not so much a holy reverence as a stupid folly They pronounce as in a former instance so on this that no few shall have a part in the world to come who shall spit out when he names God or shall speak the Tetragrammaton in a forreigne tongue out of the Sanctuary There is one thing at the end of your censure which is very unkind and contrary to the law of common humanity I speak of your sharp reflexion on an excellent person deceased Mr. Cowley these younger fancies ought not after death to becomes his reproach especially since he left a charge that what was offensive in his Poems might be omitted though it was judged by others that he had written nothing but what with his own sober correction of himself and an equitable allowance of charity might well pa§ abroad in publique You know that those who weeded out the worst of Beza's youthful verses and presented them in one bundle to the world purchasd more shame to themselves then to the Poet. It is now time that I should put an end to this tedious Letter and I must request that you would excuse my plain dealing do not suspect that upon some account of friendship or acquaintance I am too inclinable to vindicate the Authour of this History I dare assure you I know him not otherwise then by face and Printed books one of which is against Sorbiere whom though a piece of a Virtuoso he handles very smartly examining the condition of his life and actions What apprehensions then might you have least if he should happen to have nothing else to doe be should write the History of your life and herein as is usuall describe your person and enquire into Physiognomy what temper of mind you must profess and give a Catalogue of Books written by you and shew in how many press-warrs you have served as a volunteer But now that I have done I have time to think what a deal of needless labour I have bestowed to write more then what you will have patience to read I therefore take leave and am your c. FINIS A Defence of the Censure of the History of the Royal Society against the Reply of the Virtuosi AFter so many Moneths respite so much deliberation in a case nearly relating to the welfare of the Religion and good Learning of this Monarchy and even of the Government it self I expected at least from the Virtuosi something of Wit and Solidity in their Reply I knew the justice of my side too well and the grounds I proceeded upon to fear it might be worsted but I thought it no unreasonable matter to promise my self florid Language and a plausible though not satisfactory Apology But though an entire Cabala of the R. S. did consult upon this responsory Letter though a Learned Person of that Society did peruse it yet can I find nothing in it that should have deserved my serious Animadversions except the quality of those Persons who revised and allowed it and 't is my respect to their dignity that I put once more Pen to Paper about this subject 'T is out of a regard to their quality not performances and I more suspected they would interpret my silence as a contempt then my answer as arrogant It had been more prudential for them not to have entermedled a second time in this Contest but to have enjoyed the benefit of that distinction which I made betwixt the Honorary Members of the R. S. and the Comediants then to mix with so insipid a Generation whose thoughts are not to be elevated by indignation and whom Learning it self should it change Parties could not rescue or protect I must renew those Protestations which their Ignorance hath made me so frequently to use and avow that 't is a troublesome affair to deal with Men that understand so little they know neither how to state a Case nor how to oppose or answer pertinently I am affronted with naked Assertions of Men that deserve no credit my Conclusions are denyed and the premises not invalidated and to convince the World how little I injure them herein I Reprint the first Censure upon their History their Defense and my present Rejoynder The Anonymous Author of the Letter begins with an Admiration that I should have so mighty a Zeal for any one Religion and why against Popery But that I know weak Persons are surprised at small Occurrents and that their astonishment doth not proportion it self to the greatness of the cause but the deficiencies of their Intellectuals I profess it would trouble me that having lived a life hitherto as the Age goes not very culpable and having always professed my self of the Reformed Religion and having united my self to the Church of England upon its restauration preserving always before that a non-communion with the several Schismaticks and Sects of this Nation that it should still be wondered at why I should be concern'd for any Religion or engage in opposition to Popery But this surmise argues onely the vanity and folly of the Objectors for were it in general indifferent unto me what Religion were National amongst us yet considering our Circumstances and that dismal Revolution which impends over my native Country upon the restitution of that Religion a