them both those sixteen months that we remain'd Maâ—ter of those Seas therefore it concern'd us to make towards some safe Port where we might both refresh our Men and repair our batter'd Vessels My opinion was clean contrary to theirs for I believ'd our best Course were to steer our Course Westward and to sail along the Coasts of Cilicia Pamphylia Lydia Natolia or Asia the Less and to traverse the mouth of the Archipelago leave the Adriatick on the right hand and pass by Sicily Italy Sardinia Corsica the Gulph of Lion and so coast all Spain Telling them that it would be a great dishonour to us to forsake our best Road for fear of the Enemy since our chief business thither was to find them out and the protection which it pleased God to afford us all along in so many Combats in going ought to make us hope the same providence would vouchsafe to guide us in returning That there was no doubt but the road which I proposed to them consider'd simply in it self was without comparison the better and the more expedite to sail out of the Mediterranean Sea and gain the Ocean because said I although we have the briezes from the Land as long as we are upon the Coasts of Syria and Egypt we shall not have them at all while we sail upon the coasts of Lybia where there are those fearful Sands the Syrtes which are of a great extent the said coast having no humidity for there is neither tree nor herb grows there nor ought else but moving Sands which cover'd and interred heretofore at one glut the puissant Army of Kâ—ng Cambyses Now where there is no humidity the Sun cannot attract to make a wind so that we shall never find there specially in Summer time any other wind but that Regular one which blows from East to West according to the course of the Sun who is the Father of Winds unless some extraordinary happen either from the coast of Italy which lies Northward or from the bottom of Ethiopia where the Mountains of the Moon are and the source of the Cataracts of Nile Therfore if we were near the Syrtes the winds of Italy would be most dangerous to us and expose us to shipwrack I reason'd so according to natural Causes while they of my Councel of war kept themselvs firm to their Exâ—eâ—â—ence and I would do nothing against the unanimous sense of all for though the disposing and resolution of all things depended absolutely upon my self yet I thought I might be justly accused of rashness or wilfulness if I should prefer my own advice before that of all the rest So we took that course and went happilâ— as far as the Syrtes of Lybia but there our land briâ—zes fail'd us and for seven and thirty days we had no other but a few gentle Zephirs which came from the West whither we were steering our course We were constrain'd to keep at anchor all that time with a great deal of apprehension that the wind might come from the North accompanied with a Tempest for if that had hapned we had been all lost because our anchors had not been able to hold among those moving Sands for under water they are of the same nature as they are upon dry land and so we must have been shipwrackt upon that coast But God Almighty who hath been pleas'd I should have the honour to wait on you this day deliver'd me from that danger And at the end of seven and thirty days we observ'd the course of the clouds very high which came from Soâ—â—h-â—ast at first but slowly but by degrees faster and faster insomâ—ch that in two days the wind which was forming it self a great way off in Ethiopia came in a tempest to the place where we rid at anchor and carried us whither we intended to go but the force of it was broken before coming so far Out of this Discourse we may infer and conclude that wherever there is any wind there are also some small Bâ—dies or Atomes which are drawn from the Bodies whence they come by the virtue of the Sun and Light and that in effect this Wind is nothing else but the said Aâ—omes agitated and thrust on by a kind of impetuosity And so the winds partake of the qualities whence they come as if they come from the South they are hot if from the Noâ—th they are cold if from the Earth alone they are dry if from the Mâ—rine or Sea-side they are humid and moâ—st if from places which produce aromatical substances they are odoriferous wholsom and pleasing As those from Arabia Faelix which produces Spices Perfumes and Gums of sweet savour or that â—rom Fontenâ—y and Vaugirard at Paris in the season of Roses which is all perfumed on the contrary those winds that come from stinking places viz. from the sulphureous soâ—l of Pozzuolo smell ill as also those that come from infected places bring the contagion along with them My Third Principle shall be that The Air is full throughout of small Bodies or Atomes or rather that which we call ouâ— air is no other than a mixture or confusion of such Atomes wherin the aereal parts predominate 'T is well known that in nature there cannot be actually found any pure Element unblended with others for the exteriour Fire and the Light acting one way and the internal Fire of every Body pushing on another way causes this marvailous mixture of all things in all things Within that huge extent where we place the Air there is â—â—fficienâ— space and liberty enough to make such a mixture which Experience as well as Reason confirmâ— I have seen little Vipers as soon as they came from the egs where they were ingendred being not yet an inch long which conserv'd in a large Gourd cover'd with paper tyed round about that they might not get out but leaving little pin-holes made in it that the Air might enter encreased in substance and bigness so