Posthumous tracts

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by a series Or tam first Dom perception to appetition, and then to Will, the foui festis the progression, but is unaWare of the modeand moring principie, as Weli as of the causes Whicli enablethe transition to tae place Dom One affection to another : and stili it remains throughout in ignorance of itself, hecause in ignorunce of causes, and the more Will So remain, the more deeplyand predeterminatelyη systematic it hecomes. And whon thequestion is put, What harmony is, and What the distinctivo nature of harmony, and of l-8, motions and forces, here againtho mitin knows nothing beyond the bare fact of the existenco os forces, motions and laWS. But it is not enough to be conscious of those and of itself, for this is an animal endo ent, and it may induod bo predicated of the senses that they are conscious of Objecis presented to their organs. On the other

hand, the rationality of the iniud implies, that it also bucomes

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tirely takes aWay the connexion belWeen the soles and the body. The laWs and series themsolves, Whether in the purest being, namely, the Sotai, Or in the compotand and material being, Imean, the body, it pronounceS incomprehensibie and impenetrabie ; conSequently, not perhaps similar to those, althoughthey a re naturat, that appear to exist in tho visibio Worid, andare redueed geometri catly and mechanicatly to laWs and rules. Foroos likoWiso, of Whicli there is but a single one in the soles,

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there is an end to ali rational philosophy and psychol Ogy, nox

and be sold into flavery, untii the mind and philosophy almostloso the recollection of breuthing the Dee and pure air of heaven. Ohi the hatred With which me have pursuod thenionis of the ancient philosophors i Oh l the laurator and thohissing With Which Wo have saluted their occult qualities, and

d reii, by our industry and essori, Will enjoy the introspectiondented to Oursolves, and see deoper than We into nature, and the occult sphere os causes; inasmuch as We transmit to them numerous means and indications of knowledge, lihe blagingtorches in the night os ignorance; and leave them Our OWn

But disinissing these considerations, let uS proceed to eXamine this System more exactiy; to Weigh it caresulty in thobalanue; to open the fruit, and note the number and description of the occult qualities that it contatus. Recurring to Our preliminary abstraci, the firsi potnt that presenis itself, is the fossoWing: There is in the foui a unique force, numely, a Drce='epreSental e of the universe. For my part I find it dissiculi toexplain Without an interpreter, What, and of What nature, this

tive of the universe, can bo. My mind is perplexed as by an

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press or fully convey the author's meaning) to know What is intended by the solvi haring the pomer to produce an idea Ofthe Whole present universe, Without guid ance Dom an eXternaland higher principio. It means, is I understand it aright, thattho soles is the ossicient sussicient cause of the WhOle of perception ; or that it is a living tablet Or mirror, With a poWer orlarce to represent the objects of the universe; or that there is a force in the animal mirror Whicli causes everything to berepresented after a universat manner; or that there is a bare force. I trust the reader Will largive me for trying to approximate to the meaning by a mess, and render ii more olear tomyseis But tining any of these explanations, Without hoWeveradmitting them, the upshot is, so far as perception is con- cerned, sor it is plain beyond cavit, that there is in the soles apoWer of acting and perceiving: over and above this Well-ascertained faci, ali is occult quality. This force produces ali perceptions, which perceptions havetheir susscient reason in a force representative of the universe. When One is in perplexity as to the nature and quality of this

larce representative of the universe, ali the propositiones result-ing Dom it, are ambiguous and Obscure in their meaning. ΝοW no One knows iis quality; nay, the reaSOnerS are notagreed, Whether there be a force representative of the universo and unique in ius character, Or the contrary; Or Whether Such

detail, hecause it is not my object to be studieMy hostile, buton ly to indicate, that by means of this system ad quality ferminates in occult being. A simple man, litile api in expound ing riddies, Ι confess I do not know the mea ning of the samelarce producing, the Same representing to itself, and the same

