encounter and that the fruits which Antiquity hath believed to be mixt bodies and those composed from a concurrence of four Elements are materially of one onely Element also that those three Elements are naturally cold nor that native heat is any where in things except from Light Life Motion and an altering Blas In like manner that all actual moisture is of Water but all virtual moisture from the property of the seeds Likewise that dryness is by it self in the Air and Earth but in Fruits by reason of the Seeds and Coagulations and that there are not Contraries in Nature To give you my opinion hereof first I think it too great a presumption in any man to feign himself so much above the rest as to accuse all others of ignorance and that none but he alone hath the true knowledg of all things as infallible and undeniable and that so many Learned Wise and Ingenious Men in so many ages have been blinded with errors for certainly no particular Creature in Nature can have any exact or perfect knowledg of Natural things and therefore opinions cannot be infallible truths although they may seem probable for how is it possible that a single finite Creature should know the numberless varieties and hidden actions of Nature Wherefore your Author cannot say that he hath demonstrated any thing which could not be as much contradicted and perhaps with more reason then he hath brought proofs and demonstrations And thus when he speaks of Elements that there are not four in Nature and that they cannot go together or encounter it may be his opinion but others have brought as many reasons to the contrary and I think with more probability so as it is unnecessary to make a tedious discourse thereof and therefore I 'le refer you to those that have treated of it more learnedly and solidly then I can do But I perceive your Author is much for Art and since he can make solid bodies liquid and liquid bodies solid he believes that all bodies are composed out of the Element of Water and that Water therefore is the first Principle of all things when as Water in my opinion is but an Effect as all other natural Creatures and therefore cannot be a cause or principle of them Concerning the Natural coldness of Water Air and Earth it may be or not be so for any thing your Author can truly know but to my sense and reason it seems probable that there are things naturally hot and moist and hot and dry as well as cold and moist and cold and dry But all these are but several effects produced by the several actions of Natural Matter which Natural Matter is the onely Principle of all Natural Effects and Creatures whatever and this Principle I am confident your Author can no more prove to be Water then he can prove that Heat Light Life Motion and Blas are not material Concerning what he saith That Native Heat is no where in things except from Light Life Motion and an altering Blas I believe that motion of life makes not onely heat but all effects whatsoever but this native heat is not produced onely from the motions of Particular lives in particular Creatures but it is made by the motions of Natures life which life in all probability is the self-moving Matter which no doubt can and doth make Light and Blas without Heat and Heat without Light or Blas Wherefore Light and Blas are not principles of native Heat no more then native Heat is the principle of Light and Blas Neither is Water the Principle of Actual moisture nor the propriety of seeds the Principle of all Virtual moisture but self-moving Matter is the Principle of all and makes both actual and virtual moisture and there is no question but there are many sorts of moistures As for Dryness which he says is by it self in the Air and Earth and in Fruits by reason of the Seeds and Coagulations I cannot conceive how any thing can be by it self in Nature by reason there is nothing alone and single in Nature but all are inseparable parts of one body perchance he means it is naturally and essentially inherent in Air and Earth but neither can that be in my reason because all Creatures and Effects of Nature are Intermixt and there is as much dryness in other Creatures as in Air and Earth Lastly as for his opinion That there are no Contraries in Nature I believe not in the essence or nature of Matter but sense and reason inform us that there are Contraries in Natures actions which are Corporeal motions which cause mixtures qualities degrees discords as also harmonious conjunctions and concords compositions divisions and the like effects whatsoever But though your Author seems to be an enemy to the mixtures of Elements yet he makes such a mixture of Divinity and natural Philosophy that all his Philosophy is nothing but a meer Hotch-potch spoiling one with the other And so I will leave it to those that delight in it resting MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant IV. MADAM WAter according to your Authors opinion is frozen into Snow Ice or Hail not by Cold but by its own Gas But since I am not able to conceive what his Gas is being a term invented by himself I will briefly declare my own opinion which is That Snow Ice and Hail in my judgment are made in the like manner as Passions or Colours are made and raised in Man for a sad discourse or a cruel object will make a Man pale and cold and a fearful object will make him tremble whereas a wanton and obscene discourse will make some red and hot But yet these discourses and objects are onely external occasional and not immediate efficient causes of such alterations Also when a Man eats or drinks any thing that is actually hot or cold or enters into a cold or hot room bath or air he becomes hot or cold by the actions of those external agents that work upon him or rather whose motions the sensitive motions of his body do pattern out The like for diseases for they may be caused either by hearing ill reports or by taking either hurtful or superfluous food into the Body or by Infections inwardly or outwardly and many other ways Likewise may Colours be made different ways And so may Snow Ice and Hail for all loose rare and porous Bodies are more apt to alter and change then close solid and dense bodies and not onely to change from what they are but to rechange to what they were But Madam many studious persons study Nature more in her own substance then in her various actions which is the cause they arrive to no knowledg of Natures Works for the same parts of Matter may act or work several ways Like as a Man or other animal creature may put one part of his body into various and several postures and move it many different ways Your Author may say that although several Creatures may be
Animals do often see in the dark and in sleep I will not say but that the animate matter which by self-motion doth make the Perception of light with other perceptive Figures and so animal perceptive light may be the presenter or ground perceptive figure of sight yet the sensitive corporeal motions can make other figures without the help of light and such as light did never present But when the eye patterns out an exterior object presented by light it patterns also out the object of light for the sensitive motions can make many figures by one act not onely in several organs but in one organ as for example there is presented to sight a piece of Imbroydery wherein is silk silver and gold upon Sattin in several forms or figures as several flowers the sensitive motions streight by one and the same act pattern out all those several figures of flowers as also the figures of Silk Silver Gold and Sattin without any pressure of these objects or motions in the medium for if they all should press the eye would no more see the exterior objects then the nose being stopt could smell a presented perfume Thirdly They may ask me if sight be made in the eye and proceeds not from the outward object what is the reason that we do not see inwardly but outwardly as from us I answer when we see objects outwardly as from us then the sensitive motions work on the outside of the organ which organ being outwardly convex causes us to see outwardly as from us but in dreams we see inwardly also the sensitive motions do pattern out the distance together with the object