ever as it is now how is it possible that it should be reduced into Atomes He says also That the Vniniverse is immovable and immutable If he mean it to be so in its Essence or Nature so that it cannot be changed from being material and that it is immovable so that it cannot be moved beyond or without it self I am of his opinion For Nature being purely and wholly material cannot be made immaterial without its total destruction and being infinite has nothing without it self to move into Otherwise Nature is not onely a self-moving body but also full of changes and varieties I mean within her self and her particulars As for his infinite Worlds I am not different from his opinion if by Worlds he mean the parts of infinite Nature but my Reason will not allow that those infinite Worlds do subsist by themselves distinguished from each other by Vacuum for it is meer non-sense to say the Universe consists of body and Vacuum that is of something and nothing for nothing cannot be a constitutive principle of any thing neither can it be measured or have corporeal dimensions for what is no body can have no bodily affections or properties God by his Omnipotency may reduce the World into nothing but this cannot be comprehended by natural reason 2. The Matter or Principle of all natural Beings Epicurus makes Atomes For say he There are Simple and Compounded bodies in the Universe the Simple bodies are the first matter out of which the Compounded bodies consist and those are Atomes that is bodies indivisible immutable and in themselves void of all mutation consisting of several infinite figures some bigger and some less Which opinion appears very Paradoxical to my reason for if Atomes be bodies I do not see how they can be indivisible by reason wheresoever is body there are also parts so that divisibility is an essential propriety or attribute of Matter or Body He counts it impossible that one finite part should be capable of infinite divisions but his Vacuum makes him believe there are single finite parts distinguished from each other by little spaces or intervals of vacuity which in truth cannot be but as soon as parts are divided from such or such parts they immediately join to other parts for division and composition as I mentioned before are done by one act and one countervails the other 'T is true there are distinctions of parts in Nature or else there would be no variety but these are not made by little intervals of vacuity but by their own figures interior as well as exterior caused by self-motion which make a difference between the infinite parts of Nature But put the case there were such Atomes out of which all things are made yet no man that has his sense and reason regular can believe they did move by chance or at least without sense and reason in the framing of the world and all natural bodies if he do but consider the wonderful order and harmony that is in Nature and all her parts Indeed I admire so witty and great a Philosopher as Epicurus should be of such an extravagant opinion as to divide composed bodies into animate and inanimate and derive them all from one Principle which are senseless and irrational Atomes for if his Atomes out of which all things consist be self-moving or have as he says some natural impulse within themselves then certainly all bodies that are composed of them must be the same He places the diversity of them onely in figure weight and magnitude but not in motion which he equally allows to all nay moreover he says that although they be of different fifiures weight and magnitude yet they do all move equally swift but if they have motion they must of necessity have also sense that is life and knowledg there being no such thing as a motion by chance in Nature because Nature is full of reason as well as of sense and wheresoevever is reason there can be no chance Chance is onely in respect to particulars caused by their ignorance for particulars being finite in themselves can have no Infinite or Universal knowledg and where there is no Universal knowledg there must of necessity be some ignorance Thus ignorance which proceeds from the division of parts causes that which we call chance but Nature being an infinite self-moving body has also infinite knowledg and therefore she knows of no chance nor is this visible World or any part of her made by chance or a casual concourse of senseless and irrational Atomes but by the All-powerful Decree and Command of God out of that pre-existent Matter that was from all Eternity which is infinite Nature for though the Scripture expresses the framing of this World yet it doth not say that Nature her self was then created but onely that this world was put into such a frame and state as it is now and who knows but there may have been many other Worlds before and of another figure then this is nay if Nature be infinite there must also be infinite Worlds for I take with Epicurus this World but for a part of the Universe and as there is self-motion in Nature so there are also perpetual changes of particulars although God himself be immovable for God acts by his All-powerful Decree or Command and not after a natural way 3. The Soul of Animals says Epicurus is corporeal and a most tenuious and subtile body made up of most subtile particles in figure smooth and round not perceptible by any sense and this subtile contexture of the soul is mixed and compounded of four several natures as of something fiery something aerial something flatuous and something that has no name by means whereof it is indued with a sensitive faculty And as for reason that is likewise compounded or little bodies but the smoothest and roundest of all and of the quickest motion Thus he discourses of the Soul which I confess surpasses my understanding for I shall never be able to conceive how senseless and irrational Atomes