head of the Family that is the first cause who by his great Atchievements purchased to himself the Quality and Title of Nobility and left those Titles to his Illustrious Family It is likewise true that there is no Family so Illustrious or so Ancient but the Genealogy of it terminates in one private person who gave it both its Name and Original and which was the first Cause of its Nobility no certainly unless we erect a ridiculous and an infinite Genealogie or like the Egyptians who imagined themselves to be older than the Moon will say that its Origine is as unknown as the Head of Nilus In the same manner after we have by way of ascent to our Fathers and Ancestors examined what kind of Author we had of our being whom we may call the first cause of all things which are in us we do necessarily find a certain Being which was before all things and which is the effect of no other causes and which is the Cause of all things which are in the World and consequentially the first who is that God whom we adore This demonstration doth abundantly convince any Person who hath in him the least spark of the light of reason It is ridiculous to say that we our selves were the cause of our Being because from thence it would follow that we did exist before we had a being that we gave our selves that which we were not in posession of and that the cause and the effect was one and the same thing which is impossible It is no less an errour to affirm That we are in the World by Necessity for if we were so in the World our existence would never have had a beginning and we would have been immutable and independent and infinite in every kind of perfection which is repugnant to experience and right Reason That perswasion of Epicurus and his Followers is no less ridiculous That the first Authors of our existence were produced by Chance or by a fortuitous occurrence of Attoms This opinion of it self falls to the ground Let it be supposed that the World was produced by this fortuitous occurrence of Atoms yet still the question will be Whether these Atoms were Created or Uncreated If created they acknowledge a Cause of their existence and this cause must own another and so ad infinitum which cannot be maintained for then the World would be eternal and thence to this present time there would have been an infinite number of rational Souls in the World Aristotle who supposed the eternity of the World and the immortality of the Soul yet did deny the Transmigration of Souls and would allow nothing in Nature to be actually infinite whereby he makes himself guilty of an absurd contradiction The same Aristotle stumbles upon another Contradiction in Relation to the First Cause for if the World be Eternal and without a beginning this Second Cause is of no use for the same Reason which proves the World to have a beginning proves likewise the existence of the first cause on the other hand the same reason which proves the existence of the first cause does at the same time prove that the World once had a beginning and doth demonstrate that it was not Eternal In the same manner Epicurus is guilty of an absurd contradiction when he says that Atoms which according to his opinion he makes to be the causes of all things were produced and created by another But if he says these Atoms were Uncreated and that they were Eternal Beings necessary and independent then every Atom must be some Divinity and that they are both the efficient and material cause of all things which is impossible because the opposition and relation which is necessarily betwixt a principle acting and the subject whereupon it acts do imply a necessary distinction CHAP. III. The Perfections of the first Cause THey who are throughly satisfied with the existence of the first cause must of necessity attribute to it all the Perfections which are or can be in the World that it is not only the most perfect and most noble of causes but also it ought to be supposed that all the effects which it hath produced or is yet capable of producing are in its Being in all perfections and that every one of them is infinite and as it is the first cause in the unity of its Being for it is necessary it should have the perfections of those beings which it hath or can produce for otherwise it would or could communicate that which it neither hath nor can have The first cause would not be absolutely perfect if it were not eternal for so it would have had a beginning and might have an end and then it could not be the first cause in so much that it derives its existence from that which was pre-existent to it and by consequence this cause which we suppose to be first would be a second cause limited in its being and perfections as in its duration and it would seem to have a dependence upon another Whereas when we suppose it to be the first all others must depend upon it and be subordinate to it whence it follows that these qualities of the first cause are inseparable from it Independence Eternity Infinity and Supreme Authority and that we cannot conceive any first cause but at the same time we acknowledge the existence of God. This first Cause or to say better this first Being which is God must necessarily have that perfect Unity which admits no multiplication either of Nature or Perfections Certainly if God was not one in his being but had several Natures the number of them ought to be infinite and that none of these Beings in particular would be infinite because when the perfection of one cannot be the perfection of another there will not be one to be found but will stand in need of the perfection of the other that is in whom there would not be requisite that perfection which the other Beings do possess I add moreover That all these supposed Beings would be opposite independent and all Supreme which is impossible or that all would be subject to one or other of them which is ridiculous whence it follows that there is but one only God who is one in his existence incapable of any multiplication and who is the Primary and Universal Cause of all things The great number or rather the infinity of perfections which we apprehend to be in the First Cause is not repugnant to the Supreme Unity because that does not divide the being and they are but one and the same thing though we give them several Names and do consider them under several Ideas which we are forced to correct since without that Unity there would be necessarily a composition of parts which would be the cause of the whole Compound and which would precede its existence which cannot be the ingredient of that composition without something else intervening they might also be divided and separated
so by the dissolution of the parts the compound would cease which is plainly inconsistent with that Idea which we have of God who is simple in his Nature Independent and every way Incorruptible The first cause is not only One and without its like in its Essence but also one sole and without a second in that action by which the world was produced And for this reason this action is called Creation supposing nothing but meer nothing out of which all things were made by the only power of God without the help of any other having either the quality of an Agent or a Subject The world being produced by this first cause remains subject to the will and pleasure of it And in the same manner as it was produced by the sole act of this first cause so it is preserved in the same State by the sole influence of the same cause who as it did not want any other second cause in the Creation of the Universe so neither doth it stand in need of any assistance in the conservation of it Being and Nothing are so opposite to one another that the Philosophers always had it for a Maxim That out of nothing nothing could be made which is to be understood only in reference to second causes and not in respect of the first whose power is infinite and who can do what he pleases this power in the creation of the Universe was not applyed according to the extensiveness of its activity because it pleased God to terminate the being qualities and number of second causes which are created The Creation was no necessary action for the first Cause did not Create the World but at such a Time in such a Place and in such a Manner as seemed good to it self so it made all those things with the highest Liberty there being no other cause either equal or superior to it self who was able to compel perswade animate or incite it to the Creation of the world The World it self could not terminate a necessary action because it could not be Eternal for every thing that is of necessity is eternal neither had it ever a beginning nor can it have an end because it is against the nature of a created being which is limited in its qualities and duration no less than in its natural Substance If the first cause was free in the Creation of the world thence it follows that all things were made by direction of reason and understanding and by consequence according to a certain Idea and Rule But because the first cause operates after an independent manner it could not have the Type of its production any where else but from it self neither could it act by a rule distinct from its own being so God is not only the efficient but the exemplary cause of all things For the same reason it may be said That the first Cause which is God is the final cause of all things for when he as an intelligent and free cause produced the World he did propose to himself an end answerable to his Dignity that is himself and his own proper Glory so that the first cause is necessarily the ultimate end of all its effects CHAP. IV. Of second Causes and their Actions ALL Creatures are called second Causes because they depend upon the first neither do they operate but by the Command and Impression of the first this First or Universal Cause does act Uuniversally with particular Causes but after a manner agreeing with the Nature of every particular thing and according to the power which was given it when it was created which does not alter the Nature of the Causes nor the necessity or Liberty of their actions This power of acting which is granted to second Causes is not a quality different from their Nature and Being So the Power which the Atoms have of moving themselves doth not differ from the Atoms themselves the power of burning or heating doth not differ from the Fire to which it is inherent unless it be in the manner of our conceiving things and of speaking of them according to our conceptions So it is of an Action which terminates from the cause to the effect and which is nothing else than a certain relation or an actual subordination which is found betwixt the cause and the effect This action is never without motion or to say better action and motion is one and the same thing thence it is that a thing rests when it is without action and then it begins to move it self when it begins action so according to three ways of acting there are found in the nature of things three kinds of motion The first is made without Sense or Reason which we may see in Stones Mettals Plants and the Heavens The second kind of motion is made by sense and knowledge as are seen in all living Creatures The third kind joins Reason to Sense as we observe in man acting by Phancy who proposes an end to himself distinguishes between Good and Evil and hath the liberty of prosecuting the several Objects presented to his view either with love or hatred As an action is not indeed distinct from the cause acting nor from the effect which it doth produce so motion doth not differ from the thing moved or from the thing which moves it but both of them Is accordingly as they change their condition or cease to rest which from the Creation was never done without a certain local motion of the whole or some part thereof so the notion of rest is opposite to the notion of mutation and action as well as motion CHAP. V. Of Accidental Causes THere are many causes which are called Accidental Causes for properly speaking they are not true causes which sort of causes happens four manner of ways first a Musitian draws a Picture not as he is a Musitian but as a Painter so that the Art of Painting is the true cause of this work And as the Art of Singing contributes nothing here since it falls out by chance that the Art of Singing and the Art of Painting meet together in this Man and since the Art of Singing is no way requisite for the making of the Picture in this respect we may say that the Musitian is only an accidental cause of the Picture which he hath drawn Secondly a remote or indirect cause is called an accidental cause as when we say that the Sun is the cause of darkness because darkness is occasioned by the absence of the Sun Mirth is the cause of Sadness and Peace arises from War As a Man endeavouring to save his Friend whose Life is in danger and thereby unwillingly exposing him to a certain death is the indirect or accidental cause of his death As he who perswades his Friend to cross the Seas whereby he is cast away Thirdly an opposite cause which produces an effect quite contrary to that which it ought to produce is an accidental cause as it was with the subjects of such
