shew vs that the lesse the atomes should penetrate into a moouing body by reason of the extreme density of it the more efficaciously they would worke and the greater celerity they would cause in its motion And hence we may giue the fullest solution to the obiection aboue which was to this effect that seeing diuision is made onely by the superficies or exteriour part of the dense body and that the vertue whereby a dense body doth worke is onely its resistance to diuision which maketh it apt to diuide it would follow that a hollow boule of brasse or iron should be as heauy as a solide one For we may answere that seeing the atomes must stricke through the body and that a cessible body doth not receiue their stroakes so firmely as a stiffe one nor can conuey them so farre if vnto a stiffe superficies there succeede a yielding inside the stroakes must of necessity loose much of their force and consequently can not mooue a body full of ayre with so much celerity or with so much efficacy as they may a solide one But then you may peraduenture say that if these stroakes of the descending atomes vpon a dense body were the cause of its motion downewardes we must allow the atomes to mooue faster then the dense body that so they may still ouertake it and driue it along and enter into it whereas if they should mooue slower then it none of them could come in their turne to giue it a stroake but it would be past them and out of their reach before they could strike it But it is euident say you out of these pretended causes of this motion that such atomes can not mooue so swiftly downewardes as a great dense body since their litlenesse and their rarity are both of them hindering to their motion and therefore this can not be the cause of that effect which we call grauity To this I reply that to haue the atomes giue these blowes to a descending dense body doth not require that their naturall and ordinary motion should be swifter then the descent of such a dense body but the very descent of it occasioneth their striking it for as it falleth and maketh it selfe a way through them they diuide themselues before it and swell on the sides and a litle aboue it and presently close againe behind it and ouer it as soone as it is past Now that closing to hinder vacuity of space is a suddaine one and thereby attaineth great velocity which would carry the atomes in that degree of velocity further then the descending body if they did not encounter with it in their way to retarde them which encounter and retarding implyeth such stroakes vpon the dense body as we suppose to cause this motion And the like we see in water into which letting a stone fall presently the water that was diuided by the stone and swelleth on the sides higher then it was before closeth vpon the backe of the descending stone and followeth it so violently that for a while after it leaueth a purling hole in the place where the stone went downe till by the repose of the stone the water returneth likewise to its quiet and so its superficies becometh euen In the third place an enquiry occurreth emergent out of this doctrine of the cause of bodies moouing vpwardes and downewardes Which is whether there would be any naturall motion deepe in the earth beyond the actiuity of the sunnes beames For out of these principles it followeth that there would not and consequently there must be a vast orbe in which there would be no motion of grauity or of leuity for suppose that the sunne beames might pierce a thousand miles deepe into the body of the earth yet there would still remaine a masse whose diameter would be neere 5000 miles in which there would be no grauitation nor the contrary motion For my part I shall make no difficulty to grant the inference as farre as concerneth motion caused by our sunne for what inconuenience would follow out of it But I will not offer att determining whether there may not be enclosed within that great sphere of earth some other fire such as the Chymistes talke of an Archeus a Demogorgon seated in the center like the hart in animals which may raise vp vapours and boyle an ayre out of them and diuide grosse bodies into atomes and accordingly giue them motions answerable to ours but in different lines from ours according as that fire or sunne is situated since the farre-searching Author of the Dialogues de Mundo hath left that speculation vndecided after he had touched vpon it in the 12 knott of his first Dialogue Fourthly it may be obiected that if such descending atomes as we haue described were the cause of a bodies grauity and descending towardes the center the same body would att diuers times descend more and lesse swiftly for example after midnight when the atomes begin to descend more slowly then likewise the same body would descend more slowly in a like proportion and not weigh so much as it did in the heate of the day The same may be said of summer and winter for in winter time the atomes seeme to be more grosse and consequently to strike more strongly vpon the bodies they meete with in their way as they descend yet on the other side they seeme in the summer to be more numerous as also to descend from a greater height both which circumstances will be cause of a stronger stroake and more vigourous impulse vpon the body they hitt And the like may be obiected of diuers partes of the world for in the torride zone it will alwayes happen as in summer in places of the temperate zone and in the polar climes as in deepest winter so that no where there would be any standard or certainty in the weight of bodies if it depended vpon so mutable a cause And it maketh to the same effect that a body which lyeth vnder a thicke rocke or any other very dense body that can not be penetrated by any great store of atomes should not be so heauy as it would be in the open and free ayre where the atomes in their complete numbers haue their full stroakes For answere to these and such like instances we are to note first that it is not so much the number or the violence of the percussion of the striking atomes as the density of the thing strucken which giueth the measure to the descending of a weighty body and the chiefe thing which the stroake of the atomes giueth vnto a dense body is a determination of the way which a dense body is to cutt vnto it selfe therefore multiplication or lessening of the atomes will not make any sensible difference betwixt the weight of one dense body where many atomes do strike and an other body of the same density where but few do strike so that the stroake downewardes of the descending atomes be greater then the stroake vpwardes
of 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
prooued from her manner of operation which is grounded in being ibid. § 10. Lastly it is prooued from the science of Morality the principles whereof would be destroied if the soule were mortall pag. 421 CHAP. X. Declaring what the soule of a man separated from his body is and of her knowledge and manner of working pag. 422 § 1. That the soule is one simple knowing act which is a pure substance and nothing but substance ibid. § 2. That a separated soule is in no place and yet is not absent from any place pag. 424 § 3. That a separated soule is not in time nor subiect to it ibid. § 4. That the soule is an actiue substance and all in it is actiuitie pag. 425 § 5. A description of the soule pag. 426 § 6. That a separated soule knoweth all that which she knew whilst she wâ—s in her bodie ibid. § 7. That the least knowledge which the soule acquireth in her bodie of anie one thing doth cause in her when she is separated from her bodie a compleat knowledge of all thinges whatsoeuer pag. 427 § 8. An answere to the obiections of some Peripatetikes who maintaine the soule to perish with the body pag. 429 § 9 The former Peripatetikes refuted out of Aristotle pag. 431 § 10. The operations of a separated soule compared to her operations in her bodie ibid. § 11. That a separated soule is in a state of pure being and consequently immortall pag. 432 CHAP. XI Shewing what effects the diuers manners of liuing in this world do cause in a soule after she is separated from her body p. 433 § 1. That a soule in this life is subiect to mutation and may be perfected in knowledge ibid. § 2. That the knowledges which a soule getteth in this life will make her knowledge in the next life more perfect and firme pag. 434 § 3. That the soules of men addicted to science whilst they liued here are more perfect in the next world then the soules of vnlearned men pag. 435 § 4. That those soules which embrace vertue in this world will be most perfect in the next and those which embrace vice most miserable ibid. § 5. The state of a vitious soule in the next life pag. 437 § 6. The fundamentall reason why as well happinesse as misery is so excessiue in the next life pag. 439 § 7. The reason why mans soule requireth to be in a body and to liue for some space of time ioyned with it pag. 441 § 8. That the misery of the soule in the next world proceedeth out of inequality and not out of falsity of her iudgements pag. 442 CHAP. XII Of the perseuerance of a soule in the state she findeth herselfe in at her first separation from her body pag. 443 § 1. The explication and proofe of that maxime that if the cause be in act the effect must also be ibid. § 2. The effects of all such agents as worke instantaneously are complete in the first instant that the agents are putt ibid. § 3. All pure spirits do worke instantaneously pag. 444 § 4. That a soule separated from her body can not suffer any change after the first instant of her separation ibid. § 5. That temporall sinnes are iustly punished with eternall paines pag. 445 The Conclusion pag. 446 THE PREFACE THIS writing was designed to haue seene the light vnder the name of one treatise But after it was drawne in paper as I cast a view ouer it I found the prooemiall part which is that which treateth of Bodies so ample in respect of the other which was the end of it and for whose sake I meddled with it that I readily apprehended my reader would thinke I had gone much astray from my text when proposing to speake of the immortality of Mans Soule three parts of foure of the whole discourse should not so much as in one word mention that soule whose nature and proprieties I aymed at the discouery of To auoyde this incongruity occasioned mee to change the name and vnity of the worke and to make the suruay of bodies a body by it selfe though subordinate to the treatise of the soule Which notwithstanding it be lesse in bulke then the other yet I dare promise my Reader that if he bestow the paines requisite to perfect him selfe in it he will find as much time well spent in the due reading of it as in the reading of the former treatise though farre more large But I discerne an obiection obuious to be made or