is the Eternal Mind who when he sees fitting will provide you a Body to act in 1 Sp. What do you mean For my part I believe you and I are both of us just now created but if you are pre-existent and it now is 5000 Years and more since the beginning of your Existence pray answer me How many Sons Adam had what part of the Year the World was made in but don't answer after the old Evasion viz. at all times of the Year but in what Sign the Sun was first placed 2 Sp. I have forgot now 't is so long since 1 Sp. I thought Reminiscence had been co-essential with or a part of the Nature of Spirits for according to the best Definitions the Soul is a Cogitative Faoulty Now if Thinking Disposing Meditating Examining Compounding Dividing Apprehending Joyning the Subject and the Attribute Affirming Denying Suspending c be the Function and Natural Acts of the Soul it is necessary that Memory be an essential Attribute of it for how is it possible to compare two things together unless we remember the First after we have examin'd the Second for to think of two Things at once is impossible and it is so granted by all that make a due distinction between a Finite and an Infinite Being being what comes nearest this Act is the quick distinction of Letters in Reading or the swift yet regular Motion of the Fingers in Musick Now since Reminiscence is co-essential with Souls an Argument may be drawn from hence to prove you degenerate if not a Non Existent 2 Sp. That I have a Being I 'm certain and this Converse with you demonstrates it 1 Sp. Come I 'll grant you for once that you are pre-existent if you 'll grant me that my Body which I 'm just now going into is also pre-existent and was created before Adam had a Being but I 'll ask for no Concessions which I 'll not first deserve by demonstration For I may prove my Body contemporary with Adam's altho' not visible till above 5000 Years after he was created 2 Sp. Pray how can that be 1 Sp. When Matter was created 't was a great Store-house of all other Beings that were to be created from it all which lay confusedly sleeping in their Chaos but of this Lump was Adam created and if so he himself was potentially in it before he had a specifick Being After his Creation he was maintain'd from the productions of Earth and Water by a destruction of or more properly through a conversion of their Natures into his Hence Adam's Children were only a Transmutation of other material Bodies or the Effect of Meat and Drink in new Figures which lay once in such and such Creatures and before that in the material Chaos we first spoke of Now since the Mechanism of Nature is order'd that it cannot be destroy'd unless by its Author but only transmuted or chang'd into other Matter as a Fire that burns part of it goes to Ashes part into Soot part into Air but yet is always somewhere or in some thing so that all the visible Changes we see are nothing else but a conversion of one Element into another backwards and forwards according to the adaptness and modifications of Agents and Patients This consider'd it will plainly appear that that Body which I am just now going into was the last year part of it growing in such a Crop of Corn part of it in such an Appleâ—tree part of it in such a River part of it in such an Ox Sheep Fowl c. and only by a proper Revolution of Particles under different Species so adaptly disposited that Nature found the Composition to fit one new distinct Species by it self and according to its Commission or first Settled Chain of Causes produc'd a humane Body fit for the Actuation and Conjunction of a Spirit Hence 't is manifest my Body was as soon in the Bosom of its Causes as Adam's and the last Body that shall be created as soon as mine Nay to go farther since from Eternity the great Creator did design to make a World from which my Body was to be produced I might say that my Body was from all Eternity designedly and potentially tho' actually in time which is the utmost that can be said of the Pre existence of Spirits And I defie every Spirit in the Universe to prove the least difference in Time betwixt the actual Commencement of the Existence of its Body and its self or that the Potentiality of both is not equal to wit eternal 1 Sp. This Argument wou'd hold if it cou'd be prov'd That the Soul is not so clogg'd and incapacitated in its Act of Reminiscence by coming into the Body but that it might easily recollect what has happen'd in its pre existent state For we have innumerable Instances of the Soul's being more incapacitated in its Functions one time than another in the same Body and this by Fits Distractions Diseases c. Which to me appears demonstrative that if the Indispositions of the Body which are only accidental hinder a regular operation of the Soul much more may the Body it self when first ty'd to and made coessential with it 2 Sp. We 'll grant much depends on the Body as to the Mode of Perception and action but not so very much as is suppos'd To mention that leisure time of Dreams When perhaps the Body and Soul have the least actual dependance one of another we shall find the habit of Reminiscence fresh at awaking again but to shew for once that the Soul does not forget what it acts when separate from the Body by reason of the Body's indisposition Consider the Cases of Trances Examinations of Witches c. what think ye of a Soul that has rambled out of the Body for two or three days together and when it has return'd and the Body reviv'd it has told of infallible Truths some hundred Miles distance where it self actually was This we have hundreds of creditable Instances to prove which consider'd does fully from the first presuppos'd consequence of Reminiscence destroy the Doctrine of Pre-existence 1 Sp Well I shall consider of it as soon as I have any leisure in the mean time Farewel 2 Sp. Farewel FINIS
THE VISIONS OF THE SOUL Before it comes into the BODY In Several DIALOGUES Written by a MEMBER OF THE Athenian Society There 's an innumerable Company of Pre-existent Souls those that transgress are sent down into Bodies so as being purify'd by such Discipline they may return again to their own Places Pythagoras LONDON Printed for Iohn Dunton at the Raven in the Poultrey 1692. The PREFACE to the Reader THE Occasion of this following Treatise was the extravagant Doctrine of Pre-existence which of laie hath been so warmly manag'd that it wants but a lâ—ttle more to be made a 13th Article in the Creed of some persons I have pursu'd the humour but yet as Comoedians do when they dress up an Ape to make it appear more ridiculous The Ingenious will discern it at first sight To such as enquire the real Design of this Publication I answer the graver Conferences carry their meaning in their Frontispiece and the more jocose are not without their most solid Morals which perhaps may be more taking to some Readers than if they had appear'd in a common Dress In the whole Discourse I have advanc'd many things wholly new and unblown upon more especially in the 14 th Dialogue where the Nature Conceptions and Actions of unbody'd Spirits are distinctly treated of If I am ask'd for my Authorities I answer What appears reasonable wants no other Recommendation than being so and as to what appears over strange Let the Reader consider that Philosophy had never been improv'd had it not been for new Opinions which afterwards were rectify'd by abler Pens and so the first Notions were lost and nameless under new Superstructures but such a Fate is too agreeable for my Iudgment to repine at or my Vanity to hope for Perhaps I have more reason to beg pardon of my Brethren the Members of the Athenian Society than of the World in that I have only â—â—â—tion'd the Subject to them without taking theâ—â— advice in the Composure but my Impatient Book-Seller alledging the nearness of the Term occasion'd the hurrying it into the Press some of our Members being just now gone out of Town some retir'd at present to their Estates in the Countrey However to make amends for any thing of Errors which have happen'd by haste and want of review which are many I think fit to promise the World Two more Pieces which shall have the inspection of the whole Society As this only pretends to Uisions of the Soul before it comes into the Body so the other two will treat of the Sentiments of the Soul when in the Body viz. in Infancy Dreams Trances Dotage c. and the manner of its Existence in a separate state till it is joyn'd again to the Body The First Treatise is Matter of Ridicule and a Dream see the last Dialogue The Two following will bear more grave Discourses being certain Truths and perhaps the deepest Mysteries that Revelation or Natural Philosophy can treat of and we hope they may be so manag'd as not to be a little welcome to the world both as to removing many false Notions and advancing something new One thing more I have to offer that whereever the Reader meets with such Terms as Time Place or Matter attributed 〈◊〉 Spirits he take 'em not according to the common acceptation but as something that bears such proportion to Spirits as Time Place and Matter do to Bodies I have done and doubt not but to meet with both Applauses and Hissing and in both Parties from such as think themselves sufficient Iudges But I beg their Pardon if I 'm conâ—ern'd at neither being resolv'd to continue as secret and invisible as the Bâ—iâ—gs of Pre existent Spirits The Contents of the Several DIALOGUES A Prefatory Dialogue between the Secretary of Fate and the Author's Soul 1. Between the Spirits of a Poet and a Drunkard 2. Between the Spirits of a Jacobite and a Williamite about the Royal Congress 3. Between the Spirits of a Bastard and a Necromancer 4. Between the Militia of Rational Souls 5. Between the Two Orders Rational and Vegitable 6. Between Mercury a Pre-existent Spirit a Dead Man Charon and Hobbs 7. Between Two Spirits upon the Ramble and the Spirit of an Usurer that had strangl'd himself and walk'd in a Church-yard about his own Tomb. 8. Between Two Spirits the Order of Vegitable Souls and Cupid 9. Between an Astrologer and a Mountebank 10. Between Two Spirits about the Retrogradation of the Dragon's-Head and Tail 11. Between a Spirit and his Friend lately Imbody'd in an Infant 12. Between the whole Order of Rational Souls and Two Intelligencers from the other World 13. Between the Spirits of an Emperor and a Beggar 14. Between Two Spirits that made a Contract to keep a Correspondence whoever came to be Embodied first 15. Betwixt Two Spirits about the Musick of the Spheres 16. Between The Spirits of a poor Doctor and his Friend and a modern Philosopher alias Sharper 17. Between Two Spirits on the Ramble and a Flight of Witches with their Guides 18. Between Two Spirits that are to be Mayor and Mayoress of a certain Corporation when they come into their Bodies 19. Between the Parcae viz. Clotho Lachesis and Atropos and a Book-Seller 20. Between a Transmigrated Soul and an Unbodied Spirit 21. Between the whole Consistory of Spirits examining a Heretick Soul about some new Doctrines held forth in opposition to the common receiv'd Opinions of the Aetherial Fraternity 22. Between the whole Consistory of Spirits being a Discovery of Vulgar Errors receiv'd by that suppos'd Heretick Spirit yet a Prisoner 23. Between the Spirit of one that is to be a Member of the ATHFNIAN SOCIETY a Correspondent and of some that are to be Querists 24. Between the Spirits of a General a Midwife and an Executioner 25. Between the Spirits of Two Projectors 26. Between Two Travelling Spirits 27. Between the Spirit that is to be last Embodied and the Spirit that is to be first re-united to its Body at the Day of Judgment 28. Betwixt Two Spirits one that pretends to dedeny Pre-existence and the other to prove it PROPOSALS For Printing a Book Entituled The young Students LIBRARY Containing Extracts and Abridgments of all the most Valuable Books Printed either in England or in the Foreign Iournals from the Year 65 to this present Time To which will be added an Introduction to the Use of Books in A New Essay upon all sorts of Learning Written by the Athenian Society The Proposals are as follows I. THat this Volume will contain as is supposed about One Hundred and Twenty Sheets Printed in a very fair Letter and of the same size with our several Mercuries and Supplements that it may bind up with them or be sold single to those who desire it II. The Subscribers to give 10 s. for each Book in Quires whereof 5 s. to be paid at the Time of Subscription and 5 s. at the Delivery of the Book which considering
