and real union wâ—th him that every fine thought or fancy that steals into their mind they may look upon as a pledge of the Divine savor and a siâ—gular illumination from God imitating in this the madness of Elionora Meliorina a Gentlewoman of Mantua who being fully perswaded she was married to a king would kneel down and talk with him as if he had been there present with his retinue and if she had by chance found a piece of glasse in a muck-hill light upon an oyster shell piece of tin or any such like thing that would glister in the Sun-shine she would say it was a jewel sent from her Lord and husband and upon this account fild her cabinet full of such trash In like manner those inspired Melancholists stuff their heads and writings with every flaring fancy that Melancholy suggests to them as if it were a precious Truth bestowed upon them by the holy Spirit and with a devotional reverence they entertain the unexpected Paroxysmes of their own natural distemper as if it were the power and presence of God himself in their Souls 43. This disease many of your Chymists and several Theosophists in my judgement seem very obnoxious to who dictate their own conceits and fancies so magisterially and imperiously as if they were indeed Authentick messengers from God Almighty But that they are but Counterfeits that is Enthusiasts no infallible illuminated men the gross fopperies they let drop in their writings will sufficiently demonstrate to all that are not smitten in some measure with the like Lunacy with themselves I shall instance in some few things concealing the names of the Authors because they are so sacred to some 44. Listen therefore attentively for I shall relate very great mysteries The vertues of the Planets doe not ascend but descend Experience teaches as much viz. That of Venus or Copper is not made Mars or Iron but of Mars is made Venus as being an inferior sphere So also Iupiter or Tinne is easily changed into Mercury or Quick-silver because Iupiter is the second from the firmament and Mercury the second from the Earth Saturn is the first from the heaven and Luna the first from the Earth Sol mixeth it self with all but is never bettered by his Inferiours Now know that there is a great agreement betwixt Saturn or Lead and Luna or Silver Iupiter and Mercury Mars and Venus because in the midst of these Sol is placed What can it be but the heaving of the Hypochondria that lifts up the mind to such high comparisons from a supposition so false and foolish But I have observed generally of Chymists and Theosophists as of severall other men more palpably mad that their thoughts are carryed much to Astrology it being a fancyfull study built upon very sleight grounds and indeed I do not question but a relique of the ancient superstition and Idolatry amongst the rude Heathens which either their own Melancholy or something worse instructed them in There are other pretty conceits in these Writers concerning those heavenly Bodies as That the Starres and Planets the Moon not excepted are of the same quality with precious stones that glister here on the earth and that though they act nothing yet they are of that nature as that the wandring Spirits of the air see in them as in a looking-glasse things to come and thereby are inabled to prophecy That the Starres are made of the Sun and yet that the Sun enlightens them That our eyes have their originall from the Starres and that that is the reason why we can see the Starres That our eyes work or act upon all they see as well as what they see acts on them That also is a very speciall mysterie for an inspired man to utter That there is onely Evening and Morning under the Sun That the Starres kindle heat in this world every where for generation and that the difference of Starres makes the difference of Creatures That were the heat of the Sun taken away he were one light with God That all is Gods self That a mans self is God if he live holily That God is nothing but an hearty Loving friendly Seeing good Smelling well Tâ—sting kindly Feeling amorous Kissing c. Nor the Spirit say I that inspires this mystery any thing but Melancholy and Sanguine That God the Father is of himself a dale of darknesse were it not for the light of his Sonne That God could not quell Lucifers rebellion because the battle was not betwixt God and a beast or God and a man but betwixt God and God Lucifer being so great a share of his own essence That Nature is the Body of God nay God the Father who is also the World and whatsoever is any way sensible or perceptible That the Starre-powers are Nature and the Starre-circle the mother of all things from which all is subsists and moves That the Waters of this world are mad which makes them rave and run up and down so as they do in the channels of the Earth That the blew Orb is the waters above the Firmament That there be two kinds of Fires the one cold and the other hot and that Death is a cold fire That Adam was an Hermaphrodite That the Fire would not burn nor there have been any darknesse but for Adams fall That it is a very suspicable matter that Saturn before the fall was where Mercury and Mercury where Saturn is That there are Three souls in a man Animall Angelicall and Divine and that after Death the Animal Soul is in the grave the Angelicall in Abrahams bosome and the Divine soul in Paradise That God has eyes eares nose and other corporeall parts That every thing has sense imagination and a fiduciall Knowledge of God in it Metals Meteors and Plants not excepted That this earth at last shall be calcined into Crystall That at the center of the earth is the Fire of hell which is caused and kindled by the Primum mobile and influences of the Starres That the Artick pole draws waters by the Axeltree which after they are entered in break forth again by the Axeltree of the Antartick That the Moon as well as the Starres are made of a lesse pure kind of fire mixed with air That the pure Blood in man answers to the Element of fire in the great world his heart to the Earth his Mouth to the Artick pole and the opposite Orifice to the Antartick pole That the proper seat of the Mind or Understanding is in the mouth of the Stomack or about the Splene That Earthquakes and Thunders are not from naturall causes but made by Angels or Devils That there were no Rain-bowes before Noahs flood That the Moon is of a conglaciated substance having a cold light of her own whereby the light of the Sun which she receives and casts on us becomes so cool 45. Hitherto our Collections have been promiscuous what follows is out of Paracelsus onely as for example That the variety of the
For he knows not whether the Chaos be created or uncreated How much wiser are you now then Aristotle Mr. Eugenius that made the world Eternal If you can admit this by the rule of proportion you might swallow the greatest Gudgeon in Aristotle without kecking or straining Observation 9. Pag. 12. Lin. 11. Fuliginous spawn of Nature A rare expression This Magicician has turned Nature into a Fish by his Art Surely such dreams float in his swimmering Brains as in the Prophets who tells us so Authentick stories of his delicious Albebut Observation 10. Lin. 12. The created Matter Before the Matter was in an hazard of not being created but of being of it self eternal Certainly Eugenius you abound with leasure that can thus create and uncreate doe and undoe because the day is long enough Observation 11. Lin. 21. A horrible confused qualm c. Here Nature like a child-bearing woman has a qualm comes over her stomach and Eugenius like a man-midwife stands by very officiously to see what will become of it Let her alone Eugenius it is but a qualm some cold raw rhewme Margret will escape welâ— enough Especially if her two Handmaids Heat and Siccity which you mention do but help with their Aquavitae bottles What a rare mode or way of Creation has Eugenius set out Certainly it cannot but satisfie any unreasonable man if there be any men without reason and I begin to suspect there is for Eugenius his sake such as feed as savourly on the pure milk of fansie as the Philosophers Asse on Sow-thistles SECT III. 12. He asserts that there was a vast portion of light in the Extract from the Chaos which surrounded the whole earth 13. He compares Ptolemees Heavens to a rumbling confused Labyrinth 14. He calls the Firmament Cribrum Naturae 15. Affirmes that the light before the fourth day equally possest the whole creation 16. That the Night peeps out like a baffled Giant when the Sun is down 17. That the shadow of the Earth is Natures black bagg 18. He prays to be delivered from the dark Tincture which at last by the Protochymist shall be expeld beyond the Creation 19. He allows onely two Elements Earth and Water â—0 He speakes of Water and Fire which is Apuleius his Psyche and Cupid of their bedding together 21. Cites an obscure Aphorisme out of Sendivow 22. Affirmes that the Air is the Magicians baâ—k doore 23. And our animal Oyl the fuell of the vital and sensual fire in us Observation 12. Pag. 13. THis page is spent in extracting from the Chaosâ— a thin spiritual celestial