should be destroy'd and yet no other Body produc'd in its room Or thus which turns to the same Account I most distinctly conceive a part of Matter setting aside all others and I most distinctly conceive all other without that for Instance without conceiving the Air inclos'd in a Chamber My Hypothesis then is establish'd as well as the Consequences that naturally follow against your Opinion touching the Essence of Matter So that if you have any Inclination towards a Peace you will be content to say that considering Things in their natural Capacity Matter is necessarily extended but will willingly give up that Expression that hath disgusted all the World That Extension Matter and Space were all the very same thing That Insult which Aristotle made upon M. Descartes in bandying one part of his Principles against another worsted my old Gentleman's Patience and rattled him so that ' was ten to one but he had tore the Paper on the spot He propos'd our going off without acquainting Aristotle's Embassadors who were stragled a good way from us telling us the Company of such sort of Cattle was not very pleasing But we represented to him how dishonourable a thing and unbecoming of Descartes that would be That that Paper was not so much a Project of Peace as a Challenge and Defiance Aristotle had sent him that probably he might slight it and probably he might think it worth while to answer it That M. Descartes had so wonderful a Gift of persuading and captivating Spirits and the production of a World was a thing of that surprizing Nature that doubtless the two Souls that bore us Company must be converted to Cartesianism provided M. Descartes would be at the pains of explaining his System to them in a plausible and familiar manner These Reasons setled him again and we pursued in the reading of the Paper in expectation of the two Souls From the Essence of the Body and Soul Aristotle passed on to their Union and the Relations they have betwixt themselves He began with great Encomiums on M. Descartes for having opened the Eyes of the Philosophers and shewing them the Unusefulness as well as Absurdity of their Intentional Species in many cases alledging That he had taught nothing on that Occasion that ought to be held so strange and incomprehensible by the Peripateticks had not they deserted the Sentiments of their acknowledged Master to follow the Whimsies and Imaginations of his Commentators That he himself had remarked in many Places That the Sense of Feeling was dispersed throughout the Body and through all the Organs of the other Senses That Vision Taste the Perception of Sounds and Smells were only caused by the local Motion of some Bodies that touch'd and moved the Organs of the different Senses that in effect if that Motion were insufficient for the Soul 's perceiving Objects those intentional Species substituted in their Place would be as far from serving Turn That he was not for rejecting M. Descartes's Doctrin concerning the Seat of the Soul in the Pineal Gland were it proposed only as a pure Hypothesis since all that others say amounts to nothing better but it was insufferable that System should be urged as a setled and demonstrated Truth And that the Respect M. Descartes still pretended for Truth and Experience ought to make him qualify and moderate his Assertions thereupon He intreated him likewise to be more Human and good-natured towards those who taught the Soul was expanded through the Body and this is what he added to shew the Cartesians were a little Unreasonable in that Affair For said he when you assert the Soul is placed in the Pineal Gland either you suppose she takes up all the extent of that Gland or that she only possesses one indivisible part of it if she possesses all the Capacity of the Gland she herself must thence be extended for that Consequence entirely resembles yours which you draw against the Philosophers who make the Soul expanded throughout the Body If she only possesses an indivisible Part thereof there must necessarily be some part of Matter that is indivisible and not extended And thus in admiting that disjunctive Proposition you appropriate to the Soul what you affirm belongs to Matter only otherwise you grant an Attribute to Matter which on all other occasions you deny and pretend according to your Principles however we understand it that it is the only peculiar of a Spiritual Soul Besides all the Nerves where are the Radiations of the Spirits that enter in and out of the Pineal Gland can neither part from the same indivisible Point of the Gland nor meet there so that if the Soul was in an indivisible Point of that Gland she could not have the Perception of all Objects there But if you reply The Soul is not in the Gland as a Body is in another Body or as a Body is in a Place but that the Soul in quality of a Spirit is not in that Gland but because she acts there because she thinks there wills there and perceives Objects there and that since the Different Impressions of Objects terminate in divers Points of the Gland where she is advertised of them it may be said the Soul is in all the Gland The Philosophers that undertake you are ready to take you up with a fresh Objection For if the Soul acts wills thinks apprehends Objects in all the Gland that is to say in a very devisible Space and if that be sufficient to affirm she is in all the Pineal Gland it will be true according to their Hypothesis to say The Soul is in all the Body since it acts and perceives Objects in all the Body she sees them in the Eye as you say she perceives them in that part of the Pineal Gland where the Optick Nerve doth point or the Rays of the Spirits that proceed from that Nerve she perceives Sounds in the Ear or as you say she perceives them in another Point of the Pineal Gland where the Nerves do center or the Rays that serve for that Perception Thus that pretended Bug-bear of Philosophy I mean the Presence of the Soul throughout the Body that causes her to feel in the Hand when that is prick'd and makes her move it presently and withdraw it upon the Sense of the Compunction that makes her stir the Foot in order to advance methinks is no longer monstrous or frightful nor a Prejudice of Infancy evidently false seeing that Presence of the Soul throughout the Body is no other than that which is allowed her in the Pineal Gland the Pineal Gland being extended as well as the whole Body for the Diminutivenss of the Extension makes nothing to the Purpose Why therefore should that Vertual Extension of a Spirit be turned to a Jest and Ridicule when 't is the same as is admitted by the Cartesians when both are well explained and undoubtedly all the Sensations may very near be as justly explained upon this Hypothesis as upon that of
That was the Product of the Meditation wherein you surpriz'd me the other day and when I seem'd to you to awake of a suddain I came farther a Field than you imagine He spoke this in so serious and positive a way that he seem'd to be in earnest It shall be your Fault added he if you are not convinc'd of the Truth of what I say and of the Experiment It is the most curious Secret in the World I am resolv'd to commit it but to very few but that Adherency which you have manifested until this time unto me will not suffer me to be reserv'd in any thing He went on without giving me time to complement his Generosity and related that extraordinary Event in all its Circumstances He told me that being six'd attentively upon the Question which the Princess Elizabeth had propos'd touching the Union of the Soul and Body and revolving in his Mind his former Thoughts upon that Subject in the midst of that extraordinary Application he found himself in such a strange Surprizal in an Instant that he was not capable when he told me of it to express himself clearly thereupon nor could he gain so distinct a Conception of it as when actually he was in it All that he could tell me was That it resembled a Trance because in that there is no use of the Senses one can neither See nor Hear nor Feel the Impression of External Objects unless they be extreamly violent and then there is an end of it But herein it was quite different since the Soul had Perceptions of it Self and was apprehensive of the Cessation of its Organical Functions Which in a Trance is nothing so That she was furnish'd with a World of Immaterial or purely Spiritual Notices of which he had sometime discours'd to us but in an abundantly more perfect and lively manner than when his Attention was disturb'd with the appearances of Fancy which constantly interrupt it That more Discoveries of Truth could be made thus in one Minute than in ten years by the ordinary means which Knowledg of Truth fill'd the Soul with so pure and satisfactory a Joy that nothing is more true than what Aristotle says likely upon the same Experience That the compleat Happiness of Man in this Life if there is any such thing consists in the Contemplation of God and Natural Beings But he told me he had no sense of that perfect Joy till he was fully enlightned upon the Point that then took up his Thoughts Which was done in a Moment He had the satisfaction not only to know but to be sensible in some measure of the Truth of the greatest part of those Things which had imploy'd his Meditations until that time and of the Evidence of the Idea's he had fram'd concerning the Essence of the Body and Soul to see her advanc'd upon her Pineal Gland he had conjectur'd and to see that the Union of the Soul with the Body was nothing less then that vertual or rather imaginary Extension by which she was suppos'd commensurate with the Limbs much less those imaginary Modes which the Schools makes use of to confound and plague the Conceptions of Youth But that which was of most Importance was to see that this Union was nothing in Effect but these actual Commerce and Correspondence the Soul and Body had with one another A Commerce that chiefly is maintain'd in this that the Nerves spread through the Body by their Vibration give occasion to the Soul of knowing the different impressions External Objects make upon the Senses and in that the Soul pursuant thereupon by the Motion she immediately impresses upon the Pineal Gland where all the Nerves concentre determines the Animal Spirits to their several marches through the Muscles to produce in the Body such several Motions as she shall please to give and especially those