exchanging selling and Slavery Methinks it is unaccountable since all are out of the same Dust stamp'd with the same Impression equal in their Nothingness both à parte ante and à parte post Nay their very Souls which animate these grosser Vehicles are also equal only acting differently by a more or less aptitude of Organs or inequality of Education Emperor Tho' we Spirits fell not when the Angels did yet we have certainly the same defectibility of Judgment for two things especially Opposites cannot be both best Call you a Beggar 's Condition despicable and slavish 'T is certainly the happiest Post in the Creation and were it possible for Fate to be guilty of a Caprice and cast Lots once more about the Disposals of Emperors and Beggars I 'd petition to renew my Chance possibly I might the second time alter my Condition and come out a happy Beggar Beggar Why so Emperor Becasue there appears to me a greater happiness in an unenvied Cottage than in the Noisie Crowds of Flatterers Little does the Plebeian know how heavy a Crown weighs how great the Trust is and how hard to be managed 'T is the Court that 's full of Treachery Ambition Pride Bribes and such a dreadful Catlaogue of Vices that 't is impossible for the best of Men to arrive to a greater degree of Goodness there than a Negation of Evil. The Watch must be kept so strictly that there 's no time to act virtuously But in the retir'd Solitudes of Poverty one Third of our Temptations are lost the uneasiness of the Sense causes a search after the quiet of the Mind We have nothing to resist in Solitude but a few stragling Thoughts nor nothing to seek after but to be happy There we are free from publick Calamities and private Enemies unenvy'd in every thing but Happiness and 't is impossible to steal that from us when we have nothing else to do but to keep it Nay if we shou'd communicate it we lose nothing but have more by giving I cou'd reckon up Augustus Dioclesian Maximinian Vatius Empedâ—cles c. who laid by their Scepters for Spades and cou'd also mention how happy the Change was but the remembrance wou'd make my Crown too uneasie which now I must bear as well as I can Beggar 'T is in vain to wish on either side what can't be avoided But say Brother won't the Case be strangely alter'd by our different Stations in the other World Methinks I see you sometimes royally seated amongst the Representatives of your Kingdom sometimes in private Council turning over the Cabala or darker Mysteries of State but always look'd upon as more than mortal Methinks I also see my self injur'd and over-pow'rd by the Mint of Damnation and my Addresses to your Highness by Friends or Petition in agitation Methinks I see my cold reception the Meanness of my Concerns lost amongst Matters of greater Moment and my Importunity for a Dispatch answer'd by the Insolences of a hundred subordinate Officers one denies me admittance another turns me out and every one looks upon me an impertinent worthless Thing because I left all my Nobility and Attendance behind me among the Stars Emperor By this you may in some measure judge of the distracted Cares of a Crown how amongst these numerous Complaints Petitions c. 't is impossible to hear and redress all time won't permit and Omnipresence is not confer'd to Earthly Scepters to act every where and every thing at once Thinkâ—y ' it not afflicting to a Father to see many of his Children strugling under Unhappinesses and whilst he relieves some others perish and also that he has many more under the same Circumstances that he knows not of Beggar Enough let 's not think so much on the Evils of Humanity as to lose the sense of that little Good of which it is capable Not to be happy in some things because we can't in every thing is an unkind Theft to our selves Compare the Distractions of other Crowns to yours whilst I examine whose Cottage is meaner than mine and this with other like Inferences will divert the black Reflections we have made An earthly Philosopher could say Nemo Miser nisi comparatus Come let 's not learn of the World below us but give them Examples We can't miss if we retire to our Region for there being nothing but Equality 't is impossible any one shou'd pretend to be more happy or miserable than another DIALOGUE XIV Between Two Spirits that made a Contract to keep a Correspondence whoever came to be Embodied first The Unbodied Spirit CErtainly he can understand now I have assum'd this Body of Air. Holo Brother I have been calling these two hours to no purpose Do you hear me now Bodyed Spirit Hear ye Yes who are ye And what 's your Business Unbody'd Sp. What Have you forgot me your old Comrade and your Contract Has this Lump of Humanity spoil'd all your Faculties or are you ungrateful or over-proud of your new Lodging Body'd Sp. I don't know what you mean by Forgetfulness or Contract Unbody'd Sp. That 's very strange I 'm certain This is the Body you were to animate and by consequence â—ou must be the same Individual that agreed with me to keep a Correspondence when you came into this Body I had forgot my self and have been all this time speaking to you in the Language of Spirits not knowing it was too fine for the Perceptions of an Organiz'd Body Body'd Sp. By this you 'd make me believe a Pre-existent State of Souls before they come into the Body But if there be such a State I have wholly forgot it only I have some dark Ideas of things when they are mention'd that I never saw nor heard of before which probably may proceed from the Cognizance I took of 'em before I was imbody'd Unbody'd Sp. That 's no Argument at all since that Idea gives you nâ—ither the Species nor the Form of the Thing spoken of if neither be mention'd as for Instance If I shou'd tell you in general Terms That at the West-end of the Vatican at Rome there 's a curious Picture you wou'd presently form an Idea of it in your Mind but perhaps it may be a Saint instead of a Land-skip but to pass over that have you any Idea of the Language of Spirits Body'd Sp. None but such as is Organical Unbody'd Sp. By this you may see your Errour again for Spirits speak one to another as Man does when he speaks to God in his Mind Again Man's Voice is limited I mean when he speaks he is not heard but at such a distance but when one Spirit speaks all the Thousand Millions of Spirits where-ever dispers'd throughout the Creation have a diâ—stinct perception of such Speech if directed to them all at once or if directed to any one Spirit be he never so far off he only hears and not one of all those that are betwixt him and the Speaker so that 't
is a Doctrine that has not been received in the lower World these many Years and that 't is also believ'd that 't was a politick Juggle to make the Age Virtuous by suggesting that if Persons liv'd ill Lives they shou'd suffer such and such dreadful Transmigrations after Death but you 'll find to your Sorrow when you come to put off your first Body that all is matter of Fact and no Politick Juggle Unb. Sp. When it comes to 't I 'll believe it but not before since Pythagoras who is affirm'd to be the greatest Patron of this Doctrine did also teach That the Substantive Unity of one Number is not the Unity of another and if so there 's no Transmigration of one Animal into the Life of another different Animal but a continuance as long as there is a Being under the Law of its own Nature and particular Species Species is not coincident with Species and this is also imply'd by one of Pythagoras's Symbols viz. We must not wear the Image of God in a Seal-Ring that is as God can't be resembled or included in Corporeal matter so a Humane Spirit which is the Image of God must not stoop so low as to actuate meaner Nature than the Rational Tr. Sp. Pythagoras held a Correspondence with Spirits and cou'd not be mistaken what Insâ—ances you have brought are none of his â—imon Lenophanes Cratinus Aristophon Herâ—ippus and others have ascrib'd many things to Pythagoras which he never said nor wrote But you 'll be better satisfy'd when you come to make an Experiment your self Unb. Sp. 'T is no matter whether they are his or no they are truth and truth never clashes with truth but is always the same But I suppose you are in a Dream instead of in a Bean or I wou'd advise you to gape for here 's a shower of Rain which will help on with your Germination and haste your Change into a Cabbage DIALOGUE XXI Amongst the whole Consistory of Spirits Examining a Heretick Soul about some new Doctrines held forth in Opposition to the Common receiv'd Opinions of the Aetherial Fraternity Consistory PRoduce the Prisoner and his Pamphlet and let 's hear what he can say in proof of his new Doctrines if we admit of one Innovation here no wonder the World below us is all in Flames and Divisions Register of Fate He is ready here and his Pamphlet too Will ye be pleas'd that I or he read Consist No let him begin and make his Defence to every particular Article as he goes along Prisoner I accept the freedom of making my Defence to the Mysterious Truths that I have discovered as a very great Favour and shall without any Preface begin as follows The First Cannon I â—ay down is That the Sun and Moon are no Planets as is vulgarly believ'd but the two Eyes of the World and that which you call Eclipses is nothing else but the Worlds winking when 't is sleepy Consist How the World sleepy Prove that Pr. You 'll allow the World to be Matter and as soon as it was created to be sent of an Errand and ride Post until this very Minute without anâ— intermission whatever You will also grant that the whole is of the same nature as all its parts and that motion wears away and destroys what is material unless it have some Reparations 't is impossible always to run move act c. I speak of particular parts of Matter and the same also holds good concerning the whole I know the great Objection that you 'll make and therefore will Obviate it to save your labour viz. 'T is impossible to pretend to particular Functions in Nature and at the same time to be asleep To which I Answer That the Soul of the World is never sleepy no more than the Spirit in Humane Bodies but you can't deny it impossible for a Man in 's Sleep to Walk Saddle Horses Mow Plow c. of which there are Instances enough just so the Soul of the World follows on its Task tho' its material frame may be asleep for if it did not it would break its Commission by leaving some part of the World in too long a Darkness but this is not a Position entertain'd only by me take the Sentiments of the lower World upon it some of which call the Eclipses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Labours of the Moon some shot at it to keep it awake some held up Torches and sounded Instruments of Brass to ease it Whence one of their Poets Cum frustra resonant aera auxiliaria Lunae Metam Lib. 4. And another Una laboranti peterit succurrere Lunae Juven Sat. 6. All which considered perhaps may render the Doctrine as reasonable as 't is new Consist Well we shall weigh your Reasons by anâ—â—y what 's your next Thesis Pr. Second Canon That the Constellations in the Heavens call'd the Dragon's-Head and Tail are nothing else but pieces of a pickled Whale To prove which I have the Man in the Moon to be my Voucher who is a person of so great Credit and Reputation that Noah made him the Boston of his Ark. His Relation is this That one Morning during the Flood being very curious to take his leave of an old Neighbour or two that were got upon a Wind-Mill to secure themselves from Drowning as long as they cou'd the Moon being at Full that is broad awake and according to her usual Method going to take a Draught of Sea Water which by the way is the reason why Tides swell on purpose for a full Draught she suckt up a Whale and the Boston of the Ark at once with a bundle of Cable Ropes at his back but being not us'd to such Victuals she pickled the Fish and presented it to the Astrologick Souls who have eat up all but the Head and Tail but kept the Boston to be her Valet de Chamber Consist A very strange Relation but we shall know whether true or no when we have sent a Messenger for the Man in the Moon In the mean time proceed Pr. Third Cannon That the Moon is drunk once a Mouth I don 't positively assert this but am willing to recant if any of you can show me a better reason why her Face shou'd be so red when she takes a dose of the great Salt Bowle alias the Sea Consist We shall consider of that also proceed Pr. Fourth Cannon That the occasion of the Universal Deluge was the Tears of the Devil and his Angels who wept for grief to be routed and cast out of Heaven They had two Designs by their Tears for when they found they could not get in again they hang'd about the Concave and Battlements thereof as Flies do upon the Cieling of Houses weeping as well to case themselves as to be reveng'd of Mankind so finding themselves to be very many they wept a numerous Company of Clouds which were all that time in falling down upon the Earth as is betwixt Adam and Noah
