refraction 6. An answer to the arguments brought in favour of Monsieur des Cartes his opinion 7. The true cause of refraction of light both at its entrance and at its going out from the refleing body 8. A general rule to know the nature of reflection and refractions in all sorts of surface 9. A body of greater parts and greater pores makes a greater refraction than one of lesser parts and lesser pores 10. A confirmation of the former doctrine out of the nature of bodies that refract light CHAP. XIV Of the composition qualities Generation of mixed Bodies 1. The connexion of this chapter with the rest and the Authours intent in it 2. That there is a least sise of bodies and that this least sise is found in fire 3. The first conjunction of parts is in bodies of least sise and it is made by the force of Quantity 4. The second sort of conjunction is compactedness in simple Elements and it proceeds from density 5. The third conjunction is of parts of different Elements and it proceeds from quantity and density together 6. The reason why liquid bodies do easily joyn together and dry ones difficultly 7. That no two hard bodies can touch one another immediately 8. How mixed bodies are framed in general 9. The cause of the several degrees of solidity in mixed bodies 10. The Rule whereto are reduced all the several 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 over the other two 13. Of those bodies where water being the basis air 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 excess 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 excess over the other three Elements 17. Of those bodies where earth is the basis water is the predominant element over the other two 18. Of those bodies where earth being the basis air 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 several combinations of the first qualities and are at last resolv'd into several degrees of rarity density 21. That in the Planets Stars there is a like variety of mixed bodies caused by light as here on earth 22. In what manner the Elements work on one another in the composition of mixed bodies and in particular fire which is the most active 23. A particular declaration touching the generation of Metals CHAP. XV. Of the Dissolution of Mixed Bodies 1. Why some bodies are brittle and others tough or apt to withstand outward violence the first instrument to dissolve mixed bodies 2. How outward violence doth work on the most compacted bodies 3. The several effects of fire the second and chiefest instrument to dissolve all compounded bodies 4. The reason why some bodies are not dissolved by fire 5. The reason why fire melteth gold but cannot consume it 6. Why Lead is easily consumed and calcinted by fire 7. Why and how some bodies are divided by fire into Spirits Waters Oyls Salts and Earth And what those parts are 8. How water the third instrument to dissolve bodies dissolvs calx into salt and so into terra damnata 9. How water mingled with salt becomes a most powerful Agent to dissolve other bodies 10. How putrefaction is caused CHAP. XVI An Explication of certain Maxims touching the operations and qualies of bodies and whether the Elements be found pure in any part of the world 1. What is the Sphere of activity in corporeal agents 2. The reason why no body can work in distance 3. An objection answer'd against the manner of explicating the former axiome 4. Of re-action and first in pure local motion that each Agent must suffer in acting and act in suffering 5. The former Doctrine applyed to other local motions design'd by particular names And that Suisseths argument is of no force against this way of doctrine 6. Why some notions do admit of intension and remission and others not 7. That in every part of our habitable world all the four elements are found pure in small atoms but not in any great bulk CHAP. XVII Of Rarefaction and Condensation the two first motions of Particular bodies 1. The Authours intent in this and the following chapters 2. That bodies may be rarified both by outward and inward heart and how this is perform'd 3. Of the great effects of Rarefaction 4. The first manner of condensation by heat 5. The second manner of condensation by cold 6. That Ice is not water rarified but condensed 7. How Wind Snow and Hail are made and wind by rain allaid 8. How parts of the same or divers bodies are joyn'd more strongly together by condensation 9. Vacuities cannot be the reason why water impregnated to the full with one kind of salt will notwithstanding receive more of another 10. The true reason of the former effect 11. The reason why bodies of the same nature do joyn more easily together than others CHAP. XVIII Of another motion belonging to Particular bodies called Attraction and of certain operations term'd Magical 1. What Attraction is and from whence it proceeds 2. The true sense of the Maxime that Nature abhors from vacuitys 3. The true reason of attraction 4. Water may be brought by the force of attraction to what height soever 5. The doctrine touching the attraction of water in Syphons 6. That the Syphon doth not prove water to weigh in its own orb 7. Concerning attraction caus'd by fire 8. Concerning attraction made by virture of hot bodies amulets c 9. The natural reason given for divers operations esteem'd by some to be magical CHAP. XIX Of three other motions belonging to particular bodies Filtration Restitution and Electrical attraction 1. What is Filtration and how it is effected 2. What causes the water in Filtration to ascend 3. Why the filter will not drop unless the label hang lower than the water 4. Of the motion of Restitution and why some bodies stand bent others not 5. Why some bodies return only in part to their natural figure others entirely 6. Concerning the nature of those bodies which shrink aand stretch 7. How great and wonderful effects proceed from small plain and simple principles 8. Concerning Electrical attratâ—on and the causes of it 9. Cabeus his opinion refuted concerning the cause of Electrical motions CHAP. XX. Of the Loadstones generation and its particulas motions 1. The extreme heat of the Sun under the Zodiack draws a stream of air from each Pole into the torrid Zone 2. The atomes of these two streams coming together are apt to incorporate with one another 3. By the meeting and mingling together
water run out in the same time To which I answer out of the same ground as before That because in running twice as fast there goes out double the water in every part of time and again every part of water goes a double space in the same part of time that is to say because double the celerity is drawn into double the water and double the water into doule the celerity therfore the present effect is to the former effect as the effect or quadrate of a double line drawn into into it self is to the effect or quadrate of half the said line drawn into it self 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 half that line And so you see the reason of what he by experience finds to be true Though I doubt not but when he shall set out the treatise which he has made on this subject the Reader will have better satisfaction In the mean while an experiment which Galileo delivers will confirm this doctrine He sayes that to make the same Pendant go twice as fast as it did or to make every undulation of it in half the time it did you must make the line at which it hangs double in Geometrical proportion to the line at which it hang'd before Whence it follows that the circle by which it goes is likewise in double Geometrical proportion And this being certain that celerity to celerity has the proportion of force which weight has to weight 't is evident that as in one case there must be weight in Geometrical proportion so in theother case where only celerity makes the variance the celerity must be in double Geometrical proportion according as Galileo finds it by experience But to return to our main intent there is to be further noted that If the subject strucken be of a proportionate cessibility it seems to dull and deaden the stroke wheras if the thing strucken be hard the stroke seems to lose no force but to work a greater effect Though indeed the truth be that in both cases the effects are equal but diverse according to the natures of the things that are strucken for no force that once is in nature can be lost but must have its adequate effect one way or other Let us then first suppose the body strucken to be a hard body of no exceeding bigness in which case if the stroke light perpendicularly upon it it will carry such a body before it But if the body be too great and have its parts so conjoyn'd that they are weaker then the stroke in this case the stroke drives one part before it and so breaks it from the rest But lastly if the parts of the strucken body be so easily cessible as without difficulty the stroke can divide them then it enters into such a body till it has spent its force So that now making up our account we see that an equal effect proceeds from an equal force in all the three cases though in themselves they be far different But we are apt to account that effect greater which is more considerable to us by the profit or damage it brings us And therefore we usually say that the blow which shakes a wall or beats it down and kills men with the stones it scatters abroad hath a greater effect then that which penetrates far into a mud wall and doth little harm for that innocuousness of the effect makes that although in it self it be as great as the other yet 't is little observ'd or consider'd This discourse draws on another which is to declare how motion ceases And to sum that up in short we say that When motion comes to rest it decreases and passes through all the degrees of celerity and tardity that are between rest and the height of that motion which so declines and that in the proportion of the odd numbers as we declared above it encreas'd The reason is clear because that which makes a motion cease is the resistance it findes which resistance is an action of a mover that moves something against the body moved or something equivalent to such an action wherefore it must follow the laws that are common to all motions of which kind those two are that we have expressed in this conclusion Now that resistance is a countermotion or equivalent to one is plain by this that any body which is pressed must needs press again on the body that presses it wherefore the cause that hinders such a body from yielding is a force moving that body against the body which presses it The particulars of all which we shall more at large declare where we speak of the action and reaction of particular bodies CHAP. X. Of Gravity and Levity and of Local Motion commonly term'd Natural IT is now time to consider that distinction of motions which is so famous in Aristotle to wit that some motions are natural others violent and to determine what may be signified by these terms For seeing we have said that no body hath a natural intrinsecal inclination to any place to which 't is able to move it self we must needs conclude that the motion of every body follows the percussion of extrinsecal Agents It seems therefore impossible that any body should have any motion natural to it self and if there be none natural there can be none violent and so this distinction will vanish to nothing But on the otherside Living creatures manifestly shew natural motions having natural instruments to perform certain motions wherefore such motions must of necessity be natural to them But these are not the motions we are to speak of for Aristotles division is common to all bodies or at the least to all those we converse with and particularly to those which are call'd heavy and light which two terms pass through all the bodies we have notice of Therefore proceeding on our grounds before lay'd to wit that no body can be moved of it self we may determine those motions to be natural to bodies which have constant causes or percutients to make them always in such bodies and those violent which are contrary to such natural motions Which being suppos'd we much search out the causes that so constantly make some bodies descend towards the center or the middle of the earth others to rise and go from the center by which the world is subject to those restless motions that keep all things in perpetual flux in this changing sphere of action and passion Let us then begin with considering what effects the Sun which is a constant and perpetual cause works on inferiour bodies by his being regularly sometimes present and sometimes absent Observe in a pot of water hanging over a fire how the heat makes some parts of the water ascend and others to supply the room
parts of it did not weigh and if a hole were dig'd in the bottome of the Sea the water would not run into and fill it if it did not gravitate over it Lastly there are those who undertake to distinguish in a deep water the divers weights which several parts of it have as they grow still heavier and heavier towards the bottom and they are so cunning in this art that they profess to make instruments which by their equality of weight to a determinate part of the water shall stand just in that part and neither rise or fall higher or lower but if it be put lower it shall ascend to its exact equally weighing Orbe of the water and if it be put higher it shall descend till it comes to rest precisely in that place Whence 't is evident that parts of water do weigh within the bulk of their main body and of the like we have no reason to doubt in the other two weighty Elements As for the opposition of the Syphon we refer that point to where we shall have occasion to declare the nature of that engine on set purpose And there we shall shew that it could not succeed in its operation unless the parts of water did gravitate in their main bulk into which one leg of the Syphon is sunk Lastly it may be objected that if there were such a course of atoms as we say and their strokes were the cause of so notable an effect as the gravity of heavy bodies we should feel it palpably in our own bodies which experience shews us we do not To this we answer first that there is no necessity we should feel this course of atoms since by their subtilty they penetrate all bodies and consequently do not give such strokes as are sensible Secondly if we consider that dusts and straws and feathers light upon us without causing any sense in us much more we may conceive that atoms which are infinitely more subtile and light cannot cause in us any feeling of them Thirdly we see that what is continual with us and mingled in all things doth not make us take any especial notice of it and this is the cause of the smiting of atoms Nevertheless peradventure we feel them in truth as often as we feel hot and cold weather and in all Catars or other such changes which as it were sink into our body without our perceiving any sensible cause of them for no question these atomes are the immediate causes of all good and bad qualities in the air Lastly when we consider that we cannot long together hold out our arm at length or our foot from the ground and reflect upon such like impotencies of our resisting the gravity of our own body we cannot doubt but that in these cases we feel the effect of these atomes working upon those parts though we cannot by our sense discern immediately that these are the causes of it But now it is time to draw our Reader out of a difficulty which may peradventure have perplext him in the greatest part of what he hath hitherto gone over In our investigation of the Elements we took for a principle thereto that gravity is sometimes more sometimes less then the density of the body in which it is but in our explication of rarity and density and again in our explication of gravity we seem to put that gravity and density is all one This thorn I apprehend may in all this distance have put some to pain but it was impossible for me to remedy it because I had not yet deliver'd the manner of gravitation Here then I will do my best to asswage their grief by reconciling these appearing repugnancies We are therefore to consider that density in it self signifies a difficulty to have the parts of its subject separated one from another and that gravity likewise in it self signifies a quality by which a heavy body descends towards the center or which is consequent thereto a force to make another body descend Now this power we have shew'd belong to density so far forth as a dense body being strucken by another doth not yield by suffering its parts to be divided but with its whole bulk strikes the next before it and divides it if it be more divisible then it self is So that you see Density has the name of Density in consideration of a passive quality or rather of an impassibility which it hath and the same density is call'd Gravity in respect of an active quality it has which follows this impassibility And both of them are estimated by the different respects which the same body or subject in which they are has to different bodies that are the terms whereto it is compared for the active quality or Gravity of a dense body is esteem'd by its respect to the body it strikes upon whereas its Density includes a respect singly to the body that strikes it Now 't is no wonder that this change of comparison works a disparity in the denominations and that thereby the same body may be conceiv'd to be more or less impartible then it is active or heavy A for example let us of a dense Element take any one least part which must of necessity be in its own nature and kind absolutely impartible and yet 't is evident that the gravity of this part must be exceeding little by reason of the littleness of its quantity so that thus you see an extremity of the effect of density joyn'd together in one body by the accident of its littleness with a contrary extremity of the effect of gravity or rather with the want of it each of them within the limits of the same species In like manner it happens that the same body in one circumstance is more weighty in another or rather in the contrary is more partible So water in a Pail because 't is thereby â—hinder'd from spreading abroad has the effect of gravity predominating in it but if it be pour'd out it has the effect of partibility more And thus it happens that meerly by the gradation of rarity and density one dense body may be apt out of the general course of natural causes to be more divisible then to be a divider though according to the nature of the degrees consider'd absolutely in themselves what is more powerful to divide is also more resistent and harder to be divided And this arrives in that degree which makes water for the falling and beating of the atomes upon water hath the power both to divide and make it descend but so that by making it descend it divideth it And therefore we say it has more gravity then density though it be the very density of it which is the cause that makes it partible by the working of one part upon another for if the atomes did not find the body so dense as it is they could not by their beating upon one part make another be divided So that a dense body to be more heavy then
violently upon it as in the first measure when the string parting from it did beat it forwards for till then the velocity encreases in the arrow as it does in the string that carries it along which proceeds from rest at the fingers loose from it to its highest degree of velocity which is when it arrives to the utmost extent of its jerk where it quits the arrow And therfore the air now doth not so swiftly nor so much of it rebound back from before and clap it self behind the arrow to fill the space that else would be left void by the arrows moving forward and consequently the blow it gives in the third measure to drive the arrow on cannot be so great as the blow was immediately after the strings parting from it which was in the second measure of time and therefore the arrow must needs move slower in the third measure than it did in the second as formerly it moved slower in the second which was the airs first stroke than it did in the first when the string drove it forwards And thus successively in every moment of time as the causes grow weaker weaker by the encrease of resistance in the air before and by the decrease of force in the subsequent air so the motion must be slower and slower till it come to pure cessation As for Galileu's second argument that the air has little power over heavy things and therfore he will not allow it to be the cause of continuing forced motions in dense bodies I wish he could as well have made experience what velocity of motion a mans breath might produce in an heavy bullet lying upon an even hard and slippery plain for a table would be too short as he did how admirable great a one it produced in pendants hanging in the air and I doubt not but he would have granted it as powerful in causing horizontal motions as he found it in the undulations of his pendants Which nevertheless sufficiently convince how great a power air has over heay bodies As likewise the experience of wind-guns assures us that air duly applyed is able to give greater motion to heavy bodies than to light ones For how can a straw or feather be imagin'd possibly to fly with half the violence as a bullet of lead doth out of one of those Engines And when a man sucks a bullet upwards in a perfectly bored barrel of a Gun which the bullet fits exactly as we have mention'd before with what a violence doth it follow the breath and ascend to the mouth of the barrel I remember to have seen a man that was uncautious and sucked strongly that had his foreteeth beaten out by the blow of the bullet ascending This experiment if well look'd into may peradventure make good a great part of this Doctrine we now deliver For the air pressing in behind the bullet at the touch-hole gives it its impulse upwards to which the density of the bullet being added you have the cause of its swiftness and violence for a bullet of wood or cork would not ascend so fast and so strongly and the sucking away of the air before it takes away that resistance which otherwise it would encounter with by the air lying in its way and its following the breath with so great ease shews as we touch'd before that of it self 't is indifferent to any motion when nothing presses upon it to determine it a certain way Now to Galileo's last argument that an arrow should fly faster broad-ways than long-ways if the air were cause of its motion there needs no more to be said but that the resistance of the air before hinders it as much as the impulse of the air behind helps it on So that nothing is gain'd in that regard but much is lost in respect of the figure which makes the arrow unapt to cut the air so well when it flyes broad-ways as when 't is shot long-ways and therfore the air being weakly cut so much of it cannot clap in behind the arrow and drive it on against the resistance before which is much greater Thus far with due respect and with acknowledging remembrance of the many admirable mysteries of nature which that great man hath taught the world we have taken liberty to dipute against him because this difficulty seems to have driven him against his Genius to believe that in such motions there must be allow'd a quality imprinted into the moved body to cause them which our whole scope both in this and all other occasions where like qualities are urged is to prove superfluous and ill grounded in nature and to be but meer terms to confound and leave in the dark whoever is forced to fly to them CHAP. XIII Of three sorts of violent motion Reflection Undulation and Refraction THe motion we have last spoken of because 't is ordinarily either in part or wholy contrary to gravity which is accounted the natural motion of most bodies uses to be call'd violent or forced And thus you have deliver'd you the natures and causes both of Natural and of Forced Motion yet it remains that we advertise you of some particular kinds of this forced motion which seem to be different from it but indeed are not As first the motion of Reflection which if we but consider how forced motion is made we shall find it is nothing else but a forced motion whose line whereon 't is made is as it were snapp'd in two by the encounter of a hard body For even as we see in a spout of water strongly shot against a wall the water following drives the precedent parts first to the wall and afterwards coming themselves to the wall forces them again another way from the wall so the latter parts of the torrent of air which is caused by the force that occasion'd the forced motion drives the former parts first upon the resistant body and afterwards again from it But this is more eminent in light than in any other body because light doth less rissent gravity and so observes the pure course of the stroke better than any other body from which others for the most part decline some way by reason of their weight Now the particular law of reflection is that the line incident the line of reflection must make equal angles with that line of the resistent superficies wch is in the same superficies with themselvs The demonstration wherof that great wit Renatus des Cartes hath excellently set down in his book of Dioptricks by the example of a ball strucken by a Racket against the earth or any resisting body the substance wherof is as follows The motion which we call Undulation needs no further explication for 't is manifest that since a Pendent when 't is removed from its perpendicular will restore it self therto by the natural force of gravity and that in so doing it gains a velocity and therefore cannot cease on a suddain it must needs be
where they are little holes or pores in the places they are compressed driven from which pores they filled up when they were dilated at their own natural liberty But being thus forcibly shrunk up into less room afterwards they squees again out of their croud all such very loose and subtile parts residing till then with them as can find their way out from among them And these subtile parts that thus are deliver'd from the colds compressions get first into the pores that we have shew'd were made by this compression But they cannot long stay there for the atoms of advenient cold that obsess the compressed body do likewise with all their force throng ito those pores and soon drive out the subtile guests they find there because they are more in number bigger in bulk and more violent in their course then they Who therfore must yield to them the little channels and capacities they formerly took up Out of which they are thrust with such an impetuositie that they spin from them with a vehemence as Quick silver doth through leather when to purifie it or bring an Amalgame to a due consistence it is strained through the sides of it Now these showrs or streams of atomes issuing from the compressed body are on all sides round about it at exceeding little distances because the pores out of which they are driven are so likewise And consequently there they remain round about besieging it as though they would return to their original homes as soon as the usurping strangers that were too powerful for them will give them leave And according to the multitude of them and to the force with which they are driven out the compass they take up round about the compressed body is greater or lesser Which besieging atomes are not so soon carried away by any exterior and accidental causes but they are supplied by new emanations succeeding them out of the said compressed body Now this which we have declared by the example of cold compressing a particular body happens in all bodies wherever they be in the world For this being the unavoidable effect of heat and of cold wherever they reside which are the active qualities by whose means not only fire and water and the other two Elements but all other mixed bodies composed of the Elements have their activity and they being in all bodies whatever as we have proved above it follows evidently that there is not a body in the world but has about it self an orbe of emanations of the same nature which that body is of Within the compass of which orbe when any other body comes that receives an immutation by the little atomes whereof that orbe is composed the advenient body seems to be affected and as it were replenished with the qualities of the body from whence they issue Which is then said to work upon the body that imbibes the emanations that flow from it And because this orbe regularly speaking is in the form of a Sphere the passive body is said to be within the Sphere of the others activity Secondly when Philosophers pronounce that No corporeal nature can operari in distans that is that no body can work upon another remote from it without working first upon the body that lies between them which must continue and place up the operation from the agent to the patient The reason and truth of this maxime is in our Philosophy evident For we having shew'd that action among bodies is performed for the most part by the emission of little parts out of one body into another as also that such little parts cannot stream from the body that is their fountain and settle upon a remote body without passing through the interjacent bodies which must furnish them as it were with channels and pipes to convey them whither they are to go it follows manifestly that the active emissaries of the working body can never reach their distant mark unless they be successively ferried over the medium that lies between them in which they must needs leave impressions of their having been there and so work upon it in their passe and leave in it their qualities and complexions as a payment for their wastage over But peradventure some may contend that these invisible Serjeants and workmen are too feeble and impotent to perform those visible great effects we daily see As when fire at the length burns a board that has been a great while opposed to it though it touch not the body of the fire or when a loadstone draws to it a great weight of Iron that is distant from it To whom we shall reply that if he will not grant these subtile emanations from the agent body to be the immediate workers of these effects he must allot that efficacy to the whole corpulency of all the Agent working in bulk for besides the whole the parts there is no third thing to be consider'd in bodies since they are constituted by quantity But the whole cannot work otherwise then by local motion which in this case it cannot do because by the supposition it is determin'd to keep its distance from the passive body and not to move towards it Therfore this is impossible whereas the other can appear but difficult at the worst and therefore must be admitted when no better and more intelligible solution can be found But withal we must note that it is not our intention to say but it may in some circumstances happen that some particular action or effect may be wrought in a remote part or body which shall not be the same in the intermediate body that lies between the agent and the patient and conveyes the agents working atomes to the others body As for example when tinder or Naphtha is by fire made to burn at a yard distance from it when the interjacent air is but warm'd by that fire Or when the Sun by means of a burning-glass or some other reflection sets some bodies on fire and yet only enlightens the glass and the air that are in the way The reason of which is manifest to be the divers dispositions of the different subjects in regard of the Agent and therfore 't is no wonder that divers effects should be produced according to those divers dispositions A third position among Philosophers is that All bodies which work upon others at the same time suffer from those they work upon and contrariwise all bodies which suffer from others at the same time work back again upon them For the better understanding wherof let us consider that all action among bodies is either purely local motion or else local motion with certain particularities which give it a particular name As when we express the local motion of little atomes of fire or of earth or water upon and into other bodies by the words of heating or cooling and so of the like Now if the action be pure local moâ—on and consequently the effect produced by that action be meerly
in some countries where some one wind has a main predominance and reigns most continually as near the Seashore upon the western coast of England where the South-West wind blows constantly the greatest part of the year may be observed but this effect proceeding from a particular and extraordinary cause concerns not our matter in hand We are to examine the reason of the motion of Restitution which we generally see in young trees and branches of others as we said before In such we see that the earthy part which makes them stiff or rather stark abounds more then in the others that stand as they were bent at least in proportion to their natures but I conceive this is not the cause of the effect we enquire about but that 't is a subtile spirit which hath a great proportion of fire in it For as in rarefaction we found that fire which was either within or without the body to be rarified did cause the rarefaction either by entring into it or by working within it so seeing here the question is for a body to go out of a lesser superficies into a greater which is the progress of rarefaction and hapen's in the motion of restitution the work must needs be done by the force of heat And because this effect proceeds evidently out of the nature of the thing in which it is wrought and not from any outward cause we may conclude it has its origine from a heat within the thing it self or else that was in it and may be press'd to the outward parts of it and would sink into it again As for example when a young tree is bended both every mans conceit is and the nature of the thing makes us believe that the force which brings the tree back again to its figure comes from the inner side that is bent which is compress'd together as being shrunk into a circular figure from a straight one for when solid bodies that were plain on both sides are bent so as on each side to make a portion of a Circle the convex superficies will be longer then it was before when it was plain but the concave will be shorter And therfore we may conceive that the spirits which are in the contracted part being there squeez'd into less room then their nature well brooks work themselvs into a greater space or else that the spirits which are crush'd out of the convex side by the extension of it remain besieging it and strive to get in again in such manner as we have declared when we spoke of attraction wherin we shew'd how the emited spirits of any body will move to their own source and settle again in it if they be within a convenient compass and accordingly bring back the extended parts to their former situation or rather that both these causes in their kinds concur to drive the tree into its natural figure But as we see when a stick is broken 't is very hard to replace all the splinters every one in its proper situation so it must of necessity fall out in this bending that certain insensible parts both inward and outward are therby displaced and can hardly be perfectly rejoynted Whence it follows that as you see the splinters of a half broken stick meeting with one another hold the stick somwhat crooked so these invisible parts do the like in such bodies as after bending stand a little that way but because they are very little ones the tree or branch that has been never so much bended may so nothing be broken in it be set strait again by pains without any notable detriment of its strength And thus you see the reason of some bodies returning in part to their natural figures after the force leaves them that bent them Out of which you may proceed to those bodies that restore themselvs entirely whereof steel 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 even by gross heating and then extinguishing it in wine and other convenient Liquors as Physicians use to do Which is also confirm'd by the burning of steel-dust in the flame of a candle before it has been thus wrought upon which after-wards it will not do wherby we are taught that originally there are store of spirits in steel till they are sucked out Being then assured that in steel there is such abundance of spirits and knowing that it is the nature of spirits to give a quick motion and seeing that duller spirits in trees make this motion of Restitution we need seek no further what it is that doth it in steel or in any other things that have the like nature which through the multitude of spirits that abound in them especially steel returns back with so strong a jerk that their whole body will tremble a great while after by the force of its own motion By what is said the nature of those bodies which shrink and stretch may easily be understood for they are generally composed of stringy parts to which if humidity happen to arrive they grow therby thicker and shorter As we see that drops of water getting into a new rope of a well or into a new cable will swell it much thicker and by consequence make it shorter Galileus notes such wetting to be of so great efficacy that it will shrink a new cable and shorten it notably notwithstanding the violence of a tempest the weight and jerks of a loaden ship strain it what is possible for them to stretch it Of this nature leather seems to be and parchment and divers other things which if they be proportionably moistned and no exteriour force apply'd to extend them will shrink up but if they be overweted they will become flaccide Again if they be suddenly dryed they 'l shrivel up but if they be fairly dried after moderate weting they will extend themselvs again to their first length The way having been open'd by what we have discoursed before we came to the motion of Restitution towards the discovery of the manner how heavy bodies may be forced upward contrary to their natural motion by very smal means in outward appearance let us now examine upon the same grounds if like motions to this of water may not be done in some other bodies in a subtiler manner In which more or less needs not trouble us since we know that neither quantitâ—â—or the operations of it consist in an indivisible or are limited or determin'd by periods they may not pass 'T is enough for us to find a ground for the possibility of the operation and then the perfecting and reducing of it to such a height as at first might seem impossible incredible we may leave to the Oeconomy of wise nature He that learns to read write or play on the Lute is in the beginning ready to lose heart at every step
in part the other defect Hope on the other side is in such sort defective from joy that nevertheless it hath a kind of constancy and moderate quantity and regularity in its motion and therefore is accounted to be the least hurtful of all the passions and that which more prolongs mans life And thus you see how those motions which we call passions are engender'd in the heart and what they are Let us then in the next place consider what will follow in the rest of the body out of these varieties of Passions once rais'd in the heart and sent into the brain 'T is evident that according to the nature and quality of these motions the heart must needs in every one of them void out of it self into the arteries a greater or lesser quantity of blood and that in divers fashions and the arteries which lie fittest to receive these sudden egestions of blood are those which go into the brain which course being directly upwards we cannot doubt but that it is the hottest and subtilest part of the blood and the fullest of spirits that flies that way These spirits then running a long and perplexed journey up and down in the brain by various meanders and anfractuosities are there mingled with the humid steam of the brain it self and therwith cooled and come at last to smoak at liberty in the hollow ventricles of the brain by reeking out of the little arterial branches that weave the plexus choroides or net we spoke of erewhile and they being now grown heavy fall by their natural course into that part or process of the brain which is called medulla spinalis or the marrow of the back-bone which being beset by the nervs that run through the body it cannot happen otherwise but that these thick'ned and descending spirits must either fall themselvs into those nervs or else press into them other spirits which are before them that without such new force to drive them violently forwards would have slided down more leisurely Now this motion being downwards and meeting with no obstacle till it arrive to its utmost period that way the lowest nervs are those which naturally feel the communication of these spirits first But 't is true if the flowing tide of them be great and plentiful all the other nerves will also be so suddenly fill'd upon the filling of the lowermost that the succession of their swellings will hardly be perceptible as a sudden and violent inundation of water seems to rise on the sides of the channel as it doth at at the Mill-dam though reason assures us it must begin there because there it is first stop't On the contrary side if the spirits be few they may be in such a proportion as to fill only the lower nervs and to communicate little of themselvs to any of the others And this is the case in the passion of fear which being stored with fewer spirits than any other passion that causes a motion in the body it moves the leggs most and so carries the animal that is afraid with violence from the object that affrights him Although in truth it is a faint hope of escaping mingled with fear which begets this motion for when fear is single and at its height it stops all motion by contracting the spirits and thence is called Stupor as well as grief for the same reason And accordingly we see extreme cowards in the extremity of their fear have not the courage to run away no more than to defend or help themselvs by any other motions But if there be more abundance of spirits then the upper parts are also moved as well as the leggs whose motion contributes to defence but the brain it self and the senses which are in the head being the first in the course of this floud of spirits that is sent from the heart to the head 't is impossible but that some part of them should be press'd into the nervs of those senses and so will make the animal vigilant and attentive to the cause of its fear or grief But if the fear be so great that it contracts all the spirits and quite hinders their motion as in the case we touch'd above then it leaves also the nervs of the senses destitute of spirits and so by too strong apprehension of a danger the animal neither sees nor apprehends it but as easily precipitates it self into it as it happens to avoid it being meerly govern'd by chance and may peradventure seem valiant through extremity of fear And thus you see in common how all the natural operations of the body follow by natural consequence out of the passions of the mind without needing to attribute discourse or reason either to men or beasts to perform them Although at first sight some of them may appear to those that look not into their principles and true causes to flow from a source of intelligence wheras 't is evident by what we have laid open they all proceed from the due ranging and ordering of quantitative parts so or so proportioned by rarity and density And there is no doubt but who would follow this search deeply might certainly retrive the reasons of all those external motions which we see use to accompany the several passions in Men and Beasts But for our intent we have said enough to shew by what kind of order and course of nature they may be effected without confining our selves over scrupulously to every cincumstance that we have touch'd and to give a hint wherby others that will make this inquiry their task may compile an intire and well grounded and intelligible doctrine of this matter Only we will add one advertisment more which is that these external motions caused by passion are of two kinds for some of them are as it were the beginnings of the actions which nature intends to have follow out of the passions that cause them but others are only bare signs of passions that produce them and are made by the connexion of parts unnecessary for the main action that is to follow out of the passion with other parts that by the passion are necessarily moved As for example when an hungry mans mouth waters at the sight of good meat it is a kind of beginning of eating or of preparation for eating for when we eat nature draws a moisture into our mouth to humectate our meat and convey the tast of it into the nervs of the tongue which are to make report of it to the brain but when we laugh the motion of our face aims at no further end and follows only by the connexion of those muscles which draw the face in such a sort to some inward parts that are moved by the passion out of which laughing proceeds But we must not leave this subject without some mention of the Diaphragma into which the other branch of those nervs that are called of the sixth conjugation comes for the first branch we have said goes into the heart and carries
this end That we may live well wheras these immediately teach it These are the fruits in general that I hope may in some measure grow out of this discourse in the hands of equal and judicious Readers but the particular aim of it is to shew what actions can proceed from a Body and what cannot In the conduct wherof one of our chief endeavours has been to shew that those actions which seem to draw strongly into the order of bodies the unknown nature of certain Entities named Qualities either do or may proceed from the same causes which produce those known effects that all sides agree do not stand in need of any such mystical Phylosophy And this being the main hinge upon which hangs and moves the full and clear resolving of onr main and great question Of the immortallity of the Soul I assure my self the pains I have taken in this particular will not be deem'd superfluous or tedious and withall I hope I have employ'd th'em with so good succes as henceforward we shall not be any more troubled with objections drawn from their hidden and incomprehensible nature and that we stand upon even ground with those of the cnotrary opinion for since we have shew d how all actions may be perform'd among Bodies without having any recourse to such Entities and Qualities as they pretend and paint out to us 't is now their parts if they will have them admitted to prove that in nature there are such Having then brought the Phylosophy of Bodies to these terms that which remains for us to perform is to shew that those actions of our Souls for which we call her a Spirit are of such a nature as cannot be reduced to those principles by which all corporeal actions are effected For the proof of our original intent no more than this can be exacted at our hands so that if our positive proofs shall carry us yet beyond this it cannot be denyd but that we give over-measure and illustrate with a greater light what is already sufficiently discerned In our proceeding we have nature preceding as for laying for our ground the natural conceptions which mankind makes of Quantity we find that a Body is a meer passive thing consisting of divers parts which by motion may be diversly ordered and consequently that it is capable of no other change or operation than such as Motion may produce by various ordering the divers parts of it And then seeing that Rare and Dense is the primary and adequate division of Bodies it follows evidently that what cannot be effected by the various disposition of rare and dense parts cannot proceed or be effected by a pure body And consequently it will be sufficient for us to shew that the Motions of our Soules are such And they who will not agree to this conclusion must take upon them to shew that our first premise is defective by proving that other unknown ways are necessary for bodies to be wrought on or work by and that the motion and various ordering of rare and dense parts in them is not cause sufficient for the effects we see among them Which whoever shall attempt to do must remember he has this disadvantage before he begins that whatever has been hitherto discover'd 〈◊〉 the science of Bodies by the help either of Mathematicks or Physicks has all been resolvd and faln into this way which we declare Here I should set a period to all further discourse conceurning this first Treatise of Bodies did not I apprehend that the prejudice of Aristotle's Authority may dispose many to a harsh conceit of the draught we have made But if they knew how little reason they have to urge that against us they would not cry us down for contradicting that Oracle of nature not only because he himself both by word and example exhorts us when verity leads us another way to forsake the tracts which our Forefathers have beaten for us so we do it with respect and gratitude for the much they have left us nor yet because Christian Religion as it will not hear of any man purely such free from sin so it inclines to perswade us that no man can be exempt from errour and therfore it savours not well to defend peremptorily any mans sayings especially if they be many as uncontroulable howbeit I intend not to prejudice any person that to defend a worthy Authors honour shall indeavour to vindicate him from absurdities and gross errors nor lastly because it ever hath been the common practice of all grave Peripateticks and Thomists to leave their Masters some in one article some in another But indeed because the very truth is that the way we take is directly the same solid way which Aristotle walked in before us and they who are scandalised at us for leaving him are exceedingly mistaken in the matter and out of the sound of his words not rightly understood frame a wrong sense of the doctrine he hath left us which generally we follow Let any unpartial Aristotelian answer whether the conceptions we have delivered of Quantity of Rarity and Density of the four first Qualities of the combinations of the Elements of the repugnance of vacuities be not exactly and rigorously Aristotles Whether the motion of weighty and light things and of such as are forced be not by him as well as by us attributed to extern causes In which all the difference between us is that we enlarge our selvs to more particulars than he hath done Let any man read his Books of Generation and Corruption and say whether he doth not expresly teach that Mixtion which he delivers to be the generation or making of a mixt body is done por minima that is in our language and in one word by Atomes signifies that all the qualities which are natural ones following the composition of the Elements are made by the mingling of the least parts 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 been our labour in this whole Treatise Let him read his Books of Meteors and judg whether he doth not give the causes of all the effects he treats of there by mingling and separating of great and little gross and subtile fiery and watery aiery and earthy parts just as we do The same he doth in his Problems and in his Perva naturalia and in all other places wherever he hath occasion to render Physically the causes of Physical effects The same do Hippocrates and Galen the same their Master Democritus and with them the best sort of Physicians The same do Alchymists with their Master Geber whose Maxime to this purpose we cited above the same do all natural Philosophers either antient Commentators on Aristotle or modern enquirers into natural effects in a sensible and understandable way as who will take the paines to look into them will
Of the great effects of Rarefaction 4. The first manner of condensation by heat 5. The second manner of condensation by cold 3. That Ice is not water rarifiâ—d but condensed 7. How wind snow and hail are made and wind by rain allayed 8. How parts of the same or divers bodies are joyned more strongly together by condensation 9. Vacuities cannot be the reason why water impregnated to the full with one kind of salt will notwithstanding receive more of another 10. The true reason of the former effect 11. The reason why bodies of the same nature jâ—yn more easily together then others 1. What attraction is and from whence it proceeds 1. The true sense of the Maxime that Nature abhors from vacuity 3. The true rea son of attraction 4. Water may be brought by the force of attraction to what height soever 5. The doctrine touching the attraction of water in Syphons 6. That the Syphon doth not prove water to weigh in its own orb 7. Concerning attraction caused by fire 8. Concerning attraction made by virtue of hot bodies amulets c. 9. The natural reason given for divers operations esteemed by some to be magical 1. What is Filtration and how it is effected 2. What causes the water in filtration to ascend 3. Why the filter will not drop unless the label hang lower then the water 4. Of the motion of Râ—stitution and why some bodies stand bent others not 5. Why some bo dies return only in part to their natural figure others entirely 6. Concerning the nature of those bodies which shrink and stretch 7. How great wonderful effects proceed from smal plain and simple principles 8. Concerning Electrical at action and the causes of it 6. Cabeus his opinion reâ—uted concerning the cause of Electrical motions 1. The extreme heat of the Sun under the Zodiack draws a stream of air from each pole into the Torrid Zone * Chap. 18. Sect. 7. 2. The Atoms of these two streams coming together are apt to incorporate with one another 3. By the meeting and mingling together of these streams at the Equator divers rivolets of Atoms of each Pole are continuated from one Pole to the other 4. Of these Atoms incorporated with some fit matter in the bowels of the earth is made a stone 5. This stone works by emanations joyned with agreeing streams that meet them in the air and in fine it is a Loadstone 6 A methode for making experiences on any subject 7. The Loadstones generation by atoms flowing from both Poles is confirmd by experiments observ'd in the stone it self 8. Experiments to prove that the Loadstone works by emanations meeting with agreeing streames 1. The operations of the loadstone are wrought by bodies and not by qualities 2. Objections against the former position answer'd 3. The Loadstone is imbued with his virtue from another body 4 The virtue of the Loadstone is a double and not one simple virtue 5. The virtue of the Loadstone works more strongly in the poles of it then in any other part 6. The loadstone sends forth its emanations spherically Which are of two kindâ— and each kind is strongest in that Hemisphere through whose polary parts they issue out 7. Putting two loadstones within the sphere of one another every part of one loadstone doth not agree wâ—th every part of the other loadstone 8. Concetning the declination and other respects of a needle towards the loadstone it touches 8. The virtue of the Loadstone goes from end to end in lines almost parallel to the Axis 10. The virtue of the Loadstone is not perfectly spherical though the stone be such 11. The intention of nature in all the operations of the loadstone is to make an union betwixt the attractive and attracted bodies 12. The main globe of the earth is not a Loadstone 13. The loadstone is generated in all parts or Climâ—t's of the earth 14. The conformity betwixt the two motions of magnetick things and of heavy things 1. Which is the North and which the South Pole of a Loadstone 2. Whether any bodies besides magnetick ones be attractive 3. Whether an iron placed perpendicularly towards the earth gets a magnetical virtue of pointing towards the north or towards the south in that end that lies downwards 4. Why loadstones affect iron better than one another 5. Gilberts reason refuted touching a cap'd Loadstone that takes up more iron then one not cap'd and an iron impregnated that in some case draws more strongly then the stone it self Galileus his opinion touching the former effects refuted 7. The Authors solution to the former questions 8. The reason why in the former case a lesser Loadstones draws the interjacent iron from the greater 9. Why the variation of a touched needle from the North is greater the nearer you go to the Pole 10. Whether in the same part of the world a touched needle may it one time vary more fâ—om the North and at another time less 11. The whâ—le doctrine of the loâ—dstone sum'd up in short 1. The connexion of the following Chapters with the precedent ones 2. Concerning several compositions of mixed bodies 3. Two sorts of Living Creatures 4. An engine to express the first sort of living creatures 5. Another Engine by which may be expressed the second sort of living creatures 4. The two former engines and some other comparisons applied to express the two several sorts of living creatures 7. How plants are framed 8. How Sensitive Creatures are formed 1. The opinion that the seed contains formally every part of the parent 2. The former opinion rejected 3. The Authours opinion of this question 4. Their opinion refuted who hold that every thing contains formally all things 5. The Authors opinion concerning the generation of Animals declared and confirm'd That one substance is changed into another 7. Concerning the hatching of Chickens and the generation of the other Animals 8. From whence it happens that the deficiences or excresences of the parents body are often seen in their children 9. The difference between the Authors opinion anâ—â—he former 〈◊〉 10 That the heart is imbued with the general specifike vertues of the whole body wherby is confirm'd the doctrine of the two former Paragraphes 11 That the heart is the first part generated in a living creatures 1. That the figure of an Animal is produced by ordinary second causes as well as any other corporeal effect 2. That the several figures of bodies proceed from a defect in one of three dimensions caused by the circumference of accidental causes 3. The former doctrine is confirmd by several instances 4. The same doctrine applyed to plants 4. The same doctrine declared in leaves of trees 16. The same applied to the bodies of Animals 7. In what sense the Author admits of vis formatrix 1. From whence proceeds the primary motion growth in Plants 2. Mr. des Cartes his opinion touching the motion of the heart 3. The former opinion rejected 4. The Authors opinion
which made little parts of bodies naturally heavie descend slowly in regard of the velocity of greater parts of the same bodies descending the Doctrine of which we intend to deliver hereafter Others therfore perceiving this rule to fall short have indeavour'd to piece it out by the mixtion of Vacuitie among bodies believing it is that which makes one rarer then another Which mixtion they do not put always immediate to the main body they consider but if it have other rarer and lighter bodies mingled with it they conceive this mixtion immediate only to the rarest or lightest As for example a Crystal being lighter and consequently rarer then a Diamond they will not say there is more vacuity in a Crystal then in a Diamond but that the pores of a Crystal are greater and consequently there is more aire in a Crystal to fil the pores of it then is in a Diamond and the vacuities are in the aire which abounding in a Crystal more then in a Diamond makes that lighter and rarer then this by the more vacuites that are in the greater Quantity of aire which is mingled with it But against this suppsition a powerful adversary is urged for Aristotle in his 4. Book of Physicks hath demonstrated that there can be no motion in vacuity 'T is true they indeavour to evade his demonstration as not reaching home to their supposition by acknowledging it to be an evident one in such a vacuity as he there speaks of which he supposed so great that a body may swim in it as in an Ocean and not touch or be near any other body whereas this opinion exclude all such vast inanity admit no vacuities but so little ones as no body whatever can come to but wil be biger than they and consequently must on some side orother touch the corporal parts which those vacuities divide for they are the separations of the least parts that are or can be actually divided from one another which parts must of necessity touch one another on some side or else they could not hang together to compose one substance and and therefore the dividing vacuities must be less then the divided parts And thus no body will ever be in danger of floating up and down without touching any thing which is the difficulty that Aristotle chiefly impugns I confess I should be very glad that this supposition might serve our turne and save the Phenomena that appear among bodies through their variety of Rarity and Density Which if it might be then would I straight go on to the inquiring after what follow'd out of this ground as Astronomers to use our former similitude calculate the future appearances of the Celestial bodies out of those motions and orbs they assign to the Heavens For as this apprehension of vacuity in bodies is very easie and intelligible so the other which I conceive to be the truth of the case is exceedingly abstracted and one of the most difficult points in all the Metaphysicks and therefore I would if it were possible avoid touching upon it in this discourse which I desire should be as plain and easie and as much removed from Scholastick terms as may be But indeed the inconveniences that follow out of this supposition of vacuities are so great as it is impossible by any means to slide them over As for example let us borrow of Gallileus the proportion of weight between water and air He shews us how the one is 400 times heavier then the other And Marinus Ghetaldus teaches us that gold is 19 times heavier then water so that gold must be 7600 times heavier then air Now then considering that nothing in a body can weigh but the solid parts of it it follows that the proportion of the parts of gold in a sphere of an inch Diameter is to the parts of the air of a like dimension as 7600 is to one Therfore in air it self the vacuities that are supposed in it will be to the solid parts of it in the same proportion as 7600 to one Indeed the proportion of difference shal be greater for even in gold many vacuities must be admitted as appears by the heating of it which shews that in every least part it is exceeding porous But according to this rate without pressing the inconvenience any further the air will by this reckoning appear to be like a net whose holes distances are to the lines and threds in the proportion of 7600 to one and so would be lyable to have little parts of its body swim in those greater vacuities contrary to what they strive to avoid Which would be excedingly more if we found on the one side any bodies heavier denser then gold that were so solid as to exclude all vacuities on the other side should balance them withsuch bodies as are lighter and rarer then air as fire is and as some say will have the aether to be But already the disproportion is so great and the vacuity so strangely exceeds 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 air if it be true as Aristotle hath demonstrated in the fourth Book of his Physicks that motion cannot be made but among bodies and not in vacuo Again if rarity were made by vacuity rare bodies could not be gather'd together without losing their rarity and becoming dense The contrary of which we learn by constant experience as when the Smith and Glassemender drive their white and fury fires as they term them when aire pierces most in the sharp wind and generally we see that more of the same kind of rare bodies in less place works more efficaciously according to the nature that results out of that degree of rarity Which argues that every little part is as rare as it was before for else it would lose the vertue of working according to the nature but that by their being crowded together they exclude all other bodies that before mediated between the little parts of their main body and so more parts being gotten together in the same place then formerly there were they work more forcibly Thirdly if such vacuities were the cause of rarity it would follow that fluid bodies being rarer then solid ones would be of themselvs standing like nets or cobwebs wheras contrariwise we see their natures are to run together and to fill up every little creek and corner which effect following out of the very nature of the things themselves needs must exclude vacuities out of that nature And lastly if it be true as we have shew'd in the last Chapter that there are no actual parts in Quantity it follows of necessity that all Quantity must of it self be one as Metaphysicks teach us and then no distance can be admitted between one Quantity and another And truely if I understand Aristotle right he hath perfectly demonstrated that no vacuity is possible in nature
because mans discerning them to be able to discourse accordingly of them is the princpal respect for which their denominations are to be allotted them we may with reason call those things dense wherein a man finds a sensible difficulty to part them and those rare where the resistance is imperceptible And to these two notions of rarity and density we must allow a great latitude far from consisting in an indivisible state for since rare faction makes a lesser body equal to a bigger and all inequalitie betwixt two bodies has the conditions of a Body it follows that the excess of one body over another consists of infinite parts into which it might be divided and consequently that what is rarified passes as many degrees as the inequality or excess hath parts And the same law being in condensations both dense and rare things must be acknowledg'd capable of infinite variety and diversity of states in regard of more and less in the same kind These things being premised and calling to mind that 't is the nature of density to make the parts of a dense thing compact and stick together and be hardly divisible and on the contrary side that 't is the nature of rarity to diffuse and extend a rare thing and prepare and approach it to division according to the proportion of the degree of rarity which it has and that weight abounds where there is excess of density and is very little or none in excess of rarity we may now begin in our imagination to put these Qualities into the scales one against another to see what effects they produce in Bodies And first let us weigh Gravity against Density or sticking together of parts which sticking or compactedness being natural to density requires some excess of gravity in proportion to the density or some other outward violence to break it If then in a dense body the gravity overcome the density and make the parts of it break asunder it will draw them downwards towards the center that gravity tends to and never let them rest till they come thither unless some impediment meet them by the way and stop their journey so that such a body will as near as it possibly can lie in a perfect spherical figure in respect of the center and the parts of it will be chang'd and alter'd and thrust on any side that is the ready way thither the force of gravity therefore working upon it it will run as far as it meets with nothing to hinder it from attaining this spherical superficies Wherefore such bodies for the most part have no setled outside of their own but receive their figure and limits from such lets as hinder them from attaining to that sphericalness they aim at Now Aristotle whose definitions are in these matters generally receiv'd as fully expressing the notions of mankind tells us and our own experience confirms it that we use to call those things moist which run in such sort as we have here set down and that we term those things dry which have a Consistence within themselves and which to enjoy a determinate figure do not require the stop or hinderance of another body to limit and circle them in which will be the nature of those that have a greater proportion of density in respect of their gravity And thus out of the comparison of density with weight we have found two more qualities then we yet had met withall namely wetness and dryness For though a body be dense which of its own nature singly considered would preserve the continuity of its parts as making the body hardly divisible whereby it would be dry yet if the gravity that works upon it be in proportion greater then the density it will sever the parts of it and make them run to the center and so become fluide and moist though not in the eminentest degree that may be of fluidity and moisture because that if the like over proportion of gravity happen in a rare body it will there more powerfully work its effect then it can in a dense body because a rare body will more easily obey and yield to the gravity that masters 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 Gravity if it happen that the Rarity overcome the Gravity then the gravity will not change the figure of a body so proportion'd but what figure it has from its proper natural causes the same will still remain with it and consequently such a body will have terms of its own and not require an ambient body to limit and circle it in which nature we call dry But if the proportion of the gravity be the greater and overcome the rarity then by how much the rarity is greater so much the more will the gravity force it to apply it self equally and on all sides to the center and such a body will the more easily receive its figure from another and will be less able to consist of it self which properties we attribute to wetness or moisture So that it appears how the qualities of wet and dry which first we found in things that were dense are also common to that nature of bodies which we term rare And thus by our first inquiry after what kind of bodies result out of the compounding of rarity and density with gravity we discover four different sorts some dense ones that are dry and others likewise dense that are moist then again some rare ones that are likewise moist and other rare ones that are dry But we must not rest here let us proceed a little further to search what other properties these four kinds of bodies will have which we shall best discover if we apply them severally to some other compounded bodie of which nature are all those we converse with or see and then consider the effects which these work upon it To begin with that which we said is so excessively Rare that gravity has no power over it If we look on the multitude of little parts it may be divided into whereof every one will subsist by it self for we have already proved it dry and then suppose them to be moved with force and strength against the body we apply them to it must necessarily follow that they will forcibily get into the porousness of it and pass with violence between part and part and of necessity separate the parts of that thing one from another as a knife or wedge doth a solid substance by having their thinnest parts press'd into it So that if in the compounded thing some parts be more weighty others more light as of necessity there must be the heaviest will all fall lowest the lightest will fly uppermost and those which are of a mean nature between the two extremes will remain in the middle In summe by this action an extreme rare body upon a compounded one all the parts of one kind that were in the
the operation of the understanding is nothing else but the inward superficies of a body that compasses and immediately conteines another Which ordinarily being of a rare body that doth not shew it self to us namely the Air is for the most part unknown by us But because nothing can make impression on our minds and cause us to give it a name otherwise then by being known therfore our understanding to make a compleat notion must add something else to this fleeting and unremarkable Superficies that may bring it to our acquaintance And for this end we may consider further that as this Superficies hath in it self so the bodie enclosed in it gains a certain determinate respect to the stable and immoveable bodies that environ it As for example we understand such a Tree to be in such a place by having such and such respects to such a Hill near it or to such a House that stands by it or to such a River that runs under it or to such an immoveable point of the Heaven that from the Suns rising in the Equinox is called East and such like To which purpose it imports not whether these that we call immoveable bodies and points be truly so or do but seem so to mankind For man talking of things according to the notions he frames of them in his mind speech being nothing else but an expression to another man of the images he hath within himself and his notions being made according to the seeming of the things he must needs make the same notions whether the things be truly so in themselvs or but seem to be so when that seeming or appearance is always constantly the same Now then when one body dividing another gets a new immediate clothing and consequently new respects to the stable and immoveable bodies or seeming such that environ it we vary in our selves the notion we first had of that thing conceiving it now accompanied with other circumstances and other respects then formerly it had Which notion we express by saying it has changed its place and is now no longer where it was at the first And this change of place we call Locall motion to wit the departing of a body from that hollow superficies which inclosed it and its changing to another wherby it gains new respects to those parts of the World that have or in some sort may seem to have immobility and fixed stableness So as hence 't is evident that the substance of Locall motion consists in Division and that the alteration of Locality follows Division in such sort as the becoming like or unlike of one wall to another follows the action whereby one of them becomes white And therefore in Nature we are to seek for any entity or special cause of applying the moved body to a place as place which is but a respect consequent to the effect of division but only to consider what real and physical action unites it to that other body which is called its place and truly serves for that effect And consequently they who think they have discover'd a notable subtilty by bringing in an Entity to unite a Body to its Place have strain'd beyond their strength and grasped but a shadow Which will appear yet more evident if they but mark well how nothing is divisible but what of it self abstracting from division is one For the nature of Division is the making of many which implies that what is to be divided must of necessity be not-many before it be divided Now Quantity being the subject of division 't is evident that purely of it self and without any force or adjoyned helps it must needs be one wherever some outward agent doth not introduce multiplicity upon it And whenever other things work upon quantity as quantity it is not the nature and power of their operation to produce unity in it and make it one for it is already one but contrariwise the immediate necessary effect that flows from them in this case is to make one quantity many according to the circumstances that accompany the divider and that which is to be divided And therefore although we may seek causes why some one thing sticks faster together then some other yet to ask absolutely why a body sticks together were prejudicial to the nature of quantity whose essence is to have parts sticking together or rather to have such unity as without which all divisibility must be excluded Out of which discourse it follows that in local motion we are to look onely for a cause or power to divide but not for any to unite For the very nature of quantity unites any two parts that are indistant from one another without needing any other cement to glue them together as we see the parts of water and all liquid substances presently unite themselves to other parts of like bodies when they meet with them and to solid bodies if they chance to be next them And therefore 't is vain to trouble our heads with Unions and imaginary Moods to unite a body to the place it is in when their own nature makes them one as soon as they are immediate to each other And accordingly if when we see a Boul move we would examine the causes of that motion we must consider the quantity of air or water it makes to break from the parts next to it to give place to it self and not speculate upon an intrinsecall relation from the body to a certain part of the imaginary space they will have to run through all things And by ballancing that quantity of air or water which it divides we may arrive to make an estimate of what force the Boul needs to have for its motion Thus having declar'd that the locality of motion is but an extrinsecall denomination and no reality in the thing moved we may now cast an eye upon a vast consequence that may be deduced out of what we have 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 Divisibility and that the adequate Act of Divisibility is Division 't is evident there can be no other Operation upon Quantity nor by consequence among Bodies but must either be such Division as we have here explicated or what must necessarily follow out of such division And Division as we have even now explicated being Locall Motion 't is evident that All operations among Bodies are either Local Motion or such as follow out of Local motion Which conclusion however unexpected and at first hearing appearing a Paradox will nevertheless by the ensuing work receive such evidence as it it cannot be doubted of and that not only by force of argumentation and by necessity of notions as is already reduced but also by experience and declaratiosns of particulars as they shall occur But now to apply what we have said to our proposed subject 't is obvious to every
