the Water is converted into Wine That as between Three and Four there can be no Number since true Unity is Indivisible so it is necessary that the Water be Converted into the Nature and Essence of the Wine or that the Wine lose its Nature That as all Quaternary Numbers are perfectly alike so the Essence of the Water is perfectly alike in all Waters That as the Number of Three differs Essentially from the Number of Two and that it cannot have the same Proprieties as that has so two Bodies of different Species differ Essentially and in such a manner that they have never the same Proprieties which proceed from Entity and other like things Nevertheless if Men would consider the true Idea's of things with some Attention they would soon discover that all Bodies being Extended their Nature or Essence has nothing resembling Numbers and that it cannot consist in an Indivisible Men do not only suppose Identity Resemblance or Proportion in the Nature Number and Essential Differences of Substances they also suppose them in all things they see Most Men Judge that all the fix'd Stars are fastened to the Heavens as to a Roof at an Equal Distance from the Earth Astronomers did pretend for a long while that the Planets moved in perfect Circles and they have invented a great number of them as Concentriques Excentriques Epicycles c. to Explain the Phoenomena which contradicted their Opinions It is true that in these later Ages the most Learned have Corrected the Errors of the Ancients and believe that the Planets describe Ellipses by their Motion But if they pretend that the Ellipses are Regular as People are inclin'd to believe because the Mind supposes Regularity where it sees no Irregularity they fall into an Error which is more difficult to be Corrected because the Observations that can be made on the Course of the Planets cannot be so Exact and so Just as to shew the Irregularity of their Motions Nothing but Natural Philosophy can Correct that Error for it is infinitely less remarkable than that which we find in the System of perfect Circles But something particular has happened about the Distance and Motion of the Planets For Astronomers not having been able to find an Arithmetical or Geometrical Proportion in the same that being absolutely repugnant to Observations some imagin'd that they observ'd a kind of Proportion which is called Harmonical in their Distances and Motions From thence it is that an * Riccioli Vol. Astronomer of this Age in his New Almageste begins the Section which is Entitled De Systemate Mundi Harmonico with these words There is no Astronomer Neme est paulo eruditior in Astronomicis qui Coelorum ordinem contemplatus non agnoscat harmoniam quamdam in Planetarum intervallis motibus though never so little acquainted in what relates to Astronomy but acknowledges a kind of Harmony in the Motions and Intervals of Planets if he considers the Order of the Heavens Attentively Nor is this the only Author that is of this Opinion For Observations have made him sufficiently sensible of the Extravagancies of that Imaginary Harmony which has nevertheless been admir'd by several Ancient and Modern Authors whose Opinions Father Riccioli Relates and Refutes Moreover some affirm Pythagoras and his Followers to have believ'd that the Heavens by their Regular Motions made a most Wonderful Concert which Men do not hear because they are used to it just like those that Inhabit near the Fall of the Waters of Nile do not hear the Noise of it But I only relate that particular Opinion of the Harmonical Proportion of the Distances and Motions of the Planets to shew that the Mind is delighted with Proportions and that it often Fancies them where they are not The Mind also supposes Uniformity in the duration of things and imagins they are not liable to Change and Instability when it is not in some measure forced by the Relation of the Senses to Judge otherwise All Material Things being Extended are capable of Division and consequently of Corruption Those who reflect on the Nature of Bodies discover Visibly that they are Corruptible Yet there has been a great number of Philosophers who fancied that the Heavens though Material were Incorruptible The Heavens are at too great a Distance from us to discover the Revolutions that happen there and 't is very rare that any happen there so great as to be discovered here That alone has been sufficient to perswade many that they were really Incorruptible And which has the more Confirm'd their Opinion is that they attribute to the Contrariety of Qualities the Corruption to which Sublunary Bodies are subject For as they have never been in the Heavens to see what passes there so they have had no Experience that this Contrariety of Qualities is there which has induced them to believe that there is really no such thing there Therefore they have concluded that the Heavens were free from Corruption because that which Corrupts all Bodies here below according to their Opinion is not above It is Visible that this Argument has no Solidity for I cannot see why there should be no other Cause of Corruption than those Contrarieties of Qualities which they imagin nor upon what Foundation they can affirm That there is neither Heat nor Cold nor Drought nor Moisture in the Heavens That the Sun is not Hot and that Saturn is not Cold. There is some appearance of Reason to say that very hard Stones Glass and other Bodies of that Nature do not Corrupt since we see they subsist long in the same State and though we are near enough to see the Alterations that should happen to them But being at so great a distance as we are from the Heavens it is directly contrary to Reason to conclude that they do not Corrupt because we feel no contrary Qualities in them nor see that they Corrupt Nevertheless some not only say that they Corrupt not but they affirm absolutely that they are Unalterable and Incorruptible And the Peripateticks want but little of saying that the Celestial Bodies are so many Divinities as Aristotle their Master did believe of them The Beauty of the Universe does not consist in the Incorruptibility of its Parts but in the Variety that is found in them And this great Work of the World would not be so admirable without that Vicissitude of things which we observe in it Matter infinitely Extended without Motion and consequently without Form and Corruption would indeed discover the Infinite Power of its Author but it would give no Idea of his Wisdom This is the reason that all Corporeal Things are Corruptible and that there is no Body but what receives some Change which Alters and Corrupts it in Time God Forms even in the Bosom of Stones and Glass Animals more perfect and admirable than all the Works of Men. Those Bodies though very hard and dry are Corrupted in time The Air and Sun to which they are
est ut convertatur ad id ex quo est quod aliter formata ac perfecta esse non possit S. de Gen. ad Litt. Ch. 50. St. Austin teaches us in these fine words Eternal Wisdom says he is the Principle of all Creatures that are capable of Intelligence and this Wisdom always remaining the same never ceases to speak to his Creatures in the secret Recesses of their Reason that they may turn towards their Principle because nothing but the sight of the Eternal Wisdom gives a Being to Spirits and can as it were finish them and give them the last Perfection they are capable of * Scimus quoniam cum apparuerit similes ei erimus quoniam videbimus eum sicuti est Joan. Ep. 1. c. 3. v. 2. Corpus quod corrumpitur aggravat animam Sap. 9.10 When we see God as he is we shall be like him says the Apostle St. John By that Contemplation of Eternal Truth we shall be elevated to that degree of Greatness to which all Spiritual Creatures tend by the necessity of their Nature But while we are on Earth the weight of the Body Stupifies the Mind it removes it continually from the Presence of God or of that Internal Light which Illuminates it it makes continual Efforts to strengthen its Vnion with Sensible Objects and obliges it to represent to it self all things not as they are in themselves but according to the relation they have towards the Preservation of Life * Terrena inhabitatio deprimit sensum multa cogitantem difficile aestimamus quae in terra sunt quae in prospectu sunt invenimus cum labore Sap. 9.15 The Body says the Wise Man fills the Mind with so great a number of Sensations that it becomes incapable of knowing those things that are but a little conceal'd The sight of the Body dazles and dissipates that of the Mind and it is difficult to perceive Truths clearly by the Eyes of the Soul while we make use of the Eyes of our Body to discover it This shews that it is only by the Attention of the Mind that Truths are discover'd and that all Sciences are Learned for the Attention of the Mind is nothing but its Return and Conversion towards God who is our only Master and who only can teach us Truth by the Manifestation of his Substance as * Deus intelligibilis lux in quo à quo per quem intelligibiliter lucent omnia S. Sol. Insinuavit nobis Christus animam humanam non vegetari non illuminari non beatificari nisi ab ipsa Substantia Dei Aug. in Joan. St. Austin speaks It is plain by all these things that we must continually resist the Effort which the Body makes against the Mind and by degrees accustom our selves to disbelieve the Testimonies of our Senses in respect of all Bodies which are about us and which they always represent to us as worthy our Application and Esteem because we ought never to six upon any thing that is Sensible nor imploy our selves about it 'T is one of the Truths which the Eternal Wisdom seems to have been willing to reveal to us by his Incarnation for after having raised a sensible Body to the highest Dignity that can be apprehended he has shew'd us by the deepest Humiliation of the same Body which was the greatest of all sensible things how much we ought to despise all the Objects of our Senses It is perhaps for the same reason St. Paul said that he knew not Jesus Christ according to the Flesh For it is not the Flesh of Christ we must rest upon it is the Spirit which is conceal'd under that Flesh Caro vas fuit quod habebat attende non quod erat says St. Austin That which is * Illa autoritas Divina dicenda est quae non solum insensibilibus signis transcendit omnem humanam facultatem sed ipsum hominem agens ostendit ei quo usque se propter ipsum depresserit non teneri sensibus quibus videntur illa miranda sed ad intellectum jubet evolare simul demonstrans quanta hic possit cur haec faciat quam parvi pendat Aug. 2. de Ord. 9. Et si cognovimus secundum carnem Christum jam non secundum carnem novimus 2 ad Cor. Tr. in Joan. 27. visible or sensible in Jesus Christ only deserves our Adoration because it is united with the Word which can only be the Object of the Mind It is absolutely necessary for those who aim at Wisdom and Happiness to be fully convinc'd and affected with what I have said It is not enough to believe it upon my word nor to be perswaded of it by the Lustre of a Transitory Light they must know it by many Experiences and many undeniable Demonstrations These things must never be in danger of being effaced out of their Mind they must ever be present to it in all their Studies and other Imployments of their Life Those who will give themselves the Trouble to read the Work with some Application which is here publish'd will if I am not deceiv'd commence such a Disposition of Mind for we have demonstrated in it the different ways wherein our Senses Imagination and Passions are absolutely useless to the discovery of Truth and Good On the contrary that they dazle and seduce us on all occasions and generally that all the Knowledge the Mind receives by the Body or by some inward Motions of the Body are all false and confused in respect of the Objects they represent although they are very useful towards the Preservation of the Body and of the Goods which have relation to the Body Several Errors are engaged in it and particularly those that are most universally receiv'd or that occasion the greatest Disorder of the Mind and we shew that most of them proceed from the Vnion of the Mind with the Body We design in several places to make the Mind sensible of its Servitude and of the Dependance it has on all sensible things that it may awake from its Drowsiness and make some Efforts for its Deliverance We do not only make a bare Exposition of our Errors but also explain the Nature of the Mind We do not for instance insist upon a great Enumeration of all the particular Errors of the Senses or Imagination but upon the Causes of those Errors We shew at once in the Explanation of these Faculties and general Errors to which we are subject an almost infinite Number of those particular Errors into which Men fall Thus the subject of this Work is the whole Mind of Man we consider it in it self in relation to the Body and in relation to God we examine the Nature of all its Faculties and observe the uses we ought to make from hence to avoid Error Lastly We explain most of those things we thought useful to advance in the Knowledge of Man The finest the most agreeable and most necessary Knowledge
is undoubtedly the Knowledge of our selves Of all Humane Sciences the Science of Man is the most worthy of Man Nevertheless that Science is not the most cultivated or accomplish'd Science we have The common sort of Mankind neglects it wholly even among those that value themselves upon Sciences there are but few that apply themselves to it and there are yet fewer who successfully apply themselves to it Most of those who are esteem'd Learned in the World have but a confused Knowledge of the Essential Difference that is between the Mind and Body St. Conf. Book 4. Chap. 15. Austin himself who has distinguish'd those two Beings so well confesses that it was a long time before he could know it And though it must be granted that he has explain'd the Properties of the Soul and Body better than any of those that were before him and who have succeeded him until our Age yet it were to be wish'd that he had not attributed to External Bodies all the Sensible Qualities which we perceive by their means for indeed they are not clearly contain'd in the Idea he had of Matter So that one may confidently say That the Difference between the Mind and the Body has not been known clearly enough till of late Years Some fancy they know the Nature of the Mind Others are perswaded that it is impossible to know any thing about it The greatest part of Men are insensible of the Vsefulness of that Knowledge and for that reason they despise it But all these common Opinions are rather Effects of the Imagination and Inclination of Men than the Consequences of a clear and distinct Sight of their Mind It is because they are loath to look within themselves there to discover their Weaknesses and Infirmities but they delight in curious Discoveries and fine Sciences never looking within themselves they are insensible of the Disorders that happen there they think they are well because they are insensible they find fault with those who knowing their own Distemper apply Remedies to it and say that they make themselves Sick because they endeavour to cure themselves But these great Genius's who penetrate into the most mysterious Secrets of Nature who in their Mind ascend into the Heavens and who descend even into the Abyss ought to remember what they are These great Objects perhaps only serve to dazle them The Mind must go out of it self to attain to so many things but it cannot do it without being dissipated Men are not born to become Astronomers or Chymists to spend all their Life in gazing through a Telescope or in Sweating at a Furnace in order to infer little insignificant Consequences from their Laborious Observations I grant that an Astronomer was the first that discovered Lands Seas and Mountains in the Moon that he was the first that observ'd Spots in the Sun and exactly calculated their Motions I grant that a Chymist hath at last found the Secret of fixing Mercury or making the Alkaist by which Vanhelmont boasted he could dissolve all Bodies but are they become the Wiser or the Happier for this They may have got some Reputation by it in the World but if they have consider'd it that Reputation has only increased their Servitude Men may look upon Astronomy Chymistry and most Sciences as proper Divertisements for a Gentleman but they ought not to suffer themselves to be deluded by them nor to prefer them to the Science of Man for the Imagination fixes a certain Idea of Grandeur upon Astronomy because that Science considers great Objects glorious Objects Objects which are infinitely above all that are about us the Mind ought not blindly to embrace that Idea We should make our selves Judges and Masters of it and divest it of that sensible Greatness which astonishes our Reason The Mind ought to judge of all things according to its Internal Knowledge without hearkning to the false and confused Testimony of the Senses and Imagination and if it examines all Humane Sciences by the pure Light of Truth which guides it we dare affirm that it will despise most of them and will have more respect for that which teaches us what we are than for all others whatever Therefore we chuse to advise those who are Lovers of Truth to judge of the Subject of this Work according to the Answers they will receive from the Sovereign Masters of all Men after having made their Application to him by serious Reflection rather than to prevent them by a long Discourse which they might perhaps look upon as common Places or the vain Ornaments of a Preface If they think this Subject worthy their Application and Study they are desir'd again not to judge of the matter it contains by the good or ill manner in which they are express'd but to look within themselves to hear there the Decisions they are to follow and according to which they ought to judge Because we are perswaded that Men cannot teach each other and those that hear us do not learn the Truths we speak to their Ears unless he that has discover'd them to us reveal them at the same time to their Mind we find our selves oblig'd to advise those who will profitably read this Work not to believe us upon our word out of Inclination nor to oppose what we say out of Aversion For though we * Nolite putâ—re quemquam hominem aliquid discere ab homine admonere possumus per strepitum vocis nostrae si non fit intus qui doceat in anis fit strepitus noster Aug. in Joan. Auditus per me factus intellectus per quem Dixit aliquis ad eos vestrum sed non eum videtis Si intellexistis fratres dictum est cordi vestro Munus Dei est Intelligentia Aug. in Joan. Tr. 40. think we have advanc'd nothing but what we have learn'd by Meditation we should be very sorry that others should content themselves to retain and believe our Sentiments without knowing them or that they should be deceiv'd either for want of understanding them or because we are deceiv'd * The Book de Magistro of St. Aust The Pride of some of the Learned who will be believ'd upon their Word seems insupportable to us They will not allow us to consult God after they have spoken because they do not consult him themselves They are angry as soon as any body opposes their Sentiments and they will needs force Men to prefer the Obscurity of their Imagination to the pure Light of Truth which guides the Mind We are Thanks be to God far from being guilty of this way of proceeding though we are often accused of it We desire indeed that Men should believe the Facts and Experiences we relate because those things cannot be learn'd by the Application of the Mind to the Sovereign and Vniversal Reason But as for all Truths that are discover'd in the true Idea's of those things which Eternal Truth represents in the Recesses of our *
