many things are done in his Body not only without the Direction but against the Bent of his Mind as often happens in Cramps and other Convulsions Coughing Yawnings c. Nay though some Brutes as particularly Apes have the Structure of many Parts of their Bodies very like that of the Analogous Ones of Human Bodies Yet that admirable Work of the Formation and Organization of the Foetus or little Animal in the Womb is granted by Philosophers to be made by the Soul of the Brute that is therefore said to be the Architect of his own Mansion which yet is neither an Incorporeal nor a Rational Substance And even in a Human Foetus if we will admit the general Opinion of Philosophers Physitians Divines and Lawyers I may be allowed to observe that the Human Body as exquisite an Engine as 't is justly esteem'd is form'd without the Intervention of the rational Soul which is not infus'd into the Body 'till This hath obtain'd an Organization that fits it to receive such a Guest which is commonly reputed to happen about the end of the Sixth Week or before that of the Seventh And this Consideration leads me a little further and prompts me to ask How much by the Supposition or Knowledge of the Mind at the newly mention'd time we are enabled to explicate the Manner How the foremention'd Functions of an Embryo are perform'd when at the end of six or seven Week the Rational Soul supervenes and comes to be united to this living Engine And if it be urg'd that Nature being the Principle of Motion in Bodies their various Motions at least which amount to a considerable Part of their Phaenomena must be explainid by having recourse to Her I answer that 't is very difficult to conceive how a Created Substance that is Immaterial can by a Physical Power or Action move a Body The Agent having no impenetrable Part wherewith to impell the Corporeal Mobile I know that God who is an mmaterial Spirit ought to be acknowledg'd the Primary Cause of Motion in Matter because as we may justly with Monsieur Des Cartes infer Motion not belonging to Corporeal Substance as such This must owe That to an Incorporeal One But then I consider that there is that infinite Distance between the Incomprehensible Creator and the least imperfect Order of his Creatures that we ought to be very Cautious how we make Parallels between Him and Them and draw Inferences from His Power manner of Acting to Theirs Since He for Instance can immediately act upon Human Souls as having Created Them but they are not able so to act upon one another And I think it the more difficult to conceive and admit that if Nature be an Incorporeal Substance She should be the greater Mover of the Mundane Matter because we see that in a Human Body the Rational Soul which the School-Philosophers assert to be an Immaterial Spirit tho' vitally united to it can only determin the Motion of some of the Parts but not give Motion to any or so much as Regulate it in most And if Nature be said to move Bodies in another than a Physical Way I doubt whether the Supposition of such a Principle will be of much Use to Physiologers in explicating Phaenomena since I shall scarce think him an Inquisitive or a Judicious Doctor who should imagine that he explains that it gives an intelligible and particular Account of the astonishing Symptoms of those strange Diseases that divers very Learned and Sober Physitians impute to Witchcraft when he says that those strange Distortions and convulsive Motions for Instance and other Prodigious Effects were produc'd by a wicked immaterial Spirit call'd a Devil But having to this purpose said more in another Paper which you may command the Sight of I shall not trouble you with it here The past Discourse opposes their Opinion who assert Nature to be an Immaterial Creature But because 't is thought that a greater Number of Philosophers at least among the Moderns take Her to be Corporeal I shall now address my Discourse to their Hypothesis And though I might object that if Nature be a Body it may be demanded How She can produce in Men Rational Souls that are Immaterial Beings and not capable to be produc'd by any Subtiliation or other Change of Matter whatsoever Yet waving this Objection I shall first demand Whether Those I reason with believe Nature though Corporeal to act Knowingly i. e. with Consciousness of what She does and for pre-designed Ends or else to be blindly and necessarily moved and directed by a Superior Agent indow'd with what She wants an excellent Understanding and then I shall represent a few things appliable some to one or the other of the two Answers that may be made and some to both And first the Cartesians would ask How if Nature be a Corporeal Substance we can conceive Her capable of Thinking and which is more of being a most Wise and Provident Director of all the Motions that are made in the Corporeal World Secondly A Philosophizer may justly ask How a Corporeal Being can so pervade and as it were com-penetrate the Universe as to be intimately present with all its Minute Parts whereof yet 't is said to be the