in the time EF is greater then the force B in so much time the force B will be able to mooue A through CD Which discourse is euident if we take it in the common termes but if it be applyed to action wherein physicall accidents intervene the artificer must haue the iudgement to prouide for them according to the nature of his matter Vpon this last discourse doth hang the principle which gouerneth Mechanikes to witt that the force and the distance of weights counterpoising one an other ought to be reciprocall That is that by how much the one weight is heauyer then the other by so much must the distance of the lighter from the fixed point vpon which they are mooued be greater then the distance of the greater weight from the same point for it is plaine that the weight which is more distant must be mooued a greater space then the neerer weight in the proportion of the two distāces Wherefore the force moouing it must carry it in a velocity of the said proportion to the velocity of the other And consequently the Agent or moouer must be in that proportion more powerfull then the contrary moouer And out of this practise of Geometricians in Mechanikes which is confirmed by experience it is made euident that if other conditions be equall the excesse of so much grauity will make so much velocity And so much velocity in proportion will recompence so much grauity Out of the precedent conclusions an other followeth which is that nothing recedeth frō quiet or rest and attaineth a great degree of celerity but it must passe through all the degrees of celerity that are below the obtained degree And the like is in passing from any lesser degree of velocity vnto a greater because it must passe through all the intermediate degrees of velocity For by the declaration of velocity which we haue euen now made we see that there is as much resistance in the medium to be ouercome with speede as there is for it to be ouercome in regard of the quantity or line of extent of it because as we haue said the force of the Agent in counterpoises ought to be encreased as much as the line of extent of the medium which is to be ouercome by the Agent in equall time doth exceede the line of extent of the medium along which the resistent body is to be mooued Wherefore it being prooued that no line of extent can be ouercome in an instant it followeth that no defect of velocity which requireth as great a superproportion in the cause can be ouercome likewise in an instant And by the same reason by which we prooue that a mooueable can not be drawne in an instant from a lower degree of velocity to a higher it is with no lesse euidence concluded that no degree of velocity can be attained in an instant for diuide that degree of velocity into two halfes and if the Agent had ouercome the one halfe he could not ouercome the other halfe in an instant much lesse therefore is he able to ouercome the whole that is to reduce the mooueable from quiet to the said degree of velocity in an instant An other reason may be because the moouers themselues such moouers as we treate of here are bodies likewise mooued and do consist of partes whereof not euery one part but a competent number of them doth make the moouing body to be a fitt Agent able to mooue the proposed body in a proposed degree of celerity Now this Agent meeting with resistance in the mooueable and not being in the vtmost extremity of density but condensable yet further because it is a body and that euery resistance be it neuer so small doth worke something vpon the moouer though neuer so hard to condense it the partes of the moouer that are to ouercome this resistance in the mooueable must to worke that effect be condensed and brought together as close as is needefull by this resistance of the mooueable to the moouer and so the remote partes of the moouer become neerer to the mooueable which can not be done but successiuely because it includeth locall motion And this application being likewise diuisible and not all the partes flocking together in an instant to the place where they are to exercise their power it followeth that whiles there are fewer moouing partes knitt together they must needes mooue lesse and more weakely then when more or all of them are assembled and applyed to that worke So that the motiue vertue encreasing thus in proportion to the multiplying of the partes applyed to cause the motion of necessity the effect which is obedience to be mooued and quicknesse of motion in the mooueable must do so too that is it must from nothing or from rest passe through all the degrees of celerity vntill it arriue to that which all the partes together are able to cause As for example when with my hand I strike a ball till my hand toucheth it it is in quiet but then it beginneth to mooue yet with such resistance that although it obey in some measure the stroke of my hand neuerthelesse it presseth the yielding flesh of my palme backwardes towardes the vpper and bony part of it That part then ouertaking the other by the continued motion of my hand and both of them ioyning together to force the ball away the impulse becometh stronger then att the first touching of it And the longer it presseth vpon it the more the partes of my hand do condense and vnite themselues to exercise their force and the ball therefore must yield the more and consequently the motion of it groweth quicker and quicker till my hand parteth from it Which condensation of the partes of my hand encreasing successiuely by the partes ioyning closer to one an other the velocity of the balles motion which is an effect of it must also encrease proportionably thereunto And in like manner the motion of my hand and arme must grow quicker and quicker and passe all the degrees of velocity betweene rest and the vtmost degree it attaineth vnto for seeing they are the spirits swelling the nerues that cause the armes motion as we shall hereafter shew vpon its resistance they flocke from other partes of the body to ouercome that resistance And since their iourney thither requireth time to performe it in and that the neerest come first it must needes follow that as they grow more and more in number they must more powerfully ouercome the resistance and consequently encrease the velocity of the motion in the same proportion as they flocke thither vntill it attaine that degree of velocity which is the vtmost periode that the power which the Agent hath to ouercome the resistance of the medium can bring it selfe vnto Betweene which and rest or any inferiour degree of velocity there may be designed infinite intermediate degrees proportionable to the infinite diuisibility of time and space in which the moouer doth moue Which degrees
the cause of the plummets remounting as long as grauity is said to be a quality for still grauity must be the cause of an effect contrary to its owne inclination by setting on foote the immediate cause to produce it The second thing we are to note in this experiment of the plummets ascent is that if grauity be a quality there must bee as much resistance to its going vp as there was force to its coming downe Therefore there must be twice as much force to make it ascend as there was to make it descend that is to say there must be twice as much force as the naturall force of the grauity is for there must be once as much to equalise the resistance of the grauity and then an other time as much to carry it as farre through the same medium in the same time But it is impossible that any cause should produce an effect greater then it selfe Againe the grauity must needes be in a determinate degree and the vertue that maketh the plummett remount whatsoeuer it be may be putt as litle as we please and consequently not able to ouersway the grauity alone if it be an intrinsecall quality and yet the plummet will remount in which case you putt an effect without a cause An other experience we may take from the force of sucking for take the barrell of a long gunne perfectly bored and sett it vpright with the breech vpon the ground and take a bullett that is exactly fitt for it but so as it sticke not any where both the barrell and it being perfectly polished and then if you sucke att the mouth of the barrell though neuer so gently the bullett will come vp so forcibly that it will hazard the striking out of your teeth Now lett vs consider what force were necessary to sucke the bullett vp and how very slowly it would ascend if in the barrell it had as much resistance to ascend as in the free ayre it hath inclination to goe downe But if it had a quality of grauity naturall to it it must of necessity haue such resistance whereas in our experiment we see it cometh as easily as the very ayre So that in this example as well as in the other nature teacheth vs that grauity is no quality And all or most of the arguments which we haue vrged against the quality of grauity in that explication we haue considered it in haue force likewise against it although it be said to be an inclination of its subiect to mooue it selfe vnto vnity with the maine stocke of its owne nature as diuers witty men do putt it for this supposition doth but chāge the intention or end of grauity and is but to make it an other kind of intellectuall or knowing Entity that determineth it selfe to an other end which is as impossible for a naturall quality to do as to determine it selfe to the former endes And thus much the arguments we haue proposed do conuince euidently if they be applyed against this opinion THE TWELTH CHAPTER Of Violent Motion ANd thus we haue giuen a short scātling whereby to vnderstand in some measure the causes of that motion which we call naturall by reason it hath its birth from the vniuersall oeconomy of nature here among vs that is from the generall working of the sunne whereby all naturall thinges haue their course and by reason that the cause of it is att all times and in all places constantly the same Next vnto which the order of discourse leadeth vs to take a suruay of those forced motions whose first causes the more apparent they are the more obscurity they leaue vs in to determine by what meanes they are continued When a tennis ball is strucken by a rackett or an arrow is shott from a bow we plainely see the causes of their motion namely the stringes which first yielding and then returning with a greater celerity do cause the missiues to speed so fast towardes their appoynted homes Experience informeth vs what qualities the missiues must be endued withall to mooue fast and steadily They must be so heauy that the ayre may not breake their course and yet so light that they may be within the command of the stroake which giueth them motion the striker must be dense and in its best velocity the angle which the missiue is to mount by if we will haue it goe to its furthest randome must be the halfe of a right one and lastly the figure of the missiue must be such as may giue scope vnto the ayre to beare it vp and yet not hinder its course by taking too much hold of it All this we see but when withall wee see that the moouer deserteth the moueable as soone as he hath giuen the blow wee are att a stand and know not where to seeke for that which afterwardes maketh it flye for motion being a transient not a permanent thing as soone as the cause ceaseth that begott it in that very point it must be att an end and as long as the motion continueth there must be some permanent cause to make it do so so that as soone as the rackett or bowstring goe backe and leaue the ball or arrow why should not they presently fall straight downe to the ground Aristotle and his followers haue attributed the cause hereof to the ayre but Galileo relisheth not this conception His arguments against it are as I remember to this tenor first ayre by reason of its rarity and diuisibility seemeth not apt to conserue motion next we see that light thinges are best carried by the ayre and it hath no power ouer weighty ones lastly it is euident that ayre taketh most hold of the broadest superficies and therefore an arrow would flye faster broadwayes then longwayes if this were true Neuerthelesse since euery effect must haue a proportionable cause from whence it immediately floweth and that a body must haue an other body to thrust it on as long as it mooueth lett vs examine what bodies do touch a moueable whilest it is in motion as the onely meanes to find an issue out of this difficulty for to haue recourse vnto a quality or impressed force for deliuerance out of this straight is a shift that will not serue the turne in this way of discourse we vse In this Philosophy no knott admitteth such a solution If then we enquire what body it is that immediately toucheth the ball or arrow whiles it flyeth we shall find that none other doth so but the ayre and the atomes in it after the stringes haue giuen their stroake and are parted from the missiue And although we haue Galileos authority and arguments to discourage vs from beleeuing that the ayre can worke this effect yet since there is no other body besides it left for vs to consider in this case lett vs att the least examine how the ayre behaueth it selfe after the stroake is giuen by the stringes First then it is euident that as soone