Man who is concern'd for his own repose and tranquility and desires not to be involved in the Calamities of a Change can not want prudential Motives to induce him to oppose such an Alteration Any Man that hath but reflected seriously upon the Consequences which have attended the Change of Religion especially into Popery any Man who is not unacquainted with our English Histories or ignorant of the Politick Cautions which wise States-men have left unto us upon Record will justifie my demeanour without further inspecting into my Conscience But to allow these Men of no reading or consideration to allow them as ignorant of these things as of the Sweating Sickness why should they wonder at my being concern'd against Popery since I had united my self to the Church of England Is there any thing more repugnant to our Liturgy Articles of Religion and Homilies of our Church Was there ever any action of my life could give them ground for this Conjecture that I would openly adhere to any thing and avow my doing so and yet desert it rashly I do not use to deliberate after Resolutions taken whatever I do before It had better become those of the R. S. who are under many Obligations to confront the Romish Religion to have acted my part in this Contest then to malign discourage and disparage me for a work which the Apostle would have congratulated me for though I had attempted it meerly out of envy strife or pretence Beyond this Reply I know not what to answer unto this Passage because I have to do with Adversaries with whom Protestations Appeals to God and Conscience are ridiculous and more insignificant then a sobriety of life taken up neither out of
did not publickly and personally read it I am apt to grant The Comediants had not patience to read it or any Book of that bulk but as in other cases gave their assent and applauds upon trust But that the R. S. did own it any man knows that was in London at its publication not to mention the Character which Mr. Glanvill and the Transactor fix on it Moreover when the first brute of my designing to write against the R. S. did reach London Sir R. M. writ to the Lady E. P. to inform them of my intentions adding That there was nothing in which the R. S. as a Body could be concern'd excepting this History and if I would civilly represent unto them any defaults therein they would take it kindly and amend them Hereupon I writ unto Him as a Person whom I greatly honor and who hath in all his undertakings and employments which have been neither mean nor facile expressed a wit prudence and conduct that is uncommon to which if I adde those other Imbellishments which his Mathematical and other Natural Studies have qualifyed him with this Age can hardly equal Him To Him I writ complaining of the Indignities put upon my faculty by Mr. Glanvill and their History represented the Pernicious tendency of those Books in reference to the Monarchy Religion and Learning of this Kingdom and DEMANDED that the R. S. should disclaim both of them by some authentick Declaration or I would not desist whatsoever might befall me But no repeated desires or Sollicitations of mine could prevail with them to disclaim the History the other they were less concerned for saying He was a Private Person and that the sense of the R. S. was not to be collected from the Writings of every single Member Thus could I not extort from their grandeur any just Declaration whereby to satisfie either the Kingdom in general or to oblige the Physicians in particular After that they had denyed me the returns of Common Equity I proceeded in that manner which I need not relate The Concerns they all along express'd were more then a little tenderness for a Fellow of the R. S. The menaces they made and which were noised thorow Court and City shewed that I had greater Opponents then the Author of the History What meant the Resolution I do not say Vote of the R. S. to give me no other answer but that three or four of their ingenious young-men should write my Life How comes this great concern for a Book in which they are not interested When the Censure came out why did several eminent Members presently report and represent to the ___ that I had thereby libelled His Majesty and pressed to have me whipped at a Carts-tail through London That Censure touches not the R. S. but only reflects on the Historian and that modestly though severely And to what heighth their exasperations and power might have carryed things I know not but a generous Personage altogether unknown to me being present bravely and frankly interposed saying to this purpose That whatever I was I was a Roman that English-men were not so precipitously to be condemned to so exemplary a punishment as to be whipped thorow London That the representing of that Book to be a Libel against the King was too remote and too prejudicial a consequence to be admitted of in a Nation Free-born governed by Laws and tender of ill presidents Thus spake that excellent English man the great ornament of this Age Nation and House of Commons