prodigiously in six eight or ten months that it is incredible and more sensibly during the season of the Equinoxes when the air is fuller of those aethereal and balsamical atomes which they drew for their nouriture Hence it came that the Cosmopolites had reason to say Est in â—â—re occultus vitae cibus there is a hidden food of life in the air These smal Vipers had but the air only for their sustenance nevertheless by this thin viand they grew in less than a year to a foot long and proportionably big and heavy Vitriol Salt-peter and some other substances augment in the same manner only by attraction of air I remember that upon some occasion seventeen or eighteen years ago I had use of a pound of Oil of Tartar it was at Paris where I had then no Operatory Wherfore I desired Monsir Ferrier a man universally known by all such as are curious to make me some for he had none then ready made but did it expressely for me And because for the calcination
the earth which is moistned either by rain or the dew of the night his beams raise a Mist which by little and little ascends to the tops of the hills and this Mist doth rarifie according as the Sun hath more force to draw it upwards till at last we lose the sight thereof and it becomes part of the Air which in regard of its tenuity is invisible to us These Atomes then are like Cavaliers mounted on winged Coursers who ride on still till the Sun setting â—akes from them their Pegasus and leaves them unmounted and then they precipitate themselvs in crowds to the Earth whence they sprung The greatest part of them and the most heavy fall upon the first reâ—â—eating of the Sun and that we call the Serain which though it be so thin that we cannot see it yet we feel it as so many small hammers striking upon our heads and Bodies principally the elder sort of us For young persons in regard of the boyling of their blood and the heat of their complexion thrust out of them abundance of Spirits which being stronger than those that fall from the Serain repulse them and hinder them to operate on the Bodies whence these Spirits came forth as they do upon those that being grown cold by age are not guarded by so strong an emanation of their Spirits The Wind which blows and is tossed to and fro is no other than a great River of the like Aâ—omes drawn out of some solid Bodies which are upon the earth and so banded here and there according as they find cause for that effect I remember to have once sensibly seen how the Wind â—s ingendred I passed over Mount Cenis to go for Italy towards the begining of Summer and I was advanced to half the Hill as the Sun rose clear and luminous bâ—t before I could see his body because the Mountains interposed I observed his rays which gilded the top of the Mâ—untain Viso which is the Pyramid of a Rock a good deal hâ—gher than Mount Cenis and all the neighbouring Mountains Manâ— are of opinion that it is the highest Mountain in the World after the Pic of Tenariff in the Gran-de-Canary and this Mount Viso is always cover'd with Snow I observed then that about that place which was illuminated by the Solar rays there was a Fog which at first was of no greater extent than an ordinary Boul but by degrees it grew so great that at last not only the top of that Mountain but all the neighbouring Hills were canopied all over with a Câ—oud I was now come to the top of Mount Cenis and finding my self in the straight line which pâ—sses from the Sun to Mount Viso I stay'd a while to behold it while my Servants were coming up the Hill behind for having more men to carry my chair than they had I was there sooner It was not long e're I might perceive the said Fog descend gently to the place where I was and I began to feel a freshness that came over my face when I turn'd it that way When all my Troop was come about me we went descending the other side of Mount Cenis towards Sâ—zâ— and the lower we went we sensibly found that the Wind began to blow hard behind our backs for our way obliged us to go towards the side where the Sun was We met with Passengers that were going up as we down who told us that the Wind was very impetuous below and did much incommodate them by blowing in their faces and eyes but the higher they came it was lâ—sser and lesser And for our selves when we were come to the place where they said the Wind blew so hard we found a 〈◊〉 of Storm and it encreased still the lower we went till the Sun being well advanced drew no more by that line but caused a Wind in some other place The people of that Country assured me that it was there always so if some extraordinary and violent accident did not intervene and divert the ordinary course viz. at a certain hour of the day the Wind raises it self to such a romb or point and when the Sun is come to another point another wind rises and so from hand to hand it changes the point till the Sun set which always brings with it a calm if the weâ—ther be faâ—r and that always comes from the Mount Viso opposite to the Sun They told us also that the daily wind is commonly stronger towards the bottom of the Mountain than towards the top wherof the reason is evident For the natural movement of every body natural encreases always in swiftness according as it moves forward to its center and that by the unequal numbers as Galileo hath ingeniously demonstrated I did it also in another Treatise that is to say if at the first moment it advances an ell in the second it advances three in the third five in the fourth seven and so it continues to augment in the same manner which proceeds from the density and figure of the descending body acting