zealous Patrons and Defenders of certain Novelties in Divinity which ought to be had in abhorrence For 't is not their Terms and Language we disapprove which as unknown as they were to Antiquity are Authoriz'd by Custom 'T is the Errors they diffuse and support by the help of this Equivocal and confus'd Dialect which we condemn In point of Divinity we ought to be fond of Antiquity because we ought to love the Truth which Truth is found in Antiquity And all Curiosity ought to cease when once we have taken hold of Truth But in point of Philosophy we ought on the contrary to love Novelty for the same Reason that we ought always to love the Truth that we ought to retrieve it and ought to have an Indefatigable Curiosity for it If Plato and Aristotle were believed Infallible a Man should perhaps apply himself to the understanding of them only But Reason opposes the Belief of it Reason on the contrary would have us judge them more ignorant than the New Philosophers since in the Age we live in the World is two thousand Years older and has learned greater Experience than it had in the days of Aristotle and Plato as we have already said And the New Philosophers may know all the Truths the Ancients have left us and find out and add a great many more to them Yet Reason will not have us believe these New Philosophers any more than the Old upon their bare Word It bids us on the contrary examine attentively their Thoughts and withhold our consent till there is no longer room for doubting without being ridiculously prepossess'd with the Opinion of their vast Knowledge or the other specious Qualities of their Mind CHAP. VII Of the Prepossession of Commentators THIS Prepossession is no where apparent in so strange and excessive a degree as in the Commentators on an Author because the Undertakers of this Task which seems too low and servile for a Man of Sense imagine their Authors merit the Praise and Admiration of all the World They look upon them as part of themselves and fancy they are Body and Soul to one another and upon this View Self-love admirably plays its part They artfully accumulate Encomiums on their Authors they shed Light and Radiations round them they load them with Glory as knowing they shall have it themselves by reflection and rebound This great and lofty Idea not only magnifies Aristotle and Plato in the Mind of many of the Readers but imprints a respect in them for all that have Commented upon them and some of of them had never Deified their Authors had they not fancy'd themselves incircl'd as it were in the Rays of the same Glory Yet I will not say that all Commentators are so liberal in their Panegyricks on their Authors out of hopes of a Return some of them would start at such an Apprehension if they would consider a little They are sincere and well-meaning in their Praises without any Politick design and without thinking what they do but Self-love thinks for them and without their being aware of it Men are insensible of the heat that is in their Heart though it gives Life and Motion to all the other parts of their Body They must touch and handle themselves to be convinc'd of it because this Heat is Natural The cause is the same in respect of Vanity which is so congenial to the Mind of Man that he is insensible of it and though 't is this as a Man may say that gives Life and Motion to the greatest part of his Thoughts and Designs yet it often does it in a manner imperceptible by him He must handle and feel and sound himself inwards to know that he is vain 'T is not sufficiently understood that 't is Vanity which is the First mover in the greatest part of Humane Actions and though Self-love knows this well enough it knows it only to disguise it from the rest of Man A Commentator then being some ways related and allied to his Author that he works upon Self-love never fails to discover in him notable Subjects for Praise and Incense with design to make them redound to the advantage of the Offerer And this is perform'd in so Artificial so Subtil and Delicate a manner as to be wholly Imperceptible But this is not the proper place of exposing all the Wiles of Self-love and Interest Nor is the Prejudicate Esteem Commentators have conceiv'd for their Authors and the Honour they do themselves in praising them the only Reason of Sacrificing to them Custom is another Motive and because they think the Practise necessary There are Men who have no great Esteem either for certain Sciences or Authors who notwithstanding fall zealously to writing Comments on them because either their Imployment Chance or perhaps a capricious Humour has engag'd them in the Attempt and these too think they are under an Obligation to be excessive in the Praises of the Sciences and Authors which they work on whe nat the same time the Authors are Silly and Impertinent and the Sciences Ignoble and Useless And indeed what can be more ridiculous than for a Man to undertake to Comment on an Author whom he thought Impertinent and to write Seriously on a Subject he believ'd to be Insignificant and Useless 'T is necessary therefore to the Preserving his Reputation to Praise both the Authors and Sciences though both one and the other are Contemptible and nothing worth and the fault of Undertaking an ill work must be mended with another Which is the Reason that when Learned Men Comment on different Authors they fall into Absurdities and Contradictions Upon this Account it is that almost all prefaces have as little of Truth in them as good Sense If a Man Comments upon Aristotle he is the Genius of Nature If a Man writes upon Plato 't is the Divine Plato They hardly ever Comment upon the works of Plain Men but 't is always of Men wholly Divine of Men who have been the Admiration of their Age and who have been bless'd by Providence with Light and Understanding above the rest of Mankind 'T is the same thing too with the matter they treat on 'T is always the finest the most exalted and most necessary of all other But that I may not be credited upon my bare word I will deliver here the way where in a Famous Commentator among the Learned treats the Author that he Comments on I mean Averroes who speaks of Aristotle He says in his Preface upon the Physicks of that Philosopher that he was the Inventor of Logick Moral Philosophy and Metaphysicks and that he has carried them to the top of their perfection Complevit says he quia nullus eorum qui secuti sunt eum usque ad hoc tempus quod est mille quingentorum annorum quidquam addidit nec invenies in ejus verbis errorem alicujus quantitatis talem esse virtutem in individuo uno miraculosum extraneum existit haec
understand but rather Superstition and Hypocrisie The Superstitious out of a slavish Fear and a dejection and timerousness of Spirit start and boggle at a lively and penetrating Wit Explain to them for instance the natural Reasons of Thunder and its Effects and you shall be a reputed Atheist But Hypocrites by a diabolical Malignity transform themselves into Angels of Light for they employ the appearances of Truths of universally sacred and rever'd Authority to withstand from out of partial Interests such Truths as are rarely known and of little Reputation Thus they oppugn Truth by her own Image and whilst they ridicule in their Heart what is reverenc'd by the World they establish their Reputation so much more deep and impregnable in the Minds of Men as the Truth they have abus'd is more sacred and inviolable Such Persons are the strongest powerfullest and most formidable Enemies of the Truth They are not indeed very common but there need be but few to do a world of mischief The Shew of Truth and Vertue frequently do more Evil than Truth and Vertue themselves do Good For one subtile Hypocrite is enough to overthrow what cost a great many truly wise and vertuous much labour and pains to build Monsieur Des Cartes for instance has demonstratively prov'd the Existence of a GOD the Immortality of our Souls and a great many other both Metaphysical and Physical Questions and our Age is under infinite Obligations to him for the Truths he has discover'd to us Notwithstanding there starts up an inconsiderable Person and takes upon him being an hot and vehement Declamer and in Esteem with the People for the Zeal he manifested for their Religion to compose Books full of Calumnies against him and accuse him of the vilest Crimes Des Cartes was a Catholick and was Tutor'd in his Studies by the Jesuits whom he frequently mention'd with an honourable respect This was enough with that malicious Spirit to persuade a People opposite to our Religion and easie to be provok'd upon Matters so nice as those of Religion are that he was an Emissary of the Jesuits and had dangerous Designs because the least shadow of Truth in Points of Faith has more influence on Men's Minds than real and effective Truths in Matters of Physicks or Metaphysicks for which they have little or no regard Des Cartes wrote of the Existence of a GOD and this was sufficient for this Slanderer to exercise his false Zeal and to oppress all the Truths that made for his Enemy's Defence He accus'd him of Atheism and of cunningly and clandestinely teaching it like that infamous Atheist Vanino burn'd at Toulouse who to cover his Malice and Impiety wrote for the Existence of a GOD. For one of the Reasons he alledges for his Enemy's being an Atheist was that he wrote against the Atheists as did Vanino for a cloak to his Villany So easie is it for a Man to overwhelm Truth when supported with the shews of it and when once he has obtain'd an Authority over weaker Minds Truth loves Gentleness and Peace and though she be very strong yet she sometimes yields to the Pride and Arrogance of Falshood and a Lye dress'd up and arm'd in her own Appearances She knows that Errour cannot finally prevail against her and if it be her Fate sometimes to live proscrib'd and in obscurity 't is only to wait more favourable opportunities of manifesting her self for she generally at last breaks out in greater Strength and Brightness even in the very place of her Oppression 'T is no wonder to hear an Enemy of Des Cartes a Man of a different Religion and ambitious to raise himself upon the Ruins of Men above him an injudicious Haranguer in a word a Voetius to talk contemptuously of what he neither does nor will understand But 't is to be admir'd that such as are neither Enemies to Des Cartes nor his Religion should be possess'd with an Aversion and Contempt of him on the account of the Reproaches they have read in Books compos'd by the Enemy both to his Person and his Church That Heretick's Book intitled Desperata Causa Papatus is a sufficient Proof of his Impudence Ignorance Outrage and desire of seeming Zealous thereby to purchase a Reputation amongst his Flock which shews that he 's not a Man to be trusted on his Word For as we are not to believe all the fabulous Stories he has heap'd together in his Book against our Religion so we are not to believe on the strength of his Affirmation those bitter and hainously injurious Accusations he has forg'd against his Enemy 'T is not then the part of a Rational Man to enter into a Persuasion that M. Des Cartes was a dangerous Person because they have perchance read it in some Book or heard it said by others whose Piety is awful and respected for Mens bare words are not to be credited when they accuse others of the highest Crimes nor is the Zeal and Gravity it is spoken in sufficient Inducement to persuade us of the Truth of it For in short 't is possible for Folly and Falshood to be set off in the same manner as better things especially when the Speaker is won over to the Belief of them out of Simplicity and Weakness 'T is easie to be inform'd of the Truth or Falshood of the Indictment drawn up against M. Des Cartes his Writings being easie to come by and not difficult to be understood by an Attentive Person Let a Man therefore read his Books that better Evidence may be had against him than a bare Hear-say and after he has well read them and digested them it may be hop'd the Plea of Atheism will be thrown out and on the contrary all due Respect and Deference paid to a Man who in a most simple and evident manner has demonstrated not only the Existence of a GOD and the Immortality of the Soul but a great number of other Truths that till his time were never thought on CHAP. VII Of the Desire of Science and of the Judgments of the falsly Learned THE Mind of Man is doubtless of a little Reach and Capacity and yet he longs to know every thing All Humane Sciences are unable to satisfie his Desires though he has not room to comprehend any one in particular He is constantly disquieted and impatient for Knowledge either because he hopes to find what he seeks for as we have said in the foregoing Chapters or because he is persuaded that his Soul is agrandiz'd by the vain possession of some extraordinary Knowledge The irregular Desire of Happiness and Greatness puts him upon the Study of all Sciences hoping to find Happiness in moral and looking for that false Greatness in speculative Knowledge Whence comes it that there are Men who spend their Life in Reading the Rabbins and such like Books written in foreign obscure and corrupt Languages by injudicious and sensless Authors but from a Persuasion that the Knowledge of the
without Examination They consult their Memory and therein immediately find the Law or Prejudice by which they pronounce without much reflexion As they think their Parts better than other Men's they afford little Attention to what they read Hence it comes that Women and Children easily discover the Falsity of some Prejudices which they see attack'd because they dare not judge without examining and that they bring all the Attention they are capable of to what they read whilst Scholars on the contrary stick resolutely to their Opinions because they will not be at the Trouble of examining those of others when quite contrary to their preconceiv'd Notions As to the Attendants on the Great Men of the World they have so many external Adherencies that they cannot easily retire into themselves nor bring a competent attention to distinguish Truth from Probability Nevertheless they are not extremely addicted to any kinds of Prejudices For strongly to prosecute a Wordly interest neither Truth nor Probability must be rely'd on As a seeming Humility or Civility and external shew of Temper are Qualities which all Men admire and are absolutely necessary to keep up Society amongst Proud and ambitious Spirits Men of Worldly Designs make their Vertue and Desert to consist in asserting nothing and believing nothing as certain and indisputable It has ever been and will ever be the Fashion to look upon all things as Problematical and with a Gentleman-like Freedom to Treat the most holy Truths lest they should seem bigotted to any thing For whereas the Gentlemen I mention are neither applicative nor attentive to any thing but their Fortune there can be no Disposition more Advantageous or that seems more reasonable to them than that which the Fashion justifies Thus the Invaders of Prejudices whilst they flatter on one hand the Pride and Remisness of these Worldly Men are well accepted by them but if they pretend to assert any thing as Undeniable and to manifest the Truth of Religion and Christian Morality they are look'd upon as Opinionated and as Men who avoid one Precipice to run upon another What I have said is methinks sufficient to conclude what should be answer'd to the different Judgments divers Persons have pronouc'd against The Treatise concerning the Search after Truth and I shall make no Application which every Man may do himself to good purpose without any trouble I know indeed that every Man do will not do it but perhaps I might seem to be the Judge in my own Case if I should defend my self as far as I was able I therefore resign up my Right to the Attentive Readers who are the natural Judges of Books and I conjure them to call to Mind the request I made in the Preface of the foregoing Treatise and elsewhere Not to judge of my Opinions but by the clear and distinct Answers they shall receive from the only Teacher of all Mâ—n after having consulted him by a serious attention For if they consult their Prejudices as the decisive Laws to judge of the Book Concerning the search after Truth I acknowledge it to be a very ill Book since purposely wriâ—ten to detect the Falsity and Injustice of these Laws ADVERTISEMENT WHereas the following Illustrations were compos'd to satisfie some particular Persons who desir'd a more special Explication of some important Truths I think fit to premise that cleary to apprehend what I shall say it will be requisite to have some Knowledge of the Principles I have offer'd in the Treatise concerning the Search after Truth Therefore it will be the best way not to meddle with these Observations till after having carefully read the whole Work for which they were made and only to examine them at a second reading as they shall be found referr'd to by the Margin This Caution however is not absolutely necessary to be observ'd by understanding Persons because I have endeavoured so to write these Elucidations as that they might be read without referring to the Book they were compos'd for I know that Truth is of all things in the World that which gives least trouble to acquire it Men use not willingly to collate those Passages in a Book which have Reference to one another but commonly read things as they fall in their way and understand of them as much as they can wherefore to accommodate my self to this Temper of Men I have tried to make these Remarks intelligible even to those who have forgotten the Places of the foregoing Treatise whereunto they refer Nevertheless I desire those who will not be at the trouble of carefully examining these Illustrations not to condemn them of false and extravagant Consequences which may be deduc'd from want of understanding them I have some Reason to make this Request not only because I have right to demand of the Readers who are my Judges not to condemn without understanding me but on several other Accounts which it is not necessary for me to declare in this Place ILLUSTRATIONS UPON THE TREATISE Concerning the SEARCH after TRUTH THE FIRST ILLUSTRATION UPON THE First CHAPTER of the First BOOK God works whatever is real in the Motions of the Mind and in the Determinations of them notwithstanding which he is not the Author of Sin He works whatever is real in the Sensations of Concupiscence and yet is not the Author of it SOME Persons pretend that I relinquish the Comparison of the Mind and Matter too soon and fansie the one has no more Power than the other to determine the Impression which God gives it and therefore wish me to explain if I can what it is that God works in us and what we do our selves when we sin since in their Opinion I shall be oblig'd by my Explication either to grant that Man is capable of giving himself some new Modification or to acknowledge that God is actually the Author of Sin I answer That Faith Reason and my own inward Consciousness oblige me to quit the Comparison where I do being every way convinc'd that I have in my self a Principle of my own Determinations and having Reasons to persuade that Matter has no such Principle which shall be prov'd hereafter Mean while here is what God operates in us and what we do our selves when we sin First God continually drives us by an invincible Impression towards Good in general Secondly He represents to us the Idea of a particular Good or gives us the Sensation of it Lastly He inclines us to this particular Good First God drives us continually towards Good in general For God has made us and still preserves us for Himself He wills that we shall love all Good and is the first or rather only Mover In brief this is evident from innumerable things that I have said elsewhere and those I speak to will not dispute it Secondly God represents to us the Idea of a particular Good or gives us the Sensation of it For 't is he alone that enlightens us and the surrounding Bodies cannot
Philosophy But to return to the passage of St. John No man has seen God at any time I believe the design of the Evangelist in affirming no Man has seen God is to state the difference between the Old and New Testament Between JESUS CHRIST and the Patriarchs and Prophets of whom it is written that they have seen God For Moses Jacob Isaiah and others saw God only with corporeal Eyes and under an unknown Form They have not seen him in himself Deum nemo vidit unquam But the only Son who is in the Bosom of the Father has instructed us in what He has seen Vnigenitus qui est in sinu Patris Ipse enarravit OBJECTION St. Paul writing to Timothy says that God inhabits inaccessible Light which no man hath seen nor can see if the Light of God cannot be approach'd to we cannot see all things in it ANSWER St. Paul cannot be contrary to St. John who assures us that JESUS CHRIST is the true Light that lightens all Men who come into the World For the mind of Man which many of the Fathers call Illuminated or Enlightned Light Lumen Illuminatum is Enlightned only with the Light of Eternal Wisdom which the Fathers therefore call Illuminating Light Lumen Illuminations David advises to approach to God and to be englightned by him Accedite ad eum illuminamini But how can we be enlightned by it if we cannot see the Light by which we are to be enlightned Therefore when St. Paul says that Light is inaccessible he means to Carnal Man who cannot retire into himself to contemplate it Or if he speaks of all Men 't is because there are none but are disturb'd from the perfect Contemplation of Truth because our Body incessantly troubles the attension of our mind OBJECTION God answering Moses when he desired to see him says Thou canst not see my Face for there shall no man see Me and live ANSWER It is evident that the literal sence of this Passage is not contrary to what I have said hitherto For I do not suppose it possible to see God in this life as Moses desired to see Him However I Answer that we must die to see God For the Soul unites herself to Truth proportionably as she quits her union with the Body Which is a Truth that cannot be sufficiently consider'd Those who follow the Motions of their passions those whose Imagination is defil'd with the enjoyment of Pleasures Those who have strengthned the Union and Correspondence of their Mind with their Body In a word those who live cannot see God For they cannot retire into themselves to consult the Truth Happy therefore are they who have a pure Heart a disengag'd Spirit a clear Imagination who have no dependance on the World and hardly any on the Body In a word happy are the Dead for they shall see God Wisdom has publish'd it openly upon the Mountain and Wisdom whispers it secretly to those who consult Her by retiring into themselves Those who are constantly quickning in them the Concupiscence of Pride who are indefatigably forming a thousand Ambitious designs who unite and even enslave their Soul not only to the Body but all surrounding Objects In a word those who Live not only the Life of the Body but also that of the World cannot see God For WISDOM inhabits the most retired and inward Reason whilst they perpetually expand themselves abroad But such as constantly deaden the Activity of their Senses who faithfully preserve the Purity of their Imagination who couragiously resist the Motions of their Passions In a word that break all those Bonds whereby others continue enchain'd to the Body and sensible grandeur may discover infinite Truths and see that Wisdom which is bid from the Eyes of all Living They after a sort do cease to live when they retire into themselves They relinquish the Body when they draw near to Truth For the mind of Man obtains that Site and Position between God and Bodies that it can never quit the one but it must approach the other It cannot draw towards God but it must remove from Bodies nor pursue Bodies but it must recede from God But because we cannot give an absolute Farewell to the Body till Death makes the separation I confess it impossible till then to be perfectly united to God We may at present as says St. Paul see God confusedly as in a Glass but we cannot see him face to face Non videbit me homo vivet Yet we may see him in part that is imperfectly and confusedly It must not be imagin'd that life is equal in all Men living or that it consists in an indivisible point The Dominion of the Body over the Mind which withstands our uniting our selves with God by the Knowledge of Truth is susceptible of more and less The Soul is not equally in all Men united by Sensations to the Body which she animates nor by Passions to those her Inclinations carry her to And there are some who so mortifie the Concupiscence of Pleasure and of Pride within them that they scarce retain any Commerce with their Body or the World and so are as it were Dead St. Paul is a great instance hereof who chastis'd his Body and brought it to subjection who was so humbled and destroy'd that he thought no longer on the World nor the World on him For the World was dead and crucified to him as he was dead and crucified in the World And on this account it was says St. Gregory that he was so sensible to Truth and so prepar'd to receive those Divine Lights which are included in his Epistles which however all glorious and splendid make no impression save on those who mortifie their Senses and Passions by his Example For as he says himself the carnal and sensible Man cannot comprehend Spiritual things Because Worldly address the tast of the Age to fineness of Wit the Nicety the Liveliness the Beauty of Imagination whereby we live to the World and the World to us infuse into our Mind an incredible stupidity and a sad insensibility to all those Truths which cannot be perfectly conceiv'd unless in the silence and calm of the Senses and Passions We must therefore desire that Death which unites us to God or at least the image of that Death that is the Mysterious Sleep in which all our External Senses being lock'd up we may hear the Voice of internal Truth which is never audible but in the silence of the Night when Darkness involves sensible Objects and when the World is as it were dead to us Thus it is says St. Gregory that the Spouse heard the Voice of her beloved in her sleep when she said I sleep but my heart wakes Outwardly I slumber but my heart watches within For having no life nor sense with reference to External Objects I become extreamly sensible to the Voice of inward Truth which accosts me in my inmost reason Hinc
some other very difficult Problems have not proceeded from an heady and conceited rashness which has possess'd them with Likelihoods and made them pass for Truths Let them consider likewise on another hand whether the Cause of Error and Confusion's reigning so much in the Ordinary Philosophy may not be imputed to the Philosophers contenting themselves with Probability very easie and obvious to be met with and highly advantagious to their Vain Humour and their Interests Do not we almost every where find an infinite Diversity of Opinions upon the same Subjects and consequently infinite Errors Notwithstanding a prodigious number of Disciples give way to their own Seducements and submit themselves blind-fold to the Authority of these Philosophers without so much as Understanding what their Opinions are It is true there are some of them that after twenty or thirty Years time lost confess they have learnt nothing by their Reading but yet this their Confession is not so Ingenuous as it should be They think it requisite first to prove after their fashion that nothing can be known and after that they will make Confession of their Ignorance as Believing then they have the Privilege of doing it without being laught at for their Pains Yet were a Man dispos'd to entertain himself he would not want a proper Subject for his Laughter and Diversion should he handsomely Interrogate them concerning the Progress of their Learned Acquisitions and were they in Humour to declare in particular all the Fatigues they have undergone in the Study and Purchace of Nothing But though this their Learn'd and Profound Ignorance deserves to be well rally'd yet it seems not amiss to spare them at present and to commiserate those who have spent so many Years in Learning nothing but that false Proposition the irreconcileable Enemy to all Science and to all Truth That nothing can be known Since then the Rule I have establish'd is so necessary as has been seen in the Search after Truth let no Man Cavil at the proposing it And let not those who will not be at the pains of observing it themselves be forward to condemn so celebrated an Author as Des-Cartes for following it or according to their Notion for indeavouring so zealously to follow it They would not be so peremptory to condemn him did they know the Man on whom they pass so rash and unadvis'd a Sentence and did they not read his Works as they do Fables and Romances which they take up to entertain their idle Minutes but never to Study or be Instructed in Would they Meditate with that Author they might probably still find in themselves some Notions and Scatter'd Seeds of Truth which he teaches that would grow up and unfold themselves in spight of so disadvantagious a Load of mistaken Learning which oppresses them The Master that speaks and teaches us within challenges our Submission to him rather than to the Authority of the greatest Philosophers He takes pleasure in instructing us provided we apply our Minds to what he says 'T is by Meditation and a very exact Attention we Inquire of him and 't is by a certain internal Conviction and the secret Lashes and Reproaches felt upon our Non-submission that he answers us We ought in such wise to read the Works of Men as not to expect to receive Instruction from Men We must consult Him who Enlightens the World that with the Rest of the World he may Enlighten us And if he fails to Enlighten us after we have consulted him 't is doubtless because we have ill consulted him Whether then we read Aristotle or whether we read Des-Cartes we must not instantly believe either Aristotle or Des-Cartes But we should only Meditate as they have done or as they ought to have done with all the Earnestness and Attention we are capable of and thereupon Obey the Voice of our common Master and honestly yield up our Consent to that Internal Conviction and those Motions we find in us upon our Meditation This being done it may be allow'd a Man to pass a Judgment for or against an Author But he must first have digested the Principles of Des-Cartes and Aristotle's Philosophy before he can reject the one and approve the other before he can maintain concerning the Latter that no one Phaenomenon of Nature can ever be explain'd by the Principles peculiar to him as they have been of no use for this two thousand Years though his Philosophy hath been the Study of the most Ingenious Men in most parts of the World And on the contrary before he can boldly pronounce of the Other that he hath penetrated those recesses of Nature that lay deepest conceal'd from the Eyes of Men and hath open'd to them a most certain and infallâ—ble way of Discovering all the Truths 't is possible for a limited understanding to Comprehend But not to dwell upon the Notion we may conceive of these two Philosophers and of all others let us ever look upon them as Men And let not those of Aristotle's Party take it ill if after they have travell'd so many Ages in the Dark without finding themselves one step farther advanc'd than at their setting out there are some at last that have a Mind to see clearly what they do And if after the former have suffer'd themselves to be led like the blind there are those who remember they have Eyes with which they will attempt to conduct themselves Let us then be fully persuaded that this Rule viz. That an entire Consent should never be given but to things evidently perceiv'd is the most necessary of all others in the Search after Truth and let not our Mind embrace any thing as True which is not accompany'd with all the Evidence it demands 'T is requisite we should be persuaded of this to disburthen us of our Prejudices And 't is absolutely necessary we should entirely quit our Prejudices to enter into the Knowledge of Truth for as much as there is an absolute Necessity that our Mind be purify'd before it be inlightned Sapientia prima Stultitiâ caruisse But Before I conclude this Chapter 't is necessary to observe three Things The First is That I speak not here of things of Faith which have no Evidence attending them as have Natural Sciences The Reason of which seems to be this That we can have no Perception of Things but from the Idea's we have of them Now the Idea's we have are only given us by God according to our Exigencies and the need we have of them to conduct us in the Natural Order of Things according to which he has Created us So that the Mysteries of Faith being of a Supernatural Order we need not wonder if we want that Evidence since we want the Idea's of them because our Souls were Created by vertue of a General Decree through which we have all the Notions that are necessary for us but the Mysteries of Faith have receiv'd their Establishment only from an Order of Grace
