ferve our will, and are always ready at hand to obey it. The fecond is in fix verfes, to this purpofe Since the images feem to move with gracefulness, and even to obferve time and measure in their motions, are we to believe that they have learned to dance: A thought truly worthy of a philofopher! To these two objections, Lucretius anfwers, in twenty-four verfes, that what we take to be one fingle moment of time, is indeed many moments; fo that the images being, as they are extremely fubject to motion, a multitude of them prefent themselves to us every moment, and among them the image of the thing, of which we pleafe to think. Befides, though all kinds of images are continually at hand, yet they being moft tenuious and fubtle, the mind cannot per ceive them, unless fhe watch with great diligence, and endeavour to do fo: for fubtle things will efcape unheeded from a negligent mind, even as they do from a careless and unwatchful eye. Thus Cicero Tufcul. Quæft. lib. i. fays admirably well, "Itaque fæpè aut cogitatione, aut aliquâ vi morbi impediti, apertis atque integris oculis et auribus, nec videmus, nec audimus." But the fame author derides and confutes this opinion of Epicurus concerning images, and the caufe of thinking by their appulfion, Epift. lib. ad Caff. Epist. xv. De Natur. Deor. lib i. And de Divinat. lib. ii.

Ver. 804. It being demanded, why any man could think on what he pleased? The answer is, That images are conftantly at hand, but being very thin and fubtle, they cannot be perceived, unlefs the mind endeavours, which, though preffed by all the difficulties propofed concerning images, yet may receive a farther examination. For, first, the mind must think on the object before this endeavour, elfe why should the ftrive, why apply herself particularly to that? And that this argument is ftrong against the Epicureans, is evident from that question which Lucretius propofeth in his fifth book, about the beginning of ideas in his deities, which I have already reflected on. But more: This endeavour of the mind is a motion, nothing being to be admitted in the Epicurean hypothefis but what may be explained by matter varioufly figured and agitated: Now Epicurus hath fettled but three kinds of motion, παρὰ τάθμην, κατὰ παρέγκλισιν, and κατὰ πληγήν, by weight, by declination, and by ftroke, and the two latter neceffarily fuppofe the former, and therefore if that xajù sáu, by weight, cannot belong to the foul, it is abfurd to conclude this endeavour to he either of the latter: And here it must be confidered, that the Epicurean foul is material, and therefore weight is a property of all its parts, which will neceffitate this foul to fubfide in all the veffels of the body, as low as poffible; and therefore it cannot actually enjoy this motion, and confequently no endeavour.

Here I might be copious (for it is an easy task) in laying open the weaknefs of the arguments, by which he endeavours to prove, that our limbs were not made and defigned for proper offices and employments; it would be an endless trouble to purfue him through all the abfurdities which

lie in his opinions concerning fleep, and fponta neous motion: for every man hath his own conftant experience to confute them, and therefore, as Lactantius thinks a loud laughter the only fuitable reply to the former, let the others be contented with the fame anfwer, nor hinder me in the profecution of the propofed argument.