Examination that we perceive our selves touch't after the same manner with two things so different For indeed 't is a matter of the greatest Consequence to make Good use of our Liberty by denying always nor Aâ—â—en to things or loving them till we find our selves compell'd thereto by the powerful Voice of the Author of Nature which I before call'd the Reproaches of our Reason and the Regret of our Conscience All the Duties of Spiritual Beings as well of Angels as of Men consists chiefly in this Practice and it may positively be affirm'd that if they carefully use their Liberty and not blindly enslave themselves to Lies and Vanity they are in the way to the greatest perfection that they are capable of provided they suffer not their Understanding to lie idle but carefully and continually excite it to new Knowledge rendring it capable of the greatest Truths by constant meditations upon such Subjects as are worthy their application To perfect our Minds it 's not sufficient to use our Liberty always so as to assent to nothing as some Persons do who pride themselves in knowing nothing but doubting all things nor must we so assent to every thing as many others who fear nothing so much as being ignorant of something and pretend to know all things but we must make a Good use of our Vnderstanding by continual Meditations so that we may have frequent Opportunities of being able to assent to what it proposes without fear of being deceiv'd CHAP. III. I. Answers to some Objections II. Remarks upon what hath been said about the necessity of Evidence IT is not very difficult to divine that the practice of the first Rule which I spoke of in the preceeding Chapter will not please all the World but especially those imaginary Learned who pretend to know all things and yet know nothing at all pleasing themselves in speaking confidently of the most difficult things and who certainly are ignorant of the most easie They will not fail to say with Artistotle that Certainty is only to be found in Mathematicks but in Morality and Physics Probability suffices That Descartes was very much out in treating of Physics as he did of Geometry which was the reason he fail'd in the attempt That 't is impossible for Man to know Nature That it's Springs and Secrets are impenetrable to the Humane Mind and many other fine things which they set off with a great deal of Pomp and Magnificence maintaining it from the Authority of a multitude of Authors and value themselves much upon knowing their Names and being able to cite some Passages from them I would intreat these Gentlemen to talk no more of what they profess they do not know and put a Check to the ridiculous Motions of their Vanity in forbearing to compose such great Volumes upon those Subjects which according to their own Confession they are ignorant of But let these Persons seriously Examine whether it be not absolutely necessary either to be deceiv'd or never to give our entire Consent except to things fully evident Whether Truth does not always accompany Geometry because Geometricians observe this Rule And if the Errors into which some are fallen concerning the Quadrature of the Circle the Duplication of the Cube and some other very difficult Problems proceed not from some Precipitation or Prejudice which made 'em take an appearance of Truth for Truth it self Let 'em consider also on the other hand if Falseness and Confusion does not reign in common Philosophy because Philosophers content themselves with such an easie Probability as is convenient for their Vanity and Interests Do we not find every where an infinite Diversity of Opinions even upon the same Subjects and consequently an Infinity of Errors Yet a great number of Disciples suffer themselves to be seduc'd and blindly submit to the Authority of these Philosophers without even comprehending their Opinions 'T is true there are some who perceive after twenty or thirty years Loss of time that they have learnt nothing in their Lectures but they are asham'd to make a sincere Confession of it They first prove after their own way that no certain Knowledge can be attained and afterwards they acknowledge that they know nothing because they believe they may then safely do it without any Jest upon their Ignorance It would be sufficient matter of Diversion and Laughter to hear them give an account of their fine progress in Learning and to get them in a humour of declaring all the Fatigues they have endur'd to acquire it but altho this Learned and profound Ignorance deserves our Raillery it 's much better to forbear it and to pity those who have thus spent so many years only to Learn this false Proposition I know nothing which is an Enemy to all Science and Truth Since the Rule then which I have establish'd is so necessary in a Search after Truth as we have seen it is so that nothing can be objected against those that propose it Let such as will not take pains to observe it at least not condemn so Illustrious an Author as Monsieur Descartes was because he followed or endeavour'd as near as he could to follow it They would not Consure him so rashly if they knew him nor would they read his Works as Fables and Romances which Men read for their Diversion not Instruction if they throughly consider'd this Author they would still find in themselves some Notions and Principles of Truth that he teaches which would undeceive 'em in spight of the Prejudices of their False Learning That Master which inwardly Dictates to us would have us hear him rather than the Authority of the greatest Philosophers He is pleased when He Instructs provided we apply our selves to what He says 't is by Mieditation and a very exact Attention that we interrogate him and 't is by a certain inward Conviction and the secret Reproaches of those that do not consent to it by which He answers We should so read the Works of Men as not to hope to be instructed by Man but interrogate Him that is the Light of the World so that we may be enlightn'd with the rest of the World if He does not enlighten us after we have Enquir'd of Him no doubt we Enquir'd amiss Whether therefore we read Aristotle or Descartes we must not presently believe either but meditate as they did or ought to have done with all the attention whereof we are capable and afterwards obey the Voice of our Common Master and honestly submit our selves to the inward Convictions and Motions which we feel in Meditation After this we are permitted to Judge for or against Authors And thus having first digested the Principles of Descartes's and Aristotle's Philosophy we may reject the one and approve the other and may be even assur'd that the last shall never explain any Phoenomenon of Nature by his own Principles which have been useless for these Two thousand years although his Philosophy has been Studied by the Learned
in almost all parts of the World and that on the Contrary we may boldly say of the other that he hath penetrated into that which appeared most obscure in the Eyes of Men and hath shew'd 'em a sure way to dâ—â—cover all Truths that a limited Understanding can comprehend But without relying on the Opinion that we may have of these two Philosophers and of all others let us still look upon 'em as Men and let not the Aristotelians be displeased if after having walk'd so many Ages in Darkness without being able to make any further Advancement we are willing to see with our own Eyes and if after having been led like blind Men we now remember that we have Eyes and essay to Conduct our selves Let us then be fully convinc'd of this Rule Never to give an entire assent but to things that are evident This is the most necessary of all Rules in a Search after Truth and let us not admit any thing into our Minds as Truth but what appears with the Evidence that this Rule demands We must be persuaded thereof to lay by our Prejudices and it 's absolutely necessary that we be deliver'd from our Prepossessions to enter into the Knowledge of Truth because the Mind must be Purified before it can be Enlighten'd Sapientia prima est Stulitia caruisse But before we finish this Chapter II. Remarks upon what has been said about the necessity of Evidence we must Remark Three Things The first is that I speak not here of Matters of Faith which admit not the same Evidence as Natural Sciences do because we cannot perceive things but by the Idea's which we have of them for God hath only given us those Idea's which are necessary to conduct us in the Natural Order of Things according to which we are created so that the Mysteries of Faith being of a Supernatural Order we must not be surpriz'd if we have not the same Idea's of them for our Souls are created by Virtue of a General Decree by which we have all the Notions that are necessary for us See the Explanations But the Mysteries of Faith have been establish'd only by the Order of Grace which according to our Ordinary way of Conception is a Decree consequent to that Order of Nature We ought then to distinguish the Mysteries of Faith from Natural Things We must equally submit to Faith and Evidence but in Matters of Faith we must not look for such Evidence as is in Natural Things we must not rely upon the Faith that is upon the Authority of Philosophers In a word to be Faithful we must believe things not comprehended by Reason but to be Philosophers we must take nothing upon Trust 'T is universally agreed upon that there are other Truths besides those of Faith in which it would be unjust to demand incontestible Demonstrations such for Instance as relate to History and other things depending upon Mans Will For there are two sorts of Truth Necessary and Contingent I call them Necessary Truths that are Immutable in their Nature and have been Decreed by the unchangeable Will of God all others are Contingent Truths Mathematicks Physicks Metaphysicks and even a great part of Morality contain Necessary Truths History Grammar particular Laws or Customs and many other things which depend upon the uncertain Will of Man include only Contingent Truths 'T is requir'd then that the Rule which I have before establish'd be exactly observed in a Search after Necessary Truths whose Knowledge may be call'd Science and we must content our selves with the greatest probability of Truth in History which contains the Knowledge of Contingent Things for one may generally call by the name of History the Knowledge of Languages Customs and even that of the Different Opinions of Philosophers when they are only learn'd by Memory without having had any Evidence or Certainty of them The second Thing to be Remark'd is that in Morals Politicks Medicine and in all Practical Sciences we are oblig'd to content our selves with Probabilities not always but for a time not because it satisfies the Mind but because there is a necessity for it and because if we should defer acting till we were fully assur'd of success we should often loose the opportunity But though there 's a necessity of our Acting yet we should doubtfully rely upon the event of these things we execute and endeavour to make such a progress in these Sciences as that we may in our Affairs act with more certainty for this ought to be the ordinary end of the Study and Employ of all Thinking Men. In fine the third Observation is that we must not absolutely despise Probabilities because it ordinarily happens that many of 'em being join'd together can as strongly convince us as the most evident Demonstrations Of this there are infinite Examples in Physick and Morality So that oftentimes 't is of use to collect a sufficient number of them for Matters which can't be otherwise demonstrated I must confess here that the Rule which I have impos'd is very rigorous that many would rather desire not to Reason at all than to Reason upon these Conditions that they will not move very fast under such Incommodious Circumspections yet they must agree with me that they should proceed surely in following this Rule and that hitherto for having made too much haste they have been oblig'd to turn back again and even a great many Men will agree with me that since Monsteur Descartes hath discover'd more Truths in thirty years than all other Philosophers because he submitted to this Law therefore if many Men would Philosophize as he did they might in time know the greatest part of those things which are necessary for as happy a Life as can be had upon an Earth which God hath Cursed CHAP. IV. I. Of the Occasional Causes of Error and that of these there are Five Principal ones II. The General Design of the Whole Work and the Particular Design of the First Book WE have seen that Men are only deceiv'd because they make not that use of their Liberty which they ought to do and because they do not moderate the haste and eagerness of the Will for bare appearances of Truth that Error consists only in a Consent of the Will which is more capacious than the Perception of the Understanding since Men would not be deceiv'd if they only judg'd of what they understand But though properly speaking 't is only an ill Use of Liberty which is the Cause of Error yet it may be said that we have many Faculties which are also the Causes thereof not true Causes but such as may be call'd Occasional ones I. Of the Occasional Causes of these there are Five principal ones All our Modes of Perceiving are so many Occasions of Deceiving us for since our false Judgments include two things the Consent of the Will and the Perception of the Understanding it is very evident that all our Modes of Perception may
occasionally deceive us fince they are able to incline us to precipitate and rash Assents Now since 't is necessary first to convince the Soul of its Weakness and Errors to create in it just desires of being delivered from them and that it may more easily lay aside its Prejudices we shall endeavour to make an exact Division of all its Modes of Perception which will be as so many Heads to every one of which we shall hereafter refer the different Errors we are subject to The Soul can perceive things three ways by the pure Vnderstanding by the Imagination and by the Senses It perceives by the pure Understanding Spiritual and Universal Things common Notions the Idea of Perfection and of an Infinitely perfect Being and generally all its Thoughts when it knows them by Self-reflection It also perceives some Material Things by the pure Understanding as Extension with its Properties for 't is only the pure Understanding which can perceive a Circle a perfect Square a Figure with a thousand Angles and such like things These kinds of Perceptions I call pure Intellections or pure Perceptions because 't is not necessary for the Mind to form Corporeal Images in the Brain to represent all those things The Soul perceives only Material Things by the Imagination which represents them when absent as if they were present by forming Images of them in the Brain 'T is thus that we imagine all sorts of Figures as a Circle a Triangle a Face a Horse Cities Campaignes c. whether we have ever seen them or not These sorts of Perceptions I call Imaginations because the Soul represents these things by forming Images of them in the Brain and because we cannot form Images of Spiritual Things it follows that the Soul cannot imagine them which ought to be well observed In fine the Soul only perceives sensible and gross Objects by the Senses which when present make an Impression upon the External Organs of its Body Thus it sees Plains and Rocks when presented to its Eyes and feels the hardness of Iron the point of a Sword and such like things and these sorts of Perceptions I call Sentiments or Sensations The Soul then only perceives things after these three ways which is evident if we consider that all things we perceive are either Spiritual or Material if they are Spiritual 't is only the pure Vnderstanding which can know them but if they are Material they will be either present or absent if they are absent the Soul perceives them only by the Imagination if present by the Impression which they make upon its Senses and thus as we said before our Souls only perceive things after three ways by the pure Vnderstanding by the Imagination and by the Senses We may then look upon these three Faculties as certain Heads to which we may refer Mens Errors and the Causes of these Errors and so avoid the Confusion wherein their great number would infallibly involve us if we should speak of 'em without any Method But our Inclinations and Passions act also very strongly upon us they dazle our Minds by their false lights they cover and fill it with darkness Thus our Inclinations and Passions engage us in an infinite number of Errors when we follow this false light which they produce in us We must then consider them with the three Faculties of the Mind as the Sources of our Errors and Miscarriages and to the Errors of the Senses Imagination and pure Vnderstanding also join these that may be attributed to the Passions and Natural Inclinations Thus we may refer all the Errors of Men and the Causes of these Errors to Five Heads of which we shall Treat as follows First we shall speak of the Errors of the Senses secondly of the Errors of the Imagination thirdly of the Errors of the pure Vnderstanding fourthly of the Errors of the Inclinations fifthly of the Errors of the Passions In fine after having essayed to free the Mind from these Errors to which it is subject we shall give a General Method to conduct it in a Search after Truth Let us first Explain the Errors of our Senses or rather the Errors which we fall into for want of making a right Use of our Senses We shall not insist so much upon particular Errors which are almost infinite as upon the General Causes of these Errors and of such things as we believe necessary for the Knowledge of the Nature of Mans Mind CHAP V. OF THE SENSES I. Two ways of Explaining how they are corrupted by Sin II. That 't is not our Senses but our Liberty which is the true Cause of our Errors III. A Rule not to be deceiv'd in the Vse of our Senses WHen we seriously Examine the Senses and Passions of Man we find 'em so proportion'd to the end for which they are given us that we are not of their Opinion who say they are wholly corrupted by Original Sin But to shew that 't is not without Reason that we dissent from them 't is necessary to explain in what Order the Faculties and Passions of our first Parent were whilst in a State of Righteousness and the Changes and Disorders which happen'd in them after his Sin These things may be conceiv'd two ways the first of which is this It appears Two ways of Explaining the Corruption of the Senses by Sin if we consider the Genuine Order of things that the Soul is sensible of greater pleasure proportionably to the greatness of the Goods which it enjoys Pleasure is an Instinct of Nature or to speak more intelligibly 't is an Impression of God himself inclining us towards some Good which must be so much the stronger as the Good is greater According to this Principle I think we cannot doubt but that our first Parent coming out of the Hands of God and before his Sin found the greatest pleasure in the most solid Goods Since therefore he was Created to Love God and since God was his true Good it may said that he was inclined to delight in God who induc'd him to his Love by a Sensation of Pleasure and gave him such Internal Satisfactions in his Duty as counterbalanc'd the greatest Pleasures of Sense and such as since the Fall Men are insensible of without a particular Grace Nevertheless as he had a Body which God would have him preserve and look upon as part of himself he also made him perceive such Pleasures by his Senses as we taste in the use of things that are proper for the Preservation of Life We dare not decide whether the first Man before his Fall could avoid agreeable or disagreeable Sensations in the very moment that the Principal part of his Brain was mov'd by the Actual use of Sensible Things perhaps he had this Command over himself because of his Submission to God yet the contrary appears more probable for tho' Adam could stay the Emotions of the Spirits and Blood and the Shaking of the Brain which Objects excited in