entire Tulip We see in the Cicatricle of a new-laid Egg and which had never been brooded a Chicken which is possibly compleatly form'd We see Frogs in the Eggs of Frogs and we shall see other Animals still in their Cicatricles when we have Art and Experience enough to discover them But 't is not for the Mind to stand still when the Eyes can go no farther For the view of the Soul is of a greater compass than the sight of the Body Besides this therefore we ought to think That all the Bodies of Men and of Beasts which should be born or produc'd till the End of the World were possibly created from the Beginning of it I would say That the Females of the Original Creatures were for ought we know created together with all those of the same Species which have been or shall be begotten or procreated whilst the World stands We might push this Thought much farther yet and it may be with a great deal of Reason and Truth But we have just cause to fear lest we should be too desirous of penetrating too far into the Works of GOD We see nothing but Infinities round about us And not only our Senses and our Imagination are too limited to comprehend them but the Mind it self however pure and disengag'd from Matter is too gross as well as too feeble to pierce into the least of the Works of the Almighty 'T is lost 't is dissipated 't is dazled and amazed at the view of that which according to the Language of the Senses is call'd an Atom Notwithstanding the Pure Intellect has this advantage above the Imagination of the Senses that it acknowledges its own Weakness and the Almightiness of GOD Whereas our Imagination and our Senses bring down the works of GOD and audaciously set themselves above them and so throw us headlong and blind-fold into Error For our Eyes furnish us not with the Idea's of any of those things we discover by Microscopes and our Reason We perceive not by our Sight any less Body than an Hand-worm or a Mite The half of a Hand-worm is nothing if we rely on the Report of our Eyes A Mite is a Mathematical point in their account which you can't divide but you must annihilate Our Sight then does not represent Extension to us as it is in it self but as it is in Relation to our Body And because the half of a Mite has no considerable relation to our Body and has no influence either towards the Preservation or Destruction of it therefore our Eyes entirely conceal it from Us. But if we had Eyes made after the manner of Microscopes or rather if we were as little as Hand-worms and Mites we should judge of the Magnitude of Bodies in a far different manner For without doubt these little Animals have their Eyes so dispos'd as to see the Bodies that surround them and their own Bodies far greater than we see them for otherwise they could not receive such impressions as were necessary to the Preservation of Life and so the Eyes they have would be altogether useless But that we may throughly explain these things we must consider that our Eyes are in effect only Natural Spectacles that their humours have the same way of Operating as the Glasses in the Spectacles and that according to the figure of the Crystalline and its distance from the Retina we see Objects very differently insomuch that we cannot be assur'd there are two Men in the World that see Bodies of the self-same bigness since we cannot be assur'd there are two Men's Eyes altogether made alike 'T is a Proposition that ought to be imbrac'd by all those who concern themselves with Opticks That Objects which appear equally distant are seen so much bigger as the figure which is delineated in the fund of the Eye is bigger Now it is certain that in the Eyes of those Persons whose Crystalline is more convex the Images are painted lesser in proportion to the convexity Those then who are short-sighted having their Crystalline more convex see the Objects lesser than those whose Crystalline is of the common standard or than old People who want Spectacles to read with but see perfectly well at a distance since those whose Sight is short must necessarily have the Crystalline more convex on supposition their Eyes as to the other parts are equal 'T were the easiest thing in Nature to demonstrate all these things Geometrically and were they not of the number of those which are very well known I would insist longer upon them to make them evident But because several have already handled this Subject I desire such as are willing to be instructed therein to turn to them and consult them Since it is not manifest that there are two Men in the World who see Objects in the same bulk and magnitude and generally the same Man sees them bigger with his left Eye than his right according to the Observations which have been made and are related in the Journal of the Learned from Rome in January 1669 it is plain we ought not to build upon the Testimony of our Eyes so as to pass our judgment from it It is much better to attend to Reason which proves to us That we are unable to determine what is the absolute Magnitude of Bodies which encompass us or what Idea we ought to have of the Extension of a Foot-square or of that of our own Body so as that Idea may represent it to us as it is For we learn from Reason that the least of all Bodies would be no longer little if it were alone since it is compounded of an infinite number of parts out of each of which GOD could frame an Earth which yet would be but a single Point in comparison of the rest in conjunction Thus the Mind of Man is incapable of forming an Idea great enough to comprehend and embrace the least Extension in the World since the Mind has bounds but that Idea should be infinite It is true The Mind may come very near the Knowledge of the Relations these infinites have to one another which constitute the World it may know for instance one of them to be double to another and that a Fathom is the measure of six Foot Yet for all this it cannot form an Idea to it self that can represent these things as they are in their own Nature Well but let it be suppos'd that the Mind is capable of Idea's which equal or which measure the Extension of Bodies which we see for it would be a difficult undertaking to convince Men of the contrary Let us see what may be concluded from the Supposition Doubtless this will be the Conclusion That GOD does not deceive us That he has not given us Eyes like Glasses to magnifie or diminish the Object and therefore we ought to believe that our Eyes represent things as really they are 'T is true GOD never deceives us but we often deceive our selves by
will about them They have no Relish of Tasts unless some change happens in the disposition of the Fibres of their Tongue and Brain In short the Sensations have no manner of Dependence upon the Will of Men And 't is only he that created Men that still preserves them in that mutual correspondence of the Modifications of their Soul to those of their Body So that if a Man would have me represent to him Heat or Colour I cannot make use of words to do it But I must impress in the Organs of his Senses such Motions as Nature has affixt these Sensations to I must bring him to the Fire and shew him a piece of Painting And this is the reason why 't is impossible to give Men that are born Blind the least Knowledge of that which we understand by Red Green Yellow or the like For since 't is impossible for a Man to make another understand him when he that hears has not the same Idea's as he that speaks it is manifest that since Colours are neither conjoyn'd to the sound of words nor to the Motion of the Auditory but to that of the Optick Nerve we can never represent them to Men that are Blind since their Optick Nerve cannot be Vibrated by colour'd Objects We have therefore some sort of Knowledge of our Sensations Let us now see how it comes to pass that we are still casting about to know them and that we believe our selves destitute of any Knowledge of them The reason of it undoubtedly is this The Soul since the Original Sin is now as it were Corporeal in her Inclination the Love she has for sensible Objects is perpetually lessening the Union or the Relation she has with those that are intellectual She is disgusted and uneasy in conceiving things that will not enter by the Senses and is presently for leaving the Consideration of them She imploys her utmost endeavour to produce the Images that represent them in her Brain and she is so throughly inur'd to this kind of Conception from our Infancy that she thinks that she can have no Knowledge of what she can have no Imagination Notwithstanding there are a great many things which being not Corporeal cannot be represented to the Mind by Corporeal Images as to instance our Soul with all her Modifications At what time therefore our Soul would represent to her self her own Nature and her own Sensations she endeavours to form a Corporeal Image thereof She is in search of her self amongst all Corporeal Beings One while she takes her self for one Thing and another while for Another sometimes for Air sometimes for Fire or for the Harmony of the parts of her own Body And being thus desirous of finding her self among the mass of Bodies and of imagining her own Modifications which are her Sensations as the Modifications of Bodies we need not wonder if she 's bewildred in her wandrings and is misguided out of the Knowledge of her self That which induces the Soul to be still more fond of Imagining her Sensations is her judging them to be in the Objects And moreover that they are the Modifications of them and consequently that they are something Corporeal and fit to be Imagin'd She judges then that the Nature of her Sensations consists only in the motion which produces them or in some other Modification of a Body which is manifestly different from what she feels this being nothing Corporeal nor possible to be represented by Corporeal Images This is what confounds her and makes her believe she is altogether ignorant of her own Sensations As for those who make none of these fruitless Attempts to represent the Soul and its Modifications by Corporeal Images and yet are desirous of having their Sensations explain'd to them they must understand that neither the Soul nor its Modifications can be known by Idea's taking the word Idea in its most proper signification as I have determin'd and explain'd it in the third Book but only by Conscience or Internal Sensation So that when they ask us to explain the Soul and her Modifications by any Idea's they demand what is impossible for all the Men in the World put together to give them Because Men cannot instruct us by giving us Idea's of things but only by making us attentive to those we have already The second Error whereinto we fall about our Sensations is the attributing them to Objects which has been explain'd in the XI and XII Chapters The third is our judging that all Mankind have the same Sensations of the same Objects We believe for example that all the World sees the Sky Azure the Meadows Green and all visible Objects in the same manner as we see them and so likewise all the other sensible Qualities of the other Senses There are many who will wonder even that we call in question those things which they believe indubitable However I can certify them they have not any Reason to judge of these things as they do And though I cannot Mathematically demonstrate they are in an Error I can nevertheless demonstrate 't is the greatest chance in the World if they are not And I have Arguments strong enough to convince them they are certainly deceiv'd That the Truth of what I here advance may be here acknowledg'd we must call to mind what has been already prov'd namely That there is a vast difference betwixt our Sensations and the causes of our Sensations We may conclude from thence that absolutely speaking it is possible for similar Motions of the Internal Fibres of the Optick Nerves to produce in different Persons different Sensations that is to cause them to see different Colours And it may so fall out that a Motion which shall produce in one Person the Sensation of Blew shall cause the Sensation of Green or Gray in another or perhaps a new Sensation which never any man had besides It is certain I say that this is possible and there is no reason in the World that can prove the contrary However we will grant that it is not probable it should be so It is much more reasonable to believe that GOD acts always uniformly in the Union he has establish'd betwixt our Souls and our Bodies and that he has affixt the same Idea's and the same Sensation to similar Motions of the Internal Fibres of the Brain of different Persons Let it be granted then that the same Motions of the Fibres which terminate in the middle of the Brain are accompany'd with the same Sensations in all Men if it fortunes that the same Objects produce not the same Motions in their Brain they will not by consequence excite the same Sensations in their Soul Now to me it seems indisputable that the Organs of the Senses of all Men being not dispos'd in the same manner cannot receive the same Impressions from the same Objects The blows for instance that Porters give one another by way of Complement would cripple some sort of People The
gross and difficult to be put in Motion As for those Nerves which environ the Arteries and Veins their Use is to put a stop to the current of the Blood and by their Pressure and Constriction of the Veins and Arteries oblige it to flow into those places where it meets with a passage more free and open Thus that part of the great Artery which furnishes all the parts of the Body below the Heart with Blood being bound and straitned by these Nerves the Blood must necessarily enter the Head in greater quantities and so produce a Change in the Animal Spirits and consequently in the Imagination But it ought to be well observ'd that all this is perform'd by mere Mechanism I mean that all the different Movements of these Nerves in all the different Passions are not affected by the Command of the Will but on the contrary are perform'd without its orders and even in contradiction to them Insomuch that a Body without a Soul dispos'd like that of a â—ound Man would be capable of all the Movements which accompany our Passions And thus Beasts themselves might have such as nearly resembled them though they were only pure Machines This is the thing for which we ought to admire the Incomprehensible Wisdom of Him who has so regularly rang'd and contriv'd all these Natural Wheels and Movements as to make it sufficient for an Object to move the Optick Nerve in such and such a manner to produce so many diverse Motions in the Heart in the other inward parts of the Body and on the Face it self For it has lately been discover'd that the same Nerve which shoots some of its Branches into the Heart and into other Internal parts communicates also some of its Branches into the Eye the Mouth and other parts of the Face so that no Passion can rise or mutiny within but it must betray presently it self without because there can be no Motion in the Branches extended to the Heart but there must another happen in those which are spread o'er the Face The Correspondence and Sympathy which is found between the Nerves of the Face and some others answering to other places of the Body not to be nam'd is still much more Remarkable and that which occasions this great Sympathy is as in the other Passions because these little Nerves which climb into the Face are only Branches of that which descends lower When a Man is overtaken with some violent Passion if he is careful to make a Reflection upon what he feels in his Entrails and in other parts of his Body where the Nerves insinuate themselves as also upon the Changes of Countenance which accompany it and if he considers that all these divers Agitations of the Nerves are altogether involuntary and that they happen in spite of all the Resistance that our Will can make to them he will find it no hard matter to suffer himself to embrace this simple Exposition that hath been given of all these Relations and Correspondencies betwixt the Nerves But if a Man examines the Reasons and the End of all these things so much Order and Wisdom will be found in them that a little Soberness of Thought and Attention will be able to convince the most devoted Admirers of Epicurus and Lucretius that there is a Providence that governs the World When I see a Watch I have reason to conclude that there is some Intelligent Being since it is Impossible for Chance and Hap-hazard to produce to range and posture all its Wheels How then could it be possible that Chance and a confus'd Jumble of Atoms should be capable of ranging in all Men and Animals such abundance of different secret Springs and Engines with that Exactness and Proportion I have just Explain'd and that Men and Animals should thereby procreate others exactly like themselves So ridiculous it is to think or to say with Lucretius That all the parts which go to the Composition of Man were pack't together by Chance that his Eyes were not made with any design of Seeing but that he afterwards thought of Seeing because he found he had Eyes And thus with the other parts of the Body These are his Words Lumina ne facias oculorum clara creata Prospicere ut possimus ut proferre vidi Proceros passus ideo fastigia posse Surarum ac foeminum pedibus fundata plicari Brachia tum poro validis ex apta lacertis Esse manúsque datas utraque à parte ministras Vt facere ad vitam possimus quae foret usus Caetera de genere hoc inter quaecunque pretantur Omnia perversa praepostera sunt ratione Nil adeo quoniam natum ' st in corpore ut uti Possemus sed quod natum ' st id procreat usum Must not he needs have a strange Aversion to a Providence who would thus voluntarily put out his Eyes for fear of seeing it and endeavour to render himself insensible to Arguments so strong and convincing as those Nature furnishes us withal I confess when once Men affect to be thought bold or rather Atheistical Wits as did the Epicureans they presently find themselves benighted in darkness and see only false glimmerings for the future they peremptorily deny the most clear and Self-evident Truths and as haughtily and Magisterially affirm the falsest and obscurest Things in the World The Poet I have just cited may serve as a Proof of that Blindness of these venturous Wits he confidently pronounces and against all appearance of Truth about the most difficult and obscurest Questions when at the same time it may well be thought he has no Preception of Idea's that are most clear and evident If I should stand to transcribe passages of that Author to justifie what I say I should make too long and tedious a Digression for though it may be permitted me to make some Reflections which stay and fasten the Mind for a Moment upon essential Truths yet I should never attone for making Digressions which throw off the Mind a considerable time from its Attention to its principal Subject to apply it to things of little or no Importance CHAP. V. I. Of the Memory II. Of the Habits WE have been explaining the general Causes as well External as Internal which effect a Change in the Animal Spirits and consequently in the Imaginative Faculty We have shewn that the External are the Meats we feed upon and the Air we take in for Respiration And that the Internal consist in the Involuntary Agitation of certain Nerves We know no other general Causes and we are confident there are none In so much that the Faculty of Imagining as to the Body depends only on two things namely the Animal Spirits and the Disposition of the Brain whereon they act There nothing more remains at present to to give us a perfect Knowledge of the Imagination than the manifestation of the different Changes that may happen in the Substance of the Brain They shall be examined by us as
great Precipice which a Man sees under him and from which there is danger of falling or the Traces of some bulky Body imminent over his Head and ready to fall and crush him is naturally Connected with that which represents Death and with a Commotion of the Spirits which disposes him to flight or the desire of flying it This Connection admits no alteration because 't is necessary it should always be the same and it consists in a disposition of the Fibres of the Brain which we bring with us into the World All the Connections which are not Natural may and ought to break because the different Circumstances of times and places ought to change to the end they may be useful to the Preservation of Life 'T is convenient the Partridge for instance should fly the Sports-man with his Gun at the season and the places of his pursuing the Game But there 's no necessity it should fly him in other places or at other times Thus 't is necessary all Animals for their Preservation should have certain Connections of Traces easily made and easily broken and that they should have others very difficult to be sever'd and lastly others incapable of Dissolution 'T is of very great use to make diligent enquiry into the different Effects these different Connections are able to produce For there are Effects which as they are very numerous so they are no less important to the Knowledge of Man and all things relating to him We shall see hereafter that these things are the principal Causes of our Errors But 't is time to return to the Subject we have promis'd to Discourse on and to explain the different Changes which happen to the Imagination of Men by reason of their different ways and purposes of Life CHAP. IV. I. That Men of Learning are the most subject to Error II. The Causes why Men had rather be guided by Authority than make use of their own Reason THE Differences observable in Men as to their Ways and Purposes of Life are almost infinite Their different Conditions different Employments different Posts and Offices and different Communities are innumerable These Differences are the Reason of Men's acting upon quite different Designs and Reasoning upon different Principles Even in the same Community wherein there should be but one Character of Mind and all the same Designs you shall rarely meet with several Persons whose Aims and Views are not different Their various Employments and their many Adhesions necessarily diversifie the Method and Manner they would take to accomplish those various things wherein they agree Whereby 't is manifest that it would be an impossible Undertaking to go about to explain in particular the Moral Causes of Error nor would it turn to any great Account should we do it in this place I design therefore only to speak of those Ways of Living that lead us into great multitudes of Errors and Errors of most dangerous Importance When these shall be explain'd we shall have open'd the way for the Mind to proceed farther and every one may discover at a single View and with the greatest ease imaginable the most hidden Causes of many particular Errors the Explication whereof would cost a world of Pains and Trouble When once the Mind sees clearly it delights to run to Truth and it runs to it with an inexpressible swiftness The Imployment that seems most necessary to be treated of at present by Reason of its producing most considerable Changes in the Imagination of Men and its conducting them into Errors most is that of Men of Books and Learning who make greater use of their Memory than Thought For Experience has ever manifested that those who have applied themselves the most fervently to the Reading of Books and to the Search of Truth are the Men that have led us into a very great part of our Errors 'T is much the same with those that Study as with those that Travel When a Traveller has unfortunately mistaken his way the farther he goes at the greater distance he is from his Journey 's end and he stâ—ll deviates so much more as he is industrious and in haste to arrive at the place design'd So the vehement pursuits Men make after Truth cause them to betake themselves to the Reading of Books wherein they think to find it or put them upon framing some Phantastical System of the things they desire to know wherewith when their Heads are full and heated they try by some fruitless Sallies and Attempts of Thought to recommend them to the taste of others with hopes to receive the Honours that are usually pay'd to the first Founders of Systems These two Imperfections are now to be consider'd 'T is not easie to be understood how it comes to pass that Men of Wit and Parts choose rather to trust to the Conduct of other Men's Understanding in the Search of Truth than to their own which GOD has given them There is doubtless infinitely more Pleasure as well as Honour to be conducted by a Man 's own Eyes than those of others And a Man who has good Eyes in his Head will never think of shutting them or plucking them out under the hopes of having a Guide And yet the use of the Understanding is to the use of the Eyes as the Understanding is to the Eyes and as the Understanding is infinitely superiour to the Eyes so the use of the Understanding is accompany'd with more solid Satisfactions and gives another sort of Content than Light and Colours give the Sight Notwithstanding Men employ their Eyes in Guiding and Conducting themselves but rarely make use of their Reason in Discovery of Truth But there are many Causes which contribute to this overthrow of Reason First Men's Natural Carelessness and Oscitation that will not let them be at the Pains of Thinking Secondly Their Incapacity to Meditate which they have contracted for want of applying themselves to it from their Youth as has been explain'd in the Ninth Chapter Thirdly The inconcernedness and little Love they have for Abstract Truths which are the Foundation of all that can be known in this World The Fourth Reason is the Satisfaction which accrues from the knowledge of Probabilities which are very agreeable and extreamly moving as being founded upon sensible Notions The Fifth Cause is that ridiculous Vanity which makes us affect the seeming Learned For those go by the Name of Learned who have read most Books The Knowledge of Opinions is of greater use in Conversation and serves better to catch the Admiration of the Vulgar than the Knowledge of True Philosophy which is learned by Meditation In the sixth place we may reckon that unreasonable Fancy which supposes the Ancients were more enlightned than we can be and that there is nothing left for us but what they have succeeded in The Seventh is a Disingenuous Respect mix'd with an absurd Curiosity which makes Men admire things that are most Remote and Ancient such as are far fetch'd or
come from unknown Countries as also Books that are most Mysterious and Obscure Thus Heraclitus's Repute heretofore was owing to his Obscurity Men are very inquisitive after Ancient Medals tho' corroded with rust and the Shoe or Slipper of one of the Ancients is respectfully preserv'd though eaten up with Worms Their Antiquity makes them Venerable There are some Men who apply themselves to the Reading the Rabbins because they wrote in an outlandish very corrupt and obscure Language Ancient Opinions are in greater esteem for being more remote from us And doubtless if Nimrod had written the History of his Reign all the most refin'd Politicks and even all the other Sciences had been found contain'd in 't just as some have been able to discover in Homer and Virgil the perfect Knowledge of Nature Deference say they is due to Antiquity How could Aristotle Plato Epicurus those grand Sages be mistaken They do not consider that Aristotle Plato Epicurus were Men like us and of the same Species with us and moreover that the World since their Time is grown more than two thousand Years older that it has gain'd greater Experience and ought to be more enlightned and that 't is the Age and Experience of the World that makes the Discovery of Truth The Eighth Reason is That when a New Opinion or a modern Author is in Vogue our own Glory seems to be obscur'd by being too near him But we are under no such Apprehensions from the Honour that is given to the Ancients The Ninth is That Truth and Novelty are inconsistent in matters of Faith For when Men will not distinguish between Truths which depend on Reason and those which rely upon Tradition they don't consider that they ought to be learn'd in a very different manner They confound Novelty with Error and Antiquity with Truth Luther and Calvin and others say they have Innovated and Err'd therefore Gallilaeus Harvey and Des-Cartes in what they have advanc'd as New are deceiv'd Luther's Consubstantiation is Novel and is False Therefore Harvey's Circulation of the Blood is False because 't is New and for this Reason they indiscriminately give the odious Title of Innovators to Hereticks and New Philosophers The Idea's and Terms of Truth and Antiquity Falshood and Novelty have been Connected one with another And this is the Effect of it the Vulgar part of Men no longer separate them and Men of Sense find some difficulty to separate them as they should do The Tenth is That we live in an Age wherein the Science of Ancient Opinions is still in great Repute And 't is only those few who can take the Liberty of Thinking that are able by the force of their Reason to set themselves above corrupt and evil Customs When a Man is in a press and a throng 't is a hard matter not to follow the torrent Lastly Because Men are acted only by Interest which is the Reason that those themselves who find out the Abuse and discover the Vanity of these sorts of Studies stick close to them still Because Honours Preferments and Benefices are entail'd to them and those who are Eminent herein have a greater share of them than those that are ignorant of them All these Reasons make it one would think easie to be conceiv'd why Men implicitly follow the Ancient Opinions as true and reject the New ones universally as false finally why they make no use or very little of their Reason Undoubtedly there are abundance of other more particular Reasons that contribute to it but if these we have brought be attentively consider'd it will be no matter of surprize to find some Men obstinately Bigotted to the Authority of the Ancients CHAP. V. Two pernicious Effects Reading has upon the Imagination THAT disingenuous and loose Respect which Men award the Ancients is productive of abundance of very mischievous Effects which 't is worth while to consider The First is That by accustoming them to a disuse of their Reason it by little and little puts them under an utter Incapacity of using it For it ought not to be imagin'd that those who grow Gray in the Study of Aristotle and Plato make much use of their Understanding They generally spend so much time in the Reading of these Books meerly to enter into the Sentiments of their Authors And their main Scope and Purpose is to know truly the Opinions they held without troubling themselves much about those of them which ought to be held as shall be prov'd in the succeeding Chapter Thus the Science and Philosophy they learn is properly a Science of Memory and not a Science of the Vnderstanding They know only the History and the matter of Fact and not the evident Truths and may more justly be call'd Historians than true Philosophers The Second Effect produc'd in the Imagination by the Reading Ancient Authors is the strange confusion it makes in the Idea's of most Men that give themselves to it There are two different ways of Reading Authors The one is very Advantagious and Useful the other very Useless and also Dangerous Reading is of great use when one meditates on what one reads When a Man by an Essay of Thought endeavours the Resolution of the Questions he sees in the Contents of the Chapters before he begins to read them when he Methodizes and Collates the Idea's of things with one another in a word when he uses his Reason On the contrary Reading is of no account when he understands not what 't is he is about But 't is of dangerous consequence for a Man to read and comprehend what he reads when he does not strictly search and examine into it so as to be able to judge of it and especially if he has Memory enough to retain what he conceives and Imprudence enough to consent to it The first way enlightens the Understanding it corroborates and enlarges it Capacity The Second straightens its Capacity and renders it by degrees weak obscure and confus'd Now the generality of those who glory in the Knowledge of others Opinions study only the second Manner And so the more Reading they have the more feeble dark and confus'd their Understanding grows The Reason whereof is that the Traces of their Brain are confounded with each other as lying in great numbers and being never Postur'd and Methodiz'd by Reason which is the thing that hinders the Mind from imagining and representing clearly the things it has occasion for When the Mind would open some particular Traces finding others that are more familiar to it in the way 't is easily impos'd upon For the Capacity of the Brain being not infinite 't is hardly possible a great quantity of Traces form'd without Order and Method should not entangle and perplex themselves and thereby put the Idea's in confusion 'T is upon this score that Men of a great Memory are commonly incapable of judging well concerning things that demand a great Attention But that which is especially remarkable is