rather a question why I should spend so much time in the consideration of bodies whereas none that hath formerly written of this subiect hath in any measure done the like I might answere that they had vpon other occasions first written of the nature of bodies as I may instance in Aristotle and sundry others who either haue themselues professedly treated the science of bodies or haue supposed that part sufficiently performed by other pennes But truly I was by an vnauoydable necessity hereunto obliged which is a current of doctrine that at this day much raigneth in the Christian Schooles where bodies and their operations are explicated after the manner of spirituall thinges For wee hauing very slender knowledge of spirituall substances can reach no further into their nature then to know that they haue certaine powers or qualities but can seldome penetrate so deepe as to descend to the particulars of such Qualities or Powers Now our moderne Philosophers haue introduced such a course of learning into the schooles that vnto all questions concerning the proper natures of bodies and their operations it is held sufficient to answere they haue a quality or a power to doe such a thing And afterwards they dispute whether this Quality or Power be an Entity distinct from its subiect or no and how it is seperable or vnseperable from it and the like Conformable to this who will looke into the bookes which are in vogue in these schooles shall find such answers and such controuersies euery where and few others As of the sensible qualities aske what it is to be white or red what to be sweete or sower what to be odoriferous or stincking what to be cold or hott And you are presently paid with that it is a sensible quality which hath the power to make a wall white or red to make a meate agreeable or disagreeable to the tast to make a gratefull or vngratefull smell to the nose etc Likewise they make the same questions and resolutions of Grauity and Leuity as whether they be qualities that is entities distinct from their subiect and whether they be actiue or passiue which when they haue disputed slightly and in common with logicall arguments they rest there without any further searching into the physicall causes or effects of them The like you shall find of all strange effects of them The loadestone and Electricall bodies are produced for miraculous and not vnderstandable thinges and in which it must be
the same biggenesse and consequently be conuerted into a greater Quantity of fire and ayre Oyle will make much more flame then spiritt of wine that is farre rarer then it These and such like considerations haue much perplexed Philosophers and haue driuen them into diuerse thoughts to find out the reasons of them Some obseruing that the diuiding of a body into litle partes maketh it lesse apt to descend then when it is in greater haue beleeued the whole cause of litghnesse and rarity to be deriued from diuision As for example they find that lead cutt into litle pieces will not goe downe so fast in water as when it is in bulke and it may be reduced into so small atomes that it will for some space swimme vpon the water like dust of wood Which assumption is prooued by the greate Galileus vnto whose excellent witt and admirable industry the world is beholding not onely for his wonderfull discoueries made in the heauens but also for his accurate and learned declaring of those very thinges that lye vnder our feete He about the 90th page of his first Dialogue of motion doth clearly demonstrate how any reall medium must of necessity resist more the descent of a litle piece of lead or any other weighty matter then it would a greater piece and the resistence will be greater and greater as the pieces are lesser and lesser So that as the pieces are made lesse they will in the same medium sinke the slower and do seeme to haue acquired a new nature of lightnesse by theire diminution not onely of hauing lesse weight in them then they had as halfe an ounce is lesse then a whole ounce but also of hauing in themselues a lesse proportion of weight to theire bulke then they had as a pound of corke is in regard of its magnitude lighter then a pound of lead so as they conclude that the thing whose continued partes are the lesser is in its owne nature the lighter and the rarer and other thinges whose continued partes are greater they be heauier and denser But this discourse reacheth not home for by it the weight of any body being discouered by the proportion it hath to the medium in which it descendeth it must euer suppose a body lighter then it selfe in which it may sinke and goe to the bottome Now of that lighter body I enquire what maketh it be so and you must answere by what you haue concluded that it is lighter then the other because the partes of it are lesse and more seuered from one an other for if they be as close together theire diuision auayleth them nothing since thinges sticking fast together do worke as if they were but one and so a pound of lead though it be filed into small dust if it be compacted hard together will sinke as fast as if it were in one bulke Now then allowing the litle partes to be seperated I aske what other body filleth vp the spaces betweene those litle partes of the medium in which your heauy body descended For if the partes of water are more seuered then the partes of lead there must be some other substance to keepe the partes of it a sunder lett vs suppose this to be ayre and I aske whether an equall part of ayre be as heauy as so much water or whether it be not If you say it is then the compound of water and ayre must be as heauy as lead seeing that theire partes one with an other are as much compacted as the partes of lead are For there is no difference whether those bodies whose litle partes are compacted together be of the same substance or of diuers or whether the one be diuided into smaller partes then the other or no so they be of equall weights in regard of making the whole equally heauy as you may experience if you mingle pinnedust with a sand of equall weight though it be beaten into farre smaller diuisions then the pinnedust and putt them in a bagge together But if you say that ayre is not so heauy as water it must be because euery part of ayre hath againe its partes more seuered by some other body then the partes of water are seuered by ayre And then I make the same instance of that body which seuereth the partes of ayre And so att the last since there can not actually be an infinite processe of bodies one lighter then an other you must come to one whose litle partes filling the pores and spaces between the partes of the others haue no spaces in themselues to be filled vp But as soone as you acknowledge such a body to be lighter and rarer then all the rest you contradict and destroy all you said before For by reason of its hauing no pores it followeth by your rule that the litle partes of it must be as heauy if not heauier then the litle partes of the same bignesse of that body whose pores it filleth and consequently it is proued by the experience we alleadged of pinnedust mingled with sand that the litle partes of it can not by theire mingling with the partes of the body in which it is immediately contained make that lighter then it would be if these litle partes were not mingled with it Nor would both theire partes mingled with the body which immediately containeth them make that body lighter And so proceeding on in the same sort through all the mingled bodies till you come to the last that is immediately mingled with water you will make water nothing the lighter for being mingled with all these and by consequence it should be as heauy and as dense as lead Now that which deceiued the authors of this opiniion was that they had not a right intelligence of the causes which made litle partes of bodies naturally heauy descend slowly in regard of the velocity of greater partes of the same bodies descending the doctrine of which we intend to deliuer hereafter Others therefore perceiuing this rule to fall short haue endeauoured to piece it out by the mixtion of vacuity among bodies belieuing it is that which maketh one rarer then an other Which mixtion they do not putt alwayes immediate to the maine body they consider but if it haue other rarer and lighter bodies mingled with it they conceiue this mixtion immediate onely to the rarest or lightest As for example a crystall being lighter and consequently rarer then a diamond they will not say that there is more vacuity in a crystall then in a diamond but that the pores of a crystall are greater and that consequently there is more ayre in a crystall to fill the pores of it then is in a diamond and the vacuities are in the ayre which abounding in a crystall more then in a diamond maketh that lighter and rarer then this by the more vacuities that are in the greater Quantity of ayre which is migled with it But against this supposition a powerfull aduersary is vrged for Aristotle in his 4th booke
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
we may remember how in the close of the fourth we remitted a question concerning the existence of the Elements that is whether in any places of the world there were any pure Elements eyther in bulke or in little partes as being not ready to resolue it till we had declared the manner of working of bodies one vpon an other Here then will be a fitt place to determine that out of what we haue discoursed concerning the actions whereby bodies are made and corrupted for considering the vniuersall action of fire that runneth through all the bodies we haue commerce withall by reason of the sunnes influence into them and operation vpon them with his light and beames which reacheth farre and neere and looking vpon the effects which we haue shewed do follow thence it is manifest there can not be any great quantity of any body whatsoeuer in which fire is not intrinsecally mixed And on the other side we see that where fire is once mixed it is very hard to seperate it totally from thence Againe we see it is impossible that pure fire should be conserued without being adioyned to some other body both because of its violent natiuity still streaming forth with a great impetuosity as also because it is so easily ouercome by any obsident body when it is dilated And therefore we may safely conclude that no simple Element can consist in any great quantity in this course of nature which we liue in and take a suruay of Neyther doth it appeare to what purpose nature should haue placed any such storehouses of simples seeing she can make all needefull complexions by the dissolutions of mixed bodies into other mixed bodies sauouring of the nature of the Elements without needing their purity to beginne vpon But on the other side it is as euident that the Elements must remaine pure in