Soules makes the Soule a Discerpible essence it is unconceivable how these two parts should make up one Soule for the Infant a thing ridiculous at first view But if there be no decision of any parts of the Soule and yet the Soule of the Parent be the cause of the Soule of the Childe it is perfectly an act of Creation a thing that all sober men conclude incompetible to any particular Creature It is therfore plainly unintelligible how any Soul should pass from the Parents into the Body of the seed of the Foetus to actuate and inform it which might be sufficient to stop the mouth of the Opposer that pretends such great obscurities concerning the entrance of Praeexistent Souls into their Bodies CHAP. XIV 1. The knowledge of the difference of Vehicles and the Soules Union with them necessary for the understanding how she enters into this Earthly Body 2. That though the name of Vehicle be not in Aristotle yet the thing is there 3. A clearing of Aristotles notion of the Vehicle out of the Philosophy of Des-Cartes 4. A full interpretation of his Text. 5. That Aristotle makes onely two Vehicles Terrestriall and AEthereall which is more then sufficient to prove the Soul's Oblivion of her former state 6. That the ordinary Vehicle of the Soule after death is Aire 7. The duration of the Soule in her severall Vehicles 8. That the Union of the Soule with her Vehicle does not consist in Mechanicall Congruity but Vitall 9. In what Vitall congruity of the Matter consists 10. In what Vital congruity of the Soule consists and how it changing the Soule may be free from her aiery Vehicle without violent precipitation out of it 11. Of the manner of the descent of Souls into Earthly Bodies 12. That there is so little Absurdity in the Praeexistence of Soules that the concession thereof can be but a very small prejudice to our Demonstrations of her Immortality 1. BUT I shall spend my time better in clearing the Opinion I here defend then in perplexing that other that is so gross of it self that none that throughly understand the nature of the Soule can so much as allow the possibility thereof wherefore for the better conceiving how a Praeexistent Soule may enter this Terrestriall Body there are two things to be enquired into the difference of the Vehicles of Soules and the cause of their union with them The Platonists doe chiefly take notice of Three kindes of Vehicles AEthereal AEreal and Terrestrial in every one whereof there may be several degrees of purity and impurity which yet need not amount to a new Species 2. This notion of Vehicles though it be discoursed of most in the School of Plato yet is not altogether neglected by Aristotle as appears in his De Generat Animal Lib. 2. Cap. 3. where though he does not use the Name yet he does expresly acknowledge the Thing it self For he does plainly affirm that every Soule partakes of a Body distinct from this organized terrestriall Body and of a more divine nature then the Elements so called and that as one Soule is more noble then another so is the difference of this diviner Body which yet is nothing else with him then that warmth or heat in the seed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is not fire but a Spirit contained in the spumeous seed and in this Spirit a nature analogous to the element of the Stars 3. Of which neither Aristotle himself had nor any one else can have so explicite an apprehension as those that understand the first and second Element of Des-Cartes which is the most subtill and active Body that is in the World is of the very same nature that the Heaven and Stars are that is to say is the very Body of Light which is to be understood chiefly of the first Element though so mingled with other Matter here below that it does not shine but is the Basis of all that naturall warmth in all generations and the immediate instrument of the Soule when it organizeth any Matter into the figure or shape of an Animall as I have also intimated elsewhere when I proved that the Spirits are the immediate instrument of the Soule in all Vital and Animal functions In which Spirits of necessity is contained this Coelestiall Substance which keeps them from congealing as it does also all other liquid bodies and must needs be in the Pores of them there being no Vacuum in the whole comprehension of Nature 4. The full and express meaning therefore of Aristotles text must be this that in the spumeous and watry or terrene moisture of the seed is contained a Body of a more spirituous or aëreal consistency and in this aëreal or spirituous consistency is comprehended 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a nature that is analogous or like to the Element of the stars namely that is of it self aethereal and lucid 5. And it is this Vehicle that Aristotle seems to assert that the Soule does act in separate from the Body as if she were ever either in this terrestrial Body or in her aethereal one which if it were true so vast a change must needs obliterate all Memory of her former condition when she is once plunged into this earthly prison But it seems not so probable to me that Nature admits of so great a Chasme nor is it necessary to suppose it for this purpose the descent of the Soule out of her aiery Vehicle into this terrestrial Body and besmearing moisture of the first rudiments of life being sufficient to lull her into an eternall oblivion of whatever hapned to her in that other condition to say nothing of her long state of Silence and Inactivity before her turn come to revive in an earthly body 6. Wherefore not letting go that more orderly conceit of the Platonists I shall make bold to assert that the Soule may live and act in an aëreal Vehicle as well as in the aethereal and that there are very few that arrive to that high happiness as to acquire a Coelestial Vehicle immediatly upon their quitting the terrestrial one that heavenly Chariot necessarily carrying us in triumph to the greatest happiness the Soule of man is capable of which would arrive to all men indifferently good and bad if the parting with this earthly Body would suddainly mount us into the heavenly Wherefore by a just Nemesis the Soules of Men that are not very Heroically vertuous will finde themselves restrained within the compass of this caliginous Aire as both Reason it self will suggest and the Platonists have unanimously determined 7. We have competently described the difference of those three kinds of Vehicles for their purity and consistency The Platonists adde to this the difference of duration making some of them of that nature as to entertain the Soule a longer time in them others a shorter The shortest of all is that of the Terrestrial Vehicle In the Aëreal the Soule may inhabit as they define many Ages and in the
living in these several Vehicles because that Divine Nemesis which is supposed to rule in the world would seem defective without this contrivance But without controversy Eternall Wisdome and Justice has forecast that which is the best and unless we will say nothing at all we having nothing to judge by but our own Faculties we must say that the Forecast is according to what we upon our most accurate search doe conceive to be the best For there being no Envy in the Deity as Plato somewhere has noted it is not to be thought but that He has framed our Faculties so that when we have rightly prepared our selves for the use of them they will have a right correspondency with those things that are offered to them to contemplate in the world And truly if we had here time to consider I doe not doubt but it might be made to appear a very rationall thing that there should be such an Amphibion as the Soule of man that had a capacity as some Creatures have to live either in the Water or on the Earth to change her Element and after her abode here in this Terrestrial Vehicle amongst Men and Beasts to ascend into the company of the AEreal Genii in a Vehicle answerable to their nature 5. Supposing then this triple capacity of Vital Congruity in the Soule of Man the manner how she may leave this Body is very intelligible For the Bodies fitness of temper to retain the Soule being lost in Death the lower Vitall Congruity in the Soule looseth its Object and consequently its Operation And therefore as the letting goe one thought in the Perceptive part of the Soule is the bringing up another so the ceasing of one Vitall Congruity is the wakening of another if there be an Object or Subject ready to entertain it as certainly there is partly in the Body but mainly without it For there is a vitall Aire that pervades all this lower world which is continued with the life of all things and is the chiefest Principle thereof Whence Theon in his Scholia upon Aratus interprets that Hemistich 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a secondary meaning as spoken of the Aire which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the naturall Jupiter in whom in an inferiour sense we may be said to live and move and have our Being for without Aire neither Fishes Fowls nor Beasts can subsist it administring the most immediate matter of life unto them by feeding refreshing their Animal Spirits Wherefore upon the cessation of the lowest Vitall Congruity that AEreal capacity awakening into Act and finding so fit Matter every where to employ her self upon the Soule will not faile to leave the Body either upon choice by the power of her own Imagination Will or else supposing the very worst that can happen by a naturall kinde of Attraction or Transvection she being her self in that stound and confusion that accompanies Death utterly unsensible of all things For the Aire without being more whole some and vitall then in the corrupt caverns of the dead Body and yet there being a continuation thereof with that without it is as easy to understand how that Principle of joyning therewith in the Plastick part of the Soule being once excited she will naturally glide out of the Body into the free Aire as how the Fire will ascend upwards or a Stone fall downwards for neither are the motions of these meerly Mechanicall but vitall or Magicall that cannot be resolved into meer Matter as I shall demonstrate in my Third Book 6. And being once recovered into this vast Ocean of Life and sensible Spirit of the world so full of enlivening Balsame it will be no wonder if the Soule suddainly regain the use of her Perceptive faculty being as it were in a moment regenerate into a naturall power of Life and Motion by so happy a concurse of rightly-prepared Matter for her Plastick part vitally to unite withall For grosser generations are performed in almost as inconsiderable a space of time if those Histories be true of extemporary Sallads sowne and gathered not many hours before the meale they are eaten at and of the suddain ingendring of Frogs upon the fall of rain whole swarms whereof that had no Being before have appeared with perfect shape and liveliness in the space of half an houre after some more unctuous droppings upon the dry ground as I find not onely recited out of Fallopius Scaliger and others but have been certainly my self informed of it by them that have been eye-witnesses thereof as Vaninus also professes himself to have been by his friend Johannes Ginochius who told him for a certain that in the month of July he saw with his own eyes a drop of rain suddenly turned into a Frog By such examples as these it is evident that the reason why Life is so long a compleating in Terrestrial generations is onely the sluggishness of the Matter the Plastick power works upon Wherefore a Soule once united with Aire cannot miss of being able in a manner in the twinckling of an eye to exercise all Perceptive functions again if there was ever any intercessation of them in the astonishments of Death 7. How the Soule may live and act separate from the Body may be easily understood out of what has been spoken But that she does so de facto there are but two wayes to prove it the one by the testimony of History the other by Reason That of History is either of persons perfectly dead or of those that have been subject to Ecstasies or rather to that height thereof which is more properly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when the Soule does really leave the Body and yet return again Of this latter sort is that example that Pliny recites of Hermotimus Clazomenius whose Soule would often quit her Body and wander up and down and after her return tell many true stories of what she had seen during the time of her disjunction The same Maximus Tyrius and Herodotus report of Aristaeus Proconnesius Marsilius Ficinus adjoyns to this rank that narration in Aulus Gellius concerning one Cornelius a Priest who in an Ecstasie saw the Battel fought betwixt Caesar and Pompey in Thessalie his Body being then at Padua and yet could after his return to himself punctually declare the Time Order and Success of the Fight That in Wierus of the Weasell coming out of the Souldiers mouth when he was asleep is a more plain example which if it were true would make Aristaeus his Pigeon not so much suspected of fabulosity as Pliny would have it Severall Relations there are in the world to this effect that cannot but be loudly laughed at by them that think the Soule inseparable from the Body and ordinarily they seem very ridiculous also to those that think it is separable but as firmly believe that it is never nor ever can be separate but in Death 8. Bodinus has a very great desire notwithstanding
made dying men visit their friends before their departure at many miles distance their Bodies still keeping their sick bed and those that have been well give a visit to their sick friends of whose health they have been over-desirous and solicitous For this Ecstasie is really of the Soul and not of the Blood or Animal Spirits neither of which have any Sense or Perception in them at all And therefore into this Principle is to be resolved that Story which Martinus Del-Rio reports of a Lad who through the strength of Imagination and Desire of seeing his Father fell into an Ecstasie and after he came to himself confidently affirmed he had seen him and told infallible circumstances of his being present with him 13. That Cardan and others could fall into an Ecstasie when they pleased by force of Imagination and Desire to fall into it is recorded and believed by very grave and sober Writers but whether they could ever doe it to a compleat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or local disjunction of the Soul from the Body I know none that dare affirm such events being rather the chances of Nature and Complexion as in the Noctambuli then the effects of our Will But we cannot assuredly conclude but that Art may bring into our own power and ordering that which natural causes put upon us sometimes without our leaves But whether those Oyntments of Witches have any such effect or whether those unclean Spirits they deal with by their immediate presence in their Bodies cannot for a time so suppress or alter their Vital fitness to such a degree as will loosen the Soul I leave to more curious Inquisitors to search after It is sufficient that I have demonstrated a very intelligible possibility of this actual separation without Death properly so called From whence the peremptory Confessions of Witches and the agreement of the story which they tell in several as well those that are there bodily as they that leave their Bodies behinde them especially when at their return they bring something home with them as a permanent sign of their being at the place is though it may be all the delusion of their Familiars no contemptible probability of their being there indeed where they declare they have been For these are the greatest evidences that can be had in humane affairs And nothing so much as the supposed Impossibility thereof has deterred men from believing the thing to be true CHAP. XVI 1. That Souls departed communicate Dreams 2. Examples of Apparitions of Souls deceased 3. Of Apparitions in fields where pitcht Battels have been fought as also of those in Churchyards and other vaporous places 4. That the Spissitude of the Air may well contribute to the easiness of the appearing of Ghosts and Spectres 5. A further proof thereof from sundry examples 6. Of Marsilius Ficinus his appearing after death 7. With what sort of people such examples as these avail little 8. Reasons to perswade the unprejudiced that ordinarily those Apparitions that bear the shape and person of the deceased are indeed the Souls of them 1. THE Examples of the other sort viz. of the appearing of the Ghosts of men after death are so numerous and frequent in all mens mouths that it may seem superfluous to particularize in any This appearing is either by Dreams or open Vision In Dreams as that which hapned to Avenzoar Albumaron an Arabian Physitian to whom his lately-deceased friend suggested in his sleep a very soverain Medicine for his sore Eyes Like to this is that in Diodorus concerning Isis Queen of AEgypt whom he reports to have communicated remedies to the AEgyptians in their sleep after her death as well as she did when she was alive Of this kinde is also that memorable story of Posidonius the Stoick concerning two young men of Arcadia who being come to Megara and lying the one at a Victuallers the other in an Inne he in the Inne while he was asleep dream'd that his Fellow-traveller earnestly desired him to come and help him as being assaulted by the Victualler and in danger to be killed by him But he after he was perfectly awake finding it but a Dream neglected it But faln asleep again his murdered friend appeared to him the second time beseeching him that though he did not help him alive yet he would see his Death revenged telling him how the Victualler had cast his Body into a Dung-cart and that if he would get up timely in the morning and watch at the Town-gate he might thereby discover the murder which he did accordingly and so saw Justice done on the Murderer Nor does the first Dream make the second impertinent to our purpose For as that might be from the strength of Imagination and desire of help in the distressed Arcadian impressed on the Spirit of the World and so transmitted to his friend asleep a condition fittest for such communications so it is plain that this after his Death must fail if his Soul did either cease to be or to act And therefore it is manifest that she both was and did act and suggested this Dream in revenge of the Murder Of which kinde there be infinite examples I mean of Murders discovered by Dreams the Soul of the person murdered seeming to appear to some or other asleep and to make his complaint to them But I will content my self onely to adde an Example of Gratitude to this of Revenge As that of Simonides who lighting by chance on a dead Body by the Sea side and out of the sense of Humanity bestowing Burial upon it was requited with a Dream that saved his life For he was admonisht to desist from his Voyage he intended by Sea which the Soul of the deceased told him would be so perillous that it would hazard the lives of the Passengers He believed the Vision and abstaining was safe those others that went suffered Shipwrack 2. We will adjoyn onely an Example or two of that other kind of Visions which are ordinarily called the Apparitions of the dead And such is that which Pliny relates at large in his Epistle to Sura of an house haunted at Athens and freed by Athenodorus the Philosopher after the Body of that person that appeared to him was digged up and interred with due solemnity It is not a thing unlikely that most houses that are haunted are so chiefly from the Soules of the deceased who have either been murdered or some way injured or have some hid treasure to discover or the like And persons are haunted for the like causes as well as houses as Nero was after the murdering of his Mother Otho pull'd out of his bed in the night by the Ghost of Galba Such instances are infinite as also those wherein the Soule of ones friend suppose Father Mother or Husband have appeared to give them good counsell and to instruct them of the event of the greatest affairs of their life The Ghosts also of deceased Lovers have been reported to adhere
error ac timor multum in hominibus possunt will prevail more with them then all the Stories the same Authour writes of Apparitions or whatever any one else can adde unto them And others that doe admit of these things praeconceptions from Education That the Soul when she departs this life is suddenly either twitched up into the Coelum Empyreum or hurried down headlong towards the Centre of the Earth makes the Apparitions of the Ghosts of men altogether incredible to them they always substituting in their place some Angel or Devil which must represent their persons themselves being not at leisure to act any such part 8. But Misconceit and Prejudice though it may hinder the force of an Argument with those that are in that manner entangled yet Reason cannot but take place with them that are free To whom I dare appeal whether considering the aereal Vehicles of Souls which are common to them with other Genii so that whatever they are fancied to doe in their stead they may perform themselves as also how congruous it is that those persons that are most concerned when it is in their power should act in their own affairs as in detecting the Murtherer in disposing their estate in rebuking injurious Executors in visiting and counselling their Wives and Children in forewarning them of such and such courses with other matters of like sort to which you may adde the profession of the Spirit thus appearing of being the Soul of such an one as also the similitude of person and that all this adoe is in things very just and serious unfit for a Devil with that care and kindness to promote and as unfit for a good Genius it being below so noble a nature to tell a Lie especially when the affair may be as effectually transacted without it I say I dare appeal to any one whether all these things put together and rightly weighed the violence of prejudice not pulling down the ballance it will not be certainly carried for the present cause and whether any indifferent Judge ought not to conclude if these Stories that are so frequent every where and in all Ages concerning the Ghosts of men appearing be but true that it is true also that it is their Ghosts and that therefore the Souls of men subsist and act after they have left these earthly Bodies CHAP. XVII 1. The preeminence of Arguments drawn from Reason above those from Story 2. The first step toward a Demonstration of Reason that the Soul acts out of her Body for that she is an immaterial Substance separable therefrom 3. The second That the immediate instruments for Sense Motion and Organization of the Body are certain subtile and tenuious Spirits 4. A comparison betwixt the Soul in the Body and the AEreal Genii 5. Of the nature of Daemons from the account of Marcus the Eremite and how the Soul is presently such having once left this Body 6. An Objection concerning the Souls of Brutes to which is answered First by way of concession 7. Secondly by confuting the Arguments for the former concession 8. That there is no rational doubt at all of the Humane Soul acting after death 9. A further Argument of her activity out of this Body from her conflicts with it while she is in it 10. As also from the general hope and belief of all Nations that they shall live after death 1. BUT we proceed now to what is less subject to the evasions and misinterpretations of either the Profane or Superstitious For none but such as will profess themselves meer Brutes can cast off the Decrees and Conclusions of Philosophy and Reason though they think that in things of this nature they may with a great deal of applause and credit refuse the testimony of other mens senses if not of their own all Apparitions being with them nothing but the strong surprisals of Melancholy and Imagination But they cannot with that ease nor credit silence the Deductions of Reason by saying it is but a Fallacy unlesse they can shew the Sophisme which they cannot doe where it is not 2. To carry on therefore our present Argument in a rational way and by degrees we are first to consider That according as already has been clearly demonstrated there is a Substance in us which is ordinarily called the Soul really distinct from the Body for otherwise how can it be a Substance And therefore it is really and locally separable from the Body Which is a very considerable step towards what we aim at 3. In the next place we are to take notice That the immediate Instrument of the Soul are those tenuious and aereal particles which they ordinarily call the Spirits that these are they by which the Soul hears sees feels imagines remembers reasons and by moving which or at least directing their motion she moves likewise the Body and by using them or some subtile Matter like them she either compleats or at least contributes to the Bodies Organization For that the Soul should be the Vital Architect of her own house that close connexion and sure possession she is to have of it distinct and secure from the invasion of any other particular Soul seems no slight Argument And yet that while she is exercising that Faculty she may have a more then ordinary Union or Implication with the Spirit of Nature or the Soul of the World so far forth as it is Plastick seems not unreasonable and therefore is asserted by Plotinus and may justly be suspected to be true if we attend to the prodigious effects of the Mothers Imagination derived upon the Infant which sometimes are so very great that unless she raised the Spirit of Nature into consent they might well seem to exceed the power of any Cause I shall abstain from producing any Examples till the proper place in the mean time I hope I may be excused from any rashness in this assignation of the cause of those many and various Signatures found in Nature so plainly pointing at such a Principle in the World as I have intimated before 4. But to return and cast our eye upon the Subject in hand It appears from the two precedent Conclusions that the Soul considered as invested immediately with this tenuious Matter we speak of which is her inward Vehicle has very little more difference from the aereal Genii then a man in a Prison from one that is free The one can onely see and suck air through the Grates of the Prison and must be annoyed with all the stench and unwholsome fumes of that sad habitation whenas the other may walk and take the fresh air where he finds it most commodious and agreeable This difference there is betwixt the Genii and an incorporated Soul The Soul as a man faln into a deep pit who can have no better Water nor Air nor no longer enjoyment of the Sun and his chearful light and warmth then the measure and quality of the pit will permit him so she once immured
misunderstood Experiments have made some very confident that there is a Vacuum in Nature and that every Body by how much more light it is so much less substance it has in it self A thing very fond and irrational at the first sight to such as are but indifferently well versed in the incomparable Philosophy of Renatus Des-Cartes whose dexterous wit and through insight into the nature and lawes of Matter has so perfected the reasons of those Phaenomena that Demooritus Epicurus Lucretius and others have puzzled themselves about that there seems nothing now wanting as concerning that way of Philosophizing but patience and an unprejudiced judgment to peruse what he has writ 7. According therefore to his Philosophy and the Truth there is ever as much Matter or Body in one consistency as another as for example there is as much Matter in a Cup of Aire as in the same Cup filled with Water and as much in this Cup of Water as if it were filled with Lead or Quicksilver Which I take notice of here that I may free the imagination of men from that ordinary and idiotick misapprehension which they entertain of Spirits that appear as if they were as evanid and devoid of Substance as the very shadowes of our Bodies cast against a Wall or our Images reflected from a River or Looking-glass and therefore from this errour have given them names accordingly calling the Ghosts of men that present themselves to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Umbrae Images and Shades The which the more visible they are they think them the more substantial fancying that the Aire is so condensed that there is not onely more of it but also that simply there is more Matter or Substance when it appears thus visible then there was in the same space before And therefore they must needs conceit that Death reduces us to a pittifull thin pittance of Being that our Substance is in a manner lost and nothing but a tenuious reek remains no more in proportion to us then what a sweating horse leaves behind him as he gallops by in a frosty morning Which certainly must be a very lamentable consideration to such as love this thick and plump Body they beare about with them and are pleased to consider how many pounds they outweighed their Neighbour the last time they were put in the ballance together 8. But if a kinde of dubious Transparency will demonstrate the deficiency of Corporeal Substance a Pillar of Crystal will have less thereof then one of Tobacco-smoak which though it may be so doubtful and evanid an Object to the Eye if we try it by the Hand it will prove exceeding solid as also these Ghosts that are said to appear in this manner have proved to them that have touched them or have been touched by them For it is a thing ridiculous and unworthy of a Philosopher to judge the measure of corporeal Matter by what it seems to our sight for so Air would be nothing at all or what it is to our handing or weighing of it for so indeed a Cup of Quick-silver would seem to have infinitely more Matter in it then one fill'd with Air onely and a vessel of Water less when it is plung'd under the water in the River then when it is carried in the Air. But we are to remember that let Matter be of what consistency it will as thin and pure as the flame of a candle there is not less of corporeal Substance therein then there is in the same dimensions of Silver Lead or Gold 9. So that we need not bemoan the shrivell'd condition of the deceased as if they were stript almost of all Substance corporeal and were too thinly clad to enjoy themselves as to any Object of Sense For they have no less Body then we our selves have onely this Body is far more active then ours being more spiritualized that is to say having greater degrees of Motion communicated unto it which the whole Matter of the world receives from some spiritual Being or other and therefore in this regard may be said the more to symbolize with that immaterial Being the more Motion is communicated to it As it does also in that which is the effect of Motion to wit the tenuity and subtilty of its particles whereby it is enabled to imitate in some sort the proper priviledge of Spirits that pass through all Bodies whatsoever And these Vehicles of the Soul by reason of the tenuity of their parts may well pass through such Matter as seems to us impervious though it be not really so to them For Matter reduced to such fluid subtilty of particles as are invisible may well have entrance through Pores unperceptible Whence it is manifest that the Soul speaking in a natural sense loseth nothing by Death but is a very considerable gainer thereby For she does not onely possess as much Body as before with as full and solid dimensions but has that accession cast in of having this Body more invigorated with Life and Motion then it was formerly Which consideration I could not but take notice of that I might thereby expunge that false conceit that adheres to most mens fancies of that evanid and starved condition of the other state CHAP. III. 1. That the natural abode of the Soul after death is the Air. 2. That she cannot quit the AErial Regions till the AEthereal Congruity of life be awakened in her 3. That all Souls are not in the same Region of the Aire 4. Cardans conceit of placing all Daemons in the upper Region 5. The use of this conceit for the shewing the reason of their seldome appearing 6. That this Phaenomenon is salved by a more rational Hypothesis 7. A further confutation of Cardans Opinion 8. More tending to the same scope 9. The Original of Cardans errour concerning the remote operations of Daemons 10. An Objection how Daemons and Souls separate can be in this lower Region where Winds and Tempests are so frequent 11. A preparation to an Answer from the consideration of the nature of the Winds 12. Particular Answers to the Objection 13. A further Answer from the nature of the Statick Faculty of the Soul 14. Another from the suddain power of actuating her Vehicle 15. What incommodations she suffers from haile rain c. 1. THose more particular Enquiries we intend to fall upon may be reduced to these few Heads viz. The place of the Souls abode Her employment and Her moral condition after Death That the place of Her abode is the Aire is the constant opinion of the ancient Philosophers and natural Theologers who doe unanimously make that Element the Receptacle of Souls departed which therefore they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because men deceased are in a state of invisibility as the place they are confined to is an Element utterly invisible of its own nature and is accloy'd also with caliginous mists and enveloped by vicissitudes with the dark shadow of
affirmes to live a long time divided and to run backwards and forwards and therefore he will have it to look like many living Creatures growing together rather then one single one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De Juvent Senect Cap. 2. But yet he will not afford them the priviledge of Plants whose Slips will live and grow being set in the Earth But the instances that belong to this Objection ascend higher for they pretend that the parts of perfect Animals will also live asunder There are two main instances thereof The one that of the Eagle Fromondus mentions whose head being chopt off by an angry Clown for quarrelling with his dog the Body flew over the barn near the place of this rude execution This was done at Fromondus his fathers house nor is the story improbable if we consider what ordinarily happens in Pigeons and Ducks when their heads are cut off The other instance is of a Malefactour beheaded at Antwerp whose head when it had given some few jumps into the crowd and a Dog fell a licking the blood caught the Dogs eare in its teeth and held it so fast that he being frighted ran away with the mans head hanging at his eare to the great astonishment and confusion of the people This was told Fromondus by an eye-witness of the fact From which two examples they think may be safely inferred that the Souls of Men as well as of the more perfect kinde of Brutes are also discerpible That example in the same Authour out of Josephus Acosta if true yet is finally to this purpose For the speaking of the sacrificed Captive when his Heart was cut out may be a further confirmation indeed that the Brain is the Seat of the Common Sense but no argument of the Divisibility of the Soule she remaining at that time entire in the Body after the cutting out of the Heart whose office it is to afford Spirits which were not so far yet dissipated but that they sufficed for that suddain operation of life 3. The Third Objection is from the seldome appearāce of the Souls of the deceased For if they can at all appear why do they not oftner if they never appear it is a strong suspicion that they are not at all in Being 4. The Fourth is from the Fear of Death and an inward down-bearing sense in us at some times that we are utterly mortal and that there is nothing to be expected after this life 5. The Fifth and last is rather a Subterfuge then an Objection That there is but One Common Soul in all Men and Beasts that operates according to the variety of Animals and Persons it does actuate and vivificate bearing a seeming particularity according to the particular pieces of Matter it enforms but is one in all and that this particularity of Body being lost this particular Man or Beast is lost and so every living creature is properly and intirely mortal These are the reallest and most pertinent Objections I could ever meet withall or can excogitate concerning the Souls Immortality to which I shall answer in order 6. And to the First which seems to be the shrewdest I say that neither the Contractedness of the Soule in Infancy nor the Weakness of her Intellectual Operations either then or in extream Old age are sufficient proofs of her Corporeity or Mortality For what wonder is it that the Soule faln into this low and fatal condition where she must submit to the course of Nature and the lawes of other Animals that are generated here on Earth should display her self by degrees from smaller dimensions to the ordinary size of men whenas this faculty of contracting and dilating of themselves is in the very essence and notion of all Spirits as I have noted already Lib. 1. Cap. 5. So she does but that leisurely and naturally now being subjected to the lawes of this terrestrial Fate which she does exempt from this condition suddainly and freely not growing by Juxta-position of parts or Intromission of Matter but inlarging of her self with the Body meerly by the dilatation of her own Substance which is one and the same alwaies 7. As for the Debility of her Intellectuals in Infancy and Old age this consideration has less force to evince her a meer corporeal essence then the former and touches not our Principles at all who have provided for the very worst surmise concerning the operations of the Minde in acknowledging them of my own accord to depend very intimately on the temper and tenour of the Souls immediate instrument the Spirits which being more torpid and watry in Children and Old men must needs hinder her in such operations as require another constitution of Spirits then is usually in Age and Childhood though I will not profess my self absolutely confident that the Soule cannot act without all dependence on Matter But if it does not which is most probable it must needs follow that its Operations will keep the lawes of the Body it is united with Whence it is demonstrable how necessary Purity and Temperance is to preserve and advance a mans Parts 8. As for Sleep which the dying Philosopher called the Brother of Death I doe not see how it argues the Souls Mortality more then a mans inability to wake again but rather helps us to conceive how that though the stounds and agonies of Death seem utterly to take away all the hopes of the Souls living after them yet upon a recovery of a quicker Vehicle of Aire she may suddainly awake into fuller and fresher participation of life then before But I may answer also that Sleep being onely the ligation of the outward Senses and the interception of motion from the external world argues no more any radical defect of Life and Immortality in the Soul then the having a mans Sight bounded within the walls of his chamber by Shuts does argue any blindness in the immured party who haply is busy reading by candle-light and that with ease so small a print as would trouble an ordinary Sight to read it by day And that the Soule is not perpetually employed in sleep is very hard for any to demonstrate we so often remembring our dreams meerly by occasions which if they had not occurred we had never suspected we had dreamed that night 9. Which Answer as also the former is applicable to Apoplexies Catalepsies and whatever other Diseases partake of their nature and witness how nimble the Soule is to act upon the suppeditation of due Matter and how Life and Sense and Memory and Reason and all return upon return of the fitting temper of the Spirits suitable to that vital Congruity that then is predominant in the Soule 10. And as for Madness there are no Apprehensions so frantick but are arguments of the Souls Immortality not as they are frantick but as Apprehensions For Matter cannot apprehend any thing either wildly or soberly as I have already sufficiently demonstrated And it is as irrational for a man to conclude
the Mysteries of Providence whose fetches are so large and Circuits so immense that they may very well seem utterly incomprehensible to the Incredulous and Idiots who are exceeding prone to think that all things will ever be as they are and desire they should be so though it be as rude and irrational as if one that comes into a Bad and is taken much with the first Dance he sees would have none danced but that or have them move no further one from another then they did when he first came into the room whenas they are to trace nearer one another or further off according to the measures of the Musick and the law of the Dance they are in And the whole Matter of the Universe and all the parts thereof are ever upon Motion and in such a Dance as whose traces backwards and forwards take a vast compass and what seems to have made the longest stand must again move according to the modulations and accents of that Musick that is indeed out of the hearing of the acutest ears but yet perceptible by the purest Minds and the sharpest Wits The truth whereof none would dare to oppose if the breath of the gainsayer could but tell its own story and declare through how many Stars and Vortices it has been strained before the particles thereof met to be abused to the framing of so rash a contradiction 8. We have now finisht our whole Discourse the summary result whereof is this That there is an incorporeal Substance and that in Man which we call his Soul That this Soul of his subsists and acts after the death of his Body and that usually first in an AErial Vehicle as other Daemons doe wherein she is not quite exempt from fate but is then perfect and secure when she has obtain'd her AEthereal one she being then out of the reach of that evil Principle whose dominion is commensurable with misery and death Which power the Persian Magi termed Arimanius and resembled him to Darkness as the other good Principle which they called Oromazes to Light styling one by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the other by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 9. Of which there can be no other meaning that will prove allowable but an adumbration of those two grand parts of Providence the one working in the Demoniacal the other in the Divine Orders Betwixt which natures there is perpetually more or less strife and contest both inwardly and outwardly But if Theopompus his prophecy be true in Plutarch who was initiated into these Arcana the power of the Benign Principle will get the upper hand at last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. At length Hades or Arimanius will be left in the lurch who so strongly holds us captive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and men shall then be perfectly happy needing no food nor casting any shadow For what shadow can that Body cast that is a pure and transparent light such as the AEthereal Vehicle is And therefore that Oracle is then fulfilled when the Soul has ascended into that condition we have already described in which alone it is out of the reach of Fate and Mortality 10. This is the true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to speak according to the Persian Language with whose empty title Emperours and great Potentates of the Earth have been ambitious to adorn their memory after death but is so high a Priviledge of the Soul of Man that meer Political vertues as Plotinus calls them can never advance her to that pitch of Happiness Either Philosophy or something more sacred then Philosophy must be her Guide to so transcendent a condition And not being curious to dispute whether the Pythagoreans ever arrived to it by living according to the precepts of their Master I shall notwithstanding with confidence averre that what they aimed at is the sublimest felicity our nature is capable of and being the utmost Discovery this Treatise could pretend to I shall conclude all with a Distich of theirs which I have elswhere taken notice of upon like occasion it comprehending the furthest scope not onely of their Philosophy but of this present Discourse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To this sense Who after death once reach th' aethereal Plain Are straight made Gods and never die again The Contents of the several Chapters contained in this Treatise BOOK I. Chap. 1. 1. THE usefulness of the present Speculation for the understanding of Providence and the management of our lives for our greatest happiness 2. For the moderate bearing the death and disasters of our Friends 3. For the begetting true Magnanimity in us 4. and Peace and Tranquillity of Minde 5. That so weighty a Theory is not to be handled perfunctorily Pag. 1 Chap. 2. 1. That the Souls Immortality is demonstrable by the Authors method to all but meer Scepticks 2. An Illustration of his First Axiome 3. A confirmation and example of the Second 4. An explication of the Third 5. An explication and proof of the Fourth 6. A proof of the Fifth 7. Of the Sixth 8. An example of the Seventh 9. A confirmation of the truth of the Eighth 10. A demonstration and example of the Ninth 11. Penetrability the immediate property of Incorporeal substance 12. As also Indiscerpibility 13. A proof and illustration of the tenth Axiome 4 Chap. 3. 1. The general notions of Body and Spirit 2. That the notion of Spirit is altogether as intelligible as that of Body 3. Whether there be any Substance of a mixt nature betwixt Body and Spirit 16 Chap. 4. 1. That the notions of the several kinds of Immaterial Beings have no Inconsistency nor Incongruity in them 2. That the nature of God is as intelligible as the nature of any Being whatsoever 3. The true notion of his Ubiquity and how intelligible it is 4. Of the union of the Divine Essence 5. Of his power of Creation 20 Chap. 5. 1. The Definition belonging to all Finite and Created Spirits 2. Of Indiscerpibility a symbolical representation thereof 3. An Objection answered against that representation 24 Chap. 6. 1. Axiomes that tend to the demonstrating how the Centre or First point of the Primary Substance of a Spirit may be Indiscerpible 2. Several others that demonstrate how the Secondary Substance of a Spirit may be Indiscerpible 3. An application of these Principles 4. Of the union of the Secondary Substance considered transversly 5. That the notion of a Spirit has less difficulty then that of Matter 6. An answer to an Objection from the Rational faculty 7. Answers to Objections suggested from Fancy 8. A more compendious satisfaction concerning the notion of a Spirit 29 Chap. 7. 1. Of the Self-motion of a Spirit 2. Of Self-penetration 3. Of Self-contraction and dilatation 4. The power of penetrating of Matter 5. The power of moving 6. And of altering the Matter 42 Chap. 8. 1. Four main Species of Spirits 2. How they are to be defined 3.
