Selected quad for the lemma: blood_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
blood_n	egg_n	lay_v	whelp_n	29	3	15.4509	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51674	Father Malebranche his treatise concerning the search after truth The whole work complete. To which is added the author's Treatise of nature and grace: being a consequence of the principles contained in the search. Together with his answer to the animadversions upon the first volume: his defence against the accusations of Monsieur De la Ville, &c. relating to the same subject. All translated by T. Taylor, M.A. late of Magdalen College in Oxford.	Malebranche, Nicolas, 1638-1715.; Taylor, Thomas, 1669 or 70-1735.; Malebranche, Nicolas, 1638-1715. Traité de la nature et de la grace. English.	1700 (1700)	Wing M318; ESTC R3403	829,942	418

there were Wheels and Pumps to raise the Water Nevertheless I can't see why divining is not sometimes allowable provided a Man sets not up for a Prophet and speaks not in too positive a strain I rather think he is permitted to speak his Thoughts whilst he pretends not to be Infallible nor Lords it unjustly over others by dogmatical Decisions or by the help of Scientifick Terms 'T is not always divining to speak of things which are not visible and which contradict Prejudices If so be we speak no more than we easily conceive and which readily makes its way into the mind of others who desire to understand Reason I say then that supposing the general Laws of the Communication of Motions such as they are there is great Probability that the particular Communication of the Mother's Brain with that of her Infant is necessary to form its Body in a requisite manner or at least is necessary to give the Brain of the Infant certain dispositions which ought to vary according to different Times and Countries as I have explain'd in the same Chapter I confess there is no Communication between the Brain of an Hen and that of a Chicken in the Egg which nevertheless is perfectly well form'd But it ought to be observ'd that the Chicken is farther advanc'd in the Egg when the Hen lays it than the Foetus when it descends into the Matrix which may well be concluded since there goes less time to the hatching Chickens than there goes to the bringing forth Whelps though the Belly of the Bitch being very hot and her Blood in perpetual motion the Whelps should be sooner form'd than the Eggs hatch'd were not the Chickens farther advanc'd in their Eggs than the Whelps in their Cicatricles Now there is great probability that the formation of the Chicken in the Egg before it was laid was effected by the communication I am speaking of I answer in the second place that the growth of the Body of Fowls is possibly more conformable to the general laws of Motion than that of four-footed Animals and that so the communication of the Females Brain with that of her young ones is not so necessary in Fowls as in other Animals For the reason that makes that communication necessary is probably the remedying the defect of these general Laws which in some particular Cases are insufficient to regulate the Formation and Growth of Animals I answer lastly there is no such necessity to the preservation of the Life of Birds that they should have so many particular Dispositions in their Brain as other Animals They have Wings to fly harm and to secure their feed and have no need of all that particular Mechanism which is the principle of the cunning and docility of some domestick Creatures Therefore the old ones need not instruct their young in many things as they breed them nor capacitate them to be taught many afterwards by giving them a disposition of Brain that 's fit for Docility Those who breed young Dogs for the Game sometimes find those which naturally set meerly from the instruction they receiv'd from their Damm who often us'd to set with them in her Belly There is a great difference almost always observable in the breed of these Creatures some of which are much more Docil and Tractable than others of the same Species But I do not think there ever was a Fowl that taught any thing extraordinary to her young that a Hen for Example ever hatch'd a Chicken who could do any thing but what they all do naturally Birds then are not so tractable or capable of Instruction as other Animals The Disposition of their Brain is not ordinarily capable of many Changes nor do they act so much by Imitation as some domestick Animals Young Ducks which follow an Hen don't stay for her Example to take the Water and the Chickens on the contrary never betake themselves to swim though hatch'd and led by a Duck that loves the Water But there are Animals that easily and readily imitate the uncommon Motions which they see others do However I do not pretend that much stress is to be laid on these last Reflections since they are not necessary to establish my Opinion Second OBJECTION against the Twelfth Article 'T is likewise divining to affirm That the Mother before her Sin might have any intercourse with her Embryo there being no necessary relation between our Thoughts and Motions happening in our Brain And therefore that Communication between the Mother's and the Infant 's Brain is useless ANSWER It is evident That without this Communication the Infant was incapable of having any Commerce with its Mother or the Mother with her Infant without a particular Miracle Now before the Sin Order requir'd That the Mother should have notice of all the Corporeal wants of her Infant and that the Infant should resent its Obligations to its Parents Therefore since all things were in Order before the Sin and that God acts always agreeably to Order the Mother and the Child had some Commerce by means of this Communication To understand wherein this Commerce may have consisted it must be remembred That the Connexion of the Tracks of the Brain with the Ideas of the Soul may be several ways effected either by Nature or by the Institution of Men or some other way as I have shewn how in the Second Book In beholding a Square or the Look of a Person suffering any Pain the Idea of a Square or of an afflicted Person rises in the Mind This is common to all Nations and the Connexion between these Ideas and these Traces is natural When an Englishman hears pronounc'd or reads the Word Square he has likewise the Idea of a Square but the Connexion which is between the Sound or the Letters of that Word and its Idea is not natural nor is it general with all the World I say then That the Mother and her Infant must naturally have had a Correspondence between them upon all the things that could be represented to the Mind by natural Connexions That if the Mother for Instance had seen a Square the Infant would have seen one too and that if the Infant had imagin'd any Figure he would have likewise excited the Traces of the same Figure in the Imagination of his Mother But they would have had no Commerce together about things of a purely Spiritual Nature nor even about Corporeal things whenever they conceiv'd them without the help of the Senses and Imagination The Mother might have thought on GOD have heard or read the Word Square or the like and yet the Child not have discover'd what were her Thoughts thereof unless in Tract of Time she should have setled a new Commerce of intellectual Ideas with it much what the same with that of Nurses when they teach their Children to speak I explain and prove these things One would think I had sufficiently prov'd them by the Explication I gave of the Cause of

