finite or infinite Time but what is only infinite in one sense is neither finite nor infinite and therefore nothing can subsist in that Manner This is the way of arguing with the Prince of Philosophers and the Genius of Nature who instead of discovering by clear and distinct Ideas the true Cause of natural Effects lays the Foundation of a Pagan Philosophy upon the false and confused Ideas of the Senses or upon such Ideas as are too general to be useful to the Search after Truth I condemn not Aristotle for not knowing that God has created the World in Time to manifest his Power and the Dependency of Creatures and that he will never destroy it to shew that he is immutable and never repents of his Designs But I may find fault with him for proving by trifling Reasons that the World is of Eternal Duration For though he be sometimes excusable as to the Opinions he maintains yet he 's for the most part intollerable as to the Reasons he alledges when he treats of Subjects that are somewhat difficult What I have already said may perhaps be sufficient to evince it though I have not related all the Errours I have met with in the Book whence the former are extracted and that I have endeavour'd to make him speak plainer than is customary with him But for an entire and full Conviction that the Genius of Nature will never discover the secret Springs and Contrivances of it it will be convenient to shew that his Principles upon which he reasons for the Explication of natural Effects have no Solidity in them 'T is evident that nothing can be discover'd in Physicks without beginning with the most simple Bodies that is with the Elements into which all others are resolv'd because they are contain'd in them either actually or potentially to speak in a Peripatetick Stile But no distinct Explication of those simple Bodies can be found in the Works of Aristotle whence follows that his Elements being not clearly known 't is impossible to discover the Nature of Bodies which are compos'd of them He says indeed that there are four Elements Fire Air Water and Earth but he gives no clear Manifestation of their Nature by any distinct Idea He pretends not that those Elements are the Fire Air Water and Earth that we see for if it were so our Senses at least would afford us some Knowledge of them I grant that in several places of his Works he endeavours to explain them by the Qualities of Heat and Cold Moisture and Dryness Gravity and Levity But that Method is so impertinent and ridiculous that it cannot be conceiv'd how so many Learned Men could be satisfied with it which I proceed to demonstrate Aristotle pretends in his Book of the Heavens that the Earth is the Centre of the World and that all Bodies which he is pleas'd to call simple because he supposes that they are mov'd by their own Nature must move by simple Motions He asserts that besides the Circular Motion which he pretends to be simple and by which he proves that the Heavens which he supposes to move circularly are a simple Body there are two other simple Motions one downwards from the Circumference to the Centre and the other upwards from the Centre to the Circumference That those simple Motions are proper to simple Bodies and consequently that Earth and Fire are such Bodies one of which is altogether heavy and the other perfectly light But because Gravity and Levity may be proper to a Body either wholly or in part he concludes that there are two other Elements or simple Bodies one of which is partly light and the other partly ponderous viz. Water and Air. Thus he proves that there are four Elements and no more It is plain to all those who examine the Opinions of Men by their own Reason that all those Propositions are false or cannot at least be taken for clear and undeniable Principles which may afford very plain and distinct Ideas whereon to lay the Foundation of Natural Philosophy 'T is certain that nothing can be more absurd than to establish the Number of Elements upon the imaginary Qualities of Heaviness and Lightness saying without any farther Proof that some Bodies are ponderous and others light of their own Nature For if any thing may be asserted without Proof it may be said that all Bodies are naturally heavy and endeavour to approach the Centre of the World as the place of their Rest. And the contrary may be asserted too viz. That all Bodies are light of their own Nature and tend to rise to the Heavens as to the place of their greatest Perfection For if you object to him who maintains the Gravity of Bodies that Fire and Air are light he needs but answer that Fire and Air are not light but that being less ponderous than Earth and Water they seem to us to be light And that it goes with those Elements as with a piece of Wood that appears light upon the Water not by reason of any natural Levity since it falls down when in the Air but because Water being heavier seizes the lower Place and forces it to ascend On the contrary If you object to him that defends the natural Levity of Bodies that Earth and Water are ponderous he will likewise answer That those Bodies seem heavy because they are not so light as those that surround them That Wood for instance appears to be ponderous when in the Air not because of its natural Gravity since it ascends when in the Water but because it is not so light as Air. And therefore 't is ridiculous to suppose as an undeniable Principle that Bodies are either light or heavy of their own Nature it being on the contrary evident that none has the Force of moving it self and that 't is indifferent to be moved either upwards or downwards to the East or to the West to the South or to the North or in any other possible manner But let us grant to Aristotle That there are four Elements such as he pretends two of which are heavy viz. Earth and Water and the two other light of their own Nature viz. Fire and Air what Consequence may be drawn from thence for the Knowledge of the Universe Those four Elements are not the visible Fire Air Water and Earth but something quite different which we know neither by the Senses nor by Reason having no distinct Idea of them Let all natural Bodies be compos'd of them since Aristotle has said it But the Nature of those Compounds is still unknown and cannot be discovered but by knowing the four Elements or the simple Bodies of which they are made since the Composed is known only by the Simple Fire says Aristotle is light by its own Nature the ascending Motion is simple Fire is therefore a simple Body since Motion must be proportion'd to the Moveable Natural Bodies are compos'd of simple there is then Fire in all natural Bodies but a Fire
which is not like to that we see for Fire is often but in potentia in the Bodies that are made of it What signifie all these Peripatetick Discourses That there is Fire in all Bodies either actual or potential that is to say that all Bodies are compos'd of something we see not and the Nature of which is wholly unknown unto us Now we have made a very fair Progress But though Aristotle shews us not the Nature of Fire and other Elements of which all Bodies are made up yet one may imagine that he will at least discover their principal Qualities and Properties Let us also examine what he says upon that Account He declares that there are four principal Qualities which belong to the Sense of Touching viz. Heat Cold Humidity and Siccity of which all the other are compos'd He distributes those primitive Qualities into the four Elements ascribing Heat and Dryness to Fire Heat and Moisture to the Air Cold and Moisture to Water and Cold and Dryness to Earth He asserts that Heat and Cold are active Qualities but that Dryness and Moisture are passive He defines Heat What congregates Things of the same kind Cold What congregates Things either of the same or of different Species Moisture What cannot easily be contain'd in its own Limits but is easily kept within foreign Bounds and Dryness What is easily contain'd within its own Limits but will hardly be adapted to the Bounds of surrounding Bodies Thus according to Aristotle Fire is a hot and dry Element and therefore congregates Homogeneous Things is easily contain'd within its own Limits and hardly within others Air is a hot and moist Element and therefore congregates Homogeneous Things can hardly be kept within its own Limits but easily within others Water is a cold and moist Element and therefore congregates both Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Things is hardly contain'd within its own Limits but easily within others And lastly Earth is a cold and dry Element or such an one as aggregates Things both of the same and different Natures is easily contain'd within its own Limits but can hardly be adapted to others There you have the Elements explain'd according to the Opinion of Aristotle or the Definitions he has given of their principal Qualities and because if we may believe him the Elements are simple Bodies out of which others are constituted and their Qualities are simple Qualities of which all others are compos'd the Knowledge of those Elements and Qualities must be very clear and distinct since the whole Natural Philosophy or the Knowledge of all sensible Bodies which are made of them must be deduc'd from thence Let us then see what may be wanting to those Principles First Aristotle fixes no distinct Idea to the Word Quality It cannot be known whether by Quality he understands a real Being distinguish'd from Matter or only a Modification of Matter he seems one while to take it in the former and at another time in the latter Sense I grant that in the 8th Chapter of his Categories he defines Quality that by which Things are denominated so or so but that is not plain and satisfactory Secondly His Definitions of the four Primitive Qualities viz. Heat Cold Moisture and Dryness are either false or useless We will begin with his Definition of Heat Heat says he is that which congregates Homogeneous Things First Though that Definition should be true That Heat always congregates Homogeneous Bodies yet we cannot see how it perfectly explains the Nature of Heat Secondly 'T is false that Heat congregates Homogeneous Things for Heat dissipates the Particles of Water into Vapour instead of heaping them together It congregates not likewise the Parts of Wine or any Liquor or Fluid Body whatsoever even to Quick-silver On the contrary it resolves and separates both Solid and Fluid Bodies whether of the same or different Natures and if there be any the Parts of which Fire cannot dissipate it is not because they are homogeneous but because they are too gross and solid to be carry'd away by the Motion of the fiery Particles Thirdly Heat in reality can neither congregate nor segregate the Parts of any Body whatsoever for that the Parts of Bodies may be congregated separated or dissipated they must be moved But Heat can move nothing or at least it appears not that it can move Bodies for though we consider Heat with all the possible Attention we cannot discover that it may communicate to Bodies a Motion which it has not it self We see indeed that Fire moves and separates the Parts of such Bodies as lie expos'd to its Action but it is not perhaps by its Heat it being not evident whether it has any it is rather by the Action of its Parts which we visibly perceive to be in a continual Motion for these fiery Particles striking against a Body must needs impart to it somewhat of their Motion whether there is or is not any Heat in Fire If the Parts of that Body be not very solid Fire will dissipate them but if they be very gross and solid Fire can but just move them and make them slide one over the other And Lastly If there be a Mixture of subtile and gross Parts Fire will only dissipate those which it can push so far as to separate them from the others So that Fire can only separate and if it congregate 't is only by Accident But Aristotle asserts quite contrary Separating says he which some ascribe to Fire is but congregating Homogeneous Things for 't is only by Accident that Fire carries off Things of different Nature If this Philosopher had at first distinguished the Sensation of Heat from the Motion of the small Particles of which the Bodies called hot are composed and had afterwards defined Heat taken from the Motion of Parts by saying that Heat is what agitates and separates the invisible Parts or which visible Bodies are made up he would have given a tolerable definition of Heat though not full and satisfactory because it would not accurately discover the Nature of Motion in hot Bodies Aristotle defines Cold what congregates Bodies of the same or different Nature but that Definition is worth nothing for Cold congregates not Bodies To congregate them it must move them but if we consult our Reason we shall find that Cold can move nothing for we understand by that word either what we feel when we are cold or what causes our Sensation As to our Sensation 't is plain that it is merely Passive and can neither move nor drive any thing And as to the Cause of that Sensation reason tells us if we examine things that it is merely rest or a Cessation of Motion So that Cold in Bodies being no more than the Cessation of that sort of Motion which attends Heat 't is evident that if Heat separate Cold does not And therefore Cold coacervates neither things of the same nor of different nature since what cannot drive on Bodies cannot amass
but acts always by the simplest Ways and for that Reason he makes use of the Collision of Bodies in giving them Motion Not that this Collision is absolutely necessary to it as our Senses tell us but that being the Occasion of the Communication of Motions there need be but very few Natural Laws to produce all the admirable Effects we see For by this means we may reduce all the Laws of the Communication of Motions to one Viz. That percutient Bodies being considered as but one at the Moment of their Contact or Collision the moving Force is divided between them at their Separation according to the Proportion of their Magnitude But whereas concurrent Bodies are surrounded with infinite others which act upon them by Virtue and Efficacy of this Law however constant and uniform this Law be it produces a World of quite different Communications because it acts upon infinite Bodies which are all related to one another It is necessary to Water a Plant to make it grow because by the Laws of the Communication of Motions hardly any other than Watry Particles can by their Motion and by reason of their Figure insinuate and Wind up themselves into the Fibres of Plants and by variously fastning and combining together take the Figure that 's necessary to their Nourishment The subtil Matter which is constantly flowing from the Sun may by its agitating the Water lift it into the Plants but it has not a competent Motion to raise gross Earthy Particles Yet Earth and Air too are necessary to the Growth of Plants Earth to preserve the Water at their Root and Air to give this Water a Moderate Fermentation But the Action of the Sun the Air and Water consisting but in the Motion of their Parts in proper speaking GOD is the only Agent For as I have said there is none but He that can by the efficacy of his Will and by the Infinite Extent of his Knowledge cause and regulate those infinitely infinite Communications of Motions which are made every moment and in a Proportion infinitely exact and regular ARGUMENT IV. Can God resist and Fight against Himself Bodies justle strike and resist one another therefore Gods Acts not in them unless it be by his concourse For if it were he only that produc'd and preserv'd Motion in Bodies he would take care to divert them before the Collision as knowing well that they are impenetrable To what purpose are Bodies driven to be beaten back again why must they proceed to recoil Or what signifies it to produce and Preserve useless Motions Is it not an Absurdity to say that God impugns himself and that He destroys his Works when a Bull fights with a Lyon when a Wolf devours a Sheep and a Sheep eats the Grass which God makes to grow Therefore there are Second Causes ANSWER Therefore Second Causes do all and God does nothing at all For God cannot act against himself but Concourse is Action The concurring to contrary Actions is giving contrary Concourse and consequently doing contrary Actions To concur with the Action of Creatures that resist each other is to Act against himself To concur to useless Motions is to Act in vain But God does nothing needless or in vain he does no contrary Actions and therefore concurs not to the Action of Creatures that often destroy one another and makes useless Actions and Motions See where this proof of Second Causes leads us But let