A general collection of discourses of the virtuosi of France, upon questions of all sorts of philosophy, and other 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.

I. Of Death.

AS Being is the first and greatest good, because the foundation of all other goods, so (speaking absolutely upon a natural account) the first and greatest of all evils is the privation of that Being, which is Death; so terrible, that not onely brutes abhor the sight of their dead fellows, through fear of the same death of which they behold an image of their carcases; but men likewise, although their name of Mortals be a token of the ne∣cessity of their dying, yet use all the vain attempts they can to avoid that death which they fear as the most terrible of terrble things. Yea, all their great and violent actions and passions, take their source from this fear; which is so much greater as the evil is phancy'd nearer: Whence old or sick persons have more apprehension of it then then those that are young and in health. The vulgar commonly labours onely through fear of starving. A man that is decrepit, yet, is willing to part with a limb if he may by the loss respite his death, apprehended so terrible by some, that the fear of it has kill'd some criminals before executi∣on, and carry'd others to such madness as to kill themselves for fear of dying. Nevertheless, he that shall consider Death more nearly, will find that, being but a privation, it is nothing; and that what we fear so much is onely the way to this death, or the sequel of it; the former, in respect of irrational animals, and both in reference to man, who apprehends in the other life the judgement of the actions of this. Otherwise, Death being onely a poynt and a moment, which hath neither quantity nor extent, but approaches to Nothing, hath therefore nothing in it self for which it ought to be feared. For so long as the Ani∣mal hath sense it is not dead; and so soon as 'tis dead, it hath no more. And because 'tis a motion and passage from Being to not Being, between which two there is no medium or middle; therefore 'tis a pure nothing, and consequently, hath no foun∣dation saving in the troubled Phancy: Since upon due perpen∣sion of things, that which is not is no-wise to be fear'd, by those that are insensible, yea, that exist no more.

The Second said, That to maintain Death to be nothing, is to accuse not onely all men of folly in fearing what exists not, and consequently, is not capable of producing any effects or passions; but likewise, Nature of imprudence, in having imprinted this ap∣prehension in all creatures for their preservation. As therefore Reason and Experience teach us that there are substantial gene∣rations; so the same shew us the true and substantial corruptions of all compounds; which corruption, in a thing endu'd with life, is call'd Death, which is the separation of the Soul from

the Body. For the Platonists are ridiculous when they make two kinds of this separation, namely, that of the Soul from the Body, which they call Extasie, and that of the Body from the Soul, which alone they say is to be call'd Death: For they are both one and the same thing; and Extasie is not a separation of essence, but of power, hapning when the Soul is so glu'd to an ob∣ject, in the contemplation whereof it employes all its powers, that there remains none for corporeal functions; the Eyes not per∣ceiving what is then presented to them. Whence the Soul being more where it loves then where it lives, is also more where it understands. Now Death is either natural or violent. The former caus'd by the consumption of the radical moisture of plants and animals. For they alone are capable of dying, as they are of living; what they attribute to Fire, the Load-stone, and some other inanimates, being purely Metaphorical. Vio∣lent death is produc'd either by internal causes, as diseases, or by external. 'Tis caus'd by destroying the harmony of the parts and humours, which constituted life; after which destruction, the Soul not finding the organs longer meet for exercising its functions, (as Fire that wants unctuous and combustible humidity) forsakes its matter to retire into its own sphere. And though the corruption of one be the generation of another, there being no matter but hath alwayes some form, as Bees are generated out of dead Oxen; yet there is this distinction, that the progress of a form less noble to one that is more, is call'd generation or life, as when an Egg is made a chick; but when this progress is made from a more noble form to a less, as from a man to a carcase, then 'tis call'd Corruption and Death, if the form preceding were vital. Thus all are wayes of Death which lead to corruption. The first of these wayes is life, for nothing comes under its Laws but is subject to those of Death, considering the wayes that we dye as we are borne, and that our end depends on our original; as there is no harmony but must end in discord, the latter note not being capable to accord with the first rest, which is the end or death of harmony; whereunto our life is not onely compar'd, but may be fitly defin'd by it, that Galen, enlightned by Reason alone, conceiv'd the Soul to be nothing else.

The Third said, That onely in the death of men there is a sepa∣ration of the Soul from the Body; seeing that after the death of animals and plants there still remain faculties in their bodies which cannot depend on the sole mistion of the Elements, but must be referr'd to some internal principle, which can be no other then their Soul. Yet with this difference, that as during life these faculties were as formes in their matter, so after death they are as substances in their place, though without any activity, for want of necessary dispositions; which return afterwards by generation, or the action of the celestial bodies, producing wormes and other animals, which come of themselves, and never but from a nature formerly animated, not receiving by this new

