space but from one side of the Circle to the other so that in his mind he brings two sides together and yet will have them distant but the motions of his thoughts being subtiler and swifter then his senses skip from side to side without touching the middle parts like as a Squirrel from bough to bough or an Ape from one table to another without touching the ground onely cutting the air Next he says That an absolute Vacuum is neither an Accident nor a Body nor yet Nothing but Something because it has a being which opinion seems to me like that of the divine Soul but I suppose Vacuum is not the divine Soul nor the divine Soul Vacuum or else it could not be sensible of the blessed happiness in Heaven or the Torments in Hell Again he says Let us screw our supposition one pin higher and farther imagine that God after the annihilation of this vast machine the Universe should create another in all respects equal to this and in the same part of space wherein this now consists First we must conceive that as the spaces were immense before God created the world so also must they eternally persist of infinite extent if he shall please at any time to destroy it Next that these immense spaces are absolutely immoveable By this opinion it seems that Gods Power cannot so easily make or annihilate Vacuum as a substance because he believes it to be before all Matter and to remain after all Matter which is to be eternal but I cannot conceive why Matter or fulness of body should not as well be Infinite and Eternal as his conceived Vacuum for if Vacuum can have an eternal and infinite being why may not fulness of body or Matter But he calls Vacuum Immovable which in my opinion is to make it a God for God is onely Immoveable and Unalterable and this is more Glorious then to be dependant upon God wherefore to believe Matter to be Eternal but yet dependent upon God is a more humble opinion then his opinion of Vacuum for if Vacuum be not created and shall not be annihilated but is Uncreated Immaterial Immoveable Infinite and Eternal it is a God but if it be created God being not a Creator of Nothing nor an annihilator of Nothing but of Something he cannot be a Creator of Vacuum for Vacuum is a pure Nothing But leaving Nothing to those that can make something of it I will add no more but rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant IX MADAM THat Learned Author of whom I made mention in my last is pleased to say in his Chapter of Time that Time is the Twin-brother to Space but if Space be as much as Vacuum then I say they are Twin-nothings for there can be no such thing as an empty or immaterial space but that which man calls space is onely a distance betwixt several corporeal parts and time is onely the variation of corporeal motions for were there no body there could not be any space and were there no corporeal motion there could not be any time As for Time considered in General it is nothing else but the corporeal motions in Nature and Particular times are the Particular corporeal motions but Duration is onely a continuance or continued subsistence of the same parts caused by the consistent motions of those parts Neither are Time Duration Place Space Magnitude c. dependents upon corporeal motions but they are all one and the same thing Neither was Time before nor can be after corporeal motion for none can be without the other being all one And as for Eternity it is one fixed instant without a flux or motion Concerning his argument of Divisibility of Parts my opinion is That there is no Part in Nature Individable no not that so small a part which the Epicureans name an Atome neither is Matter separable from Matter nor Parts from Parts in General but onely in Particulars for though parts can be separated from parts by self-motion yet upon necessity they must joyn to parts so as there can never be a single part by it self But hereof as also of Place Space Time Motion Figure Magnitude c. I have sufficiently discoursed in my former Letters as also in my Book of Philosophy and as for my opinion of Atoms their figures and motions if any such things there be I will refer you to my Book of Poems out of which give me leave to repeat these following lines containing the ground of my opinion of Atomes All Creatures howsoe're they may be nam'd Are of long square flat or sharp Atomes fram'd Thus several figures several tempers make But what is mixt doth of the four partake The onely cause why things do live and die 'S according as the mixed Atomes lie Thus life and death and young and old Are as the several Atoms hold Wit understanding in the brain Are as the several atomes reign And dispositions good or ill Are as the several atomes still And every Passion which doth rise Is as each several atome lies Thus sickness health and peace and war Are as the several atomes are If you desire to know more you may read my mentioned Book of Poems whose first Edition was printed in the year 1653. And so taking my leave of you I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant X. MADAM I Received the Book of your new Author that treats of Natural Philosophy which I perceive is but lately come forth but although it be new yet there are no new opinions in it for the Author doth follow the opinions of some old Philosophers and argues after the accustomed Scholastical way with hard intricate and nonsensical words Wherefore I shall not take so much pains as to read it quite over but onely pick out here and there some few discourses which I shall think most convenient for the clearing of my own opinion in the number of which is first that of Matter whereof the Author is pleased to proclaim the opinion that holds Matter to be Infinite not onely absurd but also impious Truly Madam it is easily said but hardly proved and not to trouble you with unnecessary repetitions I hope you do remember as yet what I have written to you in the beginning concerning the infiniteness of Nature or natural Matter where I have proved that it implies no impiety absurdity or contradiction at all to believe that Matter is Infinite for your Authors argument concluding from the finiteness of particular Creatures to Nature her self is of no force for though no part of Nature is Infinite in bulk figure or quantity nevertheless all the parts of Infinite Nature are Infinite in number which infinite number of parts must needs make up one Infinite body in bulk or quantity for as a finite body or substance is dividable into finite parts so an Infinite body as Nature or natural Matter must of necessity be dividable into infinite parts in number and yet each part must
