judging of things with an unwarrantable rashness For we often judge that the Objects whereof we have Idea's exist and likewise that they altogether resemble their Idea's when yet it often falls out that the Objects are neither like their Idea's nor do they exist at all The Existence of a thing does no ways follow from our having an Idea of it much less does it follow that the thing is perfectly like the Idea which we have thereof It cannot be concluded from GOD's giving us such a sensible Idea of Magnitude upon the presentation of a six Foot-rule to our Eyes that this Rule has the same Extension as it is represented to us by that Idea For first All Men have not the same sensible Idea of this same measure since all Men have not their Eyes disposed in the same manner Again The same Person has not the same sensible Idea of a six Foot-rule when he beholds it with his left Eye as when he views it with his right as has been already said Finally It often happens that the self-same Person entertains quite different Idea's of the same Objects at different times according as they are suppos'd nearer or farther off as shall be explain'd in its proper place It is then nothing but prejudice grounded upon no good reason to think we see Bodies according to their real Magnitude for our Eyes being not given us for any other purpose than the security of our Body they discharge their Duty admirable well in giving us such Idea's of Objects as are proportion'd to its magnitude But the better to conceive what ought to be our judgments concerning the Extension of Bodies from the Report of our Eyes let us imagine GOD to have created in Epitomie out of a portion of matter of the bigness of a small Globe an Heaven and Earth and Men upon this Earth with all other things the same proportion being observ'd as in this Grand World These little Men would see each other and the parts of their Bodies as likewise the little Animals which were capable of incommoding them Otherwise their Eyes would be useless to their preservation It is manifest then from this Supposition these little Men would have Idea's of the magnitude of Bodies quite different from ours since they would look upon their little World which would be but a Ball in our account as stretch'd out into infinite spaces just as we do in respect of the World in which we are Or if this is not so easie to be conceiv'd let us suppose GOD had created an Earth infinitely vaster than this which we inhabit so that this new Earth should be to ours what ours would be to that we have spoken of in the fore-going Supposition Let us moreover conceive GOD Almighty to have observ'd in all the parts which went to the Composition of this New World the very same proportion he has done in those which make up Ours It is plain that the Inhabitants of this latter World would be Taller than the space betwixt our Earth and the most distant Stars we can discover And this being so it is manifest that if they had the same Idea's of Extension of Bodies as our selves they would be able to discern some of the parts of their own Bodies and and would see others of a prodigious unweildiness so that 't is ridiculous to think they would see things in the same Bigness as they are seen by us It is apparent in these two Suppositions we have made that the Men whether of the Great or Little World would have Idea's of the Magnitude of Bodies very different from ours supposing their Eyes to furnish them with Idea's of the Objects round about them proportion'd to the Magnitude of their own Bodies Now if these Men should confidently affirm upon the Testimony of their Eyes that Bodies were of the very same bigness whereof they saw them it is not to be doubted but they would be deceiv'd and I suppose no Man will make a question of it And yet it is certain that these Men would have as Good Reason to justifie their Opinion as we have to defend our Own Let us acknowledge then from their Example That we are very uncertain of the Magnitude of Bodies which we see and that all which can be known by us concerning them from the Testimony of Sight is only the mutual Relation there is between Them and Us. In a word that our Eyes were never given us whereby to judge of the Truth of things but only to give us notice of such as might either molest or profit us in something or other But 't is not thought sufficient for Men to credit their Eyes only in order to judge of Visible Objects They think they are to be trusted farther even to judge of those which are Invisible Because there are some things which they cannot see they conclude they do not exist attributing to their Sight a Penetration in a manner Infinite This is an Impediment which prevents their discovering the real Causes of abundance of Natural Effects For that they ascribe them to Imaginary Faculties and Qualities is often meerly for want of discerning the True which consist in the different Configurations of these Bodies They see not for Instance the little parts of Air or Flame much less those of Light or of a matter still more fine and subtil And upon this score they are ready to believe they are not in being at least conclude them void of force and action They betake themselves to Occult Qualities or Imaginary Faculties to explain all the Effects whereof those Imperceptible parts are The True and Natural Cause They had rather have recourse to the horror of a Vacuum to Explain the Elevation of water in the Pump than impute it to the Gravitation of the Air. They chuse to ascribe the Flux and Reflux of the Sea to the Qualities of the Moon rather than to the pressure of the Atmosphere that is to the Air which surrounds the Earth and the Elevation of Vapours to the Attractive Faculties of the Sun than to the simple Motion of Impulse caused by the parts of the Subtil Matter which it continually diffuses abroad They look upon those as Men of trifling and impertinent Thought who have recourse only to the Flesh and Blood in accounting for all the Motions of Animals Likewise for the habits and the Corporeal Memory of Men And this partly proceeds from the Conception they have of the littleness of the Brain and its incapacity thereupon to preserve the Traces of an almost infinite number of things lodg'd in it They had rather admit though they can't conceive how a Soul in Beasts which is neither Body nor Spirit Qualities and Intentional Species for the Habits and Memory of Men or such like things notwithstanding they have no particular Notion of them in their Mind I should be too tedious should I stand to reckon up all the Errors we fall into through this Prejudice There are
no need of Idea's to perceive all these things because they are within the Soul or rather because they are the very Soul it self in such or such a manner just as the real Rotundity of any Body and its Motion are nothing but the Body figured and translated after such or such a sort But as to the things without the Soul we can have no perception of them but by the means of Idea's upon supposition that these things cannot be intimately united to it and they are of two sorts Spiritual and Material As to the Spiritual there is some probability they may be discover'd to the Soul without Idea's immediately by themselves For though Experience certifies us that we cannot by an immediate Communication declare our Thoughts to one another but only by words and other sensible Signs whereunto we have annex'd our Idea's yet we may say that GOD has ordain'd this kind of Oeconomy only for the time of this Life to prevent the Disorders that might at present happen if Men should understand one another as they pleas'd But when Justice and Order shall reign and we shall be delivered from the Captivity of our Body we shall possibly communicate our Thoughts by the intimate union of our selves as 't is probable the Angels may do in Heaven So that there seems to be no absolute necessity of Idea's for the representing things of a Spiritual Nature since 't is possible for them to be seen by themselves though in a very dark and imperfect manner I enquire not here how two Spirits can be united to one another or whether by that means they can open inwards and make a mutual Discovery of their Thoughts I believe however there is no Substance purely Intelligible except that of GOD and that nothing can be evidently discovered but in his Light and that the Vnion of Spirits cannot make them visible For though we be most intimately united with our selves we both are and shall be unintelligible to our selves until we see our selves in GOD and he shall present to us in our selves the perfectly intelligible Idea which he has of our Being included in his own And thus though I seem to grant that Angels may manifest to each other both what they are and what they think I must advertise that I do it only because I have no mind to dispute it provided it shall be granted me what can't be controverted namely That we cannot discern material things by themselves and without Idea's I will explain in the Seventh Chapter what my Notion is of the way whereby we know Spirits and I will make it appear that we cannot at present entirely know them by themselves though they may possibly be united to us But I discourse in this place chiefly of material Things which certainly are incapable of such a manner of Union with our Soul as is necessary to make them perceiv'd for that they being extended and the Soul not there is no proportion betwixt them And besides our Souls never depart from our Bodies to measure the Greatness of the Heavens and consequently cannot see the Bodies that are without otherwise than by the Idea's that represent them And this is what all the World must agree to We affirm then that it is absolutely necessary that the Idea's we have of Bodies and of all other Objects we perceive not immediately by themselves proceed from these same Bodies or these Objects or else that our Soul has the power of producing these Idea's or that GOD produc'd them together with her in the Creation or that he produces them as often as we think of any Object or that the Soul has in her self all the Perfections which she discovers in these Bodies or lastly is united with an All-perfect Being who comprehends universally in himself all the Perfections of Created Beings There is no perceiving of Objects but by one of these ways Let us examine without Prepossession which seems the probable'st of all and not be disheartned at the difficulty of the Question It may be we shall give a Resolution clear enough though we pretend not to give incontested Demonstrations for all sorts of Persons but only most convincing Proofs to such as with thoughtful Attention shall consider them For it probably would look like Rashness and Presumption to talk in a more positive manner CHAP. II. That Material Objects emit not Species which resemble them THE most common Opinion is that of the Peripatetics who pretend That External Objects send forth Species which are like them and that these Species are convey'd by the External Senses as far as the Commune Sensorium They call these the Species Impressae because imprinted by Objects on the outward Senses These Impress'd Species being Material and Sensible are made Intelligible by the Intellectus Agens and are fit to be receiv'd in the Intellectus Patiens These Species thus Spiritualiz'd are term'd Expressae as being express'd from the impress'd And by these it is that the Patient Intellect knows all Material things I shall not stand to finish the Explication of these Notable things and of the diverse ways Philosophers have of conceiving them For though they be not agreed about the number of the Faculties which they attribute to the Internal Sense and Understanding and there are also many that are very dubious whether they have any need of the Agent Intellect for the knowing Sensible Objects yet they almost universally agree in the Emission of the Species or Images resembling the Objects they proceed from And 't is only on this Foundation they multiply their Faculties and defend their Active Intellect So that this Foundation having no solidity as will be seen by and by there is no necessity of standing to overthrow all the Superstructures they have built upon it I maintain then it is not probable that Objects should send out Species or Images in their own likeness and these are my Reasons for it The first is taken from the Impenetrability of Bodies All Objects as the Sun the Stars as well as those that are near our Eyes cannot emit Species of a different Nature from themselves and for this Reason 't is usually said by the Philosophers that these Species are gross and material to distinguish them from the express'd Species which are spiritualiz'd These Impress'd Species of Objects are therefore little Bodies They cannot then penetrate each other nor all the spaces betwixt Heaven and Earth which must needs be fill'd with them From whence 't is easie to conclude that they must needs bruise and batter one another some coming one way and thwarting others coming another and so 't is impossible they should render Objects visible Again it is possible for one standing on one Point to see a great number of Objects which are in the Heaven and on the Earth There is then a necessity that the Species of all these Bodies be reduc'd into a Point But they are Impenetrable since they are extended Ergo c. But
as little as possibly it can 'T is upon this account it is easily perswaded that the Essences of things are in Indivisibili and that they are like Numbers as we have said before for that then it requires only one Idea to represent all the Bodies that go under the name of the same Species If you put for example a Glass of Water into an Hogshead of Wine the Philosophers will tell you the Essence of Wine still remains the same and the Water is converted into Wine That as no number can intervene between three and four since a true Unity is indivisible so 't is necessary the Water should be converted into the Essence or Nature of the Wine or that the Wine should lose its own That as all Numbers of Four are perfectly alike so the Essence of Water is exactly the same in all Waters That as the Number Three Essentially differs from the Number Two and cannot have the same Properties so two Bodies differing in Specie differ Essentially and in such wise as they can never have the same Properties which flow from the Essence and such like things as these Whereas if Men consider'd the true Idea's of things any thing attentively they would not be long a discovering that all Bodies being extended their Nature or Essence has nothing in 't like Numbers and that 't is impossible for it to consist in Indivisibili But Men not only suppose Identity Similitude or Proportion in the Nature the Number and essential Differences of Substances but in every thing that comes under their Perception Most Men conclude that all the fix'd Stars are fastned as so many Nails in the mighty Vault of Heaven in an equal distance and convexity from the Earth The Astronomers have for a long time given out that the Planets rowl in exact Circles whereof they have invented a plentiful number as Concentric Excentric Epicycles Deferent and Equant to explain the Phenomena that contradict their Prejudice 'T is true in the last Ages the more Ingenious have corrected the Errors of the Ancients and believe that the Planets describe Ellipses by their Motion But if they would have us believe that these Ellipses are regular as we are easily inclin'd to do because the Mind supposes Regularity where it perceives no Irregularity they fall into an Error so much harder to be corrected as the Observations that can be made upon the Course of the Planets want Exactness and Justness to shew the Irregularity of their Motions which Error nothing but Physicks can remedy as being infinitely less observable than that which occurs in the Systeme of exact Circles But there is one thing of more particular occurrence relating to the Distance and Motion of the Planets which is that the Astronomers not being able to discover an Arithmetical or Geometrical Proportion that being manifestly repugnant to their Observations some of them have imagin'd they observ'd a kind of Proportion which they term Harmonical in their Distances and Motions Hence it was that an Astronomer of this Age in his New Almagistus begins a Section intitul'd De Systemate Mundi Harmonico with these words There is no Man that 's never so little vers'd in Astronomy but must acknowledge a kind of Harmony in the motion and intervals of the Planets if he attentively considers the Order of the Heavens Not that he was of that Opinion for the Observations that have been made gave him sufficiently to understand the extravagance of that imaginary Harmony which has yet been the Admiration of many Authors Ancient and Modern whose Opinions are related and refuted by Father Riccioli It is attributed likewise to Pythagoras and his Followers to have believ'd That the Heavens by their Regular Motions made a wonderful Melody which Men could not hear by reason of their being us'd to it As those says he that dwell near the Cataracts of the Waters of Nile hear not the noise of them But I only bring this particular Opinion of the Harmonical Proportion between the Distances and Motions of the Planets to shew that the Mind is fond of Proportions and that it often imagines them where they are not The Mind also supposes Uniformity in the Duration of things and imagines they are not liable to Change and Instability when it is not as it were forc'd by the Testimonies and report of Sence to judge otherwise All Material things being extended are capable of Division and consequently of Corruption And every one that makes never so little reflection on the Nature of Bodies must sensibly perceive their Corruptibility And yet there have been a multitude of Philosophers who believ'd the Heavens though Material were Incorruptible The Heavens are too remote from our Eyes to discover the Changes which happen in them and there seldom any great enough fall out to be seen upon Earth which has been sufficient warrant to a great many Persons to believe they were really incorruptible What has been a farther confirmation of their Opinion is their attributing to the Contrariety of Qualities the Corruption incident to Sublunary Bodies For having never been in the Heavens to see how things were carried on there they have had no Experience of that contrariety of Qualities being to be found therein which has induc'd them to believe there were actually no such thing And hence have concluded the Heavens were exempt from Corruption upon this Reason That what according to their Notion corrupts Sublunary Bodies is not to be found in the higher Regions of the World 'T is plain that this Arguing has nothing of solidity for we see no Reason why there may not be found some other Cause of Corruption besides that contrariety of Qualities which they imagine nor upon what grounds they can affirm There is neither Heat nor Cold neither Drought nor Moisture in the Heavens that the Sun is not hot nor Saturn cold There is some probability of Reason to say That very hard Stones and Glass and other Bodies of like Nature are not corrupted since we see they subsist a long time in the same Capacity and we are near enough to observe the Changes that should happen to them But while we are at such a Distance from the Heavens as we are it 's absolutely against all Reason to conclude they don't corrupt because we perceive no contrary Qualities in them nor can see them corrupting and yet they don 't only say they don't corrupt but that they are unchangeable and incorruptible And a little more the Peripateticks would maintain That Celestial Bodies were so many Divinities as their Master Aristotle did believe them The Beauty of the Universe consists not in the Incorruptibility of its parts but in the Variety that is found in them and this great Work of the World would have something wanting to its Admirable Perfection without that Vicissitude of things that is observ'd in it A Matter infinitely extended without Motion and consequently rude and without Form and without Corruption might perhaps manifest