that are necessary to her Preservation After that pursu'd my old Friend M. Descartes entertain'd me with all that happen'd upon that occasion and all the other Reflections he had made The Principal of which was That his Soul in that juncture no longer perceiving the Motions external Objects caus'd upon his Body and by consequence that Commerce in which the Essence of Union consisted being broken she could behold her self as in a separate State though in the mean time she resided at her usual Abode that local Presence having the least share in her Union with the Body She then had a mind to disengage her self from the Body and see what would be the Event of that Separation No sooner had she wisht it than it was so And he farther experienc'd what he had often suggested to us before that if the Machine of the Body had all its Organs sound and free if it had its customary Heat in the Heart and Stomack the circulation of the Blood the filtration of the Humours and all those natural Functions all the Motions constantly perform'd in us without the notice of the Soul would go on as regularly in her absence as when she was there Moreover it fell out as she was busy in contemplating the operation of her Body at some paces distance from it a Fly fortun'd to tickle it in the Face presently the Hand rais'd it self to the place and unseated the Fly just as if the Soul had been actually in the Body So true it is that the greatest part of the Motions of our Body which we attribute to the Soul are owing to the sole Disposition of the Machine This Soul before she durst venture to wander very far from the Body made her entry and exit sundry times and judging by the disposition in which she saw it she might without any apparent danger leave it for some time she hazarded the undertaking a very long Voyage She arriv'd at Beitany in the Houses of her Relations and from thence she made a Sally unto Paris to the House of some other Acquaintance She was much concern'd to see that the People there had but an indiffernt Opinion of her Religion the Country M. Descartes had chose to live in and some unwaranted Inferences that one or other had drawn from his Principles had given occasion to those rash Censures It is notwithstanding true that all the time he liv'd and when he dy'd he was a sound and honest Catholick Finally such was the success the Soul found in her Rambles when separate from the Body that she could when she pleas'd in a Minute travel three or four thousand Leagues In so much that this of M. Descartes parting from Egmond about half an hour after eight in the Morning had travers'd all France in an hour and an half and was return'd at ten Bless me said I to my old Gentleman how expedient would that be for a Person that so passionately desires to see the Country as I do You shall gratify your Curiosity answer'd he but hear me out M. Descartes Soul being return'd from he Voyage in France found her Body almost in the
remember the Priviledg these Cartesian Gentlemen take who when perplex'd in answering the Argument brought against the Essence of Matter and drawn from the Sacrament of the Host think they have right to cry out They are injur'd That their Philosophy is sequestred from Things relating to Faith That they are Philosophers and not Divines and undertake the explaining the Mysteries of Nature not of Religion I would I say they 'd do me the like Justice or if they had rather the same Favour And supposing any one so Religious as to suspect me of the Heresie of those who say The Souls in parting from the Body are not doom'd for Eternity I wish he 'd consider once more that I am in this an Historian and Philosopher not a Theologist and give a Relation of Descartes's World am not making a Profession of Faith Which the Character of an History such as I am upon will bear far more independently of the Truths of our Religion than a System of Philosophy Any one that knows never so little must be forc'd to acknowledg this Which being once suppos'd I return to the Narrative of my Old Gentleman who thus went on M. Descartes's Soul returning to Stockholm found her self in the like unlucky Circumstances as did one Hermotimus mentioned by Tertullian L. de Anima who having procur'd the self-same Secret as Descartes left constantly anights his Body asleep in Bed whilst his Soul went a rambling through the World Both one and the other at their return found their Lodgings out of a Capacity to receive them The Task Descartes's Soul enjoyn'd her self then was to meet at Paris She would not tell me presently of the Accident but only invited me to take a turn or two No sooner said than done With one Snuff of the Tobacco I equipt my self to wait on her My Soul was no sooner out of my Body but she said in Language Spiritual she was about to tell me strange News I am says she no longer Imbody'd my Corps is this day to be interr'd at Stockholm and he gave me the Particulars of what I have been relating Nor did she seem sab or afflicted thereupon I then demanded of her if she experienc'd what the Philosophers report That the Soul being the substantial Form of the Body when separated for good and all is in statu violento She answer'd me she knew nothing of that violent State but found her self incomparably better out than in the Body And that she had but one Concern upon her to know in what part of the vast Space was best to settle her Abode in That she would take my Directions in the thing but that she found her Will inclin'd for the third Heaven The third Heaven according to the division Cartesius makes of the World is the last of all and that which is the farthest remov'd from us For the first is nothing but the Vortex in which is plac'd the Earth whose Centre is the Body of the Sun about which the Coelestial Matter that composes the Vortex carries us and makes us turn continually like the other Planets The second Heaven is incomparably larger than that in which we are and takes up all that mighty space in which we see the fix'd Stars which are so many Suns and have each of them a Vortex of which they are themselves the Centre as our Sun is of this Lastly the third Heaven is all that Matter or all that indefinite Extent which we conceive above the Starry Heaven and is void of Bounds and in respect of which the space of all the other may be consider'd as a Point Now many Reasons determin'd M. Descartes to choose his place of Residence in the highest Heaven The first was To avoid the Company of an Innumerable gang of Souls of Philosophers that were vaulting and fluttering on all parts of this our Vortex for to tell you by the way 't is incredible how many Souls we met upon our Journey And M. Descartes was much surpriz'd to see the Secret of which he took himself to be the first Inventer made use of in all times even by those of a very mean Quality whereby they have escap'd a dying or whose Souls have lost their Bodies by some Accident not unlike that of M. Descartes But that which made their Company so disrelisht and perfectly intolerable to Cartesius his Spirit was That these Souls so disentangled as they were from Matter were tinctur'd still with Prejudice wherewith they were prepossess'd when united with their Bodies That when he would have converss'd with them about the Principles of Bodies and the Causes of several Phoenomena's they faintly suppos'd to him or prov'd by the Authority of Aristotle substantial Forms absolute Accidents and occult Qualities as is done to this day in many Schools And except some few Souls of the highest Rank which he hath converted and proselyted to Cartesianism all are inveterate and inleagu'd against him with as immoderate Fury as the Philosophers of this World when he began to publish his Doctrin here The second Reason that byass'd him to that Election was because he look'd upon those indefinite Spaces as a new Discovery of which he was the Author For it was upon his forming a distinct Idea of Matter whose Essence consisted in Extension that he concluded Space Extension and Matter to be one and the same thing signify'd under different Names And being it was necessary to admit of a Space and an Extension above our World since we have a most clear Conception of them it was plain That above our World there was Matter too and as we can have no Idea of any Bounds or Limits that Matter has it is necessary it should be Infinite or rather Indefinite Finally the third and most prevailing Reason of all and which he intimated not to me until we arrived upon the place is that well conjecturing the Matter above the fix'd Stars to be uninform'd and not yet shap'd into a World he was in good hopes that he was able to set it to work himself and fancy'd that in dividing and agitating it according to his Principles he could reduce it to a World like this excepting that it would be destitute of real Men and only stor'd with Automatous Machines in their Likeness That Project was the Subject of the most part of his Books especially of his Book of Principles and that Entituled The World of M. Descartes We set out immediately for the third Heaven I shall not descend to the Particulars of our Voyage I hope in a few days you 'll bear me Company there your self I 'll only say that upon our Coasting we found all Things exactly in that Portrait we had drawn before without Form without due Order or any regular posture of the Parts as rude and unsightly Materials that require the Hand of the Artist We survey'd it all about and bewilder'd our selves a long time in the vast Deserts of the other World which perfectly represented to me
