An entire body of philosophy according to the principles of the famous Renate Des Cartes in three books, (I) the institution ... (II) the history of nature ... (III) a dissertation of the want of sense and knowledge in brute animals ... / written originally in Latin by the learned Anthony Le Grand ; now carefully translated from the last corrections, alterations, and large additions of the author, never yet published ... by Richard Blome.

CHAP. VI. Of Imagination.

I. Whence arises the diversity of Wit and Imagina∣tion. ALMOST all Men differ some way or other in Wit, and Imagination.

This chiefly proceeds from the various Confor∣mation, Figure and Magnitude of the Brain, Texture of parts, substance and motion of Animal Spirits. For all these things very greatly conduce to the quickness or slowness of Wit and Imagina∣tion. Forasmuch as if the bulk of the Brain be either lesser or bigger than is fit, the Wit will ei∣ther be precipitate or slow; either because the Spi∣rits themselves have not a passage free and open enough, or because the equal motion of them is put out of order through the default of the Figure; or perhaps because in a larger bulk the Contex∣ture of the minute parts is courser, or there is some other more occult Cause, which represents the Images of things distorted or ill delineated.

II. Whenee proceeds the vari∣ous Inclina∣tions of Men, some to one Art or Science, some to another. Whence according to the various degrees of Imagination, Men are variously carried by a cer∣tain innate Inclination, some to the Mathemati∣cal Arts, others to Eloquence and Poetry, others to the Art of Medicin, that is, the Practice; for the speculation thereof, which comprehends the Principles and Rules of Medicin more properly relates to the Intellect or Understanding; as the Practick Part of it which examins all the Indica∣tions and Circumstances of a Disease, and takes opportunities of healing, belongs chiefly to the Imagination: Whence it happens that the most learned and acute Physitians are not always the most happy in curing of Diseases. The same thing is for the most part observable in other Sci∣ences: For those Men who are the most Learned and Skilful in the Law, are judged the least fit for other Civil Imployments.

III. Many things oc∣cur to our Imagina∣tion, which never of∣fer'd them∣selves to our Senses. Many things, through our inadvertency, oc∣cur, which before were never offered to our Senses, not left any Vestigium of themselves; as when, for Example, we conceive in our Imagination a Hippocentaur, and other Chimaera's, which never presented themselves to our Eyes, such as we form'd them in our Fancy.

But tho' perchance those things which we conceive in our Imagination, were not before in our Senses, as to their Composition; nevertheless it cannot be doubted, but that the parts of which they were constituted, have at some time or other entred the Brain; or if haply not by themselves, yet by some other thing which had a great affinity with them. For if a Horse and a Man, for example, be represented to our Eyes, and the Species of both be imprest upon the Organ of Imagination, we easily compound them together, and conceive a Hippocentaur or Animal, consisting of Man and Horse. In like manner we may determin of the vestigia of other Objects, by the sight whereof we form many things which before fell not under our Senses.

IV. Why those that look upon the ground from any high place, are taken with a Ver∣tigo. They who, not being so accustomed, pass over high Bridges, or from a high Tower cast their Eyes upon the ground, are commonly taken with a Vertigo, and fancy all visible Objects to turn round.

This proceeds from Imagination, which appre∣hends danger from the situation or posture of the Body, and dreads the hapning of any mischief to it, whence being very cautious how it transmits the Spirits into the Nerves, and how to direct them more securely, it recalls them into the Me∣ditullium or inmost part of the Brain, and so per∣verts them from their accustomed afflux and Irra∣diation; and while it indeavours to direct them into better order, overmuch sollicitude compels them into a certain confusion and irregular moti∣on. And for this very Reason it is, that bold Per∣sons, and Men in Drink, in regard they take little care of the Regimen or Government of the Ani∣mal Spirits, suffer no such Vertigo.

V. Why Men in a Fever fancy they suffer th••se things which they really do not. Some Men seised with a Disease, especially those in a Fever, fancy they do or suffer many things which indeed they do not: For I have known one in a Tertian Ague often complaining that he was grievously afflicted with a wound in his Shoulder, when at the same time he had in reality no wound at all.