He whose single worth ballanceth much of the Debaucheries Follies and Impertinences of the Kingdom in whose breast that Gallantry is lodged which the prevalence of the Virtuosi made me suspect to have been extinguished amongst us After all this who can judge that the R. S. is so little engaged in the Controversie as this Pamphlet suggests But to see to what a period they have brought things The whole effects of the Victory are yielded unto me for the Design I pursued and which I said I would make them to doe was the disclaiming of their History and having done this I am sure I have performed a considerable service to my Country and all other Disputes are but Circumstantial and such as Conquerors often meet with after an entire Rout to be encumbred with some Parties of the scattered Enemy and to be amused with Retrenchments and Passes But this Renunciation contents not me because it is not avowed nor solemn and in such form as to conclude them beyond their pleasure I will make them not only to disown the Book but the Contents thereof as not containing their Sentiments and to adde that they condemn all such as under pretence of new and Experimental Philosophy or any Mechanical Education do decry all Learning and vary that breeding which is absolutely necessary to the welfare of our Monarchy Religion and Kingdom Let Them but declare this effectually and I shall impose a Silence upon my self and willingly sink under their malice and obloquy for the publick utility Having thus acknowledged that the R. S. are not concern'd to avow the History my Adversaries proceed to give some account of the Passages I had chosen to censure In the first Passage I am to complain that since the Author of the History and another eminent Person read over this Piece yet the sence of them which writ the History is not represented the Question still remaining What the Authors meant 'T is here said I will grant that this is not the necessary but the possible meaning of this Historian yet at least if the contrary intimation be so hainous good nature should oblige to understand the Phrase in the most favorable meaning ___ If that the Historian had not been of the champerty this Passage had been more plausible but Oh! Virtuosi have a care how you mention Good nature it had been an excess of Charity and culpable whil'st that our Jealousies are such as they are and that the credit of the History remained entire to have passed by those words which were so inconsistent with our Church and the Religion established without demanding an Explication or renunciation of them I adde That the sense of my Adversaries is not consistent with the words and therefore not possible nor could any goodness of Nature but meer insensibility subject a Man to this construction If that by Communion may be meant without further import a Friendly and charitable action then by the doctrine of Equipollency if those words be substituted instead of the other the sense will be entire but our Experimentators never essayed this I will assist them in this as in other cases It is natural to mens minds when they perceive others to arrogate more to themselves then is their share to deny them even that which else they would confess to be their right And of the truth of this we have an instance of far greater concernment then that which is before us And that is in Religion
be my VASSAL and VICTIME if he doe not prove all he sayes against me Yet l have demonstrated to the R. S. under a NOTARIES HAND that my Head is not Red though he say it And whereas he abuseth me for styling my self in one book Physitian to his Majesty in the Island of Jamaica l was honoured with that Title by the King and as such received 200 lb. at my goeing thither his Majesty being graciously pleased to specify in the warrant preserved in the Signet-office that HE INTENDED ME FOR HIS PHYSITIAN THERE I have collected several more untruths in my Answer intend to demand the performance of his so solemn promise If he fail not of his word I will take care he shall live better preach better and write better One lye I must now take notice of briefly and t is this That Mr. Crosse did hire me to oppose our Ecebolius and by treating me at Bathe and entertaining me divers times at his House with deare welcome gain'd a person to his rescue who before contemned him I doe profess in the first place that my tongue was never guilty of those expressions he sets down I never call'd him Old nor said I would rescue the poor fellow I did say that I would rescue in great part the poor old man And that he had been as it were asleep or buried for these 30 or 40 years in the Country and knew not the transactions of the learned world Neither doth He pretend thereto as our ignorant Virtuoso does But this doth not diminish that respect which is due to him as a Divine and as such not unlearned I have heard the B. of Chester give him a much greater character then Mr. Glanvil allows him and t is notoriously known how eminent his repute was at Lincolne College and what esteem many