Likewise do not Fruits Roots Flowers and Herbs produce Worms And do not Stones produce Fire witness the Flint And doth not Earth produce Metal 'T is true some talk of the seed of Metals but who with all his diligent observations could find it out as yet Wherefore it is in my opinion not probable that Minerals are produced by way of seeds Neither can I perceive that any of the Elements is produced by seed unless Fire which seems to my sense and reason to encrease numerously by its seed but not any other of the Elements And thus productions are almost as various as Creatures or rather parts of Creatures are for we see how many productions there are in one animal body as the production of flesh bones marrow brains gristles veines sinews blood and the like and all this comes from Food and Food from some other Creatures but all have their original from the onely matter and the various motions of Nature And thus in my opinion all things are made easily and not by such constrained ways as your Author describes by Gas Blas Ideas and the like for I am confident Nature has more various ways of producing natural things then any Creature is able to conceive I 'le give another example of Vegetables I pray you but to consider Madam how many several ways Vegetables are produced as some by seeds some by slips some by grafts c. The graft infuses and commixes with the whole stock and the branches and these do the like with the graft As for example an Apple grafted in Colewort produces Apples but those Apples will have a taste and sent of the Colewort which shews that several parts of several Creatures mix joyn and act together and as for seeds they are transchanged wholly and every part thereof into the produced fruit and every part of the seed makes a several production by the help of the co-working parts of the Earth which is the reason that so many seeds are produced from one single seed But Producers that waste not themselves in productions do not produce so numerously as those that do dissolve yet all Creatures increase more or less according to their supplies or assistances for seeds will encrease and multiply more in manured and sertile then in barren grounds nay if the ground be very barren no production at all will be which shews that productions come not barely from the seed but require of necessity some assistance and therefore neither Archeus nor seminal Ideas nor Gas nor Blas would do any good in Vegetables if the ground did not assist them in their generations or productions no more then a house would be built without the assistance of labourers or workmen for let the materials lie never so long surely they will never joyn together of themselves to the artificial structure of an house Wherefore since there is so much variety in the production of one kind of Creatures nay of every particular in every kind what needs Man to trouble his brain for the manner and way to describe circumstantially every particular production of every Creature by seminal or printing Ideas or any other far-fetched termes since it is impossible to be done And as for those Creatures whose producers are of two different sorts as a Mule bred of an Asse and a Horse and another Creature bred of a Cony and a Dormouse all which your Author thinks do take more after their mother then their father more after the breeder then the begetter I will not eagerly affirm the contrary although it seems to me more probable But this I can say that I have observed by experience that Faunes and Foales have taken more after the Male then after the Female for amongst many several colour'd Deer I have seen but one milk white Doe and she never brought forth a white Faun when as I have seen a white Buck beget white and speckled Faunes of black and several coloured Does Also in Foals I have observed that they have taken more after the Male then after the Female both in shape and colour And thus I express no more but what I have observed my self others may find out more examples these are sufficient for me so I leave them and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XI MADAM YOu will cease to wonder that I am not altogether capable to understand your Authors opinions in Natural Philosophy when you do but consider that his expressions are for the most part so obscure mystical and intricate as may puzzle any brain that has not the like Genius or the same Conceptions with your Author wherefore I am forced oftentimes to express my ignorance rather then to declare to you the true sense of his opinions In the number of these is his discourse of a Middle Life viz. That the qualities of a middle life do remain in things that are transchanged For I cannot understand what he means by a middle life whether it be a life that is between the strongest and weakest or whether he means a life between the time of production and dissolution or between the time of conception and production or whether he means a life that is between two sorts of substances as more then an Animal and not so high and excellent as an Angel or whether he means a middle life for places as neither in Heaven nor in Hell but in Purgatory or neither in nor out of the world or any other kind of life Wherefore I 'le leave this Hermaphroditical or neutral life to better understandings then mine Likewise I must confess my disability of conceiving the overshadowing of his Archeus and how it brings this middle life into its first life For concerning Generation I know of none that is performed by overshadowing except it be the miraculous conception of the blessed Virgin as Holy Writ informs us and I hope your Author will not compare his Archeus to the Holy Spirit But how a middle life may be brought again into the first life is altogether unconceivable to me And so is that when he says that the first life of the Fruit is the last of the seed for I cannot imagine that the seed dies in the fruit but in my opinion it lives rather in the fruit and is numerously increased as appears by the production of seed from the fruit But the most difficult of all to be understood are his Ideas which he makes certain seminal Images Formal Lights and operative means whereby the soul moves and governs the body whose number and variety is so great as it transcends my capacity there being Ideas of Inclination of Affection of Consideration or Judgment of Passion and these either mild or violent besides a great number of Archeal and forreign Ideas Truly Madam I cannot admire enough the powerful effects of these Ideas they themselves being no substances or material Creatures For how that can pierce seal and print a figure which hath neither substance nor matter my
insomuch as none would escape but by miracle epecially if dangerously hurt Concerning the Coveteousness of Physicians although sickness is chargeable yet I think it is not Charitable to say or to think that Physitians regard more their Profit then their Patients health for we might as well condemn Divines for taking their Tithes and Stipends as Physicians for taking their Fees but the holy Writ tells us that a Labourer is Worthy of his hire or reward and for my part I think those commit a great sin which repine at giving Rowards in any kind for those that deserve well by their endeavours ought to have their rewards and such Meritorious Persons I wish with all my Soul may prosper and thrive Nevertheless as for those persons which for want of means are not able to reward their Physicians I think Physicians will not deal so unconscionably as to neglect their health and lives for want of their Fees but expect the reward from God and be recompenced the better by those that have Wealth enough to spare And this good opinion I have of them So leaving them I rest MADAM Your constant Friend and faithful Servant XXIX MADAM I Am of your Authors mind That heat is not the cause of digestion but I dissent from him when he says That it is the Ferment of the stomach that doth cause it For in my opinion Digestion is onely made by regular digestive motions and ill digestion is caused by irregular motions and when those motions are weak then there is no digestion at all but what was received remains unaltered but when they are strong and quick then they make a speedy digestion You may ask me what are digestive motions I answer