I have Discoursed Physically of the Causes of our Diseases in General it will not be amiss to trace òut the Particular Causes of them That this Doctrine which may be accounted new may the better be understood I suppose that we are never subject to any Disease but whose immediate Cause is either some Poison or Toxick 2ly This Poison consists only in emancipated Atoms and Toxicks in loosned Corpuscles 3ly These Atoms are not emancipated nor these sharp Corpuscles loosned but in the Corruption of Bodies 4ly Corruption is nothing but a Total or Partial Division and separation of Bodies 5ly There is no new Generation by which a new Body is made but by a precedent corruption or Division of another Body which ceases to be in Nature when one or more other Bodies possess the Room of it So when Meat in the Stomach is turned into Chyle when the Chyle in the Liver and the Branches of the Vena Porta is changed into Blood and lastly when the Blood is changed into our Substance as Flesh Muscles Nerves and other Parts of our Body by the last degree of Concoction there is necessarily a Corruption of the Meat which begins to be divided and separated by Chewing of it in the Mouth and it is digested and separated or Corrupted in the Ventricle Chyle to the end it may be turned into Blood is altered in the Branches of the Vena Porta and the Meseraick Veins and thence it is wholly and perfectly Digested that is Corrupted Concocted and Divided in the Liver unless that hath lost something of its own Substance The Blood designed for Flesh is filtred out of the Veins into the Arteries and Circulates until it be sufficiently purged and freed from Foreign Bodies and then it is changed into the Substance of our Body This Doctrine being supposed I say there are made in us Three Principle Corruptions which are the Concoctions or Digestions whereof we speak and I say moreover that there are Atoms in every one of them which are emancipated and loosed as likewise Corpuscles flying and deserting more or less as the Digestion is the better performed that is as the Pure is more rightly separated from the Impure Therefore it follows that we cannot be nourished unless we take together into our Bodies the Causes and Seeds of many Diseases It follows likewise that these Diseases are diverse according to the difference of the Corruptions of the emancipated Atoms or the loosed Corpuscles and that these Atoms are Poisons and the Corpuscles Toxicks which do produce Diseases by their violent Motion and they labour so with Reiterated Corruptions that they deprave separate and divide all the Parts of our Body Here we may behold the just Cause of the Pains of the Stomach and of the Wind Chollick and also of the Wind proceeding from the first Concoction of our Meat in the Stomach these winds are the Corpuscles or the more subtile Parts of that Corrupted Nourishment and when the more subtile and sharp Corpuscles are received into the Body they do proportionably to the Nourishment which is taken produce most troublesome and dangerous Pains and vellications such as we observe in the Chollick And if it should happen that amongst Corpuscles there should be abundance of emancipated Atoms they do ordinarily betake themselves to the Brain whence do arise Apoplexies and Lethargies or if they penetrate into the Muscles and Nerves they occasion the Palsie which ordinarily follows these bilious Chollicks This Indisposition degenerates the Disease into a Vomiting and Loosness when the Wind or the subtile Particles the loosed Corpuscles and the emancipated Atoms are so plentiful that all the Symmetry of the Humours the intercourse of the Natural Spirits and the whole Anatomy of the Body are overthrown by them whence it is conspicuous what great Confusions Winds Vapours and little Bodies and depraved Atoms are capable of producing in our Bodies And that I have concluded upon good Reasons That there is Poison to be found in all our Diseases whether we consider them in their Beginning when we perceive our selves grieved indisposed and to have lost our Appetite or that we take a view of them in their progress when those Winds those little Bodies or little Atoms are advanced in the Body and do work a Division or lastly if we consider the end when these Poisons and Toxicks and these Corpuscles being freed from their Chains and these emancipated Atoms bear the sway by the confusion of the Principal Operations they are the Cause of Death In the second Digestion which is in the Liver we find Winds and Vapours which are called Flatus's and sometimes those loose Corpuscles and also the emancipated Atoms these Winds do produce a murmur and Flatus about the Liver Spleen Hypocondria and the Reins and the Corpuscles which are lodged there do prick and exulcerate the inward â—â—rts and are the Causes of Imposthumes which are so hard to be Cured Besides the emancipated Atoms Flying do sometimes ascend up to the Head where they beget Vertigo's and Buzzing in the Ears and also Convulsions by their vellications in the principal of the Nerves Thence proceed Epilepsie and other Diseases which have the same malignity which in the Opinion of all Men being not a Quality is a Poison that is the Atoms of the Blood are emancipated which are a Poison to the Brain and especially to the Membranes and Nerves From the same Fountain proceed Shakings and the duplications of continuant Fevers as the Periodick Fits of intermittent Fevers do happen from loosed Corpuscles and Atoms which are emancipated in the first Digestion in the Stomach by reason of a Fermentation which they make These loosed Bodies are also the Causes of Swellings in the Feet Hands and other Parts as Inflammations Erysipela's as also Itch and sore Puscles do arise from Atoms which are emancipated in the last Digestion as for the Dropsie we may say that it derives its Original from Atoms which are emancipated in the first and