by so uncertain and proverbially inconstant a thing as the Winds But I shall not trouble my self to remarque on Matters with which my Discourse hath nothing to do My business is with the pretended Answers to the Difficulties I mention as not well resolv'd by any yet known Hypothesis On which the Learned Man enters Plea 5th and in order begins with those about the SOUL in these words 1. In the third Chapter therefore of his most eloquent Discourse he objects our Ignorance of that thing we ought to be best acquainted with viz. our own SOVLS p. 30. This I do and to the Difficulties I propound about the Origine of the Soul It 's Vnion with the Body It 's moving of it and direction of the Spirits The general short Answer is That to suppose the Soul a Substance that may be made come and joinâ—…d to another a Subsistence Thing or Substance is a most important Error in Philosophy of which he saith none can doubt that is able to discern the opposition of one and many ibid. The meaning of which must be That the Soul is no distinct Substance from the Body And if so almost all the World hath hitherto been mistaken For if we inquire iâ—…to the Philosophy of the Soul as high as any accounts are given of it we shall find its real substantial distinction from the Body to have been the current belief of all Ages notwithstanding what this Gentleman saith That none can doubt that this is an error in Philosophy that knows the opposition of one and many For 1. The highest times of whose Doctrines we have any History believ'd its Preexistence and consequently that it is a certain Substance that might be made come and be join'd to another Of this I 'le say a few things If credit may be given to the Chaldean Oracles and perhaps more is due to them than some will allow Preexistence is of highest Antiquity We have that Doctrine plainly taught in those ancient Verses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oportet te festinare ad Lucem patris Lumina Vnde missa tibi est anima And afterwards more clearly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quaere tu animae canalem unde aut quo ordine Coâ—…pori inservieris in ordinem a quo effluxisti Rursuâ—… restituas And Isellus in his exposition of the Chaldean Theology tells us That according to their Doctrine Souls descended hither 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Either through the moultring of its Wings or the will of the Father of Spirits that they might adorn this Terrestrial State And again Zoroaâ—…ter speaking of Humane Souls saith they are sent down to Earth from Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Trismegistus if those remains that bear his Name may be allow'd is express in asserting the same Doctrine In his Minerva Mundi he brings in God threatning those he had placed in an happy condition of Life and injoyment with Bonds and Imprisonment in case of Disobedience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they transgressing he adds That he commanded the Souls to be put into Bodies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And in another place assigns this for the cause of their Imprisonment in Bodies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He would have them acknowledg that they sustain'd that punishment and imprisonment in Bodies for the things they had done before they came into them 3. It was also the Opinion of the Ancient Jews That all Souls were at first created together and resided in a place they call Goph a Celestial Region And therefore 't is said in the Mishna Non aderit filius David priusquam exhaustae fuerint universae Animae quae fuâ—…t in Goph So that they believ'd all Generations on Earth to be supplyed from that Promptuary and Element of Souls in Heaven whence they supposed them to descend by the North Pole and to ascend by the South whence the saying of the Cabalists Magnus Aquilo Scaturigo Animarum From which Tradition 't is like Homer had this Notion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Janua duplex Haec Boream Spectans homines demittit at illa Respiciens Austrum divinior invia prorsus Est homini praebâ—…tque viam immortalibus unis 4. 'T is notoriously known that Pythagoras and his Sectators held the Doctrine of Transmigration which supposeth Preexistence and both that the Soul is a Substance which can come and be join'd to another thing Some Pythagoreans write that Pythagoras himself after 216 years Transanimation returned to Life again Now this Opinion being so universally imputed to this Philosopher and his School I shall not need to insist on it as far as it concerns them but I take notice that both Jews Persians Indians Arabians and divers other Nations c. did of old and do still hold the same Doctrine Manasseh â—…en Israel ascribes the Opinion of Transmigration to Abraham and the Cabalists teach that every Soul is successively join'd to three Bodies So the same Soul they say was in Adam David and the Messias and the same in Seth Shem and Moses according to R. Simeon who as the Cabalists generally do stops the course in the third Transmigration as is noted from him by a Learned Man of our own There are at this day great Sects among the Indians of the East that retain this Doctrine of Transanimation believing that the Souls of some descend again into Humane Bodies but that others pass into the Bodies of Beasts So did some of the Ancient Pythagoreans who taught that good Men returned to their former blessed and happy Life but that the wicked in their first Transmigration chang'd their Sex in the second they descended into Beasts yea some supposed them at last to go into Trees and other Vegetables Now all these committed the great Error in Philos phy of which I am accused in supposing the Soul to be a certain Substance which may directly be made come and be join'd to another thing and so according to our Author They could none of them discern the opposition of one and many But 2. This pretended important Error in Philosophy of the Soul 's being a Thing and Substance and one distinct from the Body must be held by all that believe its natural Immortality for Separability is the greatest Argument of real distinction especially that which the Schools call Mutual Now the Soul's Immortality hath had a general Reception from the wiser and better part of Mankind The Egyptians Chaldeans Assyrians Indians Jews Greeks and universally all that had a name for Wisdom among the Ancients believ'd it And the same hath been the apprehension of latter Ages A Councel of the Church of Rome it self hath defin'd it and recommended the demonstrating of it to all Christian Philosophers And if the Soul lives after the dissolution of the Body 't is certainly a Substance distinct from it for nothing