man that seeing the Divider is the agent in division and in Local motion and dense bodies are by their nature dividers the Earth must in that regard be the most active among the Elements since it is the most dense of them all But this seems to be against the Common judgment of all the searchers of nature who unamimously agree that Fire is the most active Element As also it seems to impugne what we our selves have determin'd when we said there were two active qualities heat and cold whereof the first was in its greatest excess in Fire and the latter in water To reconcile these we are to consider that the action of Cold in its greatest height is composed of two parts the one is a kind of pressing and the other is penetration which requires applicability Of which two the former arises out of density but the latter out of moderation of density as I have declared in the precedent Chapter Wherefore the former will exceed more in Earth though the whole be more eminent in Water For though considering only the force of moving which is a a more simple and abstracted notion then the determination and particularization of the Elements and is precedent to it therein Earth hath a precedency over water yet taking the action as it is determin'd to be the action of a particular Element and as it concurs to the composition or dissolution of mixed bodies in that consideration which is the chief work of Elements and requires an intime application of the Agents Water hath the principality and excess over Earth As for Fire it is more active then either of them as will appear clearly if we consider how when Fire is applyed to fewel and the violence of blowing is added to its own motion it incorporates it self with the fewel and in a small time converts a great part of it into its own nature and shatters the rest into smoak and ashes All which proceeds from the exceeding smallness and dryness of the parts of fire which being moved with violence against the fewel and thronging in multitudes upon it easily pierce the porous substance of it like so many extreme sharp Needles And that the force of Fire is as great and greater then of Earth we may gather out of our former discourse where having resolved that density is the virtue by which a body is moved and cuts the medium and again considering that celerity of motion is a kind of density as we shall by and by declare 't is evident that since blowing must of necessity press violently and with a rapid motion the parts of fire against the fewel and so condense them exceedingly there both by their celerity by bringing very many parts together there it must needs also give them activity and vertue to pierce the body they are beaten against New that Celerity is a kind of Density will appear by comparing their natures For if we consider that a dense body may be dilated so as to possess and fill the place of a rare body that exceeded it in bigness and by that dilatation may be divided into as many and as great parts as the rare body was divisible into we may conceive that the substance of those parts was by a secret power of nature folded up in that little extension in which it was before And even so if we reflect upon two Rivers of equal channels and depths whereof the one goes swifter then the other and determine a certain length of each channel and a common measure of Time we shall see that in the same measure of time there passes a greater bulk of water in the designed part of the channel of the swifter stream then in the designed part of the flower though those parts be equal Nor imports it that in Velocity we take a part of time whereas in Density it seems that an instant is sufficient and consequently there would be no proportion between them For knowing Philosophers all agree that there are no Instants in time and that the apprehension of them proceeds meerly from the manner of our understanding And as for parts in time there cannot be assumed any so little in which the comparison is not true and so in this regard it is absolutely good And if the Reader have difficulty at the disparity of the things which are pressed together in Density and in Celerity for that in Density there is only Substance in Celerity there is also Quantity crowded up with the substence he will soon receive satisfaction when he shall consider that this disparity is to the advantage of what we say and makes the nature of density more perfect in celerity and consequently more powerful in fire then in earth Besides if there were no disparity it would be a distinct species of density but the very same By what we have spoken above it appears how fire gets into fewel now let us consider how it comes out for the activity of that fierce body will not let it lie still and rest as long as it has so many enemies round about it to rouse it up We see then that as soon as it has incoporated it self with the fewel and is grown master of it by introducing into it so many of its own parts like so many Souldiers into an Enemies Town they break out again on every side with as much violence as they came in For by reason of the former resistance of the fewel their continual streaming of new parts upon it and one overtaking another there where their journey was stop'd all which is increas'd by the blowing doth so exceedingly condense them into a narrower room then their nature effects that as soon as they get liberty and grow masters of the fewel which at the first was their prison they enlarge their place and consequently come out and flie abroad ever aiming right forwards from the point where they begin their journey for the violence wherewith they seek to extend themselves into a larger room when they have liberty to do so will admit no motion but the shortest which is by a straight line So that if in our phantasie we frame an image of a round body all of fire we must withall presently conceive that the flame proceeding from it would diffuse it self every way indifferently in straight lines so that the source serving for the Center there would be round about it an huge Sphere and of fire and light unless some accidental and extern cause should determine its motion more to one part then to another Which compass because it is round and has the figure of a Sphere is by Philosophers term'd the Sphere of its activity So that it is evident the most simple and primary motition of fire is a flux in a direct line from the center of it to its circumference taking the fewel for its center as also that when 't is beaten against a harder body it may be able to destroy it though that
conceive let us go on to the fourth which requires that we satisfie their inquisition who ask what becomes of that vast body of shining light if it be a body that fills all the distance between heaven and earth and vanishes in a moment assoon as a cloud or the Moon interposes it self between the Sun and us or that the Sun quits our Hemisphere No sign at all remains of it after its extinction as doth of all other substances whose destruction is the birth of some new thing Whither then is it flown we may be perswaded that a mist is a corporeal substance because it turns to drops of water upon the twigs that it invirons and so we might believe light to be fire if after the burning of it out we found any ashes remaing but experience assures us that after it is extinguished it leaves not the least vestigium behind it of having been there Now before we answer this objection we will intreat our Adversary to call to mind how we have in our solution of the former declared and proved that the light which for example shines from a candle is no more then the flame is from whence it springs the one being condensed and the other dilated and that the flame is in a perpetual flux of consumption about the circumference and of restauration at the center where it sucks in the fewell and then we will enquire of him what becomes of the bodie of flame which so continually dies and is renewed and leaves no remainder behind it as well as he doth of us what becomes of our body of light which in like manner is alwaies dying and alwaies springing fresh And when he hath well considered it he will find that one answer will serve for both Which is That as the fire streams out from the fountain of it and growes more subtile by its dilatation it sinks the more easily into those bodies it meets withall the first of which and that environs it round about is aire With air then it mingles and incorporates it self and by consequence with the other little bodies that are mingled with the aire and in them it receives the changes which nature works by which it may be turn'd into the other Elements if there be occasion or be still conserv'd in bodies that require heat Upon this occasion I remember a rare experiment that a Noble-Man of much sincerity and a singular friend of mine told me he had seen which was That by meanes of glasses made in a very particular manner and artificially placed one by another he had seen the Sun-beams gather'd together and precipitated down into a brownish or purplish red powder There could be no fallacy in this operation for nothing whatever was in the glasses when they were placed and disposed for this intent and it must be in the hot time of the year else the effect would not follow And of this Magistry he could gather some dayes near two ounces in a day And it was of a strange volative nature and would pierce and imprint his spiritual quality into gold it self the heaviest and most fixed body we converse withall in a very short time If this be plainly so without any mistaking then mens eyes and hands may tell them what becomes of light when it dies if a great deal of it were swept together But from what cause soever this experience had its effect our reason may be satisfied with what we have said above for I confesse for my part I beleeve the appearing body might be something that came along with the Sun-beams and was gather'd by them but not ther pure substance Some peradventure will object those lamps which both ancient and modern writers have reported to have been found in Tombes and Urns long time before closed up from mens repair to them to supply them with new fewel and therefore they believe such fires to feed upon nothing and consequently to be inconsumptible and perpetual Which if they be then our doctrine that will have light to be nothing but the body of fire perpetually flowing from his center and perpetual dying cannot be sound for in time such fires would necessarily spend themselves in light although light be so subtile a substance that an exceeding little quantity of fewel may be dilated into a vast quantity of light However there would be some consumption which how imperceptible soever in a short time yet after a multitude of revolutions of years must needs discover it self To this I answer That for the most part the witnesses who testifie originally the stories of these lights are such as a rational man cannot expect from them that exactness or nicitie of observation which is requisite for our purpose For they are usually gross labouring people who as they dig the ground for other intentions Stumble upon these Lamps by chance before they are aware and commonly they break them in the finding and imagine they see a glimpse of light which vanishes before they can in a manner take notice of it and is peradventure but the glistering of the broken glass or glazed pot which reflects the outward light assoon as by rummaging in the ground and discovering the Glass the light strikes upon it in such manner as sometimes a Diamond by a certain incountring of light in a dusky place may in the first twinkling of the motion seem to sparkle like fire And afterwards when they shew their broken Lamp and tell their tale to some man of a pitch of wit above them who is curious to inform himself of all the circumstances that may concern such lights they strain their memory to answer him satisfactorily unto all his demands and thus for his sake they perswade themselves to remember what they never saw and he again on his side is willing to help out the story a little And so after a while a very formal and particular relation is made of it As happens in like sort in reporting of all strange and unusual things when even those that in their nature abhor from lying are naturally apt to strain a little and fashion up in a handsome mould and almost to perswade themselves they saw more then they did so innate it is to every man to desire the having of some preeminence beyond his neighbours be it but in pretending to have seen something which they have not Therefore before I engage my self in giving any particular answer to this objection of pretended inconsumptible lights I would gladly see the effect certainly averred and undoubtedly proved For the testemonies which Fortunius Licetus produces who has been very diligent in gathering them and very sub 〈◊〉 in discoursing upon them and as the exactest Author that has written upon this subject do not seem to me to make that certainty which is required for the establishing of a ground in Philosophy Nevertheless if there be any certain experience in this particular I should think there might be some Art by circulation
activity and the great activity shews a great percussion burning being effected by a kind of attrition of the thing burned And the great force which fire shews in Guns and in Mines being but a multiplication of the same evidently convinces that of its own nature it makes a stong percussion when all due circumstances concur Whereas it has but little effect if the due circumstances be wanting as we may observe in the insensible burning of so rarified a body as pure spirit of wine converted into flame But we must examine the matter more parrticularly and seek the cause why a violent effect doth not always appear wherever light strikes For which we are to note that three things concur to make a percussion great The bigness the density and the celerity of the body moved Of which three there is onely one in light to wit celerity for it has the greatest rarity and the rays of it are the smallest parcels of all natural bodies and therfore 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 aire nay even feathers and straws do make no sensible percussion when they fall upon us therefore we must in light have at the least a celerity that may be to the celerity of the straw falling upon 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 us take a corn of gunpowder instead of a straw between which there cannot be much difference and then putting that the density of fire is to the density of Gunpowder as 1. to 125000. and that the density of the light we have here in the earth is to the density of that part of fire which is in the Suns body as the body of the Sun is to that body which is called Orbis magnus whose Semidiameter is the distance between the Sun and the Earth which must be in subtriple proportion of the Diameter of the Sun to the Diameter of the great Orb it follows that 125000. being multiplyed by the proportion of the great Orb to the Sun which Galileo tells us is as 106000000. to one will give a scantling of what degree of celerity light must have more then a corn of Gunpowder to recompence the excess of weight which is in a corn of Gunpowder above that which is in a ray of light as big as a corn of Gunpowder Which will amount to be much greater than the proportion of the Semediameter of Orbis magnuâ— to the Semidiameter of the corn of Gunpowder for if you reckon five grains of Gunpowder to a Barly-corns breadth and 12. of them in an inch and 12. inches in a foot and 3. feet in a pace and 1000. paces in a mile and 3500. miles in the Semidiameter of the earth and 1208. Semidiamiters of the earth in the Semidiameter of the Orbis magnus there will be in it but 913 2480000000. grains of Gunpowder whereas the other calculation makes light to be 13250000000000 times rarer then gunpowder which is almost ten times a greater proportion then the other And yet this celerity supplies 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 bulk doth not make so great a percussion as it doth in a bigger body and that the littleness of the least parts of bodies follows the proportion of their rarity this vast proportion of celerity must again be drawn into it self to supply for the excess in bigness that a corn of gunpowder hath over an atome of light and the product of this multiplication will be the celerity required to supply for both defects Which evidently shews it is impossible that a ray of light should make any sensible percussion though it be a body Especially considering that sense never takes notice of what is perpetually done in a moderate degree And therefore after this minute looking into all circumstances we need not have difficulty in allowing to light the greatest celerity imaginable and a percussion proportionate to such a celerity in so rare a body and yet not fear any violent effect from its blow unless it be condens'd and many parts of it be brought together to work as if they were but one As concerning the last objection that if light were a body It would be fanned by the wind we must consider what is the cause of a thing appearing to be moved and then examine what force that cause hath in light As for the first part we see that when a body is discern'd now in one place now in another then it appears to be moved And this we see happens also in light as when the Sun or a candle is carried or moves the light thereof in the body of the Candle or Sun seems to be moved along with it And the like is in a shining cloud or comet But to apply this to our purpose We must note that the intention of the objection is that the light which goes from the fire to an opacous body far distant without interruption of its continuity should seem to be jog'd or put out of its way by the wind that crosses it Wherein the first failing is that the Objector conceives light to send species to our eye from the midst of its line whereas with a little consideration he may perceive that no light is seen by us but that which is reflected from an opacous body to our eye so that the light he means in his objection is never seen at all Secondly 't is manifest that the light which strikes our eye strikes it in a straight line and seems to be at the end of that straight line wherever that is and so can never appear to be in another place but the light which we see in another place we conceive to be another light Which makes it again evident that the light can never appear to shake though we should suppose that light may be seen from the middle of its line for no part of wind or air can come into any sensible place in that middle of the line with such speed that new light from the sourcce doth not illuminate it sooner then it can be seen by us wherefore it will appear to us illuminated as being in that place and therefore the light can never appear shaken And lastly it is easier for the air or wind to destroy the light then to remove it out of its place wherefore it can never so remove it out of its place as that we should see it in another place But if it should remove it it would wrap it up within it self and hide it In conclusion after this long dispute concerning the nature of light If we consider well what hath been said on both sides
they are moved be greater then the distance of the greater weight from the same point For 't is plain that the weight which is more distant must be moved a greater space then the nearer weight in the proportion of the two distances Wherfore the force moving it must carry it in a velocity of the said proportion to the velocity of the other And consequently the Agent or mover must be in that proportion more powerfull then the contrary mover And out of this practise of Geometricians in Mechanicks which is confirmd by experience 't is made evident that if other conditions be equal the excess of so much Gravity will make so much Velocity and so much velocity in proportion will recompence so much gravity Out of the precedent Conclusions another follows which is that nothing receds from quiet or rest and attains a great degree of Celerity but it must pass through all the degrees of Celerity that are below the obtain'd degree And the like is in passing from any lesser degree of velocity to a greater because it must pass through all the intermediate degrees of velocity For by the declaration of velocity which we have even now made we see that there is as much resistance in the Medium to be overcome with speed as there is for it to be overcome in regard of the quantity or line of extent of it because as we have said the force of the Agent in counterpoises ought to be encreas'd as much as the line of extent of the Medium which is to be overcome by the Agent in equal time exceeds the line of extent of the other Medium along which the resistant body is to be moved Wherfore it being proved that no line of extent can be overcome in an instant it follows that no defect of velocity which requires as great a superproportion in the cause can be overcome likewise in an instant And by the same reason by which we prove that a moveable cannot be drawn in an instant from a lower degree of velocity to a higher 't is with no less evidence concluded that no degree of velocity can be attain'd in an instant For divide that degree of velocity into two halfs and if the Agent had overcome the one half he could not overcome the other half in an instant much less therfore is he able to overcome the whole that is to reduce the moveable from quiet to the said degree of velocity in an instant Another reason may be because the movers themselvs such movers as we treat of here are Bodies likewise moved and consist of parts wherof not every one part but a competent number of them makes the moving body a fit Agent able to move the proposed body in a proposed degree of celerity Now this Agent meeting with resistance in the moveable and not being in the utmost extremity of density but condensable yet further because it is a body and every resistance be it never so small works something upon the mover though never so hard to condense it the parts of the mover that are to overcome this resistance in the moveable must to work that effect be condens'd and brought together as close as is needful by this resistance of the moveable to the mover and so the remote parts of the mover become nearer to the moveable which cannot be done but successively because it enclud's local motion And this application being likewise divisible and not all the parts flocking together in an instant to the place where they are to exercise their power it follows that whiles there are fewer moving parts knit together they must needs move less and more weakly then when more or all of them are assembled and appled to that work So that the motive virtue encreasing thus in proportion to the multiplying of the parts applied to cause the motion of necessity the effect which is obedience to be moved and quickness of motion in them oveable must do so too that is it must from nothing or from rest passe through al the degrees of celerityun till it arrive to that which all the parts together are able to cause As for example when with my hand I strike a ball till my hand touches it 't is in quiet but then it begins to move yet with such resistance that although it obey in some measure the stroke of my hand nevetiheless it presses the yeelding flesh of my palm backwards towards the upper and bony part of it That part then overtaking the other by the continu'd motion of my hand and both of them joyning together to force the ball away the impulse becomes stronger then at the first touching of it And the longer it presses upon it the more the parts of my hand condense and unite themselvs to excercise their force and the ball therfore must yeeld the more and consequent the motion of it 〈◊〉 quicker and quicker till my hand parts from it Which condensation of the parts of my hand encreasing successively by the parts joyning closer to one another the velocity of the balls motion which is an effect of it must also encrease proportionably therto And in like manner the motion of my hand and arm must grow quicker and quicker and pass all the degrees of velocity between rest and the utmost degree it attains unto For seeing they are the Spirits swelling the Nervs that cause the arms motion as we shall hereafter shew upon its resistance they flock from other parts of the body to evercome that resistance And since their journey thither requires time to perform it in and the nearest come first it must needs follow that as they grow more and more in number they must more powerfully overcome the resistance and consequently encrease the velocity of the motion in the same proportion as they flock thither till it attain that degree of velocity which is the utmost period that the power which the Agent hath to overcome the resistance of the medium can bring it self to Between which and rest or any other inferiour degree of velocity there may be design'd infinite intermediate degrees proportionable to the infinite divisibility of time and space in which the mover moves Which degrees arise out of the reciprocal yeilding of the medium And that is likewise divisible in the same infinite proportion Since then the power of all natural Agents is limited the mover be it never so powerful must be confined to observe these proportions and cannot pass over all these infinite designable degrees in an instant but must allot some time which hath a like infinity of designable parts to ballance this infinity of degrees of velocity and so consequently it requires time to attain to any determinate degree And therfore cannot recede immediately from rest to any degree of celerity but must necessarily pass through all the intermediate ones Thus 't is evident that all motion which hath a beginning must of necessity increase for some time And since the works of nature are
in proportion to their causes it follows that this encrease is in a determinate proportion Which Galileus to whom we owe the greatest part of what is known concerning motion teaches us how to find out and to discover what degree of celerity any movable that is moved by nature has in any determinate part of the space it moves in Having 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 moved as also in the mover that occasions the motion And because we have already shewed that local motion is nothing in substance but division we may determine that those causes which cōtribute to division or resist it are the causes which make or resist local motion It has also been said that Density has in it a power of dividing and that Rarity is the cause of being divided likewise we have said that fire by reason of its smal parts intow ch it may be cut which makes them sharp has also an eminence in dividing So that we have two qualities density and tenuity or sharpness which concur actively to division We have told you also how Galileus has demonstrated that a greater quantity of the same figure and density has a priviledge of descending faster than a lesser And that priviledge consists in this that the proportion of the superficies to the body it limits which proportion the greater it is the more it retards is less in a greater bulk than in a smaller We have therfore three conditions concurring to make the motion more efficacious namely the density the sharpness and the bulk of the movable and more then these three we cannot expect to find in a moved body For quantity hath but three determinations one by density rarity of which density is one of the three conditions another by its parts as by a foot a span c. and in this way we have found that the greater excells the lesser the third and last is by its figure and in this we find that subtile or edged quantities do prevail over blunt ones Seeing therfore that these three determinations be all that are in quantity there can be no more conditions in the body moved which of necessity is a finite quantity but the three named And as for the medium which is to be divided there is only rarity and density the one to help the other to hinder that require consideration on its side For neither figure nor littleness and greatness do make any variation in it And as for the Agent it is not as yet time before we have look'd further into the nature of motion to determine his qualities Now then let us reflect how these three conditions do all agree in this circumstance that they help nothing to division unless the body in which they are to be moved and press'd against the body that is to be divided so that we see no principle to perswade us that any body can move it self towards any determinate part or place of the universe of its own intrinsecal inclination For besides that the learned Author of the Dialogues de Mundo in his third Dialogue and the second Knot hath demonstrated that a body cannot move unless it be moved by some extrinsecal Agent we may easily frame to our selves a conceit how absurd it is to think that a body by a quality in it can work upon it self as if we should say that rarity which is but more quantity could work upon quantity or that figure which is but that the body reaches no further could work upon the body and in general that the manner of any thing can work upon that thing whose manner it is For Aristotle and St. Thomas and their Intelligent Commentators declaring the notion of Quality tell us that to be a Quality is nothing else but to be the determination or modification of the thing whose quality it is Besides the natural manner of operation is to work according to the capacity of the subject but when a body is in the midst of an uniform medium or space the subject is equally prepar'd on all sides to receive the action of that body Wherfore though we should allow it a force to move if it be a natural Agent and have no understanding it must work indifferently on all sides and by consequence cannot move on any side For if you say that the Agent in this case where the medium is uniform works rather upon one side than upon another it must be because this determination is within the Agent it self and not out of the circumstant dispositions which is the manner of working of those substances that work for an end of their own that is of understanding creatures and not of natural hodies Now he that would exactly determine what motion a body has or is apt to have determining by supposition the force of the Agent must calculate the proportions of all these three conditions of the movable and the quality of the medium which is a proceeding too particular for the intention of our discourse But to speak in common it will not be amiss to examine in what proportion motion doth increase since we have concluded that all motion proceeds from quiet by a continual encrease Galileus that miracle of our age and whose wit was able to discover whatever he had a mind to employ it about hath told us that natural motion encreases in the proportion of the odd numbers Which to express by example is thus suppose that in the going of the first yard it has one degree of velocity then in the going of the second yard it will have three degrees and in going of the third it will have five and so onwards still adding two to the degrees of the velocity for every one to the space Or to express it more plainly if in the first minute of time it goes one yard of space then in the next minute it will go three yards in the third it will go five in the fourth seaven and so forth But we must enlarge this proposition to all motions as we have done the former of the encrease it self in velocity because the reason of it is common to all motions Which is that all motion as may appear out of what we have formerly said proceeds from two causes namely the Agent or the force that moves and the disposition of the body moved as it is composed of the three qualities we lately explicated In which is to be noted that the Agent doth not move simply by its own virtue but applyes also the virtue of the body moved which it hath to divide the medium when it is put on As when we cut with a knife the effect proceeds from the knife press'd 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 Physicks and Nature is clearly parallel to what in Geometry
could strike it But it is evident say you out of these pretended causes of this motion that such atomes cannot move so swiftly downwards as a great dense body since their littleness and their rarity are both of them hindering to their motion Therefore this cannot be cause of that effect which we call gravity To this I reply That to have the atoms give these blows to a descending dense body 't is not requir'd that their natural and ordinary motion should be swifter then the descent of such a dense body but the very descent of it occasions their striking it for as it falls and makes it self a way through them they divide themselves before it and swell on the sides and a little above it and presently close again behind it and over it assoon as it is past Now that closing to hinder vacuity of space is a sudden one and thereby attains great velocity which would carry the atoms in that degree of velocity further than the descending body if they did not encounter with it in their way to retard them which encounter and tarding implyes such strokes upon 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 divided by the stone and swells on the sides higher then it was before closes upon the back of the descending stone and follows it so violently that for a while after it leaves a purling hole in the place where the stone went down till by the repose of the stone the water returns likewise to its quiet and so its superficies becomes even In the third place an enquiry occurs emergent out of this doctrine of the cause of bodies moving upwards and downwards Which is Whether there would be any natural motion deep in the earth beyond the activity of the Sun beams for out of these principles it follows that there would not and consequently there must be a vast Orb in which there would be no motion of gravity or levity For suppose the Sun beams might pierce a thousand miles deep into the body of the earth yet there would still remain a mass whose Diameter would be near 5000 miles in which there would be no gravitation nor the contrary motion For my part I shall make no difficulty to grant the inference as far as concerns motion caused by our Sun for what inconvenience would follow out of it But I will not offer at determining whether there may not be enclosed within that great sphere of earth some other fire such as the Chymists talk of an Archeus a Demogorgon seated in the centre like the heart in animals which may raise up vapours and boyl an air out of them and divide gross bodies into atoms and accordingly give them motions answerable to ours but in different lines from ours according as that fire or Sun is situated Since the far-searching Authour of the Dialogues de Mundo hath left that speculation undecided after he had touched upon it in the Twelfth knot of his first Dialogue Fourthly it may be objected that if such descending atoms as we have described were the cause of a bodies gravity and descending towards the center the same body would at divers times descend more and less swiftly for example after midnight when the atoms begin to descend more slowly the same body would descend more slowly in a like proportion and not weigh so much as it did in the heat of the day The same may be said of Summer and Winter for in Winter time the atoms seem to be more gross and consequently to strike more strongly upon the bodies they meet with in their way as they descend yet on the other side they seem in the Summer to be more numerous as also to descend from a greater height both which circumstances will be cause of a stronger stroke and more vigorous impulse on the body they hit And the like may be objected of divers parts of the World for in the Torrid Zone it will always happen as in Summer in places of the Temperate Zone and in the Polar times as in deepest winter so that no where there should be any standard or certainty in the weight of bodies if it depended upon so mutable a cause And it makes to the same effect that a body which lies under a thick rock or any other very dense body that cannot be penetrated by any great store of atoms should not be so heavy as it would be in the open and free air where the atoms in their compleat numbers have their full strokes For answer to these and such like instances we are to note first that 't is not so much the number or violence of the percussion of the striking atoms as the density of the thing strucken which gives the measure to the descending of a weighty body and the chief thing which the stroak of the atoms gives to a dense body is a determination of the way which a dense body is to cut to it self therfore multiplication or lessening of the atoms will not make any sensible difference betwixt the weight of one dense body where manya toms strike and an other body of the same density where but a few strike so that the stroak downwards of the descending atoms be greater then the stroke upwards of the ascending atoms and therby determines it to weigh to the Centrewards and not rise floating upwards which is all the sensible effect we can perceive Next we may observe that the first particulars of the objection do not reach home to enfeeble our doctrine in this particular although we admit them to be in such sort as they are proposed for they withal imply such a perpetual variation of causes ever favourable to our position that nothing can be infer'd out of them to repugne against it As thus When there are many atoms descending in the air the same general cause which makes them be many makes them also be light in proportion to their multitude And so when they are few they are heavy likewise when the atoms are light the air is rarified and thin and when they are heavy the air is thick And so upon the whole matter 't is evident that we cannot make such a precise and exact judgement of the variety of circumstances as to be able to determine when there is absolutely more cause of weight and when less And as we find not weight enough in either side of these opposite circumstances to turn the scales in our discourse so likewise we find the same indifference in experience it self for the weights we use do weigh equally in mysty weather and in clear and yet in rigor of discourse we cannot doubt but that in truth they do not gravitate or weigh so much though the difference be imperceptible to sense when the air is thick and foggy as when its pure and rarified Which thickness of the Medium when it arrives to a very
notable degree as for example to water makes then a great difference of a heavy bodies gravitation in it and accordingly we see a great difference between heavy bodies descending in water and in air though between two kinds of air none is to be observ'd their difference is so smal in respect of the density of the body that descends in them And therfore since an assured and certain difference in circumstances makes no sensible inequality in the affect we cannot expect any from such circumstances as we may reasonably doubt whether there be any inequality among them or no. Besides that if in any of the proposed cases a heavy body should gravitate more and be heavier one time than another yet by weighing it we could not discern it since the counterpoise which is to determine its weight must likewise be in the same proportion heavier then it was And besides weighing no other means remains to discover its greater graviation but to compare it to Time in its descent and I believe that in all such distances as we can try it in its inequalities will be no whit less difficult to be observ'd that way then any other Lastly to bend our discourse particularly to that instance of the objection where it is conceiv'd that if gravity or descending downwards of bodies proceeded from atoms striking on them as they move downwards it would follow that a stone or other dense body lying under shelter of a thick hard and impenetrable adamantine rock would have no impulse downwards and consequently would not weigh there We may note that no body whatever compacted by physical causes and agents can be so dense and imporous but that such atoms as these we speak of must be in them and in every part of them and every where pass through and through them as water doth through a sieve or through a spunge and this universal maxime must extend as far as the Sun or any other heat communicating with the Sun reaches and is found The reason whereof is because these atoms are no other thing but such extreme little bodies as are resolved by heat out of the main stock of those massie bodies upon which the Sun and heat do work Now then it being certain out of what we have heretofore said that all mixt bodies have 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 makes in those bodies 't is evident that no mixt body whatever nor any sensible part of a mixt body can be void of pores capable of such atoms or be without such atoms passing through those pores which atoms by mediation of the air that likewise hath its share in such pores must have communication with the rest of the great sea of air and with the motions that pass in it And consequently in all and every sensible part of any such extreme dense and pretended inpenetrable body to the notice wherof we can arrive this percussion of atoms must be found and they will have no difficulty in running through nor by means of it in striking any other body lying under the shelter of it and thus both in from that hard body there must be stil an uninterrupted continuation of gravity or of descending towards the centre To which we may adde that the stone or dense body cannot lie so close to the rock that covers it but that some air must be between for if nothing were between they would be united and become one continued body and in that air which is a Creek of the great Ocean of air spread over the world that is every where bestrew'd with moving atoms and which is continually fed like a running stream with new air that drives on the air it overtakes no doubt but there are descending atoms as well as in all the rest of its main body and these descending atoms meeting with the stone must needs give some stroke upon it and that stroke be it never so little cannot chuse but work some effect in making the stone remove a little that way they go and that motion wherby the space is inlarg'd between the stone and the shelt'ring rock must draw in a greater quantity of air and atoms to strike upon it And thus by little and little the stone passes through all the degrees of tardity by which a descending body parts 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 atoms strokes only and abstracting from the bodies density will be insensible to us seeing as we have said no more is required of them but to give a determination downwards And out of this we clearly see the reason why the same atoms striking upon one body lying on the water make it sink and upon another they do not As for example if you lay upon the superficies of some water a piece of iron and a piece of cork of equal bigness and of the same figure the iron will be beaten down to the bottom and the cork will float at the top The reason wherof is the different proportions of the comparison of their densities with the density of water for as we have said the efficacy and force of descending is to be measured by that So then the strokes of the atoms being more efficatious upon water then upon cork because the density of water is greater then the density of cork considering the abundance of air that is harbor'd in the large pores of it it followes that the atoms will make the water go down more forcibly then they will cork But the density of iron exceeding the density of water the same strokes will make the iron descend faster then the water and consequently the iron must sink in the water and the cork will swim upon it And this same is the cause why if a piece of cork be held by force at the bottom of the water it will rise up to the top as soon as the violence is taken away that kept it down for the atoms strokes having more force on the water then on the cork they make the water sink and slide under it first a little thin plate of water and then another a little thicker and so by degrees more and more till it hath lifted the cork quite up to the top Fifthly it may be objected that these atoms do not descend always perpendicularly but somtimes slopingly and in that case if their strokes be the cause of dense bodies moving they should move sloping and not downward Now that these atoms descend somtimes slopingly is evident as when for example they meet with a stream of water or with a strong wind or even with any other little motion of the air such as carries feathers up and down hither and thither which must needs waft the atoms in some measure along
with them their way Seeing then that such a gentle motion of the air is able to put a feather out of its way notwithstanding the percussions of the atoms upon it why shall it not likewise put a piece of iron out of its way downwards since the iron hath nothing from the atoms but a determination to its way But much more why should not a strong wind or a currant of water do it since the atoms themselv's that give the iron its determination must needs be hurried along with them To this we answer that we must consider how any wind or water which runs in that sort is it self originally full of such atoms which continually and every where press into and cut through it in pursuing their constant perpetual course of descending in such sort as we shewed in their running through any hard rock or other densest body And these atoms make the wind or water primarily tend downwards though other accidental causes impel them secundarily to a sloping motion And still their primary natural motion will be in truth strongest though their not having scope to obey that but having enough to obey the violent motion makes this become the more observeable Which appears evidently out of this that if there be a hole in the bottome of the pipe that conveys water slopingly be the pipe never so long and consequently the sloping motion never so forcible yet the water will run out at that hole to obey its more powerful impulse to the centrewards rather then continue the violent motion in which it had arrived to a great degree of celerity Which being so 't is easie to conceive that the atoms in the wind or water which move perpendicularly downwards will still continue the irons motion downwards notwithstanding the Mediums sloping motion since the prevailing force determines both the iron and the Medium downward and the iron has a superproportion of density to cut its way according as the prevalent motion determines it But if the descending atoms be in part carried along down the stream by the current of wind or water yet still the current brings with it new atoms into the place of those that are carried away and these atoms in every point or place wherever they are of themselvs tend perpendicularly downwards though they are forced from the compleat effect of their tendance by the violence of the current so that in this case they are moved by a declining motion compounded of their own natural motion and the force one with which the stream carries them Now then if a dense body fall into such a current where these different motions give their several impulses it will be carried in such sort as we say of the atoms but in another proportion not in a perpendicular but in a mixt declining line compounded of the several impulses which the atoms and current give it in which also 't is to be remembred how the current gives an impulse downwards as well as sloping and peradventure the strongest downwards and the declination will be more or less according as the violent impulse prevails more or less against the natural motion But this is not all that is to be consider'd 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 self has a particular virtue of its own namely its density by which it receivs and prosecutes more fully its determination downwards and therfore the force of that body in cutting its way through the Medium is also to be considered in this case as well as above calculating its declining from the perpendicular and out of all these causes will result a middle declination compounded of the motion of the water or wind both ways and of its own motion by the perpendicular line And since of these three causes of a dense bodies motion it s own virtue in prosecuting by its density the determination it requires is the most efficacious by much after it has once receiv'd a determination from without its declination will be but little if it be very dense and heavy But if it recede much from density as so have some near proportion to the density of the Medium the declination will be great And in a word according as the body is heavier or lighter the declination will be more or less in the some 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 such a superproportion as we have declared heretofore makes the Mediums operation upon 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 a feather because the stones motion downwards is greater and stronger then the motion of a feather downwards And by consequence the force that can turn a feather from its course downwards is not able to deturn a stone And if it be repli'd that it may be so order'd that the stone shall have no motion before it be in the stream of a river and notwithstanding it will still move downwards we may answer that considering the little declivity of the bed of such a stream the strongest motion of the parts of the stream must necessiariy be downwards and consequently they will beat the stone downwards And if they do not the like to a feather or other light body 't is because other parts of the stream get under the light body and beat it upwards which they have not power enough to do to the stone Sixthly it may be objected that if Elements do not weigh in their own Spheres then their gravity and descending must proceed from some other cause and not from this percussion of the atoms we attribute to it which percussion we have determin'd goes through all bodies whatever and beats upon every sensible part of them But that Elements weigh not in their own Spheres appears out of the experience of a Syphon for though one leg of a Syphon be sunk never so much deeper into the body of the water then the other leg reaches below the superficies of the water nevertheless if once the outward leg become full of water it will draw it out of the other longer leg Which it should not do if the parts of water that are comprised within their whole bulk did weigh since the bulk of water is much greater in the sunk leg then in the other and therfore these should rather draw back the other water into the Cistern then be themselves drawn out of it into the air To this we answer that 't is evident the Elements do weigh in their own Spheres at least as far as we can reach to their Spheres for we see that a ball once stuff'd hard with air is heavier then an empty one Again more water would not be heavier then less if the inward
continue some time before it can be settled and it being determin'd by the motion of the arrow that way that it slides it follows that all this commotion and undulation of the air serves to continue the arrow in its flight And thus faster then any part behind can be setled new ones before are stir'd till the resistance of the medium grows stronger then the impulse of the movers Besides this the arrow pressing on the air before it with a greater velocity then the air which is a liquid rare body can admit to move all of a piece without breaking it must of necessity happen that the parts of the air immediately before the arrow be driven upon others further off before these can be moved to give place unto them so that in some places the air becomes condens'd and consequently in others rarified Which also the wind we make in walking which will shake a paper pin'd loosly at the wall of a chamber towards which we walk and the cooling air caus'd by faning when we are hot do evidently confirm So that it cannot be doubted but condensation and rarefaction of the air must necessarily follow the motion of any solid body which being admitted 't is evident that a greater disorder and for some remarkable time must necessarily be in the air since it cannot brook to continue in more rarity or density then is natural to it Nor can weighty and light parts agree to rest in an equal height or lowness which the violence of the arrows motion forces them to for the present Therefore it cannot be deni'd but that though the arrow slide away there still remains behind it by this condensation and confusion of parts in the air motion enough to give impulse to the arrow so as to make it continue its motion after the bowstring has left it But here will arise a difficulty which is how this clapping in and undulation of the air should have strength and efficacy enough to cause the continuance of so smart a motion as is an arrow shot from a bow To this I need no other argument for an answer then to produce Galileo's testimony how great a body one single mans breath alone can in due circumstances give a rapid motion to and withal let us consider how the arrow and the air about it are already in a certain degree of velocity that is to say the obstacle that would hinder it from moving that way namely the resistance of the air is taken away and the causes that are to produce it namely the determining of the airs and atomes motion that way are heightned And then we may safely conclude that the arrow which of it self is indifferent to be moved upwards or downwards or forwards must needs obey that motion which is caused in it by the atomes and the air 's pressing upon it either according to the impulse of the string or when the string begins to flag according to the beating that follows the general constitution of nature or in a mixt manner according to the proportions that these two hold to one another Which proportions Galileus in his 4 Dialogue of Motion has attempted to explicate very ingeniously but having miss'd in one of his suppositions to wit that forced motion upon an Horizontal line is throughout uniform his great labours therein have taken little effect towards the advancing the knowledge of nature as he pretended for his conclusions succeed not in experience as Mersenius assures us after very exact trials nor can they in their reasons be fitted to nature So that to conclude this point I find no difficulty in allowing this motion of the air strength enough to force the moveable onwards for sometime after the first mover is sever'd from it and long after we see no motions of this nature endure so that we need seek no further cause for the continuance of it but may rest satisfied upon the whole matter that since the causes and circumstances our reason suggests to us are after mature and particular examination proportionable to the effects we see the doctrine we deliver must be sound and true For the establishing wherof we need not considering what we have already said spend much time in solving Galileo's arguments against it seeing out of what we have set down the answers to them appear plain enough For first we have assign'd causes how the air may continue its motion long enough to give as much impression as is needful to the arrow to make it go on as it does Which motion is not requisite to be near so great in the air behind the arrow that drives it on as what the arrow causes in the air before it for by reason of its density it must needs make a greater impression in the air it cuts then the air causes its motion would do of it self without the mediation of the arrow As when the force of a hand gives motion to a knife to cut a loaf of bread the knife by reason of the density and figure it has makes a greater impression in the loaf then the hand alone would do And this is the same that we declared in the natural motion of a heavy thing downwards to which we assigned two causes namely the beating of the atoms in the air falling down in their natural course to determine it the way it is to go and the density of the body that cutting more powerfully then those atoms can do gives together with their help a greater velocity to the moveable then the atoms of themselves can give Nor imports it that our resolution it aginst the general nature of rare and dense bodies in regard of conserving motion as Galileo objects For the reason why dense bodies conserve motion longer then rare bodies is because in regard of their dividing virtue they get in equal time a greater velocity Wherfore seeing velocity is equal to gravity it follows that resistance works not so much upon them as upon rare bodies and therfore cannot make them cease from motion so easily as it does rare bodies This is the general reason for the conservation of motion in dense bodies But because in our case there is a continual cause which conserves motion in the air the air may continue its motion longer than of it self it would do not in the same part of air which Galileus as it seems aim'd at but in divers parts in which the moveable successively is Which being concluded let us see how the forced motion comes to decrease and be ended To which purpose we may observe that the impression which the arrow receives from the air that drives it forwards being weaker than that which it receiv'd at first from the string by reason that the air is not so dense and therfore cannot strike so great a blow the arrow does not in this second measure of time wherein we consider the impulse given by the air only cut so strongly the air before it nor press so
same point of incidence in a shorter line and a greater angle than another does In both these wayes 't is apparent that a body composed of greater parts and greater pores exceeds bodies of the opposite kind for by reason that in the first kind more light may beat against one part a body in which that happens will wake an appearance from a further part of its superficies wheras in a body of the other sort the light that beats against one of the little parts of it will be so little as 't will presently vanish Again because in the first the part at the incidence is greater the surface from which the reflection is made inwards has more of a plain and straight superficies and consequently reflects at a greater angle than that whose superficies hath more of inclining But we must not pass from this question without looking a little into the nature of those bodies in which refraction is made for if they as well as the immediate causes of refraction likewise favour us it will not a little advance the certainty of our determination To this purpose we may call to mind how experience shews us that great refractions are made in smoke and mists and glasses and thick-bodied waters and Monsir des Cartes adds certain Oyls and Spirits or strong Waters Now most of these we see are composed of little consistent bodies swimming in another liquid body As is plain in smoke and mists for the little bubbles which rise in the water before they get out of it and that are smoke when they get into the air assure us that smoke is nothing else but a company of little round bodies swimming in the air and the round consistence of water upon herbs leavs twigs in a rind or dew gives us also to understand that a Mist is likewise a company of little round bodies that sometimes stand sometimes float in the air as the wind drives them Our very eyes bear witness to us that the thicker sort of waters are full of little bodies which is the cause of their not being clear As for Glass the blowing of it convinces that the little darts of fire which pierce it every way do naturally in the melting of it convert it into little round hollow bodies which in their cooling must settle into parts of the like figure Then for Chrystal and other transparent stones which are found in cold places it cannot be otherwise but that the nature of cold piercing into the main body and contracting every little part in it self this contraction must needs leave vacant pores between part and part And that such transparent stones as are made by heat have the like effect and property may be judg'd out of what we see in Bricks and Tiles which are left full of holes by the operation of the fire And I have seen in bones that have lain a long time in the Sun a multitude of sensible little pores close to one another as if they had been formerly stack all over with subtile sharp needles as close as they could be thrust in by one another The Chymical Oyles and Spirits which Monsir des Cartes speaks of are likely to be of the same composition since such use to be extracted by violent fires for a violent fire is made by the conjunction of many rayes together and that must needs cause great pores in the body it works on and the sticking nature of these spirits is capable of conserving them Out of all these observations it follows that the bodies in which greatest refractions happen are compounded as we have said of great parts and great pores and therfore by only taking light to be such a body as we have described it where we treated of its nature 't is evident the effect we have exprest must necessarily follow by way of reflection and refraction is nothing else but a certain kind of reflection Which last assertion is likewise convinced out of this that the same effects proceed from reflection as from refraction for by reflection a thing may be seen greater than it is in a different place from the true one where it is colours may be made by reflection as also gloating light and fire likewise and peradventure all other effects which are caused by refraction may as well as these be perform'd by reflection And therfore 't is evident they must be of the same nature since children are the resemblances of their parents CHAP. XIV Of the composition qualities and generation of mixed bodies HAving now declar'd the vertues by which Fire and Earth work upon one another and upon the rest of the Elements which is by Light and the motions we have discours'd of Our task shall be in this Chapter first to observe what will result out of such action of theirs and next to search into the ways and manner of compassing and performing it Which latter we shall the more easily attain to when we first know the end that their operation levels at In this pursuit we shall find that the effect of the Elements combinations by means of the motions that happen among them is a long pedegree of compounded qualities and bodies wherein the first combinations like marriages are the breeders of the next more-composed substances and they again are the parents of others in greater variety and so are multiplied without end for the further this work proceeds the more subjects it makes for new business of the like kind To descend in particular to all these is impossible And to look further then the general heads of them were superfluous and troublesome in this discourse wherin I aim only at shewing what sorts of things in common may be done by Bodies that if hereafter we meet with things of another nature and strain we may be sure they are not the off-spring of bodies and quantity which is the main scope of what I have design'd here And to do this with confidence certainty requires of necessity this leisurely and orderly proceeding we have hitherto used and shall continue to the end For walking thus softly we have always one foot upon the ground so as the other may be sure of firm footing before it settle Wheras they that for more hast will leap over rugged passages and broken ground when both their feet are in the air cannot help themselvs but must light as chance throws them To this purpose then we may consider that the qualities of bodies in common are of three sorts For they are belonging either to the Constitution of a compounded body or else to the Operation of it and the Operation of a body is of two kinds one upon Other Bodies the other upon Sense The last of these three sorts of qualities shall be handled in a peculiar Chapter by themselvs Those of the second sort wherby they work upon Other bodies have been partly declar'd in the former chapters and will be further discours'd of in the rest of this first
when he considers with what labour difficulty and slowness he joyns the letters spells syllables forms characters fits and breaks his fingers as though they were upon the rack to stop the right frets and touch the right strings and yet you see how strange a dexterity is gain'd in all these by industry and practise and readiness beyond what we could imagine possible if we saw not dayly the effects If then we can but arrive to decipher the first characters of the hidden Alphabet we are now taking in hand and can but spellingly read the first syllables of it we need not doubt but that the wise Author of nature in the masterpiece of the creature which was to express the excellency of the workman would with excellent cunning art dispose all circumstances so aptly as to speak readily a compleat language rising from those Elements and that should have as large an extent in practise and expression beyond those first principles which we like children only lisp out as the vast discourses of wisest most learned men are beyond the spellings of infants and yet those discourses spring from the same root as the other spellings do and are but a raising of them to a greater height as the admired musick of the best player on a Lute or Harp that ever was is derived from the harsh twangs of course Bowstrings which are composed together and refined till at length they arrive to that wonderful perfection And so without scruple we may in the business we are next falling upon conclude that the admirable and almost miraculous effects we see are but the elevating-to-a-wonderful-height those very actions and motions which we shall produce as causes and principles of them Let us then suppose a solid hard body of an unctuous nature whose parts are so subtile and fiery that with a little agitation they are much rarified and breath out in steams though they be too subtile for our eyes to discern like the steam that issues from sweating men or horses or that which flyes from a candle when 't is put out but that these steams as soon as they come into the cold air are by that cold suddenly condens'd again and by being condens'd shorten themselvs and by little and little retire till they settle themselvs upon the body from whence they sprung in such manner as you may observe the little tender horns of Snails use to shrink back if any thing touch them till they settle in little lumps upon their heads If I say these strings of bituminous vapours should in their way outwards meet with any light and spungy body they would pierce into it and settle in it and if it were of a competent bigness for them to wield they would carry it with them which way soever they go so that if they shrink back again to the fountain from whence they came they must needs carry back with them the light spungy body they have fixed their darts in Consider then that how much heat rarifies so much cold condenses and therfore such parts as by agitation were spun out into a subtile thrid of an inch long for example as they cool grow bigger and bigger and consequently shorter and shorter till at length they gather themselvs back into their main body and there they settle again in cold bitumen as they were at first and the light body they stick to is drawn back with them and consequently sticks to the superficies of the bitumen As if something were tyed at one end of a luâ—estring extended to its utmost capacity and the other end were fastned to some pin as the string shrinks up so that which is tyed at it must needs move nearer and nearer the pin which artifice of nature jugglers imitate when by means of an unseen hair they draw light bodies to them Now if all this operation be done without your seeing the little thrids which cause it the matter appears wonderful and strange But when you consider this progress that we have set down you will judge it possible And this seems to be the case of those bodies which we call Electrical as yellow Amber Jet and the like all which are of a bituminous unctuous nature as appears by their easie combustibility and smel when they are burned And if some do not so apparently shew this unctuous nature it is because either they are too hard or else they have a high degre of aqueous humidity joyn'd with their unctuosity and in them the operation will be duller in that proportion For as we see that unctuous substances are more odoriferous then others and send their streams further off and more efficaciously so we cannot doubt but such bodies as consist in a moist nature accordingly send forth their emanations in a feebler proportion Yet that proportion will not be so feeble but they may have an Electrical effect as well as the more efficacious Electrical bodies which may be perceptible if exact experience be made by an instrument like the Marriners needle as our learned Countryman Dr. Gilbert teaches But that in those eminent agents the spirits wherby they attract are unctuous is plain because the fire consumes them and so if the agents be over heated they cannot work but moderate heat even of fire encreases their operation Again they are clog'd by mysty air or wettine and likewise are pierc'd through and cut asunder by spirit of wine or aquae ardentes but oyl doth not hurt them Likewise they yield more spirits in the Sun then in the shade and they continue longer when the air is cleard by North or Eastern winds They require to be polish'd either because the rubbing which polish'd them takes off from their surfaces the former emanations which returning back stick upon them and so hinder the passage of those that are within or else because their outsides may be foul or lastly because the ports may be dilated by that smoothing Now that hardness and solidity is required argues that these spirits must be quick ones that they may return smartly and not be lost through their languishing in the air Likewise that all bodies which are not either exceeding rare or else set on fire may be drawn by these unctuous thrids concludes that the quality by which they do it is a common one that hath no particular contrarieties such an one as we see in grease or in pitch to stick to any thing from which in like manner nothing is exempted but fire and air And lastly that they work most efficaciously when they are heated by rubbing rather then by fire shews that their spirits are excitated by motion and therby made to fly abroad in such manner as we see in Pomanders and other perfumes which must be heated if you will have them communicate their scent And a like effect as in them agitation doth in Jet yellow Amber and such other Electrical bodies for if upon rubbing them you put them presently to your nose you wil discern
