prooued from her manner of operation which is grounded in being ibid. § 10. Lastly it is prooued from the science of Morality the principles whereof would be destroied if the soule were mortall pag. 421 CHAP. X. Declaring what the soule of a man separated from his body is and of her knowledge and manner of working pag. 422 § 1. That the soule is one simple knowing act which is a pure substance and nothing but substance ibid. § 2. That a separated soule is in no place and yet is not absent from any place pag. 424 § 3. That a separated soule is not in time nor subiect to it ibid. § 4. That the soule is an actiue substance and all in it is actiuitie pag. 425 § 5. A description of the soule pag. 426 § 6. That a separated soule knoweth all that which she knew whilst she wâ—s in her bodie ibid. § 7. That the least knowledge which the soule acquireth in her bodie of anie one thing doth cause in her when she is separated from her bodie a compleat knowledge of all thinges whatsoeuer pag. 427 § 8. An answere to the obiections of some Peripatetikes who maintaine the soule to perish with the body pag. 429 § 9 The former Peripatetikes refuted out of Aristotle pag. 431 § 10. The operations of a separated soule compared to her operations in her bodie ibid. § 11. That a separated soule is in a state of pure being and consequently immortall pag. 432 CHAP. XI Shewing what effects the diuers manners of liuing in this world do cause in a soule after she is separated from her body p. 433 § 1. That a soule in this life is subiect to mutation and may be perfected in knowledge ibid. § 2. That the knowledges which a soule getteth in this life will make her knowledge in the next life more perfect and firme pag. 434 § 3. That the soules of men addicted to science whilst they liued here are more perfect in the next world then the soules of vnlearned men pag. 435 § 4. That those soules which embrace vertue in this world will be most perfect in the next and those which embrace vice most miserable ibid. § 5. The state of a vitious soule in the next life pag. 437 § 6. The fundamentall reason why as well happinesse as misery is so excessiue in the next life pag. 439 § 7. The reason why mans soule requireth to be in a body and to liue for some space of time ioyned with it pag. 441 § 8. That the misery of the soule in the next world proceedeth out of inequality and not out of falsity of her iudgements pag. 442 CHAP. XII Of the perseuerance of a soule in the state she findeth herselfe in at her first separation from her body pag. 443 § 1. The explication and proofe of that maxime that if the cause be in act the effect must also be ibid. § 2. The effects of all such agents as worke instantaneously are complete in the first instant that the agents are putt ibid. § 3. All pure spirits do worke instantaneously pag. 444 § 4. That a soule separated from her body can not suffer any change after the first instant of her separation ibid. § 5. That temporall sinnes are iustly punished with eternall paines pag. 445 The Conclusion pag. 446 THE PREFACE THIS writing was designed to haue seene the light vnder the name of one treatise But after it was drawne in paper as I cast a view ouer it I found the prooemiall part which is that which treateth of Bodies so ample in respect of the other which was the end of it and for whose sake I meddled with it that I readily apprehended my reader would thinke I had gone much astray from my text when proposing to speake of the immortality of Mans Soule three parts of foure of the whole discourse should not so much as in one word mention that soule whose nature and proprieties I aymed at the discouery of To auoyde this incongruity occasioned mee to change the name and vnity of the worke and to make the suruay of bodies a body by it selfe though subordinate to the treatise of the soule Which notwithstanding it be lesse in bulke then the other yet I dare promise my Reader that if he bestow the paines requisite to perfect him selfe in it he will find as much time well spent in the due reading of it as in the reading of the former treatise though farre more large But I discerne an obiection obuious to be made or rather a question why I should spend so much time in the consideration of bodies whereas none that hath formerly written of this subiect hath in any measure done the like I might answere that they had vpon other occasions first written of the nature of bodies as I may instance in Aristotle and sundry others who either haue themselues professedly treated the science of bodies or haue supposed that part sufficiently performed by other pennes But truly I was by an vnauoydable necessity hereunto obliged which is a current of doctrine that at this day much raigneth in the Christian Schooles where bodies and their operations are explicated after the manner of spirituall thinges For wee hauing very slender knowledge of spirituall substances can reach no further into their nature then to know that they haue certaine powers or qualities but can seldome penetrate so deepe as to descend to the particulars of such Qualities or Powers Now our moderne Philosophers haue introduced such a course of learning into the schooles that vnto all questions concerning the proper natures of bodies and their operations it is held sufficient to answere they haue a quality or a power to doe such a thing And afterwards they dispute whether this Quality or Power be an Entity distinct from its subiect or no and how it is seperable or vnseperable from it and the like Conformable to this who will looke into the bookes which are in vogue in these schooles shall find such answers and such controuersies euery where and few others As of the sensible qualities aske what it is to be white or red what to be sweete or sower what to be odoriferous or stincking what to be cold or hott And you are presently paid with that it is a sensible quality which hath the power to make a wall white or red to make a meate agreeable or disagreeable to the tast to make a gratefull or vngratefull smell to the nose etc Likewise they make the same questions and resolutions of Grauity and Leuity as whether they be qualities that is entities distinct from their subiect and whether they be actiue or passiue which when they haue disputed slightly and in common with logicall arguments they rest there without any further searching into the physicall causes or effects of them The like you shall find of all strange effects of them The loadestone and Electricall bodies are produced for miraculous and not vnderstandable thinges and in which it must be
she would in the first instant of her being be perfect in knowledge or she would not if she were then would she be a perfect and complete immateriall substance not a soule whose nature is to be a compartner to the body and to acquire her perfection by the mediation and seruice of corporeall senses but if she were not perfect in science but were only a capacity therevnto and like vnto white paper in which nothing were yet wâ—â—tten then vnlesse she were putt in a body she could neuer arriue to know any thing because motion and alteration are effects peculiar to bodies therefore it must be agreed that she is naturally designed to be in a body but her being in a body is her being one thing with the body she is said to be in and so she is one part of a whole which from its weaker part is determined to be a body Againe seeing that the matter of any thing is to be prepared before the end is prepared for which that matter is to serue according to that Axiome Quod est primum in intentione est vltimum in executione we may not deny but that the body is in being some time before the soule or at the least that it existeth as soone as she doth and therefore it appeareth wholy vnreasonable to say that the soule was first made out of the body and was afterwardes thrust into it seeing that the body was prepared for the soule before or at the least as soone as she had any beginning and so we may conclude that of necessity the soule must be begunne layed hatched and perfected in the body And although it be true that such soules as are separated from their bodies in the first instant of their being there are notwithstanding imbued with the knowledge of all thinges yet is not their longer abode therein vaine not only because thereby the species is multiplyed for nature is not content with barely doing that without addition of some good to the soule it selfe but as well for the wonderfull and I may say infinite aduantage that may thereby accrew to the soule if she make right vse of it for as any act of the abstracted soule is infinite in comparison of the acts which men exercise in this life according to what we haue already shewed so by consequence must any encrease of it be likewise infinite and therefore we may conclude that a long life well spent is the greatest and most excellent guift which nature can bestow vpon a man The vnwary reader may perhapps haue difficulty at our often repeating of the infelicity of a miserable soule since we say that it proceedeth out of the iudgements she had formerly made in this life which without all doubt were false ones and neuerthelesse it is euident that no false iudgements can remaine in a soule after she is separated from her body as we haue aboue determined How then can a soules iudgements be the cause of her misery But the more heedefull reader will haue noted that the misery which we putt in a soule proceedeth out of the inequality not out of the falsity of her iudgements for if a man be inclined to a lesser good more then to a greater he will in action betake himselfe to the lesser good and desert the greater wherein neyther iudgemeÌ„t is false nor eyther inclination is naught meerely out of the improportion of the two inclinations or iudgements to their obiects for that a soule may be duely ordered and in a state of being well she must haue a lesser inclination to a lesse good and a greater inclination to a greater good and in pure spirits these inclinations are nothing else but the strength of their iudgements which iudgements in soules whiles they are in their bodies are made by the repetition of more acts from stronger causes or in more fauourable circumstances And so it appeareth how without any falsity in any iudgement a soule may become miserable by her conuersation in this world where all her inclinations generally are good vnlesse the disproportion of them do make them bad THE TWELFTH CHAPTER Of the perseuerance of a soule in the state she findeth her selfe in at her first separation from her body THus we haue brought mans soule out of the body she liued in here and by which she conuersed and had commerce with the other partes of this world and we haue assigned her her first array and stole with which she may be seene in the next world so that now there remaineth only for vs to consider what shall betide her afterwardes and whether any change may happen to her and be made in her after the first instant of her being a pure spiritt separated from all consortshippe with materiall substances To determine this point the more clearely lett vs call to minde an axiome that Aristotle giueth vs in his logike which teacheth vs That as it is true if the effect be there is a cause so likewise it is most true that if the cause be in act or causing the effect must also be Which Axiome may be vnderstood two wayes the one that if the cause hath its effect then the effect also is and this is no great mystery or for it are any thankes due to the teacher it being but a repetition and saying ouer againe of the same thing The other way is that if the cause be perfect in the nature of being a cause then the effect is which is as much as to say that if nothing be waÌ„ting to the cause abstracting precisely from the effect then neyther is the effect wanting And this is the meaning of Aristotles Axiome of the truth and euidence whereof in this sense if any man should make the least doubt it were easy to euince it as thus if nothing be wanting but the effect and yet the effect doth not immediately follow it must needes be that it can not follow at all for if it can and doth not then something more must be done to make it follow which is against the supposition that nothing was wanting but the effect for that which is to be done was wanting To say it will follow without any change is senselesse for if it follow without change it followeth out of this which is already putt but if it do follow out of this which is precisely putt then it followeth against the supposition which was that it did not follow although this were putt This then being euident lett vs apply it to our purpose and lett vs putt three or more thinges namely A. B. C. and D whereof none can worke otherwise then in an instant or indiuisibly and I say that whatsoeuer these foure thinges are able to do without respect to any other thing besides them is completely done in the first instant of their being putt and if they remayne for all eternity without communication or respect to any other thing there shall neuer be any innouation in any of them or
in discourse and of the vast extent of it Dialo de mundo 4 Of humane actions and of those that concerne ourselues 5 Of humane actions as they concerne our neighbours 6 Of Logike 7 Of Grammar 8 Of Rhetorike 9 Of Poetry 10 Of the Power of speaking 11 Of arts that concerne dumbe and insensible creatutes 12 Of Arithmetike 13 Of Prudence 14 Obseruations vpon what hath beene said in this Chapter 1 That humane actions proceed from two seuerall principles vnderstanding and sense 2 How our generall and inbred maximes doe concurre to humane actioÌ„ 3 That the rules and maximes of arts doe worke positiuely in vs though we thinke not of them 4 How the vndestaÌ„ding doth cast about when it wanteth sufficient grounds for action 5 How reason doth rule ouer sense and passion 6 How we recall our thoughts from distractions 7 How reason is sometimes ouercome by sense and passion 1 The coÌ„nection of the subsequent Chapters with the precedent 2 The inexisteÌ„ce of corporeall thinges in the soule by the power of apprehension doth proue her to be immateriall 3 The notion of being which is innate in the soule doth proue the same 4 The same is proued by the notion of respects 5 That corporeall thinges are spiritualized in the vnderstanding by meanes of the soules working in and by respects 6 That the abstracting of notions from all particular and indiuiduall accidents doth proue the immaterialitie of the soule 7 That the vniuersalitie of abstracted notions doth proue the same 8 That collectiue apprehensions do proue the same 9 The operations of the soule drawing allways from multitude to vnitie do proue the same 10 The difference betwixt the notion of a thing in our vnderstanding and the impression that correspondeth to the same thing in our fansie doth proue the same 11 The apprehensioÌ„ of negatioÌ„s and priuations do proue the same 1 The manner of iudging or deeming by apprehending two thinges to be identified doth proue the soule to be immateriall 2 The same is proued by the manner of apprehending opposition in a negatiue iudgement 3 That thinges in themselues opposite to one an other hauing no opposition in the soule doth proue the same 4 That the first truthes are identified to the soule 5 That the soule hath an infinite capacitie and consequently is immateriall 6 That the opposition of contradictory propositions in the Soule doth proue her immaterialitie 7 How propositions of eternall truth do proue the immaterialitie of the soule 1 That in discoursing the soule coÌ„taineth more in it at the same time then is in the fantasie which prooueth her to be immateriall 2 That the nature of discourse doth prooue the soule to be ordered to infinite knowledge and consequeÌ„tly to be immateriall 3 That the most naturall obiects of the soule are immateriall and consequently the soule her selfe in such 1 That the soules being a power to order thinges proueth her to be immateriall 2 That the soules being able to mooue without being mooued doth prooue her to be immateriall 3 That the soules proceeding to action with an vniuersality and indifferency doth prooue the same 4 That the quiet proceeding of reason doth prooue the same 5 A conclusion of what hath beene said hetherto in this second Treatise 1 That Mans Soule is a substance 2 That man is compounded of some other substance besides his body 3 That the soule doth subsist of it selfe independently of the body 4 Two other arguments to prooue the same one positiue the other negatiue 5 The same is prooued because the soule can not be obnoxious to the cause of mortality 6 The same is prooued because the soule hath no contrary 7 The same is prooued from the end for which the soule was created 8 The same is prooued because she can mooue without being mooued 9 The same is prooued from her manner of operation which is grounded in being 10 Lastly it is prooued from the science of Morality the principles whereof would be destroied if the soule were mortall 1 That the soule is one simple knowing act which is a pure substance and nothing but substance 2 That a seperated soule is in no place and yet is not abseÌ„t from any place Boetius 3 That a seperated soule is not in time nor subiect to it 4 That the soule is an actiue substance and all in it is actiuitie 5 A description of the soule 6 That a seperated soule knoweth all that which she knew whilst she was in her bodie 7 That the least knowledge which the soule acquireth in her bodie of anie one thing doth cause in her when she is seperated from her bodie a compleat knowledge of all thingâ— whatsoeuer 8 An answere to the obiections of some Peripatetikes who maintaine the soule to perish with the body 9 The former Peripateâ—ickeâ— refuted out of Aristotle 10 The operations of a seperated soule compared to her operations in her bodie 11 That a separated soule is in a state of pure being and consequently immortall 1 That a soule in this life is subiect to mutation and may be perfected in knowledge 2 That the knowledges which a soâ—le getteth in this life will make her knowledge in the next life more perfect and firme 3 That the soules of meÌ„ addicted to science whilst they liued here are more perfect in the next world then the soules of vnlearned men 4 That those soules which embrace vertue in this world will be most perfect in the next and those which embrace vice most miserable 5 The state of a vicious soule in the next life 6 The fundamentall reason why as well happinesse as miserie is so excessiue in the next life 7 The reason why mans soule requireth to be in a body and to liue for some space of time ioyned with it 8 That the misery of the soule in the next world proceedeth out of inequality and not out of falsity of her iudgements 1 The explication and proofe of that maxime that if the cause be iâ— act the effect must also bâ— 2 The effects of all such ageÌ„ts as worke instantaneously arâ— complete in the first instant that the agents are putt 3 All pure spirits do worke instantaneously 4 That a soule separated from her body can not suffer any change after the first instant of her separation 5 That temporall sinnes are iustly punished with eternall painâ—s
thinges pag. 359 § 7. Respect or relation hath not really any formall being but only in the apprehension of man ibid. § 8. That Existence or being is the proper affection of man and that mans soule is a comparing power pag. 360 § 9. A thing by coming into the vnderstanding of man looseth nothing of its owne peculiar nature ibid. § 10. A multitude of thinges may be vnited in mans vnderstanding without being mingled or confounded together pag. 361 § 11. Of abstracted and concrete termes pag. 362 § 12. Of vniuersal notions pag. 363 § 13. Of apprehending a multitude vnder one notion pag. 364 § 14. The power of the vnderstanding reacheth as farre as the extent of being pag. 365 CHAP. II. Of Thinking and Knowing pag. 365 § 1. How a iudgement is made by the vnderstanding ibid. § 2. That two or more apprehensions are identifyed in the soule by vniting them in the stocke of being pag. 366 § 3. How the notions of a substantiue and an adiectiue are vnited in the soule by the common stocke of being pag. 367 § 4. That a settled iudgement becometh a part of our soule pag. 368 § 5. How the soule commeth to deeme or settle a iudgement ibid. § 6. How opinion is begotten in the vnderstanding pag. 371 § 7. How faith is begotten in the vnderstanding pag. 372 § 8. Why truth is the perfection of a reasonable soule and why it is not found in simple apprehensions as well as in Enuntiations ibid. § 9. What is a solid iudgement and what a slight one pag. 373 § 10. What is an acute iudgement and what a dull one pag. 375 § 11. In what consisteth quicknesse and Clearenesse of iudgement and there oposite vices ibid. CHAP. III. Of Discoursing pag. 376 § 1. How discourse is made ibid. § 2. Of the figures and moodes of Syllogismes ibid. § 3. That the life of man as man doth consist in discourse and of the vast extent of it pag. 377 § 4. Of humane actions and of those that concerne ourselues pag. 379 § 5. Of humane actions as they concerne our neighbours pag. 380 § 6. Of Logike ibid. § 7. Of Grammar pag. 381 § 8. Of Rhetorike ibid. § 9. Of Poetry pag. 382 § 10. Of the Power of speaking ibid. § 11. Of arts that concerne dumbe and insensible creatures pag. 383 § 13. Of Arithmetike ibid. § 14. Of Prudence ibid. § 15. Obseruations vpon what hath beene said in this Chapter pag. 384 CHAP. IIII. How a man proceedeth to Action pag. 386 § 1. That humane actions proceed from two seuerall principles vnderstanding and sense ibid. § 2. How our generall and inbred maximes doe concurre to humane action pag. 387 § 3. That the rules and maximes of arts doe worke positiuely in vs though we thinke not of them pag. 388 § 4. How the vnderstanding doth cast about when it wanteth sufficient grounds for action pag. 389 § 5. How reason doth rule ouer sense and passion ibid. § 6. How we recall our thoughts from distractions pag 390 § 7. How reason is sometimes ouercome by sense and passion pag. 391 CHAP. V. Containing proofes out of our single apprehensions that our soule is incorporeall pag. 393 § 1. The connection of the subsequent Chapters with the precedent ibid. § 2. The existence of corporeall thinges in the soule by the power of apprehension doth proue her to be immateriall pag. 394 § 3. The notion of being which is innate in the soule doth proue the same ibid. § 4. The same is proued by the notion of respects pag. 396 § 5. That corporeall thinges are spiritualized in the vnderstanding by meanes of the soules working in and by respects ibid. § 6. That thâ— abstracting of notions from all particular and indiuiduall accidents doth proue the immaterialitie of the soule pag. 397 § 7. That the vniuersalitie of abstracted notions doth proue the same ibid. § 8. That collectiue apprehensions do proue the same pag. 398 § 9. The operations of the soule drawing allwayes from multitude to vnitie do proue the same 399 § 10. The difference betwixt the notion of a thing in our vnderstanding and the impression that correspondeth to the same thing in our fansie doth proue the same pag. 400 § 11. The apprehension of negations and priuations do proue the same 401 CHAP. VI. Containing proofes of our soules operations in knowing or deeming any thing that she is of a spirituall nature pag. 400 § 1. The manner of iudging or deeming by apprehending two thinges to be idenâ—ified doth proue the soule to be immateriall ibid. § 2. The same is proued by the manner of apprehending opposition in a negatiue iudgement pag. 403 § 3. That thinges in themselues opposite to one an other hauing no opposition in the soule doth prooue the same pag. 404 § 4. That the first truthes are identified to the soule pag. 405 § 5. That the soule hath an infinite capacitie and consequently is immateriall pag. 406 § 6. That the opposition of contradictory propositions in the Soule doth proue her immaterialitie ibid. § 7. How propositions of eternall truth do proue the immaterialitie of the soule pag. 407 CHAP. VII That our discoursing doth prooue our soule to be incorpore all pag. 408 § 1. That in discoursing the soule containeth more in it at the same time then is in the fantasie which prooueth her to be immateriall ibid. § 2. That the nature of discourse doth prooue the soule to be ordered to infinite knowledge and consequently to be immateriall pag. 409 § 3. That the most naturall obiects of the soule are immateriall and consequently the soule her selfe is such ibid. CHAP. VIII Containing proofes out of our manner of proceeding to action that our soule is incorporeall pag. 410 § 1. That the soules being a power to order thinges proueth her to be immateriall ibid. § 2. That the soules being able to mooue without being mooued doth prooue her to be immateriall pag. 411 § 3. That the soules proceeding to action with an vniuersality and indifferency doth prooue the same pag. 412 § 4. That the quiet proceeding of reason doth prooue the same pag. 414 § 5. A conclusion of what hath beene said hetherto in this second Treatise ibid. CHAP. IX That our soule is a Substance and Immortall pag. 415 § 1. That Mans Soule is a substance ibid. § 2. That man is compounded of some other substance besides his body ibid. § 3. That the soule doth subsist of it selfe independently of the body pag. 416 § 4. Two other arguments to prooue the same one positiue the other negatiue pag. 417 § 5. The same is prooued because the soule can not be obnoxious to the cause of mortality ibid. § 6. The same is prooued because the soule hath no contrary pag. 418 § 7. The same is prooued from the end for which the soule was created ibid. § 8. The same is prooued because she can mooue without being mooued pag. 420 § 9. The same is
ayre and the bodies that descend in it The reason of this will clearely shew it selfe in abstracted proportions Thus suppose ayre to haue one degree of density and water to haue 400 then lett the mooueable A haue 410 degrees of density and the mooueable B haue 500. Now compare their motion to one an other in the seuerall mediums of ayre and water The exuperance of the density of A to water is 10 degrees but the exuperace of B vnto the same water is 100 degrees so that B must mooue in water swifter then A in the proportion of 100 to tenne that is of 10 to one Then lett vs compre the exuperance of the two mooueables ouer ayre A is 409 times more dense then ayre but B is 499 times more dense then it By which account the motion of B must be in that medium swifter then the motion of A in the proportion of 499 to 409 that is about 50 to 41 which to auoyde fractions we may account as 10 to 8. But in water they exceede one an other as 10 to one so that their difference of velocity must be scarce perceptible in ayre in respect of what it is in water Out of all which discourse I onely inferre in common that a greater velocity in motion will follow the greater density of the mooueable without determining here their proportions which I leaue vnto them who make that examination their taske for thus much serueth my present turne wherein I take a suruay of nature but in grosse And my chiefe drift in this particular is onely to open the way for the discouering how bodies that of themselues haue no propension vnto any determinate place do neuerthelesse mooue constantly and perpetually one way the dense ones descending and the rare ones ascending not by any intrinsecall quality that worketh vpon them but by the oeconomy of nature that hath sett on foote due and plaine causes to produce knowne effects Here we must craue patience of the great soule of Galileo whose admirable learning all posterity must reuerence whiles we reprehend in him that which we can not terme lesse then absurd and yet he not onely mainetaineth it in seuerall places but also professeth Dial. P o de motu pag. 8 to make it more cleare then day His position is that more or lesse grauity contributeth nothing att all to the faster or slower descending of a naturall body but that all the effect it giueth vnto a body is to make it descend or not descend in such a medium Which is against the first and most knowne principle that is in bodies to witt that more doth more and lesse doth lesse for he alloweth that grauity causeth a body to descend and yet will not allow that more grauity causeth it to descend more I wonder that he neuer marked how in a paire of scales a superproportion of ouerweight in one ballance lifted vp the other faster then a lesse proportion of ouerweight would do Or that more weight hanged to a iacke made the spitt turne faster or to the lines of a clocke made it goe faster and the like But his argument whereby he endeauoureth to prooue his position is yet more wonderfull for finding in pendants vnequall in grauity that the lighter went in the same time almost as fast as the heauyer he gathereth from thence that the different weights haue each of them the same celerity and that it is the opposition of the ayre which maketh the lighter body not reach so farre at each vndulation as the heauyer doth For reply wherevnto first we must aske him whether experience or reason taught him that the slower going of the lighter pendant proceeded onely from the medium and not from want of grauity And when he shall haue answered as he needes must that experience doth not shew this then we must importune him for a good reason but I do not find that he bringeth any att all Againe if he admitteth which he doth in expresse termes that a lighter body can not resist the medium so much as a heauyer body can we must aske him whether it be not the weight that maketh the heauyer body resist more which when he hath acknowledged that it is he hath therein likewise acknowledged that whensoeuer this happeneth in the descending of a body the more weight must make the heauyer body descend faster But we can not passe this matter without noting how himselfe maketh good those arguments of Aristotle which he seemeth by no meanes to esteeme of for since the grauity doth ouercome the resistance of the medium in some proportion it followeth that the proportions betweene the grauity and the medium may be multiplyed without end so as if he suppose that the grauity of a body do make it goe att a certaine rate in imaginary space which is his manner of putting the force of grauity then there may be giuen such a proportion of a heauy body to the medium as it shall goe in such a medium att the same rate and neuerthelesse there will be an infinite difference betwixt the resistance of the medium compared to that body and the resistance of the imaginary space compared to that other body which he supposeth to be mooued in it at the same rate which no man will sticke att confessing to be very absurd Then turning the scales because the resistance of the medium doth somewhat hinder grauity and that with lesse resistance the heauy body mooueth faster it must follow that since there is no proportion betwixt the medium and imaginary space there must neither be any proportion betwixt the time in which a heauy body shall passe through a certaine quantity of the medium and the time in which it shall passe through as much imaginary space wherefore it must passe ouer so much imaginary space in an instant Which is the argument that Aristotle is so much laughed att for pressing And in a word nothing is more euident then that for this effect which Galileo attributeth to grauity it is vnreasonable to putt a diuisible quality since the effect is indiuisible And therefore as euident it is that in his doctrine such aquality as intrinsecall grauity is conceiued to be ought not to be putt since euery power should be fitted to the effect or end for which it is putt An other argument of Galileo is as bad as this when he endeauoureth to prooue that all bodies goe of a like velocity because it happeneth that a lighter body in some case goeth faster then a heauyer body in an other case as for example in two pendants whereof the lighter is in the beginning of its motion and the heauyer towardes the end of it or if the lighter hangeth att a longer string and the heauyer att a shorter we see that the lighter will goe faster then the heauyer But this concludeth no more then if a man should prooue that a lighter goeth faster then a heauyer because a greater force can make it goe faster for it
strength and security of the fabrike no more I hope will the slight escapes which so difficult a taske as this is subiect vnto endamage or weaken the maine body of what I haue here deliuered I haue not yet seene any piece vpon this subiect made vp with this methode beginning from the simplest and plainest notions and composing them orderly till all the principall variety which their nature is capable of be gone through and therefore it can not be expected but that the first modell of this kind and moulded by one distracted with continuall thoughts of a much different straine and whose exercise as well as profession hath allowed him but litle commerce with bookes and study must needes be very rough hewed and require a great deale of polishing Which whosoeuer shall do and be as exact and orderly in treating of Phylosophy and Theology as Mathematicians are in deliuering their sciencies I do assure my selfe that Demonstrations might be made and would proceed in them as currently and the conclusions be as certaine and as full as in the Mathematikes themselues But that is not all these demonstrations would haue the oddes exceedingly of the other and be to vs inestimably more aduantagious for out of them do spiring much higher and nobler effects for mans vse and life then out of any Mathematicall ones especially when they extend themselues to the gouuernement of Man as he is Man which is an art as farre beyond all the rules of Physike or other gouuernement of our body or temporall goodes as the end is beyond the meanes we employ to gaine it for all the others do but serue instrumentally to this end That we may liue well whereas these do immediately teach it These are the fruites in generall that I hope may in some measure grow out of this discourse in the handes of equall and iuditious Readers but the particular ayme of it is to shew what actions can proeeed from a body and what can not In the conduct whereof one of our chiefe endeauours hath beene to shew that those actions which seeme to draw strongly into the order of bodies the vnknowne nature of certaine entities named Qualities eyther do or may proceed from the same causes which produce those knowne effects that all sides agree do not stand in neede of any such mysticall Philosophy And this being the maine hinge vpon which hangeth and moueth the full and cleare resoluing of our maine and great question Of the Immortality of the Soule I assure my selfe the paines I haue taken in this particular will not be deemed superfluous or tedious and withall I hope I haue employed them with so good successe as hence foreward we shall not be any more troubled with obiections drawne from their hidden and incomprehensible nature and that we stand vpon euen ground with those of the contrary opinion for since we haue shewed how all actions may be performed among bodies without hauing any recourse to such Entities and Qualities as they pretend and paint out to vs it is now their part if they will haue them admitted to proue that in nature there are such Hauing thâ—n brought the Philosophy of bodies vnto these termes that which remaineth for vs to performe is to shew thâ—t those actions of our soule for which we call her a spiritt are of such a nature as they can not be reduced into those principles by which all corporeall actions are effected For the proofe of our originall intent no more then this can be exacted at our handes so that if our positiue proofes shall carry vs yet beyond this it can not be denyed but that we giue ouermeasure and do illustrate with a greater light what is already sufficiently discerned In our proceeding we haue the precedency of nature for laying for our ground the naturall conceptions which mankind maketh of quantity we find that a body is a meere passiue thing consisting of diuers partes which by motion may be diuersly ordered and consequently that it is capable of no other change or operation then such as motion may produce by various ordering the diuers partes of it and then seeing that Rare and Dense is the primary and adequate diuision of Bodies it followeth euidently that what can not be effected by the various disposition of rare and dense partes can not proceed or be effected by a pure body and consequently it will be sufficient for vs to shew that the motions of our soules are such and they who will not agree to this conclusion must take vpon them to shew that our first premisse is defectiue by prouing that other vnknowne wayes are necessary for bodies to be wrought vpon or to worke by and that the motion and various ordering of rare and dense partes in them is not cause sufficient for the effects we see among them Which whosoeuer shall attempt to do must remember that he hath this disaduantage before he beginneth that whatsoeuer hath beene hitherto discouered in the science of bodies by the helpe eyther of Mathematikes or Physickes it hath all beene resolued and hath fallen into this way which we declare Here I should sett a periode to all further discourse concerning this first Treatise of bodies did I not apprehend that the preiudice of Aristotles authority may dispose many to a harsh conceite of the draught we haue made But if they knew how litle reason they haue to vrge that against vs they would not crye vs downe for contradicting that oracle of nature not only because he himselfe both by word and by example exhorteth vs when verity leadeth vs an other way to forsake the trackes which our forefathers haue beaten for vs so we do it with due respect and gratitude for the much they haue left vs nor yet because Christian Religion as it will not heare of any man purely a man free from sinne so it inclineth to persuade vs that no man can be exempt from errour and therefore it sauoureth not well to defend peremptorily any mans sayings especially if they be many as being vncontrollable how be it I intend not to preiudice any person that to defend a worthy authors honour shal endeauour to vindicate him from absurdities and grosse errors nor lastly because it hath euer beene the common practise of all graue Peripatetikes and Thomistes to leaue their Masters some in one article some in an other but indeede because the very truth is that the way we take is directly the same solide way which Aristotle walked in before vs and they who are scandalised at vs for leauing him are exceedingly mistaken in the matter and out of the sound of his wordes not rightly vnderstood do frame a wrong sense of the doctrine he hath left vs which generally we follow Lett any vnpartiall Aristotelian answere whether the conceptions we haue deliuered of QuaÌ„tity of Rarity and DeÌ„sity of the foure first Qualities of the combinations of the Elements of the repugnance of vacuities be not exactly and rigorously
other Entity whose nature is to be likenesse and it maketh one thing like an other The consideration of which doctrine maketh me remember a ridiculous tale of a trewant schooleboyes latine who vpon a time when he came home to see his frendes being asked by his father what was latine for bread answered breadibus and for beere beeribus and the like of all other thinges he asked him adding only a termination in Bus to the plaine English word of euery one of them which his father perceiuing and though ignorant of Latine yet presently apprehending that the mysteries his sonne had learned deserued not the expence of keeping him at schoole bad him immediately putt of his hosibus and shoosibus and fall to his old trade of treading Morteribus In like manner these great Clerkes do as readily find a pretty Quality or moode whereby to render the nature or causes of any effect in their easy Philosophy as this Boy did a Bus to stampe vpon any English word and coyne it into his mockelatine But to be serious as the weight of the matter requireth lett these so peremptory pretenders of Aristotle shew me but one text in him where he admitteth any middle distinction such as those moderne Philosophers do and must needes admitt who maintaine the qualities we haue reiected betwixt that which he calleth Numericall and that which he calleth of Reason or of Notion or of Definition the first of which we may terme to be of or in thinges the other to be in our heades or discourses or the one Naturall the other Logicall and I will yield that they haue reason and that I haue grossely mistaken what he hath written and that I do not reach the depth of his sense But this they will neuer be able to do Besides the whole scope of his doctrine and all his discourses and intentions are carryed throughout and are built vpon the same foundations that we haue layed for ours Which being so no body can quarrell with vs for Aristotles sake who as he was the greatest Logician and Metaphysitian and Vniuersall scholler peraduenture that euer liued and was so highly esteemed that the good turne which Sylla did the world in sauing his workes was thought to recompence his many outragious cruelties and tyranny so his name must neuer be mentioned among schollers but with reuerence for his vnparalleled worth and with gratitude for the large stocke of knowledge he hath enriched vs with Yet withall we are to consider that since his raigne was but at the beginning of sciences he could not chose but haue some defects and shortenesses among his many great and admirable perfections THE SECOND TREATISE DECLARING THE NATVRE AND OPERATIONS OF MANS SOVLE OVT OF WHICH THE IMMORTALITY OF REASONABLE SOVLES IS CONVINCED Pro captu Lectoris habent sua fata libelli THE PREFACE IT is now high time for vs to cast an eye vpon the other leafe of our accounts or peraduenture I may more properly say to fall to the perusall of our owne accountes for hitherto our time and paines haue beene taken vp in examining and casting the accountes of others to the end that from the foote and totall of them we may driue on our owne the more smoothly In ours then we shall meete with a new Capitall we shall discouer a new world of a quite different straine and nature from that which all this while we haue employed ourselues about We will enter into them with taking a suruay of the great Master of all that large family we haue so summarily viewed I meane of Man as he is Man that is not as he is subiect to those lawes whereby other bodies are gouerned for therein he hath no praeeminence to raise him out of their throng but as he exceedeth the rest of creatures which are subiect to his managing and as he ruleth ouer nature herselfe making her serue his designes and subiecting her noblest powers to his lawes and as he is distinguished from all other creatures whatsoeuer To the end we may discouer whether that principle in him from whence those actions do proceede which are properly his be but some refined composition of the same kind we haue already treated of or whether it deriueth its source and origine from some higher spring and stocke and be of a quite different nature Hauing then by our former Treatise mastered the oppositions which else would haue taken armes against vs when we should haue beene in the middest of our aedifice and hauing cleared the obiections which lay in our way from the peruerse Qualities of the soules neighbours the seuerall common wealthes of Bodies we must now beginne with Dauid to gather together our Materialls and to take a suruay of our owne prouisions that so we may proceed with Salomon to the sacred building of Gods temple But before we goe about it it will not be amisse that we shew the reason why we haue made our porch so great and haue added so long an entry that the house is not likely to haue therevnto a correspondent bulke and when the necessity of my doing so shall appeare I hope my paines will meete with a fauourable censure and receiue a faire admittance We proposed vnto our selues to shew that our soules are immortall wherevpon casting about to find the groundes of immortality and discerning it to be a negatiue we conceiued that we ought to beginne our search with enquiring What Mortality is and what be the causes of it Which when we should haue discouered and haue brought the soule to their teste if we found they trēched not vpon her nor any way concerned her condition we might safely conclude that of necessity she must be immortall Looking then into the causes of mortality we saw that all bodies round about vs were mortall whence perceiuing that mortality extended it selfe as farre as corporeity we found our selues obliged if we would free the soule from that law to shew that she is not corporeall This could not be done without enquiring what corporeity was Now it being a rule among Logitians that a definition can not be good vnlesse it comprehend and reach to euery particular of that which is defined we perceiued it impossible to know compleatly what a Body is without taking a generall view of all those thinges which we comprise vnder the name and meaning of Bodies This is the cause we spent so much time in the first Treatise and I hope to good purpose for there we found that the nature of a Body consisted in being made of partes that all the differencies of bodies are reduced to hauing more or lesse partes in comparison to their substance thus and thus ordered and lastly thall all their operations are nothing else but locall motion which followeth naturally out of hauing partes So as it appeareth euidently from hence that if any thing haue a being and yet haue no partes it is not a body but a substance of an other quality and condition
by what it selfe is to all thinges whatsoeuer This she is if she be perfect but if she be imperfect then is she all this to the proportion of her groweth if so I may say and she is powerfull according to the measure of her knowledge and of her will So that in fine a seperated soule is of a nature to haue and to know and to gouerne all thinges I may reasonably suspect that my saying how imperfect soules are rules to the proportion of their groweth may hau◠occasioned great reflexion and may haue bredd some trouble in the curious and heedefull reader I confesse this expression was deliuered by me only to free my selfe for the present from the labour of shewing what knowledge euery seperated soule hath but vpon second thoughts I find that such sliding ouer this difficult point will not serue my turne nor saue me the paines of vntying this knott for vnlesse I explicate what I meane by that speech I shall leaue my Reader in great doubt and anxiety which to free him from I must wade a litle further in this question of the extent of a seperated soules knowledge into which I haue thus vpon the by engaged my selfe but lett him first be aduertised that I do not here meddle with what a seperated soule may know by reuelation or by supernaturall meanes but that I do only tracke out her naturall pathes and do guesse at what she is or knoweth by that light which her conuersation in her body affordeth vs. Our entrance into this matter must be to consider what mutation in respect of knowledge a soules first change out of her body maketh in her for it is not vnlikely but that nature may some way enlighten vs so farre as to lett vs vnderstand what must follow out of the negation of the bodies consorteshippe added vnto what we know of her and other workes in this world This then first occurreth that surely she can not choose but still know in that state all that she did know whiles she was in the body since we are certaine that the body hath no part in that which is true knowledge as is aboue declared when we shewed first that all true knowledge is respectiue secondly that the first impressions of the fansie do not reach to the interiour soule and lastly that she worketh by much more then what hath any actuall correspondence in the fansie and that all thinges are vnited to her by the force of Being from which last it followeth that all thinges she knoweth are her selfe and she is all that she knoweth wherefore if she keepeth her selfe and her owne Being she must needes keepe the knowledge of all that she knew in this world Next she must vndoubtedly know then somewhat more then she knew in the body for seeing that out of the thinges she already knoweth others will follow by the meere ordering and connexion of them and that the soules proper worke is to order thinges we can not doubt but that both the thinges she knoweth in this world must of necessity be ordered in her to the best aduantage and likewise that all that will be knowne which wanteth no other cause for the knowing of it but the ordering of these thinges for if the nature of a thing were order who can doubt but what were putt into that thing were putt into order Now that the nature of the soule is such we collect easily for seeing that all order proceedeth from her it must be acknowledged that order is first in her but what is in her is her nature her nature then is order and what is in her is ordered In saying of which I do not meane that there is such an order betweene the notions of a seperated soule as is betweene materiall thinges that are ordered by the soule whiles she is in the body for seeing that the soule is adaequate cause of such order that is to say a cause which can make any an such and the whole kind of it it followeth that such order is not in her for if it were she would be cause of her selfe or of her owne partes Order therefore in her must signify a thing more eminēt thē such inferiour order in which resideth the power of making that inferiour order and this is nothing else but the cōnexion of her notions by the necessity of Being which we haue oftē explicated And out of this eminēt or superiour kind of order our conclusion followeth no lesse then if the inferiour order which we see in our fansies whiles our soule is in our Body did reside in our interiour soule for it is the necessity of identification which doth the effect and maketh the soule know and the order of fantasmes is but a precedent condition in the bodily Agent that it may worke vpon the soule and if more fantasmes then one could be together this order would not be necessary Out of this a notable and a vast conclusion manifestly followeth to witt that if a soule can know any one thing more when she is out the body then what she did know whiles she was in the body without any manner of doubt she knoweth all that can be drawne and forced out of those knowledges which she had in her body How much this is and how farre it will reach I am affraide to speake only I entreate Mathematicians and such as are acquainted with the manner how sciences proceed to consider how some of their definitions are made to witt by composing together sundry knowne termes and giuing a new name to the compound that resulteth out of them wherefore cleare it is that out of fewer notions had at the first the soule can make many more and the more she hath or maketh the more she can multiply Againe the maximes which are necessary to be added vnto the definitions for gaining of knowledge we see are also compounded of ordinary and knowne termes so that a seperated soule can want neyther the Definitions nor the Maximes out of which the bookes of sciences are composed and therefore neyther can the sciences themselues be wanting vnto her Now if we consider that in the same fashion as demonstrations are made and knowledge is acquired in one science by the same meanes there is a transcendence from science to science and that there is a connexion among all the sciences which fall into the consideration of man and indeede among all at the least corporeall thinges for of spirituall thinges we can not so assuredly affirme it although their perfection may persuade vs that there is rather a greater connexion among them then among corporeall thinges it will follow that a soule which hath but any indifferent knowledge in this world shall be replenished with all knowledge in the next But how much is this indifferent knowledge that for this purpose is required in this world Vpon mature consideration of this point it is true I find it absolutely necessary that the soule must haue here
the rest euery one of which perfecteth the vnderstanding of that thing and of all that dependeth vpon the knowledge of it and maketh it become more vigorous and strong euen the often throwing of a boule at the same marke begetteth still more and more strength and iustnesse in the arme that deliuereth it for it can not be denyed but that the same cause which maketh any thing must of necessity perfect and strengthen it by repeating its force and stroakes We may then conclude that the knowledge of our soule which is indeed her selfe will be in the next life more perfect and strong or more slacke and weake according as in this life she hath often and vigorously or faintly and seldome busied her selfe about those thinges which begett such knowledge Now those thinges which men bestow their paines to know we see are of two kindes for some thirst after the knowledge of nature and of the variety of thinges which eyther their senses or their discourse tell them of but others looke no higher then to haue an insight into humane action or to gaine skill in some art whereby they may acquire meanes to liue These later curiosities are but of particulars that is of some one or few species or kindes whose common that comprehendeth them falleth within the reach of euery vulgar capacity and consequently the thinges which depend vpon them are low meane and contemptible whereas the beauty vastnesse and excellency of the others is so much beyond them as they can be brought into no proportion to one an other Now then if we consider what aduantage the one sort of these men will in the next world haue ouer the other we shall find that they who spend their life here in the study and contemplation of the first noble obiects will in the next haue their vniuersall knowledge that is their soule strong and perfect whiles the others that played away their thoughts and time vpon trifles and seldome raysed their mindes aboue the pitch of sense will be fainte through their former laizinesse like bodies benummed with the palsey and sickely through their ill dyett as when a well shaped virgin that hauing fed vpon trash insteed of nourishing meates languisheth vnder a wearisome burthen of the greene sickenesse To make this point yet more cleare we may consider how the thinges which we gaine knowledge of do affect vs vnder the title of good and conuenient in two seuerall manners The one is when the appearance of good in the abstracted nature of it and after examination of all circumstances carryeth our hart to the desire of the thing that appeareth so vnto vs the other is when the semblance of good to our owne particular persons without casting any further or questioning whether any other regard may not make it preiudiciall doth cause in vs a longing for the thing wherein such semblance shineth Now for the most part the knowledges which spring out of the later obiects are more cultiuated by vs then those which arise out of the other partly by reason of their frequēt occurring eyther through necessity or through iudgement and partly by the addition which passion giueth to the impressions they make vpon vs for passion multiplyeth the thoughts of such thinges more then of any others if reason do not crosse and suppresse her tumultuary motions which in most men she doth not The soules then of such persons as giuing way to their passion do in this life busie themselues about such thinges as appeare good to their owne persons and cast no further must needes decede from their bodies vnequally builded if that expression may be permitted me and will be like a lame vnwieldy body in which the principall limbes are not able to gouerne and moue the others because those principall ones are fainte through want of spirits and exercise and the others are ouergrowne with hidropicall and nociue humours The reason whereof is that in such soules their iudgements will be disproportioned to one an other one of them being vnduely stronger then the other What effect this worketh in regard of knowledge we haue already declared and no lesse will it haue in respect of action for suppose two iudgements to be vnequall and such as in the action one contradicteth the other for example lett one of my iudgements be that it is good for me to eate because I am hungry and lett the other be that it is good for me to study because I am shortly to giue an account of my selfe if the one iudgement be stronger then the other as if that of eating be stronger then that of studying it importeth not that there be more reason all circumstances considered for studying because reasons do moue to action according to the measure in which the resolution that is taken vpon them is strong or weake and therefore my action will follow the strongest iudgement and I shall leaue my booke to goe to my dinner Now to apply this to the state of a separated soule we are to remember how the spirituall iudgements which she collected in the body do remaine in her after she is diuested of it and likewise we are to consider how all her proceeding in that state is built not vpon passion or any bodily causes or dispositions but meerely vpon the quality and force of those spirituall iudgements and then it euidently followeth that if there were any such action in the next life the pure soule would apply it selfe therevnto according to the proportion of her iudgements and as they are graduated and qualifyed It is true there is no such action remaining in the next life yet neuerthelesse there remaineth in the soule a disposition and a promptitude to such action and if we will frame a right apprehension of a separated soule we must conceite her to be of such a nature for then all is nature with her as hereafter we shall discourse as if she were a thing made for action in that proportion and efficacity which the quartering of her by this variety of iudgements doth afford that is that she is so much the more fitt for one action then for an other were she to proceed to action as the iudgement of the goodnesse of one of these actions is stronger in her then the iudgement of the others goodnesse which is in effect by how much the one is more cultiuated then the other And out of this we may conclude that what motions do follow in a man out of discourse the like will in a separated soule follow out of her spirituall iudgements So that as he is ioyed if he do possesse his desired good and is discontented and displeased if he misse of it and seizeth greedily vpon it when it is present to him and then cleaueth fast vnto it and whiles he wanteth it no other good affecteth him but he is still longing after that Masterwish of his heart the like in euery regard but much more vehemently befalleth vnto a separated soule So