said that we are accustom'd to attribute our own Sensations to Objects and that we judge Colours Odours Sapours and other Sensible Qualities to be in Objects that are Colour'd Odiferous c. We have discover'd that this is an Error we must now show that we make use of this Error as a Principle whence we draw our false Consequences which Consequences we also esteem as other Principles upon which we build our Reasonings In a word we must here explain in what order the Mind proceeds in searching out some special Truths where this false Principle viz. Our Sensations are in Objects is once so imbib'd that it looks upon it as indubitable But to render this more Sensible let us take some particular Body whose Nature we would enquire into and let us see for Example what a Man would do that should apply himself to know the Nature of Honey and Salt The first thing would be to consider their Colour Smell Taste and other Sensible Qualities what those of the Honey are and what those of the Salt in what they agree and in what they differ and what Relation they can have with the Qualities of other Bodies This being done I believe he would reason much after this manner supposing he believ'd it an incontestable Principle that Sensations were in Objects The Original differences that are attributed to Objects that these differences are in the Soul Whatever I perceive by tasting seeing and feeling this Hony and Salt are in this Hony and Salt Now 't is certain that what I perceive in this Hony differs essentially from what I perceive in this Salt the whiteness of the Salt does without doubt differ more from the Colour of the Hony than in the more or less and the sweetness of the Hony from the pungent taste of the Salt and consequently there must be an essential difference betwixt Hony and Salt since all that I am sensible of in both does not only differ as to the more or less but also essentially This would be the first step this Man would make for doubtless he cannot judge that Hony and Salt differ essentially but because there are some appearances in the one essentially different from the other I mean the Sensations that he has of Hony differ essentially from those of Salt since he only judges thereof by the Impressions they make upon the Senses he then looks upon this Consequence as a new Principle from whence he draws other conclusions after this manner Since then the Hony and Salt The Original of substantiâ—l Forms and other natural Bodies differ essentially from one another it follows that those are grosly deceiv'd who would perswade us that all the difference betwixt these Bodies consists only in the different Configuration of the Particles which compose them For since Figure is not essential to different Bodies let the Figure of those Particles which are imagin'd to be in the Hony be changed the Hony will remain still Hony altho' its parts shou'd receive the Figure of the Parts of Salt So that it 's necessary there shou'd be some substance which being join'd to the first common Matter of all different Bodies constitutes their essential difference from one another This is the second advance which this Man would make and this is the happy discovery of substantial Forms These are the fruitful substances which produce every thing in Nature altho' they only subsist in the Imagination of our Philosophers But let us see the Properties which he will liberally bestow upon this Entity of his Invention for no doubt but he will dispoil other Substances of their essential Properties to Cloath this Since then The Original of all other general Errors in the Physics of the Schools there are in every Natural Body two Substances which compose it one which is common to Hony Salt and other Bodies the other which makes Hony to be Hony Salt Salt and other Bodies to be what they are It follows that the first which is Matter having no contrariety and being indifferent to all Forms must rest without any force or action because it has no need of defending it self but for others which are substantial Forms they have need of being always accompanied with Qualities and Faculties to defend them they must always be upon their Guard for fear of being surprized they must perpetually look to their own Preservation extend their Empire over their Neighbouring Matter and push their Conquests as far as they can for if they were weak and actionless other Forms would surprize them and soon annihilate them they must then always fight and nourish these Antipathies and Irreconcileable Hatreds against other Hostile Forms which endeavour to destroy them If it happens that one Form shou'd take the Matter of another Form As if for Example the form of a Carcass seize the Body of a Dog this form must not be barely contented to annihilate the form of a Dog its hatred must also extend to the destruction of all those qualities which its Enemy had the hair of the Carcass must forthwith wax white with a whiteness of a new creation the Blood must be red after such a manner as we cannot suspect it to be counterfeit and the whole Body must be cover'd with qualities that are faithful to the new form and defend it according to the little power which the qualities of a dead Body have which must also be destroy'd in their turn But because they cannot always fight and because all things seek rest it 's certainly necessary that the Fire for instance have its Center whether it always tends by its lightness and natural Inclination that it may once be at rest and burn no more and that it may even lay by its heat which it only kept here below for its defence These are a few of the Consequences which result from this last Principle that there are Substantial Forms which we have made our Philosopher conclude with a little too much liberty for these are usually deliver'd with a graver Air. There are yet an Infinity of other Consequences which every Philosopher is continually making according to his Humour and Inclination according to the Fruitfulness or Barrenness of his Imagination for these are the only things which make them differ from one another We must not stop here to overthrow these Chimerical Substances other Persons have sufficiently examin'd them and shown that there are no such things in Nature and that they serve only to afford a very great number of ridiculous and even contradictory Consequences We are satisfy'd that we have discover'd their Original in the Mind of Man and to have show'd that they are all owing at this time to the common Prejudice That Sensations are in the Objects perceived For if what has been said be consider'd with little attention viz. That it 's necessary for the preservation of our Body to have Sensations that are essentially different altho' the Impressions which Objects make upon our Bodies differ
very little We shall clearly see that 't is a fault to imagine so great differences in the Objects of our Senses But I must here mention by the by that there 's nothing to be objected against these Terms Form and Essential difference Hony is certainly Hony by its form and 't is thus that it essentially differs from Salt but this form or this essential difference consists only in the different Configuration of its parts 't is this different Configuration which causes Hony to be Hony and Salt Salt And altho' its only accidental to Matter in general to have the Configuration of the parts of Hony or Salt and so to have the form of Hony or Salt it may nevertheless be said that it is essential to Hony or Salt to be what they are to have such or such a Configuration of Parts Even as Sensations of Cold Heat Pleasure and Pain are not essential to the Soul as a Soul but because it is by these Sensations that it 's said to be sensible of Heat Cold Pleasure and Pain CHAP. XVII I. Another Example drawn from Morals which shows that our Senses only offer us false Goods II. That 't is God only who is our true Good III. The Origine of the Errors of the Epicureans and Stoics IT has been sufficiently proved in my Opinion that this Prejudice Our Sensations are in Objects is a very fruitful Principle of Error in Physics it must now be shown from Reasons drawn from Morals that the same Prejudice join'd with this That Objects are the only and true Causes of our Sensations is also very dangerous There 's nothing so common in the World I. An Example drawn from Morals that our Senses only offer us false Goods as to see Men who are Wedded to Sensible Goods Some love Musick others good Eating and others are passionate for other things Now thus they reason to perswade themselves that all these Objects are Goods viz. All these agreeable Tastes which please us in Banquets these Sounds which affect the Ear and these other Pleasures which we perceive upon other occasions are certainly included in Sensible Objects or at least 't is these Objects that are the occasion of them or in sine we cannot have Sensations without them Now 't is impossible to doubt whether Pleasure be Good whether Pain be Evil we are inwardly convinc'd thereof and consequently the Objects of our Senses are very real Goods which we ought to enjoy that we may be happy This is the Reasoning that we ordinarily I shall explain in the last Book in what sense Objects work upon Bodies and inconsiderately make and this is that which inclines us to believe that our Sensations are in Objects that Objects have in themselves the power of making us Sensible that we look upon things as our Goods which are infinitely below us which can only act upon our Bodies by producing some Motions in their Fibres but can never act upon our Souls or make us sensible of Pleasure or Pain Certainly if it is not the Soul which acts upon it self upon occasion of what passes in the Body nothing else but God can do it and if it is not the Soul which causes Pleasure or Pain according to the different shaking of the Fibres of its Body as it 's very likely it does not since it often perceives Pleasure and Pain without its consent I know no other Hand that is powerful enough to produce this Sensation in it but that of the Author of Nature Indeed there 's none but God that is our true Good II. That 't is God only who is our Good and that all Sensible Objects can't make us sensible of Pleasure 't is he only that can affect us with all these Pleasures we are capable of and who in his Knowledge and Love haâ—â— Decreed to excite them in us And these Pleasures which he hath link'd to the Motions which pass in our Body to make us careful of our own Preservation are very little very weak and very short altho' we are enslav'd to them in this State whereinto Sin has reduc'd us but the Pleasures which he will excite in his Elect in Heaven are infinitely greater since he made us to know and love him for according to the Order of Nature greater Goods affect us with greater Pleasure and since God is infinitely above all things the Pleasure of those that shall enjoy him will certainly surpass all Pleasures What we have said of the Cause of our Errors III. The Original of the Errors of the Epicureans and Stoâ—es in reference to Good does sufficiently inform us of the falsness of the Opinions of the Stoics and Epicureans about the Supream Good The Epicureans placed it in Pleasure and because they felt it as well in Vice as in Vertue and even more commonly in the first than the second they gave themselves up to all sorts of Voluptuousness Now the first Cause of their Error was that Judging falsely there was something agreeable in the Objects of their Senses or that they were the true Causes of the Pleasures they felt and being besides this convinc'd by an inward Sensation which they had in themselves that Pleasure was a Good for them or at least for the time they enjoy'd it they gave themselves up to the Government of all the Passions which they apprehended would not incommode them afterwards whereas they ought to have consider'd that the Pleasure which is felt in Sensible Things cannot be in these things as their true Causes nor after any other manner and consequently that Sensible Goods cannot be such in respect of our Soul They should also have consider'd the other Things which we have explain'd The Stoics on the contrary being perswaded that Sensible Pleasures were only in the Body and for the Body and that the Soul ought to have its particular Good placed its Happiness in Vertue Now this is the Origine of their Errors they believ'd that Sensible Pain and Pleasures were not in the Soul but only in the Body they made use of this false Judgment as a Principle for other false Conclusions as that Pain is not an Evil nor Pleasure a Good That the Pleasures of Sense are not good in themselves but that they are common to Men and Beasts And nevertheless it is easie to show that altho' the Epicureans and Stoics were deceiv'd in many things yet they were in the right in some for the happiness of the Happy consists in an accomplish'd Vertue I would say in the Knowledge and Love of God and is a very great Pleasure which continually attends them Let us then well remember that external Objects include nothing neither agreeable nor disagreeable that they are not the Causes of our Pleasures and that we have no reason either to fear or love them but that God only is to be fear'd and lov'd because he only is able to Punish or Reward us to make us Sensible of Pain or Pleasure In fine 't
is only in God and from God that we can expect Pleasures for which we have so strong so natural and so just an Inclination CHAP. XVIII I. Our Senses deceive us in things which are not Sensible II. An Example drawn from the Conversation of Men. III. We must not confide in Sensible Habits WE have sufficiently explain'd the Errors of our Senses in respect of their Objects as of Light Colours and other Sensible Qualities we must now show how they seduce us about Objects to which they have no relation by obstructing our serious attention and inclining us to Judge of them upon their Testimony This is what deserves very well to be Explain'd Attention and Application of Mind I. That our Senses deceive us in things which are not Sensible to the clear and distinct Idea's we have of Objects is the most necessary thing in the World to know their Nature for as it is impossible to see the Beauty of any Work without opening our Eyes and looking earnestly upon it so the Mind cannot evidently see the greatest part of Things with the Relations they have to one another unless it considers them attentively Now 't is certain that nothing diverts us more from attending the clear and distinct Idea's of our Senses and consequently from removing us farther from the Truth and also deceiving us To apprehend this Truth it 's necessary to know that the three ways of perceiving viz. by the Senses Imaginations and Pure Vnderstanding do not all equally affect the Soul and consequently not afford the same equal attention to every thing it perceives by their means for it is much affected with what touches it much and less with that which touches it little Now that which it perceives by the Senses touches and engages it extreamly but that which it knows by the Imagination affects much less but what the Understanding represents to it I mean what it perceives of it self independent of the Senses and Imagination does very seldom excite it No body can doubt but that the least pain of the Senses is more present to the Mind and renders it more attentive than the Meditation of a thing of much greater consequence The reason of this is that the Senses represent Objects as present but the Imagination as absent Now according to the Laws of Order amongst many Goods or Evils proposed to the Soul those which are present touch and affect the Soul more than all the others which are absent because it 's necessary for the Soul to determine readily upon what is to be done in this occurrence Thus it is much more affected with a little Pricking than with the most elevated Speculations and the Pleasures and Evils of this World make a greater impression upon it than the terrible Pains or infinite Pleasures of Eternity The Senses then extreamly affect the Soul with what they represent to it now as it is limited and cannot clearly conceive many things at a time so it cannot clearly apprehend what the Understanding represents to it at the same time as the Senses offer something to its consideration it then forsakes the clear and distinct Idea's of the Understanding however proper they are to discover the Truth of things as they are in themselves and applies it self only to the confus'd Idea's of the Senses which affect it more and which represent things unto it not as they are in themselves but only according to the Relation they have with its Body If a Man II. An Example drawn from the Conversation of Mâ—n for Example would explain some Truth it 's necessary that he make use of Speech and that he express his internal Motions and Sentiments in sensible Motions and Ways Now the Soul cannot at the same time perceive distinctly many things Thus having always a great attention for what comes by the Senses it very seldom considers the reasons propos'd to it but it is much affected with the sensible Pleasure which depends upon the Measure of Periods upon the Relations of Gestures with Words upon the Beauties of a Face upon the Air and Manner of one that speaks however after it has heard it must Judge this is the Custom Thus its Judgments must be different according to the diversity of Impressions which it shall receive by the Senses If for Example he that speaks delivers himself easily if he keeps an agreeable Measure in his Periods if he has the Air of a Gentleman and a Man of Sense and if he is a Person of Quality if he has a great Retinue if he speaks with Authority and Gravity if others hear him with Respect and Silence if he Converses with Wits of the first Classis in sine if he is happy enough to please and to be esteemed he shall have Reason in whatever he advances his very Dress shall pass for Demonstration But if he is so unhappy as to have the contrary Qualities however concludingly he demonstrates he shall prove nothing at all Let him speak the finest things in the World they shall never be taken notice of the attention of his Auditors being only to that which touches the Senses the disgust they shall entertain to see a Man appear despicably shall wholly take them up and divert that application which is due to his Thoughts his attire shall make its Master and every thing that he says contemptible and his way of speaking being that which is peculiar to a Thoughtful Philosopher shall incline his Auditors to believe that these sublime Truths he treats of being above their ordinary Capacity are only delirious and extravagant Notions These are the Judgments of Men their Eyes and Ears Judge of Truth and not of Reason even in these very things which depend only on Reason because Men are only affected with sensible and agreeable Objects and scarce ever bring with them a strong and serious Attention for the discovery of Truth III. We must not rest upon a sensible and agreeable manner of doing 〈◊〉 thing Nevertheless it is very unjust to Judge of things after that manner and to despise Truth because it wants those Ornaments which please and slatter our Senses Philosophers and discerning Persons should be asham'd to enquire more Industriously into agreeable Matters than into Truth it self and to feed their Mind with the Vanity of Words rather than the Truth of Things 'T is common to the unthinking part of the World to Souls of Flesh and Blood to suffer themselves to be won by the fine Periods Figures and Motions which excite the Passions Omnia enim stolidi magis admirantur amantque Inversis quae sub verbis latitantia cernunt Veraque constituunt quae belle tangere possunt Aures lepido quae sunt fucata sonore But Wise men endeavour to Guard themselves against the Malignant Power and prevailing Charms of these sensible Manners of doing things their Senses impose upon them as well as other Mens for indeed they are Men but they generously despise their Testimonies they