leafe doth not incorporate it selfe with an other but as soone as they feele the heate of the sunne after they are broken out into liberty their tender branches by litle and litle grow more straight the concaue partes of them drawing more towardes the sunne because he extracteth and sucketh their moysture from their hinder partes into their former that are more exposed to his beames and thereby the hinder partes are contracted and grow shorter and those before grow longer Which if it be in excesse maketh the leafe become crooked the contrary way as we see in diuers flowers and in sundry leafes during the summers heate wittenesse the yuy roses full blowne tulipes and all flowers in forme of bells and indeede all kindes of flowers whatsoeuer when the sunne hath wrought vpon them to that degree we speake of and that their ioyning to their stalke and the next partes thereunto allow them scope to obey the impulse of those outward causes And when any do vary from this rule we shall as plainely see other manifest causes producing those different effects as now we do these working in this manner As for fruites though we see that when they grow att liberty vpon the tree they seeme to haue a particular figure alloted them by nature yet in truth it is the ordered series of naturall causes and not an intrinsecall formatiue vertue which breedeth this effect as is euident by the great power which art hath to change their figures att pleasure whereof you may see examples enough in Campanella and euery curious gardner can furnish you with store Out of these and such like principles a man that would make it his study with lesse trouble or tediousnesse then that patient contemplator of one of natures litle workes the Bees whom we mentioned a while agone might without all doubt trace the causes in the growing of an Embryon till he discouered the reason of euery bones figure of euery notable hole or passage that is in them of the ligaments by which they are tyed together of the membranes that couer them and of all the other partes of the body How out of a first masse that was soft and had no such partes distinguishable in it euery one of thē came to be formed by contracting that masse in one place by dilating it in an other by moystening it in a third by drying it here hardening it there Vt his exordia primis Omnia ipse tener hominis concreuerit orbis till in the end this admirable machine and frame of mans body was composed and fashioned vp by such litle and almost insensible steppes and degrees Which when it is looked vpon in bulke and entirely formed seemeth impossible to haue beene made and to haue sprung meerely out of these principle without an Intelligence immediately working and moulding it att euery turne from the beginning to the end But withall we can not choose but breake out into an extasye of admiration and hymnes of prayse as great Galen did vpon the like occasion when we reuerently consider the infinite wisedome and deepe farrelooking prouidence of the allseeing Creator and orderer of the world in so punctually adapting such a multitude and swarme of causes to produce by so long a progresse so wonderfull an effect in the whole course of which if any one the very least of them all went neuer so litle awry the whole fabrike would be discomposed and changed from the nature it is designed vnto Out of our short suruay of which answerable to our weake talents and slender experience I persuade my selfe it appeareth euident enough that to effect this worke of generation there needeth not be supposed a forming vertue or Vis formatrix of an vnknowne power and operation as those that consider thinges soddainely and but in grosse do vse to putt Yet in discourse for conueniency and shortenesse of expression we shall not quite banish that terme from all commerce with vs so that what we meane by it be rightly vnderstood which is the complexe assemblement or chayne of all the causes that concurre to produce this effect as they are sett on foote to this end by the great Architect and Moderator of them God almighty whose instrument nature is that is the same thing or rather the same thinges so ordered as we haue declared but expressed and comprised vnder an other name THE SIX AND TWENTIETH CHAPTER How motion beginneth in liuing creatures And of the motion of the hart circulation of the bloud Nutrition Augmentation and corruption or death BVt we must not take our leaue of this subiect vntill we haue examined how motion beginneth in liuing thinges as well plants as sensitiue creatures We can readily pitch vpon the part we are to make our obseruations in for retriuing the origine of this primary motion for hauing concluded that the rootes of plants and the harts of animals are the partes of them which are first made and from which the forming vertue is deriued to all the rest it were vnreasonable to seeke for their first motion any where else But in what manner and by what meanes doth it beginne there For rootes the difficulty is not great for the moysture of the earth pressing vpon the seede and soaking into it the hoat partes of it which were imprisoned in cold and dry ones are thereby stirred vp and sett on worke then they mingling themselues with that moysture do ferment and distend the whole seede till making it open and breake the skinne more iuice cometh in which incorporating it selfe with the heate those hoat and now moyst partes will not be contained in so narrow a roome as att the first but struggling to gett out on all sides and striuing to enlarge thēselues they thrust forth litle partes which if they stay in the earth do grow white and make the roote but those which ascēd and make their way into the ayre being lesse compressed and more full of heate and moysture do turne greene and as fast as they grow vp new moysture coming to the roote is sent vp through the pores of it and this faileth not vntill the heate of the roote it selfe doth faile For it being the nature of heate to rarify and eleuate there must of necessity be caused in the earth a kind of sucking in of moysture into the roote frō the next partes vnto it to fill those capacities which the dilating heate hath made that else would be empty and to supply the roomes of those which the heate continually sendeth vpwardes for the moysture of the roote hath a continuity with that in the earth and therefore they adhere together as in a pumpe or rather as in filtration and do follow one an other when any of them are in motion and still the next must needes come in and fill the roome where it findeth an empty space immediate to it The like of which happeneth to the ayre when we breath for our lunges being like a bladder
shelter of a thicke body doth not hinder the descent of that which is vnder it pag. 91. § 6. The reason why some bodies sinke others swimme pag. 92. § 7. The fifth obiection answered concerning the descending of heauy bodies in streames pag. 93. § 8. The sixt obiection answered and that all heauy elements do weigh in their owne spheres pag. 95. § 9. The seuenth obiection answered and the reason why we do not feele the course of the ayre and atomes that beate continually vpon vs. ibidem § 10. How in the same body grauity may be greater then density and density then grauity though they be the same thing pag. 96. § 11. The opinion of grauities being an intrinsecall inclination of a body to the center refuted by reason pag 97. § 12. The same opinion refuted by seuerall experiences pag. 98. CHAP. XII Of Violent Motion pag. 100. § 1. The state of the question touching the cause of violent motion ibid. § 2. That the medium is the onely cause which continueth violent motion ibidem § 3. A further explication of the former doctrine pag. 101. § 4. That the ayre hath strength enough to continue violent motion in a moueable pag. 102. § 5. An answere to the first obiection that ayre is not apt to conserue motion And how violent motion cometh to cease pag 103. § 6. An answere to the second obiection that the ayre hath no power ouer heauy bodies pag. 104. § 7. An answere to the third obiection that an arrow should fly faster broadwayes then long wayes pag. 105. CHAP. XIII Of three sortes of violent motion Reflexion Vndulation and Refraction pag. 106. § 1. That reflexion is a kind of violent motion ibid. § 2. Reflection is made at equall angles ibid. § 3. The causes and properties of vndulation pag. 107. § 4. Refraction at the entrance into the reflectent body is towardes the perpendicular at the going out it is from it when the second superficies is parallel to the first pag. 108. § 5. A refutation of Monsieur Des Cartes his explication of refraction pag. 109. § 6. An answere to the arguments brought in fauour of Monsieur Des Cartes his opinion pag. 111. § 7. The true cause of refraction of light both at its entrance and at its going out from the reflecting body pag. 112. § 8. A generall rule to know the nature of reflection and refractions in all sortes of surfaces pag. 113. § 9. A body of greater partes and greater pores maketh a greater refraction then one of lesser partes and lesser pores pag. 114. § 10. A confirmation of the former doctrine out of the nature of bodies that refract light pag. 115. CHAP. XIV Of the composition qualities and generation of Mixed bodies pag. 116. § 1. The connexion of this chapter with the rest and the Authors intent in it ibid. § 2. That there is a least cise of bodies and that this least cise is found in fire pag. 117. § 3. The first coniunction of partes is in bodies of least cise and it is made by the force of Quantity ibid. § 4. The second sort of coniunction is compactednesse in simple Elements and it procedeth from density pag. 118. § 5. The third coniunction is of parres of different Elements and it proceedeth from quantity and density together ibid. § 6. The reason why liquide bodies do easily ioyne together and dry ones difficultly pag. 119. § 7. That no two hard bodies can touch one an other immediately ibid. § 8. How mixed bodies are framed in generall pag. 121. § 9. The cause of the seuerall degrees of solidity in mixed bodies ibid. § 10. The rule where vnto are reduced all the seuerall combinations of Elements in compounding of mixed bodies pag. 122. § 11. Earth and water are the basis of all permanent mixed bodies pag. 123. § 12. What kind of bodies those are where water is the basis and earth the predominant Element ouer the other two ibid. § 13. Of those bodies where water being the basis ayre is the predominant Element ibid. § 14. What kind of bodies result where water is the basis and fire the predominant Element pag. 124. § 15. Of those bodies where water is in excesse it alone being both the basis and the predominant Element pag. 125. § 16. Of those bodies where Earth alone is the basis and also the predominant in excesse ouer the other three Elements ibid. § 17. Of those bodies where Earth is the basis and water the predominant Element ouer the other two ibid. § 18. Of those bodies where earth being the basis ayre is the predominant ibid. § 19. Of those bodies where Earth being the basis fire is the predominant pag. 126. § 20. All the secōd qualities of mixed bodies arise from seuerall combinations of the first qualities and are att last resolued into seuerall degrees of rarity and density ibid. § 21. That in the planets and starres there is a like variety of mixed bodies cause by light as here vpon Earth pag. 127. § 22. In what manner the Elements do worke vpon one an other in the composition of mixed bodies and in particular fire which is the most actiue ibid. § 23. A particular declaration touching the generation of mettalls pag. 128. CHAP. XV. Of the dissolution of Mixed bodies pag. 130. § 1. Why some bodies are brittle and others tough or apt to withstand outward violence the first instrument to dissolue mixed bodies ibid. § 2. How outward violence doth worke vpon the most compacted bodies pag. 131. § 3. The seueral effects of fire the second and chiefest instrument to dissolue all compounded bodies ibid. § 4. The reason why some bodies are not dissolued by fire pag. 132. § 5. The reason why fire melteth gold but can not consume it ibid. § 6. Why leade is easily consumed and calcined by fire pag. 133. § 7. Why and how some bodies are diuided by fire into spirits waters oyles saltes and earth And what those partes are ibid. § 8. How water the third instrument to dissolue bodies dissolueth calx into salt and so into Terra damnata pag. 135. § 9. How water mingled with salt becometh a most powerfull Agent to dissolue other bodies pag. 136. § 10. How putrefaction is caused ibid. CHAP. XVI An explication of certaine Maximes touching the operations and qualities of bodies and whether the Elements be found pure in any part of the world pag. 137. § 1. What is the sphere of actiuity in corporeall Agents ibid. § 2. The reason why no body can worke in distance pag. 138. § 3. An obiection answered against the manner of explicating the former axiome pag. 139 § 4. Of reaction and first in pure locall motion that each Agent must suffer in acting and acte in suffering ibid. § 5. The former doctrine applyed to other locall motions designed by particular names And that Suisseths argument is of no force against this way of doctrine pag. 141. § 6. Why some notions do admitt
of intension and Remission and others do not ibid. § 7. That in euery part of our habitable world all the foure Elements are found pure in small atomes but not in any great bulke pag. 142. CHAP. XVII Of Rarefaction and Condensation the two first motions of particular bodies pag. 144. § 1. The Authors intent in this and the following chapters ibid. § 2. That bodies may be rarifyed both by outward heat aud how this is performed pag. 145. § 3. Of the great effects fo Rarefaction pag. 147. § 4. The first manner of condensation by heate pag. 148. § 5. The second manner of condensation by cold pag. 149. § 6. That yce is not water rarifyed but condensed pag. 151. § 7. How wind snow and haile are made and wind by raine allayed pag. 152. § 8. How partes of the same or diuers bodies are ioyned more strongly together by condensation pag. 153. § 9. Vacuites can not be the reason why water impregnated to the full with one kind of salt will notwithstanding receiue more of an other pag. 154. § 10. The true reason of the former effect pag. 155. § 11. The reason why bodies of the same nature do ioyne more easily together then others pag. 156. CHAP. XVIII Of an other motion belonging to particular bodies called Attraction and of certaine operations termed Magicall pag. 157. § 1. What Attraction is and from whence it proceedeth ibid. § 2. The true sense of the Maxime that Nature abhorreth from vacuity pag. 158. § 3. The true reason of attraction pag. 159. § 4. Water may be brought by the force of attraction to what height soeuer pag. 160. § 5. The doctrine touching the attraction of water in syphons ibid § 6. That the syphon doth not proue water to weigh in its owne orbe pag. 161. § 7. Concerning attraction caused by fire pag. 162. § 8. Concerning attraction made by vertue of hoat bodies amulets etc. pag. 163. § 9. The naturall reason giuen for diuers operations esteemed by some to be magicall ibid. CHAP. XIX Of three other motions belonging to particular bodies Filtration Restitution and Electricall attraction pag. 166. § 1. What is Filtration and how it is effected ibid. § 2. What causeth the water in filtration to ascend pag. 167. § 3. Why the filter will not droppe vnlesse the labell hang lower then the water ibid. § 4. Of the motion of Restitution and why some bodies stand bent others not pag. 168. § 5. Why some bodies returne onely in part to their natural figure others entirely pag. 170. § 6. Concerning the nature of those bodies which do shrinke and stretch pag. 171. § 7. How great and wonderfull effects proceed from small plaine and simple principles ibid. § 8. Concerning Electricall attraction and the causes of it pag. 172. § 9. Cabeus his opinion refuted concerning the cause of Electricall motions pag. 174. CHAP. XX. Of the Loadestones generation and its particular motions pag. 175. § 1. The extreme heat of the sunne vnder the zodiake draweth a streame of ayre from each Pole into the torride zone ibid. § 2. The atomes of these two streames coming together are apt to incorporate with one an other pag. 176. § 3. By the meeting and mingling together of these streames att the Equator diuers riuolets of atomes of each Pole are continuated from one Pole to te other pag. 177. § 4. Of these atomes incorporated with some fitt matter in the bowels of the earth is made a stone pag. 179. § 5. This stone worketh by emanations ioyned with agreeing streames that meete them in the ayre and in fine it is a loadestone ibid. § 6. A methode for making experiences vpon any subiect pag. 181. § 7. The loadestones generation by atomes flowing from both