That the Knowledge Men acquire by Reading without Meditation and with design only of retaining the Opinions of others in a word all Science that depends on Memory is properly the Science that puffs up and makes them Arrogant because this is that which glitters most to appearance and makes the possessors vain and conceited And thus we generally observe those that are this way Learned to be proud haughty and presuming pretending to have a right of judging of all things though very little qualify'd for that purpose which is the Reason of their falling into multitudes of Errors But this false Science is the Cause of a greater mischief still For those Persons fall not into Error along but draw whole troops of Vulgar Minds along with them as also a vast retinue of Young People who Believe their Decisions as Articles of Faith These falsly Learned having oppress'd and overborn them by the weight of their profound Literature and maz'd them with the Doctrine of uncouth and extravagant Opinions and the Names of Ancient and Unknown Authors gain such an irresistible Sway and Authority over their Minds that they reverence and admire as Oracles whatever proceeds from their Mouth and blindfold and implicitly subscribe to all their Sentiments Nay Men of far greater Understanding and Judgment who had never known them and who should not be inform'd what and who they were seeing them talk in so Magisterial a way and Decisive a strain in so haughty so imperious and so grave an Air could scarce forbear having a Respect and Esteem for what they say because 't is an hard matter to be unaffected with the Air the Carriage and Sensible manners of the Speaker For as it often happens that your Arrogant and Confident Men are too hard for others of greater Abilities but that are more Judicious and reserved so those Men that maintain things neither true nor probable often silence their Opponents by talking in an Imperious Haughty or grave strain that surprizes and amuses them Now those of whom we speak have so much Value and Esteem for themselves and Contempt for others as to be confirm'd in a certain Fastuous Habit mix'd with a sort of Gravity and Fictitious Modesty which prepossesses and wins the Hearer's Mind For it ought to be observ'd that all the different Airs and Behaviours of Men of different Conditions are only the Natural Results and Consequences of the Esteem every Man has for himself in Relation to others as is easie to be seen if a Man considers them a little Thus an Haughty and a Brutal Air is peculiar to a Man that highly esteems himself and disregards the Esteem of other Men An Air of Modesty is the Air of a Man that sets little by himself but has much Esteem for others The Grave Air is that of a Man who has a great Esteem for himself and desire of being Esteem'd by others The Simple and Down-right Air and Carriage is that of a Man neither solicitous about himself nor others Thus all the different Airs which are almost infinite are only the Effects which the different degrees of Esteem every Man has for himself and for those with whom he converses naturally produce in his Face and in all the External parts of his Body We have explain'd in the Fourth Chapter that Correspondence which is between the Nerves which excite the Passions within us and those that evidence them outwardly by the Air they imprint upon the Face CHAP. VI. That Men of Learning generally are so Opinionated with an Author that their Principal Drift is the Knowing what he held without caring to know what ought to be held THERE is still another Defect of very great Importance that Men of Reading are ordinarily subject to which is that they grow conceited with an Author If there be any thing true or good in a Book they are presently extravagant in extolling it 'T is all true 't is all excellent and admirable They please themselves in admiring what they do not understand and would fain have all the World to admire it with them The Encomiums they bestow on these obscure Authors they make redound to their own glory Since others are hereby perswaded that they perfectly understand them and this administers fuel to their Vanity They esteem themselves above the rest of Mankind upon the strength of being perswaded they understand some Impertinence of an Ancient Author or of a Man perhaps that did not understand himself What a multitude have sweat and laboured in the Illustration of the obscure Passages of some of the Ancient Philosophers and Poets And what abundance of fine Wits are there in these Days still the main Pleasure of whose Life consists in Criticizing on a Word or the Opinion of an Author But 't will not be amiss at present to bring some Proof of what I say The Question concerning the Immortality of the Soul is without doubt a Question of very great Importance We cannot find fault with the Philosophers for laying out themselves so industriously towards the Resolution of it And though they heap up mighty Volumes to prove after a slender fashion a Truth that may be Demonstrated in a few Words or a few Pages yet they are excusable But when they are very solicitous and concern'd about deciding what Aristotle thought of it they are as pleasant Gentlemen as one could wish It is in my Mind of very little use and benefit to those who live at present to know whether there was ever such a Man as was call'd Aristotle whether this Man was the Author of those Books which go under his Name whether he understood this or that in such a part of his Works This can neither make a Man wiser nor happier But it is very material to know whether what he says be true or false in it self 'T is then very useless to know what was Aristotle's Opinion concerning the Immortality of the Soul though it be of great Advantage to know the Soul to be Immortal Yet I make no scruple to affirm that there have been many Scholars more solicitous to know Aristotle's Sentiment on this Subject than the Truth of the thing it self Since there have been those who have wrote Books purposely to explain what that Philosopher's Belief was of it but have not done so much to know what ought to be believ'd concerning it But though there have been a multitude of Men who have harrassed and fatigued their Mind in resolving what Aristotle's Opinion was yet their fatigues and pains have been all in vain since they cannot yet agree about this ridiculous Question Which evidenceth how mis-fortunate the followers of Aristotle are in having a Man so dark and obscure to enlighten them and who even affects Obscurity as he declar'd in a Letter that he wrote to Alexander The Opinion then of Aristotle about the Immortality of the Soul has been a mighty Question and very noted amongst the Learned But that it may not be imagin'd that I
dispositio cùm in uno homine reperitur dignus est esse Divinus magìs quam humanus And in other places he still bestows more pompous and magnificent praises on him As Lib. 1. de Generatione Animalium Laudemus Deum qui separavit hunc virum ab aliis in perfectione appropriavitque ei ultimam dignitatem humanam quam non omnis homo potest in quacunque aetate attingere The same he says of him Lib. 1. Dest Disp. 3. Aristotelis doctrina est SVMMA VERITAS quoniam ejus intellectus fuit finis humani intellectûs quare bené dicitur de illo quód ipse fuit creatus datus nobis Divinâ providentiâ ut non ignoremus possâ—bilia sciri Must not a Man be mad in good earnest that will talk at this rate And must not his Bigottry for this Author be degenerated into Extravagance and Folly Aristotle 's Doctrine is the SOVEREIGN TRUTH 'T is impossible for any man to equal him or come near him in Science This is the Man that was sent us from Heaven to teach us all that is possible to be known This is he upon whom all the wise Men are form'd and they are so much more learn'd as they better understand him As he says in another place Aristoteles fuit Princeps per quem perficiuntur omnes Sapientes qui fuerunt post eum licèt differant inter se in intelligendo verba ejus in eo quod sequitur ex eis And yet the Works of this Commentator have been dispersed over all Europe and into Countries farther remote They have been translated out of Arabick into Hebrew out of Hebrew into Latin and it may be into many other Languages Which Manifestly shews what Esteem the Learned have had for them So that a more sensible instance than this cannot be given of the Prepossession of Men of Study For it evidently shews that they are not only Opinionated with an Author themselves but also communicate their Bigottry to others proportionably to the Esteem the World conceives of them And thus these false Praises Commentators load him with are often the cause that Men of no very brightned Parts who betake themselves to the Reading of them are prepossessed and thereby led into infinite Error See here another instance A Man renowned among the Learned who Founded the Geometry and Astronomy Lectures in the Vniversity of Oxford begins a Book which he wrote upon the Eight first Propositions of Euclid with these Words Consilium meum est Auditores si vires valetudo suffecerint explicare Definitiones Petitiones communes Sententias octo priores Propositiones primi libri Elementorum caetera post me venientibus relinquere And he concludes with these words Exolvi per Dei gratiam Domini Auditores promissum liberavi fidem meam explicavi pro modulo meo Definitiones Petitiones communes Sententias octo priores Propositiones Elementorum Euclidis Hîc annis fessus cyclos artemque repono Succedent in hoc munus alii fortasse magis vegeto corpore vivido ingenio c. A Man of a competent Sense would not require more than an hour's time to learn of himself or with the help of the meanest Geometrician the Definitions Postulates Axioms and the Eight first Propositions of Euclid they have very little need of any Explication and yet here is an Author that talks of his Enterprize as of some very difficult and mighty Undertaking He is apprehensive least his strenth should fail him Si vires valetudo suffecerint He leaves the Prosecution of them to his Successors Caetera post me venientibus relinquere He thanks GOD for having through his particular Mercy accomplish'd and made good what he promis'd Exolvi per Dei gratiam promissum liberavi fidem meam Explicavi pro modulo meo What the Quadrature of the Circle the Duplication of the Cube This Great Man has explain'd pro modulo suo the Definitions Postulates Axioms and the Eight first Propositions of the first Book of Euclid ' s Elementâ— Possibly amongst those who shall succeed him there may some be found of a stronger and healthier Constitution than himself to carry on so great a Work Succedent in hoc munus alii FORTASSE magis vegeto corpore vivido ingenio But as for his part he has done enough to sit down and rest Hêc annis fessus cyclos artémque reponit Euclid never thought of being so obscure or of saying such extraordinary things when he compos'd his Elements as should necessarily demand a Book of near three hundred pages to explain his Definitions Axioms Postulates and Eight first Propositions But this Learned Englishman knew how to enhance the Science of Euclid and if Age would have permitted him and he had but continued in the same Vigour we should at present have had a dozen or fifteen mighty Volumes upon Euclid's Elements only which doubtless would have been very beneficial to Novice Pretenders to Geometry and had made much for the Honour of Euclid See what whimsical designs a falsly term'd Learning can put Men upon This Gentleman was vers'd in the Greek Tongue for we are oblig'd to him for a Greek Edition of St. Chrysostom's Works He possibly had read the Ancient Geometricians He could give an Historical Account of their Propositions no less than their Descent and Genealogy He had all the respect for Antiquity that ought to be had for Truth and what is it such a Disposition of Mind produces A Commentary upon the Definitions of Terms the Demands Axioms and the Eight first Propositions of Euclid much harder to be understood and remembred I do not say than the Propositions he commented on but than all that ever Euclid wrote on Geometry There are many Men that out of Vanity talk in Greek and even sometimes in a strange Language they don't themselves understand For Dictionaries no less than Indices and Common Places are very great helps to some sorts of Authors But there are very few of Prudence enough to keep in their Greek upon a Subject where it is needless and impertinent to make use of it And this makes me believe it was Prepossession and an inordinate Esteem for Euclid that form'd in our Author's Imagination the first Design of his Book If this Gentleman had made as much use of his Reason as his Memory in a Matter where Reason should have only been imploy'd or if he had had as great a Respect and Love for Truth as Veneration for the Author he went to expound there is great Probability that having mispent so much time upon so frivolous a Subject he would have acknowledg'd Euclid's Definitions of a Plane Angle and Parallel Lines to be Vicious and Defective and inexpressive of the Nature of them and that the Second Proposition is impertinent since the Proof of it depends upon the Third Postulate which is harder to be granted than that Second Proposition since in granting that Third Postulate which
take up one part of their Mind and tinge and infect all the rest The Passions confound all the Idea's a thousand ways and make us generally discover in the Objects all that we have a mind to find in them Even the Passion that we have for Truth sometimes deceives us when it is too vehement But the Ambition to be thought Learned is the great Impediment to our becoming really so Nothing then is more rare and extraordinary than to find such Men as are capable of making new Systems and yet nothing is more common than to find such as have fram'd some System or other to their Humour We see few of those who study much reason upon common Notions there is ever some Irregularity in their Idea's which is an evident sign they have some particular System we are unaquainted with 'T is true all the Books they compose do not savour of it For when their Business is to write for the Publick Men are more cautious of what they say and a bare Attention is often enough to undeceive them Yet we see Books Publish'd from time to time which are a sufficient Proof of what I say And there are Persons who are proud to let the World know at the beginning of their Book that they are the Founders of some new System The number of the Inventors of new Systems is much increas'd by those who have been prepossess'd with any Author For it often falls out that having not met with Truth nor any solid foundation in their Opinions of the Authors they have read they first enter into a great Dislike and an high Contempt of all sorts of Books and thereupon fall to Imagining some probable Opinion which they hug and cherish and wherein they strengthen themselves in the manner I have explain'd But as soon as this Heat of Affection for any Opinion is boyl'd over and abated or the Design of Appearing in Publick has oblig'd them to examine it with a more exact and serious Attention they discover the Falsity of it and throw it up but with this Condition that they will never take up any other but utterly condemn all those who shall pretend to the Discovery of any Truth So that the last and most dangerous Error which Men of Study fall into is their Imagining there can be nothing known They have read many Books both Ancient and Modern and have miss'd of Truth in them They have had many fine Notions of their own which they have found to be false after a more strict and attentive Examination From whence they conclude that all Men are like themselves and that if those who fancy they have discover'd some Truths should seriously consider them they would be undeceiv'd as well as themselves And this is enough for them to condemn them without making any more particular Enquiry because if they did not condemn them it would be a kind of Confession that they were wiser than themselves a thing they cannot think very probable They look therefore upon those as Bigotted to their own Thoughts who give out any thing as certain and infallible Nor will they suffer a Man to talk of Sciences as of Evident Truths which cannot reasonably be doubted of but only as of Opinions of which it is good not to be ignorant Yet these Gentlemen would do well to consider that though they have read a great number of Books yet they have not read all or that they have not read them with all the Attention that was necessary to a perfect Understanding of them And that though they have had many fine Thoughts which they have found false in the Conclusion yet they have not had all that are possible and so 't is no improbable thing that others should have found better than themselves Nor is it necessary absolutely speaking that others should have greater Sense than they if that offends them for 't is enough to have had greater Fortune They need not be affronted to hear it said That others have Evident Knowledge of what they are Ignorant since we say at the same time that many Ages have been ignorant of the same Truths Not for want of excellent Wits but because these excellent Wits have not luckily fall'n upon them Let them not be angry therefore that a Man sees clearly and speaks as he sees but let them apply themselves to what is said to them if their Minds be still capable of Application after all their Excursions and then let them judge if they please But if they will not examine it let them hold their Tongue But I would have them reflect a little whether that Answer so readily made by them to most of the things demanded of them No body Vnderstands it No body knows how 't is done be not an injudicious Answer Since to answer so a Man must of necessity believe he knows all that all Men know or all that is possible to be known by them For had they not this Notion of themselves their Answer would be still more impertinent And why should they be so hard put to it to say they know nothing of them since in some particular junctures they acknowledge they know nothing at all And why must all Men be concluded Ignorant because they are inwardly convinc'd they are Ignorant themselves There are then three sorts of Persons that apply themselves to Study The first are such as are preposterously Bigotted to some Author or some insignificant or false Science The second are such as are prepossess'd and full with their own Fancies The last which usually proceed from the other two are such as Imagine they know all that is possible to be known and who fancying they know nothing with Certainty conclude universally that nothing can be Evidently known and regard all things that they hear as bear Opinions 'T is easie to be seen that all the Faults incident to these three sorts of Men depend on the Properties of the Imagination explain'd in the X. and XI Chapters and especially of the First That all this is owing to Prejudice which choaks up their Minds and makes them insensible to all other Objects but those they are prepossess'd with It may be said that their Prejudices do in their Minds what the Ministers of Princes do in respect of their Masters for as these Gentlemen permit as little as possible any others than those of their own Party and Interest or such as are unable to displace them from their Master's Favour to come to the speech of them so the Prejudices of the former suffer not their Minds to take a full View of the pure and unmix'd Idea's of Objects But they disguise them they cloath them with their own Liveries and thus all mask'd and discolour'd present them to the Mind So that 't is next to impossible it should discover and throw off its Errors CHAP. IX I. Of Effeminate Minds II. Of Superficial Minds III. Of Men of Authority IV. Of the Experimental Philosophers I Have if
I mistake not said enough to discover in general what are the Faults of Imagination and the Errors whereunto Men of Books and Study are most obnoxious Now whereas there are few besides who trouble their heads with Searching after Truth and the rest of the World take up with their Opinion it seems we might put an end here to this Second Part. However 't is not amiss to add something concerning the Errors of other Men as being no unuseful thing to take notice of them Whatever flatters the Senses extreamly affect us and whatever affects us makes us mind it in proportion to its affecting us Thus those who resign themselves up to all sorts of most Sensible and Pleasing Diversions are incapable of Penetrating into Truths ever so little abstruse and difficult because the Capacity of the Mind which is not infinite is fill'd up with their Pleasures or at least is very much divided by them The generality of Great Men of Courtiers of Rich and Young and of those we call the fine Wits giving themselves to perpetual Diversions and studying only the Art of Pleasing by all that gratifie the Concupiscence and the Senses by degrees obtain such a Niceness in these things or such a Softness that it may be often said they are rather the Effeminate than the fine Wits which they would fain be thought There is a great deal of difference betwixt a true Fineness and Softness of Mind Though these two things are ordinarily confounded The Fine or the Curious Wits are those whose Reason descend to the least Differences of things Who fore-see Effects which depend on hidden un-usual and invisible Causes In brief they are those who dive farthest into the Subjects they consider But the soft Minds have only a counterfeit Delicacy and Niceness They are neither Lively nor Piercing They cannot see the Effects of even the most gross and palpable Causes In short they are unable to comprehend or penetrate any thing but are wonderfully nice as to Modes and Fashions An ungentile Word a Rustick Accent or a little Grimace shall provoke them infinitely more than a confus'd mass of lame and inconcluding Reasons They cannot discover the Defect of an Argument but can critically discern a false Step or an incompos'd Gesture In a word they have a perfect Understanding of Sensible things as having made continual use of their Senses but have no true Knowledge of things depending on Reason because they have scarce ever imploy'd their own Yet these are the Men that flourish most in the Esteem of the World and who most easily advance to the Reputation of the Fine Wits For when a Man talks with a free and easie Air when his Expressions are pure and well chosen when he serves himself with Figures that please the Senses and excite the Passions in an imperceptible manner though what he says be nothing but Impertinence and Folly though there be nothing good or true in his Discourse yet he shall be voted by the common Opinion the Fine the Curious the Acute Wit 'T is not perceiv'd that this is only a Soft and Effeminate Mind that glitters with false Lights but never shines out with a genuine Brightness that only perswades because we have Eyes and not because we have Reason For what remains I do not deny but that all Men have a Tincture of this Infirmity we have now remark'd in some part of them There is no Man whose Mind is not touch'd with the Impressions of his Senses and Passions and consequently who has not some Adherences to Sensible Manners All Men differ in this but in degree of more or less But the Reason of charging this Fault upon some particular Men is because there are those who acknowledge it to be a Fault and labour to correct it Whereas the Men we have been speaking of look upon it as a very advantagious Quality They are so far from owning this false Delicacy as the Effect of an Effeminate Softness and the Original of infinite Distempers to the Mind as to imagine it the Product and Sign of the Beauty and Excellency of their Genius To these may be added a vast number of Superficial Minds who never go to the bottom of things and have but a confus'd Perception of the Differences between them but they are not in the Fault as are those before-mention'd for 't is not their Divertisements that straiten their Souls and make them little-minded but they are naturally so This Littleness of Mind proceeds not from the Nature of the Soul as may perhaps be imagin'd 'T is effected sometimes by the paucity or dulness of the Animal Spirits sometimes by an immoderate plenty of the Blood and Spirits by the inflexibility of the Fibres of the Brain or by some other Cause not necessary to be known There are then two sorts of Minds The one easily observes the differences of things and this is the solid Mind The other imagines and supposes a resemblance between them which is the superficial Character The first has a Brain fitly dispos'd for the Reception of the clear and distinct Traces of the Objects it considers and because 't is very attentive to the Idea's of these Traces it sees the Objects at hand and surveys every part of them But the Superficial Mind receives only the faint and confus'd Traces thereof and that by the by very remotely and obscurely insomuch that they appear alike as the Faces of those we behold at too great a distance because the Mind ever supposes Similitude and Equality where 't is not oblig'd to acknowledge Difference and Inequality for the Reasons I shall give in the Third Book In this Class may be reckon'd all your Publick Haranguers and great Talkers and many of those who have a great Facility at delivering themselves though they speak but seldom For 't is extreamly rare for Men of serious Meditation to be able to express themselves clearly upon the things they have thought They generally hesitate when they come to Discourse about them as being scrupulous and fearful of using such Terms as may excite a false Idea in the Hearers Being asham'd to talk purely for Talking sake as is the way with a great many who talk peremptorily on all adventures They are at a loss at finding words expressive of their un-obvious and not common Thoughts Though I have the greatest Deference and Esteem imaginable for Pious Men Divines and Aged Persons and in general for all those who have deservedly a great Sway and Authority over others yet I think my self oblig'd to say thus much of them That it is usual for them to think themselves infallible because the World hears them with Respect that they exercise their Mind but little in discovering Speculative Truths that they are too liberal in condemning whatever their Pleasure and Humour suggests before they have attentively consider'd it Not that they are to be blam'd for not applying themselves to the Study of many Sciences not very
necessary for them to know we allow them to omit them and likewise to despise them but 't is not fair to judge of them out of a fanciful dislike and ill-grounded suspicions For they ought to consider that the Serious Air and Gravity wherewith they speak the Authority they have obtain'd over the Minds of others and that customary way of confirming their Discourse with a Text of Scripture must unavoidably engage in Error their respectful Auditors who being incapable of Examining things to the bottom are caught with Modes and external Appearances When Error comes cloath'd in the Dress of Truth it frequently has more respect than Truth it self And this illegitimate Respect has very dangerous Consequences Pessima res est Errorum Apotheosis pro peste intellectûs habenda est si vanis accedat veneratio Thus when some Men out of a false Zeal or a Fondness for their own Thoughts bring the Holy Scripture to countenance or support false Principles of Physicks or other of like Nature they are often attended to as Oracles by the admiring Crowd who credit them upon their word because of the Reverence they ascribe to Divine Authority When at the same time some Men of a worse Complection have taken occasion hereby to contemn Religion So that by strangely perverting its Nature Holy Scripture has been the Cause of some Men's Errors and Truth has been the Motive and Original to other's Impiety We should then be cautious says the fore-cited Author of searching after Dead things among the Living and of presuming by our own Sagacity of Mind to discover in the Holy Scriptures what the Holy Spirit has not thought fit to declare in it Ex Divinorum Humanorum malesanâ admixtionâ— continues he non solum educitur Philosophia phantastica sed etiam Religio haeretica Itaque salutare admodum est si mente sobriâ fidei tantum dentur quae fidei sunt All Men who have any Authority over others ought never to determine till they have so much the more seriously consider'd as their Determinations are more obstinately adher'd to and Divines should be more especially regardful lest they give scandal and contempt to Religion through a false Zeal by an ambitious desire of their own Fame and of giving Vogue to their Opinions But it being not my Business to prescribe to them their Duty let them hearken to St. Thomas Aquinas their Master who being consulted by his General for his Opinion touching some Points answers him in these words of St. Austin Multùm autem nocet talia quae ad pietatis doctrinam non spectant vel asserere vel negare quasi pertinentia ad Sacram doctrinam Dicit enim Augustinus in 5. Confess Cùm audio Christianum aliquem fratrem ista quae Philosophi de coelo aut stellis de Solis Lunae motibus dixerâ—nt nescientem aliud pro alio sentienâ—em patienter intueor opinantem hominem nec illi obesse video cum de te Domine Creator omnium nostrûm non credat indigna si fortè situs habitus creaturae corporalis ignoret Obest autem si haec ad ipsam dâ—ctrinam pietatis pertinere arbitretur pertinacius affirmare audeat quod ignorat Quod autem obsit manifestat Augustinus in 1. super Genes Ad literam Turpe est inquit nimis perniciosum ac maximê cavendum ut Christianum de his rebus quasi secundum Christianas literas loquentem ita delirare quilibet infidelis audiat ut quemadmodum dicitur toto coelo errare conspiciens risum tenere vix possit Et non tamen molestum est quod errans homo videatur sed quod Authores nostri ab eis qui foris sunt talia sensisse creduntur cum magno eorum exitio de quorum salute satagimus tanquam indocti reprehenduntur atque respuuntur Vnde mihi videtur tutius esse ut hâ—â—c quae Philosophi communes senserunt nostrae fidei non repugnant neque esse sic asserenda ut dogmata fidei licet aliquandò sub nomine Philosophorum introducantur neque sic â—sse neganda tanquam fidei contraria ne sapientibus hujus mundi contemnendi doctrinam fidei occasio praebeatur 'T is a dangerous thing positively to determine concerning matters that are not of Faith as if they were St. Austin is our Author for it in the fifth Book of his Confessions When I see says he a Christian who is un-instructed in the Opinions of Philosophers about the Heavens the Stars and the Motion of the Sun and Moon and who mistakes one thing for another I I leave him to his Opinions and Uncertainties Nor do I see what injury it can do him provided he has right Notions of Thee our LORD and CREATOR to be ignorant of the Site and Position of Bodies and the different Regulations of Material Beings But he does himself wrong in that he fancies these things concern Religion and takes upon him obstinately to affirm what he does not understand The same Holy Man explains his Thoughts more clearly yet in his first Book of the literal Exposition of Genesis in these Words A Christian should be extreamly cautious of speaking of these things as if they were the Doctrine of the Sacred Writings since an Heathen who should hear him utter his Absurdities that had no appearance of Truth would Ridicule him for it Thus the Christian would be put in confusion and the Heathen but ill-edify'd Yet that which on these occasions is matter of greatest trouble is not that a Man is found in an Error but that the Heathens whom we labour to convert falsely and to their unavoidable destruction imagining that our Authors abound with these ridiculous Notions condemn them and spurn them as Ignorant and Unlearned which makes me think it much the safer way not to affirm as the Maxims of Faith the common receiv'd Opinions of Philosophers though not inconsistent with them though the Authority of Philosophers may sometimes be us'd to make way for their reception nor to reject their Opinions as contrary to Faith lest occasion be given to the Wise Men of the World to contemn the Sacred Truths of the Christian Religion The generality of Men are so careless or unreasonable as to make no distinction between the Word of GOD and that of Men when joyn'd together So that they fall into Error by approving them both alike or into Irreligion by the contempt of both indifferently 'T is easie to see what is the Cause of these last Errors and how they depend upon the Connection of Idea's explain'd in the XI Chapter and I need not stand more largely to explain them It seems seasonable to say something here of the Chymists and of all those in general that imploy their time in making Experiments These are the Men that are in Search after Truth Their Opinions are usually embrac'd without Scruple and Examination And thus their Errors are so much the more dangerous as
Communication of the Disorders and Distempers of the Imagination But these Truths deserve to be farther Illustrated by the Examples and known Experience of the World CHAP. II. General Instances of the Strength of Imagination CHILDREN in respect of their Fathers but especially Daughters in regard of their Mothers afford us very frequent Instances of this Communication of the Imagination The same things do Servants in relation to their Masters Maids in respect of their Mistresses Scholars of their Teachers Courtiers of their Kings and generally all Inferiours in respect of their Superiours supposing only that Fathers Masters and the rest of the Superiours have any Strength of Imagination themselves For otherwise 't is possible for Children and Servants to remain untouch'd or very little infected with the languid Imagination of their Fathers and Masters The Effects of this Communication may be likewise observ'd in Equals but that more rarely for want of that submissive Respect among them which qualifies and disposes the Mind for the Reception of the Impressions of strong Imaginations without examining them Last of all they are to be seen in Superiours also with respect to their Inferiours who sometimes are impower'd with so Lively and Authoritative an Imagination as to turn the Minds of their Masters and Superiours which way they please 'T will be easie to conceive how Fathers and Mothers make so very strong Impressions on the Imagination of their Children if it be consider'd that the Natural Dispositions of our Brain whereby we are inclin'd to imitate those we live with and to participate of their Sentiments and Passions are stronger in Children with respect to their Parents than in any others whereof several Reasons may be given The first is their being of the same Blood For as Parents commonly transmit to their Children the Seeds and Dispositions for certain Hereditary Distempers such as the Gout Stone Madness and generally all those that were not of Accidental Acquirement or whose sole and only Cause was not some extraordinary Fermentation of the Humours as Fevers and some others for of such 't is plain there can be no Communication So they imprint the Dispositions of their own Brain on the Brain of their Children and give a certain Turn to their Imagination that makes them wholly susceptible of the same Sentiments The second Reason is the little Acquaintance and Converse Children generally have with other Men who might sometimes stamp different Impresses on their Brain and in some measure interrupt the bent and force of the Paternal Impression For as a Man that was never abroad commonly Fancies that the Manners and Customs of Strangers are quite contrary to Reason because contrary to the usage of his Native Town or Custom of his Country whilst he yields to be carry'd by the current so a Child who was never from his Father's Home imagines his Parents Sentiments and Ways of Living to be Universal Reason or rather thinks there are no other Principles of Reason or Vertue to be had besides the Imitation of them Which makes him believe whatever he hears them say and do whatever he sees them do But this Parental Impression is so strong as not only to influence the Child's Imagination but to have its Effect on the other parts of the Body So that a young Lad shall Walk and Talk and have the same Gestures as his Father And a Girl shall Mimick the Mother in her Gate Discourse and Dress If the Mother Lisps the Daughter must Lisp too if the Mother has any odd fling with her Head the Daughter takes the same In short Children imitate their Parents in every thing even in their Bodily Defects Grimace and Faces as well as their Errors and Vices There are still many other Causes which add to the Effect of this Impression The chief of which are the Authority of the Parents the Dependence of Children and the mutual Love between them But these Causes are as common to Courtiers Servants and in general to all Inferiours as to Children I therefore choose to explain them by the Instance of the Court-Gentlemen There are those who judge by what 's in sight of that which is unapparent of the Greatness Strength and Reach of Wit and Parts which they see not by the Gallantry Honours and Riches which they know and measure the one by the other And that Dependency Men are in to the Great the Desire of partaking of their Greatness and that sensible Lustre that surrounds them makes them ascribe Honours Divine if I may so speak to Mortal Men. For GOD bestows on Princes Authority but Men attribute to them Infallibility Such an Infallibility as has no Boundaries prescrib'd to it on any subject or any occasion nor is confin'd to certain Ceremonies For the Great know all things naturally they are ever in the Right even in the Decision of Questions which they do not understand None attempt to examine their Positions but those who want Experience and the Art of Living and 't is Presumption and want of Respect to doubt of them But 't is no less than Rebellion at least down-right Folly Sottishness 〈◊〉 Madness to condemn them But when we are Honour'd with a Place in the Favour and Esteem of Great Men 't is no longer plain Obstinacy Conceitedness and Rebellion 't is a Crime of a deeper dye Ingratitude and Perfidiousness not to surrender implicitly to their Opinions 'T is such an unpardonable Offence as utterly incapacitates us for any of their future Favours Which is the Reason that Courtiers and by a necessary consequence the generality of the World indeliberately subscribe to the Sentiments of their Sovereign even so far as to Model their Faith by and make the Truths of Religion subservient to his Fantastic Humour and Folly England and Germany furnish us but with too many Instances of the blind and exorbitant Submission of the People to the Wills of their Irreligious Princes wherewith the Histories of the late Times abound And some Men of a considerable Age have been known to have chang'd their Religion four or five times by reason of the diverse changes of their Princes The Kings and even the Queens of England have the Government of all the States of their Kingdoms whether Ecclesiastical or Civil in all Causes 'T is they that are the Approvers of the Liturgies of the Festival Services of the way wherein the Sacraments ought to be Administred and Received They appoint for instance that our LORD shall not be adored in the Eucharist though they oblige to the Receiving it on the Knees according to the Ancient Custom In a word they arbitrarily change the whole Substance of their Liturgies to suit them to the New Articles of their Faith and together with their Parliamâ—nt have equal Right of judging of these Articles as a Pope with a Councel as may be seen in the Statutes of England and Ireland made at the beginning of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth Lastly we may add that the