can produce sense and reason or a sensible and rational body such as the soul is although he affirms it to be possible 'T is true different effects may proceed from one cause or principle but there is no principle which is senseless can produce sensitive effects nor no rational effects can flow from an irrational cause neither can order method and harmony proceed from chance or confusion and I cannot conceive how Atomes moving by chance should onely make souls in animals and not in other bodies for if they move by chance and not by knowledg and consent they might by their conjunction as well chance to make souls in Vegetables and Minerals as in Animals 4. Concerning Perception and in particular the Perception of sight Epicurus affirms that it is performed by the gliding of some images of external objects into our eyes to wit that there are certain effluxions of Atomes sent out from the surfaces of bodies preserving
Creatures have as much knowledg as Man and Man as much in his kind as any other particular Creature in its kind But their knowledges being different by reason of their different natures and figures it causes an ignorance of each others knowledg nay the knowledg of other Creatures many times gives information to Man As for example the Egyptians are informed how high the River Nilus will rise by the Crocodil's building her nest higher or lower which shews that those Creatures fore-see or fore-know more then Man can do also many Birds fore-know the rising of a Tempest and shelter themselves before it comes the like examples might be given of several other sorts of Animals whose knowledg proceeds either from some sensitive perceptions or from rational observations or from both and if there be such a difference in the rational and sensitive knowledg of one kind of Creatures to wit Animals much more in all other kinds as Vegetables Minerals Elements and so in all Natures Works Wherefore he that will say there is no knowledg but in Man at least in Animal kind doth in my opinion say more then ever he will be able to prove nay the contrary is so evident as it is without all dispute But Man out of self-love and conceited pride because he thinks himself the chief of all Creatures and that all the World is made for his sake doth also imagine that all other Creatures are ignorant dull stupid senseless and irrational and he onely wise knowing and understanding And upon this ground some believe that Man is bound and decreed to pray to God for all other Creatures as being not capable to pray for themselves like as a Minister is bound to pray for his Flock But really if the Pastor should onely pray and his Sheep not but they did continue in their sins I doubt his Prayers would be of little effect and therefore it is well if their Prayers and Petitions be joyned together The like may be said of all other Creatures for the single knowledg and devotion of Man-kind cannot benefit other Creatures if they be ignorant and not capable to know admire adore and worship God themselves And thus no man with all the force of Logick will ever be able to prove that he is either the chief above all other Creatures or that he onely knows and worships God and no natural Creature else for it is without dispute that other Creatures in their kinds are as knowing and wise as Man is in his kind 14. A Natural Philosopher cannot be an Atheist IWonder how some of our learned Writers can imagine that those who study Reason and Philosophy should make them their Vouchees of Licentious practices and their secret scorn of Religion and should account it a piece of wit and gallantry to be an Atheist and of atheism to be a Philosopher considering that Reason and Philosophy is the onely way that brings and leads us to the natural knowledg of God for it would be as much absurdity to say Reason and Philosophy induce Atheism as to say Reason is not Reason for Reason is the most knowing and wisest part of Nature and the chief knowledg of Nature is to know there is a God wherefore those that do argue in such a manner argue without reason and by calling others weak heads and fools prove themselves Irrational But I perceive their supposition is built upon a false ground for they are of opinion That the Exploding of Immaterial substances and the unbounded prerogative of Matter must needs infer Atheism which whether it do not shew a weaker head then those have that believe no Immaterial substances in Nature Rational men may judg For by this it is evident that they make Immaterial substances to be Gods by reason they conclude that he who believes no Immaterial substance in Nature is an Atheist And thus by proving others Atheists they commit Blasphemy themselves for he that makes a God of a Creature sins as much if not more then he who believes no God at all And as for the unbounded prerogative of Matter I see no reason why men should exclaim against it for why should Immaterial substances have more prerogative then Material Truly I may upon the same ground conclude the prerogative of Matter as well as they do the prerogative of Spirits for both are but Creatures and in that case one has no more prerogative then the other for God could make a Material Being to move it self as well as a Material Nothing Nevertheless although Matter is self-moving yet it has not a God-like omnipotent power nor any divine attributes but an Infinite Natural power that is a power to produce infinite effects in her own self by infinite changes of Motions Neither doth it argue that Nature is above God or at least God-like for I do not say that Nature has her self-moving power of her self or by chance but that it comes from God the Author of Nature which proves that God must needs be above Nature although Nature is Infinite and Eternal for these proprieties do not derogate any thing from the Attributes of God