upon the cessiblility of the medium And these small Bodies which cause a wind from Mount Viso are thick and terrestrial for the Snow being composed of watry and earthy parts united by the cold when the heat of the Solar beams disunites and separates them the viscous parts flie with them while the terrestrial being too heavy to fly upward fall presently downward This makes me remember a very remarkable thing which befell me when I was with my Fleet in the Port of Scanderon or Alexandretta towards the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea there they use to dis-imbark when they go to Aleppo or Babylon I had done already what I had intended to do in those Seas and happily compassed my design so it imported me much to return to England as soon as possibly I could and the rather because my Ships were batter'd by a great Fight I had had a little before against a formidable power wherin although I had obtain'd the better yet in so furious a dispute my Fleet was in some disorder and my Ships full of wounded Men. To advise therefore of the most expedient Course to come to some Harbour where I might repair my Ships and be in surety I assembled all my Captains Pilots and Mariners the most experienced of my Fleet and having propounded to them my design they were all of an unanimous opinion that the surest course was towards the South and to cast upon Syria Iudea Egypt and Africa and render our selves at the streight of Giâ—raltar sailing so near the main Land we should have every night some small briezes of wind wherby we should in a short time make our Voyage And besides we should not be in any great danger to meet either with Spanish or French Fleets For England was at that time in open War with both those Kings and we had advice that they had great Fleets abroad to vindicate some things we had done in prejudice of
not to be feared that the continuity of the Water will break ascending this scale of chords or that it will recoil backwards for those little ladders so easy to be mounted render the ascent facile and the woolly fibres of every thrid seem to reach their hands to help them up at every step and so the facility of geting up joyn'd with the fluidness of the water and the nature of quantity which tends always to the uniting of substances and bodies which it clothes when there occurs no other predominant cause to break and divide it causes that the water keeps it self in one piece and passes above the brink of the pot After that its voâ—age is made more easie for it follows its natural tendence always downwards And if the end of the cloth hangs lower without the pot than the surface of the water within the water drops into the ground or some Vessel placed underneath as we see a chord being hung upon a pully the longest and heaviest end falls upon the ground and carries away the shortest and lightest drawing it over the pully But if the end of the cloth without the pot were horizontal with the surface of the water and hung no lower than it the water would be immoveable as the two sides of a Ballance when there 's equal weight in both the scales And if one should pour out part of the water that is in the pot so that the superficies grow lower than the end of the cloth without in that case the ascending water becoming more heavy than the descendant on the other side without the pot it would call back that which was gone out before and ready to fall and would make it thrust on and return to its former pace and enter again into the pot to mingle with the water there You see then this mystery which at first was surprizing displaid and made as familiar and natural as to see a stone fall down from the air 'T is true that to make a demonstration thereof exact and compleatly rigorous we must add other circumstances which I have done in another Discourse wherein I expressly treated of this subject But that which I now say is sufficient to give a taste how this so notable Attraction is performed The other Attraction by Fire which draws to it the ambient air with the small bodies therein is wrought thus The Fire acting according to its own nature which it to push on a continual river or exhalation of its parts from the center to the circumference carries away with it the air adjoyned and sticking to it on all sides as the water of a river trains along with it the earth of that channel or bed through which it glides For the air being humid and the fire dry they cannot do less than embrace and hug one another But there must new air come from the places circumjacent to fill the room of that which is carried away by the fire otherwise there would a vacuity happen which nature abhors This new air remains not long in the place it comes to fill but the fire which is in a continual carreer and emanation of its parts carries it presently away and draws other and so there is a peâ—petual and constant current of the air as long as the action of fire continues We daily see the experience hereof For if one makes a good fire in ones Chamber it draws the air from the door and windows which though one would shut yet there be crevices and holes for the air to enter and coming near them one shall hear a kind of whistling noise which the air makes in pressing to enter 'T is the same cause that produces the sound of the Organ and Flute And he who would stand between the crevices and the fire should find such an impetuosity of that artificial wind that he would be ready to freeze while he is ready to burn the other side next the fire And a Wax-candle held in this current of wind would melt by the flame blown against the wax and waste