Sec. 31.  Now when he perceiv’d that his Hand supplied all these defects very well, and that none of all the various kinds of Wild Beasts durst stand against him, but ran away from him, and were too Nimble for him.  He began to contrive how to be even with them, and thought there would be no way so proper as to chuse out some of the strongest and swiftest Beasts of the Island, and bring ’em up tame, and feed them with proper Food, till they would let him back them and then he might persue the other kinds of Wild Beasts.  There were in that Island both Wild Horses and Asses; he chose of both sorts, such as seem’d fittest for his purpose, and by exercise he made them so gentle and tractable that he was compleat Master of his Wishes.  And when, he had made out of the Skins of Beasts, such things as serv’d him competently well, in the Room of Bridles and Saddles, he could very easily then overtake such Beasts, as he could scarce ever have been able to have catch’d any other manner of way.  He made all these discoveries whilst he was employed in the Study of Anatomy, and the searching out of the Properties, peculiar to each Part, and the difference between them; and all this about that time I speak of, viz. of the Age of 21 Years.

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[Illustration 5]

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Sec. 32.  He then proceeded further to examin the Nature of Bodies in this Sublunary World, viz.  The different kinds of Animal, Plants, Minerals, and several sorts of Stones, Earth, Water, Exhalations, Ice, Snow, Hail, Smoak, Hoar, Frost, Flame, and Heat.  In which he observ’d different Qualities, and different Actions, and that their Motions agreed in some respects, and differ’d in others:  and considering these things with great Application, he perceiv’d that their Qualities also agreed in some things, and differ’d in others; and that so far as they agreed, they were One; but when consider’d with Relation to their differences, a great many:  so that when he came to consider the Properties of things by which they were distinguish’d one from another,he found that they Multiplied so fast upon him, that ’twas impossible for him, to Comprehend them.  Nay, when he consider’d the difference of his own Limbs, which he perceiv’d were all distinct from one another, by some Property and Action peculiar to each, it seem’d to him that there was a Plurality in his Own Essence.  And when he look’d upon any one Member it self, he found that it might be divided into a great many parts, from whence he concluded, that there must needs be a Plurality in his own Essence, and not only in his own but in every other also.

Sec. 33.  Then he enter’d upon another sort of Speculation of the second kind, by which he perceiv’d that tho’ the parts of his Body were many, yet they were Conjoyned and Compacted together so as to make one Body, and that what difference there was between them consisted only in the difference of their Actions, which diversity proceeded from that Animal Spirit, the Nature of which he had before search’d into, and found out.  Now he knew that his Spirit was One in Essence, and was really the Substance of his Being, and that all the rest of the Members serve that Spirit as Instruments, and in this Respect he perceiv’d his own Essence, to be One.