them with a fine coloured Covering of Logick and Geometry and set them out in a handsome array by which I might have also cover'd my ignorance like as Stage-Players do cover their mean persons or degrees with fine Cloathes But as I said I being void of Learning and Art did put them forth according to my own conceptions and as I did understand them my self but since I have hitherto by the reading of those famous and learned Authors you sent me attained to the knowledg of some artificial Terms I shall not spare any labour and pains to make my opinions so intelligible that every one who without partiality spleen or malice doth read them may also easily understand them And thus I shall likewise endeavour to give such answers to your scruples objections or questions as may explain those passages which seem obscure and satisfie your desire In the first place and in general you desire to know Whether any truth may be had in Natural Philosophy for since all this study is grounded upon probability and he that thinks he has the most probable reasons for his opinion may be as far off from truth as he who is thought to have the least nay what seems most probable to day may seem least probable to morrow especially if an ingenious opposer bring rational arguments against it Therefore you think it is but vain for any one to trouble his brain with searching and enquiring after such things wherein neither truth nor certainty can be had To which I answer That the undoubted truth in Natural Philosophy is in my opinion like the Philopher's Stone in Chymistry which has been sought for by many learned and ingenious Persons and will be sought as long as the Art of Chymistry doth last but although they cannot find the Philosophers Stone yet by the help of this Art they have found out many rare things both for use and knowledg The like in Natural Philosophy although Natural Philosophers cannot find out the absolute truth of Nature or Natures ground-works or the hidden causes of natural effects neverthelss they have found out many necessary and profitable Arts and Sciences to benefit the life of man for without Natural Philosophy we should have lived in dark ignorance not knowing the motions of the Heavens the cause of the Eclipses the influences of the Stars the use of Numbers Measures and Weights the vertues and effects of Vegetables and Minerals the Art of Architecture Navigation and the like Indeed all Arts and Sciences do adscribe their original to the study of Natural Philosophy and those men are both unwise and ungrateful that will refuse rich gifts because they cannot be masters of all Wealth and they are fools that will not take remedies when they are sick because Medicines can onely recover them from death for a time but not make them live for ever But to conclude Probability is next to truth and the search of a hidden cause finds out visible effects and this truth do natural Philosophers find that there are more fools then wise men which fools will never attain to the honour of being Natural Philosophers And thus leaving them I rest MADAM Your Ladiships humble and faithful Servant XXVIII MADAM YOur desire is to know since I say Nature is Wise Whether all her parts must be wise also To which I answer That by your favour all her parts are not fools but yet it is no necessary consequence that because Nature is infinitely wise all her parts must be so too no more then if I should say Nature is Infinite therefore every part must be Infinite But it is rather necessary that because Nature is Infinite therefore not any single part of hers can be Infinite but must be finite Next you desire to know Whether Nature or the self-moving matter is subject to err and to commit mistakes I answer Although Nature has naturally an Infinite wisdom and knowledg yet she has not a most pure and intire perfection no more then she has an absolute power for a most pure and intire perfection belongs onely to God and though she is infinitely naturally wise in her self yet her parts or particular creatures may commit errors and mistakes the truth is it is impossible but that parts or particular Creatures must be subject to errors because no part can have a perfect or general knowledg as being but a part and not a whole for knowledg is in parts as parts are in Matter Besides several corporeal motions that is several self-moving parts do delude and oppose each other by their opposite motions and this opposition is very requisite in Nature to keep a mean and hinder extreams for were there not opposition of parts Nature would run into extreams which would confound her and all her parts And as for delusion it is part of Natures delight causing the more variety but there be some actions in Nature which are neither perfect mistakes nor delusions but onely want of a clear and thorow perception As for example when a man is sailing in a Ship he thinks the shore moves from the ship when as it is the ship that moves from the shore Also when a man is going backward from a Looking-glass he thinks the figure in the Glass goeth inward whereas it is himself that goes backward and not his figure in the glass The cause of it is That the perception in the eye perceives the distanced body but not the motion of the distance or medium for though the man may partly see the motion of the visible parts yet he doth not see the parts or motion of the distance or medium which is invisible and not subject to the perception of sight and since a pattern cannot be made if the object be not visible hence I conclude that the motion of the medium cannot make perception but that it is the perceptive motions of the eye which pattern out an object as it is visibly presented to the corporeal motions in the eye for according as the object is presented the pattern is made if the motions be regular For example a fired end of a stick if you move it in a circular figure the sensitive corporeal motions in the eye pattern out the figure of fire together with the exterior or circular motion and apprehend it as a fiery circle and if the stick be moved any otherwise they pattern out such a figure as the fired end of the stick is moved in so that the sensitive pattern is made according to the exterior corporeal figurative motion of the object and not according to its interior figure or motions And this Madam is in short my answer to your propounded questions by which I hope you understand plainly the meaning of MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXIX MADAM THe scruples or questions you sent me last are these following First you desire to be informed what I mean by Phantasmes and Ideas I answer They are figures made by the purest and subtilest degree of