My old Friend being returned from the Country sent me a Letter the next Morning in which he notisied He would see me before four and twenty Hours were at an end and that I should put my self in a Readiness for my Voyage I waited all the Day with great Impatience but seeing at last he did not come about ten a Clock I went to Bed half an Hour after being yet awake I was amazed to hear my Curtains drawn on all Sides my Bed the Casements of my Windows to fly open with so vast a Noise and to see by the Assistance of the Moon my old Gentleman in the middle of the Room and another with him habited in an unusual Dress I protest I was seized with such a sudden Dread that the Hair of my Head stood upright and I sweat all over The old Gentleman then approaching to my Bed-side said You are fearful take Courage a little Don't you know me I know you answered I in a trembling Tone but what could I think to see you in my Chamber without entring at the Door with such a Noise and Havock as was here What you should and ought to think said he is that a Spirit separate from the Body may enter any where without a Key and needs not the Convenience of a Door And for the Noise it was first to wake you and then for the Pleasure of surprizing you and putting you in a little Fright Do not you remember the Conversation we had together a Fortnight since I well remember it said I but was it all true you then related Infallibly said he and I now am come to make good my Promise I then made you of conducting you to M. Descartes's World Here is the Reverend Father Mersennus who is now come from him to advise me all is ready and that he would be glad before he puts the Design of his World in Execution to make a Tryal in the Presence of some of his Friends you shall be of the Party if you think fit I advise you not to lose so fair an Opportunity At the same Time Father Mersennus steps up and bowing low to the Ground confirmed what my old Philosopher had said and added That understanding by him the Character and Qualification of my Soul he could undertake for a kind Reception from M. Descartes Pardon Reverend Father said I my Astonishment I am not accustomed to receive such Visits Spirits I never saw before and I could never have believed they had been so civil and well-bred as I now find them Mean while though I us'd all possible endeavours to compose my self I still was somewhat fearful I was under strong Apprehensions there might be Sorcery and Witchcraft in the Case and that under pretence of guiding me unto M. Descartes's World they design'd to convey me to the Witches Sabbath On the other hand I fear'd to affront these Gentlemen-Spirits who for the most part understand not Will and Humour And my Memory furnish'd me with a parallel Case of some certain People cajol'd with the pretence of such sort of Mysteries till having learn'd a part and refusing to go on they had their Neck writhen by the Devil or his Accomplices I renounc'd all manner of covenanting in my self and made use of all the Precautions my Prudence could suggest in that Conjuncture after which I spoke to them as fairly as I could in this manner Gentlemen you make Profession of a Sect that gives it as a Maxim That a Man must not assent to any thing but a Truth fully and clearly manifest And that it is distinguishes you from all others and especially the Philosophers of the Schools The Conversation I had with this Gentleman a fortnight ago and the Critical Reading of M. Descartes since joyn'd with the present Circumstances create some Scruples in my Mind of which I should be glad to be clear'd before we go any farther Will you take kindly what I shall propose We will hear you readily answer'd they and you shall have the satisfaction you demand Only settle and compose your self for you seem a little disturb'd And resolve your self you need not fear and that you shall receive no harm Those last Words a little reviv'd me and I began to speak with a more steady Voice It is not many days since I read in M. Descartes That the Essence of the Soul consists in being a thinking Substance and that she hath neither Extension nor Figure nor Colour which I know not how to reconcile with what I see at present For you give me to understand you be purely Spirits yet I perceive in you different Colours and I see you form'd in the Figure of a Man and you look like Beings that are extended Rid me I pray you of this Perplexity Father Mersennus presently took the Word What you propose said he stands to Reason But it is easy to answer you and plainly to expound the Thing by the evident Principles of true Philosophy It is certain a Soul is essentially a thinking Substance and that she is neither Figur'd nor Colour'd We are purely Spirits indeed and though we seem to have a Face and Hands and Feet yet we have neither Face nor Hands nor Feet He must be as addle-brain'd as was Tertullian and bent on Error with as great a Zeal as he when he ingag'd himself in that Affair Who thinks the Soul is not only Corporal but has also Parts proportion'd to the Body which she animates and is therein just as a Sword is in the Scabbord His devout Spirit that saw Souls of a blew Colour in his Prayer had topsyturn'd his Mind upon that Subject To make you therefore comprehend how you see us Colour'd Figur'd and Extended with Face Hands and Feet though we have neither Extension Colour Figure Hands nor Feet you must know your Soul whilst she is united with the Body cannot behold another Soul so as in her self she is cannot hear her Speak or to explain my self more justly cannot have the immediate Communication of her Thoughts To the end then you might know that we are here and that we might make you understand our Thoughts and the Design that brought us hither it was expedient to make use of means proportion'd to the Capacity your Soul at present's in Now I would not have you imagine that for this purpose I was forc'd to frame my self a Body of some Matter But only call to mind what your reading of M. Descartes ought to teach you That to see an Object with regard unto your Soul is nothing else than to perceive the Extension Figures and Colours of that Object That that perception is not caus'd immediately by the Object which being at a distance from our Body and our Soul cannot act upon them of it self That therefore 's done by the Reflection of Infinite Rays of Light which rallying from every part and every point of the Object strike and make the several Threads to quaver of which the Optick Nerve's
the Warantee because the best of his Disciples have awarded them unto him with an universal Consent He hath thought fit to declare himself on the first occasion and to intreat the Publick as also those Gentlemen the new Philosophers to do him Justice in that Particular He protests then to separate his Interest in many Articles from theirs that style themselves his Disciples He declares that in the Questions of the Schools many things go under his Name which are none of his as is for Instance that most Childish Notion of the Horror of a Vacuum That he himself hath certify'd and prov'd by Experience the Pressure of the Air which at this Day is made a Principle in the Physical Expilcation of such Phenomena's as have most alliance to the Question of a Vacuum That he is no ways the Father of an infinite little Beings introduc'd in the School Philosophy That his Writings have often been mis-interpreted and Men have commonly taken for Natural Beings what in his Idea were only Denominations and Metaphysical Attributes This Calm continu'd he with which I speak after that ungovernable Obstinacy you formerly knew me guilty of might stand for my Credentials as to you in Aristotle's Absence But I will farther add that since you meet him out of the Globe of the Moon he hath dispatch'd an Express in which he gives orders that if you pass'd this way I should not fail to inform you of his Thoughts and Intentions and to let you know that whatever Warmth appear'd in him in his Discourse against Descartes he would notwithstanding gladly hearken to some Accommodation with him Furthermore this is no unpremeditated Resolution The Expedient has been form'd and written long ago and the Fault will not be ours if you do not see it and take upon you the presenting it to Descartes if you so think convenient We return'd we most joyfully accepted it and that we thought our selves happy any ways to contribute to the Reconciliation of the two greatest Philosophers the World has known and the Reunion of two Parties that were at present the only considerable in Europe He took forthwith out of a Cabinet that was at the end of the Hall and where upon handsom Shelves stood a good sight of Books excellently bound and that look'd exactly like Books the new Philosophers have compos'd within this thirty or forty Years and that Aristotle and Voetius had undoubtedly read he took I say from a Cabinet a kind of Memoirs with this Title in Latin Words De Consensu Philosophiae Veteris Novae We have said I an Ingenious Man of our World that has wrote a Book with the same Inscription M. Du Hamel I my self have read it he replyed and a Man may easily see by the way it is wrote in the Author is well vers'd in all parts of Philosophy He is a Gentleman unbiassed as to one side or other is throughly acquainted with the Interests of each Party and therefore the fittest Person that I know to mediate in that Affair A preliminary Point is taken from his Preface which is much in the right on 't and whereto Aristotle and Descartes must forthwith accord that the Sect-Leaders of Philophy Neque omnia neque nihil viderunt With that he presented us the Project of Accommodation and desired us to read it at our leisure in our Voyage as also to take with us as we had offered at our Arrival some Aristotelian Souls to accompany us to Descartes's Place of Residence to the end he might know by them what that Philosopher had resolv'd upon the Propositions laid down in that Treaty We thanked him for the Honour he did us in intrusting us with so Important a Negotiation assured him we would do all that lay in us towards the facilitating its Success and after much Expression and Acknowledgment of his Civilities we beg'd his leave we might persue our Voyage since we had a vast way still to go and had spent many Hours in that we had pass'd already He conducted us out of the Lyceum and giving some Instructions to two Souls of the Country that seem'd Spirits of Note and Fashion ordered them to wait on us so made his Conge Designing to run over that whole Hemisphere of the Moon that is oppos'd to our Earth we kept on our Road to the North and leaving Democritus on the left we pass'd through Thales and drove on quite to Zoroaster from whence we made a double towards the West through desert Lands where we saw the ruins of some ancient Towns as of Atlas Cepheus Hermes without meeting Man Woman or Child till we came to the Lake of Dreams on whose Banks we found three separate Spirits with whom we were taken up one Moment in Discourse as we passed along We surprized the two first stoutly Cursing and Banning their Wives they had formerly in the World One of which was that Hermotimus mention'd by Tertullian and Pliny who leaving his Body abed to make a