And here it must be confeffed, that a thousand of thefe ftories are the genuine productions of fear and fancy: Melancholy and inadvertency have not been unfruitful; and we owe many of hem to fuperftition, interest, and defign: But to believe all counterfeit, because fome are fo, is unreasonable, and fhows a perverfenefs as faulty as the greateft credulity. For when fuch are attefted by multitudes of excellent men, free from all vanity, defign, or fuperftition, who had the teftimony of their fenfes for their affurance, and would not believe it till after curious fearch and trial; we muft affent, or fink below fcepticism itfelf: for Pyrrho would fly a threatening dog, and make his excufe, χαλεπόν, μὲν ὅλον τὸν ανθρωποι induvar It is hard to put off the whole man. And that there are fuch ftories delivered, with all the marks of credibility, I appeal to the Collection of Mr. Glanvil. Let any one look on that which is recorded by the learned Dr. Gale, in his notes upon the fifth chapter of the third fection of Jamblichus de Myfteriis, and then I fhall give him leave to use his atoms and his motion to the greatest advantage, but for ever defpair of an explication. The story speaks thus in English: In Lambeth lives one Francis Culham, an honek man, and of good credit; this man lay in a very fad condition four years and five months: The firft fymptom was unusual drowsiness, and a numbness for three days, which forced him to take his bed: In the first month, he took 'little or no meat or drink the second, he fafted ten days, and often afterward five or fever, He fed on raw and boiled meat with equal greediness; never moved himself in the bed, and waked conftantly for the first years, at least never clofed his eyes, but kept them fixed and fteady. He made no articulate found, nor took any notice of his wife and children, nor feemed to feel the knives and lances of the chirurgeons. At laft, given over by all, he thus unexpectedly recovered: In the Whitfun. week, 1675, he feemed to be wakened out of a very found fleep, and (as he relates it) his heart and bowels grew warm, and his breast freed from that weight which before oppreft it, and he heard a voice which bid him go to prayers, and then he 'fhould be well. Paper and ink being brought, with a trembling hand, he writ these words: "I defire that prayers be made for me." Two minifters came, and when they had fufficiently 'examined the matter, and found it free from all cheat, they began those prayers which the English liturgy appoints for the fick, and when they were come to "Glory be to the Fa"ther," &c. the fick man fpake with a loud voice, "Glory be to God on high." And in two days time, his feet, hands, and other limbs, were

perfectly reftored; but he could not remember, any thing that was done to him during all the four years And this relation I affert to be very * true.' Now, though such as these do not directly prove the immortality of the foul, yet they fufficiently take off all pretenfions of the Epicureans against it; fince they evidently prove, that there are fome lubtle unfeen fubftances permanent and durable, and confequently immaterial; for they cannot imagine that any material substance, thinner than smoke or air, can be less fubject to diffolution than those, though they contradict themfelves, and grant the eternal bodies of their deities to be fuch.

Ver 820. These two verfes our tranflator has E omitted. They run thus in the original:

Deinde deopinamur de fignis maxima parvis : Ac nos in fraudem induimus, fruftramur et ipfi. In these two verses the poet adds a third difficulty concerning the distraction or absence of the mind: for often, even when we are awake, we lead ourfelves into errors and deceptions: as when we conceive af nall object to be a great one. Thus Ariftotle lib. de Infomn. fays: That we are easily deceived in matters relating to the senses, especially when | our mind is any ways moved and disturbed: as men in love have always in their mind, and feem to fee the likeness of the object of their flame: Thus cowards fancy to themselves that the enemy is coming to attack them, &c. Of which Cæfar gives us an inftance in his Commentaries, de Bello Gall, lib. i. where he relates of one Confidius, a man otherwise very expert and knowing in military affairs, that being fent to get intelligence of the motions of the enemy, he was ftruck with fuch a terror, that when he came back, he reported he had seen things that he never saw.

Ver. 822. A fourth difficulty, if it be another from the former, is contained in these ten verses. Why the fame image appears to us in our fleep, in different kinds and forms: for example, now a male, now a female, now young, now old, &c. But he anfwers, That we ought not to admire at this, fince a man who fleeps is deprived of the use of his external fenfes, nay, even of his memory; infomuch that he forgets the greatest part of his dreams.

Ver. 832. To the foregoing difputation, he fubjoins, in these twenty-feven verfes, another of Epicurus's opinions: viz. The eyes were not made to fee, nor the ears to hear, nor the tongue to speak, nor the feet to walk, &c. because thefe members were prior to feeing, hearing, speaking, walking, &c. For Epicurus taught, that the members of our body were not made defignedly for proper ufes, but being made by chance, the ufe that first offered itself, was laid hold of by each member For if any thing was made for a certain future use, that use must have been known before; or fomething must have pre-existed, that fignified, that fuch a ufe would be convenient or necellary: For example, if there had not been a previous ufe of fighting, fleeping and quenching the thirsty armour, beds, cups had never been

thought of. Thus the eye could not be made for the fake of feeing, fince nothing had been feen before there was an eye to see with, nor was it known what fight was to be; nor the ear for the fake of hearing, fince nothing had been heard, and it was unknown what hearing was to be. And in like manner of the other members of the body.