Confederate Spirit should transport the Witch through the Air to the place of general Rendezvous there is no difficulty in conceiving it and if that be true which great Philosophers affiâ—… concerning the real separability of the Soul from the Body without Death there is yet less for then 't is easie to apprehend that the Soul having left its gross and sluggish Body behind it and being cloth'd only with its immedâ—…e Vehicle of Air or more subtile Matter may be quickly conducted to any place by those officious Spirits that attend it And though I adventure to affirm nothing concerning the truth and certainty of this Supposition yet I must needs say it doth not seem to me unreasonable Our experience of Apoplexies Epilepsies Extasies and the strange things Men report to have seen during those Deliquiums look favourably upon this Conjecture which seems to me to contradict no Principle of Reason or Philosophy since Death consists not so much in the actual separation of Soul and Body as in the indisposition and unfitness of the Body for Vital Union as an excellent Philosopher hath made good On which Hypothesis the Witch's anointing her self before she takes her flight may perhaps serve to keep the Body tenantable and in fit disposition to receive the Spirit at its return These things I say we may conceive though I affirm nothing about them and there is not any thing in such Conceptions but what hath been own'd by Men of Worth and Name and may seem fair and accountable enough to those who judg not altogether by customary Opinions There 's a saying of the great Apostle that seems to countenance this Platonick Notion what is the meaning else of that Expression Whether in the Body or out of the Body I cannot tell except the Soul may be separated from the Body without death Which if it be granted poâ—…sible 't is sufficient for my purpose And 2. The Transformations of Witches into the shapes of other Animals upon the same supposal is very conceivable since then 't is easie to apprehend that the Power of Imagination may form those passive and pliable Vehicles into those shapes with more ease than the Fancy of the Mother can the stubborn Matter of the Foetus in the Womb as we see it frequently doth in the Instances that occur of Signatures and monstrous Singularities and perhaps sometimes the confederate Spirit puts tricks upon the Senses of the Spectators and those Shapes are only Illusions But then 3. when they feel the Hurts in their gross Bodies that they receive in their Aiery Vehicles they must be supposed to have been really present at least in these latter and 't is no more difficult to apprehend how the hurts of those should be translated upon their other Bodies than how Diseases should be inflicted by the Imagination or how the Fancy of the Mother should wound the Foetus as several credible Relations do attest And 4. for their raising Storms and Tempests They do it not by their own but by the power of those Evil Spirits that reside in the Air and the Ceremonies that are enjoyn'd them are doubtless nothing else but Entertainments for their Imaginations and likely design'd to perswade them that they do those strange things themselves Lastly For their being suck'd by the Familiar I say 1. we know so little of the nature of Daemons and Spirits that 't is no wonder we cannot certainly divine the Reason of so strange an Action And yet 2. we may conjecture at some things that may render it less improbable For some have thought that the Genii whom both the Platonical and Christian Antiquity thought embodied are recreated by the Reeks and Vapours of Humane Blood and the Spirits that proceed from them Which supposal if we allow them Bodies is not unlikely every thing being refresh'd and nourish'd by its Like And that they are not perfectly abstract from all Body and Matter besides the Reverence we owe to the wisest Antiquity there are several considerable Arguments I could alledge to render exceeding probable Which things supposed the Devil 's sucking the Sorceress is no great wonder nor difficult to be accounted for Or perhaps 3. this may be only a Diabolical Sacrament and Ceremony to confirm the Hellish Covenant To which I add 4. That the Familiar doth not only suck the Witch but in the Action infuseth some poisonous Ferrnent into Her which gives her Imagination and Spirits a Magical Tincture whereby they become mischievously influential and the word Vâ—…nesica intimates some such Matter Now that the Imagination hath a mighty power in Operation is feen in the just-now mention'd Signatures and Diseases that it causeth and that the Fancy is modified by the Qualities of the Blood and Spirits is too evident to need proof Which things supposed 't is plain to conceive that the Evil Spirit having breath'd some vile Vapour into the Body of the Witch it may taint her Blood and Spirits with a noxious Quality by which her infected Imagination heightned by Melancholy and this worse Cause may do much hurt upon Bodies that are obnoxious to such Influences And 't is very likely that this Ferment disposeth the Imagination of the Sorceress to cause the mentioned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or separation of the Soul from the Body and may perhaps keep the Body in fit temper for its re-entry as also it may facilitate transformation which it may be could not be effected by ordinary and unassisted Imagination Thus we see 't is not so desperate to form an apprehension of the manner of these odd Performances and though they are not done the way I have describ'd yet what I have said may help us to a conceit of the Possibility which sufficeth for my purpose And though the Hypothesis I have gone upon will seem as unlikely to some as the things they attempt to explain are to others yet I must desire their leave to suggest that most things seem improbable especially to the conceited and opinionative at first proposal And many great Truths are strange and odd till Custom and Acquaintance have reconciled them to our Fancies And I 'le presume to add on this occasion though I love not to be confident in affirming that there is none of the Platonical Supposals I have used but what I could make appear to be indifferently fair and reasonable III. III. A Nother Prejudice against the being of Witches is That 't is very improbable that the Devil who is a Wise and Mighty Spirit should be at the beck of a poor Hag and have so little to do as to attend the Errands and impotent Lusts of a sil'y old Woman To which I might answer 1. That 't is much more improbable that all the World should be deceiv'd in Matters of Fact and Circumstances of the clearest Evidence and Conviction than that the Devil who is wicked should be also unwise and that He that perswades all his Subjects and Accomplices out of their Wits should himself
