Policy of that Country when he proceeded in this manner There are others who keep Publick-house after a far different manner When one is about to be gone they demand proportionably to the Charges an Acquittance for the other World and when that is given them they write down in a great Register which they call Doomsday's Book much after this manner Item The value of so many Verses delivered such a Day to such a Person which he is to pay upon the receipt of this Acquittance out of his readiest Cash And when they find themselves in danger of Death they cause these Registers to be Chopt in pieces and swallow them down because they believe that if they were not thus digested they would be good for nothing This Conversation was no hinderance to our Journey for my Four-legged Porter jogged on under me and I rid stradling on his Back I shall not be particular in relating to you all the Adventures that happened to us on our way till we arrived at length at the Town where the King holds his Residence I was no sooner come but they carryed me to the Palace where the Grandees received me with more Moderation than the People had done as I passed the Streets But both great and small concluded That without doubt I was the Female of the Queen 's little Animal My Guide was my Interpreter and yet he himself understood not the Riddle and knew not what to make of that little Animal of the Queen's but we were soon satisfied as to that for the King having some time considered me ordered it to be brought and about half an hour after I saw a company of Apes wearing Ruffs and Breeches come in and amongst them a little Man almost of my own Built for he went on Two Legs so soon as he perceived me he Accosted me with a Criado de vuestra merced I answered his Greeting much in the same Terms But alas no sooner had they seen us talk together but they believed their Conjecture to be true and so indeed it seemed for he of all the By-standers that past the most favourable Judgment upon us protested that our Conversation was a Chattering we kept for Joy at our meeting again That little Man told me that he was an European a Native of old Castille That he had found a means by the help of Birds to mount up to the World of the Moon where then we were That falling into the Queen's Hands she had taken him for a Monkey because Fate would have it so That in that Country they cloath Apes in a Spanish Dress and that upon his arrival being found in that habit she had made no doubt but he was of the same kind It could not otherwise be replied I but having tried all Fashions of Apparel upon them none were found so Ridiculous and by consequence more becoming a kind of Animals which are only entertained for Pleasure and Diversion That shews you little understand the Dignity of our Nation answered he for whom the Universe breeds Men only to be our Slaves and Nature produces nothing but objects of Mirth and Laughter He then intreated me to tell him how I durst be so bold as to Scale the Moon with the Machine I told him of I answered That it was because he had carried a way the Birds which I intended to have made use of He smiled at this Raillery and about a quarter of an hour after the King commanded the Keeper of the Monkeys to carry us back with express Orders to make the Spaniard and me lie together that we might procreate a breed of Apes in his Kingdom The King's Pleasure was punctually obeyed at which I was very glad for the satisfaction I had of having a Mate to converse with during the solitude of my Brutification One Day my Male for I was taken for the Female told me That the true reason which had obliged him to travel all over the Earth and at length to abandon it for the Moon was that he could not find so much as one Country where even Imagination was at liberty Look ye said he how the Wittiest thing you can say unless you wear a Cornered Cap if it thwart the Principles of the Doctors of the Robe you are an Ideot a Fool and something worse perhaps I was about to have been put into the Inquisition at home for maintaining to the Pedants Teeth That there was a Vacuum and that I knew no one matter in the World more Ponderous than another I asked him what probable Arguments he had to confirm so new an Opinion To evince that answered he you must suppose that there is but one Element for though we see Water Earth Air and Fire distinct yet are they never found to be so perfectly pure but that there still remains some Mixture For example When you behold Fire it is not Fire but Air much extended the Air is but Water much dilated Water is but liquified Earth and the Earth it self but condensed Water and thus if you weigh Matter seriously you 'll find it is but one which like an excellent Comedian here below acts all Parts in all sorts of Dresses Otherwise we must admit as many Elements as there are kinds of Bodies And if you ask me why Fire