They could not see any thing by the mind but terminated all sight in the Eyes Now it is the part of a noble Wit to call the Mind off from the Senses and take it out of the common Road. Therefore I suppose that in so many Ages some have before done so but of all whose Opinions are Recorded a Pherecydes the Syrese first maintain'd that Humane Souls are immortal An Author of great Antiquity b for he liv'd in the Reign of my Kinsman This opinion his Scholar Pythagoras greatly confirm'd who being come into Italy in the Reign of Tarquin the proud sway'd Greece the Great with honor to his Person multitude of Auditors and Authority of his Doctrine so that for many years after the Pythagorean Name so flour sh'd that none were reputed Scholars who were not of his Sect. a Pherecydes the Syrese From Syres one of the Islands in the Aegean called Cyclades he was the Master of Pythagoras b For he liv'd in the Reign of my Kinsman Tully claime kindred with Servius Tullius the sixth Roman King upon names-sake SECT XVII That it is more likely they ascend BUT I return to the Ancients they were hardly wont to give any reason of their Opinion unless in matters demonstrable by Lines and Numbers Plato is reported to have travelled into Italy that he might be acquainted with the Pythagoreans and when he was there to have had intimacy with Architas and Timaeus so that he became expert in all the Pythogorean Learning and was the first that not only held the same concerning the Immortality of the Soul as Pythagoras did but further brought his reason to prove it which reason unless you otherwise require let us blanch and so abandon this whole hope of Immortality S. Do you offer now you have rais'd my expectations to the heighth to disappoint me had rather I assure you be mistaken with Plato whom I know how much you magnifie and am wont upon your Commendation to admire than to be of their opinion in the right M. Bravely resolv'd for I my self could be contented with so good Company to be in the wrong Do we then question this as many other passages although there be least ground to doubt this Mathematicians perswade us that the Earth situated in the middle of the Universe beareth the proportion of a Point which they call the Center in comparison with the vast Orb of the Starry Heavens and further that such is the nature of the four Elements that their Motions are divided by opposite terms so that terrene and humid Bodies of their own bent and sway tend perpendicularly to the Earth and Sea the two remaining parts the one of Fire the other of Air as the former by their heaviness sink down into the middle of the World so these sore up at right Angles to the heavenly Regions whether it be their own nature to aspire upward c or that the lighter parts are naturally lifted up by the descent of the more heavy These things being on all hands agreed it ought to be alike evident that Souls when they depart the Body whether they be of a spiritous or fiery substance mount towards Heaven but if the Soul be a number which is said with more subtlety than plainness or if it be of that fifth Nature which however nameless is not so very difficult to be understood then are they much more abstract from matter and of greater purity and will consequently ascend to the greatest distance from the Earth Now some of these Natures the Soul must needs be of not to fancy so quick and sprightly an Intelligence lying plung'd in the Heart or Brains or after Empedocles in the Blood c Or that the lighter parts are naturally lifted up by the descent of the heavier The opinion that Gravity and Levity are not positive but comparative thought to be Modern and Cartesian appears to have been ancient SECT VIII Nor vanish AS for Dicaearchus with Aristoxenus his Contemporary and Fellow-Pupil let them pass for great Scholars the one of which seems never to have had compassion or he would have been sensible that he had a Soul the other is so transported with his Tunes that he would forcibly apply them to the Matters in hand Now we can collect Harmony from the distance of sounds the setting of which notes in due proportion produces also variety of Tunes But what Musick the posture of the Limbs and the shape of the Body destitute of a Soul can produce I comprehend not He would do well therefore Scholar as he is to leave these Matters to his Master Aristotle and content himself with teaching to Fiddle For that is good direction which is given in the Greek Proverb Let each man practice th' Art in which he 's skill'd But turn we quite out of doors that casual concourse of smooth and round Bodies which yet Democritus would have to conceive heat and become spiritous that is having Life Now the Soul in this case which if it consists of any of the four Elements whereof all things are said to be compounded hath for its ingredients inflam'd Air to which opinion Panaetius was most inclinable must mount upwards for these two Elements have nothing in them tending downward but alwayes ascend so whether they scatter in the Air it must be far from falling to the Earth or whether they continue and subsist in a separate Estate they must of more necessity mount up to Heaven forcing their passage through this gross and impure Air which is nearest the Earth for the Soul is hotter or rather more fiery than is this Air which I just now call'd gross and impure SECT XIX But ascend the Sky AND that it is so is demonstrable from this that our Bodies compounded of the terrene sort of Principles do yet conceive warmth from the heat of the Soul The probability is further improv'd of our Souls breaking thorough and surmounting this aiery Region with the more ease because nothing is swifter then thought No speed may compare with the speed of the Soul which if it continue entire and like it self must of necessity pass with such a quick motion as to pierce and divide all these lower Regions of Heaven wherein Clouds Rains and Winds are engendred which is moist and dark with Exhalations from the Earth which Atmosphear when the Soul hath transcendéd and finds that she is arriv'd at a nature like her self consisting of a refin'd Air and gentle heat of the Sun she fixeth in the Empirean Orb and stayes her further ascent for having now gotten a lightness and heat agreeable to her self as hanging ballanc'd in an equal counterpoise she moves neither way but this is her natural home when she hath arriv'd at her own likeness where she shall want nothing but be nourish'd and sustain'd with the same Food wherewith the Stars are nourish'd and sustain'd and whereas we are here wont through the Lusts of our flesh to be enflam'd to almost all sorts of