by reason Nature is naturally Infinite which is Infinite in quantity and parts but God is a Spiritual Supernatural and Incomprehensible Infinite and as for the Eternity of Nature it is more probable to Regular Reason then that Nature should have any beginning for all beginning supposes time but in God is no time and therefore neither beginning nor ending neither in himself nor in his actions for if God be from all Eternity his actions are so too the chief of which is the production or creation of Nature Thus natural reason may conceive that Nature is the Eternal servant of God but how it was produced from all Eternity no particular or finite creature is able to imagine by reason that not onely God but also Nature is Infinite and a finite Creature can have no Idea or conception of Infinite 15. Of the Rational Soul of Man OF all the opinions concerning the Natural Soul of Man I like that best which affirms the Soul to be a self-moving substance but yet I will add a Material self-moving substance for the Soul of Man is part of the Soul of Nature and the Soul of Nature is Material I mean onely the Natural not the Divine Soul of Man which I leave to the Church And this natural Soul otherwise called Reason is nothing else but corporeal natural self-motion or a particle of the purest most subtil and active part of Matter which I call animate which animate Matter is the Life and Soul of Nature and consequently of Man and all other Creatures For we cannot in Reason conceive that Man should be the onely Creature that partakes of this soul of Nature and that all the rest of Natures parts or most of them should be soul-less or which is all one irrational although they are commonly called nay believed to be such Truly if all other Creatures cannot
be denied to be Material they can neither be accounted Irrational Insensible or Inanimate by reason there is no part nay not the smallest particle in Nature our reason is able to conceive which is not composed of Animate Matter as well as of Inanimate of Life and Soul as well as of Body and therefore no particular Creature can claim a prerogative in this case before an other for there is a thorow mixture of Animate and Inanimate Matter in Nature and all her Parts But some may object That if there be sense and reason in every part of Nature it must be in all parts alike and then a stone or any other the like Creature may have reason or a rational soul as well as Man To which I answer I do not deny that a Stone has Reason or doth partake of the Rational Soul of Nature as well as Man doth because it is part of the same Matter Man consists of but yet it has not animal or humane sense and reason because it is not of animal kind but being a Mineral it has Mineral sense and reason for it is to be observed that as Animate self-moving Matter moves not one and the same way in all Creatures so there can neither be the same way of knowledg and understanding which is sense and reason in all Creatures alike but Nature being various not onely in her parts but in her actions it causes a variety also amongst her Creatures and hence come so many kinds sorts and particulars of Natural Creatures quite different from each other though not in the General and Universal principle of Nature which is self-moving Matter for in this they agree all yet in their particular interior natures figures and proprieties Thus although there be Sense and Reason which is not onely Motion but a regular and well-ordered self-motion apparent in the wonderful and various Productions Generations Transformations Dissolutions Compositions and other actions of Nature in all Natures parts and particles yet by reason of the variety of this self-motion whose ways and modes do differ according to the nature of each particular figure no figure or creature can have the same sense and reason that is the same natural motions which another has and therefore no Stone can be said to feel pain as an Animal doth or be called blind because it has no Eyes for this kind of sense as Seeing Hearing Tasting Touching and Smelling is proper onely to an Animal figure and not to a Stone which is a Mineral so that those which frame an argument from the want of animal sense and sensitive organs to the defect of all sense and motion as for example that a Stone would withdraw it self from the Carts going over it or a piece of Iron from the hammering of a Smith conclude in my opinion very much against the artificial rules of Logick and although I understand none of them yet I question not but I shall make a better argument by the Rules of Natural Logick But that this difference of sense and reason is not altogether impossible or at least improbable to our understanding I will explain by another instance We see so many several Creatures in their several kinds to wit Elements Vegetables Minerals and Animals which are the chief distinctions of those kinds of Creatures as are subject to our sensitive perceptions and in all those what variety and difference do we find both in their exterior figures and in their interior natures truly such as most of both ancient and modern Philosophers have imagined some of them viz. the Elements to be simple bodies and the principles of all other Creatures nay those several Creatures do not onely differ so much from each other in their general kinds but there is no less difference perceived in their particular kinds for example concerning Elements what difference is there not between heavy and contracting Earth and between light and dilating Air between flowing Water and ascending Fire so as it would be an endless labour to consider all the different natures of those Creatures onely that are subject to our exterior senses And yet who dares deny that they all consist of Matter or are material Thus we see that Infinite Matter is not like a piece of Clay