Fourth Part of his Philosophical Principles which runs thus That the former Hypothesis is to be retain'd notwithstanding its being false to find out the true Causes of natural Things he expresly asserts the contrary in these words Though I pretend not that the Bodies of this visible World were ever produced in the manner that has been described before of which the Reader has been already sufficiently forewarn'd yet I must still keep to the same Hypothesis to explain what appears upon Earth For if I may as I hope I can plainly shew by those means the most intelligible and certain Causes of all Natural things and they cannot be found out another way I may thence reasonably conclude that though the World was not at the Beginning fram'd in this manner but created immediately by God yet the Nature of all things it contains ceases not to be the very same as though they had been produced in that very method Des Cartes knew that to understand the Nature of things they must be consider'd in their Birth and Original and that beginning with those that are most simple we ought to drive them up to the Fountain head and that the business is not to examine whether God working by the most simple ways formed the World by degrees or struck it out at a single Blow but that in what manner soever God may have produced his Works they ought to be first consider'd in their Principles if we would understand them and afterwards we should observe how consistent our thoughts are with the Operations of God by comparing them together He knew that the Laws of Nature by which God preserves all his Works in their present Order and Situation are the same Laws with those by which he might have formed and disposed them It being evident to all considering Men that if God had not disposed his Works in an instant in the same manner they would have order'd and postur'd themselves in time the whole Oeconomy of Nature would be destroy'd since the Laws of Preservation would be contrary to those of the first Creation If the whole Universe remains in the Order in which we see it 't is because the Laws of Motion which preserve it in that Order were capable of producing it in it and if God had established it in an Order different from that into which those Laws of Motion should have put it all things would be turned upside down and place themselves by the force of those Laws in the Order which they at present keep A Man desires to discover the Nature of a Chicken to that end he opens every day Eggs taken from under a Brood-Hen he examines what part moves and grows first he quickly perceives that the Heart begins to beat and to drive out Blood through small Conduits on all sides that are the Arteries which Blood comes back to the Heart through the Veins that the Brain likewise appears at first and that the Bones are the last formed By that he frees himself from many Errours and even draws from those Observations several Consequences very useful for the Knowledge of living Creatures What fault may be found with the conduct of such a Man and how may it be given out that he pretends to persuade that God formed the first Chicken by creating an Egg and giving it a competent degree of heat to hatch it because he tries to discover the Nature of Chickens in their first Formation Why then should Des Cartes be accused of being opposite to the Holy Scriptures for that designing to discover the Nature of visible things he examines the formation of them by the Laws of Motion which are inviolably observ'd on all occasions He never doubted but that the World was created at first with all its perfection that there were Sun Earth Moon and Stars that in the Earth there were not only the Seeds of Plants but also the Plants themselves and that Adam and Eve were not born Infants but made adult The Christian Faith teaches us that and natural Reason persuades us the same for when we consider the infinite Power of God we cannot think he should ever have made any thing which was not altogether perfect But as we should better understand the nature of Adam and Eve and the Trees of Paradise by examining how Children are insensibly form'd in their Mothers Womb and how Plants are deriv'd from their Seeds than by merely considering how they were when Created by God at the Creation of the World so if we can find out Principles very simple and easie out of which as out of some Seeds we can manifestly shew the Stars the Earth and all visible things might have been produced though we very well know that it was never so yet that will be more conducible to explain their Nature than if we should only describe them so as they now are or as we believe they were Created and because I suppose I have found out such Principles I shall indeavour briefly to Explain them Des Cartes was persuaded that God formed the World all at once but he also believed that God Created it in the same State and Order and with the same Disposition of Parts in which it would have been had it been made gradually and by the most simple ways And that thought is worthy both of the Power and Wisdom of God of his Power because he has made in a Moment all his Works in the highest Perfection and of his Wisdom because he has shewn that he perfectly foresaw whatever could befall Matter if it were moved by the most simple ways and likewise because the Order of Nature could not subsist if the World had been produced by ways that is by Laws of Motion contrary to the Laws by which it is preserv'd as I have already mention'd 'T is ridiculous to say that Des Cartes believed the World might have been formed of it self since he owns with all those that follow the light of Reason that Bodies cannot move themselves by their own strength and that all the immutable Laws of the Communication of Motions are but consequences of the immutable Will of God who always acts in the same manner His proving that God alone gives Motion to Matter and that Motion produces in Bodies all their different Forms was sufficient to hinder the Libertines from making an Advantage of his System On the contrary if Atheists should reflect on the Principles of this Philosopher they would quickly be forced to confess their Errours for if they can assert with the Heathens that Matter is uncreated they cannot also maintain that it can move it self by its own Power So that Atheists would at least be obliged to acknowledge the true Mover if they refused to confess the true Creatour But the Ordinary Philosophy affords 'em sufficient pretences to blind themselves and defend their Errours for it speaks of some impress'd Virtues certain motive Faculties in a word of a certain Nature which is the Principle of