Circuition by a Principle of Self-Motion which Nature at first communicated to it but 't is an Errour for the Moon is a Lifeless inanimate Mass and can no more move of it self than a Pewter-Dish can nor is it as some have concluded bowl'd along by Spirits amongst the rest of the Stars for then a swinging Gigantick Spirit wou'd sometimes throw it out of its due Cariere and make it rob or fall soul upon some of the other Planets No no such Caprices in Nature are not to be met with 'T is continually carry'd along by half a dozen Spirits in a large Lanthorn half of it transparent and the other half dark and these half dozen Spirits are reliev'd by another half dozen once in four and twenty hours The reason of its seeming Increase and Decrease is nothing else but the turning of the darker or brighter side of its Lanthorn more or less directly or obliquely towards the Globe of the Earth I can also assure you that there 's not one Star in the Heavens that moves of it self but what are carry'd along by Spirits plain Spirits not Intelligences as some Philosophers dream for there 's no such Beings There are many strange Opinions amongst Mankind about the Motion of the Heavenly Orbs A Spirit that left its Body in a Dream just when I came into the world of the Moon gave us some merry Tenets about it as that the Elements were divided into Spheres like the Films of an Onion and that such and such Stars mov'd in such and such Films Some again held That Stars were put upon Strings like Beads and push'd on by â—egions of Spirits Some wou'd have 'em half under and half over their Films and Chanels cut for 'em to roul along Some believe that the Film is transparent and that Stars are bowl'd along up em Some that they hang under their Films and that there 's a kind of a mucous Matter which makes 'em stick like Flies with the feet upwards to a Cieling but some believe there 's no such things as Spheres Films or Divisions of Elements but that they hang in the Air upon their own Centre whirling about like Boys Tops at Shrovetide Thus far the humane Spirit discover'd the wild Opinions of his Brethren 1 Sp. This is pleasant indeed but I believe I light on some Passages as remarkable You know that every Globe has its particular Aether which moves along with it and that there are indefinite Spaces Vacuums or Interstitiums betwixt the Planets if not the vertiginous motion of one Aether would justle with another You are also satisfy'd that the Globes of Mercury and Luna have either of 'em a Republick of Philosophical Souls that left their Bodies and yet retain their old Notions It was my chance to travel that way when there was a publick Dispute betwixt some late deceased Cartesians and some Peripateticks every Soul was arm'd Cap-a-pe with Dilemaes Propositions Objections c But the Dispute about Motion and innate Idea's was manag'd so warmly that they forgot their Footing which was upon the extremity of the Vortex and down they came sluttering into the indefinite Space or Vacuum I was telling you of Very well says a Peripatetick Soul this Fall is no Motion because there 's no Continuity of Matter to measure by and therefore I delie you all to prove a possibility of getting out again A Carteâ—ian Soul fell a laughing at such a Challenge and told him he ought to get a new Body and make Experiments and afterwards consider the Theory No says the Peripatetick it can't be done and therefore I 'll not offer to budge till I see a Demonstration of a possibility in Mood and Figure And as they were examining a certain Minor which was propos'd comes a Comet and with a Brush of its Tail scowr'd the Vacuum and dash'd the Disputants upon the Vortex again 2 Sp. And what became o' th' Cause then 1 Sp. It was put by till another Conference by reason of a black deformed Spirit that had had the Misfortune to leave its Body for a worse Place which came roaring and howling into the midst of the Cartesian Souls crying out Where 's the Spirit of Des-Cartes that pretended to prove a Deity by Innate Ideas when he shou'd have prov'd such Idea to be the Idea of a real Being 't was the weakness of this Argument that damn'd me Besides I 'm continually chous'd and hunted about by a company of snearing Devils that stigmatize me with the scandalous Character of a Cartesian Spirit pointing at me with their sooty Paws as I pass along Do ye see says one yonder Inhabitant of the Cartesian World See says another the Artist that preaches of a subtle Matter which forms the Liquidity of Bodies Pray says a Third will you go ask your Master what he means by the Sun 's forming a great Vertex of sluid Matter for the Stars to swim in And whether the Sun is both Agent and Patient in such a Formation If not of what pre-existent Matter he forms this fluid Matter Or whether he pretends to an immediate Creation of it out of nothing with a thousand sand more such puzzling Questions which doubles my damnation to solve ' em Now Mr. Des Cartes if you can keep up your Credit and mollifie my Plagues do it quickly Don't trouble me yet reply'd the Philosophical Spirit lest you spoil a new Notion that I left unfinished upon my Death-bed O says the Black Disciple that my Master shou'd study to damn People when they are dead I 'll warrant you 't is to find out the reason why Mercury is sometimes nearer the Earth than the Sun But pray by the way what 's the Use of this and a thousand more such Phaenomena's if Vertue be the proper Task of the Intellect if the business of a wise Man be not Talking but living Thus the poor Spirit troop'd off again without his Errand raâ—ling his invisible Chains and calling Philosophy Beelzebubism 1 Sp. This was a very strange Passage indeed and puts me in mind of half a dozen Philosophical Spirits which were huddled together and ty'd Muzzle to Muzzle in the Bastile of Mercury for pretending to find out a way to appear visible to Mortals without the assumption of Aerial Bodies or any other Vehicle as I pass'd by 'em there was one that had his Notion too setled to remove it by such a Treatment Courage said he Comrades I 'll procure a speedy Manumission from this Cage by appearing in this posture to the Inhabitants of every Globe and making 'em send Ambassadors to our Judges about us Say you so says one of 'em I pray make a Demonstration to us first how it may be done Thus reply'd the other The Representation of Things is not always confin'd to the ordinary Method of assuming the similitude of the thing seen into the Eye which necessarily supposes a Subject to be assumed but the visive power may exercise Ideas and Similitudes of
Expectation I shou'd be ty'd to a Poet I shall reckon it a Fore-stalling my Damnation and had e'en as good commence Devil without any more adoe and take up with one Hell See you not that Wretch in yonder Grove with his Hat over his Eyes scratching his Head tearing his Nails and sending his poor Hackney-Soul about like a Spaniel Dog to fetch and carry Similitudes Rhimes Composition c. I remember about Thirty Years since when he was our Companion he wou'd sometimes break off in the midst of a Discourse without bidding God b'w'ye and away to the Brooks Groves and Fountains which made me suspect the nearness of a Poetick Preferment But hark The Humour of our late Companion in his new Lodging When formless and inanimate I lay Sleeping in Chaos with my Fellow-Clay Or e'er those teâ—ming Particles had met To make this wretched Composition so compleat Without my Knowledge or Concurrence thou Bidst me awake and live Well and what then Why the Sense is out before the Rhime Now 't wou'd be charitable to assume an Airy Organ and help him out viz. I know not how Poor Wretch He knows not what to do unless he unâ—oes all and begins again which he 'd as lieve be hang'd as attempt having taken so much pains about it already Oh for Sysiphus's restless Stone or Belides's leaking Tun They are minute and pettite Tasks to his Not Ixion's Wheel has half the Torture of an over-hasty Period But this is not all When he has undergone the bitter Throws and Pains of Rhimeship then the Darling Off-spring of his Brain turns prostitute to the Abuses of all the World The Praises of wise Men are so few that their Voice is lost in so large a Theatre and the numerous Applauses of Fools are too loud a Scandal And after all this Is 't not pity the poor Rogue shou'd take such pains to be damned For there 's not one Poet in Five Thousand that escapes It had gone hard with Ouldham himself if it had not been for the Penance of his own Satyrs Say Fellow-Immateriality What shall I do I can never look down upon a Couple of Lovers but I 'm afraid their Toying will end in making an Heliconian Prison for me especially if the Innamorato is for Balls Masquerading and Love-Sonnets D. Alas Brother I 'm all Resentment and Pity Little do Mortals think what Plague we are at about the Lodging and Entertainment we expect at their Hands But for my part your Apprehensions of Incorporation are all Charms and Sweetness to the dismal Reception I look for P. VVhy what 's the matter with you D. I can never loave our happier Regions to visit the lower Elements but before I am aware I find my self amongst Sea Fowl hovering over Rivers Ponds and Marshes admiring the Scaly Sholes and envying the Pastime of those ever thirsty Revellers Now VVhat can this mean but that I 'm ordain'd to actuate a Drunkard And if so Hell is a Toy to such a Confinement This Moment wou'd I plunge into the boundless Depths to be secur'd from such a Companion But why that rash Thought Is not Hell also crowded with ' em And are not its Horrours doubled by their Confession Yet if Hell cou'd be Hell without 'em 't wou'd be a happy Place and nothing in 't of the Beast Antick or Nonsense but a rational Complaint of Despair VVonder not dear Brother at my deeper Reflections till you 've consider'd yonder Figure at the Old D l Tavern VVhat think you of their Motions Converse and Passions Suppose all their Discourse were taken in Short-hand and the weakest Person amongst 'em shou'd have a View of the whole when he 's in a Mood of Thinking VVould not he blush at such Follies at such an unaccountable Expence of Time especially if he thought an Hour so spent was of equal length with any other Hour in the Line of Life and must be equally accounted for Alas VVho wou'd suppose that Souls cloyster'd up in these sensualizd unthinking Statues were ever our Companions Come let 's retire towards our peaceful Regions and not be VVitnesses of what a Mid-night Scene produces A Poet's Structure afraid of a Poetick Mansion 'T is a Paradise to what I dread Nor is there any Spirit in all our Order that can be afraid of such a Body but I must meet with it in this Epitome of all Plagues A Drunkard can be Poet Beggar Cully Buffoon or any thing So that I am like to meet with the most abject Slavery in Nature DIALOGUE