Tyrants as persecuted the Church and thereby procured Glory to Martyrs and as those who were the death of our Lord Jesus Christ obtained us Life destroyed the Synagogue built the Church they fulfilled the Prophecies and laid the foundation of the Gospel In the fourth and last place That is an accidental cause which produces a particular effect not foreseen and according to the course of Nature unavoidable if it hath respect to an intelligent cause and the effect be agreeable to wish the Heathens did point at this by the name of Fortune and according to their way of speaking we say such a thing is the effect of Fortune as when a Man is digging up the Foundation of a house and by chance finds a Treasure but if the effect be otherwise than prosperous then it is misfortune or the chance of Fortune As when a Tile falls from the top of a House upon a Mans Head that is passing by and Kills him here the Tile is the Physical and accidental cause of this Mans death which was inevitable according to the course of second causes having either their free or necessary motions These accidental causes gave the Heathens occasion to frame to themselves a Blind Goddess which they called Fortune to whom they did attribute an unconstant an uncertain and a various disposition of good and evil to this Man 's good to that Man's prejudice Of all errors this is not the least neither was it entertained by any but the ignorant and the meaner sort of People The wiser sort in that age did aim at a cause of all the effects which happen in the World that was less feigned and more solid this they would have to be Fate and that what without any reason was ordained by this universal and chief cause was inevitable so when any great misfortune happened as the loss of a Battel the defeat of an Army the change of State the subversion of a Common Wealth or the sudden death of some Illustrious Person all this was ascribed to Fate and they did commonly say Sic erat in Fatis this was the inevitable will of Fate so the Fates would have it And when any person undertook any great Enterprise as it was said of Aeneas being in search of the Golden Fleece if the Fates call thee that is if the Fates favour thee thou shalt attain thy end The great Wits of our Age are almost of the same Opinion concerning all the various successes of Prosperity and Adversity and all things which come to pass in this Life as if humane Prudence had been of no use and Divine Providence without any care had been idle But that we may speak like a Christian Philosopher supposing the existence of the First Cause and having demonstrated that it hath all the perfections of the Chief Cause since Wisdom and Power are the two inseparable perfections of the Supream Being and indeed so necessary for the conservation and government of humane affairs we ought to conclude that nothing happens in this World which is not decreed foreseen directed and perfected by the wisdom and strong hand of some Supream Cause which so exactly directs all things that they come to pass according to the end that was proposed in the production of them and indeed all those things by means unknown to humane Wisdom yet notwithstanding in respect of God who is the first cause they are certain and infallible who established the infallibility of effects in such manner that causes in their motion should be neither forced nor too violent There is nothing but what God soresees nothing but what is absolutely inevitable and free causes act always freely in actions which ought to be free CHAP. VI. Of Sympathy and Antipathy and the effects depending upon them THe wonderful effects which we see in Nature whose true and natural causes are not easily found out obliges Philosophers to have recourse to Occult Causes and to attribute all these effects to natural Sympathy and Antipathy which happens amongst the several Bodies whereof the World is compounded but if you press these Philosophers to tell you and to explain wherein this Sympathy and Antipathy doth consist they will give you no other reason but onely tell you they are done by certain occult and unknown causes to which they ascribe all those effects whose true causes they do not at all know But they would do much better plainly to confess their ignorance and say they know nothing of the matter That we may the better understand what may be said upon a subject so nice and delicate and give a reason of those wonderful effects which are attributed to Simpathy and Antipathy without the help of occult causes in the first place I suppose that the difficulty which occurs in explaining an Effect of this nature doth arise from this That the Mind is not able to know the truth of things but by the Senses which are the gates through which the Objects enter and form their Ideas in our understanding but because there are abundance of things which escape our senses it is no wonder that it is so hard to give a reason of things which are so remote from the reach of our senses as for example Iron moves it self and that by way of local motion and joins it self to the Load-stone we do not see that which draws the Iron to it though we see it attracted but we know not by what ways or means it is done but if we explicate this and such like Effects by saying they are wrought by Sympathy obscure and occult causes we deceive our selves for that is only a shelter and the true way of hiding our ignorance which we are loath to discover for there is no man in nature so blockish but after this manner can resolve all the Phoenomena in the Universe If it be asked why the Needle turns always to the North Pole is it enough to say that there is a Sympathy betwixt this Needle which is touched with the Load-stone and the Pole and that the cause of this Sympathy is obscure unsearchable and past finding out But if this be the way of Philosophising I refer it to those who are competent Judges of the matter Therefore that we may give a more ingenuous and solid Reason in the second place I suppose that there are no Bodies but that continually emit certain subtile particles and imperceptible corpuscles which are dispersed through the air and are at sometimes carried at a great distance unless they justle with other Bodies in their way By the help of this principle we find the reason why a Dog follows the foot-steps of a Hare or from a heap of a thousand stones he readily knows that stone which his Master threw and picks it out and by his command brings it to him From this dispersion of corpuscles we find the reason how the contagion of the Plague either from the person infected or from the wind blowing from that Region is carried a
mixture of the humours doth not proceed but from things constituting and preserving this just temperament and by the same it is conserved As there are many things which destroy Health so there are also a great number of those things which restore and confirm it The things which destroy it are those which rarifie the humours and occasion winds which dissolve bodies and do emancipate Atoms Those which restore it are such things or such remedies which hinder the division rarefaction and dissolution of the Humours and Parts of our body or since it happens that necessarily there is a corruption in every digestion and a division of the aliment chyle and the blood as we observed before from the same Principle it necessarily follows that every thing that preserves Health hinders the alteration of it and also restores it being lost which drives out of the body these Winds these Corpuscles or these injurious Atoms And that also which removes these Seeds or internal Principles of our Diseases out of our Bodies doth not produce that Effect by a certain Vertue or Physical quality or by a certain Antipathy as it is said of Rubarb and Senna but by motion and action which is made upon these rarified bodies these loosed Corpuseles or emancipated Atoms proceeding from every digestion in the bodies of those which are most healthful This Motion is performed either by Purgatives or Emeticks or by Sudorificks the two former of these are fitted to eject those which arise from the first and second digestion and Sudorificks do expel Corpuscles or Atoms of the third digestion but here is no room to shew the differences of these Remedies however we must trace out the manner of those Operations I said a while that Medicaments do operate only by a vellication of Membranes Nerves and Fibres and which is produced by sharp Corpuscles flowing from the Medicines and sticking to the aforementioned parts whose motion is communicated to the subtle Foreign bodies that is the Excrements of every particular digestion whereby these matters are driven forth the nearest and most commodious way for evacuation I 'le make an end of this Chapter with an Example of a familiar Remedy by Means whereof every man may preserve his Health without either bleeding or Purging nevertheless I do allow that bleeding sometimes is necessary and very useful to evacuate those emancipated Atoms or Corpuscles which are loosed in the veins from the digestion in the Liver especially when they being shut up and cannot find their way out they stick to the Pleura Membrane and prick and vellicate it and thereon produce an inflammation known by the name of Pleurisie Therefore in this Distemper as also in continual Fevers Bleeding and Sudorificks are by no means to be omitted The same thing may be said of using Purgative Remedies or Emeticks to evacuate earthy Excrements as flegme and slimy humours arising from the first digestion and also Serosities or Choller and Melancholly being the Excrements of the second Concoction but because the defects of the first Concoction are not mended or repaired in the second and the first is more perfect as the Ventricle is more pure and more clean and cleared of that viscous Flegm which disturbs its action and hinders digestion Without either envy or prejudice I do here produce a vulgar Remedie as most useful to preserve or restore Health if it be rightly used as it should be as I have found it by experience besides that it manifests the Truth of my Principles which supposes every evacuation to be made by motion and vellication of the sharp Corpuscles or penetrating Atoms Therefore I take every morning a Goose Feather fit and slender as it is in its own Nature I put this gently into my mouth and I thrust it further to my jaws and hold it there for some time and I draw backwards and forwards and I perceive a vellication made by the Feather on my Jaw Palate and the other Parts adjoyning and likewise after this vellication I do observe that Water Phlegm and viscous humours being dissolved do flow in great quantity for the space of a quarter of an hour And all this is done without any violence or danger hereby I find that the Head is lightsome and the Stomach freed and disburthened and that thereby the Appetite is increased and that the Corpuscles which before ascended to the Brain by way of Vapours are evacuated incarcerated or involved in the viscuous humours which are flowing and afterward the first digestion is better made and it is evidenced by experience that as the ventricle is less burdned so our Sleep is longer sweeter and less interrupted Were it not that I fear to exceed those bounds which I proposed to my self I could make many useful Observations upon this Subject But I must remember that I do not speak of Medicine Remedies Health and Diseases but by chance and occasionally and it is sufficient if I oblige the Publick and the Learned with the Doctrine of Atoms and that I be helpful to Them as well as to the Sick by the means of those Remedies which I discover and which I freely propose And though I offer many things which were neither said taught nor writ before nevertheless I beg the Readers pardon for that I add no more to this matter for I am afraid if I should to be tedious to him and if I have enlarged my self too far I hope he will forgive me it were hard to say less of these things except a man would say nothing at all of them besides that it is grateful to every man to speak and write of those things which he loves and are agreeable with his Profession CHAP. XVII Of Formal Exemplary and Material Causes FOrm and Formal Cause is one and the same thing and when we say there are two sorts of Forms that is only according to our manner of conceiving things So we say there are two sorts of Formal Causes the Substantial and Accidental But all these Forms are imaginary neither do true Philosophers acknowledge any other Substance to be in Natural Compounds than Matter except only in man nor any other Form than the disposition of the Parts because all these Forms are altogether useless Moreover these great Sticklers for Forms cannot say what they would mean by a Substantial or Accidental Form Therefore we do with a great deal of Justice lay aside these fictitious Forms as being but Chimeras and of no use The Exemplary Cause may be referred to the formal because it is the Idea and inward form of that which we frame in our Spirit so the formal Cause of a Picture is the disposition of its parts according to the disposition and ordination which it then had in the Spirit of the Painter The same may be said of all rational Agents which are endued with understanding There is no difference be twixt Matter and a Material Cause and there are two sorts of material Causes as well as of matter
it may be concluded that there are as many parts in the Millet Seed as there are in the whole Terrestrial Globe Also according to this Opinion we must grant that a Body cannot be divided into as many parts as really it may and that neither the hither or further end of a staff can be found nor that there is a Circle or perfect Piramid nor that the parts of a Body can be immediately divided All which consequences as they are absolutely necessary so they are all equally absurd Descartes did endeavour to free himself from this difficulty by saying that the number of the parts of the Millet-Seed was neither finite nor infinite but only that they were indefinite But the evasion is ridiculous and these two Philosophers are forced to confess that every part of the Millet-seed hath its extension and if their Number be either infinite or indefinite then their extensions also will be either infinite or indefinite at the least which is absurd to affirm I add no more to avoid Scholastic Intricacies and distinctions CHAP. XX. The Properties Magnitude Figure Weight and Motion of Atoms AN Atom is a corporeal Being simple invisible and indivisible Solidity constitutes its Essence or essential property which distinguishes it from Spirits and Vacuity which have no power of resisting Atoms do necessarily avoid all our Senses because these are composed of many distinct and gross parts whose Object ought to be composed e're it can be perceived by the external Organ which nevertheless doth not destroy the truth and reality of Atoms because small Corpuscles do escape our Senses as we observe in Dust which sticks to our Cloaths and also in the Corpuscles of a Ring which is wasted and diminished by time and use in the Corpuscles of a Stone which is made hollow by the drops of Water which fall upon it in divers occult parts in a Mite which cannot be seen without the help of a Microscope and lastly in small Corpuscles which are seen to move in a Chamber by the help of the Sun-beams that we may omit many others which are smaller which without doubt we could see if our sight was sharper as I shall mention in my Animadversions about Experiments of Miscroscopes Though Atoms are most subtle and inperceptible yet they have their particular extension magnitude and figure from whence their differences do arise for the figure of some of them is round as the Atoms of Water Oyl and Quick-Silver others have cubicular figures such are the Atoms of Sea-Water and others are Pyramidal as those whereof Nitre doth consist there are some which have sharp points like needles ' as Fire whence we are to suppose that there are others variously figured This difference is necessary to distinguish Compounds And as these Atoms as to their solidity or invisibility and indivisibility which are their inseparable Properties are alike so also if they did not differ in their figure and thickness all bodies would be of the same likeness Weight is the Principle of the said Natural Motion insomuch as it doth resist a violent motion That I mention here that we may know whether motion of Atoms hath an internal or an external Principle or whether Weight be determined only to one Motion or that it be indifferently inclined to many And whether the motion of Atoms do tend to some Center And whether it be continuant or interrupted And lastly whether it be perpendicular or horizontal Parallel or declined right or