Principle of Motion Thirdly He may also demand Whence Nature being a Material Substance comes itself to have Motion whereof 't is said to be the Principle Since Motion does not belong to Matter in itself and a Body is as truly a Body when it rests as when it moves And if it be answer'd that the First Cause that is God did at first put it into Motion I reply that the same Cause may at least as probably be suppos'd to have put the unquestion'd Mundane Matter into Motion without the Intervention of another Corporeal Being in whose Conception i. e. as 't is Matter Motion is not involv'd Fourthly It may likewise be ask'd How the Laws of Motion come to be observ'd or maintain'd by a Corporeal Being which as merely such is either uncapable of understanding them or of acting with respect to them or at least is not necessarily endow'd with any knowledge of them or power to conform to them to make all the Parts of the unquestion'd Mundane Matter do so too Fifthly And I do not see how the taking in such an unintelligent undesigning Principle will free our Understandings from great Difficulties when we come to explicate the Phaenomena of Bodies For as is elsewhere noted if Nature be a Bodily Creature and acts necessarily and if I may so speak fatally I see no Cause to look upon It but as a kind of Engine and the Difficulty may be as great to conceive how all the several Parts of this supposed Engine call'd Nature are themselves fram'd and mov'd by the Great Author of Things and how they act upon one another as well as upon the undoubted Mundane Bodies as 't is to conceive how in the World itself which is manifestly
Attempts So in other Cases he may do it in a Positive Way by employing Medicines that either strengthen the Parts as well Fluid as Stable or make sensible Evacuations of Matters necessary to be proscrib'd by Them or he may do it by using Remedies that by their manifest Qualities oppugn those of the Morbifick Matter or Causes as when by Alcaly's or absorbing Medicaments he mortify's Praeter-natural Acids or disables Them to do Mischief And perhaps One may venture to say that in some Cases the Physitian may in a Positive Way contribute more to the Cure even of an inward Disease than Nature Herself seems able to do For if there be any such Medicine preparable by Art as Helmont affirms may be made of Paracelsus's Ludus by the Liquor Alkahest or as Cardan relates that an Empirick had in his Time who travell'd up and down Italy curing Those where-ever he came that were tormented with the Stone of the Bladder If I say there be any such Medicines the Physitian may by such Instruments perform that which for ought appears is not to be done by Nature Herself since we never find that She dissolves a confirm'd Stone in the Bladder Nay sometimes the Physician does even without the help of a Medicine controle and over-rule Nature to the great and sudden Advantage of the Patient For when a Person otherwise not very weak happens by a Fright or some surprising ill News to be so discompos'd that the Spirits hastily and disorderly thronging to some inward Part especially the Heart hinder the regular and wonted Motion of It by which disorder the Circulation of the Blood is hinder'd or made very imperfect In this Case I say the Patient is by Nature's great Care of the Heart as is commonly suppos'd even by Physitians cast into a Swoon whence the Physitian sometimes quickly frees him by rubbing and pinching the Limbs the Ears and the Nose that the Spirits may be speedily brought to the External Parts of the Body which must be done by a Motion to the Circumference as they call It quite opposite to That towards the Centre or Heart which Nature had given Them before But as to the Theory of Swoonings I shall not now examine its Truth it being sufficient to warrant my drawing from thence an Argument ad Hominem that the Theory is made Use of by Those I reason with By what has been discours'd One may perceive that as there are some Phaenomena that seem to favour the Doctrine of the Naturists about the Cure of Diseases so there are Others that appear more manifestly favourable to the Hypothesis we propose And both these sorts of Phaenomena being consider'd together may well suggest a Suspition that the most Wise and yet most Free Author of Things having fram'd the first Individuals of Mankin'd so as to be fit to last many Years and endow'd those Protoplasts with the Power of propagating their Species it thereupon comes to pass that in the subsequent Hydraulico-pneumatical Engines we call Human Bodies when neither particular Providence nor the Rational Soul nor over-ruling Impediments interpose Things are generally perform'd according to Mechanical Laws and Courses whether the Effects and Events of these prove to be conducive to the welfare of the Engine itself or else cherish and foment Extraneous Bodies or Causes whose Preservation and Prospering are hurtful to It. On which Supposition it may be said That the happy things referr'd to Nature's prudent Care of the Recovery and Welfare of