out of which no figure can be made but it must be clayie for natural Matter has no such narrow bounds and is not forced to make all Creatures alike for though Gold and Stone are both material nay of the same kind to wit Minerals yet one is not the other nor like the other And if this be true of Matter why may not the same be said of self-motion which is Sense and Reason Wherefore in all probability of truth there is sense and reason in a Mineral as well as in an Animal and in a Vegetable as well as in an Element although there is as great a difference between the manner and way of their sensitive and rational perceptions as there is between both their exterior and interior figures and Natures Nay there is a difference of sense and reason even in the parts of one and the same Creature and consequently of sensitive and rational perception or knowledg for as I have declared heretofore more at large every sensitive organ in man hath its peculiar way of knowledg and perception for the Eye doth not know what the Ear knows nor the Ear what the Nose knows c. All which is the cause of a general ignorance between Natures parts And the chief cause of all this difference is the variety of self-motion for if natural motion were in all Creatures alike all sense and reason would be alike too and if there were no degrees of matter all the figures of Creatures would be alike either all hard or all soft all dense or all rare and fluid c. and yet neither this variety of motion causes an absence of motion or of sense and reason nor the variety of figures an absence of Matter but onely a difference between the parts of Nature all being nevertheless self-moving sensible and rational as well as Material for wheresoever is natural Matter there is also self-motion and consequently sense and reason By this we may see how easie it is to conceive the actions of Nature and to resolve all the Phaenomena or appearances upon this ground and I cannot admire enough how so many eminent and learned Philosophers have been and are still puzled about the Natural rational soul of man Some will have her to be a Light some an Entilechy or they know not what some the Quintessence of the four Elements some composed of Earth and Water some of Fire some of Blood some an hot Complexion some an heated and dispersed Air some an Immaterial Spirit and some Nothing All which opinions seem the more strange the wiser their Authors are accounted for if they did proceed from some ignorant persons it would not be so much taken notice of but coming from great Philosophers
destroyed what will become of the Soul I will not say That the All-powerfull God may not destroy it when he pleases but the infiniteness and perpetual self-motion of Nature will not permit that Nature should be corruptible in it self for God's Power goes beyond the power of Nature But it seems Pythagoras understands by the World no more then his senses can reach so that beyond the Celestial Orbs he supposes to be an infinite Vacuum which is as much as to say an infinite Nothing and my reason cannot apprehend how the World can breath and respire into nothing and out of nothing 5. Neither am I able to conceive the Truth of his assertion That all lines are derived from points and all numbers from unity and all figures from a circle for there can be no such thing as a single point a single unity a single circle in Nature by reason Nature is infinitely dividable and composable neither can they be principles because they are all but effects 6. Concerning the Soul the Pythagoreans call her a self-moving number and divide her into two parts rational and irrational and derive the beginning of the soul from the heat of the brain The Sould of Animate Creatures as they call them they allow to be rational even those which others call irrational to wit those in all other animals besides man but they act not according to reason for want of speech The Rational Soul say they is immortal and a self-moving number where by number they understand the Mind which they call a Monad These and the like opinions which Pythagoreans have of the Soul are able to puzle Solomons wit or understanding to make any conformity of Truth of them and I will not strictly examine them but set down these few Paradoxes 1. I cannot apprehend how the same soul can be divided into substances of such differing nay contrary proprieties and natures as to be rational and irrational mortal and immortal 2. How the heat of the brain can be the Principle of the soul since the soul is said to actuate move and inform the body and to be a Principle of all bodily actions Besides all brains have not the like Temperament but some are hot and some cold and some hotter then others whence it will follow that all animals are not endued with the like souls but some souls must of necessity be weaker and some stronger then others 3. How Irrational Creatures can have a Rational Soul and yet not act according to Reason for want of speech for Irrational Creatures are called so because they are thought to have no reason and as for speech it is an effect and not a Principle of Reason for shall we think a dumb man irrational because he cannot speak 4. I cannot conceive how it is possible that the soul is a self-moving number and yet but a Monad or Unite for a Unite they say is no number but a principle of number Not how the Soul being incorporeal can walk in the air like a body for incorporeal beings cannot have corporeal actions no more then corporeal beings can have the actions of incorporeals Wherefore I will leave those points to the examination of more Learned Persons then my self and as for the Pythagorean Transmigration of Souls I have declared my opinion thereof heretofore in the first part 4. Of Epicurus his Principles of Philosophy 1. COncerning the World Epicurus is of opinion That it