euery compounded body in such extreme small partes as we vse to call atomes for if they did not the variety of bodies would be nothing else but so many degrees of rarity and density or so many pure homogeneall Elements and not bodies composed of heterogeneall partes and consequently would not be able to shew that variety of partes which we see in bodies nor could produce the complicated effects which proceede from them And accordingly we are sure that the least partes which our senses can arriue to discouer haue many varieties in them euen so much that a whole liuing creature whose organicall partes must needes be of exceeding different natures may be so litle as vnto our eyes to seeme indiuisible we not distinguishing any difference of partes in it without the helpe of a multiplying glasse as in the least kind of mites and in wormes picked out of Childrens handes we dayly experience So as it is euident that no sensible part can be vnmingled But then againe when we call to mind how we haue shewed that the qualities which we find in bodies do result out of the composition and mixtion of the Elements we must needes conclude that they must of necessity remaine in their owne essences in the mixed body And so out of the whole discourse determine that they are not there in any visible quantity but in those least atomes that are too subtile for our senses to discerne Which position we do not vnderstand so Metaphysically as to say that their substantiall formes remaine actually in the mixed body but onely that their accidentall qualities are found in the compound remitting that other question vnto Metaphysicians those spirituall Anatomistes to decide THE SEVENTEENTH CHAPTER Of Rarefaction and Condensation the two first motions of particular bodies OVr intention in this discourse concerning the natures and motions of bodies ayming no further then att the discouery of what is or may be done by corporeall Agents thereby to determine what is the worke of immateriall and spirituall substances it can not be expected att our handes that we should deliuer here an entire and complete body of naturall Philosophy But onely that we should take so much of it in our way as is needfull to carry vs with truth and euidence to our iourneys end It belongeth not then to vs to meddle with those sublime contemplations which search into the nature of the vast Vniuerse and that determine the vnity and limitation of it and that shew by what stringes and vpon what pinnes and wheeles and hinges the whole world moueth and that from thence do ascend vnto an awfull acknowledgment and humble admiration of the primary cause from whence and of which both the being of it and the beginning of the first motion and the continuance of all others doth proceed and depend Nor in deede would it be to the purpose for anyman to sayle in this Ocean and to beginne a new voyage of nauigation vpon it vnlesse he were assured he had ballast enough in his shippe to make her sinke deepe into the water and to carry her steadily through those vnruly waues and that he were furnished with skill and prouision sufficient to go through without eyther loosing his course by steering after a wrong compasse or being forced backe againe with shorte and obscure relations of discoueries since others that went out before him are returned with a large account to such as are able to vnderstand and summe it vp Which surely our learned countryman and my best and most honoured frend and to whom of all men liuing I am most obliged for to him I owe that litle which I know and what I haue and shall sett downe in all this discourse is but a few sparkes kindled by me att his greate fire hath both profoundly and acutely and in euery regard iudiciously performed in his Dialogues of the world Our taske then in a lower straine and more proportionate to so weake shoulders is to looke no further then among those bodies we conuerse withall Of which hauing declared by what course and engines nature gouerneth their common motions that are found euen in the Elements and from thence are deriued to all bodies composed of them we intend now to consider such motions as accompany diuers particular bodies and are much admired by whosoeuer vnderstandeth not the causes of them To beginne from the easiest and most connexed with the actions of the Elements the handsell of our labour will light vpon the motions of Rarefaction and Condensation as they are the passions of mixed bodies And first for Rarefaction we may remember how it proceedeth originally from fire and dependeth of heate as is declared in the former chapter and wheresoeuer we find Rarefaction we may be confident the body which suffereth it is not without fire working vpon it From hence we may gather that when the ayre imprisoned in a baloone or bladder swelleth against what cōtaineth it and stretcheth its case and seeketh to breake out this effect must proceed from fire or heate though we see not the fire working eyther within the very bowels of the ayre
applyed we must be beholding to that admirable searcher of the nature of the loadestone Doctor Gilbert by meanes of whom and of Doctor Haruey our Natiō may claime euen in this latter age as deserued a crowne for solide Philosophicall learning as for many ages together it hath done formerly for acute and subtile speculations in Diuinity But before I fall to particulars I thinke it worth warning my Reader how this great man arriued to discouer so much of Magneticall Philosophy that he likewise if he be desirous to search into nature may by imitation aduance his thoughts and knowledge that way In short then all the knowledge he gott of this subiect was by forming a little loadestone into the shape of the earth By which meanes he compassed a wonderfull designe which was to make the whole globe of the earth maniable for he found the properties of the whole earth in that little body which he therefore called a Tertella or little earth and which he could manage and trye experiences vpon att his will And in like manner any man that hath an ayme to aduance much in naturall sciencies must endeauour to draw the matter he enquireth of into some small modell or into some kind of manageable methode which he may turne and wind as he pleaseth And then lett him be sure if he hath a competent vnderstanding that he will not misse of his marke But to our intent the first thing we are to proue is that the loadestone is generated in such sort as we haue described for proofe whereof the first ground we will lay shall be to consider how in diuers other effects it is manifest that the differences of being exposed to the north or to the south do cause very great variety in the same thing as hereafter we shall haue occasion to touch in the barkes and graines of trees and the like Next we find by experience that this vertue of the loadestone is receiued into other bodies that resemble its nature by heatinges and coolinges for so it passeth in iron barres which being throughly heated and then layed to coole north and south are thereby imbued with a Magnetike vertue heate opening their bodies and disposing them to sucke in such atomes as are conuenient to their nature that flow vnto them whiles they are cooling So that we can not boubt but that conuenient matter fermenting in its warme bed vnder the earth becometh a loadestone by the like sucking in of affluent streames of a like complexion to the former And it fareth in like manner with those fiery instruments as fireforkes tonges shouels and the like which do stand constantly vpwardes and downewardes for they by being often heated and cooled againe do gaine a very strong verticity or turning to the Pole and indeede they can not stand vpwardes and downewardes so little a while but that they will in that short space gaine a manifest verticity and change it att euery turning Now since the force and vigour of this verticity is in the end that standeth downewardes it is euident that this effect proceedeth out of an influence receiued from the earth And because in a loadestone made into a globe or considered so to the end you may reckon hemispheres in it as in the great earth eyther hemisphere giueth vnto a needle touched vpon it not onely the vertue of that hemisphere where it is touched but likewise the vertue of the contrary hemisphere we may boldly conclude that the vertue which a loadestone is impregnated with in the wombe or bed of the earth where it is formed and groweth proceedeth as well from the contrary hemisphere of the earth as from that wherein it lyeth in such sort as we haue aboue described And as we feele oftentimes in our owne bodies that some cold we catch remaineth in vs a long while after the taking it and that sometimes it seemeth euen to change the nature of some part of our body into which it is chiefely entered and hath taken particular possession of so that whensoeuer new atomes of the like nature do againe range about in the circumstant ayre that part so deepely affected with the former ones of kinne to these doth in a particular manner seeme to rissent them and to attract them to it and to haue its guestes within it as it were wakened and roused vp by the stroakes of the aduenient ones that knocke att their dores Euen so but much more strongly by reason of the longer time and lesse hinderances we may conceiue that the two vertues or atomes proceeding from the two different hemispheres do constitute a certaine permanent and constant nature in the stone that imbideth them which then we call a loadestone and is exceeding sensible as we shall hereafter declare of the aduenience to it of new atomes alike in nature and complexion to those that it is impregnated with And this vertue consisting in a kind of softer and tenderer substance then the rest of the stone becometh thereby subiect to be consumed by fire From whence we may gather the reason why a loadestone neuer recouereth its magnetike vertue after it hath once lost it though iron doth for the humidity of iron is inseparable from its substance but the humidity of a loadestone which maketh it capable of this effect may be quite consumed by fire and so the stone be left too dry for euer being capable of imbibing any new influence from the earth vnlesse it be by a kind of new making it In the next place we are to proue that the loadestone doth worke in that manner as we haue shewed for which end lett vs consider how the atomes that are drawne from each Pole and hemisphere of the earth to the aequator making vp their course by a manuduction of one an other the hindermost can not choose but still follow on after the foremost And as it happeneth in filtration by a cotton cloth if some one part of the cotton haue its disposition to the ascent of the water more perfect and ready then the other partes haue the water will assuredly ascend faster in that part then in any of the rest so if the atomes do find a greater disposition for their passage in any one part of the medium they range through then in an other they will certainely not faile of taking that way in greater aboundance and with more vigour and strength then any other But it is euident that when they meete with such a stone as we haue described the helpes by which they aduance in their iourney are notably encreased by the floud of atomes which they meete coming out of that stone which being of the nature of their opposite pole they seise greedily vpon them and thereby do plucke themselues faster on like a ferryman that draweth on his boate the swiftlyer the more vigourously he tuggeth and pulleth att the rope that lyeth thwart the riuer for him to hale himselfe ouer by And therefore we