us see what Reason says to it God Works all in every thing and nothing resists him He Works all in all things in as much as his Will both makes and regulates all Motions And nothing resists him because he does what ever he Wills But let us see how this is to be conceiv'd Having resolv'd to produce by the simplest ways as most conformable to Order that infinite Variety of Creatures which we admire he will'd that Bodies should move in a right line because that is the most simple But Bodies being impenetrable and their Motions tending in Lines that oppose or intersect one another they must necessarily fall foul together and consequently cease moving in the same manner God foresaw this yet notwithstanding positively will'd the Collision or shock of Bodies not that he 's delighted in impugning himself but because he design'd to make use of this Collision as an Occasion for his establishing the General Law of the Communication of Motions by which he foresaw he must produce an infinite Variety of admirable Effects For I am perswaded that these two Natural Laws which are the simplest of all others Namely that All Motion tends to make it self in a right line and that in the Collision Motions are Communicated proportionably to the magnitude of the Colliding Bodies are sufficient to produce such a World as we see That is the Heaven and Stars and Planets and Comets Earth Water Air and Fire In a Word the Elements and all Unorganiz'd and inanimate Bodies For Organiz'd Bodies depend on many other Natural Laws which are perfectly unknown It may be living Bodies are not form'd like others by a determinate number of Natural Laws For there is great probability they were all form'd at the Creation of the World and that Time only gives them a necessary Growth to make them Visible to our Eyes Nevertheless it is certain they receive that Growth by the General Laws of Nature whereby all other Bodies are form'd which is the Reason that their Increase is not always Regular I say then that God by the first of Natural Laws positively Wills and consequently Causes the Collision of Bodies and afterwards imploys this Collision as an Occasion of establishing the Second Natural Law which regulates the Communication of Motions and that thus the actual Collision is the Natural or Occasional Cause of the Actual Communication of Motions If this be well consider'd it will be evidently acknowledg'd that nothing can be better Order'd But supposing that God had not so Ordain'd it and that he had diverted Bodies when ready to encounter as if there were a Vacuum to receive them First they would not be subject to that perpetual Vicissitude which makes the Beauty of the Universe For the Generation of some Bodies is perform'd by the Corruption of Others and 't is the contrariety of their Motion which produces their Variety Secondly God would not act in the most simple manner For if Bodies ready to meet should continue on their Motion without touching they must needs describe Lines curv'd in a thousand different Fashions and consequently different Wills must be admitted in God to determine their Motions Lastly if there were no Uniformity in the Action of Natural Bodies and that their Motion were not made in a right Line we should have no certain Principle for our Reasonings in natural Philosophy nor for our conduct in many Actions of our Life 'T is not a disorder that Lyons eat Wolves and that Wolves eat Sheep and Sheep grass of which God has had so
Countries it being the most difficult thing to remember Names and if I should live long I am perswaded I should forget my own That a plain Gentleman who could retain by Heart and word for word and with Assurance long-winded Discourses should have such a multitude of Servants that he could not remember their Names That a Man who was Born and Bred in the midst of Fields and Tillage who kept Business and Farms in his Hands and who says To be regardless of what lies at our Feet of what we have in our Hands and of what most nearly concerns the necessities and use of Life is a thing utterly inconsistent with his Maxim should forget the French Names of his Domesticks Could he be ignorant as he says of the most part of our Coins in use the difference of one Grain from another either in the Earth or Granary unless it were the most manifest of the grossest Principles of Agriculture which there 's hardly a Child but knows what use Leaven is of in making Bread and why Wine must stand sometime in the Fat before it ferments and yet has his Mind stor'd with the Names of the Ancient Philosophers and their Principles with the Idea's of Plato Epicurus's Atoms the Plenum and Vacuum of Leucippus and Democritus the Water of Thales Anaximander's Infinity of Nature Diogenes's Air the Numbers and Symmetry of Pythagoras the Infinite of Parmenides the Vnity of Musaeus the Water and Fire of Apollodorus the Similar Parts of Anaxagoras the Discord and Friendship of Empedocles the Fire of Heraclitus c. A Man that in three or four Pages of his Book quotes more than fifty different Authors with their Opinions Who has fill'd his Book with various Historical Passages and many confus'd Apophthegms who in point of Books says History and Poesy were his Excellency Who contradicts himself every moment and in the same Chapter and even in the speaking of things he pretends to be best acquainted with I mean the Qualities of his Mind should this Man boast that his Judgment is better than his Memory We will confess that Montagne was Excellent at Forgetfulness since Montagne assure us of it and would have us think so nor is this altogether contrary to Truth But let us not believe him on his word or for the Praises that he gives himself that he was a Man of great Sense and of extraordinary Sagacity of Mind For this might engage us in Error and give too much Countenance to those false and dangerous Opinions he puts off with a presumptuous and dogmatical Arrogance which only confounds and blinds the feebler sorts of Minds The other Encomium they bestow on Montagne is that he was perfectly acquainted with the Mind of Man that he survey'd it to the bottom its Nature and its Properties that he knew the strong and weak sides of it and in a word all that could be known of it Let us see if he deserve these Praises and whence it comes to pass Men are so liberal on his behalf Those who have read Montagne know well enough that he would fain pass for a Pyrrhonist and that he takes Pride in doubting of all things The perswasion of Certainty in any thing says he is a certain testimony of Folly and extream incertainty and there is not a foolisher and less Philosophical sort of Men than the Philodox of Plato On the contrary he extolls the Pyrrhonists at that excessive rate in the same Chapter that 't is not to be doubted but he was of the same Sect. 'T was necessary in the time he liv'd to doubt of every thing to pass for a Man of Parts and a Gentleman and the Quality of a Bold Wit which he pretended to engag'd him farther in these Opinions Now 't is but supposing him an Academick to be able at one stroke to manifest him the most ignorant of all Men not only in what relates to the Nature of the Mind but in every thing else For since there is an Essential difference between Knowing and Doubting if the Academicks say what they think when they assure us They know nothing we may conclude they are the most Ignorant Persons in the World But they are not only the most Ignorant of all others but also the most Vnreasonable Defenders of their Opinions For they not only reject what is most certain and universally receiv'd to be thought the Bold Wits but by the same strength of Imagination love to talk in a Decisive Magisterial strain about the most uncertain and improbable things in Nature Montagne affords us a manifest Instance of this Distemper of Mind And we must necessarily say he was not only ignorant of the Nature of an Humane Mind but was in the grossest Errors upon that Subject supposing he had said what he thought of it as he ought to have done For what can we say of a Man that confounds the Mind with Matter that reports the most extravagant Opinions of the Philosophers about the Nature of the Soul without despising them and in a way that gives us to understand he lik'd those best that were most opposite to Reason Who saw no necessity of the Immortality of our Souls who thinks it indiscoverable by Humane Reason and who looks upon the Arguments that are given for it as Dreams which the desire of it breeds in us Somnia non docentis sed optantis Who finds fault with Men for separating from the Crowd of other Creatures and distinguishing themselves from Beasts which he calls our Fellow Brethren and Companions who believes they converse with and understand each other and ridicule us as we discourse and understand one another and laugh at them who makes a greater difference betwixt Man and Man than betwixt a Man and a Beast Who attributes even to Spiders Deliberation Thought and Conclusion And who after having maintain'd that the Disposition of the Humane Body had no advantage over that of Beasts readily embraces this Opinion That 't is not by our Reason our Discourse our Soul we have the Ascendant over Beasts but on the account of our Beauty the fineness of our Complection and the excellent Disposition of our Members in comparison of which we ought to give up our Intelligence Prudence and the rest as trivial Accomplishments c. Can any one say that a Man who concludes with such the most extravagant Opinions as that 'T is not by the Deductions of Reason but our Arrogance and Obstinacy that we give our selves the Preeminence above other Animals had a very exact Knowledge of the Mind of Man Or can he think to convince others herein But we should do all Men Justice and impartially declare what was the Character of Montange's Mind He had indeed but little Memory and still less Judgment But these two Qualities put together make not that accomplish'd thing which generally goes by the Name of Fineness and Beauty of Wit or Parts 'T is the Beauty the Vivacitys and the Extent of
Solidity they will float at unequal Distances from the Centre of the Vortex in which they swim But if two Planets have very near the same Force to continue that Direct Motion or if a Planet carries in its small Vortex one or several other smaller Planets which it shall have conquer'd according to our Way of conceiving the Formation of Things Then the smallest Planets will turn about the greatest whilst the greatest shall turn upon its own Centre and all these Planets shall be carried by the Motion of the great Vortex at a Distance very near equal from its Centre We are obliged by the Light of Reason to dispose in that Order the Parts that compose the whole Universe which we imagine to have been formed by the most simple Ways For all that had been said is only grounded on the Idea of Extension the Parts of which are supposed to move in the most simple Motion which is that in a Right Line And when we examine by the Effects whether we are mistaken in the Explication of Things by their Causes we are surprized to see the Phenomaena of Celestial Bodies so perfectly agreeing with our Ratiocinations For we perceive all the Planets that are in the middle of a small Vortex turning upon their own Centre as the Sun does and swimming in the Vortex of the Sun and about the Sun the smallest and least solid nearest to it and the most solid at a greater distance We likewise observe that there are some as the Comets which cannot remain in the Vortex of the Sun And lastly that there are several Planets which have other smaller turning about them as the Moon does about the Faith Jupiter has four of them Mars has three and perhaps Saturn has so many and so small that they resemble a continued Circle of which the thickness cannot be perceived because of their too vast distance Those Planets being the biggest we can observe it may be imagin'd that they have been produced from Vortexes which had a sufficient strength to conqueâ— others before they were involved in the Vortex we live in All these Planets turn upon their own Centre the Earth within 24. hours Mars within 25. or thereabouts Jupiter within about 10 c. They all turn about the Sun Mercury the nearest in about 4. Months Saturn the remotest in about 30. Years and those that are betwixt them in more or less time which however keep not an exact proportion with their distance For the matter in which they swim makes a swifter Circumvolution when 't is nearer to the Sun because the Line of its Motion is then shorter When Mars is opposite to the Sun he is then near enough to the Earth but is at a vast distance from it when he is in Conjunction with him The like may be said of the other superiour Planets as Saturn and Jupiter for the inferiour as Venus and Mercury are to speak properly never opposite to the Sun The Lines which all the Planets seem to describe about the Earth are no Circles but are very like Ellipses which Ellipses seem very much to differ because of the different Situation of the Planets in reference to us In short whatever may be observed with any certainty in the Heavens touching the Motion of the Planets perfectly agrees with what has been said of their Formation by the most simple ways As to the fixed Stars Experience teaches us that some diminish and entirely vanish away whilst others that are wholly new appear the lustre and bulk of which sensibly increase They increase or diminish proportionably as the Vortexes in whose Centre they lye admit more or less of the first Element We cease to see them when they are overspread with Spots and Crusts and begin to discover them when those Spots which obstruct their lustre are entirely dissipated All these Stars keep very near the same distance from each other since they are Centres of Vortexes which are not conquer'd and remain Stars as long as they can resist the Invasion of others They are all bright like as many little Suns because they are all as he is the Centers of unconquer'd Vortexes They are all at an unequal distance from the Earth though they appear as if they were fastned to a Vault for if the Parallaxe of the nearest with the remotest has not yet been observable by the different situation of the Earth from 6 to 6 Months it is because that difference is too inconsiderable in reference to our distance from the Stars to make that Parallaxe sensible Perhaps by means of the Telescopes it will one day or other become somewhat observable In short whatever the Senses and Experience may observe in the Stars differs not from what we have discover'd by the Mind whilst we examin'd the most simple and natural Relations that are betwixt the Parts and the Motions of Extension To search after the Nature of Terrestrial Bodies we must conceive that the first Element being made up of an infinite number of different Figures the Bodies that result from their Mixture must be very different So that there will be some whose Parts shall be branched others long others very near round but all irregular several ways When their Parts are branched and gross they are hard but flexible and not elastick as Gold If their Parts be not so gross they are soft and fluid as Gums Fat 's Oyles but if their branched Parts be extremely fine they are like the Air. If the long Parts of Bodies are gross and inflexible they are pungent incorruptible and dissolvible as Salts if those long Parts be flexible they are insipid like Water if the gross Parts be of very irregular and different Figures they are like Earth and Stones In short thence must needs arise Bodies of several different Natures and two will hardly be found exactly alike by reason of the infinite number of Figures incident to the first Element which can never be complicated after the same manner in two different Bodies What Figure soever those Bodies may have if their Pores be large enough to give way to the second Element's passing all manner of ways they will be transparent like Air Water Glass c. If the first Element entirely surrounds some of their Parts and affords them a sufficient force and commotion to repel the second Element on all sides they will appear Luminous like flame if they drive back all the second Element that falls upon them they will be very white if they receive it without repelling it they will be very black and lastly if they repel it by several Concussions and Vibrations they will appear of different colours As to their Situation the heaviest or those that have least force to continue their direct Motion will be the nearest to the Centre as are Metals Earth Water and Air will be more remote and all Bodies will keep the same Situation in which we observe them because they will recede from the Centre of the Earth as far