This happens by reason that the Species which are imprest by the course of the Spirits, or raised by means of the Vestigia of the Memory are equal∣ly vivacious, and indued with no less strength than those which proceed from the Senses. For when at that time the Animal Spirits are agitated above what health requires, they concur with the Vesti∣gia of the memory to the creation of other Species, which represent all things to us as being without us, and present to our Senses. It also happens sometimes in a Disease, that Objects make no im∣pression with which the Mind can compare those Species, which the memory, or the force of the Spirits there ingender.

VI. Witches in Imagina∣tion, see places f•••• remote. Thus it is probable that Witches, buried in a deep sleep, imagine they see Places far remote, Towns, Cities, Palaces, Troops of Men and Wo∣men, &c. and being awake describe them to a tittle, as if they had seen them with their Eyes. Which doubtless is done by the help of the Devil, who represents the Ideas of those things to their Imagination, and so strongly imprints it in them, that they make no manner of doubt but that they were present at those sorts of Shows.

[illustration]

Book. 2. Part. 9. Chap. 6.

G. Freman

I. Kip Scu

To the Right Hono^urable Charles Sackvile▪ Earle of Dorset and Middlesex, Baron Buckhurst and Cranfield, Knight of the most noble order of the Garter, Lord Leivtenant of Sussex, Lord Cham∣berlaine of his Majesties Household, and one of the Lords of their Ma^tys. most Hon^ble. Privy Councell &c.^a.

This Plate is humbly Dedicated by Richard Blome.

* 1.1 Some Marks or Characters are imprinted in Births by the force of the Mothers Imagination; this appears in Mothers that long for any thing: For upon their touching of the Cheek, or any other part of the Body, the thing so earnestly co∣veted, for example, a Cherry, Grape, or whatever else it be, is commonly imprest in the same mem∣ber. And FORESTUS makes mention of a certain Noble Woman, who, whilst she was with Child, having broke her Arm, brought forth a Male Child with a broken Arm.

The Reason hereof is, that the Image of the Cherry or Grape imprinted in the Brain of the Parent, is conveyed by the motion of the Spirits to the Infant, by reason that the same disposition which inheres in the Mothers Brain, and moves in her the desire of the said Fruit, passes also into the Brain of the Infant, corresponding to the part af∣fected: Whence the Mother touching her self in that part, in the time of her longing, produces there the effect of her Imagination. Because the Mother thus touching her self, there comes pre∣sently into her mind, the figure of the Image to be imprinted on the Birth; from whence a motion of some kind of shame, and also fear arises; with∣out both which no mark is ever imprinted in the Bodies of any Infants. So also for the other In∣stance: For since every one of the Infants mem∣bers is answerable to every one of the Parents, and the Fibres and Humours of both are continuous, no wonder if the Male Child of the foresaid Noble Woman was born with a Broken Arm, and the same remedies being applied to the Arms of both Mother and Infant, both were separately cured.

VIII. The power∣ful force of Imaginati∣on. To the same cause may be referred what hap∣ned to an Apothecaries Wife at Bononia, who be∣ing with Child, and seeing through a Window in a Neighbours House, Snakes flea'd, and hung to dry in the Air, brought forth a Child with a Snakes Head: So another Woman in Sicily, ac∣cording to the Testimony of ALDROVAN∣DUS, observing a Lobster or Sea▪Crab taken by a Fisherman, and being taken with an earnest longing for it, brought forth, together with the Birth, a Lobster altogether like what she had seen and long'd for.