as it were with Hereditary Family Vices and Scandals or had committed inexpiable Villanies in the overthrow of the State that these were carried in a By-road debarred from the blessed Assembly of the Gods But those who had kept themselves pure and uncorrupt and had contracted least infection from their Bodies but had alwayes drawn themselves into retirement from them and in humane Bodies had imitated the life of God that such had an easie and open return to those from whom they came and then he recounts how Swans which are not without reason dedicated to Apollo but because they seem to have the Gift of Divination from him by which foreseeing what benefit there is in death they dye with Melody and Pleasure so should all good and learned men do Nor could any one doubt of this unless it fared with us when we think earnestly about our Souls as it is wont to do with those that gaze stedfastly upon the Sun in Eclipse that they quite lose their sight so the eye of the mind looking nearly into it self is sometimes dazled and by that very means we let go the intenseness of Contemplation Therefore our whole discourse upon the Subject proceeds with suspence viewing round the Coast demurring crusing forward and backward as a small Pinnace beats about in the vast Ocean But these are old Instances and fetch'd from the Greeks Now Cato of late so parted with life as that he was glad he had gotten an occasion of dying For that Vicegerent of God which Rules within us lays a strict Injunction not to depart hence without his leave But when God himself shall give a just Cause as he did Socrates then Cato now and many often then truly will the Wise man joyfully escape out of this darkness into the light Nor yet will he break Prison for the Laws defend that but being so discharg'd and dismiss'd by God as by a Magistrate or lawful Authority he will depart For the whole Life of Philosophy as the same Author saith is a Meditation of Death CHAP. XXXI From the Sequestring it self from the Body in Meditation as in Death NOW what else do we when we call of our mind from following Pleasure that is the Body from minding our Estate that is the Servant of the Body when we withdraw it from managing State-Affairs and all business What say I do we then but call the Soul home oblige it to dwell within it self and draw it to the farthest distance from the Body Now to abstract the Soul from the Body is nothing else than to exercise dying Wherefore take my word let us practise this and sit loose from our Bodies that is accustom our selves to dye This both whilst we shall be on Earth will be like the Life of Heaven and when being set at liberty from these Bonds we shall ascend thither by this means the agility of our Souls will be less clog'd For they who have always been held fast bound in the Fetters of the Body even when they are knock'd off tread more gently as they who have been many years loaded with Irons But when we shall come thither then shall we live in truth for this Life is but a Death which if I were so disposed I could lament S. That you have enough lamented k in your Book of Consolation which when I read I desire nothing more than to leave this World but upon hearing the present Discourse I am much more desirous to do so M. The time will come and that speedily and that whether you draw back or hasten for Life is upon the Wing but Death is so far from being an Evil as you lately thought that I doubt whether any thing else be I say not no evil but any thing else be a greater good for we shall be either Gods or with the Gods S. What availeth it for there are many among us that give no credit to these things M. Now will I never in this debate part with you on such Terms as that you should be of opinion that death is evil S. How can I now I have been thus inform'd M. How can you do you ask there will come upon you whole troops of Gain-sayers and those not only Epicureans whom for my part I do not despise though best Scholars generally do contemn But my dear Dicaearchus hath most earnestly disputed against this immortality of Souls for he wrote three Books call'd Lesbian because the debate was held at Mitylenae wherein he would prove that Souls are Mortal the Stoics l they prorogue us as Crows to a late day of Death for they allow Souls to abide long but not for ever k In your Book of Consolation Upon the occasion of his beloved Daughter Tullia dying in Childbed Tully drew up into a Treatise all the Heads of comfort and distress delivered by the ancient Philosophers and applyed them for his own use which Book is lost though there go about a piece under that name l They prorogue us as Crows to a late day of death This is a Tradition from Hesiod that Crows live nine Lives of a man Aristotle denies it and affirms only the Elephant to out-live man SECT XXXII The Adversaries of the Souls Immortality confuted HAVE you a mind therefore to hear how though it should be so yet there is no evil in Death S. Use your pleasure