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Show 140 Our Ideas of Subjlances. Book II. Diamonds, and other pellucid Bodies. Blood to the naked Eye appears all red ; but by a good Microfcope! wheret.n Its Ieifer _par~ appear, /hews only fume few Globules of Red, fwtmmto_g 10 a pelluctd Ltquor ; and how thefe red Globules would appear, ifGlalfesc~uld be found, that yet could magni6e them 10oo, or 1oooo·times more, ts uncertam. ~· u. The infinitely wife conmver of us, and all tht~gs abont ~s, hath fitted our Senfes, Faculties, and Organs, to the convemences of Ltfe, and the Bufinefs we have to do here. We are able by our Senfes, to know,and difiinguifh things; and to examine them fo far,. as to apply them to our Ufes, and fcveral ways acco'?moda~e the Exig~nces of thts Life. We have infight enough into th~tr admm~ble Contnvances, and wonderful Efleels, to admire, and magmfie the W.tfdom,. Po:over! and Goodnefs of their Author. Such a Knowledge as this, whtch ts futted to our prefent Corldition we want not Faculties to attain. But it appears not, that God intended,~e lhould h•ve a perfeel,clear, and adequate~nowlc:cJge of them: that ·perhaps is not in the Comprehenfion of any limte Bemg. We are furnilhed 'with Faculties (dull and weak as they are) to dtfcover enough in the Creatures to lead us to the Knowledge of the Creator, and the Knowledge of ou; Duty; and we are fitted well enough with Abilities, to provide for the Conveniences of Jiving. Thefe are our Bufinefs in this World: But were our Sen!es altered, and made much quicker and acuter, the appearance and outward Scheme of things would have quite another face to us ; and I am apt to think, would b~ inconfifie~t wi~h our Being, or at leafi well-being in tllis part of the Umverfe we mhabtt. He that conliders,how little our Confiitution ~ able to bear a remove into parts of this Air,not much higher than that we commonly l)reath in, will have rea· tonto be futisfied,that in this Globe of Earth alotted for our Manlion,the all· wife Architect has fuited our Organs, and the Bodies, that are to affeCt them one to another. If our Senfe of Hearing were but 1000 times quick· er than it is, how would a perpetual noife difirael us I And we lhould io the quietefi Retirement, be leiS able to lleep or meditate, than in the middle of a Sea-fight. Nay,if that mofi infiruelive of our Senfes,Seeing,were in any Man Iooo,ortooooo more acute than it is now by the befiMicrofcope, he would fee things 1000 or 100000 lefs than he does now, and fo come •nearer the Difcover'.' of the Texture and Motion of the minute Parts of corporeal things; and in many of them, probably get Id,as of their internal Confiitutions: But then he would be in a quite different World from other People: Nothing would appear the fame to him,and others : the vifible Ideas of every thing would be different. So that I doubt, Whether he, and the refi of Men, could difcourfe concerning the ObjeCts of Sight ; or have any Communication about Colours, their ap· pearances being fo wholly different. And, perhaps, fuch a quicknefs and tendernefs of Sight could not endure bright Sun-lhine, or fo much as open Day-light; nor take in but a very fmall part of any Object at once, and that too only at a very near difiancc. And if by the help of fuch Micro· fcopical Eyes, (if! may fo call them,) a Man could penetrate farther than ordinary into tl1e fecret Compofition, and radical Texture of Bodies, he would not make any great advantage by the change, if fuch an acute Sight would not ferve to conduCt him to the Market and Exchange;lfhe could not fee things, he was to avoid at a convenient difiance; nor difiinguifl> thing> he had to do with, by thofe fenfible ~alities others do. He that was lharp-fighted enough to fee the Configuration of the minute Particle> of the Spnng of a Clock, and obferve upon what peculiar Structure and Im· pulfe, its elafiick Motion depends, would 110 doubt difcover fomething very .'Chap. XXIII. Our Ideas of Su~jl(l{lcer. very admirable: But if Eyes fo framed, could not view at onc~1be Hand and the CharaCters of the Hour-plate, and thereby at it diJlance fee wha: a·Ciock it was, their Owner could not be much benefited by t~~'·acutenefs; which whilfi, it difcovercd the fecret contrivance pf tj1e Pitt? of the Machin, made him Joofeits ufe. ' ' r •I ~.I!