sick Persons are usually genuine Consequences of the Mechanism of the World and the Patients Body which Effects luckily happen to be co-incident with his Recovery rather than to have been purposely and wisely produced in order to It since I observe that Nature seems to be careful to produce preserve and cherish Things hurtful to the Body as well as Things beneficial to It. For we see in the Stone of the Kidneys and Bladder that out of Vegetable or Animal Substances of a slighter Texture such as are the Alimental Juices which in Sucking Children who are observ'd to be frequently subject to the Stone in the Bladder are afforded by so mild a Liquor as Milk Nature skilfully frames a hard Body of so firm a Texture that it puzzles Physicians and Chymists to tell how such a Coagulation can be made of such Substances And I have found more than one Calculus to resist both Spirit of Salt that readily dissolves Iron and Steel and that highly Corrosive Menstruum Oyl of Vitriol itself We see also that divers times the Seeds or Seminal Principles of Worms that lye conceal'd in unwholesome Fruits and other ill-qualifi'd Aliments are preserv'd and cherish'd in the Body so as in spight of the Menstruum's ferments c. they meet with there they grow to be perfect Worms of their respective kinds that are often very troublesome and sometimes very dangerous to the Body that harbours them Producing though perhaps not immediately both more and more various Distempers especially here in England than every Physician is aware of This Reflection may very well be applied to those Instances we meet with in good Authors of Frogs and even Toads whose Spawn being taken in with corrupted Water hath been cherished in the Stomach 'till the Eggs being grown to be compleat Animals they produc'd horrid Symptoms in the Body that had lodg'd and fed them And if according to the receiv'd Opinion of Physicians stubborn Quartans are produc'd by a Melancholy Humour seated in the Spleen it may be said that Nature seems to busie Herself to convert some Parts of the Fluid Chile into so tenacious and hardly dissipable a Juice that in many Patients notwithstanding the Neighbourhood of the Spleen and Stomach neither strong Emeticks nor Purges nor other usual Remedies are able in a long time to dislodg it or resolve it or correct it But that is yet more conducive to my present purpose that is afforded me by the Consideration of the Poyson of a Mad-dog which Nature sometimes seems industriously and solicitously to preserve Since we have Instances in approved Authors that a little Foam convey'd into the Blood by a slight hurt perhaps quickly heal'd up is notwithstanding the constant Heat and perspirable Frame of the Human Body and the dissipable Texture of the Foam so preserved and that sometimes for many Years that at the end of that long time it breaks out and displays its fatal Efficacy with as much vigour and fury as if it had but newly been receiv'd into the Body To this agrees That which is well known in Italy about the biting of the Tarantula For though the Quantity of Poyson can scarce be visible since 't is communicated by the Tooth of so small an Animal as a Spider yet in many Patients 't is preserved during a great part of of their Lives and manifests its Continuance in the Body by Annual Paroxysms And I know a Person of great Quality who complain'd to me that being in
inclin'd to apprehend the First Formation of the World after some such manner as this I think it probable for I would not Dogmatize on so weighty and so difficult a Subject that the Great and Wise Author of Things did when he first Form'd the universal and undistinguish'd matter into the World put its Parts into various Motions whereby they were necessarily divided into numberless Portions of differing Bulks Figures and Scituations in respect of each other And that by his Infinite Wisdom and Power he did so guide and over-rule the Motions of these Parts at the beginning of things as that whether in a shorter or a longer time Reason cannot well determine they were finally dispos'd into that Beautiful and Orderly Frame we call the World among whose Parts some were so curiously contriv'd as to be fit to become the Seeds or Seminal Principles of Plants and Animals And I further conceive that he setled such Laws or Rules of Local Motion among the Parts of the Universal Matter that by his ordinary and preserving Concourse the several Parts of the Universe thus once completed should be able to maintain the great Construction or System and Oeconomy of the Mundane Bodies and propagate the Species of Living Creatures So that according to this Hypothesis I suppose no other Efficient of the Universe but God himself whose Almighty Power still accompanied with his Infinite Wisdom did at first Frame the Corporeal World according to the Divine Idea's which he had as well most freely as most wisely determin'd to conform them to For I think it is a Mistake to imagine as we are wont to do that what is call'd the Nature of this or that Body is wholly compris'd