imitate the famous Example of the Judges of Areopagus who forbad the Advocates to make use of deceitful Words and Figures and would never hear them but in a dark place lest their agreeable Gestures should perswade them in prejudice of Truth and Justice And lastly that they might apply themselves the better to consider the solidity of their Reasons CHAP. XIX Two other EXAMPLES I. The first of our Errors concerning the Nature of Bodies II. The second of those that relate to the Qualities of these Bodies WE have show'd that there are a great number of Errors whose first Original is owing to the strong application of the Soul for whatever comes by the Senses and the inadvertence for things which the Understanding represents to it We have given an Example of it drawn from the Conversation of Men which is of very great consequence in Morals Here are now others deduc'd from the Nature of Things which its very necessary to observe in Physics One of the principal Errors that respects Physics I. Errors about the Nature of Bodies is that Men imagine a much greater substance in Bodies which fall under the Cognizance of their Senses than others which they perceive not the greatest part of Men believe that there is much more Matter in Gold and Lead than in Air or Water And even Children who only observe by their Senses the effects of Air commonly imagine that there is nothing real in it Gold and Siver are very heavy very hard and sensible Water and Air on the contrary are insensible From thence Men conclude that the first have more reality than the last they judge of the Truth of Things by the sensible Impression which always deceives us and neglect the clear and distinct Idea's of the Mind which never deceive us because what is Sensible affects and touches us more but what is intelligible stupifies us These false Judgments respect the substance of Bodies here 's another which relates to the Qualities of these same Bodies Men frequently Judge II. Errors about their Qualities and Perfection that Objects which excite in them the most agreeable Sensations are the most perfect and pure without knowing in what Perfection and the Purity of Matter consists and even without being concerned about it They say for Example that Dirt is impure and that Water is very clear and pure but Camels who love muddy Waters and those Animals that delight in Dirt are not of their Opinion These are Beasts 't is true but Men that love the Entrails of a Woodcock the Excrements of a Polcat say not that this is impurity altho' they say the same of all other kinds of Animals Lastly Musk and Amber are generally esteemed of all Men tho' they are nothing else but Excrements Certainly Men never Judge of the Perfection of Matter and its Purity but only in relation to their own Senses and thence it happens that the Senses being different in all Men as has been sufficiently explain'd they must judge very differently of the Perfection and Purity of Matter Thus the Books which are daily Compos'd upon the Imaginary Perfections that are attributed to certain Bodies are necessarily fill'd with Errors and variety of strange Fancies since the Reasonings which they contain are grounded only upon the false confus'd and irregular Idea's of our Senses Philosophers must not say that Matter is Pure or Impure they know not what they precisely mean by the Words Pure and Impure they should not speak without knowing what they say I mean without having clear and distinct Idea's which answer to the terms they make use of for if they had join'd clear and distinct Idea's to each of these Words they would see that that which they call Pure would very often be Impure and that which appears to them to be Impure would oftentimes be found very Pure If they would for Example that that Matter should be the most Pure and Perfect whose Parts are most thin and apt for Motion Gold Silver and precious Stones would be very imperfect Bodies Air and Fire contrariwise would be very perfect Flesh beginning to corrupt and smell ill would be tending to Perfection and a noisome Carcass would be more perfect than common flesh But if on the contrary they would have it that the most perfect Bodies are they whose parts were most gross and solid and more unapt for Motion the Earth would be more perfect than Gold and the Air and Fire would be the most imperfect of all Bodies But if they would not affix these clear and distinct Idea's to the terms Pure and Perfect which I have mentioned they are at liberty to substitute others in their room but if they only pretend to define these Words by sensible Notions they will eternally confound all things since they will never fix a signification to the terms which expresses them All Men as I have already prov'd have very different Sensations of the same Objects we must not therefore define Objects by the Sensations which we have of them except we delight in obscurity and confusion But in short I cannot see that there is any Matter not excepting even that which the very Heavens are compos'd of that is more perfect than another All Matter seems only capable of Figure and Motion and 't is the same thing to it to have regular or irregular Figures and Motions Reason does not tell us that the Sun is more Perfect or Luminous than Dirt nor that the Beauties of our Romances and Poets have any advantage over corrupted Carcasses 't is our false and delusive Senses which thus dictate to us Whatever is objected against this all Railleries Exclamations c. will certainly appear ridiculous and cold to any one which shall attentively examine the Reasons that I have brought Those who perceive or only have Sensations believe the Sun full of Light but those who know how to perceive and reason do not believe it provided they use as much Reason as Sensation I am verily perswaded that all those who differ the most as to the Testimony of their Senses would change their Opinion if they would seriously meditate upon what has been said but they love much to indulge the illusions of their Senses they subject themselves a great while to their Prejudices they too much forget their Mind to know that all the Perfections which they seem to see in Bodies are only such in relation to it 'T is not these sort of Men that I speak to I am not concern'd for their Approbation or Esteem they will not hear therefore they cannot Judge it 's enough that Truth is defended and approved by those who seriously endeavour to be deliver'd from the Errors of their Senses and to make a good use of the Light of their Mind 'T is these Persons only would desire to Meditate upon these Thoughts with the greatest attention they are capable of in order to judge of them I leave the Cause to them to condemn or approve it
as Judges because that by their Meditation they have acquir'd to themselves such a Right of judging of the Merit or Demerit of the Cause that it cannot but in Justice be submitted to them CHAP. XX. The Conclusion of this first Book I. That our Senses are only given us for our Bodys II. That we must doubt of their Testimony III. That it is not an inconsiderable thing to doubt as we ought to do WE have in my Opinion I. That our Senses are only given us for the preservation of our Body sufficiently discover'd the General Errors into which our Senses betray us both in respect of their proper Objects as also of those things which are not perceiv'd but by the Understanding I believe there is no Error we are subject to upon their occasion whose Cause may not be discover'd in some of those things which have been already mention'd if they be well examin'd We have also seen that our Senses are very faithful and exact to Instruct in the Relations which all Bodies that are about us have to one another but that they are incapable of informing us what Bodies are in themselves that a right use of them tends only to the Preservation of our Health and Life that we cannot sufficiently despise them when they arrogate Dominion over the Mind This is the thief thing which I wish may be well remembred in all this first Book viz. That we conceive well that our Senses are only given us for the preservation of our Body that we six this Thought in our Mind and that to be deliver'd from the Ignorance we are now involv'd in we seek for other assistances besides those which our Senses afford â—s But if there are some Persons as certainly there will be too many who are not perswaded of there last Propositions from what I have here advanc'd II. We must distrust the Testimony of our Senses I would at least desire this of them That they would only learn a little to distrust their Senses and if they will not wholly reject their Testimony as false and deceitful that they will not refuse to doubt of it And indeed it appears to me that enough has been said to create at least some scruple in the Mind of reasonable Persons and consequently to excite them to make use of their Liberty otherwise than they have yet done For if they begin to doubt whether the Testimony of their Senses are true they will more easily refrain their assent and so keep themselves out of those Errors unto which they have hitherto been subject Especially if they well remember that Rule in the beginning of this Treatise Never to give an entire assent but to things intirely evident and to which they cannot refrain consenting without knowing certainâ— that they should make an ill use of their Liberty if they did not consent Besides III. Thâ—â— it is not an inconsiderable thing to doubt as one ought to do let no one imagine that he has made but a small advancement if he has only learn'd to doubt To doubt with Judgment and Reason is not so small a thing as People imagine for here it may be said that there 's a great difference betwixt doubting and doubting we doubt through Passion and Brutality through Blindness and Malice and lastly through Fancy and only because we would doubt But we doubt also with Prudence and Caution with Wisdom and Penetration of Mind Academics and Atheists doubt upon the first grounds true Philosophers on the second The first doubt is a doubt of darkness which does not conduct us into light but always removes us from it The second doubt is begot of Light and assists us in some manner to produce it in its proper place Those who doubt only after the first manner do not apprehend what it is to doubt with Judgment they laugh at what Defeartes teaches us about doubting in the first of his Metaphysical Meditations because it appears to them that he would only have them doubt out of fancy that he would only have them say in general that our Nature is infirm our Mind is full of blindness that we must take great care to deface these prejudices and other like things It is not sufficient to say the Mind is weak we must be sensible of its weaknesses It is not enough to say it is subject to Error we must discover in what our Errors consist This is what I believe has been begun in this first Book by explaining the Nature and Errors of our Senses I shall in the second prosecute the same design by explaining the Nature and Errors of our Imagination The End of the first Book A SEARCH AFTER TRUTH BOOK II. Of the Imagination The First Part. CHAP. I. I. A general Idea of the Imagination II. That it includes two faculties the one Active and the other Passive III. The general Cause of the changes which happen to the Imagination of Man and the design of this second Book IN the preceeding Book we have treated of the Senses and have endeavoured to explain their Nature precisely observing what use ought to be made of them We have discovered the chief and most general Errors which they make us subject to and have attempted so to limit their power that we may expect much and fear nothing from them if they are always kept within these limits we have prescribed In this second Book we shall treat of the Imagination Natural Order obliging us to it for there being so great a Relation between the Senses and the Imagination we ought not to separate them It will afterwards appear that these two Powers differ amongst themselves only as to more or lest This is the order we shall observe in this following Treatise It is divided into three Parts In the first we shall explain the Physical Causes of the disorder and Errors of the Imagination In the second we shall make some application of these Causes to the most general Errors of the Imagination and shall also speak of what may be call'd the Moral Causes of these Errors In the third we shall speak of the contagious Communication of strong Imaginations If the generality of those things that are contain'd in this Treatise are not so New as what has been already said in explaining the Errors of the Senses they will not however be of less use Thinking Persons are sensible enough both of the Errors and even of the Causes of the Errors whereof I treat but very few make a sufficient reflexion thereon I pretend not to instruct all the World 't is the Ignorant I wou'd teach and only inform others or rather I endeavour here both to instruct and inform my self We have said in the first Book I. A general Idea of the Imagination that the Organs of our Senses were composed of little Fibres which on one side terminate in the outward parts of the body and skin and on the other at the middle of the Brain Now these
use of our own Wit and so accustom it of it self to discover truth then to suffer it to be spoiled with idleness by only applying it to such things as are already well known and discover'd Besides there are some things to be observed in the difference of Peoples Genii that are so fine and so delicate that althô we may be able to discover and perceive them well our selves yet we cannot represent them to nor make others sensible of them But to explain as much as possible all these differences that are to be observed in Dispositions and that very one may the more easily observe in himself the Cause of all the changes that he feels at different times it seems very proper in general to examine the Cause of these Changes which happen in the Animal Spirits and in the Fibres of the Brain because thereby we shall discover all that are found in the Imagination Man never continues very long in the same Mind every one hath sufficient inward proofs of his own inconstancy he judges of the same Subject sometimes after one manner and sometimes after another In a word the Life of Man consists only in a Circulation of Blood and in another Circulation of Thoughts and Desires and it seems the best way of imploying his time would be in seeking after the Cause of these Changes which happen to us so that way to know our selves CHAP. II. I. Of the Animal Spirits and the Changes to which they are subject in general II. That the Chyle goes to the Heart and thereby produces some change in the Spirits III. That Wine has the same effect 'T IS agreed by every on I. Of the Animal Spirits that the Animal Spirits are only the most subtile and active parts of the Blood which subtilises and agitates it self chiefly by the Fermentation that it receives in the Heart and by the violent Motion of the Muscles whereof this part is composed that the Spirits are conducted with the most of the blood through the Arteries into the Brain and that there they are separated by some parts that are destined to this use which are not yet agreed upon From hence may be concluded that where the Blood is very subtile there are much Animal Spirits but where it is gross there are but a sew that if the Blood is composed of such parts as are easily received into the Heart or very proper for Motion the Spirits which are in the Brain will be extreamly heated or agitated and if on the contrary the Blood ferments not sufficiently in the Heart the Animal Spirits will be languishing without action and without strength so that according to the solidity which shall be found in the parts of the Blood the Animal Spirits shall be more or less solid and consequently have more or less strength in their Motion But these things must be explained more at length by Examples and incontestible Experiments to make the truth evident The Authority of the Antients has not only blinded the Minds of some Men II. That the Chyle goes to the heart and causes some change in the Spirits but we may say it has shut their Eyes also For many Persons have still such a respect for their opinion or it may be so opinionative that they will not see some things which they could no longer contradict if they would only please to open their Eyes We may see every day Persons that are much esteemed for their Learning who write Books and publish Conferences against the visible and sensible Experiences of the Circulation of the Blood against that of Weight the Exastick power of the Air and others of the like Nature The discovery that Mr. Pecquet has made in our time which we make use of here is in the Number of those that are unfortunate only because he discover'd it before he had grey Hairs and a venerable Beard But we shall nevertheless make use of it not fearing but there will be some Judicious Persons who will not find fault with it According to this discovery the Chyle goes not immediately from the Bowels into the Liver by the Mesaraick Veins as the Antients believed but passes from the Bowels into the Lacteal Veins and afterwards into certain receptacles where they meet and from thence it goes by the Thoraick Duct or Canal along the Vertebres of the Back and so mingles it self with the Blood in the Axillary Vein which enters into the upper part of the Vena Cava and thus being mingled with the Blood it meets in the Heart From this Experiment may be concluded that the Blood thas is mingled with the Chyle being very different from the other Blood which has already Circulated many times through the Heart the Animal Spirits which are only the most subtile parts thereof will be also very different in Persons that are Fasting and others who have just Eat Moreover because that amongst Meats and Drinks which are generally used there is great variety and even those Persons that use them have bodies diversly disposed two Persons that have just Dined and at the same Table will feel in their faculties of Imagination so great a variety of changes that it would be impossible to describe It is true that those who are in perfect health digest so quick that the entring of the Chyle into the Heart scarcely augments or diminishes any of its heat and hinders not the Blood from fermenting there almost the same manner as if it entered only by it self so that their Animal Spirits and by consequence their faculty of imagining receives very little if any change But for Old and infirm People they observe in themselves very sensible changes after they have Eat they grow very dull and sleepy or at least their imagination becomes very Languishing and they have neither Vivacity or quickness left they no longer conceive any thing distinctly nor can they apply themselves to any thing whatsoever in a word they are perfectly altered from what they were before But that the most healthful and strongest may also have sensible proofs of what we have already said III. That Wine produces the same effect they need only reflect upon what happens to them when they have drunk more Wine then they are accustomed to or else by observing what would be the effects if they drink Wine one Meal and Water another For 't is certain that if they are not entirely stupid or if their bodies are not composed after a very extraordinary manner they shall soon perceive a gayety of temper some little drowsiness or some other like accident Wine is so Spiritous that it comes near the nature of our Animal Spirits but are these a little too luxurious to submit to the command of the Will because of their Solidity and excessive Agitation Thus even in the strongest and most vigorous Men it produces greater changes in the Imagination and in all the parts of the body Vinum Luctator delosus est then Meat or
