Knowledge or for Life To perswade Men that there is worthier Imployment for them than tying Knots in Bulrushes and that they may be better accommodated in a well-built House than in a Castle in the Air We must seek and gather observe and examine and lay up in Bank for the Ages that come after This is the business of the Experimental Philosophers and in these Designs a progress hath been made sufficient to satisfie sober expectations But for those that look they should give them the Great Elixir the Perpetual Motion the way to make Glass malleable and Man immortal or they will object that the Philosophers have done nothing for such I say their impertinent Taunts are no more to be regarded than the chat of Ideots and Children But I think I am fallen into things of which the Ingenious Historian hath somewhere given better accounts However I shall briefly endeavour to shew the injustice of the Reproach of having done nothing as 't is applyed to the Royal Scociety by a single Instance in one of their Members who alone hath done enough to oblige all Mankind and to erect an eternal Monument to his Memory So that had this great Person lived in those days when Men deified their Benefactors he could not have miss'd one of the first places among their exalted Mortals And every one will be convinc'd that this is not vainly said when I have added That I mean the Illustrious Mr. BOYLE a Person by whose proper Merits that noble Name is as much adorned as by all the splendid Titles that it wears And that this Honourable Gentlemâ—… hath done such things for the benefit of the World and increase of Knowledge will easily appear to those that converse with Him in his excellent Writings 1. In his Book of the AIR we have a great improvement of the Magdeburg Experiment of emptying Glass Vessels by exsuction of the Air to far greater degrees of evacuation ease and conveniences for use as also an advance of that other famous one of Torticellius performed by the New Engine of which I have said some things above and call'd the AIR-PUMP By this Instrument as K have already intimated the Nature Spring Expansion Pressure and Weight of the Air the decrease of its farce when dilated the Doctrine of a Vacuum the Height of the Atmosphere the Theories of Respiration Sounds Fluidity Gravity Heat Flame the Magnet and several other useful and luciferous Matters are estimated illustrated and explain'd And 2. The great Doctrine of the Weight and Spring of the Air is solidly vindicated and further asserted by the Illustrious Author in another BOOK against HOBS and LINVS 3. In his PHYSIOLOGICAL and EXPERIMENTAL ESSAYS he nobly encourageth and perswades the making of Experiments and collecting Observations and gives the necessary Cautions that are to be used in such Designs He imparts a very considerable luciferous Experiment concerning the different parts and redintegration of Salt-petre whence he deduceth That Motion Figure and Disposition of parts may suffice to produce all the secondary Affections of Bodies and consequently That there is no need of the substintial Forms and Qualities of the Schools To this he adds a close History of Fluidity and Firmness which tends mightily to the elucidating of those useful Doctrines 4. In his SCEPTICAL CHYMIST he cautions against the sitting down and acquiescing in Chymical and Peripatetical Theories which many do to the great hinderance of the growth and improvement of Knowledge He therefore adviseth a more wary consideration and examen of those Doctrines before they are subscribed and for that purpose he assists them with many very considerable Observations and Experiments 5. In his VSEFVLNESS of EXPERIMENTAL PHILOSOPHY he makes it appear how much that way tends to the advance of the Power and Empire of Man over the Creatures and the universal Benefit of the World confirming and illustrating his Discourse with innumerable new and useful Discoveries 6. In his HISTORY of COLD he hath to wonder cultivated that barren Subject and improved it as is noted in the Philosophical Transactions by near 200 choice Experiments and Observations He hath there given an account of the defectiveness of common Weather-Glasses the Advantages of the new Hermetical Thermometers and an Inquiry concerning the cause of the Condensation of the Air and Ascent of Water by Cold in the ordinary Weather-wisers All which afford valuable Considerations of Light and Vse But these are only Preliminaries The main Discourse presents us with an Account what Bodies are capable of freezing others and what of being frozen The ways to estimate the degrees of coldness How to measure the intenseness of Cold produced by Art beyond that imploy'd in ordinary Freezing In what proportion Water will be made to shrink by Snow and Salt How to measure the change produc'd in Water between the greatest heat of Summer the first degree of Winter-cold and the highest of Art How to discover the differing degrees of Coldness in different Regions A way of freezing without danger to the Vessel What may be the effects of Cold as to the preserving or destroying the texture of Bodies Whether specifick Virtues of Plants are lost through congelation and then thawing Whether Electrical and Magnetick Vertues are altered by Cold The expansion and contraction of Bodies by freezing how they are caused and how their quantity is to be measured The strength of the expansion of Water freezing and an Inquiry into the Cause of that prodigious force The Sphere of Activity of Cold. How