a strong bituminous smel in them All which circumstances shew that this electrical virtue consists in a certain degree of rarity or density of the bodies unctuous emanations Now if these refined and viscuous thrids of Jet or Amber in their streaming abroad meet with a piece of straw or hay or dried leaf or some such light and spungy body 't is no marvel if they glew themselvs to it like birdlime and that in their shrinking back by being condens'd again and repuls'd through the coldness of the air they carry it along with them to their entire body Which they that only see the effect and cannot penetrate into a possibility of a natural cause therof are much troubled withal And this seems to me to bear a fairer semblance of truth then what Cabeus delivers for the cause of Electrical attractions whose speculation herein though I cannot allow for solid yet I must for ingenious And certainly even errours are to be commended when they are witty ones and proceed from a casting-further-about then the beaten Tract of verbal learning or rather terms which explicate not the nature of the thing in question He sayes that the coming of straws and such other light bodies to Amber Jet and the like proceeds from a wind raised by the forcible breaking out of subtile emanations from the Electrical bodies into the air which brings those light bodies along with it to the Electrical ones But this discourse cannot hold For First 't is not the nature of unctuous emanation generally speaking to cause smart motions singly of themselvs Secondly although they should raise a wind I do not comprehend how this wind should drive bodies directly back to the source that raised it but rather any other way and so consequently should drive the light bodies it meets with in its way rather from then towards the Electrical body Thirdly if there should be such a wind raised and it should bring light bodies to the Electrical ones yet it could not make them stick therto which we see they do turn them which way you will as though they were glew'd together Neither do his experiences convince any thing For what he saies that the light bodies are somtimes brought to the Electrical body with such a violence that they rebound back from it and then return again to it makes rather against him for if wind were the cause of their motion they would not return again after they had leaped back from the Electrical body no more then we can imagine that the wind it self doth The like is of his other experience when he observ'd that some little grains of Saw-dust hanging at an Electrical body the furthermost of them not only fell off but seem'd to be driven away forcibly for they did not fall directly down but side-wayes and besides flew away with a violence and smartness that argued some strong impulse The reason wherof might be that new emanations might smite them which not sticking and fast'ning upon them wherby to draw them nearer must needs push them further or it might be that the emanations to which they were glew'd shrinking back to their main body the later grains were shoulder'd off by others that already besieg'd the Superficies and then the emanations retiring swiftly the grains must break off with a force or else we may conceive it was the force of the air that bore them up a little which made an appearance of their being driven away as we see feathers and other light things descend not straight down CHAP. XX. 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 ancient and modern have agreed upon as an undeniable example and evidence of the shortness 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 us Wherfore our Reader I am sure will not in this subject expect clear satisfaction or plain demonstrations at our hands but will judg we have fairly acquitted our selves if what we say be any whit plausible Therefore to use our best indeavours to content him let us reflect upon the disposition of parts of this habitable Globe wherof we are Tenants for life And we shall find that the Sun by his constant course under the Zodiack heats a great part of it unmeasurably more then he doth the rest And consequently that this Zodiack being in the mid'st between two as it were ends which we call the Poles these Poles must necessarily be extremely cold in respect of the Torrid Zone for so we call that part of the earth which lies under the Zodiack Now looking into the consequence of this we find that the Sun or the Suns heat which reflects from the earth in the Torrid Zone must rarifie the air extremely and according to the nature of all heat and fire must needs carry away from thence many parts of the air and earth sticking to that heat in such sort as we have formerly declared Whence it follows that other air must necessarily come from the Regions towards both the Poles to supply what is carried away from the middle as is the course in other fires and as we have explicated above Especially considering that the air which comes from the Polewards is heavier then the air of the Torrid Zone and therfore must naturally press to be still nearer the earth and so as it were shoulders on the air of the Torrid Zone towards the circumference by rolling into its place and this in great quantities and consequently the polar air must draw a great train after it Which if we consider the great extent of the Torrid Zone we shall easily perswade our selvs must reach on each side to the very Pole For taking from Archimedes that the Spherical Superficies of a portion of a Sphere is to the Superficies of the whole Sphere according as the parts 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 Torrid 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 heat reigning in so vast an extent will draw air very powerfully from the rest of the world Neither let any man apprehend that this course of the Sun 's elevating so great quantities of Atoms in the Torrid Zone should hinder the course of gravity there For first the medium is much rarer in thâ— Torrid Zone then in other parts of the earth and therfore the force of the descending Atoms needs not be so great there as in other places to make bodies descend there as fast as they do elsewhere Secondly there being a perpetual supply of fresh air from the Polar parts streaming continually into the Torrid Zone it must of
to the iron though the other steam be never so great yet it cannot draw more then according to the proportion of its Antagonists coming from the iron Wherfore seeing the two steams betwixt the iron and the little Loadstone are more proportionable to one another and the steam coming out of the little loadstone is notably greater then the steam going from the iron to the greater Loadstone the conjunction must be made for the most part to the little loadstone And if this discourse doth not hold in the former part of the Probleme betwixt a second iron and Loadstone it is supplyed by the former reason which we gave for that particular purpose The third case depends also of this solution for the bigger an iron is so many more parts it hath to suck up the influence of the Loadstone and consequently doth it therby the more greedily and therfore the Loadstone must be carried to it more violently and when they aâ—e joyn'd stick more strongly The sixth question is Why the variations of the Needle from the true North in the Northern Hemisphere are greater the nearer you go to the Pole and lesser the nearer you approach to the Equator The reason wherof is plain in our doctrine For considering that the magnetick virtue of the earth streams from the North towards the Equator it follows of necessity that if there be two streams of magnetick flowrs issuing from the North one of them precisely from the pole the other from a part of the earth near the pole that the stream coming from the point by side the Pole be but a little the stronger of the two there will appear very little differences in their several operations after they have had a long space to mingle their emanations together which therby join and grow as it were into one stream wheras the nearer you come to the Pole the more you will find them severed and each of them working by its own virtue And very near the point which causes the variation each stream works singly by it self and therfore here the point of variation must be master and will carry the needle strongly to his course from the due North if his stream be never so little more efficacious then the other Again a line drawn from a point of the Earth wide of the Pole to a point of the Meridian near the Equator makes a less angle then a line drawn from the same point of the Earth to a point of the same Meridian nearer the Pole wherfore the variation being esteem'd by the quantities of the said angles it must needs be greater near the Pole then near the Equator though the cause be the same But because it may happen that in the parts near the Equator the variation may proceed from some piece of land not much more northerly then where the needle is but that it bears rather Easterly or Westerly from it and yet Gilbert's assertion goes universally when he says the variations in Southern regions are less then in Northern ones we must examine what may be the reason therof And presently the generation of the Loadstone shews it plainly For seeing the nature of the Loadstone proceeds out of this that the Sun works more upon the Torrid Zone then upon the poles and that his too strong operation is contrary to the Loadstone as being of the nature of fire it follows evidently that the lands of the Torrid Zone cannot be so magnetical generally speaking as the polar lands are and by consequence that a lesser land near the Pole will have a greater effect then a larger continent near the Equator and likewise a land further off towards the Pole will work more strongly then a nearer land which lyes towards the Equator The seventh question is Whether in the same part of the world a touched needle may at one time vary more from the true North point and at another time less In which Gilbert was resolute for the negative part but our latter Mathematicians are of another mind Three experiences were made neer London in three divers years The two first 42 years distant from one another and the third 12 years distant from the second And by them it is found that in the space of 54 years the Loadstone hath at London diminsh'd his variation from the North the quantity of 7 degrees and more But so that in the latter years the diminution hath sensibly gone faster then in the former These observations peradventure are but little credited by Strangers but we who know the worth of the men that made them cannot mistrust any notable errour in them for they were very able Mathematicians and made their observations with very great exactness and there were several judicious witnesses at the making of them as may be seen in Mr. Gillebrand's print concerning this subject And divers other particular persons confirm the same whose credit though each single might peradventure be slighted yet all in body make a great accession We must therfore cast about to find what may be the cause of an effect so paradox to the rest of the doctrine of the Loadstone for seeing that no one place can stand otherwise to the North of the earth at one time then at another how it is possible the needle should receive any new variation since all variation proceeds out of the inequality of the earth But when we consider that this effect proceeds not out of the main body of the earth but only out of the bark of it and that its bark may have divers tempers not as yet discover'd to us out of whose variety the influence of the earthy parts may be divers in respect of one certain place 't is not impossible but that such variation may be especially in England which Island lying open to the North by a great and vast Ocean may receive more particularly then other places the special influences and variation of the weather that happen in those Northeastern countreys from whence this influence comes to us If therfore there should be any cours of weather whose period were a hundred years for example or more or lesse and so might easily pass unmarked this variation might grow out of such a cours But in so obscure a thing we have already hazarded to guess too much And upon the whole matter of the Loadstone it serves our turn if we have proved as we conceive we have done fully that its motions which appear so admirable do not proceed from an occult quality but that the causes of them may be reduced to local motion and all perform'd by such corporeal instruments and means though peradventure more intricately disposed as all other effects are among bodies Whose ordering and disposing and particular progress there is no reason to despair of finding ouâ— would men but carefully apply themselvs to that work upon solid principles and with diligent experiences But because this matter has been very long and scatteringly
of them To come then to the matter Now that we have explicated the natures of those motions by means wherof bodies are made and destroy'd and in which they are to be consider'd chiefly as passive whiles some exterior agent working upon them causes such alterations in them and brings them to such pass as we see in the changes that are daily wrought among substances The next thing we are to imploy our selves about is to take a survey of those motions which some bodies have wherin they seem to be not so much patients as agents and contain within themselvs the principle of their own motion having no relation to any outward object more then to stir up that principle of motion and set it on work which when it is once in act hath as it were within the limits of its own kingdom and sever'd from commerce with all other bodies whatever many other subaltern motions over which it presides To which purpose we may consider that among the compounded bodies whose natures we have explicated there are some in whom the parts of different complexions are so small so wel mingled together that they make a compound which to our sense seems all quite through of one Homogeneous nature and however it be divided each part retains the entire and compleat nature of the whole Others again there are in which 't is easie to discern that the whole is made up of several great parts of very differing natures and tempers And of these there are two kinds one of such as their differing parts seem to have no relation to one another or correspondence together to perform any particular work in which all of them are necessary but rather they seem to be made what they are by chance and accident and if one part be sever'd from another each is an entire thing by it self of the same nature as it was in the whole and no harmony is destroy'd by such division As may be observ'd in some bodies dig'd out of Mines in which one may see lumps of Metal or stone and glass and such different substances in their several distinct situations perfectly compacted into one continuate body which if you divide the glass remains what it was before the Emerald is still an Emerald the silver is good silver and the like of the other substances the causes of which may be easily deduced out of what we have formerly said But there are other bodies in which this manifest and notable difference of parts carries with it such a subordination of one of them to another as we cannot doubt but that nature made such engines if so I may call them by design and intended that this variety should be in One thing whose unity and being what it is should depend of the harmony of the several differing parts and should be destroy'd by their separation As we see in living Creatures whose particular parts and members being once sever'd there is no longer a living creature to be found among them Now of this kind of bodies there are two sorts The first is of those that seem to be one continuate substance wherin we may observe one and the same constant progress throughout from the lowest to the highest part of it so that the operation of one part is not at all different from that of another but the whole body seems to be the course and throughfare of one constant action varying it self in divers occasions and occurrences according to the disposition of the subject The bodies of the second sort have their parts so notably separated one from the other and each have such a peculiar motion proper to them that one might conceive they were every one a complete distinct total thing by it self and that all of them were artificially tied together were it not that the subordination of these parts to one another is so great and the correspondence between them so strict the one not being able to subsist without the other from whom he derives what is needful for him and again being so useful to that other and having its action and motion so fitting and necessary for it as without it that other cannot be as plainly convinces that the compound of all these several parts must needs be one individuol thing I remember that when I travel'd in Spain I saw there two Engines that in some sort express the natures of these two kinds of bodies One at Toledo the other a Segovia both of them set on work by the current of the river in which the foundation of their machine was laid That at Toledo was to force up water at a great height from the river Tagus to the Alcazar the Kings palace that stands upon a high steep hill or rock almost perpendicular over the river In the bottome there was an indented wheel which turning round with the stream gave motion at the same time to the whole engine which consisted of a multitude of little troughs or square ladles set one over another in two parallel rows over against one another from the bottom to the top and upon two several divided frames of timber These troughs were closed at one end with a traverse board to retain the water from running out there which end being bigger then the rest of the trough made it somewhat like a ladle and the rest of it seem'd to be the handle with a channel in it the little end of which channel or trough was open to let the water pass freely away And these troughs were fasten'd by an axletree in the middle of them to the frame of timber that went from the bottome up to the top so that they could upon that center move at liberty either the shut end downwards or the open end like the beam of a ballance Now at a certain position of the root-wheel if so I may call it all one side of the machine sunk down a little lower towards the water and the other was raised a little higher Which motion was changed as soon as the ground-wheel had ended the remnant of his revolution for then the side that was lowest before sprung up and the other sunk down And thus the two sides of the machine were like two legs that by turns trod the water as in the Vintage men press Grapes in a watte Now the troughs that were fast'ned to the timber which descended turn'd that part of them downwards which was like a Box shut to hold the water and consequently the open end was up in the air like the arm of the ballance to which the lightest scale is fasten'd and in the mean time the troughs upon the ascending timber were moved by a contrary motion keeping their boxends aloft and letting the open ends incline downwards so that if any water were in them they would let it run out wher'as the others retain'd any that came into them VVhen you have made an image of this Machine in your phantasie consider what will follow out
in the seed must needs be the principal immediate cause of this admirable effect This latter then being supposed our labour and endeavour will be to unfold as far as so weak and dim eyes can reach the excellency and exactness of Gods Providence which cannot be enough adored when it is reflected on and mark'd in the apt laying of adequate causes to produce such a figure out of such a mixture first laid 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 convenient and ordinary instruments to mediate and effect this configuration through the force and virtue of their own particular natures Such a necessity to interest the chief workman at every turn in particular effects would argue him of want of skill and providence in the first laying of the foundations of his designed Machine He were an improvident Clockmaker that should have cast his work so as when it were wound up and going it would require the Masters hand at every hour to make the Hammer strike upon the Bell. Let us not then too familiarly and irreverently ingage the Almighty Architect's immediate handy-work in every particular effect of nature Tali non est dignus vindice noduâ— But let us take principles within our own kenning and consider how a body hath of its own nature three dimensions as Mathematicians use to demonstrate and that the variety we see of figures in bodies proceeds out of the defect of some of these dimensions in proportion to the rest As for example that a thing be in the form of a Square Tablet is for that the cause which gave it length and breadth could not also give it thickness in the same proportion for had it been able to give profundity as well as the other two it had made a Cube instead of a Tablet In like manner the former of a lamine or very long square is occasion'd by some accident which hinders the cause from giving breadth and thickness proportionable to the length And so other figures are made by reason that their causes are some ways bound to give more of some dimension to one part then another As for example when water falls out of the skie it hath all the little corners or extancies of its body grated off by the air as it rolls and tumbles down in it so that it becomes round and continues in that form till setling on some flat body as Grass or a Leaf it receives a little plainness to the proportion of his weight mastering the continuity of it And therfore if the drop be great upon that plain body it seems to be half a Sphere or some less portion of one but if it be a little drop then the flat part of it which is that next the grass is very little and undiscernable because it hath not weight enough to press it much and spread it broad upon the grass and so the whole seems in a manner to be a Sphere But if the extern causes had press'd upon this drop only broadways and thick ways as when a Turner makes a round Pillar of a square one then it would have proved a Cylinder nothing working upon it to grate off any of its length but only the corners of the breadth and thickness of it And thus you see how the fundamental figures upon which all the rest are grounded are contrived by nature not by the work of any particular Agent that immediately Imprints a determinate figure into a particular body as though it wrought it there at once according to a foreconceiv'd design or intelligent aim of producing such a figure in such a body but by the concurrence of several accidental causes that all joyn in bringing the body they file and work upon into such a shape Only we had like to have forgotten the reason and cause of the concave figure in some parts of Plants which in the ordinary course of nature we shall find to grow from hence That a round outside being filled with some liquor which makes it grow higher and higher it happens that the succeeding causes contract this liquor and harden the outside and then of necessity there must be a hollow Cylinder remaining in lieu of the juice which before fill'd it As we see every day in corn and in Reeds and in Canes and in the stalks of many herbs which whilst they are tender and in their first growth are full of juice and become afterwards hallow and dry But because this discourse may peradventure seem too much in common it will not be amiss to apply it to some particulars that seem very strange And first let us examine how the rocking of concrete juices which seems to be such an admirable mystery of Nature is performed Allom falls down in lumps Saltpeter in long icicles and common Salt in squares and this not once or somtimes now or then but always constantly in the same order The reason of these effects will easily be deduced out of what we have said For if all three be dissolv'd in the same water Allom being the grossest falls first and fastest and being of an unctious nature the first part which falls doth not harden till the second comes to it wherby this second sticks to the first and crushes it down and this is serv'd in the same manner by the third and so it goes on one part squeezing another till what is undermost grow hard enough to resist the weight of new falling parts or rather till no more fall but the liquor they were dissolv'd in is deliver'd of them all and then they harden in that figure they were compress'd into As for Salt which descends in the second place that swims first upon the water and there gets its figure which must be equally long and broad because the water is indifferent to those two positions but its thickness is not equal to its other two dimensions by reason that before it can attain to that thickness it grows too heavy to swim any longer and after it is encreas'd to a certain bulk the weight of it carries it down to the bottom of the water and consequently it can encrease no more for it encreases by the joyning of little parts to it as it swims on the top of the water The Saltpeter falls last which being more difficult to be figured then the other two because it is more dry then either of them as consisting chiefly of earthy and of fiery parts is not equally encreased neither in all three nor in two dimensions but hath its length exceeding both its breadth and thickness and its lightness makes it fall last because it requires least water to sustain it To give the causes of the figures of divers mixts and particularly of some precious stones which seems to be cast by Nature in exactest moulds would oblige us to enter into the particular manner of their generation which were exceeding hard if
that when it is full it compresses itself by a quick and strong motion to expel that which is in it and that when it is empty it returns to its natural dilatation figure and situation by the ceasing of that agents working which caused its motion Wherby it appears to be of such a fibrous substance as hath a proper motion of its own Thirdly I see not how this motion can be proportional For the heart must needs open and be dilated much faster then it can be shut and shrunk together there being no cause put to shut and bring it to its utmost period of shrinking other then the going out of the vapour wherby it becomes empty which vapour not being forced by any thing but its own inclination may peradventure at first when there is abundance of it swell and stretch the heart forcibly out but after the first impulse and breach of some part of it out of the Cavern that enclosed it there is nothing to drive out the rest which must therfore steam very leasurely out Fourthly what should hinder the blood from coming in before the heart be quite-empty and shrunk to its lowest pitch For as soon as the vapour yeelds within new blood may fall in from without and so keep the heart continually dilated without ever suffering it to be perfectly and compleatly shut Fifthly the heart of a Viper layd upon a plate in a warm place will beat four and twenty houres and much longer if it be carefully taken out of its body and the weather warm and moyst and it is clear that this is without succession of blood to cause the pulses of it Likewise the several members of living creatures will stir for sometime after they are parted from their bodies and in them we can suspect no such cause of motion Sixthly Mounsir des Cartes his opinion the heart should be hardest when it is fullest and the eruption of the steam out of it should be strongest at the beginning wheras experience shews that it is softest when it is at the point of being full and hardest when it is at the point of being empty and the motion strongest towards the end Seventhly in Mounsir des Cartes his way there is no agent or force strong enough to make blood gush out of the heart For if it be the steam only that opens the doors nothing but it will go out and the blood will still remain behind since it lies lower then the steam and further from the issue that lets it out but Dr. Harvey findes by experience and teaches how to make this experience that when a wound is made in the heart blood will gush out by spurts at every shooting of the heart And lastly if Mounsir des Cartes his supposition were true the arteries would receive nothing but steams wheras it is evident that the chief filler of them is blood Therfore we must enquire after another cause of this primary motion of a sensitive creature in the beatings of its heart Wherin we shall not be obliged to look far for seeing we find this motion and these pulsations in the heart when it is separated from the body we may boldly and safely conclude that it must of necessity be caused by somthing that is within the heart it self And what can that be else but heat or spirits imprison'd in a tough viscous bloud which it cannot so presently break through to get out and yet can stir within it and lift it up The like of which motion may be observ'd in the heaving up and sinking down again of lose mould thrown into a pit intoe which much ordure hath been emptied The same cause of h at in the earth makes mountains and sands to be cast up in the very sea So in frying when the pan is full of meat the bubbles rise and fall at the edges Treacle and such strong compounded substances whiles they ferment lift themselvs up and sink down again after the same manner as the Vipers heart doth as also do the bubbles of Barm and most of Wine And short ends of Lute strings baked in a juicy pie will at the opening of it move in such sort as they who are ignorant of the feat will think there are Magots in it and a hot loaf in which quick-silver is enclosed will not only move thus but will also leap about and skip from one place to another like the head or limb of an Animal very full of spirits newly cut off from its whole body And that this is the true cause of the hearts motion appears evidently First because this virtue of moving is in every part of the heart as you will plainly see if you cut out into several pieces a heart that conservs its motion long after it is out of the Animals belly for every piece will move as Dr. Harvey assures us by experience and I my self have often seen upon occasion of making the great antidote in which Vipers hearts is a principal ingredient Secondly the same is seen in the auricles and the rest of the heart whose motions are several though so near together that they can hardly be distinguished Thirdly Dr. Harvey seems to affirm that the blood which is in the ears of the heart hath such a motion of it self precedent to the motion of the ears it is in and that this virtue remains in it for a little space after the ears are dead Fourthly in touching a heart which had newly left moving with his finger weted with warm spittle it began to move again as testifying that heat and moisture made this motion Fifthly if you touch the Vipers heart over with vineger with spirit of wine with sharp white-wine or with any piercing liquor it presently dyes for the acuteness of such substances pierces through the viscous bloud and makes way for the heat to get out But this first mover of an Animal must have somthing from without to stir it up else the heat would lie in it as if it were dead and in time would become absolutely so In Eggs you see this exteriour mover in the warmth of the Hens hatching them And in Embryons it is the warmth of the mothers womb But when in either of them the heart is completely form'd and enclosed in the breast much heat is likewise enclosed there in all the parts near about the heart partly made by the heart it self and partly caused by the outward heat which helped also to make that in the heart and then although the warmth of the hen or of the mothers womb forsake the heart yet this stirs up the native heat within the heart and keeps it in motion and makes it feed still upon new fewel as fast as that which it works upon decayes But to express more particularly how this motion is effected We are to note that the heart hath in its ventrickles three sorts of fibers The first go long ways or are straight ones on the sides of the ventricles
of the instrument which is the reason that the concave figure is affected in most and so when it breaks out of the instrument in greater quantity then the string immediately did shake it causes the same undulations in the whole body of Air round about And that striking the Drum of the ear gives notice therin what tenour the string moves whose vibrations if one stop by laying his finger upon it the sound is instantly at an end for then there is no cause on foot that continues the motion of the Air which without a continuation of the impulse returns speedily to quiet through the resistance made to it by other parts of it that are further off Out of all which 't is plain that motion alone is able to effect and give account of all things whatever that are attributed to Sound and that Sound and motion go hand in hand together so that whatever is said of the one is likewise true of the other Wherfore it cannot be deny'd but that hearing is nothing else but the due perception of motion and that motion and sound are in themselvs one and the same thing though expressâ—d by different names and comprised in our understanding under different notions Which proposition seems to be yet further convinced by the ordinary experience of perceiving musick by mediation of a stick for how should a deaf man be capable of musick by holding a stick in his Teeth whose other end lies upon the Vial or Virginals were it not that the proportional shaking of the stick working a like dancing in the mans head make a like motion in his brain without passing through his ear and consequently without being otherwise sound then as bear motion is sound Or if any man will still persist in having sound be some other thing then as we say and that it effects the sense otherwise then purely by motion he must nevertheless acknowledge that whatever it be it hath neither cause nor effect nor breeding nor dying that we either know or can imagine And then if he will let reason sway he will conclude it unreasonable to say or suspect so ill grounded a surmise against so clear and solid proofs which our ears themselvs not a little confirm their whole figure and nature tending to the perfect receiving conserving and multiplying the motions of air which happen without a man as who is curious may plainly see in the Anatomists books and discourses CHAP. XXIX Of Sight and Colours THere is yet left the object of our Sight which we call Colours to take a survey of for as for light we have at large display'd the nature and properties of it from which whether colour be different or no will be the question we shall next discuss For those who are cunning in Opticks will by refractions and reflexions make all sorts of colours out of pure light as we see in Rainbows in those Triangular Glasses or Prisms which some call Fools Paradises and in other inventions for this purpose Wherfore in brief to shew what colour is let us lay for a ground that Light is of all other things in the world the greatest and the most powerful agent upon our eye either by it self or by what comes in with it and that where light is not darkness is Then consider that light may be diversly cast especially through or from a transparent body into which it sinks in part and in part it doth not and you will conclude that it cannot choose but come out from such a body in divers sorts mingled with darkness Which if it be in a sensible quantity accordingly makes divers appearances and those appearances must of necessity have divers hues representing the colours which are middle colours between white and black since white is the colour of light and darkness seems black Thus those colours are ingendred which are call'd apparent ones And they appear somtimes but in some one position as in the Rainbow which changes place as the looker on doth but at other times they may be seen from any part as those which light makes by a double refraction through a Triangular Glass And that this is rightly deliver'd may be gather'd out of the conditions requisite to their production For that Chrystal or water or any refracting body doth not admit light in all its parts is evident by reason of the reflection it makes which is exceeding great and not only from the superficies but even from the middle of the body within as you may see plainly if you put it in a dark place and enlighten but one part of it for then you may perceive as it were a current of light pass quite through the body although your eye be not opposite to the passage so that manifestly it reflects to your eye from all the inward parts which it lights upon Now a more oblique reflection or refractiom more disperses the light and admits more privations of light in its parts then a less oblique one as Galileo hath demonstrated in the First Dialogue of his Systeme Wherefore a less oblique reflection or refraction may receive that in quality of light which a more oblique one makes appear mingled with darkness and consequently the same thing will appear colour in one which shews it self plain light in another 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 passes so if we conceive the superficies from which the light reflects to be diversly order'd in respect of reflexion it must of necessity follow that it will have a divers lustre and sight as we see by experience in the necks of Pigeons and in certain positions of our eye in which the light passing through our eye-brows makes an appearance as though we saw divers colours streaming from a candle we look upon And accordingly we may observe how some things or rather most appear 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 appear lighter by placing deep shadows by them even so much that they will make objects appear nearer and further off meerly by their mixtion of their colours Because objects the nearer they are the more strongly and lively they reflect light and therfore appear the clearer as the others do more dusky Wherfore if we put the superficies of one body to have a better disposition for the reflection of light then another hath we cannot but conceive that such difference in the superficies must needs beget variety of permanent colours in the bodies and according as the superficies of the same body is better or worse disposed to reflection of light by polishing or by compressure together or the like so the same body remaining the same in substance will shew it self of a different colour And it being
Which being so no body can quarrel with us for Aristotle's sake who as he was the greatest Logician and Metaphysician and universal Scholar peradventure that ever lived and so highly esteem'd that the good turn which Sylla did the world in saving his works was thought to recompence his many outragious cruelties and tyranny so his name must never be mention'd among Scholars but with reverence for his unparalleld'd worth and with gratitude for the large stock of knowledge he hath enriched us with Yet withal we are to consider that since his reign was but at the beginning of Sciences he could not choose but have some defects and shortnesses among his many great and admirable perfections SECOND TREATISE DECLARING THE NATURE AND OPERATIONS OF MANS SOUL OUT OF WHICH THE IMMORTALITY OF REASONABLE SOULS IS CONVINCED LONDON Printed in the Year 1669. PREFACE 'T Is now high time for us to cast an Eye on the other Leaf of our Accounts or peradventure I may more properly say to fall to the perusal of our own accounts for hitherto our time and pains have been taken up in examining and casting the accounts of others to the end that from the Foot and Total of them we may drive on our own the more smoothly In ours then we shall meet with a new Capital we shall discover a new World of a quite different strain and nature from that which all this while we have imploy'd our selves about We will enter into them with taking a survey of the great Master of all that large Family we have so summarily view'd I mean of Man as Man that is not as he is subject to those Laws wherby other bodies are govern'd for therin he hath no preeminence to raise him out of their throng but as he exceeds the rest of Creatures subject to his managing and rules over nature her self making her serve his designes and subjecting her noblest powers to his Laws and is distinguish'd from all other creatures whatever To the end we may discover whether that principle in him from whence those actions proceed which are properly his be but some refined composition of the same kind we have already treated of or whether it derives its Sourse and Origine from some higher Spring and Stock and be of a quite different nature Having then by our former Treatise master'd the oppositions which else would have taken arms against us when we should have been in the midst of our edifice and clear'd the objections which lay in our way from the perverse Qualities of the Souls Neighbours the several Common-wealths of Bodies we must now begin with David to gather together our Materials and take a survey of our own provisions that so we may proceed with Solomon to the sacred building of Gods Temple But before we go about it it will not be amiss that we shew the reason why we have made our Porch so great and added so long an entry that the house is not likely to have therto a correspondent bulk and when the necessity of doing so shall appear I hope my pains will meet with a favourable censure and receive a fair admittance We proposed to our selves to shew That our Souls are immortal wherupon casting about to find the grounds of Immortality and discerning it to be a negative we conceiv'd that we ought to begin our search with enquiring what Mortality is and what be the causes of it Which when we should have discover'd and brought the Soul to their test if we found they trench'd not upon her nor any way concern'd her condition we might safely conclude that of necessity she must be immortal Looking then into the causes of mortality we saw that all Bodies round about us were Mortal whence perceiving that Mortality extended it self as far corporeity we found our selvs obliged if we would free the Soul from that Law to shew that she is not corporeal This could not be done without enquiring what corporeity was Now it being a rule among Logicians that a definition cannot be good unless it comprehend and reach to every particular of that which is defined we perceiv'd it impossible to know compleatly what a Body is without taking a general view of all those things which we comprise under 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 parts that all the Differences of Bodies are reduced to having more or less parts in comparison to their substance thus and thus order'd and lastly that all their operations are nothing else but Local Motions which follows naturally out of having parts So as it appears evidently from hence that if any thing have a being and yet have no parts it is not a body but a substance of another quality and condition and consequently if we can find the Soul's being to be without parts and that her operations are no local translation we evidently conclude her to be an immaterial or spiritual substance Peradventure it may be objected that all this might have been done a much more shorter way than we have taken and that we needed not have branc'd our discourse into so many particulars nor driven them so home as we have done but might have taken out our first rise from this ground which is as evident as light of reason can make it that seeing we know bigness and a body to be one and the same as well in the notion as in the thing it must of necessity follow that what hath not parts nor works nor is wrought upon by Division is not a Body I confess this Objection appears very reasonable and the consideration of it weigh'd so much with me as were all men of a free judgment and not imbued with artificial errours I would for its sake have saved my self a great deal of pains but I find as in the former Treatise I have frequently complain'd that there is crept into the world a Fansy so contrary to this pregnant truth and that it is so deeply setled in many mens minds not of the meanest note as all we have said is peradventure too little to root it out If any satisfied with the rational Maxime we even now mentioned therfore not deeming it needful to employ his time in reading the former Treatise should wish to know how this is come to pass I shall here represent to to him the Summe of what I have more at large scatter'd in several places of the former Treatise And shall intreat him to consider how Nature teaches us to call the Proprieties of things wherby one is distinguished from another the Qualities of those things and that according to their varieties they have divers names suited out to divers of them some being called Habits others Powers and others by other names Now what Aristotle and the Learned Grecians meant by these things is clear by the examples
latter can but rove wildly at the nature of the thing he apprehends and will never be able to draw any operation into act out of the apprehension he hath framed of it As for example if a man be to work upon Gold and by reason of its resemblance to brass hath form'd an apprehension of Brass instead of an apprehension of Gold and then knowing that the action of fire will resolve Brass into its least parts and sever its moist from its dry ones will go about to calcine Gold in the same manner as he would do Brass he will soon find that he loses his labour and that ordinary fire is not an adequate Agent to destroy the homogeneal nature and sever the minute parts of that fixed mettal All which happens out of the wrong apprehension he hath made of Gold Wheras on the other side he that apprehends a thing rightly if he pleases to discourse of what he apprehends finds in his apprehension all the parts and qualities which are in the thing he discourses of For example if he apprehends rightly a Knife or a Beetle or a Sieve or any other thing whatever in the Knife he will find Haft and Blade the Blade of iron thick on the back and thin on the edg temper'd to be hard and tough thus beaten so ground in such manner softned thus quenched and whatever else concerns the Being or making of a Knife And all this he draws out of his notion or apprehension of a Knife which is that 't is An instrument fitted to cut such and such things in such a manner for hence he finds that it has a Haft fit to hold it by in ones hand to the end it may not hurt the hand whiles it presses upon the Knife and that the Blade is apt to slide in betwixt the parts of the thing which is to be cut by the motion of being pressed or drawn by the hand and so he proceeds on descending to the qualities of both parts and how they are to be joyn'd and held fast together In the like manner he discourses of a Beetle a Sieve or whatever else comes in his way And he doth this not only in such manufactures as are of mans invention but if he be capable he doth the like in Beasts in Birds in Trees in Herbs in Fishes in Fossiles and in what creature soever he meets within the whole extent of nature He findes what they are made for and having discover'd Natures aim in their production he can instruct others what parts and manner of generation they have or ought to have and if he that in this manner apprehends any thing rightly hath a mind to work upon it either to make or use and order it to some end of his own he is able by his right apprehension to compare it to other things to prepare what is any way fitting for the making of it to apply it to what it will work its effect upon and to conserve it from what may wrong or destroy it So if he have framed a right apprehension of a Sieve he will not employ it in drawing water if of a Beetle he will not go about to cut with it neither will he offer if he have a due apprehension of a Knife to cut stone or steel with it but wood or what is softer He knows what will whet and maintain the edge of it and understands what will blunt or break it In fine he uses it in such sort as the Knife it self had it knowledg and will would wish to be used and moves it in such a manner as if it had power of motion it would move it self He goes about the making of it even as Nature would do were it one of her Plants and in a word the Knife in this apprehension made in the man hath those causes proprieties and effects which are natural to it and which nature would give it if it were made by her and which are proportionable to those parts causes proprieties and effects that Nature bestows on her children and creatures according to their several essences What then can we imagine but that the very nature of a thing apprehended is truly in the man who apprehends it And that to apprehend ought is to have the nature of that thing within ones self And that man by apprehending becomes the thing apprehended not by change of his nature to it but by assumption of it to his Here peradventure some will reply that we press our inference too far and will peremptorily deny the things real Being in our mind when we make a true and full apprehension of it accounting it sufficient for our purpose that some likeness or image of the thing be there out of which we may drawall these whether contemplations or works or disposals of the thing But by that time this objection is throughly look'd into and so much as they allow duly examin'd I believe we shall find our quarrel to be only about the word not the matter and that indeed both of us mean the same though diversly conceiv'd their expression in what they grant importing in substance the same as ours which 't is true they first deny in words but that may be because the thing is not by them rightly understood Let us then discuss the matter particularly What is likeness but an imperfect unity between a thing and that which 't is said to be like to If the likeness be imperfect 't is more unlike than like to it and the liker it is the more 't is one with it till at length the growing likeness may arrive to such a perfection and to such an unity with the thing 't is like to that then it shall no longer be like but is become wholly the same with that formerly it had but a resemblance of For example let us consider in what consists the likeness to a Man of a Picture drawn in Black and White representing a Man and we shall find 't is only in the proportion of the limbs and features for the colours the bulk and all things else are unlike But the proportions are the very same in a Man in a Picture yet that Picture is but a likeness because it wants bigness and colour give it them and nevertheless it will be but a likeness because it wants all the dimensions of corporeity or bulk which are in a mans body Add also those to it and still it will be but a likeness or representation of a man because it wants the warmth the sostness and the other qualities of a living body which belongs to a man but if you give it all these then it is no longer a likeness or image of a living creature but a living creature indeed And if peradventure this living creature continue still to be but the likeness of a man 't is because it wants some perfections or proprieties belonging to a man and so in that regard 't is unlike a man but if you allow it
not bound for the continuation of that things Being to prove that it is not changed but on the other side he tbat averrs it changed is bound to bring in his evidence of a sufficient cause to change it for to have a thing remain is natures own dictamen and follows out of the causes which gave it Being but to make an alteration supposes a change in the causes and therfore the obligation of proof lyes on that side Nevertheless to give satisfaction to those who are earnest to see every article positively proved we will make that part to our Province Let us then remember that Immortality signifies a negation or not-having of Mortality and that a positive term is required to express a change by since nature teaches us that whatever is will remain with the Being it hath unless it be forced out of it If then we shew that Mans Soul hath not those grounds in her which make all things we see to be mortal we must be allow'd to have acquitted our selvs of the charg of proving her Immortal For this end let us look round about us and inquire of all the things we meet with by what means they are changed and come to a period and are no more The pure Elements will tell you that they have their change by rarefaction and condensation and no otherwise Mixed bodies by alteration of their mixture Smal bodies by the activity of the Elements working upon them and by the means of rarefaction and condensation entring into their very constitution and breeding another temperament by separation of some of their parts and in their stead mingling others Plants and trees and other living creatures will tell you that their nourishment being insinuated through their whole bodies by subtile pores and blind passages if they either be stop'd by any accident or else fill'd with bad nourishment the mixture of the whole fails of it self and they come to die Those things which are violently destroy'd we see are made away for the most part by division so fire by division destroyes all that comes in its way so living creatures are destroy'd by parting their blood from their flesh or one member from another or by the evaporation or extinction of their natural heat In fine we are sure that all things which within our knowledg lose their Being do so by reason of their Quantity which by division or by rarefaction and compression gains some new temperature that doth not consist with their former temper After these premisses I need say no more the conclusion displays it self readily and plainly without any further trouble For if our labour hath been hitherto to shew that our Soul is indivisible and that her operations are such as admit not quantitative parts in her 't is clear she cannot be mortal by any of those ways wherby we see things round about us to perish The like argument we may frame out of Local motion For seeing that all the alterative actions we are acquainted with be perform'd by local motion as is deliver'd both in gross and by retail in our first Treatise and that Aristotle and all understanding Philosophers agree there can be no Local motion in an indivisible thing the reason wherof is evident to whomsoever reflects upon the nature of Place and of Local motion 't is manifest there can be no motion to hurt the Soul since she is concluded to be indivisible The common argument likewise used in this matter amounts to the same effect to wit that since things are destroy'd only by their contraries that thing which hath no contrary is not subject to destruction which principle both Reason and Experience every where confirm but a humane Soul is not subject to contrariety therfore such an one cannot be destroy'd The truth of the assumption may be known two ways First because all the contrarieties that are found within our cognisance rise out of the primary opposition of Rarity and Density from which the Soul being absolutely free she likewise is so from all that grows out of that root and Secondly we may be sure that our Soul can receive no harm from contrariety since all contraries are so far from hurting her as contrary wise the one helps her in the contemplation of the other And as for contradiction in thoughts which at different times our Soul is capable of admitting experience teaches us that such thoughts change in her without any prejudice to her substance they being accidents and having their contrariety only betwixt themselvs within her but no opposition at all to her which only is the contrariety that may have power to harm her and therfore whethersoever of such contrary thoughts be in the Soul pertains no more to her subsistence than 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 conceive my task is perform'd and that I am discharg'd of my undertaking to shew the Souls Immortality which imports no more than to shew that the causes of other things mortality do not reach her Yet being well perswaded that my Reader will not be offended with the addition of any new light in this dark subject I will strive to discover if it be possible some positive proof or guess out of the property and nature of the Soul it self why she must remain and enjoy another life after this To this end let us cast our eye back upon what hath been already said concerning her nature We found that Truth is the natural perfection of Mans Soul and that she cannot be assured of truth naturally otherwise than by evidence and therfore 't is manifest that evidence of truth is the full compleat perfection at which the Soul doth aim We found also that the Soul is capable of an absolute infinity of truth or evidence To these two we will ad only one thing more which of it self is past question and therfore needs no proof and then we will deduce our conclusion and this is that a mans Soul is a far nobler and perfecter part of him than his Body and therfore by the rules of nature and wisedom his Body was made for his Soul and not his Soul finally for his Body These grounds being thus lay'd let us examine whether our Soul doth in this life arrive to the end she was ordain'd 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 Soul should be ferried over into that state where she is to attain to that end for which her nature is fram'd and fited The great skill and artifice of Nature shewing and assuring us that she never fails of compassing her end even in her meanest works and therfore without doubt she would not break her course in her greatest whereof man is absolutely the head and chief among all those we are acquainted with Now what the end is to which our
Substance exempted from Place and Time yet present to both an actual and present knowledg of all things that may be known and a skil or rule even by what it self is to all things whatever This she is if she be perfect but if she be imperfect then is she all this to the proportion of her growth if so I may say and she is powerful according to the measure of her knowledg and of her will So that in fine a Separated Soul is of a nature to have and to know and to govern all things I may reasonably suspect that my saying how imperfect Souls are rules to the proportion of their growth may have occasion'd great reflection and bred some trouble in the curious and heedful Reader I confess this expression was deliver'd by me only to free my self for the present from the labour of shewing what knowledg every Separated Soul hath but upon second thoughts I find that such sliding over this difficult point will not serve my turn nor save me the pains of untying this knot for unless I explicate what I mean by that speech I shall leave my Reader in great doubt and anxiety Which to free him from I must wade a little further in this question of the extent of a separated Souls knowledg into which I have thus upon the by engaged my self But let him first be advertis'd that I do not here meddle with what a Separated Soul may know by Revelatation or by Supernatural means but that I only track out her natural paths and guess at what she is or knows by that light which her conversation in her body affords us Our entrance into this matter must be to consider what mutation in respect of knowledg a Soul's first change out of her Body makes in her for it is not unlikely but nature may some way enlighten us so far as to understand what must follow out of the negation of the Bodies consortship added to what we know of her and Natures other works in this world This then first occurrs that surely she cannot choose but still know in that state all that she knew while she was in the Body since we are certain the Body hath no part in that which is true knowledg as is above declared when we shew'd first that all true knowledg is respective secondly that the first impressions of the fansy do not reach to the interiour Soul and lastly that she works by much more than what hath any actual correspondence in the fansy and that all things are united to her by the force of Being From which last it follows that all things she knows are her self and she is all that she knows wherefore if she keeps her self and her own Being she must needs keep the knowledg of all that she knew in this world Next she must undoubtedly know then somwhat more than she knew in the Body For since out of the things she already knows others will follow by the meer ordering and connexion of them and the Souls proper work is to order things we cannot doubt but that both the things she knows in this world must of necessity be order'd in her to the best advantage and likewise that all that will be known which wants no other cause for the knowing of it but the ordering of these things For if the nature of a thing were Order who can doubt but what were put into that thing were put into Order Now that the nature of the Soul is such we collect easily For since all order proceeds from her it must be acknowledg'd 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 order'd In saying of which I do not mean that there is such an order between the notions of a Separated Soul as is between material things that are order'd by the Soul while she is in the Body for since the Soul is an adaequate cause of such order that is to say a cause which can make any one such and the whole kind of it it follows that such order is not in her for if it were she would be cause of her self or of her own parts Order therfore in her must signifie a thing more eminent than such inferiour Order in which resides the power of making that inferiour Order and this is nothing else but the connexion of her notions by the necessity of Being which we have often explicated And out of this eminent or superiour kind of Order our conclusion follows no less than if the inferiour Order which we see in our fansies while our Soul is in our Body did reside in our interiour Soul for it is the necessity of identification which doth the effect and makes the Soul know and the order of fantasms is but a precedent condition in the bodily Agent that it may work upon the Soul and if more fantasms than one could be together this order would not be necessary Out of this a notable and vast conclusion manifestly follows to wit that if a Soul can know any one thing more when she is out of the Body than what she knew while she was in the Body without any manner of doubt she knows all that can be drawn and forced out of these knowledges which she had in her Body How much this is and how far it will reach I am afraid to speak Only I intreat Mathematicians and such as are acquainted with the manner how Sciences proceed to consider how some of their Definitions are made to wit by composing together sundry known terms and giving a new name to the compound that results out of them Wherfore clear it is that out of fewer notions had at the first the Soul can make many more and the more she hath or makes the more she can multiply Again the Maximes which are necessary to be added to the Definitions for gaining of knowledg we see are also compounded of ordinary and known terms So that a Separated Soul can want neither the Definitions nor the Maximes out of which the Books of Sciences are composed and therfore neither can the Sciences themselves be wanting to her Now if we consider that in the same fashion as Demonstrations are made and knowledg is acquired in one Science by the same means 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 indeed among all at least corporal things for of spiritual things we cannot so assuredly affirm it though their perfection may perswade us that there is rather a greater connexion among them than among corporal things it will follow that a Soul which hath but any indifferent knowledg in This World shall be replenish'd with all knowledg in the Next But how much is this indifferent knowledg that for this purpose is requir'd in this world Upon mature consideration of this point 't is true I find it
mark begets still more and more strength and justness in the Arm that delivers it for it cannot be deny'd but the same cause which makes any thing must of necessity perfect and strengthen it by repeating its force and strokes We may then conclude that the knowledg of our Soul which is indeed her self will be in the next life more perfect and strong or more slack and weak according as in this life she hath often and vigorously or faintly and seldom busied her self about those things which beget such knowledg Now those things which men bestow their pains to know we see are of two kinds for Some thirst after the knowledg of Nature and of the variety of things which either 〈◊〉 seâ—es or their discourse tell them of but Others look no higher than to have an insight into humane action or to gain skill in some Art whereby they may acquire means to live These later curiosities are but of particulars that is of some one or few species or kinds whose common that comprehends them falls within the reach of every vulgar capacity and consequently the things which depend on them are low mean and contemptible whereas the beauty 〈◊〉 and excellency of the others is so much beyond them as they can be brought into no proportion to one another Now then if we consider what advantage the one sort of these men will in the next world have over the other we shall find that they who spend their life here in the study and con emplation of the first noble Objects will in the next have their universal knowledg that is their Soul strong and perfect while the others that play'd away their thoughts and â—me upon trifles and seldom rais'd their minds above the pitch of sense will be faint through their former laziness like Bodies benum'd with the Palsey and sickly through their ill diet as when a well shaped Virgin that having fed upon trash instead of nourishing meats languishes under a wearisom burthen of the Green-sickness To make this point yet more clear we may consider how the things which we gain knowledg of affect us under the title of Good and Convenient in two several manners One is when the appearance of Good in the abstracted nature of it and after examination of all circumstances carries our heart to the desire of the thing that appears so to us the other is when the semblance of good to our Own Particular persons without casting any further or questioning whether any other regard may not make it prejudicial causes in us a longing for the thing wherin such resemblance shines Now for the most part the knowledges which spring out of the latter objects are more cultivated by us than those which arise out of the other partly by reason of their frequent occurring either through necessity or judgment and partly by the addition which Passion gives to the impressions they make upon us For Passion multiplies the thoughts of such things more than of any others if reason do not cross and suppress her tumultuary motions which in most men she doth not The Souls then of such persons as giving way to their passion in this life busie themselves about such things as appear good to their own persons and cast no further must needs decede from their Bodies unequally builded if that expression may be permitted me and will be like a lame unwieldy Body in which the principal limbs are not able to govern and move the others because those principal ones are faint through want of spirits and exercise and the others are overgrown with hydropical and nocive humours The reason whereof is that in such Souls their judgments will be disproportion'd to one another one of them being unduly stronger than the other What effect this works in regard of knowledge we have already declared and no less will it have in respect of actions For suppose two judgments to be unequal and such as in the action one contradicts the other for example let one of my judgmens be that it is good for me to eat because I am an hungry and let the other be that it is good for me to study because I am shortly to give an account of my self if the one judgment be stronger than the other as if that of eating be stronger than that of studying it imports not that there is more â—eason all circumstances consider'd for studying because reasons move to action according to the measure in which the resolution taken upon them is strong or weak and therfore my action will follow the strongest judgment and I shall le ave my book to go to my dinner Now to apply this to the state of a Separated Soul We are to remember how the spiritual judgments which she collected in the Body remain in her after she is divested of it and likewise we are to consider how all her proceeding in that state is built not upon passion or any bodily causes or dispositions but meerly upon the quality and force of those spiritual judgments and then it evidently follows that if there were any such action in the next life the pure Soul would apply it self thereto according to the proportion of her judgments and as they are graduated andtqualified 'T is true there is no such action remaining in the next life yet nevertheless there remains in the Soul a disposition and a promptitude to such action and if we will frame a right apprehension of a Separated Soul we must conceit 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 judgments affords that is that she is so much the more fit for one action than for another were she to proceed to action as the judgment of the goodness of one of these actions is stronger in her than the judgment of the others goodness wich is in effect by how much the one is more cultivated than the other And out of this we may conclude that what motions follow in a man out of discourse the like will in a Separated Soul follow out of her spiritual judgments So that as he is joy'd if he possess his desired good and discontented and displeased if he miss of it and seizes greedily upon it when it is present to him and then cleaves fast to it and whiles he wants it no other good affects him but he is still longing after that Master-wish of his heart the like in every regard much more vehemently befalls a Separated Soul So that in fine she will be happy or miserable according as she built up her self by her spiritual judgments and affections in this life If knowledg and intellectual objects be the goods she thirsts after she what can be happier than she when she possesses the fulness of all that can be desired â—n that kind But if in
touching Gravity 6. Gravity and levity do not signifie an intrinsecal inclination to such a motion in the bodies themselvs which are term'd heavy and light 7. The more dense a body is the more swiftly it descends 8. The velocity of bodies descending doth not encrease in proportion to the difference that may be between their several densities 9. More or less gravity produces a swister or a slower descending a heavy body Aristotles argument to disprove motion in 〈◊〉 is made good 10. The reason why at the inferior quarter of a circle a body descends faster by the arch of that quarter then by the chord of it 1. The first objection answered why a hollow body descends flower then a solid one 2 The second objection answer'd and the reasons shown why atoms continually overtake the descending dense body 3. A curious queston left undecided 4. The fourth objection answer'd Why the descent of the same heavy bodies is equal in so great inequality of the atoms which cause it 5. The reason why the shelter of a thick-body doth not hinder the descent of that which is under it 6. The reason why some bodies sink others swims 7. The fifth objection answer'd concerning the descending of heavy bodies in streams 8. The sixth objection answered and that all heavy Elements do weigh in their own Spheres 9 The seventh objection answer'd and the reason why we do not feel the course of the air and atoms that beat continually upon us 10. How in the some body gravity may be greater than density and density than gravity though they be the same thing 11. The opinion of gravities being an intrinsecal inclination of a body to the centre refuted by reason â—2 The same opinion refuted by several experiences 1. The State of the question touching the cause of violent motion 2 That the medium is the only cause which continues violent motion 3. A further explication of the former Doctrine 4. That the air has strength enough to continue violent motion in a moveable Dial. 1. of motion pag. 98. 5. An answer to the first objection that air is not apt to conserve motion And how violent motion comes to cease 6. An answer to the second objection that the air has no power over heavy bodies 7. An answer to the third objection that an arrow should fly faster broadways than long ways 1. That reflection is a kind of violent motion 2. Reflection is made at equal angles 3. The causes and properties of Undulation 4. Refraction at the entrance into the reflectent body is towà rds the perpendicular at the going out is from it when the second superficies is parallel to the first 6. An answer to the arguments brought in favovr of Monsir des Cartes his opinion 7. The true cause of refraction of light both at its entrance and at its going out from the reflecting body 8. A general rule to know the nature of reflections and refractions in all sorts of surfaces 9. A body of greater parts and greater pores makes a greater refraction than one of lesser parts and lesser pores 10. A confirmation of the former doctrine out of the nature of bodies that refract light 1. The connexion of this Chapter with the rest and the Authors intent in it 2. That there is a least size of bodies And that this least size is found in fire 3. The first conjunction of parts is in bodies of least size and it is made by the force of Quantity 4. The second sort of conjunction â—s compactedness in simple Elements and it proceeds from Density 5. The third conjunction is of parts of different Elements and it proceeds from quantity and density together 6. The reason why liquid bodies easily joyn together and dry ones difficultly 7. That no two hard bodies can touch one another immediately 8. How mixed bodies are framed in general 9. The cause of the several degrees of solidity in mixed bodies 10. The rule whereto are reduced all the several 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 pedominant element over the other two 13. Of these bodies where water bing the B sis air 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 excess it alone being both the Basis and the predominant Element 16. Of those bodies were Earth alone is the Basis and also the predominant in excess over the other three Elements 17. Of those bodies where Earth is the basis and Water the predominant Element over the other two 18. Of those bodies where earth being the basis air 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 several combinations of the First Qualities and are at last resolv'd into several degrees of rarity and density 21. That in the Planets and Stars there is a like variety of mixed bodies caused by light as here upon Earth 22. In what manner the Elements work upon one another in the position of mixed bodies and in particular fire is the most active 23. A particular declaration touching the generation of Metals 1. Why some bodies are brittle and others tough or apt to withstand outward violence the first instrument to dissolve mixed bodies 2. How outward violence work upon the most compacted bodies 3. The several effects of fiâ—e the second and chiefest instrument to dissolve compounded bodies 4. The reason why some bodies are not dissolv'd by fire 5. The reason why fire melts gold but cannot consume it 6. Why Lead is easily consumed and calcined by fire 7. Why and how some bodies are divided by fire into spirits waters oyls salts and earth what those parts are 〈◊〉 How water the third instrument to dissolve bodies dissolves Calx into Salt and so into Terra damnata 9. How water mingled with salt becomes almost powerfull Agent to dissolve other bodies 20. How putrefaction is caused 1. What is the Sphere of Activity in corporeal Agents 2. The reason why no body can work in distance 3. An objection answer'd against the manner of explicating the former Axiome 4 Of reaction and first in pure local motion that each Agent must suffer in acting and act in suffering 5. The former doctrine applyed to other local motions design'd by particular names And that Suisseths argument is of no force against this way of doctrine 6. Why some notions admit of intension and remission and others not 7. That in every part of our habitable world all the four Elements are found pure in smal atoms but not in any great bulk 1. The Authors intent in this and the following chapters Mr. Thomas White 2. That bodies may be rarified both by outward and inward heat and how this is perform'd 3.