have two contrary Motions viz. the circular and the ascending which is impossible If the Heavens be some other Body which moves not circularly by its own Nature they will have some other natural Motion which cannot likewise be for if that Motion be ascending they will be Fire or Air and if descending Water or Earth Therefore c. I shall not insist upon shewing the particular Absurdities of those Reasonings but only observe in general that all that which this Philosopher here says has no signification and that there is neither Truth nor Inference well drawn His third Reason is as follows The first and most perfect of all simple Motions must be that of a simple Body and of the first and most perfect among simple Bodies But the circular Motion is the first and most perfect amongst simple Motions because every circular Line is perfect and that no right Line is so For if it be finite something may be added to it if infinite it is not yet perfect since it has no end and that things are not perfect but when they are finished and therefore the circular Motion is the first and most perfect of all and a Body moving circularly is simple and the first and most Divine amongst simple Bodies Here you have his fourth Reason Every Motion is either natural or not but every Motion which is not natural to some Bodies is natural to some others For we see that the ascending and descending Motions which are not natural to some Bodies are so to others for Fire naturally descends not but Earth does Now the Circular Motion is not natural to any of the Four Elements there must then be a simple Body to which that Motion is natural and therefore the Heavens which move Circularly are a simple Body distinguished from the Four Elements Lastly The Circular Motion is either natural or violent to some Body or other If it be natural 't is evident that Body must be one of the most simple and perfect But if it be against Nature 't is strange how that Motion endures for ever since we see that all Motions against Nature are of a short continuance And therefore we must believe after all those Reasons that there is some Body separated from all those that environ us whose Nature is the more perfect as it lies at a greater distance Thus argues Aristotle but I defie the best and most intelligent of his Interpreters to fix distinct Ideas to his Words and to shew that this Philosopher begins with the most simple Things before he speaks of the more composed which is however altogether necessary to exact Reasonings as I have already proved If I were not afraid of being tedious I would be at the pains to translate some Chapters of Aristotle But besides that none who can understand him care to read him in English or in any other vulgar Tongue I have sufficiently shewn by what I have related from him that his Way of Philosophizing is wholly unserviceable to the Discovery of Truth For he says himself in the Fifth Chapter of this Book That those that mistake at first in any thing mistake ten thousand times more if they proceed So that it being apparent that he knows not what he says in the two first Chapters of his Book we may reasonably believe that it is not safe to yield to his Authority without examining his Reasons But that we may be the more persuaded of it I proceed to shew that there is no Chapter in this First Book but has some Impertinency In the Third Chapter he says That the Heavens are incorruptible and uncapable of Alteration of which he alledges several Childish Proofs as that they are the Habitation of the Immortal Gods and that no Change was ever observed in them This last Proof would be good enough could he say that ever any Body was come back from thence or that he had approached Celestial Bodies sufficiently near to observe their Alterations And yet I doubt whether at this time any one should yield to his Authority since Telescopes assure us of the contrary In the Fourth Chapter he pretends to prove That the Circular Motion has no Opposite though it be plain that the Motion from East to West is contrary to that which is made from West to East In the Fifth Chapter he very weakly proves That Bodies are not Infinite drawing his Arguments from the Motion of simple Bodies For what hinders but there may be above his Primum mobile some unmovable Extension In the Sixth he loses time in shewing That the Elements are not Infinite For who can doubt of it when he supposes with him that they are included within the surrounding Heavens But he ridicules himself by drawing his Proofs from their Gravity and Lightness If Elements says he were Infinite there would be an Infinite Heaviness and Lightness which cannot be Ergo c. Those that desire to see his Arguments at length may read them in his Books for I reckon it a loss of Time to relate them He goes on in the Seventh Chapter to prove That Bodies are not Infinite and his first Argument supposes it necessary for every Body to be in Motion which he neither does nor can demonstrate In the Eighth he asserts That there are not many Worlds of the same Nature by this ridiculous Reason That if there were another Earth besides this we inhabit the Earth being ponderous of its own nature it would fall upon ours which is the Centre of all ponderous Bodies Whence has he learned this but from his Senses In the Ninth he proves That it is not so much as possible that there should be several Worlds because if there was any Body above the Heavens it would be simple or composed in a natural or violent State which cannot be for Reasons which he draws from the Three sorts of Motions already spoken of In the Tenth he asserts That the World is Eternal because it cannot have had a Beginning and yet last for ever because we see that whatever is made is corrupted in Time He has learned this likewise from his Senses But who has taught him that the World will always endure He spends the Eleventh Chapter in explaining what Incorruptible signifies as though Equivocation was here very dangerous or that he was to make a great Use of his Explanation However that Word Incorruptible is so clear of it self that Aristotle needed not have troubled himself with explaining in what Sense it must be taken or in what Sense he takes it It had been more convenient to define an infinite Number of Terms very usual with him which raise nothing but sensible Ideas for so perhaps we should have learned something by the reading of his Works In the Last Chapter of this First Book of the Heavens he endeavours to shew That the World is incorruptible because 't is impossible it should have had a Beginning and yet last eternally All Things says he subsist either for a
the Sensations we have of Colours And indeed it cannot be doubted but there is much diversity in the Organs of Sight of different Persons as well as in those of Hearing and Tasting For what reason is there to suppose an exact conformity and resemblance in the disposition of the Optick Nerve of all Men since there is such an infinite variety in all the things of Nature but especially in those that are Material There is then great probability that all Men do not see the same Colours in the same Objects Nevertheless I am of Opinion that it never happens at least very rarely that any Persons see Black and White of a different Colour from what our selves see them though they do not see them equally Black or White But as to middle Colours such as Red Yellow Blue and especially those that are compounded of these three I am persuaded there are very few Men that have exactly the same Sensations For there are Men sometimes to be met with who see some sort of Bodies of a yellow Colour for instance when they view them with one Eye and of a Green or Blue when they behold them with the other And yet supposing these Men to be born with one Eye only or with two Eyes so dispos'd as to see that of a Red or Yellow Colour which others call Green or Blue they would believe they saw Objects of the same Colours as others do because they would always have heard the Name Green given to that which they see Yellow and Blue to that which to them seems Red. It might as a farther proof be alledg'd that all Men see not the same Objects of the same Colour because according to the Observations of some Men the same Colours are not equally pleasing to all sorts of People since on supposition these Sensations were the same they would be equally agreeable to all Mankind But because very strong Objections might be urg'd against this Argument founded on the Answer I gave to the former Objection I thought it not solid enough to be propos'd Indeed is is very rarely found that a Man is much more pleas'd with one Colour than another as he takes greater pleasure in one Taste than another The reason of it is That the Sensations of Colours are not given us to judge whether the Bodies about us are fit to nourish us or not This is the part of Pleasure and Pain to shew which are the Natural Characters of Good and Evil. Objects in point of Colours are neither good nor bad to eat If Objects on account of their Colour should either seem agreeable or disagreeable the Sight of them would constantly be succeeded with the course of the Animal Spirits which excite and accompany the Passions since the Soul cannot be affected without some Commotion We should often hate good Things and be fond of the bad so that our Life could not be long preserv'd In short the Sensations of Colour are given us meerly to distinguish Bodies from one another and this is effected well enough whether a Man sees Grass green or red provided the Person who sees it green or red sees it always in the same manner But so much for our Sensations Let us now say something of our Natural Judgments and our Voluntary Judgments that attend them The fourth thing to be consider'd which we confound with the three others whereof we have been speaking CHAP. XIV I. Of the False Judgments that accompany our Sensations and which we confound with them II. The Reasons of these False Judgements III. That Error is not in our Sensations but only in these Judgments WE instantly fore-see that there are very few Persons who will not be offended at this general Proposition we lay down namely That we have not any Sensation of External things but contains one or more Judgments We know well enough too that the generality of Men are of opinion that there is not any Judgment True or False in our Sensations Insomuch that these Persons surpriz'd with the Novelty of this Proposition will undoubtedly say with themselves How is this possible I do not judge the Wall to be white I see well enough it is so I do not judge that Pain is in my Hand I feel it most infalliby there And who can doubt of things so certain unless he has a different Sensation of Objects from what I have my self In fine their Inclinations for the Prejudices of Childhood will carry them much farther And if they proceed not to Contumely and to the Contempt of those whom they believe of a contrary Sentiment to themselves they will doubtless deserve to be reckon'd amongst the moderate sort of People But 't is not our business to stand prophesying any longer what ill Reception and Success our Thoughts shall meet with 't is much more expedient to draw them out with such convincing Arguments and to set them in so clear a Light as to leave it impossible for a Man to engage them with his Eyes open or to consider them attentively without submitting to them We are to prove that we have no Sensation of External things which does not include some false Judgment or other And the Proof is as follows To me it seems past Controversie that our Souls take not up such vast spaces as are those we see betwixt us and the fix'd Stars though it should be allow'd that they are extended Thus it is unreasonable to believe our Souls are in the Heavens when they see the Stars there Nor is it more credible that they depart out of their Bodies a mile suppose when they see the Houses at that distance The Soul then must necessarily see Stars and Houses where they are not since she goes not out of the Body wherein she is and nevertheless sees them out of it Now whereas the Stars which are immediately united to the Soul and which are the only Stars the Soul can see are not in the Heavens it follows that all Men who see the Stars in the Heavens and thereupon voluntarily judge that they are there make two false Judgments the one Natural and the other Free and Voluntary The one is a Judgment of the Senses or a Compound Sensation which ought not to be a measure for us to judge by The other is a Free Judgment of the Will which a Man may avoid making and consequently must not make if he would avoid falling into Error But let us see upon what grounds a Man believes those same Stars he immediately sees to be out of the Soul and in the Heavens The reason is this That it is not in the power of the Soul to see them when she pleases For she can perceive them only at such times as those Motions are excited in her Brain to which the Idea's of these Objects are affix'd by Nature Now because the Soul has no Perception of the Motions of her Organs but only of her own Sensations and is confident these same
Volumes we see daily compos'd on Medicine Physics and Morality and especially on the particular Questions of those Sciences which are much more complex than the general We should judge too these Books to have so much less worth in them as they are better entertain'd by the common sort of Men I mean those who are little capable of Application and know not how to set their Mind to work because when an Opinion is cry'd up and applauded by the People in a matter difficult to be made out 't is an infallible sign of its being false and founded only on the delusive Notions of Sense or some false Lights of the Imagination Nevertheless 't is not impossible for one Man to discover a great number of Truths that were conceal'd from Ages past supposing this Person to have no lack of Parts and who being in Retirement as remote as possible from every thing that might distract his Thoughts applies himself seriously to the seeking Truth Which makes those appear none of the most reasonable Men who despise Mr. Des-Cartes's Philosophy without knowing it for this only Reason that it seems next to impossible for a single Man to have found out Truth in things so deep and conceal'd as those of Nature But did they know the way of Life that Philosopher chose the means he imploy'd in his Studies to prevent the Capacity his Mind 's being shar'd by other Objects than those he meant to discover the Truth of The distinctness of his Idea's on which he establish'd his Philosophy And generally all the advantages he had above the Ancients by the New Discoveries they would certainly receive a more strong and reasonable Prejudice on his behalf than that of Antiquity which gives Plato Aristotle and diverse others their Authority And yet I would not advise them to ground only on this Prejudice and to believe Mr. Des-Cartes a Great Man and his Philosophy good because of those advantagious things that may be said for it Monsieur Des-Cartes was a Man like us subject to Error and Illusion no less than others Not any one of his Works without even excepting his Geometry but bears the Character and Earnest of the weakness of an Humane Mind Wherefore we ought not to take his word for what he teaches but read him according to his own Advice with Precaution by examining whether he is not deceiv'd and believing nothing that he says without being oblig'd to it by its own Evidence and the secret Reproofs of our Reason For in a word the Mind knows nothing truly but what it evidently perceives We have shewn in the preceding Chapters that our Mind is not infinite that it is on the contrary of but a very indifferent Capacity and has that Capacity usually fill'd with the Sensations of the Soul And lastly that the Mind receiving its direction from the Will cannot steadily fix its view upon any Object without being suddenly thrown off by the Will 's Fluctuation and Inconstancy 'T is most certain that these things are the most general Causes of our Errors and I might stay here to make them more evident in particular But what has been already said will be enough with such as are capable of Attention to give them to understand the weakness of the Humane Mind I shall treat more at large in the Fourth and Fifth Book of the Errors that are owing to our Natural Inclinations and our Passions of which we have now said something in this Chapter The SECOND PART Concerning The Pure UNDERSTANDING Of the NATURE of IDEA'S CHAP. I. I. What is meant by Idea's That they really exist and are necessary to our Perceiving all material Objects II. A Particularization of all the ways possible for us to perceive External Objects I Suppose that every one will grant that we perceive not the Objects that are without us immediately and of themselves We see the Sun the Stars and infinite other Objects without us and it is not probable that the Soul goes out of the Body and fetches a walk as I may say about the Heavens to contemplate all the Objects therein It sees them not therefore by themselves and the immediate Object of the Mind when it beholds the Sun for example is not the Sun but something intimately united to the Soul and the same thing which I call an Idea So that by the Term Idea I mean nothing but that Object which is immediate or next to the Soul in its Perception of any thing It ought to be well observ'd That in order to the Mind 's perceiving any Object it is absolutely necessary the Idea of that Object be actually present to it which is so certain as not possible to be doubted of But it is not necessary there should be any thing without like to that Idea For it often happens that we perceive things which don 't exist and which never were in Nature And so a Man has frequently in his Mind real Idea's of things that never were When a Man for Instance imagines a golden Mountain it is indispensibly necessary the Idea of that Mountain should be really present to his Mind When a Frantick or a Man in a Fever or Asleep sees some terrible Animal before his Eyes it is certain that the Idea of that Animal really exists And yet that Mountain of Gold and this Animal never were in Being Notwithstanding Men being as it were naturally inclin'd to believe that none but Corporeal Objects exist judge of the Reallity and Existence of things quite otherwise than they ought For when they perceive an Object by way of Sense they would have it most infallibly to exist tho' it often happens that there is nothing of it without they will have moreover this Object to be just the same as they perceive it which yet never happens But as for the Idea which necessarily exists and cannot be otherwise than we see it they commonly judge without Reflection that it is nothing at all as if Idea's had not a vast number of Properties as that the Idea of a square for instance were not very different from that of any Number and did not represent quite different things Which is not consistent with Nothing since Nothing has no Property 'T is therefore undoubtedly certain that Idea's have a most real Existence But let us enquire into their Nature and their Essence and see what there is in our Soul capable of making to her the Representations of all things Whatever things the Soul perceives are only of two sorts and are either within or without the Soul Those that are within the Soul are her own proper Thoughts that is all her different Modifications For by the words Thought Manner of Thinking or Modification of the Soul I mean all those things in general which cannot be in the Soul without her perceiving them such are her own Sensations her Imaginations her Pure Intellections or simply her Conceptions as also her Passions and Natural Inclinations Now our Soul has