honorable and understanding persons have for him I adde that He neither hired me nor treated me at Bathe except with one or two bottles of wine for I did not dine with him nor was I ever but once at his house where the entertainment was such as the Village affoorded and my unexpected coming permitted and then was the Book finished and almost all printed I never had the least PRESENT from him in my life nor did I see his Book till mine was all finished except what relates to the world in the Moon a voyage thither of which Mr. Glanvil writes nothing now nor informs us where those wings are to be bought that may supply so much as the flying Coaches I found that most of Mr. Crosses Book was personall and I did not understand what to conclude about so different reports as I met with about that conference till Hee in whose house it was informed me that all Mr Glanvill said was not true and I am not yet convinced by the certificate how it was possible for those to warrant the exactnesse sincerity of the relation since that the meeting was impremeditated the discourse without designe desultory interrupted by others that were there and hath received much of inlargement in the writing beyond what was there spoken But I leave that to their consciences which if they beare any proportion to that of M r Glanvills neither shall M r Crosse nor I suffer in our reputation for any thing that such persons utter or certify Upon occasion of what Ecebolius sayth concerning the mercenarinesse of my penne that I was HIRED to this performance I shall say in vindication of severall others that I was neither AT FIRST PUT UPON THE WORK nor HIRED thereunto by any What Mr Glanvill sayth Mr Crosse engaged me unto Dr Merrett sayth the APOTHECARYES did BRIBE ME TO UNDERTAKE but there is as litle truth in what that Virtuoso relates as in the reports of the Rectour of Bathe Others of the R. S. have told it publiquely that I was incited unto it by severall Reverend and Learned persons in the Universityes But neither did any one there know of it till I had undertaken the worke writ some of it I first acquainted the R. S. and after that had printed shewed some papers to their President before I divulged them in either University so that nothing of that report can bee true except the Virtuosi doe apprehend that the approbation reception of my papers have met with all are demonstrations that I was put upon it whereas this doth rather evince the generall odium they have drawne upon themselves and I could wish they would endeavour effectually to remove those umbrages in which I placed my cheifest strength I did presume to finde all intelligent persons my abettours but I tooke my measures from their common interest aud not from any speciall assurances given unto me There is another Reverend person so unfortunate as to suffer by their malicious intimations as if Hee had HIRED me to the undertaking because hee was so unhappy as upon another occasion to present me LATELY with a piece of plate There is not any course which I see these Virtuosi will not pursue thereby to ruine me t will bee a conspiracy against the R. S. shortly for any one to employ me as a Physician and each Fee will be reported as a Bribe and the Donor esteemed as an enemy to the Experimentall Philosophers This is the Method they now take thereby imagine they shall deprive me of all commerce or correspondence with persons of Quality and interest How generous brave these contrivances are how becoming the name of a Royall Society how suitable rather to a company of Poltrons I leave to the judgement of all mankinde It may not be amisse here to professe that respect for the Royall Society which doth become me I doe avow all just esteeme for the Institution though I cannot rise so high in its commendation as the Historian I think it might have added to the glory of his Majesty and beene of great advantage to learning had the designes of the Royall Founder and those persons of Honour which joyn'd with it been diligently prudently pursued Their purpose being at first to make faithfull records of all the works of Nature or Art which can come within their reach that so the present Age and posterity might be able to put a mark on the Errours which have beene strengthned by long prescription to restore the Truthes that have laine neglected to push on those which are already known to more various uses and to make the way more passable to what remaines unrevealed It was never my intention to detract from the laudable purposes of my Prince nor to derogate from those of Quality who were Honorary Members of it nor to enterfere with any Learned men in it But if a sort of Comedians under pretense thereof doe overthrow that Education which is necessary to the Church Monarchy undermine the established Religion and insult over the Faculty of Physitians I hope it will never Prejudice me in the