Poles is confirmed by experiments obserued in the stone it selfe ibid. § 8. Experiments to proue that the loadestone worketh by emanations meeting with agreeing streames pag. 182. CHAP. XXI Positions drawne out of the former doctrine and confirmed by experimentall proofes pag. 185. .1 The operations of the loadestone are wrought by bodies and not by qualities ibid. § 2. Obiections against the former position answered pag. 186. § 3. The loadestone is imbued with his vertue from an other body ibid. § 4. The vertue of the loadestone is a double and not one simple vertue 188. § 5. The vertue of the laodestone worketh more strongly in the Poles of it then in any other part ibid. § 6. The laodestone sendeth forth its emanations spherically Which are of two kindes and each kind is strongest in that hemisphere through whose polary partes they issue out ibid. § 7. Putting two loadestones within the sphere of one an other euery part of one laodestone doth not agree with euery part of the other loadestone pag 189. § 8. Concerning the declination and other respects of a needle towardes the loadestone it toucheth ibid. § 9. The vertue of the laodestone goeth from end to end in lines almost paralelle to the axis pag. 191. § 10. The vertue of loadestone is not perfectly sphericall though the stone be such pag. 192. § 11. The intention of nature in all the operations of the loadestone is to make an vnion betwixt the attractiue and attracted bodies ibid. § 12. The maine globe of the earth is not a loadestone ibid. § 13. The laodestone is generated in all partes or climats of the earth pag. 193. § 14. The conformity betwixt the two motions of magnetike thinges and of heauy thinges ibid. CHAP. XXII A solution of certaine Problemes concerning the loadestone and a short summe of the whole doctrine touching it pag. 194. § 1. Which is the North and which the South Pole of a loadestone ibid. § 2. Whether any bodies besides magnetike ones be attractiue ibid. § 3. Whether an iron placed perpendicularly towardes the earth doth gett a magneticall vertue of pointing towardes the north or towardes the south in that end that lyeth downewardes pag. 195. § 4. Why loadestones affect iron better then one an other ibid. § 5. Gilberts reason refuted touching a capped loadestone that taketh vp more iron then one not capped and an iron impregnated that in some case draweth more strongly then the stone it selfe ibid. § 6. Galileus his opinion touching the former effects refuted pag. 196. § 7. The Authors solution to the former questions pag. 197. § 8. The reason why in the former case a lesser loadestone doth draw the interiacent iron from the greater pag. 198. § 9. Why the variation of a touched needle from the north is greater the neerer you go to the Pole pag. 199. § 10. Whether in the same part of the world a touched needle may att one time vary more from the north and att an other time lesse pag. 200. § 11. The whole doctrine of the loadestone summed vp in short pag. 201. CHAP. XXIII A description of the two sortes of liuing creatures Plantes and Animals and how they are framed in common
do arise out of the reciprocall yielding of the medium And that is likewise diuisible in the same infinite proportion Since then the power of all naturall Agents is limited the moouer be it neuer so powerfull must be confined to obserue these proportions and can not passe ouer all these infinite designable degrees in an instant but must allott some time which hath a like infinity of designable partes to ballance this infinity of degrees of velocity and so consequently it requireth time to attaine vnto any determinate degree And therefore can not recede immediately from rest vnto any degree of celerity but must necessarily passe through all the intermediate ones Thus it is euident that all motion which hath a beginning must of necessity encrease for some time And since the workes of nature are in proportion to their causes it followeth that this encrease is in a determinate proportion Which Galileus vnto whom we owe the greatest part of what is knowne concerning motion teacheth vs how to find out and to discouer what degree of celerity any mooueable that is moued by nature hath in any determinate part of the space it moueth in Hauing settled these conditions of motion we shall do well in the next place to enquire after the causes of it as well in the body moued as also in the mouer that occasioneth the motion And because we haue already shewed that locall motion is nothing in substance but diuision we may determine that those causes which contribute to diuision or resist it are the causes which make or resist locall motion It hath also beene said that Density hath in it a power of diuiding and that Rarity is the cause of being diuided likewise we haue said that fire by reason of its small partes into which it may be cutt which maketh them sharpe hath also an eminence in diuiding so that we haue two qualites density and tenuity or sharpnesse which concurre actiuely to diuision We haue told you also how Galileus hath demonstrated that a greater quantity of the same figure and density hath a priuiledge of descending faster then a lesser And that priuiledge consisteth in this that the proportion of the superficies to the body it limiteth which proportion the greater it is the more it retardeth is lesse in a greater bulke then in a smaller We haue therefore three conditions concurring to make the motion more efficacious namely the density the sharpenesse and the bulke of the mooueable And more then these three we can not expect to find in a moued body for quantity hath but three determinations one by density and rarity of which density is one of the three conditions an other by its partes as by a foote a spanne and in this way wee haue found that the greater excelleth the lesser the third and last is by its figure and in this we find that subtile or edged quantities do preuayle ouer blunt ones Seeing therefore that these three determinations be all that are in quantity there can be no more conditions in the body moued which of necessity is a finite quantity but the three named And as for the medium which is to be diuided there is onely rarity and density the one to helpe the other to hinder that require consideration on its side For neither figure nor littlenesse and greatnesse do make any variation in it And as for the Agent it is not as yet time before we haue looked further intâ— the nature of motion to determine his qualities Now then lett vs reflect how these three conditions do all agree in this circumstance that they helpe nothing to diuision vnlesse the body in which they are be moued and pressed against the body that is to be diuided so that we see no principle to persuade vs that any body can mooue it selfe towards any determinate part or place of the vniuerse of its owne intrinsecall inclination For besides that the learned Author of the Dialogues de Mundo in his third Dialogue and the second knott hath demonstrated that a body can not mooue vnlesse it be mooued by some extrinsecall Agent we may easily frame vnto our selues a conceite of how absurd it is to thinke that a body by a quality in it can worke vpon it selfe as if wee should say that rarity which is but more quantity could worke vpon quantity or that figure which is but that the body reacheth no further could worke vpon the body and in generall that the manner of any thing can worke vpon that thing whose manner it is For Aristotle and St. Thomas and their intelligent commentatours declaring the notion of Quality tell vs that to be a Quality is nothing else but to be the determination or modification of the thing whose quality it is Besides that the naturall manner of operation is to worke according to the capacity of the subiect but when a body is in the middest of an vniforme medium or space the subiect is equally prepared on all sides to receiue the action of that body Wherefore though we should allow it a force to mooue if it be a naturall Agent and haue no vnderstanding it must worke indifferently on all sides and by consequence can not mooue on any side For if you say that the Agent in this case where the medium is vniforme worketh rather vpon one side then vpon an other it must be because this determination is within the Agent it selfe and not out of the circumstant dispositions which is the manner of working of those substances that worke for an end of their owne that is of vnderstanding creatures and not of naturall bodies Now he that would exactly determine what motion a body hath or is apt to haue determining by supposition the force of the Agent must calculate the proportions of all these three conditions of the mooueable and the quality of the medium which is a proceeding too particular for the intention of our discourse But to speake in common it will not be amisse to examine in what proportion motion doth encrease since we haue concluded that all motion proceedeth from quiet by a continuall encrease Galileus that miracle of our age and whose witt was able to discouer whatsoeuer he had a mind to employ it about hath told vs that naturall motion encreaseth in the proportion of the odde numbers Which to expresse by example is thus suppose that in the going of the first yard it hath one degree of velocity then in the going of the second yard it will haue three degrees and in going the third it will haue fiue and so onwardes still adding two to the degrees of the velocity for euery one of the space Or to expresse it more plainely if in the first minute of time it goeth one yard of space then in the next minute it will goe three yardes in the third it will goe fiue in the fourth seauen and so forth But we must enlarge this proposition vnto all motions as we haue
and giue the like motion to any body they find in their way if it be susceptible of such a motion which it is euident that all bodies are vnlesse they be strucken by some contrary impulse For since that a bodies being in a place is nothing else but the continuity of its outside to the inside of the body that containeth it and is its place it can haue no other repugnance to locall motion which is nothing else but a successiue changing of place besides this continuity Now the nature of density being the power of diuiding and euery least power hauing some force and efficacy as we haue shewed aboue it followeth that the stroake of euery atome eyther descending or ascending will worke some thing vpon any body though neuer so bigge it chanceth to encounter with and strike vpon in its way vnlesse there be as strong an impulse the contrary way to oppose it But it being determined that the descending atomes are denser then those that ascend it followeth that the descending ones will preuayle And consequently all dense bodies must necessarily tend downewardes to the center which is to be Heauy if some other more dense body do not hinder them Out of this discourse we may conclude that there is no such thing among bodies as positiue grauity or leuity but that their course vpwardes or downewardes happeneth vnto them by the order of nature which by outward causes giueth them an impulse one of these wayes without which they would rest quietly wheresoeuer they are as being of themselues indifferent to any motion But because our wordes expresse our notions and they are framed according to what appeareth vnto vs when we obserue any body to descend constantly towardes our earth we call it heauy and if it mooue contrarywise we call it light But we must take heed of considering such grauity and leuity as if they were Entities that worke such effects since vpon examination it appeareth that these wordes are but short expressions of the effects themselues the causes whereof the vulgar of mankinde who impose names to thinges do not consider but leaue that worke vnto Philosophers to examine whiles they onely obserue what they see done and agree vpon wordes to expresse that Which wordes neither will in all circumstances alwayes agree to the same thing for as corke doth descend in ayre and ascend in water so also will any other body descend if it lighteth among others more rare then it selfe and will ascend if it lighteth among bodies that are more dense then it And we terme bodies light and heauy onely according to the course which we vsually see them take Now proceeding further on and considering how there are various degrees of density or grauity it were irrationall to conceiue that all bodies should descend att the same rate and keepe equall pace with one an other in their iourney downewardes For as two knifes whereof one hath a keener edge then the other being pressed with equall strength into like yielding matter the sharper will cutt deeper then the other so if of two bodies one be more dense then the other that which is so will cutt the ayre more powerfully and will descend faster then the other for in this case density may be compared to the knifes edge since in it consisteth the power of diuiding as we haue heretofore determined And therefore the pressing them downewardes by the descending atomes being equall in both or peraduenture greater in the more dense body as anone we shall haue occasion to touch and there being no other cause to determine them that way the effect of diuision must be the greater where the diuider is the more powerfull Which the more dense body is and therefore cutteth more strongly through the resistance of the ayre and consequently passeth more swiftly that way it is determined to mooue I do not meane that the velocities of their descent shall be in the same proportion to one an other as their densities are for besides their density those other considerations which we haue discoursed of aboue when we examined the causes of velocity in motion must likewise be ballanced And out of the comparison of all them not out of the consideration of any one alone resulteth the differences of their velocities and that neither but in as much as concerneth the consideration of the mooueables for to make the calculation exact the medium must likewise be considered as by and by we shall declare for since the motion dependeth of all them together although there should be difference betweene the mooueables in regard of one onely and that the rest were equall yet the proportion of the difference of their motions must not follow the proportion of their difference in that one regard because their difference considered single in that regard will haue one proportion and with the addition of the other considerations though alike in both to their difference in this they will haue an other As for example reckon the density of one mooueable to be double the density of an other mooueable so that in that regard it hath two degrees of power to descend whereas the other hath but one suppose then the other causes of their descent to be alike in both and reckon them all three and then ioyne these three to the one which is caused by the density in one of the mooueables as likewise to the two which is caused by the density in the other mooueable and you will find that thus altogether their difference of power to descend is no longer in a double proportion as it would be if nothing but their density were considered but is in the proportion of fiue to foure But after we haue considered all that concerneth the mooueables we are then to cast an eye vpon the medium they are to mooue in and we shall find the addition of that to decrease the proportion of their difference exceedingly more according to the cessibility of the medium Which if it be ayre the great disproportion of its weight to the weight of those bodies which men vse to take in making experiences of their descent in that yielding medium will cause their difference of velocity in descending to be hardly perceptible Euen as the difference of a sharpe or dull knife which is easily perceiued in cutting of flesh or bread is not to be distinguished in diuiding of water or oyle And likewise in weights a pound and a scruple will beare downe a dramme in no sensible proportion of velocity more then a pound alone would do and yet putt a pound in that scale instead of the dramme and then the difference of the scruple will be very notable So then those bodies whose difference of descending in water is very sensible because of the greater proportion of weight in water to the bodies that descend in it will yield no sensible difference of velocity when they descend in ayre by reason of the great disproportion of weight betweene