that can be imagined in nature For we haue already shewed how a separated soule comprehendeth at once all place and all times so that her actiuity requireth no application to place or time but she is of her selfe mistresse of both comprehending all quantity whatsoeuer in an indiuisible apprehension and ranking all the partes of motion in their complete order and knowing at once what is to happen in euery one of them On the other side an incorporated soule by reason of her being confined to the vse of her senses can looke vpon but one single definite place or time at once and needeth a long chaine of many discourses to comprehend all the circumstances of any one action and yet after all how short she is of comprehending all So that comparing the one of these with the other it is euident that in respect of time and place and in respect of any one singular action the proportion of a separated soule to one in the body is as all time or all place in respect of any one piece or least parcell of them or as the entire absolute comprehender of all time and all place is to the discouerer of a small measure of them For whatsoeuer a soule willeth in that state she willeth it for the whole extent of her duration because she is then out of the state or capacity of changing and wisheth for whatsoeuer she wisheth as for her absolute good and therefore employeth the whole force of her iudgement vpon euery particular wish Likewise the eminency which a separated soule hath ouer place is also then entirely employed vpon euery particular wish of hers since in that state there is no variety of place left vnto her to wish for such good in one place and to refuse it in an other as whiles she is in the body happeneth to euery thing she desireth Wherefore whatsoeuer she then wisheth for she wisheth for it according to her comparison vnto place that is to say that as such a soule hath a power to worke at the same time in all place by the absolute comprehension which she hath of place in abstract so euery wish of that soule if it were concerning a thing to be made in place were able to make it in all places through the excessiue force and efficacy which she employeth vpon euery particular wish The third effect by which among bodies we gather the vigour and energy of the cause that produceth it to witt the doing of the like action in a lesser time and in a larger extent is but a combination of the two former and therefore it requireth no further particular insistance vpon it to shew that likewise in this the proportion of a separated to an incorporated soule must needes be the selfe same as in the others seeing that a separated soules actiuity is vpon all place in an indiuisible of time Therefore to shutt vp this point there remaineth only for vs to consider what addition may be made vnto the efficacity of a iudgement by the concurrence of other extrinsecall helpes We see that when an vnderstanding man will settle any iudgement or conclusion in his mind he weigheth throughly all that followeth out of such a iudgement and considereth likewise all the antecedents that lead him vnto it and if after due reflection and examination of whatsoeuer concerneth that conclusion which he is establishing in his mind he findeth nothing to crosse it but that euery particular and circumstance goeth smoothly along with it and strengtheneth it he is then satisfyed and quiett in his thoughts and yieldeth a full assent therevnto which assent is the stronger by how many the more concurrent testimonyes he hath for it And although he should haue a perfect demonstration or sight of the thing in it selfe yet euery one of the other extrinsecall proofes being as it were a new persuasion hath in it a further vigour to strengthen and content his mind in the forehad demonstration for if euery one of these be in it selfe sufficient to make the thing euident it can not happen that any one of them should hinder the others but contrariwise euery one of them must needes coucurre with all the rest to the effectuall quieting of his vnderstanding in its assent to that iudgement Now then according to this rate lett vs calculate if we can what concurrence of proofes and wittnesses a separated soule will haue to settle and strengthen her in euery one of her iudgemēts We know that all verities are chained and connected one to an other and that there is no true conclusion so farre remote from any other but may by more or lesse consequences and discourses be deduced euidently out of it it followeth then that in the abstracted soule where all such consequences are ready drawne and seene in themselues without extension of time or employing of paines to collect them euery particular verity beareth testimony to any other so that euery one of them is beleeued and worketh in the force and vertue of all Out of which it is manifest that euery iudgement in such a separated soule hath an infinite strength and efficacity ouer any made by an embodyed one To summe all vp in a few wordes we find three rootes of infinity in euery action of a separated soule in respect of one in the body first the freedome of her essence or substance in it selfe next that quality of hers by which she comprehendeth place and time that is all permanent and successiue quantity and lastly the concurrence of infinite knowledges to euery action of hers Hauing then this measure in our handes lett vs apply it to a well ordered and to a disordered soule passing out of this world lett vs consider the one of them sett vpon those goodes which she shall there haue present and shall fully enioy the other languishing after and pining away for those which are impossible for her euer to obtaine What ioy what content what exultation of mind in any liuing man can be conceiued so great as to be compared with the happinesse of one of these soules And what griefe what discontent what misery can be like the others These are the different effects which the diuers manners of liuing in this world do cause in soules after they are deliuered from their bodies out of which and out of the discourse that hath discouered these effects vnto vs we see a cleare resolution of that so maine and agitated question among the Philosophers why a rationall soule is imprisoned in a grosse body of flesh and bloud In truth the question is an illegitimate one as supposing a false ground for the soules being in the body is not an imprisonnement of a thing that was existent before the soule and body mett together but her being there is the naturall course of beginning that which can no other way come into the listes of nature for should a soule by the course of nature obtaine her first being without a body eyther
connexion of things is so linked together that proceeding from any one you reach the knowledge of many and from many you cannot faile of attaining vnto all so that a separated soule which doth but know herselfe can not choose but know her body too and from her body she cannot misse in proceeding from the causes of them both as farre as immediate causes do proceede from others ouer them and as litle can she be ignorant of all the effects of those causes she reacheth vnto And thus all that huge masse of knowledge and happinesse which we haue coÌ„sidered in our last reflexion amounteth to no more then the seeliest soule buried in warme blood can and will infallibly attaine vnto when its time cometh Wee may then assure our selues that iust nature hath prouided and designed a greater measure of such felicity for longer liuers and so much greater as may well be worth the paines and hazards of so miserable and tedious a passage as here my soule thou strugglest through For certainely if the dull percussion which by natures institution hammereth out a spirituall soule from grosse flesh and bloud can atcheiue so wondrous an effect by such blunt instruments as are vsed in the contriuing of a man how can it be imagined but that fifty or a hundred yeares beating vpon farre more subtile elements refined in so long a time as a child is becoming a man and arriuing to his perfect discourse must necessarily forge out in such a soule a strange and admirable excellency aboue the vnlicked forme of an abortiue embryon Surely those innumerable strokes euery one of which maketh a strong impression in the soule vpon whom they beate cannot choose but worke a mighty difference in the subiect that receiueth them changing it strangely from the condition it was in before they begunne to new mould it What if I should say the oddes betweene two such soules may peraduenture be not vnlike the difference betweene the wittes and iudgements of the subtilest Philosopher that euer was and of the dullest child or idiote liuing But this comparison falleth too short by farre euen so much that there is no resemblance or proportion betweene the thinges compared for as the excesse of great numbers ouer one an other drowneth the excesse of small ones and maketh it not considerable in respect of theirs although they should be in the same proportion so the aduantages of a soule forged to its highest perfection in a mans body by its long abode there and by its making right vse of that pretious time allowed it must needes in positiue valew though not in geometricall proportion infinitely exceed when it shall be deliuered out of prison the aduantages which the newly hatched soule of an abortiue infant shall acquire att the breaking of its chaines In this case I beleeue no man would be of Cesars mind when he wished to be rather the first man in a contemptible poore village he passed through among the desert mountains then the second man in Rome Lett vs suppose the wealth of the richest man in that barren habitation to be one hundred Crownes and that the next to him in substance had but halfe as much as he in like manner in that opulent citty the head of the world where millions were as familiar as pence in other places lett the excesse of the richest mans wealth be but as in the former double ouer his that cometh next vnto him and there you shall find that if the poorest of the two be worth fifty millions the other hath fifty millions more then he whereas the formers petty treasure exceedeth his neighbours but by fifty crownes What proportion is there in the common estimation of affaires betweene that triuiall summe and fifty millions Much lesse is there betweene the excellency of a separated soule first perfected in its body and an other that is sett loose into complete liberty before its body arriued in a naturall course to be deliuered into this world and by its eyes to enioy the light of it The change of euery soule att its separation from the body to a degree of perfectioÌ„ aboue what it enioyed in the body is in a manner infinite and by a like infinite proportion euery degree of perfection it had in the body is also then multiplyed what a vast product then of infinity must necessarily be raysed by this multiplying instaÌ„t of the soules attaining liberty in a well moulded soule infinitely beyond that perfection which the soule of an infant dying before it be borne arriueth vnto And yet we haue determined that to be a in manner infinite Here our skill of Arithmetike and proportions fayleth vs. Here wee find infinite excesse ouer what we also know to be infinite How this can be the feeble eyes of our limited vnderstanding are too dull to penetrate into but that it is so we are sure the rigour of discourse conuinceth and necessarily concludeth it That assureth vs that since euery impression vpon the soule whiles it is in its body maketh a change in it were there no others made but meerely the iterating of those actes which brought it from ignorance to knowledge that soule vpon which a hundred of those actes had wrought must haue a hundred degrees of aduantage ouer an other vpon which only one had beaten though by that one it had acquired perfect knowledge of that thing and then in the separation these hundred degrees being each of them infinitely multiplyed how infinitely must such a soule exceed in that particular though we know not how the knowledge of the other soule which though it be perfect in its kind yet had but one act to forge it out When wee arriue to vnderstand the difference of knowledge betweene the superiour and inferiour rankes of intelligences among whome the lowest knoweth as much as the highest and yet the knowledge of the highest is infinitely more perfect and admirable then the knowledge of his inferiours then and not before we shall throughly comprehend this mystery In the meane time it is enough for vs that we are sure that thus it faireth with soules and that by how much the excellency and perfection of an all knowing and all comprehending soule deliuered out of the body of a wretched embryon is aboue the vilenesse of that heauy lumpe of flesh it lately quitted in his mothers wombe euen by so mâ—â—h and according to the same proportion must the excellency of a complete soule completed in its body be in a pitch aboue the adorable maiesty wisedome and augustnesse of the greatest and most admired oracle in the world liuing embodyed in flesh and bloud Which as it is in a height and eminency ouer such an excellent and admirable man infinitely beyond the excesse of such a man ouer that seely lumpe of flesh which composeth the most contemptible idiote or embryon so likewise is the excesse of it ouer the soule of an abortiue embryon though by the separation growne neuer so knowing and
ibid. § 2. What place is both notionally and really pag. 33. § 3. Locall motion is that diuision whereby a body chāeth its place pag. 34. § 4. The nature of quantity of it selfe is sufficient to vnite a body to its place ibidem § 5. All operations amongst bodies are eyther locall motion or such as follow out of locall motion pag. 35. § 6. Earth compared to water in actiuity pag. 36. § 7. The manner whereby fire getteth in fewel prooueth that it exceedeth earth in actiuity ibid. § 8. The same is prooued by the manner whereby fire cometh ut of fewell and worketh vpon other bodies pag. 37. CHAP. VI. Of Light what it is pag. 39. § 1. In what sense the Author reiecteth qualities ibid. § 2. In what sense the Author doth admitt of qualities pag. 40. § 3. Fiue arguments proposed to proue that light is not a body pag. 41. § 4. The two first reasons to proue light to be a body are the resemblance it hath with fire and because if it were a quality it would alwayes produce an equall to it selfe pag. 42. § 5. The third reason because if we imagine to our selues the substance of fire to be rarifyed it will haue the same appearences which light hath pag. 43. § 6. The fourth reason from the manner of the genertion and corruption of light which agreeth with fire ibid. § 7. The fifth reason because such properies belong to light as agree only vnto bodies pag. 45. CHAP. VII Two objections answered against light being fire a more ample proofe of its being such ibid. § 1. That all light is hoat and apt o heate ibid. § 2. The reason why our bodies for the most part do not feele the heate of pure light pag. 46. § 3. The experience of burningglasses and of soultry gloomy weather proue light to be fire pag. 48. § 4. Philosophers ought not to be iudge ot thinges by the rules of vulgar people ibidem § 5. the different names of light and fire proceede from different notions of the same substance pag. 49. § 6. The reason why many times fire and heate are depriued of light pag. 50. § 7. What becometh of the body of light when it dyeth ibid. § 8. An experiment of some who pretend that light may be precipitated into pouder pag. 51. § 9. The Authors opinion concerning lampes pretended to haue been found in tombes with inconsumptible lights ibid. CHAP. VIII An answere to three other objections formely proposed against light being a substance pag. 53. § 1. Light is not really in euery part of the roome it enlighteneth nor filleth entirely any sensible part of it though it seeme to vs to do so ibid. § 2. Tha least sensible poynt of a diaphanous body hath roome sufficient to containe both ayre and light together with a multitude of beames issuing from seuerall lights without penetrating one another pag. 54. § 3. That light doth not enlighten any roome in an instant and that the great celerity of its motion doth make it inperceptible to our senses pag. 56. § 4. The reason why the motion of light is not discerned comingtowardes vs and that there is some reall tardity in it pag. 58. § 5. The planets are not certainely euer in that place where they appeare to be pag. 59. § 6. The reason why light being a body doth not by its motion shatter other bodies into pieces ibid. § 7. The reason why the body of light is neuer perceiued to be fanned by the wind pag. 61. § 8. The reasons for and against lights being a body compared together pag. 62. § 9. A summary repetition of the reasons which prooue that light is fire ibidem CHAP. IX Of locall Motion in common pag 63. § 1. No locall motion can be performed without succession ibid. § 2. Time is the common measure of all succession pag. 64. § 3. What velocity is and that it can not be infinite ibid. § 4. No force so litle that is not able to moue the greatest weight imaginable pag. 65. § 5. The cheife principle of Mechanikes deduced out of the former discourse pag. 66. § 6. No moueable can passe from rest to any determinate degree of velocity or from a lesser degree to a greater without passing through all the intermediate degrees which are below the obtained degree pag. 67. § 7. The conditions which helpe to motion in the moueable are three in the medium one pag 69. § 8. No body hath any intrinsecall vertue to moue it selfe towardes any determinate part of the vniuerse pag. 70. § 9. The encrease of motion is alwayes made in the proportion of the odde numbers ibid. § 10. No motion can encrease for euer without coming to a periode pag. 72. § 11. Certaine problemes resolued concerning the proportion of some mouing Agents compared to their effects pag 73. § 12. When a moueable cometh to rest the motion doth decrease according to the rules of encrease pag. 75. CHAP. X. Of Grauity and Leuity and of Locall Motion commonly termed Naturall pag. 76. § 1. Those motions are called naturall which haue constant causes and those violent which are contrary to them ibid. § 2. The first and most generall operation of the sunne is the making and raising of atomes ibid. § 3. The light rebounding from the earth with atomes causeth two streames in the ayre the one ascending the other descending and both of them in a perpendicular line pag. 77. § 4. A dense body placed in the ayre betweene the ascending and descending streame must needes descend pag. 78. § 5. A more particular explication of all the former doctrine touching grauity pag. 79. § 6. Grauity and leuity do not signify an intrinsecall inclination to such a motion in the bodies themselues which are termed heauy and light pag. 81. § 7. The more dense a body is the more swiftly it descendeth ibid. § 8. The velocity of bodies descending doth not encrease in proportion to the difference that may be betweene their seuerall densities pag. 82. § 9. More or lesse grauity doth produce a swifter or a slower descending of a heauy body Aristotles argument to disproue motion in vacuo is made good pag. 84. § 10. The reason why att the inferiour quarter of a circle a body doth descend faster by the arch of that quarter then by the chord if it pag. 85. CHAP. XI An answere to objections against the causes of naturall motion auowed in the former chapter and a refutation of the contrary opinion pag. 86. § 1. The first obiection answered why a hollow body descendeth slower then a solide one pag. 86. § 2. The second obiection answered and the reasons shewne why atomes do continually ouertake the descending dense body pag. 88. § 3. A curious question left vndecided pag. 89. § 4. The fourth obiection answered why the descent of the same heauy bodies is equall in so great inequality of the atomes which cause it ibidem § 5. The reason why the
shelter of a thicke body doth not hinder the descent of that which is vnder it pag. 91. § 6. The reason why some bodies sinke others swimme pag. 92. § 7. The fifth obiection answered concerning the descending of heauy bodies in streames pag. 93. § 8. The sixt obiection answered and that all heauy elements do weigh in their owne spheres pag. 95. § 9. The seuenth obiection answered and the reason why we do not feele the course of the ayre and atomes that beate continually vpon vs. ibidem § 10. How in the same body grauity may be greater then density and density then grauity though they be the same thing pag. 96. § 11. The opinion of grauities being an intrinsecall inclination of a body to the center refuted by reason pag 97. § 12. The same opinion refuted by seuerall experiences pag. 98. CHAP. XII Of Violent Motion pag. 100. § 1. The state of the question touching the cause of violent motion ibid. § 2. That the medium is the onely cause which continueth violent motion ibidem § 3. A further explication of the former doctrine pag. 101. § 4. That the ayre hath strength enough to continue violent motion in a moueable pag. 102. § 5. An answere to the first obiection that ayre is not apt to conserue motion And how violent motion cometh to cease pag 103. § 6. An answere to the second obiection that the ayre hath no power ouer heauy bodies pag. 104. § 7. An answere to the third obiection that an arrow should fly faster broadwayes then long wayes pag. 105. CHAP. XIII Of three sortes of violent motion Reflexion Vndulation and Refraction pag. 106. § 1. That reflexion is a kind of violent motion ibid. § 2. Reflection is made at equall angles ibid. § 3. The causes and properties of vndulation pag. 107. § 4. Refraction at the entrance into the reflectent body is towardes the perpendicular at the going out it is from it when the second superficies is parallel to the first pag. 108. § 5. A refutation of Monsieur Des Cartes his explication of refraction pag. 109. § 6. An answere to the arguments brought in fauour of Monsieur Des Cartes his opinion pag. 111. § 7. The true cause of refraction of light both at its entrance and at its going out from the reflecting body pag. 112. § 8. A generall rule to know the nature of reflection and refractions in all sortes of surfaces pag. 113. § 9. A body of greater partes and greater pores maketh a greater refraction then one of lesser partes and lesser pores pag. 114. § 10. A confirmation of the former doctrine out of the nature of bodies that refract light pag. 115. CHAP. XIV Of the composition qualities and generation of Mixed bodies pag. 116. § 1. The connexion of this chapter with the rest and the Authors intent in it ibid. § 2. That there is a least cise of bodies and that this least cise is found in fire pag. 117. § 3. The first coniunction of partes is in bodies of least cise and it is made by the force of Quantity ibid. § 4. The second sort of coniunction is compactednesse in simple Elements and it procedeth from density pag. 118. § 5. The third coniunction is of parres of different Elements and it proceedeth from quantity and density together ibid. § 6. The reason why liquide bodies do easily ioyne together and dry ones difficultly pag. 119. § 7. That no two hard bodies can touch one an other immediately ibid. § 8. How mixed bodies are framed in generall pag. 121. § 9. The cause of the seuerall degrees of solidity in mixed bodies ibid. § 10. The rule where vnto are reduced all the seuerall combinations of Elements in compounding of mixed bodies pag. 122. § 11. Earth and water are the basis of all permanent mixed bodies pag. 123. § 12. What kind of bodies those are where water is the basis and earth the predominant Element ouer the other two ibid. § 13. Of those bodies where water being the basis ayre is the predominant Element ibid. § 14. What kind of bodies result where water is the basis and fire the predominant Element pag. 124. § 15. Of those bodies where water is in excesse it alone being both the basis and the predominant Element pag. 125. § 16. Of those bodies where Earth alone is the basis and also the predominant in excesse ouer the other three Elements ibid. § 17. Of those bodies where Earth is the basis and water the predominant Element ouer the other two ibid. § 18. Of those bodies where earth being the basis ayre is the predominant ibid. § 19. Of those bodies where Earth being the basis fire is the predominant pag. 126. § 20. All the secōd qualities of mixed bodies arise from seuerall combinations of the first qualities and are att last resolued into seuerall degrees of rarity and density ibid. § 21. That in the planets and starres there is a like variety of mixed bodies cause by light as here vpon Earth pag. 127. § 22. In what manner the Elements do worke vpon one an other in the composition of mixed bodies and in particular fire which is the most actiue ibid. § 23. A particular declaration touching the generation of mettalls pag. 128. CHAP. XV. Of the dissolution of Mixed bodies pag. 130. § 1. Why some bodies are brittle and others tough or apt to withstand outward violence the first instrument to dissolue mixed bodies ibid. § 2. How outward violence doth worke vpon the most compacted bodies pag. 131. § 3. The seueral effects of fire the second and chiefest instrument to dissolue all compounded bodies ibid. § 4. The reason why some bodies are not dissolued by fire pag. 132. § 5. The reason why fire melteth gold but can not consume it ibid. § 6. Why leade is easily consumed and calcined by fire pag. 133. § 7. Why and how some bodies are diuided by fire into spirits waters oyles saltes and earth And what those partes are ibid. § 8. How water the third instrument to dissolue bodies dissolueth calx into salt and so into Terra damnata pag. 135. § 9. How water mingled with salt becometh a most powerfull Agent to dissolue other bodies pag. 136. § 10. How putrefaction is caused ibid. CHAP. XVI An explication of certaine Maximes touching the operations and qualities of bodies and whether the Elements be found pure in any part of the world pag. 137. § 1. What is the sphere of actiuity in corporeall Agents ibid. § 2. The reason why no body can worke in distance pag. 138. § 3. An obiection answered against the manner of explicating the former axiome pag. 139 § 4. Of reaction and first in pure locall motion that each Agent must suffer in acting and acte in suffering ibid. § 5. The former doctrine applyed to other locall motions designed by particular names And that Suisseths argument is of no force against this way of doctrine pag. 141. § 6. Why some notions do admitt
of intension and Remission and others do not ibid. § 7. That in euery part of our habitable world all the foure Elements are found pure in small atomes but not in any great bulke pag. 142. CHAP. XVII Of Rarefaction and Condensation the two first motions of particular bodies pag. 144. § 1. The Authors intent in this and the following chapters ibid. § 2. That bodies may be rarifyed both by outward heat aud how this is performed pag. 145. § 3. Of the great effects fo Rarefaction pag. 147. § 4. The first manner of condensation by heate pag. 148. § 5. The second manner of condensation by cold pag. 149. § 6. That yce is not water rarifyed but condensed pag. 151. § 7. How wind snow and haile are made and wind by raine allayed pag. 152. § 8. How partes of the same or diuers bodies are ioyned more strongly together by condensation pag. 153. § 9. Vacuites can not be the reason why water impregnated to the full with one kind of salt will notwithstanding receiue more of an other pag. 154. § 10. The true reason of the former effect pag. 155. § 11. The reason why bodies of the same nature do ioyne more easily together then others pag. 156. CHAP. XVIII Of an other motion belonging to particular bodies called Attraction and of certaine operations termed Magicall pag. 157. § 1. What Attraction is and from whence it proceedeth ibid. § 2. The true sense of the Maxime that Nature abhorreth from vacuity pag. 158. § 3. The true reason of attraction pag. 159. § 4. Water may be brought by the force of attraction to what height soeuer pag. 160. § 5. The doctrine touching the attraction of water in syphons ibid § 6. That the syphon doth not proue water to weigh in its owne orbe pag. 161. § 7. Concerning attraction caused by fire pag. 162. § 8. Concerning attraction made by vertue of hoat bodies amulets etc. pag. 163. § 9. The naturall reason giuen for diuers operations esteemed by some to be magicall ibid. CHAP. XIX Of three other motions belonging to particular bodies Filtration Restitution and Electricall attraction pag. 166. § 1. What is Filtration and how it is effected ibid. § 2. What causeth the water in filtration to ascend pag. 167. § 3. Why the filter will not droppe vnlesse the labell hang lower then the water ibid. § 4. Of the motion of Restitution and why some bodies stand bent others not pag. 168. § 5. Why some bodies returne onely in part to their natural figure others entirely pag. 170. § 6. Concerning the nature of those bodies which do shrinke and stretch pag. 171. § 7. How great and wonderfull effects proceed from small plaine and simple principles ibid. § 8. Concerning Electricall attraction and the causes of it pag. 172. § 9. Cabeus his opinion refuted concerning the cause of Electricall motions pag. 174. CHAP. XX. Of the Loadestones generation and its particular motions pag. 175. § 1. The extreme heat of the sunne vnder the zodiake draweth a streame of ayre from each Pole into the torride zone ibid. § 2. The atomes of these two streames coming together are apt to incorporate with one an other pag. 176. § 3. By the meeting and mingling together of these streames att the Equator diuers riuolets of atomes of each Pole are continuated from one Pole to te other pag. 177. § 4. Of these atomes incorporated with some fitt matter in the bowels of the earth is made a stone pag. 179. § 5. This stone worketh by emanations ioyned with agreeing streames that meete them in the ayre and in fine it is a loadestone ibid. § 6. A methode for making experiences vpon any subiect pag. 181. § 7. The loadestones generation by atomes flowing from both Poles is confirmed by experiments obserued in the stone it selfe ibid. § 8. Experiments to proue that the loadestone worketh by emanations meeting with agreeing streames pag. 182. CHAP. XXI Positions drawne out of the former doctrine and confirmed by experimentall proofes pag. 185. .1 The operations of the loadestone are wrought by bodies and not by qualities ibid. § 2. Obiections against the former position answered pag. 186. § 3. The loadestone is imbued with his vertue from an other body ibid. § 4. The vertue of the loadestone is a double and not one simple vertue 188. § 5. The vertue of the laodestone worketh more strongly in the Poles of it then in any other part ibid. § 6. The laodestone sendeth forth its emanations spherically Which are of two kindes and each kind is strongest in that hemisphere through whose polary partes they issue out ibid. § 7. Putting two loadestones within the sphere of one an other euery part of one laodestone doth not agree with euery part of the other loadestone pag 189. § 8. Concerning the declination and other respects of a needle towardes the loadestone it toucheth ibid. § 9. The vertue of the laodestone goeth from end to end in lines almost paralelle to the axis pag. 191. § 10. The vertue of loadestone is not perfectly sphericall though the stone be such pag. 192. § 11. The intention of nature in all the operations of the loadestone is to make an vnion betwixt the attractiue and attracted bodies ibid. § 12. The maine globe of the earth is not a loadestone ibid. § 13. The laodestone is generated in all partes or climats of the earth pag. 193. § 14. The conformity betwixt the two motions of magnetike thinges and of heauy thinges ibid. CHAP. XXII A solution of certaine Problemes concerning the loadestone and a short summe of the whole doctrine touching it pag. 194. § 1. Which is the North and which the South Pole of a loadestone ibid. § 2. Whether any bodies besides magnetike ones be attractiue ibid. § 3. Whether an iron placed perpendicularly towardes the earth doth gett a magneticall vertue of pointing towardes the north or towardes the south in that end that lyeth downewardes pag. 195. § 4. Why loadestones affect iron better then one an other ibid. § 5. Gilberts reason refuted touching a capped loadestone that taketh vp more iron then one not capped and an iron impregnated that in some case draweth more strongly then the stone it selfe ibid. § 6. Galileus his opinion touching the former effects refuted pag. 196. § 7. The Authors solution to the former questions pag. 197. § 8. The reason why in the former case a lesser loadestone doth draw the interiacent iron from the greater pag. 198. § 9. Why the variation of a touched needle from the north is greater the neerer you go to the Pole pag. 199. § 10. Whether in the same part of the world a touched needle may att one time vary more from the north and att an other time lesse pag. 200. § 11. The whole doctrine of the loadestone summed vp in short pag. 201. CHAP. XXIII A description of the two sortes of liuing creatures Plantes and Animals and how they are framed in common
to performe vitall motion pag. 203. § 1. The connexion of the following Chapters with the precedent ones ibid. § 2. Concerning seuerall compositions of mixed bodies pag. 204. § 3. Two sortes of liuing creatures pag. 205. § 4. An engine to expresse the first sort of liuing creatures ibid. § 5. An other engine by which may be expressed the second sort of liuing creatures pag. 207. § 6. The two former engines and some other comparisons applyed to expresse the two seuerall sortes of liuing creatures ibid. § 7. How plantes are framed pag. 209. § 8. How sensitiue creatures are formed pag. 210. CHAP. XXIV A more particular suruay of the generation of Animals in which is discouered what part of the animal is first generated pag. 213 § 1. The opinion that the seede containeth formally euery part of the parent ibid. § 2. The former opinion reiected pag. 214. § 3. The Authors opinion of this question pag. 215. § 4. Their opinion refuted who hold that euery thing containeth formally all thinges pag. 216. § 5. The Authors opinion concerning the generation of Animals declared and confirmed pag. 217. § 6. That one substance is changed into an other pag. 219. § 7. Concerning the hatching of chickens and the generation of other Animals pag. 220. § 8. From whence it happeneth that the deficiences or excrescences of the parents body are often seene in their children pag. 221 § 9. The difference betweene the Authors opinion and the former one p. 222 § 10. That the hart is imbued with the generall specifike vertues of the whole body whereby is confirmed the doctrine of the two former paragraphes pag. 223. § 11. That the hart is the first part generated in a liuing creature pag. 225. CHAP. XXV How a Plant or Animal cometh to that figure it hath pag. 226. § 1. That the figure of an Animal is produced by ordinarie second causes as well as any other corporeall effect pag. 226. § 2. That the seuerall figures of bodies proceed from a defect in one of â—he three dimensions caused by the concurrance of accidentall causes pag. 227 § 3. The former doctrine is confirmed by seuerall instances pag 228 § 4. The same doctrine applyed to Plantes pag. 229 § 5. The same doctrine declared in leafes of trees ibid. § 6. The same applyed to the bodies of Animals pag. 230 § 7. In what sense the Author doth admitt of Vis formatrix pag. 231 CHAP. XXVI How motion beginneth in liuing creatures And of the motion of the hart circulation of the bloud Nutrition Augmentation and corruption or death pag. 232 § 1. Fromwhence doth proceed the primary motion and growth in Plantes ibid. § 2. Monsieur des Cartes his opinion touching the motion of the hart p. 233 § 3. The former opinion reiected ibid. § 4. The Authors opinion concerning the motion of the hart pag. 234 § 5. The motion of the hart dependeth originally of its fibers irrigated by bloud pag. 236 § 6. An obiection answered against the former doctrine pag. 237 § 7. The circulation of the bloud and other effects that follow the motion of the hart pag. 238 § 8. Of Nutrition pag. 239 § 9. Of Augmentation pag. 240 § 10. Of death and sicknesse pag. 241 CHAP. XXVII Of the motions of sense and of the sensible qualities in generall and in particular of those which belong to Touch Tast and Smelling pag. 242 § 1. The connexion of the subsequent chapters with the precedent ibid. § 2. Of the senses and sensible qualities in generall And of the end for which they serue ibid. § 3. Of the sense of touching and that both it and its qualities are bodies 244 § 4. Of the tast and its qualities that they are bodies pag. 245 § 5. That the smell and its qualities are reall bodies ibid. § 6. Of the conformity betwixt the two senses of smelling and tasting p. 246 § 7. The reason why the sense of smelling is not so perfect in man as in beastes with a wonderfull historie of a man who could wind a sent as well as any beast pag. 247 CHAP. XXVIII Of the sense of hearing and of the sensible quality sound p. 249 § 1. Of the sense of hearing and that sound is purely motion ibid. § 2. Of diuers artes belonging to the sense of hearing all which confirme that sound is nothing but motion pag. 250 § 3. The same is confirmed by the effects caused by great noises pag. 251 § 4. That solide bodies may conueye the motion of the ayre or sound to the organe of hearing pag. 252 § 5. Where the motion is interrupted there is no sound ibid. § 6. That not only the motion of the ayre but all other motions coming to our eares make sounds pag. 253 § 7. How one sense may supply the want of an other ibid. § 8. Of one who could discerne sounds of words with his eyes pag. 254 § 9. Diuers reasons to proue sound to be nothing els but a motion of some reall body pag. 256 CHAP. XXIX Of Sight and Colours pag. 257 § 1. That Colours are nothing but light mingled with darkenesse or the disposition off a bodies superficies apt to reflect light so mingled ibid. § 2. Concerning the disposition of those bodies which produce white or blacke coulours pag. 259 § 3. The former doctrine confirmed by Aristotles authority reason and experience ibid. § 4. How the diuersity of coulours doe follow out of various degrees of rarity and density pag. 260 § 5. Why some bodies are Diaphanous others opacous pag. 261 § 6. The former doctrine of coulours confirmed by the generation of white and Blacke in bodies pag. 262 CHAP. XXX Of luminous or apparente Colours pag. 262 § 1. Apparitions of coulours through a prisme or triangular glasse are of two sortes ibid. § 2. The seuerall parts of the obiect make seuerall angles at their entrance into the prisme pag. 263 § 3. The reason why some times the same obiect appeareth throwgh the prisme in two places and in one place more liuely in the other place more dimme ibid. § 4. The reason of the various colours that appeare in looking throwgh a prisme pag. 264 § 5. The reason why the prisme in one position may make the colours appeare quite contrary to what they did when it was in an other position pag. 265 § 6. The reason of the various colours in generall by pure light passing through a prisme pag 266 § 7. Vpon what side euery colour appeareth that is made by pure light passing through a prisme pag. 267 CHAP. XXXI The causes of certaine appearances in luminous Colours with a conclusion of the discourse touching the senses and the sensible qualities pag. 268 § 1. The reason of each seuerall colour in particular caused by light passing through a prisme pag. 268 § 2. A difficult probleme resolued touching the prisme pag. 270 § 3. Of the rainebow and how by the colour of any body wee may know the composition of
the same biggenesse and consequently be conuerted into a greater Quantity of fire and ayre Oyle will make much more flame then spiritt of wine that is farre rarer then it These and such like considerations haue much perplexed Philosophers and haue driuen them into diuerse thoughts to find out the reasons of them Some obseruing that the diuiding of a body into litle partes maketh it lesse apt to descend then when it is in greater haue beleeued the whole cause of litghnesse and rarity to be deriued from diuision As for example they find that lead cutt into litle pieces will not goe downe so fast in water as when it is in bulke and it may be reduced into so small atomes that it will for some space swimme vpon the water like dust of wood Which assumption is prooued by the greate Galileus vnto whose excellent witt and admirable industry the world is beholding not onely for his wonderfull discoueries made in the heauens but also for his accurate and learned declaring of those very thinges that lye vnder our feete He about the 90th page of his first Dialogue of motion doth clearly demonstrate how any reall medium must of necessity resist more the descent of a litle piece of lead or any other weighty matter then it would a greater piece and the resistence will be greater and greater as the pieces are lesser and lesser So that as the pieces are made lesse they will in the same medium sinke the slower and do seeme to haue acquired a new nature of lightnesse by theire diminution not onely of hauing lesse weight in them then they had as halfe an ounce is lesse then a whole ounce but also of hauing in themselues a lesse proportion of weight to theire bulke then they had as a pound of corke is in regard of its magnitude lighter then a pound of lead so as they conclude that the thing whose continued partes are the lesser is in its owne nature the lighter and the rarer and other thinges whose continued partes are greater they be heauier and denser But this discourse reacheth not home for by it the weight of any body being discouered by the proportion it hath to the medium in which it descendeth it must euer suppose a body lighter then it selfe in which it may sinke and goe to the bottome Now of that lighter body I enquire what maketh it be so and you must answere by what you haue concluded that it is lighter then the other because the partes of it are lesse and more seuered from one an other for if they be as close together theire diuision auayleth them nothing since thinges sticking fast together do worke as if they were but one and so a pound of lead though it be filed into small dust if it be compacted hard together will sinke as fast as if it were in one bulke Now then allowing the litle partes to be seperated I aske what other body filleth vp the spaces betweene those litle partes of the medium in which your heauy body descended For if the partes of water are more seuered then the partes of lead there must be some other substance to keepe the partes of it a sunder lett vs suppose this to be ayre and I aske whether an equall part of ayre be as heauy as so much water or whether it be not If you say it is then the compound of water and ayre must be as heauy as lead seeing that theire partes one with an other are as much compacted as the partes of lead are For there is no difference whether those bodies whose litle partes are compacted together be of the same substance or of diuers or whether the one be diuided into smaller partes then the other or no so they be of equall weights in regard of making the whole equally heauy as you may experience if you mingle pinnedust with a sand of equall weight though it be beaten into farre smaller diuisions then the pinnedust and putt them in a bagge together But if you say that ayre is not so heauy as water it must be because euery part of ayre hath againe its partes more seuered by some other body then the partes of water are seuered by ayre And then I make the same instance of that body which seuereth the partes of ayre And so att the last since there can not actually be an infinite processe of bodies one lighter then an other you must come to one whose litle partes filling the pores and spaces between the partes of the others haue no spaces in themselues to be filled vp But as soone as you acknowledge such a body to be lighter and rarer then all the rest you contradict and destroy all you said before For by reason of its hauing no pores it followeth by your rule that the litle partes of it must be as heauy if not heauier then the litle partes of the same bignesse of that body whose pores it filleth and consequently it is proued by the experience we alleadged of pinnedust mingled with sand that the litle partes of it can not by theire mingling with the partes of the body in which it is immediately contained make that lighter then it would be if these litle partes were not mingled with it Nor would both theire partes mingled with the body which immediately containeth them make that body lighter And so proceeding on in the same sort through all the mingled bodies till you come to the last that is immediately mingled with water you will make water nothing the lighter for being mingled with all these and by consequence it should be as heauy and as dense as lead Now that which deceiued the authors of this opiniion was that they had not a right intelligence of the causes which made litle partes of bodies naturally heauy descend slowly in regard of the velocity of greater partes of the same bodies descending the doctrine of which we intend to deliuer hereafter Others therefore perceiuing this rule to fall short haue endeauoured to piece it out by the mixtion of vacuity among bodies belieuing it is that which maketh one rarer then an other Which mixtion they do not putt alwayes immediate to the maine body they consider but if it haue other rarer and lighter bodies mingled with it they conceiue this mixtion immediate onely to the rarest or lightest As for example a crystall being lighter and consequently rarer then a diamond they will not say that there is more vacuity in a crystall then in a diamond but that the pores of a crystall are greater and that consequently there is more ayre in a crystall to fill the pores of it then is in a diamond and the vacuities are in the ayre which abounding in a crystall more then in a diamond maketh that lighter and rarer then this by the more vacuities that are in the greater Quantity of ayre which is migled with it But against this supposition a powerfull aduersary is vrged for Aristotle in his 4th booke
of Physickes hath demonstrated that there can be no motion in vacuity It is true they endeauour to euade his demonstration as not reaching home to theire supposition by acknowledging it to be an euident one in such a vacuity as he there speaketh of which he supposed to be so great a one that a body may swimme in it as in an ocean and not touch or be neere any other body whereas this opinion excludeth all such vast inanity and admitteth no vacuities but so litle ones as no body whatsoeuer can come vnto but will be bigger then they and consequently must on some side or other touch the corporeall partes which those vacuities diuide for they are the seperations of the least partes that are or can be actually diuided from one an other which partes must of necessity touch one an other on some side or else they could not hang together to compose one substance and therefore the diuiding vacuities must be lesse then the diuided partes And thus no body will euer be in danger of floating vp and downe without touching any thing which is the difficulty that Aristotle chiefely impugneth I confesse I should be very glad that this supposition might serue our turne and saue the Phoenomena that appeare among bodies through theire variety of Rarity and Density which if it might be then would I straight go on to the inquiring after what followed out of this ground as Astronomers to vse our former similitude do calculate the future appearances of the celestiall bodies out of those motions and orbes they assigne vnto the heauens For as this apprehension of vacuity in bodies is very easy and intelligibile so the other which I conceiue to be the truth of the case is exceedingly abstracted and one of the most difficult pointes in all the Metaphysickes and therefore I would if it were possible auoyde touching vpon it in this discourse which I desire should be as plaine and easy and as much remooued from scholasticke termes as may be But indeed the inconueniences that follow out of this supposition of vacuities are so great as it is impossible by any meanes to slide them ouer As for example lett vs borrow of Galilaeus the proportion of weight betweene water and ayre He sheweth vs how the one is 400 times heauyer then the other And Marinus Ghetaldus teacheth vs that gold is 19 times heauyer then water so that gold must be 7600 times heauyer then ayre Now then considering that nothing in a body can weigh but the solide partes of it it followeth that the proportion of the partes of gold in a sphere of an inch diameter is to the partes of ayre of a like dimension as 7600 is to one Therefore in ayre it selfe the vacuities that are supposed in it will be to the solide partes of it in the same proportion as 7600 to one Indeed the proportion of difference will be greater for euen in gold many vacuities must be admitted as appeareth by the heating of it which sheweth that in euery the least part it is exceeding porous But according to this rate without pressing the inconuenience any further the ayre will by this reckoning appeare to be like a nett whose holes and distances are to the lines and thriddes in the proportion of 7600 to one and so would be lyable to haue litle partes of its body swimme in those greater vacuities contrary to what they striue to auoyde Which would be exceedingly more if we found on the one side any bodies heauyer and denser then gold and that were so solide as to exclude all vacuities and on the other side should ballance them with such bodies as are lighter and rarer then ayre as fire is and as some will haue the aether to be But already the disproportion is so great and the vacuity so strangely exceedeth the body in which it is as were too great an absurdity to be admitted And besides it would destroy all motion of small bodies in the ayre if it be true as Aristotle hath demonstrated in the 4th booke of his Physickes that motion can not be made but among bodies and not in vacuo Againe if rarity were made by vacuity rare bodies could not be gathered together without loosing theire rarity and becoming dense The contrary of which we learne by constant experience as when the smith and glassemender driue theire white and fury fires as they terme them when ayre pierceth most in the sharpe wind and generally we see that more of the same kind of rare bodies in lesse place worketh most efficaciously according to the nature that resulteth out of that degree of rarity Which argueth that euery litle part is as rare as it was before for else it would loose the vertue of working according to that nature but that by theire being crowded together they exclude all other bodies that before did mediate betweene the litle partes of theire maine body and so more partes being gotten together in the same place then formerly there were they worke more forcibly Thirdly if such vacuities were the cause of rarity it would follow that fluide bodies being rarer then solide ones they would be of themselues standing like nettes or cobbewebbes whereas contrariwise we see theire natures are to runne together and to fill vp euery litle creeke and corner which effect following out of the very nature of the thinges themselues must needes exclude vacuities out of that nature And lastly if it be true as we haue shewed in the last Chapter that there are no actuall partes in Quantity it followeth of necessity that all Quantity must of it selâ—e be one as Metaphysickes teach vs and then no distance can be admitted betweene one Quantity and an other And truly if I vnderstand Aristotle right he hath perfectly demonstrated that no vacuity is possible in nature neither great nor litle and consequently the whole machine raysed vpon that supposition must be ruinous His argument is to this purpose What is nothing can not haue partes but vacuum is nothing because as the aduersaries conceiue it vacuum is the want of a corporeall substance in an enclosing body within whose sides nothing is whereas a certaine body might be contained whithin them as if in a paile or bowle of a gallon there were neither milke nor water nor ayre nor any other body whatsoeuer therefore vacuum can not haue partes Yet those who admitt it do putt it expressely for a space which doth essentially include partes And thus they putt two contradictories nothing and partes that is partes and no partes or something and nothing in the same proposition And this I conceiue to be absolutely vnauoydable For these reasons therefore I must entreate my readers fauour that he will allow me to touch vpon metaphysickes a litle more then I desire or intended but it shall be no otherwise then as is said of the dogges by the riuer Nilus side who being thirsty lappe hastily of the water onely to serue
of states in regard of more and lesse in the same kind These thinges being premised and calling to mind that it is the nature of density to make the partes of a dense thing compact and sticke together and be hardly diuisible and on the contrary side that it is the nature of rarity to diffuse and extend a rare thing and to prepare and approach it to diuision according to the proportion of the degree of rarity which it hath and that weight doth abound where there is excesse of density and is very litle or none in excesse of rarity wee may now begin in our imagination to putt these qualities into the scales one against an other to see what effects they produce in bodies And first lett vs weigh grauity against density or sticking together of partes which sticking or compactednesse being naturall to density requireth some excesse of grauity in proportion to the density or some other outward violence to breake it If then in a dense body the grauity ouercome the density and do make the partes of it breake a sunder it will draw them downewardes towards the center that grauity tendeth vnto and will neuer lett them rest till they come thither vnlesse some impediment meete them by the way and stoppe theire iourney so that such a body will as neere as possibly it can lye in a perfect sphericall figure in respect of the center and the partes of it will be changed and altered and thrust on any side that is the ready way thither so that by the force of grauity working vpon it it will runne as farre as it meeteth with nothing to hinder it from attaining this sphericall superficies Wherefore such bodies for the most part haue noe settled outside of theire owne but do receiue theire figure and limits from such letts as hinder them from attaining to that sphericalnesse they ayme att Now Aristotle whose definitions are in these matters generally receiued as fully expressing the notions of mankind telleth vs and our owne experience confirmeth it that wee vse to call those thinges moist which runne in such sort as wee haue here sett downe and that wee terme those thinges dry which haue a consistence within themselues and which to enioy a determinate figure do not require the stoppe or hinderance of an other body to limit and circle them in which will be the nature of those that haue a greater proportion of density in respect of theire grauity And thus out of the comparison of density with weight wee haue found two more qualities then wee yett had mett withall namely wettenesse and drynesse For although a body be dense which of its owne nature singly considered would preserue the continuity of its partes as making the body hardly diuisible whereby it would be dry yet if the grauity that worketh vpon it be in proportion greater then the density it will seuer the partes of it and make them runne to the center and so become fluide and moist though not in the eminentest degree that may be of fluidity and moisture by reason that if the like ouerproportion of grauity happen in a rare body it will there more powerfully worke its effect then it can in a dense body because a rare body will more easily obey and yield to the grauity that mastereth it then a dense one will and consequently will be more fluide and moist then it Now on the other side in weighing rarity against grauity if it happen that the rarity ouercome the grauity then the grauity will not change the figure of a body so proportioned but what figure it hath from its proper naturall causes the same will still remaine with it and consequently such a body will haue termes of its owne and will not require an ambient body to limit and circle it in which nature wee call dry But if the proportion of the grauity be the greater and do ouercome the rarity then by how much the rarity is greater so much the more will the grauity force it to apply it selfe equally and on all sides to the center and such a body will the more easily receiue its figure from an other and will be lesse able to consist of it selfe which properties wee attribute to wettenesse or moisture So that it appeareth how the qualities of wett and dry which first wee found in thinges that were dense are also common to that nature of bodies which wee terme rare And thus by our first inquiry after what kind of bodies do result out of the compounding of rarity and density with grauity wee discouer foure different sortes some dense ones that are dry and others likewise dense that are moist then againe some rare ones that are likewise moist and other rare ones that are dry But wee must not rest here lett vs proceede a litle further to search what other properties these foure kindes of bodies will haue which wee shall best discouer if wee apply them seuerally to some other compounded body of which nature are all those wee conuerse with or see and then consider the effects which these do worke vpon it To beginne with that which wee said is so excessiuely rare that grauity hath no power ouer it If wee looke vpon the multitude of litle partes it may be diuided into whereof euery one will subsist by it selfe for wee haue already prooued it dry and then suppose them to be mooued with force and strength against the body wee apply them to it must necessarily follow that they will forcibly gett into the porousnesse of it and passe with violence betweene part and part and of necessity seperate the partes of that thing one from an other as a knife or wedge doth a solide substance by hauing theire thinnest partes pressed into it so that if in the compounded thing some partes be more weighty others more light as of necessity there must be the heauiest will all fall lowest the lightest will fly vppermost and those which are of a meane nature betweene the two extremes will remaine in the middle In summe by this action of an extreme rare body vpon a compounded one all the partes of one kind that were in the compounded one will be gathered into one place and those of diuers kindes into diuers places which is the notion whereby Aristotle hath expressed the nature of heate and is an effect which dayly experience in burning and boyling teacheth vs to proceede from heate And therefore wee can not doubt but that such extreme rare bodies are as well hoat as dry On the other side if a dense thing be applyed to a compound it will because it is weighty presse it together and if that application be continued on all sides so that noe part of the body that is pressed be free from the siege of the dense body that presseth it it will forme it into a narrower roome and keepe in the partes of it not permitting any of them to slippe out So that what thinges soeuer