quality it would always produce an equal to it self 5. The third reason because if we imagine to our selvs the substance of fire to be rarified it will have the same appearances which Light hath 6. The fourth reason from the manner of the generation and corruption of light which agrees with fire 7. The fifth reason because such properties belong to light as agree onely to bodies CHAP. VII Two Objections answer'd a gainst light being fire a more ample proof of its being such 1. That all light is hot and apt to heat 2. The reason why our bodies for the most part do not feel the heat of pure light 3. The experience of burning glasses and of soultry gloomy weather prove light to be fire 4. Philosophers ought not to judg of things by the rules of vulgar people 5. The different names of light and fire proceed from different Notions of the same Substance 6. The reason why many times fire and heat are deprived of light 7. What becometh of the body of light when it dies 8. An experiment of some who pretend that light may be precipitated into powder 9. The Authors opinion concerning Lamps pretended to have leen found in Tombs with inconsumptible lights CHAP. VIII An answer to three other Objections formerly proposed against Light being a Substance 1. Light is not really in every part of the room it enlightneth nor fills entirely any sensible part of it though it seem to us to do so 2. The least sensible point of a diaphanous body hath room sufficient to contain both air and light together with a multitude of beams issuing from several lights without penetrating one another 3. That light doth not enlighten any room in an instant and that the great celerity of its motion makes it imperceptible to our senses 4. The reason why the motion of light is not discern'd coming towards us and that there is some real tardity in it 5. The Planets are not certainly ever in that place where they appear 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 light is never perceiv'd to be fan'd by the wind 8. The Reasons for and against lights being a body compared together 9. A summary repetition of the reasons which prove that light is fire CHAP. IX Of Local Motion in common 1. No local motion can be perfored without succession 2. Time is the common measure of all succession 3. What velocity is and that it cannot be infinite 4. No force so little but is able to move the greatest weight imâ—nable 5. The chief principle of Mechannicks deduced out of the former discourse 6. No movable can pass from rest to any determinate degree of velocity or from a lesser degree to a greater without passing through all the intermediate degres which are below the obtained degree 7. The conditions which help to motion in the movable are three in the medium one 8. No body hath any intrinsecal virtue to move it self towards any determinate part of the Universe 9. The encrease of motion is always made in the proportion of the odd numbers 20. No motion can encrease for ever or without coming to a period 11. Certain Problems resolved concerning the proportion of some moving Agents compared to their effects 12. When a movable comes to rest the motion decreases according to the Rules of encrease CHAP. X. Of Gravity and Levity and of Local Motion commonly term'd Natural 1. Those motions are call'd natural which have constant causes and those violent which are contrary to them 2. The first and most general opeperation of the Sun is the making and raising of atomes 3. The light rebounding from the earth with atomes causes two streams in the air the one ascending the other descending and both of them in a perpendicular line 4. A dense body placed in the air between the ascending and descending stream must needs descend 5. A more particular explication of all the former doctrine touching gravity 6. Gravity and Levity do not signifie an intrinsecal inclination to such a motion in the bodies themselvs which are term'd heavy and light 7. The more dense a body is the more swiftly it descends 8. The velocity of bodies descending doth not encrease in proportion to the difference that may be between their several densities 9. More or lesse gravity produces a swifter or a slower descending of a heavy body Aristotles argument to disprove motion in vacuo is made good 10. The reason why at the inferior quarter of a circle a body descends faster by the Arch of that quarter than by the cord of it CHAP. XI An answer to objections against the causes of Natural Motion avow'd in the former Chapter and a refutation of the contrary opinion 1. The first objection answered why a hollow body descends slower than a solid one 2. The second objection answer'd and the reason shown why atomes do continually overtake the descending dense body 3. A curious question left undecided 4. The fourth objection answer'd why the descent of the same heavy bodies is equal in so great inequality of the atomes which cause it 5. The reason why the shelter of a thick body doth not hinder the descent of that which is under it 6. The reason why some bodies sink others swim 7. The fifth objection answer'd concerning the descending of heavy bodies in streams 8. The sixth objection answered and that all heavy elements doe weigh in their own spheres 9. The seventh objection answer'd and the reason why we do not feel the course of the air and atomes that beat continually upon us 10. How in the same body gravity may be greater than density and density than gravity though they be the same thing 11. The opinion of gravities being an intrinsecal inclination of a body to the centea refuted by reason 12. The same opinion refutedly several experiences CHAP. XII Of Violent Motion 1. The State of the question touching the cause of violent motion 2. That the medium is the only cause which continues violent motion 3. A further explication of the former doctrine 4. That the air hath strength enough to continue violent motion in a moveable 5. An answer to the first objection that air is not apt to conserve motion and how violent motion comes to cease 6. An answer to the second objection that the air hath no power over heavy bodies 7. An answer to the third objection that an arrow should fly faster broad wayes than long ways CHAP. XIII Of three sorts of Violent motion Reflection Undulation and Refraction 1. That reflection is a kind of violent motion 2. Reflection is made at equal angles 3. The causes and properties of undulation 4. Refraction at the entrance into the reflectent body is towards the perpendicular at the going out is from it when the second superficies is parallel to the first 5. A refutation of Monsieur des Cartes his explication of
of these streams at the Equator divers Rivolets of Atomes of each Pole are continuated from one Pole to the other 4. Of these Atomes incorporated with some fit matter in the bowels of the earth is made a stone 5. This stone works by emanatitions joyn'd with agreeing streams that meet them in the air and in fine it is a Loadstone 6. A Method for making experiences upon any subject 7. The Loadstones generation by Atomes flowing from both Poles is confirmed by experiments observed in the stone it self 8. Experiments to prove that the Loadstone works by emanations meeting with agreeing streams CHAP. XXI Positions drawn out of the former doctrine and confirm'd by experimental proofs 1. The operations of the Loadstone are wrought by bodies and not by qualities 2. Objections against the former position answer'd 3. The Loadstone is imbu'd with his vertue from another body 4. The vertue of the loadstone is a double and not one simple virtue 5. The vertue of the Loadstone works more strongly in the Poles of it than in any other part 6. The loadstone sends forth its emanations spherically Which are of two kinds and each kind is strongest in that hemisphere through whose polary parts they issue out 7. Putting two loadstones within the sphere of one another every part of one loadstone doth not agree with every part of the other loadstone 8. Concerning the declination and other respects of a needle towards the loadstone it touches 9. The vertue of the loadstone goes from end to end in lines almost parallel to the axis 10. The virtue of a loadstone is not perfectly spherical though the stone be such 11. The intention of nature in all the operations of the loadstone is to make an union betwixt the attractive and the attracted bodies 12. The main Globe of the earth not a loadstone 13. The loadstone is generated in all parts or climates of the earth 14. The conformity betwixt the two motions of magnetick things and of heavy things CHAP. XXII A solution of certain Problems concerning the Loadstone and a short summ of the whole doctrine touching it 1. Which is the North and which the South Pole of a loadstone 2. Whether any bodies besides magnetick ones be attractive 3. Whether an iron placed perpendicularly towards the earth doth get a magnetical virtue of pointing towards the North or towards the South in that end that lies downwards 4. Why loadstones affect iron better than one another 5. Gilbert's reason refuted touching a capped loadstone that takes up more iron than one not capped and an iron impregnated that in some case draws more strongly than the stone it self 6. Galileus his opinion touching the former effects refuted 7. The Authours solution to the former questions 8. The reason why in the former case a lesser Load stone draws the interjacent iron from the greater 9. Why the variation of a touched needle from the North is greater the nearer you go to the Pole 10. Whether in the same part of the world a touched needle may at one time vary more from the North and at another time lesse 11. The whole doctrine of the load stone summ'd up in short CHAP. XXIII A description of two sorts of Living creatures Plants and Animals and how they are framed in common to perform vital motion 1. The connexion of the following Chapters with the precedent 2. Concerning several compositions of mix'd bodies 3. Two sorts of living creatures 4. An engin to express the first sort of living creatures 5. An other engin by which may be express'd the second sort of living creatures 6. The two former enginâ— and some other compâ—risons upplyed express 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of living creatures 7. How plants are fram'd 8. How Sensitive creatures are form'd CHAP. XXIV A more particular survey of the generation of Animals in which is discover'd what part of the animal is first generated 1. The opinion that the seed contains formally every part of the parent 2. The former opinion rejected 3. The Authours opinion of this question 4. Their opinion refuted who hold that every thing contains formally all things 5. The Authours opinion concerning the generation of Animals declared and confirm'd 6. That one substance is chang'd into another 7. Concerning the â—atching of Chickens and the generation of other animals 8. From whence it â—ppens that the defi◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—scences of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seen in their children 9. The difference between the Authours opinion and the former 10. That the heart is iâ—ued with the generalâ— spâ—ific virtues of the whole body 〈◊〉 confirm'd the doctrine of the two former paragraphs 11. That the heart is the first part generated in a living creature CHAP. XXV How a Plant or Animal comes to that Figure it hath 1. That the Figure of an Animal is produced by ordinary second causes as well as any other corporeal effect 2. That the several figures of bodies proceed from a defect in one of the three dimensions caused by the concurrence of accidental causes 3. The former doctrine is confirmed by several instances 4. The same doctrine apply'd to Plants 5. The same doctrine declared in leafs of trees 6. The same apply'd to the bodies of Animals 7. In what sense the Authour admits of Vis formatrix CHAP. XXVI How motion begins in Living creatures And of the Motion of the Heart Circulation of the Blood Nutrition Augmentation and corruption or death 1. From whence proceeds the primary motion and growth in Plants 2. Monsieur des Cartes his opinion touching the motion of the heart 3. The former opinion rejected 4. The Authours opinion concerning the motion of the heart 5. The motion of the heart depends originally of its fibers irrigated by bloud 6. An objection answer'd against the former doctrine 7. The circulation of the bloud and other effects that follow the motion of the heart 8. Of Nutrition 9. Of Augmentation 10. Of death and sickness CHAP. XXVII Of the motions of Sense and of the Sensible Qualities in gegeral in particular of those which belong to Touch Tast and Smelling 1. The connexion of the subsequent Chapters with the precedent 2. Of the senses and sensible qualities in general And of the end for which they serve 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 real bodies 6. Of the conformity betwixt the two senses of smelling and tasting 7. The reason why the sense of smelling is not so perfect in man as in beasts with a wonderful history of a man who could wind sent as well as any beast CHAP. XXVIII Of the sense of Hearing and of the sensible quality Sound 1. Of the sense of hearing and that sound is purely motion 2. Of divers arts belonging to the sense of hearing all which confirm that sound is nothing but motion 3. The same is confirmed by the effects caused
oftentimes works strange effects in their issue 4. Of Antipathies 5. Of Sympathies 6. That the Antipathy of beasts towards one another may be taken away by assuefaction 7. Of longing marks seen in children 8. Why divers men hate some certain meats particularly Cheese 9. Concerning the providence of Ants in laying up in store for winter 10. Concerning the foreknowing of beasts The Conclusion of the first Treatise TABLE Of the Second TREATISE CONCERNING Mans Soul PREFACE CHAP. I. OF simple Apprehensions 1 what is a right apprehension of a thing 2. The very thing it self is truly in his understanding who rightly apprehends it 3. The apprehensions of things coming to us by our senses are resolvable into other more simple apprehensions 4. The apprehension of a Being is the most simple and Basis of all the rest 5. The apprehension of a thing is in next degree to that of Being and it is the Basis of all the subsequent ones 6. The apprehension of things known to us by our senses consists in certain respects betwixt two things 7. Respect or relation hath not really any formal being but only in the apprehension of man 8. That Existence or Being is the proper affection of man and that mans soul is a comparing power 9. A thing by coming into the understanding of man loses nothing of its own peculiar nature 10. A multitude of things may be united in mans understanding without being mingled or confounded together 11. Of abstracted and concrete terms 12. Of universal notions 13. Of apprehending a multitude under one notion 14. The power of the understanding reaches as far as the extent of Being CHAP. II. Of thinking and knowing 1. How a judgment is made by the understanding 2. That two or more apprehensions are identified in the soul by uniting them in the stock of being 3. How the notions of a substantive an adjective are united in the soul by the common stock of being 4. That a setled judgment becomes a part of our soul. 5. How the soul comes to deem or settle a judgment 6. How opinion is begotten in the understanding 7. How faith is begotten in the unstanding 8. Why truth is the perfection of a reasonable Soul and why it is not found in simple apprehensions as well as in Enuntiations 9. What is a solid judgment and what a slight one 10. What is an acute judgment and what a dull one 11. In what consists quickness and clearness of judgment and their opposite vices CHAP. III. Of Discoursing 1. How discourse is made 2. Of the figures and moods of syllogisms 3. That the life of man as man consists in discourse and of the vast extent of it 4. Of humane actions and of those that concern our selvs 5. Of humane actions as they concern our neighbours 6. Of Logick 7. Of Grammar 8. Of Rhetorick 9. Of Poetry 10. Of the power of speaking 11. Of arts that concern dumb and insensible creatures 12. Of Arithmetick 13. Of Prudence 14. Observations upon what has been said in this Chapter CHAP. IV. How a Man proceeds to Action 1. That humane actions proceed from two several principles understanding and sense 2. How our general and inbred maximes concur to Humane Actions 3. That the rules and maximes of arts works positively in us though we think not of them 4. How the understanding casts about when it wants sufficient grounds for action 5. How reason rules over sense and passion 6. How we recall our thoughts from distractions 7. How reason is sometimes overcome by sense and passion CHAP. V. Containing proofs out of our Single apprehensions that our Soul is Incorporeal 1. The connexion of the subsequent Chapters with the precedent 2. The existence of corporeal things in the soul by the power of apprehension proves her to be immaterial 3. The notion of Being which is innate in the Soul proves the same 4. The same is proved by the notion of respects 5. That corporeal things are spiritualized in the understanding by means of the souls working in and by respects 6. That the abstracting of Notions from all particular and individual accidents proves the the immateriality of the soul. 7. That the universality of abstracted notions proves the same 8. That collective apprehensions proves the same 9. The operations of the soul drawing always from multitude to unity prove the same 10. The difference betwixt the notion of a thing in our understanding and the impression that corresponds to the same thing in our phansie proves the same 11. The apprehension of negations and privations proves the same CHAP. VI. Containing proofs out of our souls operations in knowing or deeming any thing that she is of a spiritual nature 1. The manner of judging or deeming by apprehending two things to be identified proves the soul to be immaterial 2. The same is proved by the manner of apprehending opposition in a negative judgment 3. That things in themselvs opposite to one another having no opposition in the soul proves the same 4. That the first truths are identified to the soul. 5. That the soul hath an infinite capacity and consequently is immaterial 6. That the opposition of contradictory propositions in the soul proves her immateriality 7. How propositions of eternal truth prove the immateriality of the soul. CHAP. VII That our Discoursing proves our Soul to be incorporeal 1. That in discoursing the soul contains more in it at the same time than is in the phantasy which proves her to be immaterial 2. That the nature of discourse proves the soul to be order'd to infinite knowledge and consequently immaterial 3. That the most natural objects of the soul are immaterial and consequently the soul her self is such CHAP. VIII Cantaining proofs out of our manner of proceeding to action that our Soul is incorporeal 1. That the souls being a power to order things proves her to be immaterial 2. That the Souls being able to move without being moved proves her to be immaterial 3. That the souls proceeding to action with an universality and indifferency proves the same 4. That the quiet proceeding of reason proves the same 5. A conclusion of what hath been said hitherto in this second Treatise CHAP. IX That our soul is a Substance and Immortal 1. That Mans soul is a substance 2. That man is compounded of some other substance besides his body 3. That the Soul subsists of it self independently of the body 4. Two other arguments to prove the same one positive the other negative 5. The same is proved because the soul cannot be obnoxious to the cause of mortality 6. The same is proved because the Soul hath no contrary 7. The same is proved from the end for which the Soul was created 8. The same is proved because she can move without being moved 9. The same is proved from her manner of operation which is grounded in being 10. Lastly it is proved from the science of Morality the principles wherof would be destroyed
if the soul were mortal CHAP. X. Declaring what the Soul of a man separated from his body is and of her knowledg and manner of working 1. That the Soul is one simple knowing act which is a pure substance and nothing but substance 2. That a separated Soul is in no place and yet is not absent from any place 3. That a separated Soul is not in time nor subject to it 4. That the Soul is an active substance and all in it is activity 5. A description of the Soul 6. That a separated Soul knows all that which she knew whilst she was in her body 7. That the least knowledge which the Soul acquires in her body of any one thing causes in her when she is separated from her body a complete knowledge of all things whatever 8. An answer to the objections of some Peripateticks who maintain the Soul to perish with the body 9. The former Peripateticks refuted out of Aristotle 10. The operations of a separated soul compared to her operations in her body 11. That a separated soul is in a state of pure being and consequently immortal CHAP. XI Shewing what effects the divers manners of living in ths world do cause in a soul after she is separated from her body 1. That a Soul in this life is subject to mutation and may be perfected in knowledge 2. That the knowledge which a soul gets in this life will make her knowledge in the next life more perfect and firm 3. That the soul of men addicted to science whilest they lived here are more perfect in the next world than the souls of unlearned men 4. That those souls which embrace virtue in this world will be most perfect in the next and those which imbrace vice most miserable 5. The state of a vitious soul in the next life 6. The fundamenatl reason why as well happiness as misery is so excessive in the next life 7. The reason why mans soul requires to be in a body and to live for some space of time joyn'd with it 8. That the misery of the soul in the next world proceeds out of the inequality and not out of the falsity of her judgments CHAP. XII Of the perseverance of a soul in the state she finds her self in at her first separation from her body 1. The explication and proof of that maxime that If the cause be in act the effect must also be 2. The effects of all such agents as work instantaneously are complete in the first instant that the agents are put 3. All pure spirits work instantaneously 4. That a soul separated from her body cannot suffer any change after the first instant of her separation 5. That temporal sins are justly punished with eternal pains The Conclusion Preface THis Writing was design'd to have seen the light under the name of One Treatise But afer it was drawn in Paper as I cast a view over it I found the Proaemial part which Treats of Bodies so ample in respect of the other which was the End of it and for whose sake I medled with it that I readily apprehended my Reader would think I had gone much astray from my Text when proposing to speak of the Immortality of Mans Soul three parts of four of the whole Discourse should not so much as in one word mention that Soul whose nature and proprieties I aim'd at the discovery of To avoid this incongruity occasioned me to change the Name and Unity of the Work and to make the survay of Bodies a body by it self though subordinate to the Treatise of the Soul Which notwithstanding it be less in bulk than the other yet I dare promise my Reader that if he bestow the painsr equisite to perfect himself 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 far more large But I discern an Objection obvious to be made or rather a Question Why I should spend so much time in the consideration of Bodies wheras none that has formerly written of this Subject has in any measure done the like I might answer that they had on other occasions first written of the nature of Bodies as I may instance in Aristotle and sundry others who either have themselvs professedly treated the Science of Bodies or have supposed that part sufficiently perform'd by other pens But truly I was by an unavoidable necessity hereto obliged which is a current of doctrin that at this day much reigns in the Christian Schools where Bodies and their overations are explicated after the manner of spiritual things For we having very slender knowledge of Spiritual Substances can reach no further into their nature than to know that they have certain Powers or Qualities but can seldom penetrate so deep as to descend to the particulars of such Qualities or Powers Now our Modern Philosophers have introduced such a course of learning into the Schools that to all questions concerning the proper natures of Bodies and their operations 't is held sufficient to answer they have a Quality or a Power to do such a thing And afterwards they dispute whether this Quality or Power be an Entity distinct from its subject or no and how it is separable or unseparable from it and the like Consormable to this who will look into the Books which are in vogue in these Schools shall find such Answers and such controversies every where and few others As of the Sensible Qalities ask what it is to be white or red what to be sweet or sowr what to be odoriferous or stinking what to be cold or hot And you are presently paid with that it is a Sensible Quality which has the power to make a Wall white or red to make a Meat agreeable or disagreeable to the tast to make a grateful or ungrateful Smell to the nose c. Likewise they make the same Questions and Resolutions of Gravity and Levity as whether they be qualities that is Entities distinct from their subjects and whether they be active or passive which when they have disputed slightly and in common with Logical arguments they rest there without any further searching into the Physical causes or effects of them The like you shall find of all strange Effects of them The Loadstone and Electrical bodies are produced for miraculous and not understandable things and which must be acknowledg'd to work by hidden Qualities that mans wit cannot reach to And ascending to Living Bodies they give it for a Maxim that Life is the action of the same Entity upon it self that Sense is likewise a work of an intrinsecal power in the part we call Sense upon it self Which our predecessors held the greatest absurdities that could be spoken in Philosophy Even some Physicians that take upon them to teach the curing of our Bodies often pay us with such terms among them you have long discourses of a retentive of an expulsive of a purging of a consolidating Faculty
will pierce cut out the water almost into as little parts as themselves and mingling themselves with them they will flie away together and so convert the whole body of water into subtile smoke whereas the same Agent after long working upon lead will bring it into no less parts then small grains of dust which it calcines it into And gold that is more dense then lead resists peremptorily all the dividing power of fire and will not at all be reduced into a calx or lime by such operation as reduced lead into it So that remembring how the nature of Quantity is Divisibility and considering that rare things are more divisible then dense ones we must needs acknowledge that the nature of Quantity is some way more perfectly in things that are Rare then in those that are Dense On the other side more compacted and dense things may haply seem to some to have more Quantity then those that are rare and that is but shrunk together which may be stretch'd out and driven into much greater dimensions then the Quantity of rare things taking the quantities of each equal in outward appearance As gold may be beaten into much more and thiner leaf then an equal bulk of silver or lead A wax candle will burn longer with a small light then a tallow candle of the same bigness and consequently be converted into a greater quantity of fire and air Oyl will make much more flame then spirit of wine that is far rarer then it These and such like considerations have much perplex'd Philosophers and driven them into diverse thoughts to find out the reasons of them Some observing that the dividing of a body into little parts makes it less apt to descend then when it is in greater have believ'd the whole cause of lightness and rarity to be derived from division As for example they find that lead cut into little pieces will not go down so fast in water as when it is in bulk and it may be reduced into so smal atomes that it will for some space swim upon the water like dust of wood Which assumption is prov'd by the great Galileus to whose excellent wit and admirable industry the world is beholding not only for his wonderful discoveries made in the Heavens but also for his acurate and learned declaring of those very things that lye under our feet He about the 90. page of his first Dialogue of Motion clearly demonstrates how any real medium must of necessity resist more the descent of a little piece of lead or any other weighty matter than it would a greater piece and the resistance will be greater and greater as the pieces are lesser and lesser So that as the pieces are made less they will in the same medium sink the flower and seem to have acquired a new nature of lightness by the diminution not only of having less weight in them than they had as half an ounce is less than a whole ounce but also of having in themselvs a less proportion of weight to their bulk than they had as a pound of Cork is in regard of its magnitude lighter than a pound of Lead So as they conclude that the thing whose continued parts are the lesser is in its own nature the lighter and the rarer and other things whose continued parts are greater be heavier and denser But this discourse reaches not home for by it the weight of any body being discovered by the proportion it has to the medium in which it descends it must ever suppose a body lighter than it self in which it may sink and go to the bottome Now of that lighter body I enquire what makes it be so and you must answer by what you have concluded that it is lighter then the other because the parts of it are lesse and moreseverd from one another for if they be as close together their division avails them nothing since things sticking fast together work 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 sink as fast as if it were one bulk Now then allowingthe little parts to be seperated I ask what other body fills up the spaces between those little parts of the medium in which your heavy body descends For if the parts of water are more sever'd then the parts of lead there must be some other substance to keep the parts of it asunder let us suppose this to be air and I ask Whether an equal part of air be as heavy as so much water or whether it be not If you say it is then the compound of water and air must be as heavy as lead since their parts one with another are as much compacted as the parts of lead are For there is no difference whether those bodies whose little parts are compacted together be of the same substance or of divers or whether the one be divided into smaller parts then the other or not so they be of equal weights in regard of making the whole equally heavy as you may experience if you mingle pin-dust with a sand of equal weight though it be beaten into far smaller divisions then the pin-dust and put them in a bag together But if you say that air is not so heavy as water it must be because every part of air hath again its parts more sever'd by some other body then the parts of water are sever'd by air And then I make the same instance of that body which severs the parts of air And so at last since there cannot actually be an infinite process of bodies one lighter then another you must come to one whose little parts filling the pores and spaces between the parts of the others have no spaces in themselves to be fil'd up But as soon 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 having no pores it follows by your rule that the little parts of it must be as heavy if not heavier then the little parts of the same bigness of that body whose pores it fills and consequently it is proved by the experience we alledg'd of pin-dust mingled with sand that the little parts of it cannot by their mingling with the parts of the body in which it is immediately contain'd make that lighter then it would be if these little parts were not mingled with it Nor would both their parts mingled with the body which immediately contains 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 heavy and as dense as lead Now that which deceiv'd the Authors of this opinion was that they had not a right intelligence of the causes
and Arithmatick the Mathematicians call drawing one number or one side into another for as in Mathematicks to draw one number into another is to apply the number drawn to every part of the number into which it is drawn as if we draw three into seven we make twenty one by making every unity or part of the number seven to be three and the like is of lines in Geometry So in the present case to every part of the hands motion we add the whole virtue of the cutting faculty which is in the knife and to every part of the motion of the knife we add the whole pressing virtue of the hand Therfore 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 Mathematicks But in those 't is evident that the encrease is according to the order of the odd numbers and therfore it must in our case be the like that is the encrease must be in the said proportion of odd numbers Now that in those the encrease proceeds so will be evident if you consider the encrease of an Equicrure Triangle which because it goes upon a certain proportion of length and breadth if you compare the encreases of the whole Triangle that gains on each side with the encreases of the perpendicular which gains only in length you will see that they will proceed in the foresaid proportion of odd numbers But we must not imagine that the velocity of motion will always encrease thus for as long as we can fancy any motion but when it is arrived to the utmost period that such a moveable with such causes is capable of then it keeps constantly the same pace and goes equally and uniformly at the same rate For since the density of the moveable the force of the Agent moving it which two cause the motion have a limited proportion to the resistance of the medium how yeilding soever it be it must needs follow that when the motion is arrived to that height which arises out of this proportion it cannot exceed it but must continue at that rate unless some other cause give yet a greater impulse to the movable For velocity consisting in this that the movable cuts through more of the medium in an equal time 't is evident that in the encrease of velocity the resistance of the medium which is overcome by it grows greater and greater and by little and little gains upon the force of the Agent so that the superproportion of the Agent grows still lesser and lesser as the velocity encreases and therfore at 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 at the beginning is because coming from rest it must pass through all the intermediate degrees of velocity before it can attain to the height of it which requires time to perform and therfore falls under the power of our sense to observe But because we see it do so for some time we must not therfore conclude the nature of such motion is still to encrease without any period or limit like those lines that perpetually grow nearer and yet can never meet for we see our reason examining the causes of this velocity assures us that in continuance of time and space it may come to its height which it cannot exceed And there would be the pitch at which distance weights being let fall would give the greatest strokes and make greatest impressions 'T is true that Galileus and Mersenius two exact experimenters do think they find this verity by their experiences But surely that is impossible to be done For the encrease of velocity being in a proportion ever diminishing must of necessity come to an insensible increase in proportion before it ends for the space which the movable goes through is still encreased and the time wherin it passes through that space remains still the same little one as was taken up in passing a less space immediately before such little differences of great spaces passed over in a little time come soon to be undiscernible by sense But reason which shews us that if velocity never ceased from encreasing it would in time arive to exceed any particular velocity and by consequence the proportion which the mover has to the medium because of the adding still a determinate part to its velocity concludes plainly that it is impossible motion should increase for ever without coming to a period Now the impression which falling weights make is of two kinds for the body into which impression is made either can yield backward or it cannot If it can yield backward then the impression made is a motion as we see a stroke with a Racket upon a Ball or with a Pail-mail beetle upon a Bowl makes it flie from it But if the strucken body cannot yield backwards then it makes it yield on the sides And this in divers matters for if the smitten body be drie and brittle 't is subject to break it and make the pieces flie round about but if it be a tough body it squeeses it into a larger form But because the effect in any of these ways is eminently greater than the force of the Agent seems to be 't is worth our labour to look into the causes of it To which end we may remember how we have already declared that the force of the velocity is equall to a reciprocall force of weight in the virtue movent wherefore the effect of a blow that a man gives with a hammer depends on the weight of the hammer on the velocity of the motion and on the hand in case the hand accompanies the blow But if the motion of the hand ceases before as when we throw a thing then only the velocity and the weight of the hammer remain to be consider'd However let us put the hand and weight in one sum which we may equalize by some other virtue or weight Then let us consider the way or space which a weight lying upon the thing is to go forwards to do the same effect in the same time as the percussion doth and what excess the line of the blow hath over the line of that way or space such an excess we must add of equal weight or force to the weight we had already taken And the weight composed of both will be a fit Agent to make the like impression This Problem was proposed to me by that worthy religious man Father Mersenius who is not content with advancing learning by his own industry and labours but besides is alwayes out of his generous affection to verity inciting others to contribute to the publick stock of it He proposed to me likewise this following question to wit why there is required a weight of water in double Geometrical proportion to make a pipe run twice as fast as it did or have twice as much
as positive gravity or levity but that their course upwards or downwards happens to them by the order of nature which by outward causes gives them an impulse one of these wayes without which they would rest quietly wherever they are as being of themselvs indifferent to any motion But because our words express our notions and they are fram'd according to what appears to us when we observe any body to descend constantly towards our earth we call it heavie and if it move contrarywise we call it light But we must take heed of considering such gravity and levity as if they were Entities that work such effects since upon examination it appears that these words are but short expressions of the effects themselves the causes whereof the vulgar of mankind who impose names to things do not consider but leave that work to Philosophers to examine whiles they onely observe what they see done and agree upon words to express that Which words neither will in all circumstances always agree to the same thing for as cork descends in aire and ascends in water so also will any other body descend if it lights among others more rare then it self and will ascend if it lights among others that are more dense then it And we term Bodies light and heavy only according to the course which we usually see them take Now proceeding further on and considering how there are various degrees of density or gravity it were irrational to conceive that all bodies should descend at the same rate and keep equal pace with one another in their journey downwards For as two knives whereof one hath a keener edge then the other being press'd with equal strength into like yielding matter the sharper will cut deeper then the other so if of two bodies one be more dense then the others that which is so will cut the air more powerfully and descend faster then the other for in this case density may be compared to the kniefs edge since in it consists the power of dividing as we have heretofore determin'd And therefore the pressing them downwards by the descending atomes being equal in both or peradventure greater in the more dense body as anon we shall have occasion to touch and there being no other cause to determine them that way the effect of division must be the greater where the divider is the more powerful Which the more dense body is and therefore cuts more strongly through the resistance of the air and consequently passes more swiftly that way 't is determin'd to move I do not mean that the velocities of their descent shall be in the same proportion to one another as their densities are for besides their density those other considerations which we have discours'd of above when we examin'd the causes of velocity in motion must likewise be ballanced And out of the comparisons of all them not out of the consideration of any one alone results the differences of their velocities nor that neither but in as much as concerns the consideration of the moveables for to make the calculation exact the Medium must likewise be considered as by and by we shall declare For since the motion depends of all them together though there should be difference between the moveables in regard of one only and that the rest were equal yet the proportion of the difference of their motions must not follow the proportion of their difference in that one regard because their difference consider'd single in that regard will have one proportion and with the addition of the other considerations though alike in both to their difference in this they will have another As for example reckon the density of one moveable to be double the density of another moveable so that in that regard it has two degrees of power to descend whereas the other has but one suppose then the other causes of thier descent to be alike in both and reckon them all three and then joyn these three to the one which is caused by the density in one of the moveables as likewise to the two which is caused by the density in the other moveable 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 five to four But after we have consider'd all that concerns the moveables we are then to cast an eye upon the Medium they are to move in and we shall find the addition of that decreases the proportion of their difference exceedingly more according to the cessibility of the Medium Which if it be Air the great disproportion of its weight to the weight of those bodies which men use to take in making experiences of their descent in that yeelding Medium will cause their difference of velocity in descending to be hardly perceptible Even as the difference of a sharp or dull knife which is easily perceiv'd in cutting of flesh or bread is not to be distinguish'd in dividing of water or oyl And likewise in Weights a pound and a scruple will bear down a dram in no sensible proportion of velocity more then a pound alone would do and yet put a pound in that scale in stead of the dram 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 air by reason of the great disproportion of weight between air and the bodies that descend in it The reason of this will clearly shew it self in abstracted proportions Thus Suppose air to have one degree of density and water to have 400 then let the moveable A. have 410 degrees of density and the moveable B. have 500. Now compare their motion to one another in the several mediums of air and water The exuperance of the density of A. to water is 10 degrees but the exuperance of B. to the same water is 100 degrees so that B. must have in water swifter then A in the proportion of 103 to ten that is of 10 to one Then let us compare the exuperance of the two moveables over air A is 409 times more dense then air 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 avoid fractions we may account as 10 to 8. But in water they exceed one another as 10 to one so that their difference of velocity must be scarce perceptible in air in respect of what it is in water Out of all which discourse I only infer in common that a greater velocity in motion will follow the greater density of the moveable without determining
here their proportions which I leave to them who make that examination their task for thus much serves my present turn wherein I take a survey of nature but in gross And my chief drift in this particular is only to open the way for the discovering how bodies that of themselves have no propension to any determinate place do nevertheless move constantly and perpetually one way the dense ones descending and the rare ones ascending not by any intrinsecal quality that works upon them but by the oeconomy of nature that hath set on foot due and plain causes to produce known effects Here we must crave patience of the great soul of Galileus whose admirable learning all posterity must reverence whiles we reprehend in him that which we cannot term lesse then absurd and yet he not only maintains it in several places but also professes Dial. Po. de motu pag. 81. to make it more clear then day His position is that more or less gravity contributes nothing at all to the faster or slower descending of a natural body but that all the effect it gives to a body is to make it descend or not descend in such a Medium Which is against the first and most known principal that is in bodies to wit that more doth more and less doth less for he allows that gravity causes a body to descend and yet will not allow that more gravity causes it to descend more I wonder he never mark'd how in a pair of scales a superproportion of the overweight in one ballance lifted up the other faster then a less proportion of overweight would do Or that more weight hang'd to a jack made the spit turn faster or to the lines of a Clock made it go faster and the like But his argument wherby he endeavours to prove his position is yet more wonderful for finding in pendants unequal in gravity that the lighter went in the same time almost as fast as the heavier he gathers from thence that the different weights have each of them the same celerity and that it is the opposition of the air which makes the lighter body not reach so far at each undulation as the heavier For reply whereto first we must ask him whether experience or reason taught him that the slower going of the lighter pendant proceeded only from the Medium and not from want of gravity And when he shall have answer'd as he needs must that experience doth not shew this then we must importune him for a good reason but I do not find that he brings any at all Again if he admits which he doth in express terms that a lighter body cannot resist the Medium so much as a heavier body can we must ask him whether it be not the weight that makes the heavier body resist more which when he has acknowledg'd that it is he has therein likewise acknowledg'd that whenever this happens in the descending of a body the more weight must make the heavier body descend faster But we cannot pass this matter without noting how himself makes good those arguments of Aristotle which he seems by no means to esteem of For since the gravity overcomes the resistance of the Medium in same some proportion it follows that the proportions between the gravity and the medium may be multiplied without end so as if he suppose that the gravity of a body makes it go at a certain rate in Imaginary Space which is his manner of putting the force of gravity then there may be given such a proportion of a heavy body to the medium as it shall go in such a medium at the same rate and nevertheless 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 supposed to be moved in it at the same rate which no man will stick at confession to be very absurd Then turning the scales because the resistance of the medium somewhat hinders gravity and that with less resistance the heavy body moves 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 heavy body shall pass through a certain quantity of the medium and the time in which it shall pass through as much imaginary space wherefore it must pass over so much imaginary space in an instant Which is the argument that Aristotle is so much laugh'd at for pressing And in a word nothing is more evident then that for this effect which Galileo attributes to gravity 't is unreasonable to put a divisible quantity since the effect is indivisible And therfore as evident it is that in his doctrine such a quality as intrinsecal gravity is conceiv'd to be ought not to be put since every power should be fitted to the effect or end for which it is put Another argument of Galileo is as bad as this when he endeavours to prove that all bodies go of a like velocity because it happens that a lighter body in some case goes faster then a heavier body in another case as for example in two pendants whereof the lighter is in the beginning of its motion and the heavier towards the end of it or if the lighter hangs at a longer string and the heavier at a shorter we see that the lighter will go faster then the heavier But this concludes no more then if a man should prove a lighter goes faster then a heavier because a greater force can make it go faster for 't is manifest that in a violent motion the force which moves a body in the end of its course is weaker then that which moves it in the beginning and the like is of the two strings But here 't is not amiss to solve a Probleme he puts which belongs to our present subject He findes by experience that if two bodies descend at the same time from the same point and go to the same point the one by the inferiour quarter of the circle the other by the chord to that arch or by any other lines which are chords to parts of that arch he findes I say that the moveable goes faster by the arch then by any of the chords And the reason is evident if we consider that the nearer any motion comes to a perpendicular one downwards the greater velocity it must have and that in the arch of such a quadrant every particular part of it inclines to the perpendicular of the place where it is more then the part of the chord answerable to it doth CHAP. XI An Answer to Objections against the causes of natural motion avow'd in the former Chapter and a refutation of the contrary opinion BUt to return to the thrid of our Doctrine There may peradventure be objected against it that if the violence of a bodies descent towards the center did proceed only from the density of it which gives it
an aptitude the better to cut the medium and from the mltitude of little atomes descending that strike upon it and press it the way they go which is downwards then it would not import whether the inner part of that body were as solid as the outward parts for it cuts with only the outward and is smitten only upon the outward And yet experience shews us the contrary for a great bullet of lead that is solid and lead throughout descends faster then if three quarters of the Diameiter were hollow within and such a one falling upon any resisting substance works a greater effect then a hollow one And a ball of brass that hath but a thin outside of metal will swim upon the water when a massie one sinks presently Whereby it appears that it is rather some other quality belonging to the very bulk of the metal in it self and not these outward causes that occasion gravity But this difficulty is easily overcome if you consider how subtile those atomes are which descending downwards striking upon a body in their way cause its motion likewise downwards for you may remember how we have shew'd them to be the subtilest and the minutest divisions that Light the subtilest and sharpest divider in nature can make It is then easie to conceive that these extreme subtile bodies penetrate all others as light doth glass and run through them as sand through a small sieve or as water through a spunge so that they strike not only upon the Superficies but as well in every most interiour part of the whole body running quite through it all by the pores of it And then it must needs follow that the solider it is and the more parts it has within as well as without to be strucken upon the faster it go and the greater effect it must work in what falls upon whereas if three quarters of the Diameter of it within should be fill'd with nothing but air the atoms would fly without any considerable effect through all that space by reason of the rarity cessibility of it And that these atoms are thus subtile is manifest by several effects which we see in nature Divers Authors that write of Egypt assure us that though their houses be built of strong stone nevertheless a clod of earth laid in the inmost rooms and shut up from all appearing communication with air will encrease its weight so notably as therby they can judge the change of weather which will shortly ensue Which can proceed from no other cause but a multitde of little atoms of Saltpeter which floating in the air penetrate through the strongest wals and all the massie defences in their way and settle in the cold of earth as soon as they meet with it because it is of a temper fit to entertain and conserve embody them Delights have shewed us the way how to make the spirits or atoms of Snow and Saltpeter pass through a glass vessel which Alchimists hold to be the most impenetrable of all they can find to work with In our own bodies the aches which feeble parts feel before change of weather and the heaviness of our heads and shoulders if we remain in the open air presently after sunset abundantly testifie that even the grosser of these atoms which are the first that fall do vehemently penetrate our bodies so as sense will make us believe what reason peradventure could not But besides all this there is yet a more convincing reason why the descending atomes should move the whole density of a body even though it were so dense that they could not penetrate it and get into the bowels of it but must be content to strike barely upon the outside of it For nature has so order'd the matter that when dense parts stick close together and make the length composed of them to be very stiff one cannot be moved but that all the rest which are in that line must likewise be thereby moved so that if all the world were composed of atoms closse sticking together the least motion imaginable must drive on all that were in a straight line to the very end of the world This you see is evident in reason and experience confirms it when by a little knock given at the end of a long beam the shaking which makes sound reaches sensibly to the other end The blind man that governs his steps by feeling in defect of eyes receives advertisements of remote things through a staff which he holdeth in his hands peradventure more particularly then his eyes could have directed him And the like is of a deaf man that hears the sound of an Instrument by holding one end of a stick in his mouth whiles the other end rests upon the Instrument And some are of opinion and they not of the rank of vulgar Philosophers that if a staff were as long as to reach from the Sun to us it would have the same effect in a moment of time Although for my part I am hard to believe we could receive an advertisement so far unless the staff were of such a thickness as being proportionable to the length might keep it from facile bending for if it should be very plyant it would do us no service as we experience in a thrid which reaching from our hand to the ground if it knock against any thing makes no sensible impression in our hand So that in fine reason sense and authority all of them shew us that the less the atomes should penetrate into a moving body by reason of the extreme density of it the more efficaciously they would work and the greater celerity they would cause in its motion And hence we may give the fullest solution to the objection above Which was to this effect that seeing division is made only by the superficies or exteriour part of the dense body and the virtue whereby a dense body works is onely its resistance to division which makes it apt to divide it would follow that a hollow bowl of brass or iron should be as heavy as a solid one For we may answer that seeing the atoms must strike through the body and a cessible body doth not receive their strokes so firmly as a stiffe one nor can convey them so far if to a stiff superficies there succeed a yielding inside the strokes must of necessity lose much of their force and consequently cannot move a body full of air with so much celerity or with so much efficacy as they may a solid one But then you may peradventure say that if these strokes of the descending atomes upon a dense body were the cause of its motion downwards we must allow the atomes to move faster then the dense body that so they may still overtake it and drive it along and enter into it whereas if they should move slower then it none of them could come in their turn to give it a stroke but it would be past them and out of their reach before they
dense signifies nothing else but that it is in such a degree of density that some of its own parts by their being assisted and set on work by a general cause which is the fall of the atomes are powerful enough to divide other adjoyning parts of the same density with them one from another as we see water pour'd out of an Ewer into a Basin where there is already other water has the power to divide the water in the Basin by the assistance of the celerity which it gets in descending And now I hope the Reader is fully satisfied that there is no contradiction in puting Density and Gravity to be the same thing materially and that nevertheless the same thing may be more heavy then dense or more dense then heavy as we took it to our several purposes in the investigation of the Elements Having thus laid an intelligible ground to discover how these motions that are general to all bodies and are natural in chief are contrived by nature we will now endeavour to shew that the contrary position is not only voluntary but also impossible Let us therfore suppose that a body has a quality to move it downwards And first we shall ask what downwards signifies For either it signifies towards a fix'd point of Imaginary Space or towards a fix'd point of the Universe or towards some Moveable point As for the first who would maintain it must have more imagnation then judgment to think that a natural quality could have an essence determin'd by a nothing because we can frame a conceit of that nothing As for the second 't is very uncertain whether any such point be in nature for as for the centre of the earthy 't is clear that if the earth be carried about the centre of it cannot be a fixed point Again if the centre signifies a determinate point in the earth that is the Medium of gravity or of quantity 't is chang'd as often as any dust lights unequally upon any one side of the earth which would make that side bigger then it was and I doubt a quality cannot have moral considerations to think that so little does no harm As for the third position likewise 't is not intelligible how a quality should change its inclination or essence according to the change that should light now to make one point now another be the centre to which it should tend Again let us consider that a quality has a determinate essence Then seeing its power is to move to move signifies to cut the Medium 't is moved in it belongs to it of its nature to cut so much of such a Medium in such a time So that if no other cause be added but that you take precisely 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 't is clear that The being able to cut so much of such a Medium in such a time is not the essence of this quality as it was supposed to be Dividing then the time and the Medium half the motion should be made in half the time a quarter of the motion in a quarter of the time and so without end as far as you can divide But this is demonstratively impossibly since 't is demonstrated that a moveable coming from rest must of necessity pass through all degrees of tardity and therefore by the demonstration cited out of Galileus we may take a part in which this gravity cannot move its body in a proportionate part of time through a proportionate part of the medium But because in natural Theorems experiences are naturally required let us see whether nature gives us any testimony of this verity To that purpose we may consider a Plummet hang'd in a small string from a beam which being lifted up gently on the one side at the extent of the string and permitted to fall meerly by the power of gravity will ascend very near as high on the contrary side as the place it was held in from whence it fell In this experiment we may note two things First that if gravity be a quality it works against its own nature in lifting up the plummet seeing its nature is only to carry it down For though it may be answer'd that 't is not the gravity but another quality called vis impressa which carries it up nevertheless it cannot be denied but that gravity is either the immediate or at least the mediate cause which makes this vis impressa the effect whereof being contrary to the nature of gravity 't is absurd to make gravity the cause of it that is the cause of an essence whose nature is contrary to its own And the same argument will proceed though you put not vis impressa but suppose some other thing to be the cause of the plummets remounting as long as gravity is said to be a quality for still gravity must be the cause of an effect contrary to its own inclination by setting on foot the immediate cause to produce it The second thing we are to note in this experiment of the plummets ascent is that if gravity be a quality there must be as much resistance to its going up as there was force to its coming down Therefore there must be twice as much force to make it ascend as there was to make it descend that is to say there must be twice as much force as the natural force of the gravity is for there must be once as much to equallize the resistance of the gravity and then another time as much to carry it as far through the same Medium in the same time But 't is impossible that any cause should produce an effect greater then it self Again the gravity must needs be in a determinate degree and the vertue that makes the plummet remount whatever it be may be put as little as we please and consequently not able to oversway the gravity alone if it be an intrinsecal quality and yet the plummet will remount in which case you put an effect withot a cause Another experience we may take from the force of sucking For take the barrel of a long Gun perfectly bored and set it upright with the breech upon the ground and take a bullet that is exactly fit for it but so as it stick not any where both the barrel and it being perfectly polished and then if you suck at the mouth of the barrel though never so gently the bullet will come up so forcibly that it will hazard the striking out your teeth Now let us consider what force were necessary to suck the bullet up and how very Slowly it would ascend if in the barrel it had as much resistance to ascend as in the free air it has inclination to go down But if it had a quality of gravity natural to it it must of necessity have such resistance wheras in our experiment we see it
