parts: but astringents keep in the virtue of them both, and somewhat fix it, and also stop perspiration, which would otherwise be contrary to mollifying, as sending out the moisture; therefore the whole affair is to be effected by these three means used in order and succession, rather than together. Observe only, that it is not the intention of mollifying to nourish the parts externally, but only to render them more capable of nourishment; for dry things are less disposed to assimilate. And so much for the prolongation of life, which we make the third, or a new part of medicine. The art of decoration, or beautifying, has two parts, civil and effeminate. For cleanliness and decency of the body were always allowed to proceed from moral modesty and reverence; first, toward God, whose creatures we are; next, toward society, wherein we live; and lastly, toward ourselves, whom we ought to reverence still more than others. But false decorations, fucuses, and pigments, deserve the imperfections that constantly attend them; being neither exquisite enough to deceive, nor commodious in application, nor wholesome in their use. And it is much that this depraved custom of painting the face should so long escape the penal laws both of the church and state, which have been very severe against luxury in apparel and effeminate trimming of the hair. We read of Jezebel, that she painted her face; but not so of Esther and Judith.

We take gymnastics, in a large sense, to signify whatever relates to the hability where to the human body may be brought, whether of activity or suffering. Activity has two parts, strength and swiftness; so has endurance or suffering, viz., with regard to natural wants, and fortitude under torture. Of all these, we have many remarkable instances in the practices of rope-dancers, the hardy lives of savages, surprising strength of lunatics, and the constancy and resolution of many under exquisite torments. Any other faculties that fall not within the former division, as diving, or the power of continuing long under water without respiration, and the like, we refer them also to gymnas

tics. And here, though the things themselves are common, yet the philosophy and causes thereof are usually neglected, perhaps because men are persuaded that such masteries over nature are only obtainable either from a peculiar and natural disposition in some men, which comes not under rules, or by a constant custom from childhood, which is rather imposed than taught. And though this be not altogether true, yet it is here of small consequence to note any deficiency, for the Olympic games are long since ceased, and a mediocrity in these things is sufficient for use, while excellence in them serves commonly but for mercenary show.

The arts of elegance are divided with respect to the two senses of sight and hearing. Painting particularly delights the eye; so do numerous other magnificent arts, relating to buildings, gardens, apparel, vessels, gems, etc. Music pleases the ear with great variety and apparatus of sounds, voices, strings, and instruments; and anciently water-organs were esteemed as great masterpieces in this art, though now grown into disuse. The arts which relate to the eye and ear, are, above the rest, accounted liberal; these two senses being the more pure, and the sciences thereof more learned, as having mathematics to attend them. The one also has some relation to the memory and demonstrations; the other, to manners and the passions of the mind. The pleasures of the other senses, and the arts employed about them, are in less repute, as approaching nearer to sensuality than magnificence. Unguents, perfumes, the furniture of the table, but principally incitements to lust, should rather be censured than taught. And it has been well observed, that while states were in their increase, military arts flourished; when at their heights, the liberal arts; but when upon their decline, the arts of luxury. With the arts of pleasure, we join also the jocular arts: for the deception of the senses may be reckoned one of their delights.

And now, as so many things require to be considered with relation to the human body, viz., the parts, humors, functions, faculties, accidents, etc., since we ought to have

an entire doctrine of the body of man, which should comprehend them all; yet lest arts should be thus too much multiplied, or their ancient limits too much disordered, we receive into the system of medicine, the doctrines of the parts, functions, and humors of the body; respiration, sleep, generation; the foetus, gestation in the womb; growth, puberty, baldness, fatness, and the like; though these do not properly belong either to the preservation of health, the cure of diseases, or the prolongation of life, but because the human body is, in every respect, the subject of medicine. But for voluntary motion and sense, we refer them to the doctrine of the soul as two principal parts thereof. And thus we conclude the doctrine of the body, which is but as a tabernacle to the soul.

