Another collection of philosophical conferences of the French virtuosi upon questions of all sorts for the improving of natural knowledg made in the assembly of the Beaux Esprits at Paris by the most ingenious persons of that nation / render'd into English by G. Havers, Gent. & J. Davies ..., Gent.

CONFERENCE CXXII. Of the Original of Forms. (Book 122)

A Form is that which gives either Being or Motion. When it gives only Motion, 'tis call'd an Assistent Form, as that which moves the Heavens: When Being, an Informant Form, styl'd also an Act, Perfection, Essence, Vertue, Beauty. For what ever is excellent in a Subject, proceeds from the Form; which determining the Indifferency of the matter (of it self imperfect) makes it to be one, that is to say, not divided in it self, and divided from every thing else. Created Forms are either spiritual or material; and both these again either substan∣tial or accidental. Spiritual accidental Forms are, Vertue, Science, and all Habits of the Soul. Substantial spiritual forms are Intelligences and Rational souls. Material accidental forms are either simple, as Heat and Whiteness; or compounded, as Beauty and Health. Under Material substantial Forms are comprehended Vegetative and sensitive Souls, which are the Forms of Plants and Brutes, and the Subject now in hand; al∣though I will not grant them to be Substances, but only Acci∣dents. All agree that there are Forms, because there are Acti∣ons; which presuppose Powers. These Powers are properties flowing from some active principle which sets them on work; which the Matter, because purely passive, cannot do; and therefore it must be the Form. But the doubt is, whether this Form be substantial or accidental; as, whether it be only a cer∣tain degree of Heat, which makes Plants and Animals be nou∣risht, grow, generate, and move, or else some Substance and Form more excellent that employs Heat as its Instrument for pro∣ducing those Actions. And this is most probable. For other∣wise, A Substance compounded of Matter and Form should, contrary to the Maxim, be made of that which is not Substance, if Forms were only accidental. They are introduc'd into a capable Subject by an Univocal Agent, which by generation communicates a soul of the same Nature with its own, which is material, and consequently divisible; yet so divisible as that it is not diminished in the traduction, no more than the Species of a Looking-glass which produces it self wholly and entirely in all bodies capable of it, or then the flame of a candle wherewith a thousand others may be lighted, without any diminution of its substance.

The second said, That Forms are primogenial Principles, no more generable than the Matter which they always accompany, and according to whose dispositions they only change appear∣ance. For 'tis not credible that Forms, the principal pieces of the world (without which it would be depriv'd of that from

which it bears its name, to wit, Ornament and Beauty) are subject to continual corruption; otherwise the world and the natures therein contain'd would have been chang'd in so long a time, and yet they remain still the same. Besides, if Forms perish, they must either be annihilated (but nothing is so in na∣ture) or else resolv'd into that whereof they are compos'd, since they are suppos'd material; and nevertheless we see no remain∣der of them. 'Tis therefore always the same form but diversly dress'd, and said to be generated when it changes from an im∣perfect to a perfect state; and to be corrupted when it returns into a worse condition then what is had before; both, accord∣ing to the several dispositions of its Subject.

The third said, That all natural Forms are nothing but Acci∣dents, since they are in matter as in a subject, from which they are inseparable; and not as parts; for they are parts of the whole, but not of the Matter. The Forms of the Elements are the first Quali∣ties. And as all Mixts are compounded of the four Elements, so they derive their form (as well as their matter) from them, which follows the nature of the Element predominant in the Compound. Thus Driness is the Form of a stone, which hath more of earth than of any other Element; Oyl is humid, because aerial; all Li∣ving Creatures are Hot, by reason of Heat, the noblest and most active quality, which, attaining to the proportion requi∣site for performing the offices of life, is call'd a Soul; and ac∣cording as it is more or less refin'd, and meets with different sub∣jects, 'tis called a Vegetative Soul in Plants, and a Sensitive soul in Brutes. I say further, that these Forms are nothing but Modes and Fashions of Being. For as Water turn'd into Air, and this into Fire by rarefaction, or into Water by condensation, are still the same, not differing but according as their parts are more or less close; so as well Forms purely natural as other living Forms, are nothing but Modes and Fashions of Being of the Elements, their Qualities, and the several Mixtures from which those Forms result.