water by sinking in one place to rise round about it must of necessity follow that the bullet which in entring has press'd down the first parts of the water has withal therby put others further off in a motion of rising and therfore the bullet in its going on must meet with some water swelling upwards and from it receive a ply that way which cannot fail of carrying it above the mark it was level'd at And so we see this effect proceeds from reflection or the bounding of the water and not from refraction Besides that it may justly be suspected the shooter took his aim too high by reason of the marks appearing in the water higher than in truth it is unless such false aiming were duly prevented Neither is Monsir des Cartes his excuse to be admitted when he saies that light goes otherwise than a ball would do because in a glass or water the etherial substance which he surposes to run through all bodies is more efficaciously moved than in air and thersore light must go faster in the glass than in the air and so turn on that side of the straight line which is contrary to the side that the ball takes because the ball goes not so swiftly For not to dispute the verity of this proposition the effect he pretends is impossible for if the etherial suhstance in the air before the glass be flowly moved the motion of which he calls light 't is impossible that the etherial substance in the glass or in the water should be more smartly moved than it Well it may be less but without all doubt the impulse of the etherial substance in the Glass cannot be greater than its adequate cause which is the motion of the other parts that are in the air precedent to glass Again after it is pass'd the glass it should return to be a straight line with the line that it made in the air precedent to the glass in the subsequent air must take off just as much and no more as the glas did add the contrary wherof experience shews us Thirdly in this explication it would always go one way in the air and another way in the glass wheras all experience testifies that in a glass convex on both sides it still goes in the air after its going out to the same side as it did in the glass but more And the like happens in glasses on both sides concave Wherfore 't is evident that 't is the snperficies of the Glass that is the worker on both sides and not the substance of the air on one side and of the glass on the other And lastly his answer no way solvs our objection which proves that the resistance both ways is proportionate to the force that moves and by consequence that the thing moved must go straight As we may imagine would happen if a bullet were shot stoping through a green mud wall in which there were many round sticks so thin set that the bullet might pass with ease through them for as long as the bullet touched none of them which express his case it would go straight but if it touch'd any which resembles ours as by and by will apperar it would glance according to the quality of the touch and move from the stick in another line Some peradventure may answer for Monsieur des Cartes that this subtile body which he supposes to run through all things is stiff and no ways pliable But that is so repugnant to the nature of rarity and so many insuperable inconveniences follow out of it as I cannot imagin he will own it and therfore I will not spend any time in replying therto We must therfore seek some other cause of the refraction of light which is made at the entrance of it into a Diaphanous body Which is plainly as we said before because the ray striking against the inside of a body it cannot penetrate turns by reflection towards that side on which the illuminant stands and if it findes clear passage through the whole resistent it follows the course it first takes if not then 't is lost by many reflections to and fro But because crooked surfaces may have many irregulalities it will not be amiss to give a rule by which all of them may be brought to a certainty And this it is that Reflections from crooked superficieses are equal to the reflections that are made from such plain superficieses as are tangents to the crooked ones in that point from whence the reflections are made Which Principle the Masters of Opticks take out of a Mathematecal supposition of the Unity of the reflecting point in both the surfaces the crooked and the plain But we take it out of the insensibility of the difference of so little a part in the two different surfaces as serves to reflect a ray of light For where the difference is insensible in the causes there likewise the difference is so little in the effects as sense cannot judge of them which is as much as is requisite to our purpose Now since in the Mathematical supposition the point where the reflection is made is indifferent to both the surfaces it follows that it imports not whether superficies you take to know the quality of reflection by This principle then being setled that the reflection must follow the nature of the tangent surfaces and it being proved that in plain surfaces it will happen as we have explicated it follows that in any crooked supersicies of what Figure soever the same also will happen Now seeing we have formerly declared that refractions are but a certain kind of reflexions what we have said here of reflections may be apply'd to refractions But there remains yet untouch'd one affection more of refractions which is that some Diaphanous bodies in their inward parts reflect more than others which is that we call refraction as experience shews us Concerning which effect we are to consider that Diaphanous bodies may in their composition have two differences for some are composed of greater parts and greater pores others of lesser parts and lesser pores 'T is true there may be other combinations of pores and parts yet by these two the rest may be esteem'd As for the first combination we see that because the pores are greater a greater multitude of parts of light may pass together through one pore and because the parts are greater likewise a greater multitude of rays may reflect from the same part and find the same passage quite throughout the Diaphanous body On the contrary side in the second combination where both the pores and the parts of the Diaphanous body are little the light must be but little that finds the same passage Now that refraction is greater or lesser happens two ways for 't is either when one Diaphanous body reflects light at more angles than another and by consequence in a greater extent of the superficies or else when one body reflects light from the
Treatise So as that which remains for the present is to fall upon the discourse of such qualities as concur to the Constitution of bodies with an aim to discover whether or no they may be effected by the several mixtures of Rarity and Density in such sort as is already declared To which end we are to consider in what manner these two primary differences of bodies may be joyn'd together and what effects such conjuncton will produce As for their conjunction to deliver the nature of it entirely we must begin from the very root of it and consider how the Universe being finite which Mr. White hath demonstrated in the Second Knot of his First Dialogue there cannot be an Infinite Number of Bodies in it for Geometricians shew us how the least quantity that is may be repeated so often as would exceed any the greatest determinate quantity whatever Out of which it follows that although all the other bodies of the world were no bigger then the least quantity that can be designed yet they being infinite in number would be greater then the whole Universe that contains them Therfore of necessity there must be some least body or rather some least size of bodies Which in compounded bodies is not to be expected for their least parts being compounded must needs include compounding parts less then themselvs We must then look for this least size of bodies in the Elements which of all bodies are the simplest And among them we must pitch upon that wherein is greatest divisibility which consequently is divided into least parts that is Fire So as we may conclude that among all the bodies in the world that which of its own nature hath an aptitude to be least must be Fire Now the least body of fire be it never so little is yet divisible into less What is it then that makes it be one To determine this we must resort to the nature of Quantity whose formal notion and essence is To be divisible which signifies that many may be made of it But that of which many may be made is not yet many out of this very reason that many may be made of it But what is not many is one Therfore what hath quantity is by mere having quantity actually and formally as well one as it hath the possibility of being made many and consequently the least body of fire by having quantity has those parts which might be many actually one And this is the first conjunction of parts that is to be consider'd in the composition of bodies which though it be not an actual joyning of actual parts yet is a formal conjunction of what may be many In the next place we may consider how seeing the least bodies that are be of fire it must needs follow that the least parts of the other Elements must be bigger then they And consequently the possible parts of those least parts of the other Elements must have something to conserve them together more then is found in fire And this because Elements are purely distinguish'd by rarity and densiy is straight concluded to be density And thus we have found that as quantity is the cause of the possible parts being one so density is the cause of the like parts sticking together which appears in the very definition of it for to be less divisible which is the notion of density speaks a resistance to division or sticking together Now let us examine how two parts of different Elements are joyn'd together to make a compound In this conjunction we find both the affects we have already touch'd for two such parts must make one and moreover they must have some resistance to divisibility The first of these effects we have already assign'd to the nature of quantity And it being the formal effect of quantity it cannot wherever it is found have any other formal cause then quantity wherfore either the two little parts of different Elements do not become one body or if they do we must agree 't is by the nature of quantity which works as much in Heterogeneal parts as Homogeneal And it must needs do so because Rarity and Density which are the proper differences of Quantity cannot change the common nature of Quantity their Genus which by being so to them must be univocally in them both And this effect comes precisely from the pure notion of the Genus and consequently must be seen as well in two parts of different natures as in two parts of the same nature but in parts of the same nature which once were two and and afterwards become one there can be no other reason why they are one then the very same for which those parts that were never separated but that may be separated are likewise one and this most evidently is the nature of quantity Experience seems to confirm thus much when pouring water out of a basin some of it will remain sticking to the sides of the metal For if the quantity of the basin and of the water had not been one and the same by its own nature the water considering the pliableness of its parts would certainly have come all away and glided from the unevenness of the basin by the attractive unity of its whole and would have preserv'd the unity of its quantity within it self rather then by sticking to the basin have suffer'd division in its own quantity which we are sure was one whiles the water was altogether in the basin But that both the basin and the water making but one quantity and a division being unavoydable in that one quantity it was indifferent in regard of the quantity consider'd singly by it self where this division should be made whether in the parts of the basin or in the parts of the water and then the other circumstances determin'd it in that part of the water which was nearest to the joyning of it with the basin The second effect which was resistance to divisibility we assign'd to density And of that same cause must also depend the like effect in this case of the sticking together of the two parts of different Elements when they are joyn'd to one another For if the two parts whereof one is dense the other rare doe not exceed the quantity of some other part of one Homogeneal rare Element for the dividing wherof such a determinate force and no less can suffice then seeing that the whole composed of these two parts is not so divisible as the whole consisting of that one part the assign'd force will not be able to divide them Wherefore 't is plain that if the rare part had been joyn'd to another rare part instead of the dense one it is joyn'd to it had been more easily dividable from that then now it is from the dense part And by consequence it stickes more closely to the dense part then it would to another of its own nature Out of what we have said a step is made us to understand why
soft and liquid bodies easily joyn and incorporate into one continued body but hard and dry bodies so difficultly as by experience we find to be true Water with water or wine either with other wine or with water so unites that 't is very hard to part them but sand or stones cannot be made to stick together without very great force and industry The reasons whereof must necessarily depend of what we have said above To wit that two bodies cannot touch one another without becoming one and that if two bodies of one degree of density do touch they must stick together according to the force of that degree of density Out of which two is manifestly infer'd that if two hard things should come to touch they must needs be more difficultly separated then two liquid things And consequently they cannot come to touch without as much difficulty as that wherby they are made one But to deduce this more particularly let us consider that all the little surfaces by which one hard body may be conceiv'd to touch another as for example when a stone lies upon a stone must of necessity be either plain or concave or convex Now if a plain superficies should be supposed to touch another plain one coming perpendicularly to it it must of necessity be granted to touch it as soon in the middle as on the sides Wherfore if there were any air as of necessity there must be betwixt the two surfaces before they touch'd it will follow that the air which was in the midle must have fled quite out from between the two surfaces as soon as any part of the surfaces touch that is as soon as the air which was between the utmost edges of the surfaces did fly out and by consequence it must have moved in an instant But if a plain surface be said to touch a convex surface it touches it only by a line as Mathematicians demonstrate or a point But to touch by a line or a point is in truth not to touch by the form or motion of Quantity which requires divisibility in all that belongs to it and by consequence among bodies it is not-to-touch and so one such surface doth not touch the other Now for a plain surface to touch a concave every man sees is impossible Likewise for two convex surfaces to touch one another they must be allow'd to touch either in a line or in a point which we have shew'd not to be a physical touching And if a convex surface should be said to touch a concave they must touch all at once as we said of plain surfaces and therfore the same impossibility will arise therein So that 't is evident no two surfaces moving perpendicularly towards one another can come to touch one another if neither of them yields and changes its hew Now then if it be supposed they come slidingly one over another in the same line wherby first the very tips of the edges come to touch one another and still as you shove the uppermost on forwards and it slides over more of the nether surface it gains to touch more of it I say that neither in this case do they touch immediately one another For as soon as the two first parts should meet if they did touch and there were no air between them they must presently become one quantity or body as we have declared and must stick firmly together according to their degree of density and consequenly could not be moved on without still breaking asunder at every impulse as much of the massie 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 another without having any air or fluid body between them then if you suppose them to move onwards upon these terms they would be changed locally without any intrinsecal change which in the book De Mundo as we have formerly alledg'd is demonstrated impossible There remains only a third way for two hard surfaces to come together which is that first they should rest sloping one upon another and make an angle where they meet as two lines that cut one another doe in the point of their intersection and so contain as it were a wedge of air between them which wedge they should lessen by little and little through their moving towards one another at their most distant edges whiles the touching edges are like immoveable centers that the others turn upon till at length they shut out all the air and close together like the two legs of a compass But neither is it possible that this way they should touch For after their first touch by one line which neither is in effect a touching as we have shewed no other parts of them can touch though still they approach nearer and nearer till their whole surfaces entirely touch at once and therefore the air must in this case leap out in an instant a greater space then if the surfaces came perpendicularly to one another for here it must flie from one extremity to the other whereas in the former case it was to go but from the middle to each side And thus 't is evident that no two bodies can arrive to touch one another unless one of them at the least have a superficies plyable to the superficies of the other that is unless one of them be soft which is to be liquid in some degree Seeing then that by touching bodies become one and liquidity is the cause and means whereby bodies arrive to touch we may boldly conclude that two liquid bodies most easily and readily become one and next to two such a liquid and a hard body are soonest united but two hard ones most difficultly To proceed then with our reflections upon the composition of Bodies and upon what results out of the joyning and mixture of their first differences Rarity and Density we see how if a liquid substance happens to touch a dry body it sticks easily thereto Then consider there may be so small a quantity of such a liquid body as it may be almost impossible for any natural agent to divide it further into less parts and suppose that such a liquid part is between two dry parts of a dense body and sticking to them both becomes like a glew to hold them together will it not follow out of what we have said that these two dense parts will be as hard to be severed from one another as the small liquid part by which they stick together is to be divided So that when the viscuous ligaments which in a body hold together the dense parts are so small and subtile as no force we can apply can divide them the adhesion of the parts must needs grow then inseparable And therefore we use to moisten dry bodies to make them more easily be divided whereas those that are over-moist are of themselves ready to fall in pieces And thus you see how in general
in bulk but the small ones very hardly Next the smalness and well-working of the parts by means of the airs penetrating every dense one and sticking close to every one of them and consequently joyning them without any unevenness causes that there can be no ruggedness in it and therfore 't is glibb in like manner as we see plaister or starch become smooth when they are well wrought Then the humidity of it causes it to be catching and the shortness of every part makes that where it sticks it is not easily parted thence Now the rarity of air next to fire admits it to be of all the other Elements most easily brought to the height of fire by the operation of fire upon it And therfore oyls are the proper food of that Element And accordingly we see if a drop of oyl be spill'd upon a sheet of paper and the paper set on fire at a corner as the fire comes near the oyl the oyl will disperse and spread it self upon the paper to a broader compass then it had because the heat rarifies it and so in Oyl it self the fire rarifying the air makes it penetrate the earthy parts adjoynd to it more then it did and so subtilizes them till they be reduced to such a height as they are within the power of fire to communicate its own nature to them and thus it turns them into fire and carries them up in its flame But if fire be predominant over earth and air in a watry compound it makes the body so proportion'd to be subtile rare penetrative hot in operation light in weight and subject to burn Of this kind are all sorts of wines and distil'd Spirits commonly called strong waters or Aquavites in Latine Aquaeardentes These will lose their virtues meerly by remaining uncover'd in the air for fire doth not incorporate strongly with water but if it find means raises it self into the air As we see in the smoke of boyling water which is nothing else but little bodies of fire that entring into the water rarifie some parts of it but have no inclination to stay there and therefore as fast as they can get out fly away but the humide parts of the water which they have rarified being of a sticking nature joyn themselves to them and ascend in the air as high as the fiery atomes have strength to carry them which when it fails them that smoke falls down in a dew and so becomes water again as it was All which one may easily discern in a glasse-vessel of water set over the fire in which one may observe the fire come in at the bottome and presently swim up to the top like a little bubble and immediately rise from thence in smoke and that will at last convert it self into drops and settle upon some solid substance thereabouts Of these fiery spirits some are so subtile as of themselves they will vanish and leave no residue of a body behind them and Alchymists profess to make them so etherial and volatile that being pour'd out of a glass from some reasonable height they shall never reach the ground but before they come thither be so rarified by that little motion as they shall grow invisible like the air and dispersing themselves all about in it fill the chamber with the smell of that body which can no longer be seen The last excess in watery bodies must be of water it self which is when so little a proportion of any of the other is mingled with it as is hardly perceptible Out of this composition arise all those several sorts of juices or liquors we commonly call Waters which by their mixture with the other three Elements have peculiar properties beyond simple Elemental water The general quality whereof we shall not need any further to express because by what we have already said of water in common they are sufficiently known In our next survey we will take Earth for our ground to work upon as hitherto we have done water which if in any body it be in the utmost excess beyond all the other three then rocks and stones will grow out of it whose driness and hardness may assure us that Earth sways in their composition with the least allay that may be Nor doth their lightness in respect of some other earthy compositions impeach this resolution for that proceeds from the greatness and multiplicity of pores wherwith their driness causes them to aboundâ— and hinders not but that their real solid parts may be very heavy Now if we mingle a considerable proportion of water with earth so as to exceed the fire and air but still inferiour to the earth we shall poduce metals whose great weight with their ductility and malleability plainly tells us that the smallest of waters gross parts are the glew that holds the earthy dense ones together such weight belonging to earth and that easie changing of parts being most proper to water Quick-silver that is the general matter wherof all the metals are immediately composed gives us evidence hereof for fire works upon it with the same effect as upon water And the calcination of most of the metals proves that fire can easily part and consume the glew by which they were closed and held together which therfore must be rather of a watry then of an aiery substance Likewise the glibness of Mercury and of melted metals without catching or sticking to other substances gives us to understand that this great temper of a moist Element with earth is water and not air and that the watry parts are comprised and as it were shut up within the earthy ones for air catches and sticks notably to all things it touches and will not be imprisoned the divisibility of it being excceeding great though in never so short parts Now if air mingles it self with earth and be prodominant over water and fire it makes such an oily and fat soil as Husbandmen account their best mould which receiving a betterment from the Sun temperate heat assures us of the concourse of the aire for wherever such heat is air cannot fail of accompanying or being effected by it and the richest of such earth as pot-earth and marl will with much fire grow more compacted and stick closer together then it did as we see in baking them into pots or fine bricks Whereas if water were the glew between the dense parts fire would consume it and crumble them asunder as it doth in those bodies it calcines And excesse of fire will bring them to vitrification which still confirms that air abounds in them for it is the nature of air to stick so close where once it is kneaded in as it cannot be separated without extreme difficulty And to this purpose the viscuous holding together of the parts of glass when it is melted shews evidently that air abounds in vitrified bodies The last mixture we are to meddle with is of fire with earth in an over-ruling
continual application to the body it thus anatomises hath harden'd as it were rosted some parts into such greatness and driness as they will not flie nor can be carried up with any moderate heat But great quantity of fire being mingled with the subtiler parts of his baked earth makes them very pungent and acrimonious in tast so that they are of the nature of ordinary Salt and so called and by the help of water may easily be separated from the more gross parts which then remain a dead and useless earth By this discourse 't is apparent that fire has been the instrument which hath wrought all these parts of an entire body into the forms they are in for whiles it carried away the fiery parts it swel'd the watry ones and whiles it lifted up them it digested the Aerial parts and whiles it drove up the Oyle it baked the earth and salt Again all these retaining for the most part the proper nature of the substance from whence they are extracted 't is evident that the substance is not dissolv'd for so the nature of the whole would be dissolv'd and quite destroy'd extinguish'd in every part but that onely some parts containing the whole substance or rather the nature of the whole substance in them are separated fromo ther parts that have likewise the same nature in them The third instrument for the separation and dissolution of bodies is Water whose proper matter to work upon is Salt and it serves to supply what the fire could not perform which is the separation of the salt from the earth in calcined bodies All the other parts fire was able to sever but in these he hath so baked the little humidity he hath left in them with their much earth as he cannot divide them any further and so though he incorporates himself with them yet he can carry nothing away with him If then pure water be put upon that chalk the subtilest dry parts of it easily joyn to the supervenient moysture and sticking close to it draw it down to them But because they are the lighter it happens to them as when a man in a boat pulls the land to him that comes not to him but he removes himself and his boat to it so these ascend in the water as they dissolve And the water more and more penetrating them and by addition of its parts making the humidity which glews their earthy parts together greater and greater makes a wider and wider separation between those little earthy parts and so imbues the whole body of the water with them into which they are dispersed in little atomes Those that are of biggest bulk remain lowest in the water and in the same measure as their quantities dissolve into less and less they ascend higher and higher till at length the water is fully replenish'd with them and they are diffused through the whole body of it whiles the more gross and heavy earthy parts having nothing in them to make a present combination between them and the water fall down to the bottome and settle under the water in dust In which because earth alone predominates in a very great excess we can expect no other virtue to be in it but that which is proper to mere earth to wit driness and weight Which ordinary Alchimists look not after and therfore call it Terra damnata but others find a fixing quality in it by which they perform very admirable operations Now if you prove the impregnated water from the Terra damnata and then evaporate it you will find a pure white substance remaining Which by its bulk shews it self to be very earthy and by its pricking and corrasive taste will inform you much fire is in it and by its easie dissolution in a moist place that water had a great share in the production of it And thus the salts of bodies are made and extracted Now as water dissolves salt so by the incorporation and virtue of that corrosive substance it doth more then salt it self can do for having gotten acrimony and more weight by the mixture and dissolution of salt in it it makes it self away into solide bodies even into metalls as we see in brass and iron which are easily rusted by salt dissolving upon them And according as the salts are stronger so this corrasive virtue encreases in them even so much as neither silver nor gold are free from their eating quality But they as well as the rest are divided into most small parts and made to swim in water in such sort as we have explicated above and wherof every ordinary Alchymist teaches the practise But this is not all salts help as well to melt hard bodies and metalls as to corrode them For fome fusible salts flowing upon them by the heat of the fire and others dissolv'd by the steam of the metal that incorporates with them as soon as they are in flux mingle with the natural juice of the metals and penetrate deeper then without them the fire could do and swell them and make them fit to run These are the principal ways of the two last instruments in dissolving of bodies taking each of them by it self But there remains one more of very great importance as well in the works of nature as of art in which both the former are joyned and concur and that is putrefaction Whose way of working is by gentle heat and moisture to wet and pierce the body it works upon wherby 't is made to swel and the hot parts of it being loosen'd they are at length drunk up and drown'd in the moist ones from whence by fire they are easily separated as we have already declared and those moist parts afterwards leaving it the substance remaines dry and falls in pieces for want of the glew that held it together CHAP. XVI An explication of certain Maxims touching the operations and qualities of bodies and whether the Elements be found pure in any part of the World OUt of what we have determin'd concerning the natural actions of bodies in their making and destroying one another 't is easie to understand the right meaning of some terms and the true reason of some maxims much used in the Schools As first when Philosophers attribute to all sorts of corporeal Agents a Sphere of Activity The sense of that manner of expression in fire appears plainly by what we have already declared of the nature and manner of operation of that Element And in like manner if we consider how the force of cold consists in a compression of the body that is made cold we may perceive that if in the cooled body there be any subtile parts which can break forth from the rest such compression wil make them do so Especially if the compression be of little parts of the compressed body within themselvs as well as of the outward bulk of the whole body round about For at first the compression of such causes in the body
either losing his course by steering after a wrong compass or being forced back again with short and obscure relations of discoveries since others that went out before him are return'd with a large account to such as are able to understand and sum it up Which surely our learned Countryman and my best and most honoured Friend and to whom of all men living I am most obliged for to him I ow that little which I know and what I have and shall set down in all this discourse is but a few sparks kindled by me at his great fire has both profoundly and accutely and in every regard judiciously performed in his Dialogues of the World Our task then in a lower strain and more proportionate to so weak shoulders is to look no further then among those bodies we converse with Of which having declared by what course and Engines Nature governs their common motions that are found even in the Elements and from thence are derived to all bodies composed of them we intend now to consider such motions as accompany divers particular bodies and are much admired by whoever understands not the the causes of them To begin from the easiest and most connexed with the actions of the Elements the handsel of our labour will light upon the motions of Rarefaction and Condensation as they are the passions of mixed bodies And first for Rarefaction we may remember how it proceeds originally from fire and depends of heat as is declared in the former Chapter and wherever we find Rarefaction we may be confident the body which suffers it is not without fire working upon it From hence we may gather that when the Air imprison'd in a baloon or bladder swells against what contains it and stretches its case and seeks to break out this effect must proceed from fire or heat though we see not the fire working either within the very bowels of the air or without by pressing upon what contains it and so making it self a way to it And that this latter way is able to work this effect may be convinced by the contrary effect from a contrary cause for ' take a bladder stretch'd out to its greatest extent by air shut up within it and hang it in a cold place you will see it presently contract it self into a less room and the bladder will grow wrinckled and become too big for the air within it But for immediate proof of this position we see that the addition of a very smal degree of heat rarifies the air in a Weather-glass the air receiving the impression of heat sooner then water and so makes it extend it self into a greater place and consequently it presses upon the water and forces it down into a less room then formerly it possessed And likewise we see Quicksilver and other liquors if they be shut up in glasses close stop'd and set in sufficient heat and a little is sufficient for this effect will swell and fill their glasses and at the last break them rather then not find a way to give themselvs more room which is then grown too straight in the glass by reason of the rarefaction of the liquors by the fire working upon them Now again that this effect may be wrought by the inward heat that is inclosed in the bowels of the substance thus shut up both reason and experience assure us For they teach us that if a body which is not extremely compacted but that by its loosness is easily divisible into little parts such a one as Wine or other spiritual liquors be inclosed in a vessel the little atoms that perpetually move up and down in every space of the whole World making their way through every body will set on work the little parts in the Wine for example to play their game so that the hot and light parts if they be many not enduring to be compressed and kept in by the heavie and cold ones seek to break out with force and till they can free themselvs from the dense ones that would imprison them they carry them along with them and make them swell out as well as themselvs Now if they be kept in by the vessel so that they have not play enough they drive the dense ones like so many little hammers or wedges against the sides of it and at length break it and so make themselvs way to a larger room But if they have vent the more fiery hot spirits fly away and leave the other grosser parts quiet and at rest On the other side if the hot and light parts in a liquor be not many nor very active and the vessel be so ful that the parts have not free scope to remove and make way for one another there will not follow any great effect in this kind as we see in Bottle Beer or Ale that works little unless there be some space left empty in the bottle And again if the vessel be very much too big for the liquor in it the fiery parts find room first to swel up the heavie ones and at length to get out from them though the vessel be close stopped for they have scope enough to float up and down between the surface of the liquor and the roof of the vessel And this is the reason that if a little beer or small wine be left long in a great cask be it never so close stop'd it will in time grow dead And then if at the opening of the bung after the cask hath been long unstir'd you hold a candle close to it you shall at the instant see a flash of flame environing the vent Which is no other thing but the subtile spirits that parting from the beer or wine have left it dead and flying abroad as soon as they are permited are set on fire by the flame they meet with in their journey as being more combustible because more subtile then that spirit of wine which is kept in form of liquor and yet that likewise though much grosser is set on fire by the touch of flame And this happens not only to Wine and Beer or Ale but even to water As dayly experience shews in the East Indian Ships that having been five or six yeers at Sea when they open some of their casks of Thames Water in their return homewards for they keep that water till the last as being their best and most durable and that grows lighter and purer by the often purifyings through violent motions in storms every one of which makes new gross and earthy parts fall down to the bottom and other volatile ones ascend to the top a flame is seen about their bungs if a candle be near as we said before of wine And to proceed with confirming this doctrine by further experience we dayly see that the little parts of heat being agitated and brought into motion in any body enter and pierce into other parts and incorporate themselvs with them and set them on fire if they be capable
therof as we see in wet Hay or Flax laid together in great quantity And if they be not capable of taking fire then they carry them with them to the outside when they can transport them no further part flies away other part staies with them as we see in new Bear or Ale and in must of wine in which a substance usually call'd the mother is wrought up to the top Which in wine wil at the last be converted into Tartar when the spirits that are very volatile are flown away and leave those parts from whence they have evaporated more gross and earthy then the others where the grosser and subtiler parts continue still mixed but in Beer or rather in ale this mother which in them we call Barm wil continue longer in the same consistence and with the same qualities for the spirits of it are not so fiery that they must presently leave the body they have incorporated themselvs with nor are hot enough to bake it into a hard consistence And therfore Bakers make use of it to raise their bread which neither will it do unless it be kept from cold both which are evident signs that it works in force of heat and consequently that it continues still a hot and light substance And again we see that after wine or beer hath wrought once a violent motion wil make it work a new As is daily seen in great lightnings and in thunder and by much rocking of them For such motion rarifies and consequently heats them partly by separating the little parts of the liquor which were before as glew'd together therfore lay quietly but now by their pulling a sunder and the liquors growing therby more loose then it was they have freedom to play up and down and partly by beating one part against another which breaks and divides them into lesser atomes and so brings some of them into the state of fire which you may remember is nothing else but a body brought into such a degree of littleness and rarity of its parts And this is the reason why such hard and dry bodies as have an unctuous substance in them are by motion either easily set on fire or at least fire is easily goten out of them As happens in flints and divers other stones which yields fire when they are strucken and if presently after you smel to them you shall perceive an odour of brimstone and burning which is a certain signe that the motion converted into fire the natural Brimstone that was mingled withthe Flint whose denser parts were grown cold and so stuck to the stone And in like manner the Ivywood and divers others as also the Indian Canes which from thence are called Firecanes being rub'd with some other stick of the same nature if they be first very dry will of themselvs set on fire and the like will happen to Coach-wheels in in the Summer if they be overheated with motion To conclude our discourse of Rarefaction we may look a little into the power and efficacity of it which is no where to be seen so clearly as in fire And as fire is the general cause of rarefaction so is it of all bodies the most rarified And therfore 't is no marvel if its effects be the greatest that are in nature seeing 't is the proper operation of the most active Element The wonderful force of it we daily see in Thunder in Guns in Granado's in Mines of which continual experience as well as several Histories witnesse little less then miracles Leaving them to the remarks of curious persons we wil only look into the way by which so main effects proceed from causes that appear so slender 'T is evident that fire as we have said before dilates it self spherically as nature shews us manifestly in bubbles of boyling water and Milk and generally of such substances as are of a viscuous composition for those bubbles being round assure us that the cause which made them did equally dilate them from the Centre to all parts Now then remembring the infinite multiplication which is in fire we may conceive that when a grain of Gun-powder is turn'd into it there are so many little bubbles of a viscuous substance one backing another with great celerity as there are parts of fire more then there were of Gun-powder And if we make a computation of the number and celerity of these bubbles we shall find that although every one of them single seem to be of an inconsiderable force yet the whole number of them together will exceed the resistance of the body move or broken by them especially if we note that when hard substances have not time allow'd them to yield they break the sooner And then we shall not so much admire the extremities we see acted by these means Thus having look'd into the nature of Rarefaction and trac'd the progress of it from the motion of the Sun fire in the next place we are to examine the nature of Condensation And we shall oftentimes find it likewise aneffect of the same cause otherwise working For there being two different ways to dry any wet thing one by taking away that juyce which makes a body liquid the other by putting more drought to the wet body that it may imbibe the moisture this latter way doth as well as the former condense a body for by the close sticking of wet to dry the most part of condensation is effected in compounded bodies The first of these wayes properly and immediately proceeds from heat For heat entring into a body incorporates it self with the moist and viscuous parts it findes there as purging medicines do with humour they work on which when the stomack can no longer entertain by reason of their unruly motions in wrestling together they are both ejected grappling with one another and the place of their contention is thus by the supervenience of a guest of a contrary nature that will not stay long there purged from the superabundance of the former ones that annoy'd it Even so the fire that is greedily drunk up by the watry and viscuous parts of a compounded body and whose activity and restless nature will not endure to be long imprisoned there quickly pierces quite through the body it enters into and after a while streams out at an opposite side as fast as it enters on the side next to it and carries away with it those glewy parts it is incorporated with and by their absence leaves the body they paâ—t from dryer then at the first it was Which course we may observe in Syrops that are boyl'd to a consistence and in broths that are consumed to a jelly over which whiles they are making by the fire under them you see a great steam which is the watry parts that being incorporated with fire fly away in smoke Likewise when the sea-water is condens'd into salt you see it is an effect of the Sun or fire that exhales or boyls
salts solution As soon as you put the first salt into the water it falls down presently to the bottome of it and as the water by its humidity pierces by degrees the little joynts of this salt so the small parts of it are by little and little separated from one another and united to parts of water And so infusing more and more salt this progress will continue till every part of water is incorporated with some part of salt and then the water can no longer work of it self but in conjunction to the salt with which it is united After which if more salt of the same kind be put into the water that water so impregnated will not be able to divide it because it has not any so subtile parts left as are able to enter between the joynts of a salt so closely compacted but may be compared to that salt as a thing of equal driness with it and therfore is unapt to moisten and pierce it But if you put into this compound of salt and water another kind of salt that is of a stronger and drier nature then the former and whose parts are more grosly united then the first salt dissolv'd in the water will be able to get in betwixt the joynts of the grosser salt and divide it into little parts and will incorporate his already-composed parts of salt and water into a decompound of two salts and water till all his parts be anew impregnated with second grosser salt as before the pure water was with the first subtiler salt And so it will proceed on if proportionate bodies be joyn'd till the dissolving composition grow into a thick body To which discourse we may add that when the water is so fully impregnated with the first salt as it will receive no more remaining in the temper 't is in yet if it be heated it will then afresh dissolve more of the same kind Which shews that the reason of its giving over to dissolve is for want of having the water divided into parts little enough to stick to more salt which as in this case the fire doth so peradventure in the other the acrimoniousness of the salt doth it And this is sufficient to give curious wits occasion by making further experiments to Search out the truth of this matter Only we may note what happens in most of the experiencies we have mention'd to wit that things of the same nature joyn better and more easily then others that are more estranged from one another Which is very agreeable to reason seeing that if nature intends to have things consist long together she must fit them for such consistence Which seems to proceed out of their agreement in four qualities First in weight for bodies of divers degrees in weight if they be at liberty seek divers places and consequently substances of like weight must of necessity find one another out and croud together as we have shew'd it is the nature of heat to make them do Now it is apparent that things of one nature must in equal parts have the same or a near proportion ofweight seeing that in their composition they must have 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 parts in the same degree of rarity and density For as it is the nature of quantity in common to make all parts be one quantity so it is the nature of the degrees of quantity when two parts meet 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 makes of its own nature Wheras parts of different densities cannot have this reason of sticking though peradventure they may upon some other ground have some more efficatious one And in this manner the like humide parts of two bodies becomming one the holes or receptacles in which those humide parts are contain'd must also needs be united The third reason is the agreeable proportion which their several figures have in respect of one another For if any humidity be extracted out of a mixed body especially by the virtue of fire it must have left pores of such figures as the humidity that is drawn out of them is apt to be cut into for every humide body not being absolutely humide but having certain dry parts mixed with it is more apt for one kind of figure and greatness then for another and by consequence whenever that humidity shall meet again with the body it was severed from it will easily run through and into it all and fill exactly the cavities pores it passed before The last quality in which bodies that are to consist long together agree is the bigness of the humide dry parts of the same body For if the humide parts be too big for the dry ones 't is clear that the dry ones must needs hang loosly together by them because their glew is in too great a quantity But if the humide parts be too little for the dry on s then of necessity some portion of every little dry part must be unfurnish of glew by means wherof to stick to his fellow and so the sticking parts not being conveniently proportion'd to one another their adhesion cannot be so solid as if each of them were exactly fitted to his fellow CHAP. XVIII Of another motion belonging to particular bodies call'd Atraction and of certain operations term'd Magicall HAving thus ended the two motions of rarefaction and condensation the next that offer themselvs are the locall motions which some bodies have to others These are somtimes perform'd by a plain force in the body towards which the motion is and other whiles by a hidden cause which is not so easily discern'd The first is chiefly that which is ordinarily said to be done by the force of nature to hinder vacuum and is much practis'd by nature as in drawing our breath in sucking and many other natural operations which are imitated by art in making of Pumps Syphons and such other instuments and in that admirable experiment of taking up a heavy Marble stone merely by another lying flat and smoothly upon it without any ther connexion of the two stones together as also by that sport of boyes when they spread a thin moistned leather upon a smooth broad stone press it all over close to it and then by pulling of a string fastned at the middle of the leather they draw up likewise the heavy stone In all which the first cause of the motion proceeds from that body towards which the motion is made and therfore is properly called Attraction For the better understanding and delaring of which let us suppose two marble stones very broad and exceeding smoothly polished to be laid one flat upon the other and let there be a ring fastned at the back part of the
it upon a hedge as that dries away so will their sore amend In other parts they observe that if milk newly come from the cow in the boyling run over into the fire and that this happen often and near together to the same cows milk that cow will have her udder sore inflamed and the prevention is to cast salt immediately into the fire upon the milk The herb Persicaria if it be well rub'd upon Warts and then be laid in some fit place to putrifie causes the Warts to wear away as it rots some say the like of fresh Beef Many examples also there are of hurting living creatures by the like means which I set not down for fear of doing more harm by the evil inclination of some persons into whose hands they may fall then profit by their knowing them to whom I intend this work But to make these operations of nature not incredible let us remember how we have determin'd that every body whatever yields some steam or vents a kind of vapour from it self and consider how they must needs do so most of all that are hot and moist as bloud and milk and all wounds and sores generally are We see that the foot of a Hare or Bear leaves such an impression where the beast has passed as a dog can discern it a long time after and a Fox breaths out so strong a vapour that the hunters themselvs can wind it a great way off and a good while after he is parted from the place Now joyning this to the experiences we have already allow'd of concerning the attraction of heat we may conclude that if any of these vapours light upon a solid warm body which has the nature of a source to them they will naturally congregate and incorporate there and if those vapours be joyn'd with any medicative quality or body they will apply that medicament better then any Chirurgeon can Then if the steam of bloud bloud and spirits carry with it from the weapon or cloth the balsamike qualities of the salve or powder and with them settle upon the wound what can follow but a bettering in it Likewise if the steam of the corruption that is upon the clod carry the drying quality of the wind which sweeps over it when it hangs high in the air to the sore part of the cows foot why is it not possible that it should dry the corruption there as well as it dryes it upon the hedge And if the steam of burned milk can hurt by carrying fire to the dug why should not salt cast upon it be a preservative against it Or rather why should not salt hinder the fire from being carried thither Since the nature of salt always hinders and suppresses the activity of fire as we see by experience when we throw salt into the fire below to hinder the flaming of soot in the top of a chimney which presently ceases when new fire from beneath doth not continue it And thus we might proceed in sundry other effects to declare the reason and possibility were we certain of the truth of them therfore we remit this whole question to the authority of the testimonies CHAP. XIX Of three other motions belonging to particular bodies Filtration Restitution and Electrical attraction AFter these let us cast our eye upon another motion very familiar among Alchymists which they call Filtration It is effected by putting one end of a tongue or label of Flannen or Cotten or Flax into a vessel of water and letting the other end hang over the brim of it And it will by little and little draw all the water out of that vessel so that the end which hangs qâ—t be lower then the superficies of the water and make it all come over into any lower vessel you will reserve it in The end of this operation is when any water is mingled with gross and muddy parts not dissolv'd in the water to separate the pure light ones from the impure By which we are taught that the lighter parts of the water are those which most easily catch And if we will examine in particular how 't is likely this business passes we may conceive that the body or linguet by which the water ascends being a dry one some lighter parts of the water whose chance it is to be near the climbing body of Flax begin to stick fast to it and then they require nothing near so great force nor so much pressing to make them climb up along the flax as they would do to make them mount in the pure air As you may see if you hold a stick in running water shelving against the stream the water will run up along the stick much higher then it could be forced up in the open air without any support though the agent were much stronger then the current of the stream And a ball will on a rebound run much higher upon a shelving board then it would if nothing touch'd it And I have been told that if an egsshell fill'd with dew be set at the foot of a hollow stick the Sun will draw it to the top of the shelving stick wheras without a prop it will not stir it With much more reason then we may conceive that water finding as it were little steps in the Cotton to facilitate its journy upwards must ascend more easily then those other things do so as it once receive any impulse to drive it upwards For the gravity both of that water which is upon the Cotton as also of so many of the confining parts of water as can reach the Cotton is exceedingly allay'd either by sticking to the Cotton and so weighing in one bulk with that dry body or else by not tending down straight to the Center but resting as it were upon a steep plain according to what we said of the arm of a Syphon that hangs very sloping out of the water and therfore draws not after it a less proportion of water in the other arm that is more in a direct line to the Center by which means the water as soon as it begins to climb comes to stand in a kind of cone neither breaking from the water below its bulk being big enough to reach to it nor yet falling down to it But our chief labour must be to finde a cause that may make the water begin to ascend To which purpose consider how water of its own nature compresses it self together to exclude any other body lighter then it is Now in respect of the whole mass of the water those parts which stick to the cotton are to be acounted muchlighter then water not because in their own nature they are so but for the circumstances which accompany and give them a greater disposition to receive a motion upwards then much lighter bodies whiles they are destitute of such helps Wherfore as the bulk of water weighing and striving downwards it follows that if there were any air mingled with it it would to
possess a lesser place drive out the aire so here in this case the water at the foot of the ladder of cotton ready to climb with a very small impulse may be after some sort compared in respect of the water to air by reason of the lightness of it and consequently is forced up by the compressing of the rest of water round about it Which no faster gets up but other parts at the foot of the ladder follow the first and drive them still upwards along the tow and new ones drive the second and others the third and so forth so that with ease they climb up to the top of the filter still driving one another forwards as you may do a fine towel through a musket barrel which though it be too limber to be thrust straight through yet craming still new parts into it at length you will drive the first quite through And thus when these parts of water are got up to the top of the vessel on which the filter hangs and over it on the other side by sticking still to the tow and by their natural gravity against which nothing presses on this side the label they fall down again by little and little and by drops break again into water in the vessel set to receive them But now if you ask why it will not drop unless the end of the label that hangs be lower then the water I conceive it is because the water which is all along upon the flannen is one continued body hanging together as it were a thrid of wire and is subject to like accidents as such a continued body is Now suppose you lay wire upon the edge of the basin which the filter rests on and so make that edge the Centre to ballance it upon if the end that is outermost be heaviest it will weigh down the other otherwise not So fares it with this thrid of water if the end of it that hangs out of the pot be longer and consequently heavier then that which rises it must needs raise the other upwards and fall it self downwards Now the raising of the other implies lifting more water from the Cistern and the sliding of it self further downwards is the cause of its converting into drops So that the water in the cistern serves like the flax upon a distaff and is spun into a thrid of water still as it comes to the flannen by the drawing it up occasion'd by the overweight of the thrid on the other side of the center Which to express better by a similitude in a solid body I remember I have oftentimes seen in a Mercers shop a great heap of massy gold lace lie upon their stall and a little way above it a round smooth pin of wood over which they use to have their lace when they wind it into bottoms Now over this pin I have put one end of the lace as long as it hung no lower then the board upon which the rest of the lace did lie it stird'd not for as the weight of the loose end carried it one way so the weight of the otherside where the whole was drew it the otherway in this manner kept it in equalibrity But as soon as I drew on the hanging end to the heavier then the climbing side for no more weights then is in the air that which lies upon the board having another center then it began to roule to the ground and still drew up new parts of that which lay upon the board till all was tumbled down upon the floor In the same manner it hap'nes to the water in which the thrid of it upon the filter is to be compared fitly to that part of the lace which hung upon the pin and the whole quantity in the cistern is like the bulk of lace upon the Shopboard for as fast as the filter draws it up 't is converted into a thrid like that which is already upon the filter in like manner as the wheel converts the flax into yarn as fast as it draws it out from the distaff Our next consideration will very aptly fall upon the motion of those things which being bent leap with violence to their former figure wheras others return but a little and others stand in that ply wherin the bending hath set them For finding the reason of which effects our first reflection may be to note that a Superficies which is more long then broad contains a less floor then that whose sides are equal or nearer being equal and that of those surfaces whose lines and angles are all equal that which hath most sides and angles contains still the greater floor 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 bag of a long napkin if the napkin be sew'd together longwise it holds a great deal less then if it be sewd together broadwise By this we see plainly that if any body in a thick and short figure be forced into a thinner which by becoming thinner must likewise become either longer or broader for what it loses one way it must get another then that superficies must needs be stretched which in our case is a Physical outside or material part of a solid body not a Mathematical consideration of an indivisible Entity We see also that this change of figures happens in the bending of all those bodies wherof we are now enquiring the reason why some of them restore themselves to their original 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 metalls lead and tin and among other bodies those â—which we account soft And we may determine that this effect proceeds partly from the humidity of the body that stands bent and partly from a driness peculiar to it that comprehends and fixes the humidity of it For by the first they are render'd capable of being driven into any figure which nature or art desires and by the second they are preserv'd from having their gravity put them out of what figure they have once receiv'd But because these two conditions are common to all solid bodies we may conclude that if no other circumstance concur'd the effect arising out of them would likewise be common to all such and therfore where we find it otherwise we must seek 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 return to their due figure 'T is true they will somtimes lean towards that way they have been bent as may be seen even in great trees after violent tempests and generally the heads of trees the ears of corn and the grown hedg rows will all bend one way
necessity happen that in the air there come Atoms to the Torrid Zone of that grossness that they cannot suddenly be so much rarified as the subtiler parts of air that are there and therfore the more those subtiler parts are rarified and therby happen to be carried up the stronger and the thicker the heavier Atoms must descend And thus this concourse of air from the Polar parts maintains gravity under the Zodiack where otherwise all would be turned into fire and so have no gravity Now who considers the two Hemispheres which by the Equator are divided will find that they are not altogether of equal complexions but that our Hemisphere in which the Northpole is comprised is much dryer then the other by reason of the greater continent of land in this and the vast tract of Sea in the other and therfore the supply which comes from the divers Hemispheres must needs be of different natures that which comes from towards the Southpole being compared to that which comes from towards the North as the more wet to the more dry Yet of how different complexions soever they be you see they are the emanations of one and the same body Not unlike to what nature hath instituted in the rank of Animals among whom the Male and Female are so distinguish'd by heat and cold moisture and drought that nevertheless all belongs but to one nature and that in degrees though manifestly different yet so near together that the body of one is in a manner the same thing as the body of the other Even so the complexions of the two Hemispheres are in such sort different in the same qualities that nevertheless they are of the same nature and are unequal parts of the same body which we call the Earth Now Alchimists assure us that if two extractions of one body meet together they will incorporate one with the other especially if there be some little difference in the complexion of the extractions Whence it follows that these two streams of air making up one continuate floud of various currents â—om one end of the world to the other each stream that come to the Equator from its own Pole by the extraction of the Sun and that is still supply'd with new matter flowing from its own Pole to the Equator before the Sun can sufficiently rarifie and lift up the Atomes that came first Perpendicularly under its beams as it uses to happen in the effects of Physical causes which cannot be rigorously ajusted but must have some latitude in which nature inclines ever rather to abundance then to defect will pass even to the other pole by the conduct of his fellow in case he be by some occasion driven back homewards For as we see in a Bowl or Pail full of water or rather in a Pipe through which the water runs along if there be a little hole at the bottome or side of it the water will wriggle and change its course to creep out at that Pipe especially if there be a little spiggot or quill at the outside of the hole that by the narrow length of it helps in some sort as it were to suck it So if any of the files of the army or floud of Atoms sucked from one of the Poles to the Equator do there find any gaps or chinks or lanes of retiring files in the front of the other poles battalia of atomes they will press in there in such mannner as we have above declared that water doth by the help of a label of cotten and as is exemplyfied in all the attractions of venime by venimous bodies wherof we have given many examples above and they will go along with them the course they go For as when a thick short gilded ingot of silver is drawn out into a long subtile wyre the wyre continuing still perfectly guilded all over manifestly shews that the outside and the inside of the ingot strangely meet together and intermix in the drawing out so this little stream which like an Eddy current runs back from the Equator towards its own Pole will continue to the end still tincted with the mixture of the other Poles atoms it was incorporated with at his coming to the Equator Now that some little rivolets of air and atoms should run back to their own Pole contrary to the course of their main stream will be easy enough to conceive if we but consider that at certain times of the year winds blow more violently and strongly from some determinate part or Rombe of the world then they do at other times and from other parts As for example our East India Marriners tell us of the famous Monsones they find in those parts whch are strong winds that reign constantly six moneths of the year from one polewards and the other six moneths from the other pole beginning precisely about the Suns entring into such a sign or degree of the Zodiac and continue til about its entrance into the opposite degree And in our parts of the world certain smart Easterly or Northeasterly winds reign about the end of March and beginning of April when it seems that some snows are melted by the spring heats of the Sun And other winds have their courses in other seasons upon other causes All which evidently convince that the course of the air and vapours from the poles to the Equator cannot be so regular and uniform but that many impediments and crosses light in the way to make breaches in it and therby to force it in some places to an opposite course In such sort as we see happens in eddy waters and in the course of a tide wherin the stream ruÌ„ning swiftly in the middle beats the edges of the water to the shore and therby makes it run back at the shore And hence we may conclude that although the main course of air atoms for example from North to South in our Hemisphere can never fail of going on towards the Equator constantly at the same rate in gross nevertheless in several particular little parts of it and especially at the edges of those streams that are driven on faster then the rest by an extraordinary and accidental violent cause it is variously interrupted and somtimes intirely stop'd and other times even driven back to the Northwards And if peradventure any man should think that this will not fall out because each stream seems to be always coming from his one Pole to the Equator and therfore will oppose and drive back any bodies that with less force should strive to swim against it or if they stick to them will carry them back to the Equator We answer that we must not conceive the whole air in body doth every where equally incroach from the Polewards upon the Torrid Zone but as it were in certain brooks or rivulets according as the contingency of all causes put together makes it fall out Now then out of what we have said it will follow that since all
