the parts of other Philosophers by the introduction of abstract Formes final Causes first Causes and frequent omitting the medial and the like Wherefore take great heed to this matter for it is the worst of evils to defie errors and to adore vain things may be well accounted the plague of the Understanding Some modern Men guilty of much levity have so indulged this vanity that they have essayed to found natural Philosophy in the first Chapter of Genesis the Book of Job and other places of Holy Writ seeking the living among the dead Now this vanity is so much the more to be check'd and restrained because by unadvised mixture of divine and humane things not only a phantastical Philosophy is produced but also an Heretical Religion Therefore it is safe to give unto Faith with a sober mind the things that are Faiths Hitherto our Excellent Author hath spoken of the bad authority of Philosophy founded in vulgar notions a few Experiments or in Superstition he examines next the depraved matter of Contemplation especially in natural Philosophy He proceeds next to discover to us by what means demonstrations lead us into errors and mistakes and concludes that experience is the best demonstration if it be founded upon mature Experiments He discourses afterwards of the several sorts of Philosophers among the Greeks and takes notice of their imperfections of their ignorance in ancient History and in Cosmography so that they could not be acquainted with so many experiments as the Learned of our dayes Afterwards he discourseth of the causes of Errors and of their long continuance in credit in the World that none might wonder how it comes to pass that some in these last Ages find so many mistakes in the Learning and Wit admired in former Ages The first Cause of the small prosiciency in Sciences he saith is the streights of time and their ignorance of former Times for their Observation had not scope enough nor sufficient assistance from true History to gather right and judicious Experiments In the second place another Cause of great moment certainly offers it self namely that in those times when the wits of men and Learning flourished most or but indifferently Natural Philosophy had the least share in humane contemplations nevertheless this ought to be accounted the great Mother of Sciences for all Arts and Sciences pluck'd away from this Root may perhaps be polished and accommodated to use but they will never grow Now it is evident that since the Christian Faith was embrac'd and encreas'd the most part of the rarest Wits applied themselves to Divinity To this end large rewards were propounded and all manner of helps plentifully afforded This study of Divinity took up the third part or period of time amongst us Europeans and the more because about that time Learning began to flourish controversies touching Religion did wonderfully increase but in the preceding Age during the second period among the Romans the chiefest meditations and studies of Philosophers were imployed and spent in Moral Philosophy which was then the Heathens Divinity Moreover the greatest Wits in those dayes for the most part applied themselves to Civil affairs by reason of the Roman Empires greatness which required the labours of many men But that Age wherein Natural Philosophy seem'd chiefly to flourish among the Grecians was a parcel of time of small continuance for even in ancienter times those Seven called Wisemen all except Thales applied themselves to Moral Philosophy and Politicks And in after times when Isocrates had brought down Philosophy from Heaven upon Earth Moral Philosophy prevailed further still and diverted mens thoughts from physiological speculations That very period of time also wherein Physick Enquiries flourished was corrupted and spoiled with contradictions and new determinations Wherefore Natural Philosophy in every one of those periods being greatly neglected or hindred 't is no wonder men profited so little in it seeing they altogether minded other things Add moreover that those who studied Natural Philosophy especially in these modern times did not wholly addict themselves thereunto unless perhaps you may alledge the example of some Monk in his Cell or Nobleman in his Country House So at length it was made but a passage and draw-bridge to other things This this famous Mother of Sciences was basely thrust down into servile offices and made a drudge to wait upon Medicine or the Mathematicks and again to wash the immature wits of young men and give them a superficial mixture that they might afterwards be the better qualified to receive of another In the mean while let no man expect a great progress in Sciences especially in the practical part unless natural Philosophy be produced to particular Sciences and those again reduced to Natural Philosophy for hence it comes to pass that Astronomy Opticks Musick many Mechanichal Arts Physick it self and what is more wonderful even Moral Philosophy Politicks and Logick have for the most part no considerable depth but languish in the surface and variety of things because when once