Instance in the Visible species of the Foot of a Handworm ibid. 14 By exemplifying in the numerous round Films of Wax successively derepted from a Wax tapor by the flame thereof in the space of an hour and 142 15 In the innumerable Films of Oyl likewise successively delibrated by the flame of an Ellychnium or Match perpendicularly floating in a vessel of equal capacity with Solomons Brazen Sea in the space of 48 hours ibid. 16 By the Analogy betwixt an Odorable and Visible Species ibid. 17 The Manner and Reason of the Production of visible Images according to the hypothesis of Epicurus 143 18 The Celerity of the Motion of visible Images reasoned and compared to that of the Light of the Sun 144 19 The Translation of a moveable from place to place in an indivisible point of time impossible and why ibid. 20 The Facility of the Abduction or Avolation of Images Visible from solid Concretions solved by the Spontaneous Exsilition of their superficial Atoms and the Sollicitation of Light incident upon them ibid. 21 That Objects do not emit their Visible Images but when Illustrated a Conceit though paradoxical yet not improbable 145 SECT II. ARTIC 1 VIsible Images Systatical described and distinguisht from Apostatical ones 146 2 Their Existence assured by the testimony of Diodorus Siculus and ibid. 3 Damascius together with the Autopsy of Kircher ibid. 4 Kirchers Description of that famous Apparition at Rhegium called Morgana Rheginorum and 147 5 Most ingenious Investigation of the Causes thereof ibid. 6 His admirable Artifice for the exhibition of the like aereal Representation in Imitation of Nature 148 CHAP. III. Concerning the Manner and Reason of VISION p. 149. SECT I. ARTIC 1 THe Reason of Vision according to the opinion of the Stoicks 149 2 Of Aristotle 150 3 Of the Pythagoreans ibid. 4 Of Empedocles ibid. 5 Of Plato ibid. 6 Of Epicurus ibid. 7 Of Mons. Des Chartes 151 8 The ingenuity of Des Chartes Conceit acknowledged but the solidity indubitated 152 9 The Opinion of Epicurus more satisfactory then any other because more Rational and less obnoxious to inexplicable Difficulties ibid. 10 The Two most considerable Difficulties opposed to Epicurus position of the Incursion of Substantial Images into the Eye 153 SECT II. ARTIC 1 THat the superfice of no body is perfectly smooth evicted by solid Reason and Autopsie ibid. 2 That the visible Image doth consist of so many Rays as there are points designable in the whole superfice of the object and that each Ray hath its line of Tendency direct respective to the face of that particle in the superfice from which it is emitted 154 3 That the Density and Union of the Rays composing the visible Image is greater or less according to their less or greater Elongation from the Object ibid. 4 That the Visible Image is neither total in the total medium nor total in every part thereof but so manifold as are the parts of the medium from which the object is discernable Contrary to the Aristoteleans 155 5 PARADOX That no man can see the same particle of an object with both Eys at once nay not with the same Eye if the level of its Visive Axe be changed ibid. 6 CONSECTARY That the Medium is not possessed with one simple Image but by an Aggregate of innumerable Images deradiate from the same object all which notwithstanding constitute but one entire Image 156 7 CONSECTARY 2. That Myriads of different Images emanant from different objects may be Coexistent in the Aer without reciprocal penetration of Dimensions or Confusion of particles contrary to the Peripateticks ibid 8 That the place of the visible Images ultimate Reception and complete Perception is the Concave of the Retina Tunica 157 9 That the Faculty forms a judgement of the Conditions of the Object according to the representation thereof by the Image at its impression on the principal part of Vision the Amphiblestroides ibid. 10 CONSECTARY That the Image is the Cause of the Objects apparence of this or that determinate Magnitude 158 11 CONSECTARY 2 That no Image can replenish the Concave of the Retina Tunica unless it be deradiated from an object of an almost Hemispherical ambite 159 12 Why when the Eye is open there is alwayes pourtrayed in the bottom thereof some one Total Image whose various Parts are the Special Images of the several things included in the visual Hemisphere ibid. 13 PARADOX That the prospect of a shilling or object of a small diametre is as great as the Prospect of the Firmament 160 14 Why an object appears both greater in Dimensions and more Distinct in parts neer at hand than far off ibid. 15 Why an object speculated through a Convex Lens appears both greater and more distinct but through a Concave less and more Confused than when speculated only with the Eye 161 16 DIGRESSION What Figur'd Perspicils are convenient for Old and what for Purblind persons 162 17 That to the Dijudication of one of two objects apparently Equal to be really the Greater is not required a greater Image but only an Opinion of its greater Distance 163 18 Des Cartes Opinion concerning the Reason of the Sights apprehending the Distance of an object 164 19 Vnsatisfactory and that for two considerations ibid. 20 And that more solidone of Gassendus viz. that the Cause of our apprehending the Distance of an object consisteth in the Comparation of the several things interjacent betwixt the object and the Eye by the Rational Faculty embraced and corroborated ibid. 21 PARADOX That the same Object speculated by the same man at the same distance and in the same degree of light doth alwayes appear greater to one Eye than the other 165 22 A second PARADOX That all men see distinctly but with one Eye at once contrary to that eminent Optical Axiom that the Visive Axes of both eyâ— concur and unite in the object 166 23 The three degrees of Vision viz. most perfect perfect and imperfect and the verity of the Paradox restrained onely to the two former Degrees 167 SECT III. ARTIC 1 A Research into the Reason of the different Effects of Convex and Concave Glasses as well Dioptrical as Catoptrical ibid. 2 A COROLLARIE Hinting the Causes why an Elliptical Concave reflects the incident rays in a more Acute angle than a Parabolical and a Parabolical than a Spherical 170 3 A CONSECTARY Why a Plane Perspicil exhibits an object in genuine Dimensions but a Convex in Amplified and a Concave in minorated 171 SECT IV. ARTIC 1 A Recapitulation of the principal Arguments precedent and summary of the subsequent 173 2 The Eye Anatomized and the proper use of each Part thereof either absolutely Necessary or onely Advantagious to Vision concisely demonstrated viz. 1 The Diaphanity of the Horny Membrane and the three Humors Aqueous Chrystalline and Vitreous 2 The Convexity of all its parts except the Amphiblestroides 3 The Uvea Tunica and Iris. 4 The Pupilla 5 The Blackness
〈◊〉 Experiments some whereof are recited by the Lord St. Alban in â—â—lva sylvarum Cent. 1. But this one will serve the turne When an Oyster or Tortois shell is let fall from a sufficient altitude upon a stone 〈◊〉 is usually shattered into many peices and that for no other Reason but this that the lower side whether Convex or Concave being vehemently impinged against the stone the particles thereof immediately knockt by the stone as vehemently give back and in their quick Retrocession impell the particles situate immediately above them whereupon those impelled particles with the same violence impell others next in order above them until the percussion being propagated from part to part successively quite home to the upper superfice it comes to pass that each percussed part giving back the whole shell is shattered into small Fragments All which may seem but a genuine Paraphrase upon the Text of Mersennus Harmonicor lib 2. propos 43. Duritiei verò proprietas appellatur Rigiditas quae fit ab Atomis ita sibi invicem cohaerentibus ut Deflexionem impediant quod contingit in Corporibus quae constant Atomis Cubicis octuedris tetruedis ex quibus resultat perfecta superficiecularum inter se cohaesio hinc â—it ut Rigida Corpora Fructilia sint non autem Sectilia ictu impacto tota in frusta dissiliant Qui adum praedictae superficiunculae se invicem premunt quae sunt ex una parte dimoventur ab iis quae ex alia adeo ut unico impetu externo Corpori impresso Contusio sentiatur per totum partium eodem momento fit separatio There yet remains a Quality which is the Ofspring neither of Softness alone nor Hardness alone but ought to be referred partly to the one partly to the other and that is RUPTILITY For not only such Bodies as challenge the Attribute of Softness are subject to Ruption when they are distressed beyond the tenour of their Contexture either by too much Inflexion as a Bow over bent or too much Distention as Leather or Parchment over strained or too much Malleation as a plate of Lead Iron or other Metal over hammerd but such also as claim the title of Hardness and that in an eminent proportion as Marble for a Pillar of Marble if long and slender and laid transversly or horizontally so as to rest only upon its two extrems is easily broken asunder by its own Weight For as Soft bodies when rackt or deduced beyond the râ—te of mutual Cohaerence among their parts must yeeld to the External Force which distresâ—eth them and so suffer total discontinuity so Hard ones when the Internal Force or their owne Weight is too great to be resisted by their Compactness as in the example of a long Marble Pillar not supported in the middle then must they likewise yeeld to that superior force and break asunder And here the Archer and Musician put in for a Solution of that PROBLEM which so frequently troubles them viz. Cur Chordae faciliâ—â—s circa Exâ—rema quam circa Medium frangantur cum vi vel pondere sive horizontaliter sive verticaliter trahuntur Why Bowstrings Lutestrings and other Chords though of uniforme Contexture throughout and equally distended in all parts do yet usually break asunder not in the middle or neer it but at one End where they are fastned The Cause certainly must be this that the Weight or drawing force doth alwayes first act upon the parts of the string which are neerest to it and successively upon those which are farthest off i. e. in the Middle so that the string suffering the greatest stress neer the Extrems is more subject to break there than in any other part Wherefore whenever a Bowstring breaks in or neer the middle it may safely be concluded that the string was weakest in that place To which we may add this also that Experienced Archers to praevent the frequent breaking of their strings and the danger of breaking the Bow thereby injoyn their String-makers to add a Link of Flax or Twist more at the Ends of each string than in any other parts of it and that they call the Forcing because Experience hath taught them that the Force of the Bow is most violently discharged upon those parts of the string which are neerest to the Horns CHAP. XV. OCCULT QUALITIES made MANIFEST SECT I. HAving thus long entertained it self with the most probable Reasons of the several wayes and means whereby Compound Bodies exhibite their several Attributes and Proprieties to the judicature of the Sensitive Faculties in Animals and principally in Man the Rule Perfection and grand Exemplar of all the rest t is high time for our Curiosity to turn a new leaf and sedulously address it self to the speculation of Another Order or Classis of Qualities such as are vulgarly distinguished from all those which have hitherto been the subject of our Disquisitions by the unhappy and discouraging Epithite OCCULT Wherein we use the scarce perfect Dialect of the Schools who too boldly praesuming that all those Qualities of Concretions which belong to the jurisdiction of the senses are dependent upon Known Causes and deprehended by Known Faculties have therefore termed them Manifest and as incircumspectly concluding that all those Proprieties of Bodies which fall not under the Cognizance of either of the Senses are derived from obscure and undiscoverable Causes and perceived by Unknown Faculties have accordingly determined them to be Immanifest or Occult. Not that we dare be guilty of such unpardonable Vanity and Arrogance as not most willingly to confess that to Ourselves all the Operations of Nature are meer Secrets that in all her ample catalogue of Qualities we have not met with so much as one which is not really Immanifest and Abstruse when we convert our thoughts either upon its Genuine and Proxime Causes or upon the Reason and Manner of its perception by that Sense whose proper Object it is and consequently that as the Sensibility of a thing doth noe way praesuppose its Intelligibility but that many things which are most obvious and open to the Sense as to their Effects may yet be remote and in the dark to the Understanding as to their Causes so on the Contrary doth not the Insensibility of a thing necessitate nay nor aggravate the Unintelligibility thereof but that many things which are above the sphere of the Senses may yet be as much within the reach of our Reason as the most sensible whatever Which being praecogitated as when we look back upon our praecedent Discourses touching the Originals and Perception of Sensible Qualities we have just ground to fear that they have not attained the happy shoar of verity but remain upon the wide and fluctuating ocean of meer Verisimility So also when we look forward upon our immediately subsequent Disquisitions into the Causes of many Insensible Qualities are we not destitute of good reason to hope that though we herein attempt the consignation of
collected from our former Discourses of the Gratefulness and Offensiveness of Sensible Objects yet shall we here fâ—rther illustrate the same by certain Analogies and Similitudes When a Nettle is objected to a mans Hand why doth He withdraw it from the same Not upon the account of any Antipathy in his hand to the Nettle because being bruised or withered no Childe but will boldly handle it but because the Nettle is pallizado'd with millions of small stings or prickles which like so many Darts wounding the the skin cause a pain therein and so the man for avoidance of harm catcheth his hand from it as an injurious object Why likewise doth the Nose abominate and avoid stinking Odours whenever they are brought neer it Is it not because such Foelid and Offensive Odours consist for the most part of such sharp and pungent Particles as holding no Correspondence to the pores and contexture of the Odoratory Nerves are no sooner admitted but they in a manner scratch wound and dilacerate the Sensory And may we not conceive those disproportionate Particles of the ungrateful Odour to be as so many small Lances or Darts which offer the same injury to the Mammillary Processes of the brain that the Prickles of a Nettle offer to the skin Certainly as the Nettle strikes its Darts into the skin and not into the Nayles of a mans hand because those are of too close and firm a Contexture to admit them so doth an offensive Odour immit its painted and angular Particles into the tender smelling Nerves and not into the skin because its Contexture is more Compact than to be capable of Puncture or Dilaceration thereby Lastly Why doth the Eye abhor and turne from Ugly and Odious Objects Is it not only because the Visible Species emitted from such Bodies doth consist of Particles of such Configurations and Contexture as carry no proportion to the particles and contexture of the Optique Nerves but striking upon the Retina Tunica instantly wound and exasperate the slender and tender filaments thereof and so cause the Eye for fear of farther injury to close or avert it self And are not those Acute and Disproportionate Particles composing the visible Species worthily resemblable to so many small Prickles or Lancets which though too subtile to wound the Skin Nostrils or other parts of the body whose Composure is less delicate do yet instantly mis-affect and pain the Optique Nerves whose singular Contexture doth appropriate to them the Capacity of being sensible of that compunction Now putting all these Considerations into the scale together and ponderating them with an equal hand we shall find their weight amount to no less than this that as every Sympathy is displayd by certain Corporeal though Invisible Organs comparated to Attraction and Amplectence so is every Antipathy by the like invisible Organs comparated to Repulsion and Sejunction which is what we Assumed Hence may we without much difficulty extract more than a Conjectural judgement What are the First and General Causes of all Love and Hatred For look what kind of Motions whether Grateful or Ungrateful are by the Species impressed upon the Nerves peculiarly inservient to that sense by which the Object is apprehended the very same are continued quite home to the Brain and therein accordingly move and affect the Common Sensory so as that according to the Pleasure or Offence of the Perception there is instantly excited an Affection either of Prosecution of the thing by whose species that pleasant motion was Caused and that is the Hint and Ground of Loving and Desiring it or of Aversation from it and that is the Ground of Hating and Declining it Nay the same may be well admitted also for the Cause Why things A like in their Natures love and delight in the Society each of other and on the contrary Why Unlike Natures abhor and avoid each other For as those which are Consimilar in their Temperaments affect each other with Congenerous and Grateful Emanations So doe those of Dissimilar mis-affect each other with Discordant and Ungrateful And therefore it is no longer a wonder that men Love or Dislike each other commonly at first interview though they scarce know why nor can we longer withold our Assent to that unmarkable Opinion of Plato that Similitude of Temperaments and so of Inclinations is not only the Cement but Basis also of Amity and Friendship SECT II. FRom this General Disquisition into the Reasons of All Sympathy and Antâ—patâ—y to 〈◊〉 most of those Proprieties which by Phâ—losophers are 〈◊〉 as stupendious and Absconâ—ite are uâ—uâ—lly referred we must â—â—vance to the Consideration of Partâ—cular instâ—nâ—es that by the Solution of Singulaâ—s we may afford the greâ—ter 〈◊〉 to mens Curiâ—sity and â—â—ve so many Oppoâ—tunities of examining tâ—e Verisimility of our former Thesis that all such Effects the knowledge of wâ—ose causes is generally 〈◊〉 of are produced by Subâ—â—aâ—tial and Explicable Means Anâ— in order herâ—unto we shall according to the method of the no less 〈◊〉 than Judicious â—racastorius de Sympath Antipath Rerum Distinâ—uâ—sh All Occult â—ualities into General and Special subdividing the Generall into 1 the Conspiration of the Parts â—f the Universe and 2 the Iâ—flux of Caelestial upon Sublunary Bodies and the Speciall into such as Concern 1 Inanimates 2 Insensibles 3 Sensibles To the FIRST GENERAL ORDER viz. the Conspiration and Harmony of all Parts of the Universe Philosophers unanimously adscribe the Avoidance of Vacuity whereupon many are the Secrets that are presumed to ensue as the Ascention of Heavy Descent of Light Bodies the Sejunction of Congenerous and Sociable Natures the Conjunction and Union oâ—â—iscordant and Unsociable and the like Irregular and Praeposterous Effects But as for all these Secrets we have long since declared them to be no Secrets but the most ordinary and manifest operations of Nature â—or in our Exâ—mination and Solution of all the Apparences in the late 〈◊〉 Experiment of introducing a Vacuum in a Tube by Water or Quick-silver invented by Torriâ—â—ius we have at large proved that Nature â—â—th not abhor any but Sensible or Coacervate Emptiness nor that neither 〈◊〉 or upon the necessity of an absolute Plenitude of all places â—n the â—niverse but by Accident only and that either in respect of the natural Confluxibility of the parts of Fluid Bodies such as Aer and Water which causeth them with great velocity to flow into the parts of Space â—eâ—erted by a body passing thorow them or of the Repugnancie of admitting twâ— bodies into one and the same place at the same time their Solidity prohibiting the penetration of ones dimensions by the other Wherefore 〈◊〉 no man henceforth account the Conspiration of the Parts of the Universe to be an Occult Quality or so much stand amazed at all or any of thâ—â—e Phaenomena which arise from Natures Aversion from Vacuity 〈◊〉 as if they had some Extraordinary Lawes and Constitutions particularly oâ—dained for their production and belonged
them their prâ—y 2 It is worthy a serious Remark that sundry Animalls bear a kind of 〈…〉 to the Persons of such men as are delighted or conversant in the Destruction of those of the same species with them as we daily see that 〈◊〉 are highly offended and angry at Butchers that Dogs bark 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 Glovers that deal most in Dog skins and 〈…〉 killing of Dogs in time of the plague to praevâ—nt 〈◊〉 diffusion 〈…〉 and encrease of Putrefaction by their 〈◊〉 that Vermin 〈◊〉 the trapps and gins of Warrenners whereâ—◠〈…〉 their owne kind hath been taken and destroyed c. As 〈…〉 or strong Aversions t is manifest that they arise 〈…〉 or Character of Providence 〈…〉 Natures or Essential Forms but only 〈…〉 upon the sense For the 〈…〉 any Animal of the same species excite a kind of Horror in the like Animal that smells them and so cause it to abhor and avoid all such persons and places for fear of the like harm and internecion as their fellowes have suffered from them Now that which makes these odours insinuate themselves with such â—ase and familiarity into the Sensories of animals of the same species is the similitude and Uniformity of their Specifical Constitutions which yet the rough hand of Corruption seems not totally to have obliterated in the long since extravenated blood and spirits but to have left some Vestigia or Râ—mains of the Canine nature in the Doggs blood of the Porcine in the Swâ—â—â—s c. And that which makes them so horridly Odious is the great Aâ—â—â—â—â—ion of the blood from its genuine temper and conditius For the smell of the Carcass or blood of any Animal having once suffered the Depâ—avation of Corruption is always most hateful and dangerous to others of the same Species and it hath been observed that the most pernicious inâ—ections and Plagues have been such as took their Original from the Corruption of Humane Bodies which indeed is the best reason that hath â—een yet given why the Plague so often attends long and bloody Sieges and is commonly the second to the Sword We conceive the same to 〈…〉 the ground of that Axiom of the Lord St. Alban Nat. Hist. cent 10 â— â—enerally that which is Dead or Corrupted or Excerned hath Antipaâ—â—â—â—â—th the same thing when it is Alive and when it is sound and with those 〈◊〉 which do excern as a Carcass of Man is most infectious and odious â—â—man a Carrion of an Horse to an Horse c. Purulent matter of 〈◊〉 and Ulcers Carbuncles Pocks Scabbs Leprousy to Sound flesh And the Excrements of every species to that Creature that excerneth them But the Excâ—ements are less Pernicious than the Corruptions 3 The 〈◊〉 and according to some reports the opening of the Eyesâ— of the Carcass of a murthered man at the praesence and touch of the Homicide 〈…〉 in truth the noblest of Antipathies and scarce any Writer of the Secrets or Miracles of Nature hath omitted the Consideration thereof This Life in Death Revenge of the Grave or loud language of silent Corruption many Venerable and Christian Philosophers have accounteâ—â— holly Miraculous or Supernatural as ordained and effected by the just 〈◊〉 of God for the detection and punishment of the inhumane 〈◊〉 And least we should seem too forward to expunge from 〈◊〉 mind of any man the beleif of that opinion which to some may 〈…〉 more powerful Argument than the express Command of God to 〈◊〉 them from committing so horrid and execrable a Crime as Muâ—â—er we shall so far concurr with them as to conceive this Effect 〈…〉 Divine only in the Iâ—stitution but meerly Natural in the Production or Immediate Causes Because the Apparence seems not to 〈◊〉 the Capacity of Natural Means and the whole Syndrome and 〈◊〉 of it Causes may be thus explained It is an Opinion highly Câ—â—â—entaneous that in every vehement Passion there is formeâ—â— certain 〈…〉 well of the Object whereupon the Imagination is 〈…〉 the Good or Evil connected unto and expected from that Objecâ— and that this Idea is as it were impressed by a kind of inexplicable 〈◊〉 upon the Spirits at the same instant the Mind 〈◊〉 to Will the praesent Prosecution or Avoidance or the object 〈…〉 by the mediation of the Spirits those Angels of the Mind the same Idea is transmitted to the Blood and through the Arteries diffused into all parts of the body as well as into the Nerves and Muscles which are inservient to such Voluntary Motions as are requisite to the execution of the Decrees and Mandats of the Will concerning the Prosecution or Avoidance of the Object This being so we may conceive that the Phansy of the Person assaulted by an Assassine having formed an Idea of Hatred Opposition and Revenge and the same being Characterized upon the Spirirs and by them diffused through the blood though the blood become much less Fluid in the veins after death by reason the vital influence and Pulsifick Faculty of the Heart which Animated and Circulated it is extinct yet because at the praesence of the Murderer there issue from the pores of his body such subtile Emanations as are Consimilar to those which were emitted from him at the time He strove with overcame and killed the Patient and those Emanations entering the Dead Body doe cause a fresh Commotion in the blood remaining yet somewhat Fluid in its veins and as it were renew the former Colluctation or Duell betwixt the yet wholly uncondensed Spirits of the slain and those of the Homicide therefore is it that the Blood suffering an Estuation flows up and down in the veins to seek some vent or salley-port and finding none so open as in that part wherein the wound was made it issues forth from thence And where the Murthered Person is destroyed by strangulation suffocation or the like unbloody Death so that there is no manifest Solution of Continuity in the skin or other Exterior parts of the body in that case it hath been observed that the Carcass bleeds at the Mouth or Nose or both and this only because in all vehement strivings and especially in Colluctation for life the Spirits and Blood flow most plentifully into the Arteries and Veins of the Herd as is visible by the great Redness of the Eyes and face of every man that Fights and where the blood fixeth in most plenty there will be the greatest tumult aestuation and commotion when it is fermented agitated and again set afloat by the Discordant Effluvia's emitted from the body of the neer approâ—ching or touching Murtherer and consequently there must the vessels suffer the greatest stress distension and disruption or apertion of their orifices 4 And this magnale of the as it were Reanimation of the vindictive blood in the veins of a Dead body by the Magick of those Hostile and Fermenting Aporrhaea's transmitted from the body of Him who violently extinguished its former life ushers in Another no less prodigious nor less
praestigious and Diabolical For it being certain that all Serpents are most highly offended at the smell and influx of those invisible Emanations proceeding from the Cornus by reason of some great Disproportion or Incompossibility betwixt those subtile Effluviaâ—s and the temperament of the Vital and Spiritual Substance of Serpents insomuch that in a moment they become strongly intoxicated thereby Why should it seem impossible that He who understands this invincible Enmity and how to manage a wand or rod of the Cornus with cunning and dexterity having first intoxicated a Serpent by the touch thereof should during that fit make him observe and readily conforme to all the various motions of that wand So as that the unlearned Spectators perceiving the Serpent to approach the Enchanter as he moves the wand neerer to himself to retreat from him as he puts the wand from him to turne round as the wand is moved round to dance as that is waved to and fro and lye still as in a trance when that is held still over him and all this while knowing nothing that the simple virtue of the wand is the Cause of all those mimical motions and gestures of the Serpent they are easily deluded into a belief that the whole seene is supernatural and the main Energy radicated in those words or Charms which the Impostor with great Ceremony and gravity of aspect mutters forth the better to disguise his Legerdemane and dissemble Nâ—ture in the Colours of a Miracle And as in this so in all other Magical Practices those Bombast Words nonesense Spells exotique Characters and Fanatick Ceremonies used by all Praestigiators and Enchanters have no Virtue or Efficacy at all that little only excepted which may consist meerly in the sounds and tones in which they are pronounced in respect whereof the eare may be pleased or displeased as to the Causation of the Effect intended nor doe they import any thing more than the Circumvention of the Spectâ—â—tors judgement and exaltation of his Imagination upon whom they prâ—etend to work the miracle Which considered it will be an argument not only of Christianism but of sound judgement in any man to conclude that excepting only some few particulars in which God hath been pleased to permit the Devil to exercise his Praestigiatory power and yet whoso shall consider the infinite Goodness of God will not easily be induced to beleive that He hath permitted any such at all all those Volumes of Stories of Fascinations Incantations Transformations Sympathies of men and beasts with Magical Telesms Gamahues or Waxen Images and the like mysterious Nothings are meer Fables execrable Romances So Epidemical we confess hath the Contagion of such Impostures been that among the People when any Person waxeth macilent and pines away we hear of nothing but Evil Neighbours Witchcraft Charms Statues of Wax and the like venefical fopperies and instantly some poor decrepite old woman is suspected and perhaps accâ—â—â—d of malice and Diabolical stratagems against the life of that person who all the while lieth languishing of some Common Disease and the leâ—â—â—ed Physician no sooner examines the case but he finds the sick mans Consumption to proceed from some inveterate malady of the bodie as Ulcer of the Lungs Hectique Fever Debility of the Stomack Liver or other common Concocting part or from long and deep Grief of mind In like manner when the Husband man observes his field to become barren 〈◊〉 chattel â—o cast then yong or die his corn to be blasted his fruits 〈…〉 immaturely or the like sinister Accidents nothing is more usual 〈◊〉 than to charge those misfortunes upon the Magical Impraecations of some offended Neighbour whom the multitude supposeth to be a 〈◊〉 man or Conjurer And yet were the Philosopher consulteâ—â—bouâ— those Disasters he would soon discover them to be the ordinary 〈◊〉 genuine Effects of Natural Causes and refer each Contingent 〈◊〉 proper original True it is likewise that many of those Sorcerers who◠〈◊〉 vulgar call White Witches in respect of the good they 〈…〉 frequently pâ—â—â—scribe certain Amulets or Perâ—apts for the praecentio◠〈…〉 of some diâ—â—ases and in this case if the Amulet or Perâ—apt 〈…〉 such Natural Ingredients as are endowed with Qualitieâ— repugâ—â—â—â— to the Disâ—â—se or its germane Causes we are not to deny 〈…〉 But as for those superstitious Invocations of Angels an◠〈◊〉 Salamons Characters Tetragrammatons Spells Circles an◠〈…〉 and ridiculous Magical Rites and Ceremonies used by the 〈◊〉 at the time of the Composition or Application of those Amulets or 〈◊〉 they are of no power or virtue at all and signifie nothing but 〈◊〉 Delusion of the Ignorant Again we grant that the Imagination 〈◊〉 Confidence of the sick Person being by such means exalteâ— may 〈◊〉 very much to his Recovery for it is no secret that the 〈…〉 men are for the most part erected and their drooping spirit◠〈…〉 by the good opinion they have entertained of the 〈…〉 Confidence they place in his praescripts but yet are 〈…〉 allow any Direct and Natural Efficacy to that 〈…〉 and Ceremonious administration of Remedies which are 〈◊〉 observed by such Impostors as praetend to Extraordinary skill an◠〈◊〉 supernatural way in the Cure of Diseases and seem to affect and 〈…〉 the detestable repute of Magicians And what we say of the 〈…〉 Amulets and the like we desire should 〈…〉 or Love-procuring Potions oâ— the Ligature 〈…〉 Wedding night to cause Impotency in new 〈…〉 then Brides a thing very frequent in Zant and Gascoâ—◠〈…〉 because each of these hath other Causes than those 〈…〉 Nugaments praescribed by those Cheaters and 〈…〉 they can have upon the persons to whom they 〈…〉 in the praepossession of their Phancy and 〈…〉 to Hope or Fear 9 〈…〉 a certain sort of Fascination Natural about which 〈…〉 and most Nurses when they observe 〈…〉 fall into Cachexâ—es languishing condition◠〈…〉 instantly crie out that some envious 〈…〉 them Concerning this secret therefore in 〈…〉 part hath no interest at all we say that if there be any thing of truth as to matter of Fact the Fascinating activity of the old malicious Crone must consist only in this that she doth evibrate or dart forth from her brain certain malignant Spirits or rayes which entering the tender body of the Infant do infect the purer spirits and so the blood in its Arteries and assimilating the same to their depraved and maligne nature corrupt all the Aliment of the body and alienate the parts from their genuine and requisite temperament Not that those Malignant Emissions can arrive at and infect an Infant that is absent as is vulgarly conceived but that the malicious old woman must be praesent and look with an oblique or wist look and breath upon the Child whose health she envies nay conjure up her Imagination to that height of malice as to imbue her spirits with the evil Miasme or Inquinament of those vitious and corrupt Humors wherewith her half-rotten Carcass is well stored and