needle will lie parallel to the axis of the stone And the reason of this is manifest for in that case the two poles being equidistant to the needle they draw it equally and by consequence the needle must remain parallel to the axis of the stone Nor doth it import that the inequality of the two poles of the stone is materially or quantitatively greater then the inequality of the two polles of the needle out of which it may at the first sight seem to follow that the stronger pole of the stone should draw the weaker pole of the needle nearer to it self then the weaker pole of the stone can be able to draw the stronger pole of the needle and by consequence that the needle should not lie parallel to the axis of the stone but incline somwhat to the stronger pole of it For after you have well consider'd the matter you will find that the strength of the pole of the stone cannot work according to its material greatness but is confined to work only according to the susceptibility of the needle which being a slender and thin body cannot receive so much as a thicker body may Wherfore seeing the strongest pole of the stone gives most strength to that pole of the needle which lies furthest from it it may well happen that the superiority of strength in the pole of the needle that is applied to the weaker pole of the stone may counterpoise the excess of the stronger pole of the stone over its opposite weaker pole though not in greatness and quantity yet in respect of the virtue which is communicable to the poles of the needle wherby its comportment to the poles of the stone is determin'd And indeed the needles lying parallel to the axis of the stone when the middle of it sticks to the equator of the stone convinces that upon the whole matter there is no excess in the efficacious working of either of the stone's poles but that their excess over one another in regard of themselvs is ballanced by the needles receiving it But if the needle hapen's to touch the loadstone in some part nearer one pole then the other in this case 't is manifest that the force of the stone is greater on the one side of the needles touch then on the other side because there is a greater quantity of the stone on the one side of the needle then on the other and by consequence the needle will incline that way which the greater force draws it so far forth as the other part doth not hinder it Now we know that if the greater part were divided from the rest and so were an entire Loadstone by it self that is if the Loadstone were cut off where the needle touches it then the needle would joyn it self to the pole that is to the end of that part and by consequence would be tending to it as a thing that is suck'd tends towards the sucker against the motion or force which comes from the lesser part and on the other side the lesser part of the stone which is on the other side of the point which the needle touches must hinder this inclination of the needle according to the proportion of its strength and so it followes that the needle will hang by its end not directly set to the end of the greater part but as much inclining towards it as the lesser part doth not hinder by striving to pull it the other way Out of which we gather the true cause of the needles declination to wit the proportion of working of the two unequal parts of the stone between which it touches and is joyn'd to the stone And we likewise discover their errour who judg that the part which draws iron is the next pole to the iron For 't is rather the contrary pole which attracts or to speak more properly 't is the whole body of the stone as streaming in lines almost parallel to the axis from the furthermost end to the other next the iron and in our case 't is that part of the stone which begins from the contrary pole and reaches to the needle For besides the light which this discourse gave us experience assures us that a Loadstone whose poles lie broadways not long-ways is more imperfect and draws more weakly then if the poles lay longways which would not be if the flâ—ours stream'd from all parts of the stone directly to the pole for then however the stone were cast the whole virtue of it would be in the poles Moreover if a needle were drawn freely upon the same Meridian from one pole to the other as soon as it were pass'd the Equator it would leap suddenly at the very first remove of the Equator where 't is parallel with the axis of the Loadstone from being so parallele to make an angle with the axis greater then a half right one â—o the end that it might look upon the pole which is supposed to be the only attractive that draws the needle which great change wrought all at once nature never causes nor admits but in all actions or motions uses to pass through all the Mediums whenever it goes from one extreme to another Besides there would be no variation of the needles aspect towards the North end of the stone for if every part sent its virtue immediately to the poles it were impossible that any other part whatever should be stronger then the polar part seeing that the polar part has the virtue even of that particular part and of all the other parts of the stone beside joyn'd in it self This therfore is evident that the virtue of the loadstone goes from end to end in parallel lines unless it be in such stones as have their polar parts narrower then the rest of the body of the stone for in them the stream will tend with some little declination towards the pole as it were by way of refraction Because without the stone the fluours from the pole of the earth coarct themselvs and so thicken their stream to croud into the stone as soon as they are sensible of any emanations from it that being as we have said before their readiest way to pass along and with in the stone the stream doth the like to meet the advenient stream where it is strongest and thickest which is at that narrow part of the stones end which is most prominent out And by this discourse we discover likewise another errour of them that imagine the Loadstone hath a sphere of activity round about it equal on all sides that is perfectly spherical if the stone be spherical Which clearly is a mistaken speculation for nature having so order'd all her agents that where the strength is greatest there the action must generally speaking extend it self furthest off and it being acknowledg'd that the Loadstone hath greatest strength in its Poles and least in the Equator it must of necessity follow that it works further by its Poles then
point Dr. Gilbert seems also to have another controversie with all Writers to wit whether any bodies besides Magnetical ones be attractive Which he seems to deny all others to affirm But this also being fairly put will peradventure prove no controversie for the question is either in common of attraction or else in particular of such an attraction as is made by the loadone Of the first part there can be no doubt as we have declared above and is manifest betwixt gold and quicksilver when a man holding Gold in his mouth it draws to it the quicksilver that is in his body But for the attractive to draw a body to it self not wholly but one determinate part of the body drawn to one determinate part of the drawer is an attraction which for my part I cannot exemplifie in any other bodies but Magnetical ones A third question is Whether an iron that stands long unmoved in a window or any other part of a building perpendicularly to the earth contracts a Magnetical virtue of drawing or pointing towards the North in that end which looks downwards For Cabeus who wrote since Gilbert affirms it out of experience but either his experiment or his expression was defective For assuredly if the iron stands so in the Northern Hemisphere it will turn to the North and if in the Southern Hemisphere it will turn to the South for seeing the virtue of the loadstone proceeds from the earth and the earth has different tempers towards the North and toward the South pole as hath been already declared the virtue which comes out of the earth in the Northern Hemisphere will give to the end of the iron next it an inclination to the North pole and the earth of the Southern Hemisphere will yield the contrary disposition to the end which is nearest it The next Question is why a loadstone seems to love iron better then another loadstone The answer is because iron is indifferent in all its parts to receive the impression of a loadstone wheras another loadstone receives it only in a determinate part and therfore a loadstone draws iron more easily then it can another loadstone because it finds repugnance in the parts of another Loadstone unless it be exactly situated in a right position Besides iron seems to be compared to a Loadstone like a more humid body to a dryer of the same nature and the difference of male and female sexes in Animals manifestly shew the great appetence of conjunction between moisture and dryness when they belong to bodies of the same species Another question is that great one Why a Loadstone cap'd with steel takes up more iron then it would do if it were without that caping Another conclusion like this is that if by a Loadstone you take up an iron and by that iron a second iron and then pull away the second iron the first iron in some position will leave the Loadstone to stick to the second iron as long as the second iron is within the sphere of the Loadstones activity but if you remove the second out of that sphere then the first iron remaining within it though the other be out of it will leave the second and leap back to the Loadstone To the same purpose is this other conclusion that The greater the iron is which is entirely within the compass of the Loadstones virtue the more strongly the Loadstone will be moved to it and the more forcibly stick to it The reasons of all these three we must give at once for they hang all upon on string And in my conceit neither Gilbert nor Galileo have hit upon the right As for Gilbert he thinks that in iron there is originally the virtue of the loadstone but that it is as it were asleep till by the touch of the Loadstone it be awaked and set on work and therfore the virtue of bath joyn'd together is greater then the virtue of the Loadstone alone But if this were the reason the virtue of the iron would be greater in every regard and not only in sticking or in taking up wheras himself confesses that a cap'd stone draws no further then a naked stone nor hardly so far Besides it would continue its virtue out of the sphere of activity of the loadstone which it doth not Again seeing that if you compare them severally the virtue of the Loadstone is greater then the virtue of the iron why should not the middle iron stick closer to the stone then to the further iron which must of necessity have less virtue Galileo yeelds the cause of this effect that when an iron touches an iron there are more parts which touch one another then when a Loadstone touches the iron First because the Loadstone hath generally much impurity in it and therfore divers parts of it have no virtue wheras iron by being melted hath all its parts pure and secondly because iron can be smooth'd and polish'd more then a Loadstone can be and therfore its superficies touches in a manner with all its parts whereas divers parts of the stones superficies cannot touch by reason of its ruggedness And he confirms his opinion by experience for if you put the head of a needle to a bare stone and the point of it to an iron and then pluck away the iron the needle will leave the iron and stick to the stone but if you turn the needle the other way it will leave the stone and stick to the iron Out of which he infers that 't is the multitude of parts which causes the closs and strong sticking And it seems he found the same in the caping of his Loadstones for he used flat irons for that purpose which by their whole plane did take up other irons wheras Gilbert cap'd his with convex irons which not applying themselvs to other irons so strongly or with so many ports as Galileo's did would not by much take up so great weights as his Nevertheless it seems not to me that his answer is sufficient or that his reasons convince For we are to consider that the virtue which he puts in the iron must according to his own supposition proceed from the Loadstone and then what imports it whether the superficies of the iron which touches another iron be so exactly plain or no or that the parts of it be more solid then the parts of the stone For all this conduces nothing to make the virtue greater then it was since no more virtue can go from one iron to the other then goes from the Loadstone to the first iron and if this virtue cannot tie the first iron to the Loadstone it cannot proceed out of this virtue that the second iron be tyed to the first Again if a paper be put betwixt the cap and another iron it doth not hinder the magnetical virtue from passing through it to the iron but the virtue of taking up more weight then the naked stone was able to do is therby
render'd quite useless Therfore 't is evident that this virtue must be put in somthing else and not in the application of the magnetical vertue And to examine his reasons particularly it may very well fall out that whatever the cause be the point of a needle may be too little to make an exact experience in and therfore a new doctrine ought not lightly be grounded upon what appears in the application of that And likewise the greatness of the surfaces of the two irons may be a condition helpful to the cause whatever it be for greater and lesser are the common conditions of all bodies and therfore avail all kinds of corporeal causes so that no one cause can be affirm'd more then another meerly out of this that great doth more and little doth less To come then to our own solution I have consider'd how fire hath in a manner the same effect in iron as the virtue of the Loadstone hath by means of the cap for I find that fire coming through iron red-glowing hot will burn more strongly then if it should come immediatly through the air also we see that in Pitcole the fire is stronger then in Charcole And nevertheless the fire will heat further if it come immediately from the source of it then if it come through a red iron that burns more violently where it touches and likewise charcoal will heat further then pitcoal that near hand burns more fiercely In the same manner the Loadstone will draw further without a cap then with one but with a cap it sticks faster then without one Whence I see that it is not purely the virtue of the Loadstone but the virtue of it being in iron which causes this effect Now this modification may proceed either from the multitude of parts which come out of the Loadstone and are as it were stop'd in the iron so the sphere of their activity becomes shorter but stronger or else from some quality of the iron joyn'd to the influence of the loadstone The first seems not to give a good account of the effect for why should a little paper take it away seeing we are sure that it stops not the passage of the loadstones influence Again the influence of the Loadstone seems in its motion to be of the nature of light which goes in an insensible time as far as it can reach and therfore were it multiply'd in the iron it would reach further then without it and from it the virtue of the Loadstone would begin a new sphere of activity Therfore we more willingly cleave to the latter part of our determination And therupon enquiring what quality there is in iron whence this effect may follow we find that it is distinguish'd from a loadstone as a metal is from a stone Now we know that metals have generally more humidity than stones and we have discours'd above that humidity is the cause of sticking especially when it is little and dense These qualities must needs be in iron which of all metals is the most terrestrial and such humidity as is able to stick to the influence of the loadstone as it passes through the body of the iron must be exceeding subtile and small And it seems necessary that such humidity should stâ—k to the influence of the loadstone when it meets with it coâ—sidering that the influence is of it self dry and that the nature of iron is a kin to the loadstone wherfore the humidity of the one the drought of the other will not fail of incorporating together Now then if two irons well polish'd and plain be united by such a glew as results ouâ— of this composition there is a manifest appearance of much reason for them to stick strongly together This is confirm'd by the nature of iron in very cold Countreys and very cold weather for the very humidity of the air in times of frost will make upon iron sooner then upon other things such a sticking glew as will pull off the skin of a mans hand that touches it hard And by this discourse you will perceive that Galileo's arguments confirm our opinion as well as his own and that according to our doctrine all circumstances must fall out just as they do in his experiences And the reason is clear why the interposition of another body hinders the strong sticking of iron to the cap of the loadstone for it makes the mediation between them greater which we have shew'd to be the general reason why things are easily parted Let us then proceed to the resolution of the other cases proposed The second is already resolv'd for if this glew be made of the influence of the loadstone it cannot have force further then the loadstone it self has and so far it must have more force then the bare influence of the loadstone Or rather the humidity of two irons makes the glew of a fitter temper to hold then that which is between a dry loadstone and iron and the glew enters better when both sides are moist then when only one is so But this resolution though it be in part good yet doth not evacuate the whole difficulty since the same case happens between a stronger and a weaker Loadstone as between a Loadstone and iron for the weaker Loadstone while it is within the sphere of activity of the greater Loadstone draws away an iron set betwixt them as well as a second iron doth For the reason therfore of the little Loadstones drawing away the iron we may consider that the greater Loadstone hath two effects upon the iron betwixt it and a lesser Loadstone and a third effect upon the little loadstone it self The first is that it impregnates the iron and gives it a permanent vertue by which it works like a weak Loadstone The second is that as it makes the iron work towards the lesser Loadstone by its permanent virtue so also it accompanies the steam that goes from the iron towards the little Loadstone with its own steam which goes the same way so that both these steams in company climb up the steam of the little Loadstone which meets them and that steam climbs up the enlarged one of both theirs together The third effect which the greater Loadstone works is that it makes the steam of the little loadstone become stronger by augmenting its innate virtue in some degree Now then the going of the iron to either of the Loadstones must follow the greater and quicker conjunction of the two meeting steams and not the greatness of one alone So that if the conjunction of the two steams between the iron and the little Loadstone be greater quicker then the conjunction of the two steams which meet betwixt the greater Loadstone and the iron the iron must stick to the lesser Loadstone And this must happen more often then otherwise for the steam which goes from the iron to the greater Loadstone will for the most part be less then the steam which goes from the lesser Loadstone
through the nose of the Limbeck and falls into the receiver So that if we will say that a Plant lives or that the whole moves it self and every part moves another 't is to be understood in afar more imperfect manner then when we seak of an Animal and the same words are attributed to both in a kind of equivocal sense But by the way I must note that under the title of Plants I include not Zoophytes or Plant Animals that is such creatures as though they go not from place to place and so cause a local motion of their whole substance yet in their parts they have a distinct and articulate motion But to leave comparisons and come to the proper nature of the things Let us frame a conception that not far under the superficies of the earth there were gather'd together divers parts of little mixed bodies which in the whole sum were yet but little and that this little mass had some excess of fire in it such as we see in wet Hay or in muste of wine or in woort of beer and that withal the drought of it were in so high a degree as this heat should not find means being too much compressed to play his game and that lying there in the bosome of the earth it should after some little time receive its expected and desired drink through the benevolence of the heaven by which it being moistned and therby made more pliable and tender and easie to be wrought upon the little parts of fire should break loose and finding this moisture a fit subject to work upon should drive it into all the parts of the little mass and digesting there should make the mass swel Which action taking up long time for its performance in respect of the small increase of bulk made in the mass by the swelling of it could not be hindred by the pressing of the earth though lying never so weightily upon it according to the maxime we have above deliver'd that any little force be it never so little 't is able to overcome any great resistance be it never so powerful if the force multiply the time it works in sufficiently to equalize the proportions of the agent and the resistant This increase of bulk and swelling of the lettle mass will of its own nature be towards all sides by reason of the fire heat that occasions it whose motion is on every side from the centre to the circuÌ„ference but it wil be most efficacious upwards towards the air because the resistance is least that way both by reason of the little thickness of the earth over it as also by reason that the uper part of the earth lies very loose and is exceeding porous through the continual operation of â—e Sun and falling of rain upon it It cannot choose therfore but mount to the air and the same cause that makes it do so presses at the same time the lower parts of the mass downwards But what ascends to the air must be of the hotter and more moist parts of the fermenting mass and what goes downwards must be of his harder and drier parts proportionate to the contrary motions of fire and earth which predominate in these two kinds of parts Now this that is push'd upwards comcoming above ground and being there exposed to Sun and wind contracts thereby a hard and rough skin on its outside but within is more tender in this sort it defends it self from outward injuries of weather whiles it mounts and by thrusting other parts down into the earth it holds it self steadfast that although the wind may shake it yet it cannot overthrow it The greater this Plant grows the more juice daily accrews to it and the heat is encreased and consequently the greater abundance of humours is continually sent up Which when it begins to clog at the top new humours pressing upwards forces a breach in the skin and so a new piece like the main stem is thrust out and begins on the sides which we call a Branch Thus is our Plant amplified till nature not being able still to breed such strong issues falls to works of less labour and pushes forth the most elaborate part of the plants juice into more tender substances but especially at the ends of the branches where abundant humour but at the first not well concocted grows into the shape of a Button and more and better concocted humour succeeding it grows softer and softer the Sun drawing the subtilest parts outwards excepting what the coldness of the air and the roughness of the wind harden into an outward skin So then the next parts to the skin are tender but the very middle of this button must be hard and dry by reason that the Sun from without and the natural heat within drawing and driving out the moysture and extending it from the center must needs leave the more earthy parts much shrunk up hardned by their evaporating out from them which hardning being an effect of fire within and without that bakes this hard substance incorporates much of it self with it as we have formerly declared in the making of salt by force of fire This button thus dilated and brought to this pass we call the Fruit of the Plant whose harder part encloses oftentimes another not so hard as dry The reason whereof is because the outward hardness permits no moisture to soake in any abundance through it and then that which is enclosed in it must needs be much dried though not so much but that it still retains the common nature of the plant This drought makes these inner parts to be like a kind of dust or at least such as may be easily dried into dust when they are bruised out of the husk that incloses them And in every parcel of this dust the nature of the whole resides as it were contracted into a small quantity For the juice which was first in the button and had passed from the root through the manifold varieties of the divers parts of the plant and suffer'd much concoction partly from the Sun and partly from the inward heat imprison'd in that harder part of the fruit is by these passages strainings and concoctions become at length to be like a tincture extracted out of the whole plant and and is at last dried up into a kind of magistery This we call the Seed which is of a fit nature by being buried in the earth and dissolv'd with humour to renew and reciprocate the operation we have thus described And thus you have the formation of a Plant. But a Sensitive Creature being compared to a Plant as a plant is to mixed body you cannot but conceive that he must be compounded as it were of many plants in like sort as a plant is of many mixed bodies But so that all the Plants which concur to make one Animal are of one kind of nature and cognation and besides the matter of which such diversity is to be made must
not impossible for us to do by reason that Authors have not left us the circumstances upon which we might groūd our judgment concerning them so particularly described as were necessary nor our selves have met with the commodity of making such experiences and of searching so into their beds as were requisite to determine solidly the reasons of them And indeed I conceive that oftentimes the relations which others have recorded of their generation would rather mislead then assist us since it is very familiar in many men to magnifie the exactness of Nature in framing effects by phansie to themselvs when to make their Wonder appear more just they will not fail to set off their story with all advantageous circumstances and help out what wants a little or comes but near the mark But to come closer to our purpose that is to the figures of living things We see that the roots in the earth are all of them figured almost in the same fashion for the heat residing in the midd'st of them pushes every way and therupon some of them become round but others more long then round according to the temper of the ground or the season of the year or the weather that happens and this not onely in divers kinds of Roots but even in several of the same kind That part of the plant which mounts upwards for the most part round and long the cause wherof is evident For the juice which is in the middle of it working upwards because the hardness of the bark will not let it out at the sides and coming in more and more abundance for the reasons we have above deliver'd encreases that part equally every way but upwards and therfore it must be equally thick and broad and consequently round but the length will exceed either of the other dimensions because the juice is driven up with a greater force and in more quantity then it is to the sides Yet the broadness and thickness are not so exactly uniform but that they exceed a little more at the bottom then at the top which is occasion'd partly by the contracting of juice into a narrower circuit the further it is from the source and partly by reason of the Branches which shooting forth convey away a great part of the Juice from the main stock Now if we consider the matter well we shall find that what is done in the whole tree the very same is likewise done in every little leaf of it For a leaf consists of little branches shooting out from one greater branch which is in the middle and again other less branches are derived from those second branches and so still lesser and lesser till they weave themselvs into a close work as thick as that which we see women use to fill up with Silk or Crewel when in Tentwork they embroyder leafs or flowers upon Canvas And this again is cover'd and as it were glew'd over by the humour which sticking to these little thrids stops up every little vacuity and by the air is hardened into such a skin as we see a leaf consists of And thus it appears how an account may be given of the figure of the leafs as well as of the figure of the main body of the whole tree the little branches of the leaf being proportionate in figure to the branches of the tree itself so that each leaf seems to be the Tree in little and the figure of the leaf depending of the course of these little branches so that if the greatest branch of the Tree be much longer then the others the leaf will be a long one but if the lesser branches spread broad-ways the leaf will likewise be a broad one so far as even to be notch'd at the outsides round about it in great or little notches according to the proportion of the Trees Branches These Leafs when they first break out are foulded inwards in such sort as the smalness and roundness of the passage in the wood through which they issue constrains them to be where nevertheless the driness of their parts keep them asunder as that one leaf doth not incorporate it self with another But so soon as they feel the heat of the Sun after they are broken out into liberty their tender branches by little and little grow more straight the concave parts of them drawing more towards the Sun because he extracts and sucks their moysture from their hinder parts into their former that are more exposed to his beams and thereby the hinder parts are contracted and grow shorter and those before grow longer Which if it be in excess makes the leaf become crooked the contrary way as we see in divers flowers and in sundry leaves during the Summers heat witness the Ivie Roses full blown Tulips and all flowers in form of Bells and indeed all kinds of flowers whatever when the Sun hath wrought upon them to that degree we speak of and that their joyning to their stalk and the next parts thereto allow them scope to obey the impulse of those outward causes And when any do vary from this rule we shall as plainly see other manifest causes producing those different effects as now we do those working in this manner As for Fruits though we see that when they grow at liberty upon the Tree they seem to have a particular figure allotted them by nature yet in truth it is the order'd series of natural causes and not an intrinsecal formative virtue which breeds this effect as is evident by the great power which art hath to change their figures at pleasure wherof you may see examples enough in Campanella and every curious Gardener can furnish you with store Out of these and such like principles a man that would make it his study with less trouble of tediousness then that patient contemplator of one of natures little works the Bees whom we mention'd a while agone might without all doubt trace the causes in the growing of an Embryon till he discover'd the reason of every bones figure of every notable hole or passage in them of the Ligaments by which they are tied together of the membranes that cover them and of all the other parts of the body How out of a first Masse that was soft and had no such parts distinguishable in it every one of them came to be formed by contracting that Masse in one place by dilating it in another by moistning it in a third by drying it here hard'ning it there Ut his exordia primis Omnia ipse tener hominis concreverit orbis till in the end this admirable machine and frame of mans body was composed and fashioned up by such little and almost insensible steps and degres Which when it is look'd upon in bulk and entirely-formed seems impossible to have been made and sprung merely out of these principles without an Intelligence immediately working and moulding it at every turn from the beginning to the end But withall we cannot chuse but break
to the sides of the ventricles and consequently new bloud drops in So that in conclusion we see the motion of the heart depends originally of its fibers irrigated by the blood and not from the force of the vapour as Monsieur des Cartes supposes This motion of the heart drives the blood which is warm'd and spiritualiz'd by being boyl'd in this furnace through due passages into the arteries whence it runs into the veins and is a main cause of making and nourishing other parts as the Liver the Lungs the Brains and whatsoever else depends of those veins and arteries through which the bloud goes Which being ever freshly heated and receiving the tincture of the hearts nature by passing through the heart wherever it stayes and curdles it grows into a substance of a nature conformable to the heart though every one of such substances be of exceeding different conditions in themselves the very grossest excrements not being excluded from some participation of that nature But if you desire to follow the blood all along every step in its progress from the heart round about the body till it return back again to its center Dr. Harvey who most acutely teaches this doctrine must be your guide He will shew you how it issues from the heart by the Arteries from whence it goes on warming the flesh til it arrive to some of the extremities of the body and against it is grown so cool by long absence from the fountain of its heart and by evaporating its own stock of spirits without any new supply that it hath need of being warmed anew it findes it self return'd back again to the Heart and is there heated again which return is made by the Veins as its going forwards is perform'd only by the Arteries And were it not for this continual circulation of the blood and this new heating it in its proper caldron the Heart it could not be avoided but that the extreme parts of the body would soon grow cold and die For flesh being of it self of a cold nature as is apparent in dead flesh and being kept warm meerly by the blood that bedews it and the bloud likewise being of a nature that soon grows cold and congeals unless it be preserv'd in due temper by actual heat working upon it how can we imagine that they two singly without any other assistance should keep one another warm especially in those parts that are far distant from the heart by only being together Surely we must allow the blood which is a substance fit for motion to have recourse back to the heart where only it can be supply'd with new heat and spirits and from thence be driven out again by its pulses or strokes which are its shuttings And as fast as it flies out like a reeking thick steam which rises from perfumed water falling upon a heated pan that which is next before it must flie yet further on to make way for it and newt arterial blood stil issuing forth at every pulse it must still drive on what issued thence the last precedent pulse and that part must press on what is next before it And thus it fares with the whole mass of blood which having no other course but in the body must at length run round and by new vessels which are the veins return back to the place from whence it issued first and by that time it comes thither it is grown cool and thick needs a vigorous restauration of spirits and a new rarifying that then it may warm the flesh it passes again through without which it would suddenly grow stone cold As is manifest if by tying or cutting the arteries you intercept the blood which is to nourish any part for then that part grows presently cold and benum'd But referring the particulars of this doctrine to Dr. Harvey who hath both invented and perfected it our task in hand calls upon us to declare in common the residue of motions that all Living Creatures agree in How Generation is perform'd we have determin'd in the past discourse Our next consideration then ought to be of Nutrition and Augmentation Between which there is very little difference in the nature of their actions and the difference of their names is grounded more upon the different result in the period of them then upon the thing it self as will by and by appear Thus then is the progress of this matter As soon as a living creature is formed it endeavours straight to augment it self and employs it self only about that the parts of it being yet too young and tender to perform the other functions which nature hath produced them for That is to say the Living Creature at its first production is in such a state and condition that it is able to do nothing else but by means of the great heat in it to turn into its own substance the abundance of moysture that overflows it They who are curious in this matter tell us that the performance of this work consists in five actions which they call Attraction Adhesion Concoction Assimulation and Unition The nature of Atraction we have already declared when we explicated how the heart and the root sends juice into the other parts of the Animal or Plant for they abounding in themselves with inward heat and besides that much other circumstant heat working likewise upon them it cannot be otherwise but that they must needs suck and draw into them the moisture that is about them As for Adhesion the nature of that is likewise explicated when we shew'd how such parts as are moist but especially aerial or oily ones such as are made by the operation of a soft and continual heat are catching and easily stick to any body they happen to touch and how a little part of moysture between two dry parts joyns them together Upon which occasion it is to be noted that parts of the same kind joyn best together and therfore the powder of glass is used to ciment broken glass withal as we have touch'd somwhere above and the powder of marble to ciment marble with and so of other bodies In like manner Alchimists find no better expedient to extract a small proportion of silver mixed with a great one of gold then to put more silver to it nor any more effectual way to get out the heart or tincture or spirits of any thing they distil or make an extract of then to infuse its own flegme upon it and to water it with that Now whether the reason of this be that continuity because it is an unity must be firmest between parts that are most conformable to one another and consequently nearest one among themselves or whether it be for some other hidden cause belongs not to this place to discourse but in fine so it is And the adhesion is strongest of such parts as are most conformable to that which needs encrease and nourishment and that is made up by the other three actions Of which
evident that white which is the chiefest colour reflects most light and as evident that black reflects least light so that it reflects shadows in lieu of colours as the Obsidian stone among the Romanes witness as also that to be dense and hard and of small parts is the disposition of the object which is most apt to reflect light we cannot 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 parts and on the contrary side black is the disposition of the superficies which is most soft and full of greatest pores for when light meets with such a superficies it gets easily into it and is there as it were absorpt and hidden in caves and comes not out again to reflect towards our eye This doctrine of ours of the Generation of Colours agrees exactly with Aristotles principles and follows evidently out of his definitions of Light and of Colours And for suming up the general sentiments of mankinde in making his Logical definitions I think none will deny his being the greatest Master that ever was He defines Light to be actus Diaphani which we may thus explicate It is that thing which makes a body that hath an aptitude or capacity of being seen quite through in every interior part of it to be actually seen quite through according to that capacity of it And he defines Colours to be The term or ending of a diaphanous body the meaning wherof is That Colour is a thing which makes a diaphanous body reach no further or the cause why a body is no further diaphanous then till where it begins 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 fits most exactly with the thing it gives us the nature of For 't is evident that when we see a body the body we see hinders us from seeing any other that is in a straight line beyond it and therfore it cannot be denied but that Colour terminates and ends the diaphaneity of a body by making it self be seen And all men agree in conceiving this to be the nature of Colour and that it is a certain disposition of a body wherby that body comes to be seen On the other side nothing is more evident then that to have us see a body light must reach from that body to our eye Then adding to this what Aristotle teaches concerning the producton of seeing which he sayes is made by the action of the seen body upon our sense it follows that the object must work upon our sense either by light or at least with light for light rebounding from the object round about by straight lines some part of it must needs come fom the object to our eye Therfore by how much an object sends more light to our eye by so much that object works more upon it Now seeing that divers objects send light in divers manners to our eye according to the divers natures of those objects in regard of hardness density and littleness of parts we must agree that such bodies work diversly and make different motions or impressions upon our eye and consequently the passion of our eye from such objects must be divers But there is no other diversity of passion in the eye from the object in regard of seeing but that the object appear divers to us in point of Colour Therfore we must conclude That divers bodies I mean divers or different in that kind we hear talk of must necessarily seem to be of divers colours meerly by the sending of light to our eye in divers fashions Nay the very same object must appear of different colours whenever it happens that it reflects light differently to us As we see in Cloth if it be gather'd together in foulds the bottoms of those foulds shew to be of one kind of colour and the tops of them or where the cloth is stretch'd out to the full percussion of light appears to be of another much brighter colour And accordingly Painters are fain to use almost opposite colours to express them In like manner if you look upon two pieces of the same cloth or plush whose grains lie contrariwise to one another they will likewise appear to be of different colours Both which accidents and many other like them in begetting various representations of Colours arise out of lights being more or less reflected from one part then from another Thus then you see how Colour is nothing else but the disposition of the bodies superficies as it is more or less apt to reflect light since the reflection of light is made from the superficies of the seen body and the variety of its reflection begets variety of colours But a superficies is more or less apt to reflect light according to the degrees of its being more or less penetrable by the force of light striking upon it For the rays of light that gain no entrance into a body they are darted upon must of necessity fly back again from it But if light gets entrance and penetrates into the body it either passes quite through it or else it is swallow'd up and lost in that body The former constitutes a diaphanous body as we have already determin'd and the semblance which the latter will have in regard of colour we have also shew'd must be black But let us proceed a little further We know that two things render a body penetrable or easie to admit another body into it Holes such as we call pores and softness or humidity so that driness hardness and compactedness must be proproperties which render a body impenetrable And accordingly we see that if a diaphanous body which suffers light to run through it be much compress'd beyond what it was as when water is compress'd into ice it becomes more visible that is reflects more light and consequently it becomes more white for white is that which reflects more light On the contrary side softness unctuousness and viscousness encreases blackness As you may experience in oyling or greasing of Wood which before was but brown for therby it becomes more black by reason that the unctuous parts added to the other more easily then they single admit into them the light that sticks upon them and when it is gotten in it is so entangled there as though the wings of it were bird-limed over that it cannot flie out again And thus it is evident how the origine of all colours in bodies is plainly deduced out of the various degrees of rarity and density variously mixed and compounded Likewise out of this discourse the reason is obvious why some bodies are diaphanous and others are opacous for since it falls out in the constitution of bodies that one is composed of greater parts then another it must needs happen that light be more hindred in passing through a body composed of bigger
end a red will now appear where in the former case a blew appear'd This case we have chosen as the plainest to shew the nature of such colours out of which he that is curious may derive his knowledge to other cases which we omit because our intent is only to give a general doctrine and and not the particulars of the Science and rather to take away admiration than to instruct the Reader in this matter As for the various colours which are made by straining light through a glass or through some other Diaphanous body to discover the causes and variety of them we must examine what things they are that concur to the making of them and what accidents may arrive to those things to vary their product 'T is clear that nothing intervenes or concurs to the producing of any of these colours besides the light it self which is dyed into colour and the glass or Diaphanous body through which it passes In them therfore and in nothing else we are to make our enquiry To begin then we may observe that light passing through a Prism and being cast upon a reflecting object is not alwayes colour but in some circumstances it still continues light and in others it becomes colour Withal we may observe that those beams which continue light and endure very little mutation by their passage making as many refractions make much greater deflexions from the straight lines by which they came into the glass then those Rays do which turn to colour As you may experience if you oppose one surface of the Glass Perpendicularly to a Candle and set a Paper not irradiated by the Candle opposite to one of the other sides of the Glass for upon the paper you shall see fair light shine without any colour and you may perceive that the line by which the light comes to the Paper is almost Perpendicular to that line by which the light comes to the Prism But when light becomes colour it strikes very obliquely upon one side of the glass and comes likewise very obliquely out of the other that sends it in colour upon a reflectent body so that in conclusion there is nothing left us whereon to ground the generation of such colours besides the littleness of the angle and the sloapingness of the line by which the illuminant strikes one side of the Glass and comes out at the other when colours proceed from such a percussion To this then we must wholly apply our selves and knowing that generally when light falls upon a body with so great a sloaping or inclination so much of it as gets through must needs be weak and much diffused it follows that the reason of such colours must necessarily consist in this diffusion and weakness of light which the more it is diffused the weaker it grows and the more lines of darkness are between the lines of light and mingle themselvs with them To confirm this you may observe how just at the egress from the Prism of that light which going on a little further becomes colours no colour at all appears upon a paper opposed close to the side of the Glass till removing it farther off the colours begin to shew themselvs upon the edges therby convincing manifestly that it was the excess of light which hindred them from appearing at the first And in like manner if you put a burning glass between the light and the Prism so as to multiply the light which goes through the Prism to the paper you destroy much of the colour by converting it into light But on the otherside if you thicken the air and make it dusky with smoak or dust you will plainly see that where the light comes through a convex glass perpendicularly opposed to the illuminant there will appear colours on the edges of the cones that the light makes And peradventure the whole cones would appear colour'd if the darkning were conveniently made for if an opacous body be set within either of the cones its sides will appear colour'd though the air be but moderately thickned which shews that the addition of a little darkness would make that which otherwise appears pure light be throughly dyed into Colours And thus you have the true and adequate cause of the appearance of such colours Now to understand what colours and upon which sides will appear we may consider that When light passes through a glass or other Diaphanous body so much of it as shines in the air or upon some reflecting body bigger then it self after its passage through the glass must of necessity have darkness on both sides of it and so be comprised and limited by two darknesses but if some opacous body less then the light be put in the way of the light then it may happen contrariwise that there be darkness or the shadow of that opacous body between two lights Again we must consider that when light falls so upon a Prism as to make colours the two outward Rays which proceed from the light to the two sides of the superficies at which the light enters are so refracted that at their coming out again through the other superficies that Ray which made the less angle with the outward superficies of the glass going in makes the greater angle with the outside of the other superficies coming out and contrariwise that Ray which made the greater angle going in makes the lesser at its coming out and the two internal angles made by those two Rays and the outside of the superficies they issue at are greater then two right angles And so we see that the light dilates it self at its coming out Now because Rays that issue through a superficies the nearer they are to be perpendiculars to that superficies so much the thicker they are it follows that this dilation of light at its coming out of the glass must be made and encrease from that side where the angle was least at the going in and greatest at the coming out so that the nearer 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 nearer it is to the side where the angle at the rays coming out is the greater Wherfore the strongest light that is the place where the light is least mixed with darkness must be nearer that side than the other Consequently hereto if by an opacous body you make a shadow comprehended within this light that shadow must also have its strongest part nearer to one of the lights betwixt which it is comprised then to the other for shadow being nothing else but the want of light hindred by some opacous body it must of necessity lie aversed from the illuminant just as the light would have lain if it had not been hindred Wherfore seeing that the stronger side of light more impeaches the darkness then the feebler side doth the deepest dark must incline to that side where the light is weakest that is
towards that side on which the shadow appears in respect of the opacous body or of the illuminant and so be a cause of deepness of Colour on that side if it happen to be fringed with colour CHAP. XXXI The causes of certain appearances in luminous Colours with a Conclusion of the discourse touching the Senses and the Sensible Qualities OUt of these grounds we are to seek the resolution of all such Symptoms as appear to us in this kind of colours First therfore calling to mind how we have already declared that the red colour is made by a greater proportion of light mingled with darkness and the blew with a less proportion it must follow that when light passes through a glass in such sort as to make colours the mixture of the light and darkness on that side where the light is strongest will encline to a red and their mixture on the otherside where the light is weakest will make a violet or blew And this we see fall out accordingly in the light which is tincted by going through a Prism for a red colour appears on that side from which the light dilates or encreases and a blew is on that side towards which it decreases Now if a dark body be placed within this light so as to have the light come on both sides of it we shall see the contrary happen about the borders of the picture or shadow of the dark body that is to say the red colour will be on that side of the picture which is towards or over against the blew colour made by the glass and the blew of the picture will be on that side which is towards the red made by the glass as you may experience if you place a slender opacous body along the Prism in the way of the light either before or behind the Prism The reason wherof is that the opacous body standing in the middle environ'd by light divides it and makes two lights of that which was but one each of which lights is comprised between two darknesses to wit between each border of Shadow that joyns to each extreme of the light that comes from the glass and each side of the Opacous bodies shadow Wherfore in each of these lights or rather in each of their comixtions with darkness there must be red on the one side and blew on the other according to the course of light which we have explicated And thus it falls out agreeable to the Rule we have given that blew comes to be on that side of the opacous bodies shadow on which the glass casts red and red on that side of it on which the glass casts blew Likewise when light going through a convex glass makes two cones the edges of the cone betwixt the glass the point of concourse will appear red if the room be dark enough and the edges of the further cone will appear blew both for the reason given For in this case the point of concourse is the strong light betwixt the two cones of which that betwixt the glass 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 these two cones both the sides of its picture will be red if it be held in the first cone which is next to the glass 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 own cone there is nothing to vary the colours but only the strength and weakness of the two lights of the cones on this that side the point of the concourse which point being in this case the strong and clear light wherof we made general mention in our precedent note the cone towards the glass and the illuminant is the stronger side and the cone from the glass is the weaker In those cases where this reason is not concern'd 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 appear on that side of the opacous bodies shadow that is furthest from the illuminant But where both causes concur and contest for precedence there the course of the light carries 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 otherside where the shadow is not so strong although the shadow be cast that way that the red appears as is to be seen when a slender body is placed betwixt the Prism and the reflectant body upon which the light colours are cast through the Prism And 't is evident that this cause of the course of the shadow is in it self a weaker cause than the other of the course of light and must give way to it whenever they incounter as it cannot be expected but that in all circumstances shadows should be light because the colours which the glass casts in this case are much more faint and dusky than in the other For effects of this latter cause we see that when an opacous body lyes cross the Prism whiles it stands end-ways the red or blew colour will appear on the upper or lower side of its picture according as the illuminant is higher or lower then the transverse opacous body the blew ever 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 either of the cones we have explicated before the blew will appear on that side of the picture which is furthest advanced 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 appear 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 next the axis but if it be placed on one side of the axis in the second cone then the blew will appear on that side the picture is next the circumference and the red on that side which is next the center of the basis of the cone There remains yet one difficulty of moment to be determined which is Why when through a glass two colours namely blew and red are cast from a Candle upon a paper or wall if you put your eye in the place of one of the colours that shines upon the wall and so that colour comes to shine upon your eye so that another man who looks upon it will see thot colour plainly upon your eye nevertheless you shall see the other colour in the glass as for example if on your eye there shines a red you shall see a blew in the glass and if a blew shines upon your eye you shall see a
of extancies as our modern Astronomers shew when they give an account of theface as some call it in the Orbe of the Moon Likewise in regard of soft or of resistent parts light will be reflected by them more or less strongly that is more or less mingled with darkness For whereas it rebounds smartly back if it strikes not upon a hard and a resistent body and accordingly will shew it self in a bright colour it must of necessity not reflect at all or but very feebly if it penetrates into a body of much humidity or loses it self in the pores of it and that little which comes so weakly from it must consequently appear of a duskie die 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 real colour appears it may easily be determined from which of these it proceeds and then by the colour you may judge of the composition and mixture of the rare and dense parts which by reflecting light begets it In fine out of all we have hitherto said in this Chapter we may conclude the Primary intent of our so long discourse which is That the Senses of Living Creatures and the Sensible Qualities in Bodies are made by the Mixtion of Rarity and Density as well as the Natural Qualities we spoke of in their place For it cannot be denied but that heat and cold and the other couples or pairs which beat upon our Touch are the very same as we see in other bodies the qualities which move our Taste and Smel are manifestly a kin and joyn'd with them Light we have concluded to be Fire and of Motion which affects our ear ther 's no dispute so that it is evident how all sensible quaqualities are as truly bodies as those other Qualities which we call natural To this we may add that the Properties of these sensible qualities are such as proceed evidently from Rarity and Density For to omit those which our Touch takes notice of as too plain to be question'd Physitians judg and determine the natural qualities of meat and medicines and simples by their Tastes and Smels By those qualities they find out powers in them to do material operations and such as our instruments of cutting filling brushing and the like do to ruder and grosser bodies all which vertues being in these instruments by the different tempers of Rarity and Density is a convincing argument that it must be the same causes which produce effects of the same kind in their smel and tastes And and as for light 't is known how corporeally it works upon our eyes Again if we look particularly into the composition of the organs of our Senses we shall meet with nothing but such qualities as we find in the composition of all other natural bodies If we search into our Eye we shall discover in it nothing but diaphanety softness divers colours and consistencies which all Anatomists to explicate parallel in other bodies the like is of our Tongue our Nostrils and our Ears As for our Touch that is so material a sense and so diffused over the whole body as we can have no difficulty about it Seeing then that all the qualities we can discover in the organs of our Senses are made by the various minglings of Rarity with Density how can we doubt but that the active powers over these patients must be of the same nature and kind Again seeing that examples above brought convince That the objects of one sense may be known by another who can doubt of a community among them if not of degree at least of the whole kind as we see that the Touch is the groundwork of all the rest and consequently that being evidently corporeal and consisting in a temper of Rarity Density why should we make difficulty in allowing the like of the rest Besides let us compose of Rarity and Density such tempers as we find in our Senses and let us again compose of Rarity and Density such actors as we have determined the qualities we call sensible to be and will it not manifesty follow that these two applyed to one another must produce such effects as we affirm our Senses have that is to pass the outward objects by different degrees to an inward receiver Again let us cast our eyes upon the natural resolution of bodies and how they move us and we shall therby discover both what the Senses are and why they are just so many and that they cannot be more For an outward body may move us either in its own bulk or quantity or as it works upon another The first is done by the Touch the second by the Ear when a body moving the air makes us take notice of his motion Now in resolution there are three active parts proceeding from a body which have power to move us the fiery part which you sees works upon your eyes by the virtue of light the airy part which we know moves our nostrils by being suck'd in with the air And lastly the salt which dissolves in water and so moves our watry sense which is our taste And these being all the active parts that shew themselvs in the resolution of a body how can we imagine there should be any more senses to be wrought upon For what the stable body shews of it self will be reduced to the touch what as it moves to hearing what the resolutions of it according to the natures of the resolved atomes that fly abroad will concern the other three senses as we have declared And more ways of working or of active parts we cannot conceive to spring out of the nature of a body Finally if we cast our eyes upon the intention of nature to what purpose are our Senses but to bring us into knowledge of the natures of the substances we converse withall Surely to effect this there cannot be invented a better or more reasonable expedient then to bring to our judgment seat the likenesses or extracts of those substances in so delicate a model that they may not be offensive or cumbersom like so many patterns presented to us to know by them what the whole piece is For all similitude is a communication between two things in that quality wherin their likeness consists And therfore we cannot doubt but that nature hath given us by the means whe have explicated an essay to all things in the world that fall under our commerce wherby we judge whether they be profitable or nocive to us and yet in so delicate and subtile a quantity as may in no way be offensive to us whiles we take our measures to attract what is good and avoid what is noxious CHAP. XXXII Of Sensation or the motion wherby Sense is properly exercised OUt of the considerations which we have delivered in these last Chapters the Reader may gather the unreasonablenesse of vulgar Philosophers who to explicate life and sense are