Ramble as his Custom was his Wife that did not love him slipt not the opportunity of calling up her Servants to whom she shewed not without tearing her Hair and playing the Mad-woman the Body of her Husband unsoul'd and breathless and carried the Humour on so well that the Body was burnt according to the custom of the Country before the Soul return'd who was from thenceforth forced to seek another Habitation The other Spirit was a Roman Senator whose Name was Lamia whose Wife had trickt out of the World by the same Project though a little more it had miscarried For as he related it The Soul being returned to look its Body where 't was left not finding it and seeing the Family Mourning begun to smell how the Matter stood It Posted presently to the place where was built the Funeral Pile to burn the Body and arriv'd there just as the Fire began to seize it The Soul thought it inconvenient to reunite her self with it for fear it might be obliged to be burnt alive she only mov'd its Tongue so as many of the Standers by heard these Words twice distinctly repeated I am not dead I am not dead But seeing the Masters of the Funeral Ceremonies who had undoubtedly received an Item from the Dame unconcerned as ' ere she left it to be burnt and came to fix in the Globe of the Moon The third whom we found two Leagues farther in a ghastly Grot was the famous John Duns Scotus commonly called Scot or the Subtil Doctor He has pass'd for a dead Man unto this day on which Account some have given out most ridiculous Stories and highly disadvantagious to the Reputation of so worthy a Person and which have still been well confuted But the truth is that he is not dead and that having by the subtilty of his Mind found out the Secret so many others have procured his Corps was taken for dead and was buried in the absence of his Soul which took Sanctuary in the Globe
Rules of Staticks which gave us a most exquisite and natural Idea of the Flux and Reflux of the Sea consisting in this that by how much it is mounted by so much it is depress'd and as often as it mounts in one Place it is depress'd in another all these Motions going on regularly after each other and being set and punctual as to Space of Time Again since the Diameter of the Vortex wherein this little Moon must necessarily be in its Conjunctions and Oppositions was the least of all and on the contrary that in which it would be found in its quadratures the greatest it was evident to us that the depression and sinking of the Waters must be far greater in the Conjunctions and Oppositions than in the Quadratures and consequently that the Sea must flow with greater impetuosity and Vehemence towards the Shore or which is all one that the Tides be far greater in the New and Full Moons than at any other Time and in the Equinoxes than in the Solstices as it really happens in our World He next observ'd to us the particular Phenomena's of the Flux and Reflux founded on the same Principles and minded us especially of the Reason why we never see any Ebbing and Flowing in Lakes and Ponds let them be never so great unless they have some Communication with the Sea For if said he those Lakes and Ponds be beyond the Tropicks they are never at all press'd by the Moon and for those that are under the Torrid Zone within the Tropicks they take not up a compass of Ground enough to cause that one Side of their Superficies should be more press'd than the other by the Globe of the Moon Now that Inequality of Pressure is the only cause of that Vicissitude of Motions which we call the Flux and Reflux of the Sea I was wonderfully taken with this Explication and that way of solving the Flux and Reflux is so handsome that those that demonstrate to M. Descartes the Earth cannot have a Vortex at least an Oval one ought upon that Consideration to shew themselves a little merciful to him But these Philosophers are a very ungentile and brutish sort of Creatures and know not what it is to be generous towards their Adversaries Mean while all the other Motions were perform'd in the little World with all possible exactness Mercury Venus Mars and the rest of the Planets having once obtain'd their Post in the Vortex of the Sun were extraordinary punctual to their Courses He began to exhale Vapors and to form them into Clouds about the little Earth To say no more I was charm'd with all these Prodigies But we must now resolve on our Departure and 't was high Time we were a going It was well-nigh four and twenty Hours since we left the Earth and M. Descartes who as I have noted before disapprov'd of their Conduct that deserted their Body before Death and the Orders of the Sovereign Being had dismiss'd them advis'd us himself to defer the entire Satisfaction of our Curiosity till another Time I made him a courteous Acknowledgment and Resentment of his Favours assuring him of the vast Esteem I had both for his Person and Doctrin I beg'd the Favour of proposing to him the Scruples that might occur hereafter upon his Philosophy whenever I had an Opportunity of sending a Letter to him He express'd on his Part a World of Kindness for me exhorted me to a most sincere and hearty Love of Truth and presented me with two Hyperbolical Glasses to make me a Perspective Glass wherewith he assur'd me I might stand on the Earth and discover all the Curiosities of the Globe of the Moon Let. de Descart and the Animals themselves if there were any He hath demonstrated in his Dioptricks the Excellence of that Figure for the Glasses of a Telescope beyond all other He endeavour'd to have them made in Holland and contriv'd an Engine for that Purpose but he could not find Artists capable of accomplishing his Design and his Idea with that Exactness as was necessary He brought us on our Way as far as the second Heaven which is that of Stars and left Father Mersennus with us to conduct us Home Some distance from the Stars Aristotle's Embassadors meeting some Philosophers of their Country and Acquaintance desir'd us not to take it amiss that they accompanied them and took their Leave but indifferently satisfied with their Voyage and Negotiation Seeing we were in great haste we stay'd no where on the Road and avoided all Harangues and Disputes with every Person whatsoever though we met in diverse Places very many Spirits that would willingly have joyn'd Discourse with us Father Mersennus as we pass'd along made me observe the Disposition of the Vortexes and the situation of the different Elements that compos'd them and especially the Balls of the second Element that I had no Apprehension of so long as I was stock'd with Peripatetick Notions but that I saw take up the greatest part of the Universe since I was turned Cartesian In less than six Hours Time we arriv'd at my House where there fell out a most unfortunate Disaster for in pitching with a most violent descent and not-considering the Glasses I had with me as I pass'd athwart my Chamber-wall and my Glasses in Bodily Quality could not enter they were stopt and dash'd in a thousand Pieces by the reason of the unaccountable Swiftness wherewith they flew against the Stones and thus I was depriv'd of the Pleasure of making the Experiment that M. Descartes had warranted of seeing from our Earth all the Occurrences in the Globe of the Moon as distinctly as if I was personally there I found my Body somewhat fainty and very feverish by the reason of a Fast of above thirty Hours Before I entred I would have persuaded the little Negro to reinstate my Brain in its Quondam-capacity fearing lest he had unhing'd some Clock-work there For that there must be something more than ordinary in that Machine to cause such prodigious Alterations in the Soul of Man and I had been very finely serv'd if having been reunited with my Body I had found my self a Fool but the little arch Devil of a Spirit refused to do it telling me withal That I was highly oblig'd to him for setting me right in my Ideas I must therefore venture on 't for better for worse so that having thankt Father Mersennus and my old Gentleman for the favour vouchsaf'd me by their Company in so fine a Voyage my Soul entred her Body and fail'd not in quality of a Cartesian Soul to seat her self in the Pineal Gland of my Brain I had requested Father Mersennus to oblige me so far as to see me again before he return'd to M. Descartes's World that I might convey a Letter of Thanks by him to that great Philosopher that had treated me so generously and gentilely He promised me he would and accordingly returned at a Months end which he spent partly
loose and independent of each other and so obedient to the Motions of the Celestial Matter have not been dispers'd by the rapidness of that Matter which they stemm'd as the Dust is scatter'd by the Wind But added they how is this Mass of Air at present driven along with the Earth by the Celestial Matter How has it all the same Motions Is it against the Body of the Earth or against the Globe of Air the Celestial Matter presses to give both one and the other a Diurnal and an Annual Motion Would not a Copernical Cartesian be hard put to 't to unperplex himself of this Affair I omit Monsieur many other Difficulties whose Solution probably I may find in the Answers your Goodness will I hope vouchsafe the others I have already noted in this Letter But for what remains I desire you to take the earnestness wherewith I write to you as an effect of that passionate Love you have inspir'd me with of Truth and especially to put a favourable Construction on my meaning I have only transcrib'd your Adversaries Memoire in their own proper Terms and Language and I presum'd the respect I ow'd you could not warrant my concealing or dissembling their insulting way of arguing Which will serve to let you know how much it is for my Interest and the Honour of our Sect not to suffer them to triumph long The great and important Business the production of a new World at present finds you joyn'd to the indifference you have always had and still have more than ever for the Opinions and Thoughts of Men might reasonably make you neglect and despise these mean and trifling Things But those extraordinary Instances you have given me of your Favour encourage me to hope you will have some Consideration of my Honour and will not deny me your Hand to raise me from the Ground where I must own my self a little foil'd and disheartned I desir'd the Reverend Father Mersennus