that are not like it self nor the objects they represent is I think not to be explain'd Whether Sensation be made by corporeal Emissions and material Images or by Motions that are convey'd to the common sense I shall not dispute the latter having so generally obtain'd among the Philosophers But How the Soul by mutation and motion in matter a substance of an other kind should be excited to action and how these should concern it that is of so divers a nature is hardly to be conceiv'd For Body cannot act on any thing but by Motion Motion cannot be receiv'd but by Matter the Soul is altogether immaterial and therefore how shall we apprehend it to be subject to such Impressions and yet Pain and the unavoidableness of our Sensations evidently prove That it is subject to them Besides How is it and by what Art doth the Soul read That such an Image or Motion in matter whether that of her Vehicle or of the Brain the case is the same signifies such an Object If there be any such Art we conceive it not and 't is strange we should have a Knowledg that we do not know That by diversity of Motions we should spell out Figures Distances Magnitudes Colours things not resembled by them we must ascribe to some implicit inference and deduction but what it should be and by what Mediums that Knowledg is advanced is altogether unintelligible For though the Soul may perceive Motions and Images by simple sense yet it seems unconceivable it should apprehend what they signifie and represent but by some secret Art and way of inference An illiterate Person may see the Letters as well as the most Learned but he knows not what they mean and an Infant hears the sounds and sees the motion of the Lips but hath no conception convey'd to him for want of knowing the signification of them such would be our case not-withstanding all the motions and impressions made by external things if the Soul had not some unknown way of learning by them the quality of the Objects For instance Images and Motions have but very small room in the Brain where they are receiv'd and yet they represent the grâ—…st Magniâ—… The Image Figure or what-evâ—… else 〈◊〉 may be call'd of an Hemisphere of the Heavens cannot have a Subject larger than the pulp of a Walnut and how can such petty Impressions make known a Body of so vast a wideness without some kind of Mathematicks in the Soul And except this be suppos'd I cannot apprehend how Distances should be perceiv'd but all Objects would appear in a cluster Nor will the Philosophy of Des-Cartes help us here For the moving divers Filaments in the Brain cannot make us perceive such modes as Distances are unless some such Art and Inference be allow'd of which we understand nothing 5. The Memory is a Faculty in us as obscure and perhaps as unâ—…ccountable as any thing in Nature It seems to be an Organical Power because Diseases do often blot out its Ideas and cause Oblivion But what the marks and imprâ—…ssions are by which the Soul râ—…members is a question that hath not yet been very well resâ—…'d There are four principal Hypotheses by which an account hath been attempted The Peripatetick the Cartesian the Digbaean and the Hobbian 1. According to the Peripatetick Schools Objects are conserv'd in the memory by certain Intentional Species as they call them a sort of Beings that have a necessary dependance upon their Subjects but are not material in their formal Constitution and Nature I need not say much against these arbitrary precarious Creatures that have no foundation in any of our Faculties Or be that how it will They are utterly unintelligible neither bodily nor spiritual neither produc'd out of any thing as the matter of their production nor out of nothing which were Creation and not to be allow'd to be in the power of every or any finite Being And though there were no such contradictious contrivance in the framing these Species yet they could not serve any purpose as to the Memory since 't is against the nature of â—…native Effects such as these are to subsist but by the continual influence of their Causes and so if this were the true Solution we could remember nothing longer than the Object was in presence 2. The account of Des-Cartes is to this purpose The Spirits are sent about the Brain to find the tracks of the Objectâ—… we would call to mind which Tracks consist in this viz That the Pores through which the Spiâ—…ts that came from the Objects past are more easily open'd and afford a more ready passage to those others that seek to enter whence ariseth a special motion in the Glandule which signifies this to be that we would remember But if our Remembrance arise from the easie motion of the Spirits through the opened passages according to this Hypothesis How then do we so distinctly remember such a variety of Objects whose Images pass the same way And how the Distances of Bodies that lie in a Line Why should not the impell'd Spirits find other open passages besides those made by the thing we would remember When there are such continual motions through the Brain from numerous other Objects Yea in such a pervious substance as that is why should not those subtile Bodies meet every where an easie passage It seems to me that one might conceive as well how every Grain of Corn in a Sieve should be often shaken through the same holes as how the Spirits in the repeated acts of Memory should still go through the same Pores Nor can I well apprehend but that those supposed open'd passages would in a short time be stopt up either by the natural gravity of the parts or the making new ones near those or other alterations in the Brain 3. The Hypothesis of Sir Kenelm Digby is next viz. That things are preserv'd in the Memory by material Images that flow from them which having imping'd on the common sense rebound thence into some vacant Cells of the Brain where they keep their ranks and postures as they entred till again they are stirr'd and then they appear to the Fancy as they were first presented But how is it conceiveable That those active Particles which have nothing to unite them or to keep them in any order yea which are continually justled by the occursion of other minute Bodies of which there must needs be great store in this Repository should so long remain in the same state and posture And how is it that when we turn over those Idaea's that are in our memory to look for any thing we would call to mind we do not put all the Images into a disorderly floating and so make a Chaos of confusion there where the exactest Order is required And indeed according to this account I cannot see but that our Memories would be more confused than our Dreams and I can as easily conceive how an heap of Ants
