ledge is not able to attain, another Body, and to lend a falfe Form of our own Invention; as is manifeft in the Motion of the Planets; to which, feeing our Understanding cannot poffibly attain, nor conceive their natural Conduct, we lend them material, heavy, and substantial Springs of our own, by which to move*. Aureus axis erat, temo aureus, aurea fummæ Gold was the Axle, and the Beam was Gold; You would fwear, that we had had Coach-makers, Wheel-wrights, and Painters, that went aloft to erect Engines of various Motions, and to range the Carriages and Interfections of the heavenly Bodies of different Colours about the Spindle of Neceffity, according to Plato, Mundus domus eft maxima rerum, Quam quinque altitone fragmine zonæ The World's a Manfion that doth all Things hold, Where Luna's Courfe is mark'd with Chaife and Pair. These are all Dreams and fantastic Follies. Will not Nature be pleased fome Day or other to lay open her Bofom to us, and plainly discover to us the Means and Conduct of her Movements, and prepare our Eyes to fee them? X Good Montaigne will tell us prefently, that the ancient Philofophers built a little too much upon Authorities that are merely Poetical: And fo far he is in the right; but I cannot imagine why he pretends to take an Advantage against the Natural Philofophers, for fome Authorities of this kind, which have never been reputed but as arbitrary Characters, invented to amuse the Imagination, rather than to inform the Understanding. z Varro in Catal. y Ovid. Met, lib. ii, Fab, 1. v. 106, Good God, what Abuse, what Miftakes should we difcover in our poor Science! I am mistaken, if it holds thing, as it really is; and I fhall depart hence more ignorant of every Thing but my own Ignorance. any one Philofophy is only Poetry fophifticated. Have I not read in Plato this Divine Saying, That Nature is nothing but an enigmatic Poefy! As if a Man might peradventure say, a fhaded and obfcure Picture, breaking out here and there with an infinite Variety of falfe Lights to exercise our Conjectures. Latent ifta omnia craffis occultata et circumfufa tenebris, ut nulla acies humani ingenii tanta fit, que penetrare in cælum, terram intrare poffit. i. e. All thofe Things lie concealed and involved in fo thick Darkness, that no human Wit can be fo fharp as to penetrate either Heaven or the Earth. And certainly Philofophy is no other than a falfified Poefy. From whence do the ancient Writers extract all their Authorities, but from the Poets? And the first of them were Poets themselves, and wrote accordingly. Plato is but a Poet unconnected. All fuper-human Sciences are fet off in the poetic Style. Just as Women make use of Teeth of Ivory, where the Natural are wanting, and, instead of their true Complexion, make one of fome artificial Matter; as they ftuff themfelves out with Cotton, &c. to appear plump, and, in the Knowledge and Sight of every one, trick up themselves with falfe and borrowed Beauty: So does Science, (and even our Law itfelf has, they fay, legitimate Fictions, whereon it founds the Truth of its Juftice) fhe gives us in Prefuppofition, and, for a current Pay, Things which itfelf inform us were invented: For by thefe Epicycles, Excentrics, and Concentrics, by which Aftrology is helped to carry on the Motions of the Stars, fhe gives us for a Montaigne has here mistaken Plato's Senfe, whofe Words, in AlcibiadeП p. 42. C, are thefe, Ἔτι τε φύσει ποιηλικὴ ἡ συμπᾶσα αἰνιγματώδης. i. e, All Poetry is in its Nature ænigmatical. Plato fays this by reafon of a Verfe in Homer's Margites, which he explains, and which indeed has fomething in it that is ænigmatical. Either Montaigne did not fee this Paffage in Plato, or else he read it without clofely examining it. Nature is certainly a Riddle with refpect to us; but it does not appear very plain in what Senfe it may be called Ænigmatical Poetry. Montaigne himself, to whom this Term appears to divine, does not explain it to us very clearly, Cic. in Acad, Quæft. lib. iv. c. 39, The confufed Book II. for the best she could contrive upon that Subject; as alfo, in all the reft, Philofophy prefents us, not that which really is, or what she does really believe, but what she has contrived with the greatest Plaufibility. Plato, difcourfing of the State of Human Bodies, and thofe of Beafts, fays, I fhould know what I have faid is Truth, had I the Confirmation of an Oracle: But this is all I will affirm, that 'tis the most probable of any thing I could fay. 'Tis not to Heaven only that Philofophy fends her Ropes, Engines, and Wheels; let us confider a little what fhe fays of ourselves, and of our Contexture. There is not more Retrogradation, Trepidation, Acceffion, Receffion, and Rapture in the Stars and Celestial Bodies, than they have feigned in this poor little Human Body. In Truth, they have good Reafon upon that very Account to call it a Microcofim, or little World, fo many Views and Parts have they employed to erect and build it. To affift the Motions they fee in Man, and the various Functions and Faculties that we find in ourselves, into how many Parts have they divided the Soul? In how many Places lodged it? In how many Ranks and Stories have they stationed this poor Creature Man, befides those that are natural, and to be perceived? And to how many Offices and Vocations have they affigned him? They make an Imaginary of a public Thing. 