9 Chap. 3. I. That Philosophers dissipate their Mind by applying it to Subjects which include too many Relations and which depend upon too many things without keeping any Order in their Studies II. An Example drawn from Aristotle III. That Geometricians on the contrary proceed well in an Enquiry after Truth especially those who make use of Algebra IV. That their method increases the power of the Mind and that Aristotle's Logick weakens it V. Another defect of studious Persons p. 15 Chap. 4. I. The Mind cannot long apply it self to any Object which neither relates to it self nor to Infinity II. The Inconstancy and consequently the Error of the Will proceeds from this Defect of Application III. Our Sensations affect us more than the Pure Idea's of the Mind IV. What is the Original Cause of the Corruption of Manners V. And the Ignorance of the Generality of Mankind p. 20 The Second Part of the Pure Understanding Of the Nature of IDEA'S Chap. 1. I. WHat is meant by Idea's That they truly Exist and that they are necessary to perceive all material Objects II. A division of all the Modes by which External Objects may be seen p. 29 Chap. 2. That material Objects do not emit Species which resemble them p. 33 Chap. 3. That the Soul has no power of producing Idea's The Cause of Mens Error in reference to this Subject p. 35 Chap. 4. That we do not sie Objects by the means of Idea's which were created with us And that God does not produce them in us so often as we have occasion for them p. 41 Chap. 5 That the Mind neither sees the Essence nor Existence of Objects in considering its own Perfections That none but God sees them in that manner p. 44 Chap. 6. That we see all things in God p. 46 Chap. 7. I. Four different ways of seeing things II. How we know God III. How we know Bodies IV. How we know our Soul V. How we know the Souls of other Men and pure Spirits p. 55 Chap. 8. I. The Intimate Presence of the Wandering Idea of Being in General is the Cause of all the Irregular Abstractions of the Mind and of the greatest part of the Chimera's of common Philosophy which hinder many Philosophers from discovering the Solidity of the True Principles of Moral Philosophy II. Example concerning the Essence of Matter p. 6â— Chap. 9. I. The last General Cause of our Errors II. That the Idea's of things are not always present to the Mind as soon as 't is desir'd III. That all Finite Minds are liable to Error and why IV. We ought not to judge that there are only Bodies or Spirits nor that God is a Spirit as we conceive Spirits p. 71 Chap. 10. Examples of some Physical Errors into which Men fall because they suppose that things which differ in their Nature Qualities Extension Duration and Proportion are alike in all things p. 77 Chap. 11. Examples of some Errors of Morality which depend on the same Principle p. 87 The Conclusion of the Foree first Books p. 91 BOOK IV. Of the Inclinations and Natural Motions of the Mind Chap. 1. I. IT 's necessary the Mind have Inclinations as well as the Body Motions II. God acts the Humane Mind only for himself III. Mens Minds are only inclin'd to Particular Good through the Motion they have to Good in General IV. The Origine of the Chief Natural Inclinations which will make up the Division of this Fourth Book p. 1 Chap. 2. I. The Inclination for Good in General is the Principle of the Disquiet of our Will II. And consequently of our Negligence and Ignorance III. First Example Morality little known to many Men. IV. Second Example The Immortality of the Soul disputed by some Men. V. That our Ignorance is exceeding great in respect of abstracted things or such as have but little Relation to us p. 7 Chap. 3. I. Curiosity is natural and necessary II. Three Rules to moderate it III. Explanation of the first of these Rules p. 20 Chap. 4. A Continuation of the same Subject I. Explanation of the Second Rule of Curiosity II. Explanation of the Third p. 27 Chap. 5. I. Of the Second Natural Inclination or of Self-Love II. It is divided into the Love of Being and Well-Being or of Greatness and Pleasure p. 31 Chap. 6. I. Of the Inclination we have for every thing that raises us above other Persons II. Of the false Judgments of some Pious Persons III. Of the false Judgments of the Superstitious and Hypocrites IV. Of Voetius an Enemy to Monsieur Descartes p. 35 Chap. 7. Of the desire of Science and of the Judgments of pretenders to Learning p. 42 Chap. 8. I. Of the Desire of being thought Learned II. Of the Conversation of pretenders to Learning III. Of their Works p. 48 Chap. 9. How the Inclination we have for Honours and Riches lead us to Error p. 56 Chap. 10. Of the Love of Pleasure in relation to Morality I. We must shun Pleasure though it make us Happy II. It must not incline us to the Love of Sensible Delights p. 58 Chap. 11. Of the Love of Pleasure in relation to Speculative Sciences I. How it hinders us from discovering Truth II. Some Examples p. 65 Chap. 12. Of the Effects which the thought of Future Bliss and Sufferings is capable of producing in the Mind p. 79 Chap. 13. I. Of the Third Natural Inclination which is the Friendship we have for other Men. II. It induces us to approve our Friends Thoughts and to deceive them by False Praises p. 85 A SEARCH AFTER TRUTH BOOK I. Of the Errors of the Senses CHAP. I. I. Of the Nature and Properties of the UNDERSTANDING II. Of the Nature and Properties of the WILL and wherein its Liberty consists ERROR is the Cause of Man's Misery the corrupt Principle that has produc'd Evil in the World 't is this which begets and cherishes in our Souls all the Evils that afflict us and we can never expect a true and solid Happiness but by a serious Endeavour to avoid it Holy Scripture teaches us that Men are miserable only because they are Sinners and Criminals and they would be neither if they did not make themselves the Slaves of Sin by assenting to Error If it be true then that Error is the Origin of Men's Misery how very just is it that they should endeavour their Deliverance from it and certainly an Effort towards it would not be vain and unrewarded though perhaps it might not have all the effect that could be desired admit we could not arrive at Infallibility and accomplish an absolute Victory yet we should be less deceiv'd and subject to fewer Evils We are not to expect an entire Felicity in this Life because we cannot pretend to Infallibility but our Endeavours to avoid Error must be as continual as are our Aversions for Misery In a word as we earnestly desire Happiness without Hopes of attaining it here so we must vigorously pursue
of things that we shall afterwards treat of but for what we shall speak of in this Chapter it is necessary that we know there is Natural dispositions in the Brain which incline us to Compassion as well as Imitation We must then consider that not only the Animal Spirits carry themselves Naturally into the parts of our Bodies to cause the same Actions and Motions we see in others but also in some manner to receive their Injuries and to take part in their Miseries for Experience teaches us that when we very attentively consider any one that is rudely hurt or that hath any great wound the Spirits are carried with great force into such parts of our Bodies as answer to those that we see hurt in another Provided that we do not turn the course of the Animal Spirits otherways by an industrious and voluntary titillation of some other part of the body Or except their Natural course to the Heart and Bowels which is wont to happen in sudden Motions draw them along with it self or change that course which we speak of Or lastly except some extraordinary connection with the traâ—â—s of the Brain and Motions of the Spirits produce the same effect The Spirits being thus carried into the parts of the Body which answer to those that we see hurt in oothers make a very sensible Impression in delicate Persons who have a lively Imagination and very tender and soft flesh for they very often feel a kind of trembling in their Legs if they attentively look upon any one that hath an Ulcer or that has actually received some blow there This that one of my Friends writ me an account of confirms my Opinion An Old Man that lived at one of my Sisteâ—s being sick a young Maid Servant of the House held the Candle whilst he was let blood in the Foâ—t and when she saw the Surgeon give the prick with the Lancet she was seized with such an apprehension that she felt so lively a pain in the same place of the Foot for three or four days afterwards that she was forced to keep her Bed all that time The reason of these accidents is that the Spirits forcibly diffusing themselves into those parts of our body which answer to what we see hurt in others being kept more bent they make the Soul more sensible and put it upon its guard to avoid those evils that it sees happen to others This Compassion in the Body produces one in the Mind it excites us to help and assist others because in that we relieve our selves and it also stops our Malice and Cruelty for the horrour of Blood the fear of Death and in a word the sensible impression of Compassion often hinders those from killing of Beasts who even are much perswaded that they are only Machines because the generality of Mankind cannot kill them without hurting themselves by the counterstroke of Compassion What is chiefly to be observed here is that the sensible sight of a wound that any Person receives produces in those that see it another hurt so much the more sensible as the beholder is more weak and delicate because this sensible sight pushes the Animal Spirits with more violence into those parts of the body which answer to what they see hurt and so make a greater Impression in the Fibres of a delicate body than in one that is more strong and robust So Men who are strong and vigorous are not hurt by the sight of a Murder they are not so much inclined to Compassion because this sight offends their Bodies but because it offends their Reason These Persons have no pity for Criminals they are immoveabie and inexorable But Women and Children suffer much Pain by the Wounds they see others receive they have a Mecanical Compassion for the Miserable Nay they cannot see a Dog beat or hear him cry without being disturbed at it As for Infants who are yet in their Mothers Belly the delicacy of the Fibres of their Flesh being infinitely greater than that of Women or Children the Course of the Spirits will produce more considerable changes in them as we shall afterwards observe Let what I have said be look'd upon as a simple Supposition if it is desired yet we must endeavour to comprehend it well if we will distinctly conceive what I would explain in this Chapter For the two Suppositions that I have made are the principles of an infinite Number of things which have been generally believed very hidden and mysterious and which appear impossible to me to be explained without receiving these Suppositions Of which here are some Examples About Seven or Eight years ago I saw in the * An Hospital in France for such as we past Cure III. An Explanation of the generation of Mâ—nstrous Children and of the prâ—pagâ—tion of the Species Incurables a young Man who was born a Fool and his body broken after the same manner as Criminals are broke on the Wheel He had lived near twenty Years in this condition many Persons have seen him and the late Queen-Mother going to visit this Hospital had the Curiosity to see him and to touch the Arms and Legs of this young Man in the same places where they were broke According to the principles that I have established the Cause of this sad Accident was that his Mother who heard a Criminal was to be broken went to see him executed all the blows that this miserable Man received so strongly smote the Imagination of this Mother and by a kind of Counter-blow the render delicate Brain of her * According to the first Supposition Child The Fibres of this Womans Brain were strangely shaken and it may be broke in some places by the impetuous Course of the Animal Spirits caused by the sight of so terrible an Action but she was strong enough to hinder their absolute ruine though on the contrary the Fibres of this Child's Brain being not able to resist the torrent of these Spirits were entirely dissipated and the shock was great enough to make him wholly lose his Wits and this was the reason he came into the World deprived of his Understanding this was likewise the cause that the same parts of his body was broken as those of the Criminal whom his Mother saw executed At the sight of this Execution which was so capable of frighting a Woman the violent course of the Mothers Animal Spirits went impetuously from her Brain to all the parts of her Body which answer'd to those of the Criminal * According to the second Supposition and the same thing passed in the Infant But because the Bones of the Mother were able to resist the Violence of these Spirits they received no hurt Nay it may be she did feel no pain nor the least trembling in her Legs when the Criminal was broken but the rapid stream of the Spirits was capable to separate the soft and tender Bones of the Infant for the Bones are the last parts of the
surprize it they are all Subjects of fear to it because it does not yet know them nor has it any power of it self to defend it self or to fly from them the Tears and Cries by which it condoles it self are infallible marks of its pains and fears for they are indeed the Prayers that Nature makes to procure it assistance to defend it from the evils it suffers and those it apprehends To be able to conceive well the perplexity of its Mind in this condition we must remember that the Fibres of its Brain are very soft and delicate and by consequence all external Objects make very deep impressions upon them For since the least things are sometimes capable of hurting a weak Imagination so great a number of surprizing Objects must certainly injure and perplex that of a Child But to have a more lively apprehension of the agitations and pains of Infants at the time of their first coming into the World and the prejudices which their Imaginations must receive let us represent to our selves what would be the astonishment of Men if they saw Giants five or six times higher than themselves approach near them without knowing any thing of their design or if they saw any new kind of Animal which had no resemblance to those they have already seen or only if a Flying-Horse or some other Chimera of our Poets shou'd suddenly descend from the Clouds These Prodigies wou'd make deep Traces in the Spirits and the Brain wou'd be confuted only to have seen them once Unexpected and frightful events fall out every day which makes even Men lose their Wits whose Brains are not very susceptible of new impressions altho' they have some Experience and can defend themselves or at least are able to make use of some resolution Children when first come into the World suffer something from every Object that strikes their Senses to which they are not accustomed All the Animals they see are of a new kind to them since they have seen nothing before like to them they have neither strength nor experience the Fibres of their Brain are very delicate and flexible How then is it possible but that their Imagination shou'd be injured by so many different Objects It is true that Mothers have already a little accustomed their Children to the impressions of Objects since they have already traced them in the Fibres of their Brain before they were born and so they are much less hurt when they see with their own Eyes what they had before in some manner perceived by those of their Mothers It is also true that false Traces and the injuries that their Imagination receives at the sight of so many frightful Objects are effaced and cured by time because not being Natural all Bodies are contrary to them and extirpate them as we have seen in the precedent Chapter And this is the reason that generally all Men are not Fools from their Infancy yet it does not hinder but that there is always some Traces so strong and deep that cannot be effaced all our Lives If Men wou'd but seriously reflect upon what passes within themselves and upon their own thoughts they wou'd not want Experience to prove what I have said They wou'd commonly discover in themselves inclinations and secret aversions which others have not for which there can be no other cause ascribed than these Traces of our Infancy For since the causes of these inclinations and aversions are particular to us they are not founded in the Nature of Man and since they are unknown to us it must be that they have acted in a time wherein our Memory was not capable to retain the circumstances of things so as to make us able to remember them and this time can only be that of our most tender Infancy Mr. D'Cartes hath told us in one of his Letters that he had a particular kindness for all squinting Persons and that in having carefully examined the cause of it he at last found 't was a defect he had met with in a young Maid whom he had loved whilest he was yet a Child and the affection he had for her made him love all persons that resembled her in any thing But it is not these little Irregularities of our Inclinations which mostly deceive us it proceeds from this That all our Minds are weak in some respect or other and we are all subject to some kind of Folly altho' we are not sensible of it When we carefully examine the Genius of those with whom we converse we easily perswade our selves of this altho' we are our selves an Original of some particular Folly and may be so accounted by others yet we shall also find others that have Follies peculiar to themselves and who differ only as to the more and less Now one of the causes of the different Characters of Dispositions and without doubt the difference of the impressions that we receive at our Birth as we have shown of the particular and extraordinary Inclinations is because these kinds of folly being commonly constant and durable they can only depend upon the Constitution of the Animal Spirits which very easily change and by consequence it is necessary that they proceed from false Impressions which are made in the Fibres of the Brain when our Memory was not capable of preserving the Idea's thereof that is from the beginning of our Life A general source of the Errors of Man is the great disorder of their Brain caused by the impression of external Objects when first they come into the World but this cause ceases not so soon as may be imagined The common Conversation that Children are obliged to have with their Nurses or even with their Mothers who often have no Education does prejudice and entirely corrupts their Disposition these Women entertain them only with silly things as ridiculous Stories or such as are only fit to fright them They never speak to them but of sensible things and after such a manner as is too sure to confirm them in the false Judgments of their Senses And in a word they cast into their Minds the Seeds of all the weaknesses they themselves have as of their extravagant apprehensions ridiculous superstitions and other the like prejudices by which means they neither being accustomed to search after Truth nor to have any gust of it they become at last incapable of discerning it or of making any use of their reason upon which account a certain fearfulness and weakness of Spirit seizes them which continues with them a long time for there are many persons who at the Age of fifteen or twenty that perfectly retain the Spirit of their Nurse It is true that Children don't appear very proper for the Meditation of Truth and for abstracted and elevated Sciences because the Fibres of their Brain being very delicate they are easily agitated even by the weakest and least sensible Objects and their Soul necessarily having Sensations proportionated to the agitation of these Fibres
asleep sees any terrible Animal before his Eyes it is certain that the Idea of this Animal truly Exists and yet this Mountain of Gold and this Animal never were However Men being Naturally inclined to believe that there is none but Corporeal Objects which Exist they Judge of the Reality and Existence of things quite after another manner than they ought to do for as soon as they are sensible of any Object they will certainly have it that this Object Exists although it often happens that there is nothing without And further they affirm that this Object is exactly the same as they see it which never happens But in respect to the Idea which necessarily Exists and which can be nothing else besides what it appears to be they without any reflection commonly Judge it to be nothing as if Idea's had not a very great number of Properties As if the Idea's of a Square for instance was not very different from that of some number and did not represent things perfectly distinct which could never happen to nothing since nothing has no Propriety It is therefore indisputable that Idea's have a real Existence But let us examine their Nature and Essence and see what it can be in the Soul that is capable of representing all things Whatever things the Soul perceives are either in or out of its self those which are in the Soul are its own thoughts that is all its different Modifications for by these words Thought manner of Thinking or modification of the Soul I understand in general all things that can be in the Soul without her perceiving them as her own Sensations Imaginations pure Intellections or simple Conceptions even her Passions and Natural Inclinations Now our Soul has no need of Idea's to perceive all these things because they are within the Soul or rather the Soul it self after such or such a manner Even as the real roundness of some Body and its Motion are only this Body Figured and moved after such or such a manner But as for things that are out of the Soul we can perceive them only by the means of Idea's supposing that these things cannot be intimately united to it There are two sorts of them Spiritual and Material As for the Spiritual there is some probability that they may discover themselves to the Soul without Idea's and by themselves For although Experience teaches us that we cannot immediately and of our selves declare our Thoughts to one another but only by words or some other sensible Sign to which we have assixed our Idea's We may say that God has ordained it so only during this Life to hinder those Disorders that would soon happen if Men could make themselves be understood as they pleased But when Justice and Order shall Reign and we shall be delivered from the Captivity of our Bodies we shall perhaps make our selves mutually understood by an intimate Union of our selves as its probable the Angels do in Heaven so that it does not seem absolutely necessary to admit Idea's to represent spiritual things to the Soul because it may be we may see them by themselves although after a very imperfect manner I examine not here how two Spirits can be united one to the other and if they can after this manner mutually discover one anothers Thoughts I believe however that there is no Substance purely intelligible but that of God nothing can be evidently known but in his Light and that the Vnion of Spirits cannot make them Visible For although we are most strictly united to our selves we are and shall be unintelligible to our selves until we see our selves in God and that he represents to us the perfect intelligible Idea that he hath of our being included in his So that although I may seem here to grant that Angels can manifest one to another what they are and what they think 't is only because I will not dispute of it provided I am granted what is not to be doubted viz. That we cannot see material things by themselves and without Idea's I shall explain in the Seventh Chapter my Opinion how we know Spirits and will shew that at present we cannot absolutely know them by themselves although it may be they are united to us But I speak here chiesly of material things which certainly cannot be united to the Soul in such a manner as is necessary for us to perceive them Because being extended and the Soul not there is no proportion between them Besides our Souls go not out of our Bodies to measure the greatness of the Heaven and consequently they cannot see External Bodies but by the Idea's which represent them This is what all the World ought to grant We are assured then II. A division of the several ways whereby External Objects may be seen that it 's absolutely necessary that the Idea's we have of Bodies and of all other Objects which we perceive not by themselves proceed from these Bodies or these Objects or else that our Soul has the power of producing these Idea's or that God Created them with our Souls or that he produces them every time that we think of any Object or else that the Soul has all those Perfections in it self that it sees in these Bodies Or in fine that it is united with a perfect Being which in general includes all the Perfections of Created Beings We cannot see Objects but after one of these ways Let us examin without prejudice and without frighting our selves with the difficulty of the Question which of them seems most probable It may be we may resolve it very clearly although we do not pretend here to give such Demonstrations as will satisfie all sorts of persons but only convincing Proofs to those at least as will meditate with serious Attention upon them for perhaps it would be thought too rash if we should pretend otherwise CHAP. II. That material Objects do not emit Species which resemble them THe most common received Opinion is that of the Peripateticks who think that External Objects emit Species which resemble them and that those Species are carried by the External Senses to the Common Sense or Understanding They call these Species impressed because the Object imprints them on the External Senses These impressed Species being Material and Sensible are render'd intelligible by means of the active or active intellect and are fit to be received in the passive intellect These Species thus spiritualiz'd are called express'd Species because they are express'd by the impress'd ones and 't is by them that the Passive Intellect knows all material things We shall not stay to explain at large these sine things and the divers manners in which different Philosophers conceive them for although they do not agree as to the number of Faculties which they attribute to the Interior Sense and the Understanding and though there are not a few who doubt whether they have need of any active Intellect to know sensible Objects yet however they generally agree