it a permanent vertue by which it worketh like a weake loadestone The second is that as it maketh the iron worke towardes the lesser loadestone by its permanent vertue so also it accompanyeth the steame that goeth from the iron towardes the little loadestone with its owne steame which goeth the same way so that both these steames do in company clymbe vp the steame of the little loadestone which meeteth them and that steame clymbeth vp the enlarged one of both theirs together The third effect which the greater loadestone worketh is that it maketh the steame of the little loadestone become stronger by augmenting its innate vertue in some degree Now then the going of the iron to eyther of the loadestones must follow the greater and quicker coniunction of the two meeting steames and not the greatnesse of one alone So that if the coniunction of the two steames between the iron and the little loadestone be greater and quicker then the coniunction of the two steames which meete between the greater loadestone and the iron the iron must sticke to the lesser loadestone And this must happen more often then otherwise for the steame which goeth from the iron to the greater loadestone will for the most part be lesse then the steame which goeth from the lesser loadestone to the iron And though the other steame be neuer so great yet it can not draw more then according to the proportion of its Antagonists coming from the iron Wherefore seeing the two steames betwixt the iron and the little loadestone are more proportionable to one an other and the steame coming out of the little loadestone is notably greater then the steame going from the iron to the greater loadestone the coniunction must be made for the most part to the little loadestone And if this discourse doth not hold in the former part of the Probleme betwixt a second iron and a loadestone it is supplyed by the former reason which we gaue for that particular purpose The third case dependeth also of this solution for the bigger an iron is so many more partes it hath to sucke vp the influence of the loadestone and consequently doth it thereby the more greedily and therefore the loadestone must be carried to it more violently and when they are ioyned sticke more strongly The sixt question is why the variations of the needle from the true north in the northerne hemisphere are greater the neerer you go to the Pole and lesser the neerer you approach to the Aequator The reason whereof is plaine in our doctrine for considering that the magnetike vertue of the earth streameth from the north towardes the aequator it followeth of necessity that if there be two streames of magnetike fluours issuing from the north one of them precisely from the pole and the other from a part of the earth neere the pole and that the streame coming from the point by side the pole be but a little the stronger of the two there will appeare very little differencies in their seuerall operations after they haue had a long space to mingle their emanations together which thereby do ioyne and grow as it were into one streame Whereas the neerer you come to the pole the more you will find them seuered and each of them working by its owne vertue And very neere the point which causeth the variation each streame worketh singly by it selfe and therefore here the point of variation must be master and will carry the needle strongly vnto his course from the due north if his streame be neuer so little more efficacious then the other Againe a line drawne from a point of the earth wyde of the pole to a point of the meridian neere the aequator maketh a lesse angle then a line drawne from the same point of the earth to a point of the same meridian neerer the pole wherefore the variation being esteemed by the quantities of the said angles it must needes be greater neere the pole then neere the aequator though the cause be the same But because it may happen that in the partes neere the aequator the variation may proceed from some piece of land not much more northerly then where the needle is but that beareth rather easterly or westerly from it and yet Gilberts assertion goeth vniuersally when he sayth the variations in southerne regions are lesse then in northerne ones we must examine what may be the reason thereof And presently the generation of the loadestone sheweth it plainely for seeing the nature of the loadestone proceedeth out of this that the sunne worketh more vpon the torride zone then vpon the poles and that his too strong operation is contrary to the loadestone as being of the nature of fire it followeth euidently that the landes of the torride zone can not be so magneticall generally speaking as the polar landes are and by consequence that a lesser land neere the pole will haue a greater effect then a larger continent neere the aequator and likewise a land further off towardes the pole will worke more strongly then a neerer land which lyeth towardes the aequator The seuenth question is whether in the same part of the world a touched needle may att one time vary more from the true north point and att an other time lesse In which Gilbert was resolute for the negatiue part but our latter Mathematiciens are of an other mind Three experiences were made neere London in three diuers yeares The two first 42 yeares distant from one an other and the third 12 yeares distant from the second And by them it is found that in the space of 54 yeares he loadestone hath att London diminished his variation from the north the quantity of 7 degrees and more But so that in the latter yeares the diminution hath sensibly gone faster then in the former These obseruations peraduenture are but little credited by strangers but we who know the worth of the men that made them can not mistrust any notable errour in them for they were very able mathematicians and they made their obseruations with very greate exactnesse and there were seuerall iuditious wittnesses att the making of them as may be seene in Mr. Gillebrand his print concerning this subiect And diuers other particular persons do confirme the same whose creditt though each single might peraduenture be slighted yet all in body make a great accession We must therefore cast about to find what may be the cause of an effect so paradoxe to the rest of the doctrine of the loadestone for seeing that no one place can stand otherwise to the north of the earth att one time then att an other how is it possible that the needle should receiue any new variation since all variation proceedeth out of the inequality of the earth But when we consider that this effect proceedeth not out of the maine body of the earth but only out of the barke of it and that its barke may haue diuers tempers not as yet
harden the outside and then of necessity there must be a hollow cylinder remayning in lieu of the iuice which before did fill it As we see euery day in corne and in reedes and in canes and in the stalkes of many herbes which whilst they are tender and in their first groweth are full of iuice and become afterwardes hollow and drye But because this discourse may peraduenture seeme too much in common it will not be amisse to apply it to some particulars that seem◠very strange And first lett vs examine how the rocking of concrete iuices which seemeth to be such an admirable mystery of nature is performed Alume falleth downe in lumpes saltpeter in long ycickles and common salt in squares and this not once or sometimes now and then but alwayes constantly in the same order The reason of these effects will easily be reduced out of what we haue said for if all three be dissolued in the same water alume being the grossest falleth first and fastest and being of an vnctuous nature the first part which falleth doth not harden till the second cometh to it whereby this second sticketh to the first and crusheth it downe and this is serued in the same manner by the third and so goeth on one part squeezing an other till what is vndermost grow hard enough to resist the weight of new falling partes or rather till no more do fall but the liquor they were dissolued in is deliuered of them all and then they harden in that figure they were compressed into As for salt which descendeth in the second place that swimmeth first vpon the water and there getteth its figure which must be equally long and broad because the water is indifferent to those two positions but its thickenesse is not equall to its other two dimensions by reason that before it can attaine to that thicknesse it groweth too heauy to swimme any longer and after it is encreased to a certaine bulke the weight of it carrieth it downe to the bottome of the water and consequently it can encrease no more for it encreaseth by the ioyning of litle partes vnto it as it swimmeth on the toppe of the water The saltpeter falleth last which being more difficult to be figured then the other two because it is more dry then eyther of them as consisting chiefely of earthy and of fyry partes is not equally encreased neyther in all three nor in two dimensions but hath its length exceeding both its breadth and thicknesse and its lightnesse maketh it fall last because it requireth least water to sustaine it To giue the causes of the figures of diuers mixtes and particularly of some pretious stones which seeme to be cast by nature in exactest mouldes would oblige vs to enter into the particular manner of their generation which were exceeding hard if not impossible for vs to do by reason that Authors haue not left vs the circumstances vpon which we might ground our iudgement concerning them so particularly described as were necessary nor our selues haue mett with the commodity of making such experiences and of searching so into their beds as were requisite to determine solidely the reasons of them And indeede I conceiue that oftentimes the relations which others haue recorded of their generation would rather misseleade then assist vs since it is very familiar in many men to magnify the exactenesse of nature in framing