A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More

...perceptive itself, as it is the natural transcript of that which is knowing or perceptive. It is the lowest substantial activity from the all-wise God, containing within it certain general modes and laws of nature for the good of the universe. However, the eye of particular Providence is not found within it. Otherwise, why does a tile fall upon the head of someone passing by in the street, whether they are going to a play or a sermon? And how do we explain those errors in monstrous births original: "monstrous productions", or those inept and self-thwarting attempts of this Spirit in certain experiments regarding the discovery of a vacuum vacuum a space entirely empty of matter; a major topic of scientific debate in the 17th century? As I have particularly noted in my Antidote. Therefore, neither Omnipotence nor Omniscience acts directly in such cases, but rather this imperceptive Spirit of Nature. Its lack of perception is no more of an obstacle to its natural and plastic shaping or formative operations than the soul’s lack of an actual idea of a thing beforehand is a hindrance to its

• see sect. 11.

occasional perceptions, as I have already suggested in my * Preface to my Treatise of the Soul’s Immortality.

When these things are well considered and allowed, that special office of this Spirit of Nature in guiding souls during their "State of Silence" a period of unconsciousness between death and a new life to inhabit prepared matter, and thus to raise animals into life, will easily be conceived as being as appropriate an employment as any of the rest, and not at all more difficult. For how much harder is it to understand that the Spirit of Nature may direct or carry down a silent soul, rather than a dead stone, to their fit and natural homes? For the lifeless spirit and the dead stone are equally easy to take hold of, as the Spirit of Nature penetrates them both alike. Matter moves up and down so easily within this Spirit of the World that it cannot be imagined that any mechanical power governs it; only that which is truly called Sympathetic original: "Sympathetical" must be the bond where any connection is made. This bond catches and lets go for the direction and transmission of things to their proper places in the various parts of the world for the good of the whole, according to that essential law which is the form and being of this Spirit of Nature, the final ideal or all-encompassing outflow original: "Omniform Efflux" from God. Nor is it, as I have already said, any more marvelous that a lifeless soul should be carried away and conducted to duly-prepared matter by this imperceptive Spirit of Nature than it is for a dead stone or senseless magnetic particles to be guided by it. For that by which the soul is caught so fast by its particular body is not its perceptive part, but its plastic or natural part; otherwise, in a fit of pique original: "in a pet", the soul might easily leave the body without the need for hanging, drowning, or stabbing. Why then may not a spirit that has subtler fingers than the finest matter—I mean the Spirit of Nature—lay hold on that imperceptive part of the soul, or on the soul itself in a state of silence or lack of perception, and by the sympathy and shared activity of its own essence carry her away to such services as either she herself had deserved or the universe required?

While I will not assert all these things as certain truths, I dare pronounce them to be as intelligible as the union of the soul with the body, which experience forces us to understand whether we want to or not.

14. As for my Conjectura Cabbalistica original: "Cabbalistic Conjecture"—More’s philosophical interpretation of the Book of Genesis, I have nothing new to note there, unless it is what I have added recently, which is the Appendix to the Defence of my Philosophic Cabbala. In that work, I believe I have cleared that Cabbala of all imaginable objections of any importance. Among other things, I have plainly proved that not only Platonism, but also