Chapter Besides it is necessary that at all times we actually have in our selves the Idea's of all things since we are always able to think of all things which we could not if we perceiv'd them already confusedly that is If an infinite Number of Idea's were not present to our Minds for we cannot will to think of Objects of which we have no Idea CHAP. V. That the Mind neither sees the Essence nor Existence of Objects in considering its own Perfections That none but God sees them in that manner THE Fourth Opinion is That the Mind stands in need of nothing besides it self to perceive Objects and that it can in considering it self and its own Perfections discover all things that are without it It is certain that the Soul sees within it self and without Idea's all the Sensations and Passions it is capable of as Pleasure Pain Cold Heat Colours Sounds Odours Sapors its Love its Hatred Joy and Sadness c. because all the Sensations and Passions of the Soul represent nothing External which is like them and because they are only Modifications which nothing but the Mind is capable of But the Difficulty is to know whether the Idea's which represent something that is without the Soul and which resembles them in some measure as the Idea's of a Sun a House a Horse a River c. are only Modifications of the Soul insomuch that the Soul cannot stand in need of any thing besides it self to represent to it self all External Things There are Persons who make no Scruple to affirm That the Soul being made to think it has in it self I mean in considering its own Perfections whatever is necessary to perceive Objects for indeed the Soul being nobler than all the things it conceives distinctly it may be said that it contains them in some measure Eminently according to the Notions of the Schools that is after a Nobler and more Sublime Manner than they are in themselves They pretend that thus Superior things comprehend the Perfections of those that are Inferior And thus being the Noblest of the Creatures they know they fancy they have in themselves after a Spiritual Manner all that is in the visible World In a word They will have the Soul to be like an Intelligible World which comprehends in it self whatever the Material and Sensible World comprehends nay Infinitely more But in my Opinion it is a great Presumption to maintain that Thought If I am not mistaken it is Natural Vanity the Love of Independence and the Desire of resembling him who comprehends all Beings in himself which Confounds the Mind Dic quia tu tibi lumen non es Serm. 8. De Verbis Domini and inclines us to believe we possess what we have not Do not say that you are a Light to your self says St. Austin for there is none but God who is a Light to himself and who can in considering himself see whatever he has produced or can produce It is certain that there was none but God alone before the World was Created and he could not produce it without Knowledge and without Idea's Consequently those Idea's which God had of the World are not different from himself and thus all Creatures even the most Material and most Terrestrial are in God though in a manner altogether Spiritual which we cannot apprehend God therefore sees all Beings in himself in considering his own Perfections which represent them to him He also knows their Existence perfectly for since the Existence of all things depend on his Will he cannot be Ignorant of his own Will it follows then that he cannot be Ignorant of their Existence And thus God does not only see in himself the Essence of all things but also their Existence But the case is different as to Created Spirits they can neither see the Essence of things nor their Existence within themselves They cannot see their Essence within themselves because being very much limited they do not contain all Beings like God whom we may call the Universal Being or plainly He that is as he calls himself Since therefore the Humane Mind may know all Beings and Infinite Beings and yet not contain them it is a certain Proof that it does not see their Essence in it self For the Mind does not only see sometimes one thing and sometimes another successively it also actually perceives Infinity though it does not comprehend it So that not being actually Infinite nor capable of Infinite Modifications at the same time it is absolutely Impossible that it should see within it self what is not there Therefore it does not see the Essence of things in considering its own Perfections or by modifying it self diversly Neither does it see their Existence within it self because the Existence of Beings do not depend upon its Will and because the Idea's of those Beings may be present to the Mind though they do not Exist for every body may have the Idea of a Mountain of Gold though there be no Mountain of Gold in Nature And though we rely on the report of the Senses to judge of the Existence of Objects nevertheless Reason does not assure us that we should always believe our Senses since we find clearly that they deceive us When a Man's Blood for instance is very much inflam'd or barely when he Sleeps he sometimes beholds Fields Combats and the like which nevertheless are not present and which perhaps never were Therefore it is certain that it is neither within it self nor by it self that the Mind sees the Existence of things but that in this case it depends upon some other things CHAP. VI. That we see all things in God WE have examin'd in the preceding Chapter four different Manners in which the Humane Mind may see External Objects which do not appear probable to us There only remains the Fifth which alone appears consonant to Reason and the most proper to shew the Dependence that Spirits have on God in all their Thoughts In order to apprehend it rightly we must remember what has been said in the preceding Chapter that it is absolutely necessary that God should have in himself the Idea's of all the Beings he has created since otherwise he could not have produced them and that thus he sees all those Beings by considering the Perfections which he includes in himself and to which all Beings are related Moreover it is necessary to know that God is very strictly united to our Souls by his Presence so that we may say that he is the place of Spirits as Space is the place of Bodies These two things being supposed it is certain that the Mind may see what there is in God which represents Created Beings since that is very Spiritual very Intelligible and most present to the Mind Thus the Mind may see in God the Works of God supposing God be willing to discover to it what there is in him which represents them These are the Reasons which seem to prove that he rather Wills
Order is a Law I mean that they know the Eternal Laws How we must love Good and fly from Evil That we must love Justice more than all Riches That it is better to Obey God than to Command Men and many other Natural Laws For the knowledge of all those Laws is not different from the knowledge of that Impression which they always feel in themselves though they do not always follow it by the free choice of their Will which they know to be Common to all Spirits though it is not equally strong in all It is by that Dependance Relation and Union of our Mind to the Word of God and of our Will to his Love that we are made after the Image and Likeness of God And although this may be very much defac'd by Sin yet it is necessary that it should subsist as long as we do But if we bear the Image of the Word humbled upon Earth and if we follow the Motions of the Holy Ghost that Primitive Image of our first Creation that Union of our Mind with the Word of the Father and to the Love of the Father and of the Son will be re-established and render'd indelible We shall be like God if we are like the Man God In fine God will be all in us and we all in God in a far more perfect manner than that by which it is necessary for us to subsist that we should be in him and he in us Here are some reasons which may perswade us See the Explanations that Spirits perceive all things by the immediate Presence of him who Comprehends all in the Simplicity of his Being Every one will Judge of it according to the Internal Conviction he shall receive of it after having seriously consider'd it But 't is thought that there will be no probability in all the other ways of explaining these things and that this last will appear more than probable Thus our Souls depend on God in all respects For as it is he who makes them feel Grief Pleasure and all other Sensations by the Natural Union he has Establish'd between them and our Body which is no other than his Decree and general Will Thus it is he who by the Natural Union which he has made between the Will of Man and the Representation of the Idea's which the Immensity of the Divine Being includes that makes them know whatever they do know and that Natural Union is also nothing else but his general Will. So that none but he can direct us by representing all things to us as none but he can make us Happy by making us taste all manner of Pleasures Let us therefore keep to this Opinion That God is the Intelligible World or the place of Spirits as the material World is the place of Bodies That they receive all their Modifications from his Power That they find all their Idea's in his Wisdom And that it is by his Love that they are acted in all their regular Motions and since his Power and Love are nothing but himself let us believe with St. Paul that he is not far from every one of us and that it is in him we have Life Motion and a Being Act. Apost c. 17.28 Non longe est ab unoquoque nostrum in ipso enim vivimus movemur sumus CHAP. VII I. Four different ways of seeing things II. How we know God III. How we know Bodies IV. How we know our Soul V. How we know the Souls of other Men and pure Spirits IN order to Abridge and Illustrate the Opinion I have set down concerning the manner how the Mind perceives the different Objects of its Knowledge it is necessary to distinguish in it four ways of knowing The First is to know things by themselves The Second to know them by their Idea's that is in the Sense I take it here by something that is different from them The Third to know them by Conscience or by Internal Sentiment The Fourth to know them by Conjecture Things are known by themselves I. Four ways of seeing things and without Idea's when being very Intelligible they are able to Penetrate the Mind or Discover themselves to it Things are known by their Idea's when they are not Intelligible of themselves either because they are Corporeal or because they cannot penetrate the Mind or discover themselves to it We know all those things by Conscience which are not distinguish'd from us Lastly we know those things by Conjecture which are different from us and from those that are known of themselves and by Idea's when we think that some things are like unto others which we know God only is known by himself II. How we know God for though there are other Spiritual Beings besides himself which seem to be Intelligible by their Nature there are none at present but he only which penetrate the Mind and discover themselves to it We only see God with a direct and immediate Sight Perhaps he only can direct the Mind by his own Substance Lastly in this Life it is only by the Union we have with him that we are capable of knowing what we know as we have shewn in the preceding Chapter Humanis mentibus nulla interposita natura praeside Aug. l. de Vera Religione c. 55. For he is our only Master that presides in our Mind according to St. Austin without the Mediation of any Creature We can never conceive that any thing that is Created should be able to represent Infinity that the unlimited Being the immense Being the universal Being can be perceiv'd by an Idea that is by a particular Being by a Being different from the Universal and Infinite Being But as for particular Beings it is not difficult to conceive that they may be represented by the Infinite Being which includes them and which includes them after a Spiritual and consequently very intelligible manner Therefore it is necessary to say that we know God by himself notwithstanding the knowledge we have of him in this Life is very imperfect and that we know Corporeal Things by their Idea's that is in God since God only includes the Intelligible World in which we find the Idea's of all things But though all things may be seen in God it does not follow that we see them all in him We only see such things in God of which we have Idea's and there are things which are seen without Idea's All the things that are in this World III. How we know Bedies of which we have some Knowledge are either Bodies or Spirits proprieties of Bodies or proprieties of Spirits No body can question but that we see Bodies with their Proprieties by their Idea's because not being Intelligible in themselves we can only see them in the Being which includes them after an intelligible manner Thus it is in God and by their Idea's that we see Bodies with their Proprieties and for that reason the knowledge we have of them is very perfect I
admiration in his tenth Book of Confessions We shall not explain these things more fully because 't will be more proper for every one to examine them himself with some application of Mind because such things as we discover by this Method are always more agreeable and make a deeper impression on us than what we learn from others In order to explain Habits II Of the Habits it is necessary to know the manner how we believe the Soul moves those parts of the Bodies to which it is united According to all appearance there is always in certain places of the Brain be they where they will a great number of Animal Spirits much agitated by the heat of the Heart from whence they come and are ready to run into those places into which they find free passage All the Nerves end in the receptacle of these Spirits and the Soul hath the * I explain elsewhere in what this power consists power of determining their Motion and conducting them by these Nerves into all the Muscles of the Body these Spiriâ—s being entered there they swell them up and by consequence contract them Thus they move those parts to which the Muscles are united We shall not find it so difficult to be perswaded that the Soul moves the Body after the same manner already explained if we observe that when we have been a long time without Eating and are willing to give certain motions to our Bodies we cannot essect it and even feel it very troublesome to stand upon our feet But if we find the means to make any thing that is very spiritous run into our Heart as Wine or some other like Nourishment we are loon sensible that the body obeys with much more facility and moves it self after what manner we desire For this Experiment alone makes it seem very plain to me That the Soul could not give Motion to the Body through the defect of Animal Spirits and that 't is by their means that it hath recovered its Empire over it Now the infiations of the Muscles are so visible and so sensible in the agitation of our Arms and all the parts of our Body and it is so reasonable to believe that these Muscles cannot be blown up but because some body enters into them even as a Foot-ball cannot grow big and turgid except by the Admission of Air or some such like thing It seems I say that there can remain no doubt but that the Animal Spirits are pushed from the Brain through the Nerves into the Muscles to blow them up and to produce there all the Motions that we can wish for a Muscle being full it is necessarily shorter then if it was empty so it draws and moves the part to which it is united as we may see more at large in D'Cartes Book of the Passions We don't give this Explanation as perfectly demonstrated in all its parts For to make it entirely evident there are still many things to be wish'd which 't is almost impossible to explain But it is also useful enough in our subject to know them for whether this Explanation be true or false it remains however equally useful to discover the Nature of Habits Because if the Soul does not move the Body after this manner it necessarily moves it some other way which is very like it from whence we may draw such consequences as we shall make use of But in order to the pursuing our Explanation it must be observed that the Spirits do not always find the ways so open and free by which they should pass and that makes us for example sometimes have so much difficulty in the moving our Fingers so quick as is necessary for the playing upon Msiucal Instruments or the Muscles that serve for pronounciation to pronounce the word of a strange tongue But by little and little the Animal Spirits by their continual course open and clear these passages so that in time one finds no longer resistance Now Habits consist in this facility that the Animal Spirits have to pass through the Members of our Bodies It is very casie according to this Explanation to resolve an infinite Number of questions which respect Habits As for Example why Children are more capable of acquiring new Habits then older Persons are Why it is so difficult to break our selves of long habits Why Men by much speaking have acquired so great a facility to it that they pronounce their words with an incredible swiftness and even without thinking thereof As it too often happens to those that say the Prayers which they have been accustomed to many years and yet to pronounce one word only many Muscles must move together in a certain time and order as those of the Tongue the Lips Throat and Diaphragme But one cannot with a little Meditation satisfie ones self about these questions and many others very curious and useful but it is not necessary to insist upon these things here It is visible from what has been said that there is much relation between the Memory and Habits and that in one sense the Memory may pass for a kind of Habit. For even as Corporeal Habits consist in the facility that the Spirits have acquired to pass through certain places of our Bodies so the Memory consists in the traces that the same Spirits have impressed on the Brain which are the causes of the facility we have in recalling things again to our Mind That if there were no perceptions that depended upon the Course of the Animal Spirits nor on these traces there would be no difference between the Memory and the other Habits It is not also more difficult to conceive that Beasts although without a Soul and incapable of any perception after their manner remember such things as have made an impression in their Brain then to conceive they are capable of acquiring different Habits See the Explanations upon Memory and Spiritual Hâ—bits And after what I have said of Habits I don't see much more difficulty in representing to our selves how the Members of their Bodies may by degrees acquire different Habits then in conceiving how a Machine first made is not so fitly disposed for Action as after it has been used for some time CHAP. VI. I. That the Fibres of the Brain are not subject to such quick Changes as the Spirits are II. Three different Changes in the three different Ages ALL the Parts of Living Bodies are in continual Motion both the Solid and Fluid parts the Flesh as well as the Blood there is only this difference between their Motions that that of the parts of the Blood is visible and sensible and that of the Fibres of our Flesh is wholly imperceptible There is then this difference between the Animal Spirits and the substance of the Brain that the Animal Spirits are very much agitated and very fluid and the substance of the Brain hath some Solidity and Consistence so that the Spirits divide themselves into little parts and in a few