parabolical or circular In order to resolve well this difficulty I suppose that Atoms may be considered in a double State The First State of them is before the Composition of the bodies which are made of them which may be called the State of Liberty The other is that which they have in the bodies which do consist of them which may be termed the State of obligation or servitude If Attoms be considered in their First State their motion is perpetual So that an Atom that is loose and freed from any composition is essentially in motion which ought not in the least to be wondred at for Motion in respect of a free Atom is the same that Understanding is in respect of an Angelâ— which is never without knowing unless his Intellect is bound and clouded From this Principle it is evident That Atoms are in continual motion unless they are hindred or that there is some obstruction in the way or that there are other Atoms resisting and repelling of them or that they find such as will stick unto them or that they insinuate themselves into the Atoms of certain bodies or or that they enter into some composition whereby their motion is stopped Nevertheless Atoms in Compounds are not altogether void of motion because they are not so straitly imbodied together but that they have some motion like Vibrations and Palpitations according to the liberty which is granted them by the disseminated Vacuities nay some of them sometimes do attempt their escape especially in porous bodies which therefore are sooner corrupted and perish than other Bodies which are more solid and more close It is yet more evident in living bodies out of which the animal Spirits which are but the bodies of Atoms and most subtile Corpuscles are dissipated by transpiration whence aliments are necessarily requisite for to supply the Spirits of the whole body which are dissipated by motion and agitation This motion of Atoms or the least Corpuscles in living bodies may be deservedly accounted the Image of their first liberty and tho' they do but seldom enjoy their full liberty yet they are apt to raise the greatest commotions in order to be freed and to gain their liberty this is the origine of many distempers as in Acute Fevers the Atoms or Corpuscles of the boiling blood or obstructed choller are carried and driven into the Brain where they produce watchfulness Deliriums and Phrensies According to this Principle that which we said before may be concluded That many Distempers do arise from minute Corpuscles and emancipated Atoms For These being driven forwards by other Atoms and forced back do run into the membranes Periostiam Meninges or intestines and cause Pains which they call the Collick Headach Gouts and Rheumatisms So that this solution of Corpuscles and emancipation of Atoms in our Bodies are much to be feared and to prevent this danger all motions of the body which are too violent must be avoided for these are the external cause of the confusion of the Spirits and the emancipation of the Atoms The emancipation of Atoms and also of the small Corpuscles which are composed of those Atoms are to be feared no less in the great than little World for the Winds are nothing else but emancipated Atoms which by their impetuosity being driven backwards and forwards do force all bodies which they meet with in their way It is these Atoms which agitate the Air and the Sea and cause Earth-quakes and also over-turn all things which resist their motion
doubts but every cause is a principle and that all niceties concerning this matter are altogether useless Philosophers do commonly reckon all Causes to be but Five in number they give the first place to that which they call the Efficient Cause which is that Agent which produces the things that are in Nature and gives them their essence and existences In the next place they rank the Material Cause being that subject which receives the impression of the efficient and operating cause The third is called the Formal Cause which gives a being to every thing as the most Noble and principal part of it The fourth is called the Exemplary Cause according to whose rule the efficient produces its action when it operates by Knowledge The fifth and last is the Final Cause which is the end for whose sake the efficient produces its effect In this first Part we shall speak of all things which concern these several Causes not omitting any thing which shall be thought necessary to the knowledge of them CHAP. I. Of the Efficient Cause and of its Essence and Differences THere is such a relation and connection between the Cause and the Effect that we cannot have a true notion of the cause unless at the same time we have a conception of the effect so in general we say that a cause is nothing else but that which gives being to another thing which is the effect of it which way soever it happens according to the Five Causes before mentioned All Philosophers do agree That of all Causes the Efficient is the most Noble because properly speaking this alone hath Effect though it be produced after several ways as we shall shew hereafter If the Efficient Cause acts by a power proper to it self then it is called the Principal cause but if onely by the force and impression of another then it is termed the Instrumental cause So we distinguish betwixt the Painter and the Pencil though both contribute to the production of the Picture Also the Universal Cause which produces many effects as the Sun the Stars and the Elements is distinguished from a Particular Cause which is determinate to one effect in particular Of this kind there are many sublunary causes acting in this inferior World. There is also a difference between the Total Cause which produces its effect without the help of another and That Cause which cannot act alone but only produces part of the effect There are also necessary and free causes the first acts necessarily and without choice as Fire the Sun and all created causes except Men and Angels for they act by a Free Will wherein consists the essence of Liberty The Efficient Cause is likewise either Physical or Moral the Physical acts really and immediately as Fire consuming a House with its Flame and he that sets fire to it for that purpose is the next moral cause and he who advises it is a moral but a remote cause of the consequential burning But if the Fire happens by chance and by the imprudence of one that carries a Candle in his hand and some sparks fall into the thatch which takes fire whereby the House is burnt here this Man is only an accidental cause of the Burning Lastly it is rightly distinguished between the First Cause which is Author of Nature and Nature created under which are comprehended all second causes and such are all Creatures As to the Efficient Cause whereof we speak it may be observed that when it acts by Knowledge all the said causes after their respective manner do concurr to the production of one and the same effect As the Painter drawing his Picture is the principal cause the Pencil the instrumental the End proposed by the Painter is the final cause and the Idea directing is the exemplary cause the form and disposition of the parts of the Piece that is painted may be taken for the form of it the Colours and the Cloath whereupon they are laid may be reckoned the material cause because they are the constituent matter of the Work. But if a Limner in his anger throws his Pencil as it is reported to have hapned to him who had in vain endeavoured to represent to the life a high mettled Horse Foaming at his Mouth or if a Limner undesignedly and by chance touches the Picture which thereby as it befell the former in his anger is made better the representation more agreeable the lines stronger or more piercing this would be only an effect of an accidental cause There are some things to be observed in an efficient cause when it acts which are inseparable from it such as these the nature of the Agent the existence of the cause the power which makes it act the intervening act the effect which is produced the subject whereby into which and wherein it is produced as we shall see in what follows CHAP. II. Of the first Cause THE existence of the first Cause or first Princple is so evident and so necessary that it is like Truth known by it self and ought not to be supposed liable to any difficulty especially amongst Christians who are illuminated by the Light of Divine Revelation And since a Man that submits himself to Faith hath not thereby renounced the light of Reason it will not be amiss to confirm this truth with natural reasons lest any doubt should remain in Spirits less tractable Which the better to effect I suppose a Truth so well known that no Man can deny unless he hath a mind to be thought ridiculous and infatuated This Truth so obvious that it ought to pass for a Principle whereupon as a sure foundation the existence of the first cause ought to be built is grounded upon our own proper existence there is nothing so evident nothing so certain than That we are in the World this truth is confirmed by the testimony of all our senses whatsoever we think whatsoever we say and whatsoever we do will not suffer us to imagine that our existence is an illusion Therefore it is certain and more than evident that we are in the World but that we are in it from our selves or by our selves or by casualty or chance or by the necessity of being is absolutely impossible so that it is necessary that we are in the World by the means and assistance of a certain other Being who as the Author was also the free Principle of that essence which we possess This Principle is necessarily either a first or second cause if the first then you shall see that we are agreed and that the true existence of the first cause which some would deny is rightly built upon the truth of our Being which no Man can deny if we make the cause of our being to be a second cause then it must be confessed that this second cause is produced by a third and the third by a fourth and so in going upwards as they do in the Genealogies of ancient and Noble Progenies at last we find the
the Sciatica Quick-Silver or a Toad hung about the Neck is a preservative against the Plague the Tooth of a Dead Man carried about you shall cure you of the Tooth-ach Oak-Moss gathered at a certain time and an Elkes hoof cure the Epilepsie There are such as preserve Children from having the Small-Pox and others which being tied to the wrist cure the Tertian and Semitertian So there are many others whose Effects are ascribed to occult causes and to the Sympathy and Antipathy of things I do not question the truth of these experiments because I am certain as to the greatest part of them having tryed them Without doubt there are many others which I do not know of and which nevertheless others might have seen but this I know that the aforementioned Effect is not infallible and when it happens it is done by the emission of certain Spirits or Atoms proceeding from those Remedies and penetrating the Pores of Mans Body and giving strength to the Animal Spirits to resist internal Poysons or resisting the external Poysons and fixing and hindring them from hurting those who carry the Amulets I shall say nothing of Medals which are called Talisman importing good Luck to those by whom they are carried about them nor of white Magnets which procure the kindness of all People and the favour of a Mistriss I give little credit to such things neither can I easily believe all things which are said of them and if Stars ought to have place here rather than Demons all is done by the means of Atoms Now I come to that which I am better acquainted with and of which I can speak with more certainty I mean of Experiments concerning Quick-silver and Gold it is certain that if any Man hath Quick-Silver in his Body or any where about him that the Gold-Ring which he hath upon his Finger or which he holds in his Mouth will turn white because the Quick-Silver sticks to the Gold and if this Gold-Ring be thrown into the Fire the Quick-Silver flyes and evaporates and if the same Ring be again put upon the Finger or held in the Mouth it will still grow white every time as long as any Quick-Silver remains in the Body This Phoenomenon is commonly ascribed to a Sympathy which is betwixt Quick-Silver and Gold as if the Quick-Silver should hastily go to the Gold and embrace it or that the Gold did draw the Quick-Silver to it but Gold enclosed in smooth Glass does not turn white no more doth it then when Quick-Silver is enclosed hermetically in a Glass there is no Sympathy to call it forth thence no more than out of a Box or Bladder wherein it is kept we ought not therefore to say that it was the Sympathy of these two Mettals which was the only cause by which the one adheres to the other for though we should grant that there is a Sympathy that is an agreeableness proportion and likeness between these two substances not in their imaginary qualities but in the figure of their Atoms nevertheless it must be confessed that the attraction of Quick-Silver to Gold is by an emission of their Spirits and Corpuscles near after the same manner as we observed of the Load-Stone and Iron There is no less a connexion betwixt Silver which the Chymists call the Moon and Copper which they call Venus than there is betwixt Mercury that is in their Dialect Quicksilver and the Sun that is Gold. If one Ounce of Silver be disolved in three Ounces of Aquafortis made of Nitre and Vitriol the Silver is reduced to Water neither is it ever after seen and if we would recover the Silver after such a dissolution you must take leaves of Copper and put them into an Earthen Vessel and pour upon them one pint of common Water then to this Water put the liquor in which the Silver was dissolved and it will turn it as white as Milk and in the space of two or three hours the Silver will leave the Aqua-fortis and joyn it self to the Copper in the form of Curd or white Moss when the water is clear throw it all out the silver sticking to the Copper is dryed and reduced to a mealy Powder and this is called Calx Lunae or Silver Calcined As to this we must take notice that if in stead of Copper you put in leaves or pieces of Gold Silver Lead or Tin the Experiment will not answer expectation neither will Silver stick to them as well as to Gold whence we must necessarily conclude that there is a certain Sympathy or peculiar connexion between Silver and Copper as there is betwixt Gold and Quick-silver so that we grant that if the transmutation of Mettals be not impossible no Mettal can be sooner changed into another than Copper into Silver and Mercury into Gold The difficulty is in knowing the true cause of a Connexion or Affinity which is so remarkable It is commonly said to be done by that sympathy or agreeableness which is between these two Mettals But in saying that we say nothing for we must enquire farther into the cause and foundation of this Sympathy so that we are forced to search for another Cause of this Effect and to say that Silver is not joined to Copper but by the means of a certain local motion of the Particles of the Silver which are dispersed in this great quantity of water and are congregated to joyn and unite themselves to the Copper there is no other cause of this local motion besides the Spirits and scent of the Copper which are dispersed thorow the water and there meeting with particles of the Silver which are wandring separated and dispersed are fixed to them by reason of the conformity of their Pores when the Corpuscles of the Silver are loosed and set at liberty in the water they leave it and descend being forced downwards by the concurring Particles of the Water and leaving no vacuity wherein the Particles of the Silver may be contained they find the Atoms of the Copper emitting themselves like the Odors of Aromatique Bodies and mutually entangle one another like littlè hooks they go directly towards the Copper and falls upon it as it lies in the bottom of the Vessel this Explication doth imply the Doctrine of Atoms and their figures weight and motions as it shall appear in following Chapters after we have discoursed of Antipathy CHAP. X. Of Natural Phaenomena which are attributed to Antipathy THere are observed to be many Effects for which no Reason can be given without the help of this feigned Antipathy I 'le instance to you some few which I shall endeavour to explain In the first place occurs the sight of the Basilisk who kills all whom he sees which they say is by Antipathy which is betwixt it and other Animals But it may be said rather that it is done by the emission of certain venomous Spirits which penetrate the Eyes of those which were seen by the Basilisk The nature of this poison