these particular Sciences are divided they are no longer nourished by Natural Philosophy which out of the Fountains and true contemplations of motions rayes sounds texture and figuration of Bodies affections and intellectual apprehensions communicates new strength and augmentation to them And therefore 't is no wonder that Sciences grow not since they are separated from their roots Another great and powerful cause why Sciences are so little advanced is this that race cannot rightly be run where the Goal is not rightly placed and fixed Now the true and legitimate mark of Sciences is to enrich Mans life with new inventions and forces But the greater number of men know nothing of this because they are mercenary and professory unless it happens that some Artist of a sharper wit and ambitious of Glory studies some new inventions which commonly tends to his own undoing Therefore most Men are so far from propounding to themselves the advancement of Arts and Sciences that even out of those things that they have they seek no more than what may be converted into professory use gain reputation or the like advantages And if any one amongst the multitude seeks knowledge ingeniously and for it self yet you will find he doth this rather to obtain variety of contemplations and precepts than for the rigid and severe inquiry of Truth Again suppose another more severely enquires after Truth yet even he propounds to himself such conditions of Truth as may satisfie his mind and understanding in reference to the causes of things known long ago not those which may give fresh pledges of operations or new light to Axioms The end therefore of Sciences being not yet rightly defined or well assigned by any body no wonder if Error and mistakes attend those things which are subordinate thereunto The Noble Author condemns next the erroneous wayes which conduct to Sciences namely obscure Traditiòns giddy Arguments the windings of Chance or unclean Experience and wonders that none yet have
inefficacious in matter of heat Let this Experiment be tried take a Looking Gloss made contrary to the burning-glasses and put it between your hand and the Sun beams and take notice whether it don't diminish the heat of the Sun as the burning-glass increaseth it Try this other Experiment whether by the best and strongest burning-glasses it is not possible to gather together the beams of the Moon in one point and cause thereby a small degree of warmth Try also a burning-glass upon any thing that is hot but not luminous or shining as upon hot urine or hot stone which is not fiery or upon boiling water or the like and see whether it increaseth not the heat as at the rayes of the Sun Try also a burning glass before the flame of the fire The Comets have not always the same effects in encreasing the heat of the year though some have observed that grievous droughts have succeeded them Bright beams and columns and Chasmata and such like meteors appear more frequently in the winter than in the Summer and especially in great frosts when the air is very dry Thunder and Lightnings seldom happen in Winter but in the time of great heats But falling Stars are thought to consist for the most part of a thin substance bright and kindled near a kin to the strongest fire There are some Lightnings that yield light but don't burn such happen alwayes without thunder The breaking out and eruptions of flames are to be seen in cold regions as well as in hot as in Istandia Greenland as the trees which grow in cold Countreys are more combustible more full of Pitch and Rosom than others that grow in hot Regions All flame is hot more or less Nevertheless they say that Ignus fatuus which lights sometimes against a wall hath but little heat it may be like the flame of the spirit of wine which is mild and soft but that flame is yet milder which some credible and discreet Historians affirm to have been seen about the hair and heads of Boys and Girls which did not so much as singe the hair but did softly wave above them Every thing that is fiery when it turns into a fiery red when it should not yield any flame it is always hot Of hot Baths which happen by the scituation and nature of the Sun there hath not been sufficient inquiry All boiling liquors in their own nature are cold for there is no liquor to be toucht which is so naturally which remains always hot heat therefore is given to it for a time as an acquired nature or quality so that the things themselves which are in their operations most hot as the spirit of Wine some chymical Oiles and the Oyl of Vitriol and of Sulphur and the ike which at the first touching are cold but soon after they burn There is a doubt whether the warmth of wool of skins and of feathers and the like proceed not from some small inherent heat as it riseth from animals or whether it proceeds not from a fatness and Oyliness which is agreeable to warmth or whether it comes not from the inclusion and fraction of the Air. There is nothing Tangible or yielding spirit but is apt to take fire yet many things differ in this that some receive heat sooner as Air