remember the Priviledg these Cartesian Gentlemen take who when perplex'd in answering the Argument brought against the Essence of Matter and drawn from the Sacrament of the Host think they have right to cry out They are injur'd That their Philosophy is sequestred from Things relating to Faith That they are Philosophers and not Divines and undertake the explaining the Mysteries of Nature not of Religion I would I say they 'd do me the like Justice or if they had rather the same Favour And supposing any one so Religious as to suspect me of the Heresie of those who say The Souls in parting from the Body are not doom'd for Eternity I wish he 'd consider once more that I am in this an Historian and Philosopher not a Theologist and give a Relation of Descartes's World am not making a Profession of Faith Which the Character of an History such as I am upon will bear far more independently of the Truths of our Religion than a System of Philosophy Any one that knows never so little must be forc'd to acknowledg this Which being once suppos'd I return to the Narrative of my Old Gentleman who thus went on M. Descartes's Soul returning to Stockholm found her self in the like unlucky Circumstances as did one Hermotimus mentioned by Tertullian L. de Anima who having procur'd the self-same Secret as Descartes left constantly anights his Body asleep in Bed whilst his Soul went a rambling through the World Both one and the other at their return found their Lodgings out of a Capacity to receive them The Task Descartes's Soul enjoyn'd her self then was to meet at Paris She would not tell me presently of the Accident but only invited me to take a turn or two No sooner said than done With one Snuff of the Tobacco I equipt my self to wait on her My Soul was no sooner out of my Body but she said in Language Spiritual she was about to tell me strange News I am says she no longer Imbody'd my Corps is this day to be interr'd at Stockholm and he gave me the Particulars of what I have been relating Nor did she seem sab or afflicted thereupon I then demanded of her if she experienc'd what the Philosophers report That the Soul being the substantial Form of the Body when separated for good and all is in statu violento She answer'd me she knew nothing of that violent State but found her self incomparably better out than in the Body And that she had but one Concern upon her to know in what part of the vast Space was best to settle her Abode in That she would take my Directions in the thing but that she found her Will inclin'd for the third Heaven The third Heaven according to the division Cartesius makes of the World is the last of all and that which is the farthest remov'd from us For the first is nothing but the Vortex in which is plac'd the Earth whose Centre is the Body of the Sun about which the Coelestial Matter that composes the Vortex carries us and makes us turn continually like the other Planets The second Heaven is incomparably larger than that in which we are and takes up all that mighty space in which we see the fix'd Stars which are so many Suns and have each of them a Vortex of which they are themselves the Centre as our Sun is of this Lastly the third Heaven is all that Matter or all that indefinite Extent which we conceive above the Starry Heaven and is void of Bounds and in respect of which the space of all the other may be consider'd as a Point Now many Reasons determin'd M. Descartes to choose his place of Residence in the highest Heaven The first was To avoid the Company of an Innumerable gang of Souls of Philosophers that were vaulting and fluttering on all parts of this our Vortex for to tell you by the way 't is incredible how many Souls we met upon our Journey And M. Descartes was much surpriz'd to see the Secret of which he took himself to be the first Inventer made use of in all times even by those of a very mean Quality whereby they have escap'd a dying or whose Souls have lost their Bodies by some Accident not unlike that of M. Descartes But that which made their Company so disrelisht and perfectly intolerable to Cartesius his Spirit was That these Souls so disentangled as they were from Matter were tinctur'd still with Prejudice wherewith they were prepossess'd when united with their Bodies That when he would have converss'd with them about the Principles of Bodies and the Causes of several Phoenomena's they faintly suppos'd to him or prov'd by the Authority of Aristotle substantial Forms absolute Accidents and occult Qualities as is done to this day in many Schools And except some few Souls of the highest Rank which he hath converted and proselyted to Cartesianism all are inveterate and inleagu'd against him with as immoderate Fury as the Philosophers of this World when he began to publish his Doctrin here The