II. Between the Spirits of a Jacobite and a Williamite about the Royal Congress W. UP ye lazy Dog Are not ye asham'd to kennel and snore in that Star till it smells again of Drowsiness I. VVho 's there Now are not you a spiteful Spirit to disturb my Rest when you have taken yours You are just crept out of some fix'd idle Luminary where you have had no jolting nor disturbance and come to perplex me who am already Topsie-turvy with the swift Motion of my Erratick Mansion which moves at least a Hundred Miles a Minute If I am out in my Computation 't is because I 'm scarce awake W. Arise prating and let 's away to the Assignation I. VVhat Assignation VVhat d' ye dream of Have ye call'd in at Aquarius for a Dram o' the Pitcher W. No no A Royal Congress of all the Princes in Christendom are met together and Thousand Thousands of naked Souls are crowding for Commissions to inspire the succeeding Generation of that illustrious Convention I. VVell I do'nt care I wait for new Revolutions but if I did not I wou'd not budge one Foot for I 'm sure we can't all speed and 't wou'd vex me to the Heart to put in for a Prince's Off-spring and afterwards ride the Wooden Horse in St. James ' Park or turn Cobler W. VVell I 'm loth to spoil the old Tenet in the other VVorld that All Souls are equal and are only diversify'd by the Dispositions of their Organs or I 'd proclaim thee a mean little Soul scarce fit to animate Plants and Minerals I. Pray be gone about your Business I tell you once more I 'm for a broad Sword and a Centry-Box at the End of the Canoll And for your Proclamations 't is not good I catch ye transgressing upon the Grass left I take the Forfeiture and give you a Strapado or two into the bargain W. I believe you are a Iacobite-Soul or you wou'd not absent from the Congress I. Perhaps I am and it may be I shall have a greater Commission than I tell you of But this I can assure you there are many Iacobites that will come in for Commissions with private Lewid'ores in their Fobs in spight of all the Care and Diligence that can be us'd to the contrary W. 'T is possible But what 's the Issue of it You see Iove has taken a particular Care of the British Monarch's Person and Concerns and every
Sessions the Triangular Supporter preaches a late Râ—epentance to his Enemies I. I don't value that that can only discompose the Body which I shall be ty'd to and so I shall be the sooner at liberty again for more Rambles W. You 're mistaken you 'll find other Obligations upon your self when you come to be incorporate than you now dream of But turn and take th' other Nap whilst I attend and know how to be happy either in my own or in my Companion 's good Success DIALOGUE III. Between the Spirits of a Bastard and a Necromancer B PReach Patience to me O Hell and Fury That I who was the great Comrade of Alexander Iulius Caesar Aristotle and Cato Utican's Souls shou'd now at length be cloyster'd up in an Oyster-Wench's Bastard I saw the Saracen's-Head Porter and her at work but I little thought the Teeming Embrio was design'd for me Alas from how great Hopes am I fallen The present Lewis and his Allye attended me like Lacquies and if I had not been upon the Ramble at their first want of Motion I had certainly had the Refusal of those Commissions but now I must away and into such a Body too as humble Irus were he now alive wou'd scorn the base Alliance Now must I drudge about with Dandry-Combâ— and Small Coal-Betty or else move a Thoughtless Lump from Door to Door and often meet instead of Bread the threatning Charity of Bridewell Add yet to this Kib'd Heels a Snotty Nose and part of Egypt's Plagues Ah Constantine when only thou and I were Candidates for the Roman Sceptre I little thought of such an homely Cottage O Rage VVretchedness N. VVho 's this that talks of Rage and VVretchedness without comparing his with my hard Fate A base born Embrio to enliven 'T is a happy Residence to mine If Fate wou'd but give me my Choice I 'd hug the Brat nay I 'd give my Hopes of future Happiness to boot and think 't an easie cheap Damnation to what I must of force endure B. How Now my Impatience cools and grows milder to think that the Destinies have not left me the only Stigmatiz'd Infortune But how in what great Instance am I thus out-done N. A young Ignatian just form'd when several of us pricking in the Lottery of Fate he fell to my Share whereupon I read in those Brazen Volumes and found that he will be a Necromancer Alas how shall I be treated from those Officioâ—s Imps of Darkness the Assisters of that Black Art which I have so often chased out of these purer Regions when they have been upon their hasty Errands Or what can I expect from our own Society when I my self shall hereafter come upon the same Account mounted upon a drudging Fallen Angel being ty'd to too great a Lump of Clay to soar aloft as now I 'm us'd to do now I 'm a pure Agent unconstrain'd and free oblig'd to truckle to no Humane Laws But alas my Freedom is about to sink Incorporation beckens me a Law severer than all the Ten to Mankind The first Choice I now expect is to commence Iunior Devil and wear th' Impostor's Badge I sell my self to buy Preferment in that holy Tribe But O the foppish Rules that I must use to cheat my self and others Such Words repeat and such Characters draw such antick Postures use and such Familiars entertain And then the Consequence of all this is only to please this Sense or gratifie that Malice when all 's a most egregious Cheat and Fiction only the Ensurance of Damnation is real I remember Dr. Faustus's Spirit said as much to me and boasted how he 'd fool the Devil But when he came to be inclos'd in Flesh he streight unactive grew dull and incapable to think project or judge of what he undertook and when he dar'd to play about the fiery Ditch he fell and sunk for ever B. Alas hard Fate Well since we must away where is this Iesuit to live Say that when our Bodies are asleep we may meet converse and pity one another's Hardships N. Within Ten Miles of London He that can play at Legerdemain with Hell can easily Bilk an Act of Parliament B. True I shall find you out DIALOGUE IV. Between the Militia of Rational Souls Capt. WEll Gentlemen the Quarrel increases betwixt the Souls of our Order and those of the Vegitable I can't yet tell what will be the Event but I think it Wisdom to discipline our selves in the Art of War which we have almost lost 't is so long since the Skirmish of Michael and his Angels with the Devil and his I was but Lieutenant then and brought up the File next the lowest Rank of Angels but we quickly did the Business when we came to engage and I doubt not but we shall have the same Success against these turbulent Vegitable Spirits if they do proceed to muster Lieut. 1. But pray Captain what Remarks did the Astrologers and Virtuosi of the little heavy Globe called Earth make on the Action Capt. VVhy truly as one of our Order that held Correspondence with 'em told us they retir'd to their Closets and were ready to crack their Brains all the Pious went to Prayers and not one amongst that Race but were almost distracted The Roaring of our Vehicles they call'd Thunder our Balls they called Thunder-bolts and our Priming with the Antiperistasis of Snow and Spiritous Sulphure that they call'd Lightning and all this to such a Miracle that 't was put in their Chronicles But another remarkable Passage was this the Elements clear'd up and Men ventur'd out of their Houses again to view the Heavens when we had just routed the Rebels and were in pursuit of 'em leaping from Star to Star which made the gazing VVorld below us think 't was a Shooting of Stars But to the Business in hand Is our whole Number here Lieut. Yes Captain Capt. Very well Silence there To the Right To the Right To the Right As ye were To the Left To the Left about As ye were Lieut. You make too great a Noise the VVorld below us will be alarm'd again and expect a Charge upon their Heads Capt. VVho 's there that Catechises me Set him upon Charles's Wain with two Dozen of Thunder-bolts at his Heels and to abide the first Charge of our Infantry for his Sawciness So very well Mind that third File Keep in Order or you shall ride with your Companion Silence there behind Exhale new Vapours Condense new Clouds Shape your Clouds into Vehicles Prepare your Balls and Hail-stones Prime with Snow Ram down Advance Present Charge Lieut. Oh dear Captain How am I pelted See how the Region is scowr'd behind me for Three Hundred and Fifty Leagues together Then what must I suffer that am so near your roaring Muzzles Capt. Enough Let him down But who is yonder that makes such haste towards us Messenger O Captain Sad News Your last Charge has overthrown three of the Planets Houses and
Actions Fool that I am was I to live my Life over again I wou'd only believe and warrantably too that Fate though it be like a Law yet it speaks not in this manner This Man shall do thus and this thing shall befal that Man but rather thus whatsoever a Soul chooseth such and such things shall certainly follow for 't is not the Action but the Consequence of the Action that is Fate If Fate had design'd that if Paris Ravish'd Helena the Grecians shou'd contend with Troy about it But this was once in Paris's power to do or not to do without Compulsion or Necessity Thus Apollo foretold Caius That if he begat a Son that Son would kill him which was conditional and not necessary thus Plato If it were not thus the ill have a protection for their Vices and the Good deserve no praise To which I might add That there are certain Moral Instincts co essentiâ—l with Humanity eternally â—ixt and unchangeable such as Love Iustice Religion c. not fitted to a private temper or a particular Nation to these instincts we are all really chain'd by a Fatality and necessity of Act more or less notwithstanding all our struggles to be rid of 'em but to speak of Fatalities in opposition to these is to charge the great eternal mind with Contradictions Divisions and at last with Non-Entity which now I can too late think of Oh that I cou'd that I cou'd Sp. Pray Mercury let 's begone from this unhappy Subject of Fatality and let 's see something new among the Dead I want to take a view of Alexander Caesar Hercules Epimenondas and the other brave Heroes so much talkt of or the great Philosopher Mâ—nippus I know not which to ask for first Merc. Menâ—ppus He was the greatest Man the World ever bred his life really Philosophiz'd whilst others Talk'd That is he there you cannot vex him Sp. Lend me your Wand I 'll hit him one dab on 's Pate for Tryal Merc. No no you must be civil to Strangers See that behind him is Hercules Sp. But where 's his Club Methinks he looks so like a silly I'uny that I durst venture a foil with him But where 's fair Hellen and the ugly Thersites Merc. They stand together there Sp. Bless me How the Dead equals all things I have only one other Question to ask and I have done Pray Mercury of what Quality or Calling are those generally who are dignified for their Vertue Merc. Ignorant poor Labourers of both Sexes that have been the greatest Enemies to their Sences those Nurses of all Vice Sp. This will be sâ—range News for our Aetherial Inhabitants who are all gaping to be Lords Dukes Princes and Emperors Merc. Come let 's be gone my business is never sleeping Sp. I can't press upon you any longer pray lead the way Strange Where are we got already What fine Countries are yonder Merc. Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Bithinia c. Well Do you know where you are now Sp. In my own Region Thanks kind Mercury for this Kindness Mer. I am glad I have gratify'd you Fare well Sp. Farewell DIALOGUE VII Between Two Spirits upon the Ramble and the Spirit of an Usurer that had strangl'd himself and walk'd in a Church-yard about his own Tomb. 1. Sp. MEthinks tho' I know no reason for 't I tremble to come so near these Regions of Death and Horrour What shou'd we do here amongst the Graves and Tombs of the Deceased Is it pleasant to view the Triumphs of that pale-fac'd Tyrant 2. Sp. No But if we can find some of our old Acquaintance hov'ring o'er the Prisons of their Bodies it may be a Satisfaction to ask some Questions There is one that often visits his Tomb and Body which he left too hastily He can't be long absent the Clock has struck Twelve Hush here he comes Stand still and put on Invisibility Suicide Hail dear Tomb the dear Repository of my other Part. But why shou'd I love and pardon the adulterous Lump which left me for the Embraces of Death and being deaf to all Intreaties and Reasons violently thrust me out of Possession How am I then bewitch'd to visit the old ingrateful Mansion and assume an Aerial Resemblance of what I once was Assist me Fancy What Hair had he Right And what a Face That 's exact Now for a Body Arms Thighs Legs and Feet They are more easie So. Now for Cloaths That 's truly imitated Now methinks I am A. B. the very same throughout How I hug my self in this Figure There 's nothing wanting now but to tell Moneys upon this Grave-stone till the envious Cock proclaims a too too eager Flux of Time Very well Now I am seated Perhaps some Fools may be frightn'd at me 2. Spirit Why ha'now old Comrade What 's the meaning of this wealthy Posture Come will ye give a Bag or two for old Acquaintance sake Suicide Why upon this Errand at such an unseasonable Hour You are come on purpose to give me a Visit Are n't ye 2. Spirit Yes we are so And we hope your Entertainment will be suitable to Visitants especially since we expect no more from you than the Solution of a few Questions Suicide Pray What are they I 'll oblige ye if I can 2. Spirit What Apprehensions have Mankind when they see this Airy Vehicle that you assume every Night Whether is the Spectacle pleasant through the Novelty of it or dismal for want of understanding it Suicide Mankind has very different Apprehensions of me Some when they see me run stark mad immediately Others come on purpose swearing all 's Delusion a Cheat or an Imposition on the Senses and when they see us won't believe their Eyes only sometimes we have particular Commissions to undeceive 'em with a witness A Third Sort a little wiser than both keep sâ— much Presence of Mind as to see us and troop off quietly with their Hair bolting up an end But here and there are a very few that have more adequate Conceptions of us and neither seek nor flee our Company knowing that we Souls and Spirits have no more Power over 'em in Bodies than we have out and that whatever Power we have at any time is only lent us and also limitted and not to be extended when and where we please So that we are really no more in our own Nature and Power than what their Fancy makes us Thus Reason secures some against us and Religion a very few who can master all the little Suggestions of Fear by their Faith 2. Spirit Very well Next Why do ye thus hanker after a rotten putrifying Body chusing that Shape that it once bore before all others Suicide Because I was turn'd out of doors by violence without so much as taking my Leave of it or its bidding me Farewell And cou'd I quietly brook such an abrupt hasty Separation from a Comrade I had been so intimate with for near Seventy Years What tho' it was deaf to
my Counsels and Reasonings yet it was my other Part and as before Incorporation I found my self imperfect but half an Entity now I am so again and shall be till I am re-united to my old Companion But this is all Râ—ddle to you who have â—ot yet known how Souls act in Bodies how the Intellect conceives Ideas of Material Objects by the Senses Did you but know how the Visive Power conveys the Similitude of the Thing seen to the Soul you 'd wish to be incorporate tho' it were in one single Eye How much more when you 'd have all the Senses to command When you 'd have a whole Microcosin to rule in like a Deity Now after all this Which of you wou'd not love the Remembrance of such an Union and imitate it till the time of Re-union renders ye a perfect compleat Being again Quest. But what was the Reason of your sudden Separation from the Body Answ. The Body being part of my self I was willing to gratifie it as far as I cou'd even to a Weakness which I continu'd so long till it grew habitual and I lost my Command fixing my Happiness upon wrong Objects viz. the little Concerns of the World which bearing no Analogy or Proportion to the Greatness of a Soul caus'd an Uneasiness 'T is incongruous to try Sounds by the Taste they being the only proper Objects of the Ear. There is no Object for the Soul but God aâ— appears by its Rest when fix'd on him and Uneasiness every where else And thus I by the Importunity of my Body and the Defectibility of just Perception expecting Happiness where it was not to be had grew impatient under the Disappointment even to Strangling to be rid of the Burden 2. Spirit Alas unfortunate Brother We can do no more than pity thee and own our Obligations for these Discoveries Farewell DIALOGUE VIII Between Two Spirits the Order of Vegitable Souls and Cupid 1. Sp. WEll What News Brother 2. Sp. The strangest Adventure you ever heard of Cupid having Commission to distract some body in the other World as he fled down he miss'd his Way and rambl'd into our Regions where the Order of Vegitables are pillaging the little Wag of his Bow and Quiver and pretend to cure him of his Blindness 1. Sp. Let 's away to see the Humour on 't I believe the arch Knave will put a Trick upon 'em all and come off with flying Colours Cupid Nay but Gentlemen Spirits pray be civil What 's the meaning of this Vegit. The meaning on 't is that since you have found the way into our Quarters we have a Mind to hinder your Pranks here we have no need to be fool'd and plagu'd as the Inhabitants are both in Heaven and Earth if we may believe the Poets Cupid By me Vegit. Yes by you And what can we expect from one that bewitches his own Mother with Adenis Anchises c. You know nothing I 'll warrant you of Endymion Hyacinthus the Adulterâ—us Net and a Thousand more such things Do you Nor can Iupiter himself escape you but down goes his Target and Thunderbolts and away to Taw and Push-Pin with Ganynede Sometimes he 's Metaphoriz'd into Gold now a Swan then a Bull anon a Shepherd and so on according as your Whimseys dictate whilst the Government of the World lies at Sixes and Sevens and he that has the longest Nails and Teeth is the best Entity And when your Caprices and Magots are surfeited with Aetherial Amours away ye troop to the Earth where you â—ye a Prince to a Stage-player and a Princess to a â—oot-boy or else plague Equality by Desparation of Enjoyment laughing at the poor Wretches to see 'em covetous of their Misfortunes Wherefore we conclude it necessary for our own Peace and out of pity to our Neighbouring Worlds to dis-arm you of your Power and cure that Blindness which makes you shoot thus at all Adventures Cupid 'T is a strange thing Gentlemen Souls why I having a Bow and Quiver as if no Body else us'd neither must upon necessity be the God of Love and sentenc'd so to be by those who confess they never saw me before A great Rashness certainly for the Wisdom of your Order to be guilty of But to put you out of all doubt assure your selves I am a Spirit as ye are only with this disference I have suffer'd a Dissolution from a Body and ye are yet unbodied Time was I actuated that famous Scythian Pomaxathres that slew the great Roman Marcus Crassus and was accounted the best Archer that Scythia ever boasted of Now hearing that one Sagittarius a Resident of these Regions was fam'd in that Art I came on purpose to create a Correspondence and try the Skill of the Heavenly Archer Vegit. Well is this be so and you are that Pomaxathres we beg your Pardon for our Errour and think our selves happy in the Mistake Sagitâ—ariâ—s sur passes in this Art never making his Butts less than ten Degrees distant Do ye see that Milky Way there so much talk'd on by the Poets His Shafts have scour'd that Road by their frequent Motion and have kept that part of the Sky clear from dark Matter and Excrements of Stars which is the reason of its Albitude But the Lower World like Fools not knowing so much do fancy it to be the Way for the Souls of the Blessed to mount to Paradice Come let 's be gone we 'll quickly introduce ye into Sagitarius's Acquaintance Cupid I long to meet the Artist that we might give you some Divertisement by our Skill But pray which is the Way to the Lower World Vegit. You must leave Venus on the Left and so to 19 Degrees 30 Minutes of Capricorn afterwards the Coast is clear and divided into Right Lines to all parts of the Globe Cup. Farewell Gentlemen I 'm in haste now I 'll call again some other time Vegit. And is the Impostor gone Certainly he was Cupid Why were we so bewitch'd as to believe him Cou'd we think the God of Love cou'd speak Truth when all his Subjects are given to Lying DIALOGUE IX Between an Astrologer and a Mountebank Mount WHich way with your Circumferences Compasses Figures c. Ha! What Project 's on foot now Astr. To survey the Stars and take a Note on the Influences written on their Foreheads Mount Why so Astr. I 'm sure I shall be an Astrologer and 't is good to make Collections against I have need of 'em I have a strong Fancy that I shall be the Prophet of Europe If I 'd been imbody'd but Twenty or Thirty Years since I had been the Second Lilly or at least his Successor But if after all I shou'd forget what I now do in this Pre existent State I shall be hardly put to it about the Fate of Great People the Change of Wind and Weather Sweet-hearts Losses Travels Life Death and every thing else unless you 'll keep Correspondence with me Mount Ay indeed such
give a Journal of my Entertainment will be just the same Satisfaction that a Criminal has when he is no longer perplex'd betwixt Hope and Despair but is assur'd he shall be hang'd but you are not deny'd the Criminal's Comfort to wit Company But not to detain you from Particulars when I parted with you I immediately shot into the Embryo I told you of as swift as a Falling Star and before I was aware I was dispers'd through the whole Lump not a Finger or Toe but I was busie in 't as the hasty Heir is amongst his Coffers and Leases when his Father 's a dying but as to my first Motion I thought 't was just like a half-drown'd Fly when the Sun begins to shine upon it which first puts out a Leg then a Wing and so by degrees gathers Motion till it presumes upon its own strength and new Adventures so I first a Knee then an Elbow then a Heel and so on till I grew so troublesom a Guest that my Mother cry'd out for help to be shut on me so by a Writ of Ejection dispossess'd me of my warm Tenement and turn'd me out into the wide world naked helpless and full of Tears But then began the Plague of Dependance and the Date my Misfortunes for you will find when you come into a Body that a Soul does sympathize and receive an Impression of Pleasure or Pain according to the resentment of the Senses vice versa the Body participates in the Ease or Disturbance of the Soul I am now but just six weeks old and methinks 't is longer than the Six Thousand Years of my Pre-Existence for I 'm horribly bus'd Night and Day 'T is said The Ape is â—o very tender of her young ones that she frequenty hugs them to death but my Nurse only mocks me with such a Kindness for when she has almost strangled me for want of Breath she recovers me to strangle me again And if I Itch or Smart am swadled too straight or too loose am hungry or over-cramb'd 't is all one for I 've no way to declare my grievance but by sprawling making a foul face or exercising my treble Organs and that does not avail me neither for I 'm only look'd upon to be peevish and out of humour whether this Usage will kill me or whether I shall weather it out to abide worse I know not But this I know That if I was to begin my Pre-existent State again I 'd take heed of such extravagant Rambles as cou'd be attâ—n'd by no less a Penance than such an Incorporation Sp. If you find such Penance for Pre-existent Extravagances alas what will become of me who am in ten times deeper than you the foot of my Account will be amazing when your small Debt has such severâ—â— Exactions Fr. I don't know that but