second Concoction for they penetrate the substance of the Liver and render it unfit to produce a well constituted Blood. Sudden death is often occasioned by the sudden motion of the flying Atoms which escape in the circulation of the Blood and the emancipated Atoms opening the heart and by this passage giving an opportunity to the vital Spirits to make their escape is the cause of that present death which follows it CHAP. XVI Of the Causes of our Health IF that be true which I suppose That all our Diseases do not arise from Natural Qualities nor from Antipathy which is in the nourishment we take and that they are nothing else but a confusion and an inordinate constitution of the Spirits humours and parts and that this confusion doth proceed from the impetuous and disorderly motion of the Winds Corpuscles and emancipated Atoms as I said before Then it is certain that our health which consists only in the just intercourse of the Spirits and a proportionate
but what is much tobe lamented they have left us in admiration and ignorance Therefore I try as well as I can to resolve these difficulties that I may perform my promise First of all therefore since Matter is every where one and the same nor does the Astral and Coelestial differ from the Terrestrial as we have said elsewhere but only in this that Atoms which make Coelestial Bodies have Figures different from them which compose terrestrial Bodies and that the Particles of those are better and more strictly united than these I say we must not conclude with Fernelius that the Elements of the Stars are different from the Elements of the sublunary World nor with Galen that that divine thing in the Seed is a certain part of Divinity But we must confess that Seeds are Bodies composed of many parts not only in respect of the sperm and diverse coverings in which the seminal Spirit is shut up and kept but also in respect of the seminal Spirit it self which is not a Simple thing but a Body compounded of most subtile Atoms excellently figured made and proportioned that as an Original they may serve to the forming all Copies afterwards in the propagation of the Species These are the Atoms as I said shut up yet without Bonds or Servitude This Doctrine is agreeable to our Principles and as we have compared Atoms with the first elements of Grammar which are Letters we say likewise according to this Opinion that Letters may be made and written so exactly as to serve as a pattern to make others by in like manner among Atoms there are some so well made and formed and disposed in so just an order that they may serve for Samples and Patterns to others and in this manner I conceive of Seeds I come now to the next difficulty which represents the multiplication of every individual by a sole dilatation of Seeds but the manner how this dilatation is made is not easie to be explained but I apprehend it after this manner A grain of Corn which is a Seed is thrown into the Earth where it putrifies and is dissolved by an acid menstruum which contains in it a Spirit whose Atoms are partly of the same Nature with the Spirits of the Seed or at least are subtile enough to penetrate into the vacuities of the husk of the Grain and sperm in which the seminal Spirit is shut up which Spirit the coverings of it being dilated by these apertures frees it self from the Prison wherein it was detained and the Atoms and Original Corpuscles begin to drive on one another they being themselves driven on by the Atoms of the acid or dissolving Spirit which acted the first part in the Play and received its motion from the others For whatsoever is moved is moved by another and so successively the parts of the World Particles Corpuscles and Atoms mutually drive on one another and this motion began with the World and will continue 'till the end of it when God will fix all things and put a stop to all generations So that these seminal Spirits being thus loosed and endowed with liberty by the acid Spirits are still driven on by them and being pressed rise upwards and form a stalk with a very slender top by the concourse of the Salt of the manure and out of the corruption and division of dissolved Atoms of the neighbouring Bodies which they luckily meet withal or which are thrown into the Earth near that place on purpose this is what Husbandmen know very well who for this reason Dung their grounds and burn the stubble But if they knew how to steep their grains or seeth Corn in an acid dissolvent or water their grounds with it there would be none found so barren but would become fruitful nor would the Husbandman be a little pleased with his plenty of Corn and from thence the truth of our Principles and Experiments would be manifested Man who is generated out of Humane Seed and like plants receives his first formation does in this case very much excel them For as in his dignity he excels all things that have material life so also he is begotten and conceived after a more Noble and more Eminent manner and we may say with Plato that a Man of all wonders is the most wonderful not only in his perfect being but also in his first Formation This Formation is indeed a Miracle of Nature which cannot be more naturally explained than by saying That the Womans Womb after having received the Man's Seed is shut up by the Contraction of its Fibres and the seminal body finding there an acid juice putrifies and is corrupted in the space of Eight or Ten Days The Seminal Spirit thus extricating it self and joyning with the Blood that is there and even now at the beginning being joyned to the Womans Seed out of Two is made One partaking in the Conception of Father and Mother which is then afterwards formed by the help of this acid Blood which dissolves it and is the Cause why these two seminal Spirits are joyned together and out of two compound One only Being which is called Embryo The whole Wonder consists in this Ordination