shew vs that the lesse the atomes should penetrate into a moouing body by reason of the extreme density of it the more efficaciously they would worke and the greater celerity they would cause in its motion And hence we may giue the fullest solution to the obiection aboue which was to this effect that seeing diuision is made onely by the superficies or exteriour part of the dense body and that the vertue whereby a dense body doth worke is onely its resistance to diuision which maketh it apt to diuide it would follow that a hollow boule of brasse or iron should be as heauy as a solide one For we may answere that seeing the atomes must stricke through the body and that a cessible body doth not receiue their stroakes so firmely as a stiffe one nor can conuey them so farre if vnto a stiffe superficies there succeede a yielding inside the stroakes must of necessity loose much of their force and consequently can not mooue a body full of ayre with so much celerity or with so much efficacy as they may a solide one But then you may peraduenture say that if these stroakes of the descending atomes vpon a dense body were the cause of its motion downewardes we must allow the atomes to mooue faster then the dense body that so they may still ouertake it and driue it along and enter into it whereas if they should mooue slower then it none of them could come in their turne to giue it a stroake but it would be past them and out of their reach before they could strike it But it is euident say you out of these pretended causes of this motion that such atomes can not mooue so swiftly downewardes as a great dense body since their litlenesse and their rarity are both of them hindering to their motion and therefore this can not be the cause of that effect which we call grauity To this I reply that to haue the atomes giue these blowes to a descending dense body doth not require that their naturall and ordinary motion should be swifter then the descent of such a dense body but the very descent of it occasioneth their striking it for as it falleth and maketh it selfe a way through them they diuide themselues before it and swell on the sides and a litle aboue it and presently close againe behind it and ouer it as soone as it is past Now that closing to hinder vacuity of space is a suddaine one and thereby attaineth great velocity which would carry the atomes in that degree of velocity further then the descending body if they did not encounter with it in their way to retarde them which encounter and retarding implyeth such stroakes vpon the dense body as we suppose to cause this motion And the like we see in water into which letting a stone fall presently the water that was diuided by the stone and swelleth on the sides higher then it was before closeth vpon the backe of the descending stone and followeth it so violently that for a while after it leaueth a purling hole in the place where the stone went downe till by the repose of the stone the water returneth likewise to its quiet and so its superficies becometh euen In the third place an enquiry occurreth emergent out of this doctrine of the cause of bodies moouing vpwardes and downewardes Which is whether there would be any naturall motion deepe in the earth beyond the actiuity of the sunnes beames For out of these principles it followeth that there would not and consequently there must be a vast orbe in which there would be no motion of grauity or of leuity for suppose that the sunne beames might pierce a thousand miles deepe into the body of the earth yet there would still remaine a masse whose diameter would be neere 5000 miles in which there would be no grauitation nor the contrary motion For my part I shall make no difficulty to grant the inference as farre as concerneth motion caused by our sunne for what inconuenience would follow out of it But I will not offer att determining whether there may not be enclosed within that great sphere of earth some other fire such as the Chymistes talke of an Archeus a Demogorgon seated in the center like the hart in animals which may raise vp vapours and boyle an ayre out of them and diuide grosse bodies into atomes and accordingly giue them motions answerable to ours but in different lines from ours according as that fire or sunne is situated since the farre-searching Author of the Dialogues de Mundo hath left that speculation vndecided after he had touched vpon it in the 12 knott of his first Dialogue Fourthly it may be obiected that if such descending atomes as we haue described were the cause of a bodies grauity and descending towardes the center the same body would att diuers times descend more and lesse swiftly for example after midnight when the atomes begin to descend more slowly then likewise the same body would descend more slowly in a like proportion and not weigh so much as it did in the heate of the day The same may be said of summer and winter for in winter time the atomes seeme to be more grosse and consequently to strike more strongly vpon the bodies they meete with in their way as they descend yet on the other side they seeme in the summer to be more numerous as also to descend from a greater height both which circumstances will be cause of a stronger stroake and more vigourous impulse vpon the body they hitt And the like may be obiected of diuers partes of the world for in the torride zone it will alwayes happen as in summer in places of the temperate zone and in the polar climes as in deepest winter so that no where there would be any standard or certainty in the weight of bodies if it depended vpon so mutable a cause And it maketh to the same effect that a body which lyeth vnder a thicke rocke or any other very dense body that can not be penetrated by any great store of atomes should not be so heauy as it would be in the open and free ayre where the atomes in their complete numbers haue their full stroakes For answere to these and such like instances we are to note first that it is not so much the number or the violence of the percussion of the striking atomes as the density of the thing strucken which giueth the measure to the descending of a weighty body and the chiefe thing which the stroake of the atomes giueth vnto a dense body is a determination of the way which a dense body is to cutt vnto it selfe therefore multiplication or lessening of the atomes will not make any sensible difference betwixt the weight of one dense body where many atomes do strike and an other body of the same density where but few do strike so that the stroake downewardes of the descending atomes be greater then the stroake vpwardes
proportions of the comparison of their densities with the density of water for as we haue said the efficacy and force of desceÌ„ding is to be measured by that So then the stroakes of the atomes being more efficacious vpon water then vpon corke because the density of water is greater then the density of corke considering the aboundance of ayre that is harboured in the large pores of it it followeth that the atomes will make the water goe downe more forcibly then they will corke But the density of iron exceeding the density of water the same stroakes will make the iron descend faster then the water and consequently the iron must sinke in the water and the corke will swimme vpon it And this same is the cause why if a piece of corke be held by force att the bottome of the water it will rise vp to the toppe of the water as soone as the violence is taken away that kept it downe for the atomes stroakes hauing more force vpon the water then vpon the corke they make the water sinke and slide vnder it first a litle thinne plate of water and then an other a litle thicker and so by degrees more and more till it hath lifted the corke quite vp to the toppe Fiâ—thly it may be obiected that these atomes do not descend alwayse perpendicularly be sometimes sloapingly and in that case if their stroakes be the cause of dense bodies mouing they should moue sloaping and not downeward Now that these atomes descend sometimes sloapingly is euident as when for example they meete with a streame of water or with a strong wind or euen with any other litle motion of the ayre such as carryeth feathers vp and downe hither and thither which must needes waft the atomes in some measure along with them their way seeing then that such a gentle motion of the ayre is able to putt a feather out of its way notwithstanding the percussions of the atomes vpon it why shall it not likewise putt a piece of iron out of its way downewardes since the iron hath nothing from the atomes but a determination to its way But much more why should not a strong wind or a current of water do it since the atomes themselues that giue the iron its determination must needes be hurryed along with them To this we answere that we must consider how any wind or water which runneth in that sort is it selfe originally full of such atomes which continually and euery where presse into it and cutt through it in pursuing their constant perpetuall course of descending in such sort as we haue shewed in their running through any hard rocke or other densest body And these atomes do make the wind or the water primarily tend downewardes though other accidentall causes impell them secondarily to a sloaping motion And still their primary naturall motion will be in truth strongest though their not hauing scope to obey that but their hauing enough to obey the violent motion maketh this become the more obseruable Which appeareth euidently out of this that if there be a hole in the bottome of the pipe that conueyeth water sloapingly be the pipe neuer so long and consequently the sloaping motion neuer so forcible yet the water will runne out att that hole to obey its more powerfull impulse to the centerwardes rather then continue the violent motion in which it had arriued to a great degree of celerity Which being so it is easy to conceiue that the atomes in the wind or water which mooue perpendicularly downewardes will still continue the irons motion downewardes notwithstanding the mediums sloaping motion since the preuailing force determineth both the iron and the medium downewardes and the iron hath a superproportion of density to cutt its way according as the preualent motion determineth it But if the descending atomes be in part carryed along downe the streame by the current of wind or water yet still the current bringeth with it new atomes into the place of those that are carryed away and these atomes in euery point of place wheresoeuer they are do of themselues tend perpendicularly downewardes howbeit they are forced from the complete effect of their tendance by the violence of the current so that in this case they are mooued by a declining motion compounded of their owne naturall motion and of the forced motion with which the streame carryeth them Now then if a dense body do fall into such a current where these different motions giue their seuerall impulses it will be carryed in such sort as we say of the atomes but in an other proportion not in a perpendicular but in a mixt declining line compounded of the seuerall impulses which the atomes and the current do giue it in which also it is to be remembred how the current giueth an impulse downewardes as well as sloaping and peraduenture the strongest downewardes and the declination will be more or lesse according as the violent impulse preuayleth more or lesse against the naturall motion But this is not all that is to be considered in estimating the declination of a dense bodies motion when it is sinking in a current of wind or water you must remember that the dense body it selfe hath a particular vertue of its owne namely its density by which it receiueth and prosecuteth more fully its determination downewardes and therefore the force of that body in cutting its way through the medium is also to be considered in this case as well as aboue in calculating its declining from the perpendicular and out of all these causes will result a middle declination coÌ„pounded of the motioÌ„ of the water or wind both wayse and of its owne motion by the perpendicular line And since of these three causes of a dense bodies motion it s owne vertue in prosecuting by its density the determination it requireth is the most efficacious by much after it hath once receiued a determination from without its declination will be but litle if it be very dense and heauy But if it recede much from density so as to haue some neere proportion to the density of the medium the declination will be great And in a word according as the body is heauyer or lighter the declination will be more or lesse in the same current though not exactly according to the proportion of the diminishing of its density as long as there is a superproportion of its density to the medium since that such a superproportion as we haue declared heretofore maketh the mediums operation vpon the dense body scarce considerable And hence you see why a stone or piece of iron is not carried out of its way as well as feather because the stones motion downewardes is greater and stronger then the motion of a feather downewardes And by consequence the force that can deturne a feather from its course downewardes is not able to deturne a stone And if it be replyed that it may be so ordered that the stone shall haue no motion before