Intelligent Soule if the Earth and all the space betwixt her and him were devoid thereof Nor do I conceive though it be an infinitely more slight business that the direction of the Signature of the Foetus upon such a part were to be performed by the Fancy of the Mother notwithstanding the advantage of the organization of her body were not both her self and the Foetus animated Creatures 13. Wherefore we have demonstrated beyond all Evasion from the Phaenomena of the Universe That of necessity there must be such a thing in the world as Incorporeall Substance let inconsiderable Philosophasters hoot at it and deride it as much as their Follies please BOOK II. CHAP. I. 1. An addition of more Axiomes for the demonstrating that there is a Spirit or Immateriall Substance in Man 2. The Truth of the first of these Axiomes confirmed from the testimony of Mr. Hobbs 3. The proof of the second Axiome 4. The proof of the third 5. The confirmation of the fourth from the testimony of Mr. Hobbs as also from Reason 6. An explication and proof of the fifth 7. A further proof thereof 8. A third Argument of the Truth thereof 9. An Answer to an Evasion 10. Another Evasion answered 11. A further Answer thereto 12. A third Answer 13. A fourth Answer wherein is mainly contained a confirmation of the first Answer to the second Evasion 14. The plainness of the sixth Axiome 15. The proof of the seventh 1. HAving cleared the way thus far as to prove that there is no Contradiction nor Inconsistency in the notion of a Spirit but that it may Exist in Nature nay that de facto there are Incorporeall Substances really Existent in the world we shall now drive more home to our main design and demonstrate That there is such an Immateriall Substance in Man which from the power it is conceived to have in actuating and guiding the Body is usually called the Soule This Truth we shall make good first in a more generall way but not a whit the lesse stringent by evincing That such Faculties or Operations as we are conscious of in our selves are utterly incompetible to Matter considered at large without any particular organization And then afterwards we shall more punctually consider the Body of man and every possible fitness in the structure thereof that is worth taking notice of for the performance of these Operations we ordinarily find in our selves And that this may be done more plainly and convincingly we will here adde to the number of our Axiomes these that follow AXIOME XX. Motion or Reaction of one part of the Matter against another or at least a due continuance thereof is really one and the same with Sense and Perception if there be any Sense or Perception in Matter 2. THis Axiome as it is plain enough of it self supposing there were nothing but Body in the world so has it the suffrage of our most confident and potent adversary Mr. Hobbs in his Elements of Philos. Cap. 25. Art 2. Whose judgment I make much of in such cases as these being perswaded as well out of Reason as Charity that he seeing so little into the nature of Spirits that defect is compensated with an extraordinary Quick sightedness in discerning of the best and most warrantable wayes of salving all Phaenomena from the ordinary allowed properties of Matter Wherefore I shall not hold it impertinent to bring in his Testimony in things of this nature my Demonstrations becoming thereby more recommendable to men of his own Conclusions But my design being not a particular victory over such a sort of Men but an absolute establishing of the Truth I shall lay down no Grounds that are meerly Argumenta ad hominem but such as I am perswaded upon this Hypothesis That there is nothing but Body in the world are evident to any one that can indifferently judge thereof And the demonstration of this present Axiome I have prefixed in my Preface Sect. 5. AXIOME XXI So far as this continued Reaction reaches so far reaches Sense or Perception and no farther 3. THis Axiome is to be understood as well of Duration of time as Extension of the Subject viz. That Sense and Perception spread no further in Matter then Reaction does nor remain any longer then this Reaction remains Which Truth is fully evident out of the foregoing Axiome AXIOME XXII That diversity there is of Sense or Perception does necessarily arise from the diversity of the Magnitude Figure Position Vigour and Direction of Motion in parts of the Matter 4. THE truth of this is also clear from the 20. Axiome For Perception being really one and the same thing with Reaction of Matter one part against another and there being a diversity of perception it must imply also a diversity of modification of Reaction and Reaction being nothing but Motion in Matter it cannot be varied but by such variations as are competible to Matter viz. such as are Magnitude Figure Posture Locall Motion wherein is contained any endeavour towards it as also the Direction of that either full Motion or curb'd endeavour and a Vigour thereof which if you run to the lowest degrees you will at last come to Rest which therefore is someway referrible to that head as to Magnitude you are to refer Littleness These are the first conceivables in Matter and therefore diversity of perception must of necessity arise from these AXIOME XXIII Matter in all the variety of those Perceptions it is sensible of has none but such as are impressed by Corporeall Motions that is to say that are perceptions of some actions or modificated Impressions of parts of Matter bearing one against another 5. TO this Truth Mr. Hobbs sets his seale with all willingness imaginable or rather eagerness as also his followers they stoutly contending that we have not the perception of any thing but the Phantasmes of materiall Objects and of sensible words or Markes which we make to stand for such and such Objects Which certainly would be most true if there were nothing but Matter in the world so that they speak very consonantly to their own Principles I say this is not only true in that School but also rationall in it self supposing nothing but Matter in the world and that Perception and Reaction is really one For that Reaction being in Brutes as well as in Men there must not be any difference by a perception of quite another kind but by an externall way of communication of their perceptions And therefore the distinction betwixt Men and Beasts must consist onely in this that the one can agree in some common mark whether Voices or Characters or whatever else to express their perceptions but the other cannot but the perceptions themselves must be of one kind in both they neither of them perceiving any thing but corporeall impressions such as they feel by the parts of the Matter bearing one against another AXIOME XXIV The distinct Impression of any considerable extent of variegated Matter
progressive motion 8. That such thin Spirits are the immediate instruments of Sense is also discovered by what is observed in a Vertigo For the Brain it self is not of such a fluid substance as to turn round and to make external Objects seem to doe so Wherefore it is a sign that the immediate corporeal instrument of conveying the images of things is the Spirits in the Brain 9. And that they are the chief Organ of Sight is plain in the exteriour parts of the Eye for we may easily discern how full they are of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pure and lucid substance which Hippocrates speaks of though he seat it in a wrong place and how upon the passions of the minde these Spirits ebbe or flow in the Eye and are otherwise wonderful-significantly modified insomuch that the Soul even seems to speak through them in that silent voice of Angels which some fancy to be by nothing but by dumb shews but I doe not at all believe it It is also plain enough that dimness of sight comes from deficiency of these Spirits though the parts of the Eye otherwise be entire enough The wider opening also of the pupill of one Eye upon the shutting of the other does indicate the flux and more copious presence of Spirits there as Galen has ingeniously collected 10. To which we may adde that in those more noble operations of the Minde when she meditates and excogitates various Theorems that either she uses some part of the Body as an Instrument then or acts freely and independently of the Body That the latter is false is manifest from hence that then the change of Air or Distemper and Diseasedness could not prejudice her in her Inventive and purely Intellectuall Operations but it is manifest that they doe and that a mans Minde is much more cloudy one time then another and in one Country then another whence is that proverbiall Verse Boeotûm crasso jurares aere natum If she uses any part of the Body it must be either these animal Spirits or the Brain That it is not the Brain the very consistency thereof so clammy and sluggish is an evident demonstration which will still have the more force if we consider what is most certainly true That the Soul has not any power or else exceeding little of moving Matter but her peculiar priviledge is of determining Matter in motion which the more subtile and agitated it is the more easily by reason of its own mobility is it determined by her For if it were an immediate faculty of the Soul to contribute motion to any matter I doe not understand how that faculty never failing nor diminishing no more then the Soul it self can fail or diminish that we should ever be weary of motion In so much that those nimble-footed Maenades or she-Priests of Bacchus with other agile Virgins of the Country which Dionysius describes dancing in the flowry meadows of Maeander and Cayster might if life and limbs would last be found dancing there to this very day as free and frolick as wanton Kids as he pleases to set out their activity and that without any lassitude at all For that immediate motive faculty of the Soul can still as fresh as ever impart motion to all the Body and sooner consume it into air or ashes by heating and agitating it then make her self weary or the Body seem so Wherefore it is plain that that motion or heat that the Soul voluntarily confers upon the Body is by vertue of the Spirits which she when they are playing onely and gently toying amongst themselves sends forth into the exteriour members and so agitates and moves them but they being so subtile and dissipable the Soul spends them in using of them and they being much spent she can hardly move the Body any longer the sense whereof we call Lassitude These are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Hippocrates and the Souls immediate engine of motion through all the parts of the Body 11. As they are also of Sense in the more remote parts as well as in the Head as Spigelius handsomely insinuates by that ordinary example of a mans legge being stupified or asleep as some call it by compression or whatever hinderance may be of the propagation of the Spirits into that part For as sense and motion is restored a man may plainly feel something creep into it tingling and stinging like Pismires as he compares it which can be nothing but the Spirits forcing their passage into the part Wherein what they suffer is made sensible to the Soul they being her immediate Vehicle of life and sense 12. Lastly in swooning fits when motion and sense fails the exteriour parts are pale and fallen the Face looking more lean and sharp of which there can be no other meaning then that that benign gale of vital air that fill'd up the parts before is now absent and retreated from them that is that the fluid Spirits are retired without which no sense nor motion can be performed whence it is apparent that they are the immediate instrument of both 13. I have proved that the Animal Spirits are the Souls immediate organ for sense and motion If therefore there be any place where these Spirits are in the fittest plenty and purity and in the most convenient situation for Animal functions that in all reason must be concluded the chief seat and Acropolis of the Soul Now the Spirits in the middle ventricle of the brain are not so indifferently situated for both the Body and the Head as those in the fourth are nor so pure The upper Ventricles being two are not so fit for this office that is so very much one and singular Besides that the sensiferous impresses of motion through the eyes play under them to say nothing how the Spirits here are less defaecate also then in the fourth Ventricle Wherefore there being sufficient plenty and greatest purity and fittest situation of the Spirits in this fourth Ventricle it is manifest that in these is placed the Centre of Perception that they are the common Sensorium of the Soul And that as the Heart pumps out Blood perpetually to supply the whole Body with nourishment and to keep up the bulk of this edifice for the Soul to dwell in as also from the more subtile and agile parts thereof to replenish the Brain and Nerves with Spirits which are the immediate instrument of the Soul for Sense and Motion so it is plain likewise that the main use of the Brain and Nerves is to keep these subtile Spirits from over speedy dissipation and that the Brain with its Caverns is but one great round Nerve as the Nerves with their invisible porosities are but so many smaller productions or slenderer prolongations of the Brain CHAP. IX 1. Several Objections against Animal Spirits 2. An Answer to the first Objection touching the Porosity of the Nerves 3. To the second and third from the Extravasation of the
creatures that are less perfect may be usually Mechanicall 9. We have now so far forth as it is requisite for our design considered the Nature and Functions of the Soule and have plainly demonstrated that she is a Substance distinct from the Body and that her very Essence is spread throughout all the Organs thereof as also that the generall instrument of all her Operations is the subtile Spirits which though they be not in like quantity and sincerity every where yet they make all the Body so pervious to the impresses of Objects upon the externall Organs that like Lightning they pass to the Common Sensorium For it is not necessary that the Medium be so fine and tenuious as the Matter where the most subtile motion begins Whence Light passes both Aire and Water though Aire alone is not sufficient for such a motion as Light and Water almost uncapable of being the Seat of the fountain thereof This may serve to illustrate the passage of Sense from the Membranes or in what other seat soever the Spirits are most subtil and lucid through thicker places of the Body to the very Centre of Perception 10. Lastly we have discovered a kind of Heterogeneity in the Soule and that she is not of the same power every where For her Centre of Perception is confined to the Fourth Ventricle of the Brain and if the Sensiferous Motions we speak of be not faithfully conducted thither we have no knowledg of the Object That part therefore of the Soule is to be looked upon as most precious and she not being an independent Mass as Matter is but one part resulting from another that which is the noblest is in all reason to be deemed the cause of the rest For which reason as Synesius calls God on whom all things depend 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so I think this Part may be called the Root of the Soule Which apprehension of ours will seem the less strange if we consider that from the highest Life viz. the Deity there does result that which has no Life nor Sense at all to wit the stupid Matter Wherefore in very good Analogie we may admit that that pretious part of the Soule in which resides Perception Sense and Understanding may send forth such an Essential Emanation from it self as is utterly devoid of all Sense and Perception which you may call if you will the Exteriour branches of the Soule or the Rayes of the Soule if you call that nobler and diviner part the Centre which may very well merit also the appellation of the Eye of the Soule all the rest of its parts being but meer darkness without it In which like another Cyclops it will resemble the World we live in whose one Eye is conspicuous to all that behold the light 11. But to leave such lusorious Considerations that rather gratifie our fancy then satisfy our severer faculties we shall content our selves hereafter from those two notorious Powers and so perfectly different which Philosophers acknowledg in the Soule to wit Perception and Organization onely to term that more noble part of her in the Common Sensorium the Perceptive and all the rest the Plastick part of the Soule CHAP. XII 1. An Answer to an Objection That our Arguments will as well prove the Immortality of the Souls of Brutes as of Men. 2. Another Objection inferring the Praeexistence of Brutes Souls and consequently of ours 3. The first Answer to the Objection 4. The second Answer consisting of four parts 5. First That the Hypothesis of Praeexistence is more agreeable to Reason then any other Hypothesis 6. And not onely so but that it is very solid in it self 7. That the Wisdome and Goodness of God argue the truth thereof 8. As also the face of Providence in the World 9. The second part of the second Answer That the Praeexistence of the Soul has the suffrage of all Philosophers in all Ages that held it Incorporeal 10. That the Gymnosophists of AEgypt the Indian Brachmans the Persian Magi and all the learned of the Jews were of this Opinion 11. A Catalogue of particular famous persons that held the same 12. That Aristotle was also of the same minde 13. Another more clear place in Aristotle to this purpose with Sennertus his Interpretation 14. An Answer to an evasion of that Interpretation 15. The last and clearest place of all out of Aristotles Writings 1. HAving thus discovered the Nature of the Soul and that she is a Substance distinct from the Body I should be in readiness to treat of her Separation from it did I not think my self obliged first to answer an envious Objection cast in our way whereby they would make us believe that the Arguments which we have used though they be no less then Demonstrations are meer Sophisms because some of them and those of not the least validity prove what is very absurd and false viz. That the Souls of Brutes also are Substances Incorporeal distinct from the Body from whence it will follow that they are Immortal But to this I have answered already in the Appendix to my Antidote c. Cap. 10. and in brief concluded That they are properly no more Immortal then the stupid Matter which never perishes and that out of a terrestrial Body they may have no more sense then it For all these things are as it pleases the first Creatour of them 2. To this they perversly reply That if the Souls of Brutes subsist after death and are then sensless and unactive it will necessarily follow that they must come into Bodies again For it is very ridiculous to think that these Souls having a Being yet in the world and wanting nothing but fitly-prepared Matter to put them in a capacity of living again should be always neglected and never brought into play but that new ones should be daily created in their stead for those innumerable Myriads of Souls would lie useless in the Universe the number still increasing even to infinity But if they come into Bodies again it is evident that they praeexist and if the Souls of Brutes praeexist then certainly the Souls of Men doe so too Which is an Opinion so wilde and extravagant that a wry mouth and a loud laughter the Argument that every Fool is able to use is sufficient to silence it and dash it out of countenance No wise man can ever harbour such a conceit as this which every Idiot is able to confute by consulting but with his own Memory For he is sure if he had been before he could remember something of that life past Besides the unconceivableness of the Approach and Entrance of these praeexistent Souls into the Matter that they are to actuate 3. To this may be answered two things The first That though indeed it cannot be well denied but that the concession of the Praeexistence of the Souls of Brutes is a very fair introduction to the belief of the Praeexistence of the Souls of Men also yet the sequel is
it is so incredible to others that the thing should be true it being so evincing an argument for the Soules Immortality And he thinks this Truth is evident from innumerable examples of the Ecstasies of Witches which we must confess with him not to be natural but that they amount to a perfect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or carrying away the Soule out of the Body the lively sense of their meeting and dancing and adoring the Devill and the mutuall remembrance of the persons that meet one another there at such a time will be no infallible Demonstration that they were there indeed while their Bodies lay at home in Bed Conformity of their Confessions concerning the same Conventicle is onely a shrewd probability if it once could be made good that this leaving their Bodies were a thing possible For when they are out of them they are much-what in the same condition that other Spirits are and can imitate what shape they please so that many of these Transformations into Wolves and Cats may be as likely of the Soule having left thus the Body as by the Devils possessing the Body and transfiguring it himself And what these aiery Cats or Wolves suffer whether cuttings of their limbs or breaking the Back or any such like mischief that the Witch in her Bed suffers the like may very well arise from that Magick Sympathy that is seated in the Unity of the Spirit of the World and the continuity of the subtill Matter dispersed throughout The Universe in some sense being as the Stoicks and Platonists define it one vast entire Animal 9. Now that this reall Separation of the Soule may happen in some Ecstasies will be easily admitted if we consider that the Soule in her own Nature is separable from the Body as being a Substance really distinct therefrom and that all Bodies are alike penetrable and passable to her she being devoid of that corporeall property which they ordinarily call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore can freely slide through any Matter whatsoever without any knocking or resistance and lastly that she does not so properly impart Heat and Motion to the Body as Organization and therefore when the Body is well organized and there be that due temper of the Blood the Heart and Pulse will in some measure beat and the Brain will be replenish't with Spirits and therewith the whole Body though the Soule were out of it In which case saving that the Spirit of Nature cannot be excluded thence it would be perfectly Cartesius his Machina without Sense though seemingly as much alive as any animate Creature in a deep sleep Whence it appears that if the Soule could leave the Body that she might doe it for a certain time without any detriment thereto that is so long as she might well live without Repast Which fully answers their fears who conceit that if the Soule was but once out of the Body perfect Death must necessarily ensue and all possible return thither be precluded 10. But all the difficulty is to understand how the Soul may be loosned from the Body while the Body is in a fit condition to retain her That is a very great Difficulty indeed and in a manner impossible for any power but what is supernatural But it is not hard to conceive that this vital fitness in the Body may be changed either by way of natural Disease or by Art For why may not some certain Fermentation in the Body so alter the Blood and Spirits that the powers of the Plastick part of the Soul may cease to operate as well as sometimes the Perceptive faculties doe as in Catalepsies Apoplexies and the like Wherefore this passing of the Soul out of the Body in Sleep or Ecstasie may be sometime a certain Disease as well as that of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those that walk in their sleep Now if it should happen that some such distemper should arise in the Body as would very much change the Vital Congruity thereof for a time and in this Paroxysm that other Disease of the Noctambuli should surprise the party his Imagination driving him to walk to this or that place his Soul may very easily be conceived in this loosned condition it lies in to be able to leave the Body and pass in the Aire as other Inhabitants of that Element doe and act the part of separate Spirits and exercise such Functions of the perceptive faculty as they do that are quite released from Terrestrial Matter Onely here is the difference That that damp in the Body that loosned the Union of the Soul being spent the Soul by that natural Magick I have more then once intimated will certainly return to the Body and unite with it again as firm as ever But no man can when he pleases pass out of his Body thus by the Imperium of his Will no more then he can walk in his Sleep For this capacity is pressed down more deep into the lower life of the Soul whither neither the Liberty of Will nor free Imagination can reach 11. Passion is more likely to take effect in this case then either of the other two Powers the seat of Passions being originally in the Heart which is the chief Fort of these lower Faculties and therefore by their propinquity can more easily act upon the first Principles of Vital Union The effect of these has been so great that they have quite carried the Soul out of the Body as appears in sundry Histories of that kinde For both Sophocles and Dionysius the Sicilian Tyrant died suddainly upon the news of a Tragick Victory as Polycrita also a Noble-Woman of the Isle of Naxus the Poet Philippides and Diagoras of Rhodes upon the like excess of Joy We might adde examples of sudden Fear and Grief but it is needless It is a known and granted Truth that Passion has so much power over the vital temper of the Body as to make it an unfit mansion for the Soul from whence will necessarily follow her disunion from it Now if Passion will so utterly change the Harmony of the Blood and Spirits as quite to release the Soul from the Body by a perfect Death why may it not sometime act on this side that degree and onely bring a present intemperies out of which the Body may recover and consequently regain the Soul back again by virtue of that Mundane Sympathy I have so often spoke of 12. Now of all Passions whatever excess of Desire is fittest for this more harmless and momentany ablegation of the Soul from the Body because the great strength thereof is so closely assisted with the imagination of departing to the place where the party would be that upon disunion not amounting to perfect Death the power of Fancy may carry the Soul to the place intended and being satisfied and returned may rekindle life in the Body to the same degree it had before it was infested by this excess of Desire This is that if any thing that has
to their Paramours after they had left their Bodies taking all opportunities to meet them in Solitude whether by day or by night 3. There be also other more fortuitous occursions of these deceased Spirits of which one can give no account unless it be because they find themselves in a more easy capacity to appear As haply it may be in Fields after great slaughters of Armies and in publick Buriall-places Though some would ridiculously put off these Apparitions by making them nothing but the reek or vapour of the Bodies of the dead which they fancy will fall into the like stature and shape with the man it comes from Which yet Cardan playes the fool in as well as Vaninus and others as he does also in his account of those Spectra that appear so ordinarily in Iseland where the Inhabitants meet their deceased friends in so lively an Image that they salute them and embrace them for the same persons not knowing of their death unless by their suddain disappearing or by after-information that they were then dead This he imputes partly to the Thickness of the Aire and partly to the foule food and gross spirits of the Islanders and yet implies that their fancies are so strong as to convert the thick vaporous aire into the compleat shape of their absent and deceased acquaintance and so perswade themselves that they see them and talk with them whenas it is nothing else but an aiery Image made by the power of their own Fancy But certainly it had been better flatly to have denied the Narration then to give so slight and unprobable reason of the Phaenomenon 4. That the Spissitude of the Aire in that place may contribute something to the frequency of these Spectra is rationall enough For it being more thick it is the more easily reduced to a visible consistency but must be shaped not by the fancy of the Spectatour for that were a monstrous power but by the Imagination of the Spirit that actuates its own Vehicle of that gross Aire For the same reason also in other places these Apparitions haply appear oftner in the Night then in the Day the Aire being more clammy and thick after the Sun has been some while down then before To which also that custome of the Lappians a people of Scandia seems something to agree who as Caspar Peucerus relates are very much haunted with Apparitions of their deceased friends For which trouble they have no remedy but burying them under their Hearth Which Ceremony can have no naturall influence upon these Lemures unless they should hereby be engaged to keep in a warmer aire consequently more rarified then if they were interred elsewhere Or rather because their Bodies will sooner putrify by the warmth of the hearth whenas otherwise the coldness of that Clime would permit them to be sound a longer time and consequently be fit for the Souls of the deceased to have recourse to and replenish their Vehicle with such a Cambium or gluish moisture as will make it far easier to be commanded into a visible consistence 5. That this facilitates their condition of appearing is evident from that known recourse these infestant Spirits have to their dead Bodies As is notorious in the History of Cuntius which I have set down at large in my Antidote Lib. 3. Cap. 9. and of the Silesian Shoomaker and his Maid in the foregoing Chapter To which you may adde what Agrippa writes out of the Cretian Annals How there the Catechanes that is the Spirits of the deceased Husbands would be very troublesome to their Wives endeavour to lye with them while they could have any recourse to their dead Bodies Which mischief therefore was prevented by a Law that if any Woman was thus infested the Body of her Husband should be burnt and his Heart struck through with a stake Which also put a speedy end to those stirs and tragedies the Ghost of Cuntius and those others caused at Pentsch and Breslan in Silesia The like disquietnesses are reported to have hapned in the year 1567. at Trawtenaw a city of Bohemia by one Stephanus Hubener who was to admiration grown rich as Cuntius of Pentsch and when he died did as much mischief to his fellow-Citizens For he would ordinarily appear in the very shape he was when he was alive and such as he met would salute them with so close embraces that he caused many to fall sick and several to die by the unkinde huggs he gave them But burning his Body rid the Town of the perilous occursations of this malicious Gobling All which instances doe prove not onely the appearing of Souls after they have left this life but also that some thickning Matter such as may be got either from Bodies alive or lately dead or as fresh as those that are but newly dead as the Body of this Hubener was though it had lyen 20 weeks in the Grave or lastly from thick vaporous Air may facilitate much their appearing and so invite them to play tricks when they can doe it at so cheap a rate though they have little or no end in doing them but the pleasing of their own either ludicrous or boisterous and domineering humour 6. But of any private person that ever appeared upon design after his death there is none did upon a more noble one then that eximious Platonist Marsilius Ficinus who having as Baronius relates made a solemn vow with his fellow-Platonist Michael Mercatus after they had been pretty warmly disputing of the Immortality of the Soul out of the Principles of their Master Plato that whether of them two died first should appear to his friend and give him certain information of that Truth it being Ficinus his fate to die first and indeed not long after this mutual resolution he was mindful of his promise when he had left the Body For Michael Mercatus being very intent at his Studies betimes on a morning heard an horse riding by with all speed and observed that he stopped at his window and therewith heard the voice of his friend Ficinus crying out aloud O Michael Michael vera vera sunt illa Whereupon he suddenly opened the window and espying Marsilius on a white Steed called after him but he vanisht in his sight He sent therefore presently to Florence to know how Marsilius did and understood that he died about that hour he called at his window to assure him of his own and other mens Immortalities 7. The Examples I have produced of the appearing of the Souls of men after death considering how clearly I have demonstrated the separability of them from the Body and their capacity of Vital Union with an aiery Vehicle cannot but have their due weight of Argument with them that are unprejudiced But as for those that have their minds enveloped in the dark mist of Atheism that lazy and Melancholy saying which has dropt from the careless pen of that uncertain Writer Cardan Orbis magnus est aevum longum
in the Body cannot enjoy any better Spirits in which all her life and comfort consists then the constitution of the Body after such circuits of concoction can administer to her But those Genii of the Aire who possess their Vehicles upon no such hard terms if themselves be not in fault may by the power of their minds accommodate themselves with more pure and impolluted Matter and such as will more easily conspire with the noblest and divinest functions of their Spirit In brief therefore if we consider things aright we cannot abstain from strongly surmising that there is no more difference betwixt a Soule and an aëreal Genius then there is betwixt a Sword in the scabbard and one out of it and that a Soule is but a Genius in the Body and a Genius a Soule out of the Body as the Antients also have defined giving the same name as well as nature promiscuously to them both by calling them both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as I have elsewhere noted 5. This is very consonant to what Michael Psellus sets down from the singular knowledge and experience of Marcus the Eremite in these matters who describes the nature of these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as being throughout Spirit and Aire whence they heare and see and feel in every part of their Body Which he makes good by this reason and wonders at the ignorance of men that doe not take notice of it viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is neither Bones nor Nerves nor any gross or visible part of the Body or of any Organ thereof whereby the Soule immediately exercises the functions of Sense but that it is the Spirits that are her nearest and inmost instrument of these operations Of which when the Body is deprived there is found no Sense in it though the gross Organs and parts are in their usuall consistency as we see in Syncopes and Apoplexies Which plainly shewes that the immediate Vehicle of Life are the Spirits and that the Soules connexion with the Body is by these as the most learned Physicians doe conclude with one consent Whence it will follow that this Vinculum being broke the Soule will be free from the Body and will as naturally be carried out of the corrupt carkass that now has no harmony with the Soule into that Element that is more congenerous to her the vital Aire as the Fire will mount upwards as I have already noted And so Principles of Life being fully kindled in this thinner Vehicle she becomes as compleat for Sense and Action as any other Inhabitants of these aiery regions 6. There is onely one perverse Objection against this so easy and naturall Conclusion which is this That by this manner of reasoning the Soules of Brutes especially those of the perfecter sort will also not onely subsist for that difficulty is concocted pretty well already but also live and enjoy themselves after death To which I dare boldly answer That it is a thousand times more reasonable that they doe then that the Soules of Men doe not Yet I will not confidently assert that they doe or doe not but will lightly examine each Hypothesis And first by way of feigned concession we will say They doe and take notice of the Reasons that may induce one to think so Amongst which two prime ones are those involved in the Objection That they doe subsist after death and That the immediate instrument of their Vitall Functions is their Spirits as well as in Man To which we may adde That for the present we are fellow-inhabitants of one and the same Element the Earth subject to the same fate of Fire Deluges and Earthquakes That it is improbable that the vast space of Aire and AEther that must be inhabited by living creatures should have none but of one sort that is the Angels or Genii good or bad For it would seem as great a solitude as if Men alone were the Inhabitants of the Earth or Mermaids of the Sea That the periods of vitall congruity wound up in the Nature of their Soules by that eternall Wisdome that is the Creatress of all things may be shorter or longer according as the property of their essence and relation to the Universe requires and that so their Descents and Returns may be accordingly swifter or slower That it is more conformable to the Divine goodness to be so then otherwise if their natures will permit it And that their existence would be in vain while they were deprived of vital operation when they may conveniently have it That they would be no more capable of Salvation in the other state then they are here of Conversion That the intellectual Inhabitants of the Aire having also externall and corporeall Sense variety of Objects would doe as well there as here amongst us on Earth Besides that Historyes seem to imply as if there were such kind of aereal Animals amongst them as Dogs Horses and the like And therefore to be short that the Soules of Brutes cease to be alive after they are separate from this Body can have no other reason then Immorality the Mother of Ignorance that is nothing but narrowness of spirit out of over-much self-love and contempt of other Creatures to embolden us so confidently to adhere to so groundless a Conclusion 7. This Position makes indeed a plausible shew insomuch that if the Objection drove one to acknowledge it for Truth he might seem to have very little reason to be ashamed of it But this Controversy is not so easily decided For though it be plain that the Soules of Beasts be Substances really separable from their Bodies yet if they have but one Vital congruity namely the Terrestriall one they cannot recover life in the Aire But their having one or two or more Vital congruities wholy depends upon his wisdome counsel that has made all things Besides the Souls of Brutes seem to have a more passive nature then to be able to manage or enjoy this escape of Death that free and commanding Imagination belonging onely to us as also Reminiscency But Brutes have onely a passive Imagination and bare Memory which failing them in all likelyhood in the shipwrack of their Body if they could live in the Aire they would begin the World perfectly on a new score which is little better then Death so that they might in this sense be rightly deemed mortall Our being Co-inhabitants of the same element the Earth proves nothing for by the same reason Worms and Fleas should live out of their Bodies and Fishes should not who notwithstanding their shape it may be a little changed for there is no necessity that these creatures in their aiery Vehicles should be exactly like themselves in their terrestriall ones might act and live in the more moist tracts of the Aire As for the supposed solitude that would be in the Aire it reaches not this Matter For in the lower Regions thereof the various Objects of the Earth and Sea will serve the turn
The winding up of those severall circuits of vitall congruity may indeed pass for an ingenious invention as of a thing possible in the Soules of Brutes but as the Schools say well A posse ad esse non valet consequentia As for that Argument from Divine Goodness it not excluding his Wisdom which attempers it self to the natures of things we not knowing the nature of the Soules of Brutes so perfectly as we doe our own we cannot so easily be assured from thence what will be in this case A Musitian strikes not all strings at once neither is it to be expected that every thing in Nature at every time should act but when it is its turn then touched upon it will give its sound in the interim it lies silent And so it may be with the Soules of Brutes for a time especially when the vitall temper of Earth and Aire and Sea shall fail yea and at other times too if none but Intellectual Spirits be fit to manage AEreall Vehicles I confess indeed that Salvation can no more belong to the Soules of Brutes then Conversion but that is as true of the Soules of Plants if they have any distinct from the Universall Spirit of Nature but yet it does not prove that the Soules of Vegetables shall live and act in Aiery Vehicles after an Herbe or Tree is dead and rotten here To that of conveniency of variety of Objects for the aiery Inhabitants I have answered already And for the Apparitions of Horses Doggs and the like they may be the transformation of the aerial Genii into these shapes Which though it be a sign that they would not abhor from the use and society of such aeriall Animals if they had them yet they may the better want them they being able so well themselves to supply their places We will briefly therefore conclude that from the meer light of Reason it cannot be infallibly demonstrated that the Soules of Brutes doe not live after death nor that it is any Incongruity in Nature to say they do Which is sufficient to enervate the present Objection 8. But for the life and activity of the Soules of Men out of this Body all things goe on hand-smooth for it without any check or stop For we finding the aerial Genii so exceeding near-a-kin to us in their Faculties we being both intellectuall Creatures and both using the same immediate instrument of Sense and Perception to wit aeriall Spirits insomuch that we can scarce discover any other difference betwixt us then there is betwixt a man that is naked and one clad in gross thick cloathing it is the most easy and naturall inference that can be to conclude that when we are separate from the Body and are invested onely in Aire that we shall be just like them and have the same life and activity they have For though a Brute fall short of this Priviledge it ought to be no disheartning to us because there is a greater cognation betwixt the Intellectual Faculties and the aiery or aethereal Vehicle then there is betwixt such Vehicles and those more low and sensuall powers common to us with Beasts And we finde in taking the fresh aire that the more fine and pure our Spirits are our thoughts become the more noble divine and the more purely intellectuall Nor is the step greater upwards then downwards For seeing that what in us is so Divine and Angelicall may be united with the body of a Brute for such is this Earthly cloathing why may not the Soule notwithstanding her terrestriall Congruity of life which upon new occasions may be easily conceived to surcease from acting be united with the Vehicle of an Angel So that there is no puzzle at all concerning the Soul of Man but that immediately upon Death she may associate her self with those aeriall Inhabitants the Genii or Angels 9. Which we may still be the better assured of if we consider how we have such Faculties in us as the Soul finds hoppled and fettered clouded and obscured by her fatal residence in this prison of the Body In so much that so far as it is lawful she falls out with it for those incommodations that the most confirmed brutish health brings usually upon her How her Will tuggs against the impurity of the Spirits that stir up bestial Passions that are notwithstanding the height and flower of other Creatures enjoyments and how many times her whole life upon Earth is nothing else but a perpetual warfare against the results of her union with this lump of Earth that is so much like to other terrestrial Animals Whence it is plain she finds her self in a wrong condition and that she was created for a better and purer state which she could not attain to unless she lived out of the Body which she does in some sort in divine Ecstasies and Dreams in which case she making no use of the Bodies Organs but of the purer Spirits in the fourth Ventricle of the Brain she acts as it were by her self and performs some preludious Exercises conformable to those in her aiery Vehicle 10. Adde unto all this that the Immortality of the Soul is the common and therefore naturall hope and expectation of all Nations there being very few so barbarous as not to hold it for a Truth though it may be as in other things they may be something ridiculous in the manner of expressing themselves about it as that they shall retire after Death to such a Grove or Wood or beyond such a Hill or unto such an Island such as was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Island where Achilles Ghost was conceived to wander or the Insulae Fortunatae the noted Elysium of the Ancients And yet it may be if we should tell these of the Coelum Empyreum and compute the height of it and distance from the Earth and how many solid Orbs must be glided through before a Soul can come thither these simple Barbarians would think as odly of the Scholastick Opinion as we do of theirs and it may be some more judicious and sagacious Wit will laugh at us both alike It is sufficient that in the main all Nations in a manner are agreed that there is an Immortality to be expected as well as that there is a Deity to be worshipped though ignorance of circumstances makes Religion vary even to Monstrosity in many parts of the world But both Religion and the belief of the Reward of it which is a blessed state after Death being so generally acknowledged by all the Inhabitants of the Earth it is a plain Argument that it is true according to the Light of Nature And not onely because they believe so but because they do so seriously either desire it or are so horribly afraid of it if they offend much against their Consciences which properties would not be in men so universally if there were no Objects in Nature answering to these Faculties as I have elsewhere argued in the like case CHAP.
XVIII 1. That the Faculties of our Souls and the nature of the immediate instrument of them the Spirits doe so nearly symbolize with those of Daemons that it seems reasonable if God did not on purpose hinder it that they would not fail to act out of this earthly Body 2. Or if they would his power and wisdome could easily implant in their essence a double or triple Vital Congruity to make all sure 3. A further demonstration of the present Truth from the Veracity of God 4. An Answer to an Objection against the foregoing Argument 5. Another Demonstration from His Justice 6. An Answer to an Objection 7. An Answer to another Objection 8. Another Argument from the Justice of God 9. An Objection answered 10. An invincible Demonstration of the Souls Immortality from the Divine Goodness 11. A more particular enforcement of that Argument and who they are upon whom it will work least 12. That the noblest and most vertuous Spirit is the most assurable of the Souls Immortality 1. BUT finally to make all sure let us contemplate the Nature of God who is the Author and Maker of all things according to whose Goodness Wisdome and Power all things were created and are ever ordered and let us take special notice how many steps towards this Immortality we now treat of are impressed upon the very nature of the Soul already and then seriously consider if it be possible that the Soveraign Deity should stop there and goe no further when there are so great reasons if we understand any thing that He perfect our expectations For we have already clearly demonstrated That the Soul of man is a Substance actually separable from the Body and that all her Operations Functions are immediately performed not by those parts of the Body that are of an earthly and gross consistency but by what is more aeriall or aethereall the Vitall and Animall Spirits which are very congenerous to the Vehicles of the Angels or Genii Insomuch that if the Divine power did but leave Nature to work of it self it might seem very strange considering those Divine and Intellectuall Faculties in us as conformable to the essences or Soules of Angels as our Animal Spirits are to their Vehicles if it would not be an immediate sequel of this Priviledge that our Soules once separate from the Body should act and inform the Aire they are in with like facility that other Genii doe there being so very little difference betwixt both their natures 2. Or if one single Plastick power in a Subject so near a-kin to these aerial people will not necessarily suffice for both states certainly it must be a very little addition that will help out and how easy is it for that Eternall Wisdome to contrive a double or triple Vitall Congruity to wit aeriall and aethereal as well as terrestrial in such an Essence whose Faculties and properties doe so plainly symbolize with those purer Inhabitants of both the AEther and Aire 3. But this is not all we have to say For if there be one thing more precious in the Deity then another we shall have it all as a sure and infallible pledge of this present Truth That our Souls will not fail to prove Immortall And for my own part I know nothing more precious in the Godhead then his Veracity Justice and Goodness and all these three will assure us and secure us that we shall sustain no loss or damage by our departure out of these Earthly Bodies in either Life or Essence For it were a very high reproach to that Attribute of God which we call his Veracity he so plainly and universally promising to all the Nations of the World where there is any Religion at all a happy state after this life if there should in reality be no such thing to be expected For he does not onely connive it the Errour if it be one by not declaring himself against it as any upright person would if another should take upon him in his presence or hearing to tell others that he intended to bestow such and such gifts and revenues upon them when there was no such matter but he has as a man may say on set purpose indued men with extraordinary parts and powers to set this Opinion on foot in the Earth all Prophets and Workers of Miracles that have appeared in the world having one way or other assured to Man-kind this so weighty Truth And the most Noble Vertuous Spirits in all Ages have been the most prone to believe it And this not onely out of a sense of their own Interest but any one that ever had the happiness to experience these things may observe That that Clearness Purity of temper that most consists with the Love and admiration of God and Vertue and all those divine Accomplishments that even those that never could attain to them give their highest approbation of I say that this more refined temper of Minde does of it self beget a wonderful proneness if not a necessity of presuming of the Truth of this Opinion we plead for And therefore if it be not true God has laid a train in Nature that the most vertuous and pious men shall be the most sure to be deceived Which is a contradiction to his Attribute of Veracity 4. Nor can the strength of this Argument be evaded by replying that God may deceive men for their good as Parents doe their Children and therefore His Wisdome may contrive such a naturall Errour as this to be serviceable for States and Polities to keep the people in awe and so render them more faithfull and governable I must confess that there does result from this divine Truth such an usefulness by the by for the better holding together of Common-weals but to think that this is the main use thereof and that there is nothing more in it then so is as Idioticall and Childish as to conclude that because the Stars those vast lights doe some small offices for us by Night that therefore that is all the meaning of them and that they serve for nothing else Besides there is no Father would tell a Lye to his Child if he were furnisht with truth as effectual for his purpose and if he told any thing really good as well as desirable to his Childe to induce him to Obedience if it lay in his power he would be sure to perform his promise But it is in the power of God to make good whatever he has propounded for reward nor need he make use of any falshood in this matter Wherefore if he doe he has less Veracity then an ordinary honest man which is blasphemous and contradictious to the nature of the Deity 5. Again upon point of Justice God was engaged to contrive the Nature and Order of things so that the Soules of Men may live after death and that they may fare according to their behaviour here upon earth For the Godhead as the Philosopher calls him is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Attribute in the Deity and which alone is enough to demonstrate That the Soul of man cannot perish in Death For suppose that God had made no promise to us either by any extraordinary Prophet or by the suggestion of our own natural Faculties that we shall be Immortal and that there was neither Merit nor Demerit in this life so that all plea from either the Divine Veracity or Justice were quite cut off his Goodness alone especially if we consider how capable the Soul is of after-subsistence is a sufficient assurance that we shall not fail to live after Death For how can that soveraign Goodness assisted by an omnipotent Knowledge fail to contrive it so it being so infinitely more conformable to his Transcendent Bounty to ordain thus then otherwise that is to say so soon as he created the World to make it so compleat as at once to bring into Being not onely all Corporeal Substance according as all men confess he did but also all Substances Immaterial or Incorporeal and as many of them as can partake of Life and of enjoyment of themselves and the Universe to set them upon living and working in all places and Elements that their Nature is able to operate in and therefore amongst other Beings of the Intellectual Order that the Souls of men also whereever they were or ever should be especially if it were not long of themselves should have a power of Life and Motion and that no other Nemesis should follow them then what they themselves lay the trains of nor this to utter annihilation but by way of chastisement or punishment and that they being of so multifarious a nature as to have such Faculties as are nearly a-kin to Brutes as well as such as have so close an affinity with those of the aereal Genii and celestial Angels that their Vital Congruity should be as multifarious and themselves made capable of a living Union with either Celestial AErial or Terrestrial Vehicles and that the leaving of one should be but the taking up of another so long as the Elements continue in their natural temper and as soon as the Laws of Generation will permit 11. These and a long series of other things consonant to these represent themselves to their view that have the favour of beholding the more hidden treasures of the Divine Benignity But they being more then the present occasion requires I shall content my self with what precisely touches the matter in hand which is That the Soul of Man being capable to act after this life in an AErial Vehicle as well as here in an Earthly and it being better that she do live and act then that she be idle and silent in death and it depending meerly upon the Will of God whether she shall or no He ordering the natures of things infallibly according to what is best must of necessity ordain that the Souls of men live and act after death This is an unavoidable Deduction of Reason to those that acknowledge the Being of God and rightly relish that transcendent Attribute in the Divine Nature For those that have a true sense thereof can as hardly deny this Conclusion as the Existence of the Deity Nor can they ever be perswaded that He who is so perfectly good in himself and to whom they have so long adhered in faithful obedience and amorous dedevotion has made them of such a nature that when they hope most to enjoy him they shall not be able to enjoy him at all nor any thing else as not being in a capacity to act but in an earthly Body But to those that be of a meer animal temper that relish no love but that of themselves and their own interest nor care for any but those that are serviceable to them and make for their profit these being prone to judge of God according to the vileness of their own Spirit will easily conceit that Gods care of us and tenderness over us is onely proportionable to the fruit he reaps by us which is just none at all 12. And therefore this Argument especially and also the two former though they be undeniable Demonstrations in themselves yet they requiring a due resentment of Morality that is of Veracity Justice and Goodness in him that is to be perswaded by them it will follow that those whose mindes are most blinded and debased by Vice will feel least the force of them and the Noblest and most generous Spirit will be the most firmly assured of the Immortality of the Soule BOOK III. CHAP. I. 1. Why the Authour treats of the state of the Soul after Death and in what Method 2. Arguments to prove that the Soule is ever united vitally with some Matter or other 3. Further Reasons to evince the same 4. That the Soule is capable of an aiery and aethereal Body as well as a terrestrial 5. That she ordinarily passes out of an earthly into an aereal Vehicle first 6. That in her aiery Vehicle she is capable of Sense Pleasure and Pain 7. That the main power of the Soule over her aereal Vehicle is the direction of Motion in the particles thereof 8. That she may also adde or diminish Motion in her aethereal 9. How the purity of the Vehicle confers to the quickness of Sense and Knowledge 10. Of the Soules power of changing the temper of her aereal Vehicle 11. As also the shape thereof 12. The plainness of the last Axiome 1. WE have I hope with undeniable evidence demonstrated the Immortality of the Soule to such as neither by their slowness of parts nor any prejudice of Immorâ—ality are made incompetent Judges of the truth of Demonstrations of this kind so that I have already perfected my main Design But my own curiosity and the desire of gratifying others who love to entertain themselves with speculations of this nature doe call me out something further if the very Dignity of the present Matter I am upon doth not justly require me as will be best seen after the finishing thereof Which is concerning the State of the Soule after Death Wherein though I may not haply be able to fix my foot so firmly as in the foregoing part of this Treatise yet I will assert nothing but what shall be reasonable though not demonstrable and far preponderating to whatever shall be alledged to the contrary and in such clear order and Method that if what I write be not worthy to convince it shall not be able to deceive or entangle by perplexedness and obscurity and therefore I shall offer to view at once the main Principles upon which I shall build the residue of my Discourse AXIOME XXVII The Soule separate from this Terrestrial Body is not released from all Vital Union with Matter 2. THis is the general Opinion of the Platonists Plotinus indeed dissents especially concerning the most divine Souls as if they at last were perfectly unbared of all Matter and had no union with any thing but God himself which I look upon as a
fancy proceeding from the same inequality of temper that made him surmise that the most degenerate Soules did at last sleep in the bodies of Trees and grew up meerly into Plantal life Such fictions as these of fancyfull men have much depraved the ancient Cabbala and sacred Doctrine which the Platonists themselves doe profess to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a holy Tradition received from the mouth of God or Angels But however Plotinus himself does not deny but till the Soule arrive to such an exceeding height of purification that she acts in either an aiery or celestial Body But that she is never released so perfectly from all Matter how pure soever and tenuious her condition of operating here in this life is a greater presumption then can be fetcht from any thing else that she ever is For we finde plainly that her most subtil and most intellectual operations depend upon the fitness of temper in the Spirits and that it is the fineness and purity of them that invites her and enables her to love and look after divine and intellectual Objects Which kind of Motions if she could exert immediately by her own proper power and essence what should hinder her but that having a will she should bring it to effect which yet we finde she cannot if the Spirits be indisposed Nor can the Soule well be hindred by the undue temper of the Spirits in these Acts if they be of that nature that they belong to the bare essence of the Soule quite praescinded from all Union with Matter For then as to these Acts it is all one where the Soule is that is in what Matter she is and she must be in some because the Universe is every where thick-set with Matter whether she be raised into the purest regions of the Aire or plunged down into the foulest Receptacles of Earth or Water for her intellectual actings would be alike in both What then is there imaginable in the Body that can hinder her in these Operations Wherefore it is plain that the nature of the Soule is such as that she cannot act but in dependence on Matter and that her Operations are some way or other alwaies modified thereby And therefore if the Soule act at all after death which we have demonstrated she does it is evident that she is not released from all vitall union with all kind of Matter whatsoever Which is not onely the Opinion of the Platonists but of Aristotle also as may be easily gathered out of what we have above cited out of him Lib. 2. Cap. 14. 3. Besides it seems a very wilde leap in nature that the Soul of Man from being so deeply and muddily immersed into Matter as to keep company with Beasts by vitall union with gross flesh and bones should so on a suddain be changed that she should not adhere to any Matter whatsoever but ascend into an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 competible haply to none but God himself unless there be such Creatures as the Platonists call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or pure Intellects This must seem to any indifferent man very harsh and incongruous especially if we consider what noble Beings there are on this side the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that all the Philosophers that ever treated of them acknowledge to be vitally united with either aerial or aethereal Vehicles For of this condition are all the Genii or Angels It is sufficient therefore that the Soule never exceed the immateriality of those orders of Beings the lower sort whereof that they are vitally united to Vehicles of Aire their ignorance in Nature seems manifestly to bewray For it had been an easy thing and more for their credit to have informed their followers better in the Mysteries of Nature but that themselves were ignorant of these things which they could not but know if they were not thus bound to their aiery bodies For then they were not engaged to move with the whole course of the Aire but keeping themselves steddy as being disunited from all Matter they might in a moment have perceived both the diurnal and annual motion of the Earth and so have saved the Credit of their followers by communicating this Theory to them the want of the knowledge whereof spoiles their repute with them that understand the Systeme of the world better then themselves for all they boast of their Philosophy so as if it were the Dictate of the highest Angels AXIOME XXVIII There is a Triple Vitall Congruity in the Soule namely AEthereall AEriall and Terrestriall 4. THat this is the common Opinion of the Platonists I have above intimated That this Opinion is also true in it self appears from the foregoing Axiome Of the Terrestrial Congruity there can be no doubt and as little can there be but that at least one of the other two is to be granted else the Soule would be released from all vital union with Matter after Death Wherefore she has a vital aptitude at least to unite with Aire But Aire is a common Receptacle of bad and good Spirits as the Earth is of all sorts of men and beasts nay indeed rather of those that are in some sort or other bad then of good as it is upon Earth But the Soule of Man is capable of very high refinements even to a condition purely Angelicall Whence Reason will judge it fit and all Antiquity has voted it That the Souls of men arrived to such a due pitch of purification must at last obtain celestial Vehicles AXIOME XXIX According to the usual custome of Nature the Soul awakes orderly into these Vital Congruities not passing from one Extreme to another without any stay in the middle 5. THis Truth besides that at first sight it cannot but seem very reasonable according to that known Aphorism Natura non facit saltum so if it be further examined the solidity thereof will more fully appear For considering how small degrees of purification the Souls of almost all men get in this life even theirs who pass vulgarly for honest and good men it will plainly follow that very few arrive to their AEthereal Vehicle immediately upon quitting their Terrestrial Body that being a priviledge that has appertained to none but very Noble and Heroical Spirits indeed of which History records but very few But that there may be degrees of purity and excellency in the AErial Bodies is a thing that is not to be denied so that a just Nemesis will finde out every one after death AXIOME XXX The Soul in her AErial Vehicle is capable of Sense properly so called and consequently of Pleasure and Pain 6. THIS plainly appears from the 27. and 28. Axiomes For there is a necessity of the resulting of Sense from Vital Union of the Soul with any Body whatsoever and we may remember that the immediate instrument of Sense even in this earthly Body are the Spirits so that there can be no doubt of this Truth And Pleasure and Pain being