but no one shall ever beat me out of Immortality M. I commend you for that but it is good not to be too confident for we often give upon some subtle Argument are shaken and change our Judgment even in clearer Matters for there is some obscurity in these Therefore if such a rencounter should happen let us be arm'd S. Well advis'd but I will watch that it may not happen M. Have you then any thing to alledge why we should not dismiss our Friends the Stoics those I mean m who allow that Souls abide after they are gone out of the Body but not always S. Ay those Gentlemen who maintain that which is most difficult in this whole dispute that the Soul may subsist in a separate condition but do not yield that which is not only easie to be believ'd but consequent upon that which they have granted that the Soul after it hath long surviv'd should not at all dye M. You rightly reprove them Should we then believe Panaetius dissenting from his Master Plato Him that in all places he calls the Divine the Wisest the Holiest n the Homer of the Philosophers yet this only Tenet of his about the Immortality of the Soul he doth not approve for he affirms what no body denies that whatsoever is born dyes but Souls are born as the likeness of Children to their Parents makes evident which appears in their Wits also nor only in their Bodies He brings another Argument for it Nothing suffers pain but what may also be sick and what is liable to disease that must dye but Souls suffer pain they therefore must dye m Who allow
Heaven Enquire whose Sepulchers are shew'd in Greece Call to mind because you have been admitted to the Vision of the secret Ceremonies what passages are deliver'd in those Mysteries so will you come to understand of how large extent this Suggestion is But those plain-hearted Ancients who had never learn'd these Systems of natural Theology which many years after came to be form'd believ'd no more than the bare objects of their Senses comprehended not the Reasons and Causes of them were often mov'd by some Apparitions and those most commonly in the night to conceive that those who had departed this World were still alive Now allowing this to pass for a most conclusive Argument why we should believe the being of a God because there is no People so Savage no Person so Barbarous but hath some Notion of a Deity impress'd on his mind Many have unworthy Conceptions of God for that ariseth from corrupt Custom yet all concur in this Faith that there is a divine Nature and Power nor is this opinion wrought by the Conferring or Combination of men together nor is it built upon Customs or Laws Now the consent of all Nations in any thing is to be esteem'd the Law of Nature Who therefore is there who doth not mourn for the loss of his Friends upon the account that he thinks them depriv'd of the Comforts of Life Take away this Opinion and you will take away Mourning for no body bemoans his own loss Perhaps they grieve or are in anguish for it That same pitiful Lamentation weeping and wailing springeth from the Consideration that we judge him whom we lov'd despoil'd of the Conveniencies of Life and sensible that he is so And this judgment we bear from the Impressions of Nature without any Conclusions of Reason or Instructions of Learning SECT XIV From an innate care of Posterity and zeal for the State FUrther it is a strong Argument that Nature hath in her self secret Convictions about the Souls Immortality from that Providence which all have and especially in those things which are to take place after our Death He raiseth Plants whose Fruit next Age must gather As saith Statius in the Comedy of the young Twins upon what Contemplation but only this that he is interess'd in succeeding Generations Shall then a careful Husbandman Plant Trees whereof he is never likely to see one Berry and shall not a good Patriot plant Laws Customs for the Commonwealth What means the breeding of Children what the propagating our Name what the Adoptions of Sons what the formality of Wills what the Monuments of Tombs what Epitaphs but what we reckon upon future times What say we to this Do you make any question but that a Pattern of our Nature ought to be taken from the very best of Natures Now what Nature is better in Mankind than that of those who esteem themselves born for the Succor Defence and Preservation of men Hercules is gone to the Gods he had never gone had he not while he liv'd among men secur'd his passage thither SECT XV. And thirst after Glory THese Instances are of old Date and consecrated by the Religion of all People By what Principles do we suppose so many brave Persons acted in our own State who laid down their Lives for the Commonwealth was it their Judgment that their name should be confin'd within the same compass as their Lives No man without great hopes of immortality would ever offer up himself in the Service of his Country Themistocles might have liv'd at ease so might Epaminondas and not to look abroad or backward for Examples so might I. But there is in our minds a kind of secret sally-port whereby we make excursion into future Ages This is most forward and observable in the most pregnant Wits and gallant Spirits Take away this who would be so sensless as to live in perpetual toyl and hazzard I speak for Statesmen but as to Poets have they no regard to Fame after Death whence then came this Inscription Here Roman stands old Ennius crown'd with Bays Who sung your Fathers in immortal Layes He expects the Wages of Glory from those whose Parents he had immortaliz'd Then further on the same occasion None mourn for me nor cruel Destiues blame I draw the breath of never-dying Fame But why do I insist on Poets Artisans strive to be ennobled by their Master-pieces after Death For why else should Phidias work an Image like himself in