of Parts which are disposed in so elegant an order that there is no man in the World able to give them so just an order and disposition and now behold what I think of this business Besides the general providence of God which I acknowledge in all things and besides that particular one which he takes care of Man as of his own Image I cannot but return to the motion of Spirits or seminal Corpuscles which form a Body fit to undergo their operations As many as proceed from every one part of the Body generating produce a part in the Body generated and form it like themselves The Corpuscles or seminal Spirits derived from the Eyes form Eyes and we may say the same of the other parts of the Body this supposes Seed to proceed from all parts of the Body and from hence we gather that their parts who exceed measure in the Venerial act are all weakned especially the Brain which is sometimes so shaken together that it heavily decays and the powers of it are dissolved So that these sort of Men often dye seized with Epileptick Convulsions Palsies Tremblings of the Nerves Arthritick Pains and Defluxions It remains therefore to know how the parts of the Eyes form the Eyes the parts of the Brain the Brain and the parts derived from the Hands and Arms the Hands and Arms of an Embryo For we see that the Blind beget Blind and the Lame the Lame unless the Mothers Blood supplies this defect I say therefore that in the resolution or dissolving of the seminal Body there is necessarily caused a motion of Corpuscles mutually driving one another to and fro each possessing that place which gives them its Figure by which they are detained in a due site nor can they abide elsewhere So the Corpuscles which form
Muscles of the Breast The Pulse is nothing else but a percussion of the Arteries upon the variety of which the difference of Pulses depends The Cause of the Pulse according to Aristotle is the Natural heat of the Heart according to Galen it is the moving faculty according to Harvey this motion of the Heart and Pulse of the Arteries depends upon the circulation of the Blood which we will examine in the next Chapter Breathing comprehends two actions Inspiration and Respiration by the action of the first the Lungs receive the external Air and by the help of the last they drive it out The first is made by a dilatation of the Lungs and Breast as also by the motion of the Diaphragme by which the Lungs are opened like a pair of Bellows and are by that means filled with Air the second is made by a pressing downwards of the Diaphragme by which the Lungs are unlocked and the Air driven forth Breathing conduces to the tempering the heat of the Heart and to the exciting and preserving Natural heat besides it conduceth to the forming the Voice to perceiving Smells to expelling Excrements and dissipating the fumes of the Blood and lastly to produce vital Spirits in promoting their motion by which it happens that we dye when breathing ceaseth or when we take our last Breath CHAP. XVII Of the Motion of the Heart THat I may rightly explain the motion of the Heart I suppose it is moved by two different motions the first of which is Natural the second against Nature That resembles the motion of Machines and Clocks which are moved by help of Strings and Wheels So the Heart is the principal and chief Wheel of this animated Machine and moves and drives on all the others and takes its motion from the weight and impression of certain Fiery and Coelestial Atoms which like the Silk-Worm are shut up in the Seed and its covering and which give motion to it until they flye away from it which slight of the Atoms Death follows and an end of motion The Authors of the circulation of the Blood deduce the motion of the Heart from the Bloods entring into it saying that the Heart is opened by the motion commonly called Diastole the Blood entring into the Heart and that by the motion commonly called Systole the Blood returns back and this returning is the Cause of those two motions but it is more reasonable to say that the motion of the Heart hath its Principle in its self for it is Vital and the passing through of the Blood is rather an effect than a Cause of this motion for the Heart opens it self before the Blood enters in nor does the Blood go out but as it is driven by the opened Heart The second motion of the Heart is accidental and against Nature and proceeds from the intemperies of the Blood that passeth through the Heart and which impresseth this febrile motion whether as being more hot and subtile than it should be or having certain foreign Corpuscles mixed with it or being too thick and viscous or else offending in quantity it overwhelms the Heart and hereupon depends the difference of motions contrary to Nature as also the difference of Pulses and Feavers from hence proceeds the palpitation of the Heart intermitting Pulses Convulsions Suffocations and sudden Death And it is commonly said that the Life is in the Blood nor does any thing hinder why we should not say that Death is in it too when it is corrupted or very sharp and corroding or unfit for motion and containing such like Bodies as lie hid in Venoms and Narcoticks The motion which is observed in the Hearts of Animals taken out of their Bodies as for Example that of a Viper which continues a long while does not disanul Circulation but only lets us see that Circulation is not the Cause of the Natural motion of the Heart and if you stretch it never so far it is only its condition which makes it continue and keeps the same in its Natural state Whatsoever we say concerning the Heart and its motions does not make up that Idea which we conceive in our mind nor does it satisfie the mind of the Reader who expects we should explain from whence this motion of the Heart while it is in its natural state proceeds and what is the Cause of its immoderate motions That I may therefore satisfie the Reader I