An exclusion of scepticks from all title to dispute being an answer to The vanity of dogmatizing / by Thomas White. White, Thomas, 1593-1676. 1665 Approx. 131 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 45 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2005-03 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A65786 Wing W1824 ESTC R11142 12929269 ocm 12929269 95611 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A65786) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 95611) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 991:19) An exclusion of scepticks from all title to dispute being an answer to The vanity of dogmatizing / by Thomas White. White, Thomas, 1593-1676. [8], 80 p. Printed for John Williams ..., London : 1665. Reproduction of original in Huntington Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Glanvill, Joseph, 1636-1680. -- Scepsis scientifica. Philosophy, English -- 17th century. Knowledge, Theory of -- Early works to 1800. 2004-10 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2004-10 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2004-11 Judith Siefring Sampled and proofread 2004-11 Judith Siefring Text and markup reviewed and edited 2005-01 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion AN EXCLUSION OF SCEPTICKS From all Title to DISPUTE : BEING AN ANSWER TO THE VANITY OF Dogmatizing . By THOMAS WHITE . — Sciri hoc sciat alter . LONDON , Printed for John Williams at the Crown and Globe in S. Pauls Church-yard ▪ 1665. TO THE YOUNG WITTS Of Both UNIVERSITIES . THough I doubt not of more powerful and seasonabler provision against that destructive contagion of Pyrronism , which , not long since , has begun to take fresh heart : Yet , hearing no news of any publick Cauterization apply'd to that Tumour of Glanvil's , which has rag'd now full two years ; methought this silence of my Betters turn'd the task upon my weakness , if not to avert , at least to open & expose to be torn in pieces by eloquenter Pens the injustice of that Calumny impos'd on the whole Profession of Philosophers . Reflect then O flourishing Englands fertilest hope ! the Joy and Crown of your Mother , whose beholding you - with pleasure swells her silent breast ! reflect , I say , and seriously ruminate what you strain to live and grow to ; what persons you hope and covet to become hereafter : whether wise and skilful to govern Christian Life and Manners : or a crew of Rhetoricians , pleasantly tattling unknown and uncertain things ; and betraying those under your Tuition into all Precipices that fall in their way : For , for such blind ones , and leaders of the blind , He sets you out to the world , who inculcates to your England the Vanity of Dogmatizing or promising Truths . I am not angry with the Man , who , with a great deal of wit and an unfordable stream of eloquence ( which will ripen with his years ) prosecutes what he proposes to himself , and takes for a truth ; not without some savour of Modesty : for , neither does he derogote from Faith the power of teaching its Tenets , nor disclaim all hope of attaining Science hereafter through a laborious amassment of Experiments . But , he points to acertain person ( whom he owns his Master ) that , giving us the Heads of some Books he had written , thus concludes the second , Here it is where the chief Foundations of Pyrronism are laid ; and that mainly establisht , that NOTHING IS KNOWN . Well , indeed , may the Future despair , if the pains of so may Ages have brought it but to this , that there 's nothing known . Have , then , the so many magnificent structures of your Colledges been devis'd , only to delude the People with a deal of pretty talk , not a jot advancive of Reason ? Have so many prodigious wits of your Ancesters been sent abroad over all the Christian World , but to sell Smoak and Bubbles for Jewels & Pearls ? Have you yourselves the patience to be till'd on through so many years exercises , only to the like emptiness ? Scorn and hate that so foul a reproach should be cast on the Fame of all past Ages , and present industry . But , what , at length , has enveigled into these conceits that great Interpreter of Epicurus , a Man never to my hearing , mis-spoken of , either for Wit , or Life and Manners ? Since I 'm utterly a stranger to his Privy-Councils , I 'le tell you what his Book seems to offer . There are two Sciences contested about : Physick and Metaphysick ( between which that of the Soul and Morals take their places ) . The First , content with few experiments , surprises Truth by vertue of Demonstration , and fixes it by that force which alone is inerrable , viz. the power of our spiritual Intellect . This eye alone pierces into the strength of Contradiction ; and is onlily certain and necessary , as far as it scapes ore-shadowing by the senses : but , it is not overlavish too , in making use of them ; and advances in growth by reflecting on it self its inmost eye . Physick is more florid , and with a Vernal look , as it were , sooth's our spirit inclin'd to Body . 'T is more abundant in Experiments , and meer Historical almost , unless assisted and forc'd into Rules by this its Companion . That many court this gay one , no wonder , and slight her Elder Sister as 't were but dry leaves ; whereas , yet , on her 't is the Gallant depends , nor without her help and Principles borrow'd from her , is able scarce to demonstrate any thing and advance by Causes connectedly . The ignorance of this necessity has bin the ruin of this Author , and many great Mens endeavours ; nay , and will be , 'till the utter despair of getting forward teach first a retreat back again to settle Principles . Another rubb is the unbridled Impudence of very many Moderns , who loudly crack of Aristotle and Metaphysick , as oft as there falls occasion of setting themselves out . They fill the Book-Sellers Shops with mighty Tomes : they counterfeit the Highest knowledge by pompous skirmishes in their own schools ; and by wonderful promises enkindle the native ardour of Science . By these Arts they heap on themselves the honours and fruits due to Science ; they flourish gayly and are propos'd to be ador'd in the Chairs . Mean while , look but into the matter , and those vast Mountains bring forth this solution of Questions , perhaps I , perhaps No. Histories are related of what the Antients , what the Moderns have thought of any propos'd Thesis ; petty reasons for the I or No are shot out at random , as it were , from bands of Slingers or Archers : so their Pages get bredth , their Tomes bulk : but , when they come to give Judgment , out comes an Edict to this purpose , All the Opinions are probable , but , this last seems to me the more probable . What could be look'd for more silly from Midas's ears ? What blind Tiresias could not as truly give verdict of Colours , perhaps 't is white , perhaps not ? What wonder now is it , if that ingenious Person derided such solemn trifles ? And imagining these men , because none contradicted it , entertainers of Aristotle and his secrets , wholy neglected and contemn'd them . You , then , O Yong Branches , growing up into Wine to rejoyce the hearts of Men ! remembring that Vertue 's the Mean hedg'd in by both Extreams , neither disclaim and detest Aristotle , nor superstitiously adore and embrace him . Those things he has demonstrated , though but few and seeming contemptible , yet receive . 'T is the nature of Principles to appear vulgar and despicable ; but there 's not a step can be made in Sciences without them . The foundations of Edifices lye buryed under ground , yet 't is they sustain the magnificent and towring fabrick . They that slight Aristotle's Grounds must of necessity , being always in quest of Principles , ever fall short of Science . Yet , far worse than these are they who feign and profess themselves Aristotelians , and are Ignorants the while in the Method of Demonstrating , & neglect what He prescribes : Circumventers of Parents , Spiriters of Youth ; whom , enveigled with a shew of Philosophy , they betray to vanity and prattle : worst Enemies of the Commonwealth ; to which owing Youth adorn'd with Science & Vertue , they pay it foolishly-confident , sophisticate , and fitted by their education to ill and good alike . For you , let Aristotle be your Master , of few things indeed ; but those such as fructifie into thousands , viz. The whole race of separated substances , the things necessary to be fore-known to Physical contemplation , and judgment , in fine , of experiments . You have now the Pleas of both sides : 't is your part to call aside into Council with you that Candour and sollicitude which so weighty an affair deserves . The most earnest coveter of Your sollid knowledge THOMAS WHITE . THE TABLE . First Plea. THere is Demonstration and Science , page 1 Second Plea. The Scepticks alledge nothing Sollid , page 11 Third Plea. T is imprudent to deny the existence of Science , p. 17 Fourth Plea Refells the Preliminary Objection , page 24 Fifth Plea Refells our Ignorance of the Soul and Sensation , p. 30 Sixth Plea Displaies the Pastick vertue , continuity , Adhesion of Parts , and the Mysteries of Rolling , page 42 Seventh Plea Inquires after the Causes of our Modern Shortness in Science , page 51 Eight Plea Wards off from Aristotle the Calumny of special Impiety , page 55 Ninth Plea Wipes off the Aspersions on Aristotle's Doctrine and Terms , page 60 Tenth Plea Maintains certain Definitions and Arguings , p. 65 Eleventh Plea Refutes some Topicks babbled against Science , p. 71 An exclusion of SCEPTICISM AND SCEPTICKS From all Title to Dispute . First Plea. There is Demonstration and Science . 1. SCepticism , born of Old by an unlucky miscarriage of Nature , for her own Credit , carryed off the Tongues of the Eloquent where it had long been fostred , and buryed by the steddiness of Christian Faith ; this Monster snatcht from the Teeth of Worms and Insects , Peter Gassendus , a Man of a most piercing Sagacity , of neat and copious Eloquence , a most pleasing Behaviour and wonderful Diligence , by a kind of Magick has endeavoured to restore again to life . He , a Person ( which is the strangest of all ) most tenacious of Catholick Faith , and never suspected guilty of mischievous Tenets : whereas , yet , this Scepticism is the Mother of infinite Errors , and all Heresies , and that very seducing Philosophy and vain fallacy which the Saints , warn'd by the Apostles , have taught us to beware of . Heard , this man , otherwise eminent in his paradoxical Exercitation against the Aristotelians , has dar'd to expose , not vail'd , as before , and wandring like a Quean in the dark , but bold-fac'd and painted , to the Multitude and Market place . By his Example , the Author of The Vanity of Dogmatizing has produc'd her amongst us beauteously trick'd-up in English : He , too , a great Master of Wit and Eloquence . Nor indeed are vast mischiefs to be dreaded from Vulgar heads . This is the occasion of my undertaking ; and this my Design ( if Heaven vouchsafe to enlighten and guide my pen ) to force back into her Grave this Carcass that would be rivalling Science , and deliver her up a Feast to her former worthy Commoners . Come on then , let 's untie the knot of the Question . 3. Since , then , 't is of Science we are to speak , its genius would in some measure be look'd into . Nature her self , therefore , teaches us , that Man is an Animal endued with Reason , to fit him for governing his Action , and Reason is allowed to be That whereby what before was unknown is rendred known : dayly Experience also convinces that our Action consists for the most part in such things as are subject to an infinite and insuperable mutability and variation : whence it comes to pass , that that Vertue which is immediate to action cannot properly be called Science ( since 't is not infallible , and the effect of demonstrative Discourse ) but a power of conjecturing aptly ; and uses commonly to be term'd Prudence , either properly or derivatively ; properly , if it be concerning the thing to be done , as to its right proceeding from Reason ; analogically , if of the action or thing to be done , as it regards some other inferior Faculty subservient to the dominion of Reason . Now Prudence depends on two previous Powers , Art and Inference or Experiment . Art , though it ows its birth to Experience , yet is sustained by universall and unfailing Rules : But , it self understands not the necessary and indefectible efficacy of its Rule ; but is content with the testimony of ever-corresponding effects . Inference , or Experience for the most part is true , but necessitates not assent , because not universal . 4. Setting this therefore aside , 't is clear the Decrees of Art , since she is veracious , have necessitating and necessarily connected Principles , which force the effect of Art to be not possibly otherwise than as Art teaches 't will succeed . Whence follows , that the subject Matter of Science and Art is the same ; and every Art has a proper Science due to it self , if the nature of Man would stretch to attain it . But , the same warning we gave before concerning Prudence , must be repeated concerning Science . For , as he who behaves himself prudently in any Artifice , is not therefore esteem'd and stil'd a prudent man ; but only he who rightly tempers his Action in as much as 't is Humane : so , neither is he , with propriety , to be called a knowing man , who skills the demonstration of Duelling , or Versifying ; but he that has the demonstration of those things which are Principles for governing our life , in as much as 't is Humane : The chief whereof is that which has merited the term of Theology , or Metaphysicks : the next is Ethicks : then Physicks , or Natural Science ; whether , because all corporeal Natures , or the World , is proposed to the disputation of men ; or because , next Metaphysical Contemplation , nothing so much advances our desired Beatitude as Physicks . Nor yet are Mathematicks to be excluded ; both because Quantity , their subject , is the Vesture of those bodies which Physicks speculate through ; as also , because the Rules , and as it were , the demonstrableness of Natural things at every step depends on them . Out of all which 't is clear , that in nothing Equivocation more lewdly cheats Man-kind , than in this term of Knowing , or Learned men . For , if Masters in Sciences , analogically so called , are not really worthy this name : how much further off meriting so noble a Title are those , whose ambition streins no higher than , like Parrats , to repeat others sentiments ? and how manifestly pernicious are they that have the confidence to apply such learning to the government of humane life ; and vent poison , or at best , smoak , under the Reverend name of Science ? 5. It follows , that such Science 't is we propose to our selves as is beneficial to Humane life . And concerning this , three things offer themselves to our enquiry . Whether there be at all any certainty attainable , at least of one Proposition or one Reasonment , which we call a Sylogism ? At this hangs the next , Whether at least , any Habit , or Series of more Truths traced with certainty ( such as generally are esteem'd those which Arithmeticians and Geometricians profess ) may be acquired by humane industry ? The last Question , by most ( at least in practise ) disputed ( whate're in words they pretend ) is limited to Physicks and Metaphysicks ; whether about the objects of these any beneficial Multitude of Truths may be spun out connectedly ; as the Masters in Mathematicks seem already to have done ? And herein consists the usefulness of my discourse ; and the desparation or difficulty of this Conclusion compels me to clear the former ; which of themselves by their own evidence had stood unscrupled , had not the step , and almost necessary consequence they afford to the third , terrified those who feel such difficulty to yield this last . 