the Shield of Minerva where he might not inscribe his Name Nay our own Philosophers do they not set their Names to those very Books which they write upon contemning Glory Now if the consent of all men be the voice of Nature and all men every where do accord that they who are departed this Life have some interest here we then must needs be of the same Sense and if any who excell in Parts and Vertue we suppose them as being best natur'd to see farthest into the Power of Nature it is likely since the best men are most serviceable to Posterity that there is somewhat whereof they shall be sensible after Death SECT XVI That Dead mens Souls abide in Caves under earth is the groundless Fiction of Poets or Imposture of Magicians BUT as We conceive the Being of God by natural Instinct but gather his Nature and Attributes by rational Deductions so that Souls do subsist in a separate State we judge by the consent of all Nations what Mansions they inhabit and what be their essential Qualities we must learn by reason the ignorance of which hath feigned a Hell in the Center of the Earth and those bugbears which you did seem not without just Cause to despise For when Bodies fell into the Earth and were covered within the ground from whence they are said to be inhum'd they fancied that the dead led the rest of their Life under the Earth Upon which opinion of theirs great errors ensu'd these the Poets improv'd For the cram'd Seats of the Theater in which be Women and Children are mov'd when they hear such a lofty Verse I come mith woful pains from under ground A steep and headlong way which Cliff's surround Huge pointed pendant where gross darkness dwells And so far did the error prevail which seems to me now taken quite away that though they knew Corpses to have been burnt yet they feign'd such Acts done below as could neither be performed without corporeal Organs nor understood For they could not comprehend the Soul's subsisting in a separate condition but requir'd it to have some shape and figure Upon this conceit depends all Homer's Descent into Hell Upon the same that Necromancy which my Friend Appius practis'd Upon this the Avernian Lake in our Neighborhood Whence rais'd are Night-Ghosts Images of the dead Deep Acheron 's Gates flung ope by salt blood-shed Yet they will have these Images speak which is impossible without a Tongue without a Palate without the force and figure of Throat Sides and Lungs
concupiscence and to be so much the more fir'd because we emulate those who are in possession of those Goods which we pursue Doubtless blessed shall we be when divested of these Bodies we shall with them have put off their craving desires and fond Emulations Now as it fareth with us here when releas'd from cares we love to recreate our selves in beholding some moral Divertisements or other pleasing sights we shall have then much more liberty to attend to it d and shall lay out our selves wholly in contemplating the wonderful Effects of Nature and discerning their Causes both because our minds have naturally unplanted in them an insatiable longing to come at the sight of Truth And because the very Borders of those heavenly places at which we shall have arriv'd as by their proximity they will furnish greater advantages as the discovery of the celestial Bodies with their motions so will they accordingly excite in us a more ardent desire to enquire after them For it was this beautiful order which put our Fathers and Grand-fathers even here on Earth as Theophrastus saith upon Philosophy and inflam'd them with a desire of Knowledge but they shall with more inlarged Faculties and satisfaction comprehend them who while here upon Earth however they were invelopped in thick mists of Obscurity yet by the piercing sight of a clear mind endeavoured to descry them d And shall lay out our selves wholly in contemplating the wonderful Effects of Nature and discerning their Causes To behold natural Causes is delightful to the Understanding God is said to look down upon his Works and rejoyce But our greatest satisfaction is by them as in a Mirror to behold the infinite Wisdom and Power of him who hath dispos'd them And since the Creature must pass away in the general Conflagration there remains no other beatifical Vision but to behold the face of the Creator reconciled to us through a gracious Redeemer to which only purity of heart can prepare SECT XX. And thence contemplate Nature NOW if they fancy themselves to have got some advantage who have seen the Mouth of the Black-Sea and those Streights through which the Galley enter'd which was nam'd Argo because in her the Flower of Greece From Argos row'd to fetch the Golden Fleece And those also who have seen the Streights mouth where the swift current Libya and Europe parts What a rare sight do we think it will be when we may see the whole Earth at one view and as its Situation Form Circuit so both its Country's habitable and those again utterly uninhabitable through excess of cold or heat For we do not at present behold with our eyes the things we do see Since there is no sense in the Body but as not only Naturalists inform but also Physitians who in Dissections have seen and examin'd the several parts there are certain open passages bored from the Seat of the Soul to the Eyes to the Ears and to the Nostrils whence oftentimes either being deep in Meditation or seiz'd with some violent Distemper though our eyes and eares be both sound and open we can neither see nor hear with them So that it is very apparent that it is the Soul which both sees and hears and not those parts which are but as it were the Casements of the Soul with which yet it can perceive nothing unless it be mindful and attentive It is further observable that with the same mind we comprehend objects of a most different Nature