But you will say the body of the distance as the air cannot be perceived and yet we can perceive the distance I answer you could not perceive the distance but by such or such an object as is subject to your sight for you do not see the distance more then the air or the like rare body that is between grosser objects for if there were no stars nor planets nor clouds nor earth nor water but onely air you would not see any space or distance but light being a more visible body then air you might figure the body of air by light but so as in an extensive or dilating way for when the mind or the rational matter conceives any thing that hath not such an exact figure or is not so perceptible by our senses then the mind uses art and makes such figures which stand like to that as for example to express infinite to it self it dilates it parts without alteration and without limitation or circumference Likewise when it will conceive a constant succession of Time it draws out its parts into the figure of a line and if eternity it figures a line without beginning and end But as for Immaterial no mind can conceive that for it cannot put it self into nothing although it can dilate and rarifie it self to an higher degree but must stay within the circle of natural bodies as I within the circle of your Commands to express my self MADAM Your faithful Friend and obedient Servant XXI MADAM HEat and Cold according to your Authors opinion are made by Dilation and Contraction for says he When the Motion of the ambient aethereal substance makes the spirits and fluid parts of our bodies tend outwards we acknowledg heat but by the indeavour inwards of the same spirits and humors we feel cold so that to cool is to make the exterior parts of the body endeavour inwards by a motion contrary to that of calefaction by which the internal parts are called outwards He therefore that would know the cause of Cold must find by what motion the exterior parts of any body endeavour to retire inwards But I desire you to consider Madam that there be moist Colds and dry Heats as well as dry Colds and moist Heats wherefore all sorts of Cold are not made by the retyring of parts inwards which is contraction or attraction neither are all sorts of Heat made by parts tending outwards which is dilation or rarefaction for a moist cold is made by dilation and a dry heat by contraction as well as a moist heat is made by dilation and a dry cold by contraction But your Author makes not this difference but onely a difference between a dilated heat and a contracted cold but because a cold wind is made by breath blown thorow pinched or contracted lips and an hot wind by breath through opened and extended lips should we judg that all heat and cold must be made after one manner or way The contracted mouth makes Wind as well as the dilated but yet Wind is not made that way as heat and cold for it may be that onely the air pressed together makes wind or it may be that the corporeal motions in the air may change air into wind as they change water into vapour and vapour into air or it may be something else that is invisible and rare as air and there may be several sorts of wind air heat cold as of all other Creatures more then man is capable to know As for your Authors opinion concerning the congealing of Water and how Ice is made I will not contradict it onely I think nature hath an easier way to effect it then he describes Wherefore my opinion is that it is done by altering motions as for example the corporeal motions making the figure of water by dilation in a Circle figure onely alter from such a dilating circular figure into a contracted square which is Ice or into such a contracted triangle as is snow And thus water and vapour may be changed with ease without any forcing pressing raking or the like The same may be said of hard and bent bodies and of restitution as also of air thunder and lightning which are all done by an easie change of motion and changing into such or such a figure is not the motion of Generation which is to build a new house with old materials but onely a Transformation I say a new house with old materials not that I mean there is any new Creation in nature of any thing that was not before in nature for nature is not God to make new beings out of nothing but any thing may be called new when it is altered from one figure into another I add no more at this time but rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXII MADAM THe Generation of sound according to your worthy Authors opinion is as follows As Vision says he so hearing is Generated by the medium but but not in the same manner for sight is from pressure that is from an endeavour in which there is no perceptible progression of any of the parts of the medium but one part urging or thrusting on another propagateth that action successively to any distance whatsoever where as the motion of the medium by which sound is made is a stroke for when we hear the drum of the
out the object of sent besides the nose but those are interior parts and take their patterns from the nose as the organ properly designed for it neither is their resentment the same because their motions are not alike for the stomack may perceive and pattern out a sent with aversion when the nose may pattern it out with pleasure And thus much also of Sent I conclude and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXIX MADAM COncerning your Learned Authors discourse of Density and Rality he defines Thick to be that which takes up more parts of a space given and thin which containes fewer parts of the same magnitude not that there is more matter in one place then in an other equal place but a greater quantity of some named body wherefore the multitude and paucity of the parts contained within the same space do constitute density and rarity Where of my opinion is That there is no more nor less space or place then body according to its ' dilation or contraction and that space and place are dilated and contracted with the body according to the magnitude of the body for body place and magnitude are the same thing only place is in regard of the several parts of the body and there is as well space betwixt things distant a hairs breadth from one another as betwixt things distant a million of miles but yet this space is nothing from the body but it makes that that body has not the same place with this body that is that this body is not that body and that this bodies place is not that bodies place Next your Author sayes He hath already clearly enough demonstrated that there can be no beginning of motion but from an external and moved body and that heavy bodies being once cast upwards cannot be cast down again but by external motion Truly Madam I will not speak of your Authors demonstrations for it is done most by art which I have no knowledg in but I think I have probably declared that all the actions of nature are not forced by one part driving pressing or shoving another as a man doth a wheel-barrow or a whip a horse nor by reactions as if men were at foot-ball or cuffs or as men with carts meeting each other in a narrow lane But to prove there is no self-motion in nature he goes on and says To attribute to created bodies the power to move themselves what is it else then to say that there be creatures which have no dependance upon the Creator To which I answer That if man who is but a single part of nature hath given him by God the power and a free will of moving himself why should not God give it to Nature Neither can I see how it can take off the dependance upon God more then Eternity for if there be an Eternal Creator there is also an Eternal Creature and if an Eternal Master an Eternal Servant which is Nature and yet Nature is subject to Gods Command and depends upon him and if all Gods Attributes be Infinite then his Bounty is Infinite also which cannot be exercised but by an Infinite Gift but a Gift doth not cause a less dependance I do not say That man hath an absolute Free-will or power to move according to his desire for it is not conceived that a part can have an absolute power nevertheless his motion both of body and mind is a free and self-motion and such a self-motion hath every