Sin found Fruits pleasant to the sight and grateful to the Taste if we rightly consider the words of the Holy Scripture nor shall we come to think that the Oeconomy of the Senses and Passions which is so wonderfully contrived and adapted to the preservation of the Body is a Corruption of Nature instead of its Original Institution Doubtless Nature is at this present corrupted the Body acts too violently upon the Mind and whereas it ought only to make an humble Representation of its wants to the Soul it domineers over her takes her off from God to whom she ought to be inseparably united and continually applies her to the search of such sensible things as tend to its preservation She is grown as it were material and terestrial ever since her Fall the Essential Relation and Union that she had with God being broken that is to say God being withdrawn from her as much as he could be without her destruction and annihilation A thousand disorders have attended the absence or departure of him that preserv'd her in Order and without making a longer Enumeration of our Miseries I freely confess that Man since his Fall is corrupted in all his parts That Fall however has not quite destroyed the Work of God for we can still discover in Man what God at first put in him and his immutable Will that constitutes the Nature of every thing was not changed by the Inconstancy and Fickleness of the Will of Adam Whatever God has once will'd he still wills and because his Will is efficatious brings it to pass The Sin of Man was indeed the Occasion of that Divine Will that makes the Dispensation of Grace but Grace is not contrary to Nature neither do they destroy each other since God is not opposed to himself that he never repents and that his Wisdom being without Limits his Works will be without End And therefore the Will of God that constitutes the Dispensation of Grace is superadded to that which makes the Oeconomy of Nature in order to repair and not to change it There are then in God but these two general Wills and the Laws by which he governs the World depend on one or other of them It will plainly appear by what follows that the Passions are very well order'd if considered only in reference to the Preservation of the Body though they deceive us in some very rare and particular Occasions which the universal Cause did not think fit to remedy Thence I conclude That the Passions belong to the Order of Nature since they cannot be ranked under the Order of Grace 'T is true that seeing the Sin of the first man has deprived us of the Help of an always-present God and always ready to defend us It may be said That Sin is the Cause of our excessive adhesion to sensible things because Sin has estranged us from God by whom alone we can be rid of our Slavery But without insisting longer upon the Enquiry after the first Cause of the Passions let us examine their Extent their particular Nature their End their Use their Defects and whatever they comprehend CHAP. II. Of the Vnion of the Mind with sensible things or of the Force and Extent of the Passions in general IF all those who read this Work would be at the pains to reflect upon what they feel within themselves it would not be necessary to insist upon our Dependency upon all sensible Objects I can say upon this Head but what every one knows as well as I do if he will but think on it and was therefore very much inclined to pass it over But Experience having taught me That Men often forget themselves so far as not to think or be aware of what they feel nor to enquire into the Reason of what passes in their own Mind I thought it fit to propose some Considerations that may help them to reflect upon it And even I hope That those who know such things will not think their Reading ill bestowed for though we do not care to hear simply rehearsed what we very well know yet we use to be affected with Pleasure at the hearing of what we know and feel together The most honourable Sect of Philosophers of whose Opinions many Pretenders boast still now a-days will persuade us That it is in our power to be happy The Stoicks continually say We ought only to depend upon our selves we ought not to be vexed for the Loss of Dignities Estates Friends Relations we ought to be always calm and without the least Disturbance whatever happens Banishment Injuries Affronts Diseases and even Death are no Evils and ought not to be feared and a thousand Paradoxes of that Nature which we are apt enough to believe both because of our Pride that makes us affect Independency as that because Reason teaches us that most part of the Evils which really afflict us would not be able to disturb us if all things remained in good Order But God has given us a Body and by that Body united us to all sensible things Sin has subjected us to our Body and by our Body made us dependent upon all sensible things It is the Order of Nature it is the Will of the Creatour that all the Beings that he has made should hang together And therefore being united to all things and the Sin of the first Man having made us dependent on all Beings to which God had only united us there is now none but he is at once united and subjected to his Body and by his Body to his Relations Friends City Prince Country Cloaths House Estate Horse Dog to all the Earth to the Sun the Stars and the Heavens It 's then ridiculous to tell Men that it is in their power to be happy wise and free It is to jeer them seriously to advise them they ought not to be afflicted for the Loss of their Friends or Estates For as it were absurd to exhort Men not to feel Pain when they are beaten or not to be sensible of Pleasure when they eat with an Appetite so the Stoicks are either unreasonable or not in good earnest when they cry That we ought not to be sorry for the Death of our Father the Loss of our Goods our Banishment Imprisonment and the like nor to be glad of the happy Success of our Affairs since we are united to our Country Goods Friends c. by a Natural Union which at present has no dependence on our Will I grant that Reason teaches us we are to undergo Banishment without Sorrow but the same Reason likewise teaches us we ought to endure the cutting off our Arm without Pain because the Soul is superiour to the Body and that according to the light of Reason her happiness or misery ought not to depend upon it but 't is ridiculous to argue against Experience which in this occasion will convince us that things are not so as our Reason intimates they ought to be The Philosophy of
deduce them from their natural Principles that they may know evidently by Reason what Faith has already taught them with an absolute Certainty Thus they will convince themselves that the Gospel is the most solid Book in the World that Christ perfectly knew the Disorders and Distempers of Nature that he has rectified and cured them in a manner the most useful to us and most worthy of himself that can be conceived But that the Light of Philosophers is nothing but a dark Night and their most splendid Vertues an intolerable Pride In short that Aristotle Seneca and all the rest are but Men to say nothing worse CHAP. VII Of the Vse of the First Rule concerning particular Questions WE have sufficiently insisted upon the general Rule of Method more especially regarding the Subject of our Studies and shewn that Des Cartes has exactly followed it in his System of the World whereas Aristotle and his Disciples have not observed it We proceed now to the particular Rules that are necessary to resolve all sorts of Questions The Questions that may be formed upon all sorts of Subjects are of so many Kinds as that it is not easie to enumerate them However I shall set down the principal Sometimes we search after the unknown Causes of some Effects that are known and sometimes after unknown Effects by known Causes Fire burns and dissipates Wood we enquire after the Cause of it Fire consists in a violent Motion of the fiery Particles we desire to know what Effects that Motion is able to produce whether it may harden Clay melt Iron c. Sometimes we seek the Nature of a thing by its Properties and sometimes its Properties by its Nature that is known to us We know or suppose that Light is transmitted in a moment and however that it is reflected and collected by a concave Mirrour so as to consume and melt the most solid Bodies and we design to make use of those Properties to discover its Nature On the contrary we know that all the space that reaches from the Earth to the Heavens is full of little Spherical and most movable Bodies which continually endeavour their removal from the Sun We desire to discover whether the endeavour of those small Bodies may be transmitted in an instant whether being reflected by a concave Glass they must unite themselves and dissipate or melt the solidest Bodies Sometimes we enquire after all the Parts of the Whole and sometimes after the Whole by its Parts We search after all the unknown Parts of a Whole that is known when we seek all the Aliquot Parts of a Number all the Roots of an Equation all the Right Angles of a Figure c. And we enquire after an unknown Whole all the Parts of which are known when we seek the Summ of several Numbers the Area of many Figures the Dimensions of different Vessels Or we seek a Whole one Part of which is known and whose other Parts though unknown include some known Relation with that which is unknown as when we seek what is that Number one Part of which as 15 being known makes with the other part the half or the third of an unknown Number or when we seek an unknown Number equal to 15 and to the double of the Root of that unknown Number Lastly We often enquire whether some things are equal or like to others and how much they are unequal or different As when we desire to know whether Saturn is greater than Jupiter and how much the former surpasses the latter Whether the Air of Rome is hotter than that of London and how many degrees What is general in all Questions is that they are formed for the Knowledge of some Truths and because all Truths are Relations it may generally be said that in all Questions we search but after the Knowledge of some Relations either betwixt things or betwixt Ideas or betwixt things and their Ideas There are Relations of several sorts as betwixt the Nature of things betwixt their Magnitudes their Parts their Attributes their Qualities Effects Causes c. but they may all be reduced to two viz. to Relations of Magnitude and of Quality comprehending under the former all those in which things are consider'd as suceptible of more and less and all the others under the latter So that it may be said that all Questions tend to discover some Relation either of Magnitude or of Quality The first and chief Rule is That we must very distinctly know the state of the Question to be resolv'd and have such distinct Ideas of its Terms that we may compare them together and discover their unknown Relations We must then first very clearly perceive the unknown Relation enquired after for 't is plain that if we have no certain Mark to distinguish it when 't is sought for or when 't is found our labour will be fruitless Secondly We must as far as possible make the Ideas which answer to the Terms of the Question distinct by taking off their Equivocation and make them clear by considering them with all the possible Attention for if those Ideas are so confused and obscure as that we cannot make the necessary Comparisons to discover the Relations we look for we are not yet in a state of resolving the Question Thirdly We must consider with all possible Attention the Conditions expressed in the Question if any there be since without that we can but confusedly understand the state of that Question besides that the Conditions commonly trace out the way to resolve it So that when the state of a Question and its Conditions are rightly understood we not only know what we enquire after but also sometimes by what means it may be discovered I grant that Conditions are not express'd in all Questions but then those Questions are undeterminate and may resolved several ways as when 't is required to find out a Square Number a Triangle c. without specifying any other particulars Or it may be that the Querist knows not how to resolve or that he conceals them in order to puzzle the Resolver as when 't is required to find out Two mean Proportionals betwixt Two Lines without adding by the Intersection of the Circle and Parabola or of the Circle and Ellipsis c. And therefore 't is altogether necessary that the distinguishing Character of what is searched after be very distinct and not equivocal or that it be only proper to the thing enquired otherwise we could not be certain whether the Question proposed is resolved We must likewise carefully separate from the Question all the Conditons that make it intricate and without which it subsists entire because they fruitlessly divide the capacity of the Mind Besides that we have not a distinct perception of the state of the Question as long as the Conditions that attend it are useless Suppose for instance a Question were proposed in these Words to cause that a Man besprinkled with some Liquors and crowned with a
Colours very well and can distinguish them from all things else that are not Colour It is evident too that he perceives nothing of Motion either in the colour'd Objects or in the Fund of his Eyes therefore Colour is not Motion In like manner a Peasant is very sensible of Heat and he has knowledge clear enough to distinguish it from all thing else which are not Heat Yet he never so much as thinks of the Fibres of his Hand 's being mov'd Heat then which he feels is not Motion since the Idea's of Heat and Motion are different and one may be had without the other For we have no other Reason to affirm a Square is not a Circle but because the Idea of a Square is different from that of a Circle and we can think of one without thinking of the other There needs but a little Attention to discover that it is not necessary the cause which occasions a Sensation of such or such a Thing in us should contain that thing in it self For as there is no necessity there should be Light in my Hand when I see a flash upon giving my Eye a blow so there is no need that Heat should be in the Fire to make me sensible of it upon the approach of my Hand towards it nor indeed that any other sensible Qualities should be in the Objects that produce them 'T is enough that they cause a Vibration in the Fibres of my Flesh to the end my Soul which is united to it may be modify'd by some Sensation There is no Analogy I confess between Motions and Sensations Nor is there any betwixt Body and Spirit But since Nature or the Will of the Creator associates these two Substances though essentially different we need not wonder if their Modifications are Reciprocal It is necessary it should be so that both of them might constitute but one entire Being It should be well observ'd that our Senses being given us only for the Preservation of our Body it is most conveniently order'd that they should induce us to judge of sensible Qualities just as we do It is abundantly more for our advantage to receive the Sensation of Pain and Heat as being in our own Body than to judge they were only in the Objects that occasion'd them Because Pain and Heat being capable of injuring the Members of the Body it is most requisite we should be warn'd of them whenever they attacqu'd us to prevent our Body's being endammag'd by them But in point of Colours 't is another case for the generality they are unable to hurt the Fund of the Eye where they are collected and it is an useless thing to us to know they are painted on it These Colours are only necessary to us as far as they are conducible to a more distinct Discovery of Objects and upon that account our Senses induce us to attribute them to Objects only Thus the Judgments which the Impression of our Senses incline us to make are most exact if consider'd only in Relation to the Preservation of our Body But yet they are altogether Phantastical and very remote from the Truth as we have already seen in part and shall be more abundantly manifest in that which follows CHAP. XIII I. Of the Nature of Sensations II. That a Man knows them better than he thinks he does III. An Objection and Answer IV. Why a Man imagines he has no knowledge of his own Sensations V. That 't is an Error to think all Men have the same Sensations of the same Objects VI. An Objection and Answer THE third thing which is found in each of our Sensations or that which we Feel for instance when we are near the Fire is a Modification of our Soul in Relation or Correspondence to that which occurs in the Body to which she is united This Modification is grateful or agreeable when that which occurs in the Body is proper to promote the Circulation of the Blood and other Vital Functions And this is nam'd in an Equivocal Term Heat But this Modification is painful and quite different from the other when that which occurs in the Body is capable of incommoding or burning it that is to say when the Motions which are in the Body are capable of breaking some of it Fibres and this generally goes by the Name of Pain or Combustion and so 't is with the other Sensations But now let us see what are the Thoughts Men usually have upon this Subject The first Error is this that a Man unreasonably imagines he has no Knowledge of his Sensations We daily find a great number of such Men as are much concern'd and very sollicitous to know what Pain and Pleasure and the other Sensations are Neither will they grant that they are only in the Soul and the Modifications of it I confess these are a strange sort of Men who would needs be taught what they cannot be ignorant of For 't is impossible a Man should be absolutely ignorant what Pain is when he is under the sense of it A Man for example that burns his Hand does very well distinguish the Pain he feels from Light Colour Sounds Tasts Smells Pleasure and from every other Pain besides that he feels He distinguishes it very well from Admiration Desire and Love He distinguishes it from a Square a Circle and a Motion in a word he finds 't is very different from every thing which is not the Pain he feels Now if he has no Knowledge of Pain I would fain be satisfy'd how he can tell with any certainty of evidence that what he feels is none of all these things We know then in some measure what we are immediately sensible of as when we see Colours or have any other Sensation And if it were not for this Knowledge it is certain we could know nothing of any sensible Object For 't is manifest for example that we would be unable to distinguish Wine from Water did we not know that the Sensations we have of the one were different from those we have of the other and so 't is with all other things which we know by our Senses 'T is true should a Man be importunate in desiring me to explain what is Pain Pleasure Colour or the like I should not be able to define it in words as it ought to be But it does not follow from thence that if I see a Colour or burn my self I have no manner of Knowledge of that whereof I have an Actual Sensation Now the reason why our Sensations cannot be explain'd by words as well as all other things is because it depends on the Arbitrary Will of Men to joyn the Idea's of things to what Names they please They may call the Heavens Ouranos Shamájim as the Greeks and Hebrews But the same Men have not an equal Liberty of affixing their Sensations to words nor indeed to any thing else They see no Colours unless they open their Eyes discourse to them what you