as the Air in the Vial is condensed and gives way From this Experiment I conclude two things in defence of a Vacuum Whereof the first is That the air is before rarified in the Vial and that the parts of it are more dilated But this rarefaction of the air cannot be done but by the help of the great and more copious Vacuums The other is That the Water could not ascend in the Vial unless the air did give way and was condensed But air cannot be condensed unless the parts of it close nearer together and that they could not do without a Vacuum therefore we must conclude that air is condensed by the help of Vacuums which are partly taken away and lessened as well in Quality as in Number as it happens in a Bushel full of Corn or Salt when it is moved by which motion it is not a little condensed and the Atoms of Fire beget a dilating Motion to the air in the Glass but Cold produces a condensing Motion and as it is condensed and becomes more gross the aiery Atoms do also draw the Water as it were with small hooks or the external air lying upon the Water makes it ascend by Reason of the Vacuum which gives place or at least does not resist the weight of the Air. But perhaps they will say that there is no Vacuum in the air but that many Particles of subtile matter do go out from the Vial and give place to the ascending Water But this answer gives no manner of satisfaction because there is no body to force this subtile Matter neither is there any way through which it may pass as also there is no Cause assigned why the Water is forced upwards As to this we must have recourse to the small empty spaces which are found in all Bodies which Bodies are more or less fluid or solid as they have more or less of Matter or Renitency as there is the greater or lesser number of those Vacuums whereof we speak dispersed through them CHAP. XXIII Of a Congregate Vacuum against Aristotle and Cartesius GASSENDUS is not only against these two Philosophers concerning a Dispersed Vacuum but also about a Congregate one which is very remarkable and is to be found about divers Compound Bodies Aristotle who fights for Quality or Accidents distinct from Substance rejects a Vacuum as a thing which Nature can no ways endure But Cartesius speaks yet more hardly of it for he affirms that the Production of it in the World does not only exceed the power of Second Causes but even of the First Cause it self Aristotle endeavours to prove his Doctrine after this manner to wit That in his Opinion a Vacuum would interrupt and hinder the Motion and Action of Natural Causes For if indeed Light and Heat be Accidents the Sun could not produce either of them in a Vacuum or through it though there was never so little of it in the Air equal to the least imaginable point for according to this Opinion they are Accidents and have need of a Subject which a Vacuum does not afford them Descartes Builds upon another Foundation for he acknowledges no difference between Extention and Matter extended and therefore he affirms that there is no distance between two Walls betwixt which there is no air nor Matter but that they would fall close together Which how ridiculous it is we shall see by what follows I affirm therefore That Nature doth not abhor a Vacuum nor that it is impossible that there should be a Vacuum in Nature for indeed there is no ground for this imaginary fear and the Experiment which I bring will most solidly demonstrate the Existence of a Vacuum This Experiment was made at Clermont by the late Mr. Paschall a Man well esteemed by all that knew him he took a Glass Tube four Foot long divided into Inches and Lines open at one end only through which being filled with Quick-Silver and then put into an Earthen Vessel full of Water and Quick-Silver immediately the Quick-Silver that was in the Tube did descend and stuck at the height of Twenty five Inches and Five Lines and a half and remained visibly in that State for the space of Five Hours This Experiment was afterwards made in several places two or three times I and several persons of Quality and Learning being present and indeed every time it did more or less sink down according to the highness or lowness of the place where the Experiment was made without any visible alteration in one and the same place I conclude that the space which remains above the Quick-silver is a Vacuum and that nothing but Light is contained within it we must therefore say either that Light is not an accident but a body which fills the space or else that this space is a Vacuum and that Light is in it without its subject It may be said that the Glass being porous the Air or some other Body more subtile might enter into the Tube and replenish the space left by the descending Quick-silver but that cannot be because the Quick-silver descends on a sudden and the Air could not so suddenly enter in without breaking of the Glass But if it did enter why does not the Quick-silver descend to the very bottom but remain suspended at a Certain height From this Experiment it appears That a Vacuum according to the conception which Aristotle hath left us of it is not impossible to be in Nature Secondly that the external Air by its weight presses upon the Water and Quick-silver in the Earthen Vessel for otherwise all the Quick-silver contained in the Tube would fall down to the very bottom Thirdly that the same Air hath a greater pressure in Vallies than in Mountains especially upon those that are very high because here it is more subtile and rare and more dilated by disseminated Vacuums whereby its weight is lessened together with its strength and resistency The Opinion of Cartesius is yet more ridiculous who affirms That a Vacuum is impossible even in respect of the Divine Power which Opinion is no less impious than it is rash for no Man can deny but that God is able to reduce into nothing the Air that is contained in the Vial and also to hinder any other body from coming into its place Descartes says that this Hypothesis is impossible and that if this Air was annihilated the sides of the Viol would immediately touch one another because says he things betwixt which nothing interposes do touch one another That is true that when nothing was there nothing could be there or when things come together to be joined But we suppose here that the parts of the Vial remain in their first State as indeed they do if they are not any ways moved which they do not God Almighty hindring and whosoever denys that God Almighty is able to hinder this Motion and this Contiguity in so supposing is ridiculous and rash prescribing Limits to God Almighty's Power There is
goes streight forwards whenas he continually treads the same steps in the same Circle But to do this there must be a propulsion on every side for Gold would not be turned round in the Cupel if Fire were only applyed to it from beneath and not from above and quite round it which ought to be well taken notice of We will say then that the Sun cannot be moved about its own Centre that is the Centre of the World unless at the same time it moves the ambient Bodies by the assistance of the Corpuscles coming out of its Globe like so many streams of Light just as we see Rivers of Water flowing out of the Sea and yet the Sea is never the less for this Effusion no more than the Sun is lessened by a continual effusion of his Light because it receives in as much as it pours out and these Waters return back to the Sea as these Corpuscles of Light do to the Sun by a continual Circulation CHAP. X. Of the Moon and its Changes THe Moon is like an Optick Looking-Glass in which Light and the Corpuscles flowing from the Sun are concentred and gathered together from whence for divers respects and changes they are sent towards the Earth One of the Antients affirmed the Moon to be a Planet very near and familiar to the Earth it is moved about the Sun because it is in the solar Vortex by which it is carried round and in it three kinds of Motions are observed viz its Annual Monthly and Diurnal from these divers motions divers Aspects in respect of the Sun and it do arise from whence are its various yet constant appearances It s Figure is round but its Mass is partly solid partly fluid like Earth and Water its roundness appears at Full and New-Moons without this roundness we could never see its increase or decrease It s solidity is the Cause why the Light of the Sun is from thence reflected to us even as by reason of its fluidity we observe in it obscure parts like Spots because they do not reflect the Sun so much as the solid parts do but if in the Body of the Moon there are some parts higher than others in the shape of Mountains or Hills the Sun Beams do there produce small shadows which are observed by the help of Perspective Glasses That it cannot be half so big as the Earth is proved by Optick Principles Shades and Paralaxes in respect of it self it is always in the full because one half of it is continually illustrated by the Sun But it does not always appear full to us but only at the time of its Opposition and Recession from the Sun and then also in respect of us it may be Eclipsed because our Earth at that time is directly placed between it and the Sun and by its shadow makes the Moon more or less obscure as it is nearer or farther off and as it is more or less opposite to it These two opposite points in which when the Moon suffers an Eclipse those great Lights are found Astrologers call the Dragons Head and Tail. But as the Earth by its interposition is the Cause of the Moon 's Eclipse so also by the interposition of the Moon betwixt the Sun and the Earth is produced an Eclipse of the Sun which is either greater or less according as the Moon is more or less posited between us and the Sun or is nearer or farther from us Lunar Eclipses can happen naturally only in the time of Full Moon but these of the Sun in the time of New Moon An Eclipse of the Moon may be Total and Universal But that of the Sun can never without a Miracle be so at the same time but this is not a real defect of light in the Body of the Sun as it is in the Moon which is a dark Body and possesses only a borrowed Light. We may hear what Astronomical Philosophers and Astronomers say of it I told you before that the Sun is like melted Gold I told you likewise by the way that the Moon might be compared to melted Silver but I think it may be truly said that its Matter as to its Circumference is more like to real Silver but be it as it is it continues in the manner we see it suspended in one massie lump a most subtile Aetherial matter full of many empty spaces being by the Creator shut up in its Circumference which hinders the Moon chiefly from changing its place and from being immerged more deeply in the Sun 's Vortex whose Atoms are indeed more thick and gross By reason of its vacuities there is no fear that it should descend nearer the Sun or be able to resist the impression of its Vortex any more than the Earth which has plenty of Pores Cavities and empty Spaces without which it would too much resist the solar Vortex and would be able to get nearer its Centre that is the Sun. But its empty Cavities hinder that like Air contained in a Bladder which hinders it from sinking to the bottom and as the hollowness of the Quils of Birds bear them up in the Air. The Moon in her daily motion finishes her Course round the Earth in the space of twenty four hours or rather the Earth performs its daily motion about the Sun and its own proper Centre in twenty four hours time the Moon being carried away by the same Solar Vortex with the Earth is daily retarded some degrees whereupon we say it rises every day later and later until by this resistance or retrocession in twenty nine or thirty days it hath compleated its Monthly motion And besides this Retrocession it is moved by the Libration of the Sun from one Tropick to another and twice in every Month runs through the Equinoctial Line after the same manner as the Earth does it twice every Year There can be no Annual motion of the Moon unless about its own proper Centre But I will wander no further about a matter meerly Astrological CHAP. XI Of the Planets Comets and Fixed Stars SATURN Jupiter Mars Venus and Mercury are Five wandring Stars called Planets of the same Nature with the Sun but less pure whose Corpuscles are sent and driven towards the Body of the Sun they are likened to divers melted Mettals and sparkling in Chrystalline or Adamantine Crâ—â—bles and the Fire melting them is that of the Sun and the Fixed Stars If it be asked why they are not joyned with the Sun I answer that they consist of a Matter full of many empty Spaces and besides that they daily disburthen themselves upon the Body of the Sun and supply it with matter for depuration and resining which the Sun sends back to them more subtilised and they distill down these seminal and Mettalline Spirits upon the Earth They are diversely whirled about by the solar Vortex after which manner they obtain divers motions as Astronomers teach us Who affirm the Planets Mars and Venus to be less than the Earth