consider further that as this superficies hath in it selfe so the body enclosed in it gaineth a certaine determinate respect unto the stable and immoouable bodies that enuiron it As for example we vnderstand such a tree to be in such a place by hauing such and such respects to such a hill neere it or to such a house that standeth by it or to such a riuer that runneth vnder it or to such an immoouable point of the heauen that from the sunnes rising in the aequinox is called east and such like To which purpose it importeth not whether these that we call immoouable bodies and pointes be truly so or do but seeme so to mankinde For man talking of thinges according to the notions he frameth of them in his minde speech being nothing else but an expression to an other man of the images he hath within himselfe and his notions being made according to the seeming of the thinges he must needes make the same notions whether the thinges be truly so in themselues or but seeme to be so when that seeming or appearance is alwayes constantly the same Now then when one body diuiding an other getteth a new immediate cloathing and consequently new respects to the stable and immoouable bodies or seeming such that enuiron it we do vary in our selues the notion we first had of that thing conceiuing it now accompanied with other circumstances and other respects then formerly it had Which notion we expresse by saying it hath changed its place and is now no longer where it was att the first And this change of place we call Locall motion to witt the departing of a body from that hollow superficies which inclosed it and its changing vnto an other whereby it gaineth new respects to those partes of the world that haue or in some sort may seeme to haue immobility and fixed stablenesse So as hence it is euident that the substance of locall motion consisteth in diuision and that the alteration of Locality followeth diuision in such sort as becoming like or vnlike of one wall to an other followeth the action whereby one of them becometh white And therefore in nature we are not to seeke for any entity or speciall cause of applying the mooued body to a place as place which is but a respect consequent to the effect of diuision but onely to consider what reall and physicall action vniteth it to that other body which is called its place and truly serueth for that effect And consequently they who thinke they haue discouered a notable subtility by bringing in an Entity to vnite a body to its place haue strained beyond theire strength and haue grasped but a shadow Which will appeare yet more euident if they but marke well how nothing is diuisible but what of it selfe abstracting from diuision is one For the nature of diuision is the making of many which implyeth that what is to be diuided must of necessity be not many before it be diuided Now quantity being the subiect of diuision it is euident that purely of it selfe and without any force or adioyned helpes it must needes be one wheresoeuer some outward agent doth not introduce multiplicity vpon it And whensoeuer other thinges worke vpon quantity as quantity it is not the nature and power of theire operation to produce vnity in it and make it one for it is already one but contrariwise the immediate necessary effect that floweth from them in this case is to make one quantity many according to the circumstances that accompany the diuider and that which is to be diuided And therefore although wee may seeke causes why some one thing sticketh faster together then some other yet to aske absolutely why a body sticketh together were preiudiciall to the nature of quantity whose essence is to haue partes sticking together or rather to haue such vnity as without it all diuisibility must be excluded Out of which discourse it followeth that in locall motion we are to looke only for a cause or power to diuide but not for any to vnite For the very nature of quantity vniteth any two partes that are indistant from one an other without needing any other cement to glew them together as we see the partes of water and all liquide substances do presently vnite themselues to other partes of like bodies when they meete with them and to solide bodies if they chance to be next vnto them And therefore it is vaine to trouble our heades with Vnions and imaginary Moodes to vnite a body to the place it is in when theire owne nature maketh them one as soone as they are immediate to each other And accordingly if when we see a boule mooue we would examine the causes of that motion we must consider the quantity of ayre or water it maketh to breake from the partes next vnto it to giue place vnto it selfe and not speculate vpon an intrinsecall relation from the body to a certaine part of the imaginary space they will haue to runne through all thinges And by ballancing that quantity of ayre or water which it diuideth we may arriue to make an estimate of what force the boule needeth to haue for its motion Thus hauing declared that the locality of motion is but an extrinsecall denomination and no reality in the thing mooued wee may now cast an eye vpon a vast consequence that may be deduced out of what wee haue hitherto said For if we consider the nature of a body that is that a body is a body by quantity and that the formall notion of quantity is nothing else but diuisibility and that the adaequate act of diuisibility is diuision it is euident there can be no other operation vpon quantity nor by consequence among bodies but must eyther be such diuision as we haue here explicated or what must necessarily follow out of such diuision And diuision as we haue euen now explicated being locall motion it is euident that all operations among bodies are either locall motion or such as follow out of locall motion Which conclusion howsoeuer vnexpected and may att the first hearing appeare a Paradoxe will neuerthelesse by the ensuing worke receiue such euidence as it can not be doubted of and that not onely by force of argumentation and by necessity of notions as is already deduced but also by experience and by declaration of particulars as they shall occurre But now to apply what we haue said to our proposed subiect it is obuious to euery man that seeing the diuider is the agent in diuision and in locall motion and that dense bodies are by theire nature diuiders the earth must in that regard be the most actiue among the Elements since it is the most dense of them all But this seemeth to be against the common iudgement of all the searchers of nature who vnanimously agree that fire is the most actiue Element As also it seemeth to impugne what we our selues haue determined when we said there were two
cleared the third obiection as I conceiue lett vs goe on to the fourth which requireth that we satisfy their inquisition who aske what becometh of that vast body of shining light if it be a body that filleth all the distance betweene heauen and earth and vanisheth in a moment as soone as a cloude or the moone interpâ—seth it selfe betweene the sunne and vs or that the sunne quitteth our hemisphere No signe att all remaineth of it after the extinction of it as doth of all other substances whose destruction is the birth of some new thing Whither then is it flowne We may be persuaded that a mist is a corporeall substance because it turneth to droppes of water vpon the twigges that it enuironeth and so we might beleeue light to be fire if after the burning of it out we found any ashes remaining but experience assureth vs that after it is extinguished it leaueth not the least vestigium behind it of hauing beene there Now before we answere this obiection we will entreate our aduersary to call to minde how we haue in our solution of the former declared and proued that the light which for example shineth from à candle is no more then the flame is from whence it springeth the one being condensed and the other dilated and that the flame is in a perpetuall fluxe of consumption about the circumference and of restauration att the center where it sucketh in the fewell and then we will enquire of him what becometh of that body of flame which so continually dyeth and is renewed and leaueth no remainder behind it as well as he doth of vs what becometh of our body of light which in like manner is alwayes dying and alwayes springing fresh And when he hath well considered it he will find that one answere will serue for both Which is that as the fire streameth out from the fountaine of it and groweth more subtile by its dilatation it sinketh the more easily into those bodies it meeteth withall the first of which and that enuironeth it round about is ayre With ayre then it mingleth and incorporateth it selfe and by consequence with the other litle bodies that are mingled with the ayre and in them it receiueth the changes which nature worketh by which it may be turned into the other Elements if there be occasion or be still conserued in bodies that require heate Vpon this occasion I remember a rare experiment that a noble man of much sincerity and a singular frind of mine told me he had seene which was that by meanes of glasses made in a very particular manner and artificially placed one by an other he had seene the sunne beames gathered together and precipitated downe into a brownish or purplish red pouder There could be no fallacy in this operation for nothing whatsoeuer was in the glasses when they were placed and disposed for this intent and it must be in the hoat time of the yeare else the effect would not follow And of this Magistery he could gather some dayes neere two ounces in a day And it was of a strange volatile nature and would pierce and imprint his spirituall quality into gold it selfe the heauiest and most fixed body we conuerse withall in a very short time If this be plainely so without any mistaking then mens eyes and handes may tell them what becometh of light when it dyeth if a great deale of it were swept together But from what cause soeuer this experience had its effect our reason may be satisfyed with what we haue said aboue for I confesse for my part I beleeue the appearing body might be some thing that came along with the sunne beames and was gathered by them but not their pure substance Some peraduenture will obiect those lampes which both auncient and moderne writers haue reported to haue been found in tombes and vrnes long time before closed vp from mens repayre vnto them to supply them with new fewell and therefore they beleeue such fires to feede vpon nothing and consequently to be inconsumptible and perpetuall Which if they be then our doctrine that will haue light to be nothing but the body of fire perpetually flowing from its center and perpetually dying can not be sound for in time such fires would necessarily spend themselues in light although light be so subtile a substance that an exceeding litle quantity of fewell may be dilated into a vast quantity of light Yet still there would be some consumption which how imperceptible soeuer in a short time yet after a multitude of reuolutions of yeares it must needes discouer it selfe To this I answere that for the most part the wittnesses who testify originally the stories of these lights are such as a rationall man can not expect from them that exactnesse or nicety of obseruation which is requisite for our purpose for they are vsually grosse labouring people who as they digge the ground for other intentions do stumble vpon these lampes by chance before they are aware and for the most part they breake them in the finding and they imagine they see a glimpse of light which vanisheth before they can in a manner take notice of it and is peraduanture but the glistering of the broken glasse or glased pott which reflecteth the outward light as soone as by rummaging in the ground and discouering the glasse the light striketh vpon it in such manner as some times a diamond by a certaine encountring of light in a dusky place may in the first twincling of the motion seeme to sparkle like fire and afterwardes when they shew their broken lampe and tell their tale to some man of a pitch of witt aboue them who is curious to informe himselfe of all the circumstances that may concerne such lights they straine their memory to answere him satisfactorily vnto all his demandes and thus for his sake they persuade themselues to remember what they neuer saw And he againe on his side is willing to helpe out the story a litle And so after awhile a very formall and particular relation is made of it As happeneth in like sort in reporting of all strange and vnusuall thinges which euen those that in their nature abhorre from lying are naturally apt to straine a litle and fashion vp in a handsome mould and almost to persuade themselues they saw more then they did so innate it is vnto euery man to desire the hauing of some preeminence beyond his neighbours be it but in pretending to haue seene some thing which they haue not Therefore before I engage my selfe in giuing any particular answere to this obiection of pretended inconsumptible lights I would gladly see the effect certainely auerred and vndoubtedly proued for the testimonies which Fortunius Licetus produceth who hath been very diligent in gathering them and very subtile in discoursing vpon them and is the exactest author that hath written vpon this subiect do not seeme vnto mee to make that certainty which is required for the establishing of a
vnresistable force to pierce and shatter not onely the ayre but euen the hardest bodies that are Peraduenture some may thinke it reasonable to grant the consequence in due circumstances since experience teacheth vs that the congregation of a litle light by a glasse will sett very solide bodies on fire and will melt mettals in a very short space which sheweth a great actiuity and the great actiuity sheweth a great percussion burning being effected by a kind of attrition of the thing burned And the great force which fire sheweth in gunnes and in mines being but a multiplication of the same doth euidently conuince that of its owne nature it maketh a strong percussion when all due circumstances concurre Whereas it hath but litle effect if the due circumstances be wanting as we may obserue in the insensible burning of so rarifyed a body as pure spiritt of wine conuerted into flame But we must examine the matter more particularly and must seeke the cause why a violent effect doth not alwayes appeare wheresoeuer light striketh for the which wee are to note that three thinges do concurre to make a percussion great The bignesse the density and the celerity of the body mooued Of which three there is only one in light to witt celerity for it hath the greatest rarity and the rayes of it are the smallest parcels of all naturall bodies And therefore since only celerity is considerable in the account of lights percussions we must examine what celerity is necessary to make the stroke of a ray sensible first then we see that all the motes of the ayre nay euen feathers and strawes do make no sensible percussion when they fall vpon vs therefore we must in light haue att the least a celerity that may be to the celerity of the straw falling vpon our hand for example as the density of the straw is to the density of light that the percussion of light may be in the least degree sensible But let vs take a corne of gunnepowder insteede of a straw betweene which there can not be much difference and then putting that the density of fire is to the density of gunnepowder as 1. to 125000 and that the density of the light we haue here in the earth is to the density of that part of fire which is in the sunnes body as the body of the sunne is to that body which is called Orbis magnus whose semidiameter is the distance betweene the sunne and the earth which must be in subtriple proportion of the diameter of the sunne to the diameter of the great orbe it followeth that 125000. being multiplyed by the proportion of the great orbe vnto the sunne which Galileo telleth vs is as 106000000. vnto one will giue a scantling of what degree of celerity light must haue more then a corne of gunnepouder to recompence the excesse of weight which is in a corne of gunnepouder aboue that which is in a ray of light as bigge as a corne of gunnepouder Which will amount to be much greater then the proportion of the semidiater of Orbis magnus to the semidiater of the corne of gunnepouder for if you reckon 5. graines of gunnepouder to a barley cornes breadth and 12. of them in an inch and 12. inches in a foote and 3. feete in a pace and 1000. paces in a mile and 3500. miles in the semidiameter of the earth and 1208. semidiameters of the earth in the semidiameter of the Orbis magnus there will be in it but 9132480000000. graines of gunnepouder whereas the other calculation maketh light to be 13250000000000. times raver then gunnepouder which is almost tenne times a greater proportion then the other And yet this celerity supplyeth but one of the two conditions wanting in light to make its percussions sensible namely density Now because the same velocity in a body of a lesser bulke doth not make so great a percussion as it doth in a bigger body and that the littlenesse of the least partes of bodies followeth the proportion of their rarity this vast proportion of celerity must againe be drawne into it selfe to supply for the excesse in bignesse that a corne of gunnepouder hath ouer an atome of light and the product of this multiplication will be the celerity required to supply for both defects Which euidently sheweth it is impossible that a ray of light should make any sensible percussion though it be a body Especially considering that sense neuer taketh notice of what is perpetually done in a moderate degree And therefore after this minute looking into all circumstances we neede not haue difficulty in allowing vnto light the greatest celerity imaginable and a percussion proportionate to such a celerity in so rare a body and yett not feare any violent effect from its blowes vnlesse it be condensed and many partes of it be brought together to worke as if they were but one As concerning the last obiection that if light were a body it would be fanned by the wind wee must first consider what is the cause of a thinges appearing to be mooued and then examine what force that cause hath in light As for the first part we see that when a body is discerned now in one place now in an other then it appeareth te be mooued And this we see happeneth also in light as when the sunne or a candle is carried or mooueth the light thereof in the body of the candle or sunne seemeth to be mooued along with it And the likes is in a shining cloud or comete But to apply this to our purpose wee must note that the intention of the obiection is that the light which goeth from the fire to an opacous body farre distant without interruption of its continuity should seeme to be iogged or putt out of its way by the wind that crosseth it Wherein the first fayling is that the obiectour conceiueth light to send species vnto our eye from the middest of its line whereas with a litle consideration he may perceiue that not light is seene by vs but that which is reflected from an opacous body to our eye so that the light he meaneth in his obiection is neuer seene att all Secondly it is manifest that the light which stricketh our eye doth strike it in a straight line and seemeth to be att the end of that straight line wheresoeur that is and so can neuer appeare to be in an other place but the light which wee see in an other place wee conceiue to be an other light Which maketh it againe euident that the light can neuer appeare to shake though wee should suppose that light may be seene from the middle of its line for no part of wind or ayre can come into any sensible place in that middle of the line with such speede that new light from the source doth not illuminate it sooner then it can be seene by vs wherefore it will appeare to vs illuminated as being in that place and therefore the light can neuer
in the time EF is greater then the force B in so much time the force B will be able to mooue A through CD Which discourse is euident if we take it in the common termes but if it be applyed to action wherein physicall accidents intervene the artificer must haue the iudgement to prouide for them according to the nature of his matter Vpon this last discourse doth hang the principle which gouerneth Mechanikes to witt that the force and the distance of weights counterpoising one an other ought to be reciprocall That is that by how much the one weight is heauyer then the other by so much must the distance of the lighter from the fixed point vpon which they are mooued be greater then the distance of the greater weight from the same point for it is plaine that the weight which is more distant must be mooued a greater space then the neerer weight in the proportion of the two distāces Wherefore the force moouing it must carry it in a velocity of the said proportion to the velocity of the other And consequently the Agent or moouer must be in that proportion more powerfull then the contrary moouer And out of this practise of Geometricians in Mechanikes which is confirmed by experience it is made euident that if other conditions be equall the excesse of so much grauity will make so much velocity And so much velocity in proportion will recompence so much grauity Out of the precedent conclusions an other followeth which is that nothing recedeth frō quiet or rest and attaineth a great degree of celerity but it must passe through all the degrees of celerity that are below the obtained degree And the like is in passing from any lesser degree of velocity vnto a greater because it must passe through all the intermediate degrees of velocity For by the declaration of velocity which we haue euen now made we see that there is as much resistance in the medium to be ouercome with speede as there is for it to be ouercome in regard of the quantity or line of extent of it because as we haue said the force of the Agent in counterpoises ought to be encreased as much as the line of extent of the medium which is to be ouercome by the Agent in equall time doth exceede the line of extent of the medium along which the resistent body is to be mooued Wherefore it being prooued that no line of extent can be ouercome in an instant it followeth that no defect of velocity which requireth as great a superproportion in the cause can be ouercome likewise in an instant And by the same reason by which we prooue that a mooueable can not be drawne in an instant from a lower degree of velocity to a higher it is with no lesse euidence concluded that no degree of velocity can be attained in an instant for diuide that degree of velocity into two halfes and if the Agent had ouercome the one halfe he could not ouercome the other halfe in an instant much lesse therefore is he able to ouercome the whole that is to reduce the mooueable from quiet to the said degree of velocity in an instant An other reason may be because the moouers themselues such moouers as we treate of here are bodies likewise mooued and do consist of partes whereof not euery one part but a competent number of them doth make the moouing body to be a fitt Agent able to mooue the proposed body in a proposed degree of celerity Now this Agent meeting with resistance in the mooueable and not being in the vtmost extremity of density but condensable yet further because it is a body and that euery resistance be it neuer so small doth worke something vpon the moouer though neuer so hard to condense it the partes of the moouer that are to ouercome this resistance in the mooueable must to worke that effect be condensed and brought together as close as is needefull by this resistance of the mooueable to the moouer and so the remote partes of the moouer become neerer to the mooueable which can not be done but successiuely because it includeth locall motion And this application being likewise diuisible and not all the partes flocking together in an instant to the place where they are to exercise their power it followeth that whiles there are fewer moouing partes knitt together they must needes mooue lesse and more weakely then when more or all of them are assembled and applyed to that worke So that the motiue vertue encreasing thus in proportion to the multiplying of the partes applyed to cause the motion of necessity the effect which is obedience to be mooued and quicknesse of motion in the mooueable must do so too that is it must from nothing or from rest passe through all the degrees of celerity vntill it arriue to that which all the partes together are able to cause As for example when with my hand I strike a ball till my hand toucheth it it is in quiet but then it beginneth to mooue yet with such resistance that although it obey in some measure the stroke of my hand neuerthelesse it presseth the yielding flesh of my palme backwardes towardes the vpper and bony part of it That part then ouertaking the other by the continued motion of my hand and both of them ioyning together to force the ball away the impulse becometh stronger then att the first touching of it And the longer it presseth vpon it the more the partes of my hand do condense and vnite themselues to exercise their force and the ball therefore must yield the more and consequently the motion of it groweth quicker and quicker till my hand parteth from it Which condensation of the partes of my hand encreasing successiuely by the partes ioyning closer to one an other the velocity of the balles motion which is an effect of it must also encrease proportionably thereunto And in like manner the motion of my hand and arme must grow quicker and quicker and passe all the degrees of velocity betweene rest and the vtmost degree it attaineth vnto for seeing they are the spirits swelling the nerues that cause the armes motion as we shall hereafter shew vpon its resistance they flocke from other partes of the body to ouercome that resistance And since their iourney thither requireth time to performe it in and that the neerest come first it must needes follow that as they grow more and more in number they must more powerfully ouercome the resistance and consequently encrease the velocity of the motion in the same proportion as they flocke thither vntill it attaine that degree of velocity which is the vtmost periode that the power which the Agent hath to ouercome the resistance of the medium can bring it selfe vnto Betweene which and rest or any inferiour degree of velocity there may be designed infinite intermediate degrees proportionable to the infinite diuisibility of time and space in which the moouer doth moue Which degrees
do arise out of the reciprocall yielding of the medium And that is likewise diuisible in the same infinite proportion Since then the power of all naturall Agents is limited the moouer be it neuer so powerfull must be confined to obserue these proportions and can not passe ouer all these infinite designable degrees in an instant but must allott some time which hath a like infinity of designable partes to ballance this infinity of degrees of velocity and so consequently it requireth time to attaine vnto any determinate degree And therefore can not recede immediately from rest vnto any degree of celerity but must necessarily passe through all the intermediate ones Thus it is euident that all motion which hath a beginning must of necessity encrease for some time And since the workes of nature are in proportion to their causes it followeth that this encrease is in a determinate proportion Which Galileus vnto whom we owe the greatest part of what is knowne concerning motion teacheth vs how to find out and to discouer what degree of celerity any mooueable that is moued by nature hath in any determinate part of the space it moueth in Hauing settled these conditions of motion we shall do well in the next place to enquire after the causes of it as well in the body moued as also in the mouer that occasioneth the motion And because we haue already shewed that locall motion is nothing in substance but diuision we may determine that those causes which contribute to diuision or resist it are the causes which make or resist locall motion It hath also beene said that Density hath in it a power of diuiding and that Rarity is the cause of being diuided likewise we haue said that fire by reason of its small partes into which it may be cutt which maketh them sharpe hath also an eminence in diuiding so that we haue two qualites density and tenuity or sharpnesse which concurre actiuely to diuision We haue told you also how Galileus hath demonstrated that a greater quantity of the same figure and density hath a priuiledge of descending faster then a lesser And that priuiledge consisteth in this that the proportion of the superficies to the body it limiteth which proportion the greater it is the more it retardeth is lesse in a greater bulke then in a smaller We haue therefore three conditions concurring to make the motion more efficacious namely the density the sharpenesse and the bulke of the mooueable And more then these three we can not expect to find in a moued body for quantity hath but three determinations one by density and rarity of which density is one of the three conditions an other by its partes as by a foote a spanne and in this way wee haue found that the greater excelleth the lesser the third and last is by its figure and in this we find that subtile or edged quantities do preuayle ouer blunt ones Seeing therefore that these three determinations be all that are in quantity there can be no more conditions in the body moued which of necessity is a finite quantity but the three named And as for the medium which is to be diuided there is onely rarity and density the one to helpe the other to hinder that require consideration on its side For neither figure nor littlenesse and greatnesse do make any variation in it And as for the Agent it is not as yet time before we haue looked further intâ— the nature of motion to determine his qualities Now then lett vs reflect how these three conditions do all agree in this circumstance that they helpe nothing to diuision vnlesse the body in which they are be moued and pressed against the body that is to be diuided so that we see no principle to persuade vs that any body can mooue it selfe towards any determinate part or place of the vniuerse of its owne intrinsecall inclination For besides that the learned Author of the Dialogues de Mundo in his third Dialogue and the second knott hath demonstrated that a body can not mooue vnlesse it be mooued by some extrinsecall Agent we may easily frame vnto our selues a conceite of how absurd it is to thinke that a body by a quality in it can worke vpon it selfe as if wee should say that rarity which is but more quantity could worke vpon quantity or that figure which is but that the body reacheth no further could worke vpon the body and in generall that the manner of any thing can worke vpon that thing whose manner it is For Aristotle and St. Thomas and their intelligent commentatours declaring the notion of Quality tell vs that to be a Quality is nothing else but to be the determination or modification of the thing whose quality it is Besides that the naturall manner of operation is to worke according to the capacity of the subiect but when a body is in the middest of an vniforme medium or space the subiect is equally prepared on all sides to receiue the action of that body Wherefore though we should allow it a force to mooue if it be a naturall Agent and haue no vnderstanding it must worke indifferently on all sides and by consequence can not mooue on any side For if you say that the Agent in this case where the medium is vniforme worketh rather vpon one side then vpon an other it must be because this determination is within the Agent it selfe and not out of the circumstant dispositions which is the manner of working of those substances that worke for an end of their owne that is of vnderstanding creatures and not of naturall bodies Now he that would exactly determine what motion a body hath or is apt to haue determining by supposition the force of the Agent must calculate the proportions of all these three conditions of the mooueable and the quality of the medium which is a proceeding too particular for the intention of our discourse But to speake in common it will not be amisse to examine in what proportion motion doth encrease since we haue concluded that all motion proceedeth from quiet by a continuall encrease Galileus that miracle of our age and whose witt was able to discouer whatsoeuer he had a mind to employ it about hath told vs that naturall motion encreaseth in the proportion of the odde numbers Which to expresse by example is thus suppose that in the going of the first yard it hath one degree of velocity then in the going of the second yard it will haue three degrees and in going the third it will haue fiue and so onwardes still adding two to the degrees of the velocity for euery one of the space Or to expresse it more plainely if in the first minute of time it goeth one yard of space then in the next minute it will goe three yardes in the third it will goe fiue in the fourth seauen and so forth But we must enlarge this proposition vnto all motions as we haue
done the former of the encrease it selfe in velocity because the reason of it is common to all motions Which is that all motion as may appeare out of what we haue formerly said proceedeth from two causes namely the Agent or the force that mooueth and the disposition of the body mooued as it is composed of the three qualities we lately explicated In which is to be noted that the Agent doth not mooue simply by its owne vertue but it applyeth also the vertue of the body mooued which it hath to diuide the medium when it is putt on As when we cutt with a knife the effect proceedeth from the knife pressed on by the hand or from the hand as applying and putting in action the edge and cutting power of the knife Now this in Physickes and nature is cleerely parallel to what in Geometry and Arithmetike the Mathematicians call drawing one number or one side into an other for as in Mathematikes to draw one number into an other is to apply the number drawne vnto euery part of the number into which it is drawne as if we draw three into seuen we make twenty one by making euery vnity or part of the number seuen to be three and the like is of lines in Geometry So in the present case to euery part of the handes motion we adde the whole vertue of the cutting faculty which is in the knife and to euery part of the motion of the knife we adde the whole pressing vertue of the hand Therefore the encrease of the effect proceeding from two causes so working must also be parallel to the encrease of the quantities arising out of the like drawing in Mathematikes But in those it is euident that the encrease is according to the order of the odde numbers and therefore it must in our case be the like that is the encrease must be in the said proportion of odde numbers Now that in those the encrease proceedeth so will be euident if you consider the encrease of an Equicrure triangle which because it goeth vpon a certaine proportion of length and breadth if you compare the encreases of the whole triangle that gaineth on each side with the encreases of the perpendicular which gaineth onely in length you will see that they still proceede in the foresaid proportion of odde numbers But we must not imagine that the velocity of motion will alwayse encrease thus for as long as we can fancy any motion but when it is arriued vnto the vtmost periode that such a mooueable with such causes is capable of then it keepeth constantly the same pace and goeth equally and vniformely att the same rate For since the density of the mooueable and the force of the Agent mouing it which two do cause the motion haue a limited proportion to the resistance of the medium how yielding soeuer it be it must needes follow that when the motion is arriued vnto that height which ariseth out of this proportion it can not exceede it but must continue at that rate vnlesse some other cause giue yet a greater impulse to the moueable For velocity consisting in this that the moueable cutteth through more of the medium in an equall time it is euident that in the encrease of velocity the resistance of the medium which is ouercome by it groweth greater and greater and by litle and litle gaineth vpon the foree of the Agent so that the superproportion of the Agent groweth still lesser and lesser as the velocity encreaseth and therefore att the length they must come to be ballanced And then the velocity can encrease no more And the reason of the encrease of it for a while att the beginning is because that coming from rest it must passe through all the intermediate degrees of velocity before it can attaine to the height of it which requireth time to performe and therefore falleth vnder the power of our sense to obserue But because we see it do so for some time we must not therefore conclude that the nature of such motion is still to encrease without any periode or limit like those lines that perpetually grow neerer and yet can neuer meete for we see that our reason examining the causes of this velocity assureth vs that in continuance of time and space it may come to its height which it can not exceede And there would be the pitch att which distance weights being lett fall would giue the greatest stroakes and make greatest impressions It is true that Galileus and Mersenius two exact experimenters do thinke they find this verity by their experiences But surely that is impossible to be done for the encrease of velocity being in a proportion euer diminishing it must of necessity come to an insensible encrease in proportion before it endeth for the space which the moueable goeth through is still encreased and the time wherein it passeth through that space remaineth still the same litle one as was taken vp in passing a lesse space immediately before and such litle differences of great spaces passed ouer in a litle time come soone to be vndiscernable by sense But reason which sheweth vs that if velocity neuer ceased from encreasing it would in time arriue to exceede any particular velocity and by consequence the proportion which the moouer hath to the medium because of the adding still a determinate part to its velocity concludeth plainely that it is impossible motion should encrease for euer without coming to a periode Now the impression which falling weights do make is of two kindes for the body into which impression is made either can yield backward or it can not If it can yield backward then the impression made is a motion as we see a stroak with a rackett vpon a ball or with a pailemaile beetle vpon a boule maketh it fly from it But if the strucken body can not yield backwardes then it maketh it yield on the sides And this in diuerse manners for if the smitten body be dry and brittle it is subiect to breake it and make the pieces fly round about but if it be a tough body it squeeseth it into a larger forme But because the effect in any of these wayse is eminently greater then the force of the Agēt seemeth to be it is worth our labour to looke into the causes of it To which end we may remember how we haue already declared that the force of the velocity is equall to a reciprocall force of weight in the vertue mouent wherefore the effect of a blow that a man giueth with a hammer dependeth vpon the weight of the hammer vpon the velocity of the motion and vpon the hand in case the hand accompanieth the blow But if the motion of the hand ceaseth before as when we throw a thing then onely the velocity and the weight of the hammer remaine to be considered Howsoeuer lett vs putt the hand and weight in one summe which we may equalise by some other vertue or weight Then lett vs
consider the way or space which a weight lying vpon the thing is to goe forwardes to do the same effect in the same time as the percussion doeth And what excesse the line of the blow hath ouer the line of that way or space such an excesse we must adde of equall weight or force to the weight we had already taken And the weight composed of both will be a fitt Agent to make the like impression This Probleme was proposed vnto me by that worthy religious man Father Mersenius who is not content with aduancing learning by his owne industry and labours but besides is alwayse out of his generous affection to verity inciting others to contribute to the publike stocke of it He proposed to me likewise this following question to witt why there is required a weight of water in double Geometricall proportion to make a pipe runne twice as fast as it did or to haue twice as much water runne out in the same time Vnto which I answere out of the same ground as before That because in running twice as fast there goeth out double water in euery part of time and againe euery part of water goeth a double space in the same part of time that is to say because double the celerity is drawne into double the water and double the water into double the celerity therefore the present effect is to the former effect as the effect or quadrate of a double line drawne into it selfe is to the effect or quadrate of halfe the said line drawne into it selfe And consequently the cause of the latter effect which is the weight then must be to the cause of the former effect that is to the former weight in the same proportion namely as the quadrate of a double line is to the quadrate of halfe that line And so you see the reason of what he by experience findeth to be true Though I doubt not but when he shall sett out the treatise which he hath made of this subiect the reader will haue better satisfaction In the meane while an experience which Galileo deliuereth will confirme this doctrine He sayth that to make the same pendant goe twice as fast as it did or to make euery vndulation of it in halfe the time it did you must make the line att which it hangeth double in Geometricall proportion to the line att which it hanged before Whence it followeth that the circle by which it goeth is likewise in double Geometricall proportion And this being certaine that celerity to celerity hath the proportion of force which weight hath to weight it is euident that as in one case there must be weight in Geometricall proportion so in the other case where onely celerity maketh the variance the celerity must be in double Geometricall proportion according as Galileo findeth it by experience But to returne to our maine intent there is to be further noted that if the subiect strucken be of a proportionate cessibility it seemeth to dull and deaden the stroake whereas if the thing strucken be hard the stroake seemeth to loose no force but to worke a greater effect Though indeed the truth be that in both cases the effects are equall but diuerse according to the natures of the thinges that are strucken for no force that once is in nature can be lost but must haue its adequate effect one way or other Lett vs then first suppose the body strucken to be a hard body of no exceeding biggnesse in which case if the stroake light perpendiculary vpon it it will carry such a body before it But if the body be too great and haue its partes so conioyned as that they are weaker thē the stroake in this case the stroake driueth one part before it and so breaketh it from the rest But lastly if the partes of the strucken body be so easily cessible as without difficulty the stroake can diuide them then it entereth into such a body vntill it hath spent its force So that now making vp our account we see that an equall effect proceedeth from an equall force in all the three cases though in themselues they be farre different But we are apt to account that effect greater which is more considerable vnto vs by the profitt or damage it bringeth vs. And therefore we vsually say that the blow which shaketh a wall or beateth it downe and killeth men with the stones it scattereth abroad hath a greater effect then that which penetrateth farre into a mudde wall and doth litle harme for that innocuousnesse of the effect maketh that although in it selfe it be as great as the other yet it is litle obserued or considered This discourse draweth on an other which is to declare how motion ceaseth And to summe that vp in short we say that when motion cometh vnto rest it decreaseth and passeth through all the degrees of celerity and tardity that are betweene rest and the height of that motion which so declineth And that in the proportion of the odde numbers as we declared aboue that it did encrease The reason is cleare because that which maketh a motion cease is the resistance it findeth which resistance is an action of a moouer that mooueth some thing against the body which is mooued or some thing equiualent to such an action wherefore it must follow the lawes that are common to all motions of which kind those two are that we haue expressed in this conclusion Now that resistance is a countermotion or equiualent to one is plaine by this that any body which is pressed must needes presse againe vpon the body that presseth it wherefore the cause that hindereth such a body from yielding is a force mouing that body against the body which presseth it The particulars of all which we shall more att large declare where we speake of the action and reaction of particular bodies THE TENTH CHAPTER Of Grauity and Leuity and of Locall Motion commonly termed Naturall IT is now time to consider that distinction of motions which is so famous in Aristotle to witt that some motions are naturall others violent and to determine what may be signifyed by these termes For seeing we haue said that no body hath a naturall intrinsecall inclination vnto any place to which it is able to moue it selfe we must needes conclude that the motion of euery body followeth the percussion of extrinsecall Agents It seemeth therefore impossible that any body should haue any motion naturall to it selfe And if there be none naturall there can be none violent And so this distinction will vainsh to nothing But on the other side liuing creatures do manifesty shew naturall motions hauing naturall instruments to performe certaine motions wherefore such motions must of necessity be naturall to them But these are not the motions which we are to speake of for Aristotles diuision is common to all bodies or att the least to all those we conuerse withall and particulary to those which are called heauy and
light which two termes passe through all the bodies we haue notice of Therefore proceeding vpon our groundes before layed to witt that no body can be mooued of it selfe wee may determine those motions to be naturall vnto bodies which haue constant causes or percutients to make them alwayse in such bodies and those violent which are contrary to such naturall motions Which being supposed we must search out the causes that so constantly make some bodies descend towardes the center or middle of the earth and others to rise and goe from the center by which the world is subiect to those restlesse motions that keepe all thinges in perpetuall fluxe in this changeing sphere of action and passion Lett vs then begin with considering what effects the sunne which is a constant and perpetuall cause worketh vpon inferior bodies by his being regularly sometimes present and sometimes absent Obserue in a pott of water hanging ouer a fire how the heate maketh some partes of the water to ascend and others to supply the roome by descending so that as long as it boyleth it is in a perpetuall confused motion vp and downe Now hauing formely cōcluded that fire is light and light is fire it can not be doubted but that the sunne doth serue instead of fire to our globe of earth and water which may be fittly compared to the boyling pott and all the day long draweth vapors from those bodies that his beames strike vpon For he shooting his little darts of fire in multitudes and in continued streames from his owne center against the Python the earth we liue on they do there ouertake one an other and cause some degree of heate as farre as they sinke in But not being able by reason of their great expansion in their long iorney to conuert it into their owne nature and sett it on fire which requireth a high degree of condensation of the beames they do but pierce and diuide it very subtilely and cutt some of the outward partes of it into extreme litle atomes Vnto which they sticking very close and being in a manner incorporated with them by reason of the moisture that is in thē they do in their rebound backe from the earth carry them along with them like a ball that struck against a moist wall doth in its returne from it bring backe some of the mortar sticking vpon it For the distance of the earth from the sunne is not the vtmost periode of these nimble bodies flight so that when by this solide body they are stopped in their course forwardes on they leape backe from it and carry some litle partes of it with them some of them a farther some of them a shorter iorney according as their litlenesse and rarity make them fitt to ascend As is manifest by the consent of all authors that write of the regions of the ayre who determine the lower region to reach as farre as the reflexion of the sunne and conclude this region to be very hoat For if we marke how the heate of fire is greatest when it is incorporated in some dense body as in iron or in seacoale we shall easily conceiue that the heate of this region proceedeth mainely out of the incorporation of light with those litle bodies which sticke to it in its reflexion And experience testifyeth the same both in our sultry dayes which we see are of a grosse temper and ordinarily goe before raine as also in the hoat springes of extreme cold countries where the first heates are vnsufferable which proceede out of the resolution of humidity congealed and in hoat windes which the Spaniards call Bochornos from Boca de horno by allusion to the breathing steame of an ouen when it is opened which do manifestly shew that the heate of the sunne is incorporated in the litle bodies which compose the steame of that wind And by the principles we haue already layed the same would be euident though we had no experience to instruct vs for seeing that the body of fire is dry the wett partes which are easilyest resolued by fire must needes sticke vnto them and accompany them in their returne from the earth Now whiles these ascend the ayre must needes cause others that are of a grosser complexion to descend as fast to make roome for the former and to fill the places they left that there may be no vacuity in nature And to find what partes they are and from whence they come that succeede in the roome of light and atomes glewed together that thus ascend we may take a hinte from the maxime of the Optikes that light reflecting maketh equall angles whence supposing the superficies of the earth to be circular it will follow that a perpendicular to the center passeth iust in the middle betweene the two rayes the incident and the reflected Wherefore the ayre betweene these two rayes and such dodies as are in it being equally pressed on both sides those bodies which are iust in the middle are neerest and likelyest to succeede immediately in the roome of the light and atomes which ascend from the superficies of the earth and their motion to that point is vpon the perpendicular Hence it is euident that the ayre and all such bodies as descend to supply the place of light and atomes which ascend from the earth do descend perpendicularly towardes the center of the earth And againe such bodies as by the force of light being cutt from the earth or water do not ascend in forme of light but do incorporate a hidden light and heate within them and thereby are rarer then these descending bodies must of necessity be lifted vp by the descent of those denser bodies that goe downewardes because they by reason of their density are mooued with a greater force And this lifting vp must be in a perpendicular line because the others descending on all sides perpendicularly must needes raise those that are betweene them equally from all sides that is perpendicularly from the center of the earth And thus we see a motion sett on foote of some bodies continually descending and others continually ascending all in perpendicular lines excepting those which follow the course of lights reflexion Againe as soone as the declining sunne groweth weaker or leaueth our horizon and that his beames vanishing do leaue the litle horsemen which rode vpon them to their owne temper and nature from whence they forced them they finding themselues surrounded by a smart descending streame do tumble downe againe in the night as fast as in the day they were carryed vp and crowding into their former habitations they exclude those that they find had vsurped them in their absence And thus all bodies within reach of the sunnes power but especially our ayre are in perpetuall motion the more rarifyed ones ascending and the dense ones descending Now thē because no bodies wheresoeuer they be as we haue already shewed haue any inclination to moue towardes a particular place otherwise thē as they are
and giue the like motion to any body they find in their way if it be susceptible of such a motion which it is euident that all bodies are vnlesse they be strucken by some contrary impulse For since that a bodies being in a place is nothing else but the continuity of its outside to the inside of the body that containeth it and is its place it can haue no other repugnance to locall motion which is nothing else but a successiue changing of place besides this continuity Now the nature of density being the power of diuiding and euery least power hauing some force and efficacy as we haue shewed aboue it followeth that the stroake of euery atome eyther descending or ascending will worke some thing vpon any body though neuer so bigge it chanceth to encounter with and strike vpon in its way vnlesse there be as strong an impulse the contrary way to oppose it But it being determined that the descending atomes are denser then those that ascend it followeth that the descending ones will preuayle And consequently all dense bodies must necessarily tend downewardes to the center which is to be Heauy if some other more dense body do not hinder them Out of this discourse we may conclude that there is no such thing among bodies as positiue grauity or leuity but that their course vpwardes or downewardes happeneth vnto them by the order of nature which by outward causes giueth them an impulse one of these wayes without which they would rest quietly wheresoeuer they are as being of themselues indifferent to any motion But because our wordes expresse our notions and they are framed according to what appeareth vnto vs when we obserue any body to descend constantly towardes our earth we call it heauy and if it mooue contrarywise we call it light But we must take heed of considering such grauity and leuity as if they were Entities that worke such effects since vpon examination it appeareth that these wordes are but short expressions of the effects themselues the causes whereof the vulgar of mankinde who impose names to thinges do not consider but leaue that worke vnto Philosophers to examine whiles they onely obserue what they see done and agree vpon wordes to expresse that Which wordes neither will in all circumstances alwayes agree to the same thing for as corke doth descend in ayre and ascend in water so also will any other body descend if it lighteth among others more rare then it selfe and will ascend if it lighteth among bodies that are more dense then it And we terme bodies light and heauy onely according to the course which we vsually see them take Now proceeding further on and considering how there are various degrees of density or grauity it were irrationall to conceiue that all bodies should descend att the same rate and keepe equall pace with one an other in their iourney downewardes For as two knifes whereof one hath a keener edge then the other being pressed with equall strength into like yielding matter the sharper will cutt deeper then the other so if of two bodies one be more dense then the other that which is so will cutt the ayre more powerfully and will descend faster then the other for in this case density may be compared to the knifes edge since in it consisteth the power of diuiding as we haue heretofore determined And therefore the pressing them downewardes by the descending atomes being equall in both or peraduenture greater in the more dense body as anone we shall haue occasion to touch and there being no other cause to determine them that way the effect of diuision must be the greater where the diuider is the more powerfull Which the more dense body is and therefore cutteth more strongly through the resistance of the ayre and consequently passeth more swiftly that way it is determined to mooue I do not meane that the velocities of their descent shall be in the same proportion to one an other as their densities are for besides their density those other considerations which we haue discoursed of aboue when we examined the causes of velocity in motion must likewise be ballanced And out of the comparison of all them not out of the consideration of any one alone resulteth the differences of their velocities and that neither but in as much as concerneth the consideration of the mooueables for to make the calculation exact the medium must likewise be considered as by and by we shall declare for since the motion dependeth of all them together although there should be difference betweene the mooueables in regard of one onely and that the rest were equall yet the proportion of the difference of their motions must not follow the proportion of their difference in that one regard because their difference considered single in that regard will haue one proportion and with the addition of the other considerations though alike in both to their difference in this they will haue an other As for example reckon the density of one mooueable to be double the density of an other mooueable so that in that regard it hath two degrees of power to descend whereas the other hath but one suppose then the other causes of their descent to be alike in both and reckon them all three and then ioyne these three to the one which is caused by the density in one of the mooueables as likewise to the two which is caused by the density in the other mooueable and you will find that thus altogether their difference of power to descend is no longer in a double proportion as it would be if nothing but their density were considered but is in the proportion of fiue to foure But after we haue considered all that concerneth the mooueables we are then to cast an eye vpon the medium they are to mooue in and we shall find the addition of that to decrease the proportion of their difference exceedingly more according to the cessibility of the medium Which if it be ayre the great disproportion of its weight to the weight of those bodies which men vse to take in making experiences of their descent in that yielding medium will cause their difference of velocity in descending to be hardly perceptible Euen as the difference of a sharpe or dull knife which is easily perceiued in cutting of flesh or bread is not to be distinguished in diuiding of water or oyle And likewise in weights a pound and a scruple will beare downe a dramme in no sensible proportion of velocity more then a pound alone would do and yet putt a pound in that scale instead of the dramme and then the difference of the scruple will be very notable So then those bodies whose difference of descending in water is very sensible because of the greater proportion of weight in water to the bodies that descend in it will yield no sensible difference of velocity when they descend in ayre by reason of the great disproportion of weight betweene
