And, according to this manner which he has describ’d, he do’s by no means allow that this Taste is attain’d by way of Speculation or Deduction of Consequences.  And that you may the more clearly apprehend the difference between the perception of these sort of Men, and those other; I shall propose you a familiar instance.  Suppose a Man born Blind, but of quick Parts, and a good Capacity, a tenacious Memory, and solid Judgment, who had liv’d in the place of his Nativity, till he had by the help of the rest of his Senses, contracted an acquaintance with a great many in the Neighbourhood, and learn’d the several kinds of Animals, and Things inanimate, and the Streets and Houses of the Town, so as to go any where about it without a Guide, and to know such people as he met, and call them, by their names; and knew the names of Colours[10], and the difference of them by their descriptions and definitions; and after he had learn’d all this, should have his Eyes open’d:  Why, this Man, when he walk’d about the Town, would find every thing to be exactly agreeable to those notions which he had before; and that Colours were such as he had before conceiv’d them to be, by those descriptions he had receiv’d:  so that the difference between his apprehensions when blind, and those which he would have now his Eyes were opened, would consist only in these two great Things, one of which is a consequent of the other, viz., a greater Clearness, and extream Delight.  From whence ’tis plain, that the condition of those Contemplators, who have not yet attain’d to the UNION [with GOD] is exactly like that of the Blind Man; and the Notion which a Blind Man has of Colours, by their description, answers to those things which Avenpace said were of too noble a nature to be any ways attributed, to the Natural Life, and, which God bestows upon such his Servants as he pleases.  But the condition of those who have attain’d to the UNION, to whom God has given that which I told you could not be properly express’d by the word POWER, is that second State of the Blind-man cur’d.  Take notice by the way, that our Similitude is not exactly applicable in every case; for there is very seldom any one found that is born with his Eyes open, that can attain to these things without any help of Contemplation.

Now (my Dear Friend) I do not here, when I speak of the Ideas of the Contemplative, mean what they learn from the Study of Physicks; nor by the notions of those who have attain’d to the UNION, what they learn from the Study of Metaphysicks (for these two ways of learning are vastly different, and must by no means be confounded.) But what I mean by the Ideas of the Contemplative is, what is attain’d by the Study of Metaphysicks, of which kind is that which Avenpace understood; and in the apprehension of these things, this condition is necessarily requir’d, viz. that it be manifestly and clearly true; and then there is a middle sort of Speculation, between that, and those who have attain’d to the UNION, who employ themselves in these things with greater perspicuity and delight.