as colour taste heat scent and sound which the Soul could never distinguish from the report of five Messengers unless all were committed to her that she alone might be judge of all And in truth those things will be seen much more clearly and transparently when the Soul shall get free to the place whither Nature is bound for at present however Nature hath fram'd those overtures which are a thorough-fair from the Body to the Soul after a most curious and artificial manner yet are they in a sort obstructed by gross and impure Matter but when the Soul shall he by her self nothing shall interpose to hinder her from discerning every object according to its proper Nature SECT XXI That the Epicureans who plead for Annihilation have no such reason to triumph in their Scheme of natural Knowledge improv'd WE could sufficiently dilate upon this Subject if the Matter requir'd it how many how different how great entertainments of the Sight the Soul should find in the heavenly places The Consideration of which makes me often admire at the strange Vanity of some Philosophers who magnifie their knowledge of Nature and in great Extasies of Joy offer up thanks to him that first invented and revealed it worshipping him as a God For by his means they pretend themselves freed from the most insupportable Lords everlasting Terror and apprehension day and night What Terror What Apprehension Is there any old Good-wife so doting as to fear those things which you see now had you not learn'd the Scheme of natural Philosophy you should have fear'd Acheron 's low Regions which pale shades frequent Where Clouds o're-spread the gloomy Firmament Is it not a shame for a Philosopher to glory that he is got above these fears and that he knows them to be but Fables By which it appears what profound natural Parts these men have who should have believ'd such Stories if they had not been bred up to Learning A great prize too they have got by this Learning that when they come to dye they are to perish Soul and Body Which admit to be true for I am not contentious what great matter of joy or boasting doth the Doctrine afford Though to speak truth I cannot find any considerable Objection against the opinion of Pythagoras and Plato for had Plato alledged no reason for it see what deference I have to his Person he would have dash'd me with his bare Authority but now he hath back'd his Judgment with so many Reasons that he seems to me to have endeavoured to make others to be so but himself truly to have been of the perswasion SECT XXII An immaterial Substance though invisible may subsist of it self as God so the Soul YET many stubborn Opponents there are who pass Sentence of Death upon Souls as Capital Malefactors Nor have they other ground upon which they derogate credit from the Eternity of Souls but only this that they cannot fancy nor comprehend what should be the nature of a Soul separate from the Body as if they understood what were the nature of it when united to it what fashion what size what place it takes up So that were man a Creature who might be look'd into and all his inward Parts discover'd whether would the Soul be visible or for its extraordinary subtilty escape the sight These things they would do well to consider who say they cannot conceive what a Soul should be without a Body they will find what Conception they have of it now it is
as he calls his Idea we the Species or Kind the Soul after it was locked up in the Body could not come to understand them therefore it brought the knowledge of them with it hither by which means all admiration of our knowing so many things ceases Nor doth the Soul discern them on the sudden after she is remov'd into such a strange and confus'd habitation till she hath recollected and recruited her self for then she recovers those dormant notices by remembrance of them so that Learning is nothing else than a recalling to mind Now I must confess I do after an extraordinary manner admire the memory what is that faculty whereby we remember what is its force or whence its nature I do not demand about such a memory as Simonides is said to have had such as Theodectes such as he who was sent Ambassador from Pyrrhus to the Senate Cynaeas such as Charmidas lately such as in these times the Scepsian Metrodorus such as our Friend Hortensius I speak of the common memory of men and those especially who are train'd up in any considerable Business or Art the compass of whose mind it is hard to estimate so many things do they remember f So that Plato would have it to be the re-calling to mind what was known in a former Life It is a known opinion of Plato the pre-existence of Souls too much favoured by Origen and Arnobius perhaps to salve the Doctrine of original Sin which they thought less reconcileable to the Souls Creation in its Infusion But the truer account of such apprehension seems to be from the common Notions by natural instinct implanted in the rational Soul SECT XXV Corollaries of the former Argument from that of Invention WHither now tends this whole Discourse I think it would be understood what is this force and whence it is Certainly it proceeds not from the Heart nor Blood nor Brains nor Atomes Whether the Soul be Breath or Fire I know not nor am I asham'd as some others are to confess I do not know what I do not But this I can affirm as much as of any thing else that is obscure be the Soul Breath or be it Fire I durst be depos'd it is Divine for I beseech you now can you imagine that so great an ability of memory can be produc'd or compounded of Earth or this gross Region of Air You do not see what is its Nature But what are its Qualities you do see or if you do not that neither what is its quantity to be sure you do see How then do we conceive of it whether do we think there is any concavity into which