They are transchanging or transforming motions but since there be many sorts of transchanging motions digestive motions are those which transchange food into the nourishment of the body and dispose properly fitly and usefully of all the Parts of the food as well of those which are converted into nourishment as of those which are cast forth For give me leave to tell you Madam that some parts of natural Matter do force or cause other parts of Matter to move and work according to their will without any change or alteration of their parts as for example Fire and Metal for Fire will cause Metal to flow but it doth not readily alter it from its nature of being Metal neither doth Fire alter its nature from being Fire And again some parts of Matter will cause other parts to work and act to their own will by forcing these over-powred parts to alter their own natural motions into the motions of the victorious Party and so transforming them wholly into their own Figure as for example Fire will cause Wood to move so as to take its figure to wit the figure of Fire that is to change its own figurative motions into the motions of Fire and this latter kind of moving or working is found in digestion for the regular digestive motions do turn all food received from its own nature or figure into the nourishment figure or nature of the body as into flesh blood bones and the like But when several parts of Matter meet or joyn with equal force and power then their several natural motions are either quite altered or partly mixt As for example some received things not agreeing with the natural constitution of the body the corporeal motions of the received and those of the receiver do dispute or oppose each other for the motions of the received not willing to change their nature conformable to the desire of the digestive motions do resist and then a War begins whereby the body suffers most for it causes either a sickness in the stomack or a pain in the head or in the heart or in the bowels or the like Nay if the received food gets an absolute victory it dissolves and alters oftentimes the whole body it self remaining intire and unaltered as is evident in those that die of surfeits But most commonly these strifes and quarrels if violent do alter and dissolve each others forms or natures And many times it is not the fault of the Received but of the Receiver as for example when the digestive and transforming motions are either irregular or weak for they being too weak or too few the meat or food received is digested onely by halves and being irregular it causes that which we call corruption But it may be observed that the Received food is either agreeable or disagreeable to the Receiver if agreeable then there is a united consent of Parts to act regularly and perfectly in digestion if disagreeable then the Received acts to the Ruine that is to the alteration or dissolution of the Nature of the Receiver but if it be neutral that is neither perfectly agreeable nor perfectly disagreeable but between both then the receiver or rather the digestive Motions of the receiver use a double strength to alter and transform the received But you may ask me Madam what the reason is that many things received after they are dissolved into small parts those parts will keep their former colour and savour I answer The cause is that either the retentive Motions in the Parts of the received are too strong for the digestive and alterative Motions of the receiver or perchance this colour and savour is so proper to them as not to be transchanged but you must observe that those digestive alterative and transchanging motions do not act or move all after one and the same manner for some do dissolve the natural figure of the received some disperse its dissolved parts into the parts of the body some place the dispersed parts fitly and properly for the use benefit and consistence of the body for there is so much variety in this one act of digestion as no man is able to conceive and if there be such variety in one Particular natural action what variety will there not be in all Nature Wherefore it is not as I mentioned in the beginning either Ferment or Heat or any other thing that causes digestion for if all the constitution and nature of our body was grounded or did depend upon Ferment then Brewers and Bakers and those that deal with Ferments would be the best Physicians But I would fain know the cause which makes Ferment You may say saltness and sowreness But then I ask From whence comes saltness and sowreness You may say From the Ferment But then I shall be as wise as before The best way perhaps may be to say with your Author that Ferment is a Primitive Cause and a beginning or Principle of other things and it self proceeds from nothing But then it is beyond my imagination how that can be a Principle of material things which it self is nothing that is neither a substance nor an accident Good Lord what a stir do men make about nothing I am amazed to see their strange Fancies and Conceptions vented for the Truest Reasons
I rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXXI MADAM YOur Author in opposition to the Schools endeavouring to prove that there are no humors in an animal body except blood proves many humors in himself But I can see no reason why Nature should not make several humors as well as several Elements Vegetables Minerals Animals and other Creatures and that in several parts of the body and many several ways for to mention but one sort of other Creatures viz. Vegetables they are as we see not onely produced many several ways but in many several grounds either by sowing setting or grafting either in clayie limy sandy chalky dry or wet grounds And why may not several humors be produced as well of other Creatures and parts as others are produced of them for all parts of Nature are produced one from another as being all of one and the same Matter onely the variation of corporeal motions makes all the difference and variety between them which variety of motions is impossible to be known by any particular Creature for Nature can do more then any Creature can conceive Truly Madam I should not be of such a mind as to oppose the Schools herein so eargerly as your Author doth but artificial actions make men to have erroneous opinions of the actions of Nature judging them all according to the rule and measure of Art when as Art oft deludes men under the cover of truth and makes them many times believe falshood for truth for Nature is pleased with variety and so doth make numerous absurdities doubts opinions disputations objections and the like Moreover your Author is as much against the radical moisture as he is against the four humors saying that according to this opinion of the Schools a fat belly through much grease affording more fuel to the radical moisture must of necessity live longer But this in my opinion is onely a wilful mistake for I am confident that the Schools do not understand radical moisture to be gross fat radical oyl but a thin oylie substance Neither do they believe radical heat to be a burning fiery and consuming heat but such a degree of natural heat as is comfortable nourishing refreshing and proper for the life of the animal Creature Wherefore radical heat and moisture doth not onely consist in the Grease of the body for a lean body may have as much and some of them more Radical moisture then fat bodies But your Author instead of this radical moisture makes a nourishable moisture onely as I suppose out of a mind to contradict the Schools when as I do not perceive that the Schools mean by Radical moisture any other then a nourishable moisture and therefore this distinction is needless Lastly he condemns the Schools for making an affinity betwixt the bowels and the brain But he might as will condemn Politicians for saying there is an affinity betwixt Governors and Subjects or betwixt command and obedience but as the actions of Particulars even from the meanest in a Common-wealth may chance to make a Publick disturbance so likewise in the Common-wealth of the body one single action in a particular part may cause a disturbance of the whole Body nay a total ruine and dissolution of the composed which dissolution is called Death and yet these causes are neither Light nor