is manifest that in a violent motion the force which mooueth a body in the end of its course is weaker then that which mooueth it in the beginning and the like is of the two stringes But here it is not amisse to solue a Probleme he putteth which belongeth to our present subiect He findeth by experience that if two bodies descend att the same time from the same point and do goe to the same point the one by the inferiour quarter of the cercle the other by the chord to that arch or by any other lines which are chordes to partes of that arch he findeth I say that the mooueable goeth faster by the arch then by any of the chordes And the reason is euident if we consider that the neerer any motion doth come vnto a perpendicular one downewardes the greater velocity it must haue and that in the arch of such a quadrant euery particular part of it inclineth to the perpendicular of the place where it is more then the part of the chord answerable vnto it doth THE ELEVENTH CHAPTER An answere to obiections against the causes of naturall motion auowed in the former chapter and a refutation of the contrary opinion BVt to returne to the thridde of our doctrine there may peraduenture be obiected against it that if the violence of a bodies descent towardes the center did proceede onely from the density of it which giueth it an aptitude the better to cutt the medium and from the multitude of litle atomes descending that strike vpon it and presse it the way they goe which is downewardes then it would not import whether the inner part of that body were as solide as the outward partes for it cutteth with onely the outward and is smitten onely vpon the outward And yet experience sheweth vs the contrary for a great bullet of lead that is solide and lead throughout descendeth faster then if three quarters of the diameter were hollow within and such a one falling vpon any resisting substance worketh a greater effect then a hollow one And a ball of brasse that hath but a thinne outside of mettall will swimme vpon the water when a massie one sinketh presently Whereby it appeareth that it is rather some other quality belonging to the very bulke of the metall in it selfe and not these outward causes that occasion grauity But this difficulty is easily ouercome if you consider how subtile those atomes are which descending downewardes and striking vpon a body in their way do cause its motion likewise downewardes for you may remember how we haue shewed them to be the subtilest and the minutest diuisions that light the subtilest and sharpest diuider in nature can make It is then easye to conceiue that these extreme subtile bodies do penetrate all others as light doth glasse and do runne through them as sand doth through a small sieue or as water through a spunge so that they strike not onely vpon the superficies but aswell in euery most interiour part of the whole body running quite through it all by the pores of it And then it must needes follow that the solider it is and the more partes it hath within as well as without to be strucken vpon the faster it must goe and the greater effect it must worke in what it falleth vpon whereas if three quarters of the diameter of it within should be filled with nothing but with ayre the atomes would fly without any considerable effect through all that space by reason of the rarity and cessibility of it And that these atomes are thus subtile is manifest by seuerall effects which we see in nature Diuers Authors that write of Egypt do assure vs that though their houses be built of strong stone neuerthelesse a clodde of earth layed in the inmost roomes and shutt vp from all appearing communication with ayre will encrease its weight so notably as thereby they can iudge the change of weather which will shortly ensue Which can proceede from no other cause but from a multitude of litle atomes of saltpeter which floating in the ayre do penetrate through the strongest walls and all the massie defences in their way and do settle in the clodde of earth as soone as they meete with it because it is of a temper fitt to entertaine and to conserue and to embody them Delights haue shewed vs the way how to make the spirits or atomes of snow and saltpeter passe through a glasse vessell which Alchimists hold to be the most impenetrable of all they can find to worke with In our owne bodies the aches which feeble partes do feele before change of weather and the heauynesse of our heades and shoulders if we remaine in the open ayre presently after sunnesett do aboundantly testify that euen the grosser of these atomes which are the first that fall do vehemently penetrate our bodies so as sense will make vs beleeue what reason peraduenture could not But besides all this there is yet a more conuincing reason why the descending atomes should mooue the whole density of a body euen though it were so dense that they could not penetrate it and gett into the bowels of it but must be content to strike barely vpon the outside of it For nature hath so ordered the matter that when dense partes sticke close together and make the length composed of them to be very stiffe one can not be mooued but that all the rest which are in that line must likewise be thereby mooued so that if all the world wery composed of atomes close sticking together the least motion imaginable must driue on all that were in a straight line to the very end of the world This you see is euident in reason And experience confirmeth it when by a litle knocke giuen att the end of a long beame the shaking which maketh sound reacheth sensibly to the other end The blind man that gouerneth his steppes by feeling in defect of eyes receiueth aduertisements of remote thinges through a staffe which he holdeth in his handes peraduenture more particularly then his eyes could haue directed him And the like is of a deafe man that heareth the sound of an instrument by holding one end of a sticke in his mouth whiles the other end resteth vpō the instrumēt And some are of opiniō and they not of the ranke of vulgar Philosophers that if a staffe were as long as to reach from the sunne to vs it would haue the same effect in a moment of time Although for my part I am hard to beleeue that we could receiue an aduertisement so farre vnlesse the staffe were of such a thicknesse as being proportionable to the length might keepe it from facile bending for if it should be very plyant it would do vs no seruice as we experience in a thridde which reaching from our hand to the ground if it knocke against any thing maketh no sensible impression in our hand So that in fine reason sense and authority do all of them
shew vs that the lesse the atomes should penetrate into a moouing body by reason of the extreme density of it the more efficaciously they would worke and the greater celerity they would cause in its motion And hence we may giue the fullest solution to the obiection aboue which was to this effect that seeing diuision is made onely by the superficies or exteriour part of the dense body and that the vertue whereby a dense body doth worke is onely its resistance to diuision which maketh it apt to diuide it would follow that a hollow boule of brasse or iron should be as heauy as a solide one For we may answere that seeing the atomes must stricke through the body and that a cessible body doth not receiue their stroakes so firmely as a stiffe one nor can conuey them so farre if vnto a stiffe superficies there succeede a yielding inside the stroakes must of necessity loose much of their force and consequently can not mooue a body full of ayre with so much celerity or with so much efficacy as they may a solide one But then you may peraduenture say that if these stroakes of the descending atomes vpon a dense body were the cause of its motion downewardes we must allow the atomes to mooue faster then the dense body that so they may still ouertake it and driue it along and enter into it whereas if they should mooue slower then it none of them could come in their turne to giue it a stroake but it would be past them and out of their reach before they could strike it But it is euident say you out of these pretended causes of this motion that such atomes can not mooue so swiftly downewardes as a great dense body since their litlenesse and their rarity are both of them hindering to their motion and therefore this can not be the cause of that effect which we call grauity To this I reply that to haue the atomes giue these blowes to a descending dense body doth not require that their naturall and ordinary motion should be swifter then the descent of such a dense body but the very descent of it occasioneth their striking it for as it falleth and maketh it selfe a way through them they diuide themselues before it and swell on the sides and a litle aboue it and presently close againe behind it and ouer it as soone as it is past Now that closing to hinder vacuity of space is a suddaine one and thereby attaineth great velocity which would carry the atomes in that degree of velocity further then the descending body if they did not encounter with it in their way to retarde them which encounter and retarding implyeth such stroakes vpon the dense body as we suppose to cause this motion And the like we see in water into which letting a stone fall presently the water that was diuided by the stone and swelleth on the sides higher then it was before closeth vpon the backe of the descending stone and followeth it so violently that for a while after it leaueth a purling hole in the place where the stone went downe till by the repose of the stone the water returneth likewise to its quiet and so its superficies becometh euen In the third place an enquiry occurreth emergent out of this doctrine of the cause of bodies moouing vpwardes and downewardes Which is whether there would be any naturall motion deepe in the earth beyond the actiuity of the sunnes beames For out of these principles it followeth that there would not and consequently there must be a vast orbe in which there would be no motion of grauity or of leuity for suppose that the sunne beames might pierce a thousand miles deepe into the body of the earth yet there would still remaine a masse whose diameter would be neere 5000 miles in which there would be no grauitation nor the contrary motion For my part I shall make no difficulty to grant the inference as farre as concerneth motion caused by our sunne for what inconuenience would follow out of it But I will not offer att determining whether there may not be enclosed within that great sphere of earth some other fire such as the Chymistes talke of an Archeus a Demogorgon seated in the center like the hart in animals which may raise vp vapours and boyle an ayre out of them and diuide grosse bodies into atomes and accordingly giue them motions answerable to ours but in different lines from ours according as that fire or sunne is situated since the farre-searching Author of the Dialogues de Mundo hath left that speculation vndecided after he had touched vpon it in the 12 knott of his first Dialogue Fourthly it may be obiected that if such descending atomes as we haue described were the cause of a bodies grauity and descending towardes the center the same body would att diuers times descend more and lesse swiftly for example after midnight when the atomes begin to descend more slowly then likewise the same body would descend more slowly in a like proportion and not weigh so much as it did in the heate of the day The same may be said of summer and winter for in winter time the atomes seeme to be more grosse and consequently to strike more strongly vpon the bodies they meete with in their way as they descend yet on the other side they seeme in the summer to be more numerous as also to descend from a greater height both which circumstances will be cause of a stronger stroake and more vigourous impulse vpon the body they hitt And the like may be obiected of diuers partes of the world for in the torride zone it will alwayes happen as in summer in places of the temperate zone and in the polar climes as in deepest winter so that no where there would be any standard or certainty in the weight of bodies if it depended vpon so mutable a cause And it maketh to the same effect that a body which lyeth vnder a thicke rocke or any other very dense body that can not be penetrated by any great store of atomes should not be so heauy as it would be in the open and free ayre where the atomes in their complete numbers haue their full stroakes For answere to these and such like instances we are to note first that it is not so much the number or the violence of the percussion of the striking atomes as the density of the thing strucken which giueth the measure to the descending of a weighty body and the chiefe thing which the stroake of the atomes giueth vnto a dense body is a determination of the way which a dense body is to cutt vnto it selfe therefore multiplication or lessening of the atomes will not make any sensible difference betwixt the weight of one dense body where many atomes do strike and an other body of the same density where but few do strike so that the stroake downewardes of the descending atomes be greater then the stroake vpwardes
of the ascending atomes and thereby determineth it to weigh to the centerwardes and not rise floating vpwardes which is all the sensible effect we can perceiue Next we may obserue that the first particulars of the obiection do not reach home to enfeeble our doctrine in this particular although we admitt them to be in such sort as they are proposed for they do withall implye such a perpetuall variation of causes euer fauourable to our position that nothing can be inferred out of them to repugne against it As thus when there are many atomes descending in the ayre the same generall cause which maketh them be many maketh them also be light in proportion to their multitude And so when they are few they are heauy likewise when the atomes are light the ayre is rarifyed and thinne and when they are heauy the ayre is thicke and so vpon the whole matter it is euident that we can not make such a precise and exact iudgement of the variety of circumstances as to be able to determine when there is absolutely more cause of weight and when lesse And as we find not weight enough in either side of these opposite circumstances to turne the scales in our discourse so likewise we find the same indifference in experience it selfe for the weights we vse do weigh equally in mysty weather and in cleare and yet in rigour of discourse we can not doubt but that in truth they do not grauitate or weigh so much though the difference be imperceptible to sense when the ayre is thicke and foggy as when it is pure and rarifyed which thickenesse of the medium when it arriueth to a very notable degree as for example to water maketh then a great difference of a heauy bobies grauitation in it and accordingly we see a great difference betweene heauy bodies descending in water and in ayre though betweene two kindes of ayre none is to be obserued their difference is so small in respect of the density of the body that descendeth in thē And therefore seeing that an assured and certaine difference in circumstances maketh no sensible inequality in the effect we can not expect any from such circumstances as we may reasonably doubt whether there be any inequality among thē or no. Besides that if in any of the proposed cases a heauy body should grauitate more and be heauyer one time then an other yet by weighing it we could not discerne it since that the counterpoise which is to determine its weight must likewise be in the same proportion heauyer then it was And besides weighing no other meanes remaineth to discouer its greater grauitation but to compare it to time in its descent and I beleeue that in all such distances as we can try it in its inequalities will be no whitt lesse difficult to be obserued that way then any other Lastly to bend our discourse particularly to that instance of the obiection where it is conceiued that if grauity or descending downewardes of bodies proceeded from atomes striking vpon them as they mooue downewardes it would follow that a stone or other dense body lying vnder shelter of a thicke hard and impenetrable adamantine rocke would haue no impulse downewardes and consequently would not weigh there We may note that no body whatsoeuer compacted by physicall causes and agents can be so dense and imporous but that such atomes as these we speake of must be in them and in euery part of them and euery where passe through and through them as water doth through a seeue or through a spunge and this vniuersall maxime must extend as farre as the sunne or as any other heate communicating with the sunne doth reach and is found The reason whereof is because these atomes are no other thing but such extreme litle bodies as are resolued by heate out of the maine stocke of those massy bodies vpon which the sunne and heate do worke Now then it being certaine out of what we haue heretofore said that all mixt bodies haue their temper and consistence and generation from the mingling of fire with the rest of the Elements that compose them and from the concoction or digestion which fire maketh in those bodies it is euident that no mixt body whatsoeuer nor any sensible part of a mixt body can be voyde of pores capable of such atomes nor can be without such atomes passing through those pores which atomes by mediation of the ayre that likewise hath its share in such pores must haue communication with the rest of the great sea of ayre and with the motions that passe in it And consequently in all and in euery sensible part of any such extreme dense and pretended impenetrable body to the notice whereof we can arriue this percussion of atomes must be found and they will haue no difficulty in running through nor by meanes of it in striking any other body lying vnder the shelter of it and thus both in and from that hard body there must be still an vninterrupted continuation of grauity or of descending towardes the center Vnto which we may adde that the stone or dense body can not lye so close to the rocke that couereth it but that some ayre must be betweene for if nothing were betweene they would be vnited and become one continued body and in that ayre which is a creeke of the great ocean of ayre spread ouer the world that is euery where bestrewed with moouing atomes and which is continually fed like a running streame with new ayre that driueth on the ayre it ouertaketh there is no doubt but there are descending atomes as well as in all the rest of its maine body and these descending atomes meeting with the stone must needes giue some stroake vpon it and that stroake be it neuer so litle can not choose but worke some effect in making the stone remooue a litle that way they goe and that motion whereby the space is enlarged betweene the stone and the sheltering rocke must draw in a greater quantity of ayre and atomes to strike vpon it And thus by litle and litle the stone passeth through all the degrees of tardity by which a descending body parteth from rest which is by so much the more speedily done by how much the body is more eminent in density But this difference of time in regard of the atomes stroakes onely and abstracting from the bodies density will be insensible to vs seeing as we haue said no more is required of them but to giue a determination downewardes And out of this we clearely see the reason why the same atomes striking vpon one body lying vpon the water do make it sinke and vpon an other they do not As for example if you lay vpon the superficies of some water a piece of iron and a piece of corke of equall biggenesse and of the same figure the iron will be beaten downe to the bottome and the corke will floate att the toppe The reason whereof is the different
proportions of the comparison of their densities with the density of water for as we haue said the efficacy and force of desceÌ„ding is to be measured by that So then the stroakes of the atomes being more efficacious vpon water then vpon corke because the density of water is greater then the density of corke considering the aboundance of ayre that is harboured in the large pores of it it followeth that the atomes will make the water goe downe more forcibly then they will corke But the density of iron exceeding the density of water the same stroakes will make the iron descend faster then the water and consequently the iron must sinke in the water and the corke will swimme vpon it And this same is the cause why if a piece of corke be held by force att the bottome of the water it will rise vp to the toppe of the water as soone as the violence is taken away that kept it downe for the atomes stroakes hauing more force vpon the water then vpon the corke they make the water sinke and slide vnder it first a litle thinne plate of water and then an other a litle thicker and so by degrees more and more till it hath lifted the corke quite vp to the toppe Fiâ—thly it may be obiected that these atomes do not descend alwayse perpendicularly be sometimes sloapingly and in that case if their stroakes be the cause of dense bodies mouing they should moue sloaping and not downeward Now that these atomes descend sometimes sloapingly is euident as when for example they meete with a streame of water or with a strong wind or euen with any other litle motion of the ayre such as carryeth feathers vp and downe hither and thither which must needes waft the atomes in some measure along with them their way seeing then that such a gentle motion of the ayre is able to putt a feather out of its way notwithstanding the percussions of the atomes vpon it why shall it not likewise putt a piece of iron out of its way downewardes since the iron hath nothing from the atomes but a determination to its way But much more why should not a strong wind or a current of water do it since the atomes themselues that giue the iron its determination must needes be hurryed along with them To this we answere that we must consider how any wind or water which runneth in that sort is it selfe originally full of such atomes which continually and euery where presse into it and cutt through it in pursuing their constant perpetuall course of descending in such sort as we haue shewed in their running through any hard rocke or other densest body And these atomes do make the wind or the water primarily tend downewardes though other accidentall causes impell them secondarily to a sloaping motion And still their primary naturall motion will be in truth strongest though their not hauing scope to obey that but their hauing enough to obey the violent motion maketh this become the more obseruable Which appeareth euidently out of this that if there be a hole in the bottome of the pipe that conueyeth water sloapingly be the pipe neuer so long and consequently the sloaping motion neuer so forcible yet the water will runne out att that hole to obey its more powerfull impulse to the centerwardes rather then continue the violent motion in which it had arriued to a great degree of celerity Which being so it is easy to conceiue that the atomes in the wind or water which mooue perpendicularly downewardes will still continue the irons motion downewardes notwithstanding the mediums sloaping motion since the preuailing force determineth both the iron and the medium downewardes and the iron hath a superproportion of density to cutt its way according as the preualent motion determineth it But if the descending atomes be in part carryed along downe the streame by the current of wind or water yet still the current bringeth with it new atomes into the place of those that are carryed away and these atomes in euery point of place wheresoeuer they are do of themselues tend perpendicularly downewardes howbeit they are forced from the complete effect of their tendance by the violence of the current so that in this case they are mooued by a declining motion compounded of their owne naturall motion and of the forced motion with which the streame carryeth them Now then if a dense body do fall into such a current where these different motions giue their seuerall impulses it will be carryed in such sort as we say of the atomes but in an other proportion not in a perpendicular but in a mixt declining line compounded of the seuerall impulses which the atomes and the current do giue it in which also it is to be remembred how the current giueth an impulse downewardes as well as sloaping and peraduenture the strongest downewardes and the declination will be more or lesse according as the violent impulse preuayleth more or lesse against the naturall motion But this is not all that is to be considered in estimating the declination of a dense bodies motion when it is sinking in a current of wind or water you must remember that the dense body it selfe hath a particular vertue of its owne namely its density by which it receiueth and prosecuteth more fully its determination downewardes and therefore the force of that body in cutting its way through the medium is also to be considered in this case as well as aboue in calculating its declining from the perpendicular and out of all these causes will result a middle declination coÌ„pounded of the motioÌ„ of the water or wind both wayse and of its owne motion by the perpendicular line And since of these three causes of a dense bodies motion it s owne vertue in prosecuting by its density the determination it requireth is the most efficacious by much after it hath once receiued a determination from without its declination will be but litle if it be very dense and heauy But if it recede much from density so as to haue some neere proportion to the density of the medium the declination will be great And in a word according as the body is heauyer or lighter the declination will be more or lesse in the same current though not exactly according to the proportion of the diminishing of its density as long as there is a superproportion of its density to the medium since that such a superproportion as we haue declared heretofore maketh the mediums operation vpon the dense body scarce considerable And hence you see why a stone or piece of iron is not carried out of its way as well as feather because the stones motion downewardes is greater and stronger then the motion of a feather downewardes And by consequence the force that can deturne a feather from its course downewardes is not able to deturne a stone And if it be replyed that it may be so ordered that the stone shall haue no motion before
it be in the streame of a riuer and notwithstanding it will still mooue downewardes we may answere that considering the litle decliuity of the bed of such a streame the strongest motion of the partes of the streame must necessarily be downewardes and consequently they will beate the stone downewardes And if they do not the like to a feather or other light body it is because other partes of the streame do gett vnder the light body and beate it vpwardes which they haue not power enough to do to the stone Sixthly it may be obiected that if Elements do not weigh in their owne spheres then their grauity and descending must proceede from some other cause and not from this percussion of the atomes we attribute it to which percussion we haue determined goeth through all bodies whatsoeuer and beateth vpon euery sensible part of them But that Elements weigh not in their owne spheres appeareth out of the experience of a syphon for though one legge of the syphon be suncke neuer so much deeper into the body of the water then the other legge reacheth below the superficies of the water neuerthelesse if once the outward legge become full of water it will draw it out of the other longer legge which it should not do if the partes of water that are comprised within their whole bulke did weigh seeing that the bulke of water is much greater in the sunke legge then in the other and therefore these should rather draw backe the other water into the cisterne then be themselues drawne out of it into the ayre To this we answere that it is euident the Elements do weigh in their owne spheres att least as farre as we can reach to their spheres for we see that a ballone stuffed hard with ayre is heauyer then an empty one Againe more water would not be heauyer then lesse if the inward partes of it did not weigh and if a hole were digged in the bottome of the sea the water would not runne into it and fill it if it did not grauitate ouer it Lastly there are those who vndertake to distinguish in a deepe water the diuers weights which seuerall partes of it haue as they grow still heauyer and heauyer towardes the bottome and they are so cunning in this art that they professe to make instruments which by their equality of their weight to a determinate part of the water shall stand iust in that part and neyther rise nor fall higher or lower but if it be putt lower it shall ascend to its exact equally weighing orbe of the water and if it be putt higher it shall descend vntill it cometh to rest precisely in that place Whence it is euident that partes of water do weigh within the bulke of their maine body and of the like we haue no reason to doubt in the other two weighty Elements As for the opposition of the syphon we referre that point to where we shall haue occasion to declare the nature of that engine of sett purpose And there we shall shew that it could not succeede in its operation vnlesse the partes of water did grauitate in their maine bulke into which one legge of the syphon is sunke Lastly it may be obiected that if there were such a course of atomes as we say and that their stroakes were the cause of so notable an effect as the grauity of heauy bodies we should feele it palpably in our owne bodies which experience sheweth vs we do not To this we answere first that their is no necessity we should feele this course of atomes since by their subtility they penetrate all bodies and consequently do not giue such stroakes as are sensible Secondly if we consider that dustes and strawes and feathers do light vpon vs without causing any sense in vs much more we may cōceiue that atomes which are infinitely more subtile and light can not cause in vs any feeling of them Thirdly we see that what is continuall with vs and mingled in all thinges doth not make vs take any especiall notice of it and this is the case of the smiting of atomes Neuerthelesse peraduenture we feele them in truth as often as we feele hoat and cold weather and in all catarres or other such changes which do as it were sinke into our body without our perceiuing any sensible cause of them for no question but these atomes are the immediate causes of all good and bad qualities in the ayre Lastly when we consider that we can not long together hold out our arme att length or our foote from the ground and reflect vpon such like impotencies of our resisting the grauity of our owne body we can not doubt but that in these cases we feele the effect of these atomes working vpon those partes although we can not by our sense discerne immediately that these are the causes of it But now it is time to draw our Reader out of a difficulty which may peraduenture haue perplexed him in the greatest part of what he hath hitherto gone ouer In our inuestigation of the Elements we tooke for a principle therevnto that grauity is sometimes more sometimes lesse then the density of the body in which it is But in our explication of rarity and density and againe in our explication of grauity we seeme to putt that grauity and density is all one This thorne I apprehend may in all this distance haue putt some to paine but it was impossible for mee to remedy it because I had not yet deliuered the manner of grauitation Here then I will do my best to asswage their greefe by reconciling these appearing repugnancies We are therefore to consider that density in it selfe doth signify a difficultie to haue the partes of its subiect in which it is seperated one from an other and that grauity likewise in it selfe doth signify a quality by which a heauy body doth descend towardes the center or which is consequent therevnto a force to make an other body descend Now this power we haue shewed doth belong vnto density so farre forth as a dense body being strucken by an other doth not yield by suffering its partes to be diuided but with its whole bulke striketh the next before it and diuideth it if it be more diuisible then it selfe is So that you see density hath the name of density in consideration of a passiue quality or rather of an impassibility which it hath and the same density is called grauity in respect of an actiue quality it hath which followeth this impassibility And both of them are estimated by the different respects which the same body or subiect in which they are haue vnto different bodies that are the termes whereunto it is compared for the actiue quality or grauity of a dense body is esteemed by its respect to the body it striketh vpon whereas its density includeth a respect singly to the body that striketh it Now it is no wonder that this change of comparison worketh a disparity
in the denominations and that thereby the same body may be conceiued to be more or lesse impartible then it is actiue or heauy As for example lett vs of a dense Element take any one least part which must of necessity be in its owne nature and kind absolutely impartible and yet it is euident that the grauity of this part must be exceeding litle by reason of the litlenesse of its quantity so that thus you see an extremity of the effect of density ioyned together in one body by the accident of the litlenesse of it with a contrary extremity of the effect of grauity or rather with the want of it each of them within the limits of the same species In like manner it happeneth that the same body in one circumstance is more weighty in an other or rather in the contrary is more partible so water when it is in a payle because it is thereby hindered froÌ„ spreading abroad hath the effect of grauity predominating in it but if it be poured out it hath the effect of partibility more And thus it happeneth that meerely by the gradation of rarity and density one dense body may be apt out of the generall course of naturall causes to be more diuisible theÌ„ to be a diuider though according to the nature of the degrees considered absolutely in theÌ„selues what is more powerfull to diuide is also more resisteÌ„t and harder to be diuided And this arriueth in that degree which maketh water for the falling and beating of the atomes vpon water hath the power both to diuide it and to makâ— it descend but so that by making it descend it diuideth it And therefore we say that it hath more grautty then density though it be the very density of it which is the cause that maketh it partible by the working of one part vpon an other for if the atomes did not find the body so dense as it is they could not by their beating vpon one part make an other be diuided So that a dense body to be more heauy then dense signifyeth nothing else but that it is in such a degree of density â—hat some of its owne partes by their being assisted and sett on worke by a generall cause which is the fall of the atomes are powerfull enough to diuide other adioyning partes of the same density with them one from an other in such sort as we see that water poured out of an eawer into a basen where there is already other water hath the power to diuide the water in the basen by the assistance of the celerity which it getteth in descending And now I hope the reader is fully satisfyed that there is no contradiction in putting Density and Grauity to be the same thing materially and that neuerthelesse the same thing may be more heauy then dense or more dense then heauy as we tooke it to our seuerall purposes in the inuestigation of the Elements Hauing thus layed an intelligible ground to discouer how these motions that are generall to all bodies and are naturall in chiefe are contriued by nature we will now endeauour to shew that the contrary position is not onely voluntary but also impossible Lett vs therefore suppose that a body hath a quality to mooue it downewardes And first wee shall aske what downewardes signifyeth for eyther it signifyeth towardes a fixed point of imaginary space or towardes a fixed point of the vniuerse or towardes some mooueable point As for the first who would maintaine it must haue more imagination then iudgment to thinke that a naturall quality could haue an essence determined by a nothing because we can frame a conceit of that nothing As for the second it is very vncertaine whether any such point be in nature for as for the center of the earth it is cleare that if the earth be carryed about the center of it can not be a fixed point Againe if the center signifyeth a determinate point in the earth that is the medium of grauity or of quantity it is changed as often as any dust lighteth vnequally vpon any one side of the earth which would make that side bigger then it was and I doubt a quality can not haue morall considerations to thinke that so litle doth no harme As for the third position likewise it is not intelligible how a quality should change its inclination or essence according to the change that should light to make now one point now an other be the center vnto which it should tend Againe lett vs consider that a quality hath a determinate essence Then seeing its power is to mooue and to moue signifyeth to cutt the mediuÌ„ it is mooued in it belongeth vnto it of its nature to cutt so much of such a medium in such a time So that if no other cause be added but that you take precisely and in abstracto that quality that medium and that time this effect will follow that so much motion is made And if this effect should not follow it is cleare that the being able to cutt so much of such a medium in such a time is not the essence of this quality as it was supposed to be Diuiding then the time and the medium halfe the motion should de made in halfe the time a quarter of the motion in a quarter of the time and so without end as farre as you can diuide But this is demonstratiuely impossible sithhence it is demonstrated that a mooueable coming from rest must of necessity passe through all degrees of tardity and therefore by the demonstration cited out of Galileus we may take a part in which this grauity can not mooue its body in a proportionate part of time through a proportionate part of the mediuÌ„ But because in naturall Theorems experiences are naturally required lett vs see whether nature giueth vs any testimony of this verity To that purpose we may consider a plummet hanged in a small string from a beame which being lifted vp gentlely on the one side att the extent of the string and permitted to fall meerely by the power of grauity it will ascend very neere as high on the contrary side as the place it was held in from whence it fell In this experiment we may note two thinges the first that if grauity be a quality it worketh against its owne nature in lifting vp the plumett seing its nature is onely to carry it downe For though it may be answered that it is not the grauity but an other quality called vis impressa which carrieth it vp neuerthelesse it can not be denyed but that grauity is either the immediate or at least the mediate cause which maketh this vis impressa the effect whereof being contrary to the nature of grauity it is absurd to make grauity the cause of it that is the cause of an essence whose nature is contrary to its owne And the same argument will proceede though you putt not vis impressa but suppose some other thing to be
behind the arrow that driueth it on as what the arrow causeth in the ayre before it for by reason of the density of it it must needes make a greater impression in the ayre it cutteth then the ayre that causeth its motion would do of it selfe without the mediation of the arrow As when the force of a hand giueth motion vnto a knife to cutt a loafe of bread the knife by reason of the density and of the figure it hath mâ—kâ—th a greater impression in the loafe thâ—n the hand alone would do And this is the same that we declared in the naturall motion of a heauy thing downewardes vnto which we assigned two causes namely the beating of the atomes in the ayre falling downe in their naturall coursâ— to determine it the way it is to goe and the density of the body that cutting more powerfully then those atomes can do giueth together with their helpe a greater velocity vnto the mooueable then the atomes of themselues can giue Nor doth it import that our resolution is against the generall nature of rare and dense bodies in regard of conseruing motion as Galileo obiecteth for the reason why dense bodies do conserue motion longer then rare bodies is because in regard of their diuiding vertue they gett in equall times a greater velocity Wherefore seeing that velocity is equall vnto grauity it followeth thâ—t resistance worketh not so much vpon them as vpon rare bodies and therefore can not make them cease from motion so easily as it doth rare bodies This is the generall reason for the conseruation of motion in dense bodies But because in our case there is a continuall cause which conserueth motion in the ayre the ayre may continue its motion longer then of it selfe it would do not in the same part of ayre which Galileus as it seemeth did ayme att but in diuers partes in which the mooueable successiuely is Which being concluded lett vs see how the forced motion cometh to decrease and to be ended To which purpose we may obserue that the impression which the arrow receiueth from the ayre that driueth it forwardes being weaker then that which it receiued att the first from the string by reasoÌ„ that the ayre is not so deÌ„se and therefore caÌ„ not strike so great a blow the arrow doth not in this second measure of time wherein we coÌ„sider the impulse giuen by the ayre onely cutt so strongly the ayre before it nor presse so violently vpon it as in the first measure when the string parting from it did beate it forwardes for till then the velocity encreaseth in the arrow as it doth in the string that carryeth it along which proceedeth from rest att the singers loose from it to its highest degree of velocity which is when it arriueth to the vtmost extent of its ierke where it quitteth the arrow And therefore the ayre now doth not so swiftly nor so much of it rebound backe from before and clappe it selfe behind the arrow to fill the space that else would be left voyde by the arrowes moouing forward and consequently the blow it giueth in the third measure to driue the arrow on can not be so great as the blow was immediately after the stringes parting from it which was in the second measure of time and therefore the arrow must needes mooue slower in the third measure then it did in the second as formerly it mooued slower in the second which was the ayres first stroake then it did in the first when the string droue it forwardes And thus successiuely in euery moment of time as the causes grow weaker and weaker by the encrease of resistance in the ayre before and by the decrease of force in the subsequent ayre so the motion must be slower and slower till it come to pure cessation As for Galileus second argument that the ayre hath litle power ouer heauy thinges and therefore he will not allow it to be the cause of continuing forced motions in dense bodies I wish he could as well haue made experience what velocity of motion a mans breath might produce in a heauy bullett lying vpon an euen hard and slippery plaine for a table would be too short as he did how admirable great a one it produced in pendants hanging in the ayre and I doubt not but he would haue granted it as powerfull in causing horizontall motions as he found it in the vndulations of his pendantes Which neuerthelesse do sufficiently conuince how great a power ayre hath ouer heauy bodies As likewise the experience of windgunnes assureth vs that ayre duly applyed is able to giue greater motion vnto heauy bodies then vnto light ones For how can a straw or feather be imagined possibly to fly with halfe the violence as a bullett of lead doth out of one of those engines And when a man sucketh a bullett vpwardes in a perfectly bored barrell of a gunne which the bullett fitteth exactly as we haue mentioned before with what a violence doth it follow the breath and ascend to the mouth of the barrell I remember to haue seene a man that was vncautious and sucked strongly that had his foreteeth beaten out by the blow of the bullett ascending This experiment if well looked into may peraduenture make good a greate part of this doctrine we now deliuer For the ayre pressing in behind the bullett att the touch hole giueth it its impulse vpwardes vnto which the density of the bullett being added you haue the cause of its swiftnesse and violence for a bullett of wood or corke would not ascend so fast and so strongly and the sucking away of the ayre before it taketh away that resistance which otherwise it would encounter with by the ayre lying in the way of it and its following the breath with so great ease sheweth as we touched before that of it selfe it is indifferent to any motion when nothing presseth vpon it to determine it a certaine way Now to Galileos last argument that an arrow should fly faster broadwayes then longwayes if the ayre were cause of its motion there needeth no more to be saide but that the resistance of the ayre before hindereth it as much as the impulse of the ayre behind helpeth it on so that nothing is gained in that regard but much is lost in respect of the figure which maketh the arrow vnapt to cutt the ayre so well when it flyeth broadwayes as when it is shott longwayes and therefore the ayre being weakely cutt so much of it can not clappe in behind the arrow and driue it on against the resistance before which is much greater Thus farre with due respect and with acknowledging remembrance of the many admirable mysteries of natute which that great man hath taught the world we haue taken liberty to dispute against him because this difficulty seemeth to haue driuen him against his Genius to beleeue that in such motions there must be allowed a quality imprinted into the mooued body to cause them which
our whole scope both in this and in all other occasions where like qualities are vrged is to prooue superfluous and ill grounded in nature and to be but meere termes to confound and leaue in the darke whosoeuer is forced to fly vnto them THE THERTEENTH CHAPTER Of three sortes of violent motion Reflexion Vndulation and Refraction THe motion we haue last spoken of because it is ordinarily either in part or wholy contrary to grauity which is accounted the naturall motion of most bodies vseth to be called violent or forced And thus you haue deliuered vnto you the natures and causes both of naturall and of forced motion yet it remaineth that we aduertise you of some particular kindes of this forced motion which seeme to be different from it but indeed are not As first the motion of reflexion which if we do but consider how forced motion is made we shall find that it is nothing else but a forced motion whose line wherevpon it is made is as it were snapped in two by the encounter of a hard body For euen as we see in a spoute of water that is strongly shott against a wall the water following driueth the precedent partes first to the wall and afterwardes coming themselues to the wall forceth them againe an other way from the wall right so the latter partes of the torrent of ayre which is caused by the force that occasioneth the forced motion driueth the former partes first vpon the resistent body and afterwardes againe from it But this is more eminent in light then in any other body because light doth lesse rissent grauity and so obserueth the pure course of the stroake better then any other body from which others do for the most part decline some way by reason of their weight Now the particular law of reflexion is that the line incident and the line of reflexion must make equall angles with that line of the resistent superficies which is in the same superficies with themselues The demonstration whereof that great witt Renatus Des Cartes hath excellently sett downe in his booke of Dioptrikes by the example of a ball strucken by a rackett against the earth or any resisting body the substance where of is as followeth The motion which we call vndulation needeth no further explication for it is manifest that since a pendant when it is remooued from its perpendicular will restore it selfe therevnto by the naturall force of grauity and that in so doing it gaineth a velocity and therefore can not cease on a suddaine it must needes be carried out of the force of that motion directly the coÌ„trary way vntill the force of grauity ouercoming the velocity it must be brought backe againe to the perpeÌ„dicular which being done likewise with velocity it must send it againe towardes the place from which it fell att the first And in this course of motion it must coÌ„tinue for a while euery vndulation being weaker then other vntill att last it quite ceaseth by the course of nature settling the ayre in its due situatioÌ„ according to the naturall causes that worke vpon it And in this very manner also is performed that vndulation which we see in water when it is stirred from the naturall situation of its sphericall superficies Galileo hath noted that the time in which the vndulations are made which follow one an other of their owne accord is the same in euery one of them and that as much time precisely is take vp in a pendants going a very short arch towardes the end of its vibration as was in its going of the greatest arch att the beginning of its motion The reason whereof seemeth strange to him and he thinketh it to be an accident naturall to the body out of its grauity and that this effect conuinceth it is not the ayre which mooueth such bodies Whereas in truth it is clearely the ayre which causeth this effect Because the ayre striuing att each end where it is furthest from the force of the motion to quiett it selfe getteth att euery bout somewhat vpon the space and so contracteth that into a shorter arch That motion also which we call Refraction and is manifest to sense onely in light though peraduenture hereafter more diligent searchers of nature may likewise find it in such other bodies as are called qualities as in cold or heate c. is but a kind of Reflexion for there being certaine bodies in which the passages are so well ordered with their resistances that all the partes of them seeme to permitt light to passe through them and yet all partes of them seeme to reflect it when light passeth through such bodies it findeth att the very entrance of them such resistances where it passeth as serue it for a reflectent body and yet such a reflectent body as hindereth not the passage through but onely hindereth the passage from being in a straight line with the line incident Wherefore the light must needes take a plye as beaten from those partes towardes a line drawne from the illuminant and falling perpendicularly vpon the resisting superficies and therefore is termed by mathematicians to be refracted or broken towardes the Perpendicular Now at the very going out againe of the light the second superficies if it be parallel to the former must needes vpon a contrary cause strike it the contrary way which is termed from the Perpendicular But before we wade any deeper into this difficulty we can not omitt a word of the manner of explicating refraction which Monsieur Des Cartes vseth so witty a one as I am sorry it wanteth successe He therefore following the demonstration aboue giuen of reflexion supposeth the superficies which a ball lighteth vpon to be a thinne linnen cloth or some other such matter as will breake cleanely by the force of the ball striking smartly vpon it And because that superficies resisteth onely one way therefore he inferreth that the velocity of the ball is lessened onely one way and not the other so that the velocity of its motion that way in which it findeth no resistance must be after the balles passage through the linnen in a greater proportion to the velocity which it hath the other way where it findeth resistance then it was before And therefore the ball will in lesse time arriue to its periode on the one side then on the other and consequently it will leane towardes that side vnto which the course wherein it findeth no opposition doth carry it Which to shâ—w how it is contrary vnto his owne principle lett vs conceiue the cloth CE to be of some thickenesse and so draw the line OP to determine that thicknesse And lett vs make from B vpon AL an other Parallelogramme like the Parallelogramme AL whose diameter shall be BQ And it must necessarilly follow that the motion from B to Q if there were no resistance were in the same proportion as from A to B. But the proportion of the motion from
A to B is the proportion of CB to CA that is it goeth in the same time faster towardes D then it doth towardes M in the proportion which CB hath to CA. By which account the resistance it hath in the way towardes D must also be greater then the resistance it hath in the way towardes M in the proportion which CB hath to CA and therefore the more tardity must be in the way to D and not in the way to M and consequently the declination must be from Ewardes and to Mwardes For where there is most resistance that way likewise must the tardity be greatest and the declination must be from that way but which way the thickenesse to be passed in the same time is most that way the resistance is greatest and the thickenesse is clearely greater towardes E then towardes M therefore the resistance must be greatest towardes E and consequently the declination from the line BL must be towardes M and not towardes E. But the truth is that in his doctrine the ball would goe in a straight line as if there were no resistance vnlesse peraduenture towardes the contrary side of the cloth att which it goeth out into the free ayre for as the resistance of the cloth is greater in the way towardes D then in the way towardes M because it passeth a longer line in the same time as also it did formerly in the ayre so likewise is the force that mooueth it that way greater then the force which mooueth it the other And therefore the same proportions that were in the motion before it came to the resisting passage will remaine also in it att the least vntill coming neere the side att which it goeth out the resistance be weakned by the thinnenesse of the resistent there which because it must needes happen on the side that hath least thicknesse the ball must consequently turne the other way where it findeth greatest yielding and so att its getting out into the free ayre it will bend from the greater resistance in such manner as we haue said aboue Neither do the examples brought by Monsieur Des Cartes and others in maintenance of this doctrine any thing auayle them for when a canon bullett shott into a riuer hurteth the people on the other side it is not caused by refraction but by reflexion as Monsieur Des Cartes himselfe acknowledgeth and therefore hath no force to prooue any thing in refraction whose lawes are diuers from those of pure reflexion And the same answere serueth against the instance of a muskett bullett shott att a marke vnder water which perpetually lighteth higher then the marke though it be exactly iust aymed att For we knowing that it is the nature of water by sinking in one place to rise round about it must of necessity follow that the bullett which in entring hath pressed downe the first partes of the water hath withall thereby putt others further off in a motion of rising and therefore the bullet in its goeing on must meete with some water swelling vpwardes and must from it receiue a ply that way which can not faile of carrying it aboue the marke it was leuelled att And so we see this effect proceedeth from reflection or the bounding of the water and not from refraction Besides that it may iustly be suspected the shooter tooke his ayme too high by reason of the markes appearing in the water higher then in truth it is vnlesse such false ayming were duly preuented Neither is Monsieur Des Cartes his excuse to be admitted when he sayth that light goeth otherwise then a ball would do because that in a glasse or in water the etheriall substance which he supposeth to runne through all bodies is more efficaciously mooued then in ayre and that therefore light must go faster in the glasse then in the ayre and so turne on that side of the straight line which is contrary to the side that the ball taketh because the ball goeth not so swiftly For not to dispute of the verity of this proposition the effect he pretendeth is impossible for if the etheriall substance in the ayre before the glasse be slowly mooued the motion of which he calleth light it is impossible that the etheriall substance in the glasse or in the water should be more smartly mooued then it Well it may be lesse but without all doubt the impulse of the etheriall substance in the glasse can not be greater then its adequate cause which is the motion of the other partes that are in the ayre precedent to the glasse Againe after it is passed the glasse it should returne to be a straight line with the line that it made in the ayre precedent to the glasse seeing that the subsequent ayre must take off iust as much and no more as the glasse did adde the contrary whereof experience sheweth vs. Thirdly in this explication it would alwayes go one way in the ayre and an other way in the glasse whereas all experience testifyeth that in a glasse conuexe on both sides it still goeth in the ayre after its going out to the same side as it did in the glasse but more And the like happeneth in glasses on both sides concaue Wherefore it is euident that it is the superficies of the glasse that is the worker on both sides and not the substance of the ayre on the one side and of the glasse on the other And lastly his answere doth no wayes solue our obiection which prooueth that the resistance both wayes is proportionate to the force that mooueth and by consequence that the thing moued must go straight As we may imagine would happen if a bullett were shott sloaping through a greene mudde wall in which there were many round stickes so thinne sett that the bullett mighr passe with ease through them for as long as the bullett touched none of them which expresseth his case it would go straight but if it touched any of them which resembleth ours as by and by will appeare it would glance according to the quality of the touch and mooue from the sticke in an other line Some peraduenture may answere for Monsieur Des Cartes that this subtile body which he supposeth to runne through all thinges is stiffe and no wayes plyable But that is so repugnant to the nature of rarity and so many insuperable inconueniencies do follow out of it as I can not imagine he will owne it and therefore I will not spend any time in replying therevnto We must therefore seeke some other cause of the refraction of light which is made att the entrance of it into a diaphanous body Which is plainely as we said before because the ray striking against the inside of a body it can not penetrate turneth by reflexion towardes that side on which the illuminant standeth and if it findeth cleare passage through the whole resistent it followeth the course it first taketh if not then it is lost by many reflexions too and
fro And taking a body of concaue surfaces we shall according to this doctrine of ours find the causes of refraction iust contrary and accordingly experience likewise sheweth vs the effects to be so too And therefore since experience agreeth exactly with our rules we can not doubt but that the principles vpon which we goe are well layd But because crooked surfaces may haue many irregularities it will not be amisse to giue a rule by which all of them may be brought vnto a certainety And this it is that reflexions from crooked superficieses are equall to the reflexions that are made from such plaine superficieses as are tangents to the crooked ones in that point from whence the reflexions are made Which principall the Masters of Optikes do take out of a Mathematicall supposition of the vnity of the reflecting point in both the surfaces the crooked and the plaine But we take it out of the insensibility of the difference of so litle a part in the two different surfaces as serueth to reflect a ray of light for where the difference is insensible in the causes there likewise the difference is so litle in the effects as sense can not iudge of them which is as much as is requisite to our purpose Now seeing that in the Mathematicall supposition the point where the reflexion is made is indifferent to both the surfaces it followeth that it importeth not whether superficies you take to know the quality of reflexion by This principle then being settled that the reflexion must follow the nature of the tangent surfaces and it being prooued that in plaine surfaces it will happen in such sort as we haue explicated it followeth that in any crooked superficies of what figure soeuer the same also will happen Now seeing we haue formerly declared that refractions are but a certaine kind of reflexions what we haue said here of reflexions may be applyed to refractions But there remaineth yet vntouched one affection more of refractions which is that some diaphanous bodies do in their inward partes reflect more then others which is that which we call refraction as experience sheweth vs. Concerning which effect we are to consider that diaphanous bodies may in their composition haue two differences for some are composed of greater partes and greater pores others of lesser partes and lesser pores It is true there may be other combinations of pores and partes yet by these two the rest may be esteemed As for the first combination we see that because the pores are greater a greater multitude of partes of light may passe together through one pore and because the partes are greater likewise a greater multitude of rayes may reflect from the same part and may find the same passage quite throughout the diaphanous body On the contrary side in the second combination where both the pores and the partes of the diaphanous body are litle the light must be but litle that findeth the same passage Now that refraction is greater or lesser happeneth two wayes for it is eyther when one diaphanous body reflecteth light att more angles then an other and by consequence in a greater extent of the superficies or else when one body reflecteth light from the same point of incidence in a shorter line and in a greater angle then an other doth In both these wayes it is apparant that a body composed of greater partes and greater pores exceedeth bodies of the opposite kind for by reason that in the first kind more light may beate against one part a body in which that happeneth will make an appearance from a further part of its superficies whereas in a body of the other sort the light that beateth against one of the litle partes of it will be so litle as it will presently vanish Againe because in the first the part att the incidence is greater the surface from which the reflexion is made inwardes hath more of a plaine and straight superficies and consequently doth reflect att a greater angle then that whose superficies hath more of inclining But we must not passe from this question without looking a litle into the nature of those bodies in which refraction is made for if they as well as the immediate causes of refraction do likewise fauour vs it will not a litle aduance the certainety of our determination To this purpose we may call to mind how experience sheweth vs that great refractions are made in smoake and in mistes and in glasses and in thicke bodied waters and Monsieur Des Cartes addeth certaine oyles and spirits or strong waters Now most of these we see are composed of litle consistent bodies swimming in an other liquide body As is plaine in smoake and mistes for the litle bubbles which rise in the water before they gett out of it and that are smoake when they gett into the ayre do assure vs that smoake is nothing else but a company of litle round bodies swimming in the ayre and the round consistence of water vpon herbes leafes and twigges in a rynde or dew giueth vs also to vnderstand that a mist is likewise a company of litle round bodies that sometimes stand sometimes floate in the ayre as the wind driueth them Our very eyes beare wittnesse to vs that the thicker sort of waters are full of litle bodies which is the cause of their not being cleare As for glasse the blowing of it conuinceth that the litle dartes of fire which pierce it euery way do naturally in the melting of it conuert it into litle round hollow bodies which in their cooling must settle into partes of the like figure Then for crystall and other transparent stones which are found in cold places it can not be otherwise but that the nature of cold piercing into the maine body and contracting euery litle part in it selfe this contraction must needes leaue vacant pores betweene part and part And that such transparent stones as are made by heate haue the like effect and property may be iudged out of what we see in brickes and tiles which are left full of holes by the operation of the fire And I haue seene in bones that haue layne a long time in the sunne a multitude of sensible litle pores close to one an other as if they had beene formerly stucke all ouer with subtile sharpe needles as close as they could be thrust in by one other The Chymicall oyles and spirits which Monsieur Des Cartes speaketh of are likely to be of the same composition since that such vse to be extracted by violent fires for a violent fire is made by the coniunction of many rayes together and that must needes cause great pores in the body it worketh vpon and the sticking nature of these spirits is capable of conseruing them Out of all these obseruations it followeth that the bodies in which greatest refractions do happen are compounded as we haue said of great partes and great pores And therefore by onely taking light to be