can be kept to regular and uniform Motions 4. Mr. Hobbs attempts another way there is nothing in us according to this Philosopher but Matter and Motion All Sense is Reaction in Matter Leviath Chap. 1. the decay of that Motion and Reaction is Imagination Chap. 2. And Memory is the same thing expressing that decay Ib. So that according to M. H. all our Perceptions are Motions and so is Memory Concerning which I observe but two things 1. Neither the Brain nor Spirits nor any other material Substance within the Head can for any considerable time conserve Motion The Brain is such a clammy Consistence that it can no more retain it than a Quagmire The Spirits are more liquid than the Air which receives every Motion and loseth it as soon And if there were any other corporeal part in us as fitly temper'd to keep Motion as could be wisht yet 2. the Motions made in it would be quickly deadned by Counter-Motions and so we should never remember any thing longer than till the next Impression and it is utterly impossible that so many Motions should orderly succeed one another as things do in our Memories For they must needs ever and anon thwart interfere and obstruct one another and so there would be nothing in our Memories but Confusion and Discord Upon the whole we see that this seemingly plain Faculty the Memory is a Riddle also which we have not yet found the way to resolve I might now add many other difficulties concerning the Vnderstanding Fancy Will and Affections But the Controversies that concern these are so hotly managed by the divided Sohools and so voluminously handled by disputing Men that I shall not need insist on them The only Difficulties about the Will its nature and manner of following the Vnderstanding c. have confounded those that have enquired into it and shewn us little else but that our Minds are as blind as that Faculty is said to be by most Philosophers These Controversies like some Rivers the further they run the more they are hid And perhaps after all our Speculations and Disputes we conceive less of them now than did the more plain and simple Understandings of former times But whether we comprehend or not is not my present business to enquire since I have confined my self to an Account of some great Mysteries that do not make such a noise in the World And having spoken of some that relate to our Souls I come now to some others that concern II. BODIES I begin with our Own which though we see and feel and have them nearest to us yet their inward Constitution and Frame is hitherto an undiscovered Region And the saying of the Kingly Prophet that we are wonderfully made may well be understood of that admiration that is the Daughter of Ignorance For 1. There hath no good account been yet given how our Bodies are formed That there is Art in the contrivance of them cannot be denied even by those that are least beholden to Nature and so elegant is their composure that this very Consideration saved Galen from being an Atheist And I cannot think that the branded Epicurus Lucretius and their Fellows were in earnest when they resolv'd this Composition into a fortuitous range of Atoms 'T were much less absurd to suppose or say that a Watch or other curious Automaton did perform divers exact and regular Motions by chance than 't is to affirm or think that this admirable Engine an Humane Body which hath so many Parts and Motions that orderly cooperate for the good of the whole was framed without the Art of some knowing Agent But who the skilful particular Archeus should be and by what Instruments and Art this Fabrick is erected is still unknown That God hath made us and fashion'd our Bodies in the nethermost parts of the Earth is undoubted But he is the first and universal Cause who transacts things in Nature by secondary Agents and not by his own immediate hand The supposal of this would destroy all Philosophy and enquiry after Causes So that He is still supposed but the Query is of the next and particular Agent that forms the Body in so exquisite a manner a Question that hath not yet been answered Indeed by some 't is thought enough to say That it is done by the Plastick Faculty and by others 't is believ'd that the Soul is that that forms it For the Plastick Faculty 't is a big word but it conveys nothing to the Mind For it signifies but this that the Body is formed by a formative Power that is 't is done by a power of doing it But the doubt remains still what the Agent is that hath this power The other Opinion of the Platonists hath two Branches some will have it to be the particular Soul that fashions its own Body others suppose it to be the general Soul of the World If the former be true By what knowledg doth it do it and how The means and manner are still occult though that were granted And for the other way by a general Soul That is an obscure Principle of which we can know but little and how that acts if we allow such a being whether by knowledg or without the Assertors of it may find difficulty to determine The former makes it little less than God himself and the latter brings us back to Chance or a Plastick Faculty There remains now but one account more and that is the Mechanical viz. That it is done by meer Matter moved after such or such a manner Be that so It will yet be said that Matter cannot move it self the question is still of the Mover The Motions are orderly and regular Query Who guides Blind Matter may produce an elegant effect for once by a great Chance as the Painter accidentally gave the Grace to his Picture by throwing his Pencil in rage and disorder upon it But then constant Uniformities and Determinations to a kind can be no Results of unguided Motions There is indeed a Mechanical Hypothesis to this purpose That the Bodies of Animals and Vegitables are formed out of such particles of Matter as by reason of their Figures will not lie together but in the order that is necessary to make such a Body and in that they naturally concur and rest which seems to be confirm'd by the artificial Resurrection of Plants of which Chymists speak and by the regular Figures of Salts and Minerals the hexagonal of Chrystal the Hemi-spherical of the Fairy-Stone and divers such like And there is an experiment mentioned by approved Authors that looks the same way It is That after a decoction of Herbs in a frosty Night the shape of the Plants will appear under the Ice in the Morning which Images are supposed to be made by the congregated Eâ—…uvia of the Plants themselves which loosly wandring up and down in the Water at last settle in their natural place and order and so make up an appearance of the Herbs from
