Henry More

“ In his second letter to More (15 April) , Descartes answers firmly: “It is repugnant to my concept to attribute any limit to the world, and I have no other measure than my perception for what I have to assert or to deny. I say, therefore, that the world is indeterminate or indefinite, because I do not recognize in it any limits. But I dare not call it infinite as I perceive that God is greater than the world, not in respect to His extension, because, as I have already said, I do not acknowledge in God any proper [extension] , but in vi respect to His perfection . ”

“ Psyche, his heroine, is the daughter of the Absolute, the general Soul who holds together the metaphysical universe, against whom he sees reflected his own soul’s mystical progress. More must, nevertheless, have been pleased with his labor, for he next wrote Psychathanasia Platonica: or Platonicall Poem of the Immortality of Souls, especially Mans Soul, in which he attempts to demonstrate the immortality of the soul as a corrective to his age. ”

“ That and the body together, we Christians would call σὰρξ, and the suggestions of it, especially in its corrupt estate, φρόνημα σαρκός. And that which God inspired into Adam was no more then ψυχὴ, the soul, not the spirit, though it be called נשמת חיים Spiraculum vitæ; is plain out of the text; because it made man but become a living soul, נפש חיה. But you will say, he was a dead soul before, and this was the spirit of life, yea the spirit of God, the life of the soul that was breathed into him. ”

“ In fleshly mud like swine they wallow and roll,
The loftiest mind is proud but of the face
Or outward person; if men but adore
That walking sepulchre, cares for no more.
This is the measure of mans industry
To wexen some body and getten grace
To ’s outward presence; though true majestie
Crown’d with that heavenly light and lively rayes
Of holy wesdome and Seraphick love,
From his deformed soul he farre remove.
Slight knowledge and lesse virtue serves his turn
For this designe. If he hath trod the ring
Of pedling arts; in usuall pack-horse form
Keeping the rode; O! then ’t’s a learned thing. ”

“ Nay and that sublime and subtil Mechanick too, DesChartes, though he seem to mince it must hold infinitude of worlds, or which is as harsh one infinite one. For what is his mundus indefinitè extensus, but extensus infinitè? Else it sounds onely infinitus quoad nos but simpliciter finitus. But if any space be left out unstuffd with Atoms, it will hazard the dissipation of the whole frame of Nature into disjoynted dust. ”

“ Democritus and the Epicureans, of course, advocated the theme of infinite worlds in an infinite universe which More accepted; but at the same time, he rejected their view of a mechanistic and fortuitous creation. Although Plato specifically rejects the idea of infinite worlds (in Timaeus) , More imagines, as the title of his poem implies, a Platonic universe, by which he really means neo-Platonic, combined with a Democritean plurality of worlds. More filled space, not with the infinite void of the Atomists, but with the Divine, ever active immanence. ”

“ Certes is but the dream of a drie brain:
God maim’d in goodnesse, inconsistencie;
Wherefore my troubled mind is now in pain
Of a new birth, which this one Canto’ll not contain.
Now Reader, thou art arrived to the Canto it self, from which I have kept thee off by too tedious Preface and Apologie, which is seldome made without consciousnesse of some fault, which I professe I find not in my self, unlesse this be it, that I am more tender of thy satisfaction then mine own credit. As for that high sullen Poem, Cupids Conflict, I must leave it to thy candour and favourable censure. ”

“ The world, More wants to say, has no limits, no center, yet there are bounds in its not having any. More recognizes the contradiction when he fancies “some strong arm’d Archer” at the wide world’s edge (st. 37) . Where shall he send his shafts? Into “mere vacuity”? But More hardly seems aware of the inappropriateness of the cone: he uses a geometrical figure to locate space, time, and numberless worlds within the universal sight of God, but matter is infinite, “distinct/ And yet proceeding from the Deitie” (st. 68) . ”

“ Nor will the old contexture dim or marre,
For often us’d they’re next to old, thred-bare.
And if the old seem in too rustie hew,
Then frequent rubbing makes them shine like gold,
And glister all with colour gayly new. ”

“ But if you take it for the whole sensible world, it is entire, and is the same that Tasis in Psycozoia. But the centre of Tasis, viz. the multiplication of the reall Cuspis of the Cone (for Hyle that is set for the most contract point of the Cuspis is scarce to be reckoned among realities) that immense diffusion of atoms, is to be referred to Psyche, as an internall vegetative act, and so belongs to Physis the lowest order of life. For as that warmth that the sense doth afford the body, is not rationall, sensitive, or imaginative, but vegetative ”