if he has 't was to very little purpose And so he became a Genteel Pedant or a Pedant of a species entirely new rather than a Rational Judicious and a Worthy Man Montagne's Book contains so evident Proofs of the Vanity and Arrogance of its Author as may make it seem an useless Undertaking to stand to remark them For a Man must needs be very conceited that like him could imagine the World would be at the pains of reading so large a Book meerly to gain some acquaintance with its Author's Humours He must necessarily distinguish himself from the rest of the World and look upon his own Person as the Miracle and Phoenix of Nature All created Beings are under an indispensable obligation of turning off the Minds of such as would adore them towards the only One that deserves their Adoration And Religion teaches us never to suffer the Mind and Heart of Man whom GOD created for himself to be busied about us and to be taken up with loving and admiring us When St. John prostrated himself before the Angel of the LORD the Angel forbad him saying I am thy fellow Servant and of thy Brethren Worship GOD. None but the Devils and such as partake of their Pride are pleas'd with being worshipp'd To require therefore that others should be affected and taken up with our particulars what is it but to desire not only to be worshipp'd with an outward and apparent but also with a real and inward worship 'T is to desire to be worshipp'd even as GOD himself desires it that is in Spirit and in Truth Montagne wrote his Book purely to picture himself and represent his own Humours and Inclinations as he acknowledges himself in the Advertisement to the Reader inserted in all the Editions I give the Picture of my self says he I am my self the Subject of my Book Which is found true enough by those that read him for there are few Chapters wherein he makes not some Digression to talk of himself and there are even some whole Chapters wherein he talks of nothing else But if he wrote his Book meerly to describe Himself he certainly Printed it that his own Character might be read in it He therefore desir'd to be the Subject of the Thoughts and Attention of Men though he says there is no reason a Man should employ his time upon so frivolous and idle a Subject Which words make only for his Commendation For if he thought it unreasonable for Men to spend their time in reading his Book he himself acted against Common Sense in publishing it And so we are oblig'd to believe either that he Thought not what he said or did not what became him But 't is a pleasant Excuse of his Vanity to say he wrote only for his Friends and Relations For if so how chance there were publish'd three Editions Was not one enough for all his Friends and Relations Why did he make Additions to his Book in the last Impressions but no Retractions but that Fortune favour'd his Intentions I add says he but make no Corrections because when once a Man has made his Book of publick right he has in my Opinion no more pretence or title to it Let him say what he can better in another but let him not corrupt the Works already sold. Of such as these 't is folly â—o purchase any thing before they are dead Let them think long before they publish Why are they in such haste My Book is always one and the same He then was willing to publish his Book for and deposite it with the rest of the World as well as to his Friends and Relations But yet his Vanity had never been pardonable if he had only turn'd and fix'd the Mind and Heart of his Friends and Relations on his Picture so long time as is necessary to the reading of his Book If 't is a Fault for a Man to speak often of himself 't is Impudence or rather a kind of Sottishness to praise himself at every turn as Montagne does This being not only to sin against Châ—â—stian Humility but also Right Reason Men are made for a sociable Life and to be form'd into Bodies and Communities But it must be observ'd that every particular that makes a part of a Society would not be thought the meanest part of it And so those who are their own Encomiasts exalting themselves above the rest and looking upon others as the bottom-most parts of their Society and themselves as the Top-most and most Honourable assume an Opinion of themselves that renders them odious instead of indearing them to the Affections and Esteem of the World 'T is then a Vanity and an indiscreet and ridiculous Vanity in Montagne to talk so much to his own Advantage on all occasions But 't is a Vanity still more Extravagant in this Author to transcribe his own Imperfections For if we well observe him we shall find that most of the Faults he discovers of himself are such as are glory'd in by the World by reason of the Corruption of the Age That he freely attributes such to himself as can make him pass for a Bold Wit or give him the Air of a Gentleman and that with intent to be better credited when he speaks in his own Commendation he counterfeits a frank Confession of his Irregularities He has reason to say that The setting too high an Opinion of one's self proceeds often from an equally Arrogant Temper 'T is always an infallible sign that a Man has an Opinion of himself and indeed Montagne seems to me more arrogant and vain in discommending than praising himself it being an insufferable Pride to make his Vices the Motives to his Vanity rather than to his Humiliation I had rather see a Man conceal his Crimes with Shame than publish them with Impudence and in my Mind we ought to have that Vnchristian way of Gallantry in abhorrence wherein Montagne publishes his Defects But let us examine the other Qualities of his Mind If we would believe Montagne on his word he would perswade us that he was a Man of No Retention that his Memory was treacherous and fail'd him in every thing But that in his Judgment there was no defect And yet should we credit the Portraicture he has drawn of his own Mind I mean his Book we should be of a different Opinion I could not says he receive an Order without my Table-book and if I had an Oration to speak that was considerably long-winded I was forc'd to that vile and miserable necessity of learning it word for word by Heart otherwise I had neither Presence nor Assurance for fear my Memory should shew me a slippery trick Does a Man that could learn Memoriter word for word long-winded Discourses to give him some Presence and Assurance fail more in his Memory than his Judgment And can we believe Montagne when he says I am forc'd to call my Domestick Servants by the Names of their Offices or their
we not only can see from one end of the same Point abundance of most large and even immense Objects There is moreover not any Point in all these great Spaces of the World from whence we cannot discover an almost inexhaustible number of Objects and even Objects as big as the Sun the Moon and Heavens There is not then any Point in the great Circumference of the World wherein the Species of all these things ought not to center which is contradictory to all appearance of Truth The second Reason is taken from the Change these Species undergo It is certain the nearer an Object is the greater the Species ought to be since we see the Object greater Now we cannot see what 't is that can lessen this Species and what become of the Parts that compos'd it when it was greater But that which is still more difficult to conceive according to their Notion is how in beholding an Object with Magnifying-glasses or a Microscope the Species grows on a suddain five or six hundred times bigger than it was before for 't is still harder to be seen from what adventitious Parts it can increase so mightily in an instant The third Reason is that in looking on a perfect Cube all the Species of its faces are unequal and yet we fail not to see all its faces equally square And so in beholding in a Picture Ovals and Parallelograms which can only send forth Species of a similar Figure we see notwithstanding Circles and Squares For this makes it manifestly clear that there is no necessity the Object we behold should produce Species like it self in order to our seeing it Lastly it is not conceivable how it is possible for a Body that is not sensibly exhausted to send constantly Species from out of it self on every side how it can continually fill with them so very capacious Spaces all round about and that with an incomprehensible swiftness For an Object that lay hid in the very instant of its Discovery may be seen many millions of Leagues on all sides And what seems much stranger yet is that the Bodies which have a great deal of Action as the Air and some others have not force enough to extrude from them their representative Images which the grossest and least active Bodies can do as Earth Stones and almost all hard Bodies But I shall not spend more time in producing all the Reasons that oppugn this Opinion because that would be an endless work the least Essay of Thought furnishing out an inexhaustible number of them These we have already urg'd are enough and even more than were necessary after what has been said relating to this Subject in the first Book whâ—n we explain'd the Errors of the Senses But there being such a multitude of Philosophers devoted to this Opinion I thought it necessary to say something of it to put them upon reflecting on their own Thoughts CHAP. III. That the Soul has no Power to produce Idea's The Cause of the Error Men are guilty of upon this Subject THE second Opinion is theirs who believe that our Souls have the Power of producing the Idea's of the things they would contemplate and that they are mov'd to the producing them by the impressions Objects make upon the Body though these impressions are not Images representative of the Objects they are caused by They pretend it is in this that Man is made after the Image of GOD and participates of his Power That as GOD has created all things out of nothing and can annihilate them again and thence create others wholly new so Man has the Power of Creating and Annihilating the Idea's of all things as he pleases But there 's very good reason to suspect all these Opinions that elevate Man so high as being Notions which commonly derive from his vain and haughty Heart and which the Father of Lights never vouchsafed to give him This Participation of the Power of GOD which Men boast of having whereby to represent Objects and to do many other particular Actions is a Participation which seems to draw in something of Independency as 't is ordinarily explain'd But 't is likewise a Chimerical Participation which Men's Ignorance and Vanity have caus'd them to imagine For they are under a greater Dependance on the Goodness and Mercy of GOD than they suppose But this is not the place to give an Explication of these things Let us only try to make it visible that Men have not the Power of forming the Idea's of the things they perceive No Man can doubt but that Idea's are real Beings seeing they have real Properties that they differ one from another and that they represent quite different things Nor can it reasonably be doubted but they are of a Spiritual Nature and very different from the Bodies represented by them All which seems strong enough to raise a doubt whether the Idea's by means whereof we perceive Bodies are not of a nobler extract than the Bodies themselves And in earnest the Intelligible World ought to be perfecter than the Material and Terrestrial as we shall see in the process of our Discourse and then in affirming that Men are impower'd to frame all Idea's as they please we incur the danger of maintaining that Men have power of making Beings more noble and more perfect than the World which GOD has created But this reflection never enters our Heads by reason of our imagining an Idea to be nothing because not obvious to the Senses or if we look upon it as a Being 't is a Being so slender and contemptible that we fancy it annihilated as soon as absent from the Mind But though it should be true that Idea's were only little pitiful despicable Beings they are however Beings and Beings Spiritual And Men having not the Power of Creating have not consequently the Power of Producing them For the Production of Idea's in the manner they explain it is a true Creation and though they endeavour to palliate and soften the Presumption and Harshness of this Opinion in saying that the Production of Idea's supposes something antecedent and Creation supposes nothing yet they bring no Reason to solve the Knot of the difficulty For it ought well to be heeded That there is no greater difficulty in producing Something out of Nothing than in producing it by presupposing another thing out of which it could not be made and which could contribute nothing to its Production There is no greater difficulty for instance in the Creation of an Angel than in the Production of an Angel from a Stone Because a Stone being a Being of a quite opposite kind cannot be any ways serviceable to the Production of an Angel But it may contribute to the Production of Bread of Gold c. because Stone Gold and Bread are only the same Extension of a diverse Configuration and all these are Material things Nay it is even harder to produce an Angel out of a Stone than to produce it out
him also to be an Opiniastre and so conclude all Devoutness Wilfulness and Bigottry Nay they think the Vertuous and Good more Opinionated than the Vicious and Wicked Because these latter urging their Corrupt Opinions as they are buoy'd up by the different commotions of their Blood and Passions stay not long in the same Sentiments but desert them Whereas the Religious remain constant and immovable in theirs as being built upon fixed and unshaken Foundations which depend not on any thing so wavering as the Circulation of the Blood See now the reason why the common sort of People judge the Pious and Vertuous as Opinionated as the Vicious Which is That Good Men are as Passionate for Truth and Vertue as Wicked Men for Vice and Falshood Both one and the other talk much after the same Manner in defending their Opinions In this they are alike though they differ in the Main But this is enough for the World that is unable to distinguish their Reasons and acknowledge the Difference to judge them Alike in every thing because they are Alike in that external way whereof every body is a competent Judge The Godly then are not Obstinate and Opinionated they are only Constant as they ought to be But the Vicious and Licentious are ever Opinionated though they continue but an Hour in their Opinion For those are the Opinionated only who defend a False Opinion though they defend it but a little time The case is much the same with some Philosophers who maintain Chimerical Opinions which they afterwards reject They would have others who defend certain Truths the certainty whereof they plainly see to quit them as Naked Opinions as themselves have done those they were impertinently conceited with And because 't is not easie to pay Deference to them to the prejudice of Truth and the Love a Man naturally has for her makes him heartily espouse her they judge this Man an Opiniastre Those Persons would be to blame obstinately to defend their Chimera's but the others are to be commended for maintaining Truth with Strength and Resolution of Mind The Manner of them both is the same but the Sentiments are different And 't is this Difference of Sentiments which makes the one Constant and the other Obstinate and Opiniated The Conclusion of the Three First Books FROM the Beginning of this Treatise I have distinguish'd as it were two Parts in the Simple and Indivisible Essence of the Soul one whereof was purely Passive the other both Active and Passive together The First is the Mind or Vnderstanding the Second is the Will I have attributed to the Mind three Faculties because it receives its Modifications and its Idea's from the Author of Nature three several ways I have called it Sense when it receives from GOD Idea's confounded with Sensations that is Sensible Idea's upon occasion of some Motions happening in the Organs of the Senses by the Presence of Objects I nam'd it Imagination and Memory when it receiv'd from GOD Idea's confounded with Images which make a sort of languid and feeble Sensaâ—ions which the Mind receives only from some Traces produc'd or excited in the Brain by the Course of the Animal Spirits Lastly I call'd it Pure Mind or Pure Intellect when it receives from GOD the All-pure Idea's of Truth without any mixture of Sensations and Images not by the Union it hath with the Body but with that it has with the WORD or WISDOM of GOD not because it exists in the Material and Sensible World but because it subsists in the Immaterial and Intelligible World not for the knowing Mutable things that are fit for the Preservation of Corporeal Life but for piercing into Immutable Truths which conserve in us the Life of the Spirit I have shewn in the First and Second Book That our Senses and Imagination are very useful to the knowing the Relations External Bodies have to our own that all the Idea's the Mind receives by means of the Body are for the Interest of the Body that 't is impossible to discover any Truth whatever with Evidence by the Idea's of the Senses and Imagination that these confus'd Idea's are of use only in uniting us to our Body and by our Body to all sensible things and that lastly if we desir'd to avoid Error we should not credit their Reports I concluded likewise That it was Morally impossible to know by the pure Idea's of the Mind the Relations which Bodies have with our own that we ought not to reason upon these Idea's to know whether an Apple or a Stone are good to eat but the way to know is to try by Tasting And that though we may employ our Intellect for obtaining a confus'd Knowledge of the Relations foreign Bodies have with ours 't is always the surest way to make use of our Senses I give one Instance more since so necessary and essential things cannot be too deeply imprinted on the Mind I have a Mind to examine for Example Whether 't is more advantagious to be Just or Rich. If I open the Eyes of my Body Justice looks like a Chimaera I see no Allurements that it has The Just I see miserable deserted persecuted naked of Defence and destitute of Comfort For He that is their Comforter and Supporter is not apparent to my Eyes In a word I see not what use Justice and Vertue can be put to But if I contemplate Riches with my Eyes open I presently see the Lustre and Splendor of them and am dazl'd Power Greatness Pleasure and all sensible Goods are the Retinue and Attendants of Wealth and I have no room to doubt but a Man must be Rich if he will be happy Again If I employ my Ears I hear how all Men have Riches in Esteem and that their Talk is only about ways of acquiring them and that they are constantly giving Praises Incense and Honour to those that possess them This Sense then and all the rest inform me that I must be Rich before I can be Happy But let me shut my Eyes and stop my Ears and only interrogate my Imagination and it will constantly represent what my Eyes had seen what they had read and what my Ears had heard to the Advantage and Commendation of Riches but it will represent them in a quite other manner than my Senses For the Imagination always augments the Idea's of those things which are related to the Body and are the Objects of our Love If I resign my self to its Conduct it will presently lead me into an Inchanted Palace much what the same with those celebrated by Poets and Romancers in magnificent Descriptions and here I shall be ravish'd in gazing on those Beauties that need not be describ'd which will convince me that the God of Riches that inhabits it is the only capable of making me Happy Lo here what my Body is able to perswade me for it speaks only on its own behalf and 't is necessary to its welfare that the Imagination bow
Consequences to settle the General Rules of our Behaviour though few there are that do it whilst daily Disputes arise about Questions of Morality which are the immediate and necessary Results of so self-evident a Principle as this before us The Geometricians are continually making new Discoveries in their Science and if they do not much advance it 't is because they have already drawn from their Principles the most useful and necessary consequences But the greatest part of Mankind seem incapable of concluding any thing from the First Principle of Morals All their Ideas vanish and dissipate when their Will inclines them barely to consider it Because they will not as they ought and they will not as they ought because they cannot taste it or that having tasted it are presently distasted For 't is an Abstract Metaphysical and purely Intellectual Principle and not attainable by Sense or Imagination And therefore seems to Carnal Eyes or Minds that see no farther than their Eyes to have no solidity Nothing appears in this Principle likely to settle and compose the restless agitation of their Will and thereupon to stop the View of their Mind and fix it attentively on considering it What hope then is there they should see it well comprehend it right and draw those direct Inferences from it which they ought Those who should have but an imperfect apprehension of this Geometrical Proposition That the sides of Similar Triangles are proportional could certainly be no great Geometricians But if besides that confus'd and imperfect Perception of that Fundamental Proposition of Geometry they had some Interest why the sides of Similar Triangles should not be proportional and if False Geometry were as suitable to their perverse Inclinations as False Morals we should see as absurd Paralogisms in Geometry as Morality because their Errours would be pleasant to them and Truth would only trouble perplex and confound them Hence we need not wonder at the Blindness of Men in former Ages who liv'd whilst Idolatry flourish'd in the World or of such as live at present unenlightned with the Sun-shine of the Gospel It was needful for Eternal Wisdom to cloath it self with Sensibility to instruct Men that enquire only of their Senses Four thousand Years together Truth was manifested by speaking to their Mind but not entring into themselves they did not hear it 't was requisite therefore it should speak unto their Ears The Light which enlightens all Men shin'd upon their Darkness without dispersing it and they could not behold it Intelligible Light must veil it self and become Visible The Word must be made Flesh and hidden and inaccessible Wisdom must instruct Men in a Carnal manner Carnaliter says St. Bernard The Generality of Men and especially the Poor who are the worthiest Object of their Creator's Mercy and Providence those who are oblig'd to labor for their Living are extremely ignorant and stupid They hear only because they have Ears and see only because they have Eyes But are incapable of retiring into themselves by any Effort of Reason there to examine Truth in the silence of their Senses and their Passions Truth they cannot apply to because they cannot relish it and commonly that application enters not their Heads because they cannot think of applying themselves to unaffecting Objects Their desultory and restless Will continually casts the View of their Mind upon all sensible Objects the Variety of which is pleasant and diverting For the Multiplicity and Diversity of Sensible Goods serve to conâ—eal their Vanity and to keep up our Hopes of finding among them the True Good which we desire Thus though the Counsels which JESUS CHRIST in quality of Man of the Way and of Author of our Faith gives us in the Gospel are much more proportion'd to the weakness of our Mind than those which the same CHRIST as He is Eternal Wisdom Internal Truth Intellectual Light inspires into our most inward Reason and though He renders these His Counsels delectable by His Grace sensible by His Example and convincing by His Miracles yet Men are so stupid and inconsiderate even as to things of greatest importance to be known that they scarce ever think of them as behooves them Not many perceive the Excellency of the Gospel nor the Soundness and Necessity of the Precepts of our LORD few there are that meditate on them so as to nourish and strengthen the Soul by them The continual tossing and agitation of the Will which looks for the Enjoyment of Good permitting not those Truths to be insisted on which seem to deprive the Soul of it Here follows another proof of what I am asserting Doubtless it much concerns and lies upon the Wicked to know whether their Soul is Mortal as they suppose it or Immortal as Faith and Reason assure as being a thing of geatest moment and importance to them since the Question lays their Eternity at stake and the quiet of their Mind depends on the resolve Whence comes it that they are ignorant or doubtful in the matter but from their want of serious Attention and the Restlesness and Corruptness of their Will not suffering the Mind to take a steady View of the Reasons which contradict the Opinion they wish to be true For in brief is it so difficult to discover the difference between the Body and Soul betwixt a Thinking and an Extended thing Must a Man bring so great an Attention to perceive that a Thought is neither Round nor Square that Extention is capable only of different Figures and Motions but not of Thought and Reasoning and so that what Thinks and what 's Extended are two Beings altogether opposite And yet this is all that 's requisite to demonstrate the Immortality of the Soul and that she is not perishable though the Body should be annihilated True it is when a Substance perishes that the Modes or Manners of its Existence perish with it as were a piece of Wax annihilated it is certain the Figures of that Wax would be annihilated also because the Roundness for instance of the Wax is really nothing but the Wax it self existing in such a manner and so cannot subsist without the Wax whose Mode it is But though God should destroy all the Wax in the World it would not follow from thence that any other Substance or Modes of Substance should be annihilated All Stones for example might subsist together with their Modes Because Stones are Substances or Beings and not Modes of Being of the Wax So though God should annihilate the half of a Body it would not follow that the other half was annihilated The latter half is united to the other but is not one with it And therefore one half being annihilated it might be reasonably inferr'd that the other half was no longer related to it but not that it did it self exist no longer for being a different Being it could not be reduc'd to nothing by the annihilation of the other Thence 't is manifest that Thought
they widely differ from some others who from an Abhorrence of Heresie having join'd the Idea of Novelty with that of Falsity imagine all New Opinions false and including something of dangerous Importance Thence it may be concluded That this customary Disposition of the Mind and Heart of Man in respect of all that bears the Character of Novelty is one of the most general Causes of their Errours It hardly ever conducts them to the Truth but when it does 't is purely by Chance and good Luck and it constantly obviates their Possession of their True Good by engaging them in that Multiplicity of Divertisements and falsly seeming Goods the World is fill'd with which is the most dangerous Errour Man can fall into The Third Rule against the excessive Desires of Novelty is That when we are otherwise assur'd that some Truths lie so deep that 't is morally impossible to discover them and that some Goods are so little and slender that they cannot make us happy the Novelty of them ought not to excite our Curiosity Every one may know by Faith Reason and Experience That all created Goods are notable to fill the infinite Capacity of the Will We are taught by Faith that all worldly things are Vanity and that our Happiness consists neither in Riches nor Honours Reason assures us that since it is not in our Power to bound our Desires and that we are carried by a Natural Inclination to the loving all Goods that we cannot become Happy but by possessing HIM who contains them all Our own Experience makes us sensible that we are not Happy in the Possession of the Goods we enjoy because we are still desirous of others Lastly We daily see that the mighty Goods which Princes and the most Potent Kings enjoy on Earth are incapable of filling their Desires That they have even more Disturbances and Troubles than other Men and that being on the highest Point of Fortune's Wheel they must be infinitely more shaken and agitated by its Motion than those which sit lower and nearer its Axis For in short they never fall but 't is from a Precipice they receive no little Wounds and all that Grandeur which attends them and which they incorporate with their own Being only enlarges and extends them that they may receive a greater Number of Wounds and be more expos'd to the Insults and Blows of Fortune Faith Reason and Experience thus assuring us that earthly Goods and Pleasures which we have never tasted could not make us Happy though we should enjoy them special Care ought to be taken according to the Third Rule to supersede being flatter'd with the vain Hope of Felicity which Hope insensibly increasing proportionably to our Passions and Desires will at last end in a false Confidence and an ill-grounded Assurance For when we are extreamly passionate for any Good we always imagine it excessively great and by degrees persuade our selves we shall be happy in the Enjoyment These vain Desires then must be resisted since to try to satisfie them would be a fruitless Attempt But especially for this Reason that when we give way to our Passions and spend our Time to afford them Satisfaction we lose GOD and all things with him we only run from one seeming Good to another live always in false Hopes distract and agitate our selves a thousand ways and meet with perpetual Oppositions and frustrations because the desired Goods are sought but can't be possess'd by many at once and at last we die and can enjoy nothing more For as we are taught by St. Paul They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition for the love of money is the root of all evil But if we ought not to be sollicitous for the Goods of the Earth which are new to us as being certain that the Happiness we are in search of is not to be found in them much less ought we to desire to know the new Opinions about a vast many difficult Questions as being otherwise convinc'd that an humane Mind can never discover the truth of them Most of the Questions treated of in Morals and Physicks are of that nature which may afford us Reason to suspect the generality of those Books we see daily compos'd upon very obscure and most perplexing Subjects For though absolutely speaking the Questions they contain are solvable yet so few Truths being hitherto discover'd and so many to be known before we can come to those that are handled in these Books they cannot be read without hazarding to lose much by them But yet this is not the Method that is taken but the quite contrary Men examine not whether what is said be possible Promise them only extraordinary things as the Restitution of Natural Heat Radical Moisture Vital Spirits or other Unintelligible Matters and you excite their vain Curiosity and prepossess them 'T is enough to dazle them and win their Assent to offer them Paradoxes to make use of obscure Words Terms of Influence or the Authority of some unknown Authors or to make some very sensible and unusual Experiment though it have no reference to the thing advanc'd For Confusion is Conviction to some sorts of People If a Physician a Chirurgeon or an Empirick quote but some Greek and Latin Sentences and talk to their Hearers in new and extraordinary Terms they take them for Great Men they give them the Prerogative of Life and Death and believe them as they would an Oracle They imagine themselves too that they are elevated to a pitch above the common size and pierce to the bottom of things And if one happen to be so indiscreet as to testifie that five or six insignificative Words that prove nothing will not go down for Reason they think a Man void of Common-sense and that he denies First Principles And indeed these Gentlemen's First Principles are five or six Latin Words of an Author or some Greek Passage if they have greater Abilities It is even necessary for skilful Physicians to talk sometimes in an unknown Tongue to their Patients to purchase Reputation and to make themselves attended to A Physician who can go no farther than Latin may pass well enough in a Country Parish because Latin is Greek and Arabick to the Illiterate But if a Physician cannot at least read Greek â—o learn some Aphorism of Hypocrates he must not expect to pass for a Scholar with the Inhabitants of a City who commonly understand Latin And so the most Learned amongst them knowing this Humour of the World are forc'd to talk like Cheats and Quacks and we are not always to take an Estimate of their Parts and Learning from the Discourse they have in their Visits CHAP. V. I. Of the Second Natural Inclination or of Self-love II. The Division of it into Love of Being and of Well-being or of Greatness and Pleasure THE Second Inclination which the Author of Nature