This was the opinion of the Epicureans concerning the members of the bodies of animals. And certainly if there be any thing in the Phyfics of Epicurus, that can be faid to be most improbable, not to ufe a harfher term, it is what Lucretius in this place afferts. But why was Epicurus of this opinion? The reason is as evident as the opinion is extravagant: because he saw that otherwife he must have allowed a Providence, which is not more visible in any thing than in the wonderful mechanism of the parts of a human body. But all the ancient philofophers were not of this wild opinion; and Aristotle blames Anaragoras for this belief, when at the fame time he owned, tha man was the most prudent of all animals, because of all of them, he alone had hands: fince his hands were evidently given him, that he might use them. The Stoics too were of a contrary opinion; witness Cicero, lib. 3. de Finibus, where we find these words: "Jam membrorum, id eft, partium corporis alia videntur propter ufum à naturâ effe donata, ut manus, crura, pedes, et ea, quæ funt intus in corpore, quorum utilitas quanta fit à medicis difputatur; alia autem nullam ob utilitatem, quafi ad quemdam ornatum, ut cauda pavoni, plumæ verficolorus columbis, viris mammæ atque Barba." Of the members, that is, of the parts of the body, some seem to be given us by nature for ufe, as the hands, the legs, the feet, and those that are within the body, of which how great is the utility the physicians are fill in difpute: Others for no fervice, but rather for ornament, as the tail to the peacock, the changeable feathers to pigeons, and the nipples and beard to man. Galen proves by a long difcourfe, and many examples in his excellent treatise, De ulu Partium, that every animal, without the help of any teacher, preconceives the faculties of his own foul, and to what use to put the parts of his body; as for example, the harp taught not the musician, nor a pair of tongs the fmith to make them. And Lactantius too confutes this doctrine of Epicurus, in his book De Opificio Dei, cap. vi. where he argues in these words: "

Quid ais, Epicure? Non funt ad videndum oculi nati? Cur igitur vident? Poftea, inquit, usus eorum apparuit. Videndi ergo caufâ nati funt; fiquidem nihil poffunt aliud quam videre: Item membra cætera cujus rei caufâ nata fint, ipfe ufus oftendit: Qui utique nullo modo poffet exiftere, nifi effent membra omnia tam ordinatè ac providenter effecta, ut ufum poffent habere. Quid enim fi dicas, aves non ad volandum effe natas, neque feras ad fæviendum, neque pifces ad natandum, neque hominis ad fapiendum, cum appareat ei naturæ officioque fervire animantes, ad quod eft quæque generata. Sed videlicit qui fum,

and paffages, is admitted and received into the inmost parts, and ftrikes and grates them likewife: This caufes a disjunction or feparation, of the first bodies, and the diffolution of the foul itfelf of neceffity follows that feparation, infomuch, that part of it is thrown out, part, to use the words of Pliny, recedes into the middle, and the remaining part, that is overmuch disjoined, is difperfed and feattered through the members: And from hence we may understand, why a most profound fleep enfues after labour and eating: For food chokes up and ftuffs the paffages through which the foul ought to move freely and thence proceeds a greater diffipation, or a greater conftipation of the foul: And by weariness and laffitude the body grows weaker, and that weakness produces the fame effects as repletion. 'Izvés re γίνεται πονεμένων τῶν τὴν ψυχῆς μηρῶν, τῶν καὶ ὅλην τὴν σύγκρισιν παρισταρμένων, ἢ ἐγκατεχομένων, ἢ διαφορεμένων, ὅτε καὶ συρπιτήν]ων τινῶν τοῖς ἐσπαρμένοις, τὰ μὲν ἐξωθάνων, τὰ δὲ συν]αρατζόντων. Epicurus ad