in its own Matter and its I say not Substantial but Essential Form as if from that or these only all its Operations must flow For an Individual Body being but a Part of the World and incompass'd with other Parts of the same great Automaton needs the Assistance or Concourse of other Bodies which are external Agents to perform divers of its Operations and exhibit several Phaenomena's that belong to it This would quickly and manifestly appear if for Instance an Animal or an Herb could be remov'd into those Imaginary Spaces the School-men tell us of beyond the World or into such a place as the Epicureans fancy their Intermundia or empty Intervals between those numerous Worlds their Master dream'd of For whatever the Structures of these living Engines be they would as little without the Co-operations of external Agents such as the Sun Aether Air c. be able to exercise their Functions as the great Mills commonly us'd with us would be to Grind Corn without the assistance of Wind or running Water Which may be thought the more credible if it be considered that by the meer Exclusion of the Air tho' not of Light or the Earth's Magnetical Effluvia c. procur'd by the Air-pump Bodies plac'd in an extraordinary large Glass will presently come into so differing a state that warm Animals cannot live in it nor flame tho' of pure Spirit of Wine burn nor Syringes draw up Water nor Bees or such winged Insects fly nor Caterpillars crawl nay nor Fire run along a train of dryed Gunpowder All which I speak upon my own experience According to the foregoing Hypothesis I consider the frame of the World already made as a Great and if I may so speak Pregnant Automaton that like a Woman with Twins in her Womb or a Ship furnish'd with Pumps Ordnance c. is such an Engine as comprises or consists of several lesser Engines And this Compounded Machine in conjunction with the Laws of Motion freely establish'd and still maintain'd by God among its Parts I look upon as a Complex Principle whence results the setled Order or Course of things Corporeal And that which happens according to this course may generally speaking be said to come to pass according to Nature or to be done by Nature and that which thwarts this Order may be said to be Preternatural or contrary to Nature And indeed though Men talk of Nature as they please yet whatever is done among things Inanimate which make incomparably the greatest part of the Universe is really done but by particular Bodies acting on one another by Local Motion Modifi'd by the other Mechanical Affections of the Agent of the Patient and of those other Bodies that necessarily concur to the Effect or the Phaenomenon produc'd N. B. Those that do not relish the knowledg of the Opinions and Rights of the Ancient Iews and Heathens may pass on to the next or V. Section and skip the whole following Excursion compris'd between double Paratheses's which though neither impertinent nor useless to the scope of this Treatise is not absolutely necessary to it In the foregoing III. Section of this Treatise I hope I have given a sufficient Reason of my backwardness to make frequent use of the Word Nature and now in this IV. Section having laid down such a Description of Nature as shews that her Votaries represent her as a Goddess or at least a Semi-Deity 'T will not be improper in this place to declare some of the Reasons of my dissatisfaction with the Notion or Thing it self as well as with the use of the Name and to shew why I am not willing to comply with those Many that would impose it upon us as very friendly to Religion And these reasons I shall the rather propose because not only the Generality of other Learned Men as I just now intimated but that of Divines themselves for want of Information or for some other cause seem not to have well consider'd so weighty a matter To manifest therefore the Malevolent Aspect that the Vulgar Notion of Nature has had and therefore possibly may have on Religion I think fit in a general way to premise what things they are which seem to me to have been the Fundamental Errors that mis-led the Heathen World as well Philosophers as others For if I mistake not the looking upon meerly Corporeal and oftentimes Inanimate Things as if they were endow'd with Life Sense and Understanding and the ascribing to Nature and some other Beings whether real or imaginary things that belong but to God have been some if not the chief of the Grand Causes of the Polytheism and Idolatry of the Gentiles The most Ancient Idolatry taking the word in its laxer sense or at least one of the earliest seems to have been the Worship of the Coelestial Lights especially the Sun and Moon That kind of Aboda zara 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Iewish Writers call strange or false Worships being the most Natural as having for its Objects Glorious Bodies Immortal always regularly mov'd and very beneficial to Men. There is Recorded in the Holy Scripture a Passage of Iob who is probably reputed to be at least as Antient as Moses which seems to argue that this Worship of the two great Luminaries was