for whatever affects us engages us because that Inclination dissipates the Sight of the Mind and fixes it conâ—inually on the confus'd Ideas of the Senses and the Imagination and inclines us to judge over-hastily of all things by the bare Relation which they have to us Truth never appears but when we see things as they are in themselves which we never do unless we see them in him who contains them in an intelligible manner When we perceive them within our selves we perceive them at a very lame and imperfect rate or rather we perceive our own Sensations and not the things we desire to perceive and which we falsly think we do To see things as they are in themselves requires much Application because at present we cannot unite to GOD without great Pain and Reluctancy But to see them in our selves requires no Application at all on our part since we are sensible of what touches us whether we will or no. We do not naturally find any Preventing Pleasure in our Union with GOD the pure Ideas of things do not touch and quicken us Therefore the Inclination we have for Pleasure is not a Means to apply and unite us to GOD but on the contrary slackens our Engagements to him and perpetually removes us farther from him carrying us continually to consider things by their Sensible Ideas because these false and impure Ideas are those that affect us Love of Pleasure then and the Actual Enjoyment of it which revives and corroborates this Love throw us continually off Truth to plunge us into Errour Those therefore who would draw near to Truth to be illuminated by its Light must begin by the Privation of Pleasure They must carefully shun whatever sensibly affects and agreeably shares the Mind For the Voice of Truth cannot be heard unless in the Silence of the Senses and the Passions An Aversion to the World and Contempt for all Sensible things being equally necessary to the Perfection of the Mind as to the Conversion of the Heart When our Pleasures are great and our Sensations lively we are incapable of the most simple Truths nor do we agree to common Notions unless of a sensible Make and Character When our Pleasures or other Sensations are moderate we may discover some plain and easie Truths But if it were possible to be absolutely delivered from Pleasures and Sensations we should be able easily to discover the most abstract and difficult Truths that are known For proportionably to our Removing from what is not GOD we approach to GOD himself we avoid Errour and discover Truth But ever since the Fall since the disorderly Love of Preventing Pleasure which domineers and triumphs the Mind is grown so weak that it can pierce into nothing and so materializ'd and dependent on its Senses that it cannot lay hold of things abstract and unaffecting With much ado it perceives common Notions and for want of Advertency frequently concludes them false or obscure It cannot distinguish the Truth of things from their Utility the Relation they have to one another from the Relation they have to it self and often takes those to be most true that are most useful agreeable and moving Finally this Inclination infects and muddies all our Perceptions of Objects and consequently all the Judgements that we make of them Here follows some Examples 'T is a common Notion that Vertue is preferable to Vice that 't is better to be Sober and Chast than Intemperate and Voluptuous But the Inclination for Pleasure so strangely confounds that Idea on certain Occasions that we have but a transient glimpse of it nor can draw those Consequences from it that are necessary to the Management of Life The Soul is violently bent upon the Pleasures she hopes for that she supposes them innocent and seeks only for the Means of enjoying them Every body well knows that 't is more eligible to be Just than Rich That Justice exalts a Man more than the Possession of the most magnificent Buildings which often serve more to manifest the Greatness of the Injustices and Crimes of the Possessor than his own Grandeur But the Pleasure that wretched Men receive in the vain Ostentation of their false Grandeur sufficiently fills up the narrow Capacity of their Mind to conceal and obscure so evident a Truth from them They absurdly imagine they are Great Men because they have Great Houses Special Algebra or Analyticks is certainly the finest I mean the most fruitful and most certain of all Sciences Without it the Mind has neither Penetration nor Extent and with it it is capable of knowing almost whatever is possible to be certainly and evidently known As imperfect as this Science has been it has made Famous all that have been skill'd in 't and knew how to employ it having by it discover'd Truths that seem'd incomprehensible to other Men. It is so well proportion'd to an Humane Mind that without dividing its Capacity with things useless to the Question it infallibly conducts it to its Point In a word it is an Universal Science and as it were the Key of all other Yet as valuable as it is in it self it has no Charms nor Lustre to captivate Men for this Reason only that it is not of a Sensible Nature It has been buried in Oblivion for many Ages and there are still very many that know not so much as the Name and scarce one in a thousand to be found that understands any thing of it The most Learned who have reviv'd it in our Days have not yet carried it very far nor handled it with that Order and Perspicuity it deserves Being Men no less than others they have grown at length disgusted with these pure Truths whilst unaccompanied with Sensible Pleasure and the Uneasiness of their Will debauch'd by Sin the Levity of their Mind which depends on the Motion and Circulation of the Blood have with-held them from feeding and growing upon those great those vast and second Truths which are the Immutable and Universal Rules of all transitory and particular Truths possible to be exactly known Metaphysick likewise is an Abstract Science which flatters not the Senses nor does the Soul receive any Pleasure in the Study of it and for the same Reason it is so miserably neglected that 't is usual to find Persons stupid enough confidently to deny Common Notions There are those who stick not to deny that we may or ought to affirm of a thing what is included in the clear and distinct Idea we have of it That Nothing has no Properties That a thing cannot be annihilated without a Miracle That a Body cannot move by any Force of its own That a Body in Motion cannot communicate to occurrent Bodies more Motion than it has it self and other things of the same kind They have never consider'd these Axioms with a View steady and distinct enough to see clearly the Truth of them and they have sometimes try'd Experiments which have abusively convinc'd them that
have nothing to say to his Tenth Chapter but that what he comments on seems too clear to stand in need of his Reflexions and that I think it cannot reasonably be doubted there is a City in Italy call'd Rome though it cannot be mathematically demonstrated In the eleventh Chapter the Author does not observe that I have referred to some Books of St. Austin and the Meditations of Mr. des Cartes to prove a thing which yet is sufficiently receiv'd and which he pretends I had no right to suppose He ought to know my Design was not to establish a System and to remember that all I vigorously demand is to enter into some diffidence of our Senses as I have caution'd in the last Chapter concerning the Errours of the Senses In answer to the Consequences he infers in his Twelfth Chapter against an Example alleadg'd by me and which he will have to pass for an Head of my Method we need but say that Men ought to reason only upon their clear and distinct Ideas whithout being sollicitous about what they cannot reach and that 't is not necessary to know whether there are actually Bodies without us to conclude many Physical Truths I have no more to say to his Thirteenth Chapter but that I wish a Man would attentively read what I have said concerning the manner of our knowing the Soul in the Seventh Chapter of the Second Part of the Third Book and the Chapter following where I speak of the Essence of Matter Last of all to do justice to the Reasonings of the last Chapter it suffices to know distinctly my manner of explaining how we see external Objects This is all I thought necessary to answer to the Animadverter as being persuaded that those who thoroughly conceive my Notion will have no need of an Illustration upon the pretended Difficulties he urges to me and others who have not read nor comprehended the things I treat of in the Book he opposes would not understand the largest Answers I could give them 'T is sufficiently manifest from the three first Chapters of the Animadversions which I have refuted more at large what we are to think of the other which I have answerd in a word or two Those who have Time and Inclination may examine them more exactly but for my own part I should think I wasted both my own time and that of others if I should stay to collect all the Paralogisms which are scatter'd through his Book to acquaint those persons with them who doubtless have little or no desire to know them The Reason and Judgment of worthy Men cannot suffer those long-winded Discourses which tend to no good but onely shew the Spleen and ill Humour of their Authors and 't is a ridiculous thing to imagine that others interess themselves in our Quarrels and to call them to be Witnesses of the weakness and vain efforts of our Adversary He that attacks me has no reason to find fault with my manner of Defence for if I answer not all his Animadversions in an ample way 't is not because I despise him He may conclude that I should not have warded off the Blows he design'd me if I did not think him able to hurt me and I think I have more reason to complain of the negligence of his Animadverting than he has to be angry at my manner of answering him Had our Author zealously buckled to engage me I am persuaded he had found me Exercise for I judge not of the Strength of his Parts by a venturous Sally of his Pen which he seems only to make by way of Pastime Thus the negligence he manifests is to my advantage and for my part I complain not of his remisness as being unworthy his Application and his Anger All that I am sorry for is that he speaks not seriously of serious things that he sports with Truth and wants some of that Respect which is due to the Publick when he trys to over-wit it several different ways as this Answer in part has manifested If I have been oblig'd to speak of him as I have done on some occasions he must thank no body but himself for I have suppress'd for fear of displeasing him many Expressions and Thoughts which his manner of acting breeds naturally in the Mind I have so great an Aversion to all useless Conâ—ests and that are prejudicial to Charity that I will never answer those who oppose me without understanding me or whose Discourses give me some reason to believe they have some other motive than the Love of Truth As for others I shall endeavour to satisfie them I see plainly that if I were oblig'd to answer all that have the good Will of assaulting me I should scarce ever enjoy the repose I desire But as there is no Law in France which hinders them from speaking so there is none which forbids me to be silent It may be whilst I am silent my Insulters may find themselves ill treated by some invisible hand for I cannot help it if the Love of Truth provokes some Wits who might do it with better Grace to defend a Work in which they had no part But I wish this promise I make and freely without any constraint may be remembred and that those Writings may not be imputed to me which I might make but which I declare I never will Mean-time I think that those that have nothing solid to oppose to me had much better say nothing than fatigue the World with Writings which break Charity and are useless to the discovery of Truth ANSWER a 'T IS because this is more certain than any thing else and that there is nothing certain if this be not For if Two times Two are necessarily equal to Four if a Whole be necessarily bigger than its Part there are necessary Truths I know not for what reason the Animadverter would have me think of proving what cannot be prov'd unless by something more obscure and difficult This is not to Philosophize after the manner of the ancient Academy b This is curious and far fetch'd All the first Philosophers except Parmenides have denied there were necessary and contingent Truths What wonder is it 'T is a fine thing this Erudition certainly Meditation can never teach us what we learn from the reading the Ancients though we understand them but by halves But 't is visible that our Author understands the old Philosophers no better than the new c I say indeed that ought to make a Question apart but he will let it have no part d The demand is pleasant but the Author would not have made it if he had but read the Third Book of the Search after Truth since I have there clearly given my Thoughts upon these things But it seems our Author takes Truths for certain little Beings which are born and die every Moment e There are two sorts of immutable Truths Some are immutable of themselves or by their Nature as that twice Two are Four and others
intreat those who interess themselves in the difference of others not to believe me on my bare word nor easily to imagine I am in the right I think I have Liberty to demand of them that they will carefully examine the Answers I have made to the Animadversions in that Preface and the Argumentations of the Animadverter in reference to the Book oppos'd so I think I may without offence to the Author of this Answer require of those who would judge of it not to imagine he has reason on his side upon a slight and transient reading of his Book I desire them not to judge of any of his Answers before having examined it with reference to this Preface and the preceeding Books Take here for an instance the first of his Answers which begins thus Vpon what the Author of the Search pretends the Animadverter imposes on him touching his Design 'T is not imposing on him to make his Book pass for a Collection of Observations thought by him useful to the discovery of Truth 'T is plain I have positively declared that I look upon his Book as a Collection of many Remarks c. If the Author had consider'd these words he would not have accus'd me of imposing on him for he could not deny but he had a Design of offering something serviceable to the discovery of Truth which is all that I attributed to him And lower Wherein I even prove that that is not to be imputed to him which he affirms I impose upon him Lastly he concludes this Article with these words 'T is therefore evident the Author of the Search cannot prove I impose on him unless he will maintain he had a Design of writing a Book altogether useless to the Search of Truth These Words might possibly make a Man imagine I had without Reason accus'd the Animadverter of imposing on me in the Design of the Search but whoever would but confront what he here says with the foregoing Preface or with what he has said himself pag. 9 10. of his Animadversions would I hope be of another mind That I may not give the trouble of turning to it these are my words Nevertheless as he is pleas'd to make me undertake a Design I do not execute that he may have the more to charge upon my Conduct so he goes to prove it was my Design to lay down a Method in that Book I do him no injury says he in looking on his Book as a Method to lay the Foundation of the Sciences For besides that the Title expresses so much he declares himself upon the Point in the following manner Let us examine the Causes and Nature of our Errours and since the Method of examining things by considering them in their Birth and Origin is the most regular and perspicuous and serves better than others to give us a thorough knowledge of them let us try to put it here in practice Methinks these words I do him no injury says he c. which I cite out of the Animadversions are clear enough and that a Man need but understand English to see that the Animadverter imposes on me a Design of giving a Method and pretends too to prove it by the Title of the Search as also by a passage of the same Book and yet he boldly concludes this Article with these words 'T is therefore evident the Author of the Search cannot prove I impose on him c. But what he has positively declar'd he look'd upon the Search after Truth as a Collection of many Observations I cannot deny says he but he had a Design of offering something useful to the discovery of Truth which is ALL mark that word I attribute to him Since he has a mind to be diverted see my Answer A Painter has drawn a Polyphemus and standing behind his Piece hears some Critick say Look here Gentlemen the Artist design'd to paint an Hercules but if you mind it it is a Polyphemus The Painter out of patience starts from behind the Scene and gives the Spectators to undrestand he had no Design of representing an Hercules and that he imposes on him The Critick surpriz'd addresses the Painter Sir why so angry what did you design to represent Polyphemus returns the Painter Strange Sir replies the Critick why do you say I impose on you I call these Gentlemen to witness that ALL that I said was you had drawn a Polyphemus upon which the Painter withdraws contented and says no more I think my self therefore obliged to rest silent upon such like Answers I have shewn by the Animadverter's own words that he imposes on me a Design of giving a Method in the first Book of the Search and that he likewise pretends to prove it I have cited the place of the Animadversions from whence I have taken my proof Nevertheless this Author affirms he does not impose on me that 't is evident I cannot prove it that he proves quite contrary that what I say he imposes on me is not to be imputed to me that ALL he atributes to me is a Design of offering something useful to the discovery of Truth In a word that he has positively declared he look'd on the Search as a Collection of many Observations as if from his regarding the Search as a Collection it were to be concluded I had no other Design I say no more then but hope this Example may keep Men from judging without examining I have taken the three first Pages of his Book and have not given my self the liberty of chusing which ought to be consider'd yet I intend not this for an Answer remembring the obligation I have laid on my self at the end of the preceding Preface and I had rather those who think I have not satisfied the Animadversions because I have answer'd but three Chapters at length should say this Book whereof I answer but three Pages remains without Reply than weary the World with Answers which tend only to the justifyng other Replies F. MALEBRANCHE's TREATISE Concerning the SEARCH after TRUTH TOME II. BOOK V. CHAP. I. Of the Nature and Original of Passions in general THE Mind of Man has two essential or necessary Relations extreamly different the one to God and the other to its Body As mere Mind it is essentially united to the Divine Word the Eternal Wisdom and Truth since it is only by that Union that 't is capable of thinking as is proved in the Third Book As a humane Mind it has an essential Relation to its Body since it is by Virtue of that Union that it imagines and perceives by its Senses as is explained in the First and Second Book We call the Mind Sense or Imagination when the Body is the natural or occasional Cause of its Thoughts and we call it Understanding when it acts by it self or rather when God acts in it or his Light illuminates it several different ways without a necessary Relation to what is done in the Body It 's even so with
the Christians is quite different from that they deny not but Pain is an Evil and that it is hard to be separated from those things to which Nature has united us or to rid our selves from the Slavery Sin has reduc'd us to They agree that it is a Disorder that the Soul shall depend upon her Body but they own withall that she depends upon it and even so much that she cannot free her self from that Subjection but by the Grace of our Lord. I see saith St. Paul another Law in my Members warring against the Law of my Mind and bringing me into Captivity to the Law of Sin which is in my Members O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death the Grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord shall do it The Son of God his Apostles and all his true Disciples command us above all to be Patient because they know that Misâ—ry must be the Expectâ—tion and Portion of the Righteous In short true Christians or true Philosophers say nothing but what is agreeable to sound Reason and Experience whereas all Nature continually impugns the proud Opinion and presumption of the Stoicks The Christians know that to free themselves in some manner from the Subjection they are under they must endeavour to deprive themselves of all those things that they cannot enjoy without Pleasure nor want without Pain it being the only means to preserve that Peace and Liberty of Mind which they owe to their Deliverer's Beneficence On the contrary the Stoicks following the false Notions of their Chimerical Philophy imagine that they are wise and happy and that they need but think upon Vertue and Independency to become Vertuous and Independent Sound Reason and Experience assure us that the best way not to feel the smart of stinging is to shun the Nettle but the Stoicks say Sting me never so much I shall by the strength of my Mind and the help of my Philosophy raise my self so high above my Body that all your pricking shall not reach me I can demonstrate that my Happiness depends not upon it and that Pain is not an Evil and you shall see by the Colour of my Face and by the whole deportment of my Body that my Philosophy has made me invulnerable Their Pride bears up their Courage however it hinders not but that they should suffer Pain with Vexation and be really miserable so that their Union with their Body is not destroyed nor their Pain vanished but all this proceeds from their Union with other Men strengthened by the desire of their Esteem which in some manner withstands the Union of their Soul with their Body The sensible view of the Spectators to whom they are united stops the Course of the Animal Spirits that should follow upon the pain and blots out the Impression they would make upon their Face for was there no body to look on them that Phantasm of Constancy and Liberty of Mind would presently vanish So that the Stoicks do only in some degree withstand the Union of their Soul to their Body by making themselves greater Slaves to other Men to whom they are united by a drift of Glory And 't is therefore an undoubted truth that all Men are united to all sensible things both by Nature and their Concupiscence which may sufficiently be known by Experience and of which all the Actions of Mankind are sensible demonstrations though Reason seems to oppose it Though this Union be common to all Men 't is not however of an equal Extent and Strength in all for as it proceeds from the Knowledge of the Mind so it may be said that we are not actually united to unknown Objects A Clown in his Cottage does not concern himself with the Glory of his Prince and Country but only with the honour of his own and the Neighbouring Villages because his Knowledge does not extend farther The Union with such Objects as we have seen is stronger than the Union to those we have only imagin'd or heard relation of because by Sensation we are more strictly united to sensible things as leaving deeper Impressions in our Brain and moving the animal Spirits in a more violent manner than when they are only imagin'd Neither is that Union so strong in those that continually oppose it that they may adhere to the Goods of the Mind as it is in those who suffer themselves to be carried away and inslav'd by their Passions since Concupiscence increases and strengthens that Union Last of all the several Employments and States of this Life together with the various dispositions of divers Persons cause a considerable difference in that sensible Union which Men have with Earthly Goods Great Lords have greater Dependencies than other Men and their Chains as I may call them are longer The General of an Army depends on all his Souldiers because all his Souldiers reverence him This Slavery is often the Cause of his Valour and the desire of being esteem'd by those that are Witnesses of his Actions often drives him to Sacrifice to it more sensible and rational desires The same may be said of all Superiours and those that make a great Figure in the World Vanity being many times the Spur of their Vertue because the love of Glory is ordinarily stronger than the love of Truth I speak here of the love of Glory not as a simple Inclination but a Passion since that love may become sensible and is often attended with very lively and violent Commotions of the Animal Spirits Again the different Ages and Sexes are primary Causes of the difference of Passions Children love not the same things as adult and old Men or at least love them not with that Force and Constancy Women depend only on their Family and Neighbourhood but the dependencies of Men extend to their whole Country because 't is their part to defend it and that they are mightily taken up with those great Offices Honours and Commands that the State may bestow upon them There is such a variety in the Employments and Engagements of Men that it is impossible to explain them all The disposition of Mind in a Married Man is altogether different from that of a single Person for the former is in a manner wholly taken up with the care of his Family A Fryar has a Soul of another make and depends upon fewer things than the Men of the World and even than Secular Ecclesiasticks but he is stronger fastned to those few things One may argue in the same manner concerning the different States of Men in general but the little sensible engagements cannot be explain'd because they differ almost in every private Person it often hapning that men have particular Engagements altogether opposite to those that they ought to have in reference to their condition But though the different Genius and Inclinations of Men Women Old Men Young Men Rich Poor Learned and Ignorant in short of all the different Sexes Ages and
Motions unless it be for the Preservation of Life that sensible Pleasure bears the like Proportion to Good as Sensations to Truth and that as our Senses deceive us in Matters of Truth so do likewise our Passions in point of our Good that we ought to yield to the Delectation of Grace because it evidently moves us to the Love of a true Good is not followed with the secret Reproaches of Reason as the blind Instinct and confused Pleasure of the Passions but is always attended with a secret Joy suitable to the good State we are in Last of all since God alone can operate upon the Mind of Man he cannot find any Happiness out of God unless we would suppose that God rewards Disobedience or that he commands to love more what less deserves to be loved CHAP. V. That the Perfection of the Mind consists in its Vnion with God by the Knowledge of Truth and the Love of Vertue and contrariwise that its Imperâ—ection proceeds only from its Dependency on the Body caused by the Disorder of the Senses and Passions THE shortest Reflection is sufficient to let us know that the Good of the Mind must needs be something of a Spiritual Nature for our Bodies are much inferiour to our Mind they are unable to act upon it by their own strength they cannot immediately unite themselves to it lastly â—hey are not intelligible of themselves and therefore cannot be its Good whereas Spiritual things being intelligible of their own Nature can be united to the Mind and consequently be its Good provided they be Superiour to it For that a thing may be the Good of the Mind it must not only be Spiritual as it self but it must also be Superiour to it that it may act upon it enlighten it and reward it since otherwise it cannot make it perfecter and happier nor by consequence be its Good Now of all Intelligible or Spiritual things God alone is thus Superiour to the Mind whence it follows That nothing but God alone either is or can be our true Good and that we cannot become either more happy or more perfect but by enjoying him Every one is persuaded that the Knowledge of Truth and the Love of Vertue make the Mind moâ—e perfect and that the Blindness of the Mind and the Depravation of the Heart lessens its natural Perfection The Knowledge of Truth and the Love of Vertue cannot then be any thing else but the Union of the Mind to God or if I may so speak a Possession of him and on the conâ—rary the Blindness of the Mind and the Depravation of the Heart can be nothing else but a separation of the Mind from God and its Union with something Inferiour to it viz. with the â—â—dy since that is the only Union that can make it imperfect and unhappy And therefore to know the Truth or to know things as far as they are agreeable to the Rules of Truth is really to know God And to love Vertue or to love things as far as they are amiable or according to the Rules of Vertue is to love him The Mind is situate as it were betwixt God and Bodies betwixt Good and Evil between that wâ—iâ—h enlightens and that which blinds it that which rules and that which misrules it that which can make it perfect and happy and that which can render it imperfect and miserable When it discovers some Truth or sees things as they are in their own Nature it sees them in the Ideas of God that is discovers them by a clear and distinct view of what is in God representing them For as I have observed elsewhere the Mind of Man contains not in it self the Perfections or Ideas oâ— all the Beings it is capable of perceiving 't is not the universal Being and therefore cannot see iâ— it self such things as are distinguish'd from it self It does not instruct or enlighten it self by consulting with it self as being neither Perfection nor Light to it self it stands in need to be enlightned by the immense Light of Eternal Truth Thus the Mind by knowing Truth is united to God and in some manner knows and possesses him We may not only say That a Mind perceiving the Truth partly knows God who comprehends it we may add also That in some sort it knows things as God himself knows them For the Mind knows their true Relations and so does God the Mind sees them in viewing the Perfections of God that represent them God perceives them the same way for God neither perceives by Sense nor Imagination but sees in himself as being the Intellectual World the Corporeal and Sensible World which he has created 'T is the same with the Mind in its Knowledge of Truth it comes not to it by Sensation or Imagination for Sensations and Pantasms offer but false Representations of things to the Mind so that whosoever discovers the Truth sees it in the Intellectual World to which 't is united and in which Good sees it for this material and sensible World is not intelligible of it self so that the Mind sees in the Light of God as does God himself all the things which it plainly sees though it sees them very imperfectly and so very differently from God in that respect Thus when the Mind sees Truth it not only is united to God possesses and beholds God but also sees Truth in one sense as God himself sees it So when we love according to the Rules of Vertue we love God for by regulating our Love according to these Rules the Impression of Love towards him which he continually produces in our Heart is not turn'd off by free Will nor chang'd into Self-Love The Mind at that time freely follows the Impression which God gives and God never giving any Impression which does not tend towards him since he only acts for himself it is plain That to love according to the Rules of Vertue is to love God But 't is not only to love God 't is likewise to love as God loves He loves himself only and his Works but because they relate to his Perfections and proportionably to the degrees of Conformity they have with them It being the same Love by which God loves himself and whatever he has made or done To love according to the Rules of Vertue is to love God only to love him in all things and to love things proportionably as they partake of his Goodness and Perfections since this is to love them according to the degree they are lovely In short 't is to love by the Impression of the same Love by which God loves himself for 't is the Love by which God loves himself and whatever else with relation to him that animates us when we love as we ought whence I conclude That we then love as God loves It is therefore evident That the Knowledge of Truth and the regular Love of Vertue constitute all our Perfection since they are the costomary Attendants on our Union with God which also