thing in Nature according to its figure or shape for motion and figure being inherent in matter matter moves figuratively Yet do I not say That there is no hindrance obstruction and opposition in nature but as there is no particular Creature that hath an absolute power of self-moving so that Creature which hath the advantage of strength subtilty or policy shape or figure and the like may oppose and over-power another which is inferior to it in all this yet this hinderance and opposition doth not take away self-motion But I perceive your Author is much for necessitation and against free-will which I leave to Moral Philosophers and Divines And as for the ascending of light and descending of heavy bodies there may be many causes but these four are perceiveable by our senses as bulk or quantity of body grossness of substance density and shape or figure which make heavy bodies descend But little quantity purity of substance rarity and figure or shape make light bodies ascend Wherefore I cannot believe that there are certain little bodies as atoms and by reason of their smallness invisible differing from one another in consistence figure motion and magnitude intermingled with the air which should be the cause of the descending of heavy bodies And concerning air whether it be subject to our senses or not I say that if air be neither hot nor cold it is not subject but if it be the sensitive motions will soon pattern it out and declare it I 'le conclude with your Authors question What the cause is that a man doth not feel the weight of Water in Water and answer it is the dilating nature of Water But of this question and of Water I shall treat more fully hereafter and so I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXX MADAM I Am reading now the works of that Famous and most Renowned Author Des Cartes out of which I intend to pick out onely those discourses which I like best and not to examine his opinions as they go along from the beginning to the end of his books And in order to this I have chosen in the first place his discourse of motion and do not assent to his opinion when he defines Motion to be onely a Mode of a thing and not the thing or body it selfe for in my opinion there can be no abstraction made of motion from body neither really nor in the manner of our conception for how can I conceive that which is not nor cannot be in nature that is to conceive motion without body Wherefore Motion is but one thing with body without any separation or abstraction soever Neither doth it agree with my reason that one body can give or transferr motion into another body and as much motion it gives or transferrs into that body as much loses it As for example in two hard bodies thrown against one another where one that is thrown with greater force takes the other along with it and loses as much motion as it gives it For how can motion being no substance but onely a mode quit one body and pass into another One body may either occasion or imitate anothers motion but it can neither give nor take away what belongs to its own or another bodies substance no more then matter can quit its nature from being matter and therefore my opinion is that if motion doth go out of one body into another then substance goes too for motion and substance or body
antipathetical Foes and all such Quarrels proceed from a sympathy to their own interest But you may ask me what the reason is that some Creatures as for example Mankind some of them will not onely like one sort of meat better then another of equal goodness and nourishment but will like and prefer sometimes a worse sort of meat before the best to wit such as hath neither a good taste nor nourishment I answer This is nothing else but a particular and most commonly an inconstant Appetite for after much eating of that they like best especially if they get a surfeit their appetite is changd to aversion for then all their feeding motions and parts have as much if not more antipathy to those meats as before they had a sympathy to them Again you may ask me the reason why a Man seeing two persons together which are strangers to him doth affect one better then the other nay if one of these Persons be deformed or ill-favoured and the other well-shaped and handsom yet it may chance that the deformed Person shall be more acceptable in the affections and eyes of the beholder then he that is handsom I answer There is no Creature so deformed but hath some agreeable and attractive parts unless it be a Monster which is never loved but for its rarity and novelty and Nature is many times pleased with changes taking delight in variety and the proof that such a sympathetical affection proceeds from some agreeableness of Parts is that if those persons were vail'd there would not proceed such a partial choice or judgment from any to them You may ask me further whether Passion and Appetite are also the cause of the sympathy which is in the Loadstone towards Iron and in the Needle towards the North I answer Yes for it is either for nourishment or refreshment or love and desire of association or the like that the Loadstone draws Iron and the Needle turns towards the North. The difference onely betwixt the sympathy in the Needle towards the North and betwixt the sympathy in the Loadstone towards the Iron is that the Needle doth always turn towards the North but the Loadstone doth not always draw Iron The reason is because the sympathy of the Needle towards the North requires no certain distance as I said in the beginning and the North-pole continuing constantly in the same place the Needle knows whither to turn when as the sympathy between the Loadstone and Iron requires a certain distance and when the Loadstone is not within this compass or distance it cannot perform its effect to wit to draw the Iron but the effect ceases although the cause remains in vigour The same may be said of the Flower that turns towards the Sun for though the Sun be out of sight yet the Flower watches for the return of the Sun from which it receives benefit Like as faithful Servants watch and wait for their Master or hungry Beggers at a Rich man's door for relief and so doth the aforesaid Flower nay not the Flower onely but any thing that has freedom and liberty of motion will turn towards those Places or Creatures whence it expects relief Concerning ravenous Beasts that feed on dead Carcasfes they having more eager appetites then food make long flights into far distant Countries to seek food to live on but surely I think if they had food enough at home although not dead Carcasses they would not make such great Journies or if a battel were fought and many slain and they upon their journey should meet with sufficient food they would hardly travel further before they had devoured that food first But many Birds travel for the temper of the Air as well as for food witness Woodcocks Cranes Swallows Fieldfares and the like some for cold some for hot and some for temperate Air. And as for such Diseases as are produced by conceit and at distance the cause is the fearfulness of the Patient which produces Irregularities in the Mind and these occasion Irregularities in the Body which produce such a disease as the Mind did fearfully apprehend when as without that Passion and Irregularity the Patient would perhaps not fall sick of that disease But to draw towards an end I 'le answer briefly to your Authors alledged example which he gives of Wine that it is troubled while the Vine flowreth The reason in my opinion may perhaps be that the Wine being the effect of the Vine and proceeding from its stock as the producer has not so quite alter'd Nature as not to be sensible at all of the alteration of the Vine For many effects do retain the proprieties of their causes for example many Children are generated which have the same proprieties of their Parents who do often propagate some or other vertuous or vitious qualities with their off-spring And this is rather a proof that there are sensitive and rational motions and sensitive and rational knowledge in all Creatures and so in Wine according to the nature or propriety of its Figure for without motion sense and reason no effect could be nor no sympathy or