Brain for that the Soul always represents to her self those things of which she has the largest and deepest Traces To these we may add other Examples more Compos'd A Distemper is a Novelty it makes such Havock as surprizes the World This imprints such deep Traces in the Brain that the Distemper is always present to the Mind Suppose this Disease for Example be call'd the Scurvy all Distempers will be the Scurvy The Scurvy is new therefore all Distempers shall be the Scurvy The Scurvy is attended with several Symptoms many of which are common to other Diseases That 's nothing to the purpose if it happen that the Sick Person has any one of those Symptoms he shall be sick of the Scurvy and they shall not so much as think of other Distempers that are accompanied with the same Symptoms they will expect that all the Accidents that they have known Scorbutic Persons labour under befal them also They shall prescribe the same Remedies and shall wonder why they do not work the same Effects as they have wrought in others An Author applies himself to one sort of Study upon which the Traces of the Subject of his Employment make so deep an Impression and irradiate so vigorously over all the Brain that many times they confound and deface the Traces of such things as are very different one from another There was one for Example who compil'd several Volumes upon the Cross this made him see Crosses where ever he came Nor was it without reason that Father Morin derides him for believing that a Medal represented a Cross when it represented quite another thing And by Vertue of such a sort of Imagination as this it was that Gilbert and several others after they had study'd the Loadstone and admir'd its Properties would needs apply to Magnetick Qualities a great Number of Natural Effects which have not the least Correspondence with them The Examples here cited are sufficient to prove that from this extraordinary easiness of the Imagination to represent to it self the Objects which are most familiar to it and the difficulty which it undergoes to imagine those which are new and unusual it come to pass that Men are always forming Idea's which may be call'd Mix'd and Impure and that the Mind never Judges of things but with reference to it self and its first Thoughts Thus the different Passions of Men their Inclinations their Conditions their Employments their Qualities their Studies in a word all their various Manners of Living producing very great differences in their Idea's And this it is that makes them fall into an Infinite number of Errors of which we shall discourse more at large hereafter This was it that made the Lord Chancellor Bacon utter these Judicious Expressions All Perceptions as well of the Sense as of the Mind are Ex analogia Hominis not ex analogia Vniversi estque intellectus humanus instar speculi inequalis ad radios rerum qui suam naturam naturae rerum immiscet camque destorquet inficit CHAP. III. Of the Mutual Connexion between the Idea's of the Mind and the Traces of the Brain and of the Mutual Connexion between Traces and Traces and between Idea's and Idea's AMong all Material Things there is none more worthy the serious Study of Men than the Structure of their Bodies and the Correspondence between all the Parts that Compose it and of all Spiritual Things there is none of which the Knowledge is more Necessary than that of the Soul and how it is Related indispensably to God and naturally to the Body 'T is not sufficient to perceive or know confusedly that the Traces of the Brain are united one to another and that they are attended by the Motion of the Animal Spirits that the Traces being stirred up in the Brain likewise stir up the Idea's in the Mind and that the Motions excited in the Animal Spirits excite the Passions in the Will 'T is requisite therefore as much as may be to understand distinctly the cause of all those different Unions and chiefly the Effects which they are capable of producing We must understand the cause of them to the end we may attain to the Knowledge of Him who is only able to act within us and to make us Happy or Miserable and it becomes us to understand the Effects because we should know our selves as much as in us lyes and other Men with whom we Converse For then we shall understand the ways and means of Conducting Governing and Preserving our selves in the most Happy and Perfect condition to which it is possible for us to attain according to the Order of Nature and the Rules of the Gospel and we shall be able to live with other Men when we know how to make use of them in our Necessities and assist them in their Miseries I do not pretend to explain in this Chapter a Subject of so vast and so large an Extent Nor do I pretend to it altogether in the whole Work There are many things of which I am Ignorant as yet and which I never hope to understand exactly there are other things which I believe I know but which I cannot for all that Explain For there is no Wit how mean soever it be that by Meditation cannot discover more Truths than the most Eloquent Man in the World can relate I. We are not to imagine Of the Union of the Soul with the Body as the greatest part of Philosophers do that the Soul becomes Corporeal when it is united with the Body and that the Body becomes a Spirit when it is united with the Soul The Soul is not diffus'd into all the Parts of the Body to give it Life and Motion as the Imagination fancies nor does the Body become capable of Sensation by its union with the Soul as our deluding Senses would seem to convince us Every Substance remains what it is and as the Soul is not capable of Extension and Motion neither is the Body capable of Sensation and Inclinations All the Alliance of the Body and Soul which is known to us consists in a Natural and Mutual correspondence of the Thoughts of the Soul with the Traces or Phantoms of the Brain and the Emotions of the Soul with the Motions of the Spirits So soon as the Soul receives some new Idea's it imprints new Traces in the Brain and so soon as the Objects produce new Traces the Soul receives new Idea's Not that it considers those Traces for it has no knowledge of them nor that those Traces include those Idea's because they have no Relation one with another Nor lastly that the Soul receives her Idea's from those Traces for as we shall show in another place it is not to be conceiv'd that the Soul can receive any thing from the Body or that it becomes more Knowing or more Enlightned by adverting to it as the Philosophers pretend who would have it that the Soul should perceive all Things per conversionem ad Phantasmata
by Conversion to the Phantasmes or Traces of the Brain So soon as the Soul would have the Arm to move the Arm is moved tho' it does not so much as know what it ought to do to make it move and so soon as the Animal Spirits are agitated the Soul finds it self mov'd tho' it does not so much as know there are Animal Spirits in the Body When I come to treat of the Passions I shall speak of the Connexion between the Traces of the Brain and the Motions of the Spirits and of that between the Idea's and Emotions of the Soul for that all the Passions depend upon it My business here is only to treat of the affinity between Idea's and Traces and the Connexion of the Traces one with another There are three very considerable Causes of the Connexion of the Idea's with the Traces Three considerable Causes of the union between the Idea's and Traces the first and most general is the Identity of Time For frequently it suffices that we had certain Thoughts at such time as some new Traces came into our Brain so that those Traces cannot be produced again without renewing the same Thoughts If the Idea of God present it self to my Mind at the same time that my Brain was struck with the sight of these three Characters Iah or with the sound of the Word it self 't is enough if the Traces which those Characters have produc'd be excited to make me think of God And I cannot think of God but there will be produc'd in my Brain some confused Traces of the Characters or Sounds which accompany'd the Thought which I had of God for the Brain being never without Phantasmes there are always such as have some Relation to what we think tho' many times these Phantasmes are very imperfect and very confus'd The second Cause of the Connexion of the Idea's with the Traces and which always supposes the first is the Will of Man This Will 〈◊〉 necessary that this connexion of the Idea's with the Traces may be regulated and proper for Use For if Men had not Naturally an Inclination to agree between themselves to affix their Idea's to Sensible Signs not only this Connexion of Idea's wou'd be absolutely unprofitable for Society but it would be also very Irregular and Imperfect First because Idea's are never strongly united with the Traces but when the Spirits being agitated they render those Traces deep and durable So that the Spirits being never agitated but by the Passions if Men had no such Union to communicate their Sentiments and participate of those of others 't is evident that the exact Union of their Idea's with certain Traces would be very weak because they do not subject themselves to those Exact and Regular Connexions but to render themselves Intelligible Secondly the Repetition of the Meeting of the same Idea's with the same Traces being necessary to form a Connexion that may be of long continuance since the meeting unless it be accompany'd with a violent Motion of the Animal Spirits suffices not to make strong Connexions 't is clear that if Men should refuse to assent it would be the greatest Chance in the World if the same Traces and Idea's should meet together so that the Will of Man is necessary to regulate the Connexion of the same Idea's with the same Traces tho' this Will of Agreement be not so much an effect of their Choice and Reason as an Impression of the Author of Nature who has made us altogether one for another and with a strong Inclination to unite in Mind as well as in Body The third Cause of the Connexion of the Idea's with the Traces is the Constant and Immutable Nature or Will of the Creator For example There is a Natural Connexion and which depends not upon our Will between the Traces produc'd by a Tree or Mountain which we behold and the Idea's of a Tree or Mountain between the Traces which the Cries of a Man or Beast that suffer Pain beget in our Brain the Air of one who threatens us or of whom we stand in fear and the Idea's of Grief of Strength or Weakness as also between the Sentiments of Compassion of Fear and Courage which are excitedin us These Natural Bands are the strongest of all they are generally alike in all Men and they are absolutely necessary for the Preservation of Life For which reason it is that they depend not upon our Will for if the Band or Connexion of Idea's with certain Sounds and Characters be but feeble and very different in several Countries 't is because it depends upon the weak and changeable Will of Men. And the reason why it depends upon it is because this Connexion is not absolutely necessary for Life but only for living like Men that are to form among themselves a Rational Society Here we must observe that the Connexion of Idea's that represent to us Spiritual Things and such as are distinct from us with the Traces of our Brain is not nor can be Natural and by consequence it is or may be different in all Men for that it has no other Cause than their Will and the Identity of Time of which I have spoken before On the other side the Connexion of the Idea's of all Material Things with certain particular Traces is Natural and hence there are certain Traces that stir up the same Idea in all Men. For Example there is no question but that all Men have the Idea of a Square upon the sight of a Square because that Connexion is Natural but 't is to be doubted whither all Men have that Idea when they hear the Word Square pronounced because that Connexion is entirely voluntary The same thing may also be thought of all Traces that are tyed to the Idea's of Spiritual Things But because the Traces which have a Natural Connexion with Idea's do affect the Mind and consequently render it attentive the greatest part of Men do easily enough comprehend and retain Sensible Truths that is the mutual Relations that are between Bodies On the other side because the Traces that have no other Connexion with the Idea's then what is voluntary do never vigorously strike the Mind 't is not without a great deal of trouble that all Men Comprehend and with much more difficulty retain abstracted Truths that is the mutual Relations between things that fall not under the Imagination But when these Relations are never so little compounded they appear absolutely Incomprehensible especially to those that are not accustomed to them in regard they have not fortify'd the Connexion of those abstracted Idea's with their Traces by continual Meditation and tho' others have perfectly comprehended them they forget them in a short time because this Connexion is seldom or never so strong as the Natural one It is so true that all the trouble Men have to comprehend and retain Spiritual and Abstracted Things proceeds from the difficulty of fortifying the Connexion of their Idea's
Creatures but all Creatures only subsist by him The last Proof which perhaps will be a Demonstration to those that are used to abstracted Arguments is this It is impossible that God should have any other principal End of his Actions but himself It is a Notion that is common to all Men that are capable of any Reflection and Holy Writ does not allow us to doubt but that God has made every thing for himself Therefore it is necessary that not only our Natural Love I mean the Motion he produces in our Mind should tend towards him But moreover That the Knowledge and the Light which he bestows upon it should make us know any thing that is in him for whatever comes from God can only be for God Should God Create a Spirit and give it for an Idea or for the immediate Object of its knowledge the Sun In my Opinion God would Create that Spirit and the Idea of that Spirit for the Sun and not for him God cannot therefore Create a Spirit to know his Works unless that Spirit sees God in some measure by beholding his Works So that we may say that unless we do see God in some measure we should see nothing In like manner unless we do Love God I mean unless God did continually Imprint in us the Love of Good in general we should Love nothing For that Love being our Will we can Love nothing nor Will any thing without him since we cannot Love particular Goods without determining towards those Goods the motion of Love which God gives us towards him So that as we Love nothing but by the necessary Love we have for God so we see nothing but by the Natural Knowledge we have of God And all the particular Idea's we have of Creatures are only Limitations of the Idea of the Creator as all the Motions of the Will for the Creatures are only determinations of the motion for the Creator I believe there are no Divines but what will grant that the Impious Love God with that Natural Love I speak of And St. Austin and some other Fathers affirm as an undeniable thing That the Impious behold in God the Rule of Manners and Eternal Truths So that the Opinion I explain ought not to trouble any Body Thus St. Austin speaks L. 14. de Trin. c. 3. Ab illa incommutabili luce veritatis etiam impius dum ab ea avertitur quodammodo tangitur Hinc est quod etiam impii cogitant aeternitatem multa rectè riprehendunt rectéque laudant in hominum moribus Quibus ea tandem regulis judicant nisi in quibus vident quemadmodum quisque vivere debeat etiam si nec ipsi eodem modo vivant Vbi autem eas vident Neque enim in sua natura Nam cùm procul dubio mente ista videantur corumque mentes constet esse mutabiles has vero regula◠immutabiles videat quisquis in eis hoc videre potuerit ubinam ergo sunt istae regulae Scriptae nisi in libro lucis illius quae veritas dicitur unde lex omnis justa describitur inqua videt quid operandum sit etiam qui operatur injustitiam ipse est qui ab illa luce avertitur à qua tamen tangitur There are many passages in St. Austin like unto this by which he proves that we see God even in this Life by the knowledge we have of Eternal Truths Truth is uncreated Immutable Immense Eternal above all things It is true by it self It derives its Perfection from nothing It makes Creatures more perfect and all Spirits naturally endeavour to know it Nothing but God can have all those Perfections Therefore Truth is God We see some of those Immutable Eternal Truths Therefore we see God These are St. Austin's Reasons ours differ a little from them and we are unwilling to use the Authority of so great a Man unjustly to second our Sentiment We believe that Truths even those that are Eternal as that twice two are four are not so much as absolute Beings So far are we from believing that they are in God For it is visible that that Truth only consists in a relation of Equality which is between twice Two and Four Therefore we do not say that we see God in seeing Truths as St. Austin says but in seeing the Idea's of those Truths For Idea's are real but the Equality between the Idea's which is Truth has no reality When for example Men say that the Cloth they measure contains Three Yards the Cloth and the Yards are real But the Equality between Three Yards and the Cloth is not a real Being it is only a relation that is between the Three Yards and the Cloth When we say that twice Two are Four the Idea's of the Numbers are real but the Equality there is between them is only a Relation Thus according to our Sentiment we see God when we see Eternal Truths not that those Eternal Truths are God but because the Idea's on which those Truths depend are in God perhaps St. Austin understood it so We also believe that we know in God Changeable and Corrubtible things although St. Austin only speaks of Immutable and Incorruptible things because it is not necessary for that to place any Imperfection in God since it suffices as we have already said that God should shew us what there is in him that has a Relation to these things But though I say we see in God the things that are Material and Sensible it must be observ'd that I do not say we have a Sensation of them in God but only that it is from God who Acts in us for God Knows sensible things but he does not Feel them When we perceive any thing that is sensible Sensation and pure Idea is in our Perception Sensation is a Modification of our Soul and it is God that Causes it in us And he may Cause it though he has it not because he sees in the Idea he has of our Soul that it is capable of it As for the Idea which is joyn'd to Sensation it is in God we see it because it is his pleasure to discover it to us And God joins Sensation to the Idea when Objects are present to the end that we may believe them as they are and that we may have such Sensations and Passions as we ought to have in relation to them Lastly We believe that all Spirits see the Eternal Laws as well as other things in God but with some difference They know the Eternal Order and Eternal Truths and even the Beings which God has made according to those Truths or according to the Order by the Union which those Spirits have necessarily with the Word or Wisdom of God which directs them as we have shewn But 't is by the Impression they receive continually from the Will of God which inclines them to him and endeavours as it were to render their Will absolutely like unto his that they know
mean the Idea we have of Extension is sufficient to make us know all the Proprieties which Extension is capable of and we can never desire to have a more distinct and fuller Idea of Extension of Figures and Motions than that which God gives us of them Whereas the Idea's of the things which are in God include all their Proprieties whoever sees their Idea's may successively have all their Proprieties For when we see things as they are in God we see them always after a very perfect manner and it would be infinitely perfect if the Mind that sees them there were Infinite That which is wanting in the knowledge we have of Extension of Figures and Motions is not a defect of the Idea which represents it but of our Mind which considers it It is not so with the Soul IV. How we know our Soul we do not know it by its Idea We do not see it in God we only know it by Conscience and therefore the knowledge we have of it is imperfect We know no more of our Soul than what we feel passes within us Had we never felt Pain Heat Light c. we could not know whether our Soul would be capable of them because we do not know it by its Idea But did we see in God the Idea which answers to our Soul See the Explanations we should know at the same time or might know all the properties it is capable of As we know all the Properties that Extension is capable of because we do know Extension by the Idea of it It is true we know by our Conscience or by the Internal Sense we have of our selves that our Soul is something that is Great But it may be that which we do know of it is hardly any thing of what it is in it self If we had no more knowledge of Matter than that of Twenty or Thirty Figures it had been modified into certainly we should hardly know any thing of it in comparison of what we do know by the Idea which represents it It is not therefore sufficient to have a perfect knowledge of the Soul to know what we do know of it by the Internal Sense alone since the Conscience we have of our selves perhaps only shews us the least part of our Being It may be concluded from what has been said that though we know the Existence of our Soul more distinctly than the Existence of our Body and of those that are about us yet we have not so perfect a knowledge of the Nature of the Soul as of the Nature of Bodies and may serve to reconcile the different Opinions of those that say nothing is better known than the Soul and of those that maintain there is nothing of which they have less knowledge It may also serve to prove that the Idea's which represent some External thing to us are not Modifications of our Soul For if the Soul saw all things in considering its own Modifications it would know its Essence or Nature more clearly than that of Bodies and all the Sensations or Modifications it is capable of than the Figures or Modifications which Bodies are capable of Nevertheless it does not find that it is capable of such a Sensation by the sight it has of it self but only by Experience Whereas it knows that Extension is capable of an infinite number of Figures by the Idea it has of Extension Moreover there are certain Sensations as Colours and Sounds which most Men cannot discover whether or no they are Modifications of the Soul and Men know all manner of Figures by the Idea they have of Extension to be the Modification of Bodies What I have said also shows the Reason why it is Impossible to give a Definition that may explain the Modifications of the Soul for since we neither know the Soul nor the Modifications of it by Idea's but only by Sensations and that such Sensations of Pleasure for instance of Pain of Heat c. are not tied to words it is evident that if a Man had never seen Colours nor felt Heat it would be impossible to make him Sensible of those Sensations by whatever Definitions we could give him in order thereunto Now Men having only their Sensations upon the account of the Body and their Bodies not being dispos'd in the same manner in all of them it often happens that words are Equivocal that those which are used to express the Modifications of our Souls signifie quite contrary to what we design and we often make Men think on Bitterness for Example when we design to make them think on Sweetness Although we have not a full Knowledge of our Soul that which we have by Conscience suffices to demonstrate the Immortality Spirituality Liberty and some other Attributes of iâ— which it is necessary we should know And for that reason God does not give us the Knowledge of it by its Idea as he gives us the Knowledge of Bodies 'T is true The Knowledge we have of our Souls by our Conscience is Imperfect but it is not False The Knowledge on the contrary which we have of Bodies by Sensation or Conscience if we may call the Sensation of what passes in our Body Conscience is not only Imperfect but False Therefore it was necessary we should have an Idea of Bodies to correct the Sensations we have of them But we do not stand in need of the Idea of our Soul since the Conscience we have of it does not engage us into Error And not to be deceiv'd in the Knowledge of it it is sufficient not to Confound it with the Body which our Reason might induce us to do In sine Had we had a clear Idea of the Soul like unto that we have of the Body that Idea would have made us consider it too much as separated from it And thus it would have lessen'd the Union of our Soul with our Body by hindering us from looking upon it as being diffus'd through all our Members which I shall explain no farther V. How we know the Souls of other Men. Of all the Objects of our Knowledge there only remains the Souls of other Men and the Pure Intelligences and it is evident that we only know them by Conjecture We know them now neither in themselves nor by their Idea's and as they are distinct from us it is impossible that we should know them by Conscience We conjecture that the Souls of other Men are of the same Species with ours we think they feel what we feel in our selves and even when those Sensations have no relation to the Body we are certain that we are not deceiv'd Because we see in God certain Idea's and certain Immutable Laws according to which we know certainly that God acts equally in all Spirits I know that two and two are four that it is better to be Just than Rich and I am not mistaken in believing that others know those Truths as well as my self I love Good and Pleasure