burns and Water cools since it is but one and the same matter I answer That that matter acts by Sympathy according to the Disposition it is in at the time when it acts Fire which is nothing but Earth also more dilated than is fit for the constitution of Air strives to change into it self by Sympathy what ever it meets with Thus the heat of Coals being the most subtile Fire and most proper to penetrate a Body at first slides through the pores of our Skin and because it is a new matter that fills us it makes us exhale in Sweat that Sweat dilated by the Fire is converted to a Steam and becomes Air that Air being farther rarified by the heat of the Antiperistasis or of the Neighbouring Stars is called Fire and the Earth abandoned by the Cold and Humidity which were Ligaments to the whole falls to the ground Water on the other hand though it no ways differ from the matter of Fire but in that it is closer burns us not because that being dense by Sympathy it closes up the Bodies it meets with and the Cold we feel is no more but the effect of our Flesh contracting it self because of the Vicinity of Earth or Water which constrains it toa Resemblance Hence it is that those who are troubled with a Dropsie convert all their nourishment into Water and the Cholerick convert all the Blood that is formed in their Liver into Choler It being then supposed that there is but one Element it is most certain that all Bodies according to their several qualities incline equally towards the Center of the Earth But you 'll ask me Why then does Iron Metal Earth and Wood descend more swiftly to the
Center than a Sponge if it be not that it is full of Air which naturally tends upwards That is not at all the Reason and thus I make it out Though a Rock fall with greater Rapidity than a Feather both of them have the same inclination for the Journey but a Cannon Bullet for instance where the Earth pierced through would precipitate with greater haste to the Center thereof than a Bladder full of Wind and the reason is because that mass of Metal is a great deal of Earth contracted into a little space and that Wind a very little Earth in a large space For all the parts of Matter being so closely joined together in the Iron encrease their force by their Union because being thus compacted they are many that Fight against a few seeing a parcel of Air equal to the Bullet in Bigness is not equal in Quantity Not to insist on a long Deduction of Arguments to prove this tell me in good earnest How a Pike a Sword or a Dagger wound us If it be not because the Steel being a matter wherein the parts are more continuous and more closely knit together than your Flesh is whose Pores and Softness shew that it contains but very little Matter within a great extent of Place and that the point of the Steel that pricks us being almost an innumerable number of Particles of matter against a very little Flesh it forces it to yeild to the stronger in the same manner as a Squadron in close order will easily break through a more open Battallion for why does a Bit of red hot Iron burn more than a Log of Wood all on Fire Unless it be that in the Iron there is more Fire in a small space seeing it adheres to all the parts of the Metal than in the Wood which being very Spongy by consequence contains a great deal of Vacuity and that Vacuity being but a Privation of Being cannot receive the form of Fire But you 'll object you suppose a Vacuum as if you had proved it and that 's begging of the question Well then I 'll prove it and though that difficulty be the Sister of the Gordian knot yet my Arms are strong enough to become its Alexander Let that vulgar Beast then who does not think it self a Man had it not been told so answer me if it can Suppose now there be but one Matter as I think I have sufficiently peoved whence comes it that according to its Appetite it enlarges or contracts its self whence is it that a piece of Earth by being Condensed becomes a Stone Is it that the parts of that Stone are placed one with another in such a manner that wherever that grain of Sand is settled even there or in the same point another grain of Sand is Lodged That cannot be no not according to their own Principles seeing there is no Penetration of Bodies But that matter must have crowded together and if you will abridged it self so that it hath filled some place which was empty before To say that it is incomprehensible that there should be a Nothing in the World that we are in part made up of Nothing Why not pray Is not the whold World wrapt up in Nothing Since you yield me this point then confess ingeniously that it 's as rational that the World should have a Nothing within it as Nothing about it I well perceive you 'll put the question to me Why Water compressed in a Vessel by the Frost should break it if it be not to hinder a Vacuity But I answer That that only happens