positions of its particles evidenced in the Example of a putrid Apple Art 11. The assenting suffrage of Epicurus Art 1. The Visible Images of objects substantial and either corporeal Emanations from the superficial parts of Concretions or Light it self disposed into contextures consimilar to the figure of the object Art 2. The position of their being 〈◊〉 derived from 〈◊〉 and pâ—â—ferred to the 〈…〉 Species Visible Art 3. Epicurus Text concerning the same Art 4. The faithful Exposition thereof Art 5. The Contents thereof reduced to 4 Heads Art 6. The Eâ—istenâ—e of Images visâ—ble certified by autoptical Demonstration Art 7. Epicurus opinion of the substâ—ntialâ—â—◠〈◊〉 Images Visiâ—le 〈…〉 Art 8. The 〈…〉 and Art 9. 〈…〉 Art 10. The grand 〈◊〉 of Alexander that a continual Efflux of substance must minorate the 〈◊〉 of the most solid 〈◊〉 Art 11. 〈…〉 Art 12. The 〈◊〉 oâ— Images 〈◊〉 reduced to some 〈…〉 Art 13. 〈…〉 Art 14. By Exempâ—â—fying in the numerous round Films of Wax successively derepâ—ed from a Wax 〈◊〉 by the flame thereof in the space of an hour and Art 15. In the innumerable Films of Oyl likewise successively delibrated by the flame of an Ellychnium or Match perpendicularly floating in a vessel of equal capacity with Solomons Braâ—en Sea in â—he space of 48 hours Art 16. By the Analogy betwixt an â—dorable Visible Species Art 7. The Manner and Reason of the Production of visible Images according to the hypothesis of Epicurus Art 18. The Celerity of the Motiâ—n of visible Images reasoned and compared to that of the Light of the Sun Art 19. The Translation of a moveable from place to place in an indivisible pâ—int of time impossible and why Art 20. The Facility of the Abduâ—tion or Aâ—olation of Images Visible from solid Concretions solved by the Spontaneous Eâ—silition of their superficial Atoms and the Sollicitation of Light incident upon them Art 21. That Objects do not emit tâ—â—ir Visible Images but when Illustrated a Conceit though paradoxicâ—l yet not improbable Art 1. Visible Images Systatical described and distinguisht from Apostatical ones Art 2. Their Existence assured by the testimony of Diodorus Siculus and Art 3. Damascius together with the Autopsy of Kircher Art 4. Kirchers Description of that famous Apparition at Rhegium called Morgana Rheginorum Art 5. Most ingenious Investigation of the Causes thereof Art 6. His admirable Artifice for the exhibition of the like aâ—real Representation in Imitation of Nature Art 1. The Reason of Vision according to the opinion of the Stoicks Art 2. Of Aristotle Art 3. O the Phythagoreans Art 4. Of Empedocles Art 5. Of Plato Art 6. O Epicurus Art 7. Of Mons. Des Cartes Art 8. The iâ—genuity of 〈◊〉 Conceit acknowledged but the solidity â—â—dubitated Art 9. The Opinion of Epicurus more satisfactory then any other because more Rational and less obnoxious to inexplicable Difficulties Art 10. The Two most considerable Difficulties opposed to Epicurus position of the Incursion of Substantial Images into the Eye Art 1. That the superfice of nobody is perfectly smooth evicted by solid Reasâ—n and Autâ—psie Art 2. That the visible Image doth consist of so many Rayes as there are Points designable in the whole superfice of the object and that each Ray hath its line of Tendency direct respective to the face of that particle in the superfice from which it is emitted Art 3. That the Density and Vnion of the Rayes composing the visible Image is greater or less according to their less or greater Elongation from the Object Art 4. That the Visible Image is neither total in the total medium nor total in every part thereof but so manifold as are the parts of the medium from which the objâ—ct is discernable Contrary to the Aristoteleans Art 5. PARADOX That no man can see the same particle of an object with both Eyes at once nay not with the same Eye if the level of its Visive Axe be changed Art 6. CONSECTARY That the Medium is not possessed with one simple Image but by an Aggregate of innumerable Images deradiate from the same object all which notwithstanding constitute but one entire Image Art 7. CONSECTARY 2. That Myriads of different Images emanant from different objects may be Coexistent in the Aer without reciprocal penetration of Dimensions or Confusiâ—n of particles contrary to the Peâ—ipateticks Art 8. That the place of the visible Images ultimate Reception and complete Perception is the Concave of the Retina Tunica Art 9. That the Faculty forms a judgmâ—nt of the Conditions of the Object according to the representation thereof by the Image at its impression on the principal part of Vision the Amphiblestrâ—ides Art 10. CONSECTARY That the Image is the Cause of Objects apparence of this or that determinate Magnitude Art 11. CONSECTARY 2. That no Image can repâ—enish the Câ—ncave of the Retina Tunica unless it be deradiated from an object of an almost Hemispherical ambite Art 12. Why when the Eye is open there is aâ—wayes pourtrayed in the bottom thereof some one Tâ—tal Image whose varioâ—â— Parts are the Specialâ—mages â—mages of the several things included in the visual Hemisphere Art 13. PARADOX That the prospect of a shilling or object of a small diametre is as great as the Prospect of the Firmament Art 14. Why an object appears both greater in Dimensions and more Distinct in parts near at hand than far off Art 15. Why an oâ—ject speculated through a Conveâ— Leâ—s appears both greater and more distinct but through a Concave â—eâ—s and more Confused than when speculated only with the Eye Art 16. DIGRESSION What Figur'd Perspicils are convenient for Old and what for Purblind persons Art 17. That to the Diâ—udication of one of two obâ—ects apparently Equal to be really the Greater is not required a greater Image but only an Opinion of its greater Distance Art 18. Des Cartes Opinion concerning the Reason of the Sights apprehending the Distance of an object Art 19. Unsatisfactory and that for two Considerations Art 20. And that more solid one of Gassendus viz. that the Cause of our apprehending the Distance â—f an object consisteth in the Câ—mparation â—f the 〈◊〉 things 〈◊〉 â—â—wixt the oâ—ject and the 〈◊〉 by the Ratiâ—nal Facuâ—â—â— embraced and corroboâ—â—ted Art 21. PARADOX That the same Object speculated by the same man at the same distance and in the same degree of light doth alwayes appear greater to one Eye than the other Art 22. A â—econd PARADOX That all men see distinctly but with â—ne Eye at once contrary to that eminent Optical Axiom that the Vâ—sive Axes of both eyes concurr and unite in thâ— oâ—jâ—ct Art 23. The three Degrees of Vision viz. most perfect perfect and imperfect and the verity of the Paradox restrained only to the two former Degrees Art 1. A research into the Reason of the different Effects of Convex and Concave Glasses as well Dioptrical as Catoptrical Art 2. A COROLLARIE Hinting the Causes why an Elliptical Concave
I have no more reason to doubt that so transcendent a Charity as is diffused through and surrounds your perfect Soul can be large enough to dispense with the Rudeness of the Ceremonies and Poverty of the Offering where you are satisfied of the sincere Respects and unalterable Fidelity of his Heart who tenders it than I have to fear that the World should not most readily confirm my judgement that your Deserts have rightfully entitled you to all the Demonstrations of Honour and Reveâ—ence that can possibly be given to you The Chief part therefore yea the whole of my present Duty is only humbly to Beg your benigne Acceptance of this Dedication as the Best Expression I was able to make of those profound sentiments which as well your Goodness in General to others as your Particular Favours to my self have impressed upon my Soul And this I now do upon the Knees of my Heart and solemnly vow that as I esteem a perfect Friend the greatest Treasure of my life so I do and ever shall account you the most perfect of Friends That I shall confess my self to have lost not only all Piety but all Humanity also when ever I shall willingly lose any the least opportunity of serving you and that your own Good Angell I speak familiarly but at the same time believe you to be under the Tuition of a Legion of Good ones cannot more fervently desire your complete Happiness than Incomparable Madam Your Eternal Servant W. CHARLETON London the 20 of Iuly An. Dom. 1654. THE CONTENTS SERIES AND ORDER OF THE WHOLE BOOK BOOK THE FIRST CHAP. I. All Modern Philosophers reduced to four general Orders and the principal causes of their Dissention pag. 1. SECT I. ARTIC 1 THe principal Sects of the ancient Grecian Philosophers only enumerated pag. 1 2 The same revived among the Moderns with encrease 2 3 Who are reduced either to the Pedantique or Female Sect. 2 4 Or to the Assertors of Philosophical Liberty 3 5 Or to the Renovators 3 6 Or to the Electors 4 SECT II. ARTIC 1 THe principal causes of the Diversity of Philosophical Sects and the chiefest among them the Obscurity of Nature 5 2 The Imperfection of our Understanding 5 3 The Irregularity of our Curiosity A paradox 6 CHAP. II. That this World is the Vniverse pag. 9. SECT I. ARTIC 1 THe Ambition of Alexander in affecting the Conquest less vain then that of many ancient Philosophers in affecting the Knowledge of a Multitude of Worlds 9 2 A reduction of those Philosophers to four distinct Sects respective to their distinct perswasions and the Heads of each Sect nominated 9 3 The two main pillars on which the opinion of a Plurality of Worlds was anciently erected 10 SECT II. The Redargution ARTIC 1 THe Question stated to be concerning the real Existence not the possibility of an Infinity of Worlds 11 2 Because the supposed Infinity of the Extramundan Spaces is no impossibility ibid. 3 Because an Infinity of Bodies is also possible as to the Omnipotence of God ibid. 4 The Error of concluding the Esse from the Posse of an Infinity of Worlds 12 5 The first main Pillar of a Plurality of worldâ— subverted ibid. 6 The second Pillar found sophisticate and demolished 13 7 A Plurality of Worlds manifestly repugnant to Authority Divine 14 8 And Human. ibid. 9 The result of all the Demonstration of the Authors Thesis That this World is the Universe ibid. 10 Extramundane Curiosity a high degree of Madness 15 CHAP. III. Corporiety and â—nanity p. 16 SECT I. ARTIC 1 BOdy and Inanity the two general Parts of the Vniverse 2 Three the most memorable Definitions of Corporiety extant among Physiologists recounted and examined ibid. 3 Four Descriptions of the nature of Inanity by Epicurus Cleomedes Empericus Aristotle 17 4 Their importance extracted and what is the formal or proper notion of a Vacuum 18 5 The Existence of Bodies in the World manifest by Sense whose Evidence is perfect Demonstration ibid. CHAP. IV. A Vacuum in Nature p 21. SECT I. ART 1 The Distinction of a 〈◊〉 into â— Natural and 2 Praeternatural and the one called Disseminate the other Coâ—cervate 21 2 The nature of a Dissemiâ—â—te Vaâ—uity explained by the Analogy of a heap of Corn. ibid. 3 The first Argument of a Disseminate Vacuity desumed from the evidence of Motion in General and Aristotles error concerning the Essence or Place concisely detected and corrected 22 4 Motion demonstrated by Sense and Zeno's aenigmatical Argument for an Vniversal Quiet dissolved 23 5 The Consequution of the Argument if no Vacuum no Motion illustrated 24 6 An Objection that the â—ococession of some Bodies depends on their â—arity or Porosity not on a Disseminate Vacuiâ—â— praevented ibid. 7 No beginning of Motion without Inanity interâ—â—ersed 25 SECT II. ARTâ—C 1 A Second Argument of a Vacuity Disseminate collected from the reason of Rarefaction and Condensation ibid. 2 The eminent Phaenomenon â—f an Aerosclopet or Wind Gun solved by a Vacuity Disseminate among the incontiguous quoad totas superficies parts of aer 26 3 Experiment of an Aeolipile or Hermetical Bellows attesting a Vacuity Disseminate ibid. 4 Experiment of a Sulphurate Tapor included in a Glass Vial partly 〈◊〉 with Water of the same importance 27 5 No Combustible in Aer and so the opinion of the Aristoteleans that the Extinction of Fâ—ame imprisoned is to be charged on the Deâ—ect of Aer for its sustentation grosly errâ—neous 28 6 A fourth singular and memorable Experiment of the Authors of Yâ—e at the nose of a large Reverberatory Furnace charged with Ignis rotae evidencing a Vacuity interspersed in the Aer 29 7 An inference from that Experiment that Aer as to its General Destination is the Common Receptary of Exhalations ibid. 8 A second Illation that the Aer doth receive Exhalations at a certain rate or definite proportion which cannot be transcended without prodigious violence 30 9 The Existence of Inane Incontiguities in the Aer confirmed by two considerable Arguments ibid SECT III. ARTIC 1 THat Water also contains Vacuola empty Spaces demonstrated 31 2 From the Experiment of the Dissolution of Alum Halinitre Sal Ammoniac and Sugar in Water formerly sated with the Tincture of Common Salt ibid. 3 The verity of the Lord Bacons Assertion that a repeated infusion of Rhubarb acquires as strong a virtue Catharâ—â—ical as a simple infusion of Scamony in equal quantity and why 32 4 Why two Drachms of Antimony impraegnate a pint of Wine with so strong a vomitory Faculty as two ounces ibid. 5 Why one and the same Menstruum may be enriched with various Tinctures ibid. SECT IV. ARTIC 1 TWo other Arguments of a Vacuity Disseminate inferrible from 1 the difference of Bodies in the degrees of Gravity 2 the Calefaction of Bodies by the penetration of igneous Atoms into them 33 2 The Experiments vulgarly adduced to prove no vacuity in nature so far from denying that they confess a Disseminate one
of a Vacuum and Place the cause of the praesent Enquiry into the Nature of Place ibid. 2 Among all the Quaeries about the Hoti of Place the most important is Whethor Epicurus or Aristotles Definition of it be most adaequate ibid. 3 The Hypothesis of Aristotles Definition 63 4 A convenient supposition inferring the necessity of Dimentions Incorporeal ibid. 5 The Legality of that supposition ibid. 6 The Dimensions of Longitude Latitude and Profundity imaginable in a Vacuum 64 7 The Grand Peripatetick objection that Nothing is in a Vacuum ergo no Dimensions ibid. 8 Des Chartes and Mr. White seduced by the plausibility of the same 65 9 The Peripateticks reduction of Time and Place to the General Categories of Substances and Accidents the cause of this Epidemick mistake ibid. 10 Place neither Accident nor Substance 66 11 The praecedent Giant Objection that Nothing is in a Vacuum stab'd at a blow ibid 12 Dimensions Corporeal and Incorporeal or Spatial 67 13 The former supposition reassumed and enlarged ibid. 14 The scope and advantage thereof viz. the comprehension of three eminent Abstrusities concerning the Nature of Place ibid. 15 The Incorporiety of Dimentions Spatial Discriminated from that of the Divine Essence and other Substances Incorporeal 68 16 This persuasion of the Improduction and Independency of Place praeserved from the suspition of Impiety ibid. SECT II. ARTIC 1 PLace not the immediate superfice of the Body invironing the Locatum contrary to Aristotle 69 2 Salvo's for all the Difficult Scruples touching the nature of Place genuinely extracted from Epicurus his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ibid 3 Aristotles ultimate Refuge 70 4 The Invalidity thereof and the Coexistibility or Compatibility of Dimensions Corporeal and Spatial 71 CHAP. VII Of Time and Eterntiy p. 72. SECT I. ARTIC 1 THe Hoti of Time more easily conceivable by the Simple Notion of the Vulgar then by the complex Definitions of Philosophers ibid. 2 The General praesumption that Time is Corporeal or an Accident dependent on Corporeal Subjects the chief Cause of that Difficulty 73 3 The variety of opinions concerning it another Cause of the Difficulty and Epicurus Description of its Essence recited and explained ibid. 4 Time defined to be Coelestial Motion by Zeno Chrysippus c. and thereupon affirmed by Philo to be onely Coaevous to the World 74 5 Aristotles so much magnifyed Definition of Time to be the Measure of Motion Coelestial c. perpended and found too light ibid. SECT II. ARTIC 1 TIme nor substance nor Accident but an Ens more General and the Twin-brother of Space ibid. 2 A Paralellism betwixt Space and Time ibid. 3 Time Senior unto and independent upon Motion and onely accidentally indicated by Motion as the Mensuratum by the Mensura 76 4 A demonstration of the independence of Time upon Motion from the miraculous Detention of the Sun above the Horison in the days of Joshua 77 5 An Objection that during the arrest of the Sun there was no Time because no Hours satisfyed ibid. 6 The Immutability of Time also asserted against Aristotle ibid. SECT III. ARTIC 1 THe Grand Question concerning the Disparity of Time and Aeternity stated 78 2 Two praeparatory Considerations touchant the aequivocal use of the word Aeternity requisite to the cleer solution thereof ibid 3 Two decisive Positions thereupon inferred and established 79 4 The Platonicks Definition of Eternity to be one Everlasting Now not intelligible and therefore collusive 80 5 Their Assertors subterfuge that Eternity is Coexistent to Time also unintelligible ibid. 6 Our Ecclesiastick Doctors taking Sanctuary in the 3. Exod. for the authorizing of their Doctrine that the Present Tense is onely competent to God and so that Eternity is one permanent Instant without Fusion or Succession not secure from the rigour of our Demonstration 81 7 The Objective Praesence of all things at once to the Divine Intellect no ways impugned by our contradiction of the Doctors theory ibid 8 Nor the Immutability of the Divine Nature against Aristotle 82 9 Coronis 83 The Second Book CHAP. I. The Existence of Atoms Evicted p. 84. SECT I. ARTIC 1 THe right of the Authors Transition from the Incorporeal to the Corporeal part of Nature and a series of his subsequent speculations ibid. 2 Bodies generally distinshed into Principles and Productions with their Scholastick Denomiminations and proprieties 85 3 The right of Atoms to the Attributes of the First Matter ibid. 4 Their sundry Appellations allusive to their three eminent proprieties ibid. 5 Two vulgarly passant Derivations of the word Atom exploded 86 6 Who their Inventor and who their Nomenclator 87 7 Their Existence demonstrated 87 8 That Nature in her dissolution of Concretions doth descend to the insensible particles 88 9 That she can run on to Infinity ibid. 10 But must consist in Atoms the Term of Exsolubility ibid. 11 A second Argument of their Existence drawn from that of their Antitheton Inanity 89 12 A third hinted from the impossibility of the Production of Hard Bodies from any other Principle ibid. 13 A Fourth from the Constancy of Nature in the specification and Determinate Periods of her Generations ibid. CHAP. II. No Physical Continuum infinitely Divisible p. 90. SECT I. ARTIC 1 THe Cognation of this Theorem to the Argument of the immediately praecedent Chapter ibid 2 Magnitude divisible by a continued progress through parts either Proportional or Aliquotal ibid. 3 The use of that Distinction in the praesent 9◠4 The verity of the Thesis demonstrated ibid. 5 Two detestable Absurdities inseparable from the position of Infinite parts in a Continuum ibid. 6 Aristotles subterfuge of Infinitude Potential 92 7 Found openly Collusive 93 8 A second subterfuge of the Stoick ibid. 9 Manifestly dissentaneous to Reason ibid SECT II. ARTIC 1 THe Absurdities by Empericus charged upon the supposition of only Finite parts in a Continuum 94 2 The sundry Incongruities and Inconsistences by the Modern Anti-Democritans imputed to the supposition of Insectility ibid. 3 The full Derogation of them all together by one single Responce that the minimum of Atomists is not Mathematical but Physical contrary to their praesumption 95 4 A seeming Dilemma of the Adversary expeditely evaded 96 5 A Digression stating and determining that notable Quaestion Whether Geometrical Demonstrations may be conveniently transferred to the Physical or sensible Quantity ibid. CHAP. III. Atoms the First and Vniversal Matter p 99. SECT I. ART 1 THe introduction hinting the two general assumptions of the Chapter ibid. 2 Democritus and Epicurus vindicated from the absurd admission of Inanity to be one Principle of Generables ibid. 3 Atoms not inconsistent with because the Principles of the four vulgar Elements 100 4 The dissent of the Ancients about the number of Elements 101 5 No one of the four Elements sufficient to the production of either any of the other three or of any Compound nature ibid. 6 The four Elements not the Protoprinciple of Concretions 102 7 Atoms
of the inside of the Uvea Tunica 6 The Tunica Arachnoides 7 The Ciliary Filaments thereof 8 The Chrystalline 9 The Retina Tunica 10 The six Muscles viz. 1 The Direct as the Atollent Depriment Adducent Abducent 2 And Oblique as the 2 Circumactors or Lovers Muscles 173 to 177 3 Why the Situation of an object is perceived by the sight 177 4 The Reason of the eversion of the Image in the Amphiblestroides 178 5 The same illustrate by an Experiment ibid. 6 Why the Motion and Quiet of objects are discerned by the sight ibid. 7 Why Catoptrical Images imitate the motions of their Antitipes or Originals ibid. 8 Why the right side of a Catoptrical Image respects the Left of its Exemplar And why two Catoptrick Glasses confrontingly posited cause a Restitution of the parts of the Image to the natural Form 180 CHAP. IV. The Nature of Colours p. 182. SECT I. ARTIC 1 THe Argument duly acknowledged to be superlatively Difficult if not absolutely Acataleptical ibid. 2 The sentence of Aristotle concerning the Nature of Colours and the Commentary of Scaliger thereupon 183 3 The opinion of Plato ibid. 4 Of the Pythagorean and Stoick 184 5 Of the Spagyrical Philosophers ibid. 6 The reason of the Authors desertion of all these and election of Democritus and Epicurus judgement touching the Generation of Colours ibid. 7 The Text of Epicurus fully and faithfully expounded 185 SECT II. ARTIC 1 A PARADOX That there are no Colours in the Dark 186 2 A familiar Experiment attesting the Verity thereof ibid. 3 The Constancy of all Artificial Tinctures dependent on the constancy of Disposition in the superficial Particles of the Bodies that wear them 187 4 That so generally magnified Distinction of Colours into Inhaerent and meerly Apparent redargued of manifest Contradiction ibid. 5 The Emphatical or Evanid Colours created by Prisms no less Real and Inhaerent than the most Durable Tinctures 188 6 COROLLARY The Reasons of Emphatical Colours appinged on Bodies objected by a Prism 189 7 The true Difference of Emphatical and Durable Colours briefly stated ibid. 8 No Colour Formally inhaerent in objects but only Materially or Effectively contrary to the constant Tenent of the Schools ibid 9 The same farther vindicated from Difficulty by the tempestive Recognition of some praecedent Assumptions of the Atomists 190 SECT III. ARTIC 1 THe Nativity of White or the reason of its perception by the sight 191 2 Black a meer Privation of Light ibid. 3 The Genealogy of all Intermediate Colors ibid. 4 The Causes of the Sympathy and Antipathy of some Colours 192 5 The intermisâ—ion of small shadows among the lines of Light absolutely necessary to the Generation of any Intermediate Colour ibid. 6 Two eminent PROBLEMS concerning the Generation and Transposition of the Vermillion and Caerule appinged on Bodies by Prismes 193 7 The Solution of the Former with a rational Conjecture of the Cause of the Blew apparent in the Concave of the Heavens 194 8 The Solution of the Latter 195 9 The Reasons why the Author proceeds not to investigate the Causes of Compound Colours in Particular 196 10 He confesseth the Erection of this whole Discourse on simple Conjecture and enumerates the Difficulties to be subdued by him who hopes to attain an Apodictical Knowledge of the Essence and Causes of Colours ibid. 11 Des Cartes attempt to dissolve the chief of those Difficulties unsuccessful because grounded on an unstable Hypothesis 197 CHAP. V. The Nature of Light p. 198. SECT I. ARTIC 1 THe Clasp or Ligament of this to the praecedent Chapter ibid. 2 The Authors Notion of the Rays of Light ibid. 3 A Parallelism betwixt a stream of Water exsilient from the Cock of a Cistern and a Ray of Light emanent from its Lucid Fountain ibid PRAECONSIDERABLES 199 4 Light distinguisht into Primary Secondary c. 199 5 All Light Debilitated by Reflection and why ibid. 6 An Example sensibly demomonstrating the same 200 7 That light is in perpetual Motion according to Aristotle ibid. 8 Light why Corroborated in some cases and Debilitated in others by Refraction 201 COROLLARY Why the Figure of the Sun both rising and setting appears rather Elliptical than Sphaerical ibid. 9 PARADOX That the proportion of Solary Rays reflected by the superior Aer or Aether toward the Earth is so small as not to be sensible 202 10 That every Lucid Body as Lucid doth emit its Rays Sphaerically but as Visible Pyramidally ibid. 11 That Light is invisible in the pure medium 203 SECT II. ARTIC 1 THe necessity of the Authors confirmation of the First Praeconsiderable 204 2 The Corporiety of Light demonstrated by its just Attributes viz. 1 Locomotion 2 Resilition 3 Refraction 4 Coition 5 Disgregation 6 Igniety 224 225 3 Aristotles Definition of Light a meer Ambage and incomprehensible 205 4 TheCorporiety of Light imports not the Coexistence of two Bodies in one Place contrary to the Peripatetick 206 5 Nor the motion of a Body to be Instantaneous ibid. 6 The Invisibility of Light in the limpid medium no Argument of its Immateriality as the Peripatetick praesumes ibid. 7 The Corporiety of Light fully consistent with the Duration of the Sun contrary to the Peripatetick 207 8 The insensibility of Heat in many Lucent Bodies no valid Argument against the praesent Thesis that Light is Flame Attenuated ibid. CHAP. VI. The Nature of a Sound p 208. SECT I. ARTIC 1 AN Elogy of the sense of Hearing and the Relation of this and the praecedent Chapter ibid. 2 The great Affinity betwixt Visible and Audible species in their representation of the superficial Conditions of Objects 209 3 In the Causes and manner of their Destruction ibid. 4 In their Actinobolism or Diffusion both Sphaerical and Pyramidal 210 5 In their certifying the sense of the Magnitude Figure and other Qualities of their Originals ibid. 6 In the obscuration of Less by Greater 211 7 In their offence of the organs when excessive ibid. 8 In their production of Heat by Multiplication ibid. 9 In their Variability according to the various disposition of the Medium ibid. 10 In their chief Attributes of Locomotion Exsilition Impaction Resilition Disgregation Congregation ibid. SECT II. ARTIC 1 THe Product of the Praemises concerning the points of Consâ—nt and Dissent of Audible and Visible Species viz That Sounds are Corporeal 213 2 An obstruction of praejudice from the generally supposed repugnant Authorities of some of the Ancients expeded ibid. 3 An Argument of the Corporiety of Sounds 214 4 A Second Argument ibid. COROLLARY ibid. 5 The Causes of Concurrent Echoes where the Audient is equally almost distant from the Sonant and Repercutient ibid. COROLLARY 2. 215 6 Why Concaves yield the strongest and longest Sounds ibid. COROLLARY 3. ibid 7 The reason of Concurrent Echoes where the Audient is neer the 〈◊〉 and remote from the sonant ibid. COROLLARY 4. ibid. 8 Wâ—y 〈◊〉 Monophon rehearse so much the fâ—â—er syllables by how much neerer the audient is
Disseminate Inanity neither important nor câ—mpetent ibid. 9 The Hypâ—theâ—is of a câ—rtâ—in Aethereal substance to replenish thâ— porâ—s â—f Boâ—ies in Raâ—ifaction demonstrated insufficient to solve the Difficulty or demolish the Epâ—cuâ—ean Thâ—sis of small Vacuities 254 10 The Facility of understanding the Reasons and Manner of 〈◊〉 and Condensation from the Concâ—ssion of sâ—all Vacuities illustrated by a 〈…〉 255 11 PARADOX Thaâ— the Matter of a Body when 〈…〉 no more of true Place 〈…〉 and the Coâ—câ—liaâ—ion thereof to the 〈◊〉 Definitions of a Rare and of a Denâ—e Boâ—y 2â—6 12 PROBLEM 〈…〉 be capable of Condensation to so hiâ—g 〈◊〉 as it is of Rariâ—faction and the 〈◊〉 â—olution therof ibid. SECT III. ART C. 1 THe opportunity of the present speculation concerning the Câ—uses of Perâ—picuity and Opacity â—â—8 2 The true Notions of a Perâ—picuum and Opacum ibid. 3 That every Concretion is so much the more 〈◊〉 by how much thâ— more and more ample Inane Spaces 〈◊〉 inâ—â—rcepted among its particles caeteus paâ—â—bus ibid. 4 Why Glass though much more Dense is yet much more Diaphanous than Paper 259 5 Why â—he Diaphanity of Glass is gradually diminished according to the various degrees of its Crassitude ibid. 6 An Apodictical Confutation of that popular Error that Glass is totally or in every particle Diaphanous 260 CHAP. X. Of Magnitude Figure And their Consequents Subtility Hebetude Smoothness Asperity 261 SECT I. ARTIC 1 THe Contexture of this Chapter with the praecedent ibid. 2 That the Magnitude of Concretions ariseth from the Magnitude of their Material Principles ibid. 3 The praesent intentiâ—n of the term Magnitude ibid. 4 That the â—uantity of a thing is meerly the Matter of it 2â—2 5 The Quantity of a thing neither Augmented by its Rarefaction nor diminished by its Condensation contrary to the Aristotelians who distinguish the Qâ—antity of a Body from its Substaâ—ce ibid. 6 The reason of Quantity explicable also meerly from the notion of Place 263 7 The Existence of a Body without real Extension and of Extension without a Body though impossible to Nature yet easie to God ibid. 8 COROLLARY That the primary Cause why Nature admits no Penetration of Dimensiâ—ns is rather the Solidity than the Extension of a Body 264 9 The reasons of Quantity Continued and Dâ—screte or Magnitude and Multitude ibid. 10 That no Body is perfectly Continued beside an Atom ibid. 11 Aristotles Dâ—finition of a Continuum in what respect true and what false 265 12 Figure Physicalâ—y considered nothing but the superficies or terminant Extremes of a Body ibid. SECT II. ARTIC 1 THe Continuity of this to the first Section 266 2 Subtility and Hebetude how the Consequents of Magnitude ibid. 3 A considerable Exception of the Chymests viz. that some Bodies are dissolved in liquors of grosser particles which yet conserve their Continuity in liquors of most subtile and corrosive particles prevented ibid. 4 Why Oyle dissociates the parts of some Bodies which remain inviolate in Spirit of Wine and why Lightning is more penetrative than Fire 267 5 Smoothness and Asperity in Concretions the Consequents of Figure in their Material Principles ibid. CHAP. XI Of the Motive Vertue Habit Gravity and Levity of Concretions â—69 SECT I. ARTIC 1 THe Motive Virtue of all Concretions derived from the essential Mobility of Atoms ibid. 2 Why the Motive Virtue of Concretions doth reside principally in their spiritual Parts 270 3 That the Deviation of Concretions from motion Direct and their Tardity in motion arise from the Deflections and â—epercussions of Atoms composing them ibid. 4 Why the motion of all Concretions necessarily praessâ—pâ—ssâ—th something that remains unmoved or that in respect of its slower motion is equivalâ—nt â—o a thing Vnmoved ibid. 5 What 〈◊〉 Aâ—tive Faculty of a thing is 271 6 That in Nature every Faculty is Active none Passive ibid. 7 A Peripatetick Contradiction assuming the Matter of alâ— Bodies to be devoid of all Activity and yet dâ—suming some Faculties à tota substantia 272 8 That the â—aculties of Animals the Ratiocination of man onely excepted are Identical with their spirits ibid. 9 The Reasons of the Coexistence of Various Faculties in one and the same Concretion ibid. 10 Habit defiâ—ed 273 11 That the Reason of all Habits in Animals consisteth principally in the conformity and flexibility of the Organs which the respective Faculty makes use of for the performance of its proper Actions ibid. 12 Habits acquirable by Bruits and common not onely to Vegetables but also to some Minerals 2â—4 SECT II. ARTIC 1 GRavity as to its Essence or Formal Reason very obscure 275 2 The opinion of Epicurus good as to the Cause of Comparative insufficient as to the â—ause of Absolute Gravity ibid. 3 Aristotles opinion of Gravity recited ibid. 4 Copernicus theory of Gravity insatisfactory and wherein 276 5 The Determination of Kepler Gassendus c. that Gravity is Caused meâ—rly by the Attraction of the Earth espoused by the Author 277 6 The External Principle of the perpendicular Descent of a stone projected up in the Aer must be either Depellent or Attrahent ibid. 7 That the Resistence of the Superior Aer is the onely Cause which gradually refracteth and in fine wholly overcometh the Imâ—rest Force whereby a stone projected is elevated upward ibid. 8 That the Aer distracted by a stone violently ascending hath as well a Depulsive as a Resistent Faculty arising immediately from its Elaterical or Restorative motion 279 9 That nevertheless when a stone projected on high in the Aer is at the highest point of its mountee no Cauâ—e can Begâ—â— its Downward Motion but the Attractive Virtue of the Earth 280 10 Argument that the Tâ—râ—aqueous Globe is endowed with a certain Attractive Faculty in order to the Dâ—tention and Retraction of aâ—l its Parts 2â—1 11 What are the Parts of the TerrestrialGlobe 282 12 A Second Argument that the Earth is Magnetical ibid. 13 A Parallelism betwixt the Attraction of Iron by a Loadstone and the Attraction of Terrene bodies by the Eaâ—th 283 14 That as the sphere of the Loadstones Allective Virtue is limited so is that of the Eartâ—s magnetism ibid. 15 An Objection of the Disproportion between the great Bulk of a large stone and the Exility of the supposed magnetique Rays of the Earth Solved by three weighty Reasons 284 16 The Reason of the Aequivelocity of Bodies oâ— different weights in their perpendicular Descent with sundry unquestionable Authorities to confirm the Hoti thereof â—85 17 That the whole Terrestrial Globe is devoid of Gravity and that in the universe is no Highest nor Lowest place 2â—6 18 That the Centre of the Vniverse is not the Lowest part thereof nor the Centre of the Earth the Centre of the World 287 19 A Fourth Argument that Gravity is onely Attraction 289 20 Why a greater Gravity or stronger Attractive force is imprest upon a piece of Iron by a Loadstone than by the Earth ibid. 21 A Fifth Argument
336 8 The Reasons of the vast Ductility or Extensibility of Gold 337 9 Sectility and Fissility the Consequents of Softness ibid. 10 Tractility and Friability the Consequents of Hardness 338 11 Ruptility the Consequent partly of Softness partly of Hardness 339 12 PROBLEM VVhy Chords distended are more apt to break neer the Ends than in the middle and its SOLVT ibid. CHAP. XV. Occult Qualities made Manifest p. 341 SECT I. ARTIC 1 THat the Insensibility of Qualities doth not import their Unintelligibility contrary to the presumption of the Aristotelean ibid. 2 Vpon what grounds and by whom the Sanctuary of Occult Qualities was erected 342 3 Occult Qualities and profest ignorance all one ibid. 4 The Refuge of Sympathies and Antipathies equally obstructive to the advance of Natural Scienee with that of Ignote Proprieties 343 5 That all Attraction referred to Secret Sympathy and all Repulsion adscribed to secret Antipathy betwixt the Agent and Patient is effected by Corporeal Instruments and such as resemble those whereby one body Attracteth or repelleth another in sensible and mechanique operations ibid. 6 The Means of Attractions sympathetical explicated by a convenient Simile 345 7 The Means of Abaction and Repulsions Antipathetical explicated likewise by sundry similitudes 346 8 The First and General Causes of all Love and Hatred betwixt Animals 347 9 Why things Alike in their natures love and delight in the Society each of other and why Unlike natures abhor and avoid each other ibid SECT II. ARTIC 1 THe Scheme of Qualities reputed occult 348 2 Natures Avoidance of Vacuity imputed to the tyzugia or Conspiration of all parts of the Vniverse no Occult Quality ibid. 3 The power and influence of Caelestial Bodies upon men supposed by Judicial Astrologers inconsistent with Providence Divine and the Liberty of mans will 349 4 The Afflux and Reflux of the Sea inderivative from any immaterial Influx of the Moon ibid. 5 The Causes of the diurnal Expansion conversion of the Heliotrope and other Flowers ibid. 6 Why Garden Claver hideth its stalk in the heat of the day 350 7 Why the House Cock usually Crows soon after midnight and at break of day ibid. 8 Why Shell-fish grow fat in the Full of the moon and lean again at the New 352 9 Why the Selenites resembles the Moon in all her several Adspects ibid. 10 Why the Consideration of the Attraction of Iron by a Loadstone is here omitted 353 11 The secret Amities of Gold and Quicksilver of Brass and Silver unridled ibid. 12 A COROLLARY Why the Granules of Gold and Silver though much more ponderous then those of the Aqua Regis and Aqua â—ortis wherein they are dissolved are yet held up and kept floating by them 354 13 The Cause of the Attraction of a Less Flame by a Greater ibid. 14 The Cause of the Involation of flame to Naphtha at distance ibid. 15 Of the Ascention of Water into the pores of a Spunge 355 16 The same illustrated by the example of a Syphon ibid. 17 The reason of the Percolation of Liquors by a cloth whose one end lieth in the liquor and other hangs over the brim of the vessel that contains it 356 18 The reason of the Consent of two Lute-strings that are Aequison ibid. 19 The reason of the Dissent betwixt Lutestrings of sheeps Guts and those of Woolfs â—57 20 The tradition of the Consuming of all Feathers of Foul by those of the Eagle exploded 358 21 Why some certain Plants befriend and advance the growth and fruitfulness of others that are their neighbours ibid. 22 Why some Plants thrive not in the society of some others 359 23 The Reason of the great friendship betwixt the Male and Female Palm-trees 360 24 Why all wines grow sick and turbid during the season wherein the Vines Flower and Bud. 361 25 That the distilled waters of Orange flowers and Roses do not take any thing of their fragrancy during the season of the Blooming and pride of those Flowers as it vulgarly believed ibid. SECT III. ARTIC 1 WHy this Section considers onely some few select Occult Proprieties among those many imputed to Animals 362 2 The supposed Antipathy of a Sheep to a Woolf solved ibid. 3 Why Bees usually invade Froward and Cholerick Persons and why bold and confident men haue sometimes daunted and put to flight Lyons and other ravenous Wild-Beasts 363 4 Why divers Animals Hate such men as are used to destroy those of their own species and why Vermin avoid such Gins and Traps wherein others of their kinde have been caught and destroyed ibid. 5 The Cause of the fresh Cruentation of the Carcass of a murthered man at the presence and touch of the Homicide 364 6 How the Basilisk doth empoyson and destroy at distance 365 7 That the sight of a Woolf doth not cause Hoarsness and obmutescence in the spectator as is vulgarly reported and believed 366 8 The Antipathies of a Lyon and Cock of an Elephant and Swine meerly Fabulous â—67 9 Why a man intoxicated by the venome of a Tarantula falleth into violent fits of Dancing and cannot be cured by any other means but Musick ibid. 10 Why Divers Tarantiacal Persons are affected and cured with Divers Tunes and the musick of divers Instruments 369 11 That the venome of the Tarantula doth produce the same effect in the body of a man as it doth in that of the Tarantula it self and why ibid. 12 That the Venom of the Tarantula is lodged in a viscous Humor and such as is capable of Sounds 371 13 That it causeth an uncessant Itching and Titillation in the Nervous and Musculous parts of mans body when infused into it and fermenting in it ibid. 14 The cause of the Annual Recidivation of the Tarantism till it be perfectly cured 372 15 A Conjecture what kind of Tunes Strains and Notes seem most accommodate to the cure of Tarantiacal Persons in the General ibid 16 The Reason of the Incantation of Serpents by a rod of the Cornus 373 17 DIGRESSION That the Words Spells Characters c. used by Magicians are of no vertue or Efficacy at all as to the Effect intended unless in a remote interest or as they exalt the Imagination of Him upon whom they praetend to work the miracle ibid. 18 The Reason of the Fascination of Infants by old women 374 19 The Reason of the stupefaction of a mans hand by a Torpedo 375 20 That ships are not Arrested in their course by the Fish called a Remora but by the Contrary impulse of some Special Current in the Sea ibid. 21 That the Echineis or Remora is not Ominous 3â—7 22 Why this place admits not of more than a General Inquest into the Faculties of Poysons and Counterpoisons ibid. 23 Poysons defined ibid. 24 Wherein the Deleterious Faculty of poyson doth consist ibid. 25 Counterpoisons defined 378 26 Wherein their Salutiferous Virtue doth consist ibid. 27 How Triacle cureth the venome of Vipers ibid 28 How the body of a