in the denominations and that thereby the same body may be conceiued to be more or lesse impartible then it is actiue or heauy As for example lett vs of a dense Element take any one least part which must of necessity be in its owne nature and kind absolutely impartible and yet it is euident that the grauity of this part must be exceeding litle by reason of the litlenesse of its quantity so that thus you see an extremity of the effect of density ioyned together in one body by the accident of the litlenesse of it with a contrary extremity of the effect of grauity or rather with the want of it each of them within the limits of the same species In like manner it happeneth that the same body in one circumstance is more weighty in an other or rather in the contrary is more partible so water when it is in a payle because it is thereby hindered froÌ„ spreading abroad hath the effect of grauity predominating in it but if it be poured out it hath the effect of partibility more And thus it happeneth that meerely by the gradation of rarity and density one dense body may be apt out of the generall course of naturall causes to be more diuisible theÌ„ to be a diuider though according to the nature of the degrees considered absolutely in theÌ„selues what is more powerfull to diuide is also more resisteÌ„t and harder to be diuided And this arriueth in that degree which maketh water for the falling and beating of the atomes vpon water hath the power both to diuide it and to makâ— it descend but so that by making it descend it diuideth it And therefore we say that it hath more grautty then density though it be the very density of it which is the cause that maketh it partible by the working of one part vpon an other for if the atomes did not find the body so dense as it is they could not by their beating vpon one part make an other be diuided So that a dense body to be more heauy then dense signifyeth nothing else but that it is in such a degree of density â—hat some of its owne partes by their being assisted and sett on worke by a generall cause which is the fall of the atomes are powerfull enough to diuide other adioyning partes of the same density with them one from an other in such sort as we see that water poured out of an eawer into a basen where there is already other water hath the power to diuide the water in the basen by the assistance of the celerity which it getteth in descending And now I hope the reader is fully satisfyed that there is no contradiction in putting Density and Grauity to be the same thing materially and that neuerthelesse the same thing may be more heauy then dense or more dense then heauy as we tooke it to our seuerall purposes in the inuestigation of the Elements Hauing thus layed an intelligible ground to discouer how these motions that are generall to all bodies and are naturall in chiefe are contriued by nature we will now endeauour to shew that the contrary position is not onely voluntary but also impossible Lett vs therefore suppose that a body hath a quality to mooue it downewardes And first wee shall aske what downewardes signifyeth for eyther it signifyeth towardes a fixed point of imaginary space or towardes a fixed point of the vniuerse or towardes some mooueable point As for the first who would maintaine it must haue more imagination then iudgment to thinke that a naturall quality could haue an essence determined by a nothing because we can frame a conceit of that nothing As for the second it is very vncertaine whether any such point be in nature for as for the center of the earth it is cleare that if the earth be carryed about the center of it can not be a fixed point Againe if the center signifyeth a determinate point in the earth that is the medium of grauity or of quantity it is changed as often as any dust lighteth vnequally vpon any one side of the earth which would make that side bigger then it was and I doubt a quality can not haue morall considerations to thinke that so litle doth no harme As for the third position likewise it is not intelligible how a quality should change its inclination or essence according to the change that should light to make now one point now an other be the center vnto which it should tend Againe lett vs consider that a quality hath a determinate essence Then seeing its power is to mooue and to moue signifyeth to cutt the mediuÌ„ it is mooued in it belongeth vnto it of its nature to cutt so much of such a medium in such a time So that if no other cause be added but that you take precisely and in abstracto that quality that medium and that time this effect will follow that so much motion is made And if this effect should not follow it is cleare that the being able to cutt so much of such a medium in such a time is not the essence of this quality as it was supposed to be Diuiding then the time and the medium halfe the motion should de made in halfe the time a quarter of the motion in a quarter of the time and so without end as farre as you can diuide But this is demonstratiuely impossible sithhence it is demonstrated that a mooueable coming from rest must of necessity passe through all degrees of tardity and therefore by the demonstration cited out of Galileus we may take a part in which this grauity can not mooue its body in a proportionate part of time through a proportionate part of the mediuÌ„ But because in naturall Theorems experiences are naturally required lett vs see whether nature giueth vs any testimony of this verity To that purpose we may consider a plummet hanged in a small string from a beame which being lifted vp gentlely on the one side att the extent of the string and permitted to fall meerely by the power of grauity it will ascend very neere as high on the contrary side as the place it was held in from whence it fell In this experiment we may note two thinges the first that if grauity be a quality it worketh against its owne nature in lifting vp the plumett seing its nature is onely to carry it downe For though it may be answered that it is not the grauity but an other quality called vis impressa which carrieth it vp neuerthelesse it can not be denyed but that grauity is either the immediate or at least the mediate cause which maketh this vis impressa the effect whereof being contrary to the nature of grauity it is absurd to make grauity the cause of it that is the cause of an essence whose nature is contrary to its owne And the same argument will proceede though you putt not vis impressa but suppose some other thing to be
as the rackett or bowstring shrinketh backe from the missiue and leaueth a space betweene the missiue and it as it is cleare it doth as soone as it hath strucken the resisting body the ayre must ' needes clappe in with as much velocity as they retire and with some what more because the missiue goeth forward att the same time and therefore the ayre must hasten to ouertake it least any vacuity should be left betweene the string and the arrow It is certaine likewise that the ayre on the sides doth also vpon the diuision of it slide backe and helpe to fill that space which the departed arrow leaueth voyde Now this forcible cloosing of the ayre att the nocke of the arrow must ' needes giue an impulse or blow vpon it if it seeme to be but a litle one you may consider how it is yet much greater then what the ayre and the bodies swimming in it do att the first giue vnto a stone falling frō high and how att the last those litle atomes that driue a stone in its naturall motion do with their litle blowes force it peraduenture more violenty and swiftly then any impelling Agent we are acquainted with can do So that the impulse which they make vpon the arrow pressing violently vpon it after such a vehement concussion and with a great velocity must needes cause a powerfull effect in that which of it selfe is indifferent to any motion any way But vnlesse this motion of the ayre do continue to beate still vpon the arrow it will soone fall to the ground for want of a cause to driue it forward and because the naturall motion of the ayre being then the onely one will determine it downewardes Lett vs consider then how this violent rending of the ayre by the blow that the bowstring giueth vnto the arrow must needes disorder the litle atomes that swimme too and fro in it and that being heauyer then the ayre are continually descending downewardes This disorder maketh some of the heauyer partes of them gett aboue others that are lighter then they which they not abiding do presse vpon those that are next them and they vpon their fellowes so that there is a great commorion and vndulation caused in the whole masse of ayre round about the arrow which must continue some time before it can be settled and it being determined by the motion of the arrow that way that it slideth it followeth that all this commotion and vndulation of the ayre serueth to continue the arrow in its flight And thus faster then any part behind can be settled new ones before are stirred till the resistance of the medium do grow stronger then the impulse of the moouers Besides this the arrow pressing vpon the ayre before it with a greater velocity then the ayre which is a liquide rare body can admitt to moue all of a piece without breaking it must of necessity happen that the partes of the ayre immediately before the arrow be driuen vpon others further of before these can be moued to giue place vnto them so that in some places the ayre becometh condensed and consequently in others rarifyed Which also the wind that we make in walking which will shake a paper pinned loosely att the wall of a chamber towardes which we walke and the cooling ayre caused by fanning when we are hoat do euidently confirme So that it can not be doubted but that condensation and rarefaction of the ayre must necessarily follow the motion of any solide body which being admitted it is euident that a great disorder and for some remarkable time must necessarily be in the ayre since it can not brooke to continue in more rarity or density then is naturall vnto it Nor can weighty and light partes agree to rest in an equal height or lownesse which the violence of the arrowes motion forceth them vnto for the present Therefore it can not be denyed but that though the arrow slide away neuerthelesse there still remaineth behind it by this condensation and confusion of partes in the ayre motion enough to giue impulse vnto the arrow so as to make it continue its motion after the bowstring hath left it But here will arise a difficulty which is how this clapping in and vndulation of the ayre should haue strength and efficacy enough to cause the continuance of so smart a motion as is an arrowes shott from a bow To this I neede no other argument for an answere then to produce Galileos testimony how great a body one single mans breath alone can in due circumstances giue a rapide motion vnto and withall lett vs consider how the arrow and the ayre about it are already in a certaine degree of velocity that is to say the obstacle that would hinder it from moouing that way namely the resistance of the ayre is taken away and the causes that are to produce it namely the determining of the ayres and of the atomes motion that way are hightened And then we may safely conclude that the arrow which of it selfe is indifferent to be mooued vpwardes or downewardes or forwardes must needes obey that motion which is caused in it by the atomes and the ayres pressing vpon it either according to the impulse of the string or when the string beginneth to flagge according to the beatinges that follow the generall constitution of nature or in a mixt manner according to the proportions that these two hold to one an other Which proportions Galileus in his 4th Dialogue of motion hath attempted to explicate very ingeniously but hauing missed in one of his suppositions to witt that forced motion vpon an horizontall line is throughout vniforme his great labours therein haue taken litle effect towardes the aduancing the knowledge of nature as he pretended for his conclusions succeede not in experience as Mersenius assureth vs after very exact trials nor can they in their reasons be fitted to nature So that to conclude this point I find no difficulty in allowing this motion of the ayre strength enough to force the mooueable onwardes for some time after the first moouer is seuered from it and long after we see no motions of this nature do endure so that we neede seeke no further cause for the continuance of it but may rest satisfyed vpon the whole matter that since the causes and circumstances our reason suggesteth vnto vs are after mature and particular examination proportionable to the effects we see the doctrine we deliuer must be sound and true For the establishing whereof we neede not considering what we haue already said spend much time in soluing Galileos arguments against it seeing that out of what we haue sett downe the answeres to them appeare plaine enough for first we haue assigned causes how the ayre may continue its motion long enough to giue as much impression as is needefull vnto the arrow to make it goe on as it doth Which motion is not requisite to be neere so great in the ayre