effects they fansye to themselues when to make their wonder appeare more iust they will not fayle to sett of their story with all aduantageous circumstances and helpe out what wanteth a litle or cometh but neere the marke But to come closer to our purpose that is to the figures of liuing thinges we see that rootes in the earth are all of them figured almost in the same fashion for the heate residing in the middest of them pusheth euery way and therevpon some of them do become round but others more long then round according to the temper of the ground or to the season of the yeare or to the weather that happeneth and this not only in diuers kindes of rootes but euē in seuerall of the same kinde That part of the plant which mounteth vpwardes is for the most part round and long the cause whereof is euident for the iuice which is in the middle of it working vpwardes because the hardnesse of the barke will not lett it out att the sides and coming in more and more aboundance for the reasons we haue aboue deliuered encreaseth that part equally euery way but vpwardes and therefore it must be equally thicke and broad and consequently round but the length will exceed eyther of the other dimensions because the iuice is driuen vp with a greater force and in more quantity then it is to the sides Yet the broadnesse and thickenesse are not so exactly vniforme but that they exceede a little more att the bottome then att the toppe which is occasioned partly by the contracting of the iuice into a narrower circuite the further it is from the source and partly by reason of the branches which shooting forth do conuey away a great part of the iuice from the maine stocke Now if we consider the matter well we shall find that what is done in the whole tree the very same is likewise done in euery litle leafe of it for a leafe consisteth of litle branches shooting out from one greater branch which is in the middle and againe other lesser branches are deriued from those second branches and so still lesser and lesser till they weaue themselues into a close worke as thicke as that which we see women vse to fill vp with silke or crewell when in tenteworke they embroader leafes or flowers vpon canneuas and this againe is couered and as it were glewed ouer by the humour which sticking to these litle thriddes stoppeth vp euery litle vacuity and by the ayre is hardened into such a skinne as we see a leafe consisteth of And thus it appeareth how an account may be giuen of the figure of the leafes as well as of the figure of the maine body of the whole tree the litle branches of the leafe being proportionate in figure to the branches of the tree it selfe so that each leafe seemeth to be the tree in litle and the figure of the leafe depending of the course of these litle branches so that if the greatest branch of the tree be much longer then the others the leafe will be a long one but if the lesser branches spread broadwayes the leafe will likewise be a broad one so farre as euen to be notched att the outsides round about it in great or litle notches according to the proportion of the trees branches These leafes when they first breake out are foulded inwardes in such sort as the smallnesse and roundnesse of the passage in the wood through which they issue constrayneth them to be where neuerthelesse the drynesse of their partes keepe them asunder so that one
last their resoluing vpon some one of them and their steady pursuance of that afterwardes will not be matter of hard digestion to him that shall haue well relished and meditated vpon the contents of the last Chapter for it is euident that if seuerall obiects of different natures do at the same time present themselues vnto a liuing creature they must of necessity make diuers impressions in the hart of it proportionable vnto the causes from whence they proceed so that if one of them be a motion of hope and the other be of feare it can not choose but follow thence that what one of them beginneth the other will presently breake off by which meanes it will come to passe that in the beastes hart there must needes be such wauinges as we may obserue in the sea when at the beginning of a tide of stood it meeteth with a banke that checketh the coming in of the waues and for a while beateth them backe as fast as they presse vpon it they offer at getting ouer it and by and by retire backe againe from the steepenesse of it as though they were apprehēsiue of some danger on the other side and then againe attempt it a fresh and thus continue labouring one while one way an other while an other vntill at the length the flood encreasing the water seemeth to grow bolder and breaketh a maine ouer the banke and then floweth on till it meeteth with an other that resisteth it as the first did and thus you see how the sea can doubt and resolue without any discoursing In the like manner it fareth with the hart of a beast whose motions do steere the rest of his body when it beateth betwixt hope and feare or between any other two contrary passions without requiring any other principles from whence to deduce it then those we haue already explicated But now to speake of their inuention I must confesse that among seuerall of them there appeareth so much cunning in laying of their plots which when they haue compassed they seeme to grow carelesse and to vnbend their attention as hauing obtained what with earnestnesse they desired that one might thinke they wrought by designe and had a distinct view of an end for the effecting of which they vsed discourse to choose the likeliest meanes To this purpose the subtilities of the foxe are of most note They say he vseth to lye as if he were dead thereby to make hennes and duckes come boldly to him That in the night whē his body is vnseene he will fixe his eyes vpon poultry and so make them come downe to him from their rooste That to ridde himselfe of the fleas that afflict him in the summer he will sinke his body by litle and litle into the water while the fleas creepe vp to his head to saue themselues from drowning and from thence to a bough he holdeth in his mouth and will then swimme away leauing them there That to cosen the badger of his earth he will pisse in it as knowing that the ranke smell of his vrine will driue the othe cleanelier beast to quitt it That when doggs are close vpon him and catching at him he will pisse vpon his tayle and by firking that vp and downe will endeauour you may beleeue to make their eyes smarte and so retarde their pursuite that he may escape from them And there are particular stories that expresse yet more cunning then all these as of a foxe that being sore hunted hanged himselfe by the teeth among dead vermine in a warren vntill the dogges were passed by him and had lost him Of an other that in the like distresse would take into his mouth a broome bush growing vpon a steepe cliffe on the side hand neere his denne which had an other way to it easy enough of accesse and by helpe of that would securely cast himselfe into his hole whiles the doggs that followed him hastily and were ignorant of the danger would breake their neckes downe the rockes It is said that in Thracia the country people so know whether the riuers that are frozen in the winter will beare them or no by marking whether the foxes venture boldely ouer them or retire after they haue layed their eares to the yce to listen whether or no they can heare the noyse of the water running vnder it from whence you may imagine they collect that if they heare the current of the streame the yce must needes be thinne and consequently dangerous to trust their weight vnto it And to busye my selfe no longer with their suttleties I will conclude with a famous tale of one of these crafty animals that hauing killed a goose on the other side of the riuer and being desirous to swimme ouer with it to carry it to his denne before he would attempt it least his prey might proue too heauy for him to swimme withall and so he might loose it he first weighed the goose with a piece of wood and then tryed to carry that ouer the riuer whiles he left his goose behind in a safe place which when he perceiued he was able to do with ease he then came backe againe and ventured ouer with his heauy birde They say it is the nature of the Iacatray to hide it selfe and imitate the voyce of such beasts as it vseth to prey vpon which maketh them come to him as to one of their owne fellowes and then he seiseth vpon them and deuoureth them The Iaccall that hath a subtile sent hunteth after beasts and in the chace by his barking guideth the lyon whose nose is not so good till they ouertake what they hunt which peraduenture would be too strong for the Iaccall but the lyon killeth the quarry and hauing first fed himselfe leaueth the Iaccall his share and so between them both by the ones dexterity and by the others strength they gett meate for nourishment of them both Like storyes are recorded of some fishes And euery day we see the inuentions of beasts to saue themselues from catching as hares when they are hunted seeke alwayes to confound the sent sometimes by taking hedges other whiles waters sometimes running among sheepe and other beasts of stronger sents sometimes making doubles and treading the same path ouer and ouer and sometimes leaping with great iumpes hither and thither before they betake themselues to their rest that so the cōtinuatenesse of the sent may not lead doggs to their forme Now to penetrate into the causes of these and of such like actions we may remember how we shewed in the last Chapter that the beating of the hart worketh two thinges the one is that it turneth about the specieses or litle corporeities streaming from outward obiects which remaine in the memory the other is that it is alwayes pressing on to some motion or other out of which it happeneth that when the ordinary wayes of getting victuals or of escaping from enemies do faile a creature whose constitution is actiue it lighteth