Blas nor Gas no more then men are shining Suns or flaming Torches or blazing Meteors or azure Skies Wherefore leaving your Author to his contradicting humor I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXXII MADAM I Do verily believe with the Schools the Purging of the Brain against your Author For I know no reason why all the parts of a man's body should not stand in need of evacuation and purging as well as some 'T is true if the substance or nourishment received were all useful and onely enough for the maintenance subsistance and continuance of the Creature and no more then there would be no need of such sort of evacuation but I believe the corporeal self-motions in a body discharge the superfluous matter out of every part of the body if the motions of the superfluous matter be not too strong and over-power the motions in the parts of the body but some parts do produce more superfluities then others by reason their property is more to dilate then to contract and more to attract then to retain or fix which parts are the brain stomack bowels bladder gall and the like wherefore as there is nourishment in all parts of the body so there are also excrements in all parts for there is no nourishment without excrement Next your Author says That the nourishment of the solid parts is made with the transmutation of the whole venal blood into nourishment without a separation of the pure from the impure But I pray give me leave to ask Madam whether the solid Parts are not Instruments for the nourishment of the Venal blood Truly I cannot conceive how blood should be nourished wanting those solid parts and their particular motions and imployments Again his opinion is That the brain is nourished by a few and slender veins neither doth a passage or channel appear whereby a moist excrement may derive or a vapour enter And by reason of the want of such a passage in another place he is pleased to affirm That nothing can fume up from the stomack into the brain and therefore Wine doth not make drunk with fuming from the stomach into the head but the Winie spirit is immediately snatched into the arteries out of the stomack without digestion and so into the head and there breeds a confusion First I am not of the opinion that all nourishment comes from the veins or from one particular part of the body no more do Excrements neither do I believe that every passage in the body is visible to Anatomists for Natures works are too curious and intricate for any particular Creature to find them out which is the cause that Anatomists and Chymists are so oft mistaken in natural causes and effects for certainly they sometimes believe great Errors for great Truths Next as for Drunkenness I believe that many who drink much Wine are drunk before such time as the Wine spirit can get into the Arteries but if there be Pores to the Brain as it is most probable the spirit of Wine may more easily ascend and enter those Pores then the Pores of the Arteries or the Mouth-veins and so make a circular journey to the Head But as for Excrements whereof I spake in the beginning as they are made several manners or ways and in several parts of the body so they are also discharged several ways from several parts and several ways from each particular part indeed so many several ways and manners as would puzzle the wisest man in the world nay your Authors Interior keeper of the Brain to find them out Wherefore to conclude he is the best Physician that can tell how to discharge
superfluity and to retain useful nourishments or to restore by the application of proper Medicines decaying parts or to put in order Irregular motions and not those that have Irregular opinions of Immaterial causes To which I leave them and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and humble Servant XXXIII MADAM I Do not approve of your Authors Doctrine forbidding Phlebotomy or blood-letting in Fevers opposite to the received Practice of the Schools his reason is that he believes there can be no corruption in the blood Corrupted blood says he cannot be in the veins neither doth a state of ill juice consist in the veins for Gangrenes do teach that nothing of Putrified matter can long persist without a further contagion of it self Also he says That the blood of the veins is no otherwise distinguished by its several colours and signs then as wine is troubled when the vine flourisheth To which I answer first That I can see no reason why there should not be as well corrupt blood or an ill state of juice in the veins as ill humors in the body Perchance he will say There is no corruption in the body But Ulcers do teach the contrary He may reply Ulcers are not parts of the body I answer T is true but yet they are evil Inhabitants in the body and the like may be in the Veins But surely some men may have corrupted parts of their bodies and yet live a great while witness Ulcers in the Lungs and other parts But your Author may say When a part of the body is corrupted it is no longer an animal Part. I grant it but yet as I said that transformed part may remain in the body some time without destruction of the whole body and so likewise when some of the blood is transchanged from being blood so as not to be capable to be reduced again it may nevertheless remain in the veins without destruction of the veins or of the whole body Neither do I conceive any reason why corrupt blood should Gangrene in the veins and infect the adjoyning parts more then corrupted lungs do Next as for the comparison of the various colours and signs of the blood with Wine being troubled when the Vine is flourishing I answer That it doth not prove any thing for we speak of such colours as are signs of corrupted and not such as are signs of troubled blood Besides it is an unlike comparison for though Wine may become thick by much fermentation yet it doth not turn into water as blood in some sick and diseased persons will do But corrupted blood may be not onely in the veins of sick but also of healthy persons and the story says that Seneca when his veins were cut they would not bleed although in a hot Bath by reason that which was in the veins was rather like a white jelly then blood and yet he was healthy though old which proves that it is not necessary for the blood to be so pure and fluid as your Author will have it The truth is the more fluid the blood is the weaker it is like balsam the more gummy it is the stronger it is but veins which are the mouth to receive or suck in juices as also the stomack which digests the meat that after is turned into blood may be defective either through weakness superfluity obstruction corruption or evil and hurtful diet or through the disorders of other particular parts which may disturb all the parts in general as skilful Physicians have observed and therefore apply remedies accordingly for if the defect proceeds from weakness they give strengthening remedies if from superfluities they give evacuating remedies if from evil diets they prescribe such a course of diet as shall be beneficial and conducing for the restoring of health to the whole body But your Author as I perceive believes the blood to be the chief vital part of the body which surely it is not for if it were the least disturbance of the blood would endanger the life of the whole body and the least diminution would cause a total dissolution of that animal Creature which has blood Not but that blood is as necessary as breath for respiration and food for nourishment of the body but too much blood is as dangerous to the life of the animal body as too great a piece of food which cannot be swallowed down buâ— doth stick in the throat and stop the breath or so much quantity as cannot be digested for too great a fulness or abounding makes a stoppage of the blood or which is worse causes the veins to break and an evil digestion makes a corruption or at least such disorder as to indanger the whole animal Figure But some veins breed more blood and some less and some better and some worse blood some hotter and some colder some grosser and some purer some thicker and some thinner and some veins breed rather an evil juice or corrupt matter then pure blood the truth is blood is bred somewhat after the manner of Excrements for the veins are somewhat like the guts