompose first Men's own Minds and then Human Society in general For this Fierceness and Peremptoriness is at once the Spawn and the Parent of Pride and Insolence Ambition and Vainglory and Immoderate Desires Presumption and Disdain Love of Novelty and Change Rebellion and Disobedience in the State Heresy and Schism in the Church Faction and Hatred and Contention in Both. These are all of the same lineage and descent These are begun fomented inflamed by your Hot and Positive and Opinionative Men not by the Modest and Doubting Men who are cautious and tender never Over-confident of themselves and content to believe that others are at least in a possibility of being in the right all which are but so many other Names for Wife and well-temper'd Men. I will advance yet one Step farther and venture to affirm that the Temper of Mind I am now recommending is so far from having any ill Influence upon Piety and Religion that it is extremely well calculated to serve and promote it whether we regard the first Propagation
every Place every Emergency will find him the same For this Law of Nature is perpetual the Obligation of it is lasting and inviolable the Equity and Reason of it are Eternal written in large and indelible Characters no Accident can deface them no length of time waste or wear them out even Wickedness it self by the Customary Habits whereof the positive and additional Improvements of this Law are corrupted yet cannot debauch or exterminate these first and Natural Notions no Place no Time can alter or disguise them but they continue every where the same The Collections inferred from them differ infinitely but these first Principles themselves which are the Ground of all Moral Institutions admit of no Change no Increase no Abatement no Fits and Starts no Ebbings and Flowings but as they are a part of our Substance so do they agree with what the Schools say of all Substances in general * Substantia non recipit magis minùs that it is contrary to their nature to be more or less than they are Why then Vain Man dost thou trouble thy self to seek abroad for some Law and Rule to Mankind What can Books or Masters tell thee which thou mightest not tell thy self What can Study or Travel shew which at the expence of much less pains thou might'st not see at home by descending into thy own Conscience and hearkning attentively to its Admonitions When Ignorance of this kind is pretended the same Reply is fit for Thee which would be given to a shuffling Debtor who when Payment is demanded professes not to know how the Money became due when all the while he hath the Bill about him For thou carriest the Bond and the particulars of thy Debt in thy own Bosom and what thou seekest Information of from others canst not but know if thou consult thy Self To what purpose is all this Labour and Cost the toilsome tumbling over of Codes and Institutes of Precedents and Reports of Statutes and Records when all these are contained in one small portable Volume The Two Tables of Moses the Twelve Tables of the Greeks Rom. 2.12 the Law written in the hearts of Them who had no Law and in short all the Rules of Equity and Good Laws that have any where been enacted and obtained in the World are nothing else but Copies and Transcripts produced in open Court and published from that Original which thou keepest close within thee and yet all the while pretendest to know nothing of the matter stifling and suppressing as much as in thee lies the Brightness of that Light which shines within and so falling under the Condemnation of those mentioned by the Apostle Rom. 1.18 who hold or detain the Truth of God in Unrighteousness If This have not been sufficiently published and promulged as loud as clear as intelligibly as other humane Laws the only Reason is that that Light which is really All-heavenly and Divine hath been put under a Bushel that is too much neglected and industriously forgotten All other Institutions are but so many Rivulets and Streams derived from this common Source And although they be more visible and obvious and express yet is not the Water they carry so copious nor so lively and pure as that of the unseen Spring within thy own Breast if thy own Negligence did not suffer it to waste and dry up It is not I say so Copious for as one well observes * Quà m multa Pietas Humanitas Liberalitas Fides exigunt quae extra Tabulas sunt What a world of Good Offices are there which Prety Humanity Liberality and Fidelity require from a Man and yet no written or positive Law ever prescribed Alas how poor and scanty a thing is that Honesty of your Formal and Hypocritical Pretenders who stick to the Letter of the Law and think when That is satisfied they have fully discharged their Duty whereas there are infinite Obligations incumbent upon a Man which no human Law ever binds upon him †Quà m angusta Innocentia ad Legem bonum esse latiùs Officiorum quà m Juris patet Regula He that is honest only in the Eye of the Law hath but a very slender sort of Innocence to boast for the Measure of our Duty is of a much larger extent than the Law can pretend to There are infinite Cases