and the three others much greater although according to their Opinion the Diameter of the Earth is three thousand five hundred Miles but its circumference seven thousand Miles including the water which together with the Earth make up one Globe Comets according to Aristotle are Planets or Stars produced De Novo from Exhalations By which saying this Philosopher is compelled to place all Comets under the Moon which is found to be an Error by the experience of a great many Comets which have appeared above the Moon and the Sun too whither Exhalations from the Earth can never reach All the time of their continuance they have a regular motion for the explication of which Aristotle could never assign them an Intelligence to guide them Seneca the Antients and Copernicus teach that Comets have been produced from the beginning of the World and the reason why we do not see them so often as we do the Planets is because they are elevated too high above us and since they have an excentrick motion according to this Opinion they sometimes and for some continnuance of time appear that is to say then when they descend into the Heaven of the Planets But all these Opinions are very uncertain This is my Opinion that if the Sun is Gold melted in the Cupel as I really believe and that from thence Fumes and Vapours arise it is no hard matter to conceive that in the Solar Vortex and in the Corpuscles exhaling from the Sun a great part of them are very gross thick and inflammable which taking Fire make these Comets we speak of whose motion is regularly directed by the Vortex of the Sun yet nevertheless this does not hinder but that some Comets may be generated nearer us from Terrestrial Exhalation The fixed Stars are fastned to the Firmament as so many little Suns they are as immoveable as the Heaven in which they are included nevertheless like the Sun they move about their Centres although this motion be neither useful profitable nor necessary And so nothing compels us to say that they are actually moved They are all said to be bigger than the Earth and to be in number 1022 the Heaven in which they are is said to be solid clear and transparent like Ice and this is that Heaven which was made in the midst of the Waters and which any one may represent to himself like a great Circle of Water congealed in the form of Chrystal But according to my foregoing Hypotehsis I had rather say that the fix'd Stars are like so many round holes or Rings furnished with so many large Diamonds or Carbuncles which serve as a Medium or Vehicle to the light and heat of the Empyrial Heaven as we have said already CHAP. XII Of Meteors in the Air. ARISTOTLE hath constituted two sorts of Bodies to wit Simple and Mixt he placeth Meteors under these latter but he calls them imperfect mixt Bodies because he did believe them not to have a substantial form as perfect Bodies have nor to be produced by the ordinary way of Generation This Doctrine is contrary to our Principles for we say that those Meteors which we see in the Air are in their kind and condition perfect Bodies not differing from others neither in respect of Matter which is one and the same to them all nor in respect of substantial form produced in the formation of them for we acknowledge no such forms but as unprofitable and Chimerical All the difference which we take notice of betwixt them ought to be taken upon the account of their formation and different conditions under which one and the same Matter that is to say Atoms do meet together by a disposition of their parts by an addition of strange Bodies by an introduction of Vacuities and by a conversion of their Figures After this manner are formed Clouds which are the Meteors of the middle Region of the Air and which have Water Air and Earth for their Matter for from the Vapours of Water and the subtile particles of Earth together with the Air with which they are carried up Clouds are formed which are sometimes so thick that they rob us of the Suns Light which happens when more of Earth than of Air or Water goes into their composition On the other hand sometimes they are so subtile that they can hardly or not at all be seen by us which happens when air obtains the chief place in their composition for in a word Clouds are nothing else but a congregation and mixture of Corpuscles or little Bodies of Earth Water and Air which are the proximate Matter of them the Vortex of the Sun the Motion of the Earth and the Winds are the three concurring Causes of their mixtion and elevation into the upper Region of the Air. Other sorts of Meteors are Rains descending from the middle Region of the Air and generated from the solution of Clouds that is to say when Water which hath the greatest share in their formation freeing it self from the particles of Earth and parts of Air thence forward distill as it were by an Alembick which happens because its particles being incrassated by the coldness of the Air the water is separated from the Air and falls down again to the place from whence it came in the form of little drops From this Rain proceeds the Earths Fruitfulness for it never descends but it brings some portion of the little seminal Bodies flowing along with it In Rains therefore is contained Salt and the Balsom of the Stars which Basilius Valentinus speaks of and from hence all Vegetables bud and increase The Curious enquirers into Nature may try whether I speak truth or no and whether they may not find a Salt as white as Sugar if they take away by Distillation the unprofitable parts with which it is involved Dew is almost of the same nature with Rain only it is more pure more subtile and more fruitful by reason of the Seasons of the Year which chiefly enjoy it viz. at the time of the Aequinoxes when the Sun and the Earth are nearest to each other which happens when the Earth passes the Aequator wherefore at that time it receives and carries along with it a greater number of solar Corpuscles depurated by his motion than Rain or Dew it self that falls at other times Dew falls down in round drops because its Corpuscles are round and its Atoms are of the same Figure with the Sun whether whole or in parts Dew penetrates the Earth and moistens those places where there are seldom Rains But the Sun's shining Beams presently carry it away along with them into the Vortex in the mean time part of this Salt or Balsom of the Stars contained in the Dew remains upon the Herbs and Flowers where we observe a kind of Viscousness like Sugar or Honey thus Bees gathering this Dew lade themselves with it and make Honey of it This Dew in the Hot Countries of Palestine Aegypt Arabia and Calabria is condensed into
little Grains which are called Manna From this same Matter Sugar is made in the Madera-Islands and in both the Indies where it is found inclosed in Reeds Lastly after the same manner Pearls are formed and nourished in Shells He that studies to know the wonders of Dew and the vertue of the Spirits it contains may extract from thence admirable secrets for health but for nothing else that I know of CHAP. XIII Of Winds Tempests and Whirl-winds WInds are the same thing in the Air as Billows are in the Sea or as Floods are upon Land. And indeed they do sometimes disturb and move the Air so violently that the best rooted Trees and strongest built Houses are now and then pulled up by the Roots and overturned by them And yet Winds are nothing but Air agitated nor Tempests but Air floods or violent Agitations of the Air. Some Philosophers seek for the Causes of these Agitations of Air in the Rarefaction and Condensation of Bodies and to illustrate this Effect they bring an Experiment of Air rarified and going out with great force out of a large glass Bottle and of Air condensed in another Phial or Glass in which the least opening being made the external Air breaks in with great Force and Noise of both which Experiments I with others have been an Eye-witness We took therefore a great round Bottle and placed it in a cold place and then covering it with a double Skin made wet it was placed to a gentle Fire which by degrees being thorowly hot and the Skin prickt with a Needle the Air or Wind broke out from thence with so much violence that it blew out a Candle two Paces distant from it more than once The same Tryal was made with another Bottle in which Pease were put and the Hole shut with the Thumb which afterwards being taken away the Air immediately with the Pease burst out with so much Violence that they like Pistol Bullets entred into a Deal-board A second Eperiment was likewise made a Bottle was placed in a hot place and well stopped with Leather which being brought into a cold place and the Skin pierced through the external Air for half a quarter of an hours time rushed into the Bottle with so much noise and hissing that it seemed to indanger the breaking of it I confess these Experiments have left us an Idea of Winds and their vehemency but there always remains this one difficulty to wit what should be the Principle of this rarefaction and condensation of the Air for in the first Experiment refrigerated Air is shut up in the Glass Bottle and dilated with heat and then it goes violently out of the little hole that is made but how can Cold condense and Heat rarifie and dilate this Air Lastly what is it that presses it and forceth it with violence to seek its Exit And as to the second Experiment in which rarified Air is condensed in the Bottle how being rarified can part of the Glass remain empty And lastly from what Cause is the external Air forced to break in with so much precipitation All these things I mention that it may be seen that these difficulties do not escape me As to the first instance I say that Cold condenses Air in as much as it makes the vacuities dispersed through it lesser and more closely shut together so that there is â—uch more of matter in refrigerated Air than in the same made Hot But that this Doctrine may be rightly apprehended we must know in What Heat and Cold consists for when Cold condenses the Air and presses it together it performs it by its close solid heavy and plain particles as shall be treated of elsewhere Secondly Heat rarifies Air by an introduction of its Corpuscles which are almost destitute of all solidity by which the vacuities of the Air are increased and enlarged Thirdly the Air rushes forcibly out of the Bottle because their Corpuscles are compelled to dilate themselves which they cannot do nay from hence they break the Glass Bottle unless a hole be made in the skin It is true also that the Air going out of the hot Bottle is altogether Cold for they are the Corpuscles of Cold which go out and the noise with which they break out proceeds from the plain figures of the Corpuscles of Cold which cannot pass through the litle round holes without being entangled together and dashing one against another besides these Corpuscles being plain they are subtile also like little Razers thus in the Winter time we see the hands and feet of such as are tender hurt with Chops and Cliffs To the second Experiment I say that the Air in the Bottle being rarified by the help of Heat is afterwards compressed and condensed by the help of Cold passing through the substance of the Glass and breaking of it if it be not looked after Secondly the cold entring in drives out or into the sides the particles of Heat and the Glass on the part of its Orifice remains without Air and the disseminated Vacuities are gathered together into one Vacuum Thirdly the external Air enters with precipitation because it is pressed against its Nature by this great Cold and finding a place where to betake it self it possesseth it immediately We must here observe that rarefaction is never made on the one side but condensation is made on the other and so on the contrary and this is the first or immediate Cause of Winds when the Air is rarified by heat in subterraneous places and Caverns of the Earth and breaks out with violence or when it being condensed other supervenes with violence rushing towards it Another Cause of Winds or rather of Tempests and Storms by Sea and Land are the emancipated Atoms of which we have spoke already and which by justling one another more agitate the Air from divers parts diversly opposite from whence comes the reciprocal meeting and incursion of winds in the Region of the air which when they happen near the Earth they cause fearful and dangerous Whirl-winds This Opinion concerning the emancipation of Atoms supposes that in the dissolution of greater Bodies the lesser Particles and Atoms are emancipated and procure themselves liberty so that enjoying their own power they run through the Air and easily and vehemently move it These emancipated Atoms in the great World are not only very much to be feared where they use greatest violence but also in the little World where they produce most Diseases as are Horrors Fits of Feavers and their duplications Translations to the Brain Diliriums or Light-headedness and Phrensies To Cure which Sudorifick Medicines opening the Pores and driving out those sharp-pointed Atoms are chiefly to be commended CHAP. XIV Of Thunder Lightning and the Thunder-Bolt THunder Lightning and the Thunder-Bolt would be more stupendious were it not that there is something on Earth from whence we learn the manner how these things are done above us The first thing which gives us light concerning these three