second Reason that byass'd him to that Election was because he look'd upon those indefinite Spaces as a new Discovery of which he was the Author For it was upon his forming a distinct Idea of Matter whose Essence consisted in Extension that he concluded Space Extension and Matter to be one and the same thing signify'd under different Names And being it was necessary to admit of a Space and an Extension above our World since we have a most clear Conception of them it was plain That above our World there was Matter too and as we can have no Idea of any Bounds or Limits that Matter has it is necessary it should be Infinite or rather Indefinite Finally the third and most prevailing Reason of all and which he intimated not to me until we arrived upon the place is that well conjecturing the Matter above the fix'd Stars to be uninform'd and not yet shap'd into a World he was in good hopes that he was able to set it to work himself and fancy'd that in dividing and agitating it according to his Principles he could reduce it to a World like this excepting that it would be destitute of real Men and only stor'd with Automatous Machines in their Likeness That Project was the Subject of the most part of his Books especially of his Book of Principles and that Entituled The World of M. Descartes We set out immediately for the third Heaven I shall not descend to the Particulars of our Voyage I hope in a few days you 'll bear me Company there your self I 'll only say that upon our Coasting we found all Things exactly in that Portrait we had drawn before without Form without due Order or any regular posture of the Parts as rude and unsightly Materials that require the Hand of the Artist We survey'd it all about and bewilder'd our selves a long time in the vast Deserts of the other World which perfectly represented to me
said they that granting that Hypothesis the Bread is not at all changed into the Body of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist but that after the Consecration the Bread still remains in the Host In order to their Demonstration they demanded of Father Mersennus and the old Gentleman I. Whether by the Principles of Descartes the Matter of all Bodies considered in it self and independently of the different Modifications of its Parts was not of the same Species They answered Yes II. If that which constituted the Specific Difference of Bodies was not according to them the different Configuration the different Situation and the different Motions of the Parts of those Bodies They acknowledged it That supposed said they we 'll evidently prove That the Substance in the Eucharist after its Consecration is nothing else but Bread for the Matter or the Substance which hath the same Configuration of Parts the same Motion and in a Word all the same Modifications that constitute the Essence of Bread is Bread according to the aforesaid Principle But the Substance found in the Dimensions of the Host after the Consecration has all those Modifications and 't is only by the Means of those Modifications we conceive it to have the same Superficies as the Bread taking the Word Superficies in the same Sense Descartes gives it And 't is in vertue of those Modifications that that Superficies makes the same Impressions on our Senses as the Bread did before the Consecration And 't is from the same Reason that it reflects its Light precisely to the same Angles as the Bread That it receives all the same Impulses and the same Determinations of the Matter that pushes it towards the Centre as the Bread That it communicates the same Vibrations to the Nerves of the Tongue as the Bread Therefore the Substance that is in the Space of the Host after the Consecration according to Descartes's Principles has the Form or the Essence of Bread therefore it is Bread which was to be demonstrated And from thence our Catholick Peripateticks concluded It was not without good Ground that Recourse was had to Absolute Accidents in the Explication of that Mystery They made yet one Reflection more upon a Saying Descartes adjoyns to his Explication and which ruines his Answer Notwithstanding says he the Body of Jesus Christ to speak properly is not there as in a Place but Sacramentally For said they What is it for God's sake to be in a Place in proper speaking but entirely to fill a Space to hinder the Passage of other Bodies that present themselves to reflect the Light to be pressed downward to have Motion c. But all this according to Descartes agrees to the Body of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the Host And on the contrary the Notion commonly received of a Sacramental Existence attributes not to a Body in that Capacity all those Properties for none of those that have spoke of the Body of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament have supposed it was that which reflects the Light c. Nay they say the quite contrary So they concluded deriding the Vanity of the Applause M. Descartes assumes to himself in that Place upon the Intelligible Manner wherewith he pretends to have explained that Mystery and upon the Obligations he has laid on the Orthodox Divines for having furnished them with an Opinion more agreeable with Divinity than those usually received Applause as well grounded as the Prophecy he made a little after by which one Day it shall come to pass that as soon as the World shall be reclaimed from the Prejudices of the School all the Opinions of our Old Philosophers and Divines thereupon shall disappear and vanish as Shadows at the Approach of that Light wherewith those Glorious Principles of the New Philosophy shall fill the Minds of all such as know how well to use them For my part I was of Opinion upon hearing Monsieur Descartes so refuted that he had better have stuck to his general Answer be it as bad as it will That he was a Philosopher and not a Divine and that he pretended not to explain the Mysteties of our Religion by the Principles of his Philosophy I was astonished too in that Occurrence That such sort of Answers had the good Luck to meet with no Reply especially having to do with M. Arnauld who would never willingly take the last Blow in Point of Disputes and Books But I am persuaded I have since found the Solution of that Difficulty in a Letter M. Decsartes wrote to a Father of the Oratory a Sorbon Doctor He says speaking of M. Arnauld That his only Judgment as young a Doctor as he was was of more Weight with him than that of half the Ancient Doctors of the Sorbon Was not a Clearing of that nature able to disarm the most incensed Adversary in the World During that Dispute wherein Father Mersennus and the Old Blade thought it unnecessary to keep to Mood and Figure and were content to evade the Objection by much raillery upon Absolute Accidents alledging they ought to be banish'd to the Desert of Scotus to make up his Train and Attendance with all his little Formalities We crossed the Calm Sea and turning short to the Right we passed through Hipparchus Ptolomeus and the Peninsula of the Stars and from thence we cut through the Sea of Clouds We entred into the Demy-Island of Dreams I mentioned in the beginning so called from the little Mansions in the Globe of the Moon inhabited for the most Part with Chymists that are in Pursuit of the Philosopher's Stone having not been able to find it upon Earth and a World of Judicial Astrologers who still are as great Asses as they were in the other World and spend all their Time in making Almanacks and correcting by exact Supputations the false Horoscopes they made in their Life time Among others we found Cardan who though he was possessed of a good Copy-hold Eastward on the Shoar of the Ocean of Tempests could not yet forbear making frequent Visits of his Brethren of the same Society He passed away his Time but discontentedly having not yet conquered the Shagrin and Melancholy occasioned by that Notable Horoscope of Edward VI. King of England whose most remarkable Fortunes and Adventures he had foretold quite to the Fiftieth Year of his Age who yet had the confounded Luck to die at Fifteen Two other things much of the same Nature entertained his Thoughts in that deep Melancholy The first was the Death of his Son whose Horoscope had proved Faulty he having not foreseen what yet came to pass That he should be executed at Milan in the four and twentieth Year of his Age for poysoning his Wife The other thing was the uncharitable behaviour of Scaliger and Monsieur de Thou in publishing in their Books to all Posterity That he was suffered to dye with Hunger For after all said he to us they are Lyars for were I dead 't was impossible I
should be here I must confess that having foretold the Day of my Death in my Horoscope I made my self and finding I was mistaken seeing at the Time prescribed no Sign or Symptom of approaching Death I shut my self in my Closet and not having Considence to appear from thenceforth in the Sight of Men since every Moment of my Life to come had been the continual Reproach of my Mistake I even resolved to quit my Body and come and inhabit here And this Gentlemen is the real Truth of the Matter We took occasion to extenuate the Causes of his Affliction by telling him of the Reputation he always had with a non obstante to all that in the World as an extraordinary Man and distinguished from the Vulgar After which we took our Leave of him and posted from thence to Mersennus where we launched for our Voyage over the Moon There it was that the two Philosophers stepping aside for some Moments we read altogether the Project of Accommodation betwixt