6. To work , then ; let us fix the first step , and assert , as invincibly known , and unshakable by any Art of the Scepticks , that What is is , or that what terminates and specifies an Identical Proposition as its Object is self-evident : as if we should say , that Peter is Peter , Wood is Wood , a stone is a stone ; and whatever others carry as open-fac'd an Evidence . The Scepticks I imagine , will laugh at this Axiom as foolish : because Identical Propositions use to be excluded from the rank of Scientifical ones , and the Sciences themselves ; as nothing at all advancing the understanding . But , by this their very laugh they 'l yield us the Victory ; as confessing Evidence in these , however they be useless : And therefore that wherever the same necessity shall Intervene , there cannot want Evidence . One thing in this position occurs a little cloudy , obscuring it through a Mist caus'd by the shadow of that most acute Person , Renatus des Cartes ; who , severely prying to descry the very first thing falling under knowlege , beat it up at length to this , that the first thing every one knows , is , that Himself thinks . But , the difference of our Opinions , I conceive , has sprung from hence , that , whereas Science may be consider'd both in its Generation and in its Subsistence ; He has taken the former Method , I the later . For , really , if we examine by what degrees Science is born in us , we see , the first thing that happens is to have a passion made in us by Bodies ; and the first evident thing that strikes us is that we think . But , if , looking upon Science now existing ▪ and as it s t were at rest in us , we enquire what 't is that fasten truth to our Minds , so that we cannot doubt or , as were , waver about it : Nothing will appear more simply or originally manifest then that what is is , wherein , in a manner , is formally included that what is so is , that , whilst it is , it cannot not-be ; which , indeed , is , that the understander is certain that the thing is , or has a fixedness concerning the truth which is in him . 7. It being determin'd that an Identical Proposition is evident , 't is equally determin'd that Propositions term'd self-known are evident : for , if they be look'd into , t will be clearly seen , that a self-known Proposition is in some sort composed of an Identical Proposition and another otherwise evident , or taken for evident . For , there are two sorts of self-known Propositions ; one wherein the Generical Notion is predicated of a Species ; another wherein the Species are predicated divisively of the Genus . Take these for Examples : A Man is an Animal : the sense is , A Rational Animal is a sort , or one of the Animals : The evidence of the Proposition consists in this , that the word Animal signifies , as it were formally in predication , to be one of the Animals ; and the word Rational denotes that whereby a Man is one of the Animals . Wherefore in this Proposition , a Man is an Animal ; these two Propositions shrowd themselves , one of the Animals is one of the Animals ; and that other , that Rational is a determiner of Animality : Now this later is not affirmed , but taken for granted , either from Sense as it were , or some other way supposed to be known and past doubt ; and in force of the former Identification , t is concluded that a Man is an Animal . In like manner when 't is said , Number is either even or odd , Bulk is either finite or infinite ; and whatever Predicates , contradictorily oppos'd , are predicated divisively of a Subject ; two propositions lye in them ; one an Identical one , for example , that even and not-even are all , or comprise all the kinds of Number ; and another otherwise known , viz. That such a Number , for example , Ten , is a certain Number . This later is known as it were by sense ; or suppos'd , not affirm'd : The former is equivalent to this all Number is all Number ; and one of all the Numbers , for example ; Ten , is affirm'd to be one of the even or odd , because , by force of the contradiction between even and not-even , even and odd must of necessity comprise all Numbers , or even and odd and all Number be the same . 8. The same force of Identity is also clear in a Sylogism : For example , when in the first Mood , or Barbara , two self-known propositions are taken and another truth , unknown before , is concluded out of them . As , when t is argu'd that Every Man is a living Creature , because every Man is an Animal , and Every Animal is a living Creature : there 's made an Identification of Man and living Creature ; or rather it is discovered by the double Identification of Animal with the Superior and Inferior . The force therefore of the Sylogism whereby it fixes the mind in this Identity , tha● Man is a living Creature , lies in nothing but this , tha● through the former two Identifications it rests fixed as to the Premisses . Plain therefore t is , that the light of an Identical Proposition shews it self both in self-known Propositions , and in those which are concluded by Sylogisms : and , which follows , either that the truth of an Identical Proposition is not evident , or else that self-known propositions , and such as are concluded by a legitimate Sylogism are Evident and most certain : and , that it cannot be doubted , so many truths are palpably certain as can be reacht by a legitimate deduction of Sylogisms . Since , therefore , he cannot be esteem'd other than a Mad Sot that should deny the Evidence of an Identical proposition ; he cannot be reputed Rational who should at all reject propositions self-known , or collected by legitimate Discourse . 9. Be this , therefore , a Demonstration a priori , as they term it , of this truth , that there is some certainty or Science ; that , since t is undenyable that what is is , or , an Identical Proposition is true , and every Proposition , whether self-known or Sylogistically-concluded , has no other necessity than what shews it self in an Identical one ; there can be no doubt of these , unless Identical ones , too , be called in question . For , since , in a self-known Proposition , t is Evident , that the thing signified by one Term is that which is signified by the other : And in a Sylogistically-concluded Proposition , it likewise appears , that because A is B , and B is C , A too is C ; or that , unless A be C , A will not be A ; for 't is not A unless it be B , nor B unless it be C : 'T is Evident that whatever is evinced by a legitimate Sylogism , has the same necessity as an Identical Proposition . Since therefore 't were meer perversness , and such as cannot fall into humane Nature , to doubt whether an Identical Proposition be true ; t is absolutely manifest that whatever is concluded by ligitimate discourse out of self-known Propositions is engrafted , beyond any danger of ambiguity ; or , that there is Science of all such like : And therefore that there is some Science , and that , indeed , of many truths . Now , that which either in a self-known or in a Demonstrated Proposition , is assum'd beyond Identical ones is not capable either of truth or falshood ; but , in a manner , is taken by way of snpposition ; as if 't were said , if he be a Man ; if it be an Animal : I say , for as much as Man or Animal are the subjects of the Propositions or Premisses . Second Plea. The Scepticks alledge nothing Sollid . 1. NOw , to the Scepticks , or Scepticism it self . What says the Sceptick ? Though , says he , nothing be certain , yet many things appear true to us ; and , out of such appearance we proceed to Operation . Thou entanglest thy self , Sceptick ! for , how , whilst , in common , it most clearly appears to thee that nothing is true ; yet assertest thou , in particular , that this appears to thee true ? Can these two stand together ; it appears that none of those things proposed us are true ; and at the same time , it appears that some of them are true ? Besides , if any thing appears true , 't is because it deceives us with the face and similitude of certain or true , ( which two , as to us , speak the same thing ; for , we say , that is certain which we know to be true , or which is true to us ) : But , 't is clear , we cannot affirm any thing to be like another , if we know not that other : If therefore , there be amongst us no Certainty , or nothing known to be true ; nothing can ever be or appear like Certainty amongst Men. 'T is , therefore , stark folly to joyn these two togther , there is nothing certain , or ther 's no Certainty ; and yet some things appear certain . 2. For all that , the Sceptick will stand to it , that at least this appearance is enough for humane Action : since all Action is singular , that is , in infinite Circumstances upon which Demonstration has no force , but only Prudence , or the power of conjecturing which is to be prefer'd before other . Notwithstanding , if the Action be truly humane , that is , purely and thoroughly govern'd by Reason , this Sceptical appearance is not enough for it . For , first , since Prudence is an Intellectual vertue , it cannot be indifferent to Truth and Falsity ; but always tenacious of truth . In Action , therefore , govern'd by Prudence two things fall under consideration ; that which is most conspicuous and spy'd by every one is , whether the Action be like to attain its immediate and next end , to which 't is destin'd : And this for the most part is uncertain ; but withall , in this consists not the primary effect of Prudence , but a certain faculty of guessing , which they call Sagacity . The other thing , wherein especially Prudence plays its part , is whether this Action be to be done here and so : For which it suffices that two things be certain ; One , that the Actor is led by no Passion ; the other , that he has used pains , or disquisition enough ; which depends on the former ; since that will not fall short , unless some Passion makes the Actor precipitate . But , as far as the soul proves deficient in these two , so much , too , she deviates from the Rule of Prudence . Now , these two may be very clear to an experienced Person . Farther , this Tenet , again , of the Scepticks fails of sufficiency for Action in the very first root of Acting , viz. Whether any thing be to be done , or whether Action be wholly to be suspended : For , in vain the understanding tugs at it , what Action to perform ; unless it be first evident that something is to be acted : They therefore , who profess not so much as this is known , that something sometimes is to be done , cannot be mov'd to Action out of pure understanding . Nor can it be reply'd that it appears to the Sceptick he is to Act : For , since Appearing is common to true and false ; Nay , since 't is known that false is oft-times more probable and apparent , than true ; 't is plain that neither Probability in general , nor the greater Probability can have any force at all to cause Assent . But , if one has not assented to this Universal proposition , something is to be done ; 't is plain that , as to pure Reason , he has no principle of Acting : And , if he has any other principle besides , Reason , the Action , as far as it springs from that , is not Rational . It must therefore be concluded that all action of the Scepticks is utterly not-humane , but only Brutal ; as rising purely from sense and imagination : Or , rather worse than Brutal ; in as much as they force Reason to submit to and serve sense . 3. But , that which highlyest crosses this Sect is , that Professors of Science much undervallue themselves , if they vouchsafe to dispute with them or endure to hear them babble . For , since in all humanenature , no Sect is to be found more addicted to prattle , and more greedy of that vanity which follows tinckling Cymbals : At what a distance will they be from their Beatitude , if among the adorers of Science they be not allow'd to vent their trifles ? Let us , therefore , fairly weigh this , whether they are to be admitted among the Professors of Learning . Scientifical Persons , then , are either Masters or Disciples ; that is , such as have already attain'd the habit of Science , or such as endeavour after it , or are seekers of truth . Since , therefore , t is plain , the Scepticks profess not themselves Possessors of the Science ; it remains they are to be reckoned among the seekers ; wherefore , since this contradicts it self , that one should seek what he thinks is no where , or at least , which dispairs possible to be found ; in vain they declare themselves Candidates or seekers after Sciences . Add to this , that , since they neither admit self-known Propositions , nor any legitimate Consequence of Discourse ; they have no way or Method of seeking , or any trace from which to commence their search : But , if they admit any of these two , they cannot but acknowledge something certain . 4. It ought , therefore , be objected , at the very begining , to such contemners of Sciences ; what attempt you ? what 's your aim ? How have you the confidence to attaque any one that 's truly a man ? For , whence shall what you say derive any appearance ? Is it not just to press on you to prove first whatever you assume ; and this without ever coming to an end ? You therefore , will never be able to assume any thing that can prove our Tenets false or uncertain . Again , will you use any other form of Discourse then Sylogistical ? But , this you deny to be evident and certain . You , therefore , come but to deride , sillily to play the Rooks , and chatter figments like Poetical Magpies . You I reply , perhaps , you dispute ad hominem ( as they term it ) , and shew , out of those things which our selves have accepted , that what we teach thereupon has no certainty . What 's your meaning ? If indeed you endeavoured this in any one Tenet , it might be allow'd you to try what you were able to do : But , if universally you assert us unable to make good Consequences , you call us Beasts and deserve not the hearing . And , you your selves , how will you evince any one Consequence to be ill ? Will you tell us how it ought to be , to be good , you I say that grant none to be evident ? ' Again , why will ours be false , and yours good ? But , if you affirm your own not good neither ; what madness possesses you , that you cannot suffer us to rest even in our Error ; when you neither can nor strive to exempt us from erring ? T is sweeter , sure , to believe one-self in the light , then to know one-self in darkness and all light hopeless . 