Affirm the Natural Motion of the Heart to be in the motion of the Vital Spirits shut up in the central Vacuum of the Heart where they are detained by little Membranes made firm by the interweaving of Fibres and of thin threads so that they cannot escape out since the Pores of these membranes have a Figure opposite to the Pores of those Spirits or Vital Atoms And seeing that Atoms enjoy an actual motion and which can no more be separated from their Essence than Intelligence from an Angel or separated Soul or the Inclination from the Will it follows that they are always in motion and by their motions by turns dilate the Heart This Doctrine supposes what has been said of Vital Spirits being as it were the internal Principles of Life and Motion as also of the essential and proper motion of Atoms and of Bodies compounded of Atoms but it is convenient that we remember that we have said that motion is Natural to Atoms and that God who hath created them essentially moveable preserves their motion and moveable Nature in the same action that he Created them Besides it may be convenient to remember that there are such a sort of Atoms which may be detained and constitute the parts of a Compound Body and others which are not Naturally such yet may be shut up such as those are which we have said are shut up in the central Vacuum of the Heart of Living Creatures And these indeed are shut up by the decree of the Creator and the determination of the seminal covering The Comparison of an Angel and the Rational Soul seems to contribute much to the illustrating this Doctrine An Angel is a certain indivisible spiritual thing and an Intelligence free from Matter and the Rational Soul is no less a certain indivisible Spiritual thing endowed with Understanding and Will as an Angel yet they differ in this that theSoul is consined or as being a part of the Compound can be consined by a material Body whereas an Angel neither is nor can be confined which notwithstanding does not hinder but that it may be shut up into a Body as it were an assisting Form yet it hath not any respect to an internal and substantial Form. Besides I look upon an Angel and consider it under the notion of Atoms naturally free and the Rational Soul under the notion of those which are subject to confinement It is true that a Rational Soul going out of this Dungeon or Physical Prison by reason of the Corruption of the Body which permits it a free exit is
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
never said before or that I do not proceed in the same manner and the same Course in the Progress of this Philosophical Tract wherein I will sincerely endeavour to bind my self up to the Truth without having any Regard to the Prejudices of the Schools I return to Poisons and after I have Discoursed of Pestiserous and Viperine Poison which attacks the Heart it will be time to say something of those which immediately invade the Brain and from thence the Heart the Center of Life before I address my self to either general or particular Antidotes which deserve a particular Chapter by themselves Therefore I say according to the common Opinion of Physicians That there are Toxicks and Poisons which immediately beset the Heart as I have said of the Pestiferous and Viperine poison and others like them there are others which attack the Head such as the biting of a mad Dog Opium Solan and other Narcotick and somniferous Simples There are also Poisons which rush into the Liver and corrupt the whole Mass of Blood as the Venerial poison and others of the same kind Thâ—s diversity is ascribed to Antipathy and an Aversion whereby Poisons are carried to certain parts of our Body but the foundation must be shewed whereupon this Antipathy is built the water sticks neither can any solid reason be given why the Poison of a mad Dog attacks the head or that of the Viper the Heart Besides that this Antipathy is not sufficient to explain the Nature of Poisons though we may confess that they have an aversion to our Nature because they endeavour the destruction of it and do procure the separation and division of our Bodies It being supposed as indeed it is that a Mad Dog biting a certain part of our Body doth leave in that part a certain Spittle or Foam which enters the wound for unless there be a Wound there is no fear of danger the venomous Atoms being dissolved and emancipated and as it were raving mad do insensibly and by degrees creep through the parts of the Body and finding no softer parts than the substance of the Brain and by consequence easier to be divided and destroyed do produce the dissolution of it and therefore it must be granted that if the Brain could not so easily be dissolved and that the fluidity of its substance were not the reason why it so easily receives the impression that is the action and motion of the emancipated Atoms the poison of a mad Dog would produce but little disturbance in us It must not be said that that poison ascends the Head by Sympathy and ruins it by Antipathy but according to our Principles it ought to be confessed that the Atoms of the spittle of the mad Dog being loosed and emancipated are as apt to destroy the other parts as well as the Brain if the Substance of the brain did not consist of certain Corpuscles yielding to these foreign Corpuscles whereby they enter into the vacant spaces of them which having entred in at these little chinks or fissures they raise a Tumult and confusion in the Castle This truth is evident in slow poisons which stagnate as well as that whereof we speak until the emancipated Atoms of it find out some part whose Vacuities give them free entrance or they meet with some Corpuscles whose little Hooks or Angles do either accelerate or retard their motion For these emancipated Atoms being not received nor fixed but by weak Corpuscles are like a Bird having only his feet entangled in the Birdlime endeavours