away in a very short time wheras if that Candle stood in a calm place that the flame might burn upward it would last much longer But if there be no passage wherby the air may enter into the Chamber one part then of the vapor of the wood which should have converted to flame and so mounted up the funnel of the Chimney descends downward against its nature to supply the defect of air within the said Chamber and fills it with smoke but at last the fire choaks and extinguishes for want of air Whence it comes to pass that the Chymists have reason to say that the air is the life of fire as well as of animals But if one puts a Bason or Vessel of water before the fire upon the hearth there will be no smoke in the Chamber although it be so close shut that the air cannot enter for the fire attracts part of the water which is a liquid substance and easie to move out of its place which aquatic parts rarifie themselves into air and therby perform the functions of the air This is more evidently seen if the Chamber be little for then the air which is there pen'd in is sooner rais'd up and carried away And by reason of this attraction they use to make great fires where there is houshold-stuff of persons that dyed of the Pestilence to dis-infect it For by this inundation of attracted air the fire as it were sweeps the walls floor and other places of the Chamber and takes away those little putrified sharp corrosive and venomous bodies which were the infection that adhered to it drawing them into the fire where they are partly burnt and partly sent up into the Chimney accompanied with the atomes of the fire and the smoke 'T is for this reason that the great Hippocrates who groped so far into the secrets of Nature dis-infected and freed from the Plague a whole Province or entire Region by causing them to make great fires every where Now this manner of attraction is made not only by simple fire but by that which partakes of it viz. by hot substances and that which is the reason and cause of the one is also the cause of the other For the Spirits or ignited parts evaporating from such a substance or hot body carry away with them the adjacent air which must necessarily be supplied by other air or some matter easily rariâ—iable into air as we have spoken of the bason and tub of water put before the fire to hnder smoke 'T is upon this foundation that Physicians ordain the application of Pigeons or Puppy's or some other hot Animals to the soles of the feet or the hand-wrists or the stomachs or navils of their Patients to extract out of their bodies the wind or ill vapours which infect them And in time of contagion or universal infection of the air Pigeons Cats Dogs with other hot Animals which have continually a
to wit one year with Barley the next with Wheat the third with Beans and the fourth year they let it rest and dung it that it may recover its vigor by attraction of the vital spirit it receivs from the air and so be plow'd up again after the same degrees Now the year that the field is cover'd with Beans Passengers use to smell them at a good distance off if the wind blow accordingly and they be in flower It is a smell that hath a suavity with it but fading and afterwards is unpleasant and heady But the smell of Rosemary which comes from the coasts of Spain goes much further I have sail'd along those coasts divers times and observ'd always that the Mariners know when they are within thirty or forty leagues of the Continent I do not exactly remember the distance and they have this knowledge from the smell of the Rosemary which so abounds in the fields of Spain I have smelt it as senâ—ibly as if I had had a branch of Rosemary in my hand and this a day or two before we could discover land 't is true the wind was in our faces and came from the shore Some Naturalists write that Vultures have come two or three hundred leagus off by the smell of carrens and dead bodies left in the field after some bloody Battle and it was known that these Bâ—rds came from afar off because none used breed near They have a quick smelling and it must be that the rotten atoms of those dead Carcaffes were transported by the air so far and those Birds having once caught the scent pursue it to the very source and the nearer they come to that the stronger it is We will conclude here that which we had to say touching the great extent of those little Bodies which by the mediation of the Sun-beams and of the Light use to issue out of all Bodies that are composed of Elements which throng in the air and are carried a marvailous distance from the place and bodies where they have their origin and source the proof and explication of which things hath been the aim of my discourse hitherto Now my Lords I must if you please make you see how These small bodies that so fill and compound the Air are oftentimes drawn to a road altogether differing from that which their universal causes should make them hold and it shall be our Fifth Principlâ— One may remark within the course and oeconomy of Nature divers sorts of attractions As that of Sucking wherby I have seen leaden Bullets at the bottom of a long Barrel exactly wrought follow the air which one suck'd out of the mouth of the Gun with that impetuosity and strength that it broke his teeth The attraction of water or wine by a Scyphon is like to this for by means of that the liquor is made to pass from one Vessel into another without changing any way the colour or rising of the lees There is anoâ—her sort of attraction which is called Magnetical wherby the Loadstone draws the Iron Another Electrick when the Iet-stone draws to it