ftretch: And I defire the reader to attend with utmost perpensity; for I now proceed to unravel this knotty point. There is in mankind a certain Hic multa defiderantur. * And this I take to be a clear folution of the matter. Having therefore so narrowly paffed through this intricate difficulty, the reader will, I am fure, agree with me in the conclufion, That if the moderns mean by madness only a disturbance or tranfpofition of the brain, by force of certain vapours iffuing up from the lower faculties, then has this madness been the parent of all thofe mighty revolutions, that have happened in empire, in philofophy, and in religion. For the brain, in its natural pofition and ftate of ferenity, difpofeth its owner to pass his life in the common forms, without any thoughts of subduing multitudes to his own power, his reafons, or his vifions: And the more he shapes his understanding by the pattern of human learning, the lefs he is inclined to form parties after his particular notions; becaufe that inftructs him in his private infirmities, as well as in the ftubborn ignorance I *Here is another defect in the manufcript; but I think the author did wifely, and that the matter which thus ftrained his faculties, was not worth a folution; and it were well if all metaphyfical cobweb problems were no otherwise answered. ignorance of the people. But when a man's fancy gets aftride on his reafon; when imagination is at cuffs with the fenfes; and common understanding, as well as common fenfe, is kicked out of doors; the first profelyte he makes, is himself; and when that is once compaffed, the difficulty is not fo great in bringing over others; a strong delufion always operating from without, as vigorously as from within. For cant and vifion are, to the ear and the eye, the fame that tickling is to the touch. Thofe entertainments and pleafures we most value in life, are fuch as dupe and play the wag with the fenfes. For if we take an examination of what is generally understood by happiness, as it has refpect either to the understanding or the fenfes, we shall find all its properties and adjuncts will herd under this short definition, That it is a perpetual poffeffion of being well deceived. And, first, with relation to the mind or understanding, it is manifeft, what mighty advantages fiction has over truth: And the reafon is just at our elbow; because imagination can build nobler scenes, and produce more wonderful revolutions, than fortune or nature will be at expence to furnish. Nor is mankind fo much to blame in his choice thus determining him, if we confider that the debate merely lies between things paft, and things conceived. And fo the question is only this: Whether things that have place in the imagination, may not as properly be faid to exift, as thofe that are feated in the memory? Which may be justly held in the G g affirmative : VOL. I. affirmative And very much to the advantage of the former; fince this is acknowledged to be the womb of things, and the other allowed to be no more than the grave. Again, if we take this definition of happiness, and examine it with reference to the fenfes, it will be acknowledged wonderfully adapt. How fading and infipid do all objects accoft us, that are not conveyed in the vehicle of delufion! How fhrunk is every thing, as it appears in the glass of nature! So that if it were not for the affiftance of artificial mediums, falfe lights, refracted angles, varnish and tinfel, there would be a mighty level in the felicity and enjoyments of mortal men. If this were seriously confidered by the world, as I have a certain reason to fufpect it hardly will, men would no longer reckon among their high points of wisdom, the art of expofing weak fides, and publishing infirmities: an employment, in my opinion, neither better nor worse than that of unmasking; which, I think, has never been allowed fair ufage, either in the world, or the play-house. In the proportion that credulity is a more peaceful poffeffion of the mind, than curiosity, fo far preferable is that wifdom which converses about the furface, to that pretended philofophy which enters into the depth of things, and then comes gravely back with informations and difcoveries, that in the infide they are good for nothing. The two fenfes to which all objects first addrefs themselves, are the fight and the touch. Thefe 'These never examine farther than the colour, the fhape, the fize, and whatever other qualities dwell, or are drawn by art upon the outward of bodies; and then comes reafon officiously with tools for cutting, and opening, and mangling, and piercing, offering to demonftrate, that they are not of the fame confiftence quite through. Now, I take all this to be the laft degree of perverting nature'; one of whofe eternal laws it is, to put her beft furniture forward. And therefore, in order to fave the charges of all fuch expenfive anatomy for the time to come, I do here think fit to inform the reader, that in fuch conclufions as thefe, reafon is certainly in the right; and that in the most corporeal beings which have fallen under my cognifance, the outside hath been infinitely preferable to the in. Whereof I have been farther convinced from fome late experiments. Last week I faw a woman flayed, and you will hardly believe how much it altered her perfon for the worse. Yesterday I ordered the carcafe of a beau to be ftripped in my prefence; when we were all amazed to find fo many unfuspected faults under one fuit of cloaths. Then I laid open his brain, his heart, and his fpleen. But I plainly perceived, at every operation, that the farther we proceeded, we found the defects increase upon us in number and bulk. From all which I justly formed this conclufion to myfelf, That whatever philofopher or projector can find out an art to folder and patch up the flaws and imperfections. Gg 2 fections of nature, will deferve much better of mankind, and teach us a more useful science than that fo much in prefent efteem, of widening and expofing them, like him who held anatomy to be the ultimate end of phyfic. And he whofe fortunes and difpofitions have placed him in a convenient ftation to enjoy the fruits of this noble art; he that can, with Epicurus, content his ideas with the films and images, that fly off upon his fenfes from the fuperficies of things; fuch a man, truly wife, creams off nature, leaving the four and the dregs for philofophy and reason to lap up. This is the sublime and refined point of felicity, called the poffeffion of being well deceived; the ferene peaceful ftate of being a fool among knaves. But to return to madness: It is certain, that, according to the fyftem I have above deduced, every fpecies thereof proceeds from a redundancy of vapours; therefore, as fome kinds of phrenzy give double ftrength to the finews, fo there are of other fpecies, which add vigour, and life, and fpirit to the brain. Now, it ufually happens, that thefe active fpirits, getting poffeffion of the brain, refemble thofe that haunt other wafte and empty dwellings, which, for want of bufinefs, either vanish, and carry away a piece of the house, or else ftay at home, and fling it all out of the windows. By which are myftically displayed, the two principal branches of madness; and which some philofophers, not confidering fo well as I, have mif taken |