is not Eternal and Incorruptible but that it was generated and had a beginning and shall also have an end and perish For says he It is necessary that all compounded things be also dissipated and resolved into those things of which they were compounded By the World he understands a portion of the universe that is the circumference of Heaven containing the Stars the Earth and all things visible For Heaven he supposes to be the extreme or outmost part of the World and by the Universe he understands Infinite Nature which consists of Body and Vacuum for he thinks bodies could not move were there no Vacuum to move in Whereof I do briefly declare my opinion thus If the Universe or Nature it self be Infinite Eternal and Incorruptible all parts of Nature or the Universe must be so too I mean in themselves as they are Matter or Body for were it possible that some of them could perish or be annihilated the Universe would be imperfect and consequently not infinite as wanting some parts of its own body 'T is true particular natural figures may be infinitely changed dissolved transformed but they can never be dissolved from being Matter or parts of Nature and if not they cannot perish no not the figures of finite parts for as Matter cannot perish so neither can figure because matter and figure are but onething and though one part be transformed into millions of figures yet all those figures do not perish in their changes and alterations but continue still in Nature as being parts of Nature and therefore material Thus change alteration dissolution division composition and all other species of motions are no annihilation or perishing neither can it be proved that parts dissolve more then they unite because dissolution or division and composition of parts are but one act for whensoever parts separate themselves from some they must of necessity join to others which doth also prove that there can be no Vacuum in Nature for if there were there would be division without composition besides there would be no parts but all parts would be several wholes by reason they would subsist by themselves Thus Nature would not be one infinite body composed of Infinite parts but every part being a whole by it self would make some kind of a finite world and those parts which separate themselves from each other by the intervals of Vacuum would subsist precised from each other as having no relation to one another and so become wholes of parts nay if several of those intire and single bodies should join closely together they would make such a gap of Vacuum as would cause a confusion and disturbance both amongst themselves and in the Universe Wherefore sense and reason contradicts the opinion of Vacuum neither is there any necessity of introducing it by reason of the motion of natural bodies for they may move without Vacuum better then within Vacuum since all bodies are not of the like Nature that is dense close or compact but there are fluid bodies as well as hard bodies rare as well as dense subtile as well as gross because there is animate and inanimate matter in Nature But concerning the World it seems Epicurus doth not mean by the dissolution of the world an absolute annihilation but onely a reduction into its former principles which are Atomes however if this be his meaning he contradicts himself when he affirms that the universe whose portion the World is was ever such as it is now and shall ever be thus for if it shall continue so for
especially those that consist of different parts Besides the rational parts of matter being the surveighing ordering and designing parts do not suffer them in such actions to work as they please but order them all according to the Wisdom of Nature and though sometimes it may happen that they work or move irregularly yet that is not perpetual in all actions but sometimes for wheresoever is crossing and opposition there must of necessity be sometimes irregularities and disorders When in my Philosophical Letters I say That there is difference between Life and Knowledg by Life I understand Sense or the sensitive parts of matter and by Knowledg Reason or the Rational parts of Matter not as if the sensitive parts had not Knowledg as well as the rational or the rational Life as well as the sensitive but I speak comparatively in the same sense as I name the sensitive part the Life the rational the Soul and the inanimate the Body of Nature And thus much for the present There may be many more the like places in my Philosophical Works especially my Philosophical and Physical Opinions which may seem dubious and obscure but I will not trouble you now with a long Commentary or Explanation of them but if God grant me life I intend to rectifie that mentioned Book of Philosophical Opinions in the best manner I can because it contains the Ground of my Philosophy in which I hope there will be no labour lost but it will facilitate the Understanding of the Reader and render my Conceptions easie and intelligible which is the onely thing I am at and labour for THE DESCRIPTION OF A NEW WORLD CALLED The Blazing World WRITTEN By the Thrice Noble Illustrious and Excellent PRINCESSE THE Duchess of Newcastle LONDON Printed by A. Maxwell in the Year 1666. TO THE DUCHESSE OF NEWCASTLE ON HER New Blazing World OUr Elder World with all their Skill and Arts Could but divide the World into three Parts Columbus then for Navigation fam'd Found a new World America 't is nam'd Now this new World was found it was not made Onely discovered lying in Times shade Then what are You having no Chaos found To make a World or any such least ground But your creating Fancy thought it fit To make your World of Nothing but pure Wit Your Blazing-world beyond the Stars mounts higher Enlightens all with a Coelestial Fier William Newcastle TO THE READER If you wonder that I join a work of