unforeseen sudden Emergencies and extraordinary Conjunctures the Occasions and Circumstances whereof are too many and too intricate for any human Wisdom to foresee and much more impossible for it to make any competent Provision for so that a Man must often be left to his own Judgment and Discretion and even where he is not a Good Man will sometimes think the Rule too narrow and disdain to consine or cramp up his Virtue within the Compass of that which was thought necessary to be imposed upon every Common Man And as this invisible Fountain within is more exuberant and plenteous so is it more lively and pure and strong than any of those Streams derived from it Of which we need but this single Testimony That whenever any Disputes arise about the Interpretation and right Execution of a positive Law the constant and best Method of Understanding the Equity and true Intent of it is by running it back to its first Head and observing what is most agreeable to the Law of Nature in the Case This is the Test and Touch This the Level and the Truth by which all the rest are to be judged For as we commonly say * Anima Legis Ratio Reason is the Soul and Life of the Law here we find things clear and limpid in their Source which when drawn out into Rivulets grow foul and sullied by all that Faction and Interest Ambition and serving of Parties which corrupt all human Sanctions and Establishments And thus I have described to you a Real Substantial Radical Fundamental Honesty born with us rooted in us springing from the Seed of Universal Reason This in the Soul is like the Spring and Balance in a Clock it regulates all its motions like the Natural Warmth in the Body which sustains and preserves it self and is both its own Strength and Safety and the Person 's to whom it belongs The Man that proceeds according to This acts in conformity to the Will of God in consistence and agreement with himself in compliance with Nature and obedience to those Rules upon which all Government and Civil Constitutions are founded he proceeds smoothly gently silently His Virtue draws little Observation perhaps as it makes no Noise but slides on and keeps its Course like a Boat carried down by the Course of the Water in a Calm day Whereas all other sorts of Virtue are the Products of Art and Accident grafted into us by Discipline and not of our own natural growth fickle and out of Temper like the Intermitting Heat and Cold of a Fever they are acquired at first and drawn out into exercise afterwards by Chance and
was a despicable thing because it was the Effect of Cowardice and Laziness so the Doing Well where it is without the expence of Trouble and Hazard is look'd upon by these persons as too vulgar and cheap a thing but the attempting and going through with it in despight of Hazards and Troublesome Oppositions and where these attack us in great number and labour hard to obstruct and deter us from our Duty This is the Commendation of a Good and a Virtuous Person indeed * Difficilia quae pulchra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato Whatever is excellent is Difficult was we know the usual Saying of the Noblest Philosopher But to deal plainly and speak the Truth of the matter the Difficulty of obtaining any thing does by no means alter the nature or add to the real and intrinsick value of the thing it self nor is it as I have taken occasion formerly to observe any just and warrantable Cause for raising it in our Esteem Nay it is beyond all Controversy certain on the other side that Natural Excellencies are much more desirable and better than those that are studied and acquired That it is much more Brave and Great and Divine to act by the motions and spontaneous Perfections of Nature than with the most exquisite Dexterity and nicest Improvements of Art in an easy free equal and uniform manner than with laborious Efforts uncertainly and with Doubt and Danger and Perplexity of Thought It is in the former of these two Senses that we term Almighty God Good His Excellencies are his Nature Essential to him and if They could cease he must cease to Be. And therefore to call not Him only but even the Blessed Angels and the Spirits of Just Men made perfect Virtuous is a Diminution and Disparagement to them Theirs is properly Goodness too but Virtue is a Title too low for the Happiness of unsinning Perfection a State of Indefectibility and above the reach of all Temptation 'T is true indeed in the Condition we now live where Dangers surround and threaten and Frailties betray us perpetually Virtue makes somewhat of noise and clutter and is forced to act with some Vehemence and this gives it the Preference before Smooth and Still Goodness For the generality of people always measure the Excellence of a Thing by the Shew and the Difficulty and admire that most which costs dearest but this is a false method of judging and we are not much to wonder if They are wrong here who indeed are generally so in all their Estimations of Men and Things For these great Swelling Performances that look so big and seem to be all zeal and fire are not subsantial nor to the purpose They are