A REPLY UNTO THE LETTER WRITTEN TO M r. HENRY STUBBE IN DEFENSE OF THE HISTORY OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY Whereunto is added a Preface against Ecebolius Glanvill and an answer to the Letter of D r HENRY MORE Containing A REPLY TO THE UNTRUTHES He hath publish'd AND A CENSURE OF THE CABBALO-PYTHAGORICAL Philosophy by him promoted Spissis indigna theatris Scripta pudet recitare nugis addere pondus OXFORD Printed for Richard Davis 1671. THE LETTER TO M r. HENRY STUBS Concerning his Censure upon certain passages contained in the History of the Royal Society SIR WHEN I was lately at Warwick I purposed to have waited upon you but I was told by a Person of Quality and of your acquaintance that you were gone to Oxford with a great carriage of Books to write against the Royal Society and the reason of this enterprize was given to your disswading Friends that the Society did design to bring in Poperty The accusation 1 confe§ seemed to me very strange but what was more wonderful is such mighty Zeal for any one Religion and against That This calleth to my mind a discourse which you made one day at White-Hall to a Christ-Church Man and my self immediately after your return from Jamaica where you told us of a Provincial of the Dominicans who being a Prisoner there had perswaded you to go and live with him in the Spanish Plantations as being a place in wich you might very gainfully practice Physick and Nothing as you said hindred your complyance with his overtures but only this that you could not have carried away hereafter the Effects of your estate but must have left it if you had left the Country In all which account of the transactions betwixt that Provincial who was of the Inquisition and your self you skewed so much gentle calmne§ of mind in the affair of changing Religion that I was almost ready to have pronounced that some one had stoln your Name and put it to the Censure till I was better informed that your quarrel to this Assembly is so unappeasable that you would fall out with any Religion which they favoured and that if they had of each kind amongst them you would entertain no sort at all I must profe§ I always esteemed you by your Printed Papers a Man of excellent contradicting parts and I thought you would in this book have done as good service to Aristotle as a grave Dignitary of Canterbury hath lately rendred to him when he very industriously maintains that the Philosopher in his Ethicks did teach what is the summum bonum as well as David could when he set himself on purpose to treat of the same Argument in the first Psal. or that you would have repeated some of the least natural experiments laught at them and then with very good conduct of stile made all the rest appear ridiculous But you 'l say that may be done hereafter but a present Religion Religion is in danger and therefore you must succour your Dear Mother the Church of England It is done like a good Child and further I must commend you as a generous enemy in your censure of the Historian He is a Clergy-man and herein you challenge him at his own Weapon And if you vanquish him in this Encounter you may expect to make both your Reputation and his lo§ very considerable being that in England a Church-man suffers more for being Popishly affected then for being a favourer of the New Philosophy But I 'le tell you what falls out very unluckily This History was not Licensed as could have been wisht by the President of the Royal Society For then a Man might have charged every impious and pernicious Paragraph upon that large body of Men but so it is that it comes abroad into the World with an Imprimatur from Secretary Morrice of whom we cannot perswade the people to believe otherwise but that he stands two or three removes off from Popery But now at last give me leave as a By-stander to lock over your Game and privately to advize you where the other side may espy any advantage As the first instance of a passage in the History Destructive to the Religion and Church of England viz. While the Bishops of Rome did assume an infallibility and a Sovereign Dominion over our Faith the reformed Churches did not only justly refuse to grant them that but some of them thought themselves obliged to forbear all Communion and would not give them that respect which possibly might belong to so Antient and so Famous a Church and which might still have been allowed it without any danger of Superstition If any one should undertake a defence against your censure it is probable that he would say somewhat to this purpose that by Communion there mentioned the Author did not mean that the reformed Churches should joyn with them in all or the most important acts of worship being that hereby they must at all adventures yeild to the points of the controversie wich the Roman infallibility would thrust upon them for he tells us that our Churches did justly refuse to grant them that but he explains what he intends by Communion when he doth immediately add that they refused to give them that respect c. Now who can say that Communion if taken for Divine Worship can be the same with respect that it stewed to a Society of Men and whereas you seem to argue