as into a Fat we turn up the things which we remember that is absurd For what bottom or what such Figure of the Soul can be imagin'd or what Gage of so large a Size Or do we take the Soul to be imprest as Wax and the Memory for the Prints of things set down in the Mind as in a Table-book What Prints can there be of Words what of the things themselves Lastly what Volum so vast as to represent such numerous Nations What think you should that Power be which brings to light useful Secrets which is call'd Invention or Devising or that it can be compounded of this earthly mortal and frail Nature What judge you of him who the first impos'd names on all things which Pythagoras reckons a Work of the highest Wisdom or who drew scatter'd men into Communities and incorporated them for the mutual Support of Life or who couch'd the Sounds of the Voice which seem'd infinite into the marks of a few Letters or who calculated the Courses Progressions Stations of the Planets All of them were great Personages Those of higher Antiquity yet who found out Corn who Cloathing who Houses who the helps of living handsomly who guards against wild Beasts by whom being civiliz'd and reclaim'd we naturally proceeded from the necessary to the more polite Arts for entertainment of the Ears was in great measure found out and temper'd with variety of Notes and Voices We look'd up even to the Stars both those which are fix'd at certain distances and those also which are not so in reality but in name only wandring Stars All the motions and windings of which the Soul that first observ'd gave at the same time proof that it was like him who had fashion'd them in Heaven For when Archimedes lock'd up the motions of Sun Moon and the five other Planets into his Sphear he brought that to pass which the God that in Timaeus built the World that one Revolution should adjust motions most unlike for speed and slowness Which if it cannot be wrought in this World without God neither could Archimedes in his Sphear have imitated the same Motions without a Divine Wit SECT XXVI From further Endowments IN my judgment I must say even these more familiar and illustrious Instances seem not performable without some Divine Power so as I should think that either a Poet pours out a grave and accomplish'd Poem without some heavenly Instinct of the Mind or that any Eloquence without some extraordinary impulse can flow in a mighty Stream of lofty Words and copious Sentences And for Philosophy the Mother of all Arts what is it else but as Plato saith the Gift as I the Invention of the Gods This first train'd us up to their Worship next to Justice towards men which consists in the Preservation of Societies And lastly to Moderation and Courage this also hath dispell'd the darkness from our Souls as from our Eyes that we can behold the Extremities of Nature what is above below first midst last Truly this Power seems to me to be Divine which can work so many and so admirable Effects For what is Memory of things and words What is Invention Certainly such as no greater Perfections can be apprehended to be in God Now I am not of the mind that the Gods take pleasure in Feasting on Nectar and Ambrosia or in a Goddess of everlasting Youth to bear their Cups Nor do I believe Homer who saith that Ganymede was ravish'd by the Gods for his Beauty to fill Jupiter Drink a Cause no way sufficient why such an injury should be offer'd Laomedon This was a meer Fiction of Homer's who made Gods like men I could have wish'd he had rather made men like Gods Wherein like Gods in Activity Wisdom Invention Memory Therefore the Soul which as I say is Divine as Euripides presumes to say is a God truly if God be either Spirit or Fire the same is mans Soul for as that heavenly Nature is free both from Earth and moisture so the humane Soul partakes of neither of them But if it be a fifth Nature first introduc'd by Aristotle the same is common both to the Soul and God Pursuant to which opinion we thus express'd our selves word for word in our Book of Consolation SECT XXVII From its Divine Original ORiginal of Souls none can be found
here on Earth for there is no mixture or composition in Souls nor any appearance that they were born or moulded nothing of Water Wind or Fire for in these Natures there is nothing which hath a Power of Memory Understanding or Thought which can both retain what is past foresee what is to come and comprehend what is present which are Divine Properties nor will it ever be made out whence they could be deriv'd upon man but from God There is then a peculiar Nature and Power of the Soul distant from these visible and known Natures Whatever therefore is that Principle which hath Sense which hath Wisdom which hath Will which hath Activity it is Celestial and Divine and therefore must of necessity be eternal Nor in truth can God himself as he is understood of us be otherwise apprehended than as a Spirit uncontroul'd and free separate from all mortal Contagion perceiving all things and moving all things and being it self endu'd with everlasting Motion SECT XXVIII From its Faculties THE Spirit of man is of this lineage and of the same Nature Where therefore or of what likeness is that Spirit Where is yours or of what likeness Can you resolve me If I am not able to understand all things which I wish I were able to do will you not allow to make use of such Abilities as I have The Soul hath not that Power as to see its self but the Soul as the Eye though it see not it self beholds other things It sees not what is of small import it s own form Perhaps so though as to that but forbear we it It sees to be sure its Power Pregnancy Memory Motion Quickness these are great these are divine these are everlasting Excellencies What shape it is of or where it dwells is not to be inquir'd As when