haue declared and must sticke firmely together according to their degree of density and cōsequently could not be moued on without still breaking a sūderatt euery impulse as much of the massy body as were already made one by their touching And if you should say they did not become one and yet allow them to touch immediately one an other without hauing any ayre or fluide body betweene them then if you suppose them to moue onwardes vpon these termes they would be changed locally without any intrinsecall change which in the booke De Mundo as we haue formerly alleadged is demonstrated to be impossible There remayneth onely a third way for two hard surfaces to come together which is that first they should rest sloaping one vpon an other and make an angle where they meete as two lines that cutt one an other do in their point of their intersection and so containe as it were a wedge of ayre betweene them which wedge they should lessen by litle and litle through their mouing towardes one an other att their most distant edges whiles the touching edges are like immoueable centers that the others turne vpon till att length they shutt out all the ayre and close together like the two legges of a compasse But neither is it possible that this way they should touch for after their first touch by one line which neyther is in effect a touching as we haue shewed no other partes of them can touch though still they approach neerer and neerer vntill their whole surfaces do entirely touch att one and therefore the ayre must in this case leap out in an instant a greater space then if the surfaces came perpendicularly to one an other for here it must fly from one extremity to the other whereas in the former case it was to goe but from the middle to each side And thus it is euident that no two bodies can arriue to touch one an other vnlesse one of them att the least haue a superficies plyable to the superficies of the other that is vnlesse one of them be lost which is to be liquide in some degree Seeing then that by touching bodies do become one and that liquidity is the cause and meanes whereby bodies arriue to touch we may boldly conclude that two liquide bodies do most easily and readily become one and next to two such a liquide and a hard body are soonest vnited but two hard ones most difficultly To proceede then with our reflections vpon the composition of bodies and vpon what resulteth out of the ioyning and mixture of their first differences Rarity and Density we see how if a liquide substance happeneth to touch a dry body it sticketh easily therevnto Then consider that there may be so small a quantity of such a liquide body as it may be almost impossible for any naturall agent to diuide it further into any lesse partes and suppose that such a liquide part is betweene two dry partes of a dense body and sticking to them both becometh in the nature of a glew to hold them together will it not follow out of what wee haue said that these two dense partes will be as hard to be seuered from one an other as the small liquide part by which they sticke together is to be diuided So that when the viscous ligaments which in a body do hold together the dense partes are so small and subtile as no force we can apply vnto them can diuide them the adhesion of the partes must needes grow then inseparable And therefore we vse to moysten dry bodies to make them the more easily be diuided whereas those that are ouermoyst are of themselues ready to fall in pieces And thus you see how in generall bodies are framed Out of which discourse we may ballance the degrees of solidity in bodies for all bodies being composed of humide and dry partes we may conceiue either kind of those partes to be bigger or lesser or to be more rare or more dense Now if the dry partes of any body be extreme litle and dense and the moyst partes that ioyne the dry ones together be very great and rare then that body will be very easy to be dissolued But if the moyst partes which glew together such extreme litle and dense dry partes be eyther lesser in bulke or not so rare then the body composed of them will be in a stronger degree of consistence And if the moyst partes which serue for this effect be in an excesse of littlenesse and withall dense then the body they compose will be in the highest degree of consistence that nature can frame On the other side if you glew together great dry partes which are moderately dense and great by the admixtion of humide partes that are of the least cise in bulke and dense withall then the consistence will decrease from the height of it by how much the partes are greater and the density lesse But if vnto dry partes of the greatest cise and in the greatest remissenesse of density you adde humide partes that are both very great and very rare then the composed body will proue the most easily dissolueable of all that nature affordeth After this casting our eyes a litle further towardes the composition of particular bodies wee shall find still greater mixtures the further we goe for as the first and simplest compounded bodies are made of the foure Elements so others are made of these and againe a third sort of them and so onwardes according as by motion the partes of euery one are broken in sunder and mingled with others Those of the first order must be of various tempers according to the proportions of the Elements whereof they are immediately made As for example such a proportion of fire to the other three Elements will make one kind of simple body and an other proportion will make an other kind and so throughout by various combinations and proportions among all the Elements In the effecting of which worke it will not be amisse to looke a litle vpon nature and obserue how she mingleth and tempereth different bodies one with an other whereby she begetteth that great variety of creatures which we see in the world But because the degrees of composition are infinite according to the encrease of number we will containe our selues within the common notions of excesse in the foure primary components for if we should descend once to specify any determinate proportions we should endanger loosing our selues in a wood of particular natures which belong not to vs att present to examine Then taking the foure Elements as materials to worke vpon lett vs first consider how they may be varyed that differing compositions may result out of their mixtures I conceiue that all the wayes of varying the Elements in this regard may be reduced to the seuerall cises of bignesse of the partes of each Element that enter into the composition of any body and to the number of those partes for certainely no
gleweth their earthy partes together greater and greater doth make a wider and wider separation betweene those little earthy partes And so imbueth the whole body of the water with thē into which they are dispersed in little atomes Those that are of biggest bulke remaine lowest in the water And in the same measure as their quantities dissolue into lesse and lesse they ascend higher and higher in the water till att the length the water is fully replenished with them and they are diffused through the whole body of it whiles the more grosse and heauy earthy partes hauing nothing in them to make a present combination betweene them and the water do fall downe to the bottome and settle vnder the water in dust In which because earth alone doth predominate in a very great excesse we can expect no other vertue to be in it but that which is proper to meere earth to witt drynesse and weight Which ordinary Alchymistes looke not after and therefore call it Terra damnata but others find a fixing quality in it by which they performe very admirable operations Now if you powre the impregnated water from the Terra damnata and then euaporate it you will find a pure white substance remaining Which by its bulke sheweth it selfe to be very earthy and by its pricking and corrosiue tast will informe you much fire is in it and by its easy dissolution in a moist place that water had a great share in the production of it And thus the saltes of bodies are made and extracted Now as water doth dissolue salt so by the incorporation and vertue of that corrosiue substance it doth more then salt it selfe can doe for hauing gotten acrimony and more weight by the mixture and dissolution of salt in it it maketh it selfe a way into solide bodies euen into mettals as we see in brasse and iron which are easily rusted by salt dissoluing vpon them And according as the saltes are stronger so this corrosiue vertue encreaseth in them euen so much as neyther syluer nor gold are free from their eating quality But they as well as the rest are diuided into most small partes and are made to swimme in water in such sort as we haue explicated aboue and whereof euery ordinary Alchymist teacheth the practise But this is not all salts do helpe as well to melt hard bodies and mettalls as to corrode them for some fusible salts flowing vpon them by the heate of the fire and others dissolued by the streame of the mettall that incorporateth with them as soone as they are in fluxe they mingle with the naturall iuice of the mettall and penetrate them deeper then without them the fire could doe and swell them and make them fitt to runne These are the principall wayes of the two last instruments in dissoluing of bodies taking each of them by it selfe But there remaineth one more of very great importance as well in the workes of nature as of art in which both the former are ioyned and do concure and that is putrefraction Whose way of working is by gentle heate and moisture to wett and pierce the body it worketh vpon whereby it is made to swell and the hoat partes of it being loosened they are att length druncke vp and drowned in the moist ones from whence by fire they are easily separated as we haue already declared and those moist partes afterwardes leauing it the substance remaineth dry and falleth in pieces for want of the glew that held it together THE SIXTEENTH CHAPTER An explication of certaine Maximes touching the operations and qualities af bodies and whether the Elements be found pure in any part of the world OVt of what we haue determined concerning the naturall actions of bodies in their making and destroying one an other it is easy to vnderstand the right meaning of some termes and the true reason of some maximes much vsed in the schooles As first when Philosophers attribute vnto all sortes of corporeall Agents a Sphere of Actiuity The sense of that manner of expression in fire appeareth plainely by what we haue already declared of the nature and manner of operation of that Element And in like manner if we consider how the force of cold consisteth in a compression of the body that is made cold we may preceiue that if in the cooled body there be any subtile partes which can breake forth from the rest such compression will make them do so Especially if the compression be of little partes of the compressed body within themselues as well as of the outward bulke of the whole body round about for at first the compression of such causeth in the body where they are little holes or pores in the places they are compressed and driuen from which pores they filled vp when they were dilated att their owne naturall liberty But being thus forcibly shrunke vp into lesse roome afterwardes they squeese againe out of their croude all such very loose and subtile partes residing till then with them as can find their way out from among them And these subtile partes that thus are deliuered from the colds compression gett first into the pores that we haue shewed were made by this compression But they can not long stay there for the atomes of aduenient cold that obsesse the compressed body do likewise with all their force throng into those pores and soone driue out the subtile guestes they find there because they are more in number bigger in bulke and more violent in their course then they Who therefore must yield vnto them the little channels and capacities they formerly tooke vp Out of which they are thrust with such an impetuosity that they spinne from them with a vehemence as quickesiluer doth through leather when to purify it or to bring an Amalgame to a due consistence it is strained through the sides of it Now these shoures or streames of atomes issuing from the compressed body are on all sides round about it att exceeding little distances because the pores out of which they are driuen are so likewise And consequently there they remaine round about besieging it as though they would returne to their originall homes as soone as the vsurping strāgers that were too powerfull for thē will giue thē leaue And according to the multitude of thē and to the force with which they are driuen out the compasse they take vp round about the cōpressed body is greater or lesser Which besieging atomes are not so soone carried away by any exterior and accidentall causes but they are supplyed by new emanations succeeding them out of the said compressed body Now this which we haue declared by the example of cold cōpressing a particular body happeneth in all bodies wheresoeuer they be in the world for this being the vnauoydable effect of heate and of cold wheresoeuer they reside which are the actiue qualities by whose meanes not onely fire and water and the other two Elements but all other mixed bodies composed of the
we may remember how in the close of the fourth we remitted a question concerning the existence of the Elements that is whether in any places of the world there were any pure Elements eyther in bulke or in little partes as being not ready to resolue it till we had declared the manner of working of bodies one vpon an other Here then will be a fitt place to determine that out of what we haue discoursed concerning the actions whereby bodies are made and corrupted for considering the vniuersall action of fire that runneth through all the bodies we haue commerce withall by reason of the sunnes influence into them and operation vpon them with his light and beames which reacheth farre and neere and looking vpon the effects which we haue shewed do follow thence it is manifest there can not be any great quantity of any body whatsoeuer in which fire is not intrinsecally mixed And on the other side we see that where fire is once mixed it is very hard to seperate it totally from thence Againe we see it is impossible that pure fire should be conserued without being adioyned to some other body both because of its violent natiuity still streaming forth with a great impetuosity as also because it is so easily ouercome by any obsident body when it is dilated And therefore we may safely conclude that no simple Element can consist in any great quantity in this course of nature which we liue in and take a suruay of Neyther doth it appeare to what purpose nature should haue placed any such storehouses of simples seeing she can make all needefull complexions by the dissolutions of mixed bodies into other mixed bodies sauouring of the nature of the Elements without needing their purity to beginne vpon But on the other side it is as euident that the Elements must remaine pure in euery compounded body in such extreme small partes as we vse to call atomes for if they did not the variety of bodies would be nothing else but so many degrees of rarity and density or so many pure homogeneall Elements and not bodies composed of heterogeneall partes and consequently would not be able to shew that variety of partes which we see in bodies nor could produce the complicated effects which proceede from them And accordingly we are sure that the least partes which our senses can arriue to discouer haue many varieties in them euen so much that a whole liuing creature whose organicall partes must needes be of exceeding different natures may be so litle as vnto our eyes to seeme indiuisible we not distinguishing any difference of partes in it without the helpe of a multiplying glasse as in the least kind of mites and in wormes picked out of Childrens handes we dayly experience So as it is euident that no sensible part can be vnmingled But then againe when we call to mind how we haue shewed that the qualities which we find in bodies do result out of the composition and mixtion of the Elements we must needes conclude that they must of necessity remaine in their owne essences in the mixed body And so out of the whole discourse determine that they are not there in any visible quantity but in those least atomes that are too subtile for our senses to discerne Which position we do not vnderstand so Metaphysically as to say that their substantiall formes remaine actually in the mixed body but onely that their accidentall qualities are found in the compound remitting that other question vnto Metaphysicians those spirituall Anatomistes to decide THE SEVENTEENTH CHAPTER Of Rarefaction and Condensation the two first motions of particular bodies OVr intention in this discourse concerning the natures and motions of bodies ayming no further then att the discouery of what is or may be done by corporeall Agents thereby to determine what is the worke of immateriall and spirituall substances it can not be expected att our handes that we should deliuer here an entire and complete body of naturall Philosophy But onely that we should take so much of it in our way as is needfull to carry vs with truth and euidence to our iourneys end It belongeth not then to vs to meddle with those sublime contemplations which search into the nature of the vast Vniuerse and that determine the vnity and limitation of it and that shew by what stringes and vpon what pinnes and wheeles and hinges the whole world moueth and that from thence do ascend vnto an awfull acknowledgment and humble admiration of the primary cause from whence and of which both the being of it and the beginning of the first motion and the continuance of all others doth proceed and depend Nor in deede would it be to the purpose for anyman to sayle in this Ocean and to beginne a new voyage of nauigation vpon it vnlesse he were assured he had ballast enough in his shippe to make her sinke deepe into the water and to carry her steadily through those vnruly waues and that he were furnished with skill and prouision sufficient to go through without eyther loosing his course by steering after a wrong compasse or being forced backe againe with shorte and obscure relations of discoueries since others that went out before him are returned with a large account to such as are able to vnderstand and summe it vp Which surely our learned countryman and my best and most honoured frend and to whom of all men liuing I am most obliged for to him I owe that litle which I know and what I haue and shall sett downe in all this discourse is but a few sparkes kindled by me att his greate fire hath both profoundly and acutely and in euery regard iudiciously performed in his Dialogues of the world Our taske then in a lower straine and more proportionate to so weake shoulders is to looke no further then among those bodies we conuerse withall Of which hauing declared by what course and engines nature gouerneth their common motions that are found euen in the Elements and from thence are deriued to all bodies composed of them we intend now to consider such motions as accompany diuers particular bodies and are much admired by whosoeuer vnderstandeth not the causes of them To beginne from the easiest and most connexed with the actions of the Elements the handsell of our labour will light vpon the motions of Rarefaction and Condensation as they are the passions of mixed bodies And first for Rarefaction we may remember how it proceedeth originally from fire and dependeth of heate as is declared in the former chapter and wheresoeuer we find Rarefaction we may be confident the body which suffereth it is not without fire working vpon it From hence we may gather that when the ayre imprisoned in a baloone or bladder swelleth against what cōtaineth it and stretcheth its case and seeketh to breake out this effect must proceed from fire or heate though we see not the fire working eyther within the very bowels of the ayre
and water into a decompound of two saltes and water vntill all his partes be anew impregnated with the second grosser salt as before the pure water was with the first subtiler salt And so it will proceed on if proportionate bodies be ioyned vntill the dissoluing composition do grow into a thicke body Vnto which discourse we may adde that when the water is so fully impregnated with the first salt as it will receiue no more remayning in the temper it is in yet if it be heated it will then afresh dissolue more of the same kind Which sheweth that the reason of its giuing ouer to dissolue is for want of hauing the water diuided into partes little enough to sticke vnto more salt which as in this case the fire doth so peraduenture in the other the acrimoniousnesse of the salt doth it And this is sufficient to giue curious wittes occasion by making further experiments to search out the truth of this matter Onely we may note what happeneth in most of the experiencies we haue mentioned to witt that thinges of the same nature do ioyne better and more easily then others that are more estranged from one an other Which is very agreeable to reason seeing that if nature do intend to haue thinges consist long together she must fitt them for such consistence Which seemeth to proceed out of their agreement in foure qualities first in weight for bobies of diuers degrees in weight if they be att liberty do seeke diuers places and consequently substances of like weight must of necessity find one an other out and croud together as we haue shewed it is the natute of heate to make them do now it is apparent that thinges of one nature must in equall partes haue the same or a neere proportion of weight seeing that in their composition they must haue the same proportion of Elements The second reason of the consistence of bodies together that are of the same nature is the agreement of their liquid partes in the same degree of rarity and density for as it is the nature of quantity in common to make all partes be one quantity so it is the nature of the degrees of quantity when two partes do meete that are of the same degree to make them one in that degree of quantity which is to make them stick together in that degree of sticking which the degree of density that is common to them both maketh of its owne nature Whereas partes of different densities can not haue this reason of sticking though peraduenture they may vpon some other ground haue some more efficacious one And in this manner the like humide partes of two bodies becoming one the holes or receptacles in which those humide partes are contained must also needes be vnited The third reason is the agreeable proportion which their seuerall figures haue in respect of one an other for if any humidity be extracted out of a mixed body especially by the vertue of fire it must haue left pores of such figures as the humidity that is drawne out of them is apt to be cutt into for euery humide body not being absolutely humide but hauing certaine dry partes mixed with it is more apt for one kind of figure and greatnesse then for an other and by consequence whensoeuer that humidity shall meete againe with the body it was seuered from it will easily runne through and into it all and will fill exactly the cauities and pores it possessed before The last quality in which bodies that are to consist long together do agree is the biggnesse of the humide and dry partes of the same body for if the humide partes be too bigge for the dry ones it is cleare that the dry ones must needes hang loosely together by them because their glew is in too greate a quantity But if the humide partes bee too little for the dry ones then of necessity some portion of euery little dry part must be vnfurnished of glew by meanes whereof to sticke vnto his fellow and so the sticking partes not being conueniently proportioned to one an other their adhesion can not be so solide as if each of them were exactly fitted to his fellow THE EIGHTEENTH CHAPTER Of an other motion belonging to particular bodies called Attraction and of certaine operations termed Magicall HAuing thus ended the two motions of rarefaction and of condensation the next that offer themselues are the locall motions which some bodies haue vnto others These are sometimes performed by a plaine force in the body towardes which the motion is and other whiles by a hidden cause which is not so easily discerned The first is chiefely that which is ordinarily said to be done by the force of nature to hinder Vacuum and is much practised by nature as in drawing our breath in sucking and in many other naturall operations which are imitated by art in making of pumpes syphons and such other instruments and in that admirable experiment of taking vp a heauy marble stone meerely by an other lying flatt and smoothly vpon it without any other connexion of the two stones together as also by that sport of boyes when they spread a thinne moystned leather vpon a smooth broad stone and presse it all ouer close to it and then by pulling of a string fastened att the middle of the leather they draw vp likewise the heauy stone In all which the first cause of the motion proceedeth from that body towardes which the motion is made And therefore is properly called Attraction For the better vnderstanding and declaring of which lett vs suppose two marble stones very broad and exceeding smoothly polished to be laid one flatt vpon the other and lett there be a ring fastened att the backe part of the vppermost stone and exactly in the middle of it Then by that ring pull it vp perpendicularly and steadily and the vndermost will follow sticking fast to the ouermost and though they were not very perfectly polished yet the nethermost would follow for a while if the ring be suddainely plucked vp but then it will soone fall downe againe Now this plainely sheweth that the cause of their sticking so strongly together when both the stones are very well polished is for that nothing can well enter between them to part them and so it is reduced to the shortnesse of the ayre that is betwixt them which not being capable of so great an expansion nor admitting to be diuided thickewayes so much as is necessary to fill the first growing distance between the two stones till new ayre findeth a course thither that so the swelling of the one may hinder vacuity till the other come in to the rescue the two stones must needes sticke together to certaine limits which limits will depend of the proportion that is between the weight and the continuity of the nethermost stone And when we haue examined this we shall vnderstand in what sense it is meaned that Nature abhorreth from Vacuity and what
an other forwardes as you may do a fine towel through a muskett barrell which though it be too limber to be thrust straight through yet cramming still new partes into it att the length you will driue the first quite through And thus when these partes of water are gott vp to the toppe of the vessell on which the filter hangeth and ouer it on the other side by sticking still to the towe and by their naturall grauity against which nothing presseth on this side the labell they fall downe againe by little and little and by droppes breake againe into water in the vessell sett to receiue them But now if you aske why it will not droppe vnlesse the end of the labell that hangeth be lower then the water I conceiue it is because the water which is all along vpon the flannen is one continued body hanging together as it were a thridde of wyre and is subiect to like accidents as such a continued body is Now suppose you lay a wyre vpon the edge of the basin which the filter resteth vpon and so make that edge the center to ballance it vpon if the end that is outermost be heauyest it will weigh downe the other otherwise not So fareth it with this thridde of water if the end of it that hangeth out of the pott that is to be filtred be longer and consequently heauyer then that which riseth it must needes raise the other vpwardes and fall it selfe downewardes Now the raising of the other implyeth lifting more water from the cisterne and the sliding of it selfe further downewardes is the cause of its conuerting into droppes So that the water in the cisterne serueth like the flaxe vpon a distaffe and is spunne into a thridde of water still as it commeth to the flannen by the drawing it vp occasioned by the ouerweight of the thridde on the other side of the center Which to expresse better by a similitude in a solide body I remēber I haue oftētimes seene in a Mercers shoppe a great heap of massy goldlace lye vpon their stall and a little way aboue it a round smooth pinne of wood ouer which they vse to hale their lace when they wind it into bottomes Now ouer this pinne I haue putt one end of the lace and as long as it hung no lower thē the board vpō which the rest of the lace did lye it stirred not for as the weight of the loose end carried it one way so the weight of the other side where the whole was drew it the other way and in this manner kept it in equilibrity But as soone as I drew on the hāging end to be heauyer thē the clymbing side for no more weigheth thē is in the ayre that which lyeth vpon the board hauing an other cēter then it began to roule to the ground and still drew vp new partes of that which lay vpon the board vntill all was tumbled downe vpon the floore In the same manner it happeneth to the water in which the thridde of it vpon the filter is to be compared fittly vnto that part of the lace which hung vpon the pinne and the whole quantity in the cisterne is like the bulke of lace vpon the shoppeboard for as fast as the filter draweth it vp it is conuerted into a thridde like that which is already vpon the filter in like manner as the wheele conuerteth the flaxe into yarne as fast as it draweth it out from the distaffe Our next consideration will very aptly fall vpon the motion of those thinges which being bent do leape with violence to their former figure whereas others returne but a little and others do stand in that ply wherein the bending of them hath sett them For finding the reason of which effects our first reflection may be to note that a superficies which is more long then broad containeth a lesse floore then that whose sides are equall or neerer being equall and that of those surfaces whose lines and angles are all equall that which hath most sides and angles containeth still the greater floore Whence it is that Mathematicians conclude a circle to be the most capacious of all figures and what they say of lines in respect of a superficies the same with proportion they say of surfaces in respect of the body contained And accordingly we see by consequence that in the making a bagge of a long napkin if the napkin be sowed together longwise it holdeth a great deale lesse then if it be sowed together broadwise By this we see plainely that if any body which is in a thicke and short figure be forced into a thinner which by becoming thinner must likewise become eyther longer or broader for what it looseth one way it must gett an other then that superfieies must needes be stretched which in our case is a Physicall outside or materiall part of a solide body not a Mathematicall consideration of an indiuisible Entity We see also that this change of figures happeneth in the bending of all those bodies whereof we are now enquiring the reason why some of them restore themselues to their originall figures and others stand as they are bent Then to begin with the latter sort we find that they are of a moist nature as among mettalls lead and tinne and among other bodies those which we account soft And we may determine that this effect proceedeth partly from the humidity of the body that standeth bent and partly from a drynesse peculiar to it that comprehendeth and fixeth the humidity of it For by the first they are rendred capable of being driuen into any figure which nature or art desireth and by the second they are preserued from hauing their grauity putt them out of what figure they haue once receiued But because these two conditions are common to all solide bodies we may conclude that if no other circumstance concurred the effect arising out of them would likewise be common to all such and therefore where we find it otherwise we must seeke further for a cause of that transgression As for example if you bend the bodies of young trees or the branches of others they will returne to their due figure It is true they will sometime leane towardes that way they haue beene bent as may be seene euen in great trees after violent tempestes and generally the heades of trees and the eares of corne and the growne hedgerowes will all bend one way in some countries where some one wind hath a maine predominance and raigneth most continually as neere the sea-shore vpon the westerne coast of England where the southwest wind bloweth constantly the greatest part of the yeare may be obserued but this effect proceeding from a particular and extraordinary cause concerneth not our matter in hand We are to examine the reason of the motion of Restitution which we generally see in yong trees and branches of others as we said before In such we see that the earthy part which maketh them stiffe or
rather starke aboundeth more in them then in the others that stand as they are bent att the least in proportion to their natures but I conceiue this is not the cause of the effect we enquire about but that it is a subtile spirit which hath a great proportion of fire in it For as in rarefaction we found that fire which was eyther within or without the body to be rarifyed did cause the rarefaction eyther by entering into it or by working within it so seeing here the question is for a body to goe out of a lesser superficies into a greater which is the progresse of rarefaction and happeneth in the motion of restitution the worke must needes be done by the force of heate And because this effect proceedeth euidently out of the nature of the thing in which it is wrought and not from any outward cause we may conclude it hath its origine from a heate that is within the thing it selfe or else that was in it and may be pressed to the outward partes of it and would sinke into it againe As for example when a yong tree is bended both euery mans conceite is and the nature of the thing maketh vs beleeue that the force which bringeth the tree backe againe to its figure cometh from the inner side that is bent which is compressed together as being shrunke into a circular figure from a straight one for when solide bodies that were plaine on both sides are bent so as on each side to make a portion of a circle the conuexe superficies will be longer then it was before when it was plaine but the concaue will be shorter And therefore we may conceiue that the spirits which are in the contracted part being there squeezed into lesse roome then their nature well brooketh do worke themselues into a greater space or else that the spirits which are crushed out of the conuexe side by the extension of it but do remaine besieging it and do striue to gett in againe in such manner as we haue declared when we spoke of attraction wherein we shewed how the emitted spirits of any body will moue to their owne source and settle againe in it if they be within a conuenient compasse and accordingly do bring backe the extended partes to their former situation or rather that both these causes do in their kindes concurre to driue the tree into its naturall figure But as we see when a sticke is broken it is very hard to replace all the splinters euery one in its proper situation so it must of necessity fall out in this bending that certaine insensible partes both inward and outward are thereby displaced and can hardly be perfectly reioynted Whence it followeth that as you see the splinters of a halfe broken sticke meeting with one an other do hold the sticke somewhat crooked so these inuisible partes do the like in such bodies as after bending stand a little that way But because they are very little ones the tree or the branch that hath beene neuer so much bended may so nothing be broken in it be sett straight againe by paines without any notable detriment of its strength And thus you see the reason of some bodies returning in part to their naturall figure after the force leaueth them that did bend them Out of which you may proceed to those bodies that restore themselues entirely whereof steele is the most eminent And of it we know that there is a fiery spirit in it which may be extracted out of it not only by the long operations of calcining digesting and distilling it but euen by grosse heating it and then extinguishing it in wine and other conuenient liquors as Physitians vse to do Which is also confirmed by the burning of steele dust in the flame of a candle before it hath beene thus wrought vpon which afterwardes it will not do whereby we are taught that originally there are store of spirits in steele till they are sucked out Being then assured that in steele there is such aboundance of spirits and knowing that it is the nature of spirits to giue a quicke motion and seeing that duller spirits in trees do make this motion of Restitution we neede seeke no further what it is that doeth it in steele or in any other thinges that haue the like nature which through the multitude of spirits that abound in them especially steele do returne backe with so strong a ierke that their whole body will tremble a great while after by the force of its owne motion By what is said the nature of those bodies which do shrinke and stretch may easily be vnderstood for they are generally composed of stringy partes vnto which if humidity happen to arriue they grow thereby thicker and shorter As we see that droppes of water getting into a new roape of a welle or into a new cable will swell it much thicker and by consequence make it shorter Galileus noteth such wetting to be of so great efficacy that it will shrinke a new cable and shorten it notably notwithstanding the violence of a tempest and the weight and ierkes of a loaden shippe do straine it what is possible for them to stretch it Of this nature leather seemeth to be and parchment and diuers other thinges which if they be proportionably moystned and no exterior force be applyed to extend them will shrinke vp but if they be ouerwetted they will become flaccide Againe if they be soddainely dryed they will shriuell vp but if they be fairely dryed after moderate wetting they will extend themselues againe to their first length The way hauing been opened by what we haue discoursed before we came to the motion of Restitution towardes the discouery of the manner how heauy bodies may be forced vpwardes contrary to their naturall motion by very small meanes in outward appearance lett vs now examine vpon the same groundes if like motions to this of water may not be done in some other bodies in a subtiler manner In which more or lesse needeth not trouble vs since we know that neyther quantity nor the operations of it do consist in an indiuisible or are limited to determined periodes they may not passe It is enough for vs to find a ground for the possibility of the operation and then the perfecting of it and the reducing it to such a height as att the first might seeme impossible and incredibile we may leaue to the oeconomy of wise nature He that learneth to read write or to play on the lute is in the beginning ready to loose hart att euery steppe when he considereth with what labour difficulty and slownesse he ioyneth the letters spelleth syllabes formeth characters fitteth and breaketh his fingers as though they were vpon the racke to stoppe the right frettes and to touch the right stringes And yet you see how strange a dexterity is gained in all these by industry and practise and a readinesse beyond what we could imagine possible if we saw
not dayly the effects If then we can but arriue to decypher the first characters of the hidden Alphabet we are now taking in hand and can but spellingly reade the first syllabes of it we neede not doubt but that the wise Author of nature in the masterpiece of the creature which was to expresse the excellency of the workeman would with excellent cunning and art dispose all circumstances so aptly as to speake readily a complete language rising from those Elements and that should haue as large an extent in practise and expression beyond those first principles which we like children onely lispe out as the vast discourses of wisest and most learned men are beyond the spellinges of infantes and yet those discourses spring from the same roote as the others spellinges doe and are but a raysing of them to a greater height as the admired musike of the best player of a lute or harpe that euer was is deriued from the harsh twanges of course bowestringes which are composed together and refined till att length they arriue to that wonderfull perfection And so without scruple we may in the businesse we are next falling vpon conclude that the admirable and almost miraculous effects we see are but the eleuating to a wonderfull height those very actions and motions which we shall produce as causes and principles of them Letr vs then suppose that there is a solide hard body of an vnctuous nature whose partes are so subtile and fiery that with a little agitation they are much rarifyed and do breath out in steames though they be too subtile for our eyes to discerne like vnto the steame that issueth from sweating men or horses or like the steame that flyeth from a candle when it is putt out but that these steames as soone as they come into the cold ayre are by that cold soddainely condensed againe and by being condensed do shorten themselues and by little and little do retire till they settle themselues vpon the body from whence they sprung in such manner as you may obserue the little tender hornes of snailes vse to shrinke backe if any thing touch them till they settle in little lumpes vpon their heades If I say these stringes of bituminous vapour should in their way outwardes meete with any light and spungie body they would pierce into it and settle in it and if it were of a competent biggenesse for them to wield they would carry it with them which way soeuer they goe so that if they shrinke backe againe to the fountaine from whence they came they must needes carry backe with them the light spungy body they haue fixed their dartes in Consider then that how much heate rarifyeth so much cold cōdenseth and therefore such partes as by agitatiō were spūne out into a subtile thridde of an inch long for exāple as they coole do grow bigger and bigger and consequently shorter and shorter till att length they gather thēselues backe into their maine body and there they settle againe in cold bitumen as they were att the first and the light body that they sticke vnto is drawne backe with them and consequently sticketh to the superficies of the bitumen As if something were tyed att one end of a lutestring extended to its vtmost capacity and the other end were fastened to some pinne as the string shrinketh vp so that which is tyed att it must needes moue neerer and neerer the pinne which artifice of nature iugglers do imitate when by meanes of an vnseene haire they draw light bodies to them Now if all this operation be done without your seeing the little thriddes which cause it the matter appeareth wonderfull and strange But when you consider this progresse that we haue sett downe you will iudge it possible And this seemeth to be the case of those bodies which we call Electricall as yellow amber iett and the like All which are of a bituminous vnctuous nature as appeareth by their easy combustibility and smell when they are burned And if some do not so apparently shew this vnctuous nature it is because eyther they are too hard or else they haue a high degree of aqueous humidiry ioyned with their vnctuosity and in them the operation will be duller in that proportion for as we see that vnctuous substances are more odoriferous then others and do send their steames further off and more efficaciously so we can not doubt but that such bodies as consist in a moist nature do accordingly send forth their emanations in a feebler proportion Yet that proportion will not be so feeble but that they may haue an Electricall effect as well as the more efficacious Electricall bodies which may be perceptible if exact experience be made by an instrument like the mariners needle as our learned countryman Doctor Gilbert teacheth But that in those eminent agents the spirits whereby they attract are vnctuous is plaine because the fire consumeth them and so if the agents be ouerheated they can not worke but moderate heate euen of fire encreaseth their operation Againe they are clogged by mysty ayre or by wetting and likewise are pierced through and cutt asunder by spiritt of wine or aquae ardentes but oyle doth not hurt them Likewise they yield more spirits in the sunne then in the shade and they continue longer when the ayre is cleared by North or by Easterne windes They require to be polished eyther because the rubbing which polisheth them doth take off from their surfaces the former emanations which returning backe do sticke vpon them and so do hinder the passage of those that are within or else because their outsides may be foule or lastly because the pores may be dilated by that smoothing Now that hardnesse and solidity is required doth argue that these spirits must be quicke ones that they may returne smartly and not be lost through their languishing in the ayre Likewise that all bodies which are not eyther exceeding rare or else sett on fire may be drawne by these vnctuous thriddes concludeth that the quality by which they do it is a common one that hath no particular contrarieties such a one as we see is in grease or in pitch to sticke to any thing from which in like manner nothing is exempted but fire and ayre And lastly that they worke most efficaciously when they are heated by rubbing rather then by fire sheweth that their spirits are excitated by motion and are thereby made to flye abroad in such manner as we see in pomanders and in other perfumes which must be heated if you will haue them communicate their sent and alike effect as in them agitation doth in iett yellow amber and such other Electricall bodies for if vpon rubbing them you putt them presently to your nose you will discerne a strong bituminous smell in them all which circumstances do shew that this Electricall vertue consisteth in a certaine degree of rarity or density of the bodies vnctuous emanations Now if these refined and viscous
thriddes of iett or amber do in their streaming abroad meete with a piece of straw or of hay or of a dryed leafe or some such light and spungy body it is no maruayle if they glew themselues vnto it like birdlime and that in their shrinking backe by being condensed againe and repulsed through the coldnesse of the ayre they carry it along with them to their entire body Which they that onely see the effect and can not penetrate into a possibility of a naturall cause thereof are much troubled withall And this seemeth vnto me to beare a fairer semblance of truth then what Cabeus deliuereth for cause of Electricall attractions Whose speculation herein though I can not allow for solide yet I must for ingenious And certainely euen errors are to be commended when they are witty ones and do proceed from a casting further about then the beaten tracke of verball learning or rather termes which explicate not the nature of the thing in question He sayth that the coming of strawes and such other light bodies vnto amber iett and the like proceedeth from a wind raysed by the forcible breaking out of subtile emanations from the Electricall bodies into the ayre which bringeth those light bodies along with it to the Electricall ones But this discourse can not hold for first it is not the nature of vnctuous emanations Generally speaking to cause smart motions singly of themselues Secondly although they should rayse a wind I do not comprehend how this wind should driue bodies directly backe to the source that raysed it but rather any other way and so consequently should driue the light bodies it meeteth with in its way rather from then towardes the Electricall body Thirdly if there should be such a wind raysed and it should bring light bodies to the Electricall ones yet it could not make them sticke therevnto which we see they do turne them which way you will as though they were glewed together Neyther do his experiences conuince any thing for what he sayth that the light bodies are sometimes brought to the Electricall body with such a violence that they rebound backe from it and then returne againe to it maketh rather against him for if wind were the cause of their motion they would not returne againe after they had leaped backe from the Electricall body no more then we can imagine that the wind it selfe doth The like is of his other experience when he obserued that some little graines of sawdust hanging att an Electricall body the furthermost of them not onely fell of but seemed to be driuen away forcibly for they did not fall directly downe but sidewayes and besides did fly away with a violence and smartnesse that argued some strong impulse The reason whereof might be that new emanations might smite them which not sticking and fastening vpon them whereby to draw them neerer must needes push them further or it might be that the emanations vnto which they were glewed shrinking backe vnto their maine body the latter graines were shouldered of by others that already besieged the superficies and then the emanations retiring swiftly the graines must breake of with a force or else we may conceiue it was the force of the ayre that bore them vp a little which made an appearance of their being driuen away as we see feathers and other light thinges descend not straight downe THE TWENTIETH CHAPTER Of the Loadstones generation and its particular motions THere is yet remaining the great mystery of the Loadstone to discourse of Which all Authors both auntient and moderne haue agreed vpon as an vndenyable example and euidence of the shortenesse of mans reach in comprehending and of the impossibility of his reason in penetrating into and explicating such secrets as nature hath a mind to hide from vs. Wherefore our reader I am sure will not in this subiect expect cleare satisfaction or plaine demonstrations att our handes but will iugde we haue fairely acquitted our selues if what we say be any whitt plausible Therefore to vse our best endeauours to content him lett vs reflect vpon the disposition of partes of this habitable globe whereof we are tenants for liues And we shall find that the sunne by his constant course vnder the zodiake heateth a great part of it vnmeasurably more then he doth the rest And consequently that this zodiake being in the middest betweene two as it were endes which we call the Poles these poles must necessarily be extremely cold in respect of the torride zone for so we call that part of the earth which lyeth vnder the zodiake Now looking into the consequence of this we find that the sunne or the sunnes heate which reflecteth from the earth in the torride zone must rarify the ayre extremely and according to the nature of all heate and fire must needes carry away from thence many partes of the ayre and of the earth sticking to that heate in such sort as we haue formerly declared Whence it followeth that other ayre must necessarily come from the regions towardes both the poles to supply what is carryed away from the middle as is the course in other fires and as we haue explicated aboue especially cōsidering that the ayre which cometh from the polewardes is heauyer then the ayre of the torride zone and therefore must naturally presse to be still neerer the earth and so as it were shouldereth vp the ayre of the torride zone towardes the circumference by rouling into its place and this in great quantities and consequently the polar ayre must draw a great trayne after it Which if we consider the great extent of the torride zone we shall easily persuade our selues that it must reach on each side to the very pole for taking from Archimedes that the sphericall superficies of a portion of a spher◠is to the superficies of the whole sphere according as the part of the axis of that sphere comprised within the said portion is to the whole axis and considering that in our case the part of the axis comprised within the torride zone is to the whole axis of the earth in about the proportion of 4. to 10 it must of necessity follow that a fire or great heate raigning in so vast an extent will draw ayre very powerfully from the rest of the world Neyther lett any man apprehend that this course of the sunnes eleuating so great quantities of atomes in the torride zone should hinder the course of grauity there for first the medium is much rarer in the torride zone then in other partes of the earth and therefore the force of the descending atomes needeth not to be so great there as in other places to make bodies descend there as fast as they do else where Secondly there being a perpetuall supply of fresh ayre from the polar partes streaming continually into the torride zone it must of necessity happen that in the ayre there come atomes to the torride zone of that grossenesse that
they can not soddainely be so much rarifyed as the subtiler partes of ayre that are there and therefore the more those subtiler partes are rarifyed and thereby happen to be carried vp the stronger and the thicker the heauyer atomes must descend And thus this concurse of ayre from the polar partes mainetayneth grauity vnder the zodiake where otherwise all would be turned into fire and so haue no grauity Now who coÌ„sidereth the two hemispheres which by the aequator are diuided will find that they are not altogether of equall complexions but that our hemisphere in which the Northpole is comprised is much dryer then the other by reason of the greater coÌ„tinent of land in this and the vaster tract of sea in the other and therefore the supply which cometh froÌ„ the diuers hemispheres must needes be of differeÌ„t natures that which cometh from towardes the Southpole being compared to that which cometh froÌ„ towardes the North as the more wett to the more dry Yet of how different coÌ„plexions soeuer they be you see they are the emanations of one and the same body Not vnlike vnto what nature hath instituted in the ranke of animals among whom the male and the female are so distinguished by heate and cold moysture and drought that neuerthelesse all belongeth but to one nature and that in degrees though manifestly different yet so neere together that the body of one is in a manner the same thing as the body of the other Euen so the complexions of the two hemispheres are in such sort different in the same qualities that neuerthelesse they are of the same nature and are vnequall partes of the same body which we call the earth Now Alchymistes assure vs that if two extractions of one body do meete together they will incorporate one with the other especially if there be some little difference in the complexion of the extractions Whence it followeth that these two streames of ayre making vp one continuate floud of various currents from one end of the world to the other each streame that cometh to the equator from its owne Pole by the extraction of the sunne and that is still supplyed with new matter flowing from its owne pole to the aequator before the sunne can sufficiently rarify and lift vp the atomes that came first perpendicularly vnder its beames as it vseth to happen in the effects of Physicall causes which can not be rigorously aiusted but must haue some latitude in which nature inclineth euer rather to aboundance then to defect will passe euen to the other pole by the conduct of his fellow in case he be by some occasion driuen backe homewardes For as we see in a boule or paile full of water or rather in a pipe through which the water runneth along if there be a little hole att the bottome or side of it the water will wriggle and change its course to creepe out att that pipe especially if there be a little spigott or quill att the outside of the hole that by the narrow length of it helpeth in some sort as it were to sucke it So if any of the files of the army or flould of atomes sucked from one of the Poles to the aequator do there find any gappes or chinkes or lanes of retiring files in the front of the other poles batalia of atomes they will presse in there in such manner as we haue aboue declared that water doth by the helpe of a labell of cotton and as is exemplyfied in all the attractions of venime by venimous bodies whereof we haue giuen many examples aboue and they will go along with them the course they goe For as when a thicke short guilded ingott of siluer is drawne out into a long subtile wyre the wyre continuing still perfectly guilded all ouer doth manifestly shew that the outside and the inside of the ingott do strangely meete together and intermixe in the drawing out so this little streame which like an eddy current runneth backe from the aequator towardes its owne Pole will continue to the end still tincted with the mixture of the other Poles atomes it was incorporated with att its coming to the aequator Now that some little riuolets of ayre and atomes should runne backe to their owne Pole contrary to the course of their maine streame will be easily enough to conceiue if we but consider that att certaine times of the yeare windes do blow more violently and strongly from some determinate part or Rombe of the world then they do att other times and from other partes As for example our East India Mariners tell vs of the famous Monâ—ones they find in those partes which are strong windes that raigne constantly six monthes of the yeare from one polewardes and the other six monthes from the other pole and beginne precisely about the sunnes entering into such a signe or degree of the zodiake and continue till about its entrance into the opposite degree And in our partes of the world certaine smart Easterly or Northeasterly windes do raigne about the end of March and beginning of Aprill when it seemeth that some snowes are melted by the spring heates of the sunne And other windes haue their courses in other seasons vpon other causes All which do euidently conuince that the course of the ayre and of vapors from the poles to the equator can not be so regular and vniforme but that many impediments and crosses do light in the way to make breaches in it and thereby to force it in some places to an opposite course In such sort as we see happeneth in eddy waters and in the course of a tide wherein the streame running swiftly in the middle beateth the edges of the water to the shore and thereby maketh it runne backe att the shore And hence we may conclude that although the maine course of ayre and atomes for example from north to south in our hemisphere can neuer faile of going on towardes the aequator constantly att the same rate in grosse neuerthlesse in seuerall particular little partes of it and especially att the edges of those streames that are driuen on faster then the rest by an extraordinary and accidentall violent cause it is variously interrupted and sometimes entirely stopped and other times euen driuen backe to the northwardes And if peraduenture any man should thinke that this will not fall out because each streame seemeth to be alwayes coming from his owne Pole to the aequator and therefore will oppose and driue backe any bodies that with lesse force should striue to swimme against it or if they sticke vnto them will carry them backe to the aequator We answere that we must not conceiue that the whole ayre in body doth euery where equally encroach from the polewardes vpon the torride zone but as it were in certaine brookes or riuolets according as the contingency of all causes putt together doth make it fall out Now then out of what we haue said it will follow that since