effects and as for Water if he doth make it a Principle of Natural things I see no reason why he excludes the rest of the Elements But in my opinion Water and the rest of the Elements are but effects of Nature as other Creatures are and so cannot be prime causes The like the Ferment which to my sense and reason is nothing else but a natural effect of natural matter Concerning his opinion That Causes and Beginnings are all one or that there is but little difference betwixt them I do readily subscribe unto it but when he speaks of those things which are produced without life my reason cannot find out what or where they should be for certainly in Nature they are not Nature being Life and Soul her self and all her parts being enlivened and soulified so that there can be no generation or natural production without Life Neither is my sense and reason capable to understand his meaning when he says That the Seeds of things and the Spirits as the Dispensers thereof are divided from the Material Cause For I do see no difference betwixt the Seed and the material Cause but they are all one thing it being undeniable that the seed is the matter of that which is produced But your Author was pleased to say heretofore that there are but two beginnings or causes of natural things and now he makes so many more for says he Of Efficient and Seminal Causes some are efficiently effecting and others effectively effecting which nice distinctions in my opinion do but make a confusion in natural knowledg setting a mans brain on the rack for who is able to conceive all those Chymaeras and Fancies of the Archeus Ferment various Ideas Blas Gas and many more which are neither something nor no-thing in Nature but betwixt both except a man have the same Fancies Visions and Dreams your Author had Nature is easie to be understood and without any difficulty so as we stand in no need to frame so many strange names able to fright any body Neither do natural bodies know many prime causes and beginnings but there is but one onely chief and prime cause from which all effects and varieties proceed which cause is corporeal Nature or natural self-moving Matter which forms and produces all natural things and all the variety and difference of natural Creatures arises from her various actions which are the various motions in Nature some whereof are Regular some Irregular I mean Irregular as to particular Creatures not as to Nature her self for Nature cannot be disturbed or discomposed or else all would run into confusion Wherefore Irregularities do onely concern particular Creatures not Infinite Nature and the Irregularities of some parts may cause the Irregularities of other Parts as the Regularities of some parts do cause the Regularities of others And thus according as Regularities and Irregularities have power they cause either Peace or War Sickness or Health Delight and Pleasure or Grief and Pain Life or Death to particular Creatures or parts of Nature but all these various actions are but various Effects and not prime Causes which is well to be observed lest we confound Causes with Effects And so leaving this discourse for the present I rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant II. MADAM IT is no wonder your Author has so many odd and strange opinions in Philosophy since they do not onely proceed from strange Visions Apparitions and Dreams but are built upon so strange grounds and principles as Ideas Archeus Gas Blas Ferment and the like the names of which sound so harsh and terrifying as they might put any body easily into a fright like so many Hobgoblins or Immaterial spirits but the best is they can do no great harm except it be to trouble the brains of them that love to maintain those opinions for though they are thought to be powerful beings yet being not corporeal substances I cannot imagine wherein their power should consist for Nothing can do nothing But to mention each apart first his Archeus he calls the Spirit of Life a vital Gas or Light the Balsam preserving from Corruption the Vulcan or Smith of Generation the stirrer up and inward director of Generation an Air a skiey or airy Spirit cloathing himself presently with a bodily cloathing in things soulified walking through all the dens and retiring places of the seed and transforming the matter according to the perfect act of its own Image remaining the president and overseer or inward ruler of his bounds even till death the Principle of Life the Inn of Life the onely immediate Witness Executor and Instrument of Life the Prince and Center of Life the Ruler of the Stern the Keeper of Life and promoter of Transmutations the Porter of the Soul a Fountainous being a Flint These and many more names your Author attributes to his Archeus but what properly it is and what its Nature and its peculiar office I am not able to conceive In the next place Gas and Blas are to your Author also true Principles of Natural things for Gas is the Vapour into which Water is dissolved by Cold but yet it is a far more fine and subtil thing then Vapour which he demonstrates by the Art of Chymistry This Gas in another place he calls a Wild Spirit or Breath unknown hitherto which can neither be constrained by Vessels nor reduced into a visible body in some things it is nothing but Water as for example in Salt in Fruits and the like But Blas proceeds from the local and alterative motion of the Stars and is the general beginning of motion producing heat and cold and that especially with the changing of the Winds There is also Blas in all sublunary things witness Amulets or preserving Pomanders whereby they do constrain objects to obey them Which Incorporeal Blas of Government acts without a Corporeal Efflux even as the Moon makes the Sea to swell but the fleshly generation hath a Blas of its own and it is twofold one which existeth by a natural Motion the other voluntary which existeth as a mover to it self by an Internal Willing There is also a Blas of the Heart which is the fuel of the Vital Spirit and consequently of its heat The Ferment he describes to be A true Principle or Original beginning of things to wit a Formal Created being which is neither a substance nor an accident but a Neutral being framed from the beginning of the World in the places of its own Monarchy in the manner of Light Fire the magnal or sheath of the Air Forms c. that it may prepare stir up and go before the Seeds Lastly his Ideas are Certain formal seminal Lights mutually piercing each other without the adultery of Union For says he although at first that which is imagined is nothing but a meer being of reason yet it doth not remain such for truely the Fancy is a sealifying vertue