IX. A Party-Colour'd Child born of a white Wo∣man. Hereunto may be added another History, quo∣ted by JOHANNES SWAMMERDA∣MUS in his Treatise entitled, Uteri Muliebris Fabrica, In which the force of Imagination in a Woman with Child is clearly demonstrated. A certain Woman of Utretcht being with Child, and going to a Shop to furnish her self with some things for her Domestick Use, upon her first en∣trance, sees a Negro, at which sight being affright∣ed, she went home, thinking no other but that she should bring forth a perfect Black. But at last recollecting her self, she borrows a remedy against this strong Imagination, from another equally strong, perswading her self that all the Blackness in her Imagination might be wash'd off with hot water; in order whereunto she kindles a Fire, heats a Skillet of Water, and washes her self all over from Head to Foot. What follows? The time of her Delivery arrives, the Child is born, hath all his Teeth entire, and appears a perfect White, those places excepted to which in the Mother, while she wash'd her self, the water reach'd not; such as in the Hands and Feet, the Interstices or innermost parts of the Fingers and Toes, and some other parts of the Body, where there appeared manifest signs of blackness and black Spots.

X. How it came to pass that an Aethio∣pian Queen brought forth a White Child. PERSINA an Aethiopian Queen, behold∣ing, in the midst of Copulation, the Picture of a White Child, brought forth a perfect White; and on the contrary, another Queen an European, on the like occasion, brought forth a Negro Child.

This some Physitians attribute to the Seed, which according to its various quality, induces various forms: So that if it be Yellowish, they will have it to produce a Ruddy Colour, if Cinericious or Ashes-like, a Brown Colour; if whitish, a White.

Which Opinion, tho' it be common, yet in this matter, Imagination must claim the principal part. Because in regard the Nerves, through which the courses of the Spirits are incessantly carried, are extended from the Brain into all parts of the Body; the force of Imagination, especially if it be a little more strong than ordinary, by operating upon the Bowels, and exciting the motions of the Hu∣mours, may very well induce a Black or White, or any other Colour. So Jacob's Sheep, according to the different aspect of the Rods set before them, brought forth their Young of a various Colour.

XI. Imaginati∣on performs wonderful things. By the certainty of this conclusion, HIPPO∣CRATES cleared a Woman that lay under suspicion of Adultery, upon bringing forth a Child utterly unlike her Husband; finding that it was very like a Picture which hanging up in her Bed-Chamber, the said Woman look'd upon very sted∣fastly in the time of Coition. For the same Rea∣son is to be excused that Lady of the Noble Fa∣mily of the Ursini, who brought forth a Male Child like a Hairy Bear, because all the while she was big, she had very frequently before her Eyes, and consequently in her mind the Pourtraitures of Bears, which are the Arms of the Ursini.

XII. Deformed Whelps are to be remo∣ved from the sight of bigbellied Women. Wherefore I judge nothing more blame-worthy among a sort of light and wanton Women, than the great delight they take in Whelps, young Apes and Monkies, taking them up in their Arms, hugging, stroaking, and continually handling them, since by this frequent having them in their Laps and Sight, they habituate their Imagination to I know not what strange and deformed Ideas, and so often bring forth a Birth that hath something of an odd, ill favoured sort of Meen in its Coun∣tenance. Wherefore I cannot but look upon it as very convenient that those sort of Dogs, vulgarly called Camusii, should be sent away, that the sight of them may not prejudice bigbellied Wo∣men, and be the occasion of deformed Births.

XIII. Why some delirant Persons have al∣ways the same discourse. Such a kind of madness possesses the Minds of some Men, and so perverts their judgment, that in their discourse they have always one thing by the end, and neither give attention nor answer to the words of other Men. I saw a Phrenetick at Paris, who for a whole day together repeated the same words over and over again; and if by chance he was interrupted by any one, he would stare upon the Person so speaking to him, as it were intending to answer him word by word, but no sooner had the said Person done speaking to him, but he was at the same Story as before.

In such sort of Men it falls out, that so great a perturbation possesses the Animal Spirits, as to suffer the impression of other words to adhere to

the Glandule, but a very little space, whereby it comes to pass, that the first Image of things by which it is detain'd, immediately returning, they (as having forgotten the words last said) are not able to give any answer to them, but only con∣formably to those things which impel the Glan∣dule, and are at that time represented to their Mind. For I am apt to think that these sort of Men are not troubled with a Phrensie, but only so long as their Soul has no command over the motions of the Glandule; or because the Animal Spirits are in such commotion, and are carried above it with so unequal a course, that they shat∣ter it without measure, and raise upon it innume∣rable species, which presently flow out and slip away. Or else, because the course of the Spirits imbues the Glandule with some Vestigia of Me∣mory so tenaciously, that the same Image is always represented from which the Soul is not able to dis∣ingage it self.