is not strange that our Sensations should agitate us and quicken our love for sensible things whereas our Light dissipates and vanishes without producing any zeal and ardency for Truth 'T is true that several Men are persuaded that God is their real Good love him as their All and earnestly desire to strengthen and increase their Union with him But few evidently know that by meditating on the Truth we unite our selves to God as far as natural strength can attain that it is a sort of Enjoyment of him to contemplate the true Ideas of things and that that abstracted view of some general and immutable Truths on which all the particulars depend are flights of a Mind that sequesters it self from the Body to unite it self to God Metaphysicks speculative Mathematicks and all those universal Sciences which regulate and contain the particular as the Universal Being comprehends all particular Beings seem to be Chimerical to most Men as well to the pious as to those that do not love God So that I dare hardly make bold to say that the study of those Sciences is the most pure and perfect Application to God that the Mind may be naturally capable of and that it is by the sight of the Intellectual World which is their Object that God has produced and still knows this sensible World from which Bodies receive their Life as Spirits live from the other Those that purely follow the Impressions of their Senses and motions of their Passions are not capable of relishing the Truth because it flatters them not And even the Vertuous who constantly oppose their Passions when they proffer them false Goods do not always resist them when they conceal from them the Truth and make it despicable because one may be pious without being a Man of parts To please God we need not exactly know that our Senses Imagination and Passions always represent things otherwise than they are since it appears not that our Lord and his Apostles ever intended to undeceive us of several Errours upon this matter which Descartes has discover'd to us There is a great difference betwixt Faith and Understanding the Gospel and Philosophy the greatest Clowns are capable of Faith but few can attain to the pure Knowledge of Evident Truth Faith represents to vulgar Men God as the Creator of Heaven and Earth which is a sufficient motive of Love and Duty towards him whereas Reason knowing that God was God before he was Creator not only considers him in his Works but also endeavours to contemplate him in himself or in that immense Idea of the infinitely perfect Being which is included in him The Son of God who is the Wisdom of his Father or the Eternal Truth made himself Man and became sensible that he might be known by Men of Flesh and Blood by gross material Men that he might instruct them by that which was the Cause of their Blindness and draw them to the love of him and disengage them from sensible goods by the same things that had enslav'd them for having to doe with Fools he thought fit to take upon him a sort of Folly whereby to make them wise So that the most pious Men and truest Believers have not always the greatest Understanding They may know God by Faith and love him by the help of his Grace without understanding that he is their All in the sense Philosophers understand him and without thinking that the abstracted Knowledge of Truth is a sort of a Union with him We ought not therefore to be surprized if so few Persons labour to strengthen their natural Union with God by the Knowledge of Truth since to this there is required a continual opposition of the Impressions of the Senses and Passions in a very different way from that which is usual with the Vertuous who are not always persuaded that the Senses and Passions abuse them in the manner that has been explain'd in the foregoing Books The Sensations and Thoughts in which the Body has a share are the sole and immediate Cause of the Passions as proceeding from the Concussion of the Fibres of the Brain raising some particular Commotion in the Animal Spirits And therefore Sensations are the only sensible proofs of our dependence on some things which they excite us to love but we feel not our Natural Union with God when we know the Truth and do not so much as think upon him because he is and operates in us so privately and insensibly as to be imperceptible to our selves And this is the Reason that our natural Union with God raises not our Love for him But it goes quite otherwise with our Union to sensible things All our Sensations prove it and Bodies appear before our Eyes when they act in us Their Action is visible and manifest Our Body is even more present to us than our Mind and we consider the former as the best part of our Selves So that our Union to our Body and by it to sensible Objects excites in us a violent Love which increases that Union and makes us depend on things that are infinitely below us CHAP. VI. Of the more general Errours of the Passions with some particular Instances 'T IS the part of Moral Philosophy to discover the particular Errours concerning Good in which our Passions engage us to oppose irregular affections to restore the Integrity of the Heart and to rule the Course of our Life But here we chiefly aim at giving Rules to the Mind and finding out the Causes of our Errours in reference to Truth so that we shall not proceed farther in those Matters that relate to the Love of true Good We are tending to the Instruction of the Mind and only take the Heart in the way in as much as the Heart is its Master We search into Truth it self without a special Respect to our selves and we consider its Relation with us only because that Relation is the Spring of Self-love's disguising and concealing it from us for we judge of all things by our Passions whence it is that we mistake in all things the Judgments of Passions never agreeing with the Judgments of Truth 'T is what we learn in these excellent Words of St. Bernard Neither Love nor Hatred know how to make a Judgment according to Truth Will you hear a true Judgment As I hear I judge says our Lord he says not as I hate as I love or as I fear Here you have a Judgment of Hatred We have a Law say the Jews and by that Law he ought to die Here a Judgment of Fear If we let him alone say the Pharisees the Romans shall come and take away our Place and Nation Here another of Love as that of David speaking of his Parricide Son Spare the young Man Absalom Our Love Hatred and Fear cause us to make false Judgments only Nothing but the pure Light of Truth can illuminate our Mind nothing but the distinct Voice of our common Master can cause us to make
great and solid Truth which they have rendred familiar and which bears 'em up and strengthens them in all Occasions CHAP. IX Of Love and Aversion and their principal Species LOve and Hatred are the Passions that immediately succeed Admiration for we dwell not long upon the Consideration of an Object without discovering the Relations it hath to us or to something we love The Object we love and to which consequently we are united by that Passion being for the most part present as well as that which we actually admire our Mind quickly and without any considerable Reflection makes the necessary Comparisons to find out the Relations they have to each other and to us or else is naturally aware of them by a preventing Sense of Pleasure and Pain Then it is that the Motion of Love we have for our selves and for the beloved Object extends to that which is admired if the Relation it has immediately to us or to something united to us appear advantageous either by Knowledge or Sensation Now that new Motion of the Soul or rather that Motion of the Soul newly determin'd join'd to that of the Animal Spirits and followed with the Sensation that attends the new Disposition that the same new Motion of the Spirits produces in the Brain is the Passion we call here Love But when we feel by any Pain or discover by a clear and evident Knowledge that the Union or Relation of the admired Object would prove disserviceable to us or to something united to us then the Motion of the Love we have for our selves or for the Thing united to us terminates in us or cleaves to the united Object without following the View of the Mind or being carried to the admired Thing But as the Motion towards Good in general which the Author of Nature continually imprints on the Soul carries her to whatever is known and felt because what is either intelligible or sensible is Good in it self so it may be said that the Resistance of the Soul against that natural Motion which attracts it is a kind of voluntary Motion which terminates in Nothingness Now that voluntary Motion of the Soul being join'd to that of the Spirits and Blood and followed by the Sensation that attends the new Disposition which that Motion of the Spirits produces in the Brain is the Passion we call here Aversion or Hatred That Passion is altogether contrary to Love and yet 't is never without Love It is altogether contrary to it because Aversion separates and Love unites the former has most commonly Nothingness for its Object and the latter has always a Being The former resists the natural Motion and makes it of no effect whereas the latter yields to it and makes it victorious However Aversion is never separated from Love because Evil the Object of the former is the Privation of Good so that to fly from Evil is to fly from the Privation of Good that is to say to tend to Good And therefore the Aversion of the Privation of Good is the Love of Good But if Evil be taken for Pain the Aversion of Pain is not the Aversion of the Privation of Pleasure because Pain is as real a Sensation as Pleasure and therefore is not the Privation of it But the Aversion of Pain being the Aversion of some internal Misery we should not be affected with that Passion should we not love our selves Lastly If Evil be taken for what causes Pain in us or for whatever deprives us of Good then Aversion depends on Self-love or on the Love of something to which we desire to be united So that Love and Aversion are two Mother-Passions opposite to each other but Love is the First the Chief and the most Universal As at that great Distance and Estrangement we are from God since the Fall we look upon our Being as the Chief Part of the Things to which we are united so it may be said in some sense that our Motion of Love for any thing whatsoever is an Effect of Self-love We love Honours because they raise us our Riches because they maintain and preserve us our Relations Prince and Country because we are concern'd in their Preservation Our Motion of Self-love reaches to all the Things that relate to us and to which we are united because 't is that Motion which unites us to them and spreads our Being if I may so speak on those that surround us proportionably as we discover by Reason or by Sensation that it is our Interest to be united to them And therefore we ought not to think that since the Fall Self-Love is only the Cause and Rule of all other Affections but that most part of other Affections are Species of Self-love For when we say that a Man loves any new Object we must not suppose that a new Motion of Love is produc'd in him but rather that knowing that Object to have some Relation or Union with him he loves himself in that Object and that with a Motion of Love coeval to himself For indeed without Grace there is nothing but Self-love in the Heart of Man The Love of Truth of Justice of God himself and every other Love that is in us by the first Institution of Nature have ever since the Fall been a Sacrifice to Self-love There is no doubt however but the most wicked and barbarous Men Idolaters and Atheists themselves are united to God by a natural Love of which consequently Self-love is not the Cause for they are united to him by their Love to Truth Justice and Vertue they praise and esteem good Men and do not love them because they are Men but because they see in them such Qualities as they cannot forbear to love because they cannot forbear to admire and judge them amiable And therefore we love something besides our selves but Self-love over-rules all the rest and Men forsake Truth and Justice for the smallest Concerns For when by their natural Force they venture their Goods and Lives to defend oppress'd Innocence or on any other Occasion their greatest Spur is mere Vanity and the hopes of getting a Name by the seeming Possession of a Vertue which is reverenc'd by all the World They love Truth and Justice when on their side but never against themselves because without Grace they cannot obtain the least Victory over Self-love There are many other sorts of natural Love We naturally love our Prince Country Relations those that have any Conformity of Humour Designs and Employments with us But all those sorts of Love are very weak as well as the Love of Truth and Justice and Self-love being the most violent of all conquers them so easily as to find no other Resistance but what it creates against it self Bodies that strike against others lose their Motion proportionably as they communicate it to the stricken and after having moved many other Bodies may at last entirely lose their own Motion It is not so with Self-love It determines every
engages us to apply our selves to Subjects that are very disgusting First because that Passion is very dangerous to the Conscience Secondly because it insensibly draws us into ill Studies that have more Lustre than Use or Truth in them and Lastly because it is very difficult to moderate it and that we often become its Fool and Property and instead of enlightning the Mind we only strengthen the Concupiscence of Pride which both corrupts our Moral Powers and darkens our Understanding with an undissolvable Obscurity For it must be consider'd how That Passion insensibly increases settles and fortifies it self in the Heart of Man and when it is too violent instead of helping the Mind in the Search of Truth it strangely blinds it and even persuades it that Things are just as it desires they should be Sure it is there would not be so many false Inventions nor imaginary Discoveries were not Men's Heads giddy'd by the ardent Desire of appearing Inventors For the firm and obstinate Persuasion wherein several Persons have been to have found for Instance the Perpetual Motion the Quadrature of the Circle the Duplication of the Cube by ordinary Geometry in all likelihood proceeded from an extraordinary Desire of seeming to have perform'd what others have vainly attempted And therefore 't is fitter to excite in us such Passions as are so much more useful to our searching out of Truth as they are more strong and wherein the Excess is not to be fear'd Such are the Desires of making a good Use of our Mind of freeing our selves from Prejudices and Errours of getting a sufficient Light to behave our selves in our Condition and such others as neither engage us into fruitless Studies nor carry us on to rash and inconsiderate Judgments When we have begun to taste the pleasure of making use of our Mind to be sensible of the Profit that arises from it have freed our selves of violent Passions and have disrelish'd sensible Pleasures which always prove the Masters of or rather the Tyrants over Reason in those that indiscreetly give up themselves to them we need not other Passions but such as we have spoken of to become attentive upon the Subjects on which we desire to meditate But most Men are not in that Condition they have neither Taste nor Understanding nor Curiosity for any thing but what affects the Senses their Imagination is corrupted by an almost infinite Number of deep Traces which raise none but false Ideas and as they depend upon all the Objects that resort to the Senses and Imagination so they always judge by the Impression they receive from them that is with reference to themselves Pride Debauchery the various Engagements the restless Desires of Advancement which are so common amongst the Men of the World darken the Sight of Truth and stifle in them the Sense of Piety because they separate them from God who alone is able to enlighten as he alone is able to govern us For we cannot increase our Union with sensible Things without diminishing that which we have with intellectual Truth since we cannot be at the same time strictly united with Things so different and opposite Those whose Imagination is pure and chaste that is whose Brain is not fill'd up with deep Traces that fasten them to visible Things may easily unite themselves to God listen attentively to the Truth that speaks to them and even forbear the Use of the most just and rational Passions But as to those that live amongst the Great who depend upon too many things and whose Imagination is soil'd by the false and obscure Ideas of sensible Objects they cannot apply themselves to the Truth unless they be born up by some Passion strong enough to countervail the Weight of the Body that carries them down and to imprint Traces on their Brain that may make a Revulsion upon the Animal Spirits However as every Passion can only by it self perplex our Ideas they ought to use that Help but so far as Necessity requires and all Men ought to study themselves that they may proportionate their Passions to their Weakness It is no hard matter to find a Method of raising in us such Passions as we desire since the Knowledge we have given in the foregoing Books of the Union betwixt Soul and Body has sufficiently open'd the way to it In a word no more is requir'd than to think attentively upon those Objects that by the Institution of Nature are able to raise the Passions Thus we may almost at any time excite in our Hearts whatever Passion we have occasion for but because we can easier excite them at any time than suppress them or remedy the Disorders they cause in the Imagination we must be very sober and cautious in employing them Above all we must take care not to judge of Things by Passion but only by the clear Sight of the Truth which is almost impossible when the Passions are somewhat lively they ought only to raise our Attention but they never fail of stirring up their proper Ideas and violently driving the Will to judge of Things by those Ideas that affect it rather than by the pure and abstracted Ideas of Truth that make no Impression upon it So that we often make Judgments which last no longer than the Passion because they are not produced by the clear Sight of the immutable Truth but by the Circulation of the Blood True it is that Men are wonderfully obstinate in some Errours which they maintain as long as they live but then those Errours have other Causes than the Passions or at least depend on such as are permanent and lasting proceeding from the Constitution of the Body from Interest or from some other durable Cause For Instance Interest being a Motive of a continual standing produces a Passion that never dies and the Judgments that arise from it are very long liv'd But all the other Sentiments of Men which depend upon particular Passions are as inconstant as the Fermentation of their Humours They say one while this another while that and yet what they say is commonly conformable to what they think And as they run from one counterfeit Good to another by the Motion of their Passion and are disgusted at it when that Motion ceases so they run from one false System into another and ardently assert a false Opinion when Passion makes it probable which the Passion ebbing they afterwards forsake By their Passions they taste of every Good without finding any really so and by the same Passions see all Truths without discovering any thing absolutely true though in the time of their Passion what they taste seems to them the Sovereign God and what they see an undeniable Truth The Senses are the second Spring whence we can draw Succours to make the Mind attentive Sensations are the very Modifications of the Soul and differ from the pure Ideas of the Mind the former raising a much stronger Attention than the latter So that 't is plain that
Men pay their Worship to the Sun and is still the universal Cause of the Disorders of their Mind and the Corruption of their Heart Why say they by their Actions and sometimes by their Words should we not love Bodies since they are able to afford us Pleasure And why are the Israelites blam'd for lamenting the Loss of the Garlick and Onions of Egypt since the Privation of those things which enjoyed afforded them some Happiness made them in some sort unhappy But the Philosophy that is mis-call'd New and represented as a Bugbear to frighten weak Minds that is despised and condemned without hearing that New Philsosophy I say since it must have that name destroys all the Pretences of the Libertines by the establishing its very first Principle that perfectly agrees with the first Principle of the Christian Religion namely That we must love and fear none but God since none but He alone can make us happy As Religion declares that there is but one true God so this Philosophy shews that there is but one true Cause As Religion teaches that all the Heathen Divinities are but dead Metals and immovable Stone so this Philosophy discovers that all the second Causes or Divinities of the Philosophers are but unactive Matter and ineffective Wills As Religion commands not to bow to those Gods that are not Gods so this Philosophy teaches not to prostrate our Minds and Imagination before the phantastick Grandeur and Power of pretended Causes which are not Causes which we ought neither to love nor to fear nor be taken up with but think upon God alone see and adore love and fear him in all things But that 's not the Inclination of some Philosophers they will neither see God nor think upon him for ever since the Fall there is a secret Opposition betwixt God and Man They delight in Gods of their own Invention in loving and fearing the Contrivances of their Heart as the Heathens did the Works of their Hands They are like those Children who tremble at the sight of their Play-Fellows after they have dawb'd and blacken'd them Or if they desire a more noble Comparison though perhaps not so just they resemble those famous Romans who reverenced the Fictions of their Mind and foolishly adored their Emperours after they themselves had let loose the Eagle at their Canonization CHAP. IV. An Explication of the Second Part of the General Rule That the Philosophers observe it not but that Des Cartes has exactly followed it WE have been shewing to what Errours Men are liable when they reason upon the false and confused Ideas of the Senses and their rambling and undetermin'd Notions of Logick whence it appears that to keep to Evidence in our Perceptions 't is absolutely necessary exactly to observe that Rule we have prescrib'd and to examine which are the clear and distinct Ideas of things that we may only argue by deduction from them In that same general Rule concerning the Subject of our Studies there is yet a remarkable Circumstance namely That we must still begin with the most simple and easie things and insist long upon them before we undertake the Enquiry after the more composed and difficult For if to preserve Evidence in all our Perceptions we must only reason upon distinct Ideas 't is plain that we must never meddle with the Enquiry of compound things before the simple on which they depend have been carefully examin'd and made familiar to us by a nice Scrutiny since the Ideas of compound things neither are nor can be clear as long as the most simple of which they are composed are but confusedly and imperfectly known We know things imperfectly when we are not sure to have considered all their Parts and we know them confusedly when they are not familiar enough to the Mind though we may be certain of having consider'd all their Parts When we know them but imperfectly our Argumentations are only probable when we perceive them confusedly there is neither Order not Light in our Inferences and often we know not where we are or whither we are going But when we know them both imperfectly and confusedly which is the commonest of all we know not so much as what we would look for much less by what Means we are to find it So that it is altogether necessary to keep strictly to that Order in our Studies Of still beginning by the most simple Things examining all their Parts and being well acquainted with them before we meddle with the more composed that depend on the former But that Rule agrees not with the Inclination of Man who naturally despises whatever appears easie his Mind being made for an unlimited Object and almost incomprehensible cannto make a long Stay on the Consideration of those simple Ideas which want the Character of Infinite for which he is created On the contrary and for the same Reason he has much Veneration and an eager Passion for great obscure and mysterious Things and such as participate of Infinity Not that he loves Darkness but that he hopes to find in those deep Recesses a Good and Truth capable of satisfying his Desires Vanity likewise gives a great Commotion to the Spirits stirring them to what is great and extraordinary and encouraging them with a foolish Hope of hitting right Experience teaches that the most accurate Knowledge of ordinary Things gives no great Name in the World whereas to be acquainted with uncommon Things though never so confusedly and imperfectly always procures the Esteem and Reverence of those who willingly conceive a great Idea of whatever is out of their depth of Understanding And that Experience determines all those who are more sensible to Vanity than to Truth which certainly make up the greatest Number to a blind-fold Search of a specious though chimerical Knowledge of what is great rare and unintelligible How many are there that reject the Cartesian Philosophy for that ridiculous Reason That its Principles are too simple and easie There are in this Philosophy no obscure and mysterious Terms Women and Persons unskill'd in Greek and Latin are capable of learning it It must then be say they something very inconsiderable and unworthy the Application of great Genius's They imagine that Principles so clear and simple are not fruitful enough to explain the Effects of Nature which they supposed to be dark intricate and confused They see not presently the Use of those Principles that are too simple and easie to stop their Attention long enough to make them understand their Use and Extent They rather chuse to explain Effects whose Causes are unknown to them by unconceivable Principles than by such as are both simple and intelligible For the Principles these Philosophers are wont to explain obscure Things by are not only obscure themselves but utterly incomprehensible Those that pretend to explain Things extremely intricate by Principles clear and generally receiv'd may easily be refuted if they succeed not since to know whether what they say
Motion in every thing And though they have no distinct Idea of it yet by reason of the Corruption of their Heart they willingly put it in the room of the true God imagining that it performs all the Wonders that they see occur CHAP. V. An Explication of the Principles of the Peripatetick Philosophy in which is shewn that Aristotle never observed the Second Part of the General Rule and his Four Elements with the Elementary Qualities are examined THat the Reader may compare the Philosophy of Des Cartes with that of Aristotle it will be convenient to set down in few words what the latter has taught concerning Elements and Natural Bodies in general which the most learned believe he has done in his Four Books Of the Heavens For his Eight Books of Physicks belong rather to Logick or perhaps to Metaphysicks than to Natural Philosophy since they consist of Nothing but loose and general terms that offer no distinct and particular Idea to the Mind Those Four Books are entituled Of the Heavens because the Heavens are the chief amongst the simple Bodies which he treats of That Philosopher begins his Work by proving that the World is perfect in the following manner All Bodies have three Dimensions and cannot have more because the number three comprehends all according to the Pythagoreans But the World is the Coacervation of all Bodies and therefore the World is perfect By that ridiculous Proof it may also be demonstrated that the World cannot be more imperfect than it is since it cannot be composed of parts that have less than three Dimensions In the Second Chapter he first supposes some Peripatetick Truths as that all Natural Bodies have of themselves the force of moving which he proves neither here nor elsewhere but on the contrary asserts in the First Chapter of his Second Book of Physicks that to endeavour to prove it is absurd because 't is evident of it self and that none but those who cannot distinguish what is known of it self from what is not insist upon proving plain by obscure things But it has been shewn elsewhere that it is altogether false that natural Bodies should have of themselves the force of moving and it appears evident only to such as follow with Aristotle the Impressions of their Senses and make no use of their Reason Secondly He says that all local Motion is made in a Line either direct or circular or composed of both but if he would not think upon what he so rashly proposes he ought at least to have open'd his Eyes that he might see an Infinite number of different Motions which are not made of either the right or circular Or rather he ought to have thought that the Motions composed of the direct may be infinitely varied when the compounding Motions increase or diminish their swiftness in an infinite number of different ways as may be observed by what has been said before There are says he but two simple Motions the right and the Circular and therefore all the others are composed of them But he mistakes for the Circular Motion is not simple since it cannot be conceived without thinking upon a Point to which it relates and whatever includes a Relation is relative and not simple This is so true that the Circular Motion may be conceived as produced from two Motions in a right Line whose Swiftness is unequal according to a certain Proportion But a Motion composed of two others made in a right Line and variously increasing or diminishing in swiftness cannot be simple Thirdly He says that all the simple Motions are of three sorts one from the Centre the other towards the Centre and the third about it But 't is false that the last viz. the Circular Motion should be simple as has been already said And 't is false again that there are no simple Motions besides upwards and downwards For all the Motions in a right Line are simple whether they approach to or remove from the Centre the Poles or any other Point Every Body says he is made up of three Dimensions and therefore the Motion of all Bodies must have three simple Motions What Relation is there betwixt simple Motions and Dimensions Besides every Body has three Dimensions and none has three simple Motions Fourthly He supposes that Bodies are either simple or composed and calls simple Bodies those that have the force of moving themselves as Fire Earth c. adding that the compounded receive their Motion from the compounding But in that sense there are no simple Bodies since none have in themselves any Principle of their Motion there are also none composed since there are no simples of which they should be made and so there would be no Bodies at all What Fancy is it to define the simplicity of Bodies by a Power of moving themselves What distinct Ideas can be fixed to the Words of simple and composed Bodies if the simple are only defined in Relation to an Imaginary moving force But let us see what Consequences he draws from those Principles The Circular Motion is simple The Heavens move Circularly and therefore their Motion is simple But simple Motion can be ascribed only to a simple Body that is to say to a Body that moves of it self And therefore the Heavens are a simple Body distinguished from the four Elements that move in right Lines 'T is plain enough that such Arguments contain nothing but false and absurd Propositions Let us examine his other Proofs for he alleadges a great many shameful and nonsensical ones to prove a thing as useless as it is false His second Reason to shew that the Heavens are a simple Body distinguished from the Four Elements supposes that there are two sorts of Motion one natural and the other violent or against Nature But 't is sufficiently plain to all those that judge of things by clear and distinct Ideas that Bodies having not in themselves any such Principle of their Motion as Aristotle pretends there can be no Motion violent or against Nature 'T is indifferent to all Bodies to be moved or not either one way or another But this Philosopher who judges of things by the Impressions of the Senses imagines that those Bodies which by the Laws of the Communications of Motions always place themselves in such or such a Situation in reference to others doe it of their own accord and because it is most convenient for them and best agrees with their Nature Here follows the Argument of Aristotle The Circular Motion of the Heavens is natural or against Nature If natural the Heavens are a simple Body distinguished from the Elements since the Elements never move circularly by a natural Motion If the Circular Motion of the Heavens is against their Nature they will be some one of the Elements as Fire Water c. or something else But the Heavens can be none of the Elements as for instance if the Heavens were Fire that Element tending naturally upwards the Heavens would