with all his strength to get himself free or like a Man who is to be thrown into Prison and is withheld only by one Arm uses his utmost endeavour to obtain his liberty so it is with free and emancipated Atoms which are partly withheld by these tender little Hooks whereof the Brain doth consist whence arises a furious agitation in the Brain it self and at length madness for indeed the madness is in the Dogs Brain to which some emancipated Atoms came from abroad or from some dead Carrion which the Dog did eat or from the Air in the Dog-days being then too much rarified or from too much dryness of the Brain proceeding from too much drowth and these Atoms go forth with the Spittle when the Dog bites some part of our Body and in time produces the same confusion with that in the Dog. The third sort of Poison which I promised to speak of is that of the Venerial Disease which sets upon the Liver and without a prolix declaration of the external causes which produce it it will be sufficient for me if I will declare in few words that which is necessary to know wherein they do consist and why Poison is so pernicious that it corrupts the Liver and infects the whole Mass of Blood and afterwards tho' slowly ruins the whole Constitution of the Body and the Oeconomy of its constituent Parts It is frivolous to say that the Venerial Disease and its Poyson doth consist in an Antipathy to the Liver and the Mass of Blood for the Cause and Nature of this feigned Antipathy cannot be assigned But in my Opinion there is no difficulty in the matter for by the common consent of Physicians this Poison is nothing else but a malign quality proceeding from the Vapour raised from the corruption of the Spermatick Blood which corruption is occasion'd by a mixture of divers Seeds This Principle being supposed we do reject this feigned maligne Quality for it cannot be said what it is or from whence this malignity arises but we acknowledge this Vapour and admit the Corruption of the Seed and we say not mentioning the malign Quality that there are certain Atoms excited by Heat and Motion which do exhale and free themselves from the loose and corrupt Blood and finding the Pores of mans Body and of the natural parts to be open and dilated do creep and insinuate themselves into them and in process of time do penetrate into the Spermatick Vessels from thence into the great Veins and from thence into the great Vessels and the Liver being the Trunk of them which they by dividing do alter and by separating do Corrupt whence at length there follows a corruption of all the Blood. The subtilty and continual motion of these emancipated Atoms appears from the Gout sometimes from the Reliques of the Venerial Distemper for these Atoms do penetrate into the marrow of the Bones and fix them above the Articulations where they find an allumenous matter to which they stick But because these Venerial and other emancipated Atoms are not fixed therefore they are moved in those places where they are like a Captive fetter'd in Prison looking about him which way he can most conveniently make his escape hence it is that the pain of the Gout doth not cease until these Atoms are discharged either by Transpiration Sweat or some other Evacuation or that they are wholly accumulated by other Bodies of the same figure
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
of Atoms but upon the insolidity of a Vacuum he takes an Atom to be indivisible because it is solid but that that Solidity and Bodies likewise are not Divisible unless by reason of the void spaces which are found in them and which do desert the Interval by which the Body may be divided 'till we come to those Bodies which having no Vacuum within them can be divided by no Natural Cause because a Vacuum having neither solidity nor any power of resisting is the Passive Principle of every Physical Division By a Vacuum I understand the intermediate space betwixt the Parts And as that which has not a passive Principle of Motion is immoveable so also that which hath not a Passive Principle of Division is indivisible And that we may wholly silence all the Cartesians I do affirm an Atom to be indivisible because there is no interval in it by which means some Agent may divide it in the same manner that they deny that God is able to remove the Universe because they say there is no other place wherein it can be posited which I would willingly grant them if there was no place without the World. It is necessary that they should agree with Gassendus if there be no interval in an Atom The Question is If three Atoms be placed together in Order whether the middle one doth touch the other two which are on both sides of it This being supposed it must have two sides and two several Faces I also ask whether an Angel being immediately placed betwixt two Angels together with a third in a straight Line of three Foot long whether one of them be touched by one on this side and by the other on the other side And since there is the same difficulty it requires also the same Answer But I answer directly and say That all these for Example square sides of an Atom and their Faces are not Parts Physically distinct but only simple Beings and Physically Indivisible as the Philosophers do Teach that there is in Man a principle of Sense and a Principle of Reason though these two are but a simple Being and indivisible like an Atom and the sole difference doth consist in the respect of their divers Effects and of our Spirit which finds an interval where really indeed there was none CHAP. XXII Of the Disseminate Congregate and Separate Vacuum of Gassendus THe Doctrine of a Vacuum is contrary both to the Doctrines of Aristotle and Cartesius the First was of Opinion that it was impossible that Naturally there should be a Vacuum because saith he the Universal Nature is against it The other Ridicules this Fear of Nature though notwithstanding he