334 



fubtile a quantity's may in no waies be oftcnlive to us , whiles 

 we take our meafures to attract what is good,and avoyd what is 

 noxious. 



Mounficttr da 

 Cartss his opi- 

 nion touching 

 fcnfation. 



THE TWO AND THIRTIETH CHAP TER. 



Of fnf*tle t cr the motint rtkerebj fe*fi it property txcrciftd, 



OUt of the considerations which weha-ve delivered in 

 thefe lafi Chapters,the Reader may gather the unreaib- 

 nableneffe of vulgar Philofophers _, whoro explicate 

 life and fenfe.,are not content to give us termes without explica- 

 ting them ; but will force us to believe contradictions : telling 

 us,that life confined in this, that the fame thing hath a power to 

 wcirke upon it felfe : and that fenfation , is a working of die 

 active part of the fame feufe,upon its paflive part ; and yet will 

 admit no parts in it : but will have the lame indivifible power 

 workeupon it lelfe. And this ., with liich violence and downe- 

 bearing ofall oppofition, that they deeme him not con/iderabie 

 ia the lchooles,who ihall offer only to doubt of what they teach 

 him hereabout; but brand him with the cenfure of one who 

 knoweth not, and contradi&eth the very firft principle* of 

 Philofophy. And therefore, it is requifite we fliould looke 

 fomewhat more particularly into the manner how fenlation is 

 made. 



Mounfieut des Cartes ( who by his great and heroike au 

 temprs > and by /liewing mankind how to iieere and husband 

 their realbn to bcft advantage , hath left us no excufe for be- 

 ing ignorant of any thing worth the knowing) explicating the 

 nature of ienfe, is of opinion, that the bodies without us^ in cer- 

 taine circumftances.doe give a blow upon our exterior organes: 

 from whence, by the continuity of the parts, that blow or mo- 

 tion-is continued , till it come to our brainc and feitc of know- 

 ledge ; upon which it giveth a (boke anfvverable to that j which 

 iJ^c outward feniefirft received: and there this knockecaufing 

 'g^rtkulareffc<St j aecordiiig to the particular nature of the mo- 

 r/ which depwieth ef the nature of the ob;# that produ- 

 om foule aodl mind hath notice by this mcanes, of every 