Correspondence and Sympathy which is found between the Nerves of the Face and some others that answer to other parts of the Body and which want a Name is yet more remarkable and that which produces this great Sympathy is that as in the other Passions the little Nerves that go to the face are only branches of that which descends lower When we are surprized with any violent Passion if we carefully reflect upon what we feel in our Bowels and the other parts of the Body where these Nerves infold themselves as also upon the changes which accompany it in the face and if we consider that all these diverse agitations of our Nerves are wholly involuntary and that they happen notwithstanding all the resistance our Will can make against them we shall not find it so difficult to suffer out selves to be perswaded of this plain Exposition that has been made of all those Relations the Nerves have one to another But if we examine the reasons and end of all these things we shall find therein so much Order and Wisdom that but a little serious attention will be requisite to convince those Persons that are the most Wedded to Epicurus and Lucretius that there is a Providence which rules the World When I see a Watch. I have reason to conclude that there is an Intelligence since it is impossible that Chance shou'd have produc'd and dispersed all its Wheels into order How then can it be possible that Chance and the meeting together of Atoms shou'd be able so justly and proportionably to dispose all those divers Springs as appear both in Man and other Animals And that Man and all other living Creatures shou'd beget others which bear such an absolute resemblance to them So it is ridiculous to think or say with Lucretius that 't is Chance that has form'd all the parts whereof Man is composed that the Eyes were not made to see but Men were induced to see because they had Eyes and so of the other parts of the Body These are his Words Lumina ne facias oculorum clara creata Prospicere ut possimus ut proferre viai Proceras passus ideo fastigia posse Surarum ac feminum pedibus fundata plicari Bâ—achia tum porro validis exapta lacertis Esse manusque datus utrâque ex parte ministras Vt facere ad vitam possimus quae foret usus Caetera de genere hoc inter quaecumque pretantur Omnia perversà praepostera sunt ratione Nil ideo natu'est in nostro corpore ut uti Possimus sed quod natum est id procreat usum Must not one have a strange aversion for a Providence thus voluntarily to be blinded for fear of acknowledging it and endeavour to render our selves insensible to proofs so strong and convincing as those that Nature has furnished us with It is true that if once we come to affect being thought great Wits or rather Impious as the Epicureans have done we shall immediately find our selves surrounded with darkness and perceive only by false Lights boldly deny those things that are most clear and arrogantly and magisteriously affirm what is most false and obscure This Poet may serve for a proof of the blindness of these mighty Wits for he boldly determines tho' contrary to all appearance of Truth upon the most difficult and obscure Questions and it seems that he did not perceive even those Idea's that are most clear and evident If I shou'd stay to relate some more passages of this Author to justifie what I say I shou'd make too long and tedious a digression altho' it may be permitted to make such reflections as may for a moment divert the Mind from more essential Truths yet is it never permitted to make such digressions as for a considerable time take off the Mind from giving attention to the most important Subjects to apply it to trivial things CHAP. V. I. Of the Memory II. Of Habits WE have already explain'd the general Causes as well external as internal which produce any change in the Animal Spirits and by consequence in the faculty of Imagining we have show'd that the external are the Food which nourishes us and the Air we breath and that the internal consists in the involuntary agitation of certain Nerves We know of no other general Causes and even dare affirm there are none So that the faculty of Imagining depending in respect to the Body only upon these two things the Animal Spirits and the disposition of the Brain upon which they act there remains nothing more in order to the giving a perfect knowledge of the Imagination but only to shew the different changes that can happen in the substance of the Brain We will examine them after we have given some Idea of the Memory and of Habits that is of the faculty that we have of thinking of those things that we have before thought of and of acting things over again which we have already done Order requires this Method For the Explanation of the Memory I. Of the Memory 't is necessary to remember what has already been repeated so many times that all our different Perceptions depend upon the changes that happen to those Fibres that are in that part of the Brain in which the Soul more particularly resides This only supposed the nature of the Memory is explained for even as the Branches of a Tree which have continued sometime bent in a certain form still preserve an aptitude to be bent anew after the same manner So the Fibres of the Brain having once received certain impressions by the course of the Animal Spirits and by the action of Objects along time retain some facility to receive these same dispositions Now the Memory consists only in this facility since we think on the same things when the Brain receives the same impressions As the Animal Spirits act sometimes with more and sometimes with less force upon the substance of the Brain and that sensible Objects make a much greater impression than the Imagination alone it is easie from thence to discover why we do not equally remember all things we perceive For example why what one often perceives is commonly represented more lively to the Soul than what one perceives but once or twice why we remember more distinctly what we have seen than what we have only imagined and so likewise why one shou'd know better how the Veins are dispersed through the Liver after having but once seen a dissection of this part than after having many times read in a Book of Anatomy and other like things But if we shou'd reflect upon what hath been before said of the Imagination and the short discourse made on the Memory supposing us once delivered from this prejudice that our Brain is too small to preserve a very great number of traces and impressions we shall have the pleasure to discover the cause of all these surprizing effects of the Memory whereof St. Austine speaks with so much
she lets go her Metaphysical Thoughts and pure Intellections to apply her self only to her own Sensations Thus it seems Children cannot consider the pure Idea's of Truth with sufficient attention being so often and easily disturbed by the confused Idea's of their Senses Yet we may answer first that it is more easie for a Child of seven years to be deliver'd from the Errors whereinto the Senses lead it than for a person of Sixty who has all his life time followed the prejudices of Infancy Secondly that if a Child is not capable of the clear and distinct Idea's of Truth it is at least capable of being advertised that its Senses deceive it upon every occasion and if we do not teach it the Truth we ought not at least to entertain or fortify it in its Errors And lastly that the youngest Children how wedded soever they may be to agreeable and painful Sensations learn soon what grown Persons can't do in much more time as the Knowledge of the Order and Relations that there is between all Words and all Things which they see and hear For altho' these Things depend chiefly on the Memory yet it is plain enough that they must make great use of their Reason in the manner whereby they learn their Tongue But since the facility that the Fibres of Childrens Brains have for the receiving the impressions of sensible Objects II. Advice for the well Educating of Children is the reason why they are incapable of Judging of abstracted Sciences it is very easie to remedy it For 't is certain that if Children were taken without fear without desires and without hopes if we did not make them suffer pain and if we kept them as much as possible from their little pleasures we might as soon as they cou'd speak teach them the most difficult and most abstracted or at least the most sensible parts of the Mathematics Mechanics and other things of the like Nature which are necessary in the sequel of life But their Minds are not fit to be applied to abstracted Sciences when they are agitated by desires and troubled with frights which is requisite to be well considered For as an ambitious Man who shou'd lose his Riches and Honour or who shou'd have been raised all of a sudden to a great Dignity which he cou'd not have hoped for wou'd not be in a condition to resolve Metaphysical Questions or Algebraick Equations but only to do such things as his present passion inspired him with So Children in whose Brain an Apple and Sugar-plumb make as deep impressions as Offices and Grandeurs do in that of a Man of Forty are not in a condition of hearing such abstracted Truths as we teach them So that it may be affirmed there is nothing more contrary to the advancement of Children in the Sciences than the continual Divertisements wherewith they recompence them and the continual Punishments they threaten them with But what is infinitely more considerable is that these fears of Chastisement and these desires of sensible Recompence with which they fill Childrens Minds extreamly diverts them from Piety Devotion is yet more abstracted than Science it is less relished by corrupted Nature The Mind of Man is very much inclined to Study but it is not so to Piety If therefore great agitations permit us not to study altho' we naturally have some pleasure in it how is it possible that Children which are taken up with sensible Pleasures wherewith they recompence them and with the Pains they fright them with shou'd preserve a sufficient freedom of Mind to give them any inclination to Piety The capacity of the Mind is very much limited many things are not requisite to fill it and when it is full it is incapable of new Thoughts except it empties it self of some it had before But when the Mind is filled with sensible things it cannot part with them when it will to conceive this we must consider we are all naturally inclined to Good and Pleasure being the Character whereby we distinguish it from Evil it is necessary that Pleasures shou'd affect us and employ us more than all the rest Pleasure then being united to the use of sensible things because they are the Goods of Mans Body there is a kind of necessity that these goods shou'd fill the capacity of our Minds until God by imbittering them gives us a distaste and horror of them and by his Grace makes us feel the sweetness of Heaven which effaces all the Pleasures of this World S. Aug. Dando menti caelestem delectationem quâ omnis terrena delectatio superetur But because we are as much inclined to shun Evil as to love Good and Pain is the Character that Nature has united to Evil all that we have said of Pleasure must in a contrary sensce be understood of Pain Since those things therefore that make us feel Pleasure and Pain fill the capacity of the Mind and that it is not in our power to quit or not to be affected with them when we please it is plain that we cannot make Children be inclined to Piety no more than Men if we do not begin with them according to the Precepts of the Gospel by a privation of all things that touch the Senses and which excite great desires and great fears since all the Passions darken and extinguish Grace and that inward love to our Duty which God has implanted in us The least Children have reason as well as Men altho ' they have not experience they have also the same natural inclinations tho' they are carried to very different Objects they must therefore be accustom'd to guide themselves by reason since they have it and excited to their Duty by rightly managing their good Inclinations It destroys their reason and corrupts their best inclinations to engage them to their Duty by sensible impressions They appear then to be in their Duty but 't is only an appearance Virtue is neither engraven in their Mind nor Heart they scarcely know it and they love it much less Their Mind is full of fears and desires of aversions to and love of sensible things which they cannot disingage themselves from to gain their Liberty and to make use of their Reason Thus Children who are educated after this base and servile manner accustom themselves by little and little to a certain insensibility of all the Sentiments of honest Men and good Christians which continues with them all their Lives and when they think themselves freed from Chastisements either by their Authority or Craft they abandon themselves to whatever flatters their Concupiscence and their Senses because indeed they know no other good than what is sensible It is true there are some occurrences wherein it is necessary to instruct Children by their Senses but it must only be done when Reason is not sufficient They must first be perswaded to their Duty by Reason and if they are not capable of acknowledging their obligations to it it will be best
with the Traces of their Brain that when they find a way to explain the Analogies of Spiritual Things by the Relations of Material Things they are easily apprehended and imprinted after such a manner in the Mind that we are not only strongly convinced of them but they are also much more easily retain'd The General Idea which we have given of the Mind in the first Chapter of this Work is perhaps a sufficient Proof of this On the contrary when the Relation between Material things are express'd in such a manner that there is no Connexion requir'd between the Idea's of the Things and the Traces of their Expressions 't is a difficult matter to apprehend them and they are easily forgot For Example They who begin the Study of Algebra or the Analytic Art cannot but with great difficulty apprehend the Algebraic Demonstrations and when they have once understood them they never remember them long because the Squares for Example the Parallelograms Cubes Solids c. being express'd by aa a3 abc c. whose Traces have no Natural Connexion with their Idea's the Mind is not able to six the Idea's of them and examme their Relations But they who begin plain Geometry do presently and clearly conceive the Demonstrations that are explain'd to them provided they distinctly understand the Terms that are made use of because the Idea's of a Square a Circle c. are Naturally ty'd to Traces of the Figures which they see before their Eyes It also frequently happens that the Exposition of the Figure alone which serves for the Demonstration causes them sooner to apprehend it than the Discourses that explain it because the Words not being united to the Idea's but by an Arbitrary Institution they do not excite those Idea's with sufficient quickness and clearness to afford a ready apprehension of their Relations for this is the principal Reason why it is so hard a matter to understand the Sciences It may be observ'd by the By and from what has been already said that those Writers who Coyn a great many new Words and new Figures to explain their Sentiments many times spend their time to little or no benefit they think to render themselves Intelligible when indeed they make themselves Incomprehensible We define all our Terms and Characters say they and others ought to agree to them 'T is true others agree to them in their Will but their Nature is repugnant thereto Their Idea's are not joyn'd to those new Terms because there is requir'd both Use and great Practice for that The Authors perhaps have been accustom'd to that Practice but the Readers have not When a Man goes about to Instruct the Mind 't is requisite to understand it because he ought to follow Nature and not to provoke or hurt it Nevertheless we ought not to condemn the Care that Mathematicians take in defining their Terms for 't is evident they ought to define them to prevent the trouble of Equivocal Words But as much as may be they ought to make use of Terms that are received or whose signification is not very remote from that which they go about to introduce and this is that which Mathematicians do not always observe Nor do we pretend by what we have said to condemn Algebra more especially that which M. Descartes has re-establish'd For tho' the Novelty of a few Expressions in that Science gives the Mind some little trouble at first yet there is so little variety and confusion in the Expressions and the Assistance which the Mind receives by them so far surpasses the difficulty it meets with that we can hardly think it possible to find a better way of expressing his Reasoning or which better suits with the Nature of the Mind so as to carry it farther into the Discovery of unknown Truths The terms of that Science have no share at all in the Capacity of the Mind they do not burthen the Memory they wonderfully abridge all our Idea's and Reasonings and render them in some measure sensible by Practice In short their Benefit is much greater than that of Expressions tho' Natural or of Figures design'd by Triangles Squares and the like which cannot be serviceable to the searching after and unfolding Truths which are but a little Mysterious But let this suffice for the connexion of Idea's with the Traces of the Brain 'T is necessary now to say something of the connexion of the Traces one with another and by consequence of that agreement which is between the Idea's that answer to the Traces This connexion consists in this II. Of the mutual connexion of the Tracâ— that the Traces of the Brain are so well united together that they can no longer be excited but all those that were imprinted at the same time will be also excited For Example when a Man happens to be at some publick Ceremony if he observes all the circumstances of it and all the principal Persons that were present the Time the Place the Day and all other particulars 't will be enough that he remembers the Day or some other circumstance of the Ceremony less remarkable to represent to himself all the rest For this reason it is that when we cannot call to mind the principal Name of a Thing we sufficiently design it by making use of the Name that signifies some circumstance of that Thing As when we cannot call to mind the proper Name of a Church we may make use of another Name which signifies a Thing that has some Relation to it We may say 't is that Church where there was such a Croud where Mr. Preaches or whither we went last Sunday And not being able to remember the proper Name of a Person or it being more convenient to design it after another manner we may denote it by saying such a one that has a Face pitted with the Small-Pox such a tall Man well Proportioned or a little Crook-back'd Man according to the Inclinations we have for the Man tho' he is to blame that makes use of Scornful Expressions Now the Mutual Connexion of the Traces and consequently of the Idea's one with another is not only the foundation of all the Figures of Rhetorick but of an infinite number of other things of greater Impertance as in Morality Politicks and generally in all Sciences which have any Relation to Man and by consequence of many things which we shall treat of in the sequel of this Discourse The cause of this Connexion of several Traces is the Identity of Time when they were imprinted in the Brain for 't is sufficient that several Traces were produc'd at the same time to renew them altogether For the Animal Spirits finding the way of all the Traces open that are made at the same time they continue their way because they pass more easily through it than other parts of the Brain This is the cause of Memory and of the Corporeal Habits which are common to us with Beasts These Connexions of the Traces are not always