that of the foxes weighing his goose before he would venture to carry it ouer the riuer were plainely true as it is sett downe I auowe I should be hard sett to find the principles from whence that discretion in him proceeded but I conceiue this tale may be paired with that which telleth vs of an other foxe who hauing his prey taken from him by an eagle brought the next day a new prize into the same place hauing first rolled it in the fire so that some burning coales stucke vpon it which the eagle coming againe and snatching from him carried to her nest which was thereby sett on fire and the yong ones falling downe became the foxes share insteede of what their damme had robbed him of Such stories so quaintly contriued are fitter for a morall then for a naturall Philosopher Aesope may entertaine himselfe and his disciples with them whiles all the reflection I shall make vpon them is that when I heare any such finely ordered tales I can not doubt but they are well amended in the relation by those that tell them it being the inclination and custome of most men partly through a desire of hauing strange thinges come from them and partly out of a care that what they say may appeare like truth and so be the easilier beleeued to adde circumstances beyond the truth of the matter which encreasing at euery new mans relation of the same accident for this humour raigneth very generally at the length so hansome and yet so strange a tale is composed that the first authour or teller of it wondereth at it as well as others and can not discerne that his story begott this latter Therefore when one of these fine tales is proposed to speculate vpon and that I haue no light to guide me in determining what part of them to allow and what to reiect I thinke it better to exspect an authentike record of it then be too hasty at guesses leauing such as pretend ability in reading of riddles to descant of the wayes how such actions may be effected but for others that haue a semblance of truth or do happen ordinarily be they at the first sight neuer so like the operatiōs of reason I doubt not but that the causes of them may be reduced to the principles we haue already established and the wayes of performing them may be pitched vpon by such discourses about them as we haue made about those examples we haue aboue produced Especially if the actions themselues were obserued by one that could iudge of them and were reported with a desire of expressing the truth nakedly as in it selfe it lyeth for diuers times it happeneth that men saying nothing but truth do expresse it in such a manner and with such termes that the ignorant hearer conceiueth the thing quite an other way then indeed it is meerely for the too emphaticall expression especially if the relatour himselfe misseth in conceiuing the true causes of what he reporteth and so expresseth it proportionable to those which he apprehendeth To conclude then this first branch we see how the doubting the resoluing the ayming the inuenting and the like which we experience in beasts may by the vestigies we haue traced out be followed vnto their roote as farre as the diuision of rarity and density without needing to repaire vnto any higher principle sauing the wisedome of the orderer and Architect of nature in so admirably disposing and mingling these materiall grosse and lifelesse bodies that strange effects and incomprehensible vnto them who will not looke into their seuerall ioyntes may follow out of them for the good of the creature in whose behalfe they are so ordered But before we goe to the next poynt we can not forbeare mentioning their vanity as well as ignorance who to purchase the estimation of deeper knowers of nature would haue it beleeued that beasts haue compleate languages as men haue to discourse with one an other in which they vaunted they had the intelligence of It is true that in vs speaking or talking is an operation of reason not because it is in reason but because it is the worke of reason by an other instrument and is no where to be found without reason which those irrationall Philosophers that pretended to vnderstand the language of beastes allowed them as well as the ability of talking to one an other but it was because they had more pride then knowledge Of which ranke one of the chiefe was Apollonius surnamed from Thyana for if he had knowne how to looke into the nature of beasts he would haue perceiued the reason of the diuers voyces which the same beast in diuers occasions formeth This is euident that an animals lunges and chest lying so neere as they doe vnto his hart and all voyce being made by the breathes coming out of his mouth and through his windpipe it must necessarily follow that by the diuers ordering of these instruments his voyce will become diuers and these instruments will be diuersly ordered in him according to the diuers motions of his hart that is by diuers passions in him for so we may obserue in our selues that our breath is much changed by our being in passion and consequently as a beast is agitated by various passions he must needes vtter variety of voyces which cā not choose but make diuers impressiōs in other beasts that haue commerce with him whether they be of the same kind as he is or of a different and so we see that if a dogg setteth vpon a hogg the bitten hogges crye maketh an impressiō in the other hogges to come to their fellowes reskew and in other dogges to runne after the crying hogg in like manner anger in a dogge maketh snarling or barking paine whining desire an other kind of barking and his ioy of seeing a person that the vseth to receiue good by will breake out in an other kind of whining So in a henne her diuers passions worke diuers kindes of clocking as when she seeth a kite she hath one voice when she meeteth with meate an other when she desireth to gather her chickins vnder her winges a third and so vpon diuers occasions a diuers sound according to the diuers ordering of her vocall instruments by the passion which presseth her hart So that who would looke curiously into the motions of the dispositions of a beastes vocal instruments and into the motions of the spirits about his hart which motion we haue shewed is passion would be able to giue account why euery voyce of that beast was such a one and what motion about the hart it were that caused it And as much may be obserued in men who in paines and griefes and other passions do vse to breake out into those voyces which we call interiections and which signifyeth nothing in the vnderstanding of them that forme them but to the hearer are signes of the passion from whence they proceed which if a man do heedefully marke in himselfe he
found conformable vnto its nature The baboone we haue mentioned might be taught some lessons made on purpose with very few stoppes and vpon an instrument whereon all the stringes may be strucken with one blow and but one frette to be vsed at a time and that frette to be stopped with one finger of which much labour and time might beget a habit in him and then imitation of the sound might make him play in due measure And if we will marke it in our selues we shall see that although in the first learning of a lesson vpon the lute we employ our reason and discourse about it yet when we haue it very perfect our fingers guided by a slight fantasy do fall by custome without any reflexion at all to play it as well as if we thought neuer so carefully vpoÌ„ it And there is no comparison betweene the difficulty of a guitarre and of a lute I haue beene told that at the Duke of Florence his marriage there was a dance of horses in which they kept exact time of musike The meanes vsed for bringing them to it is said to haue beene by tying and hampering their legges in such a sort that they could lift them vp but in a determinate way and then setting them vpon a pauement that was heated vnderneath so hott as they could not endure to stand still whiles such musicall ayres were played to them as fitted their motions All which being often repeated the horses tooke a habitt that in hearing those ayres they would lift vp their legges in that fashion and so danced to the tune they had beene taught Of the Elephantes it is said that they may be taught to write and that purely vpon wordes and commanding them they will do what they are bidden and that they are able to keepe account and will leaue working at a precise number of reuolutions of the same action which measureth out their taske vnto them All which as I said before if it were plainely and litterally true would require very great consideration but because the teachers of beastes haue certaine secrets in their art which standers by do not reach vnto we are not able vpon such scanty relations as we haue of them to make sufficient iudgement how such â—hinges are done vnlesse we had the managing of those creatures whereby to try them in seuerall occasions and to obserue what cause produceth euery operation they doe and by what steppes they attayne vnto their instructions and seruiceablenesse It is true the vncontrolled reports of them oblige vs to beleeue some extraordinary matter of their docility and of strange thinges done by them but withall the example of other taught beastes among vs and of the strange iudgements that are made of them by persons who do not penetrate into their causes may instruct vs how easy it is to mistake the matter and assure vs that the relations which are made vs do not alwayes punctually agree with the truth of what passed He that should tell an Indian what feates Bankes his horse would do how he would restore a gloue to the due owner after his master had whispered that mans name in his eare how he would tell the iust number of pence in any piece of siluer coyne barely shewed him by his master and euen obey presently his command in discharging himselfe of his excrements whensoeuer he bad him So great a power art may haue ouer nature would make him I beleeue admire more at this learned beast then we do at their docile Elephantes vpon the relations we haue of them Whereas euery one of vs knoweth by what meanes his painefull tutor brought him to do all his trickes and they are no whitte more extraordinary then a fâ—wkeners manning of a hawke and trayning her to kill partridges and to fly at the retriue but do all of them both these and all other iuggling artificies of beastes depend vpon the same or like principles and are knowne to be but directions of nature ordered by one that composeth and leuelleth her operations to an end further off in those actions then she of her selfe would ayme at The particulars of which we neede not trouble ourselues to meddle with But it is time that we come to the third sort of actions performed by beastes which we promised to discourse of These seeme to be more admirable then any we haue yet touched and are chiefely concerning the breeding of their yong ones Aboue all others the orderly course of birds in this affaire is most remarkable After they haue coupled they make their nest they line it with mosse straw and feathers they lay their egges they sett vpon them they hatch them they feede their yong ones and they teach them to flye all which they do with so continuate and regular a methode as no man can direct or imagine a better But as for the regularity orderlinesse and continuance of these actions the matter is easy enough to be conceiued for seeing that the operation of the male maketh a change in the female and that this change beginning from the very first groweth by time into diuers proportions it is no wonder that it breedeth diuers dispositions in the female which cause her to do different actions correspondent to those diuers dispositions Now those actions must of necessity be constant and orderly because the causes whence they proceed are such But to determine in particular how it cometh to passe that euery change in the female disposeth her to such and such actions there is the difficulty and it is no small one as well for that there are no carefull and due obseruations made of the effects and circumstances which should guide vs to iudge of their causes as because these actions are the most refined ones of sensitiue creatures and do flow from the toppe and perfection of their nature and are the last straine of their vtmost vigour vnto which all others are subordinate As in our enquiry into the motions and operations of the bodies of a lower orbe then these we mett with some namely the loadestone and such like of which it is very hard to giue an exact and plaine account the Author of them reseruing something from our cleare and distinct knowledge and suffering vs to looke vpon it but through a miste in like manner we can not but expect that in the depth of this other perfecter nature there must be somewhat whereof we can haue but a glimmering and imperfect notion But as in the other it serued our turne to trace out a way how those operations might be effected by bodies and by locall motion though peraduenture we did not in euery circumstance hitt exactly vpon the right thereby to defend ourselues from admitting those chymericall qualities which we had already condemned vpon all other occasions So I conceiue it will be sufficient for vs in this to shew how these actions may be done by the senses and by the motion of corporeall spirits