Fancy to my serious Philosophical Contemplations think not that it is out of a disparagement to Philosophy or out of an opinion as if this noble study were but a Fiction of the Mind for though Philosophers may err in searching and enquiring after the Causes of Natural effects and many times embrace falshoods for Truths yet this doth not prove that the Ground of Philosophy is meerly Fiction but the error proceeds from the different motions of Reason which cause different Opinions in different parts and in some are more irregular then in others for Reason being dividable because material cannot move in all parts alike and since there is but one Truth in Nature all those that hit not this Truth do err some more some less for though some may come nearer the mark then others which makes their Opinions seem more probable and rational then others yet as long as they swerve from this onely Truth they are in the wrong Nevertheless all do ground their Opinions upon Reason that is upon rational probabilities at least they think they do But Fictions are an issue of mans Fancy framed in his own Mind according as he pleases without regard whether the thing he fancies be really existent without his mind or not so that Reason searches the depth of Nature and enquires after the true Causes of Natural Effects but Fancy creates of its own accord whatsoever it pleases and delights in its own work The end of Reason is Truth the end of Fancy is Fiction But mistake me not when I distinguish Fancy from Reason I mean not as if Fancy were not made by the Rational parts of Matter but by Reason I understand a rational search and enquiry into the causes of natural effects and by Fancy a voluntary creation or production of the Mind both being effects or rather actions of the rational part of Matter of which as that is a more profitable and useful study then this so it is also more laborious and difficult and requires sometimes the help of Fancy to recreate the Mind and withdraw it from its more serious Contemplations And this is the reason why I added this Piece of Fancy to my Philosophical Observations and joined them as two Worlds at the ends of their Poles both for my own sake to divert my studious thoughts which I employed in the Contemplation thereof and to delight the Reader with variety which is always pleasing But left my Fancy should stray too much I chose such a Fiction as would be agreeable to the subject I treated of in the former parts it is a'Description of a New World not such as Lucian's or the French man's World in the Moon but a World of my own Creating which I call the Blazing-World The first part whereof is Romancical the second Philosophical and the third is meerly Fancy or as I may call it Fantastical which if it add any satisfaction to you I shall account my self a Happy Creatoress if not I must be content to live a melancholly Life in my own World I cannot call it a poor World if poverty be onely want of Gold Silver and Jewels for there is more Gold in it then all the Chymists ever did and as I verily believe will ever be able to make As for the Rocks of Diamonds I wish with all my soul they might be shared amongst my noble female friends and upon that condition I would willingly quit my part and of the Gold I should onely desire so much as might suffice to repair my Noble Lord and Husband's Losses For I am not Covetous but as Ambitious as ever any of my Sex was is or can be which makes that though I cannot be Henry the Fifth or Charles the Second yet I endeavour to be Margaret the First and although I have neither power time nor occasion to conquer the world as Alexander and Caesar did yet rather then not to be Mistress of one since Fortune and the Fates would give me none I have made a World of my own for which no body I hope will blame me since it is in every ones power to do the like THE DESCRIPTION OF A NEW WORLD CALLED The Blazing World A Merchant travelling into a forreign Country fell extreamly in Love with a young Lady but being a stranger in that Nation and beneath her both in Birth and Wealth he could have but little hopes of obtaining his desire however his love growing more and more vehement upon him even to the slighting of all difficulties he resolved at last
before a true and profitable Relation As for relation replied the Duchess our Poets defie and condemn it into a Chimney-corner fitter for old Womens Tales then Theatres Why said the Emperess do not your Poets actions comply with their judgments for their Plays are composed of old stories either of Greek or Roman or some new-found World The Duchess answered her Majesty that it was true that all or most of their Plays were taken out of old Stories but yet they had new actions which being joined to old stories together with the addition of new Prologues Scenes Musick and Dancing made new Plays After this both the Souls went to the Court where all the Royal Family was together attended by the chief of the Nobles of their Dominions which made a very magnificent show and when the soul of the Emperess viewed the King and Queen she seemed to be in amaze which the Duchess's soul perceiving asked the Emperess how she liked the King the Queen and all the Royal Race She answered that in all the Monarchs she had seen in that World she had not found so much Majesty and affability mixt so exactly together that none did overshadow or eclipse the other and as for the Queen she said that Vertue sate Triumphant in her face and Piety was dwelling in her heart and that all the Royal Family seem'd to be endued with a Divine splendor but when she had heard the King discourse she believ'd that Mercury and Apollo had been his Celestial instructors and my dear Lord and Husband added the Duchess has been his Earthly Governour But after some short stay in the Court the Duchess's soul grew very Melancholy