because the Air over-head which as well as Earth and Water tends to the Center meeting with an empty Tun by the way takes up his Lodging there If it find the pores of that Vessel that 's to say the ways that lead to that void place too narrow too long and too crooked with impatience it breaks through and arrives at its Tun. But not to trifle away time in answering all their objections I dare be bold to say That if there were no Vacuity there could be no Motion or else a Penetration of Bodies must be admitted for it would be a little too ridiculous to think that when a Gnat pushes back a parcel of Air with its Wings that parcel drives another before it that other another still and that so the stirring of the little Toe of a Flea should raise a bunch upon the Back of the Universe When they are at a stand they have recourse to Rarefaction But in good earnest How can it be when a Body is rarified that one Particle of the Mass does recede from another Particle without leaving an empty Space betwixt them must not the two Bodies which are just separated have been at the same time in the same place of this and that so they must have all three penetrated each other I expect you 'll ask me why through a Reed a Syringe or a Pump Water is forced to ascend contrary to its inclination To which I answer That that 's by violence and that it is not the fear of a Vacuity that turns it out of the right way but that being linked to the Air by an imperceptible Chain it rises when the Air to which it is joined is raised That 's no such knotty Difficulty when one knows the perfect Circle and the delicate Concatenation of the Elements For if you attentively consider the Slime which joines the Earth and Water together in Marriage you 'll find that it is neither Earth nor Water but the Mediator betwixt these Two Enemies In the same manner the Water and Air reciprocally send a Mist that dives into the Humours of both to negotiate a Peace betwixt them and the Air is reconciled to the Fire by means of an interposing Exhalation which Unites them I believe he would have proceeded in his Discourse had they not brought us our Victuals and seeing we were a hungry I stopt my Ears to his discourse and opened my Stomack to the Food they gave us I remember another time when we were upon our Philosophy for neither of us took pleasure to Discourse of mean things I am vexed said he to see a Wit of your stamp infected with the Errors of the Vulgar You must know then in spight of the Pedantry of Aristotle with which your Schools in France still ring That every thing is in every thing that 's to say for instance That in the Water there is Fire in the Fire Water in the Air Earth and in the Earth Air Though that Opinion makes Scholars open their Eyes as big as Sawcers yet it is easier to prove it than perswade it For I ask them in the first place if Water does not breed Fish If they deny it let them dig a Pit fill it with meer Element and to prevent all blind Objections let them if they please strain it through a Strainer and I 'll oblige my self in case they find no Fish therein within a
Star you take for a Sun discover above themselves other fixed Stars which we cannot perceive from hence and so others in that manner in infinitum Never question replied I but as God could create the Soul Immortal He could also make the World Infinite if so it be that Eternity is nothing else but an illimited Duration and an infinite a boundless Extension And then God himself would be Finite supposing the World not to be infinite seeing he cannot be where nothing is and that he could not encrease the greatness of the World without adding somewhat to his own Being by beginning to exist where he did not exist before We must believe then that as from hence we see Saturn and Jupiter if we were in either of the Two we should discover a great many Worlds which we perceive not and that the Universe extends so in infinitum I' faith replied he when you have said all you can I cannot at all comprehend that Infinitude Good now replied I to him do you comprehend the Nothing that is beyond it Not at all For when you think of that Nothing you imagine it at least to be like Wind or Air and that is a Being But if you conceive not an Infinite in general you comprehend it at least in particulars seeing it is not difficult to fancy to our selves beyond the Earth Air and Fire which we see other Air and other Earth and other Fire Now Infinitude is nothing else but a boundless Series of all these But if you ask me How these Worlds have been made seeing Holy Scripture speaks only of one that God made My answer is That I have no more to say For to oblige me to give a Reason for every thing that comes into my Imagination is to stop my Mouth and make me confess that in things of that nature my Reason shall always stoop to Faith. He ingeniously acknowledged to me that his