Superfluities which bear onely a relation to a particular Creature which hath more Motion and Matter then is proper for the nature of its figure And thus much of this subject for the present from MADAM Your faithful Friend and humble Servant XXVII MADAM In my last I remember I told you of your Authors opinion concerning the seat of Diseases viz. that Diseases are properly in living bodies and consist in the life it self but when I consider his definition of Life and of a Disease I cannot conceive how they should consist together for he describes a Disease to be a real material and substantial being truly subsisting in a body but life to be a meer nothing and yet the immediate mansion of a disease the inward subject yea and workman of the same and that with the life all diseases depart into nothing Surely Madam it exceedeth my understanding for first I cannot conceive how life which is a meer Nothing can be a lodging to something Next how Nothing can depart and die and thirdly how Something can become Nothing I think your Author might call a dead Carcass as well No-thing as Life and since he names Diseases the Thieves of Life they must needs be but poor Thieves because they steal No-thing But your Author compares Life to Light and calls it an Extinguishable Light like the light of a Candle which if so then the old saying is verified That life goes out like the snuff of a Candle But I wonder Madam that grave and wise men will seriously make use of a fimilifing old Proverb or of a Poetical Fancy in matter of natural Philosophy for I have observed that Homer Lucian Ovid Virgil Horace c. have been very ferviceable to great Philosophers who have taken the ground of their Fictions and transferred them into Natural Philosophy as Immaterial substances Non-beings and many the like but they can neither do any good nor hurt to Nature but onely spoil Philosophical Knowledg and as Nature is ignorant of Immaterials and Non-beings so Art is ignorant of Nature for Mathematical Rules Measures and Demonstrations cannot rule measure nor demonstrate Nature no more then Chymical Divisions Dissolutions and Extractions or rather distractions nay I may say destructions can divide dissolve extract compose and unite as Nature doth Wherefore their Instruments Figures Furnaces Limbecks and Engines cannot instruct them of the truth of Natures Principles but the best and readiest way to find out Nature or rather some truth of Nature is sense and reason which are Parts of Natures active substance and therefore the truest informers of Nature but the Ignorance of Nature has caused Ignorance amongst Philosophers and the Ignorance of Philosophers hath caused numerous Opinions and numerous Opinions have caused various Discourses and Disputes which Discourses and Disputes are not Sense and Reason but proceed from Irregular Motions and Truth is not found in Irregularities But to return to Life it seems your Author hath taken his opinion from Lucian's Kingdom of Lights the Lights being the Inhabitants thereof and when any was adjudged to die his Light was put out which was his punishment And thus this Heathenish Fiction is become a Christian Verity when as yet your Author rayls much at those that insist upon the Opinions and Doctrine of Pagan Philosophers Wherefore I will leave this Poetical Fancy of Life and turn to Death and see what opinion your Author hath of that First concerning the cause or original of Death Neither God says he nor the Evil Spirit is the Creator of Death but Man onely who made death for himself Neither did Nature make death but Man made death natural Which if it be so then Death being to my opinion a natural Creature as well as Life Sickness and Health Man certainly had great Power as to be the Creator of a natural Creature But I would fain know the reason why your Author is so unwilling to make God the Author of Death and Sickness as well as of Damnation Doth it imply any Impiety or Irreligiousness Doth not God punish as well as reward and is not death a punishment for our sin You may say Death came from sin but sin did not come from God Then some might ask from whence came sin You will say From the Transgression of the Command of God as the eating of the Forbidden Fruit. But from whence came this Transgression It might be answer'd From the Perswasion of the Serpent From whence came this Perswasion From his ill and malitious nature to oppose God and ruine the race of Mankind From whence came this ill Nature From his Fall Whence came his Fall From his Pride and Ambition to be equal with God From whence came this Pride From his Free-will From whence came his Free-will From God Thus Madam if we should be too inquisitive into the actions of God we should commit Blasphemy and make God Cruel as to be the Cause of Sin and consequently of Damnation But although God is not the Author of Sin yet we may not stick to say that he is the Author of the Punishment of Sin as an Act of his Divine Justice which Punishment is Sickness and Death nay I see no reason why not of Damnation too as it is a due punishment for the sins of the wicked for though Man effectively works his own punishment yet Gods Justice inflicts it Like as a just Judg may be call'd the cause of a Thief being hang'd But these questions are too curious and some men will be as presumptuous as the Devil to enquire into Gods secret actions although they be sure that they cannot be known by any Creature Wherefore let us banish such vain thoughts and onely admire adore love and praise God and implore his Mercy to give us grace to shun the punishments for our sins by the righteousness of our actions and not endeavour to know his secret designs Next I dissent from your Author That Death and all dead things do want roots whereby they may produce For death and dead things in my opinion are the most active producers at least they produce more numerously and variously then those we name living things for example a dead Horse will produce more several Animals besides other Creatures then a living Horse can do but what Archeus and Ideas a dead Carcass hath I can tell no more then what Blas or Gas it hath onely this I say that it has animate Matter which is the onely Archeus or Master-workman that produces all things creates all things dissolves all things and transforms all things in Nature but not out of Nothing or into Nothing as to create new Creatures which were not before in Nature or to annihilate Creatures and to reduce them to nothing but it creates and transforms out of and in the same Matter which has been from all Eternity Lastly your Author is pleased to say That he doth not behold a disease as an abstracted Quality and that Apoplexy