we see first the face and brightness of Heaven then so great a swiftness of Circumvolution as we cannot conceive Next the Succession of days and nights and four-fold alteration of Seasons fitted to the ripening of Corn and temperature of Bodies Then the Sun Captain and Ruler over all these as also the Moon which by her waxing and waning doth distinguish and as it were point at the days of the Kalendar Further that in the same Orb divided into twelve parts the other five Planets do move keeping constantly their proper Periods though unequal to one another and withall the lustre of the Fir mament on all parts bespangled with Stars then the Globe of the Earth standing above the Sea fix'd in the middle of the Universe inhabited and peopled in two distant Regions the one of which where we dwell is plac'd under the Pole by the Northern Bear whence Blust'ring cold Boreas Banks of driven Snow raises The other is Southern unknown to us which the Greeks call under the opposite Pole g the remaining three parts are uninhabited as being either starv'd with cold or scorch'd with heat h but here where we inhabit without failure The Air grows mild new Liveries grace the Woods Luxuriant Vines shoot forth young Grapes and Buds Fruit-trees with loaded Boughs incline their heads Springs purle Grass diapers the flowry Meads Furthermore the multitude of Cattle some for Food some for Agriculture some for Carriage some for Cloathing and man himself as it were Contemplator of Heaven and the Gods and Worshipper of them but all Lands and Seas subservient to Mans use g The remaining three parts are uninhabited The ancient Romans knew little more than the Northern temperate Zone but concluded the like of the Southern But our Navigations and Voyages have discovered the whole Torrid Zone to be inhabited and part of the Northern Frigid to be so by which the like may be inferred of part of the Southern Frigid Nor doth any part of the World seem uncapable of Habitation at some Seasons of the year though less commodious as Carpenter disputes in his Decads h But here where we inhabit He slides into an indirect Commendation of Italy as the Paradise of the World SECT XXIX From its Nature WHEN we behold therefore these and innumerable other things can we doubt but that there presides over this frame either the maker if these things were produc'd as is the judgment of Plato or if they were from Eternity as is the opinion of Aristotle a directer of so great a Work and Administration Thus the mind of man although you see it not as you do not see God yet as you acknowledge God from his Works so from the memory of things and invention and swiftness of motion and the whole beauty of Vertue acknowledge the Divine Power of the mind In what place then is it I take it to be in the head And why take it to be there I can give my reason but at another time Now for where the Soul should be To be sure 't is within you What is its Nature Proper I think and by it self But suppose it of Fire suppose it of Breath that imports nothing to the matter in hand Only look to this that as you know God although you are ignorant both of his place and shape so ought your Soul to be known to you although you are ignorant both of its place and form Now in the knowledge of the Soul we can no ways doubt of this unless we be meer Dunces in natural Philosophy that there should be any mixture in Souls any composition any conjunction any cementing any thing double which so being neither can it be separated nor divided nor torn nor drawn asunder nor by consequent dye for death is as it were a Departure a Separation and Disunion of those parts which before death were held together by some common tye By these and the like Reasons Socrates being mov'd neither sought to an advocate in the Tryal for his Life nor petition'd his Judges but demean'd himself with an unconcern'd stoutness deriv'd not from the bravery of his Spirit not from Pride And on the last day of his Life discours'd much on this very Subject and a few days before i when he might easily have been released out of Prison would not And when he was ready to take that deadly potion into his hand spoke after such manner as that he seem'd not driven to Death but ascending up to Heaven i When he might easily have been released out of Prison would not Crito would have deposited a great Sum Simmias the Theban had brought more Other Fellow-Students would have made a common Purse to have wrought upon the Keepers the Informers and some of the Indigent Magistrates but he would not escape by such indirect and dishonourable Practices SECT XXX From the Authority of Socrates and Cato FOR thus he maintain'd and thus he argued There are two ways and a double Post-road for Souls when they go out of the Body For they who had polluted themselves with the Vices of the World and abandon'd themselves wholly to Lusts with which being blinded they had defil'd themselves
on the top of his Tomb was a Sphear erected with a Cylinder when I had view'd all about for at the Agragian Port is a great number of Sepulchers I spy'd a Pillar somewhat rais'd above the Bushes l on which was the Figure of a Sphear and Cylinder Then I presently told the Syracusians at that time the chief of the Town were with me that I thought that was the thing I look'd for divers with Hand-Bills were sent in who clear'd the place when an open way was made we came to the Front of the Base there appear'd an Epigram the latter part of the Verses to almost half being perish'd So that noble City of Greece and heretofore very learned had not known the Monument of her most ingenious Citizen had she not learn'd it m of a poor Arpinate But let my Discourse return from whence it hath digress'd for who is there that hath any acquaintance with the Muses that is with Humanity and Learning who