Because though the Tube be made of Brass Steel or any other Metal whose conteâ—ture is so close as to exclude the subtlest aer yet shall the Experiment hold the same in all Apparences and particularly in this of the deflux of the Quicksilver to the altitude of 27 digits 2 Because if the desert Cavity were replete with aer the incumbent aer could not rush in to the Tube at the eduction of its lower end D out of the restagnant Mercury and Water with such violence since no other cause can be assigned for its impetuous rushing into the Tube but the regression of the compressed parts of the ambient aer to their natural laxity and to the repletion of the violent or forced Vacuity Since if the whole Space in the Tube were possessed i. e. if there were as many particles of Body as Space therein doubtless no part of place could remain for the reception of the irruent aer Secondly As for that most subtile and generally penetatrive substance AETHER or pure Elementary Fire which some have imagined universally diffused through the vast Body of Nature principally for the maintenance of a Continuity betwixt the parts thereof and so the avoidance of any Vacuity though ne're so exile and minute we do not find our selves any way obliged to admit that the Desert Space in the Tube is repleted with the same untill the Propugnators of that opinion shall have abandoned their Fallacy Petitio principii a praecarious assumption of what remains dubious and worthy a serious dispute viz. That Nature dâ—th irreconcileably abhor all vacuity per se. For until they have evinced beyond controversie that Nature doth not endure any Emptiness or solution of Continuity quatenus an Emptiness and not meerly ex Accidenti upon some other sinister and remote respect their Position that she provided that subtile substance Aether chiefly to prevent any Emptiness is rashly and boldly anticipated and depends on the favour of Credulity for a toleration Nor is it so soon demonstrated as affirmed that all Vacuity is repugnant to the fundamental constitution of Nature Naturam abhorrere Vacuum is indeed a maxim and a true one but not to be understood in any other then a metaphorical sense For as every Animal by the instinct of self-conservation abhors the solution of Continuity in his skin caused by any puncture wound or laceration though it be no offence to him to have his skin pinkt or perforated all over with insensible pores so also by the indulgence of a Metaphor may Nature be said to abhor any great or sensible vacuity or solution of Continuity such as is imagined in the Desert Space of the Tube though it be familiar nay useful and grateful to her to admit those insensible inanities or minute porosities which constitute a Vacuum Disseminatum We say by the indulgence of a Metaphor because we import a kind of sense in Nature analogous to that of Animals And tollerating this Metaphorical Speech that Nature hath a kind of sense like that of Animals yet if we allow for the vastity of her Body can it be conceived no greater trouble or offence to her to admit such a solution of Continuity or Emptiness as this supposed in the Desert space of the Tube then to an Animal to have any one pore in his skin more then ordinarily relaxed and expanded for the transudation of a drop of sweat This perpended it can seem no Antiaxiomatisme to affirm that nature doth not abhor Vacuity per se but onely ex Accidenti i. e. upon this respect that in Nature is somewhat for whose sake she doth not without some reluctany admit a Coacervate or sensible Vacuity Now that somewhat existent in Nature per se in relation to which she seems to oppose and decline any sensible Vacuity can be no other then the Fluxility of her Atomical Particles especially those of Fire Air and Water And for ought we poor Haggard Mortals do or can by the Light of Nature know to the contrary all those vast spaces from the margent of the Atmosphere whose altitude exceeds not 40 miles according to Mersennus and Cassendus perpendicular up to the Region of the fixed Stars are not only Fluid but Inane abating only those points which are pervaded by the rayes of the Sun and other Celestial Bodies But why should we lead the thoughts of our Reader up to remote objects whose sublimity proclaims their incertitude when from hence only that the Aer is a Fluid substance it is a manifest direct and unstrained consequence that the immediate cause of its avoidance of any sensible or coacervate Vacuity is the Confluxibility of its Atomical particles which being in their natural contexture contiguous in some though not all points of their superficies must of necessity press or bear each upon other and so mutually compel each other that no one particle can be removed out of its place but instantly another succeeds and possesses it and so there can be no place left empty as hath been frequently explained by the simile of a heap of Sand Now if the Confluxibility of the insensible particles of the aer be the immediate and per se Cause of its avoidance of any aggregate sensible solution of Continuity we need no farther justification of our position that Nature doth oppose vacuity sensible not per se but only in order to the affection of Confluxibility i. e. ex Accidenti Again should we swallow this praecarious supposition of the Aether with no less pertinacity then ingenuity asserted by many Moderns but professedly by Natalis in both his Treatises Physica Vetus Nova Plenum experimentis novis confirmatum and admit that Nature provided that most tenuious and fluid substance chiefly to praevent Vacuity yet cannot the Appetite of our Curiosity be satisfied that the Desert space in the tube is replenished with the same prenetrating through the glass untill they have solved that Apparence of the violent irruption of the ambient Aer into the orifice of the tube so soon as it is educed out of the subjacent liquors the Quicksilver and Water by the same Hypothesis Which whether they have done so as to demonstrate that the sole cause of the Aers impetuous rushing into the canale of the Tube and prodigiously elevating the ponderous bodies of Quicksilver and Water residuous therein is not the Reflux of the incumbent aer by the ascention of the restagnant Quicksilver in the vessel compressed to too deep and diffused a subingression of its insensible Particles to recover its natural laxity by regaining those spaces from which it was expelled and secluded and to supply the defect of this reason by substituting some other syntaxical to their hypothesis of the Aether which shall be more verisimilous and plausible this we ought to refer to the judgment of those who have attentively and aequitably perused their Writings Lastly as for the third thing supposed to replenish the Desert space
praetium foret aliquam muscam admodum vegetam robustam v. c. Crabronem aut Vespam in tubo includere priusquam Mercurio impleretur ut post depletionem ad altitudinem 27 digit proximè videretur nâ—m in eo Vacuo aut si mavis aethere viveret ambularet volaret num Bombus à volante produceretur 3 Deducting the possibility of both these there yet remains a Third substance which may well be conceived to praevent a Coacervate Vacuity in the forsaken space of the Tube and that 's the MAGNETICAL EFFLUX of the Earth For 1 that the Terraqueous Globe is one great Magnet from all points of whose superfice are uncessantly deradiated continued Threads or beams of subtle insensible Aporrhaea's by the intercession whereof all Bodies whose Descent is commonly adscribed to Gravity are attracted towards its Centre in like manner as there are continually expired from the body of the Loadstone invisible Chains by the intercession whereof Iron is nimbly allected unto it is so generally conceded a position among the Moderns and with so solid reasons evicted by Gilbert Kircher Cartesius Gassendus and others who have professedly made disquisitions and discourses on that subject that we need not here retard our course by insisting on the probation thereof 2 That as the Magnetical expirations of the Loadstone are so subtle and penetrative as in an instant to transfix and shoot through the most solid and compact bodies as Marble Iron c. without impediment as is demonstrable to sense the interposition of what solid body soever situate within the orb of energy in no wise impeding the vertical or polory impregnation of a steel Needle by a Magnet loricated or armed so also the Magnetical Effluvias of the Globe of Earth do pervade and pass through the mass of Quicksilver contained both in the Tube and the Vessel beneath it and fixing their Uncinulae or hamous points on the Ansulae or Fastnings of the Quicksilver therein attract it downward perpendicularly toward the Centre is deduceable from hence that if any Bubbles of aer chance to be admitted into the Tube together with the Quicksilver that aer doth not ascend to the top of the Tube but remains incumbent immediately upon the summity of the Quicksilver as being in respect of its cognation to the Earth attracted and as it were chained down by the Magnetical Emanations of the Earth transmitted through al interjacent bodies and hooked upon it For we shall not incur the attribute of arrogance if we dare any man to assign the incumbence of the aer upon the Mercury to any more probable Cause It being therefore most Verisimilous that the Earth doth perpetually exhale insensible bodies from all points of its surface which tending upward in direct lines penetrate all bodies situate within the region of vapors or Atmosphere without resistence and particularly the masses of Quicksilver in the Tube and subjacent vessel we can discover no shelf that can disswade us from casting anchor in this serene Haven That the magnetical Exhalations of the Earth do possess the Desert space in the Tube so as to exclude a sensible Vacuity We said so as to exclude a sensible Vacuity thereby intimating that it is no part of our conception that either the Rayes of Light or the Atoms of Heat and Cold or the Magnetical Effluviaâ—s of the Earth or all combined together do so enter and possess the Desert â—pace as to cause an absolute Plenitude therein For doubtless were all those subtle Effluxions coadunated into one dense and solid mass it would not arise to a magnitude equal so much as to the 10th nay the 40th part of the capacity abandoned by the delapsed Mercury But fill it to that proportion as to leave only a Vacuity Disseminate such as is introduced into an Aeolipile when by the Atoms of fire entered into and variously discurrent through its Concavity the insensible Particles of Aer and Water therein contained are reduced to a more lax and open order and so the inane Incontiguities betwixt them ampliated And this we judge sufficient concerning the solution of the First Difficulty SECT III. The Second Capital Difficulty WHat is the immediate Remora or Impediment whereby the Aer which in respect of the natural Confluxibility of its insensible particles so strongly and expeditely praeventeth any excessive vacuity in all other cases is forced to suffer it in this of the Experiment The Solution Insomuch as the Fluidity or Confluxibility of the Atomical or insensible particles of the Aer is the proxime and sole Cause of Natures abhorrence of all sensible Vacuity as hath been proved in the praecedent Section Manifest it is that whosoever will admit a Vacuity excessive or against the rite of Nature must in order to the introduction or Creation thereof admit also two distinct Bodies 1 One which being moved out of its place must propel the contiguous aer forward 2 Another which interposed must hinder the parts of the circumstant aer propulsed by the parts of the aer impelled by the first movent from obeying the Confluxibility of their Figure and succeeding into the place deserted by the body first moved Which is the very scope that the profound Galilaeo proposed to himself when He invented a wooden Cylindre as an Embolus or Sucker to be intruded into another concave Cylindre of Brass imperviously stopped below that by the force of weights appended to the outward extreme or handle thereof the sucker might be gradually retracted from the bottom of the Concave and so leave all that space which it forsaketh an entire and coacervate Vacuum Upon which design Torricellius long after meditating and casting about for other means more conveniently satisfactory to the same intention He most happily lighted upon the praesent Experiment wherein the Quicksilver became an accommodate substitute to Galilaeo's wooden sucker and the Glass Tube to the Brass concave Cylindre The remaining part of the Difficulty therefore is only this relative Scruple How the Aer can be propelled by the wooden sucker downward or by the restagnant Quicksilver in the Vessel upward when externally there is provided no void space for its reception For indeed in the ordinary Translation of bodies through the aer it is no wonder that the adjacent aer is propelled by them since they leave as much room behind them as the aer propelled before them formerly possessed whereinto it may and doth recur but in this case of the Experiment the condition is far otherwise there being we confess a place left behind but such as the aer propelled before cannot retreat into it in regard of the interposition of another dense solid impervious body Upon which consideration we formerly and pertinently reflected when reciting some of those Experiments vulgarly objected to a Vacuum Disseminatum we insisted particularly upon that of a Garden Irrigatory shewing that the Reason of the Waters subsistence or pendency therein so
altitude it can be no illegal process for us to infer that all parts thereof are naturally endowed with more or less Gravity proportionate to their particular bulk whether that Gravity be understood to be as common Physiology will have it a Quality congenial and inhaerent or as Verisimility their conformity to the magnetick Attraction of the Earth And insomuch as this Gravity is the cause of the mutual Depression among the particles of aer in their tendency from the upper region of the Atmosphere down to the surface of the Earth we may well conceive that the Depression of the inferior parts of the aer by the superior incumbent upon them is the origine immediate from whence that Reluctancy or Resistence observed in the Experiment upon the induction of a praeternatural Inanity between the Parts thereof But a farther prosecution and illustration of this particular depends on the solution of the next Problem SECT IV. The Third Capital Difficulty WHat is the Cause of the Quicksilvers not descending below that determinate Altitude or Standard of 27 digits Solution The Resistence of the parts of the aer which endures no compression or subingress of its insensible particles beyond that certain proportion or determinate rate To profound this mystery of Nature to the bottom we are to request our Reader to endure the short recognition of some passages in our praecedent discourses 1 That upon the ordinary translation of bodies through the Aer the resistence of its insensible parts is so small as not to be discoverable by the sense because the subingression of its contiguous parts into the loculaments of the next vicine aer is only perexile or superficial and that we may safely imagine this superficial subingression not to be extended beyond the thickness of a single hair nay in some cases perhaps not to the hundreth part thereof So stupendiously subtle are the fingers of Nature in many of her operations But that the resistence observed in the present Experiment for the enforcing of a praeternatural Vacuum is therefore deprehensible by the sense because in respect of a defect of place behind the body propellent into which the parts of the aer compelled forward may circulate the subingression must be more profound and so the resistence being propagated farther and farther by degrees must grow multiplied and consequently sensible 2 That the Force of the body propellent is greater then the force of the next contiguous aer protruding the next and the force of the third protruded wave of the aer for a kind of Undulation may be ascribed to aer greater on the Fourth then that of the Fourth upon the Fifth and so progressionally to the extrem of its diffusion or extension so that the Force becomes so much the weaker and more oppugnable by how much the farther it is extended and dwindles or languishes by degrees into a total cessation 3 That as upon the succussion or shock of a Bushel apparently full of Corn is left a certain sensible space above unpossessed by any part or Grain thereof which coacervate empty space responds in proportion to those many Disseminate Vacuola or Loculaments intercepted among the incontingent sides of the Grains before their reduction to a more close order by the succussion of the Bushel so likewise upon the impulse of the aer by a convenient body is left behind a sensible space absolutely empty as to any part of aer which Coacervate empty space must respond in proportion to those many Disseminate spaces intercepted among the incontiguous parts or Granules of the aer before their reduction to a more close order or mutual subingression and coaptation of sides and points by the body compressing These Notions recogitated our speculations may progress with more advantage to explore the proxime and proper Cause of the Mercuries constant subsistence at the altitude of 27 digits in the Tube perpendicularly erected For upon the credit of their importance we may justly assume that upon the compression of the circumambient Aer by a small quantity of Quicksilver suppose only of two or three inches impendent in the concave of the tube can be caused indeed some small subingression of the particles thereof but such as is only superficial and insensible in respect the weight of so small a proportion of Quicksilver is not of force sufficient to propel the parts of the aer to so great a crassitude that the space detracted from the Aggregate of Disseminate Vacuities should amount to that largness as to become visible above the Quicksilver in the Tube since the quantity of the Quicksilver being supposed little the force of Reluctancy or Resistence in the parts of the aer arising from their inhaerent Fluidity must be greater then the force of compression arising from Gravity and therefore there succeeds no sensible Deflux of the Quicksilver But being that a greater and greater mass of Quicksilver may be successively infused into the Tube and so the compressive force of its Gravity be respectively augmented and thereupon the aer become less and less able successively to make resistence 't is difficult not to observe that the proportion of Compression from Gravity in the Quicksilver may be so equalized to the Resistence from Gravity in the Aer as that both may remain in statu quo without any sensible yeilding on either side Hence comes it that at the aequipondium of these two Antagonists the space in the Tube detracted from the Aggregate of minute Inanities disseminate in the aer is so small as not to be commensurated by sense and at the cessation of the Aequilibrium or succeding superiority of the encreased weight of the Quicksilver the parts of the Aer being compelled thereby to a farther retrocession and subingression the space detracted from the Aggregate of disseminate Vacuities in the aer becomes larger and consequently sensible above the Quicksilver in the upper region of the Tube This may be most adaequately illustrated by the simile of a strong man standing on a plane pedestal in a very high wind For as He by a small afflation or gust of wind is in some degree urged or prest upon though not so much as to cause him to give back because the force of his resistence is yet superior to that of the Wind assaulting and impelling him nor when the force of the Wind grows upon him even to an Aequilibrium is He driven from his station because his resistence is yet equal to the impulse of the wind but when the force of the Wind advances to that height as to transcend the Aequilibrium then must the man be compelled above the rate of his resistence and so be abduced from the place of his station so likewise while there is only a small quantity of Quicksilver contained in the Tube though by the intervention or mediation of the Quicksilver restagnant in the subjacent vessel it press upon the parts of the incumbent aer in some
degree yet is not the aer thereby urged so as to be compelled to retrocede and permit the restagnant Quicksilver to ascend higher in the vessel and therefore the Quicksilver impendent in the Tube cannot descend because the restagnant wants room to ascend But when the quantity and so the Gravity of the Quicksilver contained in the Tube is so augmented as to exceed the Resistence of the aer then is the aer compelled or driven back by the restagnant Quicksilver rising upwards to a sensible subingression of its atomical particles and the Quicksilver in the Tube instantly defluxeth into the place resigned by the restagnant until it arriveth at that point of altitude or standard where the resistence of the aer becomes again equal to the force compressing it and there subsisteth after various reciprocations up and down in the Tube Now concerning the remaining and indeed the most knotty part of the Difficulty viz. Why the Aequilibrium of these two opposite Forces is constant to the certain praecise altitude of 27 digits of this admirable Magnale no other cause seems worthily assignable but this that such is the nature of aer in respect both of the atomical particles of which it is composed and of the disseminate vacuities variously interspersed among them as that it doth resist compression at such a determinate rate or definite proportion as exactly responds to the altitude of 27 digits Should it be demanded of us Why He who stands on a plane doth resist the impulse of a mighty wind to such a determinate rate or height but not farther we conceive our Answer would be satisfactory to the ingenious if we returned only that such is the exact proportion of his strength resulting from the individual temperament of his body We are Men i. e. Moles whose weak and narrow Opticks are accommodated only to the inspection of the exterior and low parts of Nature not perspicacious enough to penetrate and transfix her interior and abstruse Excellencies nor can we speculate her glorious beauties in the direct and incident line of Essences and Formal Causes but in the refracted and reflected one of Effects nor that without so much of obscurity as leaves a manifest incertitude in our Apprehensions and restrains our ambition of intimate and apodictical Science to the humble and darksome region of mere superficial Conjecture Such being the condition of our imperfect Intellectuals when we cannot explore the profound recesses and call forth the Formal Proprieties of some Natures but find our disquisitive Faculties terminated in the some Apparences or Effects of them it can be no derogation to the dignity of Humanity for us to rest contented nay thankful to the Bounty of our Creator that we are able to erect verisimilous Conjectures concerning their causation and to establish such rational Apprehensions or Notions thereupon as may without any incongruity be laudably accommodated to the probable solution of other consimilar Effects when we are required to yeild an account of the manner of their arise from their proper originals Thus from our observation of other things of the like condition having extracted a rational Conjecture that this so great Gravity of the Quicksilver doth depend upon the very Contexture of its insensible particles or minute bodies whereof it doth consist by which they are so closely and contiguously accommodated each to other in the superficies of their points and sides as no body whatever Gold only excepted doth contain more parts in so small a bulk nor consequently more Ansulae or Fastnings whereon the Magnetique Hooks of the Earth are fixable in order to its attraction downward and on the contrary that the so little Gravity of the Aer depends on a quite dissimilar Contexture of its insensible particles of which it is composed by which they are far less closely and contiguously adapted each to other and so incomparably fewer of them are contained in the like space and consequently have incomparably fewer Ansulae or Fastnings whereon the Hooks of the Magnetick Chains of the Earth may be fixed having we said made this probable conjecture what can be required more at our hands then to arrest Curiosity with this solution that the Aer is of such a Nature i. e. consisteth of such insensible particles and such Inane Spaces interspersed among them as that it is an essential propriety of it to resist compression to such a determinate rate and not beyond Had we bin born such Lyncei as to have had a clear and perspect Knowledge of the Atoms of Aer of their Figure magnitude the dimensions of the Inane spaces intercepted among them of the facility or difficulty of their reciprocal adaptation of the measure of their Attraction the manner and velocity of their Tendency c. then indeed might we without any complex circumambage of Discourse have rendered the express and proper Reason why the Aer doth yeild praecisely so much and no more to the Gravity of the Quicksilver compressing it Since we were not it may be reputed both honour and satisfaction to say that it is essential to the Natures of Mercury and Aer thus and thus opposed to produce such and only such an Effect However that we may not dismiss our Reader absolutely jejune who came hither with so great an Appetite we observe to him that the constant subsistence of the Mercury at the altitude of 27 digits doth seem rather to proceed from the manifest Resistence of the Aer then from any secret Quality in the Mercury unless its proportion of Gravity be so conceived This may be collected from hence that Water infused into the Tube doth also descend to the point of Aequipondium and stops at the altitude of 32 Feet nor more nor less and in that altitude becomes aequiponderant to the Mercury of 27 digits So that it is manifest that with what Liquor soever the Tube be filled still will the Aer resist its deflux at a certain measure provided only that the Tube be long enough to receive so much of it as the weight thereof may equal that of the Mercury at 27 digits or the Water at 32 feet Here we meet an opportunity also of observing to Him by how admirable an Analogy this respective Aequality of the weights of Quicksilver and Water in these so different altitudes doth consent with the absolute weight of each When as the weight of Quicksilver carries the same proportion to the weight of Water of the same measure or quantity as 14 to 1 so reciprocally doth the Altitude of 32 feet carry the same proportion to 27 digits as 14 to 1. And hence comes it that if Water be sâ—peraffused upon the restagnant Quicksilver in the vessel under the Tube the Quicksilver doth instantly ascend above the standard of 27 digits higher by a 14 â—â— part of the water superaffused Which truly is no immanifest argument that the Aer according to the measure of its weight or the praecise rate
God as well Praeterite and Future as Praesent time and most eminently in the Revelation He is described 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that is and was and is to come 3 God Himself doth frequently enunciate many actions not that He now doth but that He hath formerly done and will do in the future in that moment of opportunity which His Wisdom hath praedetermined Hence also expulsed They fly to their last fortress viz. If Eternity be not one permanet Now then cannot all things be praesent to God objectively But vain is their hope of security in this also For many things if we respect the when of their existence have already been and as many are not yet but because the Omniscience of God pervades as well the darkness of past as of praesent Time and alwayes speculates all things most clearly and distinctly therefore do we say that all things are objects to His Opticks or that all things are praesent to His Cognition not that He knows all things to be praesent at once altogether but that He hath before Him at once all the diversities of Times and as perfectly contemplates them Future and Praeterite as Praesent For the Divine Intellect doth not apprehend Objects as the Humane one after another or in a successive and syntactical series but grasps all things together in one entire act of Cognition and comprehends in one simple intuition whatever hath been or may be known And therefore our opinion is not at all impugned by that sacred sentence All things are open and naked to His eyes and He calls upon those things that are not as if they were Hereupon some have with unpardonable temerity and incogitancy inferred that ONCE there was no Time for in this their very denial they openly confess that Time hath ever been it being all one as if they had said There was a Time when there was no Time Lastly as the Omniscience of God cannot be indubitated by our persuasion of the Identity of Eternity and Time so neither can His Immutability as Aristotle would have it only for this Reason forsooth that Time or that Duration which hath successive and so prior and posterior parts is the General Cause of Corruption For our praecedent Discourse hath left no room for the intrusion of that futile Objection insomuch as it rather commonstrateth the Divine Nature to be so Constant and Perfect that in the eternal flux of Time it can know nothing of Innovation or Corruption Besides Time or the succession of Duration is not the Cause that induceth Corruption but the Native Imbecillity of compound Natures invaded and subdued by some Contrary Agent and God is a Pure Simple Homogeneous substance and so not subject to the invasion of any Contrary Evident it is therefore that Aristotle when He urged this Sophism spoke more like a Poet then a Philosopher since Poets only use to give Time the Epithite of Edax rerum nor could He be so absurd as to dream that Time was a vast Animal with sharp teeth an insatiate appetite and a belly inexplebile or an old man armed with a Sithe as the Poets describe Saturn making 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Saturn and Time one and the same thing For Time really doth neither Eat nor Mow down any thing and the Dissolution of all Create compound Natures can be imputed to no other Cause but the Domestick Hostility of their Heterogenieties or the uncessant intestine warr of their Elements from whose commixture their Compositions or Concretions did first result With this qualification therefore we are not angry at that of Periander in Stobaeus Tempus est Causa omnium rerum because in the process of Time all things have their origin state and declination In this restrained sense we also tolerate the saying of Thales Milesius quoted by Laertius Tempus est sapientissimum since Time produceth Experience and Experience Prudence And that Antitheton of Pharon the Pythagorean recited by Aristotle Tempus est Ineruditissimum because in process of Time the Memory of all things is obliterated and so oblivion may well be called the Hand-maid of Time that perpetually follows at the heels of her Mistriss Our Clue of thoughts concerning Time is now wholly unravelled and though we may not praesume that we have therewith led the mind of our Reader through all the mysteries of its Nature yet may we hope that it may serve as a conduct to those who have a more ample stock of Learning and Perspicacity for the support and encouragement of their Curiosity at least that the Attentive and Judicious may easily collect from thence that we have upon no Interest but that main one of Verity withdrawn our assent from the common Doctrine of the Schools that Eternity is one permanent Now without Succession or Priority and Posteriority of Moments The Second Book CHAP. I. The Existence of Atoms Evicted SECT I. AMong infinite other hypochondriack Conceits of the Teutonick rather Fanatique Philosophers they frequently adscribe a Dark and a Light side to God determining the Essence of Hell in the one and that of Heaven in the other Whether the expression be proper and decent enough to be tolerated requires the arbitration of only a mean and vulgar judgment We shall only affirm that had they accommodated the same to the shadow or Vicegerent General of God to Nature their Dialect had been as more familiar to our capacity so more worthy our imitation For that the INCORPOREAL and therefore Invisible part of the Universe the Inane Space may bear the name of the DARK and the CORPOREAL and visible part of the LUMINOUS side of Nature seems consentaneous to reason On the First hath the eye of our Mind been thus long levelled taking in by collateral and digressive glances the Essential Proprieties of Place and Time the one of which is absolutely Identical the other perfectly Analogous to Inanity on the other we are now to convert it and with more then common attention therein to speculate the Catholique Principles Motions and Mutations or Generation and Corruption of BODIES All Bodies by an universal Distinction are either 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such from the convention and coalition of which all Concretions result familiarly called by Physiologists Principia Primordia Componentia but most commonly Elementa and Materia Prima Or 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as consist of the former coacervated and coalesced or such as are composed of many single particles Component The Former were made by Creation and are superiour to Corruption the Later are produced by Generation and reducible by Corruption The First are Simple and Originary such as Plato intends in Phaedro when he saith Principii nullam esse originem quoniam ex ipso principio oriuntur omnia the other Compound and Secondary such as Lucretius lib. 1. understands by his Concilio quae constant principiorum What these First Simple Ingenerable Incorruptible