substance to make the Caelum Empyreum of and the Body of Angels and by the by to be in stead of a Sun for the first day But then in the second Extraction was extracted the agill air filling all betwixt the Masse and the Coelum Empyreum But here I have so hedged you in Mr. Anthroposophus that you will hardly extricate your self in this question The Empyreal substance encompassing allâ— how could there be Morning aud Evening till the fourth day for the mass was alike illuminated round about at once And for your interstellar water you do but fancy it implyed in Moses text can never prove that he drives at any thing higher in the letter thereof than those hanging bottles of water the clouds Observation 13. Pag. 14. Lin. 12. A rumbling confused Labyrinth 'T is only Erratum Typographicum I suppose you mean a rumbling Wheel-barrow in allusion to your Wheel-work and Epicycles aforementioned But why small diminutive Epicycles Eugenius you are so profound a Magician that you are no Astronomer at all The bignesse of them is as strong a presumption against them as any thing they are too big to be true Observation 14. Lin. 26. This is Cribrum Naturae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I warrant you The very sive that Iupiter himself pisses through as Aristophanes sports it in his Comedies Observation 15. Pag. 15. Lin. 20. Equally possest the whole Creature Therefore again I ask thee O Eugenius how could there be Evening and Morning the light being all over equally dispersed Observation 16. Lin. 29. Like a baffled Gyant Poetical Eugenius Is this to â—ay the sober and sound principles of Truth and Philosophy Observation 17. Pag. 16. Lin. 1. A Black Bag. I tell thee Eugenius Thy phansie is snapt in this female Black-bag as an unwary Retiarius in a Net Do's Madam Nature wear her Black-bag in her middle parts for the Earth is the Center of the World or on her head as other matrons doe That Philalethes may seem a great and profound Student indeed he will not take notice whether a black-bag be furniture for Ladies heads or their haunches Well! let him injoy the glory of his affected rusticity and ignorance Observation 18. Lin. 5. Good Lord deliver us How the man is frighted into devotion by the smut and griminesse of his own imagination Observation 19. Lin. 15. Earth and water c. Concurrunt element a ut Materia ergo duo sufficiunt says Cardan â—Tis no new-sprung truth if true Mr. Eugenius But seeing that AEthereal vigour and celestial heat with the substance thereof For coelum pervadit omnia is in all things and the air excluded from few or no living Creatures if we would severely tug with you Mr. Anthroposophus you will endanger the taking of the foil Observation 20. Pag. 18. Lin. 22. Both in the same bed Why did you ever sneak in Eugenius and take them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the very act 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Lawyers speak This is but poeticall pomp in prose And Ovid Philosophizes better in verse where speaking of heat and moisture he expresses himself apertly and significantly Quippe ubi temperiem sumpsere humorque calorque Concipiunt ab his generantur cuncta duobus Observation 21. Lin. 27. Spiritus aquae invisibilis congelatus melior est quà m terra Vniversa Now as you are Philalethes tell me truly if you understand any determinate and usefull sense of this saying If you do why do you not explain it if you do not for ought you know it may be onely a charm to fox fishes And I pray you Philalethes make triall of the experiment Observation 22. Pag. 19. Lin. 29. It is the Magicians Back-doore Here I cannot but take notice at the great affectation of Philalethes to appear to be deeply seen in Magick But I suppose if he were well searched he would be found no Witch nor all his Back-door of air worth the winde of an ordinary mans back-doore Observation 23. Pag. 20. Lin. 2. The air is our Animal oil the fuell of the vitall Now Eugenius you are so good natured as to give Aristotle one of his two elements again that you wrested from him If this be our animall oil and fuell of the vitall it is plain our animall and vitall spirits are from the air and that the air is one element amongst the rest And your moist
represents the grosse carnall parts The element of the water answers to the bloud for in it the pulse of the great world beats this most men call the flux and reflux but they know not the true cause of it The air is the outward refreshing spirit where this vast creature breathes though invisibly yet not insensibly The interstellar skies are his vitall ethereall waters and the starres his animal sensuall fire Now to passe my censure on this rare Zoographicall piece I tell thee if thy brains were so confusedly scattered as thy fancy is here thou wert a dead man Philalethes all the Chymistrie in the world could not recover thee Thou art so unitive a soul Phil. and such a clicker at the slightest shadows of similitude that thou wouldst not stick to match chalk and cheese together I perceive and mussiâ—ate a marriage betwixt an Apple and an Oyster Even those proverbiall dissimilitudes have something of similitude in them will you then take them for similes that haâ—e so monstrous a disproportion and dissimilitude But you are such a Sophister that you can make any thing good Let 's try â—he Earth must represent the flesh because they noth be grosse so is chalk and cheese or an Apple and an Oyster But what think you of the Moon is not that as much green cheese as the Earth is flesh what think you of Venus of Mercury and the rest of the Planets which they that know any thing in Nature know to be as much flesh as the Earth is that is to be dark and opake as well as she What! is this flesh of the world then torn apieces and thrown about scattered here and there like the disjoynted limbs of dragg'd Hippolytus Go to Phil. where are you now with your fine knacks and similitudes But to the next Analogie The element of water answers to the bloud Why For in it is the pulse of the great world But didst thou ever feel the pulse of the Moon And yet is not there water too thou little sleepy heedlesse Endymion The bloud is restagnant there I warrant you and hath no pulse So that the man with the thornâ— on his back lives in a very unwholesome region But to keep to our own station here upon Earth Dost thou know what thou sayest when thou venturest to name that monosyllable Pulse dost thou know the causes and the laws of it Tell me my little Philosophaster where is there in the earth or out of the earth in this World-Animalâ—of â—of thine that which will answer to the heart and the systole and diastole thereof to make this pulse And besides this there is wanting rarefaction and universall diffusion of the stroke at once These are in the pulse of a true Animal but are not to be found in the Flux of the sea For it is not in all places at once nor is the water rarefied where it is Now my pretty Parabolist what is there left to make your similitude good for a pulse in your great Animal more then when you spill your pottage or shog a milk-bowl But believe it Eugenius thou wilt never make sense of this Flux and Reflux till thou calm thy fancy so much as to be able to read Des-Cartes But to tell us it is thus from an inward form more Aristotelico is to tell us no more then that it is the nature of the Beast or to make Latine words by adding onely the termination bus as hosibus and shoosibus as Sir Kenhelm Digby hath with wit and judgement applied the comparison in like case But now to put the bloud flesh and bones together of your World-Animal I say they bear not so great a proportion to the more fluid parts viz. the vitall and animal spirits thereof as a mite in a cheese to the whole globe of the Earth So that if thou hadst any fancy or judgement in thee thy similitude would appear to thine own self outragiously ugly and disproportionable and above all measure ridiculous Nor do not think to shuffle it off by demanding If there be so little earth to tell thee where it is wanting For I onely say that if the world be an Animal there will be much bloud and flesh wanting Philalethes for so great a Beast Nor do not you think to blind my eyes with your own Tobacco smoke I take none my self Eugenius For to that over ordinary experiment I answer two things First that as you took upon the parts of the body of a true Animal in the same extension that they now actually are not how they may be altered by rarefaction so you are also look upon the parts of your World-Animal as they are de facto extended not how they may be by rarefaction And thus your Argument from Tobacco will vanish into smoke But if you will change the present condition of any lesser Animal by burning it and turing many of the grosse parts into more thin and fluid you destroy the ground of your comparison betwixt the World Animal and it for you take away the flesh of your lesser Animal thus burnt And besides the proportion betwixt the vapour or thinner parts extension to the remaining ashes is not yet so big as of the thin parts of the World-Animal in respect of its