quadam, fæpe vocum gravitate et cantibus, ut pellantur animi vehementiùs; fæpe etiam curâ et timore": For it oft falls out, that Minds are more vehemently ftruck by fome Afpect, by the Quality and Sound of the Voice, or by Singing; and oft-times alfo by Grief and Fear. Phyficians hold, That there are certain Complexions that are ⚫ agitated by fome Sounds and Inftruments, even to Fury.' I have feen fome, who could not bear to hear a Bone gnawed under the Table; and there is fcarce a Man, who is not disturbed at the sharp and harsh Noise that the File makes in grating upon Iron; nor alfo to hear Chewing near them, or to hear any one speak, who has an Impediment in the Throat or Nofe, will move fome People even to Anger and Hatred. Of what Ufe was that piping Prompter of Gracchus, who foftened, raised, or modelled his Master's Voice, as he pleased, whilft he declaimed at Rome, if the Motion and Quality of the Sound had not the Power to move and alter the Judgments of the Auditory? In Truth, there is wonderful Reafon to keep fuch a Clutter about the Firmness of this fine Piece, that fuffers itself to be turned and twined by the Breath and Accidents of fo light a Wind. The The Senfes altered and corrupted by the Paffions of the The fame Cheat that the Senfes put upon our Understanding, they deceive in their Turn. Soul alfo, fometimes, has its Revenge; they lie and contend which fhould most deceive one another: What we fee and hear when we are tranfported with Paffion, we neither fee nor hear as it is. Soul. Et folem geminum, et duplices fe oftendere Thebas *. i. e. The Sun did feem as if two Suns it were, And Thebes a double City did appear. The Object that we love, appears to us more Beautiful than it really is : Multimodis igitur pravas, turpefque videmus, Effe in deliciis, fummoque in honore vigere. w Cic. de Divin. lib. i. c. 37. i. e. lib. iv. v. 1148, &c. i. e. Hence 'tis that ugly Things, in fancy'd Dress, Seem gay, look fair to Lover's Eyes, and please. As does what we hate, more ugly. To a difcontented and afflicted Man, the Light of the Day feems Dark and Gloomy: Our Senfes are not only depraved, but often totally ftupified by the Paffions of the Soul: How many Things do we fee, that we do not take Notice of, if the Mind be taken up with other Thoughts? in rebus quoque apertis nofcere poffis, Si non advertas Animum, proinde esse, quafi omni i. e. Nay, even in plaineft Things, unless the Mind It appears, that the Soul retires within, and amuses the They who have compared Life to a Dream, were, perThe Life of adventure, more in the right than they were Man compared aware of; when we dream, the Soul lives, to a Dream. operates, and exercifes all its Faculties, neither more nor lefs, than when awake, but more gently and obfcurely; yet not with fo much Difference, as there is betwixt Night and Noon-day, betwixt Night and Shade; there fhe fleeps, here fhe flumbers; but whether more or lefs, 'tis ftill dark, and Cimmerian Darkness: We wake sleeping, and fleep waking. I do not fee fo clearly in my Slumber; but, as to my being awake, I never found it clear enough, and free from Clouds. Moreover, Sleep, when it is profound, fometimes rocks even Dreams themfelves afleep; but our Awaking is never fo fprightly, as thoroughly to purge and diffipate thofe Whimfies, which are the Dreams of thofe awake, and worse than Dreams. Qur Reafon and Soul receiving thofe Fancies and Opinions z Lucret. lib. iv. v. 809, &c. that that arife in Dreams, and authorifing the Actions of our Dreams, with the like Approbation that they do those of the Day; wherefore do we doubt, whether our Thought and Action is not another fort of Dreaming, and our Waking a kind of Sleep? If the Senfes be our chief Judges, it is not ours alone that we are to confult; for, in this Faculty, the Animals have as great or greater Right than we: It is certain, that fome of them have the Senfe of Hearing more quick than Man; others that of Seeing; others that of Feeling; others that of Touch and Tafte. Democritus faida, That the Gods and Brutes