Leprosie Dropsie and Madness as they are Qualities in the abstract are not diseases I am of his mind that a disease is a real and corporeal being and do not understand what he and others mean by abstraoted qualities for Nature knows of no abstraction of qualities from substances and I doubt Man can do no more then Nature doth Besides those abstractions are needless and to no purpose for no Immaterial quality will do any hurt if it be no substance wherefore Apoplexy Leprosie Dropsie and Madness are Corporeal beings as well as the rest of Diseases and not abstracted Qualities and I am sure Persons that are affected with those diseases will tell the same Wherefore leaving needless abstractions to fancies abstracted from right sense and reason I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXVIII MADAM I Am very much troubled to see your Authors Works fill'd with so many spiteful reproaches and bitter taunts against the Schools of Physicians condemning both their Theory and Practice nay that not onely the Modern Schools of Physicians but also the two ancient and famous Physicians Galen and Paracelsus must sufficiently suffer by him especially Galen for there is hardly a Chapter in all his Works which has not some accusations of blind errors sloth and sluggishness Ignorance Covetousness Cruelty and the like Which I am very sorry for not onely for the sake of your Author himself who herein doth betray both his rashness and weakness in not bridling his passions and his too great presumption reliance and confidence in his own abilities and extraordinary Gifts but also for the sake of the Fame and Repute of our Modren Physicians for without making now any difference betwixt the Galenists and Paracelsians and examining which are the best for I think them both excellent in their kinds especially when joyned together I will onely say this in general that the Art of Physick has never flourish'd better then now neither has any age had more skilful learned and experienced Physicians then this present because they have not onely the knowledg and practise of those in ages Past but also their own experience joyned with it which cannot but add perfection to their Art and I for my part am so much for the old way of Practice that ifI should be sick I would desire rather such Physicians which follow the same way then those that by their new Inventions perchance cure one and kill a hundred But your Author will have a Physician to be like a Handycrafts man who being call'd to a work promises that work and stands to his promise and therefore It is a shame says he in a Physician being call'd to a sick-man in the beginning of the disease and when his strength is yet remaining to suffer the same man to die This in my opinion is a very unreasonable comparison to liken a Handicrafts man to a Physician and the art of Curing to the art of Building or any the like without regard of so many great differences that are between them which I am loth to rehearse for brevities sake and are apparant enough to every one that will consider them but this I may say that it is not always for want of skill and industry in a Physician that the cure is not effected but it lies either in the Incureableness of the disease or any other external accidents that do hinder the success Not but that the best Physicians may err in a disease or mistake the Patients inward distemper by his outward temper or the interior temper by his outward distemper or any other ways for they may easily err through the variaction of the disease which may vary so suddenly and oft as it is impossible to apply so fast and so many Medicines as the alteration requires without certain death for the body is not'able oftentimes to dispose and digest several Medicines so fast as the disease may vary and therefore what was good in this temper may perhaps be bad in the variation insomuch that one medicine may in a minute prove a Cordial and Poyson Nay it may be that some Physicians do err through their own ignorance and mistake must we therefore condemn all the skill and accuse all the Schools of Negligence Cruelty and Ignorance God forbid for it would be a great Injustice Let us rather praise them for the good they do and nor rashly condemn them for the evil they could not help For we may as well condemn those holy and industrious Divines that cannot reform wicked and perverse Sinners as Physicians because they cannot restore every Patient to his former health the Profession of a Physician being very difficult for they can have but outward signs of inward distempers Besides all men are not diffected after they are dead to inform Physicians of the true cause of their death nay if they were perchance they would not give always a true information to the Physician as is evident by many examples but oftentimes the blame is laid upon the Physician when as the fault is either in Nature or any other cause which Art could not mend And if your Author had had such an extraordinary Gift from God as to know more then all the rest of Physicians why did he not accordingly and as the Scripture speaks of Faith shew his skill by his Works and Cures certainly could he have restored those that were born blind lame deaf and dumb or cured the spotted Plague or Apoplexy after the third fit or the Consumption of Vital parts or a Fever in the Arteries or dissolved a Stone too big to go through the passage and many the like he would not onely have been cried up for a rare Physician but for a miracle of the World and worshipped as a Saint But if he could not effect more then the Schools can do why doth he inveigh so bitterly against them Wherefore I cannot commend him in so doing but as I respect the Art of Physick as a singular Gift from God to Mankind so I respect and esteem also learned and skilful Physicians for their various Knowledg industrious Studies careful Practice and great Experiences and think every one is bound to do the like they being the onely supporters and restorers of humane life and health For though I must confess with your Author that God is the onely giver of Good yet God is not pleased to work Miracles ordinarily but has ordained means for the restoring of health which the Art of Physick doth apply and therefore those Persons that are sick do wisely to send for a Physician for Art although it is but a particular Creature and the handmaid of Nature yet she doth Nature oftentimes very good service and so do Physicians often prolong their Patients lives The like do Chirurgeons for if those Persons that have been wounded had been left to be cured onely by the Magnetick Medicine I believe numbers that are alive would have been dead and numbers would die that are alive
I rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXXI MADAM YOur Author in opposition to the Schools endeavouring to prove that there are no humors in an animal body except blood proves many humors in himself But I can see no reason why Nature should not make several humors as well as several Elements Vegetables Minerals Animals and other Creatures and that in several parts of the body and many several ways for to mention but one sort of other Creatures viz. Vegetables they are as we see not onely produced many several ways but in many several grounds either by sowing setting or grafting either in clayie limy sandy chalky dry or wet grounds And why may not several humors be produced as well of other Creatures and parts as others are produced of them for all parts of Nature are produced one from another as being all of one and the same Matter onely the variation of corporeal motions makes all the difference and variety between them which variety of motions is impossible to be known by any particular Creature for Nature can do more then any Creature can conceive Truly Madam I should not be of such a mind as to oppose the Schools herein so eargerly as your Author doth but artificial actions make men to have erroneous opinions of the actions of Nature judging them all according to the rule and measure of Art when as Art oft deludes men under the cover of truth and makes them many times believe falshood for truth for Nature is pleased with variety and so doth make numerous absurdities doubts opinions disputations objections and the like Moreover your Author is as much against the radical moisture as he is against the four humors saying that according to this opinion of the Schools a fat belly through much grease affording more fuel to the radical moisture must of necessity live longer But this in my opinion is onely a wilful mistake for I am confident that the Schools do not understand radical moisture to be gross fat radical oyl but a thin oylie substance Neither do they believe radical heat to be a burning fiery and consuming heat but such a degree of natural heat as is comfortable nourishing refreshing and proper for the life of the animal Creature Wherefore radical heat and moisture doth not onely consist in the Grease of the body for a lean body may have as much and some of them more Radical moisture then fat bodies But your Author instead of this radical moisture makes a nourishable moisture onely as I suppose out of a mind to contradict the Schools when as I do not perceive that the Schools mean by Radical moisture any other then a nourishable moisture and therefore this distinction is needless Lastly he condemns the Schools for making an affinity betwixt the bowels and the brain But he might as will condemn Politicians for saying there is an affinity betwixt Governors and Subjects or betwixt command and obedience but as the actions of Particulars even from the meanest in a Common-wealth may chance to make a Publick disturbance so likewise in the Common-wealth of the body one single action in a particular part may cause a disturbance of the whole Body nay a total ruine and dissolution of the composed which dissolution is called Death and yet these causes are neither Light nor Blas nor Gas no more then men are shining Suns or flaming Torches or blazing Meteors or azure Skies Wherefore leaving your Author to his contradicting humor I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXXII MADAM I Do verily believe with the Schools the Purging of the Brain against your Author For I know no reason why all the parts of a man's body should not stand in need of evacuation and purging as well as some 'T is true if the substance or nourishment received were all useful and onely enough for the maintenance subsistance and continuance of the Creature and no more then there would be no need of such sort of evacuation but I believe the corporeal self-motions in a body discharge the superfluous matter out of every part of the body if the motions of the superfluous matter be not too strong and over-power the motions in the parts of the body but some parts do produce more superfluities then others by reason their property is more to dilate then to contract and more to attract then to retain or fix which parts are the brain stomack bowels bladder gall and the like wherefore as there is nourishment in all parts of the body so there are also excrements in all parts for there is no nourishment without excrement Next your Author says That the nourishment of the solid parts is made with the transmutation of the whole venal blood into nourishment without a separation of the pure from the impure But I pray give me leave to ask Madam whether the solid Parts are not Instruments for the nourishment of the Venal blood Truly I cannot conceive how blood should be nourished wanting those solid parts and their particular motions and imployments Again his opinion is That the brain is nourished by a few and slender veins neither doth a passage or channel appear whereby a moist excrement may derive or a vapour enter And by reason of the want of such a passage in another place he is pleased to affirm That nothing can fume up from the stomack into the brain and therefore Wine doth not make drunk with fuming from the stomach into the head but the Winie spirit is immediately snatched into the arteries out of the stomack without digestion and so into the head and there breeds a confusion First I am not of the opinion that all nourishment comes from the veins or from one particular part of the body no more do Excrements neither do I believe that every passage in the body is visible to Anatomists for Natures works are too curious and intricate for any particular Creature to find them out which is the cause that Anatomists and Chymists are so oft mistaken in natural causes and effects for certainly they sometimes believe great Errors for great Truths Next as for Drunkenness I believe that many who drink much Wine are drunk before such time as the Wine spirit can get into the Arteries but if there be Pores to the Brain as it is most probable the spirit of Wine may more easily ascend and enter those Pores then the Pores of the Arteries or the Mouth-veins and so make a circular journey to the Head But as for Excrements whereof I spake in the beginning as they are made several manners or ways and in several parts of the body so they are also discharged several ways from several parts and several ways from each particular part indeed so many several ways and manners as would puzzle the wisest man in the world nay your Authors Interior keeper of the Brain to find them out Wherefore to conclude he is the best Physician that can tell how to discharge