some latitude and liberty of sense they may be conceded Elements or Principles of the Universe yet doth it not naturally follow that therefore they must be equal Principles or Elements of Generables since Atoms only fulfill that title the Inane Space affording only Place and Discrimination Nor is it probable that those who had defined Vacuity by Incorporiety should lapse into so manifest a Contradiction as to allow it to be any Cause of Corporiety or to constitute one moiety of Bodies Besides neither can Epicurus in any of those Fragments of his redeemed from the jaws of oblivion by Laertius Cicero Empiricus Plutarch c. nor his faithful Disciple and Paraphrast Lucretius in all his Physiology be found to have affirmed the Contexture of any Concretion from Inanity but of all things simply and solely from Atoms And for Democritus him doth even Aristotle himself wholly acquit of this Error for in 1. Phys. enumerating the several opinions of the Ancients concerning the Principles or Elements of all things He saith of him Fecit principiorum Genus unicum Figuras verò differentes All therefore that lyeth against them in this case is only that they asserted the interspersion or dissemination of Inanity among the incontingent particles of Bodies concrete as of absolute necessity to their peculiar Contemperation which we conceive our selves obliged to embrace and defend untill it shall be proved unto us by more then paralogistical arguments that there is any one Concretion in the world so perfectly solid as to contain nothing of the Inane Space intermixt which till it can be demonstrated that a Concretion may be so solid as to be Indissoluble we have no cause to expect Secondly That the Patrons of Atoms do not as the malice of some and incogitancy of others hath praetended to cast disparagement upon their Theory deny the Existence of those four Elements admitted by most Philosophers but allow them to be Elementa Secundaria Elements Elementated i. e. consisting of Atoms as their First and Highest Principles Thus much we may certifie from that of Lucretius 2. lib. treating of Atoms Unde mare Terrae possent augescere unde Adpareret spatium Coeli domus altaque tecta Tolleret a terris procul consurgeret Aer c. Nor can the most subtle of their Adversaries make this their Tenet bear an action of trespass against right Reason especially when their Advocate shall urge the great Dissent of the Ancients concerning both the Number and Original of Elements the insufficiency of any one Element to the Production of Compound Natures and that the four vulgar Elements cannot justly be honoured with the Attributes of the First Matter 1 The Dissent of the Ancients about the number of Elements cannot be unknown to any who hath revolved their monuments and taken a list of their several opinions their own or their Scholiasts volumes lying open to record that of those who fixt upon the four Vulgar Elements Fire Aer Earth Water for the universal Principles some constituted only one single first Principle from which by Consideration and Rarefaction the other three did proceed and from them all Elementated Concretions among which are Heraclitus who selected Fire Anaximenes who pitched upon Aer Thales Milesius who praeferred Water and Pherecydes who was for Earth Others supposed only Two primary from which likewise by Condensation and Rarefaction the other two secondary were produced as Xenophanes would have Earth and Water Parmenides contended for Fire and Earth Oenopides Chius for Fire and Aer and Hippo Rheginus for Fire and Water Others advanced one step higher and there acquiesced in Three as Onomacritus and his Proselytes affirmed Fire Water and Earth And some made out the Quaternian and superadded also Aer the Principal of which was Empedocles Now to him who remembers that there can be but one Truth and thereupon justly inferrs that of many disagreeing opinions concerning one and the same subject either all or all except one must be false and that it is not easie which to prefer when they are all made equally plausible by a parity of specious Arguments it cannot appear either a defect of judgment or an affectation of singularity in Democritus and Epicurus to have suspected them all of incertitude and founded their Physiology on an Hypothesis of one single Principle Atoms from the various transposition configuration motion and quiescence of whose insensible Particles all the four generally admitted Elements may be derived and into which they may at the term of Exsolubility revert without the least hazard of Absurdity or Impossibility as will fall to our ample enunciation in our subsequent Enquiries into the Originals of Qualities and the Causes of Generation and Corruption 2 That one of the four Elements cannot singly suffice to the production of any Compound Nature needs no other eviction but that Argument of Hippocrates de Natur. Hominis Quo pacto cùm unum existat generabit aliquid nisi cùm aliquo misceatur Instance we in Heraclitus Proto-Element Fire from which nothing but Fire can be educed though it run through all the degrees of those fertile Modifications of Densescence and Rarescence 2 To suppose Rarefaction and Condensation without the more or less of Inanity intercepted as they do is to usurp the concession of an Impossibility 3 T is absurd to conceive Fire transformable by Extinction into any other Element because a simple substance cannot be subject to essential transmutation So that if after its extinction any thing of Fire remain as must till Adnihilation be admitted its surviving part must be the Common Matter such as Atoms which according to the various and respective addition detraction transposition agitation or quiet of them now put on the form of Fire then of Aer anon of Water and lastly of Earth since in their original simplicity they have no actual but a potential Determination to the forms of all indiscriminately And what is here urged to evince the impossibility of Fires being the sole Catholique Element carrieth the same proportion of reason and evidence the two pathognomick characters of Verity to subvert the supposition of any of the other three for the substantial Principle of the rest 3 That though the four vulgar Elements may be the Father yet can they not be the Grandfather Principle to all Concretions is evidencible from hence 1 They are Contrary each to other and so not only Asymbolical or Disharmonious but perfectly Destructive among themselves at least uncapable of that mutual correspondence requisite to peaceful and durable Coalescence 2 They are praesumed to coalesce and their Concretions to consist without Inanity interspersed among their incontiguous particles which is impossible 3 Their Defendants themselves concede a degree of Dissolution beyond them and consequently that they know a Principle Senior 4 Their Patrons must grant either that they by a praevious deperdition of their own nature are changed into Concretions which by mutation
Regions allowable therein the one Upward from whence without any terminus à quo Atoms flowed the other Dowâ—ward toward which without any terminus ad quem in a direct line they tended So that according to this wild dream any coast from whence Atoms stream may be called Above and any to which they direct their course Below insomuch as He conceited the superfice of the Earth on which our feet find the Centre of Gravity in standing or progression to be one continued plane and the whole Horizon above it likewise a continued plane running on in extent not only to the Firmament but the intire immensity of the Infinite Space According to which Dâ—lirament if several weights should fall down from the firmament one upon Europe another upon Asia a third upon Africa a fourth upon America and their motion be supposed to continue beyond the exteriors of the terrestrial Globe they could not meet in the Centre thereof but would transfix the four quarters in lines exquisitely parallel and still descend at equal distance each from other untill the determination of their motion in the infinite Space by the occurse and resistence of other greater Weighâ—â— For the Declinatory Motion we observe that Epicurus was by a kind of seeming necessity constrained to the Fiction thereof since otherwise He had left his fundamental Hypothesis manifestly imperfect his Principles destitute of a Cause for their Convention Conflictation Cohaerence and consequently no possibility of the emergency of Concretions from them And therefore to what Cicero in â— de fin objects against him viz. that he acquiesced in a supposition meerly praecarious since he could assign no Cause for this motion of Declination but usurped the indecent liberty of endowing his Atoms with what Faculties he thought advantagious to the explanation of Natures Phaenomena in Generation and Corruption we may modestly respond by way of excuse not justification that such is the â—â—becillity of Human understanding as that every Author of a physiological â—abrick or mundane Systeme is no less obnoxious to the same objection of praesuming to consign Provinces for the phrase of Cicero is dare provincias principiis to his Principles then Epicurus For in Concretionâ— or Complex Natures to determine on a reason for this or that sensible Affection is no desperate difficulty since the condition of praeassumed Principles may afford it but concerning the originary Causes of those Affections inhaerent in and congenial to the Principles of those Concretions all we can say to decline a downright confession of our ignorance is no more then this that such is the necessity of their peculiar Nature the proper and germane 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 remaining in the dark to us and so our Curiosity put to the shift of simple Conjecture unless we level our thoughts above Principles and acknowledge no term of acquiescence And even the acute and perspicacious Cicero notwithstanding his reprehension of it in Epicurus is forced to avow the inevitability of this Exigent in express words thus Ne omnes à Physicis irrideamur si dicamus quicquam fieri siâ—e Causa distinguendum est ita dicenaum ipsius Individui hanc esse naturam iâ— pondere gravitate moveatur eamque ipsam esse Caussam cur ita feratur c. Nor is this Crime of consigning provinces to his Principles proper only to Epicurus but common also to the Stoick Peripatetick c. since none of them hath adventured upon a reason of the Heat of Fire the Cold of Water the Gravity of Earth c. Doubtless had Cicero been interrogated Why all the Starrs are not carried on in a motion parallel to the Aequator but some steer their course obliquely why all the Planets travel not through the Ecliptick or at least in a motion parallel thereto but some approach it obliquely the best answer He could have thought upon must have been only this ita Natuâ—ae leges â—erehant which how much beseeming the perspicacity of a Physiologist more then to have excogitated Fundamentals of his own endowed with inhaerent Faculties to cause those diverse tendencies we referr to the easie arbitration of our Reader Concerning the Accidental or Reflex Motâ—on all that is worthy our serious notice is only this that when Epicurus subdivideth this Genus into two species namely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ex plaga and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ex concussione and affirmeth that all those Atoms which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 moved upward pursue both sorts of this Reflex tendency we are not to understand him in this sense that both these kinds of Reflex motion are opposite to the Perpendicular since it is obvious to every man that Atoms respective to their Direct or Oblique incidence in the different points of their superfice may make or rather suffer or direct or oblique resilitions and Epicurus expresly distinguisheth the Motion from Collision or Arietation into that which pointeth upward and that which pointeth sidewayes but in this that he might constitute a certain Generical Difference whereby both the species of Reflex motion might be known from both the species of the Perpendicular For the further illustration of this obscure Distinction and to praevent that considerable Demand which is consequent thereto viz. Whether all the possible sorts of Reâ—â—ex Motion are only two the one directly Upward the other directly Lateral we advertise that Epicurus seems to have alluded to the most sensible of simple Differences in the Pulse of Animals For as Physitians when the Pulsifick Faculty distends the Artery so amply and allows so great a space to the performance of both those successive contrary motions the Diastole and Systole as that the touch doth apprehend each stroke fully and distinctly denominate that kind of Pulse 〈◊〉 and on the contrary when the vibrations of the Artery are contracted into a very little space as well of the ambient as of time so as they are narrow and confusedly praesented to the touch they call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so likewise Epicurus terms that kind of Rebound or Resilition which by a strong and direct incurse and arietation of one Atom against another is made to a considerable distance or continued through a notable interval of space 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and on the contrary that which is terminated in a short or narrow interval which comes to pass when the resilient Atom soon falls foul upon a second and is thereby reviberated upon a third which repercusseth it upon a fourth whereby it is again bandied against a fifth and so successively agitated until it endure a perfect Palpitation he styles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Upon this our Master Galen may be thought to have cast an eye when he said lib. de facult nat it was the opinion of Epicurus Omnes attractiones per resilitiones atque implexiones Atomorum fieri that all Attractions were caused by the Resilitions and Implexions of Atoms Which eminent passage in Galen not only
assisted but interpreted by another of Plato Magnetem non per Attractionem sed Impulsionem agere in Timaeo of the same import hath given the hint to Des Cartes Regius Sir K. Digby and some other of our late Enquirers of supposing the Attractive rather Impulsive Virtue of the Loadstone and all other bodies Electrical to consist in the Recess or Return of those continued Effluvia or invisible filaments of streated Atoms which are uncessantly exhaled from their pores Nor doth He much strain these words of Gilbert Effluvia illa tenuiora concipiunt amplectuntur corpora quibus Uniuntur Electris tanquam extensis brachiis ad fontem prope invalescentibus effluviis deducuntur who hath charged them with the like signification As to the SECOND viz. the Perpetuity of these Motions adscribed to Atoms we think it not a little material to give you to understand at least to recognize that the conceptions of Epicurus concerning this particular are cozen Germans to Chimaera s and but one degree removed from the monstrous absurdities of Lunacy For He dreamt and then believed that all Atoms were from all Eternity endowed by the charter of their uncreate and independent Essence with that ingenite Vigour or internal Energy called Gravity whereby they are variously agitated in the infinite space without respect to any Centre or General term of Consistence so as they could never discontinue that natural motion unless they met and encountred other Atoms and were by their shock or impulse deflected into another course That the Dissilient or deflected Atoms whether rebounding upwards directly or ad latus obliquely or in any line intercedent betwixt those two different regions would also indeâ—inently pursue that begun motion unless they were impeded and diverted again by the occurse and arietation of some others floating in the same part of space And that because the Revibrations or Resilitions of Atoms regarding several points of the immense space like Bees variously interweaving in a swarm must be perpetual therefore also must they never quiesce but be as variously and constantly exagitated eveâ— in the most solid or adamantine of Concretions though the sense cannot deprehend the least inquietude or intestine tumultuation therein and the rather in respect of those Grotesques or minute Inanities densely intermixed among their insensible particles To explicate this Riddle we must praesent some certain adumbration of this intestine aestuation or commotion of Atoms in Concretions and this may most conveniently be done in melted Mettals as particularly in Lead yet floating in the Fusory vessel To apparence nothing more quiet and calm yet really no quicksand more internally tumultuated For the insensible particles of Fire having penetrated the body of the crucible or melting pan and so permeating the pores of the Lead therein contained because they cannot return back upon the subjacent fire in regard they are uncessantly impelled by other ingeneous particles continually succeeding on their heels therefore are they still protruded on untill they disunite all the particles of the Lead and by the pernicity and continuation of this their ebullition hinder them from mutual revinction and coalescence and thereby make the Lead a fluid of a compact substance and so keep it as long as the succussion of igneous particles is maintained from the fire underneath During this act of Fusion think we with what violence or pernicity the Atoms of Fire are agitated up and down from one side to another in the small inanities interspersed among the particles of the Lead otherwise they could not dissolve the compact tenour thereof and change their positions so as to introduce manifest Fluidity and since every particle of the Lead suffers as many various concussions repercussions and repeated vibrations as every particle of Fire how great must be the Commotion on both sides notwithstanding the seeming quiet in the surface of the Lead But because our sense as well as our Reason may have some satisfaction touching the perpetual Commotion of Atoms even in Compositions we offer to Exemplifie the same either in the Spirit of Halinitre or that which Chymists usually extract from Crude Mercury Tin and Sublimate codissolved in a convenient menstruum For either of these Liquors being close kept in a luted glass you may plainly perceive the minute moleculae or seminarie conventions of Atoms of which it doth consist to be uncessantly moved every way upward downward transverse oblique c. in a kind of fierce aestuation as if goaded on by their inhaerent Motor or internal impulsive Faculty they attempted speedy emergency at all points most like a multitude of Flyes imprisoned in a glass Vial. Now the Argument that seems to have induced Epicurus to concede this perpetual Inquietude of Atoms was the inevitable mutation of all Concrete Substances caused by the continual Access and Recess of their insensible particles For indeed no Concretion is so compact and solid as not to contain within it self the possible Causes of its utter Dissolution yea though it were so immured in Adamant as to be thought secure from the hostile invasion of any Extrinsecal Agent whatever And the ruine of solid bodies i. e. such whose parts are of the most compact Contexture allowable to Concretions cannot be so reasonably adscribed to any Cause as this that they are compacted of such Principles as are indeâ—inently motive and in perpetual endeavour of Emergency or Exsilition so that never desisting from internal evolutions circumgyrations and other changes of position they at length infringe that manner of reciprocal Coaptation Cohaesion and Revinction which determined their solidity and thereby dissolving the Compositum they wholly emancipate themselves obey their restless tendency at randome and disappear This faeculent Doctrine of Epicurus we had occasion to examine and refine all the dross either of Absurdity or Atheism in our Chapter concerning the Creation of the World ex nihilo in our Book against Atheism However we may not dismiss our Reader without this short Animadversion The Positions to be exploded are 1 That Atoms were Eternally existent in the infinite space 2 that their Motive Faculty was eternally inhaerent in them and not derived by impression from any External Principle 3 that their congenial Gravity affects no Centre 4 that their Declinatory motion from a perpendicular is connatural to them with that of perpendicular descent from Gravity Those which we may with good advantage substitute in their stead are 1 That Atoms were produced ex nihilo or created by God as the sufficient Materials of the World in that part of Eternity which seemed opportune to his infinite Wisdom 2 that at their Creation God invigorated or impraegnated them with an Internal Energy or Faculty Motive which may be conceived the First Cause of all Natural Actions or Motions for they are indistinguishable performed in the World 3 that their gravity cannot subsist without a Centre 4 that their internal Motive Virtue necessitates their perpetual
Causes why a Concave Glass whose Concavity consisteth of the segment of an Ellipsis reflecteth the rayes of the Sun in a more Acute Angle and consequently burneth both more vigorously and at greater Distance then one whose Concavity is the segment of a Parabola and why a Parabolical Section reflecteth them in an Angle more Acute and so burneth both at greater distance and more vigorously than the Section of Circle Especally if we familiarize this theory by the accommodation of these Figures Thus have we in a short Discourse not exceeding the narrow limits of a single Article intelligibly explicated the Cause of that so much admired Disparity in the Effects of Plane Convex and Concave Glasses as well Dioptrical or Trajecting the rayes of Light into the Aer beyond them as Catoptrical or Reflecting them back again from their obverted superfice And we ask leave to encrease our Digression only with this CONSECTARY Because the Rayes of Light and the rayes of visible Images are Analogical in their nature and flow hand in hand together into the Eye in the act of Vision therefore is it that to a man using a Plane Perspicil an object alwayes appears the same i. e. equal in dimensions and distinction of parts as it doth to his naked Eye by reason the Angle of its Extreams is the same in the Plane Glass as in the Eye But to a man using a Convex Perspicil an object appears Greater because the Angle of its Extreams is ampliâ—ied and through a Concave Less because the Angle is diminished In like manner the Image of an object reflected from a Plane Mirrour appears the same to the Spectator as if Deradiated immediately or without reflexion from the object it self because the Reflex Angle is equal to the Direct but the Image of an Object Reflected from a Convex Mirrour appears Less because the Angle of its Reflection is less than that of its Direction and from a Concave Greater because the Reflex Angle is greater than the Direct This may be autoptically Demonstrated thus If you admit the Image of a man or any thing else through a small perforation of the wall into an obscure chamber and fix a Convex Lens in the perforation with the Convex side toward the Light you shall admoving your eye thereto at Convenient distance observe the transmitted Image to be Amplified but receiving the Image on a sheet of white Paper posited where your Eye was you shall perceive it to be Minorated the Contrary Effect arising from a Concave Lens posited in the hole with its Concave side toward the Light And this because the Convex Congregating the rayes into the Pupill of the Eye and so making the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Apparition Greater for the cause formerly exposited doth also Congregate them on the Paper and therefore the Image cannot appear Contracted or Minorated but on the contrary the Concave Disgregating the rayes from the Pupil and so making the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Apparition less in the Retina of the Optick Nerve doth also Disgregate or diffuse them largely on all parts of the Paper and so the Image thereon received cannot but appear much Amplified SECT IV. HItherto we have in some degree of satisfaction explicated the Manner how by the Incursion of substantial Images deraâ—â—ated from the object to the Eye the Visive Faculty comes to apprehend the Colour Figure Magnitude Number and Distance of objects and therefore it remains only to the Complement of our present Designation that we explore the Reasons of the Perception of the Situation Quiet and Motion of objects by the sight To our more perspicuous solution of which notable Difficulty and to the illustration of many passages precedent in the two last Sections it must be confest not only ornamental or advantageous but simply necessary that we here Anatomize the whole Eye and consider the proper Uses of the several parts thereof those especially that are either immediately and primarily instrumental or only secundarily inservient to Vision But because the Axe of the Visive Pyramid is a perpendicular line beginning in the Extrems of the object and ending in the Amphiblestroides had the Eye been nailed or fixt in its orbita we must have been necessitated to traverse the whole Machine of the body for a position thereof convenient to Vision since it can distinctly apprehend no object but what lyes è directo opposite or have had this semi-rational sense whose glory builds on Variety restrained to the speculation of so few things that we should have received more Discomfort from their Paucity than either Information or Delight from their Discernment therefore that we might enjoy a more enlarged Prospect and read the whole Hemisphere over in one momentany act of Vision Nature hath furnished the Eyes with Muscles or Organs of agility that so they may accommodate themselves to every visible and hold a voluntary verlisity to the intended object Parâ—â—ula sic magnum pervisit Pupula Coelum And of these Ocular Muscles there are in Man just so many as there are kinds of Motion 4 Direct and 2 Oblique or Circular all situate within the Orbita and associated to the Optick Nerve and conjoining their Tendons at the Horny Membrane they constitute the Tunica Innomitata so named by Columbus who arrogates the invention thereof to himself though Galen lib. 10. de usu part cap. 2. makes express mention of it The First of the four Direct Muscles implanted in the superiour part of the Eye draweth it Upward whence it is denominated Atollens the Lifter up and Superbus the Proud because this is that we use in Haughty and sublime looks The Second situate in the inferiour part of the Eye and Antagonist to the former stoops the Eye Downward and thence is called Deprimens the Depressor and Humilis the Humble for this position of the eye speaks the Dejection and Humility of the Mind The Third fastned in the Major Canthus or great angle of the Eye and converting it toward the Nose is therefore named Adducens the Adducent and Bibitorius for in large draughts we frequently contract it The Fourth opposite both in situation and office to the former abduceth the Eye laterally toward the Ear and is therefore named Abducens and Indignatorius the scorning muscle for when we would cast a glance of scorn contempt or indignation we contract the Eye towards the outward angle by the help of this muscle If all these Four work together the Eye is retracted inward fixt and immote which kind of Motion Physitians call Motus Tonicus and in our language the Sett or Wist Look Of the â—blâ—que Muscles the First running betwixt the Eye and the tendons of the Second and Third Muscles by the outward angle ascends to the superior part of the Eye and inserted near to the Rainbow circumgyrates the Eye downward The Second and smallest twisted into a long tendon circumrotates the Eye toward
causeth it not to be absolutely Invisible And hence is it that we have several Degrees or gradual Differences of Black comparative to the several degrees of shadow progressing till we arrive at perfect Darkness and that we can behold nothing so black which may not admit of deeper and deeper blackness according to its greater and greater recess from light and nearer and nearer access to absolute Opacity To reason therefore is it consonant that all Bodies whose natural Hew is Black are composed of such insensible particles whose surfaces are scabrous rough or craggy and their Contexture so Rare or loose as that they rather imbibe or swallow up the incident rayes of light than reflect them outwardly toward the eye of the Spectator Of this sort the most memorable yet discovered is the Obsidian stone so much admired and celebrated among the Romans whose substance being conflated of scabrous and loosely contexed Atoms causeth it to appear a perfect Negro though held in the Meridian Sun-shine because the rayes invading it are for the most part as it were absorpt and stifled in the small and numerous Caverns and Meanders variously interspersed among its component particles Which common and illiterate eyes beholding delude their curiosity with this refuge that it hath an Antipathy to Light and doth therefore reflect it converted into shadows The Generation of the Two Extreme and Ground Colours White and Black being attained by this kind of inquest into the Rolls of reason the Former deriving it self from Light either immediately and in direct lines profluent from its fountain or by reflection from bodies whose superficial particles are sphaerical and polite the Later from the Negation of Light there can be no great difficulty remaining concerning the Genealogy of all other INTERMEDIATE ones since they are but the off-spring of the Extreme arising from the intermission of Light and shadow in various proportions or more plainly that the sense of them is caused in the Retina Tunica according to the variety of Reflections and Refractions that the incident Light suffers from the superficial particles of objects in manner exactly analogous to that of the Evanid Colours observed in sphaerical Glasses replete with Water in Prismes interposed betwixt the object and eye in angular Diamonds Opalls c. For even our sense demonstrates that they are nothing but certain Perturbations or Modifications of Light interspersed with Umbrellaes or small shadows The Verisimility of this may be evinced from the Sympathy and Antipathy of these intermediate Colours among themselves For the Reason why Yellow holds a sympathy or symbolical relation with Vermillion and Green and Green with Sky-colour and Yellow as the experience of Painters testifieth who educe a yellow Pigment out of Vermillion and Green in due proportions commixt upon their Palatts and reciprocally Green out of Yellow and Sky-colour in unaequal but determinate quantities contempered is no other but the Affinity of their respective Causes or only gradually different manners of Light reflected and refracted and intermixt with minute and singly imperceptible shadows And on the contrary the Reason of the Antipathy or Asymbolical relation betwixt a saffron Yellow and a Caerule betwixt a Green and a Rose colour into which a saffron yellow degenerates and betwixt a Yellow and Purple into which a Caerule degenerates can be nothing else but the Dissimilitude or Remoteness of their respective Causes since things so remotely Discrepant are incapable of Conciliation into a Third or Neutral or rather Amphidectical Nature but by the mediation of something that is participant of both This the Philosopher glanced at in his Colores misceri videntur quemadmâ—dum soni ita enim qui eximium quoddam proportionis genus servant hi Consonantiarum more omnium suavissimi sunt ceu purpâ—reus puniceus c. de sens sensil cap. 3. We say that all these Intermediate Colours emerge from the various intermistion of Light and small shadows because to the production of each of them from reflected or refracted Light or both the interposition of minute and separately invisible shadows is indispensably Necessary Which may be evidenced even from hence that Colors are not by Prismes appinged on bodies but in their Margines or Extremes there where is not only the general Commissure of Light and Shadows but also an Inaequality of superfice which by how much the more scabrous or rough by so much the more are the Colours apparent thereon ampliated in Latitude For since there is no superfice however smooth and equal to the sense devoid of many Extancies and Cavities as we have more then once profestly declared it is of necessity that betwixt the confronting sides of the Extancies reflecting the rays of light hither and thither there should be intercedent small shadows in the interjacent Cavities from which no light is reflected And hence is it that in an object speculated through a Prism the Caerule colour appears so much the more Dense and lively by how much the nearer to the limbus or Extreme of the Object it is appinged because in that place is the greater proportion of small shadows and è contra so much more Dilute and Pale by how much farther it recedeth from the Margin insomuch that it degenerates or dwindles at last into weak Sea-Green or Willow in its inmost part because in that place is the greater proportion of Light Conformable to that rule of Athanas. Kircher Art Magn. Lucis Umbrae lib. 1. part 2. cap. 1. Differunt autem Umbra Fulgores majore minore vel candore nigrore prout vel Fonti lucis aut tenebrarum propriores fuerint vel à fonte longius recesserint in quo luce obscuritate summa sunt utraque Unde patet quantò Fulgores a luce magis recesserint tanto plus Nigredinis quantò a tenebris magis recesserint Umbrae diminuto nigrore tanto plus albedinis acquirere quae omnia Visus judicare potest The same proportionately we conceive to hold good also in all Bodies whose Colours are Genuine or apparent to the naked Eye chiefly because we may lawfully conceive that every particle of every hair in a Scarlet or Violet coloured Cloth is consimilar in disposition to the particles in the extremes of an Object speculated through a Prism and hold it purely Consequential thereupon that light may arrive at the Eye from them with the like Reflections and Intermistion with shadows as from the extremes of the Reflectent Body through the Glass which advanceth its commixture with small shadows And what we affirm of Scarlet and Violet may also with no less Congruity be accommodated to Yellow and Sea-Green allowing the same proportion and modification of Light and Shadows in them as in that part of the superfice of any other body on which the Prism doth appinge them and in like manner to all other Colorate objects whose Tinctures bear any Affinity to either of these four specified or arise from