Straws There is another of the Flame when the smoke of a Candle put out draws the flame of that which burns hard by and makes it descend to light that which is out There is another of Filtration when a humid body climbs up a dry Lastly when the Fire or some hot body draws the Air and that which is mixed therwith We will treat here of the two last species of Attraction I have sufficiently spoken of the rest in another place Filtration may seem to him who hath not attentively consider'd it nor examin'd by what circumstances so hidden a Secret of Nature comes to pass and to a person of a mean and limited understanding to be done by some occult virtue or property and he will perswade himself that within the Filtre or strayning instrument there is some secret Sympathy which makes Water to mount up contrary to its natural motion But he who will examine the business as it ought to be observing all that is done without omiting any circumstance will find there is nothing more natural and that it is impossible it should be otherwise And we must make the same judgment of all the profound and hidden'st mysteries of Nature if men would take the pains to discover them and search into them with judgment Behold then how Filtration is done They use to put a long toung of cloth or cotten or spongy matter within an earthen pot of Water or other liquor and leave hanging upon the brim of the pot a good part of the cloth and one shall see the water presently mount up and pass above the brink of the Vessel and drop at the lower end of the piece of cloth upon the ground or into some Vessel And the Gardners make use of this method to water their plants and flowers in Summer by soft degrees As also Apothecaries and Chymists to separate their liquors from their dregs and residences To comprehend the reason why the water ascends in that manner let us nearly observe all that is done That part of the cloth which is within the water becomes wetted viz. it receivs and imbibes the water through its spungy and dry parts at first This cloth swells in receiving the water so two bodies joyn'd together require more room than one of them would by it self Let us consider this swelling and augmented extension in the last thrid of them which touch the water viz. that on the superâ—icies which to distinguish from the rest let us mark at the two ends as by a line with A. B. and the third which immediately follows and is above it with C. D. the next with E. F. the next with G. H. and so to the end of the toung I say then that the thrid A B. dilating it self and swelling by means of the water which enters 'twixt it's fibres or strings approaches by little and little to C. D. which is yet dry because it touches not the water but when A. B. is grown so gross and swol'n by reason of the water which enters that it fills all the vacuity and distance 'twixt it and C. D. as also that it presses against C. D. by reason of it's extension which is greater than the space was betwixt them both then it wets C. D. because the thrid A. B. being compressed the exterior part of the water which was in it coming to be push'd on upon C. D. seeks there a place and enters within the thrids and wets them in the same manner as at first it 's exterior and highest part became wet C. D. being so wetted will dilate it self as A. B. did and consequently pressing against E. F. it cannot choose but work the same effect in it which before it had receiv'd by the swelling and dilatation of A. B. and so by gentle degrees every thrid wets its neighbor till the very last thrid of the cloth toung And it is
after every dissolution and coagulation The ordinary Salt forms it self alwaies in cubes of â—oursquare faces Salt-peter in forms of six faces Armoniac-salt in Hexagons as the Snow doth which is sexangular Wherto Mr. Davison attributes the pentagonary figure of every one of those Stones which were found in the Bladder of Monsir Peletier to the number of fourscore for the same immediate efficient cause the Bladder had imprinted its action both on the stones and the salt of the urine The Distillators observe that if they powre upon the dead head of some distillation the water which was distilled out of it it imbibes it and re-unites incontinently wheras if one pour on it any other water of an heterogeneous body it swims on the top and incorporates with much difficulty The reason is that the distill'd water which seems to be an homogeneous body is composed of smal bodies of discrepant figures as the Chymists plainly demonstrate and these atoms being chaced by the action of fire out of their own Chambers or beds exactly fitted to them when they come back in their antient habitations viz to the pores which are left in the dead heads they accommodate themselvs and amiably rejoin and comensurate together The same happens when it rains after a long drougth for the earth immediately drinks up the water which had been drawn up by the Sun wheras any other strange liquor would enter with some difficulty Now that there are differing poâ—es in bodies which seem to be homogeneous Monsir Gassendus affirms and undertakes to prove by the dissolution of Salts of differing natures in common water When says he you have dissolv'd in it common Salt as much as it can bear if you put in only a scruple more it will leave it entire in the bottom as if it were sand or plaister nevertheless it will dissolve a good quantity of Salt-peter and when 't is glutted with this 't wil dissolve as much of Armoniacal salt and so others of different figures So that as I have observed elsewhere we see plainly by the oeconomy of Nature