344 



A TREATISE 



Thar Monn- 

 fieutdesCartcs 

 his opinion, 

 cannot give a 

 goodaccounr, 

 how things arc 

 conferred in 

 the memory. 



his- Opittion. for lenfation(which requireth /tiffenefle) as well as 

 tor morion. 



Yet befides all-, thefe , one diflicu !ty more rema ; neth againft 

 -thU doctrine, moreinfiiperable ( if I mi/lake not ) then any 

 -thingjOr all together wee have yet faid .* winch is, how the me- 

 -mory (houldcohfcrve anything in it , and reprefent bodies to 

 us; when bur fartfie calleth for them , if nothing bat motions 

 do come into the brame. For it is impolfible,that in fo divifible 

 afubjectas the fpints, motion mould be- conferved any long 

 time :-as we lee evidently in the ayre ; through Jwhich move a 

 flaming taper never fo twiftiy, and as fbone as you let it down, 

 almoft in the very inftant, the flame of it leaveth being driven 

 or fhaken on one fide, and goeth quietly and evenly up its or- 

 dinary courfe ' thereby (hewing, that the motion of the ayre, 

 which for the time was violent., is all of a foddaine quieted and 

 ..at reft : for otherwile, the fiame of the taper would biaze that 

 way the Ayre were moved. Afluredly , the bodies that have 

 power to conferve motion long, mult be dry and hard ones. 

 Nor yet can fuch confer ve it very long , after the caufe which 

 made it,cealeth from its operation. How then can we imagine, 

 that luch a multitude of puremot ions, as the memory mult be 

 itored withall for the ule and fervice of a man, can be kept on 

 foote in his braine, without confufion 5 and for ib long a time 

 as his memory is able to extend unto ? Confidera lefibnpJaid 

 upon the Lute or Virginalis ; and thhik with your felfe, what 

 power there is, or can be in nature, to conferve this leflbn ever 

 continually playing : and reflect, that if the impretfions upon 

 tlie common fenfe are nothing elfe but fuch things, then they 

 muft be actually conferved.alwaiej actually moving in our head 

 to the end they be irnmediatly produced, whenloever it pleafeth 

 our will to call them. 



AMdifperadventureitniouIdbereplyed, that it is norne- 

 ceflarvtheTTioticnsthemfelves iliould ahvaies beconfervedin 

 actiiall feeing-; bur that it is finficlent there be certainecanfes 

 kept on foot in our heads, which are apt to reduce thefe motions 

 into acl, whensoever there is occafion of them : alllfliallfay 

 hereunto is, thatthisismeerclyavoltuitarypoljtion, and that 

 there . appeareth -no ground for thefe motions to make 

 eon/Ututefuchcaitfes ; fificcwenehherroetvt^hnjy 