Sound is produced in any part of the whole intermediate space betwixt CD And the Ground These stand upon is the Experience of Cloth which being violently shook in the aer for the excussion of dust doth only then emit a smart sound or Rapp when attaining the extremity of its Flexion it percusseth the superior aer and is in the manner of Sails swelled up by the inferior aer But in this instance and that consimilar one of Coach-whips it is almost evident even to the eye that the Rapp is made only by the Doubling of the Cloth or Chord at the end of their Flexion and therefore we are not convinced that the Concinnous Sound is then begun as these persuade in either C or D the period of each Flexion especially when the Chord in C and D seems rather to quiesce than move and some quiet must intercede betwixt two contrary motions of the same thing 4 But â—nsomuch as all sounds are caused by the Motion of the Aer and the Sound alwayes is loudest where the Motion of the Aer is most rapid 〈…〉 the whole sonorous line or space betwixt C and E the motion of the Aer intercluded is most swift when the Chord returns from C to E therefore doth Mersennus to whose judgment we most incline in this nicety conclude that the Harmonical sound is begun in the beginning of the first Recurse of the Chord from C to E and that it is then of the same Acuteness as are all the subsequent sounds made by the subsequent Recurses because the reason of the First Recurse seems to be the same with that of all the consequent To this some have objected that the sound of the First Recurse is too Expedite and short to be perceived by the Ear since even the Eye incomparably more prompt in the discernment of visibles cannot behold an object whose Apparence or Praesence exceeds not the Duration of the foresaid Recurse of the Chord from the extreme of its flexion C to E which doth scarce endure the â—600 part of a minute But this objection is soon dissolved by Experience which testifieth that if a quill or other impediment be placed some small space beyond E towards D so that the Chord may complete its first Recurse from C to E without interruption then will a sound be created and such as hath sufficient Acuteness though it be scarce momentany in Duration because the frequency of its Recurses is praevented Many other Problems there are concerning the Reasons of Sounds wherewith the insatiate Curiosity of Naturalists hath entertained it self in all ages but among them all we shall take cognizance of only those more eminent ones which as they seem most irreconcilably repugnant to our Theory when proposed so must they much confirm and illustrate the dignity thereof when clearly Dissolved by us without the least contradiction to or apostacy from our Principles assumed Since the unstrained Solution of the most difficult Phaenomenaes by the vertue of any Hypothesis is the best argument of its Verity and excellency above others that fail in their Deduction to remote Particulars PROBLEM 2. Whether may a Sound be created in a Vacuum if any such be in Nature SOLUT. To solve this by many accounted inexplicable Aenigme we need only to have recurse to our long since antecedent Distinction of a Vacuity Disseminate and Coacervate for that once entered our judgment we cannot indubitate that ingenious Experiment of Gaspar Berthius laureat Mathematician at Rome frequently and alwayes with honourable Attributes mentioned by Father Kircher in sundry of his Physicomathematical discourses which sensibly demonstrateth the actual production of a Sound in a Disseminate Vacuity The Experiment is thus made Having praepared a large Concave and almost sphaerical Glass aemulating the figure of a Cucurbite or Cupping-glass fix a small Bell such as is usual in striking Watches of the largest size on one side of the concave thereof and a moveable Hammer or striker at fit distance on the other so as the Hammer being elevated may fall upon the skirts of the Bell and then lute or coement on the Glass firmly and closely that all sensible insinuation of the ambient aer be praevented to one extreme of a Glass Tube of about an inch diametre in bore and 8 or 10 feet in length Then reversing the Tube pour into it a sufficient quantity of Quicksilver or Water to fill both it and the Head exactly This done stop the other extreme of the Tube with your finger or other stopple accommodate to the orifice and after gentle inversion immerge the same to a foot depth in a Vessel of Water and withdraw your stopple that so much of the Quicksilver contained in the Head and Tube as is superior in Gravity to the Cylindre of Aer from the summity of the Atmosphere incumbent on the surface of the Water in the subjacent Vessel may fall down leaving a considerable void Space in the superior part of the Tube Lastly apply a vigorous Loadstone to the outside of the Glass Head in the part respecting the moveable extreme of the Hammer that so by its Magnetical Effluxions transmitted through the incontiguities or minute pores of the Glass and fastned on to its Ansulae or smal Holds it may elevate the same which upon the subduction of its Attrahent or Elevator will instantly relapse upon the Bell and by that percussion produce a clear and shrill sound not much weaker than that emitted from the same Bell and Hammer in open aer Now that there is a certain Vacuity in that space of the Head and Tube deserted by the delapsed Quicksilver is sufficiently conspicuous even from hence that the ambient Aer seems so excluded on all hands that it cannot by its Periosis to borrow Platoes word or Circumpulsion succeed into the room abandoned by the Quicksilver and so redintegrate the solution of Continuity as in all other motions And that this Vacuity is not Total or Coacervate but only Gradual or Desseminate may be warrantably inferred from hence 1 That Nature is uncapable of so great a wound as a Coacervate Vacuity of such large dimensions as we have argued in our Chapter of a Vacuum Praeternatural in the First Book 2 That a Sound is produced therein for since a Sound is an Affection of the Aer or rather the Aer is the Material Cause of a Sound were there no aer in the Desert space there could be no Sound Wherefore it is most probable that in this so great distress ingenious Nature doth relieve herself by the insensible transmission of the most aethereal or subtile particles of the Circumpulsed Aer through the small and even with a microscope invisible Pores of the Glass into the Desert Space which replenish it to such a degree as to praevent a Total though not a Dispersed Vacuity therein and though the Grosser Parts of the extremly comprest Aer cannot likewise permeate the same slender or narrow Inlets yet is that
no impediment to the Creation of a Sound therein because the most tenuious and aethereal part of the aer is not only a sufficient but the sole material of a Sound as we have more than intimated in the 15. Art 2. Sect. of the present Chapter The only Difficulty remaining therefore is only this Why the sound made in the disseminate Vacuity should through the Glass-head pass so easily and imperturbed as to be heard by any in the circumstant space when common Experience certifieth that the Report of a Cannon at the distance of only a few yards cannot be heard through a Glass window into a room void of all chinks or crannies Nor need any man despair of expeding it For whoso considers the extraordinary and inscrutable wayes to which Nature frequently recurrs in cases of extreme Necessity and that the Distress she undergoes in the introduction of this violent Vacuity where her usual remedy the Peristaltick motion or Circumpulsion of the Aer is praevented by the interposition of a Solid is much more urgent than that she is put to in the Compression of the ambient aer by the explosion of Canons where the amplitude of uninterrupted space affords freedome of range to the motion imprest we say whoso well considers these things cannot doubt but that it is much easier to Nature to admit the trajection of the Sound produced in the Disseminate Vacuity through the pores of the Glass-head than the transmission of an External Sound into a close Chamber through a Glass window where is no Concavity for the Corroboration or Multiplication of the Sound and consequently where the impulse is far less respective to the quantity of the aer percussed and the resistence as much greater PROBLEM 3. Whence is it that all Sounds seem somewhat more Acute when heard far off and more Grave near at hand when the Contrary Effect is expected from their Causes it being demonstrated that the Gravity of a Sound ariseth mediately at least from the Tardity and Acuteness from the Velocity of the Motion that createth it and many great Clerks have affirmed that the motion of a Sound is less swift far off from than near to its origine according to that General Law of Motion omnia corpora ab externo mota tanto tardius moventur quanto à suo principio remotiora fuerint SOLUT. No Sound is Really but only Apparently more acute at great then at small distance and the Cause of that semblance is meerly this that every Sound near its origine in regard of the more vehement Commotion and proportionate resistence of the Aer dependent on its natural Elater or Expansory Faculty doth suffer some Obtusion or Flatning which gradually diminishing in its progress or Delation through the remoter parts of the Medium the Sound becomes more Clean Even and Exile and that Exility counterfeits a kind of Acuteness PROBLEM 4. Why doth Cold Water in its effusion from a Vessel make a more full and acute noise than Hot or Warm SOLUT. The substance of Cold Water being more Dense and Compact must be more weighty and consequently more swift in its fall and so the noise resulting from its impulsion of the aer more sharp than that of Hot which being rarefied by the fire or made more lax in the contexture of its particles looseth something of its former weight and so hath a slower descent and in respect of that slowness produceth a weaker and flatter sound And this is also the reason why Iron hot yieldeth not so smart and full a sound as when 't is cold PROBLEM 5. Why is the Lowing of a Calf much more Deep or Base than that of an Oxe Cow or Bull at their standard of growth contrary to all other Animals which have their voices more shrill and acute when they are young than when they are old SOLUT. The Cause of this singularity is found only in the peculiar Constitution of the Larynx of a Calf which is in amplitude equal to and in laxity and moysture much exceeds that of an Oxe Cow or Bull full grown and so Age doth Contract and Harden not ampliate the same as in all other Animals and it is well known that the wideness and laxity of the Asper Artery is the cause of all Grave or Base Voyces PROBLEM 6. Why is a Dissonance more easily discovered by the ear in a Barytonous or Base Voyce or Tone than in an Oxytonous or Treble SOLUT. Because the Barytonous voyce is of a slow Motion and the Oxytonous of a swift and the sence doth ever deprehend that object whose apparence is more durable more clearly and distinctly than that whose apparence is only instantaneous or less lasting CHAP. VII OF ODOVRS SECT I. WHoever is natively deprived of any one sense saith Aristotle in Analyticis is much less capable of any Science than He who hath all five Fingers on the left hand of his soul to use the metaphor of Casserius Placentinus in praefat ad lib. de sens Organ or all the Organs of the sensitive Faculty complete and His reason is that General Canon Nihil est in intellectu quod non prius fuerit in sensu the senses being the Windows through which the soul takes in her ideas of the nature of sensible Objects If so whoever hath any one sense less perfect than the others can hardly attain the Knowledge of the nature of objects proper to that sense and upon consequence the Cognition of the Essence of an ODOURE must be so much more difficult to acquire than that of Visibles and Audibles by how much less perfect the sense of SMELLING is in man than the sight and Hearing And that Man generally is not endowed for we may not with our noble Country man Sir Kenelme Digby charge this imperfection altogether upon the Errors of our Diet because we yet want a Parallel for his Iohn of Liege who being bred savagely among wild beasts in the Forrest of Ardenna could wind his pursuers at as great distance as Vultures do their prey and after his Cicuration or reduction to conversation with men retained so much of the former sagacity of his nose that He could hunt out his absen◠friends by the smell of their footsteps like our Blood-Hounds we say that man is not generally endowed with exquisiteness of smell needs no other eviction but this that He doth not deprehend or distinguish any but the stronger or vehement sorts of Odours and those either very offensive or very Grateful But albeit this difficulty of acquiring the knowledge of the Essence and immediate Causes of Odours hath its origine in the native Imperfection of our sense accommodate to the perception thereof yet hath it received no small advance from the obscurity of our Intectuals the Errors of human judgement and the common Effect thereof the contrary Opinions of Philosophers For however they unanimously decree that the proper object of smelling is an Odour and the adaequate
Thomas Iordanus de pestis phaenomen tr 1. cap 18. and Sennertus out of Nich. Polius in Haemerologia Silesiae in lib. de peste cap. 2. Which prodigious Effects clearly proclaim the mighty energy of their Causes and are manifestoes sufficient that Odours justly challenge to themselves those Attributes which are proper onely to Corporiety nor can ought but downright ignorance expect them from the naked Immaterial Qualities or imaginary Images of the Peripatetick 3 The Manner of the Odours moving or Affecting the Sensory can never be explained but by assuming a certain Commensuration or Correspondency betwixt the Particles amassing the Odour and the Contexture of the Olfactory Nerves or Mammillary Processes of the brain delated through the spongy bone For 1 it is Canonical that no Immaterial can Operate upon a Material Physically the inexplicable activity of the Rational Soul upon the body by the mediation of the spirits and that of Angelical essences excepted 2 Though an Odour diffused through the aer chance to touch upon the hands cheeks lips tongue c. yet doth it therein produce no sensation of it self because the Particles of it hold no proportion to either the pores or particles of which those parts are composed but arriving at the organ of smelling it cannot but instantly excite the Faculty therein resident to an actual sensation or apprehension of it in regard of that correspondency in Figure and Contexture which the particles of it hold to the pores and particles of the Odoratory Nerves Certainly as the Contexture of the Odoratory Nerves is altogether different from that of the Tongue and so the minute bodies of them as well as the small spaces intercepted among those minute bodies in all points of their superficies not contingent are likewise of a dissimilar configuration from the particles and intercepted vacuola of the Tongue so also is it necessary that the small bodies which commove and affect the Contexture of the Odoratory Nerves be altogether dissimilar to those which commove and affect the contexture of the Tongue since otherwise all objects would be in common and the Distinction of senses unnecessary Now lest we should seem to beg the Quaestion that the sensation is effected in the Odoratory Nerves only by the Figures of the particles of an Odour and that the variety of Odours depends on the variety of impressions made on the sensory respective to their various figures and contextures this is not obscurely intimated in those formerly recited words of Epicurus Molecularum sive Corpusculorum quaedam perturbate ac discrepanter quaedam verò placide ac leniter seu accommodatè se habere ad olfactus sensorium The substance whereof is this that because the particles and Contexture of some Odours are such that they strike the sensory roughly and discordantly to the contexture thereof therefore are they Ingrateful and on the contrary because other Odours have such particles and such contextures as being smooth in Figure strike the sensory gently evenly and concordantly to the contexture thereof therefore are they Grateful and desiderable We might have introduced Plato himself as lighting the tapor to us in this partâ—cular insomuch as He saith in Timaeo that the sweet sort of Odours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de mulcere quâ inseritur amicabiliter se habere doth softly stroke and cause a certain blandishment in the sensory but that the kinde of noysom or stinking Odours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth in a manner Exasperate and wound it To this Incongruity or Disproportion betwixt offensive smells and the composure of the Odoratory Nerves the profound Fracastorius plainly alludeth in his proportionalitèr autem se habent odores quorum ingratissimus est qui Fâ—tidus appellatur quique abominabili in saporibus respondet nam hic ex iis pariter resultat quae nullam habent digestionem nec rationem mistionis sed confusionem èmultis fere ac diversis qualia fere sunt Putrescentia in quibus dissoluta mistione evaporatio diversorum contingit de sympath antipath cap. 14 importing withal that the reason why the stink of corrupting Carcasses is of all other most noysom is because the odours effuming from them consist of heterogeneous or divers particles If you had rather hear this in Verse be pleased to listen to that Tetrastich of Lucretius Non simile penetrare putes primordia formâ In nares hominum cum taetra Cadavera torrent Et cum Scena Croco Cilici perfusa recens est Araque Panchaeos exhalat propter odores Upon which we may justly thus descant As the hand touching a lock of wool is pleased with the softness of it but grasping a Nettle is injured by that phalanx of villous stings wherewith Nature hath guarded the leaves thereof so are the Nostrills invaded with the odour of Saffron delighted therewith because the particles of it are smooth in figure and of equal contexture but invaded with the odour of a putrid Carcase they are highly offended because the particles thereof are asper in figure and of unequal contexture and so prick and dilacerate the tender sensory Moreover whereas there is so great variety of individual Tempeâ—aments among men and some have the Contexture of their odoratory Nerves exceeding dissimilar to that of others hence may we well derive 〈◊〉 Cause of that so much admired secret Why those Odours which are not onely grateful but even highly cordial to some persons are most odious and almost poysonous to others Infinite are the Examples recorded by Physicians in this kinde but none more memorable than that remembred by Plutarch lib. 1. advers Coloten of Berenice and a certain Spartan woman who meeting each other instantly disliked and fainted because the one smelt of Butter the other of a certain fragrant Ointment However the rarity of the Accident will not permit us to pass over the mention of a Lady of honor and eminent prudence now living in London who doth usually swoon at the smell of a Rose the Queen of sweets and sometimes feasts her nose with Assa faetida the Devils Turd as some call it than which no favour is generally held more abominable and this out of no Affectation for her wisdom and modesty exclude that praetence nor to prevent Fitts of the Mother for she never knew an Hysterical passion but in others in all her life as she hath frequently protested to me who have served her as Physician many years Again as this Assumption of the Corporiety of an Odour doth easily solve the Sympathies and Antipathies observed among men to particular smells so likewise doth it yield a plain and satisfactory reason why some Brâ—â—t Animals are pleased with those Odours which are extremely hateful to others Why Doggs abhorr the smell of Wine and are so much delighted with the stink of Carrion as they are loath to leave it behind them and therefore tumble on it to perfume their skins therewith Why a Cat so much dislikes
and Contexture of the Particles of his tongue and è contra To which we shall only add that the Reason why to men in Feavers the sweetest things seem bitter is only this that the Contexture of the Particles of the Tongue being altered as well by the intense Heat of the Feaver as the infusion of a Bilious Humour into the pores thereof those things whose Particles being formerly accommodate appeared in the species of sweetness are now become asymbolical and inconvenient to the particles of the tongue and therefore appear Bitter Nor is Aristotles reprehension of Democritus of weight enough to Counter-encline our judgment his chief Objections being rather Sophistical than Solid and so no sooner urged than dissolved His First is of this importance if the particles of Sapid Objects were Figurate according to Democritus Assumption then would the sight as a Sense far more acute in perception deprehend their various Figures rather than the Taste but the Sight doth not discern them Ergo. Which is soon expeded by Answering that it is not in the jurisdiction of one sense to judge of objects proper to another nor is the quaestion about the Figures as they are in themselves i. e. without relation to the sense but as they produce such a determinate Effect on the sensory of which the Tasting is the sole and proper Criterion For Qualities are to be reputed not so much Absolute and constant Realities as simple and Relative Apparencies whose Specification consisteth in a certain Modification of the First General Matter respective to that distinct Affection they introduce upon this or that particular Sense when thereby actually deprehended His Second of this Insomuch as there is a Contrariety among sensible objects of all kinds but none among Figures according to that universally embraced Canon Figuris nihil esse Contrarium if the Diversity of Sapours were derivative from the Diversity of Figures then would there be no Contâ—â—riety betwixt Sapours but Sweet and Bitter are Contraries Ergo. Which is soon detected to subsist upon a Principle meerly precarious for we are yâ—t ignorant of any reason why we should not account an Acute Figure the Contrary to an Obtuse a Gibbous the opposite to a Plane a Smooth the Antagonist to a Rough an Angular the Antitheton to a Sphere c. His Third and most considerable of this Because the variety of Figures is infinite at least inassignable therefore would the variety of Sapours if their distinct species were dependent on the distinct species of Figures be aequally infinite but all the observable Differences of Saâ—ours exceed not the number of Eight at most Ergo. Answer should we allow Aristotles distinction of Sapours to be genuine yet would it not follow that therefore there are no more Specifical Subdivisions of each Genus because from the various commistions of those Eight Generical Differences one among another an incomprehensible variety of Distinct Sapours may be produced Besides is not that Sweetness which the tongue perceives in Hony manifestly different from that of Milk that of Sugar easily discernable from both that of Canary Sack different from that of Malago that of an Apple distinguishable from that of a Plumm that of Flesh clearly distinct from all the rest yet doth that Genus of Sweet comprehend them all On the other side is the Amaritude of Aloes Coloquyntida Rhubarb Wormwood c. one and the same or the Acerbity of Cherries Prunes Medlars c. identical no man certainly dares affirm it Why therefore should we not write our names in the Catalogue of those who conceive as great variety of Tastes as there is of Sapid objects in Nature Or since the Experiments of Chymistry have made it probable that all Sapours derive themselves from Salts as from their Primary Cause why may we not concede so many several sorts of salts and so many possible Commistions of them as may suffice to the production of an incomprehensible variety of Sapours And this gives us occasion to observe that Nature seems to have furnished the Tonge with a certain peculiar Moisture chiefly to this end that it might have a General Menstruum or Dissolvent of its own for the eduction of those Salts from hard and drye bodies and the imbibition of them into its spongy substance that so it might deprehend and discern them CHAP. IX Of Rarity Density Perspicuity Opacity SECT I. HAving thus steered through the deepest Difficulties touching the proper objects of the other Senses the Chart of Method directs us in our next course to profound the particular natures of all those Qualities which belong to the apprehensive jurisdiction of the Sense of TOUCHING either immediately or relatively But before we weigh Anchor that we may avoid the quicksands of too General Apprehensions and draw a Map or Scheme of all the Heads of our intended Enquiries thaâ— so we may praepare the mind of our Reader to accompany us the more easily and smoothly it is requisite that we advertise 1 That the Attribute of Touching is sometimes in Common to all Bodies 〈◊〉 well Inanimate as Animate when their superficies or extremes arâ— Contingent according to that Antithesis of Lucretius Tactus Corporibus cunctis intactus Inani Sometimes in Common to all Sensâ—â— insomuch as all Sensation is a kind of Touching it being necessaâ—â— that either the object it self immediately or some substantial Emâ—nation from it be contingent to the Sensory as we have apodictically declared in our praecedent considerations of Visible Audible Odoâ—â—ble and Gustable Species Sometimes and in praesent Proper to thâ— Sense of Touching in Animals which however it extend to the Perâ—â—ption of Objects in number manifold in nature various and frequâ—â—â—ly even repugnant whereupon some Philosophers have contumaâ—iously contended for a Plurality of Animal Touchings others gone so high as to constitute as many distinct Powers of Touching as thâ—re are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Differences and 〈◊〉 of conditions in Tangibles doth yet apprehend them all 〈◊〉 one and the same common reason and determinate qualification after the same manner as the sight discernes White Black Red Green c. all sub communi Coloris ratione in the common capacity of Colours And this is that fertile sense to whose proper incitement we owe our Generation for had not the Eternal Providence endowed the Organs official to the recruit of mankind with a most exquisite and delicate sense of Touching the titillation whereof transports a man beyond the severity of his reason and charmes him to the act of Carnality doubtless the Deluge had been spared for the First age had been the Last and Humanity been lost in the grave as well as innocence in the fall of our first Parents Quis enim per Deum immortalem concubitum rem adeo faedam solicitaret amplexaretur ei indulgeret quo Vultu Divinum illud Animal plenum rationis consilii quem vocamus Hominem obsaenas mulierum partes tot sordibus
to increase and decrease is competent only to a thing that consisteth of parts such as is the Organ not the Mind Nor is the acquisition of a Habit by assuefaction proper only to Man but in common also to all Living Creatures such especially as are used to the hand and government of Man as Horses Doggs Hawks and all prating and singing Birds And where we affirmed that some Faculties are capable of advancement to perfection by Habit we intended that there are other Faculties which are incapable thereof as chiefly the Natural Faculties in Animals and such as are not subject to the regiment of the Will though still we acknowledge that some of these there are which upon change of temperament in their respective Organs may acquire such a certain Habit as may oppose the original inclination and of this sort the principal is the Nutrient Faculty which may be accustomed even to Poison Lastly when we said Chiefly in Animals we were unwilling totally to exclude Plants because they also seem at least Analogically to acquire a kind of Habit as is evident from their constant retaining of any posture or incurvation which the hand of the Gardiner hath imposed upon them while they were tender and flexible as also that they may by degrees be accustomed to forein soils and what is more admirable if in their transplantation those parts of them which at first respected the South or East be converted to the North or West they seldome thrive never attain their due procerity Nay if the Experiments of some Physitians be true Minerals also may be admitted to attain a Habit by assuefaction For Baptista van Helmont in lib. de Magnetica Vulnerum curatione lib. de Pestis tumulo reports that He hath found a Saphire become so much the more efficacious an Attractive of the pestilential Venome from the Vitals by how much the more frequently it hath been circumduced about Carbuncles or Plague Sores as if Custome multiplied its Amuletary Virtue and taught it a more speedy way of conquest SECT II. AMong all Qualities of Concretions that deduce themselves from the Mobility of Atoms the most eminent is GRAVITY or the motion of perpendicular Descent from Weight Which though most obvious to the observation of Sense hath much of obscurity in its Nature leading the Reason of Man into various and perplext Conceptions concerning its Causes nor hath the judgment of any been yet so fortunate as to light upon a Demonstrative Theory concerning it or fix upon such a determination as doth not lye open to the objection of some considerable Difficulty So that it may well seem Ambition great enough for us onely with due uprightness to examine the Verisimility of each opinion touching the Formal Reason or Essence of Gravity that so we may direct younger Curiosities in which they may for the praesent most safely acquiesce Epicurus indeed well desumes the Gravity of all Concretions immediately from the Gravity of Simple Bodies or Atoms insomuch as all things are found to have so much more of Weight as they have of Atoms or Matter that composeth them and è contra Which reason the exact Ioh. Bapt. Balianus a Nobleman and Senatour of Genoa seriously perpending sets it down as a firm ground Gravitatem se habere ut Agens Materiam vero seu Materiale corpus ut Passum proinde gravia moveri juxta proportionem gravitatis ad materiam ubi sine impedimento naturalitèr perpendiculari motu ferantur moveri aequalitèr quia ubi plus est Gravitatis plus ibi paritèr sit Materiae seu Materialis quantitatis de motu Gravium Solidorum Liquidorum lib. 1. cap. 1. But this being too General and concerning rather the Cause of Comparative than Absolute Gravity leaves our Curiosity to a stricter search The Grand Dictator of the Schools Aristotle taking it for granted Unumquodque sensilium ita in suum locum ferri ut ad speciem that every corporeal Nature is by native tendency carried to its proper place as to its particular Species confidently inferrs this doctrine that Gravity and Levity are Qualities essentially inexistent in Concretions 4. de Caelo cap. 3. and passionately reprehending Democritus and Leucippus for affirming that there is no such thing in Nature as Absolute Gravity or Absolute Levity concludes that in Nature is something absolutely Heavy which is Earth and something Absolutely Light which is Fire de Caelo lib. 4. cap. 4. But neither of these Positions are more than Petitionary and so not worthy our assent as the Context of our subsequent Discourse doth sufficiently convince The Third opinion worthy our memory is that of Copernicus who considering that all Heavy Bodies either projected Upwards by external violence or dropt down from some eminent place are observed to fall perpendicularly down upon the same part of the Earth from which they were elevated or at which they are aimed and so that the Earth might be thence argued not to have any such Diurnal Vertigo as His Systeme ascribes unto it insomuch as then it could not but withdraw it self from Bodies falling down in direct lines and receive them at their fall not in the same place but some other more Westernly we say considering this Copernicus determined Gravity to be not any Internal Principle of tendency toward the middle or Centre of the Universe but an innate propension in the parts of the Earth separated from it to reduce themselves in direct lines or the nearest way to their Whole that so they may be conserved together with it and dispose themselves into the most convenient i. e. a sphaerical figure about the centre thereof His words are these Equidem existimo Gravitatem non aliud esse quà m Appetentiam quandam naturalem partibus inditam à Divina Providentia Opificis Universorum ut in unitatem integritatemque suam sese conferant in formam â—lobi coeuntes quam Affectionem credibile est etiam Soli Lunae caeterisque Errantibus fulgoribus inesse ut ejus efficacia in ea quâ— se repraesentant rotunditate permaneant lib. 1. cap. 9. So that according to this Copernican Assumption if any part of the Sun Moon or other Coelestial Orb were divelled from them it would by the impulse of this natural tendency soon return again in direct lines to its proper Orb not to the Centre of the Universe Which as Kepler in Epitom Astronom pag. 9â— well advertiseth is but a Point i. e. Nothing and destitute of all Appertibility and therefore ought not to be accounted the Term of tendency to all Heavy Bodies but rather the Terrestrial Globe together with its proper Centre yet not as a Centre but as the Middle of its Whole to which its Parts are carried by Cognation But this opinion hath as weak a claim to our Assent as either of the former as well because it cannot consist with the Encrease of Velocity in all Bodies descending perpendicularly by
wherein they are melted or made red hot the reason why they burn so extreamly must be this that they are exceedingly Compact in substance and so their particles being more tenacious or reciprocally cohaerent then those of wood oyle or any other body whatever they more firmly keep together the Atoms of fire immitted into them insomuch that a man cannot touch them with his finger but instantly it is in all points invaded with whole swarms of igneous Atoms and most fiercely compunged and dilacerated And as for the Derasion of the skin from any part of an Animal immersed into melted metal this ariseth partly from the total dissolution of the tenour of the skin by the dense and on every side compungent Atoms of Fire partly from the Compression and Resistence of the parts of the Metal now made Fluid which are both so great that upon the withdrawing of the member immersed into the metal the part which is immediately prest upon by the particles thereof is detained behind and that 's the skin Hence also is it no longer a Problem Why red hâ—t Iron sets any Combustible matter on Fire for it is evident that it cannot inflame by its own substance but by the Atoms of Fire immitted into and for a while reteined in its Pores And this brings us to a Second CONSECTARY viz. That as the Degrees of Heat are various Physicians indeed allow only 4 and Physiologists but double that number the Former in order to the more convenient reduction of their Art to certain and established principles the Latter meerly in conformity to the Dictates of Aristotle but Neither upon absolute necessity since it is reasonable for any man to augment their number even above number at pleasure So also must the Degrees of fire be various For since Fire even according to Aristotle is only the Excess of Heat or Heat encreased to that height as to Burn or Enflame a thing if we begin at the gentle Meteor called Ignis Fatuus which lighting upon a mans hand and a good while adhereing thereto doth hardly warm it or at the fire of the purest spirit of Wine enflamed which also is very languid for it is frequent among the Irish for a Cure of their Endemious Fluxes of the belly to swallow down small balls of Cotton steept in spirit of wine and set on fire and that many times with good success We say if we begin from either of these weak Fires and run through all the intermediate ones to that of melted Gold which all men acknowledge to be the Highest we shall soon be convinced that the Degrees of Fire are so various as to arise even to innumerability Most true it is in the General that every Fire is so much the more intense by how much more numerous or agminous the Atoms of Fire are that make it yet if we regard only the Effect there must be allowed a convenient space of time for the requisite motion of those Atoms and a supply of fresh ones successively to invade and penetrate the thing to be burned or enflamed For since the Igneous Atoms exsilient from their involucrum or seminary and invading the extrems of a body objected to them are subject to easy Repercussion or rather Resilition from it therefore to the Calefaction Adustion or Inflammation of a body it is not sufficient that the body be only moved along by or over the Fire but it must be held neer or in it so long as till the first invading Igneous Atoms which otherwise would recoyle from it be impelled on and driven into the pores of the same by streams of other Igneous Atoms contiguously succeeding and pressing upon them And however the space of time be almost in assignably short in which the finger of a man touching a glowing Coale or melted metal is burned because the Atoms of Fire are therein exceeding Dense and Agminous and so penetrate the skin in all points yet nevertheless common observation assures that in the General a certain space of time is necessary to the Effect of Calefaction or Ambustion and that so much the Longer by how much the Fewer or more Disgregated the Igneous Atoms are either in the Body Calefying or the Aer conterminous thereto And this as formerly to the end that the Motion of the Igneous Atoms first assaulting the object may be continued and a supply of fresh ones promoting and impelling the former be afforded from the Focus or Seminary Hence is it that a mans hand may be frequently Waved to and fro in Flame without burning because the Atoms of Fire which invade it are repercussed and not by a continued aflux of others driven foreward into its pores the motion of his hand preventing the Continuity of their Fluor but if his hand be held still in the flame though but a very short time it must be burned because the first invading Atoms of Fire are impelled on by others and those again by others in a continent fluor so that their Motion is continued and a constant supply maintained Hence comes it also that no Metal can be molten only by a Flash or transient touch of the Fire for we are not yet fully satisfied of the verity of that vulgar tradition of the instantaneous melting of money in a purse or of a sword blade in its sheath by Lightning and if we were yet could we assign that prodigious Effect to some more probable Cause viz. the impetuosity of the motion and the exceeding Coarctation of those Atoms of Fire of which that peculiar species of Lightning doth consist but it must be so long held in or over the Fire as until the Igneous Atoms have totally pervaded its contexture and dissociated all its particles and therefore so much the longer stay in the fire doth every Metal require to its Fusion by how much the more Compact and Tenacious its particles are As the Degrees of Fire are various as to the more and less of Vehemency respective to the more and less Density or Congregation of the Igneous Atoms So likewise is there a considerably variety among Flames as to the more and less of Duration Concerning the Causes therefore of this Variety in the General we briefly observe that Flame hath its Greater or Less Duration respective to the 1. Various Materials or Bodies inflammable For such Bodies as have a greater Aversion to inflammation being commixt with others that are easily inflammable make their flame less Durable as Bay Salt dissolved in spirit of Wine shortens the duration of its flame by almost a third part as the Lord Bacon affirms upon exact experiment Nat. Hist. cent 4. and contrariwise such as approach neerer to an affinity with fire i. e have much of Unctuousness and plenty of igneous Atoms concealed therein yield the most lasting Flames as Oyle and Spirit of Wine commixt in due proportions and spirit of Salt to a tenth part commixt with Oyle Olive makes it burn twice as long in