solid parts by many thousand and thousand millions Nay I shall speak within compasse if I say as I said before that there is a greater disproportion then betwixt the globe of the Earth and a mite in a cheese This is plainly true to any that understands common sense For the Earth in respect of the World is but as an indivisible point Adde to all this that if you will rarefie the Tobacco or Hercules body by fire I will take the same advantage and say that the water and many parts of the earth may be also rarefied by fire and then reckon onely upon the remaining ashes of this globe and what is turned into vapour must be added to the more fluid parts of the World-Animal to increase that over-proportion So that thou hast answered most wretchedly and pitifully every way poor Anthroposophus But besides In the second place When any thing is burnt as for example your Tobacco I say it takes up then no more room then it did before Because Rarefaction and Condensation is made per modum spongiae as a sponge is distended by the coming in and contracted again by the going out of the water it had imbib'd But the Aristotelicâ—ll wayâ— which is yours O profound Magicus that hast the luck to pick out the best of that Philosophy implies I say grosse contradictions which thou câ—nst not but understand if thou canst distinguish corporeall from incorporeall Beings Thy way of Rarefaction and Condensation O Eugenius must needs imply pâ—netration of dimensions or something as incongruous as every lad in our Universities at a year or two standing at least is able to demonstrate to thee But if thou thinkest it hard that so little a body
parts of water among themselves But their grand fault is that they do not say the World is Animate But is not yours far greater Anthroposophus that gives so ridiculous unproportionable account of that Tenet The whole World is an Animal say you whose flesh is the earth whose bloud is the water the air the outward refreshing spirit in which it breathâ— the interstellar skies his vitall waters the Stars his sensitive fire But are not you a meer Animal your self to say so For it is as irrationall and incredible as if you should tell us a tale of a Beast whose bloud and flesh put together bears not so great a proportion to the rest of the more fluid parts of the Animal suppose his vitall and animal spirits as a mite in a cheese to the whole globe of the earth And beside this how shall this water which you call bloud be refreshed by the air that is warmer then it And then those waters which you place in the outmost parts towards his dappled or spotted skin the coelum stellatum what over-pâ—oportionated plenty of them is there there In so much that this creature you make a diseased Animall from its first birth and ever labouring with an Anasarca Lastly how unproperly is the air said to be the outward refreshing spirit of this Animal when it is ever in the very midst of it And how rashly is the Flux and Reflux of the Sea assimilated to the pulse when the pulse is from the heart not the brain but the flux and reflux of the Sea from the Moon not the Sun which they that be more discreetly phantasticall then your self do call Cor Mundi Wherefore Anthroposophus your phansies to sober men will seem as vain and puerile as those of idle children that imagine the fortuitous postures of spaul and snivell on plaster-walls to bear the form of mens or dogs faces or of Lyons and what not And yet see the supine stupidity and senslesnesse of this mans judgement that he triumphs so in this figment of his as so rare and excellent a truth that Aristotles Philosophy must be groundlesse superstition and Popery in respect of it this the primevall truth of the creation when as it is a thousand times more froth then His is vomit My friend Anthroposophus is this to appear for the truth as you professe in a day of necessity Certainly she 'll be well holpe at a dead lift if she find no better champions then your self Verily Philalethes if you be no better in your Book then in your Preface to the Reader you have abused Moses his Text beyond measure For your Principles will have neither heaven nor earth in them head nor foot reason nor sense They will be things extra intellectum and extra sensum meer vagrant imaginations seated in your own subsultorious skip-jack phansie onely But what they are we shall now begin to examine according to the number of pages Anthroposophia Theomagica SECT II. 1. Mastix makes himself merry with Eugenius his rash assertion that all Souls at their entrance into the body have an explicite knowledge of things 22. And that after a whole Springs experience he had found out those two known principles of Aristotle Matter and Privation His absurd hope of seeing Substances 3. The vanity of Devotion without purification of the mind That Aristotle agrees with Moses in acknowledging the World to be framed by a knowing Principle 4. Life alwayes accompanied with a naturall warmth 5. Eugenius his fond mistake as if either the Divine Light or Ideas could be kept out any space of time from shining in the opakest matter 6. The little fruit of that rarity of Doctour Marci in making the figure of a Plant suddenly rise up in a glasse 7. Eugenius his naturall Idea which he affirms to be a subtile invisible fire no Idea at all 8. His vain boasting of himself as if he were more knowing amd communicative then any that has wrote before him 9. His tearming the Darknesse or the first Matter the fuliginous spawn of Nature 10. His inconstancy in creating and uncreating this Matter 11. The horrible confused Qualme he fancies in the moist Matter at the creation of the world Heat and Siceitie the two active qualities in the Principle of Light assisting by their Mid-wifry Observation 1. Pag. 2. l. 11. So have all souls before their entrance c. But hear you me Mr. Anthroposophus are you in good earnest that all Souls before their entrance into the body have an explicite methodicall knowledge and would you venture to lose your wit so much by imprisoning your self in so dark a dungeon as to be able to write no better sense in your Preface to the Reader But I 'll excuse him it may be he was riding before his entrance into the body on some Theomagicall jade or other that stumbled and flung him into a mysticall quagmire against his will where he was so soused and doused and bedaubed and dirtyed face and eyes and all that he could never since the midwife raked him out all wet and dropping like a drown'd mouse once see clearly what was sense and what non-sense to this very day Wherefore we will set the saddle on the right Horse and his Theomagick Nag shall bear the blame of the miscarriage Observation 2. Pag. 3. Lin. 3. I took to task the fruits of one Spring c. Here Anthroposophus is turned Herbalist for one whole Spring damned to the grasse and fields like Nebuchadnezzar when he went on all four among the Beasts But see how slow this Snail amongst the herbs is in finding out the truth when he confesses it was the work of one whole Spring to find out That the Earth or seeds of flowers are nothing like the flowers There 's not any old Garden-weeder in all London but without a pair of spectacles will discover that in four minutes which he has been a full fourth part of a year about But certainly he intends a great deal of pomp and ceremony that will not take up such a Conclusion as this viz. That things that are produced in Nature are out of something in Nature which is not like the things produced but upon the full experience and meditation of one entire Spring And now after this whole Springs meditation and experience he is forced to turn about to him whom he so disdainfully flies and confesse two of the three principles of the Aristotelean Physicks viz. Matâ—er and Privation that homo is ex non homine arbor ex non arbore c. But this Matter he sayes and it is the wisest word he has spoken yet he knows not what it is But presently blots his credit again with a new piece of folly intimating he will finde it out by experience Which is as good sense as if he should say he would see it when his eyes are out For it is alike easie to see visibles without eyes as to see invisibles with eyes But he