themselues to other iron so strongly or with so many partes as Galileos did would not by much take vp so great weightes as his Neuerthelesse it seemeth not to me that his answere is sufficient or that his reasons conuince for we are to consider that the vertue which he putteth in the iron must according to his owne supposition proceed from the loadestone and then what importeth it whether the superficies of the iron which toucheth an other iron be so exactly plaine or no Or that the partes of it be more solide then the partes of the stone For all this conduceth nothing to make the vertue greater then it was since no more vertue can go from one iron to the other then goeth from the loadestone to the first iron and if this vertue can not tye the first iron to the loadestone it can not proceed out of this vertue that the second iron be tyed to the first Againe if a paper be putt betwixt the cappe and an other iron it doth not hinder the magneticall vertue from passing through it to the iron but the vertue of taking vp more weight then the naked stone was able to do is thereby rendered quite vselesse Therefore it is euident that this vertue must be putt in something else and not in the application of the magneticall vertue And to examine his reasons particularly it may very well fall out that whatsoeuer the cause be the point of a needle may be too little to make an exact experience in and therefore a new doctrine ought not lightly be grounded vpon what appeareth in the application of that And likewise the greatnesse of the surfaces of the two irons may be a condition helpefull to the cause whatsoeuer it be for greater and lesser are the common conditions of all bodies and therefore do auayle all kindes of corporeall causes so that no one cause can be affirmed more then an other meerely out of this that great doth more and little doth lesse To come then to our owne solution I haue considered how fiâ—â— hath in a manner the same effect in iron as the vertue of the loadestone hath by meanes of the cappe for I find that fire coming through iron red glowing hoat will burne more strongly then if it should come immediately through the ayre as also we see that in pittecoale the fire is stronger then in charcoale And neuerthelesse the fire will heat further if it come immediately from the source of it then if it come through a red iron that burneth more violently where it toucheth and likewise charcoale will heat further then pittcoale that neere hand burneth more fiercely In the same manner the loadestone will draw further without a cappe then with one but with a cappe it sticketh faster then without one Whence I see that it is not purely the vertue of the loadestone but the vertue of it being in iron which causeth this effect Now this modification may proceed eyther from the multitude of partes which come out of the loadestone and are as it were stopped in the iron and so the sphere of their actiuity becometh shorter but stronger or else from some quality of the iron ioyned to the influence of the loadestone The first seemeth not to giue a good account of the effect for why should a little paper take it away seeing we are sure that it stoppeth not the passage of the loadestones influence Againe the influence of the loadestone seemeth in its motion to be of the nature of light which goeth in an insensible time as farre as it can reach and therefore were it multiplyed in the iron it would reach further then without it and from it the vertue of the loadestone would beginne a new sphere of actiuity Therefore we more willingly cleaue to the latter part of our determination And there vpon enquiring what quality there is in iron whence this effect may follow we find that it is distinguished from a loadestone as a mettall is from a stone Now we know that mettalls haue generally more humidity then stones and we haue discoursed aboue that humidity is the cause of sticking especially when it is little and dense These qualities must needes be in the humidity of iron which of all mettalls is the most terrestriall and such humidity as is able to sticke to the influence of the loadestone as it passeth through the body of the iron must be exceeding subtile and small and it seemeth necessary that such humidity should sticke to the influence of the loadestone when it meeteth with it considering that the influence is of it selfe dry and that the nature of iron is akinne to the loadestone wherefore the humidity of the one and the drought of the other will not faile of incorporating together Now then if two irons well polished and plaine be vnited by such a glew as resulteth out of this composition there is a manifest appearance of much reason for them to sticke strongly together This is confirmed by the nature of iron in very cold countries and very cold weather for the very humidity of the ayre in times of frost will make vpon iron sooner then vpon other thinges such a sticking glew as will pull off the skinne of a mans hand that toucheth it hard And by this discourse you will perceiue that Galileos arguments do confirme our opinion as well as his owne and that according to our doctrine all circumstances must fall out iust as they do in his experiences And the reason is cleare why the interposition of an other body hindereth the strong sticking of iron to the cappe of the loadestone for it maketh the mediation between them greater which we haue shewed to be the generall reason why thinges are easily parted Lett vs then proceed to the resolution of the other cases proposed The second is already resolued for if this glew be made of the influence of the loadestone it can not haue force further then the loadestone it selfe hath and so farre it must haue more force then the bare influence of the loadestone Or rather the humidity of two irons maketh the glew of a fitter temper to hold then that which is betweene a dry loadestone and iron and the glew entereth better when both sides are moist then when only one is so But this resolution though it be in part good yet it doth not euacuate the whole difficulty since the same case happeneth betweene a stronger and a weaker loadestone as betweene a loadestone and iron for the weaker loadestone whilst it is within the sphere of actiuity of the greater loadestone draweth away an iron sett betwixt them as well as a second iron doth For the reason therefore of the little loadestones drawing away the iron we may consider that the greater loadestone hath two effects vpon the iron which is betwixt it and a lesser loadestone and a third effect vpon the little loadestone it selfe The first is that it impregnateth the iron and giueth
it a permanent vertue by which it worketh like a weake loadestone The second is that as it maketh the iron worke towardes the lesser loadestone by its permanent vertue so also it accompanyeth the steame that goeth from the iron towardes the little loadestone with its owne steame which goeth the same way so that both these steames do in company clymbe vp the steame of the little loadestone which meeteth them and that steame clymbeth vp the enlarged one of both theirs together The third effect which the greater loadestone worketh is that it maketh the steame of the little loadestone become stronger by augmenting its innate vertue in some degree Now then the going of the iron to eyther of the loadestones must follow the greater and quicker coniunction of the two meeting steames and not the greatnesse of one alone So that if the coniunction of the two steames between the iron and the little loadestone be greater and quicker then the coniunction of the two steames which meete between the greater loadestone and the iron the iron must sticke to the lesser loadestone And this must happen more often then otherwise for the steame which goeth from the iron to the greater loadestone will for the most part be lesse then the steame which goeth from the lesser loadestone to the iron And though the other steame be neuer so great yet it can not draw more then according to the proportion of its Antagonists coming from the iron Wherefore seeing the two steames betwixt the iron and the little loadestone are more proportionable to one an other and the steame coming out of the little loadestone is notably greater then the steame going from the iron to the greater loadestone the coniunction must be made for the most part to the little loadestone And if this discourse doth not hold in the former part of the Probleme betwixt a second iron and a loadestone it is supplyed by the former reason which we gaue for that particular purpose The third case dependeth also of this solution for the bigger an iron is so many more partes it hath to sucke vp the influence of the loadestone and consequently doth it thereby the more greedily and therefore the loadestone must be carried to it more violently and when they are ioyned sticke more strongly The sixt question is why the variations of the needle from the true north in the northerne hemisphere are greater the neerer you go to the Pole and lesser the neerer you approach to the Aequator The reason whereof is plaine in our doctrine for considering that the magnetike vertue of the earth streameth from the north towardes the aequator it followeth of necessity that if there be two streames of magnetike fluours issuing from the north one of them precisely from the pole and the other from a part of the earth neere the pole and that the streame coming from the point by side the pole be but a little the stronger of the two there will appeare very little differencies in their seuerall operations after they haue had a long space to mingle their emanations together which thereby do ioyne and grow as it were into one streame Whereas the neerer you come to the pole the more you will find them seuered and each of them working by its owne vertue And very neere the point which causeth the variation each streame worketh singly by it selfe and therefore here the point of variation must be master and will carry the needle strongly vnto his course from the due north if his streame be neuer so little more efficacious then the other Againe a line drawne from a point of the earth wyde of the pole to a point of the meridian neere the aequator maketh a lesse angle then a line drawne from the same point of the earth to a point of the same meridian neerer the pole wherefore the variation being esteemed by the quantities of the said angles it must needes be greater neere the pole then neere the aequator though the cause be the same But because it may happen that in the partes neere the aequator the variation may proceed from some piece of land not much more northerly then where the needle is but that beareth rather easterly or westerly from it and yet Gilberts assertion goeth vniuersally when he sayth the variations in southerne regions are lesse then in northerne ones we must examine what may be the reason thereof And presently the generation of the loadestone sheweth it plainely for seeing the nature of the loadestone proceedeth out of this that the sunne worketh more vpon the torride zone then vpon the poles and that his too strong operation is contrary to the loadestone as being of the nature of fire it followeth euidently that the landes of the torride zone can not be so magneticall generally speaking as the polar landes are and by consequence that a lesser land neere the pole will haue a greater effect then a larger continent neere the aequator and likewise a land further off towardes the pole will worke more strongly then a neerer land which lyeth towardes the aequator The seuenth question is whether in the same part of the world a touched needle may att one time vary more from the true north point and att an other time lesse In which Gilbert was resolute for the negatiue part but our latter Mathematiciens are of an other mind Three experiences were made neere London in three diuers yeares The two first 42 yeares distant from one an other and the third 12 yeares distant from the second And by them it is found that in the space of 54 yeares he loadestone hath att London diminished his variation from the north the quantity of 7 degrees and more But so that in the latter yeares the diminution hath sensibly gone faster then in the former These obseruations peraduenture are but little credited by strangers but we who know the worth of the men that made them can not mistrust any notable errour in them for they were very able mathematicians and they made their obseruations with very greate exactnesse and there were seuerall iuditious wittnesses att the making of them as may be seene in Mr. Gillebrand his print concerning this subiect And diuers other particular persons do confirme the same whose creditt though each single might peraduenture be slighted yet all in body make a great accession We must therefore cast about to find what may be the cause of an effect so paradoxe to the rest of the doctrine of the loadestone for seeing that no one place can stand otherwise to the north of the earth att one time then att an other how is it possible that the needle should receiue any new variation since all variation proceedeth out of the inequality of the earth But when we consider that this effect proceedeth not out of the maine body of the earth but only out of the barke of it and that its barke may haue diuers tempers not as yet
the causes of euery one of them exactly which would require both large discourses and aboundance of experiences to acquitt our selues as we ought of such a taske Nor is there a like neede of doing it as formerly for as much as concerneth our designe since the causes of them are palpably materiall and the admirable artifice of them consisteth only in the Daedalean and wunderfull ingenious ordering and ranging them one with an other We shall therefore entreat our Reader from this time forwardes to expect only the common sequele of those particular effects out of the principles already layed And when some shall occurre that may peraduenture seeme att the first sight to be enacted immediately by a vertue spirituall and that proceedeth indiuisibly in a different straine from the ordinary processes which we see in bodies and in bodily thinges that is by the vertues of rarity and density working by locall motion we hope he will be satisfyed att our handes if we lay downe a methode and trace out a course whereby such euents and operations may follow out of the principles we haue layed Though peraduenture we shall not absolutely conuince that euery effect is done iust as we sett it downe in euery particular and that it may not as well be done by some other disposing of partes vnder the same generall scope for it is enough for our turne if we shew that such effects may be performed by corporeall agents working as other bodies do without confining ourselues to an exactnesse in euery linke of the long chaine that must be wound vp in the performance of them To come then to the matter the next thing we are to employ ourselues about now that we haue explicated the natures of those motions by meanes whereof bodies are made and destroyed and in which they are to be considered chiefely as passiue whiles some exteriour agent working vpon them causeth such alterations in them and bringeth them to such passe as wee see in the changes that are dayly wrought among substances is to take a suruay of those motions which some bodies haue wherein they seeme to be not so much patients as agents and do containe with in themselues the principle of their owne motion and haue no relation to any outward obiect more then to stirre vp that principle of motion and sett it on worke which when it is once in act hath as it were within the limits of its owne kingdome and seuered from commerce with all other bodies whatsoeuer many other subalterne motions ouer which it presideth To which purpose we may consider that among the compounded bodies whose natures we haue explicated there are some in whom the partes of different complexions are so small and so well mingled together that they make a compound which to our sense seemeth to be all of it quite through of one homogeneous nature and howsoeuer it be diuided each part retaineth the entire and coÌ„plete nature of the whole Others againe there are in which it is easy to discerne that the whole is made vp of seuerall great partes of very differing natures and teÌ„pers And of these there are two kindes the one of such as their differing partes seeme to haue no relation to one an other or correspondence together to performe any particular worke in which all of them are necessary but rather they seeme to be made what they are by chance and by accident and if one part be seuered from an other each is an entire thing by it selfe of the same nature as it was in the whole and no harmony is destroyed by such diuision As may be obserued in some bodies digged out of mines in which one may see luÌ„pes of mettall oore stone and glasse and such different substances in their seuerall distinct situations perfectly compacted into one continuate body which if you diuide the glasse remaineth what it was before the Emerald is still an Emerald the syluer is good syluer and the like of the other subsâ—aÌ„ces the causes of which may be easily deduced out of what we haue formerly said But there are other bodies in which this manifest and notable difference of partes carrieth with it such a subordinatioÌ„ of one of them vnto an other as we can not doubt but that nature made such engines if so I may call them by designe and intended that this variety should be in one thing whose vnity and being what it is should depend of the harmony of the seuerall differing partes and should be destroyed by their seperation As we see in liuing creatures whose particular partes and members being once seuered there is no longer a liuing creature to be found among them Now of this kind of bodies there are two sortes The first is of those that seeme to be one continuate substance wherein we may obserue one and the same constant progresse throughout from the lowest vnto the highest part of it so that the operation of one part is not att all different from that of an other but the whole body seemeth to be the course and through fare of one constant action varying it selfe in diuers occasions and occurrences according to the disposition of the subiect The bodies of the secoÌ„d sort haue their partes so notably seperated one froÌ„ the other and each of them haue such a peculiar motion proper vnto them that one might conceiue they were eueâ—y one of them a complete distinct totall thing by it selfe and that all of them were artificially tyed together were it not that the subordination of these partes to one an other is so great and the correspondence betweene them so strict the one not being able to subsist without the other from whom he deriueth what is needefull for him and againe being so vsefull vnto that other and hauing its action and motion so fitting and necessary for it as without it that other can not be as plainely conuinceth that the compound of all these senerall partes must needes be one indiuiduall thing I remember that when I trauailed in spaine I saw there two engines that in some sort do expresse the natures of these two kindes of bodies The one att Toledo the other att Segouia both of them sett on worke by the current of the riuer in which the foundation of their machine was layed That att Toledo was to force vp water a great hieght from the riuer Tagus to the Alcazar the King his pallace that standeth vpon a high steepe hill or rocke almost perpendicular ouer the riuer In the bottome there was an indented wheele which turning round with the streame gaue motion att the same time to the whole engine which consisted of a multitude of little troughes or square ladles sett one ouer an other in two parallele rowes ouer against one an other from the bottome to the toppe and vpon two seuerall diuided frames of tymber These troughes were closed att one end with a trauerse bord to retaine the water from running out there which
as they partake more or lesse of this heate which is the Architect that mouldeth and frameth them all Vndoubtedly this can be none other but the hart whose motion and manner of working euidently appeareth in the twinckling of the first red spotte which is the first change in the egge and in the first matter of other liuing creatures Yet I do not intend to say that the hart is perfectly framed and completely made vp with all its partes and instruments before any other part be begunne to be made but only the most vertuous part and as it were the marrow of it which serueth as a shoppe or a hoat forge to mould spirits in from whence they are dispersed abroad to forme and nourish other partes that stand in neede of them to that effect The shootings or litle red stringes that streame out from it must surely be arteries through which the bloud issuing from the hart and there made and imbued with the nature of the seede doth runne till encountring with fitt matter it engrosseth it selfe into braine liuer lightes c. From the braine cheifely groweth the marrow and by consequent the bones containing it which seeme to be originally but the outward part of the marrow baked and hardened into a strong cruste by the great heate that is kept in as also the sinnewes which are the next principall bodies of strength after the bones The marrow being very hoat dryeth the bones and yet with its actuall moysture it humecteth and nourisheth them too in some sort The spirits that are sent from the braine do the like to the sinewes And lastly the arteries and veines by their bloud to cherish and bedew the flesh And thus the whole liuing creature is begunne framed and made vp THE FIVE AND TWENTIETH CHAPTER How a Plant or Animal cometh to that figure it hath BVt before we goe any further and search into the operations of this animall a wonderfull effect calleth our consideration vnto it which is how a plant or animal cometh by the figure it hath both in the whole and in euery part of it Aristotle after he had beaten his thoughts as farre as he could vpon this question pronunced that this effect could not possibly be wrought by the vertue of the first qualites but that it sprung from a more diuine origine And most of the contemplators of nature since him do seeme to agree that no cause can be rendered of it but that it is to be referred meerely to the specificall nature of the thing Neyther do we intend to derogate from eyther of these causes since that both diuine prouidence is eminently shewne in contriuing all circumstances necessary for this worke and likewise the first temperament that is in the seede must needes be the principall immediate cause of this admirable effect This latter then being supposed our labour and endeauour will be to vnfold as farre as so weake and dimme eyes can reach the excellency and exactnesse of Gods prouidence which can not be enough adored when it is reflected vpon and marked in the apt laying of adequate causes to produce such a figure out of such a mixture first layed From them so artificially ranged we shall see this miracle of nature to proceed and not from an immediate working of God or nature without conuenient and ordinary instruments to mediate and effect this configuration through the force and vertue of their owne particular natures Such a necessity to interest the cheife workeman att euery turne in particular effects would argue him of want of skill and prouidence in the first laying of the foundations of his designed machine he were an improuident clockemaker that should haue cast his worke so as when it were wound vp and going it would require the masters hand att euery houre to make the hammer strike vpon the bell Lett vs not then too familiarly and irreuerently ingage the Almighty Architect his immediate handy worke in euery particular effect of nature Tali non est dignus vindice nodus But lett vs take principles within our owne kenning and consider how a body hath of its owne nature three dimensions as Mathematicians vse to demonstrate and that the variety which we see of figures in bodies proceedeth out of the defect of some of these dimensions in proportion to the rest As for example that a thing be in the forme of a square tablette is for that the cause which gaue it length and breadth could not also giue it thickenesse in the same proportion for had it beene able to giue profundity as well as the other two it had made a cube instead of a tablette In like manner the forme of a lamine or very long square is occasioned by some accident which hindereth the cause from giuing breadth and thickenesse proportionable to the length And so other figures are made by reason that their causes are somewayes bound to giue more of some dimension to one part then to an other As for example when water falleth out of the skye it hath all the litle corners or extancies of its body grated of by the ayre as it rouleth and tumbleth downe in it so that it becometh round and continueth in that forme vntill that settling vpon some flatt body as grasse or a leafe it receiueth a litle plainenesse to the proportion of its weight mastering the continuity of it And therefore if the droppe be great vpon that plaine body it seemeth to be halfe a sphere or some lesse portion of one but if it be a litle droppe then the flatt part of it which is that next vnto the grasse is very litle and vndiscernable because it hath not weight enough to presse it much and spread it broad vpon the grasse and so the whole seemeth in a manner to be a sphere but if the externe causes had pressed vpon this droppe only broadwayes and thickewayes as when a turner maketh a round pillar of a square one then it would haue proued a cylinder nothing working vpon it to grate off any of its length but only the corners of the breadth and thickenesse of it And thus you see how the fundamentall figures vpon which all the rest are grounded are contriued by nature not by the worke of any particular Agent that immediately imprinteth a determinate figure into a particular body as though it wrought it there att once according to a foreconceiued designe or intelligent ayme of producing such a figure in such a body but by the concurrence of seuerall accidentall causes that do all of them ioyne in bringing the body they file and worke vpon into such a shape Only we had like to haue forgotten the reason and cause of the concaue figure in some partes of plantes which in the ordinary course of nature we shall find to grow from hence that a round outside being filled with some liquor which maketh it grow higher and higher it happeneth that the succeeding causes do contract this liquor and do
when we open them the ayre must needes come in to fill that capacity which else would be empty and when we shutt them againe as in a paire of bellowes we putt it out This may suffice concerning the primary motion of rootes but in that of the hart we shall find the matter not altogether so plaine Monsieur des Cartes following herein the steppes of the learned and ingenious Haruey who hath inuented and teacheth that curious and excellent doctrine of the circulation of the bloud as indeede what secret of nature can be hidden from so sharpe a witt when he applyeth himselfe to penetrate into the bottome of it explicateth the matter much after this sort That the hart within in the substance of it is like a hollow cauerne in whose bottome were an hoat stone on which should droppe as much liquour as the fiery stone could blow into smoake and this smoake or steame should be more then the caue could containe wherefore it must breake out which to do it presseth on all sides to gett an issue or dore to lett it out it findeth of two sortes but only one kind of them will serue it for this purpose for the one sort of these dores openeth inwardes the other outwardes which is the cause that the more it striueth to gett out the faster it shutteth the doores of the first kinde but by the same meanes it beateth backe the other dores and so getteth out Now when it is gone quite out of this cauerne and consequently leaueth it to its naturall disposition whereas before it violently stretched it out and by doing so kept close the dores that open inwardes then all the partes of it beginne to slacken and those dores giue way vnto new liquour to droppe in anew which the heate in the bottome of the hart rarifyeth againe into smoake as before And thus he conceiueth the motion of the hart to be made taking the substance of it to be as I may say like vnto limber leather which vpon the filling of it with bloud and steame openeth and dilateth it selfe and att the going of it out it shrinketh together like a bladder But I doubt this explication will not go through the difficulty for first both Galen and Doctor Haruey do shâ—w that as soone as the bloud is come into the hart it contracteth it selfe which agreeth not with Monsieur des Cartes his supposition for in his doctrine there appeareth no cause why it should contract it selfe when it is full but contrariwise it should goe on dilating it selfe vntill enough of the bloud which droppeth into the hart were conuerted into steame to force the dores open that so it may gaine an issue thence and a passage into the body Next Monsieur des Cartes supposeth that the substance of the hart is like a bladder which hath no motion of it selfe but openeth and shutteth according as what is within it stretcheth it out or permitteth it to shrinke and fall together againe Whereas Doctor Haruey prooueth that when it is full it compresseth it selfe by a quicke and strong motion to expell that which is in it and that when it is empty it returneth to its naturall dilatation figure and situation by the ceasing of that agents working which caused its motion Whereby it appeareth to be of such a fibrous substance as hath a proper motion of its owne Thirdly I see not how this motion can be proportionall for the hart must needes open and be dilated much faster then it can be shutt and shrinke together there being no cause putt to shutt it and to bring it to its vtmost periode of shrinking other then the going out of the vapour whereby it becometh empty which vapour not being forced by any thing but by its owne inclination it may peraduenture att the first when there is aboundance of it swell and stretch the hart forcibly out but after the first impulse and breach of some part of it out of the cauerne that enclosed it there is nothing to driue out the rest which must therefore steame very leisurely out Fourthly what should hinder the bloud from coming in before the hart be quite empty and shrunke to its lowest pitch For as soone as the vapour yeildeth within new bloud may fall in from without and so keepe the hart continually dilated without euer suffering it to be perfectly and completely shutt Fifthly the hart of a viper layed vpon a plate in a warme place will beate 24 houres and much longer if it be carefully taken out of its body and the weather be warme and moyst and it is cleare that this is without successioÌ„ of bloud to cause the pulses of it Lâ—kewise the seuered meÌ„bers of liuing creatures will stirre for some time after they are parted from their bodies and in them we can suspect no such cause of motion Sixthly in Monsieur des Cartes his opinion the hart should be hardest when it is fullest and the eruption of the steame out of it should be strongest att the beginning whereas experience sheweth that it is softest when it is att the point of being full and hardest when it is att the point of being empty and the motion strongest towardes the end Seuenthly in Monsieur des Cartes his way there is no agent or force strong enough to make bloud gush out of the hart for if it be the steame only that openeth the dores nothing but it will goe out and the bloud will still remaine behind since it lyeth lower then the steame and further from the issue that letteth it out but Doctor Haruey findeth by experience and teacheth how to make this experience that when a wound is made in the hart bloud will gush out by spurtes att euery shooting of the hart And lastly if Monsieur des Cartes his supposition were true the arteries would receiue nothing but steames whereas it is euident that the chiefe filler of them is bloud Therefore we must enquire after an other cause of this primary motion of a sensitiue creature in the beatings of its hart Wherein we shall not be obliged to looke farre for seeing we find this motion and these pulsations in the hart when it is seperated from the body we may boldely and safely conclude that it must of necessity be caused by something that is within the hart it selfe And what can that be else but heate or spirits imprisoned in a tough viscous bloud which it can not so presently breake through to gett out and yet can stirre within it and lift it vp The like of which motion may be obserued in the heauing vp and sinking downe againe of loose moulde throwne into a pitte into which much ordure hath been emptied The same cause of heate in the earth maketh mountaines and sandes to be cast vp in the very sea so in frying when the panne is full of meate the bubbles rise and fall att the edges treacle and such strong compounded substances whiles they ferment do lift
themselues vp and sinke downe againe after the same manner as the vipers hart doth as also do the bubbles of barme and muste of wine and short endes of lute stringes baked in a iuicy pye will att the opening of it mooue in such sort as they who are ignorant of the feate will thinke there are magots in it and a hoat loafe in which quicke-syluer is enclosed will not only moue thus but will also leape about and skippe from one place to an other like the head or limbe of an animal very full of spirits newly cutt off from its whole body And that this is the true cause of the harts motion appeareth euidently First because this vertue of mouing is in euery part of the hart as you will plainely see if you cutt into seuerall pieces a hart that conserueth its motion long after it is out of the animals belly for euery piece will moue as Doctor Haruey assureth vs by experience and I my selfe haue often seene vpon occasion of making the greate antidote in which vipers harts is a principall ingredient Secondly the same is seene in the auricles and the rest of the hart whose motions are seuerall though so neere together that they can hardly be distinguished Thirdly Doctor Haruey seemeth to affirme that the bloud which is in the eares of the hart hath such a motion of it selfe precedent to the motion of the eares it is in and that this vertue remaineth in it for a litle space after the eares are dead Fourthly in touching a hart which had newly left mouing with his fingar wetted with warme spittle it began to moue againe as testifying that heate and moysture made this motion Fifthly if you touch the vipers hart ouer with vinegar with spiritt of wine with sharpe white wine or with any piercing liquour it presently dyeth for the acutenesse of such substances pierceth through the viscous bloud and maketh way for the heate to gett out But this first mouer of an animal must haue something from without to stirre it vp else the heate would lye in it as if it were dead and in time would become absolutely so In egges you see this exteriour mouer is the warmeth of the henne hatching theÌ„ And in EmbryoÌ„s it is the warmeth of the mothers wombe But when in either of them the hart is coÌ„pletely formed and is enclosed in the brest much heate is likewise enclosed there in all the partes neere about the hart partly made by the hart it selfe and partly caused by the outward heate which helped also to make that in the hart and then although the warmeth of the henne or of the mothers wombe do forsake the hart yet this stirreth vp the natiue hâ—â—te within the hart and keepeth it in motion and maketh it feede still vpon now fewell as fast as that which it worketh vpon decayeth But to expresse more particularly how this motion is effected we are to note that the hart hath in the ventricles of it three sortes of fibers the first go long wayes or are straight ones on the sides of the ventricles from the thicke basis of the hart towardes the litle tippe or cone of it the second go crosse or roundwayes about the ventricles within the hart and the third are transuersall or thwart ones Next we are to remember that the hart is fixed to the body by its base and hangeth loose att the cone Now then the fibers being of the nature of such thinges as will swell and grow thicker by being moistened and consequently shrinke vp in length and grow shorter in proportion to their swelling thicker as you may obserue in a loosewrought hempen roape it must of necessity follow that when the bloud falleth into the hart which is of a kind of spungye substance the fibers being therewith moystened they will presently swell in roundnesse and shrinke in length Next we are to note that there is a double motion in the hart the one of opening which is called Diastole the other of shutting which is termed Systole And although Doctor Haruey seemeth to allow the opening of the hart to be no motion but rather a relenting from motion neuerthelesse me thinketh it is manifest that it is not only a coÌ„plete motion but in a manner the greater motion of the two though indeede the lesse sensible because it is performed by litle and litle for in it the hart is drawne by violence froÌ„ its naturall positioÌ„ which must be as it is of all heauy thinges that by which it approacheth most to the ceÌ„ter of grauity and such a position we see it gaineth by the shutting of it Now to declare how both these motions are effected we are to consider how att the end of the systole the hart is voyded and cleansed of all the bloud that was in it whence it followeth that the weight of the bloud which is in the auricles pressing vpon the Valuulas or dores that open inwardes maketh its way by litle and litle into the ventricles of the hart where it must necessarily swell the fibers and they being swelled must needes draw the hart into a roundish and capacious figure which the more it is done the more bloud cometh in and with greater violence The following effect of which must be that the weight of the bloud ioyned to the weight of the hart it selfe and particularly of the conus or tippe which is more solide and heauy in proportion to its quantity then the rest of the hart must necessarily sett the hart into the naturall motion of descending according to its grauity the which consequently is performed by a liuely ierke whereby it cometh to passe that the tippe of our hart doth as it were spring vp towardes our brest and the bloud is spurted out by other Voluulae that open outwardes which are aptly disposed to be opened vpon such a motion and do conuey it to the arteries In the course of which motion we may note how the figure of our hart contributeth to its springing vp towardes our brest for the line of distance which is betweene the basis and the tippe being longer on that side which is towardes the backe then on the other which is towardes the brest it must happen that when the hart shutteth and straighteneth it selfe and thereby extendeth it selfe to its length the tippe will butte out forewardes towardes the brest Against this doctrine of the motion and of the systole and diastole of the hart it may be obiected that beasts harts do not hang like a mans hart straight downewardes but rather horizontally and therefore this motion of grauity can not haue place in them neuerthelesse we are sure they beate and do open and shutt regularly Besides if there were no other cause but this of grauity for the motion of a mans hart it would follow that one who were sett vpon his head or hung by his heeles could not haue the motion of his hart which posture neuerthelesse we see men remaine
it would be sometimes higher sometimes lower though for the most part what he deliuered together he ended in the same key as he begunne it But when he had once suffered the passages of his voyce to close att the opening them againe chance or the measure of his earnestnesse to speake or to reply gaue him his tone which he was not capable of moderating by such an artifice as is recorded Caius Gracchus vsed when passion in his orations to the people droue out his voyce with too great a vehemence or shrillenesse He could discerne in an other whether he spoke shrill or lowe and he would repeate after any body any hard word whatsoeuer Which the Prince tryed often not only in English but by making some Welchmen that serued his Highnesse speake wordes of their language Which he so perfectly ecchoed that I confesse I wondered more att that then att all the rest And his Master himselfe would acknowledge that the rules of his art reached not to produce that effect with any certainety And therefore concluded this in him must spring from other rules he had framed vnto himselfe out of his owne attentiue obseruation which the aduantage that nature had iustly giuen him in the sharpenesse of his other senses to supply the want of this endowed him with an ability and sagacity to do beyond any other man that had his hearing He expressed it surely in a high measure by his so exact imitation of the welch pronunciation for that tongue like the Hebrew employeth much the gutturall letters and the motions of that part which frameth them can not be seene nor iudged by the eye otherwise then by the effect they may happely make by consent in the other partes of the mouth exposed to view for the knowledge he had of what they said sprung from his obseruing the motions they made so that he could conuerse currently in the light though they he talked with whispered neuer so softly And I haue seene him att the distance of a large chambers breadth say wordes after one that I standing close by the speaker could not heare a syllable of But if he were in the darke or if one turned his face out of his sight he was capable of nothing one said But it is time that we returne to our theame from whence my blind schoolemaster and this deafe Prince whose defects were ouerpayed an other way haue carryed vs with so long a digression Which yet will not be altogether vselesse no more then the former of the wilde man of Liege if we make due reflections vpon them for when we shall consider that odors may be tasted that the relish of meates may be smelled that magnitude and figure may be heard that light may be felt and that soundes may be seene all which is true in some sense we may by this chaÌ„ging the offices of the senses and by looking into the causes thereof come to discerne that these effects are not wrought by the interuention of ayery qualities but by reall and materiall applications of bodies to bodies which in different manners do make the same results within vs. But when I suffered my penne to be steered by my fansie that pleased it selfe and rioted in the remembrance of these two notable persons I was speaking how the strong continuity of the partes of a thing that is moued draweth on the motion and consequently the sound much further then where that which is moued suffereth breaches or the rarity of it occasioneth that one part may be moued without an other for to the proportion of the shaking the noyse coÌ„tinueth As we see in treÌ„bling belles that humme a great while longer then others after the clapper hath strucken them and the very sound seemeth to quiuer and shake in our eares proportionable to the shaking of the bell And in a lute as long as a string that hath been strucken shaketh sensibly to our eye so long and to the same measure the sound shaketh in our eare Which is nothing else but an vndulation of the ayre caused by the smart and thicke vibrations of the corde and multiplyed in the belly of the instrument which is the reason that the concaue figure is affected in most and so when it breaketh out of the instrument in greater quantity then the string immediately did shake it causeth the same vndulations in the whole body of ayre round about And that striking the drumme of the eare giueth notice there in what tenour the string moueth whose vibrations if one stoppe by laying his fingar vpon it the Sound is instantly att an end for then there is no cause on foote that continueth the motion of the ayre which without a continuation of the impulse returneth speedily to quiett through the resistance made vnto it by other partes of it that are further off Out of all which it is plaine that motion alone is able to effect and to giue account of all thinges whatsoeuer that are attributed to sound and that sound and motion do goe hand in hand together and that whatsoeuer is said of the one is likewise true of the other Wherefore it can not be denyed but that hearing is nothing else but the due perception of motion and that motion and sound are in themselues one and the same thing though expressed by different names and comprised in our vnderstanding vnder different notions Which proposition seemeth to be â—et further conuinced by the ordinary experience of perceiuing musike by mediation of a sticke for how should a deâ—fe man be capable of musike by holding a sticke in his teeâ—h whose other end lyeth vpon the vyall or virginals were it not that the proportionall shaking of the sticke working a like dauncing in the mans head did make a like motion in his braine without passing through his eare and consequently without being otherwise sound then as bare motion is sound Or if any man will still persist in hauing sound be some other thing then as we say and that it affecteth the sense otherwise then purely by motion he must neuerthelesse acknowledge that whatsoeuer it be it hath neyther cause nor effect nor breeding nor dying that we eyther know or can imagine and then if he will lett Reason sway he will conclude it vnreasonable to say or suspect so ill grounded a surmise against so cleare and solide proofes which our eares themselues do not a litle confirme their whole figure and nature tending to the perfect receiuing conseruing and multiplying the motions of ayre which happen without a man as who is curious may plainely see in the Anatomistes bookes and discourses THE NINE AND TWENTIETH CHAPTER Of Sight and Colours THere is yet left the obiect of our sight which we call colour to take a suruey of for as for light we haue att large displayed the nature and properties of it from which whether colour be different or no will be the question we shall next discusse for those who are cunning in
Optikes will by refractions and by reflexions make all sortes of colours out of pure light as we see in Rainebowes in those triangular glasses or prismes which some do call fooles Paradises and in other inuentions for this purpose Wherefore in briefe to shew what colour is lett vs lay for a ground that light is of all other thinges in the worlâ— the greatest and the most powerfull agent vpon our eye eyther by it selfe or by what cometh in with it and that where light is not darkenesse is then consider that light being diuersly to be cast but especially through or from a transparent body into which it sinketh in part and in part it doth not and you will conclude that it can not choose but come out from such a body in diuers sortes mingled with darkenesse which if it be in a sensible quantity doth accordingly make diuers appearances and those appearances must of necessity haue diuers hues representing the colours which are middle colours betweene white and blacke since white is the colour of light and darkenesse seemeth blacke Thus those colours are ingendred which are called apparent ones And they appeare sometimes but in some one position as in the raynebow which changeth place as the looker on doth but att other times they may be seene from any part as those which light maketh by a double refraction through a triangular glasse And that this is rightly deliuered may be gathered out of the conditions requisite to their production for that crystall or water or any refracting body doth not admitt light in all its partes is euident by reason of the reflexion that it maketh which is exceeding great and not only from the superficies but euen from the middle of the body within as you may see plainely if you putt it in a darke place and enlighten but one part of it for then you may perceiue as it were a current of light passe quite through the body although your eye be not opposite to the passage so that manifestly it reflecteth to your eye from all the inward partes which it lighteth vpon Now a more oblique reflexion or refraction doth more disperse the light and admitteth more priuations of light in its partes then a lesse oblique one as Galileo hath demonstrated in the first Dialogue of his systeme Wherefore a lesse oblique reflexion or refraction may receiue that in quality of light which a more oblique one maketh appeare mingled with darkenesse and consequently the same thing will appeare colour in one which sheweth it selfe plaine light in the other for the greater the inclination of an angle is the greater also is the dispersion of the light And as colours are made in this sort by the medium through which light passeth so if we conceiue the superficies from which the light reflecteth to be diuersly ordered in respect of reflexion it must of necessity follow that it will haue a diuers luster and sight as we see by experience in the neckes of pigeons and in certaine positions of our eye in which the light passing through our eye browes maketh an appearance as though we saw diuers colours streaming from a candle we looke vpon And accordingly we may obserue how some thinges or rather most do appeare of a colour more inclining to white when they are irradiated with a great light then when they stand in a lesser And we see painters heighten their colours and make them appeare lighter by placing deepe shadowes by them euen so much that they will make obiects appeare neerer and further of meerly by their mixtion of their colours Because obiects the neerer they are the more strongly and liuely they reflect light and therefore appeare the clearer as the others do more dusky Therefore if we putt the superficies of one body to haue a better disposition for the reflexion of light then an other hath we can not but conceiue that such difference in the superficies must needes begett variety of permanent colours in the bodies And according as the superficies of the same body is better or worse disposed to reflexion of light by polishing or by compressure together or the like so the same body remaining the same in substance will shew it selfe of a different colour And it being euident that white which is the chiefest colour doth reflect most light and as euident that blacke reflecteth least light so that it reflecteth shadowes in lieu of colours as the Oâ—sidian stone among the Romanes doth witnesse And it being likewise euident that to be dense and hard and of small partes is the disposition of the obiect which is most apt to reflect light we can not doubt but that white is that disposition of the superficies That is to say it is the superficies of a body consisting of dense of hard and of small partes and on the contrary side that blacke is the disposition of the superficies which is most soft and full of greatest pores for when light meeteth with such a superficies it getteth easily into it and is there as it were absorpt and hidden in caues and cometh not out againe to reflect towardes our eye This doctrine of ours of the geneâ—ation of colours agreeth exactly with Aristotles principles and followeth euidently out of his definitions of light and of colours And for summing vp the generall sentiments of mankind in making his Logicall definitions I thinke no body will deny his being the greatest Master that euer was He defineth light to be actus Diaphani which we may thus explicate It is that thing which maketh a body that hath an aptitude or capacity of being seene quite through it in euery interior part of it to be actually seene quite through according to that capacity of it And he defineth colour to be The terme or ending of a diaphanous body the meaning whereof is that colour is a thing which makâ—th a diaphanous body to reach no further or that colour is the cause why a body is no further diaphanous then vntill where it beginneth or that colour is the reason why we can see no further then to such a degree through or into such a body Which definition fitteth most exactly with the thing it giueth vs the nature of For it is euident that when we see a body the body we see hindereth vs from seeing any other that is in a straight line beyond it And therefore it can not be denyed but that colour terminateth and endeth the diaphaneity of a body by making it selfe be seene And all men do agree in conceiuing this to be the nature of colour and that it is a certaine disposition of a body whereby that body cometh to be seene On the other side nothing is more euident then that to haue vs see a body light must reach from that body to our eye Then adding vnto this what Aristotle teacheth concerning the production of seeing which he sayth is made by the action of the seene body vpon our sense it
darke mysty shadow besides the strong blacke that appeareth beyond the paper which must shoote towardes you in such sort as we said of the whitish lightsome shadow and consequently must lye ouer the strong picture of the white paper now in this case a third middling colour must result out of the mixture of these two extremes of blacke and white since they come to the eye almost in the same line at the least in lines that make so litle a difference in their angles as it is not discernable The like whereof happeneth in clothes or stuffes or stockings that are wouen of diuers coloured but very small thriddes for if you stand so farre of from such a piece of stuffe that the litle thriddes of different colours which lye immediate to one an other may come together as in one line to your eye it will appeare of a middling colour different from both those that it resulteth from but if you stand so neere that each thridde sendeth rays enough to your eye and that the basis of the triaÌ„gle which cometh from each thridde to your eye be long enough to make att the vertex of it which is in your eye an angle bigg enough to be seene singly by it selfe then each colour will appeare apart as it truly is Now the various natures of middling colours we may learne of painters who compose them vpon their palettes by a like mixture of the extremes And they tell vs that if a white colour preuaile strongly ouer a darke colour reds and yellowes result out of that mixture but if blacke preuaile strongly ouer white then blewes violets and seagreenes are made And accordingly in our case we can not doubt but that the primarily liuely picture of the white must preuaile ouer the faint dusky sable mantle with which it cometh mingled to the eye and doing so it must needes make a like appearance as the sunnes beames do when reflecting from a blacke cloud they fringe the edges of it with red and with yellow and the like he doth when he looketh through a rainy or a windy cloude and much like herevnto we shall see this mixture of strong white with a faint shaddow of blacke make at this brimme of the paper a faire ledge of red which will end and vanish in a more lightsome one of yellow But at the hither edge of the paper where the secondary weake picture of white is mingled with the strong blacke picture in this mixture the blacke is preualent and accordingly as we said of the mixture of the painters colours there must appeare at the bottome of the paper a lembe of deepe blew which will grow more and more lightsome the higher it goeth and so passing through violet and seagreene it will vanish in light when it reacheth to the mastering field of primary whitenesse that sendeth his stronger rayes by direct lines and this transposition of the colours at the seuerall endes of the paper sheweth the reason why they appeare quite contrary if you put a blacke paper vpon a white carpet And therefore we neede not adde any thing particularly concerning that And likewise out of this we may vnderstand why the colours appeare quite contrary that is red where before blew appeared and blew where red if we looke vpon the same obiect through the glasse in an other position or situation of it namely if we rayse it so high that we must looke vpwardes to see the obiect which thereby appeareth aboue vs whereas in the former situation it came in through the lower superficies and we looked downe to it and it appeared vnder vs for in this second case the obiects coming into the glasse by a superficies not parallele as before but sloaping from the obiectwardes it followeth that the neerer the obiect is the lesser must the angle be which it maketh with the superficies contrary to what happened in the former case and likewise that if from one poynt of the neerer obiect there fall two rayes vpon the glasse the ray that falleth vppermost will make a lesser angle then the other that falleth lower and so by our former discourse that poynt may come to appeare in the same place with a poynt of the further obiect and thereby make a middling colour So that in this case the white which is neerer will mingle his feeble picture with the blacke that is further off whereas before the blacke that was further off mingled his feeble shadow with the strong picture of the neerer white Wherefore by our rule we borrowed of the painters there will now appeare a blew on the further end off the paper where before appeared a red and by consequence on the neerer end a red will now appeare where in the former case a blew appeared This case we haue chosen as the plainest to shew the nature of such colours out of which he that is curious may deriue his knowledge to other cases which we omit because our intent is only to giue a generall doctrine and not the particulars of the science and rather to take away admiration then to instruct the Reader in this matter As for the various colours which are made by strayning light through a glasse or through some other diaphanous body to discouer the causes and variety of them we must examine what thinges they are that do concurre to the making of them and what accidents may arriue vnto those thinges to vary their product It is cleare that nothing interueneth or concurreth to the producing of any of these colours besides the light it selfe which is dyed into colour and the glasse or diaphanous body through which it passeth In them therefore and in nothing else we are to make our enquiry To beginne then we may obserue that light passing through a Prisme and being cast vpon a reflecting obiect is not alwayes colour but in some circumstances it still continueth light and in others it becometh colour Withall we may obserue that those beames which continue light and endure very litle mutation by their passage making as many refractions do make much greater deflexions from the straight lines by which they came into the glasse then those rayes do which turne to colour as you may experience if you oppose one surface of the glasse perpendicularly to a candle and sett a paper not irradiated by the candle opposite to one of the other sides of the glasse for vpon the paper you shall see faire light shine without any colour and you may perceiue that the 〈◊〉 by which the light cometh to the paper is almost perpendicular to thaâ—â—ine by which the light cometh to the prisme But when light becometh colour it stricketh very obliquely vpon one side of the glasse and cometh likewise very obliquely out of the other that sendeth it in colour vpon a reflectent body so that in conlusion there is nothing left vs wherevpon to ground the generation of such colours besides the litlenesse of the angle and the