far the Frost descends in Earth and Water An Experiment shewing whether Cold can act through an hot medium A way of accounting the solidity of Ice and the strength of the adhesion of its parts What Liquors are its quickest Dissolvents An Experiment of heating a cold Liquor with Ice These and many more such instructive and useful things are contained in that excellent Discourse To which is annex'd a very ingenious Examination and Disproof of the common obscure Doctrine of Antiperistasis and Mr. Hobbs his Notion of Cold. 7. In his EXPERIMENTAL HISTORY of COLOVRS he hath laid a foundation in 150 Experiments at least for grounded Theory about these Matters He hath shewn the grand mistake of the common belief That Colours inhere in their Objects and proved they depend upon the disposition of the external parts and the more inward texture of Bodies He hath stated and explained wherein the Disparity consists between the Real and Exphatical explicated the Nature of Whiteness and Blackness rectified some Chymical Principles compounded Colours by trajecting the Solar Beams through tinged Glasses shewed how by certain Tinctures it may be known whether any Salt be acid or sulphureous Hath proved there is no necessity of the Peripatetick FORMS for the production of Colours by making Green by nine kinds of mixtures compounded Colours real and phantastical turned the Blew of Violets by acid Salts into a Red and by the alcalizate into a Green and performed many
the Fuga Vacui and shewn that the strange Effects which use to be ascribed to that general and obscure cause do arise from the native self-expansion of the Air. The extent of which Elastical Expansion he hath found divers ways to measure by his Engine which also discovers the Influence the Air hath on Flame Smoke and Fire That it hath none in Operations Magnetical That it is probably much interspersed in the Pores of Water and comprest by the incumbent Atmosphere even in those elose retreats What Operation the exsuction of the Air hath on other Liquors as Oil Wine Spirit of Vinegar Milk Eggs Spirit of Vrine Solution of Tartar and Spirit of Wine The gravity and expansion of the Air under Water The interest the Air hath in the vibrations of Pendulums and what it hath to do in the propagation of Sounds That Fumes and Vapours ascend by reason of the gravity of the Ambient and not from their own positive levity The nature of Suction the cause of Filtration and the rising of Water in Siphons The nature of Respiration and the Lungs illustrated by tryals made on several kinds of Animals and the interest the Air hath in the Operations of Corosive Liquors These and many more such-like beneficial Observations and Discoveries hath that great Man made by the help of his Pneumatick Engine and there is no doubt but more and perhaps greater things will be disclosed by it when future ingenuity and diligence hath improved and perfected this Invention For what great thing was absolute and perfect in its first rise and beginning And 't is like this Instrument hereafter will be used and applyed to things yet unthought of for the advancement of Knowledge and the conveniences of Life THus I have performed the first part of my promise by shewing what Advantages the latter Ages and particularly the ROYAL SOCIETY have for deep search into things both by Arts and Instruments newly invented or improved above those enjoy'd by Aristotle and the Ancients I am next II. To recount what Aids it hath received from our better acquaintance with the Phaenomena For this I must consider NATURAL HISTORY more particularly which is the Repository wherein these are lodg'd How this may be compiled in the best order and to the best advantage is most judiciously represented by the Immortal Lord Bacon and to shew how highly It hath been advanced in modern Times I need say little more than to amass in a brief Recollection some of the Instances of newly-discovered Phaenomena which are scatter'd under the Heads of the Arts and Instruments I have discours'd with the Addition of some others As In the HEAVENS those of the Spots and Dinettick motion of the Sun the mountanous protuberances and shadows in the Body of the Moon about nineteen Magnitudes more of Fixed Stars the Lunulae of Jupiter their mutual Eclipsing one another and its turning round upon its own Axis the Ring about Saturn and its shadow upon the Body of that Star the Phases of Venus the increment and decrement of Light among the Planets the appearing and disappearing of Fixed Stars the Altitude of Comets and nature of the Via Lactea By these Discoveries and more such the History of the Heavens hath been rectified and augmented by the Modern Advancers of Astronomy whom in their places I have cited In the AIR Its Spring the more accurate History and Nature of Winds and Meteors and the probable height of the Atmosphere have been added by the Lord Bacon Des-Cartes Mr. Boyle and others In the EARTH New Lands by Columbus Magellan and the rest of the Discoverers and in these new Plants new Fruits new Animals new Minerals and a kind of other World of Nature from which this is supplied with numerous conveniences of Life and many thousand Families of our own little one are continually sed and maintained In the WATERS the great Motion of the Sea unknown in elder Times and the particular Laws of flux and reflux in many places are discover'd The History of BATHES augmented by Savonarola Baccius and Blanchellus of METALS by Agricola and the whole SVBTERRANEOVS WORLD