5. In fine , To what purpose do we amass Arguments against those , who , as far as in them lies , have put off Humane Nature , and made themselves Beasts ? For , if to Reason be to advance our selves , out of certain and known things , to things before unknown and uncertain ; and nothing be certain : neither is any Reasoning possible ; nor consequently any power of reasoning ; or Animal endowed with it . But , if nothing be certain , nothing , too , will be true , since that is certain which we see to be true ; that is , truth had , our Truth true to us , True by which we are true . For , clear it is , that our Nature is covetous of Truth in it self ; that , when we or our understanding is true , being impregnated with this Truth , it may be made operative , and Master of all things without it ; or , that it may pursue useful things , fear such as are to be fear'd contemn things contemptible , and reject all manner of counterfeit scare-crows . He frustrates , therefore , the whole bent of Nature , that denies there 's any certainty ; and utterly evacuates , as Nature her self , so also her most vehement desire and aim . What need I mention Humane Conversation , but especially Negotiation ? for , if there can be nothing certain in Humane matters , why do we instruct Infants and Boys ? why strive we to perswade Youth into those things which seem True to us ? for , if there be no certainty acquirable , t is to be judg'd wholly indifferent what every Youth does , or whither he tends : Especially , since not so much as this is certain , that one thing is more probable than another ; and far less , that what now is more probable will be so when the Boy comes to choose it . Third Plea. T is imprudent to deny the existence of Sciences . 1. LEt us raise our Style , and enlarge it to entire Habits . Can it be believed , that men of excellent wits should be so fond as to deny those things that Humane life is full of ; and without which there 's no living , at least commodiously ? I mean Arts. Let 's consider what part of our Action or Life is exempt from their service : what Arts go to the providing us Food , Cloaths , Houses , Delights ? Our minds are cultivated with Liberal ones : the Fields , Mountains , Seas are mastred by Arts. To conclude , What is there that falls under mans use , wherein some kind of Art is not exercised ? Art , therefore , what is it , but a Rule which commonly fails not ? This , then ( if mens souls but own themselves ) is certain , that Art , for the most part , fails not . What if I should say , that it never fails ? but either the Artificer is unskilfull , or else , through laziness or knavery follows not the prescription of the Art , as oft as any Error happens . But , be it so , that Art sometimes fails ; at least , the whole course of our actions is grounded on this that , commonly it fails not : Wherefore since what never fails is certain , Art , which in most cases never fails , in most cases is certain ; and whoever denies this , either out of ignorance or stomack , opposes himself to very Nature and the Order of things . This is , therefore , a throughly-attested Truth , that there are intire and complete Habits of Certainties : since , both of the several Arts , in common , t is certain that for the most part they attain their effect ; and the same is as evident of the several Members and Joints in each Art in particular . 2. The next place Mathematicks challenge , which have gain'd the true name of Science : first , Arithmetick and Geometry , each of so large an extension , that they make up many entire habits ; and if they be acknowledg'd for Sciences , they leave no room for opposing others , upon pretence of the abundance of their Doctrines , or the largeness of their Subject . Such , again is the steddiness of Attestatition to these Sciences , of so many Ages , so many eminent Wits , by shewing and perpetuating so many Effects , beyond the estimation of humane Prudence ; that there can be no doubt but they winch against Nature it self that calumniate these Sciences . Let 's behold the multiplicity of Sylogisms ; the derivation of far distant Truths by intermediate Propositions , immediate to one another ; and how many Principles or fore-known Truths are sometimes made use of towards the search of some one : and we shall see these Sciences will not sustain themselvs alone , but extend their power to others also ; and perswade , nay , evince , that there 's nothing but may be demonstrated , if there want not Industry . 3. Yet I am not ignorant what uses to be urg'd against these Sciences , especially against Geometry : which though in other works I have sometimes repell'd , yet here too , as in their properest place , they are again to be repeated ; chiefly because the Scepticks no where , in my judgment deserve more applause . For , plain it is , though nothing be farther from the meaning of the Geometricians than what the Scepticks lay to their charge ; yet nothing appears clearer in the Terms they use , than what they mean not : Providence so ordering it , That those things which best guard themselves by their own evidence should be most infesed with prejudices ; to warn us , in more obscure points , not to desert evidence , though we be hard put to 't with weighty , perhaps , but obscure Argments . For , what 's more manifest than that Geometricians require a streight Line to be drawn from one point to another ? That they dispute , whole Volumes full , conconcerning Lines and Superficies ? That they demand a Line to be drawn out in infinitum ? That a Circle be made ? An equilateral Triangle ? And a thousand such like : That none of all which , yet , can exist in the world , 't is either certain , or , at least , so ambiguous that it ought not to be presum'd without Demonstration ; whereas the Geometricians neither attempt nor promise any such thing . 4. Notwithstanding in all these , t is no hard matter to satisfie an attentive Reader . For , I ask , whether or why t is not lawful for a Mathematitian to speak universally of his Object , in the same manner as both the Learned and Unlearned talk of theirs ? He may then speak of the body proposed to him , as t is long , not treating at all about it , as t is broad ; since for a Body to be broad is nothing else , but to be long according to two Dimensions . In like manner , since a Body to be deep signifies it to be long according to three Dimensions ; what an envious part 't is not to allow the same to be considered as broad , abstracting from the third Dimonsion ? These things being clear to the utmost pitch of evidence ; and so that we cannot speak otherwise according to Nature ; let 's see wherein lyes the fault of the Geometricians . You urge that they assert there is a Line in being , that is , Longitude without Latitude ; I deny it : You prove it , alledging they mark a Line with letters , saying the Line A. B. I demand , to what purpose serves this marking ? Is it for any thing but to notifie the Longitude of the Body they measure ? If that be all , then the sense which serves the Mathematicians turn in the word is , that the Body propos'd , according to Longitude , is equivalent to the distance between A and B. And , if he assumes any more , it must of necessity be something impertinent to his Discourse , which Geometricians , of all men , are farthest from . 5. The very same may be said for their manner of speaking concerning a Superficies . But , for Points , the solution is more evident : For , in stead of this word the Point A , or the Point B , put the word End or Term , and there will remain no shadow of difficulty . For , who can doubt but that a Body , as Long , is terminated : and therefore can forbid an End or Term to be assign'd it ? For the rest , 't will easily appear the like Discourse serves : For , when he demands a Line to be produc'd in infinitum , the clear sense of the Geometrician is to have it drawn out as far as is necessary for his work ; which never does or can happen to require it actually infinite . Not an infinite , therefore , but an indefinite Line the Geometrician asks ; that he may use any as big a part of it as he needs . In like manner , if he demands a Circle or streight Line to be made ; 't were fond to think he expects them scor'd out Mathematically on Paper or Sand : Since the Demonstration he intends is Universal and exists in the understanding only , not in Paper . It suffices therefore , that the accurateness of the Circle or Line be in his Mind , to which the paper yields a phantasm ; a weak one , indeed , but fit enough to delineate the rigorous form in his Mind . Some , too , will not allow a Line can be cut just in the middle . Nor do I deny this to be petty work of Geometry : But , neither do I expect the Scepticks should be able to prove this impossible : And therefore , against a perfect Demonstration , such as Euclid's is , to listen to slight-babling reasons were to trifle , not philosophize . 6. Is not this hugely remarkable , or rather to be admir'd ? That those things which advance Geometry , above other Sciences , in a great measure are false ; taken for granted in order to use , but not credited for Science : For , Mathematick is not certainer or more evident than other Sciences ; but easier and more adapted to fancy , not understanding . For , if in Geometry we were still to use strick Terms , and always to repeat this Body , as long , abstracting from its Latitude , or , as broad , abstracting from its depth , the whole discipline , losing that inveiglement of clearness by which it tills on the reader , would be but tedious work . Now , because we may use the names of Points , Lines , and Superficies , as they were Things ; and , according to this gross apprehension , make visible Figures : Geometrical truths strike almost our very corporeal Eyes . Whether as much may be done in other Sciences , at least as to some part , is not yet clear ; but , from the way of Algebra , it may be conjectur'd not utterly out of the reach of humane industry . 7. This , at least , may passe for evident , from the manner we have expressed of the Geometricalcontemplation : that the Geometricians use to draw their Consequences and Positions , not from the sounds of their words , but the Notions in their minds . But , herein kind Nature has been indulgent to those Disciplines ; that they are excus'd from any necessity to resolve the Equivocation of their terms : but having once explain'd them , they may , without any rub , proceed , whence we see that if at any time , they are put to explicate their words , Geometry grows even as troublesom as Metaphysick : as appears in that question bandy'd concerning an Angle of Contact ; because they reflect not that an Angle speaks a Quantum , whereas yet they confess it cannot exist without a space . Plain then 't is rendred that the first task in the other Sciences is , to make the question clear between the opposite Parties , not only in Term , but also in meaning : and that this is the main fault of the weak Managers of other Sciences , that they stick obstinately at using the words in a fore-received sense , and that no clear one ; nor can be bronght to an agreement about their explication . 8. It must be concluded , that , in Physick also and Metaphysick , there 's a capacity of infinite Demonstrations , if industry be not wanting . For , who is so senselesse as pertinaciously to deny , that a formal Sylogism may be made ev'n about the Subjects of these Sciences , or , when made , is of force ? It must , therefore , be said , either that the Discoursers in these Disciplines cannot comprehend their own meaning , and declare what they feel in their mind when they pronounce such words : or else , that they may reduce them into a Sylogism and breed Science . Plain too , it is , that , in that part of Physick , which is truly call'd such , viz. that which treats of sensible Qualities , not so subject to obscurity through the equivocalnesse of the Terms , Demonstration will cost lesse pains : in Metaphysicks 't will prove harder , because the Commoner the words are , the more they are subject to equivocation . But , on the other side , because , the Commoner the things treated are , the simpler are their Notions , and consequently , more evident the connexion of the terms : Demonstrations in Metaphysicks must needs be most evident and secure , and such as deserve the evidence of all other Sciences should depend on them . Fourth Plea Refells the Preliminary Objections . 1. NOw we must give ear to the Complaints , ( shall I call them ? ) or rather Reproaches of the Scepticks : though themselves are no slight Causes of those ills which they object to the Lovers of Dogmatizing ; who , whilst they even acknowledge it the entire work of a Man , and one minding his businesse too , to dilate the bounds of any Science ; themselves , pursuing mean studies and the applause of a smooth-tongue , strive , under pretence of impossibility , to avert from that Heroick thought the Scientifically-dispos'd Genius of others . Yet , would they do even this but solidly , I should think it pardonable : but , if they fall not on this neither in a legitimate way ; how are they not to be exploded ? Now , perhaps , the defects of mis-seekers may be more ; but I le content my self with the proposal of three . Let the first be of those who seek things incapable of Truth ; or who , of that which has no being at all , enquire how it is or may be made : as if one should require a Triangle , equal to an assign'd Circle , to be inscrib'd in it . Let the second be of those , who complain that those things are unknown , which , though true in themselves , are yet , either , absolutely , or at least as yet , out of the reach of human power : as if one should be angry that the Wars or Government of the Planetary Common-wealths ( supposing those Globes planted with Rational Creatures ) are unknown to us . For , 't is fondness to quarrel at our ignorance of such things , for reaching the knowledge whereof Nature has afforded us no Ladder of Accidents . The last defect is of such as lament those things are unknown , which , by honest industry , may be searcht out , and will , if the ardour of inquisition grow ripe . For , 't is ignorance and importunity to allow no time for encrease of Sciences . Amongst these I reckon not those self-tormentors , who fret that those things are unknown , which are publickly known to others , but unknown to them ; because , upon some extrinsecal prejudice , they neglect inquiring into what others have said : which race of Men is , at this day , most frequent among the Courters of Science ; but withall most insufferable : For , what can be viler than to shut the eyes against things most manifest to the understanding ; upon the Calumnies of such as profess they know not these things which others constantly affirm are most evidently comprehended ? 2. Let now the Complaints themselves speak , viz. Those with which the Contemner of advancing Dogmatically has stuft his 3 , 4 , 5 , and 6 Chapters : But , first le ts examine those things which he indulgingly reproaches . They are the two , as it were , acknowledged ultra's of Philosophers , viz. The Causes of the Seas Ebbing and Flowing , and of the Wonders of the Load-stone . I le endeavour to look into them severally . And , as to the first , though that may well be reckoned among the things whose Accidents are not-yet-enough comprehended by us ; and therefore I might justly exact that they , who think it incomprehensible , should take care to have the Phoenomena's clear'd , and teach us , by just calculations of Seamen , what dayes , in the several Regions , the Sea Ebbs and Flows happen : Otherwise , I may deservedly lay the blame on industry , and excuse Philosophy : Yet I will not proceed so rigorously with a courteous Adversary ; but argue , that These things may be convinced concerning this vicissitude of the Sea : That the motion is caus'd by an extrinsecal Mover : That that is no other than the winde : That what rules the windes is but various aspects of the Sun and Moon to the divers Climates of the Earth . Which , if they be true , if evident from the Phoenomena's ; what remains , but that the Phoenomena's be more acurately traced ; and the ignorance of particulars laid to the charge of Industry , not of Art : and so Philosophy scape scot-free ? 