little Mastigia Observation 23. Here I have you fast Philalethes for all your wrigling For if our vitall and animal spirits which are as much a part of us as any other part of our body is be fed and nourished by the Aire then the Aire is an Element of our body But here he would fain save himself by saying that the Aire is rather a Compound then an Element but let any man judge how much more it is compounded then the Earth and then Water which nourisheth by drinking as well as the Aire can do by breathing Observation 24. Page 59. line 1. How can darknesse be called a Masse c. No it cannot Nor a thin vaporous matter neither Thy blindnesse cannot distinguish Abstracts from Concrets Thy soul sits in the dark Philalethes and nibbles on words as a mouse in a hole on cheese â—arings But to slight thy injudicious cavil at Masse and to fall to the Matter I charged thee here to have spoke such stuff as implies a Contradiction Thou saidest that this Masse be it black or white dark or bright that 's nothing to the Controversie here did contain in a farre less compass all that was after extracted I say this implies a Contradiction But you answer this is nothing but Rarefaction and Condensation according to the common notion of the Schools I but that Notion it self implies a Contradiction for in Rarefaction and Condensation there is the generation or deperdition of no new Matter but all matter hath impenetrable dimensions Therefore if that large expansion of the heavens lay within the compass of the Mass that matter occupyed the same space that the masse did and so dimensions lay in dimensions and thus that which is impenetrable was penetrated which is a contradiction What thou alledgest of the rarefaction of water into clouds or vapours is nothing to the purpose For these clouds and vapours are not one continued substance but are the particles of the water put upon motion and playing at some distance one from another but do really take up no more place then before Observation 26. To say nothing at thy fond cavil at words in the former Observationâ— and thy false accusation that I called thee dog for I would not dishonour Diogenesâ—o â—o much as to call thee so and leaving it to the censure of the world how plain and reall thy principles are I am come now to my 26 Observation on the 23 page of thy Anthroposophia where thou tellest us That there is a threefold Earth viz. Elementary Celestiall Spirituall Now let us see what an excellent layer of the fundamentalls of Science thou wilâ— prove thy self And here he begins to divide before he defines Thou shouldest fiâ—st have told us what Earth is in generall before thou divide it This is like a creature with a cloven foot and never a head But when thou didst venture to define these Members where was thy Logick Ought not every definition nay ought not every Precept of Art to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but I will not vex thy head with these severities The Magnet is the second member the object of this 26 Observation Here you say I condemn this Magnet but I do not offer to confute it But I answer I have as substantially confuted it as merrily but thou dost not take notice of it I have intimated that this precept of art is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nay that it is plainly false For it affirms that which hath no discovery by reason or experience viz. That there is a certain earth which you call the Magnet that will draw all things to it at what distance so ever Quodcunque ostendis mihi sic incredulus odi So farre am I from approving thy Magnet O Magicus Nor do the pages thou here citest of which I give a favourable censure prove any such thing Let the Reader peruse them and judge Indeed certain operations of the Soul are highly and Hyperbolically there set out by thee but the Magnet came dropping in at the latter end of the story I gave no allowance to that I will not have my soul so ill taught as to attract metall out of mens purses at any distance whatsoever Page 64. line 12. Didst thou ever hear or know that I was a pick-pocket If I had had the least suspicion of thee that thou werâ— so I would not have called thee so for it had been an unmercifull jest But if thou wert as full of candour and urbanity as I deem thee clear of that crime thou wouldst not have interpreted it malice but mirth For such jests as these are not uncivill nor abusive to the person when the materiality of them are plainly and confessedly incompatible to the party on whom they are â—ast Observation 27. Page 65. line 14. Prethee why a Galileo's tube were there more Galileo's then one Certainly Phil. thou dost not look through a Galileo's glasse but through a multiplying glasse that seest in my English more Galileos then one Go thy wayes for the oddest correctour of English that ever I met with in all my dayes Observation 28. Page 67. line 1. For I fear God The devils also believe and tremble But do'st thou love God my Philalethes If thou didst thou wouldst love thy brother also But shall I tell thee truly what I fear Truly I fear that thou hast no such precious medicine to publish which thou makest so nice of and that thou dost onely make Religion a cover for thine ignorance But let me tell thee this sober truth That Temperance will prevent more diseases by farre then thy medicine is like to cure and Christian Love would relieve more by many thousands then thy Philosophers stone that should convert baser mettals into gold There is gold enough in the world and all necessaries else for outward happiness but the generations of men make themselves miserable by neglecting the inward This is palpably true and it would astonish a man to see how they run madding after the noise of every pompous difficulty and how stupid and sottish they are to those things which God has more universally put in their power and which would if they made use of them redound to their more generall and effectuall good Observation 29. So doth S. Iohn prophesie too But Magicus is too wise to understand him S. Iohn tells us of a new Heaven and of a new Earth Here Magicus having recourse to his Chymistrie in the height of his imagination prefigures to himself not onely Crystalline Heavens but also a Vitrifide Earth But I consulting with Scripture and with the simplicity of mine own plain Spirit think of a new Heaven and a new Earth wherein righteousnessâ— He 's for an Eden with flowry walks and pleasant trees I am for a Paradise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where Virtue Wisdome and good Order meet As the Chaldeâ— Oracles describe it He is for a pure clear place I place my happinesse in a clear and pure mind
zeal and eloquence that he fancyed himself the Holy-Ghost 17. And when men talk so much of the Spirit if they take notice what they ordinarily mean by it it is nothing else but a strong and impetuous motion whereby they are zealously and fervently carried in matters of Religion so that Fervour Zeal and Spirit is in effect all one Now no Complexion is so hot as Melâ—â—â—oly when it is heated being like boiling water as Aristotle observs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that it transcends the flame of fire or it is 〈◊〉 heated stone or iron when they are red hot for they are then more hot by far then a burning Coal We shall omit here to play the Grammarian and to take notice how well Aristotles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suites with the very word zeale of which we speake but shall cast our eyes more carefully upon the things themselves and parallel out of the same Philosopher what they call Spirit to what he affirmes to be contained in Melancholy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The spirit then that wings the Enthusiast in such a wonderful â—anner is nothing else but that flatulency which is in the melancholy complexion rises out of the Hypochondriacal humour upon some occasionall heat as winde out of an AEolipila applied to the fire Which fume mounting into the head being first actuated and spirited and somewhat refined by the warmth of the heart fills the mind with variety of imaginations and so quickens and inlarges invention that it makes the Enthusiast to admiration fluent and eloquent he being as it were drunk with new wine drawn from that Cellar of his own that lies in the lowest region of his body though he be not aware of it but takes it to be pure Nectar and those waters of life that spring from above Aristotle makes a long Parallelisme betwixt the nature and effects of wine and Melancholy to which both Fernelius and Sennertus do referre 18. But this is not all the advantage that Melancholy affords towards Enthusiasme thus unexpectedly and suddenly to surprise the minde with such vehement fits of zeal such streams torents of Eloquence in either exhorting others to piety or in devotions towards God but it addes a greater weight of beliefe that there is something supernatural in the business in that the same complexion discovers it selfe to them that lie under it in such contrary effects For as it is thus vehemently hot so it is as stupidly cold whence the Melancholist becomes faithlesse hopelesse heartlesse and almost witlesse Which Ebbs of his constitution must needs make the overflowing of it seem more miraculous and supernatural But those cold and abject fits of his make him also very sensibly and winningly Rhetorical when he speaks of disconsolation desertion humilitie mortification and the like as if he were truely and voluntarily carried through such things when as onely the fatal necessity of his complexion has violently drag'd him thorow the meer shadows and resemblances of them But he finding himselfe afterwards beyond all hope or any sense or presage of any power in himselfe lifted aloft again he does not doubt that any thing less was the cause of this unexspected joy and triumph then the immediate arme of God from heaven that has thus exalted him when it is nothing indeed but a Paroxysme of Melancholy which is like the