described by the universally Learned Kircher The History of PLANTS much improved by Matthiolus Ruellius Bauhinus and Gerard besides the late Account of English Vegetables publish'd by Dr. Merret a worthy Member of the ROYAL SOCIETY And another excellent Virtuoso of the same Assembly Mr. John Evelyn hath very considerably advanced the History of Fruit and Forest-Trees by his Sylva and Pomona and greater things are expected from his Preparations for Elysium Britanicum a noble Design now under his hands And certainly the inquisitive World is much indebted to this generous Gentleman for his very ingenious Performances in this kind as also for those others of Sculpture Picture Architecture and the like practical useful things with which he hath enrich'd it The History of ANIMALS hath been much enlarged by Gesner Rondeletius Aldrovandus and more accurately inquir'd into by the Micrographers And the late Travellers who have given us Accounts of those remote parts of the Earth that have been less known to these have described great variety of Living Creatures very different from the Animals of the nearer Regions among whom the ingenious Author of the History of the Caribbies deserves to be mentioned as an Instance In our own BODIES Natural History hath found a rich heap of Materials in the above-mentioned Particulars of the Venae Lacteae the Vasa Lymphatica the Valves and Sinus of the Veins the several new Passages and Glandules the Ductus Chyliferus the Origination of the Nerves the Circulation of the Blood and the rest And all the main Heads of Natural History have receiv'd aids and increase from the famous Verulam who led the way to substantial Wisdom and hath given most excellent Directions for the Method of such an HISTORY of NATVRE Thus I have dispatch'd the FIRST Part of my Method proposed in the beginning but stand yet ingaged for the other which is to shew II. That the later Ages have great Advantages in respect of Opportunities and Helps for the spreading and communicating of Knowledge and thereby of improving and enlarging it This I shall demonstrate in three great Instances viz. Printing the Compass and the Institution of the Royal Society For the FIRST Printing It was according to Polydore Virgil the Invention of John Cuthenberg of Mentz in Germany though others give the honour to one Fust of the same City and some to Laurentius a Burger of Harlem But whoever was the Author this is agreed That this excellent Art was first practised about the year 1440 and was utterly unknown in Elder Times at least in all the parts of the World that are on this side the Kingdom of China which they say had it more early but it signifies not to our purpose Now by reason of the Ancients want of this Invention Copies of excellent things could not be so much dispersed nor so well preserv'd either
other extraordinary things on this Subject for the advantage of Knowledge and the uses of Life 8. In his HYDROSTATICAL PARADOXES he shew'd That the lower parts of Fluids are press'd by the upper That a lighter may gravitate upon one that is more ponderous That if a Body contiguous to it be lower than the highest level of the Water the lower end of the Body will be press'd upwards by the Water beneath That the weight of an external Fluid sufficeth to raise the Water in Pumps That the pressure of an external Fluid is able to keep an Heterogeneous Liquor suspended at the same height in several Pipes though they are of different Diameters That a Body under Water that hath its upper Surface parallel to the Horizon the direct pressure it sustains is no more than that of a Columne of Water which hath the mentioned Horizontal Superficies for its Basis. And if the incumbent Water be contained in Pipes open at both ends the pressure is to be estimated by the meight of a Pillar of Water whose Basis is equal to the lower Orifice of the Pipe parallel to the Horizon and its height equal to a Perpendicular reaching to the top of the Water though the Pipe be much inclined irregularly shaped and in some parts broader than the Orifice That a Body in a Fluid sustains a lateral pressure from it which increaseth in proportion to the depth of the immerst Body in the Fluid That Water may be made to depress a Body lighter than it self That a parcel of Oil lighter than Water may be kept from ascending in it That the cause of the ascension of Water in Syphons may be explained without the notion of abhorrence of a Vacuum That the heaviest Body known will not sink of it self without the assistance of the weight of the Water upon it when 't is at a depth greater than twenty times its own thickness though it will nearer the Surface This is the sum of the general Contents of that Discourse which contains things very useful to be known for the advantage of Navigation Salt-Works Chymistry and other practical purposes 9. In his Book of the ORIGINE of FORMS and QVALITIES he delivers the minds of Men from the imaginary and useless Notions of the Schools about them which have no foundation in the nature of things nor do any ways promote Knowledge or help Mankind but very much disserve those great Interests by setting the Understanding at rest in general obscurities or imploying it in airy Nicities and Disputes and so hindring its pursuit of particular Causes and Experimental Realities In this Treatise he lays the Foundations and delivers the Principles of the Mechanick Philosophy which he strengthneth and illustrates by several very pleasant and instructive Experiments