antipathy But it is to be observed that many do mistake the true Causes and ascribe an effect to some cause which is no more the cause of that same effect then a particular Creature is the cause of Nature and so they are apt to take the Fiddle for the hot Bricks as if the Fiddle did make the Ass dance when as it was the hot Bricks that did it for several effects may proceed from one cause and one effect from several causes and so in the aforesaid example the Wine may perhaps be disturbed by the alteration of the weather at the same time of the flowring of the Vines and so may Animals as well as Vegetables and other Creatures alter alike at one and the same point of time and yet none be the cause of each others alteration And thus to shut up my discourse I repeat again that sympathy and antipathy are nothing else but ordinary Passions and Appetites amongst several Creatures which Passions are made by the rational animate Matter and the Appetites by the sensitive both giving such or such motions to such or such Creatures for cross motions in Appetites and Passions make Antipathy and agreeable motions in Appetites and Passions make Sympathy although the Creatures be different wherein these motions Passions and Appetites are made and as without an object a Pattern cannot be so without inherent or natural Passions and Appetites there can be no Sympathy or Antipathy And there being also such Sympathy betwixt your Ladiship and me I think my self the happiest Creature for it and shall make it my whole study to imitate your Ladiship and conform all my actions to the rule and pattern of yours as becomes MADAM Your Ladiships faithful Friend and humble Servant XVI MADAM MY opinion of Witches and Witchcraft of whose Power and strange effects your Author is pleased to relate many
Physician in France Dr. Davison who used in continual Fevers to prescribe onely cooling Ptisan made of a little Barley and a great quantity of Water so thin as the Barley was hardly perceived and a spoonfull of syrup of Limmon put into a quart of the said Ptisan but in case of a Flux he ordered some few seeds of Pomegranats to be put into it and this cold Ptisan was to be the Patients onely drink Besides once in Twenty four hours he prescribed a couple of potched Eggs with a little Verjuice and to let the Patient blood if he was dry and hot I mean dry exteriously as from sweat and that either often or seldom according as occasion was found Also he prescribed two grains of Laudanum every night but neither to give the Patient meat nor drink two hours before and after Which advice and Practice of the mentioned Physician concerning Fevers with several others I declared to this Irish Doctor and he observing this rule cured many and so recovered his lost esteem and repute But your Author being all for Wine and against cooling drinks or Julips in hot Fevers says That cooling means are more like to death to cessation from motion and to defect but heat from moderate Wine is a mean like unto life To which I answer first That cold or cooling things are as active as hot or heating things neither is death more cold then hot nor life more hot then cold for we see that Frost is as active and strong as burning heat and Water Air and Earth are as full of life as Fire and Vegetables Minerals and Elements have life as well as Animals But we feeling a Man's flesh cold when he is dissolving from an Animal think death is cold and seeing he was hot before the same alteration say Life is hot Also finding an animal when it is dissolving to be without external local Motion we say it is dead and when it hath as yet this local motion before its alteration we call it alive which certainly is not proper Next I say that a wise Man when his house is fired will fling or squirt water upon it to quench it and take out all moveables lest they should increase the flame likewise he will make vent for the flame to issue forth But perchance your Author may say that Fevers are not hot Truly in my opinion he might say as well that Fire is cold Again he may say That although the effect be hot yet the cause is cold I answer That in some diseases the effects become so firmly rooted and so powerfull that they must be more look'd upon then the cause for such variety there is in Nature that oftentimes that which was now an effect turns to be a cause and again a cause an effect For example A cold cause often produces a hot effect and this hot effect becomes again a cause of a cold effect Which variation is not onely a trouble but a great obstruction to wise Physicians for Nature hath more varieties in diseases then Physicians have remedies And as for drink if Fevers be neither hot nor dry nor require drink for want of moisture then I see no reason why drink should be urged and those Physicians blamed that forbid it for if thirst proceed from an evil digestion drink will rather weaken the stomack for heat and driness draw soon away the drink in the stomack and putting much into a weak stomack doth rather hurt then good But if necessity require it then I approve rather of raw and crude Water then of hot inflaming Wiue And so taking my leave I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and humble Servant XXXVII MADAM IN your Authors Treatise of Fevers I find one Chapter whose Inscription is A Perfect Curing of all Fevers wherein he declares the secrets of the Cures of Fevers consisting all in Chymical Medicines But considering that if all Fevers could be cured by such Medicines then all Physicians would strive to obtain them I can hardly believe by your Authors favour that any such perfect curing of all Fevers can be effected but that your Authors prescriptions if they should come to the tryal might fail as well as any other Likewise he mentions a Medicine of Paracelsus named Diaceltesson or the Coraline Secret which he says cures radically the Gout no less then Fevers Which if so I wonder why so many Great Noble and Rich Persons groan so much under the pains of the Gout certainly it is not for want of cost to have them prepared nor for want of an ingenious and experienced Chymist for this age doth not want skilful workmen in that Art nor worthy and wise Physicians which if they knew such soveraign medicines would soon apply them to their Patients but I suppose that they finding their effects to be less then the cost and labour bestowed upon them forbear to use them Moreover he mentions another remedy for most diseases by him call'd Driff prepared also by the Art of Chymistry but I believe all those remedies will not so often cure as fail of cure like as the Sympathetical Powder for if there were such soveraign medicines that did never fail of a successful effect certainly men being curious inquisitive and searching would never leave till they had found them out Also amongst Vegetables the herb Chameleon and Arsmart are in great request with your Author For says he they by their touching alone do presently take away cruel diseases or at leastwise ease them Which if so I wonder that there is not more use made of them and they held in greater esteem then they are Also that your Author doth not declare the vertue of them and the manner and way how and in what diseases to use them for the benefit of his neighbour to which end he says all his labours and actions are directed But again your Author confirms as an Eye-witness That the bone of the arm of a Toad presently has taken away the Tooth-ach at the first co-touching Which remedy if it was constant few in my opinion would suffer such cruel pains and cause their teeth to be drawn out especially if sound Likewise of the mineral Electrum or Amber of Paracelsus he affirms to have seen that hung about the neck it has freed those that were persecuted by unclean spirits and that many simples have done the like effects but surely Madam I cannot be perswaded that the Devil should be put away so easily for he being a Spirit will not be chased by corporeal means but by spiritual which is Faith and Prayer and the cure of dispossessing the Devil belongs to Divines and not to Natural Philosopers or Physicians But though exterior remedies as Amulets Pomanders and the like may perform sometimes such effects as to cure or preserve from some diseases yet they are not ordinary and constant but meerly by chance But there are more false remedies then true ones and if one remedy chance to work successfully with