3. Le ts run over our Proposals one by one . The first is that the Seas motion is from something extrinsecal , or without it . This is Demonstrated by Aristotle in his Books of Physicks ; as they who have studyed him know : The Dialogues , too , De Mundo have made this some part of their pains ; and , if a proper place for it occurs in this Treatise , I shall not be loath of my labour to explicate the same again : here this proposition is to be assum'd , not prov'd . That the Author of this motion is the winde comprehends more than one thing , viz. That the winde is a sufficient stirrer of the Sea ; and that it , in particular , concurs to this motion call'd the Flux . As to the first part , ( not to mention how many Deluges or overflowings of the Sea have infested the Coasts by the windes help ) , we need not travel beyond the Thames ; in which , almost every Winter , the Flood happens , sometimes more than once in a day , to be beaten back or pour in more abundantly than ordinary , to the overflowing the Streets in the Subburbs of London , That , again , the Winde causes this course of the Tydes , besides the necessity which the perpetual West-Winde , flowing from the Atlantick Sea to the East-Indies , carries with it ; the Six-months strong Currents , which take their turns constantly backward and forward between Africa and America , conformable to the Windes always keeping the vicissitude there , are a manifest testimony . Add to these , that , through the whole Coast of China , certain Tempests , with most vehement Rains and overflowings of Rivers , are daily expected at the New and Full Moons ; whence the variation of the Fluxes at the same just periods is encreased . Now , that the Windes and Rains and rising of Storms depend from the Sun and Moon is so notorious that 't is past contest . These things , then being clear ; the causes of Ebbing and Flowing cannot be obscure : though the certain Compasses they fetch be unknown , because the observations of them are not-yet exactly calculated . 4. Nor is the Magnetical Philosophy less evident , if we 'l have but patience to look into 't by piece-male . For , it cannot be doubted , from the sudden turning of Iron-tools fit for the purpose , and other Bodies apt for Magnetical direction ; but that power of Direction , which we call Magnetical , is attaind by a flux of unperceivable Atoms deriv'd from one Body into another : And as little , that because a perpendicular or horizontally-sidelong position of the Magnetical body is apt to beget in it that vertue ; the primarily Magnetical body is the Earth we tread on , or at least the crust of it next us . Nor , again , is it questionable , from the perpetual Motion of corruption and generation of this Magnetical vertue in those bodies ; but there is a certain perpetual flux of Atoms upwards and downwards , as also between the Equator and the Poles ; whereby this vertue is infus'd and fed . Neither , again , will any stick at it , that the Magnetical Body , if it be set at full liberty , must be carry'd according to the flux of the like Atoms ; as that which swims in a River follows the violence of the stream : and consequently , the declination , too , or variation of the Needle point out the Channel of the Earth's Atoms , which are proper to it . All which if we solidly remark , and pursue with a steddy discourse ; I see not what great Mistery lies in this Magnetical vertue and operation , beyond possibility of bringing clearly to light . These secrets , therefore , of nature were , heretofore , like the head of Nilus , undiscover'd ; but now , themselves attest not the defect but proficiency of Science . These then thus touch'd on , let us fall to the Objections themselves . Fifth Plea Refells our Ignorance of the Soul and Sensation . 1. IN the third Chapter , therefore , of his most eloquent Discourse , he objects our ignorance of that thing we ought to be best acquainted with , viz. Our own souls . Concerning which , what a kind of thing 't is in this our earthly habitation , he neither teaches nor enquires at all , as far as I can discern ; only that it is , he asserts , may be most clearly gathered from its effects ; but , to ask what it is , he saies is like the mistake of Infants , that look behind the Glass for the Body whose superficies they saw painted on its foreside . And , in my judgment , he had said rarely , had he stopt here : but in his following Questions , he shews his deficiency even in this . For , he asks farther , whence the Soul comes ? and how t is united to the Body ? He is therefore most manifestly detected , to think that the Soul , lying hid in the Body , is of it self a certain substance , which may directly be made , come , and be joined to another thing : whence he terms it subsistence , which doubtless denotes a Thing and Substance . Now , that this is a most important error in Philosophy none can doubt , that 's able to discern the opposition of One and Many . For , t is plain , that either a Man is not a Thing ; or else that his Soul and Body are not two Things ; if one thing cannot at once be many , nor many one . Nor am I scar'd with the distinction ( which the Boys that gabble Philosophy have always ready in their Budget ) of a perfect and imperfect thing : which saies just nothing , unless imperfect signifie to which somewhat is wanting to make it a thing ; which suppos'd , an imperfect thing is not a thing , and the distinction vanishes . Otherwise , the same cannot be one thing and more things : Wherefore either a Man is not a Thing , but a Pair of Things consisting of an Intelligence and a Beast ; or his Soul and Body are not two things . 2. When , therefore , he asks , Whence comes the Soul ? it must be answered with a question , Whether he doubts whence the man comes ? For , if whilst the man lives , there be but one only thing which is call'd the Man , 't is he alone can have come ; and he beats the wind that enquires whence the Soul comes ? Nor am I shaken with the Authority of our Fore-fathers , though never so Reverend : I mean not of those who profess themselvs unable to grapple with the Question ; for these deliver the Candle into the hands of Posterity , advising them to pursue on the same Race , that it may be seen whether any thing purer occur to them than to themselves , ready to Patronize whoever shall clear the Truth . But their opposition I resist , who clamor 't is the Faith of all Churches that Rational Souls are fram'd by God. For , now I 'm accustom'd to it , to distinguish between what 's due to the sincerity of Faith , and what to Scholastical subtilty . If I attribute the Making of Man , as he 's Intellectual , to the singular power and operation of God , I have submitted my self to the keys of the Churches Doctrine , and subscrib'd to the Tradition of the Saints . But , whether that action , which is the Generation of Man , consists of two actual parts , or be but one alone , by more notions equivalent to more really-distinct actions , is a purely speculative Question belonging to the Schools . And so it must be said that one Thing , a Man , equivalent to a Beast and an Intelligence , is brought into existence , by one action , equivalent to two , the Generation of an Animal and the Creation of an Intelligence . 3. By this truth we are led to the evident solution of the two following knots ; the econd being how the Body and Soul are united ? Which , 't is plain , is herein faulty , that it supposes two things to be united existing either before the Compound , or not destroyd but ty'd together in it : which is clearly false , not only out of the ' fore-declared Truth , but also out the definition of a Part. For , Parts are call'd such , whereof , by a Motion , call'd Composition , one thing is made ; or into which , what was one is resolv'd by Division , or destruction of the Unity . Now , Unity , not Union , is the form of what is One : And , in that which is One , to seek for the colligation or cement , is to seek by what the same is made the same . The same Error runs through the following Difficulty , which laments that 't is unknown how the soul moves the Body : Which is utterly knock'd on the head , by denying the soul moves the Body . For , true it is , that one animated Member moves another ; but not , that any substance , which is a pure soul , moves immediately any Member in which the soul is not . I appeal to other Animals , in which there 's frankly denied to be a Soul independent of the Body : and I desire to have shewn me what motion there is in man , which is not in them . I confess freely , that one Member , the Brain especially , moves the rest after another manner in Man , than in other Animals ; and this by reason of the difference in their Souls : but first it ought to be made evident by experiments , that a Humane Soul , without the help of the Body , or some Member acting together with it , moves another Member ; before we are to enquire into the manner how this either is or can be done . 4. The last darkness which he bemoans in this Chapter lyes in our ignorance of that Motion , whereby the spirits are deriv'd out of the brain into the fit Nerves for the Animal's natural Action . And , if indeed the Objection brandish an Argument common to all Animals , I should soon quit the field : for I confess my self not so skilful in Anatomy , that I can lay before the eyes , why , from the Motion of Anger boyling in the heart , the spirits should start into those Muscles , by whose streining the Animal is carry'd towards its Adversaries ; and , from the Motion of Fear , spirits flow into the opposite Muscles , by which the Animal flies fromwards them ; whereas they , in a manner , add strength to and enforce both alike . Yet , I make no question at all but , by force of the Brain 's Motion , caus'd by the motion of the heart , it comes to pass that the entrance into one sort of Channels are shut , others opn'd , and that thence comes this admirable and as-yet-not-sufficiently-seen-through direction of the spirits . But , the Authors seems to make Mans case proper to himself ; alledging Will , and perhaps Election , to be , as it were , the first Author of this direction . Still , therefore , he slips into the same Error . For , first , he should demonstrate some act of the will , without some either precedent or concomitant Motion of the Heart , ( which , when t is violent , we call Passion ; when we endeavour at any thing , Desire or Flight , or some other such like we stile it ) : But , if there be no such , then the cause of this direction is purely Mechanical , as he calls it , and not any certain inexplicable power . Now , that there cannot possibly be any such exempt act of the will , 't is clear enough to them who allow ther 's no knowledge without a beat of Phansies : For , Phansies cannot chuse but both be stird themselves and stir others , by the usual ways of Nature . By Motions , therefore , deriv'd from the heart , whether in Man or in Animals , all Motions , whether Natural or Free , Universally are perform'd : and , by consequence , are subject to the contemplation and scrutiny of Philosophy and acurate Mechanicks . 5. The fourth Chapter objects that the Natures of Sensation and Memory are inexplicable . As to the former , first he acknowledges the substance of sensation is seated in the Brain alone : Then he inclines to Des Cartes's fantastical conjecture , shall I call it , or deviation from the manifest footsteps of Nature ; about Motion's being brought down from the Heav'ns to our Eyes , through the continuedness of a very thin Ether : But , because he esteems Aristotle's conceits , too , not incredible , I may be excus'd from that speculation . At length , therefore , he falls again into the old Error , enquiring how corporeal things can have any force upon a naked Spirit ? He supposes therefore , the Soul in the Body to be a kind of thing , not the form or affection of the thing , Man ; and so , is upon the same false haunt again , nor needs repeating former discourses to beat him off it . But , left he should say nothing new , he objects that , by sense alone ; there 's no discerning the Quantities , Distances , Figures and Colours of things . I wonder , I must confess , at these Objections from a curious and ingenious Man ; things so clearly explain'd & demonstrated in Opticks . Who is so ignorant , that he knows not that bigger things , at the same distance , strike the eye in a more obtuse Angle and stronglier ? Who knows not that Figure , if plain , as objected to the eye , is nothing else but Quantity more spacious or contracted this or that way ? but , if it be a solid one and participate of the third dimension , it borrows its variety from Distance . Again , that Distance is nothing else , but a certain Magnitude spread between the Eye and the Object ; which if it be past judging of , neither can the Eye attest the distance . Lastly , that Colour is nothing else , but the confused figuration of a Superficies , according to its parts undistinguisht to sense . Whence it remains clear , that the Eye needs no other Geometry for all these , than what is necessary to judge of a magnitude from the variety of an Angle . 6. His next pains is about Memory . To shew the explication of that impossible , he commemorates and rejects four waies of resolving it . I must take another path than any of those . First , I must weaken this consequence , that If any thing about Memory has not hitherto been explicated , we must therefore make account it never will be , or that 't is impossible to be explicated . We must be aware too , that alwaies some things will be unknown ; either because their trivialness merits not the pains of learning them ; or in that at length the bulk of things known will be grown so great , that more will be burthensome to the understanding . Now , to complain of such like is to have forgot human shortness . What , therefore , seems my task in this Queston is , to bring into play those things which are already establisht and evident about memory ; and , for those that are unknown to make an estimate whether , some time or other , they too will come or merit to be known . First , then 't is evident , we must distinguish what is Memory and what Remembrance . For , Memory is only a Conserving of the impressions made by the objects , whereby the Animal is rendred able to use them when he lists or needs . But , Remembrance is a certain Motion whereby that power of using the impressions is reduc'd into Act and Use. Concerning Memory , therefore , a reason is to be given both of its station or rest , and of the causes or manner of its Motion : and of both , if I be not mistaken , Nature and Experience offer evident footsteps , for tracing them . 