CHAPTER III

Division of the Doctrine of the Human Soul into that of the Inspired Essence and the Knowledge of the Sensible or Produced Soul. Second Division of the same philosophy into the Doctrine of the Substance and the Faculties of the Soul. The Use and Objects of the latter. Two Appendices to the Doctrine of the Faculties of the Soul: viz., Natural Divination and Fascination (Mesmerism). The Faculties of the Sensible Soul divided into those of Motion and Sense

W

E NOW come to the doctrine of the human soul, from whose treasures all other doctrines are derived. It has two parts-the one treating of the rational soul, which is divine, the other of the irrational soul, which we have in common with brutes. Two dif ferent emanations of souls are manifest in the first creation, the one proceeding from the breath of God, the other from the elements. As to the primitive emanation of the rational soul, the Scripture says, God formed man of the dust of the earth, and breathed. into his nostrils the breath of life; but the generation of the irrational and brutal soul was in these words-Let the water bring forth;

let the earth bring forth. And this irrational soul in man is only an instrument to the rational one, and has the same origin in us as in brutes, viz., the dust of the earth; for it is not said, God formed the body of man of the dust of the earth, but God formed man, that is, the whole man, the breath of life excepted, of the dust of the earth. We will, therefore, style the first part of the general doctrine of the human soul the doctrine of the inspired substance, and the other part the doctrine of the sensitive or produced soul. But as we are here treating wholly of philosophy, we would not have borrowed this division from divinity, had it not also agreed with the principles of philosophy. For there are many excellences of the human soul above the souls of brutes, manifest even to those who philosophize only according to sense. And wherever so many and such great excellences are found, a specific difference should always be made. We do not, therefore, approve that confused and promiscuous manner of the philosophers in treating the functions of the soul, as if the soul of man differed in degree rather than species from the soul of brutes, as the sun differs from the stars, or gold from other metals.

There may also be another division of the general doctrine of the human soul into the doctrine of the substance and faculties of the soul, and that of the use and objects of the faculties. And these two divisions being premised, we come to particulars.

The doctrine of the inspired substance, as also of the substance of the rational soul, comprehends several inquiries with relation to its nature, as whether the soul be native or adventitious, separable or inseparable, mortal or immortal; how far it is subject to the laws of matter, how far not, and the like. But the points of this kind, though they might be more thoroughly sifted in philosophy than hitherto they have been, yet in the end they must be turned over to religion, for determination and decision; otherwise they will lie exposed to various errors and illusions of sense. For as the substance of the soul was not, in its creation, extracted

or deduced from the mass of heaven and earth, but immediately inspired by God; and as the laws of heaven and earth are the proper subjects of philosophy, no knowledge of the substance of the rational soul can be had from philosophy, but must be derived from the same Divine inspiration, whence the substance thereof originally proceeded.'

But in the doctrine of the sensitive or produced soul, even its substance may be justly inquired into, though this inquiry seems hitherto wanting. For of what significance are the terms of actus ultimus and forma corporis, and such logical trifles, to the knowledge of the soul's substance? The sensitive soul must be allowed a corporeal substance, attenuated by heat and rendered invisible, as a subtile breath or aura, of a flamy and airy nature, having the softness of air in receiving impressions, and the activity of fire in exerting its action, nourished partly by an oily and partly by a watery substance, and diffused through the whole body; but in perfect creatures, residing chiefly in the head, and thence running through the nerves, being fed and recruited by the spirituous blood of the arteries, as Telesius' and his follower Donius in some measure have usefully shown. Therefore let this doctrine be more diligently inquired into,' because the ignorance of it has produced

To separate God from human reason, appears to be one of the great aims of one of the modern schools of philosophy, and sometimes the theory has received indirect confirmations from quarters by no means favorable to its advocates. Pascal wrote, "Selon les lumières naturelles, nous sommes incapable de connaître ce que Dieu est." In the edition of this philosopher's works, by Voltaire and Condorcet, the text was enriched with the addition of the phrase, "Ni s'il est;" and the following note appended to the passage, by Voltaire: "Il est étrange que Pascal ait cru qu'on pouvait deviner le péché originel par la raison, et qu'il dise qu'on ne peut connaître par la raison si Dieu est. At this specimen of deistic candor, Condorcet exclaims, in a subsequent note, "How marvellous to behold Voltaire contending with Pascal for the existence of God!"-Ed.

2 Rerum Natura, book 5.

This inquiry is greatly embroiled by the moderns; some seeking the soul all over the body, some in the blood, some in the animal spirits, some in the heart, some in the ventricles of the brain, and some, with Descartes, in the glandula pinealis. M. Petit wrote a curious piece relating to this subject, entitled "De Animâ Corpori coextensâ"; printed at Paris, 1665. See also "Hobokenius de Sede Animæ in Corpore Humano."—Ed.