_Of Miracles; and of Curing by the Imagination._
Next Morning, so soon as I awoke, I went to call up my Antagonist. "It
is," said I, accosting him, "as great a Miracle to find a great Wit,
like yours, buried in Sleep, as to see Fire without Heat and Action:"
He bore with this ugly Compliment; "but," (cryed he, with a Cholerick
kind of Love) "will you never leave these Fabulous Terms? Know, that
these Names defame the Name of a Philosopher; and that seeing the wise
Man sees nothing in the World, but what he conceives, and judges may
be conceived, he ought to abhor all those Expressions of Prodigies,
and extraordinary Events of Nature, which Block heads have invented to
excuse the Weakness of their Understanding."
I thought my self then obliged in Conscience, to endeavour to undeceive
him; and therefore, said I, "Though you be very stiff and obstinate in
your Opinions, yet I have plainly seen supernatural Things happen:"
"Say you so," continued he; "you little know, that the force of
Imagination is able to cure all the Diseases which you attribute to
supernatural Causes, by reason of a certain natural Balsam, that
contains Qualities quite contrary to the qualities of the Diseases
that attack us; which happens, when our Imagination informed by Pain
searches in that place for the specifick Remedy, which it applies
to the Poison. That's the reason, why an able Physician of your
World advises the Patient to make use of an Ignorant Doctor whom he
esteems to be very knowing, rather than of a very Skilful Physician
whom he may imagine to be Ignorant; because he fancies, that our
Imagination labouring to recover our Health, provided it be assisted
by Remedies, is able to cure us; but that the strongest Medicines are
too weak, when not applied by Imagination. Do you think it strange,
that the first Men of your World lived so many Ages without the least
Knowledge of Physick? No. And what might have been the Cause of that,
in your judgement; unless their Nature was as yet in its force, and
that natural Balsam in vigour, before they were spoilt by the Drugs
wherewith Physicians consume you; it being enough then for the recovery
of ones Health, earnestly to wish for it, and to imagine himself cured:
So that their vigorous Fancies, plunging into that vital Oyl, extracted
the Elixir of it, and applying Actives to Passives, in almost the
twinkling of an Eye they found themselves as sound as before: Which,
notwithstanding the Depravation of Nature, happens even at this day,
though somewhat rarely; and is by the Multitude called a Miracle: For
my part, I believe not a jot on't, and have this to say for my self,
that it is easier for all these Doctors to be mistaken, than that the
other may not easily come to pass: For I put the Question to them;
A Patient recovered out of a Feaver, heartily desired, during his
sickness, as it is like, that he might be cured, and, may be, made
Vows for that effect; so that of necessity he must either have dyed,
continued sick, or recovered: Had he died, then would it have been
said, kind Heaven hath put an end to his Pains; Nay, and that according
to his Prayers, he was now cured of all Diseases, praised be the Lord:
Had his Sickness continued, one would have said, he wanted Faith;
but because he is cured, it's a Miracle forsooth. Is it not far more
likely, that his Fancy, being excited by violent Desires, hath done
its Duty and wrought the Cure? For grant he hath escaped, what then?
must it needs be a Miracle? How many have we seen, pray, and after many
solemn Vows and Protestations, go to pot with all their fair Promises
and Resolutions."
"But at least," replied I to him, "if what you say of that Balsam be
true, it is a mark of the Rationality of our Soul; seeing without the
help of our Reason, or the Concurrence of our Will, she Acts of her
self; as if being without us, she applied the Active to the Passive.
Now if being separated from us she is Rational, it necessarily follows
that she is Spiritual; and if you acknowledge her to be Spiritual, I
conclude she is immortal; seeing Death happens to Animals, only by the
changing of Forms, of which Matter alone is capable."
The Young Man at that, decently sitting down upon his Bed, and making
me also to sit, discoursed, as I remember, in this manner: "As for
the Soul of Beasts, which is Corporeal, I do not wonder they Die;
seeing the best Harmony of the four Qualities may be dissolved, the
greatest force of Blood quelled, and the loveliest Proportion of
Organs disconcerted; but I wonder very much, that our intellectual,
incorporeal, and immortal Soul should be constrained to dislodge and
leave us, by the same Cause that makes an Ox to perish. Hath she
covenanted with our Body, that as soon as he should receive a prick
with a Sword in the Heart, a Bullet in the Brain, or a Musket-shot
through the Chest, she should pack up and be gone? And if that Soul
were Spiritual, and of her self so Rational that being separated from
our Mass she understood as well as when Clothed with a Body; why cannot
Blind Men, born with all the fair advantages of that intellectual Soul,
imagine what it is to see? Is it because they are not as yet deprived
of Sight, by the Death of all their Senses? How! I cannot then make use
of my Right Hand, because I have a Left!
"And in fine, to make a just comparison which will overthrow all that
you have said; I shall only alledge to you a Painter, who cannot work
without his pencil: And I'll tell you, that it is just so with the
Soul, when she wants the use of the Senses. Yet they have the Soul,
which can only act imperfectly, because of the loss of one of her
Tools, in the course of Life, to be able then to work to Perfection,
when after our death she hath lost them all. If they tell me, over
and over again, that she needeth not these Instruments for performing
her Functions, I'll tell them e'en so, That then all the Blind about
the Streets ought to be Whipt at a Carts-Arse, for playing the
Counterfeits in pretending not to See a bit."
He would have gone on in such impertinent Arguments, had not I stopt
his Mouth, by desiring him to forbear, as he did for fear of a quarrel;
for he perceived I began to be in a heat: So that he departed, and left
me admiring the People of that World, amongst whom even the meanest
have Naturally so much Wit; whereas those of ours have so little, and
yet so dearly bought.