pray withdraw here comes the Nurse to beslabber 〈◊〉 with Caudle if she finds the Body without me and unactive the House will be all in 〈◊〉 uproar and my new Companion will be laiâ— out and starv'd to death and I dread â— second Change remembring the old Proâ— verb Seldom comes a better DIALOGUE XII Between the whole Order of Rational Souls and Two Intelligencers from the other World Order WHat more Complaints still Shall we be for ever plagu'd with Repetitions of the harsh Reception our Fraternity find below Here Who are the Friends of the Parties incorporate Stand forth and declare your Grievance 1 Intell. A great Intimate of mine and a Member of our Order is unfortunately ty'd to a Fidler who runs eternal Divisions to the great Curse of every Visitant's Ear never considering that what delights him may be a great Mortification to another One of his Acquaintance the other Day being tir'd with a Whimsey on Green Sleeves and Pudding-Pyes an Air well known to the Musical Tribe in that Globe began to be free with him telling him what he thought of his Entertainment and in Conclusion broke his Crowd and Fiddle-stick Order Perhaps he might deserve it But how cou'd the Soul your Friend suffer by that Accident 1. Intell. I ask'd my Friend this very Question and he answer'd That tho' by a Habitude of Incorporation he began to love the Body yet he was so much afraid of Violence being a Party that he try'd all the Windows of his Tenement to make an Escape but coming to the Ear he heard the welcome Sound of Impose less on your Friends and so farewell My Friend thinking the Storm was over began to love the Ear for the welcome News he heard in 't tho' indeed 't was the most frequent part of Residence that my Friend had in the whole Material Fabrick He had not tarry'd long there but he was summon'd to tune another Fiddle but the Chamber-door was first lock'd and no Fidler was at home for more Visitants So away they went to work the Fidler with his Fingers Wry Mouth and other antick Gestures and my Friend according to his Office of Perception judg'd of Measure and Proportions And having tun'd that also into the usual Concordance a Mournful Ditty was to be compos'd and set to bewail the unhappy Abuse of his Wooden Apollo not considering that the bare Remembrance of a Disgrace is afflicting to any body but one that carries his Soul in his Ears Now my Friend being ignorant what Distance lay between b flat and b sharp or how much a Lesser Third differ'd from a Greater Sixth was not so able as willing to assist his Comrade in the Composure Who thereupon rag'd swore grew distracted and out of Revenge has cruelly confin'd my Friend to the cold Prison of his Fiddle where he uses to visit him two or three times a Night allowing no better Converse than the doleful Accents of Mad Tom o'Bedlam Order This Account is Argument dismal enough to add to our Litany From Fidlers Libera nos Domine But who 's the second Complainant What has he to say 2. Intell. A Race of Order Of what 2. Intell. Of I dare not mention the ugly Name for fear it brings a Distraction amongst us and the very Malignity of the Sound infect us with the Fatality of its Heresies But if a general dark Character will satisfie 't is unwillingly ready Order Certainly it can't be much worse than the Accounts we have already Let 's have the full particular Relation 2. Intell. Well since ye are so covetous of what ye will repent take it A Society of Virtuosoes in which a Friend of mine has lately commenâ—'d and for which I 'm sure he 'll be damn'd has bewitch'd the other World with fruitless Discourses unprofitable Disputes needless Digressions of Posse Esse Quiddity Predicament and a Thousand such Sounds by which they have lost their own Reason and despoil'd their Followers of theirs too They will make every thing disputable so much as the Pre-Existence of Souls Nay they 'll not believe the Existence of a Deity if their Antagonist proves it
Perception we judge and act But 't is not so with Spirits they have no Perception from divisible or sensible Objects for what by our Senses we know of Material Objects that they know from the Efâ—luviums of the Deity As for Instance God is the Cause of every Substance both as to its Matter and Form therefore God according to his Essence which is the Cause of all things is the Similitude of all things Hence Angels and Spirits when they look upon God do as in a Glass see and know all Material and Immaterial Objects and Things whatever when he pleases to communicate a Knowledge And thus it is that Departed Souls have Knowledge of things happening in this Life Body'd Spirit What 's the difference betwixt a Spirit 's Thoughts and Language since you say that their Language is like our Thoughts Vnbody'd Spirit I have already told you that as Men have their Perceptions by means of their Senses so Spirits have theirs from the immediate Emanations and Ideas of all things which they see originally in God This is the manner of their Perception and the making known this Perception by directing the Result of it to one another as Men do their Minds to themselves when they speak to themselves internally without Lip or Voice This I say is the Language of Spirits which is as different from their Perceptions as the Act of Receiving and Communicating is amongst Men. Body'd Spirit Whether do Spirits and Angels love 〈◊〉 are angry or pleas'd c. as Men are Unbâ—dy'd Spirit Not at all 't is inconsistent with their Nature these being Acts adapted to the Powers of the Sensitive Soul So that when Speech Love Hate Fear Courage Temperâ—nce c. are attributed to Angels or Spirits 't is an 〈◊〉 or a Condescention adapted to Humane Dialect To Love amongst Spirits is to wish Good to one another To rejâ—yce is to rest the Will in some good Habit Temperance is a Moderation of the Will according to the Rule of the Divine Will Fortitude is a firm and resolute Execution of the Divine Will And so of all other Concupiscible Powers Body'd Spirit Whether can several Spirits be in one placâ— at the same time Unbody'd Spirit I have already told you that Spirits know no such a thing as Place 't is as incongruous a Term to their Nature as Time is So that what you call Place is the same thing to them as no place and if so Spirits according to that Notion you have of Place may be Five Millions together in a Quartâ— Bottle and yet never a one fe there but 't is impossible to make you understand the munner how farther than by a dark Similitude Suppose Five Millions of Persons shou'd all desire at the same time to be upon the Top of the mâ—nument erected in Remembrance of the 〈◊〉 of the Fire of London Now thâ—se Five Millions to be there at the 〈…〉 without justling one another for â—oomâ— but thus only by Virtual Application of themselves thither I must be gone there 's a General Assâ—gnation of our Order to meet at the Musick of the Spheres and if my Place be found empty my Name will be dash'd out of the Catalogue upon a Suppâ—sition that â— am imbody'd Body'd Spirit Well I acknowledge my Obligations for this Favour Pray let me converse with you as oft as you can It won't be long but I shall put off this Clog and change Circumstances with you and then I 'll be as kind in informing you of such things as you will also forget when you come into a Body DIALOGUE XV. Betwixt Two Spirits about the Musick of the Spheres 1. Sp. I 'M weary with that drumming sort of Noise there 's nothing but an Eternal Din of one Tune o'er and o'er There 's better Musick ten to one every Bartholomew-Fair 2. Sp. Pray let me ask you one Question Is there any Musick better than the Original of all Musick 1. Sp. No. 2. Sp. Very well Then since these Musical Diastems and these harmonious Motions which proceed from the different Positions and Heighths of the Planets and the Correspondent Symmetry of the Heavens are the first Original of Musick all other Harmony which the lower World pretends to are but Imitations of this great Original So that those little tickling Fancies of Ionick Dorick Phrygian and other Measures are but a different way of Trial to come the nearest ours and if Mortality cou'd find out the true Spherical Musick they wou'd never seek farther nor alter it for any other because 't is impossible to desire or chuse an Imperfection when Perfection stands by But 't is no wonder the World below us think the Musick of the Spheres a Fable when one of our own Order shou'd undervalue it at such a rate But perhaps you are of the same Opinion as Mankind and these are only Words of Course because you have a mind to be upon the Ramble 1. Sp. Truly I am not very well satisfied whether I hear any thing or no. 2. Sp. Yes you hear but without Concern which makes me believe that you belong not to ours but to the Animal Order and in that Order you are design'd to animate an Ass which amongst all Creatures never heeds Musick You and all Mankind must grant that the Planets move and that Sound necessarily proceeds from Motion and that this Sound must either be sweet or harsh Now if a fix'd Observation of Numbers moderate the Motion it effects a Symphonous Harmony consonant to such a Motion but if it be not govern'd by Measures there proceeds an unpleasant Noise But in this admirable Structure of the Heavens there is nothing but setled Rules and Proportions curious Differences of Magnitude Celerity and Local Distances which are constantly circumagitated through the Etherial Orbs as in the following Figure 'T is this Systeme that all Musicians imitate and those that come the nearest it have made their Calculations from Arithmâ—tical Proportions in which this last Age has exceeded all former ones having now laid down Rules to reduce all Audibles into Visibles or Visibles into Audibles that is can give Directions for Building a House agreeable to the Measures of a Musical Câ—mpoâ—â—re or can play the Proportions of any â—ouse now built upon a Musical Instrument If Mankind â—earches a little deeper in the Musicâ—l 〈◊〉 they will find out a Device to imiâ—â—â—â— our 〈◊〉 Musick by a voluntary Self-Motion or frame Instruments that shall play themselves 1. Sp. Say you so Indeed the Novelty of that wou'd cost me many a Ramble 2. Sp. But why love Musick on Earth more than here 1. Sp. Because I find by my Heaviness I am grown so like a Body that I shall soon have such a Relation and you know 't is natural for all Beings to be affected with something like themselves However I 'll be sure if I can remember to inform the Lower World of the Reasonableness of Spherical Musick and what Measures they ought