breaking out of a flame after a long smoaking and reeking of new rubbish laid upon the fire But because such returnes as these come not at set times nor make men sick but rather delight them they think there is something divine therein and that it is not from natural causes 19. There is also another notorious Mockery in this Complexion Nature confidently avouching her self to be God whom the Apostle calls Love as if it were his very essence when as indeed it is here nothing else but Melancholy that has put on the garments of an Angel of light There is nothing more true then that Love is the fulfilling of the Law and the highest perfection that is competible to the soul of man and that this also is so plain and unavoidable that a man may be in a very high degree mad and yet not fail to assent unto it Nay I dare say Melancholy it self would be his monitour to reminde him of it if there were any possibility that he should forget so manifest and palpable a Truth For the sense of Love at large is eminently comprehended in the temper of the Melancholist Melancholy and wine being of so near a nature one to the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But wine makes men amorous which the Philosopher proves in that a man in wine will kisse such persons as a sober man would scarce touch with a pair of tongs by reason of their age and uglinesse And assuredly it was the fumes of Melancholy that infatuated the fancie of a late new fangled Religionist when he sat so kindly by a Gipsie under an hedge and put his hand into her bosome in a fit of devotion and vaunted afterwards of it as if it had been a very pious and meritorious action 20. But now that Melancholy partakes much of the nature of Wine he evinces from that it is so spiritous and that it is so spiritous from that it is so spumeous and that Melancholy is flatuous or spiritous he appeals to the Physitians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore the Philosopher assignes another companion to Venus besides the plump youth Bacchus which the Poets bestow upon her who though more seemingly sad yet will prove as faithfull an attendant as that other and this is Melancholy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now besides this Flatulencie that solicits to lust there may be such a due dash of Sanguine in the Melancholy that the complexion may prove stupendiously enravishing For that more sluggish Duâ—cour of the blood will be sometime so quickned and actuated by the fiercenesse and sharpnesse of the Melancholy humour as the fulsomnesse of sugar is by the acrimony of Lemons that it will afford farre more sensible pleasure and all the imaginations of love of what kind soever will be â—arre more lively and vigorous more piercing and rapturous then they can be in pure Sanguine it self From this complexion are Poets and the more highly pretending Enthusiasts Betwixt whom this is the great difference that a Poet is an Enthusiast in jest and an Enthusiast is a Poet in good earnest Melancholy prevailing so much with him that he takes his no better then Poeticall fits and figments for divine inspiration and reall truth 21. But that it is a meer naturall flatuous and spiritous temper with a proportionable Dosis of Sanguine added to their Melancholy not the pure Spirit of God that thus inacts them is plainly to be discovered not onely in their language which is very sweet and melting as if sugar plums lay under their tongue but from notorious circumstances of their lives And in my apprehension it will be
silent Fire that passes through all things must be a principle of all things and may be well attempered heat to your forenamed oil So that Aristotle and you that before seemed as disagreeing as fire and water now in a love-fit again embrace as close as your Apulejus his Psyche and Cupid But why will you be thus humorous Mr. Eugenius and be thus off and on to the trouble of others and your self SECT IV. 24. Eugenius having finished his generall exposition of the World Mastix gives an account of it shows the contradiction in it discovers the vanity of drawing the letter of the Scripture to a rigid Philosophicall meaning 25. Eugenius his ill manner of laying down the Fundamentalls of Sciences 26. His celestiall Earth Magnet or Jacobs Ladder 27. His little Suns and Moones in every Compound of Nature that are Mimulae majoris animalis and wantonly imitate the two great Luminaries of the World 28. His aenigmaticall Receit of the Medicine or Philosophers stone 29. His fixing of the Earth into a pure Diaphanous Substance 30. His praetension of explaining the Nature of Man 31. His censure of all that know not the earth Adam was made out of which is the Philosophicall Medicine as Quacks and Pis-pot Doctours 32. His two portions the Soul consists of Ruach and Nephesh 33. And how the Angels scorning to â—tâ—end Adam according as they were commanded contrived to supplant him Observation 24. Pag. 21. l. 9 PErformed an exposition of the World An excellent performance Which if a man takeâ— a narrow view of he will finde to amount to no more then this That God made a dark Masse of Matter out of which he extracted Chymist-like first an Empyreall body â—hen an Aereall c. Which is a very lank satisfaction to the noble reason of man Nay Anthroposophus I believe you have spoke such stuff that will amount to little better then a contradiction â—o free reason For you make as if the Masse did contain in a far lâ—sse compasse above all measure all that was after extracted Wherefore there was for these are all bâ—dies either a penetration of dimensions then or else a vacuum now the ascending particles of the Masse lie some distance one from another Besides I observe that in you that I do in all others that fantastically and superstitiously force Philosophy out of the sacred Writ which is intended certainly for better purposes For as Ovid in his Metamorphoses after a long pursuit of a Fabulous story at last descends to something in Nature and common use as that of Daphne turned into a Lawrell which tree is in Nature and according to the accustomary conceit of the Heathens was holy to Apollo so these running a Wild-Goose chase of Melancholy imaginations and fancies think it evidence enough for what they have said to have the thing but named in some Text of Scripture Nay even those that are so confident they are inspired and live of nothing but the free breathings of the Divine Spirit if you observe them it is with them as with the Lark that is so high in the air that we may better hear her then see her as if she were an inhabitant of that Region onely and had no allyance to the Earth yet at last you shall see her come down and piâ—k on the ground as other birds So these pretended inspired men though they flie high and seem to feed of nothing but free truth as they draw it from Gods own breathing yet they took their ground first from the Text though they ran a deal of fancyfull division upon it and if a man watch them he shall finde them â—all flat upon the Text again and be but as other Mortals are for all their free praetensions and extraordinary assistances But let us leave these Theosophists as they love to be called to themselves and trace on the steps of our Anthro posophus Observation 25. Pag. 22. He exhorts us in the foregoing page to be curious diligent in this subsequent part of his discourse as being now about to deliver the Fundamentals of Science But Anthroposophus you are so deeply Magicall that you have conjured your self down below the wit of an ordinary man The Fundamentals of Science should be certain plain reall and perspicuous to reason not muddy and imaginary as all your discourse is from this to your 28 page For in this present page the former setting aside your superstitious affectation of Trinities Triplicities which teach a man nothing but that you are a very fantasticall and bold man and lift at that which is too heavy for you you do nothing but scold very cholerickly at the Colliers and Kitchen-maids and like a dog return again to the Vomit I mean that vomit you cast a while ago on Aristotle Is that so elegant an expression that you must use it twice in so little a space where is your manners Anthroposophus Observation 26. Pag. 23. Lin. 14. and 24. The Magnet the Mystery of Union Not one of ten thousand knows the substance or the use of this Nature Yet you tell it us in this page that it will attract all things Physicall or Metaphysicall at what distance soever But you are a man of ten thousand Anthroposophus and have the Mystery questionlesse of this Magnet Whence I conclude you King or Prince of the Gypsies as being able at the farthest distance to attract metall out of mens purses But take heed that you be not discovered lest this Iacobs Ladder raise you up with your fellow Pick-pockets to Heaven in a string Observation 27. Pag. 24. This page is filled with like Gypsie gibberish as also the 25th yet he pretends to lend us a little light from the Sun and Moon Which he calls the great Luminaries and Conservatours of the great World in generall How great Anthroposophus do you think would the Moon appear if your Magick could remove you but as far as Saturn from her will she not appear as little as nothing Besides if Eugenius ever tooted through a Galileo's Tube he might discover four Moons about Iupiter which will all prove competitours with our Moon for the Conservatour-ship of the Universe But though Eugenius admits of but one great broad-faced Sun and Moon yet he acknowledgeth many Mimulae or Monky-faced Suns and Moons which must be the Conservatriculae of the many Microcosmes in the great World Certainly Anthroposophus the speculum of your understanding is cracked and every fragment gives a severall reflexion and hence is this innumerable multitude of these little diminutive Suns and Moons But having passed through much canting language at the bottome of the page we at last stumble on the Philosophers Stone which he intends I suppose to fling at Aristotle and brain the Stagirite at one throw Observation 28. Lin. ult A true Receipt of the Medicine R. Limi coelestis partes c. Come out Tom-Fool from behinde the hangings that peaks out with your Devils head and horns