Aristotle and M. Descartes which Voetius had given us charge of and whose principal Articles I shall here relate It was divided into two Parts The first was to regulate the Method how the Aristotelians and Cartesians must for the future demean themselves towards one another in their Books Disputes and Conversations The Second which was very long contained several Propositions that the Aristotelians remitted to make some Advances nearer the Cartesians demanding the like Abatements from the Cartesians whereby they might approach better the Aristotelians That Second Part was rather a Confutation of many Cartesian Opinions than a Treaty of Accommodation which gave me to conjecture it would fail of the Success they promised to themselves or at least pretended to propose themselves 'T is easie to see that Aristotle or at least Voetius his Secretary was well informed of our Sublunary Occurrences and what was for and against his Party and his Adversary's A Treaty of Accommodation betwixt Aristotle Prince of Philosophers and M. Descartes Chief of the New Sect. PART I. THey shall not for the future Abuse or Vilifie each other that Way being unphilosophical and being likewise already exploded the Schools by the Worthiest and best of the Professors The Ladies and knowing Women must no longer treat Aristotle on their Besides as a Fop and a Pedant They ought to know he has been a Soldier a Man of Courtship and Intrigue who before he became a Philosopher took his Pleasure and spent his Estate that was no little one being Son of the Chief Physician to Amyntas Grandfather of Alexander and perhaps there was never a Philosopher in the World more a Courtier and a Gentleman than he On the other Hand the Old Professors of Philosophy must remember to be more sparing of their Epithets of which they are commonly too liberal on Cartesius his Account constantly styling him Enthusiast Madman sometimes Heretick and Atheist Voetius from henceforth voluntarily makes him an Authentick Satisfaction as to all those Points in default of that which the Procurators of Leyden and Vtretcht denied him corrupted by the Friends of the aforesaid Sieur Voetius who is his most humble Servant Aristotle shall disclaim all those Books composed against M. Descartes in an Injurious and Abusive Way such as is that Tract entituled Deliriorum Cartesii Ventilatio At least he shall order That they be corrected and that in the New Edition Care be taken to retrench some Expressions a little too strong and biting M. Descartes also on his part shall give Orders That in the New Impressions of the Works of some of his Followers some Prefaces be lopt off or rather some Malicious Satyrs against the School Philosophers not caring to distinguish them from one another and throwing unjustly upon all the Faults of some Particulars such as are the Passion of Wrangling Confusion Equivocal Terms and Ignorance in the most Curtious Parts of Physicks It shall be prohibited all the Cartesians to give a Character of Aristotle's Merit before they have read him especially before they have seen his Logick his Rhetorick his History of Animals and others where he treats Natural Philosophy in Particulars And they shall take heed of giving a Judgment on that Philosopher's Parts by his Books De Phisico auditu that are not so clear and perspicuous as his others the Author having his private Reasons for his writing in that manner which have yet been more confounded in Tract of Time by a swarm of Translators and Commentators who often talk Greek in Latin and whereof some understood neither Be it prohibited likewise all the Peripateticks to be angry at Descartes's Philosophy before they have throughly examined it under the Penalty of rendring themselves ridiculous as some have done who have placed him in the Catalogue of Atomists that is of such as fancy Bodies composed of Atoms or indivisible Parts or as another that wrote ingenuously to M. Descartes himself he had plainly seen with his Eyes the Subtil Matter having by the luckiest Accident imaginable observed an abundance of little Bodies playing in the Air by the Advantage of a Sun-beam that passed through a chink of one of his Casements Lastly Aristotle entreats the Gentlemen Cartesians not to father upon him whatever they find in the Books of his Disciples without consulting himself promising on his part to give no one the Title of Cartesian but upon mature Deliberation especially in regard of certain young Abbots Cavaliers Proctors and Physicians that call themselves Cartesians in all Companies for a Pretence to Parts and Ingenuity which they sometimes get the Repute of by that only Confidence of talking at all rates of Subtle Matter Globules of the Second Element Vortexes Automata's and Phenomena's without understanding any thing but