Oyl and water ohers not so quickly as Stone and Metals There can be no sparks struck out of Stone or Steel or out of any other hard substance unless some minute parts of the substance of the Stone or Metal be also struck out There is no Tangible Body to be found but becomes warm by rubbing therefore the Ancients did fancy that the heavenly Globes had no other warmth or vertue to cause heat but that which was derived to them from the 〈◊〉 of the air when they were rowled about in their swift and surious course Some Herbs and Vegetables when they are green and moist seem to have in them some secret heat but that heat is so small that it is not to be perceived by feeling when they are single but when they are heaped together and shut up that their spirits cannot escape out into the air but encourge one another then the heat appears and sometimes a flame in convenient matter New lime becomes hot when it is sprinkled with water either because of the union of heat which before was dispersed or by the irritation and exasperation of the spirits of water and of fire for there is a kind of conflict and antiperistasis How the heat is caused will easily appear if instead of Water Oyl be cast into it for Oyl as well as Water Unites the Spirits shut up but it will not Irritate or anger them All dung of Animals when it is old hath the power of heating as we may see in the fatting of ground Aromatick substances and Herbs sharp at the taste are much hotter when they are taken inwardly we may try upon what other substances they discover any hot vertue The Seamen tell us that when heaps and lumps of Spices or Aromatick substances are long shut up closs and then opened there is some danger for such as stir them or take them out first for the fumes that arise from them are apt to inflame the spirits and to give feavers Likewise an Experiment may be tried whether their dust will not be able to dry Bacon and other flesh hung over it as over the smoak of a fire There is an accrimony or penetration in cold things as Vinegar and Oyl of 〈◊〉 as well as in hot as in the Oyl of wilde Marjoram and the like therefore they cause a like pain in animals and in inanimate substances they dissolve and confirm the parts In animals there is no pain but is accompanied with a certain sense of heat Cold and hot have many effects common to them both tho produced in a different manner for snow seems to burn the hands of children and cold preserves flesh from putrefaction as well as fire and heat draws together some substances to a lesser bulk as well as cold A Table of degrees or of such things as are comparatively hot WE must first speak of those things which seem not to the feeling to be hot and yet are so potentially afterwards we shall descend to mention such things as are actually or at the feeling hot and to examine their strength and degrees of heat 1. Amongst the solid and Tangible bodies there is none found which is hot naturally or Originally neither Stone nor Metal nor Sulphur nor any Mineral nor Wood nor Water nor the Carcase of any anima but in baths there is hot water by accident either by subterraneous flames as fire such as is in Etna and many other mountains or by the conflict of bodies as heat is produced in the dissolution of Iron and Pewter Therefore our feeling cannot be sensible of any degree of heat in inanimate substances but they differ in their degrees of cold for
after sufficient negatives conclude upon affirmatives which thing is not yet done nor so much as attempted unless by Plato only who indeed to examine definitions and Ideas doth in some measure use this form of Induction But for the good and lawful institution of such an induction or demonstration many things are to be used which never yet entered into any mortal mans heart so that greater pains is to be taken herein than was ever yet spent in a Syllogism Now the help of this induction is not onely to be used in finding out Axioms but also in terminating motions for certainly in this induction our greatest hope is placed Far more and better things yea and in shorter time are to be expected from the reason industry direction and intention of men than from chance the instinct of Animals which hitherto have given the beginning to Inventions This also may be brought as an encouragement that some things which are found out are of that kind that before their production it could not easily come into mans mind to imagine any thing of them for every body despised them as impossible as the use of Guns the invention of Silk the Seamans needle c. Therefore we hope there are in Natures bosome many secrets of excellent use which have no alliance nor paralellism with the things already invented but are placed out of Fancies Road not as yet found out which doubtless after many revolutions of Ages shall at last come forth even as those former did But by the way we now declare they may speedily and suddenly be both anticipated and represented We must not omit another thing which may raise up our hope Let men reckon the infinite expence of Wit time and money which they are at