the Earth The truth of this opinion of theirs is plainly demonstrable from the 29. and 31. Axiomes For Nature making no enormous jumps it must needs follow that separate Souls must take their first station in the Aire because that Vital Congruity that fits an AErial Vehicle does of order awaken immediately upon the quitting of the Earthly Body 2. Wherefore the Soul being thus vitally united with a Body or Vehicle of Aire it is impossible that she should drive out of those Regions because her motions are onely according to the capacity of her Vehicle she being not able to alter the consistency thereof into any more subtile or purer temper then the Aire will admit of keeping still its own Species Onely she may conspissate the Aire by directing the motion thereof towards her and so squeezing out a considerable part of the first and second Element may retain more Aire then ordinary But she cannot command the Air from her so entirely as to actuate these two Elements alone or any considerable part of them because the AEthereal Congruity of life is as yet wholy asleep nor is it in the power of the Soul to awake it as she pleases and therefore it would be Pain and Death to her to attempt the removal of the aerial Matter quite from her Besides that it would require such a force as would imply a contribution of motion to it as well as direction of it to make it able to bear against other parts of the Aire that love not to be streightned nor crouded which though it may haply be done in some measure yet that she may by this force of direction recover a whole Vehicle of AEther seems excessively improbable as is plain from the 31. Axiome 3. Wherefore it is necessary that the Soul departed this life should be somewhere in the Aire though it be not at all necessary that they should inhabit all of them the same Region thereof For as some Souls are more purified then others when they leave the Body so a more pure degree of Vital Congruity will awake in them whence by that Divine Nemesis that runs through all things they will be naturally conveyed to such places and be associated to such company as is most congruous to their Nature and will be as distinctly sorted by that eternal Justice that God has so deeply ingrafted in the very essential contexture of the Universe as humane Laws dispose of persons with us sending some to Prisons some to Pest-houses and others to the Prytaneum 4. It will therefore in all likelihood fall to some of their shares to be fatally fettered to this lower Region of the Aire as I doubt not but many other Spirits are though Cardan much pleases himself with a peculiar conceit of his own as if the supreme Region of the Aire was the onely habitation of all Daemons or Spirits whatever and that their descent to us is as rare as the diving of Men into the bottome of the Sea and almost as difficult this thick Aire we breathe in being in a manner as unsutable to their tenuious consistencies as the Water is to us in which we are fain to hold out breath and consequently to make a very short stay in that Element Besides that he fancies the passage of the Middle Region tedious to them by reason of its Coldness which therefore he saith is as it were a fence betwixt us and them as the Sea is betwixt the Fishes and us whom though we exceed much in Wit and Industry and have a great desire to catch them and kill them yet we get very few into our hands in comparison of those that scape us And so these Daemos though they bear us no good will by bodily conflict they can hurt none of us as being so difficult a thing to come at us and very few of us by their Art and Industry For this fancyfull Philosopher will have them onely attempt us as we do the Fishes by Baits and Nets and Eel-spears or such like Engines which we cast into the bottom of the Water So these aerial Genii keeping their station above in the third Region of the Aire as we doe on the bank of the River or in a Boat on the Sea when we fish by sending down Dreams and Apparitions may entangle some men so that by affrightments and disturbances of minde at last though at this distance they may work their ruine and destruction 5. This Hypothesis I suppose he has framed to give an account why the appearing of the Genii is so seldome and why so little hurt is done by them as there is For an Answer would be ready that this lower Aâ—â—e is no Element for them to abide in and that it is as foolishly argued by those that say there are no Spirits because they are so seldome seen as if the Fishes upon a concession of Speech and Reason to their mute Tribe should generally conclude that there are no such Creatures as Men or Horses because it happens so very seldome that they can see them and should contemn and laugh ac those Fishes that having had the hap to meet with them should say they have seen such Creatures as if they were fanatick and lunatick and not well in their wits or else too much in them and that they contrived such fictions for some political design 6. Which Parable may hold good though not upon the same grounds onely by substituting difference of condition for distance of place and the similitude will prove as sound as before For for a Spirit to condensate his Vehicle to almost a Terrestrial grossness and Visibility is as rare and uncouth as for Terrestrial animals to dive to the bottom of the Sea and its likely every jot as difficult and so the reason as obvious why so few are seen the confident denial of their existence as rash and foolish by then that have not seen them themselves For it is as if the Fishes should contest amongst themselves about the existence of Men and their diving into the Water and whether there were any places haunted in the Sea as those would be the most famous where they fish for Pearls or that cause the most frequent Shipwracks or are most pleasant to swim in And some notable occasion mischance or weighty design such as occurre more rarely must be reasonably conceived the onely invitements to the Genii to expose themselves to our view 7. That there is so little hurt done by them need not be resolved into the distance of their habitation but into the Law of the Universe whose force penetrates through all orders of Beings Besides it is too trivial and idiotick a conceit far below the pitch of a Philosopher to think that all AErial Spirits are Haters of Mankinde so as to take delight meerly in destroying them For Men do not hate Fishes because they live in another Element different from theirs but catch them meerly in love to themselves for gain and food
them then to any terrestrial animal 13. And yet they need not be so cautious to keep out of danger they having a power to grapple with the greatest of it which is their Statick faculty which arises from the power of directing the motion of the particles of their Vehicle For they having this power of directing the motion of these particles which way they please by Axiome 31. it necessarily followes that they can determinate their course inwards or toward the Centre by which direction they will be all kept close together firm and tight which ability I call the Statick power of the Soule Which if it can direct the whole agitation of the particles of the Vehicle as well those of the first and second Element as those of the Aire and that partly towards the Centre and partly in a countertendency against the storme this force and firmness will be far above the strongest windes that she can possibly meet with 14. Wherefore the Soules Vehicle is in no danger from the boisterousness of the Winds and if it were yet there is no fear of cessation of Life For as the Wind blowes off one part of Aire it brings on another which may be immediately actuated by the presence of the Soule though there be no need to take refuge in so large an Hypothesis And it is more probable that she is more peculiarly united to one part of the Aire then another and that she dismisses her Vehicle but by degrees as our Spirits leasurely pass away by insensible Perspiration 15. We see how little the Souls Vehicle can be incommodated by storms of Winde And yet Rain Haile Snow and Thunder will incommodate her still less For they pass as they doe through other parts of the Aire which close again immediately and leave neither wound nor scarre behinde them Wherefore all these Meteors in their Mediocrity may be a pleasure to her and refreshment and in their excess no long pain nor in their highest rage any destruction of life at all From whence we may safely conclude that not onely the Upper Region but this Lower also may be inhabited both by the deceased Souls of Men and by Daemons CHAP. IV. 1. That the Soule once having quitted this earthly Body becomes a Daemon 2. Of the Externall Senses of the Soule separate their number and limits in the Vehicle 3. Of Sight in a Vehicle organized and unorganized 4. How Daemons and separate Souls hear and see at a vast Distance and whence it is that though they may so easily hear or see us we may neither see nor hear them 5. That they have Hearing as well as Sight 6. Of the Touch Smell Tast and Nourishment of Daemons 7. The external employment that the Genii and Souls deceased may have out of the Body 8. That the actions of Separate Souls in reference to us are most-what conformable to their life here on Earth 9. What their entertainments are in reference to themselves 10. The distinction of orders of Daemons from the places they most frequent 1. THE next thing we are to enquire into is the Employment of the Soul after Death how she can entertain her self and pass away the time and that either in Solitude in Company or as she is a Political member of some Kingdome or Empire Concerning all which in the general we may conclude that it is with her as with the rest of the AErial Genii 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the Soul having once put off this terrestrial Body becomes a Genius her self as Maximus Tyrius Xenocrates Philo and others expresly affirm But we shall consider these things more particularly 2. As for those employments wherewith she may entertain her self in solitude they are either Objects of the External Senses or of the Inward Minde Concerning the former whereof it is more easie to move Questions then satisfy them as Whether she have the same number of Senses she had in this life That she is endued with Hearing Sight and Touch I think there can be no scruple because these will fall to her share necessarily whether her Vehicle be organized or not and that of Seeing and Touch is the most uncontrovertible of all For the sense of visible Objects being discovered to us by transmission of Motion through those Spherical particles that are continued along from the Object through the Aire to our very Organ of Sight which sees meerly by reason of these particles vitally united with the Soul the same particles pervading all the Souls Vehicle it is impossible but that she should see But the Question is whether she sees in every part thereof To which I must answer No partly from what I have already declared concerning the Heterogeneity of her Plastick part and partly from a gross inconvenience that would follow this Supposition For if we should grant that the Soul saw in every part of her Vehicle every Object that is near would not onely seem double but centuple or millecuple which would be a very ugly enormity and defacement of Sight Wherefore we have with very good reason restrained the Visive faculty of the Soul in this state of Separation as well as it was in the Terrestrial Body 3. But this hinders nothing but that the Soul when she lies in one Homogeneal orb of Aire devoid of organization may see round about her behinde before above beneath and every way But if she organize her Vehicle Sight may haply be restrain'd as in us who cannot see behinde us Which Consideration we toucht upon before 4. It is plain therefore that these AErial Spirits though we cannot see them cannot miss of seeing us and that it may be from a mighty distance if they can transform their Vehicle or the Organ of Sight into some such advantageous Figure as is wrought in Dioptrick Glasses Which power will infinitely exceed the contracting and dilating of the pupil of our Eye which yet is a weaker and more defectuous attempt towards so high a Priviledge as we speak of which notwithstanding may seem very possible in Spirits from 31. and 34. Axiomes The same also may be said of their Hearing For the same principle may enable them to shape themselves Organs for the receiving of Sounds of greater art and excellency then the most accurate Acoustick we read of or can excogitate Wherefore it is a very childish mistake to think that because we neither see the shape nor hear the discourse of Spirits that they neither hear nor see us For soft Bodies are impressible by hard ones but not on the contrary as melted Wax will receive the Signature of the Seal but the Seal is not at all impressed upon by the Wax And so a solid Body will stop the course of the Aire but the Aire will not stop the course of a solid Body and every inconsiderable terrestrial consistency will reflect Light but Light scarce moves any terrestrial Body out of its place but is rebounded back by it That therefore that is most
Poets and then when we have perused what the height and elegancy of their fancy has penn'd down to write under it An obscure Subindication of the transcendent pulcritude of the AErial Genii whether Nymphs or Heroes For though there be neither Lust nor difference of Sex amongst them whence the kindest commotions of minde will never be any thing else but an exercise of Intellectual love whose Object is Vertue and Beauty yet it is not improbable but that there are some general strictures of discrimination of this Beauty into Masculine and Feminine partly because the temper of their Vehicles may encline to this kinde of pulcritude rather then that and partly because several of these aerial Spirits have sustained the difference of Sex in this life some of them here having been Males others Females and therefore their History being to be continued from their departure hence they ought to retain some character especially so general a one of what they were here And it is very harsh to conceit that AEneas should meet with Dido in the other World in any other form then that of a Woman whence a necessity of some slighter distinction of habits and manner of wearing their hair will follow Which dress as that of the Masculine mode is easily fitted to them by the power of their Will and Imagination as appears from that Story out of Peramatus of the Indian Monster that was born with fleshy boots girdle purse and other things that are no parts of a man but his cloathing or utensils and this meerly by the Fancy of his Mother disturb'd and frighted either in sleep or awake with some such ugly appearance as that Monster resembled CHAP. IX 1. A general account of the mutual entertains of the Genii in the other World 2. Of their Philosophical and Political Conferences 3. Of their Religious Exercises 4. Of the innocent Pastimes and Recreations of the better sort of them 5. A confirmation thereof from the Conventicles of Witches 6. Whether the purer Daemons have their times of repast or no. 7. Whence the bad Genii have their food 8. Of the food and feastings of the better sort of Genii 1. WE have now accurately enough defined in what form or garb the aerial Genii converse with one another It remains we consider how they mutually entertain one another in passing away the time Which is obvious enough to conceive to those that are not led aside into that blind Labyrinth which the generality of men are kept in of suspecting that no representation of the state of these Beings is true that is not so confounded and unintelligible that a man cannot think it sense unless he wink with the inward eyes of his Minde and command silence to all his Rational Faculties But if he will but bethink himself that the immediate instrument of the Soul in this life is the Spirits which are very congenerous to the body of Angels and that all our passions and conceptions are either suggested from them or imprest upon them he cannot much doubt but that all his Faculties of Reason Imagination and Affection for the general will be in him in the other state as they were here in this namely that he will be capable of Love of Joy of Grief of Anger that he will be able to imagine to discourse to remember and the rest of such operations as were not proper to the Fabrick of this earthly Body which is the Officine of Death and Generation 2. Hence it will follow that the Souls of men deceaed and the rest of the aerial Daemons may administer much content to one another in mutual Conferences concerning the nature of things whether Moral Natural or Metaphysical For to think that the quitting the earthly Body entitles us to an Omnisciency is a Fable never enough to be laught at And Socrates somewhere in Plato presages that he shall continue his old Trade when he comes into the other World convincing and confounding the idle and vain-glorious Sophists whereever he went And by the same reason Platonists Aristotelians Stoicks Epicureans and whatever other sects and humors are on the Earth may in likelihood be met with there so far as that estate will permit though they cannot doubt of all things we doubt of here For these aerial Spirits know that themselves are and that the Souls of men subsist and act after death unless such as are too deeply tinctured with Avenroism But they may doubt whether they will hold out for ever or whether they will perish at the conflagration of the World as the Stoicks would have them It may be also a great controversie amongst them whether Pythagoras's or Ptolemies Hypothesis be true concerning the Motion of the Earth and whether the Stars be so bigge as some define them For these lower Daemons have no better means then we to assure themselves of the truth or falshood of these Opinions Besides the discourse of News of the affairs as well of the Earth as Aire For the aerial Inhabitants cannot be less active then the terrestrial nor less busie either in the performance of some solemn exercises or in carrying on designs party against party and that either more Private or more Publick the events of which will fill the aerial Regions with a quick spreading fame of their Actions To say nothing of prudential conjectures concerning future successes aforehand and innumerable other entertains of Conference which would be too long to reckon up but bear a very near analogy to such as men pass away their time in here 3. But of all Pleasures there are none that are comparable to those that proceed from their joynt exercise of Religion and Devotion For their Bodies surpassing ours so much in tenuity and purity they must needs be a fitter soil for the Divinest thoughts to spring up in and the most delicate and most enravishing affections towards their Maker Which being heightned by sacred Hymns and Songs sung with voices perfectly imitating the sweet passionate relishes of the sense of their devout minds must even melt their Souls into Divine Love and make them swim with joy in God But these kinds of exercises being so highly rapturous and ecstatical transporting them beyond the ordinary limits of their Nature cannot in Reason be thought to be exceeding frequent but as a solemn Repast after which they shall enjoy themselves better for a good space of time after 4. Wherefore there be other entertainments which though they be of an inferiour nature to these yet they farre exceed the greatest pleasure and contentments of this present state For the Animal life being as essential to the Soul as union with a Body which she is never free from it will follow that there be some fitting gratifications of it in the other World And none greater can be imagined then Sociableness and Personal complacency not onely in rational discourses which is so agreeable to the Philosophical Ingeny but innocent Pastimes in which the Musical and Amorous
Government of Men does on several sorts of brute Beasts and the AEthereal Powers also have a Right and Exercise of Rule over the AErial Whence nothing can be committed in the World against the more indispensable Laws thereof but a most severe and inevitable punishment will follow every Nation City Family and Person being in some manner the Peculium and therefore in the tutelage of some invisible Power or other as I have above intimated 4. And such Transgressions as are against those Laws without whose observance the Creation could not subsist we may be assured are punished with Torture intolerable and infinitely above any Pleasure imaginable the evil Genii can take in doing of those of their own Order or us Mortals any mischief Whence it is manifest that we are as secure from their gross outrages such as the firing of our houses the stealing away our jewels or more necessary Utensils murdering our selves or children destroying our cattel corn and other things of the like sort as if they were not in rerum natura Unless they have some special permission to act or we our selves enable them by our rash and indiscreet tampering with them or suffer from the malice of some person that is in league with them For their greatest liberty of doing mischief is upon that account which yet is very much limited in that all these Actions must pass the consent of a visible person not hard to be discovered in these unlawful practices and easy to be punished by the Law of Men. 5. And the AErial Genii can with as much ease inflict punishment on one another as we Mortals can apprehend imprison and punish such as transgress against our Laws For though these Daemons be invisible to us yet they are not so to their own Tribe nor can the activity and subtilty of the Bad over-master the Good Commonwealths-men there that uphold the Laws better then they are amongst us Nor may the various Transfiguration of their shapes conceal their persons no more then the disguises that are used by fraudulent men For they are as able to discern what is fictitious from what is true and natural amongst themselves as we are amongst our selves And every AErial Spirit being part of some Political subdivision upon any outrage committed it will be an easy matter to hunt out the Malefactor No Daemon being able so to transfigure himself but upon command he will be forced to appear in his natural and usual form not daring to deny upon examination to what particular Subdivision he belongs Whence the easy discovery of their miscarriages and certainty of insupportable torment will secure the World from all the disorder that some scrupulous wits suspect would arise from this kinde of Creatures if they were in Being 6. To which we may adde also That what we have is useless to them and that it is very hard to conceive that there are many Rational Beings so degenerate as to take pleasure in ill when it is no good to themselves That Socrates his Aphorism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be in no small measure true in the other World as well as in this That all that these evil Spirits desire may be onely our lapse into as great a degree of Apostasy from God as themselves and to be full partakers with them of their false Liberty as debauched persons in this life love to make Proselytes and to have respect from their Nurslings in wickedness And several other Considerations there are that serve for the taking away this Panick fear of the incursations and molestations of these aerial Inhabitants and might further silence the suspicious Atheist which I willingly omit having said more then enough of this Subject already See Cap. 3. Sect. 7 8. 7. If any be so curious as to demand what kinde of Punishment this People of the Aire inflict upon their Malefactors I had rather referre them to the Fancies of Cornelius Agrippa De Occult. Philosoph Lib. 3. Cap. 41. then be laught at my self for venturing to descend to such particularities Amongst other things he names their Incarceration or confinement to most vile and squalid Habitations His own words are very significant Accedunt etiam vilissimorum ac teterrimorum locorum habitacula ubi AEtnaei ignes aquarum ingluvies fulgurum tonitruorum concussus terrarum voragines ubi Regio lucis inops nec radiorum Solis capax ignaráque splendoris syderum perpetuis tenebris noctis specie caligat Whence he would make us believe that the subterraneous caverns of the Earth are made use of for Dungeons for the wicked Daemons to be punished in as if the several Volcano's such as AEtna Vesuvius Hecla and many others especially in America were so many Prisons or houses of Correction for the unruly Genii That there is a tedious restraint upon them upon villanies committed and that intolerable is without all question they being endued with corporeal Sense and that more quick and passive then ours and therefore more subject to the highest degrees of torment So that not onely by incarcerating them keeping them in by a watch in the caverns of burning Mountains where the heat of those infernal Chambers and the steam of Brimstone cannot but excruciate them exceedingly but also by commanding them into sundry other Hollows of the ground noysome by several fumes and vapours they may torture them in several fashions and degrees fully proportionable to the greatest crime that is in their power to commit and farre above what the cruellest Tyranny has inflicted here either upon the guilty or innocent But how these Confinements and Torments are inflicted on them and by what Degrees and Relaxations is a thing neither easy to determine nor needful to understand Wherefore we will surcease from pursuing any further so unprofitable a Subject and come to the Third general Head we mentioned which is What the Moral condition of the Soul is when she has left this Body CHAP. XI 1. Three things to be considered before we come to the moral condition of the Soul after death namely her Memory of transactions in this life 2. The peculiar feature and individual Character of her AErial Vehicle 3. The Retainment of the same Name 4. How her ill deportment here lays the train of her Misery hereafter 5. The unspeakable torments of Conscience worse then Death and not to be avoided by dying 6. Of the hideous tortures of external sense on them whose searedness of Conscience may seem to make them uncapable of her Lashes 7. Of the state of the Souls of the more innocent and conscientious Pagans 8. Of the natural accruments of After-happiness to the morally good in this life 9. How the Soul enjoys her actings or sufferings in this Life for an indispensable Cause when she has passed to the other 10. That the reason is proportionably the same in things of less consequence 11. What mischief men may create to themselves in the other world by their Zealous mistakes in this
12. That though there were no Memory after Death yet the manner of our Life here may sow the seeds of the Souls future happiness or misery 1. FOR the better solution of this Question there is another first in nature to be decided namely Whether the Soul remembers any thing of this Life after Death For Aristotle and Cardan seem to deny it but I doe not remember any reasons in either that will make good their Opinion But that the contrary is true appears from what we have already proved Lib. 2. Cap. 11. viz. That the immediate seat of Memory is the Soul her self and that all Representations with their circumstances are reserved in her not in the Spirits a thing which Vaninus himself cannot deny nor in any part of the Body And that the Spirits are onely a necessary Instrument whereby the Soul works which while they are too cool and gross and waterish Oblivion creeps upon her in that measure that the Spirits are thus distempered but the disease being chased away and the temper of the Spirits rectified the Soul forthwith recovers the memory of what things she could not well command before as being now in a better state of Activity Whence by the 33. Axiome it will follow that her Memory will be rather more perfect after Death and Conscience more nimble to excuse or accuse her according to her Deeds here 2. It is not altogether beside the purpose to take notice also That the natural and usual Figure of the Souls AErial Vehicle bears a resemblance with the feature of the party in this life it being most obvious for the Plastick part at the command of the Will to put forth into personal shape to fall as near to that in this life as the new state will permit With which act the Spirit of Nature haply does concurre as in the figuration of the Foetus but with such limits as becomes the AErial Congruity of life of which we have spoke already as also how the proper Idea or Figure of every Soul though it may deflect something by the power of the Parents Imagination in the act of Conception or Gestation yet may return more near to its peculiar semblance afterwards and so be an unconcealable Note of Individuality 3. We will adde to all this the Retainment of the same Name which the deceased had here unless there be some special reason to change it so that their persons will be as punctually distinguisht and circumscribed as any of ours in this life All which things as they are most probable in themselves that they will thus naturally fall out so they are very convenient for administration of Justice and keeping of Order in the other State 4. These things therefore premised it will not be hard to conceive how the condition of the Soul after this life depends on her Moral deportment here For Memory ceasing not Conscience may very likely awake more furiously then ever the Mind becoming a more clear Judge of evil Actions past then she could be in the Flesh being now stript of all those circumstances and concurrences of things that kept her off from the opportunity of calling her self to account or of perceiving the ugliness of her own ways Besides there being that communication betwixt the Earth and the Aire that at least the fame of things will arrive to their cognoscence that have left this life the after ill success of their wicked enterprises and unreasonable transactions may arm their tormenting Conscience with new whips and stings when they shall either hear or see with their eyes what they have unjustly built up to run with shame to ruine and behold all their designs come to nought and their fame blasted upon Earth 5. This is the state of such Souls as are capable of a sense of dislike of their past-actions and a man would think they need no other punishment then this if he consider the mighty power of the Minde over her own Vehicle and how vulnerable it is from her self These Passions therefore of the Soule that follow an ill Conscience must needs bring her aiery body into intolerable distempers worse then Death it self Nor yet can she die if she would neither by fire nor sword nor any means imaginable no not if she should fling her self into the flames of smoaking AEtna For suppose she could keep her self so long there as to indure that hideous pain of destroying the vital Congruity of her Vehicle by that sulphureous fire she would be no sooner released but she would catch life again in the Aire and all the former troubles and vexations would return besides the overplus of these pangs of Death For Memory would return and an ill Conscience would return and all those busie Furies those disordered Passions which follow it And thus it would be though the Soule should kill her self a thousand and a thousand times she could but pain and punish her self not destroy her self 6. But if we could suppose some mens Consciences seared in the next state as well as this for certainly there are that make it their business to obliterate all sense of difference of Good and Evil out of their minds hold it to be an high strain of wit though it be nothing else but a piece of bestial stupidity to think there is no such thing as Vice and Vertue and that it is a principall part of perfection to be so degenerate as to act according to this Principle without any remorse at all these men may seem to have an excellent priviledge in the other world they being thus armour-proof against all the fiery darts of that domestick Devil As if the greatest security in the other life were to have been compleatly wicked in this But it is not out of the reach of meer Reason and Philosophy to discover that such bold and impudent wretches as have lost all inward sense of Good and Evil may there against their wills feel a lash in the outward For the divine Nemesis is excluded out of no part of the Universe and Goodness and Justice which they contemn here will be acquainted with them in that other state whether they will or no I speak of such course Spirits that can swallow down Murder Perjury Extortion Adultery Buggery and the like gross crimes without the least disgust and think they have a right to satisfy their own Lust though it be by never so great injury against their Neighbour If these men should carry it with impunity there were really no Providence and themselves were the truest Prophets and faithfullest Instructers of mankind divulging the choicest Arcanum they have to impart to them namely That there is no God But the case stands quite otherwise For whether it be by the importunity of them they injure in this life who may meet with them afterward as Cardan by way of objection suggests in his Treatise of this Subject or whether by a general desertion by all of the other world that are able
which things do clearly shew that pure corporeal causes cannot produce this effect and that therefore we must suppose that both the strings are united with some one incorporeal Being which has a different Unity and Activity from Matter but yet a Sympathy therewith which affecting this immaterial Being makes it affect the Matter in the same manner in another place where it does symbolize with that other in some predisposition or qualification as these two strings doe in being tuned Unisons to one another and this without sending any particles to the Matter it does thus act upon as my thought of moving of my Toe being represented within my Brain by the power of my Soul I can without sending Spirits into my Toe but onely by making use of them that are there move my Toe as I please by reason of that Unity and Activity that is peculiar to my Soul as a spiritual substance that pervades my whole Body Whence I would conclude also that there is some such Principle as we call the Spirit of Nature or the Inferiour Soul of the World into which such Phaenomena as these are to be resolved 3. And I account Sympathetick Cures Pains and Asswagements to be such As for example when in the use of those Magnetick Remedies as some call them they can make the wound dolorously hot or chill at a great distance or can put it into perfect case this is not by any agency of emissary Atoms For these hot Atoms would cool sufficiently in their progress to the party through the frigid aire and the cold Atoms if they could be so active as to dispatch so far would be warm enough by their journey in the Summer Sun The inflammations also of the Cowes Udder by the boyling over of the milk into the fire the scalding of mens entrails at a distance by the burning of their excrements with other pranks of the like nature these cannot be rationally resolved into the recourse of the Spirits of Men or Kine mingled with fiery Atoms and so re-entring the parts thus affected because the minuteness of those toms argues the suddainness of their extinction as the smallest wires made red hot soonest cool To all which you may adde that notable example of the Wines working when the Vines are in the flower and that this sympathetick effect must be from the Vines of that country from which they came whence these exhalations of the Vineyards must spread as far as from Spain and the Canaries to England and by the same reason must reach round about every way as far from the Canaries besides their journey upwards into the Aire So that there will be an Hemisphere of vineall Atoms of an incredible extent unless they part themselves into trains and march onely to those places whither their Wines are carried But what corporeal cause can guide them thither Which question may be made of other Phaenomena of the like nature Whence again it will be necessary to establish the Principle I drive at though the effects were caused by the transmission of Atoms 4. The notablest examples of this Mundane Sympathy are in histories more uncertain and obscure and such as though I have been very credibly informed yet as I have already declared my self I dare onely avouch as possible viz. the Souls of men leaving their Bodies and appearing in shapes suppose of Cats Pigeons Wezels and sometimes of Men and that whatever hurt befalls them in these Astral bodies as the Paracelsians love to call them the same is inflicted upon their Terrestrial lying in the mean time in their beds or on the ground As if their Astral bodies be scalded wounded have the back broke the same certainly happens to their Earthly bodies Which things if they be true in all likelihood they are to be resolved into this Principle we speak of and that the Spirit of Nature is snatcht into consent with the imagination of the Soules in these Astral bodies or aiery Vehicles Which act of imagining must needs be strong in them it being so set on and assisted by a quick and sharp pain and fright in these scaldings woundings and stroaks on the back some such thing happening here as in women with child whose Fancies made keen by a suddain fear have deprived their children of their arms yea and of their heads too as also appears by two remarkable stories Sr. Kenelme Digby relates in his witty and eloquent Discourse of the Cure of Wounds by the powder of Sympathy besides what we have already recited out of Helmont See Lib. 2. Cap. 15. Sect. 8 9 10. 5. Which effects I suppose to be beyond the power of any humane Fancy unassisted by some more forceable Agent as also that prodigious birth he mentions of a woman of Carcassona who by her overmuch sporting and pleasing her self with an Ape while she was with Child brought forth a Monster exactly of that shape And if we should conclude with that learned Writer that it was a real Ape it is no more wonderfull nor so much as that birth of a Crabfish or Lobster we have above mentioned out of Fortunius Licetus as we might also other more usual though no less monstrous births for the wombs of women to bear Of which the Soul of the Mother cannot be suspected to be the cause she not so much as being the efformer of her own Foetus as that judicious Naturalist Dr. Harvey has determined And if the Mothers Soule could be the efformer of the Foetus in all reason her Plastick power would be ever particular and specifick as the Soul it self is particular What remains therefore but the universal Soule of the World or Spirit of Nature that can doe these feats who Vertumnus like is ready to change his own Activity and the yielding matter into any mode and shape indifferently as occasion engages him and so to prepare an edifice at least the more rude stroaks and delineaments thereof for any specifick Soule whatsoever and in any place where the Matter will yield to his operations But the time of the arrival thither of the particular guest it is intended for though we cannot say how soon it is yet we may be sure it is not later then a clear discovery of Sensation as well as Vegetation and organization in the Matter 6. The Attraction of the Load-stone seems to have some affinity with these instances of Sympathy This mystery Des-Cartes has explained with admirable artifice as to the immediate corporeal causes thereof to wit those wreathed particles which he makes to pass certain screw-pores in the Load-stone and Iron But how the efformation of these particles is above the reach of the meer mechanical powers in Matter as also the exquisite direction of their motion whereby they make their peculiar Vortex he describes about the Earth from Pole to Pole and thread an incrustated Star passing in a right line in so long a journey as the Diameter thereof without being swung to the sides how these
things I say are beyond the powers of Matter I have fully enough declared proved in a large Letter of mine to V. C. and therefore that I may not actum agere shall forbear speaking any farther thereof in this place To which you may adde that meer corporeal motion in Matter without any other guide would never so much as produce a round Sun or Star of which figure notwithstanding Des-Cartes acknowledges them to be But my reasons why it cannot be effected by the simple Mechanical powers of Matter I have particularly set down in my Letters to that excellent Philosopher CHAP. XIII 1. That the Descent of heavy Bodies argues the existence of the Spirit of Nature because else they would either hang in the Aire as they are placed 2. Or would be diverted from a perpendicular as they fall near a Plate of Metall set stooping 3. That the endeavour of the AEther or Aire from the Centre to the Circumference is not the cause of Gravity against Mr. Hobbs 4. A full confutation of Mr. Hobbs his Opinion 5. An ocular Demonstration of the absurd consequence thereof 6. An absolute Demonstration that Gravity cannot be the effect of meer Mechanical powers 7. The Latitude of the operations of the Spirit of Nature how large and where bounded 8. The reason of its name 9. It s grand office of transmitting Souls into rightly-prepared Matter 1. AND a farther confirmation that I am not mistaken therein is what we daily here experience upon Earth which is the descending of heavy Bodies as we call them Concerning the motion whereof I agree with Des-Cartes in the assignation of the immediate corporeal cause to wit the AEtherial matter which is so plentifully in the Air over it is in grosser Bodies but withall doe vehemently surmise that there must be some immaterial cause such as we call the Spirit of Nature or Inferiour Soule of the World that must direct the motions of the AEtherial particles to act upon these grosser Bodies to drive them towards the Earth For that surplusage of Agitation of the globular particles of the AEther above what they spend in turning the Earth about is carried every way indifferently according to his own concession by which motion the drops of liquors are formed into round figures as he ingeniously concludes From whence it is apparent that a bullet of iron silver or gold placed in the aire is equally assalted on all sides by the occursion of these aethereal particles and therefore will be moved no more downwards then upwards but hang in aequilibrio as a piece of Cork rests on the water where there is neither winde nor stream but is equally plaied against by the particles of water on all sides 3. Nor can the endeavour of the celestial Matter from the centre to the circumference take place here For besides that Des-Cartes the profoundest Master of Mechanicks has declin'd that way himself though Mr. Hobbs has taken it up it would follow that near the Poles of the Earth there would be no descent of heavy Bodies at all and in the very Clime we live in none perpendicular To say nothing how this way will not salve the union of that great Water that adheres to the body of the Moon 6. Adde unto all this that if the motion of gross Bodies were according to meer Mechanical laws a Bullet suppose of Lead or Gold cast up into the aire would never descend again but would persist in a rectilinear motion For it being farre more solid then so much Aire AEther put together as would fill its place and being moved with no less swiftness then that wherewith the Earth is carried about in twenty four hours it must needs break out in a straight line through the thin aire and never return again to the Earth but get away as a Comet does out of a Vortex And that de facto a Canon Bullet has been shot so high that it never fell back again upon the ground Des-Cartes does admit of as a true experiment Of which for my own part I can imagine no other unexceptionable reason but that at a certain distance the Spirit of Nature in some regards leaves the motion of Matter to the pure laws of Mechanicks but within other bounds checks it whence it is that the Water does not swill out of the Moon 7. Now if the pure Mechanick powers in Matter and Corporeal motion will not amount to so simple a Phaenomenon as the falling of a stone to the Earth how shall we hope they will be the adaequate cause of sundry sorts of Plants and other things that have farre more artifice and curiosity then the direct descent of a stone to the ground Nor are we beaten back again by this discovery into that dotage of the confounded Schools who have indued almost every different Object of our Senses with a distinct Substantial form and then puzzle themselves with endless scrupulosities about the generation corruption and mixtion of them For I affirm with Des-Cartes that nothing affects our Senses but such variations of Matter as are made by difference of Motion Figure Situation of parts c. but I dissent from him in this in that I hold it is not meer and pure mechanical motion that causes all these sensible Modifications in Matter but that many times the immediate Director thereof is this Spirit of Nature I speak of one and the same every where and acting alwaies alike upon like occasions as a clear-minded man and of a solid judgment gives alwaies the same verdict in the same circumstances For this Spirit of Nature intermedling with the efformation of the Foetus of Animals as I have already shewn more then once where notwithstanding there seems not so much need there being in them a more particular Agent for that purpose 't is exceeding rational that all Plants and Flowers of all sorts in which we have no argument to prove there is any particular Souls should be the effects of this Universal Soule of the World Which Hypothesis besides that it is most reasonable in it self according to that ordinary Axiome Frustra fit per plura quod fieri potest per pauciora is also very serviceable for the preventing many hard Problems about the Divisibility of the Soules of Plants their Transmutations into other Species the growing of Slips and the like For there is one Soule ready every where to pursue the advantages of prepared Matter Which is the common and onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of all Plantal appearances or of whatever other Phaenomena there be greater or smaller that exceed the pure Mechanical powers of Matter We except onely Men and Beasts who having all of them the capacity of some sort of enjoyments or other it was fit they should have particular Souls for the multiplying of the sense of those enjoyments which the transcendent Wisdome of the Creatour has contrived 8. I have now plainly enough set down what I mean by the Spirit of
Nature and sufficiently proved its Existence Out of what has been said may be easily conceived why I give it this name it being a Principle that is of so great influence and activity in the Nascency as I may so call it Coalescency of things And this not onely in the production of Plants with all other Concretions of an inferiour nature and yet above the meer Mechanical lawes of Matter but also in respect of the birth of Animals whereunto it is preparatory and assistent I know not whether I may entitle it also to the guidance of Animals in the chiefest of those actions which we usually impute to natural Instinct Amongst which none so famous as the Birds making their Nests and particularly the artificial structure of the Martins nests under the arches of Church-windowes In which there being so notable a design unknown to themselves and so small a pleasure to present Sense it looks as if they were actuated by another inspired and carried away in a natural rapture by this Spirit of Nature to doe they know not what though it be really a necessary provision and accommodation for laying their Eggs and hatching their young in the efformation whereof this Inferiour Soule of the World is so rationally conceived to assist and intermeddle and therefore may the better be supposed to over-power the Fancy and make use of the members of the Birds to build these convenient Receptacles as certain shops to lay up the Matter whereon she intends to work namely the Eggs of these Birds whom she thus guides in making of their nests 9. But this argument being too lubricous I will not much insist upon it The most notable of those offices that can be assigned to the Spirit of Nature and that sutably to his name is the Translocation of the Souls of Beasts into such Matter as is most fitting for them he being the common Proxenet or Contractor of all natural Matches and Marriages betwixt forms and matter if we may also speak Metaphors as well as Aristotle whose Aphorisme it is that Materia appetit formam ut foemina virum This Spirit therefore may have not onely the power of directing the motion of Matter at hand but also of transporting of particular Souls and Spirits in their state of Silence and Inactivity to such Matter as they are in a fitness to catch life in again Which Transportation or Transmission may very well be at immense distances the effect of this Sympathy and Coactivity being so great in the working of Wines as has been above noted though a thing of less concernment Whence to conclude we may look upon this Spirit of Nature as the great Quarter-master-General of divine Providence but able alone without any under-Officers to lodge every Soule according to her rank and merit whenever she leaves the Body And would prove a very serviceable Hypothesis for those that fancy the praeexistence of humane Souls to declare how they may be conveighed into Bodies here be they at what distance they will before and how Matter haply may be so fitted that the best of them may be fetcht from the purest aethereal Regions into an humane Body without serving any long Apprentiship in the intermediate Aire as also how the Souls of Brutes though the Earth were made perfectly inept for the life of any Animal need not lye for ever useless in the Universe But such speculations as these are of so vast a comprehension and impenetrable obscurity that I cannot have the confidence to dwell any longer thereon especially they not touching so essentially our present designe and being more fit to fill a volume themseves then to be comprised within the narrow limits of my now almost-finish'd Discourse CHAP. XIV 1. Objections against the Souls Immortality from her condition in Infancy Old age Sleep and Sicknesses 2. Other Objections taken from Experiments that seem to prove her Discerpibility 3. As also from the seldome appearing of the Souls of the deceased 4. And from our natural fear of Death 5. A Subterfuge of the adverso party in supposing but one Soule common to all Creatures 6. An Answer concerning the Littleness of the Soule in Infancy 7. As also concerning the weakness of her Intellectuals then and in Old age 8. That Sleep does not at all argue the Souls Mortality but rather illustrate her Immortality 9. An Answer to the Objection from Apoplexies and Catalepsies 10. As also to that from Madness 11. That the various depravations of her Intellectual Faculties doe no more argue her Mortality then the worser Modifications of Matter its natural Annihilability And why God created Souls sympathizing with Matter 1. AS for the Objections that are usually made against the Immortality of the Soule to propound them all were both tedious and useless there being scarce above one in twenty that can appear of any moment to but an indifferent Wit and Judgment But the greatest difficulties that can be urged I shall bring into play that the Truth we doe maintain may be the more fully cleared and the more firmly believed The most material Objections that I know against the Souls Immortality are these five The First is from the consideration of the condition of the Soule in Infancy and Old age as also in Madness Sleep and Apoplexies For if we doe but observe the great difference of our Intellectual operations in Infancy and Dotage from what they are when we are in the prime of our years and how that our Wit grows up by degrees flourishes for a time and at last decayes keeping the same pace with the changes that Age and Years bring into our Body which observes the same lawes that Flowers and Plants what can we suspect but that the Soule of Man which is so magnificently spoken of amongst the learned is nothing else but a Temperature of Body and that it growes and spreads with it both in bigness and virtues and withers and dies as the Body does or at least that it does wholly depend on the Body in its Operations and therefore that there is no sense nor perception of any thing after death And when the Soule has the best advantage of years she is not then exempted from those Eclipses of the powers of the Minde that proceed from Sleep Madness Apoplexies and other Diseases of that nature All which shew her condition whatever more exalted Wits surmise of her that she is but a poor mortal and corporeal thing 2. The Second Objection is taken from such Experiments as are thought to prove the Soule divisible in the grossest sense that is to say discerpible into pieces And it seems a clear case in those more contemptible Animals which are called Insects especially the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle describes them and doth acknowledge that being cut into pieces each segment will have its motion and sense apart to it self The most notable Instance of this kind is in the Scolopendra whose parts Aristotle Histor. Animal Lib. 4. Cap. 7.
that the depraved Operations of the Soule argue her Mortality as that the worser tempers or figures or whatever more contemptible modifications there are of Matter should argue its annihilation by the meer power of Nature which no man that understands himself will ever admit The Soule indeed is indued with several Faculties and some of them very fatally passive such as those are that have the nearest commerce with Matter and are not so absolutely in her own power but that her levity and mindlesness of the divine light may bring her into subjection to them as all are in too sad a sort that are incarcerate in this terrestrial Body but some have better luck then other some in this wild and audacious ramble from a more secure state Of which Apostasy if there be some that are made more tragick examples then others of their stragling from their soveraign Happiness it is but a merciful admonition of the danger we all have incurr'd by being where we are and very few so wel escaped but that if they could examine their Desires Designs and Transactions here by that Truth they were once masters of they would very freely confess that the mistakes and errours of their life are not inferiour to but of worse consequence then those of natural Fools and Mad-men whom all either hoot at for their folly or else lament their misery And questionless the Souls of Men if they were once reduced to that sobriety they are capable of would be as much ashamed of such Desires and Notions they are now wholly engaged in as any mad-man reduced to his right Senses is of those freaks he played when he was out of his wits 11. But the variety of degrees or kindes of depravation in the Intellective faculties of the Soule her Substance being indiscerpible cannot at all argue her Mortality no more then the different modifications of Matter the Annihilability thereof as I have already intimated Nor need a man trouble himself how there should be such a Sympathy betwixt Body and Soule when it is so demonstrable that there is For it is sufficient to consider that it is their immediate nature so to be by the will and ordinance of Him that has made all things And that if Matter has no Sense nor Cogitation it self as we have demonstrated it has not it had been in vain if God had not put forth into Being that Order of immaterial Creatures which we call Souls vitally unitable with the Matter Which therefore according to the several modifications thereof will necessarily have a different effect upon the Soule the Soule abiding still as unperishable as the Matter that is more mutable then she For the Matter is dissipable but she utterly indiscerpible CHAP. XV. 1. An Answer to the experiment of the Scolopendra cut into pieces 2. And to the flying of an headless Eagle over a barn as also to that of the Malefactours head biteing a Dog by the eare 3. A superaddition of a difficulty concerning Monsters born with two or more Heads and but one Body and Heart 4. A solution of the difficulty 5. An answer touching the seldome appearing of the Souls of the deceased 6. As also concerning the fear of Death 7. And a down-bearing sense that sometimes so forcibly obtrudes upon us the belief of the Souls Mortality 8. Of the Tragical Pompe and dreadful Praeludes of Death with some corroborative Considerations against such sad spectacles 9. That there is nothing really sad and miserable in the Universe unless to the wicked and impious 1. NOR doe those Instances in the second Objection prove any thing to the contrary as if the Soule it self were really divisible The most forcible Example is that of the Scolopendra the motion of the divided parts being so quick and nimble and so lasting But it is easy to conceive that the activity of the Spirits in the Mechanical conformation of the pieces of that Insect till motion has dissipated them will as necessarily make them run up and down as Gunpowder in a squib will cause its motion And therefore the Soule of the Scolopendra will be but in one of those Segments and uncertain in which but likely according as the Segments be made For cut a Wasps head off from the Body the Soule retires out of the head into the Body but cut her in the wast leaving the upper part of the Body to the head the Soule then retires into that forepart of the Wasp And therefore it is no wonder that the head being cut off the Body of the Wasp will fly and flutter so long the Soule being still in it and haply conferring to the direction of the Spirits for motion not out of Sense but from custome or nature as we walk not thinking of it or play of the Lute though our minde be running on something else as I have noted before But when the wast is left to the head it is less wonder for then the Animal may not be destitute of sense and fancy to conveigh the Spirits to move the wings 2. The former case will fit that of the headless Eagle that flew over the Barn But the mans head that catcht the Dog by the ear would have more difficulty in it it not seeming so perfectly referrible to the latter case of the Wasp did not we consider how hard the teeth will set in a swoon As this Head therefore was gasping while the Dog was licking the blood thereof his ear chanced to dangle into the mouth of it which closing together as the ear hung into it pinched it so fast that it could not fall off Besides it is not altogether improbable especially considering that some men die upwards and some downwards that the Soul may as it happens sometimes retire into the Head and sometimes into the Body in these decollations according as they are more or less replenisht with Spirits and by the lusty jumping of this Head it should seem it was very full of them Many such things as these also may happen by the activity of the Spirit of Nature who its like may be as busy in the ruines of Animals while the Spirits last as it is in the fluid rudiments of them when they are generated But the former answers being sufficient it is needless to enlarge our selves upon this new Theme 3. To this second Objection might have been added such monstrous births as seem to imply the Perceptive part of the Soul divided actually into two or more parts For Aristotle seems expresly to affirm De Generat Animal Lib. 4. Cap. 4. that that monstrous birth that has two hearts is two Animals but that which has but one heart is but one From whence it will follow that there is but one Soul also in that one-hearted Monster though it have two or more heads whence it is also evident that the Perceptive part of that one Soule must be actually divided into two or more This opinion of Aristotle Sennertus subscribes to and therefore
his hope and confidence of the Souls safe passage into the other world and is no otherwise moved then the more passionate Spectatours of some cunningly-contrived Tragedy where persons whose either Vertue or misfortunes or both have wonne the affection of the beholders are at last seen wallowing in their blood and after some horrid groans and gasps lye stretcht stark dead upon the stage but being once drawn off find themselves well and alive and are ready to tast a cup of wine with their friends in the attiring room to solace themselves really after their fictitious pangs of death and leave the easy-natur'd multitude to indulge to their soft passions for an evil that never befell them 9. The fear and abhorrency therefore we have of Death and the sorrow that accompanies it is no argument but that we may live after it and are but due affections for those that are to be spectatours of the great Tragick-Comedy of the World the whole plot whereof being contrived by infinite Wisdome and Goodness we cannot but surmise that the most sad representations are but a shew but the delight real to such as are not wicked and impious and that what the ignorant call Evil in this Universe is but as the shadowy stroaks in a fair picture or the mournful notes in Musick by which the beauty of the one is more lively and express and the melody of the other more pleasing and melting CHAP. XVI 1. That that which we properly are is both Sensitive and Intellectual 2. What is the true notion of a Soul being One. 3. That if there be but One Soule in the world it is both Rational and Sensitive 4. The most favourable representation of their Opinion that hold but One. 5. A confutation of the foregoing representation 6. A Reply to the confutation 7. An answer to the Reply 8. That the Soule of Man is not properly any Ray either of God or the Soule of the World 9. And yet if she were so it would be no prejudice to her Immortality whence the folly of Pomponatius is noted 10. A further animadversion upon Pomponatius his folly in admitting a certain number of remote Intelligencies and denying Particular Immaterial Substances in Men and Brutes 1. AS for the last Objection or rather Subterfuge of such as have no minde to finde their Souls immortal pretending indeed they have none distinct from that one Universal Soule of the World whereby notwithstanding they acknowledge that the operations we are conscious to our selves of of Reason and other Faculties cannot be without one we shall easily discover either the falsness or unserviceableness of this conceit for their design who would so fain slink out of Being after the mad freaks they have played in this Life For it is manifestly true that a man is most properly that whatever it is that animadverts in him for that is such an operation that no Being but himself can doe it for him And that which animadverts in us does not onely perceive and take notice of its Intellectual and Rational operations but of all Sensations whatsoever that we are conscious of whether they terminate in our Body or on some outward Object From whence it is plain that That which we are is both Sensitive and Intellectual 2. Now if we rightly consider what is comprehended in the true and usual notion of the Unity of a Soule it is very manifest that the Animadversive thereof is but one and that there is no Sensation nor Perception of any kinde in the Soule but what is communicated to and perceived by the whole Animadversive 3. Which things being premised it necessarily follows that if there be but one Soule in the World that Soule is both Rational and Sensitive and that there cannot be any Pain Pleasure or Speculation in one mans Soule but the same would be in all nay that a man cannot lash a Dog or spur a Horse but himself would feel the smart of it which is flatly against all experience and therefore palpably false Of this wilde Supposition I have spoken so fully in my Poems that I need adde nothing here in this place having sufficiently confuted it there 4. But not to cut them so very short let us imagine the most favourable contrivance of their opinion we can and conceit that though this Soule of the World be of it self every where alike and that the Animadversive faculty is in it all in like vigour yet it being engaged in severally-tempered Bodies Animadversion is confin'd to that part of Matter onely which it actuates and is stupid and unsensible of all other operations whether Sensitive or Intellectual that are transacted by her without in other persons a thing very hard to conceive and quite repugnant to the Idea of the Unity of a Soule not to be conscious to her self of her own perceptions But let it pass for a possibility and let us suppose that one part of the Soule of the World informs one man and another another or at least some vital Ray there yet notwithstanding this opinion will be incumbred with very harsh difficulties For if several parts of the Soul of the World inform several parts of the Matter when a man changes his place he either tears one part of the Soul of the World from another or else changes Souls every step and therefore it is a wonder that he changes not his Wits too and loses his Memory Unless they will say that every part of the Soul of the World upon the application of a new Body acts just so in it as that part acted which it left if there be no change or alteration thereof whence every part of the Soul of the World will have the self-same Thoughts Errours Truths Remembrances Pains Pleasures that the part had the Body newly left So that a man shall always fancy it is himself whereever he goes though this self be nothing but the Soul of the World acting in such a particular Body and retaining and renewing to her self the Memory of all Accidents Impressions Motions and Cogitations she had the perception of in this particular piece of organized Matter This is the most advantageous representation of this Opinion that can possibly be excogitated But I leave it to those that love to amuse themselves in such mysteries to try if they can make any good sense of it 5. And he that can fancy it as a thing possible I would demand of him upon this supposition who himself is and he cannot deny but that he is a Being Perceptive and Animadversive which the Body is not and therefore that himself is not the Body wherefore he is that in him which is properly called Soul But not its Operations for the former reason because they perceive nothing but the Soul perceives them in exerting them nor the Faculties for they perceive not one anothers Operations but that which is a mans Self perceives them all Wherefore he must say he is the Soul and there being but one Soul