Sword-Blades it has been often observ'd That though if soon after they are bent the force that bent them be withdrawn they will nimbly return to their former straightness yet if they which are not the only Springy Bodies of which this has been observ'd be kept too long bent they will lose the Power of recovering their former streightness and continue in that crooked Posture though the force that put them into it cease to act So that it seems Nature easily forgets the care She was presum'd to take of it at first There is an Axiom that passes for current among Learned Men viz. Nullum violentum durabile that seems much to favour the Opinion of the Naturists since 't is grounded upon a Supposition that what is violent is as such contrary to Nature and for that Reason cannot last long And this trite Sentence is by the Schools and even some Modern Philosophers so particularly apply'd to Local Motion that some of them have not improbably made it the Characteristick token whereby to distinguish Natural Motions from those that are not so that the Former are perpetual or at least very durable whereas the Later being continually check'd more and more by the Renitency of Nature do continually decay and within no long time are suppress'd or extinguish'd But on this occasion I must crave leave to make the following Reflections 1. It may be justly Question'd upon Grounds laid down in another Part of this Essay Whether there be any Motion among Inanimate Bodies that deserves to be call'd Violent in Contradistinction to Natural since among such all Motions where no Intelligent Spirit intervenes are made according to Catholick and almost if not more than almost Mechanical Laws 2. Methinks the Peripateticks who are wont to be the most forward to imploy this Axiom should find but little Reason to do so if they consider how unsuitable it is to their Doctrine That the vast Body of the Firmament and all the Planetary Orbs are by the Primum Mobile with a stupendious swiftness whirl'd about from East to West in four and twenty Hours contrary to their Natural tendency and That this violent and rapid Motion of the incomparably greater Part of the Universe has lasted as long as the World itself that is according to Aristotle for innumerable Ages 3. We may observe here below that the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea which is generally suppos'd to proceed either from the Motion of the Moon or that of the Terrestrial Globe or some other External Cause has lasted for some Thousands of Years and probably will do so as long as the present System of our Vortex shall continue I consider also that the other great Ocean the Atmosphere consists of numberless Myriads of Corpuscles that are here below continually kept in a violent State since they are Elastical Bodies whereof the Lower are still compress'd by the weight of the Higher And to make a Spring of a Body it is requisite that it be forcibly bent or stretch'd and have such a perpetual endeavour to fly open or to shrink in that it will not fail to do so as soon as the External Force that hinder'd it is remov'd And as for the States of Inanimate Bodies I do not see that their being or not being Natural can be with any certainty concluded from their being or not being very Durable For not to mention that Leaves that wither in a few Months and even Blossoms that often fade and fall off in few Days are as well Natural Bodies as the solid and durable Trees that bear them 't is obvious that whether we make the State of Fluidity or that of Congelation to be that which is Natural to Water and the other that which is Violent Its change from one of those States into another and even its return to its former State is oftentimes at some Seasons and in some Places made very speedily perhaps in an Hour or less by Causes that are acknowledg'd to be Natural And Mists Hail Whirlwinds Lightning Falling-Stars to name no more notwithstanding their being Natural Bodies are far from being lasting especially in comparison of Glass wherein the Ingredients Sand and Fixt Salt are brought together by great violence of Fire And the Motion that a thin Plate or slender Wire of this Glass can exercise to restore itself to its former Position when forcibly bent is in great part a lasting Effect of the same violence of the Fire And so is the most durable perseverance of the Indissolubleness of the Alcalisate Salt that is one of the two Ingredients of Glass notwithstanding its being very easily dissoluble in Water and other Liquors and not uneasily e'ne in the moist Air itself There is a distinction of Local Motion into Natural and Violent that is so generally receiv'd and us'd both by Philosophers and Physicians that I think it deserves to have special Notice taken of it in this Section since it implicitely contains an Argument for the Existence of the Thing call'd Nature by supposing it so manifest a Thing as that an Important Distinction may justly be grounded on It. This imply'd Objection I confess is