determine any thing about the Number of Species of Beings which God has Created by the Idea's we have of them since it is absolutely possible that God may have Reasons to Conceal them from us which we do not know if it were only because those Beings having no Relation to us it would be useless for us to know them By the same reason as he has not given us Eyes good enough to tell the Teeth of a Hand-worm because it is not very material for the preservation of our Body to have such a piercing Sight But though we think no body ought to Judge rashly that all Beings are Spirits or Bodies we think nevertheless that it is directly contrary to Reason that Philosophers in order to explain Natural Effects should use other Idea's than those that depend on Thought and Extension since indeed they are the only we have that are distinct or particular Nothing can be more unreasonable than to imagin an Infinity of Beings upon bare Idea's of Logick to impute an Infinity of Proprieties to them and thus to endeavour to explain things we do not understand by things which do not only conceive but which is not possible for us to conceive 'T is just as if the Blind having a mind to speak of Colours among themselves and to maintain a Thesis about them should in order thereunto make use of the Definitions which Philosophers give them and draw several Conclusions from the same For as those Blind could only give pleasant and ridiculous Arguments upon Colours because they could have no perfect Idea's of them and yet would argue about them upon General and Logical Idea's So Philosophers can never argue solidly upon the Effects of Nature when to that end they only make use of general Logical Idea's of Act Power Being Cause Principle Form Quality and the like It is absolutely necessary for them only to rely on distinct and particular Idea's of Thought and Extension and those they include as Figure Motion c. For it is in vain to pretend to understand Nature but by the Consideration of the distinct Idea's we have of it and it is better never to meditate than upon Chimera's Nevertheless we cannot affirm that there are only Bodies and Spirits Beings that think and that are extended because we may be deceiv'd in it For though they are sufficient to Explain Nature and consequently we may conclude without fear of being deceiv'd that the Natural Things we have some knowledge of depend on Extension and Thought yet it is certainly possible that there may be others of which we have no Idea and of which we see no Effects Men therefore Judge rashly when they Judge as an Infallible Principle that all Substances are Bodies or Spirits But they also infer a rash Conclusion from thence when they conclude by the bare Testimony of Reason that God is a Spirit It is true that since we are Created after his Image and Likeness and that Holy Writ teaches us in several Places that God is a Spirit we ought to believe it and to call him so But Reason alone cannot teach it us That tells us only that God is a Being infinitely Perfect and that he is rather a Spirit than a Body since our Soul is more perfect than our Body But it does not assure us that there are no Beings besides more perfect than our Spirits and more above our Spirits than our Spirits are above our Bodies Now supposing that there were such Beings as it undeniably appears that it was in the power of God to Create such it is clear that they would participate more of the likeness of God than we do The same Reason teaches us that God would sooner have the Perfections of their Beings than ours which would only be Imperfections compar'd to them Therefore we must not Judge rashly that the word Spirit which we use to express what God is and what we are is an Equivocal Term which signifies the same things or things that are very like God is more above Created Spirits than those Spirits are above Bodies and we ought not so much to call God a Spirit to shew positively what he is as to signifie that he is not Material He is a Being infinitely Perfect no body can question it But as we must not imagin with the Anthropomorphites that he must have a Human Figure because it seems to be most perfect although we should suppose him Corporeal neither must we imagin that the Spirit of God has any Human Thoughts And that his Spirit is like unto ours because we know nothing that is more perfect than our Spirit We must rather believe that as he possesses the Perfections of Matter without being Material since it is certain that Matter has a relation to some Perfections that are in God he also possesses the Perfections of Created Spirits without being a Spirit in the manner as we conceive Spirits That his Name is He that is that is the unlimited Being the All-Being the Infinite and Universal Being CHAP. X. Examples of some Physical Errors into which Men fall because they suppose that things which differ in their Nature Qualities Extension Duration and proportion are alike in all things WE have seen in the preceding Chapter that Men Judge rashly when they Judge that all Beings are only of two sorts Spirits or Bodies We will shew in the following that their Judgments are not only rash but also very false which are the principles of an infinite number of Errors when they Judge that Beings are not different in their Relations nor Manners because they have no Idea's of those differences It is most certain that the Mind of Man only looks for the relations of Things first those which the Objects it considers may have with it and in the next place those they have towards one another For the Mind of Man only seeks its Good and Truth In order to find its Good it carefully considers by Reason and by Taste or Sensation whether Objects have a Relation of agreement with it To discover the Truth it considers whether Objects have a Relation of Equality or of Likeness one with another or what is the exact measure of their Inequality For as Good is only the good of the Mind because it is convenient for it So Truth is only Truth by the Relation of Equality or of Likeness that is found between two or many things Whether between two or many Objects as between a Yard and Cloth for it is true that this Cloth holds out a Yard because there is an Equality between the Yard and the Cloth Whether between Two or many Idea's as between the two Idea's of Three and Three and that of Six for it is true that three and three are Six because there is an Equality between the two Idea's of Three and Three and that of Six Lastly Whether between Idea's and Things when the Idea's represent what the Things are For when I say that there is a Sun
sola substantia rationalis Quare omnia per ipsam sed ad ipsam non nisi anima rationalis Itaque substantia rationalis per ipsam facta est ad ipsam Non enim est ulla natura interposita Lib. Imp. de Gen. ad Litt. St. Austin for Truth to which alone it is immediately united It is true the Soul is united to the Body and is naturally the Form of it but it is also true that it is united to God after a much stricter and more Essential manner The relation it has to its Body might not be but the relation it has to God is so Essential that it is impossible to conceive that God could create a Spirit without that Relation It is evident that God can only Act for himself that he can only Create Spirits to Know and Love him that he can neither give them any Knowledge nor imprint any Love in them but what is for him and what tends towards him But he was not oblig'd to unite Spirits to Bodies as he has done Therefore the * Rectissimè dicitur factus ad imaginem similitudinem Dei non enim aliter incommutabilem veritatem posset mente conspicere De vera Rel. Relation which our Minds have to God is Natural Necessary and absolutely Indispensible but the Relation of our Spirits to our Bodies though Natural is neither absolutely Necessary nor Indispensible This is not a proper place to set forth all the Authorities and Reasons which may induce us to believe that it is more suitable to the Nature of our Mind to be united to God than to a Body these things would lead us too far To place this Truth in a just Light it would be necessary to destroy the Principal Foundations of Heathen Philosophy to explain the Disorders of Sin to engage what is falsly called Experience and to argue against the Prejudices and Illusions of the Senses Therefore to make the common sort of Mankind apprehend this Truth perfectly is too hard a Task to attempt in a Preface Nevertheless it is not difficult to prove it to attentive Minds which are acquainted with true Philosophy for it is enough to put them in mind that since the Will of God regulates the Nature of every thing it is more suitable to the Nature of the Soul to be united to God by the Knowledge of Truth and the Love of Good than to be united to a Body since it is certain as above that God has created Spirits to Know and Love him rather than to Inform Bodies This Proof is able at first sight to startle Ingenious Minds then to render them attentive and lastly to convince them But it is morally Impossible that Sensualiz'd Spirits who can know nothing but what is felt should ever be convinc'd by such Arguments These sort of Men must have gross sensible Proofs because nothing seems real to them unless it makes an Impression upon their Senses The Fall of the first Man has so much weakned the * Mens quod non sentit nisi cum purissima beatisma est nulla Cohaeret nisi ipsi veritati quae similitudo Imago patris sapientia dicitur Aug. lib. Imp. de Gen. ad Litt. Vnion of our Mind with God that none but those are sensible of it whose Heart is purified and whose Mind is inlightned for this Vnion seems Imaginary to all those who blindly follow the Judgments of the Senses and the Motions of the Passions On the contrary it has so much strengthned the Vnion of our Soul with our Body that these two parts of our selves seem to us to be no longer but one and the same Substance or rather it has made us such Slaves to our Senses and Passions that we are inclin'd to believe our Body is the Principal of the two Parts of which we are composed When we consider the different Employments of Men we have a great deal of reason to believe that they have a mean and low Opinion of themselves for as they all love Felicity and the Perfection of their Being and only labour to make themselves Happier or more Perfect have we not reason to believe that they have a greater Value for their Body and the Goods of their Body than for their Mind and the Goods thereof when we see them commonly imploy'd about things that have a Relation to the Body seldom or never thinking on those which are absolutely necessary for the Perfection of the Mind The greatest part of Men labour with so much Industry and Toil only to maintain a miserable Life and to leave their Children some necessary Conveniencies for the Preservation of their Bodies Those who by the good Fortune or Chance of their Birth are not subject to this Necessity do not shew better by their Business and Imployments that they look upon their Soul as the noblest part of their Being Hunting Dancing Gaming Entertainments are their common Imployments their Soul being a Slave to their Body Esteems and Cherishes all those Divertisements though altogether Vnworthy of it but because their Body has a relation to all Sensible Things the Soul is not only inslav'd to the Body but also to all sensible things by the Body and for the Body for 't is by the Body that Men are united to their Relations their Friends their Country their Imployments and to all sensible Enjoyments the Preservation of which seems to them as necessary and as valuable as the Preservation of their own Being Thus the Care of their Estates and the Desire of increasing them the Passion of Glory and Grandeur agitates and imploys them infinitely more than the perfecting of their Soul Moreover the Learned and those who pretend to Wit spend more than half their Life in Actions purely Animal or such as incline us to think that they value their Health their Estate and their Reputation more than the Perfection of their Mind They study more to attain a Chimerical Grandeur in the Opinion of other Men than increase the Power and Capacity of their Mind They make their Heads a kind of Wardrobe in which they Store up without choice or order whatever bears any Character of Learning I mean whatever may appear Rare and Extraordinary and excite the Admiration of other Men. They are proud of being like those Cabinets of Curiosity and Antiquity which have nothing Rich or Solid in them the Value whereof only depends on Fancy Passion and Chance and they seldom labour to improve their Mind and to regulate the Motions of their Heart Yet it is not that Men are wholly Ignorant they have a * Non exigua hominis portio sed totius Humana Universitatis substantia est Amb. 6. Hexa 7. Soul and that this Soul is the chief part of their Being They have also been convinc'd a thousand times by Reason and Experience that it is no very considerable Advantage to have some Reputation Riches and Health for some Years and generally that all the
est ut convertatur ad id ex quo est quod aliter formata ac perfecta esse non possit S. de Gen. ad Litt. Ch. 50. St. Austin teaches us in these fine words Eternal Wisdom says he is the Principle of all Creatures that are capable of Intelligence and this Wisdom always remaining the same never ceases to speak to his Creatures in the secret Recesses of their Reason that they may turn towards their Principle because nothing but the sight of the Eternal Wisdom gives a Being to Spirits and can as it were finish them and give them the last Perfection they are capable of * Scimus quoniam cum apparuerit similes ei erimus quoniam videbimus eum sicuti est Joan. Ep. 1. c. 3. v. 2. Corpus quod corrumpitur aggravat animam Sap. 9.10 When we see God as he is we shall be like him says the Apostle St. John By that Contemplation of Eternal Truth we shall be elevated to that degree of Greatness to which all Spiritual Creatures tend by the necessity of their Nature But while we are on Earth the weight of the Body Stupifies the Mind it removes it continually from the Presence of God or of that Internal Light which Illuminates it it makes continual Efforts to strengthen its Vnion with Sensible Objects and obliges it to represent to it self all things not as they are in themselves but according to the relation they have towards the Preservation of Life * Terrena inhabitatio deprimit sensum multa cogitantem difficile aestimamus quae in terra sunt quae in prospectu sunt invenimus cum labore Sap. 9.15 The Body says the Wise Man fills the Mind with so great a number of Sensations that it becomes incapable of knowing those things that are but a little conceal'd The sight of the Body dazles and dissipates that of the Mind and it is difficult to perceive Truths clearly by the Eyes of the Soul while we make use of the Eyes of our Body to discover it This shews that it is only by the Attention of the Mind that Truths are discover'd and that all Sciences are Learned for the Attention of the Mind is nothing but its Return and Conversion towards God who is our only Master and who only can teach us Truth by the Manifestation of his Substance as * Deus intelligibilis lux in quo à quo per quem intelligibiliter lucent omnia S. Sol. Insinuavit nobis Christus animam humanam non vegetari non illuminari non beatificari nisi ab ipsa Substantia Dei Aug. in Joan. St. Austin speaks It is plain by all these things that we must continually resist the Effort which the Body makes against the Mind and by degrees accustom our selves to disbelieve the Testimonies of our Senses in respect of all Bodies which are about us and which they always represent to us as worthy our Application and Esteem because we ought never to six upon any thing that is Sensible nor imploy our selves about it 'T is one of the Truths which the Eternal Wisdom seems to have been willing to reveal to us by his Incarnation for after having raised a sensible Body to the highest Dignity that can be apprehended he has shew'd us by the deepest Humiliation of the same Body which was the greatest of all sensible things how much we ought to despise all the Objects of our Senses It is perhaps for the same reason St. Paul said that he knew not Jesus Christ according to the Flesh For it is not the Flesh of Christ we must rest upon it is the Spirit which is conceal'd under that Flesh Caro vas fuit quod habebat attende non quod erat says St. Austin That which is * Illa autoritas Divina dicenda est quae non solum insensibilibus signis transcendit omnem humanam facultatem sed ipsum hominem agens ostendit ei quo usque se propter ipsum depresserit non teneri sensibus quibus videntur illa miranda sed ad intellectum jubet evolare simul demonstrans quanta hic possit cur haec faciat quam parvi pendat Aug. 2. de Ord. 9. Et si cognovimus secundum carnem Christum jam non secundum carnem novimus 2 ad Cor. Tr. in Joan. 27. visible or sensible in Jesus Christ only deserves our Adoration because it is united with the Word which can only be the Object of the Mind It is absolutely necessary for those who aim at Wisdom and Happiness to be fully convinc'd and affected with what I have said It is not enough to believe it upon my word nor to be perswaded of it by the Lustre of a Transitory Light they must know it by many Experiences and many undeniable Demonstrations These things must never be in danger of being effaced out of their Mind they must ever be present to it in all their Studies and other Imployments of their Life Those who will give themselves the Trouble to read the Work with some Application which is here publish'd will if I am not deceiv'd commence such a Disposition of Mind for we have demonstrated in it the different ways wherein our Senses Imagination and Passions are absolutely useless to the discovery of Truth and Good On the contrary that they dazle and seduce us on all occasions and generally that all the Knowledge the Mind receives by the Body or by some inward Motions of the Body are all false and confused in respect of the Objects they represent although they are very useful towards the Preservation of the Body and of the Goods which have relation to the Body Several Errors are engaged in it and particularly those that are most universally receiv'd or that occasion the greatest Disorder of the Mind and we shew that most of them proceed from the Vnion of the Mind with the Body We design in several places to make the Mind sensible of its Servitude and of the Dependance it has on all sensible things that it may awake from its Drowsiness and make some Efforts for its Deliverance We do not only make a bare Exposition of our Errors but also explain the Nature of the Mind We do not for instance insist upon a great Enumeration of all the particular Errors of the Senses or Imagination but upon the Causes of those Errors We shew at once in the Explanation of these Faculties and general Errors to which we are subject an almost infinite Number of those particular Errors into which Men fall Thus the subject of this Work is the whole Mind of Man we consider it in it self in relation to the Body and in relation to God we examine the Nature of all its Faculties and observe the uses we ought to make from hence to avoid Error Lastly We explain most of those things we thought useful to advance in the Knowledge of Man The finest the most agreeable and most necessary Knowledge
that they do not help us to the Knowledge of Things but in respect to the preservation of our Body and not according to what they are in themselves is exactly true in this case since we have a more exact Knowledge of the Motion or Rest of Bodies in proportion to their nearness and which we cou'd examine by the Senses than when they are so distant That the Relation they have to our Bodies ceases as when they are five or six hundred Paces from us if they are of an ordinary bigness and even nearer than that if they are less or in fine farther off if they are greater CHAP. X. Of Errors about Sensible Qualities I. A distinction of Soul and Body II. An Explication of the Organs of the Senses III. To what part of the Body the Soul is immediately Vnited IV. How Objects act upon Bodies V. How upon the Soul with Reasons why the Soul does not perceive the Motions of the Fibres of the Body VI. Four things which are Confounded in every Sensation WE have seen in the preceding Chapters that the Judgments we form by these means of our Eyes about Extension Figure and Motion are never exactly true yet we must confess they are not absolutely false they include at least this Truth That Extension Figure and Motion whatever they are are without us It 's true we often see things which are not and which never were and we ought not to conclude that a thing is without us from hence only that we see it without us there is no necessary connexion between an Idea that is presented to the Mind of Man and the Existence of a thing which this Idea represents That which happens to those who sleep or are delirious sufficiently proves this however we can ordinarily be assur'd that Extension Figures and Motions which we see are without us These are not meer imaginary things they are real and we are not deceiv'd if we believe they have a real Existence and which is independant of our Mind though it 's very * See the Explanations difficult to prove it It is then evident that the Judgments we make about the Extension Figures and Motions of Bodies contain some Truth but the same cannot be said of those things that belong to Light Colours Sapors Odours and all other sensible Qualities for Truth is never to be found there as we have shown before We do not here distinguish Light from Colours because we believe they are not very different nor can be separately explain'd We shall be oblig'd to speak of other sensible Qualities in General at the same time that we treat of these two because they might be explain'd from the same Principles We ought to be very attentive to the things that follow for they are of the most important Consequence and much more useful than those things we have yet spoken of I suppose first Distinction of the Soul and Body that the Reader has made some Reflexion upon the two * I here cast Idea every thing that is the immediate Object of the Mind Idea's which are found in our Soul one which represents the Body to us and the other the Mind that he is able to distinguish them by the positive Attributes which they include in a word that he be well persuaded that Extention is different from Thought Or else I suppose him to have Read and Consider'd some Places of St. Augustin as the 10th Chapt. of the 10th Book of the Trinity the 4th and 14th Chap. of the Book of the Quantity of the Soul or the Meditations of Descartes especially that which respects the Distinction of the Soul and Body Or lastly the Sixth Discourse of M. de Cordemoy du discernement de l'ame du Corps I suppose also II. Explication of the Organs of the Senses that he knows the Anatomy of the Organs of the Senses and that they are compos'd of small Branches which have their Original in the middle of the Brain whence they disperse themselves through all the Members of Sensation and that at last without any interruption terminate at the Extreme parts of the Body That whilst we are Awake or in Health one of their Extremities cannot be mov'd but the other is also mov'd because of their perpetual Intension just as an extended Cord cannot be mov'd in one part without communicating motion to another The Reader must also know that these little Strings or Branches may be affected after two ways either at the end which is at the extremity of the Body or at that which is in the Brain If these little Strings are shaken by the Action of External Bodies upon them and this Motion is not communicated to the Brain as it often happens in sleep then the Mind receives no new Sensation by that Action but if these Strings are mov'd in the Brain by the Course of the Animal Spirits or by some other Cause the Soul perceives something although the parts of these Strings which are out of the Brain and which are dispers'd through all the parts of our Bodies be in perfect rest as it often happens in sleep It is not amiss to observe here by the by III. The Soul is immediately united to that part of the Brain where the Strings of the Organs of the Senses meet how Experience teaches us that we do sometimes feel pain in such parts of our Bodies as have been cut off because the Strings of the Brain which belong to those respective parts being shaken after the same manner as if they were effectually hurt the Soul feels a very real Pain in these Imaginary Parts Now all these things shew visibly that the Soul immediately resides in that part of the Brain where all the Organs of Sense meet I mean it perceives all the Changes which pass there by means of Objects which Cause or have been accustom'd to Cause them and perceives nothing that passes out of this part but by the interposition of the Fibres which terminate there This Position being well conceiv'd it will not be very difficult to shew how Sensation is made which must be explain'd by some Example When I thrust the Point of a Needle into my Hand IV. An Example how Objects affect Bodies this Point removes and separates the Fibres of the Flesh the Fibres are continued from this place to the Brain and when one sleeps they are extended enough not to be shaken unless those of the Brain be also shaken it follows then that the Extremities of these Fibres which are in the Brain are also moved If the Motion of the Fibres in my Hand is moderate that of the Fibres of the Brain will be so also and if the Motion is violent to break something upon my Hand it will be much stronger and more violent in the Brain Thus also if I come near the Fire the small parts of Wood which it continually in great number and with much violence disperses as may be prov'd by