whence they were emitted This account I confess hath something ingenious in it But it is no solution of the Doubt For how those heterogenous Atoms should hit into their proper places in the midst of such various and tumultuary Motions will still remain a question Let the aptness of their Figures be granted we shall be yet to seek for something to guide their Motions And let their natural Motion be what it will gravity or levity direct or oblique we cannot conceive how that should carry them into every particular place where they are to lie especially considering they must needs be sometimes diverted from their course by the occursion of many other Particles And as for the Regular Figures of many inaminate Bodies that consideration doth but multiply the doubt 2. The union of the parts of Matter is a thing as difficult as any of the former There is no account that I know hath yet appear'd worth considering but that of Des-Cartes viz. That they are united by juxta-position and rest And if this be all Why should not a bag of Dust be of as firm a Consistence as Marble or Adamant Why may not a Bar of Iron be as easily broken as a pipe of Glass and the Aegyptians Pyramids blown away as soon as those inverst ones of smoke The only reason of difference pretended by some is that the Parts of solid Bodies are held together by natural Hooks and strong ones by such Hooks as are more tough and firm But how do the parts of these Hooks stick together Either we must suppose infinite of them holding each other or come at last to parts united by meer juxta-position and rest The former is very absurd for it will be necessary That there should be some upon which the Cohesion of all the rest should depend otherwise all will be an heap of Dust. But in favour of the Hypothesis of Des-Cartes it may be said That the closeness and compactness of the parts resting together makes the strength of the Vnion For as that Philosopher saith Every thing continues in the state wherein it is except something more powerful alter it and therefore the Parts that rest close together will so continue till they are parted by some other stronger Body Now the more parts are pent together the more able they will be for resistance and what hath best compactness and by consequence fewer parts will not be able to make any alteration in a Body that hath more According to this Doctrine what is most dense and least porous will be most coherent and least discerpible which yet is contrary to experience For we find the most porous spongy Bodies to be oft-times the most tough of Consistence We easily break a Tube of Glass or Chrystal when one of Elm or Ash will hardly be torn in pieces and yet as the parts of the former are more so are they more at rest since the liquid Juice diffused through the Wood is in continual agitation which in Des-Cartes his Philosophy is the cause of fluidity so that according to his Principles the dryest Bodies should be the most firm when on the contrary we find that a proportionate humidity contributes much to the strength of the Vnion Sir K. Digby makes it the Cement it self and the driness of many Bodies is the cause of their fragility as we see 't is in Wood and Glass and divers other Things 3. We are as much at a loss about the composition of Bodies whether it be out of Indivisibles or out of parts always divisible For though this question hath been attempted by the subtilest Wits of all Philosophick Ages yet after all their distinctions and shifts their new-invented words and modes their niceties and tricks of subtilty the Matter stands yet unresolv'd For do what they can Actual Infinite extension every where Equality of all Bodies Impossibility of Motion and a world more of the most palpable Absurdities will press the Assertors of Infinite Divisibility Nor on the other side can it be avoided but that all Motions would be equal in velocity That the Lines drawn from side to side in a Pyramid would have more Parts than the Basis That all Bodies would be swallowed up in a Point and many other Inconsistencies will follow the Opinion of Indivisibles But because I have confined my self to the Difficulties that are not so usually noted I shall not insist on these but refer the Reader that hath the humour and leisure to inquire into such Speculations to Oviedo Pontius Ariaga Carelton and other Jesuites whose management of this Controversie with equal force on either side is a considerable Argument of the unaccountableness of this Theory and of the weakness of our present Understandings I might now take into consideration the Mysteries of Motion Gravity Light Colours Vision Sounds and infinite such like things obvious yet unknown but I insist no further on Instances but descend to the second thing I propounded to treat of viz. II. The CAVSES of our Ignorance and Mistakes And in them we shall find further evidence of the imperfection of our Knowledg The Causes to be consider'd are either 1. The Difficulties and Depth of Science Or 2. The present temper of our Faculties Science is the Knowledg of things in their Causes and so 't is defined by the Pretenders to it Let us now enquire a little into the difficulties of attaining such Knowledg 1. We know no Causes by Simple Intuition but by Consequence and Deduction and there is nothing we so usually infer from as Concomitancy for instance We always feel heat when we come near the Fire and still perceive Light when we see the Sun and thence we conclude that these are the Causes respectively of Heat and Light and so in other things But now in this way of inference there lies great uncertainty For if we had never seen more Sun or Stars than we do in cloudy weather and if the Day had always broke with a Wind which had increast and abated with the Light we should have believed firmly that one of them had been the cause of the other and so Smoke had been undoubtedly thought the efficient of the Heat if nothing else had appeared with it But the Philosophy of Des-Cartes furnisheth us with a better Instance All the World takes the Sun to be the Cause of Day from this Principle of Concomitance But that Philosopher teacheth That Light is caused by the Conamen or endeavour of the Matter of the Vortex to recede from the Centre of its Motion so that were there none of that fluid Aether in the midst of our World that makes up the Sun yet the pressure of the Globuli as he calls those Particles upon our Eyes would not be considerably less and so according to this Hypothesis there would be Light though there were no Sun or Stars and Evening and Morning might naturally be before and without the Sun Now I say not that this Opinion is true and