of a tender and delicate Body than in those of a more strong and robust Complection Thus Men who abound with Strength and Vigour are not at all hurt with the sight of a Massacre nor so much inclin'd to Compassion because the sight of it is an offence to their Body as because it shocks their Reason These Persons have no Pity for a Condemned Criminal as being both Inflexible and Inexorable Whereas Women and Children suffer much Pain by the Hurt and Wounds they see receiv'd by others They are machinally dispos'd to be very Pitiful and Compassionate to the Miserable And they are unable to see a Beast beaten or hear it cry without some disturbance of mind As for Infants which are still in their Mother's Womb the delicacy of the Fibres of their Flesh infinitely exceeding that of Women and Children the Course of their Spirits must necessarily produce more considerable Changes in them as will be seen in the Sequel of the Discourse We will still suffer what we have said to go for a simple Supposition if Men will have it so But they ought to endeavour well to comprehend it if they would distinctly conceive the things I presume to explain in this Chapter For these two Suppositions I have just made are the Principles of an infinite number of things which are generally believ'd very difficult and abstruse And which indeed seem impossible to be explain'd and clear'd up without them I will here give some instances of what I have said It was about seven or eight Years ago that there was seen in the Incurable a young Man who was born anâ—Idiot and whose Body was broken in the same places that Malefactors are broken on the Wheel He lived near twenty Years in the same condition many Persons went to see him and the late Queen-mother going to visit the Hospital had the Curiosity to see him and also to touch his Legs and Arms in the places were they were broken According to the Principles I have been establishing the cause of this Calamitous Accident was That his Mother hearing a Criminal was to be broken went to see the Execution All the blows which were given to the Condemned struck violently the Imagination of the Mother and by a kind of Repercussive blow the tender and delicate Brain of her Infant The Fibres of this Mother's Brain receiv'd a prodigious Concussion and were possibly broke in some places by the violent course of the Spirits produc'd at the Sight of so frightful a Spectacle But they had Consistency enough to prevent their total Dissolution The Fibres on the contrary of the Infant 's Brain not being able to resist the furious torrent of these Spirits were broke and shattered all to pieces And the havock was violent enough to make him lose his Intellect for ever This is the Reason why he come into the World deprived of Sense Now for the other why he was broken in the same parts of his Body as the Criminal whom his Mother had seen put to Death At the Sight of this Execution so capable of dismaying a timorous Woman the violent course of the Animal Spirits of the Mother made a forcible descent from her Brain towards all the Members of her Body which were Analogous to those of the Criminal and the same thing happened to the Infant But because the Bones of the Mother were capable of withstanding the violent Impression of these Spirits they receiv'd no dammage by them it may be too she felt not the least Pain nor the least Trembling in her Arms or Legs upon the Breaking of the Criminal But the rapid course of the Spirits was capable of bursting the soft and tender parts of the Infant 's Bones For the Bones are the last parts of the Body that are form'd and they have very little Consistence whilst Children are yet in their Mother 's Womb. And it ought to be observ'd that if this Mother had determin'd the Motion of these Spirits towards some other part of her Body by some powerful Titillation her Infant would have escaped the Fracture of his Bones But the part which was correspondent to that towards which the Mother had determined these Spirits would have been severely injured according to what I have already said The Reasons of this Accident are general enough to explain how it comes to pass that Women who whilst big with Child see Persons particularly mark'd in certain places of their Face imprint on their Infants the very same Marks and in the self-same places of the Body And 't is not without good Reason that they are caution'd to rub some latent part of the Body when they perceive any thing which surprises them or are agitated with some violent Passion For by this means the Marks will be delineated rather upon the hidden parts than the Faces of their Infants We should have frequent Instances of like Nature with this I have here related if Infants could live after they had receiv'd so great Wounds or Disruptions but generally they prove Abortions For it may be said that rarely any Child dies in the Womb if the Mother be not distemper'd that has any other cause of its ill fortune than some fright or impotent Desire or other violent Passion of the Mother This following is another Instance very unusual and particular It is no longer than a Year ago that a Woman having with too great an Application of Thought contemplated the Picture of St. Pius at the Celebration of his Feast of Canonization was deliver'd of a Child perfectly featur'd like the Representation of the Saint He had the Countenance of an Old Man as near as was possible for an Infant that was beardless His Arms were folded across upon his Breast His Eyes bent up towards Heaven and had very little Forehead because the Picture of the Saint being postur'd as looking up to Heaven and elevated towards the Roof of the Church had scarce any Fore-head to be seen He had a kind of Mitre reclining backwards on his Shoulders with many round prints in the places where the Mitres are imboss'd with Precious Stones In short this Infant was the very Picture of the Picture upon which the Mother had form'd it by the force of her Imagination This is a thing that all Paris might have seen as well as I since it was a considerable time preserv'd in Spirit of Wine This instance has This remarkable in it That it was not the Sight of a Man alive and acted with some violent Passion that mov'd the Spirits and Blood of the Mother to the Production of so strange an Effect but only the sight of a Picture which yet made a very sensible Impression and was accompanied with a mighty Commotion of Spirits whether by the Fervency and Application of the Mother or whether by the Agitation the noise of the Feast caus'd in her This Mother then beholding the Picture with great Application of Mind and Commotion of Spirits the Infant
necessary for them to know we allow them to omit them and likewise to despise them but 't is not fair to judge of them out of a fanciful dislike and ill-grounded suspicions For they ought to consider that the Serious Air and Gravity wherewith they speak the Authority they have obtain'd over the Minds of others and that customary way of confirming their Discourse with a Text of Scripture must unavoidably engage in Error their respectful Auditors who being incapable of Examining things to the bottom are caught with Modes and external Appearances When Error comes cloath'd in the Dress of Truth it frequently has more respect than Truth it self And this illegitimate Respect has very dangerous Consequences Pessima res est Errorum Apotheosis pro peste intellectûs habenda est si vanis accedat veneratio Thus when some Men out of a false Zeal or a Fondness for their own Thoughts bring the Holy Scripture to countenance or support false Principles of Physicks or other of like Nature they are often attended to as Oracles by the admiring Crowd who credit them upon their word because of the Reverence they ascribe to Divine Authority When at the same time some Men of a worse Complection have taken occasion hereby to contemn Religion So that by strangely perverting its Nature Holy Scripture has been the Cause of some Men's Errors and Truth has been the Motive and Original to other's Impiety We should then be cautious says the fore-cited Author of searching after Dead things among the Living and of presuming by our own Sagacity of Mind to discover in the Holy Scriptures what the Holy Spirit has not thought fit to declare in it Ex Divinorum Humanorum malesanâ admixtionâ— continues he non solum educitur Philosophia phantastica sed etiam Religio haeretica Itaque salutare admodum est si mente sobriâ fidei tantum dentur quae fidei sunt All Men who have any Authority over others ought never to determine till they have so much the more seriously consider'd as their Determinations are more obstinately adher'd to and Divines should be more especially regardful lest they give scandal and contempt to Religion through a false Zeal by an ambitious desire of their own Fame and of giving Vogue to their Opinions But it being not my Business to prescribe to them their Duty let them hearken to St. Thomas Aquinas their Master who being consulted by his General for his Opinion touching some Points answers him in these words of St. Austin Multùm autem nocet talia quae ad pietatis doctrinam non spectant vel asserere vel negare quasi pertinentia ad Sacram doctrinam Dicit enim Augustinus in 5. Confess Cùm audio Christianum aliquem fratrem ista quae Philosophi de coelo aut stellis de Solis Lunae motibus dixerâ—nt nescientem aliud pro alio sentienâ—em patienter intueor opinantem hominem nec illi obesse video cum de te Domine Creator omnium nostrûm non credat indigna si fortè situs habitus creaturae corporalis ignoret Obest autem si haec ad ipsam dâ—ctrinam pietatis pertinere arbitretur pertinacius affirmare audeat quod ignorat Quod autem obsit manifestat Augustinus in 1. super Genes Ad literam Turpe est inquit nimis perniciosum ac maximê cavendum ut Christianum de his rebus quasi secundum Christianas literas loquentem ita delirare quilibet infidelis audiat ut quemadmodum dicitur toto coelo errare conspiciens risum tenere vix possit Et non tamen molestum est quod errans homo videatur sed quod Authores nostri ab eis qui foris sunt talia sensisse creduntur cum magno eorum exitio de quorum salute satagimus tanquam indocti reprehenduntur atque respuuntur Vnde mihi videtur tutius esse ut hâ—â—c quae Philosophi communes senserunt nostrae fidei non repugnant neque esse sic asserenda ut dogmata fidei licet aliquandò sub nomine Philosophorum introducantur neque sic â—sse neganda tanquam fidei contraria ne sapientibus hujus mundi contemnendi doctrinam fidei occasio praebeatur 'T is a dangerous thing positively to determine concerning matters that are not of Faith as if they were St. Austin is our Author for it in the fifth Book of his Confessions When I see says he a Christian who is un-instructed in the Opinions of Philosophers about the Heavens the Stars and the Motion of the Sun and Moon and who mistakes one thing for another I I leave him to his Opinions and Uncertainties Nor do I see what injury it can do him provided he has right Notions of Thee our LORD and CREATOR to be ignorant of the Site and Position of Bodies and the different Regulations of Material Beings But he does himself wrong in that he fancies these things concern Religion and takes upon him obstinately to affirm what he does not understand The same Holy Man explains his Thoughts more clearly yet in his first Book of the literal Exposition of Genesis in these Words A Christian should be extreamly cautious of speaking of these things as if they were the Doctrine of the Sacred Writings since an Heathen who should hear him utter his Absurdities that had no appearance of Truth would Ridicule him for it Thus the Christian would be put in confusion and the Heathen but ill-edify'd Yet that which on these occasions is matter of greatest trouble is not that a Man is found in an Error but that the Heathens whom we labour to convert falsely and to their unavoidable destruction imagining that our Authors abound with these ridiculous Notions condemn them and spurn them as Ignorant and Unlearned which makes me think it much the safer way not to affirm as the Maxims of Faith the common receiv'd Opinions of Philosophers though not inconsistent with them though the Authority of Philosophers may sometimes be us'd to make way for their reception nor to reject their Opinions as contrary to Faith lest occasion be given to the Wise Men of the World to contemn the Sacred Truths of the Christian Religion The generality of Men are so careless or unreasonable as to make no distinction between the Word of GOD and that of Men when joyn'd together So that they fall into Error by approving them both alike or into Irreligion by the contempt of both indifferently 'T is easie to see what is the Cause of these last Errors and how they depend upon the Connection of Idea's explain'd in the XI Chapter and I need not stand more largely to explain them It seems seasonable to say something here of the Chymists and of all those in general that imploy their time in making Experiments These are the Men that are in Search after Truth Their Opinions are usually embrac'd without Scruple and Examination And thus their Errors are so much the more dangerous as
a Trance The Animal Spirits irregularly turning in their Brain excite such a multitude of Traces as not to open any one strongly enough to produce any particular Sensation or distinct Idea in the Mind so that these Persons perceive so many things at once that they have no distinct Perception of any and this makes them conclude they have perceiv'd nothing Not but that sometimes Men swoon away for want of Animal Spirits But at that time the Soul having only Thoughts of Pure Intellection which leave no Traces in the Brain we never remember them when we come to our selves and that makes us believe we have thought of Nothing This I have said by the way to shew it is a mistake to believe the Soul does not always think because Men fancy sometimes they think not of any thing Every one that reflects but a little upon his own Thoughts is experimentally convinc'd that the Mind cannot apply it self to the consideration of many things at once and à fortiori is unable to comprehend what 's infinite And yet out of an unaccountable Capricio such as are not ignorant of this apply themselves rather to the Contemplation of infinite Objects and of Questions that demand an infinite capacity of Mind than to such as are suited to the Reach and Abilities of their mind And a great many others who would fain know all things study so many Sciences at once as only confound the Understanding and incapacitate it for any true Science at all How many do we see desirous of comprehending the Divisibility of Matter ad infinitum and of knowing how 't is possible for a grain of Sand to contain so many parts in it as this Earth tho' proportionably lesser What a multitude of Questions are form'd never to be resolv'd upon that subject and many others which include any thing of Infinity in them the Resolution of which Men think to find in their own Mind When yet though they study them till they sweat all they gain at last is only to be opinionated with some Error or Extravagance or other 'T is certainly a very Pleasant thing to see Men deny the Divisibility of matter to infinitum meerly because they cannot comprehend it though they rightly comprehend the Demonstrations that prove it and this at the same time that they confess it impossible for the Mind of Man to comprehend Infinity For the Arguments which shew matter to be divisible to Infinity are demonstrative if there were ever any such and they acknowledge it when they consider them with Attention Notwithstanding which if they hear Objections propos'd which they cannot Answer their Mind recoils from the Evidence just perceiv'd and they begin to boggle at them They are earnestly taken up with the Objection which they cannot Answer they invent some frivolous Distinction to the Demonstrations of infinite Divisibility and conclude at last they were deceiv'd and that all the World is in an Error Hence they embrace the contrary Opinion and defend it by Turgid Points Puncta inflata and such kind of Extravagances their Imagination is sure to furnish them withal Now the reason of their Delusions is the want of being inwardly convinc'd that the Mind of Man is Finite and that there is no necessity of comprehending the Divisibility of Matter to infinity in order to be perswaded of it Because all the Objections that require the Comprehending it for their Resolution are such as 't is impossible should be resolv'd Would Men only stick to such Questions as these we should not have much reason to be concern'd at it For though there may be some that are prepossess'd with particular Errors yet they are Errors of little consequence And as for the rest they have not altogether lost their time in thinking on things they cannot comprehend For at least they are convinc'd of the Weakness of their Mind 'T is good says a very Judicious Author to tire and fatigue the Mind with such kind of Subtilties in order to tame its Presumption and to make it less daring ever to oppose its feeble Lights to the Truths propos'd to it by the Gospel under pretence it cannot comprehend them For since all the strength of the Mind of Men is oblig'd to fall under the weight of the least Atom of Matter and to acknowledge it clearly sees it is infinitely divisible without being able to comprehend how 't is possible Is this not visibly to sin against Reason to refuse to believe the wonderful Effects of the Almightiness of GOD which is of it self Incomprehensible for that very Reason that our Mind cannot comprehend them The most dangerous Effect then produc'd by the Ignorance of or rather Inadvertency to the Limitation and Weakness of an Humane Mind and consequently to its Incapacity of comprehending what any ways belongs to Infinity is Heresie There are to be seen if I mistake not in these days above any other a great many Men who form a peculiar Theology to themselves which has no other Foundation than their own Mind and the Natural Weakness of their Reason because even in Subjects not under the Jurisdiction of Reason they will not believe what they cannot comprehend The Socinians cannot comprehend the Mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation And this suffices not only to their dis-believing it but also to their Affirming of those that Believe it in an Arrogant and a Libertine way that they are born to Slavery A Calvinist can't conceive how 't is possible for the Body of JESVS CHRIST to be really present in the Sacrament of the Altar at the same time he is in Heaven and hence he thinks he has sufficient Reason to conclude it impossible as if he perfectly comprehended how far the Power of GOD could go So a Man that 's convinc'd of his own Liberty if he falls to work and heats his Head in endeavouring to reconcile the Fore-knowledge of GOD and his Decrees with Liberty will possibly fall into the Error of those who do not believe that Man is a free Agent For being unable on one hand to conceive how the Providence and Fore-knowledge of GOD can be compatible with the Liberty of Man and on the other his respect for Religion forbidding him to deny a Providence he will think himself oblig'd to cashire Men of their Freedom or not making sufficient Reflection on the Weakness of his Mind will fancy he is able to fathom the Mysterious ways GOD has of reconciling his Decrees with our Liberty But Hereticks are not the only Men who want Attention to consider the Weakness of their Mind and that give it too much Scope and Liberty of Judging of things which it cannot attain to This being the fault of most Men especially of some Divines of the later Ages For we may perhaps reasonably say that some of them so frequently imploying Humane Reasoning to prove or explain the mysteries above Reason though it may be done with good Intention and for the Defence of