Terms The Second Part of the Treaty WHereas the Article of Substantial Forms hath occasioned the greatest Noise and Division between both Parties as may be seen by the Registers of the Universities of Vtrecht Leyden Groninguen Anger 's and as would be testified by those of the University of Paris Caen and several others had Care been taken for the Recording all the Acts and Deliberations held upon that Affair it is therefore necessary both one and the other each as to their particular should remit something for Peace and Quietness-sake Aristotle complained forthwith of the Delicacy of the first Cartesians who thought it advisable to take Disgust at the very Name of Substantial Forms For suppose said he that no more was meant by that Word than the Principle of the Properties of every Body and that which is the Cause why one Body so differs from another that Use has given it a particular Name and made it a Species distinct from other Kinds of Bodies What hath that Term so Distastful and Extraordinary As to the Idea the Peripateticks have affixed to it making it to speak an Incomplete Substance distinct from Matter he said That Definition being no where to be found in his Writings at least
to obtain a remove from the Centre towards the Circumference For the Star by that Impulse pushing and supporting the Matter of its Vortex keeps the other Vortexes within their Bounds and loses no Ground in the Dimensions of its Circuit For we must consider all these Vortexes as so many Antagonists that dispute it to an Inch and so long as their Forces are equally match'd gain no Advantage over each other but as soon as one of them is any ways weakned or disabled it becomes a Prey to all the rest each taking in a part of its Space and at last usurping it all Now when a Star begins to be over-run with this Scurf and crusted with a mass of the parts of the third Element it can no longer push with so much force as it did before the Matter of its Vortex towards the Circumference and then the other that surround it and whose Matter is indeavouring to get as far as possible from its Centre finding no longer so much Motion nor by consequence so much Resistance expatiate and stretch themselves out and oblige the Matter of that impoverisht Vortex to circuit along with them and by little and little each Inrich themselves In so much that some Moments hence you shall see those Vortexes increase their Circumference with the Spoils of this poor Vortex till at last they come to the Star it self which will be made their Sport That is to say it will descend towards the Center of some one of those Vortexes there to continue in the quality of a Planet to turn with that Vortex and to observe the Motions of the conquering Star Or it will beconstrain'd by the Motion that shall be given it to bound from Vortex to Vortex and to make a long Pilgrimage in Habit of a Comet until its Crusts shall break And then perhaps it will recover the eminency of a Star and will take its revenge on some other by appropriating its Vortex to its self We waited then some Moments and saw happen what M. Descartes had foretold all the the Vortex was drain'd dry the Matter of one of the neighbouring Vortexes surrounded the crusted Star and influencing it with a violent Motion carried it clever off But since that Star by reason of its Solidity that consisted partly in its Figure most proper for Motion partly in the close Connexion of the Parts of the third Element that cover'd it and the paucity of its Pores in the Superficies I say since that Star by reason of its solidity was capable of a far greater Motion than the Mass of Celestial Matter that incompass'd it and carried it along having by degrees arriv'd to a mighty Speed in the turning of a Hand it gain'd the Brink of the Circumference of the Vortex and out it flew amain and continuing its Motion by the Tangent of the Circle it had begun to describe pass'd on to another Vortex and from that to another till I knew not what became on 't For M. Descartes interrupted the Attention I was in to pursue it to instruct me That the Adventure I had seen at present usually happen'd and would still from Time to Time in our World And that what we there call Comets were nothing else but Stars that have lost their Vortex and Light by that congealing Matter and then pass'd from Vortex to Vortex becoming visible to us all the Time they traverse our Solary Vortex V. Fig. Vort. and ceasing to be seen as soon as they entred in another Immediately after the Ruin of the Vortex I have been speaking of there were seven others that ran the same Risque and became seven Comets Whereupon Monsieur Descartes pursu'd It is not amiss in order to your better understanding the Effects that are speedily to follow to give Names to the Principal Stars that