somewhat difficult to clear not for any great Force that is contained in It but because of the Ambiguity of the Terms wherein the Distinction is wont to be imploy'd For most Men speak of the propos'd Distinction of Motion in so obscure or so uncertain a way that 't is not easie to know what they mean by either of the Members of It. But yet some there are who endeavour to speak Intelligibly and for that are to be commended and define Natural Motion to be That whose Principle is within the Moving Body itself and Violent Motion That which Bodies are put into by an External Agent or Cause And in in regard these speak more clearly than the rest I shall here principally consider the lately mention'd Distinction In the Sense They give It. I say then that even according to this Explication I am not satisfied with the Distinction For whereas 't is a Principle received and frequently employ'd by Aristotle and his Followers Quicquid movetur ab alio movetur it seems that according to this Axiom all Motion may be called Violent since it proceedes from an External Agent and indeed according to the School Philosophers the Motion of far the greatest Part of the Visible World though this Motion be most Regular and Lasting must according to the propos'd Distinction be reputed Violent since they assert that the Immense Firmament itself and all the Planetary Orbs in comparison of which vast Coelestial Part of the World the Sublunary Part is little more than a Physical Point is perpetually and against its Native Tendency hurry'd about the the Centre of the World once in Twenty four Hours by an External though Invisible Agent which they therefore call the Primum Mobile And as for the Criterion of Natural Motion that Its Principle is within the Moving Body it may be said
kind of Bastard-flesh or some such other Body which that Juice in the Place and other Circumstances 't is in is fitted to constitute Thus we see that not only Wens and Scrophulous Tumors are nourish'd in the Body but mis-shapen Mola's do by Nutriment grow in the Womb as well as Embryo's feed there And to come closer to the present Argument we see that in Wounds Proud-Flesh and perhaps Fungus's are as well produc'd and entertain'd by the Aliment brought to the wounded Part as the true and genuine Flesh so that either Nature seems much mistaken if She designs the Production and Maintenance of such superfluous and inconvenient Bodies or the Chirurgeon is much to blame who is industrious to destroy them though oftentimes he cannot do it without using painful Corrosives But for ought appears Nature is not so shy and reserv'd in Her Bounty but that She sends Nourishment to repair as well Things that do not belong to the Body as genuine Parts of It as to restore Flesh to wounded Parts as may appear by Warts and Corns that grow again after they are skilfully cut And I remember I have seen a Woman in whose Forehead Nature was careful to nourish a Horn about an Inch and more in length which I fully examin'd whilst it was yet growing upon Her Head to avoid being impos'd upon But besides the Diseases hither to discours'd there are many Others as well Acute as Chronical wherein 't is confess'd that Nature alone does not work the Cure so that as to these which are more numerous than the former I may well pretend that the Aphorism that makes Nature the Curer of Diseases is not true otherwise than in a limited Sense But because I know 't is pretended that even in these Diseases Nature is the principal Agent by whose Direction the Physician acts in subserviency to her Designs and Physicians themselves whether out of Modesty or Inadvertence I now enquire not are wont to acknowledg that they are but Nature's Ministers I think it necessary to consider briefly what Sense is fit according to our Doctrine to be given to these Assertions to make them receivable by us But to make way for what we are to say on this Occasion it may be fit to observe that one great Cause of the common Mistakes about this Matter is as hath been partly intimated already That the Body of a Man is look'd upon rather as a System of Parts whereof Most are gross and consistent and not a Few hard and solid too than as what indeed it is a very compounded Engine that besides these Consistent Parts does consist of the Blood Chyle Gall and other Liquors also of more subtil Fluids as Spirits and Air all which Liquors and Fluids are almost incessantly and variously moving and thereby put divers of the Solid Parts as the Heart and Lungs the Diaphragma the Hands Feet c. into frequent and differing Motions So that as when the Constitution or the Motions that in a sound Body do regularly belong to the Fluid Parts happens the former to be Deprav'd or the later to grow Anomalous the Engine is immediately out of Order though the gross solid Parts were not primarily affected So when by proper Remedies whether Visible or not the vitiated Texture or Crasis of the Blood or other Juices is corrected and the inordinate Motions that They and the Spirits are put into or that they also put