reads the same Lesson to you o'er again in another World 2 Sp. I 'll consider on 't and in the mean time if I shou'd consent I hope you 'll see me better rigg'd than the rest of my Neighbours 1 Sp. Yes yes never fear that 2 Sp. Then I 'm yours but I won't say I love you lest you shou'd tell me again what Love is DIALOGUE XIX Between the Parcae viz. Clotho Lachesis and Atropos and a Book-Seller Parcae UP Mr. Letter-monger and prepare for your Body we are drawing out the first Thred of your Temporality Booksâ—ller VVhat mine Pray lay that Distaffe by and take another do dear Lady aâ—d let not me be a Prisoner these hundred years I 'm afraid of Incorporation for even Divinity-Books are a meer Drug but perhaps in a hundred years more Times may be better I never intreated before deny me not now Parcae We 'll grant your Request assoon as any Body 's else but the Dice are cast and there 's no resisting Fate you must budge whether you will or no Come don't think to wheedle and persuade us like Customers you aren't got behind the Counter yet Bookseller I know it very well and since there 's no Intreaty that can prevail I 've done Now must I stand Centry seven years with my fingers in my mouth and bare-headed the better to receive the Impression of the cunning Mystery Methinks I have got it already Now for a fine Fetch with that Author about Supernumeraries or Printing a greater Number secretly than I contracted for Can't I handsomly interlope with my Neighbour H 's Copy 't is a very good one and the Author is at work again Suppose to get the next Copy I go and out-bid for this now 't is too late and tell the Author he was Wheedled and Chous'd out of his Labours I must squeeze that Book binder 't will help towards the loss of my late Impression This Copy-Money runs away with a great deal of my Gains Can't I turn Plagiary and with a handsom sleight of Hand put a new Title upon that old Book or were 't not best to turn Author my self by pillaging other Mens Works Right that will do I 'll part with no more Copy-Money these seven years This Collection which I have already made would pass with a good Title Page M R and I can invent some specious one for it 'T is not a Farthing matter whether 't is agreeable to the Subject within treated of But how shall I come off with those Scandalous Pamphlets I shall print under the Name of Iohn a Nokes upon Tower-hill Grub-street the Strand or any where else Shall I suffer for another's Pamphletteering for telling News before it happens and sometimes such as always has is and will be a Notorious Lye No I thank ye so long as I know how to be in League with the Messenger of the Press and some body else I 'll run the hazard Now for a Body with all the satisfaction imaginable for when I come into the other World possibly I may attain to be as crafty as my Neighbours and if so I 'll venture one step further to get above 'em I have only one Request to make Dear Mistress of Fate that you will send but a few Booksellers and a great many Authors into the World for these Threescore and Ten Years DIALOGUE XX. Betwixt a Transmigrated Soul and an Vnbodied Spirit Transmig Spirit WELL how fare our Friends Brother I long to be a Member again of your Society and to be freed from the strange Alliances I have contracted Unbody'd Spirit Why what Relations have you now Tr. Sp. My present Relations are a forward Crop of Beans but what Kindred I shall meet with the next Harvest I know not I came out of a Sprat the last Year having finish'd my Circuition and Change through all the Watry Inhabitants Unbody'd Sp. Pray what sort of Fish gave you the most troublesome Entertainment Tr. Sp. The Porpus by far to be sure every Westerly Wind I was Drunk with tumbling o'er and o'er if it had not been for a pittying Collier who by a lucky Shot made a hole just big enough to creep out of my Prison I might have lain in Salt pickle these forty years longer but 't is all one for I was turn'd out of one Prison to be Chain'd in another for I can't expect to clâ—nge the Laws of Fate and have my Transmigrations finisht before another Thousand Years more are expired Unb. Sp. Why so Tr. Sp. Because I must run through all things Terrestrial Marine and Volatile before I have finisht my Task and expiated the wickedness of my Pre-existent State which expiation always lasts three thousand years 't is an unalterable Decree that all Spirits are to be purify'd by such a Discipline only here 's the difference that Spirits are to actuate mostly in those Creatures that are of the same Dispositions as they were as for Instance The Justice of Fate assigns such as are Angry and Malicious into Serpents the Ravenous into Wolves the Fraudulent into Foxes and so of the rest only here and there 's a good Spirit whose actions being most rational transmigrates out of one Man into another finishing most of the three Thousand years in humane Bodies and as for other Creatures the Fates take care that they speedily die that that part of the Transmigration may be quickly over and reason good for if by chance they shou'd be unjustly confin'd beyond the three Thousand Years there 's no amends to be made but some preferment amongst the Officers of Fate who are always exempt from the Duties of Humanity Unb. Sp. Pray give an Instance of some Soul that has animated several Humane Bodies Tr. Sp. I my self was first infus'd into 〈◊〉 then pass'd into Euphorbus then into 〈◊〉 then 〈◊〉 Pyrrhus then into Pythagoras then I left Humanity and Transmigrated into an Elephant and so on through every distinct Species in the Creation and now at last I 'm got into a Bean. Unb. Sp. I can get into a Bean too if I please But here 's the Question Is this Bean my proper Residence and am I by a Virtual Contact confin'd more to it than to any other Being or Place whatever I am rather of Opinion that all this noise about Transmigration is no more than thus That such as are of an equal Temper Judgment Inclination c. may be said to be unanimous or acted by the same Spirit especially if they live in different Ages I can't conceive it to be any thing else but like Care Motion Study c. of some dead Person appearing in some living one and thus you if you acted Pythagoras you were no more Euphorbus Hermotinus or Pyrrhus than as you had an Inclination to the several Excellencies that appeared in those Persons and thus a Transmigration into Fishes Trees Plants c. is nothing else but a study of their Nature Tr. Sp. You might have added That 't
Sempervive shoot forth and germinate when hang'd in the open Air. What think ye of the Birds of Paradise that have nothing else to feed upon but Air Go and ask Rondoletius how it was possible for his Priest to live forty years upon nothing but Air Or what he meant when he said he was an Eye-witness of one that had lived Ten years without other Nourishment From all which 't is no wonder that the pure Aether shou'd have such Effects upon me as you now see though if there were occasion for it there 's all sorts of Diet but they are given only as Physick to new Comers into our World in the Moon as preparatory to a prepetual Abstinence Gentlemen I hope what I have said is satisfactory and so I desire the liberty to withdraw The Moon is awake and ready to get up by this time and if I miss my Attendance I may be turn'd out of my Office Consistory Very well discharge the Witness and see him safe home in the Moon again In the mean time do you Mr. Philosopher proceed in your Discoveries you shall have a very favourable Construction of what you offer Prisoner I acknowledge my Obligations most judicious Patrons and shall impart what I have found out with as much Humility and Modesty as Truth can stoop to First then I shall presume to call this receiv'd Opinion a Vulgar Error That Taurus has any Horns or that he feeds of the Schems and Draughts of Astrologers in the lower World Astrol. Sp. How 's that Blasphemy I protest What will you make a sucking Calf of one of the great Supporters of the Stars Prisoner Pray Mr. Astrologer Not so fast lest you shou'd tire and then your Bull I assure you cannot carry you tho' ye offer every day a Bundle of Schemes to him Suppose there 's no such a Being in all the Heavens as Taurus but only a Nominal Division of the Heavens what will become of Horns and Fodder then Astrol Sp. He raves certainly Prove what you say Prisoner Nay hold there what bid a Philosopher prove Negatives Do you prove the Affirmative if you can if not tell this honourable Court why you believe it Astrol. Sp. Let me consider a little Prisoner Come never vex your self to find out what is not when the Sun goes through that Part or Division of the Heavens or if you will when that part of the Heavens moves by the Sun it is said to be in Taurus because it happens at the time of the Year when the Countrey-man tills manures and plows his Lands by the help of Oxen or Bulls likewise when the Sun is in Gemini 't is said to be so because of the Pairing and Copulation of most Creatures at time and so of the rest of the Signs which are only Appellations and no real Beings I cou'd tell you that there 's some in the World below us that know as much but this wou'd be too like one of their Proverbs viz. If you wou'd know what News at Court you must enquire in the Countrey And this puts me in mind of another false Opinion among us viz. That the Devil is a Male Spirit This is taken upon Trust too without examination of his Testicles if there be ever a Midwife-Spirit among you that knew him out at Nurse or that had any private Familiarity or learn'd it by his own Confession before he fell stand forth Midwife-Sp I knew him out at Nurse but was never very curious in that particular but he told me himself that he was a Male-Spirit Prisoner He tole ye If you have no better Evidence than that it proves nothing 'T is well known The first Word he spoke was a Lye and 't was for lying that Michael chas'd him out of Heaven I 'm perswaded he 's an Hermophradite my reasons are these 'T was a brave and Masculine sort of Impiety when he pretended himself to be a God and gave Oracles and Prophesi'd but 't was a Feminine sort of wickedness to be afraid of the Pentangle of Solomon the Liver of Tobias his Fish the sound of Tetragrammaton the Vertue of Hipericon the Root of Baaras Cou'd any thing but a Foeminine Devil be Commanded by Charms Spells Conjurations Lerters Notes and Dashes In short can the Devil be any thing else but a Rigil that is either Man or Woman to gratifie the VVitches and VVizards of the world below Can he be any thing else but an Hermophrodite whose Language looks both ways at once and is either true or false Aio te Aeacidem Romanos vincere posse No no the Case is plain and I hope this Honourable Convention will order it to be registred accordingly And so I shall proceed to take notice of another Vulgar Error amongst us viz. That the Soul of the World is not subject to the Passions of Humane Spirits or that it is not sometimes Merry Sad c. I suppose if I prove the contrary you 'll look so wishfully upon one another that you 'll have an immediate Confirmation of it by the World 's Laughing at you 'T is a certain truth and if you will but peep out of the Wickets of your Stars and view the Face of the Elements you will just now see it look with a pair of Blubber'd Eyes the reason of it is this Taking a view of the Creation it casually fixt one of its Eyes upon the Gallick Territories and seeing so much Tyranny Pride Extortion Blasphemies c. it cou'd not refrain from Weeping the Inhabitants of the World below us call it Raining not believing that the frequent showers of Tears that fall amongst 'em are a bewailing their Irregularities and thus when it sees some good and vertuous Actions it looks with a pleasant Air and smiles upon 'em and that they call Sun-shine The other Night the World had got the Highcough which is very often mistaken for Thunder We are in almost a hundred Mistakes about the Worlds Common Actions when it Spits 't is erroneously suppos'd to be a Shooting of Stars when it turns its Head on one side either in a fit of Laughter or by being asham'd at some unhandsome Actions it sees presently 't is concluded there 's an Eclipse of the Sun and in this Opinion the World below us are deeply rooted Now since I am not stingy or partial in Communicating my Observations I wou'd have some of you Astrologick Souls when you come to have Bodies to undeceive your Neighbours about that which they call an Eclipse of the Sun for 't is laid down as a Maxime amongst 'em That the Sun being a greater Body than the Moon can never be totally Eclipsed which Error does so much affront the Harmonious Order and make of the Universe that the World as unable to put up such Indignities has been in the Humour sometimes to close both her Eyes at once and leave Mankind muffled up in a perpetual Night for you must believe that if the Face of the World be proportioned
