After his first Plunge into the Sea, he no sooner
raised his Head above the Water but he found himself
standing by the Side of the Tub, with the great Men
of his Court about him, and the holy Man at his Side.
He immediately upbraided his Teacher for having sent
him on such a Course of Adventures, and betrayed him
into so long a State of Misery and Servitude; but
was wonderfully surprised when he heard that the State
he talked of was only a Dream and Delusion; that he
had not stirred from the Place where he then stood;
and that he had only dipped his Head into the Water,
and immediately taken it out again.
The Mahometan Doctor took this Occasion of
instructing the Sultan, that nothing was impossible
with God; and that He, with whom a Thousand
Years are but as one Day, can, if he pleases, make
a single Day, nay a single Moment, appear to any of
his Creatures as a Thousand Years.
I shall leave my Reader to compare these Eastern Fables
with the Notions of those two great Philosophers whom
I have quoted in this Paper; and shall only, by way
of Application, desire him to consider how we may
extend Life beyond its natural Dimensions, by applying
our selves diligently to the Pursuits of Knowledge.
The Hours of a wise Man are lengthened by his Ideas,
as those of a Fool are by his Passions: The Time
of the one is long, because he does not know what
to do with it; so is that of the other, because he
distinguishes every Moment of it with useful or amusing
Thought; or in other Words, because the one is always
wishing it away, and the other always enjoying it.
How different is the View of past Life, in the Man
who is grown old in Knowledge and Wisdom, from that
of him who is grown old in Ignorance and Folly?
The latter is like the Owner of a barren Country that
fills his Eye with the Prospect of naked Hills and
Plains, which produce nothing either profitable or
ornamental; the other beholds a beautiful and spacious
Landskip divided into delightful Gardens, green Meadows,
fruitful Fields, and can scarce cast his Eye on a single
Spot of his Possessions, that is not covered with
some beautiful Plant or Flower.
[Footnote 1: Not of himself, but in ’The
Usefulness of Natural Philosophy’ (’Works’,
ed. 1772, vol. ii. p. 11), Boyle quotes from the old
Alchemist, Basil Valentine, who said in his ’Currus
Trimnphalis Antimonii’
’That the shortness of life makes
it impossible for one man thoroughly
to learn Antimony, in which every day
something of new is
discovered.’]
[Footnote 2: ‘Essay on the Human Understanding’,
Bk II. ch. 14.]
[Footnote 3: Two English Translations of Malebranche’s
’Search after Truth’ were published in
1694, one by T. Taylor of Magdalen College, Oxford.
Malebranche sets out with the argument that man has
no innate perception of Duration.]
