"From this we may further conclude, that as the Soul acts not immediately upon Bone, Flesh, Blood &c. nor they upon that, so there must be some exquisitely small Particles, that are the Internuncii between them, by the help of which they manifest themselves to each other."
— Mandeville, Bernard (bap. 1670, d. 1733)
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed and Sold by Dryden Leach
Date
1711
Metaphor
"From this we may further conclude, that as the Soul acts not immediately upon Bone, Flesh, Blood &c. nor they upon that, so there must be some exquisitely small Particles, that are the Internuncii between them, by the help of which they manifest themselves to each other."
Metaphor in Context
Phil.
[...] From this we may further conclude, that as the Soul acts not immediately upon Bone, Flesh, Blood &c. nor they upon that, so there must be some exquisitely small Particles, that are the Internuncii between them, by the help of which they manifest themselves to each other.
Misom. All these latter Conclusions I grant: The Internuncii you speak of, are the Animal Spirits, and that they are the intermediate Officers between the Soul and the grosser parts of the Body no Man denies; but that the Spirits, which compose the Stomachick Ferment, should be of a finer sort than those by whose Musculary Motions and other actions of force are perform'd, is not only a supposition, but in my Opinion a strangely odd one, that has not a shadow of Reason or probability in it.
Phil.
Do you think it a natural consequence from what we know of all manner of flitring, or straining, that some of the Animal Spirits must infinitely differ from others in fineness and subtilty?
(pp. 125-6)
Misom. All these latter Conclusions I grant: The Internuncii you speak of, are the Animal Spirits, and that they are the intermediate Officers between the Soul and the grosser parts of the Body no Man denies; but that the Spirits, which compose the Stomachick Ferment, should be of a finer sort than those by whose Musculary Motions and other actions of force are perform'd, is not only a supposition, but in my Opinion a strangely odd one, that has not a shadow of Reason or probability in it.
Phil.
Do you think it a natural consequence from what we know of all manner of flitring, or straining, that some of the Animal Spirits must infinitely differ from others in fineness and subtilty?
(pp. 125-6)
Categories
Provenance
Reading John Yolton's Thinking Matter (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1983), 168.
Citation
5 entries in ESTC (1711, 1715, 1730).
Mandeville, Bernard. A Treatise of the Hypochondriack and Hysterick Passions vulgarly call'd Hypo in Men, and Vapours in Women; in which the Symptoms, Causes, and Cure or Those Diseases are Set Forth after a Method entirely New (London: Printed and Sold by D. Leach, 1711). <Link to ECCO>
Mandeville, Bernard. A Treatise of the Hypochondriack and Hysterick Passions vulgarly call'd Hypo in Men, and Vapours in Women; in which the Symptoms, Causes, and Cure or Those Diseases are Set Forth after a Method entirely New (London: Printed and Sold by D. Leach, 1711). <Link to ECCO>
Theme
Animal Spirits
Date of Entry
05/25/2005
Date of Review
04/10/2012
