BY CONSEQUENCE,or train of thoughts,I understand that succession of one thought to another which is called,to distinguish it from discourse in words,mental discourse.
When a man thinketh on anything whatsoever,his next thought after is not altogether so casual as it seems to be.Not every thought to every thought succeeds indifferently.But as we have no imagination,whereof we have not formerly had sense,in whole or in parts;so we have no transition from one imagination to another,whereof we never had the like before in our senses.The reason whereof is this.All fancies are motions within us,relics of those made in the sense;and those motions that immediately succeeded one another in the sense continue also together after sense:in so much as the former coming again to take place and be predominant,the latter followeth,by coherence of the matter moved,in such manner as water upon a plain table is drawn which way any one part of it is guided by the finger.
But because in sense,to one and the same thing perceived,sometimes one thing,sometimes another,succeedeth,it comes to pass in time that in the imagining of anything,there is no certainty what we shall imagine next;only this is certain,it shall be something that succeeded the same before,at one time or another.
This train of thoughts,or mental discourse,is of two sorts.The first is unguided,without design,and inconstant;wherein there is no passionate thought to govern and direct those that follow to itself as the end and scope of some desire,or other passion;in which case the thoughts are said to wander,and seem impertinent one to another,as in a dream.Such are commonly the thoughts of men that are not only without company,but also without care of anything;though even then their thoughts are as busy as at other times,but without harmony;as the sound which a lute out of tune would yield to any man;or in tune,to one that could not play.And yet in this wild ranging of the mind,a man may oft-times perceive the way of it,and the dependence of one thought upon another.For in a discourse of our present civil war,what could seem more impertinent than to ask,as one did,what was the value of a Roman penny?Yet the coherence to me was manifest enough.For the thought of the war introduced the thought of the delivering up the King to his enemies;the thought of that brought in the thought of the delivering up of Christ;and that again the thought of the 30pence,which was the price of that treason:and thence easily followed that malicious question;and all this in a moment of time,for thought is quick.
The second is more constant,as being regulated by some desire and design.For the impression made by such things as we desire,or fear,is strong and permanent,or (if it cease for a time)of quick return:so strong it is sometimes as to hinder and break our sleep.
From desire ariseth the thought of some means we have seen produce the like of that which we aim at;and from the thought of that,the thought of means to that mean;and so continually,till we come to some beginning within our own power.And because the end,by the greatness of the impression,comes often to mind,in case our thoughts begin to wander they are quickly again reduced into the way:which,observed by one of the seven wise men,made him give men this precept,which is now worn out:respice finem;that is to say,in all your actions,look often upon what you would have,as the thing that directs all your thoughts in the way to attain it.
The train of regulated thoughts is of two kinds:one,when of an effect imagined we seek the causes or means that produce it;and this is common to man and beast.The other is,when imagining anything whatsoever,we seek all the possible effects that can by it be produced;that is to say,we imagine what we can do with it when we have it.Of which I have not at any time seen any sign,but in man only;for this is a curiosity hardly incident to the nature of any living creature that has no other passion but sensual,such as are hunger,thirst,lust,and anger.In sum,the discourse of the mind,when it is governed by design,is nothing but seeking,or the faculty of invention,which the Latins call sagacitas,and solertia;a hunting out of the causes of some effect,present or past;or of the effects of some present or past cause.Sometimes a man seeks what he hath lost;and from that place,and time,wherein he misses it,his mind runs back,from place to place,and time to time,to find where and when he had it;that is to say,to find some certain and limited time and place in which to begin a method of seeking.Again,from thence,his thoughts run over the same places and times to find what action or other occasion might make him lose it.This we call remembrance,or calling to mind:the Latins call it reminiscentia,as it were a re-conning of our former actions.