goes about to prove that there is no excesse of proportion in them Dost thou hear Mastix sayes he Look up and see Well I hear Phil. I look up But do not chock me under the chin thou wag when I look up Now what must I see What a number of bonefires lamps and torches are kindled in that miraculous celestiall water Yes I see them all I suppose they burn so clear for joy and triumph that my Reason and Sense have so victoriously overthrown thy Fantastry and Non-sense But why miraculous waters Phil I see the cause Bonefires and torches burn in the waters That were a miracle indeed Eugenius but that it is a falsity Thou givest things false names then wouldst amaze us with verbal miracles And the starres his animal sensuall fire What is thy meaning here little Phil. For I never called thee to account for this yet That this World-Animal has sense onely in the starres To call them the eyes of the world is indeed pretty and Poeticall And Plato's delicious spirit may seem to countenance the conceit in that elegant Distich upon his young friend Aster which in plain English in Starre whom he instructed in the Art of Astronomie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou viewest the starres my Star were I the skies That I might fix on thee so many eyes But what Eugenius wilt thou venture in Philosophick coolnesse to say the sense of thy World-Animal lies in the starres I prethee what can those starry eyes spy out of the world They are very quick-sighted if they can see there where there is nothing to be seen But it may be this Animal turns its eyes inward and views it self I would Philalethes were such an Animal too He would then find so much amisse within that he would forbear hereafter to be so censorious without But what is there sense then onely in the starres For sense can be no where but where there is accesse for the Animal spirits So it seems the starres must hear as well as see nay feel and tast as they do questionlesse as often as they lick in and eat up that starre-fodder the vapours wherewith in Seneca they are fantastically said to be nourished And thus you see that Tom Vaughans Animal I mean the Bellows now may see at the very same two holes that it breathes at for he confounds all by his indiscreet fancy How art thou blown about like a feather in the air O thou light-minded Eugenius How vain and irrationall art thou in every thing Art thou the Queen of Sheba as thy Sanguin a little overflowing thy Choler would dresse up thy self to thy soft imagination and make thee look smugg in thy own eyes Had that Queen so little manners in her addresses to so great a Philosopher No thy language in all thy book is the language of a scold and of a slut And for thy wit if thou wilt forgo thy right to the ladle and bells thy feminine brains as thou callest them may lay claim to the maid-marians place in the Morris-dance while my strong cruds as thou tearmest my masculine understanding which are as sweet as strong not tainted with the fumes of either revenge or Venery shall improve their utmost strength for the interest of Truth and Virtue And thus have I taken all thy Outworks Eugenius yea and quite demolished them Yet now I look better about me there is I perceive one Half-moon standing still Wherefore have at thy Lunatick answer to that which thou callest my Lunatick argument which thou propoundest thus That the Flux and Reflux cannot be the pulse of the great World because it proceeds from the Moon not from the Sunne I say Philalethes The Sunne being the heart of the world according to those that be more discreetly fantasticall consult Dr. Fludd thou art but a bad chip of that block it was to be expected if thou wouldst have the Flux and Reflux to be the Pulse that it should come from the Sun that is reputed the heart of the world but it comes from the Moon To this you answer That it comes no more from the Moon then from that fictitious Anti-selene or Anti-moon as you venture to call it You say thus but prove nothing But there is such an apparent connexion betwixt this Phaenomenon of the Flux and Reflux and so constant with the course of the Moon that it is even unimaginable but that there should be the relation of cause and effect betwixt them But I think you will not say That the motion of the Sea has any power or effect upon the course of the Moon wherefore it must be granted that the course of the Moon has an effectuall influence upon the Flux of the Sea And therefore Fromundus speaks very expressely concerning this matter and very peremptorily in these words Si ex effectis de causa conjectatio valere potest tam compertum videtur â—stus effici gubernari à Lunari sydere quà m calorem ab ignibus effundi aut lumen à Sole to this sense If we can gather any thing from effects concerning the cause it seems to be as experimentally sure that the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea is made and governed by the Moon as that heat flows from the fire or light from the Sunne For indeed how could there be kept such inviolable laws as that the Ocean should alwayes swell at the Moons ascending and not onely so but attemperately and proportionably to her motion for she coming every day later and later above the Horizon the Flux of the Sea is later and later every time according to her recession toward the East in her monethly course I say How could these laws be so accurately observed Mr. Eugenius if the Moon were not accessory to nay the principall causer of this Flux and Reflux of the Sea And if thou beest not wilfully blinâ— this is enough to convince thee that that which thou callest the Pulse of thy World-Animal is from the Moon not from the Sunne nor from its own inward â—orm for thou seest it is caused and regulated by an externall Agent But for a more full discovery of this mysterie I send thee to Des-Cartes in the fourth part of his Principia Philosophiae or to what I have taken from thence and made use of in the Notes upon my Philosophicall Poems In which Poems the intelligent Reader may understand how far and in what sense any sober Platonist will allow the world to be an Animal Nor do's one part of it acting upon another as the Moon upon the Sea hinder its Animation For in men and beasts one part of the body do's plainly act upon another though all be actuated by the soul. And now Philalethes I have taken all thy Out-works none excepted out of which thou hast shot many a slovenly shot against me But thy foul piece has reâ—oyled against thy self in all sober mens opinions and has beat thee backward into the dirt
That following this Rule we shall find the Extent of the World to be bounded no higher then the clouds or thereabout So that the Firmament viz the Air for the Hebrews have no word for the Air distinct from Heaven or Firmament Moses making no distinction may be an adequate barre betwixt the lower and upper waters Which it was requisite for Moses to mention vulgar observation discovering that waters came down from above viz. showers of Rain and they could not possibly conceive that unlesse there were waters above that any water should descend thence And this was it that gave occasion to Moses of mentioning those two waters the one above the other beneath the firmament But to return to the first point to be proved That Scripture speaks according to the outward appearance of things to sense and vulgar conceit of men This I say is a confessed truth with the most learned of the Hebrews Amongst whom it is a rule for the understanding of many and many places of Scripture Loquitur Lex secundùm linguam filiorum hominum that is That the Law speaks according to the language of the sonnes of men as Moses AEgyptius can tell you And it will be worth our labour now to instance in some passages Gen. 19. v. 23. The sunne was risen upon the Earth when Lot entred into Zoar. Which implies that it was before under the Earth Which is true onely according to sense and vulgar fancy Deuteronom 30. v. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Implies that the earth is bounded at certain places as if there were truly an Hercules Pillar or Non plus ultrá As it is manifest to them that understand but the naturall signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For those words plainly import the Earth bounded by the blue Heavens and the Heavens bounded by the Horizon of the Earth they touching one another mutually Which is true onely to sense and in appearance as any man that is not a meer Idiot will confesse Ecclesiastic cap. 27. v. 12. The discourse of a godly man is alwayes with wisdome but a fool changeth as the moon That 's to be understood according to sense and appearance For if a fool changeth no more then the Moon doth really he is a wise and excellently accomplished man Semper idem though to the sight of the vulgar different For at least an Hemisphear of the Moon is alwayes enlightned and even then most when she least appears to us Hitherto may be referr'd also that 2. Chron. 4. 2. Also he made a molten Sea of ten Cubits from brim â—o brim round in compasse and five Cubits the height thereof and a line of thirty Cubits did compasse it round about A thing plainly impossible that the Diameter should be ten Cubits and the Circumference but thirty But it pleaseth the Spirit of God here to speak according to the common use and opinion of Men and not according to the subtilty of Archimedes his demonstration Again Psalme 19. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the Sunne which as a bridegroom cometh out of his chamber and rejoyceth as a strong man to runne his race This as Mr. Iohn Calvin observes is spoken according to the rude apprehension of the Vulgar whom David should in vain have endeavoured to teach the mysteries of Astronomy Haec ratio est saith he cur dicat tentorium ei paratum esse deinde egredi ipsum ab una coeli extremitate transire celeriter ad partem oppositam Neque enim argutè inter Philosophos de integro solis circuitu disputat sed rudissimis quibusque se accommodans intra ocularem experientiam se continet ideoque dimidiam cursûs partem quae sub Hemisphario nostro non cernitur subticet i. e. This is the reason to wit the rudenesse of the vulgar why the Psalmist saith there is a tent prepared for the Sunne and then that he goes from one end of the heaven and passes swiftly to the other For he doth not here subtily dispute amongst the Philosophers of the intire circuit of the Sunne but accommodating himself to the capacity of every ignorant man contains himself within ocular experience and therefore saith nothing of the other part of the course of the sun which is not to be seen as being under our Hemisphear Thus M. Calvin I 'le adde but one instance more Ioshua 10. v. 12. Sunne stand thou still upon Gibeon and thou Moon in the valley of Ajalon Where it is manifest that Ioshua speaks not according to the Astronomicall truth of the thing but according to sense and appearance For suppose the Sunne placed and the Moon at the best advantage you can so that they leave not their naturall course they were so farre farre from being one over Ajalon and the other over Gibeon that they were in very truth many hundreds of miles distant from them And if the Sun and Moon were on the other side of the Equatour the distance might amount to thousands I might adjoyn to these proofs the suffrages of many Fathers and Modern Divines as Chrysostome Ambrose Augustine Bernard Aquinas c. But 't is already manifest enough that the Scripture speaks not according to the exact curiosity of truth describing things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the very nature and essence of them but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to theâ—r appearance in sense and the vulgar opinion of men Nor doth it therefore follow that such expressions are false because they are according to the appearance of things to sense and obvious fancy for there is also a Truth of Appearance And thus having made good the first part of my promise I proceed to the second which was to shew That the Extent of the world is to be bounded no higher then the clouds or there abouts that it may thence appear that the upper waters mentioned in Moses are the same with those Aquae in coelo stantes mentioned by Pliny lib. 31. his words are these Quid esse mirabilius potest aquis in coelo stantibus and these waters can be nothing else but that contain'd in the clouds which descends in rain and so the whole Creation will be contain'd within the compasse of the Aire which the Hebrews call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ibi aquae because it is sedes nubium the place of clouds and rain And that the world is extended no higher then thus according to Scripture it is apparent First because the clouds are made the place of Gods abode whence we are to suppose them plac'd with the highest There he lives and runnes and rides and walks He came walking upon the wings of the wind in the 104. Psalm Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters who maketh the clouds his chariot and walketh on the wings of the wind Laieth the beams of his chambers in the waters to wit the upper waters
it self and it is Theupolus his opinion as well as mine who cites those verses of Virgil and gives that sense of them to wit that the two-fold vehicle of the soul is there meant the AEthereall and Spirituous not the Soul it self Academic Contemplat lib. 4. So that Virgil doth not at all patronize thy grosse conceit of making the Soul consist of fire and aire Page 99. line 10. I grant the soul to be a hodily substance that hath dimensions too Why Phil Is there any bodily Substances without dimensions I could very willingly grant thee a mere body without a soul thou hast so little reason and sense in thee or if thou hast a soul that it is a corporeall one and it may well be so But my question is meant of souls that have Sense and Reason in them whether they be corporeall substances or no Yes say you they are They are intelligent Fire and Light I say Phil. thou art all fire but no light nor intelligent at all Thou art the hottest fellow that ever I met with in all my dayes as hot as a Taylours Goose when it hisseth and yet as dark But let 's endeavour if it be possible to vitrifie thy opake carcase and transmit a little light into thâ—e Doest thou know then what fire is how it is a very fluid body whose particles rest not one by another but fridge one against another being very swiftly and variously agitated In this condition is the matter of fire But now I demand of thee Is there any substance in this fire thou speakest of for thou sayest it is really fire and usest no Metaphor which we may call the essentiall Form thereof or no If there be I ask thee wheâ—her that Form be Intelligent or no If it be then that is the soul and this subtile agitated matter is â—ut the vehicle But if thou wilt say that the subtile fiery matter is the Intelligent Soul see what inconveniencies thou intanglest thy self in For Fire being as homogeneall a body as water is and having all the parts much what alike agitated how can this fire do those offices that commonly are attributed to the soul First how can it organize the body into so wise a structure and contrivement the parts of this fire tending as much this way as that way or at least tending onely one way suppose upward Secondly how can it inform the whole body of an Embryo in the wombe and of a grown man For if it was but big enough for the first it will be too little for the latter unlesse you suppose it to grow and to be nourished But thus you will not have the same Indiuiduall Soul you was Christened with and must be forced to turn not onely Independent but Anabaptist that your new soul may be baptized for it is not now the same that you was Christened with before For I say that ten spoonfulls of water added to one should rather individuate the whole then that one of that whole number should individuate the ten Thirdly how can it move it self or the body in a spontaneous way For all the particles of this fiery matter wriggling and playing on their own centers or joyntly endeavouring to tend upwards makes nothing to a spontaneous motion no more then the Atomes of dust that are seen playing in the Sun beams striking through a chink of a wall into a dark room can conspire into one spontaneous motion and go which way they please Wherefore I say there ought to be some superintendent Form that takes hold of all these fiery particles and commands them as one body and guides them this way or that way and must be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of this fiery substance that is There must be such an essence in this fiery matter and that is noted by the preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that doth hold together that doth drive this way according to its nature or will and yet thus driving doth keep possession of this fiery Matter and what is this but â— Soul not the indument the smock or peticote of the Soul as thou call'st it Eugenius thou art old excellent at finding out naked essences it seems that takest the garment for the body Thou art so young that