to imploy his Credit with you to obtain this Favour and at once to assure you as I here do with all the Submission and respect I am capable of that I am with all my Heart and Soul MONSIEUR Your most humble and most obedient Servant and most zealous Disciple The INDEX PART I. THE different Relations given of the World of Cartesius Page 1 The Conversation of the Author with an old Cartesian and the occasion of his Voyage to the World of Cartesius Page 5 Cartesius his Design of finding out the Secret of the Soul and Body's Vnion as also that of separating and reuniting them when he pleas'd Page 9 Cartesius his Progress in the Study and Knowledge of Man Page 10 The Mystery of the union and separation of the Soul and Body found out by Cartesius Page 16 The use of the Mystery Page 19 That Cartesius is not dead Page 25 The Secret of the union and separation of the Body and Soul known long before Cartesius Page 30 Cartesius retires into the indefinite Spaces and makes preparation for the building of a World there like this of ours Page 31 The Author is invited by the old Cartesian and the Spirit of Father Mersennus to come to the building of Cartesius his World Page 37 The Author's discourse with the Soul of Father Mersennus Page 39 An Explication of the manner of the Apparition of Spirits Page 42 The adventure of a little Moor-Page to Regius Physitian of Utrecht formerly a Friend but afterwards an Enemy of Cartesius Page 45 The Author's Soul is separated from his Body by the secret of Cartesius Page 51 How according to the Principles of Cartesius all Bodily Operations may be perform'd as well in the absence as presence of the Soul Page 53 PART II. THE setting out of the Author with the old Cartesian and Father Mersennus for the World of Cartesius Page 56 What the Air is and of what parts it is compos'd Page 57 Wherein consists the sluidity of liquid Bodies ibid. Motion naturally and of it self is perpetual Page 61 The falsity of Cartesius's Axiom that there is ever an equal quantity of Motion in the World taking the word Motion according to Cartesius's definition Page 62 The way that Spirits converse with one another Page 67 The Travellers meet upon their Road Socrates Plato and Aristotle and upon what occasion Page 68 Their discourse with those Philosophers with some notable Particulars of their History Page 71 Aristotle refutes Cartesius his Method and Meditations Page 79 The old Cartesian and Father Mersennus railly upon the Sphere of Fire that Aristotle imagin'd Page 86 The Contradictions of Cartesius Page 89 His Disciples have indeavour'd to smother one of them in the French Translation of his Works Page 90 A Suit commenc'd formerly against the Cartesians relating to the Sphere of Fire Page 94 A description of the Globe of the Moon Page 97 Cyrano de Bergerac banter'd by Socrates his familiar Spirit in the Globe of the Moon Page 98 The inequalities observ'd in the Moon are partly Seas and partly Lands shar'd among the most famous Mathematicians and Philosophers as they are to be seen in the Maps of that Country ibid. The Traveller's descent into Gassendus and from thence to Mersennus Page 99 They Traverse the Hemisphere of the Moon that is opposite to our Earth Page 100 They are deny'd Admission at Plato and why Page 101 They arrive at Aristotle which they find strictly guarded as a Town under Apprehensions of a Siege Page 102 The Author finds there and knows again his Regent in Philosophy an old Professor of the Vniversity of Paris Page 103 A Description of the Lyceum of the Moon Page 105 The old Cartesian likewise remembers Voetius the greatest Enemy Cartesius had in Holland Page 108 Some particulars of the Life of Cartesius and his Adventures whilst he staid in Holland Page 109 The Character of Voetius Page 112 The Travellers Negotiation with Voetius for the re-union of the Peripateticks and Cartesians Page 119 A Project of Accommodation presented the Travellers by Voetius Page 122 They continue their Voyage with two Peripatetick-Souls that Voetius had deputed to accompany them to the World of Cartesius ibid. In their Way they light upon the Souls of Hermotimus and Ainia a Roman Pretor and Duns Scotus Page 123 c. The Dispute of the Peripatetick Souls with Father Mersennus and the old Cartesian concerning absolute Accidents Page 127 Cartesius his Explication of the Mystery of the Eucharist not Catholick Page 130 They meet with Cardan in the Globe of the Moon in the Peninsula of Dreams the reason of his Melancholy Page 132 The Travellers return to Mersennus Page 133 Their reading the Project of Accommodation given they by Voetius containing a Confutation of a great part of the Cartesian Philosophy Page 134 Cartesius's Demonstrations of the Existence of a God refuted by a Mandarin of China Page 158 The Arrival of the Voyagers to the World of Cartesius Page 172 PART III. CArtesius his Reception of the Travellers Page 174 The Discourse of the Author with Cartesius concerning the present State and Condition of the Cartesian Philosophy in our World Page 174 c. Cartesius his Thoughts of that famous Experiment of the Gravity of the Air said to be M. Paschal's whereof Cartesius pretends to be the Author Page 181 His Sentiments formerly of the Book of Conick Sections said to be wrote by M. Paschal at sixteen Years of Age Page 182 The Extravagant Praises of M. Paschal's Panegyrists and of the Preface to the Book concerning the equilibration of Liquors Page 185 Cartesius his Projects for propagating his Philosophy whilst he was in our World Page 190 How he designed to get the Jesuits on his Side and then the Fathers of the Oratory and M. Arnauld ibid. Decrees of the Congregation of the Oratory against Cartesianism and Jansenism Page 193 The great Contest betwixt Malbranche Father of the Oratory and M. Arnauld The Character of the former Page 196 M. Arnanld compar'd with Admiral de Chatillon Page 201 Cartesius builds his World before the Travellers and as he builds it explains to them the chiefest Points of his System Page 207 The Confusion of Aristotle's Embassadors Page 221 The Return of the Travellers and Arrival to our World Page 238 In what Condition the Author's Soul found his Body she is seated in quality of a Cartesian Soul upon the Pineal Gland of his Brain Page 239 PART IV. THe Zeal of the Author converted to Cartesianism to promote the Sect and which he expresses in a Letter he wrote to Cartesius after his Return Page 242 He is much perplexed by the Ingenious Peripateticks Page 243 The Ordinary Arguments against Cartesius his System propos'd and refuted Page 244 The Author sometimes sides with Cartesius to refute him more easily Page 246 Motion of Matter seems not impossible in the Cartesian System Page 248 A new Method of proving it possible Page 250 Other Difficulties drawn from Cartesius his own Principles proposed by the Peripateticks to the Author whose solution he desires of Cartesius Page 259 The first Argument That by the Principles of Cartesius the Sun and Stars may be prov'd opaque Bodies as are the Planets of the Earth Page 260 Argument 2. That by Cartesius his Principles we could not see the Stars nor the Sun it self Page 265 Argument 3. That Cartesius his Principles supposed it is impossible for the Earth to have a particular Vortex in the great Vortex of the Sun Page 276 The Consequence of the preceeding Demonstration in Astronomy and Physicks The Moon could no longer turn about the Earth nor the Satellites of Jupiter about him Page 287 Heavy Bodies would not descend to the Centre of the Earth but would fall towards the Sun ibid. There would be no flux or reflux of the Sea Page 289 The General Principle of all the Physical Effects of the lower World quite over-turned Page 291 Cartesius his Inconstancy concerning the Properties of his Elements Page 293 The Physical Arguments that are weak against Copernicus touching the Motion of the Earth are strong against the Cartesians Page 294 Propositions of very great importance in Physicks advanced without Proof and supposed against all Reason by Cartesius Page 296 The Author importunes Cartesius to send him the Solution of all these Difficulties Page 297 The END
you of all Scruples and Disquiet in a word or two I 'll give you an Abbreviate of him This Little Black was formerly Valet to M. Regius the famous Professor of Physick in the Vniversity of Vtrecht who as is known Diverses letters de Descartes was then the intimate Friend Disciple and Admirer of M. Descartes Upon these Accounts he mexited the communication of his Secret for the separating the Soul and Body Since that they broke with each other in so much that M. Descartes thought himself oblig'd to Write against him Because he deprav'd his Doctrin and made it give Offence M. Regius who if Descartes's Character be true was none of the most Honourable and gentilest Gentlemen in the World to revenge himself and shew how he scorn'd and trampled on a thing Cartesius set so high a rate upon taught it this litle Negro One time above the rest he went to make use of it Returning one day from the Country where his Master had sent him much tir'd he sate himself under the shade of an Oak His Soul left his Body to its repose and rambled for Diversion I know not where Mean while some Highway-men kill'd a Man hard by him The Grand Provost who was near being advis'd of the Murder came speedily with his Sergeants The Noise they made was such that it awak't the Body of the Little Black And there happen'd something in the Adventure not unlike that I told you lately of Descartes For the Machine determin'd by the Noise and the strong Impression the Presence of arm'd Men made upon his Organ began to fly They pursue him overtake him and examine him He contradicts himself at every Word in his Answers which in the absence of his Soul were not likely to be very coherent The Grand Provost who was a little too expeditious in the Business took his Flight and the Astonishment that appear'd in his Countenance and his Words for an Evident convicton of the Crime and caus'd him to be hang'd upon a Tree as an Accomplice of the Murder'd that was committed The Soul returning not long after found her Body hanging in that rascally Posture of a Malefactour Forc'd then as she was to seek a now Abode she was in a miserable condition The majority of separate Souls which play in all the vast extent of the World being Souls of Philosophers and Souls of great