The Improvement of Human Reason | Page 5

Proverb, _viz. Don't say a thing is sweet before you taste on't_; for he never was so good as his word, nor performed any thing like it. But 'tis probable that the reason why he did not, was either because he was streightn'd for Time, being taken up with his Journey to _Wahran_; or else, because he was sensible, that if he should undertake to give a description of that State, the Nature of such a kind of Discourse, would unavoidably have put him upon a necessity of speaking some things, which would manifestly have reproach'd his own manner of living, and contradicted those Principles which he himself had elsewhere laid down; in which he encourages Men to heap up Riches, and proposes several ways and means in order to the acquiring them.
We have in this Discourse (as necessity required) disgress'd something from the main Design of what you desir'd; it appears from what has been already said, that you must either mean, 1. That I should describe to you, what they see and taste, who are so happy as to enjoy the UNION,(which is impossible to be described as it really is; and when any one goes about to express it, either by Speech or Writing, he quite alters the thing, and sinks into the speculative way. For when you once come to cloath it with Letters and Words, it comes nearer to the corporeal World, and does by no means remain in the same State that it was in before; and the Significations of these Words, which are used in the explaining it, are quite alter'd; so that it occasions a great many real Mistakes to some, and makes others believe, that they are mistaken, when indeed they are not; and the reason of this is, because it is a thing of infinite Extent, comprehending all things in it self, but not comprehended by any.) 2. Or else the meaning of your Request must be this, that I should shew you after what manner they proceed, who give themselves to Contemplation. And this (my good Friend) is a thing which is capable of being express'd both by Speech, and Writing; but 'tis as scarce as old Gold, especially in this part of the World where we live; for 'tis so rare, that there's hardly one of a thousand gets so much as a smattering of it; and of those few, scarce any, have communicated any thing of what they knew in that kind, but only by obscure Hints, and _Innuendo_'s. Indeed the Hanifitick Sect[11], and the Mahometan Religion, doe forbid Men to dive too far into this matter. Nor would I have you think that the Philosophy which we find in the Books of Aristotle, and _Alpharabius_[12], and in _Avicenna_'s Book, which he calls _Alshepha,_ does answer the end which you aim at, nor have any of the Spanish Philosophers[13] writ fully and satisfactorily about it. Because those Scholars which were bred in Spain, before the Knowledge of Logick and Philosophy was broach'd amongst them, spent their whole Lives in Mathematicks, in which it must be allow'd, they made a great Progress, but went no farther. After them came a Generation of Men, who apply'd themselves more to the Art of Reasoning, in which they excell'd their Predecessors, yet not so as to attain to true Perfection. So that one of them said,
_T'is hard the kinds of Knowledge are but two,_ _The One erroneous, the Other true_. _The former profits nothing when 'tis gain'd,_ _The other's difficult to be attain'd_.
After these came others, who still advanc'd further, and made nearer approaches to the Truth; among whom there was one that had a sharper Wit, or truer notions of things than Avenpace, but he was too much taken up with Worldly Business, and Died before he had time to open the Treasury of his Knowledge, so that most of those pieces of his which are extant, are imperfect; particularly his Book _about the Soul_) and his _Tedbíro 'lmotawahhid,_ i.e. How a Man ought to manage himself that leads a Solitary Life So are his Logicks and Physicks. Those Pieces of his which are compleat, are only short Tracts and some occasional Letters. Nay, in his Epistle concerning the UNION, he himself confesses that he had wrote nothing compleat, where he says, _That it would require a great deal of trouble and pains to 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