Eye must be lengthned by pressing the sides closer together and on the contrary it must be compess'd if the Objects are too far off By this Experiment 't is plain that we ought to judge or be sensible of the Colours at the bottom of our Eyes after the same manner as we judge the Heat to be in our Hand if our Senses were given us to discover the truth and if we were guided by Reason in the Judgments we make upon the Objects of our Senses But to be able to give a Reason for the variety of our Judgments upon sensible Qualities 't is necessary that we consider how strictly the Soul is united to the Body and that it is so sensualized since Original Sin that many things are attributed to it which belong to the Body and that it is now hardly to be distinguished from it so that it ascribes to it not only all its Sensations which we are speaking of but also the force of Imagining and even sometimes the power of Reasoning For there has been a great number of Philosophers that have been ignorant and foolish enough to believe that the Soul was only a more fine and subtile part of the Body If we read Tertullian we shall soon see too many proofs of what I say since we shall find him of the same Opinion with a great number of Authors whom he Cites It is true in the Book of the Soul he endeavours to prove that Faith Scripture and even particular Revelation oblige us to believe that the Soul is Corporeal I will not refute these Opinions because I have already supposed that we ought to have read fome of St. Augustin or Descartes Works which wou'd have sufficiently shewn the extravagancy of these Thoughts and also wou'd have confirm'd the Mind in the distinction betwixt Extention and Thought betwixt the Soul and Body The Soul is then so blind that she is ignorant of her self and does not see that her own Sensations belong to her II. An Explanation of the three kinds of the Sensations of the Soul To explain this we must distinguish three sorts of Sensations in the Soul some strong and lively others weak and languishing and some again in the medium between both The strong and lively Sensations are those which surprize the Mind and awaken it with some force because they are either very agreeable or very troublesome such as are Pain or Pleasure Heat or Cold and generally all such as are not only accompanied with Impressions in the Brain but also with some Motions of the Spirit such as are proper for the exciting the Passions as shall afterwards be explained The Weak and Languishing Sensations are those which very little affect the Soul and which are neither very agreeable nor very troublesome as a Moderate Light all Colours Ordinary Sounds which are very weak c. And the Medium between both I call those sort of Sensations which indifferently touch the Soul as a great Light a violent Sound c. Now it is to be observed that a Weak and Languishing Sensation may become indifferent and afterwards strong and lively For Example the Sensation that we have of Light is weak when the Light of a Flambeau is weak and languishing or very far from us and afterwards this Sensation may become indifferent if the Flambeau be brought near enough to us and at last it may become very strong and lively if the Flambeau be brought so near our Eyes that they be dazled with it or else when we look upon the Sun Thus the Sensation of Light may be strong weak or moderate according to its different degrees These are then the Judgments that our Soul makes of these three sorts of Sensations V. Errors which accompany our Sensations wherein we may perceive that it almost always blindly follows the sensible Impressions or Natural Judgments of our Senses and that it is pleased if we may so say in dispersing it self over all the Objects that it considers and by divesting it self to cloath them The first of these Sensations is so lively and moving that the Soul can scarce hinder it self from acknowledging that in some respect they belong to it so that it does not only judge them to be in the Object but also believes them to be in the Members of the Body which it considers as a part of it self Thus it judges that Cold and Heat are not only in the Ice and Fire but that they are also in its own Hands The Languishing Sensations so little affect the Soul that it does not believe them to belong to it nor that they are either within it self or the Body but only in the Objects 'T is for this reason that we take away Light and Colours from our Soul and Eyes thereby to adorn External Objects with them although Reason teaches us that they are not in the Idea we have of Matter And Experience shews us we ought to judge them in our Eyes as well as upon Objects since we see them as well there as in the Objects as I have proved by the Instance of an Oxe's Eye placed at the hole of a Window Now the Reason why all Men do not immediately see that Colours Odours Taste and all other Sensations are only Modifications of their Soul is because we have no clear Idea of our Soul For when we know any thing by the Idea which represents it we clearly know all the Modifications it can have All Men agree for Example that Roundness is a Modification of Extension by a clear Idea which represents it See Chap. 7. 2d part of the 3d Book Thus not knowing our Soul by its Idea as I shall explain hereafter but only by the Internal Sentiment we have thereof we know not by a simple Sight but only by Reasoning whether Whiteness Light Colours and other Weak and Languishing Sensations are not Modifications of our Soul but for the lively Sensations such as Pain and Pleasure we easily judge they are within us because we are very sensible that they affect us and have no need to know them by their Ideas to perceive they belong us As for Indifferent Sensations the Soul is very much perplexed with them for on the one hand it wou'd follow the Natural Judgments of the Senses and therefore it removes from it as much as possible these sort of Sensations to attribute them to the Objects but on the other side it cannot avoid feeling within self that they belong to it especially when these Sensations come near those that I call strong and lively so that 't is after this manner that it guides it self in the Judgment it makes of them if a Sensation affects it very much it concludes it to be in its own Body as well as in the Object and if it touches it but a little the Soul believes it only in the Object And if this Sensation is exactly in the Medium between the Strong and Weak then it knows not what to
of Dislike which for instance proceeds from the strong Imagination they have of the Dirt in what they Eat The reason of it is that when two Motions are made in the Brain at the same time the one is never excited after the other except it be after a considerable time Thus because the agreeable Sensation never comes without this other disgustful one and because we confound things that are produced at the same time we imagine that this Sensation that was formerly agreeable to us is now no longer so Yet if it is always the same it is necessary that it should always be agreeable So that if we imagine it is not agreeable 't is because it is join'd and confounded with another that causes more distaste than the other does of agreeableness There is more difficulty to prove that Colours and some other Sensations which I have called weak and languishing are not the same in all Men because all those Sensations so little affect the Soul that we cannot distinguish them so well as we can Tastes or other Sensations more strong and lively the one being more agreeable than the other and thus to discover the diversity of Sensations that are found in different Persons by the variety of their pleasure or dislike Reason which always shows that the other Sensations are not the same in different Persons tells us also that there will be a variety in the Sensations they have of Colours And indeed there is no doubt but there is much diversity in the Organs of Sight in different Persons as well as in those of the Ear or the Taste for there is no reason to suppose a perfect resemblance in the disposition of the Optic Nerve in all Men since there is an infinite variety in every thing in Nature and chiefly in those that are Material 't is therefore very probable that all Men see not the same Colours in the same Objects Yet I believe it never or very rarely happens that Persons see White or Black to be of any other Colour than we do altho' they do not see it equally White or Black But for mixt Colours as Red Yellow and Blue and chiefly such as are compounded of all three I believe there are few Persons who have perfectly the same Sensation of them For Instance there are some Persons who when they look upon cettain Bodies with one Eye take them to be Yellow and when they behold them with the other see them to be Green or Blue yet if we suppos'd these Persons Born blind of one Eye or with both their Eyes so dispos'd to see that Blue which we call Green they wou'd believe they saw Objects of the same colour as we see them because by Green or Blue they wou'd always have understood what they see Yellow or Red. We may further prove that all Men see not the same Objects of the same Colour because according to the observation of some the same Colours do not equally please all sorts of Persons and if these Sensations were the same they wou'd be equally agreeable to all Men but because very weighty doubts may be raised against the Answer I have given to the precedent Objection I do not believe it solid enough to insist upon it Indeed it is very seldom that we are as much more pleased with one Colour than another even as we are much more pleased with one Taste than another The reason is the Sensations of Colours are not given us to Judge whether or no Bodies are proper for our Nourishment that is distinguished by Pleasure and Pain which are the Natural Characters of Good and Evil Objects in respect to their Colour are neither good nor bad to Eat If Objects appear agreeable or disagreeable to us in respect to their Colour their sight wou'd be always followed with the course of those Spirits which excite and accompany the Passions since the Soul cannot be touched without moving it and we shou'd often hate good Things and love bad so that we shou'd not long preserve our lives In fine the Sensations of Colours are only given us to distinguish Bodies from one another and therefore it does as well if we see Herbs Red as if we see them Green provided the Person that sees them Red or Green sees them always after the same manner But we have said enough of these Sensations let us now speak of Natural Judgments and the free Judgments which accompany them which is the fourth thing that we confound with the three others that we have already mention'd CHAP. XIV I. Of the false Judgments that accompany our Sensations and which we confound with them II. Reasons of these false Judgments III. That Error is not in our Sensations but only in these Judgments 'T IS easily foreseen I. Of the false Judgments that accompany our Sensations and which we confound with them that we shall not meet with many Persons that will not be offended with this General Proposition that I here advance viz. That we have no Sensation of External Objects which include not one or many Judgments we know very well that the generality of the World do not believe that there is so much as one Judgment in our Sensations either true or false so that these Persons being surprized with the Novelty of this Proposition will say without doubt in themselves But how can it be I do not Judge this Wall to be white I see very well what it is Nor do I Judge Pain to be in my Hand I most certainly feel it to be there And who can doubt of things so certain if they do not feel Objects otherwise than I do Indeed their Inclinations for the Prejudices which they have imbib'd from their Infancy carries them much further and if they do not Reproach and Contemn those whom they believe to be perswaded of a contrary Opinion to their own without doubt they deserve to be placed in the Number of Moderate Persons But we must not here stay to Prophesie of the ill success of our Thoughts it will be more to the purpose to endeavour to produce them with the strongest Proofs and so clearly discover them that they may be no sooner well examin'd or attentively consider'd but they must be submitted to Since 't is necessary to prove that we have no Sensation of External Objects which does not include some false Judgment take it thus It seems Indisputable to me that our Souls do not fill those vast Spaces which are between us and the fixt Stars altho' it shou'd be granted that themselves are extended so likewise it is not reasonable to believe that our Souls are in the Firmament when they behold the fixt Stars there Nor is it Credible that they should go out of their Bodies a thousand Paces to see Houses at that distance It is therefore necessary that our Souls see Houses and Stars where they are not since it goes not out of the Body where it is and yet sees them out
little Fibres may be moved two ways either by beginning at the ends which terminate in the Brain or those that terminate in the Exterior parts of the body The agitation of these Fibres cannot be communicated unto the Brain but the Soul must perceive something If this Motion begins by an impression that the objects make upon the extremity of the Fibres of our Nerves is so communicated to the Brain then the Soul perceives and judges that what it * By a Natural judgment which I 〈◊〉 before judge of in many places feels is without that is it perceives an object as present But if it is only the inward Fibres which are agitated by the course of the 〈◊〉 of Spirit or by some other way the Soul imagines and judges that what it imagines is not without but within the Brain that is it perceives an object as absent This is the difference there is between Sensation and Imagination But it is requisite to observe that the Fibres of the Brain are much more agitated by the impression of Objects than by the course of the Spirits and that that is the reason why the Soul is made more sensible by external Objects which it looks upon as present and as it were capable of making it immediately feel either pleasure or pain than by the course of the Animal Spirits Nevertheless it sometimes happens in Persons who have their Animal Spirits very much agitated by Fasting Watching a high Fever or by some violent Passion that these Spirits move the internal Fibres of the Brain with as much force as outward objects could do so that these Persons perceive what they ought only to imagine and think they see those objects before their Eyes which are only in their Imagination From whence it plainly appears that in respect to what passes in the Body the Senses and Imagination differ only as to More or Less as I have before advanced But to give a more particular and distinct Idea of Imagination we must know that every time there happens any change in that part of the Brain where the Nerves meet there likewise happens some change in the Soul that is as we have already explain'd if in this part there is any Motion that changes the order of its Fibres there also happens some New perception in the Soul and it feels or imagines some New thing and the Soul can never perceive or imagine any thing anew except there be some change in the Fibres of this same part of the Brain So that the faculty of Imagining or the Imagination consists only in the power that the Soul has of forming to its self Images of objects in producing a change in the Fibres of this part of the Brain which may be called the principal part since it answers to all the parts of our bodies and is the place where our Soul immediately resides if we may be permitted to say so That shews us very evidently that this power which the Soul hath of forming Images includes two things the one depending upon the Soul it self and the other upon the Body II. Two faculties in the imagination one Active and the other Passive The first is Action and the Command of the Will The second is the Obedience that is given to it by the Animal Spirits which trace these Images and to the Fibres of the Brain upon which they must be imprinted In this discourse the name of Imagination is indifferently given to either of these two things nor are they distinguished by the words Active and Passive which might be given to them because by the sense of what we shall speak may easily be understood which of the two we mean whether it be of the active imagination of the Soul or passive imagination of the Body We have not yet determined in particular what that principal part is which we have just spoke of First because we believe it very unnecessary Secondly because we have not a certain knowledge of it And in fine we think it better to be silent in a matter whose truth cannot here be demonstrated to others altho it were manifest to us what that principal part is Let it be then according to the opinion of Willis that common Sense resides in those two Corpuscles he calls Corpora Striata Let the sinuosity of the Brain preserve the Species of the Memory and let the Callous body be the seat of the Imagination or following the Opinion of Fernellius let us suppose it in the Pia Mater which involves the substance of the Brain or with D'Cartes in the Glandula Pinealis or in fine let it be in some other part hitherto unknown that our Soul exercises its principal functions 't will will be very indifferent to me It suffices that there is a principal part Nay it is absolutely necessary there shou'd be such an one as also that the foundation of D'Cartes system should subsist for it ought to be well observed that althô he were deceived when he assures us that the Soul is immediately united to the Glandula Pinealis that ought not nevertheless to injure the foundation of his System from which we shall always gather all the usefulness that can be expected from Truth to improve our selves in the knowledge of Man Since then the Imagination consists only in the power that the Soul has of forming to it self Images of Objects by imprinting them if we may so say III. The general cause of the Changes that happen in the Imagination and the design of the 2d Book in the Fibres of its Brain the more distinct and larger the footsteps of these Animal Spirits be which are the traces of these Images the more strongly and distinctly the Soul will imagine these Objects Now even as breadth depth and clearness of the traces of any Graving depend upon the force wherewith the Instrument is acted and on the Obedience that the Copper renders to the Workman so the depth and clearness of the Impressions made on the Imagination depend upon the force of the Animal Spirits and the Constitution of the Fibres of the Brain 't is the variety that is found in both these which makes almost all this great difference that we observe in Persons Minds For 't is no difficult thing to give a reason for all the different Characters which we meet with in the Mind of Man On the one side through Abundance and Want Agitation and Slowness or largeness and smalness of the Animal Spirits and on the other side through the Delicateness and Courseness Humidity and Dryness Flexibility or Inflexibility of the Fibres of the Brain and in fine through the relation that these Animal Spirits may have with these Fibres And it would be very reasonable for every one first to endeavour to represent to himself the different Combinations of these things and to apply them to all the different Dispositions they meet with because it is always more useful nay even more agreeable to make