7. In the first place , that all things that move the sense have certain minute particles of their body shorn off ; as to the Touch , Tast and Smell , is too notorious to abide contest . He that denyes the same force to the Light , returning from the things to our Eyes , must deny , too , that the Sun extracts exhalations from the Earth and Sea : there being no other diversity in the operations , but that the one is greater and stronger , the other weaker and less . Now that these Atoms get up to the Brain , by the waftage of the Spirits , ( that is , a certain liquid and most subtil substance ) can scarce be denied by one never so pievish , that 's but put in minde how Waters and Oyles are impregnated . These Atoms , therefore , must of necessity strike , not without some violence , upon that part of the Brain , whose being-struck causes perception . Again , that a stream or any thing liquid dasht against a resister should not leap back again is most clearly repugnant , both to experience and reason . And , that a substance any thing viscuous , in a viscuous vessel besides ( such as those are about the brain ) being repuls'd , should not stick to any thing solid is equally impossible : as also , that a notable part of that stream should not cling together , is against the Nature of gluyness . The Walls therefore , of the empty and hollow places of the Brain must of necessity be all hang'd and furnisht with little threads . Conclude we , then , that through all the senses , except Hearing , the Animal is enabled , by Atoms constantly sticking in it , to make use again of the Impressions made by Objects . In fine , since sound is made by a collision of the Air ; 't is evident by Anatomy , that it drives the Hammer of the Ear to beat upon the Anvil , by which beat 't is not to be believ'd but certain particles must fly off and strike the Fancy : the orderly storing up ▪ therefore , of these is apt to constitute the Memory of sounds . The structure , then , of Memory ( if I am not mistaken ) is rationally enough declared . 8. I cannot see why the like track may not carry us to the explaining of the Symptoms of Remembrance too ; or why their Solution should be desparate . For , there 's nothing clearer than that the fore-explicated motion of the Atoms is set on work by a wind , as it were . For , that Passion is a certain ebullition of Spirits reeking out of the heart , t is visible even to the eies , in Anger , and Love , and Bashfulness . If we make inquisition what effect these motions have on the Fancy , we experience , that those Objects occur to the mind , tumultuously and all on a heap , as it were , which solicite these Passions ; so hastily and in a huddle , that they prevent mature weighing . It appears , therefore , that the Atoms , rouz'd from their places by such like vapours , fly about the cognoscitive part , in a kind of confused tumble . If then , there are certain winds and blasts , which we call Motions of the appetitive faculty : is it not plain , that the cavities of the Brain will be brusht , as it were , and the Images sticking to the wals be moved to the place destin'd for attaining their effect ? And that these Atoms are carried neither meerly by chance , nor yet in a certain order , is evident by this ; that , upon inquisition , the things we seek for do not suddenly and perfectly occur ; which were a sign of election ; and yet manifestly , such abundance of them suit to our purpose , that t is clear , they could not run thus without any industry at all . As , therefore , when we treated of directing the Spirits into the Nerves , we allowed the several Passions each their waies into certain parts of the Brain : so , here , t is also manifest , the same Passions have the places and series of some certain Atoms , in a manner more obvious to them , than others . 9. But our new admirer of Nature is perplext , how this multitude of Objects , swimming in the cavities of the Brain , should possibly be , without entangling and confounding one another : and by what Art they shift out of one anothers way , so as to be able to keep humane knowledge distinct . And here , I must confess , I had need crave the help of a Machine : for , really , we have no Candle , nor Spectacles enabling us to look into the subtile paths by which the Atoms avoid and slip by , to escape ruining one another by shocking . But , in exchange , I ask how many Sun-beams ( which Philosophy now questions not to be Bodies ) pierce streight to our eies , through the vast continuity of Air , and so many little Bodies flying up and down in it ? There 's no body , if we credit Experience and Reason , without its steams , and a sphere of vapours derived from it : How do these steams find free paths to run in and attain such wonderful effects ? The Magnetical , Sympathetical , and smell-producing streams , have not their courses broken , or ends intercepted by one another . They that have not the confidence to deny these , why are they loath to allow the same may happen in the wide passages of the Brain ? But you 'l reply , that to multiply a difficulty is not to salve it ; but to profess the rest of Nature inscrutable , when t is our task to clear this particular . Well then , thus I cut the very knot asunder : In currents of greater Atoms , where t is easier to make experiment , t is plain , that many are confounded , many lost ; yet , out of the very nature of Multitude , that some are preserved entire , and those enough to serve Nature's turn . So it passes even in the Brain : whatever Object enters requires time for affecting the Sense ; which , if it be too short , the Object is lost almost before it be perceiv'd ; if long , it roots in the knowledge by the multiplicity of the images , and the frequent sight of the same Object does as much ; nay , that knowledge often repeated , works the same effect , is evident beyond dispute . This being so , we must conclude , that such is the art of Nature as , for things to be remembred , there shall not want that abundance of images , which is necessary and sufficient to force their way through the Crowd of all others they meet . 10. 'T is plain that , in this Answer , I have prefer'd the Digbaean Method before the rest : Because that , as neer as is possible , traces Nature step by step . I concern not my self in the rest ; as studying Philosophy , out of a design to build , not destroy . Only , I 'd remember the ingenious Author that he mis-imposes the third opinion ( which relishes nothing of Philosophy ) upon Aristotle ( who taught the Digbaean way ) ; deceiv'd by the counterfeit stilers of themselves Aristotelians , whereas they are nothingless . In this same Chapter , the Author seems sollicitous about the will 's following the understanding : But , because , he disputes nothing on 't , neither will I ; only , hint that the will , as spiritual , signifies not any thing else , but the very understanding perfect , or ripe for action to follow out of it . That Mystery of whence comes ill , I deny not , has bin brought down , by the contests of the Ancients , even to our ears ; nor question I but 't will last as long as the bold and ignorant shall endure : But , as the Author mis-insinuates , I doubt not that St. Augustine himself has most clearly convinc'd it ; nor can it any longer be troublesome to any , but those who either know not , or neglect his Doctrine . Sixth Plea Displaies the Pastick vertue , Continuity , Adhesion of Parts , and the Mysteries of Rolling . 1 ▪ IN his fifth Chapter he falls upon the obscurity of the formation of natural Bodies , especeially living ones : Yet , not so smartly but that what he says may , with ease enough be repuls'd . I say , then , that there are two Methods , by which the formation of living Creatures may be rendred intelligible ; without any farther difficulty than what may , without a Miracle , be refunded into the Wisdome of our Maker . Conceive the first , thus : Let 's say the seed of a Plant or Animal conteins invisible parts of all the Animals Members : These , le ts say , supply'd with moisture , encrease , with some slight Mutation , whereof the reason may be easily rendred ( for example , that some parts dryer and harder , others are more throughly water'd and grow soft ) ; and what great matter will be apprehended in the formation of living things ? The other Method is , that , observing the progress in Chymicks , which must of necessity hold the very same in Nature if self , we 'd see that things concocted with a Gentle fire result into three more remarkable parts : A kind of thin and , as it were , fiery one , though condensablein to the Species of Water ; another Oily and answerable to Air ; a third expressing the Nature of Salt and , as it were , hardned water ; with all which ther 's mingled and lyes at the bottom a fourth , that 's dry and of an Earthy quality , however they call it . The same we ought to expect from Nature ; since the acting of Heat upon Moisture is the End of both Fornaces . This laid for a ground , suppose , in a proper vessel , a Drop of prepared Liquor , so kept warm and preserv'd that it may be encreas'd , too ; is it not plain that , by the very action , some parts will become dryer , others more subtil and liquid ? And that the dryer will grow into different figures ? Especially into certain hollow Vessels ; if , by the beats of the boyling moisture , they be extended and thrust out in length ? And that all of them will cling together , where they begin first to divide ? And see you not now the figure of the Animal and its respectively homogeneous parts form'd ? And that their connexion and variety , and its other heterogeneous parts follow the variety of either the Fire or Liquor . 2. He that shall comprehend these things well , will not lament that the Plastick vertue is an empty name and a word without a thing . But , if he be ingenious and conveniently at leisure , he 'l either , in spring time close-observe the breeding Plants in Gardens or the Fields ; or at home pluck up Seeds buried in Pots , just while they are taking life ; and daily rake into the bowels of Berries and Seeds : and I dare promise him so manifestly connected steps of advance , that , after many experiments , he shall fore-tel , meerly out of what he sees the day before , what will be the next days issue . Those things which appear wonderful confusedly in the whole , taken asunder discover and fairly offer themselves to view . If one observe the spreading of figures or Colours , he shall find the principles of these founded in the nature of Juice ; the reasons of those chalk'd out by some manner of their production : for both Fruits and even slips are , by art , variable into any kind of forms . Much more the figures of different salts or concret Juices spring , not from any intrinsecal nature , but from their usual generation and the diffidulty or facilness of their place and Motions . Nor let any be scar'd by the talk of Artists , that admire and amplifie those things whose causes they understand not : or of our Authour , amaz'd at the constancy of natural operations ; why our Hens should never be colour'd like Peacocks-tails or Parrats . For , in different Regions , great varieties spring from the diversity of Food and Air : And , for what is out of our reach about these things , we must be beholden to time . 3. In the same Chapter he raises two other Questions , which he thinks absolutely inexplicable : to me , on the other side , they seem to have scarce any difficulty in them . The later in Him is concerning the Composition of Bulk or Continuum : A question both debated by the Antients and desperate to the Modern's . The former , though the later in Nature , is concerning the sticking together of parts , or , why one Body is more divisible , another less . The former question supposes another , whether there be parts actually in a Continuum , whereof the affirmative side , though they wrangle in words , yet is commonly taken by the Modern's , as it were a self-or-sensibly-known truth ; but , by the whole School of the antient Peripateticks and that of the Thomists following them , hist out , as demonstratively convicted . The issue of the matter is that , about the Composition of Bulk , the Moderns , after a world of laborious trifling , confess Philosophy at a stand : The Peripateticks deride them as groping in the dark . For , if there be no parts til they are made by division ; they are manifestly out of their wits that seek how those should be united which are-not at all ? The arguments of those that assert actual parts cite even sense ; concerning which ther 's nothing certainer than that it cannot discern any part in a Bulk ; since the term of each part is invisible , whereas sence requires a notable quantity to judge of . Their other Arguments commonly assume our manner of speaking , and end in Logical trifles , how we ought to speak , not what the thing it self has really in it . Now , this no-very-difficult contest being decided , all the controversie concerning the composition of Bulk is over . 4. About the other question there 's even as wise work . The followers of Democritus strive to resolve it into hooks and corner'd hold-fasts : Not seeing , that nothing can be imagin'd so one , or an Atom , as that it self is not compos'd of many parts , concerning which it must be ask'd how they come to stick so fast together ? But , this difficulty they , at least , slip over , asserting that these in minutest Bodies , by force of Nature , resist whatever divisive power , not so the Compounds of them : That is , the greatest and invincible coherence of parts they carelesly ascribe to the force and quality of Nature , and are narrowly inquisitive about a less . The first resolution , therefore , 't is plain , is refunded into Nature it self , and the division of Body or Bulk into Rare and Dense , or having More and Less of Quantity in equality of Bulk . Which Differences most Demonstrably dividing the Notion of Quantitative and constituting more Species of it in things ; there remains no greater Difficulty in the Adhesion of the parts of the same Continuum , than whether there be any such thing or not : For , if there be any , by its very being a Continuum , of necessicity it must be whereof parts may be made , not wherein parts are ; else ( as we have press'd above ) the same thing would be one and many , divided and not-divided , in the same Notion . Therefore 't is that substance , from its very Quantity , whence it has its refolvableness into parts , has also its easier or harder resolvableness , which they call its parts more or less sticking to one another . But , as soon as ever the speculation is strein'd up to Intellectual Notions , these Naturalists's stomack turns : as if Philosophy enjoyn'd us not to know our own thoughts , and made it unlawful to understand what we speak . 5. His Sixth Chapter is all dedicated to the Motion of Wheels ; nor , if we believe an Author that wants for no wit , is it any ways solvable . But , before he attaques that fatal Difficulty , he objects a certain previous one to us , which the Antients object to Aristotle ; but he , I confess , in a clearer form . For , he considers a Wheel mov'd about its Center , and plainly concludes that no part of it moves ; but the whole is mov'd , and the several parts together change place . But , what inconvenience this conclusion drags along with it , I am utterly ignorant : For , though he strives to reduce at large , that one part first quits the place before another is in it ; yet evidently the words , not the thing , breeds all the contest : For , what hinders that , altogether and at-once , both the quitter should first not-be and the succeeder first be in the same place ? Another solution might be given , did the Argument exact it : But , as I said , the quarrel is about the words and manner of speaking , not the thing . The Author subjoyns a second difficulty , how , in a Wheel turn'd about , the parts nearer the Center , in the same time , come to run over so little a space ; whereas they are connected with the remoter , which fetch so large a Compass ? And , after he has acknowledged it to arise from hence , because they are not carry'd alike swiftly ; he infers that , if the swiftness of the Motions be unequal , the straight line drawn from the Center to the Circumference must be crook'd : Whereas 't is most evident , the right line would be crook'd , if the nearer and distanter parts from the Center were carry'd with equal velocity . 