further end rather than at the same end where it burns over it self or shew that the point A. of the Worlds circumference is higher than E. or F. And then when you have shewed this change to make your consequence flow necessarily from the premisses one of the terms of the Argument saying for and instead of the higher place as it saith the highest point in that place for if the higher place not the highest point therein be terminus ad quem of the natural motion and propension of the Air you may with as much reason inferr a motion of D. to F. as to the place A. since A. is nothing higher than F. and neither of them higher in the Sphere than E E. A. F. being all three equidistant from the Spheres center C. and equally therefore the higher place both of C. and of B. and D. whilst they are at and begin to move and to rise from C whereas if you will allow of some order in the World and that it is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 omnium rerum ordo distributio as Aristotle defines it wherein both place and motion is distinct and orderly not uncertain and confuse you should with much more reason and to prevent two greater inconveniences than yours inferr a motion of B. to A. and of D. to E. and so of all that riseth from the center to those points of the Spheres circumference which make its Zenith that is are just vertical to it than of D. in an oblique and circular line to A. or to any other point or part of the higher place The great inconveniences of D. and so of all that which moves from the center C. not rising directly and vertically to E. or the place just over them but to some particular point A. as the higher place were first that all the vapours and refluences rising from the Earth would go thither and so reciprocally must come down again from thence in circular oblique lines and then the Rain would not fall directly but obliquely also no influences and Rain would come from about all that part of Heaven which were opposite to A. Secondly you make thereby one point highest in the World which point higher than the rest being not found in a Sphere but in a Conical Figure or a Pyramid you make a Pyramid of the World which is so great and rare a discovery that none but such famous Doctor for skill in Non-sence could ever so readily have made and thought upon it Another famous Author in the Episcopal Church who for his much Learning and making of many Books in Babylonical Divinity and knowledge deserves to be a Bishop or at least to be named with the Bishops and Vicars the incomparable Boyle among others his many vexations of Learned men which he calls Experiments hath given us to confirm our Sages opinion of a descent and countergravitation of the Air one of very large glass Bubbles sealed Hermetically hung at one end of a Beam and justly counterpoized with a Metalline counterpoize at the other which suspended at a frame shews not all the various changes of the Air saith he that were conspicuous in another Weather-glass which he had placed by it yet confirms ad oculum that the falling and rising of the Mercury depends upon the varying weight of the Atmosphere and shews that the Air hath weight since in this statical Weather-glass for so he calls these so counterpoized Bubbles it cannot be pretended that a Fuga vacui or a Funiculus is the cause of the changes which he observed therein for I had the pleasure saith he to see the Bubbles sometimes in an Aequilibrium with the counterpoize and sometimes when the Atmosphere was high he means thereby less heavy preponderate so manifestly that the Beam being gently stirred the Cock would play altogether on that side at which the Bubbles were hung and at other times when the Air was heavier that which was at the first but the counterpoize would preponderate and upon the motion of the Beam make the Cock vibrate altogether on its side with so much of pretty sport or satisfaction to so grave and honourable Author that I am very loth to go about to spoil it lest I should at one time excitare crabrones in too great a number and multitude against me However getting never the more Enemies for it I will venture to say that it appears not clearly to my dull apprehension that because Fuga vacui cannot be counted the cause of the various changes he saw in his statical Baroscope or Weather-glass the weight of the Air therefore ought to be the cause of it chiefly if the Beam must be stirred as he confesseth it was though gently adds he as though this gentle stirring were nothing to such Beam to make the Cock play on this or that side of the Ansa because I can assign another cause as likely at least as either of them to wit the condensation and the rarefaction of the Air by heat and cold For even according to one Hydrostatical Law which this Author owns and makes mention of in the same page from which I have taken the things I cite of him which Law as he calls it is if the medium wherein two Bodies of equal weight but unequal bulk are weigh'd be more dense than another such as Water for instance which is more dense than the Air the greater Body being specifically lighter and finding more resistance because of its greater bulk than the lesser and more compact as the counterpoize will lose more of its own weight or be more easily born up or buoyed up therein than in the thinner medium but if the same medium be thinner than another or than it was it self before and at other times as the Air which is thinner than Water and at some times more rarefied than before then the bigger Body ceasing to be sustained by the former resistance will sink lower than before and so outweigh the lesser the condensed Air being thicker resists better than when it is more rarefied and so bears up the large Bubbles better and higher therefore than their lesser counterpoize so that this rising and fall of his Bubbles confirms rather the condensation and the rarefaction of the Air than any such weight thereof as that he ascâ—ibes to it For though as I confess the thickness of a medium is an argument it hath a greater specifick weight than hath a thinner medium yet as it is most certain that vapours have no descent and gravitation before they condense into a much closer texture than the Air hath at any time with us though they are not without their positive weight all that while so we ought not in reason for the Air being somewhat more dense than it was before and however much thinner than is vaporized Oyl Water or Mercury ascribe to it that sensible descent and gravitation which this learned Author and other Sages plead for Who should shew that the rising and