from the notion of the word Communion as if it were the same with the Lords Supper it may by replyed that the one sence wherein it may be understood throughout the whole Scripture is a friendly and charitable action and from this we cannot except that verse which you alledge and in this sence it is not impious to say that we should not forbear all Communion or deny to give that respect which possibly might belong to so ancient and so famous a Church Nor can I see that these Titles bestowed on Rome are so faulty since there are methods of speech in our language suitable hereunto whereby we call that antient and famous not which is so at present but what was such a long time ago and continued the same for a great while But I will grant that this is not the necessary but only the possible meaning of this Historian Yet at least if the contrary intimation be so hainous good Nature should oblige to understand the phrase in the most favourable manner but supposing he thought that Rome even at the reformation of others though it self was not amended might neverthele§ be called a Church he said no more then what the most learned amongst the German Divines though warm with disputes did readily acknowledge It was usual with them to say that the Church of Rome was truly a Church notwithstanding that it abounded in many and dangerous errours seeing that they retained the main Doctrines of Christian Religion and they indeavoured to clear their assertion by comparing it to a diseased body which
to any person of common Intellectuals if this Virtuoso hath not expressed a wonderful Love and Zeal for the Universities This is that just and most sincere esteem for those Venerable Seats and Fountaines of Learning which hee solemnly protests to bear Hee doth most chearfully own and is ready to celebrate the great Advantages they affoord for all Sorts of Knowledge and Hee verily believes that the other Members of the Royal Society have LIKE SENTIMENTS of them Surely our Experimental Philosopher takes the University for Assemblies of an ignorant and stupid sort of Men that were to be amused and deceived by Equivocations He professes an esteeme for the VENERABLE SEATES Are they not highly honoured He styles them Fountains of Learning but tells us not what those words import Is it because that the first New philosophy was so much promoted and the R. S. as it were embryonated there And from that fountaine issued those waters which have served to quoddle our Virtuoso Certainly there is nothing but imposture in this complement they must be very easy souls that are deluded therewith The Character he hath given of his FIRST STUDYES and the abuses which under the person of Mr. Crosse are put upon all Vniversity-men plus ultra pag. 120. are so detestable that he must not expect upon the profundities of the Philosophical course taught there he should retain any esteem or regard for those VENERABLE SEATS He expatiates you see upon all the FIRST STUDYES which contain Grammer Rhetorick Logick Physics Ethics Metaphysics He recommends the Study hereof to the young Academians not because they are usefull but because they are REQUIRED BY THE STATUTES and adviseth them onely to inable themselves for the performance of their Exercises this is REQUISITE FIT. But for any thing more if any man designe that t is uselesse abroad in the world of Action renders the owner Pedantick ridiculous he must by example of our Heroe repent thereof Doth not this excellenly justify those harangues of sundry Virtuosi who every where disswade the Nobility and Gentry from resorting to the Universities and mispending their time in Notions which affoord a great deale of IDLE EMPLOIMENT for the Tongue in Combates of disputation Have not these Gentlemen the SAME SENTIMENTS with the Rector of Bathe If this Censure upon our Academick studyes were true who would resort thither except to gaine a Scholarship or Fellowship and submit to that Education unlesse it were to RISE by it From that Philosophy and these men who would not with Mr. Glanvill divert his eyes and hopes and fix upon those Methods which Plato the Faecundity of the CARTESIAN principles doe instruct us with what should any Noble man doe at Oxford or Cambridge Those are not the residence of those generous men that have conversed with REAL Nature undisguised with ART NOTION The SEATS are more VENERABLE then the present possessors Did I injure these persons by representing them as such who would overthrow the ancient and necessary Education of of this Island Could any thing be more seasonable then those reasons l alledge in behalf of our Vniversity-breeding against the Mechanical project T would be too tedious an excursion for me now to confute this whole resvery l desire onely that the Reader would take notice how in the end of the Paragraph first cited he turns his displeasure upon the Academick Physiology onely and saith it may be used as an Hypothesis but not acquiesced in and then he believes t will be ALLOWED OF to us Why will it then cease to be