disposition for a body that is to be the porter of any simple motion which should always lie watching in great quietness to observe scrupulously and exactly the errand he is to carry So that for my part I cannot conceive nature intended any such effect by mediation of the sinews But Monsir des Cartes endeavours to confirm his opinion by what uses to fall out in Palsies when a man looses the strength of moving his hands or other members nevertheless retains his feeling which he imputes to the remaining intire of the strings of the nerves while the spirits are some way defective To this we may answer by producing examples of the contrary in some men who have had the motion of their limbs intire and no ways prejudiced but no feeling at all quite over their whole case of skin and flesh As particularly a servant in the Colledge of Physitians in London whom the learned Harvey one of his Masters hath told me was exceeding strong to labour and very able to carry any necessary burthen and to remove things dexterously according to the occasion and yet he was so void of feeling that he used to grind his hands against the walls and against course lumber when he was employ'd to rummage any in so much that they would run with blood through grating of the skin without his feeling of what occasion'd it In our way the reason of both these conditions of people the paralytike and the insensible is easie to be rendred For they proceed out of the diverse disposition of the animal spirits in these parts which if they thicken too much and become very gross are not capable of transmitting the subtile messengers of the outward world to the tribunal of the brain to judge of them on the otherside if they be too subtile they neither have nor give power to swell the skin and so to draw the muscles to their heads And surely Monsir des Cartes takes the wrong way in the reason he gives of the Palsie for it proceeds out of abundance of humors which clogging the nerves rendreth them washy and makes them lose their dryness and become lither and consequently unfit and unable in his opinion for sensation which requires stiffness as well as for motion Yet besides all these one difficulty more remains against this doctrine more insuperable if I mistake not then any thing or altogether we have yet said which is how the memory should conserve any thing in it and represent bodies to us when our fancy calleth for them if nothing but motions come into the brain For 't is impossible that in so divisible a subject as the Spirits motion should be conserv'd any long time as we see evidently in the air through which move a flaming Taper never so swiftly and as soon as you set it down almost in the very instant the flame of it leaves being driven or shaken on one side and goes quietly and evenly up its ordinary course Therby shewing that the motion of the air which for the time was violent is all of a sudden quieted and at rest for otherwise the flame of the Taper would blaze that way the Air were moved Assuredly the bodies that have power to conserve motion long must be dry and hard ones Nor yet can such conserve it very long after the cause which made it ceases from its operation How then can we imagine that such a multitude of pure motions as the memory must be stored withal for the use and service of man can be kept on foot in his brain without confusion and for so long a time as his memory is able to extend to Consider a lesson plaid upon the Lute or Virginals and think with your self what power there is or can be in nature to conserve this lesson-over continually playing and reflect that if the impressions upon the common fense are nothing else but such things then they must be actually conserved always actually moving in our head to the end they be immediately produced whenever it pleases our will to call them And if peradventure it should be replyed that 't is not necessary the motions themselvs should always be conserved in actual being but 't is sufficient there be certain causes kept on foot in our heads which are apt to reduce these motions into act whenever there is occasion of them All I shall say hereto is That this is merly a voluntary Position and that there appears no ground for these motions to make and constitute such causes since we neither meet with any instruments nor discover any signs wherby we may be induced to believe or understand any such operation It may be urged that divers sounds are by diseases oftentimes made in our ears and appearances of colours in our fantasie But first these colours and sounds are not artificial ones and disposed and order'd by choice and judgment for no story hath mention'd that by a disease any man ever heard twenty verses of Virgil or an Ode of Horace in his ears or that ever any man saw fair pictures in his fansie by means of a blow givin him upon his eye And secondly such colours and sounds as are objected are nothing else but in the first case the motion of humors in a mans eye by a blow of upon it which humours have the virtue of making light in such sort as we see Sea-water has when it is clash'd together and in the second case a cold vapour in certain parts of the brain which causes beatings or motions there whence proceeds the imitation of sounds so that these examples nothing advantage that party thence to infer that the similitudes of objects may be made in the common-sense without any real bodies reserv'd for that end Yet I intend not to exclude Motion from any commerce with the Memory no more then I have done from Sensation For I will not only grant that all our remembring is perform'd by the means of motion but also acknowledge that in men it is for the most part of nothing else but of motion For what are words but motion And words are the chiefest objects of our remembrance 'T is true we can if we will remember things in their own shapes as well as by the words that express them but experience tells us that in our familiar conversation and the ordinary exercise of our memory we remember and make use of the words rather then of the things themselvs Besides the impressions that are made upon all our other sense as well as upon our hearing are likewise for the most part of thing in motion as if we have occasion to make a conception of a Man or of a Horse we ordinarily conceive him Walking or Speaking or eating or using some motion in time And as these impressions are successively made upon the outward Organs so are they successively carried into the fantasie by like succession are deliver'd over into the memory from whence when they are call'd back
nourishment it gives a motion to the heart which sends other spirits up to supply the brain for what service it will order them by which the brain being fortified it follows the pursuit of what the living creature is in want of till the distemper'd parts be reduced into their due state by a more solid enjoying of it Now why objects drawn out of the memory use to appear in the fantasie with all the same circumstances which accompanied them at the time when the sense sent them thither as when in remembrance of a friend we consider him in some place and at a certain time and doing some determinate action the reason is that the same body being in the same medium must necessarily have the same kind of motion and so consequently must make the same impression upon the same subject The medium which these bodies move in that is the memory is a liquid vaporous substance in which they float and swim at liberty Now in such a kind of medium all the bodies that are of one nature will easily gather together if nothing disturb them For as when a tuned Lute-string is strucken that string by communicating a determinate species of vibration to the Air round about it shakes other strings within the compass of the moved air not all of what extent soever but only such as by their natural motion would cause like curlings and foulds in the Air as the other doth according to what Galileus hath at large declared even so when some atome in the brain is moved all the rest there about which are apt to be wafted with a like undulation must needs be moved in chief and so they moving whiles the others of different motions that having nothing to raise them either lie quiet or move very little in respect of the former 't is no wonder if they assemble together and by the proper course of the brain meet at the common rendezvous of the fantasie And therfore the more impressions are made from the same object upon the sense the more participations of it will be gathered together in the memory and the stronger impressions it will upon occasion make in the fantasie and themselvs will be the stronger to resist any cause that shall strive to deface them For we see that multitude of objects overwhelms the memory and puts out or at least makes unprofitable those that are seldomest thought on The reason of which is that they being little in quantity because there are but few species of them can never strike the seat of knowledge but in company of others which being more and greater make the iwpression follow their nature against the lesser and in tract of time things seldom thought of grow to have but a maim'd and confused shape in the memory and at length are quite forgotten Which happens because in the liquid medium they are apt to moulder away if they be not often repair'd which mouldring and defacing is help'd on by the shocks they receive from other bodies like as in a Magazin a thing that were not regarded but carelesly tumbled up and down to make room for others and all things were promiscuously thrown upon it would soon be bruised and crush'd into a mishapen form and in the end broken all in pieces Now the repairing of any thing in the memory is done by receiving new impressions from the object or in its absence by thinking strongly of it which is an assembling and due piecing together of the several particles of bodies appertaining to the same matter But sometimes it happens that when the right one cannot be found intire nor all the orderly pieces of it retriv'd with their just correspondence to one another the fansie makes up a new one in the place of it which afterwards upon presence of the object appears to have been mistaken and yet the memory till then keeps quietly and unquestion'dly for the true object what either the thought or chance mingling several parts had patch'd up together And from hence we may discern how the losing or confounding of ones memory may happen either by sicknesses that distemper the spirits in the brain disorder their motions or by some blows on the head whereby a man is astonied and all things seem to turn round with him Of all which effects the causes are easie to be found in these suppositions we have lay'd CHAP. XXXIV Of Voluntary Motion Natural Faculties and Passions HItherto we have labor'd to convey the Object into the brain but when it is there let us see what further effects it causes and how that action which we call voluntary motion proceeds from the brain For the discovery wherof we are to note that the Brain is a substance composed of watry parts mingled with earthy ones which kind of substances we see are usually full of strings and so in strong hard Beer and Vinegar and other Liquors of the like nature we see if they be exposed to the Sun little long flakes which make an appearance of Worms or Maggats floating about The reason wherof is that some-dry parts of such Liquors are of themselves as it were hairy or sleasy that is have little downy parts such as you see upon the legs of Flies or upon Caterpillars or in little locks of wool by which they easily catch and stitck to the other little parts of the like nature that come near them and if the liquor be moved as it is in the boyling of beer or making of vinegar by the heat of the sun they become long strings because the liquor breakes the ties which are cross to its motion but such as lie along the stream or rather the bubling up maintain themselves in unity and peradventure grow stronger by the winding or folding of the end of one part with another and in their tumbling and rouling still in the same course the downy hairs are crush'd in and the body grows long and round as happens to a lump of dough or wax or wool roul'd a while in one uniform course And so coming to our purpose we see that the brain and all that is made of it is stringy witness the membranes the flesh the bones c. But of all the rest those called fibers are more stringy and the nerves seem to be but an assembly of them for though the Nervs be but a great multitude of strings lying in a cluster nevertheless by the consent of Physicians and Anatomists they are held to be of the very substance of the brain dryed to a firmer consistence than it is in the head This heap of strings as we may call it is enclosed in an outside made of membranes whose frame we need not here display only we may note that it is very apt and fit to stretch after stretching to return again to its own just length Next we are to consider how the brain is of a nature apt to swell and to sink again even so much that Fallopius reports
Retentive and the Expulsive faculties to be discoursed of wherof one kind is manifestly belonging to the voluntary motion which we have declared namely that retension and that expulsion which we ordinarily make of the gross excrements either of meat or drink or of other humours either from our head or stomach or Lungs for it is manifestly done partly by taking in of wind and partly by compressing of some parts and opening of others as Galen shews in his curious book de usu partium Another kind of Retention and Expulsion in which we have no sense when it is made or if we have it is of a thing done in us without our will though peradventure we may voluntarily advance it is made by the swelling of fibers in certain parts through the confluence of humours to them as in our stomach it happens by the drink and the juice of the meat that is in it which swelling closes up the passages by which the contained substance should go out as the moistening of the strings and mouth of a purse almost shuts it till in some for example the stomach after a meal the humour being attenuated by little and little gets out subtilely and so leaving less weight in the stomach the bag which weighs down lower than the nearer Orifice at which the digested meat issues rises a little And this rising of it is also further'd by the wrinkling up and shortning of the upper part of the stomach which still returns into its natural corrugation as the masse of liquid meat leavs soaking it which it doth by degrees still as more and more goes out and so what remains fills less place and reaches not so high in the stomach And thus at length the residue and thicker substance of the meat after the thinnest is got out in steam and the midling part is boil'd over in liquor comes to presse and gravitate wholly upon the Orifice of the stomach which being then help'd by the figure and lying of the rest of the stomach and its strings and mouth relaxing by having the juice which swell'd them squeez'd out of them it opens it self and gives way to that which lay so heavy upon it to tumble out In others for example in a woman with child the enclosed substance retain'd first by such a course of nature as we have set down breaks it self a passage by force and opens the orifice at which it is to go out by violence when all circumstances are ripe according to natures institution But yet there is the expulsion made by Physick that requires a little declaration 'T is of five kinds Vomiting Purging by Stool by Urine Sweating and Salivation every one of which seems to consist of two parts namely the Disposition of the Thing to be purged and the Motion of the Nervs or Fibers for the expulsion As for example when the Physician gives a Purge it works two things one is to make some certain humour more liquid and purgeable than the rest the other is to make the stomach or belly suck or vent this humour For the first the property of the Purge must be to precipitate that humour out of the rest of the blood or if it be thick to dissolve it that it may run easily For the second it ordinarily heats the stomach and by that means causes it to suck out of the veins and so to draw from all parts of the body Besides this it ordinarily fills the belly with wind which occasions those gripings men feel when they take physick and is cause of the guts discharging those humours which otherwise they would retain The like of this happens in Salivation for the humours are by the same means brought to the stomach and thence sublimed up to be spitten out as we see in those who taking Mercury into their body either in substance or in smoak or by application do vent cold humours from any part the Mercury rising from all the body up to the mouth of the patient as to the helm of a sublimatory and the like some say of Tobacco As for Vomiting it is in a manner wholly the operation of the fibers provoked by the feelling of some inconvenient body which makes the stomack wrinkle it self and work and strive to cast out what offends it Sweating seems to be caus'd by the heating of some nitrous body in the stomach which being of subtile parts is by heat dispersed from the middle to the circumference and carries with it light humours which turn into water as they come out into the air And thus you see in general and as much as concerns us to declare what the Natural Faculties are and this according to Galen's own mind who affirms that these faculties follow the complexion or temper of parts of a mans body Having explicated how Voluntary motion proceeds from the brain our next work ought to be to examine what it is that such an object as we brought by means of the senses into the brain from without contributes to make the brain apply it self to work such voluntary motion To which purpose we will go a step or two back to meet the object at its entrance into the sense and from thence accompany it in all its journey and motions onwards The object which strikes at the senses dore and getting in mingles it self with the spirits it finds there is either conform and agreeable to the nature and temper of those spirits or it is not that is to say in short it is either pleasing or displeasing to the living creature Or it may be a third kind which being neither of these we may term indifferent In which sort soever the obect affects the sense the spirits carry it immediately to the brain unless some distemper or strong thought or other accident hinder them Now if the object be of the third kind that is be indifferent as soon as it has strucken the brain it rebounds to the circle of the memory and there being speedily join'd to others of its own nature it finds them annex'd to some pleasing or displeasing thing or it doth not if not in beasts it serves to little use and in men it remains there till it be call'd for but if either in its own nature it be pleasing or displeasing or afterwards in the memory it be-became join'd to some pleasing or annoying fellowship presently the heart is sensible of it For the heart being join'd to the brain by straight and large nervs full of strong spirits which ascend from the heart 't is impossible but that it must have some communication with those motions which pass in the brain upon which the heart or rather the spirits about it is either dilated or compressed And these motions may be either totally of one kind or moderated and allay'd by the mixture of its contrary if of the former sort one of them we call Joy the other Grief which continue about the heart and peradventure oppress it if they be
in the utmost extremity without sending any due proportion of spirits to the brain till they settle a little and grow more moderate Now when these motions are moderate they immediately send up some abundance of spirits to the brain which if they be in a convenient proportion are by the brain thrust into such nervs as are fit to receive them and swelling them they give motion to the muscles and tendons that are fastned to them and they move the whole body or what part of it is under command of those nervs that are thus fill'd and swell'd with spirits by the brain If the object was conformable to the living creature then the brain sends spirits into such nervs as carry the body to it but if otherwise it causes a motion of aversion or flight from it To the cause of this latter we give the name of Fear and the other that carries one to the pursuit of the object we call Hope Anger or Audacity is mixt of both these for it seeks to avoid an evil by embracing and overcoming it and proceeds out of abundance of spirits Now if the proportion of spirits sent from the heart be too great for the brain it hinders or perverts the due operation both in man and beast All which it will not be amiss to open a little more particularly and first why painful or displeasing objects contract the spirits and grateful ones contrariwise dilate them It is because the good of the heart consists in use that is in heat and moisture and 't is the nature of heat to dilate it self in moisture whereas cold and dry things contract the bodies they work on and such are enemies to the nature of men and beasts And accordingly experience as well as reason teaches us that all objects which be naturally good are hot and moist in due proportion to the creature that is affected and pleas'd with them Now the living creature being composed of the same principles as the world round about him is and the heart being an abridgment of the whole sensible creature and besides full of blood and that very hot it comes to pass that if any of these little extracts of the outward world arrive to the hot blood about the heart it works in this blood such like an effect as we see a drop of water falling into a glass of wine which is presently dispersed into a competent compass of the wine so that any little object must needs make a notable motion in the blood about the heart This motion according to the nature of the object will be either conformable or contrary unless it be so little a one as no effect will follow of it and then 't is of that kind which above we call'd indifferent If the ensuing effect be connatural to the heart there rises a motion of a certain fume about the heart which motion we call Pleasure and it never fails of accompanying all those motions which are good as Joy Love Hope and the like but if the motion be displeasing there is likewise a common sense of a heaviness about the heart which we call Grief and it is common to Sorrow Fear Hate and the like Now 't is manifest by experience that these motions are all different ones and strike against divers of those parts of of our body which encompass the heart out of which striking follows that the spirits sent from the heart affect the brain diversly and are by it convey'd into divers nerves and so set divers members in action Whence follows that certain Members are generally moved upon the motion of such a passion in the heart especially in beasts who have a more determinate course of working than man hath and if somtimes we see variety even in beasts upon knowledge of the circumstances we may easily guess at the causes of that variety The particularities of all which motions we remit Physicians and Anatomists advertising only that the fume of pleasure and the heaviness of grief plainly shew that the first motions participate of Dilatation and the latter of Compression Thus you see how by the senses a living creature becomes judg of what is good what bad for him which operation is perform'd more perfectly in Beasts and especially in those that live in the free air remote from humane conversation for their senses are fresh and untainted as nature made them than in Men. Yet without doubt nature has been as favourable in this particular to men as them were it not that with disorder and excess we corrupt and oppress our senses as appears evidently by the Story we have recorded of John of Leige as also by the ordinary practice of some Hermites in the Deserts who by their taste or smell would presently be inform'd whether the herbs and roots and fruits they met with were good or hurtful for them though they never before had had trial of them Of which excellency of the Senses there remains in us only some dim sparks in those qualities which we call sympathies and antipathies wherof the reasonss are plain out of our late discourse and are nothing else but a conformity or opposition of a living creature by some individual property of it to some body without it in such sort as its conformity or opposition to things by its specifical qualities is term'd natubal or against nature But of this we shall discourse more at large hereafter Thus it appears how the senses are seated in us principally for the end of moving us to or from objects that are good for or hurtful to us But though our Reader be content to allow this intent of nature in our three inferiour senses yet he may peradventure not be satisfied how the two more noble ones the Hearing and the Seeing cause such motions to or from objects as are requisite to be in living creatures for the preservation of them for may he say how can a man by only seeing an object or by hearing the sound of it tell what qualities it is imbued with or what motion of liking or disliking can be caus'd in his heart by his meer receiving the visible species of an object at his eyes or by his ears hearing some noise it makes And if there be no such motion there what should occasion him to prosecute or avoid that object When he tasts or smells or touches a thing he finds it sweet or bitter or stinking or hot or cold and is therwith either pleased or displeased but when he only sees or hears it what liking or disliking can he have of it in order to the preservation of his nature The solution of this difficulty may in part appear out of what we have already said But for the most part the objects of these two nobler senses move us by being joyn'd in the Memory with some other thing that either pleas'd or displeas'd some of the other three senses And from thence it is that the motion of going to imbrace the object or
thither the objects that come into the brain and this we shall find carries back to the brain the passion or motion which by the object is rais'd in the heart Concerning this part of our body you are to note that it is a musculous membrane which in the middle of it hath a sinewy circle wherto is fastned the case of the heart call'd the Pericardium This Diaphragma is very sensible receiving its vertue of feeling from the above mention'd branch of the sixth couple of nervs and being of a trembling nature is by our respiration kept in continual moon and flaps upon all occasions as a drum head would do if it were slack and moist or as a sail would do that were brought into the wind Out of this description of it 't is obvious to conceive that all the changes of motion in the heart must needs be express'd in the Diaphragma For the heart beating upon the Pericardium and the Pericardium being join'd to the Diaphragma such jogs and vibrations must needs be imprinted and ecchoed there as are formed in the heart which from thence cannot chuse but be carried to the brain by the sixth couple of nervs And thus it comes about that we feel and have sensation of all the passions that are moved in our heart Which peradventure is the reason why the Greeks call this part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and from it derive the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that in Latine signifies Sapere with Us to Savour or to like for by this part of our body we have a liking of any object or a motion of inclination towards it from whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is derived by composition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a prudent man is he that likes and is moved to compass wholsom and good things Which Etymology of the word seems to me more natural than from the phrensy from whence some derive it because a great distemper or inflammation in the Diaphragma often causes that disease Now because the object is covey'd from the brain to the heart some part of its way by the same passage as the motion of the heart is re-convey'd back to the brain it must of necessity follow that who is more attentive to outward sense less considers or reflects on his passion and who is more attentive to observe and be govern'd by what passes in his heart is less wrought upon by external things For if his fantasy draws strongly to it the emanations from outward agents upon the senses the stream of those emanations will descend so strongly from the overfill'd fantasy into the heart that it will hinder the ascent of any fewer and weaker spirits by the same pipe But if the current set strongest upwards from the heart by the Diaphragma to the brain then it will so fill the pipe by which it ascends that little of a weaker tide can make a contrary eddy water in the same channel And by this means nature effects a second pleasure or pain in a living creature which moves it oftentimes very powerfully in absence of the primary object as we may observe when thinking of any pleasing or displeasing action we find about our heart a motion which entices us to it or averts us from it For as the first pleasure was occasioned by the stroke which the object apply'd to the outward sense made upon the fantasy which can judg of nothing without being strucken by it so the second pleasure springs from the spirits moved in the heart by messengers from the brain which by the Diaphragma rebound a stroke back again upon the fantasy And from hence it proceeds that Memory delights or afflicts us and that we think of past things with sweetness or with remorse and therby assuefaction is wrought in beasts as far as the appetitive part contributes therto to perfect what was begun in their cognoscitive part by the ingression of corporeal specieses into their fantasy in order to the same effect as we have touch'd before But now let us examine how so small a quantity of a body as comes from an object into our sense can be the cause of so great a motion about our heart To which purpose we are to remember that this motion is perform'd in the most subtile and thin substance that can be imagin'd They are the vital spirits that do all this work which are so subtile so agil and so hot that they may in some sort be termed fire Now if we reflect how violent fire is we need not wonder at the suddain and great motion of these passions But we must further take notice that they are not in the greatest excess but where the living creature hath been long inured and exercised to them either directly or indirectly so that they arrive 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 been often heated by extinguishing red hot irons in it after some repetitions a few quenchings will reduce it from cold to boiling that at the first would scarce have made it lukewarm and accordingly we see a heart that for a long time hath loved and vehemently desired enjoying is transported in a high degree at the least sight and renuance of strokes from its beloved object and is as much dejected upon any the least deprivation of it For to such an object the living creature is hurried away by a force much resembling the gravity or celerity of a dense body that is set on runing down a steep hill to which the only taking away of a weak let or the least stop gives 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 undiscovered and so likewise in these cases the object rather gives the occasion of the violent motion than the force or power to it These things being thus determined some peradventure may ask how it comes to pass that the spirits which cause motion being sent on their errand by the brain alwayes hit the right way and light duly into those very sinews which move the living creature according as is requisite for its nature Since all the passages are open what is it that governs them so as they never mistake and the animal is never driven towards harm in stead of flying from it Who is their guide in these obscure paths But it were to impute ignorance to the Maker to think that he framed all the passages alike and so every one of them promiscuously apt to receive into them all sorts of spirits however they be moved And therfore we may assure our selvs that since in these diversities of occasions there are likewise divers kinds of motions from the heart either there is proportionable to them divers kinds of passages fit to receive and entertain
I am obliged to make plain but the latter concerns this Treatise no more than it would do a man to enquire anxiously into the particulars of what it is that a beast is doing whiles looking upon it at a great distance he perceivs plainly that it moves it self and his errant is but to be assured whether it be alive or dead which the moving of it self in common sufficiently demonstrates without descending into a particular search of what his motions are But let us come to the matter First I conceive no man will make any difficulty in allowing that it is the temper of the blood and spirits in Birds brought therto by the quality of their food and the season of the year which makes them couple with one another and not any aim or desire of having young ones that occasions this action in them Then it follows that the Hens eggs will encrease in her belly and when they grow big they cannot choose but be troublesome unto her and therfore must of necessity breed in her an inclination to rest in some soft place and to be rid of them And as we see a Dog or a Cat press'd by nature searches about to find a convenient place to disburthen themselvs in not only of their young ones but even of their excrements so do Birds whose eggs within them making them heavy and unfit to flie they begin to sit much and are pleas'd in a soft and warm place and thereupon are delighted with straws and mosse and other gentle substances and so carry them to their sitting place Which that they do not by design is evident by the manner of it for when they have met with a straw or other fit material they flie not with it directly to their nest but first to a bough of some tree or to the top of a house and there they hop and dance a while with it in their beaks and from thence skip to another place where they entertain themselvs in like manner and at last they get to their nest Where if the straws should lie confusedly their ends would prick and hurt them and therfore they turn and alter their positions till they lie smooth which we that look upon the effect and compare them with our performing of like actions if we had occasion may call a judicious ordering of them wheras in them it is nothing but removing such things as press upon their sense till they cause them no more pain or unquierness Their plaistering of their nests may be attributed to the great heat reigning in them at that time which makes them still be dabling in moist clay and water and gravel without which all birds will soon grow sick blind and at length die which for the coolness of it they bring home to their nests in their beaks and upon their feet and when it grows dry and consequently troublesome to them they wipe it off and rub their dirty parts upon the place where they use to sit and then flie for more to refresh themselvs with Out of all which actions set on foot by the wise orderer of nature to compass a remote end quite different from the immediate end that every one of them is done for there results a fit and convenient place for these little builders that know not what they do whiles they build themselvs houses to lie and lay their eggs in which the next year when the like occasion occurrs they build again peradventure then as much through memory of the former as upon their temper and other circumstances moving their fantasy so as we have set down In like manner that whiles the Halcyon layes and hatches her eggs the Sea is calm needs no more be attributed to the wisdom and providence of that bird in choosing a fit season than to any good nature or discourse in that rouling and merciless Element as though it had a pious care of preserving the eggs committed to his trust no such supplements are requisite to be added to the distributions of nature who hath set material causes on foot to produce a conjuncture of both those effects at the same period of time for the propagation of this animal's species In fine both the time and place of the Halcyon's breeding and the manner and order and season of all birds making their nests proceeds from secret motions which require great observing and attention to understand them and serve for directions to every bird according to her kind to make her nest fittest for her use Which secret motions we cannot doubt but are material ones and aâ—se out of the constitution and temper of their bodies and spirits which in like circumstances are alike in them all for all the birds of one kind make their nests exactly alike Which they would not do if this work proceeded from reason in them and were govern'd by their own election and design as we see it happen among men upon all occasions either of building houses or of making clothes or of what action soever is guided by their reason governing their fantasy in all which we see so great variety and inconstancy Therfore this invariability in the birds operations must proceed from a higher intellect that hath determinately and precisely ordered a complex or assembly of sundry causes to meet infallibly and by necessity for the production of an effect he hath designed and so the birds are but material instruments to perform without their knowledg or reflexion a superiour reason's counsels even as in a clock that is composed of several pieces and wheels all the parts conspire to give notice of the several effluxes and periods of time which the maker hath order'd it for And though this be a work of reason and discourse in him that set it together yet the instrumental performance of it depends meerly of local motion and the revolutions of bodies so orderly proportion'd to one another that their effects cannot fail when once the engine is wound up In like manner then the Bird is the engine of the Artificer infinitely more perfect and knowing and dexterous than a poor clock-maker and the plummets which make it go are the row and order of causes chain'd together which by the design of the supream workman bring to pass such effects as we see in the building of their nests and in doing such other actions as may be compared to the strikings of the clock and the ringing of the alarm at due times And as that King of Claina upon his first seeing a Watch thought it a living and judicious creature because it moved so regularly of it self and believ'd it to be dead when it was run out till the opening and winding it up discover'd to him the artifice of it So any man may be excused that looking upon these strange actions and this admirable oeconomy of some living creatures should believe them endew'd with reason till he have well reflected upon every particular circumstance of their nature and operations for
Their stories tell us that at their first arrival upon those coasts where it seems men had never been the birds would not flie away but suffer'd the Mariners to take them in their hands nor the beasts which with us are wild would run from them but their discourteous guests used them so hardly as they soon chang'd their confidence into distrust and aversion and by little and little grew by their commerce with men and receiving injuries from them to be as wild as any of the like kind in our parts From the Dams and Sires this apprehension and fear at the sight of men so deeply rooted in them is doubtless transmitted to their young ones for it proceeds out of the disposition of the body and the passion immediately made in the heart and that is as truly a material motion as any whatever can be and must have setled material instruments fitted to it if it be constant as well as any other natural operation whatever And this passion of the heart proceeds again from a perpetual connexion of the two objects in the memory which being a perpetually constant thing is as true a quality of that beasts brain in whom it is as the being of a quick or dull apprehension or apt to know one kind of meat from another which is natural to the whole species or any other quality whatever residing in that beast Wherfore 't is no wonder that it passes by generation to the off-spring which is a thing so common even in mankind as there can be no doubt of it and is at first made by a violent cause that greatly alters the body and consequently the seed must be imbew'd with a like disposition and so it passes together with the nature of the Sire or of the Dam into the brood From hence proceeds that children love the same meats and exercises that their Fathers and Mothers were affected with and fear the like harms This is the reason why a Grand-child of my Lord of Dorset whose honour'd name must never be mention'd by me without a particular respect and humble acknowledgment of the noble and steady friendship he hath ever been pleas'd to honour me with was always extremely sick if but the Nurse did eat any Capers against which my Lord's antipathy is famous whiles she gave suck to that pretty infant The Children of great Mathematicians who have been used to busie their fantasies continually with figures and proportions have been oftentimes observ'd to have a natural bent to those Sciences And we may note that even in particular gestures and in little singularities in familiar conversation children will oftentimes resemble their Parents as well as in the lineaments of their faces The young ones of excellent setting Dogs will have a notable aptitude to that exercise and may be taught with half the pains that their sire or dam was if they were chosen out of a race of Spaniels not trained to setting All which effects can proceed from no other cause but as we have touch'd already that the fantasy of the parent alters the temper and disposition of his body and seed according as it self is temper'd and disposed and consequently such a creature must be made of it as retains the same qualities as 't is said that sufficient Tartar put at the root of a tree will make the fruit have a winy taste But nothing confirms this so much as certain notable accidents wherof though every one in particular would seem incredible yet the number of them and the weight of the reporters who are the witnesses cannot choose but purchase a general credit to the kind of them These accidents are that out of some strong imagination of the parents but especially of the mother in the time of conception the children draw such main differences as were incredible if the testifying authority were not so great but being true they convince beyond all question the truth we have proposed of the parents imagination working upon and making an impression in the seed wherof children or young ones of their kind are made Some children of white parents are reported to havebeen black upon occasion of a Black-moors picture too much in the mothers eye Others are said to have been born with their skins all hairy out of the sight of St Baptist's picture as he was in the desart or of some other hairy image Another child is famed to have been born disformed so as Devils are painted because the sather was in a Devils habit when he got the child There was a Lady a kinswoman of mine who used much to wear black patches upon her face as was the fashion among young women which I to put her from used to tell her in jest that the next child she should go with whiles the sollicitude and care of those patches was so strong in her fantasy would come into the world with a great black spot in the midst of its forehead and this apprehension was so lively in her imagination at the time she proved with child that her daughter was born mark'd just as the mother had fansied which there are at hand witnesses enough to confirm but non more pregnant than the young Lady her self upon whom the mark is yet remaining Among other creatures 't is said that a Hen hatch'd a Chicken with a Kites bill because she was frighted with a Kite whiles the Cock was treading her The story of Jacol's Sheep is known to all and some write that the painting of beautiful colour'd pigeons in a Dove-house will make the following race become like them and in Authors store of such examples may be found To give a reasonable and fully satisfying cause of this great effect I confess is very difficult since for the most part the parents seed is made long time before the accoupling of the male and female and though it were not we should be mainly to seek for a rational ground to discourse in particular upon it Yet not to leav our Reader without a hint which way to drive his inquisition we will note thus much that Aristotle and other natural Philosophers and Physicians affirm that in some persons the passion is so great in the time of their accoupling that for the present it quite bereavs them of the use of reason and they are for the while in a kind of short fit of an Epilepsie By which 't is manifest that abundance of animal spirits then part from the head and descend into those parts which are the instruments of generation Wherfore if there be abundance of specieses of any one kind of object then strong in the imagination it must of necessity be carryed down together with the spirits into the seed and by consequence when the seed infected with this nature begins to separate and distribute it self to the forming of the several parts of the Embryon the spirits which resort into the brain of the child as to their proper Element and from thence finish all the
outward cast of its body as we have above described somtimes happen to fill certain places of the childs body with the infection and tincture of this object and that according to the impression with which they were in the mothers fantasy for so we have said that things which come together into the fantasy naturally stick together in the animal spirits The hairiness therfore will be occasioned in those parts where the Mother fansied it to be the colour likewise and such extancies or defects as may any way proceed from such a cause will happen to be in those parts in which they were fansied And this is as far as is fit to wade into this point for so general a discourse as ours is and more than was necessary for our turn to the serving wherof the verity of the fact only and not the knowledg of the cause was required for we were to shew no more but that the apprehensions of the parents may descend to the children Out of this discourse the reason appears why beasts have an aversion from those who use to do them harm and why this aversion descends from the old ones to their brood though it should never have hapned that they had formerly encountred with what at the first sight they fly from and avoid But yet the reason appears not why for example a Sheep in England where there are no Wolves bred nor have been these many ages should be afraid and tremble at sight of a Wolf since neither he nor his dam or sire nor theis in multitudes of generations ever saw a Wolf or receiv'd hurt by any In like manner how should a tame Weasell brought into England from Ireland where there are no poisonous creatures be afraid of a Toad as soon as he sees one Neither he nor any of his race ever had any impressions of following harm made upon their fantasies and as little can a Lion receive hurt from a houshold Cock therfore we must seek the reasons of these and such like Antipathies a little further and we shall find them hanging upon the same string with Sympathies proportionable to them Let us go by degrees We daily see that Dogs will have an aversion from Glovers that make their ware of Dogs skins they will bark at and be churlish to them and not endure to come near them though they never saw them before The like hatred they will express to the Dog-killers in the time of the Plague and to those that flea Dogs I have known of a man that used to be imploid in such affairs who passing somtimes over the grounds near my Mothers house for he dwellt at a Village not far off the Dogs would wind him at a very great distance and all run furiously out the way he was and fiercely fall upon him which made him go always well provided for them and yet he has been somtimes hard put to it by the fierce Mastiffs there had it not been for some of the Servants coming in to his rescue who by the frequent hapning of such accidents were warned to look out when they observ'd so great commotion and fury in the dogs and yet perceiv'd no present cause for it Warreners observe that vermin will hardly come into a trap wherin another of their kind hath been lately kill'd and the like happens in Mouse-traps into which no Mouse will come to take the bait if a Mouse or two have already been kill'd in 't unless it be made very clean so that no scent of them remain upon the Trap which can hardly be done on the sudden otherwise than by fire 'T is evident that these effects are to be refer'd to an activity of the object upon the sense for some smell of the skins or of the dead dogs or of the vermine or of the Mice cannot choose but remain upon the Men and Traps which being alter'd from their due nature and temper must needs offend them Their conformity on the one side for somthing of the canine nature remains makes them have easy ingression into them and so they presently make a deep impression but on the other side their distemper from what they should be makes the impression repugnant to their nature and be disliked by them and to affect them worse than if they were of other creatures that had no conformity with them As we may observe that stinks offend us more when they are accompanied with some weak perfume than if they set upon us single for the perfume gets the stink easier admittance into our sense and in like manner 't is said that poisons are more dangerous when they are mingled with a cordial that is not able to resist them for it serves to convey them to the heart though it be not able to overcome their malignity From hence then it follows that if any beast or bird prey upon some of another kind there will be some smell about them exceedingly noisom to all others of that kind and not only to beasts of that same kind but for the same reason even to others likewise that have a correspondence and agreement of temper and constitution with that kind of beast whose hurt is the original cause of this aversion Which being assented to the same reason holds to make those creatures whose constitutions and tempers consist of things repugnant and odious to one another be at perpetual enmity and fly from one another at the first sight or at least the sufferer from the more active creature as we see among those men whose unhappy trade and continual exercise it is to empty Jakeses such horrid stinks are by time grown so conformable to their nature as a strong perfume will as much offend them and make them as sick as such stinks would do another man bred up among perfumes and a Cordial to their spirits is some noysome smell that would almost poison another man And thus if in the breach of the Wolf or the steam coming from his body any quality be offensive to the Lamb as it may very well be where there is so great a contrariety of natures it is not strange that at the first sight and approach of him he should be distemper'd and flie from him as one fighting Cock will do from another that hath eaten Garlike and the same happens between the Weasel and the Toad the Lion and the Cock the Toad and the Spider and several other creatures of whom like enmities are reported All which are caus'd in them not by secret instincts and Antipathies and Sympathies wherof we can give no account with the bare sound of which words most men pay themselvs without examining what they mean but by downright material qualities that are of contrary natures as fire and water are and are either begotten in them in their original constitution or implanted afterwards by their continual food which nourishing them changes their constitution to its complexion And I am perswaded this would go so far that if one
had never come into his fantasie accompanied with other circumstances than of play or of warmth and therfore hunger which calls only the species of meat out of the memory into the fantasy would never bring the Deer thither for remedy of that passion And that which often happens to those men in whom the fantasie only works is not much unlike to this among whom I have seen some frentick persons that if they be perswaded they are tyed and cannot stir from the place where they are will lye still and make great complaints for their imprisonment and not go a step to reach any meat or drink that should lie in sight near them though they were never so much pressed with hunger or thirst The reason is evident for the apprehension of being tyed is so strong in their fantasie that their fantasie can send no spirits into other parts of their body wherby to cause motion And thus the Deer was beholding to the Tyger's fantasie not to his discourse of moral honesty for his life The like of this Tyger and Deer is to be seen every day in the Tower of London where a little Dog that was bred with a Lion from his birth is so familiar and bold with him that they not only sleep together but somtimes the Dog will be angry with him and bite him which the Lion never resents from him though any other Dog that is put to him he presently tears in pieces And thus we plainly see how it comes about that beasts may have strange aversions from things which are of an annoying or destructive nature to them even at the first sight of them and again may have great likings of other things in a manner contrary to their nature without needing to allow them reason wherby to discourse and judge what is hurtful to them or to instruct the Tyger we have spoken of or Androdus's Lion the duties of friendship and gratitude The Longing marks which are oftentimes seen in children and remain with them all their life seem to be an off-spring of the same root or cause but in truth they proceed from another though of kin to this for the operation of the seed is pass'd when these Longing marks are imprinted the child being then already form'd and quickn'd and they seem to be made suddenly as by the print of a seal Therfore to render the cause of them let us consider another sympathy which is more plain and common We see that the laughing of one man will set another on laughing that sees him laugh though he know not the cause why the first man laughs and the like we see in yawning and stretching which breed the like effect in the looker on I have heard of a man that seeing a roasted Pig after our English fashion with the mouth gaping could not shut his own mouth as long as he look'd upon the Pigs and of another that when he saw any man make a certain motion with his hand could not choose but he must make the same so that being a Tyler by his Trade and having one hand imploy'd with holding his tools while he held himself with the other upon the eav's of a house he was mending a man standing below on the ground made that sign or motion to him wherupon he quited his holdfast to imitate that motion and fell down in danger of breaking his neck All these effects proceed out of the action of the seen object upon the fantasie of the looker on which making the picture or likeness of its own action in the others fantasie makes his spirits run to the same parts and consequenty move the same members that is do the same actions And hence it is that when we hear one speak with love and tenderness of an absent person we are also inclined to love that person though we never saw nor heard of him before and that whatever a good Oratour delivers well that is with a semblance of passion agreeable to his words raises of its own nature like affection in the hearers aod that generally men learn and imitate without design the customs and manners of the company they much haunt To apply this to our intent 't is easie to conceive that although the child in the mothers wombe can neither see nor hear what the mother doth nevertheless there cannot pass any great or violent motion in the mothers body wherof some effect doth not reach to the child which is then one continuate piece with her and the proper effect of motion or trembling in one body being to produce a like motion or trembling in another as we see in that ordinary example of tuned strings wherof one is moved at the striking of the other by reason of the stroke given to the air which finding a movable easily moved with a motion of the same tenour communicates motion to it it follows that the fantasie of the child being as it were well tuned to the fantasie of the mother and the mothers fantasie making a special and very quick motion in her own whole body as we see sudden passions do this motion or trembling of the mother must needs cause the like motion and trembling in the child even to the very swiftness of the mothers motion Now as we see when one blushes the blood comes into his face so the blood runs in the mother to a certain place where she is strucken by the thing long'd for and the like hap'ning to the child the violence of that sudden motion dyes the mark or print of the thing in the tender skin of it the blood in some measure piercing the skin and not returning wholly into its natural course which effect is not permanent in the mother because her skin being harder doth not receive the blood into it but sends it back again without receiving a tincture from it Far more easie is it to discover the secret cause of many antipathies or sympathies which are seen in children and endure with them the greatest part if not the whole term of their life without any apparent ground for them As some do not love Cheese others Garlick others Ducks others divers other kinds of meat which their parents loved well and yet in token that this aversion is natural to them and not arising from some dislike accidentally taken and imprinted in their fantasie they will be much harmed if they chance to eat any such meat though by the much disguising it they neither know nor so much as suspect they have done so The story of the Lady Hennage who was of the Bed-chamber to the late Queen Elizabeth that had her cheek blister'd by laying a Rose upon it whiles she was asleep to try if her antipathy against that flower were so great as she used to pretend is famous in the Court of England A Kinsman of mine whiles he was a Child had like to have died of drought before his Nurse came to understand that he had an antipathy against Beer
to what we find of them in our mind and not according to what they are in themselvs which two several considerations have quite different faces though 't is true those impressions are made by the things and are the only means by which we may rightly judg of them provided that we consider them as they are in the things and not as they are in us Now this conjunction of apprehensions by the mediation and glew of Being is the most natural and fitting not only in regard of the things but even of us for as we have already shew'd it is of all others the most common and universal the most simple or uncomposed and the most natural and deepest rooted in man Out of all which 't is evident that this union of apprehensions by the means of Being is in truth an Identification of them for Unity being a negation of multiplicity it follows that what is one is the same and this Identification is truly and naturally expressed by saying that the one is the other But insisting a little further upon this consideration how different apprehensions become joyn'd and united together by the notion of Being we may observe that this happens not only to two single ones but to more according as more than two may belong to one thing and it may so fall out that more than one be on either side the common ligament Thus when we say A man is a discursive creature or a rational Soul is an immortal substance the two apprehensions of discursive and creature are joyn'd together in a third of Man by the tye of one Being and the two apprehensions of Immortal and Substance are likewise united to the two others of Rational and of Soul by the ligament of one single Being Evident it is then that the extremes are united by one Being but how the two apprehenons that are rank'd together on the same side of the ligament as in our former examples the apprehensions of Discursive Creature of Rational and Soul of Immortal and Substance are between themselvs joyn'd to one another is not so easy to express 'T is clear that it is not done by meer conglobation for we may observe that they belong or are apprehended to belong to the same thing and the very words that express them intimate so much by one of them being an Ajective which shews they are not two things for if they were they would require two Substantives to describe them and consequently it follows that one of them must needs appertain to the other and so both of them make but one thing And there is no doubt but in the inward apprehension there is a variety correspondent to the variety of words which express it since all variety of words that is made by intention results out of some such variety of apprehensions Therfore since the words import that the things have a dependance one of the other we cannot doubt but that our apprehensions have so too Which will be conceiv'd best by looking into the act of our mind when it frames such variety of apprehensions belonging to one thing correspondent to the variety in words of an Adjective glew'd to its Substantive and attending heedfully to what we mean when we speak so The Hebrews express this union or comprising of two different apprehensions under one notion by putting in the Genitive case the word which expresses one of them much like the rule in Lillie's Grammar that When two Substantives come together if they belong to the same thing the one is put in the Genitive case As when in the Scripture we weet with these words the Judge of injustice the Spence of wickedness the man of sin or of death which in our phrase of speaking signify an unjust Judge a wicked Spence and a sinful or dead man In which 't is evident that as well the manner of understanding as of speaking takes each pair of these notions to belong to one thing that is to have both of them one and the same Existence though there intervene not the formal expression of their being one Thus we see how one Being serves two different ways to joyn and unite several apprehensions and if we will examine all the negotiations of our understanding we shall hardly find any notions so far distant but may be brought together either by the one of these ways or by the other But this composition and joyning of several apprehensions by the glew of Being is not sufficient to make us deem a thing to be really such as their union paints in the mind or as the words so tied together express in speech Well may it cause us to think of the thing but to think or deem it such an one which word deeming we shall be obliged hence forward to use frequently because the word thinking is subject to equivocation requires the addition of somthing more than barely this composition of apprehensions which unless they be kept straight by some level may as well swarve from the subject as make a true picture of it Here then we are to examine what it is that makes us think any thing to be such as we apprehend it This we are sure of that when we do so our actions which proceed upon reason and have relation to that thing are govern'd and steer'd in every circumstance just as if the thing were truly so As for example if a man really deem the weather to be cold or that his body is distemper'd he puts on warmer cloaths or takes physick though peradventure he is mistaken in both for his deeming them to be so makes him demean himself as if really they were so 'T is then evident that by such thinking or deeming the nature conceiv'd is made an active principle in us To which if we add that all the knowledge we have of our Soul is no more but that it is an active force in us it seems that a thing by having apprehensions made of it in our mind and being really thought agreeable to such apprehensions becomes as it were a part or affection of our Soul and one thing with it And this peradventure is the cause why an understanding man cannot easily leave an opinion once deeply rooted in him but wrestles and strives against all arguments that would force him from it as if part of his Soul or Understanding were to be torn from him in such manner as a beast will cry and struggle to save his body from having any of his limbs disjonted or pull'd in pieces But this observing the effect which follows of our deeming a thing to be thus or so is not sufficient to inform us what it is that causes that deeming We must therefore take the matter a little higher and look into its immediate principles and there we shall find that 't is the knowing of what we say to be true and the assurance that the things are as we deem them which quiets our Soul and makes it consent to