use of our own Wit and so accustom it of it self to discover truth then to suffer it to be spoiled with idleness by only applying it to such things as are already well known and discover'd Besides there are some things to be observed in the difference of Peoples Genii that are so fine and so delicate that althô we may be able to discover and perceive them well our selves yet we cannot represent them to nor make others sensible of them But to explain as much as possible all these differences that are to be observed in Dispositions and that very one may the more easily observe in himself the Cause of all the changes that he feels at different times it seems very proper in general to examine the Cause of these Changes which happen in the Animal Spirits and in the Fibres of the Brain because thereby we shall discover all that are found in the Imagination Man never continues very long in the same Mind every one hath sufficient inward proofs of his own inconstancy he judges of the same Subject sometimes after one manner and sometimes after another In a word the Life of Man consists only in a Circulation of Blood and in another Circulation of Thoughts and Desires and it seems the best way of imploying his time would be in seeking after the Cause of these Changes which happen to us so that way to know our selves CHAP. II. I. Of the Animal Spirits and the Changes to which they are subject in general II. That the Chyle goes to the Heart and thereby produces some change in the Spirits III. That Wine has the same effect 'T IS agreed by every on I. Of the Animal Spirits that the Animal Spirits are only the most subtile and active parts of the Blood which subtilises and agitates it self chiefly by the Fermentation that it receives in the Heart and by the violent Motion of the Muscles whereof this part is composed that the Spirits are conducted with the most of the blood through the Arteries into the Brain and that there they are separated by some parts that are destined to this use which are not yet agreed upon From hence may be concluded that where the Blood is very subtile there are much Animal Spirits but where it is gross there are but a sew that if the Blood is composed of such parts as are easily received into the Heart or very proper for Motion the Spirits which are in the Brain will be extreamly heated or agitated and if on the contrary the Blood ferments not sufficiently in the Heart the Animal Spirits will be languishing without action and without strength so that according to the solidity which shall be found in the parts of the Blood the Animal Spirits shall be more or less solid and consequently have more or less strength in their Motion But these things must be explained more at length by Examples and incontestible Experiments to make the truth evident The Authority of the Antients has not only blinded the Minds of some Men II. That the Chyle goes to the heart and causes some change in the Spirits but we may say it has shut their Eyes also For many Persons have still such a respect for their opinion or it may be so opinionative that they will not see some things which they could no longer contradict if they would only please to open their Eyes We may see every day Persons that are much esteemed for their Learning who write Books and publish Conferences against the visible and sensible Experiences of the Circulation of the Blood against that of Weight the Exastick power of the Air and others of the like Nature The discovery that Mr. Pecquet has made in our time which we make use of here is in the Number of those that are unfortunate only because he discover'd it before he had grey Hairs and a venerable Beard But we shall nevertheless make use of it not fearing but there will be some Judicious Persons who will not find fault with it According to this discovery the Chyle goes not immediately from the Bowels into the Liver by the Mesaraick Veins as the Antients believed but passes from the Bowels into the Lacteal Veins and afterwards into certain receptacles where they meet and from thence it goes by the Thoraick Duct or Canal along the Vertebres of the Back and so mingles it self with the Blood in the Axillary Vein which enters into the upper part of the Vena Cava and thus being mingled with the Blood it meets in the Heart From this Experiment may be concluded that the Blood thas is mingled with the Chyle being very different from the other Blood which has already Circulated many times through the Heart the Animal Spirits which are only the most subtile parts thereof will be also very different in Persons that are Fasting and others who have just Eat Moreover because that amongst Meats and Drinks which are generally used there is great variety and even those Persons that use them have bodies diversly disposed two Persons that have just Dined and at the same Table will feel in their faculties of Imagination so great a variety of changes that it would be impossible to describe It is true that those who are in perfect health digest so quick that the entring of the Chyle into the Heart scarcely augments or diminishes any of its heat and hinders not the Blood from fermenting there almost the same manner as if it entered only by it self so that their Animal Spirits and by consequence their faculty of imagining receives very little if any change But for Old and infirm People they observe in themselves very sensible changes after they have Eat they grow very dull and sleepy or at least their imagination becomes very Languishing and they have neither Vivacity or quickness left they no longer conceive any thing distinctly nor can they apply themselves to any thing whatsoever in a word they are perfectly altered from what they were before But that the most healthful and strongest may also have sensible proofs of what we have already said III. That Wine produces the same effect they need only reflect upon what happens to them when they have drunk more Wine then they are accustomed to or else by observing what would be the effects if they drink Wine one Meal and Water another For 't is certain that if they are not entirely stupid or if their bodies are not composed after a very extraordinary manner they shall soon perceive a gayety of temper some little drowsiness or some other like accident Wine is so Spiritous that it comes near the nature of our Animal Spirits but are these a little too luxurious to submit to the command of the Will because of their Solidity and excessive Agitation Thus even in the strongest and most vigorous Men it produces greater changes in the Imagination and in all the parts of the body Vinum Luctator delosus est then Meat or
any other Liquors do It gives us the Foil to speak with Plautus and produces many effects in the Mind which are not so advantageous as those that Horace describes in these Verses Quid non ebrietas designat Operta recludit Spes jubet esse ratas in praelia tendit inermes Sollicitis animis onus eximit addocet artes Faecundi Calices quem non fecere disertum Contracta quem non in paupertate solutum It would be easie enough to give a reason of the principal effects that the mingling of the Chyle with the Blood produces in the Animal Spirits and afterwards in the Brain and even in the Soul it self As why Wine rejoyces us and gives a certain Vivacity to the Wit when it is taken with Moderation and for sometime besots Men when 't is drank to Excess From whence proceeds the heaviness after Meals and many other such things for which generally very ridiculous reasons has been given But though we shall not here make a Book of Natural Philosophy yet it will be necessary to give some Idea of the Anatomy of the Brain or make some Suppositions as Mr. D'Cartes has done in his Treatise of Man without which 't will be impossible to explain our selves But if one reads this Treatise of Monsieur D'Cartes with attention we may satisfie our selves upon these questions because he explains all these things or at least gives a sufficient light to discover them as he has done by Meditation provided one has some Knowledge of his PRINCIPLES CHAP. III. That the Air one breaths causes likewise some change in the Spirits THE second general Cause of the changes which happens in the Animal Spirits is the Air we breath for altho' it does immediately make as sensible impressions as the Chyle nevertheless in some time it produces the same effect as the Juice of our Food does presently This Air enters from Branches of the Wind-pipe into that of the Venous Artery and from thence it mingles it self and ferments with the rest of the Blood in the Heart and according to its particular disposition and that of the Blood it produces great changes in the Animal Spirits and by consequence in the faculty of Imagining I know that there are some Persons who do not believe that the Air mingles it self with the Blood in the Lungs and Heart because by their Eyes they cannot discover in the branches of the Wind-pipe and those of the Venous Artery the passages whereby the Air is communicated But we must not confine the Action of the Mind to that of the Senses it can penetrate what is impenetrable by them and apply it self to such things which they cannot 'T is certain that some parts of the Blood continually pass from the branches of the Venous Artery into those of the Wind-pipe as the smell and moistness of the breath sufficiently proves and yet the passages of this communication are imperceptible why therefore cannot the subtile parts of the Air pass from the branches of the Wind-pipe into the Venous Artery altho' the passages of this communication are not so visible In short more humours are evacuated by transpiration from the imperceptible Pores of the Arteries and Skin than by any other passages of the Body and even the Pores of the most solid Metals are not so small but that there are Bodies in Nature small enough to find a free passage for otherwise these Pores would be clos'd up It is true that the Gross and branchy parts of the Air cannot pass through the ordinary Pores of Bodies and that even Water altho' very gross can glide through those passages where this Air is sometime forced to stop But we are not speaking here of those gross and branchy parts of the Air they are it seems unuseful enough for fermentation 't is only of the smallest parts such as are swift and sharp that we speak of and which have none or very small branches to stop them because they are the most proper for the fermentation of the Blood I might nevertheless affirm upon the Relation of Silvius that even the grossest part of the Air pass from the Wind-pipe into the Heart since he assures us that he hath seen it pass thither by the help of M. de Swamerdam for it is more reasonable to believe a Man who says he has seen it than a thousand others who only speak of it by chance It is then certain that the most subtile parts of the Air which we breath enters into our Heart and with the Blood and Chyle maintains there that fire which gives Life and Motion to our Bodies and that according to their different Qualities they produce great changes in the fermentation of the Blood and in the Animal Spirits The truth of this is every day made evident by the divers Humours and different Characters of Persons dispositions that are of different Countries For Example the Gascons have a more lively Imagination than the Normans those of Roan Diep and Picardy differ very much among themselves and that much more from the Lower Normans Nunquid non ultra est sapientia in Teman Jer. c. 49. v. 7. altho' they be very near together But if we consider Men whose Countries are at a greater distance we shall meet with differences still more strange as an Italian and German or a Dutchman In fine there has in all times been some places that have been renowned for the Wisdom of their Inhabitants as Teman and Athens and others for their Stupidity as Thebes Abdera and some others Athenis tenue coelum ex quo acutiores etiam putantur Attici crassum Thebis Cic. de fato Abderitanae pectora plebis habes Mart. Boeotum in crasso jurares aere natum Hor. CHAP. IV. I. Of the Change wrought in the Animal Spirits by the Nerves that go to the Lungs and Heart II. Of that which is caused by the Nerves that pass from the Liver to the Spleen and so into the Bowels III. That all this is done without the assistance of our Will but cannot be effected without a Providence THE third Cause of those changes that happen to the Animal Spirits is the most general and most active of all because it is that which produces maintains and fortifies all the Passions To apprehend which well it 's necessary that we know that the fifth sixth and eighth pair of the Nerves have most of their branches extended through the Breast and Belly where they are very useful for the preservation of the Body but extreamly dangerous to the Soul because the action of these Nerves do not depend upon the Will as those do which serve to move the Arms Legs and other external parts of the Body I. of the change of the Spirits caus'd by the Nerves which go to the Lungs and Heart for they act much more upon the Soul than that does upon them It must therefore be consider'd that many branches of the eight pair of the Nerves cast themselves amongst
Correspondence and Sympathy which is found between the Nerves of the Face and some others that answer to other parts of the Body and which want a Name is yet more remarkable and that which produces this great Sympathy is that as in the other Passions the little Nerves that go to the face are only branches of that which descends lower When we are surprized with any violent Passion if we carefully reflect upon what we feel in our Bowels and the other parts of the Body where these Nerves infold themselves as also upon the changes which accompany it in the face and if we consider that all these diverse agitations of our Nerves are wholly involuntary and that they happen notwithstanding all the resistance our Will can make against them we shall not find it so difficult to suffer out selves to be perswaded of this plain Exposition that has been made of all those Relations the Nerves have one to another But if we examine the reasons and end of all these things we shall find therein so much Order and Wisdom that but a little serious attention will be requisite to convince those Persons that are the most Wedded to Epicurus and Lucretius that there is a Providence which rules the World When I see a Watch. I have reason to conclude that there is an Intelligence since it is impossible that Chance shou'd have produc'd and dispersed all its Wheels into order How then can it be possible that Chance and the meeting together of Atoms shou'd be able so justly and proportionably to dispose all those divers Springs as appear both in Man and other Animals And that Man and all other living Creatures shou'd beget others which bear such an absolute resemblance to them So it is ridiculous to think or say with Lucretius that 't is Chance that has form'd all the parts whereof Man is composed that the Eyes were not made to see but Men were induced to see because they had Eyes and so of the other parts of the Body These are his Words Lumina ne facias oculorum clara creata Prospicere ut possimus ut proferre viai Proceras passus ideo fastigia posse Surarum ac feminum pedibus fundata plicari Bâ—achia tum porro validis exapta lacertis Esse manusque datus utrâque ex parte ministras Vt facere ad vitam possimus quae foret usus Caetera de genere hoc inter quaecumque pretantur Omnia perversà praepostera sunt ratione Nil ideo natu'est in nostro corpore ut uti Possimus sed quod natum est id procreat usum Must not one have a strange aversion for a Providence thus voluntarily to be blinded for fear of acknowledging it and endeavour to render our selves insensible to proofs so strong and convincing as those that Nature has furnished us with It is true that if once we come to affect being thought great Wits or rather Impious as the Epicureans have done we shall immediately find our selves surrounded with darkness and perceive only by false Lights boldly deny those things that are most clear and arrogantly and magisteriously affirm what is most false and obscure This Poet may serve for a proof of the blindness of these mighty Wits for he boldly determines tho' contrary to all appearance of Truth upon the most difficult and obscure Questions and it seems that he did not perceive even those Idea's that are most clear and evident If I shou'd stay to relate some more passages of this Author to justifie what I say I shou'd make too long and tedious a digression altho' it may be permitted to make such reflections as may for a moment divert the Mind from more essential Truths yet is it never permitted to make such digressions as for a considerable time take off the Mind from giving attention to the most important Subjects to apply it to trivial things CHAP. V. I. Of the Memory II. Of Habits WE have already explain'd the general Causes as well external as internal which produce any change in the Animal Spirits and by consequence in the faculty of Imagining we have show'd that the external are the Food which nourishes us and the Air we breath and that the internal consists in the involuntary agitation of certain Nerves We know of no other general Causes and even dare affirm there are none So that the faculty of Imagining depending in respect to the Body only upon these two things the Animal Spirits and the disposition of the Brain upon which they act there remains nothing more in order to the giving a perfect knowledge of the Imagination but only to shew the different changes that can happen in the substance of the Brain We will examine them after we have given some Idea of the Memory and of Habits that is of the faculty that we have of thinking of those things that we have before thought of and of acting things over again which we have already done Order requires this Method For the Explanation of the Memory I. Of the Memory 't is necessary to remember what has already been repeated so many times that all our different Perceptions depend upon the changes that happen to those Fibres that are in that part of the Brain in which the Soul more particularly resides This only supposed the nature of the Memory is explained for even as the Branches of a Tree which have continued sometime bent in a certain form still preserve an aptitude to be bent anew after the same manner So the Fibres of the Brain having once received certain impressions by the course of the Animal Spirits and by the action of Objects along time retain some facility to receive these same dispositions Now the Memory consists only in this facility since we think on the same things when the Brain receives the same impressions As the Animal Spirits act sometimes with more and sometimes with less force upon the substance of the Brain and that sensible Objects make a much greater impression than the Imagination alone it is easie from thence to discover why we do not equally remember all things we perceive For example why what one often perceives is commonly represented more lively to the Soul than what one perceives but once or twice why we remember more distinctly what we have seen than what we have only imagined and so likewise why one shou'd know better how the Veins are dispersed through the Liver after having but once seen a dissection of this part than after having many times read in a Book of Anatomy and other like things But if we shou'd reflect upon what hath been before said of the Imagination and the short discourse made on the Memory supposing us once delivered from this prejudice that our Brain is too small to preserve a very great number of traces and impressions we shall have the pleasure to discover the cause of all these surprizing effects of the Memory whereof St. Austine speaks with so much
by some violent passion for then as we have already explain'd this communication charges the conformation of the body of the Child and the Mother is so much the more apt to miscarry of the the Foetus as it has more resemblance to the desired Fruits and as the Spirits find less resistance in the Fibres of the Infants body Now it cannot be deny'd but that God without this Communication was able to have disposed all things in so exact and regular a manner as would have been necesary for the Propagation of the Species for insinite Ages that Mothers should never have Miscarried and even that they should always have had Children of the same bigness of the same Colour and that would have resembled in all things For we must not measure the power of God by our weak Imagination and we know not the Reasons he had in the construction of his work We see every day that without the help of this Communication Plants and Trees produce their kinds regularly enough and that Fowls and many other Animals have no need of it to cherish and bring forth other Animals when they sit upon Eggs of different kinds as when a Hen sits on a Partridges Eggs. For although we may reasonably conclude that the Seeds and Eggs contain in themselves the Plants and Birds which proceeds from 'em and that they may produce the little bodies of these Birds having received their Conformation by the Communication we have spoke of and the Plants theirs by another Equivocal Communication yet we cannot be certain of it But although we cannot discover the reasons why God has made every thing as it is we must not conclude from thence that he could make 'em no otherwise If we consider further that Plants who receive their growth by the action of the Female Plant resemble her much more than those which come from the seed as Tuleps for instance which come from the Root are of the same Colour as the Tulep it self and yet those that proceed from the Seed thereof are almost very different we cannot doubt that if the Communication of the Female Plant with the Fruit is not absolutely necessary to form the same kind yet it is always requisite to make the Fruit intirely like her So that although God foresaw that this Communication of the Mothers Brain with that of the Infants would sometimes destroy the Foetus and produce Monsters because of the Irregularity of the Mothers imagination yet this Communication is so admirable and so necessary for the Reasons before-mentioned and for many others that I could yet add that this knowledge that God had of these inconvencies ought not to have hindred him from executing his design We may say in one sense that God never had a design to make Monsters for it appears evident to me that if God should create one Animal only it would not be Monstrous But designing to produce an admirable work by the most simple ways and unite all these Creatures one to another he foresaw certain effects that would necessarily follow from the Order and Nature of things and this hath not diverted him from his design For although a Monster simply considered be an imperfect work yet when it is joyn'd with the rest of the creatures it does not render the World imperfect We have sufficiently explain'd what power the Imagination of a Mother has over the body of her Child let us now examine the power it hath over its Mind and that way discover the first Irregularities of the Mind and Will of Men in his Original For this is our chief design It is evident that the traces of the Brain are accompanied with Sentiments and Ideas of the Soul IV. An Explanation of some irregularities of the Mind and of the inclinations of the Will and that the emotion of the Animal Spirits have no effect in the Body but what the Motions in the Soul answer to and in a word it is certain that all the Sensations and Passions of the Body are accompany'd with true Sentiments and Passions in the Soul Now according to our first supposition Mothers first communicate the traces of their Brain to their Children and afterwards the Motions of their Animal Spirits and so produce the same passion in the mind of their Children with which they themselves are affected and by consequence they cortupt both their affections and reason in several respects If so many Children are observed to bear upon their Faces the Marks and Traces of the Idea that affected their Mother although the Fibres of the skin make much more resistance against the course of the Spirits than the soft parts of the Brain and thô the Spirits are much more agitated in the Brain than towards the Skin we cannot reasonably doubt but that the Animal Spirits of the Mother produce in the Brain of the Infant many traces by their irregular emotions Now the great traces of the Brain and the emotion of the Spirits which answer to them continuing a long time and sometimes all the life it is certain that as there are few Women who have not some weaknesses and who have not been moved with some Passion during their being with Child it cannot be expected but that there will be very few Children who are not ill inclined to something and who have not some predominant passion We have only too much experience of these things and all the World is sensible that there are whole Families who are afflicted with great weakness of Imagination which they have drawn from their Parents but it is not necessary here to give any particular Examples thereof On the contrary 't is more proper for the consolation of some Persons to assure 'em that those weaknesses of the Parents not being Natural or proper to the Nature of Man the traces and impressions of the Brain which are the cause of them may be effaced by time We may yet add here the Example of King James I. of England of whom Sir Kenelm Digby speaks in his Book which he writ of the Sympathetic Powder He tells us that Mary Stuart being with Child of King James some Scotch Lords entred her Chamber and in her presence killed her Secretary who was an Italian altho' she cast her self before him to hinder them that this Princess received some slight hurts by them and the frights she had made so great an impression in her Imagination that she communicated it to the Child in her Womb So that King James cou'd never endure to see a Naked Sword He says that he himself was a witness of it for when he was Knighted this Prince coming to lay the Sword upon his Shoulder run it strait at his Face and had wounded him if some body had not directed it aright where it ought to be There are so many instances of the like Nature that 't would be needless to search Authors for them I believe there is no body that will dispute these things for we see a
