_MADAM,_
_That the Mind_, according to your _Authors_ opinion, _is a substance
really distinct from the body, and may be actually separated from
it and subsist without it_: If he mean the natural mind and soul of
Man, not the supernatural or divine, I am far from his opinion; for
though the mind moveth onely in its own parts, and not upon, or with
the parts of inanimate matter, yet it cannot be separated from these
parts of matter, and subsist by its self as being a part of one and
the same matter the inanimate is of, (for there is but one onely
matter, and one kind of matter, although of several degrees,) onely
it is the self-moving part; but yet this cannot impower it, to quit
the same natural body, whose part it is. Neither can I apprehend,
that the Mind's or Soul's seat should be in the _Glandula_ or kernel
of the Brain, and there sit like a Spider in a Cobweb, to whom the
least motion of the Cobweb gives intelligence of a Flye, which he is
ready to assault, and that the Brain should get intelligence by the
animal spirits as his servants, which run to and fro like Ants to
inform it; or that the Mind should, according to others opinions, be
a light, and imbroidered all with Ideas, like a Heraulds Coat; and
that the sensitive organs should have no knowledg in themselves, but
serve onely like peeping-holes for the mind, or barn-dores to receive
bundles of pressures, like sheaves of Corn; For there being a thorow
mixture of animate, rational and sensitive, and inanimate matter, we
cannot assign a certain seat or place to the rational, another to the
sensitive, and another to the inanimate, but they are diffused and
intermixt throughout all the body; And this is the reason, that sense
and knowledg cannot be bound onely to the head or brain; But although
they are mixt together, nevertheless they do not lose their interior
nature, by this mixture, nor their purity and subtilty, nor their
proper motions or actions, but each moves according to its nature and
substance, without confusion; The actions of the rational part in
Man, which is the Mind or Soul, are called Thoughts, or thoughtful
perceptions, which are numerous, and so are the sensitive perceptions;
for though Man, or any other animal hath but five exterior sensitive
organs, yet there be numerous perceptions made in these sensitive
organs, and in all the body; nay, every several Pore of the flesh is
a sensitive organ, as well as the Eye, or the Ear. But both sorts, as
well the rational as the sensitive, are different from each other,
although both do resemble another, as being both parts of animate
matter, as I have mentioned before: Wherefore I'le add no more, onely
let you know, that I constantly remain,
Madam,
_Your faithful Friend,_
_and Servant._