are left We have still a dozen of them but we will trouble our Heads at present with no more than eight That then continued he pointing out the greatest Star of all and which had the greatest Vortex we will call the Sun that other shall be Saturn let the next on the Left-hand be Jupiter that on the Right shall be named Mars that other wee 'll name Earth and the nearest to us of all shall be christned the Moon Of these two little ones the one shall be Venus and the other Mercury By and by I will name the other four Having for some Time consider'd the admirable Disposition of all these Vortexes that in spite of their Fluidity did not at all mix and incorporate with one another a thing no one would believe unless he saw it and which cannot be comprehended but by a Cartesian Soul for no other Philosopher 'till this Day hath been able to conceive it possible We saw Mercury and Venus begin to be overspread with the rising Scum and forthwith the Vortex of the Sun with the other neighbouring Vortexes to get ground prodigiously on those two Stars till at last their Heaven or their Vortex being entirely swallow'd up they fell in with that of the Sun somewhat near the Centre and began to turn about him floating in the Matter of his Vortex The same thing happen'd a little while after to four petty Stars whose Vortexes border'd upon that of Jupiter where they were oblig'd to descend and take the same Lot therein as Venus and Mercury in that of Sol. M. Descartes called these four the Satellites of Jupiter because they represent the four Planets that turn about Jupiter in our World Lastly the Earth in like manner made herself Mistress of the Moon and obliged her to attend her in quality of her Planet for that is the Name which is given to degraded Stars because of their only Employment that is left which is to wander in the Zodiac and to turn eternally about those that have rob'd them of their Vortex M. Descartes exemplify'd this Matter by certain Whirl-pools we sometimes see in Rivers whereof one great one that often contains in it many little ones represents the great Solary Vortex and the little ones represent the Vortexes of Jupiter and the Earth Those little Whirl-pools are carried along by the Motion of the greater and turn about its Centre whilst themselves make every thing that comes in the Reach of their Circumference suppose Straws or little Chips to turn about their own Thus the Earth carries round the Moon in her Vortex and Jupiter his Satellites in his Having seen so many fine diverting Sights and so near a Resemblance of this little World with our great one our Curiosity tempted us to a more particular Enquiry and thorough Instruction in all Things that concern'd the Planet representing the Earth which we inhabit But M. Descartes told us That in case we would see all Things in Order and Succession as they should be it would be several Hours Work to put that Planet in the Posture and Circumstances our Earth is at present in and besides we should see nothing more occur in
it than he had observ'd in the fourth Part of his Book of Principles in describing the Formation of the Earth as he at that Time conceiv'd it Besides that Subtil Matter whereof it was compos'd whilst it was yet a Star which Matter is lodged in the Centre and besides that Shell infinitely hard that dams it in I conceiv'd said he a kind of third Region constituted of the Parts of the third Element not very strictly united And I yet farther divided that third Region into three Stories before I imagin'd to my self the Earth in the Capacity it has at present and in which I am going to put my own I The Centre of the Earth full of the Matter of the First Element M the internal Shell that covers it C the Place of Metals D Water E Earth on which we tread V Air. The lowest of these Subordinations was according to my Position an Arch of very Solid and Heavy Matter and there I place the origin of Metals The Second which I rang'd above it was a Liquid Body constituted of the Parts of the third Element pretty long very flexible and pliant as it were little Eels temper'd with an abundance of the Parts of the second Element which was nothing else but what we usually call Water Lastly above all this I suppos'd a third Vault made of the most clinging and craggy Parts of the third Element whose sensible Parts were only Stones Sand Clay and Mud and which was very porous And this is the outward Surface of the Earth on part of which tread Mortal Men. Next I explain'd how in that upper Vault of the Earth by its being expos'd to the constant Beating of the two first Elements against it that rush'd through its Pores with Violence there were made a World of Crevices and Chinks which being in Time inlarg'd by little and little its structure at last all of a sudden