Soul ayms is evident since the perfection of every thing in the end for which it is made the perfection then and end of the Soul being evidence she being capable of infinite evidence let us inquire whether in this life she may compass it or no. To determine this question let us compare infinite evidence to that evidence which the greatest and most knowing man that ever lived hath acquir'd by the work of nature alone or to the evidence which by aym we may imagine possible ever to happen any one man should arrive to and balancing them well together let us judg whether all that any man can know here is not in respect of what a mans Soul is capable of to be stiled as nothing and deservs not the name of evidence nor to be accounted of that nature And if our sentence conclude upon this let us acknowledg that our Soul arrives not to her perfection nor enjoys her end in this world and therfore must have infallibly an other habitation inthe next world to which nature intends her Experience teaches us that we cannot fully comprehend any one of natures works and those Philosophers who in a disciplinable way search into nature therfore are called Mathematicians after they have written large volums of some very slender subject ever find that they have left untouch'd an endless abyss of knowledg for whomsoever shall please to build upon their foundations that they can never arrive near saying all that may be said â—f hat subject though they have said never so much of it We may not then make difficulty to believe that the wisest and learnedest men in the world have reason to profess with the father of Philosophers that indeed they know nothing And if so how far are they from that happiness perfection which consists in knowing all things Of which full sea we nevertheless find even in this low ebb our Soul is a chanel capable and is framed a fit vessel and instrument to receive it when the tide shall come in upon it which we are sure it can not do till the banks of our Body which hinder it be broken down This last consideration without doubt hath added no small corroboration to our former proofs which are so numerous so clear as peradventure it may appear superfluous to say any more to this point since one convinceing argument establishes the verity of a conclusion as efficaciously as a hundred therfore Mathematicians use but one single proof in all their Propositions after which other supernumerary ones would be but tedious Nevertheless since all the several ways by which we may look into the nature of our Soul the importantest subject we can busie our thoughts upon cannot fail of being pleasing and delightful to us we must not omit to reflect a little upon that great property of our Soul by which she is able to move to work without her self being moved or touched To which adding that all Life consists in motion and that all motion of Bodies comes from some other thing without them we may evidently conclude that our Soul who can move withot receiving her motion from abroad hath in her se lf a spring of life for which she is not beholding as Bodies are o some extrinsecal cause of a nature like to her but only to him who gave her to be what she is But if she have such a spring of Life within her it were unreasonable to imagine that she died upon the occasion of the death of anohther thing that exercises no action of life but as it is caused by another Neither we may neglect that ordinary consideration which takes notice that our Soul makes use of Propositions of eternal truth which we have above produced among our proofs for her being of a spiritual nature and shall now imploy it for the proving her Immortal by considering that the notion of Being which settles these Propositions so as they fear no mutation or shaking by time is the very riot of the Soul that which gives her nature which shews it self in all her operations So that if from Being arrives to these Propositions to fear no time the like must of necessity betide also the substance of the Soul And thus we see that her nature is out of the reach of time that she can comprehend time and set it limits can think of things beyond it and cast about for them All which are clear testimonies that she is free and secure from the all-devouring and destroying tyranny of that Saturnial Conqueror of the whole world of matter and of Bodies whose servant is Death After all these proofs drawn from the nature of the Soul it self every one of them of force to convince her Immortality I must crave leave to add one consideration more though it seems to belong to anothers harvest namely to the Science of Morals and it is that the position of mortality in the Soul takes away all morality and changes men into beasts by taking away the ground of all difference in those things which are to govern our actions For supposing that the Soul dyes with the Body and seeing that man hath a comprehension or notion of time without end 't is evident that the spain of this life must needs appear contemptible to him that well considers and weighs it against the other infinite duration And by consequence all the goods and evils which are parts of this life must needs become as despicable and inconsiderable so that better or worse in this life hath not any appearance of difference between them at least not enough to make him labour with paâ—n to compass the one and eschew the other and for that end to cross his present inclination in any thing and engage himself in any the least difficult task And so it would ensue that if to an understanding man some course or actions were proposed as better than that he were going about or for the instant had a mind to he would relish it as a great Merchant or a Banquier would do whom dealing for Millions one should presse with earnestness to change his resolved course for the gain of a farthing more this way than the other which being inconsiderable he would not trouble his head with it nor stop at what he was in hand with In like manner whoever is perswaded that for an infinite of time he shall be nothing without sense of all things he scorns for this little twinkling of his life to take any present pains to be in the next moment well or to avoid being ill since in this case dying is a secure remedy to any present evil and he is as ready to die now as a hundred years hence Nor can he esteem the loss of a hundred years to be a matter of moment and therfore he will without any further guidance or discourse betake himself to do whatever his present inclination bears him to with most facility
Syllogisms cannot be made without Universal propositions So that we see unless these things be strip'd from Place and Time they are not according to our meaning and yet nevertheless we give them both the name and nature of a Thing or of a Substance or of a living Thing or of whatsoever else may by manner of our conceiving or endeavors be freed from the subjection to Time and Place Thus then we plainly see that it is a very different thing to be and to be in a place and therfore out of a Things being in no Place it cannot be infer'd That it is not or is no Substance nor contrariwise out of its being can it be infer'd that it is in a Place There is no man but of himself perceives the false consequence of this Argument A thing Is therefore it is Hot or Cold and the reason is because hot and cold are particular accidents of a body and therfore a body can be without either of them The like proportion is between Being in general 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 therfore as it were an absurd illation to say it is therfore it is in a Body no less is it to say it is therfore it is somwhere which is equivalent to in some Body And so a great Master peradventure one of the greatest and judiciousest that ever have been tells us plainly that of it self 't is evident to those who are truly learned that Incorporeal Substances are not in Place and Aristotle teaches us that the Universe is not in Place But now to make use of this discourse we must intimate what 't is we level at in it We direct it to two ends First to lead on our thoughts and help our apprehension in framing some conception of a Spiritual Substance without residence in Place and to prevent our fancies checking at such abstraction since we see that we use it in our ordinary speech when we think not on it nor labour for it in all universal and indefinite terms Next to trace out an eminent propriety of a Separated Soul namely that she is no where and yet upon the matter every where that she is bound to no place and yet remote from none that she is able to work upon all without shifting from one to another or coming neer any and that she is free from all without removing or parting from any one A second propriety not much unlike the first we shall discover in a Separated Soul if we compare her with Time We have heretofore explicated how Time is the motion of the Heavens which give us our motion which measures all particular motions and which comprehends all bodies and makes them awaite his leisure From the large Empire of this proud Commander a Separated Soul is free For though she consist with time that is to say she is while time is yet is she not in time nor in any of her actions expects time but she is able to frame time to spin or weave it out of her self and master it All which will appear manifestly if we consider what it is to be in time Aristotle shews us that to be comprehended under time or to be in time is to be one of those moveables whose being consisting in motion takes up but a part of time and hath its terms before and behind in time is measured by it and must expect the flowing of it both for being and action Now all this manifestly belongs to Bodies whose both action and being is subject to a perpetual local motion and alteration and consequently a Separated Soul who is totally a being and hath her whole operation altogether as being nothing but her self when we speak of her perfective operation cannot be said to be in time but is absolutely free from it though time glide by her as it doth by other things And so all that she knows or can do she does and knows at once with one act of the understanding or rather She is indeed and really all that and therfore she doth not require time to mannage or order her thoughts nor do they succeed one another by such vicissitudes as men are forced to think of things by because their fansie and the Images in it which beat upon the Soul to make her think whiles she is in the body are corporal and therfore require time to move in and give way to one another but she thinks of all the things in the world and of all that she can think of together and at once as hereafter we intend to shew A third propriety we may conceiveto be in a Separated Soul by apprehending her to be an activity which that we may rightly understand let us compare her in regard of working with a Body Reflecting then upon the nature of Bodies we shall find that not any of them will do the functions they are framed for unless some other thing stir them up and cause them so to do As for example a Knife if it be thrust or pressed will cut otherwise it will lye still and have no effect and as it fares with a knife so with those bodies which seem most to move themselvs as upon a little consideration will appear plainly A Beast seems to move it self but if we call to mind what we have delivered upon this subject in the First Treatise we shall find that when ever he begins to move he either perceivs somthing by his Sense which causes his motion or elâ—e he remembers somthing that is in his brain which works the like effect Now if Sense presents him an object that causes his motion we see manifestly it is an external cause which makes him move But if Memory do it we shall find that stirr'd by some other part as by the stomack or the heart which is empty or heated or hath receiv'd some other impression from another body so that sooner or later we shall discover an outward mover The like is in natural motions as in Heavy things their easie following if they be sucked another way than downwards testifies that their motion downwards hath an extrinsecal motor as is before declared And not only in these but throughout in all other corporal things So that in a wotd all Bodies are of this nature that unless some other thing press and alter them when they are quiet they remain so and have no activity otherwise than from an extrinsecal mover but of the Soul we have declared the contrary and that by its nature motion may proceed from it without any mutation in it or without its receiving any order direction or impulse from an extrinsecal cause So that now suming up together all we have said upon this occasion we find a Soul exempted from the Body to be An indivisible
side an Incorporated Soul by reason of her being confined to the use her Senses can look on but one single definite place or time at once and needs a long chain of many discourses to comprehend all the circumstances of any one action and yet after all how short is she of comprehending all So that comparing one of these with the other 't is evident that the proportion of a Separated Soul to one in the Body is as all time or all place in respect of any one piece or least parcel of them or as the entire absolute comprehender of all time and all place is to the discoverer of a small measure of them For whatever a Soul wills in that state she wills it for the whole extent of her duration because she is then out of the state or capacitity of changing and wishes for whatever she wishes as for her absolute good and therfore employs the whole force of her judgment upon every particular wish Likewise the eminencie which a Separated Soul hath over place is also then entirely employ'd upon every particular wish of hers since in that state there is no variety of place left her to wish for such good in one place and to refuse it in another as while she is in the Body hapneth to every thing she desires Wherefore whatever she then wishes for she wishes for it according to her comparison to place that is to say that as such a Soul hath a power to work at the same time in all places by the absolute comprehension which she hath of place in abstract so every wish of that Soul if it were concerning a thing to be made in place were able to make it in all places through the excessive force and efficacy which she employs upon every particular wish The third effect by which among bodies we gather the vigour and energy of the cause that produces it to wiâ— the doing of the like action in a lesser time in a larger extent is but a combination of the two former 〈◊〉 therfore it requires no further particular insistance upon it to shew tha◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this the proportion of a Separated to an 〈◊〉 Soul must needs be the self same as in the other seeing a Separated Soul's activity is upon all place is in an Indivisible of time Therfore to shut up this point there remains only for us to consider what addition may be made to the efficacity of a judgment by the concurrence of other extrinsecal helps We see that when an understanding man will settle any judgment or conclusion in his mind he weighs throughly all that follows out of such a judgment and considers likewise all the antecedents that lead him to iâ— and if after due reflection and examination of whatever concerns this conclusion which he is establishing in his mind he finds nothing to cross it but that every particular and circumstance goes smoothly along with and strengthens it he is then satisfied and quiet in his thoughts and yields a full assent therto which assent is the stronger the more concurrent testimonies he has for it And though he should have a perfect demonstration or sight of the thing in it self yet every one of the other extrinsecal proofs being as it were a new perswasion hath in it a further vigour to strengthen and content his mind in the fore-had demonstration for if every one of these be in it self sufficient to make the thing evident it cannot happen that any one of them should hinder the others but contrariwise every one of them must needs concurr with all the rest to the effectual quieting of his understanding in its assent to that judgment Now then according to this rate let us calculate if we can what concurrence of proofs and witnesses a Separated Soul will have to settle and strengthen her in every one of her judgments We know that all verities are chain'd and connected one to another and that there is no true conclusion so far remote from any other but may by more or less consequences and discourses be deduced evidently out of it it follows then that in the abstracted Soul where all such consequences are ready drawn and seen in themselvs without extention of time or employing of pains to collect them every particular verity bears testimony to any other so that every one of them is believ'd and works in the sence and virtue of all Out of which it is manifest that every judgment in such a Separated Soul hath an infinite strength and efficacity over any made by an embodyed one To sum all up in a few words We find three roots of infinity in every action of a Separated Soul compar'd to one in the Body First the freedom of her essence or substance it self Next that quality of hers by which she comprehends place and time that is all permanent and successive quantity and Lastly the concurrence of infinite knowledges to every action of hers Having then this measure in our hands let us apply it to a Well-order'd and to a Disorder'd Soul passing out of this world let us consider the oneset upon those goods which she shall there have present and shall fully enjoy the other languishing after and pining away for those which are impossible for her ever to obtain What joy what content what exultation of mind in any living man can be conceiv'd so great as to be compared with the happiness of one of these Souls And what grief what discontent what misery can be like the others These are the different effects which the divers manners of living in this world cause in Souls after they are deliver'd from their Bodies Out of which and the discourse that hath discover'd these effects to us we see a clear resolution of that so main and agitated question among the Philosophers Why a rational Soul is imprison'd in a gross Body of Flesh and Blood In truth the question is an illegitimate one as supposing a false ground for the Soul 's being in the Body is not an imprisonment of a thing that was existent before the Soul and Body met together but her being there is the natural course of begining that which can no other way come into the lists of nature For should a Soul by the course of nature obtain her first being without a Body either she would in the first instant of her being be perfect in knowledg or she would not if she were then would she be a perfect compleat immaterial substance not a Soul whose nature is to be a copartner to the Body and to acquire her perfection by the medâ—ation and service of corporeal senseâ— but if she were not perfect in Science but were only a capacity therto and like white paper in which nothing were yet written then unless she were 〈◊〉 into a Body she could never arrive to know any thing because motion alteration are effects peculiar to Bodies Therfore 〈◊〉 be agreed that she is naturally
design'd to be in a 〈◊〉 Bâ—t â—er being in a Body is her being one thing with the Body she is sais â—o be in And so she is one part of a whole which from its weaker part is denominated to be a Body Again since the matter of any thing is to be prepared before the end is prepared for which that matter is to serve according to that Axiom Quodest primum in intentione est ultimum in executione we may not deny but that the Body is in being some time before the Soul or at least that it exists as soon as she doth And therfore it appears wholly unreasonable to say that the Soul was first made out of the Body and was afterwards thrust into it since the Body was prepared for the Soul before or at least as soon as she had any begining And so we may conclude that of necessity the Soul must be begun lay'd hatch'd and perfected in the Body And though it be true that such Souls as are separated from their Bodies in the first instant of their being there are notwithstanding imbued with the knowledg of all things yet is not their longer abode there in vain not only because therby the species is multiplied for nature is not content with barely doing that without addition ofsome good to the Soul it self as we for the wonderful and I may say infinite advantage that may therby accrew to the Soul if she make right use of it For as any act of the abstracted Soul is infinite in comparison of the acts which men exercise in this life according to what we have already shew'd so by consequence must any encrease of it be likewise infinite And therfore we may conclude that a long life well spent is the greatest and most excellent gift which nature can bestow on a man The unwary reader may perhaps have difficulty at our often repeating the infelicity of a miserable Soul since we say that it proceeds out of the judgments she had formerly made inthis life which without all doubt were false ones and nevertheless it is evident that no false judgments can remain in a Soul after she is separated from her Body as we have above determined How then can a Soul's judgments be the cause of her misery But the more heedful reader will have noted that the misery which we put in a Soul proceeds out of the Inequality not out of the Falsity of her judgments For if a man be inclined to a lesser good more than to a greater he will in action betake himself to the lessergood desert the greater wherin neither judgment is false nor either inclination is naught meerly out of the improportion of the two inclinations or judgments to the ir objects For that a Soul may be duely order'd and in a state of being well she must have a lesser inclination to a lesser good and a greater inclination to a greater good And in pure Spirits these inclinations are nothing else but the strength of their judgments which judgments in Soul's while they are in their Bodies are made by the repetition of more acts from stronger causes or in more favourable circumstances And so it appears how without any falsity in any judgment a Soul may become miserable by her conversation in this world where all her inclinations generally are good unless the disproportion of them make them bad CHAP. XII Of the perseverance of a Soul in the state she finds her self in aâ— her first separation from her Body THus we have brought Mans Soul out of the Body shelived in here by which she convers'd had commerce with the other parts of this world we have assign'd her her first array and stole with which she may be seen in the next world so that now there remains only forus to consider what shallbetide her afterwards and whether any change may happen to and be made in her after the first instant of her being a pure Spirit separated from all consortship with material substances To determine this point the more clearly let us call tomind an Axiom which Aristotle gives us in his Logick That As it is true if the effect be there is a cause so likewise 't is most true that if the cause be in act or causing the effect must also be Which Axiom may be understood two ways One that if the cause hath its effect then the effect also is and this is no great mystery norfor it are any thanks due to the teacher itbeing but a repetition and saying-over-again of the same thing The other way is that if the cause be perfect in the nature of a cause then the effect is which is as much as to say that if nothing be wanting to the cause abstracting precisely from the effect then neither is the effect wanting And this is the meaning of Aristotle's Axiome of the truth evidence wherof in this sense if any man should make the least doubt it were easie to evince it As thus If nothing be wanting but the effect yet the effect doth not immediately follow it must needs be that it cannot follow at all for if it can and doth not then somthing more must be done to make it follow which is against the supposition that nothing was wanting but the effect for that for which it is to be done was wanting To say it will follow without any change is sensles for if it will follow without change it follows out of this which is already put but if it follow out of this which is precisely put then it follows against the supposition which was that it did not follow although this were put This then being evident let us apply it to our purpose and put three or more things namely A. B. C. and D wherof none can work otherwise than in a instant or indivisibly And I say that whatever these four things are able to do without respect to any other thing besides them is compleatly done in the first instant of their being put and if they remain for all eternity without communication or respect to any other thing there shall never be any innovation in any of them or any further working among them but they will alwaies remain immutable in the same state they were in at the very first instant of their being put For whatever A can do in the first instant is in that first instant actually done because he works indivisibly and what can be done precisely by A. by his action joyned to B. precisely follows out of A. and his action and out of B. and his action if B. have any action independent of A And because all these are in the same instant whatever follows precisely out of these and nothing else that is in the same instant and works indivisibly as they do is necessarily done in that very instant but all the actions of C. D. of whatever by reflection from them may be done by A. and
that every action of thine be it never so slight is mainly mischievous or be it never so bedeckt with those specious considerations which the wise men of the world judg important is foolish absurd and unworthy of a man unworthy of one that understands and acknowledges thy dignity if in it there be any speck or through it there appear any spark of those mean and flat motives which with a false byas draw any way aside from attaining that happiness we expect in thee That happiness ought to be the end and mark we level at that the rule and model of all our actions that the measure of every circumstance of every atome of whatever we bestow so precious a thing upon as the employment of thee is But we must not so slightly pass over the intenseness and vehemence of that Felicity which thou my Soul shalt injoy when thou art sever'd from thy benuming compartner I see evidently that thou dost not survive a simple dull essence but art replenish'd with a vast incomprehensible extent of riches delight within thy self I see that golden chain which here by long discourses fills huge volumes of Books and dives into the Hidden natures of several Bodies all in thee resumed into one circle or link which contains in it self the large scope of whatever screwing discourse can reach to I see it comprehend and master the whole world of Bodies I see every particular nature as it were imbossed out to the life in thy celestial garment I see every solitary substance rank'd in its due place and order not crush'd or throng'd by the multitude of its fellows but each of them in its full extent in the full propriety of every part and effect of it and distinguish'd into more divisions than ever nature sever'd it into In thee I see an infinite multitude enjoy place enough I see that neither height nor profundity nor longitude nor latitude are able to exempt themselvs from thy defused powers they faddom all they comprehend all they master all they inrich thee with the stock of all and thou thy self art all and somwhat more than all and yet now but one of all I see that every one of this all in thee encreases the strength by which thou know'st any other of the same all al encreases the knowledg of all by a multiplication beyond the skill of Arithmetick being in its kind absolutely infinite by having a nature incapable of being either infinite or finite I see again that those things which have not knowledg are situated in the lowest and meanest rank of creatures and are in no wise comparable to those which know I see there is no pleasure at all no happiness no felicity but by and in knowledg Experience teaches me how the purer and nobler race of mankind adores in their hearts this idol of knowledg and scorns whatever else they seem to court and be fond of And I see that this excess or Sea of knowledg which is in thee grows not by the succession of one thought after another but it is like a full swoln Ocean never ebing on any coast but equally pushing at all its bounds and tumbling out its flowing waves on every side and into every creek so that every where it makes high tide Or like a pure Sun which from all parts of it shoots its radiant beams with a like extremity of violence And I see likewise that this admirable knowledg is not begotten and conserv'd in thee by the accidentary help of defective causes but rooted in thy self and steep'd in thy own essence like an unextinguishable sourse of a perpetual streaming fire or the living head of an everruning spring beholding to none out of thy self save only to thy Almighty Creator and begging of none but being in thy self all that of which thou should'st beg This then my Soul being thy lot and such a height of pleasure being reserv'd for thee such an extremity of felicity within a short space attending thee can any degenerate thought ever gain strength enough to shake the evidence which these considerations implant and rivet in thee Can any dull oblivion deface this so lively and so beautiful image or any length of time draw in thy memory a veil between it and thy present attention Can any perversity so distort thy straight eys that thou should'st not look alwaies fix'd on this Mark and level thy aim directly at this White How is it possible that thou canst brook to live and not expire presently therby to ingulf thy self and be throughly imbibed with such an overflowing bliss Why dost thou not break the walls and chains of thy flesh and blood and leap into this glorious liberty Here Stoicks you are to use your swords Upon these considerations you may justifie the letting out the blood which by your discourses you seem so prodigal of To die upon these terms is not to part with that which you fondly call happy life feeding your selvs and flattering your hearts with empty words but rather it is to plunge your selvs into a felicity you were never able to imagine or frame to your misguided thoughts any scantling of But nature pulls me by the ear and warns me from being so wrongful to her as to conceive that so wise a governess should to no advantage condemn mankind to so long a banishment as the ordinary extent of his dull life wearisom pilgrimage here under the Sun reaches to Can we imagine she would allow him so much lazy time to effect nothing in Or can we suspect she intends him no further advantage than what an abortive child arrives to in his mothers womb For whatever the nets and toils of discourse can circle in all that he who but once knows that himself is can attain to as fully as he that is enrich'd with the Science of all things in the world For the connexion of things is so linked together that proceeding from any one you reach the knowledg of many and from many you cannot 〈◊〉 of attaining all So that a Separated Soul which but knows her self cannot choose but know her Body too and from her Body she cannot miss in proceeding from the causes of them both as far as immediate causes proceed from others over them and as little can she be ignorant of all the effects of those causes she reaches to And thus all that huge masse of knowleg and happ ness which we have consider'd in our last reflection amounts to no more than the silliest Soul buried in warm blood can and will infallibly attain to when its time comes We 〈◊〉 then assure our selvs that just nature hath provided and 〈◊〉 a greater measure of such felicity for longer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much greater as may well be worth the pains and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so miserable and tedious a passage as here my Soul 〈◊〉 â—gglest through For certainly if the dull percussion which by natures institution hammers out a spiritual Soul from gross 〈◊〉
effects in their issue 4. Of antipathies 5. Of Sympathies 6. That the Antipathy of Beasts towards one another may be taken away by assuefaction 7. Of Longing marks seen in children Why divers men hate some certain meats and particularly Cheese 9. Concerning the providence of Arts in laying up store for winter 10. Concerning the Foreknowing of Beasts 1. What is a right apprehension of a thing 2. The very thing it self is truly in his understanding who rightly apprehends it 3. The apprehension of things coming to us by our senses are resolvable into other more simple apprehensions 4. The apprehension of a being is the most simple and basis of all the rest 5. The apprehension of a thing is in next degree to that of Being and it is the Basis of all the subsequent ones 6. The apprehension of things known to us by our senses consists in certain respects betwixt two things 7. Respect or relation hath not really any formal being but only in the apprehension of man 8. That Existence or being is the proper affection of man and that mans Soul is a comparing power 9. A thing by coming into the understanding of man looseth nothing of its own peculiar nature 10. A multitude of things may be united in mans understanding without being mingled or counfounded together 11. Of Abstracted and Concrete terms 12. Of Universal nâ—tions 13. Of apprehending a multitude under one notion 14. The power of the understanding reaches as far as the extent of being 1. How a Judgment is made by the Understanding 3. How the notions of a Substantive and an Adjective are united in the Soul by the common stock of Being 4. That a setled judgment becomes a part of our Soul 5. How the Soul comes to deem or settle a Judgment 6. Hâ—w Opinion is begotten in the Understanding 7. How Faith is begotten in the understanding 8. Why Truth is the perfection of a Reasonable Soul and why it is not found in Simple Apprehensions as well as in Enuntiations 9. What is a solid Judgment â—nd what a slight one 10. What is an acute judgment and what a dull one 11. In what consists quickness and clearness of judgment and their opposite vices 1. How discourse is made 2. Of the Figures and Moâ—ds of Syllogisms 3. That the life of man as man consists in Discourse and of the vast extent of it Dial. de Mundo 3. Of humane actions and of those that concern our selvs 5. Of humane actions as they concern our neighbours 6. Of Logick 7. Of Grammar 8. Of Rhetorick Horat. de Art Poet. 9. Of Poetry 10. Of the power of speaking 11. Of arts that concern dumb and insensible creatures 12. Of Arithmetick 13. Of Prudence 14. Observations upon what hath been said in this Chapter 1. That humane actions proceed from two several principles Understanding and Sense 2. How our general and inbred maximes concur to humane action 3. That the rules and maximes of Arts work positively in us though we think not of them 4. How the Understanding casts about when it wants sufficient grounds for action 5. How Reason rules over Sense and Passion 6. How we recal our thoughts from distractions 7. How Reason is somtimes overcome by Sense and Passion 1. The connection of the subsequent Chapters with the precedent 2. The inexistence of corporeal things in the Soul by the power of apprehension proves her to be immaterial 3. The notion of Being which is innate in the Soul proves the same 4. The same is proved by the notion of respects 5. That corporeal things are spiritualiz'd in the understanding by means of the Souls working in and by respects 6. That the abstracting of notions from all particular individual accidents proves the immateriality of the Soul 7 Th◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same 9. The operations of the Soul drawing always from multitude to unity prove the same 10. The difference betwixt the notion of a thing in our Understanding and the imptession that corresponds to the same thing in our Fansie proves the same 11. The apprehension of negations and privations prove the same 1. The manner of judging or deeming by apprehending two things to be identified proves the Soul to be immaterial 2. The same is proved by the manner of apprehending Opposition in a negative judgment 3. That things in themselvs opposite to one another having no opposition in the Soul doth prove the same 4 That the First Truths are Identified to the Soul 5. That the Soul hath an infinite capacity and consequently is immaterial 6. That the opposition of contradictory Propositions in the Soul proves her immaterial 7. How Propositions of eternal Truth prove the immateriality of the Soul 〈◊〉 That in Discoursing the Soul contains more in it at the same time than is in the fantasie which proves her to be immaterial 2. That the nature of Discourse proves the Soul to be order'd to infinite knowledg and consequently to be immaterial 3. That the most natural objects of the Soul are immaterial and consequently the Soul her self is such 1. That the Souls being a power to order things proves it to be immaterial 2. That the Soul 's being able to move without being moved proves her to be immaterial 5. That the Soul 's proceeding to action with an Universality indifferency proves the same 4. That the quiet proceeding of reason proves the same 5. A Conclusion of what hath been said hitherto in this Second Treatise 1. That mans Soul is a Substance 2. That man is compounded of some other Substance besides his Body 3. That the Soul subsists of it self independently of the Body 4. Two other Arguments to prove the same on sitive the ther negt 5. The same is proved because the Soul cannot be obnoxious to the cause of immortality 6. The same is proved because the Soul hath no contrary 7. The same is proved from the end for which the Soul was created 8. The same is proved because she can move without being moved 9. The same is proved from her 〈◊〉 of operation which is grounded in being 10. Lastly it is proved from the Science of Morality the principles wherof would be destroy'd if the Soul were mortal 1. That the Soul is one simple knowing Act which is a pure substance and nothing but substance Thâ—t 〈◊〉 rated is in nâ— and ye absent any pâ— Bâ—eÌ„tius 3. That a Separated Soul is not in time nor subject to it 4. That the Soul is an active substance and all in it is activity 5. A Description of the Soâ—l 6. That a Separated Soul knows all that which she knew whilst she was in her Body 5. That the least knowledg which the Soul acquires in her body of any one thing causes in her when she is separated from her body a compleat knowledg of all things whatever 8. An answer to the objections of some Peripateticks who maintain the Soul to perish with the Body 9. The former Peripapeticks refuted out of Aristotle 10. The operations of a Separated Soul compared to her operations in her Body 1. That a Soul in this life is subject to mutation and may be perfected in knowledg 2. That the knowledges which a Soul gets in this life will make her knowledg in the next life more perfect and firm 3 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aâ— mâ—e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 next woâ—d thâ— tâ—e Soâ—s of unlearned men 4. That those 〈◊〉 which embrace Vâ—rtue in 〈◊〉 world will be most perfect in the next and thâ—se which embrace Viâ—e â—st miserable 5. The 〈◊〉 of a 〈◊〉 Soul in the next life 6. The funda mental reason why as well happiness as misery is so excessive in the next life 7. The reason why Man's Soul requires to be in a Body and to live for some space of time joyn'd with it 8. That the misery of the Soul in the next world proceeds out of the inequality not falsity of her judgments 1. The explication proof of that maxime that if the cause be in act the effect must also be 2. The effects of all such agents as work instantaneously are compleat in the first instant that the agents are put 3. All pure Spirits work instantaneously 4. That a Soul separated from her Body cannot suffer any change after the first instant of her separation 5 That temporal sins are justly punish'd with eternal pains
downwards Nor need we fear lest the littlenessof the agents or the feebleness of their stroaks should not be sufficient to work this effect since there is no resistance in the body it self and the air is continually cut in pieces by the Sun-beams and by the motions of little bodies so that the adhesion to air of the body to be moved will be no hind'rance to this motion especially considering the perpetual new percussions and the multitude of them and how no force is so little but that with time and multiplication it will overcome any resistance But if any man desires to look on as it were at one view the whole chain of this doctrine of Gravity let him turn the first cast of his eyes on what we have said of fire when we explicated the nature of it To wit that it begins from a little source and by extreme multiplication and rarefaction extends it self into a great sphere And then hee 's perceive the reason why light is darted from the body of the Sun with that incredible celerity wherewith its beams fly to visit the remotest parts of the world and how of necessity it gives motion to all circumstant bodies since it is violently thrust forward by so extreme rarefaction and the further it goes is still the more rarified and dilated Next let him reflect how infinitely the quickness of lights motion prevents the motion of a moist body such an one as air is and then he wil plainly see that the first motion which light is able to give the air must needs be a swelling of that moist element perpendicularly round about the earth For the ray descendent and the ray reflectent flying with so great a speed that the air between them cannot take a formal pley any way before the beams of light be on both sides of it it followes that according to the nature of humide things it must first only swell for that is the beginning of motion in them when heat enters into and works on them And thus he may confidently resolve himself that the first motion which light causes in the air will be a swelling of it between the two rays towards the middle of them That is perpendicularly from the surface of the earth And out of this he will likewise plainly see that if there be any other little dense bodies floating in the air they must likewise mount a little through this swelling and rising of the air But that mounting will be no more then the immediate parts of the air themselvs move Because this motion is not by way of impulse or stroke that the air gives those denser bodies but by way of containing them in it and carrying them with it so that it gives them no more celerity then to make them go with it self and as parts of it self Then let him consider that light or fire by much beating upon the earth divides some little parts of it from others wherof if any become so small and tractable as not to exceed the strength which the rays have to manage them the returning rays will at their going back carry away with or drive before them such little atomes as they made or met with and so fill the air with little bodies cut out of the earth After this let him consider that when light caries up an atome with it the light and the atome stick together and make one ascending body in such sort as when an empty dish lies upon the water the air in the dish makes one descendent body together with the dish it self so that the density of the whole body of air and dish which in this case are but as one body is to be esteem'd according to the density of the two parts one of them being allay'd by the other as if the whole where thrughout of such a proportion of density as would arise out of the composition and kneading together the several densities of those two parts Now then when these little compounded bodies of light and earth are carryed up to a determinate height the parts of fire or light by little and little break away from them and therby the bulk of the part which is left becoms of a different degree of density quantity for quantity from the bulk of the entire atome when light was part of it and consequently it is denser then it was Besides let him consider that when these bodies ascend they go from a narrow room to a large one that is from the centrewards to the circumference but when they come down again they go from a larger part to a narrower Whence it followes that as they descend they draw closer and closer together and by consequence are subject to meet and fall in one with another and therby to increase their bulk and become more powerful in density not only by the loss of their fire but also by the encrease of their quantity And so 't is evident that they are denser coming down then going up Lastly let him consider that those atoms which went up first and are parted from their volative companions of fire or light must begin to come down apace when other new atoms which still have their light incorporated with them ascend to where they are and go beyond them by reason of their greater levity And as the latter atoms come up with a violence and great celerity so must the first go down with a smart impulse and by consequence being more dense then the air in which they are carryed must of necessity cut their way through that liquid and rare Medium and go the next way to supply the defect and room of the atoms which ascend that is perpendicularly to the earth and give the like motion to any body they find in their way if it be susceptible of such a motion Which 't is evident that all bodies are unless they be strucken by some contrary impulse For since a bodies being in a place is nothing else but the continuity of its outside to the inside of the body that contains it and is its place it can have no other repugnance to local motion which is nothing else but a successive changing of place besides this continuity Now the nature of density being the power of dividing and every least power having some force efficacy as we have shew'd above it follows that the stroke of every atome either descending or ascending will work somthing upon any body though never so big it chances to incounter with and strike upon in its way unless there be as strong an impulse the contrary way to oppose it But it being determin'd that the descending atoms are denser then those that ascend it follows that the descending ones will prevail And consequently all dense bodies must necessarily tend downwards to the center which is to be heavy 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
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 parts we may conceive either kind of those parts to be bigger or lesser or to be more rare or more dense Now if the dry parts of any body be extreme little and dense and the moist parts that joyn the dry ones together be very great and rare then that body will be very easie to be dissolv'd But if the moist parts which glew together such extreme little and dense dry parts be either lesser in bulk or not so rare then the body composed of them will be in a stronger degree of consistence And if the moist parts which serve for this effect be in an excess of littleness and withal 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 parts which are moderately dense great by the admixtion of humid parts that are of the least size in bulk and dense withal then the consistence will decrease from its height by how much the parts are greater and the density less But if to dry parts of the greatest size and in the greatest remisness of density you add humid parts both very great and very rare then the composed body will prove the most easily dissolveable of all that nature affords After this casting our eyes a little further towards the composition of particular bodies we shall find still greater mixtures the further we go for as the first and simplest compounded bodies are made of the four Elements so others are made of these and again a third sort of them and so on-wards according as by motion the parts of every 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 immediatly made As for example such a proportion of Fire to the other three Elements will make one kind of simple body and another proportion will make another kind and so throughout by various combinations and proportions among all the Elements In the effecting of which work it will not be amiss to look a little upon nature and observe how she mingles and tempers different bodies one with another wherby she begets that great variety of creatures we see in the World But because the degrees of composition are infinite according to the encrease of number we will contain our selves within the common notions of excess in the four primary components for if we should descend once to specifie any determinate proportions we should endanger losing our selvs in a wood of particular natures which belong not to us at present to examin Then taking the four Elements as materials to work upon let us first consider how they may be varied that differing compositions may result out of their mixtures I conceive that all the ways of varying the Elements in this regard may be reduced to the several sizes of Bigness of the Parts of each Element that enter into the composition of any body and to the Number of those Parts for certainly no other can be imagin'd unless it were variety of Figure But that cannot be admited to belong in any constant manner to those least particulars wherof bodies are framed as if determinate figures were in every degree of quantity due to the natures of Elements and therfore the Elements would conserve themselves in those figures as well in their least atoms as massie bulk For seeing how these little parts are shuffled together without any order and that all liquids easily joyn and take the figures which the dense ones give them and that they again justling one another crush themselves into new shapes to which their mixture with the liquid ones makes them yield the more easily t is impossible the elements should have any other natural figure in these their least parts then such as chance gives them But that one part must be bigger then another is evident for the nature of rarity and density gives it the first of them causing divisibility into little parts and the latter hindring it Having then settled in what manner the Elements may be varied in the composition of bodies let us now begin our mixture In which our ground to work upon must be Earth and Water For only these two are the Basis of permanent bodies that suffer our senses to take hold of them and submit themselvs to trial Wheras if we should make the predominant Element to be Air or Fire and bring in the other two solid ones under their jurisdiction only to make up the mixture the compound resulting out of them would be either in continual consumption as ordinary fire is or else through too much subtlety imperceptible to our eyes or touch therfore not a fit subject for us to discourse of especially since the other two Elements afford us enough to speculate on Peradventure our Smel might take some cognisance of a body so composed or the effect of it taken in by respiration might in time shew it self upon our health but it concerns not us now to look so far our design requires more maniable substances Of these then let Water be the first and with it we will mingle the other three elements in excess over one another by turns but stil all of them oversway'd by a predominant quantity of water and then let us see what kind of bodies will result out of such proportions First if earth prevail above fire and air and arrive next in proportion to the water a body of such a composition must needs prove hardly liquid and not easie to let its parts run a sunder by reason of the great proportion of so dense a body as earth that holds it together Yet some inclination it will have to fluidness by reason the water is predominant over all which also will make it be easily divisible and give every little resistance to any hard thing that shall be apply'd to make way through it In a word this mixture makes the constitution of Mud Dirt Honey Butter and such like things where the main parts are great ones And such are the parts of earth and water in themselvs Let the next proportion of excess in a watry compound be of air which when it prevails incorporates it self chiefly with earth for the other Elements would not so well retain it Now because its parts are subtile by reason of the rarity it hath and sticking because of its humidity it drives the earth and water likewise into lesser parts The result of such a mixture is that the parts of a body compounded by it are close catching flowing slowly glibb and generally it will burn and be easily converted into flame Of this kind are those we call Oyly or unctuous bodies whose great parts are easily separated that is easily divisible
aversion from it immediately proceeds As when a dog sees a man that uses to give him meat the species of the man coming into his fansie calls out of his memory the others which are of the same nature and are former participations of that man as well as this fresh one is but these are joyn'd with spicies of meat because at other times they did use to come in together and therfore the meat being a good unto him and causing him in the manner we have said to move towards it it will follow that the dog will presently move towards that man and express a contentedness in being with him And this is the ground of all assuefaction in beasts and of making them capable of receiving any instructions CHAP. XXXV Of the material instruments of Knowledge and Passion Of the several effects of Passions Of Pain and Pleasure and how the vital spirits are sent from the brain into the intended parts of the body without mistaking their way TO conclude this great business which concerns all the mutations and motions that are made by outward Agents in a living creature it will not be amiss to take a short and general survey of the material instruments which concur to this effect Wherof the brain being principal or at least the first and next of the principals we may take notice that it contains towards the middle of its substance four concavities as some count them but in truth these four are but one great concavity in which four as it were divers rooms may be distinguished The nether part of these concavities is very unequal having joyn'd to it a kind of a net wrought by the entangling of certain little arteries and of small emanations from a Sinus which are interwoven together Besides this it is full of kernels which make it yet more uneven Now two rooms of this great concavity are divided by a little body somwhat like a skin though more fryable which of it self is clear but there it is somwhat dim'd by reason that hanging a little slack it somwhat shrivels together and this Anatomists call Septum lucidum or speculum and 't is a different body from all the rest that are in the brain This transparent body hangs as it were straightwards from the forehead towards the hinder part of the head and divides the hollow of the brain as far as it reaches into the right and the left ventricles This part seems to me after weighing all circumstances and considering all the conveniencies and fitnesses to be that and only that in which the fansie or common sense resides though Monsir des Cartes has rather chosen a kernel to place it in The reasons of my assertions are First that it is in the middle of the brain which is the most convenient situation to receive the messages from all our body that come by nervs some from before and some from behind Secondly that with its two sides it seems conveniently opposed to all such of our senses as are double the one of them sending its little messengers or atomes to give it advertisements on one side the other on the other side so that it is capable of receiving impression indifferently from both Again by the nature of the body it seems more fit to receive all differences of motion than any other body near it It is also most conformable to the nature of the eye which being our principal outward sense must needs be in the next degree to that which is elevated a strain above our outward senses Fifthly it is of a singular and peculiar nature wheras the kernels are many and all of them of the same condition quality and appearance Sixthly it is seated in the very hollow of the brain which of necessity must be the place and receptacle where the specieses and similitudes of things reside and where they are moved and tumbled up and down when we think of many things And lastly the situation we put our head in when we think earnestly of any thing favours this opinion for then we hang our head forwards as it were forcing the specieses to settle towards our forehead that from thence they may rebound and work upon this diaphanous substance This then supposed let us consider that the atomes or likenesses of bodies having given their touch upon this Septum or Speculum do thence retire back into the concavities and stick as by chance it happens in some of the inequalities they encounter with there But if some wind or forcible steam should break into these caves and as it were brush and sweep them over it must follow that these little bodies will loosen themselvs and begin to play in the vapour which fills this hollow place and so floting up and down come anew to strike and work upon the Speculum or fantasy Which being also a soluble body many times these atomes striking on it carry some little corporeal substance from it sticking upon them whence ensues that they returning again with those tinctures or participations of the very substance of the fantasy make us remember not only the objects themselvs but also that we have thought of them before Further we are to know that all the nervs of the brain have their beginnings not far from this speculum of which we shall more particularly consider two that are call'd the sixth pair or couple which pair has this singularity that it begins in a great many little branches that presently grow together and make two great ones contain'd within one skin Now this being the property of a sense which requires to have many fibers in it that it may be easily and vigorously strucken by many parts of the object lighting upon many parts of those little fibers it gives us to understand that this sixth couple hath a particular nature conformable to the nature of an extern sense and that the Architect who placed it there intended by the several conduits of it to give notice to some part they go to of what passes in the brain And accordingly one branch of this nerve reaches to the heart not only to the Pericardium as Galen thought but even to the very substance of the heart it self as later Anatomists have discover'd by which we plainly see how the motion which the senses make in the Speculum may be derived down to the heart Now therfore let us consider what effects the motions so convey'd from the brain will work in the heart First remembring how all that moves the heart is either pain or pleasure though we do not use to call it pain but grief when the evil of sense moves us only by memory and not by being actually in the sense and then calling to mind how pain as Naturalists teach us consists in some division of a nerve which they call Solutio continui and must be in a nerve for that no solution can be the cause of pain without sense nor sense be without nerves we may conclude
that the effect which we call pain is nothing else but a compression For although this solution of continuity may seem to be a dilatation yet in truth it is a compression in the part where the evil is which happens to it in the same manner as we shew'd when we spoke of the motion of Restitution it doth to stiff bodies that by violence are compress'd and drawn into a lesse capacious figure than their nature affects and return into their own state as soon as the mastring violence leaves them at liberty Pleasure therfore must be contrary to this and consist in a moderate dilatation for an immoderate one would cause a compression in some adherent parts and there would become pain And conformable to this we experience that generally they are hard things which breed pain to us and those which breed pleasure are oily and soft as meats and odours which are sweet to the taste and smell and soft substances which are grateful to the touch the excess of all which proves offensive and painful so that from the extremity of pleasure one enters presently upon the confines of pain Now then let us consider how the little similitudes of bodies which from without come into the fantasy must of necessity work there according to their little power effects proportionable to what they wrought first in the outward senses from whence they were convey'd to the brain For the senses that is the nervs and the Septum lucidum having both of them their origin from the very substance of the brain and differing only in degrees of purity and refinement the same object must needs work like effects in both compressing or dilating them proportionaby to one another Which compression or dilatation is not pain or pleasure as it is in the outward sense but as it is reported to the heart and that being the seat of all pains or pleasures wrought in other parts and that as it were dies them into those qualities is not capable of feeling either it self so that the strokes of any little similitudes upon the fantasie make only compressions or dilatations there not pains or pleasures Now these bodies or similitudes if they be reverberated from the fantasie or Septum Lucidum upon the little roots of the nervs of the fixt couple which go to the heart must needs work there a proportionable impression to what they wrought upon the fansie either compressing or dilating it and the heart being extremely passive by reason of its exceeding tenderness and heat cannot choose but change its motion at least in part if not in whole and this with relation to two causes one the disposition of the heart it self the other the vehemency of the stroke This change of motion and different beating of the heat is that which properly is called Passion and is ever accompanied with pleasure or with grief according to the nature of the impression that either contracts or dilates the heart and the spirits about it and is discovered by the beating of the arteries and of the pulse Conformable wherunto Physicians tell us that every passion hath a distinct pulse The pulses are divided in common by abundance or by want of spirits yet it both kinds they may have common disferences for in abundance the pulse may be quick or slow regular or irregular equal or unequal and the like may happen in defect of spirits according to the motions of the heart which are their causes Again the object by being present or further off makes the stroke greater or lesser and accordingly varies the motion of the heart Let us then call to mind how we have formerly declared that life consists in heat and humidity and that these two join'd together make a thing great and we may conclude that of necessity the motion which is most lively must have a great full and large stroke like the even rolling waves of a wide and smooth sea and not too quick or smart like the breaches of a narrow Fretum agitated by tempestuous winds From this other motions may vary either by excess or by deficiency the first makes the stroke become smart violent and thick the other slackens it and makes it grow little slow weak and thin or seldom And if we look into the motions of our heart we shall see these three differences of them follow three several chief passions The first follows the passion of Joy the second the passion of Anger and the third the passion of Grief Nor need we look any further into the causes of the several motions for we see that Joy and Grief following the stroke of sense the one of them must consist in an oily dilatation that is the spirits about the heart must be dilated by a gentle large great and sweet motion in a moderation between velocity and slowness the other contrariwise following the stroke of sense in pain as the first did in pleasure must contract the spirits and consequently make their motion or stroke become little and deficient from all the properties we have above set down As for Anger the motion following that passion is when the abundance of spirits in the heart is a little check'd by the contrary stroke of sense but presently overcomes that opposition and then as we see a hinder'd water or a man that suddainly or forcibly brake through what withstood their motion go on with a greater violence than they did and as it were precipitately so the heart having overcome the contraction which the sense made in it dilates it self with a fury and makes its motion smart and vehement Whence also it follows that the spirits grow hotter than they were and accordingly it is often seen that in the scoulding of a woman and in the irritation of a dog if ever now and then one thwart them and interpose a little opposition their fury will be so sharpned and heightned that the woman will be transported beyond all limits of reason and the dog will be made mad with nothing else done to him but angring him at convenient times and some men likewise have by slight oppositions iterated speedily upon them before their spirits could relent their vehement motion and therfore must still encrease it been angred into feavors This passion of Anger seems almost to be solitary on the side of excess beyond joy which is as it were the standard and perfection of all passions as light or whiteness is of all colours but on the other side of deficiency there are several middle passions which participate more or less of joy and grief As particularly those two famous ones which govern mans life Hope and Fear Concerning which Physicians tell us that the pulse or beating of Fear is quick hard and unequal to which I conceive we may safely add that it must also be small and feeble the perfection of joy decreasing in it on one side to wit from greatness and largeness but not intirely so that a kind of quickness supplies