Whatsoever affects our ears is said to give rise to noise,
sound, or harmony. In this last case, there are men lunatic
enough to believe, that even God himself takes pleasure in
harmony ; and philosophers are not lacking who have persuaded
themselves, that the motion of the heavenly bodies gives rise to
harmony-all of which instances sufficiently show that everyone
judges of things according to the state of his brain, or rather
mistakes for things the forms of his imagination. We need no
longer wonder that there have arisen all the controversies we
have witnessed, and finally skepticism : for, although human
bodies in many respects agree, yet in very many others they
differ ; so that what seems good to one seems bad to another ;
what seems well ordered to one seems confused to another ; what
is pleasing to one displeases another, and so on. I need not
further enumerate, because this is not the place to treat the
subject at length, and also because the fact is sufficiently well
known. It is commonly said : "So many men, so many minds ;
everyone is wise in his own way ; brains differ as completely as
palates." All of which proverbs show, that men judge of things
according to their mental disposition, and rather imagine than
understand : for, if they understood phenomena, they would, as
mathematicians attest, be convinced, if not attracted, by what I
have urged.
We have now perceived, that all the explanations commonly
given of nature are mere modes of imagining, and do not indicate
the true nature of anything, but only the constitution of the
imagination ; and, although they have names, as though they were
entities, existing externally to the imagination, I call them
entities imaginary rather than real ; and, therefore, all
arguments against us drawn from such abstractions are easily