will say air may be cooled by moving it with a Fan or such like thing which can make wind wherefore it follows that air must needs be naturally cold I answer That doth not prove Air to be in its nature cold for this moving or making of wind may contract or condense the air into cold motions which may cause a cold wind like as Ventiducts where the air running thorow narrow Pipes makes a cold wind The same may be done with a mans breath for if he contract his lips close his breath will be cold but if he opens his mouth wide his breath will be warm Again you may say that rain is congealed by the coldness of the air into Snow Hail and Ice I answer Frost Ice Snow and Hail do not proceed from the coldness of the air but rather the coldness of the air proceeds from them for Ice Snow and Hail proceed from cold contraction and condensation of a vaporous or watery substance and as Frost and Snow cause air to be cold so Thunder and Lightning cause it to be hot so long as they last Thus Madam though Air may be altered either to heat or cold yet it is neither hot nor cold in it self And this is all for the present that I can say concerning the Temper of Air I conclude and rest MADAM Your constant Friend and faithful Servant VIII MADAM HAving hitherto considered your Authors Elements or Principles of Natural things you will give me leave to present you now with a short view of his Opinions concerning Wind Vacuum Rainbows Thunder Lightning Earth-quakes and the like which I will do as briefly as I can lest I betray my Ignorance for I confess my self not to be well versed in the knowledg of Meteors nor in those things which properly belong to the Mathematicks as in Astrology Geography Opticks and the like But your Author says in the first place That Natural Wind is nothing but a flowing Air moved by the Blas of the Stars Certainly Madam if this were so then in my judgment when the Stars blaze we should have constant Winds and the more they blaze the more violent winds there would be But I have rather observed the contrary that when the Stars blaze most apparently we have the calmest weather either in Summer or Winter Perchance your Author will say he doth not mean this apparant and visible Blas but another invisible Blas I answer I know not nor cannot conceive any other Blas in the Stars except I had seen it in a Vision neither do I think that Nature her self knows of any other But your Author doth refer himself upon the Authority of Hypocrates who says That not onely the Wind is a blast but that all Diseases are from blasts and that there is in us a Spirit stirring up all things by its Blas which Spirit by a Microcosmical Analogy or the proportion of a little World he compares to the blasts of the world As for my particular Madam I dare say I could never perceive by my sense and reason any such blazing Spirit in me but I have found by experience that when my mind and thoughts have been benighted with Melancholy my Imagination hath been more active and subtil then when my mind has been clear from dark Melancholy Also I find that my thoughts and conceptions are as active if not more in the night then in the day and though we may sometimes dream of several Lights yet I cannot perceive a constant light in us however Light Blazes and all those effects are no more then other effects of Nature are nor can they have more power on other Creatures then other Creatures have on them Neither are they made otherwise then by the corporeal motions of Natural Matter and are dissolved and transchanged as other Creatures out of one form or figure into another Next your Author discoursing whether there be any Vacuum in Nature doth incline to the affirming party that there is a Vacuum in the Air to wit There is in the air something that is less then a body which fills up the emptinesses or little holes and pores in the air and which is wholly annihilated by fire It is actually void of all matter and is a middle thing between a body and an Incorporeal Spirit and almost nothing in respect of bodies for it came from Nothing and so may easily be reduced to nothing All this Madam surpasses my capacity for I can in no ways conceive any thing between something and nothing as to be less then something and more then nothing for all that is corporeal in Nature is to my reason something that is some really existent thing but what is incorporeal in Nature is nothing and if there be any absolute vacuum in Nature as your Author endeavours to prove then certainly this Vacuum cannot be any thing whatsoever for a Vacuum is a pure Nothing But many ingenious and learned men have brought as many arguments and reasons against Vacuum as others bring for it and so it is a thing which I leave to them to exercise their brains withal The like is the opinion which many maintain concerning Place viz. that there is a constant succession of Place and Parts so that when one part removes another doth succeed in its place the truth and manner whereof I was never able to comprehend for in my opinion there can be no place without body nor no body without place body and place being all but one thing But as for the perpetual Creation and annihilation of your Authors Vacuities give me leave to tell you Madam that it would be a more laborious work then to make a new World or then it was to make this present World for God made this World in six days and rested the seventh day but this is a perpetual making of something out of nothing Again concerning Rainbows your Author says That a Rainbow is not a natural effect of a natural Cause but a divine Mystery in its original and that it has no matter but yet is in a place and has its colours immediately in a place but in the air mediately and that it is of the nature of Light This is indeed a great mystery to my reason for I cannot conceive as I said before a place without a body nor how Light and Colours can be bodiless But as for Rainbows I have observed when as water hath been blown up into the air into bubles that by the reflexion of light on the watery bubles they have had the like colours of the Rainbow and I have heard that there hath been often seen at the rising and setting of the Sun Clouds of divers colours Wherefore I cannot be perswaded to believe that a Rainbow should not have a natural cause and consequently be a natural effect For that God has made it a sign of the Covenant between him and mortal men is no proof that it is not a natural effect Neither can I believe that
it has not been before the Flood and before it was made a sign by God as your Author imagines for though it was no sign before the Flood yet it may nevertheless have had its being and existence before the Flood Moreover as for Thunder and Lightning your Authors opinion is That although they may have concurring natural Causes yet the mover of them is an Incorporeal Spirit which is the Devil who having obtained the Principality of this world that he may be a certain executer of the Judgments of the chief Monarch and so the Umpire and Commissioner of Lightning and Thunder stirs up a monstrous and sudden Blas in the Air yet under Covenanted Conditions for unless his power were bridled by divine Goodness he would shake the Earth with one stroke so as to destroy all mortal men and thus the cracking noise or voice of Thunder is nothing but a spiritual Blas of the Evil Spirit I will not deny Madam that Thunder and Lightning do argue the Power of the most Glorious God for so do all the rest of the Creatures but that this is the onely and immediate cause which your Author assigns of Thunder and Lightning I cannot believe for surely in my opinion Thunder and Lightning are as much natural effects as other Creatures in Nature and are not the Devils Blas for I think they may be made without the help of the Devil nay I believe he may be as much affraid of Thunder as those Creatures that live on Earth But what the causes are and how Thunder and Lightning are made I have elsewhere declared more at large especially in my Philosophical Opinions