Importance and having in a Convention held by the most considerable of them declar'd that Opinion of Philosophy true that holds an enequality in Souls of the same Species They would no ways admit that the Soul of an ignorant Negro should enjoy the same Priviledge as they and gave her chase throughout the Universe In short her good Fortune would that she should attempt to pass our Vortex and arrive at the very place Descartes's Soul had pitch'd upon to Meditate He had Compassion on her and allow'd her the liberty to live with him Father Mersennus brought her hither in Case there should be occasion and we 'll leave her with your Body to take care on 't The Retail of a Story so well circumstanc'd induc'd me to credit what was said as true I intreated both the Spirits to excuse the Transport I was guilty of telling them that the Figure and Colour he made use of to appear in being the same the Devil furnishes himself with all when he would be visible had imprinted on my Mind that horrible Idea I desir'd them to give me some Instructions how I must be rigg'd to accompany them in that wondrous Voyage that they propos'd saying I hop'd to make infinite Advantage of the Favour they vouchsafed me and in their Society to return so choice a Treasure of Knowledge as would distinguish me from the rest of Mankind Three things say's Father Mersennus you have to do The first is To dismantle your Mind of all the Prejudices of Childhood and the ordinary Philosophy For 't is strange to see how the Prejudices the Soul sucks in but by the Senses should make so deep impression on the Understanding with Time and Custom which she chooses for the Rule of her Opinions In so much that Souls separated form their Bodies otherwise than by Death although during that separation they act independently on the Senses do yet think judge and reason conformably to their prejudice Without that Precaution you 'l make a fruitless Voyage and be but where you are at your return The second Requisite before our embarquing is That you give Orders to this little Spirit after what Method he must treat your Body in your absence Whereupon it is advisable to let you know that when your Soul shall be in state of Separation all things will be carried on in the usual Road not only as to Natural Functions but as to those Motions caus'd by External Objects provided that you leave the Machine mounted in the same manner as it is at present So that if you us'd to wake and rise at the sound of an Alarm or at a certain Hour as soon as that Hour shall strike the Motion of the Timpanum of your Ears communicated to your Brain shall make way for the Animal Spirits to glide along the Muscles and to produce in your Legs and Arms and your whole Body such Motions as daily you your self produc'd for the taking of your Breeches then your Doublet and the rest of your Appurtenances after one an other and dressing you from Head to Foot It shall walk as it us'd to do traverse all the House upstairs and down It shall seat it self at Table as soon as the voice of the Page crying Dinner Sir is ready shall strike upon its Ears It shall Eat shall Drink and in a word perform every Action it has been accustom'd to the Animal Spirits never failing to take their course towards certain parts of the Body at the presence of certain Objects and by consequence producing always certain Motions in the Body in certain Circumstances Now in all External Actions that we do there is nothing but Motion produc'd this way And hence it is that Beasts who are undoubtedly as Meer Machines as our Body seem to us at the same time to act both with Variety and Uniformity The only Mischief that you need to fear is in case a Friend should come to visit you Because the Body without the Soul would be incapable to maintain discourse and must answer very impertinent to the Thing in hand For betwixt our selves it is only by Discourse that we Cartesians know that those Bodies we commonly call Men are truly Men and not meerly Machines Let. 53. de Desc Tom. 1. But herein it is this Little Negro will be serviceable M. Descartes hath taught him all the different Motions possible to be made upon the Pineal Gland and all the various Determinations of which the Animal Spirits are capable by its means And how the Words are form'd in the Mouth only by the motion of the Muscles that
in us the Character and Genius of the Nation which People was the most polite at present in the World that though he had but little Commerce with our World he had yet enough to be certified of that Particular He demanded the Occasion of our Voyage and where we were a going Father Mersennus took the Word and made answer We were upon a Visit to a Friend of ours that lived at a vast Distance that we were happy in timing our Voyage so exactly as to have the Opportunity of paying our most humble Respects to those Personages that have given Renown and Glory to Antiquity and whose Names after the Tract of two thousand Years were still acknowledged and held Venerable by all the Nations in the Earth 'T is believed below we are dead said Socrates True replyed Father Mersennus and I my self was guilty of that Universal Mistake But here are two Gentlemen continued he meaning us that are still Inhabitants of the lower World and who will undeceive it as to that Particular I shall not be sorry for my part answered he and it would not be amiss to acquaint the People there That the Soul of a Philosopher such as I am staid not to be dismissed from the World by the Decree of a Faction of Corrupt Judges and the Clamours of a Multitude incensed by the Envy and Buffoonry of a Coxcomb of a Comedian Hear the State of the Matter well knowing the Rage and Popularity of my Enemies I thought it not worth while to stay but quitting my Body I gave Orders to my Familiar Spirit to enter in my Room and to put a good Face upon the Business to the End being more Secure of his Performance than my own whatever Constancy and Resolvedness I found in my self He acted his part to a Tittle and I scarce think 't is yet forgotten in the World what Constancy appeared both in my Looks and Words when the Sentence of my Death was heard pronounced with what Undauntedness I was seen to take from the Executioner the Hemlock-potion that poisoned my Body and the Fury of my Accusers that were ready to burst with Malice to see me a Philosopher to the last It is true I replyed that last Action of your Life has procured you a vast esteem among Posterity to this Day and I question whether it will make for your Glory for us to publish the true Matter of the Fact as you have related it No matter said he I have still a greater Love for Truth than my own Glory and am more concerned for Her than for my self Most bravely answered I cry'd and worthy of your self That one Sentence is worth all the Oration your Demon harangued your Friends with to comfort them in your Death and I am resolved it shall lose nothing of its Value in the Carriage If one fine Wit of our World had but heard it he would certainly have canonized you for 't he I say that in reading your Story was much put to 't to forbear an Invocation and crying Sancte Socrates ora pro nobis That Extravagance is known to be Erasmus's and Socrates himself thought it very impertinent Aristotle next obliged us to disabuse the World of those false Reports that were current of his Death some making him dye of the Colick others affirming he poisoned himself others again That he drowned himself in Euripus these last came nearest to the Truth He told us then That being disgraced and banished from the Court upon Suspicion he was dipt in the Conspiracy of Calisthene his Friend against Alexander he retreated to Athens where he opened his School of Philosophy That he was there impeached of Atheism as groundlessly as Socrates by a Priest of Ceres which obliged him to retire to Calcis That one Day as he was taking a Turn upon the Bank of Euripus and recollecting in his Mind the glorious Advantages he had lost of making his Fortune seeing all his Hopes unravelled that he was for ever discarded from the Court and discharged from Athens the Melancholy that seiz'd him made him resolve to leave the World that to that intent he made use of the Secret Aesculapius had left him from whom he had the Honour to descend in a Right Line by his Father Nicomachus formerly Physician to his Majesty King Amyntas the Grand-Father of Alexander he made use of it I say to separate himself from 's Body which he left in a Place where the Sea in a high Tide chanced to carry it off Upon the finding of his Body drowned every one made his Conjecture The Court that understood what Impression Disgrace would make upon the Spirit of a Courtier whose Nature it is more than may be supposed upon Temptation to dispatch themselves out of the World concluded very rationally on the Point but the Opinion of Aristotle's Disciples carried it At that Time he was about explaining the Phoenomenon of the Flux and Reflux of the Seas He had confess'd contrary to his custom that he did not throughly apprehend it And that vex'd him to the heart Thence they readily concluded that the cause of his despair One of them confidently proclaim'd it in several parts of Greece And as if he had been behind him when he threw himself in the water added the words he spoke unto the Sea just upon his jump Since I can not comprehend thee thou shalt comprehend me The Antithesis seem'd very pretty That gave Legs to the report and by that Pass-port it arriv'd to us There is something strange and new in these Particulars as well as in the Story of Socrates And many of the Circumstances are left out in most of the Authours that have treated on this Subject That encourages me to hope they 'l meet with a kind Entertainment from the Publick since t is this that now a days lifts our Historians unto Reputation and sets 'em above the common herd of Writers And nothing takes so much as Paradox in History since a Manuscript that shall thwart the long receiv'd Opinions of Mankind is the only piece in fashion especially if slanderous and invective and the Extracts sent to the Compilers of the Holland-Journals and the News of the Republick of Learning to advance the Rate of these Books are fill'd with hardly any thing but rare and admirable Discoveries But t is not on the faith of Manuscripts I ground my Reports things commonly subject to be question'd but on the Testimony of the Persons mainly concern'd in the History and who have either done or suffer'd the thing therein related And I challenge all the Burnets in England to evince me false in any thing by all the Histories of the Kingdom of the Moon As for Plato he told us It did not so much trouble his Head what were the Sentiments of Men concerning him and thank't us for the offers of our Service that we made him But Experience convinc'd us of the truth of Father Mersennus's conjecture touching the Republick and also that