The fourth said, according to Anaxagoras's opinion, That all things are in all, and consequently Forms in the Matter, out of whose bosom they are educ'd by Agents conjoyning things of the same Nature, and separating others. As Art (which imi∣tates Nature) makes not Wine, but only presses out that vege∣tal juice which was before in the Grape; and out of Marble forms a Statue only by paring off what was superfluous: so out of the Earth, Nature forms Plants, which are turn'd into the substance of Animals, whose bodies are again reduc'd into Earth.

The fifth maintain'd the opinion of Albert the Great, who is for the Generation of things, which the preceding opinion over throws, holding nothing to be new generated; He said, that Forms are indeed in the Matter, yet not entire and perfect, but only by halves and begun; according to their essence, not according to their existence, which they acquire by the Agents which educe things out of their causes.

The Sixth said, If it were so, then there would be no sub∣stantial Generation, because Existence is nothing but a Manner of Being, adding nothing to Essence, nor really distinguish'd from it. Wherefore I embrace Aristotle's opinion, that Forms are in the Matter, but only potentially, and as the Matter is capable of them; just as Wax is potentially Caesar's Statue, because ca∣pable of receiving that form. This he calls, to be drawn and educ'd out of the power or bosom of the Matter: which is not to be receiv'd in it, or to depend of its dispositions, since this belongs also to the Rational soul, which is not receiv'd in the body till the previous dispositions, necessary for its reception, be introduc'd therein; but the Matter it self concurrs, though in a passive way, not only to dispose it self, but also to produce the Form, and consequently to preserve it. Which is not appli∣cable to the Rational soul, whose Being depends not anywise up∣on the Matter.

The Seventh said, Matter, being a Principle purely passive and incapable of all action, cannot produce any thing, much less Forms, the noblest Entities in the world. 'Tis the principle of impotence and imperfection, and consequently the ugliness, deformity, contrary to the Form whereof it should partake, if it contain'd the same in power, as Wine and Pepper do Heat, which becomes actual and sensible when reduc'd into act by our Natural Heat which loosens it from the parts which confin'd it. Wherefore Forms come from without, namely, from Heaven and its noblest part the Sun, the Father of Forms, which are nothing but Beams of light deriv'd from him as their Fountain, whose heat and influences give motion and life; which is the abode of Heat in Humidity: not Elementary Heat; for then Arsenic, Sulphur, and other Mixts, abounding with this Heat, should have life; but Serpents, Salamanders, Fishes, Hemlock, Poppies, and other excessively cold Plants and Animals, should not. Moreover in whatever manner the Elements and their Qualities be mix'd, they are still Elements, and can produce no∣thing above their own Nature, which is, to calefie, refrigerate, attenuate, rarefie, condense; but not the internal and exter∣nal senses, the various motions and other actions of life, which can proceed only from a Celestial Heat, such as that is which preserves a Plant amidst the rigours of Winter; whose coldness would soon destroy the Plant's heat, if it were of the same nature. Hence Vegetative and Sensitive Souls having no Contraries, because Contraries are plac'd under the same Genus, (but the Celestial matter whereof these souls are constituted, and the Elements are not) therefore they are not corruptible af∣ter the manner of other Mixts; but like light, cease to exist upon the cessation of the dispositions which maintain'd them. For, such is the order of Nature, that when a Subject is possest of all the dispositions requisite for introduction of a Form, the Author of Nature, or (according to Plato) the Idea, or that

Soul of the World (which Avicenna held to be an Intelligence destinated to the generation of substantial Forms) concurrs to the production of the Form, as also this concourse ceases when those dispositions are abolisht.