a Lamp as Oyle alone from whence some Chymists have promised to make Eternal Lamps with an Oyle extracted from common Salt and the stone Amiâ—nthus 2. The more or less easie Attraction of its Pabulum or Nourishment For Lamps in which the Flame draweth the oyle from a greater distance always burn much longer than Candles or Tapers where the circumference of the fewel is but small and the broader the surface of the Oyle or Wax wherein the Wiek is immersed so much the longer doth the flame thereof endure not only in regard of the greater Quantity of Nourishment but of its slower Calefaction and so of its longer Resistence to the absumptive faculty of the flame Since it is observed that the Coolness of the Nourishment doth make it more slowly consumable as in Candles floating in water This was experimented in that service of our quondam English Court called All night which was a large Cake of Wax with the Wiek set in the middest so that the flame being fed with nourishment less heated before hand as coming far off must of necessity last much longer than any Wax Taper of a small circumference 3 Various Conditions of the same Materials For Old and Hard Candles whether of Wax or Tallowe maintain flame much longer than New or soft Which good Houswives knowing use no Candles under a year old and such as have for greater induration been laid a good while in Bran or Flower And from the same reason is it that Wax as being more firm and hard admixt to Tallowe and made up into Candles causeth them to be more lasting then if they were praepared of Tallowe alone 4. Different Conditions and Tempers of the ambient Aer For the Quiet and Closeness of the Aer wherein a Taper burneth much conduceth to the prolongation of its flame and contrariwise the Agitation thereof by winds or fanning conduceth as much to the shortning of it insomuch as the motion of flame makes it more greedily attract and more speedily devour its sustenance Thus a Candle lasteth much longer in a Lanthorne than at large in a spacious roome Which also might be assigned as one Cause of the long Duration of those subterranean Lamps such as have been found if credit be due to the tradition of Bapt. Porta lib. 12. Magiae natural cap. ultim Hermolaus Barbarus in lib. 5. Dio cap. 11. and Cedrenus Histor. Compend All which most confidently avouch it upon authentique testimonies in the Urns of many Noble Romans many hundreds of years after their Funerals Here should our Reader bid us stand and deliver him our positive judgement upon this stupendious Rarity which hath been uged by some Laureat Antiquaries as a cheif Argument of the transcendency of the Ancients Knowledge as in all Arts so in the admirable secrets of Pyrotechny above that of Later Ages as we durst not be so uncharitable to quaestion the Veracity of either the Inventors or Reporters of it so should we not be so uncivil as not to releive his Curiosity at least with a short story that may light Him towards farther satisfaction A certain Chymist there was not many years since who having decocted Litharge of Gold Tartar Cinnaber and Calx vive in spirit of Vinegre until the Vinegre was wholly evaporated closely covering and luting up the earthen vessel wherein the Decoction was made buried it deeply in a dry Earth for 7 moneths together in order to more speedy maturation expected from the Antiperistasis of Cold came at length to observe what became of his Composition and opening the vessel observed a certain bright Flame to issue from thence and that so vehement as it fired the hair of his eyebrowes and head Now having furnished our Reader with this faithful Narrative we leave it to his owne determination Whether it be not more probable that those Coruscations or Flashes of Light perceived to issue from Vials of Earth found in the demolisht sepulchres of the Great Olybius and some eminent Romans at the instant of their breaking up by the spade or pickaxe did proceed rather from some such Chymical Mixture as this of our Chymist who acquired Light by the hazard of Blindness which is of that nature as to be in a moment kindled and yield a shortlived flame upon the intromission of Aer into the vessel wherein it is contained than from any Fewel that is so slowly Absumable by Fire as to maintain a constant Flame for many hundred years together without extinction and that in so small a vial as the Fume must needs recoyle and soon suffocate the Flame But we return from our Digression and directly pursue our embost Argument It much importeth the greater and less Continuance of Flame whether the Aer be Warm or Cold Dry or Moâ—st For Cold Aer irritateth flame by Circumobsistence and causeth it burn more fiercely and so less durably as is manifest from hence that Fire scorcheth in frosty weather but Warme Aer by making flame more calm and gentle and so more sparing of its nourishment much helpeth the Continuance of it If Moist because it impedeth the motion of the igneous Atoms and so in some degree quencheth flame at least makes it burn more dimly and dully it must of necessity advance the Duration of flame and contrariwise Drie Aer meerly as drie produceth Contrary Effect though not in the same proportion nay so little that some Naturalists have concluded the Driness of Aer to be only indifferent as to the Duration of Flame And now we are arrived at our Third and Last CONSECTARY That the immediate and genuine Effect of Heat is Disgregation or Separation and that it is only by Accident that Heat doth Congregate Homogeneous natures To argue by the most familiar way of Instance when Heat hath dissolved a piece of Ice consisting of water earth and perhaps of gravel and many small Festucous bodies commixt the Earth Sand and other Terrene parts sink downe and convene together at the bottom the water returns to its native fluidity and possesseth the middle region of the Continent and the strawes swim on the surface of the water not that it is essential to the Heat so to dispose them but essential to them being dissociated and so at liberty each to take it proper place according to the several degrees of their Gravity Thus also when a Mass of various Metals is melted by Fire each metal indeed takes it proper region in the Crucible or fusory vessel but yet the Congregation of the Homogeneous particles of each particular Metal is not immediately caused but only occasioned i. e. Accidentally brought to pass by the Disgregation or praecedent separation of the particles of the whole Heterogeneous Concretion by heat Again the Energy of every Cause in Nature ceaseth upon the production of its perfect Effect but the Effect of Heat ceaseth not when the Homogenieties of the mass of Ice or Metal are Congregated but continues the same after as before i. e. to
the accensed matter with such pernicity and vehemence and reciprocal arietations and in such swarms as that they repel the water affused and permit it not to enter the pores of the fewel as constantly happens in Wild-fire where the ingredients are Unctuous and consist of very tenacious particles in that case Water is so far from extinguishing the flame that it makes it more impetuous and raging However we shall acknowledg thus much that if the Principality of Cold must be adscribed to one of the Three vulgar Elements the Aer doubtless hath the best title thereunto because being the most Lax and Porous bodie of the Three it doth most easily admit and most plentifully harbour the seeds of Cold and being also subtile and Fluid it doth most easily immit or carry them along with it self into the pores of other bodies and so not only Infrigidate but some times Congeal and Conglaciate them in case they be of such Contextures and such particles as are susceptible of Congelation and Conglaciation The Fable of the Satyr and Wayfering man who blew hot and cold though in the mouth of every School-boy is yet scarce understood by their Masters nay the greatest Philosophers have found the reason of that Contrariety of Effects from one and the same Cause to be highly problematical Wherefore since we are fallen upon the cause of the Frigidity in the Aer and the Frigidity of our Breath doth materially depend thereon opportunity invites Us to solve that Problem which though both Aristotle sect 3. prob 7. Anaximenes apud Plutarch de frigore primigenio have strongly attempted yet have they left it to the conquest of Epicurus principles viz. Why doth the breath of a man warme when effâ—ated with the mouth wide open and cool when efflated with the mouth contraâ—â—ed To omit the opinions of others therefore we conceive the cause hereof to be only this that albeit the Breath doth consist of aer for the most part fraught with Calorifick Atoms emitted from the lungs and vital organs yet hath it many Frigorifick ones also interspersed among its particles which being of greater bulk than the Calorifick and so capable of a stronger impuls are by the force of efflation transmitted to greatter distance from the mouth because the Calorifick Atoms commixt with the breath in regard of their exility are no sooner dischaged from the mouth than they instantly disperse in round Wence it comes that if the breath be expired in 〈◊〉 large stream or with the mouth wide open because the circuit of the 〈◊〉 of breaâ—h is large and so the Hot Atoms emitted are not so soon dispersed therefore doth the stream feel warme to the hand objected there and so much the more warme by how much neerer the hand is held to the mouth the Calorifick Atoms being less and less Dissipated in each degree of remove But in case the breath be â—mitted with contracted lipps becausâ—â—hen the compass of the stream is small and the force of Efflation greater 〈◊〉 therefore are the Calorifick Atoms soon Disgregated and the Frigorificâ— only râ—main commixt with the Aer which affects the objected hand 〈◊〉 Cold and by how much farther in the limits of the power of Efflation◠〈◊〉 hand is held from the mouth by so much colder doth the breath appear 〈…〉 contra That Calorifick Atoms are subject to more and more 〈…〉 the stream of a Fluid substance to which they are commixt is greater and greater in circuit may be confirmed from hence that if we poure hoâ—â—â—ter from on high in frosty weather we shall observe a fume to issue 〈◊〉 â—scend from the stream all along and that so much the more plentifully by how much greater the stream is Thus we use to cool Burnt wine or 〈◊〉 by frequent refunding it from vessel to vessel or infunding it into broad and shallow vessels that so the Atoms of Heat may be the sooner disperâ—â—â— for by how much larger the superfice of the liquor is made by so much more of liberty for Exsilition is given to the Atoms of Heat containeâ—â—herein and as much of Insinuation to the Atoms of Cold in company 〈◊〉 the circumstant Aer Thus also we cool our faces in the heat of 〈◊〉 with fanning the aer towards us the Hot Atoms being thereby 〈◊〉 and the Cold impelled deeper into the pores of the skin which 〈…〉 the reason why all Winds appear so much the Colder by how much â—â—â—onger they blowe as Deâ—s Cartes hath well observed in these words 〈…〉 vehementior majoris frigiditatis perceptionem quam aer 〈…〉 corpore nostro excitat quod aer quietus tantùm exteriorem nostram 〈…〉 quae interiâ—ribus nostris carnibus frigidior est contingat ventus vero â—â—hementius in corpus nostrum actus etiam in penetralia ejus adigatur 〈◊〉 illa siut cute calidiora id circo etiam majorem frigiditatem ab ejus contaâ—â—â— percipiunt In our preceâ—ent Article touching the necessary assignatin of a Tetrahedical Figure 〈…〉 Atoms of Cold we remember we said that in respect of their 〈…〉 or plane faces they were most apt to Compinge or bind in the particle 〈◊〉 all Concretions into which they are intromitted and from thence we shalâ—â—â—ke the hint of inferring Three noble CONSECTARIES 1. That 〈◊〉 Snow Hail Hoarfrost and all Congelations are made meerly by thâ—â—â—â—romission of Frigorifick Atoms among the particles of 〈…〉 being once insinuated and commixt among them in sufficieâ—◠〈…〉 alter their fluid and lax consistence into a rigid and compact i. e. they Congeal them 2. That 〈…〉 or Trembling sometimes observed in the members of 〈…〉 that Rigor or Shaking in the beginning of most putri◠〈…〉 when the Fits of Intermittent fevers invade are chiefly cause◠〈◊〉 Frigorifick Atoms For when the Spherical Atoms of Heat which swarm in and vivifie the bodies of Animals are not moved quaquaversùm in the members with such freedom velocity and directness excentrically as they ought because meeting and contesting with those less Agile Atoms of Cold which have entred the body upon its chilling their proper motion is thereby impeded they are strongly repelled and made to recoyle towards the Central parts of the bodie in avoydance of their Adversary the Cold ones and in that tumultuous retreat or introcession they vellicate the fibres of the membranous and nervous parts and so cause a kind of vibration or contraction which if only of the skin makes that symptome which Physicians call a Horror but if of the Muscles in the Habit of the bodie makes that more vehement Concussion which they call a Rigor Either of which doth so long endure as till the Atoms of Heat being more strong by Concentration and Union have re-encountered and expelled them That it is of the Nature of Hot Atoms when invaded by a greater number of Cold ones to recoyle from them and concentre themselves in the middle of the body that contains them is demonstrable from the Experiment of Frozen
it is Distended because Tension is a kind of Rigidity 2. A chord distended hath the reason not only of one simple Flexile bodie but also of two conjoyned insomuch as it hath 2 Extrems in each of which we may distinguish the Hypomochlion or fixt part from the Reflectent and in the middle or that part which is percussed or abduced by the plectrum or finger there are as it were 2 other Extremes conjoyned which being naturally reluctant each to other cause the reciprocal Reduction each of other 3. As a Twigg after inflexion doth 〈◊〉 beyond the middle or line of directness and goes and comes frequently till it hath overcome the fist impressed motion and recovered its natural site because after the first Reflexion is made a second succeeds for the same reason as the first a third for the same reason as the second and so a fourth fifth c. successively So also is it necessary that many Vibrations or Excurses and Recurâ—es be alternately made by a Chord distâ—nded and percusled becauâ—e the sâ—â—e cause râ—mains to the second third fourth c. which was to the fiâ—st Lege Meâ—sennum Harmonicor lib. 3. Propos. 22. Corollario de Atomis But here comes the PROBLEM such a one as put even Mersennus Himselfe to the Eruditis Physicomathematicis discutiendum relinquo Harmonicor lib. 2. proposit 29. and that is Cur Diadromus Chordae maximus eodem tempore conficit totum spacium quo minimus aut reliqui singuli diadromi intermedii illud conficiant Whence is it that all the Excurses and Recurses or diadroms of a Chord either Vertically or horizontally distended and abduced from the line of Direction are Isochronical or Aequitemporaneous though not Aequispacial as also are All the Vibrations of a Flexile body fixt at one extream and deflected at the other This stupendious Phaenomenon may be thus Demonstrated Let F. G. in the second diagram be the Chord horizontally distended which being distracted from its direct situation F. G. to A. makes its several Diadroms A.B. B.C. C.E. and E.D. Now we say that All these Diadroms though greatly disproportionate in point of space are yet exactly proportionate in point of Time i. e. the first Diadrom A. B. doth measure its whole space in the same proportion of time as doth the second Diadrom B. C. or the third C. E. or the fourth E. D. For since the Violence or impetus whereby the Chord is abduced from the line F. G. to the point A. is so much the greater by how much the longer the line of the Epidrom is the Chord must pervade it space so much the more speedily by how much the space is greater compared to that of the subsequent ones it necessarily followes that all the subsequent Diadroms must be Aequidiurnal because look how much is detracted from the Longitude Magnitude and Impetus of the subsequent Diadroms exactly so much accedeth to the Brevity of the space which they are to percurr and so the longitude of the posterior Epidrom becomes inverted in proportion to the Time and its Brevity of space compensateth the decay of that Impetus which was in the Prior Diadrom For Example Let the Chord which makes an hundred Diadroms pervâ—de a foot space in its first Diadrom and the hundredth part of a foot at its last or hundredth Diadrom we affirm that the first Diadrom must be an hundred times swifter than the Last which is an hundred times slower as being to the same proportion less violent and that which immediately praecedeth the Quiet of the Cord in the Direct line F. G. More plainly the First Diadrom A. B. as it is the Greatest so is it the most Violent and as it is the most Violent so must the Velocity whereby it pervades the whole space betwixt A.B. be also the Greatest and the Second Diadrom B. C. how much it comes short in violence of tension and Celerity of motion of the First so much doth it come short of the Magnitude also thereof so that though the space of the former A. B. be much larger than that of the second B.C. yet doe they both pervade their several spaces in the same proportion of Time because as the second Diadrom B. C. hath less of violence and of Celerity than the first A. B. so hath it just so much less of space to pervade and so the Diminution of space Compensateth the Diminution of Violence and Celerity Wherefore the Reason of the Third Diadrom being the same to the Second as that of the Second to the First and of the Fourth to the Third as that of the Third to the Second it is manifest and necessary that all the Diadroms beâ— Aequidiurnal though not Aequispatial which is what we Assumed But yet the Lees of the PROBLEM remain behind for it is worthy farther Enquiry Why a Chord of a Duple length v.g. of 4 foot doth performe its Diadroms in a Duple proportion of Time to a Chord of a single length v. g. of 2 foot when both are distended by equal Force or Weight and yet if the Chord of 4 foot be distended by doubly as great a Force or Weight as that of only 2 foot it doth not performe its Diadroms with Velocity Duple thereunto but only if the force of its Distension be Quadruple to the force first supposed And to exhaust them though somewhat rough and crabbed we ANSWER As in a Pensile bodie or Chord vertically distended by a weight the time of each single Excurse is equal to that time in which the same weight would if permitted be falling from such an Altitude as is commeasurable by the diametre of the Circle whereof Arches are described by the Excurses of the Pensile body abduced from the perpendicular So in a Tensile body such as a Chord strained upon a Lute All the times in which a part of the Chord accepted exactly in the middle excurreth from one side are equal to one time in which one of its Extrems if cut off would directly pervade the whole length and come into the place of the other toward which the force being still the same behind would draw it For the same Force certainly is alwaies able to produce the same Effect and if the lateral spaces of the Diadroms doe continually decrease the Velocity of the motion must also continually decrease And the cause of that continual Decrement can be no other but the Force Drawing or distending the Chord which continually refracteth the contrary Force by the plectrum or finger impressed thereupon Now since All the Excurses of a Chord of whatever length are exaequated to one and the same direct Trajection thereof as we said even now in the Former Case the Trajection cannot but be performed in a duple proportion of Time as a Duple proportion of Space is assumed to be trajected or pervaded by the same Motive or Attractive Force but in the Latter not because Three Equal things being supposed viz. Time Space and the Weight
Consentaneous and Probable Causes to sundry of those Effects which Schollars commonly content themselves only to Admire and without farther exercise of their Intellectuals to leave wrapt up in the Chaos of Sympathies and Antipathies yet will not the Ingenious misunderstand us or conceive that we esteem or propose those Reasons as Oraculous or Apodicticall or create an expectation of the Discovery of such Originals whereupon those Rarer Operations and Magnalia of Nature do proximely and genuinely depend However some may think it expedient for us to profess that as in our former Enquiries so in this our Designe is only to explain sundry admired Effects by such Reasons as may appear not altogether Remote and Incongruous but Consentaneous and Affine to Truth that so no mans judgement may be impeached by embracing them for most Probable untill the in that respect too slow wheel of Time shall have brought up some more worthy Explorator who shall wholly withdrawe that thick Curtain of obscurity which yet hangs betwixt Natures Laboratory and Us and enrich the Commonweal of Letters by the discovery of the Real Verity And this we must enterprize by continuing our progress in the allmost obliterated Tract that Epicurus and Democritus so long since chalk'd forth not by treading in the beaten road of Aristotle and his Seâ—tators who for ought we have learned were They who first founded that ill contrived Sanctuary of Ignorance called OCCULT QUALITIES For generally setting up their rest in the Commistion of Elements and their supposed Immateriall Qualities and being not able ever to explicate any Insensible Propriety from those narrow and barren Principles they thought it a sufficient Salvo for their Ignorance simply to affirme all such Proprieties to be Occult and without due reflection upon the Invalidity of their Fundamentals they blushed not to charge Nature Herself with too much Closeness and Obscurity in that point as if she intended that all Qualities that are Insensible should also be Inexplicable The ingenious Sanchez among many Sceptical Arguments of the Uncertainty of Sciences seasonably urgeth this one as very considerable against Physiologists that when any Natural Problem such as that of the Attraction of Iron by a Loadstone of straws by Amber c. is objected to them instead of setting their Curiosity on work to to investigate the Causes thereof they lay it in a deep sleep with that infatuating opium of Ignote Qualities and yet expect that men should believe them to know all that is to be known and to have spoken like Oracles cencerning that Theorem though at the same instant they do as much as confess that indeed they know nothing at all of its Nature and Causes For what difference is there whether we say that such a thing is Occult or that we know nothing of it Nor is it a Course either less dishonorable to the Professors or dangerous to the Students of Philosophy to refer such Effects upon which men commonly look with the eye only of Wonder to Secret Sympathies and Antipathies forasmuch as those Windy Terms are no less a Refuge for the Idle and Ignorant than that of Occult Proprieties it being the very same in importance whether we have recourse to the One or to the other For no sooner doe we betake ourselves to Either but we openly confess that all our Learning is at a stand and our Reason wholly vanquisht and beaten out of the field by the Difficulty proposed We deny not that most if not All of those Admired Effects of Nature which even the Gravest Heads have too long thought sufficient Excuses of their Despair of Cognition do arise from some Sympathy or Antipathy betwixt the Agent and Patient but yet for all that have we no reason to concede that Nature doth institute or Cause that sympathy or Antipathy or the Effect resulting from either by any other Lawes or Means but what she hath ordained and constantly useth to the production of all other Common and familiar Effects We acknowlddge also that Sympathy is a certain Consent and Antipathy a certain Dissent betwixt Two Natures from one or both of which there usually ariseth some such Effect as may seem to deserve our limited Admiration but is it therefore reasonable for us to infer that those Natures are not subject unto nor regulated by the General and Ordinary Rules of Action and Passion whereto Nature hath fitmely obliged Herself in the rest of Her Operations To lance and cleanse this Cacoethical Ulcer to the bottom Consider we that the General Laws of Nature whereby she produceth All Effects by the Action of one and Passion of another thing as may be collected from sundry of our praecedent Discertations are these 1. That every Effect must have its Cause 2 That no Cause can act but by Motion 3 That Nothing can act upon a Distant subject or upon such whereunto it is not actually Praesent either by it self or by some instrument and that either Conjunct or Transmitted and consequently that no body can move another but by contact Mediate or Immediate i. e. by the mediation of some continued Organ and that a Corporeal one too or by it self alone Which considered it will be very hard not to allowe it necessary that when two things are said either to Attract and Embrace one the other by mutual Sympathy or to Repell and Avoid one the other by mutual Antipathy this is performed by the same wayes and means whereby we observe one Body to Attract and hold fast another or one Body to Repell and Avoid conjunction with another in all Sensible and Mechanique Operations This small Difference only allowed that in Gross and Mechanique operations the Attraction or Repulsion is performed by Sensible Instruments but in those finer performances of Nature called Sympathies and Antipathies the Attraction or Repulsion is made by Subtle and Insensible The means used in every common and Sensible Attraction and Complection of one Bodie by another every man observes to be Hooks Lines or some such intermediate Instrument continued from the Attrahent to the Attracted and in every Repulsion or Disjunction of one Bodie from another there is used some Pole Lever or other Organ intercedent or somewhat exploded or discharged from the Impellent to the Impulsed Why therefore should we not conceive that in every Curious and Insensible Attraction of one bodie by another Nature makes use of certain slender Hooks Lines Chains or the like intercedent Instruments continued from the Attrahent to the Attracted and likewise that in every Secret Repulsion or Sejunction she useth certain small Goads Poles Levers or the like protruding Instruments continued from the Repellent to the Repulsed bodie Because albeit those Her Instruments be invisible and imperceptible yet are we not therefore to conclude that there are none such at all We every day behold Spiders letting themselves down from high roofs and as nimbly winding themselves up again at pleasure by such slender threads of
to some higher Oeconomy thâ—n that according to which she regulates her Common Active and Passive Principles To the SECOND viz. the Influx of Caelestial upon Sublunary Bodies innumerable are the Effects which the Fraud of some the Admiration of many and the Credulity of most have confidently imputed and therefore it cannot be expected we should in this place so much as Enumerate the one Half much less insist upon them All. Sufficient it is to the Acquitance of our praesent Debt that we select the most considerable among them and such as seem Capital and Comprehensive of all the rest As for the Power and Influence of the Stars of which Astrologers talk such wonders and with such pride and ostentâ—tâ—on truly we have Reason to assure us that our Cognation and Subjection to those raâ—iant Bodies is not so great as that not only All the Actions Fortunes and Accidents of Particular men but even the Warres Peace Mutations Subversions of whole Empires Nations States and Provinces should depend upon their Smiles or Frowns as if All Occurrents on the theatre of our Lower Orb were but the orderly and necessary Effects of the Praescriptions and Consignations of the Superior Orbs or as if there were no Providence Divine no Liberty of Mans Will 2 As for the Reciprocation or Afflux and Reflux of the Sea so generally fathered upon the Influx and Motion of the Moon which doth herself suffer the like Ebbs and Floods of her borrowed Light t is well known how Seleucus of old and Galilaeus of late have more fully and roundly deduced it from the motion ascribed to the Earth And though we should allow this great Phaenomenon to depend upon the several Adspects or Phases of the Moon yet is there no necessity to drive us to the subterfuge of any Occult and Immaterial Influence from her waxing and waning Light since the System of Des Cartes in Princip Philoseph part 4. page 22. â— doth much more satisfactorily make it out from the Elliptical Figure of the Sphere wherein the Moon moves as will soon appear to the Examiner 3 As for the Diurnall Expansion and Conversion of the Heliotrope toward the Sun though great notice hath been taken thereof by the Ancients and most of our Modern Advancers of the Vanities of Natural Magick who will have every Plant to retain to some one of the Planets by some secret Cognation and peculiar sympathie have laboured to heighten it to the degree of a Wonder yet can we not conceive the Effect to be so singular nor that any such Solemne Reason need be assigned thereunto For every mans observation may certifie him that all Marygolds Tulippa's Pimpernell Wartwoort Mallow Flowers and indeed most other Flowers so long as they are in their Vigour and Pride use to Open and Dilate toward noon and somewhat Close and recontract themselves after Sun set And the Cause surely is only the Warmth of the Suns Rayes which discussing the Cold and Moisture of the praecedent Night whereby the Leaves were loaden towards the bottom or in the bowle of the Flower and so made to rise more upright and conjoyn their tops and somewhat Exsiccating the Flower make the pedestalls of its leaves more flaccid so that they seem to expand and unfold themselves and incline more outwards meerly by reason of their want of strength to sustain themselves in an erect and concentrical posture for alwayes the hotter the Day the greater is the Expansion Likewise as for the Flowers Conversion to or Confronting the Sun in all its progress above the horizon wherein our Darksom Authors of Magick Natural principally place the Magnale the Cause thereof is so far from being more obscure than that it is the very same with that of its Expansion For as the Sun running his race from East to West doth every moment vary the points of his Rayes vertical incidence upon the stalk which supports the Flower and upon the leaves thereof so must the whole Flower incline its head and wheel about accordingly those parts of the stalk upon which the rayes are more perpendicular and so the heat more intense becoming more dry and flaccid and so less able to support the burthen of the â—â—ower than those which suffer only from the obliâ—nâ— reflected and weaker beams Notwithstanding this Solution if any Champion of secret Magnetism shall yet defend this Circulation to be a 〈◊〉 of the Heliotropâ— to which no other Flower can praetend and that this Solar Plant discovers it Amours to the Sun by not only disclosing its rejoycing head and bâ—som at the praesence and wrapping them up again in the mantle of its owne disconsolate and languishing leaves during the absence of its Lover but also by facing him all day long lest He should insult upon an apprehension that our theory is at a loss we shall tell him in a word that that Propriety which he supposeth must consist only in such a peculiar Contexture and Disposition of the particles which compose its Leaves as makes them more sit to receive and be moved and their spiritual and most subtle parts to be in a manner Circulated by the Rayes of the Sun than the Leaves of any other Flower whatever As in the Organ of Smelling there is a certain Peculiar Contexture of its insensible Component Particles which renders it alone capable of being moved and affected by Odours that have no influence nor activity at all upon the Eye Eare or other Organ of Sense 4 Great things have been spoken also of the Garden Claver which bareth its bosom and hideth the upper part of its stalk whenever the Sun shines hot and bright upon it but this doubtless hath the same Cause as the Former the Hiding of the stalk being nothing but an over-expansion of the Leaves which by reason of the violent ardour of the Sun grow more faint and flaccid and so less able to support themselves 5 A Fifth Secret found in the Catalogue of Caelestial Influxes is the Crowing of the House-Cock at certain and periodical times of night and day and more especially soon after midnight and about day break for most esteem it an Occult Propriety and all our Crollians and such as promote the dreams of Signatures and Sydereal Analogies reckon the Cock a cheif Solar Animal for this reason alone as if his Phansy received some magnetique touches and impressions from the Sun which made him proclame his Aâ—vent into our Hemisphere and like a faithful Watch or Clock measure out the severall stages in its race Great enquiry also hath been made after the Cause hereof in all ages and various Conceptions entertained concerning it Some with lofty and Rhetorical Discourses endevouring to persuade that Nature intended this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Pluâ—arch 〈◊〉 it or Gallicinium as an Alarme to rouse up sluggish man from the dull armes of sleep and summon him to the early Contemplation of her Works as Pliny Natural Histor. lib. 10.