the consistent Parts into are calm'd and rectify'd the grosser and more solid Parts of the Body and so the whole Animal Oeconomy if I may so call It will be restored to a more convenient State Thus we see that in many Hysterical Women by the fragrant Effluvia of a Spanish Glove or some Other strong Perfume the Spirits and Genus Nervosum being affected several disorderly Symptoms are produc'd and oftentimes the Motion of the Blood is so stopt or abated that any Pulse at all is scarcely to be felt nor Respiration discern'd and the whole Engine unable to sustain itself falls to the Ground and lies moveless on It and yet we have often by barely holding to the Patient's Nostrils a Vial full of very strong Spirit or Volatile Salt or Sal-armoniack or of Harts-horn in less than a quarter of an Hour sometimes in a few Minutes restor'd Women in that Condition to their Senses Speech and Motion We are also here to consider what I have formerly inculcated that the Oeconomy of the human Body is so constituted by the Divine Author of It that it is usually fitted to last many Years if the more General Laws setled by the same Author of the Universe will permit it And therefore 't is not to be wonder'd at that in many Cases the Automaton should be in a Condition to concur though not with Knowledge and Design to its own Preservation when though it had been put somewhat out of Order 't is assisted by the Physicians Hands or Medicines to recover a convenient State And if it be objected that the Examples that have been in this past Discourse frequently drawn from Automata are not adequate and do not fully reach the Difficulties we have been speaking of I shall readily grant it provided it be consider'd that I avowedly and deservedly suppose the Bodies of living Animals to be Originally Engins of God's own framing and consequently Effects of an Omniscient and Almighty Artificer So that 't is not Rational to expect that in the incomparably inferior Productions of human Skill there should be found Engins fit to be compar'd with These which in their Protoplasts had God for their Author Not to mention what yet may be considerable in reference to the Lastingness of human Life that a Man is not a mere Mechanical Thing where nothing is perform'd for the Preservation of the Engine or its Recovery to a good State but by its own Parts or by other Agents acting according to Mechanical Laws without Counsel or Design since though the Body of a Man be indeed an Engine yet there is united to It an Intelligent Being the Rational Soul or Mind which is capable especially if instructed by the Physitians Art to discern in many Cases what may hurt It and what may conduce to the Welfare of It and is also able by the Power it has to govern the Muscles and other Instruments of voluntary Motion to do many of those Things it judges most conducive to the Safety and the Welfare of the Body 't is join'd with So that a Man is not like a Watch or an Empty Boat where there is nothing but what is purely Mechanical but like a Mann'd Boat where besides the Machinal Part if I may so speak there is an Intelligent Being that takes Care of It and both steers It or otherwise guides It and when need requires trimms It and in a word as Occasion serves does what he can to preserve It and keep It fit for the Purposes 't is design'd for These Things being premis'd I think
an admirably contriv'd Automaton the Phaenomena may by the same Author who was able to endow Bodies themselves with Active Powers as well as he could on other scores make them Causes be produc'd by Vertue and in consequence of the Primitive Construction and Motions that He gave it and still maintains in it without the Intervention of such a thing as they call Nature For This as well as the World being a Corporeal Creature we cannot conceive that either of them act otherwise than Mechanically And it seems very suitable to the Divine Wisdom that is so excellently display'd in the Fabrick and Conduct of the Universe to imploy in the World already fram'd and compleated the fewest and most simple Means by which the Phaenomena design'd to be exhibited in the World could be produc'd Nor need we be much mov'd by hearing some Naturists say that Nature though not an Incorporeal Being is of an Order Superior to mere Matter as divers of the School-men teach the Things they call Material Forms to be For who can clearly conceive an Order or Kind of Beings that shall be Real Substances and yet neither Corporeal nor Immaterial Nor do I see how the Supposition of this Unintelligible or at least Unintelligent Being though we should grant it to have a kind of Life or Soul will much assist us to explicate the Phaenomena as if a Man be acquainted with the Construction of Mills he he may as well conceive how Corn is ground by a Mill driven by the Wind or by a Stream of Water which are Brute and Senseless Beings as he can by knowing that 't is kept at Work by a Horse who though an Animated Being acts in our Case but as a Part of an Engine that is determin'd to go round and who does