yard is, the fhip fails the fafter, even with the in for that air does not only brush and rake the fame fheet, and the fame wind. But to compre-furface of the body, but entering into the pores hend the reafon of it aright, it will do well to know in the first place, why a lever will move a weight of fo great a burden as we daily fee it does. A lever is a bar of iron, or of wood, a little crooked at one end: The Greeks call it pozh05, the Latins, vectis, and the crooked end rofirum; from whence perhaps comes our rottle, by which name it is known in fome places, though it be generally called a lever. Vitruvius, lib. 8. cap. 1 teaches, That if we put the roftrum of a lever under a weight, which a multitude of hands cannot move; if but one man weigh down, or deprefs the handle, or other end of the lever, it will eafily lift up the burden: The reafon of which is, because the foremost part, or roftrum of the lever, which is fhorter from that preffion, that is in the place of the centre, undergoes and bears the burdens ; and becaufe the head or handle | of the lever, being farther distant from that preffion or centre, does, when it is weighed and pref. sed downward, make a motion of circination, as they call it; and by that motion causes the preffion by a few hands to heave up a weight of the greatest burden. For always, by how much more the hindmost part of the lever, that is to say, the part from the centre to the lever's handle, which is weighed down by the mover, is longer than the foremost, that is to fay, than that part, which, from the centre, belongs to the roftrum of the lewer; fo much the more eafily will the burden be moved.

This being premifed, it is easy to understand why a fail, fwelied with wind, makes a veffel move very fwiftly, though the fail-yard be not far diftant from the top of the maft: For the maft is, as the lever; the foot or bottom of the maft fupplies the place of the preffion or rowler; and the wind which fills the fail, is as the mover. Therefore the farther diftant the fail-yard is from the foot of the mast, the fafter the fhip will be driven : For the line, that is fartheft removed from the centre draws the largest circle: and the larger each circle is, the fwifter it is moved.

Ver. 9c2. Of this Vitruvius, lib. vii. cap. 1o. and Aristotle 6. Mechan. gives this reafon: Be. cause the rudder fupplies the place of the lever; the fhip, of the burden, the pilot, of the mover, and the hinges on, and to which the rudder hangs and is fastened, the place of the preflion or roller.

Ver. 905. Lucretius having made his animal perform all the operations of the fenfes, puts him to bed; yet leaves him not even there, but confiders him while he is afleep; and disputes of feep to ver. 970. and from thence to ver. 1031. of dreams. In the first place he tells us, that fleep is caufed by the foul's being grown fo weary and feeble, that the can no longer fupport the limbs (for the foul is the foundation of the bo dy); and thence proceeds a weakness of the joints, and a remiflion of the fenfes. Now the reafon why the foul is thus oppreffed, is evident: For the body is inc flantly weakened by the external air, and by that which it infpires and draws

Herodotum.

Ovid. Metam. II. v. 623.

Somne quies rerum, placidiffime fomne Deorum,
Pax animi, quem cura fugit, qui corda diurnis
Fefla minifteriis mulces, reparafque labori.

-O facred reft!

Sweet pleafing fleep! of all the powers the beft!
O peace of mind, repairer of decay,
Whole balms renew the limbs to labours of the

And flies th' oppreffors to relieve th' opprefs'd.
Sleep loves the cottage, and from court abftains;
It fills the feamen, though the ftorm be high;
Frees the griev'd captive in his closest chains,
Stops want's loud mouth, and blinds the treach
'rous spy.

Ver. 907. These four verses we have had already in this book, v. 186. See there the notes upon them.

Ver. 916. First in these fixteen verfes he teaches, that fleep is caufed in us, when by reason of the power of the foul' being impaired and weakened, the members of the body àre, in a manner, loofened and diffolved. Our fenfes, fays he, are

tium cunctorum alienis velat opibus: Cæteris vero tegumenta tribuit, teftas, cortices, coria, spinas, villos, fetas, pilos, plumam, pennas, fquamas, vellera, &c.

locked up, and hindered by sleep from perform-
ing their functions: But our fenfes proceed from
the operation of the foul: Therefore it neceffarily
follows, that when the animal is afleep, his foul
muft partly be gone out of him, partly be retir
ed into the iumoft receffes of the body, and partly"
be difperfed through the members. But he will
not allow, that when the animal fleeps, the foul is
entirely retreated from the body; for unless fome
part of it remained alive, neither the animal, nor
his fenfes could awake, or revive again after his
fleep. This he illuftrates by an example: For as
fire, buried in afhes, is not wholly extinguished;
fo neither is the whole foul extinct in a fleeping
animal.

Ver. 918. Ariftotle almost to the fame purpose, in his book de Somn. where he says, that fleep is a coition of heat in the inmoft parts of the body, and a natural compreffion of it, by the circumfufion of its contrary, cold; because the humidity of the exhalation repels and drives the heat into the interior region of the body.