no part of true Honesty nor the Products of that fix'd Principle we are speaking of but rather intemperate Heats and Feverish Fits very different from that Wisdom we are now in quest of which is healthful and moderate gentle and calm equal and uniform Thus much may suffice to be said of Honesty or Sincerity in general For as to the several parts of it and the particular Duties resulting from thence they will come under our Consideration in the Third Book and particularly when we shall treat of the Virtue of Justice And here I find my self under an Obligation of discharging my Promise Of Grace in the necessary Addition of what follows in this Paragraph To silence if it be possible the unjust Malice and disadvantagious Character cast upon me by some who find fault with my as they think them Extravagant Commendations of Nature as if This were able to do every thing and no other Assistances were required To these persons it might suffice to reply that by Nature I understand as was observed before the God of Nature and the Dictates of Eternal Reason written and engraved in every Heart by His Almighty Hand I might also alledge that the Subject of this Book is only Natural and Human and that the Author is not obliged by his Design to concern himself with any Virtues properly Divine or the Advantages above the power of Nature to confer But waving all this I readily acknowledge that to render the Virtue and Integrity I have been describing compleat and give it all the Perfections it is capable of one thing more is necessary The Grace of God I mean which must animate and invigorate this Goodness and Probity shew it in all its lustre give the finishing stroke refine and exalt it from a mere Moral to a Christian Virtue This renders it accepted at the Throne of Heaven approved of God capable of an Eternal Recompence and so crowns it both with Perfection here and a Reward hereafter It is not easy to find Apposite Resemblances for Things which cannot present themselves to us by any sensible Ideas But if you will pardon the meanness of the Comparison I should almost venture to compare the Probity here insisted on to a Skilful Master who touches the Keys of an Organ with absolute Accuracy and Art but all to no purpose the Instrument is dumb till the Wind express the Excellence of his Hand by giving Sound to the Instrument and making that Melody which all his Mastery in playing was not able to do without it Thus Moral Virtue is but a sort of Speculative Perfection till the Grace of God inspire and enable us to put it in Practice and produce the Fruits of it Now This is a Blessing which does not consist in refined Thought nice Notions and long or learned Discourses it is not to be acquired by Rule or the methods of Human Industry and Art nor can we attain to it by our own Labour and Toil the utmost we can do is to prepare and endeavour to qualify our selves duly for the receiving it for after All Receive it we must It is a Gift that comes down from on high and the very Name of Grace is designed to represent to us the Good Will of the Donor and that the Gift is entirely free Our part is to ask to seek to implore it with all imaginable Humility and the most fervent Desires we are capable of To prostrate our selves before the Throne of Grace and with the utmost Contention of Heart and Voice to say Vouchsafe O my God in thy Infinite Goodness to look down with an Eye of Mercy and Pity upon thy poor Servant Accept and grant my Desires assist my weak Endeavours and crown those good Inclinations which are originally derived from Thee The Law by which I stand obliged the Light by which I am instructed in my Duty are of thy Ordering thou hast stamped our Nature with these Impressions of Good and Evil and shined in our hearts by thy Precepts O give Success to thy own Institution and finish the work thou hast begun that so the Glory and the Fruit may redound to the Planters use and thou may'st be first and last in all my Actions and Designs my Thoughts and my Desires Water me abundantly
prevailed But now as to the Observance and living up to the Precepts of Religion Those who are True and Pious Professors besides the external Profession of the Truth they have the Advantage of the Gifts and Graces of God the Assistance and Testimony of the Holy Ghost common to all and from which even the mistaken are not utterly excluded This indeed is a Privilege which blessed be God is capable of being very usual and frequent and many great Pretensions and pompous Boasts are made of it But yet I vehemently suspect notwithstanding all the fair shew and plausible pretences Men make of this kind This Grace and Spirit is not so largely and so commonly enjoyed nor so strong in its Influences and Effects as Some would have us believe For surely were This so powerful in us and were Religion our own free Choice and the Result of our own Judgment the Life and Manners of Men could not be at so vast a distance and manifest disagreement from their Principles nor could they upon every slight and common occasion act so directly contrary to the whole Tenor and Design of their Religion And