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seeling and perceiving ille thing represented; Or of the Samelarce essecling, and comprehending the effeci; When yet this force is most simply single, and the foui a pure Si Stanee. Wero belles an aut of good Will, I Would cheerfully give mine; but I am not acute or clever enough to see anything herebeyond occult quality. There is in the foui a series of perceptions and appetitisus, and theresere os volitions; but in the bo a series of motions;

and the two series harmonize and conspire, euch with euch, by virtve of the respective natures of the foui and the bo . This comes home to the understanding, and we ali bellove it fully. It is most truo that there is in the foui a series of perceptioΠSand appetitions, ansWering to the series of motions in the hody; and that these series harmonige, accord and coincide. It is a palpabie truism, plain as is Written On the suo, that We do perceive, that We do exert appetite, that We do undergo an AWerable motion; and that these conditions follow oach other in harmoni Ous Sequence. But in the very middie of ali a singularly

occult quali ty is test; namely, the thing and quality designated

by the natures of the solvi and the body. The above force is proper to the foui, independent of every

eaeternal principie, and of the bo itfel ; and thus it is the foroe

by which the foui produces in one continued series ali perceptions and appetitions. I am stili perplexed Whether to belleve orno that according to the system, ali these things coexistin the soles, and the soles lives in iis oWn self-similar principiesrom the first moment of iis existence to the last, When it is released Dom the bo , and destined to live unlatterest and Deo in iis oWn peculiar state. And Whether theresere it pays onlyby imputation the penalty of the motions performed by, and tho deeds dono in, the body; Whicli must be the casu, is thesout is altogether independent of externat principies, and of thebody itsolf. Τhus there must be the whole of the hody's nature

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of tho modos and motions os the body With the perceptions and appetitions of the foui 3 Is solvis can be assected 110itheroutWa My or inWardly by their hodies, are then ali solvis of similar quali ty 3 ΤΟ each of these questions I know not Whatto say, and I should be in ignorance of all, Were I credulouslyto trusi to the dicta of such an authority. The absolute independetice of the solvi proclai med by this system, turns rationalphilosophy upside doWn, and this indopendenco must ei ther ber ected among occult qualities, Or the Whole morat WOrid, and

both in the hody and the Worid, and out of the body and the

World; inasmuch as it Would represent to itself iis perceptions and appetitions in the fame manner in the One case as in theother. I am ahaid the proposition also involves, that the fouiis notther in the body nor out os the body; neither in the Woridnor out os the world; or that it is universat, With no species en-ga gement io, or coviuncti Ou With, the body; or that it is allone Whether it be present or absent; Or Whether neW SOutS are supernaturalty created DOm day to day, or Mi soliis have existed Doni nil eterni ty; and that soliis subsist in the fame supernaturni manner in Whicli they existed at frest; and consequently that the samo must be predica ted os a body formod for similarharmony. But mentiWhilo, RS in this absolute indepondenuo,

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inclinod and obligod to dismiss it too, liko the rest, as the substance of a foreigii Worid, among Occult qualities. This force is bound to observe certain latos; consequently thereare laws of perceptions, as weli as os appetitions, and the law of sensations contains the essentiat determinations of the sold.

ceptions stud appetitions of the foui; and as the foui is sein ConSCious, and conscioris of the actions of the body, We have no need Of any extraordinary ability to comprehend thesedeclarations. Dut the difficulty rema ins uniouehed. Whatis the nature of the laWs, Whicli can thus harmonige Withthoso in tho bodyy Wo ure consolous that the soli s larce Or

hecomes Os iis representation of the universe. But us nothingcan be plainer than that force, perception and appetition reatly exist; like se sensation, essenee and determination, ali liming thoir laWs; so in the foregoing statoment We are ratSed not Ono jot beyond common experience; for the knowledge of WhichWe have no Occasion to consuli nny oracular system. And Wemay remarii, that the sol s rationali ty does not consist in theconSeiousness and perception os the actions of the body or thoindividual, but in the mind's poWer to form conclusions there-srom by a chain os reasoning, and WiSely to educe the Very quantitios and qualities that are involven in causes. Wo know indeest that there is no appetition but has a cause, and that eVery CauSemust be connecten With a prior cause; consequently that there

Rationality therofore does not consist merely in knowing that me perceive and destre, but in the ability to trace the connexionos causes, and to conclude thereby What ought to be destred, and carried ovor into the Will, and by iis instrumentali ty into notion and effeci. The effect or faet os rationality peristius in the first instance, When having contracted habits by long custom