Question was to be censured but bid me pursue my notion So that I went on and told him That all the other Worlds which are not seen or but imperfectly believed are no more but the Scum that purges out of the Suns For how could these great Fires subsist without some matter that served them for Fewel Now as the Fire drives from it the Ashes that would stifle it or the Gold in a Crucible separates from the Marcasite and Dross and is refined to the highest Standard nay and as our Stomack discharges it self by vomit of the Crudities that oppress it even so these Suns daily evacuate and reject the Remains of matter that might incommode their Fire But when they have wholly consumed that matter which entertains them you are not to doubt but they spread themselves abroad on all sides to seek for fresh Fewel and fasten upon the Worlds which heretofore they have made and particularly upon those that are nearest Then these great Fires reconcocting all the Bodies will as formerly force them out again Pell-mell from all parts and being by little and little purified they 'll begin to serve for Suns to other little Worlds which they procreate by driving them out of their Spheres And that without doubt made the Pythagoreans foretel the universal Conflagration This is no ridiculous Imagination for New-France where we are gives us a very convincing instance of it The vast Continent of America is one half of the Earth which in spight of our Predecessors who a Thousand times had cruised the Ocean was not at that time discovered Nor indeed was it then in being no more than a great many Islands Peninsules and Mountains that have since started up in our Globe when the Sun purged out its Excrements to a convenient distance and sufficient Gravity to be attracted by the Center of our World either in small Particles perhaps or it may be also altogether in one lump That is not so unreasonable but that St. Austin would have applauded to it if that Country had been discovered in his Age. Seeing that great Man who had a very clear Wit assures us That in his time the Earth was flat like the floor of an Oven and that it floated upon the Water like the half of an Orange But if ever I have the honour to see you in France I 'll make you observe by means of a most excellent Celescope that some Obscurities which from hence appear to be Spots are Worlds a forming My Eyes that shut with this Discourse obliged the Vice-Roy to withdraw Next Day and the Days following we had some Discourses to the same purpose But some time after since the hurry of Affairs suspended our Philosophy I fell afresh upon the design of mounting up to the Moon So soon as she was up I walked about musing in the Woods how I might manage and succeed in my Enterprise and at length on St. John's-Eve when they were at Council in the Fort whether they should assist the Wild Natives of the Country a-against the Iroqueans I went all alone to the top of a little Hill at the back of our Habitation where I put in Practice what you shall hear I had made a Machine which I fancied might carry me up as high as I pleased so that nothing seeming to be wanting to it I placed my self within and from the Top of a Rock threw my self in the Air But because I had not taken my measures aright I fell with a sosh in the Valley below Bruised as I was however I returned to my Chamber without loosing courage and with Beef-Marrow I anointed my Body for I was all over mortified from Head to Foot Then having taken a dram of Cordial Waters to strengthen my Heart I went back to look for my Machine but I could not find it for some Soldiers that had been sent into the Forest to cut wood for a Bonefire meeting with it by chance had carried it with them to the Fort Where after a great deal of guessing what it might be when they had discovered the invention of the Spring some said that a good many Fire-Works should be fastened to it because their Force carrying them up on high and the Machine playing its large Wings no Body but would take it for a Fiery Dragon In the mean time I was long in search of it but found it at length in the middle of the Market-place of Kebeck just as they were setting Fire to it I was so transported with Grief to find the Work of my Hands in so great Peril that I ran to the Souldier that was giving Fire to it caught hold of his Arm pluckt the Match out of his Hand and in great rage threw my self into my Machine that I might undo the Fire-Works that they had stuck about it but I came too late for hardly were both my Feet within when whip away went I up in a Cloud The Horror and Consternation I was in did not so confound the faculties of my Soul but I have since remembred all that happened