haue declared and must sticke firmely together according to their degree of density and cōsequently could not be moued on without still breaking a sūderatt euery impulse as much of the massy body as were already made one by their touching And if you should say they did not become one and yet allow them to touch immediately one an other without hauing any ayre or fluide body betweene them then if you suppose them to moue onwardes vpon these termes they would be changed locally without any intrinsecall change which in the booke De Mundo as we haue formerly alleadged is demonstrated to be impossible There remayneth onely a third way for two hard surfaces to come together which is that first they should rest sloaping one vpon an other and make an angle where they meete as two lines that cutt one an other do in their point of their intersection and so containe as it were a wedge of ayre betweene them which wedge they should lessen by litle and litle through their mouing towardes one an other att their most distant edges whiles the touching edges are like immoueable centers that the others turne vpon till att length they shutt out all the ayre and close together like the two legges of a compasse But neither is it possible that this way they should touch for after their first touch by one line which neyther is in effect a touching as we haue shewed no other partes of them can touch though still they approach neerer and neerer vntill their whole surfaces do entirely touch att one and therefore the ayre must in this case leap out in an instant a greater space then if the surfaces came perpendicularly to one an other for here it must fly from one extremity to the other whereas in the former case it was to goe but from the middle to each side And thus it is euident that no two bodies can arriue to touch one an other vnlesse one of them att the least haue a superficies plyable to the superficies of the other that is vnlesse one of them be lost which is to be liquide in some degree Seeing then that by touching bodies do become one and that liquidity is the cause and meanes whereby bodies arriue to touch we may boldly conclude that two liquide bodies do most easily and readily become one and next to two such a liquide and a hard body are soonest vnited but two hard ones most difficultly To proceede then with our reflections vpon the composition of bodies and vpon what resulteth out of the ioyning and mixture of their first differences Rarity and Density we see how if a liquide substance happeneth to touch a dry body it sticketh easily therevnto Then consider that there may be so small a quantity of such a liquide body as it may be almost impossible for any naturall agent to diuide it further into any lesse partes and suppose that such a liquide part is betweene two dry partes of a dense body and sticking to them both becometh in the nature of a glew to hold them together will it not follow out of what wee haue said that these two dense partes will be as hard to be seuered from one an other as the small liquide part by which they sticke together is to be diuided So that when the viscous ligaments which in a body do hold together the dense partes are so small and subtile as no force we can apply vnto them can diuide them the adhesion of the partes must needes grow then inseparable And therefore we vse to moysten dry bodies to make them the more easily be diuided whereas those that are ouermoyst are of themselues ready to fall in pieces And thus you see how in generall bodies are framed Out of which discourse we may ballance the degrees of solidity in bodies for all bodies being composed of humide and dry partes we may conceiue either kind of those partes to be bigger or lesser or to be more rare or more dense Now if the dry partes of any body be extreme litle and dense and the moyst partes that ioyne the dry ones together be very great and rare then that body will be very easy to be dissolued But if the moyst partes which glew together such extreme litle and dense dry partes be eyther lesser in bulke or not so rare then the body composed of them will be in a stronger degree of consistence And if the moyst partes which serue for this effect be in an excesse of littlenesse and withall dense then the body they compose will be in the highest degree of consistence that nature can frame On the other side if you glew together great dry partes which are moderately dense and great by the admixtion of humide partes that are of the least cise in bulke and dense withall then the consistence will decrease from the height of it by how much the partes are greater and the density lesse But if vnto dry partes of the greatest cise and in the greatest remissenesse of density you adde humide partes that are both very great and very rare then the composed body will proue the most easily dissolueable of all that nature affordeth After this casting our eyes a litle further towardes the composition of particular bodies wee shall find still greater mixtures the further we goe for as the first and simplest compounded bodies are made of the foure Elements so others are made of these and againe a third sort of them and so onwardes according as by motion the partes of euery one are broken in sunder and mingled with others Those of the first order must be of various tempers according to the proportions of the Elements whereof they are immediately made As for example such a proportion of fire to the other three Elements will make one kind of simple body and an other proportion will make an other kind and so throughout by various combinations and proportions among all the Elements In the effecting of which worke it will not be amisse to looke a litle vpon nature and obserue how she mingleth and tempereth different bodies one with an other whereby she begetteth that great variety of creatures which we see in the world But because the degrees of composition are infinite according to the encrease of number we will containe our selues within the common notions of excesse in the foure primary components for if we should descend once to specify any determinate proportions we should endanger loosing our selues in a wood of particular natures which belong not to vs att present to examine Then taking the foure Elements as materials to worke vpon lett vs first consider how they may be varyed that differing compositions may result out of their mixtures I conceiue that all the wayes of varying the Elements in this regard may be reduced to the seuerall cises of bignesse of the partes of each Element that enter into the composition of any body and to the number of those partes for certainely no
that before they come thither they will be so rarifyed by that litle motion as they shall grow inuisible like the ayre and dispersing themselues all about in it they will fill the chamber with the smell of that body which can no longer be seene The last excesse in watry bodies must be of water it selfe which is when so litle a proportion of any of the other is mingled with it as is hardly perceptible out of this composition do arise all those seuerall sortes of iuices or liquors which we commonly call waters which by their mixture with the other three Elements haue peculiar properties beyond simple Elementall water The generall qualities whereof we shall not neede any further to expresse because by what we haue already said of water in common they are sufficiently knowne In our next suruay we will take earth for our ground to worke vpon as hitherto we haue done water which if in any body it be in the vtmost excesse of it beyond all the other three then rockes and stones will grow out of it whose dryenesse ad hardnesse may assure vs that Earth swayeth in their composition with the least allay that may be Nor doth their lightnesse in respect of some other Earthy compositions impeach this resolution for that proceedeth from the greatnesse and multiplicity of pores wherewith their dryenesse causeth them to abound and hindereth not but that their reall solide partes may be very heauy Now if we mingle a considerable proportion of water with earth so as to exceede the fire and ayre but still inferior to the earth we shall produce mettalls whose great weight with their ductility and malleability plainely telleth vs that the smallest of waters grosse partes are the glew that holdeth the earthy dense ones together such weight belonging to earth and that easye changing of partes being most proper to water Quickesiluer that is the generall matter whereof all the mettalls are immediately coÌ„posed giueth vs euidence hereof for fire worketh vpon it with the same effect as vpon water And the calcination of most of the mettalls proueth that fire can easily part and consume the glew by which they were closed and held together which therefore must be rather of a watry then of an ayry substance Likewise the glibbenesse of Mercury and of melted mettalls without catching or sticking to other substances giueth vs to vnderstand that this great temper of a moyst Element with Earth is water and not ayre and that the watry partes are comprised and as it were shutt vp within the earthy ones for ayre catcheth and sticketh notably to all thinges it toucheth and will not be imprisoned the diuisibity of it being exceeding great though in neuer so short partes Now if ayre mingleth it selfe with earth and be predominant ouer water and fire it maketh such an oyly and fatt soile as husbandmen account their best mould which receiuing a betterment from the sunne and temperate heat assureth vs of the concurse of the ayre for wheresoeuer suâ—h heate is ayre can not faile of accompanying it or of being effected by it and the richest of such earth as port earth and marle will with much fire grow more compacted and sticke closer together then it did as we see in baking them into pottes or fine brickes Whereas if water were the glew betweene the dense partes fire would consume it and crumble them a sunder as it doth in those bodies it calcineth And excesse of fire will bring them to vitrification which still confirmeth that ayre aboundeth in them for it is the nature of ayre to sticke so close where once it is kneaded in as it can not be seperated without extreme difficulty And to this purpose the viscous holding together of the partes of glasse when it is melted sheweth euidently that ayre aboundeth in vitrifyed bodies The last mixture we are to meddle with is of fire with earth in an ouerruling proportion ouer ayre and water And this I conceiue produceth those substances which we may terme coagulated iuices and which the latines do call Succi concreti whos 's first origine seemeth to haue beene liquors that haue beene afterwardes dryed by the force eyther of heate or of cold Of this nature are all kind of saltes niters sulfurs and diuers sortes of bitumens All which easily bewray the relikes an deffects of fire left in them some more some lesse according to their degrees And thus we haue in generall deduced from their causes the complexions of those bodies whereof the bulke of the world subiected to our vse consisteth and which serue for the production and nourishment of liuing creatures both animall and vegetable Not so exactly I confesse nor so particularly as the matter in it selfe or as a treatise confined to that subiect would require yet sufficiently for our intent In the performance whereof if more accurate searchers of nature shall find that we haue peraduenture beene mistaken in the minute deliuering of some particular bodies complexion their very correction I dare boldly say will iustify our principall scope which is to shew that all the great variety we see among bodies ariseth out of the coÌ„mixtion of the first qualities and of the Elements for they will not be able to correct vs vpon any other groundes then those we haue layed As may easily be perceiued if we cast a summary view vpon the qualities of composed bodies All which we shall find to spring out of rarity and density and to sauour of their origine for the most manifest qualities of bodies may be reduced to certaine paires opposite to one an other As namely some are liquide and flowing others are consistent some are soft others hard some are fatty viscous and smooth others leane gritty and rough some grosse othert subtile some tough others brittle and the like Of which the liquide the soft the fatt and the viscous are so manifestly deriued from rarity that we neede not take any further paines to trace out their origine and the like is of their contraries from the contrary cause to witt of those bodies that are consistent hard leane and gritty all which do euidently spring from density As for smoothnesse we haue already shewed how that proceedeth from an ayry or oyly nature and by consequence from a certaine degree of rarity And therefore roughnesse the contrary of it must proceede from a proportionable degree of density Toughnesse is also a kind of ductility which we haue reduced to watrynesse that is to an other degree of rarity and consequently brittlenesse must arise from the contrary degree of density Lastly grossenesse and subtilenesse do consist in a difficulty or facility to be diuided into small partes which appeareth to be nothing else but a certaine determination of rarity and density And thus we see how the seuerall complexions of bodies are reduced to the foure Elements that compound them and the qualities of those bodies to the two primary differencies of
they can not soddainely be so much rarifyed as the subtiler partes of ayre that are there and therefore the more those subtiler partes are rarifyed and thereby happen to be carried vp the stronger and the thicker the heauyer atomes must descend And thus this concurse of ayre from the polar partes mainetayneth grauity vnder the zodiake where otherwise all would be turned into fire and so haue no grauity Now who coÌ„sidereth the two hemispheres which by the aequator are diuided will find that they are not altogether of equall complexions but that our hemisphere in which the Northpole is comprised is much dryer then the other by reason of the greater coÌ„tinent of land in this and the vaster tract of sea in the other and therefore the supply which cometh froÌ„ the diuers hemispheres must needes be of differeÌ„t natures that which cometh from towardes the Southpole being compared to that which cometh froÌ„ towardes the North as the more wett to the more dry Yet of how different coÌ„plexions soeuer they be you see they are the emanations of one and the same body Not vnlike vnto what nature hath instituted in the ranke of animals among whom the male and the female are so distinguished by heate and cold moysture and drought that neuerthelesse all belongeth but to one nature and that in degrees though manifestly different yet so neere together that the body of one is in a manner the same thing as the body of the other Euen so the complexions of the two hemispheres are in such sort different in the same qualities that neuerthelesse they are of the same nature and are vnequall partes of the same body which we call the earth Now Alchymistes assure vs that if two extractions of one body do meete together they will incorporate one with the other especially if there be some little difference in the complexion of the extractions Whence it followeth that these two streames of ayre making vp one continuate floud of various currents from one end of the world to the other each streame that cometh to the equator from its owne Pole by the extraction of the sunne and that is still supplyed with new matter flowing from its owne pole to the aequator before the sunne can sufficiently rarify and lift vp the atomes that came first perpendicularly vnder its beames as it vseth to happen in the effects of Physicall causes which can not be rigorously aiusted but must haue some latitude in which nature inclineth euer rather to aboundance then to defect will passe euen to the other pole by the conduct of his fellow in case he be by some occasion driuen backe homewardes For as we see in a boule or paile full of water or rather in a pipe through which the water runneth along if there be a little hole att the bottome or side of it the water will wriggle and change its course to creepe out att that pipe especially if there be a little spigott or quill att the outside of the hole that by the narrow length of it helpeth in some sort as it were to sucke it So if any of the files of the army or flould of atomes sucked from one of the Poles to the aequator do there find any gappes or chinkes or lanes of retiring files in the front of the other poles batalia of atomes they will presse in there in such manner as we haue aboue declared that water doth by the helpe of a labell of cotton and as is exemplyfied in all the attractions of venime by venimous bodies whereof we haue giuen many examples aboue and they will go along with them the course they goe For as when a thicke short guilded ingott of siluer is drawne out into a long subtile wyre the wyre continuing still perfectly guilded all ouer doth manifestly shew that the