enough from hence that their Argumentations upon Natural things are founded merely on Logical Notions such as Act Power and an infinite number of Imaginary Entities which they take no care to distinguish from such as are Real These Gentlemen therefore finding it wonderful easie to see after their manner what they have a Mind to see imagine they have better Eyes than other Men and that they perceive distinctly Extension supposes something else and that 't is only a Property of Matter which Matter may be divested of as of the rest Yet if you make a Demand of them that they would please to explain that thing which they pretend to perceive in Matter besides Extension they offer to do it several ways every of which makes it apparent that they have no other Idea of it than that of Being or of Substance in general This is extreamly evident if we take notice That this their Idea includes no particular Attributes which agree to Matter For whilst we take Extension from Matter we rob it of all the Attributes and Properties which we distinctly conceive do belong to it and though we leave that imaginary thing which they suppose the Essence of it it being manifest that neither Earth nor Heaven nor any thing we see in Nature could be made of it Whereas on the contrary if we take away what they fancy the Essence of Matter provided we leave Extension and we leave all the Attributes and Properties we distinctly conceive included in the Idea of Matter For it is certain that out of Extension all alone might be fram'd an Heaven an Earth and all the Visible World and infinite others So this Something which they suppose over and above Extension having no Attributes distinctly to be conceiv'd belonging to it and clearly included in the Idea we have of it can have nothing real in it if we will credit our Reason nor can be of any use in explaining Natural Effects And that which is said of its being the Subject and Principle of Extension is said gratis and without any distinct Conception in them that say it that is they have no other than a General and Logical Idea of it as of Subject and Principle In so much that we may further imagine a new Subject and a new Principle of this Subject of Extension and so in infinitum the Mind having the Power of representing the General Idea's of Subject and Principle as long as it pleases 'T is true there is a great probability that Men had not so puzzl'd and obscur'd the Idea that they have of Matter had they not some Reasons for it and that there are many who maintain contrary Conclusions to these of ours upon Theological Principles Doubtless Extension is not the Essence of Matter if that be contrary to our Faith And we willingly acknowledge it We are thank GOD very well perswaded of the Feebleness and Limitedness of an Humane Mind We know it is of too little Extent to measure an Infinite Power that GOD can do infinitely more than we can conceive that he communicates only those Idea's which represent to us the things that arrive by the order of Nature and hides the rest from us Wherefore we are always ready to submit our Reason unto Faith but there is need of better proofs than are generally urg'd to ruin the Reasons we have establish'd Because the manner of explaining the Mysteries of Faith are not of Faith and we believe these Mysteries without conceiving how the manner of them can be distinctly explaind We believe for instance the Mystery of the TRINITY though the Humane Mind is unable to conceive it and yet we cease not to believe that the things that differ not in any third differ not in themselves though this Proposition seems to overthrow it For we are convinc'd that Reason is not to be made use of except in Subjects proportion'd to its Capacity and that we ought not to look steadfastly on our Mysteries for fear of being dazel'd by them according that Admonition of the Holy Spirit Qui scrutator est Majestatis opprimetur à gloriâ However if we thought it convenient for the satisfaction of some Men's Minds to explain how our Notion upon this matter may be reconcil'd with what we are taught by Faith concerning Transubstantiation we probably could do it in a way very distinct and perspicuous and could no ways offend against the Decisions of the Church But we think this Explication may be dispens'd with especially in this Work For it ought to be observ'd That the Holy Fathers have almost always look'd upon it as an incomprehensible Mystery and that they never play'd the Philosophers to explain it but contented themselves for the most part with unexact Comparisons fitter to make known the Doctrine than to give a Satisfactory Explication to the Mind Therefore Tradition is for such as Philosophize not on this Mystery and who sumit their Reason to the Rule of Faith without distracting their Brain to no purpose about most abstruse and difficult Questions We should be to blame should we require the Philosophers to give us clear and easie Explications of the manner of our LORD's Body being in the Eucharist for this would be to demand of them novelties in Divinity And in case the Philosophers should make an impudent Answer to the Demand they must be necessarily obnoxious either to the having their Philosophy or Divinity condemn'd For if their Explications were obscure they would give reason to despise the Principles of their Philosophy if their Answer were easie and apparent we should have reason to be apprehensive of Novelty in their Divinity Since then Novelty in point of Divinity bears the Impress and Character of Error and the World has a right and priviledge of despising Opinions merely on the Account of their being Novel and having no foundation in Tradition we ought not to undertake to give easie and intelligible Explications of those things which the Fathers and Councels have not perfectly explain'd and 't is sufficient to hold the Doctrine of Transubstantiation without offering to make out the manner of it For otherwise we might sow the seeds for fresh Disputes and Quarrels whereof there are too many already and the Enemies of the Truth would not fail to use them to malicious purpose and for the oppressing of their Adversaries Disputes in point of Theological Explications seem to be the most useless and most dangerous of any and they are with greater reason to be fear'd for that even Religious Persons often fancy they have a right of breaking their Charity with such as break with their Opinions We have but too common Experience of this Practice and the cause of it lies not very deep Wherefore 't is always the best and surest way not to be eager to speak of things whereof we have no Evidence and which others are not dispos'd to conceive Nor ought obscure and uncertain Explications of Mysteries of Faith which we are under no
beneath the Grandeur and prostrate it self before the Lustre of Riches But if I consider that the Body is infinitely inferiour to the Mind that it is not its Master nor can instruct it in Truth nor any ways illuminate it and if upon this Scene and Prospect I re-enter into or enquire of my self or rather since I am neither my own Master nor my own Light if I approach unto GOD and in the calm and silence of my Senses and Passions make this Demand Whether Riches or Vertue is preferable I shall hear a clear and distinct Answer concerning what is to be done an Eternal Answer that has been always given and which is and always will be an Answer that 's not necessary to be explain'd since every body know it such as read this and such as do not read it which is neither Greek nor Latin nor French nor German but which all Nations under Heaven understand An Answer lastly that consolates the Just in their Poverty and desolates Sinners in the abundance of their Riches I shall hear this Answer and remain convinc'd and then shall laugh at the Visions of my Imagination and the Delusions of my Senses The Internal Man that is in me shall ridicule the Animal and Terrestrial Man that I carry about me In fine the New Man shall thrive and the Old Man shall be destroy'd provided in the mean time I continually obey the Voice of Him who delivers Himself so clearly in the most secret recess of my Reason and who becoming sensible to accommodate Himself to my Weakness and Disease and to give me Life by that which gave me Death speaks to me anew in a most strong and lively and familiar way by my Senses I mean by the preaching of His Gospel But if I interrogate Him in all Metaphysical Natural and purely Philosophical Questions as well as those which respect the Rule of Manners I shall always have a faithful Master who will never deceive me I shall not only be a Christian but a Philosopher I shall be a sound Thinker and a Lover of what is Good In a word I shall follow the Road that leads me to all Perfection I am capable of either by Nature or by Grace We ought then to conclude from all that has been said that to make the best use possible of the Faculties of our Soul of our Senses Imagination and Vnderstanding we must apply them only to those things for which they were given us We ought carefully to distinguish our Sensations and Imaginations from our Pure Idea's and judge by the former of the Relations our Body has with those about us but never make use of them in discovering Truths which they always confound Whereas Pure Idea's must be us'd in the finding out of Truths but omitted when we judge of the Correspondencies between Exteriour Bodies and our own because their Idea's have never reach and extent enough to give a thorough Representation of them 'T is impossible for Men to have sufficient Knowledge of all the Figures and Motions of the little parts of their Body and Blood and of those of a particular Fruit at a certain Season of their Sickness to know whether there is a Relation of Agreement between that Fruit and their Body and that if they eat of it they shall recover Thus our Senses alone are more useful for the Conversation of our Body than the Rules of Experimental Medicine and Experimental Medicine than Theoretical But Theoretical Medicine that deferrs much to Experience and more to the Senses is the best of all Because all these should be caball'd together Reason then is of universal use and this is the Privilege it obtains over the Senses and Imagination which are limited and conâ—in'd to Sensible things yet this is to be regularly employ'd for though it be the principal part of Our selves it often happens to deceive us by our letting it act too much because it cannot act enough without tiring I mean it cannot know enough to make a right Judgment and yet it will still be judging F. MALEBRANCHE's TREATISE Concerning the SEARCH after TRUTH BOOK IV. Concerning the Inclinations or Natural Motions of the Mind CHAP. I. I. Inclinations are as necessary to Spirits as Motions to Bodies II. GOD gives no Motion to Spirits but what tends towards Himself III. The Tendency Spirits have to particular Goods proceeds but from their Motion towards Good in general IV. The Original of our chiefest Natural Inclinations Which will make up the Division of this Fourth Book THERE had been no occasion of Treating on the Natural Inclinations which are to be the Subject of this Fourth Book nor on the Passions which I am to speak to in the Fifth to discover the Causes of our Errours did not the Understanding depend on the Will in the Perception of Objects But because the Understanding receives its Direction from the Will and is determin'd and fix'd by it rather to some Objects than others in order to penetrate into the Causes of the Errours whereunto we are subject it will be absolutely necessary to be well acquainted with the Nature of our Inclinations Had God in the Creation of the World produc'd a Matter infinitely Extended without imprinting on it any Motion there had been no diversity in Bodies The whole Visible World at this day would have been nothing but an unweildy Mass of Matter or Extension which might perhaps have serv'd to shew the Greatness and Power of its Author but wanting that Succession of Forms and Variety of Bodies wherein the Beauty of the Universe consists would have little to invite Spiritual Beings to admire and adore the Infinite Wisdom of its Governour Now the Inclinations of Spirits seem to be in the Spiritual World what the Motions of Bodies are in the Material and that if Spirits had no Inclinations or Volitions that Variety would be wanting to the Order of Spiritual things which not only excites to the Admiration of the profound Wisdom of God as does the diversity observ'd in Material things but also of his Mercy Justice and Goodness and all his other Attributes in general The difference then of Inclinations has an Effect in Spirits much like that which the diversity of Motions produces in Bodies and the Inclinations of Spirits together with the Motions of Bodies make up all the Beauty of Created Beings So that 't is requisite for the former to have several Inclinations as for the latter to have different Motions But let us try to discover what Inclinations these ought to be Were not our Nature corrupted we should not need to seek by Reason as we are now to do what should be the Natural Inclinations of Created Spirits We need but have descended into our own Breast to have discover'd by an inward Feeling or Self-consciousness of what passes within us all the Inclinations we ought Naturally to have But since we are taught by Faith that Sin has inverted the Order of Nature and even by
Reason that our Inclinations are disorder'd as we shall see better in the sequel we are oblig'd to another course For our Sensations being not to be credited we are forc'd to explain things in an higher and more transcendent manner but such as will doubtless seem Chimerical to those who take the Estimate of all things from the Senses 'T is an undeniable Truth That God can have no other Principal End of his Actions than Himself and that he may have many Subordinate Ends tending all to the Preservation of the Beings he has created He can have no Principal End besides Himself because being not liable to Errour he cannot place his ultimate End in Beings that include not all sorts of Perfection But he may have a less Principal namely the Preservation of Created Beings because all partaking of His Goodness are necessarily Good or in the Style of Scripture Valde Bona. And therefore God loves them and 't is His Love that preserves them for their Subsistence is wholly owing to the Love of God Diligis omnia quae sunt says the Wise Man nihil odisti eoruâ— quae fecisti nec enim odiens aliquid constituisti fecisti Quomodo autem posset aliquid permanere nisi Tu voluisses aut quod a te vocatum non esset conservaretur And indeed 't is unconceivable that things should subsist which are not pleasing to an infinitely Perfect and Omnipotent Being since all things have their Subsistence only from His Will God therefore Wills His Glory as the Principal End and the Preservation of His Creatures only for His Glory Natural Inclinations of Spirits being undoubtedly the constant Impressions of the Will of Him who has Created and Preserves them must we may conclude be entirely like those of their Creatour and Preserver Wherefore they naturally can have no other Principal End than His Glory nor any other Second End than their own and others Preservation but this still with reference to him who gives them their Being For in brief it seeming undeniable that God cannot Will that the Wills He has Created should love a Less Good more than a Greater that is should love what is less amiable more than what is more so it is impossible for Him to Create any Creature without Directing it towards Himself and commanding it to love Him more than all things else though He may create it Free and with a Power of disengaging it self and diverting from Him As there is but One Love properly in God that is the Love of Himself and as He can love nothing but by that Love since He can love nothing but with reference to Himself So He imprints but one Love in us which is the Love of Good in general and we can love nothing but through that Love since we can love nothing but what 's a Real or Apparent Good This Love of Good in general is the Principle of all our particular Affections since this Love is really nothing but our Will The Will of Man as I have said before being only the Continual Impression of the Author of Nature which carries the Mind towards Good in general Surely we ought not to imagine that this Power of Loving either proceeds from or depends on our selves on whom only depends the Power of Loving wrong or rather of Rightly Loving Evil things because being Free we can determine and do actually determine to particular and consequently false Goods the Good Love wherewith God continually influences our Souls as long as He preserves them But not only our Will or our Love for Good in general comes from God our Inclinations likewise for particular Goods which are common to though unequally strong in all Men such as the Inclination for the Preservation of our Being and that of others to whom Nature has united us are the Impressions of the Will of God upon us For I term indifferently natural Inclination all the Impressions of the Author of Nature that are common to all Created Spirits I have been saying that God loves his Creatures and that 't is this His Love that both gives and preserves their Being and whereas he continually imprints on us a Love like His own since His Will both makes and governs ours He gives us all those Natural Inclinations which depend not on our Choice and which necessarily dispose us to the preserving our own and our Neighbour's Being For though Sin has corrupted all things it has not utterly destroy'd them Though our Natural Inclinations have not always God for their End by the free Choice of our Will yet they always have by the Institution of Nature since God who both produces and preserves these Inclinations in us does it only for Himself For all Sinners tend to God by the Impression they receive of Him though they recede from Him by the Errour and deviation of their Mind They love well it being impossible to love ill whilst God is the Author of Love but they love Evil things Evil only because God who gives Sinners the Power of Loving forbids their loving them by reason of their withdrawing Men ever since the Fall from the Love of Himself For whilst they imagine that the Creatures are the Cause of the Pleasure and Pain they feel or receive Occasionally from them they run furiously to the embracing these Bodies and so fall into an utter Oblivion of God who is not Visible to their Fyes We have still then the same Natural Inclinations or Impressions of the Author of Nature as Adam had before his fall We have even the same Inclinations as the Blessed have in Heaven For God neither makes nor preserves any Creatures but He possesses them with a Love like His own He loves Himself and us and all His Creatures and therefore Creates no Spirits but withall inclines them to love God Themselves and all the Creatures But as all our Inclinations are only the Impressions of Nature's Author which carry us to love Him and all things for His sake they can never be regular but when we love God with all our Strength and all things for the sake of God by a Free and Premeditate Choice of our Will For 't is Injustice and Abusing the Love of God which he gives us for Himself to lay it out on any thing besides or without Relation to him And thus we now know not only what are our Natural Inclinations but also what they ought to be to become regular and as they were instituted by their Author For all the Disorders of our Inclinations have no other Root than this that we fix our Ultimate End in Our selves and instead of referring all to God center all things upon Self First then we have an Inclination for Good in general which is the Principle of all our Natural Inclinations all our Passions and all the Free Affections of our Will Secondly we have an Inclination for the Preservation of our own Being or Welfare Thirdly we have an Inclination for other