generation any substantial form, but onely making the Soul ap∣pear; which was kept as 'twere buried before this resuscitation. Thus the death of plants and beasts is the privation of their ve∣getative and sensitive actions, the principle of those actions al∣wayes remaining, But that of men, besides this privation of their actions, causes the dissolution of the Soul from the Body, which is properly death. The inevitable necessity whereof is by Avicenna deriv'd from four chief causes I. From the Air, which alters and dryes us. II. From our own heat, which by accident destroyes it self. III. The continual motion of our bodies furthers the dissipation of that heat. IV. The va∣rious Inclination of the Elements, some of which are carry'd upwards, others downwards, and so break the union which preserves our life. Albert the Great assignes a fifth cause, namely, the contrariety of forms and qualities; death happening when humidity hath given place to drynesse. But because this excesse of drynesse might be corrected by its contrary, therefore the Moderns lay the fault upon the radical moisture. Which some of them say we receive from our Parents, and is continually impair'd, without being at all recruited from the birth. But this is absurd; for then the Son must have infinitely lesse then his Father, because he receives but a very small portion, which (besides) cannot be distributed through a great body, nor afford supply to so many actions. Others, more probably, affirm, that the Humidum which is repair'd is not of the same purity with that which we derive from the principles of our birth, by reason of reaction, and its being continually alter'd by our heat. But that which indubitates this reason, is, that the Elements do not maintain themselves but by reaction, notwithstanding which they cease not to be alwayes in the same state; Fire as hot, Air as moist as ever it was: Inasmuch as the substantial forms expell all Qualities which are not suitable to themselves, and recover their natural ones, without other assistance. Moreover, when old men beget children, they communicate to them an excellent radical humidity, otherwise there would be no generation; and consequently, they can do as well for themselves as for their posterity. But if they give them such as is bad and corrupt, it follows that their children who live after their death re-produce much better by their nutrition then that which they had re∣ceiv'd; and, consequently, the radical humidity may not onely be repair'd, but meliorated. And there's no reason why an exact course of dyet may not keep a man from dying, as the Chymists promise. I had therefore rather say that as the union of the Soul with the Body is unknown to humane wit, so is their dis∣union; which I ascribe rather to the pleasure of the supreme Ruler, who causes us to abide sentinel as long as he thinks meet, then to any natural thing; which is the reason why those that deprive themselves of life are justly punish'd; because they dis∣pose of what is not their own, although it seemes to the vulgar

that they do wrong to none but themselves, because 'tis by their own will and act.

The Fourth said, What is compos'd of contraries, between which there is continual action, necessarily receives sundry changes and alterations in its being, which by degrees bring it to a total corruption. This is conspicuously seen in the life of man, the ages and all other mutations whereof are as so many steps towards death. 'Tis the most worthy employment of a man to consider that he dyes every day. For, as Seneca saith, that which deceives us is, that we consider death as afar off; whereas a great part of it is already pass'd, for it already pos∣sesses all the time that we have been; which is the cause, that instead of employing our time profitably, we consume a great part of it in doing nothing, a greater part in doing ill, and all in doing other things then ought to be; which proceeds from not thinking often enough upon death; as which no Preacher is so powerful. For the fear it imprints in the soul vertue it self cannot wholly eradicate; the sole aspect of the shades of the dead, or their voices imprinting paleness upon the counte∣nance of the most resolute. Therefore the Philosopher holds that the fear of death is not only competible with courage, but that he who fears it not at all, rather deserves the name of mad then valiant.

The Fifth said, That they who have had recourse to death to deliver themselves from their miseries, as Brutus, Cato, his daughter Portia, and some others, have shew'd thereby that death is not the most terrible thing, since they embrac'd it as a remedy to their misfortunes. But that which renders our expe∣rience as well as our reasoning weak in this matter, is, that none can give account of it either before or after trial; for while we live, it is not yet, and when it is, we are no longer. Never∣theless Plato, in his Timaeus, affirms that violent death caus'd by diseases or wounds is painful, but not that which comes of old age, which (he saith happens by dissolution of the triangles which retain the Soul in the Body. For the former being against nature is as troublesome to it, as the other which following the course of nature is agreeable to it; because the soul having fi∣nish'd its task begins now to resent some foretastes of beatitude; and hence it begins also to have some knowledge of future things. At least, this sort of death is very little sensible, being caus'd slowly and equally, and by consequence without pain. Yea, if it be true that the Heart is the last part that dyes, the brain losing sense before the Heart cannot communicate the same to the whole body; which consequently feels not the pains of death, but those which lead to it, and which make their pangs more felt by those that bear up against them; by reason of the resistance of their strength, then when the strength is overcome and fails; whence those that have Apoplexies en∣dure no pain during the course of their malady. And such as

have been taken down half dead from the Gallows, agree that they endur'd nothing but fear. For which cause this kind of death is accounted very easie and without any sense; the brain being depriv'd thereof by compression of the Carotides, Arteries which carry the spirits to it, and become apoplectical by the quantity of blood which is included in it; as also the heart being stifl'd falls into deliquium, and the principal parts are depriv'd of sense by the constriction of the Nerves of the sixth pair. Those whom a Gangrene in the leg or arm (parts more sensible then those within) brings to their end, affirm that oftentimes death comes upon them without pain. Indeed, since life ends as it begins, and the soul goes out of the body after the same manner that it enter'd into it; therefore as, at its entrance, it first exercises the vegetative operations, afterwards the sensi∣tive; so the vegetative faculty remains last, subsists in the dying creature when all the rest are extinct, and is lost without sense, in the same manner as in Plants. For the convulsive motions of dying persons argue not their having of sense, since those that are in an Epileptical fit suffer much greater without pain.