the Pineal Gland From all which Aristotle concluded That M. Descartes had better acknowledg with the wisest and least conceited of the Philosophers that the Relation the Soul had with the Body in the Perception of Objects was an incomprehensible Mystery to the Mind of Man That the manner of Objects acting on the Senses as also how their Action was carried to the Brain might be very well explained but that a Bar was put to all farther Progress unless a Man would run himself into an unintelligible Jargon or advance Propositions dangerous in themselves or in the Conclusions that might be deduced from them He went on in commending M. Descartes for his Integrity Lett. de Desc Tom. 1. Lett. 69. manifested in his declaring there was nothing in the Idea of a Soul or a Spirit that included an Impossibility of the Production of Motion by them and at once he blamed the Inconsiderateness of the Cartesians who fool-hardily advanced That no Creature whatsoever had the Power of producing Motion It is true adjoyned he with a little dash of Malice that Paradox as ill founded as it is is one of the Principal Pillars of the Cartesian System For without it how should an equal Quantity of Motion be kept up in the World where there are so many Souls so many Angels and so many Devils whose greatest Pastime it is to produce and create Hurly-burlies every Moment But M. Descartes is so much more Praise-worthy for preferring the Interests of Truth before those of his own System as dear and beloved as it was The next Article was upon that grand Paradox of M. Descartes In resp ad 5. object Let. 110. Tom. 1. That the Essences of Things and Truths commonly called necessary are not independent of God and that they are only eternal and immutable because God hath will'd it so That God is the total and efficient Cause of the Truth of Propositions That it was equally arbitrary for God to cause that it should be false that all the Lines drawn from the center to the Circumference should be equal as to create the World See then the Abridgment of what Aristotle spoke at length upon that Subject He said He did not well understand what was the Sense and Meaning of those Words God is the efficient and total Cause of the Truth of Propositions For the Truth of a Proposition since it is not a Being but a meer Relation of Conformity that it hath with its Object could not to speak properly have an efficient Cause and if in some Sense it might be said to have an efficient Cause that could be nothing but the Mind or Tongue of him that Frames and Pronounces the Proposition Again he demanded if M. Descartes spoke in general of all Necessary Truths or only of some Particulars He could not continued he speak of all For doubtless he did not believe that God was or had been able to make these Propositions false There is a God God is the free Cause of all Beings God is a necessary Being He must therefore only speak of Propositions relating to the Creatures because according as he expresses himself in one of his Letters Ibid. God is the Author of the Essence as well as the Existence of the Creatures But that he had made a Reflection That the Truths which respect the Essence of the Creatures have a necessary Connexion with those that appertain to the Essence of God and that if it was possible for the one to be false the other might be so too As for example this The Creature essentially depends on God is a Proposition belonging to the Essence of the Creature which if it could be false that other would fall into the same Circumstance God is the absolute Master and free Cause of all Beings for neither the one could be true without the other's being so nor could the one be false unless the other was likewise false Whereupon Aristotle advised M. Descartes to have a special Care lest the profound Respect he affected towards the Omnipotence of God should not only degenerate into Superstition but should proceed so far as to bring him to Blasphemous Conclusions After that Aristotle made a frank and honest Acknowledgment That Descartes had explain'd the Nature of most sensible Qualities in a siner and exacter way than he had done As of the Hardness of Bodies of Liquidity of the Power of the Elaverium of Cold of Heat c. And to manifest he had no other Concern than for the Interests of Truth he retracted without Ceremony his Position of the Eternity of the World and his Sphere of Fire But since that Sphere of Fire makes one of the principal Parts of the Peripatetick System and is one of the chief Ornaments of his World he presumed that M. Descartes could do no less than abandon all his Vortexes in Exchange against which he urged many Reasons But Voetius having understood from us that M. Descartes was ready to put his World in Execution and the Design of our Journey was that we might be Witnesses of that mighty Action he wrote a Postscript in the Margent in which he promis'd to submit himself to that Experience and supposing it should answer the Pretensions of M. Descartes his Vortexes should be received at least as a good Hypothesis for the explaining the Phenomena of the World which God hath made But he farther adjoyned That in case M. Descartes should fail in his Attempt he should be oblig'd thus far to condescend That his Physicks which turn for the most part upon those Hinges is an Edifice without Foundation And that he should rest contented with the Praise common to all the Leaders of a Sect viz. That his Philosophy had something that was Good and True in it and that he should avow with the rest of Mankind that to build a World and establish a System of Philosophy true in all its Principles and Conclusions was a Point the Mind of Man in its utmost Endeavours could never reach Lastly as to M. Descartes's Demonstrations touching the Existence of God the Rules of Motion and some other Opinions for which that Philosopher had engag'd a greater Zeal and Earnestness and which required a more through Discussion Aristotle proposed to him the pitching on some Neutral and Unprejudic'd Place where they might confer together before disinterested Arbitratours to whose Determinations they should submit themselves He concluded with a gracious Offer of associating him in the Empire of Philosophy upon those only Conditions compriz'd in that Project He admonish'd him to six some Bounds to his Ambition assuring him of the Vanity of his Hopes if he pursu'd to carry them any farther for that his own Authority was too well establish'd throughout all Europe to be indangered by the Enterprizes of a new Comer That almost all Universities and Colleges had renew'd the Oath of Allegiance to him and had made an Offensive and Defensive League against the New Philosophy That some Ladies
Mind because she has not so great a reach as to conceive them For Instance that that Being should be of it self that that Being should be Almighty and Independent of every thing in its acting even to the Power of producing Beings out of Nothing There are others that seem to her inconsistent in the same Subject For instance she conceives Liberty and Immutability Immensity and Indivisibility the Properties of Bodies and of Spirits as so many Perfections She sees that the Perfections which agree to several Beings separately must all be united in that absolutely perfect Being Conceiving therefore a Being absolutely perfect she represents it at once as a free Being and an Immutable as one that can desire and be averse to the same thing though its Will be always Unchangeable that is Omnipresent without being extended or divisible that is a pure Spirit and at the same time includes all the Perfections of Bodies possible to be produc'd Nay I dare presume to say that this Idea thus analyz'd in respect of a Mind that never made any Reflection on the Reasons that conclude the Existence of a necessary Being discovering so many Contradictions in that necessary Being would as soon represent it as an Imaginary Being as a real one and that not supposing those usual Reasons that prove to us a first cause of all Beings and the Reflections that follow them we should as easily regard that Being as impossible as possible From whence I at least conclude that the Idea of a Being absolutely perfect cannot be look'd on as an Idea undoubtedly real by him that examins it before his Acquaintance with the ordinary Demonstrations Consequently that he that examins it cannot absolutely attribute Existence to that Being and which is the same thing cannot demonstrate to himself the Existence of a God from the Idea of a Being infinitely perfect The defect therefore of Descartes's Paralogism consists in this that he supposes before any Demonstrations the Idea of a Being absolutely perfect to be taken by the Mind for real and as having a real Object which is palpably false All this discovers the Original of the Scruples all the World have had as to that Demonstration and which those themselves have not been clear of whom the difficulty of resolving so subtil a Paralogism hath drawn over to Descartes's Party who doubtless had they been honest and sincere must have confess'd they still felt some disquiet in their Mind on that Particular and that it was by meer Violence they had at last accustom'd their Understanding to tell them that Demonstration was evident This was the Fault which some felt rather than saw that made them deny Existence to be inclos'd in the Idea of a Being infinitely perfect For absolutely speaking although it is compriz'd in the Catalogue of Perfections appropriate to that Being yet the Mind to which the Idea was not manifestly real took it not in and excluded it in making that very Problem Does a Being absolutely perfect Exist Until the Arguments independent of that Idea had resolv'd the Problem and convinc'd it that such a Being did Exist And let not Descartes say that that Idea including nothing but Perfections it is evident it includes