Six metaphysical meditations: $b Wherein it is proved that there is a God and that mans mind is really distinct from his body
Descartes · en
But We often err even in those things to Which we are _Impelled_ by
_Nature_, as when sick men desire that _Meat_ or _Drink_, which will
certainly prove Hurtful to them. To this it may perhaps be reply’d, That
they _Err_ in this because their _Nature_ is _Corrupt_. But this Answers
not the Difficulty, For a sick man is no less _Gods Creature_ then a Man
in Health, and therefore ’tis as Absurd to Imagine a _Deceitful Nature_
imposed by _God_ on the One as on the Other; And as a Clock that is made
up of Wheels and Weights does no less strictly observe the _Laws_ of its
_Nature_, when it is _ill_ contrived, and tells the hours _falsly_, as
when it answers the Desire of the Artificer in all performances; so if
I consider the body of a Man as a meer _Machine_ or _Movement_, made up
and compounded of _Bones_, _Nerves_, _Muscles_, _Veins_, _Blood_, and
_Skin_; so that, tho there were no _mind_ in It, yet It would perform all
those Motions which now are in it (those only excepted which Proceed from
the _Will_, and consequently from the _Mind_) I do easily acknowledge,
that it would be as _natural_ for him (if for example sake he were sick
of a _Dropsie_) to suffer that _Driness_ of his _Throat_ which uses to
bring into his mind the _sense_ of _Thirst_, & that thereby his Nerves
and other Parts would be so disposed as to take Drink, by Which his
disease would be encreased; As (supposing him to be troubled with no
such Distemper) by the like Driness of Throat he would be disposed to
Drink, when ’tis Requisite. And tho, if I respect the Intended use of a
Clock I may say that it _Errs_ from its _Nature_, when it tells the Hours
_wrong_, and so considering the _Movement_ of a _Mans Body_ as contrived
for such _Motions_ as are used to be performed thereby, I may think That
also to _Err_ from its _Nature_, if its _Throat_ is _Dry_, when it has
no want of Drink for its _Preservation_. Yet I Plainly discover, that
this last _Acceptation_ of _Nature_ differs much from that whereof we
have been speaking all this While, for this is only a _Denomination
extrinsick_ to the Things whereof ’tis spoken, and _depending_ on my
_Thought_, while it _Compares_ a _sick_ man, and a _disorderly_ Clock
with the _Idea_ of an _healthy_ man and a _Rectified_ Clock. But by
_Nature_ in its former _Acceptation_ I Understand something that is
_Really_ in the _Things_ themselves, which therefore has something of
_Truth_ in it.
But tho Respecting only a _Body sick_ of a Dropsie it be an _Extrinsick
Denomination_ to say, that its _Nature_ is _Corrupt_, because it has
a _Dry Throat_, and stands in _no need_ of Drink; yet respecting the
_Whole Compound_ or _Mind joyn’d_ to such a _Body_, ’tis not a _meer
Denomination_, but a _real Error_ of _Nature_ for it to _thirst_ when
_drink_ is _hurtful_ to it. It remains therefore here to be inquired, how
the _Goodness_ of _God_ suffers _Nature so taken_ to be _deceivable_.