outside and the inside of the ingott do strangely meete together and intermixe in the drawing out so this little streame which like an eddy current runneth backe from the aequator towardes its owne Pole will continue to the end still tincted with the mixture of the other Poles atomes it was incorporated with att its coming to the aequator Now that some little riuolets of ayre and atomes should runne backe to their owne Pole contrary to the course of their maine streame will be easily enough to conceiue if we but consider that att certaine times of the yeare windes do blow more violently and strongly from some determinate part or Rombe of the world then they do att other times and from other partes As for example our East India Mariners tell vs of the famous Monâ—ones they find in those partes which are strong windes that raigne constantly six monthes of the yeare from one polewardes and the other six monthes from the other pole and beginne precisely about the sunnes entering into such a signe or degree of the zodiake and continue till about its entrance into the opposite degree And in our partes of the world certaine smart Easterly or Northeasterly windes do raigne about the end of March and beginning of Aprill when it seemeth that some snowes are melted by the spring heates of the sunne And other windes haue their courses in other seasons vpon other causes All which do euidently conuince that the course of the ayre and of vapors from the poles to the equator can not be so regular and vniforme but that many impediments and crosses do light in the way to make breaches in it and thereby to force it in some places to an opposite course In such sort as we see happeneth in eddy waters and in the course of a tide wherein the streame running swiftly in the middle beateth the edges of the water to the shore and thereby maketh it runne backe att the shore And hence we may conclude that although the maine course of ayre and atomes for example from north to south in our hemisphere can neuer faile of going on towardes the aequator constantly att the same rate in grosse neuerthlesse in seuerall particular little partes of it and especially att the edges of those streames that are driuen on faster then the rest by an extraordinary and accidentall violent cause it is variously interrupted and sometimes entirely stopped and other times euen driuen backe to the northwardes And if peraduenture any man should thinke that this will not fall out because each streame seemeth to be alwayes coming from his owne Pole to the aequator and therefore will oppose and driue backe any bodies that with lesse force should striue to swimme against it or if they sticke vnto them will carry them backe to the aequator We answere that we must not conceiue that the whole ayre in body doth euery where equally encroach from the polewardes vpon the torride zone but as it were in certaine brookes or riuolets according as the contingency of all causes putt together doth make it fall out Now then out of what we haue said it will follow that since
discouered vnto vs and that out of the variety of these tempers the influence of the earthy partes may be diuers in respect of one certaine place it is not impossible but that such variation may be especially in England which Iland lying open to the north by a great and vast ocean may receiue more particularly then other places the speciall influences and variation of the weather that happen in those northeasterne countries from whence this influence cometh vnto vs. If therefore there should be any course of weather whose periode were a hundred yeares for example or more or lesse and so might easily passe vnmarked this variation might grow out of such a course But in so obscure a thing we haue already hazarded to guesse too much And vpon the whole matter of the loadestone it serueth our turne if we haue proued as we conceiue we haue done fully that its motions which appeare so admirable do not proceed from an occult quality but that the causes of them may be reduced vnto locall motion and that all they may be performed by such corporeall instruments and meanes though peraduenture more intricately disposed as all other effects are among bodies Whose ordering and disposing and particular progresse there is no reason to despaire of finding out would but men carefully apply themselues to that worke vpon solide principles and with diligent experiences But because this matter hath beene very long and scatteringly diffused in many seuerall branches peraduenture it will not be displeasing to the Reader to see the whole nature of the loadestone summed vp in short Lett him then cast his eyes vpon one effect of it that is very easy to be tryed and is acknowledged by all writers though we haue not as yet mentioned it And it is that a knife drawne from the pole of a loadestone towardes the aequator if you hold the point towardes the pole it gaineth a respect to one of the poles but contrawise if the point of the knife be held towardes the aequator and be thrust the same way it was drawne before that is towardes the aequator it gaineth a respect towardes the contrary pole It is euident out of this experience that the vertue of the loadestone is communicated by way of streames and that in it there are two contrary streames for otherwise the motion of the knife this wâ—y or that way could not change the efficacity of the same partes of the loadestone It is likewise euident that these contrary streames do come from the conrrary endes of the loadestone As also that the vertues of them both are in euery part of the stone Likewise that one loadestone must of necessity turne certaine partes of it selfe to certaine partes of an other loadestone nay that it must goe and ioyne to it according to the lawes of attraction which we haue aboue deliuered and consequently that they must turne their disagreeing partes away from one an other and so one loadestone seeme to fly from an other if they be so applyed that their disagreeing partes be kept still next to one an other for in this case the disagreeing and the agreeing partes of the same loadestone being in the same straight line one loadestone seeking to draw his agreeing part neere to that part of the other loadestone which agreeth with him must of necessity turne away his disagreeing partes to giue way vnto his agreeing part to approach neerer And thus you see that the flying from one an other of two endes of two loadestones which are both of the same denomination as for example the two south endes or the two north endes doth not proceed from a pretended antipathy between those two endes but from the attraction of the agreeing endes Furthermore the earth hauing to a loadestone the nature of a loadestone it followeth that a loadestone must necessarily turne it selfe to the poles of the earth by the same lawes And consequently must tend to the north must vary from the north must incline towardes the center and must be affected with all such accidents as we haue deduced of the loadestone And lastly seeing that iron is to a loadestone a fitt matter for it to impresse its nature in and easily retaineth that magnetike vertue the same effects that follow betweeÌ„ two loadestones must necessarily follow between a loadestone and a peece of iron fittly proportionated in their degrees excepting some litle particularities which proceed out of the naturalnesse of the magnetike vertue to a loadestone more then to iron And thus you see the nature of the loadestone summed vp in grosse the particular ioyntes and causes whereof you may find treated att large in the maine discourse Wherein we haue gouerned our selues chiefely by the experiences that are recorded by Gilbert and Cabeus to whom we remitt our reader for a more ample declaration of particulars THE THREE AND TWENTIETH CHAPTER A description of the two sortes of liuing creatures Plants and Animals and how they are framed in common to performe vitall motion HItherto we haue endeauoured to follow by a continuall thridde all such effects as we haue mett with among bodies and to trace theÌ„ in all their windinges and to driue them vp to their very roote and originall source for the nature of our subiect hauing beene yet very common hath not exceeded the compasse and power of our search and enquiry to descend vnto the chiefe circumstances and particulars belonging vnto it And indeede many of the conueyances whereby the operations we haue discoursed of are performed be so secret and abstruse as they that looke into them with lesse heedefullnesse and iudgment then such a matter requireth are too apt to impute them to mysterious causes aboue the reach of humane nature to compreheÌ„d and to calumniate them of being wrought by occult and specifike qualities whereof no more reason could be giuen then if the effects were infused by Angelicall handes without assistance of inferiour bodies which vseth to be the last refuge of ignorant men who not knowing what to say and yet presuming to say something do fall often vpon such expressioÌ„s as neyther themselues nor their hearers vnderstand and that if they be well scanned do imply contradictions Therefore we deemed it a kind of necessity to straine ourselues to prosecute most of such effects euen to their notionall connexions with rarity and density And the rather because it hath not been our lucke yet to meet with any that hath had the like designe or hath done any considerable matter to ease our paines Which can not but make the readers iourney somewhat tedious vnto him to follow all our stepps by reason of the ruggednesse and vntrodenesse of the pathes we haue walked in But now the effects we shall hence forward meedle withall do grow so particular and do swarme into such a vast multitude of seuerall little ioyntes and wreathy labyrinthes of nature as were impossible in so summary a treatise as we intend to deliuer
varieties of solide and liquide bodies all differences of naturall qualities all consistences and whatsoeuer else belongeth to similar bodies resulteth out of the pure and single mixture of rarity and density so that to make all such varieties as are necessary there is no neede of mingling or of seperating any other kindes of partes but only an art or power to mingle in due manner plaine rare and dense bodies one with an other Which very action and none other but with excellent methode and order such as becometh the great Architect that hath designed it is performed in the generation of a liuing creature which is made of a substance att the first farre vnlike what it afterwardes groweth to be If we looke vpon this change in grosse and consider but the two extremes to witt the first substance of which a liuing creature is made and it selfe in its full perfection I confesse it may well seeme incredible how so excellent a creature can deriue its origine from so meane a principle and so farre remote and differing from what it groweth to be But if we examine it in retayle and go along anatomising it in euery steppe and degree that it changeth by we shall find that euery immediate change is â—o neere and so palpably to be made by the concurrent causes of the matter prepared as we must conclude it can not possibly become any other thing then iust what it doth become Take a beane or any other seede and putt it into the earth and lett water fall vpon it can it then choose but that the beane must swell The beane swelling can it choose but breake the skinne The skinne broken can it choose by reason of the heate that is in it but push out more matter and do that action which we may call germinating Can these germes choose but pierce the earth in small stringes as they are able to make their way Can these stringes choose but be hardened by the compression of the earth and by their owne nature they being the heauyest partes of the fermented beane And can all this be any thing else but a roote Afterwardes the heate that is in the roote mingling it selfe with more moysture and according to its nature springing vpwardes will it not follow necessarily that a tender greene substance twhich we call a budd or leafe must appeare a litle aboue the earth since endernesse greenenesse and ascent are the effects of those two principles heate and moysture And must not this greene substance change from what it was att the first by the sunne and ayre working vpon it as it groweth higher till att the length it hardeneth into a stalke All this while the heate in the roote sublimeth vp more moysture which maketh the stalke att the first grow ranke and encrease in length But when the more volatile part of that warme iuice is sufficiently depured and sublimed will it not attempt to thrust it selfe out beyond the stalke with much vigour and smartnesse And as soone as it meeteth with the cold ayre in its eruption will it not be stopped and thickned And new partes flocking still from the roote must they not clogge that issue and grow into a button which will be a budd This budde being hardened att the sides by the same causes which hardened the stalke and all the while the inward heate still streaming vp and not enduring to be long enclosed especially when by its being stopped it multiplyeth it selfe will it not follow necessarily that the tender budde must cleaue and giue way to that spirituall iuice which being purer then the rest through its great sublimation sheweth it selfe in a purer and nobler substance then any that is yet made and so becometh a flower From hence if we proceed as we haue begunne and do weigh all circumstances we shall see euidently that an other substance must needes succeed the flower which must be hollow and containe a fruite in it and that this fruite must grow bigger and harder And so to the last periode of the generation of new beanes Thus by drawing the thridde carefully along through your fingers and staying att euery knott to examine how it is tyed you see that this difficult progresse of the generation of liuing creatures is obuious enough to be comprehended and that the steppes of it are possible to be sett downe if one would but take the paines and afford the time that is necessary lesse then that Philosopher who for so many yeares gaue himselfe wholy vp to the single obseruing of the nature of bees to note diligently all the circumstances in euery change of it In euery one of which the thing that was becometh absolutely a new thing and is endewed with new properties and qualities different from those it had before as Physitians from their certaine experience do assure vs. And yet euery change is such as in the ordinary and generall course of nature wherein nothing is to be considered but the necessary effects following out of such Agents working vpon such patients in such circumstances it is impossible that any other thing should be made of the precedent but that which is immediately subsequent vnto it Now if all this orderly succession of mutations be necessarily made in a beane by force of sundry circumstances and externall accidents why may it not be conceiued that the like is also done in sensible creatures but in a more perfect manner they being perfecter substances Surely the progresse we haue sett downe is much more reasonable then to conceiue that in the meale of the beane are contained in litle seuerall similar substances as of a roote of a leafe a stalke a flower a codde fruite and the rest and that euery one of these being from the first still the same that they shall be afterwardes do but sucke in more moysture from the earth to swell and enlarge themselues in quantity Or that in the seede of the male there is already in act the substance of flesh of bone of sinewes of veines and the rest of those seuerall similar partes which are found in the body of an animall and that they are but extended to their due magnitude by the humidity drawne from the mother without receiuing any substantiall mutation from what they were originally in the seede Lett vs then confidently conclude that all generation is made of a fitting but remote homogeneall compounded substance vpon which outward Agents working in the due course of nature do change it into an other substance quite different from the first and do make it lesse homogeneall then the first was And other circumstances and agents do change this second into a thirde that thirde into a fourth and so onwardes by successiue mutations that still make euery new thing become lesse homogeneall then the former was according to the nature of heate mingling more and more different bodies together vntill that substance be produced which we consider in the periode of all these mutations And this