He shews That the most admirable Things which have been taken for the Effects of substantial Forms and are used as proofs of the Notional Hypotheses may be the results of the meer texture and position of parts since Art is able to make Vitriol as well as Nature and Bodies by humane skill may be produced whose supposed Forms have been destroyed He gives many very ingenious instances to prove That the Mechanick Motions and order of the Parts is sufficient to yeeld an account of the difference of Bodies and their affections without having recourse to the Forms and Qualities of the Schools as in the restoration of Camphire to its former smell and nature after its dissolution and seeming extinction in the changes of the colour consistence fusibleness and other Qualites of Silver and Copper in the odd Phaenomena of a certain anomalous Salt and those of the Sea Salt dried powder'd and mix'd with Aqua-Fortis and in the Sal Mirabilis in the production of Silver out of Gold by his Menstruum Peracutum in the transmutation of Water into Earth in a certain Distillation of Spirit of Wine and Oil of Vitriol I say This excellent Person hath by Experiments rare and new about these Subjects made it evidently appear That the internal motions configuration and posture of the parts are all that is necessary for alterations and diversities of Bodies and consequently That substantial Forms and real Qualities are needless and precarious Beings These are some brief and general Hints of those great things this incomparable Person hath done for the information and benefit of Men and besides them there are several others that He hath by him and the Inquisitive expect in which real Philosophy and the World are no less concern'd I received a late Account of them from an ingenious Friend of his Mr. Oldenburgh Secretary to the ROYAL SOCIETY who also renders himself a great Benefactor to Mankind by his affectionate care and indefatigable diligence and endeavours in the maintaining Philosophical Intelligence and promoting the Designs and Interests of profitable and general Philosophy And these being some of the Noblest and most Publick Imployments in which the Services of generous Men can be ingaged loudly call for their Aids and Assistances for the carrying on a Work of so universal an importance But I shall have a fitter place to speak of this and therefore I return to the Illustrious Person of whom I was discoursing And for Philosophical News and further evidence of the Obligation the World hath to this Gentleman I shall here insert the Account of what he hath more yet unpublish'd for its advantage and instruction And I take the boldness to do it because himself hath been pleased to quote and refer to those Discourses in his publish'd Writings concerning which M. O's Account is more particular and he receiv'd it from the Author It speaks thus 1. Another Section of the Vsefulness of Experimental Philosophy as to the Empire of Man over inferiour Creatures where he intends to premise some general Considerations about the Means whereby Experimental Philosophy may become useful to Humane Life proceeding thence to shew That the Empire of Man may be promoted by the Naturalists skill in Chymistry by his skill in Mechanicks or the Application of Mathematicks to Instruments and Engines by his skill in Mathematicks both pure and mixt That the Goods of Mankind may be much increased by the Naturalist's insight into Trades That the Naturalist may much advantage Men by exciting and assisting their curiosity to discover take notice and make use of the home-bred Riches and Advantages of particular Countries and to increase their number by transferring thither those of others That a ground of high expectation from Experimental Philosophy is given by the happy Genius of this present Age and the productions of it That a ground of expecting considerable things from Experimental Philosophy is given by those things which have been found out by illiterate Tradesmen or lighted on by chance That some peculiar and concealed property of a natural thing may inable the knowers of it to perform with ease things that to others seem either not feasible or not practicable without great difficulty That by the
Creatures that are shut up from our bare Senses and open a kind of other World unto us which its littleness kept unknown This Instrument hath been exceedingly improved of late even to the magnifying of Objects many thousand times and divers useful Theories have been found and explicated by the notices it hath afforded as appears by the Microscopical Writings of Dr. Power and Mr. Hooke Members of the ROYAL SOCIETY But III. The Thermometer was another Instrument I mentioned which discovers all the small unperceivable variations in the heat or coldness of the Air and exhibits many rare and luciferous Phaenomena which may help to better Informations about those Qualities than yet we have any And as to this I observe with the great Verulam and the other Bacon the Illustrious Mr. Boyle That Heat and Cold are the right and left hand of Nature The former is the great Instrument of most of her Operations and the other hath its Interest And yet the Philosophy of Aristotle hath neither done nor as much as attempted any thing toward the Discovery of their Natures but contented it self with the jejune vulgar and general description That Heat is a Quality that gathereth together things of a like nature and severs those that are unlike and Cold congregates both But now if we