teaches that there can be no such thing as a Vacuum in Nature Gassendus on the other side affirms three sorts of Vacuums the First of which he calleth a Dispersed Vacuum which he saith must necessarily be in all Bodies and this Doctrine he endeavours to prove by Motion which cannot be done but in a Vacuum For that truly no Body can be moved in a space that is taken up by another Body because there is no penetration of Bodies and therefore cannot be moved but in a void space The Cartesians do endeavour to elude this difficulty by saying that there is a yielding subtile and fluid matter which is not able to resist the Motion of a solid Body forcing the same But that this is but a flight evasion a poor shift appears from hence that this matter is uncapable of yielding unless it were filled with small empty Pores which are dispersed thorow which being condensed and pressing themselves together do suffer it to yield and when it is condensed so far that there is no Vacuum it yields no farther but it resists Natural Agents though of great force So we see air condensed and compressed in an Iron Tube doth resist a Staff which we endeavour to thrust into it therefore air which is a matter apt to yield ceases to be so when there are no more Vacuums dispersed in it neither can Bodies enter into it without a peneration of the Dimensions whence it appears that there is no such thing as a yielding Matter and that every Matter in its Nature is equally solid and resisting To this Demonstration I add further That not so much as a Gnat cou'd in the least move it self unless there was a Vacuum in the Air which is a matterâ— of it self apt to yield but that at the same time the Region of the Air nay and the Heaven it self must be in motion because if all things be full of bodies the Gnat cannot be moved but by driving the ambient Air which Air also drives the next and that again the next and so in a right line to Heaven it self and if the World according to Cartesius's Doctrine had no bounds this motion wou'd have an infinite continuance which wou'd be a thing both absurd and ridiculous in the highest degree This Philosopher did believe that he was able to elude this Reason by supposing this motion not to be in a right-line but Circular but besides that the Air is not moved but in that manner that it is driven and that indeed it is forced in a right line but not circularly as it is supposed it ought to be moved it is most certain that this circular motion by altogether supposing all Privation of a Vacuum in this Element is impossible For if there be no Vacuum all things are Full If Full the first part of this supposed Circle cannot be moved because it finds no place through which it can be moved Therefore it ought to remain immoveable with all other things which are in the Universe unless there were a Vacuum through which it might commence its motion Gassendus builds the Truth of these small dispersed Vacuums upon the truth of the figures of Atoms and their angles because Angles cannot but leave void spaces in Bodies as we see a great many Grains of Corn do leave void spaces in the Bushel wherein they are contained and do touch one the other I confess that these Vacuums are replenished with Air but Vacuums which for the same reason are amongst the smallest parts of the Air or Atoms can be replenished with no matter and if they be replenished with it I do demand whether the parts of this subtile matter have figures which if they have they cannot be united and joyned together without a Vacuum which if they have not neither have they Extension nor are they material according to the very Principle of the Cartesians To all that has been said we may joyn an Experiment about the rarefaction and condensation of bodies and the confirmation of disseminate Vacuums for Example take a Glass-Phial with a long neck which being well heated put it into a Vessel full of Water so that the end of the neck of the Vial may go a little way into it we shall certainly see that the water presently ascends to a certain height
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
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
and it is certain that the Twenty four Letters serve to the composition of all Syllables Words Sayings Discourses nay of all the Books which are Composed in the World. And even as words Sayings Syllables Discourses and Books themselves are changed the Letters being still the same unvaried so also the greater and lesser compound Bodies are changed and corrupted the Atoms being unchanged and remaining the same nothing new happens to them unless it be that they are no more the parts of one compound but may be of a second third and others successively to the end of the World. When all Generations Corruptions and Motions in things of Nature shall cease Letters are the true Image of Atoms in respect of the compositon or division of Things And as the substance essence and quality of Words depend upon Syllables and Syllables upon Letters and their disposition So after the same manner the substance essence and quality of Bodies arises from Corpuscles or smaller Bodies and the diversity of These from Atoms and their various dispositions From these principles may be taken away a question no less agitated than unprofitable in the Schools viz. whether in the corruption of Bodies a reduction or resolution of the compound may be made even unto the very first Matter To this it may be answered that this reduction is continually made in respect of some emancipated Atoms but not in respect of all Atoms for the division is not always so general as that all the Atoms should be entirely separated and the small number of those which flye away is scarce able to be taken notice of besides that they almost all mutually adhere together or it is seldom but they meet with others to which they remain affixed or with Bodies into which they enter or