158 AN TIE NT METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



being fuperftitlous, that, I think, they cannot be doubted of, except by 

 thofe who believe, like the Sadduceesof old, that there is neither angel 

 mrjpirit. But I will relate a ftory, told by a late French writer, who is 

 certainly not an cnthufiaft, nor too much ^fpiritual philofopher, as 

 the reader may perhaps fufpevSt me to be ; tor he has fo little notion 

 of our minds operating without our bodies, that he makes us not only 

 perceive objeds of fenie, but form ideas, think, and reafon, by the aid 

 of certain fibres and nerves. The author I mean is Charles Bonnet, 

 who has publifhed at Geneva, in the year 1769, what he intitles, 

 " Eflai Analytique fur les Facultes de TAme." This author, in his 

 fecond volume, chap. 27. page 176. relates, that he knov\rs a fober 

 fenlible man, and of good judgment and memory, who fees, at times 

 when he is broad awake, figures of m.en and women, birds, beads, 

 carriages, buildings, &c. Thefe appear to him to move different ways, 

 fometimes coming near him, fomctimes going farther off; fometimes 

 augmenting, fometimes diminifhing ; difappearing altogether fome- 

 times, and then appearing again. All thefe objeds are reprefented to 

 him in a mofllively manner, and appear to him jufl as if they were 

 really prefent. He knows, however, that it is only avilion; and is nor, 

 like thofe vifionaries, that miftake what they fee for realities. They are 

 reprefentations, therefore, which only amufe him ; but it is an amufe- 

 mcnt that is not of his own procuring ; for he is not apprifcd of their 

 coming ; nor does he know what fcene is next to be prefented to him. 

 — Thus far our French author. Thofe who account for every thmg 

 from matter and motion will, I know, fufpedl that thefe appearances- 

 were the effe^l of a flrange difeafe in the man's eyes, of which tha' 

 they can give no rational account, they w^ill be ready to lay hold of i^t, ra- 

 ther than be obliged to have recourfa to ;;wW, for explaining the phae- 

 nomenon. But the fa£t is, as related by the French author, that he is an 

 old man, who has very little ufe of his eyes at all ; for, when he was 

 far advanced in years, he was twice couched for a cataract in both eyes ; 

 and, after recovering his fight by that operation, he loft it again by 

 leading too much ; {^ that, at the time that Bonnet wrote,, he had loft 



en.tirely 