in the World he must be forc'd to vaunt himself to be the Soul of the World But this boasting must suddainly fall again if he but consider that the Soul of the World will be every mans personal Ipseity as well as his whence every one man will be all men and all men but one Individual man which is a perfect contradiction to all the Laws of Metaphysicks and Logick 6. But reminded of these inconveniences he will pronounce more cautiously and affirm that he is not the Soul of the World at large but onely so far forth as she expedites or exerts her self into the Sense and Remembrance of all those Notions or Impresses that happen to her whereever she is joyned with his Body but that so soon as this Body of his is dissipated and dissolved that she will no longer raise any such determinate Thoughts or Senses that referre to that Union and that so the Memory of such Actions Notions and Impressions that were held together in relation to a particular Body being lost and laid aside upon the failing of the Body to which they did referre this Ipseity or Personality which consisted mainly in this does necessarily perish in death This certainly is that if they know their own meaning which many Libertines would have who are afraid to meet themselves in the other World for fear they should quarrel with themselves there for their transactions in this And it is the handsomest Hypothesis that they can frame in favour of themselves and farre beyond that dull conceit That there is nothing but meer Matter in the World which is infinitely more lyable to confutation 7. And yet this is too scant a covering to shelter them and secure them from the sad after-claps they may justly suspect in the other life For first it is necessary for them to confess that they have in this life as particular and proper sense of Torment of Pleasure of Peace and Pangs of Conscience and of other impressions as if they had an individual Soul of their own distinct from that of the World and from every ones else and that if there be any Daemons or Genii as certainly there are that it is so with them too We have also demonstrated that all Sense and Perception is immediately excited in the Soul by the Spirits wherefore with what confidence can they promise themselves that the death of this earthly Body will quite obliterate all the tracts of their Being here on earth whenas the subtiler ruines thereof in all likelihood may determine the Thoughts of the Soul of the World to the same tenour as before and draw from her the memory of all the Transactions of this life and make her exercise her judgement upon them and cause her to contrive the most vital exhalations of the terrestrial Body into an aerial Vehicle of like nature with the ferment of these material rudiments of life saved out of the ruines of death For any slight touch is enough to engage her to perfect the whole Scene and so a man shall be represented to himself and others in the other state whether he will or no and have as distinct a personal Ipseity there as he had in this life Whence it is plain that this false Hypothesis That we are nothing but the Soul of the World acting in our Bodies will not serve their turns at all that would have it so nor secure them from future danger though it were admitted to be true But I have demonstrated it false already from the notion of the Unity of a Soul Of the truth of which Demonstration we shall be the better assured if we consider that the subtile Elements which are the immediate conveyers of Perceptions in our Souls are continued throughout in the Soul of the World and insinuate into all living Creatures So that the Soul of the World will be necessarily informed in every one what she thinks or feels every where if she be the onely Soul that actuates every Animal upon Earth 8. That other conceit of our Souls being a Vital Ray of the Soul of the World may gain much countenance by expressions in ancient Authors that seem to favour the Opinion as that of Epictetus who saith that the Souls of men are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Philo calls the Minde of Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Trismegist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All which expressions make the Soul of man a Ray or Beam of the Soul of the World or of God But we are to take notice that they are but Metaphorical phrases and that what is understood thereby is that there is an emanation of a secondary substance from the several parts of the Soul of the World resembling the Rayes of the Sun Which way of conception though it be more easy then the other yet it has difficulties enough For this Vital Ray must have some head from whence it is stretched and so the Body would be like a Bird in a string which would be drawn to a great length when one takes long voyages suppose to the East or West Indies Or if you will not have it a linear Ray but an Orb of particular life every such particular Orb must be hugely vast that the Body may not travel out of the reach of the Soul Besides this Orb will strike through other Bodies as well as its own and its own be in several parts of it which are such incongruities and inconcinnities as are very harsh and unpleasing to our Rational faculties Wherefore that notion is infinitely more neat and safe that proportions the Soul to the dimensions of the Body and makes her independent on any thing but the Will of her Creator in which respect of dependence she may be said to be a Ray of him as the rest of the Creation also but in no other sense that I know of unless of likeness and similitude she being the Image of God as the Rays of Light are of the Sun 9. But let every particular Soul be so many Rayes of the Soul of the World what gain they by this whenas these Rayes may be as capable of all the several congruities of life as the Soul is in that sense we have described and therefore Personality Memory and Conscience will as surely return or continue in the other state according to this Hypothesis as the other more usual one Which also discovers the great folly of Pomponatius and of as many as are of the same leven with him who indeed is so modest and judicious as not to deny Apparitions but attributes all to the influence of the Stars or rather the Intelligencies of the Celestial Orbs. For they giving life and animation to brute Animals why may they not also upon occasion animate and actuate the Aire into shape and form even to the making of them speak and discourse one shape with another For so Pomponatius argues in his Book of the Immortality of the Soul from Aquinas his concession that Angels and Souls
separate may figure the Aire into shape and speak through it Quare igitur Intelligentiae moventes corpora coelestia haec facere non possunt cum suis instrumentis quae tot ac tanta possunt quae faciunt Psittacos Picos Corvos Merulas loqui And a little after he plainly reasons from the power the Intelligencies have of generating Animals that it is not at all strange that they should raise such kinde of Apparitions as are recorded in History But if these Celestial Intelligencies be confined to their own Orbs so as that no secondary Essence reach these inferiour Regions it is impossible to conceive how they can actuate the Matter here below But if there be any such essential emanations from them whereby they actuate the Matter into these living Species we see in the World of Men and Brutes nothing hinders but the same emanations remaining may actuate the Aire when this earthly fabrick fails and retain the memory of things transacted in this life and that still our Personality will be conserved as perfect and distinct as it was here 10. But this conceit of Pomponatius is farre more foolish then theirs that make onely one Anima Mundi that passes through all the Matter of the World and is present in every place to doe all feats that there are to be done But to acknowledge so many several Intellectual Beings as there be fancied Celestial Orbs and to scruple or rather to seem confident that there are not so many particular Souls as there be Men here on Earth is nothing but Humour and Madness For it is as rational to acknowledge eight hundred thousand Myriads of Intellectual and Immaterial Beings really distinct from one another as eight and an infinite number as but one that could not create the Matter of the World For then two Substances wholly independent on one another would be granted as also the Infinite parts of Matter that have no dependence one on the other Why may not there be therefore infinite numbers of Spirits or Souls that have as little dependence one on another as well as there should be eight Intelligencies whenas the motions and operations of every Animal are a more certain argument of an Immaterial Being residing there then the motions of the Heavens of any distinct Intelligencies in their Orbs if they could be granted to have any And it is no stranger a thing to conceive an Infinite multitude of Immaterial as well as Material Essences independent on one another then but two namely the Matter and the Soule of the World But if there be so excellent a principle existent as can create Beings as certainly there is we are still the more assured that there are such multitudes of spiritual Essences surviving all the chances of this present life as the most sober and knowing men in all Ages have professed there are CHAP. XVII 1. That the Authour having safely conducted the Soule into her AErial condition through the dangers of Death might well be excused from attending her any further 2. What reasons urge him to consider what fates may befall her afterwards 3. Three hazzards the Soule runs after this life whereby she may again become obnoxious to death according to the opinion of some 4. That the aerial Genii are mortal confirmed by three testimonies 5. The one from the Vision of Facius Cardanus in which the Spirits that appeared to him profest themselves mortal 6. The time they stayed with him and the matters they disputed of 7. What credit Hieronymus Cardanus gives to his Fathers Vision 8. The other testimony out of Plutarch concerning the Death of the great God Pan. 9. The third and last of Hesiod whose opinion Plutarch has polisht and refined 10. An Enumeration of the several Paradoxes contained in Facius Cardanus his Vision 11. What must be the sense of the third Paradox if those AErial Speculatours spake as they thought 12. Another Hypothesis to the same purpose 13. The craft of these Daemons in shuffling in poysonous errour amongst solid Truths 14. What makes the story of the death of Pan less to the present matter with an addition of Demetrius his observations touching the Sacred Islands neare Britain 15. That Hesiod his opinion is the most unexceptionable and that the harshness therein is but seeming not real 16. That the AEthereal Vehicle instates the Soule in a condition of perfect Immortality 17. That there is no internal impediment to those that are Heroically good but that they may attain an everlasting happiness after Death 1. WE have now maugre all the oppositions and Objections made to the contrary safely conducted the Soule into the other state and installed her into the same condition with the AErial Genii I might be very well excused if I took leave of her here and committed her to that fortune that attends those of the Invisible World it being more seasonable for them that are there to meditate and prefigure in their mindes all futurities belonging to them then for us that are on this side the passage It is enough that I have demonstrated that neither the Essence nor Operations of the Soule are extinct by Death but that they either not intermit or suddainly revive upon the recovery of her aiery Body 2. But seeing that those that take any pleasure at all in thinking of these things can seldome command the ranging of their thoughts within what compass they please and that it is obvious for them to doubt whether the Soule can be secure of her permanency in life in the other world it implying no contradiction That her Vital Congruity appropriate to this or that Element may either of it self expire or that she may by some carelesness debilitate one Congruity and awaken another in some measure and so make her self obnoxious to Fate we cannot but think it in a manner necessary to extricate such difficulties as these that we may not seem in this after-game to loose all we won in the former and make men suspect that the Soule is not at all immortal if her Immortality will not secure her against all future fates 3. To which she seems liable upon three accounts The one we have named already and respects an intrinsecal Principle the Periodical terms of her Vital Congruity or else the Levity and Miscarriage of her own Will Which obnoxiousness of hers is still more fully argued from what is affirmed of the AErial Genii whose companion and fellow-Citizen she is whom sundry Philosophers assert to be Mortal The other two hazards she runs are from without to wit the Conflagration of the World and the Extinction of the Sun 4. That the AErial Genii are mortal three main Testimonies are alledged for it The Vision of Facius Cardanus the Death of the great God Pan in Plutarch and the Opinion of Hesiod I will set them all down fully as I finde them and then answer to them The Vision of Facius Cardanus is punctually recited by his son Hieronymus in his
De Subtilitate Lib. 19. in this manner 5. That his Father Facius Cardanus who confessed that he had the society of a familiar Spirit for about thirty years together told him this following Story often when he was alive and after his death he found the exact relation of it committed to writing which was this The 13. day of August 1491. after I had done my holy things at the 20. houre of the day there appeared to me after their usual manner seven men cloathed in silk garments with cloaks after the Greek mode with purple stockins and crimson Cassocks red and shining on their breasts nor were they all thus clad but onely two of them who were the chief On the ruddier and taller of these two other two waited but the less and paler had three attendants so that they made up seven in all They were about fourty years of age but lookt as if they had not reacht thirty When they were asked who they were they answered that they were Homines aerii AErial Men who are born and die as we but that their life is much longer then ours as reaching to 300. years Being asked concerning the Immortality of our Souls they answered Nihil quod cuique proprium esset superesse That they were of a nearer affinity with the Divi then we but yet infinitely different from them and that their happiness or misery as much transcended ours as ours does the brute Beasts That they knew all things that are hid whether Monies or Books And that the lowest sort of them were the Genii of the best and noblest men as the basest men are the trainers up of the best sort of Dogs That the tenuity of their Bodies was such that they can doe us neither good nor hurt saving in what they may be able to doe by Spectres and Terrours and impartment of Knowledge That they were both publick Professors in an Academy and that he of the lesser stature had 300. disciples the other 200. Cardan's Father further asking them why they would not reveal such treasures as they knew unto men they answered that there was a special law against it upon a very grievous penalty 6. These aerial Inhabitants stai'd at least three hours with Facius Cardanus disputing and arguing of sundry things amongst which one was the Original of the World The taller denied that God made the world ab aeterno the lesser affirmed that he so created it every moment that if he should desist but one moment it would perish Whereupon the othèr cited some things out of the Disputations of Avenroes which Book was not yet extant and named several other Treatises part whereof are known part not which were all of Avenroes his writing and withall did openly profess himself to be an Avenroist 7. The record of this Apparition Cardan found amongst his Fathers Papers but seems unwilling to determine whether it be a true history or a Fable but disputes against it in such a shuffling manner as if he was perswaded it were true and had a mind that others should think it so I am sure he most-what steers his course in his Metaphysical adventures according to this Cynosura which is no obscure indication of his assent and belief 8. That of the Death of the great God Pan you may read in Plutarch in his De defectu Oraculorum where Philippus for the proof of the Mortality of Daemons recites a Story which he heard from one AEmilianus a Roman one that was remov'd far enough from all either stupidity or vanity How his Father Epitherses being shipt for Italy in the evening near the Echinades the winde failed them and their Ship being carried by an uncertain course upon the Island Paxae that most of the Passengers being waken many of them drinking merrily after Supper there was a voice suddainly heard from the Island which called to Thamus by name who was an AEgyptian by birth and the Pilot of the Ship which the Passengers much wondred at few of them having taken notice of the Pilots name before He was twice called to before he gave any sign that he attended to the voice but after giving express attention a clear and distinct voice was heard from the Island uttering these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The company was much astonisht at the hearing of the voice and after much debate amongst themselves Thamus resolved that if the wind blew fair he would sail by and say nothing but if they were becalmed there he would doe his Message and therefore they being becalmed when they came to Palodes neither winde nor tide carrying them on Thamus looking out of the poop of the Ship toward the shore delivered his Message telling them that the great Pan was dead Upon which was suddainly heard as it were a joynt groaning of a multitude together mingled with a murmurous admiration 9. The opinion of Hesiod also is that the Genii or Daemons within a certain period of years doe die but he attributes a considerable Longaevity to them to wit of nine thousand seven hundred and twenty years which is the utmost that any allow them most men less Plutarch under the person of others has polisht this Opinion into a more curious and distinct dress for out of the mortality of the Daemons and the several ranks which Hesiod mentions of Rational Beings viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he has affixed a certain manner and law of their passing out of one state into another making them to change their Elements as well as Dignities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But other he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not having sufficient command of themselves are again wrought down into humane Bodies to live there an evanid and obscure life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he phrases it 10. These are the most notable Testimonies for the Mortality of Daemons that I have met withall and therefore the more worth our reviewing That Vision of Facius Cardanus if it be not a Fable contains many Paradoxes As first That these AErial Genii are born at set times as well as we Not that any she Daemons are brought to bed of them but that they seem to have a beginning of their Existence from which they may be reckoned to have continued some more years and some less A thing unconceivable unless we should imagine that there is still a lapse or descent of Souls out of the higher Regions of the Aire into these lower or that these that leave these earthly Bodies pass into the number of the aiery Daemons As neither their death can so well be understood unless we should fancy that their Souls pass into more pure Vehicles or else descend into Terrestrial Bodies For Cardan himself acknowledges they perish not which also is agreeable with his Opinion of the Praeexistence of our Souls Secondly That these AErial Genii live but about 300. years which is against He siod and the greatest number
of the Platonists unless they should speak of that particular Order themselves were of for it is likely there may be as much difference in their ages as there is in the ages of several kinds of Birds and Beasts Thirdly That our Souls are so farre mortal as that there is nothing proper to us remaining after death Fourthly That they were nearer allied to the Gods then we by farre and that there was as much difference betwixt them and us as there is betwixt us and Beasts Which they must understand then concerning the excellency of their Vehicles and the natural activity of them not the preeminency of their Intellectual Faculties Or if they doe they must be understood of the better sort of those AErial Spirits Or if they mean it of all their Orders it may be a mistake out of pride as those that are rich and powerful as well as speculative amongst us take it for granted that they are more judicious and discerning then the poor and despicable let them be never so wise Fifthly That they know all secret things whether hidden Books or Monies which men might doe too if they could stand by concealedly from them that hide them Sixthly That the lowest sort of them were the Genii of the Noblest men as the baser sort of Men are the Keepers and Educators of the better kinde of Dogs and Horses This clause of the Vision also is inveloped with obscurity they having not defined whether this meanness of condition of the Tutelar Genii be to be understood in a Political or Physical sense whether the meanness of rank and power or of natural wit and sagacity in which many times the Groom exceeds the young Gallant who assigns him to keep his Dogs and Horses Seventhly That such is the thinness and lightness of their Bodies that they can doe neither good nor hurt thereby though they may send strange Sights and Terrors and communicate Knowledge which then must be chiefly of such things as belong to their aerial Region For concerning matters in the Sea the Fishes if they could speak might inform men better then they And for their corporeal debility it is uncertain whether they may not pretend it to animate their Confabulators to a more secure converse or whether the thing be really true in some kindes of them For that it is not in all may be evinced by that Narration that Cardan a little after recites out of Erasmus of the Devil that carried a Witch into the Aire and set her on the top of a Chimney giving her a Pot and bidding her turn the mouth downwards which done the whole Town was fired and burnt down within the space of an hour This hapned April the 10. Anno 1533. The Towns name was Schiltach eight German miles distant from Friburg The Story is so well attested and guarded with such unexceptionable circumstances that though Cardan love to shew his wit in cavilling at most he recites yet he finds nothing at all to quarrel at in his Eighthly That there are Students and Professors of Philosophy in the AErial World and are divided into Sects and Opinions there as well as we are here Which cannot possibly be true unless they set some value upon knowledge and are at an eager loss how to finde it and are fain to hew out their way by arguing and reasoning as we doe Ninthly and lastly That they are reduced under a Political Government and are afraid of the infliction of punishment 11. These are the main matters comprehended in Facius his Vision which how true they all are would be too much trouble to determine But one clause which is the third I cannot let pass it so nearly concerning the present Subject and seeming to intercept all hopes of the Souls Immortality To speak therefore to the summe of the whole business we must either conceive these aerial Philosophers to instruct Facius Cardanus as well as they could they being guilty of nothing but a forward pride to offer themselves as dictating Oracles to that doubtful Exorcist for his son Cardan acknowledges that his Father had a form of Conjuration that a Spaniard gave him at his death or else we must suppose them to take the liberty of equivocating if not of downright lying Now if they had a minde to inform Facius Cardanus of these things directly as they themselves thought of them it being altogether unlikely but that there appeared to them in their aerial Regions such sights as represented the persons of men here deceased it is impossible that they should think otherwise then as we have described their Opinion in the fore-going Chapter that hold there is but one Soul in the World by which all living Creatures are actuated Which though but a meer possibility if so much yet some or other of these aerial Speculators may as well hold to it as some doe amongst us For Pomponatius and others of the Avenroists are as ridiculously pertinacious as they And therefore these Avenroistical Daemons answered punctually according to the Conclusions of their own School Nihil proprium cuiquam superesse post mortem For the Minde or Soul being a Substance common to all and now disunited from those Terrestrial Bodies which it actuated in Plato suppose or Socrates and these Bodies dead and dissipated and onely the common Soul of the World surviving there being nothing but this Soul and these Bodies to make up Socrates and Plato they conclude it is a plain case that nothing that is proper survives after death And therefore though they see the representation of Socrates and Plato in the other World owning also their own personalities with all the actions they did and accidents that befell them in this life yet according to the sullen subtilties and curiosities of their School they may think and profess that to speak accurately and Philosophically it is none of them there being no Substance proper to them remaining after death but onely the Soul of the World renewing the thoughts to her self of what appertained to those parties in this life 12. This is one Hypothesis consistent enough with the veracity of these Daemons but there is also another not at all impossible viz. That the Vehicles of the Souls of men departed are as invisible to this Order of the Genii that confabulated with Facius Cardanus as that Order is to us and that therefore though there be the appearances of the Ghosts of Men deceased to them as well as to us yet it being but for a time it moves them no more then our confirmed Epicureans in this world are moved thereby especially it being prone for them to think that they are nothing but some ludicrous spectacles that the universal Soule of the World represents to her self and other Spectatours when and how long a time she pleases and the vaporous reliques of the dead body administer occasion Now that the Vehicles of the Souls of men departed this life after they are come to a setled condition may be
farre thinner and more invisible then those of the fore-named Daemons without committing any inconcinnity in Nature may appear from hence For the excellency of the inward Spirit is not alwaies according to the consistency of the Element with which it does incorporate otherwise those Fishes that are of humane shape and are at set times taken in the Indian Sea should have an◠higher degree of Reason and Religion then we that live upon Earth and have bodies made of that Element Whence nothing hinders but that the Spirit of Man may be more noble then the Spirit of some of the aerial Daemons And Nature not alwaies running in Arithmetical but also it Geometrical Progression one Remove it one may reach far above what is before it for the present in the other degrees of Progression As a creeping worm is above a cad-worm and any four-footed beasts above the birds till they can use their leggs as well as they but they are no sooner even with them but they are straight far above them and cannot onely goe but fly As a Peasant is above an imprison'd Prince and has more command but this Prince can be no sooner set free and become even with the Peasant in his liberty but he is infinitely above him And so it may be naturally with the Souls of men when they are freed from this prison of the Body their steps being made in Geometrical Progression as soon as they seem equal to that Order of Daemons we speak of they may mount far above them in tenuity and subtilty of Body and so become invisible to them and therefore leave them in a capacity of falsly surmising that they are not at all because they cannot see them 13. But if they thought that there is either some particular Ray of the Soule of the World that belongs peculiarly suppose to Socrates or Plato or that they had proper Souls really distinct then it is evident that they did either equivocate or lye Which their pride and scorn of mankinde they looking upon us but as Beasts in comparison of themselves might easily permit they making no more conscience to deceive us then we doe to put a dodge upon a dog to make our selves merry But if they had a design to winde us into some dangerous errour it is very likely that they would shuffle it in amongst many Truths that those Truths being examined and found solid at the bottome we might not suspect any one of their dictates to be false Wherefore this Vision being ill meant the poison intended was that of the Souls Mortality the dangerous falseness of which opinion was to be covered by the mixture of others that are true 14. As for that Relation of AEmilianus which he heard from his Father Epitherses it would come still more home to the purpose if the conclusion of the Philologers at Rome after Thamus had been sent for and averred the truth thereof to Tiberius Caesar could be thought authentick namely that this Pan the news of whose death Thamus told to the Daemons at Palodes was the Son of Mercury and Penelope for then 't is plain that Pan was an humane Soule and therefore concerns the present question more nearly But this Narration being applicable to a more sacred and venerable Subject it looses so much of its force and fitness for the present use That which Demetrius adds concerning certain Holy Islands neare Britain had been more fit in this regard Whither when Demetrius came suddainly upon his arrival there happened a great commotion of the air mighty tempests prodigious whirlwinds After the ceasing whereof the Inhabitants pronounced 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That some of a nature more then humane was dead Upon which Plutarch according to his usual Rhetorick descants after this manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. As the lightning of a lamp brings no grievance with it but the extinction of it is offensive to many sogreat Souls while they remain kindled into life shine forth harmlesly and benignly but their extinction or corruption often stirs up windes and tempests as in this present example and often infects the aire with pestilential annoiances 15. But the last Testimony is the most unexceptionable though the least pretending to be infallible and seems to strike dead both waies For whether the Souls of men that goe out of these earthly bodies be vertuous or vitious they must die to their AErial Vehicles Which seems a sad story at first sight and as if Righteousness could not deliver from Death But if it be more carefully perused the terrour will be found onely to concern the Wicked For the profoundest pitch of Death is the Descent into this Terrestrial Body in which besides that we necessarily forget whatever is past we doe for the present lead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a dark and obscure life as Plutarch speaks dragging this weight of Earth along with us as Prisoners and Malefactours doe their heavy shackles in their sordid and secluse confinements But in our return back from this state Life is naturally more large to them that are prepared to make good use of that advantage they have of their Aiery Vehicle But if they be not masters of themselves in that state they will be fatally remanded back to their former Prison in process of time which is the most gross Death imaginable But for the Good and vertuous Souls that after many Ages change their AErial Vehicle for an AEthereal one that is no Death to them but an higher ascent into life And a man may as well say of an Infant that has left the dark Wombe of his Mother that this change of his is Death as that a Genius dies by leaving the gross Aire and emerging into that Vehicle of Light which they ordinarily call AEthereal or Coelestial 16. There may be therefore by Axiome 36. a dangerous relapse out of the AErial Vehicle into the Terrestrial which is properly the Death of the Soule that is thus retrograde But for those that ever reach the AEthereal state the periods of life there are infinite though they may have their Perige's as well as Apoge's yet these Circuits being of so vast a compass and their Perige's so rare and short and their return as certain to their former Apsis as that of the Coelestial Bodies and their athereal sense never leaving them in their lowest touches towards the Earth it is manifest that they have arrived to that life that is justly styled Eternal 17. Whence it is plain that perseverance in Vertue if no external Fate hinder will carry Man to an Immortal life But whether those that be thus Heroically good be so by discipline and endeavour or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a special favour and irresistible design of God is not to be disputed in this place though it be at large discussed somewhere in the Dialogues of Plato But in the mean time we will not doubt to conclude that there is no Internal impediment to those that
the Nymphs to whom though they allot a long Series of years yet they doe not exempt them from mortality and fate And Demetrius in Plutarch pronounces expresly out of Hesiod that their life will be terminated with the Conflagration of the World from what the Poet intimates AEnigmatically 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 7. But to leave these Poetical Riddles and take a more serious and distinct view of the condition of the Soul after the Conflagration of the Earth we shall finde five several sorts of Opinions concerning it The first hold That this unmerciful heat and fire will at last destroy and consume the Soul as well as the Body But this seems to me impossible that any created Substance should utterly destroy another Substance so as to reduce it to nothing For no part of Matter acting the most furiously upon another part thereof does effect that It can onely attenuate dissipate and disperse the parts and make them invisible But the Substance of the Soul is indissipable and indiscerpible and therefore remains entire whatever becomes of the Body or Vehicle 8. The second Opinion is That after long and tedious torture in these flames the Soul by a special act of Omnipotency is annihilated But me thinks this is to put Providence too much to her shifts as if God were so brought to a plunge in his creating a Creature of it self immortal that he must be fain to uncreate it again that is to say to annihilate it Besides that that divine Nemesis that lies within the compass of Philosophy never supposes any such forcible eruptions of the Deity into extraordinary effects but that all things are brought about by a wise and infallible or inevitable train of secondary Causes whether natural or free Agents 9. The third therefor â—â— to avoid these absurdities denies both absumption by Fire and annihilation but conceives That tediousness and extremity of pain makes the Soul at last of her self shrink from all commerce with Matter the immediate Principle of Union which we call Vital Congruity consisting of a certain modification of the Body or Vehicle as well as of the Soul which being spoiled and lost and the Soul thereby quite loosned from all sympathy with Body or Matter she becomes perfectly dead and sensless to all things by Axiome 36. and as they say will so remain for ever But this seems not so rational for as Aristotle somewhere has it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore so many entire immaterial Substances would be continued in being to all Eternity to no end nor purpose notwithstanding they may be made use of and actuate Matter again as well as ever 10. A fourth sort therefore of Speculators there is who conceive that after this solution of the Souls or Spirits of Wicked Men and Daemons from their Vehicles That their pain is continued to them even in that separate state they falling into an unquiet sleep full of furious tormenting Dreams that act as fiercely upon their Spirits as the external Fire did upon their Bodies But others except against this Opinion as a very uncertain Conjecture it supposing that which to them seems not so sound viz. That the Soul can act when it has lost all vital Union with the Matter which seems repugnant with that so intimate and essential aptitude it has to be united therewith And the Dreams of the Soul in the Body are not transacted without the help of the Animal Spirits in the Brain they usually symbolizing with their temper Whence they conclude that there is no certain ground to establish this Opinion upon 11. The last therefore to make all sure that there may be no inconvenience in admitting that the Souls or Spirits as well of evil Daemons as wicked Men disjoyned from their Vehicles by the force of that fatal Conflagration may subsist have excogitated an odde and unexpected Hypothesis That when this firing of the World has done due execution upon that unfortunate Crue and tedious and direful torture has we aried their afficted Ghosts into an utter recess from all Matter and thereby into a profound sleep or death that after a long Series of years when not onely the fury of the Fire is utterly slaked but that vast Atmosphere of smoak and vapours which was sent up during the time of the Earths Conflagration has returned back in copious showres of rain which will again make Seas and Rivers will binde and consolidate the ground and falling exceeding plentifully all over make the soil pleasant and fruitful and the Aire cool and wholsome that Nature recovering thus to her advantage and becoming youthful again and full of genital salt and moisture the Souls of all living Creatures belonging to these lower Regions of the Earth and Aire will awaken orderly in their proper places The Seas and Rivers will be again replenished with Fish the Earth will send forth all manner of Fowls four-footed Beasts and creeping things and the Souls of Men also shall then catch life from the more pure and balsamick parts of the Earth and be clothed again in terrestrial Bodies and lastly the AErial Genii that Element becoming again wholsome and vital shall in due order and time awaken and revive in the cool rorid Aire Which Expergeraction into life is accompanied say they with propensions answerable to those resolutions they made with themselves in those fiery torments and with which they fell into their long sleep 12. But the whole Hypothesis seems to be framed out of that dream of the Stoicks concerning the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the World after the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thereof As if that of Seneca belonged to this case Epist. 36. Mors quam pertimescimus ac recusamus intermittit vitam non eripit Veniet iterum qui nos in lucem reponet dies quem multi recusarent nisi oblitos reduceret But how coursly the Stoicks Philosophize when they are once turned out of their rode-way of moral Sentences any one but moderately skilled in Nature and Metaphysicks may easily discern For what Errors can be more gross then those that they entertain of God of the Soul and of the Stars they making the two former Corporeal Substances and feeding the latter with the Vapours of the Earth affirming that the Sun sups up the water of the great Ocean to quench his thirst but that the Moon drinks off the lesser Rivers and Brooks which is as true as that the Ass drunk up the Moon Such conceits are more fit for Anacreon in a drunken fit to stumble upon who to invite his Companions to tipple composed that Catch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then for to be either found out or owned by a serious and sober Philosopher And yet Seneca mightily triumphs in this notion of foddering the Stars with the thick foggs of the Earth and declares his opinion with no mean
of all Philosophers in all Ages that held it Incorporeal 10. That the Gymnosophists of AEgypt the Indian Brachmans the Persian Magi and all the learned of the Jews were of this Opinion 11. A Catalogue of particular famous persons that held the same 12. That Aristotle was also of the same minde 13. Another more clear place in Aristotle to this purpose with Sennertus his Interpretation 14. An Answer to an Evasion of that Interpretation 15. The last and clearest place of all out of Aristotles Writings 237 Chap. 13. 1. The third part of the second Answer That the forgetting of the former state is no good argument against the Souls Praeexistence 2. What are the chief causes of Forgetfulness 3. That they all conspire and that in the highest degree to destroy the memory of the other state 4. That Mischances and Diseases have quite taken away the Memory of things here in this life 5. That it is impossible for the Soul to remember her former condition without a Miracle 6. The fourth part of the second Answer That the entrance of a Praeexistent Soul into a Body is as intelligible as either Creation or Traduction 252 Chap. 14. 1. The knowledge of the difference of Vehicles and the Souls Union with them necessary for the understanding how she enters into this Earthly Body 2. That though the name of Vehicle be not in Aristotle yet the thing is there 3. A clearing of Aristotles notion of the Vehicle out of the Philosophy of Des-Cartes 4 A full interpretation of his Text. 5. That Aristotle makes onely two Vehicles Terrestrial and AEthereal which is more then sufficient to prove the Souls Oblivion of her former state 6 That the ordinary Vehicle of the Soul after death is Aire 7. The duration of the Soul in her several Vehicles 8. That the Union of the Soul with her Vehicle does not consist in Mechanical Congruity but Vital 9. In what Vital congruity of the Matter consists 10. In what Vital congruity of the Soul consists and how it changing the Soul may be free from her aiery Vehicle without violent precipitation out of it 11. Of the manner of the descent of Souls into Earthly Bodies 12. That there is so little absurdity in the Praeexistence of Souls that the concession thereof can be but a very small prejudice to our Demonstrations of her Immortality 257 Chap. 15. 1. What is meant by the Separation of the Soul with a confutation of Regius who would stop her in the dead Corps 2. An answer to those that profess themselves puzled how the Soul can get out of the Body 3. That there is a threefold Vital Congruity to be found in three several Subjects 4. That this triple Congruity is also competible to one Subject viz. the Soul of Man 5. That upon this Hypothesis it is very intelligible how the Soul may leave the Body 6. That her Union with the aerial Vehicle may be very suddain and as it were in a moment 7. That the Soul is actually separate from the Body is to be proved either by History or Reason Examples of the former kinde out of Pliny Herodotus Ficinus 8. Whether the Ecstasie of Witches prove an actual separation of the Soul from the Body 9. That this real separation of the Soul in Ecstasie is very possible 10. How the Soul may be loosned and leave the Body and yet return thither again 11. That though Reason and Will cannot in this life release the Soul from the Body yet Passion may and yet so that she may return again 12. The peculiar power of Desire for this purpose 13. Of Cardans Ecstasies and the Ointment of Witches and what truth there may be in their Confessions 267 Chap. 16. 1. That Souls departed communicate Dreams 2. Examples of Apparitions of Souls deceased 3. Of Apparitions in fields where pitcht Battels have been fought as also of those in Church-yards and other vaporous places 4. That the Spissitude of the Aire may well contribute to the easiness of the appearing of Ghosts and Spectres 5. A further proof thereof from sundry examples 6. Of Marsilius Ficinus his appearing after death 7. With what sort of people such examples as these avail little 8. Reasons to perswade the unprejudiced that ordinarily those Apparitions that bear the shape and person of the deceased are indeed the Souls of them 286 Chap. 17. 1. The praeeminence of Arguments drawn from Reason above those from Story 2. The first step towards a Demonstration of Reason that the Soul acts out of her Body for that she is an immaterial Substance separable therefrom 3. The second That the immediate instruments for Sense Motion and Organization of the Body are certain subtile and tenuious Spirits 4. A comparison betwixt the Soul in the Body and the AErial Genii 5. Of the nature of Daemons from the account of Marcus the Eremite and how the Soul is presently such having once left this Body 6. An Objection concerning the Souls of Brutes to which is answered First by way of concesson 7. Secondly by confuting the Arguments for the former concession 8. That there is no rational doubt at all of the Humane Soul acting after death 9. A further Argument of her activity out of this Body from her conflicts with it while she is in it 10. As also from the general hope and belief of all Nations that they shall live after death 297 Chap. 18. 1. That the Faculties of our Souls and the nature of the immediate instrument of them the Spirits doe so nearly symbolize with those of Daemons that it seems reasonable if God did not on purpose hinder it that they would not fail to act out of this earthly Body 2. Or if they would his power and wisdome could easily implant in their essence a double or triple Vital Congruity to make all sure 3. A further demonstration of the present Truth from the Veracity of God 4. An Answer to an Objection against the foregoing Argument 5. Another Demonstration from His Justice 6. An Answer to an Objection 7. An Answer to another Objection 8. Another Argument from the Justice of God 9. An Objection answered 10. An invincible Demonstration of the Souls Immortality from the Divine Goodness 11. A more particular enforcement of that Argument and who they are upon whom it will work least 12. That the noblest and most vertuous Spirit is the most assurable of the Souls Immortality 311 BOOK III. Chap. 1. 1. WHY the Author treats of the state of the Soul after Death and in what Method 2. Arguments to prove that the Soul is ever united vitally with some Matter or other 3. Further Reasons to evince the same 4. That the Soul is capable of an aiery and aethereal Body as well as a terrestrial 5. That she ordinarily passes out of an earthly into an aerial Vehicle first 6. That in her aiery Vehicle she is capable of Sense Pleasure and Pain 7. That the main power of the Soul over her aerial
Vehicle is the direction of Motion in the particles thereof 8. That she may also adde or diminish Motion in her aethereal 9. How the purity of the Vehicle confers to the quickness of Sense and Knowledge 10. Of the Souls power of changing the temper of her aerial Vehicle 11. As also the shape thereof 12. The plainness of the last Axiome 326 Chap. 2. 1. Of the Dimensions of the Soul considered barely in her self 2. Of the Figure of the Souls Dimensions 3. Of the Heterogeneity of her Essence 4. That there is an Heterogeneity in her Plastick part distinct from the Perceptive 5. Of the acting of this Plastick part in her framing of the Vehicle 6. The excellency of Des-Cartes his Philosophy 7. That the Vehicles of Ghosts have as much of solid corporeal Substance in them as the Bodies of Men. 8. The folly of the contrary Opinion evinced 9. The advantage of the Soul for matter of Body in the other state above this 340 Chap. 3. 1. That the natural abode of the Soul after death is the Aire 2. That she cannot quit the AErial Regions till the AEthereal Congruity of life be awakened in her 3. That all Souls are not in the same Region of the Aire 4. Cardans conceit of placing all Daemons in the upper Region 5. The use of this conceit for the shewing the reason of their seldome appearing 6. That this Phaenomenon is salved by a more rational Hypothesis 7. A further confutation of Cardans Opinion 8. More tending to the same scope 9. The Original of Cardans errour concerning the remote operations of Daemons 10. An Objection how Daemons and Souls separate can be in this lower Region where Winds and Tempests are so frequent 11. A preparation to an Answer from the consideration of the nature of the winds 12. Particular Answers to the Objection 13. A further Answer from the nature of the Statick Faculty of the Soul 14. Another from the suddain power of actuating her Vehicle 15. What incommodations she suffers from hail rain c. 350 Chap. 4. 1. That the Soul once having quitted this earthly Body becomes a Daemon 2. Of the External Senses of the Soul separate their number and limits in the Vehicle 3. Of Sight in a Vehicle organized and unorganized 4. How Daemons and separate Souls hear and see at a vast Distance and whence it is that though they may so easily hear or see us we may neither see nor hear them 5. That they have Hearing as well as Sight 6. Of the Touch Smell Tast and Nourishment of Daemons 7. The external employment that the Genii and Souls deceased may have out of the Body 8. That the actions of Separate Souls in reference to us are most-what conformable to their life here on Earth 9. What their entertainments are in reference to themselves 10. The distinction of orders of Daemons from the places they most frequent 364 Chap. 5. 1. That the Separate Soul spends not all her time in Solitude 2. That her converse with us seems more intelligible then that with the Genii 3. How the Genii may be visible one to another though they be to us invisible 4. Of their approaches and of the limits of their swiftness of motion 5. And how they farre exceed us in celerity 6. Of the figure or shape of their Vehicles and of their privacy when they would be invisible 7. That they cannot well converse in a meer simple Orbicular form 8. That they converse in humane shape at least the better sort of them 9. Whether the shape they be in proceed meerly from the Imperium of their Will and Fancy or is regulated by a natural Character of the Plastick part of the Soul 10. That the personal shape of a Soul or Genius is partly from the Will and partly from the Plastick power 11. That considering how the Soul organizes the Foetus in the Womb and moves our limbs at pleasure it were a wonder if Spirits should not have such command over their Vehicles as is believed 12. A further Argument from an excessive vertue some have given to Imagination 376 Chap. 6. 1. More credible Instances of the effects of Imagination 2. A special and peculiar Instance in Signatures of the Foetus 3. That what Fienus grants who has so cautiously bounded the power of Fancy is sufficient for the present purpose 4. Examples approved of by Fienus 5. Certain Examples rejected by him and yet approved of by Fernelius and Sennertus 6. Three not orious Stories of the power of the Mothers Imagination on the Foetus out of Helmont 7. A conjectural inference from those Stories what influence the Spirit of Nature has in all Plastick operations 8. A further confirmation of the Conjecture from Signatures on the Foetus 9. An application thereof to the transfiguration of the Vehicles of Daemons 387 Chap. 7. 1. Three notable Examples of Signatures rejected by Fienus 2. And yet so farre allowed for possible as will fit our design 3. That Helmonts Cherry and Licetus his Crab-fish are shrewd Arguments that the Soul of the World has to doe with all Efformations of both Animals and Plants 4. An Example of a most exact and lively Signature out of Kircher 5. With his judgement thereupon 6. Another Example out of him of a Child with gray hairs 7. An application of what has been said hitherto concerning the Signatures of the Foetus to the transfiguration of the aiery Vehicles of separate Souls and Daemons 8. Of their personal transformation visible to us 398 Chap. 8. 1. That the Better sort of Genii converse in Humane shape the Baser sometimes in Bestial 2. How they are disposed to turn themselves into several Bestial forms 3. Of Psellus his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Igneous splendours of Daemons how they are made 4. That the external beauty of the Genii is according to the degree of the inward vertue of their minds 5. That their aerial form need not be purely transparent but more finely opake and coloured 6. That there is a distinction of Masculine and Feminine Beauty in their personal figurations 407 Chap. 9. 1. A general account of the mutual entertains of the Genii in the other world 2. Of their Philosophical and Political Conferences 3. Of their Religious Exercises 4. Of the innocent Pastimes and Recreations of the better sort of them 5. A confirmation thereof from the Conventicles of Witches 6. Whether the purer Daemons have their times of repast or no. 7. Whence the bad Genii have their food 8. Of the food and feastings of the better sort of Genii 414 Chap. 10. 1. How hard it is to define any thing concerning the AErial or AEthereal Elysiums 2. That there is Political Order and Laws amongst these aiery Daemons 3. That this Chain of Government reaches down from the highest AEthereal Powers through the Aerial to the very Inhabitants of the Earth 4. The great security we live in thereby 5. How easily detectible and punishable wicked Spirits are
by those of their own Tribe 6. Other reasons of the security we find our selves in from the gross infestations of evil Spirits 7. What kinde of punishments the AErial Officers inflict upon their Malefactours 427 Chap. 11. 1. Three things to be considered before we come to the moral condition of the Soul after death namely her Memory of transactions in this life 2. The peculiar feature and individual Character of her AErial Vehicle 3. The Retainment of the same Name 4. How her ill deportment here lays the train of her Misery hereafter 5. The unspeakable torments of Conscience worse then Death and not to be avoided by dying 6. Of the hideous tortures of external sense on them whose searedness of Conscience may seem to make them uncapable of her Lashes 7. Of the state of the Souls of the more innocent and conscientious Pagans 8. Of the natural accruments of After-happiness to the morally good in this life 9. How the Soul enjoys her actings or sufferings in this Life for an indispensable Cause when she has passed to the other 10. That the reason is proportionably the same in things of less consequence 11. What mischief men may create to themselves in the other World by their Zealous mistakes in this 12. That though there were no Memory after Death yet the manner of our Life here may sow the seeds of the Souls future happiness or misery 435 Chap. 12. 1. What the Spirit of Nature is 2. Experiments that argue its real Existence such as that of two strings tuned Unisons 3. Sympathetick Cures and Tortures 4. The Sympathy betwixt the Earthly and Astral Body 5. Monstrous Births 6. The Attraction of the Loadstone and Roundness of the Sun and Stars 449 Chap. 13. 1. That the Descent of heavy Bodies argues the existence of the Spirit of Nature because else they would either hang in the Aire as they are placed 2. Or would be diverted from a perpendicular as they fall near a Plate of Metal set slooping 3. That the endeavour of the AEther or Aire from the Centre to the Circumference is not the cause of Gravity against Mr. Hobbs 4. A full confutation of Mr. Hobbs his Opinion 5. An ocular Demonstration of the absurd consequence thereof 6. An absolute Demonstration that Gravity cannot be the effect of meer Mechanical powers 7. The Latitude of the operations of the Spirit of Nature how large and where bounded 8. The reason of its name 9. It s grand office of transmitting Souls into rightly prepared Matter 458 Chap. 14. 1. Objections against the Souls Immortality from her condition in Infancy Old age Sleep and Sicknesses 2. Other Objections taken from Experiments that seem to prove her Discerpibility 3. As also from the seldome appearing of the Souls of the deceased 4. And from our natural fear of Death 5. A Subterfuge of the adverse party in supposing but one Soul common to all Creatures 6. An Answer concerning the Littleness of the Soul in Infancy 7. As also concerning the weakness of her Intellectuals then and in Old age 8. That Sleep does not at all argue the Souls Mortality but rather illustrate her Immortality 9. An Answer to the Objection from Apoplexies and Catalepsies 10. As also to that from Madness 11. That the various depravations of her Intellectual Faculties doe no more argue her Mortality then the worser Modifications of Matter its natural Annihilability And why God created Souls sympathizing with Matter 471 Chap. 15. 1. An Answer to the experiment of the Scolopendra cut into pieces 2. And to the flying of an headless Eagle over a barn as also to that of the Malefactors head biting a Dog by the eare 3. A superaddition of a difficulty concerning Monsters born with two or more Heads and but one Body and Heart 4. A solution of the difficulty 5. An Answer touching the seldome appearing of the Souls of the deceased 6. As also concerning the fear of Death 7. And a down-bearing sense that sometimes so forcibly obtrudes upon us the belief of the Souls Mortality 8. Of the Tragical Pomp and dreadful Praeludes of Death with some corroborative Considerations against such sad spectacles 9. That there is nothing really sad and miserable in the Universe unless to the wicked and impious 481 Chap. 16. 1. That that which we properly are is both Sensitive and Intellectual 2. What is the true notion of a Soul being One. 3. That if there be but One Soul in the World it is both Rational and Sensitive 4. The most favourable representation of their Opinion that hold but One. 5. A confutation of the foregoing representation 6. A Reply to the confutation 7. An Answer to the Reply 8. That the Soul of Man is not properly any Ray either of God or the Soul of the World 9. And yet if she were so it would be no prejudice to her Immortality whence the folly of Pomponatius is noted 10. A further animadversion upon Pomponatius his folly in admitting a certain number of remote Intelligencies and denying Particular Immaterial Substances in Men and Brutes 491 Chap. 17. 1. That the Author having safely conducted the Soul into her AErial condition through the dangers of Death might well be excused from attending her any further 2. What reasons urge him to consider what fates may befall her afterwards 3. Three hazzards the Soul runs after this life whereby she may again become obnoxious to death according to the opinion of some 4. That the aerial Genii are mortal confirmed by three testimonies 5. The one from the Vision of Facius Cardanus in which the Spirits that appeared to him profest themselves mortal 6. The time they stayed with him and the matters they disputed of 7. What credit Hieronymus Cardanus gives to his Fathers Vision 8. The other testimony out of Plutarch concerning the Death of the great God Pan. 9. The third and last of Hesiod whose opinion Plutarch has polisht and refined 10. An Enumeration of the several Paradoxes contained in Facius Cardanus his Vision 11. What must be the sense of the third Paradox if those AErial Speculators spake as they thought 12. Another Hypothesis to the same purpose 13. The craft of these Daemons in shuffling in poysonous Errour amongst solid Truths 14. What makes the story of the death of Pan less to the present matter with an addition of Demetrius his observations touching the Sacred Islands near Britain 15. That Hesiod his opinion is the most unexceptionable and that the harshness therein is but seeming not real 16. That the AEthereal Vehicle instates the Soul in a condition of perfect Immortality 17. That there is no internal impediment to those that are Heroically good but that they may attain an everlasting happiness after Death 503 Chap. 18. 1. The Conflagration of the World an Opinion of the Stoicks 2. Two ways of destroying the World the Ancients have taken notice of and especially that by Fire 3. That the Conflagration of the World so farre as it respects us is to be understood onely of the burning of the Earth 4. That the ends of the Stoicks Conflagration are competible onely to the Earths burning 5. An acknowledgement that the Earth may be burnt though the proof thereof be impertinent to this place 6. That the Conflagration thereof will prove very fatal to the Souls of wicked Men and Daemons 7. Five several Opinions concerning their state after the Conflagration whereof the first is That they are quite destroy'd by Fire 8. The second That they are annihilated by a special act of Omnipotency 9. The third That they lie sensless in an eternal Death 10. The fourth That they are in a perpetual furious and painful Dream 11. The fifth and last That they will revive again and that the Earth and Aire will be inhabited by them 12. That this last seems to be fram'd from the fictitious 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Stoicks who were very sorry Metaphysicians and as ill Naturalists 13. An Animadversion upon a self-contradicting sentence of Seneca 14. The unintelligibleness of the state of the Souls of the Wicked after the Conflagration 15. That the AEthereal Inhabitants will be safe And what will then become of Good men and Daemons on the Earth and in the Aire And how they cannot be delivered but by a supernatural power 524 Chap. 19. 1. That the Extinction of the Sun is no Panick feare but may be rationally suspected from the Records of History and grounds of Natural Philosophy 2. The sad Influence of this Extinction upon Man and Beast and all the aerial Daemons imprison'd within their several Atmospheres in our Vortex 3. That it will doe little or no damage to the AEthereal Inhabitants in reference to heat or warmth 4. Nor will they find much want of his light 5. And if they did they may pass out of one Vortex into another by the Priviledge of their AEthereal Vehicles 6. And that without any labour or toil and as maturely as they please 7. The vast incomprehensibleness of the tracts and compasses of the waies of Providence 8. A short Recapitulation of the whole Discourse 9. An Explication of the Persians two Principles of Light and Darkness which they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and when and where the Principle of Light gets the full victory 10. That Philosophy or something more sacred then Philosophy is the onely Guide to a true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 538 FINIS Errata PAg. 222. l. 5. for Gamaitus read Gamaieu's 2â—4 l. 10. for Tyc r. Tye. 327. l. 2. for Immortality r. Immorality 458. l. 22. for stooping r. slooping 462. l. 13. for E F H r. angle E F H. 488. l. 9. for inclogg'd r. in clogg'd 521. l. 16. for lightning r. lighting 528. l. ult dele those