receive from the Knowledge of Probabilities which are very agreeable and very sensible because they are built upon Taking Notions In the fifth place that foolish Vanity which makes us covet to be esteem'd Learned For we call those Learned who have Read most The knowledge of Opinions is of more use in Conversation and to be able to puzzle the Minds of the Common Sort than the knowledge of true Philosophy which is attain'd by Meditation In the sixth place because Men without any Reason imagine that the Ancients were more enlightened than we can be and that there is nothing farther for us to Search after but what they have already been successful in finding out In the seventh place a certain false Respect intermix'd with foolish Curiosity causes us more to admire Things that are most remote the most ancient and that come from Countreys unknown and even the most obscure Books Clarus ob obscuram Linguam Lueres Thus was Heraclitus heretofore admir'd for his Obscurity Men enquire for old Medals though all defac'd with Rust and preserve as the Apple of their Eye the Lanthorn or Slipper of some ancient Philosophers though almost eaten up with Worms their Antiquity enhaunces their Price Some apply themselves to Read the Rabbies because they wrote in a strange Language very corrupt and very obscure Men have a high Esteem for Ancient Opinions because Time has remov'd 'em at a great distance from us And doubtless had Nimrod wrote the History of his own Reign all the most refin'd Politicks all the Sciences had been contain'd in it even as there are some who discover that Homer and Virgil had the Knowledge of all the Secrets of Nature Antiquity is to be respected they crie How could Aristotle Plato Epicurus those Great Men be deceiv'd They never consider that Aristotle Plato and Epicurus were Men as we are and of the same Mould and Shape and that now the World is grown Two thousand years older Veritas filia temporis non autheritatis that it has more Experience that it ought to be more enlighten'd and that it is the Age of the World and Experience that enable us to discover the Truth In the Eighth place because that when a new Opinion or an Author of the time is cried up it seems that their Fame ecclipses ours because it shines too near it but they are afraid of no such Injury from the Honour which they pay the Ancients In the Ninth place because Truth and Novelty can never concur together in Matters of Faith For Men not being willing to make a distinction between Truths that depend upon Reason and those that depend upon Tradition never consider that they ought to be apprehended after a very different manner They confound Novelty with Errors and Antiquity with Truth Luther Calvin and others have introduc'd Innovations and have been mistaken therefore Galileo Harvey and Descartes are mistaken in their Discoveries The Impannation of Luther is new and likewise false therefore the Circulation of Harvey is false because it is new For this Reason it is that they indifferently bestow that Odious name of Innovators both upon Hereticks and new Philosophers The Idea's and Words of Truth and Antiquity of Falshood and Novelty have been joined together There 's no remedy the Common sort never separate 'em and Men of Sense find difficulty enough in it In the Tenth place because we live in a Time wherein the Knowledge of the Ancient Opinions is still in vogue and because there are none but those that make use of their Judgment who can by Force of their Reason wrest themselves from the Contagion of Depraved Customs When we are in the Throng and the Croud 't is a hard matter not to give way to the Impetuosity of the Torrent that carries us along with it In the last place because Men act only upon tho score of Interest and this is the Reason that even they who deceive themselves and who perceive the vanity of these sorts of Studies cease not to apply themselves to 'em for all that because Honours Dignities and Benefices are annexed to 'em and for that they are always more capable of 'em who excel in those sorts of Studies than those that are ignorant of ' em All these Reasons in my Opinion sufficiently shews us why Men blindly follow the ancient Opinions as True and why without any Judgment they reject the new ones as False In a word why they make none or very little use of their Judgment There are without question a great number of Reasons more particular which contribute to it but if those which we have produced be but attentively consider'd there will be no cause of surprize to see how some People are prejudic'd with the Authority of the Ancients CHAP. V. Of the Ill Effects that Reading has upon the Imagination THis same False and unworthy Respect which Men have for the Ancients produces a great number of most pernicious Effects which it is convenient to observe The first is that want of using their own Judgment does by little and little really disable Men from making any use of it at all For it is not to be imagin'd that they who grow old over the Volumes of Plato and Aristotle make use of their Judgment they commonly spend so much time in the Reading of those Books only to endeavour to know the Sentiments of their Authors and their principal aim is to know certainly what Opinions they held without ever troubling themselves much whither they be consentaneous to Reason or no as we shall prove in the following Chapter Thus the Science and Philosophy which they learn is properly a Science of Memory and not a Science of Judgment They only understand Histories and Matters of Fact not evident Truths and they are rather Historians than true Philosophers The second Effect which the Reading of the Ancients produces in the Imagination is that it puts a strange confusion into all their Idea's who apply themselves to it There are two different ways to read Authors the one very good and very prositable the other very useless and even dangerous 'T is very profitable to read when we meditate upon what we read When Men endeavour to find out by some effect of their Wit how to resolve the Questions which they meet with in the Titles of the Chapters before they begin to read them When they digest and compare the Idea's of things one with another In a word when they make use of their Reason On the other side there is no Profit in Reading when Men understand not what they read but 't is dangerous for Men to read and conceive what they read when they never examine it sufficiently to make a good Judgment of it especially if they have Memory enough to retain what they have conceiv'd and do not unwarily assent to what they have read and understood The first way enlightens the Mind it fortifies it and enlarges its Capacity The second contracts
their Masters For as those Persons do as much as in 'em lies never permit any but such as are devoted to their Interests or such as they are no way afraid of to speak to their Masters so the Prejudices of these Men will not permit the Mind to behold with a fixed Eye the Idea's of Objects that are wholly pure and unmix'd but they disguise 'em they cover 'em with their Liveries and present 'em in that manner all masqu'd so that 't is a difficult thing for 'em to undeceive themselves and acknowledge their Errors CHAP. IX I. Of Effeminate Wits II. Of Superficial Wits III. Of Persons of Authority IV. Of those that make Experiments WHat we have said is sufficient in my Opinion to set forth in general what are the Defects of the Imagination in Studious Persons and the Errors to which they are most subject Now in regard there are none but these Persons who trouble themselves with Searching after Truth and because all the rest of Mankind depends upon them for it it might be thought that we should here conclude this Second Part. Nevertheless 't is convenient to say something more concerning the Errors of other Men because it will not be amiss to know what they are Of the Effeminaâ—e Wits Whatever flatters the Senses extreamly affects us and to whatever affects us we apply our selves proportionably to the pleasure we take in it Thus they who give themselves up to all manner of the most sensible and pleasing Divertisements are incapable of penetrating Truths that include any considerable difficulty because the Receptacle of the Mind which is not infinite is wholly taken up with their Pleasures or at least they have a very great share therein The generality of Great Men Courtiers Rich Men young People and they that are call'd by the name of fine Wits being taken up with continual Pastimes and only Studying the Art of flattering their Concupiscence and Voluptuous Appetites by degrees acquire such a Delicacy of Skill in these things or rather such a Softness that they may be often said to be rather Effeminate than fine Wits as they pretend to be For there is a great difference between Fineness and Softness of Wit though they are generally confounded one with another Fine Wits are they who discern by the Conduct of Reason the most minute differences of things who foresee the uncommon and almost imperceptible Effects that depend upon Hidden Causes In short these are they who penetrate into the Subjects which they consider But soft Wits have nothing but a false Delicacy they are neither lively nor pierceing they discern not the Effects from the Causes even of the most gross palpable thing Lastly they neither apprehend nor penetrate into any thing but are extreamly nice as to Manners A Clownish Word the Accent of a particular County a little Grimace provokes 'em more than a torrent of confus'd and frivolous Arguments they cannot know the Defect of Reasoning but are immediately very sensible of a false Measure or an irregular Gesture In short they understand sensible things perfectly because they keep their Senses in continual Exercise but they want the true understanding of things that depend upon Reason because they seldom or never make use of their own Nevertheless these are the Persons who are most esteemed in the World and easily acquire the Reputation of Curious Wits For when a Man speaks with a free and disengag'd Air when his Expressions are pure and well chosen when he makes use of Simile's that flatter the Senses and move the Affections after an imperceptible manner though he utter nothing but trivial things though there be nothing found nothing true in all his fine Words He according to the Common Opinion shall be cried up for a Curious Wit a Refin'd Wit a Polish'd Wit They never perceive that he is only a Soft Effeminate Wit and shines only by false Lights that never enlighten the Mind and that his persuasions prevail only because we have Eyes but not because we have Reason Lastly We do not deny but that all Men are in some measure guilty of this weakness which we have observ'd in some There is not any Man whose Mind is not touch'd by the Impressions of his Senses and Affections and who by consequence is not a little sway'd by outward Formalities and Language As to this all Men differ but in the more or the less But the reason why this defect is attributed to some particularly is this because there are some who acknowledge it to be a fault and strive to reform it Whereas they who have been mentioned by us look upon it as a very advantageous Accomplishment Far from acknowledging this same false Delicacy to be the Effect of an Effeminate Softness and the Original of an Infinite number of the Diseases of the Mind they imagine it to be an Effect and Mark of the Beauty of their Genius To these of whom we have spoken Of Superficial Wits we may join a very great number of Superficial Wits who never dive into any thing and who never apprehend unless it be confusedly the differences of things Not through their own fault as in those before mentioned for their Minds are neither fill'd up nor contracted by their Divertisements only they have naturally Slender Wits However this same Slenderness of Wit proceeds not from the Nature of the Soul as may be well imagin'd but it is caus'd sometimes by the great scarcity or the more than ordinary slowness of the Animal Spirits sometimes through the Inflexibility of the Fibres of the Brain sometimes also through an immoderate abundance of Spirits and Blood or for some other Reason which it is not worth while to examine There are then two sorts of Wits Some readily observe the difference of things and these are True Wits Others imagine and suppose a Resemblance between 'em and these are Superficial Wits The first have a Brain proper to receive clean and distinct Traces of the Objects which they consider and because they are very attentive to the Idea's of the Traces they see those Objects as it were near at hand and nothing escapes ' em But Superficial Wits receive none but feeble or confus'd Traces of their Objects They see 'em only as it were cursorily at a distance and very confusedly so that they seem alike to 'em like the Faces of those which we see afar off because the Mind supposes always Likeness and Equality for the Reasons which I shall give in the Third Book The greatest part of those that speak in Publick all those that are call'd great Talkers and many of those who are fluent of Speech though they speak but little are of this sort For they who meditate seriously and accurately are very rarely known to have a Copious Utterance of their own Meditations Usually they hesitate when they begin to speak because they are somewhat cautious of making use of Terms that excite in others a false Idea being asham'd
Fruitful and Inexhaustible Sources of our Errors and Illusions but the Mind acting of it self is not so subject to Error We were troubled to finish the two preceding Treatises and we are uneasie to begin this it is not because the Nature or Properties of the Mind is a barren Subject but because we enquire not so much here into its Properties as Weaknesses Let no one be Surprised if this Treatise is not so large nor discovers so many Errors as the preceding Books nor let any one complain if the Subject is a little dry abâ—â—râ—cted and difficult The Senses and Imagination â—â—â—â—ot always be moved nor is it necessary they should When a Subject is abstracted he that would renâ—â—â— it Sensible will obscure it it 's enough to make it Intelligible There is nothing so Unjust as the common Complaints of those who would know every thing but would apply their Mind to nothing they are angry if we desire them to become Attentive they would always have us Affect and Flatter their Senses and Passions But why We know we cannot satisfie them Those who make Romances and Comedies are oblig'd to please and captivate the Attention 't is enough for us to instruct those who endeavour to become Attentive The Errors of the Senses and Imagination depend upon the Nature and Constitution of the Body and are discover'd by considering the Power they have over the Soul but the Errors of the Pure Understanding cannot be discover'd but by considering the Nature of the Mind it self and of the Idea's which are necessary to it in order to know Objects So that to penetrate into the Causes of the Errors of the Pure Understanding it will be necessary for us to insist in this Book upon the Consideration of the Nature of the Mind and of Intellectual Idea's We shall first speak of the Mind as it is in it self and without any relation to the Body to which it is united So that what we shall say of it might be said of Pure Intelligences â—nd with greater Reason because we here call it the Pure Understanding By the word Pure Vnderstanding we pretend not to design that Faculty which the Mind has of knowing Objects without us without framing Corporeal Images of them in the Brain to represent them We shall afterwards treat of Intellectual Idea's by whose means the Pure Understanding perceives Objects without us I do not believe that after having thought Seriously I. Thought only is Essential to the Mind To Think and Imagine are only its Modifications we can doubt that the Essence of the Mind consists only in Thought even as the Essence of Matter consists in Extension And that according to the different Modifications of Thinking the Mind can now Will then Imagine and lastly Participate of many other particular Forms so that according to the different Modifications of Extension Matter is now Water then Fire and is capable of infinite other particular Forms By the word Thought By the Essence of a thing I understand that which is first conceived in a thing upon which all the Modifications observed in that thing depend I do not here understand particular Modifications of the Soul that is Such or such a Thought but a Thought that is capable of all kinds of Modifications or Thoughts even as by Extension I do not understand such or such a sort of Extension as Round Square c. but an Extension capable of all sorts of Modifications or Figures And there was no need of this Comparison but because we have not so clear an Idea of Thought as of Extension for Thought is only known by an interior Sentiment or by Conscience as shall hereafter be explained I do not believe it possible * Second Part of the Pure Mind Chap. 7. to conceive a Mind which cannot Think although it 's easie to conceive one which neither Thinks Imagines nor Wills even as it 's impossible to conceive Matter that is not extended though one may easily conceive it to be neither Earth Metal Square Round and even without Motion Hence we may conclude That as there may be Matter which is neither Earth Metal Square Round or without Motion so there may also be a Mind which is neither Sensible of Heat or Cold which neither Rejoyces is Sad Imagines or Wills any thing So that all these Modifications are not Essential to it Thought only is of the Essence of the Mind as Extension only is of the Essence of Matter But even as if Matter or Extension were without Motion it would be wholly useless and incapable of this Variety of Forms for which it was design'd And as it would be impossible to conceive an Intelligent Being to Will such a Creation that is Matter without Motion or incapable of Form so if the Mind or Thought were without Will it 's evident that it would be wholly useless since it would be sometimes carried towards the Objects of its Perceptions and would not love the Good for which it was made so that it is impossible to conceive that an Intelligent Being would create it in this Estate Nevertheless as Motion is not Essential to Matter as Extension is so to Will is not Essential to the Mind since Willing supposes Perception Therefore Thought only is properly Constitutive of the Essence of the Mind and the different Manners of Thinking as Perceiving and Imagining are only the Modifications of which it is capable and with which it is not always modified But to Will is a Property which always accompanies it whether it be united to or separated from the Body which nevertheless is not Essential to it since it supposes Thought and we may conceive a Mind without Will even as a Body without Motion The Power of Willing is always Inseparable from the Mind although it is not Essential to it for even as it is impossible to conceive Matter that cannot be moved so it is impossible to conceive a Mind which cannot Will or which is incapable of any Natural Inclination but as we conceive Matter can exist without Motion so we can conceive a Mind to exist without any Impression from the Author of Nature towards Good and consequently without Will for the Will is nothing else but an Impression of the Author of Nature II. We do not know all the Modifications of which our Soul is capable which carries us towards Good in general as we have more largely explain'd in the first Chapter of the Treatise upon the Senses What we said before in the Treatise upon the Senses and what we have just now said of the Nature of the Mind does not suppose that we know all the Modifications whereof it is capable we do not suppose such things but rather believe that there is in the Mind of Man a Capacity of receiving Successively an infinite Number of different Modifications which the Mind it self is Ignorant of The least Portion of Matter can receive a Figure of three six ten or Ten
