_MADAM,_
In your last, you were pleased to desire an account, how far, or how
much I did understand the ancient and modern Philosophers in their
Philosophical Writings. Truly, _Madam_, I can more readily tell you
what I do not understand, then what I do understand: for, first, I do
not understand their sophistical Logick, as to perswade with arguments
that black is white, and white is black; and that fire is not hot, nor
water wet, and other such things; for the glory in Logick is rather
to make doubts, then to find truth; indeed, that Art now is like
thick, dark clouds, which darken the light of truth. Next: I do not
understand in particular, what they mean by second matter; for if they
name figures and forms second matter, they may as well say, all several
motions, which are the several actions of Nature, are several matters,
and so there would be infinite several matters, which would produce a
meer confusion in Nature. Neither do I understand, when they say, a
body dissolves into the first matter; for I am not able to conceive
their first matter, nor what they mean by _magna_ and _major materia_;
for I believe there is but one matter, and the motion of that matter is
its action by which it produces several figures and effects; so that
the nature of the matter is one and the same, although its motions,
that is, its actions, be various, for the various effects alter not
the nature or unity of the onely matter. Neither do I understand what
they mean by corruption, for surely Nature is not corruptible. Nor do
I understand their individables in Nature, nor a bodiless form, nor
a privation, nor a being without a body; nor any such thing as they
call rest, for there's not any thing without motion in Nature: Some do
talk of moving _minima's_, but they do not tell what those _minima's_
or their motions are, or how they were produced, or how they came to
move. Neither do I understand when they say there is but one World,
and that finite; for if there be no more Matter then that which they
call the whole World, and may be measured by a _Jacob's_ staff, then
certainly there is but little matter, and that no bigger then an atome
in comparison to Infinite. Neither can my reason comprehend, when they
say, that not any thing hath power from its interior nature to move
exteriously and locally; for common sense and reason, that is sight
and observation, doth prove the contrary. Neither do I know what they
mean by making a difference between matter and form, power and act;
for there can be no form without matter, nor no matter without form;
and as act includes power, so power is nothing without act: Neither
can I conceive Reason to be separable from matter; nor what is meant
when they say, that, onely that is real, which moves the understanding
without. Nor do I understand what they mean by intentionals,
accidentals, incorporeal beings, formal _ratio_, formal _unity_, and
hundreds the like; enough to puzle truth, when all is but the several
actions of one cause, to wit, the onely matter. But most men make such
cross, narrow, and intricate ways in Nature, with their over-nice
distinctions, that Nature appears like a Labyrinth, whenas really she
is as plain as an un-plowed, ditched, or hedged champion: Nay, some
make Nature so full, that she can neither move nor stir; and others
again will have her so empty, as they leave not any thing within her;
and some with their penetrations, pressings, squeezings, and the like,
make such holes in her, as they do almost wound, press and squeeze
her to death: And some are so learned, witty, and ingenious, as they
understand and know to discourse of the true compass, just weight,
exact rules, measures and proportions of the Universe, as also of the
exact division of the _Chaos_, and the architecture of the world, to
an atome. Thus, _Madam_, I have made my confession to you of what I
understand not, and have endeavoured to make my ignorance as brief as I
could; but the great God knows, that my ignorance is longer then that
which is named life and death; and as for my understanding, I can onely
say, that I understand nothing better, but my self to be,
Madam,
_Your most faithful Friend_
_and humble Servant._