sloapingnesse of the line by which the illuminant striketh one side of the glasse and cometh out at the other whem colours proceed from such a percussion To this then we must wholy apply our selues and knowing that generally when light falleth vpon a body with so great a sloaping or inclination so much of it as getteth through must needes be weake and much diffused it followeth that the reason of such colours must necessaryly consist in this diffusion and weakenesse of light which the more it is diffused the weaker it groweth and the more lines of darkenesse are betweene the lines of light and do mingle themselues with them To confirme this you may obserue how iust at the egresse from the prisme of that light which going on a litle further becometh colours no colour at all appeareth vpon a paper opposed close to the side of the glasse vntill remouing it further off the colours beginne to shew themselues vpon the edges thereby conuincing manifestly that it was the excesse of light which hindered them from appearing at the first And in like manner if you putt a burning glasse betweene the light and thâ— prisme so as to multiply the light which goeth through the prisme to the paper you destroy much of the colour by conuerting it into light But on the other side if you thicken the ayre and make it duâ—ky wiâ—h smoake or with dust you will plainely see that where the light cometh through a conuexe glasse perpendicularly opposed to the illuminant there will appeare colours on the edges of the cones that the light maketh and peraduenture the whole cones would appeare coloured if the darkening were conueniently made for if an opacous body be sett within eyther of the cones its sides will appeare coloured though the ayre be but moderately thickned which sheweth that the addition of a litle darkenesse would make that which otherwise appeareth pure light be throughly dyed into colours And thus you haue the true and adequate cause of the appearance of such colours Now to vnderstand what colours and vpon which sides will appeare we may consider that when light passeth through a glasse or other diaphanous body so much of it as shineth in the ayre or vpon some reflecting body bigger then itself after its passage through the glasse must of necessity haue darkenesse on both sides of it and so be coÌ„prised and limited by two darkenesses but if some opacous body that is lesse then the light be putt in the way of the light then it may happen contrarywise that there be darkenesse or the shadow of that opacous body betweene two lights Againe we must consider that when light falleth so vpon a prisme as to make colours the two outward rayes which proceed from the light to the two sides of the superficies at which the light entereth are so refracted that at their coming out againe through the other superficies that ray which made the lesse angle with the outward superficies of the glasse going in maketh the greater angle with the outside of the other superficies coming out and contrarywise that ray which made the greater angle going in maketh the lesser at its coming out and the two internall angles made by those two rayes and the outside of the superficies they issue at are greater then two right angles and so we see that the light dilateth it selfe at its coming out Now because rayes that issue through a superficies the neerer they are to be perpendiculars vnto that superficies so much the thicker they are it followeth that this dilatation of light at its coming out of the glasse must be made and must encrease froÌ„ that side where the angle was least at the going in and greatest at the coming out so that the neerer to the contrary side you take a part of light the thinner the light must be there and contrariwise the thicker it must be the neerer it is vnto the side where the angle at the rayes coming out is the greater Wherefore the strongest light that is the place where the light is least mixed with darkenesse must be neerer that side then the other Consequently herevnto if by an opacous body you make a shadow comprehended within this light that shadow must also haue its strongest part neerer vnto one of the lights betwixt which it is comprised then vnto the other for shadow being nothing else but the want of light hindered by some opacous body it must of necessity lye auersed from the illuminant iust as the light would haue layen if it had not beene hindered Wherefore seeing that the stronger side of light doth more impeach the darkenesse then the feebler side doth the deepest darke must incline to that side where the light is weakest that is towardes that side on which the shadow appeareth in respect of the opacous body or of the illuminant and so be a cause of deepenesse of colour on that side if it happen to be fringed with colour THE ONE AND THIRTIETH CHAPTER The causes of certaine appearances in luminous Colours with a conclusion of the discourse touching the senses and the sensible qualities OVt of these groundes we are to seeke the resolution of all such symptomes as appeare vnto vs in this kind of colours First therefore calling to mind how we haue already declared that the red colour is made by a greater proportion of light mingled with darkenesse and the blew with a lesse proportion it must follow that when light passeth through a glasse in such sort as to make colours the mixture of the light and darkenesse on that side where the light is strongest will incline to a red and their mixture on the other side where the light is weakest will make a violet or blew and this we see to fall out accordingly in the light which is tincted by going through a prisme for a red colour appeareth on that side from which the light doth dilate or decrease and a blew is on that side towardes which it decreaseth Now if a darke body be placed within this light so as to haue the light come on both sides of it we shall see the contrary happen about the borders of the picture or shadow of the darke body that is to say the red colour will be on that side of the picture which is towardes or ouer against the blew colour that is made by the glasse and the blew of the picture will be on that side which is towardes the red that is made by the glasse as you may experience if you place a slender opacous body a long the prisme in the way of the light eyther before or behind the prisme The reason whereof is that the opacous body standing in the middle enuironned by light diuideth the light and maketh two lights of that which was but one each of which lights is comprised betweene two darkenesses to witt betweene each border of shadow that ioyneth to each extreme of the light that cometh from
the glasse and each side of the opacous bodies shadow Wherefore in each of these lights or rather in each of their commixtions with darkenesse there must be red on the one side and blew on the other according to the course of light which we haue explicated And thus it falleth out agreable to the rule we haue giuen that blew cometh to be on that side of the opacous bodies shadow on which the glasse casteth red and red on that side of it on which the glasse casteth blew likewise when light going through a conuexe glasse maketh two cones the edges of the cone betwixt the glasse and the point of concurse will appeare red if the roome be darke enough and the edges of the further cone will appeare blew both for the reason giuen for in this case the point of concurse is the strong light betwixt the two cones of which that betwixt the glasse and the point is the stronger that beyond the point the weaker and for this very reason if an opacous body be put in the axis of thâ—se two cones both the sides of its picture will be red if it be held in the first cone which is next to the glasse and both will be blew if the body be situated in the further cone for both sides being equally situated to the course of the light within its owne cone there is nothing to vary the colours but only the strength and the weakenesse of the two lights of the cones on this side and on that side the point of concurse which point being in this case the strong and cleare light whereof we made generall mention in our precedent note the cone towardes the glasse and the illuminant is the stronger side and the cone from the glasse is the weaker In those cases where this reason is not concerned we shall see the victory carried in the question of colours by the shady side of the opacous body that is the blew colour will still appeare on that side of thâ— opacous bodies shadow that is furthest from the illuminant But where both causes do concurre and contrast for precedence there the course of the light carryeth it that is to say the red will be on that side of the opacous bodies shadow where it is thicker and darker and blew on the other side where the shadow is not so strong although the shadow be cast that way that the red appeareth as is to be seene when a slender body is placed betwixt the prisme and the reflectent body vpon which the light and colours are cast through the prisme and it is euident that this cause of the course of the shadow is in it selfe a weaker cause then the other of the course of light and must giue way vnto it whensoeuer they encounter as it can not be expected but that in all circumstances shadowes should to light because the colours which the glasse casteth in this case are much more faint and dusky then in the other For effects of this later cause we see that when an opacous body lyeth crosse the prisme whiles it standeth endwayes the red or blew colour will appeare on the vpper or lower side of its picture according as the illuminant is higher or lower theÌ„ the transuerse opacous body the blew euer keeping to that side of the picture that is furthest from the body and the illuminant that make it and the red the contrary likewise if an opacous body be placed out of the axis in eyther of the cones we haue explicated before the blew will appeare on that side of the picture which is furthest aduanced in the way that the shadow is cast and the red on the contrary and so if the opacous body be placed in the first cone beside the axis the red will appeare on that side of the picture in the basis of the second cone which is next to the circumference and the blew on that side which is next the axis but if it be placed on one side of the axis in the second cone then the blew will appeare on that side the picture which is next the circumference and the red on that side which is next the center of the basis of the cone There remayneth yet one difficulty of moment to be determined which is why when through a glasse two colours namely blew and red are cast from a candle vpon a paper or wall if you put your eye in the place of one of the colours that shineth vpon the wall and so that colour cometh to shine vpon your eye in such sort that an other man who looketh vpon it will see that colour plainely vpon your eye neuerthelesse you shall see the other colour in the glasse As for example if on your eye there shineth a red you shall see a blew in the glasse and if a blew shineth vpon your eye you shall see a red The reason hereof is that the colours which appeare in the glasse are of the nature of those luminous colours which we first explicated that arise from looking vpon white and blacke bordering together for a candle standing in the ayre is as it were a white situated betweene two blackes the circumstant dusky ayre hauing the nature of a blacke so then that side of the candle which is seene through the thicker part of the glasse appeareth red and that which is seene through the thinner appeareth blew in the same manner as when we looke through the glasse whereas the colours shine coÌ„trarywise vpon a paper or reflecting obiect as we haue already declared together with the reasons of both these appearances each fitted to its proper case of looking through the glasse vpon the luminous obiect serrownded with darkenesse in the one and of obseruing the effect wrought by the same luminous obiect in some medium or vpon some reflectent superficies in the other And to confirme this if a white paper be sett standing hollow before the glasse like halfe a hollow pillar whose flatt standeth edgewayes towardes the glasse so as both the edges may be seene through it the further edge will seeme blew and the neerer will be red and the like will happen if the paper be held in the free ayre parallele to the lower superficies of the glasse without any blacke carpet to limit both endes of it which serueth to make the colours the smarter so that in both cases the ayre serueth manifestly for a blacke in the first betweene the two white edges and in the second limiting the two white endes and by consequence the ayre about the candle must likewise serue for two blackes including the light candle betweene them Seuerall other delightfull experiments of luminous colours I might produce to confirme the groundes I haue layed for the nature and making of them But I conceiue that these I haue mentioned are aboundantly enough for the end I propose vnto my selfe therefore I will take my leaue of this supple and nice subiect referring
my Reader if he be curious to entertaine himselfe with a full variety of such shining wonders to our ingenious countryman and my worthy frend Mr. Hall who at my last being at Liege shewed me there most of the experiences I haue mentioned together with seuerall other very fine and remarkable curiosities concerning light which he promised me he would shortly publish in a worke that he had already cast and almost finished vpon that subiect and in it I doubt not but he will giue entire satisfaction to all the doubts and Problemes that may occurre in this subiect whereas my litle exercise formerly in making experiments of this kind and my lesse conueniency of attempting any now maketh me content my selfe with thus spinning of a course thridde froÌ„ wooll carded me by others that may runne through the whole doctrine of colours whose causes haue hitherto beene so much admired and that it will do so I am stroÌ„gly persuaded both because if I looke vpoÌ„ the causes which I haue assigned a priori me thinkes they appeare very agreeable to nature and to reason and if I apply them to the seuerall PhoenomeÌ„s which Mr. Hall shewed me and to as many others as I haue otherwise mett with I find they agree exactly with them and render a full account of them And thus you haue the whole nature of luminous colours resolued into the mixtion of light and darkenesse by the due ordering of which who hath skill therein may produce any middle colour he pleaseth as I my selfe haue seene the experience of infinite changes in such sort made so that it seemeth vnto me nothing can be more manifest then that luminous colours are generated in the way that is here deliuered Of which how that gentle and obedient Philosophy of Qualities readily obedient to what hard taske soeuer you assigne it will render a rationall account and what discreet vertue it will giue the same thinges to produce different colours and to make different appearances meerely by such nice changes of situation I do not well vnderstand but peraduenture the Patrones of it may say that euery such circumstance is a Conditio sine qua non and therewith no doubt their Auditors will be much the wiser in comprehending the particular nature of light and of the colours that haue their origine from it The Rainebow for whose sake most men handle this matter of luminous colours is generated in the first of the two wayes we haue deliuered for the production of such colours and hath its origine from refraction when the eye being at a conuenient distance from the refracting body looketh vpon it to discerne what appeareth in it The speculation of which may be found in that excellent discourse of Monsieur des Cartes which is the sixt of his Meteors where he hath with great acuratenesse deliuered a most ingenious doctrine of this mystery had not his bad chance of missing in a former principle as I conceiue somewhat obscured it For he there giueth the cause so neate and so iustly calculated to the appearances as no man can doubt but that he hath found out the true reason of this wonder of nature which hath perplexed so many great witts as may almost be seene with our very eyes when looking vpon the fresh deaw in a sunneshiny morning we may in due positions perceiue the raynebow colours not three yardes distant from vs in which we may distinguish euen single droppes with their effects But he hauing determined the nature of light to consist in motion and proceeding consequently he concludeth colours to be but certaine kindes of motion by which I feare it is impossible that any good account should be giuen of the experiences we see But what we haue already said in that point I conceiue is sufficient to giue the reader satisfaction therein and to secure him that the generation of the colours in the rainebow as well as all other coulours is likewise reduced to the mingling of light and darkenesse which is our principall intent to proue adding therevnto by way of aduertissement for others whose leisure may permitt them to make vse thereof that who shall ballance the proportions of luminous colours may peraduenture make himselfe a steppe to iudge of the natures of those bodies which really and constantly do weare like dyes for the figures of the least partes of such bodies ioyntly with the connexion or mingling of them with pores must of necessity be that which maketh them reflect light vnto our eyes in such proportions as the luminous colours of their tincture and semblance do For two thinges are to be considered in bodies in order to reflecting of light eyther the extancies and cauities of them or their hardenesse and softenesse As for the first the proportions of light mingled with darkenesse will be varied according as the extancies or the cauities do exceed and as each of them is great or small since cauities haue the nature of darknesse in respect of extancies as our moderne Astronomers do shew when they giue account of the face as some call it in the orbe of the moone Likewise in regard of soft or of resistent partes light will be reflected by them more or lesse strongly that is more or lesse mingled with darkenesse for whereas it reboundeth smartly backe if it striketh vpon a hard and a resistent body and accordingly 〈◊〉 â—hew it selfe in a bright colour it must of necessity not reflect at all 〈…〉 very fâ—ebly if it penetrateth into a body of much humidity or if â—â—â—oseth it selfe in the pores of it and that litle which cometh so weakely from it must consequently appeare of a dusky dye and these two being all the causes of the great variety of colours we see in bodies according to the quality of the body in which the reall colour appeareth it may easily be determined from which of them it proceedeth and then by the colour you may iudge of the composition and mixture of the rare and dense partes which by reflecting light begetteth it In fine out of all we haue hitherto said in this Chapter we may conclude the primary intent of our so long discourse which is that as well the senses of liuing creatures as the sensible qualities in bodies are made by the mixtion of rarity and density as well as the naturall qualities we spoke of in their place for it can not be denyed but that heate and cold and the other couples or payres which beate vpon our touch are the very same as we see in other bodies the qualities which moue our tast and smell are manifestly a kinne and ioyned with them lighâ— we haue concluded to be fire and of motion which affecteth our eare it is not disputable so that it is euident how all sensible qualities are as truly bodies as those other qualities which we call naturall To this we may adde that the proprieties of these sensible qualities are such as proceed euidently from rarity and
density for to omitt those which our touch taketh notice of as too plaine to be questioned Physitians iudge and determine the naturall qualities of meates and of medecines and of simples by their tastes and smels by those qualities they find out powers in them to doe materiall operatioÌ„s and such as our instrumeÌ„ts for cutting filing brushing and the like doe vnto ruder and grosser bodies All which vertues being in these instruments by the different tempers of rarity and density is a conuincing argument that it must be the same causes which must produce effects of the same kind in their smels and tastes and as for light it is knowne how corporeally it worketh vpon our eyes Againe if we looke particularly into the composition of the organes of our senses we shall meet with nothing but such qualities as we find in the composition of all other naturall bodies If we search into our eye we shall discouer in it nothing but diaphaneity softenesse diuers colours and consistencies which all Anatomistes to explicate doe parallele in other bodies the like is of our tongue our nosethrilles and our eares As for our touch that is so materiall a sense and so diffused ouer the whole body we can haue no difficulty about it Seeing then that all the qualities we can discouer in the organes of our senses are made by the various minglings of rarity with density how can we doubt but that the actiue powers ouer these patients must be of the same nature and kind Againe seing that the examples aboue brought doe conuince that the obiects of one sense may be knowne by an other who can doubt of a community among them if not of degree at â—â—e least of the whole kind As we see that the touch is the groundworke of all the rest and consequently that being euidently corporeâ—â—â— and consisting in a temper of rarity and density why should we mâ—â—e difficulty in allowing the like of the rest Besides lett vs compose of rarity and density such tempers as we find in our seÌ„ses and lett vs againe compose of rarity and density such actors as we haue determined the qualities which we call sensible to be and will it not manifestly follow that these two applyed to one an other must produce such effects as we affirme our senses haue that is to passe the outward obiects by different degrees vnto an inward receiuer Againe lett vs cast our eyes vpon the naturall resolution of bodies and how they moue vs and we shall thâ—reby discouer both what the senses are and why they are iust so many and that they can not be more For an outward body may moue vs eyther in its owne bulke or quantity or as it worketh vpon an other The first is done by the touch the second by the eare when a body mouing the ayre maketh vs take notice of his motion Now in resolution there are three actiue partes proceeding from a body which haue power to moue vs. The fiery part which you see worketh vpon our eyes by the vertue of light The ayry part which we know moueth our nosethrilles by being sucked in with the ayre And lastly the salt which dissolueth in water and so moueth our watry sense which is our taste And these being all the actiue partes that shew themselues in the resolution of a body how can we imagine there should be any more senses to be wrought vpon for what the stable body sheweth of it selfe will be reduced to the touch what as it moueth to hearing what the resolutions of it according to the nature of the resolued atomes that fly abroade will concerne the other three senses as we haue declared And more wayes of working or of actiue partes we can not conceiue to spring out of the nature of a body Finally if we cast our eyes vpon the intention of nature to what purpose are our senses but to bring vs into knowledge of the natures of the substances we conuerse with all surely to effect this there can not be inuented a better or more reasonable expedient then to bring vnto our iudgement seate the likenesses or extractes of those substances in so delicate a modell that they may not be offensiue or cumbersome like so many patternes presented vnto vs to know by them what the whole piece is for all similitude is a communication betweene two thinges in that quality wherein there likenesse consisteth and therefore we can not doubt but that nature hath giuen vs by the meanes we haue explicated an essay of all the thinges in the world that fall vnder our commerce whereby to iudge whether they be profitable or nociue vnto vs and yet in so delicate and subtile a quantity as may in no wayes be offensiue to vs whiles we take our measures to attract what is good and auoyde what is noxious THE TWO AND THIRTIETH CHAPTER Of sensation or the motion whereby sense is properly exercised OVt of the considerations which we haue deliuered in these last Chapters the Reader may gather the vnreasonablenesse of vulgar Phylosophers who to explicate life and sense are not content to giue vs termes without explicating them but will force vs to beleeue contradictions telling vs that life consisteth in this that the same thing hath a power to worke vpon it selfe and that sensation is a working of the actiue part of the same sense vpon its passiue part and yet will admitt no partes in it but will haue the same indiuisible power worke vpon it selfe And this with such violence and downebearing of all opposition that they deeme him not considerable in the schooles who shall offer only to doubt of what they teach him hereabout but brand him with the censure of one who knoweth not and contradicteth the very first principles of Phylosophy And therefore it is requisite we should looke somewhat more particularly into the manner how sensation is made Monsieur des Cartes who by his great and heroyke attempts and by shewing mankinde how to steere and husband their reason to best aduantage hath left vs no excuse for being ignorant of any thing worth the knowing explicating the nature of sense is of opinion that the bodies without vs in certaine circumstances do giue a blow vpon our exterior organes from whence by the continuity of the partes that blow or motion is continued till it come to our braine and seate of knowledge vpon which it giueth a stroke answerable to that which the outward sense first receiued and there this knocke causing a particular effect according to the particular nature of the motion which dependeth off the nature of the obiect that produced it our soule and mind hath notice by this meanes of euery thing that knocketh at our gates and by the great variety of knockes or motions that our braine feeleth which ariseth from as great a variety of natures in the obiects that cause them we are enabled to iudge of the nature and conditions of euery thing we
of the diuers disposition of the animal spirits in these partes which if they thicken too much and become very grosse they are not capable of transmitting the subtile messengers of the outward world vnto the tribunall of the braine to judge of them On the other side if they be too subtile they neyther haue nor giue power to swell the skinne and so to draw the muscles to their heades And surely Monsieur des Cartes taketh the wrong way in the reason he giueth of the palsie for it proceedeth out of aboundance of humors which clogging the nerues rendreth them washy and maketh them loose their drynesse and become lither and consequently vnfitt and vnable in his opinion for sensation which requireth stiffenesse as well as for motion Yet besides all these one difficulty more remayneth against this doctrine more insuperable if I mistake not then any thing or all together we haue yet said which is how the memory should conserue any thing in it and represent bodies to vs when our fansie calleth for them if nothing but motions do come into the braine For it is impossible that in so diuisible a subiect as the spirits motion should be conserued any long time as we see euidently in the ayre through which moue a flaming taper neuer so swiftly and as soone as you sett it downe almost in the very instant the flame of it leaueth being driuen or shaken on one side and goeth quietly and euenly vp its ordinary course thereby shewing that the motion of the ayre which for the time was violent is all of a soddaine quieted and at rest for otherwise the flame of the taper would blaze that way the ayre were moued Assuredly the bodies that haue power to conserue motion long must be dry and hard ones Nor yet can such conserue it very long after the cause which made it ceaseth from its operation How then can we imagine that such a multitude of pure motions as the memory must be stored withall for the vse and seruice of a man can be kept on foote in his braine without confusion and for so long a time as his memory is able to extend vnto Consiâ—er a lessen played vpon the lute or virginals and think with your selfe what power there is or can be in nature to conserue this lesson euer continually playing and reflect that if the impressions vpon the common sense are nothing else but such thinges then they must be actually conserued alwayes actually mouing in our head to the end they be immediately produced whensoeuer it pleaseth our will to call for them And if peraduenture it should be replyed that it is not necessary the motions themselues â—hould alwayes be conserued in actuall being but that it is sufficient there be certaine causes kâ—pt on foote in our heades which are apt to reduce these motions into act whensoeuer there is occasion of them all I shall say herevnto is that this is meerely a voluntary position and that there appeareth no ground for these motions to make and constitute such causes since we neyther meete with any instruments nor discouer any signes whereby we may be induced to beleeue or vnderstand any such operation It may be viged that diuers soundes are by diseases oftentimes made in out eares and appearances of colours in our fantasie But first these colours and soundes are not artificiall ones and disposed and ordered by choice and iudgement for no story hath mentioned that by a disease any man euer heard twenty verses of Virgil or an ode of Horace in his eares or that euer any man sâ—w fâ—ire pictures in his fansye by meanes of a blow giuen him vpon his eye And secondly such colours and soundes as are obiected are nothing else but in the first case the motion of humourâ— in a mans eye by a blow vpon it which humours haue the vertue of making light in such sort as we sâ—e sea wateâ— hath when it is clashâ—d together and in the second case a cold vapour in certaine partes of the braine which causeth beatinges or motion there whence proceedeth â—he imitation of soundes so that these examples do nothing aduantage that party thence to inferre that the similitudes of obiects may be made in the common sense without any reall bodies reserued for that end Yet I intend not to exclude motion from any commerce with â—he memory no more then I haue done from sensation For I will not only graunt that all our remembring is performed by the meanes of motion but I will also acknowledge that in men it is for the most part of nothing eâ—se but of motion For what are wordes but motion And wordes are the chiefest obiects of our remembrance It is true we can if we will remember thinges in their owne shapes as well as by thâ— wordes that expresse them but experience telleth vs that in our familiar conuersation and in the ordinary exercise of our memory we remember and make vse of the wordes rather then of the thinges themselues Besides the impressions which are made vpon all our other senses as well as vpon our hearing are likewise for the most part of thinges in motion as if we haue occasion to make a conception of a man or of a horse we ordinarily conceiue him walking or speaking or eating or vsing some motion in time and as these impressions are successiuely made vpon the outward organes so are they successiuely carried into the fantasie and by like succession are deliuered ouer into the memory from whence when they are called backe againe into the fantasie they moue likewise successiuely so that in truth all our memory will be of motion or at the least of bodies in motion yet it is not chiefly of motion but of the thinges that are moued vnlesse it be when we remember wordes and how those motions do frame bodies which moue in the braine we haue already touched THE THREE AND THERTIETH CHAPTER Of Memory BVt how are these thinges conserued in the braine And how do they reuiue in the fantasie the same motions by which they came in thither at the first Monsieur des Cartes hath putt vs in hope of an explication and were I so happy as to haue seene that worke of his which the world of learned men so much longeth for I assure my selfe I should herein receiue great helpe and furtherance by it Although withall I must professe I can not vnderstand how it is possible that any determinate motion should long be preserued vntaynted in the braine where there must be such a multitude of other motions in the way to mingle with it and bring all into confusion One day I hope this iewell will be exposed to publike view both to do the Author right and to instruct the world In the meane time lett vs see what our owne principles afford vs. We haue resolued that sensation is not a pure driuing of the animal spirits or of some penetrable body in which they swimme against that
which the contained substance should goe out as the moystening of the stringes and mouth of a purse almost shutteth it vntill in some for example the stomacke after a meale the humour being attenuated by little and little getteth out subtilely and so leauing lesse weight in the stomacke the bag which weighth downe lower then the neather orifice at which the digested meate issueth riseth a little and this rising of it is also furthered by the wrinkling vp and shortning of the vpper part of the stomacke which still returneth into its naturall corrugation as the masse of liquid meate leaueth soaking it which it doth by degrees still as more and more goeth out and so what remaineth filleth lesse place and reacheth not so high of the stomacke and thus at leÌ„gth the residue and thicker substance of the meate after the thinnest is gott out in steame and the middling part is boyled ouer in liquor cometh to presse and grauitate wholy vpoÌ„ the orifice of the stomacke which being then helped by the figure and lying of the rest of the stomacke and its stringes and mouth relaxing by hauing the iuice which swelled them squeezed out of them it openeth it selfe and giueth way vnto that which lay so heauy vpon it to tumble out In others for example in a woman with childe the enclosed substaÌ„ce retained first by such a course of nature as we haue sett downe breaketh it selfe a passage by force and openeth the orifice at which it is to goe out by violence when all circumstances are ripe according to natures institution But yet there is the expulsion which is made by physicke that requireth a little declaration It is of fiue kindes vomiting purging by stoole by vrine sweating and saliuation Euery one of which seemeth to consist of two partes namely the disposition of the thing to be purged and the motion of the nerues or fibers for the expulsion as for example when the Physitian giueth a purge it worketh two thinges the one is to make some certaine humour more liquid and purgeable theÌ„ the rest the other is to make the stomacke or belly sucke or vent this humour For the first the property of the purge must be to precipitate that humour out of the rest of the bloud or if it be thicke to dissolue it that it may runne easily For the second it ordinarily heateth the stomacke and by that meanes it causeth the stomacke to sucke out of the veines and so to draw from all partes of the body Besides this it ordinarily filleth the belly with winde which occasioneth those gripings men feele when they take physicke and is cause of the guttes discharging those humours which otherwise they would retaine The like of this happeneth in saliuation for the humours are by the same meanes brought to the stomacke and thence sublimed vp to be spitten out as we see in those who taking Mercury into their body eyther in substance or in smoake or by applicatioÌ„ do vent cold humours from any part the Mercury rising from all the body vp to the mouth of the patient as to the helme of a sublimatory and the like some say of Tobacco As for vomiting it is in a manner wholy the operation of the fibers prouoked by the feeling of some inconuenient body which maketh the stomacke wrincle it selfe and worke and striue to cast out what offendeth it Sweating seemeth to be caused by the heating of some introus body by the stomake which being of subtile partes is by heate dispersed from the middle to the circumference and carrieth with it light humours which turne into water as they come out into the ayre And thus you see in generall and as much as concerneth vs to declare what the naturall faculties are and this according to Galen his owne mind who affirmeth that these faculties do follow the complexion or the temper of the partes of a mans body Hauing explicated how voluntary motion proceedeth from the braine our next consideration ought to be to examine what it is that such an obiect as we brought by meanes of the senses into the braine from without doth contribute to make the braine apply it selfe to worke such voluntary motion To which purpose we will goe a steppe or two backe to meete the obiect at its entrance into the sense and from thence accompany it in all its iourney and motions onwardes The obiect which striketh at the senses dore and getting in mingleth it selfe with the spirits it findeth there is eyther coÌ„forme and agreeable to the nature and temper of those spirits or it is not that is to say in short it is eyther pleasing or displeasing to the liuing creature or it may be of a third kind which being neyther of these we may terme indifferent In which sort soeuer the obiect affect the sense the spirits carry it immediately to the braine vnlesse some distemper or strong thought or other accident hinder them Now if the obiect be of the third kind that is be indiffent as soone as it hath strucken the braine it reboundeth to the circle of the memory and there being speedily ioyned to others of its owne nature it findeth them annexed to some pleasing or displeasing thing or it doth not if not in beastes it serueth to little vse and in men it remayneth there vntill it be called for But if eyther in its owne nature it be pleasing or displeasing or afterwardes in the memory it became ioyned to some pleasing or annoying fellowshipp presently the hart is sensible of it for the hart being ioyned to the braine by straight and large nerues full of strong spirits which ascend from the hart it is impossible but that it must haue some communication with those motions which passe in the braine vpon which the hart or rather the spirits about it is eyther dilated or compressed And these motions may be eyther totally of one kind or moderated and allayed by the mixture of its contrary if of the former sort one of them we call ioy the other griefe which do continue about the hart and peraduenture do oppresse it if they be in the vtmost extremity without sending any due proportion of spirits to the braine vntill they settle a little and grow more moderate Now when these motions are moderate they immediately send vp some aboundance of spirits to the braine which if they be in a conuenient proportion they are by the braine thrust into such nerues as are fitt to receiue them and swelling them they giue motion to the muscles and tendons that are fastened to them and they do moue the whole body or what part of it is vnder command of those nerues that are thus filled and swelled with spirits by the braine If the obiect was conformable to the liuing creature then the braine sendeth spirits into such nerues as caâ—â—y the body to it but if otherwise it causeth a motioÌ„ of auersion or flight from it To the cause of this latter we giue
they are Lett vs then in the next place consider what will follow in the rest of the body out of these varieties of passions once raysed in the hart and sent into the braine It is euidēt that according to the nature and quality of these motions the hart must needes in euery one of them voyde out of it selfe into the arteries a greater or lesser quantity of bloud and that in diuers fashions and the arteries which lye fittest to receiue these suddaine egestions of bloud are those which goe into the braine whose course being directly vpwardes we can not doubt but that it is the hoatest and subtilest part of the bloud and the fullest of spirits that flyeth that way These spirits then running a lōg and perplexed iourney vp and downe in the braine by various meanders and anfractuosities are there mingled with the humide steame of the braine it selfe and are therewith cooled and do come at the last to smoake at liberty in the hollow ventricles of the braine by reeking out of the little arteriall branches that do weaue the plexus choroides or nette we spoke of ere while and they being now growne heauy do fall by their naturall course into that part or processe of the braine which is called medulla spinalis or the marrow of the backe bone which being all besett by the nerues that runne through the body it can not happen otherwise but that these thickened and descending spirits must eyther fall themselues into those nerues or else presse into them other spirits which are before them that without such new force to driue them violently forwardes would haue slided downe more leisurely Now this motion being downewardes and meeting with no obstacle till it arriue vnto its vtmost periode that way the lowest nerues are those which naturally do feele the communication of these spirits first But it is true if the flowing tide of them be great and plentifull all the other nerues will also be so suddainely filled vpon the filling of the lowermost that the succession of their swellings will hardly be perceptible as a suddaine and violent inundation of water seemeth to rise on the sides of the channell as it doth at the milldamme though reason assureth vs it must beginne there because there it is first stopped On the contrary side if the spirits be few they may be in such a proportion as to fill only the lower nerues and to cōmunicate little of thēselues to any of the others And this is the case in the passion of feare which being stored with fewer spirits thē any other passiō that causeth a motiō in the body it moueth the legges most and so carryeth the animal that is affrayd with violence from the obiect that affrighteth him Although in truth it is a faint hope of escaping mingled with feare which begetteth this motion for when feare is single and at its height it stoppeth all motion by contracting the spirits and thence is called stupor as well as griefe for the same reason and accordingly we see extreme cowardes in the extremity of their feare haue not the courage to runne away no more then to defend or helpe themselues by any other motions But if there be more aboundance of spirits then the vpper partes are also moued as well as the legges whose motion contributeth to defense but the braine it selfe and the senses which are in the head being the first in the course of this flood of spirits that is sent from the hart to the head it is impossible but that some part of them should be pressed into the nerues of those senses and so will make the animal vigilant and attentiue to the cause of its feare or griefe But if the feare be so great that it contracteth all the spirits and quite hindereth their motion as in the case we touched aboue then it leaueth also the nerues of the senses destitute of spirits and so by too strong apprehension of a danger the animall neyther seeth nor apprehendeth it but as easily precipitateth it selfe into it as it happeneth to auoyde it being meerely gouerned by chance and may peraduenture seeme valiant through extremity of feare And thus you see in common how all the naturall operations of the body do follow by naturall consequence out of the passions of the mind without needing to attribute discourse or reason eyther to men or beastes to performe them Although at the first sight some of them may appeare vnto those that looke not into their principles and true causes to flow from a source of intelligence whereas it is euident by what wee haue layed open they all proceed from the due ranging and ordering of quantitatiue partes so or so proportioned by rarity and density And there is no doubt but who would follow this search deepely might certainly retriue the reasons of all those externall motions which wee see vse to accompany the seuerall passions in men and Beastes But for our intent wee haue said enough to shew by what kind or order and course of nature they may be effected without confining our selues ouer scrupulously to euery circumstance that we haue touched and to giue a hinte whereby others that will make this inquiry their taske may compile an intire and well grounded and intelligible doctrine of this matter Only we will adde one aduertissement more which is that these externall motions caused by passion are of two kindes for some of them are as it were the beginnings of the actions which nature intendeth to haue follow out of the passions that cause them but others are only bare signes of the passions that produce them and are made by the cōnexion of partes vnnecessary for the maine action that is to follow out of the passion with other partes that by the passion are necessarily moued as for example when an hungry mans mouth watereth at the sight of good meate it is a kind of beginning of eating or of preparation for eating for when we eate nature draweth a moysture into our mouth to humectate our meate and to conuey the tast of it into the nerues of the tongue which are to make report of it vnto the braine but when we laugh the motion of our face aymeth at no further end and followeth only by the connexion of those muscles which draw the face in such a sort vnto some inward partes that are moued by the passion out of which laughing proceedeth But we must not leaue this subiect without some mention of the diaphragma into which the other branch of those nerues that are called of the sixth coniugation doth come for the first branch we haue said goeth into the hart and carryeth thither the obiects that come into the braine and this we shall find carryeth backe to the braine the passion or motion which by the obiect is raysed in the hart Concerning this part of our body you are to note that it is a muscolous membrane which in the middle of it hath a
sinnewy circle wherevnto is fastened the case of the hart called the Pericardium This Diaphragma is very sensible receiuing its vertue of feeling from the aboue mentioned branch of the sixt couple of nerues and being of a trembling nature is by our respiration kept in continuall motion and flappeth vpon all occasions as a drumme head would do if it were slacke and moyst or as a sayle would do that were brought into the wind Out of this description of it it is obuious to conceiue that all the changes of motion in the hart must needes be expressed in the Diaphragma For the hart beating vpon the Pericardium and the Pericardium being ioyned to the Diaphragma such iogges and vibrations must needes be imprinted and ecchoed there as are formed in the hart which from thence can not choose but be carryed to the braine by the sixt couple of nerues And thus it cometh about that we feele and haue sensation of all the passions that are moued in our hart Which peraduenture is the reason why the Greekes do call this part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and from it deriue the verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that in latine signifyeth Sapere with vs to sauour or to like for by this part of our body we haue a liking of any obiect or a motion of inclination towardes it from whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is deriued by composition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a prudent man is he that liketh and is moued to compasse wholesome and good thinges Which Etymology of the word seemeth vnto me more naturall then from the phrenesy from whence some deriue it because a great distemper or inflammation in the Diaphragma often causeth that disease Now because the obiect is cōueyed frō the braine to the hart some part of its way by the same passage as the motion of the hart is reconueyed backe to the braine it must of necessity follow that who is more attētiue to outward sense doth lesse consider or reflect vpō his passion and who is more attentiue to obserue and be gouuerned by what passeth in his hart is lesse wrought vpon by externall thinges For if his fantasy draweth strongly vnto it the emanations from outward agents vpon the senses the streame of those emanations will descend so strongly from the ouerfilled fantasy into the hart that it will hinder the ascent of any fewer and weaker spirits by the same pipe But if the current do sett strongest vpwardes from the hart by the Diaphragma to the braine then it will so fill the pipe by which it ascendeth that little of a weaker tyde can make a contrary eddy water in the same channell And by this meanes nature effecteth a second pleasure or paine in a liuing creature which moueth it oftentimes very powerfully in absence of the primary obiect as we may obserue when thinking of any pleasing or displeasing action we find about our hart a motion which enticeth vs to it or auerteth vs from it for as the first pleasure was occasioned by the stroake which the obiect applyed to the outward sense made vpon the fantasy which can iudge of nothing without being strucken by it so the second pleasure springeth from the spirits moued in the hart by messengers from the braine which by the Diaphragma do rebound a stroake backe againe vpon the fantasy And from hence it proceedeth that memory delighteth or afflicteth vs and that we think of past thinges with sweetenesse or with remorse and thereby assuefaction is wrought in beastes as farre as the appetitiue part doth contribute therevnto to perfect what was begunne in their cognoscitiue part by the ingression of corporeall speciefes into their fantasy in order to the same effect as we haue touched before But now lett vs examine how so small a quantity of a body as cometh from an obiect into our sense can be the cause of so great a motion about our hart To which purpose we are to remember that this motion is performed in the most subtile and thinne substance that can be imagined they are the vitall spirits that do all this worke which are so subtile so agile and so hoat that they may in some sort be termed fire Now if we reflect how violent fire is we neede not wonder at the suddaine and great motion of these passions But we must further take notice that they are not in the greatest excesse but where the liuing creature hath beene long inured and exercised vnto them eyther directly or indirectly so that they arriue not to that pitch so much out of the power of the agent as out of the preparation and disposition of the patient as when cold water hath beene often heated by extinguishing red hoat irons in it after some repetitions a few quenchinges will reduce it from cold to boyling that at the first would scarce haue made it lukewarme and accordingly we see a hart that for a long time hath loued and vehemently hath desired enioying is transported in a high degree at the least sight and renuance of stroakes from its beloued obiect and is as much deiected vpon any the least depriuation of it for to such an obiect the liuing creature is hurried away by a force much resembling the grauity or celerity of a dense body that is sett on running downe a steepe hill vnto which the only taking away of a weake lett or the least stoppe giueth a precipitate course not out of the force of what is done to it but out of the force which was formerly in the thing though for the present it lay there vndiscouered and so likewise in these cases the obiect rather giueth the occasion of the violent motion then the force or power to it These thinges being thus determined some peraduenture may aske how it cometh to passe that the spirits which cause motion being sent on their arrant by the braine do alwayes hitt the right way and light duely into those very sinnewes which moue the liuing creature according as is requisite for its nature Since all the passages are open what is it that gouerneth them so as they neuer mistake and the animal is neuer driuen towardes harme insteed of flying from it Who is their guide in these obscure pathes But it were to impute ignorance to the maker to think that he framed all the passages alike and so euery one of them promiscuously apt to receiue into them all sorts of spirits howsoeuer they be moued and therefore we may assure our selues that since in these diuersities of occasions there are likewise diuers kinds of motions from the hart◠eyther there is proportionable vnto them diuers kindes of passages fitt to receiue and entertaine the spirits according to the condition they are in so as the passages which are aiusted to one kind of spirits will not admitt any of an other nature or else the first motions of liking or disliking in the hart which as we haue said
Aristotles Whether the motion of weighty and light thinges and of such as are forced be not by him as well as by vs atttibuted to externe causes In which all the differēce betweene vs is that we enlarge ourselues to more particulars then he hath done Lett any man reade his bookes of Generation and Corruption and say whether he doth not expressely teach that mixtion which he deliuereth to be the generation or making of a mixt body is done per minima that is in our language and in one word by atomes and signifyeth that all the qualities which are naturall qualities following the composition of the Elements are made by the mingling of the least partes or atomes of the said Elements which is in effect to say that all the nature of bodies their qualities and their operations are compassed by the mingling of atomes the shewing and explicating of which hath beene our labour in this whole Treatise Lett him reade his bookes of Meteores and iudge whether he doth not giue the causes of all the effects he treateth of there by mingling and seperating of great and litle grosse and subtile fiery and watry aery and earthy partes iust as we do The same he doth in his Problemes and in his Parua naturalia and in all other places wheresoeuer he hath occasion to render Physically the causes of Physicall effects The same do Hippocrates and Galen the same their Master Democritus and with them the best sort of Physitians the same do Alchymistes with their Master Geber whose maxime to this purpose we cited aboue the same do all naturall Philosophers eyther auncient commentatours of Aristotle or else moderne inquirers into naturall effects in a sensible and vnderstandable way as who will take the paines to looke into them will easily perceiue Wherefore lett any iuditious Reader that hath looked further into Aristotle then only vpon his Logicall and Metaphysicall workes iudge whether in bulke our doctrine be not conformable to the course of his and of all the best Philosophers that haue beene and are though in detaile or particulars we sometimes mingle therewith our owne priuate iudgements as euery one of them hath likewise shewed vs the way to do by the liberty themselues haue taken to dissent in some pointes from their predecessours And were it our turne to declare and teach Logike and Metaphisikes we should be forced to goe the way of matter and of formes and of priuations in such sort as Aristotle hath trodden it out to vs in his workes of that straine But this is not our taske for the present for no man that contemplateth nature as he aught can choose but see that these notions are no more necessary when we consider the framing of the elements then when we examine the making of compounded bodies and therefore these are to be sett apart as higher principles and of an other straine then neede be made vse of for the actuall composition of compounded thinges and for the resolution of them into their materiall ingredients or to cause their particular motions which are the subiects we now diseourse of Vpon this occasion I thinke it not amisse to touch how the latter sectatours or rather pretenders of Aristotle for truly they haue not his way haue introduced a modell of doctrine or rather of ignorance out of his wordes which he neuer so much as dreamed of howbeit they alleage textes out of him to confirme what they say as Heretikes do out of scripture to prooue their assertions for whereas he called certaine collections or positions of thinges by certaine common names as the art of Logike requireth terming some of them Qualities others actions others places or habites or relatiues or the like these his latter followers haue conceited that these names did not designe a concurrence of sundry thinges or a diuers disposition of the partes of any thing out of which some effect resulted which the vnderstanding considering all together hath expressed the notion of it by one name but haue imagined that euery one of these names had correspondent vnto it some reall positiue entity or thing seperated in its owne nature from the maine thing or substance in which it was and indifferent to any other substance but in all vnto which it is linked working still that effect which is to be expected from the nature of such a quality or action c. And thus to the very negatiues of thinges as to the names of pointes lines instantes and the like they haue imagined positiue Entities to correspond likewise to the names of actions places and the like they haue framed other Entities as also to the names of colours soundes tastes smels touches and the rest of the sensible qualities they haue vnto euery one of them allotted speciall Entities and generally to all qualities whatsoeuer Whereas nothing is more euidēt then that Aristotle meaned by qualities no other thing but that disposition of partes which is proper to one body and is not found in all as you will plainely see if you but examine what beauty health agility science and such other qualities are for by that name he calleth them and by such examples giueth vs to vnderstand what he meaneth by the word Quality the first of which is nothing else but a composition of seuerall partes and colours in due proportion to one an other the next but a due temper of the humours and the being of euery part of the body in the state it should be the third but a due proportion of the spirits and strength of the sinnewes and the last but ordered Phantasmes Now when these peruerters of Aristotle haue framed such Entities vnder that conception which nature hath attributed to substances they do immediately vpon the nicke with the same breath that described them as substances deny them to be substances and thus they confound the first apprehensions of nature by seeking learned and strained definitions for plaine thinges After which they are faine to looke for glew and paste to ioyne these entities vnto the substance they accompany which they find with the same facility by imagining a new Entity whose nature it is to do that which they haue neede of And this is the generall course of their Philosophy whose great subtility and queint speculations in enquiring how thinges do come to passe afford no better satisfaction then to say vpon euery occasion that there is an Entity which maketh it be so As if you aske them how a wall is white or blacke They will tell you there is an Entity or Quality whose essence is to be whitenesse or blackenesse diffused through the wall If you continue to aske how doth whitenesse sticke to the wall They reply that it is by meanes of an Entity called Vnion whose nature it is actually to ioyne whitenesse and the wall together And then if you enquire how it cometh to passe that one white is like an other They will as readily answere that this is wrought by an