this Inconsistence of Faith and Manners is also a Proof that our Faith is not from God for were this planted and fasten'd in our Minds by so powerful a hand as His it could not be in the power of any Accident or Temptation to shake or unsettle us so firm and strong a Band could not so easily be broken or burst through Were there the least Touch the smallest Ray of Divine Illumination This Light would shine in every action of our lives and dart it self into every corner of our Souls The Effects of it would appear in all our behaviour and not only be sensible but wonderful and amazing too according to what Truth himself said upon occasion to his Disciples Matth. xvii 20. If ye had faith but as a grain of mustard-seed ye shall say to this mountain Remove hence and it shall remove and nothing shall be unpossible to you But alas if we look abroad and consider the behaviour of the World what proportion what correspondence can we find between the Belief of the Soul's Immortality and a future Judgment and the Practices of Mankind Would Men Could Men indeed lead the lives they do and at the same time be persuaded in good earnest that a Recompence awaits them hereafter so glorious and happy on the one hand or so full of misery and shame on the other One single thought and the bare Idea of those things which Men profess so firmly to believe would perfectly confound and scare wicked Men out of their Wits There have been instances of very strange effects wrought upon Persons only by the apprehension of publick Justice the Fear of dying by the hands of a Common Executioner or some other Accident full of misfortune and reproach and yet What are all these Calamities in comparison of those Horrors which Religion tells us will be the Sinner's portion hereafter And is it possible that these things should be entertained and believed indeed and Men continue what they are Can a Man seriously hope for a Blessed Immortality make This the Object of his Expectations and Desires and yet at the same time live in a slavish dread of Death which he knows is the Necessary the Only passage that can lead him to it Can a Christian fear and live under the apprehensions of Eternal Death and Punishment and yet indulge himself in those very Vices which that very Hell he believes is ordained to avenge These are most unaccountable Stories and things as incompatible as Fire and Water Men tell the World that they believe these Doctrines nay they persuade themselves that they do really believe them and then they endeavour to proselyte others and make Them believe so too but alas there is nothing in all this nor do They who talk and act thus inconsistently know what it is to Believe Such Professors as these are what an Ancient Writer called them Liars and Cheats or as another express'd himself very well upon the like occasion who reproached the Christians with being the gallantest Men in the World in some respects but the pitifullest and most contemptible wretches in others For says he if you consider the Articles of their Belief you will think them more than Men but if you examine their Lives and Conversations you will find them worse than Brutes more filthy than the very Swine Now certainly if we were wrought upon by such becoming Impressions of God and Religion as are the Effects of Grace and an Engagement so forcible as Those of a Divine Power nay were we but persuaded of these matters by a bare simple and common Assent such an historical Faith as we credit every Vulgar relation of matters of Fact with did we but allow the same Deference to what we call the Word of God which we pay to the advice and exhortations and common discourse of our Friends and Acquaintance the Doctrines of the Gospel could not but be preferred by us infinitely above any other advantages whatsoever for the sake of that incomparable Goodness and Excellence so illustriously visible in every part of them But sure the least we can be imagined capable of in this case would be to admit them into an equal share of our Affection and Esteem with Honours or Riches or Friends or any kind of Allurements this World can pretend to seduce us by And yet all this notwithstanding there are but very few who are not more afraid to offend a Parent or a Master or a Friend than they are of incurring the displeasure of an Almighty God And who would not rather chuse to act in contradiction to an Article of Religion and so forfeit Heaven hereafter than to break the measures of worldly Interest and Prudence at the expence of what they stand possess'd of in present This is indeed a Great Wickedness and Misfortune but for Persons who consider things impartially Christianity will not suffer in Their Esteem The Honour and Excellence the Purity and Sublime Powers of Religion are no more Impaired or Polluted by it than the Rays of the Sun contract Defilement from the Dunghils they shine upon For Principles are not to be tried by their Professors but the Professors by their Principles But we can never exclaim sufficiently against those vile Men who profane the Truth by their Vicious Lives and against whom that very Truth it self hath denounced so many Woes and such dreadful Vengeance Now the first step towards informing our selves What the nature of True Piety is The Difference between true and false Religion will be to distinguish it from That which is False and Counterfeit and only the Mask and Disguise of Religion Till this be done we shall but confound our selves with equivocal and ambiguous Terms and prevaricate both in Expression and in Practice as indeed the greatest part of Mankind it is to be feared do upon this