of Mechanick Philosophy 14. The great pleasure of that study to pious and rational persons 15. Of what concernment it would be if Des-Cartes were generally read in all the Universities of Christendome 16. An excuse of the prolixity of his Preface from his earnest desire of gratifying the publick without the least offence to any rational or ingenuous Spirit THat the present Treatise may pass more freely and smoothly through the hands of men without any offence or scruple to the good and pious or any real exception or probable cavil from those whose Pretensions are greater to Reason then Religion I shall endeavour in this Preface to prevent them by bringing here into view and more fully explaining and clearing whatever I conceive obnoxious to their mistakes and obloquies 1. And indeed I cannot be well assured but that the very Title of my Discourse may seem liable to both their dislikes To the dislike of the one as being confident of the contrary conclusion and therefore secure That that cannot be demonstrated to be true which they have long since judged not worthy to be reckoned in the rank of things probable it may be not so much as of things possible To the dislike of the other as being already perswaded of the truth of our conclusion upon other and better grounds which would not be better if the natural light of Reason could afford Demonstration in this matter And therefore they may haply pretend that so ambitious a Title seems to justle with the high Prerogative of Christianity which has brought life and immortality to light But of the former I demand by what faculty they are made so secure of their being wholly mortal For unless they will ridiculously conceit themselves inspired when as they almost as little believe there is either God or Spirit as that they have in them an Immortal Soule they must either pretend to the experience of Sense or the clearness of Reason The former whereof is impossible because these bold denyers of the Immortality of the Soule have not yet experienced whether we subsist after Death or no. But if they would have us believe they have thus concluded upon rational grounds I dare appeale unto them if they can produce any stronger reasons for their Cause then what I have set down Lib. 3. Cap. 14. and if I have not fully and fundamentally answered them If they will say their confidence proceeds from the weak arguings of the adverse party I answer it is weakly done of them their own Arguments being as unconcluding as they can fancy their adversaries to be so secure that Truth is on their own part rather then on theirs But this can touch onely such managements of this Cause as they have seen already and censured But that is nothing to me who could never think I stood safe but upon my own leggs Wherefore I shall require them onely to peruse what I have written before they venture to judge thereof and after they have read if they will declare that I have not demonstrated the Cause I have undertook I think it reasonable just that they punctually shew in what part or joynt of my Demonstration they discern so weak a coherence as should embolden them still to dissent from the Conclusion But to the other I answer with more modesty and submission That the Title of my Book doth not necessarily imply any promise of so full and perfect a Demonstration that nothing can be added for the firmer assurance of the Truth but onely that there may be expected as clear a Proof as Natural Reason will afford us From which they should rather inferre that I doe acknowledge a further and a more palpable evidence comprehended in Christian Religion and more intelligible and convictive to the generality of the World who have neither leisure nor inclination to deal with the spinosities and anxieties of humane Reason and Philosophy But I declined the making use of that Argument at this time partly because I have a design to speak more fully thereof in my Treatise Of the Mystery of Christian Religion if God so permit and partly because it was unsutable to the present Title which pretends to handle the matter onely within the bounds of natural Light unassisted and unguided by any miraculous Revelation 2. Which will be a pleasant spectacle to such as have a Genius to these kinde of Contemplations and wholly without danger they still remembring that it is the voice of Reason Nature which being too subject to corruption may very well be defectuous or erroneous in some things and therefore never trusting their dictates and suggestions where they clash with the Divine Oracles they must needs be safe from all seduction though I profess I doe not know any thing which I assert in this Treatise that doth disagree with them But if any quicker-sighted then my self do discover any thing not according to that Rule it may be an occasion of humble thankfulness to God for that great priviledge of our being born under an higher and exacter light whereby those that are the most perfectly exercis'd therein are inabled as well to rectify what is perverse as to supply what is defectuous in the light of Nature and they have my free leave afore-hand to doe both throughly all along the ensuing Discourse And this may serve by way of a more general Defence But that nothing may be wanting I shall descend to the making good also of certain particulars as many as it is of any consequence further to clear and confirme 3. In the First Book there occurre onely these two that I am aware of The one concerning the Centre of a particular Spirit whose Idea I have described and demonstrated possible The other concerns my Demonstration of the Impossibility of the Suns seeing any thing upon Earth supposing him meerly corporeal In the making good the former I have taken the boldness to assert That Matter consists of parts indiscerpible understanding by indiscerpible parts particles that have indeed real extension but so little that they cannot have less and be any thing at all and therefore cannot be actually divided Which minute extension if you will you may call Essential as being such that without that measure of it the very Being of Matter cannot be conserved as the extension of any Matter compounded of these you may if you please term Integral these parts of this compounded Matter being actually and really separable one from another The Assertion I confess cannot but seem paradoxical at first sight even to the ingenious and judicious But that there are such indiscerpible particles into which Matter is divisible viz. such as have essential extension and yet have parts utterly inseparable I shall plainly and compendiously here demonstrate besides what I have said in the Treatise it self by this short Syllogism That which is actually divisible so farre as actual division any way can be made is divisible into parts indiscerpible But Matter I mean that
much to my self as peremptorily to affirm that the Indiscerpibility of a Spirit arises that way that I have set down that is to say that God has made a particular Spirit just in that manner that I have delineated For his Wisdome is infinite and therefore it were an impious piece of boldness to confine him to one certain way of framing the nature of a Being that is of endowing it with such attributes as are essential to it as Indiscerpibility is to the Soule of Man But onely to have said in general it is possible there may be a particular Essence of its immediate nature penetrable indiscerpible and not particularly to have described the manner how it may be so might have seemed to many more slight and unsatisfactory Deceit lurking in Universals as the Proverb has it And therefore for the more fully convincing of the adverse party I thought fit to pitch upon a punctual description of some one way how the Soule of Man or of a Daemon may be conceived necessarily indiscerpible though dilatable not being very sollicitous whether it be just that way or no but yet well assured that it is either that way or some better But this one way shewes the thing possible at large As that mean contrivance of an Indian Canoa might prove the possibility of Navigation And that is all that I was to aime at in that place So in my description of the state of the other world I am not very sollicitous whether things be just so as I have set them down but because some men utterly misbelieve the thing because they can frame no particular conceit what the Receptions and Entertains of those AErial Inhabitants may be or how they pass away their time with many other intricacies which use to entangle this Theory I thought it of main concernment to take away this objection against the Life to come viz. That no man can conceive what it is and therefore it is not at all which is the ordinary Exception also against the Existence of all Incorporeal Substances by a punctual and rational Description of this future state Which I exhibite to the world as an intelligible Hypothesis and such as may very wel be even according to the dictates of our own Faculties being in the mean time fully assured that things are either thus or after a better or more exact order But as I said to propound some particular probable way I thought it of no small service to those who totally distrust all these things for that reason mainly as being such as we can make no rational representation of to the understandings of men 8. But there are also particular Objections The first whereof is against our AErial and AEthereal Elysiums which forsooth to make their reproach more witty they will parallel with the Mahometan Paradise But besides that I doe in the very place where I treat of these things suspend my assent after the description of them there is nothing there offered in their description but if it were assented to might become the most refined spirit in the World For there is nothing more certain then that the love of God and our Neighbour is the greatest happiness that we can arrive unto either in this life or that which is to come And whatever things are there described are either the Causes Effects or Concomitants of that noble and divine Passion Neither are the External incitements thereto which I there mention rightly to be deemed Sensual but Intellectual For even such is also sensible Beauty whether it shew it self in Feature Musick or whatever graceful Deportments and comely Actions as Plotinus has well defined And those things that are not properly Intellectual suppose Odours and Sapours yet such a Spirit may be transfused into the Vehicles of these AErial Inhabitants thereby that may more then ordinarily raise into act their Intellectual Faculties Which he that observes how our Thoughts and Inclinations depend immediately on a certain subtile Matter in our Bodies will not at all stick to acknowledge to be true And therefore whatever our Elysiums seem to the rash and injudicious they are really no other thing then pure Paradises of intellectual pleasure divine Love and blameless Friendship being the onely delight of those places 9. The next Objection is concerning the state of the Wicked as if I had made their condition too easy for them But this methinks any man might be kept off from if he would but consider that I make the rack of Conscience worse then a perpetually-repeated death Which is too too credible to come to pass there when as we finde what execution Passions will doe upon us even in this life the Sicilian Tyrants having not found out a more exquisite torture then they And as for those Souls that have lost the sense of Conscience if any can doe so I have allotted other punishments that are more corporeal and little inferiour to the fire of that great Hell that is prophesied of as the portion of the Devils and the damned at the last Day By which neither then nor before could they be tortured if we appeal to humane Reason whom alone we appeal to as judge in this Treatise if they were not vitally united with corporeal Vehicles 10. The two last Exceptions are the one touching the Soul of the World the other the Spirit of Nature The first is against our over-favourable representation of their Opinion that make but one Soul in the whole Universe induing her with Sense Reason and Understanding which Soul they will have to act in all Animals Daemons themselves not excepted In all which say they it is one and the same Universal Soul that Hears Sees Reasons Understands c. This Opinion I think I have confuted Lib. 3. Cap. 16. as sufficiently as any one Error can be confuted in all Natural Philosophy And that favourable representation I have made there of it Sect. 4. has that in it whereby unless a man be very remiss and mindless he may easily demonstrate the falsness of the Supposition For though we may well enough imagine how the Body being unchanged and this Soul of the Universe exquisitely the same every where that though the party change place and shift into another part of the Soul of the World he may retain the same Opinions Imaginations and Reasonings so farre forth as they depend not on Memory this Universal Soul raising her self into the same Thoughts upon the same Occasions yet Memory is incompetible unto that part which has not had the perception before of what is remembred For there is necessarily comprehended in Memory a Sense or Perception that we have had a Perception or Sense afore of the thing which we conceive our selves to remember To be short therefore and to strike this Opinion dead at one stroke They that say there is but one Soule of the World whose perceptive Power is every where they must assert that what one part thereof perceives all the
rest perceives or else that perceptions in Daemons Men and Brutes are confined to that part of this Soul that is in them while they perceive this or that If the former they are confutable by Sense and Experience For though all Animals lie steeped as it were in that subtile Matter which runs through all things and is the immediate Instrument of Sense and Perception yet we are not conscious of one anothers thoughts nor feel one anothers pains nor the pains and pleasures of Brutes when they are in them at the highest Nor yet doe the Daemons feel one anothers affections or necessarily assent to one anothers opinions though their Vehicles be exceeding pervious else they would be all Avenroists as well as those that appeared to Facius Cardanus supposing any were Wherefore we may generally conclude that if there were such an Universal Soul yet the particular perceptions thereof are restrained to this or that part in which they are made which is contrary to the Unity of a Soul as I have already said in its due place But let us grant the thing for indeed we have demonstrated it to be so if there be such an Universal Soule and none but it then the grand absurdity comes in which I was intimating before to wit That that part of the Soule of the world that never perceived a thing shall notwithstanding remember it that is to say that it shall perceive it has perceived that which it never perceived And yet one at Japan may remember a countrieman arrived thither that he had not seen nor thought of for twenty years before Nay which is more to the purpose supposing the Earth move what I write now the Earth being in the beginning of Aries I shall remember that I have written when she is in the beginning of Libra though that part of the Soule of the World that possesses my Body then will be twice as distant from what does guide my hand to write now as the Earth is from the Sun Wherefore it is plain that such an Universal Soule will not salve all Phaenomena but there must be a particular Soule in every man And yet I dare say this wilde opinion is more tenable then theirs that make nothing but meer Matter in the world But I thought it worth the while with all diligence to confute them both the better of them being but a more refined kinde of Atheisme tending to the subversion of all the Fundamentals of Religion and Piety amongst men 11. As for the Spirit of Nature the greatest exceptions are that I have introduced an obscure Principle for Ignorance and Sloth to take sanctuary in and so to enervate or foreslack the usefull endeavours of curious Wits and hinder that expected progress that may be made in the Mechanick Philosophy and this to aggravate the crime before a competent search be made what the Mechanical powers of Matter can doe For what Mechanical solutions the present or foregoing Ages could not light upon the succeeding may and therefore it is as yet unseasonable to bring in any such principle into Natural Philosophy To which I answer That the principle we speak of is neither obscure nor unseasonable nor so much introduced by me as forced upon me by in vitable evidence of Reason That it is no obscure Principle the clear Description I have given of it Lib. 3. Cap. 12. will make good Those that pretend that the introduction thereof is unseasonable I demand of them when they will think it to be seasonable For this simple surmise That although all the Mechanical solutions of some Phaenomena which have been hitherto offer'd to the world be demonstrably false yet future Ages may light upon what is true can be held nothing else by the judicious but a pittiful subterfuge of fearful Souls that are very loath to let in any such affrightful Notion as an Immaterial or Spiritual Substance into the world for fear the next step must be the acknowledgment also of a God from whom they would fain hide themselves by this poore and precarious pretence But I say if the introduction of this Principle be not seasonable now it will never be seasonable For that admirable Master of Mechanicks Des-Cartes has improved this way to the highest I dare say that the wit of man can reach to in such Phaenomena as he has attempted to render the causes of But how in sundry passages he falls short in his account I have both in the forenamed and following Chapter as also elsewhere taken notice I will instance here onely in the Phaenomenon of Gravity wherein I think I have perfectly demonstrated that both he and Mr. Hobbs are quite out of the story and that the causes they assign are plainly false And that I have not mentioned the opinions of others in this way it was onely because I lookt upon them as less considerable 12. But you 'l say that though these be all mistaken yet it does not follow but that there may arise some happy Wit that will give a true Mechanical solution of this Probleme But I answer that I have not onely confuted their Reasons but also from Mechanical principles granted on all sides and confirmed by experience demonstrated that the descent suppose of a Stone or Bullet or any such like heavy Body is enormously contrary to the Lawes of Mechanicks and that according to them they would necessarily if they lye loose recede from the Earth and be carried away out of our sight into the farthest parts of the Aire if some power more then Mechanical did not curbe that Motion and force them downwards towards the Earth So that it is plain that we have not arbitrariously introduced a Principle but that it is forced upon us by the undeniable evidence of Demonstration From which to suspend our assent till future Ages have improved this Mechanical Philosophy to greater height is as ridiculous as to doubt of the truth of any one plain and easy Demonstration in the first Book of Euclide till we have travelled through the whole field of that immense study of Mathematicks 13. Nor lastly needs the acknowledgment of this Principle to damp our endeavours in the search of the Mechanical causes of the Phaenomena of Nature but rather make us more circumspect to distinguish what is the result of the meer Mechanical powers of Matter and Motion and what of an higher Principle For questionless this secure presumption in some that there is nothing but Matter in the world has emboldned them too rashly to venture on Mechanical solutions where they would not hold because they were confident there were no other solutions to be had but those of this kinde 14. Besides that to the rational and religious there is a double pleasure to carry them on in this way of Philosophy The one from the observation how far in every thing the concatenation of Mechanical causes will reach which will wonderfuly gratify their Reason The other from a distinct deprehension where they
must needs break off as not being able alone to reach the Effect which necessarily leads them to a more confirmed discovery of the Principle we contend for namely the Spirit of Nature which is the vicarious power of God upon the Matter and the first step to the abstrusest mysteries in Natural Theologie which must needs highly gratify them in point of Religion 15. And truly for this very cause I think it is the most sober and faithful advice that can be offered to the Christian World that they would encourage the reading of Des-Cartes ' in all publick Schools or Universities That the Students of Philosophy may be throughly exercised in the just extent of the mechanical powers of Matter how farre they will reach and where they fall short Which will be the best assistance to Religion that Reason and the knowledge of Nature can afford For by this means such as are intended to serve the Church will be armed betimes with sufficient strength to grapple with their proudest Deriders or Opposers Whenas for want of this we see how liable they are to be contemned and born down by every bold though weak pretender to the Mechanick Philosophy 16. These are the main passages I could any way conceive might be excepted against in the ensuing Discourse which yet are so innocent and firm in themselves and so advantageously circumstantiated in the places where they are found that I fear the Reader may suspect my judgement and discretion in putting my self to the trouble of writing and him of reading so long and needless a Preface Which oversight though it be an argument of no great wit yet it may be of much Humanity and of an earnest desire of doing a publick good without the least offence or dis-satisfaction to any that are but tolerable Retainers to Reason and Ingenuity But for those that have bid adieu to both and measure all Truths by their own humoursome fancy making every thing ridiculous that is not sutable to their own ignorant conceptions I think no serious man will hold himself bound to take notice of their perverse constructions and mis-representations of things more then a religious Eremite or devout Pilgrim to heed the ugly mows and grimaces of Apes and Monkies he may haply meet with in his passage through the Wilderness THE IMMORTALITY of the SOULE CHAP. I. 1. The usefulness of the present Speculation for the understanding of Providence and the management of our lives for our greatest happiness 2. For the moderate bearing the death and disasters of our Friends 3. For the begetting true Magnanimitie in us 4. and Peace and Tranquillitie of minde 5. That so weighty a Theory is not to be handled perfunctorily 1. OF all the Speculations the Soul of man can entertain her self withall there is none of greater moment or of closer concernment to her then this of her own Immortality and Independence on this terrestriall body For hereby not onely the intricacies and perplexities of Providence are made more easy and smooth to her and she becomes able by unravelling this clue from end to end to pass and repass safe through this Labyrinth wherein many both anxious and careless Spirits have lost themselves but also which touches her own interest more particularly being once raised into the knowledge and belief of so weighty a Conclusion she may view from this Prospect the most certain and most compendious way to her own Happiness which is the bearing a very moderate affection to what ever tempts her during the time of this her Pilgrimage and a carefull preparing of her self for her future condition by such Noble actions and Heroicall qualifications of mind as shall render her most welcome to her own Countrey 2. Which Belief and Purpose of hers will put her in an utter incapacity of either envying the life or successes of her most imbittered Enemies or of over-lamenting the death or misfortunes of her dearest Friends she having no friends but such as are friends to God and Vertue and whose afflictions will prove advantages for their future Felicitie and their departure hence a passage to present possession thereof 3. Wherefore being fully grounded and rooted in this so concerning a Perswasion she is freed from all poore abject thoughts and designes and as little admires him that gets the most of this World be it by Industry Fortune or Policie as a discreet and serious man does the spoiles of School-boyes it being very inconsiderable to him who got the victory at Cocks or Cob-nut or whose bag returned home the fullest stuffed with Counters or Cherry-stones 4. She has therefore no aemulation unless it be of doing good and of out-stripping if it were possible the noblest examples of either the present or past Ages nor any contest unless it be with her self that she has made no greater proficiency towards the scope she aimes at and aiming at nothing but what is not in the power of men to confer upon her with courage she sets upon the main work and being still more faithfull to her self and to that Light that assists her at last tasts the first fruits of her future Harvest and does more then presage that great Happiness that is accrewing to her And so quit from the troubles and anxieties of this present world staies in it with Tranquillitie and Content and at last leaves it with Joy 5. The Knowledge therefore and belief of the Immortalitie of the Soule being of so grand Importance we are engaged more carefully and punctually to handle this so weighty a Theory which will not be performed by multiplying of words but by a more frugall use of them letting nothing fall from our pen but what makes closely to the matter nor omitting any thing materiall for the evincing the truth thereof CHAP. II. 1. That the Soules Immortality is demonstrable by the Authors method to all but meeâ— Scepticks 2. An Illustration of his Firsâ— Axiome 3. A confirmation and example oâ— the Second 4. An explication of the Third 5. An explication and proof of the Fourth 6. A proof of the Fifth 7. Of the Sixth 8. An example of the seventh 9. A confirmation of the truth of the Eighth 10. A demonstration and example of the Ninth 11. Penetrability the immediate properâ—â— of Incorporeall substance 12. As also Indiscerpibility 13. A proof and illustration of the tenth Axiome 1. ANd to stop all Creep-holes and leave no place for the subterfuges and evasions of confused and cavilling spirits I shall prefix some few Axiomes of thaâ— plainness and evidence that no man in his wits but will be ashamed to deny them if he will admit any thing at all to be true But as for perfect Scepticisme it is a disease incurable and a thing rather to be pittied or laught at then seriously opposed For when a man is so fugitive and unsetled that he will not stand to the verdict of his own faculties one can no more fasten any thing upon him then he can write
The necessary cohaesion of which Attributes with the Subject is as little demonstrable as the former For supposing that which I cannot but assert to be evidently true That there is no Substance but it has in some sort or other the Three dimensions This Substance which we call Matter might as well have been penetrable as impenetrable and yet have been Substance But now that it does so certainly and irresistibly keep one part of it self from penetrating another it is so we know not why For there is no necessary connexion discernible betwixt Substance with three dimensions and Impenetrability For what some alledge that it implyes a contradiction That extended substance should run one part into another for so part of the Extension and consequently of the Substance would be lost this I say if nearly looked into is of no force For the Substance is no more lost in this case then when a string is doubled and redoubled or a piece of wax reduced from a long figure to a round The dimension of Longitude is in some part lost but without detriment to the Substance of the wax In like manner when one part of an extended Substance runs into another something both of Longitude Latitude and Profundity may be lost and yet all the Substance there still as well as Longitude lost in the other case without any loss of the Substance And as what was lost in Longitude was gotten in Latitude or Profundity before so what is lost here in all or any two of the dimensions is kept safe in Essential Spissitude For so I will call this Mode or Property of a Substance that is able to receive one part of it self into another Which fourth Mode is as easy and familiar to my Understanding as that of the Three dimensions to my Sense or Fancy For I mean nothing else by Spissitude but the redoubling or contracting of Substance into less space then it does sometimes occupy And Analogous to this is the lying of two Substances of several kindes in the same place at once To both these may be applied the termes of Reduplication and Saturation The former when Essence or Substance is but once redoubled into it self or into another the latter when so oft that it will not easily admit any thing more And that more extensions then one may be commensurate at the same time to the same Place is plain in that Motion is coextended with the Subject wherein it is and both with Space And Motion is not nothing wherefore two things may be commensurate to one space at once 12. Now then Extended Substance and all Substances are extended being of it self indifferent to Penetrability or Impenetrability and we finding one kind of Substance so impenetrable that one part will not enter at all into another which with as much reason we might expect to find so irresistibly united one part with another that nothing in the world could dissever them For this Indiscerpibility has as good a connexion with Substance as Impenetrability has they neither falling under the cognoscence of Reason or Demonstration but being immediate Attributes of such a Subject For a man can no more argue from the Extension of Substance that it is Discerpible then that it is Penetrable there being as good a capacity in Extension for Penetration as Discerption I conceive I say from hence we may as easily admit that some Substance may be of it self Indiscerpible as well as others Impenetrable and that as there is one kind of Substance which of it's own nature is Impenetrable and Discerpible so there may be another Indiscerpible and Penetrable Neither of which a man can give any other account of then that they have the immediate Properties of such a Subject AXIOME X. The discovery of some Power Property or Operation incompetible to one Subject is an infallible argument of the existence of some other to which it must be competible 13. AS when Pythagoras was spoken unto by the River Nessus when he passed over it and a Tree by the command of Thespesion the chief of the Gymnosophists saluted Apollonius in a distinct and articulate voice but small as a womans it is evident I say That there was something there that was neither River nor Tree to which these salutations must be attributed no Tree nor River having any Faculty of Reason nor Speech CHAP. III. 1. The general notions of Body and Spirit 2. That the notion of Spirit is altogether as intelligible as that of Body 3. Whether there be any Substance of a mixt nature betwixt Body and Spirit 1. THE greatest and grossest obstacle to the belief of the Immortality of the Soul is that confident opinion in some as if the very notion of a Spirit were a piece of Non-sense and perfect Incongruity in the conception thereof Wherefore to proceed by degrees to our maine designe and to lay our foundation low and sure we will in the first place expose to view the genuine notion of a Spirit in the generall acception thereof and afterwards of several kindes of Spirits that it may appear to all how unjust that cavill is against Incorporeall substances as if they were meer Impossibilities and contradictious Inconsistencies I will define therefore a Spirit in generall thus A substance penetrable and indiscerpible The fitness of which definition will be the better understood if we divide Substance in generall into these first kindes viz. Body and Spirit and then define Body to be A Substance impenetrable and discerpible Whence the contrary kind to this is fitly defined A Substance penetrable and indiscerpible 2. Now I appeale to any man that can set aside prejudice and has the free use of his Faculties whether every term in the definition of a Spirit be not as intelligible and congruous to reason as in that of a Body For the precise notion of Substance is the same in both in which I conceive is comprised Extension and Activity either connate or communicated For matter it self once moved can move other matter And it is as easy to understand what Penetrable is as Impenetrable and what Indiscerpible as Discerpible and Penetrability and Indiscerpibility being as immediate to Spirit as Impenetrability and Discerpibility to Body there is as much reason to be given for the attributes of the one as of the other by Axiome 9. And Substance in its precise notion including no more of Impenetrability then Indiscerpibility we may as well wonder how one kind of Substance can so firmly and irresistibly keep out another Substance as Matter for example does the parts of Matter as that the parts of another Substance hold so fast together that they are by no means Discerpible as we have already intimated And therefore this holding out in one being as difficult a business to conceive as the holding together in the other this can be no prejudice to the notion of a Spirit For there may be very fast union where we cannot at all imagine the cause thereof
particular But now as Aristotle has somewhere noted the Essences of things are like Numbers whose Species are changed by adding or taking away an Unite adde therefore another Intrinsecall power to this of Vegetation viz. Sensation and it becomes the Soule of a Beast For in truth the bare Substance it self is not to be computed in explicite knowledg it being utterly in it self unconceivable and therefore we will onely reckon upon the Powers A Subject therefore from whence is both Vegetation and Sensation is the general notion of the Soule of a Brute Which is distributed into a number of kindes the effect of every Intrinsecal power being discernible in the constant shape and properties of every distinct kind of Brute Creatures 5. If we adde to Vegetation and Sensation Reason properly so called we have then a setled notion of the Soule of Man which we may more compleatly describe thus A created Spirit indued with Sense and Reason and a power of organizing terrestrial matter into humane shape by vital union therewith 6. And herein alone I conceive does the Spirit or Soule of an Angel for I take the boldness to call that Soule what ever it is that has a power of vitally actuating the Matter differ from the Soule of a Man in that the Soule of an Angel may vitally actuate an aëreal or aethereal body but cannot be born into this world in a terrestrial one 7. To make an end therefore of our Definitions an Angelical Soule is very intelligibly described thus A created Spirit indued with Reason Sensation and a power of being vitally united with and actuating of a Body of aire or aether onely Which power over an aëreal or aethereal Body is very easily to be understood out of that general notion of a Spirit in the foregoing Chapters For it being there made good that union with Matter is not incompetible to a Spirit and consequently nor moving of it nor that kind of motion in a Spirit which we call Contraction and Dilatation these powers if carefully considered will necessarily infer the possibility of the Actuation and Union of an Angelical Soule with an aethereal or aiery Body 8. The Platonists write of other orders of Spirits or Immaterial Substances as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But there being more Subtilty then either usefulness or assurance in such like Speculations I shall pass them over at this time having already I think irrefutably made good That there is no incongruity nor incompossibility comprised in the Notion of Spirit or Incorporeal Substance 9. But there is yet another way of inferring the same and it is the Argument of Des-Cartes whereby he would conclude that there is de facto a Substance in us distinct from Matter viz. our own Minde For every Real affection or Property being the Mode of some Substance or other and reall Modes being unconceivable without their Subject he inferres that seeing we can doubt whether there be any such thing as Body in the world by which doubting we seclude Cogitation from Body there must be some other Substance distinct from the Body to which Cogitation belongs But I must confess this Argument will not reach home to Des-Cartes his purpose who would prove in Man a substance distinct from his body For being there may be modes common to more Subjects then one and this of Cogitation may be pretended to be such as is competible as well to substance Corporeal as Incorporeal it may be conceived apart from either though not from both And therefore his argument does not prove that That in us which does think or perceive is a Substance distinct from our Body but onely That there may be such a Substance which has the power of thinking or perceiving which yet is not a Body For it being impossible that there should be any real mode which is in no Subject and we clearly conceiving Cogitation independent for existence on Corporeal Substance it is necessary That there may be some other Substance on which it may depend which must needs be a Substance Incorporeal CHAP. IX 1. That it is of no small consequence to have proved the Possibility of the Existence of a Spirit 2. The necessity of examining of Mr. Hobbs his Reasons to the contrary 3. The first Excerption out of Mr. Hobbs 4. The second Excerption 5. The third 6. The fourth 7. The fifth 8. The sixth 9. The seventh 10. The eighth and last Excerption 1. I Have been I believe to admiration curious and sollicitous to make good that the Existence of a Spirit or Incorporeal Substance is possible But there is no reason any one should wonder that I have spent so much pains to make so small and inconsiderable a progresse as to bring the thing only to a bare possibility For though I may seem to have gained little to my self yet I have thereby given a very signal overthrow to the adverse party whose strongest hold seems to be an unshaken confidence That the very notion of a Spirit or Substance Immaterial is a perfect Incompossibility and pure Non-sense From whence are insinuated no better Consequences then these That it is impossible that there should be any God or Soule or Angel Good or Bad or any Immortality or Life to come That there is no Religion no Piety nor Impiety no Vertue nor Vice Justice nor Injustice but what it pleases him that has the longest Sword to call so That there is no Freedome of Will nor consequently any Rational remorse of Conscience in any Being whatsoever but that all that is is nothing but Matter and corporeal Motion and that therefore every trace of mans life is as necessary as the tracts of Lightning and the fallings of Thunder the blind impetus of the Matter breaking through or being stopt every where with as certain and determinate necessity as the course of a Torrent after mighty stormes and showers of Rain 2. And verily considering of what exceeding great consequence it is to root out this sullen conceit that some have taken up concerning Incorporeal Substance as if it bore a contradiction in the very termes I think I shall be wanting to so weighty a Cause if I shall content my self with a bare recitation of the Reasons whereby I prove it possible and not produce their Arguments that seem most able to maintain the contrary And truly I doe not remember that I ever met with any one yet that may justly be suspected to be more able to make good this Province then our Countreyman Mr. Hobbs whose inexuperable confidence of the truth of the Conclusion may well assure any man that duely considers the excellency of his natural Wit and Parts that he has made choice of the most Demonstrative Arguments that humane Invention can search out for the eviction thereof 3. And that I may not incurre the suspicion of mistaking his Assertion or of misrepresenting the force of his Reasons I shall here punctually set them down in
errour of separated essences they are thereby necessarily involved in many other absurdities that follow it For seeing they will have these Formes to be real they are obliged to assign them some place But because they hold them incorporeal without all dimension of Quantity and all men know that Place is Dimension and not to be filled but by that which is corporeall they are driven to uphold their credit with a distinction that they are not indeed any where Circumscriptivè but Definitivé Which termes being meer words and in this occasion insignificant pass onely in Latine that the vanity of them might be concealed For the Circumscription of a thing is nothing else but the determination or defining of it's place and so both the termes of distinction are the same And in particular of the essence of man which they say is his Soule they affirm it to be all of it in his little finger and all of it in every other part how small soever of his Body and yet no more Soule in the whole Body then in any one of these parts Can any man think that God is served with such Absurdities And yet all this is necessary to believe to those that will believe the existence of an incorporeal Soule separated from the Body CHAP. X. 1. An Answer to the first Excerption 2. To the second 3. An Answer to the third 4. To the fourth Excerption 5. An Answer to the fifth 6. To the sixth 7. To the seventh 8. An Answer to the eighth and last 9. A brief Recapitulation of what has been said hitherto 1. WE have set down the chiefest passages in the Writings of Mr. Hobbs that confident Exploder of Immaterial Substances out of the world It remains now that we examine them and see whether the force of his Arguments beares any proportion to the firmness of his belief or rather mis-belief concerning these things To strip therefore the first Excerption of that long Ambages of words and to reduce it to a more plain and compendious forme of reasoning the force of his Argument lies thus That seeing every thing in the Universe is Body the Universe being nothing else but an Aggregate of Bodies Body and Substance are but names of one and the same thing it being called Body as it fills a place and Substance as it is the Subject of severall Alterations and Accidents Wherefore Body and Substance being all one Incorporeal Substance is no better sense then an Incorporeal Body which is a contradiction in the very termes But it is plain to all the world that this is not to prove but to suppose what is to be proved That the Universe is nothing else but an Aggregate of Bodyes When he has proved that we will acknowledge the sequel till then he has proved nothing and therefore this first argumentation must pass for nought 2. Let us examine the strength of the Second which certainly must be this if any at all That which has its originall meerly from Dreames Feares and Superstitious Faneyes has no reall existence in the world But Incorporeall Substances have no other Originall The Proposition is a Truth indubitable but the Assumption is as weak as the other is strong whether you understand it of the reall Originall of these Substances or of the Principles of our knowledge That they are And be their Originall what it will it is nothing to us but so far forth as it is cognoscible to us by Axiome first And therefore when he sayes they have no other Originall then that of our own Fancy he must be understood to affirme that there is no other principle of the knowledge of their Existence then that we vainly imagine them to be which is grossly false For it is not the Dreams and Feares of Melancholick and Superstitious persons from which Philosophers and Christians have argued the Existence of Spirits and Immaterial Substances but from the evidence of Externall Objects of Sense that is the ordinary Phaenomena of Nature in which there is discoverable so profound Wisdome and Counsell that they could not but conclude that the order of things in the world was from a higher Principle then the blind motions and jumblings of Matter and meer Corporeall Beings To which you may adde what usually they call Apparitions which are so far from being meerly the Dreams and Fancyes of the Superstitious that they are acknowledged by such as cannot but be deemed by most men over Atheisticall I mean Pomponatius and Cardan nay by Vaninus himself though so devoted to Atheisme that out of a perfect mad zeale to that despicable cause he died for it I omit to name the operations of the Soule which ever appeared to the wisest of all Ages of such a transcendent condition that they could not judge them to spring from so contemptible a Principle as bare Body or Matter Wherefore to decline all these and to make representation onely of Dreames and Fancyes to be the occasions of the world's concluding that there are Incorporeall Substances is to fancy his Reader a meer foole and publickly to profess that he has a minde to impose upon him 3. The third argumentation is this That which appears to us as well sleeping as wakeing is nothing without us But Ghosts that is Immateriall Substances appeare to us as well sleeping as waking This is the weakest argument that has been yet produced for both the Proposition and Assumption are false For if the Proposition were true the Sun Moon Stars Clouds Rivers Meadows Men Women and other living creatures were nothing without us For all these appeare to us as well when we are sleeping as waking But Incorporeall Substances doe not appeare to us as well sleeping as waking For the notion of an Incorporeall Substance is so subtile and refined that it leaving little or no impression on the Fancy it 's representation is meerly supported by the free power of Reason which seldome exercises it self in sleep unless upon easy imaginable Phantasmes 4. The force of the fourth Argument is briefly this Every Substance has dimensions but a Spirit has no dimensions Here I confidently deny the Assumption For it is not the Characteristicall of a Body to have dimensions but to be Impenetrable All Substance has Dimensions that is Length Breadth and Depth but all has not Impenetrability See my Letters to Monsieur Des-Cartes besides what I have here writ Cap. 2 and 3. 5. In the Excerptions belonging to the fifth place these Arguments are comprised 1. That we have no principle of knowledge of any Immateriall Being but such as a Dream or a Looking-Glasse furnisheth us withall 2. That the word Spirit or Incorporeall implyes a contradiction and cannot be conceived to be sense by a naturall Understanding 3. That nothing is conceived by the Understanding but what comes in at the Senses and therefore Spirits not acting upon the Senses must remain unknown and unconceivable We have already answered to the first in what we have returned to
his second Argument in the second Excerption To the second I answer That Spirit or Incorporeall implyes no contradiction there being nothing understood thereby but Extended Substance with Activity and Indiscerpibility leaving out Impenetrability Which I have above demonstrated to be the notion of a thing possible and need not repeat what I have already written To the third I answer That Spirits do act really upon the Senses by acting upon Matter that affects the Senses and some of these operations being such that they cannot be rationally attributed to the Matter alone Reason by the information of the Senses concludes that there is some other more noble Principle distinct from the Matter And as for that part of the Argument that asserts that there is nothing in the Understanding but what comes in at the Senses I shall in it's due place demonstrate it to be a very gross Errour But in the mean time I conclude that the Substance of every thing being utterly unconceivable by Axiome 8. and it being onely the Immediate properties by which a man conceives every thing and the properties of Penetrability and Indiscerpibility being as easy to conceive as of Discerpibility and Impenetrability and the power of communicating of motion to Matter as easy as the Matters reception of it and the Union of Matter with Spirit as of Matter with Matter it plainly followes that the notion of a Spirit is as naturally conceivable as the notion of a Body 6. In this sixth Excerption he is very copious in jearing and making ridiculous the opinion of Ghosts and Daemons but the strength of his Argument if it have any is this viz. If there be any such things as Ghosts or Daemons then they are according to them that hold this opinion either those Images reflected from water or Looking-glasses cloathing themselves in aiery garments and so wandring up and down or else they are living Creatures made of nothing but Aire or some more subtile and AEthereall Matter One might well be amazed to observe such slight and vain arguing come from so grave a Philosopher were not a man well aware that his peculiar eminency as himself somewhere professes lies in Politicks to which the humours and Bravadoes of Eloquence especially amongst the simple is a very effectuall and serviceable instrument And certainly such Rhetorications as this cannot be intended for any but such as are of the very weakest capacity Those two groundless conceits that he would obtrude upon the sober Assertors of Spirits and Daemons belong not to them but are the genuine issue of his own Brain For for the former of them it is most justly adjudged to him as the first Author thereof it being a Rarity which neither my self nor I dare say any else ever met with out of Mr. Hobbs his Writings And the latter he does not onely not goe about to confute here but makes a shew of allowing it for fear he should seem to deny Scripture in Chap. 34. of his Leviathan But those that assert the existence of Spirits will not stand to Mr. Hobbs his choice for defining of them but will make use of their own Reason and Judgment for the setling of so concerning a Notion 7. In this seventh Excerption is contained the same Argument that was found in the first but to deal fairly and candidly I must confess it is better backt then before For there he supposes but does not prove the chief ground of his Argument but here he offers at a proof of it couched as I conceive in these words and hath the dimensions of Magnitude namely Length Breadth and Depth for hence he would infer that the whole Universe is corporeall that is to say every thing in the Universe because there is nothing but has Length Breadth and Depth This therefore is the very last ground his Argument is to be resolved into But how weak it is I have already intimated it being not Trinall Dimension but Impenetrability that constitutes a Body 8. This last Excerption seems more considerable then any of the former or all of them put together but when the force of the Arguments therein contained is duely weighed they will be found of as little efficacy to make good the Conclusion as the rest The first Argument runs thus Whatsoever is reall must have some place But Spirits can have no place But this is very easily answered For if nothing else be understood by Place but Imaginary Space Spirits and Bodyes may be in the same imaginary Space and so the Assumption is false But if by Place be meant the Concave Superficies of one Body immediately environing another Body so that it be conceived to be of the very Formality of a Place immediately to environ the corporeall Superficies of that Substance which is said to be placed then it is impossible that a Spirit should be properly said to be in a Place and so the Proposition will be false Wherefore there being these two acceptions of Place that Distinction of being there Circumscriptivè and Definitivè is an allowable Distinction and the terms may not signify one and the same thing But if we will with Mr. Hobbs and I know no great hurt if we should doe so confine the notion of Place to Imaginary Space this distinction of the Schools will be needless here and we may without any more adoe assert that Spirits are as truly in Place as Bodyes His second Argument is drawn from that Scholastick Riddle which I must confess seems to verge too near to profound Nonsense That the Soule of man is tota in toto and tota in qualibet parte corporis This mad Jingle it seems has so frighted Mr. Hobbs sometime or other that he never since could endure to come near the notion of a Spirit again not so much as to consider whether it were a meer Bug-beare or some reall Being But if Passion had not surprised his better Faculties he might have found a true setled meaning thereof and yet secluded these wilde intricacies that the heedless Schools seem to have charged it with For the Immediate properties of a Spirit are very well intelligible without these aenigmaticall flourishes viz. That it is a Substance Penetrable and Indiscerpible as I have already shewn at large Nor is that Scholastick AEnigme necessary to be believed by all those that would believe the existence of an Incorporeal Soul nor do I believe Mr. Hobbs his interpretation of this Riddle to be so necessary And it had been but fair play to have been assured that the Schools held such a perfect contradiction before he pronounced the belief thereof necessary to all those that would hold the Soule of Man an Immateriall Substance separable from the Body I suppose they may mean nothing by it but what Plato did by his making the Soule to consist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor Plato any thing more by that divisible and indivisible Substance then an Essence that is intellectually divisible but really indiscerpible 9. We
or Contradiction in the very termes And therefore such stories implying that which they are confident is impossible the Narration at the very first hearing must needs be judged to be false and therefore they think it more reasonable to conclude all those that profess they have seen such or such things to be mad-men or cheats then to give credit to what implyes a Contradiction 3. But this Evasion I have quite taken away by so clearly demonstrating that the notion of a Spirit implies no more contradiction then the notion of Matter and that its Attributes are as conceivable as the Attributes of Matter so that I hope this creep-hole is stopt for ever 4. The second Evasion is not properly an evasion of the truth of these stories concerning Apparitions but of our deduction therefrom For they willingly admit of these Apparitions and Prodigies recorded in History but they deny that they are any Arguments of a truly Spirituall and Incorporeall Substance distinct from the Matter thus changed into this or that shape that can walk and speak c. but that they are speciall effects of the influence of the Heavenly Bodyes upon this region of Generation and Corruption 5. And these that answer thus are of two sorts The one have great Affinity with Aristotle and Avenroes who look not upon the Heavenly Bodies as meer Corporeall Substances but as actuated with Intelligencies which are Essences separate and Immateriall But this Supposition hurts not us at all in our present design they granting that which I am arguing for viz. a Substance Incorporeall The use of this perverse Hypothesis is only to shuffle off all Arguments that are drawn from Apparitions to prove that the Souls of men subsist after death or that there are any such things as Daemons or Genii of a nature permanent and immortall But I look upon this Supposition as confutable enough were it worth the while to encounter it That of the Sadduces is far more firm they supposing their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be nothing else but the efficacy of the presence of God altering Matter into this or the other Apparition or Manifestation as if there were but one Soule in all things and God were that Soule variously working in the Matter But this I have already confuted in my Philosophicall Poems 6. The other Influenciaries hold the same power of the Heavens as these though they do not suppose so high a Principle in them yet they think it sufficient for the salving of all Sublunary Phaenomena as well ordinary as extraordinary Truly it is a very venerable Secret and not to be uttered or communicated but by some old Silenus lying in his obscure Grot or Cave nor that neither but upon due circumstances and in a right humour when one may find him with his veins swell'd out with wine and his Garland faln off from his head through his heedless drousiness then if some young Chromis and Mnasylus especially assisted by a fair and forward AEgle that by way of a love-srollick will leave the tracts of her fingers in the blood of Mulberies on the temples and forehead of this aged Satyre while he sleeps dog-sleep and will not seem to see for fear he forfeit the pleasure of his feeling then I say if these young lads importune him enough he will again sing that old song of the Epicurean Philosophy in an higher strain then ever which I profess I should abhor to recite were it not to confute it is so monstrous and impious But because no sore can be cured that is concealed I must bring this Hypothesis into view also which the Poet has briefly comprised in this summary Namque canebat uti magnum per inane coacta Semina terrarumque animaeque marisque fuissent Et liquidi simul ignis ut his exordia primis Omnia ipse tener mundi concreverit orbis 7. The fuller and more refined sense whereof now a daies is this That Matter and Motion are the Principles of all things whatsoever and that by Motion some Atomes or particles are more subtil then others and of more nimbleness and activity That motion of one Body against another does every where necessarily produce Sense Sense being nothing else but the Reaction of parts of the Matter That the subtiler the Matter is the Sense is more subtil That the subtilest Matter of all is that which constitutes the Sun and Stars from whence they must needs have the purest and subtilest Sense That what has the most perfect Sense has the most perfect Imagination and Memory because Memory and Imagination are but the same with Sense in reality the latter being but certain Modes of the former That what has the perfectest Imagination has the highest Reason and Providence Providence and Reason being nothing else but an exacter train of Phantasmes Sensations or Imaginations Wherefore the Sun and the Stars are the most Intellectuall Beings in the world and in them is that Knowledg Counsell and Wisdome by which all Sublunary things are framed and governed 8. These by their severall impresses and impregnations have filled the whole Earth with vital Motion raising innumerable sorts of Flowers Herbs and Trees out of the ground These have also generated the severall Kindes of living Creatures These have filled the Seas with Fishes the Fields with Beasts and the Aire with Fowles the Terrestriall matter being as easily formed into the living shapes of these severall Animals by the powerfull impress of the Imagination of the Sun and Stars as the Embryo in the womb is marked by the strong fancy of his Mother that bears him And therefore these Celestiall powers being able to frame living shapes of earthly matter by the impress of their Imagination it will be more easy for them to change the vaporous Aire into like transfigurations So that admitting all these Stories of Apparitions to be true that are recorded in Writers it is no Argument of the Existence of any Incorporeall Principle in the world For the piercing Fore-sight of these glorious Bodies the Sun and Stars is able to raise what Apparitions or Prodigies they please to usher in the Births or fore-signify the Deaths of the most considerable persons that appear in the world of which Pomponatius himself does acknowledg that there are many true examples both in Greek and Latine History This is the deepest Secret that old Silenus could ever sing to ensnare the ears of deceivable Youth And it is indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the very worst sense Horrendum mysterium a very dreadfull and dangerous Mystery saving that there is no small hope that it may not prove true Let us therefore now examine it CHAP. XIV 1. That the Splendor of the Celestiall Bodies proves no Fore-sight nor Soveraignty that they have over us 2. That the Stars can have no knowledg of us Mathematically demonstrated 3. The same Conclusion again demonstrated more familiarly 4. That the Stars cannot communicate Thoughts neither with the Sun nor
1. That if Matter be capable of Sense Inanimate things are so too And of Mr. Hobbs his wavering in that point 2. An Enumeration of severall Faculties in us that Matter is utterly uncapable of 3. That Matter in no kind of Temperature is capable of Sense 4. That no one point of Matter can be the Common Sensorium 5. Nor a multitude of such Points receiving singly the entire image of the Object 6. Nor yet receiving part part and the whole the whole 7. That Memory is incompetible to Matter 8. That the Matter is uncapable of the notes of some circumstances of the Object which we remembred 9. That Matter cannot be the seat of second Notions 10. Mr. Hobbs his Evasion of the foregoing Demonstration clearly confuted 11. That the freedome of our Will evinces that there is a Substance in us distinct from Matter 12. That Mr. Hobbs therefore acknowledges all our actions necessary 1. WE have now made our addition of such Axiomes as are most usefull for our present purpose Let us therefore according to the order we propounded before we consider the fabrick and organization of the Body see if such Operations as we find in our selves be competible to Matter looked upon in a more generall manner That Matter from its own nature is uncapable of Sense plainly appears from Axiome 20. 21. For Motion and Sense being really one and the same thing it will necessarily follow that where ever there is Motion especially any considerable duration thereof there must be Sense and Perception Which is contrary to what we find in a Catochus and experience daily in dead Carkasses in both which though there be Reaction yet there is no Sense In brief if any Matter have Sense it will follow that upon Reaction all shall have the like and that a Bell while it is ringing and a Bow while it is bent and every Jack-in-a-box that School-boyes play with while it is held in by the cover pressing against it shall be living Animals or Sensitive Creatures A thing so foolish and frivolous that the meer recitall of the opinion may well be thought confutation enough with the sober And indeed Mr. Hobbs himself though he resolve Sense meerly into Reaction of Matter yet is ashamed of these odd consequences thereof and is very loth to be reckoned in the company of those Philosophers though as he sayes learned men who have maintained that all Bodies are endued with Sense and yet he can hardly abstain from saying that they are onely he is more shie of allowing them Memory which yet they will have whether he will or no if he give them Sense As for Example in the ringing of a Bell from every stroak there continues a tremor in the Bell which decaying must according to his Philosophie be Imagination and referring to the stroak past must be Memory and if a stroak overtake it within the compass of this Memory what hinders but Discrimination or Judgment may follow But the conclusion is consonant enough to this absurd Principle That there is nothing but Matter in the Universe and that it is capable of perception See Mr. Hobbs his Elements of Philos. Chap. 25. 2. But we will not content our selves onely with the discovery of this one ugly inconvenience of this bold Assertion but shall further endeavour to shew that the Hypothesis is false and that Matter is utterly uncapable of such operations as we find in our selves and that therefore there is something in us Immateriall or Incorporeall For we finde in our selves that one and the same thing both heares and sees and tasts and to be short perceives all the variety of Objects that Nature manifests unto us Wherefore Sense being nothing but the impress of corporeall motion from Objects without that part of Matter which must be the common Sensorium must of necessity receive all that diversity of impulsions from Objects it must likewise Imagine Remember Reason and be the fountain of spontaneous Motion as also the Seat of what the Greeks call the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or liberty of Will Which supposition we shall finde involved in unextricable difficulties 3. For first we cannot conceive of any Portion of Matter but it is either Hard or Soft As for that which is Hard all men leave it out as utterly unlike to be endued with such Cognitive faculties as we are conscious to our selves of That which is Soft will prove either opake pellucid or lucid If opake it cannot see the exterior superficies being a bar to the inward parts If pellucid as Aire and Water then indeed it will admit inwardly these Particles and that Motion which are the conveighers of the Sense and distinction of Colours and Sound also will penetrate But this Matter being heterogeneall that is to say consisting of parts of a different nature and office the Aire suppose being proper for Sound and those Round particles which Cartesius describes for Colour and Light the perception of these Objects will be differently lodged but there is some one thing in us that perceives both Lastly if lucid there would be much-what the same inconvenience that there is in the opake for its own fieriness would fend off the gentle touch of externall impresses or if it be so milde and thin that it is in some measure diaphanous the inconveniences will again recurre that were found in the pellucid And in brief any liquid Matter has such variety of particles in it that if the Whole as it must being the common Sensorium be affected with any impress from without the parts thereof must be variously affected so that no Object will seem homogeneall as appeares from Axiome 22. Which Truth I shall further illustrate by a homely but very significant representation Suppose we should put Feathers Bullets and Spur-rowels in a Box where they shall lye intermixedly but close one with another upon any jog this Box receives supposing all the stuffage thereof has Sense it is evident that the severall things therein must be differently affected and therefore if the common Sensorium were such there would seem no homogeneall Object in the world Or at least these severall particles shall be the severall Receptives of the severall motions of the same kinde from without as the Aire of Sounds the Cartesian Globuli of Light and Colours But what receives all these and so can judge of them all we are again at a loss for as before unless we imagine it some very fine and subtill Matter so light and thinne that it feels not it self but so yielding and passive that it easily feels the several assaults and impresses of other Bodies upon it or in it which yet would imply that this Matter alone were Sensitive and the others not and so it would be granted that not all Matter no not so much as in Fluid Bodies has Sense Such a tempered Matter as this is analogous to the Animal Spirits in Man which if Matter could be the Soule were the very Soule