thou canst not distinguish betwixt a living barn and a baby made of clouts But this is not all that I have to say Phil. Fourthly I say that this Fire cannot be the Soul because fire is devoid of sense I but you say you understand an Intelligent fire Learnedly answered and to as much purpose as if you should say that a Soul is a Post or a Pillar and then you should distinguish and tell me you meant an Intelligent Post or Pillar but I say Fire hath no more sense then a Post or Pillar has reason For if it have sense it must have that which the Schools call Sensus communis And now tell me Phil to which of all the playing particles of this Ignis fatuus of thine thou wilt appoint the office of the Sensus communis or why to any one more then to the rest But if thou appoint all there will be as many severall sensations as there are particles Indeed so many distinct living things And thou wilt become more numerous within then the possessed in the Gospel whose name was Legion because they were many But if thou wilt pitch upon any one particle above the rest tell me where it is In the middle or at the out-side of this fire I will interpret thee the most favourably and answer for thee In the middle But I demand of thee Why shall this in the middle have the priviledge of being the Sensus Communis rather then any other or how will it be able to keep it self in the middle in so fluid a body And if it were kept there what priviledge hath it but what the most of the rest have as well as it to make it fit for the office of a Sensus Communis For it must be either because it is otherwise moved on its Center then the other are on theirs which you can not prove either to be or if it were to be to any purpose Or it must be because it hath some advantage in consideration of the joynt motion of the particles Let the joynt motion therefore of the particles be either rectilinear or circular If rectilinear as suppose in a square let the processe of motion be from side to side parallel Hath not then any particle in a right line that is drawn through the center of this Square figure parallel to two of the sides equal advantage for this office the transmission of outward sense being perpendicular to the said right line that the middle particle hath For thus it can receive but what comes in one line transmission of sense being parallel as is supposed Nay the points of any other inward line parallel to this will
do as well as the points of this middle line which is as plainly true as two and two is four if thou understandest sense when it is propounded to thee Well but it may be you may think you can mend your self by supposing the joynt motion of this fiery matter to be circular I say no. For then that of this motion that respects externall objects is from the Center to the Circumference as it is plain in that ordinary experiment of a Sling And thus motion is from the middle particle not towards it But you should say here if you could answer so wisely that motion bearing forward from this center toward the object that reciprocally the object will bear against it and so there will be a transmission of sense round about from all the circumferentiall parts of this fiery Orb which thou calledst the naked soul. But I say Magicus if the middle point of this Orb get the place of the Sensus Communis because there is a common transmission of motion from sensible Objects thereunto I say then that there be more Sensus Communes in this Orb then One because such transmissions as are not perpendicular to this Orb will meet in severall points distant from the middle point or center of this Orb and there are enough such externall transmissions as these I might adde also that the middle point or particle being though a minute one yet a body and consequently divisible that that will also bid fair for a multiplicity of Common Senses But I will adde onely this That I hope to see the day wherein thou wilt be so wise as to be able to confesse that the Authour of Anthroposophia Theomagica c. was the most confident Ignaro that ever wet paper with ink But before I leave this fourth argument let me onely cast in one thing more which equally respects both Hypotheses either of rectilinear or circular motion And that 's this If any one particle of this fiery substance be the Common sense it must be also the principle of spontaneous motion to the whole substance For we see plainly that that which hath the Animadversive faculty in man or the office of Common sense moves the whole man or that the motion of him is directed at the beck of this But I prethee Phil tell me if thou canst possibly imagine that any one particle in this fiery substance should be able to impresse spontaneous Motion upon the whole I know thou canst not but think it impossible Fifthly if the Soul be fire fire being so fluid and unsteddy a substance how can there be any memory in it You remember that expression in Catullus whereby he would set forth sudden oblâ—teration and forgetfulness of things that it is like writing in the Water or in the Aire In vento aut rapidâ scribere oportet aquâ But what think you of fire then will that consistency bear more durable characters The perpetuall fridging and toying of the fiery particles dorh forthwith cancell whatever is impressed and now there is neither Common sense nor Memory to be found in your fire we may be secure there is no Reason to be found there For the Discursive Faculty requires some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something fixt to tread upon as well as the Progressive But in your fire all is aflote nothing fixt Sixthly and lastly If the Soul of man be either fire or aire or both I do not see that it will prove immortall but that its consistency will be dispersed and scattered like the clouds It will not be able to conflict with the boistrous winds or scape blowing out or being lost in the thinne aire as other flames are it once being uncased of the armature of the body And these Vehicles which you will have to be the very Soul it self they being so changeable and passive within the body it will not be absurd with Lucretius to inferre that they will be utterly dissolved when they are without Haec igitur tantis ubi morbis corpore in ipso Iactentur miserÃsque modis distracta laborent Cur eadem credis sine corpore in aere aperto Cum validis ventis aetatem degere posse To this sense If in the body rack'd with tort'rous pain And tost with dire disease they 're wearied so This shelter lost how can they then sustain The strong assaults of stormy winds that blow I tell thee Phil such a Soul as thou fanciest would be no more able to withstand the winds then the dissipable clouds nor to understand any more sense then a Soul of clouts or thy own Soul doth But now I have so fully confuted thy grosse opinion of the Soul it may be happily expected that I would declare mine own But Phil I onely will declare so much that I do not look on the Soul as a Peripateticall atome but as on a spirituall substance without corporeall dimensions but not destitute of an immateriall amplitude of Essence dilatable and contractible But for further satisfaction in this point I referre to my Philosophicall Poems And do professe that I have as distinct determinate and clear apprehension of these things and as wary and coherent as I have of any corporeall thing in the world But Heat and Fantastry to suddled minds are as good companions as Caution and Reason to the sober But the durablenesse of that satisfaction is uncertain whereas solid Reason is lasting and immutable SECT X. The Confutation of Eugenius his Magicall Chain explained and confirmed His arguments for knowledge or understanding in the Seminall Forms of things utterly subverted The fondnesse of his definition of the first principle of his Clavis A demonstration that the starres receive not any light from the Sun Eugenius taxed of Enormous incivility Mastix his friend vindicated His Conjecture of Magia Adamica His censure of the present ill temper of Eugenius Observation 10. Pag. 101. MY Book also informes you that this Descent of light proceeds not from any weight but from a similitude and Symbole of Nature You are indeed very good at similitudes Phil. as I have proved heretofore out of your skill in Zoography But this is another businesse For here you professe to speak of the symbolizing and sympathizing of things one with another in Nature and so mutually moving to union by a kind of attractive power according to that saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Well be it so that there is a mutuall attractive power in things that symbolize one with another for the attraction is mutuall as well as the similitude mutuall What is this to take away what I have objected Nothing But I will shew you how you are hang'd in your own chain For it is as plain as one of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that where two things of the same nature act the greater is stronger and the stronger prevails Wherefore three portions of light should fetch up two or five one rather then one should fetch down three or five or two This