XIV. How it comes to pass that sometimes we are not sensible of things pre∣sent. In like manner some Persons are not sensible even of those very things which their Organs per∣form, as it happens when the Soul is wholly ta∣ken up or diverted by any strong thought, by reason that the Animal Spirits flow in so great a quantity through the tract upon which this thought depends, that those which remain are no longer able to supply the tract, which the Object present indeavours to impress. For which Reason it is, that those who are seiz'd with any acute pain, cannot possibly fix their thoughts upon any other thing but that.

XV. Some Men are carried by their di∣stemper to fancy them∣seves Kings Some imagine their Nose to be of so great a bulk, as not to be passable through any Door: Others believe themselves to be Kings, as that Spanish Servant whereof JOHANNES HU∣ARTUS makes mention, who verily believing himself to be a King, made many grave and wise Discourses concerning Government. MON∣TANUS speaks of some who fancied the sur∣face of the World to be made of Fine Glass, and that Serpents lay lurking every where underneath the said Glass; upon which conceit he kept his Bed, thinking himself there safe as in an Island, and that if he should stir out of it, he should break the Glass and so fall upon the Serpents.

The Reason of this extravagance may be drawn from what hath been said; for whilst by any te∣nacious disposition of the Spirits, and certain firm tracts of the Memory, the Glandule is converted to that part of the Brain where the pores are open∣ed; by the opening whereof the Species of King, Serpent, Glass, &c. may be revoqu'd, or else is form'd at that very time; the Soul beholding such a Species, considers it self as joined to that very King, Serpent, Glass, &c. which are represented by the said Species, and as it were a Composition, making together with it one whole. I knew one at London, who took upon him to be Archbishop of Canterbury, so created by the King, and un∣doubtedly ordained to succeed the present Incum∣bent in that See, when as at the same time in all other things he seemed to be a person suffici∣ently discreet and serious, and labouring under no other Phantasm; for he carefully minded his own affairs, spent his time seriously and wisely, and providently behaved himself in executing the Imploy he was ingaged in: All which I suppose may well enough be if the agitation of the Spirits by which the Glandule was formerly governed, ceases at that time, so long as nothing comes in its way that can renew those pristin motions, un∣til the Fit returns, and a new access comes upon the persons affected as it were upon those that are subject to a feverish Distemper.

XVI. Of one that imagined he had Frogs in his Guts. A certain Person, when by chance fell into a Well, where there were abundance of Spawn of Frogs, and taking into his Body, by the fall, some of the Well-water, he afterwards took a deep conceit, of his having young Frogs in his Belly, that he could not be otherwise perswaded for ma∣ny years; in so much that for seven years toge∣ther, he betook himself to the study of Physick, meerly for the finding out of a Remedy for this supposed Distemper; moreover he travelled into Italy, France and Germany to consult the Physi∣tians of those Parts concerning the said affair, still fancying that the rumbling of his Guts was the Croaking of Frogs, nor was he otherwise cur'd at last but by deception; forasmuch as a Physiti∣an, acting above others by policy, conveyed live Frogs into his Excrement, and so made him believe that he had voided them by Stool. And all this while, setting aside the recourse of this Imagina∣tion, if it did recur, in all other things he acted very prudently, and made not the least discovery of any extravagancy: Which might be, because the Animal Spirits ceased sometimes to flow through that tract of his Imagination where the extravagance was imprest, as being diverted by some other occasions; so that he appeared discreet enough till such time, as upon the renewing of the cause, the access of his whimsical Fit return∣ed, that is to say, till such time as some cause had disposed the Animal Spirits to the same course.

Notes

• * 1.1

  VII. What the cause is of marks im∣printed in Births.