Again your Author speaking of the Trembling of the Earth thinks it is nothing else but the Judgment of God for the sins of Impenitent men For my part Madam I can say little to it either concerning the divine or the natural cause of Earthquakes As for the divine and supernatural Cause which your Author gives if it was so then I wonder much why God should command Earth-quakes in some parts of the World more frequent then in others As for example we here in these parts have very seldom Earthquakes and those we have which is hardly one in many ages are not so furious as to do much harm and so in many other places of the World are as few and as gentle Earth-quakes as here when as in others Earth-quakes are very frequent and dreadful From whence it must needs follow if Earth-quakes be onely a Judgment from God for the sins of Impenitent Men and not a natural effect that then those places where the Earth is not so apt to tremble are the habitations of the blessed and that they which inhabit those parts that are apt to tremble are the accursed when as yet in those places where Earthquakes are not usual and frequent or none at all People are as wicked and impious if not more then in those where Earthquakes are common But the questions is Whether those parts which suffer frequent and terrible Earthquakes would not be so shaken or have such trembling fits were they uninhabited by Man or any other animal Creature Certainly in my opinion they would But as for the Natural Cause of Earthquakes you must pardon me Madam that I cannot knowingly discourse thereof by reason I am not so well skilled in Geography as to know the several Soils Climats Parts Regions or Countries nor what disposed matter may be within those parts that are subject to frequent Earthquakes Onely this I may say that I have observed that the light of a small Fire or Candle will dilate it self round about or rather that the air round about the Fire or Candle will pattern out both its light and its heat Also I have observed That a Man in a raging fit of Madness will have such an unsual strength as ten strong men shall hardly be able to encounter or bind him when as this violent fit being past a single man nay a youth may over-master him Whence I conclude that the actions as the motions of Nature are very powerful when they use their force and that the ordinary actions of Nature are not so forcible as necessary but the extraordinary are more forcible then necessary Lastly your Author takes great pains to prove That the Sun with his light rules the Day and the Moon with hers the Night and that the Moon has her own Native light and that Bats Mice Dormice Owles and many others as also Men which rise at night and walk in their sleep see by the light and power of the Moon also that Plants are more plentifully nourished by the night But lest it might be concluded that all this is said without any probability of Truth by reason the Moon doth not every night shine upon the Earth he makes a difference between the Manner of the Sun 's and Moon 's enlightning the Earth to wit that the Sun strikes his beams in a right line towards the Earth but the Moon doth not respect the Centre of the World which is the Earth in a right line but her Centre is always excentrical and she respects the Earth onely by accident when she is concentrical with the World And therefore he thinks there is another light under the Earth even at Midnight whereby many Eyes do see which owes also its rise to the Moon This opinion of your Author I leave to be examined by those that have skill in Astronomy and know both the Light and the Course of the Moon I will onely say thus much that when the Moon is concentrical as he calls it with the World as when it is Full and New Moon she doth not shine onely at night but also in the day and therefore she may rule the day as well as the night and then there will be two lights for the ruling of the day or at least there will be a strife betwixt the Sun and the Moon which shall rule But as for Men walking asleep by the light of the Moon my opinion is That blind men may walk as well by the light of the Sun as sleeping men by the light of the Moon Neither is it probable that the Moon or her Blas doth nourish Plants for in a cold Moon-shiny night they will often die but it is rather the Regular motions in well tempered matter that cause fruitful productions and maturity And so I repose my Pen lest it trespass too much upon your Patience resting MADAM Your humble and faithful Servant IX MADAM IN my former when I related your Authors opinion concerning Earthquakes I forgot to tell you that he counts the the Doctrine of the Schools absurd when they say that Air or any Exhalation is the cause of them For says he There is no place in the Pavements or soils of the Earth wherein any airy body may be entertained whether that body be a wind or an airy exhalation But since I promised I would not offer to
more safe then Chymical Salts Tartars Spirits or the like Next concerning Issues and Cauteries your Author I say is so much against them as he counts them a blasphemy for says he I have beheld always an implicite blasphemy in a Cautery whereby they openly accuse the Creator of insufficiency in framing the emunctories for I have bidden above a thousand Issues to be filled up with flesh Also That which God hath made whole and entire that it might be very good seems to the Schools that it should be better if it be kept wounded Truly Madam in my opinion it is no blasphemy at all neither directly nor indirectly to make Issues but a meer superstition to believe the contrary viz. that they are blasphemy and a great folly not to make them when need requires it to the preservation of ones health God has made our body whole and intire says your Author by which he will prove that no holes must be made in the body to let out excrementious matter and therefore he thinks that body to be whole and intire which is without an Issue when as yet our bodies have numerousissues which are the pores of the skin to let out sweat and therefore if he counts that body not to be whole and intire that has issues then no humane body is intire Certainly no Artificial Issue will make the body maimed but it will nevertheless continue whole and intire although it has Issues He says it is Blasphemy But how will he prove it Surely not by the Scripture and if not by the Scripture then it is a blasphemy according to his own brain and fancy 'T is true God gave no express Command to make Issues but according to your Author God did never create Diseases and so there was no need either to make such Issues in bodies as to let out distempered Matter or to give any command for them but we might as well say we must not use any Physick because it is not so natural to man as food and serves not for the nourishment of the body but onely to keep off or drive out diseases Also no stone must be cut but man must rather indure torment and death But setting aside this superstitious doctrine of your Author it is evident enough and needs no proof that Cancers Fistula's Wenns Eating-evils Madness Fevers Consumptions Rheumes Pleurisies and numerous other diseases are not better cured then by Issues or making of wounds either by Lancets Pen-knifes Scissers Rasors Corrosives Causticks Leeches or the like And although your Author says That that Matter which proceeds from or out of an Issue is made in the lips of the wound and not in the body for it cannot possibly drain or draw out any moisture either from within or between the skin and the flesh having no passages Yet if this were so how come Fistula's Cancers and the like diseases to have passages from within the body to the exterior parts so as to make a wound out of which much sharp and salt humor issues which humor certainly is not made in the lips of the wound but in the body Also whence comes the humor that makes the Gout For though the swelling and inflammation will sometimes appear exteriously yet after some time those tumors and humors retire back into the body from whence they did flow but he might as well say that Pit-falls or Sluces do not drain Land from a superfluity of Water as that Issues do not drain the body of superfluous