certain time to drink up all the Water they have poured into it But if they find Fish as I make no doubt on 't it is a convincing Argument that there is both Salt and Fire there Consequentially now to find Water in Fire I take it to be no difficult Task For let them chuse Fire even that which is most abstracted from Matter as Comets are there is a great deal in them still seeing if that Unctuous Humour whereof they are engendred being reduced to a Sulphur by the heat of the Antiperistasis which kindles them did not find a curb of its Violence in the humid Cold that qualifies and resists it it would spend it self in a trice like Lightning Now that there is Air in the Earth they will not deny it or otherwise they have never heard of the terrible Earth-quakes that have so often shaken the Mountains of Sicily Besides the Earth is full of Pores even to the least grains of Sand that compass it Nevertheless no Man hath as yet said that these Hollows were filled with Vacuity It will not be taken amiss then I hope if the Air takes up its quarters there It remains to be proved that there is Earth in the Air but I think it scarcely worth my pains seeing you are convinced of it as often as you see such numberless Legions of Atomes fall upon your heads as even stiffle Arithmetick But let us pass from simple to compound Bodies they 'll furnish me with much more frequent Subjects and to demonstrate that all things are in all things not that they change into one another as your Peripateticks Juggle for I will maintain to their Teeth that the Principles mingle separate and mingle again in such a manner that that hath been made Water by the Wise Creator of the World will always be Water I shall suppose no Maxime as they do but what I prove And therefore take a Billet or any other combustible stuff and set Fire to it they 'll say when it is in a Flame That what was Wood is now become Fire but I maintain the contrary and that there is no more Fire in it when it is all in Flame than before it was kindled but that which before was hid in the Billet and by the Humidity and Cold hindered from acting being now assisted by the Stronger hath rallied its forces against the Phlegm that choaked it and commanding the Field of Battle that was possessed by its Enemy triumphs over his Jaylor and appears without Fetters Don't you see how the Water flees out at the two ends of the Billet hot and smoaking from the Fight it was engaged in That flame which you see rise on high is the purer Fire unpestered from the Matter and by consequence the readiest to return home to it self Nevertheless it Unites it self by tapering into a Piramide till it rise to a certain height that it may pierce through the thick Humidity of the Air which resists it but as in mounting it disengages it self by little and little from the violent company of its Landlords so it diffuses it self because then it meets with nothing that thwarts its passage which negligence though is many times the cause of a second Captivity For marching stragglingly it wanders sometimes into a Cloud and if it meet there with a Party of its own sufficient to make head against a Vapour they Engage Grumble Thunder and Roar and the Death of Innocents is many times the effect of the animated Rage of those inanimated Things If when it finds it self pestered among those Crudities of the middle Region it is not strong enough to make a defence it yields to its Enemy upon discretion which by its weight constrains it to fall again to the Earth And this Wretch inclosed in a drop of Rain may perhaps fall at the Foot of an Oak whose Animal Fire will invite the poor Straggler to take a Lodging with him and thus you have it in the same condition again as it was a few Days before But let us trace the Fortune of the other Elements that composed that Billet The Air retreats to its own Quarters also though blended with Vapours because the Fire all in a rage drove them briskly out Pell-mell together Now you have it serving the Winds for a Tennis-ball furnishing Breath to Animals filling up the Vacuities that Nature hath left and it may be also wrapt up in a drop of Dew suckling the thirsty Leaves of that Tree whither our Fire retreated The Water driven from its Throne by the Flame being by the heat elevated to the Nursery of the Meteors will distil again in Rain upon our Oak as soon as upon another and the Earth being turned to Ashes and then cured of its Sterility either by the nourishing Heat of a Dunghill on which it hath been thrown or by the vegetative Salt of some neighbouring Plants or by the teeming Waters of some Rivers may happen also to be near this Oak which by the heat of its Germ will attract it and convert it into a part of its bulk In this manner these Four Elements undergo the same Destiny and return to the same State which they quitted but a few days before So that it may be said that all that 's necessary for the composition of a Tree is in a Man and in a Tree all that 's necessary for making of a Man. In fine according to this way all things will be found in