things that are not by indisposition or illusion Thus by beating up the interior Organs and acting briskly upon the Fancy I can make the Patient to believe a resemblance of what I please or I can deceive the Eye by indisposing it through the annoyance of internal Fumes Vapours c. Thus have I made Experiments on Persons who whilst they have been lying in Bed wou'd look upon the Windows and see Curious Globes and Figures of all shapes and colours which wou'd move before the Eye iâ—â— the Eye follows 'em or wou'd pursue the motion of the Eye if it drew from ' em I might add the possibility of accomplishing my end by â—alse Refractions of Light Interpositions of Bodies c. But I 'll let that alone till I come into a Body when I 'll take some pains to undeceive the World below about Apparitions of ill Spirits which are as commonly form'd in the Eye as inclos'd in Aery Vehicles Hold not a word more of their Customs reply'd the other lest we shou'd be over-heard and so receive double Punishment for Correspondence with Apostates Thus the poor muzzled wretches were confin'd for some time but at their Trial they upon urging some such Arguments as I have now offer'd convinc'd their Judges and were again set at Liberty 2. Sp. I remember I was there at the same time and there came in a Messenger Post-haste saying There are just now arriv'd a great number of Separate Souls upon the Confines of the Moon that pretend to bring in Remonstrances against the whole Philosophical Academy of Souls at which the Spirit of Aristotle who was always good at Subterfuges and By-holes complain'd of Indisposition and that he wanted to converse with the Spirit of Galen but he was no sooner clear of the Crowd but he mounts up through the Coelum Empyreum and gets out of the Wicket into that vast indefinite Space to be free'd from the importunate clamour of his thousand thousand Disciples fluttering about him I cou'd not forbear following him to see the humour on 't and amongst other things I overheard him crying out Oh that I had been Alexander's Horse instead of he being my Pupil then I had liv'd quietly in History and had been only Curyetting Pawing or Neighing in the Fancy of the Learned But now Wretch that I am I 've div'd so deep that I have not only lost my self but am also accessary to the Destruction of my Proselytes Methinks I see my self catching at Impâ—ssibilities and instead of 'em grasp some strange bewitching Dream that has either Blasphemy against the Gods in 't or is a sacrilegious Story of their Secrets belying what I cou'd not discover Methinks I also see that in quisitive Race of Mankind listning to partake of the â—orbidden Notions and rather than fail they turn â—ver my Works so oft till they find something in 'em that I my self never thought of nor design'd Hereupon they begin to explain Incomprehensibles till they are serv'd by succeeding Ages as they serv'd me but the whole Blame and Punishment retorts upon me because I â—et 'em first at work Oh that I had defin'd 〈◊〉 to have been Vertue and Uice to have been Vice I 'd scap'd the scowring of so many duplicated Damnations and might have walk'd quietly in the Battlements of the Moon without Noise and Disurbance But as I was intent upon the Philosopher's Expostulations I saw at a distance three Millions of separated Spirits all Females they had been ridicul'd and chas'd out of all the Globes for their awkward Dresses and brought along with 'em the Fashons of Two and Fifty Languages into the Indefinite Space above the Heavens Some had got Ruffs about their Necks as big as Cart-wheels some Head Dresses as large as the Tail of a Comet some were in one Dress and some in another a few were rubbing and scowring the outside of Heaven to make it transparent that they might see to dress their whole Body by it some were doing some were uning some were pleas'd some in a Passion some lik'd their own Mode the best and some prefer'd that of another and some were quarrelling with every particular Dress and made up a Iargon of all Dresses together But to see the different Figures Postures Courtsies Complements and Tittle-tattle amongst 'em made me believe that they were some Generation of Spirits which I had never heard of Whereupon I apply'd my self to the Aristotelian Soul I told you of to desire his Opinion who told me he had done Opinioning but if I wou'd ask the Spirit behind me I might be inform'd Upon which I turn'd me round saw a Thing all hung with Clouds and Vapours in an Aery Humane Shape wringing his Hands and sighing at a wretched Rate as I made up to him I cou'd hear him say Poor Heraclitus Whither now Hast thou searched the whole Universe and every particular Globe of the Creation to retire from new Objects of thy Over-pity and all this to find the greatest behind in this Indefinite Space Alas now I am desperate in my Search and will give o'er since Female Spirits are so wedded to Impertinencies as not to leave 'em when dead Upon the mention of the Word Female Spirits I troop'd off with all the speed imaginable for fear of being caught up for a Foot-Boyâ—Spirit by one Madam C in Exchange-Alley who I well knew was as proud of a Livery-Boy as Paint and Fucus I had no sooner got within the heavenly Wicket again but I stumbled upon a Disputation that was held upon the Verge of Saturn But I came a little too late and cou'd only hear the latter part of the Conference which by Plurality of Voices fix'd a Liberty of Conscience and that the Spirits of Iews Pagans and Christians should all be free to believe themselves Children of Philosophy and of the Number of the Elect. I pass'd on from thence without taking any Leave for there are no 〈◊〉 among the Stars that use Ceremonies but European Female Spirits and they were most of them chas'd out of the Universe as I noted before and coming near the Globe of Iupiter there was a great Concourse of Spirits about a Chalenge between a Heathen and Christian Philosophick Soul concerning the Burning up of the World Here might Humanity if they 'd had Eyes and Prospective Glasses strong enough have seen their old Maxime confuted which says There 's no penetration of Bodies for here were at least ten Millons of Spirits got together all into one Body to hear the Dispute but there was such a fluttering Hubbub that the Orators were fain to leave off a while to see if the Noise would cease tho' in vain for every little Auditor wou'd pretend to dictate and give his Opinion I cou'd hear one something louder than the rest crying out Alas alas if the World is to be burnt up and all the Stars consum'd what shall I do for a Lodging I shall ne'er away with the Converse of
night when the Body has little need of my Attendance that I may give you an Account what an ambitious restless Lump it is that I animate Pray says another come see me when my Body's asleep that I may have some vent to my Sorrows by telling you the vast difference betwixt a Body'd and an unbody'd Spirit No says a Third but if you 'l come and see me I 'll preach the Doctrine of Humanity to you possibly it may have such an effect upon you as you may escape the first Damnation for three or four hundred Years longer Suppose you hear five Thousand more beginning to make their Complaints and the Body like a Tip-staff or Serjeant hurrying 'em away into new experiments of Horror before they can tell their Story out 1 Sp. Hold pray no more I' have enough of Humanity Let 's be gone iâ— your way lies towards the World in Saturn â—'ll bear you Company 2 Sp. I 'm oblig'd to you March then DIALOGUE XXVII Between the Spirit that is to be last imbody'd and the Spirit that is to be first re-united to the Body at the Day of Judgment 1 Spirit HOld hold Brother don't leave me yet Alas he 's gone and with him all the whole Society of Spiris What have I to converse with now but inanimate Globes aud senseless Constellations What signifies it that I am Lord of all when I have no Subjects to reign over no agreeable Mate I mean of the same Species to accompany me Unkind Fate to imbody all the Thousand Thousands of my Brethren and to leave me to wander up and down the Universe by my self The World is to me a sort of Prison not by Diminution but by Deprivation for a Prison is not properly call'd a Prison for being so great or so little but being a Confinement from such and such Enjoyments Oh that I cou'd cease to be or transmigrate into any other Classis of Creatures For what state is more unhappy than that which gives a power of enjoying Good and denies a Subject to exercise his power upon But stay why do I repine Some Spirit must necessarily have been the last and tho' it is I yet it cannot be long but my Turn will quickly come 2 Sp. Nine hundred ninety nine Millions of Millions Let me see again possibly my Calculation may be false Suppose once more that everry Man computing one Man with another is compos'd of a handful of pure Earth all the Particles of the other Elements being separated from it then it follows that just so many Handfuls of Earth as the Globe contains in it may be made into Men but no more unless the God of Nature will make more Earthly Globes for when every Man rises at the Day of Judgment and assumes his own particular handful of Earth if there shou'd be more Men than Earth Ha Some Souls must go without Bodies which is very absurd Nor is it very reasonable that the Earth shou'd not every Bit of it be made into Men that when they come to take every one their own there may be no Earth left and then 't is an easie thing for the last Fire to consume the other Elements No that won't do neither for I 'd forgot that Man is made of all the Elements and therefore when all the Earth is spent in making Men the Elements must be spent likewise that is the whole Earth Air Fire and Water will when every one takes their own be equally divided and march up and down an Eternal Indefinite Space or Vacuum in living Glorify'd Humanity Very well now I have it There were at first 9999999999 Spirits and there 's just so many handful of Dust in the Earth Now if I cou'd tell how many Spirits are yet unbody'd 't is but subtracting the Remainder from the first Number and the difference is the Handfuls of Earth that are yet to be made into Men and when I know this I shall know how long it will be before I shall be re-united again to my Body which I was separated from about 3000 Years since Methinks I long to renew the old Acquaintance 1 Sp. What Mathematical Soul is this that's computing the Day of Iudgment It has always been too deep a Secret for Humanity to pry into 2 Sp. I have laid by that dull heavy Lump a great while since 1 Sp. But 't is said that Angels themselves are ignorant of that Day 2 Sp. Yes they were so at that time when such Words were spoken because they knew not how fast Spirits wou'd be unbodied or how the Age of Man might shorten nor consequently how long it wou'd be before the World was made into Men but if you can give me an Account how many Spirits are yet unbody'd I will tell you just now how long it is till the Day of Iudgment 1 Sp. None of 'em but my self 2 Sp. How are all the 999999999 Souls which were made upon the same day that the Angels were sent into Bodies except you 1 Sp. Yes all but my self I 've just now parted with my last Companion 2 Sp. If so the date of your pre-existence is just at an end perhaps within this quarter of a Minute for there 's always some young Body or other gaping for a Soul to actuate it 1 Sp. I shall be very glad of it for 't is afflicting to be the only remaining Creature of one Species 2 Sp. 'T is so But 1 Sp. Farewel I am call'd away too and with me the whole Race of unbodied Souls lose their Name and change their very Nature 2 Sp. Is he gone I knew it cou'd not be long that he had to tarry Let me see No That won't do That 's right upon a modest computation the World must expire within these 70 Years for it 's great odds this last unbodied Soul will be separated again before that Period Besides there must be some left alive which will undergo the same change without dying as the Body and Soul will do at their Re-union therefore perhaps within these 70 all will be over Now methinks I see that little share of Dust that belongs to me receive its first Impression and beckon to me to renew our old Acquaintance and Union Methinks I see my self as eager in my Embraces of my old Comrade and as busie in exercising my Offices of Perception c. as ever But I 'm at a loss as to the manner how because of the inexpressible Change that my Organs must undergo But I 'll let that Thought alone sincâ— I 'm satisfy'd Experience will teach me that and every thing else within a very small Revolution of Time DIALOGUE XXIX Betwixt Two Spirits one that pretends to deny Pre-existence and the other to prove it 1 Spirit WHat am I Whence is my Original And to what end am I design'd 2 Sp. You are a pre-existent Spirit made upon the Day of the Creation Your Original is Nothingness as to the Subject but as to the Cause it