Learning or in the Study of all vain and useless Sciences which flatter the secret Pride of our Heart because this is what recommends us to the Admiration of the Vulgar I have shewn that the Inclination for Pleasures constantly throws off the View of the Mind from the Consideration of abstracted Truths which are the most simple and exuberant and permits it not to consider any thing with a competent Attention and Impartiality to judge well of it That Pleasures being the Modes of our Souls Existence they necessarily divide the Capacity of the Mind and that a Mind thus divided cannot fully comprehend a Subject of any great Extent Last of all I have made appear that the Relation and Natural Union we have to all those with whom we live and converse is the Occasion of many Errours we fall into and of our communicating them to others as others communicate to us the same they were engag'd in In the Fifth where I have endeavour'd to give some Idea of our Passions I have I think made it sufficiently evident that they were ordain'd to unite us to all things sensible and to give us as we are among them a due and necessary Disposition for their Preservation and our own That as our Senses unite us to our Body and expand our Soul into all the composing Parts of it so our Commotions carry us as it were out of our selves and diffuse us upon all things round about us That Lastly they incessantly represent things not as they are in themselves whereby we may form true Judgments but according to the Relation they have to us whereby to form Judgments useful to the Preservation of our Being and of those to whom we are either naturally or voluntarily united After having attempted the Discovery of Errours in their Causes and the Deliverance of the Mind from the Prejudices it is subject to I thought it was time at last to prepare it for the Search of Truth Wherefore in the Sixth Book I have explain'd the Means which I thought most natural for the increasing the Attention and enlarging the Capacity of the Mind by shewing the Use that might be made of its Senses its Passions and Imagination to the giving it all the Force and Penetration it is capable of After which I have establish'd certain Rules which must of necessity be observ'd for the Discovery of any Truth whatever I have explain'd them by many Examples that I might make them more sensible and have chosen those which I thought most useful or that included more fecund and general Truths that they might be read with greater Application and be made more sensible and familiar Possibly it may be acknowledg'd by this Essay of Method which I have given how necessary it is to reason only about clear and evident Ideas and in which we are inwardly convinc'd that all Nations do agree and never to proceed to Compound Things till having sufficiently examin'd the Simple whereon they depend And if it be consider'd that Aristotle and his Followers have not observ'd the Rules I have explain'd as we ought to be assur'd by the Reasons I have alledg'd and by the Correspondence that may be had with the most zealous Defenders of that Philosopher it may be we shall despise his Doctrine in spight of all the Impressions which persuade such as give way to be amuz'd by Words they do not understand But if we take notice of the manner of Monsieur des Cartes's Philosophizing we cannot doubt of the Solidity of his Philosophy For I have sufficiently shewn that he reasons but upon distinct and evident Ideas beginning with most Simple Things and afterwards passing on to the more Compound which depend on them Those who shall read the Works of that Learned Man will have plenary Conviction of what I say of him provided they read them with all the Application that is necessary to understand them And they will feel a secret Joy for being born in an Age and Country so fortunate as to free them from the Trouble of seeking a Master to teach them Truth among the past Ages of the Heathens and in the Extremities of the Earth among Barbarians and Strangers But as we ought not to be very sollicitous to know the Opinions of Men even though we were otherwise assur'd they had found out Truth so I should be very sorry if the Esteem I manifest for Monsieur des Cartes should prepossess any Man in his behalf and make him sit down satisfy'd with reading and retaining his Opinions without caring to be enlighten'd with the Light of Truth This would be preferring Man before GOD and consulting him in God's stead and acquiescing in the obscure Answers of a Philosopher which do not enlighten us to avoid the Trouble of Interrogating by our Meditation Him who answers and enlightens us both together 'T is a mean and unworthy thing to become the Partizan of any Sect and to look upon the Authors of it as infallible And thus Monsieur des Cartes chusing rather to make Men Disciples of Truth than Opinionated Followers of his Sentiments expressly forewarns them Not to take any thing he writes upon Trust and to embrace nothing but what the Force and Evidence of Reason should constrain them to believe He desires not like some Philosophers to be credited upon his Word He ever remembers that he is a Man and that disseminating his Light but by Reflexion he ought to direct the Minds of those who would be illuminated by him towards Him alone who can make them more perfect by the Gift of Understanding The principal Advantage that can be made of Application to Study is the rendring the Mind more accurate more illuminated more penetrating and fit for the Discovery of all the Truths we desire to know But such as read the Philosophers with Design of remembring their Opinions and factoring them to others approach not Him who is the Life and Nourishment of the Soul Their Mind grows blind and enervate by their Commerce with such as can neither strengthen nor enlighten them They are swell'd up with a spurious sort of Learning the Weight whereof overwhelms and the Glittering blinds them and fancying to themselves they are hugely learnâ—d when their Heads are cramm'd with the Opinions of the Antients they forget that they become their Disciples who St. Paul says became Fools by usurping the Name of Wise. Dicentes se esse Sapientes stulti facti sunt The Method I have given will if I mistake not be highly advantageous to those who desire to make use of their Reason or to receive of God the Answers he gives all those who can faithfully consult Him For I think I have said what is chiefly requir'd to corroborate and conduct the Attention of the Mind which is the natural Prayer we make to the true Master of all Men in order to be instructed But because this Natural Way of Searching out Truth is very painful and commonly impracticable except in
the Resolution of Questions of little Use the Knowledge whereof commonly more gratifies our Pride than perfects our Understanding I think it my Duty to say that I may profitably conclude this Work that the most expeditious and certain Method of discovering Truth and uniting our selves to God in the purest and perfectest manner possible is to live as becomes true Christians to follow exactly the Precepts of Eternal Truth which unites it self with us only to re-unite us with it 'T is to listen rather to the Dictates of our Faith than Reason and to tend to God not so much by our natural Forces which since the Sin are altogether languid and inactive as by the Assistance of Faith by which alone God purposes to lead us into that immense Light of Truth which will dissolve and dissipate all our Darkness For in brief 't is much better as good Men to spend some Years in Ignorance of certain Things and find our selves enlighten'd in a Moment for ever than by Natural Means and abundance of Trouble and Application purchase a very imperfect Science that shall leave us in Darkness to all Eternity ILLUSTRATIONS UPON THE FOREGOING BOOKS The PREFACE Wherein is shewn what should be our Opinion of the several Judgments commonly pass'd on Books that encounter Prejudices WHen a BOOK is first to appear in the World one knows not whom to consult to learn its Destiny The Stars preside not over its Nativity their Influences have no Operation on it and the most confident Astrologers dare not foretell the diverse Risks of Fortune it must run Truth not being of this World Celestial Bodies have no power over her and whereas she is of a most spiritual Nature the several Positions or Combinations of Matter can contribute nothing either to her Establishment or Ruine Besides the Judgments of Men are so different in respect of the same things that we can never more hazardously and imprudently play the Prophet than in presaging the happy or unfortunate Success of a BOOK So that every Man who ventures to be an Author at the same time throws himself at the Reader 's Mercy to make him or esteem him what he pleases But of all Authors those who encounter Prejudices ought most infallibly to reckon upon their Condemnation their Works â—it too uneasie on most Mens Minds and if they escape the Passions of their Enemies they are obliged to the almighty Force of Truth for their Protection 'T is a common Miscarriage with all Mankind to be too precipitate in judging for all Men are obnoxious to Errour and only obnoxious upon this account But all hasty and rash Judgments are ever consonant to Prejudices and therefore Authors who oppugn them cannot possibly escape Sentence from all their Judges who appeal to Ancient Opinions as the Laws whereby they ought to pronounce For indeed most Readers are both Judge and Party in respect of these Authors Their Judges they are that Quality is incontestable but they are a Party likewise being disturb'd by these Authors in the possession of their ancient Prejudices for which they have the plea of Prescription and to which they have been accustom'd many Years I confess there 's Abundance of Equity Sincerity and good Sense in a great many Readers and that they sometimes are Judges rational enough to supersede common Opinions as not being the infallible Rules of Truth Many there are who retire into themselves and consult that Inward Truth which ought to be their Rule to judge of all things but very Few that consult it upon all Occasions and None at all who do it with all that Faithfulness and Attention that is necessary to judge infallibly at all times And thus though we might suppose there were nothing blameable in a Treatise which yet it would be Vanity to pretend to I am persuaded it would be impossible to find one single Man to approve it in every respect especially if his Prejudices were attacked by it since it is not naturally possible that a Judge constantly provok'd affronted and outrag'd by a Party should do him entire Justice or that he should give himself the trouble of a strenuous Application to those Reasons which at first sight appear to him as extravagant Parodoxes or ridiculous Parolâ—gisms But though a Man be pleased with many things in a BOOK if he fortunes to meet with some that are offensive he shall seldom be wanting to speak ill of it but most commonly forgetfull to give it any good Character Self-love has a thousand Motives to induce us to condemn what we dislike and Reason in this Instance fully justifies these Motives since Men fansie they condemn Errours and defend Truth when they defend their Prejudices and censure those that assault them So that the most equitable Judges of Books that fight against Prejudices pass commonly such a general Sentense as is no way favourable on their behalf Perhaps they will say there is something good in such a Work and that the Author justly opposes certain Prejudices but yet they shall be sure to condemn him and as his Judges give an authoritative and grave decision upon the point maintaining that he carries things too far on such or such an occasion For when an Author is ruining Prejudices which the Reader is not prepossess'd with whatever he shall say will seem reasonable enough But the same Author ever stretches things too far when he engages the Prejudices wherewith the Reader is too deeply ting'd But whereas the Prejudices of different Persons are not constantly the same should one carefully gather the several Judgments that are made upon the same things it would commonly appear that according to these Judgments there is nothing Good and at the same time nothing Bad in such kind of Books There would be nothing good because there is no Prejudices but one or other espouses and there would be nothing bad because there is no Prejudice whatever but some or other condemn In which Judgments there is so much Equity that should a Man pretend to make use of them to correct his Piece he must necessarily strike it all out for fear of leaving any thing that was Condemn'd or not to touch it for fear of expunging something that was approv'd So that a poor Author that studies to be inoffensive finds himself perplex'd on all hands by all the various Judgments which are pronounc'd both for and against him and unless he resolve to stand his ground and to be reckon'd obstinate in his Opinions he must inevitably contradict himself at every turn and appear in as many different Forms as there are different Heads in a whole Nation However Time will do every Man Justice and Truth which at first seems a Chimerical and ridiculous Phantasm by degrees grows sensible and manifest Men open their Eyes and contemplate her they discover her Charms and fall in love with her This Man who condemns an Author for an Opinion that he dislikes by chance meets with
we value our selves above others that do not and sometimes look upon them as Ignorant The Pains we have taken to master him interess us in his Defence For by venerating this Author and procuring the Veneration of others we justifie our own studies and as we find pleasure in justifying our selves so we must not fail to praise and defend him with Earnestness and Zeal and by lively and sensible ways These Reasons and some others of less force are sufficient I think to let us know that the obscurity of Tertullian is no disadvantage to him in the Opinion of some Persons and that likely they would have less admir'd him if the Truths which are scatter'd over his Works were reduc'd to their more simple and clear Ideas Mathematical Truths and Relations are always Sum'd up in their Exponents that is in the most simple terms that express them and are disengag'd from all perplexing and obscuring Dependencies For Geometricians love naked Truth and desire not to convince by Impression but by Light and Evidence But what would become of most of Tertullian's Thoughts were they reduc'd to their Exponents by the Rules of Logical Geometricians and should we see them strip'd of all that sensible Pomp which dazles Reason Yet if we would judge solidly of this Author 's Reasonings we ought to make the Experiment However I do not pretend that Tertullian ought to have written with Geometrical Plainness Figures which express our sentiments and motions with respect to the Truths we expose to others are absolutely necessary and I think that more especially in discourse of Religion and Morality we ought to Employ those Ornaments which procure all the reverence that is due to Truth and those Motions which actuate the Soul and incline her to vertuous Actions But we are not to dress up and adorn a Phantasm without substance and reality nor excite Motions when there 's no occasion and if we will vigorously impress on our Hearers Conviction and Certitude 't is necessary that the Conviction should relate to something true and solid We must neither convince nor be convinced without knowing evidently distinctly precisely why we do the one or suffer the other We ought to know both what we say and what we think and only to Love Truth and Knowledge without putting out the Eyes of others after we have made blind our selves THE ILLUSTRATION UPON THE Nature of IDEAS Wherein I explain how we see all things in God both Truths and Laws Eternal I Hoped that what I had said upon the nature of Ideas was sufficient to have shown that God only enlightens our understanding But I have found by Experience that there are Persons incapable of a competent Attention to conceive the Reasons I have given of this Principle Abstracted reasons are incomprehensible to the greatest part of Men but that which is sensible awakens them and fixes and keeps open the Eye of their Mind They cannot consider nor consequently comprehend what comes not under the Senses nor Imagination Which thing I have often said nor can I too often repeat 'T is plain that Bodies are not visible of themselves that they cannot act upon our mind nor represent themselves to it This has no need of proof but is discover'd by a bare perception and is infinitely more certain than that Bodies communicate their Motion when they meet But it is not certain save with those who silence their Senses to listen to their Reason Therefore all Mankind believe that Bodies impel each other because the Senses tell them so but they do not believe that Bodies are of themselves absolutely invisible and incapable of acting on the Mind because the Senses do not tell them this but seem to say the contrary Nevertheless there are some whose reason is so steadfast and resolv'd as to rise up to the most abstract Truths They contemplate them with attention and couragiously resist the Impression of their Senses and Imagination But the Body insensibly weighing down the Mind they relapse these Ideas vanish and whilst the Imagination stirs up more sensible and lively the former are beheld as Apparitions that only cause mistrust and fear of delusion We are easily apt to distrust those Persons or things we are not familiar with and which have not afforded us any sensible pleasure For 't is Pleasure that wins the Heart and Familiarity that cures our Trouble and disquiet of Mind Wherefore those who are not us'd to Metaphysical and abstract Truths are very prone to believe we purpose to seduce them when we only labour to instruct them They look with a suspicious Eye and a kind of dread upon Ideas which have nothing charming and sensible and the Love they bear to their own Repose and Felicity speedily rids them of so vexatious a Contemplation which seems incapable of contenting them If the Question before us were not of the greatest Importance the Reasons I have given and some others not necessary to be produc'd would oblige me to say no more of it for I foresee that whatever I can say upon this subject will never enter the Heads of some People But this Principle That there is none but God who enlightens us and that this illumination is effected by the manifestation of an immutable and necessary Reason or Wisdom seems to me so conformable to Religion that I think my self indispensably oblig'd to Explain it and maintain it to the utmost of my Power I had rather be call'd a Visionist Enthusiast and all the fine Names that the Imagination which in little Souls is always Sarcastical uses to oppose to reasons it cannot comprehend or defend it self against than to grant that Bodies are capable of instructing me that I am my own Master Reason and Light and that to be thoroughly inform'd in all things I need only consult my self or other Men who perhaps may fill my Ears with a loud noise but certainly cannot infuse Light and Knowledge into my Mind Here then are some farther Reasons for the Opinion I have establish'd in the Chapter belonging to this Illustration No body will deny that Man is capable of knowing Truth and the least intelligent Philosophers acknowledge that he partakes of a certain Reason which they don't determine And therefore they define him animal Rationis particeps For there is no body but knows at least confusedly that the essential difference of Man consists in his necessary union with Universal Reason though it be not commonly known who it is that includes this Reason and little Care is taken to discover it I see for Example that two times two are four and that a Friend is preferable to a Dog and I am certain there is no Man in the World but sees this as well as I. Now I discover not these truths in the Mind of others no more than others do in mine Therefore there is necessarily an Vniversal Reason which enligntens me and all intelligent Beings For if the Reason I consult were not the same as that
the conduiâ—s of the Nerves are widened and the Fibres recumbent after a particular manner the Spirits may easily insinuate themselves But what is it we can conceive capable of augmenting the Soul's Facility to act or think For my part I own I cannot comprehend it And in vain should I interrogate my self what these dispositions are For I could give my self no answer nor light upon the matter though I have a most lively sense of that easiness with which some Thoughts arise in me And if I had no particular Reasons to induce me to believe that I really have such Dispositions though I know them not in me I should judge there neither was spiritual Habit nor Memory in my Soul But in short seeing there is doubt and scruple about it we have an infallible Symptom that Men are not so enlightned as is pretended For Doubt can never be reconcil'd to Evidence and clear Ideas 'T is certain that a Man of the greatest Understanding cannot evidently know whether he deserves Hatred or Love as speaks the Wiseman My own consciousness of my self cannot satisfy me herein St. Paul says indeed his Conscience reproach'd him with nothing yet for all that he does not affirm he is justified On the contrary he asserts he is not thereby justified and that he dares not judge himself since he that judges is the Lord. But having a clear Idea of Order if we had another as clear of the Soul from the inward feeling of our selves we should evidently know whether she was conformable to Order We should know whether we were Righteous or not and we could exactly discover all our interiour Dispositions to Good and Evil whenever we were conscious of them But if we could know our selves just as we are we should not be so subject to Presumption And there is great likelihood that St. Peter would not have said to his Master whom he was not long after to deny Why cannot I follow thee now I will lay down my life for thy sake Animam meam pro te ponam For being inwardly conscious of his own Strength and good Will he might have seen with Evidence whether he had Resolution and Courage to conquer Death or rather the insults of a silly Maid and two or three Servants If the nature of the Soul be more known than any other If the Idea we have of her be as clear as that we have of the Body I ask only how it comes to pass that there are so many who confound her with it Is it possible to confound two clear Ideas intirely different Let us do justice to all Mankind Those who dissent from our Opinion are as rational as our selves they have the same Ideas of things and are partakers in the same Reason Why then do they confound what we distinguish Do they use on other occasions to confound things whereof they have clear Ideas Do they ever confound two different numbers or take a Square for a Circle And yet the Soul differs more from the Body than one of these Figures from the other For they are two substances which are in nothing alike and are confounded notwithstanding Which must therefore proceed from some difficulty there is to discover their difference from it s not being observable by a simple perception and from the Impossibility of concluding that one is not the other without Argument and Reasoning It must come from hence viz. That the Idea of Extension must be cautiously consulted and Extension discover'd to be no Mode of Existence of a Body but the Body it self as being represented a subsisting Thing and as the Principle and Foundation of whatever we conceive clearly in Bodies And that so the Modes of which Body is capable having no Proportion of sensible Qualities the subject of these Qualities or rather the Being of which they are Modes must needs be different from Body For such like argumentation is requisite to prevent our confounding the Soul with the Body But if we had a clear Idea of the Soul as we have of Body certainly we need not take these round-about ways to distinguish her from it Since it would be discoverable by a simple view and with as great ease as we see a Circle is not a Square I insist not longer upon proving that we know not the Soul nor her Modifications by clear Ideas Survey our selves on what side soever we will this sufficiently appears And I had not added this to what I have said in the Search after Truth if some Cartesians had not found fault with it If this will not satisfy them I shall expect they will make me sensible of this clear Idea which I am not able to find in my self do whatever I can to discover it THE ILLUSTRATION UPON THE Eighth CHAPTER of the Second PART of the Third BOOK Of loose and general terms which signify nothing How they are distinguish'd from others IN order to comprehend what I have said in some Places how that they give not the reasons of things who explain them by Logical Terms and General Ideas we need but consider that whatever exists is reduc'd to Being or Modes of Being whatever Term signifies neither of these signifies nothing and every Term that signifies not one or other of them distinctly and in particular signifies nothing distinct This to me seems most clear and evident but what is evident in it self is not so to all the World Words are the current Coin wherewith Men pay themselves and others All Terms that are inoffensive to the Ear have free Passport amongst them And Truth comes so rarely into the Commerce of the World that those who speak it or hear it have commonly no regard for it The gift of Speech is the greatest of Talents the language of Imagination is the surest of means and a Memory charg'd with incomprehensible Terms will always make a splendid appearance whatever the Cartesians may say of it When Men shall have no addiction but to Truth they will be Cautious of what they say they will carefully examine their own meaning rejecting with scorn senseless and insignificant Terms and closely adhering to clear Ideas But when will the time come that Men shall love Truth only We may say when they shall depend no longer on their Body when they shall have no necessary relation to sensible Objects when they shall not any more corrupt one another but faithfully consult their Master who instructs them in the recesses of their Reason But this will never happen whilst we live on Earth However all Men are not equally indifferent for Truth If there are some who speak without Reflection and hear without distinction and have no attention but to what affects them there are others who industriously labour to inform themselves and to convince others of the Truth And to these chiefly I address my self for at their Instance I entred on making these Remarks I say then that whatever is whether it actually exists or not and consequently
Commotion in their Minds Many Persons wish'd I would engage in the Quarrel which the Author made with the Cartesians For as on one hand Monsieur de la Ville that was his Name had done me the Honour to list me among these Philosophers with what Design I know not and on the other hand found himself Diversion by turning me into Ridicule they assur'd me that if I was willing to pass for a Rash Foolish and Extravagant Person for a Visionist and in fine an Heretick yet I could not in Conscience desert the Cause of Truth and leave the Enemies of our Faith the Advantages he gave them I must do these Gentlemen Justice in confessing their Reasons were very solid But beg they would believe that if I have not submitted to them 't is because there were others of a very different Opinion which to me seem'd likewise highly reasonable and for which indeed I had greater Inclination for I will not determine about the Weightiness of their Reasons Besides as Monsieur de la Ville is not very tender of Integrity I foresaw that his Work would make a greater Flash and Report than it would do Injury to Truth And as to my own Particular I did not think he injur'd me by despising me For I can assure him I despise my self much more than he desires 'T is true my Self-Contempt is not grounded on the same Ideas as induc'd him to treat me so fastuously as he does But I would grant that the Reasons I had for despising my self were not true and would willingly consent that all my ill Qualities were converted into those he 's pleas'd to give me provided he 'll except that one of Heretick or of a Person whose Faith deserves to be suspected Since I know that 't is of most dangerous Consequence to stir up the Passions of Men especially on such Subjects as seem to cover from the Reproofs of Reason the most violent and irrational I thought my self oblig'd to continue silent for fear of supplying with fresh Fewel those Heats I perceiv'd in their Minds But now that this Fervency is abated and that I cannot see any more mischievous Events to be fear'd I think I am bound to satisfy my Friends and content my self I am not willing to affect an insolent and contemptuous Silence in Regard to Monsieur de la Ville I sincerely confess he has sensibly offended me For I am neither Stoick nor Stupid I feel when I hurt and am not asham'd to own it The publick Accusation of Heresie is not easie to be born especially by Ecclesiasticks Which though never so unjust fails not to make the Faith of the accused suspected in this Age more than any other And no Man may be prodigal of this sort of Reputation unless Charity oblige him to it which seldom or never happens I have nothing then to answer to the Calumnies where with this Author tries to blacken me I shall not bring him before the Common Magistrate to have publick Reparation made me nor will I use any other ways permitted by Natural Law for the Restitution of that which I can in Conscience give up I am all that he will have me a Fool a Visionist only I am no Heretick nor am I suspected of Heresie at least by those that know me But I confess I cannot avoid having my Faith suspected if a Stranger may be allowed to brand me with the Name of Heretick for Consequences he is pleas'd to draw from my Principles for 't is not possible but Monsieur de la Ville's Book must have deceiv'd some one or other If at present I am suspected of Heresie 't is a Misfortune I cannot help But if it be a Crime 't is not I that have committed it but rather he that draws consequences from a Principle not including them For my part I disown these consequences I believe them false and Heretical and if I clearly saw they were directly inferr'd from any one of my Principles I would forsake it For that Principle would be false Truths being not contrary to one another But be it granted that Monsieur de la Ville's Reasonings were just and that Heretical Consequences were perfectly well deduc'd from their Principle yet neither I nor many others that he ill-uses saw before he wrote his Book that they were contain'd in it So that his Conduct is indefensible which way soever we examine it For in fine the Articles of Faith depend not on the Quickness and Reach of thought of any Particular Divine as I indeavour to show and though we should be certain that some principles included impious Consequences yet no Man has right to treat the Maintainers of these principles as Hereticks I have seen in the Fathers and chiefly in St. Austin the principle I have advanc'd but never observ'd Monsieur de la Ville's there To me it appear'd a common Notion that if God had Annihilated all the extension in the World all the matter the World is made up of would be Annihilated I had consulted several Persons about it to know whether they had the same Idea as my self of the matter whose answers confirm'd me in my Opinion I concluded for the Reasons I shall give anon that we could no longer have any direct and Natural Demonstration that the Soul is distinguish'd from the Body or that she is Immortal if that principle be laid aside I said in the Search after Truth that I did not believe any consequence could be inferr'd from this principle repugnant to Faith which same thing was defended in the Sorbon before my maintaining it in the publick Theses Nay I proceeded to say That if it were requisite I would explain how this Opinion might be reconcil'd with what the Fathers and Councils have left us touching our Faith about the mystery of Transubstantiation Lastly I renounc'd all Heretical Consequences and even the Principle if it contain'd them which I could not believe nor can I to this hour What ought I to say more to clear my Faith from the suspicion of Heresie even to the malicious Could I imagine any Man would have the boldness to rank St. Austin and other Fathers among the Calvinists by condemning in the Person of the Cartesians and Gassendists the Sentiment of that Holy Doctor as contrary to Transubstantiation No doubtless For either Monsieur de la Ville durst do it save in a collateral manner St. Austian in an hundred places advances as undeniable the principle now in dispute He never goes to prove it because it does not appear that any Man in his time doubted of it For indeed 't is a principle that ought to be look'd on as a common Notion with all those whose mind is not prepossess'd with false studies Whence this Father concludes That the Soul is immortal That she is more noble than the Body That she is a distinct substance from it with many other like Truths of the utmost importance And yet Monsieur de la
Difficulties that can be started about the Circumstances of our Mysteries like as to vindicate the Orders of Nature and Grace in themselves we need but know That God being infinitely wiâ—e frames no Design but upon the admirable Proportion of Wisdom and Fecundity discover'd in the ways capable to bring it to pass as I have explain'd in the First Discourse L. Most Men judging of God by measure of themselves imagines that he first forms a Design and afterwards consults his Wisdom about Ways to execute it For our Volitions generally prevent our Reason and our Designs are hardly ever perfectly Rational But God's Ways are not like those of Men who acts in the following manner if I have well consulted the Idea of a Being infinitely perfect God by the infinite Light of his Wisdom knows all possible Works and at once all the respective Ways of producing them He sees all the Proportions between Means and their End He compares all things by one Eternal Immutable and Necessary View and by the Comparison he makes of the Proportions of Wisdom and Fecundity which he discovers between the Designs and Ways of executing them he freely forms a Design But the Design being form'd he necessarily chooses the general Ways most worthy of his Wisdom Greatness and Goodness For since he forms no Design but through the Knowledge of the Means of executing it the Choice of the Design includes the Choice of Means LI. When I say That God forms his Design freely I would not be thought to mean that he may make choice of another less worthy and reject that which is more worthy of his Wisdom For supposing that God wills the Production of an external Work worthy of him he is not indifferent in the Choice but must produce the perfectest possible with reference to the Simplicity of the Ways he acts by This God owes to himself from following the Rules of his Wisdom and he must always act in the wisest and perfectest manner But I say that God forms his Design freely because he does not invincibly and necessarily love any thing besides his own Substance Neither the Incarnation of the Word nor for a much stronger Reason the Creation of the World are necessary Emanations of his Nature God is fully Self-sufficient For the Being infinitely perfect may be conceiv'd alone and without necessary Relation to any of his Creatures LII As God necessarily loves himself he necessarily follows the Rules of his Wisdom But whereas his Creatures constitute no part of his Being he is so full and sufficient in himself that nothing obliges him to produce them and he is absolutely indifferent or free on their Account And therefore it is that he has made the World in Time For that Circumstance sufficiently shews that the Creatures are not necessary Emanations of the Divinity but essentially depending on the Free Will of the Creator LIII Lo however an Objection that offers it self immediately to the Mind If it were true that God necessarily follow'd the Rules of his Wisdom the World would not have been created in Time For either the World is worthy or unworthy of God If it were better that the World should not be produc'd from Nothing it ought to be Eternal if on the contrary that it should remain in Nothingness it ought not to be created Therefore God is not oblig'd to stick to Rules which his Wisdom prescribes since the World was created in Time But this Objection is easily answer'd 'T is better for the World to be than not to be but it had better not be at all than be Eternal The Creature ought to carry the Essential Character of Dependency If Spirits were Eternal they might have some reason to consider themselves as Gods or necessary Beings or at least as capable of contributing to the Greatness or Felicity of God whilst imagining he could not forego producing them They might in a manner compare themselves with the Persons in the Deity while believing themselves produc'd like them by a necessary Emanation Thus God ought by the Rules of his Wisdom to leave Creatures the Mark of their Dependence and yet give them Assurance that he made them not to annihilate them and that being constant in his Purposes by reason of his unlimited Wisdom they shall eternally subsist LIV. This Difficulty may still be driven farther in this manner God necessarily follows the Rules of his Wisdom and necessarily does what is best But it was at least better for the World to be created in Time than not to be at all And certainly it was fit by the Rules of the Wisdom of God that the World should be produc'd in the Circumstances in which he produc'd it Therefore the Creation of the World in Time is absolutely necessary God was not at Liberty on its account nor capable of hindring its temporary Production For the Resolution of this Difficulty it must be observ'd That though God follows the Rules prescrib'd by his Wisdom yet he does not necessarily what is best because being Master of his Action he may choose to do any thing To act and not to follow the Rules of his Wisdom is a Fault Therefore on supposition that God acts he necessarily acts in the wisest manner conceivable But his Liberty in the Production of the World is a Sign of his Abundance Fulness and Self-sufficiency 'T is better for the World to be than not to be the Incarnation of Jesus Christ renders the Work of God worthy of its Author I acknowledge But whereas God is essentially happy and perfect and as nothing is good on his Consideration but himself or the Cause of his Perfection and his Happiness he loves nothing invincibly besides his own Substance and whatever is exteriour to him ought to be produc'd by an Action really eternal and immutable but that derives its Necessity from Supposition of the Divine Decrees LV. I offer another Principle which I have already mention'd which may afford some Light to the Difficulties that may arise about the Incarnation of Jesus Christ and the Creation of the World Reason and Authority of Holy Writ teach us that the First and Principal of the Designs of God is the Constitution of his Church in Jesus Christ. The present World is not created to remain as it is The Falshood and Errour the Injustice and Disorder that are seen in it give us sufficiently to understand it ought to have an end The future World which Truth and Justice shall inhabit is the Earth which God has settled on inviolable Foundations and which being the Object of Divine Love shall eternally subsist God has not created this Visible World with other Design than to raise by degrees that invisible City whereof St. John speaks so many Wonders and as Jesus Christ shall be the principal Beauty of it he was always had in View by God in the Production of his Work He has made all for Man and with reference to him as the Scripture teaches But he for