humors Wherefore I am absolutely of opinion that the Practice of the Schools is the best and wifest Practice as well in making Issues letting blood Purging by Siege or Vomits as any other means used by them for by Issues I have seen many cured when no other medicines would do any good with them and letting blood I am confident hath rescued more lives then the Universal Medicine could Chymists find it out perchance would do So also Clysters and Vomits skilfully applied have done great benefits to the life of men for every part and member hath its peculiar way to be purged and cleansed for example Clysters principally cleanse the Guts Purges the Stomack Vomits the Chest Sneezing the Head Bleeding the Veins and Issues drain the whole body of naughty humors All which remedies properly and timely used keep the body from being choak'd with superfluities ' There are several other ways of cures besides for several diseases but I leave those to learned and skilful Physicians who know best how and when to use them to the benefit and health of their Patients although your Author finds much fault with them and blames them for suffering men to die miserably but God has given power to Nature to make certain dissolutions although uncertain diseases and uncertain remedies Neither hath she in her power to give Immortal Life to particular Creatures for this belongs to God alone and therefore no Universal Medicine will keep out death or prolong life further then its thread is spun which I doubt is but a Chymaera and an impossible thing by reason there are not onely so many different varieties in several diseases but in one and the same disease as no Universal remedy would do any good But your Author is much pleased with Paradoxes and Paradoxes are not certain Truths Wherefore it is better in my judgment to follow the old approved and practised way of the Schools grounded upon Experience and Reason then his Paradoxical Opinions To which Schools as your Author is a great Enemy so I am a great Friend as well as MADAM Your Ladiships humble Servant XXXVI MADAM I Approve well of your Authors opinion That Drink ought not to be forbidden in Fevers but yet I would not allow so much as to drown and oppress the Patients life but onely so much as to refresh and moisten him and therefore the best way is to drink little and often But as for Wine which your Author commends in Fevers I am utterly against it unless the Fever proceed from a cold or crude cause otherwise cooling Ptisans are most beneficial to those that are sick of a continual Fever which for the most part is a general Fever throughout the whole body one part infecting the other until they be all infected like as in the Plague And to let you know the proof of it when I was once sick beyond the Seas I sent for a Doctor of Physick who was an Irish-man and hearing of some that knew him and his practice that he was not successful in his Cures but that his Patients most commonly died I asked him what he used to prescribe in such or such diseases where amongst the rest as I remember he told me That he allowed his Patients to drink Wine in a Fever I thought he was in a great error and told him my opinion that though Wine might be profitable perhaps to some few yet for the most part it was very hurtful and destructive alledging another famous
infectious Vegetables so that Infections may be caused several ways either by inbreathing and attracting or sucking in the Poyson of the Plague or by eating and converting it into the substance of the body for some kinds of poyson are so powerful as to work onely by way of inbreathing Also some sorts of Air may be full of infection and infect many Men Beasts Birds Vegetables and the like for Infections are variously produced Internally as well as Externally amongst several particular Creatures for as the Plague may be made internally or within the body of a particular Creature without any exterior infection entring from without into the body so an external Infection again may enter many several ways into the body And thus there be many contagious diseases caused meerly by the internal motions of the body as by fright terror conceit fancy imagination and the like and many by the taking of poysonous matter from without into the body but all are made by the natural motions or actions of animate matter by which all is made that is in Nature and nothing is new as Solomon says but what is thought or seems to be new is onely the variation of the Motions of this old Matter which is Nature And this is the reason that not every Age Nation or Creature has always the like diseases for as all the actions of Nature vary so also do diseases But to speak of the Plague although I am of opinion that the Plague of Beasts doth not infect Men unless they be eaten nor the plague of Men Beasts yet Magistrates do wisely in some places that in the beginning of the plague of Men they command Dogs and Cats to be kill'd by reason as your Author saith The skins and flesh of Brutes may be defiled with our Plague and they may be pestiferous contagions unto us I will add one thing more which doth concern the Poyson of Measels whereof your Author is saying That it is onely proper to humane kind What kind of Measles he means I know not but certainly Hogs are often affected with that disease as is vulgarly known but whether they be different diseases in their kinds and proceed from different motions I will let others inquire And so I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XL. MADAM COncerning the disease of the Stone your Author seems to be of an opinion That the stone in the Bladder and the stone in the Kidnies are not made after one and the same manne For says he The Bladder and the same Vrine in number procreates a duelech of another condition then that which is made in the Kidney And truly Madam it may be so for there are several ways or modes in irregularities as well as regularities and not every kind is alike no not every Particular but there is some difference between them Wherefore it may very well be that the corporeal motions that make the stone in the Kidneys are not just alike to those that make the stone in the Bladder and as each sort of stone is different so their particular causes ought to be different but this is to be observed that generally all diseases which produce hardness are made by contracting condensing and retenting motions and therefore the remedies of them must be dilating rarifying and dissolving Next your Author says The Stone is not bred by heat but heat is rather an effect of the stone neither is a certain muscilage or a slimy snivelly Phlegme the cause or matter of the stone but the stone is the cause of the phlegme But in my judgment it seems more probable that a slimy matter is more proper for a stone to be made of then that a stone should make slime except it be in its dissolution that is when the stone as in its generation or production it did change from a slimy or liquid substance to a stone by condensing and contracting motions doth by dilating and rarifying motions dissolve again into such a liquid and slimy body I will not say always to wit that the stone must needs be resolved into a slimy matter but oftentimes it may be so Neither can I absolutely affirm that either heat or cold onely is the cause of a stone for some may be produced by hot and some by cold contractions and densations there being as many several sorts of stones as there are of other Creatures But this is to be well noted that as some sorts of hot contractions do make stones so some sorts of hot dilations do dissolve them The like of cold contractions and dilations Again your Author speaking of the womb wherein the stone is made Every generated thing or being says he must of necessity have a certain place or womb where it is produced for there must needs be places wherein things may be made before they are bred I answer As there is not any body without place nor any place without body so the womb is not the place of the body generated neither before nor after its generation no more then a man can be said to be in a room when he is not there but every body carries its place along with it Moreover concerning the voiding