will know any thing deeply in the business of Rarefaction and Condensation the Doctrine of Meteors and other material Affairs of Nature other Accounts about these things must be endeavoured and the bare informations of our Senses are not exact enough for this purpose for their Reports in this kind are various and uncertain according to the temper and disposition of our Bodies and several unobserved accidental Mutations that happen in them This Instrument therefore hath been invented to supply their Defects and it gives far more constant and accurate though perhaps not always infallible Relations but the justest are afforded by the Sealed Thermometer And besides the Vses of this Instrument I suggested it will help very much in framing the History of Weather which may be applied to many excellent Purposes of Philosophy and Services of Life But IV. The Barometer is another late Instrument very helpful to Vseful Knowledge That there is gravity even in the Air it self and that that Element is only comparatively light is now made evident and palpable by Experience though Aristotle and his Schools held a different Theory And by the help of Quick-silver in a Tube the way is found to measure all the degrees of Compression in the Atmosphere and to estimate exactly any accession of weight which the Air receives from Winds Clouds and Vapours To have said in Elder Times That Mankind should light upon an Invention whereby those Bodies might be weigh'd would certainly have appeared very wild and extravagant and it will be so accounted for some time yet till Men have been longer and are better acquainted with this Instrument For we have no reason to believe it should have better luck than the Doctrine of the Circulation the Theory of Antipodes and all great Discoveries in their first Proposals 'T is impossible to perswade some of the Indians that live near the heats of the Line that there is any such thing as Ice in the World but if you talk to them of Water made hard and consistent by Cold they 'l laugh at you as a notorious Romancer And those will appear as ridiculous among the most of us who shall affirm it possible to determine any thing of the weight of the Wind or Clouds But Experience turns the laugh upon the confident incredulity of the Scoffâ—…r and he that will not believe needs no more for his conviction than the labour of a Tryal Let him then fill a Tube of Glass of some Feet in length with Quick-silver and having sealed one end let him stop the other with his Finger and immerge that which is so stop'd into a Vessel of Mercury the Tube being perpendicularly erected let him then subtract his Finger and he will perceive the Quick silver to descend from the Tube into the subjacent Vessel till it comes to 29 Digits or thereabouts there after some Vibrations it ordinarily rests The reason that this remainder of the Mercury doth not descend also is because such a Mercurial Cylinder is just equiponderant to one of the insumbent Atmosphere that leans upon the Quick-silver in the Vessel and so hinders a further descent It is concluded therefore That such a Cylinder of the Air as presses upon the Mercury in the Vessel is of equal weight to about 29 Digits of that ponderous Body in the Tube Thus it is when the Air is in its ordinary temper But Vapours Winds and Clouds alter the Standard so that the Quick-silver sometimes falls sometimes rises in the Glass proportionably to the greater or less accession of gravity and compression the Air hath received from any of those alterations and the Degree of Increase beyond the Standard is the measure of the additional gravity This Experiment was the Invention of Torricellius and used to little more purpose at first but to prove a Vacuum in Nature and the deserted part of the Glass-Tube was by many thought an absolute void which I believe is a mistake But it hath been since improved to this design of weighing the degrees of compression in the Air a thing that may signifie much in giving us to understand its temper in several Places on Hills and in Caves in divers Regions and Climates which may tend to the disclosing many excellent Theories and Helps in Humane Life And the Air is so Catholick a Body and hath so great an influence upon all others and upon ours that the advantage of such an Instrument for the better acquainting us with its nature must needs be very considerable and a good Aid to general Philosophy And who yet knows how far and to what Discoveries this Invention may be improved The World a long time only rudely star'd upon the Wonders of the Loadstone before its use was found for the advantage of Navigation and 't is not impossible but that future Times may derive so much benefit one way or other from this Invention as may equal its esteem to that of the Compass The ROYAL SOCIETY by their Care and Endeavours in the using this Instrument give us hopes that they will let none of its useful Applications to escape us And I know not whether we may not mention it as the first great benefit we have from it that it was an occasion of the Invention of Mr. Boyle's famous Pneumatick Engine And this is the other Instrument I noted and call'd V. The Air-Pump concerning the usefulness of which that excellent Person himself hath given the best Accounts in his Discourse of Physico-Mechanical Experiments made in that Engine by which he hath discovered and proved a rare and luciferous Theory viz. the Elastick Power or Spring of the Air and by this hath put to flight that odd Phancy of