Observations, censures, and confutations of notorious errours in Mr. Hobbes his Leviathan and other his bookes to which are annexed occasionall anim-adversions on some writings of the Socinians and such hæreticks of the same opinion with him / by William Lucy ...

Sect. 4.* 1.1

4. He saith [That feare gives occasion to feigne as many Gods, as there are Men that feigne them: And for the matter or substance of the invisible Agents so fancied, they could not, by natural cogitation, fall upon any other conceit, but that it was the same with the Soul of man, and that the soul of man, was of the same substance with that which appeareth in a Dreame to a man that sleepeth, or in a Looking-glasse to one that is awake: which men not knowing that such Apparitions are no∣thing else but Creatures of the fancy, think to be reall, and external substances, and therefore call them Ghosts, as the Latines call them Imagines & umbrae, and thought them Spirits, that is, thin aeriall bodies; and those invi∣sible Agents, which they feare, to be like them, save that they appear, and vanish, when they please. Thus far he. In which Period are many strange and forced Ex∣pressions without any proof, or illustration.* 1.2 I will touch them briefly, but first I must expound that Phrase used twice by him, Invisible Agents; by that he must under∣stand

the false Gods of the Gentiles, for the first Clause, that they conceited those false Gods to be of the same nature with the soul of man, I yeeld, onely more excel∣lent; so was every Daemon esteemed, and so even those Heroes, which were from humanity, in the esteeme of Idolatrous men, exalted to a coelestial excellency, thought of a greater perfection then themselves had in their earthly condition; and that they had influence, and pow∣er over these earthly things, and therefore had Prayers and sacrifice offered to them. But then let us consider his Philosophy concerning mans soul, he saith, That these Idolaters,* 1.3 who thought their Gods like mans soul, thought a mans soul was of the same substance with that which appear∣eth in a Dreame, or in a Looking-glasse] I am perswaded he dreamt when he writ this, he did not so much as see it in any glasse in this world; and although it is too much to say, he never read it in any book, (for his Book will witness, that many unexpected things are in Books) yet I can say, that I never heard or read of any Idolater that ever had that absurd opinion concerning the Soul. These two things are things of a very little Entity, the meanest of Accidents, the one a Dreame, the work of a sleeping fancie; the other the apparition of a Looking-glasse, the weak effect of a poor Accident, Colour, in which it produced it self in a most feeble and weake condition. Contrariwise, the soul of man is the most ex∣cellent and substantial part in the most excellent Crea∣ture man, the Author of all those noble effects which the wit or industry of man can attaine unto; and all this affirmed by these Idolaters in their Philosophical Books.

Notes

• * 1.1

  His opinion of the feigned God, invisible Agents, Ghosts &c.
• * 1.2

  Invisible A∣gents what.
• * 1.3

  Mr. Hobbes sticks an absurd opinion of mans soul un∣deservedly up∣on Idolaters.