wherein the excrements are digested But you will say A man may live without excrements but not without blood I answer a man can live no more without excrements and excremental humors then he can without blood but yet I am not of your Authors mind that bleeding and purging are destructive for superfluities are as dangerous as scarcities nay more like as an house filled with rubbish is in more danger to sink or fall then that which is empty and when a house is on fire it is wisdom to take out the Moveables but a folly to let them increase the flame But your Author says Blood-letting takes not onely away the bad but also the good blood by which it diminishes and impairs much the strength of the body I will answer by way of question Whether in War men would not venture the loss of some few friends to gain the victory or save the whole body of the Army or whether the destroying of the enemies Army be not more advantageous then the loss of some few friends For although some good blood may issue out with the bad yet the veins have more time room and some more power to get friendly juices from the several parts of the body which will be more obedient trusty and true to the life and service of the whole body But neither Fevers nor any other distempers will be more afraid of your Authors words Stones Spirits as also Rings Beads Bracelets and the like toys fitter for Children to play withal then for Physicians to use then an Army of men will be of their enemies Colours Ensigns Feathers Scarfs and the like knowing it must be Swords Pistols Guns Powder and Bullets that must do the business to destroy the enemy and to gain the victory Wherefore in Diseases it must be Bleeding Purging Vomiting using of Clysters and the like if any good shall be done 'T is true they must well be
more safe then Chymical Salts Tartars Spirits or the like Next concerning Issues and Cauteries your Author I say is so much against them as he counts them a blasphemy for says he I have beheld always an implicite blasphemy in a Cautery whereby they openly accuse the Creator of insufficiency in framing the emunctories for I have bidden above a thousand Issues to be filled up with flesh Also That which God hath made whole and entire that it might be very good seems to the Schools that it should be better if it be kept wounded Truly Madam in my opinion it is no blasphemy at all neither directly nor indirectly to make Issues but a meer superstition to believe the contrary viz. that they are blasphemy and a great folly not to make them when need requires it to the preservation of ones health God has made our body whole and intire says your Author by which he will prove that no holes must be made in the body to let out excrementious matter and therefore he thinks that body to be whole and intire which is without an Issue when as yet our bodies have numerousissues which are the pores of the skin to let out sweat and therefore if he counts that body not to be whole and intire that has issues then no humane body is intire Certainly no Artificial Issue will make the body maimed but it will nevertheless continue whole and intire although it has Issues He says it is Blasphemy But how will he prove it Surely not by the Scripture and if not by the Scripture then it is a blasphemy according to his own brain and fancy 'T is true God gave no express Command to make Issues but according to your Author God did never create Diseases and so there was no need either to make such Issues in bodies as to let out distempered Matter or to give any command for them but we might as well say we must not use any Physick because it is not so natural to man as food and serves not for the nourishment of the body but onely to keep off or drive out diseases Also no stone must be cut but man must rather indure torment and death But setting aside this superstitious doctrine of your Author it is evident enough and needs no proof that Cancers Fistula's Wenns Eating-evils Madness Fevers Consumptions Rheumes Pleurisies and numerous other diseases are not better cured then by Issues or making of wounds either by Lancets Pen-knifes Scissers Rasors Corrosives Causticks Leeches or the like And although your Author says That that Matter which proceeds from or out of an Issue is made in the lips of the wound and not in the body for it cannot possibly drain or draw out any moisture either from within or between the skin and the flesh having no passages Yet if this were so how come Fistula's Cancers and the like diseases to have passages from within the body to the exterior parts so as to make a wound out of which much sharp and salt humor issues which humor certainly is not made in the lips of the wound but in the body Also whence comes the humor that makes the Gout For though the swelling and inflammation will sometimes appear exteriously yet after some time those tumors and humors retire back into the body from whence they did flow but he might as well say that Pit-falls or Sluces do not drain Land from a superfluity of Water as that Issues do not drain the body of superfluous humors Wherefore I am absolutely of opinion that the Practice of the Schools is the best and wifest Practice as well in making Issues letting blood Purging by Siege or Vomits as any other means used by them for by Issues I have seen many cured when no other medicines would do any good with them and letting blood I am confident hath rescued more lives then the Universal Medicine could Chymists find it out perchance would do So also Clysters and Vomits skilfully applied have done great benefits to the life of men for every part and member hath its peculiar way to be purged and cleansed for example Clysters principally cleanse the Guts Purges the Stomack Vomits the Chest Sneezing the Head Bleeding the Veins and Issues drain the whole body of naughty humors All which remedies properly and timely used keep the body from being choak'd with superfluities ' There are several other ways of cures besides for several diseases but I leave those to learned and skilful Physicians who know best how and when to use them to the benefit and health of their Patients although your Author finds much fault with them and blames them for suffering men to die miserably but God has given power to Nature to make certain dissolutions although uncertain diseases and uncertain remedies Neither hath she in her power to give Immortal Life to particular Creatures for this belongs to God alone and therefore no Universal Medicine will keep out death or prolong life further then its thread is spun which I doubt is but a Chymaera and an impossible thing by reason there are not onely so many different varieties in several diseases but in one and the same disease as no Universal remedy would do any good But your Author is much pleased with Paradoxes and Paradoxes are not certain Truths Wherefore it is better in my judgment to follow the old approved and practised way of the Schools grounded upon Experience and Reason then his Paradoxical Opinions To which Schools as your Author is a great Enemy so I am a great Friend as well as MADAM Your Ladiships humble Servant XXXVI MADAM I Approve well of your Authors opinion That Drink ought not to be forbidden in Fevers but yet I would not allow so much as to drown and oppress the Patients life but onely so much as to refresh and moisten him and therefore the best way is to drink little and often But as for Wine which your Author commends in Fevers I am utterly against it unless the Fever proceed from a cold or crude cause otherwise cooling Ptisans are most beneficial to those that are sick of a continual Fever which for the most part is a general Fever throughout the whole body one part infecting the other until they be all infected like as in the Plague And to let you know the proof of it when I was once sick beyond the Seas I sent for a Doctor of Physick who was an Irish-man and hearing of some that knew him and his practice that he was not successful in his Cures but that his Patients most commonly died I asked him what he used to prescribe in such or such diseases where amongst the rest as I remember he told me That he allowed his Patients to drink Wine in a Fever I thought he was in a great error and told him my opinion that though Wine might be profitable perhaps to some few yet for the most part it was very hurtful and destructive alledging another famous
