and Servant.
[XVIII.]
MADAM,
In your last, you were pleased to desire an account, how far, or how much I did understand the ancient and modern Philosophers in their Philosophical Writings. Truly, Madam, I can more readily tell you what I do not understand, then what I do understand: for, first, I do not understand their sophistical Logick, as to perswade with arguments that black is white, and white is black; and that fire is not hot, nor water wet, and other such things; for the glory in Logick is rather to make doubts, then to find truth; indeed, that Art now is like thick, dark clouds, which darken the light of truth. Next: I do not understand in particular, what they mean by second matter; for if they name figures and forms second matter, they may as well say, all several motions, which are the several actions of Nature, are several matters, and so there would be infinite several matters, which would produce a meer confusion in Nature. Neither do I understand, when they say, a body dissolves into the first matter; for I am not able to conceive their first matter, nor what they mean by magna and major materia; for I believe there is but one matter, and the motion of that matter is its action by which it produces several figures and effects; so that the nature of the matter is one and the same, although its motions, that is, its actions, be various, for the various effects alter not the nature or unity of the onely matter. Neither do I understand what they mean by corruption, for surely Nature is not corruptible. Nor do I understand their individables in Nature, nor a bodiless form, nor a privation, nor a being without a body; nor any such thing as they call rest, for there's not any thing without motion in Nature: Some do talk of moving minima's, but they do not tell what those minima's or their motions are, or how they were produced, or how they came to move. Neither do I understand when they say there is but one World, and that finite; for if there be no more Matter then that which they call the whole World, and may be measured by a Jacob's staff, then certainly there is but little matter, and that no bigger then an atome in comparison to Infinite. Neither can my reason comprehend, when they say, that not any thing hath power from its interior nature to move exteriously and locally; for common sense and reason, that is sight and observation, doth prove the contrary. Neither do I know what they mean by making a difference between matter and form, power and act; for there can be no form without matter, nor no matter without form; and as act includes power, so power is nothing without act: Neither can I conceive Reason to be separable from matter; nor what is meant when they say, that, onely that is real, which moves the understanding without. Nor do I understand what they mean by intentionals, accidentals, incorporeal beings, formal ratio, formal unity, and hundreds the like; enough to puzle truth, when all is but the several actions of one cause, to wit, the onely matter. But most men make such cross, narrow, and intricate ways in Nature, with their over-nice distinctions, that Nature appears like a Labyrinth, whenas really she is as plain as an un-plowed, ditched, or hedged champion: Nay, some make Nature so full, that she can neither move nor stir; and others again will have her so empty, as they leave not any thing within her; and some with their penetrations, pressings, squeezings, and the like, make such holes in her, as they do almost wound, press and squeeze her to death: And some are so learned, witty, and ingenious, as they understand and know to discourse of the true compass, just weight, exact rules, measures and proportions of the Universe, as also of the exact division of the Chaos, and the architecture of the world, to an atome. Thus, Madam, I have made my confession to you of what I understand not, and have endeavoured to make my ignorance as brief as I could; but the great God knows, that my ignorance is longer then that which is named life and death; and as for my understanding, I can onely say, that I understand nothing better, but my self to be,
Madam,
Your most faithful Friend
and humble Servant.