the Emperess asking the cause of her sadness She told her that she had an extreme desire to converse with the soul of her noble Lord and dear Husband and that she was impatient of a longer stay The Emperess desired the Duchess to have but patience so long until the King the Queen and the Royal Family were retired and then she would bear her company to her Lord and Husbands Soul who at that time lived in the Country some 112 miles off which she did and thus these two souls went towards those parts of the Kingdom where the Duke of Newcastle was But one thing I forgot all this while which is That although thoughts are the natural language of souls yet by reason souls cannot travel without Vehicles they use such language as the nature and propriety of their Vehicles require and the Vehicles of those two souls being made of the purest and finest sort of air and of a humane shape this purity and fineness was the cause that they could neither be seen nor heard by any humane Creature when as had they been of some grosser sort of Air the sound of that Airs language would have been as perceptible as the blowing of Zephyrus And now to return to my former Story when the Emperess's and Duchess's Soul were travelling into Nottingham-shire for that was the place where the Duke did reside passing through the forrest of Sherewood the Emperess's soul was very much delighted with it as being a dry plain and woody place very pleasant to travel in both in Winter and Summer for it is neither much dirty nor dusty at no time at last they arrived at Welbeck a House where the Duke dwell'd surrounded all with Wood so close and full that the Emperess took great pleasure and delight therein and told the Duchess she never had observed more wood in so little a compass in any part of the Kingdom she had passed through The truth is said she there seems to be more wood on the Seas she meaning the Ships then on the Land The Duchess told her the reason was that there had been a long Civil War in that Kingdom in which most of the best Timber-trees and Principal Palaces were ruined and destroyed and my dear Lord and Husband said she has lost by it half his Woods besides many Houses Land and moveable Goods so that all the loss out of his particular Estate did amount to above half a Million of Pounds I wish said the Emperess he had some of the Gold that is in the Blazing-world to repair his losses The Duchess most humbly thank'd her Imperial Majesty for her kind wishes but said she wishes will not repair his ruines however God has given my Noble Lord and Husband great Patience by which he bears all his losses and misfortunes At last they enter'd into the Dukes House an habitation not so magnificent as useful and when the Emperess saw it Has the Duke said she no other house but this Yes answered the Duchess some five miles from this place he has a very fine Castle called Bolesover That place then said the Emperess I desire to see Alas replied the Duchess it is but a naked house and uncloath'd of all Furniture However said the Emperess I may see the manner of its structure and building That you may replied the Duchess and as they were thus discoursing the Duke came out of the House into the Court to see his Horses of mannage whom when the Duchess's soul perceived she was so overjoyed that her aereal Vehicle became so splendorous as if it had been enlightned by the Sun by which we may perceive that the passions of Souls or Spirits can alter their bodily Vehicles Then these two Ladies Spirits went close to him but he could not perceive them and after the Emperess had observed the Art of Mannage she was much pleased with it and commended it as a noble pastime and an exercise fit and proper for noble and heroick Persons But when the Duke was gone into the house again those two Souls followed him where the Emperess observing that he went to the exercise of the Sword and was such an excellent and unparallell'd Master thereof she was as much pleased with that exercise as she was with the former But the Duchess's soul being troubled that her dear Lord and Husband used such a violent exercise before meat for fear of overheating himself without any consideration of the Emperess's soul left her aereal Vehicle and entred into her Lord. The Emperess's soul perceiving this did the like And then the Duke had three Souls in one Body and had there been but some such Souls more the Duke would have been like the Grand-Signior in his Seraglio onely it would have been a Platonick Seraglio But the Dukes soul being wise honest witty complaisant and noble afforded such delight and pleasure to the Emperess's soul by her conversation that these two souls became enamoured of each other which the Duchess's soul perceiving grew jealous at first but then considering that no Adultery could be committed amongst Platonick Lovers and that Platonism was Divine as being derived from Divine Plato cast forth of her mind that Idea of Jealousie Then the Conversation of these three souls was so pleasant that it cannot be expressed for the Dukes soul entertained the