Natural Mind And thus much for the present of the difference of wits and faculties of the mind I add no more but rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XV. MADAM MY Discourse for the present shall be of Infinite and the question shall be first Whether several Finite parts how many soever there be can make an Infinite Your Author says that several Finite parts when they are all put together make a whole Finite which if his meaning be of a certain determinate number how big soever of finite parts I do willingly grant for all what is determinate and limited is not Infinite but Finite neither is there any such thing as Whole or All in Infinite but if his meaning be that no Infinite can be made of finite parts though infinite in number I deny it Next he says there can be no such thing as One in Infinite because No thing can be said One except there be another to compare it withal which in my opinion doth not follow for there is but One God who is Infinite and hath none other to be compared withal and so there may be but one Onely Infinite in Nature which is Matter But when he says there cannot be an Infinite and Eternal Division is very true viz in this sense that one single part cannot be actually infinitely divided for the Compositions hinder the Divisions in Nature and the Divisions the Compositions so that Nature being Matter cannot be composed so as not to have parts nor divided so as that her parts should not be composed but there are nevertheless infinite divided parts in Nature and in this sense there may also be infinite divisions as I have declared in my Book of Philosophy And thus there are Infinite divisions of Infinite parts in Nature but not Infinite actual divisions of one single part But though Infinite is without end yet my discourse of it shall be but short and end here though not my affection which shall last and continue with the life of MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Humble Servant XVI MADAM AN Accident says your Author is nothing else but the manner of our Conception of body or that Faculty of any body by which it works in us a Conception of it self To which I willingly consent but yet I say that these qualities cannot be separated from the body for as impossible it is that the essence of Nature should be separable from Nature as impossible is it that the various modes or alterations either of Figures or Motions should be separable from matter or body Wherefore when he goes on and says An accident is not a body but in a body yet not so as if any thing were contained therein as it for example redness were in blood in the same manner as blood is in a bloody cloth but as magnitude is in that which is great rest in that which resteth motion in that which is moved I answer that in my opinion not any thing in Nature can be without a body and that redness is as well in blood as blood is in a bloody cloth or any other colour in any thing else for there is no colour without a body but every colour hath as well a body as any thing else and if Colour be a separable accident I would faih know how it can be separated from a subject being bodiless for that which is no body is nothing and nothing cannot be taken away from any thing Wherefore as for natural Colour it cannot be taken away from any creature without the parts of its substance or body and as for artificial Colours when they are taken away it is a separation of two bodies which joyned together and if Colour or Hardness or Softness do change it is nothing else but an alteration of motions and not an annihilation for all changes and alterations remain in the power of Corporeal motions as I have said in other places for we might as well say life doth not remain in nature when a body turns from an animal to some other figure as believe that those they name accidents do not remain in Corporeal Motions Wherefore I am not of your Authors mind when he says that when a White thing is made black the whiteness perishes for it cannot perish although it is altered from white to black being in the power of the same matter to turn it again from black to white so as it may make infinite Repetitions of the same thing but by reason nature takes delight in variety she seldom uses such repetitions nevertheless that doth not take away the Power of self-moving matter for it doth not and it cannot are two several things and the latter doth not necessarily follow upon the former Wherefore not any the least thing can perish in Nature for if this were possible the whole body of nature might perish also for if so many Fugures and Creatures should be annihilated and perish without any supply or new Creation Nature would grow less and at last become nothing besides it is as difficult for Nature to turn something into nothing as to Create something out of nothing Wherefore as there is no annihilation or perishing in Nature so there is neither any new Creation in Nature But your Author makes a difference between bodies and accidents saying that bodies are things and not Generated but accidents are Generated and not things Truly Madam these accidents seem to me to be like Van Helmont's Lights Gases Blazes and Ideas and D r More 's Immaterial Substances or Daemons onely in this D r More hath the better that his Immaterial Substances are beings which subsist of themselves whereas accidents do not but their existence is in other bodies But what they call Accidents are in my opinion nothing else but Corporeal Motions and if these accidents be generated they must needs be bodies for how nothing can be Generated in nature is not conceivable and yet your Author denies that Accidents are something namely some part of a natural thing But as for Generations they are onely various actions of self-moving matter or a variety of Corporeal Motions and so are all Accidents whatsoever so that there is not any thing in nature that can be made new or destroyed for whatsoever was and shall be is in nature though not always in act yet in power as in the nature and power of Corporeal motions which is self-moving matter And as there is no new Generation of Accidents so there is neither a new Generation of Motions wherefore when your Author says That when the hand being moved moveth the pen the motion doth not go out of the hand into the pen for so the writing might be continued though the hand stood still but a new motion is generated in the pen and is the pens motion I am of his opinion that the motion doth not go out of the hand into the pen and that the motion of the pen is the pens own
extend and shrink together and so grow less and bigger according to the extension of the body and when the body dies the soul in my opinion must contract to a very point and if one part of the body die before the other the soul must by degrees withdraw out of those parts also when a part of the body is cut off the soul must needs contract and grow less the like when a man is let blood Which contracting of the soul by your Authors leave doth seem to my imagination just like the contracting of Hodmandod into her shell Besides if the soul be individable and equally spread all over the body then to my opinion she must necessarily be of a human shape and if the body be deformed the soul must be deformed also and if the body be casually extended as by taking Poyson into the body the soul must be so too as being individable and filling every part and if a man be born with six fingers or toes the soul must be so too or if a dwarf the soul must be a dwarf also and if he be born deaf and dumb the soul must be so too But if two Twins as it may fall out should be born united in one body I would fain know then whether they would have two souls or but one As for example if they should have but one body and one stomack liver heart spleen lungs bowels and yet have four legs four hands and two heads It seems to my opinion that then two Immaterial Souls must be joyned as into one neither do I know yet how this could well be the monster having but one body nor how that Immaterial Soul can be divided being inseparably double when the body dies But Madam all this I speak of the Natural Soul of Man not of the Divine Soul which