or little Finger Besides that it seems wholly imployed in the performance of its Systole and Diastole which causes such a great difference of the situation of the Heart by turns that if it were that Seat in which the sense of all Objects center we should not be able to see things steddily resting in the same place 5. How uncapable the Brain is of being so active a Principle of Motion as we find in our selves the viscidity thereof does plainly indicate Besides that Physitians have discovered by experience that the Brain is so far from being the common Seat of all senses that it has in it none at all And the Arabians that say it has have distinguished it into such severall offices of Imagination Memory Common Sense c. that we are still at a loss for some one part of Matter that is to be the Common Percipient of all these But I have so clearly demonstrated the impossibility of the Brains being able to perform those functions that appertain truly to what ordinarily men call the Soule in my Antidote against Atheisme that it is enough to refer the Reader thither 6. As for the Membranes whether we would fancy them all the Seat of Common Sense or some one Membrane or part there of the like difficulties will accur as have been mentioned already For if all the Membranes the difference and situation of them will vary the aspect and sight of the Object so that the same things will appear to us in several hues and severall places at once as is easily demonstrated from Axiome 22. If some one Membrane or part thereof it will be impossible to excogitate any Mechanicall reason how this one particular Membrane or any part thereof can be able so strongly and determinately to move upon occasion every part of the Body 7. And therefore for this very cause cannot the Septum lucidum be the Common Percipient in us because it is utterly unimaginable how it should have the power of so stoutly and distinctly moving our exteriour parts and limbs 8. As for that new and marvelous Invention of Henricus Regius that it may be a certain perfectly solid but very small particle of Matter in the Body that is the seat of common perception besides that it is as boldly asserted that such an hard particle should have sense in it as that the filings of Iron and Steel should it cannot be the spring of Motion For how should so small at Atome move the whole Body but by moving it self But it being more subtile then the point of any needle when it puts it self upon motion especially such strong thrustings as we sometimes use it must needs passe through the Body and leave it 9. The most pure Mechanical Invention is that of the use of the Conarion proposed by Des-Cartes which considered with some other organizations of the Body bids the fairest of any thing I have met withall or ever hope to meet withall for the resolution of the Passions and Properties of living Creatures into meer corporeall motion And therefore it is requisite to insist a little upon the explication thereof that we may the more punctually confute them that would abuse his Mechanicall contrivances to the exclusion of all Principles but Corporeall in either Man or Beast CHAP. V. 1. How Perception of externall Objects Spontaneous Motion Memory and Imagination are pretended to be performed by the Conarion Spirits and Muscles without a Soule 2. That the Conarion devoid of a Soule cannot be the common Percipient demonstrated out of Des-Cartes himself 3. That the Conarion with the Spirits and organization of the Parts of the Body is not a sufficient Principle of Spontancous motion without a Soule 4. A aescription of the use of the Valvulae in the Nerves of the Muscles for spontaneous motion 5. The insufficiency of this contrivance for that purpose 6. A further demonstration of the insufficiency thereof from whence is clearly evinced that Brutes have Soules 7. That Memory cannot be salved the way above described 8. Nor Imagination 9. A Distribution out of Des-Cartes of the Functions in us some appertaining to the Body and others to the Soule 10. The Authors Observations there upon 1 THE sum of this Abuse must in brief be this That the Glandula Pinealis is the common Sentient or Percipient of all Objects and without a Soule by vertue of the Spirits and Organization of the Body may doe all those feats that we ordinarily conceive to be performed by Soule and Body joyned together For it being one whenas the rest of the Organs of Sense are double and so handsomely seated as to communicate with the Spirits as well of the posteriour as anteriour Cavities of the Brain by their help all the motions of the Nerves both those that transmit the sense of outward Objects and of inward affections of the Body such as Hunger Thirst and the like are easily conveighed unto it and so being variously moved it does variously determine the course of the Spirits into such and such Muscles whereby it moves the Body Moreover that the transmission of Motion from the Object through the Nerves into the inward concavities of the Brain and so to the Conarion opens such and such Pores of the Brain in such and such order or manner which remain as tracts or footsteps of the presence of these Objects after they are removed Which tracts or signatures consist mainly in this that the Spirits will have an easier passage through these Pores then other parts of the Brain And hence arises Memory when the Spirits be determined by the inclining of the Conarion to that part of the Brain where these tracts are found they moving then the Conarion as when the Object was present though not so strongly From the hitting of the Spirits into such like tracts is also the nature of Imagination to be explained in which there is little difference from Memory saving that the reflection upon time as past when we saw or perceived such or such a thing is quite left out But these are not all the operations we are conscious to our selves of and yet more then can be made out by this Hypothesis That Perception of Objects Spontaneous Motion Memory and Imagination may be all performed by vertue of this Glandula the Animal Spirits and meer organization of the Body as we shall plainly find though but upon an easy examination 2. For that the Conarion devoid of a Soule has no perception of any one Object is demonstrable from the very description Cartesius makes of the transmission of the image suppose through the Eye to the Brain and so to the Conarion For it is apparent from what he sets down in the 35. Article of his Treatise of the Passions of the Soule that the Image that is propagated from the Object to the Conarion is impressed thereupon in some latitude of space Whence it is manifest that the Conarion does not nor can perceive the whole Object though severall parts
may be acknowledged to have the perception of the severall parts thereof But something in us perceives the whole which therefore cannot be the Conarion And that we doe not perceive the external Object double is not so much because the Image is united in the Organ of Common Sense as that the lines come so from the Object to both the Eyes that it is felt in one place otherwise if the Object be very near and the direction of our Eyes be not fitted to that nearness it will seem double however Which is a Demonstration that a man may see with both eyes at once and for my own part I 'me sure that I see better at distance when I use both then when one 3. As for Spontaneous Motion that the Conarion cannot be a sufficient Principle thereof with the Spirits and organization of other parts of the Body though we should admit it a fit seat of Common Sense will easily appear if we consider that so weak and so small a thing as that Glandula is seems utterly unable to determine the spirits with that force and violence we find they are determined in running striking thrusting and the like and that it is evident that sometimes scarce the thousandth part of the Conarion shall be directer of this force viz. when the Object of Sight suppose is as little as a pin's point or when a man is prick'd with a needle these receptions must be as little in the Glandula as in the exteriour Sense But suppose the whole Conarion alwaies did act in the determining the motion of the Spirits into this or that Muscle it is impossible that such fluid Matter as these Spirits are that upon the noddings of the Conarion forward may easily recede back should ever determine their course with that force and strength they are determined But haply it will be answered That such subtile and fluid bodies as the Animall Spirits that are in a readiness to be upon Motion any way the least thing will determine their course and that the Muscles themselves being well replenisht with Spirits and framed with such Valvulae as will easily intromit them from the Brain and also conveigh them out of one opposite Muscle into another upon the least redundance of Spirits in the one above the other and so shut them in that that force we find in spontaneous Motion may very well be salved by this Mechanicall Artifice 5. We will not here alledge that this may be onely a meer fancy these Valvulae in the Nerves not being yet discovered by any Anatomist to be part of the Organization of the Body of any Animal but rather shew that they would not effect what is aimed at though they were admitted For first it does not appear that the Spirits will make more hast out of C. into B then the pressure caused in B. by the determination of the Spirits from the Conarion forces them to For all places being alike to them to play in they will goe no further then they are driven or pressed as Wind in a Bladder And how the Conarion should drive or press the Spirits into B so as to make it press those in C and force them out so quick and smart as we find in some Actions is a thing utterly unconceivable 6. Besides admit that the Conarion could determine them with some considerable force so into B that they would make those in C. come to them through the Valve G there being the Valve E. to transmit them into C. again it is impossible but that the Tenth part of that force which we ordinarily use to open a mans hand against his will should whether he would or no easily open it For a very ordinary strength moveing K. from B. towards C. must needs so press the Spirits in B that they will certainly pass by E. into C if our Body be nothing but Matter Mechanically organized And therefore it is the meer Imperium of our Soule that does determine the Spirits to this Muscle rather then the other and holds them there in despite of externall force From whence it is manifest that brute Beasts must have Soules also 7. Concerning Memory and Imagination that the meer Mechanical reasons of Des-Cartes will not reach them we shall clearly understand if we consider that the easy aperture of the same Pores of the Brain that were opened at the presence of such an Object is not sufficient to represent the Object after the Conarion has by inclining it self thitherward determined the course of the Spirits into the same Pores For this could onely represent the Figure of a thing not the Colours thereof Besides a man may bring an hundred Objects and expose them to our view at the same distance the Eye keeping exactly in the same posture insomuch that it shall be necessary for these images to take up the very same place of the Brain and yet there shall be a distinct remembrance of all these which is impossible if there be no Soule in us but all be meer Matter The same may be said of so many Names or Words levell'd if you will out of a Trunk into the Eare kept accurately in the same posture so that the Sound shall beat perpetually upon the same parts of the Organ yet if there be five hundred of them there may be a distinct memory for every one of them which is a power perfectly beyond the bounds of meer Matter for there would be a necessary confusion of all 8. Lastly for those imaginations or representations that are of no one Object that we ever see but made up of severall that have taken their distinct places in the Brain how can the Conarion joyn these together Or rather in one and the same Object suppose this Man or that House which we see in a right posture and has left such a signature or figure in the Brain as is fit to represent it so how can the Conarion invert the posture of the image and make it represent the House and Man with the heels upwards Besides the difficulty of representing the Distance of an Object or the Breadth thereof concerning which we have spoken already It is impossible the Conarion if it be meer Matter should perform any such operations as these For it must raise motions in it self such as are not necessarily conveighed by any corporeall impress of another Body which is plainly against Axiome 26. 9. And therefore that sober and judicious Wit Des-Cartes dares not stretch the power of Mechanicall organization thus far but doth plainly confess that as there are some Functions that belong to the Body alone so there are others that belong to the Soule which he calls Cogitations and are according to him of two sorts the one Actions the other Passions The Actions are all the operations of our Will as in some sense all Perceptions may be termed Actions And these Actions of the Will are either such as are meer Intellectuall Operations and end in the Soule her self
such as her stirring up her self to love God or contemplate any Immateriall Object or they are such as have an influence on the Body as when by vertue of our Will we put ourselves upon going to this or that place He distinguishes again our Perceptions into two sorts whereof the one has the Soule for their cause the other the Body Those that are caused by the Body are most-what such as depend on the Nerves But besides these there is one kind of Imagination that is to be referred hither and that properly has the Body for its cause to wit that Imagination that arises meerly from the hitting of the Animall Spirits against the tracts of those Images that externall Objects have left in the Brain and so representing them to the Conarion which may happen in the day-time when our Fancy roves and we doe not set our selves on purpose to think on things as well as it does in sleep by night Those Perceptions that arrive to the Soule by the interposition of the Nerves differ one from another in this that some of them refer to outward Objects that strike our Sense others to our Body such as Hunger Thirst Pain c. and others to the Soule it self as Sorrow Joy Fear c. Those Perceptions that have the Soule for their cause are either the Perceptions of her own Acts of Will or else of her Speculation of things purely intelligible or else of Imaginations made at pleasure or finally of Reminiscency when she searches out something that she has let slip out of her Memory 10. That which is observable in this Distribution is this That all those Cogitations that he calls Actions as also those kind of Perceptions whose cause he assignes to the Soule are in themselves and are acknowledged by him of that nature that they cannot be imitated by any creature by the meer organization of i'ts Body But for the other he holds they may and would make us believe they are in Bodies of Brutes which he would have meer Machina's that is That from the meer Mechanical frame of their Body outward Objects of Sense may open Pores in their Brains so as that they may determine the Animall Spirits into such and such Muscles for spontaneous Motion That the course of the Spirits also falling into the Nerves in the Intestines and Stomack Spleen Heart Liver and other parts may cause the very same effects of Passion suppose of Love Hatred Joy Sorrow in these brute Machina's as we feel in our Bodies though they as being senseless feel them not and so the vellication of certain Tunicles and Fibres in the Stomack and Throat may affect their Body as ours is in the Sense of Hunger or Thirst and finally that the hitting of the Spirits into the tracts of the Brain that have been signed by Externall Objects may act so upon their Body as it does upon ours in Imagination and Memory Now adde to this Machina of Des-Cartes the capacity in Matter of Sensation and Perception which yet I have demonstrated it to be uncapable of and it will be exquisitely as much as Mr. Hobbs himself can expect to arise from meer Body that is All the Motions thereof being purely Mechanicall the perceptions and propensions will be fatall necessary and unavoidable as he loves to have them But being all Cogitations that Des-Cartes terms Actions as also all those kind of Perceptions that he acknowledges the Soule to be the cause of are not to be resolved into any Mechanicall contrivance we may take notice of them as a peculiar rank of Arguments and such as that if it could be granted that the Soules of Brutes were nothing but sentient Matter yet it would follow that a Substance of an higher nature and truly Immateriall must be the Principle of those more noble Operations we find in our selves as appears from Axiome 20. and 26. CHAP. VI. 1. That no part of the Spinall Marrow can be the Common Sensorium without a Soule in the Body 2. That the Animal Spirits are more likely to be that Common Percipient 3. But yet it is demonstrable they are not 4. As not being so much as capable of Sensation 5. Nor of directing Motion into the Muscles 6. Much less of Imagination and rationall Invention 7. Nor of Memory 8. An answer to an Evasion 9. The Authors reason why he has confuted so particularly all the suppositions of the Seat of Common Sense when few of them have been asserted with the exclusion of a Soule 1. THere remain now onely Two Opinions to be examined the one That place of the Spinall Marrow where Anatomists conceive there is the nearest concurse of all the Nerves of the Body the other the Animall Spirits in the fourth Ventricle of the Brain As for the former viz. That part of the Spinall Marrow where the concurse of the Nerves are conceived to be as I have answered in like case so I say again that besides that I have already demonstrated that Matter is uncapable of Sense and that there is no modification thereof in the Spinall Marrow that will make it more likely to be indued with that Faculty then the pith of Elder or a mess of Curds we are also to take notice that it is utterly inept for Motion nor is it conceivable how that part of it or any other that is assigned to this office of being the Common Percipient in us of all Thoughts and Objects which must also have the power of moving our members can having so little agitation in it self as appearing nothing but a kind of soft Pap or Pulp so nimbly and strongly move the parts of our Body 2. In this regard the Animal Spirits seem much more likely to perform that office and those the importunity of whose gross fancyes constrains them to make the Soule Corporeall doe nevertheless usually pitch upon some subtile thin Matter to constitute her nature or Essence And therefore they imagine her to be either Aire Fire Light or some such like Body with which the Animall Spirits have no small affinity 3. But this opinion though it may seem plausible at first sight yet the difficulties it is involved in are insuperable For it is manifest that all the Arguments that are brought Chap. 2. Sect. 3. will recur with full force in this place For there is no Matter that is so perfectly liquid as the Animal Spirits but consists of particles onely contiguous one to another and actually upon Motion playing and turning one by another as busy as Atomes in the Sun Now therefore let us consider whether that Treasury of pure Animall Spirits contained in the Fourth Ventricle be able to Sustain so noble an office as to be the common Percipient in our Body which as I have often repeated is so complex a Function that it does not onely contain the perception of externall Objects but Motion Imagination Reason and Memory 4. Now at the very first dash the transmission of the image of the Object
into this crowd of particles cannot but hit variously upon them and therefore they will have severall Perceptions amongst them some haply perceiving part of the Object others all others more then all others also perceiving of it in one place and others in another But the Percipient in us representing no such confusion or disorder in our beholding of Objects it is plain that it is not the Animall Spirits that is it 5. Again that which is so confounded a Percipient how can it be a right Principle of directing Motion into the Muscles For besides what disorder may happen in this function upon the distracted representation of present Objects the power of thinking excogitating and deliberating being in these Animal Spirits also and they having no means of communicating one with another but justling one against another which is as much to the purpose as if men should knock heads to communicate to each other their conceits of Wit it must needs follow that they will have their perceptions inventions and deliberations apart which when they put in Execution must cause a marvelous confusion in the Body some of them commanding the parts this way others driving them another way or if their factions have many divisions and subdivisions every one will be so weak that none of them will be able to command it any way But we find no such strugling or countermands of any thing in us that would act our Body one way when we would another as if when one was a going to write 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something stronger in him whose conceits he is not privy to should get the use of his hand and in stead of that write down Arma virúmque cano And the like may be said of any other Spontaneous Motion which being so constantly within our command as it is it is a sufficient Argument to prove that it is not such a lubricous Substance as the Animal Spirits nor so disunited but something more perfectly One and Indivisible 6. We need not instance any further concerning the power of Invention and Reason how every particle of these Animal Spirits has a liberty to think by it self and consult with it self as well as to play by it self and how there is no possible means of communicating their Thoughts one to another unless it should be as I have said by hitting one against another but that can onely communicate Motion not their determinate Thought unless that these particles were conceived to figure themselves into the shape of those things they think of which is impossible by Axiome 26. And suppose it were possible one particle should shape it self for example into a George on Horse-back with a Lance in his hand and another into an Inchanted Castle this George on Horse-back must run against the Castle to make the Castle receive his impress and similitude But what then Truly the encounter will be very unfortunate For St. George indeed may easily break his Lance but it is impossible that he should by justling against the Particle in the form of a Castle conveigh the entire shape of himself and his Horse thereby such as we find our selves able to imagine of a man on horse-back Which is a Truth as demonstrable as any Theorem in Mathematicks but so plain at first sight that I need not use the curiosity of a longer Demonstration to make it more firm Nor is there any colourable evasion by venturing upon a new way as if this particle having transformed it self into a Castle and that into an Horse-man all the others then would see them both For by what light and how little would they appear and in what different places according to the different posture of the particles of the Animal Spirits and with what different faces some seeing one side others another But besides this there is a further difficulty that if such Sensible representations as these could be conveighed from one particle to another by corporeall encounters and justlings or by that other way after alledged Logicall and Mathematicall notions can not So that some of the Animal Spirits may think of one Demonstration in Mathematicks or of part of that Demonstration and others of another insomuch that if a Mathematician be to write while he would write one thing upon the determination of these Animal Spirits others may get his hand to make use of for the writing something else to whose Thoughts and Counsell he was not at all privy nor can tell any thing till those other Animal Spirits have writ it down Which Absurdities are so mad and extravagant that a man would scarce defile his pen by recording them were it not to awaken those that dote so much on the power of Matter as to think it of it self sufficient for all Phaenomena in the world into due shame and abhorrence of their foolish Principle 7. The last Faculty I will consider is Memory which is also necessarily joyned with the rest in the Common Percipient of which not onely the fluidity of parts but also their dissipability makes the Animal Spirits utterly uncapable For certainly the Spirits by reason of their Subtilty and Activity are very dissipable and in all likelihood remain not the same for the space of a week together and yet things that one has not thought of for many years will come as freshly into a mans minde as if they were transacted but yesterday 8. The onely Evasion they can excogitate here is this That as there is a continuall supply of Spirits by degrees so as they come in they are seasoned fermented and tinctured with the same notions perceptions and propensions that the Spirits they find there have These are fine words but signifie nothing but this that the Spirits there present in the Brain communicate the Notions and Perceptions they have to these new-comers which is that which I have already proved impossible in the foregoing Sections And therefore it is impossible that the Animal Spirits should be that Common Percipient that hears sees moves remembers understands and does other functions of life that we perceive performed in us or by us 9. We have now particularly evinced that neither the whole Body nor any of those parts that have been pitched upon if we exclude the presence of a Soul or Immaterial Substance can be the Seat of Common Sense In which I would not be so understood as if it implyed that there are none of these parts but some or other have affirmed might be the common Sensorium though we had no Soule but because they have been stood upon all of them by some or other to be the Seat of Common Sense supposing a Soule in the Body that there might no imaginable doubt or scruple be left behind I have taken the pains thus punctually and particularly to prove that none of them can be the place of Common Sense without one And thus I have perfectly finished my main design which was to demonstrate That there is a Soule or Incorporeall
Substance residing in us distinct from the Body But I shall not content my self here but for a more full discovery of her Nature and Faculties I shall advance further and search out her chief Seat in the Body where and from whence she exercises her most noble Functions and after enquire whether she be confined to that part thereof alone or whether she be spred through all our members and lastly consider after what manner she sees feels hears imagines remembers reasons and moves the Body For beside that I shall make some good use of these discoveries for further purpose it is also in it self very pleasant to have in readiness a rationall and cohaerent account and a determinate apprehension of things of this nature CHAP. VII 1. His enquiry after the Seat of Common Sense upon supposition there is a Soule in the Body 2. That there is some particular part in the Body that is the Seat of Common Sense 3. A generall division of their Opinions concerning the place of Common Sense 4. That of those that place it out of the Head there are two sorts 5. The Invalidity of Helmont's reasons whereby he would prove the Orifice of the Stomack to be the principall Seat of the Soule 6. An Answer to Helmont's storyes for that purpose 7. A further confutation out of his own concessions 8. Mr. Hobbs his Opinion confuted that makes the Heart the Seat of Common Sense 9. A further confutation thereof from Experience 10. That the Common Sense is seated somewhere in the Head 11. A caution for the choice of the particular place thereof 12. That the whole Brain is not it 13. Nor Regius his small solid Particle 14. Nor any externall Membrane of the Brain nor the Septum Lucidum 15. The three most likely places 16. Objections against Cartesius his Opinion concerning the Conarion answered 17. That the Conarion is not the Seat of Common Sense 18. Nor that part of the Spinall Marrow where the Nerves are conceived to concurre but the Spirits in the fourth Ventricle of the Brain 1. IT will therefore be requisite for us to resume the former Opinions altering the Hypothesis and to examine which of them is most reasonable supposing there be a Substance immateriall or Soule in man 2. That there is some particular or restrained Seat of the Common Sense is an Opinion that even all Philosophers and Physitians are agreed upon And it is an ordinary Comparison amongst them that the Externall Senses and the Common Sense considered together are like a Circle with five lines drawn from the Circumference to the Centre Wherefore as it has been obvious for them to finde out particular Organs for the externall Senses so they have also attempted to assign some distinct part of the Body for to be an Organ of the Common Sense that is to say as they discovered Sight to be seated in the Eye Hearing in the Eare Smelling in the Nose c. so they conceived that there is some part of the Body wherein Seeing Hearing and all other Perceptions meet together as the lines of a circle in the centre and that there the Soule does also judge and discern of the difference of the Objects of the outward Senses They have justly therefore excluded all the Externall parts of the Body from the lightest suspition of any capacity of undergoing such a function as is thus generall they being all employed in a more particular task which is to be the Organ of some one of these five outward Senses and to be affected no otherwise then by what is impressed upon themselves and chiefly from their proper Objects amongst which five Touch properly so called has the greatest share it being as large as the Skin that covers us and reaching as deep as any Membrane and Nerve in the limbs and trunk of the Body besides all the Exteriour parts of the Head All which can no more see then the Eye can hear or the Eare can smell 3. Besides this all those Arguments that doe so clearly evince that the place of Common Sense is somewhere in the Head is a plain demonstration that the whole Body cannot be the Seat thereof and what those Arguments are you shall hear anon For all those Opinions that have pitched on any one Part for the Seat of Common Sense being to be divided into two Ranks to wit either such as assign some particular place in the Body or else in the Head we will proceed in this order as first to confute those that have made choice of any part for the Seat of Common Sense out of the Head and then in the second place we will in generall shew that the common Sensorium must be in some part of the Head and lastly of those many opinions concerning what part of the Head this common Sensorium should be those which seem less reasonable being rejected we shall pitch upon what we conceive the most unexceptionable 4. Those that place the Common Sensorium out of the Head have seated it either in the upper Orifice of the Stomack or in the Heart The former is Van-Helmont's Opinion the other Mr. Hobbs his 5. As for Van-Helmont there is nothing he alledges for his Opinion but may be easily answered That which mainly imposed upon him was the exceeding Sensibility of that part which Nature made so that as a faithfull sagacious Porter it might admit nothing into the Stomack that might prove mischievous or troublesome to the Body From this tender Sensibility great offences to it may very well cause Swoonings and Apoplexies and cessations of Sense But Fear and Joy and Grief have dispatched some very suddainly when yet the first entrance of that deadly stroak has been at the Eare or the Eye from some unsupportable ill newes or horrid spectacle And the harsh handling of an angry Sore or the treading on a Corn on the Toe may easily cast some into a swoon and yet no man will ever imagine the Seat of the Common Sense to be placed in the Foot In fine there is no more reason to think the Common Sensorium is in the mouth of the Stomack because of the Sensible Commotions we feel there then that it is seated in the Stars because we so clearly perceive their Light as Des-Cartes has well answered upon like occasion Nor can Phrensies and Madnesses though they may sometimes be observed to take their rise from thence any more prove that it is the Seat of the Common Sense then the Furor uterinus Apoplexies Epilepsies and Syncopes proceeding from the Wombe doe argue that the common Sensorium of Women lyes in that part 6. And if we consider the great Sympathy betwixt the Orifice of the Stomack and the Heart whose Pathemata are so alike and conjoyned that the Ancients have given one name to both parts calling them promiscuously 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the pains of the Stomack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as also that the Heart is that part
in the fourth Ventricle of the Brain CHAP. VIII 1. The first reason of his Opinion the convenient Situation of these Spirits 2. The second that the Spirits are the immediate instrument of the Soule in all her functions 3. The proof of the second Reason from the generall Authority of Philosophers and particularly of Hippocrates 4. From our Sympathizing with the changes of the Aire 5. From the celerity of Motion and Cogitation 6. From what is observed generally in the Generation of things 7. From Regius his experiment of a Snaile in a glass 8. From the running round of Images in a Vertigo 9. From the constitution of the Eye and motion of the Spirits there 10. From the dependency of the actions of the Soule upon the Body whether in Meditation or corporeall Motion 11. From the recovery of Motion and Sense into a stupified part 12. And lastly from what is observed in swooning fits of paleness and sharpness of visage c. 13. The inference from all this That the Spirits in the fourth Ventricle are the seat of Common Sense and that the main use of the Brain and Nerves is to preserve the Spirits 1. THat which makes me embrace this Opinion rather then any other is this That first this situation of the common Sensorium betwixt the Head and the trunk of the Body is the most exactly convenient to receive the impresses of Objects from both as also to impart Motion to the Muscles in both the Head and in the Body In which I look upon it as equall with the last Opinion and superiour to all them that went before For whatever may be objected is already answered in what I have said to the last Objection against Des-Cartes 2. But now in the second place wherein this opinion of mine has a notorious advantage above all else that I know It is most reasonable that that Matter which is the immediate instrument of all the Animal functions of the Soule should be the chiefest Seat from whence and where she exercises these functions and if there be any place where there is a freer plenty of the purest sort of this Matter that her peculiar residence should be there Now the immediate instrument of the functions of the Soule is that thinner Matter which they ordinarily call Animal Spirits which are to be found in their greatest purity and plenty in the fourth Ventricle of the Brain From whence it must follow that that precious and choice part of the Soule which we call the Centre of perception is to be placed in that Ventricle not in any pith of the Brain thereabout but in the midst of these Spirits themselves for that is the most naturall situation for the commanding them into the parts of the Head and Body besides a more delicate and subtile use of them at home in pursuing various imaginations and inventions 3. That this thin and Spirituous Matter is the immediate engine of the Soule in all her operations is in a manner the generall opinion of all Philosophers And even those that have placed the Common Sensorium in the Heart have been secure of the truth of this their conceit because they took it for granted that the left Ventricle thereof was the fountain of these pure and subtile Spirits and please themselves very much in that they fancied that Oracle of Physitians the grave and wise Hippocrates to speak their own sense so fully and significantly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say That the mind of man is in the left Ventricle of his Heart and that it is not nourished from meats and drinks from the belly but by a clear and luminous Substance that redounds by separation from the blood which is that which happens exactly in the Brain For the Spirits there are nothing else but more pure and subtill parts of the blood whose tenuity and agitation makes them separate from the rest of the mass thereof and so replenish the Ventricles of the Brain 4. Moreover our sympathizing so sensibly with the changes of the Aire which Hippocrates also takes notice of that in clear Aire our thoughts are more clear and in cloudy more obscure and dull is no slight indication that that which conveighs Sense Thoughts and Passions immediately to the Soule is very tenuious and delicate and of a nature very congenerous to the Aire with which it changes so easily 5. The strange Agility also of Motions and Cogitations that we find in our selves has forced the most sluggish witts even such as have been so gross as to deem the Soule Corporeall yet to chuse the freest subtilest and most active Matter to compound her of that their imaginations could excogitate And Lucretius the most confident of the Epicurean Sect thinks he has hit the naile on the head in his choice De rerum Nat. lib. 3. where he concludes thus Nunc igitur quoniam est animi natura reperta Mobilis egregie per quam constare necesse est Corporibus parvis laevibus atque rotundis whose testimony I account the better in this case by how much the more crass Philosopher he is the necessity of the tenuity of particles that are to pervade the Body of a Man being convinced hence to be so plain that the dimmest eyes can easily discover it 6. But we will advance higher to more forcible Arguments amongst which this I think may find some place That we cannot discover any immediate operation of any kind of Soule in the world but what it first works upon that Matter which participates in a very great measure of this fineness and tenuity of parts which will easily yield and be guided as may be universally observed in all Generations where the Body is alwaies organized out of thin fluid liquor that will easily yield to the plastick power of the Soule In which I doe not doubt but it takes the advantage of moving the most subtile parts of all first such as Des-Cartes his first and second element which are never excluded from any such humid and tenuious substance which elements of his are that true Heavenly or AEthereal matter which is every where as Ficinus somewhere saith Heaven is and is that fire which Trismegist affirms is the most inward vehicle of the minde and the instrument that God used in the forming of the world and which the Soul of the world where-ever she acts does most certainly still use 7. And to make yet a step further That ocular demonstration that Henricus Regius brings Philos. Natur. lib. 4. cap. 16. seems to me both ingenious and solid It is in a Snail such as have no shells moving in a glass so soon as she begins to creep certain Bubbles are discovered to move from her tail to her head but so soon as she ceases moving those Bubbles cease Whence he concludes That a gale of spirits that circuit from her head along her back to her tail and thence along her belly to her head again is the cause of her
from what has been alledged That the Common Sensorium is to be placed in the midst of these purer Spirits of the fourth Ventricle of the Brain CHAP. X. 1. That the Soule is not confined to the Common Sensorium 2. The first Argument from the Plastick power of the Soule 3. Which is confirmed from the graduall dignity of the Soules Faculties of which this Plastick is the lowest 4. Externall Sensation the next 5. After that Imagination and then Reason 6. The second Argument from Passions and Sympathies in Animals 7. An illustration of the manner of naturall Magick 8. The third Argument from the Perception of Pain in the exteriour parts of the Body 9. The fourth and last from the nature of Sight 1. WE are now at leisure to resume the two remaining Enquiries the former whereof is whether the Soule be so in this fourth Ventricle that it is essentially no where else in the Body or whether it be spread out into all the Members Regius would coup it up in the Conarion which he believes to be the Common Sensorium and so by consequence it should be confined to the fourth Ventricle and not expatiate at all thence supposing that the Seat of Common Sense The reason of this conceit of his is this That whatever is in the rest of the Body may come to pass by powers meerly Mechanical wherein he does very superstitiously tread in the footsteps of his Master Des-Cartes But for my own part I cannot but dissent I finding in neither any sufficient grounds of so novell an Opinion but rather apparent reasons to the contrary 2. As first the Frame of the Body of which I think most reasonable to conclude the Soule her self to be the more particular Architect for I will not wholly reject Plotinus his opinion and that the Plastick power resides in her as also in the Soules of Brute animals as very learned and worthy Writers have determined That the Fabrick of the Body is out of the concurse of Atomes is a meer precarious Opinion without any ground or reason For Sense does not discover any such thing the first rudiments of life being out of some liquid homogeneall Matter and it is against reason that the tumbling of Atomes or corporeall particles should produce such exquisite frames of creatures wherein the acutest wit is not able to find any thing inept but all done exquisitely wel everywhere where the foulness and courseness of Matter has not been in fault That God is not the immediate Maker of these Bodyes the particular miscarriages demonstrate For there is no Matter so perverse and stubborn but his Omnipotency could tame whence there would be no Defects nor Monstrosities in the generation of Animals Nor is it so congruous to admit that the Plastick faculty of the Soul of the World is the sole contriver of these Fabricks of particular creatures though I will not deny but she may give some rude preparative stroaks towards Efformation but that in every particular world such as Man is especially his own Soule is the peculiar and most perfective Architect thereof as the Soule of the World is of it For this vitall Fabrication is not as in artificiall Architecture when an external person acts upon Matter but implies a more particular and near union with that Matter it thus intrinsecally shapes out and organizes And what ought to have a more particular and close union with our Bodies then our Souls themselves My opinion is therefore That the Soule which is a Spirit and therefore contractible and dilatable begins within less compass at first in Organizing the fitly-prepared Matter and so bears it self on in the same tenour of work till the Body has attained its full growth and that the Soule dilates it self in the dilating of the Body and so possesses it through all the members thereof 3. The congruity of this Truth will further discover it self if we consider the nature of the faculties of the Soule of which you may read more fully in Enthusiasmus Triumphatus Artic. 3 4 5. in what a natural graduality they arise till they come to the most free of all The deepest or lowest is this Plastick power we have already spoke of in virtue whereof is continued that perpetuall Systole and Diastole of the Heart as I am more prone to think then that it is meerly Mechanical as also that Respiration that is performed without the command of our Will For the Libration or Reciprocation of the Spirits in the Tensility of the Muscles would not be so perpetuall but cease in a small time did not some more mysticall Principle then what is meerly Mechanical give Assistance as any one may understand by observing the insufficiency of those devices that Henricus Regius propounds for adaequate causes of such motions in the Body These I look upon as the First Faculties of the Soule which may be bounded by this generall character That the exercise of them does not at all imply so much as our Perception 4. Next to these is the Sensation of any externall Object such as Hearing Seeing Feeling c. All which include Perception in an unresistible necessity thereof the Object being present before us and no externall Obstacle interposing 5. Imagination is more free we being able to avoid its representations for the most part without any externall help but it is a degree on this side Will and Reason by which we correct and silence unallowable fancies Thus we see how the Faculties of the Soule rise by Degrees which makes it still the more easy and credible that the lowest of all is competible to her as well as the highest 6. Moreover Passions and Sympathies in my judgment are more easily to be resolved into this Hypothesis of the Souls pervading the whole Body then in restraining its essentiall presence to one part thereof For to believe that such an horrible Object as suppose a Bear or Tiger by transmission of Motion from it through the eyes of an Animal to the Conarion shall so reflect thence as to determine the Spirits into such Nerves as will streighten the Orifice of the Heart and lessen the Pulse and cause all other symptomes of Fear seems to me little better then a meer piece of Mechanical Credulity Those Motions that represent the Species of things being turned this way or the other way without any such impetus of Matter as should doe such feats as Des-Cartes speaks of in his Book of Passions And that which he would give us as a pledg of this Truth is so false that it does the more animate me to dis-believe the Theorem Artic. 13. For the wafting of one's hand neare the Eye of a mans friend is no sufficient proof That externall Objects will necessarily and Mechanically determine the Spirits into the Muscles no Faculty of the Soule intermedling For if one be fully assured or rather can keep himself from the fear of any hurt by the wafting of his friends Hand before his Eye he
may easily abstain from winking But if fear surprise him the Soule is to be entitled to the action and not the meer Mechanisme of the Body Wherefore this is no proof that the Phaenomena of Passions with their consequences may be salved in brute Beasts by pure Mechanicks and therefore neither in Men but it is evident that they arise in us against both our Will and Appetite For who would bear the tortures of Fears and Jealousies if he could avoid it And therefore the Soule sends not nor determines the Spirits thus to her own Torture as she resides in the Head Whence it is plain that it is the effect of her as she resides in the Heart and Stomack which sympathize with the horrid representation in the Common Sensorium by reason of the exquisite unity of the Soul with her self of the continuity of Spirits in the Body the necessary instrument of all her Functions And there is good reason the Heart Stomack should be so much affected they being the chief Seats of those Faculties that maintain the life of the Body the danger whereof is the most eminent Object of Fear in any Animal 7. From this Principle I conceive that not onely the Sympathy of parts in one particular Subject but of different and distant Subjects may be understood such as is betwixt the party wounded and the Knife or Sword that wounded him besmeared with the Weapon-salve and kept in a due temper Which certainly is not purely Mechanical but Magical though not in an unlawful sense that is to say it is not to be resolved into meer Matter of what thinness or subtilty soever you please but into the Unity of the Soul of the Universe and Continuity of the subtile Matter which answers to our Animal Spirits And in this sense it is that Plotinus sayes that the World is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the grand Magus or Enchanter And I doe not question but that upon this score meerly without the association of any Familiar Spirit several odde things may be done for evil as well as good For this Spirit of the World has Faculties that work not by Election but fatally or naturally as several Gamaitus we meet withall in Nature seem somewhat obscurely to subindicate Of this Principle we shall speak more fully in its due place 8. But we have yet a more clear discovery that our Soul is not confined to any one part of the Head but possesses the whole Body from the Perception of Pain in the parts thereof For it is plainly impossible that so high a torture as is felt but in the pricking of a Pin can be communicated to the Centre of Perception upon a meer Mechanical account For whether the immediate Instrument of Sense be the Pith of the Nerves as Des-Cartes would have it or whether it be the Spirits as is most true it is ridiculous to think that by the forcible parting of what was joyned together at ease when this case is not communicated to either the Spirits or Pith of the Nerves from the place of the Puncture to the very seat of Common Sense that the Soul there seated should feel so smart a torment unless that her very Essence did reach to the part where the pain is felt to be For then the reason of this is plain that it is the Unity of Soul possessing the whole Body and the Continuity of Spirits that is the cause thereof And it is no wonder if the continuation and natural composure of the Spirits be Rest and Ease to the Soul that a violent disjoyning and bruising of them and baring the Soul of them as I may so speak should cause a very harsh and torturous sense in the Centre of Perception This Argument bears undeniable Evidence with it if we doe but consider the fuzziness of the Pith of the Nerves and the fluidity of the Spirits and what little stress or crouding so small a thing as a Pin or Needle can make in such soft and liquid Matter CHAP. XI 1. That neither the Soul without the Spirits nor the Spirits without the presence of the Soul in the Organ are sufficient causes of Sensation 2. A brief declaration how Sensation is made 3. How Imagination 4. Of Reason and Memory and whether there be any Marks in the Brain 5. That the Spirits are the immediate Instrument of the Soul in Memory also and how Memory arises 6. As also Forgetfulness 7. How spontaneous Motion is performed 8. How we walk sing and play though thinking of something else 9. That though the Spirits be not alike fine every where yet the Sensiferous Impression will pass to the Common Sensorium 10. That there is an Heterogeneity in the very Soul her self and what it is in her we call the Root the Centre and the Eye and what the Rayes and Branches 11. That the sober and allowable Distribution of her into Parts is into Perceptive and Plastick 1. AFter our evincing that the Soul is not confined to the Common Sensorium but does essentially reach all the Organs of the Body it will be more easy to determine the Nature of Sensation and other Operations we mentioned For we have already demonstrated these two things of main consequence That the Spirits are not sufficient of themselves for these Functions nor the Soul of her self without the assistance of the Spirits as is plain in the interception or disjunction of the Spirits by Ligature or Obstruction whence it is that Blindness sometimes happens meerly for that the Optick Nerve is obstructed 2. Wherefore briefly to dispatch our third Querie I say in general That Sensation is made by the arrival of motion from the Object to the Organ where it is received in all the circumstances we perceive it in and conveyed by vertue of the Souls presence there assisted by her immediate Instrument the Spirits by vertue of whose continuity to those in the Common Sensorium the Image or Impress of every Object is faithfully transmitted thither 3. As for Imagination there is no question but that Function is mainly exercised in the chief seat of the Soul those purer Animal Spirits in the fourth Ventricle of the Brain I speak especially of that Imagination which is most free such as we use in Romantick Inventions or such as accompany the more severe Meditations and Disquisitions in Philosophy or any other Intellectuall entertainments For Fasting fresh Aire moderate Wine and all things that tend to an handsome supply and depuration of the Spirits make our thoughts more free subtile and clear 4. Reason is so involved together with Imagination that we need say nothing of it apart by it self Memory is a Faculty of a more peculiar consideration and if the Pith of the Brain contribute to the Functions of any power of the mind more then by conserving the Animal Spirits it is to this But that the Brain should be stored with distinct images whether they consist of the Flexures of the supposed Fibrillae or the orderly
puncture of Pores or in a continued modified Motion of the parts thereof some in this manner and others in that is a thing as I have already proved utterly impossible If there be any Marks in it it must be a kind of Brachygraphie some small dots here and there standing for the recovering to Memory a series of things that would fill it may be many sheets of paper to write them at large As if a man should tie a string about a friends finger to remember a business that a whole daies discourse it may be was but little enough to give him full instructions in From whence it is plain that the Memory is in the Soule and not in the Brain And if she doe make any such Marks as we speak of she having no perception of them distinct from the representation of those things which they are to remind her of she must not make them by any Cognitive power but by some such as is Analogous to her Plastick Faculty of organizing the Body where she acts and perceives it not 5. But whether the Soule act thus or no upon the Brain is a Matter of uncertain determination nor can it be demonstrated by any experiment that I know And therefore if we will contain our selves within the capacities of the Spirits which I have so often affirmed to be the immediate instrument of the Soule in all her operations that Position will be more unexceptionable And truly I doe not understand but that they and the Soule together will perform all the Functions of Memory that we are conscious to our selves of And therefore I shall conclude that Memory consists in this That the Soule has acquired a greater Promptitude to think of this or that Phantasm with the circumstances thereof which were raised in her upon some occasion Which Promptitude is acquired by either the often representation of the same Phantasme to her or else by a more vivid impress of it from its novelty excellency mischievousness or some such like condition that at once will pierce the Soule with an extraordinary resentment or finally by voluntary attention when she very carefully and on set purpose imprints the Idea as deeply as she can into her inward Sense This Promptitude to think on such an Idea will lessen in time and be so quite spent that when the same Idea is represented again to the Soule she cannot tell that ever she saw it before But before this inclination thereto be quite gone upon this proneness to return into the same conception with the circumstances the Relative Sense of having seen it before which we call Memory does necessarily emerge upon a fresh representation of the Object 6. But Forgetfulness arises either out of meer Desuetude of thinking on such an Object or on others that are linked in with it in such a Series as would represent it as past and so make it a proper Object of Memory Or else for that the Spirits which the Soule uses in all her Functions be not in a due temper which may arise from overmuch Coolness or Waterishness in the Head to which alone Sennertus ascribes Obliviousness 7. The last thing we are to consider is Spontaneous Motion Which that it is performed by the continuation of the Spirits from the Seat of Common Sense to the Muscles which is the gross Engine of Motion is out of doubt The manner how it is we partly feel and see that is to say we find in our selves a power at our own pleasure to move this or the other member with very great force and that the Muscle swels that moves the part which is a plain indication of influx of Spirits thither directed or there guided by our meer Will a thing admirable to consider and worth our most serious meditation That this direction of the impresse of Motion is made by our meer Will and Imagination of doing so we know and feel it so intimately that we can be of nothing more sure That there is some fluid and subtile Matter which we ordinarily call Spirits directed into the Muscle that moves the Member its swelling does evidence to our sight as also the experience that moderate use of wine which supplyes Spirits apace will make this motion the more strong As for the manner whether there be any such Valvulae or no in the Nerve common to the opposite Muscles as also in those that are proper to each it is not materiall This great priviledge of our Soules directing the motion of Matter thus is wonderfull enough in either Hypothesis But I look upon the Fibrous parts of the Muscle as the main engine of motion which the Soule moistning with that subtil liquor of the Animal Spirits makes them swell and shrink like Lute-strings in rainy weather And in this chiefly consists that notable strength of our Limbs in spontaneous motion But for those conceived Valvulae that Experience has not found out yet nor sufficient Reason they are to wait for admission till they bring better evidence For the presence of the Animal Spirits in this Fibrous flesh and the command of the Soule to move is sufficient to salve all Phaenomena of this kind For upon the Will conceived in the Common Sensorium that part of the Soule that resides in the Muscles by a power near a-kin to that by which she made the Body and the Organs thereof guides the Spirits into such Pores and parts as is most requisite for the shewing the use of this excellent Fabrick 8. And in virtue of some such power as this doe we so easily walk though we think not of it as also breath and sing and play on the Lute though our Mindes be taken up with something else For Custome is another Nature and though the Animal Spirits as being meerly corporeall cannot be capable of any habits yet the Soule even in that part thereof that is not Cognitive may and therefore may move the Body though Cogitation cease provided the members be well replenished with Spirits whose assistance in naturall motions of Animals is so great that their Heads being taken off their Body for a long time will move as before as Chalcidius relates of Wasps and Hornets who will fly about and use their wings a good part of an houre after they have lost their Heads which is to be imputed to the residence of their Soule in them still and the intireness of the Animal Spirits not easily evaporating through their crustaceous Bodies For it is but a vulgar conceit to think that the Head being taken off the Soule must presently fly out like a Bird out of a Basket when the Lid is lifted up For the whole World is as much throng'd with Body as where she is and that Tye of the Spirits as yet not being lost it is a greater engagement to her to be there then any where else This motion therefore in the Wasp that is so perfect and durable I hold to be vitall but that in the parts of dismembred
not at all necessary but one may be without the other 4. The second is this That if the sequel were granted that no Absurdity can be detected from thence in Reason if the prejudices of Education and the blinde suggestion of unconcerned Faculties that have no right to vote here be laid aside To speak more explicitely I say This consequence of our Souls Praeexistence is more agreeable to Reason then any other Hypothesis whatever has been received by the most learned Philosophers of all Ages there being scarce any of them that held the Soul of man immortal upon the meer light of Nature and Reason but asserted also her Praeexistence That Memory is no fit Judge to appeal to in this Controversy and lastly That Traduction and Creation are as intricate and unconceivable as this opposed Opinion 5. I shall make all these four parts of my Answer good in order The truth of the first we shall understand if we compare it with those Opinions that stand in competition with it which are but two that are considerable The one is of those that say the Soule is ex traduce the other of those that say it is created upon occasion The first Opinion is a plain contradiction to the notion of a Soul which is a Spirit and therefore of an Indivisible that is of an Indiscerpible Essence The second Opinion implies both an Indignity to the Majesty of God in making Him the chief assistant and actour in the highest freest and most particular way that the Divinity can be conceived to act in those abominable crimes of Whoredome Adultery Incest nay Buggery it self by supplying those foul coitions with new created Souls for the purpose and also an injury to the Souls themselves that they being ever thus created by the immediate hand of God and therefore pure innocent and immaculate should be imprisoned in unclean diseased and disordered Bodies where very many of them seem to be so fatally over-mastered and in such an utter incapacity of closing with what is good and vertuous that they must needs be adjudged to that extreme calamity which attends all those that forget God Wherefore these two opinions being so incongruous what is there left that can seem probable but the Praeexistency of the Soul 6. But I shall not press the Reasonableness of this Opinion onely from comparing it with others but also from the concinnity that is to be found in it self For as it is no greater wonder that every particular mans Soul that lives now upon Earth should be à mundo condito then the particular Matter of their Bodies should which has haply undergone many Millions of Alterations and Modifications before it lighted into such a contexture as to prove the entire Body of any one person in the world has been in places unimaginably distant has filed it may be through the triangular passages of as many Vortices as we see Stars in a clear frosty night and has shone once as bright as the Sun as the Cartesian Hypothesis would have all the Earth to have done in so much that we eat and drink and cloath our selves with that which was once pure Light and Flame so that de facto they do bear the same date with the Creation of the World that unavoidable certainty of the Praeexistence of the Souls of Brutes does according to the very concession of our Adversaries fairly insinuate 7. But this is not all Both the Attributes of God and Face of things in the world out of which his Providence is not to be excluded are very strong Demonstrations thereof to Reason unprejudiced For first if it be good for the Souls of men to be at all the sooner they are the better But we are most certain that the Wisdome and Goodness of God will doe that which is the best and therefore if they can enjoy themselves before they come into these terrestrial Bodies it being better for them to enjoy themselves then not they must be before they come into these Bodies that is they must be in a capacity of enjoying themselves without them for long periods of time before they appeared here in this Age of the World For nothing hinders but that they may live before they come into the Body as well as they may after their going out of it the latter whereof is acknowledged even by them that deny the Praeexistence Wherefore the Praeexistence of Souls is a necessary result of the Wisdome and Goodness of God who can no more fail to doe that which is best then he can to understand it for otherwise his Wisdome would exceed his Benignity nay there would be less hold to be taken of his Goodness then of the Bounty of a very benign and good man who we may be well assured will slip no opportunity of doing good that lies in his power especially if it be neither damage nor trouble to him both which hinderances are incompetible to the Deity 8. Again the face of Providence in the World seems very much to suit with this Opinion there being not any so naturall and easy account to be given of those things that seem the most harsh in the affairs of men as from this Hypothesis That their Soules did once subsist in some other state where in severall manners and degrees they forfeited the favour of their Creatour And so according to that just Nemesis that He has interwoven in the constitution of the Universe and of their own natures they undergoe several calamities and asperities of fortune and sad drudgeries of Fate as a punishment inflicted or a disease contracted from the severall Obliquities of their Apostasie Which key is not onely able to unlock that recondite mystery of some particular Mens almost fatal aversness from all Religion and Vertue their stupidity and dulness and even invincible slowness to these things from their very child-hood and their uncorrigible propension to all manner of Vice but also of that squalid forlorneness and brutish Barbarity that whole Nations for many Ages have layen under and many doe still lye under at this very day Which sad Scene of things must needs exceedingly cloud and obscure the wayes of Divine providence and make them utterly unintelligible unless some light be let in from the present Hypothesis we speak of It is plain therefore that there are very weighty Reasons may be found out to conclude the Praeexistence of Soules And therefore this Opinion being so demonstrable from this Faculty and there being no other that can contradict it for that the verdict of Memory in this case is invalid I shall prove anon we are according to the Light of Nature undoubtedly to conclude that the Soules of Men doe praeexist by Axiome 5. 9. And as this Hypothesis is Rationall in it self so has it also gained the suffrage of all Philosophers of all Ages of any note that have held the Soule of Man Incorporeal and Immortall And therefore I am not at all sollicitous what either the Epicureans or