on which they are stayed CHAP. IV. Of the special Qualities depending upon the Composition of Bodies OUR Doctrine rests upon two general Principles that is to say the Doctrine of Atoms and of a Vacuum Atoms are the first Elements of Bodies because forsooth in their universal and radical division and solution they are reduced into them and the division can proceed no farther And a Vacuum is necessary to the explaining the motion of Bodies and to the giving a reason of the diverse and particular qualities of every one compound Body For there are Bodies thin and thick transparent and diaphanous as Air and Glass thick and dark as the Earth and lastly dry and moist hard and soft solid and fluid We will begin with thickness and thinness the Parents of so great difficulties to the Followers of Cartesius and Aristotle and I determine one Body to be more thin than another when it is endowed either with greater Vacuities or with a greater number of them so Air is thinner than Water and on the other hand Water is thicker than Air because Air has more and greater Vacuities than Water and this is thicker than Air because this has fewer and lesser They that reject a Vacuum and set up a Plenitude find themselves very much intricated when they are compelled to say wherein the thinness and thickness of Bodies consist for if they say that either of them is a quality or accidental form brought out of Matter in power or out of the power of Matter they conceive not what they say nor can they assign the Nature of these imaginary forms But if with Cartesius they say that there is much more of the Materia Subtilis or subtile Matter in thin Bodies than there is in thick and condensed Bodies I would ask them why this Matter is more subtile and delicate than all other Matter for as much as all Matter is equally gross and solid But then they will say that this Matter is highly rarified Yet nevertheless the same difficulty remains still viz how it comes to be more rarified They will say that it arises from this that its parts are not so much compressed therefore they will be at a greater distance from one another For that Cause there are Vacuities and Intervals For unless they be granted the parts are alike compressed in That as well as in condensed Matter If they are alike compressed than they are not more remote from one another and lastly if they be not more remote from one another they are no more rarified and so this subtile Matter will be no less gross than any other We therefore explain the thickness and thinness of Bodies in a more easie Method than these Philosophers and the reason which we give of them is more clear and more Natural than theirs It is the same thing concerning clear bright and dark Bodies and we say a Body is more or less pellucid or transparent as it possesses a greater or lesser number of Vacuities or as they are placed in a right or oblique Line so Air for Example is pellucid at a certain distance by reason of the great number of its great Vacuities and Glass is transparent by reason of the Vacuities dispersed through it which are placed in a right Line and are very long as they are observed to be by the help of a new Microscope The moisture and dryness of Bodies arises from a Mixtion of Atoms or Particles either of Air or Water predominating For if the Aqueous Particles predominate the Composition is moist if on the contrary the Earth is more eminent it will be dry and it may be justly said that moisture is nothing else but moist Bodies which are Air and Water as they insinuate themselves into Compounds which are therefore moist by reason of their presence and dry when they are evaporated After the same manner as it happens to Wood which hath a long time lain in the Water and becomes dry by the evaporation of that Water which it was full of A Linnen cloth dipped in Water and taken out from thence is more heavy because its pores are filled with Water and it remains moist and equally heavy until the Corpuscles of Water are exhaled and evaporated which suffices to make it afterwards dry and light without the addition of two Physical Accidents distinct from Matter Water therefore to speak properly is not moist but the moisture it self that moistens all things From the same Fountain the hardness and softness of Bodies arises for a Body is soft when it yields to the hand that touches and the less it resists the softer it is but if it hath no sensible resistance it is fluid like Air but if it hath a little more than that then it is Liquid as Water in which if with your hand you thrust a Stick it enters and goes even to the bottom It is otherwise in a soft Body as Wax and Flesh into which indeed one may thrust ones Finger but it finds some kind of resistance and there are always found some compressed Particles that strongly resist All which arises from the disposition of the little Bodies Atoms and dispersed Vacuities for an Atom being in its own
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
the Eyes are of that Figure that they cannot be placed elsewhere without a violent concussion of these mutually self impelling Atoms and these concussions are sometimes the cause why when the Women are hurt the Child is not at all formed and that by reason of the sole inordinate motion of one Corpuscle which either does not or being hindred by others which cause this motion cannot find a place due to its Figure It is plain therefore that seminal Corpuscles have the Figure of that part from whence they are derived and the whole humane Body is no otherwise shut up in a small part of Matter than an whole Oak in an Acorn and an Apple in a Kernel The example brought by me above concerning the divers kinds of Salt dissolved in water which in evaporating part asunder from each other and each possesseth his place not without a difference of Figures will give some light to this my Doctrine CHAP. V. Of Nutrition which