Motion in every thing And though they have no distinct Idea of it yet by reason of the Corruption of their Heart they willingly put it in the room of the true God imagining that it performs all the Wonders that they see occur CHAP. V. An Explication of the Principles of the Peripatetick Philosophy in which is shewn that Aristotle never observed the Second Part of the General Rule and his Four Elements with the Elementary Qualities are examined THat the Reader may compare the Philosophy of Des Cartes with that of Aristotle it will be convenient to set down in few words what the latter has taught concerning Elements and Natural Bodies in general which the most learned believe he has done in his Four Books Of the Heavens For his Eight Books of Physicks belong rather to Logick or perhaps to Metaphysicks than to Natural Philosophy since they consist of Nothing but loose and general terms that offer no distinct and particular Idea to the Mind Those Four Books are entituled Of the Heavens because the Heavens are the chief amongst the simple Bodies which he treats of That Philosopher begins his Work by proving that the World is perfect in the following manner All Bodies have three Dimensions and cannot have more because the number three comprehends all according to the Pythagoreans But the World is the Coacervation of all Bodies and therefore the World is perfect By that ridiculous Proof it may also be demonstrated that the World cannot be more imperfect than it is since it cannot be composed of parts that have less than three Dimensions In the Second Chapter he first supposes some Peripatetick Truths as that all Natural Bodies have of themselves the force of moving which he proves neither here nor elsewhere but on the contrary asserts in the First Chapter of his Second Book of Physicks that to endeavour to prove it is absurd because 't is evident of it self and that none but those who cannot distinguish what is known of it self from what is not insist upon proving plain by obscure things But it has been shewn elsewhere that it is altogether false that natural Bodies should have of themselves the force of moving and it appears evident only to such as follow with Aristotle the Impressions of their Senses and make no use of their Reason Secondly He says that all local Motion is made in a Line either direct or circular or composed of both but if he would not think upon what he so rashly proposes he ought at least to have open'd his Eyes that he might see an Infinite number of different Motions which are not made of either the right or circular Or rather he ought to have thought that the Motions composed of the direct may be infinitely varied when the compounding Motions increase or diminish their swiftness in an infinite number of different ways as may be observed by what has been said before There are says he but two simple Motions the right and the Circular and therefore all the others are composed of them But he mistakes for the Circular Motion is not simple since it cannot be conceived without thinking upon a Point to which it relates and whatever includes a Relation is relative and not simple This is so true that the Circular Motion may be conceived as produced from two Motions in a right Line whose Swiftness is unequal according to a certain Proportion But a Motion composed of two others made in a right Line and variously increasing or diminishing in swiftness cannot be simple Thirdly He says that all the simple Motions are of three sorts one from the Centre the other towards the Centre and the third about it But 't is false that the last viz. the Circular Motion should be simple as has been already said And 't is false again that there are no simple Motions besides upwards and downwards For all the Motions in a right Line are simple whether they approach to or remove from the Centre the Poles or any other Point Every Body says he is made up of three Dimensions and therefore the Motion of all Bodies must have three simple Motions What Relation is there betwixt simple Motions and Dimensions Besides every Body has three Dimensions and none has three simple Motions Fourthly He supposes that Bodies are either simple or composed and calls simple Bodies those that have the force of moving themselves as Fire Earth c. adding that the compounded receive their Motion from the compounding But in that sense there are no simple Bodies since none have in themselves any Principle of their Motion there are also none composed since there are no simples of which they should be made and so there would be no Bodies at all What Fancy is it to define the simplicity of Bodies by a Power of moving themselves What distinct Ideas can be fixed to the Words of simple and composed Bodies if the simple are only defined in Relation to an Imaginary moving force But let us see what Consequences he draws from those Principles The Circular Motion is simple The Heavens move Circularly and therefore their Motion is simple But simple Motion can be ascribed only to a simple Body that is to say to a Body that moves of it self And therefore the Heavens are a simple Body distinguished from the four Elements that move in right Lines 'T is plain enough that such Arguments contain nothing but false and absurd Propositions Let us examine his other Proofs for he alleadges a great many shameful and nonsensical ones to prove a thing as useless as it is false His second Reason to shew that the Heavens are a simple Body distinguished from the Four Elements supposes that there are two sorts of Motion one natural and the other violent or against Nature But 't is sufficiently plain to all those that judge of things by clear and distinct Ideas that Bodies having not in themselves any such Principle of their Motion as Aristotle pretends there can be no Motion violent or against Nature 'T is indifferent to all Bodies to be moved or not either one way or another But this Philosopher who judges of things by the Impressions of the Senses imagines that those Bodies which by the Laws of the Communications of Motions always place themselves in such or such a Situation in reference to others doe it of their own accord and because it is most convenient for them and best agrees with their Nature Here follows the Argument of Aristotle The Circular Motion of the Heavens is natural or against Nature If natural the Heavens are a simple Body distinguished from the Elements since the Elements never move circularly by a natural Motion If the Circular Motion of the Heavens is against their Nature they will be some one of the Elements as Fire Water c. or something else But the Heavens can be none of the Elements as for instance if the Heavens were Fire that Element tending naturally upwards the Heavens would
of their Motion to the lesser which they met with and that the latter should rebound at the Encounter of the former without the like Loss of their own For otherwise the first Element would not have all the Motion that is necessary above the second nor the second above the third and so all his System would be absolutely false as is manifest to those who have a little consider'd it But in supposing that Rest has Force to resist Motion and that a great Body in Rest cannot be mov'd by another less than it self though most violently striking against it 't is plain that great Bodies must have much less Motion than an equal Mass of little ones since they may always by that Supposition communicate their own Motion but cannot always receive any from the lesser Thus this Supposition being not contrary to all that Monsieur des Cartes had laid down in his Principles from the beginning to the Establishment of his Rules of Motion and according very well with the Consequence of these same Principles he thought the Rules of Motion which he believ'd he had demonstrated in their Cause were sufficiently confirm'd by their Effects I agree with Monsieur des Cartes in the Bottom of the Thing that great Bodies communicate their Motion much easier than the lesser and that therefore his first Element is more agitated than the second and the second than the third but the Cause is manifest without recourse to his Supposition Little and fluid Bodies as Water Air c. can but communicate to any great ones an uniform Motion which is common to all their Parts The Water of a River can only communicate to a Boat a descending Motion which is common to all the little Parts the Water is composed of each of which Particles besides its common Motion has infinite others which are particular Which Reason makes it evident that a Boat for instance cannot have so much Motion as an equal Volume of Water since the Boat can only receive from the Water a direct Motion and common to all the Parts of it If twenty Parts of a fluid Body drive against any other Body on one side whilst there are as many urging it on the other it remains immoveable and all the Particles of the surrounding Fluid it swims in rebound without losing any thing of their Motion Therefore gross Bodies whose Parts are united one to the other can receive only a circular and uniform Motion from the Vortex of the encompassing subtile Matter This Reason seems sufficient to give us to understand why gross Bodies are not so much agitated as little ones and that it is not necessary to the explaining these things to suppose any Force in Rest to resist Motion The Certainty of Monsieur des Cartes's Philosophical Principles cannot therefore be of Use in proving or defending his Rules of Motion And we have Reason to believe that if Monsieur des Cartes himself had without Prepossession examin'd his Principles afresh at the same time weighing such Reasons as I have alledg'd he would not have believ'd the Effects of Nature had corroborated his Rules nor have fallen into a Contradiction in attributing the Hardness of hard Bodies only to the Rest of their Parts and their Elasticity to the Effort of the subtile Matter I now come to give the Rules of the Communication of Motion in a Vacuum which follow upon what I have before establish'd concerning the Nature of Rest. Bodies being not hard in a Vacuum since they are only so by the pressure of the subtile Matter that surrounds them if two Bodies meet together they would flatten without rebounding We must therefore suppose them hard by their own Nature and not by the pressure of the subtile Matter to give these Rules Rest having no Force to resist Motion and many Bodies being to be consider'd but as one at the Instant of their Collision 't is plain they ought not to rebound save when they are equal in their Bulk and Swiftness or that their Swiftness compensates for the Want of Bulk or their Bulk the Want of Swiftness And 't is easie from hence to conclude that they ought in all other Cases so to communicate their Motion as afterwards to proceed along together with an equal Pace Wherefore to know what ought to happen in all the different Suppositions of the Magnitude and Celerity of Colliding Bodies we need only add together all the Degrees of Motion of two or more which ought to be consider'd but as one in the Moment of their Concourse and afterwards divide the Summ of the whole Motion proportionably to the Bulk of each respective Body Hence I conclude that of the seven Rules of Motion Monsieur des Cartes has given the three first are good That the Fourth is false and that B ought to communicate its Motion to C in proportion to the bigness of the same C and after go along in Company so as if C be double to B and B have three Degrees of Motion it must give away two of them For I have sufficiently prov'd that Monsieur des Cartes ought not to have suppos'd in Rest a Force to resist Motion That the Fifth is true That the Sixth is false and that B ought to communicate half of its Motion to C. And that the Seventh is false and that B ought ever to communicate its Motion to C in proportion to the Magnitude and Motion of both B and C. But that if according to the Supposition C be double to B and have three Degrees of Motion whilst C has but two they must proceed together in Company C and B being but one Body at the time of their Collision and therefore we must add together the Degrees of Swiftness which are five and afterwards divide them in proportion to their bigness and so distribute 1 3 2 to B and 3 â…“ to C which is double to B. But these Rules though certain from what I have said are yet contrary to Experience since we are not in a Vacuum The chief of those Experiences which are contrary to what I have said about the Rules of Motion is the constant rebounding of hard Bodies when they meet one one way and another another or at least their not going in Company after their Encounter In Answer to which we must call to mind what we have formerly said of the Cause of Elasticity namely That there is a Matter of a strangely-violent Motion which continually passes into the Parts of hard Bodies and makes them so by its compressing both their outward and inward Parts For it will be easie from hence to see that at the time of Percussion two encountring Bodies drive and turn off the Current of this Matter from the places nearest to the stricken which Matter resisting with great Violence repells the two Bodies which strike against each other and restores its Passage which the Percussion had stopp'd up That which more clearly still proves my Opinion is
incident to the Corporeal World which is an Opinion sufficiently now receiv'd among Men of Letters But let their Opinion about it be what it will that matters not much since it seems much easier to conceive that a Body drives another when it strikes it than to comprehend how Fire can produce Heat and Light and educe from the power of matter a substance that was not in it before And if it be necessary to acknowledge that God is the True Cause of the different Communications of Motion by a much stronger reason we should conclude that none but He can Create and Annihilate real Qualities and substantial Forms I say Create and Annihilate For it seems to me at least as difficult to educe from matter a substance that was not in it or to reduce it into it again whilst yet there nothing remains of it as to create it or Annihilate it But I stick not to the Terms And I make use of those because there are no other that I know of which express without Obscurity and Ambiguity the changes suppos'd by the Philosophers to arrive every moment by the force of second Causes I had some scruple to set down here the other Arguments which are commonly urg'd for the Force and Efficacy of natural Causes For they appear so weak and trifling to those who withstand Prejudices and prefer their Reason before their Senses that I can scarce believe methinks that Reasonable Men could be perswaded by them However I produce and answer them since there are many Philosophers who urge them ARGUMENT I. If second Causes did not Operate say Suarez Fonseca and some others Animate things could not be distinguish'd from Inanimate since neither one nor the other would have an inward principle of their Actions ANSWER I answer that Men would have the same sensible proofs that have convinc'd them of the distinction they make between things Animate and Inanimate They would still see Animals do the same Actions as eat grow cry run bound c. and would discern nothing like this in Stones And this one thing makes the vulgar Philosophers believe that Beasts live and that Stones do not For we are not to fancy that they know by a clear and distinct view of Mind what is the Life of a Dog 'T is their Senses which regulate their Decisions upon this Question If it were necessary I could prove here that the principle of the Life of a Dog differs not from the principle of the Motion of a Watch. For the Life of Bodies whatever they be can consist but in the Motion of their Parts And we may easily judge that the same subtil matter which causes the Fermentation of the Blood and Animal Spirits in a Dog and which is the principle of his Life is no perfecter than that which gives Motion to the Spring of a Watch or which causes the Gravitation in the Weights of a Clock which is the principle of their Life or to speak as others do of their Motion It behoves the Peripateticks to give those whom they stile Cartesians a clear Idea of what they call the Life of Beasts Corporeal Soul Body which Perceives and Desires Sees Feels Wills and then we shall clearly resolve their Difficulties if after that they shall persist in raising them ARGUMENT II. It were impossible to discover the Differences or Powers of the Elements So that Fire might refrigerate as Water and nothing would be of a settled and fix'd Nature ANSWER I answer That whilst Nature remains as it is that is to say