Of Old Men. with more Reason ought to be understood of Old Men because the Fibres of their Brain are still more inflexible and that for want of Animal Spirits to trace out new Footsteps their Imagination becomes altogether languishing And because the Fibres of their Brain are usually intermixt with many superfluous Humours therefore they loose by little and little the memory of things past and fall into Infirmities that are common to Children So that in their decrepit Age they have those Defects which depend upon the Constitution of the Fibres of the Brain which are to be met with both in Children and grown Men though it may be said that they are Wiser than either because they are no longer so subject to their Passions which proceed from the vehement Agitation of the Animal Spirits We shall not undertake any farther Explanation of these things because it is easie to make a judgment of this Age by the others that we have spoken of before and to conclude from thence that Old Men with much more difficulty conceive what is said to 'em than those that are younger that they are more obstinately tied to their Prejudices and long receiv'd Opinions and consequently that they are more harden'd and confirm'd in their Errors and Ill Habits Though this ought to be observed that the State of Old Age does not happen precisely at Sixty or Seventy years that all Old Men do not doat nor are all those who are past Sixty always free from the Passions of young People and that we should proceed too far to draw General Consequences from Establish'd Principles CHAP. II. That the Animal Spirits usually observe the Traces of Idea's which are most familiar to us which is the Reason that we never make a sound Judgment of things I Suppose I have sufficiently explain'd in the foregoing Chapters the various alterations that are to be met with in the Animal Spirits and in the Constitution of the Fibres of the Brain according to the several Ages of Man So that but a little Meditation upon what has been said will help us to a distinct Knowledge of the Imagination and of the most common Natural Causes of the Differences that are to be observ'd among Wits since all the Alterations that befall the Imagination and the Mind are but Consequences of those in the Animal Spirits and in the Fibres of which the Brain is compos'd But there are several Particular Moral Causes of the Alterations that befall the Imagination of Man viz. their different Conditions Employments and manner of Living to the Consideration of which we must oblige our selves since these sorts of Alterations are the Causes of almost an infinite number of Errors every one judging of Things according to the relation they have to his Condition We do not think it necessary to spend time in Explaining the Effects of some indifferent Causes as great Sicknesses surprising Misfortunes and other unexpected Accidents which make most violent impressions upon the Brain and extreamly disturb it because these things but rarely happen and for that the Errors into which such sort of Persons fall are so palpable that they are no way contageous seeing they are so easily found out and rejected by all the World Now for the more perfect apprehending all the Alterations which Different Conditions produce in the Imagination 't is absolutely necessary to remember that we never imagine Objects but by first forming Images of 'em and that these Images are nothing else but the Traces which the Animal Spirits delineate in the Brain that we imagine things so much the more strongly the deeper and more plainly these Traces are impress'd and the oftner and more violently the Animal Spirits have past through them and that when the Spirits have past through several times they enter in more easily than into other parts adjoining through which they never past or at least not so often This is the most usual Cause of the Confusion and Falshood of our Idea's For the Animal Spirits that are directed by the Action of External Objects or else by the Orders of the Soul to produce certain Traces in the Brain many times produce others which in truth resemble 'em in something but which are not altogether the Traces of the same Objects nor those which the Soul desired to represent to it self for that the Animal Spirits finding some Resistance in those parts of the Brain through which they ought to have past readily turn aside and croud into the deeper Traces of those Idea's which are more familiar to us And here we shall produce very manifest and sensible Examples of these Things When they who are not extreamly short sighted behold the Moon they see two Eyes a Nose and a Mouth in a word it seems to them as if they saw a Face Nevertheless there is nothing at all in the Moon of what they imagine there Many Persons behold there quite another Thing And they who take the Moon to be such as she seems to be to them may be easily undeceived if they look upon her with a small Prospective Glass or if they consult the Descriptions which Hevelius Riccioli and others have publish'd Now the Reason why Men generally behold a Face in the Moon and not the Irregular Spots which are there is this because the Traces of the Face which are in the Brain are very deep for that we frequently and with great Attention look upon Faces So that the Animal Spirits finding some Resistance in other parts of the Brain easily turn aside from the Direction which the Light of the Moon imprints and enter into those Traces to which the Idea's of a Face are naturally affixt Besides that the Appearing Bigness of the Moon not being much different from the largeness of an ordinary Head at a certain distance the Impression of it forms those Traces which have a great Affinity with those that represent a Nose a Mouth and Eyes and by that means determines the Spirits to take their Course in the Traces of a Face Some there are who see a Man a Horseback in the Moon or any thing else which is not a Face because their Imagination having been strongly affected by certain Objects the same Traces are open'd by the least things to which they have any Relation For the same Reason it is that we imagine we behold Chariots Men Lions and other Animals in the Clouds when there is the least resemblance between those Creatures and their Figures and that all Men but chiefly they who are accustomed to Designing and Drawing many times see Heads of Men upon the Walls where there are several Irregular Spots 'T is for this Reason also that the Spirits of Wine entring without any direction of the Will into Traces most familiar to us help to discover Secrets of the greatest Importance and that in our sleep we most commonly dream of those Objects which we have seen in the day time and which had form'd the largest Traces in the
body may be an Eye-witness of their Error But when Cato assures us that they who struck him never hurt him he asserts it or may assert it with so much Confidence and Gravity that a Man may justly question whether he be really the same as he appears to be And we may be inclin'd to think that his Soul is not to be shaken because his Body seems to be immovable For the outward Air of the Body is generally a mark of the inward disposition of the Mind So that a daring and undaunted Lyar perswades us sometimes to believe things incredible because their talking with so much Confidence is a Proof that affects the Senses and therefore a most effectual Argument that strongly convinces the generality of People Few there are therefore who look upon the Stoicks as Visionaries or as Audacious Lyars because we have no sensible Proof of that which lies reserv'd in their Breast and because the Air of the Face is a most sensible Proof that easily imposes upon us besides that our innate Vanity readily induces us to believe that Man is capable of that Grandeur and Independency to which he pretends Hence it is apparent that those Errors which abound in Seneca's Writings are of all others the most Pernicious and Contagious because they are a sort of Delicate Insinuating Errors proportion'd to the Vanity of Mankind and like to that wherein the Devil engag'd our first Parents They are likewise array'd with those Pompous and Magnificent Ornaments which make way for 'em into most Mens Minds They enter take possession stupifie and captivate 'em not with a Blindness that inclines those miserable Mortals to Humility a sensibleness of their own Ignorance and an acknowledgment of it before others but with a Haughty dazling Blindness and a Blindness accompanied with some false Glimmerings And when once Men are smitten with this blindness of Pride they presently rank themselves in the number of fine and great Wits Others also reckon 'em in the same Order and admire ' em So that there is nothing that can be thought more Contagious than this Blindness because the Vanity and Sensuality of Men the Corruption of their Senses and Passions dispose them to be known thereby and puts 'em also upon infecting others with it I believe then there is no Author more proper than Seneca to demonstrate how contagious the Imagination of some Men is who are call'd fine and great Wits and what a Command strong and vigorous Imaginations have over Weak and more Illiterate People not by the strength or evidence of their Arguments which are the productions of Wit but by a certain turn and liveliness of Expression which depends upon the Force of Imagination I know well that this Author is highly esteem'd in the World and that I shall be accus'd of more than ordinary rashness for having spoken of him as of a Man that had a Strong Imagination but little Judgment But it was chiefly by reason of this Esteem that I undertook to speak of him not out of Envy or any Morose Humour but because his great Reputation will excite many to consider more attentively those Errors of his which I have hinted We ought as much as in us lies to produce famous Examples for the confirmation of things that we assert when they are of Consequence and he that Criticizes upon a Book sometimes does it an honour However it be if I find fault with any thing in Seneca's Writings I am not single in that Opinion For not to speak of some Illustrious Persons in this Age 't is about 1600 years ago that a certain Judicious Author observ'd 1. In Philosophia parum diligens 2. Velles eum dixisse suo ingenio alieno judicio 3. Si aliqua Contempsisset c. consensu potius Eruditorum quam puerorum amore comprobaretur Quintil. l. 10. c. 1. 1. That there was little Exactness in his Philosophy 2. Little Judgment or Exactness in his Elocution 3. That his Reputation was more grounded upon the Imprudent Heat of Young Men than confirm'd by the consent of the Wise and Learned 'T is in vain to Encounter palpable Errors with Publick Writings because they are not Contagious 'T is ridiculous to admonish Men that Hypochondraical Persons are in some measure mad they know it well enough But if they for whom they have a high value mistake 't is necessary to bid 'em have a care of such for fear lest they adhere to their Errors Now it is manifest that Seneca's Spirit is a Spirit of Pride and Vanity Therefore since Pride according to the Scripture is the Original of Sin Initium peccati Superbia the Spirit of Seneca cannot be the Spirit of the Gospel Nor can his Morals have any alliance with Christian Morals which are only true and solid 'T is certain that all Seneca's thoughts are neither false nor dangerous They who being endu'd with a found Wit have attain'd the Doctrine of Christian Morals may read him to good advantage Great Men have made a profitable use of him neither is it my intention to blame those who being willing to comply with the weakness of other Men who had so high an esteem for him have drawn Arguments from the Writings of that Author to defend the Morals of Jesus Christ and to engage the Enemies of the Gospel with their own Weapons There are some good things in the Alcoran and we find some true Prophecies in the Centuries of Nostra Damus We make use of the Alcoran to confound the Religion of the Turks and the Prophecies of Nestra Damus may be serviceable to convince some Whimsical Persons But it does not follow because there is something good in the Alcoran that the Alcoran is to be call'd a good Book as some true Explanations of Nostra Damus's Centuries will not make Nostra Damus a Right Prophet and they who make use of these Books to the ends aforesaid cannot be said to have a real Esteem for ' em It would be in vain for any Man to oppose what I have said concerning Seneca by bringing a great number of Passages out of that Author conformable to the solid Truths of the Gospel I agree that there are some such as there are also in the Alcoran and in other Impious Books And they would do me wrong to overwhelm me with the Authority of an infinite number of People that have made use of Seneca because we may sometimes make use of a Book which we believe to be impertinent provided they with whom we have to deal have not the same Opinion of the Author as we have To ruine all the Philosophy of the Stoicks there needs but only one thing sufficiently prov'd by Experience as also by what we have already said That we should be bound to our Body our Parents our Friends our Prince our Country by those ties that we neither can and which it would be a shame for us to endeavour to break Our Soul is united to our Body
Odours Sapours Sounds Colours c. the greatest part of Men do not think them to be Modifications of the Soul but on the contrary that they are dispersed upon Objects or at least they are in the Soul as the Idea of a Square or Circle that is They are united to the Soul but are not Modifications thereof They judge thus of them because they are not more affected by them as was shown in the Explanation of the Errors of the Senses We must therefore agree that we know not all the Modifications whereof our Soul is capable and besides those which it has by the Organs of the Senses it may have innumerable more which it has not yet try'd nor shall know till it be deliver'd from the Prison of its Body However we must confess that even as Matter is capable of infinite Configurations because of its Extension so it 's visible that the Soul would not be incapable of the Modifications of Pleasure Pain nor even of all others which are indifferent to it if it were incapable of Perception or Thought It is sufficient therefore to know that the Principle of all these Modifications is Thought and if any one will have it that there is any thing in the Soul antecedent to Thought I shall not dispute it but as I am certain that no one has any knowledge of his Soul but by Thought or by an internal Sentiment of whatever passes in his Mind so I am also assur'd that if any one will reason upon the Nature of the Soul he must consult this internal Sentiment which will always represent him to himself such as he is and he must not imagin against his own Conscience that the Soul is an invisible Fire a subtil Air a Harmony or other like thing CHAP. II. I. The Mind being limited cannot comprehend any thing that relates to Infinity II. Its limitation is the Original of many Errors III. And chiefly of Heresies IV. We must submit our Minds to Faith WE discover at first sight I. The mind being limited cannot comprehend any thing which relates to infinity that the Human Mind is very much limited from whence two very important Consequences may be drawn The first That the Soul can have no perfect Knowledge of Infinity The second That it can't know distinctly many things at the same time For as a piece of Wax is not capable of having many different Figures at the same time so neither is the Soul capable of having the knowledge of many things at the same time Likewise a piece of Wax cannot be Square and Round at the same time but only part Square and part Round and so many more different Figures it shall have they will be so much the less perfect and distinct Thus the Soul cannot perceive many things at once and its Thoughts are so much the more confused as they are greater in Number If a piece of Wax should have a Thousand Sides and in each Side a different Figure it would be neither Square Round nor Oval and we could not say of what Figure it would be so it happens sometimes that we have so great a number of different Thoughts that we imagin we think nothing at all as happens to those that are in a Swound The Animal Spirits turning irregularly in the Brain stirs up so great a number of Traces that they do not sufficiently open any one of 'em to excite a particular or distinct Idea in the Mind so that these persons perceive so great a number things at once that they perceive nothing distinct which induces them to think they have perceived nothing at all There are some who sometimes Swound away for want of Animal Spirits but then the Soul having only thoughts of pure Intellection which leave no Traces in the Brain they remember nothing when they come to themselves again which makes them believe they thought of nothing I have said this by the by to shew those are mistaken who believe the Soul does not think always because it sometimes imagins that it thinks on nothing Every one that does but reflect a little upon their own Thoughts II. The limitation of the mind is the Original of many Errors have experience enough that the Mind cannot apply it self to many things at the same time and much more that it cannot penetrate into Infinity Yet I know not by what Caprice some persons who are not ignorant of this busie themselves more about the study of infinite Objects and such Questions as require an infinite Capacity of the Mind than about what better suits the Capacity of their own Minds and also why there are a great number of others that are desirous to know every thing and apply themselves to so many Sciences in the same time that it confounds them and makes them uncapable of knowing any Science truly How many Men are there who would comprehend the infinite Divisibility of Matter and how a little Grain of Sand contains as many parts as the whole World although much less in proportion How many Questions are formed upon these Subjects which are never resolved and upon many others which include any thing of Infinity which yet they would find a Solution of in their own Minds They apply themselves to it with all possible Attention But at last all they gain is this they are prejudic'd with some Extravagance and Error Is it not a pleasant thing to see some Men who deny the infinite Divisibility of Matter from hence only because they cannot comprehend it Although they very well comprehend the demonstrations that prove it and at the same time confess that the Human Mind cannot comprehend Infinity The Proofs which are brought for the infinite Divisibility of Matter are as Demonstrative as any thing else in Nature and these Men confess it when they seriously consider them however if we propose to them such Objections as they cannot Solve their Mind leaves that Evidence which just before they perceived and they begin to doubt of it they are strongly possest with the Objection they cannot Resolve and invent some frivolous distinction against the demonstrations of the Infinite Divisibility of Matter and at last they conclude they were deceiv'd as also the World with them and so embrace the contrary Opinion This they defend with Chimerical Atoms and other like Absurdities with which the Imagination always furnishes them Now the Original of all their Errors is this they are not inwardly convinc'd that the Mind of Man is Finite and that to be perswaded of the infinite Divisibility of Matter it is not necessary to Comprehend it because all Objections that cannot be resolv'd without Comprehending it are Objections which its impossible to Resolve If Mens Curiosity would be terminated by Questions of this Nature we should have no great reason to be concern'd for if some Men were prepossessed with such Errors they are Errors of little Consequence As for others they have not wholly lost their time in thinking of