that bodies of the same figure use to mingle more strongly and unite themselves with more facility Which is the reason why those thaâ— make a strong glue to piece together broken pots of Porcelain or Chrystal c. always mingle with the glue the powder of that body which they endeavour to re-accomodate and the Goldsmiths themselvs when they go about to soder together pieces of gold or silver mingle alwayes their own dust in the soder Having hitherto run through the reasons and causes why bodies of the same nature draw one to another with greater facility and force than others and why they unite with more promptitude le ts now see according to our method how experience confirms this discourse for in natural things we must have recourse en dernier ressort to experience and all reasoning that is not supported so ought to be repudiated or at least suspected to be illegitimate T is an ordinary thing when one find she ha's burnt his hand to hold it a good while as near the fire as he can and by this means the ignited atomes of the fire and of the hand mingling together and drawing one another and the stronger of the two which are those of the fire having the mastery the hand finds it self much eased of the inflammation which it suffer'd T is an usual course though a nasty one of those who have ill breaths to hold their mouths open over a Privy as long as they can and by the re-iteration of this remedy they find themselvâ—s cured at last the greater stink of the privy drawing to it and carrying away the lesse which is that of the mouth They who have been prick'd or bitten by a Viper or Scorpion hold over the bitten or prick'd place the head of a Viper or Scorpion bruised and by this means the poyson which by a kind of filtration crept on to gain the heart of the party returns back to its principles and so leavs him well recover'd In time of common contagion they use to carry about them the powder of a Toad and somtimes a living Toad or Spider shâ—t up in a bâ—x or Arsâ—ick or some other venemous substance which draws to it the contagious air that otherwise would infect the party and the same powder of a Toad draws to it the poyson of a plague sore The Farcy is avenemous and contagious humor within the body of a Horse hang a Toad about the neck of the Horse in a little bag and he will be cured infallibly the Toad which is the stronger poyson drawing to it the venome which was within the Horse Make water to evaporate out of a Stove or other room close shut if there be nothing that draws this vapor it will stick to the walls of the Stove and as it cools recondense there into water but if you put a bason or bucket of water into any part of the Stove it will attract all the vapor which fil'd the chamber and no part of the wall will be wetted If you dissolve Mercury which resolving into smoke passes into the recipient put into the head of the limbeck a little therof and all the Mercury in the limbeck will gather there and nothing will passe into the recipient If you distil the Spirit of Salt or of Vitriol or the Baume of Sulpher and leave the passage free betwixt the Spirit and the dead head whence it issued the Spirits will return to the dead head which being fixt and not able to mount up draws them to it In our Country â— and I think it is so used here they use to make provision for all the year of Venison at the season that their flesh is best and most savory which is in july and August they bake it in earthen pots or Ryecrust after they have well seasond it with salt and spices and being cold they cover it deep with fresh butter that the air may noâ— enter Nevertheless t is observ'd that after all their diligence when the lâ—vâ—ng Beasts which are of the same nature and kind are in Rut the flesh in the pot smels very rank and is very much changed having a stronger taft because of the spirits which come at thiâ— season from the living Beasts which spirits are attracted naâ—urally by the dead flesh And then one hath much to do 〈◊〉 preserve it from being quite spoil'd but the said season beâ—ng passed there is no danger or difficulty to keep it gustful all the year long The Wine Merchants in this Country and every where else where there is Wine observe that during the season that the Vines are in flower the Wine in their Cellars makes a kind of fermentation and pushes forth a little white Lee which I think they call the Mother upon the surface of the wine which continues in a kind of disorder till the flowers of the Vines be fall'n and then this agitation or fermentation
her lodging she was brought to-bed before her time of a Child who had his head sever'd from his body both the parts yet shedding fresh blood besides that which was abundantly shed in the womb as if the heads-man had done an execution also upon the tender young body within the Mothers wombe These three Examples manifestly enough prove the strength of the Imagination and many others as true I could produce which would engage me too far if I should undertake to clear the causes and unwrap the difficulties that would be found greater in them than in any of those wherwith I have entertain'd you Because those spirits had the power to cause essential changes and fearful effects upon bodies that were already brought to their perfect shapes and it may be well believ'd that in some of them there was a transmutation of one species to another and the introduction of a new Form into the subject-Matter totally differing from that which had been introduced at first at least if that which most Naturalists tell us at the animation of the Embryo in the womb be true But this digression