in things and studies of far lesser use and value the least part whereof were it converted to sound and solid things would conquer all difficulty Had we a man among us who would de facto answer Nature's Queries the Invention of all Causes and Sciences would be the study but of a few years Some without doubt when they have read over our History and Tables of Invention may object that something is less certain or altogether false in our experiments and therefore perhaps will think with himself that our inventions are founded on false foundations and dubious principles But this is nothing for such things must needs happen at first for it is all one as though in writing or printiug some one Letter or other should be misplaced which does not usually hinder the Reader for such errors are easily corrected by the sence c. Many things also will occur in our History and Experience first slight and common then base and mechanical lastly too curious meerly speculative and of no use which kind of things may divert and alienate the studies of men Now for those things which seem common let men consider that they themselves are wont to do no less than refer and accommodate the causes of rare things to these which are frequently done but of things daily happening they enquire not the causes but take them for granted And therefore they inquire not into the causes of weight coelestial rotation heat cold light hard soft slender dense liquid concistent or solid animate and inanimate similar dissimilar nor lastly Organical but dispute and judge of other things which happen not so frequently and familiarly by these as being evident manifest and received But we who know well enough that no judgement can be made of rare and notable things much less new things be brought to light without the causes of vulgar things and the causes of causes rightly examined and found out are forced necessarily to receive the most vulgar things into our History Furthermore we perceive nothing has hindred Philosophy more than because things familiar and frequently happening do not stay and detain the contemplation of men but are entertained by the by and their causes not inquired into so that information of unknown matters is not oftner required than attention in known things Now as touching the vileness and dishonesty of things they are no less to be entertained in Natural History than the richest and most precious things nor is Natural History thereby polluted for the Sun does equally visit Pallaces and Sinks and yet is not defiled Again we do not build or dedicate a Capitol or Pyramid to the Pride of men but we found an holy Temple for the worlds pattern in humane Understanding Therefore we follow our Copy for whatsoever is worthy of essence is worthy of Science which is the image of Science but vile things subsist as well as costly ones Moreover as out of some putrid matters as musk and civet sometimes the best odours come even so from low and sordid instances sometimes excellent light and information flowes Before all things we have and must speak first of this thing viz. That we how at first setting out and for a time seek only lociferous not fructiferous Experiments according to the examples of Divine Creation which only produced Light on the first day and bestowed a whole day upon it not intermingling with it in that day any material Work If any one therefore think these things are of no use it is all one as if he should think Light useless because it is indeed no solid nor material being for we may truely affirm that the light of simple Natures being well examined and defined is like Light which affords passage to all the secret Rooms of Operations drawing after it all the companies and troops of Operations and potentially comprizing the Fountains of most noble Axioms yet in it self it is not of so great use Thus the Elements of Letters of themselves and separately signifie nothing neither are of any use but yet are like the first matter in the composition and preparation of every word Thus the seeds of things strong in power are as to use except in their increase of no value and the scattered beams of Light unless they unite together become unbeneficial to men Some also will doubt rather than Object whether we speak only of Natural Philosophy or else of other Sciences namely Logick Ethicks and Politicks to be perfected according to our way But we surely understand what we have said of all this and as vulgar Logick which rules things by syllogism belongs not onely to natural but to all Sciences So ours which proceeds by induction compriseth all things for we make an History and inventory Tables as well of Anger Fear Modesty c. as of Politick Examples and so of the mental motions of memory composition and division judgement and the rest no less than of heat and cold or light and vegetation c. But as our method of interpretation after History is prepared and ordered doth not only behold mental motions and discourses as common Logick but also the nature of things So we govern the Understanding that it may apply it self in a perfect and