fail'd and broke in Pieces whereupon its Ruins fell in part of the Water below it of the second Story and forc'd it above them because it was less weighty and that 's the Water which constitutes the Seas Some Parts of the Vault were still upheld and remain'd suspended as it often happens in the downfal of great Buildings these were not drown'd and they were these that made the Plains and level Parts of the Earth Lastly some Pieces as they fell were shelv'd and supported against one another and raised above the rest and thus came the Inequalities of the Earth which we call Mountains I You plainly see then said M. Descartes that to shew you the Train of all these Things would demand a great deal of Time But the Hour of your Departure hastens on I remit you therefore to my Book for Satisfaction in all those Particulars I am going now to make an Abridgment of all those Motions and to shew you in as little Time as we are speaking on 't this Earth exactly like yours with Mountains Valleys Plains and Seas No sooner said than done He falls to determining the Motion of an infinite Number of those long and flexible Parts of the third Element and agitating them by playing among them the Parts of the second in the several Places where he had heap'd them to gether we saw presently a kind of Sea diffuse itself over the Face of the Earth it was a less Trouble to him to raise Mountains by only amassing together an abundance of the branchy Parts of the third Element and causing them to link and graple with each other whereby there stood in many Places great and mighty Piles nothing differing from our Mountains That Earth look'd very bare and naked without Trees without Herbs without Flowers for to produce all those Things that are the greatest Ornaments to our Earth was a Business that would take up longer Time This done he employ'd the rest of the Time that we staid with him in the consideration chiefly of two Things First of the Gravity or rather of the Motion of Bodies we call Heavy towards the Centre And secondly of the Manner of the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea He began with the first and explained it at this rate Take notice said he that this Earth turns upon its Axis in its Vortex it has not that Power of Moving of itself but it is carried about by the Stream of the Celestial Matter that surrounds it which whirling with a more rapid Motion than the Earth spends the overplus in making other Motions in all Parts and especially in squeezing and pressing Terrestrial Bodies against the Earth a Pressure so necessary that take it but away the whole Earth would crumble all in Pieces and all the Men and Animals on the Surface of the Earth of your World would be hurl'd into the Fluid Space according to my grand Principle of Motion that every Body that turns circularly as does the Earth with all that is upon it flies fromward the Centre of its Motion if not prevented by the other Bodies that keep it in as does the Pression of the Celestial Matter S the Sun T the Earth A B C D the little Vortex of the Earth N A C Z the great Orb wherein the Earth is carried round the Sun And it is for the same Reason that a Terrestrial Body forc'd into the Air is oblig'd to descend towards the Centre of the Earth because it has less Force to digress from the Centre than has the Mass of Air which it ought to dismount to get into its Place And the Reason why it hath less Force to digress from the Centre is because it contains much more Matter of the third Element and much less of the second than the Mass of Air equal to it in Bigness Now the Matter of the third Element is dull and more unactive and unable to get rid of the Centre than the Matter of the second it must therefore descend Your Peripatetick Quality continu'd he and Democritus and Gassendi's Chains made of link'd Atoms are not worth a Straw in comparison of what I say and with that he cast a Stone on high to shew us by Experience the Truth of what he had been Teaching I The Figure of the Vortex of the Earth He made us forthwith acknowledge the Truth of all those Principles and Effects that naturally follow them for upon his placing the Moon perpendicular to the Equator of the Earth we immediately saw first the Sea press'd by that Matter to sink lower and its Waters thus press'd and crowded hurry towards the Poles and spread themselves successively on the Shores proportionably to their Distance from the Equator 2. The Terrestrial Globe rowling on his Axle from West to East we beheld the Pressure of the Moon to light on several Places after one another according to the Succession of Meridians 3. That successive Pressure of the different Parts of the Sea had this necessary effect viz. to cause it to swell and fall in several Places according to the plain and evident