is not subject to natural imperfections and corporeal errors being not made by Nature but a supernatural and divine gift of the Omnipotent God who surely will not give any thing that is not perfect Wherefore it is not probable this Divine Soul being not subject to Nature should be an architect of the body as having an higher and more divine imployment viz. to fix her self on her Creator and being indued with supernatural faculties and residing in the body in a supernatural manner all which I leave to the Church for I should be loth to affirm any thing contrary to their Doctrine or the Information of the holy Scripture as grounding my belief onely upon the sacred Word of God and its true Interpretation made by the Orthodox Church but not upon the opinions of particular persons for particular mens opinions are not authentical being so different and various as a man would be puzled which to adhere to Thus Madam I avoid as much as ever I can not to mix Divinity with Natural Philosophy for I consider that such a mixture would breed more confusion in the Church then do any good to either witness the doctrine of the Soul of Man whereof are so many different opinions The onely cause in my opinion is that men do not conceive the difference between the Divine and Natural material Soul of Man making them both as one and mixing or confounding their faculties and proprieties which yet are quite different thus they make a Hodg-podg Bisk or Olio of both proving Divinity by Nature and Faith by Reason and bringing Arguments for Articles of Faith and sacred Mysteries out of Natural Arts and Sciences whereas yet Faith and Reason are two contrary things and cannot consist together according to the Proverb Where Reason ends Faith begins Neither is it possible that Divinity can be proved by Mathematical Demonstrations for if Nature be not able to do it much less is Art Wherefore it is inconvenient to mix supernatural Spirits with Air Fire Light Heat Cold c. and to apply corporeal actions and qualities to them and the Divine Soul with the Brain Blood Flesh Animal Spirits Muscles Nerves Bones c. of Man all which makes a confusion betwixt the Mind or Natural Soul of Man and the Supernatural and Divine Soul inspired into him by God for both their faculties and proprieties are different and so are their effects as proceeding from so different causes And therefore Madam as for Divinity I pray devoutly and believe without disputing but as for Natural Philosophy I reason freely and argue without believing or adhering to any ones particular opinion which I think is the best and safest way to choose for MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXVII MADAM YOur Author in the continuation of his discourse concerning the Immaterial Soul of Man demonstrating that her seat is not bound up in a certain place of the body but that she pervades all the body and every part thereof takes amongst the rest an argument from Passions and Sympathies Moreover says he Passions and Sympathies in my judgment are more easily to be resolved into this hypothesis of the Soul 's pervading the whole Body then in restraining its essential presence to one part thereof But it is evident that they arise in us against both our will and appetite For who would bear the tortures of fears and jelousies if he could avoid it Concerning Passions Madam I have given my opinion at large in my Book of Philosophy and am of your Authors mind that Passions are made in the Heart but not by an Immaterial spirit but by the Rational soul which is material and there is no doubt but that many Passions as Fear Jealousie c. arise against our will and appetite for so may forreign Nations invade any Kingdom without the will or desire of the Inhabitants and yet they are corporeal men The same may be said of Passions and several parts of matter may invade each other whereof one may be afraid of the other yet all this is but according as corporeal matter moves either Generally or Particularly Generally that is when many parts of Matter unite or joyn together having the like appetites wills designs as we may observe that there are general agreements amongst several parts in Plagues as well as Wars which Plagues are not onely amongst Men but amongst Beasts and sometimes but in one sort of animals as a general Rot amongst Sheep a general Mange amongst Dogs a general Farcy amongst Horses a general Plague amongst Men all which could not be without a general Infection one part infecting another or rather one part imitating the motions of the other that is next adjoyning to it for such infections come by the neer adhesion of parts as is observable which immaterial and individable natural Spirits could not effect that is to make such a general infection in so many several parts of so many several Creatures to the Creatures dissolution Also there will be several Invasions at one time as Plague and War amongst neighbouring and adjoining Creatures or Parts But this is to be observed That the sensitive corporeal motions make
Wherefore I will return to my simple opinion and as I cannot conceive any thing that is beyond Matter or a Body so I believe according to my reason that there is not any part in Nature be it never so subtil or small but is a self-moving substance or endued with self-motion and according to the regularity and irregularity of these motions all natural effects are produced either perfect or imperfect timely births or untimely and monstrous births death health and diseases good and ill dispositions natural and extravagant Appetites and Passions I say natural that is according to the nature of their figures Sympathy and Antipathy Peace and War Rational and Phantastical opinions Nevertheless all these motions whether regular or irregular are natural for regularity and irregularity hath but a respect to particulars and to our conceptions because those motions which move not after the ordinary common or usual way or manner we call Irregular But the curiosity and variety in Nature is unconceiveable by any particular Creature and so leaving it I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXX MADAM YOur Author says it is an ancient Truth That whatsoever things meats being digested and cast out by vomit are of a sowre taste and smell yea although they were seasoned with much sugar But I do not assent to this opinion for I think that some Vomits have no more taste then pure Water hath Neither am I of his mind That Digestion is hastened by sharpness or tartness For do but try it by one simple experiment take any kind of flesh-meat boyl or stew it with Vinegar or sowre wine or with much salt and you will find that it doth require a longer time or rather more motions to dissolve then if you boyl it in fair water without such ingredients as are sowre sharp or salt also if you do but observe you will find the dregs more sandy stony and hard being drest with much salt and sharp wine or vinegar then when they are not mixt with such contracting and fixing Ingredients Wherefore if the Ferment of the stomack hath such a restringent and contracting quality certainly digestions will be but slow and unprofitable but Nature requires expulsion as much as attraction and dilation as much as contraction and digestion is a kind of dilation Wherefore in my judgment contracting tartness and sharpness doth rather hinder digestion then further it Next I perceive your Author inclines to the opinion That Choler is not made by meat But I would ask him whether any humor be made ofmeat or whether blood flesh c. are made and nourished by meat If they be not then my answer is That we eat to no purpose but if they be then Choler is made so too But if he says That sorne are made and some not then I would ask what that humor is made of that is not made by meat or food received into the body But we find that humors blood flesh c. will be sometimes more sometimes less according either to feeding or to digestion which digestion is a contribution of food to every several part of the body for its nourishment and when there is a decay ofthose parts then it is caused either by fasting or by irregular digestion or by extraordinary evacuation or by distempered matter c. all which causes sickness paleness leanness weakness and the like Again your Author is