Stoicks held concerning this Matter this contest being betwixt those onely that agree on this Truth That the Soule is a Substance Immateriall And such amongst the Philosophers as held it so did unanimously agree that it does Praeexist This is so plain that it is enough onely to make this challenge every one in the search will satifie himself of the Truth thereof I shall onely adde for the better countenance of the business some few instances herein as a pledge of the Truth of my generall Conclusion Let us cast our Eye therefore into what corner of the World we will that has been famous for Wisdome and Literature and the wisest of those Nations you shall find the Assertours of this Opinion 10. In Egypt that ancient Nurse of all hidden Sciences that this Opinion was in vogue amongst the wise men there those fragments of Trismegist doe sufficiently witness For though there may be suspected some fraud and corruption in severall passages in that Book in reference to the interest of Christianity yet this Opinion of the Praeexistency of the Soule in which Christianity did not interest it self cannot but be judged from the Testimony of those Writings to have been a Branch of the Wisdome of that Nation of which Opinion not onely the Gymnosophists and other wise men of Egypt were but also the Brachmans of India and the Magi of Babylon and Persia as you may plainly see by those Oracles that are called either Magicall or Chaldaicall which Pletho and Psellus have commented upon To these you may adde the abstruse Philosophy of the Jewes which they call their Cabbala of which the Soules Praeexistence makes a considerable part as all the learned of the Jewes doe confess And how naturally applicable this Theory is to those three first mysterious chapters of Genesis I have I hope with no contemptible success endeavoured to shew in my Conjectura Cabbalistica 11. And if I should particularize in persons of this Opinon truly they are such of so great fame for depth of Understanding and abstrusest Science that their testimony alone might seem sufficient to bear down any ordinary modest man into an assent to their doctrine And in the first place if we can believe the Cabbala of the Jewes we must assign it to Moses the greatest Philosopher certainly that ever was in the world to whom you may adde Zoroaster Pythagoras Epicharmus Empedocles Cebes Euripides Plato Euclide Philo Virgil Marcus Cicero Plotinus Iamblicus Proclus Boethius Psellus and severall others which it would be too long to recite And if it were fit to adde Fathers to Philosophers we might enter into the same list Synesius and Origen the latter of whom was surely the greatest Light and Bulwark that antient Christianity had who unless there had been some very great Matter in it was far from that levity and vanity as to entertain an Opinion so vulgarly slighted and neglected by other men and the same may be said of others that were Christians as Boethius Psellus and the late learned Marsilius Ficinus But I have not yet ended my Catalogue that admirable Physitian Johannes Fernelius is also of this perswasion and is not content to be so himself onely but discovers those two grand Masters of Medicine Hippocrates and Galen to be so too as you may see in his De abditis rerum causis Cardan also that famous Philosopher of his Age expresly concludes that the Rationall Soule is both a distinct Being from the Soule of the World and that it does praeexist before it comes into the Body and lastly Pomponatius no friend to the Soules Immortality yet cannot but confess that the safest way to hold it is also therewith to acknowledg her Praeexistence 12. And that nothing may be wanting to shew the frivolousness of this part of the Objection we shall also evince that Aristotle that has the luck to be believed more then most Authors was of the same opinion in his Treatise De Anima Lib. 1. Cap. 3. Where he speaks of the necessity of the qualification of the Body that the Soule is to actuate and blaming those that omit that consideration sayes that they are as careless of that Matter as if it were possible that according to the Pythagorick fables any Soule might enter into any Body Whenas every Animall as it has its proper species so it is to have its peculiar form But those that define otherwise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. They speak as if one should affirm that the skil of a Carpenter did enter into a Flute or Pipe for every Art must use its proper Instruments and every Soule its proper Body Where as Cardan also has observed Aristotle does not find fault with the opinion of the Soules going out of one Body into another which implies their Praeexistence but that the Soule of a Beast should goe into the Body of a Man and the Soule of a Man into a Beasts Body this is the Absurdity that Aristotle justly rejects the other Opinion he seems tacitely to allow of 13. He speaks something more plainly in his De Generat Animal Lib. 3. Cap. 11. There are generated saith he in the Earth and in the moisture thereof Plants and living Creatures because in the Earth is the moisture and in the moisture Spirit and in the whole Universe an Animal warmth or heat insomuch that in a manner all places are full of Soules 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Adeò ut modo quodam omnia sint Animarum plena as Sennertus interprets the place Aristotle understanding by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same that he does afterwards by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Principle we call Soule according to the nobility whereof he asserts that Animals are more or less noble which assertion therefore reaches Humane Soules as well as these of Beasts 14. Nor can this Text be eluded by being so injurious to Aristotle as to make him to assert that there is but one Soule in the world because he sayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the text admitting of Sennertus his exposition as well as this other that which is most reasonable is to be attributed to him Now if his meaning was that there is but One Soule in the World that goes through all things and makes the Universe one great Animal as the Stoicks would have it he need not say that all places are in a manner full of this Soule but absolutely full of it as our Body is wholly actuated by the Soule in it And therefore the Sense must be that all places indeed are in a manner full of Soules not that they have opportunity to actuate the Matter and shew their presence there by vitall operation but are there dormient as to any visible energie till prepared Matter engage them to more sensible actions 15. We will adde a third place still more clear Lib. 2. Chap. 3. where he starts this
very question of the Praeexistency of Soules of the Sensitive and Rationall especially 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether both kindes doe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is praeexist before they come into the Body or whether the Rationall onely and he concludes thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. It remains that the rationall or intellectual Soule onely enter from without as being onely of a nature purely divine with whose actions the actions of this gross Body have no communication Concerning which point he concludes like an Orthodox Scholar of his excellent Master Plato to whose footsteps the closer he keeps the less he ever wanders from the truth For in this very place he does plainly profess what many would not have him so apertly guilty of that the Soule of man is immortall and can perform her proper Functions without the help of this terrestriall Body And thus I think I have made good the two first parts of my answer to the proposed Objection and have clearly proved that the Praeexistence of the Soule is an opinion both in it self the most rationall that can be maintained and has had the suffrage of the renownedst Philosophers in all Ages of the World and that therefore this sequel from our arguments for the Immortality of the Soule is no discovery of any fallacy in them CHAP. XIII 1. The third part of the second Answer That the forgetting of the former state is no good argument against the Soules Praeexistence 2. What are the chief causes of Forgetfulness 3. That they all conspire and that in the highest degree to destroy the memory of the other state 4. That mischances and Diseases have quite taken away the Memory of things here in this life 5. That it is impossble for the Soule to remember her former condition without a Miracle 6. The fourth part of the second Answer That the entrance of a Praeexistent Soule into a Body is as intelligible as either Creation or Traduction 1. AS for the two last Difficulties concerning the Soules Memory of her former state and the manner of her coming into the Body I hope I shall with as much ease extricate my self here also especially in the former For if we consider what things they are that either quite take away or exceedingly diminish our Memory in this life we shall find the concurse of them all and that in a higher degree or from stronger causes contained in our descent into this earthly Body then we can meet with here they none of them being so violent as to dislodge us out of it 2. Now the things that take away our Memory here are chiefly these either the want of opportunity of being reminded of a thing as it happens with many who rise confident they slept without dreaming such a night and yet before they goe to bed again recover a whole Series of representations they had in their last sleep by something that sell out in the day without which it had been impossible for them to recall to minde their Dream Or else in the second place Desuetude of thinking of a Matter whereby it comes to pass that what we have earnestly meditated laboured for and pen'd down with our own hands when we were at Schoole were it not that we saw our names written under the Exercise we could not acknowledg for ours when we are grown men Or lastly some considerable change in the frame and temper of our Body whether from some externall mischance or from some violent Disease or else from old age which is disease enough of it self which often doe exceedingly impaire if not quite take away the Memory though the Soule be still in the same Body 3. Now all these Principles of Forgetfulness namely the want of something to reminde us Desuetude of thinking and an Extraordinary change in the Body are more eminently to be found in the Descent of the Soule into these Earthly prisons then can happen to her for any time of her abode therein For there is a greater difference in all probability betwixt that Scene of things the Soule sees out of the Body and in it then betwixt what shee sees sleeping and waking and the perpetuall occursions of this present life continue a long Desuetude of thinking on the former Besides that their descent hither in all likelihood scarce befalls them but in their state of Silence and Inactivity in which myriads of Soules may haply be for many Ages as the maintainers of this Opinion may pretend by reason of the innumerable expirations of the aëreal periods of life and the more narrow Lawes of preparing terrestrial Matter And lastly her coming into this Earthly Body is a greater and more disadvantageous change for the utter spoiling of the memory of things she was acquainted with before then any Mischance or Disease can be for the bringing upon her a forgetfulness of what she has known in this life 4. And yet that Diseases and Casualties have even utterly taken away all memory is amply recorded in History As that Messala Corvinus forgot his own name that one by a blow with a stone forgot all his learning another by a fall from an Horse the name of his Mother and kinsfolks A young Student of Montpelier by a wound lost his Memory so that he was fain to be taught the letters of the Alphabet again The like befell a Franciscan after a Feaver And Thucydides writes of some who after their recovery from that great Pestilence at Athens did not onely forget the names and persons of their friends but themselves too not knowing who themselves were nor by what name they were called Atque etiam quosdam cepisse oblivia rerum Cunctarum neque se possent cognoscere ut ipsi as the Poet Lucretius sadly sets down in his description of that devouring Plague out of the fore-named Historian 5. Wherefore without a miracle it is impossible the Soule should remember any particular circumstance of her former condition though she did really praeexist and was in a capacity of acting before she came into this Body as Aristotle plainly acknowledges she was her change being far greater by coming into the Body then can ever be made while she staies in it Which we haply shall be yet more assured of after we have considered the manner of her descent which is the last Difficulty objected 6. I might easily decline this Controversie by pleading onely that the entrance of the Soule into the Body supposing her Praeexistence is as intelligible as in those other two wayes of Creation and Traduction For how this newly-created Soule is infused by God no man knowes nor how if it be traducted from the Parents both their Soules contribute to the making up a new one For if there be decision of part of the Soule of the Male in the injection of his seed into the matrix of the Female and part of the Female Soule to joyn with that of the Males besides that the decision of these parts of their
AEthereal for ever 8. But this makes little to the clearing of the manner of their descent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which cannot be better understood then by considering their Union with the Body generated or indeed with any kinde of Body whatever where the Soul is held captive and cannot quit her self thereof by the free imperium of her own Imagination and Will For what can be the cause of this cohaesion the very essence of the Soul being so easily penetrative of Matter and the dimensions of all Matter being alike penetrable every where For there being no more Body or Matter in a Vessel filled with Lead then when it is full of Water nor when full with Water then when with Aire or what other subtiler Body soever that can be imagined in the Universe it is manifest that the Crassities of Matter is every where alike and alike penetrable and passable to the Soul And therefore it is unconceivable how her Union should be so with any of it as that she should not be able at any time to glide freely from one part thereof to another as she pleases It is plain therefore that this Union of the Soul with Matter does not arise from any such gross Mechanical way as when two Bodies stick one in another by reason of any toughness and viscosity or straight commissure of parts but from a congruity of another nature which I know not better how to term then Vital which Vital Congruity is chiefly in the Soul it self it being the noblest Principle of Life but is also in the Matter and is there nothing but such modification thereof as fits the Plastick part of the Soul and tempts out that Faculty into act 9. Not that there is any Life in the Matter with which this in the Soul should sympathize and unite but it is termed Vital because it makes the Matter a congruous Subject for the Soul to reside in and exercise the functions of life For that which has no life it self may tie to it that which has As some men are said to be tied by the teeth or tied by the ear when they are detained by the pleasure they are struck with from good Musick or delicious Viands But neither is that which they eat alive nor that which makes the Musick neither the Instrument nor the Air that conveys the sound For there is nothing in all this but meer Matter and corporeal motion and yet our vital functions are affected thereby Now as we see that the Perceptive part of the Soul is thus vitally affected with that which has no life in it so it is reasonable that the Plastick part thereof may be so too That there may be an Harmony betwixt Matter thus and thus modified and that Power that we call Plastick that is utterly devoid of all Perception And in this alone consists that which we call Vital Congruity in the prepared Matter either to be organized or already shaped into the perfect form of an Animal 10. And that Vital Congruity which is in the Soul I mean in the Plastick part thereof is analogous to that Pleasure that is perceived by the Sense or rather to the capacity of receiving it when the Sense is by agreeable motions from without or in the Body it self very much gratified and that whether the Minde will or no. For there are some Touches that will in their Perception seem pleasant whether our Judgement would have them so or not What this is to the Perceptive part of the Soul that other Congruity of Matter is to the Plastick And therefore that which ties the Soul and this or that Matter together is an unresistible and unperceptible pleasure if I may so call it arising from the congruity of Matter to the Plastick faculty of the Soul which Congruity in the Matter not failing nor that in the Soul the Union is at least as necessary as the continuation of eating and drinking so long as Hunger and Thirst continues and the Meat and Drink proves good But either satiety in the Stomack or some ill tast in the Meat may break the congruity on either side and then the action will cease with the pleasure thereof And upon this very account may a Soul be conceived to quit her aiery Vehicle within a certain period of Ages as the Platonists hold she does without any violent precipitation of her self out of it 11. What are the strings or cords that tie the Soul to the Body or to what Vehicle else soever I have declared as clearly as I can From which it will be easy to understand the manner of her descent For assuredly the same cords or strings that tie her there may draw her thither Where the carcass is there will the Eagles be gathered Not that she need use her Perceptive faculty in her descent as Hawks and Kites by their sight or smelling fly directly to the lure or the prey but she being within the Atmosphear as I may so call it of Generation and so her Plastick power being reached and toucht by such an invisible reek as Birds of prey are that smell out their food at a distance she may be fatally carried all Perceptions ceasing in her to that Matter that is so fit a receptacle for her to exercise her efformative power upon For this Magick-sphere as I may so term it that has this power of conjuring down Souls into earthly Bodies the nearer the Centre the vertue is the stronger and therefore the Soul will never cease till she has slided into the very Matter that sent out those rays or subtile reek to allure her From whence it is easy to conceive that the Souls of Brutes also though they be not able to exercise their Perceptive faculty out of a terrestrial body yet they may infallibly finde the way again into the world as often as Matter is fitly prepared for generation And this is one Hypothesis and most intelligible to those that are pleased so much with the opinion of those large Sphears they conceive of emissary Atomes There is also another which is the Power and Activity of the Spirit of Nature or Inferiour Soul of the World who is as fit an Agent to transmit particular Souls as she is to move the parts of Matter But of this hereafter 12. What has been said is enough for the present to illustrate the pretended obscurity and unconceivableness of this Mystery So that I have fully made good all the four parts of my Answer to that Objection that would have supplanted the force of my strongest Arguments for the Souls Immortality and have clearly proved that though this sequel did necessarily result from them That the Souls both of Men and Beasts did Prae-exist yet to unprejudiced reason there is no Absurdity nor Inconvenience at all in the Opinion And therefore this Obstacle being removed I shall the more chearfully proceed to the demonstrating of the Souls actual Separation from the Body CHAP. XV. 1. What is meant by
the Separation of the Soul with a confutation of Regius who would stop her in the dead Corps 2. An Answer to those that profess themselves puzled how the Soul can get out of the Body 3. That there is a threefold Vital Congruity to be found in three several Subjects 4. That this triple Congruity is also competible to one Subject viz. the Soul of Man 5. That upon this Hypothesis it is very intelligible how the Soul may leave the Body 6. That her Union with the aereal Vehicle may be very suddain and as it were in a moment 7. That the Soul is actually separate from the Body is to be proved either by History or Reason Examples of the former kinde out of Pliny Herodotus Ficinus 8. Whether the Exstasie of Witches prove an actual separation of the Soul from the Body 9. That this real separation of the Soul in Exstasie is very possible 10. How the Soul may be loosned and leave the Body and yet return thither again 11. That though Reason and Will cannot in this life release the Soul from the Body yet Passion may and yet so that she may return again 12. The peculiar power of Desire for this purpose 13. Of Cardans Exstasies and the Ointment of Witches and what truth there may be in their confessions 1. COncerning the actual and local Separation of the Soul from the Body it is manifest that it is to be understood of this Terrestrial Body For to be in such a separate state as to be where no Body or Matter is is to be out of the World the whole Universe being so thick set with Matter or Body that there is not to be found the least vacuity therein The question therefore is onely whether upon death the Soul can pass from the Corps into some other place Henricus Regius seems to arrest her there by that general law of Nature termed the law of Immutability whereby every thing is to continue in the same condition it once is in till something else change it But the application of this law is very grosly injust in this case For as I have above intimated the Union of the Soul with the Body is upon certain terms neither is every peece of Matter fit for every Soul to unite with as Aristotle of old has very solidly concluded Wherefore that condition of the Matter being not kept the Soul is no longer engaged to the Body What he here says for the justifying of himself is so arbitrarious so childish and ridiculous that according to the merit thereof I shall utterly neglect it and pass it by not vouchsafing of it any Answer 2. Others are much puzled in their imagination how the Soul can get out of the Body being imprisoned and lockt up in so close a Castle But these seem to forget both the nature of the Soul with the tenuity of her Vehicle and also the Anatomy of the Body For considering the nature of the Soul her self and of Matter which is alike penetrable every where the Soul can pass through solid Iron and Marble as well as through the soft Air and AEther so that the thickness of the Body is no impediment to her Besides her Astral Vehicle is of that tenuity that it self can as easily pass the smallest pores of the Body as the Light does Glass or the Lightning the Scabbard of a Sword without tearing or scorching of it And lastly whether we look upon that principal seat of the Plastick power the Heart or that of Perception the Brain when a man dies the Soul may collect her self and the small residue of Spirits that may haply serve her in the inchoation of her new Vehicle either into the Heart whence is an easy passage into the Lungs and so out at the Mouth or else into the Head out of which there are more doors open then I will stand to number These things are very easily imaginable though as invisible as the Air in whose element they are transacted 3. But that they may still be more perfectly understood I shall resume again the consideration of that Faculty in the Plastick part of the Soul which we call Vital Congruity Which according to the number of Vehicles we will define to be threefold Terrestrial AEreal and AEthereal or Coelestial That these Vital Congruities are found some in some kinde of Spirits and others in othersome is very plain For that the Terrestrial is in the Soul of Brutes and in our own is without controversie as also that the AEreal in that kinde of Beings which the Ancients called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and lastly that the Heavenly and AEthereal in those Spirits that Antiquity more properly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as being Inhabitants of the Heavens For that there are such AEreal and AEthereal Beings that are analogous to Terrestrial Animals if we compare the nature of God with the Phaenomena of the world it cannot prove less then a Demonstration For this Earth that is replenisht with living Creatures nay put in all the Planets too that are in the world and fancy them inhabited they all joyned together bear not so great a proportion to the rest of the liquid Matter of the Universe that is in a nearer capacity of being the Vehicle of Life as a single Cumin-seed to the Globe of the Earth But how ridiculous a thing would it be that all the Earth beside being neglected onely one peece thereof no better then the rest nor bigger then the smallest seed should be inhabited The same may be said also of the compass of the Aire and therefore it is necessary to enlarge their Territories and confidently to pronounce there are AEthereal Animals as well as Terrestrial and AEreal 4. It is plain therefore that these three Congruities are to be found in severall Subjects but that which makes most to our purpose is to finde them in one and that in the Soule of Man And there will be an easy intimation thereof if we consider the vast difference of those Faculties that we are sure are in her Perceptive part and how they occasionally emerge and how upon the laying asleep of one others will spring up Neither can there be any greater difference betwixt the highest and lowest of these Vitall congruities in the Plastick part then there is betwixt the highest and lowest of those Faculties that result from the Perceptive For some Perceptions are the very same with those of Beasts others little inferiour to those that belong to Angels as we ordinarily call them some perfectly brutish others purely divine why therefore may there not reside so great a Latitude of capacities in the Plastick part of the Soule as that she may have in her all those three Vitall Congruities whereby she may be able livingly to unite as well with the Coelestial and AEreal Body as with this Terrestrial one Nay our nature being so free and multifarious as it is it would seem a reproach to Providence to deny this capacity of
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and does immutably and inevitably distribute Justice both Reward and Punishment in the world But how difficult a thing it is to be good and to live according to Vertue the common practise and complaint of all men doe confess with one consent and that it is exceeding hard to perswade any one to doe that violence to their own natures as to endeavour after a due degree and right sense of Vertue for Craft and Policy are easy enough and other things there are that set against the contrary Vices look like Vertues but are not But to perswade to those that truly are is I say exceeding hard if not impossible without the inculcation of this grand concernment the State of the Soule after Death and the Reward that will then follow a Vertuous life Of which hopes if we be frustrated by the Soules Mortality we are defrauded of our Reward and God of the honour of Justice 6. Nor can the force of this Argument be enervated by either that high pretension of Stoicisme That Vertue to it self is a sufficient reward or that the very hopes of this Immortality it being accompanied with so much joy tranquillity and contentment will countervail all the pain and trouble of either acquiring or keeping close to Vertue once acquired For as for the first It is one thing to talk high and another thing to practise And for my own part I think in the main that Epicurus who placed the chiefest good in Pleasure Philosophized more solidly then the paradoxical Stoicks For questionless that is that which all men ought to drive at if they had the true notion of it and knew wherein to place it or could arrive to the purest and most warrantable sense of it But there can be no Pleasure without a perfect Miracle while our Spirits are disturbed and vitiated by sordid and contemptible Poverty by Imprisonments Sicknesses Tortures ill Diet and a number of such Adversities that those that are the most exactly vertuous have been in all Ages most lyable to Besides the care and sollicitude of perpetually standing upon their guard the stings of Calumny and Defamation and a continuall vexation to see the baseness and vileness of mens tempers and ugly oblique transactions of affairs in the world Which inquietudes cannot be avoided by any other remedy but what is as ill as the disease or worse it being altogether incompetible to a true Heroicall tenour of minde I mean their Stoical Apathy of which the best that can be said is that it is a kind of constant and safe piece of fullenness stating us onely in the condition of those that are said to have neither wone nor lost So poor a reward is persecuted and distressed Vertue of it self without the hope of future Happiness 7. But to say the Hope thereof without Enjoyment is a sufficient compensation is like that mockery Plutarch records of Dionysius towards a Fidler whom he caused to play before him promising him a reward but when he demanded it of him for his pains denied it him or rather said it was paid already putting him off with this jest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. So long as you pleased me with playing so long you rejoyced your self with hoping after the reward so that you are sufficiently paid already Which piece of injurious mirth may be passable in a ludicrous matter and from a Tyrant where height of Fortune makes proud and forgetful Mortality contemn their inferiours But in a thing of this nature that concerns not onely this transient life but the sempiternal duration of the Soul Injustice there is unspeakably grievous and so much the more harsh and uncomely if we consider that it is supposed to be committed not by a frail earthly Potentate the height of whose Honours may make him regardless of smaller affairs and meaner persons but by the God of Heaven who can with the like ease attend all things as he can any one thing and who is perfectly and immutably just not doing nor omitting any thing by changeable humours as it happens in vain Men but ever acting according to the transcendent Excellency and Holiness of his own Nature 8. Neither is Divine Justice engaged onely to reward but also to punish which cannot be unless the Souls of men subsist after Death For there are questionless many thousands that have committed most enormous Villanies persecuted the Good taking away their possessions liberties or lives adding sometimes most barbarous tortures and reproachful abuses and in all this highly gratified their covetousness ambition and revenge nay it may be the bestial ferocity of their own spirits that have pleased themselves exceedingly to bring the truly religious into disgrace and have laughed at all vertuous actions as the fruits of Ignorance and Folly and yet for all this have died in peace on their beds after their lives have been as thick set with all sensual enjoyments of Honour Riches and Pleasure as their Story is with Frauds Rapines Murders Sacriledges and whatever crimes the impious boldness of lawless persons will venture on 9. Such things as these happen proportionably through all the ranks and orders of men Nor is it sufficient to reply that their own Consciences as so many Furies do lash them and scorch them in this life For we speak of inveterate and successful wickedness where that Principle is utterly laid asleep or if it at any time wake and cry the noise of the affairs of the world and hurry of business and continual visits of friends and flatterers false instructions of covetous Priests or mercenary Philosophers who for gain will impudently corrupt and pervert both the Light of Nature and Sense of Religion the sound and clatter of these I say will so possess the ear of the prosperously wicked that the voice of conscience can be no more heard in this continual tumult then the vagient cries of the Infant Jupiter amidst the rude shuffles and dancings of the Cretick Corybantes and the tinckling and clashing of their brazen Targets And therefore if there be no Life hereafter the worst of men have the greatest share of happiness their passions and affections being so continually gratified and that to the height in those things that are so agreeable and rightly circumstantiated allowable to humane Nature such as are the sweet reflection on the success of our political management of the affairs of the World the general tribute of Honour and respect for our Policy and Wit and that ample testimony thereof our acquisitions of Power or Riches that great satisfaction of foiling and bearing down our Enemies and obliging and making sure our more serviceable Friends to which finally you may adde all the variety of Mirth and Pastime that flesh and blood can entertain it self with from either Musick Wine or Women 10. Thirdly and lastly the Mortality of the Soul is not onely inconsistent with the Veracity and Justice of God but also with his Goodness the most soveraign and sacred
the proper modifications of Sense and there being no Body but what is passible it is evident that these Vehicles of Air are subject to Pain as well as Pleasure in this Region where ill things are to be met with as well as good AXIOME XXXI The Soul can neither impart to nor take away from the Matter of her Vehicle of Air any considerable degree of Motion but yet can direct the particles moved which way she pleases by the Imperium of her Will 7. THE reasonableness of this Axiome may be evinced partly out of the former for considering the brushiness and angulosity of the parts of the Air a more then ordinary Motion or compressive Rest may very well prove painful to the Soul and dis-harmonious to her touch and partly from what we may observe in our own Spirits in this Body which we can onely direct not give Motion to nor diminish their Motion by our Imagination or Will for no man can imagine himself into Heat or Cold the sure consequences of extraordinary Motion and Rest by willing his Spirits to move faster or slower but he may direct them into the Organs of spontaneous Motion and so by moving the grosser parts of the Body by this direction he may spend them and heat these parts in the expence of them and this is all we can doe and partly from that Divine Providence that made all things and measures out the Powers and Faculties of his Creatures according to his own Wisdome and Counsel and therefore has bound that state of the Soul to straighter conditions that is competible to the bad as well as to the good AXIOME XXXII Though the Soul can neither confer nor take away any considerable degree of Motion from the Matter of her Aiery Vehicle yet nothing hinders but that she may doe both in her AEthereal 8. THE reason hereof is because the particles of her AEthereal Vehicle consist partly of smooth sphaericall Figures and partly of tenuious Matter so exceeding liquid that it will without any violence comply to any thing whenas the Aire as may be observed in Winde-Guns has parts so stubborn and so stiff that after they have been compressed to such a certain degree that the barrel of the Piece grows hot again they have not lost their shapes nor virtue but like a spring of Steel liberty being given they return to their natural posture with that violence that they discharge a Bullet with equal force that Gun-powder does Besides that the Goodness of that Deity on whom all Beings depend may be justly thought to have priviledged the AEthereal Congruity of Life which awakes onely in perfectly-obedient Souls such as may be trusted as throughly faithful to his Empire with a larger power then the other there being no incompetibleness in the Subject For it is as easy a thing to conceive that God may endow a Soul with a power of moving or resting Matter as of determining the motions thereof AXIOME XXXIII The purer the Vehicle is the more quick and perfect are the Perceptive Faculties of the Soul 9. THE truth of this we may in a manner experience in this life where we finde that the quickness of Hearing Seeing Tasting Smelling the nimbleness of Reminiscency Reason and all other Perceptive Faculties are advanced or abated by the clearness or foulness and dulness of the Spirits of our Body and that Oblivion and Sottishness arise from their thickness and earthiness or waterishness or whatsoever other gross consistency of them which distemper removed and the Body being replenished with good Spirits in sufficient plenty and purity the Minde recovers her activity again remembers what she had forgot and understands what she was before uncapable of sees and hears at a greater distance and so of the rest AXIOME XXXIV The Soul has a marvellous power of not onely changing the temper of her Aiery Vehicle but also of the external shape thereof 10. THE truth of the first part of this Axiome appears from daily experience for we may frequently observe how strangely the Passions of the Mind will work upon our Spirits in this state how Wrath and Grief and Envy will alter the Body to say nothing of other Affections And assuredly the finer the Body is the more mutable it is upon this account so that the Passions of the Minde must needs have a very great influence upon the Souls AEreal Vehicle which though they cannot change into any thing but Air yet they may change this Air into qualifications as vastly different as Vertue is from Vice Sickness from Health Pain from Pleasure Light from Darkness and the stink of a Gaol from the Aromatick odours of a flourishing Paradise 11. The truth of the latter part is demonstrable from the latter part of the 31. Axiome For supposing a power in the Soul of directing the motions of the particles of her fluid Vehicle it must needs follow that she will also have a power of shaping it in some measure according to her own Will and Fancy To which you may adde as no contemptible pledge of this Truth what is done in that kinde by our Will and Fancy in this life as onely because I will and fancy the moving of my Mouth Foot or Fingers I can move them provided I have but Spirits to direct into this motion and the whole Vehicle of the Soul is in a manner nothing else but Spirits The Signatures also of the Foetus in the Womb by the Desire and Imagination of the Mother is very serviceable for the evincing of this Truth but I shall speak of it more fully in its place AXIOME XXXV It is rational to think that as some Faculties are laid asleep in Death or after Death so others may awake that are more sutable for that state 12. THE truth of this Axiome appears from hence That our Souls come not by chance but are made by an All-wise God who foreseeing all their states has fitted the Excitation or Consopition of Powers and Faculties sutably to the present condition they are to be in AXIOME XXXVI Whether the Vital Congruity of the Soul expire as whose period being quite unwound or that of the Matter be defaced by any essential Dis-harmony Vital Union immediately ceases 13. THis last Axiome is plain enough of it self at first sight and the usefulness thereof may be glanced at in his due place These are the main Truths I shall recurre to or at least suppose in my following Disquisitions others will be more seasonably delivered in the continuation of our Discourse CHAP. II. 1. Of the Dimensions of the Soul considered barely in her self 2. Of the Figure of the Souls Dimensions 3. Of the Heterogeneity of her Essence 4. That there is an Heterogeneity in her Plastick part distinct from the Perceptive 5. Of the acting of this Plastick part in her framing of the Vehicle 6. The excellency of Des-Cartes his Philosophy 7. That the Vehicles of Ghosts have as much of solid corporeal Substance in
them as the Bodies of Men. 8. The folly of the contrary Opinion evinced 9. The advantage of the Soul for matter of Body in the other state above this 1. THat we may now have a more clear and determinate apprehension of the nature and condition of the Soul out of the Body let us first consider her a while what she is in her own Essence without any reference to any Body at all and we shall finde her a Substance extended and indiscerpible as may be easily gathered out of what we have written Lib. 1. Cap. 3 5 8. as also Lib. 2. Cap. 1 2. And it is a seasonable contemplation here where we consider the Soul as having left this Terrestrial Body that she hath as ample if not more ample Dimensions of her own then are visible in the Body she has left Which I think worth taking notice of that it may stop the mouths of them that not without reason laugh at those unconceivable and ridiculous fancies of the Schools that first rashly take a way all Extension from Spirits whether Soules or Augels and then dispute how many of them booted and spur'd may dance on a needles point at once Fooleries much derogatory to the Truth and that pinch our perception into such an intolerable streightness and evanidness that we cannot imagine any thing of our own Being and if we doe are prone to fall into despair or contempt of our selves by fancying our selves such unconsiderable Motes of the Sun 2. But as it is very manifest that the Soule has Dimensions and yet not infinite and therefore that she is necessarily bounded in some Figure or other so it is very uncertain whether there be any peculiar Figure naturall to her answerable to animal shape or whether she be of her self of either a Round or Oval figure but does change her shape according as occasion requires It is not material to define any thing in this Question more then thus That when the Soule acts in Terrestrial Matter her Plastick part is determined to the Organization of the Body into humane forme and in the AEreal or AEthereal that she is neither more nor less determined to any shape then the Genii or Angels and that if their Vehicles are more naturally guided into one shape then another that hers is in the same condition so that in her visible Vehicle she will bear the ordinary form of Angels such a countenance and so cloathed as they 3. That which is more material I think is more easy to be defined and that is whether the Soule be one Homogeneal Substance or whether it be in some manner Heterogeneal That the latter is in some measure true is manifest from what we have written Lib. 2. Cap. 11. viz. That the Perceptive faculty reaches not throughout the whole Soule but is confined to a certain part which we called the Centre or Eye of the Soule as also her Perceptive part but all the rest Plastick But here arises a further Scruple whether there be not an Heterogeneity in the very Plastick part also of the Soule The Aristotelians seem to be confident there is not and doe affirm that if there were an Eye in the Toe the Toe would see as well as the Head Of which I very much doubt For hence it would follow that some Creatures would have a glimmering of Light all over they being in a manner all over transparent and some thin and clear Complexions might haply have the perception of Light betwixt the lower parts of their Fingers which are in some good measure pellucid and therefore Life and Spirits being continued from thence to the Conarion as they are or to the fourth Ventricle of the Brain it would follow that the Soule would have a perception of some glimmerings of Light from thence which were to see there as well as to feel 4. Wherefore it seems more rationall to admit an Heterogeneity in the Plastick part of the Soule also and to acknowledge that every removall from the Seat of Common Sense that is to say every Circle that surrounds the Centre of the Soule has not the same bounds of power neither for number nor extent But that as concerning the former there is a gradual falling off from the first excellency which is the Perceptive part of the Soule the closest Circle to which is that part of the Plastick that is able to convey Objects of Sight as well as of Touch and Hearing and what other Senses else there may be in the Soule The next Circle is Hearing without Seeing though not without Touch for Touch spreads through all but in its exteriour region which is excessively the greatest it transmits the circumstantiated Perceptions of no Objects but those that are Tactile but to others it is onely as a dead Medium as the Circle of Hearing is but as a dead Medium to the Objects of Sight So that if we would please our Imagination with Ficinus in fancying the Soule as a Star we shall doe it more perfectly if we look upon her in her Circles as having an Halo about her For the Soule to our Reason is no more homogeneal then that Spectacle is to our Sight 5. But if we look upon the Soule as ever propending to some personall shape the direction of the Plastick rayes must then tend to a kind of Organization so far as is conducent to the state the Soule is in whether in an Aiery or AEthereal Vehicle For that the Plastick power omits or changes as she is drawn forth by the nature of the Matter she acts upon is discoverable in her Organization of our Bodies here For in all likelihood the Soule in her self is as much of one sex as another which makes her sometimes signe the Matter with both but that very seldome and therefore it is manifest that she omits one part of her Plastick power and makes use of the other in almost all efformations of the Foetus Whence it is easy to conclude that supposing her Plastick power naturally work the AEthereal or AEreal Vehicle into any animal shape it may put forth onely such stroaks of the efformative vertue as are convenient and becoming the Angelical Nature But according to this Hypothesis haply all Objects of Sense will not arrive to the Centre of the Soule from every part of the Horizon no not though this Organization were not naturall but meerly arbitrarious But be the Soule conceived either bound up thus into animal forme or spread loose into any careless round shape according as her rayes shall display themselves in her Vehicle of Aire or AEther yet the seat of sight will be duely restrained which is a consideration of no contemptible consequence 6. This in generall may suffice concerning the very Nature of the Soule it self her Extension and Heterogeneity I shall onely adde to this one Observable concerning her Aiery and AEthereal Vehicle and then I shall descend to more particular disquisitions Rash fancies and false deductions from
which the aiery Genii cannot aim at in destroying of us But to doe Mischef meerly for Mischiefs sake is so excessive an Enormity that some doubt whether it be competible to any Intellectual Being And therefore Cardan ought to have proved that first as also if there be any so extremely degenerate that there be many of them or rather so many that they cannot be awed by the number of those that are less depraved For we may observe that men amongst our selves that are sufficiently wicked yet they abhor very much from those things that are grossly causlesly destructive to either Man or Beast themselves would help to destroy punish or at least hinder the attempters of such wild exorbitant outrages that have no pretence of Reason but are a meer exercise of Cruelty and Vexation to other Creatures He also ought to have demonstrated that all Mankind are not the Peculium of some Spirits or other and that there are not invisible Governours of Nations Cities Families and sometime of particular Men and that at least a Political Goodness such as serves for the safety of Persons and what belongs to them is not exceedingly more prevalent even in these Kingdomes of the Aire then gross Injustice For all this may be on this side of the Divine Life so that there is no feare of making these aerial Inhabitants over-perfect by this Supposition In a word he should have proved that Political Order in the full exercise thereof did not reach from Heaven to Earth and pierce into the Subterraneous Regions also if there be any Intellectual Creatures there For this will suffice to give a reason that so little hurt is done though all places be full of AErial Spirits 8. Adde unto all this that though they may not be permitted to doe any gross evill themselves and to kill men at pleasure without their consents yet they may abet them in such wayes or invite them to such courses as will prove destructive to them but it may be with no greater plot then we have when we set Doggs together by the eares fight Cocks bait Beares and Bulls run Horses and the like where often by our occasion as being excited and animated by us they pursue their own inclinations to the loss of their lives But though we doe not care to kill a Dog or a Cock in this way yet there is none so barbarous as to knock these Creatures on the head meerly because they will doe so So these worser kind of Genii according as their tempers are may haply follow some men prone to such or such vices in which they may drive them in way of contest or to please their own fancies to the utmost they can doe in it and taking their parts sport themselves in making one man overcome another in duelling in drinking in craft and undermining in wenching in getting riches in clambering to honours and so of the rest Where it may be their pastime to try the Victory of that Person they have taken to and if he perish by the hurry of their temptations and animations it is a thing they intended no more it may be then he that sets his Cock into the pit desires his neck should be broke but if it happen so the sorrow is much alike in both cases And therefore these Spirits may doe mischief enough in the world in abetting men that act it though haply they neither take pleasure in doing of it upon any other termes nor if they did are able to doe it there being so many watchfull eyes over them For these AErial Legions are as capable of Political Honesty and may as deeply resent it as the Nations of the Earth doe and it may be more deeply 9. But if these Creatures were removed so far off as Cardan would have them I doe not see how they could have any communion at all with us to doe us either good or hurt For that they are able to send Apparitions or Dreames at this distance is it self but a Dream occasioned from that first errour in the Aristotelian Philosophy that makes God and the Intelligences act from the heavenly sphears and so to produce all these effects of Nature below such as can never be done but by a present Numen and Spirit of Life that pervades all things 10. This conceit therefore of his shall be no hindrance to our concluding That this lower Region of the Aire is also replenisht with Daemons Which if it be it is not unlikely but that the impurer Souls wander there also though I have taken all this pains to bring still greater trouble upon my self For it is obvious to object that which Lucretius has started of old that this Region being so obnoxious to Windes and tempests the Souls will not be able to keep their Vehicles of Aire about them but that they will be blown in pieces by the roughness of these storms But we may be easily delivered of this solicitude if we consider the nature of the Windes the nature of these Vehicles the Statick power of the Soule For to say theywil make as good shift as the Genii here is not fully satisfactory because a man would also willingly understand how the Genii themselves are not liable to this inconvenience My Answer therefore shall reach both 11. That Windes are nothing else but Watery particles at their greatest agitation Cartesius has very handsomely demonstrated in his Meteors Which particles doe not so much drive the Aire before them as pass through it as a flight of arrowes and showers of haile or rain One part of the Aire therefore is not driven from another but it is as if one should conceive so many little pieces of haire twirling on their middle point as at quarter-staffe and so passing through the Aire which motion would pass free without carrying the Aire along with it This therefore being the nature of Winde the Aire is not torn apieces thereby though we finde the impetus of it moveing against us because it cannot penetrate our Bodies with that facility that it does the Aire 12. But the Vehicles of the Genii and Souls deceased are much-what of the very nature of the Aire whence it is plainly impossible that the Winde should have any other force on them then what it has on the rest of that Element and therefore the least thing imaginable will hold all the parts together Which is true also if the Winde did carry along the Aire with it for then the Vehicles of the Genii would move along with the stream suffering little or no violence at all unless they would force themselves against it Which they are not necessitated to doe as indeed not so much as to come into it or not at least to continue in it but may take shelter as other living Creatures doe in houses behind walls in woods dales caverns rocks and other obvious places and that maturely enough the change of Aire and prognostick of storms being more perceptible to
tenuious and thin is most passive and therefore if it be once the Vehicle of Sense is most sensible Whence it will follow that the reflexion of Light from Objects being able to move our Organs that are not so fine they will more necessarily move those of the Genii and at a greater distance But their Bodies being of diaphanous Aire it is impossible for us to see them unless they will give themselves the trouble of reducing them to a more terrestrial consistency whereby they may reflect light Nor can we easily hear their ordinary speech partly because a very gentle motion of the Aire will act upon their Vehicles and partly because they may haply use the finer and purer part of that Element in this exercise which is not so fit to move our Sense And therefore unless they will be heard datâ operâ naturally that impress of the Aire in their usual discourse can never strike our Organ 5. And that we may not seem to say all this for nought that they will have Hearing as well as Seeing appears from what I have intimated above that this Faculty is ranged near the Common Sensorium in the Vehicle as well as that of Sight and therefore the Vehicle being all Aire such percussions of it as cause the sense of Sound in us will necessarily doe the like in them but more accurately haply if they organize their Vehicle for the purpose which will answer to the arrection of the Ears of Animals for the better taking in the Sound 6. That they have the sense of Touch is inevitably true else how could they feel resistance which is necessary in the bearing of one Body against another because they are impenetrable And to speak freely my mind it will be a very hard thing to disprove that they have not something analogical to Smell and Tast which are very near a-kin to Touch properly so called For Fumes and Odours passing so easily through the Aire will very naturally insinuate into their Vehicles also which Fumes if they be grosser and humectant may raise that diversification of Touch which we Mortals call Tasting if more subtile and dry that which we call Smelling Which if we should admit we are within modest bounds as yet in comparison of others as Cardan who affirms downright that the AErial Genii are nourished and that some of them get into the Bodies of Animals to batten themselves there in their Blood and Spirits Which is also averred by Marcus the Mesopotamian Eremite in Psellus who tells us that the purer sort of the Genii are nourished by drawing in the Aire as our Spirits are in the Nerves and Arteries and that other Genii of a courser kinde suck in moisture not with the Mouth as we doe but as a Sponge does water And Moses AEgyptius writes concerning the Zabii that they eat of the blood of their Sacrifice because they thought it was the food of the Daemons they worshipped and that by eating thereof they were in a better capacity to communicate with them Which things if they could be believed that would be no such hard Probleme concerning the Familiars of Witches why they suck them But such curiosities being not much to our purpose I willingly omit 7. The conclusion of what has been said is this That it is certain that the Genii and consequently the Souls of men departed who ipso facto are of the same rank with them have the sense of Seeing Hearing and Touching and not improbably of Smelling and Tasting Which Faculties being granted they need not be much at a loss how to spend their time though it were but upon external Objects all the furniture of Heaven and Earth being fairly exposed to their view They see the same Sun and Moon that we doe behold the persons and converse of all men and if no special Law inhibit them may pass from Town to Town and from City to City as Hesiod also intimates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is nothing that we enjoy but they may have their fees out of it fair Fields large and invious Woods pleasant Gardens high and healthful Mountains where the purest gusts of Aire are to be met with Crystal Rivers mossy Springs solemnity of Entertainments Theatrick Pomps and Shews publick and private Discourses the exercises of Religion whether in Temples Families or hidden Cells They may be also and haply not uninteressed Spectators of the glorious and mischievous hazards of War whether Sea-fights or Land-fights besides those soft and silent though sometimes no less dangerous Combats in the Camps of Cupid and a thousand more particularities that it would be too long to reckon up where they haply are not men Spectators but Abettors as Plutarch writes Like old men that are past Wrestling Pitching the Barre or playing at Cudgels themselves yet will assist and abet the young men of the Parish at those Exercises So the Souls of men departed though they have put off with the Body the capacity of the ordinary functions of humane Life yet they may assist and abet them as pursuing some design in them and that either for evil or good according as they were affected themselves when they were in the Body 8. In brief whatever is the custome and desire of the Soul in this life that sticks and adheres to her in that which is to come and she will be sure so farre as she is capable either to act it or to be at least a Spectator and Abettor of such kinde of actions Quae gratia currûm Armorumque fuit vivis quae cura nitentes Pascere equos eadē sequitur tellure repostos Which rightly understood is no poetical fiction but a professed Truth in Plato's Philosophy And Maximus Tyrius speaks expresly even of the better sort of Soules who having left the Body and so becoming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. being made ipso facto Genii in stead of men that beside the peculiar happiness they reap thereby to themselves they are appointed by God and have a mission from him to be Overseers of humane affairs but that every Genius does not perform every office but as their naturall Inclinations and Customes were in this life they exercise the like in some manner in the other And therefore he will have AEsculapius to practise Physick still and Hercules to exercise his strength Amphilochus to prophesy Castor and Pollux to navigate Minos to hear causes and Achilles to war Which opinion is as likely to hold true in Bad Souls as in Good and then it will follow that the Souls of the wicked make it their business to assist and abet the exercise of such Vices as themselves were most addicted to in this life and to animate and tempt men to them From whence it would follow that they being thus by their separate state Daemons as has been said already if they be also tempters to evil they will very little differ from meer Devils 9. But besides this employment in reference to us they
may entertain themselves with Intellectuall Contemplations whether Naturall Mathematical or Metaphysical For assuredly Knowledge is not so easy and cheap in this state of Separation but that they may advance and improve themselves by exercise and Meditations And they being in a capacity to forget by reason of desuetude it will be a new pleasure to them to recall to minde their almost obliterate speculations And for those that take more pleasure in outward Sense then in the operations of their Understanding there being so much change in Nature and so various qualifications of the Aire and these inferiour Elements which must needs act upon their aerial Bodies to more or less gratification or dislike this also will excuse them from being idle and put them upon quest after such refreshments and delights as Nature will afford the multifarious presages and desires of their flitting Vehicles 10. Not but that they keep constant to some generall inclination which has divided these aerial wanderers into so many Orders or Tribes the ancient Philosophers and Poets which are Philosophers of the antientest standing of all having assigned places proper to each Order the Sea Rivers and Springs to one Mountains and Groves to others and so of the rest Whence they imposed also those names of the Nereides Naiades Oreades Dryades and the like to which you may adde the Dii Tutelares of Cities and Countries and those that love the warmth of Families and homely converse of Men such as they styled Lares familiares All which and hundreds more which there is no need to recite though they be engaged ever in one natural propension yet there being so great variety of occasions to gratify it more or less their thoughts may be imployed in purchasing and improving those delights that are most agreeable to their own nature Which particularities to run over would be as infinite as useless These short intimations are sufficient to make us understand that the Genii and separate Souls need want no Employment no not in Solitude for such must their stay also amongst us be esteemed when they doe not sensibly and personally converse with us CHAP. V. 1. That the Separate Soule spends not all her time in Solitude 2. That her converse with us seems more intelligible then that with the Genii 3. How the Genii may be visible one to another though they be to us invisible 4. Of their approaches and of the limits of their swiftness of motion 5. And how they far exceed us in celerity 6. Of the figure or shape of their Vehicles and of their privacy when they would be invisible 7. That they cannot well converse in a meer simple Orbicular forme 8. That they converse in humane shape at least the better sort of them 9. Whether the shape they be in proceed meerly from the Imperium of their Will and Fancy or is regulated by a natural Character of the Plastick part of the Soule 10. That the personal shape of a Soule or Genius is partly from the Will and partly from the Plastick power 11. That considering how the Soul organizes the Foetus in the Womb and moves our limbs at pleasure it were a wonder if Spirits should not have such command over their Vehicles as is believed 12. A further Argument from an excessive vertue some have given to Imagination 1. BUT the separate state of the Soule does not condemn her to this Solitude but being admitted into the order of the Genii she is possessed of their Priviledges which is to converse personally with this AErial people and also upon occasion with the Inhabitants of the Earth though the latter with far more difficulty 2. As for her converse with the AErial Genii and other Souls separate it must be in all reason concluded to be exceeding much more frequent then that with men and yet this latter is in some sort more intelligible because it is certain she can see us light being reflected from our opake Bodies unto her Sense and by conspissating her Vehicle she may make her self visible to us But the Vehicles of the Genii and of Souls being in their natural consistence purely AErial and Air being a transparent Body it will transmit the light wholly and so no reflexion being made from these aiery Bodies they can have no perception of one anothers presence and therefore no society nor communion one with another 3. This seems a shrewd Difficulty at the first view But it is easily taken off if we consider that Aire will admit of many degrees of Rarefaction and Condensation and yet still appear unto us alike invisible as one may observe in the Weather-glass But it were more proper to propose in this case the experiment of the Wind-gun wherein the Aire is compressed to a great number of degrees of condensatiō beyond its natural state within the compass of many whereof there is no doubt if not in the utmost that the Aire does remaine invisible to us But there is no scruple to be made but that in the progress of these degrees of Condensation the Aire if it were in a Glass-barrel might become visible to the Genii by reason of the tenderness and delicacy of their Senses before it would be so to us Whence it followes that the Vehicles of the Genii may have a consistency different from the Aire and perceptible to them that is to say to one anothers sight though it be as unperceptible to us as the rest of the Aire is As it may be a man that has but bad eyes would not be able to distinguish Ice immersed in the Water from the Water it self by his Sight though he might by his Touch. Or if their Vehicles could be supposed purer and finer then the rest of the Aire their presence might be perceptible by that means too For this vaporous Aire having without question a confused reflection of light in it every way in some proportion like that in a Mist or when the Sun shines waterishly and prognosticks rain these repercussions of light being far more sensible to the Genii then to us the lessening of them would be more sensible and therefore the diminution of reflection from their Vehicles would be sufficient to discover their presence one to another and for the illustrating of this Hypothesis the experiment of the Weather-glass is more proper But the other supposition I look upon as the more likely to be true and that as the aquatil Animals that live in the Sea have a consistency grosser then the Element they move in so it is with these that live in the Aire though there be nothing near so great a difference here as in that other Element 4. It is plain therefore that the Persons of the Genii and separate Souls are visible one to another But yet not at any distance and therefore there is necessity of approaching to one another for mutual converse which enforces us to say something of their Local Motion Which is neither by Fins nor Wings as