'Tis a Subject that they hold and handle: And they have full Power granted to them, to rip, place, difplace, patch, and ftuff him, every one according to his own Fancy, and yet they poffefs him not. They cannot, not in Reality only, but even in Dreams, fo govern him, that there will not be fome Cadence or Sound which will efcape their Architecture, as enormous as it is, and botched with a Thousand falfe and fantastic Patches. And there is no Reason to excufe them; for though we pardon Painters when they paint Heaven, Earth, Seas, Mountains, and remote Inlands, and only give us fome flight Sketch of them, and, as of Things unknown, we are content with a faint Description; yet when they come to draw us, or any other Creature which is known and familiar to us, according to the the Life, we then require of them a perfect and exact Representation of Lineaments and Colours, and defpife them if they fail in it. I am very well pleased with the Milefian Wench, who obferving the Philofopher Thales to be always contemplating the Celeftial Arch, and to have his Eyes still gazing upward, laid fomething in his way that he might stumble at, to admonish him, That it would be time to take up his Thoughts about Things that are in the Clouds, when he had taken care of thofe that were under his Feet.' Doubtlefs fhe advised him very well, rather to look to himself than to gaze at Heaven.' For, as Democritus fays, by the Mouth of Cicero, Quod eft ante pedes, nemo fpectat: Cæli fcrutantur plagas. i. e. No Man regards what is at his Feet; they are always prying towards Heaven. But fuch is our Condition, that the Knowledge of what we have in Hand is as remote from us, and as much above the Clouds, as that of the Stars: As Socrates fays, in Plato, That whoever tampers with Philofophy, may be reproached as Thales was by the Woman, that he fees nothing of that which is before him . For every Philofopher is ignorant of what his Neighbour does: Yea, and of what he does himself, and is ignorant ' of what they both are, whether Beasts or Men.' As for these People who think Sebonde's Arguments too weak, who are ignorant of nothing, who govern the World, and know every thing, Que mare compefcant caufa; quid temperet annum ; i. e. What bounds the fwelling Tides, what rules the Year; Whether of Force, or Will, the Planets err; She was Maid-Servant to Thales according to Plato, from whom this Story is taken; but he does not say that he stumbled at any Thing laid in his Way by his Servant; but that as he was walking along, with his Eyes Lifted up to the Stars, he fell into a Well. Plato in Theætato, p. 127. Cic. de Divin. lib. ii. c. 13. Why Why Shadows darken the pale Queen of Night, Have they not fometimes in their Writings founded the Difficulties that occurred in the Knowledge of their own Being? We fee very well that the Finger moves, and that the Foot moves; that fome Parts move of themfelves without our Leaves, and that others ftir by our Direction; that one fort of Apprehenfion occafions Blushing, another Paleness; fuch an Imagination works upon the Spleen only, another upon the Brain, one occafions Laughter, the other Tears, another ftupifies and astonishes all our Senfes, and ftops the Motion of our Members; at one Object the Stomach will rife, at another a Member that lies fomething lower. But how a fpiritual Impression should make fuch a Breach into a maffy and solid Subject, and the Nature of the Connexion and Contexture of these admirable Springs and Movements, never Man yet knew: * Omnia incerta ratione, et in naturæ majeftate abdita. i. e. All thefe Things are impenetrable by Reason, and concealed in the Majefty of Nature, fays Pliny. And St. Austin, Modus quo corporibus adhærent fpiritus,, omnino mirus eft, nec comprehendi ab homine poteft: Et hoc ipfe homo eft. i. e. The Manner whereby Souls are united to Bodies, is altogether wonderful, and cannot be conceived by Man; and yet this Union conftitutes Man himself. Mean while it is not fo much as doubted: For the Opinions of Men are received according as the, Ancients believed, by Authority and upon Truft, as if it were Religion and Law. The common Notion of it is, 'tis received as Gibberish; but this Truth, with all its Pile of Arguments and Proofs, is admitted as a firm and folid Body, that is no more to be fhaken, no more to be judged of. On the Contrary, every one, according to the utmost of his Talent, corroborates and fortifies this received Belief with the utmost Power of his Reafon, which is a fupple Tool, pliable, and to be accommodated to any Figure. And thus the World comes to be filled with Lyes and Foppe ries. Plin. lib. ii. c. 37. h St. Aug. de Spir. et Anim. The |