objects, no not their species, cannot enter or touch the eye without danger of hurting or loosing it, nevertheless the eye makes use of the objects by patterning them out, and so doth the rational matter, by taking patterns from the sensitive; And thus knowledg or perception of objects, both sensitive and rational, is taken without the pressure of any other parts; for though parts joyn to parts, (for no part can be single) yet this joining doth not necessarily infer the pressure of objects upon the sensitive organs; Whereof I have already discoursed sufficiently heretofore, to which I refer you, and rest Madam, _Your faithful Friend_ _and Servant._ [1] _Leviathan, part._ 1. _c._ 4. [2] _Ch._ 5. X. _MADAM,_ _Understanding_ says your Author,[1] _is nothing else but Conception caused by speech, and therefore, if speech be peculiar to man, (as, for ought I know, it is) then is understanding peculiar to him also._ Where he confineth Understanding onely to speech and to Mankind; But, by his leave, _Madam_, I surely believe, that there is more understanding in Nature, then that, which is in speech, for if there were not, I cannot conceive, how all the exact forms in Generations could be produced, or how there could be such distinct degrees of several sorts and kinds of Creatures, or distinctions of times and seasons, and so many exact motions and figures in Nature: Considering all this, my reason perswadeth me, that all Understanding, which is a part of Knowledg, is not caused by speech, for all the motions of the Celestial Orbs are not made by speech, neither is the knowledg or understanding which a man hath, when sick, as to know or understand he is sick, made by speech, nor by outward objects, especially in a disease he never heard, nor saw, nor smelt, nor tasted, nor touched; Wherefore all Perception, Sensation, Memory, Imagination, Appetite, Understanding, and the like, are not made nor caused by outward objects, nor by speech. And as for names of things, they are but different postures of the figures in our mind or thoughts, made by the Rational matter; But Reasoning is a comparing of the several figures with their several postures and actions in the Mind, which joyned with the several words, made by the sensitive motions, inform another distinct and separate part, as an other man, of their minds conceptions, understanding, opinions, and the like.