· And here give me )cave to propofe an Cl<travagant conj¢~~re of mine, viz. That fince we have fome Reafon, (if thcrf be any Cr~ir to . be ~iven. to the rcpo~t of things, that our Philofophr cannot accolirlt for,') to Imagme,that Spmts can alfume to themfelves Bodies of diifcrent Bulk. Figure, and OJnformation of Parts, Whether one great advant:f~~ .till\le of them have over us, may Dot lie in this, that they ~an ~o frame, aQ<;l lhape to themfelves Organs of Senfation or Pcrcej'tiqn, as to fuit t~em to their prefent Delign, and the Circurnfiances of the Object they woJJc.( cbnlider. For how much· would that Man exceed a)l pthers in Ilnowledge who had but the Faculty fo to alter the Structure of his 'it yes, th~i cr1e.$enfc: as to make it capable of all the feveral degrees of Yifion, whicf1 ' tl!e a f. fifience of Gl;!lfes ( cafuallyat at firfi li!$1ltpn) han~ught us to' cdrreeive ~ What wonders would he difcover, who c'opld fo lit I) IS · Eye to all for1s of ObjeCts, as to fee when he plea fed the Figure and Motion of die rpinule Particles in the Blood, and pther juices of Anima.ls, .as difiinell,Y as11e does at other times the fuape and motiol) of the Anlmalo thefllfelv~. 'But to us in our prefent State, unalterable Organs, fo cpntriyeQ;"i'S to dlfcover the Figure and Motion of the fllinutc J'llrts of J3odie~1. w))r;reon depend 'thofe . fenfiblc ~a!ities, we now obferve in I hem, would,. perh~p5, ~e of no allvantage. God has no dpubt made us fo, as is befl for us in ,our prefent , Condition. He hath fit~rxl us !Or the Neighbourhood of the Bodies, that "furr~und us, and we have to do with : And though ~e cannot PY the Facullles we have, attam to a perfeCt Knowledge of'l;'lilngs; yet they will ferve us well enough for thofe end,s above mentioned,' which ar~ our great Concernment. I beg my Readers Pardon, for laymg before !urn fo wild a Phanfie, concerning the ways of Conception il) Beings above .us: But how extravagant foever it be, I doubt whether \\'e can imagine any thing about the Knowledge of Angels, bucafter this mariner, fome way or other, in proportion to what we find and obferve in our fdves. And tho' we cannot but allow, that the infinite Power and Wjfdom of God, may frame Creatures with a thoufand other Faculties, anp ways .\f perceiving things without them, than what we have: Yet our Thoughts can go no farther than our own, fo impoiTible it is for us to enlar!?e our very Guell'es beyond the Ideas received from our own Senfation ana Relleaion. The Suppolition at leafi, that Angels do fometimes alfume Bodi"\, need not fiartleus, liocc fome of the mofi ancient, and moO: learned Fathers of the Church, fecmed to believe,that they had Bodies: And this is cerrajn, that their fiate and way of Exifience is unknown to us. §. 14 But to return to the Matter in Hand, the Ideas we have of Subfiances; and the ways we come by them, I fay ONr Ideas of Sul>j/ancrs are nothing elfe but a CoUeflion •f a certain number of jimple Ideas, co•Ji· tiered as rmited i• one tbing. Thefe Ideas of Subfiances, though ther are commonly called limple Apprehenlions, and the Names of them limple Tern1s; yet in effeCt, are complex and compounded. Thus the /d,a which an Engbfh·man fignificd by the Name Swan, is white Colour, long Neck,rcd beak, black Legs, and whole Feet, and all tbefc of a certain lize, with a power of l\vimrning in the Water, and making a certain kind pfNoifc, and,perhaps, to a Man, who has long obferved thole kind of Birds, fs-me other Properties, which all terminate in fcnfib)e limple lrleas. §. '5· |