whilst the Laws of the Communication of Motions remain constantly the same it is a Contradiction that Fire should not burn or separate the Parts of certain Bodies Fire cannot refrigerate like Water unless it becomes Water for Fire being only Fewel whose Parts have been violently agitated by an invisible surrounding Matter as is easie to demonstrate it is impossible its Parts should not Communicate some of their Motion to approaching Bodies Now as these Laws are constant the Nature of Fire its Virtues and Qualities are unchangeable But this Nature and these Vertues are only Consequences of the General and Efficacious Will of GOD who does all in all things Therefore the Study of Nature is in all respects false and vain when we look for other true Causes than the Wills of the ALMIGHTY I confess that we are not to have recourse to God or the Universal Cause when we require the Reason of particular Effects For we should be ridiculous to assert for Instance That GOD dries the Ways or Freezes the Water in the River We must say The Air dries the Earth because it moves and bears off the Water with it that dilutes it Or that the Air or the subtil Matter Freezes the River in Winter because at that time it communicates not sufficient Motion to the Parts that constitute the Water In a Word we must if we can assign the Natural and particular Cause of the Effects propos'd to Examination But because the Action of these Causes consists in the moving Force which actuates them which moving Force is the Will of GOD which create them we ought not to say they have in themselves a Force or Power to produce any Effects And when in Reasoning we are at last arriv'd to a general Effect of which we seek the Cause 't is no good Philosophy to imagine any other than the general And to feign a certain Nature a first Moveable and universal Soul or some such Chimera whereof we have no clear and distinct Idea would be to argue like an Heathen Philosopher For Example when we are ask'd whence it comes that some Bodies are in motion or that the agitated Air communicates its Motion to the Water or rather whence proceeds the mutual Protrusion of Bodies Motion and its Communication being a general Effect on which all others depend we cannot answer I do'nt say like Christians but Philosophers without ascending to God who is the Universal Cause Since 't is His Will that is the moving Force of Bodies and that regulates the Communication of their Motions Had he will'd there should be no new Production in the World he would not have put its Parts in motion And if hereafter He shall will the Incorruptibility of some of the Beings he had made he shall cease to will the Communication of Motions in point of those Beings ARGUMENT III. 'T is needless to Plow to Water and give several preparatory Dispositions to Bodies to fit them for what we desire from them For GOD has no need of preparing the Subjects on which he Works ANSWER I answer That GOD may do absolutely all he pleases without finding any Dispositions in the Subjects he works upon But he cannot do it without a Miracle or by Natural ways that is by the General Laws of the Communication of Motions which he has constituted and which he almost always follows in his Actings GOD never multiplies his Wills without Reason
Manners than Truth it self and rather to entertain their Mind with the Noise and Emptiness of Words than with the Solidity of Things 'T is for Men of a Vulgar Stamp 't is for Souls of Flesh and Blood to suffer themselves to be won with Rhetorical Periods and captivated with Figures and Motions that awake and excite the Passions Omnia enim stolidi magis admirantur amantque Inversis quae sub verbis latitantia cernâ—nt Veráque constituunt quae bellâ— tangere possunt Aures lepido quae sunt fucata sonore But wise Men endeavour to arm themselves against the malignant force and the powerful charms of these sensible Manners The Senses impose on them as well as on other Men since they are no more than Men but they have the Wisdom to disregard the Reports they make They imitate that famous Example of the Judges of the Arâ—opagus who upon a severe Penalty forbad their Advocates the use of any fallacious Words and Figures and never heard them plead but in the dark for fear the Pleasantness of their Words and Insinuating Gestures should perswade them to any thing prejudicial to Truth and Justice and to the end they might apply themselves with less distraction to the Solidity of their Reasons CHAP. XIX Two other Examples I. The first concerning our Errors about the Nature of Bodies II. The second concerning those which respect the Qualities of the same Bodies WE have been shewing that there are a vast multitude of Errors which are originally owing to the strong Application of the Soul to that which enters by the Senses and that Lukewarmness and Indifference to things represented by the Understanding We have given an Instance of very considerable Importance in Morality taken from the Conversation of Men we shall produce some others drawn from the Commerce we have with the rest of Nature which are absolutely necessary to be observ'd in Natural Philosophy One of the Principal Errors we fall into in point of Natural Philosophy is our Imagining there is much more Substance in Sensible than in Imperceptible Bodies The generallity of Men are of Opinion there is much more Matter in Gold and Lead than in Air and Water And Children who have made no Observation by their Senses of the Effects of Air ordinarily imagine it has nothing of Reality in it Gold and Lead are extreamly ponderous very hard and very sensible Water and Air on the contrary are scarce perceptible by the Senses Whence Men conclude the former are more real than the other They judge of the Truth of things by the Sensible Impression which is ever fallacious and they neglect the clear and distinct Idea's of the Intellect which never deceives us because that which is sensible affects us and challenges our Application but that which is Intelligible lays us to sleep These false Judgments respect the Substance of Bodies let us now see the others about the Qualities of the same Bodies 'T is the way for Men almost universally to judge that the Objects which excite in them the most Pleasant Sensations are the most Perfect and Pure of all others without so much as knowing wherein the Perfection and Purity of Maâ—ter consists and indeed without caring whether they do or not They say for instance that Mud is Impure and that the clearest Water is very pure But Camels which love Muddy Water and those Animals which delight to wallow in Mire would be of another opinion They are Beasts 't is true but those Men who love the Entrails of a Woodcock and the Excrements of a Civit-Cat do not say they are Impure though they say so of the Excrements of all other Animals Finally Musk and Amber are in general Esteem with all Men though they are suppos'd to be nothing but Ordure It is certain Men judge of the Perfection and Purity of Matter with Relation to their own Senses whence it falls out that the Senses being different in all Men as has been abundantly explain'd they must needs judge very differently of the Purity and Perfection of Matter So that those Books which are daily compos'd upon the Imaginary Perfections attributed to certain Bodies must needs be stuff'd with Errors in all the strange and odd variety that can be since the Reasonings they contain are founded only on the false confus'd and irregular Idea's of the Senses It is not the Part of Philosophers to call Matter Pure or Impure till they know what they precisely mean by the Words Pure and Impure For a Man should never talk without knowing what he says that is to say without having distinct Idea's which answer to the Terms he uses Now if they had fixt clear and distinct Idea's to each of these Terms they would see that what they call Pure would prove often very Impure and what seems to them Impure would be found pure in an high degree If for instance they would have that Matter to be most Pure and Perfect whose Parts are most fine and disunited and easiest to be mov'd Gold Silver and Precious Stones would be extreamly Imperfect Bodies Air and Fire on the other hand would be the most perfect When Flesh began to putrifie and cast a very noisom stench it would then be commencing its Perfection and stinking Carrion would be a more perfect Body than sound and common Flesh. Again if on the other hand they would have those to be the most perfect Bodies the parts whereof are most gross solid and difficult to be mov'd the Earth would be perfecter than Gold and Air and Fire would be more imperfect Bodies But if they are not willing to affix the clear and distinct Idea's I have mention'd to the Terms Pure and Perfect let them substitute others in their room But if they pretend to define these words only by sensible Notions they will eternally confound things with one another since the Signification of the Terms that express them can never be fix'd and determin'd All Men as we have already prov'd have very different Sensations of the same Objects Wherefore a Man ought not to define these Objects by the Sensations he has of them unless he has a mind to be unintelligible and to put all things in confusion But at the bottom there is no matter to be found not that which the Heavens are fram'd of which has more Perfection in it than any other All that Matter seems capable of are Figures and Motions and 't is indifferent to it whether it has Figures and Motions regular or irregular Reason does not tell us that the Sun is more Perfect or more Luminous than Dirt nor that the Celebrated Beauties of Romancers and Poets have any advantage over the most corrupted Carcasses they are our false and treacherous Senses thot tell us this It is in vain for Men to cry out against what we say all their Railleries and Exclamations will appear frigid and ridiculous to such as shall seriously examine the Reasons we have alledged Those who
and likewise those that use them have Bodies diversly dispos'd Two Persons after Dinner though rising from the same Table must sensibly perceive in their Faculty of Imagining so great a Variety of Alterations as is impossible to be describ'd I confess those who are in a perfect state of Health perform Digestion so easily that the Chyle flowing into the Heart neither augments nor diminishes the Heat of it and is scarce any Obstruction to the Blood 's fermenting in the very same manner as if it enter'd all alone So that their Animal Spirits and consequently their Imaginative Faculty admit hardly any Change thereby But as for Old and Infirm People they find in themselves very sensible Alterations after a Repast They generally grow dull and sleepy at least their Imagination flags and languishes and has no longer any Briskness or Alacrity They can conceive nothing distinctly and are unable to apply themselves to any thing In a word they are quite different and other sort of People from what they were before But that those of a more sound and robust Complection may likewise have sensible proofs of what I have said they need only make reflection on what happens to them in Drinking Wine somewhat more freely than ordinary or on what would fall out upon their drinking Wine at one Meal and Water at another For it is certain that unless they be extreamly stupid or that their Body be of a make very extraordinary they will suddainly feel in themselves some Briskness or little Drousiness or some such other accidental thing Wine is so spirituous that it is Animal Spirits almost ready made But Spirits a little too libertine and unruly that not easily submit to the orders of the Will by reason of their Solidity and excessive Agitation Thus it produces even in Men that are of a most strong and vigorous Constitution greater Changes in the Imagination and in all the parts of the Body than Meats and other Liquors It gives a Man a Foil in Plautus's Expression and produces many Effects in the Mind less advantagious than those describ'd by Horace in these Lines Quid non Ebrietas designat operta recludit Spes jubet esse ratas in praelia trudit inermem Sollicitis animis onus eximit addocet artes Foecundi calices quem non fecere disertum Contractâ quem non in paupertate solutum It would be no hard matter to give a Reason for all the Principal Effects produc'd in the Animal Spirits and thereupon in the Brain and in the Soul it self by this Commixture of the Chyle and Blood as to explain how Wine exhilarates and gives a Man a certain Sprightliness of Mind when taken with Moderation why it Brutifies a Man in process of time by being drunk to excess why a Man is drousie after a good Meal and a great many others of like Nature for which very ridiculous Accounts are usually given But besides that I am not writing a Tract of Physicks I must have been necessitated to have given some Idea of the Anatomy of the Brain or have made some Supposition as Monsieur Des-Cartes has done before me in his Treatise concerning Man without which it were impossible to explain ones self But finally if a Man shall read with Attention that Discourse of Monsieur Des-Cartes he will possibly be satisfy'd as to all these particular Inquiries because that Author explains all these things at least he furnishes us with sufficient Knowledge of them to be able of our selves to discover them by Meditation provided we are any whit acquainted with his Principles CHAP. III. That the Air imploy'd in Respiration causes some Change in the Animal Spirits THE second general Cause of the Changes which happen in the Animal Spirits is the Air we breath For though it does not forthwith make such sensible Impressions as the Chyle yet it causes at long run what the Juices of Meats do in a much shorter time This Air passes out of the Branches of the Trachea into those of the Arteria Venosa Hence it mingles and ferments with the rest of the Blood in the Heart and according to its own particular Disposition and that of the Blood it produces very great Changes in the Animal Spirits and consequently in the Imaginative Faculty I know there are some Persons who will not be persuaded that the Air mixes with the Blood in the Lungs and Heart because they cannot discover with their Eyes the Passages in the Branches of the Trachea and in those of the Arteria Venosa through which the Air is communicated But the Action of the Intellect ought not to stop when that of the Senses can go no farther It can penetrate that which to them is impenetrable and lay hold on things which have no handle for the Senses 'T is not to be question'd but some parts of the Blood continually pass through the Branches of the Vena Arteriosa into those of the Trachea The Smell and Moisture of the Breath sufficiently prove it and yet the Passages of that Communication are imperceptible Why then may not the subtil parts of Air be allow'd to pass through the Branches of the Trachea into the Arteria Venosa though the Passages of this Communication be undiscernible In fine a much greater quantity of Humours transpire through the imperceptible Pores of the Arteries and the Skin than escape through the other Avenues of the Body and even the Pores of the most solid Metals are not so close but there are found Bodies in Nature little enough to find a free passage through them since otherwise these Pores would quickly be entirely stopt It is true that the course and ragged parts of the Air cannot penetrate through the ordinary Pores of Bodies and that Water it self though extreamly gross can glide through those crannies which will not give admittance to them But we speak not here of the course or branch'd and ragged Parts of Air they seem to be of little use to Fermentation We only speak of the little stiff and pungent Parts and such as have none or very few Branches to impede their passage because these are the fittest for the Fermentation of the Blood I might notwithstanding affirm upon the Testimony of Silvius that even the coursest Air passes from the Trachea to the Heart who testifies he has seen it pass thither by the Art and Ingenuity of Mr. de Swammerdam For 't is more reasonable to believe a Man who says he has seen it than a thousand others who talk at random It is certain then that the most refin'd and subtil Parts of Air which we breath enter into the Heart and there together with the Blood and Chyle keep up the Fire which gives Life and Motion to our Body and that according to their different Qualities they introduce great Changes in the Fermentation of the Blood and in the Animal Spirits We daily discover the Truth of this by the various Humours and the different Characters of