irregular and disordered motions or strengthen the weak or reduce the straying or work any other ways according to the nature and propriety of their own substance and the disposition of the distempered parts Nevertheless those cures which are performed exteriously as to heal inward affects by an outwad bare co-touching are all made by natural motions in natural substances and not by Non-being substanceless Ideas or spiritual Rays for those that will cure diseases by Non-beings will effect little or nothing for a disease is corporeal or material and so must the remedies be there being no cure made but by a conflict of the remedy with the disease and certainly if a non-being fight against a being or a corporeal disease I doubt it will do no great effect for the being will be too strong for the non-being Wherefore my constant opinion is that all cures whatsover are perfected by the power of corporeal motions working upon the affected parts either interiously or exteriously either by applying external remedies to external wounds or by curing internal distempers either by medicines taken internally or by bare external co-touchings And such a remedy I suppose has been that which your Author speaks of viz. a stone of a certain Irish-man which by a meer external contact hath cured all kinds of diseases either by touching outwardly the affected parts or by licking it but with the tip of the Tongue if the disease was Internal But if the vertue of the Stone was such as your Author describes certainly what man soever he was that possessed such a jewel I say he was rather of the nature of the Devil then of man that would not divulge it to the general benefit of all mankind and I wonder much that your Author who otherwise pretends such extraordinary Devotion Piety and Religiousness as also Charity viz. that all his works he has written are for the benefit of his neighbour and to detect the errors of the Schools meerly for the good of man doth yet plead his cause saying That secrets as they are most difficultly prepared so they ought to remain in secret forever in the possession of the Privy Councel what Privy Counsels he means I know not but certainly some are more difficult to be spoken to or any thing to be obtained from then the preparation of a Physical Arcanum However a general good or benefit ought not to be concealed or kept in privy Councels but to be divulged and publickly made known that all sorts of People of what condition degree or Nation soever might partake of the general blessing and bounty of God But Madam you may be sure that many who pretend to know Physical secrets most commonly know the least as being for the most part of the rank of them that deceive the simple with strange tales which exceed truth and to make themselves more authentical they use to rail at others and to condemn their skill onely to magnifie their own I say many Madam as I have observed are of that nature especially those that have but a superficial knowledge in the Art of Physick for those that are thorowly learned and sufficiently practised in it scorn to do the like which I wish may prosper and thrive by their skill And so I rest MADAM Your Ladiships humble Servant XLIII MADAM YOur Author is pleased to relate a story of one that died suddenly and being disfected there was not the least sign of decay or disorder found in his body But I cannot add to those that wonder when no sign of distemper is found in a man's body after he is dead because I do not believe that the subtillest learnedst and most practised Anatomist can exactly tell all the Interior Government or motions or can find out all obscure and invisible passages in a man's body for concerning the motions they are all altered in death or rather in the dissolution of the animal figure and although the exterior animal figure or shape doth not alter so soon yet the animal motions may alter in a moment of time which sudden alteration may cause a sudden death and so the motions being invisible the cause of death cannot be perceived for no body can find that which is not to be found to wit animal motions in a dead man for Nature hath altered these motions from being animal motions to some other kind of motions she being as various in dissolutions as in productions indeed so various that her ways cannot be traced or known thorowly and perfecty but onely by piece-meals as the saying is that is but partly Wherefore man can onely know that which is visible or subject to his senses and yet our senses do not always inform us truly but the alterations of grosser parts are more easily known then the alterations of subtil corporeal motions either in general or in particular neither are the invisible passages to be known in a dead Carcass much less in a living body But I pray mistake me not when I say that the animal motions are not subject to our exterior senses for I do not mean all exterior animal motions nor all interior animal motions for though you do see no interior motion in an animal body yet you may feel some as the motion of the Heart the motion of the Pulse the motion of the Lungs and the like but the most part of the interior animal motions are not subject to our exterior senses nay no man he may be as observing as he will can possibly know by his exterior senses all the several and various interior motions in his own body nor all the exterior motions of his exterior parts and thus it remains still that neither the subtillest motions and parts of matter nor the obscure passages in several Creatures can be known but by several parts for what one part is ignorant of another part is knowing and what one part is knowing another part is ignorant thereof so that unless all the Parts of Infinite Matter were joyned into one Creature there can never be in one particular Creature a perfect knowledg of all things in Nature Wherefore I shall never aspire to any such knowledg but be content with that little particular knowledg Nature has been pleased to give me the chief of which is that I know my self and especially that I am MADAM Your constant Friend and faithful Servant XLIV MADAM I Perceive you are desirous to know the cause Why a man is more weak at the latter end of a disease then at the beginning and is a longer time recovering health then loosing health as also the reason of relapses and intermissions First as for weakness and strength my opinion is they are caused by the regular and irregular motions in several parts each striving to over-power the other in their conflict and when a man recovers from a disease although the regular motions have conquered the irregular and subdued them to their obedience yet they are not so quite obedient as they