since it rather respects Morals and Politicks than our Subject And whereas this Inclination is always accompany'd with the Passions it might perhaps be more appositly treated of in the next Book But 't is not of so great concern to be so nicely methodical in this Case That we may rightly comprehend the Cause and Effects of this Natural Inclination it is requisite to know that GOD loves all his Works and that he strictly unites them to one another for their mutual Preservation For Loving incessantly the Works he produces it being his Love that produces them he also continually impresses on our Heart a Love for his Works that is he produces constantly in our Heart a Love like his own And to the intent the Natural Love we have for our selves might not swallow up or too much infringe upon that which we have for exteriour things but on the contrary that these two Loves which GOD puts in us might cherish and strengthen each other he has so artfully united us with all things about us and especially with those Beings of the same Species as our selves that their Evils naturally afflict us their Joy rejoyces us their Rise their Fall or Diminution seem to augment or diminish respectively our own Being The new Honours of our Relations or Friends the fresh Atchievements of those who have the nearest Engagements to us The Conquests and Victories of our Prince and even the late Discoveries of the New World give as it were an additional growth to our Substance Belonging to all these things we rejoyce at their Grandure and Extent We gladly would that even the World was without Bounds and that Notion of some Philosophers that the Works of GOD are infinite not only seems worthy of GOD but most agreeable to Man who can conceive nothing nobler than the being a part of Infinity whilst as inconsiderable as he is in himself he fancies he feels himself infinitely enlarg'd by an expansion of Thought into the infinite Beings that surround him 'T is true the Union we have with all those Bodies that rowl in the vast spaces is not very binding and consequently insensible to the greatest part of Men and there are some who interess themselves so little in the Discoveries made in the Heavens that one would think they had no natural Union to them did we not know that it was for want of Knowledge or for their too applicative Adherencies to other things The Soul though united to the Body which she animates is not always sensible of the Motions that occur in it or if she be yet she does not always actually consider them The Passion whereby she 's acted being often greater than the Sensation wherewith she 's affected makes her seem to have a stricter Adherence to the Object of her Passion than to her own Body For 't is chiefly by the Passions that the Soul expands her self abroad and finds she is actually related to all surrounding Beings as it is especially by Sensation that she expands through her own Body and finds she is united to all the Parts that compose it But as we are not to conclude that the Soul of a Man in a Passion is not united to his Body because he exposes himself to Death and is unconcern'd for his own Preservation so it ought not to be imagin'd we are not naturally engag'd to all things because there are some we are not at all concern'd for Would you know for instance whether Men have any Adhesions to their Prince or their Country Enquire out such as are acquainted with the Interests of them and have no particular Engagements of their own to take them up and you will then see how earnest they are for News how impatient to hear of Battels how joyful for a Victory and how melancholy upon a Defeat And this will convince you how strictly Men are united to their Prince and their Country In like manner would you know whether Men are united to China Japan the Planets or Fix'd Stars Enquire out or only imagine to your self some whose Country or Family enjoy a settl'd Peace who have no particular Passions and that are not actually sensible of the Union that binds them to nearer Objects than the Heavens and you will find if they have any Knowledge of the Magnitude and Nature of these Stars they will rejoyce at the Discovery of any of them will consider them with Pleasure and if they have Art enough will willingly be at the pains of observing and calculating their Motions Such as are in the hurry of Business have little Curiosity for the Appearance of a Comet or the Incidence of an Eclipse but Men that have no such Dependencies to nearer things find themselves considerable Employment about such Events because indeed there is nothing but what we are united to though we have not always the Sense of this Union as a Man does not always feel the Soul united I don't say to his Arm or Hand but to his Heart and Brain The strongest Natural Union which GOD has establish'd between us and his Works is that which cements and binds us to our Fellow-Brethren Men. GOD has commanded us to love them as our Second-selves and to the end that Elective Love with which we prosecute them might be resolute and constant he supports and strengthens it continually with a Natural Love which he impresses on us and for that purpose has given us some invisible Bonds which bind and oblige us necessarily to love them to be watchful for their as our own Preservation to regard them as parts necessary to the whole which we constitute together with them and without which we could not subsist There is nothing more admirably contriv'd than those Natural Correspondencies observable between the Inclinations of Men's Minds between the Motions of their Bodies and again between these Inclinations and these Motions All this secret Chain-work is a Miracle which can never be sufficiently admir'd nor can ever be understood Upon the Sense of some sudden surprizing Evil or which a Man finds as it were too strong for him to overcome by his own Strength he raises suppose a loud Cry This Cry forc'd out frequently without thinking on it by the disposition of the Machine strikes infallibly into the Ears of those who are near enough to afford the Assistance that is wanted It pierces them and makes them understand it let them be of what Nation or Quality soever for 't is a Cry of all Nations and all Conditions as indeed it ought to be It makes a Commotion in the Brain and instantly changes the whole Disposition of Body in those that are struck with it and makes them run to give succour without so much as knowing it But it is not long before it acts upon their Mind and obliges their Will to desire and their Understanding to contrive means of assisting him who made that Natural Petition provided always that urgent Petition or rather Command be just and according
indeed whenever we will it and we may be call'd in that sense the natural cause of the Motion of our Arm yet natural Causes are not true but only occasional as acting by the mere force and efficacy of the Will of God as we have already explain'd For how is it possible for us to move our Arm To perform this 't is requir'd we should have Animal Spirits and send them through certain Nerves towards certain Muscles to swell up and contract them for so that Motion is perform'd as some pretend though others deny it and assert that the Mystery is not yet discover'd However it be most Men know not so much as that they have Spirits Nerves and Muscles and yet move their Arms with as much and more dexterity than the most skilful Anatomists Men therefore will the moving their Arm but 't is God that is able and knows how to doe it If a Man cannot overthrow a Tower yet he knows what must be done to effect it but not one amongst them knows what the Animal Spirits must doe to move one of his Fingers How should they then move the whole Arm of themselves These things appear very evident to me and I suppose to all thinking Persons though they may be incomprehensible to others such as are only used to the confused voice of the Senses But Men are so far from being the true Causes of the Motions produc'd in their Body that it seems to imply a Contradiction they should be so For a true Cause is that betwixt which and its Effect the Mind percieves a necessary connexion for so I understand it But there is none besides the infinitely perfect Being betwixt whose Will and the Effects the Mind can perceive a necessary Connexion and therefore none but God is the true Cause or has a real Power of moving Bodies Nay it seems unconceivable that God should communicate this Power either to Angels or Men And those that pretend that the Power we have of moving our Arm is a true Power must by Consequence grant that God can give Spirits the Power of creating annihilating and doing all possible things in short that he can make them Almighty as I am going to pove God needs not Instruments to act 't is enough he should Will the Existence of a thing in order to its Existing because it is contradictory that he should will a thing and his Will should not be fulfilled And therefore his Power is his Will and to communicate his Power is to communicate his Will so that to communicate his Will to a Man or an Angel can signifie nothing else but to will that whenever that Man or Angel shall desire that such or such a Body be moved it may actually be moved In which Case I see two Wills concurring together that of God and that of the Angel and to know which of them is the true Cause of the Motion of that Body I enquire which is the Efficacious I see a necessary Connexion betwixt the Will of God and the thing willed in this Case God wills that whenever the Angel shall desire that such a Body be moved it be really so There is then a necessary Connexion betwixt the Will of God and the Motion of that Body and consequently God is the true Cause of that Motion and the Will of the Angel is only occasional Again to make it more evidently manifest let us suppose God wills it should happen quite contrary to the Desire of some Spirits as may be thought of the Devils or some other wicked Spirits in Punishment of their Sins In that Case it cannot be said God communicates his Power to them since nothing happens of what they wish However the Will of those Spirits shall be the natural Cause of the produced Effects as such a Body shall be removed to the Right because they wish it were moved to the Left and the Desires of those Spirits shall determine the Will of God to act as the Will of moving the Parts of our Body determine the first Cause to move them and therefore the Desires of all finite Spirits are but occasional Causes If after all these Reasons it be still asserted that the Will of an Angel moving a Body is a true and not a bare occasional Cause 't is evident that the self-same Angel might be the true Cause of the Creation and Annihilation of all things since God might as well communicate to him his Power of Creating and annihilating Bodies as that of moving them if He should will that they should be created and annihilated in a word if he will'd that all things should be performed according to the Angel's Desires as he wills that Bodies be moved as the Angel pleases if therefore it may be said that an Angel or Man are true Movers because God moves Bodies as they desire that Man or Angel might likewise be call'd true Creatours since God might create Beings on occasion of their Will Nay perhaps it might be said that the vilest of Animals or even mere Matter is the real Cause of the Creation of some Substance if it be supposed with some Philosophers that God produces substantial Forms whenever the Disposition of Matter requires it And lastly since God has resolved from all Eternity to create some certain things at some certain times those Times might also be called the Causes of the Creation of such Beings with as much right as 't is pretended that a Ball meeting with another is the true Cause of the Motion that is communicated to it because God by his general Will that constitutes the Order of Nature has decreed that such or such Communication of Motions should follow upon the Concourse of two Bodies There is then but one true Cause as there is one true God Neither must we imagine that what precedes an Effect does really produce it God himself cannot communicate his Power to Creatures according to the Light of Reason He cannot make them true Causes and change them into Gods But though he might doe it we conceive not why he should will it Bodies Spirits pure Intelligences all can doe nothing 'T is he who has made Spirits that enlightens and moves them 't is he who has created Heaven and Earth that regulates all their Motions In fine 't is the Authour of our Being that performs our Desires Semel jussit semper paret He moves even our Arms when we use them against his Orders for he complains by his Prophets That we make him subservient to our unjust and criminal Desires All those little Divinities of the Heathens all those particular Causes of Philosophers are Chimeras which the wicked Spirit endeavours to set up that he may destroy the Worship of the true God The Philosophy we have received from Adam teaches us no such things but that which has been propagated by the Serpent for ever since the Fall the Mind of Man is turned Heathen That Philosophy join'd to the Errours of the Senses has made
Motion in every thing And though they have no distinct Idea of it yet by reason of the Corruption of their Heart they willingly put it in the room of the true God imagining that it performs all the Wonders that they see occur CHAP. V. An Explication of the Principles of the Peripatetick Philosophy in which is shewn that Aristotle never observed the Second Part of the General Rule and his Four Elements with the Elementary Qualities are examined THat the Reader may compare the Philosophy of Des Cartes with that of Aristotle it will be convenient to set down in few words what the latter has taught concerning Elements and Natural Bodies in general which the most learned believe he has done in his Four Books Of the Heavens For his Eight Books of Physicks belong rather to Logick or perhaps to Metaphysicks than to Natural Philosophy since they consist of Nothing but loose and general terms that offer no distinct and particular Idea to the Mind Those Four Books are entituled Of the Heavens because the Heavens are the chief amongst the simple Bodies which he treats of That Philosopher begins his Work by proving that the World is perfect in the following manner All Bodies have three Dimensions and cannot have more because the number three comprehends all according to the Pythagoreans But the World is the Coacervation of all Bodies and therefore the World is perfect By that ridiculous Proof it may also be demonstrated that the World cannot be more imperfect than it is since it cannot be composed of parts that have less than three Dimensions In the Second Chapter he first supposes some Peripatetick Truths as that all Natural Bodies have of themselves the force of moving which he proves neither here nor elsewhere but on the contrary asserts in the First Chapter of his Second Book of Physicks that to endeavour to prove it is absurd because 't is evident of it self and that none but those who cannot distinguish what is known of it self from what is not insist upon proving plain by obscure things But it has been shewn elsewhere that it is altogether false that natural Bodies should have of themselves the force of moving and it appears evident only to such as follow with Aristotle the Impressions of their Senses and make no use of their Reason Secondly He says that all local Motion is made in a Line either direct or circular or composed of both but if he would not think upon what he so rashly proposes he ought at least to have open'd his Eyes that he might see an Infinite number of different Motions which are not made of either the right or circular Or rather he ought to have thought that the Motions composed of the direct may be infinitely varied when the compounding Motions increase or diminish their swiftness in an infinite number of different ways as may be observed by what has been said before There are says he but two simple Motions the right and the Circular and therefore all the others are composed of them But he mistakes for the Circular Motion is not simple since it cannot be conceived without thinking upon a Point to which it relates and whatever includes a Relation is relative and not simple This is so true that the Circular Motion may be conceived as produced from two Motions in a right Line whose Swiftness is unequal according to a certain Proportion But a Motion composed of two others made in a right Line and variously increasing or diminishing in swiftness cannot be simple Thirdly He says that all the simple Motions are of three sorts one from the Centre the other towards the Centre and the third about it But 't is false that the last viz. the Circular Motion should be simple as has been already said And 't is false again that there are no simple Motions besides upwards and downwards For all the Motions in a right Line are simple whether they approach to or remove from the Centre the Poles or any other Point Every Body says he is made up of three Dimensions and therefore the Motion of all Bodies must have three simple Motions What Relation is there betwixt simple Motions and Dimensions Besides every Body has three Dimensions and none has three simple Motions Fourthly He supposes that Bodies are either simple or composed and calls simple Bodies those that have the force of moving themselves as Fire Earth c. adding that the compounded receive their Motion from the compounding But in that sense there are no simple Bodies since none have in themselves any Principle of their Motion there are also none composed since there are no simples of which they should be made and so there would be no Bodies at all What Fancy is it to define the simplicity of Bodies by a Power of moving themselves What distinct Ideas can be fixed to the Words of simple and composed Bodies if the simple are only defined in Relation to an Imaginary moving force But let us see what Consequences he draws from those Principles The Circular Motion is simple The Heavens move Circularly and therefore their Motion is simple But simple Motion can be ascribed only to a simple Body that is to say to a Body that moves of it self And therefore the Heavens are a simple Body distinguished from the four Elements that move in right Lines 'T is plain enough that such Arguments contain nothing but false and absurd Propositions Let us examine his other Proofs for he alleadges a great many shameful and nonsensical ones to prove a thing as useless as it is false His second Reason to shew that the Heavens are a simple Body distinguished from the Four Elements supposes that there are two sorts of Motion one natural and the other violent or against Nature But 't is sufficiently plain to all those that judge of things by clear and distinct Ideas that Bodies having not in themselves any such Principle of their Motion as Aristotle pretends there can be no Motion violent or against Nature 'T is indifferent to all Bodies to be moved or not either one way or another But this Philosopher who judges of things by the Impressions of the Senses imagines that those Bodies which by the Laws of the Communications of Motions always place themselves in such or such a Situation in reference to others doe it of their own accord and because it is most convenient for them and best agrees with their Nature Here follows the Argument of Aristotle The Circular Motion of the Heavens is natural or against Nature If natural the Heavens are a simple Body distinguished from the Elements since the Elements never move circularly by a natural Motion If the Circular Motion of the Heavens is against their Nature they will be some one of the Elements as Fire Water c. or something else But the Heavens can be none of the Elements as for instance if the Heavens were Fire that Element tending naturally upwards the Heavens would
