Philosophical Letters: or, modest Reflections upon some Opinions in Natural PhilosophyNewcastle, Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of
Philosophy
Philosophical Letters: or, modest Reflections upon some Opinions in Natural Philosophy
Newcastle, Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of
Newcastle, William Cavendish, Duke of, 1592-1676; Philosophy
else, and such like needless questions, raised in after-times onely
by the curiosity of divine Philosophers, or Philosophying Divines;
For though Light is a glorious Creature, yet Darkness is as well a
Creature as Light, and ought not therefore to be despised; for if it
be not so bright, and shining as Light, yet it is a grave Matron-like
Creature, and very useful: Neither is the Earth, which is inwardly
dark, to be despised, because the Sun is bright. The like may be said
of the soul, and of the body; for the body is very useful to the soul,
how dark soever your _Author_ believes it to be; and if he had not
seen light with his bodily eyes, he could never have conceived the
Soul to be a Light: Wherefore your _Author_ can have no more knowledg
of the divine soul then other men have, although he has had more
Dreams and Visions; nay, he himself confesses, that the Soul is an
Incomprehensible Light; which if so, she cannot, be perfectly known,
nor confined to any certain figure; for a figure or shape belongs
onely to a corporeal substance, and not to an incorporeal: and so, God
being an Incomprehensible Being, is excluded from all figure, when as
yet your _Author_ doth not stick to affirm, that God is of a humane
figure too, as well as the humane Soul is; _For_, says he, _Since God
hath been pleased to adopt the Mind alone into his own Image, it also
seems to follow, that the vast and unutterable God is of a humane
Figure, and that from an argument from the effect, if there be any
force of arguments in this subject._ Oh! the audacious curiosity of
Man! Is it not blasphemy to make the Infinite God of a frail and humane
shape, and to compare the most Holy to a sinful Creature? Nay, is it
not an absurdity, to confine and inclose that Incomprehensible Being
in a finite figure? I dare not insist longer upon this discourse,
lest I defile my thoughts with the entertaining of such a subject
that derogates from the glory of the Omnipotent Creator; Wherefore, I
will hasten, as much as I can, to the seat of the Soul, which, after
relating several opinions, your _Author_ concludes to be the orifice
of the stomack, where the Immortal Soul is involved and entertained
in the radical Inn or Bride-bed of the sensitive Soul or vital Light;
which part of the body is surely more honoured then all the rest: But
I, for my part, cannot conceive why the Soul should not dwell in the
parts of conception, as well, as in the parts of digestion, except it
be to prove her a good Huswife; however, your _Author_ allows her to
slide down sometimes: For, _The action of the Mind_, says he, _being
imprisoned in the Body, doth always tend downwards_; but whether
the Soul tend more downwards then upwards, Contemplative Persons,
especially Scholars, and grave States-men, do know best; certainly, I
believe, they find the soul more in their heads then in their heels,
at least her operations. But, to conclude, if the Soul be pure and
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