“ It belongs properly to Plants, but is transferred also to the Plasticall power in Animalls, I enlarge it to all magnetick power whatsoever that doth immediately rule and actuate any body. For all magnetick power is founded in Physis, and in reference to her, this world is but one great Plant, (one λόγος σπερματικός giving it shape and corporeall life) as in reference to Psyche, one happy and holy Animall.
Spirit. Sometimes it signifieth the soul, othersometime, the naturall spirits in a mans body, which are Vinculum animæ & corporis, and the souls vehicle: Sometimes life. ”

“ And by this concatenation of phantasmes I conceive, that both brutes and men are moved in reasonable wayes and methods in their ordinary externall actions.
Rayes. The rayes of an essence is its energie. See Energie.
Reduplicative. That is reduplicative, which is not onely in this point, but also in another, having a kind of circumscribed ubiquitie, viz. in its own sphear. And this is either by being in that sphear omnipresent it self, as the soul is said to be in the body tota in toto & tota in qualibet parte, or else at least by propagation of rayes, which is the image of it self ”

“ Lower man. The lower man is our enquickned body, into which our soul comes, it being fitly prepared for the receiving of such a guest. The manner of the production of souls, or rather their non-production is admirably well set down in Plotinus, See, Ennead. 6. lib. 4. cap. 14, 15.
M
M onad. See Interpr. Gen.
Mundane. Mundane spirit, Is that which is the spirit of the world or Universe. I mean by it not an intellectuall spirit, but a fine, unfixt, attenuate, subtill, ethereall substance, the immediate vehicle of plasticall or sensitive life. ”

“ Sometimes Intellect is an absolute essence shining into the soul: whose nature is this. A substance purely immateriall, impeccable, actually omniform, or comprehending all things at once, which the soul doth also being perfectly joyned with the Intellect. Ἔχομεν οὖν καὶ τὰ εἴδη διχῶς, ἐν μὲν ψυχῇ οἷον μὲν [6] || ἀνειλιγμένα καὶ οἷον κεχωρισμένα, ἐν δὲ τῷ νῷ ὁμοῦ τὰ πάντα. Plot. Ennead. 1. lib. 1. cap. 8. Ideas, or Idees. Sometimes they are forms in the Intellectuall world. viz. in Æon, or On, other sometimes, phantasmes or representations in the soul. ”

“ But took in matter according to their conceit, that phansie à Materia prima, I acknowledge none, and consequently no such corpus naturale as our Physiologist make the subject of that science. That Τριχῇ διάστατον ἀντίτυπον is nothing but a fixt spirit, the conspissation or coagulation of the Cuspidall particles of the Cone, which are indeed the Centrall Tasis or inward essence of the sensible world. These be an infinite number of vitall Atoms that may be wakened into diverse tinctures, or energies, into fiery, watery, earthy, &c. ”

“ Amidst the higher Planets rudely dance
In course perplex, but that from this rash doom
I’m bett off by their beards and tails farre strown
Along the skie, pointing still opposite
Unto the sun, however they may roam;
Wherefore a cluster of small starres unite
These meteors some do deem, perhaps with judgement right.
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And that these tayls are streams of the suns light
Breaking through their near bodies as through clouds. ”

“ The multiplide Cuspis of the Cone is nothing but the last projection of life from Psyche, which is שׁמים a liquid fire or fire and water, which are the corporeall or materiall principles of all things, changed or disgregated (if they be centrally distinguishable) and again mingled by the virtue of Physis or Spermaticall life of the world; of these are the Sunne and all the Planets, they being kned together, and fixt by the Centrall power of each Planet and Sunne. The volatile Ether is also of the same, and all the bodies of plants, beasts and men. ”

“ But if I had relinquishd here my wonted self, in proving Dogmaticall, I should have found very noble Patronage for the cause among the ancients, Epicurus, Democritus, Lucretius, &c. Or if justice may reach the dead, do them the right, as to shew, that though they be hooted at, by the Rout of the learned, as men of monstrous conceits, they were either very wise or exceeding fortunate to light on so probable and specious an opinion, in which notwithstanding there is so much difficultie and seeming inconsistencie. ”

“ More’s theory of the infinity of worlds and God’s plenitude evidently owed a great deal to Descartes’ recent example; More responds exuberantly to him, especially to his Principes de la Philosophie (1644) ; for in him he fancied having found a true ally. Steeped in Platonic and neo-Platonic thought, and determined iii to reconcile Spirit with the rational mind of man, More thought he had discovered in Cartesian ‘intuition’ what was not necessarily there. Descartes had enjoyed an ecstatic illumination, and so had Plotinus ”