finite or infinite Time but what is only infinite in one sense is neither finite nor infinite and therefore nothing can subsist in that Manner This is the way of arguing with the Prince of Philosophers and the Genius of Nature who instead of discovering by clear and distinct Ideas the true Cause of natural Effects lays the Foundation of a Pagan Philosophy upon the false and confused Ideas of the Senses or upon such Ideas as are too general to be useful to the Search after Truth I condemn not Aristotle for not knowing that God has created the World in Time to manifest his Power and the Dependency of Creatures and that he will never destroy it to shew that he is immutable and never repents of his Designs But I may find fault with him for proving by trifling Reasons that the World is of Eternal Duration For though he be sometimes excusable as to the Opinions he maintains yet he 's for the most part intollerable as to the Reasons he alledges when he treats of Subjects that are somewhat difficult What I have already said may perhaps be sufficient to evince it though I have not related all the Errours I have met with in the Book whence the former are extracted and that I have endeavour'd to make him speak plainer than is customary with him But for an entire and full Conviction that the Genius of Nature will never discover the secret Springs and Contrivances of it it will be convenient to shew that his Principles upon which he reasons for the Explication of natural Effects have no Solidity in them 'T is evident that nothing can be discover'd in Physicks without beginning with the most simple Bodies that is with the Elements into which all others are resolv'd because they are contain'd in them either actually or potentially to speak in a Peripatetick Stile But no distinct Explication of those simple Bodies can be found in the Works of Aristotle whence follows that his Elements being not clearly known 't is impossible to discover the Nature of Bodies which are compos'd of them He says indeed that there are four Elements Fire Air Water and Earth but he gives no clear Manifestation of their Nature by any distinct Idea He pretends not that those Elements are the Fire Air Water and Earth that we see for if it were so our Senses at least would afford us some Knowledge of them I grant that in several places of his Works he endeavours to explain them by the Qualities of Heat and Cold Moisture and Dryness Gravity and Levity But that Method is so impertinent and ridiculous that it cannot be conceiv'd how so many Learned Men could be satisfied with it which I proceed to demonstrate Aristotle pretends in his Book of the Heavens that the Earth is the Centre of the World and that all Bodies which he is pleas'd to call simple because he supposes that they are mov'd by their own Nature must move by simple Motions He asserts that besides the Circular Motion which he pretends to be simple and by which he proves that the Heavens which he supposes to move circularly are a simple Body there are two other simple Motions one downwards from the Circumference to the Centre and the other upwards from the Centre to the Circumference That those simple Motions are proper to simple Bodies and consequently that Earth and Fire are such Bodies one of which is altogether heavy and the other perfectly light But because Gravity and Levity may be proper to a Body either wholly or in part he concludes that there are two other Elements or simple Bodies one of which is partly light and the other partly ponderous viz. Water and Air. Thus he proves that there are four Elements and no more It is plain to all those who examine the Opinions of Men by their own Reason that all those Propositions are false or cannot at least be taken for clear and undeniable Principles which may afford very plain and distinct Ideas whereon to lay the Foundation of Natural Philosophy 'T is certain that nothing can be more absurd than to establish the Number of Elements upon the imaginary Qualities of Heaviness and Lightness saying without any farther Proof that some Bodies are ponderous and others light of their own Nature For if any thing may be asserted without Proof it may be said that all Bodies are naturally heavy and endeavour to approach the Centre of the World as the place of their Rest. And the contrary may be asserted too viz. That all Bodies are light of their own Nature and tend to rise to the Heavens as to the place of their greatest Perfection For if you object to him who maintains the Gravity of Bodies that Fire and Air are light he needs but answer that Fire and Air are not light but that being less ponderous than Earth and Water they seem to us to be light And that it goes with those Elements as with a piece of Wood that appears light upon the Water not by reason of any natural Levity since it falls down when in the Air but because Water being heavier seizes the lower Place and forces it to ascend On the contrary If you object to him that defends the natural Levity of Bodies that Earth and Water are ponderous he will likewise answer That those Bodies seem heavy because they are not so light as those that surround them That Wood for instance appears to be ponderous when in the Air not because of its natural Gravity since it ascends when in the Water but because it is not so light as Air. And therefore 't is ridiculous to suppose as an undeniable Principle that Bodies are either light or heavy of their own Nature it being on the contrary evident that none has the Force of moving it self and that 't is indifferent to be moved either upwards or downwards to the East or to the West to the South or to the North or in any other possible manner But let us grant to Aristotle That there are four Elements such as he pretends two of which are heavy viz. Earth and Water and the two other light of their own Nature viz. Fire and Air what Consequence may be drawn from thence for the Knowledge of the Universe Those four Elements are not the visible Fire Air Water and Earth but something quite different which we know neither by the Senses nor by Reason having no distinct Idea of them Let all natural Bodies be compos'd of them since Aristotle has said it But the Nature of those Compounds is still unknown and cannot be discovered but by knowing the four Elements or the simple Bodies of which they are made since the Composed is known only by the Simple Fire says Aristotle is light by its own Nature the ascending Motion is simple Fire is therefore a simple Body since Motion must be proportion'd to the Moveable Natural Bodies are compos'd of simple there is then Fire in all natural Bodies but a Fire
our natural Judgment so long as it 's not positively corrigible by Light and Evidence For every natural Judgment coming from God may be rightly seconded by our free Judgments when God furnishes us not with means to manifest its falsity And if on such occasions we mistake the Author of our Mind may seem in a manner to be the Author of our Errors and Delinquencies This Reasoning is possibly good though it must be acknowledg'd that it ought not to go for an Evident Demonstration of the Existence of Bodies For indeed God does not irresistibly force us to consent to it if we give our consent it is a free act and we may with-hold it if we please If this arguing I have made be just we are to believe it highly probable that there are Bodies but this bare Argumentation alone ought not to give us a plenary Conviction and Acquiescence otherwise it is we our selves that act and not God in us it being by a free act and consequently liable to Error that we consent and not by an invincible Impression for we believe it freely because we will and not because we see any obliging Evidence Surely nothing but Faith can convince us of the actual Existence of Bodies We can have no exact Demonstration of any other Being's Existence than the necessary and if we warily consider it we shall find it even impossible to know with perfect Evidence whether GOD is or is not the Creatour of a Material and sensible World for no such Evidence is to be met with except in necessary Relations which are not to be found betwixt GOD and such a World as this It was possible for him not to have created it If he has made it it is because he will'd it and freely will'd it The Saints in Heaven see by an evident Light That the FATHER begets the SON and that the HOLY GHOST proceeds from the FATHER and the SON for these are necessary Emanations But the World being no necessary Emanation from GOD those who most clearly see his Being see not evidently his External Productions Nevertheless I am perswaded that the Blessed are certain of the World's Existence but 't is because GOD assures them of it by manifesting his Will to them in a manner by us unknown and we on Earth are certain too but 't is because Faith obliges us to believe That GOD has created this World and that this Faith is conformable to our natural Judgments or our compound Sensations when they are confirm'd by all our Senses corrected by our Memory and rectify'd by our Reason I confess that at first sight the Proof or Principle of our Faith seems to suppose the Existence of Bodies Fides ex auditu It seems to suppose Prophets Apostles Sacred-Writ and Miracles but if we closely examine it we shall find that in supposing but the Appearances of Men Prophets Apostles Holy Scripture Miracles c. what we have learn'd from these supposs'd Appearances stands undeniably certain since as I have prov'd in several places of this Work GOD only can represent to the Mind these pretended Appearances and He is no Deceiver For Faith supposes all this Now in the Appearance of Holy Scripture and by the Seemingness of Miracles we learn That GOD has created an Heaven and an Earth that the Word is made Flesh and other such like Truths which suppose the Existence of a created World Therefore Faith verifies the Existence of Bodies and all these Appearances are actually substantiated by it 'T is needless to insist longer upon answering an Objection which seems too abstracted for the common part of Men and I believe that this will be enough to satisfie those who pretend not to be over-difficult From all which we are to conclude That we both may and ought to correct our Natural Judgments or compound Perceptions which relate to the sensible Qualities we attribute to the Bodies that surround us or to That we animate But as for natural Judgments which relate to the actual Existence of Bodies though absolutely we are not oblig'd to form free ones to accord with them yet we ought not to supersede doing it because these natural Judgments agree perfectly with Faith Finally I have made this Explanation chiefly to the intent we may seriously reflect upon this Truth That nothing but Eternal Wisdom can enlighten us and that all sensible Notices wherein our Body is concern'd are fallacious at least are not attended with that Light which we feel our selves oblig'd to submit to I am sensible that these Notions will not pass with the common sort of Men and that as they are dispos'd by the Superfluity or Poverty of their Animal Spirits they will either ridicule or flinch at the Reasonings I have laid down For the Imagination cannot endure abstract and un-ordinary Truths but either considers them as ghastly Spectres or ridiculous Phantasms But I chuse rather to be the Subject of Droll and Raillery for the strong and bold Imagination and the Object of Indignation and Fear to the weak and timorous than to be wanting in what I owe to Truth and to those generous Defenders of the Mind against the Efforts of the Body who know how to distinguish the Responses of illuminating Wisdom from the confus'd Noise of the perplexing and erroneous Imagination THE ILLUSTRATION UPON THE Fifth CHAPTER of the Second BOOK Of the Memory and Spiritual Habits I Had no mind to speak in this Chapter of the Memory and spiritual Habits for several Reasons the chief of which is That we have no clear Idea of our Soul For how can we clearly explain what are the Dispositions which the Operations of the Soul leave in her which Dispositions are her Habits whilst we have no clear Knowledge of the Nature of our Soul 'T is plain that 't is impossible to know distinctly the Changes whereof a Being is capable when we have no distinct Knowledge of the Nature of that Being For if for Instance we had no clear Idea of Extension in vain should we endeavour to discover its Figures However since I am desir'd to speak of a Matter which I know not in it self see what a compass I fetch that I may only keep to clear Idea's I suppose that there 's none but God who acts upon the Mind and represents to it the Idea's of all things and that if the Mind perceive any Object by a very clear and distinct Idea 't is because God represents that Idea in a most perfect manner I farther suppose that the Will of God being entirely conformable to ORDER and Justice we need but to have a Right to any thing to obtain it The Suppositions being laid down which are easily conceiv'd the Spiritual Memory is readily explain'd For Order requiring that Spirits which have frequently thought of any Object should more easily think again upon it and have a more clear and lively Idea of it that those who have but seldom consider'd it The Will of God which
have explain'd in the Third Article Thus this Objection does not impugn my Principle but on the contrary corroborates it and if it be certain that 't is the Nature of Good to disseminate and communicate it self abroad for I stand not to examine that Axiome 't is evident That God being essentially and supreamly Good it is no Contradiction he should act in the Sence I intended OBJECTION against the Fourth Article Ignorance being a Consequence of Sin Adam before his Fall had a perfect Knowledge of the Nature of his own Body and of those he liv'd amongst He must for Example have been perfectly acquainted with the Nature of all Animals to give them as he did such Names as agreed to them ANSWER 'T is a Mistake Ignorance is neither an Evil nor a Consequence of Sin 'T is Errour or Blindness of Mind which is both one and the other None but God knows all things without any Shadow of Ignorance Ignorance is incident to the brightest and most enlightned Intelligences Whatever is finite cannot comprehend Infinity and thus there is no Spirit that can comprehend only all the Properties of Triangles Adam knew the first minute of his Creation whatever was requisite he should know and nothing more and it was to no purpose for him to know exactly the Disposition of all the Parts of his Body and of those he made use of the Reasons are to be seen in this Article and elsewhere The Imposition of Names in Scripture rather denotes the Authority than the perfect Knowledge of the Imposer As the Lord of Heaven had made Adam the Lord of Earth he conceded him the Privilege of giving Names to the Animals as he himself had done to the Stars 'T is evident That Sounds or Words neither have nor can have any natural relation to the things they signifie let the Divine Plato and the Mysterious Pythagoras say what they please of it One might perhaps explain the Nature of an Horse or an Oxe in an entire Book but a Word is not a Book and it 's ridiculous to imagine That Monosyllables as Sus which in Hebrew signifies a Horse and Sâ—bor which signifies an Oxe should represent the Nature of these Animals Notwithstanding there is great probability these Names were impos'd by Adam since they are found in Genesis the Author whereof assures us That the Names which Adam gave the Creatures were the same which were in use in his time for I cannot see what else can be meant by these Words Omne quod vocavit Adam animae viventis ipsum est nomen ejus And whatsoever Adam call'd every living Creature that was the Name thereof But I grant that Adam gave Names to Animals which have some reference to their Nature and I subscribe to the Learned Etymologies that an Author of this Age gives us of them I will that he call'd domestick Animals Behemoth because of their keeping silence the Ram Ajil because he is strong the Buck Sair because swift the Hog Chazir because of his little Eyes the Ass Chamor because in the East Country red Asses are common But I can't conceive that any more is requisite than to open the Eyes to know if a Buck be swift an Ass red and whether a Hog has little or great Eyes Adam calls by the Name of Beir and Behemah what we term a Brute or a great domestick Creature because these Beasts are mute and stupid What should we thence conclude That he knew perfectly their Nature That is not evident I should rather be apprehensive lest it should be thence concluded That Adam being simple enough to put a Question to an Oxe as being the largest of domestick Animals and wondring that he could not answer him despis'd him and nam'd by a Term of Contempt Beir and Behemah Second OBJECTION against the Fourth Article Some preventing Sensations are incommodious and painful Adam was just and innocent and consequently ought not to feel the smart of them He ought then on all occasions to be guided by Reason and Knowledge and not by preventing Sensations like those we have at present ANSWER I confess there are preventing Sensations which are disagreeable and painful but they never occasion'd any Pain in the first Man because in the instant they gave him any he by an Act of his Will withstood the Impression and in the very instant of that Volition he ceas'd to be touch'd with it These Sensations did only respectfully caution him what ought to be done or omitted and did not incommode his Felicity They but made him sensible that he was capable of losing it and that he who made him Happy could punish and make him miserable if he fail'd in his Fidelity But to perswade our selves that the first Man was never overtaken with the Sense of any lively Pain we need but consider these two things First that Pain is very light when the Motions it is annex'd to are very languid because it is always proportion'd to the force of the Motions that are communicated to the chief part of the Brain Secondly That is of the Nature of Motion to include a Succession of Time and it cannot be violent at the first instant of its Communication Which being suppos'd it is plain that the first Man never felt a violent surprizing Pain that was capable to make him miserable because he could put a stop to the Motions that caus'd it But if so be he could effectually stop them at the first instant of their Action there is no doubt but he would do it since he was always desirous of Happiness and that Aversion is naturally conjoin'd to the Sense of Pain Adam therefore never suffer'd any violent Pain but I think we are not oblig'd to say that he never felt any light and inconsiderable smart such as is that when we tast a sowre Fruit supposing it to be ripe His Felicity had been very tender if so little a thing had been able to disturb it For such Delicacy is a sign of Weakness for how can that Joy and Pleasure be substantial that such a Trifle can dissolve and annihilate Pain never truly molests our Happiness but when it is involuntary and possesses us in spight of our Resistance JESUS CHRIST was happy though on the Cross in the midst of his Groans and Agonies because he suffered nothing but what he was willing to undergo Thus Adam suffering nothing against his will it cannot be said we make him unhappy before his Sin in supposing him admonish'd by preventing but respectful and submissive Sensations of what he ought to avoid for the preservation of his Life OBJECTION against the Fifth Article Adam felt preventing Pleasures But these are involuntary Motions Therefore Adam was agitated with involuntary Motions ANSWER I Answer that Adam's Sensations preceded his Reason the proofs I have shown for it in the Fourth Article But I deny that they preceded his Will or that they stirr'd up in it any particular Motions For Adam was willingly admonish'd