hath been already too long To return then to the great channel and thrid of our Discourse The examples and experiments which I have already insisted on in confirmation of the reasons I have aledg'd clearly demonstrate that Bodies which draw the atomes dispersed in the air attract themselvs such as are of their own nature with a greater force and energy than other heterogeneous and strange atoms as Wine doth the vinal spirits The oyl of Tartar perfum'd in the making with Roses drew the volatil spirits of the Rose The flesh of Deer or Venison buried in crust attracts the spirits of those Beasts and so all the other wherof I have spoken The History of the Tarantula in the kingdom of Naples is very famous you know how the venome of this Animal ascending from the part that was bitten towards the head and heart of the Parâ—ies excites in their Imagination an impetuous desire to hear some melodious airs and most commonly they are delighted with differing airs Therfore when they hear an air that pleases them they begin to dance incessantly and therby fall a sweating in such abundance that a great part of the venome evaporates Besides the sound of the musick raises a movement and causes an agitation among the aereal and vaporous Spirits in the brain and about the heart and diffused up and down through the whole body proportionably to the nature and cadence of such Musick as when Timotheus transported Alexander the great with such a vehemency to what Passions he pleas'd and as when one Lute struck makes the consonant strings of the other to tremble by the motions and tremblings which it causes in the air though they be not touch'd otherwise at all We find too oftentimes that Sounds which are no other thing than Motions of the air cause the like movement in the Water as the harsh sound caus'd by rubbing hard with ones finger the brim of a 〈◊〉 full of water excites a noise a turning and boundings as if it danced according to the cadence of the Sound The harmonious Sounds also of Bells in those Countries where they use to be rung to particular tunes makes the like impressions upon the superficies of the Rivers that are nigh the Steeple as in the Air especially in the night time when there is no other movement to stop or choak the other supervenient one For the air being contiguous or rather continuous with the water and the water being susceptible of movement ther 's the like motion caused in the fluid parts of the water as began in the air And the same contract which is betwixt the agitated air and the water by this means moved to happens also to be betwixt the agitated air and the vap'rous Spirits in those bodies that have been bitten by the Tarantula which Spirits by consequence are moved by the agitated air that is to say by the Sound and that the more efficaciously the more this agitation or Sound is proportion'd to the nature and temperature of the party hurt And this intern agitation of the Spirits and vapours helps them to discharge the vaporous venom of the Tarantula which is mixt among all their humours as standing puddle Waters and corrupted airs putrified by long repose and the mixture of other noisome substanceâ— are refin'd and purifi'd by motion Now winter approâ—ching which destroys these Animals the persons are freed from this malady but at the return of that season when they use to be bitten the mischief returns and they must dance again as they did the year before The reason is that the heat of Summer revives these Beasts so that their venom becomes as malignant and furious as before and that being heated and evaporating it self and dispersing in the air the leven of the same poyson which remains in the bodies of them who have been hurt that draws it to it self wherby such a fermentation is wrought as infects the other humours and thence a kind of steam issuing and mounting to the brain uses to produce such strange effects It is also well known that where there are great dogs or Mastifs as in England if any be bitten perchance by them they commonly use to be kil'd though they be not mad for fear least the leven of the canine choler which remains within the body of the party bitten might draw to it the malignant spirits of the same dog should he afterwards chance to be mad which might come to distemper the spirits of the person And this is not only practised in England where there are such dangerous dogs but also in France according to the report of Father Cheron Provincial of the â—armelites in this Gountrey In his examen de la Theologie mystique newly imprinted and which I have lately read I will say nothing of artificial Noses made of the flesh of other men to remedy the deformity of those who by an extreme excess of cold have lost their own which new Noses putrifie as soon as those persons out of whose substance they were taken come to die as if that small parcel of flesh engrafted on the face lived by the spirits it drew from it's first root and source For though this be constantly avouch'd by considerable Authors yet I desire you to think that I offer you nothing which is not verified by solid tradition such that it were a weakness to doubt of it But it is high time that I come now to my Seventh and last Principle it is the last turn of the engine and will I hope batter down quite the gate which hindred us an entrance to the knowledge of this so marvailous a mystery and imprint such a lawful mark upon the doctrine proposed that 't will pass for current This principle is that The source of those spirits or little bodies whâ—ch attract them to it self draws likewise after them that which accompanies