notional and steril in the world of Action Businesse And will he retract his retractation if we doe so l know none that look on their Systematic Notions as the bounds and perfections of knowledge If Mr. Glanvil were of that opinion ever he was not taught it in his time at Oxford Who did ever tell him that there was any absolute or compleat knowledg to be acquired in this life Or was so impudent as to give the lye unto the Apostle teaching us That we see here but as in a glasse and know but in part There are indeed some Systematick Notions that are of real use to guide us in our ratiocination regulate us in our inquiries that we be not imposed on by the resemblances of things The distinctions of Materialiter Formaliter secundum quid simpliciter the eduction of formes out of the bosome of matter the primum incipiens in motion the Logical tricks about shuffling ordering propositions forms of syllogism are Speculations that will seem Wonderful Useful Significant as long as there is any sense in this Nation and that we are not debauch'd into superlative Folly by such illiterate ignorant and impertinent Virtuosi as Mr. Glanvill and his Adherents Had he been such a Proficient as he insinuates in Academick studies he would never have argued as he does or concluded a Discourse of this Nature with this Epilogism AND SO THE UNIVERSITY-ESTABLISHMENTS CAN RECEIVE NO PREJUDICE FROM THE SPIRIT THAT DISLIKES A PERPETUAL ACQUIESCENSE IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE PRESENT SCHOOLS Let us hereafter judge of these Men rather by their ACTIONS than WORDS or if we must lend an ear to what THEY SAY let us esteem of them by their SERIOUS DISCOURSE not by what they RALLY or FLATTER with Let us believe of them as of such as Innovate the Education undermine the Foundations of our Religion and Monarchy supplant the Universities destroy Physick endanger all Professions and Trades Let us place the SADDLE upon the right HORSES back and not be deluded with the AMBLING OF THE SADDLE into a conceit that the Horse doth not trot All the Digression about my Life and Writings is but a Demonstration that he could not justifie himself against the imputation of ignorance and therefore he amuseth his Reader with matters impertinent It had become him to shew which of those Instruments MICROSCOPE TELESCOPE THERMOMETER and the BAROMETER was the discovery of the R. S. for he had told us that some of those were first invented all of them exceedingly improved by the Royal Society He complains for want of time to do what most imported him and yet wastes that he hath in frequent sallys against Mr. Crosse. It is a Year and an half since he first began to collect my Books he omitted to Preach at Bathe for many Weeks excusing himself by the pretext of Writing against me and the result of all his industry and study might have been included in two Sheets All this deliberation could not qualifie him so as to understand the right state of the Question betwixt us which is not Whether Aristotle did know all things Nor Whether the latter Ages knew more then the precedent But Whether Antiquity was shie and unacquainted with Anatomy Whether the Grecians disputing Ages and Sectators of Aristotle did know any thing of Chymistry In fine Whether the Ancient Aristotelian Philosophy
and yet other Observators pretend to see them every day yet doth Mr. Boyle professe that he neither wanted the conveniency of excellent Telescopes nor omitted any circumstance requisite to the Enquiry Thus the Animadverter and hence he is sure that Mr. B. is in the same Error with Mr. C. that Telescopes are fallacious Let this be an instance how this Swaggerer quotes Authors and let the Reader look into the place cited from Mr. Boyle If he do so he will see that that Honorable Person saith nothing there that tends to the proving the deceitfulness of Telescopes much less that he believes them fallacious I have not the Latine Translation of those Essays but in the second Edition of the Original English I find the Discourse to which Mr. Stubbe refers p. 103. Where the excellent Author imputes it not to the Glasses that he could not for several Moneths see the Maculae or Faculae Solares but seems a little to blame those Astronomers who have so written of the Spots and more shining parts as to make their Readers to presume that at least some of them are almost always to be seen there which he conjectured was occasioned by their so often meeting such Phaenomena in the Sun ibid. But these for many Moneths our Learned Author could not discover by his Telescopes not because of their fallaciousness but because for so many Moneths they appeared so much seldomer then it seems they did before These are the Words of that Honorable Gentleman ubi sup And now how doth it appear hence that Mr. Boyle is in the same Error about the deceitfulness of Telescopes with Mr. Cross Is it sure that he thought those Glasses fallacious because he could not see the Maculae and Faculae in the Sun when they were not there What are we to expect