_MADAM,_
Since your _Worthy_ and _Learned Author_ is pleased to mention,[1]
That an _ample experience both of Men and Things doth enlarge our
Understanding_, I have taken occasion hence to enquire, how a mans
Understanding may be encreased or inlarged. The Understanding must
either be in Parts, or it must be Individable as one; if in Parts, then
there must be so many Understandings as there are things understood;
but if Individable, and but one Understanding, then it must dilate it
self upon so many several objects. I for my part, assent to the first,
That Understanding increases by Parts, and not by Dilation, which
Dilation must needs follow, if the Mind or Understanding of man be
indivisible and without parts; but if the Mind or Soul be Individable,
then I would fain know, how Understanding, Imagination, Conception,
Memory, Remembrance, and the like, can be in the mind? You will say,
perhaps, they are so many faculties or properties of the Incorporeal
Mind, but, I hope, you do not intend to make the Mind or Soul a Deity,
with so many attributes, Wherefore, in my opinion, it is safer to say,
That the Mind is composed of several active Parts: but of these Parts
I have treated in my Philosophy, where you will find, that all the
several Parts of Nature are Living and Knowing, and that there is no
part that has not Life and Knowledg, being all composed of rational
and sensitive matter, which is the life and soul of Nature; and that
Nature being Material, is composable and dividable, which is the cause
of so many several Creatures, where every Creature is a part of
Nature, and these Infinite parts or creatures are Nature her self; for
though Nature is a self-moving substance, and by self-motion divides
and composes her self several manners or ways into several forms and
figures, yet being a knowing, as well as a living substance, she knows
how to order her parts and actions wisely; for as she hath an Infinite
body or substance, so she has an Infinite life and knowledg; and as she
hath an Infinite life and knowledg, so she hath an infinite wisdom:
But mistake me not, _Madam_; I do not mean an Infinite Divine Wisdom,
but an Infinite Natural Wisdom, given her by the Infinite bounty of
the Omnipotent God; but yet this Infinite Wisdom, Life and Knowledg in
Nature make but one Infinite. And as Nature hath degrees of matter, so
she has also degrees and variety of corporeal motions; for some parts
of matter are self-moving, and some are moved by these self-moving
parts of matter; and all these parts, both the moving and moved, are
so intermixed, that none is without the other, no not in any the least
Creature or part of Nature we can conceive; for there is no Creature or
part of Nature, but has a comixture of those mentioned parts of animate
and inanimate matter, and all the motions are so ordered by Natures
wisdom, as not any thing in Nature can be otherwise, unless by a
Supernatural Command and Power of God; for no part of corporeal matter
and motion can either perish, or but rest; one part may cause another
part to alter its motions, but not to quit motion, no more then one
part of matter can annihilate or destroy another; and therefore matter
is not meerly Passive, but always Active, by reason of the thorow
mixture of animate and inanimate matter; for although the animate
matter is onely active in its nature, and the inanimate passive, yet
because they are so closely united and mixed together that they make
but one body, the parts of the animate or self-moving matter do bear
up and cause the inanimate parts to move and work with them; and thus
there is an activity in all parts of matter moving and working as one
body, without any fixation or rest, for all is moveable, moving and
moved. All which, _Madam_, if it were well observed, there would not
be so many strange opinions concerning nature and her actions, making
the purest and subtillest part of matter immaterial or incorporeal,
which is as much, as to extend her beyond nature, and to rack her
quite to nothing. But I fear the opinion of Immaterial substances in
Nature will at last bring in again the Heathen Religion, and make us
believe a god _Pan, Bacchus, Ceres, Venus,_ and the like, so as we
may become worshippers of Groves and shadows, Beans and Onions, as
our Forefathers. I say not this, as if I would ascribe any worship to
Nature, or make her a Deity, for she is onely a servant to God, and so
are all her parts or creatures, which parts or creatures, although they
are transformed, yet cannot be annihilated, except Nature her self be
annihilated, which may be, whensoever the Great God pleases; for her
existence and resolution, or total destruction, depends upon Gods Will
and Decree, whom she fears, adores, admires, praises and prayes unto,
as being her God and Master; and as she adores God, so do all her parts
and creatures, and amongst the rest Man, so that there is no Atheist in
Infinite Nature, at least not in the opinion of,
Madam,
_Your faithful Friend_
_and Servant._
[1] _Antid. Book._ 2. _Ch._ 2. _a._ 1.