as well the manner of vnderstanding as of speaking taketh each paire of these notions to belong vnto one thing that is to haue both of them one and the same Existence although there interuene not the formall expression of their being one Thus we see how one Being serueth two different wayes to ioyne and vnite seuerall apprehensions and if we will examine all the negotiations of our vnderstanding we shall hardly find any notions so farre distant but may be brought together eyther by the one of these wayes or by the other But this composition and ioyning of seuerall apprehensions by the glew of Being is not sufficient to make vs deeme a thing to be really such as their vnion painteth in the mind or as the wordes so tyed together do expresse in speach Well may it cause vs to thinke of the thing but to thinke or to deeme it such an one which word of deeming we shall be obliged henceforward to vse frequently because the word thinking is subiect to equiuocation requireth the addition of something more then barely this composition of apprehensions which vnlesse they be kept straight by some leuell may as well swarue from the subiect as make a true picture of it Here then we are to examine what it is that maketh vs thinke any thing to be such as we apprehend it this we are sure of that when we do so our actions which proceede vpon reason and which haue relation to that thing are gouerned and steered in euery circumstance iust as if the thing were truly so as for example if a man do really deeme the weather to be cold or that his body is distempered he putteth on warmer clothes or taketh physike although peraduenture he is mistaken in both for his deeming them to be so maketh him demeane himselfe in such sort as if really they were so It is then euident that by such thinking or deeming the nature conceiued is made an actiue principle in vs vnto which if we adde that all the knowledge we haue of our soule is no more but that it is an actiue force in vs it seemeth that a thing by hauing apprehensions made of it in our mind and by being really thought to be agreable to such apprehensions becometh as it were a part or affection of our soule and one thing with it And this peraduenture is the cause why an vnderstanding man can not easily leaue an opinion once deepely rooted in him but doth wrestle and striue against all arguments that would force him from it as if a part of his soule or vnderstanding were to be torne from him in such manner as a beast will cry and struggle to saue his body from hauing any of his limbes disioynted or pulled in pieces But this obseruing the effect which followeth of our deeming a thing to be thus or so is not sufficient to informe vs what it is that causeth that deeming We must therefore take the matter a litle higher and looke into its immediate principles and there we shall find that it is the knowing of what we say to be true and the assurance that the thinges are as we deeme them which quieteth our soule and maketh it consent vnto them and proceede to action vpon that consent Now this knowledge is the most eminent part of deeming and of all our acquisitions is the most inseparable from vs and indeed in rigour it is absolutely inseparable by direct meanes howeuer peraduenture by indirect meanes it may be seperated Let vs then consider how we attaine vnto it and how sometimes we faile in the purchase of it and what degrees of assurance or of probability there are betweene it and errour To this intent we may obserue that the greatest assurance and the most eminent knowledge we can haue of any thing is of such Propositions as in the schooles are called Identicall as if one should say Iohn is Iohn or a man is a man for the truth of these propositions is so euident and cleare as it is impossible any man should doubt of them if he vnderstand what he saith and if we should meete with one that were not satisfyed of the verity of them we would not go about to proue them to him but would only apply ourselues to make him reflect vpon the wordes he speaketh without vsing any further industry to gaine his assent therevnto which is a manifest signe that in such propositions the apprehending or vnderstanding them is the same thing as to know them and to consent vnto them or at the least that they are so necessarily conioyned as the one followeth immediately out of the other without needing any other causes to promote this effect more then that a man be disposed and willing to see the truth so as we may conclude that to vnderstand a proposition which openly carrieth its euidence with it is to knew it And by the same reason although the euidence of a proposition should not at the first sight be presently obuious vnto vs yet with vnfolding and explicating of it we come at length to discerne it then likewise the apprehending of it is the knowing of it We must therefore enquire what it is that causeth this euidence and to that purpose reflecting vpon those instances we haue giuen of Identicall propositions we may in them obserue that euidence ariseth out of the plaine Identification of the extremes that are affirmed of one an other so that in what proposition soeuer the Identification of the extremes is plaine the truth of it is euident vnto vs and our minde is satisfyed and at quiet as being assured that it knoweth it to be so as the wordes say it Now all affirmatiue propositions do by the forme of them import an Identification of their extremes for they all agree in saying This is that yet they are not all alike in the euidence of their Identification for in some it sheweth it selfe plainely without needing any further helpe to discouer it and those are without any more adoe knowne of themselues as such Identicall sayings we euen now gaue for examples others require a iourney somewhat further about to shew their Identification which if it be not so hidden but that it may in the end be discouered and brought to light as soone as that is done the knowledge settled by them in the soule is certaine and satisfactory as well as the other but if it be so obscure that we can not display the Identification of it then our mind suspendeth his assent and is vnquiet about it and doubteth of the truth of it in some propositions whiles he searcheth and enquireth after the Identification of their extremes peraduenture he discerneth that it is impossible there should be any betweene them and then on the other side he is satisfyed of the falsity of them for if a proposition be affirmatiue it must necessarily be a false one if there be no Identification betweene the extremes of it By this discourse we haue
corporeall or bodily thing since of all bodily thinges the motions that are made by the sensible qualities arriue neerest to a spirituall nature It remayneth now that we should argue for the immateriality of the soule out of the extent of our apprehension which seemeth to be so excessiue as not to be comprehensible by the limitations of bodies and therefore can not belong vnto a body but because all that needeth to be said in this particular followeth plainely out of groundes already vrged and that this point containeth not any notable particularity deseruing mention here we will not enlarge ourselues any further vpon it but will passe on to the next line of operations proper vnto our mind Only we may not omitt taking notice of the expressions which our mind maketh of nothing or as Logitians terme it of Negations and Priuations which do argue an admirable power in the soule and of a quite different straine from all corporeall thinges and do euidently conuince the immateriality of it for it can not be doubted but that the soule knoweth what she meaneth when she discourseth of Nothing Now if all her knowledge were nothing else but corporeall phantasmes or pictures made by corporeall thinges how should she come to haue a notion of Nothing for since it is most cleare that something can not be like Nothing and that there can not be a participation of what is not how can we conceiue that there should be a similitude made of Nothing The way therefore that the soule taketh in this operation is that comparing two thinges together and finding that the one of them is not the other she reflecteth vpon her owne action and diuiding in it the thing said from the saying she taketh the thing said for a quality or property or predicate as Logitians call it of that thing which she denyeth to be the other thing and then she giueth it a positiue name after she hath first made a positiue notion vnto which the name may agree as for example when the soule considereth a man that hath not the power to see as soone as she hath to her selfe pronunced that he hath not such a power she taketh the not power to see for a quality of that man and then giueth the name of blindenesse to that not power of seeing which though of it selfe it be nothing yet by being that which satisfyeth her act wheÌ„ she sayeth that he hath not the power of seeing it seemeth to be ranked among those thinges vnto which names are due for it hath a notion and the hauing a notion is the clayme or merite or dignity in vertue whereof thinges are preferred to names Now then lett vs enquire how the power of rarity and density or the multiplication and order of partes can be raised and refined to the state of being like nothing or of being the similitude of a negation or what operation of rarity ad density can forge out this notion of blindenesse which we haue explicated and when we â—ind it is beyond their reach to compasse we must acknowledge that the soule is an other kind of engine then all those which are in the storehouse of bodies THE SIXT CHAPTER Containing proofes out of our soules operations in knowing or deeming any thing that she is of a spirituall nature OVr next consideration shall be to see what testimony our manner of Iudging doth yield vs of the nature of the soule concerning which three thinges offer themselues worthy the reflecting on which are our manner of thinking the opposition which frequently occurreth in our thoughts and the nature of truth and of falsehood As for the first we may remember how we haue shewed that all iudgement or deeming is but an apprehension of identification or something immediately following out of it and that a settled iudgement or assent of the mind is as it were a limbe or branch or graft in our soule so that we find that our perceiuing of identification between two thinges or our seeing that the one is the other is that by which our soule encreaseth Now because when two thinges are identifyed the one reacheth not further then the other it is cleare that this encrease of the soule is not made by partes which being added one to an other do cause it to be greater and therefore since this latter course is the only meanes of encrease in bodies and in quantity it is as cleare that the nature of the soule is quite different from the nature of all corporeall or Quantitatiue thinges Againe it is against the nature of identification to be of partes and therefore they who take quantity to be one thing and not many thinges tyed together do acknowledge that truly there are no partes in it and this is so rigorously true that although we speake of two thinges that in reality are identifyed one with an other yet if our wordes be such as imply that our vnderstanding considereth them as distinct partes and by abstraction giueth them the nature of partes then they are no longer identifyed but in good Logike we ought in this case to deny the one of the other As for example though the hand and the foote be the same thing as we haue declared in our first Treatise yet because in the name hand there is a secret exclusion of any thing that is not in the definition of a hand it followeth that in our speech we must say that a hand is not a foote Likewise though it be confessed that the thing which is rationality is also risibility neuerthelesse it is a solecisme in Logike to say that rationality is risibility because it is the nature of these abstracted names to confine their signifycations to one definition and the definitions of these two termes are diuers Out of this consideration it followeth clearely that seeing the nature of partes is contrary to the nature of identity and that the soule in her iudgements worketh alltogether by identity it is impossible that her operations should consist of partes or in any sort resemble any proceeding of Quantitatiue thinges The like will be conuinced out of the opposition we find in our thoughts In it we may consider two thinges first the generation of it next the incompossibility of opposites in the soule To beginne with the first we see that in our speaking opposition is produced by the addition of this word Not as when we say not a man not a penny not a word and therefore it followeth that in our soule there is a notion of it correspondent to the word that expresseth it Now seeing that a notion is a thing and that it is the likenesse of its obiect or rather the same with the obiect lett vs cast about how we should of partes and of Quantity make a nothing or an identification to not and when we find that it is ridiculous and absurd to go about it lett vs conclude that the manner of working which our soule vseth is farre
remaine with the Being it hath vnlesse it be forced out of it if then we shew that Mans soule hath not those groundes in her which maketh all thinges we see to be mortall we must be allowed to haue acquitted ourselues of the charge of prouing her Immortall For this end lett vs looke round about vs and enquire of all the thinges we meete with by what meanes they are changed and come to a periode and are no more The pure elements will tell you that they haue their change by rarefaction and condensation and no otherwise mixed bodies by alteration of their mixture small bodies by the actiuity of the Elements working vpon them and by the meanes of rarefaction and condensation entering into their very constitution and breeding an other temperament by seperation of some of their partes and in their steade mingling others Plantes and trees and other liuing creatures will tell you that their nourishment being insinuated through their whole bodies by subtile pores and blinde passages if they either be stopped by any accident or else be filled with bad nourishment the mixture of the whole faileth of it selfe and they come to dye Those thinges which are violently destroyed we see are made away for the most part by diuision so fire by diuision destroyeth all that cometh in its way so liuing creatures are destroyed by their parting of their bloud from their flesh or of one member from an other or by the euaporation or extinction of their naturall heate In fine we are sure that all thinges which within our knowledge loose the ir Being do so by reason of their Quantity which by diuision or by rarefaction and compression gaineth some new temperature that doth not consist with their former temper After these premisses I neede say no more the conclusion displayeth it selfe readily and plainely without any further trouble for if our labour hath beene hitherto to shew that our soule is indiuisible and that her operations are such as admitt not quantitatiue partes in her it is cleare that she can not be mortall by any of those wayes whereby we see thinges round about vs to perish The like argument we may frame out of locall motion for seeing that all the alteratiue actions we are acquainted withall be performed by locall motion as is deliuered both in grosse and by detaile in our first Treatise and that Aristotle and all vnderstanding Philosophers do agree there can be no locall motion in an indiuisible thing the reason whereof is euident to whomsoeuer reflecteth vpon the nature of Place and of locall motion it is manifest that there can be no motion to hurt the soule since she is concluded to be indiuisible The common argument likewise vsed in this matter amounteth to the same effect to witt that since thinges are destroyed only by their contraries that thing which hath no contrary is not subiect to destruction which Principle both Reason and experience do euery where confirme but a humane soule is not subiect to contrariety and therefore such â—n one can not be destroyed The truth of the assumption may be knowne two wayes first because all the contrarieties that are found within our cognisance do arise out of the primary opposition of Rarity and Density from which the soule being absolutely free she likewise is so from all that groweth out of that roote and secondly we may be sure that our soule can receiue no harme from contrariety since all contraries are so farre from hurting her as contrary wise the one helpeth her in the contemplation of the other and as for contradiction in thoughts which att different times our soule is capable of admitting experience teacheth vs that such thoughts do change in her without any preiudice to her substance they being accidents and hauing their contrariety only betwixt themselues within her but no opposition at all to her which only is the contrariety that may haue power to harme her and therefore whether soeuer of such contrary thoughts be in the soule pertaineth no more to her subsistence then it doth to the subsistence of a body whether it be here or there on the right hand or on the left And thus I conceiue my taske is performed and that I am discharged of my vndertaking to shew the soules Immortality which importeth no more then to shew that the causes of other thinges mortality do not reach her Yet being well persuaded that my reader will not be offended with the addition of any new light in this darke subiect I will striue to discouer if it be possible some positiue proofe or guesse out of the property and nature of the soule it selfe why she must remaine and â—nioy an other life after this To this end lett vs cast our eye backe vpon what hath beene already said concerning her nature We found that truth is the naturall perfection of Mans soule and that she can not be assured of truth naturally otherwise then by euidence and therefore it is manifest that euidence of truth is the full complete perfection at which the soule doth ayme We found also that the soule is capable of an absolute infinity of truth or euideÌ„ce To these two we will adde only one thing more which of it selfe is past question and therefore needeth no proofe and then we will deduce our conclusion and this is that in a man his soule is a farre nobler and perfecter part of him then his body and therefore by the rules of nature and of wisedome his body was made for his soule and not his soule finally for his body These groundes being thus layed lett vs examine whether our soule doth in this life arriue to the end she was ordained for or no and if she do not then it must follow of necessity that our body was made but for a passage by which our soule should be ferried ouer into that state where she is to attaine vnto that end for which her nature is framed and fitted the great skill and artifice of nature shewing and assuring vs that she neuer faileth of compassing her end euen in her meanest workes and therefore without doubt would not breake her course in her greatest whereof man is absolutely the head and chiefe among all those that we are acquainted with Now what the end is vnto which our soule doth ayme is euident since the perfection of euery thing is the end for which it is made the perfection then and end of the soule being euidence and she being capable of infinite euidence lett vs enquire whether in this life she may compasse it or no. To determine this question lett vs compare infinite euidence to that euidence which the greatest and most knowing man that euer liued hath acquired by the worke of nature alone or to that euidence which by aime we may imagine is possible euer to happen vnto any one man to arriue vnto and balancing them well together lett vs iudge whether all that any man can know
here is not in respect of what a mans soule is capable of to be stiled as nothing and deserueth not the name of euidence nor to be accounted of that nature and if our sentence do conclude vpon this lett vs acknowledge that our soule arriueth not to her perfection nor enioyeth her end in this world and therefore must haue infaillibly an other habitation in the next world vnto which nature doth intend her Experience teacheth vs that we can not fully comprehend any one of natures workes and those Philosophers who in a disciplinable way search into nature and therefore are called Mathematicians after they haue written large volumes of some very slender subiect do euer find that hey haue left vntouched an endlesse abisse of knowledge for whomsoeuershall please to build vpon their foundations and that they can neuer arriue neere saying all that may be said of that subiect though they haue said neuer so much of it We may not then make difficulty to beleeue that the wisest and learnedest men in the world haue reason to professe with the father of Philosophers that indeede they know nothing And if so how farre are they from that happinesse and perfection which consisteth in knowing all thinges Of which full sea we neuerthelesse find euen in this low ebbe that our soule is a channell capable and is framed a fitt vessell and instrument to receiue it when the tide shall come in vpon it which we are sure it can not do vntill the bankes of our body which hinder it be broken downe This last consideration without doubt hath added no small corroboration to our former proofes which are so numerous and so cleare as peraduenture it may appeare superfluous to say any more to this point since one conuincing argument establisheth the verity of a conclusion as efficaciously as a hundred and therefore Mathematicians vse but one single proofe in all their propositions after which other supernumerary ones would be but tedious Neuerthelesse since all the seuerall wayes by which we may looke into the nature of our soule the importantest subiect we can busy our thoughts vpon can not faile of being pleasing and delightfull to vs we must not omitt to reflect a litle vpon that great property of our soule by which she is able to mooue and to worke without her selfe being mooued or touched Vnto which adding that all life consisteth in motion and that all motion of bodies cometh from some other thing without them we may euidently conclude that our soule who can mooue without receiuing her motioÌ„ from abread hath in her selfe a spring of life for the which she is not beholding as bodies are to some extrinsecall cause of a nature like vnto her but only to him who gaue her to Be what she is But if she haue such a spring of life within her it were vnreasonable to imagine that she dyed vpon the occasion of the death of an other thing that exerciseth no action of life but as it is caused by an other Neyther may we neglect that ordinary consideration which taketh notice that our soule maketh vse of propositions of eternall truth which we haue aboue produced among our proofes for her being of a spirituall nature and shall now employ it for the prouing her Immortall by considering that the notion of Being which settleth these propositions so as they feare no mutation or shaking by time is the very roote of the soule and that which giueth her her nature and which â—heweth it selfe in all her operations so that if from Being arriueth vnto these propositions to feare no time the like must of necessity betide also the substaÌ„ce of the soule And thus we see that her nature is out of the reach of time that she can comprehend time and sett it limits and that she can think of thinges beyond it and cast about for them All which are cleare testimonies that she is free and secure from the all deuouring and destroying tyranny of that Saturniall Conquerour of the whole world of matter and of Bodies whose seruant is death After all these proofes drawne from the nature of the soule it selfe euery one of them of force to conuince her immortality I must craue leaue to adde one consideration more though it seemeth to belong vnto an others haruest namely to the science of Morals and it is that the position of Mortality in the soule taketh away all morality and changeth men into beastes by taking away the ground of all difference in those thinges which are to gouerne our actions For supposing that the soule dyeth with the body and seeing that man hath a comprehension or notion of time without end it is euident that the spanne of this life must needes appeare contemptible vnto him that well considereth and weigheth it against the other infinite duration and by consequence all the goods and euils which are partes of this life must needes become as despicable and inconsiderable so that better or worse in this life hath not any appearance of difference betweene them at the least not enough to make him labour with paine to compasse the one and eschew the other and for that end to crosse his present inclination in any thing and engage himselfe in any the least difficult taske and so it would ensue that if to an vnderstanding man some course or action were proposed vnto him as better then that he were going about or for the instant had a mind vnto he would relish it as a great marchant or a Banquier would do who dealing for Millions one should presse him with earnestnesse to make him change his resolued course for the gaine of a farthing more this way then the other which being inconsiderable he would not trouble his head with it nor stoppe at what he was in hand with In like manner whosoeuer is persuaded that for an infinity of time he shall be nothing and without sense of all thinges he scorneth for this litle twinckling of his life to take any present paines to be in the next moment well or to auoyde being ill since in this case dying is a secure remedy to any present euill and he is as ready to dye now as a hundred yeares heÌ„ce nor can he estime the losse of a huÌ„dred yeares to be a matter of moment and therefore he will without any further guidance or discourse betake himselfe to do whatsoeuer his present inclination beareth him to with most facility vpoÌ„ this resolutioÌ„ that if any thing crosse him he will preseÌ„tly forgoe his life as a trifle not worth the keeping and thus neyther vertue nor honour nor more pleasure then what at the present tickleth him doth fall into his account which is the ouerthrow of the whole body of Morality that is of mans action and nature But all they who looke into sciences do crosse that for an erroneous and absurd position which taketh away the Principles of any science and consequently the position of the
endeauours be freed from the subiection of time and Place Thus then we plainely see that it is a very different thing to be and to be in a Place and therefore out of a Thinges being in no Place it can not be inferred That it is not or that it is no substance nor contrariwise out of its being can it be inferred that it is in a Place there is no man but of himselfe perceiueth the false consequence of this argument a thing is therefore it is hoat or it is cold and the reason is because hoat and cold are particular accidents of a body and therefore a body can be without eyther of them The like proportion is betweene Being in generall and Being a Body or Being in a Body for both these are particulars in respect of Being but to be in a Place is nothing else but to be in a circumstant Body and so what is not in a Body is not in a Place therefore as it were an absurd illation to say it is therefore it is in a Body no lesse is it to say it is therefore it is somewhere which is equiualent to in some Body and so a great Master Peraduenture one of the greatest and iudiciousest that euer haue beene telleth vs plainely that of it selfe it is euident to those who are truly learned that incorporeall substances are not in Place and Aristotle teacheth vs that the Vniuerse is not in Place But now to make vse of this discourse we must intimate what it is we leuell at in it we direct it to two endes first to lead on our thoughts and to helpe our apprehension in framing some conception of a spirituall substance without residence in Place and to preueÌ„t our fansies checking at such abstraction since we see that we vse it in our ordinary speech when we thinke not on it nor labour for it in all vniuersall and indefinite termes next to trace out an eminent propriety of a seperated soule namely that she is no where and yet vpon the matter that she is euery where that she is bound to no Place and yet remote from none that she is able to worke vpon all without shifting from one to an other or coming neere any and that she is free from all without remoouing or parting from any one A second propriety not much vnlike this first we shall discouer in a seperated soule if we compare her with time We haue heretofore explicated how Time is the motion of the heauens which giueth vs our motion which measureth all particular motions and which comprehendeth all bodies and maketh them awayte his leisure From the large empire of this proud commander a separated soule is free for although she do consist with time that is to say she is whiles time is yet is â—he not in time nor doth she in any of her actions expect time but she is able to frame time to spinne or weaue it out of her selfe and to master it All which will appeare manifestly if we consider what it is to be in time Aristotle sheweth vs that to be comprehended vnder time or to be in time is to be one of those mooueables whose being consisting in motion taketh vp but a part of Time and hath its termes before and behind in time and is measured by Time and must expect the flowing of Time both for Being and for Action Now all this manifestly belongeth vnto Bodies whose both action and being is subiect to a perpetuall locall motion and alteration and consequently a separated soule who is totally a Being and hath her whole operation all together as being nothing but her selfe when we speake of her perfectiue operation can not be said to be in time but is absolutely free from it though time do glide by her as it doth by other thinges and so all that she knoweth or can do she doeth and knoweth at once with one act of the vnderstanding or rather she is indeede and really all that and therefore she doth not require time to manage or order her thoughts nor do they succeed one an other by such vicissitudes as men are forced to thinke of thinges by because their fansie and the images in it which beate vpon the soule to makâ—â—er thinke whiles she is in the body are corporeall and therefore do require time to mooue in and to giue way to one and other but she thinketh of all the thinges in the world and of all that she can thinke of together and at once as hereafter we intend to shew A third propriety we may conceiue to be in a separated soule by apprehending her to be an Actiuity which that we may rightly vnderstand lett vs compare her in regard of working with a body reflecting then vpon the nature of bodies we shall find that not any of them will do the functions they are framed for vnlesse some other thing do stirre them vp and cause them so to do As for example a knife if it be thrust or pressed will cutt otherwise it will lye still and haue no effect and as it fareth with a knife so it doth in the same manner with those bodies which seeme most to mooue themselues as vpon a litle consideration will appeare plainely A beast seemeth to mooue it selfe but if we call to minde what we haue deliuered vpon this subiect in the first Treatise we shall find that whensoeuer he beginneth to mooue he eyther perceiueth something by his sense which causeth his motion or else he remembreth something that is in his braine which worketh the like effect Now if sense presenteth him an obiect that causeth his motion we see manifestly that it is an externall cause which maketh him mooue but if memory do it we shall find that stirred by some other part as by the stomacke or by the heart which is empty or heated or hath receiued some other impression from an other body so that sooner or later we shall discouer an outward moouer The like is in naturall motions as in heauy thinges their easy following if they be sucked an other way then downewardes testifyeth that their motion downewardes hath an extrinsecall motor as is before declared and not only in these but throughout in all other corporeall thinges So that in a word all bodies are of this nature that vnlesse some other thing presse them and alter them when they are quiett they remaine so and haue no actiuity otherwise then from an extrinsecall moouer but of the soule we haue declared the contrary and that by its nature motion may proceed from it without any mutation in it or without its receiuing any order direction or impulse from an extrinsecall cause So that now summing vp together all we haue said vpon this occasion we find a soule exempted from the body to be An indiuisible substance exempted from place and time yet present to both an actuall and present knowledge of all thinges that may be knowne and a skill or rule euen
vpon her yet so that of her selfe she still is what she is And therefore as soone as she is out of the passible oore in which she suffereth by reason of that oore she presently becometh impassible as being purely of her owne nature a fixed substance that is a pure Being Both which states of the soule may in some sort be aduÌ„brated by what we see passeth in the coppelling of a fixed mettall for as long as any lead or drosse or allay remaineth with it it continueth melted flowing and in motion vnder the muffle but as soone as they are parted from it and that it is become pure without any mixture and singly it selfe it contracteth it selfe to a narrower roome and at that very instant ceaseth from all motion groweth hard permanent resistent vnto all operations of fire and suffereth no change or diminution in its substance by any outward violence we can vse vnto it THE ELEVENTH CHAPTER Shewing what effects the diuers manners of liuing in this world do cause in a soule after she is separated from her body ONe thing may peraduenture seeme of hard digestion in our past discourse and it is that out of the groundes we haue layed it seemeth to follow that all soules will haue an equality since we haue concluded that the greatest shall see or know no more then the least and indeed there appeareth no cause why this great and noble creature should lye imprisoned in the obscure dungeon of noysome flesh if in the first instant in which it hath its first knowledge it hath then already gained all whatsoeuer it is capable of gaining in the whole progresse of a long life afterwardes Truly the Platonike Philosophers who are persuaded that a humane soule doth not profitt in this life nor that she acquired any knowledge here as being of her selfe completely perfect and that all our discourses are but her remembringes of what she had forgotten will find themselues ill bestedd to render a Philosophicall and sufficient cause of her being locked into a body for to putt forgettfulnesse in a pure spiritt so palpable an effect of corporeity and so great a corruption in respect of a creature whose nature is to know of it selfe is an vnsufferable errour Besides when they tell vs that she can not be changed because all change would preiudice the spirituall nature which they attribute to her but that well she may be warned and excitated by being in a body they meerely trifle for eyther there is some true mutation made in her by that which they call a warning or there is not if there be not how becometh it a warning to her Or what is it more to her then if a straw were wagged at the Antipodes But if there be some mutation be it neuer so litle made in her by a corporeall motion what should hinder why she may not by meanes of her body attaine vnto science she neuer had as well as by it receiue any the least intrinsecall mutation whatsoeuer For if once we admitt any mutability in her from any corporeall motion it is farre more conformable vnto reason to suppose it in regard of that which is her naturall perfection and of that which by her operations we see she hath immediately after such corporeall motions and whereof before them there appeared in her no markes at all then to suppose it in regard of a darke intimation of which we neyther know it is nor how it is performed Surely no Rationall Philosopher seeing a thing whose nature is to know haue a being whereas formerly it existed not and obseruing how that thing by little and little giueth signes of more and more knowledge can doubt but that as she could be changed from not being to being so may she likewise be changed from lesse knowing to more knowing This then being irrefragably settled that in the body she doth encrease in knowledge lett vs come to our difficulty and examine what this encrease in the body auaileth her seeing that as soone as she parteth from it she shall of her owne nature enioy and be replenished with the knowledge of all thinges why should she laboriously striue to anticipate the getting of a few droppes which but encrease her thirst and anxiety when hauing but a litle patience she shall at one full and euerlasting draught drinke vp the whole sea of it We know that the soule is a thing made proportionably to the making of its body seeing it is the bodies compartener and we haue concluded that whiles it is in the body it acquireth perfection in that way which the nature of it is capable of that is in knowledge as the body acquireth perfection its way which is in streÌ„gth and agility Now then lett vs coÌ„pare the proceedinges of the one with those of the other substance and peraduenture we may gaine some light to discerne what aduantage it may proue vnto a soule to remaine long in its body if it make right vse of its dwelling there Lett vs coÌ„sider the body of a man well and exactly shaped in all his members yet if he neuer vse care nor paines to exercise those well framed limbes of his he will want much of those corporeall perfections which others will haue who employ them sedulously Though his legges armes and handes be of an exact symmetry yet he will not be able to runne to wrestle or to throw a dart with those who labour to perfect themselues in such exercises though his fingers be neuer so neately moulded or composed to all aduantages of quicke and smart motion yet if he neuer learned and practised on the lute he will not be able with them to make any musike vpon that instrument euen after he seeth plainely and comprehendeth fully all that the cunningest Lutenist doth nether will he be able to playe as he doth with his fingers which of themselues are peraduenture lesse apt for those voluble motions then his are That which maketh a man dexterous in any of these artes or in any other operations proper to any of the partes or limbes of his body is the often repetitions of the same actes which do amend and perfect those limbes in their motions and which make them fitt and ready for the actions they are designed vnto In the same manner it fareth with the soule whoâ—e essence is that which she knoweth her seuerall knowledges may be compared to armes handes fingers legges thighes c in a body and all her knowledges taken together do compose as I may say and make her vp what she is Now those limbes of hers though they be when they are at the worst entire and well shaped in bulke to vse the comparison of bodies yt they are susceptible of further perfection as our corporeall limbes ae by often and orderly vsage of them When we iterate our acts of our vnderstanding any obiect the second act is of the same nature as she first the third as the second and so of
sense the Author doth admitt of qualities 3 Fiue arguments proposed to proue that light is not a body 4 The two first reasoÌ„s to proue light to be a body are the resemblance it hath with fire and because if it were a quality it would alwayes produce an equall to it selfe 5 The third reason because if we imagine to our selues the substance of fire to be rarifyed it will haue the same appearances which light hath 6 The fourth reason from the manner of the generation and corruption of light which agreeth with fire 7 The fifth reason because such properties belong to light as agree only vnto bodies 1 That all light is hoat and apt to heate 2 The reason why our bodies for the most part do not feele the heate of pure light 3 The experience of burning-glasses and of soultry gloomy weather proue light to be fire 4 Philosophers ought not to iudge of thinges by the rules of vulgar people 5 The different names of light and fire proceede from different notions of the same substance 6 The reason why many times fire and heate are depriued of light 7 What becometh of the body of light when it dyeth 8 An experiment of some who pretend that light may be precipitated into pouder 9 The Authors opinion concerning lampes pretended to haue been found in tombes with inconsumptible lights 1 Light is not really in euery part of the roome it enlighteneth not filleth entirely any sensible part of it though it seeme to vs to do so 2 The least sensible poynt of a diaphanous body hath roome sufficient to containe both ayre and light together with a multitude of beames issuing from seuerall lights without penetrating one an other Willebrord Snell 3 That light doth not enlight en any roome in an instant and that the great celerity of its motion doth make it imperceptible to our senses 4 The reason why the motion of light is not discerned coming towardes vs and that there is some reall tardity in it 5 The planets are not certainely euer in that place where they appeare to be 6 The reason why light being a body doth not by its motion shatter other bodies into pieces 7 The reason why the body of lighlt is neuer perceiued to be fanned by the wind 8 The reasons for and against lights being a body compared together 9 A summary repetition of the reasons which proue that light is fire 1 No locall motion can be performed without succession 2 Time is the common measure of all succession 3 What velocity is and that it can not be infinite 4 No force so litle that is not able to moue the greatest weight imaginable 5 The chiefe principle of Mechanikes deduced out of the former discourse 6 No moueable can passe from rest to any determinate degree of velocity or from a lesser degree to a greater without passing through all the intermediate degrees which are below the obtained degree 7 The conditions which helpe to motioÌ„ in the moueable are three in the medium one Dialog 1. of Motion 8 No body hath any intrinsecall vertue to moue it selfe towardes any determinate part of the vniuerse 9 The encrease of motion is alwayse made in the proportion of the odde numbers 10 No motion can encrease for euer without coming to a periode 11 Certaine problemes resolued concerning the proportion of some mouing Agents compared to their effects 12 When a moueable cometh to rest the motion doth decrease according to the rules of encrease 1 Those motions are called naturall which haue constant causes and those violent which are contrary to them 2 The first and most generall operation of the sunne is the making and raising of atomes 3 The light rebounding from the earth with atomes causeth two streames in the ayre the one ascending the other desceÌ„ding and both of them in a perpendicular line 4 A dense body placed in the ayre betweene the ascending and descending streame must needes descend 5 A more particular explicatioÌ„ of all the former doctrine touching grauity 6 Grauity and leuity do not signify an intrinsecall inclination to such a motion in the bodies themselues which are termed heauy and light 7 The more deÌ„se a body is the more swiftly it descendeth 8 The velocity of bodies descending doth not encrease in proportion to the difference that may be betweene their seuerall densities 9 More or lesse grauity doth produce a swifter or a slower descending of a heauy body Aristotles argument to disproue motion in vacuo is made good 10 The reason why att the inferiour quarter of a circle a body doth descend faster by the arch of that quarter then by the chord â—f it 1 The first obiection answered why a hollow body descendeth slower then a solide one 2 The second obiection answered and the reasons shewne why atomes do continually ouertake the descending dense body 3 A curious question left vndecided 4 The fourth obiection answered why the descent of the same heauy bodies is equall in so great inequality of the atomes which cause it 5 The reason why the shelter of a thicke body doth not hinder the descent of that which is vnder ti 6 The reason why some bodies sinke others swimme 7 The fifth obiection answered concerning the descending of heauy bodies in streames 8 The sixt obiection answered and that all heauy elements do weigh in their owne spheres 9 The 7th obiection answered and the reason why we do not feele the course of the ayre and atomes that beat coÌ„tinually vpon vs. 10 How in the same body grauity may be greater then density and density then grauity though they be the same thing 11 The opinion of grauities being an intrinsecall inclination of a body to the center refuted by reason 12 The same opinion refuted by seuerall experiences 1 The state of the question touching the cause of violent motion 2 That the medium is the onely cause which continueth â—â—â—lent motioÌ„ 3 A further explication of the former doctrine 4 That the ayre hath strength enough to continue violent motion in a moueable Dial. 1. of motion pag. 98. 5 An answere to the first obiection that ayre is not apt to conserue motion And how violent moâ—â— cometh to cease 6 An answere to the second obiection that the ayre hath no power ouer heauy bodies 7 An answere to the third obiection that an arrow should fly faster broadwayes then loÌ„gwayes 1 That reflexion is a kind of violeÌ„t motion 2 Reflexion is made at equall angles 3 The causes and properties of vndulation 5 A refutation of Monsieur Des Cartes his explication of refraction 6 An answere to the arguments brought in fauour of Monsieur Des Cartes his opinion 7 The true cause of refraction of light both at its entrance and att its going out from the reflecting body 8 A generall rule to know the nature of reflexions and refractions in all sortes of
surfaces 9 A body of greater partes and greater pores maketh a greater refraction then one of lesser partes and lesser pores 10 A coÌ„firmation of the former doctrine out of the nature of bodies that refract light 1 The coÌ„nexion of this chapter with the rest and the Authors intent in it 2 That there is a least cise of bodies and that this least cise is found in fire 3 The first coniunction of partes is in bodies of least cise and it is made by the force of Quantity 4 The second sort of coniunction is coÌ„pactednesse in simple Elements and it proceedeth from density 5 The third coniunction is of partes of different Elements and it proceedeth from quantity and density together 6 The reason why liquide bodies do easily ioyne together and dry ones difficultly 7 That no two hard bodies can touch one an other immediately 8 How mixed bodies arâ— framed in generall 9 The cause of the seuerall degrees of solidity in mixed bodies 10 The rule wherevnto are reduced all the seuerall combinations of Elements in compounding of mixed bodies 11 Earth and water are the basis of all permanent mixed bodies 12 What kind of bodies those are where water is the basis and earth the predominant Element ouer the other two 13 Of those bodies where water being the basis ayre is the predominant Element 14 What kind of bodies result where water is the basis and fire the predominant Element 15 Of those bodies where water is in excesse it alone being both the basis and the predominant Element 16 Of those bodies where Earth alone is the basis and also the predominant in excesse ouer the other threâ— Elements 17 Of those bodies where Earth is the basis and water the predominâ—t Element ouer the other two 18 Of those bodies where earth being the basis ayre is the predominant 19 Of those bodies where Earth being the basis fire is the predominant 20 All the second qualities of mixed bodies arise from seuerall combinations of the first qualities and are att last resolued into seuerall degrees of rarity and density 21 That in the planets and starres there is a like varietâ— of mixed bodies caused by light as here vpon Earth 22 In what maÌ„ner the Elements do worke vpon one an other in the compositioÌ„ of mixed bodies and in particular fire which is the most actiue 23 A particular declaration touching the generation of mettalls 1 Why some bodies are brittle and others tough or apt to withstand outward violence the first instrument to dissolue mixed bodies 2 How outward violence doth worke vpon the most compacted bodies 3 The seuerall effects of fire the second and chiefest instrumeÌ„t to dissolue all coÌ„pounded bodies 4 The reason why some bodies are not dissolued by fire 5 The reason why fire molteth gold but can not consume it 6 Why leade is easily consumed and calcined by fire 7 Why and how some bodies are diuided by fire into spirits waters oyles saltes and earth And what those partes are 8 How water the third iâ—strumeÌ„t to dissolue bodies dissolueth calx into salt and so into Terra damnata 9 How water mingled with salt becometh a most powerfull Agent to dissolue other bodies 10 How putrefactioÌ„ is caused 1 What is the sphere of actiuity in corporeall Agents 2 The reason why no body can worke in distance 3 An obiection answered against the manner of explicating the former axiomâ— 4 Of reaction and first in pure locall motion that each AgeÌ„t must suffer in acting and actâ— in suffering 5 The former doctrine applyed to other locall motions designed by particular names And that Suisseths argument is of no force against this way of doctrine 6 Why some notions do admitt of intension and Remission and others do not 7 That in euery part of our habitable world all the foure ElemeÌ„ts are found pure in small atomes but not in any great bulke 1 The Authors intent in this and the following chapters Mr. Thomas White 2 That bodies may be rarifyed both by outward and inward heat and how this is performed 3 Of the great effects of Rarefaction 4 The first manner of condensation by heate 5 The second manner of condensation by cold 6 That yce is not water rarifyed but condensed 7 How wind snow and haile are made and wind by raine allayed 8 How partes of the same or diuers bodies are ioyned more strongly together by condensation 9 Vacuites can not be the reason why water impregnated to the full with one kind of salt will notwithstaÌ„ding receiue more of an other 10 The true reason of the former effect 11 The reason why bodies of the same nature do ioyne more easily together then others 1 What AttractioÌ„ is and from whence it proceedeth 2 The true sense of the Maxime that Nature abhorreth from vacuity 3 The true reasâ— of attraction 4 Water may be brought by the force of attraction to what height soeuer 5 The doctrine touching the attraction of water in syphons 6 That the syphon doth not proue water to weigh in its owne orbe 7 Concerning attraction caused by fire 8 Concerning attractioÌ„ made by vertue of hoat bodies amulets etc. 9 The naturall reason giuen for diuers operations esteemed by some to be magicall 1 What is Filtration and how it is effected 2 What causeth the water in filtration to ascend 3 Why the filter will not droppe vnlesse the labell hang lower then the water 4 Of the motion of Restitution and why some bodies stand bent others not 5 Why some bodies returne onely in part to their natural figure others entirely 6 Concerning the nature of those bodies which do shrinke and stretch 7 How great and wonderfull effects proceed from small plaine and simple principles 8 Concerning Electricall attraction and the causes of it 9 Cabeus his opinion refuted concerning the cause of Electricall motâ—ons 1 The extreme heat of the sunne vnder the zodiacke draweth a streame of ayre from each Pole into the torride zone Chap. 18. §. 7. 2 The atomes of these two streames coming together are apt to incorporate with one an other 3 By the meeting and mingling together of these streames att the Equator diuers riuolets of atomes of each Pole are continuatâ—d from one Pole to the other 4 Of these atomes incorporated with some fitt matter in the bowels of the earth is made a stone 5 This stone worketh by emanations ioyned with agreeing streames that meete them in the ayre and in fine it is a loadestone 6 A methode for making experiences vpon any subiect 7 The Loadestones generatioÌ„ by atomes flowing from both Poles is confirmed by experiments obserued in the stone it selfe 8 Experiments to proue that the loadestone worketh by emanations meeting with agreeing streames 1 The operations of the loadestone are wrought by bodies and not by qualities 2 Obiections against the former positioÌ„ answered 3 The loadestone is imbued
with his vertue from an other body 4 The vertue of the loadestone is a double and not one simple vertue 5 The vettue of the loadestone worketh more strongly in the poles of it then in any other part 6 The loadestone sendeth forth its emanations spherically Which are of two kindes and each kind is strongest in that hemisphere through whose polary partes they issue out 7 Putting two loadestones within the sphere of one an other euery part of one loadestone doth not agree with euery part of the other loadestone 8 CoÌ„cerning the declination and other respects of a needle towardes the loadestone is toucheth 9 The vertue of the loadestone goeth from end to end in lines almost parallele to the axis 10 The vertue of the loadestone is not perfectly sphericall though the stone be such 11 The intention of nature in all the operations of the loadestone is to make an vnion betwixt the attractiue and attracted bodies 12 The maine globe of the earth is not a loadestone 13 The loadestone is generated in all partes or climats of the earth 14 The conformity betwixt the two motioÌ„s of magnetike thinges and of heauy thinges 1 Which is the North and which the South Pole of a loadestone 2 Whether any bodies besides magnetike ones be attractiue 3 Whether an iron placed â—erpeÌ„dicularly towardes the earth doth gett a magneticall vertue of pointing towardes the north or towardes the south in that end that lyeth downewardes 4 Why loadestones affect iron better then one an other 5 Gilberts reason refuted touching a capped loadestone that taketh vp more iron then one not capped and an iron impregnated that in some case draweth more strongly then the stone it selfe 6 Galileus his opinion touching the former effects refuted 7 The Authors solution to the former questions 8 The reasoÌ„ why in the former case a lesser loadestone doth draw the interiacent iroÌ„ froÌ„ the greater 9 Why the variation of a touched needle froÌ„ the north is greater the neerer you go to the Pole 10 Whether in the same part of the world a touched needle may att one time vary more froÌ„ the north and att an other time lesse 11 The whole doctrine of the loadestone summed vp in short 1 The connexion of the following Chapters with the precedent ones 2 Concerning seuerall coÌ„positions of mixed bodies 3 Two sortes of liuing creatures 4 An engine to expresse the first sort of liuing creatures 5 An other engine by which may be expressed the second sort of liuing creatures 6 The two former engines and some other comparisons applyed to expresse the two seuerall sortes of liuing creatures 7 How plantes are framed 8 How sensitiue creatures are formed 1 The opinion that the seede containeth formally euery part of the parent 2 The former opinion reiected 3 The Authors opinion of this question 4 Their opinion refuted who hold that euery thing containeth formally all thinges 5 The Authors opinion concerning the generation of Animals declared and confirmed 6 That one substance is changed into an other 7 Concerning the hatching of chickens and the generation of other Animals 8 From whence it happeneth that the deficiences or excrescences of the parents body are often seene in their children 9 The difference between the Authors opinion and the former one 10 That the hart is imbued with the generall specifike vertues of the whole body whereby is confirmed the doctrine of the two former paragraphes 11 That the hart is the first part generated in a liuing creature 1 That the figure of an Animal is produced by ordinarie secoÌ„â— causes as well as any other corporeall effect 2 That the seuerall figures of bodies proceed from a defect in one of the three dimensions caused by the concurraÌ„ce of accidentall causes 3 The former doctrine is confirmed by seuerall instances 4 The same doctrine applyed to Plants 5 The same doctrine declared in leafes of trees 6 The same applyed to the bodies of Animals 7 In what sense the Author doth admitt of Vis formatrix 1 Fromwhence doth proceed the primary motion and growth in Plantes 2 Monsieur des Cartes his opinion touching the motion of the hart 3 The former opinion reiected 4 The Authors opinion concerning the motion of the hart 5 The motion of the hart dependeth originally of its fibers irrigated by bloud 6 An obiection answered against the former doctrine 7 The circulatioÌ„ of the bloud and other effects that follow the motion of the hart 8 Of Nutrition 9 Of Augmentation 10 Of death and sicknesse 1 The coÌ„nexion of the subsequent chapters with the precedent 2 Of the senses and sensible qualities in generall And of the end for which they serue 3 Of the sense of touching and that both it and its qualities are bodies 4 Of the tast and its qualities that they are bodies 5 That the smell and its qualities are reall bodies 6 Of the conformity betwixt the two senses of smelling and tasting 7 The reasoÌ„ why the sense of smelling is not so perfect in man as in beastes with a wonderfull historie of a man who could wind a sent as well aâ— any beast 1 Of the sense of hearing and that sound is purely motioÌ„ 2 Of diuers artes belonging to the sense of hearing all which confirme that sound is nothing but motion 3 The same is confirmed by the effects caused by great noises 4 That solide bodies may conueye the motion of the ayre or sound to the organe of hearing 5 Where the motion is interrupted there is no sound 6 That not only the motion of the ayre but all other motions coming to our eares make sounds 7 How one sense may supply the want of an other 8 Of one who could discerne souÌ„ds of words with his eyes 9 Diuers reasons to proue sound to be nothing els but a motioÌ„ of some reall body 1 That Colours are nothing but light mingled with darknesse or the disposition off a bodies superficies apt to reflect light so mingled 2 CoÌ„cerning the disposition of those bodies which produce white or blacke coulours 3 The former doctrine coÌ„firmed by Aristotâ—les authority reason and experience 4 How the diuersity of coulours doe follow out of various degrees of rarity and density 5 Why some bodies are Diaphanous others opacous 6 The former doctrine of coulours coÌ„firmed by the generation of white and Blacke in bodies 1 Apparitions of coulours through a prisme or triaÌ„gular glasse are of two sortes 2 The seuerall parts of the obiect make seuerall angles at their entrance into the prisme 3 The reason why some times the same obiect appeareth throwgh the prisme in two places and in one place more liuely in the other place more dimmes 4 The reason of the various colours that appeare in looking throwgh a prisme 5 The reasonÌ„ why the prisme in one position may make the colours appeare quite contrary to what