whom according to St. Paul God has made all things is the Man Jesus Christ. 'T is to teach Men that they are created and that they subsist in Jesus Christ 't is to unite them straitly to him 't is to induce them to make themselves like him that God has figur'd Jesus Christ and his Church in the principal of his Creatures For 't is necessary that Jesus Christ should be found in the whole Work of God that it might be the worthy Object of his Love and of the Action that produc'd it LVI If we consider the manner of the First Man's Creation as related by Holy Scripture how his Wife was form'd out of his Flesh and Bone his Love to her and the Circumstances of their Sin we shall doubtless judge that God thought on the Second Adam in the Formation of the First that he consider'd the Father of the future World in creating the Father of the present and that he design'd the First Man and Woman for express Types of Jesus Christ and his Church St. Paul permits us not to doubt of this Truth when he assures us we are form'd of the Flesh and Bone of Jesus Christ that we are his Members and that the Marriage of Adam and Eve is the Figure of Jesus Christ and his Church LVII God might perhaps form Men and Animals by ways as simple as common Generation But since this way typified Jesus Christ and his Church since it wore the Impress of the principal of God's Designs and represented as I may say the well-belov'd Son to his Father that Son in whom alone the whole Work of the Creation subsists God ought to prefer it before all other thereby likewise to teach us that as intelligible Beauties consist in their Relation to Eternal Wisdom so sensible Beauties must though in a manner little known to us relate to Incarnate Truth LVIII Doubtless there are many Analogies and Agreements betwixt the most principal of the Creatures and Jesus Christ who is their Pattern and their End For all is full of Jesus Christ every thing represents and typifies him as much as the Simplicity of the Laws of Nature will permit But I shall not venture to enter on the Particulars of this Subject For besides that I am fearful of mistaking and have not a competent Knowledge either of Nature or Grace of the present World or the future to discover their Relations I know that the Imagination of Men is so sarcastical and nice that we cannot by Reason lead them to God much less to Jesus Christ without tiring their Patience or provoking their Railery Most Christians are accustom'd to a Philosophy that had rather have recourse to Fictions as extravagant as those of the Poets than to God and some of them are so little acquainted with Jesus Christ that a Man would perhaps be reckon'd a Visionist if he said the same things with St. Paul without using his Words For 't is rather that great Name which persuades them than the View of Truth The Authority of Scripture keeps them from blaspheming what they do not understand but whereas they are but little conversant with it it cannot much enlighten them LIX 'T is certain that the Jewish People was the Figure of the Church and that the most Holy and Remarkable Persons among the Kings Prophets and Patriarchs of that Nation were the Types of the Messiah our Saviour Jesus Christ which is a Truth not deniable without undermining the Foundations of the Christian Religion and making the most Learned of the Apostles pass for the most Ignorant of Men. Jesus Christ being not yet come ought at least to be typified For he ought to be expected he ought to be desired and by his Types he ought to strew some sort of Beauty over the Universe to make it acceptable to his Father Thus it was necessary he should in some manner be as ancient as the World and that he should die presently after the Sin in the Person of Abel The Lamb that was slain from the Foundation of the World The Beginning and End Alpha and Omega Yesterday and to Day He is was and is to come These are the Qualifications St. John attributes to the Saviour of Men. LX. But supposing that Jesus Christ ought to be typified 't was necessary it should be done by his Ancestors especially and that their History dictated by the Holy Spirit should be handed down to future Ages to the end we might still compare Jesus Christ with his Figures and acknowledge him for the true Messiah Of all Nations God loving that most which had nearest Relation to his Son ought to make the Jews the Fathers of Jesus Christ according to the Flesh since they had been the most lively and express Figures of his Son LXI But if driving this Difficulty up higher the Reason be demanded of the Choice God made of the Jews to be the principal Figures of Jesus Christ I think I may and ought affirm that God acting always by the simplest ways and discovering in the infinite Treasures of his Wisdom all the Combinations of Nature with Grace chose that which was to make the Church the most ample most perfect and most worthy of his own Greatness and Holiness as I have said before Secondly I think I ought to answer that God foreseeing that what was to happen to the Jewish People by a necessary Consequence of Natural Laws would have more Analogy to his Design of typifying Jesus Christ and his Church than all that could befall other Nations thought fit to choose that People rather than any other For in brief Predestination to the Law is not like Predestination to Grace and though there be nothing in Nature that can oblige God to shed his Grace equally on a whole People yet methinks Nature may merit the Law in the Sense I here understand it LXII 'T is true that all that befell the Jews who represented Jesus Christ was not a necessary Consequence of the Order of Nature There was need of Miracles to make the Jews lively and express Figures of the Church But Nature at least furnish'd Ground-work and Materials and possibly the principal Strokes in most Instances and Miracles finish'd the rest Whereas no other Nation would have been so proper for so just and accomplish'd a Design LXIII If I mistake not we are oblig'd to think that God having a Wisdom prescious of all the Events and Consequences of all possible Orders and all their Combinations never works Miracles when Nature is sufficient and that therefore he must choose that Combination of Natural Effects which as it were remitting him the Expence of Miracles nevertheless most faithfully executes his Designs For Example 'T is necessary that all Sin should be punish'd But that 's not always done in this World Yet supposing it was requisite for the Glory of Jesus Christ and the Establishment of Religion that the Jews should be punish'd in the Face of the whole World for the Crime
their Effect The Prayers and diverse Desires of Jesus Christ with reference to the Formation of his Body have likewise most constantly and speedily their Accomplishment God denies his Son nothing as we learn from Jesus Christ himself Occasional Causes produce not their Effect by their own Efficacy but by the Efficacy of the General Cause 'T is likewise by the Efficacy of the Power of God that the Soul of Jesus Christ operates in us and not by the Efficacy of Man's Will 'T is for this Reason that St. Paul represents Jesus Christ as praying to his Father without Intermission For he is oblâ—gâ—d to Pray in order to Obtain Occasional Causes have been establish'd by God for the determining the Efficacy of his General Wills and Jesus Christ according to the Scripture has been appointed by God after his Resurrection to govern the Church which he had purchas'd by his Blood For Jesus Christ became the Meritorious Cause of all Graces by his Sacrifice But after his Resurrection he entred 〈◊〉 the Holy of Holies as High Priest of future Goods to appear in the Presence of God and to endue us with the Graces which he has merited for us Therefore he himself applies and distributes his Gifts as Occasional Cause he disposes of all things in the House of God as a well-beloved Son in the House of his Father I think I have demonstrated in the Search after Truth that there is none but God who is the true Cause and who acts by his own Efficacy and that he communicates his Power to Creatures only in establishing them Occasional Causes for the producing some Effects I have proved for Example That Men have no Power to produce any Motion in their Bodies but because God has establish'd their Wills the Occasional Causes of these Motions That Fire has no power to make me feel Pain but because God has establish'd the Collision of Bodies the Occasional Cause of the Communication of Motions and the violent Vibration of the Fibres of my Flesh the Occasional Cause of my Pain I may here suppose a Truth which I have proved at large in the Third Chapter of the Second Part of the Sixth Book and in the Illustration upon the same Chapter and which those for whom it was principally written don't contest Now Faith assures us that all Power is given to Jesus Christ to form his Church All Power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth Which cannot be understood of Jesus Christ as to his Divinity for as God he has never received any thing And therefore it is certain that Jesus Christ as to his Humanity is the Occasional Cause of Grace supposing I have well proved that God only can act on Minds and that Second Causes have no Efficacy of their own Which those ought first to examine who would understand my Sentiments and give a Judgment of them XII I say farther that no one is sanctified but through the Efficacy of the Power which God has communicated to Jesus Christ in constituting him the Occasional Cause of Grace For if any Sinner were converted by a Grace whereof Jesus Christ was not the Occasional but only the Meritorious Cause that Sinner not receiving his New Life through the Efficacy of Jesus Christ would not be a Member of the Body of which Jesus Christ is the Head in that manner explain'd by St. Paul by these Words of the Epistle to the Ephesians That we may grow up into him in all things who is the Head even Christ from whom the whole Body fitly join'd together and compacted by that which every Joint supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every Part maketh increase of the Body unto the edifying it self in Love Which Words not only say Jesus Christ is the Meritorious Cause of all Graces but likewise distinctly signifie that Christians are the Members of the Body whereof Jesus Christ is the Head that 't is in him we increase and live with an entire new Life that 't is by his inward Operation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that his Church is form'd and that thus he has been constituted by God the sole Occasional Cause who by his several Desires and Applications distributes the Graces which God as the True Cause showers down on Men. 'T is on this Account St. Paul says Christians are united to Jesus Christ as their Root Rooted and built up in him 'T is for the same Reason that Jesus Christ compares himself to a Vine and his Disciples to the Branches that derive their Life from him I am the Vine ye are the Branches On the same Grounds St. Paul affirms that Jesus Christ lives in us and that we live in him that we are rais'd up in our Head that our Life is hidden with Jesus Christ in God in a word that we have already Life Eternal in Jesus Christ. All these and many other Expressions of like nature clearly manifest that Jesus Christ is not only the Meritorious but also the Occasional Physical or Natural Cause of Grace and that as the Soul informs animates and consummates the Body so Jesus Christ diffuses through his Members as Occasional Cause the Graces he has merited to his Church by his Sacrifice For my part I cannot see how these Reasons can be call'd in question or upon what Grounds a most edifying Truth and as ancient as the Religion of Jesus Christ can be treated as a dangerous Novelty I grant my Expressions are novel but that 's because they seem to me the fittest of all others distinctly to explain a Truth which can be but confusedly demonstrated by Terms very loose and general These words Occasional Causes and Natural Laws seem necessary to give the Philosophers for whom I wrote this Treatise of Nature and Grace a distinct Understanding of what most Men are content to know confusedly New Expressions being no farther dangerous than involving Ambiguity or breeding in the Mind some Notion contrary to Religion I do not believe that Equitable Persons and conversant in the Theology of St. Paul will blame me for explaining my self in a particular manner when it only tends to make us Adore the Wisdom of God and strictly to unite us with Jesus Christ. First OBJECTION XIII 'T is Objected against what I have establish'd That neither Angels nor Saints of the Old Testament receiv'd Grace pursuant to the Desires of the Soul of Jesus since that Holy Soul was not then in Being and therefore though Jesus Christ be the meritorious Cause of all Graces he is not the Occasional Cause which distributes them to Men. As to Angels I Answer That 't is very probable Grace was given them but once So that if we consider things on that side I grant there is nothing can oblige the Wisdom of God to constitute an Occasional Cause for the Sanctification of Angels But if we consider these blessed Spirits as Members of the Body whereof Jesus Christ is the Head or suppose them
ought to act wisely God cannot deny himself His Ways of acting ought to bear the Character of his Attributes Now God knows all and foresees all his Understanding has no Bounds Therefore his manner of acting ought to bear the Character of an Infinite Intelligence But to make Choice of Occasional and to establish General Laws for the executing any work manifests a Knowledge infinitely more comprehensive than to change Volitions every moment or to act by Particular Wills Therefore God executes his Designs by General Laws whose Efficacy is determin'd by Occasional Causes Certainly there is a greater Extent of Thought requir'd to make a Watch which according to the Rules of Mechanicks goes regularly of it self whether it be carried about with us or hung up or shaken as we please than to make one which can go well no longer than he that made it is continually changing something in it according to the Situations it is put in For when there is a greater Number of Relations to be compared and combined together there is required a greater Understanding An infinite Prescience is requisite to foresee all the Effects which will happen in consequence of a General Law and there is nothing of all this to be foreseen when the Wills are chang'd every moment Therefore to establish General Laws and to choose the most simple and at the same time the most exuberant is a manner of acting worthy of him whose Wisdom has no Bounds And on the contrary to act by Particular Wills shews a straitned Understanding and which cannot compare the Consequences or Effects of the least fruitful Causes The same Truth might farther be demonstrated a priori by some other Attributes of God as by his Immutability by which M. Des Cartes proves That every Body tends to move in a right Line that there is always the same Quantity of Motion in the World and other Truths But these Truths a priori are too abstract to convince the Generality of Men of the Truth advanc'd It is more to the Purpose to prove it by the Marks I have given before to distinguish Effects produced by Particular Wills from those which are the necessary Consequences of some General Law God being infinitely Wise neither wills nor does any thing without Design or End But Grace falls often on Hearts so dispos'd as to frustrate his Operation and therefore falls not on them by a Particular Will but only by a necessary Consequence of General Laws for the same Reason that Rain falls on the Sands and in the Sea no less than on Seed-Grounds XVI Though God may punish Sinners or make them more miserable than they are he can have no Design of making them more culpable and criminal which yet is an Effect of Grace and God knows certainly that according to their actual Dispositions the Graces he bestows will have that calamitous Event Therefore Graces are not shed on corrupt Hearts by a Particular Will of God but by a necessary Consequence of General Laws establish'd for the Production of the best Effects by the same Reason that on some Occasions too abundant Rains corrupt and putrifie the Fruits of the Earth though God by his General Will causes it to rain to make them thrive XVII If God was minded that some Lands should continue barren he need but have ceas'd to will that the Rain should water them So if God purpos'd that the Hearts of some Sinners should remain hardned as it would be sufficient for the Rain of Grace not to water them he need but leave them to themselves and they would corrupt fast enough Why must we attribute a Particular Will to God to make so cruel and unhappy use of the Price of his Son's Blood But many others will say God in giving Grace to Sinners has never that Design and this doubtless seems more reasonable But if God gives his Grace by a Particular Will he has some Particular Design and whereas Grace has that sad Effect God is frustrated in his Expectation since he gave it with a Design and that a particular one of doing good to a Sinner For I speak not here of the Graces or rather Gifts explain'd by St. Paul in the 12th Chapter of his First Epistle to the Corinthians I speak of the Grace which God gives for the Conversion of him it is given to and not of those Gifts God bestows on some for the Profit of others such as are the Gifts of Prophecy of Discernment of Spirits of Speaking diverse Tongues of Healing the Sick and the like XVIII When the Rain falls in such excess that the Floods extirpate the Fruits of the Earth we ought to conclude this Rain comes by a necessary Consequence of the General Laws God has establish'd for better Effects Yet it is certain God may have appointed it by a Particular Will For God for the Punishment of Men may will that the Rains ordain'd to fecundate the Earth may make it barren on some Occasions But it is not so with the Rain of Grace since God cannot dispense it with Design of punishing Men much less of making them more culpable and criminal Thus 't is much more certain that the Rain of Grace falls by General Wills than that the common Rains do so yet most Men can easily believe that Rains are the necessary Consequences of the General Laws of the Communication of Motions whilst there are few but find some Reluctancy in believing God gives us by General Wills all these Motions of Graces whose Effects we our selves prevent There 's great likelihood this Disposition of Mind naturally grows from our thinking God acts almost like our selves and that he has on all Occasions Particular Wills for all Men in something resembling those Desires we have for our Friends For though we outwardly confess that there is an infinite Difference between God's way of acting and our own yet since we ordinarily judge of others with relation to our selves without considering few Persons seriously consult the Idea of an Infinitely Perfect Being when they would speak of God And because there is some Air of Novelty in what I say it creates a sort of Pain in the Mind which is reasonably mistrustful of what is not common and ordinary I have a particular Honour and Esteem for all those who in Matter of Religion have a secret Aversion for all Novelties When this is the Motive which induces them to oppose my Opinions they give me no Offence and whilst their Prejudices are legitimate though they should give me hainous Provocations I should preserve a Respect for them For their Disposition of Mind is infinitely more reasonable than that of others who fall foul upon all that bears the Character of Novelty Nevertheless as I believe that we are bound to love and search out Truth with all our Strength and communicate it to others when we believe we have found it I think that supposing the Doctrines of Faith undeniable we may and even ought endeavour to confirm
them and recommend them to the Reception of all Men. I might vindicate this Opinion by the Conduct of the Fathers and by the Authority of St. Austin who frequently exhorts to the clear Discovery and Understanding of those Truths which we already believe in the Obscurity of Faith But I don't suppose there are any so irrational as to find fault with my Conduct however prejudiced against my Opinions Wherefore I intreat those who will be at the Pains of reading what I have written not to suppose me in an Errour but to suspend their Judgment till they have well understood my Opinion and not to condemn me in General Terms nor draw too hastily from my Principles unwarrantable Conclusions In Matters so obscure as those of Grace the Advantage is always on the side of the Aggressor and 't is not just to make use of it to the Defendant's Prejudice He should judge equitably and without Prepossession compare all the Consequences deducible from the several Opinions that he may embrace that which seems most agreeable to the Goodness and Wisdom of God For 't is unreasonable to condemn an Opinion unexamin'd for some unhappy Consequences which Men never fail to infer from it when the Imagination is scar'd and the Mind possess'd with contrary Notions XIX I know for Example that some Persons have said I make all Prayers useless and rob Men of the Confidence they ought to have in God since in their Notions God acting by General Wills we must not expect particular Supplies from Heaven I confess if this sole Consequence were included in my Principles they would be false heretical and impious For we overturn Religion if we take from Men their due Hope and Confidence in God and 't is partly on that very account I cannot admit of those Mens Opinions which are most opposite to my manner of Reconciling Grace with Liberty But so far are my Principles from leading to Despair that on the contrary they give the Righteous and even Sinners Consolation in shewing them the Means of obtaining of God the things they stand in need of For if we are Righteous our Prayers are meritorious and if meritorious Order requires that they should be heard and Order being with God a Law infinitely more inviolable than any other establish'd for the Construction of his Work he never fails to do what Order prescribes him Therefore the Prayers of the Righteous are never ineffectual which is what I have establish'd in the XIX Section of the Second Discourse But if we are Sinners 't is certain our Prayers are of themselves in vain for God hears not Sinners Order will have it so Nevertheless we must not despair We have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous He came into the World to save Sinners His Prayers are constantly and most readily heard Let us pray in his Name or address our selves to him Our Prayers will sollicite him to form some Desires relating to us and his Desires are the Occasional Causes which infallibly determine the General Law of Grace by which God wills the Salvation of all Men in his Son This is what I have maintain'd at large in the Second Discourse Thus I am so far from depriving Men of the Confidence they ought to have in God that on the contrary I precisely shew by the Authority of Scripture the way we ought to take for the obtaining of God the Graces that we want Therefore I pray my Readers to do me the Justice of Examining my Opinions without Prevention and I am willing they should afterward judge of them according to their Light and Knowledge For I submit all my Thoughts not only to the Censure of the Church which has Right to make me quit them by an Authority which I shall be ever ready to defer to but also to the Judgments of all Particular Persons by whose Admonitions I shall endavour to profit The END * Nihil est potentius illa creâ—tura quae mâ—â—s diciâ—ur rationalis nihil est 〈◊〉 Quicquid 〈◊〉 illam est jam creator est Tr. 23. in Joan. Quod rationali anima melius est omnibus conscentientibus Deus est Aug. †Ad ipsam similitudinem non omnia facta sunt sed sola substantia rationalis quare omnia per ipsam sed ad ipsam non nisi anima rationalis Itaque substantia rationalis per ipsam facta est ad ipsam non est enim ulla natura interposita Lib. Imp. de Gen. ad Litt. Rectissime dicitur factus ad Imaginem Similitudinem Dei non enim aliter incommutabilem veritatem posset mente conspicere De ver Rel. Mens quod non sentit nisi cum purissima beatissima est nulli cohaeret nisi ipsi veritati quae similitudo imago patris sapientia dicitur August lib. imp de Gen. ad 〈◊〉 Non exigua hominis portio sed totius humanae universitatis substantia est Ambr. 6. Hexam 7. †Ubique veritas praesides omnibus consulentibus te simulque respondes omnibus etiam diversa consulentibus Liquide tu respondes sed non liquide omnes audiunt Omnes unde volunt consulunâ— sed non semper quod volunt audiunt Conf. S. Aug. lib. 10. cap. 26. * V. Quint. Curt. lib. 7. cap. 8. Intâ—s in domicilio cogitationis nec Hebraea nec Graca nec Latina nec Barbara veritas sine oris linguae organis sine strepiâ—â— syllabarum Confess S. Aug. l. 11. c. 3. * Videtur quasi ipse a te occidere cum tu ab ipso occidas Aug. in Psal. 25. Nam etiam sol iste videntis faciem illustrat caeci ambobus sol praesens est sed praesente sole unus absens est Sic Sapientia Dei Dominus J. C. ubique praesens est quia ubique est veritas ubique sapientia Aug. in Joan. Tract 35. What I here say of the Vnions of the Mind with GOD and with the Body ought to be understood according to our ordinary way of Conception For indeed our Mind can be immediately united to GOD only that is can truly depend on none but GOD. And if it be united to or depend on the Body 't is because the Will of GOD makes that Vnion or Dependence efficacious Which will easily be conceiv'd in the Sequel of this Work Quis enim bene se inspiciens non expertus est tanto se aliquid intellexisse sincerius quanto removere atque subducere intentionem mentis a corporis sensibus potuit Aug. de Immort Anim. c. 10. Principium creaturae intellectualis est aeterna sapientia quod principium manens in se incommutabiliter nullo modo cessat occulta inspiratione vocationis loqui ei creaturae cui principium est ut convertatur ad id ex quo est quod aliter formata ac perfecta esse non possit Lib. 1. de Gen. ad Litter Ch. 50. Scimus quoniam cum apparuerit similes ei erimus quoniam
affords us the Enjoyment of him as far as we are capable of it in this Life whereas the Blindness of the Mind and the Depravation of the Heart make our Imperfection and are the Results of the Union of our Soul and Body as I have proved in several Places shewing that we never know the Truth nor love the real Good when we follow the Impressions of our Senses Imaginations and Passions All this is evident and yet Men who all passionately desire the Perfection of their Being care but little to increase the Union which they have with God nay they are continually at work to strengthen and enlarge that which they have with sensible things The Cause of that surprizing Disorder cannot be too much explain'd The Possession of Good must naturally produce two Effects in the Possessour at once must render him more perfect and more happy however it does not always fall out so 'T is impossible indeed that the Mind should actually enjoy a Good without being actually more perfect but it may happen that it actually enjoys it without being actually happier Those that know Truth best and love most the most lovely Goods are always actually more perfect than those that live in blind Ignorance and disorderly Practice but they are not always actually happier It is even so with Evil it ought at once to make both imperfect and unhappy but though it always makes Men more imperfect yet it does not always make them more unhappy or at least makes them not unhappy proportionably to its making them imperfect Vertue is often bitter and distastful whereas Vice is sweet and pleasant so that it is especially by Faith and Hope that pious Men are truly happy whilst the wicked have the actual Enjoyments of Pleasures and Delights It ought not to be so indeed but however it is so Sin has brought forth that Disorder as I said in the foregoing Chapter and that Disorder is the principal Cause not only of the Corruption of our Morals but also of the Ignorance and Darkness of our Mind By that Disorder it is that our Imagination persuades it self that Bodies may be the Good of the Mind For Pleasure as I have often said is the sensible Character or Mark of Good But now of all the Pleasures we enjoy upon Earth the most sensible are those which we imagine to receive by the Body We judge though too inconsiderately without doubt that Bodies can be and are effectually our Good And 't is so hard to oppose the Instinct of Nature and to withstand the Arguments of the Senses that the design of it does not so much as come into our Mind We think not on the Disorders introduc'd by Sin We consider not that Bodies can act upon the Mind but as occasional Causes that the Mind cannot immediately or by it self enjoy any Corporeal thing and that all the ways it has of uniting to an Object are by its Knowledge and Love that God only is superiour to it can reward or punish it by Sensations of Pleasure or Pain that can enlighten and move it in a word act upon it Those Truths though most evident to attentive Minds are not however so powerful to convince us as is the deceiving Experience of a sensible Impression When we consider something as part of our selves or look on our selves as a part of that thing we judge it our Good to be united to it we love it and this love is so much the greater as the thing whereunto we think our selves united seems to be a more considerable part of the whole we make up together with it Now there are two sorts of Proofs which persuade us that a thing is part of our self viz. the Instinct of Sensation and the Evidence of Reason By the Instinct of Sensation I am persuaded that my Soul is united to my Body or that my Body makes part of my Being but I have no full Evidence of it since I know it not by the light of Reason but by the Pain or Pleasure I feel at the presence and impression of Objects My Hand is prick'd I suffer Pain thence I conclude that my Hand makes part of my self my Cloaths are rent and I endure nothing therefore I say my Cloaths are not my self my Hair is cut without Pain but cannot be pluck'd up without smart that puzzles the Philosopher and he knows not what to determine In the mean while this perplexity shows that even the wisest rather judge by the instinct of Sensation than by the light of Reason that such or such things belong or belong not to themselves For should they determine them by Evidence and the light of Reason they would quickly know that the Mind and the Body are two sorts of Beings altogether opposite that the Mind cannot be united to the Body by it self and that the Soul is wounded when the Body is struck only because of her Union with God 'T is then only by the Instinct of the Sensation that we look on our Body and all the sensible things to which we are united as part of our selves that is as belonging to that which thinks and feels in us For what is not cannot be known by evident Reason since Evidence discovers Truth alone But on the contrary 't is by the light of Reason that we know the Relation we have with Intellectual things We discover by a clear View of the Mind that we are united to God in a more strict and essential manner than to our Body that without him we are nothing and neither can doe nor know neither will nor be sensible of any thing that he is our All or if we may so speak that we make up a whole with him of which we are but an infinitely small part The light of Reason discovers us a thousand Motives to love God only and to dispise Bodies as unworthy of our Love But we are not naturally sensible of our Union to God nor persuaded that he is our All by the Instinct of sense 't is only the Grace of our Lord which produces in some Men that spiritual sense to help them to overcome the contrary Sensations by which they are united to their Body For God as the Author of Nature inclines Minds to the love of him by a Knowledge of Illumination and not of Instinct and in all probability 't is but since the Fall that God as the Author of Grace has superadded Instinct to Illumination because our light is at present so mightily impair'd as to be incapable of bringing us to God being besides continually weakn'd by contrary pleasure or instinct and rendred ineffectual We therefore discover by the light of the Mind that we are united to God and to the intellectual World which he contains and are convinced by Sensation that we are united to our Body and by it to the material and sensible World God has Created But as our Sensations are more lively moving frequent and lasting than our Illuminations so 't