came to a fight they would moulder into dust and ashes and so leave the purer Immaterial Spirits naked nay were it also possible that those dead bodies could be preserved from stinking and dissolving yet the souls of such bodies would not suffer Immaterial Spirits to rule and order them but they would enter and govern them themselves as being the right owners thereof which would produce a War between those Immaterial Souls and the Immaterial Spirits in Material Bodies all which would hinder them from doing any service in the actions of War against the Enemies of my Native Countrey You speak Reason said the Emperor and I wish with all my Soul I could advise any manner or way that you might be able to assist it but you having told me of your dear Platonick Friend the Duchess of Neweastle and of her good and prositable Counsels I would desire you to send for her Soul and conser with her about this business The Emperess was very glad of this motion of the Emperor and immediately sent for the Soul of the said Duchess which in a minute waited on her Majesty Then the Emperess declared to her the grievance and sadness of her mind and how much she was troubled and afflicted at the News brought her by the Immaterial Spirits desiring the Duchess if possible to assist her with the best counsels she could that she might shew the greatness of her love and affection which she bore to her Native Countrey Whereupon the Duchess promised her Majesty to do what lay in her power and since it was a business of great Importance she desired some time to consider of it for said she Great Affairs require deep considerations which the Emperess willingly allowed her And after the Duchess had considered some little time she desired the Emperess to send some of her Syrenes or Mear-Men to see what passages they could find out of the Blazing-World into the World she came from for said she if there be a passage for a Ship to come out of that World into this then certainly there may also a Ship pass thorow the same passage out of this World into that Hereupon the Mear-or Fish-men were sent out who being many in number employ'd all their industry and did swim several ways at last having found out the passage they returned to the Emperess and told her That as their Blazing-World had but one Emperor one Government one Religion and one Language so there was but one Passage into that World which was so little that no Vessel bigger than a Packet-Boat could go thorow neither was that Passage always open but sometimes quite frozen up At which Relation both the Emperess and Duchess seemed somewhat troubled fearing that this would perhaps be an hinderance or obstruction to their Design At last the Duchess desired the Emperess to send for her Ship-wrights and all her Architects which were Giants who being called the Duchess told them how some in her own World had been so ingenious and contrived Ships that could swim under Water and asked whether they could do the like The Gyants answered They had never heard of that Invention nevertheless they would try what might be done by Art and spare no labour or industry to find it out In the mean time while both the Emperess and Duchess were in a serious Counsel after many debates the Duchess desired but a few Ships to transport some of the Bird-Worm-and Bear-men Alas said the Emperess What can such sorts of Men do in the other World especially so few They will be soon destroyed for a Musket will destroy numbers of Birds at one shot The Duchess said I desire your Majesty will have but a little patience and rely upon my advice and you shall not fail to save your own Native Country and in a manner become Mistress of all that World you came from The Emperess who loved the Duchess as her own Soul did so the Gyants returned soon after and told her Majesty that they had found out the Art which the Duchess had mentioned to make such Ships as could swim under Water which the Emperess and Duchess were both very glad at and when the Ships were made ready the Duchess told the Emperess that it was requisite that her Majesty should go her self in body as well as in Soul but I said she can onely wait on your Majesty after a Spiritual manner that is with my Soul Your Soul said the Emperess shall live with my Soul in my Body for I shall onely desire your Counseland Advice Then said the Duchess Your Majesty must command a great number of your Fish-men to wait on your Ships for you know that your Ships are not made for Cannons and therefore are no ways serviceable in War for though by the help of your Engines they can drive on and your Fish-men may by the help of Chains or Ropes draw them which way they will to make them go on or flye back yet not so as to fight And though your Ships be of Gold and cannot be shot thorow but onely bruised and battered yet the Enemy will assault and enter them and take them as Prizes wherefore your Fish-men must do you Service instead of Cannons But how said the Emperess can the Fish-men do me service against an Enemy without Canons and all sorts of Arms That is the reason answered the Duchess that I would have numbers of Fish-men for they shall destroy all your Enemies Ships before they can come near you The Emperess asked in what manner that could be Thus answered the Duchess Your Majesty must send a number of Worm-men to the Burning-Mountains for you have good store of them in the Blazing-World which must get a great quantity of the Fire-stone whose property you know is that it burns so long as it is wet and the Ships in the other World being all made of Wood they may by that means set them all on fire and if you can but destroy their Ships and hinder their Navigation you will be Mistress of all that World by reason most parts thereof cannot live without Navigation Besides said she the Fire-stone will serve you instead of light or torches for you know that the World you are going into is dark at nights especially if there be no Moon-shine or if the Moon be overshadowed by Clouds and not so full of Blazing-Stars as this World is which make as great a light in the absence of the Sun as the Sun doth when it is present for that World hath but little blinking Stars which make more shadows then light and are onely able to draw up Vapours from the Earth but not to rarifie or clarifie them or to convert them into serene air This Advice of the Duchess was very much approved and joyfully embraced by the Emperess who forthwith sent her Worm-men to get a good quantity of the mentioned Fire-Stone She also commanded numbers of Fish-men to wait on her under water and Bird-men to wait