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tite troads on the heeis of perception, and wili is simultaneous With appetite; and the volition With the effeci: and so sortii. There is a law of imagination which must have some share in the law of sensation, and vice versa. On thi S SheWing, imagination Would depend by iis laWs upon sensation; but this relation, sO far as it involves any communication, is incompati blewith a state in Whicli euch is independent of the Other; inasmuch as ideas and images are as they are termed materies, and the immediate property of the organs, and the organs belongio the body; and inasmuch as the besore-mentioned ideas are harmonic With pereeptions, as are the motions of the body With appetition S. God has preestablished a harmony belween the foui and thebo ; insomuch that he has adstoined to the foui a bo cupableos undemsino series of motions agreeing with the perceptions undassetitions of the foui. We are ali inare that there is a harmony betWeen the body and the fovi, and that the actions os the former solioW connectedly Dom the perception and will of the lalter. The mind, hoWever, longs to examine the conneXionor intercoi se, and unWilling to rest in this loWest knowledge, or to submit to the dictatorship of the senses, requestS the system to potnt Out, or to SheW the possibili ty of potnting out, the actuat nature and quality of the above harmony, and of the intercoi se also. The existence of the harmonV and inter- course is undisputed; What is destred is, to have the opinion Osthe Wise respecting the quali ty of the fame. It is not questioned that the ρye sees; but the pol ni is, hoW does it See, and What are iis forces and laws, and the modification und combination of the rays as they pass through the various Structures of the organ 3 Again every one knows that the ear hears ; butho' and by What instruments and means, the modulation Osthe air constituting sound is apprehended by that organ, hisis the matter requiring explanation. The harmontes of tone and tune are in Our most common and public knoWledge; butthe nature of the harmonio laWs and ratios, and the causes Osthe Same,-these are pia Suits WOrthy Of experiment and under- standing. Thus What We Want in the System, is a preciSe account of the quality of harmony, and the interpretation Ospoinis that are at present obscure. TO this Our sapient author

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repties, that harmony exists, that there is such a thing, and that God has preest Eslied it botween the foui and the body. In this Way he dams the stream and prevenis the isSuing Wnters, and puis oui and kilis in a moment ali destre and hope of knOW- Iedge, declaring that harmony is preest lished, or What is the Same thing, that the preestablishment is an occult quali ty. Is Themis had given ii as an oracle that the primordial substances

attempting to penetrate into the qualities of things, hand over

in the former therefore there must exist a consent of motions With the perceptions and appetitions of the lalter. Nor canthis he other than true, sor every self-conScious being kΠOWs that the body does and effecis What the soles destres and requires; and that actions and effecis harmonige and conspire With their proper means and causes. HOWever, the independ- ence mentioned above, distracis the miud, and causes it todo i, Whether a harmony such as this can be assumed, i ly-ing concord during every moment and in every mode belWeentWo subjecis and substances, Without a connexion and depend- ence ; excepi only With regard to the specification of perceptions, and the continuity of the time in Whicli they happen,

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together With the changes in the sensory Organs. And as thereare the most constant laWs in the foui, and a single simplesorce that produces and represenis est things, and likeWise nconStant harmony, constant because preest lished by the Deity, so I do not see hoW in this casse these can unite in a thirn term,

Or to the solvi, hoW could the One cooperate With the other 8Should we not otherWise have a harmony Without harmony, a discordant concord, the foui being permanent in iis State, obeying and Willing to obey no other laWs but iis OWn: unless We suppose in the foui none but a force to the last degree passive, in Which uJl things in the universe ean be repreSented; and noactive force to produce and represent, by iis intrinSic means, the Sensual ideas, and perceptions Or appetitions, of Which Wobecome conscious by motionS in the body, or by modes and mutations in the sensory Organs. Hence in this Way these also are precipitated in to the fame lalle os ignorance and Oblivion,

into the fame occult quality, With the harmony itfel God has not preestablished any appetitions in the foui, bulon a harmony beliseen the motions excited in the body by the

impressions made Uon the sen8ory Omans, and the perceptions of

the foui; or belloeen the voluntary motions in the bo , and the appetitioris of the foui: this however apari from any real depend- ence of the foui upon the body. I shuli nos hero entertain thequestion, hoW far these propositions are consistent With thularegoing, or With the system os preest lishment; but situli content myself With denoting the number of unknown qualities involved in the above state1nent; the number of qualities destinod to be sor ever unknown, a cording to the dictation ofiliis imposing system. Μeantime, hoWeVer, the Conclusion is giVen, that there a re perceptions in the foui, but that it has nopreest lished appetitions, there being in it therofore somethingnot preest lished, although it is a simple, single foroe that produces; and nevertheless, that this somothing is of tho mind