6. At length the Author loftily enters upon his boasted experiment , professing before hand , hee 'l stop the mouth of the boldest obstinancy . Thus he proposes it . Let one Axle-tree have three Wheels on it , one at each end , both alike , and a third in the Middle far less . Let the bigger rest upon the floor , the lesse● upon some table . Let them all be drawn in a progressive Motion , till , having fetch'd a full compass , they mark the floor and the table with the very same points , in which , at first , they rested on them . The three scor'd lines will be found equal ; whereas the middle one is scor'd out by the contact of a Circle far less than the other two , yet 't is as long as them : Which , with no likely-hood , can be deny'd impossible ; since , 't is clear , things that touch , as far as they do so , are , necessarily equal . This is the knot ; this the evident repugnancy . But , alas ! let 's observe that Motion is call'd in to help tye the knot the harder ; and that the motion is of two kinds , a Right and a Circular , compounding a third progressive motion of the Wheel . Observe we farther , that the Right ( or streight ) Motion of the three Wheels is equal ; and that the Circular Motion of the great Wheels is equal to the Right Motion ; but the Circular motion of the Middle little Wheel is less than the Right Motion : And , which follows , that the greater Wheels are mov'd with the same celerity according to both motions ; but the lesser is mov'd stronglyer in the Right , than in the Circular . Now , the compounded Motion is not that which is scor'd upon the floor or table , which , 't is clear , is a simple and purely Right one ; but a certain crooked Motion in the Air , making , with the scored Motion , a certain Area ( whose quantity , Torricellus has demonstrated ) : as is manifest beyond dispute to whoever but takes any one point of the Circle or Wheel ; and withall , that the progressive Motion of the bigger Wheels is greater than that of the lesser Wheel . These things thus explicated , there appears nothing in this objection more intricate , than in this simple Proposition , that of two bodies , which are carryed according to one line with equal velocity , one may , at the same time , be carried swiftlyer than the other , according to another line : which is so evident , that any one , that 's a Mathematician , cannot doubt of it . 7. Yet still Galilaeus presses closer that , in the circumvolution , the several points of the lesser Circle or Wheel are just fitted , in an immediate succession , to the several points of the space in which 't is carried : And , therefore , that it cannot be understood how the Right can be longer than the Crooked . But , that which deceived Galilaeus was his not having discussed Aristotle himself , but bin overcredulous to his Modern Interpreters , or rather Corrupters . For , Aristotle has taught us that a Moveable , in actual Motion , alwaies possesses a bigger ( and not-equal ) place to it self ; which is most evident : For , since no part of Motion can be but in Time ; and , in every part of time , the thing moved quits some place and gets some new ; 't is plain , there cannot be found any so little motion , wherein the Body moved , has not possessed both the place in which it had rested , and some part of a New one . This supposed , though the Moveable were conceived indivisible ; yet certain it would be that , in whatever determinate part of time , or by however little a part of Motion , it would score out not a space equal to it self , but some line ; and , in the conditions of our present dispute every point of the lesser Wheel will draw a line proportionate to a part of the Circle of the greater Wheel . And , since really there are no either instants in Time , or indivisibles in Motion , or Points in a Circular Line : 'T is evident , this Argument has no force ; but in vertue of that false apprehension which we have convinced in the ' fore-alledged defence of Geometry . Seventh Plea Inquires after the Causes of our Modern Shortness in Science . 1. IN some of the following Chapters he , exquisitely enough , searches into the Causes of Errors and human Ignorance : Yet , me-thinks , I could suggest two which he has over-slipt . One is the Laziness or rather Vanity of this Age : For , whoever has got himself but talk enough to weave a learned story amongst the ignorant or half-learned , such as understandings unaccostomed to Sciences are apt to be dazled with : partly out of irksomness to pursue harder things , partly out of confidence of his own wit , he slights descending into those Mines whence our Ancestors have dig'd out Science ; and to take those pains himself which alone Wisdom regards and follows . Let this Author be my witness ; who , about the end of his former Chapter , complains of the Obscurity of our Speculations concerning Motion , Gravity , Light , Colours , Sight , Sound ; all which the Digbaean Philosophy makes as clear as day : Whence also ( though there they are more copiously and clearly explicated ) we have borrowed our Discourses of the Load-Stone , the derivation of the Spirits into the Members , the Memory and Remembrance , the Formation of living Creatures , and whatever almost we have alledged for solving the proposed Difficulties : the very dictates of Nature leading us the way . Such like Philosophers , therefore , read the eminent and highly elaborate Works of others , as if they were Romances invented for pleasure , or as Spectators behold a Comedy : what on the sudden takes them they commend ; if any thing more knotty than ordinary occurs , they either out of laziness let it pass unregarded , or break some bitter jest on 't . 2. Another cause of Ignorance , wav'd by our Author , appears to me to be a certain special Error in the nature of Demonstration . For , they feign to themselvs a certain Idea of Demonstration , which should not only have this force on the Vnderstanding , to render the Truth propos'd evident ; but , so , besides , that no objection can with any likelihood be oppos'd against it . Which is as much as if they should require this Demonstration to clear whatever follows out of , or any way relates to it ; or , that one Demonstration should be a kind of entire Science . For , otherwise , how is it possible but opposition may be rais'd against this , out of things not-yet seen-through and conjoin'd with this Truth ? An Understanding then , adapted to Sciences , out of very Principles and what it already knows , is secure of a deduced Truth : nor fears any thing can be infer'd opposite to the Truth it knows ; whatever pains it may cost to get out of streights . For , it knows , that those things are certain , which the Vnderstanding , out of a steddy sight that a Thing is a Thing , or that the same is the same , has fixt to and in it self : and patiently waits till the distinction between the entanglements shew it self , and the confusion vanish . 3. In that these Contemners of Sciences endeavour not at fixing any thing in themselves by a severe contemplation of Truth : as soon as any Truth pretends but to evidence , as if they were incapable of owning it , they quit their station , and betake themselves to enquiring whether any one has oppos'd that same : and if they find Impugners , they assume it for most evident , that such a Truth is not evident . For , say they , were it evident , 't would be so to all ; 't would convince every understanding . But , they may just as well say , the Sun is not visible , because t is not seen by them who turn their backs on 't , or keep their eies shut . For , as in corporeal sight , some corporeal motion is necessary , by which the Ball of the Eye may be set against the Object : no less to see and fix in the mind this very evidence , that the same cannot be and not-be at once , a certain Application , and as it were , opening of the mind is required ; even to conceive and give birth to the very evidentest evidence . And , for want of this , so many of the Ancients and Moderns have not own'd , but corrupted , the evidence of that very first and most notorious Principle . Whence they can never attain that Scientifical Method which shines so clear in Arithmetick and Geometry , but are wholly entangled in Logical and Equivocal trifles ; and fill babbling Volumes with fopperies . Let these lusty Compilers of Tomes shew the world but one leaf , or one page deduc'd , or , at least , attempted in a Geometrical Method ; and then , let them complain there 's no Science , or that it lies hid in an unfathomable Well : now the sordid Sluggards , only mettlesome at repaoaches , conceit a Lion in the way , and stir not a foot , so much as to behold the very way . Eighth Plea Wards off from Aristotle the Calumny of special Impiety . 1. ANd now I seem at an end of the Task set me : did not the same persons strein , as enviously as possible , to defame Aristotle , with all manner of Contumelies ; that the ignominy of that one man may make way for them to tear Science it self out of the hands of the Learned , and throw it into the dirt of Probability . For , he alone , of all the Ancients , has left any Monument of Demonstration in Metaphysicks and Physicks . The Academicks , where they leave the Peripateticks , were Orators , not Philosophers . For , Socrates himself was meerly a Disputer and a Doubter . Plato and Aristotle divided his School . Plato propos'd to himself , with his wholy-divine Wit and purest Eloquence , to set out Probability , and make himself admir'd for speaking specious things concerning the Principles necessary to Human life . Aristotle very concisely hunting after truth by Experiments , and Marrying with the inspection of Nature , the power of deducing Consequences , design'd to shew the world Science in Physicks and Metaphysicks worthy to vye with Geometry : And , therefore , as long as a Popular form of Common-wealth nourisht the power of Orators , He was less esteem'd . For , those Famous persons affected to manage Science after the manner of Civil Causes , without a solid and firm Judgment . The Orators at length , wearing out of credit , the Authority of Aristotle grew stronger ; and has been deriv'd from the Romans to the Arabians ; from them , to our Schools : the Italians first ( to our knowledge ) re-calling into the West , the Science of the Arabians , which the wars long since had chas'd away . 2. 'T is highly unjust , and a sign of a Cavilling spirit , to pry into his Life , whose Doctine you go about to impugn : For , these Oratorial preventions of the Reader argue the Writer has no mind a candid Judgment should be given of the Truth ; but lyes in wait to distort Justice by stirring the Affections . Wherefore , hissing out those things which are tattled against Aristotles manners , let 's trace what 's objected against his Doctrine . Peter Gassendus , then , in his Third Exercitation , objects it as certain , that 't is Aristotles Opinion , in his Book of Metaphysicks , that God is an Animal : Whereas , on the contrary , in the 8. Book of his Physicks , Chap. 6 and 10. He so expresly makes God a substance immaterial , indivisible , immoveable either by himself or by accident ; that impudence it self cannot be able to deny God , in his Opinion , not-an Animal . He adds , that God is ty'd to the out-most Superficies of the highest Heaven , which is extream-heedlesly said in the Peripatetical Way : Whether you construe without Heaven , in imaginary spaces ( whereas Aristotle most expresly attests there are no such ) ; or an Indivisible adherent to Heaven ; whereas , both the First Mover must necessarily be said to be in that which is first Moveable or Moved ; and , t is well known , that , in Aristotle's way , the Superficies is mov'd only through the Motion of the Body whose it is ; as also , the Superficies ( as we have said above ) is a certain being divided , or term , or no-farther of a Body , and not any Entity in which God may be placed . 3. The next accusation argues God bound up to the Laws of Fate and Necessity . But , here , the Calumniator is clearly in an Error . For , there are two kinds of Fate ; one a Stoical ; their 's who assert that whatever things are , exist in force of Contradiction , since , of necessity , every thing must either be or not-be ; and this Fate Aristotle rejects : The other Fate is a Course of Causes . Since , therefore , 't is evident and agreed by all , in the Peripatetical way , that God is the First-Being , and by consequence , the Cause of the whole Series of the rest ; most clear it is that , in Aristotle's School , He is not Subject to Fate , but himself the Fate of all other things ; which is the most wise Tenet of the Saints , and the marrow of Christian Doctrine . Like this is the other , that He is Subject to Necessity . For , the term , Necessity , is ambiguous : For , as t is attributed to Animals contradistinctly from Liberty , so it takes away perfect knowledge ; which no Peripatetick ever deny'd to God , to whom Aristotles Doctrine forces the very top of knowledge to be attributed . There 's another Necessity springing from prefect knowledge ; to which nothing lying undiscovered , one perfect in knowledge , and , consequently , God , can take but one way . But , this necessity implying the determination of an Understander to Particulars , out of Common Principles , manifestly speaks Election or liberty actuated . 4. He is farther calumniated to have taught that God knows not despicable and petty things ; and , the 12. of his Metaphysicks is cited , where this is not found but by way of doubting : But , his best Interpreters conclude , out of other Texts , that Aristotle attributes the knowledge even of these too , to God. This crimination , therefore , argues an ill will , drawing the words of that excellent person to the worst sense . Yet , at least , He makes the World increated . But this may easily be deny'd . He asserted it , indeed , not-generated , or , impossible to have begun by Motion and the force of Natural Causes ; which is most consonant to Christian Faith : But , as to the Creation of the World , he has not a word on 't : Yet , 't is one thing not to have acknowledg'd it , or reacht so high ; another , to deny ; amongst modest Men that babble not incertainties . Yet , I confess , he thought the World it self Eternal : But , in his very Error , he shewed himself the chief of Heathen Philosophers . For , whereas , they all with one consent declared , that nothing is made of nothing , 't was inconsequent for the World to have begun by Motion , which could not exist without Time ; and no begining of Time , either out of its own essence , or by the action of moving Causes , could appear . T is plain , therefore , that this Error of Aristotle's argues his excellency above the rest , who by Chance , and not by Science light on the Truth . 