against the opinion of the Schools That the Gall is a receptacle of superfluous humors and dregs for he says it has rather the constitution of a necessary and vital bowel and is the balsom of the liver and blood Truly it may be so for any thing I know or it may be not for your Author could but guess not assuredly know unless he had been in a man as big as the Whale in whose belly Jonas was three days and had observed the interior parts and motions of every part for three years time and yet he might perchance have been as ignorant at the coming forth as if he never had been there for Natures actions are not onely curious but very various and not onely various but very obscure in so much as the most ingenious Artists cannot trace her ways or imitate her actions for Art being but a Creature can do or know no more then a Creature and although she is an ingenious Creature which can and hath found out some things profitable and useful for the life of others yet she is but a handmaid to Nature and not her Mistress which your Author in my opinion too rashly affirms when he says That the Art of Chymistry is not onely the Chambermaid and emulating Ape but now and then the Mistress of Nature For Art is an effect of Nature and to prefer the effect before the cause is absurd But concerning Chymistry I have spoken in another place I 'le return to my former Discourse and I wonder much why your Author is so opposite to the Schools concerning the doctrine of the Gall's being a receptacle for superfluities and dregs for I think there is not any Creature that has not places or receptacles for superfluous matter such as we call dregs for even the purest and hardest Mineral as Gold has its dross although in a less proportion then some other Creatures nay I am perswaded that even Light which your Author doth so much worship may have some superfluous matter which may be named dregs and since Nature has made parts in all Creatures to receive and discharge superfluous matter which receiving and discharging is nothing else but a joyning and dividing of parts to and from parts why may not the Gall be as well for that use as any other part But I pray mistake me not when I say superfluous matter or dregs for I understand by it that which is not useful to the nourishment or confistence of such or such a Creature but to speak properly there is neither superfluity of matter nor dregs in Nature Moreover your Author mentions a six-fold digestion and makes every digestion to be performed by inbreathing or inspiration For in the first digestion he says The spleen doth inspire a sowre Ferment into the Meat In the second The Gall doth inspire a ferment or fermental blas into the slender entrails In the third The Liver doth inspire a bloody ferment into the veins of the Mensentery c. I answer first I am confident Nature has more ways then to work onely by Inspirations not onely in General but in every Particular Next I believe there are not onely six but many more digestions in an animal Creature for not onely every sort of food but every bit that is eaten may require a several digestion and every several part of the body works either to expel or preserve or for both so that there are numerous several Motions in every Creature and many changes of motions in each particular part but Nature is in them all And so leaving her
But your Author doth wisely to commend such remedies as can never or with great difficulty be obtained and then to say that no disease is incurable And so leaving him to his unknown secrets and those to them that will use them I am resolved to adhere to the Practice of the Schools which I am confident will be more beneficial to the health of MADAM Your real and faithful Friend and Servant XLI MADAM YOur Author speaking of the Gout and of that kind of Gout which is called Hereditary says It consists immediately in the Spirit of Life First as for that which is called an Hereditary Disease propagated from Parents upon their Children my opinion is That it is nothing else but the same actions of the animate matter producing the same effect in the Child as they did in the Parent For example the same motions which made the Gout in the Parent may make the same disease in the Child but every Child has not his Parents diseases and many Children have such diseases as their Parents never had neither is any disease tied to a particular Family by Generation but they proceed from irregular motions and are generally in all Mankind and therefore properly there is no such thing as an hereditary propagation of diseases for one and the same kind of disease may be made in different persons never a kin to one another by the like motions but because Children have such a neer relation to their Parents by Generation if they chance to have the same diseases with their Parents men are apt to conclude it comes by inheritance but we may as well say that all diseases are hereditary for there is not any disease in Nature but is produced by the actions of Nature's substance and if we receive life and all our bodily substance by Generation from our Parents we may be said to receive diseases too for diseases are inherent in the matter or substance of Nature which every Creature is a part of and are real beings made by the corporeal motions of the animate matter although irregular to us for as this matter moves so is Life or Death Sickness or Health and all natural effects and we consisting of the same natural matter are naturally subject as well to diseases as to health according as the Matter moves Thus all diseases are hereditary in Nature nay the Scripture it self confirms it informing us that diseases as well as death are by an hereditary propagation derived from Adam upon all Posterity But as for the Gout your Authors doctrine is That Life is not a body nor proper to a body nor of the off-spring of corporeal Proprieties but a meer No-thing and that the Spirit of Life is a real being to wit the arterial blood resolved by the Ferment of the heart into salt air and enlightned by life and that the Gout doth immediately consist in this spirit of life All which how it doth agree I cannot conceive for that a real being should be enlightned by Nothing and be a spirit of Nothing is not imaginable nor how the Gout should inhabit in the spirit of life for then it would follow that a Child as soon as it is brought forth into the world would be troubled with the Gout if it be as natural to him as life or have its habitation in the Spirit of Life Also your Author is speaking of an Appoplexy in the head which takes away all sense and motion But surely in my opinion it is impossible that all sense and motion should be out of the head onely that sense and motion which is proper to the head and to the nature of that Creature is altered to some other sensitive and rational motions which are proper to some other figure for there is no part or particle of matter that has not motion and sense I pray consider Madam is there any thing in Nature that is without motion Perchance you will say Minerals but that is proved otherwise as for example by the sympathetical motion between the Loadstone and Iron and between the Needle and the North as also by the operation of Mercury and several others Wherefore there is no doubt but all kinds sorts and particulars of Creatures have their natural motions although they are not all visible to us but not such motions as are made by Gas or Blas or Ideas c. but corporeal sensitive and rational motions which are the actions of Natural Matter You may say Some are of opinion that Sympathy and Antipathy are not Corporeal motions Truly whosoever says so speaks no reason for Sympathy and Antipathy are nothing else but the actions of bodies and are made in bodies the Sympathy betwixt Iron and the Loadstone is in bodies the Sympathy between the Needle and the North is in bodies the Sympathy of the Magnetick powder is in bodies The truth is there is no motion without a body nor no body without motion Neither doth Sympathy and Antipathy work at distance by the power of Immaterial Spirits or rays issuing out of their bodies but by agreeable or disagreeable corporeal motions for if the motions be agreeable there is Sympathy if disagreeable there is Antipathy and if they be equally found in two