from this Man in reference to the other Authors he cites when he so grosly and impudently mis-reports so known a one of our own who is yet alive and sees how maliciously the Caviller perverts him I shall examine his carriage to other Writers in my next Book and in that shew that most of the Arguments he brings to argue the fallaciousness of Telescopes prove only the Diversity and Changes of Mediums and of the Celestial Phaenomena not the deceit of those Glasses I have repeated Mr. Glanvills Words at large that the solidity of my Answer may appear for 't is not my intention to abuse the Reader with false Citations or amuse him with great confidence grounded upon a bare Reference to an Author which he hath not at hand thus these Virtuosi may prepossess the unwary into an ill Opinion of their Adversaries whereas they that know them as well as I do will suspend their Assent till more diligent enquiry convince them Haveing informed my Reader that this Book Caesalpinus Sir H. Savils Lectures and many others have no Index's I proceed to repeat the entire Discourse of Mr. Boyle out of the Edition my Antagonist follows pag. 102 103. But to say no more of the contingent Observations to be taken notice of in tryals Medical I could tell you that I have observed even Mathematical Writers themselves to deliver such Observations as do not regularly hold true For although it hath been looked upon as their Priviledge and Glory to affirm nothing but what they can prove by no less than Demonstration and though they use to be more attentive and exact then most other Men in making almost any kind of Philosophical Observations yet the Certainty and Accurateness which is attributed to what they deliver must be restrained to what they teach concerning those purely-Mathematical Disciplines Arithmetick and Geometry where the affections of Quantity are Abstractedly considered But we must not expect from Mathematicians the same accurateness when they deliver Observations concerning such things wherein 't is not only Quantity and Figure but Matter and its other Affections that must be considered And yet less must this be expected when they deliver such Observations as being made by the help of material Instruments framed by the Hands and Tooles of Men cannot but in divers cases be subject to some if not many Imperfections upon their account Divers of the Modern Astronomers have so written of the Spots and more shining Parts or as they call them Faculae that appear upon or about the Sun as to make their Reader presume that at least some of them are almost always to be seen there And I am willing to think that it was their having so often met with such Phaenomena in the Sun that made them to write as they did And yet when I first applyed my self to the Contemplation of these late Discoveries though I wanted neither good Telescopes nor a dark Room to bring the Species of the Sun into yet it was not till after a great while and a multitude of fruitless Observations made at several times that I could detect any of those Solar spots which having dured many Moneths at least appear'd so much seldomer then it seems they did before that I remember a most Ingenious Professor of Astronomy excellently well furnished with Dioptrical Glasses did about that time complain to me that for I know not how long he had not been able to see the Sun spotted And as for the Faculae which are written of as such ordinary Phaenomena I must profess to you Pyrophilus that a multitude of Observations made with good Telescopes at several places and times whil'st the Sun was spotted has scarce made me see above once any of the so look'd for Brightnesses And as the nature of the Material Object wherewith the Mathematician is conversant may thus deceive the Expectations grounded on what he delivers so may the like happen by reason of the imperfection of the Instruments which he must make use of in the sensible Observations whereon the mixt Mathematicks as Astronomy Geography Opticks c. are in great part built This is but too manifest in the disagreeing Supputations that famous Writers as well Modern as Ancient have given us of the circuit of the Terrestrial Globe of the distance and bigness of the fixed Stars and some of the Planets nay and of the heighth of Mountains which disagreement as it may oftentimes proceed from the different Method and unequal skill of the several Observers so it may in divers cases be imputed to the greater or less exactness and manageableness of the Instruments employed by them And on this occasion I cannot omit that sober Confession and Advertisement that I met with in the Noble Tycho who having laid out besides his Time and Industry much greater sums of Money on Instruments then any Man we have heard of in latter Times deserves to be listned to on this Theam concerning which he hath among other things the following Passage Facile saith he lapsus aliquis pene insensibilis in Instrumentis etiam majoribus conficiendis subrepit qui inter observandum aliquot scrupulorum primorum jacturam