5. The last calumny about his Tenets concerns the Immortality of the Soul , which Gassendus saies , Aristotle in many places denies : but as disfavourably as before ; since , his best Interpreters attest that he acknowledged it ; and Plutarch records him to have written concerning the Soul , upon Eudemus's death ; out of whom is cited that famous Story of a dead man's Soul begging revenge of his Friend . Whence is evidenc'd that those Interpreters err , who , out of Aristotle's Principles , endeavour to conclude the Soul not immortal , and that this was Aristotle's own sence . It hits strangely in fine , that the Author , otherwise very ingenious , should judge this a fit Objection , that Aristotle denyed the Resurrection of the dead : which , t is most certain , the light of Faith first discover'd to Mortals ; though , after its acceptation on that account , its conformity also to the progress of Nature might be discern'd . This farther , that he concludes , saying , that Aristotle speaks many things wholly disagreeable to our H. Orthodox Faith : as if Plato and the rest of the Philosophers had tendred the World none but Tenets agreeable to Faith : which is by so much an unworthier part of Gassendus , in that he himself in his Preface , promises he 'l shew that , t is by Faith alone , any thing comes to our knowledge of God and the Intelligences ; and that all Arguments about these things , drawn from the light of Nature , are vain . A worthy Epiphonema , indeed , to close up his Sixth Book , design'd against Metaphysick , or the supreme Science . Ninth Plea Wipes off the Aspersions on Aristotle's Doctrine and Terms . 1. I Must now return from Gassendus to the Author of The Vanity of Dogmatizing ; since he has selected the strongest Mediums : justly preferring them before that numerable rabble which Gassendus has heap'd together , even to cloying ; out of love to reproaching , rather than Science . Our English Academick , then , first by way of Preface , as it were , seems to decline that envy , which the honourable train of Aristotle's Followers would be apt to procure him ; applying that sentence of Seneca's , The Multitude is an Argument of the worst : so prone we are to err , even in the plainest things . For , t is evident , the Vulgar , in some things , follow men of excellence , as it were , their Captains ; in other things are govern'd , or rather hurried by their own judgment . The former Method is that of Nature it self , that many Ignorants may , by the vertue and Authority of a few , be carried to good : But , that the Vulgar should judge of things themselvs know not , and by a tumultuary consent , precipitate the counsels of the prudent ; this is opposite to the Laws of Nature and Reason . Here now enquire whence Aristotle has got an Authority with the Vulgar ? and t will clearly appear he has been made the Coripheus of Philosophers by the sway of the very Princes of Scholastical Theology : to whom if you compare the Judgments of Orators or Criticks , they 'l dwindle away to nothing . The Fathers themselves ( those great Persons pardon me if I say so ) are of another different Trade ; nor have fallen upon any Philosophical Explication of Faith , otherwise than as forc'd to it by the importunity of Hereticks . 2. The Author subjoins , that in the opinion of the wise , Peripeteticism is a mass of Terms that signifie nothing . But this Author knew not that his own Terms are so equivocal , that themselves speak nothing . For , who has sufficiently fifted this , who , or by whose judgment they are called wise , that have pronounced this of the Peripateticks ? If we consult Aristotles Works themselves , or his ancient Emulators , t is clearer than the Sun , none ever of the Philosophers so industriously , and by distributing so many of his Terms into obvious sences , took care for the clearness of his Dictates , and eluded the entanglement of Equivocations . T is manifest then , the Wise men had little skill in Aristotle . They have mistaken , therefore , for Aristotelians some Apes cloaking themselves with Aristotle's name , and expose other mens Tenets for Peripatetical ones : and ( which he seems not to know ) in very truth Pyrronians . For , whoever , in mighty Volumes and Questions piled one on another , teaches nothing else , but , that one part , indeed , is more likely , but either side is defensible ; in such a World of twattle saies no more , than had he pass'd sentence in one Word , that Nothing is clear . This Calumny , therefore , touches his own Friends , not Aristotle . 3. Then , he prosecutes his Plea against the Peripateticks by certain Doubts ; which either are not , or seem not , clear to him , in spight of Reason . The notion of Materia prima , which asserts it to have neither Quiddity , nor Quantity , nor Quality , he contests is a Description of Nothing . ' Strange , that Men be so humorsome ! Are there , perhaps , in all Nature more usual words than Being and Power ? Who is so sottish , that he speaks not thus of a piece of Brass or Marble assign'd for the purpose , that it is not-yet , but may or will be a Statue of Mercury ? Do they not , peradventure , understand themselves that speak thus ; or , when they say , it may be , or has an aptitude to be a Mercury , Do they say the Brass or Marble is Nothing , or , is nothing of Mercury ? How , then , besides Mercury , or the Form of Mercury , is there not a certain power or aptitude to be Mercury , which neither is Mercury actually , nor yet a notion of No-thing or No-thing ? Or if , in respect of the Figure which constitutes Mercury , there is some aptitude which neither is that , nor yet a Notion of Nothing ; why may we not affirm the same of a Quantum or Bulk , and say , a Boy is not yet big , but may be big ? For he that asserts this does he not , at the same time , deny Bigness ; and yet clearly he names an Aptitude to Bigness ? Nor , perhaps , is there any difference in respect to Entity ; for we scruple not to say that Tallow or Oile may be Flame , and yet that they are not yet Flame : the Tallow , therefore , or Oil neither are the thing , Flame , which they may be , nor so big as they will be when they are Flame , nor so hot ; and yet they may be Flame , they may be greater , they may be hotter : and there is in them a certain power , which neither has Quiddity , Quantity , nor Quality ; since they are refer'd to all these , and are in a present state of privation in respect to them . Now whoever professes this unintelligible , directly condemns Mankind for a company of Fools , that know not what they say in their vulgarest speech and commerces : And , he that denies Matter it self destroys that solemn Maxim of Philosophy , that Nature makes nothing of nothing . 4. There are two other Terms which trouble our Sceptick , Form and being educ'd out of the power of Matter . As for the first , 't is strangely odd , that too much speculation should so render ingenious men no better than the most stupid . Can any man be born such a Bruit , as not to own that one thing is distinct from another ? or , if it be distinct , can he assert t is distinguish'd by nothing ? Does the difficulty lie here , that this , by which t is distinguish'd should be called a Form ? what a strange unreasonableness is this , not to let me call that a Form , which I see distinguish one from the other ? May not I say of two brazen Statues , that they agree in Brass , and are distinguisht by their Figures ? Or , if there be a third of Marble , shall I be chid for saying , the brazen ones are distinguisht from the Marble one , in that this is of Stone , those other of Mettal ? As , therefore , before , I distinguisht power and being in substance , Quantity , and Quality ; I may , now , in the same , find grounds for the denominations of Form and Subject in each of them . 5. As to the later Term , being educ'd out of power , let the ingenious Man reflect whether that which , out of some dark hole , softly and by degrees comes forth n●o open view , is improperly said to be educ'd or brought out . Again , let him remember ( if he have ever seen a peece of Marble form'd by a Statuary ) how , at first it cannot be imagin'd what the Artist means to form : after a little pains , there appears a confus'd resemblance of a Humane Creature ; then , whether it be a Man or Woman ; and at length , what Man it is . Behold , how a man , which was potentially in the Marble , and confused in the dark , as it were , is by little and little educ'd by Art out of that confusion into clear light , and the Marble is palpable and expresly made a Caesar. Philosophers consider as much in Nature ; whether you observe the seeds of living things , or the Community of the Elements to be mixt into a compound , or the abstraction of Matter from the Elements , whence this Phrase to be educ'd out of the power of Matter signifies Matter out of its aptitude to many , to be determin'd , by the operation of Nature or Art to one certain thing ; through a motion from confusion to distinctness : and not to be , as it were , infus'd , with a dependance from the subject , as this Anti-Peripatetick fancies out of I know not what Dreamers . For , there are none of these triflles extant in Aristotle . Tenth Plea Maintains certain Definitions and Arguings . 1. NExt they shoot at two of Aristotle's Definitions , either of them most exact , and as clear as can be , to those that understand any thing in his way . The first is the Definition of Light , in these words , Light is the act of a prespicuous thing : which seems obscure to this race of people , because the use of the Word Act is fram'd by Philosophers , and not taken from Tully , or found in Calipine . Let them know , therefore , that Act is deriv'd from Agere , to do , or Agi , to be done , or the Participle Actum , done ; and us'd by Philosophers for that , by which what was intended by the Agent at the end of his Action is term'd or demonstrated donc . In Greek , perhaps , 't is more elegantly call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , as it were , the Operation of the Causes , taking the Operation , not for the Flux of the Action , but , for that which remains introduced by the Operation , which is such a Flux . But , because our language affords not a proper word correspondent to the term , Act ; our Sterling Philosopher is all in choller against Aristotle . For , if he had put but ordinary words , instead of terms of Art , saying , Light is a certain perfection of a body , that has this in its Nature , to let coloured things appear through it , making them de facto appear through it ; as we experience Objects are seen through illuminated Air , which are not seen through it darkened : what had he found worth making such a wide mouth over ? Now because he has spoken most neatly and briefly , poor Aristotle smarts for it . 2. The other Definition has the same fault . The Definition is this , Motion is the Act of a thing in power , as in power . For , since a thing is said to be in power , to that it may be brought to by Motion ; for example ; One that 's sick , to Health ; Wood , to firing , or to be fire : t is plain , that Motion is that perfection , or act with which the subject is affected whilst 't is yet in power , or , till the sick person be in health , or the Wood be fire ; as in power , or in that state by which it may attain the intended perfection . Behold here a most clear and learned Definition , and subject to no other reproach than a certain umbrage , from a ridiculous story concerning the Greek term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , which I believe fram'd by the Philosopher to express his intention emphatically . The story 's this ; That a Critick , I know not who , went to one Ciccus , esteem'd a Magician ( I imagine , because he wrote of Magick ) to enquire of the Devil what was the meaning of that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Aristotle ; and return'd as wise as he went , and mock'd at by the Oracle . That it may appear then what a Dunce Devil our Philosophers have consulted ; lte them take notice that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a word made up of three , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , with the addition of a foeminine termination , which is proper for signifying Abstractions : and so signifies the Manner the subject of Motion is found in at the end of the action ; which is the very same thing with the term Act , as t is explicated above . 3. In his seventeenth Chapter there is a new Calumny forg'd against Aristotle ; the more unworthily , in that he ; above the rest , has endeavour'd at clearness . His Philosophy is accus'd to be litigious , and through the wavering use of his Terms , confused and obscure . This accusation is found guilty of a double Ignorance : One , of what Aristotle's use is ; for he 's the carefullest that ever writ , to distinguish and form the significations of his Terms : The other is , that he takes Scepticks for Peripateticks . And , that the Scepticks endeavours are the vainest that can be , I easily grant ; that they little trouble themselves about fixing the use of their words , to be left more at liberty to sell any trifles they list for Vanity or profits sake ; that they are petty Orators , or rather janglers , not Philosophers ; that they take upon them the name of Aristotelians , to corrupt Youth and draw Disciples after them . I deny not that these are to be shun'd like the Plaigue , by all pursuers of Science ; nor is any thing of sollidity to be expected from them : this one thing puts me out of patience , that Persons , otherwise ingenious and desirous of knowledge , should be averted by these Cheats , not only from true Science , but from all hope of ever gaining any , in the things most necessary to human life . 4. They back their feigned Plea against the Philosopher out of his own Words and Actions . Their first crack is upon that saying of his , that his Books of Physicks were so publisht , that they were not made publick . The sense whereof was , that the Matter or Subject handled in them is so abstracted , that , without the assistance of an experienc'd Master , they could not be understood by those unus'd to his way ; which we see hold to this day : For , scarce any one comprehends those Books , unless aided by the old Commentators . Whence our Moderns , for the most part , are quite besides the Cushion as to Aristotles meaning ; though he himself has spoken , as clearly as possible the brevity He prefixt to himself could bear . The next Calumny is grosser and more luckless ; that those things which he has collected , to furnish Logical Disputants , and perfect the Act of Disputing previously to giving Judgment , should be applyed to his Method of Demonstrating , and to his practice not in disputing but defining . For , as , in Plays , 't is a commendation to entangle the story , that it may come off at last with greater admiration : So , 't is the task of the Inquirer to confound the Question , with proposing Difficulties before it , that the Demonstrator may clearly Vnidicate it , and , as it were , dispelling the clouds , restore it to Light. 5. This Plea requir'd Instances out of that work of his . The Author presses three : Upon Gassendus's credit , I believe , or some other slight Lookers into it ; for , in the Book it self there 's nothing to be seen : The first runs thus . He proves the World to be perfect , because it consists of Bodies ; that Bodies are perfect , because they consist of a triple dimension ; that a triple dimensions is , therefore , perfect , because consisting of three ; and that three is perfect , because two we call both , and never say all till we come to three . Look into his First book De Coelo , Chap. 1. You shall find these last words make no part of the Demonstration , but are additional only : and that the Demonstration , it self is this ; Because the World consists of Bodies , the perfection of the World is to be perfect in the Notion of Body . Now , the perfection of Body lies in this , that it be spread every way upon three prependiculars , as the Geometricians demonstrate . And thus are both the several Bodies , and the World ; but in a divers manner ; For the several Bodies are terminated each to others ; whence , though they are spread according to all the lines , yet not to the whole , or utmost extent of them . But , because there is no space beyond or without the World ( as 't is demonstrated in the fourth of his Physicks ) , the World is spread according to all and the whole lines , or , perfectly every way ; and by consequence , must be said perfect in the Notion of Body , and , so , absolutely . 