_MADAM,_
Your _Author_ is pleased to relate a story[1] of one that died
suddenly, and being dissected, there was not the least sign of decay
or disorder found in his body. But I cannot add to those that wonder,
when no sign of distemper is found in a man's body after he is dead;
because I do not believe, that the subtillest, learnedst, and most
practised Anatomist, can exactly tell all the Interior Government
or motions, or can find out all obscure and invisible passages in a
mans body; for concerning the motions, they are all altered in death,
or rather in the dissolution of the animal figure; and although the
exterior animal figure or shape doth not alter so soon, yet the animal
motions may alter in a moment of time; which sudden alteration may
cause a sudden death, and so the motions being invisible, the cause
of death cannot be perceived; for no body can find that which is not
to be found, to wit, animal motions in a dead man; for Nature hath
altered these motions from being animal motions to some other kind
of motions, she being as various in dissolutions, as in productions,
indeed so various, that her ways cannot be traced or known thorowly
and perfectly, but onely by piece-meals, as the saying is, that is,
but partly: Wherefore man can onely know that which is visible, or
subject to his senses; and yet our senses do not always inform us
truly, but the alterations of grosser parts are more easily known, then
the alterations of subtil corporeal motions, either in general, or in
particular; neither are the invisible passages to be known in a dead
Carcass, much less in a living body. But, I pray, mistake me not, when
I say, that the animal motions are not subject to our exterior senses;
for I do not mean all exterior animal motions, nor all interior animal
motions; for though you do see no interior motion in an animal body,
yet you may feel some, as the motion of the Heart, the motion of the
Pulse, the motion of the Lungs, and the like; but the most part of
the interior animal motions are not subject to our exterior senses;
nay, no man, he may be as observing as he will, can possibly know by
his exterior senses all the several and various interior motions in
his own body, nor all the exterior motions of his exterior parts: and
thus it remains still, that neither the subtillest motions and parts
of matter, nor the obscure passages in several Creatures, can be known
but by several parts; for what one part is ignorant of, another part
is knowing, and what one part is knowing, another part is ignorant
thereof; so that unless all the Parts of Infinite Matter were joyned
into one Creature, there can never be in one particular Creature a
perfect knowledg of all things in Nature. Wherefore I shall never
aspire to any such knowledg, but be content with that little particular
knowledg, Nature has been pleased to give me, the chief of which is,
that I know my self, and especially that I am,
Madam,
_Your constant Friend,_
_and faithful Servant._
[1] _Ch._ 61. called, _The Preface_.