10. And as these are the examples of extremities, so also are there examples too many of the degrees, which may therefore be well accounted follies; as it is a degree of the _first_, for a man, without certain evidence, to think himself to be _inspired_, or to have any other effect of God’s holy spirit than other godly men have. Of the _second_, for a man continually to speak his mind in a _cento_ of other men’s Greek or Latin sentences. Of the _third_, much of the present gallantry in love and duel. Of _rage_, a degree is _malice_; and of _fantastic_ madness, _affectation_. 11. As the former examples exhibit to us madness, and the degrees thereof, proceeding from the excess of self-opinion; so also there be other examples of madness, and the degrees thereof, proceeding from _too much vain fear_ and _dejection_; as in those melancholy men that have imagined themselves brittle as glass, or have had some other like imagination: and degrees hereof are all those exorbitant and causeless fears, which we commonly observe in melancholy persons. ------- CHAPTER XI. 1. Hitherto of the knowledge of things _natural_, and of the passions that arise naturally from them. Now forasmuch as we give names not only to things natural, but also to _supernatural_; and by all names we ought to have some meaning and conception: it followeth in the next place, to consider what thoughts and imaginations of the mind we have, when we take into our mouths the most blessed name of GOD, and the names of those _virtues_ we attribute unto him; as also, what _image_ cometh into the mind at hearing the name of _spirit_, or the name of _angel_, good or bad. 2. And forasmuch as God Almighty is _incomprehensible_, it followeth, that we can have _no_ conception or _image_ of the _Deity_, and consequently, all _his attributes_ signify our _inability_ and defect of power to _conceive_ any thing concerning his nature, and not any conception of the same, excepting only this, that _there is a God_: for the effects we acknowledge naturally, do include a power of their producing, before they were produced; and that power presupposeth something existent that hath such power: and the thing so existing with power to produce, if it were not eternal, must needs have been produced by somewhat before it, and that again by something else before that, till we come to an eternal, that is to say, the first power of all powers, and first cause of all causes: and this is it which all men conceive by the name of GOD, implying eternity, incomprehensibility, and omnipotency. And thus all that will consider, may know _that_ God is, though not _what_ he is: even a man that is born blind, though it be not possible for him to have any imagination what kind of thing fire is; yet he cannot but know that somewhat there is that men call fire, because it warmeth him.