Odours Sapours Sounds Colours c. the greatest part of Men do not think them to be Modifications of the Soul but on the contrary that they are dispersed upon Objects or at least they are in the Soul as the Idea of a Square or Circle that is They are united to the Soul but are not Modifications thereof They judge thus of them because they are not more affected by them as was shown in the Explanation of the Errors of the Senses We must therefore agree that we know not all the Modifications whereof our Soul is capable and besides those which it has by the Organs of the Senses it may have innumerable more which it has not yet try'd nor shall know till it be deliver'd from the Prison of its Body However we must confess that even as Matter is capable of infinite Configurations because of its Extension so it 's visible that the Soul would not be incapable of the Modifications of Pleasure Pain nor even of all others which are indifferent to it if it were incapable of Perception or Thought It is sufficient therefore to know that the Principle of all these Modifications is Thought and if any one will have it that there is any thing in the Soul antecedent to Thought I shall not dispute it but as I am certain that no one has any knowledge of his Soul but by Thought or by an internal Sentiment of whatever passes in his Mind so I am also assur'd that if any one will reason upon the Nature of the Soul he must consult this internal Sentiment which will always represent him to himself such as he is and he must not imagin against his own Conscience that the Soul is an invisible Fire a subtil Air a Harmony or other like thing CHAP. II. I. The Mind being limited cannot comprehend any thing that relates to Infinity II. Its limitation is the Original of many Errors III. And chiefly of Heresies IV. We must submit our Minds to Faith WE discover at first sight I. The mind being limited cannot comprehend any thing which relates to infinity that the Human Mind is very much limited from whence two very important Consequences may be drawn The first That the Soul can have no perfect Knowledge of Infinity The second That it can't know distinctly many things at the same time For as a piece of Wax is not capable of having many different Figures at the same time so neither is the Soul capable of having the knowledge of many things at the same time Likewise a piece of Wax cannot be Square and Round at the same time but only part Square and part Round and so many more different Figures it shall have they will be so much the less perfect and distinct Thus the Soul cannot perceive many things at once and its Thoughts are so much the more confused as they are greater in Number If a piece of Wax should have a Thousand Sides and in each Side a different Figure it would be neither Square Round nor Oval and we could not say of what Figure it would be so it happens sometimes that we have so great a number of different Thoughts that we imagin we think nothing at all as happens to those that are in a Swound The Animal Spirits turning irregularly in the Brain stirs up so great a number of Traces that they do not sufficiently open any one of 'em to excite a particular or distinct Idea in the Mind so that these persons perceive so great a number things at once that they perceive nothing distinct which induces them to think they have perceived nothing at all There are some who sometimes Swound away for want of Animal Spirits but then the Soul having only thoughts of pure Intellection which leave no Traces in the Brain they remember nothing when they come to themselves again which makes them believe they thought of nothing I have said this by the by to shew those are mistaken who believe the Soul does not think always because it sometimes imagins that it thinks on nothing Every one that does but reflect a little upon their own Thoughts II. The limitation of the mind is the Original of many Errors have experience enough that the Mind cannot apply it self to many things at the same time and much more that it cannot penetrate into Infinity Yet I know not by what Caprice some persons who are not ignorant of this busie themselves more about the study of infinite Objects and such Questions as require an infinite Capacity of the Mind than about what better suits the Capacity of their own Minds and also why there are a great number of others that are desirous to know every thing and apply themselves to so many Sciences in the same time that it confounds them and makes them uncapable of knowing any Science truly How many Men are there who would comprehend the infinite Divisibility of Matter and how a little Grain of Sand contains as many parts as the whole World although much less in proportion How many Questions are formed upon these Subjects which are never resolved and upon many others which include any thing of Infinity which yet they would find a Solution of in their own Minds They apply themselves to it with all possible Attention But at last all they gain is this they are prejudic'd with some Extravagance and Error Is it not a pleasant thing to see some Men who deny the infinite Divisibility of Matter from hence only because they cannot comprehend it Although they very well comprehend the demonstrations that prove it and at the same time confess that the Human Mind cannot comprehend Infinity The Proofs which are brought for the infinite Divisibility of Matter are as Demonstrative as any thing else in Nature and these Men confess it when they seriously consider them however if we propose to them such Objections as they cannot Solve their Mind leaves that Evidence which just before they perceived and they begin to doubt of it they are strongly possest with the Objection they cannot Resolve and invent some frivolous distinction against the demonstrations of the Infinite Divisibility of Matter and at last they conclude they were deceiv'd as also the World with them and so embrace the contrary Opinion This they defend with Chimerical Atoms and other like Absurdities with which the Imagination always furnishes them Now the Original of all their Errors is this they are not inwardly convinc'd that the Mind of Man is Finite and that to be perswaded of the infinite Divisibility of Matter it is not necessary to Comprehend it because all Objections that cannot be resolv'd without Comprehending it are Objections which its impossible to Resolve If Mens Curiosity would be terminated by Questions of this Nature we should have no great reason to be concern'd for if some Men were prepossessed with such Errors they are Errors of little Consequence As for others they have not wholly lost their time in thinking of
I hate Evil and Pain I would be Happy and I am not mistaken in believing that Men Angels and even Devils have these Inclinations I know moreover that God will never Create any Spirits but what will desire to be Happy or that can ever desire to be Unhappy But I know it with Evidence and Certainty because God tells me so For who but God could give a Knowledge of the Designs and Will of God But when the Body has any Share in what passes within me I am for the most part mistaken in judging of others by my self I feel Heat I see such a Magnitude such a Colour I relish such a Taste at the approach of certain Bodies I am deceiv'd when I judge of others by my self I am subject to certain Passions I have a Kindness or Aversion for such or such things and I fancy that others are like me my Conjecture is often False Thus the Knowledge we have of other Men is very liable to Error when we judge of them by the Sensations we have of our selves If there be any Beings different from God from our selves from Bodies and from Pure Spirits it is unknown to us We have much ado to perswade our selves that there are any such And after having examin'd the Reasons of certain Philosophers who pretend the contrary we have found them False which has confirm'd us in our former Opinion that being all Men of the same Nature we had all the same Idea's because it behoves us all to know the same things CHAP. VIII I. The Intimate Presence of the Wandering Idea of Being in General is the Cause of all the Irregular Abstractions of the Mind and of the greatest part of the Chimera's of common Philosophy which hinder many Philosophers from discovering the Solidity of the True Principles of Moral Philosophy II. Example concerning the Essence of Matter THE clear intimate necessary Presence of God I mean the Unlimited Infinite and General Being with the Mind of Man acts with more Force upon it than the Presence of all Finite Objects It is impossible that it should absolutely lay aside that general Idea of Being because it cannot subsist out of God Perhaps some might urge that it may wander from it because it may think on those particular Beings but they would be mistaken For when the Mind considers any Being in particular it is not so far from removing from God that it rather draws near if I may so speak to some of his Perfections in removing from all others However it removes from them in such a manner that it never wholly loses the sight of them and it is for the most part in a Condition to seek them out and to draw near to them They are always present to the Mind but the Mind only perceives them in an inexplicable Confusion because of its smallness and the greatness of its Idea of Being We may chance sometimes not to think on our selves but I believe we cannot subsist one Moment without thinking on Being and even at that very time when we fancy we think on nothing we are of necessity full of the wandering and general Idea of Being But whereas those things that are very usual in us and which do not concern us do not excite the Mind with any force nor oblige it to make any Reflection upon them this Idea of Being so Great so Vast so Real and so Positive as it is is yet familiar to us and touches us so little that we almost believe we do not see it that we do not reflect upon it that we afterwards judge there is but little Reality in it and that it is only form'd by the confus'd mixture of all particular Idea's Though on the contrary it is in that alone and by that alone that we perceive all Beings in particular Although that Idea which we receive by the immediate Union we have with the Word of God does never deceive us in it self like those which we receive from it by means of the Union we have with our Body which represent things to us different from what they are Yet I am not afraid to say that we make so ill a use of the best things that the indelible Presence of that Idea is one of the principal Causes of all the Irregular Abstractions of the Mind and consequently of that Abstracted and Chimerical Philosophy which explains all Natural Effects by general Terms of Act Power Cause Effect Sustantial Forms Faculties occult Qualities Sympathy Antipathy c. for it is certain that all those Terms and many others never excite any Idea's in the Mind but such as are Wandering and General that is of those Idea's which present themselves to the Mind of their own accord without Pain or any Application on our part Let Men read with all Attention imaginable all the Definitions and Explications which are given of Substantial Forms Let them carefully inquire wherein the Essence of all those Entities does consist which Philosophers fancy as they please and in so great a Number that they are oblig'd to make several Divisions and Sub-divisions of them and I am confident that they will never stir up any other Idea's in their Mind of all those things than that of Being and of Cause in General For this is what commonly happens to Philosophers They see some new Effect they immediately imagine a new Being to produce it Fire warms therefore there is some Being in the Fire which produces that Effect that is different from the matter which composes the Fire And whereas Fire is capable of several different Effects as of separating Bodies of reducing them to Ashes and into Earth of drying them hardning them softning them dilating them purifying them c. they liberally allow Fire as many Faculties or real Qualities as it is capable of producing different Effects But those that reflect on the Definitions they give of those Faculties will easily discover that they are only Logical Definitions and that they excite no other Idea's than that of Being and of Cause in General which the Mind compares with the Effect which is produced So that Men are not the more Learned after having studied them very much for all they get by that kind of Study is that they imagine they know better than others what they notwithstanding do not know near so well not only because they admit many Beings which never were but also because being prejudiced they make themselves incapable of conceiving how it can be possible that matter alone as that of Fire being moved against Bodies differently disposed should produce all the different Effects which we see Fire does produce It is Notorious to all those that have read a little that most of the Books of Sciences particularly those that treat of Natural Philosophy Physick Chymistry and all the particular things of Nature are full of Arguments grounded upon Elementary Qualities Second Causes as Attractive Retentive Digestive Expulsive and such like upon others they call occult
all their Modes because Stones are Substances or Beings and not Modifications of the Wax In like manner though God should Annihilate one half of some Bodies it would not follow that the other half should be Annihilated This last half is United with the other but it is not one with it Thus one half being Annihilated it follows indeed according to Reason that the other half has no longer any relation to it but it do's not follow that it ceases to be because as its Being is different it cannot be Annihilated by the Annihilation of the other Therefore it is clear that the Thought not being the Modification of Extension our Soul is not Annihilated though we should suppose that the Body were Annihilated by Death But there is no reason to believe that even the Body is Annihilated when it is destroy'd The parts which Compose it are dissipated into Vapours and reduc'd to Powder They are no longer seen nor are they any longer known this is true but it is no reason to conclude that they are no longer in Being for the Mind perceives them still Dividing a Grain of Mustard into Two into Four or Twenty parts it would be Annihilated to our sight because it would be no longer seen But it would not be Annihilated in it self nor yet to the Mind for the Mind would see it though it were divided into a Thousand or an Hundred Thousand Parts 'T is a common Notion among Men who consult their Reason more than their Senses that nothing can be Annihilated by the common force of Nature for as Naturally nothing can be made out of nothing neither can a Substance or Being become nothing Bodies may be corrupted if we may call the Alterations they are liable to Corruption but they cannot be Annihilated What is Round may become Square What is Flesh may become Earth Vapour and what you please for all sorts of Extensions are capable of all manner of Configurations But the Substance of what is Round and of what is Flesh cannot perish There are certain Laws Establish'd in Nature according to which Bodies change their Forms successively for those Successive Forms Compose the Beauty of the Universe and Create an Admiration in us for its Author But there is no Law in Nature for the Annihilation of any Being because Annihilation has nothing of Beauty or Good in it self and because the Author of Nature loves his Work Therefore Bodies may Alter but they cannot Perish But if relying on the Testimony of the Senses Men would maintain obstinately that the Reduction of Bodies is a real Annihilation by reason that the Parts into which they are reduc'd are Imperceptible Let them remember at least that Bodies can only be divided into those Imperceptible Parts because they are Extended But if the Mind is not Extended it will not be Divisible and if it be not Divisible it must be granted that in that Sense it will not be Corruptible But how could any Body imagin that the Mind were Extended and Divisible We may by a right Line cut a Square into two Triangles into two Paralelogrammes or long Squares into two Trapeza's But by what Line can it be conceiv'd that a Pleasure a Pain or a Desire can be Cut And what Figure would result of that Division Truly I cannot think that Imagination can be fruitful enough in false Idea's to satisfie it self upon that Subject The Mind then is not Extended consequently it is not Divisible It is not liable to the same Alterations as the Body Nevertheless it must be granted that it is not Immutable by its Nature If the Body is capable of an infinite number of different Figures and of different Configurations the Mind is capable of an infinite number of different Idea's and different Modifications As after our Death the substance of our Flesh will be reduc'd to Earth to Vapours and to an infinite number of other Bodies without being Annihilated So our Souls without being again reduc'd to nothing will have Thoughts and Sentiments very different from those they had in Life It is also necessary while we are alive that our Body should be Compos'd of Flesh and Bones It is also necessary in order to Live that our Soul should have the Idea's and Sentiments it has in relation to the Body to which it is united But when the Soul shall be separated from its Body it will be at full Liberty to receive all sorts of Idea's and Modifications very different from those it has at present as our Body on its part will be capable of receiving all sorts of Figures and Configurations very different from those it is necessary it should have to be the Body of a Living Man What I have said does in my Opinion sufficiently show that the Immortality of the Soul is not a thing so difficult to be apprehended What then is the reason that so many question it unless it be that they are unwilling to apply themselves as much as may be to examin the Reasons which prove it in order to be Convinc'd And why is it that they are unwilling to do it unless it be that their Will being uneasie and inconstant keeps their Understanding in a continual Agitation insomuch that it is not at leisure distinctly to perceive those very Idea's which are most present to it as those of Thought and of Extension Just like a Man agitated by some Passion turning his Eyes continually on all sides for the most part does not distinguish the nearest Objects and the most Expos'd to his Sight For indeed the Question about the Immortality of the Soul is one of the easiest Questions to resolve when without Consulting our Imagination we consider with some Attention of Mind the clear and distinct Idea of Extension and the Relation it can have to Thought If the Inconstancy and Levity of our Will does not permit our Understanding to penetrate into the Bottom of things which are present to it and which we are highly concern'd to know it is easie to judge that it will be more averse to let us meditate on those that are distant and which have no relation to us So that if we are very Ignorant of most of those things which it is very necessary for us to know we shall not have a great Insight into those which seem absolutely vain and useless to us It will not be necessary for me to endeavour to prove this by tedious Examples which have no considerable Truths in them for if we may be allow'd to be Ignorant of any thing it is of those things which are of no Use And I had rather not be believed than to make the Reader lose his Time in reading things that are wholly useless Though there are not many persons who apply themselves seriously to things absolutely Vain and Useless yet the number of them is but too great But there can never be too many of those who do not apply themselves to them and who despise them provided