cannot run always if you draw too fast it will soon be drain'd dry * Liberalitate Liberalitas perit By being Liberal says St. Jerom Man makes it impossible to be so For a farther Prevention whereof as well as upon other very good Considerations it will be convenient to spin out ones Liberality to let it come gently and by degrees rather than to give all we intend at once For that which is done on the sudden and at a heat be the thing never so considerable in it self yet passes off as it were insensibly and is quickly forgotten All things that have a grateful Relish should be contriv'd to be as slow and leisurely in the Passage as can be that so the Palate may have time to tast them but on the contrary all those Dispensations that are harsh and severe when Occasions call for any such should be dispatch'd with all possible Convenience that so like bitter Potions they may be swallow'd at once Thus you see that the Giving as becomes one is an Act of Prudence and the Exercise of Liberality to the best Advantage requires great Address and Skill To which purpose Tacitus hath this notable Remark †Falluntur quibus Luxuria Specie Liberalitatis imponit pordere multi sciunt donare nesciunt Those Persons says he are under a mighty Errour who know not how to distinguish between Liberality and Luxury abundance of Men know how to squander that do not know how to give And to speak the very Truth Liberality is not a Virtue peculiar to King 's and milder Governments only but very consistent even with Tyranny it self And surely the Tutors and Governors of young Princes are much in the wrong when they labour to possess their Minds with such strong and early Impressions of Giving of refusing nothing that is ask'd of them of thinking nothing so well employ'd as what they give to their Friends This is the Jargon usual in such Cases But either This seems to proceed from some Advantage these Instructors design to make of such a Principle hereafter or for want of due regard to the Person they address themselves to For a too governing Notion of Liberality is of very ill Consequence in a Person whose Fortunes are so plentiful as to supply the Expences of others at what rate himself shall think fit And of the Two Extremes though either of them are very far from Good yet a Prodigal or a Giving Prince he that spends upon his own Vanities or he that seeds those of his Servants and Favourites without Discretion and due Measure is a great deal worse than a Stingy One that keeps his Hand shut to all And whereas these frequent Boons are pretended of Use to make Friends and secure the Service and Affection of those who are obliged by them There is very little or nothing of Substance in this Argument For immoderate and undistinguishing Liberality encourages every body to ask and to expect and so for One Friend makes Ten Enemies in Proportion as the Repulses must needs be more frequent than the Grants But indeed if it be wisely and well regulated it is undoubtedly as I said before exceeding Graceful and Commendable in a Prince and may prove of Excellent Advantage both to Himself and to the State Another very becoming Virtue is Magnanimity That I mean more peculiarly Nagnanimity which consists in a Greatness of Spirit not easily to be provoked such as despises and can pass over Injuries and Indecencies and moderate his Anger when it begins to fly out * Magnam Fortunam magnus Animus decet Injurias Offensiones superne despicere Indignus Caesaris irâ A Great Fortune and Dignity should have a Noble Mind such as can look down upon Wrongs and Provocations as Matters a great way below it and not worth its Notice and Majesty should consider that there are not many Offences which will justifie a Prince's being angry Besides to fret and be concerned is often interpreted for Consciousness of Guilt and that which a Man makes slight of blows quickly over and seldom sticks long So says the wise Roman †Convitia si irascere agnita videntur spreta exolescunt If Reproaches put you in a Passion the World will look upon this as a sort of Confession But if you disregard them they vanish and die without doing any manner of Prejudice But then if any Provocation be given which ministers just and sufficient Cause to be angry let those Resentments be express'd openly without labouring to conceal or to dissemble them that the People about him may have no reason to suspect any thing of a Secret Grudge or a Mischievous Design in him For these are Qualities for the meanest and basest sort of People and Symptoms of a Malicious Devilish and Incurable Dispesition â‚ Obscuri irrevocabiles reponunt odia