Plants and Brute Beasts have common with Man. NUtrition is a vital action and so proper to Living Creatures that as there is nothing nourished that is not Living so there is no Living thing that is not nourished All the difficulty lies in the manner of Nutrition for no Man doubts but Animals and Plants at the beginning of their existence are nourished and grow which could not be without the addition of new Matter which is changed into the substance of the thing Living This addition of Matter takes in its attraction preparation digestion and its distribution through all the Parts of the Body nourished These opperations appear in Plants wherein it is amiss to attribute that to Nutritive Attractive Digestive and Distributive Qualities which may be explicated by the motion of the Atoms or seminal Corpuscles contained in the Seed But because Nutrition is much more conspicuous in Living Creatures and especially in Man it will be necessary to explain the Reason how that is performed in him in the first State after Conception and afterwards when the Organs are formed For there is need of Aliment that the Organs which are just formed and tenderer then to be sufficient to undergo their Operations may grow and be encreased So that at the very moment he begins to live there is a necessity that he should be nourished CHAP. VI. How and with what Aliment an Embryo is nourished 'till the time of his Birth THe first thing that is done after the laying together of the parts of the Embryo and the disposition of its Organs is the infusion of the Rational Soul which God in one and the same moment Creates and gives to this little Body as its Lodging Forty or sometimes more days after its Conception what is done before the infusion of this Soul to speak properly is nothing else but a disposition of the Organs to receive it This admirable Structure begins from the Heart Head Bones and other particular Fundamentals and when it is already compleated and the Soul infused the seminal Atoms Presidents of the formation of the Body persevere in performing their works taking as Companions of their Office these Particles of the Mothers Blood which may serve to nourish the Infant being sensibly solicitous for its increase 'till the time of its Nativity Yet nevertheless it is very difficult throughly to declare the true Reason of the Nutrition and Life of the Infant for seven or eight Months together Gassendus recounts three Opinions of the Antients concerning this thing the first is of Alcmaeon in Plutarch affirming the Infant to be nourished by all parts of the Body drawing in by the help of the Pores a necessary Aliment The second Opinion is by the same Plutarch attributed to Democritus this Philosopher teaches that the Infant is nourished in the Mothers Womb in the same manner as it is nourished when born to wit by the Mouth and this is the Cause he says why the newly born seek the Breast with open Mouth The third is Aristotle's Galen's and many others who conclude that the Infant takes no nourishment in the Womb but by the Umbilical Veins which taking their Original from the bottom of the Matrix insinuate themselves into the middle of the Abdomen or Belly where being collected into one Trunk they lead on the Mothers Blood into the hollow part of the Liver where part of it is carried into a Branch of Vena-Cava and part into a Branch of the Vena-Porta and the two Arteries which accompany the Umbilical Veins having passed the Liver each of them apart go to the two Branches of the Aorta or great Artery and carry the Arterial Blood which they bring thither that it may all be distributed through the whole Body of the Infant and changed into a substance fit for its Nutrition This Opinion is confirmed by the refutation of the two former For the first is false For if the Infant was like a Sponge it would not be nourished but swelled by the Water or serous humour in which it swims and which is contained in the Amnion The second Opinion is not probable For the Infants head is placed betwixt both knees nor can it suck the Caruncles which are covered with a Skin as is supposed unless at one and the same time it should attract the water wherein it lies hid or penetrate the Membrane in which it is involved The third Opinion standing firm which I believe rests upon a better foundation nor does the Infants Stomach generate Chyle nor its Liver Blood the Mothers Blood subministring all those things And from hence it is that a Woman with Child communicates to the fruit of her Womb the purity or impurity of her Blood her good or ill nourishment as also her Health and Diseases and these Diseases are hereditary not but that there are some which proceed from the Fathers whose impure Blood licentious living ill nourishment and frequent excesses afford matter to these evils Besides we may say that the Infant in the Mothers Womb does neither live nor breath but by the Mouth Heart and Lungs of the Mother from whence it comes to pass that the Infant for the most part follows the Mothers affections and inclinations and seeing that in the state wherein it is in the Womb it is tyed to its Mother in so strict a bond of Union it is impossible that she alone should be feaverish nor that the big-bellied Woman should dye the Child remaining alive and healthful CHAP. VII How Man is Nourished after he is Born. AMan Born hath need of Nourishment now nothing can nourish him which hath not some Spirit of Life So Roots Plants Corn Pulse Flesh serve to the nourishing of a Man and all this business is performed by the benefit of Atoms and vital Corpuscles passing from one Compound Body to another This Nutrition is necessary to encrease the substance of the born Infant and so there is need of a new Compound Body to serve it for Aliment And this Compound Body must of
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
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