“ That which change of Phantasmes is to the soul, that is alteration of rayes to them. For their rayes are ab intrinseco, as the phantasmes of the soul. These be the reall matter of which all supposed bodies are compounded, and this matter (as I said) is form and life, so that all is life and form what ever is in the world, as I have somewhere intimated in Antipsychopan: But however I use the terme body ordinarily in the usuall and vulgar acception. ”

“ I will onely adde one place more out of Plotinus. Ennead. 3. lib. 6. Ἑκάστου δὲ μορίου ἡ ἐνέργεια ἡ κατὰ φύσιν ζωὴ οὐκ ἐξιστᾶσα. The naturall energie of each power of the soul is life not parted from the soul though gone out of the soul, viz. into act.
Comparing of all these places together, I cannot better explain this Platonick term, energie, then by calling it the rayes of an essence, or the beams of a vitall Centre. For essence is the Centre as it were of that which is truly called Energie, and Energie the beams and rayes of an essence. ”

“ More, in fact, in an early philosophic work, An Antidote against Atheisme (1652) , and again in Divine Dialogues (1668) , refutes Lucretius by asserting the usefulness of all created things in God’s Providence and the essential design in Nature. His reference in Democritus Platonissans (st. 20) is typical: “though I detest the sect/ of Epicurus for their manners vile,/ Yet what is true I may not well reject.” In bringing together Democritus’ theories and neo-Platonic thought, More obviously has attempted reconciliation of two exclusive world views, but with dubious success. ”

“ Incomprehensible ”6 There is, however, a great difficulty here; for while Space and Spirit are eternal and uncreated, they yet contain material substance which has been created by God. If the material world possesses infinite extension, as More generally believes, that would preclude any need of its having a creator. In order to avoid this dilemma, which Democritus Platonissans ignores, More must at last separate matter and space, seeing the vii latter as an attribute of God through which He is able to contain a finite world limited in space as well as in time. ”

“ More’s original enthusiasm for Descartes declined as he understood better that the Cartesian world in practice excluded spirits and souls. Because Descartes could find no necessary place even for God Himself, More styled him, in Enchiridion Metaphysicum (1671) , the “Prince of the Nullibists”; these men “readily acknowledge there are such things as Incorporeal Beings or Spirits, yet do very peremptorily contend, that they are no where in the whole World [;] ”

“ Int’ infinite severall worlds, as his best skill
Did him direct and creatures could receive
For matter infinite needs infinite worlds must give.
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The Centre of each severall world’s a sunne
With shining beams and kindly warming heat,
About whose radiant crown the Planets runne,
Like reeling moths around a candle light,
These all together, one world I conceit.
And that even infinite such worlds there be,
That inexhausted Good that God is bight
A full sufficient reason is to me,
Who simple Goodnesse make the highest Deity. ”

“ That ground limits the essence of the world as well as its duration, and satisfies the curiositie of the Opposer, by shewing the incompossibilitie in the Creature, not want of goodnesse in the Creatour to have staid the framing of the Universe. ”

“ And therefore without all remorse lay batterie against mine own edifice: not sparing to shew how weak that is, that my self now deems not impregnably strong. I have at the latter end of the last Canto of Psychathanasia, not without triumph concluded, that the world hath not continued ab æterno, from this ground:
Extension
That’s infinite implies a contradiction.
And this is in answer to an objection against my last argument of the souls Immortalitie, viz. divine goodnesse, which I there make the measure of his providence. ”

“ For though they be Centrall lives, yet are they neither Plasticall, Sensitive, or Rationall, so farre are they from proving to be the humane soul whose nature is there discust.
C
C one: Is a solid figure made by the turning of a rectangular triangle, about; one of the sides that include the right angle resting, which will be then the Axis of the compleated Cone. But I take it sometimes for the comprehension of all things, God himself not left out, whom I tearm the Basis of the Cone or Universe. ”

“ More undoubtedly knows the specific discussion of ‘infinity’ in Part I, xxvi-xxviii, where he must first v have felt uneasy delight on reading “that it is not needful to enter into disputes regarding the infinite, but merely to hold all that in which we can find no limits as indefinite, such as the extension of the world . . . .”4 More asked Descartes to clarify his language in their correspondence of 1648-49, the last year of Descartes’ life.
Democritus Platonissans is More’s earliest statement about absolute space and time ”

“ The same that Centrall lives. Both the terms denotate the indivisibility of the inmost essence it self; the pure essentiall form I mean, of plant, beast or man, yea of angels themselves, good or bad.
Animadversall. That lively inward animadversall. It is the soul it self, for I cannot conceive the body doth animadvert; when as objects plainly exposed to the sight are not discovered till the soul takes notice of them. ”