procure them which Union engages us in infinite Errors and excessive Miseries though we are not always sensible of these Miseries no more than we are of the Errors that occasion them I give here a remarkable Instance The Union that we had with our Mothers in their Womb which is the strictest possible to be had with Mankind was the Cause of two of the greatest Evils namely Sin and Concupiscence which are the Original of all our Miseries And yet for the forming of our Body it was necessary that Union should be so close and strict as it is This Union which was broken at our Birth was succeeded by another whereby Children are con-sociated to their Parents and their Nurses This second Union was not so strict as the former and therefore did us not so much mischief having only inclin'd us to believe and imitate all that our Parents and Nurses do and say 'T is plain this second Union was farther necessary not as the first for the forming but the preserving of our Body that we might know all the things useful or advantagious to it and might accommodate it to such Motions as are necessary to obtain them Last of all the Union which we have at present with all Men is unavoidably the cause of a great deal of Evil to us though it be not so strait as being less necessary to the Preservation of our Body For 't is upon the score of this Union we live by Opinion that we esteem and love what is esteem'd and lov'd in the World in spight of the Remorse of our Consciences and the true Idea's that we have of things I speak not here of the Union we have with the Mind of other Men in behalf of which it may be said we receive instruction from it I speak only of the sensible Union that is between our Imagination and the Air and Manner of those that speak to us We see then how all the Thoughts we have by the Dependance on the Body are false and so much the more dangerous to the Soul as they are the more useful to the Body Which being so let us try to rid our selves by degrees of the Delusions of our Sense of the Vision and Chimera's of our Imagination and of the Impression made by other Men's Imaginations on our Mind Let us carefully reject all the confus'd Idea's we have contracted through the Dependance we are in to our Body and let us only admit the clear and evident Idea's which the Mind receives through its necessary Union with the Divine Logos or with Eternal Wisdom and Truth as we shall explain in the following Book which treats Of the Vnderstanding or Pure Mind F. MALEBRANCHE'S TREATISE CONCERNING The Search after TRUTH BOOK the THIRD Concerning The UNDERSTANDING OR The Pure Intellect CHAP. I. I. Thought is only essential to the Mind Sensation and Imagination are only the Modifications of it II. We know not all the Modifications our Soul is capable of III. They are different from our Knowledge and our Love nor are they always Consequences of them THE Subject of this Third Book is somewhat dry and barren In which we enquire into the Mind consider'd alone and without any reference to the Body in order to discover the Infirmities peculiar to it and the Errors deriving only from it The Senses and Imagination are exuberant and inexhaustible Sources of Error and Deception But the Mind acting by it self is not so subject to straying and misconduct It was a difficult thing to put an end to the two last Treatises and 't is no less difficult to begin this not that there is not enough to be said on the Nature and Properties of the Mind but because we enquire not here so much into its Properties as its Weaknesses 'T is not therefore to be wonder'd if this Tract is not so large nor discovers so many Errors as the two fore-going nor ought it to be complain'd of for being somewhat Dry Abstract and Applicative For 't is impossible in all Discourses to move the Senses and Imaginations of others nor ought it always to be done A Subject of an abstract Nature in becoming sensible commonly grows obscure and 't is enough to be made intelligible So that nothing is more unjust than the usual Complaints of those who would know every thing and yet take pains for nothing who take pet if you desire them to be attentive who would ever be touch'd and mov'd and have their Senses and their Passions eternally gratify'd But we confess our selves unable to give them Satisfaction Writers of Comedies and Romances are oblig'd to please and to procure Attention but for us it 's sufficient if we can instruct even those that labour to make themselves attentive The Errors of the Senses and Imagination proceed from the Nature and Constitution of the Body and are expos'd to view by considering what Dependency the Soul 's in to it But the Errors of the Pure Understanding cannot be discover'd but by considering the Nature of the Mind it self and of the Idea's that are necessary to its knowing Objects And therefore to penetrate into the Causes of the Errors of the Pure Understanding 't will be necessary to insist in this Book on the consideration of the Nature of the Mind and of Intellectual Idea's In the first place I shall treat of the Mind consider'd in its own Nature without any Relation to the Body to which it is united So that what I shall say on this point will extend to pure Intelligences and by stronger Reason to what we call Pure Understanding For by the Word Pure Vnderstanding I mean only to design that Faculty the Mind has of knowing External Object without forming Corporeal Images of them in the Brain to represent them by After which I shall discourse of Intellectual Idea's by means of which the Pure Vnderstanding perceives Exteriour Objects I am perswaded no Man can doubt after he has seriously thought on it but the Essence of the Mind consists only in Thought as the Essence of Matter consists only in Extension and that according to the different Modifications of Thought the Mind one while Wills and another while Imagines or has many other particular Forms as according to the different Modifications of Extension Matter is sometimes Water sometimes Wood and sometimes Fire or has abundance of other particular Forms I only advertise thus much That by the word Thought I understand not here the particular Modifications of the Soul that is this or that particular Thought but Thought capable of all sorts of Modifications or of all sorts of Thoughts as by Extension is not meant this or that Extension round or square for instance but Extension capable of all sorts of Modifications or of Figures And this Comparison would have no difficulty in it but that we have not so clear an Idea of Thought as we have of Extension for we only know Thought by Internal Sentiment or Conscience as I make
the infinite Power of its Author but could give no Idea of his Wisdom And for this reason all Corporeal things are corruptible and there is no Body whatever whereunto there happens not some Change which alters and corrupts it in process of Time GOD forms even in the Bowels of Stones and Glass Creatures more perfect and admirable than all the Works of Men. These Bodies though extreamly hard and dry fail not however to corrupt in Time The Air and the Sun which they are expos'd to change some of their parts and there are found Worms to feed on them as Experience manifests There is no other difference between very hard and very dry Bodies and others than that the former are compos'd of very Gross and Solid parts and consequently less capable of being agitated and separated from each other by the motion of those that beat against them which makes us look upon them as incorruptible Notwithstanding they are not so in their Nature as Time Experience and Reason sufficiently evince But as to the Heavens they are constituted of a more fluid and subtile matter and especially the Sun which is so far from wanting Heat and being incorruptible as say Aristotle's Disciples that â—n the contrary it is the hottest of all Bodies and most subject to change 'T is he that warms that agitates and changes all things For 't is he that produces by his Action which is no other than his Heat or the motion of his Parts all that appears new in the changes of the Seasons Reason demonstrates these things But though Reason may be withstood yet Experience cannot For since we have discover'd in the Sun by the help of a Telescope or large Glasses stains or scurf as big as all the Earth which have been form'd upon him and dissipated in a short time It can no longer be doubted but he is more subject to change than the Earth which we inhabit All Bodies then are under a perpetual flux and continual change and especially those that are most fluid as Fire Air and Water next the parts of living Bodies as Flesh and also Bones and lastly the most hard and the Mind is not to suppose a kind of Immutability in things because it sees not Corruption or Change in them For 't is no Argument that a thing continues always like it self because we can discover no difference in it nor that things do not exist because we have no Knowledge or Idea of them CHAP. XI Instances of some Errors of Morality which depend on the same Principle THIS Easiness and Propensity of the Mind to imagine and suppose Likeness where-ever it does not visibly perceive Difference engages the generality of Men in most dangerous Errors in point of Morality Some instances whereof are these A French Man falls in Company of an English Man or an Italian This Stranger has particular Humours of his own he has a Fineness and Delicacy of Wit or if you had rather is arrogant and troublesom This shall forthwith incline the French Man to judge that all English Men or Italians have the same Character of Mind as the Man that he has met with and make him praise them or discommend them all in general And if he meets with another he is immediately prepossessed with a Notion of his being like the former and he gives way to some Affection or secret Aversion on his Account In a word he will judge of all the particulars of these Nations from the notable proof he has taken from one or two that had such certain Qualities of Mind because having no Information elsewhere of their Difference he supposes them all alike A Regular of some Order falls into some enormity and this is sufficient with the generality of those that know him to condemn indifferently all the Members of the same Society They all wear the same Habit and bear the same Name they are alike in this and there needs no more grounds for Vulgar-rate-men to imagine they are so in every thing The Reason why they suppose them alike is because they cannot pierce into the bottom of their Hearts and see wherein they positively differ Slanderers who study for means of blasting the Reputation of their Enemies commonly make use of this and Experience verifies that it generally succeeds And indeeed it is most suited and proportioned to the Vulgar standard and capacity For 't is not sufficient to find in numerous Communities as holy as they are some Persons disorderly in Manners or unorthodox in Opinion since in the Company of the Apostles whereof JESVS CHRIST Himself was the Head there was found a Robber a Traitor an Hypocrite and in a word a Judas The Jews doubtless had been much to blame had they pass'd hard and disadvantagious Censures upon the most Holy Society that ever was because of the Avarice and Corruption of Judas and had they condemn'd them all in their Heart because they suffer'd so wicked a wretch in their Company and our LORD let him go unpunished though he knew his Crimes 'T is then a manifest repugnance to Reason and breach of Charity to suppose a whole Community in an Error from some private Person 's being engag'd in it even though the Heads conniv'd at it or perhaps were Partisans and Abbetters 'T is true when all the Particulars will uphold an Error or justifie the Fault of their Brother the whole Fraternity is to be concluded culpable but it may be said that this but rarely happens For it seems Morally impossible for all the Particulars of an Order to have Thoughts and Sentiments alike Men should never in this manner conclude a General from a Particular but they cannot judge simply of what they see but run to an extream on one side or other A Regular of such an Order is a Great Man or a good Man from hence they infer that the whole Order is full of Great or Good Men. So a Regular of an Order is unsound and Heterodox therefore the whole Order is Corrupt and Heterodox But these last Judgments are much more dangerous than the former because we should always judge charitably of our Neighbour and the malice and ill-nature of Men make hard Censures and Discourses meant for the Dis-repute of others more pleasant and welcome and imprint them deeper on the Mind than such Judgments and Discourses as are made to their Advantage When a Man of the World who is addicted to his Passions sticks resolutely to his Opinion and pretends whilst his Passion is high that he has Reason to follow it he is deservedly concluded Stubborn and Opinionated and he will acknowledge it himself when his Passion is over So when a Man of Piety who is penetrated with what he says who is convinced of the Truth of Religion and of the Vanity of Worldly things goes upon the strength of his Lights and Knowledge to withstand the Corruptions and Disorders of others and reprimands them with some Fervency and Zeal Worldly Men judge
corrupted his Mind he becomes if I may so speak bold and fierce against Truth Sometimes he rashly impungs it without knowing it at other times he consciously betrays it and relying upon his imaginary Learning is always ready to assert either the Affirmative or Negative according as he is possessed with a Spirit of Contradiction It goes quite otherwise with those that make no Ostentation of Learning they are not positive neither do they speak unless they have something to say and it even often happens that they remain silent when they should speak They have neither that Fame nor those outward Characters of Learning which spur Men on to speak without Knowledge and so may decently hold their Peace but the Pretenders are afraid to make a stop since they are sensible they shall be despis'd for their Silence even when they have nothing to say and that they are not always in danger of falling into Contempt though they speak but Impertinencies provided they utter them with a Scientifick Confidence What makes Men capable of thinking enables them to know the Truth but neither Honours Riches University-Degrees nor Chimerical Erudition makes them capable of thinking It 's their own Nature for they are made to think because they are created for the Truth Even bodily Health qualifies them not for thinking well but only is a less Hinderance than Sickness Our Body assists us in some manner in perceiving by Sense and imagining but not at all in conceiving For though without its Help we cannot attentively meditate nor oppose the continual Impression of the Senses and Passions which endeavour to perplex and obliterate our Ideas because in this present State we cannot overcome the Body but by the Body yet 't is plain that the Body cannot illuminate the Mind nor produce in it the Light of Understanding since every Idea that discovers the Truth proceeds from Truth it self All that the Soul receives from the Body relates only to it and when she follows those Glimpses she sees nothing but Phantasms and Dreams that is to say she sees not things as they are in themselves but only as they have relation to her Body As the Idea of our own Greatness or Littleness is a frequent occasion of Errour so likewise the Ideas of outward things that have refference to us make no less dangerous an Impression We have already observ'd that the Idea of Greatness is always attended with a great Motion of Spirits and a great Motion of the Spirits is ever accompanied with the Idea of Greatness and that on the contrary that of Littleness is always followed with a small Motion of Spirits which is in its turn accompanied with the Idea of Meanness From that Principle 't is easy to infer that such things as produce in us great Motions of Spirits must naturally appear greater stronger and more real and perfect than others for in the word Greatness I comprehend all those Qualifications and such like So that sensible Good must needs seem to us more considerable and solid than that which cannot be felt if we judge of it by the Motion of the Spirits and not by the pure Idea of Truth A great House a sumptuous Retinue a fine Furniture Offices Honour Riches will then appear to us to have more greatness and reality in them than Justice and other Vertues When we compare Vertue to Riches by the pure Eyes of the Mind we prefer Vertue but if we make use of our Corporeal Eyes and Imagination and judge of those things by the Motion of the Spirits which they raise in us we shall doubtless chuse Riches