vniuersality or particularity for that vnity which the two termes whose identification is enquired after must haue by being ioyned with the third becometh much varied by such diuers application and from hence shooteth vp that multitude of kindes of syllogismes which our Logitians call moodes All which I haue thus particularly expressed to the end we may obserue how this great variety hangeth vpon the sole string of identity Now these Syllogismes being as it were interlaced and wouen one within an other so that many of them do make a long chaine whereof each of them is a linke do breede or rather are all the variety of mans life they are the stepps by which we walke in all our conuersations and in all our businesses man as he is man doth nothing else but weaue such chaines whatsoeuer he doth swaruing from this worke he doth as deficient from the nature of man and if he do ought beyond this by breaking out into diuers sortes of exteriour actions he findeth neuerthelesse in this linked sequele of simple discourses the art the cause the rule the boundes and the modell of it Lett vs take a summary view of the vast extent of it and in what an immeÌ„se Ocean one may securely sayle by that neuer varying compasse when the needle is rightly touched and fitted to a well moulded boxe making still new discoueries of regions farre out of the sight and beliefe of them who stand vpon the hither shore Humane operations are comprised vnder the two generall heades of knowledge and of action if we looke but in grosse vpon what an infinity of diuisions these branch themselues into we shall become giddy our braines will turne our eyes will grow weary and dimme with ayming only att a suddaine and rouing measure of the most conspicuous among them in the way of knowledge We see what mighty workes men haue extended their labours vnto not only by wild discourses of which huge volumes are coÌ„posed but euen in the rigorous methode of Geometry Arithmetike and Algebra in which an Euclide an Apollonius an Archimedes a Diophantus and their followers haue reached such admirable heights and haue wound vp such vast bottomes sometimes shewing by effects that the thing proposed must needes be as they haue sett downe and can not possibly be any otherwise otherwhiles appaying the vnderstanding which is neuer truly at rest till it hath found the causes of the effects it seeth by exposing how it cometh to be so that the reader calling to mind how such a thing was taught him before and now finding an other vnexpectedly conuinced vpon him easily seeth that these two put together do make and force that third to be whereof he was before in admiration how it could be effected which two wayes of discourse are ordinarily knowne by the names of Demonstrations the one called a Priori the other a Posteriori Now if we looke into the extent of the deductions out of these we shall find no end In the heaueÌ„s we may perceiue Astronomy measuring whatsoeuer we can imagine and ordering those glorious lights which our Creator hath hanged out for vs and shewing them their wayes and pricking out their pathes and prescribing them for as many ages as he pleaseth before hand the various motions they may not swarue from in the least circumstance Nor want there sublime soules that tell vs what mettall they are made of what figures they haue vpon what pillars they are fixed and vpon what gimals they moue and performâ— their various periodes wittnesse that excellent and admirable worke I haue so often mentioned in my former Treatise If we looke vpon the earth we shall meete with those that will tell vs how thicke it is and how much roome it taketh vp they will shew vs how men and beastes are hanged vnto it by the heeles how the water and ayre do couer it what force and power fire hath vpon them all what working is in the depths of it and of what composition the maine body of it is framed where neyther our eyes can reach nor any of our senses can send its messengers to gather and bring back any relations of it Yet are not our Masters contented with all this the whole world of bodies is not enough to satisfy them the knowledge of all corporeall thinges and of this vast machine of heauen and earth with all that they enclose can not quench the vnlimited thirst of a noble minde once sett on fire with the beauty and loue of truth Aestuat infoelix angusto limite mundi Vt Gyarae clausus scopulis paruâque seripho But such heroike spirits cast their subtile nettes into an other world after the winged inhabitans of the heauens and find meanes to bring them also into account and to serue them how imperceptible soeuer they be to the senses as daynties at the soules table They enquire after a maker of the world we see and are ourselues a maine part of and hauing found him they conclude him oâ—t of the force of contradiction to be aeternall infinite omnipotent omniscient immutable and a thousand other admirable qualities they determine of him They search after his tooles and instruments wherewith he built this vast and admirable pallace and seeke to grow acquainted with the officiers and stewardes that vnder him gouerne this orderly and numerous family They find them to be inuisible creatures exalted aboue vs more then we can estimate yet infinitely further short of their and our maker then we are of them If this do occasion them to cast their thoughts vpon man himselfe they find a nature in him it is true much inferiour to these admirable Intelligences yet such an one as they hope may one day arriue vnto the likenesse of them and that euen at the present is of so noble a moulde as nothing is too bigge for it to faddome nor any thing too small for it to discerne Thus we see knowledge hath no limits nothing escapeth the toyles of science all that euer was that is or can euer be is by them circled in their extent is so vast that our very thoughts and ambitioÌ„s are too weake and too poore to hope for or to ayme at what by them may be coÌ„passed And if any man that is not invred to raise his thoughts aboue the pitch of the outward obiects he coÌ„uerseth dayly with should suspect that what I haue now said is rather like the longing dreames of passionate louers whose desires feede them with impossibilities then that it is any reall truth or should imagine that it is but a poetike Idea of science that neuer was or will be in act or if any other that hath his discoursing faculty vitiated and peruerted by hauing beene imbued in the schooles with vnsound and vmbratile principles should persuade himselfe that howsoeuer the pretenders vnto learning and science may talke loude of all thinges and make a noise with scholastike termes and persuade their ignorant hearers that they speake
vpon her yet so that of her selfe she still is what she is And therefore as soone as she is out of the passible oore in which she suffereth by reason of that oore she presently becometh impassible as being purely of her owne nature a fixed substance that is a pure Being Both which states of the soule may in some sort be aduÌ„brated by what we see passeth in the coppelling of a fixed mettall for as long as any lead or drosse or allay remaineth with it it continueth melted flowing and in motion vnder the muffle but as soone as they are parted from it and that it is become pure without any mixture and singly it selfe it contracteth it selfe to a narrower roome and at that very instant ceaseth from all motion groweth hard permanent resistent vnto all operations of fire and suffereth no change or diminution in its substance by any outward violence we can vse vnto it THE ELEVENTH CHAPTER Shewing what effects the diuers manners of liuing in this world do cause in a soule after she is separated from her body ONe thing may peraduenture seeme of hard digestion in our past discourse and it is that out of the groundes we haue layed it seemeth to follow that all soules will haue an equality since we haue concluded that the greatest shall see or know no more then the least and indeed there appeareth no cause why this great and noble creature should lye imprisoned in the obscure dungeon of noysome flesh if in the first instant in which it hath its first knowledge it hath then already gained all whatsoeuer it is capable of gaining in the whole progresse of a long life afterwardes Truly the Platonike Philosophers who are persuaded that a humane soule doth not profitt in this life nor that she acquired any knowledge here as being of her selfe completely perfect and that all our discourses are but her remembringes of what she had forgotten will find themselues ill bestedd to render a Philosophicall and sufficient cause of her being locked into a body for to putt forgettfulnesse in a pure spiritt so palpable an effect of corporeity and so great a corruption in respect of a creature whose nature is to know of it selfe is an vnsufferable errour Besides when they tell vs that she can not be changed because all change would preiudice the spirituall nature which they attribute to her but that well she may be warned and excitated by being in a body they meerely trifle for eyther there is some true mutation made in her by that which they call a warning or there is not if there be not how