« back to search

"To this Objection therefore I answer (1.) that had this excellent Man, Monsieur des Cartes been but half as conversant in Anatomy, as he seems to have been in Geometry, doubtles he would never have lodged so noble a guest as the Rational Soul, in so incommodious a closet of the brain, as the Glandula Pinealis is; that use whereof hath been demonstrated to be no other but to receive into its spongy cavities, from two little nerves, a certain serous Excrement, and to exonerate the same again into its vein, which nature hath therefore made much larger than the artery that accompanieth it; and which having no Communication with the external organs of the Senses, cannot with any colour of reason be thought the part of the brain, wherein the Soul exerciseth her principal faculties of judging and commanding."

— Charleton, Walter (1620-1707)

Author

Charleton, Walter (1620-1707)

Work Title

Natural History of the Passions

Place of Publication

London ["in the Savoy"]

Publisher

Printed by T.N. for James Magnes

Date

1674

Metaphor

"To this Objection therefore I answer (1.) that had this excellent Man, Monsieur des Cartes been but half as conversant in Anatomy, as he seems to have been in Geometry, doubtles he would never have lodged so noble a guest as the Rational Soul, in so incommodious a closet of the brain, as the Glandula Pinealis is; that use whereof hath been demonstrated to be no other but to receive into its spongy cavities, from two little nerves, a certain serous Excrement, and to exonerate the same again into its vein, which nature hath therefore made much larger than the artery that accompanieth it; and which having no Communication with the external organs of the Senses, cannot with any colour of reason be thought the part of the brain, wherein the Soul exerciseth her principal faculties of judging and commanding."

Metaphor in Context

To this Objection therefore I answer (1.) that had this excellent Man, Monsieur des Cartes been but half as conversant in Anatomy, as he seems to have been in Geometry, doubtles he would never have lodged so noble a guest as the Rational Soul, in so incommodious a closet of the brain, as the Glandula Pinealis is; that use whereof hath been demonstrated to be no other but to receive into its spongy cavities, from two little nerves, a certain serous Excrement, and to exonerate the same again into its vein, which nature hath therefore made much larger than the artery that accompanieth it; and which having no Communication with the external organs of the Senses, cannot with any colour of reason be thought the part of the brain, wherein the Soul exerciseth her principal faculties of judging and commanding. (2.) This Glandule which he supposeth to be so easily flexible and yielding to contrary impulses, is not loosely suspended, but fixed: so that whoever hath once beheld the solid basis, strong consistence, and firm connexion thereof, will hardly ever be brought to allow it capable of any impulse to either side, though by the greatest Hurricano of spirits imaginable; much less by every light motion of them excited by external objects affecting the senses. (3) Though we should grant this Gland to be both the Throne of the Soul, and most easily flexible every way: yet hath Des Cartes left it still unconceivable, how an Immaterial Agent, not infinite, comes to move by impuls a solid body, without the mediation of a third thing that is less disparil or disproportionate to both. Now these things duely considered, you will (I presume) no longer imagine the Conflicts or Combats that frequently happen within us betwixt the Rational and Sensitive Appetites, to consist only in the repugnancy of the impulses of this little Glandule by the Spirits on one side, to those of the same Glandule by the Soul on the other. Besides, that the Soul hath power to excite Corporeal Passions directly, that is, without considering successively various things; is manifest from her soveraignity over the body, which in all voluntary actions is absolute and uncontrollable; and in the very instance of Fear alleadged by our Author, where she determineth her Will to Courage to oppose the danger suggested, instantly and without running through a long series of various considerations, for which she then hath not time sufficient. However, evident enough it is, that this conceipt of repugnant impulses of this Gland in the brain, is so far from giving light to the reason of the Conflict here considered, that it rather augmenteth the obscurity thereof, by implying two contrary Appetites or Wills in one and the same Soul, at one and the same time: Whereas the supposition of two Souls mutually opposing each others Appetites, doth render the same intelligible.
(Epistle Prefatory)