had not rather be this Mathematician than that Tyrant If we look into their manner of Life and Employment the mind of one was improv'd by working and searching out Proportions with the delight of invention which is the sweetest repast of Souls The others fed with Carnage and Injuries with Fears both by day and by night Come on compare Democritus Pythagoras Anaxagoras what Kingdoms what Wealth will you prefer before their Studies and Delights for what is the best part in man therein must that best thing of all for man which you enquire after of necessity be seated Now what is there in man better than an ingenuous and sound mind The good of that therefore must we enjoy if we would be happy but the good of the mind is Vertue therefore a happy Life must of necessity be compriz'd in that Hence all things which are good honest honourable as I said above but that same seems that it ought to be more largely said are full of joys Now seeing it is plain that a happy Life is made up of continual and compleat joys it follows that it ariseth from honesty l On which was the Figure of a Sphear and Cylinder On which he had written so accurately m Of a poor Arpinate Tully was born at Arpinum a Corporation Famous before only for the Birth of Marius a stout but illiterate Commander SECT XXIV The Exercise of a Wise man in Contemplation of Nature BUT lest we should only touch in words upon those things which we ought to shew there are some as it were motives to be laid down by us which should more invite us to knowledge and understanding for let us presume on some Person excelling in the best Arts and let him for a while be fancied in our Mind and Thought First he must needs be of an excellent Wit for Vertue doth not in all likelyhood consort with dull Souls Then must he have a forward inclination to the search of truth from whence ariseth n that three-fold issue of the Soul the one in knowledge of the World and explaining of Nature a second in the description of what is to be desir'd what avoided the third in judging what is consequent to what and what repugnant wherein consists both all the subtilty of disputing and truth of judging What joy then I pray must needs possess the wise mans mind dwelling and lodging with these Entertainments and when he shall behold the Motions and Revolutions of the whole Firmament and shall see innumerable Stars sticking in their Orb agree with its own motion fix'd in their due distances Other seven each to keep their courses much differing in height or lowness whose wide motions yet limit certain bounded and order'd Posts of their Race It was the Observation of these that incited and minded those Ancients to enquire farther Thence arose that o search of the Principles and as it were Seeds whence all things had their Original Generation Composition and what is the Rise what Life what Death and what the Change or Conversion from one into another of every kind with or without Sense dumb or speaking whence is the Earth and by what weights pois'd in what caverns it sustains the Seas whether all things born down by their Gravity do always tend to the middle place of the World which is also the lowest in a round Figure n That three-fold issue of the Soul Physicks Ethicks and Logick o Search of the Principles and as it were Seeds whence all things had their Original The Creation of the World in its order could not have been discover'd unless it had been from above revealed for how could Adam come to understand what had past in the Vigils of his Production into Being without a Divine Tradition but the old Sages beheld the order of Causes in Generation and found Matter and Form to concur when there was a vacancy to the producing any new compound SECT XXV Good Manners right Reasoning and discharge of his place WHILST he considers these things and meditates on them day and night there ariseth that knowledge enjoyn'd by the God at Delphi that the Spirit knows it self to have put off former Vices and experiments that it is ally'd to the Divine Spirit and thereupon is fill'd with insatiable Joy For the very Contemplation of the Power and Nature of the Deity and enkindleth a desire of imitating that Eternity nor doth it think it self confin'd to this shortness of Life when it beholds the Causes of all Events depending one upon another and all of them link'd together with necessity which as they flow from eternal Duration to eternal yet a Wisdom and Spirit doth conduct Stedfastly beholding these things and looking upwards or rather looking round on all the Parts and Extremities with what calmness of mind again doth he consider the Contingencies of Hurnane Life and things here below Hence ariseth that knowledge of Vertue the general and particular Vertues sprout forth there is found out what is that chiefest amongst Goods which Nature aims at what the utmost amongst Evils whereinto all Duties are to be resolv'd what order of leading our Life to be chosen These and such-like things being search'd out it is firmly prov'd which we chiefly drive at in this Dispute that Vertue is self-sufficient to happiness of Life A third branch remains the method and skill of disputing which is diffus'd and spreads through all the Parts of Wisdom This defines Notions divides the general into its parts conjoyns consequent means of proof infers regular Conclusions From which as the highest usefulness ariseth towards examining Matters so doth also the most ingenuous delight and worthy of Wisdom But these are the Improvements of leisure pass the same wise man to manage the publick what can be more serviceable than he when he beholds the Interest of his Country to be bound up in his Prudence out of Justice he converts nothing of the publick to his private use exercises so many others and such various Vertues Joyn hereto the benefit