all things but we want a Prometheus to pluck us out of the Bosom of Nature and render us sensible which I am willing to call the First Matter These were the things I think with which we past the time for that little Spaniard had a quaint Wit. Our conversation however was only in the Night time because from Six a clock in the morning until night Crowds of the People that came to stare at us in our Lodging would have disturbed us For some threw us Stones others Nuts and others Grass there was no talk but of the Kings Beasts we had our Victuals daily at set hours and the King and Queen took the pains often to feel my Belly to see if I did not begin to swell for they had an extraordinary desire to have a Race of these little Animals I cannot tell whether it was that I minded their Gestures and Tones more than my Male did But I learnt sooner than he to understand their Language and to smatter a little in it which made us to be lookt upon in another guess manner than formerly and the news thereupon flew presently all over the Kingdom that two Wild Men had been found who were less than other Men by reason of the bad Food we had had in the Desarts and who through a defect of their Parents Seed had not the fore Legs strong enough to support their Bodies This belief would have taken rooting by being spread had it not been for the Learned Men of the Country who opposed it saying
Operation of the Senses which no Body hitherto hath been able to conceive but I will easily explain by these little Bodies Let us begin with the Sight It deserves as being the most incomprehensible our first Essay It is performed then as I imagine when the Tunicles of the Eye whose Pores resemble those of Glass transmitting that fiery Dust which is called Visual Rays the same is stopt by some opacous Matter which makes it recoil and then meeting in its retreat the Image of the Object that forced it back and that Image being but an infinite number of little Bodies exhaled in an equal Superfice from the Object beheld it pursues it to our Eye You 'll not fail to Object I know that Glass is an Opacous Body and very Compact and that nevertheless instead of reflecting other Bodies it lets them pass through But I answer that the Pores of Glass are shaped in the same Figure as those Atomes are which pass through it and as a Wheat-Sieve is not proper for Sifting of Oats nor an Oat-Sieve to Sift Wheat so a Box of Deal-Board though it be thin and lets a sound go through it is impenetrable to the Sight and a piece of Chrystal though transparent and pervious to the Eye is not penetrable to the Touch. I could not here forbear to interrupt him A great Poet and Philosopher of our World said I hath after Epicurus and Democritus spoken of these little Bodies in the same manner almost as you do and therefore you don't at all surprise me by that Discourse Only tell me I pray as you proceed how according to your Principles you 'll explain to me the manner of drawing your Picture in a Looking-Glass That 's very easie replied he for imagine with your self that those Fires of our Eyes having passed through the Glass and meeting behind it an Opacous Body that reverberates them they come back the way they went and finding those little Bodies marching in equal Superfices upon the Glass they repel them to our Eyes and our Imagination hotter than the other Faculties of our Soul attracts the more subtile wherewith it draws our Picture in little It is as easie to conceive the Act of Hearing and for Brevities sake let us only consider it in the Harmony of a Lute touched by the Hand of a Master You 'll ask me How can it be that I perceive at so great a distance a thing which I do not see Does there a Sponge go out of my Ears that drinks up that Musick and brings it back with it again Or does the Player beget in my Head another little Musician with another little Lute who has Orders like an Eccho to sing over to me the same Airs No But that Miracle proceeds from this that the String touched striking those little Bodies of which the Air is composed drives it gently into my Brain with those little Corporeal Nothings that sweetly pierce into it and according as the String is stretched the Sound is high because it more vigorously drives the Atomes and the Organ being thus penetrated furnisheth the Fancy wherewith to make a Representation if too little then our Memory not having as yet finished its Image we are forced to repeat the same sound to it again to the end it may take enough of Materials which for Instance the Measures of a Saraband furnish it with for finishing the Picture of that Saraband but that Operation is nothing near so wonderful as those others which by the help of the same Organ excite us sometimes to Joy sometimes to Anger And this happens when in that motion these little Bodies meet with other little Bodies within us moving in the same manner