but acts always by the simplest Ways and for that Reason he makes use of the Collision of Bodies in giving them Motion Not that this Collision is absolutely necessary to it as our Senses tell us but that being the Occasion of the Communication of Motions there need be but very few Natural Laws to produce all the admirable Effects we see For by this means we may reduce all the Laws of the Communication of Motions to one Viz. That percutient Bodies being considered as but one at the Moment of their Contact or Collision the moving Force is divided between them at their Separation according to the Proportion of their Magnitude But whereas concurrent Bodies are surrounded with infinite others which act upon them by Virtue and Efficacy of this Law however constant and uniform this Law be it produces a World of quite different Communications because it acts upon infinite Bodies which are all related to one another It is necessary to Water a Plant to make it grow because by the Laws of the Communication of Motions hardly any other than Watry Particles can by their Motion and by reason of their Figure insinuate and Wind up themselves into the Fibres of Plants and by variously fastning and combining together take the Figure that 's necessary to their Nourishment The subtil Matter which is constantly flowing from the Sun may by its agitating the Water lift it into the Plants but it has not a competent Motion to raise gross Earthy Particles Yet Earth and Air too are necessary to the Growth of Plants Earth to preserve the Water at their Root and Air to give this Water a Moderate Fermentation But the Action of the Sun the Air and Water consisting but in the Motion of their Parts in proper speaking GOD is the only Agent For as I have said there is none but He that can by the efficacy of his Will and by the Infinite Extent of his Knowledge cause and regulate those infinitely infinite Communications of Motions which are made every moment and in a Proportion infinitely exact and regular ARGUMENT IV. Can God resist and Fight against Himself Bodies justle strike and resist one another therefore Gods Acts not in them unless it be by his concourse For if it were he only that produc'd and preserv'd Motion in Bodies he would take care to divert them before the Collision as knowing well that they are impenetrable To what purpose are Bodies driven to be beaten back again why must they proceed to recoil Or what signifies it to produce and Preserve useless Motions Is it not an Absurdity to say that God impugns himself and that He destroys his Works when a Bull fights with a Lyon when a Wolf devours a Sheep and a Sheep eats the Grass which God makes to grow Therefore there are Second Causes ANSWER Therefore Second Causes do all and God does nothing at all For God cannot act against himself but Concourse is Action The concurring to contrary Actions is giving contrary Concourse and consequently doing contrary Actions To concur with the Action of Creatures that resist each other is to Act against himself To concur to useless Motions is to Act in vain But God does nothing needless or in vain he does no contrary Actions and therefore concurs not to the Action of Creatures that often destroy one another and makes useless Actions and Motions See where this proof of Second Causes leads us But let us see what Reason says to it God Works all in every thing and nothing resists him He Works all in all things in as much as his Will both makes and regulates all Motions And nothing resists him because he does what ever he Wills But let us see how this is to be conceiv'd Having resolv'd to produce by the simplest ways as most conformable to Order that infinite Variety of Creatures which we admire he will'd that Bodies should move in a right line because that is the most simple But Bodies being impenetrable and their Motions tending in Lines that oppose or intersect one another they must necessarily fall foul together and consequently cease moving in the same manner God foresaw this yet notwithstanding positively will'd the Collision or shock of Bodies not that he 's delighted in impugning himself but because he design'd to make use of this Collision as an Occasion for his establishing the General Law of the Communication of Motions by which he foresaw he must produce an infinite Variety of admirable Effects For I am perswaded that these two Natural Laws which are the simplest of all others Namely that All Motion tends to make it self in a right line and that in the Collision Motions are Communicated proportionably to the magnitude of the Colliding Bodies are sufficient to produce such a World as we see That is the Heaven and Stars and Planets and Comets Earth Water Air and Fire In a Word the Elements and all Unorganiz'd and inanimate Bodies For Organiz'd Bodies depend on many other Natural Laws which are perfectly unknown It may be living Bodies are not form'd like others by a determinate number of Natural Laws For there is great probability they were all form'd at the Creation of the World and that Time only gives them a necessary Growth to make them Visible to our Eyes Nevertheless it is certain they receive that Growth by the General Laws of Nature whereby all other Bodies are form'd which is the Reason that their Increase is not always Regular I say then that God by the first of Natural Laws positively Wills and consequently Causes the Collision of Bodies and afterwards imploys this Collision as an Occasion of establishing the Second Natural Law which regulates the Communication of Motions and that thus the actual Collision is the Natural or Occasional Cause of the Actual Communication of Motions If this be well consider'd it will be evidently acknowledg'd that nothing can be better Order'd But supposing that God had not so Ordain'd it and that he had diverted Bodies when ready to encounter as if there were a Vacuum to receive them First they would not be subject to that perpetual Vicissitude which makes the Beauty of the Universe For the Generation of some Bodies is perform'd by the Corruption of Others and 't is the contrariety of their Motion which produces their Variety Secondly God would not act in the most simple manner For if Bodies ready to meet should continue on their Motion without touching they must needs describe Lines curv'd in a thousand different Fashions and consequently different Wills must be admitted in God to determine their Motions Lastly if there were no Uniformity in the Action of Natural Bodies and that their Motion were not made in a right Line we should have no certain Principle for our Reasonings in natural Philosophy nor for our conduct in many Actions of our Life 'T is not a disorder that Lyons eat Wolves and that Wolves eat Sheep and Sheep grass of which God has had so
unequally supplied there 's all Reason to believe the Diversity of their Graces must proceed from him who is the Chief of Angels as well as Men and who under that Character has merited by his Sacrifice all the Graces which God has given his Creatures but has variously applied them by his different Desires It being undeniable that Jesus Christ long before his Birth or Meriting might be the Meritorious Cause of the Graces given to the Angels and Saints of the Old Testament it ought methinks be granted that by his Prayers he might be the Occasional Cause of the same Graces long before they were demanded For indeed there is no necessary Relation between Occasional Causes and the Time of Production of their Effects and though commonly these sort of Causes are follow'd by their Effects at the Time of their Action yet their Action being not of it self efficacious since its Efficacy depends on the Will of the universal Cause there 's no necessity of their actual Existence for the producing their Effect For Instance Suppose Jesus Christ at this present time should desire of his Father that such a Person might receive such a Supply of Grace at certain Moments of his Life that Prayer of Jesus Christ would infallibly determine the Efficacy of the General Will God has of saving all Men in his Son This Person will receive these Assistances though the Prayer of Jesus Christ be pass'd and his Soul actually think on another thing and never think again on that which he requir'd for him But the past Prayer of Jesus Christ is no more present to his Father than a future For all that must happen in all Times is equally present to God Thus God loving his Son and knowing he shall have such Desires with respect to his Ancestors and those of his own Nation and likewise to the Angels which must enter into the Spiritual Edifice of his Church and constitute the Body whereof he is the Head ought to accomplish the Desires of his Son before they were made that the Elect which preceded his Nativity and which he purchas'd by the Merit of his Sacrifice might as peculiarly belong to him as others and that he might be their Head as really as he is ours I acknowledge it is fit that Meritorious and Occasional Causes should rather precede their Effects than follow them and that Order would have Causes and their Effects exist together For 't is plain that all Merit ought to be instantly recompenc'd and every Occasional Cause actually to produce its Effect provided nothing hinders bâ—t it may or ought be done But Grace being absolutely necessary to Angels and Patriarchs could not be deferr'd But as for the Glory and Reward of the Saints of the Old Testament since that might be deferr'd 't was fit that God should suspend its Accomplishment till Jesus Christ should ascend into Heaven be constituted High Priest over the House of God and begin to exercise the Sovereign Power of Occasional Cause of all Graces merited by his Labours upon Earth Therefore we are to believe that the Patriarchs entred not Heaven till after Jesus Christ their Head Mediator and Fore-runner But though it should be granted that God had not appointed an Occasional Cause for all the Graces afforded the Angels and Patriarchs I see not how it can be thence concluded that Jesus Christ does not at present endue the Church with the Spirit which gives it Increase and Life that he does not pray for it or that his Prayers or Desires are not effectually heard in a word that he is not the Occasional Cause which applies to Men the Graces he has merited I grant if you 'll have it so that God before Jesus Christ gave Grace by particular Wills the Necessity of Order requiring it Whilst by Order the Occasional Cause could not be so soon establish'd and the Elect were very few in Number But now when the Rain of Grace falls not as heretofore on a small Number of Men but is shower'd on all the Earth and Jesus Christ may or ought be constituted the Occasional Cause of the Goods which he has merited for his Church what reason is there to believe God works so many Miracles as he gives us good Thoughts For in short all that is done by particular Wills is certainly a Miracle as not being a Result of the General Laws he has ordain'd whose Efficacy are determin'd by Occasional Causes But how can we imagine that in order to save Men he works so many Miracles useless to their Salvation I would say affords them all these Graces which they resist because not proportion'd to the actual Force of their Concupiscence St. John teaches us That Christians receive from the Fulness of Jesus Christ Graces in abundance For says he the Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ. For indeed the Graces which preceded him were not comparable to those he distributed after his Triumph If they were Miraculous we are to suppose they were extremely rare Even the Grace of the Apostles before the Holy Spirit was given them could not come in comparison with those they receiv'd when the High Priest of future Goods having entred by his Blood into the Holy of Holies had obtain'd by the Force of his Prayers and sent through the Dignity of his Person the Holy Spirit to animate and sanctifie his Church The unaccountable Blindness of the Jews their gross and carnal Notions their frequent Relapses into Idolatry after so many Miracles sufficiently manifest their disregard for true Goods and the dispiritedness of the Apostles before they had received the Holy Ghost is a sensible Proof of their Weakness So that Grace in those Days was extremely rare because our Nature in Jesus Christ was not yet establish'd the Occasional Cause of Graces Jesus Christ was not yet fully consecrated Priest after the Order of Melchisedech nor had his Father given him that Immortal and Glorious Life which is the particular Character of his Priesthood For 't was necessary that Jesus Christ should enter the Heavens and receive the Glory and Power of Occasional Cause of true Goods before he sent the Holy Spirit according to the Words of St. John The Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified And according to others of Jesus Christ himself It is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I go I will send him unto you Now it cannot be imagin'd that Jesus Christ consider'd as God is the Head of the Church as Man he has obtain'd that Quality The Head and Members of a Body must be of the same nature Jesus Christ as Man intercedes for Men as Man he receiv'd from God a Sovereign Power over his Church For as he is God he intercedes not as God he has not receiv'd a Name which is above every Name but he is equal to the Father
we not only can see from one end of the same Point abundance of most large and even immense Objects There is moreover not any Point in all these great Spaces of the World from whence we cannot discover an almost inexhaustible number of Objects and even Objects as big as the Sun the Moon and Heavens There is not then any Point in the great Circumference of the World wherein the Species of all these things ought not to center which is contradictory to all appearance of Truth The second Reason is taken from the Change these Species undergo It is certain the nearer an Object is the greater the Species ought to be since we see the Object greater Now we cannot see what 't is that can lessen this Species and what become of the Parts that compos'd it when it was greater But that which is still more difficult to conceive according to their Notion is how in beholding an Object with Magnifying-glasses or a Microscope the Species grows on a suddain five or six hundred times bigger than it was before for 't is still harder to be seen from what adventitious Parts it can increase so mightily in an instant The third Reason is that in looking on a perfect Cube all the Species of its faces are unequal and yet we fail not to see all its faces equally square And so in beholding in a Picture Ovals and Parallelograms which can only send forth Species of a similar Figure we see notwithstanding Circles and Squares For this makes it manifestly clear that there is no necessity the Object we behold should produce Species like it self in order to our seeing it Lastly it is not conceivable how it is possible for a Body that is not sensibly exhausted to send constantly Species from out of it self on every side how it can continually fill with them so very capacious Spaces all round about and that with an incomprehensible swiftness For an Object that lay hid in the very instant of its Discovery may be seen many millions of Leagues on all sides And what seems much stranger yet is that the Bodies which have a great deal of Action as the Air and some others have not force enough to extrude from them their representative Images which the grossest and least active Bodies can do as Earth Stones and almost all hard Bodies But I shall not spend more time in producing all the Reasons that oppugn this Opinion because that would be an endless work the least Essay of Thought furnishing out an inexhaustible number of them These we have already urg'd are enough and even more than were necessary after what has been said relating to this Subject in the first Book whâ—n we explain'd the Errors of the Senses But there being such a multitude of Philosophers devoted to this Opinion I thought it necessary to say something of it to put them upon reflecting on their own Thoughts CHAP. III. That the Soul has no Power to produce Idea's The Cause of the Error Men are guilty of upon this Subject THE second Opinion is theirs who believe that our Souls have the Power of producing the Idea's of the things they would contemplate and that they are mov'd to the producing them by the impressions Objects make upon the Body though these impressions are not Images representative of the Objects they are caused by They pretend it is in this that Man is made after the Image of GOD and participates of his Power That as GOD has created all things out of nothing and can annihilate them again and thence create others wholly new so Man has the Power of Creating and Annihilating the Idea's of all things as he pleases But there 's very good reason to suspect all these Opinions that elevate Man so high as being Notions which commonly derive from his vain and haughty Heart and which the Father of Lights never vouchsafed to give him This Participation of the Power of GOD which Men boast of having whereby to represent Objects and to do many other particular Actions is a Participation which seems to draw in something of Independency as 't is ordinarily explain'd But 't is likewise a Chimerical Participation which Men's Ignorance and Vanity have caus'd them to imagine For they are under a greater Dependance on the Goodness and Mercy of GOD than they suppose But this is not the place to give an Explication of these things Let us only try to make it visible that Men have not the Power of forming the Idea's of the things they perceive No Man can doubt but that Idea's are real Beings seeing they have real Properties that they differ one from another and that they represent quite different things Nor can it reasonably be doubted but they are of a Spiritual Nature and very different from the Bodies represented by them All which seems strong enough to raise a doubt whether the Idea's by means whereof we perceive Bodies are not of a nobler extract than the Bodies themselves And in earnest the Intelligible World ought to be perfecter than the Material and Terrestrial as we shall see in the process of our Discourse and then in affirming that Men are impower'd to frame all Idea's as they please we incur the danger of maintaining that Men have power of making Beings more noble and more perfect than the World which GOD has created But this reflection never enters our Heads by reason of our imagining an Idea to be nothing because not obvious to the Senses or if we look upon it as a Being 't is a Being so slender and contemptible that we fancy it annihilated as soon as absent from the Mind But though it should be true that Idea's were only little pitiful despicable Beings they are however Beings and Beings Spiritual And Men having not the Power of Creating have not consequently the Power of Producing them For the Production of Idea's in the manner they explain it is a true Creation and though they endeavour to palliate and soften the Presumption and Harshness of this Opinion in saying that the Production of Idea's supposes something antecedent and Creation supposes nothing yet they bring no Reason to solve the Knot of the difficulty For it ought well to be heeded That there is no greater difficulty in producing Something out of Nothing than in producing it by presupposing another thing out of which it could not be made and which could contribute nothing to its Production There is no greater difficulty for instance in the Creation of an Angel than in the Production of an Angel from a Stone Because a Stone being a Being of a quite opposite kind cannot be any ways serviceable to the Production of an Angel But it may contribute to the Production of Bread of Gold c. because Stone Gold and Bread are only the same Extension of a diverse Configuration and all these are Material things Nay it is even harder to produce an Angel out of a Stone than to produce it out