Knowledge or for Life To perswade Men that there is worthier Imployment for them than tying Knots in Bulrushes and that they may be better accommodated in a well-built House than in a Castle in the Air We must seek and gather observe and examine and lay up in Bank for the Ages that come after This is the business of the Experimental Philosophers and in these Designs a progress hath been made sufficient to satisfie sober expectations But for those that look they should give them the Great Elixir the Perpetual Motion the way to make Glass malleable and Man immortal or they will object that the Philosophers have done nothing for such I say their impertinent Taunts are no more to be regarded than the chat of Ideots and Children But I think I am fallen into things of which the Ingenious Historian hath somewhere given better accounts However I shall briefly endeavour to shew the injustice of the Reproach of having done nothing as 't is applyed to the Royal Scociety by a single Instance in one of their Members who alone hath done enough to oblige all Mankind and to erect an eternal Monument to his Memory So that had this great Person lived in those days when Men deified their Benefactors he could not have miss'd one of the first places among their exalted Mortals And every one will be convinc'd that this is not vainly said when I have added That I mean the Illustrious Mr. BOYLE a Person by whose proper Merits that noble Name is as much adorned as by all the splendid Titles that it wears And that this Honourable Gentlemâ—… hath done such things for the benefit of the World and increase of Knowledge will easily appear to those that converse with Him in his excellent Writings 1. In his Book of the AIR we have a great improvement of the Magdeburg Experiment of emptying Glass Vessels by exsuction of the Air to far greater degrees of evacuation ease and conveniences for use as also an advance of that other famous one of Torticellius performed by the New Engine of which I have said some things above and call'd the AIR-PUMP By this Instrument as K have already intimated the Nature Spring Expansion Pressure and Weight of the Air the decrease of its farce when dilated the Doctrine of a Vacuum the Height of the Atmosphere the Theories of Respiration Sounds Fluidity Gravity Heat Flame the Magnet and several other useful and luciferous Matters are estimated illustrated and explain'd And 2. The great Doctrine of the Weight and Spring of the Air is solidly vindicated and further asserted by the Illustrious Author in another BOOK against HOBS and LINVS 3. In his PHYSIOLOGICAL and EXPERIMENTAL ESSAYS he nobly encourageth and perswades the making of Experiments and collecting Observations and gives the necessary Cautions that are to be used in such Designs He imparts a very considerable luciferous Experiment concerning the different parts and redintegration of Salt-petre whence he deduceth That Motion Figure and Disposition of parts may suffice to produce all the secondary Affections of Bodies and consequently That there is no need of the substintial Forms and Qualities of the Schools To this he adds a close History of Fluidity and Firmness which tends mightily to the elucidating of those useful Doctrines 4. In his SCEPTICAL CHYMIST he cautions against the sitting down and acquiescing in Chymical and Peripatetical Theories which many do to the great hinderance of the growth and improvement of Knowledge He therefore adviseth a more wary consideration and examen of those Doctrines before they are subscribed and for that purpose he assists them with many very considerable Observations and Experiments 5. In his VSEFVLNESS of EXPERIMENTAL PHILOSOPHY he makes it appear how much that way tends to the advance of the Power and Empire of Man over the Creatures and the universal Benefit of the World confirming and illustrating his Discourse with innumerable new and useful Discoveries 6. In his HISTORY of COLD he hath to wonder cultivated that barren Subject and improved it as is noted in the Philosophical Transactions by near 200 choice Experiments and Observations He hath there given an account of the defectiveness of common Weather-Glasses the Advantages of the new Hermetical Thermometers and an Inquiry concerning the cause of the Condensation of the Air and Ascent of Water by Cold in the ordinary Weather-wisers All which afford valuable Considerations of Light and Vse But these are only Preliminaries The main Discourse presents us with an Account what Bodies are capable of freezing others and what of being frozen The ways to estimate the degrees of coldness How to measure the intenseness of Cold produced by Art beyond that imploy'd in ordinary Freezing In what proportion Water will be made to shrink by Snow and Salt How to measure the change produc'd in Water between the greatest heat of Summer the first degree of Winter-cold and the highest of Art How to discover the differing degrees of Coldness in different Regions A way of freezing without danger to the Vessel What may be the effects of Cold as to the preserving or destroying the texture of Bodies Whether specifick Virtues of Plants are lost through congelation and then thawing Whether Electrical and Magnetick Vertues are altered by Cold The expansion and contraction of Bodies by freezing how they are caused and how their quantity is to be measured The strength of the expansion of Water freezing and an Inquiry into the Cause of that prodigious force The Sphere of Activity of Cold. How far the Frost descends in Earth and Water An Experiment shewing whether Cold can act through an hot medium A way of accounting the solidity of Ice and the strength of the adhesion of its parts What Liquors are its quickest Dissolvents An Experiment of heating a cold Liquor with Ice These and many more such instructive and useful things are contained in that excellent Discourse To which is annex'd a very ingenious Examination and Disproof of the common obscure Doctrine of Antiperistasis and Mr. Hobbs his Notion of Cold. 7. In his EXPERIMENTAL HISTORY of COLOVRS he hath laid a foundation in 150 Experiments at least for grounded Theory about these Matters He hath shewn the grand mistake of the common belief That Colours inhere in their Objects and proved they depend upon the disposition of the external parts and the more inward texture of Bodies He hath stated and explained wherein the Disparity consists between the Real and Exphatical explicated the Nature of Whiteness and Blackness rectified some Chymical Principles compounded Colours by trajecting the Solar Beams through tinged Glasses shewed how by certain Tinctures it may be known whether any Salt be acid or sulphureous Hath proved there is no necessity of the Peripatetick FORMS for the production of Colours by making Green by nine kinds of mixtures compounded Colours real and phantastical turned the Blew of Violets by acid Salts into a Red and by the alcalizate into a Green and performed many
