The Improvement of Human Reason | Page 3

our Author fair Quarter_.
* * * * *
_Abu Jaaphar Ebn Tophail_'s
INTRODUCTION
To the LIFE of
Hai Ebn Yokdhan.
In the Name of the most Merciful God.[1]
Blessed be the Almighty and Eternal, the Infinitely Wise and Merciful
God, _who hath taught us the Use of the PEN_[2], who out of his great
Goodness to Mankind, has made him understand Things which he did
not know. I praise him for his excellent Gifts, and give him thanks for
his continued Benefits, and I testify that there is but One God, and that
he has no Partner[3]; and that MAHOMET is his Servant and
Apostle[4], endu'd with an excellent Spirit, and Master of convincing
Demonstration, and a victorious Sword: the Blessing of God be upon
him, and his Companions, (Men of great Thoughts, and vast
Understandings,) and upon all his Followers, to the End of the World.
You ask'd me, Dear Friend, (God preserve you for ever, and make you
Partaker of everlasting Happiness) to communicate to you what I knew
concerning the Mysteries of the Eastern Philosophy, mention'd by the
Learned _Avicenna_[5]: Now you must understand, that whoever
designs to attain to a clear and distinct Knowledge, must be diligent in
the search of it. Indeed your request gave me a noble turn of Thought,
and brought me to the understanding of what I never knew before; nay,
it advanc'd me to such an elevation, as no Tongue, how eloquent soever,
is able to express; and the reason is, because 'tis of a quite different
nature and kind from the Things of this World; only this there is in it,
that whoever has attain'd to any degree of it, is so mightily affected

with joy Pleasure, and Exultation, that 'tis impossible for him to
conceal his sense of it, but he is forc'd to utter some general
Expressions, since he cannot be particular. Now if a Man, who has not
been polish'd by good Education, happens to attain to that state, he tuns
out into strange Expressions, and speaks he knows not what; so that
one of this sort of Men, when in that state, cry'd out, _Praise to be me!
How wonderful am I!_[6] Another said, _I am Truth!_[7]. Another,
That he was God.
_Abu Hamed Algazâli_[8], when he had attain'd to it, express'd himself
thus,
_'Twas what it was, 'tis not to be express'd;_ _Enquire no further, but
conceive the best_.
But he was a Man that had good Learning, and was well vers'd in the
Sciences. What _Avenpace_[9] says at the end of his Discourse
concerning the UNION, is worth your Observing; There he, says _That
'twill appear plainly to any one that understands the design of his Book,
that that degree is not attainable by the means of those Sciences which
were then in use; but that he attain'd to what he knew, by being
altogether abstracted from any thing which he had been acquainted
with before; and that he was furnish'd with other Notions altogether
independent upon matter, and of too noble a nature to be any way
attributed to the Natural Life, but were peculiar to the Blessed, and
which upon that account we may call Divine Proprieties, which God
(whose Name be prais'd) bestows upon such of his Servants as he
pleases_.
Now this degree which this Author mentions, is attainable by
Speculative Knowledge,(nor is it to be doubted but that he had reach'd
it himself;) but not that which we have just now mention'd, which
notwithstanding is not so much different from it in kind as in degree:
for in that which I mention'd there are no Discoveries made which
contradict those which this Author means; but the difference consists in
this, _viz._ that in our way there is a greater degree of Clearness and
Perspicuity than there is in the other; for in this we apprehend things by
the help of something, which we cannot properly call a _Power_; nor

indeed will any of those words, which are either us'd in common
discourse, or occur in the Writings of the Learned, serve to express
That, by which this sort of Perception do's apprehend.
This degree, which I have already mention'd, (and which perhaps I
should never have had any taste of, if your request had not put me upon
a farther search) is the very same thing which Avicenna means, where
he says; _Then when a Man's desires are raised to a good pitch, and he
is competently well exercised in that way, there will appear to him
some small glimmerings of the Truth, as it were flashes of Lightning,
very delightful, which just shine upon him, and then go out; Then the
more he exercises himself, the oftner he'll perceive 'em, till at last he'll
become so well acquainted with