rather than Vertue 'T is from the same Principle that we imagine that spiritual and insensible things are almost nothing that the Ideas of our Mind are less noble than the Objects they represent that there is less reality and substance in the Air than in Metalls and in Water than in Ice that those vast Spaces that reach from the Earth to the Firmament are empty or that the Bodies that fill them have not so much reality and solidity as the Sun and Stars In short our reasoning upon that false Principle induces us into an infinite number of Errours concerning the Nature and Perfection of every thing A great Motion of Spirits and by consequence a strong Passion always attending the sensible Idea of Grandeur and a small Motion and consequently a weak Passion still accompanying the sensible Idea of Meanness we are very attentive to and bestow a great deal of our time on the study of such things as raise the sensible Idea of Grandeur whereas we neglect those which afford but the sensible Idea of Meanness Those great Bodies for instance which make their Circumvotions over our Heads have ever made a great Impression upon Men who at first ador'd them because of their Light and Brightness or sensible Idea of Grandeur some bolder Wits presum'd to examine their Motions so that the Stars have been in all Ages the Object either of the Study or of the Veneration of the greatest part of Mankind It may even be said that the fear of their Phantastick Influences which still fright Astrologers and weak Persons is a sort of Adoration paid by a Brain-sick Imagination to the Idea of Greatness that represents Celestial Bodies But the Body of Man on the contrary that is infinitely more admirable and deserves more our Application than whatever we can know of Saturn Jupiter and other Planets has remained a long time almost unknown The sensible Idea of dissected parts of Flesh having nothing great but being rather distastful and noisome it is but a few years since Men of Parts have looked upon Anatomy as a Science that deserved their study There have been Princes and Kings that boasted of being Astronomers the height and magnitude of the Stars seem'd to suit their Dignity and Grandeur but I know not of any that were ever ambitious of knowing Anatomy and skilfully dissecting a Heart or a Brain The same may be said of several other Sciences Rare and extraordinary things incite in Mens Minds greater and more sensible Motions than such as are seen every day we admire them and by a natural Consequence we fix on them an Idea of Greatness that is followed with Passions of Esteem and Reverence This perverts the Reason of several Persons who are so very respectful and curious of all the Remains of Antiquity and whatever comes from far or is rare and extraordinary that they are as Slaves to them because the Mind dares not sit and pronounce upon the Objects of its Veneration I grant Truth is in no great danger because some Men are taken up with the Medals Arms and Habits of the Ancients or with the Dress of the Chinese and Savages It is not altogether unserviceable to know the Map of Ancient Rome nor the ways from Tomquin to Nanquin though it be more useful to us to know those from London to Oxford or from Paris to St. Germain or Versailles
Water that feels warm to the Hands will seem cold if we wash with it any Part near the Heart Salt that is savoury to the Tongue is pricking and smarting to a Wound Sugar is sweet and Aloes very bitter to the Tongue but nothing is either sweet or bitter to the other Senses So that when we say a Thing is cold sweet bitter c. that same has no certain Signification Secondly Because different Objects can cause the same Sensation Plaister Bread Snow Sugar Salt c. are of the same Colour and yet their Whiteness is different if we judge of 'em otherwise than by the Senses And therefore when we say that Meal is white we say not any thing distinctly significative The third Reason is Because such Qualities of Bodies as occasion Sensations altogether different are however almost the same whereas such as excite very near the same Sensation are often very different The Qualities of Sweetness and Bitterness differ but little in Objects whereas the Sense of Sweet essentially differs from that of Bitter The Motions that cause Smart and Tickling differ but in more or less and yet the Sensations of Tickling and Smart are essentially different On the contrary the Sharpness of Fruit differs not so much from Bitterness as Sweetness does however that sharp Quality is the farthest from Bitterness that possibly can be For a Fruit that is sharp for being unripe must undergo a great many Changes before it grows bitter from Rottenness or too much Ripeness When Fruits are ripe they taste sweet and bitter when over-ripe Bitterness and Sweetness therefore in Fruits differ but in degree of more and less which may be the Reason why they seem sweet to some Persons whilst they taste bitter to others Nay there are those to whom Aloes seem as sweet as Honey The same may be said of all sensible Ideas so that the Words Sweet Bitter Salt Sowre Acid c. Red Green Yellow c. of such and such a Smell Savour Colour c. are all equivocal and raise no clear and distinct Idea in the Mind However School-Philosophers and the vulgar part of Men judge of all the sensible Qualities of Bodies by the Sensations they receive from them Nor do the Philosophers only judge of these sensible Qualities by their own Sensations of them but also judge of the Things themselves from the Judgments they have pass'd about sensible Qualities For from their having had Sensations of certain Qualities essentially different they judge that there is a Generation of new Forms producing those fantastick Differences Wheat appears yellow hard c. Meal white soft c. Thence upon the Testimony of their Eyes and Hands they infer That those Bodies are essentially different unless they chance to think on the Manner of the Transmutation of Wheat into Flower For Meal is nothing but bruised and ground Corn as Fire is only divided and agitated Wood as Ashes are but the grossest Parts of the divided Wood without Agitation as Glass is but Ashes whose Particles have been polished and rounded by the Attrition caus'd by the Fire And so in other Transmutations of Bodies 'T is therefore evident that sensible Words and Ideas are altogether unserviceable to a just stating and clear resolving of Questions that is to the Discovery of Truth Yet there are no Questions how intricate soever they may be by the equivocal Terms of the Senses but Aristotle and most part of other Philosophers pretend to resolve them in their Books without the foregoing Distinctions and without considering that they are equivocal by Errour and Ignorance If for example those Persons who have employed the best part of their Life in reading Ancient Philosophers and Physicians and have wholly imbib'd their Spirit and Opinions are ask'd whether Water be wet whether Fire be dry Wine hot the Blood of Fishes cold Water rawer than Wine Gold perfecter than Mercury whether Plants and Beasts have Souls and a thousand like undetermin'd Questions they rashly answer by consulting only the Impressions of Objects upon their Senses or the Tracks the reading of Authors has left upon their Memory They never think those Terms are equivocal 't is a Wonder to them they should need a Definition and they cannot endure those that endeavour to let 'em understand that their Procedure is too quick and that they are seduced by their Senses and though they are never at a loss for Distinctions to perplex the most evident Things yet in these Questions in which Equivocation needs so much to be removed they find nothing to distinguish If we consider that most of the Questions of Philosophers and Physicians contain some equivocal Terms like to those that have been spoken of we shall not doubt but that those Learned Gentlemen that could not define them were unable to say any Thing solid and real in the bulky Volumes they have compos'd Which is in a manner sufficient to overthrow most of the Opinions of the Ancients It is not so with Des Cartes he perfectly knew how to distinguish those Things He ne'er resolves any Question by sensible Ideas and whoever shall be at the pains to read him shall see that he clearly evidently and almost ever demonstratively explains the chief Operations of Nature by the sole and distinct Ideas of Extension Figures and Motion The second sort of equivocal Words that is much in request amongst Philosophers contains all those general Terms of Logick by which any Thing may be easily explain'd without so much as knowing it Aristotle was the Man that made the most of it his Books are full of nothing else and some are but a mere Logick He proposes and resolves all Things by the specious Words of Genus Species Act Power Nature Form Faculty Quality Causa per se Causa per accidens His Followers can hardly understand that those Words signifie Nothing and that one is not more learned than he was when he has heard that Fire dissolves Metals by its dissolving Faculty that a Man digests not because his Stomach is weak or because his Concoctive Faculty does not operate as it should do I grant that those who use such general Terms and Ideas for the Explication of all Things commonly fall not into so many Errours as those that only employ such Words as raise the confused Ideas of the Senses The School-Philosophers are not so liable to be deceived as some opinionative and dogmatical Physicians who build Systems upon Experiments the Reasons of which are unknown to them because the School-men talk so generally that they do not venture much out of their Depth Fire heats dries hardens and softens because it has the Faculty of producing those Effects Sena purges by its purgative Quality Bread nourishes by its nutritious Quality These Propositions are not liable to mistake for a Quality is that which denominates a Thing by such a Name Master Aristotle's Definition is undeniable But he speaks true only because he says nothing and if his rambling
loose and indefinite Notions engage not into Errour at least they are wholly unserviceable to the Discovery of Truth For though we know that there is in Fire a substantial Form attended with a Million of Faculties like to that of heating dilating melting Gold Silver and other Metals lightening burning roasting the Idea of that substantial Form with all its Faculties of producing Heat Fluidity Rarefaction will not help me to resolve this Question Why Fire hardens Clay and softens Wax There being no Connection betwixt the Ideas of Hardness in Clay and Softness in Wax and those of a substantial Form in Fire and its Faculties of Rarefaction Fluidity c. The same may be said of all general Ideas which are utterly insufficient for resolving any Question But when I know that Fire is nothing else but divided Wood whose Parts are in a continual Agitation by which alone it raises in me the Sensation of Heat and that the Softness of Clay consists in a Mixture of Water and Earth those Ideas being not general and confused but particular and distinct it will not be difficult to perceive that the Heat of Fire must harden Clay nothing being easier to conceive than that one Body may move another if it meet with it being it self in Motion We likewise easily perceive that since the Heat we feel near the Fire is caused by the Motion of the invisible Particles of Wood striking against our Hands Face c. if we expose Clay to the Heat of Fire the Particles of Water that are mixed with those of Earth being more thin and disunited and consequently more agitated by the Action and Impulse of the fiety Corpuscles than the gross Particles of Earth must be separated and expelled and the other remain dry and hard We shall perceive with the same Evidence that Fire must produce a quite contrary Effect upon Wax if we know that it is composed of Particles that are branched and almost of the same Bulk Thus may particular Ideas be subservient to the Enquiry after Truth whilst loose and undeterminate Notions are not only altogether unserviceable but also insensibly engage us into Errour For these Philosophers are not content to make use of those general Terms and uncertain Ideas which answer to them they moreover pretend that those Words signifie some particular Beings they give out that there is a Substance distinguished from Matter which is the Form of it and withal an infinite Number of little Beings really distinguished from that Matter and Form of which they suppose as many as they have different Sensations of Bodies or as those Bodies are supposed to produce different Effects However 't is visible to any attentive Person that those little Beings for instance that are said to be distinguished from Fire and suppos'd to be contained in it for the producing Heat Light Hardness Fluidity c. are but the Contrivances of the Imagination that rebells against Reason since Reason has no particular Idea that represents those little Beings When the Philosophers are asked What is the illuminating Faculty in Fire They only answer That 't is a Being which is the Cause that Fire is capable of producing Light So that their Idea of that illuminating Faculty differs not from the general Idea of Cause and the confused Idea of the Effect they see and therefore they have no clear Idea of what they say when they admit those particular Beings and so say what they not only understand not but what 's impossible to be understood CHAP. III. Of the most dangerous Errour in the Philosophy of the Ancients PHilosophers not only speak without understanding themselves when they explain the Effects of Nature by some Beings of which they have no particular Idea but also establish a Principle whence very false and pernicious Consequences may directly be drawn For supposing with them that there are in Bodies certain Entities distinguished from Matter and having no distinct Idea of those Entities 't is easie to imagine that they are the real or principal Causes of the Effects we see And this is the very Opinion of the vulgar Philosophers The prime Reason of their supposing those substantial Forms real Qualities and other such like Entities is to explain the Effects of Nature But when we come attentively to consider the Idea we have of Cause or Power of acting we cannot doubt but that it represents something Divine For the Idea of a Sovereign Power is the Idea of a Sovereign Divinity and the Idea of a subordinate Power the Idea of an inferiour Divinity yet a true Divinity at least according to the Opinion of the Heathens supposing it to be the Idea of a true Power or Cause And therefore we admit something Divine in all the Bodies that surround us when we acknowledge Forms Faculties Qualities Virtues and real Beings that are capable of producing some Effects by the force of their Nature and thus insensibly approve of the Sentiments of the Heathens by too great a Deference for their Philosophy Faith indeed corrects us but it may perhaps be said that the Mind is a Pagan whilst the Heart is a Christian. Moreover it is a hard Matter to persuade our selves that we ought neither to fear nor love true Powers and Beings that can act upon us punish us with some Pain or reward us with some Pleasure And as Love and Fear are a true Adoration it is hard again to imagine why they must not be ador'd For whatever can act upon us as a true and real Cause is necessarily above us according to Reason and St. Austin and by the same Reason and Authority 't is likewise an immutable Law That inferiour Beings should be subservient to superiour Whence that great Father concludes That the Body cannot operate upon the Soul and that nothing can be above her but God only The chief Reasons that God Almighty uses in the Holy Scriptures to prove to the Israelites that they ought to adore that is to love and fear him are drawn from his Power to reward or punish them representing to them the Benefits they have received from him the Punishments he has inflicted upon them and his Power that is always the same He forbids them to adore the Gods of the Heathens as such as have no Power over them and can doe them neither harm nor good He commands them to honour him alone as the only true Cause of Good and Evil Reward and Punishment none of which can befal a City according to the Prophet but what comes from him by reason that natural Causes are not the true Causes of the Hurt they seem to doe us and as it is God alone that acts in them so 't is He alone that must be fear'd and lov'd in them Soli Deo Honor Gloria Lastly The Sense of fearing and Loving what may be the true Cause of Good and Evil appears so natural and just that it is not possible to cast it off So that in that