other extraordinary things on this Subject for the advantage of Knowledge and the uses of Life 8. In his HYDROSTATICAL PARADOXES he shew'd That the lower parts of Fluids are press'd by the upper That a lighter may gravitate upon one that is more ponderous That if a Body contiguous to it be lower than the highest level of the Water the lower end of the Body will be press'd upwards by the Water beneath That the weight of an external Fluid sufficeth to raise the Water in Pumps That the pressure of an external Fluid is able to keep an Heterogeneous Liquor suspended at the same height in several Pipes though they are of different Diameters That a Body under Water that hath its upper Surface parallel to the Horizon the direct pressure it sustains is no more than that of a Columne of Water which hath the mentioned Horizontal Superficies for its Basis. And if the incumbent Water be contained in Pipes open at both ends the pressure is to be estimated by the meight of a Pillar of Water whose Basis is equal to the lower Orifice of the Pipe parallel to the Horizon and its height equal to a Perpendicular reaching to the top of the Water though the Pipe be much inclined irregularly shaped and in some parts broader than the Orifice That a Body in a Fluid sustains a lateral pressure from it which increaseth in proportion to the depth of the immerst Body in the Fluid That Water may be made to depress a Body lighter than it self That a parcel of Oil lighter than Water may be kept from ascending in it That the cause of the ascension of Water in Syphons may be explained without the notion of abhorrence of a Vacuum That the heaviest Body known will not sink of it self without the assistance of the weight of the Water upon it when 't is at a depth greater than twenty times its own thickness though it will nearer the Surface This is the sum of the general Contents of that Discourse which contains things very useful to be known for the advantage of Navigation Salt-Works Chymistry and other practical purposes 9. In his Book of the ORIGINE of FORMS and QVALITIES he delivers the minds of Men from the imaginary and useless Notions of the Schools about them which have no foundation in the nature of things nor do any ways promote Knowledge or help Mankind but very much disserve those great Interests by setting the Understanding at rest in general obscurities or imploying it in airy Nicities and Disputes and so hindring its pursuit of particular Causes and Experimental Realities In this Treatise he lays the Foundations and delivers the Principles of the Mechanick Philosophy which he strengthneth and illustrates by several very pleasant and instructive Experiments He shews That the most admirable Things which have been taken for the Effects of substantial Forms and are used as proofs of the Notional Hypotheses may be the results of the meer texture and position of parts since Art is able to make Vitriol as well as Nature and Bodies by humane skill may be produced whose supposed Forms have been destroyed He gives many very ingenious instances to prove That the Mechanick Motions and order of the Parts is sufficient to yeeld an account of the difference of Bodies and their affections without having recourse to the Forms and Qualities of the Schools as in the restoration of Camphire to its former smell and nature after its dissolution and seeming extinction in the changes of the colour consistence fusibleness and other Qualites of Silver and Copper in the odd Phaenomena of a certain anomalous Salt and those of the Sea Salt dried powder'd and mix'd with Aqua-Fortis and in the Sal Mirabilis in the production of Silver out of Gold by his Menstruum Peracutum in the transmutation of Water into Earth in a certain Distillation of Spirit of Wine and Oil of Vitriol I say This excellent Person hath by Experiments rare and new about these Subjects made it evidently appear That the internal motions configuration and posture of the parts are all that is necessary for alterations and diversities of Bodies and consequently That substantial Forms and real Qualities are needless and precarious Beings These are some brief and general Hints of those great things this incomparable Person hath done for the information and benefit of Men and besides them there are several others that He hath by him and the Inquisitive expect in which real Philosophy and the World are no less concern'd I received a late Account of them from an ingenious Friend of his Mr. Oldenburgh Secretary to the ROYAL SOCIETY who also renders himself a great Benefactor to Mankind by his affectionate care and indefatigable diligence and endeavours in the maintaining Philosophical Intelligence and promoting the Designs and Interests of profitable and general Philosophy And these being some of the Noblest and most Publick Imployments in which the Services of generous Men can be ingaged loudly call for their Aids and Assistances for the carrying on a Work of so universal an importance But I shall have a fitter place to speak of this and therefore I return to the Illustrious Person of whom I was discoursing And for Philosophical News and further evidence of the Obligation the World hath to this Gentleman I shall here insert the Account of what he hath more yet unpublish'd for its advantage and instruction And I take the boldness to do it because himself hath been pleased to quote and refer to those Discourses in his publish'd Writings concerning which M. O's Account is more particular and he receiv'd it from the Author It speaks thus 1. Another Section of the Vsefulness of Experimental Philosophy as to the Empire of Man over inferiour Creatures where he intends to premise some general Considerations about the Means whereby Experimental Philosophy may become useful to Humane Life proceeding thence to shew That the Empire of Man may be promoted by the Naturalists skill in Chymistry by his skill in Mechanicks or the Application of Mathematicks to Instruments and Engines by his skill in Mathematicks both pure and mixt That the Goods of Mankind may be much increased by the Naturalist's insight into Trades That the Naturalist may much advantage Men by exciting and assisting their curiosity to discover take notice and make use of the home-bred Riches and Advantages of particular Countries and to increase their number by transferring thither those of others That a ground of high expectation from Experimental Philosophy is given by the happy Genius of this present Age and the productions of it That a ground of expecting considerable things from Experimental Philosophy is given by those things which have been found out by illiterate Tradesmen or lighted on by chance That some peculiar and concealed property of a natural thing may inable the knowers of it to perform with ease things that to others seem either not feasible or not practicable without great difficulty That by the