neither intend to grind the Corn nor know that he grinds It. And in this Place though perhaps not the very fittest I may Question With what Congruity to their Master's Doctrine the School-Philosophers teach that Nature is the Principle of Motion in all the Bodies they call Natural For not to urge that those great Masses of Sublunary Matter to which they give the Name of Elements and the Mixt Bodies that consist of them are by divers learned Men said to be mov'd to or from the Centre of the Earth by distinct Internal Principles which they call Gravity in the Earth and Water and Levity in the Fire and Air and that there is ascrib'd also to every compounded Body that Quality of the Two which belongs to the Element that predominates in It. Not to urge this I say consider that the Coelestial Part of the World does so far exceed the Sub-Coelestial in Vastness that there is scarce any Comparison between them and yet the Generality of the Peripateticks after Aristotle tell us that the Coelestial Globes of Light and the vast Orbs they suppose them to be fix'd in are mov'd from West to East by Intelligences that is Rational and Separate Beings without whose Conduct they presume that the Motions of the Heavens could not be so Regular and Durable as we see they are So that in that Part of the Universe which is incompararably vaster than the Sublunary is Intelligences being the Causes of Motion there is no Recourse to be had to Nature as the true and internal Principle of It. And here it may not perhaps be improper to declare somewhat more fully a Point already touch'd upon namely that if to know what is the general Efficient Cause of Motion can much contribute to the Explication of particular Phaenomena the Hypothesis of those Naturists I now reason with will have no considerable Advantage if any at all of Ours which derives them from the Primitive Impulse given by God to Matter and from the Mechanical Affections of the greater and lesser Portions of It. For 't is all one to Him that would declare by what particular Motion as Swift Slow Uniform Accelerated Direct Circular Parabolical c. this or that Phaenomenon is produc'd to know whether the Motions of the Parts of Matter were Originally impress'd on them by Nature or immediately by God unless it be that He being of infinitely Perfect Knowledge may be more probably than a Creature suppos'd to have at first produc'd in Matter Motions best accommodated to the Phaenomena that were to be exhibited in the World Nor do I see sufficient Cause to grant that Nature Herself whatever She be produces any Motion de Novo but only that She transfers and regulates That which was communicated to Matter at the beginning of Things As we formerly noted that in the Human Body the Rational Soul or Mind has no Power to make new Motions but only to direct those of the Spirits and of the grosser Organs and Instruments of voluntary Motion For besides that many of the Modern Naturalists approve of the Cartesian Opinion That the same Quantity of Motion is always preserv'd in the whole Mass of of the Mundane Matter that was communicated to it at first though it be perpetually transferring it from one Part to another Besides this I say I consider that if Nature produces in these those Bodies Motion that were never before in Beings unless much Motion be annihilated which is a thing as yet unprov'd the Quantity of Motion in the Universe must have for some Thousands of Years perpetually increas'd and must continue to do so which is a Concession that would much disorder the whole Theory of Local Motion and much perplex Philosophers instead of assisting Them in explicating the Phaenomena of Bodies And as for the Effects of Local Motion in the Parts of the Universal Matter which Effects make a great Part of the Phaenomena of the World After what I have formerly declar'd you will not wonder to hear me confess that to me the Supposition of Nature whether Men will have Her an Immaterial or Corporeal Substance and either without Knowledge or else indowed with Understanding doth not seem absolutely Necessary nor perhaps very Useful to make us comprehend how they are produc'd The Bodies of Animals are divers of them little less curiously fram'd than Mens and most of them more exquisitely than for ought we know the great Inanimate Mass of the Corporeal World is And yet in the Judgment of no mean Naturalists some of the Mechanical Philosophers that deny Cogitation and even Sense properly so call'd to Beasts do at least as Intelligibly and Plausibly as those that ascribe to them Souls indow'd with such Faculties as make them scarce more than gradually different from Human Ones explicate the Phaenomena that are observ'd in them And I know not whether I may not on this Occasion add that the Peripateticks themselves especially the Moderns teach some things whence One may argue that the Necessity of recurring to Nature does not reach to so many things by far as is by them suppos'd For the Efformation or Framing of the Bodies of Plants and Animals which are by great