[1] Lib. 2. c. 4.
[XX.]
MADAM,
I am not able to conceive how the Mind of Man can be compared to a Table-book, in which nothing is writ;[1] nor how to a Musician, who being asleep, doth not so much as dream of any Musick, but being jogg'd and awakend by another, who tells him two or three words of a Song, and desires him to sing it, presently recovers himself, and sings upon so slight an Intimation: For such intimations are nothing else but outward objects, which the interior sense consents to, and obeys; for interior sense and reason doth often obey outward objects: and in my opinion there is no rest in Nature, and so neither in the Mind or natural Soul of Man, which is in a perpetual motion, and needs therefore no jogging to put it into any actual motion; for it hath actual motion and knowledg in it self, because it is a self-moving substance, actually knowing, and Material or Corporeal, not Immaterial, as your Author thinks: and this material or corporeal Mind is nothing else but what I call the rational matter, and the corporeal life is the sensitive matter. But this is to be observed, that the motions of the corporeal Mind do often imitate the motions of the sensitive Life, and these again the motions of the mind: I say oftentimes; for they do it not always, but each one can move without taking any pattern from the other. And all this I understand of the Natural Soul of Man; not of the Divine Soul, and her powers and faculties, for I leave that to Divines to inform us of; onely this I say, that men not conceiving the distinction between this natural and divine Soul, make such a confusion betwixt those two Souls and their actions, which causes so many disputes and opinions. But if Nature hath power from God to produce all kinds of Vegetables, Minerals, Elements, Animals, and other sorts of Creatures, Why not also Man? Truly if all Creatures are natural Creatures, Man must be so too; and if Man is a natural Creature, he must needs have natural sense and reason, as well as other Creatures, being composed of the same matter they are of. Neither is it requisite, that all Creatures, being of the same matter, must have the same manner of sensitive and rational knowledg; which if so, it is not necessary for Corn to have Ears to hear the whistling or chirping of Birds, nor for Stones to have such a touch of feeling as animals have, and to suffer pain, as they do, when Carts go over them; as your Author is pleased to argue out of Æsopes Tales; or for the Heliotrope to have eyes to see the Sun: for what necessity is there that they should have humane sense and reason? which is, that the rational and sensitive matter should act and move in them as she doth in man or animals: Certainly if there must be any variety in nature, it is requisite she should not; wherefore all Vegetables, Minerals, Elements, and Animals, have their proper motions different from each others, not onely in their kinds and sorts, but also in their particulars. And though Stones have no progressive motion to withdraw themselves from the Carts going over them, which your Author thinks they would do, if they had sense, to avoid pain: nevertheless they have motion, and consequently sense and reason, according to the nature and propriety of their figure, as well as man has according to his. But this is also to be observed, that not any humane Creature, which is accounted to have the perfectest sense and reason, is able always to avoid what is hurtful or painful, for it is subject to it by Nature: Nay, the Immaterial Soul it self, according to your Author,[2] cannot by her self-contracting faculty withdraw her self from pain. Wherefore there is no manner of consequence to conclude from the sense of Animals to the sense of Minerals, they being as much different as their Figures are; And saying this, I have said enough to express the opinion and mind of,
Madam,
Your faithful Friend
and Servant.
[1] Antid. Book 1. c. 5.
[2] Append. to the Antid. ch. 3.