Saevâ—e Cogitationis indicium secreto suo satiari Pitiful Fellows and Vnreclaimable Wretches keep Malice in their Hearts says Tacitus and to feed upon a Grudge is an evident Mark of Baseness and Barbarity Of the two the giving Offence and doing an Ill thing is less disagreeable to the Character of a Great Man than the Hating and Maligning of others for doing so to Him And thus I have done with the Head of Virtue the other Branches of it in general being not so properly distinguishing Properties and peculiar Ornaments of the Royal Dignity as Excellencies lying in common between Princes and the rest of Mankind The next thing that comes under our Consideration after the Prince's Virtue is what they call his Manner that is The third Head Behaviour his Behaviour and Way of Living the Mien the Port the Address that sute with the Majesty of a Prince and all those profound Respects so necessary to be kept up Upon this I shall not insist at all only by the way as it were touch upon it Now though Nature contribute a great deal to this in the Form and Temper and Person yet all that Nature does is capable of Amendment and Improvement both by the additional Helps of Industry and Art Under the Head we are now upon may be reckoned the Air of his Face the Composure of his Countenance his Fashion and Behaviour his Gate his Tone and manner of Speech his Clothes and Dressing The general Rule to be observed in all these Particulars is such a Mixture of Sweetness and Moderation of Stayedness and Gravity as may win upon Mens Minds and move their Affections pleasingly such as may keep the middle Way between Familiarity and Fear engage their Love and yet command their Honour and Respect His Court and Conversation are likewise worth taking notice of For the former it is convenient that it should be very publick that the Palace he dwells in should be Noble and Magnificent sit for Resort and Correspondence and if that can be well contriv'd not far from the Middle of his Country or at least the most
Affliction and Pain is very Different from that which preserves a Man's Temper in Prosperity and Plenty and the Patience and Thankfulness of the Receiving Beggar from the Liberality of the Giver And as This holds in Virtues so does it much more in Vices several of which are not only very far Distant but Diametrically opposite to each other It is no less observable Secondly That many Times our Matters are so ordered as not to permit the Performance of such Actions as relate to One Virtue without encroaching upon some Other and doing what is inconsistent with or offensive to That very Virtue we are practising because things often interfere and obstruct us so that we cannot satisfie One Duty but at the Expence of Another This is like what our Proverb calls Robbing Peter to pay Paul and yet thus it is not from any Deficiency in Virtue it self but from the Impotence and Insufficiency of Humane Nature which is too short too narrow to give or receive any certain constant universal Rule of acting Virtuously and Man cannot so contrive his Methods and provide himself with Helps and Occasions of doing Good but that they will frequently cross and interrupt one another Thus Charity and Justice are sometimes impracticable at once If I engage against my Relation or my Friend in a Battle Justice requires me to take his Life and Treat him as an Adversary Charity and Affection bid me spare and preserve him as a Friend Suppose a Man mortally wounded and that he hath nothing to expect but the languishing out the miserable Remains of Life in extreme Torture it were certainly an Act of Charity to put this wretched Creature out of his Pain by killing him out-right as the Person who kill'd Saul alledged for himself and yet this is such a Mercy as Justice would call one to an Account for and David punished it accordingly Nay the being found near such a Person in a lonely Place when Search is made for the Murderer though one be there with Intentions of Kindness is exceeding Dangerous and the least that can come of it is the being made to undergo the Course of the Law and brought upon Tryal for a Misfortune which one had no Hand in And this last Instance shews how Justice does not only offend against Charity but also how it intangles and obstructs it self according to that most true Observation * Summum Jus summa Injuria The Extremity of Right is the Extremity of Wrong The Third Case and indeed the most remarkable of all is The Necessity Men are sometimes under of using Evil Means to deliver themseves from some greater Evil or for the compassing some Good End So that Things in themselves not Good nay much otherwise are sometimes legitimated and have Credit and Authority given to them for the Sake of the Purposes they serve As if Men might nay as if they must be wicked in some Degree in Order to becoming Good in a greater And this not only Policy and Justice but Religion too furnishes Examples of In Politicks How many indirect Practices are allow'd II Politicks and daily made use of And this not merely upon Permission and Connivence but even by express Direction and Approbation of the Laws †Ex Senatus consultis plebiscitis scelera exercentur Crimes are Established by Publick Edicts as we shall have Occasion to observe more at large in another Place Book III. Chap. 2. When a State is full and overgrown like a replete Body whose Humours are either too Noxious or too many to be endured the Method of discharging this Oppression is to send off its Superfluities of Men or those among them who are of the hottest and warlike Dispositions to be knock'd on the Head abroad Thus a Vein is breath'd but the Ease it gives is at the infinite Expence and Trouble of some other Countrey And this we know hath been the Practice of Franks and Lombards Goths and Vandales Turks and Tartars So again a Foreign War is often begun and maintained abroad on purpose to keep busie Spirits employ'd and to prevent Insurrections and Civil Dissentions at Home Lycurgus as a Lesson of Temperance used to make Slaves Drunk that Men of Quality from Their Extravagances might learn to detest this Vice The Romans to harden their People and make Dangers and Death familiar and contemptible instituted those Inhumane Sights of their Gladiators and entertained them with Blood and Slaughter every Day This at first indeed was consin'd to condemned Malefactors only then it came to Innocent Slaves and at last Free-Men and People of Condition practised and valued themselves upon it The Stews in some great Cities are of the same Kind and so are the Usury the Divorces of the Law of Moses and among other People and Persuasions Whose only Recommendation is This That they are allowed for a present Necessity and to put a Stop to greater Mischiefs So likewise in Justice which cannot subsist nor be put in practice III. Justice without some mixture of Injustice Nor is this the Case of Communtative Justice only This were no strange Matter for here it is in some sort necessary Men could not live by their Trades nor maintain Commerce with one another without some reciprocal Injuries and Ossences every Man must sell a thing for more than it is strictly worth and therefore some Laws have allow'd Men to Cheat provided it be not above half the Price of the Goods But Distributive Justice which consists in dealing Rewards and Punishments does the like so she her self confesses * Sammum Jus summa Injuria Et Omne magnum Exemplum habet aliquid ex iniquo quod contra singulos Utilitate public◠rependitur Extreme Right is extreme Wrong And All eminent exemplary Cases have some Allay of Injustice in them wherein however the Hardships which private Men suffer are well paid with the Advantages that accrue to the Publick from them Plato allows in several places that Publick Ministers should draw Criminals to a full Discovery by false Hopes and Promises of Pardon and Favour which they never intend to make good Which is to make a way to Justice thro' Impudence and Cozenage and Falshood And what shall we say of that cursed Invention of Racks which are a Tryal of Patience indeed but none at all of Truth For you shall never be able to get the Truth out of Them that can nor out of Them that cannot endure them Why shou'd we think extremity of Pain can more dispose a Man to tell what is than to tell what is not If an Innocent Man be supposed endu'd with Patience enough to bear the Torture why should the Concern for saving his Life inspire a guilty Person with the same degree of Resolution I know it is commonly reply'd in excuse of this Barbarity That the Pain astonishes and enfeebles the Guilty and extorts a Confession of his Treachery from him whereas it hath the quite contrary
effects of confirming and fortifying the Innocent But the Contrary of this happens so often that to speak the Truth This is an ensnaring and a pitiful Method a poor and base way of Dealing full of Doubt and Uncertainty For what would not a Man say or do to get quit of such Misery * Etenim Innocentes mentiri cogit Dolor Pain extorts Lies from the most Innocent so that a Judge which examines upon the Rack to prevent the Death of Innocent Persons first Racks the Innocent and then Murders him Many a Thousand People have loaded themselves with false Accusations But were it not so what intolerable Injustice and Cruelty is it to torture and break a Man to pieces for a Fault which as yet there is no Proof of To avoid killing him without Cause they do ten times worse than kill him If he be innocent and bear it out What Justice can there be in putting him to any Pain at all You 'll say By bearing the Rack he is absolv'd I thank you very kindly But This however tho' an Evil is the least Humane Infirmity could contrive and yet this is not practised every where neither I confess to Me the Custom of determining Controversies and clearing Men's Innocence by Combat seems to have less of Injustice and Barbarity in it And yet This tho' formerly much in request is long since very justly condemned and exploded For Christianity allows no such bloody Methods nor warrants any dependence upon them for a discovery of the Truth But if Man be so weak as we have seen in regard of Virtue and in his practical Capacity V. Truth he is much more so in his