CaChap. V. An Antidote aga'mfi Athelfm, ly
CHAP. V.
I
, what has occafiorted [undrj men to conceit that the Soul is Abrafa Ta- bula. 2. That the Mind of Man is »i>f Abrafa Tabula, but has zGtxxiil Knowledge of her orvn^ and in what fenfejhe has fo. 3, A farther illii- fir at ion of the truth thereof.
1 . A N D now we have found out this Idea of a Being ahfolutely PerfeB, ■**• that the ufe which we (hall hereafter make of it may take the better effed, it will not be amifTe, by way of further preparation, briefly to touch upon that notable point in Philofophy, H^'/'f ^^^;' the Soul of man he Abrafa Tabula, a Table- hook in which nothing is writ 5 or whether (he have fome Innate Notions and Ideas inherfelf Forfoit is, that {beha- ving taken fir ft occafion of thinking from externall Objefts, it hath fo impofed upon fome mens judgements, that they have conceited that the Soul has no Knowledge nor Notion, but what is in a PaJ^ive way impref- fed or delineated upon her from the Objects of .Sf«/f •, they not warily enough diflinguifliing betwixt extrinfecall Occafions, and the adequate or principal Caufes of things.
2. But the Mind of Man more free, and better exercifed intheclofe obfervations of its own operations and nature, cannot but difcover that there is an adlive and a[fuall Knowledge in a man, of which thefe outward Objeds are rather the re-minders then the firft begetters or implanters. And when I fay aSfuall Knowledge^ I do not mean that there is a certain number of Ideas flaring and (hining to the Animadverft-ve Faculty^ like fo mzny Torches ox Starres [nie Firmament to oxr oxxiWdLxd Sights or that there are any Figures that take their diftind places , and are legibly writ there like the Red letters or Agronomical Characters in an Almanack : but I underftand thereby art adtive fagacity in the Soul, or quick recolledion, as it were, whereby fome fmall bufinefTe being hinted unto her, fhe runs out prefently into a more clear and larger conception.
3. And I cannot better defcribe her condition then thusrSuppofea skil- full Mufician fallen afleep in the field upon thegrafTe, during which time he lliall not (o much as dream any thing concerning his Muficall faculty, fo that in one fenfe there is no aliuall Skill or Notion, nor repreftntation of any thing muficall in him ^ but his friend fitting by hinijthat cannot fing at all himfelf, jogs him and awakes him, and defires him to fing this or the other Song, telling him two or three words of the beginning of the Song, whereupon he prefently takes it out of his mouth, and fings the whole Song upon fo flight and {lender intimation: So the i»//W of Man being jogg'd and awakened by the impulfes of outward Objeds, is flirred up into a more full and clear conception of what was but imperfedlly hinted to her from externall occafions ; and this Faculty I venture to call aCtuall Knowledge^ in fuch a fenfe as the fleeping Mufician's skill might be called
aCfuall Skill when he thought nothing of it.
CHAP,