have two contrary Motions viz. the circular and the ascending which is impossible If the Heavens be some other Body which moves not circularly by its own Nature they will have some other natural Motion which cannot likewise be for if that Motion be ascending they will be Fire or Air and if descending Water or Earth Therefore c. I shall not insist upon shewing the particular Absurdities of those Reasonings but only observe in general that all that which this Philosopher here says has no signification and that there is neither Truth nor Inference well drawn His third Reason is as follows The first and most perfect of all simple Motions must be that of a simple Body and of the first and most perfect among simple Bodies But the circular Motion is the first and most perfect amongst simple Motions because every circular Line is perfect and that no right Line is so For if it be finite something may be added to it if infinite it is not yet perfect since it has no end and that things are not perfect but when they are finished and therefore the circular Motion is the first and most perfect of all and a Body moving circularly is simple and the first and most Divine amongst simple Bodies Here you have his fourth Reason Every Motion is either natural or not but every Motion which is not natural to some Bodies is natural to some others For we see that the ascending and descending Motions which are not natural to some Bodies are so to others for Fire naturally descends not but Earth does Now the Circular Motion is not natural to any of the Four Elements there must then be a simple Body to which that Motion is natural and therefore the Heavens which move Circularly are a simple Body distinguished from the Four Elements Lastly The Circular Motion is either natural or violent to some Body or other If it be natural 't is evident that Body must be one of the most simple and perfect But if it be against Nature 't is strange how that Motion endures for ever since we see that all Motions against Nature are of a short continuance And therefore we must believe after all those Reasons that there is some Body separated from all those that environ us whose Nature is the more perfect as it lies at a greater distance Thus argues Aristotle but I defie the best and most intelligent of his Interpreters to fix distinct Ideas to his Words and to shew that this Philosopher begins with the most simple Things before he speaks of the more composed which is however altogether necessary to exact Reasonings as I have already proved If I were not afraid of being tedious I would be at the pains to translate some Chapters of Aristotle But besides that none who can understand him care to read him in English or in any other vulgar Tongue I have sufficiently shewn by what I have related from him that his Way of Philosophizing is wholly unserviceable to the Discovery of Truth For he says himself in the Fifth Chapter of this Book That those that mistake at first in any thing mistake ten thousand times more if they proceed So that it being apparent that he knows not what he says in the two first Chapters of his Book we may reasonably believe that it is not safe to yield to his Authority without examining his Reasons But that we may be the more persuaded of it I proceed to shew that there is no Chapter in this First Book but has some Impertinency In the Third Chapter he says That the Heavens are incorruptible and uncapable of Alteration of which he alledges several Childish Proofs as that they are the Habitation of the Immortal Gods and that no Change was ever observed in them This last Proof would be good enough could he say that ever any Body was come back from thence or that he had approached Celestial Bodies sufficiently near to observe their Alterations And yet I doubt whether at this time any one should yield to his Authority since Telescopes assure us of the contrary In the Fourth Chapter he pretends to prove That the Circular Motion has no Opposite though it be plain that the Motion from East to West is contrary to that which is made from West to East In the Fifth Chapter he very weakly proves That Bodies are not Infinite drawing his Arguments from the Motion of simple Bodies For what hinders but there may be above his Primum mobile some unmovable Extension In the Sixth he loses time in shewing That the Elements are not Infinite For who can doubt of it when he supposes with him that they are included within the surrounding Heavens But he ridicules himself by drawing his Proofs from their Gravity and Lightness If Elements says he were Infinite there would be an Infinite Heaviness and Lightness which cannot be Ergo c. Those that desire to see his Arguments at length may read them in his Books for I reckon it a loss of Time to relate them He goes on in the Seventh Chapter to prove That Bodies are not Infinite and his first Argument supposes it necessary for every Body to be in Motion which he neither does nor can demonstrate In the Eighth he asserts That there are not many Worlds of the same Nature by this ridiculous Reason That if there were another Earth besides this we inhabit the Earth being ponderous of its own nature it would fall upon ours which is the Centre of all ponderous Bodies Whence has he learned this but from his Senses In the Ninth he proves That it is not so much as possible that there should be several Worlds because if there was any Body above the Heavens it would be simple or composed in a natural or violent State which cannot be for Reasons which he draws from the Three sorts of Motions already spoken of In the Tenth he asserts That the World is Eternal because it cannot have had a Beginning and yet last for ever because we see that whatever is made is corrupted in Time He has learned this likewise from his Senses But who has taught him that the World will always endure He spends the Eleventh Chapter in explaining what Incorruptible signifies as though Equivocation was here very dangerous or that he was to make a great Use of his Explanation However that Word Incorruptible is so clear of it self that Aristotle needed not have troubled himself with explaining in what Sense it must be taken or in what Sense he takes it It had been more convenient to define an infinite Number of Terms very usual with him which raise nothing but sensible Ideas for so perhaps we should have learned something by the reading of his Works In the Last Chapter of this First Book of the Heavens he endeavours to shew That the World is incorruptible because 't is impossible it should have had a Beginning and yet last eternally All Things says he subsist either for a
them together In a word as it does nothing it must needs congregate nothing Aristotle judging of things by his Senses imagin'd Cold to be as positive as Heat and because the Sensations of Heat and Cold are both real and positive he supposes them both likewise to be active Qualities and indeed if we follow the Impressions of the Senses we shall be apt to believe that Cold is a very active Quality since cold Water congeals accumulates and hardens in a moment melted Gold and Lead when they are pour'd upon it from a Crucible though the Heat of those Metals be yet strong enough to separate the Parts of the Bodies which they touch 'T is plain by what has been said in the First Book concerning the Errours of the Senses That if we relye upon the Judgment the Senses make of the Qualities of sensible Bodies 't is impossible to discover any certain and undeniable Truth that may serve as a Principle to proceed in the Knowledge of Nature For one cannot so much as discover that way what things are hot and what cold amongst several Persons who touch luke-warm Water it feels cold to those that are hot and hot to those that are cold And if we suppose Fishes susceptible of Sensation 't is very probable that they feel it warm when all or most Men feel it cold It is the same with Air that seems to be hot or cold according to the different Dispositions of the Bodies of those that are exposed to it Aristotle pretends that it is hot but I fansie that the Nothern Inhabitants are of another Opinion since several learned Men whose Climate is as hot as that of Greece have asserted it to be cold But that Question which has made so much noise in the Schools will never be resolv'd as long as no distinct Idea shall be affixed to the Word Heat The Definitions Aristotle lays down of Heat and Cold cannot settle that Idea For Instance Air and even Water though never so hot and scalding congregate the parts of melted Lead together with those of any other Metal whatsoever Air conglutinates all sorts of Fat joyn'd with Gums or any other solid Bodies And he shall be a very formal Peripatetick who should think of exposing Mastich to the Air to separate the pitchy from the Earthy part and other compound Bodies to uncompound them And therefore Air is not hot according to the Definition which Aristotle gives of Heat Air separates Liquors from the Bodies that are imbued with them hardens Clay dries spread Linen though Aristotle makes it moist and so is hot and drying according to the same Definition therefore it cannot be determined by that Definition whether or no Air is hot It may indeed be asserted that Air is hot in reference to Clay since it separates the Water from the Earthy Part. But must we try all the various Effects of Air upon all Bodies before we can be assured whether there is Heat in the Air we breath in If it be so we shall never be sure of it and 't is as good not to philosophize at all upon the Air we respire but upon some certain pure and elementary Air not to be found here below of which we can very dogmatically assert with Aristotle that it is hot without giving the least Proof of it nor even distinctly knowing what we understand either by that Air or by the Heat ascribed to it For thus we shall lay down Principles scarce to be destroyed not because of their Plainness and Certainty but by reason of their Darkness and their being like to Apparitions which cannot be wounded because they have not a Body I shall not insist upon Aristotle's Definitions of Moisture and Dryness it being evident that they explain not their Nature For according to those Definitions Fire is not dry since it is not easily contained within its own limits and Ice is not moist since it keeps within its proper Bounds and can difficultly be adapted to external Bounds But if fluid be understood by the Word humid or moist it may again be said that Ice is not moist and that Flame melted Gold and Lead are very humid If by humid or moist be understood what easily cleaves to any thing Ice is not humid and Pitch Fat and Oil are moister than Water since they cleave to Bodies more strongly than it does Quick-silver is moist in that sense for it cleaves to Metals whereas Water is not perfectly moist since it cleaves not to most of them So that 't is unserviceable to have recourse to the Testimony of the Senses to defend the Opinions of Aristotle But without farther examining his wonderful Definitions of the four Elementary Qualities let us suppose that whatever the Senses teach us of those Qualities is incontestable let us muster up all our Faith and believe all those Definitions very accurate Only let it be allowed us to enquire whether all the Qualities of sensible Bodies are made of these Elementary Qualities Aristotle pretends it and he must do so indeed since he looks upon those Four primitive Qualities as the Principles of all the things which he intends to explain in his Books of Physicks He teaches us that Colours are produced from the Mixture of those Four Elementary Qualities White is produced when Moisture exceeds Heat as in old Men when they grow gray Black when Moisture is exhausted as in the Walls of Cisterns and all other Colours by the like Mixtures that Odours and Savours arise from different Degrees of Dryness and Moisture mix'd together by Heat and Cold and that even Gravity and Levity do depend thereon In short All sensible Qualities must needs be produced according to Aristotle by Two active Principles viz. Heat and Cold and composed of Two passive namely Dryness and Moisture that there may be some probable Connexion betwixt his Principles and the Consequences he draws from them However 't is yet a harder Task to persuade us of such things than any of those that have been hitherto related from Aristotle We can scarce believe that the Earth and other Elements would not be colour'd or visible if they were in their natural Purity without Mixture of those Elementary Principles though some learned Commentators on that Philosopher assert it We understand not what Aristotle means when he assures us that gray Hair is produced by Moisture because in old Men Moisture exceeds Heat though to illustrate his thought we put the definition instead of the thing defined For it looks like an incomprehensible piece of Nonsence to say that the Hair of old Men becomes gray because what is not easily contained within its own Limits but may be within others exceeds what congregates homogeneous things And we are as hard put it to believe that Savour is well explain'd by saying it consists in a mixture of Dryness Moisture and of Heat especially when we put instead of those words the Definitions given by that Philosopher as it would prove useful
this That if two Bowls of Lead or of any other less Elastick Matter meet they rebound not after their Collision but proceed almost according to the Rules before establish'd which they keep to so much more exactly as they are less springing Bodies therefore rebound after their Percussion because they are hard that is as I have explain'd because there is an extremely agitated Matter which compresses them and which passing through their Pores with an extreme Violence repel the Bodies which strike against them But it ought to be suppos'd that the Percutient Bodies break not those which they dash against by a Motion over-powering the Resistance the little Parts of the subtile Matter are capable of making as when we discharge a Musket against a piece of Wood. 'T is true the subtile Matter compresses soft Bodies and passes with a rapid Course through their Pores no less than through those of hard and yet these soft Bodies have no Elasticity The Reason whereof is this that the Matter passing through soft Bodies can with a great deal of Ease open it self new Passages by reason of the Minuteness of the Parts composing them or of some other particular Configuration proper for that Effect which hard Bodies will not admit by reason of the Largeness and Situation of their Parts which are contrary to the same Thus when a hard Body strikes another that is soft it alters all the Roads the subtile Matter us'd to pass through which is commonly visible as in a Musket-Bullet which flattens when it is smitten But when a hard Body strikes against another like it it either makes none or very few new Paths and the subtile Matter in its Pores is oblig'd to return upon the same Ground or else must repel the Body which blocks up its little Avenues Lastly It seems evident that every mov'd Body continually endeavouring to tend in a Right Line and declining from it as little as is possible when it meets Resistance ought never to rebound since by that Motion it extremely deviates from a Right 'T is necessary therefore either that Bodies should grow flat or that the stronger should conquer the weaker and make it bear it company But because Bodies are springing and hard they cannot go in company since if A pushes a a repels A and so they must recede from one another Notwithstanding if two Bodies were in a Vacuum though never so hard they would go in company because having no Body to surround them they could have no Elastick Force the Striker making no Resistance to the Striking but Air Gravitation c. resisting the great Motion which the striking Body gives the stricken the stricken resists the striking and hinders it from following For Experience teaches us that Air and Gravity resist Motion and that this Resistance is so much greater as the Motion is more violent 'T is easie to discover from what I have been saying how it comes to pass that in the Percussion of different Bodies encompass'd with Air or Water c. sometimes the Smiting rebounds sometimes communicates all its Motion and remains as it were unmoveable and sometimes it follows the Smitten but always with less Degrees of Swiftness if one or other of them be not perfectly soft For all this depends on the Proportion that is found between the Magnitude the Hardness and the Weight of one and the other supposing them mov'd with an equal Swiftness If they are very hard the Smiting rebounds more because the Elaterium is stronger