in Fishes or Birds who are fain to sustain themselves by these instruments from sinking to the bottome of either Element but it is meerly by the direction of the agitation of the particles of their Vehicle toward the place they aime at and in such a swiftness or leasureliness as best pleases themselves and is competible to their natures For they can goe no swifter then the whole summe of agitation of the particles of their Vehicle will carry so much Matter nor indeed so swift for it implies that their Vehicles would be turned into an absolutely hard Body such as Brass or Iron or whatever we find harder so that necessarily they would fall down to the Earth as dead as a Stone Those therefore are but phantastick conceits that give such agility to Spirits as if they could be here and there and every where at once skip from one Pole of the World to another be on the Earth again in a moment whenas in truth they can pass with no greater swiftness then the direction of such a part of the agitation of the particles of their Vehicles will permit as may be spared from what is employed in keeping them within a tolerable compass of a due aerial fluidity 5. And this alone will suffice to make them exceed us in activity and swiftness by many degrees For their whole Vehicle is haply at least as thin and moveable as our animal Spirits which are very few in comparison of this luggage of an earthly Body that they are to drive along with them But the spiritual Bodies of the Genii have nothing to drive along with them but themselves and therefore are more free and light compared to us then a mettl'd Steed that has cast his Rider compared with a Pack-horse loaden with a sack of Salt 6. The next thing to be considered touching the mutual conversation of these aerial Genii is the shape they appear in one to another of what Figure it is and whether the Figure be Natural or Arbitrarious or Mixt. For that they must appear in some Figure or other is plain in that their Vehicles are not of an infinite extension It is the more general Opinion that there is no particular Figure that belongs unto them naturally unless it be that which of all Figures is most simple and most easy to conform to even by external helps which is the equal compression of the Aire on every side of the Vehicle by which means drops of Dew and Rain and pellets of Hail come so ordinarily into that shape Which also will more handsomely accord with the nature of the Soul supposing she consist of Central and Radial essence as I have above described and the Common Sensorium be placed in the midst In this Figure may the Soul reside in the Aire and haply melt her self I mean her Vehicle into near so equal a liquidity with that part of that Element adjacent to her that it may be in some measure like our retiring into secrecy from the sight of men when we desire to be private by our selves 7. But she may if she will and likely with farre more ease change this consistency of her AErial Body into such a degree of thickness that there may be a dubious discovery of her as in the glimpse of a Fish under the water and may still make her self more visible to her fellow Genii though keeping yet this simple Orbicular form But what converse there can be betwixt two such heaps of living Aire I know not They may indeed communicate their affections one to another in such a way as is discovered in the Eye wherein the motions of the Spirits doe plainly indicate the Passions of the Minde so that it may seem possible in this simple Figure to make known their joy or grief peaceableness or wrath love or dislike by the modification of the motion of the Spirits of their Vehicle But how there can well be entertained any Intellectual or Rational Conference without any further organization of their Aiery Bodies I profess my self at a loss to understand 8. Wherefore the Genii and separate Souls whatever their shape be in private appear in a more operose and articulate form when they are to converse with one another For they can change their Figure in a manner as they please by Axiome 34. Which power I conceive will be made use of not onely for service but ornament and pulcritude And the most unexceptionable Beauty questionless is that of Man in the best patterns chuse what Sex you will and far above the rest of Creatures which is not our judgement onely but His that made us For certainly he would give to the Principal of terrestrial Animals the noblest form and shape which though it be much obscured by our unfortunate Fall yet questionless the defacement is not so great but that we may have a near guess what it has been heretofore It is most rational therefore to conclude that the AErial Genii converse with one another in Humane shape at least the better sort of them 9. But the difficulty now is whether that Humane shape that the Soul transforms her Vehicle into be simply the effect of the Imperium of her Will over the Matter she actuates or that her Will may be in some measure limited or circumscribed in its effect by a concomitant exertion of the Plastick power so that what proceeds from the Will may be onely more general that is That the Souls Will may onely command the Vehicle into an Animal form but that it is the form or shape of a Man may arise in a more natural way from the concomitant exertion of the Plastick vertue I say in a more easy and natural way For vehemency of desire to alter the Figure into another representation may make the appearance resemble some other creature But no forced thing can last long The more easy and natural shape therefore that at least the better Genii appear in is Humane which if it be granted it may be as likely that such a determinate Humane shape may be more easy and natural then another and that the Soul when she wills to appear in personal Figure will transform her Vehicle into one constant likeness unless she disguise her self on set purpose That is the Plastick power of every Soul whether of Men or of the other Genii does naturally display it self into a different modification of the Humane shape which is the proper Signature of every particular or individual person which though it may be a little changed in Generation by vertue of the Imagination of the Parents or quality of their seed yet the Soul set free from that Body she got here may exquisitely recover her ancient form again 10. Not that the Plastick virtue awakened by the Imperium of her Will shall renewall the lineaments it did in this Earthly Body for abundance of them are useless and to no purpose which therefore Providence so ordaining will be silent in this
Fienus has defined in this matter who has I think behaved himself as cautiously and modestly as may be there will be enough granted to assure us of what we aime at For he does acknowledge that the Imagination of the Mother may change the figure of the Foetus so as to make it beare a resemblance though not absolutely perfect of an Ape Pig or Dog or any such like Animal The like he affirms of colours haires and excrescencies of several sorts that it may produce also what is very like or analogous to horns and hoofs and that it may encrease the bigness and number of the parts of the Body 4. And though he does reject several of the examples he has produced out of Authors yet those which he admits for true are Indications plain enough what we may expect in the Vehicle of a departed Soule or Daemon As that of the Hairy girle out of Marcus Damascenus that other out of Guilielmus Paradinus of a Child whose skin and nails resembled those of a Bear and a third out of Balduinus Ronsaeus of one born with many excrescencies coloured and figured like those in a Turky-cock and a fourth out of Pareus of one who was born with an head like a Frog as lastly that out of Avicenna of chickens with hawks heads All which deviations of the Plastick power hapned from the force of Imagination in the Females either in the time of Conception or gestation of their young 5. But he scruples of giving assent to others which yet are assented to by very learned writers As that of Black-moores being born of white Parents and white Children of black by the exposal of pictures representing an AEthiopian or European which those two excellent Physitians Fernelius and Sennertus both agree to He rejects also that out of Cornelius Gemma of a Child that was born with his Forehead wounded and running with blood from the husbands threatning his wife when she was big with a drawn sword which he directed towards her Forehead Which will not seem so incredible if we consider what Sennertus records of his own knowledg viz. That a Woman with child seeing a Butcher divide a Swines head with his Cleaver brought forth her Child with its face cloven in the upper jaw the palate and upper lip to the very nose 6. But the most notorious instances of this sort are those of Helmont De injectis materialibus The one of a Taylors wife at Mechlin who standing at her doore and seeing a souldiers hand cut off in a quarrel presently fell into labour being struck with horrour at the spectacle and brought forth a child with one hand the other arm bleeding without one of which wound the infant died by the great expense of blood Another woman the wife of one Marcus De Vogeler Merchant of Antwerp in the year 1602. seeing a souldier begging who had lost his right arme in Ostend-siege which he shewed to the people still bloody fell presently into labour and brought forth a Daughter with one arme struck off nothing left but a bloody stump to employ the Chirurgions skill this woman married afterwards to one Hoochcamer Merchant of Amsterdam and was yet alive in the year 1638. as Helmont writes He adds a third example of another Merchants wife which he knew who hearing that on a morning there were thirteen men to be beheaded this hapned at Antwerp in Duke D' Alva his time she had the curiosity to see the execution She getting therefore a place in the Chamber of a certain widow-woman a friend of hers that dwelt in the market-place beheld this Tragick spectacle upon which she suddainly fell into labour and brought forth a perfectly-formed infant onely the head was wanting but the neck bloody as their bodies she beheld that had their heads cut off And that which does still advance the wonder is that the hand arme and head of these infants were none of them to be found From whence Van-Helmont would infer a penetration of corporeal dimensions but how groundlessly I will not dispute here 7. If these Stories he recites be true as I must confess I doe not well know how to deny them he reporting them with so honest and credible circumstances they are notable examples of the power of Imagination and such as doe not onely win belief to themselves but also to others that Fienus would reject not of this nature onely we are upon of wounding the body of the Infant but also of more exorbitant conformation of parts of which we shall bring an instance or two anon In the mean time while I more carefully contemplate this strange virtue and power of the Soule of the Mother in which there is no such measure of purification or exaltedness that it should be able to act such miracles as I may call them rather then natural effects I cannot but be more then usually inclinable to think that the Plastick faculty of the Soule of the Infant or whatever accessions there may be from the Imagination of the Mother is not the adaequate cause of the formation of the Foetus a thing which Plotinus somewhere intimates by the by as I have already noted viz. That the Soule of the World or the Spirit of Nature assists in this performance Which if it be true we have discovered a Cause proportionable to so prodigious an Effect For we may easily conceive that the deeply-impassionated fancy of the Mother snatches away the Spirit of Nature into consent which Spirit may rationally be acknowledged to have a hand in the efformation of all vital Beings in the World and haply be the onely Agent in forming of all manner of Plants In which kinde whether she exert her power in any other Elements then Earth and Water I will conclude no further then that there may be a possibility thereof in the calmer Regions of Aire and AEther To the right understanding of which conjecture some light will offer it self from what we have said concerning the Visibility and Consistency of the aerial Daemons in their occursions one with another 8. But this is not the onely Argument that would move one to think that this Spirit of Nature intermeddles with the Efformation of the Foetus For those Signatures that are derived on the Infant from the Mothers fancy in the act of Conception cannot well be understood without this Hypothesis For what can be the Subject of that Signature Not the Plastick part of the Soul of the Mother for that it is not the Mothers Soul that efforms the Embryo as Sennertus ingeniously conjectures from the manner of the efformation of Birds which is in their Egges distinct from the Hen and they may as well be hatched without any Hen at all a thing ordinarily practised in AEgypt nor the Body of the Embryo for it has yet no Body nor its Soul for the Soul if we believe Aristotle is not yet present there But the Spirit of Nature is present every where which snatcht into
consent by the force of the Imagination of the Mother retains the Note and will be sure to seal it on the Body of the Infant For what rude inchoations the Soul of the World has begun in the Matter of the Foetus this Signature is comprehended in the whole design and after compleated by the presence and operation of the particular Soul of the Infant which cooperates conformably to the pattern of the Soul of the World and insists in her footsteps who having once begun any hint to an entire design she is alike able to pursue it in any place she being every where like or rather the same to her self For as our Soul being one yet upon the various temper of the Spirits exerts her self into various imaginations and conceptions so the Soul of the World being the same perfectly every where is engaged to exert her efformative power every where alike where the Matter is exactly the same Whence it had been no wonder if those Chickens above-mentioned with Hawks heads had been hatched an hundred miles distant from the Hen whose Imagination was disturbed in the act of Conception because the Soul of the World had begun a rude draught which it self would as necessarily pursue every where as a Geometrician certainly knows how to draw a Circle that will fit three Points given 9. This Opinion therefore of Plotinus is neither irrational nor unintelligible That the Soul of the World interposes and insinuates into all generations of things while the Matter is fluid and yielding Which would induce a man to believe that she may not stand idle in the transfiguration of the Vehicles of the Daemons but assist their fancies and desires and so help to cloath them and attire them according to their own pleasures or it may be sometimes against their wills as the unwieldiness of the Mothers Fancy forces upon her a Monstrous birth CHAP. VII 1. Three notable Examples of Signatures rejected by Fienus 2. And yet so farre allowed for possible as will fit our design 3. That Helmonts Cherry and Licetus his Crab-fish are shrewd arguments that the Soul of the World has to do with all Efformations of both Animals and Plants 4. An Example of a most exact and lively Signature out of Kircher 5. With his judgement thereupon 6. Another Example out of him of a Child with gray hairs 7. An application of what has been said hitherto concerning the Signatures of the Foetus to the transfiguration of the aiery Vehicles of separate Souls and Daemons 8. Of their personal transformation visible to us 1. THose other Examples of the Signation of the Foetus from the Mothers Fancy which Fienus rejecteth the one of them is out of Wierus of a man that threatned his wife when she was bigge with child saying she bore the Devil in her womb and that he would kill him whereupon not long after she brought forth a Child well shaped from the middle downwards but upwards spotted with black and red spots with eyes in its forehead a mouth like a Satyre ears like a Dog and bended horns on its head like a Goat The other out of Ludovicus Vives of one who returning home in the disguise of a Devil whose part he had acted on the Stage and having to doe with his wife in that habit saying he would beget a Devil on her impregnated her with a Monster of a shape plainly diabolical The third and most remarkable is out of Peramatus of a Monster born at S. Laurence in the West-Indies in the year 1573 the narration whereof was brought to the Duke of Medina Sidonia from very faithful hands How there was a Child born there at that time that besides the horrible deformity of its mouth ears and nose had two horns on the head like those of young Goats long hair on the body a fleshy girdle about his middle double from whence hung a peece of flesh like a purse and a bell of flesh in his left hand like those the Indians use when they dance white boots of flesh on his legges doubled down In brief the whole shape was horrid and diabolical and conceived to proceed from some fright the Mother had taken from the antick dances of the Indians amongst whom the Devil himself does not fail to appear sometimes 2. These Narrations Fienus rejecteth not as false but as not being done by any natural power or if they be that the descriptions are something more lively then the truth But in the mean time he does freely admit that by the meer power of Imagination there might be such excrescencies as might represent those things that are there mentioned though those diabolical shapes could not have true horns hoofs tail or any other part specifically distinct from the nature of Man But so farre as he acknowledges is enough for our turn 3. But Fortunius Licetus is more liberal in his grants allowing not onely that the Births of women may be very exqulsitely distorted in some of their parts into the likeness of those of Brutes but that Chimaerical imaginations in Dreams may also effect it as well as Fancies or external Objects when they are awake Of the latter sort whereof he produces an Example that will more then match our purpose of a Sicilian matron who by chance beholding a Crab in a Fishermans hand new caught and of a more then ordinary largeness when she was brought to bed brought forth a Crab as well as a Child perfectly like those that are ordinarily caught in the Sea This was told him by a person of credit who both knew the Woman and saw the Crab she brought forth Helmonts Cherry he so often mentions and how it was green pale yellow and red at the times of year other Cherries are is something of this nature that is to say comes near to the perfect species of a Cherry as this did of a Crab the plantal life of a Cherry being in some measure in the one as the life of an Animal was perfectly in the other Which confirms what we said before that strength of our Desire and Imagination may snatch into consent the Spirit of Nature and make it act which once having begun leaves not off if Matter will but serve for to work upon and being the same in all places acts the same upon the same Matter in the same circumstances For the Root and Soul of every Vegetable is the Spirit of Nature in virtue whereof this Cherry flourisht and ripened according to the seasons of the Country where the party was that bore that live Signature These two instances are very shrewd arguments that the Soul of the World has to doe with all Efformations of either Plants or Animals For neither the Childs Soul nor the Mothers in any likelihood could frame that Crab though the Mother might by that strange power of Desire and Imagination excite the Spirit of the World that attempts upon any Matter that is fitted for generation some way or other to make
something of it and being determined by the fancy of the Woman might sign the humid materials in her Womb with the image of her Minde 4. Wherefore if Fienus had considered from what potent causes Signatures may arise he would not have been so scrupulous in believing that degree of exactness that some of them are reported to have or if he had had the good hap to have met with so notable an example thereof as Kircher professes himself to have met with For he tells a story of a man that came to him for this very cause to have his opinion what a certain strange Signature which he had on his Arm from his birth might portend concerning which he had consulted both Astrologers and Cabbalists who had promised great preferments the one imputing it to the Influence of the Stars the other to the favour of the sealing Order of Angels But Kircher would not spend his judgement upon a meer verbal description thereof though he had plainly enough told him it was the Pope sitting on his Throne with a Dragon under his feet and an Angel putting a Crown on his head Wherefore the man desirous to hear a further confirmation of these hopes he had conceived from the favourable conjectures of others by the suffrage of so learned a man was willing in private to put off his doublet and shew his Arm to Kircher who having viewed it with all possible care does profess that the Signature was so perfect that it seemed rather the work of Art then of exorbitating Nature yet by certain observations he made that he was well assured it was the work of Nature and not of Art though it was an artificial piece that Nature imitated viz. the picture of Pope Gregory the thirteenth who is sometimes drawn according as this Signature did lively represent namely on a Throne with a Dragon under his feet leaning with one hand on his Seat and bearing the other in that posture in which they give the Benediction and an Angel removing a Curtain and reaching a Crown towards his head 5. Kircher therefore leaving the superstitions and fooleries of the spurious Cabbalists and Astrologers told him the truth though nothing so pleasant as their lies and flatteries viz. That this Signature was not impressed by any either influence of the Stars or Seals of Angels but that it was the effect of the Imagination of his Mother that bore him who in some more then ordinary fit of affection towards this Pope whose picture she beheld in some Chappel or other place of her devotion and having some occasion to touch her Arm printed that image on the Arm of her Child as it ordinarily happens in such cases Which doubtless was the true solution of the mystery 6. The same Author writes how he was invited by a friend to contemplate another strange miracle as he thought that did invite him to behold it that he might spend his judgement upon it Which was nothing else but an exposed Infant of some fourteen days old that was gray-hair'd both head and eye-brows Which his friend an Apothecary look't upon as a grand Prodigy till he was informed of the cause thereof That the Mother that brought it forth being married to an old man whose head was all white the fear of being surprized in the act of Adultery by her snowy-headed husband made her imprint that colour on the Child she bore Which Story I could not omit to recite it witnessing to what an exact curiosity the power of Fancy will work for the fashioning and modifying the Matter not missing so much as the very colours of the hair as I have already noted something to that purpose 7. To conclude therefore at length and leave this luxuriant Theme Whether it be the Power of Imagination carrying captive the Spirit of Nature into consent or the Soule of the Infant or both it is evident that the effects are notable and sometimes very accurately answering the Idea of the Impregnate derived upon the moist and ductil matter in the Womb Which yet not being any thing so yielding as the soft aire nor the Soule of the Mother so much one with that of the Infant as the separate Soule is one with it self nor so peculiarly united to the Body of the Infant as the Soule separate with her own Vehicle nor having any nearer or more mysterious commerce with the Spirit of Nature then she has when her Plastick part by the Imperium of her Will and Imagination is to organize her Vehicle into a certain shape and form which is a kind of a momentaneous birth of the distinct Personality of either a Soule separate or any other Daemon it followes that we may be very secure that there is such a power in the Genii and Separate Souls that they can with ease and accuracy transfigure themselves into shapes and forms agreeable to their own temper and nature 8. All which I have meant hitherto in reference to their visible congresses one with another But they are sometimes visible to us also under some Animal shape which questionless is much more difficult to them then that other Visibility is But this is also possible though more unusual by far as being more unnatural For it is possible by Art to compress Aire so as to reduce it to visible opacity and has been done by some and particularly by a friend of Des-Cartes whom he mentions in his Letters as having made this Experiment the Aire getting this opacity by squeezing the Globuli out of it Which though the separate Souls and Spirits may doe by that directive faculty Axiome 31. yet surely it would be very painful For the first Element lying bare if the Aire be not drawn exceeding close it will cause an ungratefull heat and if it be as unnatural a cold and so small a moment will make the first Element too much or too little that it may haply be very hard at least for these inferiour Spirits to keep steddily in a due mean And therefore when they appear it is not unlikely but that they soak their Vehicles in some vaporous or glutinous moisture or other that they may become visible to us at a more easy rate CHAP. VIII 1. That the Better sort of Genii converse in Humane shape the Baser sometimes in Bestial 2. How they are disposed to turn themselves into several Bestial forms 3. Of Psellus his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Igneous splendours of Daemons how they are made 4. That the external beauty of the Genii is according to the degree of the inward vertue of their minds 5. That their aerial forme need not be purely transparent but more finely opake and coloured 6. That there is a distinction of Masculine and Feminine beauty in their personal figurations 1. AFter this Digression of shewing the facility of the figuring of the Vehicles of the Genii into personal shape I shall return again where we left which was concerning the Society of these Genii and Souls
separate and under what shape they converse one with another which I have already defined to be Humane especially in the better sort of Spirits And as for the worst kind I should think that they are likewise for the most part in Humane form though disguised with ugly circumstances but that they figure themselves also in Bestial appearances it being so easy for them to transform their Vehicle into what shape they please and to imitate the figures as dexterously as some men will the voices of brute beasts whom we may hear sing like a Cuckow crow like a Cock bellow like a Cow and Calfe bark like a Dog grunt and squeak like a Pig and indeed imitate the cry of almost any Bird or Beast whatsoever And as easy a matter is it for these lower Genii to resemble the shapes of all these Creatures in which they also appear visibly oftentimes to them that entertain them and sometimes to them that would willingly shun them 2. Nor is it improbable but the variety of their impurities may dispose them to turn themselves into one brutish shape rather then another as envying or admiring or in some sort approving and liking the condition and properties of such and such Beasts as Theocritus merrily sets out the Venereousness of the Goatheard he describes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As if he envied the happiness of the he-Goats and wisht himself in their stead in their acts of carnal Copulation So according to the several bestial properties that symbolize with uncleanness and vitiousness of the tempers of these Daemons they may have a propension to imitate their shape rather then others and appear ugly according to the manner and measure of their internal turpitudes 3. As it is likely also that those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those Igneous Splendours Psellus makes mention of as the end and scope of the nefarious ceremonies those wicked wretches he describes often used were coloured according to the more or less feculency of the Vehicle of the Daemon that did appear in this manner viz. in no personal shape but by exhibiting a light to the eyes of his abominable Spectatours and Adorers which I suppose he stirred up within the limits of his own Vehicle the power of his Will and Imagination by Axiome 31 commanding the grosser particles of the Aire and terrestrial vapours together with the Globuli to give back every way from one point to a certain compass not great and therefore the more easy to be done Whence the first Element lyes bare in some considerable measure whose activity cannot but lick into it some particles of the Vehicle that borders next thereto and thereby exhibit not a pure star-like light which would be if the first Element thus unbared and in the midst of pure aire were it self unmixt with other Matter but the feculency of those parts that it abrades and converts into fewel and the foulness of the ambient Vehicle through which it shines makes it look red and fiery like the Horizontal Sun seen through a thick throng of vapours Which fiery splendour may either onely slide down amongst them and so pass by with the Motion of the Daemons Vehicle which Psellus seems mainly to aime at or else it may make some stay and discourse with them it approaches according as I have heard some Narrations The reason of which lucid appearances being so intelligible out of the Principles of Cartesius his Philosophy we need not conceit that they are nothing but the prestigious delusions of Fancy and no real Objects as Psellus would have them it being no more uncompetible to a Daemon to raise such a light in his Vehicle and a purer then I have described then to a wicked man to light a candle at a tinderbox 4. But what we have said concerning the purity and impurity of this light remindes me of what is of more sutable consequence to discourse of here which is the Splendour and Beauty of personal shape in the better sort of the Genii Which assuredly is greater or lesser according to the degrees of Vertue and moral Affections in them For even in this Body that is not so yielding to the powers of the Mind a man may observe that according as persons are better or worse inclined the aire of their visage will alter much and that vicious courses defacing the inward pulcritude of the Soul doe even change the outward countenance to an abhorred hue Which must therefore necessarily take place in a far greater measure in the other state where our outward form is wholy framed from the inward Imperium of our Minde which by how much more pure it self is it will exhibit the more irreprehensible pulcritude in the outward feature and fashion of the Body both for proportion of parts the spirit and aire of the Countenance and the ornament of cloaths and attirings there being an indissoluble connexion in the Soule of the Sense of these three things together Vertue Love and Beauty of all which she her self is the first Root and especially in the separate state even of outward Beauty it self whence the converse of the most vertuous there must needs afford the highest pleasure and satisfaction not onely in point of rational communication but in reference to external and personal complacency also For if Vertue and Vice can be ever seen with outward eyes it must be in these aerial Vehicles which yield so to the Will and Idea of good and pure affections that the Soule in a manner becomes perfectly transparent through them discovering her lovely beauty in all the efflorescencies thereof to the ineffable enravishment of the beholder 5. Not that I mean that there is any necessity that their Vehicle should be as a Statue of fluid Crystal but that those impresses of beauty and ornament will be so faithfully and lively represented according to the dictates of her inward Sense and Imagination that if we could see the Soule her self we could know no more by her then she thus exhibits to our eye which personal figuration in the extimate parts thereof that represent the Body Face and Vestments may be attempered to so fine an opacity that it may reflect the light in more perfect colours then it is from any earthly body and yet the whole Vehicle be so devoid of weight as it will necessarily keep its station in the Aire Which we cannot wonder at while we consider the hanging of the Clouds there less aerial by far then this consistency we speak of to say nothing of aerial Apparitions as high as the clouds and in the same colours and figures as are seen here below and yet no reflexions of terrestrial Objects as I have proved in my Third Book against Atheism 6. The exact Beauty of the personal shapes and becoming habits of these aiery Beings the briefest and safest account thereof that Philosophy can give is to referre to the description of such things in
conceives that that monstrous child that was borne at Emmaus in Theodosius his time with two heads and two hearts was two persons but that other borne Anno 1531. with two heads but one heart who lived till he was a man was but one person Which he conceives appears the plainer in that both the heads professed their agreement perpetually to the same actions in that they had the same appetite the same hunger and thirst spoke alike had the same desire to lye with their wife and of all other acts of exonerating nature But for that other that had two hearts and was divided to the Navel there was not this identity of affection and desire but sometimes one would have a mind to a thing and sometimes another sometimes they would play with one another and sometimes fight See Sennert Epitom Scient Natural Lib. 6. Cap. 1. 4. But I answer and first to Aristotles authority that he does not so confidently assert that every Monster that has but one heart is but one Animal For his words run thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where he onely speaks hypothetically not peremptorily that the Heart is that part where the first Principle of life is and from which the rest of life in Soul or Body is to be derived For indeed he makes it elswhere the seat of Common Sense but that it is a mistake we have already demonstrated and himself seems not confident of his own Opinion and therefore we may with the less offence decline it and affirm and that without all hesitancy that a Monster is either one or more Animals according to the number of the heads of it and that there are as many distinct Souls as there are heads in a monstrous Birth But from the heads downwards the Body being but one and the heart but one that there must needs be a wonderful exact concord in the sense of affections in these heads they having their Blood and Spirits from one fountain and one common seat of their passions and desires But questionless whenever one head winked he could not then see by the eyes of the other or if one had pricked one of these heads the other would not have felt it though whatever was inflicted below it is likely they both felt alike both the Souls equally acting the Body of this Monster but the heads being actuated by them onely in several Which is a sufficient answer to Sennertus 5. The weakness of the third Objection is manifest in that it takes away the Existence of all Spirits as well as the Souls of the deceased Of whose Being notwithstanding none can doubt that are not dotingly incredulous We say therefore that the Souls of men being in the same condition that other Spirits are appear sometimes though but seldome The cause in both being partly the difficulty of bringing their Vehicles to an unnatural consistency and partly they having no occasion so to doe and lastly it being not permitted to them to doe as they please or to be where they have a minde to be 6. As for the Fear of Death and that down-bearing sense that sometimes so uncontroulably suggests to us that we are wholly mortal To the first I answer that it is a necessary result of our union with the Body and if we should admit it one of the imperfections or infirmities we contract by being in this state it were a solid Answer And therefore this fear and presage of ill in Death is no argument that there is any ill in it nor any more to be heeded then the predictions of any fanatical fellow that will pretend to prophecie But besides this it is fitting that there should be in us this fear and abhorrency to make us keep this station Providence has plac't us in otherwise every little pet would invite us to pack our selves out of this World and try our fortunes in the other and so leave the Earth to be inhabited onely by Beasts whenas it is to be ordered and cultivated by Men. 7. To the second I answer that such peremptory conclusions are nothing but the impostures of Melancholy or some other dull and fulsome distempers of blood that corrupt the Imagination but that Fancy proves nothing by Axiome 4. And that though the Soul enthroned in her AEthereal Vehicle be a very magnificent thing full of Divine Love Majesty and Tranquillity yet in this present state she is inclogg'd and accloy'd with the foulness and darkness of this Terrestrial Body she is subject to many fears and jealousies and other disturbing passions whose Objects though but a mockery yet are a real disquiet to her minde in this her Captivity and Imprisonment Which condition of hers is lively set out by that incomparable Poet and Platonist AEneid 6. where comparing that more free and pure state of our Souls in their celestial or fiery Vehicles with their restraint in this earthly Dungeon he makes this short and true description of the whole matter Igneus est ollis vigor coelestis origo Seminibus quantū non noxia corpora tardant Terrenique hebetant artus moribundáque membra Hinc metuunt cupiúntque dolent gaudéntque nec auras Respiciunt claust tenebris carcere caeco To this sense A fiery vigour from an heavenly source Is in these seeds so far as the dull force Of noxious Bodies does not them retard In heavy earth and dying limbs imbar'd Hence fool'd with fears foul lusts sharp grief vain joy In this dark Gaol they low and groveling lie Nor with one glance of their oblivious minde Look back to that free Aire they left behinde This is the sad estate of the more deeply-lapsed Souls upon Earth who are so wholly mastered by the motions of the Body that they are carried headlong into an assent to all the suggestions and imaginations that it so confidently obtrudes upon them of which that of our mortality is not the weakest But such melancholy fancies that would beare us down so peremptorily that we are utterly extinct in death are no more argument thereof then those of them that have been perswaded they were dead already while they were alive and therefore would not eat because they thought the dead never take any repast till they were cheated into an appetite by seeing some of their friends disguised in winding-sheets feed heartily at the table whose example then they thought fit to follow and so were kept alive 8. I cannot but confess that the Tragick pomp and preparation to dying that layes wast the operations of the minde putting her into fits of dotage or fury making the very visage look ghastly and distracted and at the best sadly pale and consumed as if Life and Soule were even almost quite extinct cannot but imprint strange impressions even upon the stoutest minde and raise suspicions that all is lost in so great a change But the Knowing and Benign Spirit though he may flow in tears at so dismal a Spectacle yet it does not at all suppress
are highly and Heroically vertuous but that in process of time they may arrive to an everlasting security of Life and Happiness after they have left this earthly Body CHAP. XVIII 1. The Conflagration of the World an Opinion of the Stoicks 2. Two ways of destroying the World the Ancients have taken notice of especially that by Fire 3. That the Conflagration of the World so far as it respects us is to be understood onely of the burning of the Earth 4. That the ends of the Stoicks Conflagration is competible onely to the Earths burning 5. An acknowledgement that the Earth may be burnt though the proof thereof be impertinent to this place 6. That the Conflagration thereof will prove very fatal to the Souls of Wicked men and Daemons 7. Five several Opinions concerning their state after the Conflagration whereof the first is That they are quite destroy'd by Fire 8. The second That they are annihilated by a special act of Omnipotency 9. The third That they lye sensless in an eternal Death 10. The fourth That they are in a perpetual furious and painful Dream 11. The fifth and last That they will revive again and that the Earth and Aire will be inhabited by them 12. That this last seems to be fram'd from the fictitious 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Stoicks who were very sorry Metaphysicians and as ill Naturallists 13. An Animadversion upon a self-contradicting sentence of Seneca 14. The unintelligibleness of the state of the Souls of the Wicked after the Conflagration 15. That the AEthereal Inhabitants will be safe And what will then become of Good men and Daemons on the Earth and in the Aire And how they cannot be delivered but by a supernatural power 1. AS for the External impediments we shall now examine them and see of what force they will be and whether they be at all The former of which is the Conflagration of the World Which is an ancient Opinion believed and entertain'd not onely by Religious but by Philosophers also the Stoicks especially who affirm that the Souls of Men doe subsist indeed after Death but cannot continue any longer in being then to the Conflagration of the World But it is not so much material what they thought as to consider what is the condition indeed of the Souls of Men and Daemons after that sad Fate 2. Those that will not have the World eternal have found out two ways to destroy it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Water or by Fire Which they say does as naturally happen in a vast Period of Time which they call Annus magnus as Winter and Summer doe in our ordinary year Inundatio non secus quam Hyems quam AEstas lege Mundi venit But for this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it not being so famous nor so frequently spoken of nor so destructive nor so likely to end the World as the other way nor belonging so properly to our enquiry we shall let it pass The general Prognostick is concerning Fire now not onely of the Stoicks as Zeno Cleanthes Chrysippus Seneca but of several also of different Sects as Heraclitus Epicurus Cicero Pliny Aristocles Numenius and sundry others 3. But though there be so great and unanimous consent that the World shall be burnt yet they doe not express themselves all alike in the business Seneca's vote is the most madly explicite of any making the very Stars run and dash one against another and so set all on fire But Posidonius and Panaetius had more wit who did not hold that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the other Stoicks did For the destroying of the AEthereal Regions by Fire is as foolish a fancy as the sentencing of the Eele to be drown'd because the matter of the AEther is too fine and subtile for Fire to rage in it being indeed nothing but a pure light or fire it self And yet this AEthereal Matter is infinitely the greatest portion of the World Wherefore the World cannot be said properly to be lyable to the destruction of Fire from any natural causes as the Stoicks would have it Which is demonstratively true upon Des-Cartes his Principles who makes Fire nothing but the motion of certain little particles of Matter and holds that there is no more motion at one time in the World then at another because one part of the Matter cannot impress any agitation upon another but it must lose so much it self This hideous noise therefore of the Conflagration of the World must be restrain'd to the firing of the Earth onely so farre as it concerns us For there is nothing else combustible in the Universe but the Earth and other Planets and what Vapours and Exhalations arise from them 4. This Conflagration therefore that Philosophers Poets Sibyls and all have fill'd the World with the fame of is nothing but the burning of the Earth And the ends the Stoicks pretend of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be competible to it but not to the burning of the Heavens or AEther at all as any but meanly skilled in Philosophy cannot but acknowledge For their nature is so simple that they cannot corrupt and therefore want no renovation as the Earth does Nor do the Inhabitants of those heavenly Regions defile themselves with any vice or if they doe they sink from their material station as well as moral and fall towards these terrestrial dreggs And therefore that part of the happy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Seneca speaks of Omne animal ex integro generabitur dabitúrque terris homo inscius scelerum melioribus auspiciis natus will take no place with those AEthereal Creatures 5. We are willing then to be born down by this common and loud cry of Fire that must burn the World into an acknowledgement that the Earth may within a certain Period of time be burnt with all those things that are upon it or near it But what concurse of natural causes may contribute to this dismal spectacle is not proper for me to dispute especially in this place I shall onely take a view of what sad effects this Conflagration may have upon the Souls of Daemons and Men. For that those those that have recovered their AEthereal Vehicles are exempt from this fate is evident the remoteness of their habitation securing them from both the rage and noisomness of these sulphureous flames 6. The most certain and most destractive execution that this Fire will doe must be upon the unrecovered Souls of Wicked Men and Daemons those that are so deeply sunk and drown'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the very consistency of their Vehicles does imprison them within the confines of this thick caliginous aire These Souls or Spirits therefore that have so inextricably entangled themselves in the Fate of this lower World giving up all their Senses to the momentany pleasures of the moist luxurious Principle which is the very seat of Death these in the mystical Philosophy of the Ancients are
strains of eloquence but I loving solid sense better then fine words shall not take the pains to recite them 13. At what a pitch his understanding was set may be easily discerned by my last quotation wherein there seems a palpable contradiction Veniet iterum qui nos in lucem reponet dies quem multi recusarent nisi oblitos reduceret If nos how oblitos If oblitos how nos For we are not we unless we remember that we are so And if mad-men may be said and that truly to be besides themselves or not to be themselves because they have lost their wits certainly they will be far from being themselves that have quite lost the Memory of themselves but must be as if they had never been before As Lucretius has excellently well declared himself De rerum naturâ Lib. 3. Nee si materiam nostram conlegerit aetas Post obitū rursumque redegerit ut sita nunc est Atque iterum nobis fuerint data lumina vitae Pertineat quicquam tamen ad nos id quoque factum Interrupta semel cum sit retinentia nostri Where the Poet seems industriously to explode all the hopes of any benefit of this Stoical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to profess that he is as if he had never been that cannot remember he has ever been before From whence it would follow that though the Souls of men should revive after the Conflagration of the World yet they have not escaped a perpetual and permanent death 14. We see therefore how desperately undemonstrable the condition of the Soule is after the Conflagration of the Earth all these five Opinions being accompanied with so much lubricity and uncertainty And therefore they are to be looked upon rather as some Night-landskap to feed our amused Melancholy then a clear and distinct draught of comprehensible Truth to inform our Judgment 15. All that we can be assured of is that those Souls that have obtained their aethereal Vehicles are out of the reach of that sad fate that followes this Conflagration and that the wicked Souls of Men and Daemons will be involved in it But there are a middle sort betwixt these concerning whom not onely curiosity but good will would make a man sollicitous For it is possible that the Conflagration of the World may surprise many thousands of Souls that neither the course of Time nor Nature nor any higher Principle has wrought up into an AEthereal Congruity of life but yet may be very holy innocent and vertuous Which we may easily believe if we consider that these very Earthly Bodies are not so great impediments to the goodness and sincerity of the Minde but that many even in this life have given great examples thereof Nor can that AErial state be less capable of nor wel be without the good Genii no more then the Earth without good men who are the most immediate Ministers of the Goodness and Justice of God But exemption from certain fates in the world is not alwaies entailed upon Innocency but most ordinarily upon natural power And therefore there may be numbers of the good Genii and of very holy and innocuous Spirits of men departed the consistency of whose Vehicles may be such that they can no more quit these aerial Regions then we can fly into them that have heavy bodies without wings To say nothing of those vertuous and pious men that may haply be then found alive and so be liable to be overtaken by this storm of fire Undoubtedly unless there appear before the approach of this fate some visible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Jupiter Sospitator as the heathens would call him they must necessarily be involved in the ruine of the wicked Which would be a great eye-sore in that exact and irreprehensible frame of Providence that all men promise to themselves who acknowledge that there is a God Wherefore according to the light of Reason there must be some supernatural means to rescue those innocuous and benign Spirits out of this common calamity But to describe the manner of it here how it must be done would be to entitle natural Light and Philosophy to greater abilities then they are guilty of and therefore that Subject must be reserved for its proper place CHAP. XIX 1. That the Extinction of the Sun is no Panick feare but may be rationally suspected from the Records of History and grounds of Natural Philosophy 2. The sad Influence of this Extinction upon Man and Beast and all the aerial Daemons imprison'd within their several Atmospheres in our Vortex 3. That it will doe little or no damage to the AEthereal Inhabitants in reference to heat or warmth 4. Nor will they find much want of his light 5. And if they did they may pass out of one Vortex into another by the Priviledge of their AEthereal Vehicles 6. And that without any labour or toile and as maturely as they please 7. The vast incomprehensibleness of the tracts and compasses of the waies of Providence 8. A short Recapitulation of the whole Discourse 9. An Explication of the Persians two Principles of Light and Darkness which they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and when and where the Principle of Light gets the full victory 10. That Philosophy or something more sacred then Philosophy is the onely Guide to a true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. THE last danger that threatens the separate Soule is the Extinction of the Sun which though it may seem a meer Panick fear at first sight yet if the matter be examined there will appear no contemptible reasons that may induce men to suspect that it may at last fall out there been at certain times such near offers in Nature towards this sad accident already Pliny though he instances but in one example yet speaks of it as a thing that several times comes to pass Fiunt saith he prodigiosi longiores solis defectus qualis occiso Dictatore Caesare Antoniano bello totius anni pallore continuo The like happened in Justinians time as Cedrenus writes when for a whole year together the Sun was of a very dim and duskish hue as if he had been in a perpetuall Eclipse And in the time of Irene the Empress it was so dark for seventeen dayes together that the ships lost their way on the sea and were ready to run against one another as Theophanes relates But the late accurate discovery of the spots of the Sun by Shiner and the appearing and disappearing of fixt Stars and the excursions of Comets into the remoter parts of our Vortex as also the very intrinsecal contexture of that admirable Philosophy of Des-Cartes doe argue it more then possible that after some vast periods of time the Sun may be so inextricably inveloped by the Maculae that he is never free from that he may quite loose his light 2. The Preambles of which Extinction will be very hideous and intolerable to all the Inhabitants of
are nothing but meer Matter That the whole Body cannot be the Common Sensorium 3. Nor the Orifice of the Stomack 4. Nor the Heart 5. Nor the Brain 6. Nor the Membranes 7. Nor the Septum lucidum 8. Nor Regius his small and perfectly solid Particle 9. The probability of the Conarion being the common Seat of Sense 154 Chap. 5. 1. How Perception of external Objects Spontaneous Motion Memory and Imagination are pretended to be performed by the Conarion Spirits and Muscles without a Soul 2. That the Conarion devoid of a Soul cannot be the common Percipient demonstrated out of Des-Cartes himself 3. That the Conarion with the Spirits and organization of the Parts of the Body is not a sufficient Principle of Spontaneous motion without a Soul 4. A description of the use of the Valvulae in the Nerves of the Muscles for Spontaneous motion 5. The insufficiency of this contrivance for that purpose 6. A further demonstration of the insufficiency thereof from whence is clearly evinced that Brutes have Souls 7. That Memory cannot be salved the way above described 8. Nor Imagination 9. A Distribution out of Des-Cartes of the Functions in us some appertaining to the Body and others to the Soul 10. The Authors Observations thereupon 161 Chap. 6. 1. That no part of the Spinal Marrow can be the Common Sensorium without a Soul in the Body 2. That the Animal Spirits are more likely to be that Common Percipient 3. But yet it is demonstrable they are not 4. As not being so much as capable of Sensation 5. Nor of directing Motion into the Muscles 6. Much less of Imagination and rational Invention 7. Nor of Memory 8. An answer to an Evasion 9. The Authors reason why he has confuted so particularly all the Suppositions of the Seat of Common Sense when few of them have been asserted with the exclusion of a Soul 173 Chap. 7. 1. His enquiry after the Seat of Common Sense upon supposition there is a Soul in the Body 2. That there is some particular part in the Body that is the Seat of Common Sense 3. A general division of their Opinions concerning the place of Common Sense 4. That of those that place it out of the Head there are two sorts 5. The Invalidity of Helmont 's reasons whereby he would prove the Orifice of the Stomack to be the principal Seat of the Soul 6. An answer to Helmont 's stories for that purpose 7. A further confutation out of his own concessions 8. Mr. Hobbs his Opinion confuted that makes the Heart the Seat of Common Sense 9. A further confutation thereof from Experience 10. That the Common Sense is seated somewhere in the Head 11. A caution for the choice of the particular place thereof 12. That the whole Brain is not it 13. Nor Regius his small solid Particle 14. Nor any external Membrane of the Brain nor the Septum Lucidum 15. The three most likely places 16. Objections against Cartesius his Opinion concerning the Conarion answered 17. That the Conarion is not the Seat of Common Sense 18. Nor that part of the Spinal Marrow where the Nerves are conceived to concurre but the Spirits in the fourth Ventricle of the Brain 182 Chap. 8. 1. The first reason of his Opinion the convenient Situation of these Spirits 2. The second that the Spirits are the immediate instrument of the Soul in all her functions 3. The proof of the second Reason from the general authority of Philosophers and particularly of Hippocrates 4. From our Sympathizing with the changes of the Aire 5. From the celerity of Motion and Cogitation 6. From what is observed generally in the Generation of things 7. From Regius his experiment of a Snail in a glass 8. From the running round of Images in a Vertigo 9. From the constitution of the Eye and motion of the Spirits there 10. From the dependency of the actions of the Soul upon the Body whether in Meditation or corporeal Motion 11. From the recovery of Motion and Sense into a stupified part 12. And lastly from what is observed in swooning fits of paleness and sharpness of visage c. 13. The inference from all this That the Spirits in the fourth Ventricle are the seat of Common Sense and that the main use of the Brain and Nerves is to preserve the Spirits 198 Chap. 9. 1. Several Objections against Animal Spirits 2. An Answer to the first Objection touching the Porosity of the Nerves 3. To the second and third from the Extravasation of the Spirits and pituitous Excrements found in the Brain 4. To the fourth fetcht from the incredible swiftness of motion in the Spirits 5. To the last from Ligation 6. Undeniable Demonstrations that there are Animal Spirits in the Ventricles of the Brain 209 Chap. 10. 1. That the Soul is not confined to the Common Sensorium 2. The first Argument from the Plastick power of the Soul 3. Which is confirmed from the gradual dignity of the Souls Faculties of which this Plastick is the lowest 4. External Sensation the next 5. After that Imagination and then Reason 6. The second Argument from Passions and Sympathies in Animals 7. An illustration of the manner of natural Magick 8. The third Argument from the Perception of Pain in the exteriour parts of the Body 9. The fourth and last from the nature of Sight 215 Chap. 11. 1. That neither the Soul without the Spirits nor the Spirits without the presence of the Soul in the Organ are sufficient causes of Sensation 2. A brief declaration how Sensation is made 3. How Imagination 4. Of Reason and Memory and whether there be any Marks in the Brain 5. That the Spirits are the immediate Instrument of the Soul in Memory also and how Memory arises 6. As also Forgetfulness 7. How spontaneous Motion is performed 8. How we walk sing and play though thinking of something else 9. That though the Spirits be not alike fine every where yet the Sensiferous Impression will pass to the Common Sensorium 10. That there is an Heterogeneity in the very Soul her self and what it is in her we call the Root the Centre and the Eye and what the Rayes and Branches 11. That the sober and allowable Distribution of her into Parts is into Perceptive and Plastick 226 Chap. 12. 1. An Answer to an Objection That our Arguments will as well prove the Immortality of the Souls of Brutes as of Men. 2. Another Objection inferring the Praeexistence of Brutes Souls and consequently of ours 3. The first Answer to the Objection 4. The second Answer consisting of four parts 5. First That the Hypothesis of Praeexistence is more agreeable to Reason then any other Hypothesis 6. And not onely so but that it is very solid in it self 7. That the Wisdome and Goodness of God argue the truth thereof 8. As also the face of Providence in the World 9. The second part of the second Answer That the Praeexistence of the Soul has the suffrage
Mechanicall congruities and not pitch upon any thing that by the advantage of this Supposall That there is a Soule in man may goe for possible but to chuse what is most handsome and convenient 12. That the whole Brain is not the Seat of Common Sense appears from the wounds and cuts it may receive without the destruction of that Faculty for they will not take away Sense and Motion unless they pierce so deep as to reach the Ventricles of the Brain as Galen has observed 13. Nor is it in Regius his small solid particle For besides that it is not likely the Centre of Perception is so minute it is very incongruous to place it in a Body so perfectly solid more hard then Marble or Iron But this Invention being but a late freak of his petulant fancy that has an ambition to make a blunder and confusion of all Des-Cartes his Metaphysicall Speculations and therefore found out this rare quirk of wit to shew how though the Soule were nothing but Matter yet it might be incorruptible and immortal it was not worth the while to take notice of it here in this Hypothesis which we have demonstrated to be true viz. That there is a Soule in the Body whose nature is immateriall or incorporeall 14. Nor are the Membranes in the Head the common Sensorium neither those that envelop the Brain for they would be able then to see the light through the hole the Trepan makes though the party Trepan'd winked-with his eyes to say nothing of the conveyance of the Nerves the Organs of externall Sense that carry beyond these exteriour Membranes and therefore point to a place more inward that must be the Recipient of all their impresses nor any Internall membrane as that which bids fairest for it the Septum Lucidum as being in the midst of the upper Ventricle But yet if the levell of Motion through the externall Senses be accurately considered some will shoot under and some in a distant parallel so that this Membrane will not be struck with all the Objects of our Senses Besides that it seems odd and ridiculous that the centre of Perception should be either driven out so into plates or spread into hollow convexities as it must be supposed if we make either the externall or internall Membranes of the Brain the Seat of Common Sense 15. The most likely place is some one of those that the three last Opinions point at viz. either the Conarion or the Concurse of the Nerves in the fourth Ventricle or the Animal Spirits there 16. The first is Des-Cartes Opinion and not rashly to be refused neither doe I find any Arguments hitherto that are valid enough to deface it Those that are recited out of Bartholine and subscribed to by the learned Author of Adenographia in my apprehension have not the force to ruin it we will first repeat them and then examine them The first is that this Glandula is too little to be able to represent the Images of all that the Soule has represented to her The second that the externall Nerves doe not reach to the Glandula and that therefore it cannot receive the impress of sensible Objects The third that it is placed in a place of excrements which would soile the species of things The fourth that the species of things are perceived there where they are carried by the Nerves But the Nerves meet about the beginning or head of the Spinall Marrow a more noble and ample place then the Glandula pinealis To the first I answer That the amplitude of that place where the Nerves meet in the Spinall Marrow is not large enough to receive the distinct impresses of all the Objects the mind retains in Memory Besides that the other parts of the Brain may serve for that purpose as much as any of it can For it is the Soule it self alone that is capable of retaining so distinct and perfect representations though it may make an occasionall use of some private marks it impresses in the Brain which haply may be nothing at all like the things it would remember nor of any considerable magnitude nor proportion to them such as we observe in the words Arx and Atomus where there is no correspondency of either likeness or bigness betwixt the words and the things represented by them To the second That though there be no continuation of Nerves to the Conarion yet there is of Spirits which are as able to conveigh the impresses of Motion from externall Sense to the Conarion as the Aire and AEther the impress of the Stars unto the Eye To the third That the Glandula is conveniently enough placed so long as the Body is sound for no excrementitious humours will then overflow it or besmeare it But in such distempers wherein they doe Apoplexies Catalepsies or such like diseases will arise which we see doe fall out let the seat of Common Sense be where it will To the last I answer that the Nerves when they are once got any thing far into the Brain are devoid of Tunicles and be so soft and spongy that the motion of the Spirits can play through them and that therefore they may ray through the sides and so continue their motion to the Conarion whereever their extremities may seem to tend 17. But though these Arguments doe not sufficiently confute the Opinion yet I am not so wedded to it but I can think something more unexceptionable may be found out especially it being so much to be suspected that all Animals have not this Conarion and then that what pleased Des-Cartes so much in this Invention was that he conceited it such a marvelous fine instrument to beat the Animal Spirits into such and such Pores of the Brain a thing that I cannot at all close with for reasons above alledged Besides that Stones have been found in this Glandula and that it is apparent that it is environ'd with a net of veines and arteries which are indications that it is a part assigned for some more inferiour office But yet I would not dismiss it without fair play 18. Wherefore that opinion of the forecited Author who places the Seat of Common Sense in that part of the Spinall Marrow where the Nerves are suspected to meet as it is more plain and simple so it is more irrefutable supposing that the Soul's Centre of perception whereby she does not onely apprehend all the Objects of the externall Senses but does imagine reason and freely command and determine the Spirits into what part of the Body she pleases could be conveniently seated in such dull pasty Matter as the Pith of the Brain is a thing I must needs profess that pleases not my Palate at all and therefore I will also take leave of this opinion too and adventure to pronounce That the chief Seat of the Soule where she perceives all Objects where she imagines reasons and invents and from whence she commands all the parts of the Body is those purer Animal Spirits