Water clear sweet pure and not at all Corrosive fetch'd from the beams of the Sun and Moon in which Gold is reduced into a clear and heavy Water and is as easily melted as Ice in warm water and then lastly Gold cannot be said to be reduced to its first state that is body unless this Water be turned into Earth and this Earth be made fusile fixt tinging and fit to elevate inferiour things making poor people rich and to make that perfect which was not actually so although it was potentially I say this division is hardly radical because it doth not proceed from a separation of its Atoms For Gold is only brought into Water and that is sufficient for to bring it into Atoms were to destroy it and it would be to no purpose and this I think exceeds the power of all Natural Agents For God only is capable of reducing Gold into its first Elements and to cause it to be no longer Gold either Natural or Philosophical CHAP. IX Of Silver Copper and other imperfect Mettals SIlver is a Mettal much less perfect than Gold because its Atoms are endued with Figures scarcely so perfect for there are mixt with it particles reflected from the Body of the Moon nor is that Mettal so heavy as Gold by reason of Vacuities dispersed through it which are both greater and more numerous in it than in Gold for which reason Aqua-fortis dissolves it without hurting the Gold. It is true indeed that Aqua-Regis dissolves Gold without touching Silver but that ariseth from the different disposition of Vacuities in these two Mettals and because the Vacuities of Silver are too vast for the subtile Spirit of Aqua-Regis which passeth through them without division and from the magnitude of these Vacuities in Silver arises a greater sound from Silver than is given from Gold. For the same Cause a greater and clearer sound arises from Copper than from Silver by reason to wit of its greater Vacuities into which not a few Bodies of Air penetrate which by their motion produce this sound And for the same reason That is also lighter than Silver for as much as Metallick Bodies are not so strictly bound together by reason of strange Corpuscles of impure Sulphur mixed with them hence it is that Copper is not so flexible or ductile as is Silver They are both of them softned in Rust because Silver has too little and Copper too great a quantity of Sulphur wherefore they mutually temper each other and the particles of each lose their acrimony Silver may be made potable as well as Gold and as potable Gold is the best Medicine in Diseases of the Heart so potable Silver is a wonderful specifick in affects of the Head. These Medicines are potable and extreamly profitable to Health when they are dissolved the third way we spoke of and are brought into water by a sweet water and a Friend to Nature and which the Sun and Moon make use of as a Bath As to Copper from it is drawn a potent and innocent Sudorifick Extract performing wonders in Chronick Diseases The Spirits of these three united by a fourth make a most excellent Medicine CHAP. X. Of Lead Tin and Iron IRON is heavier than Copper because its Vacuities are not so great and besides it is burthened with much strange Earth the Corpuscles of which enter into its Composition It is the only Mettal hard to be melted because of this not mettalline Earth it possesseth also many Corpuscles of a dry and not fusible Sulphur and very little of Mercury especially crude which melts Mettals so that to melt it there is required a body abounding with Mercury such as is Antimony But if it be mingled with a Sulphurous Body it is brought into a red yellowish Saffron-colour'd Calx out of which are made the powerfullest Medicines for obstructions of the Hypocondria The Salt of it is sweeter than Sugar and the Salt of Antimony is like it nor is there in Nature above one Salt that exceeds it in vertue and eminency These three Salts are the restorers of the radical moisture Tin is a Mettal abounding with much Mercury much Salt and but a little Sulphur the Salt of it is the sweetest in the World the Particles of these three substances leave many Vacuities in the mettalline Body from whence ariseth its greater sound and lightness There are three wonderful things to be observed in Tin The first of which appears in its calcination in which we see the weight of this Mettal encreased although many Vapours rise up from it and one would think that should much abate its gravity This according to our Opinion arises from this that the Pores of Tin are opened in calcination that the compound is inverted and a great many Atoms enter into them and fill them and leave fewer Vacuities than there were before and so upon that account there is more Matter or weight Another that I observe is That the Calx of Tin is very hard to be melted and indeed so very hard it is that the wished for end cannot be obtained unless you add a special Melter But this difficulty arises from strange and immettalick Particles which have parted the body of Tin and have entred into its Pores and hinder the re-union of the parts of this Mettal in melting The third is That Tin when it is mixed with other Mettals calcines them and hinders their refining and on the contrary makes them Volatile which ariseth from the irregularity of its composition from its fixed Salt incapable of being melted from the subtilty of its Atoms and the aptitude of its figures arising from their easily being divided Lead as it is more sweet so it is more sociable it purifies and refines Gold and Silver from all impurities and foreign mixtures It is the heaviest of all Mettals but Gold and Quick-Silver because there is a fewer number of Vacuities dispersed through it After the same manner and for the same reason in calcination it is increased as Tin is and it is easily melted because it abounds with a crude and indigested Mercury which makes all Mettals fluid and fusible It may be separated also from its terrestrial part and from its very sweet Salt. There are many things more worthy of note which I observe in Lead The first of which is its weight not much differing from that of Gold and arising from that because this Mettal is in a manner almost altogether Quick-Silver as also that the void intertities are filled with terrestrial and impure Matter which hinders the fixity of the Quick-Silver from whence an ill and imperfect coagulation precipitates it self but he that can separate this Quick-Silver and digest it by an agreeable Sulphur in a Vessel appropriated to this work hath found a most excellent Remedy against most Diseases For the aforesaid Cause this Mettal is lighter than Quick-silver and if Quick-silver be poured upon Leaden-Bullets laid at the bottom of a Pot the Bullets will ascend and swim
Sea that offers it self of Note is the Saltness of its Waters Originally produced from saline massy Bodies produced at the beginning in the Earth and melted by the help of the Waters which from thence as now they are were impregnated with Saltness The heat of the Sun does not a little contribute to thâ—â— saltness consuming its humidity and Phlegm as do also the Salt which Rivers and Floods wash out of the Earth in their passage thither From whence it appears that it may be truly said that all the Salt which is contained in the Earth is carried into the Sea and drawn out of the Earth by the help of Rivers and Waters derived from them and running through the Earth whilst they are filtred to constitute Fountains of fresh Water Now if we could filter Sea-Water after this manner there would never be any scarcity of fresh-water in Ships and long Voyages Another thing that I observe in the Sea is the Ebbing and Flowing of its Waters in some places so very remarkable and regular in their turns every six hours There are some who have thought that Rivers entring into the Sea on one part are the Cause of its flowing but falling into it from another part are the Causes of its Ebbing Others have attributed this effect to winds but the greatest part to the motion of the Moon and to the condensation and rarefaction of the Lunar Air. This is the Opinion of Antonius à Reita extant in his Book entituled Oculus Enoch Eliae where he supposes that rarified Air presses the Sea and lifts it up on both sides like Mountains from whence there ariseth its Flowing Which Air being afterwards condensed the Sea begins to subside and the Waters to return to their first State that is they Ebb. He endeavours to build this Opinion by this Argument to wit that this motion is most observable at the Full of the Moon at which time the Air is very much rarified and at the new of the Moon when it is very much condensed For my part I would rather say that the Ebbing and flowing of the Sea ariseth from the Earths motion from one Tropick to the other For it cannot possibly in its diurnal motion move a degree forwards daily as it doth without driving the Waters from one part and attracting them from the other According to this Opinion a reason may be given why its ebbing and flowing is only from South to North and from North to South and that they are lesser between the Tropicks Besides there is nothing contained in this Opinion which is not very probable But if there are some irregularities observed in ebbing and flowing they arise from Islands Rocks Straights or Promo 〈…〉 tories which very much hasten retard or lessen this motion and partly upon this account that is to say by reason of the Straights of Gibralter there is no notable ebbing and flowing in the Mediterranean Sea besides it is seated between the two Tropicks and is neither too much Northerly nor too much Southerly CHAP. XVII Of Springs and Rivers THere are two kinds of Springs viz. those that sometimes run and those that run always the first proceed from Rains but these arise from the Sea But to speak properly the Sea is the source of all Springs and Fountains for Rains arise from Vapours raised out of the Sea by the help of the Sun and then falling down by drops out of which arise the first sort of Springs which are not perpetual But perpetual Springs are derived from it more immediately by the help of some subterraneous Watery Store-Houses which are filled by aqueducts proceeding from the Sea. It is commonly asked why Sea-water is salt and yet Spring-water which comes from it is sweet To which difficulty it is answered the aqueducts rising out of the Sea run through subterraneous Sands by which the Water in its passage 〈◊〉 filtred and deposits its Salt or else the Salt is precipitated and falls to the bottom of these subterraneous Watery store-Houses as we see in Salt-Pits or after the mixing of Oyl of Tartar and Spirits of Vitriol or that the Atoms pass through imperceptible aqueducts through which the saline Atoms cannot pass by reason of their square Figures So water is made fresh by the help of straining Or lastly by the means of distillation So water being raised up in Vapours and then condensed distils into other receptacles which recieve it and send it to others till it comes to the place where the Spring breaks out It seems a Wonder that Springs arising out of the Sea should be able to ascend to the tops of Mountains To which difficulty it may be answered that the Water of the Sea is equally as high as the highest Mountain because the Earth and Water make but one Globe and the Mountains of the Earth do appear to us to be high and lofty only in regard of the Plains and Vallies in which we are placed and from whence we look upon them But the Sea is higher than the Plains and Vallies if you conceive it all Universally because it makes a perfect Circle And if a Line should be drawn encompassing the whole terraqueous Globe it would be found a perfect circle without any irregularity From this supposed principle it is evident that Sea-water does not ascend that it may find an exit out of the tops of Mountains but that going out of them it descends and produces Rivers in the middle of Plains and bottom of Vallies And this They ought to mind who have said that Water ascends out of the Sea to our Mountains three ways by which it is wont to be raised to wit by the means of Pumps Pipes or woollen Cloth so they say Sea-water may be drawn up to the heighth of Mountains by help of the Beams of the Sun and Stars or by Channels or Pores unknown to us and made in the shape of Pipes and disposed of after the manner as we see all the Wine in the Vessel taken out from thence by the help of a Pipe or lastly Sea water may insinuate it self into a spongy and light Earth which imbibes it and causeth it to ascend and flow after the same manner as we see all the Water contained in a Bason to ascend to the brims of it and by degrees to go beyond by the help of Cotten or a little Woollen Cloth As pleasant and as subtile soever as this fancy may be I think my Opinion is better grounded and more agreeable to truth By what hath been said it is apparent hitherto that Sea-water supplies Matter to Springs and Fountains these do supply Matter to Rivulets and Rivulets to Streams and Rivers which empty themselves into the Sea from whence they come out to moisten the Earth and that as I said before by a continual fluid circulation It may be lastly asked what may be the Cause of this circulation and from whence proceeds that force with which we see Floods and Rivers to
the Creator and necessity of Nature and some only by accident and the power and plenty of Matter encompassing them So the Atoms shut up in the Heart that they may give motion to it and to the whole Body were incarcerated at the beginning of its formation or rather being cast into seminal Bands when God created it afterwards they are translated out of this first Prison where they had little or no motion into another where they enjoy a more free and wandring motion as shall be more fully discoursed of in the following Chapters The third thing that flows from this Principle is That these same Atoms are the Cause of Motion and Life and that there is more of action and more of Life where these are in greater plenty and number provided the Corporeal Machine be disposed to motion For one of the principal Springs being broke the vital Atoms lose their action the greatest part of them exhale and withdraw themselves and others wandring about continue Vagabonds without any order or method So that it is necessary that the parts of a Compound Body should be disposed in some Order which when wanting the vital Atoms exert no motion but this order of parts would be to no purpose unless the vital Atoms were present to give them motion The same thing we observe in a Clock where an integrity and just disposition of the Wheels are required together with the force of a Spring to set all the Wheels in motion Although there be a great proportion and likeness between living Natural Bodies and these artificial Machines yet nevertheless there is a great difference between them for Atoms are Natural Springs and exist Originally in the seed out of which the Body is produced and they themselves are the Artificers of the Machines which give encrease to it and dispose the Parts of it in such manner that they may there exercise their motions and this is that great Artifice of Nature which operates by seeds produced from God which exceeds all that ever Art can devise CHAP. II. Of the Differences of Lives THe difference of Lives are only known by the difference of Vital Actions of which there are four kinds to wit the Mettallick Vegetative Sensitive and Rational Man the little World enjoys a Life under which all others are comprehended and chiefly in him we observe a vegetative Life as in Plants and a sensitive as in Brutes besides which two kinds of life He possesseth a third of his own which is a rational Life He is nourished that is and grows like Plants he is begotten of another he is sensible as an Animal and he speaketh and reasoneth as a Man all these different operations which we see in Man perswades us to consider him especially and to begin with the life of Plants which seems less considerable than the sensitive and rational and which comprehends under it their generation growth and nourishing which three are equally conspicuous in Man as in Plants though in a more noble and more eminent manner CHAP. III. Of the Vegetative Life common to Man and Plants THe Life of Plants appears from their growth which supposeth Nutrition and both these suppose a Birth and this implies a Generation For whatsoever grows in a vital manner and by Nature is nourished so likewise whatsoever is nourished hath a birth and every thing that is born is begotten We will therefore begin to speak of Man's generation and of the first forming of him The Generation we here speak of is the production of a thing out of Seed under this generation are comprehended Conception and Birth as Separation and Death are included