Ver. 932. In these four verses, he says, that he will now tell what causes this change and alteration of the foul: How it is poffible that the can be divided in fuch a manner as to be ejected partly out of the body, as to retire partly into the inmoft parts of it, and as to be partly difperfed through the members, and to languifh and be. come dull and ftupified together with the whole body.

Ver. 936. In these twenty-three verfes, he explains the causes of the body's growing weary and falling into flumber. He begins by the air, as well that which externally ftrikes the body on all fides, as that which is drawn in and breathed by animals in their refpiration. For the first muft neceffarily very often ftrike the utmost parts of bodies, which it always furrounds and the air that is infpired or drawn into the body muft likewife ftrike the interior parts of it: Now thefe twofold ftrokes are the cause that disturbs the fites and orders of the atoms, and of the enfuing weakness of the whole body and foul For part of the foul is forced out of the body part of it retreats inwardly, and part of it is difperfed through the limbs; fo that its parts being thus disjoined and difunited, it can no longer perform its due functions: And, therefore, the motions of fenfe being changed, the fenfe too goes away. And thus what was the body's prop and fupport being abfent, the body must neceffarily grow weak and fall.

Ver. 939. That is, that things may be safe and the better protected from the injuries of the air, they are covered with skins, barks, &c. Cicero lib. ii. de Nat. Deor. pursues this yet farther "Animantium," fays he," aliæ coriis tecta funt, aliæ villis veftitæ, aliæ fpinis hirfuta: plu mâ alias, alias fquamâ videmus obductus," &c. Some animals are covered with hides, fome clothed with hair, and fome are horrid with briftles: We fee others wrapt up in feathers. others in fcales, others in fhells, &c. Thus Pliny lib. vii. in Procem, " Ante omnia unum animian

Ver. 951. Thus Pliny, lib. xi. cap. ult. fays,
Somnum effe animi in fefe medium receffum."
Ver. 957. Milton, in Paradise Loft:

-The timely dew of fleep

Now falling, with soft slumb'rer weight, inclines
My eyelids-

And again :

Then gentle fleep with soft oppreffion seiz'd
My drowfed fenfe.

Ver. 959. In these eleven verfes, the poet gives a reason why we are most inclined to fleep, and fleep moft foundly after eating or labour Be caufe, fays he, the aliment, as it distributes itself through the body, affects it in the fame manner as the two forts of air mentioned in the foregoing argument: Nay, the strokes it gives are the greater, because its body is more firm and folid thaa that of air. And we fleep the founder after labour, because more atoms being agitated and put into motion by the hard labour of the wearied body, they mutually dißurḥ and disorder one another: And thence it proceeds, that the foul retires farther into the interior parts; that a greater part of it is thrown out; and that the particles of the foul that remain within, are the more feparated, and the farther disjoined from one another. Ari otle, lib. de Somn. et expergef. fays to the fame purpose, that the humid vapours of meat and drink afcend, and are borne upwards; that when they are mounted as high as they can go, they then, because they are heavy and corporeal, fall down again; and drag along with them, and de trude into the interior parts, the native vital heat, which of its own accord is borne upwards; by which means fleep is produced: And, therefore, after meat fleep is generally the moft profound. Likewile after labour; because labour diffolves, and in a manner corrupts the body. But that which wears off from a wafting body, is as meat undigested. Thus Ariftotle: But our physicians give us another reason: They tell us, that we are difpofed to fleep after we have eaten, because the ventricle being then full, the blood has not fo free and open a paffage down the aorta, which, fince it lies behind the ftomach, must therefore be compreffed by it, when it is filled and turgid with aliments: Thus this repletion of the ventricle hinders the blood from descending in the fame quantity as it did before when the ftomach was empty: Nay, on the contrary, it forces it to al cend in greater plenty toward the head, which, for this reafon, feems more ftuffed after a plentiful meal than it was before, and the face too grows redder and hotter, as do likewife the hands: And this any man may difcern by expe rience in his own perfon: Now, the blood thus rufhing to the head, compreffes the glands of the brain, and hinders the free feparation of the ani mal fpirits by them: To this we may add the