Intellectual and in relation to Truth T is prodigious that Man should be so form'd by Nature as to desire Truth eagerly and grudge no Pains to attain it and yet so at the same time as not to bear it when it offers it self to his View The Flashes of it blind him the Thunder of it stuns him it is too bright and too loud to be born This is not Truth 's Fault however which is exceeding beautiful exceeding lovely exceeding good and beneficial to Mankind and what was said of Virtue and Wisdom is at least as properly applicable to Truth * Quae si oculis cerneretur mirabiles sui amores excitaret Ciâ— of l. 1. That could we behold all its Charms the whole World would be infinitely in love with it But the Defect is on Man's side his Faculties cannot bear so strong a Light its Beams dazzle nay hurt his Senses In Affairs merely Humane he that sets it before us is esteem'd our Enemy Truth and Plain-dealing are disobliging things And what Perversness is this that what we love and seek so passionately we should be so loath so angry to find Truth is not only amiable but knowable too yet not perfectly so by Us for at present it seems Man is only strong in Desire but weak in his Enjoyment of it and not able to receive what he desires The Two chief Means made use of to bring him to the Knowledge of the Truth are Reason and Experience But both these are insufficient and so very weak tho' of the Two Experience seems the more so that no certain Conclusions can be drawn from them Reason hath so many Tricks and Turnings is so flexible in its Arguments and so disguis d in its Forms that any thing may be made plausible from it as will be observ'd in another place Experience is no less fallible because Events are constantly unlike one another Nothing in Nature is so Universal as Disparity nothing so rare so difficult so impossible indeed as Likeness And nothing argues greater Weakness and want of Judgment than the not being able to discern and distinguish the Difference This however is to be understood of such a Likeness and such a Diversity as is perfect and holds in every Circumstance For indeed both Similitude and Dissimilitude are everywhere in some respect and degree No Two things are in every regard Like none in all respects Unlike one another So exceedingly ingenious hath Nature approv'd herself in the Mixture and Composition of the World But after all What can make more full Discoveries of Humane Infirmity than Religion it self hath done It s main Intention and End is to lower Man in his own Esteem to shew and make him duly sensible how wicked how weak how mere a Nothing he is and in this humble Sense to drive him to God for Succour and Support who is indeed his Happiness his Resuge and Strength nay his All. The first Method taken to inculcate these mean Notions of our Selves is by Instructing Reminding Upbraiding us setting before us the Reproachful Titles of Dust and Ashes Earth Flesh and Blood Grass and the like After that it insinuates this Truth after a most noble and excellent and stupendous manner introducing God humbling debasing himself and becoming weak for the sake of Man speaking expostulating entreating promising swearing growing angry threatning and in a Word entring into Treaty and Terms and managing him by all the endearing Arts of Persuasion in the same tender kind condescending Methods with which a fond Father wins and gains upon his Children by stooping to their little Follies and imitating their Infant-Imperfections So very great it seems so insuperable was the Weakness of Humane Nature that no Access could be attain'd no Correspondence held with the Divinity till God himself was pleas'd to make the first Approaches and by descending to our Capacities and our Level to draw us nearer to himself While He continu'd in his Native Majesty the Distance was too vast and therefore the only way to bring Us up to Heaven was for God to come down upon Earth A Third Instance is in the Ordinary Exercise of Religion for what more lively Emblems more expressive Symbols more unanswerable Proofs of our Impotence and Insirmity than the Principal and most Solemn Acts of Worship have ever been What shall we say to Sacrifices which in former Ages seem to have been in use all the World over I mention not the horrible unnatural Cruelties into which thro' the Corruption of Mankind and the Wicked Artifice of the Devil this Custom degenerated in Idolatrous Countries those barbarous Oblations or rather Murders and Massacres of Men and Children of the best and most innocent Persons among them But confining our selves to that of Beasts only we shall be clearly convinc'd that These were so many Marks and Remembrancers of Men's own Vileness and Infirmity For first of all In the very Nature of the Thing they were so many Testimonies of the Curse and Condemnation we lay under a sort of publick authentick Acknowledgment that the Offerer himself had justly deserv'd that Death inflicted by Him upon the Beast and a beseeching God to accept that devoted Life in the stead of his own forfeited Life For without all Dispute had there been no Curse no Condemnation to which Men