answer To my sense and reason it were possible if extremes were in Nature but I do not perceive that in Nature there be any although my sense and reason doth perceive alterations in the effects of Nature for though one and the same part may alter from contraction to dilation and from dilation to contraction yet this contraction and dilation are not extremes neither are they performed at one and the same time but at different times But having sufficiently declared my opinion hereof in my former Letters I 'l add no more but rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XII MADAM MY discourse of Water in my last Letter has given you occasion to enquire after the reason Why the weight of a great body of water doth not press so hard and heavily as to bruise or crush a body when it is sunk down to the bottom As for example If a man should be drowned and afterwards cast out from the bottom of a great Sea or River upon the shore he would onely be found smother'd or choak'd to death and not press'd crush'd or bruised by the weight of water I answer The reasons are plain for first the nature of a mans respiration requires such a temperature of breath to suck in as is neither too thick nor too thin for his lungs and the rest of his interior parts as also for the organs and passages of his exterior senses but fit proper and proportionable to those mentioned parts of his body As for example in a too thin and rarified air man will be as apt to die for want of breath as in a too gross and thick air he is apt to die with a superfluity of the substance he imbreaths for thick smoak or thick vapour as also too gross air will soon smother a man to death and as for choaking if a man takes more into his throat then he can swallow he will die and if his stomack be filled with more food then it is able to digest if it cannot discharge it self he will die with the excess of food and if there be no food or too little put into it he will also die for want of food So the eye if it receives too many or too gross or too bright objects it will be dazled or blinded and some objects through their purity are not to be seen at all The same for Hearing and the rest of the exterior senses And this is the reason why man or some animal Creatures are smother'd and choak'd with water because water is thicker then the grossest air or vapour for if smoak which is rarer then water will smother and choak a man well may water being so much thicker But yet this smothering or choaking doth not prove that water hath an interior or innate density as your Authors opinion is no more then smoak or thick and gross air hath but the density of water is caused more through the wet and moist exterior parts joyning and uniting closely together and the interior nature of smoak being more moist or glutinous then thin air and so more apt to unite its exterior parts it makes it to come in effect nearer to water for though water and smoak are both of rare natures yet not so rare as clear and pure air neither is water or smoak so porous as pure air by reason the exterior parts of water and smoak are more moist or glutinous then pure air But the thickness of water and smoak is the onely cause of the smothering of men or some animals as by stopping their breath for a man can no more live without air then he can without food and a well tempered or middle degree of air is the most proper for animal Respiration for if the air be too thick it may soon smother or choak him and if too thin it is not sufficient to give him breath And this is the reason that a man being drown'd is not onely smother'd but choak'd by water because there enters more through the exterior passages into his body then can be digested for water is apt to flow more forcibly and with greater strength then air not that it is more dilating then air but by reason it is thicker and so stronger or of more force for the denser a body is the stronger it is and a heavy body when moved is more forcible then a light body But I pray by this expression mistake not the nature of water for the interior nature of water hath not that gravity which heavy or dense bodies have its nature being rare and light as air or fire but the weight of water as I said before proceeds onely from the closeness and compactness of its exterior parts not through a contraction in its interior nature and there is no argument which proves better that water in its interior nature is dilating then that its weight is not apt to press to a point for though water is apt to descend through the union of its parts yet it cannot press hard by reason of its dilating nature which hinders that heavy pressing quality for a dilating body cannot have a contracted weight I mean so as to press to a Center which is to a point and this is the reason that when a grave or heavy body sinks down to the bottom of water it is not opprest hurt crusht or bruised by the weight of water for as I said the nature of water being dilating it can no more press hard to a center then vapour air or fire The truth is water would be as apt to ascend as descend if it were not for the wet glutinous and sticking cleaving quality of its exterior parts but as the quantity and quality of the exterior parts makes water apt to sink or descend so the dilating nature makes it apt to flow if no hinderance stop its course also the quantity and quality of its exterior parts is the cause that some heavy bodies do swim without sinking as for example a great heavy Ship will not readily sink unless its weight be so contracted as to break asunder the united parts of water for the wet quality of water causing its exterior parts to joyn close gives it such an united strength as to be able to bear a heavy burden if the weight be dilated or level and not piercing or penetrating for those bodies that are most compact will sink sooner although of less weight then those that are more dilated although of greater weight Also the exterior and outward shape or form makes some bodies more apt to sink then others Indeed the outward form and shape of Creatures is one of the chief causes of either sinking or swimming But to conclude water in its interior nature is of a mean or middle degree as neither too rare nor too grave a body and for its exterior quality it is in as high a degree for wetness as fire is for heat and being apt both to divide and to unite it can bear a burden and devour a