in the Corruption of things This is that which is not found in the Works of Nature whose conception is made in the mind of the Artificer and its Formation depends upon his hand but all that is external to the work which may be afterwards broken and divided when in the mean time it cannot be said that we take away Life from it or bring Death upon it So that whatsoever is Begotten to speak properly Lives and whatsoever lives is produced out of Seed Now Seeds are created from the beginning and by the Author of Nature ingrafted into every Plant and kind of Tree bearing fruitful Seed So we see that there is a perpetual propagation and encrease of individuals in every Species in the Earth as well as in the Waters and in the Air. All and the only difficulty remains in explaining the Nature of this Seed and the manner of its propagation These two are Mysteries in Nature which seem to surpass all humane reason Nevertheless I will give you my meditations of them And first of all I suppose we may consider Seed in general and as it is to be found as we have said in Mettals Plants Animals and Man. For after this manner being looked upon in general it is nothing else but a Medium disposed by God to the propagation of these four several kinds in the World so that one Substance as to its kind produces its like in the same kind as Mettal is produced from Mettal and a Plant from another Plant c. From whence appears the fanciful Folly of Chymists who strive to multiply Mettals without a Mettallick Seed and to produce Gold without its peculiar Seed For the same thing that in general Seed is in respect of the four named generals the same in special is Seed in respect of the individuals which are produced of it For indeed to produce Plants the Seed is only to be sought for in the vegetable Kingdom So in like manner to produce Corn Seed is required that is a grain of Corn to produce an Apple there is need of the kernel of an Apple or at least a Sien of it which contains in it part of the Spirits and seminal Corpuscles which insinuate themselves into the wild Stock of the Tree in which they are ingraffed or inoculated and produce the same effect that a grain does which is thrown into Earth fit to receive it This is that vegetative Seed which we here speak of and in this regard we consider Man as he is partaker of the life of this Species and begotten out of Seed Nevertheless we are to distinguish the two substances in Man viz. the material part which is his Body and his spiritual part which is his Soul Created by God whereas the other is begotten So that we here speak of Man onely as he is a material Compound without medling with his Soul which is immortal These things being supposed I turn me to the two difficulties which I have obliged my self to explain and I design them a peculiar Chapter CHAP IV. Of the Nature of Seeds and of their Propagation THe Learned Fernelius affirms that Seeds contain an Astral and Coelestial Spirit but Galen that they contain something Divine These great Wits have spoken most wisely and have considered the seminal Spirit as a thing surpassing the Capacity of our Spirits
in Ward-Robes and they who frequently Visit those that are Sick of the Plague do not use Woollen Garments but Linnen ones to which the contagious Particles do less adhere From this Doctrine it appears that Smells are little Bodies which issue out of all Compound Natural Bodies especially Living ones by reason of their frequent agitation and which have Pores more open than Bodies not animated Besides it appears that these Corpuscles do never go out of Bodies in greater number than when they are a dissolving after which manner a smell exhales out of Gold and Silver dissolved excelling that of Musk and Amber From Antimony dissolved an Oyle is drawn of a very grateful smell and by another way a Sulphur is drawn out not to be endured for its stink And by the help of these Odoriferous Corpuscles Dogs Hunt Hares and find out their forms and by this means they discover their Masters foot-steps It is an argument that this is done by the help of these Corpuscles because they are dissipated by Wind and hindred by Dew and Experience teaches that those that handle Musk carry the smell of it a long while about them From whence it is known that these very small Bodies are adhering and that they have hooked Figures and that they do please and tickle according to that proportion which they have with the Organs CHAP. XIV Of Tast and its Object TAST is a Sense Natural and proper to Animals and by the help of that they distinguish Savours making a difference between the grateful and the ingrateful The Organ of this sense is the Tongue and Palat and it is done by the help of Spongy Flesh and of Nerves which terminate in the Tongue and â—arry the Animal Spirit to the Organ and the Savour to the imagination Savour the Object of Tast consists in certain saline Corpuscles of Aliments or other Bodies out of which they come and pleasantly or unpleasantly vellicate the Tongue and Palat according as their Figure is more or less rough and pungent or smooth and round and more or less adequetated to the Organ Since Savours are Corpuscles of Salt it follows that they differ according to the diversity of Salts to wit that they are sharp sweet bitter sowre and the like according to the Nature of the Salt that bears rule in their Composition and according to the quality of Corpuscles coming from elsewhere which change the Natural Savour of things as Wine by the addition of Water loseth both its strength and Savour although in this condition it is more grateful to some than when pure Wine From whence we know that the diversity of Tasts does not proceed from the sole diversity of Savours but also from the diversity of the Organs and hence it is that all people do not relish alike one and the same thing nor have all People a Tast equally delicate from whence it comes that some are delighted with those Meats that others abhor The Organ also is sometimes so ill disposed and the Tongue burdned with so great a quantity of ill Humours that things of the most grateful Savour seem insipid as also things not very sweet seem bitter which thing happens in a double and a continual Tertian Ague by reason of the dominion of Choler CHAP. XV. Of Feeling FEELING is a general Sense extended throughout the whole Body and is made by the help of Membranes such as the Skin the Scarf Skin and the Skin that covers the Bones called Periostium and others that are internal and this sole sense distinguishes every thing that by its contiguity brings pleasure or Pain The Object of it is Hot and Cold Soft and Hard Moistness and Dryness Concerning these different qualities of a Body we have treated elsewhere excepting Heat and Cold as which are not Physical accidents but two particular Bodies Heat is a heap amassing or flowing together of sharp pointed Corpuscles which penetrate into solid Bodies and do there cause a Division and do dissolve the more perfect Bodies and this is what we call to be set on Fire and to be burnt For Fire does not burn Wood but by dissolving nor dissolves it but by burning Cold is an heap amassing and flowing together of Atoms and Corpuscles of a blunt and plain Figure and hence it is that Cold does not penetrate into the Body but with pain and torment as also it excites a frequent motion of the Parts or shivering Besides there are not wanting some Particles so gross as to stop up the Pores of the Body and to drive the Heat into the inward parts which we call Antiperistasis by reason of which the included Heat becomes stronger which is the Cause why the Heat of the Stomach in Winter time is greater than it is in Summer and why Wells are warm and reak like Smoak For the same Reason Heat being shut up in our Bodies by the external Cold sometimes such like fumes are raised up in the Brain which are not without a great deal of danger Feeling is several ways performed and first of all by application where Body is moved to Body and Hand to Hand by penetration in making a solution of that which was whole as a Needle pricking the Hand Secondly Feeling is made by separation one Body coming out of another which if occasioned by Nature is always accompanied with pain as in non-Natural ejections Thirdly this Sense appears in the motion of those Bodies which are contained by others for sometimes they move themselves with so great force and do so press rend and tear that they excite pains not to be endured as in violent Head-aches the Pleurisie and pains of the Gout and Cholick CHAP. XVI Of the Speech Pulse and Breathing of Man. VOICE is common to all perfect Animals as well as Men but so is not Speech or an articulate Voice Brutes express their sense of things by Natural Voices and Men their interiour Speech to wit Thoughts by outward Speech as its Interpreter And this is done by the motion of the Tongue as also of the Air after a certain manner driven to and fro between the Teeth and the fluctuating windings and turnings of the Throat This motion is natural and voluntary For Discourse or Speech is an expression of an action of the Soul to wit of Thought But this Thought cannot be outwardly made manifest without the command of the Will or the strength or weakness of the Imagination The dilatation and contraction of the Lungs as also the action of the Muscles of the Breast serve to the formation of Speech and a Voice becomes sweet and harmonious when the Lungs and the aforesaid Muscles act methodically as also when the Air is duly reflected repelled and interrupted by the passages and turnings and windings of the rough Artery and where the Corpuscles of this Natural little Tongue are less rough and more free from strange Bodies The Diaphragm Stomach and Belly move when we speak and follow the motion of the Lungs and the
like to an emancipated Atom which being free from the bonds of the Composition never returns thither again unless that be restored to its pristine or to a better condition CHAP. XVIII Of the Irregular Motion of the Heart in Animals and of Feavers I Cannot but say something of the inordinate motions of the Heart stirred up by divers Feavers and from that Occasion discourse of the difference of Feavers their Causes and Remedies Feavers are either Diary viz. an inordinate motion of the Spirits which are agitated and disturbed by emancipated Atoms or they are Hectick which attack the Fleshy and Solid Parts And these Feavers are excited by emancipated Atoms which insinuate themselves into the substance of our Bodies and are the Cause that the Corpuscles of the Radical Moisture are driven away and exhaled by reason of which the Body is sensibly dryed The other Feavers consist in the Humours and in their fermentation and ebullition and when this fermentation never remits the Feaver is continual where it keeps its periods by turns it is an intermitting Feaver and it is called either a Quotidian where it comes every day or a double Tertian or Quartan as Phlegme Choler or Melancholly predominate When it comes one day and not the next it is a Tertian when it remits for two days it is a Quartan when it rages for two days together and remits the third it is a double Quartan And all these Fits or redoublings are owing to emancipated Atoms or relaxed Corpuscles which provoke move and stir up this or that humour which cannot be done without an agitation of the Heart and a manifest Pulsation of the Arteries That which in this Subject is difficult to be explained consists in the regular Fits and intermission of Feavers that is to say what is the beginning and what the Cause of this Flux and Reflux and of this periodical Motion and State of Rest and how it comes to pass that Phlegme ferments daily Choler but every other day and Melancholly after two days of rest Physitians say this motion proceeds from the diversity of humours and that Phlegme has its motion and fermentation every day Choler every other day and Melancholly every fourth day But the Physical Philosopher examines this difficulty more nearly and the Sick Person has reason to rest satisfied when the Physitian knowing the Quality of the Feaver administers Remedies which evacuate the offending humours and prohibit the generation of the new and by this means the Cause being taken away they raise him up and restore him to health The Physical Philosopher who enquires into the true Causes of the motions in Nature and does not like the Physician precisely respect the Health of this or that Person but endeavours to discover the truth of all things supposeth first that there is no humour in our Bodies which goes on from Rest to Motion unless it be stirred up by some Agent and Mover So it is questioned what may be that Principle by which Choler after twenty or twenty-four hours rest is stirred up and what should excite the fermentation of Melancholly after it has sat down quietly and unmoved two days or there abouts Physicians who are truly Philosophers and ought to be so teach us that in a Cachochymick Body there is always a new generation made of these sort of humours and when they are already arrived to a due state of plenitude some sooner than other some and sometimes where there is a complication many of them go on together to a fermentation and that all this proceeds from the different Nature of humours and their more easie or more difficult motion as also from a greater or lesser quantity of one or more humours But it may also be asked what is the Principle of this agitation or fermentation in that State of Plenitude and for what Cause these Febrile motions are so very regular and periodick Here and every where we will speak Bona Fide and without a Fallacy and say according to our Principles that the Atoms asserting their Liberty with every dissolution of the Aliment Chyle and Blood as we have said elsewhere do by their sharp-pointed Figures tear the Internal Membranes and Tunicles of the Stomach and Intestines as also excite those horrours and tremblings at the beginning of the Fit and which are longer or shorter and more or fewer according as their Figures are more or less aculeated and rugged or smooth and orbiculate According to this Principle we may say that the Atoms from the first digestion of the Stomach challenging to themselves a Liberty and being weary of the covering of Phlegme and Salt-water do daily stir up this agitation but those which in the dissolution of Chyle withdraw themselves from servitude and which abound with a Sulphurous Water which we commonly call Choler do stir up a motion more slow by a day than the former and as many as are emancipated after the third Concoction and dissolution of the Aliments and are wrapped up in adust Blood or that black Excrement which they call Melancholly do produce this Febrile motion two days slower than the first according to these different dissolutions Where we must first of all take notice that the shakeings in the motion of these differing humours are not equal nay not in the very Fits of one and the same Feaver proceeding from one and the same Cause but which hath different degrees of activity To which thing besides what we have said the Quality of the Food given to the Sick Person in the time of the intermission doth much contribute Secondly the Fits of one and the same Feaver are not so very regular but that they frequently are perceived sooner or later as the Atoms the disturbers of Health are sooner or later set at liberty To which thing the regimen of the Sick persons manner of Living does not a little contribute Hence it follows in the Third place That the true Remedy of intermitting Feavers doth consist First in an order of Living Secondly in an evacuation of peccant or strange humours which hinder retard or interrupt or precipitate the digestion of Aliments which must be well observed by an experienced Physitian and Lastly the Parts which serve to the first Concoction are to be strengthned because their faults and defects can never be corrected afterwards Moreover if it shall happen that there are some emancipated Atoms as without doubt there are more or less of them in all Bodies they are to be expelled by transpiration or their Figures to be inverted by Remedies called Febrifuges For Experience teacheth us that there are some of those sort of Remedies very profitable which are administred with extraordinary good success and which are not fruitlesly administer'd by me And I have now some of these sorts of Remedies found out by me and administered which in one day have Cur'd the Quartan and double Quartan I speak the truth but I should injure the truth if I should go so far as to say