of bloody Urine which happens sometimes in the disease of the Stone my opinion is That it doth not always proceed from the Stone but many times from the breaking or voluntary opening of some Veins But as for the cure of the disease of the Stone your Author is pleased to affirm That no disease is incurable and so neither the disease oâ— the Stone For he himself has cured many of the Stone to which they had been obedient for some years Indeed Madam I fear his words are more cheerful then effectual however it may be possible if the Kidneys be no ways impaired or the Bladder hurt but if there be some such imperfection in either or both then it is as much in my opinion as to say Man can do more then Nature doth Neither can I believe that then any of your Authors Chymical preparations as Aroph Ludus Alkahest and the like if they were to be had would do any good no nor Daucus or wild Carrot-seed if the disease be as yet curable will prove an effectual remedy for it although your Author is pleased to relate an example of a man to whom it did much good for I can affirm the contrary by other the like Examples that it never did any good to those that used it nor the liquor of the Birch-tree whose vertue and efficacy I do not believe to be so great as your Author describes But for the stoppage of Urine Marsh-mallow and oyl of Almonds which he despises I approve to be good and better then any of his Unknown Chymical Secrets for those Chymical Medicines as he himself confesses are hard to be had especially Alkahest which is onely to be obtained by a Particular favour from Heaven and is rather a supernatural Gift then a natural remedy
burden so that some bodies may swim and others sink and the cause that a sunk body is not opprest crush'd or squeesed is the dilating nature and quality of water which hinders its parts from pressing or crowding towards a point or center for although water is heavy and apt to descend yet its weight is not caused by a contraction of its substance but by a union of its parts Thus Madam I have obeyed your commands in giving you my reasons to your propounded question which if you approve I have my aim if not I submit to your better judgment for you know I am in all respects MADAM Your Faithful Friend to serve you XIII MADAM I Am glad you are pleased with my reasons I gave to your propounded question concerning the weight of Water and since you have been pleased to send me some more of that subject I shall be ready also to give my answer to them according to the capacity of my judgment First you desire to know How it comes that Water will by degrees ascend through a narrow pipe when the pipe is placed straight upright or perpendicular The reason in my opinion is that Water having a dilative nature when it finds an obstruction to descend or flow even will dilate it self ascendingly according as it hath liberty or freedom and strength or quantity the truth is water would be more apt to ascend then to descend were it not for the close uniting of its liquid Parts which causes its exterior density and this density makes it of more weight then its nature is and the proof that water is apt in its nature to ascend is that some sorts of vapours are made onely by the dilation and rarefaction of ascending Water Your second question is Why the surface of water seems to be concave in its middle and higher on every side I answer The interior figure of water is a circular figure which being a round figure is both concave and convex for where one is the other must be and the motions of ebbing and flowing and ascending or descending are partly of that figure and so according to the exterior dilating strength or weakness the exterior parts of water become either concave or convex for in a full strength as a full stream the exterior parts of water flow in a convex figure but when they want strength they ebb in a concave figure Your third question is What makes frozen water apt to break those Vessels wherein it is contained in the act of freezing or congealing I answer The same cause that makes water clear as also more swell'd then usually it is which cause is the inherent dilative nature of water for water being naturally dilative when as cold attractions do assault it the moist dilations of water in the conflict use more then their ordinary strength to resist those cold contracting motions by which the body of water dilates it self into a larger compass according as it hath liberty or freedom or quantity of parts and the cold parts not being able to drive the water back to its natural compass bind it as it is extended like as if a beast should be bound when his legs and neck are thrust out at the largest extent in striving to kick or thrust away his enemies and imprisoners And so the reason why water breaks those vessels wherein it is inclosed in the act of its freezing or congealing is that when the cold contractions are so strong as they endeavour to extinguish the dilating nature of water the water resisting forces its parts so as they break the vessel which incloses them The same reason makes Ice clear and transparent for it is not the rarefaction of water that doth it but the dilation which causes the parts of water to be not onely more loose and porous but also more smooth and even by resisting the clold contractions for every part endeavours to defend their borders with a well ordered and regular flowing or streaming and not onely to defend but to enlarge their compass against their enemies Your fourth question is How it comes that Snow and Salt mixt together doth make Ice The reason in my judgment is that Salt being very active and partly of the nature of fire doth sometimes preserve and sometimes destroy other bodies according to its power or rather according to the nature of those bodies it works on and salt being mixt with snow endeavours to destroy it but having not so much force melts it onely by its heat and reduces it into its first principle which is water altering the figure of snow but the cold contractions remaining in the water and endeavouring to maintain and keep their power straight draw the water or melted snow into the figure of ice so as neither the salts heat nor the waters dilative nature are able to resist or destroy those cold contractions for although they destroy'd the first figure which is snow yet they cannot hinder the second which is Ice Your last question is How the Clouds can hang so long in the Skie without falling down Truly Madam I do not perceive that Clouds being come to their full weight and gravity do keep up in the air but some of them fall down in showres of rain others in great and numerous flakes of snow some are turned into wind and some fall down in thick mists so that they onely keep up so long until they are of a full weight for descent or till their figure is altered into some other body as into air wind rain lightning thunder snow hail mist and the like But many times their dilating motions keep or hinder them from descending to which contracting motions are required In my opinion it is more to be admired that the Sea doth not rise then that Clouds do not fall for as we see Clouds fall very often as also change from being Clouds to some other figure Wherefore it is neither the Sun nor Stars nor the Vapours which arise from the Earth and cause the Clouds nor the porositity of their bodies nor the Air that can keep or hinder them from falling or changing to some other body but they being come to their full weight fall or change according as is fittest for them And these are all the reasons I can give you for the present if they do not satisfie you I will study for others and in all occasions endeavour to express my self MADAM Your constant Friend and faithful Servant XIV MADAM SInce in my last I made mention of the Congealing of Water into Ice and Snow I cannot choose but by the way tell you that I did lately meet with an Author who is of opinion That Snow is nothing else but Ice broken or ground into small pieces To which I answer That this opinion may serve very well for a Fancy but not for a Rational Truth or at least for a Probable Reason For why may not the cold motions make snow without beating or grinding as well as