had the fenfitive Faculties much · more perfect than Man.' But, betwixt the Effects of their Senfes and ours, the Difference is extreme: Our Spittle cleanfes and dries up our Wounds, it kills the Serpent. Tantaque in his rebus diftantia, differitafque eft, i. e. The very great Difference betwixt the Effes, and thofe of Animals. And in those Things the Diff'rence is fo great, What Quality do we attribute to our Spittle, either in refpect to ourselves, or to the Serpent? By which of the two Senfes fhall we prove its true Effence that we feek for? Pliny fays, That there are certain Sea Hares in the Indies, that are Poison to us, and we to them; in• fomuch that, with the leaft Touch, we kill them.' Which is truly the Poison, the Man, or the Fish? Which shall we believe, whether the Fish poifons the Man, or the_Man_the_ Fish? One Quality of the Air infects a VOL. II. вь a Plutarch. de Placitis Philofophorum, lib. iv. c. 10. Lucret. lib. iv. v. 640, &c. Nat. Hift. lib. xxii. c. 1, Man, Man, that does the Ox no Harm; fome other infects the Ox, but hurts not the Man: Which of the two has, in Truth and Nature, the peftilent Quality? To them who have the Jaundice, all Things feem yellow and paler than to us: Lurida præterea fiunt quæcunque tuentur i. e. Befides, whatever Jaundice Eyes do view, They who are troubled with the Disease the Phyficians call Hypofphagma, which is a Suffufion of Blood under the Skin, fee all Things red and bloody: What do we know but that these Humours, which thus alter the Operations of our Sight, predominate over Beafts, and are ufual with them? For we fee fome whofe Eyes are yellow, like our People who have the Jaundice, and others of a bloody Red. 'Tis likely, that the Colour of Objects feems other to them, than to us; of which of the two shall we make a right Judgment? For it is not faid, that the Effence of Things has relation to Man only; Hardnefs, Whiteness, Depth, and Sharpness, have Reference to the Service and Knowledge of Animals, as well as to us; and Nature has equally designed them for their Use. When we prefs down the Eye, we perceive the Body, that we look upon, to be longer, and more extended; many Beafts have their Eyes fo preffed down: This Length therefore is, peradventure, the true Form of that Body, and not that which our Eyes give it in their usual State: If we prefs the Eye underneath, Things appear double to us : Bina lucernarum florentia lumina flammis, Et duplices hominum facies, et corpora bina'. i. e. One Lamp feems two, and each Man does appear Lucret. lib. iv. v. 333, &c. Sext. Empyr. Pyrrh. Hypot. lib. i. c. 14. p. 29. f Lucret. lib. iv. v. 73,—452,—454, Sc. If If our Ears be clogged, or the Paffage of Hearing stopped up, we receive Sound quite otherwife, than we ufually do; the Animals likewife, who have either the Ears hairy, or but a very little Hole instead of an Ear, do not, confequently, hear as we do, but another kind of Sound. We fee, at Festivals and Theatres, that, by oppofing a painted Glafs, of a certain Colour, to the Light of the Flambeaux, all Things in the Room appear to us Green, Yellow, or Violet. Et volgo faciunt id lutea, russaque vela, i. e. Thus when pale Curtains, or the deeper red, } 'Tis likely, that the Eyes of Animals, which we fee to be of divers Colours, produce to them the Appearance of Bodies the fame with their Eyes. How uncertain is our Judg ment of the Operation of the Senfes. We should therefore, to make a Judgment of the Operations of the Senfes, be first agreed with the Animals, and secondly, amongst ourselves, which we by no Means are, but enter, at every Turn, into Difpute concerning what one Hears, Sees, or Taftes, fomething otherwife than another does; and we difpute, as much as upon any other Thing, about the Diversity of the Images, which the Senfes represent to us. A Child, by the ordinary Rule of Nature, Hears, Sees, and Taftes otherwise than a Man of thirty Years old, and he, than one of threescore. The Senfes are, in the one, more obfcure and dusky, and Bb 2 Lucret. lib. iv. v. 73, &c. more |