cap. 21. Others ascribing it to a Desire of Venery in this Animal arising from the turgescence and stimulation of his sperm at certain periods as Erasmus who is therefore worthily and sufficiently derided by Scaliger Exercit. 239 Others assigning it to an Appetite of Aliment invading and exciting after determinate intervalls as Cardan And others alleaging we nor themselves know not what peculiar influence of the Sun causing a suddain mutation or Evocation of the Spirits and blood of the Cock which were Concentred by sleep as Caelias Rhodiginus lib. 16. Antiq. Lection cap. 13. But All these Great Clerks seem to have graspt the ear and catched at shadowes For 1 it may be doubted that all Cocks in one and some meridian doe not Crow at the same times of night or day and that no Cock doth observe set and punctual times of Crowing both which are praesumed and whoever shall think it worth the loss of a nights sleep as we have done to observe the Crowing of sundry Cocks in some Country Village where the Houses stand scatteringly and far asunder so that the Cocks cannot awake each other will perhaps more than doubt of either 2 It is as Natural so Familiar to the Cock so often as his Imagination is moved by a copious and fresh afflux of Spirits to his Brain to rowze up himself clapp his wings and sound his trumpet as well at noon after noon and at other times of day and night upon several occasions as when he hath escaped some late danger obtained a victory found some treasury of grain compressed his mistress and the like as if his joy were not complete till he had communicated the tidings thereof to his Wives and Neighbours by the elevation of his gladsome and triumphat voice 3 May we not allowe the Cock to have his set times of Sleeping and Waking as well as all other Living Creatures that live suo jure and according to the Aphorisms of their Specifical Constitutions and regiment of their proper Archaea's and likewise most Men who live healthfully and orderly keeping to constant hours for labour meat rest and sleep 4 What need is there that we should have recourse to such a far-fetcht and never brought home Cause as that of a Secret Commerce and peculiar Sympathy betwixt this Fowl and the Sun in the other Hemisphere when we have a more probable and manifest one neerer hand viz. The suddain invasion of the Cock by encreased Cold soon after midnight For when the Sun hath made some sensible advance in the lower world beyond the Nadir point or midnight circle and hasteneth toward our East He moves and drives along before him into our horizon the formerly quiet and cold Aer of the Night which invading the Cock disturbs him from his rest during which his Heat is retired inward and awakens him on the suddain so that rowzing up himself exciting his courage and diffusing his Spirits again into his members to oppose that Cold and perhaps also to prevent his falling from the perch he stands up clappeth his wings against his sides and chants a cheerfull Paean to himself and Roostfellowes celebrating his safety and conquest with the loud musick of his throat 6 A sixth notable Secret appertaining to the same Classis is that of the Encrease of the Substance of Shell Fish of the Brains in Coneys and of the Marrow in the bones of most Land Animalls as the moon approacheth her Full and the Decrease of them again as her Light decreaseth toward her New But laying aside all Lunar Magnetism Immaterial Influxes and the like Toyes put into Great Words we take it the Phaenomenon may be well enough solved by referring it meerly to the Moons great Humidity at least if those vast Duskish spots apparent in her Orb be her moist Element carrying some analogy to our Seas as the most and best of our Modern Astronomers have believed and upon grounds almost demonstrative and wholly irrefutable For insomuch as the Rayes of the Sun in greater abundance falling upon the face of the Moon toward and at her Full than in her Wane are accordingly more abundantly reflected from thence upon our Terraqueous Globe bringing along with them no sparing Tincture of the Moons Moisture so that the Light which is Reflected from the Oceans in the moon being more moist than warm must needs be more Prolifical Generative and praedisposed to the Nutrition of Animals and that in the New of the Moon no such plentiful Abduction of her moisture can be expected because fewer of the Suns Rayes are at that time Reflected from her Orb to ours why should it be thought so strange that either Aquatile or Terrestrial Animals should be nourished more plentifully at the Full than New of the Moon Especially since it is no praecarious nor novell Assertion that the Light coming from the Moon â—s tincted with Humidity as being reflected from the Watery as well as solid parts of her Orb Experience having frequently demonstrated that the Calorifick Rayes not only of the Sun but even of our terrestrial and culinary Fires being trajected through various Liquors and other Catoptricall bodies or reflected from them doe imbibe and carry off much of their Virtues and become thereby impraegnate so as to be praedisposed to the production of sundry noble Effects such specially as relate to the Alteration Germination Pullulation and Generation of Vegetables and Animals both Aquatile and Terrestrial Nevertheless in case this Cause assigned seem somewhat Remote and obscure we shall alleage Another sufficiently verisimilous to ease men of their wonder at the Fullness of the Shell Fish in the Full moon and their Leaneâ—â— in the New and that is the Encrease of the Tides of the Sea which ascending higher upon the shoars at the Full moon and washing down mâ—re of Mudd Slime and Saltness from thence afford greater plenty of Aâ—â—ment to all Shell Fish which delight in and thrive best upon such kâ—nd of food and are observed therefore to frequent foul and slimy shoaâ—â— and yet neerer and neerer to land as the Tides rise higher and higher and again remove farther and farther off as the tides sink lower and lower 7 To this Classis also belongs the Famous Selenites or Moon-Geeme a certain praecious stone found only in Arabia as Dioscorides lib. 5. cap. 110. delivers whose rare and singular Faculty is this that it repraesents the Moon in all her several Dresses of Light or Apparences encreasing 〈◊〉 Lustre exactly as she encreaseth hers and proportionately losing it 〈◊〉 Relations be true which have been made thereof by Authors of the highest form for Credit namely Pliny lib. 36. cap. 10. S. Augustin de Civit. D. lib. 21. cap. 5. Zanardus de Univers Element quaest 53. Nichol. Caussinus lib. 11. Symbol 5â— â—oh Daniel Mylius Basilicae Chymic lib. 5. cap 28. and many modern Mineralogists Now for the Reason of this Rarity in all liklihood it must be if not the very same yet Cousin
Likewise the Consent of another string which makes that Consonance which Musicians call a Diapason or Eighth to that which is percussed by the hand ariseth only from hence that the Excurses and Recurses of the string percussed by the hand do not at all clash with nor perturb and confound the Excurses and Recurses of the string moved immediately only by the Aer but are Coincident and Synchronical to them and observe the same periods and so both agree in their certain and frequent intervals more particularly in an Eight every single Diadrom of the longer and more lax string is coincident to every second fourth sixth c. Diadrom of the shorter or more tense string Nay farther if the two strings be Consonous though but in the less perfect Consonance of a Fifth yet shall the sympathy hold and manifest it self which is not commonly observed by the tremulation of the untouched string that is tuned to a Fifth because their Diadroms are not wholly confused each single diadrom of the longer or lower string being coincident to every third sixth ninth c. diadrom of the shorter or more tense string But if the two strings be Dissonous the sympathy fails because the Excurses and Recurses agree not in any of their Intervals or Periods but perturb and confound each other as may be more fully understood from our praecedent Discourse of the Reason of Consonances and Dissonances Musical 8 Nor is it the Inaequality of Tension disparity of Longitude and Magnitude or Non-coincidence of the Vibrations in their several periods that alone make Two strings Discordant for if we admit the common tradition of Naturalists where an Instrument is strung with some strings made of Sheeps and others of Woolfs Guts intermixed the best hand in the World shall never make it yeeld a perfect Consonance much less play an harmonious tune thereupon And the Cause doubtless is no other than this that the strings made of a Woolfs Guts are of a different Contexture from those made of a Sheeps so that however equally both are strained and adjusted yet still shall the Aer be unequally percussed and impelled by them and consequently the sounds created by one sort confound and drown the sounds resulting from the other To leave you in the less uncertainty concerning this it is commonly observed that from one and the same string when it is not of an Uniforme Contexture throughout but more close even and firme in some parts than in others all such our Musicians call False strings there doe alwayes result various and unequal sounds the close even and firm parts yeelding a smart and equal sound the lax and uneven yeelding a dull flat and harsh which two different sounds at the same time created confound and drown each other and consequently where such a string is playd upon in Consort it disturbs the whole Concent or Harmony It is further observed also that the Musick of an Harp doth infect the musick of a Lute and other softer and milder instruments with a kind of Asperity and Indistinction of Notes which Asperity seems to arise from a certain kind of Tremor peculiar only to the Chords of that Instrument The like also hath been reported of other scarce Consortive Instruments such as the Virginalls and Lute the Welsh Harp and Irish c. But you 'll Object perhaps that the Discordance of Woolves and Sheeps Gutlings seemeth to arise rather from some Formal Enmity or inhaerent Antipathy betwixt the Woolf and Sheep because it hath been affirmed by many of the Ancients and questioned by very few of the Moderns that a Drum bottomed with a Woolfs skin and headed with a Sheeps will yeeld scarce any sound at all nay more that a Wolfs skin will in short time prey upon and consume a Sheeps skin if they be layed neer together And against this we need no other Defense than a downright appeal to Experience whether both those Traditions deserve not to be listed among Popular Errors and as well the Promoters as Authors of them to be exiled the society of Philosophers these as Traitors to truth by the plotting of manifest falsehoods those as Ideots for beleiving and admiring such fopperies as smell of nothing but the Fable and lye open to the contradiction of an easy and cheap Experiment 9 Nor can we put a greater value upon the Devouring of all other Birds Feathers by those of the Eagle commixt with them though the Author of Trinum Magicum hath bin pleased to tell us a very formall and confident story thereof because we have no Reason to convince us that the Eagle preys upon other Fowls out of an Antipathy or Hatred but rather out of Love and Convenience of Aliment and though there were an Enmity betwixt the Eagle and all his feathered subjects during life yet is there no necessity that Enmity should survive in the scattered peices of his Carcass especially in the Feathers that are but one degree on this side Excrements which is praesumed to consist cheifly in the Forme since those Proprieties which are Formal in Animals must of necessity vanish upon the destruction of the Forme from whence they result Thus Glow-worms project no lustre after death and the Torpedo which stupefies at distance while alive produceth no such effect though topically applied after death for there are many Actions of Sensible Creatures that are mixt and depend upon their vital form as well as that of mistion and though they seem to retain unto the Body doe yet immediately depart upon its Disunion In the SECOND Division of Special Occult Qualities viz. such as are imputed to Vegetables the First that expects our Consideration is the so frequently mentioned and generally conceded Sympathy or mutually beneficial Friendship betwixt some certain Plants as betwixt Rew and the Figg-tree the Rose and Garlick the Wild Poppy and Wheat all which are observed to delight and flourish most in the neighbourhood of each other and our skilful Gardners use to advance the growth and fructification of the one by planting its favourite neer it Concerning this therefore we advertise that men are mistaken not only in the Cause but Denomination also of this Effect supposing a secret Friendship where is none and imputing that to a certain Cognation or Sympathy which seems to proceed from a manifest Dissimilitude and Antipathy betwixt Divers Natures For wherever two Plants are set together whereof the one as being of a far Different if not quite Contrary Nature and so requiring a different kind of nourishment doth substract and assimilate to its self such a juice of the earth as would otherwise flow to the other and deprave its nourishment and consequently give an evil tincture to its Fruit and Flowers in this case Both Plants are reciprocally the remote Cause of the Prosperity each of other And thus Rew growing neer the roots of the Figg-tree and attracting to its self the Rank and Bitter moisture of the earth as most agreeable
celebrated by Naturalists and that is the suddain Disanimation of the Blood in Living Bodies by the meer prâ—sence of the Basilisk Catablepa and Diginus Serpents of a Nature so transcendently Venemous that according to pogular Tradition and the several relations of Dioscorides Galen Pliny Solinus Aelian Avicen and most other Authors who have treated of the Proprieties of Animals and Venoms they are Dectructive beyond themselves i. e. they either kill by intuition or Hiss out the flames of life by their Deieterious Expirations If Natural Historians have herein escaped that itch of Fiction to which they are so generally subject when they come to handle Rarities and that Nature hath produced any such Speâ—â—es whose optical Emissions or Pectoral Expirations are fatal and pernicious whether he sees the Woolf first or the Woolf him suddain silence being ever the Associate â—or rather Consequent of great and suddain Fear The Aphonia therefore or Defect of voice which hath sometimes though very rarely been observed to invade men upon the Conspection of Woolves is not the genuine Effect of any secret and radicated Antipathy or Fascinating Virtue in the subtle Aporrhaea's emitted from the eyes lungs or bodie of the Woolf but only of their own Fear and Terror arising from a strong apprehension of Danger the suddain and impetuous Concentration of the Spirits toward the Heart by reason of the violent Terror at that time causing a Defection of spirits and consequently a kind of Relaxation in the Muscles of the Tongue and Nerves inservient to the vocal instruments So that the inspired Aer cannot be Efflated with that force and celerity as is necessary to the loudness and distinct articulation of the voice 6 Nor is it the Eye alone that the Folly of men hath made obnoxious to Antipathies but the Ear also hath it share of wonderful Effects for there go solemn stories of inveterate and specifical Enmities betwixt the Lyon and Cock Elephant and Swine and He hath read little who hath not more than once met with sundry relations that the Crowing of the Cock is more terrible than death to the fiercest Lyon and the Grunting of a Swine so odious to an Elephant that it puts him into an Agony of Horror Trembling and Cold sweat Which notwithstanding may well be called to the barre of Experiment and many worthy Authors have more then questioned among whom Camerarius in Symbol expresly assures us that in his time one of the Duke of Bavaria's Lyons breaking into a yard adjacent to his Den and there finding a flock of Poultry was so far from being afraid of the Cock or his Crowing that he devoured him and his troop of Hens together And as for the other Antipathy ourselves have seen an Elephant feed and sleep quietly in the same stable with a Sow and her whole litter of Piggs However lest some should plead the power of Custom in both these cases and object that that Lyon and Elephant had been by Assuefaction brought to endure the naturally hateful Noises of the Cocks Crowing and the Swines Grunting to eradicate the belief of the supposed Occult Antipathies we say that such may be the Discrepancy or Disproportion betwixt the Figures and Contextures of those subtile particles that compose those Harsh Sounds and the Contexture of the organs of Hearing in the Lyon and Elephant as that they exasperate them and so highly offend those Animals For thus we suffer a kind of short Horror and our Teeth are set on edge by those harsh and vehement sounds made by scraping of trenchers filing the teeth of saws squeaking of doors and the like only because those sounds grate and exasperate the Auditory Nerves which communicate the harsh impression to the Nerves of the Teeth and cause a stridor therein 7 But if we pass from these Imaginary to Real Antipathies and desire not to misimploy our Understanding in the quest of Dihotâ—es for such things of whose Hoti the more sober and judicious part of Schollars justly doubt let us come to the wonderful Venome of the TARANTULA a certain Phalangium or smal Spider frequent in Italy but most in and about Tarentum in Apulia which hath this strange Propriety that being communicated to the bodie of man by biting it makes him Dance most violently at the same time every year till He be perfectly cured thereby being invincible by any other Antidote but Musick An Effect so truly admirable and singular that the Discovery of its abstruse Causes and the manner of their operation cannot but be most opportune and grateful to the Curious who we presume would gladly knowe Why suâ—h as are empoysoned by the biting of a Tarantula fall intâ— violent Fits of Dancing and cannot be Cured by any other Remedies but the Harmonious Straines of Musick aloâ—â— SOLUTION How great the power of Musick is as to the excitement exaltation and compescence or mitigation of the Passions of the Mind of Man and wherein the Câ—use of that Harmonical Magick doth consist would be a Digression and perhaps somewhat superfluous for us here to enquire And therefore cutting off all Collateral Curiosities we shall confine our present 〈◊〉 to the limits of our owne Profession endeavouring only to explain the Reasons why Musick hath so strong and generous an Energy as certainly to cure the Bodie of a man intoxicated with the Venome of the Taruntula which eludes and despises the opposition of all other Alexipharmacal Medicaments Forasmuch therefore as the â—tâ—ings of a Lute Vial or other Musical Instrument do alwayes movâ— and impell the Aer after the same manner as themselves are moved anâ— impelled and by this proportionate misture of Sounds create an Harmony delightful not only to the Eare but to that Harmonious Essencâ— the soul which Animates the Eare hence comes it that by the musical Harmony that is made by the Musicians playâ—â—g to the person infected with the Tarantâ—sme the Aer by reason of the various and yet proportionate motions of the strings is harmonically moved and agitated and carying thâ—se various motions of the harmony impressed upon it self into the Eare and so affecting the Phantastical Faculty with those pleasant motions 〈…〉 like manner affect and move the spirits in the brain and the spirits having received those impressions and diffused into the Nerves Muscles and 〈◊〉 of the whole body and there meeting with a certain thin acrimonâ—ous and pricking Humor which is the chief fewel and vehicle of the Venoâ—e derived from the Tarantula they attenuate and agitate the same by a 〈◊〉 very like that of Fermentation and disperse it with a quick motion 〈…〉 all the parts And this Humor being thus set afloat and estuated toâ—â—â—her with the venome or seeds of the Poyson which are contained 〈◊〉 must needs affect all the Musculousand Nervous parts 〈…〉 with a kind of Itch or gentle and therefore pleasan◠〈◊〉 or rather Titillation So that the Patient feeling this universa◠〈…〉 Tickling can be no longer at ease and
this invented by Gassendus Thirdly we may account the Line DE for the first degree of Velocity acquired in the end of the first time insomuch as the first time AE is not individual but may be divided into so many instants or shorter times as there are points or particles in the line AE or AD so neither is the degree of Velocity individual or wholly acquired in one instant but from the beginning encreaseth through the whole first time and may be repraesented by so many Lines as may be drawn parallel to the Line DE betwixt the points of the Lines AD and AE so that as those Lines do continually encrease from the point A to the Line DE so likewise doth the Velocity continually encrease from the beginning of the motion and being represented what it is in the intercepted instants of the first time by the intercepted Lines it may be represented what it is in the last instant of the same first time by the Line DE drawn betwixt the two last points of the Triangle ADE And because the Velocity thenceforward continuing its Encrease may be again signified by Greater and Greater Lines continently drawn betwixt all the succeeding points of the remaining Lines DB and EC hence comes it that the Line FG doth represent the degree of Velocity acquired in the end of the second moment the Line HI the Velocity acquired in the end of the third moment and the Line KL the velocity acquired in the end of the fourth moment And evident it is from hence how the velocities respond in proportions to the Times since by reason of the Triangles of a common angle and parallel bases it is well known that as DE are to EA so FG to GA HI to IA and KL to LA. Thus keeping your eye upon the Figure and your mind upon the Analogy you shall fully comprehend that in the first moment of Time the falling stone doth acquire one degree of Velocity and pervades one degree of space that in the second moment of Time it acquires another degree of Velocity which being conjoynd to the former makes two and in the mean while three spaces are pervaded that in the third moment it acquires another degree of Velocity which conjoyned to the two former makes three and in the mean while seven parts of space are pervaded and so forward You shall fully comprehend also that the Celerities obtain the same Ration as the moments of Time and that the spaces pervaded from the beginning to the end of the motion have the same Ration as the Quadrates of the moments of Time which we assumed to Demonstrate out of Gassendus But still it concerns you to remember that we here discourse of that Motion which is Equally or Uniformly Accelerated or whose velocity doth continually and uniformly encrease nor is there any moment of the consequent time in which the motion is not more swift than it was in every antecedent moment and in which it is not accelerated according to the same Reason For the want of this Advertisement in chief seems to have been the unhappy occasion of that great trouble the Learned Jesuit Petrus Cazraeus put Gassendus to in his two Epistles De Proportione qua Gravia decidentia accelerantur And this kindly conducts us to the Physical Reason of this Proportion in which the velocity of bodies Descending is observed to encrease For wholly excluding the supposition of the Aers assistance of the Downward motion of a stone by recurring above and so impelling it downward and admitting the Magnetick Attraction of the Earth to be the sole Cause of its Descent unto both which the considerations formerly alleadged seem to oblige us it is familiar for us to conceive that the Increment of its Celerity according to the proportion assigned ariseth from hence While in the first moment the earth attracts the stone one degree of Celerity is acquired and one degree of space is pervaded In the second moment the attraction of the Earth continuing another degree of celerity is acquired and three equal spaces are pervaded one by reason of the degree of celerity in the mean while acquired and two by reason of the degree of celerity formerly acquired and still persevering as that which is doubly â—equivalent to the new degree in the mean while acquired because it is Complete and entire from the very beginning of the 2d moment but the other is only acquiring or in fieri and so not complete till the end of the second moment Then according to the same Ration in the third moment another degree of celerity is acquired and five spaces equal are pervaded one by reason of the new degree of celerity in the mean while acquired and fower by reason of the two former persevering i. e. two in each moment praecedent or one of a duplicate aequivalency to the new one not yet complete Then in the fourth moment another degree of celerity is acquired and seven spaces are pervaded one by reason of the fresh degree in the interim acquired and six by reason of the three former perâ—â—vering i. e. two in each praecedent moment And so of the rest through the whole motion computing the degrees of encreasing Celerity by the ration of Quadrate Numbers Now many are the Physical Theorems and of considerable importance which might be genuinely deduced from this excellent and fruitful Physicomathematical speculation and as many the admired Apparences in nature that offer themselves to be solved by Reasons more than hinted in the same but such is the strictness of our method and weariness of our Pen that we can in the praesent make no farther advantage of it than only to infer from thence the most probable Reason of that so famous Phaenomenon The equal velocity of two stones or bullets the one of 100 pound the other of only one ounce weight descending from the same altitude experience constantly attesting that being dropt down together or turned off in the same instant from the top of a tower the Lesser shall arrive at the ground as soon as the Greater For this admirable Effect seems to have no other Cause but this that the Lesser body as it containeth fewer parts so doth it require the Impulses or strokes of fewer Magnetical rays by which the attraction is made and such is the proportion of the two forces as that each moveable being considered with what Resistence you please still is the force in the movent equally sufficient to overcome that resistence and a few magnetique rays suffice to the attraction of a few parts as well as many to the attraction of many parts So that the space being equal which both are to pervade it follows that it must be pervaded by both in equal or the same time Provided always that the two bodies assumed be of the same matter for in case they be of divers matters as the one of Wood the other of Iron or Lead that may cause some small
Intellectual promotions of others but also to stand in the number of those Active and Free Spirits who have through want of Abilities only miscarried in their well intended Endeavours for the benefit of Learning rather than in the list of those Idle or Envious ones who having more of Wit than of Humanity and wanting nothing but the Inclination to do Good have buried their Talents and lest the Republique of Arts and Sciences to suffer in the want of such means of Advancement as their Capacities might easily have afforded unto it 'T is the Custom of the Multitude you Know always to estimate the Counsel of Designs only by their Success and never allowing for Impediments or sinister Accidents to account the Goodness of an Undertaking to consist wholly in the Felicity of its Event but such is the justice of Wisdom that it consigns a Reward to a good Intention and decrees a Lawrel to be planted on his Grave who fals in the generous Attempt of any noble Discovery as well as one to be placed on his Head who shall be so much beholding to the Favour and Assistance of his Fortune as to Accomplish it This I put you in mind of not out of Arrogance as if I challenged any thing 〈◊〉 due to me besides a lively Resentment of my constant and sincere Zeale to the Encrease of Knowledge but to possess you more fully with the Equity of my Expectation which aims at no other Reward but what Detraction it self dares not dispute my Right unto and much less thaâ— what I presume your own Charity would if I had referred my self thereunto have readily assigned me But lest I seem to prevent you in your Inclination or to Extort that from you by force of Argument which as well your own innate Candor as judicious Aequanimity had sufficiently praepaâ—ed you to offer me of your own accord I resigne you to your Peace and the undisturbed enjoyment of those Pleasures which usually result from the memory of Difficulties once overcome Having first assured you that your benigne Acceptance of my Services and Pardon of my Misfortunes so I may call all such Errors whose praecaution was above the power of my humble judgement in this Voyage may prove a chief Encouragement to me to adventure on a Second without which this First must be Imperfect and that is for a Description of the Nature of that Paradise of the World that bright shadow of the All-illuminating and yet Invisible Light that Noble Essence which we know to be within us but do not understand because it is within us and cannot understand without it the Humane Soul and that so soon as Quiet and Physick shall have repaired those Decays in the Weather-beaten Vessel of my Body which long Sitting frequent Watchings and constant Solicitude of mind have therein made In the meantime I conjure you by your own Humanity to remember and testifie that in this my Conversation with you you have found me so far from being Magisterial in any of the Opinions I praesented that considering my own Humor of Indifferency and constant Dubiosity frequently professed but more expresly in the First Chapter of this Work and 1. Art of the 1. Chap. 3. Book it hath somewhat of wonder in it that I ever proposed them to Others nor indeed can any thing solve that wonder but my Hopeâ—â— thereby secretly to undermine that lofty Confidence of yonger Heads in the Certitude of Positions and Axioms Physiological and by my declared Scepticism even in such Notions as my self have laboured to assert by the firmest Grounds and strongest Inducements of Belief to reduce them to the safer level of Quo magis quaerimus magis dubitamus FINIS Art 1. The principal Sects of the ancient Grecian Philosophers only enumerated Art 2. The same revived among the Moderns with enâ—rease Art 3. Who are reduced either to the Pedantique or Female Sect. Art 4. Or to the Assertors of Philosoâ—hical Liberty Art 5. Or to the Renovâ—tors Art 6. Or to the Electors Art 1. The principal causes of the Diversity of Philosophical Sects and the chiefest among them the Obscurity of Nature Art 2. The Imperfection of our Vnderstanding Art 3. The Irregularity of our Curiâ—sâ—tâ— A paradox Art 1. The Ambition of Alexander in affecting the Conquest less vain then that of many ancient Philosophers in affecting the Knowledge of a Multitude of Worlds Art 2. A reduction of those Philosâ—phers to four distinct Sectâ— respective to their distinct persuasion and the Hâ—ads oâ— each Sect nominated Art 3. The two main pillars on which the â—pinion of a Plurality of Worlds was anciently erected Art 1. The Question stated to be concerning the real Existence not the possibility of an Infinity of Worlds Art 2. Because the supposed Infinity of the Extramundan Spaces is no impossâ—bility Art 3. Because an Iâ—finity of Bodies is also possible as to the Omnâ—potence of God Art 4. The Error of concluding the Esse from the Posse of an Infâ—nity of Woâ—lds Art 5. The first main Pillar of a Plurality of Worlds subverted Art 6. The secoâ—d Pillar found sophisticate and demolished Art 7. A Plurality of Worlds manifâ—stly râ—pugnant to Authority Divine Art 8. Anâ— Human. Art 9. The result of all the Demonstratiâ—n of the Authors Thesis That this World is thy Vniverse Art 10. Extramundane Curiosity a high degree of Madness Art 1. Body and Inanity the two general Parts of the Universe Art 2. Three the most memorable Definitions of Corporiety extant among Physiologists recounted and examined Art 3. Four Descriptions of the nature of Inanity by Epicurus Cleomedes Empiricus Aristotle Art 4. Their importance extraâ—ted and what is the fâ—rmal or proper notion of a Vacuum Art 5. The Existence of Bodies in the World manifest by Sense whose Evidence is perfect Demonstration Art 1. The Distinction of a Vacuum into 1 Natural and 2 Praeternatural and the one called Disseminate the other Coacerâ—vate Art 2. The nature of a Disseminate Vacuity explained by the Analogy of a heap of Corn. Art 3. The first Argument of a Disseminate Vacuity desumed from the evidence of Motion in General and Aristotles error concerning the Essence of Place concisely detected and corrected Art 4. Motion demonstrated by Sense and Zeno's aenigmatical Argument for an Universal Quiet dissolved Art 5. The Consequution of the Argument if no Vacuum no Motion illustrated Art 6. An Obâ—ectiâ—n that the Lococessiâ—n of some Bodies dâ—pâ—nds on their Rarity or Porâ—sity noâ— on a Disseminate Vacuity praevented Art 7. No beginning of Moâ—ion without Inaniâ—y interâ—persed Art 1. A second Argument of a Vacuity Disseminate collected from tâ—e reason of Râ—refaction and Condensation Art 2. The eminent Phaenomenâ—n of an Aeroâ—â—lâ—peâ— or Wind-Gun soâ—ved by a Vacuity Disâ—eminate among the incontiguous quoad totas superfiâ—ies parts of aer Art 3. Experiment of an Aeâ—lipile or Hermetical Bâ—llowâ— attesting a Vacuity 〈…〉 Art 4. Experiment of a Sulphuâ—aâ—e Tapor included in a Glass Vial partly filled with