that the Fuga vacui implys that a vacuum fugit se and sucks and pulls to supply and fill it self and likewise an absolute prevention of the vacuum for as by Fuga maâ—â— it was not meant in their days that evil iâ— to eschew or shun and abhor it self but thaâ— some other thing is to avoid and abhor it so by Fuga vacui it was not understood then but that some other thing likewise than the vacuum is that which doth endeavour the supplying of the same to prevent and avoid it Then as by the Fuga of Run-aways in old times it was not known that all those who run away saved themselves and obtained the end which they fled for that is to say prevented being taken so those good men did not know that this Fuga or active endeavour of that thing which would avoid the vacuum must make the thing in motion fugere ad extremum bring it ad summitatem usque of the empty space though it were never so high and implys an end of the said endeavour and motion that is to say Finis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal unto Finis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad quem actio fertur viz. a total repletion of the vacuous empty space also implys an opus far above the force of the agens and operation which is in all vacuums great or small always the same and proportioned not to the force of the said agens but to the thing against which the agens imploys its force viz. a greater repletion of a greater vacuum But if all Fugitives had saved themselves by their flight and if one could leap higher sub dio under the Sky than under the roof of some high Church or Westminster-Hall for the Sky being higher and yielding therefore more space to leap under than the roof for the Doctor 's argument that Fluids must rise unto any height according to the void space that they rise in without regard to the force they rise by is the same thing they might perhaps have lighted upon as sublime notions and drawn conclusions from then as Categorically as this excellent Doctor whose mind soars so high above common ordinary sence Prov. 17.24 as to imagine the flight to be in the thing fled from and the action in the most passive thing in the whole World Which conceits I confess are secrets the wise Ancients have never been aware of and the discovery thereof the great improvements reserved for our times and worthy of the wisdom of our modern Sages There is a time for all things old wit goes out of fashion as well as the Lawyers French and so doth Truth when it comes to the age of doating people Happy was Galilaeo to broach a Notion which is and lasts so long alamode to influence so many with that which is surprizing to all them that know something of the wondrous works of God Job 37.16 Prov. 20.23 for his being surprized at it when he first saw it and to make use of his great head-piece so successfully as to discover that the Fuga vacui is not of any infinite strength for who knew before his time that there is no such space in the circumscribed and finite place of the World as would need an infinite rising of Fluid Bodies which are yet of a far less extent than the World it self to supply its vacancy that is an infinite space and an infinite sphere of activity of things and so cannot be the cause of the finite height of the Column of Fluid Bodies and as to gather from hence what the wise Sons of Nature and Nature her self never knew to have a being or exist before his time viz. a descent of the Air upon us equal in weight to that of a Mercurial cylinder about 30 or 31 inches deep whilst it remains Air that is an aërial or uncondensed vapour which would make a weight equal to that of one Tun and half of Lead upon our breasts when we lye on our backs The truth is that the Ancients never thought of such things and were not so diligent in the enquiry thereof as some are in our Age who staring at every trifle or toy that they meet with as being puzzled with it make a great wonder of it and trouble other men with their strange conceits concerning it crying them up for a great augmentation of knowledge and yet knew as well as they without the use of that which is called a Weather-glass viz. by hot and cold weather all that such Weather-glass shews to wit when the Air is rarefied or condensed And though they have not treated ex prosesso in one place of the Fuga vacui and of its limited strength yet it may be gather'd by piece-meal out of their Books that they were not ignorant of Fluids rising to their usual height and no higher nor of their respective Columns falling and rising afterwards by heat and cold and that they understood well that these their solution of heavy Fluids rising into spaces void of Air to wit Fuga vacui implys so much and no less For they were men of good sence and good sence shews that Fuga vacui signifies first the end for which Fluids rise to wit a prevention of a vacuum by them secondly a prevention as far as the said Fluids are permitted to ascend which they knew to be no more than the weight of that Fluid Body in whose stead they come to supply the space left and derelicted by it amounts to that is as much as a cylinder of Air commensurate unto that of the succeeding Fluid would weigh were it condensed into as close a texture as the said succeeding Fluid Body consists of but weights not because it is an uncondensed vapour and lastly a further rising of the said Columns after they have subsided unto their usual station to wit when the Air which is in the void space above them though it be pumped out never so long and as clean as frequent immersing and filling the Pipe again after the subsiding of the Column can do it becomes by cold weather more condensed than it was when the Pipe was immersed and thereby ceaseth to fill that space so much as it did and to keep the cylinder from rising to such height as the proportion of weight which it is not to exceed doth allow of and permit And as for the falling again of the same Column it being but a ceasing of the cause it did rise by that is of the condensing and contraction of the Air and an easie consequence of the Fuga vacui viz. the vacuum prevented by another Body than that of the cylinder that is by that of the Air extending it self further in warm than in cold weather and so taking up again that part of the space it had by its condensation yielded up to the Column they could not but understand it well though without seeing and making tryal of it and understand well also from hence that since the Column riseth