and timorous World hath rescued Philosophers from the trouble of dreadful Presages and the mischievous Consequences that arise from those superstitious Abodings For whatever the casual Coincidencies may be between those Phaenomena and the direful Events that are sometimes observed closely to attend them which as my Lord Bacon truly notes are observ'd when they bit not when they miss I say notwithstanding these the Real Experimental Philosophy makes it appear that they are Heavenly Bodies far above all the Regions of Vapours in which we are not concerned and so they are neither the Signs nor the Causes of our Mischiefs And for the other little things which afford Matter for the Tales about Prodigies and other ominous Appearings the knowledge of Nature by exciting worthy and magnificent conceptions of the God of Nature cures that blasphemous abuse of the adorable Majesty whereby foolish Men attribute every trivial event that may serve their turns against those they hate to his immediate extraordinary interposal For 't is ignorance of God and his Works that disposeth Men to absurd ridiculous Surmises uncharitable Censures seditious Machinations and so to Thoughts that are prejudicial to the Glory of God the Interests of Religion and the security of Government to that Justice and Charity we owe to others and to the happiness that we seek our selves To which I add That this kind of Superstition is a relique of Pagan Ignorance which made Men look on Thunder Eclipses Earthquakes and all the more terrifying Phaenomena of Nature as the immediate Effects of Powers Supernatural and to judge Events by flights of Birds and garbages of Cattel by the accidental occursions of this Creature and the other and almost every casual occurrence But these Particulars have been most ingeniously represented and reproved in a late very elegant Discourse about Prodigies And though I do not acquiesce in the Design of that excellently penn'd Book which is to discredit and take away all kinds of Presages Yet I think it hath done rarely well so far as it discovers the folly and mischiefs of that ignorant and superstitious Spirit that makes every thing a Prodigy With such apprehensions as these the knowledge of Nature fills those Minds that are instructed in it And there is no doubt but that the Antipathy the Real Philosophy bears to all the kinds of Superstition is one cause why zealous Ignorance brands those Researches with the mark of Atheism and Irreligion For superstitious Folly adopts those groundless Trifles which Philosophy contemns and reproves into the Family of Religion and therefore reproacheth the Despisers of them as Enemies to the Faith and Power of Godliness So it fared with some of the bravest Spirits of ancient times who have had black Characters fixt upon their great and worthy Names only for their Oppositions of the foolish Rites and Idolatries of the vulgar Heathen We know the case of Socrates And as to the interest of their Names that of Anaxagoras Theodorus Protagoras and Epicurus was much worse the causless infamy coming down the Stream as far as the last Ages Since then we know who was an Heretick for saying there were Antipodes and a Pope was taken for a Conjurer for being a Mathematician yea those noble Sciences were counted Diabolical and even the Sacred Language could scarce escape the suspicion In later times Galilaeo fell into the Inquisition for the Discoveries of his Telescopes and Campanella could not endeavour to assert and vindicate the freedom of his Mind without losing that of his Person I might come nearer to our own days and knowledge Gothick barharity and the Spirit of the Iuquisition is not quite worn out of the Reformation Though indeed it ordinarily remains but among the scum and dregs of Men And no one is either less Religious or less Wise for being accounted an Atheist by the common Rabble But where-ever the knowledge of Nature and God's Works hath in any degree obtain'd those vile Superstitions have been despised and put to an infamous flight But to take another step IV. THe Real Philosophy and knowledge of God's Works serves Religion against Enthusiasm another dreadful Enemy Now Enthusiasm is a false conceit of Inspiration and all the bold and mistaken Pretensions to the Spirit in our days are of this sort What particularly Religion hath suffer'd from it would be too long to reckon upon this occasion It will be enough to say in an Age that hath so much and such sad experience of it That Enthusiasm hath introduced much phantastry into Religion and made way for all imaginable Follies and even Atheism it self which it hath done two ways 1. By crying up the Excesses and Diseases of Imagination for the greatest height of Godliness And 2. By the disparagrment of sober Reason as an Enemy to the Principles of Faith And Philosophy assists Religion against both these FOR the first in order The real knowledge of Nature detects the dangerous imposture by shewing what strange things may be effected by no diviner a cause than a strong Fancy impregnated by Heated Melancholy For this sometimes warms the Brain to a degree that makes it very active and imaginative full of odd Thoughts and unexpected Suggestions so that if the Temper determine the Imagination to Religion it flies at high things at interpretations of dark and Prophetick Scriptures at Predictions of future Events and mysterious Discoveries which the Man expresseth fluently and boldly with a peculiar and pathetick Eloquence which pregnances being not ordinary but much beyond the usual tone and temper of the Enthusiast and he having heard great things of the Spirits immediate Motions and Inspirations cannot well fail of believing himself inspired and of intitling all the excursious of his Fancy to the immediate Actings of the Holy Ghost and those thoughts by the help of natural pride and self-love will work also exceedingly upon the heightned Affections and they upon the Body so far as to cast it sometimes into Raptures Extasies and Deliquiums of Sense in which every Dream is taken for a Prophesie every Image of the Fancy for a Vision and all the glarings of the Imagination for new Lights and Revelations Thus have our Modern Prophets been inspired by Temper and Imagination and not by Design only For we may not think they are all Hypocrites and knowing Impostors No they generally believe themselves and the strength of their highly invigorated Fancies shuts out the sober Light of Reason that should disabuse them as sleep doth that of our External Senses in our Dreams And the silly People that understand not Nature but are apt to take every thing that is vebement to be sacred are easily deceived into the belief of those Pretensions and thus Diseases have been worship'd for Religion This account the Philosophy of Humane Nature gives of that by which the World hath been so miserably abused And when we cast our eyes abroad we may plainly see that those glorious things are no more than what hath been done