nothing but what is Real for a Chimerous Idea may be compos'd of only Real Ideas here then is one exactly like that we are in dispute of A Triangle that hath all the Perfections of Triangles That Idea though it includes nothing besides real Perfections is notwithstanding a Chimera since for Instance a rectangled Triangle has opposite Properties to those of an Equilateral and that Opposition is the reason they are inconsistent with one another So though all the Perfections of Beings are real it does not follow that that Idea A Being that hath all the Perfections of Beings should be a real Idea and the Opposition I observe betwixt some of those Perfections naturally influences my Mind unless prevented by the ordinary Demonstrations to doubt at least whether that Idea is not a Chimera as well as the other I have been speaking of From hence it is that in pursuance to the Demonstrations that convince me of the Existence of that Being but that give me no clear and distinct Knowledg of its Essence I confine my self to say That Being must contain the Perfections of all other Beings eminently that is to say in a way I don't conceive and which would never have come into my Head or at least would never have been look'd on by me as certainly and evidently possible unless I had been convinc'd of the Existence of the first Being before the discussion of its Essence That Solution of Descartes's first Paralogism made way to the discovery of that other Default of his where he concludes the Existence of God from the objective reality of the Idea as he speaks which we have of God That Idea says he which I find in my Mind has an infinite objective reality since it represents to me an infinite Being Therefore it has that infinite Being for its cause therefore an infinite Being exists For otherwise the Effect would have Perfections that were not in its cause Those who have undertook that arguing give us to understand they have found it to be a greater Paralogism than the former and bring many Reasons for it which M. Descartes refutes as well as he is able For my own Part my Opinion is That M. Descartes supposes in that Reasoning what lay on him to be proved For he not only supposes that that Idea has an objective reality but farther that I can be ascertained independently of the common Demonstrations that it effectively has an objective Reality or that it has a Real and not an imaginary Object But I am incapable of knowing whether its Object be real or imaginary before the Demonstrations as I have already proved And if I can doubt whether that Object is not a Chimera I cannot suppose it has an Objective Reality but ought to fear it has an Objective Vanity if I may be allowed so to speak and in that Case I can by no means conclude That God has impressed it on my Mind and consequently that there is a God But I ought to think That probably it proceeds from nothing as Descartes expresses himself That is from an Imperfection of Mind that hath produced it as it could produce this same a Mountain without a Valley Hence it is clear and manifest that those two pretended Demonstrations are meer Paralogisms and that both are maimed and lame in the same part and defective on the same account Besides M. Descartes can never demonstrate to me the Truth of the Proposition on which all his reasoning depends viz. That the Cause of an Idea ought to contain formally or eminently all the Perfections which the Idea represents for when 't is said The Cause contains all the Perfections of the effect that is not meant nor is it evidently true but of such Perfections as the effect possesses and
in the World in dispatching some Commissions of M. Descartes partly in the several Planets and different Places of the wide Space which he travers'd in search of some old Cartesians on that Philosopher's Account to inform them of his Place of Residence and of the grand Design he was ready to put in Execution I gave him the Letter which I have joyn'd to this Relation and with which I 'll finish it A VOYAGE TO The World of Cartesius PART IV. MY Soul thus seated on the Pineal Gland of my Brain as a Queen upon her Throne to conduct and govern all the Motions of the Machine of my Body was extreamly pleas'd with the change of her Ideas and complimented her self with the honourable new Character of Cartesian wherewith I began to be distinguisht amongst the Learned I found my self immediately dispos'd for the Humour and Spirit of that Tribe of Philosophers and could not mention without disdain the Philosophy of the Colleges good only said I to corrupt the Mind and fill it with empty and confus'd Ideas and fit for nothing but to entertain the vanity of a Pedant Descartes was the first and indeed the only Philosopher the World has ever known the rest in respect of him were mere Children Wranglers and Legendaries Being invited some days after to a Thesis of Philosophy it cannot be imagin'd what Violence it was to me to resolve to go I could not forbear gaping all the while I staid looking down from the exaltation of my Soul with pity on all I heard One of the first things I did was the degrading the Suarez's Fonseca's Smigletius's and Goudin's c. in my Library cashiering them of the considerable Post they held and abandoning them to a mouldy Chest of Lumber there to lye at the Mercy of the Dust and Vermin to be succeeded by M. Descartes bound in a fine Turky Cover and all his illustrious Disciples Before my Conversion to Cartesianism I was so pitiful and Tender-hearted that I could not so much as see a Chicken kill'd But since I was once persuaded that Beasts were destitute both of Knowledg and Sense scarce a Dog in all the Town wherein I was could escape me for the making Anatomical Dissections wherein I my self was Operator without the least inkling of Compassion or Remorse as also at the opening of the Disputes and Assemblies of the Learn'd which I thought good to keep at my House for the inhancing and propagating the Doctrin of my Master in the Country the first Oration I made before them was an Invective against the Ignorance and Injustice of that Senator the Areopagite that caus'd a Noble Man's Child to be declar'd for ever Incapacitated from entring on the Publick Government whom he had observ'd take pleasure in pricking out the Eyes of Jack-Daws that were given him to play with Notwithstanding I must ingenuously confess that as resolv'd a Cartesian as I was I was not insensible of some weighty Scruples the more Ingenious sort rais'd in me in our Conferences I perceived also that the farther I went the more they increas'd and if M. Descartes does not settle and compose the Fluctuation of my Mind by a just and clever Answer to the Letter I have wrote him on that Subject I have great Fears the Traces of my Brain will change and the Animal Spirits resume their wonted Current This is the Copy of the Letter I sent to M. Descartes that contains the principal of those Difficulties which I thought not unworthy of the Publick A Letter to M. Descartes Monsieur I Cannot sufficiently express my Acknowledgments of the Honours and Civilities I receiv'd from you during that transitory Stay I made in your Parts of the highest Heavens The few good Qualities and Accomplishments you must necessarily find in me prevented not your treating me as a Person qualify'd with the greatest Merit For you to build an intire World before my Face and to give your self the trouble of making me comprehend the whole Contrivance to see all the Wheels and Springs of so admirable a Machine was an Honour greater in its kind than what the King vouchsafes Embassadors Princes and mighty Personages by commanding all the Water-works to be plaid for them at Versailles You may infallibly reckon from that time that I am devotedly at your Service and that having made your self absolute Master of my Vnderstanding by those sublimated Notices you have communicated you have yet more irresistibly captivated my Will by those extraordinary Favours you have heap'd upon me The Reverend Father Mersennus who readily condescended to the trouble of this Letter will inform you more at large both what my real Sentiments are of your Person and your Doctrin My Behaviour since my return hath throughly convinc'd him that there never was a Disciple more Zealous than my self for the Honour Growth and Advancement of the Sect. In less than a Month since my Arrival from your World I have cast Terror and Confusion in the Face of Peripateticism throughout the Land I have inspirited with new Life and Courage those few drooping Cartesians that remain'd but liv'd in Obscurity and Silence solacing themselves with the private enjoyment of Truth but were very remiss in promoting her Interest there where she had been but ill receiv'd Twice every Week I hold publick Disputes at my House and indeavour therein as much as possible to give Vogue and Reputation to your Doctrin I have already made some Conquests among the Peripateticks many whereof appear there and excepting two or three who are ungovernably headstrong and conceited they will all be my own as soon as I shall have answer'd some pretty substantial Objections they have propos'd against several Points of your Philosophy The chief of which respect the general Construction of your World And whereas in that Affair they pretend to destroy your Conclusions by your own Principles and some amongst them are Men of Parts that give a specious and probable turn to their Arguments in so much that I have sometimes been put to 't to find the Fallacy I thought my self oblig'd to have recourse unto the Oracle and that I could do nothing better than consult You your self as you gave me Permission and intreat you to communicate your Thoughts as soon as possible thereupon A Voyage from the third Heaven to this Place is no great business for your little Moor. Thus then these Gentlemen to my best Remembrance fell to Work They began by proposing two or three trite Arguments daily made use of in the Desks to confute your System and to shew that it is a meer Chymera and not to be suffered as a simple Hypothesis should they grant the Principles you your self lay down M. Descartes say they supposes first That God creates Matter secondly That he divides it into infinite little cubical Parts and lastly determining several great Portions of this Matter he puts them in a circular Motion and at once makes the little cubical Parts of which