up and falls again by the Airs alternative contraction and extension as by applying successively to the space which is above the Column a Candle lighted and a wet Spunge or a piece of Ice this making the Column to rise and that to subside it will presently appear this Phoenomenon serves but to shew hot and cold weather and is no such improvement therefore as our Sages would make of it if they could that is a new Instrument to foretell all the various constitutions of the Air and changes of the weather but a bare Thermometer an old trivial invention which our great Improvers have at last with much ado happily lighted upon in this our learned Age. And that they cannot make such an Instrument that is a true Weather-glass of it appears first from that they have bestowed much time and labour upon it these twenty years with no better success that is without improving or making their invention fitter for use than it was when they first went about it and next from the consequence which flows necessarily from their own Hypothesis and the use they make of it to solve the Phoenomenon by which besides that it is against both reason and sence they can never give a true and distinct account of the Phoenomenon nor therefore bring it thereby into the use they pretend it serves for For first to begin by what flows from their Hypothesis they gather and it follows from thence pag. 32. that when the Air is lightest the Column subsides lowest and when it is most heavy the Column riseth highest whereas daily experience teacheth contrary to this that in settled clear weather the Air being then lightest the Column riseth higher than in dull rainy weather and sinks to its lowest station in rainy weather when the Atmosphere being most thick and full of vapours which crouding and condensing in it should make it heavier and press up the Column with greater force and raise it therefore higher than it was if the Airs counter pressure were the cause of its rising In windy weather also the Column is very low and many times lower at that time than when it rains whereas the Air flowing then laterally hath no such pressure upon the stagnum as it would in still weather if it had any at all Which I prove by filling a Porridge-pot with Water and holding and tossing it by the handle so that by its swinging forwards and backwards both the Water may be set in motion and its motion be determinated in latus then fetching with the hand a whole turn that is describing vertically with the Pot a circle or ring whereby when the Pot is up at the Zenith of the circle its mouth be turned downwards for then none of the Water running down out of the Pot this experiment alone will evidently evince that the Water losing thus by its motion in latus its fall and pressure downwards the Air would likewise abate by the lateral motion it hath in windy weather of the descent and pressure it is supposed to have Secondly though the Column doth not fall so low in the Winter as in the Summer nor riseth so high in the Summer as in the Winter for it never riseth to one and thirty inches but in cold frosty weather because then both the outward and the inward Air which is in the void space of the Pipe is most of all condensed yet they make no distinction of Seasons in their Index but in Winter and Summer they ascribe the highest place at one and thirty inches to clear settled fair weather and the lower to rainy cloudy and windy weather when the Column marks between the same weather in the two foresaid different Seasons as settled fair in Winter and settled fair in Summer above an inch difference A likely way to improve and bring the Phoenomenon to serve for a Weatherglass for the usefulness of which happy invention of theirs and for the truth of these few remarks and tryals of mine I appeal to the single-eyed and impartial Judgment of all those who have the said Instrument in their houses whilst by another easie tryal of no greater charge than of a sealed glass Tube somewhat wider and longer than the ordinary one I clear all objections scruples and controversies and shew more true things at once than all the Experiments they have made these hundred years with a world of apparat have taught them to discover The Experiment is this having filled a glass Tube or Pipe closed at one end of about six foot in length with Water up to the brim and therein immersed another smaller empty glass Tube eight inches long nipt likewise with its open end or orifice downwards it being thick of glass and so specifically that is to say bulk for bulk heavier than so much Water sunk to the bottom of the Water in the longer Pipe yet not so swiftly but that I could discern how fast the Water got into it And whereas when it began to sink being then but just immersed under water scarce the sixth part of one inch of water was seen in it there was by that time it had descended to the bottom more than one inch of water that came in at the lower open end lodged in it near its mouth or orifice because of the greater depth and pressure of the water upon it at the bottom than when it began to sink which by compressing closer the Air that took up its whole cavity or filled it full when it was first immersed made room for so much water as the said inch to get in Then taking out the short Pipe and filling up as before the longer one with water I immersed again the same short Pipe into it but with the orifice or open end uppermost and stopping at the same time the mouth of the longer one close with the palm of my hand I inverted both Pipes so nimbly that before the shorter could descend at all and the water fall in it its mouth was turned downwards and it was at the bottom of the Column of water and so had all the same depth of the Column upon it as it had before when more than the said inch of water was seen and lodged therein And yet though it had the same depth of water upon it there was not the same pressure at that time against the Air which it held when immersed as when the orifice of the long Pipe stood open for all the while it was stopt no more water got or was received into this Pipe than what had got into it whilst I inverted it which was not above the sixth or eighth part of an inch because the pressure of the water was for want of Air to supply the place it had left void above at the top if from thence it had moved downwards suspended and lost The same thing happened also when the shorter Pipe being made somewhat thinner of glass was light enough not to sink but to float in the water and