of VVater into the Tube if superaffused upon the restagnant Mercury Art 5. A Third most important Doubt concerning the nonapparence of any Tensity or Rigidity in the region of Aer incumbent upon the Restagnant Liquors Art 6. The solatiâ—n thereof by the necessary reliction of a space in the 〈◊〉 regiâ—n of Lax aer equal to that which the Hand commoved possesseth in the region of the Comprest Art 7. A confiâ—maâ—ion of the same Reason by the adaequate Example of the Flame of a Tapour Art 8. 2 By the Experiment of Vrination * Quam ob caussam corpus hâ—mâ—nus ad 〈…〉 nullum incumbentis aquae pâ—ndus sentiat lector 〈…〉 Hydâ—aulâ—◠〈…〉 p. â—05 Art 9. 3 By the Beams of the Sun entring a room through some slender crany in the appearance of a white shining VVand and constantly maintaining that Figure notwithstanding the agitation of the aer by wind c. Art 10. 4 By the constancy of the Rainbow to its Figure notwithstanding the change of position and place of the cloud contiguous aer Art 11. Helmonts Dellrium that the Rainbow is a supernatural Meteor observed Art 1. The sixth and last considerable Difficulty Art 2. The clear solution thereof by the great disproportion of weight betwixt Quicksilver and VVater Art 3. A Corollary the Altitude of the Atmosphere conjectured Art 4. A second Corollary the desperateâ— Difficulty of conciliating Physiology to the Mathematicks instanced in the much discrepant opinions of Galilaeo and Mersennus concerning the proportioâ— of Gravity that Aer and VVater hold each to other Art 5. The Conclusion of this Digression and the reasons why the Author adscribes a Cylindrical Figure to the portion of Aer impendent on the Restagnant Liquors in the Experiment Art 1. The Identy Essential of a Vacuum and Place the cause of the praesent Enquiry into the Nature of Place Art 2. Among all the Quaeries about the Hoti of Place the most important is Whether Epicurus or Aristotles Definition of it be most adaequate Art 3. The Hypothethesis of Aristotles Definition Art 4. A convenient supposition inferring the necessity of Dimensions Incorporeal Art 5. The Legality of that supposition Art 6. The Dimensions of Longitude Latitude and Profundity imaginable in a Vacuum Art 7. The Gâ—and 〈◊〉 objectiâ—n that Nothing is in a Vacuum ergo 〈◊〉 Dimensions Art 8. Des Cartes and Mr. VVhite seduced by the plausibility of the same Art 9. The Peripaâ—â—ticks reduction of Time and Place to the General Categories of Suâ—stances and Accidents the Cause of this Epidemick mistake Art 10. Place neither Accident nor Substance Art 11. The praecedent Giant Objection that Nothing is in a Vacuum sâ—abbâ—d at a blow Art 12. Dimensions Corporeal and Incorporeal or Spatial Art 13. The former supposition reassumed and enlarged Art 14. The scope and advantage thereof viz. the comprehension of three eminent Abstrusities concerning the Nature of Place Art 15. The Incâ—rporâ—ety of Dimensions Sâ—atial Discriminated from that of the Divine Essence and other Suâ—stances Incorporeal Art 16. This persuasion of the Improduction and Independency of Place praeserved from the suspition of Impiety Art 1. Place not the immediate superfice of the Body invironing the Locatum contrary to Aristotle Art 2. Salvo's for all the Difficult Scruples touching the nature of Place genuinely exâ—â—acted from Epicurus his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Art 3. Aristotles ultimate Refuge Art 4. The Invalidity thereof and the Coexistibility or Compatibility of Dimensions Corporeal and Spatial Art 1. The Hoti of Time more easily conceivable by the Simple Notion of the Vulgar then by the complex Definitions of Philosâ—phers Art 2. The Generall praesumption that Time is Corporeal or an Accident dependent on Corporeal Subjects the chief Cause of that Difficulty Art 3. The variety of opinions concerning it another Cause of the Difficulty and Epicurus Description of its Essence recited and explained Art 4. Time deâ—ined to be 〈…〉 by Zâ—no 〈◊〉 c. and thereupon affirmed by Philo to be only 〈◊〉 to the VVoâ—ld Art 5. Aristotles so much magnified Definition of Time to be the Measure of Motion Coelestial c. perpended and found too light Art 1. Time nor substance nor Accident but an Ens more General and the Twin-brother of Space Art 2. A Paralellism betwixt Spaâ—â— and Time Art 3. Time Senior unto and independent upon Motion and only accidentally indicated by Motion as the Mensuratum by the Mensura Art 4. A demonstration of the independence of Time upon Motion from the miraculous Detention of the Sun above the Horison in the days of Ioshua Art 5. An Objection that during the arrest of the Sun there was no Time because no Hours satisfied Art 6. The Immutability of Time also asserted against Aristotle Art 1. The Grand Quaestion concerning the Disparity of Time and Eternity stated Art 2. Two praeparatory Considerations touchant the aequivocal use of the word Aeternity requisite to the clear solution thereof Art 3. Two decisive Positions thereupâ—n inâ—erred and established Art 4. The Platoniâ—ks Definition of Eternity to be one Everlasting New not intelligible and therefore collusive Art 5. Their Assertors subterfuge that Eternity is Coexistent to Time also unintelligible Art 6. Our Ecclesiastick Doctors taking Sanctuary in the 3 Exod. for the authorizing of their doctrine that the Praesent Tense is only competent to God and so that Eternity is one permanent Instant without Fusion or Succession not â—â—cure from the rigour of our Demonstraâ—ion Art 7. The Objective Praesence of all things at once to the Divine In eâ—â—ect no wayes impugned by our contradiction 〈◊〉 the Doctors theory Art 8. Noâ— the Immutability of the Divine Nature against Aristotle Art 9. Coronis Art 1. The right of the Authors Transition from the Incorporeal to the Corporeal part of Nature and a series of his subsequent speculations Art 2. Bodies generally distinguished into Principles and Productions with their Scholastick Denominations and proprieties Art 3. The right of Atoms to the Attributes of the First Matter Art 4. Their sundry Appellations allusive to their three eminent proprieties Art 5. Two vulgarly passâ—nt Derivations of the word Atom exploded Art 6. Who their Invenâ—or and who their Nomenclator Art 7. Their Existence demoâ—strated Art 8. Thâ—â— Nature in her dissolution of 〈◊〉 doth desâ—end to 〈◊〉 particâ—es Art 9. That â—he 〈…〉 to 〈◊〉 Art 10. 〈…〉 the Term of Exâ—oluâ—ility Art 11. A second Argument of their Existence drawn from that of their Antitheton Inanity Art 12. A third hinted from the impossibility of the Production of Hard Bodies from any other Principle Art 13. A Fourth from the Constancy of Nature in the specification and Determinate Periods of her Generations Art 1. The Cognation of this Theorem to the Argument of the immediately praecedent Chapter Art 2. Magâ—iâ—ude diviâ—â—â—le by a continued progress through parts either 〈…〉 Art 3. The use of that Distinction in the praesent Art 4. The veriâ—y of the Thesis demonstrated Art 5. Two detestable
crescant iterum quaenam enim Elateria cogunt aerem ad sui restitutionem How do those Vacuities minute in the aer when enlarged by rarefaction recover their primitive exility and when diminished by condensation re-expand themselves to their former dimensions What Elaters or Springs are in the aer which may cause its suddain restitution to its natural constitution of insensible particles We Answer that as it is the most catholique Law of Nature for every thing so much as in it lies to endeavour the conservation of its originary state so in particular it is the essential quality of the Aer that its minute particles conserve their natural Contexture and when forced in Rarefaction to a more open order or in Condensation to a more close order immediately upon the cessation of that expanding or contracting violence to reflect or restore themselves to their due and natural contexture Nor need the Aer have any Principle or Efficient of this Reflection other then the Fluidity or Confluxibility of its Atomical Parts the essence or Quiddity of which Quality we must reserve for its proper place in our ensuing theory of Qualities CHAP. V. A Vacuum Praeternatural SECT I. BEsides a Natural or Disseminate Vacuity frequently intercepted betwixt the incontiguous Particles of Bodies the Argument of our immediately precedent Chapter not a few of the highest form in the school of Democritus have adventured to affirm not only the possibility but frequent introduction of a Praeternatural or Coacervate Inanity such as may familiarly be conceived if we imagine many of those minute inane spaces congregated into one sensible void space To assist this Paradox the autoptical testimony of many Experiments hath been pleaded especially of that Glass Fountain invented by Hero praef in Spirit and fully described by the learned and industrious Turnebus in lib. de calore and of that Brass Cylindre whose concave carries an Embolus or sucker of wood concerning which the subtle Galilaeo hath no sparing discourse in the first of his Dialogues but above all of that most eminent and generally ventilated one of a Glass Cylindre or Tube filled with Quicksilver and inverted concerning which not long after the invention thereof by that worthy Geometrician Torricellius at Florence have many excellent Physicomathematical Discourses been written by Monsieur Petit Dr. Paschal Mersennâ—s Gassendus Stephanus Natalis Who being all French seemed unanimously to catch at the experiment as a welcom opportunity to challenge all the Wits of Europe to an aemulous combat for the honour of perspicacity Now albeit we are not yet fully convinced that the chief Phaenomenon in this illustrious Experiment doth clearly demonstrate the existence of a Coacervate Vacuity such as is thereupon by many conceâ—ed and with all possible subtlety defended by that miracle of natural Science the incomparable Mersennus in reflexionib Physicomathemat yet insomuch as it affords occasion of many rare and sublime speculations whereof some cannot be solved either so fully or perspicuously by any Hypothesis as that of a Vacuum Disseminatum among the insensible particles of Aer and Water and most promise the pleasure of Novelty if not the profit of satisfaction to the worthy considerer we judge it no unpardonable Digression here to present to our judicious Reader a faithful Transcript of the Experiment together with the most rational solutions of all the admirable Apparences observed therein first by Torricellius and the rest beyond Sea and since more then once by our selves The Experiment Having praepared a Glass Tube whose longitude is 4 feet and the diameter of its concavity equal to that of a mans middle finger and stopped up one of its extremities or ends with a seal Hermetical fill it with Quicksilver and stop the other extreme with your middle finger Then haâ—ing with a most slow and gentle motion lest otherwise the great weight of the Quicksilver break it inverted the Tube immerge the extreme stopt by your finger into a Vessel filled with equal parts of Quicksilver and Water not withdrawing your finger untill the end of the Tube be at least 3 or 4 inches deep in the subjacent Quicksilver for so you praevent all insinuation or intrusion of Aer This done and the Tube fixed in an erect or perpendicular position upon the subduction of your finger from the lower orifice you may observe part of the Quicksilver contained in the Tube to descend speedily into the restagnant or subjacent Quicksilver leaving a certain space in the superior part of the Tube according to apparence at least absolutely Void or Empty and part thereof after some Reciprocations or Vibrations to remain still in the Tube and possess its cavity to a certain proportion or altitude of 27 digits or 2 feet 3 digits and an half proximè constantly Further if you recline with a gentle motion also the upper extreme of the Tube untill the lower formerly immersed in the Quicksilver arise up into the region of the Water incumbent on the surface of the Quicksilver you may perceive the Quicksilver remaining in the Tube to ascend by sensible degrees up to the superior extreme thereof together with part of the Water both those liquors to be confounded together and at length the Quicksilver wholly to distill down in parcels surrendring the cavity of the Tube to the possession of the Water Likewise if you recline the superior extreme of the Tube untill its altitude respond to that of 27 digits still retaining the opposite extreme in the region of the subjacent Quicksilver in the vessel then will the Quicksilver be sensibly impelled up again into the Tube untill that space formerly vacated be replenished Finally if when tâ—e Quicksilver hath fallen down to the altitude of 27 digits the Tube be suddainly educed out of the subjacent Quicksilver and Water so as to arrive at the confines of the Aer then doth the Aer rush into the Tube below with such impetuosity as to elevate the Quicksilver and Water contained in the Tube to the top nay to blow up the sealed end thereof and drive out the liquors 4 or 5 feet perpendicular up in the aer not without some terror though not much danger to the Experimentator especially if he do not expect it Now though it be here praescribed that the Tube ought to be 4 feet in length and the amplitude of its Cavity equal to that of an ordinary mans finger yet is neither of these necessary For whatever be the longitude and whatever the amplitude of the Tube still doth the Quicksilver after various reciprocations acquiesce and subsist at the same standard of 27 digits as Dr Paschal junior found by experience in his Tube 15 feet long which he bound to a spear of the same length so to prevent the fraction thereof when it was erected perpendicularly replete with Quicksilver in libro cui titulus Experiences Novelles touchant le Vuide Among those many Natalis reckons up no less then 20 stupendious Magnalities or rare Effects
which this eminent Experiment exhibits to observation the least whereof seems to require a second Oedipus more perspicacious then the first for the accommodation thereof though but to plausible and verisimilous Causes and might had Aristotle known it have been reputed the ground of his despair with more credit then that petty Problem of the frequent and irregular Reciprocation of Euripus we have selected only six as the most considerable and such whose solution may serve as a bright tapor to illuminate the reason of the Curious who desire to look into the dark and abstruce Dihoties of the rest SECT II. The First Capital Difficulty WHether that Space in the Tube betwixt the upper extreme thereof and the Quicksilver delapsed to the altitude only of 27 digits be really an entire and absolute Vacuity Concerning this some there are who confidently affirm the space between the superfice of the Quicksilver defluxed and the superior extreme of the Tube to be an absolute COACERVATE VACUITIE such as may be conceived if we imagine some certain space in the world to be by Divine or miraculous means so exhausted of all matter or body as to prohibit any corporeal transflux through the same And the Reasons upon which they erect their opinion are these subsequent This space if possessed by any Tenent must be replenished either with common Aer or with a more pure and subtle substance called Aether which some have imagined to be the Universal Caement or common Elater by which a general Continuity is maintained through all parts of the Universe and by which any Vacuity is praevented or by some exhalation from the mass of Quicksilver included in the Tube First that it is not possessed by Aer is manifest from several strong and convincing reasons 1 Because the inferior end of the Tube D is so immersed into the subjacent mass of Quicksilver below the line EF that no particle of aer can enter thereat 2 Because if there were aer in the Tube filling the deserted space CK then would not the circumambient or extrinsecal aer when the Tube is educed out of the restagnant Quicksilver and Water rush in with that violence as to elevate the remainder of the Quicksilver in the Tube from K to D up to the top C and break it open as is observed in regard that could not happen without a penetration of bodies So that if we suppose any portion of aer to have slipped into the Tube below at the subduction of the finger that closed the orifice then would not the Mercury reascending upon the inclination of the Tube down to the horizontal line KM rise up quite to the top C but subsist at OP But the contrary is found upon the experiment 4 If any portion of Aer chance to intrude into the cavity of the Tube which may come to pass either if when the superior orifice of the Tube is inverted it be not exactly obturated by the finger of the Experimentator or if at the extraction of his finger the lower eâ—treme be not immersed deep enough in the subjacent Mercury to prevent the subingress of some aer or if the orifice of the Tube educed out of the region of the subjacent Mercury and Water be not wholly deobturated at once but so as there is only some slender inlet of Aer We say if in any of these Cases it happen that some small portion of aer be admitted into the cavity of the Tube we have the evidence of our sense and the most infallible one too that the aer so admitted doth not ascend to the top C but remaine visible in certain small Bubbles such as usually mount up to the surface of seething water immediately upon the superfice of the Mercury at the altitude of 27 digits K. As if indeed the aer were attracted and in a manner chained down by the Magnetical Effluviums of the earth together with the pendent Quicksilver which having more Ansulae or Fastnings whereon the small Hooks of the Magnetical Chains exhaling from the Globe of the Earth may be accommodately fixed is therefore attracted downward more forcibly and in that respect is reputed to have the greater proportion of Gravity Again If upon the inclination of the Tube and the succeeding repletion of the same by the regurgitating Mercury that portion of aer formerly entered be propelled up to the top of the Tube C and then the Tube again reduced to its perpendicular so as the Quicksilver again deflux to K in this case the aer doth not remain at C but sinks down as formerly to K also and there remains incumbent upon the face of the Quicksilver Which Descent of the aer cannot be more probably referred to any Cause then the Attraction of the Magnetick streams of the Earth 5 Having admitted some few Bubbles of aer to slide up by the margine of the Mercury into the desert Space KC and then reclined the Tube to the altitude of the horizontal line KM you may perceive the delapsed Quicksilver not to be repelled up again quite to the top as before the irreption of aer but to make a stand when it arrives at the confines of the included aer at OP leaving so much space as is requisite for the reception of it Nor can it do otherwise without a penetration of Dimensions by the location of two Bodies in one and the same place 6 Moreover after the acquiescence of the Quicksilver at K if you stop the inferior extreme D with your finger while it remains immersed in the restagnant Quicksilver EF so as to praeclude the irreption of any more aer and then invert the Tube again the Scene of the Desert Capacity CK will be changed to the contrary extreme stopt by your finger and yet without the least sign of aer pervading the mass of Quicksilver in a kind of small stream of Bubbles contrary to what evene's when aer is admitted into the Tube in a small quantity for in that case upon the inversion of the Tube you may plainly behold an intersection between the descending Quicksilver and the ascending aer which mounts up through it in a small stream or thread of Bubbles 7 To those who conceive that a certain portion of the Circumstant Aer being forced by the compression of the restagnant Mercury in the Vessel rising higher upon the deflux of the Mercury contained in the Tube doth penetrate the sides of the Tube and so replenish the desert Capacity therein we answer that though we deny not but aer may penetrate the pores or Incontiguities of Glass since that is demonstrable in Weather Glasses and in the experiment of Sr. Kenelm Digby of making a sensible transudation of Mercury mixt with Aqua Fortis in a Bolt-head through the sides thereof if gently confricated with a Hares-foot on the outside yet cannot it be made out that therefore the Desert Capacity in the Tube is possessed with Aer for two inoppugnable reasons 1
Commotion among themselves from the moment of its infusion to the expiration of Natures lease For by virtue of these Correctives the poisonous part of Epicurus opinion may be converted into one of the most potent Antidotes against our Ignorance the Quantity of Atoms sufficing to the Materiation of all Concretions and their various Figures and Motions to the Origination of all their Qualities and Affections as our immediately subsequent Discourse doth professedly assert The Third Book CHAP. I. The Origine of Qualities SECT I. THat the sounding Line of Mans Reason is much too short to profound the Depths or Channels of that immense Ocean Nature needs no other evictment but this that it cannot attain to the bottom of Her Shallows It being a discouraging truth that even those things which are familiar and within the sphere of our Sense and such to the clear discernment whereof we are furnished with Organs most exquisitely accommodate remain yet ignote and above the Moon to our Understanding Thus what can be more evident to sense then the Continuity of a Body yet what more abstruse to our reason then the Composition of a Continuum What more obviously sensible then Qualities and yet what problem hath more distracted the brains of Philosophers then that concerning their Unde or Original Who doth not know that all Sensation is performed by the Mediation of certain Images or Species yet where is that He who hath hit the white in the undoubted determination of the Nature of a species or apodictically declared the manner of its Emanation from the Object to the Sensorium what kind of insensible-sensative impression that is which it maketh thereupon and how being from thence in the same instant transmitted to that noble something within us which we understand not it proves a lively Transumpt or type and informs that ready judge of the Magnitude Figure Colour Motion and all other apparences of its Antitype or Original or what hath ever been more manifest or beyond dubitation then the reality of Motion and yet we dare demand of Galilaeo himself what doth yet remain more impervestigable or beyond apodictical decision then the Nature and Conditions thereof Concerning the First of these 4 aenigmatical Quaestions we have formerly praesented you no sparing account of our Conjectural opinion which we desire may be candidly accepted in the latitude of Probability only or how it may be rather then how it is or must be i. e. that it is though most possible and verisimilous that every Physical Continuum should consist of Atoms yet not absolutely necessary For insomuch as the true Idea of Nature is proper only to that Eternal Intellect which first conceived it it cannot but be one of the highest degrees of madness for dull and unequal man to praetend to an exact or adaequate comprehension thereof We need not advertise that the Zenith to a sober Physiologists ambition is only to take the copy of Nature from her shadow and from the reflex of her sensible Operations to describe her in such a symmetrical Form as may appear most plausibly satisfactory to the solution of all her Phaenomena Because 't is well known that the eye of our grand Master Aristotles Curiosity was levelled at no other point as himself solemnly professeth in Meteorolog lib. 1. cap. 7. initio in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Cum autem de hisce quae sensui pervia non sunt satis esse juxta rationem demonstratum putemus si ad id â—uod fieri possit ea reduxerimus ex hisce quae in praesentia dicuntur existimaverit quispiam de hisce maximè ad hunc modum usu venire And evident it is that Mons. Des Cartes never was more himself that is profoundly ingenious then when he crowned his excellent Principles of Philosophy with this advertisement aâ— quamvis forte hoc pacto intelligatur quomodo res omnes naturales fieri potuerint non tamen ideo concludi debet ipsas reverà sic factas esse satiâ— Ã me praestitum esse putabo si tantum ea quae scripsi talia sint ut omnibus Naturae Phaenomenis accurate respondeant hoc enim ad usum vitae sufficiet And concerning the other three which according to the natural order of their dependence are successively the Arguments of our next ensuing Exercitations we likewise deprecate the same favourable interpretation in the General that so though our attempts perhaps afford not satisfaction to others yet they may not occasion the scandal of Arrogance and Obstinacy in opinion to our selves By the Quality of any Concretion we understand in the General no more but that kind of Apparence or Representation whereby the sense doth distinctly deprehend or actually discern the same in the capacity of its proper Object An Apparence we term it because the Quale or Suchness of every sensible thing receives its peculiar determination from the relation it holds to that sense that peculiarly discerns it at least from the judgment made in the mind according to the evidence of sensation Which doubtless was the genuine intent of Democritus in that remarkable and mysterious text recorded by Galen in lib. 1. de Element cap. 2. thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Lege enim Color lege amaror lege dulcor revera autem Atomus Inane inquit Democritus existimans omneis Qualitates sensibileis ex Atomorum concursu gigni quatenus se habent ad nos qui ipsarum sensum habemus Natura autem nihil candidum esse aut flavum aut rubrum c. The importance of which may be fully and plainly rendred thus that since nothing in the Universe stands possessed of a Real or True Nature i. e. doth constantly and invariately hold the praecise â—uale or Suchness of their particular Entity to Eternity Atoms understand them together with their essential and inseparable Proprieties lately specified and the Inane Space only excepted therefore ought all other things and more eminently Qualities in regard they arise not from nor subsist upon any indeclinable necessity of their Principles but depend upon various transient Accidents for their existence to be reputed not as absolute and entire Realities but simple and occasional Apparences whose specification consisteth in a certain modification of the First Matter respective to that distinct Affection they introduce into this or that particular sense when thereby actually deprehended Not that Democritus meant in a litteral sense that their production was determinable ex instituto hominum by the opinionative laws of mans Will as most of his Commentators have inconsiderately descanted but in a Metaphorical that as the justice injustice decency turpitude culpability laudability of Human actions are determined by the Conformity or Difformity they beaâ— to the Constitutions Civil or Laws generally admitted so likewise do the whiteness blackness sweetness bitterness heat or cold of all Natural Concretions receive their distinct essence or determination from certain positions and regular ordinations
to its owne nature leaveth the Milder and Sweeter for the aliment of the Fig tree and by that means both assisteth the procerity of the Tree and Meliorateth the Fruit thereof Thus also Garlick set neer to a Rose tree by consuming the Foetid juice of the ground and leaving the more Odorate and benigne to pass into the roots of the Rose tree doth both farther the Growth and Germination thereof and encrease the Sweetness of it Flowers But as for the Amity betwixt the Wild Poppy and Wheat we should refer it to another Cause viz. the Qualification of the ground by the tincture of the Wheat so as to praepare it for the Generation and growth of the Wild Poppy not by substraction of Disagreeing moisture but by Enriching the Soyle or impraegnating it with a fertility determinate to the production of some sorts of weeds and chiefly of that For most certain it is that there are certain â—orn-flowers which seldom or never spring up but amongst Corn and will hardly thrive though carefully and seasonably set in other places such are the Blew-bottle a kind of yellow single Marygold and the Wild-Poppy 2 This discovered we need not search far after the Reasons of those Antipathies which are reported to be between the Vine and Cole-woort the Oke and Olive the Brake and Reed Hemlock and Rew the Shrub called our Ladies Seal a certain Species of Bryony and the Cole-woort c. which are presumed to be so odious each to other from some secret Contrariety of their respective Forms that if any two of them that are Enemies be set neer together one or both will die For the truth is all Plants that are great Depraedators of the moisture of the earth defraud others that grow neer them of their requisite nourishment and so by degrees impoverishing at length destroy them So the Colewoort is an enemy not only to the Vine but any other Plant dwelling neer it because it is a very succulent and rank Plant and so exhausts the fattest and most prolifical juice of the ground And if it be true that the Vine will avoid the Society of the Colewoort by Averting its trunck and branches from it this may well be only in respect of its finding less nourishment on that side for as the Lord St. Alban hath well observed though the root continue still in the same place and position yet will the Trunk alwayes bend to that side on which it nourisheth most So likewise the Oke and Olive being large trees of many roots and great spenders of moisture doe never thrive well together because the stronger in Attraction of juice deceives and starves the weaker Thus Hemlock is a dangerous neighbour to Rew because being the Ranker Plant of the two and living upon the like juice it defrauds it of sufficient sustenance and makes it pine away for penury And the like of the rest 3 But what shall we think of that semiconjugall Alliance betwixt the Male and Female Palme trees which is so strong and manifest that the Femal which otherwise would languish as if she had the Green sickness and continue bâ—rren is observed to prosper and load her fruitful boughs with braces of Dates when she enjoys the Society of the Male nay to extend her arms to meet his embraces as if his masculine influence were necessary not only to her impregnâ—tion and the maturity of her numerous issue but even to her own health and welfare Why truly we cannot better expound this dark Riddle of Nature than by having recourse to some Corporeâ—l Emanations deradiated from the male which is the stronger and more spriteful plant to the Female which is the weaker and wants an Accession of heat and spirits For far enouâ—h frâ—m iâ—probable it is that such â—â—anation may contain much of the Males Sâ—minal and fruâ—tâ—â—â—ing virâ—â—â— and it hath been avouched by freqâ—â—nt Experiments that the blossoms and Flowers of the Male being dried and poudered and inspersed upon the branches of the Female are no less effâ—ctual to her Comfort and Fertility than the Vicinity of the Male himself We are told indeed by Heredotus and from his own strict observation that the Male Palm proâ—uceth yearly a Dwaâ—fish sort of Dates which being uncapable of maturiâ—â— and perfection men use therefore to gather early and bind them on the loaden branches of the Female that there corrupting and breeding a kind of small volant Inâ—ect resembling our Gâ—ats which the Natives 〈◊〉 Psâ—â—e though Theophrastus seems to appropriate thâ—t name only to those Fiyes thâ—t are a spontâ—neous proâ—uction out of the immature fruit 〈◊〉 the Wilde Figg tree suffering putrefactionâ— that they may advance the Growth and Maturity of her fruit not by any secret influence but the â—anâ—â—est Voracity of those Insects which continually preying upon the ripening fruit both open the topâ— oâ— them anâ— so make way for the rayes oâ— the Sun to enter more freely and deeply into their substance and â—uck out 〈◊〉 of the luxuriant crude and watery juice leavâ—ng the 〈…〉 â—nctuâ—us to the more easie digestion and assimâ—â—â—tâ—on of the â—ormerly â—â—â—rcharged Seminal Vâ—rtue of the Plant This we confess is â—â—ce anâ—â—â—â—usible but not totally satisfactory because it extends only to the Reâ—â—on of the Males remote Assistance of the Female in the maturatâ—â—n of her Fruit leaving us still to enquire Why she herself remains in a 〈◊〉 â—nd pining condition unless she enjoys the Society and invigorating 〈◊〉 of the Male and why she inclines her amorous boughs toward his as 〈◊〉 Neighbourhood were a kind of Divorce and nothing less thaâ— absolute Union could satisfie her Affection And what we hâ—ve heresâ—â—â— of the Sympathy betwixt the Male and Female Palms will not lose a â—rain of its Verisimility when our Reader shall please to accomodate 〈◊〉 to the Explanation of the Cause of the like Amity betwixt the â—ig â—ree and Caprificus or Wild Fig tree of which Pliny lib. 15. cap. 19. â—â—lates the very same story as Herodotus doth of the Palms 4 This puts us in mind of the great Sympathy betwixt Vine and Wine expressed from its Grapes and immured in Hoggheads though at the distance of many miles For it seems most convenient that it is from the like Diffusion of subtle Emanations imbued with the Seminal tincture of the Vine that Wines stored up in deep Cellars in the same Country where they grew for in England whither all wines are transported over sea no such Effect hath been observed the Remove being too large to admit any such Transmission of influence from the transmarine Vineyards to our Cellars become sick turbid and musty in the Cask at the same time the Vines Flower and Bud forth and again recover their former Clearness and Spirit so soon as that season is past And that this Conjecture may seem to smell the less of Phansy we desire you to consider through what large tracts of Aer even the Odours Exhalations much less Subtile