The Improvement of Human Reason | Page 6

express that
clearly which he had undertaken to prove_; and, _that the method
which he had made use of in explaining himself, was not in many
places so exact as it might have been_; and, _that he design'd, if he had
time, to alter it_. So much for Avenpace, I for my part never saw him,
and as for his Contemporaries, they were far inferiour to him, nor did I
ever see any of their Works. Those who are now alive, are, either such
as are still advancing forwards, or else such as have left off, without
attaining to perfection; if there are any other, I know nothing of them.
As to those Works of Alpharabius which are extant, they are most of
them Logick. There are a great many things very dubious in his
Philosophical Works; for in his _Méllatolphadélah_, i.e. The most
excellent Sect, he asserts expressly, _that the Souls of Wicked Men
shall suffer everlasting Punishment_; and yet says as positively in his
Politicks that they shall be dissolv'd and annihilated, and that the Souls
of the Perfect shall remain for ever. And then in his Ethicks, speaking
concerning the Happiness of Man, he says, that it is only in this Life,
and then adds, _that whatsoever People talk of besides, is meer
Whimsy and old Wives Fables_. A principle, which if believ'd would
make all Men despair of the Mercy of God, and puts the Good and Evil
both upon the same Level, in that it makes annihilation the common
end to them both. This is an Error not to be pardon'd by any means, or
made amends for. Besides all this, he had a mean Opinion of the Gift of
Prophecy, and said that in his Judgment it did belong to the faculty of
Imagination, and that he prefer'd Philosophy before it; with a great
many other things of the like nature, not necessary to be mention'd
here.
As for the Books of _Aristotle, Avicenna_'s Exposition of them in his
Alshepha [i.e. _Health_] supplies their Room, for he trod in the same
steps and was of the same Sect. In the beginning of that Book, says,
that the Truth was in his opinion different from what he had there
deliver'd, that he had written that Book according to the Philosophy of
the _Peripateticks_; but those that would know the Truth clearly, and

without Obscurity, he refers to his Book, Of the Eastern Philosophy.
Now he that takes the pains to compare his Alshepha with what
Aristotle has written, will find they agree in most things, tho' in the
Alshepha there are a great many things which are not extant in any of
those pieces which we have of Aristotle. But if the Reader, take the
literal Sense only, either of the Alshepha or Aristotle, with, out
penetrating into the hidden Sense, he will never attain to perfection, as
Avicenna himself observes in the Alshepha.
As for _Algazâli_[14], he often contradicts himself, denying in one
place what he affirm'd in another. He taxes the Philosophers with
_Heresy_[15] in his Book which he calls Altehaphol, i.e. Destruction,
because they deny the Resurrection of the Body, and hold that Rewards
and Punishments in a Future State belong to the Soul only. Then in the
beginning of his _Almizân_, i.e. The Balance, he affirms positively,
that this is the Doctrine of the _Suphians_[16], and that he was
convinc'd of the truth of it, after a great deal of Study and Search. There
are a great many such Contradictions as these interspers'd in his Works;
which he himself begs Pardon for in the end of his _Mizân Alamal
[The Ballance of Mens Actions]_; where he says, that there are Three
sorts of Opinions; 1. Such as are common to the Vulgar, and agreeable
to their Notions of things. 2. Such as we commonly make use of in
answering Questions propos'd to us. 3. Such private as a Man has to
himself, which none understand but those who think just as he does.
And then he adds, that tho' there were no more in what he had written
than only this, viz. That it made a Man doubt of those things which he
had imbib'd at first, and help'd him to remove the prejudices of
Education, that even that were sufficient; because, he that never doubts
will never weigh things aright, and he that does not do that will never
see, hut remain in Blindness and Confusion.
_Believe your Eyes, but still suspect your Ears,_ _You'll need no
Star-light[17], when the day appears_.
This is the account of his way of Philosophizing, the greatest part of
which is enigmatical and full of obscurity, and for that reason of no use
to any but such as thoroughly perceive and understand the matter

before, and