clammyness humidity and viscousness do stupifie the Animal Spirits and Sleep is sweet or restless according as those Vapours are sweet or abound with Corpuscles or are stirred up from Choler or other things of an irregular Figure or where some emancipated Atoms make the disturbance The mixture of these Atoms is often the Cause of Light-headedness Madness and Hypochondriac Melancholly and they likewise produce watchfulness by an inversion and confusion of the Ideas in the imagination from whence it happens that we see that which we never see directly and sometimes Monsters and horrible things This motion of the Images or Ideas is sometimes so very violent and there is so great a Troop of these emancipated Atoms in the Brain that those that are asleep do sometimes rise out of Bed Talk climbe up Walls Bathe themselves and then go to Bed again without ever waking all the while Death is commonly called a perpetual Sleep and in Animals excepting Man it is nothing else than a total dissipation of the Vital Atoms or a cessation of motion in which their Life consists In Man these things are not after the same manner although however all these things cease in a dying Man either immediately as in a violent Death or by degrees as in a Natural Death we must confess nevertheless that in that respect something else is to be accomplished to wit the separation of the Soul which God gave him and which returns unto him that gave it Before we go any further and that we may make an end of this Chapter and be as good as our Word I am forced a little more specially to discourse concerning the Death of those things which have Life For whatsoever is Created and Compounded of many Parts and Liveth is subject to Death Man who is Compounded of a material and Organical Body like other Beings dyes at last but because he hath an immortal Soul Created after the Image of God he only dyes that he may live Eternally with God if he be Faithful and his Death is no more than Sleep and a passing into Eternity What a Christian Philosopher ought to think of this Soul I shall declare in the last Chapter of this Book Here I will say something of his Body as also of its Corruption and Dissolution The Rational Soul never goes out of this Mortal Body before the motion of the Heart is stopped this motion which is not voluntary ceasing Life can no longer continue since it consists in this motion If the Rational Soul was only in the Brain as Duncan and some others will have it it would be hard to tell why it should depart upon the cessation of the Hearts motion whilst the rest of the Parts are in good order As for my part I consider it in its Spiritual Nature believing that he must have too mean an Idea of this Spiritual Substance who confines it to the Brain and to the smallest part of it That Opinion which affirms it to be present every where in the whole Body although it operates more particularly in the Brain and Heart seems to me to be more Reasonable and for this Reason the Soul acting in the Heart the Organ ceasing it departs in the same Moment It may seem a wonder to not a few that the Rational Soul should so depend upon the material Body but since it so seemed good to the Author of Nature we ought to rest satisfied The Body is endued with Organs for the sake of the Soul and the Soul is created for the sake of the Body and one is made for the other and the Conjunction of these two make a compleat Man. One part onely does not make a Man nor does a separate Body make up the Essence of a Man and indeed a dead Man is not what he was 'till he Rises again The Soul therefore is annexed to the Body by such a sort of Tye that it cannot act but by Organs So that he sees nothing when his Eyes are out he hears nothing when his Ears are stopt and the chief Organ being deficient the Soul departs because it can do nothing This Chief Organ to wit the Heart is deficient many ways it may be stopped and suffocated for want of Air and respiration for the Atoms of Light implanted in the Heart at the time of a Man's Conception the commerce of the Solar Spirits being intercepted for want of Air do sometimes suddenly stand still they flye away finding a passage through a solution of the continuum or through Pores made fit by a burning Feaver in the Heart all the Water of the Pericardium being dryed up Thick and viscous Blood does sometimes stop the motion of these Vital Atoms Poyson also does by its acute Particles pierce through the Heart and give an exit to these Spirits of Light which are tyed to those which the Sun bestows upon us and are attracted by them returning thither from whence they came Let us see now what the Body does in the Grave it putrifies there that is it is dissolved some Corpuscles or Atoms withdraw themselves some part of the Body is changed into Worms some of the Vital Spirits resisting It is a folly here to imagine any substantial form of the Dead Carcasse or to acknowledge partial forms of the Bones Flesh Veins Arteries and such like things Subjects to the form of the dead Carcasse or alone without this Form. These are Illusions and Chimera's Matter is the same and all the change that happens consists in this That when the Rational Soul is absent there remains nothing besides matter the Organs by little and little lose their Figure and having lost their Composition they lose their action that which was compounded is dissolved and the greater part goes into Dust and Ashes the Luminous Spirits recede and follow the motion of the Spirits of their kind some Parts or Corpuscles joyned to the putrifying Body purtifie in the place where they are Experience favours this Doctrine A certain Servant to a Noble-Man whose Nose had been by great misfortune newly cut off freely parts with his own Nose to serve his Master This Nose being put in the place of that which was newly cut off took Root and grew together after such a manner with a Cartaliginous Flesh that it seemed to be Natural About twenty years afterwards the Servant dyes in a far Countrey and was Buried and as by degrees he putrified so after the same manner this end of a Nose began to putrifie to be corrupted and to fall off parting from that part to which it had so long stuck without withering whilst the Servant lived the part following the condition of the whole I say moreover that the least parts or Corpuscles which proceed from a Body the Body being Dead and Corrupted they also are Corrupted and joyned in commerce with Atoms of the same Nature which they do by inviting them to joyn and come together And here 's an Experiment which every one can understand It is
very well known that he that puts on a Garment or touches it leaves upon it his Scent that is Corpuscles which proceed from his Body and which constitute part of it and by the help of these Corpuscles a Dog is able to know his Masters Handkerchief Hat or Garment from ten thousand others This being supposed if the Dead Man's Garment or Gloak be put into a Press or Chest first and for some days when the Body that is Buried begins to putrifie there will be a considerable noise and disturbance in the Press or Chest enough to frighten Children and other folks too and the Corpuscles of the dead Body being attracted by those that are going away by their motion make this noise among the Cloaths And whereas this attraction is made in a streight Line and these Corpuscles cannot pass through the Bords but obliquely the Wood suffering violence makes a noise as if it were crackt Any one may trye this and know whether this Experiment made by others be true or no I see no reason to doubt of it From hence appears that invisible Bond of the Parts with the Body from whence they did proceed A third Experiment may be made which will serve to the illustrating this Subject Take a piece of Veal or any other Flesh from the Shambles and with it rub the Warts of any ones Face or Hands then afterwards fling it upon the Dunghil or Bury it and as that putrifies the Warts will fall off which denotes that the Corpuscles of Flesh returning to their whole or greater part and being violently attracted do in the same manner attract the Warts and make them go away which some Learned Men say they have Experienced We may admire in all these things the Providence of God who hath Created Atoms and out of them hath compounded the Universe wherein we find so great a number of wonderful things which are the subject of our admiration and convince our Ignorance CHAP. XXII Of the Death of Brutes Plants and Mettals SEeing that Man dyes other Animals cannot escape Death let us see wherein it consists The Followers of Aristotle are very much puzzled in explaining the Death of a Dog for when it is destitute of all Sense and Motion it is dead without doubt yet in the mean time it hath all its parts and Organs What therefore happens to this Animal It s Soul is separated from its Body say they and the Spirit of Life is not in him they do the Beast much honour who speak thus in his Favour But what becomes of this Soul Is it corrupted or annihilated or does it subsist apart in some other place or is it taken into some other Body No by no means say they it is not it is destroyed and that 's sufficient So it is sufficient to People who don 't seek after the Truth For if this Soul be a substance as they say it is a material one it is impossible but it must go into some other thing or else be reduced into nothing It is reduced into nothing say they therefore it is annihilated therefore it is Created and made out of nothing which is Ridiculous and unbecoming a Christian Philosopher It is true this Opinion is very common in the Schools but this Errour is detected and they who are wiser than others say with us that the Spirits of Life or Corpuscles of Light being altogether dissipated or hindred in their motion do withdraw and return to their Original and Copulate with others which are in the Air so dyes a Dog without the loss of that which God made the Parts are separated the Spirits seek the Air the Body the Earth Plants dye like other Living Creatures but their Death very much differs from the Death of Animals for as much as their Organical Parts do not appear so as they do in Animals nor does a Plant dye so easily as an Animal For a Plant is not dead so soon as it is pulled out of the ground its Life continues to the extream dryness or evaporation of the Radical moisture which contains all the Spirits of Life and though the Plant be calcined or burnt to Ashes part of the Spirits will remain in those Ashes for the Lixivium that is made or the Salt that is extracted gives all the Savour of the Plant and where that Lixivium is congealed by the Cold of the Night the Figure of the burnt Plant will appear in the very Ice But what is more to be observed is that a Plant dryed in a Kilne and put into a particular Water whose Virtue is Universal receives its pristine Greenness Leaves and Flowers without doubt in this dryed Plant some Vital Spirits were shut up which are relaxed by the Spirits of this Water or the Vital Spirits exhaling give way to the Spirits of the Water we speak of to take their places This Water is endued with Vital Spirits which can fill the place of those that exhale in us and with this sole Remedy Life may be prolonged and the losses of ruined Old-Age be repaired by filling up the Vacuities of the radical moisture which is dissipated But you will say where is this Water it is to be found in Light according to our Principles and certainly no where else This Water is the true Elixir-Vitae and the Universal Medicine of the Antients and it is meet that we use it to the preservation of the most Sacred Persons Mettals have a more abstruse Life than Plants nor is their Death more conspicuous Their Life consists in a certain disposition of Parts which permits a free motion to the Atoms of Life and Light. This is the State of Mettals in their Mines and when they are melted this Liberty is lost by the intervention of the Atoms of Fire and when after melting they grow cold they may be called Dead for they are deprived of motion nor do they perform any action Gold melted when it is grown cold is dead it Lived in the Mine it is dying whilst it is melting and it is dead when cast into Ingots In vain therefore do the Chymists seek for the Living among the Dead Common Gold is dead and good for nothing but to make Money of but if any one can dissolve this Body and bring the Dead to Life again by the benefit of that resuscitative Water which we spoke of before he may prepare a Medicine profitable to humane and Mettalick Bodies It is said before that Stones want Life But this I meant that they not a Life so notorious as Mettals whose Life hitherto is yet obscure enough for I have Learnt being convinced by Experience that the greatest part of Stones are multiplied and encrease according to all their dimensions and that Sand is turned into Shells And this very thing is the Cause that I conclude Light to be the Spirit of Life that by the benefit of it all things Live the very Stones also take their Life from hence Seeds owe all their Vigour to Light and seeing that Light is woven out of thin threads of Gold all things therefore Live by the Spirit of Gold. But the Soul of Man is Spiritual and a Ray of Divine Light and owes its Life to God and his Word as also it is an Immortal Substance as we shall say in the next and last Chpater