nestes and in doing such other actions as may be compared to the strickings of the clocke and the ringing of the allarum at due times And as that king of China vpon his first seeing a watch thought it a liuing a iuditious creature because it moued so regularly of it selfe and beleeued it to be dead when it was runne out till the opening of it and the winding it vp discouered vnto him the artifice of it so any man may be excused that looking vpon these strange actions and this admirable oeconomy of some liuing creatures should beleeue them endewed with reason vntill he haue well reflected vpon euery particular circumstance of their nature and operations for then he will discerne how these are but materiall instruments of a rationall Agent working by them from whose orderly prescriptions they haue not power to swarue in the least circumstance that is Euery one of which considered singly by it selfe hath a face of no more difficulty then that for example an ingenier should so order his matters that a mine should be ready to play exactly at such an houre by leauing such a proportion of kindled match hanging out of one of the barrels of pouder whiles in the meane time he eyther sleepeth or attendeth to something else And when you haue once gayned thus much of your selfe to grâ—ee vnto an orderly course and generation of any single effect by the power of a materiall cause working it raise but your discourse a straine higher and looke with reuerence and duty vpon the immensity of that prouident Architect out of whose handes these masterpieces issue and vnto whom it is as easy to make a chaine of causes of a thousand or of a million of linkes as to make one linke alone and then you will no longer sticke at allowing the whole oeconomy of those actions to be nothing else but a production of materiall effects by a due ranging and ordering of materiall causes But lett vs returne to our theame as we see that milke coming into the brestes of liuebearing female creatures when thâ—y grow wery bigge heateth and maketh them seeke the mouthes of their yong ones to disburthen and coole them so the carriage and biggenesse of the egges heateth exceedingly the brestes and bodies of the birdes and this causeth them to be still rubbing of their brestes against the sides of their nestes where vnto their vnwieldinesse then confineth them very much and with their beakes to be still picking their feathers which being then apt to fall off and me we as we see the haire of women with childe is apt to shedde it happeneth that by then they are ready to lay their egges they haue a soft bed of their owne feathers made in their nestes ouer their courser mattrasse of strawes they first brought thither and then the egges powerfull attracting of the annoying heate from the hennes brest whose imbibing of the warmeth and stonelike shell can not choose but coole her much inuiteth her to sitt constantly vpon them vntill sitting hatcheth them and it is euideÌ„t that this sitting must proceed from their temper at that time or from some other immediate cause which worketh that effect and not from a iudgement that doth it for a remote end for housewifes tell vs that at such a season their hennes will be sitting in euery conuenient place they come vnto as though they had egges to hatch when neuer a one is vnder them so as it seemeth that at such time there is some inconuenience in their bodies which by sitting is eased When the chickens are hatched what woÌ„der is it if the litle crying of tender creatures of a like nature and laÌ„guage with their daÌ„mes do moue those affectioÌ„s or passions in her bosome which causeth her to feede theÌ„ and to defend and breede them till they be able to shift for themselues For all this there needeth no discourse or reason but only the motion of the bloud about the hart which we haue determined to be passioÌ„ stirred by the yong ones chirpinges in such sort as may carry them vnto those actions which by nature the supreme intellect are ordered for their preseruation Wherein the birdes as we haue already said are but passiue instruments and know not why they do those actions but do them they must whensoeuer such and such obiects which infaillibly woâ—ke in their due times do make such and such impressions vpon their fantasies like the allarum that necessarilly striketh when the hand of the dyall cometh to such a point or the gunnepouder that necessarily maketh a ruine and breach in the wall when the burning of the match reacheth to it Now this loue in the damme growing by litle and litle wearisome and troublesome to her and at last fading quite away and she not being able to supply their encreased needes which they grow euery day stronger to prouide for of themselues the straight commerce beginneth to dye on both sides and by these degrees the damme leaueth her yong ones to their owne conduct And thus you see how this long series of actions may haue orderly causes made and chained together by him that knew what was fitting for the worke he went about Of which though it is likely I haue missed of the right ones as it can not choose but happen in all disquisitions where one is the first to breake the yce and is so slenderly informed of the particular circumstances of the matter in question as I professe to be in this yet I conceiue this discourse doth plainely shew that he who hath done more then we are able to comprehend and vnderstand may haue sett causes sufficient for all these effects in a better order and in compleater rankes then those which we haue here expressed and yet in them so coursely hewed out appeareth a possibility of hauing the worke done by corporeall agents Surely it were very well worth the while for some curious and iuditious person to obserue carefully and often the seuerall steppes of nature in this progresse for I am strongly persuaded that by such industry we might in time arriue to very particular knowledge of the immediate and precise causes that worke all these effects And I coÌ„ceiue that such obseruation needeth not be very troublesome as not requiring any great variety of creatures to institute it vpon for by maâ—king carefully all that passeth among our homebred hennes I beleeue it were easy to guesse very neerely at all the rest THE EIGHT AND THERTIETH CHAPTER Of prescience of future euentes prouidencies the knowing of thinges neuer seene bâ—fore and such other actions obserued in some liuing creatures which seeme to be euen aboue the reason that is in man himselfe THe fourth and last kind of actions which we may with astonishment obserue among beastes I conceiue will auayle litle to inferre out of them that the creatures which do them are endewed with reason and vnderstanding for such they are as if we should admitt that yet we
surfaces 9 A body of greater partes and greater pores maketh a greater refraction then one of lesser partes and lesser pores 10 A coÌ„firmation of the former doctrine out of the nature of bodies that refract light 1 The coÌ„nexion of this chapter with the rest and the Authors intent in it 2 That there is a least cise of bodies and that this least cise is found in fire 3 The first coniunction of partes is in bodies of least cise and it is made by the force of Quantity 4 The second sort of coniunction is coÌ„pactednesse in simple Elements and it proceedeth from density 5 The third coniunction is of partes of different Elements and it proceedeth from quantity and density together 6 The reason why liquide bodies do easily ioyne together and dry ones difficultly 7 That no two hard bodies can touch one an other immediately 8 How mixed bodies arâ— framed in generall 9 The cause of the seuerall degrees of solidity in mixed bodies 10 The rule wherevnto are reduced all the seuerall combinations of Elements in compounding of mixed bodies 11 Earth and water are the basis of all permanent mixed bodies 12 What kind of bodies those are where water is the basis and earth the predominant Element ouer the other two 13 Of those bodies where water being the basis ayre is the predominant Element 14 What kind of bodies result where water is the basis and fire the predominant Element 15 Of those bodies where water is in excesse it alone being both the basis and the predominant Element 16 Of those bodies where Earth alone is the basis and also the predominant in excesse ouer the other threâ— Elements 17 Of those bodies where Earth is the basis and water the predominâ—t Element ouer the other two 18 Of those bodies where earth being the basis ayre is the predominant 19 Of those bodies where Earth being the basis fire is the predominant 20 All the second qualities of mixed bodies arise from seuerall combinations of the first qualities and are att last resolued into seuerall degrees of rarity and density 21 That in the planets and starres there is a like varietâ— of mixed bodies caused by light as here vpon Earth 22 In what maÌ„ner the Elements do worke vpon one an other in the compositioÌ„ of mixed bodies and in particular fire which is the most actiue 23 A particular declaration touching the generation of mettalls 1 Why some bodies are brittle and others tough or apt to withstand outward violence the first instrument to dissolue mixed bodies 2 How outward violence doth worke vpon the most compacted bodies 3 The seuerall effects of fire the second and chiefest instrumeÌ„t to dissolue all coÌ„pounded bodies 4 The reason why some bodies are not dissolued by fire 5 The reason why fire molteth gold but can not consume it 6 Why leade is easily consumed and calcined by fire 7 Why and how some bodies are diuided by fire into spirits waters oyles saltes and earth And what those partes are 8 How water the third iâ—strumeÌ„t to dissolue bodies dissolueth calx into salt and so into Terra damnata 9 How water mingled with salt becometh a most powerfull Agent to dissolue other bodies 10 How putrefactioÌ„ is caused 1 What is the sphere of actiuity in corporeall Agents 2 The reason why no body can worke in distance 3 An obiection answered against the manner of explicating the former axiomâ— 4 Of reaction and first in pure locall motion that each AgeÌ„t must suffer in acting and actâ— in suffering 5 The former doctrine applyed to other locall motions designed by particular names And that Suisseths argument is of no force against this way of doctrine 6 Why some notions do admitt of intension and Remission and others do not 7 That in euery part of our habitable world all the foure ElemeÌ„ts are found pure in small atomes but not in any great bulke 1 The Authors intent in this and the following chapters Mr. Thomas White 2 That bodies may be rarifyed both by outward and inward heat and how this is performed 3 Of the great effects of Rarefaction 4 The first manner of condensation by heate 5 The second manner of condensation by cold 6 That yce is not water rarifyed but condensed 7 How wind snow and haile are made and wind by raine allayed 8 How partes of the same or diuers bodies are ioyned more strongly together by condensation 9 Vacuites can not be the reason why water impregnated to the full with one kind of salt will notwithstaÌ„ding receiue more of an other 10 The true reason of the former effect 11 The reason why bodies of the same nature do ioyne more easily together then others 1 What AttractioÌ„ is and from whence it proceedeth 2 The true sense of the Maxime that Nature abhorreth from vacuity 3 The true reasâ— of attraction 4 Water may be brought by the force of attraction to what height soeuer 5 The doctrine touching the attraction of water in syphons 6 That the syphon doth not proue water to weigh in its owne orbe 7 Concerning attraction caused by fire 8 Concerning attractioÌ„ made by vertue of hoat bodies amulets etc. 9 The naturall reason giuen for diuers operations esteemed by some to be magicall 1 What is Filtration and how it is effected 2 What causeth the water in filtration to ascend 3 Why the filter will not droppe vnlesse the labell hang lower then the water 4 Of the motion of Restitution and why some bodies stand bent others not 5 Why some bodies returne onely in part to their natural figure others entirely 6 Concerning the nature of those bodies which do shrinke and stretch 7 How great and wonderfull effects proceed from small plaine and simple principles 8 Concerning Electricall attraction and the causes of it 9 Cabeus his opinion refuted concerning the cause of Electricall motâ—ons 1 The extreme heat of the sunne vnder the zodiacke draweth a streame of ayre from each Pole into the torride zone Chap. 18. §. 7. 2 The atomes of these two streames coming together are apt to incorporate with one an other 3 By the meeting and mingling together of these streames att the Equator diuers riuolets of atomes of each Pole are continuatâ—d from one Pole to the other 4 Of these atomes incorporated with some fitt matter in the bowels of the earth is made a stone 5 This stone worketh by emanations ioyned with agreeing streames that meete them in the ayre and in fine it is a loadestone 6 A methode for making experiences vpon any subiect 7 The Loadestones generatioÌ„ by atomes flowing from both Poles is confirmed by experiments obserued in the stone it selfe 8 Experiments to proue that the loadestone worketh by emanations meeting with agreeing streames 1 The operations of the loadestone are wrought by bodies and not by qualities 2 Obiections against the former positioÌ„ answered 3 The loadestone is imbued