bodies then there is a mutual Sympathy or Antipathy but if in one body onely and not in the other there is but Sympathy or Antipathy on one side or in one Creature Lastly concerning swoonings or fainting fits your Authors opinion is that they proceed from the stomack Which I can hardly believe for many will swoon upon the sight of some object others at a sound or report others at the smell of some disagreeable odour others at the taste of some or other thing that is not agreeable to their nature and so forth also some will swoon at the apprehension or conceit of something and some by a disorder or irregularity of motions in exterior parts Wherefore my opinion is that swoonings may proceed from any part of the body and not onely from the stomack But Madam I being no Physicianess may perhaps be in an error and therefore I will leave this discourse to those that are thorowly learned and practised in this Art and rest satisfied that I am MADAM Your Ladiships humble Servant XLII MADAM YOur Author is inquiring whether some cures of diseases may be effected by bare co-touchings and I am of his opinion they may for co-touchings of some exterior objects may cause alterations of some particular motions in some particular parts of matter without either transferring their own motions into those parts for that this is impossible I have heretofore declared or without any corporeal departing from their own parts of matter into them and alterations may be produced both in the motions and figures of the affected parts but these cures are not so frequent as those that are made by the entring of medicines into the diseased parts and either expel the malignant matter or rectifie the
for all parts belong to one body which is Nature nay if any thing could subsist of it self it were a God and not a Creature Wherefore not any Creature can challenge a soul absolutely to himself unless Man who hath a divine soul which no other Creature hath But that which makes so many confusions and disputes amongst learned men is that they conceive first there is no rational soul but onely in man next that this rational soul in every man is individable But if the rational soul is material as certainly to all sense and reason it is then it must not onely be in all material Creatures but be dividable too for all that is material or corporeal hath parts and is dividable and therefore there is no such thing in any one Creature as one intire soul nay we might as well say there is but one Creature in Nature as say there is but one individable natural soul in one Creature Your Tenth question is Whether Souls are producible or can be produced I answer in my opinion they are producible by reason all parts in Nature are so But mistake me not for I do not mean that any one part is produced out of Nothing or out of new matter but one Creature is produced by another by the dividing and uniting joyning and disjoyning of the several parts of Matter and not by substanceless Motion out of new Matter And because there is not any thing in Nature that has an absolute subsistence of it self each Creature is a producer as well as a produced in some kind or other for no part of Nature can subsist single and without reference and assistance of each other or else every single part would not onely be a whole of it self but be as a God without controle and though one part is not another part yet one part belongs to another part and all parts to one whole and that whole to all the parts which whole is one corporeal Nature And thus as I said before productions of one or more creatures by one or more producers without matter meerly by immaterial motions are impossible to wit that something should be made or produced out of nothing for if this were so there would consequently be an annihilation or turning into nothing and those Creatures which produce others by the way of immaterial motions would rather be as a God then a part of Nature or Natural Matter Besides it would be an endless labour and more trouble to create particular Creatures out of nothing then a World at once whereas now it is easie for Nature to create by production and transmigration and therefore it is not probable that any one Creature hath a particular life soul or body to it self as subsisting by it self and as it were precised from the rest having its own subsistence without the assistance of any other nor is it probable that any one Creature is new for all that is was and shall be till the Omnipotent God disposes Nature otherwise As for the rest of your questions as whether the Sun be the cause of all motions and of all natural productions and whether the life of a Creature be onely in the blood or whether it have its beginning from the blood or whether the blood be the chief architect of an animal or be the seat of the soul sense and reason in my opinion doth plainly contradict them for concerning the blood if it were the seat of the Soul then in the circulation of the blood if the Soul hath a brain it would become very dizzie by its turning round but perchance some may think the Soul to be a Sun and the Blood the Zodiack and the body the Globe of the Earth which the Soul surrounds in such time as the Blood is flowing about And so leaving those similizing Fancies I 'le add no more but repeat what I said in the beginning viz. that I rely upon the goodness of your Nature from which I hope for pardon if I have not so exactly and solidly answered your desire for the argument of this discourse being so difficult may easily lead me into an error which your better judgment will soon correct and in so doing you will add to those favours for which I am already MADAM Your Ladiships most obliged Friend and humble Servant III. MADAM You thought verily I had mistaken my self in my last concerning the Rational Souls of every particular Creature because I said all Creatures had numerous Souls and not onely so but every particular Creature had numerous Souls Truly Madam I did not mistake my self for I am of the same opinion still for though there is but one Soul in infinite Nature yet that soul being dividable into parts every part is a soul in every single creature were the parts no bigger in quantity then an atome But you ask whether Nature hath Infinite souls I answer That Infinite Nature is but one Infinite body divided into Infinite parts which we call Creatures and therefore it may as well be said That Nature is composed of Infinite Creatures or Parts as she is divided into Infinite Creatures or Parts for Nature being Material is dividable and composable The same may be said of Nature's Soul which is the Rational part of the onely infinite Matter as also of Nature's Life which is the sensitive part of the onely Infinite self-moving Matter and of the Inanimate part of the onely Infinite Matter which I call the body for distinction sake as having no self-motion in its own nature for Infinite Material Nature hath an Infinite Material Soul Life and Body But Madam I desire you to observe what I said already viz. that the parts of Nature are as apt to divide as to unite for the chief actions of Nature are to divide and to unite which division is the cause that it may well be said every particular Creature hath numerous souls for every part of rational Matter is a particular Soul and every part of the sensitive Matter is a particular Life all which mixed with the Inanimate Matter though they be Infinite in parts yet they make but one Infinite whole which is Infinite Nature and thus the Infinite division into Infinite parts is the cause that every particular Creature hath numerous Souls and the transmigration of parts from and to parts is the reason that not any Creature can challenge a single soul or souls to it self the same for life But most men are unwilling to believe that Rational Souls are material and that this rational Matter is dividable in Nature when as humane sense and reason may well perceive that Nature is active and full of variety and action and variety cannot be without motion division and composition but the reason that variety division and composition runs not into confusion is that first there is but one kind of Matter next that the division and composition of parts doth ballance each other into a union in the whole But to conclude those