6. The second Instance is , that Aristotle asserts , were there more Worlds , the Moon would fall down upon the Earth . This consequence the Arguer thinks sprung from such a fancy as theirs , that fear the Antipodes should drop into Heaven . But , he reflects not how great pains the Philosopher took to establish the Center of the World in the Earth : Which granted , this consequence would depend not from fancy but reason , as himself seems to confess . 7. The third Instance , too ( drawn out of lib. 2. cap. 5. De Coelo . Is utterly perverted . For , Aristotle teaches not , that the Heav'ns are , therefore , carry'd towards the West , because the West is the Nobler , ( as the Argument makes it ) ; but , that the West is the Nobler , because the Heav'ns are carry'd towards it . Now , there 's this difference betwixt the two ; that in the former Method , 't is assum'd without proof , that the West is the Nobler ; in the later , it follows out of those things which Aristotle had concluded ; viz. That there 's nothing Accidental in Eternal Things ; and , by consequence , that the Motion towards the West is Natural to the Heav'ns ; and Natural Motion is to the more honourable : whence it clearly follows , that the West is Nobler than the East . It follows , I say ; for , if the Principles were true , 't were a Noble Demonstration . Eleventh Plea Refutes some Topicks babbled against Science . 1. ABout the end of the Chapter he expresses indignation , that the learned so employ all their pains upon Logick , Physick , and Metaphysick ; that the Sciences , usefuller to human life , viz. concerning the Heav'ns , Meteors , Fossils , and Animals , but especially Politicks and Oeconomicks , are much neglected . Nor can I deny that these are neglected in the Schools : but , what 's guilty on 't , but the Scepticism that reigns there ? For , if the Sciences were taught in Aristotle's Method , there would be room enough for all ; nor would nature be taunted with the usual calumny , that Mans life is too short for the Arts : But , the necessary ones once known , there would advance still a surplusage of leisure , to take abundantly , in any of these Sciences , that delight which human Curiosity should be drawn to . But , they are the Scepticks that envy this happiness to men ; confounding all things with endless contests ; especially those common truths which Aristotle has demonstrated : such as are Formal Divisibility , that what ever is mov'd is mov'd by another , that a Continuum or Bulk is divisible in infinitum , that there 's no vacuum : and such like ; without the owning whereof before hand , 't is in vain to make Experiments for acquiring Science : Since , they will all come at length to be resolv'd into these Principles ; or else there will be ever a straining after Science unproffitably , without any Principles at all . 2. In his eighteenth Chapter , he reproves the Peripatetical Doctrine as insufficient to solve Phaenomena's . But , this he does out of Error or Spleen : For , if he takes the Doctrine of our Modern Philosophical Apes to be Aristotle's own , he 's strangely in an error ; but , if he denyes Aristotle to have taken pains to solve Problem's , he 'l be shewn guilty of Injustice by all his Books of Natural Philosophy , those especially which usually follow his eight Books . Which of the Moderns has more happily unbowel'd Nature than Digby , who at every turn is mindful of Aristotle , and candidly accepts his Dictates ? The Adversary urges that the Systeme of Heaven is mis-contriv'd by Aristotle . Open the accusation , you 'l find the sum and very knot of it to be , that Aristotle had not an Optick Table : else supposing those Phaenomenas of the Sun , which enlightened Aristotle's Age , his Discourse , in his Books De Coelo , merits all admiration . That the Intelligences are the Movers of the Heav'n is Christian Doctrine . That there is a certain Fire swimming upon our Air is nothing else but Cartes's Ether , or a kind of rarer Element enbracing the convex of our sky . If Aristotle has err'd in a very few things ; why , yet , so much anger ? shall we not allow Philosophy its growing time ? If , yet , he may be said to Err , and not rather ingeniously , and ingeniously to propose , who professes he conjectures , not Demonstrates ; as Aristotle does in his Books De Coelo . 3. His ninteenth Chapter inveighs against Aristotle's Doctrine as unfruitful and barren ; but , weakly and falsely . Weakly , because all the inventions he speaks of belong to Artificers and Handy-craft-Men ; not Philosophers , whose office 't is to make use of Experiments for Science , not to make them . Falsly , because Aristotle's way of Doctrine being about Common Notions , without which there 's no comprehending Particulars ; nothing is truly invented without it . I , but they are Generals that are found in Aristotle . It must be reply'd , that he and his Disciples deserve thanks for devulging them , and fixing a step to climb thence farther and higher . But , ( if my Divination fails me not ) I see , were Aristotle's Principles pluck'd up , Philosophy unable to give an Account of ordinary Effects . I 'm sure , the Philosophy which admits Vacuities is reducible to no Rules for acting : And Cartes's Vortices , I shrewdly suspect no way serviceable to invention . Concerning his Tenets , which savour of impiety , we have spoken before . For his contradictions , the places are not cited : but , whoever is skill'd in Aristotle knows , he uses to draw Examples out of others Books and vulgar sayings ; and that nothing is to be esteemed his own , which falls not into the Course of his Doctrine . Whence , 't is no hard matter to find contrary Opinions in his works : but , those things alone are to be ascribed to him , which either are asserted in their proper places , or brought by him for confirmation of his known Tenets . 4. The twentieth Chapter renders manifest the eminence of Peripateticism above all other Methods , by its very impugnation of it . For , it assumes , it cannot be known that one thing is Cause of another , otherwise than because they are found together : which we deny not to be an occasion of suspecting , but no Argument of Causality ; for , if nothing else be clear , 't will be still-unknown , which of the too is the Cause , which Effect . But , the Peripateticks conclude not A. to be the cause of B. till , defining both , they find , out of their very Definitions , that A cannot be , but it must follow out of its intrinsecals that B is . For example , a Peripaterick collects that Fire is the Cause of Heat ; because Heat is nothing else but Atoms flowing from Fire : and on the other side , he knows that Fire cannot exist , but it must send out such particles . Cartes's paradox , of Light and the Sun , is just as if we should expect the Skyes falling to catch Larks . That wonderfully ingenious Man is so coelestial , that he has not so much as Sand to found his structures on . Peripateticks chuse rather to collect a few Certainties , acknowledging a Multitude of uncertainties , than , grasping at all , to hold nothing . Sure I am , none more largely pretends Demonstration , than des Cartes : So that , nothing is more unseemly than for his adorers to profess Scepticism . 5. Not a jot stronger , to establish the impossibility of Science , is the argument from the variety of Opinions amongst those that are call'd Philosopers . For first , it must be evident that they are Philosophers : before their judgements deserve esteem in Philosophical matters . Do they profess to Demonstrate ? Do they model their Books in Euclid's Method ? Do they interweave Definitions with self-known truths ? And admit no other for proof ? All which may be observ'd in Aristotle and his antient interpreters , though not express'd in Euclids form . These things if they do , either they are not rational , or all will be of the same mind ; as Geometricians are . If they neglect these , 't is not a pin matter for their judgments in Philosophy . Our Author tells a story of the power of Fancy , which I doubt is imperfect : For , it seems , he would have one Man be able to order anothers thoughts without ever acting by his senses or Fancy : Since , he relates , that one compel'd others , absent from him , to think and speak what he pleas'd . For , though I allow Men to have a very large power over Animals , by the help of their Fancies ; for example , to tame or enrage them , by means of sounds or shewing them figures ; perhaps , too , to strike them sick or cure them , and such like : Yet , that the Fancy should be mov'd to those things , which move it not by any sense , 't is hard to believe . For all that , I do not altogether deny the Motion made upon the sense to be every way like , and Univocal to that which is in the mind ; and , when it happens , to be deriv'd rather from the vehemencie of the affection , than the pure Motion of the Fancies impressing it . 6. In this twenty first Chapter , he divines of Future Science ; particularly , of some not-yet discovered manners of acting at distance : which I 'le rather await , than discuss or hope for . About the end of the Chapter , he assumes , that nothing can be known , unless it be resolv'd into the first Causes . Whence , he should have seen clearly that the First Causes , and Metaphysicks , which treats of them , is most known of all to Nature , or next to our first knowledges : And that Naturalists strive in vain , who negotiate much about the particulars of Nature ; and comprehend nothing through their ignorance of Metaphysick . Take for example the stir about Vacuum ; which Metaphysicks declare as impossible , as for no-thing to be a thing : about the spring of Rarity and Density ; which the Metaphysician most palpably demonstrates is out of , or , extrinsecal to the things that are Rare and Dense , and many such like ; whose truth those that essay by Experiments , but without the light of Metaphysick , shall find an endless work on 't . Metaphysical Principles must be taken from Aristotle , not des Cartes , though a Person of most eminent Wit. For , Aristotle , by contemplation , form'd into method those things which he found engrafted in nature : Des Cartes , in his Physical principles ( as if he meant to prescribe the Creator an Idea ) designs in the Air and in the Concave of the Moon , as they say , what himself thought was to be done , according to Art. From which kind of Fabrick there 's no benefit to be hoped for by the Reader . 7. The next Chapter is sick of that error , which Aristotle has very often detected and confuted ; viz. that nothing is known unless it be perfectly known : for example , that we know not God is , unlesse we see him , that any Man cannot make use , and be sure of that Cartes's first-known thing or Object of knowledge , I think , therefore I am , unlesse he comprehends the all things of that I ; so , as to know the Nature of his Matter and Form , the Number of his Elements and Members , and the Causes and Motion by which he was begotten , and in short , whatever is connected with him . Which is clearly to professe , he knows not the question in hand : For , none of the Dogmatizers either arrogates to himself or hopes for so perfect a knowledge . 'T is a piece of the same heedlesnesse , not to know that all that see a white wall have the same apprehension of whiteness , though their several sensations vary the degree and perfection of it . Whence , our Author had done more prudently to have sat down in silence , and pardon'd the affecters of Science their error ; than , by meerly Topical and Delusory Reasons , to have averted minds , born to excellent things , from the first desire of Nature , and gathering fruit , at least , in some degree ; according to that of the moral Poet , Though you of Glycons mighty lims despair , Do not to keep away the Gout forbear . 8. For all that , our Academick makes no scruple , in general , to lay all kind of mischief to those that proceed dogmatically , such Art ( as the Philosophers says ) it requires to find a mean. First he asserts this Method is the Daughter of ignorance ? who would have look'd for this brand from a Sceptick ? you that profess your selves to know nothing , do you object ignorance to others ? Quis tulerit Gracchos de seditione querentes ? Next , he calls it the Inmate of untam'd affections : upon what title ? for , if there be any Science , that will The peaceful Temples keep well fortifi'd , Built by the Sages Doctrine . — You that profess you know not whether there be any or no ; how rashly do you affirm it to dwell alwayes with untam'd affections ? since , if there be none , it dwells no where . The third inconvenience of Dogmatizing is , that it stirs men up to controversies . The rising Sun seems to me guilty of the very same Crime , in disturbin the Slug-a-beds , and summoning every one to their work : For , such a kind of falt it is , to inculcate Truth to those that live in ignorance and error . A fourth crime is , that one who adheres to any Science , lays ignorance to the charge of those that know not his demonstration . I cannot deny it ; For , 't is the Nature and Title of light to reproach those things , as dark , which admit not its beams . But , herein the Demonstrators are modester than the Scepticks , that , at least , they except some , and speak well of Nature ; whom , with all her Children , the Scepticks condemn to the Dungeon of Darknesse for ever . 9. Like this is the next , that the confidence of Science in error bars the Gates against the liberty to get possession of truth . How blindly does the Sceptick dispute these things ? who freely owns that truth is no where , which men might have the liberty to get possession of . He concludes at last , the Dogmatizer has a petty and enthrall'd Soul. So strangely things are nick-nam'd that are unknown ! For , t is Science's part to dilate the Soul , and render it capable of great things : and this the pleasure of one that knows , to look down on Scepticks as all in a tumult below , and Lucret. See them at a loss at every turn , And breathless hunting out the way of life . Which to make ones life and Task is the miserablest of all things , and an utter casting off Rationality ; and the whole felicity Humanity affords . These things , as they are all most true , and scarce deniable , even by a Sceptick , to follow out of the possibility of Demonstration , that is , if there be any Rational Nature , yet I would not have them so asserted , as to Patronize palliated Scepticks , who admit , indeed , that there is such a thing as some both Physical and Metaphysical Science , in common ; but neither tend to it by any legitimate Method , nor own any thing , in particular , demonstrated : and yet , by the press of the Herd , in a society , thrusting one another on , and by loads of Scriblers , they most absurdly fly at and arrogate to themselves the highest degree of Doctorship , and the top of Sciences and name of Wisdom . The Father of Nature grant Mankind may at length be eas'd of this Yoak ; which galls the necks of the Sons of Adam : and , that the studious of truth may understand it alike dangerous to think every thing and nothing is demonstrated . FINIS .