I hate Evil and Pain I would be Happy and I am not mistaken in believing that Men Angels and even Devils have these Inclinations I know moreover that God will never Create any Spirits but what will desire to be Happy or that can ever desire to be Unhappy But I know it with Evidence and Certainty because God tells me so For who but God could give a Knowledge of the Designs and Will of God But when the Body has any Share in what passes within me I am for the most part mistaken in judging of others by my self I feel Heat I see such a Magnitude such a Colour I relish such a Taste at the approach of certain Bodies I am deceiv'd when I judge of others by my self I am subject to certain Passions I have a Kindness or Aversion for such or such things and I fancy that others are like me my Conjecture is often False Thus the Knowledge we have of other Men is very liable to Error when we judge of them by the Sensations we have of our selves If there be any Beings different from God from our selves from Bodies and from Pure Spirits it is unknown to us We have much ado to perswade our selves that there are any such And after having examin'd the Reasons of certain Philosophers who pretend the contrary we have found them False which has confirm'd us in our former Opinion that being all Men of the same Nature we had all the same Idea's because it behoves us all to know the same things CHAP. VIII I. The Intimate Presence of the Wandering Idea of Being in General is the Cause of all the Irregular Abstractions of the Mind and of the greatest part of the Chimera's of common Philosophy which hinder many Philosophers from discovering the Solidity of the True Principles of Moral Philosophy II. Example concerning the Essence of Matter THE clear intimate necessary Presence of God I mean the Unlimited Infinite and General Being with the Mind of Man acts with more Force upon it than the Presence of all Finite Objects It is impossible that it should absolutely lay aside that general Idea of Being because it cannot subsist out of God Perhaps some might urge that it may wander from it because it may think on those particular Beings but they would be mistaken For when the Mind considers any Being in particular it is not so far from removing from God that it rather draws near if I may so speak to some of his Perfections in removing from all others However it removes from them in such a manner that it never wholly loses the sight of them and it is for the most part in a Condition to seek them out and to draw near to them They are always present to the Mind but the Mind only perceives them in an inexplicable Confusion because of its smallness and the greatness of its Idea of Being We may chance sometimes not to think on our selves but I believe we cannot subsist one Moment without thinking on Being and even at that very time when we fancy we think on nothing we are of necessity full of the wandering and general Idea of Being But whereas those things that are very usual in us and which do not concern us do not excite the Mind with any force nor oblige it to make any Reflection upon them this Idea of Being so Great so Vast so Real and so Positive as it is is yet familiar to us and touches us so little that we almost believe we do not see it that we do not reflect upon it that we afterwards judge there is but little Reality in it and that it is only form'd by the confus'd mixture of all particular Idea's Though on the contrary it is in that alone and by that alone that we perceive all Beings in particular Although that Idea which we receive by the immediate Union we have with the Word of God does never deceive us in it self like those which we receive from it by means of the Union we have with our Body which represent things to us different from what they are Yet I am not afraid to say that we make so ill a use of the best things that the indelible Presence of that Idea is one of the principal Causes of all the Irregular Abstractions of the Mind and consequently of that Abstracted and Chimerical Philosophy which explains all Natural Effects by general Terms of Act Power Cause Effect Sustantial Forms Faculties occult Qualities Sympathy Antipathy c. for it is certain that all those Terms and many others never excite any Idea's in the Mind but such as are Wandering and General that is of those Idea's which present themselves to the Mind of their own accord without Pain or any Application on our part Let Men read with all Attention imaginable all the Definitions and Explications which are given of Substantial Forms Let them carefully inquire wherein the Essence of all those Entities does consist which Philosophers fancy as they please and in so great a Number that they are oblig'd to make several Divisions and Sub-divisions of them and I am confident that they will never stir up any other Idea's in their Mind of all those things than that of Being and of Cause in General For this is what commonly happens to Philosophers They see some new Effect they immediately imagine a new Being to produce it Fire warms therefore there is some Being in the Fire which produces that Effect that is different from the matter which composes the Fire And whereas Fire is capable of several different Effects as of separating Bodies of reducing them to Ashes and into Earth of drying them hardning them softning them dilating them purifying them c. they liberally allow Fire as many Faculties or real Qualities as it is capable of producing different Effects But those that reflect on the Definitions they give of those Faculties will easily discover that they are only Logical Definitions and that they excite no other Idea's than that of Being and of Cause in General which the Mind compares with the Effect which is produced So that Men are not the more Learned after having studied them very much for all they get by that kind of Study is that they imagine they know better than others what they notwithstanding do not know near so well not only because they admit many Beings which never were but also because being prejudiced they make themselves incapable of conceiving how it can be possible that matter alone as that of Fire being moved against Bodies differently disposed should produce all the different Effects which we see Fire does produce It is Notorious to all those that have read a little that most of the Books of Sciences particularly those that treat of Natural Philosophy Physick Chymistry and all the particular things of Nature are full of Arguments grounded upon Elementary Qualities Second Causes as Attractive Retentive Digestive Expulsive and such like upon others they call occult
my proposition is True because the Idea's I have of Existence and of the Sun represent that the Sun does really Exist So that all the Action and all the Attention of the Mind upon Objects is only in order to endeavour to discover the Relations of them since Men only apply themselves to Things that they may discover the Truth or Goodness of them But as we have already noted in the preceding Chapter Attention Fatigues the Mind It is soon tir'd with resisting the Impression of the Senses which removes it from its Object and leads it to others which the Love it has to its Body renders agreeable to it It is extreamly limited and thus the differences which are between the Subjects which it Examins being Infinite or almost Infinite it is not capable to distinguish them The Mind therefore supposes Imaginary Resemblances in which it observes no positive and real differences The Idea's of Resemblance being more present to it more familiar and plainer than others For it is plain that Resemblance includes but one Relation and that one Idea is sufficient to Judge that a Thousand Things are alike Whereas in order to Judge without fear of being deceiv'd that a Thousand Objects are different among themselves it is absolutely necessary to have a Thousand different Idea's present to the Mind Therefore Men imagin that things of a different Nature are of the same Nature and that all things of the same Species scarce differ from one another They Judge that unequal things are Equal that those that are Inconstant are Constant and that those that are without Order and Proportion are well order'd and proportion'd In a word they often think that Things that are different in Nature Quality Extension Duration and Proportion are alike in all those things But that deserves to be explain'd more at large by some Examples because it occasions many Errors The Mind and Body the Substance which Thinks and that which is Extended are two kinds of Being altogether different and directly opposite What is proper for the one is improper for the other Nevertheless most Men reflecting but little on the Idea they have of Thought and being continually affected with Bodies look upon the Soul and Body as one and the same thing Imagining a Resemblance between two things that are different They fancy the Soul to be Material that is Extended throughout the whole Body and Figur'd like the Body They impute that to the Mind which only suits with the Body Moreover Men being sensible of Pleasure Pain Odours Tastes c. and their Body being more present to them than their Soul That is easily imagining their Body and not being able to imagin their Soul they attribute to it the faculties of Feeling Imagining and even sometimes of Conceiving which can only belong to the Soul But the following Examples will be more sensible It is certain that all Natural Bodies even those that are call'd Species differ one from another that Gold is not absolutely like Gold and that one drop of Water is different from another It is with all Bodies of the same Species as it is with Faces All Faces have Eyes a Nose a Mouth they are all Faces and Mens Faces and yet there never were two perfectly alike So a piece of Gold has parts like unto another piece of Gold and a drop of Water has undoubtedly a great Resemblance with another drop of Water Nevertheless one may affirm that it is impossible to give two drops of it though taken out of the same River perfectly alike And that Philosophers inconsiderably suppose Essential Resemblances between Bodies of the same Species or Resemblances which consist in Indivisibility for the Essences of Things consist in an Indivisible according to their False Opinions The Reason of their falling into so gross an Error is because they will not consider those things carefully upon which they nevertheless compose large Volumes For as Men do not allow a perfect Resemblance between Faces because they observe them nearly and the habit of distinguishing them makes us observe the least differences in them So if Philosophers would consider Nature with some Attention they would discover a sufficient number of Causes of Diversity in those very things which produce the same Sensations in us and which for that reason we say are of the same Species nor would they so easily suppose Essential Resemblances Blind Men would be to blame in supposing an Essential Resemblance between Faces which should consist in Indivisibility because they do not sensibly perceive the differences of them Therefore Philosophers ought not to suppose such Resemblances in Bodies of the same Species because they observe no difference in them by the Sensations they have of them The Inclination we have to suppose a Resemblance in Things inclines us also to believe that there is a determin'd number of Differences and Forms and that those Forms are neither capable of more or less We Fancy that all Bodies differ one from another as it were by degrees That those very Degrees observe certain Proportions among them In a word we Judge of Material Things as of Numbers It is clear the Reason of all this is that the Mind loses it self in the Relations of Incommensurable Things such as Infinite Differences are which are not within Natural Bodies and that it pleases it self when it imagins some Resemblance or some Proportion among them because then it represents several things to it self with a great deal of Ease For as I haue already said one Idea is sufficient to Judge that several things are alike and there must be several to Judge that they are different from one another For instance if the Number of Angels be known and there are Ten Arch-Angels for every Angel and Ten Thrones for every Arch-Angel and thus forward keeping the same proportion from One to Ten unto the last Order of Intelligences the Mind may easily know the Number of those Blessed Spirits nay even Judge of them partly at one Prospect by a strong Attention which delights it infinitely And perhaps it is that which has induc'd some Persons to Judge thus of the Numbers of Celestial Spirits Which is the Case of some Philosophers who have put a Decuple proportion of Weight and of Lightness among the Elements supposing Fire to be Ten times Lighter than Air and so of the rest When the Mind finds its self oblig'd to admit differences between Bodies by the different Sensations it has of them as also by some other particular Reasons it always puts the least it can For that reason it is easily perswaded that the Essences of Things consist in an Indivisibile and that they are like Numbers as we said before because one Idea is sufficient to Represent to us all the Bodies which are call'd of the same Species For example if you put a Glass of Water in an Hogshead of Wine Philosophers will have it that the Essence of the Wine still remains the same and that
that is Because they shall be Happy Those that suffer Persecution for Justice are thereby Just Virtuous and Perfect because they are in the Order that God has prescrib'd and Perfection consists in following him but they are not Happy because they Suffer A time will come when they will Suffer no more and then they will be Happy as well as Just and Perfect However I do not deny but that the Righteous may be Happy in some measure even in this Life by the strength of their Hope and Faith which render those future Felicities as it were present to their Mind For it is certain that when the Hope of some Happiness is strong and lively it draws it nearer to the Mind and gives it a taste thereof before-hand And thus it makes us Happy in some measure since it is the taste and possession of Good and of Pleasure which makes us Happy Therefore it is unreasonable to tell Men that sensible Pleasures are not Good and that those that enjoy them are never the Happier since it is not true and at the time of Temptation they discover it to their misfortune We must tell them that those Pleasures are good in themselves and capable to make them Happy in some measure Nevertheless they ought to avoid them for the Reasons beforementioned but they cannot avoid them of themselves Because they desire to be Happy through an Inclination which they cannot overcome and those transitory Pleasures which they ought to avoid satisfie it in some measure Thus they are in a miserable Necessity of losing themselves unless they are assisted It is necessary to tell them these things that they may distinctly know their Weakness and the want they have of a Redeemer We must speak to Men like Jesus Christ and not like the Stoicks who neither understand the Nature nor Distemper of Human Minds They must continually be told that they must hate and despise themselves and not look for an Establishment or Happiness on Earth That they must daily carry their Cross or the Instrument of their suffering and that they must lose their Life at present in order to preserve it Eternally They must be taught that they are oblig'd to act contrary to their desire to make 'em sensible of their inability to good For Men wou'd be invincibly Happy and they cannot be actually so unless they do what they please Perhaps being convinced of their present Evils and knowing their future sufferings they may humble themselves on Earth Perhaps they may invoke the Assistance of Heaven and seek a Mediatour be afraid of sensible Objects and timely abhor whatever flatters their Senses and Concupiscence And it may be they may thus obtain that Spirit of Prayer and Repentance which is so necessary to obtain Grace and without which there is no Power no Health nor no Salvation to be expected We are inwardly convinc'd that Pleasure is Good II. It must not incline us to the Love of sensible Delights and that the inward Conviction thereof is not False for Pleasure is really Good We are Naturally Convinc'd that Pleasure is the Character of Good and that Natural Conviction is certainly true for that which Causes Pleasure is certainly very Good and very Lovely But we are not convinc'd that either sensible Objects or our Souls themselves are capable of producing Pleasure in us for there is no reason to believe it and there are a Thousand against it Therefore sensible Objects are neither Good nor Lovely Were they necessary toward the Preservation of Life we ought to use them But as they are not capable of Acting in us we ought not to Love them The Soul must only Love him that is Good who only is capable to make it Happier and more perfect Therefore it should only Love that which is above it since it can receive its Perfection from nothing that is either below or equal to it But whereas we judge that a Thing is the Cause of some Effect when it always attends it we fancy that they are Sensible Objects which act in us because at their approach we have new Sensations and because we do not see him that produces them really in us We taste a Fruit and we find a Sweetness we impute that Sweetness to that Fruit we conclude that it causes it and even that it contains it We do not see God as we see and as we feel that Fruit we do not so much as think on him nor perhaps on our selves Therefore we do not conclude that God is the real Cause of that Sweetness nor that the said Sweetness is a Modification of our Soul we impute both the Cause and the Effect to that Fruit which we eat What I have said of Sensations which have a relation to the Body is also to be understood of those that have no relation to it as those which are found in pure Intelligences The Mind considers it self it sees that nothing is wanting to its Happiness and Perfection or else it sees that it does not possess what it desires At the sight of its Happiness it feels Joy at the sight of its Misfortunes it endures Sorrow It straight fancies that it is the sight of its Happiness which produces in it self that Sentiment of Joy because the said Sentiment always attends that sight It also imagines that it is the sight of its Misfortune which produces in it self that Sentiment of Grief since the said Sentiment is the Consequence of this sight The real Cause of those Sentiments which is God alone does not appear before it It does not so much as think on God for he acts in us without our knowing it God rewards us with a Sentiment of Joy when we know that we are in the Condition in which we ought to be that we may remain in it that our Disquiet may cease and that we may fully enjoy our Happiness without suffering the Capacity of our Mind to be filled with any thing else But he produces a Sentiment of Grief in us when we are Sensible that we are not in the State in which we ought to be so that we may not remain in it and that we might earnestly seek after the Perfection that is wanting in us For God pushes us continually toward Good when we are Sensible that we do not possess it and he fixes us powerfully upon it when we find that we possess it fully So that it seems evident to me that the Intellectual Sentiments of Joy or of Grief as well as the Sensible ones are no voluntary Productions of the Mind Therefore we ought continually to acknowledge by our Reason that Invisible Hand which fills us with Bliss and which disguises it self to our Mind under Sensible Appearances We must Adore it we must Love it but we must also Fear it for since it fills us with Pleasures it may also overwhelm us with Grief We ought to Love it by a Love of Choice by a Sensible Love by a Love worthy of God when
Of the Imagination of Men in the prime of their yeaâ— is from Thirty to fifty years At that Age the Fibres of the Brain have generally acquir'd a moderate consistence The Pleasures and Pains of the Senses for the most part make no farther Impression upon 'em so that they need no more then to defend themselves from violent Passions which rarely happen and this they may do provided they carefully avoid all occasions that excite 'em so that the Soul being no longer distracted with such kind of Interruptions may with more ease apply it self to the Contemplation of Truth A Man in such an Estate and who has quitted the prejudices of his Infancy who from his Youth has acquir'd a Promptness to Meditation who not only retains a clear and distinct Notions of the Mind and carefully rejects all the confus'd Idea's of the Senses and who has both leisure and a Wit to meditate such a Man will hardly fall into Errors But 't is not of such a Man that we are now to Discourse 't is of the common sort of Men who for the most part are of another Constitution The Consistence then which we meet with at the years of Discretion in the Fibres of Mens Brains is the cause if it may be so said of the Solidity and Consistence of their Errors 'T is the Seal that Seals their Prejudices and all their false Opinions and shelters 'em from the strength of Reason In a word the more Advantageous this Constitution of the Fibres of the Brain is to Persons well Educated the more Disadvantageous it is to the greatest part of Men since it confirms both the one and the other in their Present Thoughts and Opinions But Men are not only confirm'd in their Errors when they are arriv'd at the Age of Forty or Fifty years they are also more subject to fall into new ones because that believing themselves at that time able to judge of every thing as indeed it would become 'em to be so they decide with presumption and only consult their own Prepossessions for Men never argue upon things but in some relation to those Idea's which are most familiar to ' em When a Chymist would Argue about some Natural Body presently his Three Principles come into his Mind A Peripatic immediately thinks of the four Elements and the four first Qualities another Philosopher refers every thing to other Principles So that nothing can enter into the Mind of Man which is not immediately infected with the Errors to which it is subject or which does not augment the number of its Errors This Consistence of the Fibres of the Brain produces another very bad Effect especially in Persons more advanced in years which is to make 'em uncapable of Meditation They cannot set themselves to the Consideration of those Things which they desire to know and so they can never penetrate into those Truths which are but a little conceal'd They cannot relish the most Rational Sentiments when they are supported by Principles which appear new to them though they are otherwise very intelligent in things of which their years have given 'em great Experience But all that I have here said extends no farther than only to such as have spent their Youth without making use of their Wit or applying themselves to Study To clear these things 't is requisite to know that we cannot learn any thing whatever it be without giving our minds to it and that we cannot be attentive upon any thing if we do not imagine and admit a lively representation of it into the Brains Now that we may imagine Objects 't is necessary that some some part of the Brain give way or that there should be imprinted on it some other Motion that so it may be able to form the Traces which are affix'd to the Idea's that represent those Objects to us so that if the Fibres of the Brain are but a little harden'd they will admit no Inclinations or Motions but what they were formerly accustom'd to Whence it comes to pass that the Soul can never imagin nor consequently be attentive upon what it desires but only upon things that are familiar to it From hence we must conclude that it is of great advantage for a Man to Exercise himself in meâ—it â—ting upon all sorts of Subjects that so he may be able to acquire a Readiness to think upon what he pleases For as we acquire an extraordinary facility to stir our Fingers after various manners and with a swiftness even to wonder by frequent use in playing upon Instruments so the Parts of the Brain the Motion oâ— which is requisite to imagine what we desire do by use and custom acquire a certain easiness and slexibility which is the reason that Things are imagin'd more easily more readily and more distinctly Now the best way to acquire this Habitude which makes the chief distinction betwixt a Wise Man and another Person is to accustom our selves in our youth to search after the truth of such things as are very difficult because at that Age the Fibres are more pliable and apt to give way Nevertheless I do not pretend that this Facility is to be acquir'd by those who are call'd Men of Study yet make it their business only to read without meditating and without searching of themselves the Decision of a Question before they read it in an Author For 't is visible that by that means only a Man acquires a facility to remember things that he has read 'T is every day observable that they who read much can never apply their Minds to new things that are told 'em and that the vanity of their Learning hurrying 'em to judge of those things before they have conceiv'd 'em in their Minds throws 'em into those Errors which other Men avoid But though the want of Application be the principal Cause of their Errors there is one that is peculiar to ' em That in regard they always carry in their Memories an infinite number of confus'd Species they presently choose out some one which they look upon to be the Subject of the Dispute and because the Things that are told 'em do not agree therewith they judge ridiculously that their Opponent is deceiv'd If you make it out to 'em that they themselves are deceiv'd and that they do not so much as understand the State of the Question then they are mad and not able to apprehend what is said to 'em and they still keep stedfast to the first false Species which their Memory presented to ' em If you shew 'em their Mistake too apparently they will start a Second and a Third which they will defend sometimes against all Appearance of Truth nay even against their own Consciences because they have no respect or love for Truth and because they are asham'd to acknowledge that there are some things which others know better than themselves What ever has been said concerning Persons of Forty or Fifty years of Age III.