they do not pretend to Judge of them It is no defect in a limited Mind not to know certain things it is only a defect to pretend to Judge of them Ignorance is a necessary Evil but we may and ought to avoid Error Therefore I do not condemn Men for being Ignorant of many things but only for giving rash Judgments about those things When things have a great relation to us are sensible V That our Ignorance is exceeding great in respect of abstracted things or such as have but little relation to us and fall easily within the Compass of our Imagination we may say that the Mind applies it self to them and may have some knowledge of them For when we know that things have a relation to us we think upon them with some Inclination and when we find that they concern us we apply our selves to them with pleasure So that we should be more Learned than we are in many things if the uneasiness and tossing of our Will did not Disturb and Fatigue our Attention continually But when things are abstract and not very sensible it is difficult to attain any certain knowledge of them Not that abstracted things are very intricate but because the Attention and Sight of the Mind begins and Ends commonly with the sensible Prospect of Objects for we seldom think on any thing but what we see and feel and only as long as we see and feel it It is most certain that if the Mind could easily apply it self to clear and distinct Idea's without being any-wise byass'd by Opinion and if the uneasiness of the Will did not continually disturb its Application we should meet no great difficulties in many Natural Questions which we look upon as not to be Explain'd and we might easily be deliver'd of our Ignorance and Errors in relation to them For Example It is an undeniable Truth to any Man of Sense that Creation and Annihilation are things which surpass the common force of Nature Therefore if Men did remain Attentive to that pure Notion of the Mind and Reason they would not so easily admit the Creation and Annihilation of an infinite Number of New Beings as of Substantial Forms real Qualities and Faculties They would look into the distinct Idea's we have of Extension Figure and Motion for the reason of Natural Effects which is not always so difficult as People imagin all things in Nature are so connected together and prove each other The Effects of Fire as those of Canon and of Mines are very Surprising and their cause not very well known Nevertheless if Men instead of relying on the Impressions of their Senses and on some false or deceitful Experiments did firmly fix on that bare Notion of the Mind alone That it is not possible for a Body that is very little agitated to produce a violent Motion since it can communicate no more moving Power than it has its self it would be easie from that alone to conclude that there is a Subtle and Invisible Matter that it is very much agitated and dispers'd int h all Bodies and several other like things which would teach us the Nature of Fire and also be of great use to us to discover other Truths yet more conceal'd For since Canons and Mines have such great Motions and all the Visible Bodies about them are not in a sufficient Agitation to produce them it is a certain proof that there are other Invisible and Insensible Bodies which have at least as much Agitation as the Canon Ball But with being very Subtle and Thin may alone freely pass and without breaking through the Pores of the Canon before it is Fir'd that is as Monsieur Descartes has explain'd it more at large before their having surrounded the hard and gross parts of the Salt-petre of which the Powder is Compos'd But when the Fire is put to it that is when those subtle and extreamly agitated Particles have surrounded the gross and solid Parts of the Salt-petre and have thus Communicated their very strong and violent Motion to them then all does Burst of necessity because the Pores of the Canon which left an open passage on all sides for the subtle Parts before mention'd while they were alone are not large enough to make way for the gross Parts of the Salt-petre and some others of which the Powder is Compos'd when they have receiv'd into themselves the Agitation of the Subtle Parts which surrounds them For as the Water of Rivers which flows under Bridges does not shake them by reason of the smallness of its Particles Thus the very subtle and very thin Matter I have mention'd passes continually through the Pores of all Bodies without making any sensible Alterations in them But then likewise as the said River is capable of breaking down a Bridge when carrying along with it some great Flakes of Ice or some other more solid Bodies by forcing them against it with its own Motion so subtle Matter is capable of producing the surprising Effects we see in Canons and in Mines when having communicated to the Parts of the Powder which Float in the midst of it its Motion which is infinitely more Violent and more Rapid than that of Rivers and Torrents the said Parts of the Powder cannot freely pass through the Pores of the Bodies which enclose them by reason they are too gross so that they violently break them to force them a free Passage But Men do not easily apprehend those subtle small Particles which they repute Chimera's because they do not see them Contemplatio ferè definit cum aspectu says Bacon The greater part even of Philosophers invent some New Entity rather than not to talk upon those matters which they are Ignorant of And if any Body objects against their false and incomprehensible Suppositions that Fire must needs be compos'd of Parts that are in very great Agitation since it produces such Violent Motions and that a thing cannot Communicate that which it has not which is undoubtedly a most clear and most solid Objection They confound all by some frivolous Imaginary distinction as that of Equivocal and Univocal Causes in order to seem to say something though in reality they say nothing For it is a general Notion among Men of Sense and Learning that there can be no real Equivocal Cause in Nature and that it has been invented meerly by the Ignorance of Men. Therefore Men must apply themselves more to the consideration of clear and distinct Notions if they have a mind to understand Nature They must check and stop the Inconstancy and Levity of their Will a little if they design to penetrate deeply into things for their Mind will ever be weak superficial and discursive while their Will remains Light Inconstant and Roving It is true it requires some Fatigue and Men must constrain themselves to become Attentive and to search into the bottom of things for there is nothing to be got without pains It is shameful for Men of Sense and
by some violent passion for then as we have already explain'd this communication charges the conformation of the body of the Child and the Mother is so much the more apt to miscarry of the the Foetus as it has more resemblance to the desired Fruits and as the Spirits find less resistance in the Fibres of the Infants body Now it cannot be deny'd but that God without this Communication was able to have disposed all things in so exact and regular a manner as would have been necesary for the Propagation of the Species for insinite Ages that Mothers should never have Miscarried and even that they should always have had Children of the same bigness of the same Colour and that would have resembled in all things For we must not measure the power of God by our weak Imagination and we know not the Reasons he had in the construction of his work We see every day that without the help of this Communication Plants and Trees produce their kinds regularly enough and that Fowls and many other Animals have no need of it to cherish and bring forth other Animals when they sit upon Eggs of different kinds as when a Hen sits on a Partridges Eggs. For although we may reasonably conclude that the Seeds and Eggs contain in themselves the Plants and Birds which proceeds from 'em and that they may produce the little bodies of these Birds having received their Conformation by the Communication we have spoke of and the Plants theirs by another Equivocal Communication yet we cannot be certain of it But although we cannot discover the reasons why God has made every thing as it is we must not conclude from thence that he could make 'em no otherwise If we consider further that Plants who receive their growth by the action of the Female Plant resemble her much more than those which come from the seed as Tuleps for instance which come from the Root are of the same Colour as the Tulep it self and yet those that proceed from the Seed thereof are almost very different we cannot doubt that if the Communication of the Female Plant with the Fruit is not absolutely necessary to form the same kind yet it is always requisite to make the Fruit intirely like her So that although God foresaw that this Communication of the Mothers Brain with that of the Infants would sometimes destroy the Foetus and produce Monsters because of the Irregularity of the Mothers imagination yet this Communication is so admirable and so necessary for the Reasons before-mentioned and for many others that I could yet add that this knowledge that God had of these inconvencies ought not to have hindred him from executing his design We may say in one sense that God never had a design to make Monsters for it appears evident to me that if God should create one Animal only it would not be Monstrous But designing to produce an admirable work by the most simple ways and unite all these Creatures one to another he foresaw certain effects that would necessarily follow from the Order and Nature of things and this hath not diverted him from his design For although a Monster simply considered be an imperfect work yet when it is joyn'd with the rest of the creatures it does not render the World imperfect We have sufficiently explain'd what power the Imagination of a Mother has over the body of her Child let us now examine the power it hath over its Mind and that way discover the first Irregularities of the Mind and Will of Men in his Original For this is our chief design It is evident that the traces of the Brain are accompanied with Sentiments and Ideas of the Soul IV. An Explanation of some irregularities of the Mind and of the inclinations of the Will and that the emotion of the Animal Spirits have no effect in the Body but what the Motions in the Soul answer to and in a word it is certain that all the Sensations and Passions of the Body are accompany'd with true Sentiments and Passions in the Soul Now according to our first supposition Mothers first communicate the traces of their Brain to their Children and afterwards the Motions of their Animal Spirits and so produce the same passion in the mind of their Children with which they themselves are affected and by consequence they cortupt both their affections and reason in several respects If so many Children are observed to bear upon their Faces the Marks and Traces of the Idea that affected their Mother although the Fibres of the skin make much more resistance against the course of the Spirits than the soft parts of the Brain and thô the Spirits are much more agitated in the Brain than towards the Skin we cannot reasonably doubt but that the Animal Spirits of the Mother produce in the Brain of the Infant many traces by their irregular emotions Now the great traces of the Brain and the emotion of the Spirits which answer to them continuing a long time and sometimes all the life it is certain that as there are few Women who have not some weaknesses and who have not been moved with some Passion during their being with Child it cannot be expected but that there will be very few Children who are not ill inclined to something and who have not some predominant passion We have only too much experience of these things and all the World is sensible that there are whole Families who are afflicted with great weakness of Imagination which they have drawn from their Parents but it is not necessary here to give any particular Examples thereof On the contrary 't is more proper for the consolation of some Persons to assure 'em that those weaknesses of the Parents not being Natural or proper to the Nature of Man the traces and impressions of the Brain which are the cause of them may be effaced by time We may yet add here the Example of King James I. of England of whom Sir Kenelm Digby speaks in his Book which he writ of the Sympathetic Powder He tells us that Mary Stuart being with Child of King James some Scotch Lords entred her Chamber and in her presence killed her Secretary who was an Italian altho' she cast her self before him to hinder them that this Princess received some slight hurts by them and the frights she had made so great an impression in her Imagination that she communicated it to the Child in her Womb So that King James cou'd never endure to see a Naked Sword He says that he himself was a witness of it for when he was Knighted this Prince coming to lay the Sword upon his Shoulder run it strait at his Face and had wounded him if some body had not directed it aright where it ought to be There are so many instances of the like Nature that 't would be needless to search Authors for them I believe there is no body that will dispute these things for we see a
great number of Persons that can't suffer the fight of a Rat of a Mouse a Cat a Frog and particularly creeping Animals as Serpents and Adders who know no other cause of these extraordinary aversions but the fear their Mothers had of these several Animals whilst they were with Child of them But what I chiefly desire should be observed is An Explanation of Concupiscence and of Original Sin that there is all possible probabilities that Men retain in their Brain to this day the traces and impressions of our first Parents For as Animals produce their own likeness and with the like traces in their Brain which is the cause that Animals of the same Species have the same Sympathies and Antipathies and that they perform the same actions in the same occurrences Thus our first Parents after their Sin received such great impressions and profound traces of sensible things in their Brain as they might very well communicate to their Children so that this great propensity we have from the Womb to all sensible things and the great distance from God we are in by our present state may in some manner be explained by what has been said For as it is necessary according to the established order of Nature that the thoughts of the Soul should be conformable to the traces that are in the Brain We may say that as soon as we are formed in the Womb we are polluted with Sin and infected with the Corruption of our Parents since from that time we are strongly inclined to the pleasures of our Senses having in our Brain traces resembling those of the Persons who hath given us being it is necessary also that we shou'd have the same thoughts and the same inclinations which have any relation to sensible objects Rom. ch 6.5.12 14. c Thus it is impossible but that we should be born with Concupiscence and Original Sin We must be born with Concupiscence if Concupiscence is only the Natural effort that the traces of the Brain make upon the Mind to engage it to sensible things and we must be born in Original Sin if Original Sin is nothing else but the Dominion of Concupiscence and that these efforts become Victorious and Masters over the Mind and Heart of the Child Now it is very probable that the dominion or victory of Concupiscence is what we call Original Sin in Children and actual in Men. Objections and An ∣ swers This difficulty seems only to recur that contrary to Experience we might conclude from the principles I have established that the Mother would always communicate to her Child Habits and Inclinations resembling her own and a facility of imagining and learning the same things as she knows for all these things depend as has been already said only upon the traces and impressions of the Brain and it is certain that the impressions and traces of the Mothers Brain are communicated to the Child This has been proved by the Examples that has been brought concerning Men and is also confirmed by the Example of Animals whose young ones have their Brains filled with the same impressions which is the reason that all those that are of the same kind have the same Voice the same manner of moving their Members and also the same craft to take their Prey and defend themselves from their Enemies Therefore it must from thence follow that since all the traces of the Mothers Brain are imprinted in that of the Childs that the Children must be born with the same Habits and all the other qualities that the Mothers are possessed of and even commonly so to preserve them all their Lives since the Habits they have from their Infancy are those that are the longest kept which nevertheless is contrary to experience To answer this Objection it is requisite it should be known that there are two sorts of traces in the Brain the one Natural or proper to the Nature of Man the other acquired The Natural are very deep and it is impossible to esface them perfectly but on the contrary the acquired may be easily lost because commonly they are not deep Now although the Natural and acquired differ only as to the More or Less and that often the first have less force than the second since we every day accustom Animals to do things perfectly contrary to what they are inclined by these Natural traces for Example we use a Dog not to touch Bread nor to run after a Partridge although he sees and smells it Yet there iâ— this difference between these traces that the Natural ones have if we may so say secret alliances with the other parts of the body thus all the Springs of our Machines assist one the other to preserve themselves in their Natural state All the parts of our bodies mutually contribute to all necessary things for the preservation or re-establishment of these Natural traces Thus we cannot wholly efface them and they begin to revive when we believe we have destroyed them On the contrary the acquired Traces although greater more profound and stronger than the Natural are lost by little and little if they are not carefully preserved by a continual application of those things that produced them because the other parts of the body contribute nothing to their preservation but on the contrary continually endeavour to efface and loose them We may compare these traces to the common Wounds of the body they are wounds that our Brains receive which heal of themselves as these wounds of the body do by the admirable construction of the Machine As then there is nothing in all the body which is not conformable to the Natural traces they transmit themselves into Children with all their force So Parrots hatch little ones which have the same or Natural voices with themselves but because acquired traces are only in the Brain and not dispersed through the rest of the body except some few of 'em as when they have been imprinted by the Motions that accompany violent Passions they must not be transmitted into Children Thus a Parrot who gives the good Morrow and good Night to his Master will not make his little ones as Learned as himself and so Wise and able Persons will not have Children which resemble them Thus although it be true that all which passes in the Mothers Brain passes also in the same time into that of the Child and that the Mother can see nothing feel nothing imagine nothing that the Child does not likewise see feel and imagine and that aâ— the false traces of the Mother corrupt the Imagination of the Child Yet those traces not being Natural in the sense before explained it must not be wonder'd at if they are commonly effaced as soon as the Child is born for then the cause that formed and maintained these traces no longer subsists the Natural Constitution of the â—worldâ— contributes to their destruction and sensible 〈…〉 in their room others that are new deeper 〈…〉 greater Number which efface almost