or whose Figure renders them susceptible of the same Agitation for then these New-comers stir up their Landlords to move as they do thus when a violent Air meets with the Fire of our Blood it inclines it to the same Motion and animates it to a Sally which is the thing we call Heat of Courage if the Sound be softer and have only force enough to raise a less Flame in greater Agitation by leading it along the Nerves Membranes and through the interstices of our Flesh it excites that Tickling which is called Joy And so it happens in the Ebullition of the other Passions according as these little Bodies are more or less violently tossed upon us according to the Motion they receive by the rencounter of other Agitations and according as they find Dispositions in us for motion So much for Hearing Now I think the Demonstration of Touching will be every whit as easie if we conceive that out of all palpable Matter there is a perpetual Emission of little Bodies and that the more we touch them the more evaporate because we press them out of the Subject it self as Water out of a Sponge when we squeez it The Hard make a report to the Organ of their Hardness the Soft of their Softness the Rough c. And that this is so we are not so quaint in Feeling with Hands used to Labour because of the Thickness of the Skin which being neither porous nor animated with difficulty transmits the Evaporations of Matter Some perhaps may desire to know where the Organ of Touching has its Residence For my part I think it is spread over all the Surface of the Body seeing in all parts it feels Yet I imagine that the nearer the Member wherewith we touch be to the Head the sooner we distinguish which Experience convinces us of when with shut Eyes we handle any thing for then we 'll more easily guess what it is and if on the contrary we feel it with our hinder Feet it will be harder for us to know it And the Reason is because our Skin being all over perforated our Nerves which are of no compacter Matter lose by the way a great many of those little Atomes through the little Holes of their Contexture before they reach the Brain which is their Journeys end It remains that I speak of the Smelling and Tasting Pray tell me when I taste a Fruit is it not because the Heat of my Mouth melts it Confess to me then that there being Salts in a Pear and that they being separated by Dissolution into little Bodies of a different Figure from those which make the Taste of an Apple they must needs pierce our Pallate in a very different manner Just so as the thrust of a Pike that passes through me is not like the Wound which a Pistol-Bullet makes me feel with a sudden start and as that Pistol-Bullet makes me suffer another sort of Pain than that of a Slug of Steel I have nothing to say as to the Smelling seeing the Philosophers themselves confess that it is performed by a continual Emission of little Bodies Now upon the same Principle will I explain to you the Creation Harmony and Influence of the Celestial Globes with the immutable Variety of Meteors He was about to proceed but
may be seen daily not to Rot but to fall into Particles like Red Ashes Death never happens but in this manner The Animal then being expired or to say better extinct the little igneous Bodies that made up his substance enter into the gross matter of this burning World until Chance hath watered them with the Liquor of the Three Rivers for then becoming moveable by their Fluidity that they may quickly exert the Faculties of which that Water hath given them an obscure Knowledge they fasten together into threads and by a Flux of Luminous points sharpen themselves into Beams and then disperse into the Neighbouring Spheres where they are no sooner wafted but they themselves dispose the matter as much as they can into a Form proper for the exerting all the functions whereof they have contracted an Instinct in the Water of the Three Rivers the Five Fountains and the Lake and therefore they suffer themselves to be attracted to Plants for Vegetation the Plants suffer themselves to be brouzed upon by Animals for Sensation and the Animals suffer themselves to be eaten by Men that so being converted into their substance they may repair the Three Faculties of Memory Imagination and Judgment of whose power the Rivers of the Sun had given them a Fore-taste Now according as the Atomes have been more or less soaked in the Liquor of these Three Rivers they furnish Animals with more or less Memory Imagination or Judgment and according as in the Three Rivers they have inbibed more or less of the Liquor of the Five Fountains and of the Lake they form to them Senses more or less perfect and produce Souls more or less drowzy This is in a manner what we observed concerning the nature of these Three Rivers Little scattered veines of them may be met with every where but as for the principal Branches