If the Smiting is very little the Smitten very large and weighty the Smiting rebounds still much because of the Weight and the great Mass of Air surrounding the Smitten which withstands the Motion Last of all If the Force of the Hardness is as it were abated by the little Volume of Air answering the Littleness of the stricken Body or the contrary it may happen that the Smiting may remain as immoveable after the Percussion We need therefore but compare the Hardness of percutient Bodies and the Air which the Percuss'd ought to agitate anew at the time of Percussion whereby to move to give a pretty exact Conjecture concerning what must happen in the Percussion of different Bodies I still suppose an equal Swiftness in the striking for the Air more resists a great Motion than a little one and there is as much Motion in a Body twice as little as in another when proceeding twice as fast as that other Thus the Smitten being driven as fast again may be consider'd as having a Volume of Air twice as big to repel in order to its moving But it ought still to be observ'd that at the Moment of one Body's striking another the Parts of this same Body have two contrary Motions for those on the Fore-side have a backward Tendency by reason of the Collision when at the same time those behind tend forwards on the Account of the first Motion and 't is that Counter-motion which flattens soft Bodies and is the Cause that some hard Bodies break in pieces but when Bodies are very hard this Counter-stroke which vibrates some of the Parts and makes a sort of Trepidation in them as appears from the Sound they give always produces some Changes in the Communication of Motion which are very difficult to be known for many Reasons and 't is in my Mind to little purpose to examine them in particular Would a Man meditate on all these things I believe he would easily answer some Difficulties which might still be rais'd upon the Subject but if I thought that what I have said were insufficient to shew that Rest has no Force to resist Motion and that the Rules of the Communication of Motions given by Monsieur des Cartes are in part false I would here make out that it is impossible by his Supposition to move our selves in the Air And that which makes the Circulation of Motion in Fluid Bodies possible without recurring to a Vacuum is that the first Element easily divides it self in several different manners the Repose of its Parts having no Force to resist Motion The CONCLUSION of the Three last BOOKS I Have if I mistake not sufficiently shewn in the Fourth and Fifth Books that Men's natural Inclinations and Passions frequently occasion their falling into Errour because they induce them more to a precipitate Judgment than a careful Examination of Things I have shewn in the Fourth Book that our Inclination for Good in general is the Cause of the Restlesness of the Will that this Restlesness of the Will puts the Mind in continual Agitation and that a Mind continually agitated is utterly unfit for the Discovery of any the least intricate and hidden Truths That the Love of new and extraordinary Things frequently prepossesses us in their behalf and that whatever bears the Character of Infinite is capable of confounding our Imagination and mis-leading us I have explain'd how our Inclination for Greatness Elevation and Independency insensibly engage us in a falsly-pretended
Fruit an Hundred-fold and that the Earth bringeth forth Fruits of her self first the blade then the Ear after that the full Corn in the Ear. Lastly it is written in the Book of Wisdom that the Fire had as it were forgotten it's strength to Burn in favour of the People of God It is therefore certain from the Old and New Testament that Second Causes have an Active Force ANSWER I answer that in Holy-Writ there are many Passages which ascribe to God the pretended Efficacy of Second Causes some of which are these I am the Lord that maketh ALL THINGS that stretcheth forth the Heavens ALONE that spreadeth abroad the Earth by MY SELF Thine hands have made me and fashion'd me together round about I cannot tell how you came into my Womb. It was not I that form'd the Members of every one of you But doubtless the Creator of the World who formâ—d the Generation of Man c. Seeing he giveth to Life and breath and all things He causeth Grass to grow for the Cattle and Herb for the service of Men that he may bring forth food out of the Earth There are infinite such like Passages but let these suffice When an Author seems to Contradict himself And Natural Equity or a stronger Reason obliges us to reconcile him to himself methinks we have an infallible Rule to discover his true Opinion For we need but observe when he speaks according to his own Light and when after Common Opinion When a Man Accommodates himself to the vulgar way of speaking that is no sure sign he is of their Opinion But when he says positively the contrary to what Custom Authorises though he say it but once we have Reason to conclude it his judgement provided we know he speaks seriously and with Mature deliberattion For instance when an Author speaking of the properties of Animals shall say an hundred times over that Beasts have sense that Dogs know their Master that they Love and Fear him and but in two or three places shall affirm that Beasts are insensible that Dogs are incapable of Knowledge and that they neither Love nor Fear any thing how shall we reconcile this Author to himself Must we make a Collection of all his passages for and against it and judge of his Opinion by the greater number If so I conceive there is no Man to whom for example may be attributed this Opinion That Animals have no Soul For even the Cartesians most frequently say that a Dogs feels when he is beaten and rarely it is that they affirm he does not feel And although I my self encounter a vast multitude of prejudices in this Treatise yet many passages may be gather'd from it by which unless this present Rule be admitted it may be prov'd that I confirm them all and even that I hold the Opinion of the Efficacy of Second Causes which I am now refuting or it may be it might be concluded that the Search after Truth abounds with gross and palpable contradictions as do some Persons who I fear have not Equity and penetration enough to set up for judges of the Works of others Holy Scripture and Fathers and most Religious Men speak oftner of sensible Goods Riches and Honours in the vulgar Opinion than by the true Ideas they have of them Our LORD brings in Abraham saying to the Wicked Rich Man Son thou hast receiv'd thy GOOD things in thy Life time that is to say Riches and Honour What we by prejudice call Good our Good that is Gold and Silver is stil'd in Scripture in an hundred places our Sustenance and Substance and even our honesty or that which Honours us Paupertas Honestas à Deo sunt Must these ways of speaking us'd by the Holy Scripture and the most Religious Persons make us believe that they contradict themselves or that Riches and Honours are truly our goods and worthy our Love and our Researches No doubtless Because the Modes of Speech suiting with prejudices signify nothing And that we see elsewhere that Our SAVIOUR has compar'd Riches to Thorns has told us we must renounce them that they are deceitful and that all that 's great and glorious in the World is an abomination in the sight of God Therefore we must not heap together the Passages of Scripture or the Fathers to judge of their Opinions by the greater number unless we will attribute to them every Moment the most irrational prejudices in the World This being suppos'd 't is plain that Holy Scripture says positively 't is God that makes all even to the Grass of the Field that arrays the Lillies with such Ornaments as CHRIST prefers before those of Solomon in all his Glory 'T is not only two or three but innumerable Passages that Attribute to God the pretended Efficacy of Second Causes and overthrow the Nature of the Peripateticks Besides we are inclin'd as it were by a kind of Natural prejudice not to think on God in Ordinary Effects And to attribute force and Efficacy to Second Causes for the generality none but Miraculous Effects can make us think on God as the Author and the sensible impression engages us in the Opinion of Second Causes The Philosophers hold this Opinion because say they the Senses evince it Which is their mightiest Argument Lastly this Opinion is receiv'd by all that follow the judgment of their Senses The Language is accommodated to this prejudice and 't is as commonly said That Fire has a Power to Burn as that Silver and Gold are a Man's Goods Wherefore those Passages which the Scripture or Fathers afford us for the Efficacy of Second Causes prove no more than those That an Ambitious or Covetous Person would choose for the vindication of his Behaviour But we are not to say so of those Expressions that may be brought for the proof of God's Working all in all For since this Opinion is repugnant to prejudice the Passages that assert it are to be interpreted in their utmost Rigour For the same Reason that we are to conclude it the Sentiment of a Cartesian that Beasts are Insensible though he should say it but now and then and should constantly in common Discourse say the contrary as that they Feel See and Hear In the first Chapter of Genesis God Commands the Earth to produce Plants and Animals and Orders the Waters to bring forth Fish and Consequently say the Peripateticks the Water and Earth were indu'd with a competent Virtue to produce these Effects I cannot see the certainty of this conclusion nor any necessity of admitting this consequence though we were oblig'd to explain this Chapter by it self without recourse to other passages of Scripture This method of expounding the Creation is adapted to our way of conceiving things and so there is no necessity of our taking it Literally nor ought we to lay it as a Foundation to our prejudices Since we see Animals and Plants on the Earth Fowls inhabiting the Air and Fishes
living in the Water God to let us understand that his Order constituted them in these Places produc'd them therein From the Earth he form'd Animals and Plants not that the Earth was capable of Generating or as if God had to that intent given it a force and Vertue which it retains till now For we are sufficiently agreed that the Earth does not Procreate Horses and Oxen but because out of the Earth the Bodies of Animals were form'd as is said in the following Chapter Out of the ground the Lord form'd every Beast of the field and every Fowl of the Air. The Animals were form'd out of the gound formatis de humo animantibus says the Vulgar Latin and not produc'd by it Therefore when Moses had related how Beasts and Fish were produc'd by Vertue of the Command which God gave the Earth and Water to produce them he adds that it was God that made them lest we should attribute their Production to the Earth and Water And God CREATED great Whales and every living Creature that moveth which the WATERS BROVGHT FORTH abundantly after their kind and every winged Fowl after his kind and a little lower after he had spoken of the formation of Animals he adjoyns And GOD MADE the Beast of the Earth after his kind and Cattel after their kind and every thing that creepeth on the Earth after his kind But 't is observable by the way That what the Vulgar Translates Producant aquae reptile animae viventis volatile super terram and our English Let the Water bring forth abundantly the moving Creature that hath Life and Fowl that may fly above the Earth the Hebrew has it Volatile VOLITET Let the Fowl fly above the Earth Which distinction shows as is evident from the fore-cited passage of the next Chapter that Fowls were not produc'd from the Water and that it was not Moses's design to prove that the Waters were truly empower'd to produce Fish and Fowl but only to denote the respective place design'd for each by the Order of God whether to live or to be produc'd in Et volatile VOLITET super Terram For commonly when we say that the Earth produces Trees and Plants we only mean to signifie that it furnishes Water and Salts which are necessary to the Germination and increase of Seeds But I dwell no longer on the Explication of these Scripture Passages which Literally taken make for Second Causes For we are so far from being oblig'd that it is sometimes dangerous to take Expressions in the Letter which are founded on common Opinion by which the Language is form'd For the vulgar part of Men speak of all things according to the Impressions of Sense and the Prejudices of Infancy The same Reason which constrains us to interpret Literally such Scripture Passages as directly oppose Prejudices gives us Reason to believe the Fathers never design'd ex proposito to maintain the Efficacy of Second Causes or the Nature of Aristotle For though they often speak in a manner that countenances Prejudices and the Judgments of Sense yet they sometimes so explain themselves as to manifest the disposition of their Mind and Heart St. Austin for instance gives us sufficiently to understand That he believed the Will of God to be the Force and Nature of every thing when he speaks thus We are wont to say but not truly that Prodigies are against Nature For the Nature of every Creature being but the Will of the Creator How can that which is done by the Will of God be contrary to Nature Miracles therefore and Prodigies are not against Nature but against what we know of it 'T is true St. Austin speaks in several places according to Prejudices But I affirm that that is no Argument for we are not Literally to explain but those Expressions which are contrary to them for which I have given the Reasons If St. Austin in his Works had said nothing against the Efficacy of Second Causes but had always favour'd this Opinion his Authority might be made use of to confirm it But if it should not appear that he had industriously examin'd that Question we might still have reason to think he had no settled and resolv'd Opinion about the Subject but was it may be drawn by the Impression of the Senses inconsiderately to believe a thing which no Man would doubt of before he had carefully examin'd it 'T is certain for example that St. Austin always speaks of Beasts as if they had a Soul I say not a Corporeal Soul for that Holy Father too well knew the distinction of the Soul and Body to think there were Corporeal Souls I say a Spiritual Soul for Matter is incapable of Sense And yet it would seem methinks more reasonable to employ the Authority of St. Austin to prove that Beasts have not a Soul than to prove they have For from the Principles which he has carefully examin'd and strongly establish'd it manifestly follows they have none as is shown by Ambrosius Victor in his Sixth Volume of Christian Philosophy But the Opinion that Beasts have a Soul and are sensible of Pain when we strike them being consonant to Prejudices for there is no Child but believes it we have still reason to believe that he speaks according to Custom and Vulgar Opinion and that if he had seriously examin'd the Question and once began to doubt and make reflexion he would never have said a thing so contrary to his Principles And thus though all the Fathers had constantly favour'd the Efficacy of Second Causes yet it may be no regard were due to their Opinion unless it appear'd that they had carefully Examin'd the Question and that their Assertions were not the results of common Speech which is form'd and founded upon Prejudices But the case is certainly quite contrary for the Fathers and such as were most Holy and best acquainted with Religion have commonly manifested in some places or other of their Works what was their Disposition of Mind and Heart in reference to the present Question The most Understanding and indeed the greatest number of Divines seeing that on one hand the Holy Scripture was repugnant to the Efficacy of Second Causes and on the other that the Impression of the Senses the publick Vote and especially Aristotle's Philosophy which was had in veneration by the Learned establish it For Aristotle believ'd God unconcern'd in the particulars of Sublunary Transactions That that change was below his Majesty and that Nature which he supposes in all Bodies suffic'd to produce all that was done below The Divines I say have so equally balanc'd these Two as to reconcile Faith with Heathen Philosophy Reason with Sense and to make Second Causes ineffective without the additional concourse of God Almighty But because that immediate concourse whereby God acts jointly with Second Causes includes great difficulties some Philosophers have rejected it pretending that in Order to their Acting there needs no more than