becometh it a warning to her Or what is it more to her then if a straw were wagged at the Antipodes But if there be some mutation be it neuer so litle made in her by a corporeall motion what should hinder why she may not by meanes of her body attaine vnto science she neuer had as well as by it receiue any the least intrinsecall mutation whatsoeuer For if once we admitt any mutability in her from any corporeall motion it is farre more conformable vnto reason to suppose it in regard of that which is her naturall perfection and of that which by her operations we see she hath immediately after such corporeall motions and whereof before them there appeared in her no markes at all then to suppose it in regard of a darke intimation of which we neyther know it is nor how it is performed Surely no Rationall Philosopher seeing a thing whose nature is to know haue a being whereas formerly it existed not and obseruing how that thing by little and little giueth signes of more and more knowledge can doubt but that as she could be changed from not being to being so may she likewise be changed from lesse knowing to more knowing This then being irrefragably settled that in the body she doth encrease in knowledge lett vs come to our difficulty and examine what this encrease in the body auaileth her seeing that as soone as she parteth from it she shall of her owne nature enioy and be replenished with the knowledge of all thinges why should she laboriously striue to anticipate the getting of a few droppes which but encrease her thirst and anxiety when hauing but a litle patience she shall at one full and euerlasting draught drinke vp the whole sea of it We know that the soule is a thing made proportionably to the making of its body seeing it is the bodies compartener and we haue concluded that whiles it is in the body it acquireth perfection in that way which the nature of it is capable of that is in knowledge as the body acquireth perfection its way which is in streÌ„gth and agility Now then lett vs coÌ„pare the proceedinges of the one with those of the other substance and peraduenture we may gaine some light to discerne what aduantage it may proue vnto a soule to remaine long in its body if it make right vse of its dwelling there Lett vs coÌ„sider the body of a man well and exactly shaped in all his members yet if he neuer vse care nor paines to exercise those well framed limbes of his he will want much of those corporeall perfections which others will haue who employ them sedulously Though his legges armes and handes be of an exact symmetry yet he will not be able to runne to wrestle or to throw a dart with those who labour to perfect themselues in such exercises though his fingers be neuer so neately moulded or composed to all aduantages of quicke and smart motion yet if he neuer learned and practised on the lute he will not be able with them to make any musike vpon that instrument euen after he seeth plainely and comprehendeth fully all that the cunningest Lutenist doth nether will he be able to playe as he doth with his fingers which of themselues are peraduenture lesse apt for those voluble motions then his are That which maketh a man dexterous in any of these artes or in any other operations proper to any of the partes or limbes of his body is the often repetitions of the same actes which do amend and perfect those limbes in their motions and which make them fitt and ready for the actions they are designed vnto In the same manner it fareth with the soule whoâ—e essence is that which she knoweth her seuerall knowledges may be compared to armes handes fingers legges thighes c in a body and all her knowledges taken together do compose as I may say and make her vp what she is Now those limbes of hers though they be when they are at the worst entire and well shaped in bulke to vse the comparison of bodies yt they are susceptible of further perfection as our corporeall limbes ae by often and orderly vsage of them When we iterate our acts of our vnderstanding any obiect the second act is of the same nature as she first the third as the second and so of
that can be imagined in nature For we haue already shewed how a separated soule comprehendeth at once all place and all times so that her actiuity requireth no application to place or time but she is of her selfe mistresse of both comprehending all quantity whatsoeuer in an indiuisible apprehension and ranking all the partes of motion in their complete order and knowing at once what is to happen in euery one of them On the other side an incorporated soule by reason of her being confined to the vse of her senses can looke vpon but one single definite place or time at once and needeth a long chaine of many discourses to comprehend all the circumstances of any one action and yet after all how short she is of comprehending all So that comparing the one of these with the other it is euident that in respect of time and place and in respect of any one singular action the proportion of a separated soule to one in the body is as all time or all place in respect of any one piece or least parcell of them or as the entire absolute comprehender of all time and all place is to the discouerer of a small measure of them For whatsoeuer a soule willeth in that state she willeth it for the whole extent of her duration because she is then out of the state or capacity of changing and wisheth for whatsoeuer she wisheth as for her absolute good and therefore employeth the whole force of her iudgement vpon euery particular wish Likewise the eminency which a separated soule hath ouer place is also then entirely employed vpon euery particular wish of hers since in that state there is no variety of place left vnto her to wish for such good in one place and to refuse it in an other as whiles she is in the body happeneth to euery thing she desireth Wherefore whatsoeuer she then wisheth for she wisheth for it according to her comparison vnto place that is to say that as such a soule hath a power to worke at the same time in all place by the absolute comprehension which she hath of place in abstract so euery wish of that soule if it were concerning a thing to be made in place were able to make it in all places through the excessiue force and efficacy which she employeth vpon euery particular wish The third effect by which among bodies we gather the vigour and energy of the cause that produceth it to witt the doing of the like action in a lesser time and in a larger extent is but a combination of the two former and therefore it requireth no further particular insistance vpon it to shew that likewise in this the proportion of a separated to an incorporated soule must needes be the selfe same as in the others seeing that a separated soules actiuity is vpon all place in an indiuisible of time Therefore to shutt vp this point there remaineth only for vs to consider what addition may be made vnto the efficacity of a iudgement by the concurrence of other extrinsecall helpes We see that when an vnderstanding man will settle any iudgement or conclusion in his mind he weigheth throughly all that followeth out of such a iudgement and considereth likewise all the antecedents that lead him vnto it and if after due reflection and examination of whatsoeuer concerneth that conclusion which he is establishing in his mind he findeth nothing to crosse it but that euery particular and circumstance goeth smoothly along with it and strengtheneth it he is then satisfyed and quiett in his thoughts and yieldeth a full assent therevnto which assent is the stronger by how many the more concurrent testimonyes he hath for it And although he should haue a perfect demonstration or sight of the thing in it selfe yet euery one of the other extrinsecall proofes being as it were a new persuasion hath in it a further vigour to strengthen and content his mind in the forehad demonstration for if euery one of these be in it selfe sufficient to make the thing euident it can not happen that any one of them should hinder the others but contrariwise euery one of them must needes coucurre with all the rest to the effectuall quieting of his vnderstanding in its assent to that iudgement Now then according to this rate lett vs calculate if we can what concurrence of proofes and wittnesses a separated soule will haue to settle and strengthen her in euery one of her iudgemēts We know that all verities are chained and connected one to an other and that there is no true conclusion so farre remote from any other but may by more or lesse consequences and discourses be deduced euidently out of it it followeth then that in the abstracted soule where all such consequences are ready drawne and seene in themselues without extension of time or employing of paines to collect them euery particular verity beareth testimony to any other so that euery one of them is beleeued and worketh in the force and vertue of all Out of which it is manifest that euery iudgement in such a separated soule hath an infinite strength and efficacity ouer any made by an embodyed one To summe all vp in a few wordes we find three rootes of infinity in euery action of a separated soule in respect of one in the body first the freedome of her essence or substance in it selfe next that quality of hers by which she comprehendeth place and time that is all permanent and successiue quantity and lastly the concurrence of infinite knowledges to euery action of hers Hauing then this measure in our handes lett vs apply it to a well ordered and to a disordered soule passing out of this world lett vs consider the one of them sett vpon those goodes which she shall there haue present and shall fully enioy the other languishing after and pining away for those which are impossible for her euer to obtaine What ioy what content what exultation of mind in any liuing man can be conceiued so great as to be compared with the happinesse of one of these soules And what griefe what discontent what misery can be like the others These are the different effects which the diuers manners of liuing in this world do cause in soules after they are deliuered from their bodies out of which and out of the discourse that hath discouered these effects vnto vs we see a cleare resolution of that so maine and agitated question among the Philosophers why a rationall soule is imprisoned in a grosse body of flesh and bloud In truth the question is an illegitimate one as supposing a false ground for the soules being in the body is not an imprisonnement of a thing that was existent before the soule and body mett together but her being there is the naturall course of beginning that which can no other way come into the listes of nature for should a soule by the course of nature obtaine her first being without a body eyther
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