they run with a streight course to the Province of Philosophers And therefore we returned to the high way again not leaving the Current wide of us farther than it was necessary to get upon the Causey We saw the Three great Rivers always running by our side but for the Five Fountains we beheld them turning and winding below in the Meadows That 's a very pleasant Road though it be solitary the Air there is pure and thin which nourishes the Soul and makes it reign over the Passions At the end of Five or Six days Journey as we were diverting our sight with the various and rich Prospects of the Country we heard a languishing Voice like the groaning of a sick Person We drew near the place from whence we judged it might come and found upon the brink of the River Imagination an old Man fallen backwards who complained grievously Tears of compassion came into my Eyes and Pity obliged me to ask the poor wretch what he ailed That Man answered Campanella turning towards me is a Philosopher reduced to Extremity For we die oftner than once and seeing we are but parts of this Universe we change our form that we may go Live elsewhere which is not a Misfortune since it is a way to perfect ones Being and to attain to an infinite number of Sciences His distemper is that which makes all great Men for the most part to die His Discourse obliged me to consider the Patient more attentively and at the first glance I perceived that his Head was as big as a Tun and open in many places Come come said Campanella to me pulling me by the Arm all the assistance that we may think we could give to this dying Man would be unprofitable and only trouble him the more Let 's Jog on for indeed his Evil is Incurable The Swelling of his Head proceeds from the Restlessness of his Mind for though the Ideas wherewith he has filled the Three Organs or the Three Ventricles of his Brain be but very small Images yet they are Corporeal and by consequence capable of filling a great place when they are very numerous Now you must know That that Philosopher hath so dilated his brain by stuffing it with notion upon notion that being unable longer to contain them it hath burst That way of dying is common to great Genies and it is called To crack with Wit. We marched on still discoursing and what presented first to our view furnished us with matter of Conversation I should have been very willing though to have left the obscure Regions of the Sun and gone again into the Luminous for the Reader must know That all the Countries are not Diaphanous there are some of them that are obscure like those of our World and which were it not for the light of the Sun that is perceived beyond them would be covered with Darkness Now proportionably as one enters into the obscure Regions he insensibly becomes so himself and in the same manner when one approaches the transparent he perceives himself stript of that somber Obscurity by the vigorous Irradiation of the Climate I remember that upon occasion of this earnest desire I had I asked Campanella if the Province of Philosophers was resplendent or darkish It is more darkish than resplendent answered he For as we still Sympathize much with the Earth our native Country which of its own nature is Opacous so we could not fit our selves in the clearer Regions of this Globe Nevertheless by a vigorous bending of the Will we can render our selves Diaphanous when we have a mind to it Nay and most part of the Philosophers do not speak with the Tongue but when they have a mind to communicate their Thoughts they purge themselves by the Ejaculations of their Fancy of a somber Vapour under which commonly they keep their Conceptions covered and so soon as they have remanded to its place that obscurity of the Spleen which darkened them seeing their Body is then Diaphanous one may perceive through their Brain what they remember what they imagine what they judge and in their Liver and Heart what they desire and what they resolve For though these little Pictures be more imperceptible than any thing that we can devise yet in this World our Eyes are clear-sighted enough easily to distinguish even the smallest Ideas Thus when any of us would discover to his Friend the Affection he has for him his Heart is perceived to dart out Beams as far as his Memory upon the Image of him he Loves And when on the contrary he would testifie his Aversion his Heart is seen to Thunder against the Image of him he hates storms of burning Sparks and to retreat backward as far as it can In the same manner when he speaks within himself the Ideas are clearly to be observed that 's to say The Characters of every thing he meditates upon which by rising and falling imprinting and effacing present to the Eyes of the Beholder not an articulated Discourse but a History of all his thoughts in taille-doux My Guide would have gone on but he was diverted by an Accident